Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 60.djvu/355

Rh worker and organizer and administrator as has no man before him. Uniting better than in earlier centuries the essentials of the perfect man, he is to do a larger and nobler share of that upbuilding of the nation which shall come with the realization of the prayer of the great American poet:

 Our fathers' God! From out whose hand The centuries fall like grains of sand.

 O! Make thou us, through centuries long, In peace secure, in justice strong! Around our gift of freedom draw The safeguards of our righteous law; And, cast in some diviner mould. Let the new cycle shame the old!"

A century ago there was but one recognized form and method of education—what is now termed the classical—composed of studies of the ancient languages and literatures, comparatively lean and narrow as they are; the elementary mathematics, to the extent now attained in the secondary schools; a homeopathic dose of physics and chemistry; a little French; and a somewhat larger, if less palatable dose, of 'philosophy.' The century has been one of extension, broadening, elevation, diversification and systematization of education, and of the incorporation into the curriculum of the modern languages and literatures; the modern physical sciences experimentally developed; the arts, fine and useful, so far as capable of scientific treatment; and the principles and practice of the professional schools, including the latest and most strictly taught of the group, the school of engineering and its associate professional schools of every sort. The whole evolution of the century has been consistent in every field and technical, 'practical,' education is simply one of the elements of a complete and perfect evolution of modern life.

The world now acknowledges its need of the college-man and my own letter files are crowded with calls for competent men far in excess of the number available; while the number seeking even improved situations is small, and I know of none out of work, unless ill. At the top, the space is enlarging, though it is always ample for tip-top men. Formerly positions paying five thousand dollars were rare, now the college-bred man is coming forward when ten-thousand-dollar positions are seeking, and failing to find, the men who are competent to fill them satisfactorily. Generals are, comparatively, still more rare than ever, even though training for generalship is going on at an unprecedented rate and the opportunities are multiplying for great men and good men and capable men as never before.