The New York herald., 1922-03-26
Our Colleges Criticized by Frenchman
Professor Feuerat From Observations at Yale, Thinks
Materalism Is Exalted Over Idealism.

Professor Albert Femlterot IN the Rerue
Mondes.
and those which can only satisfy curl
osity or serve an immediate end. For
the principle which led to the adoption
of this system is that all the sciences
have equal educational value, provided
and that they lead thereby to the de-
velopment of the mind.
In this preponderance given to facts
and method, to the detriment Of the
refinement and development Of the in
telligence. there may be recognized the
evil influence OF a nation whose mis-
deeds have penetrated even to this dis
tant land. 1t was admiration of Ger
many which inspired for long time
the American universities In all their
pedagogical reforms. After the war OF
1870, just at the time when they were
in a formative stage. it was toward the
nation crowned with victory that young
men dreaming of modern culture turned
in crowds. Every year hundreds OF
graduates, the intellectual elect. crossed
the sea with the fervor which no
doubt animated the pilgrims of the
Renaissance when they sought in Italy
the splendors of the Latin world. They
sat at the feet of the German masters.
They thought to discover truth. Their
minds. blinded by enthusiasm, did not
perceive the false pretensions hidden
behind a we'll contrived setting. They
found indisputable activity. elaborate
plants. semnaries where highly scien-
tific work seemed to be carried on. Is
IL surprising il these young men when
they returned to thar own country no
longer contemplated knowledge except
through the smoked glasses they had
been persuaded to wear? They sang
the glory of Germany and applied them
selves to reproducing faithfully at home
the same methods they had been taught
to follow.
Nevertheless they did violence to their
own temperament. The movement
which carried them beyond the Rhine
prevented them from feeling another in
fiuence which would have satisfied their
intellectual needs. feel more the con-
viction that natural affinities exist be-
tween the American mind and the
French mind. These resemblances !
found, for example, in the desire for
logic. order and clearness which tor
ments American writer's and savants |;
In the form of the phrase. direct, lively.
reproducing In unmlstakable fashion at
times the lucidity of the French style.
When l have explained French methods
have noted among my students the
Joy of the man who has long sought the
solution of a problem and who suddenly
hears 1t announced. 1t was not merely
the satisfaction of curiosity it was the
response of deeply seated instincts
which sought to manifest themselves at
my appeal. Arrived at a crossroads, the
Americans took the wrong road, and ror
half century they have turned their
back to the intellectual horizons toward
which ali their aspirations were nat
urally directed.
We have to shoulder certain respon-
sibility for this error on the part OF
America. While Germany used all its
lures to attract these students we showed
toward them an attitude Of peevish
haughtiness. A regrettable error, which
for long time cost us the intellectual
friendship of a great nation. Regretta-
tle also for the Americans, for In the
schools OF Germany they crushed within
themselves natural qualities which were
struggling to gain expression.
nation of idealists, they learned lessons
OF materialism hungry to learn. they re-
stricted their ambition by a system that
put technique before pure science. philol-
ogy before literature, facts before ideas.
classifications before generalizations., All
they sought we could offer to them, and
they might have found with us what
was needed to correct certain faults Of
their civilization.
But there is no i'll without remedy.
Perhaps new era is about to open for
tl< American intellect. Miss Amy
Lo,<sll. one of the first feminine poets
of the day. says in a recent book that
the United States is entering the second
stage OF its culture. in which French in
f'uence will preponderate. The poets
formerly passed for being something
of prophets.