TRUE FUNCTIONS OF A UNIVERSITY.

The Cornell Era quotes from an address delivered before Havard Alumni in 1866 on the subject of "University Functions," words that can well bear repetition: "An indispensable condition of intellectual growth is liberty. Give the student, first of all, opportunity; tempt him with the best of teachers; lead him to the fountains of intellectual life. His use of these fountains must depend on himself. If, beside opportunity, the college can furnish also the inspiration which shall make opportunity precious and fruitful, its work is accomplished. The college that fulfils these two conditions - opportunity and inspiration - will be a success, will draw to itself the frequency of youth, the patronage of wealth, the consensus of all the good. Nothing is so fatal to inspiration as excessive legislation. It creates two parties, the governors and the governed, with efforts mutually opposed; the governors seeking to establish an artificial order, the governed bent on maintaining their natural liberty. Professors should not be responsible for the manners of students beyond the legitimate operation of their personal influence. Academic jurisdiction should have no criminal code, should inflict no penalty but that of expulsion, and that only in the way of self-defence against positively noxious and dangerous members."