have always been eminent for their adroit management of men. They
recovered a large part of Europe to the papacy by seizing and
controlling the colleges and universities as fountains of power. They
had at one time under their control 600 colleges. They made it their
business to educate the leading minds, and through them to guide and
govern communities and nations. When only one in thirty of the
inhabitants of Austria adhered to the papacy, Professor Ranke says
that "the Jesuits obtained a controlling influence in the
universities, and in a single generation Austria was lost to the
Reformation and regained to the papal hierarchy."
In the sixteenth century, the Protestant King of Poland appointed a
Jesuit minister of public instruction, who soon filled the professors'
chairs with members of his own order. The "scale was soon turned, and
the doctrines of the Reformation never again recovered the
ascendency."
In our own day, the influence of a college education is seen in the
case of a number of young Bulgarians at Roberts College, in
Constantinople. These students rekindled hope and courage in the
people and revived the feeling of nationality in the hearts of the
Bulgarians. This prepared the way for a general uprising in 1876, the
bloody repression of which brought on the war with Russia, which led
to the liberation of the province. Thus, influences descend with power
from above into society. The colleges are the right arm of strength
for all noble efforts for human welfare. Professor Van Holst, in his
recent address, delivered at Chicago, said: "The most effectual way to
lift the masses to a higher plane--materially, intellectually and
morally--is to do everything favoring the climbing up of an
ever-increasing minority to higher and higher intellectual and moral
altitudes. Therefore, universities of the very highest order become
every year more desirable--nay, necessary--for the preservation and
the development of the vital forces of American democracy.
Undoubtedly, to have them established is the interest of those who
would frequent them, but it is still infinitely more in the interests
of the American people in its entirety."
It is impossible to estimate all the good that comes to society
through the influence of the college. It is quite evident that our
colleges stand for the production of the highest manhood and
womanhood, and their friends should marshal their forces to enhance
their growth and usefulness. It is the underlying forces at work for
good in our colleges that insure the integrity and safety of our
social and religious organizations. Men and women who have means
should regard it a privilege to lavish their gifts upon the colleges
that labor for the imperishable things of life, and provide incentives
for the highest Christian character and activity. He who consecrates
his money to found a professorship in a Christian college erects a
monument to the worth of the human soul, and perpetuates his own fame.
He helps the colleges to determine, in a large measure, the character
of the persons who shall fill our pulpits, teach our schools, edit our
papers, write our books, and give direction to all the political and
social movements. The dangers that menace our nation lie in the lack
of intelligent Christian leadership. It is within the power of friends
of the colleges to enroll among the college graduates a vast army of
the youth of our land, whose largeness of manhood and womanhood and
magnificence of character will commend themselves to the love and
esteem of the lowly and suffering in every land.
Lord Macaulay once said that "the destiny of England is in the great
heart of England," and we may safely say that the power for usefulness
of the colleges is in the great heart of the Christian people of
America, who will be more and more loyal to the sacred trust.
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| TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE. |
| |
| The ordering of the table in Chapter II has been left as |
| originally printed, although Dartmouth and Queen's Rutgers are not |
| in chronological order. |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
End of Project Gutenberg's Colleges in America, by John Marshall Barker