whose devotion and unselfish service have embodied the very spirit of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

In the College itself, this autumn has seen a striking illustration of the manner in which an addition to its resources in brick and mortar, seemingly most apart from its daily use, can be made serviceable to the material needs and to the higher culture of the great body of students. The grand present Memorial Hall (whose dedication is alluded to by Dr. Bellows in his sermon in this number of "The Review"), reared to commemorate the sons of Harvard who died for their country, and filled with the most impressive memorials of them and of the worthies of former generations, is opened for use as a dining hall by the students, under suitable regulations. It is impossible to estimate too highly the influence which must proceed to successive college generations from the constant association with such inspiring objects, appealing so persuadingly to the sense of honor and duty, in what is probably the most stately building of the kind in the world. Perhaps it is not too much to say that this is the greatest step which has yet been taken toward supplying exactly that element of culture which has hitherto been lacking in the training of American students, the education of the sentiment of historic continuity, by quickening the tradition of intellectual and moral ancestry.

And the great boon of all this is, that it is American, in the sense that it is absolutely open to the poorest as well as the richest youth. The mistake is sometimes made of supposing that Harvard College is a sort of aristocratic nursery, and that young men of scanty means are not welcome there. If this were so, the loss to the future of the College itself would be irreparable; for, as the President of the College recently said well, "No institution of high instruction can afford to lose the young men who have nothing in the world to depend upon but their intelligence, determination, and ambition." The fact is, however, that there is probably not another institution of learning in the land where so many inducements are held out to youth of such a kind to share its privileges. Besides the advantages which only a great and ancient university can offer, in the ability and number of its corps of teachers, and in its libraries and collections, as well as in the indefinable aroma of intellectual life which is in the very air of an institution of

learning having a grand history, there are now so many scholarships awarded for merit alone (to say nothing of the loan funds that are available for needy students), that no young man of good abilities and good character, whatever his bareness of pecuniary resources, need doubt his power to work his way through Cambridge.

Of course, in a great college there are always many rich men's sons who will carry out in college life the free habits of expenditure which they learn at home. It would hardly be expedient to forbid their coming, simply because their fathers are well off, provided they do not misconduct themselves. The number of wealthy families in the country has immensely increased within a few years; and, in such, to send a son to college is a natural and laudable effort toward the culture which money alone cannot bring. But still in all our colleges, probably, the number of young men from families of moderate means increases in as great a proportion; and as a fact, Harvard, at any rate, is filled with the sons of what would be denominated in England "the middle class." And if they have some examples of lavish spending and luxurious living before their eyes to tempt them, it is only what they will have in the great world outside. The college is as good a place as any in which to begin to learn the wholesome lesson of independence and self-respect; and there is no community in the world in which these qualities under a plain coat are surer to win respect than in the microcosm of college life.

The best answer to the theory that Cambridge of necessity fosters expensive habits in the students, is to be found in the actual facts of the case; and we have been at the pains to obtain from the best authority an exact statement of the necessary expenditures of a Harvard undergraduate, who wishes to live as simply as possible, and yet with comfort. He can live, then, in a Room, with a chum, in Hollis or Stoughton Hall, or the College House,

$30.00

Board in the Commons at Memorial Hall, 38 weeks (the College

year), $4 00 per week,

The College bill for tuition, &c.,

152 00

150 00

Light, if he burns a kerosene student-lamp, will cost,

5 00

Coal, and wood (half of the fire), 4 tons at $8.00, and 4 feet of

To these necessary expenses must be added the cost of clothes and traveling expenses in summer journeys, &c., which are purely voluntary expenditures, determined by the means, taste, and sense of the individual. The vacations may be spent in cheap ways, if not, as many do spend them, in earning money. A small additional item of expense is in the assessments for college clubs, most of which are very small, as their rooms are occupied rent free by the leading societies, as the Institute of 1770, the Natural History Society, the Everett Athenæum, the Hasty-Pudding Club, and the religious societies of the Liberal Union and the Christian Brethren. It is safe to say that scores of students do not spend as much as six hundred dollars a year. And if it still be objected that this life costs more than it does in smaller colleges, or than it did in Cambridge a generation ago, it is safe to answer that it costs more because it is worth more, in the opportunities of broad and generous intellectual training, and not less, certainly, in those of training in character. It is the classes which grew up under the influences of but a few years ago which sent from a third to a half of their number to our war, and filled the chief part of the pages of the Harvard Memorial Biographies with their grand story of valor and self-sacrifice.

