only refused absolutely, and with rare wisdom, to make any concessions of principle to the business office of the Evening Post, but even declined to encourage a perfectly correct coöperation between the two departments, which might often have resulted in the paper's material advance. In latter years he was also very little interested in the young men of the staff, to many of whom he was known only by sight. He did insist upon the upholding of the standards of the paper in the matter of typography and the English used in all departments, but he was not a newspaper man in the sense that he was concerned with the news value of the Evening Post. With the future of the paper after his retirement from it he also never concerned himself. Having an unusually able staff of editorial writers around him, it did not matter to him that they were growing old with himself, and that there must be extensive changes in the natural order of events. While he did more than any other editor of the Evening Post to make that newspaper one of New York's institutions, he did not, on the other hand, develop the institutional spirit within the office. But if the younger men of the staff were excluded from the enjoyment of his delightful wit and satire, and positive genius for characterization, the editorial staff enjoyed them to the brim. The daily editorial council, over which he presided, was in itself an inspiration; and if those who believed him to be sour and pessimistic could but once have had the privilege of attending this gathering, they would speedily have realized how loyal to American life Mr. Godkin was, and how thoroughly he believed in the unlimited possibilities of this Republic. He used to repeat with the greatest enjoyment a story that once went the rounds of the press, to the effect that when he called his staff together for the morning consultation, he opened the proceedings by making them sing "God save the Queen." But this story amused the staff even more, because they had daily and hourly evidence of Mr. Godkin's desire to be of service to the United States and to keep it true to its highest and best ideals. No other thought or motive ever dictated a single line of his writing. His own journalistic sailing orders he phrased in a letter he wrote to a friend on May 9, 1897, when he said:

"I beg of you to use what influence you have now, not for the promotion any longer of the virtues of pity, humanity, sympathy, generosity, and so forth-for of these we have an abundance-but for the promotion of the habit of thinking clearly about politics, of looking disagreeable facts sternly in the face, of legislating not as if men were lumps of clay that a Congressional Committee can fashion at its pleasure, but for men as we find them with their passions, prejudices, hates, loves, and defects of all sorts. We are saying this every day to the English about the Irish; ought we not apply the lesson to the work before us?"

Herein is explained the whole theory upon which he worked. To the end of his career Mr. Godkin's humor never left him. It is undeniable that in later years he lost something of his faith in the ultimate success of democratic institutions. The war with Spain, the conquest of the Philippines, the set-backs to divers dear causes because of the degeneracy of the Democratic party,these and other things tried him sorely, and as ill health came steadily upon him he lacked the physical vigor to shake off their depressing effect. Yet to those who were close to him nothing was harder to bear than the allegations of cynicism and pessimism which were hurled at him in the last years of his life. To them the charge was as preposterous as the earlier charges that he was at heart a British spy and took Cobden Club gold. As a matter of fact, it was always so hard for his opponents to make personal insinuations against him that they snapped at anything that offered itself. Mr. Godkin was not only unpurchasable in the ordinary sense, but he was unapproachable along the lines which are often successful with other journalists whose characters have been less well grounded. Thus, he never sought or accepted a paid political office, but showed his constructive abilities while acting with Everett P. Wheeler and E. Randolph Robinson as Civil Service Commissioner of New York City. They reorganized the entire service with marked and lasting success, and throughout Mr. Godkin showed that he possessed the constructive ability characteristic of the statesman. Mr. Godkin was also not to be influenced by financial friendships or social attentions. Social ambitions he had none. Enjoying as he did the friendship of the men who stood intellectually foremost in his time, he delighted to ridicule the pretensions of the vulgar crowd who, by reason of wealth or ancient lineage, strove to make themselves an aristocracy in a democratic community.

