The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-06-25
The College Feast Week-Com me nee
ment Season at the Universities.

come to be regarded as one of the feast weeks
of the calendar among the friends Of each par
tcular institution and the earnest advocates of
education. But the present week-in other
years the week corresponding to the present
is the great feast week of our colleges. Har-
ward. the oldest in years and the first in rank
of our great institutions, leads off to-day with
its two hundred and thirty-fifth Commence
ment, and among the long list of institutions
of learning this morning in gala dress is the
young sister at Poughkeepsie which bears the
name of Matthew Vassar. Tomorrow Yale
leads the list with its one hundred and seventy
third Commencement, and our own young
College of the City Of New York finishes the
work of the day. On Friday Cornell Univer-
sity, though it can boast only its fifth Com
mencement, thinks itself strong enough to
stand alone. Beginning with St. Francis
Xavier's College on Monday, not fewer than
twenty-eight colleges have their Commence
ments this week. To say the least of it. this is
a very significant showing, and, what is more,
every one of the younger institutions promises
to attain the age and maturity of Harvard
We can hardly realize. now that sixty-two
years INTERVIEWED between the establishment of
Harvard and Yale, and that forty-seven
additional years passed away before Princeton
was founded. But the founding of the Pres
byterian College in New Jersey gave an i'm
petus to other religious denominations,
and in seven more years the Episco-
palians established Columbia College, an
- Al>oA 1ol
Kings. Nor can we readily realize the fact
that there was period of one hundred and
sixteen years between the birth of Harvard
and of our own venerable institution. Besides
these only Dartmouth and Brown have passed
their hundredth birthday, but there are many
vigorous striplings from eighty-two years old
downward which rival them to-day and may
outshine them before the close Of the century.
In these figures, dull as figures usually are,
there is much food for reflection and much
cause for congratulation. We may rejoice
that Harvard, which first broke ground in
favor Of higher education, still holds the first
furrow in the well-ploughed field We may
rejoice that Yale is first to follow Harvard
example, yet occupies the second place. IF
some of the others have not done so well we
may be glad that their course has not been
retrogression, but mere inability to keep ditto
gether out Of the way of younger and sturdier
rivals. It no longer takes years to establish
university in America, for at least two insti-
tutions in this State, Cornell University, OF
Ithaca, designed especially to give ON intellec-
tual opportunity to young men of meagre
fortune, and Vassar College, at Poughkeepsie
founded to afford like opportunity for
women, have shown that money and ideas can
give both prestige and strength In years
past the education of young men has received
much attention, and the Commandments of
colleges designed exclusively for young men
have occupied much space, as they occupy
much space in the HERALD to-day. But,
without sighting these institutions or the
work they are accomplishing, on this occasion
we have preferred that the leading place shall
be given to the new institution, which offers a
man s education and woman's accomplish
ments to women, and we are sure that on all
hands it will be regarded as the fttest COM
pliment we could pay to progressive edu-
cation.
Upon another page will be found long de-
scription of the internal workings of Vassar
College, the celebrated woman's college of
Poughkeepsie, together with programme Of
the exercises which will take place there to-
day, Commencement Day. We do not know
that SO full and thorough description of the
scheme and course of study adopted at this
unique institution, or so ample an exposition
of the principles which instigated the late Mr..
Matthew Vassar, the founder, has ever yet
been published in newspaper or periodical
Mere descriptions of the edifce and of the
mechanical phase of the routine adopted have
been printed by the dozen. In short, we have
to view, but not the SOUL Our correspondent
informs us not simply that the college is
SO many feet long and high, but how
the young ladies "live, move and have their
being" He conducts US from the laun-
dry to the laboratory, from dining-room to
dormitory, from chapel to theatre, from the
rowboat to the bowling alley. Promising that
this account is unvarnished, it would seem as
though the young ladies at Vassar-or, are
we to call them girls Pare particularly
blessed. They breathe the atmosphere Of an
eclectic education, and drink in culture of oil
kinds from the rising to the setting of the
sun. They are made acquainted with the
curriculum Of the sciences and familiarizod
with some Of the principal ancient and mod
ern languages, as well as with art and music.
We incline to agree with our correspondent
that among SO many hundreds. Of young
girls necessarily subjected to wise pro
cesses Of culture we are justified in
looking for instances which will
make their mark upon the time. But vassar
may well deserve to be called victorious even
should she fall something short of this The