strenuous endeavor of a few rich men and of many very poor men, known as professors of mathematics, chemistry, physics and geology. At the time they came into existence there was a smaller demand for technically trained men than there is to-day, when for 25 years these schools have been pouring out their hundreds of graduates annually. That demand has been created by first furnishing the supply by showing what young men properly educated and highly trained can do in organizing and directing the forces of American industry.

That these schools, in spite of the fact that they had everything to do at once and little to do it with; in spite of the fact that they had no traditions to govern them and had, indeed, the whole philosophy of their subject to evoke, a priori; in spite of general public indifference and even of much contempt, have done their work exceedingly well, even from the first, is fairly implied in the foregoing statement. It is truly remarkable that with so little to go by and so much to do, all at once, out of such scanty means there should have been so little waste of effort, so little done injudiciously, so few steps taken that needed to be retraced.

Credit should also be given to the congress of the United States for the act which was passed July 2, 1862, under the enlightened leadership of the Hon. Justin S. Morrill of Vermont, making generous provision for the establishment, in the several states, of colleges of agriculture and the mechanic arts. Most of this provision was, it is true, devoted to the creation of agricultural schools regarding which the scope of this address does not require me to speak and, indeed, regarding which I should scarcely presume to express an opinion; yet the part which was assigned to the promotion of the mechanic arts proved to be a most valuable and timely reenforcement of the American system of technological schools.

But no one who thoroughly believes in the mission of schools of this class can be content merely to assert that the full time had come in the economic evolution of the nation when such schools were imperatively needed for the promotion of our industries, and that the institutions thus called into being have done this, their primary work, with triumphant success. We go far beyond this and assert for these schools that they have come to form a most important part of the proper educational system of the country, and that they are to-day doing a work in the intellectual development of our people which is not surpassed, if indeed it be equaled, by that of the classical colleges. No statement less broad and strong than this would begin to do justice to the view we take of what these schools are

now doing and are in an increasing measure to do for the manhood and citizenship of the country. We believe that in the schools of applied science and technology as they are carried on to-day in the United States, involving the thorough and most scholarly study of principles directed immediately upon useful arts, and rising in their higher grades into original investigation and research, is to be found almost the perfection of education for young men.

Too long have we submitted to be considered as furnishing something which is, indeed, more immediately and practically useful than a so-called liberal education, but which is, after all, less noble and fine. Too long have our schools of applied science and technology been popularly regarded as affording an inferior substitute for classical colleges to those who could not afford to go to college, then take a course in a medical or law school, and then wait for professional practice. Too long have the graduates of such schools been spoken of as though they had acquired the arts of livelihood at some sacrifice of mental development, intellectual culture and grace of life. For me, if I did not believe that the graduates of the institution over which I have the honor to preside were as well educated men in all which the term educated man implies as the average graduate of the ordinary college, I would not consent to hold my position for another day. It is true that something of form and style may be sacrificed in the earnest, direct and laborious endeavors of the student of science; but that all the essentials of intellect and character are one whit less fully or less happily achieved through such a course of study, let no man connected with such an institution for a moment concede. That mind and manhood alike are served in a preeminent degree by the systematic study of chemistry, physics and natural history has passed beyond dispute. The haste with which the colleges themselves are throwing over many of their traditional subjects to make room for these comparatively new studies shows how general has become the appreciation of the virtue of these, when combined with laboratory methods, as means of intellectual and moral training,

I have spoken of the characteristic studies of these schools as the best of all available means of both moral and intellectual training. I believe this claim to be none too broad.

1 The sincerity of purpose and the intellectual honesty which are bred in the laboratory of chemistry and physics stand in strong contrast with the dangerous tendencies to plausibility, sophistry, casuistry and self-delusion which so insidiously beset the pursuits of metaphysics, dialectics and rhetoric according to the traditions of the

schools. Much of the training given in college in my boyhood was, it is not too much to say, directed straight upon the arts which go to make the worse appear the better reason. It was always an added feather in the cap of the young disputant that he had won a debate in a cause in which he did not believe. Surely, to an audience in these more enlightened days it is not needful to say that this is perilous practice, if, indeed, it is not always and necessarily pernicious. Even where the element of purposed and boasted self stultification was absent, there was a dangerous and a mischievous exaltation of the form above the substance of the student's work, which made it better to be brilliant than to be sound.

