AMERICAN COLLEGES.*
THIS useful and timely work should be of interest to all who care to know about what is unquestionably America's most noble and successful institution—the College or University— both words, we may say, are used in the United States to designate bodies which confer degrees. It is true that this work is neither profound nor original, and that it contains little that has not been said before; but it is also true that it gathers up into one focus a view of the American College, its position, strength, weakness, and general outlook, which, so far as we know, cannot be found in any other single volume. Here and there some merely rhetorical passages might have been softened or omitted, and there are not a few typo- graphical errors which ought not to have been allowed ; but in the main the work is worthy of its subject, and, as coming from the head of a University, it is the product of a large practical experience in the problems of American academic life.
Dr. Thwing shows that, historically, the American College has passed through three phases,—English, French, and German. Institutions like Harvard, Princeton, and Yale were in essence English Colleges established in a new country and slightly modified to suit its conditions. After the Revo- lution French influence made itself felt for a time, both in form and ideas. The University of Virginia was founded by Jefferson on French models, and in nearly all the Colleges French politics and freethinking prevailed more or less. It is interesting to learn that in the first quarter of the century it was almost as rare to find any one in the American Colleges who knew German as it is now to find any one who knows Russian. Much the same, of course, was true of Oxford and Cambridge up to 1820. Bancroft, Long- fellow, and Ripley were among the first Americans to repair to Germany ; but it was not till some years after that German academic methods began to be adopted in America and the chief Colleges were transformed into institu- tions moulded largely on Teutonic lines, — that is to say, with free initiative or "elective " studies and with post - graduate courses under professors who had all
• The American College in American Life. By (Maths Franklin Tbwine. D.D., LL.D.. President of Weetarn &recce University. London G. P. Putnam's Sous.
studied in German Universities. Having passed through these three phases, the American University seems to be now settling down into a life of its own; it has grown out of the stages of imitation into the stage of self.realisation. Its result, up to the present, is thus stated by Dr. Thwing:— " The American College, therefore, represents the enlarged and enlarging life of the American people. It has helped to train one-third of all our statesmen, more than a third of our best authors, almost a half of our more distinguished physicians, folly one-half of our better-known lawyers, more than a half of our best clergymen, and considerably more than half of our most conspicuous educators. It has thus entered into the intellectual life of all the people." This last sentence seems to be far more true of the American than of the English University, for it seems that there is now one College student to every thousand three hundred and forty-seven persons,—a far higher average than here, and a higher average than in any European country save Belgium and Norway. In the older States the proportion is extra- ordinary ; one student to every four hundred and one of the population in Connecticut, one to every five hundred and one in Massachusetts, one to every eight hundred and fifty-seven in Rhode Island. In no country save Scotland is there such intense devotion to the University. Dr. Thwing shows, too, that just as a State becomes more settled, its academic population increases relatively to its total population, thus revealing a genuine love of learning on the part of the people.
The development of Colleges in the West has, it appears, been mainly brought about by religious bodies which needed pioneering work in newly settled States, and hence a great number of these Colleges are small, poor, and sectarian. The total number of Universities and Colleges in the United States is six hundred and ninety-five, of which one hundred and sixty- three are Colleges for women only. Now, while admitting that it was inevitable that education of the higher kind could only be maintained in huge and sparsely populated States by means of numerous small institutions, the continuance of this condition of things is preposterous. Of what value is a degree when six hundred and ninety-five Colleges, the majority of which are small, poor, and sectarian, can confer it ? A certain dignity and comprehensiveness should attach itself to the very name of a University, so that when we think of it we at once think of a great, well-equipped, far-reaching, and in- fluential institution. So thinks Dr. Thwing, and he is of opinion that the number of degree-conferring bodies should be reduced to one hundred, the small institutions being com- bined or else allowed to die out. He informs us that this view is spreading, as is shown by the fact that the munificent gifts to American Colleges, of which we have all heard, are now given almost wholly to great institutions like Columbia, Harvard, &c., and that the small sectarian Colleges are finding it more and more difficult to keep alive.
As regards some of the specific problems before the American College, two or three are worthy of note, one being peculiar to America. In some Colleges, we are told, "the athletic movement has become a craze, a frenzy, a madness." On this point Dr. Thwing has some judicious observations, in which the value of physical exercise is fully recognised, but always in subordination to things of the mind. In the next place, though the tendency is to high specialised work among the best men, it seems that there is a large margin who work less than in former days, and Dr. Thwing appears to connect this with the spread of luxurious habits. In this connection it seems that the average annual expenses of a Harvard student from 1825-1830 were 176 dollars, while in 1881-82 the average annual expense "to an economical student" ranged from 484 dollars to 807 dollars. The same ratio of increase obtained at Yale. We should be inclined to say that at Oxford and Cambridge there has been during the last generation a positive decrease of average expenditure ; certainly there has been no increase such as this, though it must, on the other hand, be admitted that the standard of 1830 seems very low. The most serious criticism made, how- ever, is that on the increasing tendency to govern the American University on "business lines." As Dr. Thwing says, while American scholarship is rapidly progressing, the College is going on "without a high degree of scholastic super- vision on the part of the highest officers." In one sense the munificent endowments of millionaires are Greek gifts, for they involve a share in government by the millionaire. A
distinguished University man is quoted by Dr. Thwing as follows :—" There is not at this moment on either of the governing boards of that University with which I am best acquainted, these boards numbering in all thirty-seven men, a single person who can possibly be said to stand for pure scholarship. Nearly all are business men or lawyers, often eminent lawyers, but it must be remembered that it was a President of that very University, and a very shrewd and worldly-wise one, who gave the maxim, Put it down as a rule that no really eminent man ever reads a book." The result of this state of things, of coarse, must be a certain dominance of utilitarianism, and it is precisely that which is a serious danger in American life. If the American College is to be all that Dr. Thwing hopes to see it, and which we hope also. it should be controlled absolutely by scholars and thinkers, and should be entirely dissociated from every mercenary aim.
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