, 1901-12-21

built by voluntary offerings on their
part, the farmer giving a sheep, the
farmers wife some linsey-woolsey Of
her own weaving, the family heirlooms
were among the donations such as sill
yer sugar spoons. fruit dishes, pewter
flagons and silver tipped jugs. All
gave out of their poverty and at great
sacrifice; but the prosperity Of the
college proved to be commensurate
with their love for it. Following the
example Of Massachusetts,, on the
adoption of the constitution ten out of
the thirteen original colonies had al
ready established one or more col
leges, and in the year 1900 there were
in all twenty-four colleges in the Uni
ted States.
The colleges in America have been
of three kinds and have arisen with
exceptions of course) in the following
order: % those founded. by private
individuals, (2) those founded by the
church and (3) those founded by the
state. These three stages in the devel-
opment of the American college have
marked the evolution of higher educa-
ton throughout the world.
In ancient times, excepting amongst
the Jews, education was was left to
private individuals. But in Palestine
the scribes really conducted the first
public schools in their synagogues
which were scattered in every ham
let throughout the land. To be sure.
their only textbook was the Hebrew
bible containing the laws of Moses, the
Psalms of David, Jewish history and
prophecy, and education with them
was narrowly religious But the fact
that these schools nevertheless were
supported by the state and were free
to the poor and open to all the people
made them superior to anything to
be found elsewhere in the ancient
world. For no state aid for education
and no school system were ver known
in Greece or Rome. There it war left
to philosophers like Plato to found
their own schools and to gain their
livelihood by teaching the sons of the
rich and of the aristocracy, or to be
employed in the household of kings,
like Aristotle who taught the young
Alexander the Great.
The second period in the history of
education was reached when during
the middle ages education was left to
the church and was largely in the
hands of the monks in their monster
les. But with the seizure of church
property by the various monarchs of
Europe and with the change of ideas re
garding the functions OF the state and
particularly with the growth of popu-
lar government the necessity Of educa-
ton was more felt and emphasized.
Until at the time wheL our govern
ment was organized most foreign
states were doing something for popu-
lar primary education, though higher,
education was looked upon as q luxu-
ry for the rich and economists like
Adam Smith were saying that the rich
should be left to pay for 1t and that
state aid for anything higher than the
common school was class legislation.
The Oldest colleges in New England,
Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Bowdoin,
Williams, all bear the names of their
private founders, or of the men who
gave the most generously toward their
foundation. Church and state were
separated forever in America. After
ward when their duties came to be d.
vided respectively between the two,
for more than a century the work Of
land particularly of higher
seemed to fall almost who'll
" to the former. The result was shown