510 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 353. 



with the multitude of statesmen and 

 scholars of a hundred years, the views of 

 whom are so emphatically reaffirmed by 

 Ambassador Andrew D. White, who just 

 now again says, from Berlin : " It would, in 

 many ways make itself helpful to every 

 school, college and university in the land"; 

 and by President Harper, of the University 

 of Chicago, when he wrote me not very long 

 ago : " I have always believed in such an 

 institution and will continue to believe in 

 it. There is everything to be gained and 

 nothing to be lost." They will see with 

 Dr. Cattell, the able editor of Science, 

 that " all the arguments which have been 

 urged against the establishment of a na- 

 tional university turn out to be in its 

 favor." Nay, more, it is hard to believe 

 that any right-minded, unbiased senator 

 or representative will fail at length to see 

 that such an institution as is planned 

 by the National University Committee 

 would also serve to give the United States 

 a new dignity and importance among the 

 nations. 



Under this head should also be embraced 

 all friends of the national university move- 

 ment who, whether they have done aught 

 to advance it or not, or have inquired into 

 the causes of delay, are now tired of wait- 

 ing for the grand result, and have been in- 

 duced to lend their influence to a scheme 

 whose origination and inauguration have 

 been with those who intend that it shall 

 prevent the establishmentof the university. 

 They,' too, will surely right themselves, 

 when rightly informed. 



Of course the hindrances common to 

 great movements for intellectual advance- 

 ment have not been wanting in this one ; 

 such as the extent to which legislators ac- 

 counted the best are often absorbed in ques- 

 tions that concern industrial development, 

 commerce, finance and international dififer- 

 ences involving war — matters all of them 

 so related, moreover, to the ascendency of 



political parties as at times to fill the whole 

 field of vision ; causes such as the growing 

 passion for increase of wealth and power as 

 means of supremacy among the nations, 

 and which leave out of consideration the no 

 less necessary and still higher conditions of 

 a superior civilization ; such, indeed, as lie 

 in a spirit of denominational ambition, 

 which in some of the churches is stronger 

 than the spirit of religious freedom or any- 

 thing else. And last of all, possibly in this 

 case more serious than all others, there is 

 the very nobleness of the national univer- 

 sity idea, on account of which so many emi- 

 nent and influential citizens, who should 

 make themselves felt in every practicable 

 manner, rest in the hope that every other 

 friend of the pending measure will do his 

 full duty, and themselves do little or noth- 

 ing — in other words shift the responsibility 

 on Providence, forgetting that Providence 

 helps those who first help themselves, and 

 that no great end is realized except through 

 sacrifice. 



OTHER OPPOSING FORCES. 



Lastly, there are others, the grounds of 

 whose opposition I will not even make a 

 subject of conjecture, confining myself to 

 a statement of facts of interest and to the 

 pointing out of a few faults and the total 

 insufficiency of the ' Memorial Institution.' 

 The author of the paper under review was 

 himself but lately interested in the national 

 university, as will appear from his letter of 

 December 20, 1894, which reads as fol- 

 lows : 



" I fully believe in establishing such a uni- 

 versity in the interest of higher education, 

 and I cordially indorse the statements made 

 b}'- the late President James C. Welling, 

 printed on pages 95-7 of your Memorial on 

 the subject. The statements and views ex- 

 pressed in the Memorial are so exhaustive 

 and comprehensive that I do not know that 

 I could add to them, except to record my 

 personal approval of the movement." 



