speaking, of the Technological Institute, in which the labors of the
Society of Arts, aided by the Museum and Library, may serve the two-fold
object of informing the public on all matters of science and industry
and of aiding the School of Industrial Science. Developed on its largest
scale, such an institute should be devoted to the acquisition and
dissemination of all knowledge, but under strictly scientific guidance
and influences. Literature should there be taught historically, in close
connection with mental philosophy, a system which, it may be observed,
results in interesting the pupil more in details than the old plan
devoted to a few mere details ever did. Art should there be taught, not
in rhapsodies over Raphael, Turner, and the favorite fancies of an
individual, but according to its unfoldings in human culture, based on
architecture as an illustrative medium. 'The lines of connection'
between these and the exact sciences should be ever kept in sight, so
that the student may never forget 'the countless connecting threads
woven into one indissoluble texture, forming that ever-enlarging web
which is the blended product of the world's scientific and industrial
activity.'
The great aim of such an institute should be the aiding of industrial
progress, and the application of generous, intelligent culture to
practical pursuits--the whole to be based on exact science. When we look
into this community, and see the vast demand for talent in its
manufactures, and see how many thousands there are who would gladly be
'liberally educated' men, if the education could only be allied to
practically useful knowledge, we at once feel that the time has come for
the establishment of such institutes. The demand exists on every side;
the supply must come, and that speedily. England, France, and Germany
are rapidly improving their manufactures by scientifically educating
their master-workmen--the Conservatoire des Arts, and Ecole Centrale, of
Paris, the art-schools of the British capital and provinces, the many
museums devoted to scientic collection, are all keeping up their
factories--shall we be behind them? Let Capital consult its interests,
and answer.
We have been induced to put the query, from a perusal of two pamphlets,
both directly bearing on this subject. The first is the _Ninth Annual
Announcement of the Polytechnic College of the State of Pennsylvania,
Session_ 1861-1862, _and Catalogue of the Officers and Students_; while
the second sets forth the Objects and Plan of an Institute of
Technology, including a Society of Arts, a Museum of Arts, and a School
of Industrial Science, proposed to be established in Boston.'[C] This
latter, it may be added, was prepared by direction of the Committee of
Associated Institutions of Science and Arts, and is addressed to
'manufacturers, merchants, agriculturists, and other friends of
enlightened industry in the commonwealth.'
The Polytechnic College of Philadelphia, now in its ninth year, is a
truly excellent institution, the practical results of which are shown in
the fact that its students, immediately on graduating, have generally
received appointments as civil and mechanical engineers, or otherwise
stepped at once into active and remunerative employment. Its object, as
we are told, is to afford to the young civil, mining, or mechanical
engineer, chemist, architect, metallurgist, or student of applied
science, every facility whereby he may perfect himself in his destined
calling. It is, in fact, a collection of technical schools, or schools
of instruction in the several departments of learned industry. It
comprises the school of mines, for professional training in
mine-engineering, in the best methods of determining the value of
mineral lands and of analyzing and manufacturing mine products. Also the
schools of civil engineering, of practical chemistry, of mechanical
engineering, architecture, general science, and agriculture. To these is
added a military department, now under superintendence of a former
instructor in West-Point, with the use of the State armory near the
college, generously granted by the State, with a supply of arms. We are
glad to say that in all these schools the instruction is thorough, not
only in theory but in actual _practice_. The course of the school of
chemistry, for instance, comprehends the principles of the science and
their actual application to agriculture, to the arts, and to analysis;
to the examination and smelting of ores; to the alloying, refining, and
working of metals; to the arts of dyeing and pottery; to the starch,
lime, and glass manufacture; to the preparation and durability of
mortars and cements; to means of disinfecting, ventilating, heating, and
lighting. Its students are also practiced in manipulations, testing in
the arts qualitative and quantitative; in analysis of minerals and
soils, and in many other important practical matters.
The students of geology and mining, of machinery and metallurgy, make,
with their professors, frequent visits to the many interesting
localities in Pennsylvania or New-Jersey, to the many large
machine-shops with which Philadelphia abounds, visit mines and furnaces,
and are in every way practically familiarized with their future
callings. Instruction in languages and literature, in drawing and in the
elements of practical law is, we believe, given in common to all. It is
the first, we may say, _unavoidable_, characteristic of a _scientific_
school, that its work is always well done. Other schools may or may not
be specious contrivances, well or ill managed; but the very nature of
science is to _clear itself_ in whatever it touches, and be honest and
practical. Its tendency is to classify and select, to cast away the
obsolete and test and adopt the new and true. Such is by no means an
exaggerated statement of the real condition of the excellent college to
which we refer, which testifies, by its success, to the excellence of
its plan and the competency of its teachers, especially to the
administrative ability of its worthy President, Dr. Alfred L. Kennedy.
