July 9, 1886.J 



SCIEWCF, 



4] 



Dr. Lieber, in a letter to Secretary Seward, at 

 the close of the civil war, presented a strong plea 

 for the reference of international disputes to uni- 

 versities. Reminding the secretary that their au- 

 thority had been invoked upon internal controver- 

 sies in France and Germany, he asked, Why not 

 refer to them in international affairs ? The law 

 faculty of a renowned university in a minor state 

 would seem, he says, " almost made for this high 

 function, and its selection as a court of interna- 

 tional arbitration would be a measure worthy of 

 England and the United States ; " and he risks the 

 prophecy that " the cis-Caucasian race will rise at 

 no very distant day to the selection of such um- 

 pires, far more dignified than a crowned arbitrator 

 can be." 



Among the offices of a university, there is one 

 too often undervalued, or perhaps forgotten, — 

 the discovery and development of unusual talent. 

 I do not speak of genius, which takes care of 

 itself. Nobody can tell how it comes to pass that 

 men of extraordinary minds are born of common- 

 place parentage, and bred in schools of adversity, 

 away from books and masters. Institutions are 

 not essential to their education. But every one 

 who observes in a series of years the advancement 

 of men of talents, as distinguished from men of 

 genius, must believe that the fostering diet of a 

 university — ' its plain living and high thinking ' 

 — favors the growth of scholars, investigators, 

 reasoners, orators, statesmen of enduring reputa- 

 tion, poets, and discoverers. Such men are rarely 

 produced in the freedom of the wilderness, in the 

 publicity of travel and of trade, or in %\\e seclusion 

 of private life ; they are not the natural product 

 of libraries and museums, when these stand apart 

 from universities ; they are rarely produced by 

 schools of a lower grade. Exceptions are familiar ; 

 but the history of civilization declares that prom- 

 ising youth should have the most favorable oppor- 

 tunities for intercourse with other minds^^living 

 as well as dead, comrades as well as teacliers, gov- 

 ernors as well as friends. It declares that in most 

 cases talents will seize opportunity, and oppor- 

 tunity will help talents. Just now, in our own 

 country, there is special reason for affirming that 

 talents should be encouraged without respect to 

 property. Indeed, it is quite probable tliat the 

 rich need the stimulus of academic honors more 

 than the poor : certainly the good of society re- 

 quires that intellectual power, wherever detected, 

 should be encouraged to exercise its highest func- 

 tions. 



Cardinal Newman (in a page wliich refers to Sir 

 Isaac Newton's perception of truths, mathematical 

 and physical, though proof was absent ; and to 

 Professor Sylvester's discovery, a century and a 



half later, of the proof of Newton's rule for ascer- 

 taining the imaginary roots of equations) says 

 that a parallel gift is the intuitive perception of 

 character possessed by certain men ; as there are 

 physicians who excel in diagnosis, and lawyers in 

 the detection of crime. 



Maurice, the greatest theologian of our day, was 

 so strong an advocate of university education, 

 that he suggests a sort of quo loarranio forcing 

 "those who are destined by their birth or proper- 

 ty to any thing above the middle station in so- 

 ciety, and intended to live in England, ... to 

 show cause why they do not put themselves in the 

 best position for becoming what Coleridge calls 

 the ' clerisy ' of the land." 



Devotion to literature wiU always distinguish 

 a complete university. "Within the academic 

 walls you may always find the lover of humani- 

 ties ; here in perpetual residence, those who know 

 the Athenian dramatists, the Augustan poets, the 

 mediaeval epic writers, Chaucer and Shakspeare, 

 and the leaders in literature of every name and 

 tongue. In the class-rooms of the university, 

 successive generations of youth should be pre- 

 sented to these illustrious men. The secrets of 

 their excellence should be pointed out ; the de- 

 Ughts of literary enjoyment should be set forth ; 

 the possibilities of production in our day should 

 be indicated ; and, withal, the principles of crit- 

 icism should be inculcated, as remote from sar- 

 casm and fault-finding on the one hand, as from 

 prostrate adoration and overwrought sympathy on 

 the other. 



It is common in these days to lament that the 

 taste of the public, as indicated by the remorseless 

 self-recording apparatus of the public libraries and 

 the glaring indications of the book-stalls, is de- 

 praved ; but it is well to remember that many 

 counteracting influences are vigorous. Never was 

 Shakspeare read and studied as he is to-day ; 

 never was Chaucer so familiar to the youth at 

 school; never was the Bible so widely read ; never 

 were such translations accessible as are now with- 

 in reach of all. In all this, the power of the lini- 

 versities is felt : give them the credit. But let us 

 hope that in the future more attention than ever 

 before will be given to the study of literature and 

 art. Fortunate would it be if in every seat of 

 learning such a living teacher could be found as 

 a Wordsworth, a Tennyson, a Browning, or a 

 Lowell. 



Among the characteristics of a university, I 

 name the defence of ideality, the maintenance of 

 spiritualism. There are those in every generation 

 who fear that inquuy is hostile to religion. Al- 

 though universities are the children of the Chris- 

 tian church, although for a long period the papal 



