登陆注册
15513800000001

第1章 PREFACE

It is something more than a dozen years since the following observations on American academic life were first assembled in written form. In the meantime changes of one kind and another have occurred, although not such as to alter the course of policy which has guided American universities. Lines of policy which were once considered to be tentative and provisional have since then passed into settled usage. This altered and more stable state of the subject matter has permitted a revision to avoid detailed documentation of matters that have become commonplace, with some resulting economy of space and argument. But, unhappily, revision and abridgment carries its own penalties, in the way of a more fragmentary presentation and a more repetitious conduct of the argument; so that it becomes necessary to bespeak a degree of indulgence on that ground.

Unhappily, this is not all that seems necessary to plead in extenuation of recurrent infirmities. Circumstances, chiefly of a personal incidence, have repeatedly delayed publication beyond what the run of events at large would have indicated as a propitious date; and the same circumstances have also enjoined a severer and more repressive curtailment in the available data. It may not be out of place, therefore, to indicate in the most summary fashion what has been the nature of these fortuitous hindrances.

In its earlier formulation, the argument necessarily drew largely on first-hand observation of the conduct of affairs at Chicago, under the administration of its first president. As is well known, the first president's share in the management of the university was intimate, masterful and pervasive, in a very high degree; so much so that no secure line of demarcation could be drawn between the administration's policy and the president's personal ruling. It is true, salient features of academic policy which many observers at that time were inclined to credit to the proclivities of Chicago's first president, have in the later course of things proved to belong to the impersonal essence of the case; having been approved by the members of the craft, and so having passed into general usage without abatement. Yet, at the time, the share of the Great Pioneer in reshaping American academic policy could scarcely have been handled in a detached way, as an impersonal phenomenon of the unfolding historical sequence. The personal note was, in fact, very greatly in evidence.

And just then, presently, that Strong Man's life was brought to a close. So that it would unavoidably have seemed a breach of decorum to let these observations seek a hearing at that time, even after any practicable revision and excision which filial piety would enjoin. Under the rule of Nihil nisi bonum, there seemed nothing for it but a large reticence.

But swiftly, with the passage of years, events proved that much of what had appeared to be personal to the Great Pioneer was in reality intrinsic to the historical movement; so that the innovations presently lost their personal colour, and so went impersonally to augment the grand total of human achievement at large. Meanwhile general interest in the topic had nowise abated.

Indeed, discussion of the academic situation was running high and in large volume, and much of it was taking such a turn --controversial, reproachful, hortatory, acrimonious -- that anything in the way of a temperate survey should presumably have been altogether timely.

But fortuitous circumstances again intervened, such as made it seem the part of insight and sobriety again to defer publication, until the colour of an irrelevant personal equation should again have had time to fade into the background. With the further passage of time, it is hoped that no fortuitous shadow will now cloud the issue in any such degree as to detract at all sensibly from whatever value this account of events and their causes may have.

This allusion to incidents which have no material bearing on the inquiry may tolerantly be allowed, as going to account for a sparing use of local information and, it is hoped, to extenuate a degree of reserve and reticence touching divers intimate details of executive policy.

It goes without saying that the many books, papers and addresses brought out on the academic situation have had their share in shaping the essay. More particularly have these various expressions of opinion and concern made it possible to take many things for granted, as matter of common notoriety, that would have appeared to require documentation a dozen or fifteen years ago, as lying at that time still in the field of surmise and forecast. Much, perhaps the greater bulk, of the printed matter issued on this head in the interval has, it is true, been of a hortatory or eloquently optimistic nature, and may therefore be left on one side. But the academic situation has also been receiving some considerable attention with a view to getting an insight into what is going forward. One and another of these writers to whom the present essay is in debt will be fond referred to by name in the pages which more particularly lean on their support; and the like is true for various utterances by men in authority that have been drawn on for illustrative expressions. But a narrow scrutiny would doubtless make it appear that the unacknowledged indebtedness greatly exceeds what so is accredited and accounted for. That such is the case must not be taken as showing intentional neglect of the due courtesies.

