The Irish standard., 1886-12-11
--..~- SNAitOlN. II
A Quarter Millennium OF General and All.
Around American Culture.

A Quarter Millennium Of General and All.
Around American Culture.
Perhaps no investment ever made
has horne better interest than that
made by the young minister who left
his library and ''half his estate, being
$780, to found a college in the
infant colony Of Massachusetts, Bay.
Since money always "gathers money"
it is nothing wonderful that that
slender endowment has multiplied
thousand-fold; that the modest collec-
ton of books has become a library Of
which no university need to be
ashamed; that a goodly array Of noble
buildings now gives local babltation
to what IN the beginning was little
more than name. 1t was to be ex-
pected that the little band of nine
young men who first pr sented thenl-
selves for maticulation in Harvard
College should, after two hundred and
fifty years, have become many thou
sands, ana that the long roll of grad
uates should include many whose
names adorn their country's history.
All this increase and gain doubtless
entered, in some sort, into the caicl1l;.-
tions Of the founder. But who counts
mp all this has yet another item to add
to the list: the wonderful spread and
all-pervading power Of that idea OF a
liberal education, which, Of all that
Harvard College has had to give to
America, is unquestionably the most
important. and has yielded the most
abundant profit.
The idea itself was but meager one
as to its means, but as to it's ends and
purposes it was most ample. The
standard of q liberal education adopted
by Harvard in the beginning was the
standard which prevailed in England
at that time, and was but q narrow
one. But the underlying purpose
that of giving to nlcn A broad found;l-
tion Of intellectual culture previous
and preparatory to tie more special
studies of a. professional education -
was capable of indefinite expansion,
and has never needed 50 be changed,
with all tlle change and additions
which have befa!lsn the original
standard OF the means by which such
an education was to be secured,
1t is the breadth Of this idea, and its
capacity for expansion, which has
multiplied the original college at Cam
bridge, not only by a score or so of
tirst-rate colleges and universities, but
by an almost countless nn1ober Of
minor colleges, which, notwi itI,stantl-
ing the paucity of their endowment.
have by Che Illuminating power of this
idea, become centers OF light and cult
ure all up and down our land. From
them the country draws, not special
lists, not men Of profound learning,
not men of elegant culture, but that
vast army of well-tauyht people who
are the strength OF our Govern
ment and our institutions 1t
is from these minor colleges, and the
preparatory and high schools rendered
necessary by them, that come the
thoughtful readers OF books, the intel
ligent auditors of Sunday serlno ons, the
great army of writer's for the local
press the better class of men upon our
j,lr;es, who form the safeguard Of oar
nation. 1t is from these that we get
the large majority CT that immeasura-
BILE multitude OF teachers which Our
system of public schools requires. 1t
is owing to this widespread general
culture, not Of a high standard, but
we'll grounded. that we have found it
possible to absorb without danger the
vast hcrdes of immigrants that have
crowded to our shcras.
1t is to be hoped shat this idea is not
now to be lost in that demand for spe-
cial training which the new departure
in education has created. NVithio a
generation the field Of knowledge has
widened immensely, and the tendency
Of this greater breadth, with the op-
tion OF choice it necessitates, is to limit
rather than expand the culture OF the
individual, Specialists we must have.
especially among the professors in orr
colleges, and among the seekers after
scientific truth; but it is still a general
and all-around culture that is needed !
by Che rank and file of men. us that by !
which they eau most widely sub
serve the general good ETaah Leslse's
Illustrated Newspaper.