feSErfiKM  A  Counsel  of  Perfection.  421 
schools  can  be  strengthened  by  reducing  their  number,  and  increas- 
ing their  efficiency,  how  an  exchange  of  professors  may  be  syste- 
matized to  the  advantage  of  teachers  and  students,  and  how  the 
standard  of  education  may  be  raised. 
Much  will  be  done  by  the  teachers  themselves,  and  there  can  be 
no  better  inspiration  to  improve  methods  than  to  draw  from  the 
great  body  of  men  trained  in  the  work  of  education,  the  results  of 
their  experience.  Of  course  there  will  be  impracticable  suggestions 
and  unworkable  plans  proposed,  but  those  will  all  be  submitted  to  the 
trained  and  experienced  members  of  the  State  college  and  university 
council,  and  after  full  discussion,  their  judgment  will  choose  the 
good  and  reject  the  bad.  Plans  and  methods  of  teaching  will  be 
entrusted  to  experienced  teachers,  and  the  profession  will  rise  in 
dignity  and  importance,  as  the  work  shows  the  good  results  of  their 
experience,  knowledge  and  ability.  All  this  and  much  else  can  be 
accomplished  if  the  new  constitution  of  Pennsylvania  makes  .the 
business  of  education  a  matter  of  state  support  and  state  govern- 
ment. 
Andrew  D.  White,  that  Nestor  of  Higher  Education  in  this 
country,  first  president  of  Cornell  University,  and  always  its  in- 
spiration, read  a  paper  on  "  Advanced  Education,"  before  the  Na- 
tional Education  Association  at  Detroit,  in  1874.  Urgent  arguments 
are  brought  forward  for  a  reorganization  of  iVmerican  universities 
and  colleges  and  technical  schools  as  part  of  the  work  of  the  state. 
Dr.  White  urges  the  necessity  of  careful  public  provision  by  the 
people  for  their  own  system  of  advanced  instruction  as  the  only 
republican  and  democratic  method.  Public  provision,  he  said,  is 
alone  worthy  of  our  dignity  as  citizens.  It  will  stimulate  private 
gifts  and  free  them  from  the  dogmas  of  living  donors  and  dead 
testators.  The  nucleus  of  Cornell  University  was  the  national  land 
grant,  which  has  been  supplemented  by  an  increasing  flow  of  private 
gifts  to  the  endowment. 
The  state  of  Michigan  made  the  national  land  grant  the  founda- 
tion of  its  great  university,  and  has  added  to  it  from  time  to  time 
with  the  best  results.  It  has  thus  strengthened  the  whole  system  of 
public  education  throughout  the  state.  The  national  grant  and  the 
state  grant  together  have  thus  been  united  to  make  a  great  univer- 
sity, and  provide  the  endowment  of  advanced  instruction,  and  to 
coordinate  education  from  the  primary  school  to  the  highest  tech- 
nical and  scientific  and  classical  and  collegiate  and  professional 
training. 