It can not be denied, that for many years, radicals have inveighed
against 'Greek and Universities,' but it has been in a narrow, vulgar,
and simply destructive manner, with no provision to substitute any
thing better in their place. The growth of science, of the knowledge of
history, of culture in every branch, has, however, of late, so vastly
increased, that the proposition to reform the old system of study is
really one not to tear it down, but to build it up, to extend it and
develop it on a grand scale. Since, for example, the influence of
science has been felt in philology, how inconsiderable do the Bruncks
and Porsons of the old school, appear before the Bopps, Schlegels,
Burnoufs, and Müllers of the new! For as yet, even where here and there
in colleges a liberal and enlightened method is partially attempted,
still the old monkish spirit appears, driving away with something like a
'mystery' or 'guild' feeling the merely practical man, and interposing a
mass of 'dead vocables,' which must be learned by years of labor,
between him and the realization of an education. The young man who is to
be a miner, a cotton-spinner, an architect, or a merchant, may possibly
find here and there, at this or that college, lectures and instruction
which may aid him directly in his future career, but he soon realizes
that the general tendency and tone of the college is entirely in favor
of abstract studies quite useless out in the world, and apart from
preparation for one of 'the three professions.' He himself is as a
'marine' among the regular sailors, a surgeon among 'regular doctors,'
or as a dentist among surgeons. And this in an age when we may say that
what is not to be studied scientifically is not _worth_ studying. As our
principal object in writing these remarks has been to assert that the
Polytechnic Institute, in its either partial or entire form, should
exist entirely independent of all other influences, we might be held
excused from any mention of such scientific schools as are attached to
our Universities. That of Cambridge, Massachusetts, would, however,
deserve special mention, from the celebrity of its teachers. In this
institute, which has between seventy and eighty students, we have a
single school divided into the following departments: that of Chemistry,
under supervision of Professor Horseford, in which instruction is both
theoretical and practical; that of Zoölogy and Geology, in which the
teaching consists alternately of a course of lectures by Professor
Agassiz, on Zoology, embracing the fundamental principles of the
classification of animals as founded upon structure and embryonic
development, and illustrating their natural affinities, habits,
distribution, and the relations which exist between the living and
extinct races, and a course of geology, both theoretical and practical.
To this are added the departments of Engineering under Professor Eustis,
that of Botany, under Professor Gray, that of Comparative Anatomy and
Physiology, under Professor J. Wyman, that of Mathematics, under
Professor Peirce, and that of Mineralogy, under Professor Cooke. It is
needless to speak in praise of a school boasting men of such world-wide
names as teachers, or to commend it as affording facilities for
bestowing a sound education. We do it no injustice, however, in
asserting that its tendency is to develop students of abstract science
and teachers, while the aim of the _Polytechnic_ school proper is, in
addition to this, to supply the manufactures of the country with
_working men_, and the country at large, including those already engaged
in labor, with technological information of every kind. It should be a
vast reservoir of practical knowledge, where the man of the
'print-works,' in search of a certain dye or of a new form of machinery,
may apply, certain that all the latest discoveries will be found
registered there. It should be a place where capitalists may go as to an
intelligence-office, confident of finding there the assistants which
they may need. It should be, in fact, in every respect, an institute
simply and solely for the people, and for the development of
_manufacturing industry_. If, as we have urged, it should embrace
eventually thorough instruction in _every_ branch of knowledge, this
should be because experience shows that the most commonplace branches
require the stimulus of genius, which can only be fairly developed by
universal facilities. No young man, however practical, could have his
_Thätigkeit_ or 'available energy' other than stimulated by even an
extensive familiarity with every detail of philosophy, literature, and
art, provided that these were properly _scienced_, or taught strictly
according to their historical development.
It is, therefore, needless to say that we welcome with pleasure the plan
of An Institute of Technology, which it is proposed to establish in
Boston, and which, to judge from its excellently well prepared
prospectus, will fully meet, in every particular, all the requirements
which we have laid down as essential to a perfect Polytechnic Institute.
