The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-07-11

4
ture. Tie former developes a wide basis
of training and information, while the
latter brings to a definite apex. one
makes broad men, the other sharpens
| them to a point The college digeSts
and impresses second hand knowledge
as highly vitalized as good pedagogy
can make it, while the university as
one of its choicest functions creates
new knowledge by research and dis
covery.
This higher educational realm is full
Of the new phenomena of altitude.
Faculties instead of discussing and
celebrating plans for commencement
ceremonies. hearing recitations, etc,
are occupied with far different prob
lens wherever the university spirit Las
true and real embodiment
Here, first of ALL men must be dis
eliminated and great issues hang upon
the success in differentiating superior
from Indifferent young men. To de-
tect the early manifestations of talent
in genius in the different fields of in
tellectual endeavor, which some presid-
entS and professors can and others so
eminently lack the power to do, is the
crucial bookkeeping problem, where
great privileges are to be awarded to
great promise. This is almost a life
and career saving function for not only
the young professors and students but
for the university.
Second, having selected these, the
university should bestow freely it's
needed aid and equipment, and the
professor his choicest time and knowl-
edge to perfect the precious environ
ment by which the later stages of
growth, so liable to be lost, but on the
full development of which civilization
itself hangs, are perfected. How to Sc
lect the best, ripest and most fruitful
| topics for investigation requires an al
most prophetic ken in which differences
in individual professors are immense.
To study individuals enough to adapt
each theme to each personality is an
other problem as new as it is delicate
and difficult. The right solution of both
| these is the large half of the work
Having thus sown fit seed in fit soil.
it must be watched and watered with
constant suggestion. The best and new
est literature; the most effective and
original apparatus that can be devised
and if possible made on the spot how
to ensure in the best form and place
the speedy publication of work and to
bring it under the eye of all experts;
how to avoid conflict and duplication;
how general or how special thesis sub
jects and work should be to best COM
bine the two sometimes more or less
divergent ends of discovery and educa-
ton; the requirements for perhaps the
choicest of all degrees, the doctorate of
philosophy; the best modes of individ-
ual examination for it; the number and
relation of subjects required; the mi
grafton of students so as to, ensure not
only the best environment for each,
but to give to professors not only in
the same department but in different
institutions the same stimulus that was
felt when the elective system aroused
the dry-as-dust professors to unwonted
effort lest their class rooms be left va
cant; the kindred question of the rela-
tive value of graduate work at home
and abroad for each student and for
each department.; the first federation of
the graduate clubs and their $500 mem
bers in the % American institutions
now recognized in the year book; the
great problem of printing and special
journals, together with interchange of
monographs; the vast new library
problems of purveying for highly spe-
cialized, but very voracious, appetites,
which makes the true university libra
rlan a man of far different order from
others, and gives him a wealth of new
problems of exchange, foraging, etc;
to maintain the true relations between
lecture work and individual guidance,
While duly emancipating the profess
ors from the drudgery of elementary
teaching and mass treatment of great
bodies of students; the many and
wide-reaching differences between pure
and applied science, and the practical
methods by which this distinction is
maintained; the dangers of great ag-
gregations of students and the ad-
vantages of few; the wide differences
between the new kind of professor
needed in the university and those in
the college, where no provision is made
for the advancement of learning and
the tests are mainly pedagogic; the
even greater contrasts between schol-
arshtp funds for the aid of poverty to
professional careers, which are a
doubtful advantage even in colleges
where they belong, and the true uni
versity fellowship as above described:
the growing dominance and need of
expertness in all fields for which grad
uate departments must prepare as we'll
as for professorships alone; these and
many more great questions destined
more and more to eclipse all others
which are just looming up and for the
irrigation and ventilation of which we
hope to establish here soon a new
educational journal-such questions
constitute this opening field of what
may be called the higher educational
craftsmanship.
The hastiest glance at the situation
on an anniversary like this would be
incomplete unless we turned toward the
future. Our own needs here are many
and our wants urgent and our faith
firm that in a community like this the
time will soon come when no wills will
be drawn by wealthy people without
carefully considering the conclusion Of
the largest parliamentary report ever
made, filling nearly score of volumes,
many years in the making, and describ-
ing all the public requests ever made
in England. The substance of that most
competent tribunal that has ever spolS-
en- upon this subject is that the best of
all uses of public benefactions is. not for
charity TO the poor or even the sick and
defective, noble and Christian-like as
those charities are, not even for lower
education or religious benefit as these
are, but rather for affordng the very
best opportunities for the highest posi-
Bile training of the very best minds in
universities, because in training these
the whole of church, state school and
charity is not only made more efficient
but raised to a higher level, and in this
service all other causes are at the same
time best served.
Our very best department is the IL
brary, which is so well endowed that
we do not at present need to expend the
income OF the fund In this respect the
sdsdclty ana DeneNolence of our found
er has been more than sufficient for our
needs up TO the present time, and our
most efficient and courteous librarian
has found many means and devices new
10 the most advanced library science Of
bringing out its utmost efficiency for
our work, and of making it, in ali the
pregnant sense of that word, attractive
to all who once come within the sphere
of it's influence.
The large and new demands upon the
| public library caused hy the nresenca