The American "University."

There is among Americans a notable fondness for high-sounding names, not clearly comprehended, but forced to do service as ministers to vanity. In this service some have been racked beyond the limits of endurance. Perhaps none have suffered more than the ill-fated "university." The best of our colleges are as yet not equal to the true universities of England and Germany; but in spite of this we dub every little college with the awe-inspiring title of university, and then stand off and gaze at our work in fond admiration; and, in name at least. we place the Transylvania University of Kentucky, the East Tennessee University and the Upper Iowa University on an equal with their prototypes of Oxford, Berlin and Jena.

There are at present almost fifty socalled universities scattered throughout the United States. Most of them are not known beyond the limits of their State, and a large part of them are the inferiors of the preparatory schools of Eton and Rugby; but still we call them "universities." It is a new example of the old fable of the frog and the ox. The frog envied the size of the ox, and though that by puffing himself full of air he might become his equal. And so we see balloon-like universities springing up around us on all sides with no foundation but a little money and a big name.

A year ago a large sum of money was left by a millionaire for the purpose of founding a university at Worcester, in spite of the fact that both Harvard and Yale, two of the few American colleges which can lay a just claim to the title of "university," are grievously in need of financial aid. And now comes the report from a New York paper that "H. J. Furber, Jr., a rich young millionaire of Chicago, is preparing to found a large university in that city, and will devote $1,000,000 to the purpose."

If these would-be founders could only recognize what a true university is, and devote their money to the few such that we have in America, it would be much more useful in aiding the higher education of Americans than is the present craze of founding universities. The "Presto, change!" of a millionaire cannot turn his money-bags into a university any more than he can manufacture a Rueben's by daubing $10,000 worth of paint upon a canvas. A true university ought to be the intellectual centre of a country, a place not only where a student can study the arts and sciences, but where the most intellectual men of the country can assemble and have time, apart from their teaching, to do original work of their own. And it must have money and reputation enough to attract the best men, the men who are recognized as leaders in the various branches of learning.

Such an educational centre must necessarily be of slow growth. It cannot be puffed up by money alone, but it needs a recognized intellectual superiority; neither can it flourish if it lacks financial support. Millionaires about to dial If you wish to leave a university behind you, take note of the fable of the frog and the ox. Puff not up the frog, but give good pasture to the ox.- Advertiser.