About thirty years since, the strongest man who has ever stood in an American college presidency made an effort in the same direction. Francis Wayland knew what there was of good in the old scholarship and was loyal to it, but he saw that new times make new demands, and he planned out and endeavored to work out a system of education which should meet these demands. All to no purpose. It was the old, old story—another great man, with his great idea, as Carlyle phrases it, "trampled under the hoofs of jackasses," or, as Wayland himself phrased it more mildly, "nibbled to death by ducks."
Various minor attempts were made—some of them, like Eaton's noble effort at Troy, very fruitful; but no general plan, no large institution was created worthy of the great interest involved.
About five years later, Mr. Lawrence, of Massachusetts, a thoughtful manufacturer, made another attempt. He saw the necessity of education bearing on the great industries of the country, and made to Harvard College what in those days was called a princely gift. Thus was founded the "Lawrence Scientific School," at Cambridge, and thus did industrial studies get their first foothold in a great university.
About five years later still, Mr. Sheffield, of Connecticut, also a thoughtful business-man, recognized this great necessity. By a generous donation he founded the "Sheffield Scientific School" at Yale College, and thus these studies got foothold at a second great university.
So much, then, was gained. Some few of the studies bearing on the great modern industries had been taken under the care of great university corporations; but there was one drawback. In neither of these universities were the new studies received into full fellowship with the old. The Scientific School was kept very distinct from the "College proper." Buildings, courses, and studies, were kept well apart; the student in the sciences was not considered the equal of the student in "the classics." The student preparing for an industrial profession was not considered as of the same caste with the student preparing for a "learned profession." He lived in a different building, had lectures and recitations in different rooms, was instructed by different professors, was graduated at a different time and place. He was not considered as properly of the graduating class of his year. Ask any Yale or Harvard man for the names of his classmates, and it never occurs to him to mention the graduates of his year from the scientific departments. Nay, whether it was that young men taking scientific studies were considered as ipso facto lost souls, or as having no souls to be saved at all, they were not admitted to the students' seats at the college chapel—they were practically held as of an inferior order.
The next step was made at the State University of Michigan. Here, for the first time in a university, a student in general or industrial science was admitted to full equality with a student in classics.
