The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-06-16
Our CoiIescs-What They Arc and What
They Should BE.

|
They Should he.
Although the ''commencements" now In
progress differ In nothing from those o.
former years, and have q remarkable resem-
blance to each other, yet they are not entire }
unsuggestive. They remind us that the frs
step toward progress in intelligence is to fee
that our knowledge is limited, and resolve tc
increase it. This applies to institutions quite
as forcibly as it does to individuals. Far be II
from us to deny that our colleges have done
and are doing much good most cheerfully do
we give them credit for all they have accom-
plished. In general they have done their
best Bat should the public be content with
this? Should parent be satisfied with what
ever progress is made by his son on being told
that his teacher means well, and is bright and
clever wthal, but that his learning is not so
profound as it might have been under more
favorable circumstances? Even if informed
that the teacher had sufficient learning, but
lacked the necessary apparatus, should the
parent be SO we'll satisfied as to require no
more thorough instruction for his son?
| 1t is because no sensible, intelligent parent
would entertain any such view in regard to
| teacher, school or college, that so many of
our young men are educated at the colleges Of
all the principal countries OF Europe; for SO
large is the number that have thus to seek in
foreign countries more thorough education
than they could expect to obtain at home (and
the number is increasing from year to Year,
that 1t would seem fabulous to most of our
readers if stated in plain figures. A thorough
education is certainly worth travelling for; it
is always valuable wherever it is found, but
those who have to leave their own country in
order to secure it experience decided falling
Oft in their patriotism. At best they are too
apt to become imbued with the political ideas
of their new teachers and fellow students, so
that large proportion return opposed at
heart to the most characteristic and cherished
institutions of their native country. Nor is it
alone in politics that their ideas become thus
antagonistic to those prevailing at home their
views and feelings are equally modified in
regard to the basis of the whole social fabric
1t would lead us too far to illustrate this in
the present article, but the leading facts and
their consequences will readily suggest them
selves.
That our colleges are vastly inferior to those
Of the principal countries of Europe it is worse
than useless to deny; for those exercising any
influence on public opinion to do so is PERM
cious, and the mischief it does is great in pro-
portion to the extent Of that influence. 1t
therefore becomes more incumbent on the
HERALD than on any other journal in America
that it should enlighten the public mind on a
subject of such vital Importance. We are not
at all unmindful of the notion that it is pre-
sumptuous on the part of newspaper to pre-
tend to sit in judgment on such learned insti-
tutions as colleges and universities bat we
ask those VINO entertain il to remember that
the most important reforms produced at OK
ford and Cambridge have been brought about
by the London Times. Aud the most learned
universities of Germany and France, including
those of Heidelberg, Jena, Paris and Mont
pellier, are equally indebted to the press for
important improvements.
Nor is the fact difficult to be understood on
little reflection The most accomplished
SCuDldTS uuu dDIt5t WTibcTS dt CuOSe
various institutions have been journalists to
greater or less extent. Scholars and think
ers like Macaulay. Coleridge, Southey, Moore,
Broughem and Cooper have written regularly
for the leading English journals while
Losing, Herder, Wieland, Heine and Humboldt
have done similar work for the German press.
And who is not aware that Guizot and Michelet,
as well as st. Beuve and Theirs, have been
journalists? In New York, Boston and Phila-
delphia, oil the great colleges of Europe,
together with the best of our own institutions
are more or less fully represented; and then,
will any one question whether the HERALD
has the spirit and the enterprise to secure the
services of the most competent, no matter
where or how they were educated? But
better than any prestige that tree can have
is its present fruit. If our views in regard to
our own colleges as compared to the similar
institutions of Europe be not found correct
and just let them be rejected.
It is precisely because our colleges are
not what they should be that so many of our
professors not only accept the thoughtless cry
of the multitude against the study of the
classic languages, but join in that cry; for
none that have acquired even q tolerable
knowledge of those languages-none that have
learned to comprehend their peculiar excel
lenccs-would agree to having them excluded
from our high schools or seminaries, not to
mention our colleges. Still less would any
one competent to Judge maintain that those
intended to be thoroughly educated, in order
that they may be prepared for the highest
efforts of the human intellect, squander their
time by the study Of Greek or Latin, or
either No argument is more common at the
present day, but none more easily related.