Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-09-04
A National UniYersitr.

The educational convention, which was in
session at st. Louis last week, recommends the
establishment of a national university The
matter is to be submitted to the consideration
of congress by petition, memorial or otherwise,
and committee, including some gentlemen of
eminence, was appointed TO forward the project
by such means within their power as may seem
best. The scheme has not been published in de-
tail; perhaps it is not fully elaborated Its out
lines are vast, vague and indefinitely compre-
bensive. Its attractiveness consists largely in
the fascinating majesty of its proportions. The
resources at the command of its founders, if it
should get so far along as to have founders, are
ample, for they have the whole treasury of the
United States in their hands. Its projectors are
convinced of the necessity of such an institu-
tion and enthusiastic in their anticipations of
its usefulness; its unrivalled facilities for the
advancement of science and the opportunities
it will offer for the most thorough education
in every department of science and literature
Every possible branch of human knowledge is
to be represented. Teachers, lecturers and in
vestigators Of the highest attachments will illus
trate and advance every science and art and
every capacity of the human mind. There will
be libraries of great extent and completeness,
cabinets and collec lions, schools by the score
hundreds of professors and thousands of
students, and Of course buildings commensurate
dignity and beauty with the exalted aims of
the national university. As the United States
is shortly TO be the greatest nation in the world,
It's university must bear the same relation to
those of other countries. This magnificent in.
stitution is TO be established, if its projectors
can persuade congress to carry out their plans.
in one Of the central cities Of the country. prob
ably St. Louis.
This splendid scheme has a strong fascina-
tion for many minds. Greatness and excel
lence are not always readily distinguishable.
and many will be ready to assume that a uni
versity that had more books and specimens
more professors and students more buildings and
more money than any other, must probably have
more educational advantages than any other.
or, if not, that it must be worth having for its
very bigness. We presume, however, that CON
gress cannot be persuaded to take this view, but
if such university should be founded, we are
sure it would disappoint those who hoped for
results superior to those attained at our present
institutions. Its very bigness and the diversified
character OF its aims would be an obstacle to its
successful working. Some places by their To-
callty the occupations of the people in their vi
cinity, and the productions of the neghborhood
present greater advantages than others for the
pursuit Of special studies. There is only a SEN
tmeDtal advantage in COLLECTING all tho
schools in one spot and some practi-
cal disadvantages, such as, for instance
the academic character which So Greet
an aggregation of schools would give even To
large city, and which on smaller scale hos
serious evils, seen to some extent in our COLLEGE
towns, and more plainly in the cities of Oxford
and Cambridge. Another objection to a nation.
al university is the probability almost certainty
that, being entirely dependent upon congress-
it would be subject to political influences that
could not fail 10 affect its character and impair
the confidence Of the public in its educational
merits Such influences have seriously de
uacted from the usefulness of state univeI sites
IN the case Of a national institution the oppor-
tunitles and temptations would he much great
er and the means of resisting them less. IT
would be easy enough to found such uniyer-
sity, but the men Of most learning and culture
would be more likely to be ashamed than proud
of it.
The DaVarian representatives a "a ,o,,,,ol.,, E.