Indeed, the wide scope of this plan, its capacity for embracing every
subject in the range of science, and of communicating it to the public
either by publication, by free lectures, by a museum of reference, or by
collegiate instruction, leaves but little to be desired. That there is
great need of such an institution in this State is apparent from many
causes. In the words of the prospectus, we feel that in New-England, and
especially in our own Commonwealth, the time has arrived when, as we
believe, the interests of Commerce and Arts, as well as General
Education, call for the most earnest cooperation of intelligent culture
with industrial pursuits. It is no exaggeration to state that probably
no project was ever before presented to the wealthy men of Massachusetts
which appealed so earnestly to their aid or gave such fair promise of
doing good. The institute in question is one which will in every
respect, socially and mentally, elevate the business man or practical
man to a level with the college graduate or the practitioner in the
three learned professions. It will stimulate progress by still further
refining industry, and ally the action of capital to the advance of
intellect. It will perform a noble and distinguished part in the great
mission of the age and of future ages--that of vindicating the dignity
of free labor and showing that the humblest work may be rendered
high-toned and raised to a level with the calling of scholar or
diplomatist through the influence of science. If we were called on to
set forth the noble spirit of the _North_ with all its free labor and
all its glorious tendencies, we should, with whole heart and soul,
choose this magnificent conception of an institute whose aim is to
confer dignity on what the wretched and ignorant slaveocracy believe is
cursed into everlasting vulgarity. It is fitting that this practical and
eminently intelligent and progressive community should build up, on a
grand scale, an institution which will be not only eminently useful and
profitable, but serve as a culminating exponent of the great and liberal
ideas for which the North has already made in every form the most
remarkable sacrifices.
'While the vast and increasing magnitude of the industrial
interests of New-England furnishes a powerful incentive to the
establishment--within its borders of an institution devoted to
technological uses, it can not be doubted that the concentration of
these interests in so great a degree, in and around Boston, renders
the capital of the State an eligible site for such an undertaking.
Indeed, considering the peculiar genius of our busy population for
the Practical Arts, and marking their avidity in the study of
scientific facts and principles tending to explain or advance them,
we see a special and most striking fitness in the establishment of
such an Institution among them, and we gather a confident assurance
of its preëminent utility and success. Nor can we advert to the
intelligence which is so well known as guiding the large
munificence of our community, without taking encouragement in the
inception of the enterprise, and feeling the assurance, that
whatever is adapted to advance the industrial and educational
interests of the Commonwealth will receive from them the heartiest
sympathy and support.'
As we have stated, the plan proposed is to establish an Institution to
be devoted to the practical arts and sciences, to be called the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, having the triple organization of
a Society of Arts, a Museum or Conservatory of Arts, and a School of
Industrial Science and Art. Under the first of these three
divisions--that of the Society of Arts--the Institute of Technology
would form itself into a department of investigation and
publication--devoting itself in every manner to collecting and rendering
readily available to the public all such information as can in any way
aid the interests of art and industry. If our manufacturers will reflect
an instant on the vast amount of knowledge relative to their specialties
extant in the world, which they have as individuals great difficulty in
procuring, and which would be useful, but which an Institute devoted to
the purpose could furnish without difficulty, they will at once
appreciate the good which may be done by it. For many years the only
comprehensive summaries of American Manufactures were a German work by
Fleischmann, _On the Branches of American Industry_, to which was
subsequently added Whitworth and Wallis's Report--drawn up for the
British government, and Freedley's Philadelphia Manufactures--to which
we should in justice add the invaluable series of Hunt's _Merchant's
Magazine_, and the Patent Office Reports. The community needs more,
however, than books can furnish. It requires the constant accumulation
and dissemination of technological knowledge of every kind. It is
proposed in the new Institute to effect this partly by publication and
in a great measure by the labor of committees, devoted to the following
subjects:
1. _Mineral Materials_--having charge of all relating to the mineral
substances used in building and sculpture, ores, metals, coal, and in
fact, all mineral substances employed in the useful arts, as well as
what pertains to mining, quarrying, and smelting.
2. _Organic Materials_--embracing whatever is practically interesting in
all vegetable and animal substances used in manufacturing, having in
view their sources, culture, collection, commercial importance and
qualities as connected with manufacturing. This department presents a
vast field of immense importance to every merchant and importer of raw
material.
3. _On Tools and Instruments_--devoted to all the implements and
apparatus needed in all processes of manufacture.
4. _On Machinery and Motive Powers._
5. _On Textile Manufactures._
6. _On Manufactures of Wood, Leather, Paper, India-Rubber, etc._
7. _On Pottery, Glass, and Precious Metals._
8. _On Chemical Products and Processes._
9. _On Household Economy._ This department would embrace attention to
whatever relates to warming, illumination, water-supply, ventilation,
and the preparation and preservation of food, as well as the protection
of the public health.
10. _On Engineering and Architecture._
11. _On Commerce, Navigation, and Inland Transport._ This department
alone, developed in detail, and on the scale proposed, would of itself
amply repay any amount of encouragement and investment. To collect and
classify for the use of the public all available information on the
subject of shipping, the improvement of harbors, the construction of
docks, the location and efficiency of railroads, and other channels of
inland intercourse; 'keeping chiefly in view the economical questions of
trade and exchange, which give these works of mechanical and engineering
skill their high commercial value,' is a project as grand as it is
useful.
