THE HESPERIAN.
let our frats consider the interests of the University,
and let us enter the state contest with man that will
win.
LITERARY.
The "good old times" have furnished, and perhaps al
ways will furnish a pleasant theme for those who love to con
trast the hazy outlines of the past with the hard realities of
the present. The institutions of the past, however inadequate
for the bettering of humanity; the customs of bygone ages,
however degrading they may have been, acquire in the
course of centuries a certain romantic charm which age alone
can give them, and which no amount of human reasoning can
divest them of. This Tcvcrence for the past is universal.
It leads nations in their age to regard with fondness the crude
experience of their youth. Yet more, it causes the man of
four score to lament the innovations his lifetime has witnessed
and brings instructively to his lips the complaint, uttered
sometimes with an assumption of ill concealed superiority,
but oftcner with mourniul regret, "things are not as they
weic when I was young."
The Nineteenth century is noted for the advance it has
witnessed in all departments f activity. It is therefore not
remarkable if the rapidly moving tide of improvement has
left stranded many a one for whom innovation came too fast.
In the industrial world the last hundred years has seen a re
markable revolution. It has seen multitudes of workmen,
hitherto living apart from each other, brought into great es
tablishments, where each has been assigned a task different
from the others the labor of all being utilised in the com
pletion of a single finished product. From this concentration
of industry products have resulted greater in quantity and
better in quality than before. Were this the only result of
this industrial revolution, men could find no fault with it;
for it has'marvelously bettered the means of supplying human
wants. But it is unnecessary to say, there are objections to
be brought against the new order of things, and the evil ef
fect on the individual workmen, caused in great part by lack
of the former diversity of occupation, is not the least worthy
of attention.
In the educational world, on the other hand, essentially
the same revolution has been fleeted. Repeatedly the daily
press is called upon to deplore the death of some Professor
, who had been in his latter days "one of the few surviv
ing representatives of the culture of the age which preceded
the present highly specialists era." Indeed, the tendency
in fvery branch of learning ib luwnrd specialization. The
time is perhaps not far distant when each line of study will
be pursued in its own institution. But against this tendency,
in the educational as in the industrial world, objections are
offered. Here, as in manual labor, the total product, if one
may so style it, is increased and is of better quality, with
out peradventure. But it is alleged that specialization in the
educational field as in the industrial field is detrimental to
the harmoniuns development of the faculties of the in
dividual worker.
This objection appears plausible on its fare. And many
enamored of everything that savors of the past, readily assent
to any statement not absolutely puerile that justifies going on
inlhe beaten track. But it is true that the specialist of today
is less liberally educated than his ominscicnt predecessors?
Are specialists less practital men of the -world than they
should be? ! ':
Specialism and specialists come by a natural process of
development. When in primitive times the bulk of learning
is very small it is conceivable that one master mind may
grasp the essentials of all human knowledge. But the aggre
gate of knowledge is vastly increased in every century, and
it is soon physically as well as intellectually impossible for
any one man to cover the whole field. And in the present
age, when mankind in Europe and America has attained such
a high degree of culture, when, moreover, almost every moot
ed point in history, in language, and in natural science, has
its own special literture, thorough acquaintance with any one
of these subjects is the reward only of a lifetime of assiduous
toil. Hence it is manifestly proper to declare that if the future
is to be intellectually as advanced as the present, there must
be specialists, must be division of labor in the educational
world, just as of necessity it exists in the industrial.
The specialist is said to be in danger of becoming narrow
in his views by reason of his absorption in his special line of
work. But on comparing specialists with those who vaunt
their smattering acquaintance with manifold, widely distin
guished subjects, it will be apparent, the writer takes it, that
the evil of narrow-mindedness in specialists is much more
formidable in appearance than in reality. In the first place,
all specialists are or should be deeply engrossed in their
work, and should be untiring in their investigations. For
they have at best an arduous task to perform, one which or
dinarily will not bring so much applause from the populace
as did the work of the ecclesiastical scholars of former times,
whose hours were chiefly spent in sloth or in parading their
celestial qualities and intellectual acquisitions before a rev
erent, awe struck world. Furthermore, any special line of
investigation, if worthy of being pursued at all, usually bears
more or less directly on some phase of actual life. It is,
again, to be noted that the increase in the number of
specialists has gone hand in hand with the abandoi.ment of
a priori methods, for careful investigation of actual facts.
If one would seek today for those who are advancing all
branches of learning, and bringing them more into accord
with practical utility, one will find them onlv in thr rnnks
of those who have not been frittering away their time on a
thousand and one topics, but have concentrated their efforts
on a lew closely related subjects.
But it is alleged that in certain lines of research special
ization is being carried too far; that there is a noticeable lack
of those capable of grouping great masses of fact in continuous
narrative; that, to take a specific illustration, history is be
coming too microscopical. This may be true. But is it not
necessary that minute work be done before a comprehensive
treatment is attempted? Tt is certain that the cuiiipicliemtv
treatment when effected will not suffer, if the author is mas
ter of his materials, from the merciless dissection to which
the subject matter has been exposed.
Specialization, then, is imperative if the bounds of knowl
edge are to be extended. While it may be carried too far,
and in consequence waste force on trivial matters, its general
effect has not been to narrow the minds of men or to make
them oblivious to their duty as citizens. Hence the conclu
sion is in the main justified, that the evils resulting from
specialization arc much more than offset by the attendant
good effects.
In the "Sub Rosa" column of the Omaha ExctJdor, No
vember a, 1890, appears the following remarkable item:
"The jawbone of a young man eating shark, which has been
exhibited with all its eight rows of teeth in the window of
this office this week, has attracted a constant crowd." At
