LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA

257/372

APPEAL FOR A UNIVERSITY. 241 numbering over three hundred, yet only eight of which have been founded by the government. Har­vard, Yale, Princeton, Amherst, Williams, Dart­mouth, and Oberlin, of which the first is the most famous, may be noted. Harvard has now 110 profes­sors, a library of 134,000 volumes, and an endowment of $14,854,372. In 1872 there were in the United States 298 colleges and universities, and 66 were fom1ded in the following seven years. This growth of the higher education in the United States is one of the wonders of the world. In the year 1620 the Pilgrim Fathers, seeking freedom to worship God, landed at Plymouth. They established a school founded upon Christian morality. For 260 years their descendants, inheriting the spu•it of their fa­thers, have carried out their purpose. They have be­lieved that such schools would diminish the number of evil-doers, and increase the number of those who do good; that they would foster the spirit of liberty and become the foundation of the state; that the Christian university was the safeguard of freedom; and we do not doubt that their free institutions are the outcome of this spirit. "As soon as it saw the importance of the univer­sity our government established one at T()kyo, and has also fou11ded several academies. These will give us intellectual and material, but not moral growth. There are many who are seeking to improve the pub­lic morality on the basis of C'hi11ese philosophy. But we C'.annot rejoice in their efforts, for the moral code of China has no profound hold upon the minds of men. All Oriental states are almost wholly destitute of liberty and Christian morality, and cannot there­fore advanee rapidly in civilization. It is the spirit

※このページを正しく表示するにはFlashPlayer10.2以上が必要です