The best answer, too, it seems to us, which can be made to much of the loose talk which is frequently heard nowadays in favor of what is called "a national university," is to be found in considering the conditions under which the really strong universities in this country, Harvard and Yale, have risen to their eminence as a part of the historic life of the land, taught by generations of men who have grown up in them and feel a filial pride in their success, and with their business affairs administered by careful men who for generations have been appointed to the trust solely because of their fitness for it. The contrast is certainly not inspiring, which is presented to this picture by the vision of an institution organized to imitate the state establishment of Berlin, for example, but which must be administered by a government lacking all the characteristics which qualify the Germans for that work, and especially lacking the characteristics of permanence and culture. When our civil service is purged and made decent, it will be time enough to consider the fitness of our political lead

ers to organize what is far more difficult, a great national institution of learning. Just at present it seems to be a peculiarly unsuitable time for urging such a plan, in view of the emphatic condemnation which the people of this country have recently pronounced upon the men who would at any time within the last ten years have had the ordering of such an institution.

OF THINGS AT HOME.

The Universalist-Unitarian Conference at the West is quite a marked event in the history of the two denominations, and we trust it will be followed up by an increased good-will and fellowship on the part of both. "The Liberal Worker," a new paper started in Wisconsin for the purpose of promoting religious unity, has given very interesting reports of the Conference, which our readers have probably seen.

We are glad to see that our own religious papers are taking up the cause of the Indians, by desiring to aid in sending out a delegation to confer with them. Our friends of "The Index," we believe, were among the first to herald the public meeting which took place; and perhaps it is owing to their movements that women were put on the committee as well as men, for which step we feel grateful, both as an indication of the sign of the times, and also for the practical advantage which we think will arise from the working of both sexes upon the mind of the Indian.

The different denominations are undoubtedly each doing their work, but their operations are not combined, their influence is local, and we need some general demonstration which shall represent the moral force of the entire country, and the determination on the part of the community that a stop shall be put to the incessant inroads of the gold-seekers upon soil solemnly set apart for the Indian by the United States government. The insatiable grasp of civilization also comes nearer and nearer to the poor savage, but it comes often to "destroy and not fulfill," through the greed of low-minded adventurers, who hold the life of an Indian no better than that of a dog. The white settlers, too, on the borders of Kansas, we regret to hear, are reckless and revengeful in killing their poor neighbors at the least provocation. We

trust this delegation carries with it the good will of all the best minds among us, and also a generous contribution of money to defray the necessary expenses.. "The Index" gives us a valuable letter from Mr. G. W. Conway, late superintendent of education in Louisiana. The letter, we believe, first appeared in "The Tribune." It is interesting to hear from one, on the vexed question of schools at the South, who has had experience there, and who does not appear to be under any determined bias or theory at the outset. He was evidently studying into the question, looking at causes, comparing results, and verifying his conclusions by actual observations, gathered from his every day experience. He comes to the opinion that political prejudices are at the bottom of all the bitter oppositions to schools containing both black and white children. The opponents of the Civil-Rights Bill cannot point to a single instance of schools being failures on account of their receiving children of both colors. In Louisiana, where the question has been well tested from 1868 to 1872, no one could affirm that the experiment was not successful, as Mr. Conway could prove during the period of his own supervision of schools. He goes on to narrate a little of his experience in a manner which ought to convince any fair-minded person that the writer is honest, candid, and desirous of getting at the real truth. We quote a portion of his letter:

"When the question was boiled down to a very nice point, and when I was carefully reflecting as to the wisdom of excluding any of the colored applicants to our schools because of their color, I must confess that it was a serious matter; the more so for this reason: Admitting, for argument's sake, that a black child might better be excluded from a white school, what was I to do with children who were half white and half black? Again, what was to be done with those applicants who were three-quarters white and one-quarter black? Again, thinking of the future, I said, 'If I exclude these children now, then I help put upon them and their posterity a brand of disgrace which has its birth in wrong, which is at war with the spirit of equality that inspired the makers of the Declaration of Independence, and, above all, one so utterly in conflict with the spirit and teachings of Christianity as to render me unworthy of my opportunities and responsibilities, and deserving only of the contempt of all just men if I were guilty of it.' With these thoughts and feelings I issued an order, through the newspapers, to the effect that from a certain date all the public schools should be open to the children of the various districts, regardless of race, color, or previous condition.