40 
Proceedings of the Inauguration 
cated public and universities provided by the commonwealth. So 
long as human nature remains as it is, the incentives which led 
to the establishment of Harvard, William and Mary, Yale and all 
the Christian colleges established after them need to be pre- 
served. The problems of education have not all been served. 
The present day, like all other days, is a period of hearts search- 
ing in the universities and colleges. We are in the midst of radi- 
cal readjustments. The public perspective is sometimes faulty. 
It is a serious thing to permit popular clamor to shape policies 
of institutions of higher learning. The State University within 
our own commonwealth is already looking to the privately en- 
dowed colleges to preserve certain educational ideals and main- 
tain them before the public mind. The parent institutions, the 
Christian colleges, under the influence of the ideals of their 
founders, ideals which have been preserved to this day, have 
maintained a type of higher education by which the character 
and social usefulness of the student has been highly developed. 
The purpose of their colleges is to prepare men and women for 
competent social living. The character of the State Universities 
is not under criticism. They and the colleges maintain a feel- 
ing of mutual confidence and respect. Nevertheless, the latter 
possess many elements of stability, and means for directly and 
effectively gaining educational results which are denied the 
former. It augurs well for the future that the two types of in- 
stitution have labored side by side in complete harmony. The day 
is rapidly passing when it is easy to win applause by referring 
to the State Universities as godless institutions, and we smile 
at the doubt expressed by the dean of the western college of en- 
gineering who advises against the admission of a Denison grad- 
uate on the ground that theological students should not attempt 
graduate work in engineering, and this at a time when Denison 
men were being welcomed to the staff of the Carnegie Institution 
of Washington and the Faculty of the Massachusetts Institute ol 
Technology. 
It should be said to the credit of the endowed colleges that 
their curricula have kept abreast of the times. As to what con- 
stitutes the fundamental principles of a truly liberal education 
perhaps no two of us would agree. When in 1841 Harvard in- 
troduced scientific studies into the curriculum Professor Kings- 
ley of Yale wrote to his colleague, the first Professor Silliman, 
