Page:The History of the University of Pennsylvania, Wood.djvu/88

82 were in several instances so few, that it was deemed unnecessary and impolitic to hold commencements; and when the practice of conferring degrees publicly was resumed, it not unfrequently happened, that only five or six individuals appeared as candidates for the honours. It is not to be supposed that this state of things was regarded with indifference by the trustees: on the contrary, committees of investigation were frequently appointed; the sources of the evil were diligently explored; as each mistake or deficiency was rendered sensible, efforts were made to correct or supply it; till at length the features of the institution were completely changed, and its whole system so remodledremodeled [sic] as to bring it into closer accordance with the character of the times, and to extend considerably its sphere of usefulness.

The historian of nations deems it his duty not only to record alternations of prosperity and misfortune, glory and disgrace; but also to search out and explain the causes of these changes, that useful lessons may thus be afforded to statesmen, and the good of the past augmented, and its evil diminished, by the example and warning it is made to hold out to the future. The same principle should influence the humbler author, who confines his attention to small communities; for they, too, may have successors to be benefited by the picture of their vicissitudes. No excuse, therefore, is necessary for attempting to expose the causes of the very low condition into which the university was depressed, at the close of the last, and commencement of the present century.

Among these causes may, perhaps, be included the practice of compensating the professors by fixed salaries, without allowing them any share in the proceeds of tuition. There is a vis inertiæ in mind as well as in matter, and the best men acknowledge that, to put forth their highest energies, they require the incitement of powerful motives. An