LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA

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314 LAST YEARS AND DEATH. until now there are thirty or more that are flourish­ing. In Italy there a:re seventeen. Now if we look at our own country and find only one university, and that under the control of the government, can we say that this is sufficient for the enlightenment of the people? Must it not be said that we are greatly lacking in provision for the education of the people and in preparation for the future welfare of the coun­try? Such considerations as these have forced, and are forcing, us to attempt so great an enterprise. "What is the true end of education? We under­stand it to be the full and symmetrical development of all our faculties, not a one-sided culture. How­ever much students may advance in the arts and sciences, if they are not stable and persevering in character, can we trust them with the future of our country? If, in consequence of principles of educa­tion which shoot wide of the mark, our young men are moulded and trained in a one-sided and distorted manner, no one can deny that such principles are ex­tremely injurious to the country. Such students, in their search for western civilization, choose only the external and material elements of civilization -liter­ature, law, political institutions, food and clothing, etc., and seem not to comprehend the source of civil­ization. Consequently, blindly groping for light and wandering in darkness, they are misled by selfish and erroneous principles in the use of their acquired knowledge. And though there come some who wish to reform these evil tendencies in education, they ouly make the evil worse by resorting to measures of oppression and restriction instead of training up noble and high-principled students whose minds are free and broad as well as disciplined, and who govern

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