8 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF EDUCATION. 
s now to penetrate the arcana of the world in which we dwell, to discover 
sew facts, to measure old phenomena, and to educe principles and laws 
shat were written in the beginning but have never yet been read by mortal 
oye. Instruments of accurate measurement and for close observation are 
row at command that were unthought of in the past generation. That 
orotean agency, the lens, has been enlarged and supplemented so that its 
officiency has increased simultaneously with its adaptation to new pur- 
poses. Measurements are applied to the depths of the sea, the distances 
»f fixed stars, the velocity of light, the intensity of electric and magnetic 
surrents, the reactions of the nervous system ; and facts which were once 
vaguely known, become clearly and accurately understood. To the prog- 
ress of observation, measurement, and experiment, universities that are 
worthy of the name are bound to contribute. 
The fourth function of a university is to disseminate knowledge. The 
cesults of scholarly thought and acquisition are not to be treasured as 
secrets of a craft ; they are not esoteric mysteries known only to the ini- 
tiated ; they are not to be recorded in cryptograms or perpetuated in pri- 
rate note-books. They are to be given to the world, by being imparted to 
colleagues and pupils, by being communicated in lectures, and especially 
by being put in print, and then subjected to the criticism, hospitable 
or inhospitable, of the entire world. That institution has a restricted 
sphere that is unknown beyond the circle of its own alumni. It should 
aot claim to be a university. It is better to be the best of colleges than 
to be the worst of universities. Publication should not merely be in the 
form of learned works. The teachers of universities, at least in this 
country, by text-books, by lyceum lectures, by contributions to the maga- 
zines, by letters to the daily press, should diffuse the knowledge they 
possess. Thus are they sowers of seed which will bear fruit in future 
generations. One of the greatest of living naturalists has said that he 
was attracted to the study of natural science by the lectures of Silli- 
man; one of the most honored of university presidents has acknowl- 
edged that a speech of Francis Wayland’s aroused him to a life of public 
service; and the philosophical educator to whom this congress owes so 
much has shown in a recent volume how much he was quickened by the 
conversation of a peripatetic from Concord. The widespread demand 
for university extension shows how intelligent persons, who for one 
reason or another have never received the advantages of university resi- 
dence, are eager to get at the latest, the wisest, the most accurate instruc- 
sions that can be brought within their reach. But learned publications, 
containing memoirs that are only meant for the scholar—positive contri- 
sutions to knowledge—are the noblest fruits of academic culture. 
These, then, are the tests of a university : the service it renders in the 
education of youth; its skill in the perpetuation and interpretation of 
che lessons of history; its endeavors to extend the domain of science ; 
and 
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