From friends of the type of Lowell, the Jameses, Howells, George William Curtis, Carl Schurz and a host of others, Mr. Godkin received ample recognition for his devoted civic labors in incessant battling as austere moralist and idealistic reformer. Personal tributes of all kinds came to him during his lifetime. One of the best of them is that of Professor William James, of Harvard, since it sums up in a sentence the range of Mr. Godkin's influence:

"To my generation, his was certainly the towering influence in all thought concerning public affairs, and indirectly his influence has certainly been more pervasive than that of any other writer of the generation, for he influenced other writers who never quoted him, and determined the whole current of discussion."

To this it need only be added that no one ever read a word of Mr. Godkin's which did not make for good and for the uplifting of mankind. To no narrow, or selfish, or bigoted, or prejudiced political doctrine or sentiment did he ever lend the weight of his unsurpassed editorial pen.

Some Recent Notable Books on Education

BY EDWIN MIMS,

Professor of English Literature in Trinity College

Dean Briggs, of Harvard, closes the preface to his excellent book entitled "School, College, and Character" with the significant words: "One thing is certain: he who writes nonsense about education is in excellent company." And still they write: besides. reports and mere technical discussions by educational experts, there are constantly appearing books of a more popular nature. Out of much talk-much of it futile, perhaps there comes now and then a word of wisdom; and from many books one can catch the drift of educational theory and practice. It is little wonder that there is so much discussion, for the issues involved in education are vast. As Dean West says, the subject of American collegiate education is one "which will not only bear discussion, but plainly is one which has got to be discussed"-"so serious, so inspiring, so necessary is the course of the American college." The most noteworthy general note that runs through recent books and articles is a reactionary spirit in the presence of certain extreme tendencies of educational progress.

America for the past generation has been seriously at work upon a great common school system, the development of the high school, and the improvement and enrichment of college and university-all of these gradually being brought into a more perfectly regulated system, a more harmonious plan. This movement has gone far enough to enable us to see certain definite results. When President Gilman retired from the presidency of Johns Hopkins University and President White from that of Cornell University, an era in the history of American universities may be said to have closed. Although President Eliot and President Angell are still engaged in active work, we may now see the results of nearly forty years of active service for their own institutions and for others. These four university presidents will always be identified in the popular mind with a great historical movement-the development of the elective system, the promotion of graduate work, the maintenance of high standards of admission and graduation, the correlation of an educational system, the larger atmos

phere of freedom and tolerance that now prevails in American institutions. In President White's "Autobiography,” in the "Launching of a University" by President Gilman, and in the reports, articles and books of President Eliot one may find an invaluable record of the marvelous achievements of the past generation.

There is a certain glow of enthusiasm in President White's account of his dreams and final achievement of establishing a great university. "At Berlin," he says, "I saw my ideal of a university not only realized, but extended and glorified—with renowned professors, with ample lecture halls, with everything possible in the way of illustrated material, with laboratories and museums, and a concourse of youth from all parts of the world. . . . Gradually I began to ask myself the question: 'Why not help the beginning of this system in the United States?'" The benefaction of Ezra Cornell gave him the opportunity he dreamed of, and his own zeal and patience in the face of great opposition are the heritage of all Americans. Dr. Gilman, who as a young man was unable to find any satisfactory graduate work in the large colleges of this country, found in the projected Johns Hopkins University a chance to realize his own ideal of a university; he gathered about him a band of scholars and students whose enthusiasm for research and study was felt throughout the country. President Angell did more than any one else, perhaps, to promote the development of the great state universities of the West. And more than any of these, President Eliot, with the resources and prestige of a great university at his command, worked out in detail the organization of Harvard, and with statesmanlike grasp of educational conditions has wielded an enormous influence throughout the country. Of his life and work no finer study has been made than that by President Hyde in his chapter on "A Great College President."*

As a result of the building up of their respective institutions and their general influence on others, there has come about a marked readjustment of our educational system. Where there was confusion, there is now order. In the establishment of the General Education Board with the vast resources at its command,

*The College Man and the College Woman. By William DeWitt Hyde. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1906.