The morning call., 1891-10-03
THE NEW UNIVERSITY.

The opening of the Leland Stanford Uni
versity may mark an epoch in the history of
California. 1t all depends on the use to
which the institution is put. If it is merely
going to add one more TO the three hundred
and sixty odd colleges which we have already
in the United States, in wHich secondhand
information is administered to the students
in hackEeyed phrase, and the old dreary
course Of sO-caned education is pursued
with the aid of books which were written
long ago. aud contain as much error as
truth, IL may stand as a monument to the
liberality OF its founder, bat it will not do
much for the cause of human knowledge.
An acquaintance with books is beneficial,
but it does not constitute education unless
the readers mind is capable of GigeSting
their contents with the aid Of mental chYle,
and evolving therefrom truths that are abid-
ing. a man may be a perfect encyclopedia
of facts, but unless he can apDrebend their
bearing on each other and on human prog.
ress lie viii remain in his original ignorance.
What the world wants is an institution of
learning in which it shall be taught that
books and events are secondary to truths,
and that the only higher education that is
Of service is that which enables the mind to
grasp principles, to compare them and to
draw from the comparison correct cOnclu-
sions. Practically the events recorded in
history are of little more real Importance in
education than the incidents in a novel. a
college student who can give the dates of
famous battles, and repeat tue names OF q
series Of Presidents or kings, is commended
for proficiency, and yet his knowledge con-
sists Of barren facts which of themselves
teach nothing OF what use is it to know
no no haft pF
B. c. $50, and the battle of Tours in A. d.
732, that Miltiades commanded at the one
and Charles Martel at the otber-unless the
student likewise understands the political
and intellectual effects of those victories?
OF what use is conjectural science? No
professor living can tell whether mineral
was elected from the bowels of the earth or
pTecipitated from gases which held it in So
luton; what is the cause of earthquakes;
what is the cause of cancer; what law gov
ems the variation of the winds; how car
bon is converted into diamonds; how the
yOltiOn acts upon the muscles and what is
the connecting link between the brain and
the nerves; and yet young students listen
by the hour TO lectures on these subjects,
and are expected to carry away from the
lectures some definite opinions which sub
sequent discovery is pretty sure to brush
away.
If an institution of learning should take a
new departure and, as to science teach that
which is known and demOnstrable, while
stimulating its members to enlarge the do
main of ascertained truths, and as to his
tory ignore threadbare narratives of kings
and statesmen and soldiers, and battles and
intrigues and conquests, and confine itself to
history of the mind of man and of his be-
ings and doings and sufferings from the
days of trOgodytes to the present time,
what useful purpose it might fill To a
philosophic mind the proceedings OF such
center OF education would be infinitely val
liable. To tread from truth to truth in each
branch Of science. never venturing into the
quagmires of conjecture; TO make holo-
coast Of the swollen libraries which con-
tain more fiction than fact; to step from one
demonstration to another and to 90 no fur
Their than actual demonstration will sustain,
that would be real education. As to history,
that is almOsta virgin branch Of letters. OF
the hundreds of thousands OF volumes of
history, a few are interesting reading. But
the seeker after knowledge will ransack
them in vain for Information regarding the
real life of the human race during the eight