CLARK UNIVERSITY.

BY HOWARD A. BRIDGMAN, BOSTON.

WHEN, somewhat less than three years ago, it was tele

graphed over the country that a certain Mr. Clark was about to give a million of dollars or more to establish a university in the city of Worcester, there was a general pricking up of ears, and curiosity, accentuated in many cases by adverse criticism, prompted questions like the following: "Who is this Clark, any way?" "If he has any money to give away why does he not remember Harvard or Yale, or other well-established yet still somewhat impecunious institution?" "What on earth is the need of another university?" From the meagre reports at that time spread abroad, the outside public was left in comparative ignorance as to the scope and purpose of the projected institution, and consequently drew the inference that it would prove an entirely superfluous addition to the many worthy schools with which New England already teems. As time has worn away, and with the publication of more definite and detailed statements respecting the university, the earlier wide-spread impression has given place to some extent to a growing and cordial interest in its success, but there still remains in the public mind a vast amount of ignorance and misconception of the essential nature of the undertaking. In view of the fact that the doors of the institution have now swung outward to pupils, it is high time that these erroneous notions were removed.

Doubtless most people are inadequately informed respecting the person whose name is fastened upon the school. Jonas G. Clark is a man possessed of great wealth, but he does not live and have his being inside his capacious money bags. A self-made man indeed, born in Hubbardston, Massachusetts; a carriage maker in his earlier years; one of the lucky few who found in California during the fifties a rich reward for their hard toil; a resident of New York City, and placing many shrewd investments there, and coming back to his native county a dozen years ago to make a beautiful home for himself and wife on one of the fairest streets in Worcester, this childless man, at the age of seventy-four, becomes

the father of a magnificent educational institution around which his affections twine themselves, and of which he is deservedly proud. Clark University is not the outcome of a freak of impulse, or of a sudden wave of generosity, or of the natural desire to perpetuate in a worthy way one's ancestral name. To comprehend the genesis of the enterprise we must go back along the track of Mr. Clark's personal history, twenty years at least. For as long ago as that, the idea came home with force to his mind that all civilized communities are in the hands of experts; that the man who has special and extensive knowledge on any given subject, is the man whose verdict decides important points at issue, and sways the opinion of the multitude. Looking around at the facilities obtainable in this country for the prosecution of original research, he was struck with the meagreness and the inadequacy. Colleges and professional schools we have in abundance, but there appeared to be no one grand inclusive institution, unsaddled by an academic department, where students might pursue as far as possible their investigations of any and every branch of science. Consequently each successive autumn witnessed the hegira of many men fresh from their college graduation to Oxford and Edinburgh, to Berlin and Vienna, and Paris and Heidelberg, and all the rest. Manifestly they went because they could find on the other side the instruction and the apparatus which were wanting in this country. Here, then, was a great unworked field, and here was a millionaire of leisure, culture, and refinement, and possessed above all with the desire to serve his fellow-men. Mr. Clark went abroad and spent eight years visiting the institutions of learning in almost every country of Europe. He studied into their history and observed their present working. He sought out the ancient shrines of scholarship, and informed himself respecting the very beginnings of educational movements. Indeed he had prepared in manuscript for his own use accounts of the various methods of instructing and educating the human mind in vogue from the time when learning began to be disseminated through the world. Thus the ideas respecting education which had long been working in his prolific mind were shaped and enriched by contact with the best thought of Europe and by a survey of the various methods of instruction in operation there.

The time arrived for beginning to consummate his ideals. The selection of these well-known Worcester gentlemen as trustees:

Messrs. Stephen Salisbury, Charles Devens, George F. Hoar, William W. Rice, Joseph Sargent, John D. Washburn, Frank P. Goulding, and George Swan, was speedily followed by the laying of the cornerstone of the first building. The site selected was a stretch of land on an elevated slope a mile and a quarter south of the City Hall, and comprising eight acres in extent. Here, on the twenty-second of October, 1887, with impressive ceremonies, the cornerstone of the main building was put in its place. The lapse of two years finds this structure completed and ready for occupancy; a plain, four-story edifice of brick and granite. It resembles a factory as much as anything, though the letters "Clark University," cut upon the tablet over the main entrance, signify that the looms within are devoted to the production not of cloth, but of far finer fabrics, even human minds, disciplined and brought to their highest development. But the lack of ornament and of architectural beauty is more than compensated by the quality of the interior finish and the perfection of every detail. No builder ever followed more carefully the laying of every brick and timber. Mr. Clark has bestowed his personal attention upon each feature. The heating, lighting, and ventilating arrangements are as complete and satisfactory as the best science of the present day can furnish. Mr. Clark shows a rare genius for carrying facts and figures in his head. His knowledge of other institutions thus comes frequently into play. He will say to his trustees, "At Cornell the arrangement is thus and so, while at Yale I noticed that they found this or that more satisfactory." "Part of the Prussian schools prefer another plan," etc. The result is a building 204 by 114 feet, admirably adapted for the purposes to which it is to be put, finished in oak and fitted with the most modern and approved appliances. The only other building which will be ready for service this autumn is a chemical laboratory, which stands near. by, and contains about fifty rooms. It is practically fire proof, and is not surpassed by any similar structure in the country. The ground for a third building has just been broken, and it will be erected in due time.