Contrast with this the moral and intellectual influence of the studies and exercises we are considering. The student of chemistry or physics would scarcely know how to defend a thesis which he did not himself believe. In that dangerous art he has had no practice. The only success he has hoped for has been to be right. The only failure he has had to fear was to be wrong. To be brilliant in error only heightened the failure, making it the more conspicuous and ludicrous. How wholesome to the mind and heart of the pupil is such a regiment!

2 Again, in addition to the graces of sincerity and intellectual honesty which are the proper traits of physical and natural science; altogether aside, too, from any future technical uses to which the arts or the information acquired may be put, there is great virtue as training for practical work in life, of whatever kind, in whatever sphere, to be found in the objective study of concrete things, which so largely make up the curriculum of the schools we are considering.

3 Still another advantage which we claim for the characteristic studies of the new schools is that, in a very large degree, they dispense with the system of examinations which has become the curse of modern education. The recent remarkable outburst in England from educators of every name and class against that system, justifies the strong terms I have used. It is admitted on all sides to be a problem of the greatest difficulty so to adjust the scheme of examinations that they shall not largely neutralize the good effects of sincere and straightforward study.

So far has cramming been carried in English universities, and even in our own colleges, that examinations have largely ceased to be a test of the scholar's attainments, much more of his real proficiency in his studies. Students who have a marked facility in this sort of thing acquire in time the faculty of passing creditably examinations on

matters of which they know almost absolutely nothing. By steadily cramming for a few days and nights under artful coaches, who know the professor's weaknesses and fads, a young man exceptionally expert can "get up" a subject,' of which he would be troubled the morning after examination to give an intelligible account. A special organ- the examination organ- becomes developed, which is as specific as the water-sacks attached to the stomach of a camel, intended only to carry a certain amount of refreshment over a very dry place for a very short time. Indeed, the comparison fails to do justice to its subject. The examination organ is at once as specific and as external as the pouch of a kangaroo.

From this serious difficulty schools of applied science and technology are, by the very nature of the case, largely freed. Indeed, the inapplicability of the scheme of examinations to the studies we are considering has even been made an argument against their introduction into universities. Prof. Parsons Cooke, in addressing a body of students at Harvard recently, said, "When advocating in our mother university of Cambridge in Old England the claims of scientific culture, I was pushed with an argument which had very great weight with the eminent English scholars present, and which, you will be surprised to learn, was regarded as fatal to the success of the natural science triposes then under debate. The argument was that the experimental sciences could not be made the subjects of competitive examinations."

It is not true that chemistry and physics can not be made the subject of examination after their kind; but it is true that under competent teachers of these sciences, examinations have far less of the character of a cram and far more of the character of a test of ability to do work. Moreover, in such a scheme of instruction as a whole, examinations perform a much less important part, while the daily and weekly exercises in the laboratory become continually of more and more account as a means of ascertaining the scholar's real progress. In this the schools of applied science and technology comply with the demands of modern thought in pedagogics. In no depart

'I would not disparage the importance, as a professional accomplishment, of the ability to "get up" a subject in a very short time under high pressure. A lawyer has often occasion to do this very thing. But this is a professional accomplishment and should be acquired as such. The period of professional study is not too late for the acquirement of this faculty. It can even be acquired later still, in the course of professional work. Such practice, however, in my judgment, forms no part of general education and training, and is only vicious and mischievous in the culture stage.

mond of life more then in education is the Scripture precept of auHowity, "Lof the dead bury their dead." The best examination whe h student can pass is by showing his ability to do the next I ho can pass this examination successfully, the teacher Hood give little thought to what has gone before. And I venture, by the way, to suggest with reference to the urgent inquiry now pseeding is for where the American youth loses two years of time neho popuation for college, whether a large part, if not the whole od shear zoriona loe, is not sustained from the everlasting reviews and ex mmations through which the American teacher, alike in the priway, the grant and the high school insists upon dragging the popol love me a vour or oftener, not only requiring him thus to duayevat oma"ly going over again ground once traversed, but what is magienews erating a sentiment throughout the schoolqwe scholars to be forever looking back and not

e averages attendant on scientific instruction www though the Net might be still further excetween teacher an 1 pm I