Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 82.djvu/199

Rh are the basis of both intellectual and individual liberty, from the paralyzing influences that follow an attempt to meet the conventional social requirements in education. Intellectual liberty often thrives best in states where political freedom is restricted.

The collegiate university is so much occupied in distributing ready-made educational suits cut upon a single pattern to applicants for academic honors, that individualism is almost completely hidden by a garb which may conceal both the iniquities of mediocrity and the virtues of genius.

The American college graduate is so accustomed to the evils of a system in which he is pulled and pushed about by "trainers" that he is constantly in danger of losing his personal identity. His patience is often exhausted by listening to sermons on the advantages of scholarship, while he prays in vain for the opportunity to learn by observing living examples. Many of the crudities in our intellectual life as a nation are directly attributable to the failure to appreciate the importance of university ideals to the community and the nation. This oversight also emphasizes our reluctance to recognize that the spirit of enquiry is a normal instinct which if repressed is followed by serious consequences such as the loss of placticity, of intellectual vigor and of the highest forms of intelligent and sympathetic interest in one's own profession. The vision of those who are fortunate enough to possess the spirit of investigation, one of the surest signs of mental health and vigor, is towards the future, while the fate of individuals and institutions which turn to look back is the same as that of Lot's wife. "Denn wer nicht vorwärts kommt der geht zürück; So war es immer so bleibt es." Unless the spirit of enquiry is developed deep and abiding intellectual interests are impossible. In its absence we become mere gatherers-in of knowledge with but a slightly higher degree of intelligence than that possessed by collectors, but lacking genuine interest in progress. The spirit of discovery is generally accompanied by a childlike freedom from bias. Without the inspiration that comes from prosecuting research, our gaze is directed down into the valleys and not upwards to the peaks whither our aspirations lead us. The failure of our universities to encourage more extensively than has yet been attempted enquiries in the field of knowledge is largely responsible for our diffuse and shallow interests. We are prone to estimate the mental qualities of a student by counting the number of subjects he has studied without attempting an analysis of his mental traits. Any institution which publicly assumes the right to be the bestower of a liberal education should be prepared to forfeit its claim to the title of university, as this should be a function of the school and not of the university. The essence of a liberal education is to be sought for in the quality of mind of the individual and not in the character of the information he possesses. The futility of any institution solemnly