et
the story that Agassiz was so fond of telling of the king of Prussia and
Fichte. It was after the humiliation and spoliation of the kingdom by
Napoleon that the monarch asked the philosopher what could be done
to regain the lost position of the nation. "Found a great university,
Sire," was the answer, and so it was that in the year 1810 the
world-renowned University of Berlin came into being. I believe that we
in this country can do better than found a national university, whose
professors shall be nominated in caucuses, go in and out, perhaps, like
postmasters, with every change of administration, and deal with science
in the face of their constituency as the courtier did with time when
his sovereign asked him what o'clock it was: "Whatever hour your majesty
pleases." But when we have a noble library like that at Washington, and
a librarian of exceptional qualifications like the gentleman who now
holds that office, I believe that a liberal appropriation by Congress
to carry out a conscientious work for the advancement of sound knowledge
and the bettering of human conditions, like this which Dr. Billings
has so well begun, would redound greatly to the honor of the nation. It
ought to be willing to be at some charge to make its treasures useful to
its citizens, and, for its own sake, especially to that class which has
charge of health, public and private. This country abounds in what
are called "self-made men," and is justly proud of many whom it thus
designates. In one sense no man is self-made who breathes the air of a
civilized community. In another sense every man who is anything other
than a phonograph on legs is self-made. But if we award his just praise
to the man who has attained any kind of excellence without having had
the same advantages as others whom, nevertheless, he has equalled or
surpassed, let us not be betrayed into undervaluing the mechanic's
careful training to his business, the thorough and laborious education
of the scholar and the professional man.

Our American atmosphere is vocal with the flippant loquacity of half
knowledge. We must accept whatever good can be got out of it, and keep
it under as we do sorrel and mullein and witchgrass, by enriching the
soil, and sowing good seed in plenty; by good teaching and good books,
rather than by wasting our time in talking against it. Half knowledge
dreads nothing but whole knowledge.

I have spoken of the importance and the predominance of periodic