The daily gazette., 1877-10-06

see what the culture was like and what
1t amounted to. We were grown richer,
too, and our. mining and engineering
needs sent another large draft Of our
young men abroad to study applied sci>
ence. When these came back and began
to take part in tesching, the civil war
broke out, and again a large number of
our best youth went TO Enrope to com.
plets their education, .'-..
In this way, in the period Of 1S50>70-a
period which happens to be nearly syn>
chronous with the great revival in sci,
ence and scientific methods in Europe,
very large body Of the most eager and
intellectual OF our American youth were
brought into the most direct and closest
rapport with tine best and most advanced
portion oflthe intellectual world, Just
when that world was in its highest state
OF ferment. They were enriched not on
ly In sharing The intellectual estate
which the civilized world ohas inherited
from the past but from being made ac>
i've participants in the lively dispute
then going on about how best to sulti-
yate. improve, and develop that estate.
They had their part in all the keen con-
troversies in regard to philology, criti>
cisnn, and science in all its forms, It
was a period of enthusiasm almost equal
to that when Abelard led his retinue of
5000 students to the wildern ess of
Paraelete, and our young men profiksd
In full by the spirit and temper of the
time.
They came home to fad a nation not
sobered indeed, but strengthened and
deepened by the passions and wrestlings
OF great civil war. The softness and
plinacy Of our youth had given place to
something OF the sternness and sadness
OF manhood, while great desire for im>
proved education-hke that which now
Pervades France-was spreading over
the land, and endowments out Of the
abundance Of suddenly-made fortunes
were lavishly offered them to work upon.
We can discover the results of this
the rapid and almost unexampled pro-
gress we have made in superior educa-
ton in twenty or thirty years-when we
compare the curriculum of the Hopkins
University to-day with what Bristed said
of Yale and Columbia in 1910. The
standard for entrance at our university is
high, but not too high for one who in
tends to profit as he should by the course.
That course, it seems to US, and it is
agreed by nearly all who have examined
it, leaves little to be desired on the part
of any one who seeks thorough educa-
ton in the studies which he elects to pur-
sue There is but little of the purely Or
namental about it, but room and verge
enough for work of the solidest sort
Work in the laboratories and work in the
class-room-work In the etymology and
in the higher mathematics-work In the
transcendental ether of pure science, and
in all sorts of technical details and prac-
tice. If you want Sanscrit you can not
only hear Whitney-you can study the
Sakuntala itself as 1t should be studied. or
you can read Saadi as if you were Per-
sian, or made the voyage OF the Odyssey
word by word as Ulysses made it island
by island.
1t is impossible to enumerate the ad-
vantages our youth have before them in
the University, and it is equally impossi-
BILE not to regret that we of the elder gen.
Grafton were born to soon and out of our
due time to profit by such chances.