5. Register of the Trustees, Officers, and Students of the Lehigh University, South Bethlehem, Pa., for the year 1873-74, with the Plan of Organization and the Course of Instruction. Tuition Free. Published by order of the Board of Trustees.

6. Catalogue of Wesleyan University, 1873-74. Middletown. 1873.

7. Alumni Record of Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn. Originally compiled by ORANGE JUDD. BOS

ton. 1873.

THOSE in the habit of reading our discussions will be likely to infer, from the above titles, that we shall take the liberty of making some criticisms and comparisons. Nor will their inference be entirely erroneous. But we are not the less glad on this account that, in the present instance, we have much more to commend than to censure. Did we shrink from the latter, however, when we think it is deserved, we should not call our journal a Review.

In our opinion, there is quite as much turpitude, on the part of a public writer, in representing a spurious college as a genuine one, as there is in representing brass as gold. In either case he is guilty of fraud. But who would not rather lose a few hundred dollars by accepting bad money for good money, or for his merchandise, than find that he has paid an equal amount or more for the education of son or daughter, not only in vain, but with a pernicious result? We need not pause here to indicate how much mischief is done in this way.

Let us bear in mind, that to praise incompetent teachers is really an injury to those teachers themselves, as well as to that portion of the public who are led to regard them as competent. The former may, indeed, gain pecuniarily by being represented as what they are not, but they lose morally, for why should those praised as learned and accomplished educators take the trouble to study and toil for the improvement of their intelligence and judgment? Nor is this by any

means the worst of it, for the habit of being eulogized, exofficio, renders them intolerably arrogant.

We have, from time to time, presented to our readers some melancholy examples of this class, the most notable of which, perhaps, is that of the Provost of the University of Pennsylvania. It is not with any malevolent intent we recall the case of this gentleman, for we wish him no evil; we do so merely because certain of his performances, combined with the character of the institution to which he is, or, at least, was, an appendage,* had led us to form a very low estimate of the universities and colleges of Pennsylvania.

Most cheerfully do we admit now that this was an erroneous conclusion. We admit, further, that some of the same Pennsylvania friends of education, who gave us emphatic testimony as to the low grade of the pretentious Philadelphia institution, were equally emphatic and earnest in assuring us that there were Pennsylvania colleges which ranked in thoroughness and efficiency with the best in the United States. They indicated one particularly, and strongly urged us to visit it, confidently predicting that if we did we would readily acquit them of exaggerating its merits in any respect. We well remember that the best informed of these gentlemen said, further; "There is another Pennsylvania college which is also well managed, and has excellent professors, but lacks money." We may now remark that the two institutions thus pointed out to us were Lafayette College, Easton, and Muhlenberg College, Allentown. These intimations and assurances we received just two years since, but, although we had implicit faith in the intelligence and integrity of our correspondents, we found it impossible to devote the necessary time and attention to the subject until the beginning of last month.

Our readers may remember that two years intervened

*It will be remembered that, when the learned Provost was addressed as "President of the University," he replied somewhat indignantly, "There is no such person,” adding that he is the "Provost," etc. The results showed that, had he said the University of Pennsylvania had no head, he would have been much nearer the truth.

between the calling of our attention to the Philadelphia institution and the publication of our article entitled, "The University of Pennsylvania and its New Windows."

The inference would naturally be that we are slow in our movements, and, in a certain sense, so we are. One reason why we delayed so long in the case of the Philadelphia institution was that, much confidence as we had in our correspondents, we found it difficult to believe that it had fallen quite so low as was represented; upon the other hand we confess we thought there must be some exaggeration of the high merits ascribed to Lafayette, and of the enlightened skill and judgment with which it was conducted. In the one case we were constantly receiving complaints filled with jeers and sarcasms; in the other we were as constantly receiving assurances of most efficient work and progress. We knew that in neither instance had our informants any motive less noble, or more reprehensible, than to serve the great cause of education in Pennsylvania. But we are never satisfied with hearsay, no matter how honorable and trustworthy is its source. In this respect we adopted more than a quarter of a century ago the precept of Seneca, that those who judge should investigate, and those who rule command

Si judicas, cognosce; si regnas, jube.