But the best of buildings would be of little value without competent men as instructors, and the composition of the faculty is the final test of any institution. In this respect Clark University will not be found lacking. Had Mr. Clark and his trustees taken twice the time they did for deliberation, and had the range of

their choice been even more unrestricted, they could hardly have shown more wisdom in the selection of a president. G. Stanley Hall, bred among the Franklin Hills of Massachusetts, stands in his own department, that of psychology, easily at the head of American scholars. He is now perhaps forty-five years of age. After his appointment, in the spring of 1888, he was granted a year's leave of absence to visit European universities. He, too, has come back with a broadened horizon, and better equipped for his important work. His learning, coupled with his executive ability, without which no university president can be a real success in these days, qualifies him to take the helm, and his appreciation of Mr. Clark's great purpose is so sympathetic that the two will labor in the utmost harmony to secure the desired ends. Doctor Hall will direct the work of the department of psychology, and will continue to edit the American Journal of Psychology, a periodical which has attained high fame abroad as well as in this country.

The university does not attempt to start full-rigged, but will build up its departments conservatively and thoroughly. For the present, instruction is offered only in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Psychology, and to these departments will be added one by one as time goes on, others like Theology, Philosophy, Science, Literature and Art, until the entire circuit of human knowledge is brought into view and made the object of assiduous study. Mr. Clark fittingly said in his address at the laying of the cornerstone, that an institution like this could not be called into existence by the fiat of any human agency, but must be the result of gradual growth. To man the various departments already established, the best talent has been levied upon wherever it could be found. Johns Hopkins has not only been obliged to yield for the presidency of the new institution its distinguished professor of psychology, but he takes with him his assistant, Dr. Henry H. Donaldson, to serve as assistant professor of neurology at Worcester. The department of physics will be in charge of Professor Albert A. Michelson, recently at the Case School of Science in Cleveland. Arthur Micheal, who since 1881 has been professor of chemistry in Tufts College, will now take the lead of this department at Clark. William E. Story will be the acting professor of mathematics, and in the department of biology C. O. Whitman will be the acting professor of animal morphology, Warren P. Lom

bard assistant professor of physiology, and Franklin P. Mall, adjunct professor of anatomy. Most of these are still young men and have won their spurs at foreign universities by hard original work. The staff of each department will be further extended so as to embrace "docents" and fellows. By the former term is meant students who are granted a private room and peculiar facilities. for work in a given line, in return for which they may give fifteen or twenty lectures during the year. They will also receive from two to four hundred dollars a year, according to the service rendered. A position as docent is considered highly honorary and desirable, because it is expected that the professorships not only at Clark, but at the colleges throughout the country will be recruited from the ranks of these docents.

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Great care is taken in the selection of promising men for these positions, as well as in the awarding of the fellowships, most of which Mr. Clark himself established. As to the students proper, who may come and pay annually their two hundred dollars tuition, it is expressly given out that a college or an ordinary scientific school training is desired as a preliminary to taking up work in a specialty at Clark University. The course for candidates for the degree of Ph. D., covers three years. Special students, not candidates for a degree, will be admitted under certain conditions. A large number of docents and fellows have already been appointed. Whether the university opens with few or many regular students. in the accepted sense, is a matter of little concern to the heads of the school. Indeed, President Hall when asked if he thought there would be as many students the first term as teachers, replied with great earnestness, "I hope not." No man is wanted at Clark University who does not love science for its own sake, and not for its marketable aspects. The key-note to all the projected work is original research, or to quote Dr. Hall again, the central object is to "extend the frontier of human knowledge." Truth in every line of investigation will be aimed after, primarily that the world's store of wisdom may be increased, and next in order that the new facts brought to light may contribute to the advancement of the For instance, when Laura Bridgman died there was great curiosity among scientific men to learn what kind of a brain a person deprived of so many faculties possessed. It was sent to Worcester, and is now being examined by the experts in neurology, and valuable and interesting information will result therefrom.

race.