122 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GAEDEJf. 
for the world. To-day the German Universities are far in 
advance of the English and American Universities in the 
advantages which they offer, but with a little effort your 
own University might easily be put in the lead. 
Over in India on the banks of the Jumna stands what is 
pronounced to be the most wonderful structure ever erected 
by man. It is a thing of beauty and a joy forever. It 
stands in the center of a spacious park, and on a marble 
terrace thirty feet high. It is built of white marble. Its 
dome shines like a globe of silver and at the top is a golden 
crescent. It is approached through a gateway of red 
sandstone and the avenue from the gate to the tomb is said to 
contain eighty-four fountains, and a large marble reservoir 
bordered by rows of cypress trees. The songs of birds 
are said to mingle with the rippling of the fountains, and 
the air is described as freighted with the delicious fra- 
grance of the rose and the orange. Wrought into this 
magnificent Taj are thousands of pounds of opals, other 
thousands of pounds of rubies. Woven in the splendid 
designs are still other thousands of pounds of emeralds 
and thousands of sapphires, of camelian, and of tur- 
quoise. Thirty-five different kinds of carnelian are said 
to be used in a single leaf of a carnation, and one blossom 
not larger than a dollar contains twenty-three gems, while a 
single flower is made of three hundred different stones. 
The beauty of it surpasses description and the expensive- 
ness of it is beyond apprehension. More millions have 
been lavished on it than on any university in Europe or 
America. All this treasure was lavished simply to build a 
tomb. It adds nothing to the sum of human knowledge, and 
save as it is a memorial of love and a monument of beauty 
it contributes nothing to the betterment of mankind. I 
cannot help thinking how much better it would have been 
to have slept in an unpretentious sepuloher and devoted 
these millions as Shaw did his to that which would have 
advanced the knowledge, the pleasure, the health, and the 
wealth of mankind. 
