666 A Plea for Pure Science. [November, 
If the statistics were forthcoming — and possibly they may 
exist — we might also get an idea of the standing of these 
institutions and their approach to the true university idea, 
by the average age of the scholars. Possibly also the ratio 
of number of scholars to teachers might be of some help. 
All these methods give an approximation to the present 
standing of the institutions. But there is another method 
of attacking the problem, which is very exaCt, but it only 
gives us the possibilities of which the institution is capable. 
I refer to the wealth of the institution. In estimating the 
wealth, I have not included the value of grounds and 
buildings, for this is of little importance, either to tb present 
or future standing of the institution. As good work can be 
done in a hovel as in a palace. I have taken the 
productive funds of the institution as the basis of estimate. 
I find : — 
234 have below 500,000 dols. 
8 „ between 500,000 and 1,000,000 dols. 
8 ,, over 1,000,000. 
There is no faCt more firmly established, all over the 
world, than that the higher education can never be made to 
pay for itself. Usually the cost to a college, of educating a 
young man, very much exceeds what he pays for it, and is 
often three or four times as much. The higher the educa- 
tion, the greater this proportion will be ; and a university of 
the highest class should anticipate only a small accession to 
its income from the fees of students. Hence the test I have 
applied must give a true representation of the possibilities in 
every case. According to the figures, only 16 colleges and 
universities have 500,000 dols. or over of invested funds, 
and only one-half of these have 1,000,000 dols. and over. 
Now, even the latter sum is a very small endowment for a 
college ; and to call any institution a university which has 
less than 1,000,000 dols., is to render it absurd in the face 
of the world. And yet more than 100 of our institutions, 
many of them very respectable colleges, have abused the 
word “ university ” in this manner. It is to be hoped that 
the endowment of the more respectable of these institutions 
may be increased, as many of them deserve it ; and their 
unfortunate appellation has probably been repented of long 
since. 
But what shall we think of a community that gives the 
charter of a university to an institution with a total of 
20,000 dols. endowment, two so-called professors, and 18 
students ? or another with three professors, 12 students, 