When turning our attention to a college university or other educational institution claiming a high rank, we proceed precisely on the same principle we do in preparing an essay on the ancient Egyptians, the Hindoos, or the Druids. As in any of the latter instances we seek information wherever it is to be had, let it cost what time and labor it may, so do we in the former. Those who understand this will not wonder that an individual, having the amount of labor we have to perform on this journal, cannot be very rapid in his movements.

The same habit of careful study and investigation will account for the fact that, of all the educational institutions we have criticised these twenty years past, in other journals as

*N. Q. R., No. LI., Dec., 1872.

well as in our own, there has not been a single instance in which our estimate has not been accepted and verified as just, by competent, impartial judges. Thus it is that we can confidently ask any one, at this moment, what institution have we denounced as a sham or imposture which has not in time proved itself to be one? Upon the other hand, what institution possessed of acknowledged merit have we ever assailed for any purpose, or through any motive whatever? We denounced institutions in this State fourteen years ago which have long ceased to exist; we could also mention those which have recently passed out of existence, or into different hands from those whose utter incapacity and false pretences we had exposed to public scorn in these pages. Then, if we turn to the other side of the picture, in what instance have we represented a sham as a faithful, efficient institution?

More than once we have given our principal reasons for taking these pains. We have told the curious why it is that we make those "odious comparisons," and exhibit those still more odious contrasts-just such as will necessarily arise in the present article when we place Lafayette College and the University of Pennsylvania, the Wesleyan University and Dickinson College, or Muhlenberg College and Lehigh University side by side. But, as the memory, even of the most intelligent portion of the public, is proverbially defective, we will give our reasons once more as briefly as we can. Let those who would blame us for repetition in doing so please to bear in mind that, among the greatest educators of antiquity, it was held as an axiom that repetition is the parent of knowledge-Repetitio mater scientia est. Without further preface, then, we beg leave to quote, from the first prospectus we ever issued, the following paragraph:

"Education in every form, including Art and Science, will receive prominent and friendly attention; and, whatever seems calculated to retard or vitiate it, whether under the name of a text-book, a painting, a seminary, a gallery, or a college, will be subjected to fearless but fair and temperate criticism."

This was our solemn promise fifteen years ago.

Whether

ers.

we have kept it or not, our readers, and not we, are the proper judges. Then why did we make that promise? Our reply is that, in all our reading, we had not learned that any nation had attained permanent greatness without possessing a high degree of enlightenment. This is true not only of Greece and Rome, but also of Egypt, Assyria, and Persia. Moreover, there was not one of those nations which was not greatest when it had its most learned men and its profoundest thinkWitness Greece in the time of Pericles, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle; and Rome in the time of Virgil, Horace, Cicero, Sallust, and Livy. And if we glance at the great nations of the modern world-at England, France, Spain, and Germany-shall we not find, in every instance, that in proportion as each has been enlightened has it been great and powerful? This fact is so familiar to every intelligent reader that it is superfluous for us to enter into details to illustrate it. We may, however, mention France as compared to Germany. As long as the former paid proper attention to education, and, accordingly, was so prolific in great authors and scientists, there was no danger of her being overpowered or crushed by the latter. Remember what Spain was in the time of Cervant es, De Vega, and Calderon, and see what she has been since she ceased to produce such men. Both France and Spain have bitterly realized the warning of Delille: "En voyant la décadence des moeurs d'une nation, je serai assuré de celle de son éducation."

Of all foreigners who have written about our people, no one has discussed our condition and prospects in a more friendly or more truly philosophical spirit than De Tocqueville. But there is nothing which he urges more earnestly on our statesmen than the necessity of establishing a high grade of education. "It is important," he says, "that those who, by their natural disposition or their fortune, are destined to cultivate letters or prepared to relish them, should find schools where a complete knowledge of ancient literature may be acquired, and where the true scholar may be found. A few excellent colleges would do more toward the attain

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