106 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



gifts to the best use. Men of the stamp of Louis Agassiz and Asa 

 Gray do not readily grow np and flourish in the intellectual 

 atmosphere of a commercial and partly political metropolis ; or 

 they are less appreciated; and therefore the endowers of large 

 foundations want the stimulating and authoritative influence and 

 the correct intelligence to apply their gifts in the right direction, 

 and to guard them against extravagance from injudicious expend- 

 iture, dilettanteism, and experimenting. Furthermore, Americans, 

 in their lack of knowledge and of models, have been distin- 

 guished by a tendency to perpetuate their munificence and names 

 preferably in monumental edifices ; hence the excessive founda- 

 tion of so-called universities with splendid buildings, but which 

 have been usually destitute of what alone, with or without archi- 

 tectural luxury, gives them purpose and value — an efficient fac- 

 ulty, well-endowed apparatuses, and capable pupils. In conse- 

 quence of this erroneous comprehension and consequent expendi- 

 ture in buildings, and by the scattering of teaching force and 

 means, most of our higher schools, libraries, museums, and collec- 

 tions have been weakened. We have no lack cf imposing struct- 

 ures, but no real universities and technical high-schools ; libraries, 

 like those of the Astor and Lenox in New York, elegantly housed 

 without a correspondingly general value and utility. The munifi- 

 cence of our founders directs itself, as Prof. James M. Hart has 

 remarked in his book on " German Universities," mainly to brick 

 and mortar. The rest is left to chance and the discretion of the 

 administration ; hence numerous experiments, often followed by 

 a miserable, inefficient career. 



In comparison with other cities of like size and population, 

 New York is poor in public squares and parks. In size and natu- 

 ral beauty the Central Park can indeed well sustain a comparison 

 with the parks of other cities, and it might, if the money poured 

 out upon it since its creation in 1857 had been wisely and honestly 

 expended, have been one of the best parks and botanical gardens 

 in the world. If Nature had not done so much for it, it would 

 stand, notwithstanding half a million dollars a year are expended 

 upon it, far behind the parks of other great cities. If only a part 

 of this sum had been systematically applied to the maintenance 

 of a competent, experienced botanical and landscape gardener as 

 director of the plantations, and the necessary palm- and plant- 

 houses had been erected, the Central Park might have been, not 

 only one of the largest but one of the handsomest public parks 

 and botanical gardens ; for, with its superficies of eight hundred 

 and forty acres, it has a much greater area than, for example, 

 Kegent's Park, with its beautiful botanical and zoological gar- 

 dens, Kensington Garden, and the Kew Gardens of London, taken 

 together. The last-named, a famous botanical garden, contains 