12. _On the Graphic and Fine Arts._
Of the importance of the proposed Museum of Industrial Science and Art,
it is needless to speak. It would be for the public the central feature
of the Institute, and of incalculable value not only to it, but to all
engaged in all active industry whatever.
As regards the School of Industrial Science and Art, with its divisions,
we see no occasion for material cause of difference between its
constitution and that of the excellent Polytechnic College in
Philadelphia. New departments of instruction could be added as the means
and power of the Institute increased, until it would ultimately form
what the world needs but has never yet seen--a thoroughly _scientific_
University, in which every branch of human knowledge should be _clearly_
taught on a positive basis--a school where literature and art would be
ennobled and refined by elevation from mysticism, 'rhapsody,' and
obscurity, to their true position as historical developments and indices
of human progress. We are pleased to see that in the plan proposed,
provision would be made for two classes of persons--those who enter the
school with the view of a progressive scientific training in applied
science, and the far more numerous class who may be expected to resort
to its lecture-rooms for such useful knowledge of scientific principles
as they can acquire without continually devoted study, and in hours not
occupied by active labor.
This whole plan, though in the highest degree practical, has, it will be
observed, 'no affinity with that instruction in mere _empirical routine_
which has sometimes been vaunted as the proper education for the
industrial classes'--an absurd and shallow system which has been urged
by quacks and dabblers in world-bettering, and which has been exhausted
without avail in England--the system dear to single-sided Gradgrinds and
illiterate men who grasp a twig here and there without knowing of the
existence of the trunk and roots. It lays down a perfectly scientific
and universal basis, believing that the most insignificant industry, to
be perfectly understood and pursued, must proceed from a knowledge of
the great principles of science and of all truth.
Under the charge of Professor W.B. Rogers, Messrs. Charles H. Dalton,
E.B. Bigelow, James M. Beebee, and other members of a committee
embracing some of the most public-spirited men of Boston, this plan has
been thus far matured, and now awaits the sympathy, aid, and counsel of
the friends of industrial art and general education throughout the
community. We have gladly set forth its objects and claims, trusting
that it may be fully successful here, and serve as an exemplar for the
establishment of similar institutions in every other State.
SLAVERY AND NOBILITY vs. DEMOCRACY.
Few political convulsions have hitherto transpired, which have so much
puzzled the world to get at the entire motives of the revolt, as the
present insurrection in this country. Were public opinion to be made up
from the political literature of Great Britain, or its leading journals,
very little certainty would be arrived at as to the merits or demerits
of the attempted revolution. The articles of De Bow's _Review_ smack
little more of a secession origin than the late dissertations on
American politics appearing in the British periodicals. The statements
of most of the leading English journals are quite in keeping. Any one
accustomed to the 'ear-marks' of secession phraseology and declamation
would be at little loss to identify the Southern emissary in connection
with the periodicals and press of the British islands. Hence the
hypocrisy and studied concealment of those hidden motives necessary to
be made apparent, in order to judge of the merits of secession.
The world has known that for thirty years past there has been a feverish
and jealous discontent expressed in the cotton States. It had its first
ebullition in 1832, when South-Carolina assumed the right to nullify the
revenue laws of Congress. Since that time the North has continually been
accused of an aggressive policy. Various extravagant pretenses have
from time to time been raised up by the South, and urged as causes for
dissolving the Union. They have always, until recently, been met by
forbearance and compromise.
The extension and perpetuation of slavery has been prominent as the open
motive for Southern political activity; and equally prominent as one of
the motives for dismembering the Union. There has been another project,
however, in connection with the attempted dissolution of the Union, of a
most alarming nature: that project was the intended prostration of the
democratic principle in Southern politics. While a privileged order in
government was made the basis of political ambition by the aspirants or
leading spirits, it was also to be made the means of perpetuating the
institution of slavery. Whether these adjuncts, slavery perpetuation,
and government through a privileged class, were twins of the same birth,
is not very material; but whether they existed together as the joint
motive to overthrow the national jurisdiction, involves very deeply the
present and continuing questions in American politics.
To many gentlemen of intelligence and high standing in the South, the
intended establishment of a different order of government, based on
privilege of class, has appeared to be the ruling motive. They have set
down the expressed apprehension as to the insecurity of slavery as a
hypocritical pretext for revolution; believing that the more absorbing
motive was to establish an order of nobility, either with or without
monarchy. There is some plausibility for giving the ambitious motive the
greater prominence; but a more severe analysis of the whole question
will, it is believed, place slavery perpetuation in the foreground as
the origin of all other motives for the conspiracy.