The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1878-07-27
The College COmmencements.

The annual literary and scientific
jubilees are for the present the most
prominent of current events. There is
too large a body of alumni in the coun-
try to permit the interest in them to
abate. Many of our colleges have ex-
listed long enough to attain respecta-
BILE air of antiquity. The first COM
mencement of Harvard occurred in
1888; of William and Mary in 100; of
Yale in 1902; Columbia, Princeton,
Brown, Dartmouth, Rutgers, have well
passed their first century. All these,
and others in a somewhat less degree,
have whatever prestige fairly belongs
to multiplied years of labor and useful
ness. Others and like institutions are
yet young. But they are full of graft
flying promise. Many of them enjoy
ample endowments, and are free from
embarrassments and difficulties and
wants, which none of the older colleges
entirely escaped. Great changes have
been made in the educational methods
of all our higher seminsries. The
course of study has been enlarged and
varied; the number of whas are called
optional studies has been increased; the
standard of scholarship has been
elevated; the faculties, the libraries,
the cabinets have been strengthened.
Something of this, perhaps, has been
the result of competition, and herein
we recognize an advantage which may
be fairly set off against the large num-
Der of our colleges, of which complaint
has sometimes been made. Any one
of them which had been under the ban
of a monastic spirit, and of that form
of conservatism which resolutely OPP
poses change, would have fallen help
lessly and hopelessly into the back
ground. Our colleges have been I'M
like all others which have ever existed,
inasmuch as they have not shown
themselves indomitably opposed to lib
eral progress, but have recognized the
new wants and the advancing spirit of
the age. There is not one of them
which has not felt the influence of the
nations democracy. There is not one
of them which has not accorded to
scientific discovery a hOspitable well
come; nor one in which liberality of
thought and investigation has not been
encouraged. This would amply atone
for any mediocrity of scholarship, even
if such existed. The tone of the col,
leges has been in consOnance with that
of our political institutions, while even
in the department of religious study
there has been no bigotry worth men
tioning. He who is familiar with the
history of learning, and of learned
bodies, will comprehend that in saying
this we say great deal.
We have referred to the complaint
which has been made, that we have too
many colleges, and that consequently
many of them are in an inefficient and
unpromising condition. But the mis-
take, if there has been one, was OF
the generous sort. 1t has arisen partly
from the fact that several of the older
institutions were, or were supposed to
be, too expensive for students of mod
crate means, and partly from a natural
desire on the part of each religious
body to have its own educational estab-
lishment. But whatever the error, or
whether there has been an error or not,
the multiplication of colleges proves a
generous public spirit, and is a national
recognition of the value of culture.
This idea is closely akin to that which
has everywhere established and main
tanned common schools. The import
ance of elementary knowledge being
felt. desire for an advanced degree of
eduction followed. To promote this
the rich have given of their abundance,
and the poor whatever they were able
to bestow. If we have too many col
leges, some of them will in time be
given up; but the noble sentiment
which called them into existence will
remain, and many generations of Amer.
lean students will partake of its helpful
bounty.-N. Y. Tribune.