138 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 343. 



ject to the constituting of an advisory- 

 board. They say : 



If we were starting de novo it seems ob- 

 vious that the whole of the national biolog- 

 ical collections in and near the metropolis 

 would be placed under one management. 

 The Trustees of the British Museum are 

 established by statute, and are partly se- 

 lected and partly ex-officio members, more 

 than one-third being high Ministers of 

 Sfcate. Those to whom the active duties of 

 management and superintendence are en- 

 trusted possess special knowledge in the 

 various subjects illustrated by the collec- 

 tions, and they appear to us to be more 

 fitted both b}^ their experience and 

 their position in the scientific and cultured 

 world to be the governing body of the 

 amalgamated botanic collections at Kew 

 than any other that can be built up in their 

 place. If those collections form part of the 

 British Museum, the Director at Kew 

 would become an ofiicer of the Trustees in 

 the same manner as is the Director of the 

 Museum at South Kensington. It is true 

 that in the report it is stated, ' Were Kew 

 placed under the Trustees of the British 

 Museum, unless their control were a merely 

 nominal one, a thing in itself most unde- 

 sirable, the demands of the Colonial, India 

 and Foreign Offices on the resources of Kew 

 would be subject to the control of the Trus- 

 tees, a situation fraught with difficulties 

 and dangers.' This assertion does not 

 appear to us convincing. No example is 

 quoted of these difiiculties, the dangers are 

 not indicated. It is far from clear why 

 one controlling authority is more likely to 

 produce them than a lay authority and a 

 scientific authority with an advisory board 

 interposed as a buffer between them. * * * 

 We feel that the introduction of a new 

 board such as is proposed is at least as 

 likely to produce friction and difficulties as 

 the present authorities, and will tend to 

 weaken responsibility, and on this account, 



as well as because we do not attach much 

 reality to the ' difficulties and dangers ' 

 which would arise from the substitution of 

 the control of the Trustees of the British 

 Museum for the present control, we dissent 

 from the second recommendation of this 

 report. 



THE FUNCTION OF THE STATE UNIVERSITY. 



Wherever in this paper the word uni- 

 versity occurs, it means State university ; 

 wherever the word college is used, it means 

 a private or denominational institution. 

 Let me describe the function of the State 

 university as it appears to me. 



I. It should be xvithin : 



a. Non-partisan, but patriotic to the State and to 

 the Nation ; 



b. Non-sectarian, but religious ; 



c. Free as to tuition in all departments, academic 

 and professional ; 



d. Every inch a university. 



a. While the obligation named first binds 

 every institution of learning in our country, 

 it binds the State universities in a peculiar 

 degree. Their foundations are federal 

 land grants. The funds for their main- 

 tenance come from their respective com- 

 monwealths. In the highest and broadest 

 sense they should be nurseries of patriot- 

 ism, but they should shun partisan politics 

 as they shun death. 



b. Non- sectarian, but religious. 



The State universities have not yet real- 

 ized their opportunity for developing in 

 students a life that is religious and yet not 

 sectarian. Freedom from denominational- 

 ism is apt to be construed as license to 

 subordinate unduly religion in education. 

 No good reason appears why the universi- 

 ties should not each maintain one professor 

 at least to lecture upon sacred literature, 

 natural religion and practical morals, and 

 to serve as chaplain of the students. If, 

 unfortunately, the law or Constitution for- 

 bids such teaching at public expense, an 

 appeal should be made for an endowment 