March 1916.

In the course of the past two years, while the manuscript has been lying in wait for the printer, a new situation has been forcing itself on the attention of men who continue to take an interest in the universities. On this provocation a few paragraphs have been added, at the end of the introductory chapter. Otherwise there appears to be no call for a change in the general argument, and it has not been disturbed since the earlier date, which is accordingly left as it stands.

June 1918.

同类推荐
  • 双溪醉隐集

    双溪醉隐集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 法演禅师语录

    法演禅师语录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 人本欲生经

    人本欲生经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 抒情集

    抒情集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 窦存

    窦存

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 未来圣佛

    未来圣佛

    一个贫民窟的孤儿,在一次检索垃圾的时候,偶然得到了一个上古神器。在这个科技飞速发展,机甲满天飞的世界,他又会创造什么样的奇迹....
  • 阴阳执法士

    阴阳执法士

    18岁的冷晨拜清风道长为师傅,从此,便成为了一名道士……
  • 《长生世界》

    《长生世界》

    长河涛涛,不见终始。这大河中翻腾的每一朵浪花上都踏着一个人,这每一人都是一个时代的英雄。他们法力滔天,主宰芸芸众生,可万载之后,也只是尘归尘土归土。一场阴谋,千般计算,白了满头青丝,只换来坟冢枯骨。最后的一段时日,群雄并起,诸圣争霸,乱天动地,苍茫大地,我主沉浮!
  • 无限预知梦

    无限预知梦

    一次意外事件使凌宇发现:原来他做的每个梦都有可能是预知梦!诡异的现实和真实的梦境让他怀疑活着的每一天,他越来越分不清现实和梦境,然而惊险离奇的命运、真切纷乱的情感却又如蛆附骨,如影随形……凌宇急切地想追寻真相,成为强者!半吊子的预知梦与功夫真的能够应对这一切吗?
  • 千面水镜:傀儡术

    千面水镜:傀儡术

    “血泪无边,”“恐怖深渊,”“我还不想那么早的逝去,”“变成墓地的野鬼,”“变成腐烂的尸体,”“无尽的鲜血,”“染红了我的嫁衣,”“无尽的鲜血,”“染红了我的丧服,”“灵柩下葬,”“悲剧上演,”“一切,都将被掩埋,”“一切,都将结束……”
  • 爸爸去哪之明星奶爸

    爸爸去哪之明星奶爸

    李乾重生平行世界,得到娱乐系统的帮助从零开始到娱乐天王。(新人写作,更新不稳定,有时一天三更,有时半月才六更,望各位读者大大海涵,不要吹更谢了,爸爸去哪不好写但是我想试试,我会写第一季,因为我的偶像在第一季。)
  • 上古幽灵传说

    上古幽灵传说

    上古幽灵,传说异常凶猛,杀戮成性,最后在西王母的女儿九天玄女的带领下,最终被人们赶回自己的世界。
  • 全能兽医

    全能兽医

    一身出神入化的医术却从不医人。独守乡村十几年甘为兽医。当御女教师、火辣老板娘、极品腿模和护士小妹妹相约花前月下时,林西果断拒绝——月下可以,但花钱绝对不行!
  • 萌宝驾到:爹地,妈咪要逃婚

    萌宝驾到:爹地,妈咪要逃婚

    五年前,一次意外,他在她的肚子里面种下了他的种子。五年后,再次相遇,他却丝毫认不出她。因为他,她被赶出家门,因为他,打破了她原本平静的生活,也是因为他,给了她一个最完美的礼物。可是当五年后,看着眼前男人一副不认识她的样子,她该何去何从......
  • 问道封仙

    问道封仙

    这方世界是人类的主宰,还是妖兽的横行,亦或者是鬼魔的寄居。把酒问道,以力破天,十级元力,百转成仙...看我如何逆转乾坤...