Year: 1875

Colleges and College Buildings.


We have received an elaborate statement OF
new college building to be erected at Hart
ford. 1t is to cost several hundred thousand
dollars. We note in other parts of the coun-
try also tendency to build new colleges In
fact it seems to be the ambition of every
county now to have its university and to
spend large sums upon fine ediices. We
should hesitate to do anything to deter our
people from indulging a taste for architecture
or from encouraging education, but we think
that in developing our educational system
we make mistake in spreading our colleges
over 80 large space. America does not
want new colleges. We have too many
already. We want teachers not buildings.
We should have five or six, perhaps, great
universities, largely endowed, with the best
professors. Nor do colleges succeed by the
magni6cence of their buildings. The best
experience in Europe shows that beyond a
certain point the money spent in buildings
is wasted.


The little country town with the few plain
buildings in which classes meet to hear
lecture or undergo an examination would be
of as much service, if there were professors
like those of Strasburg and Leipsic, as any
possible aggregate of splendid, cold, desolate
public halls. Of course there is no reason
why great States like New York and Penn
sylvania and Massachusetts should not have
their universities if they choose to found them.
Even in this we might go too far 1t is not State
universities we want, but universities wor-
thy of that name. We should have seats of
learning so well endowed that the scholar, if
he chooses may remain all his life. The
plan of fellowships as in English universe
ties, although to a certain extent an abuse,
has many charms. We wish that it were pos
sible in America for those of our students
who care to give their lives to study to have
it in their power so to do. If our citizens or
our public bodies feel disposed to invest
money in education it should be not in
buildings but in endowments Some advise
great national university, under the direct
protection of the government at Washington.
There are many arguments in favor of such
an undertaking. We do not know q city
where it could be built with more accepta-
bility than at Washington. The climate is
as fine as any in the country. The location is
contiguous to the great cities. There is the
largest library in the United States. Some
of the finest museums, especially in connec-
ton with the war and the advancement OF
modern science, are to be found at
the capital. The society in the winter
time has many attractions that are
possessed by no other city, because while
there is in Washington, as in all political cen
tres floating element of intrigue, political
management and adventure, there is also an
exceedingly interesting society, cultivated,
refined and attractive, composed of diploma
fists, officers of the army and navy and Con-
gressmen. The society of Washington is
more national than in any other city, because
it contains men from every section of the
Union.


What we desire is not so much new colleges,
but the strengthening of the old ones Better
far to have five universities like Strasburg,
Leipsic, Heidelberg Oxford and Cambridge
than have a hundred small, struggling, indf-
ferent colleges, without reputation, resources
or culture.