The Commonwealth Fund was established. in 1918 by Mrs. Stephen
Harkness; who has made several gifts; amounting in all - to some £6,000,000 sterling. In her initial instruction she used words which show- a real greatness of mind. Her gift was to be used " for the welfare of-. mankind." Could. there be a finer example of the,: determination not to paralyze _an . institution by the use of the dead hand ? It is far better to risk the possibility of eccentric administration in the future than to petrify by rigid rules and schemes. Verbunt non amplius. Words fail one in regard to such a scheme ; but one general comment may- be allowed.. America has developed an instinct in the matter of education which may prove of immense importance to her, to us, and to the world. Though at present a little careless about primary education, her people and her public- benefactors have realized in an extraordinary degree the supreme value of University education, that is, of establiShing places where men and women shall not merely learn the elements of intercommunication by language, reading and writing, but where study in the true sense and the illumination of the mind (for that is the secret of the University spirit) should be the essential considerations. There may be, and no doubt are, certain crudities in many of the, newer American Universities, owing to the violence and rapidity with which this great ideal has been advanced ; but these. crudities are in fact unimportant. They will die down as soon as that spirit-of enlightenment called up by this most memorable movement in civilization has had:time to develop. "Turn up the lights "—could there be- a , better- national slogan ?
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