We see the impression made upon the community of educators throughout the State. We note the momentum of earnest study in our class-rooms. We breathe consciously the air of higher ranges of thought in our diverse departments.

In token that this is not a mere feeling or wish on our part, we point to the many lines of progress which have been mentioned, which ought to insure a more solid footing, and a real advance in institutional power.

IV.

The good standing of our University depends largely on its controlling ideas. Without seeking to draw these out in full detail, I will say in the first place: the University tries to benefit the State whose name it bears. It is under bonds to the State and the Nation. To the Nation, which gave so generous a subsidy, it owes an unswerving loyalty. College men have before now sprung to the battle-front of their country's armies. Our trained battalions have turned out men now eagerly volunteering to rally round the flag in this war for humanity. When our Lieut. Cloman sails for the far Philippines, he will see with him some whose love of country has torn them away from their unfinished studies in our halls, men from his own University Cadets. To the State, which brought it into existence, and has been so kind a mother, the University is bound by the strongest filial ties. It must contribute to the State's welfare, in things material as well as in things intellectual and moral. Modern science has discovered many helps to the conduct and comfort of daily life, and so our scientific teaching can amply repay the State for its expenditure; and this it really does, many times over.

But that is not the highest view. The State wants good citizens, more than it wants good crops. The social and civic welfare of the community is the thing of highest value. There must be men and women of approved character, who will be intelligent and influential examples

of integrity and power for good, an unfailing stock to draw upon for the highest public service.

Such citizens are the product of an education both broad and high. The community as a whole needs a rich, wellrounded culture, embracing the best that has come down to us from the past, and the best that is developing in the present. The natural sciences, so largely the birth of this modern time, have an indispensable value; but the social sciences are equally needful. The great science of government has its roots in ancient times, and those times must be thoroughly studied from original sources. We need to know the languages and literatures of Greece and Rome, the countries which gave us the most complete examples,-the one, of a serene passion for beauty,-the other, of the power of civic organization. We must enter into their intellectual life; we must trace their undying influence through mediæval to modern civilization. This wide culture, I say, must be the possession of the community as a whole. The foremost nations of our era have recognized this need, and built up universities where the broadest range of intellectual development is open to all aspiring students.

Omnes non omnia possumus. No intellect can take in this whole round of learning. Therefore, individual choices must be made: students will take diverse lines of training and investigation. But there is some ground which ought to be common to all, such as the commonplaces of English literature and the plainest lessons of history: topics which will prevent the leaders of the community from drifting apart, into unsympathetic groups. After the common studies, special studies are to be selected, according to one's aptitudes and preference; but the election should not be premature, before the student is wise enough to know his wants. One entering this University has already a choice between colleges of widely differing courses. After the first years of study, his courses are entirely elective.

The trend of university life is such as to emphasize the subjects that have a direct outlook on the professions. Yet

many find the highest satisfaction in other studies. They are fascinated by scientific investigations; or charmed by ancient or modern literature; or incited to learn the theory and practice of good government; or absorbed in the marvelous history of the nations; or stimulated to study thinking man himself, as the one being who is to survive "the wrecks of matter and the crush of worlds."

University education will hark back to the ancients, while it welcomes the modern and the coming man. The ancients are not dead. Our Emerson says, for instance, "Out of Plato come all things that are still written and debated among men of thought." Inheritance gives us the centripetal forces of civilization: the centrifugal are springing from the ever-growing power of modern intellectual adventure. The balance of these forces insures the harmonious orbits of educated intellect, in the sweep of genuine human progress.

With such controlling Ideas, with such a Standing among the universities of the country, and making such Progress from year to year, the University of California asks the continued and increased interest of its friends. It is California's own creation, by and for her own people. Her people will surely not desert it. Though the times are hard, especially hard in this present year, Californians will not begin their stricter economies by taking away these educational privileges from their sons and daughters. In her direst straits, Prussia established the University of Berlin; and its influence did more than anything else to rehabilitate the nation, and lay the foundations of the greater German Empire. The people that is most intelligent will be the master people of its time.

But the State, as such, has its limitations, and cannot do everything that is needed. The universities most powerful in our land, forming the goodly company whose fellowship we claim, have all relied on private munificence. Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Princeton, Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins, Cornell, Chicago,-what a noble list!-such

universities could not have become what they are without the endowments received from private sources. If the University of California is to do its best work, and meet all the demands made upon it, private munificence must help to build on the foundations laid by the State. At the very outset, this site was the contribution of individual donors to the previously existing College. Are Californians ready to respond to the present call?

A few noble gifts marked the earlier years of the University; but within the last two years a woman's hand has lifted high our educational banner; a woman's voice has spoken a challenge to all rich men to do something really great for California's University. How many will accept the challenge? When our crowded classes are properly housed, and our unrivaled site begins to receive its worthy architectural adornment, there will be still a great and pressing need. That need is endowments for many chairs of instruction. Tompkins and Mills have led the way; there ought to be a Klondike trail-full of followers.

Surely Californians have gathered wealth enough, a thousand times over, to respond to these claims. Surely enough of this wealth is in hands not ungenerous. It only needs that the hearts that beat above the hands shall be quickened by sympathy for such noble uses of fortune's gifts.

But the duty and the privilege of aiding the University do not come to the fortunate rich alone. All friends of the higher education can do something to promote it. The Alumni who acknowledge their indebtedness to their Alma Mater, their "cherishing mother," in turn can help to cherish her welfare and heighten her usefulness.

On you who this day receive her seal of approbation, is laid this new and happy burden. You are to-day singing your "Song of Degrees;" let its echo never cease to gladden the heart of your Alma Mater.

THE FUNCTION OF THE MODERN UNIVERSITY AND ITS RELATION TO MODERN LIFE.*

By EDMUND J. JAMES, PH.D.

What is the function of the modern University, and what its relation to practical life? There would doubtless be a great variety of answers to this question, according as it were asked of an American, an Englishman, a Frenchman, or a German, and there would be much difference in the opinion of different thinkers even within the same country.

But I take it that all these answers would have something in common, and it is that common element which must concern us here. All would agree, I think, that the University is primarily an educational institution, an institution to train the youth of the country, for the duties of practical life; all would agree that its work belongs to the later years of the systematic school training of the young men and women of the community; all would agree that its training presupposes a high degree of preliminary training and a considerable maturity of mind; all would agree that it is the highest institution, the crown, so to speak, of the educational system as a whole.

The University, then, to draft a provisional definition, is the highest educational institution of the community devoted to the advanced training of those young men and

*An address before the University of California at the Commencement, May 18, 1898, by Professor James of the University of Chicago.