EDITOR'S TABLE. 



241 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



A NEW SCIENTIFIC SCHOOL. 



ANEW institution, of great prom- 

 ise, has just been added to our 

 increasing list of scientific and tech- 

 nological schools. Pardee Hall, a spa- 

 cious and well-appointed edifice, cost- 

 ing $250,000, and the gift of Mr. Ario 

 Pardee, was added to Lafayette College, 

 at Easton, Pa., with imposing ceremo- 

 nies of dedication, on the 21st of Octo- 

 ber. The structure has a front of 256 

 feet in length, with lateral wings, the 

 centre building being five stories in 

 height. It is constructed of Trenton 

 brownstone, with trimmings of light 

 Ohio sandstone. The lecture-rooms, 

 cabinets, models, laboratories, appara- 

 tus, and the facilities for studying min- 

 ing operations, are on the amplest scale. 

 In chemistry, the establishment is espe- 

 cially strong. Many thousand dollars 

 have been expended for chemical appa- 

 ratus, much of it made to order in Ger- 

 many and France ; there is desk-room 

 for nearly 250 students, and, by the in- 

 troduction of the latest improvements, 

 the laboratories are claimed to be the 

 completest in America. It is stated 

 that Mr. Pardee, who is largely engaged 

 in mining operations, has contributed 

 not less than half a million dollars to 

 Lafayette College, which, under the 

 presidency of the Rev. Dr. Cattell, has 

 reached a very prosperous condition. 



"We publish a portion of Prof. Ray- 

 mond's able dedicatory address, regret- 

 ting that we have not space for the 

 whole of it. It will be seen that he 

 takes broad ground, and insists upon a 

 liberal culture for the special students 

 of science. "We hope that what he 

 says upon this subject foreshadows the 

 policy of the new institution. The 

 narrowness of the curriculum of our 

 technological schools, which aim, like 

 our business colleges, and like medi- 

 vol. iv. — 16 



cal and legal schools, to prepare im- 

 mediately for practical professional 

 life, is a very serious objection, as it 

 favors the false idea that scientific 

 education has no wider basis than 

 sheer pecuniary utility. That scientific 

 schools, as those of agriculture, mining, 

 and engineering, have hitherto been 

 liable to this reproach, is undeniable. 

 But that is certainly no reason why a 

 course of education that is marked out 

 with predominant reference to profes- 

 sional pursuits should not be at the 

 same time broad and liberal. Allow- 

 ances, of course, must be made for the 

 difficulties of initiating a new system, 

 which had to answer the question "Of 

 what use ? " at the outset. Healthful 

 beginnings are ever small, and it was 

 inevitable that the traditional system, 

 of culture, which ostentatiously repu- 

 diated every thing like practical uses, 

 should make the most of the poverty 

 and narrowness of the scientific cur- 

 riculum. But the first stage in the his- 

 tory of the scientific schools is now 

 past. They have ceased to be experi- 

 ments ; their need is acknowledged, 

 and they are being established on the 

 most munificent scale of endowment. 

 It is now demanded that the "new 

 education " shall be widened, harmo- 

 nized, and adjusted, so as to meet the 

 full requirements of a liberal mental 

 cultivation. Let the basis of training 

 be modern and scientific, instead of 

 ancient and classical, and, the new stand- 

 point being taken, let the courses of 

 study be widened, so as to include 

 moral, literary, and aesthetic agencies 

 of training. Of course, with the growth 

 of the new, there must be riddance of 

 the old, but the old educational tree 

 has plenty of decayed branches and 

 dead wood, the cutting away of which 

 will reinvigorate its whole life. 



