and advanced degrees for graduate students, existed in any American university. Not until 1873 was the attainment of the degree of master of arts even in Cambridge conditioned upon work done and examinations passed subsequent to the reception of the bachelor's degree. It was intended that this school, novel in name as well as in purpose, should before this time be all, and even more than all, that the sincefounded Johns Hopkins University in its graduate departments has become.

The very first public announcement made by the university relative to this department presented the following unprecedentedly broad and comprehensive prospectus:

When fully organized, the instruction presented will include all branches of knowledge adapted to the ends of a universal post-graduate school.

To qualified specialists it will aim to provide, as rapidly as resources shall permit, thorough instruction in

All cultivated languages and their literatures.

All natural and mathematical sciences.

All theological, legal, and medical studies.

All fine arts, properly so called.

All branches of special historical study, etc.

For qualified students of generalizing aims, instruction will be provided as rapidly as possible in the universal sciences. Under this term are included all those disciplines in which the matter common to several special sciences is treated as a larger whole. When this is done genetically, there results, according to the method employed, a universal or comparative history of the matter treated; when statically, a universal or comparative science of it; when philosophically, a universal or comparative philosophy of it. Here, therefore, belong such sciences as these: Universal or comparative history of languages.

Universal or comparative philology.

Universal or comparative philosophy of language, or philosophy of language universally considered.

Universal or comparative history of religions.

Universal or comparative theology.

Universal or comparative philosophy of religion, or philosophy of religion

universally considered.

Universal or comparative history of laws.

Universal or comparative jurisprudence.

Universal or comparative philosophy of law, or philosophy of law universally considered.

Universal or comparative history of societies.

Universal or comparative sociology.

Universal or comparative philosophy of society, or philosophy of society uni

versally considered.

These sciences are all of recent birth, several of them, indeed, scarcely christened; but all of them are legitimate children of the new science and new methods of the nineteenth century. Others are sure to follow.

Of course the realization of a plan so comprehensive must be the task of generations. It will require immense endowments. At the same time a good beginning has been made. Despite all losses and limitations of a financial kind, provisions have been made which have been highly appreciated by increasing numbers of graduates from scores of

American colleges. How steady the growth of the school in students has been may be seen in the following record of attendance year by year, 7, 11, 11, 23, 37, 39, 45, 53, 73, 78, 101, 102, 100, 107, 114.

Prof. John W. Lindsay was acting dean of the school from the beginning until his resignation in 1882; he was followed in the same duties by President Warren until 1887, and by Professor Sheldon in 1887-88. Since that date the dean has been Prof. Borden P. Bowne, LL. D.

In connection with the subject of the School of All Sciences, it would seem appropriate to refer to the service which the Boston University has rendered in furtherance of the establishment of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens and of an American School of Archæology in Rome. The following is taken from the president's annual report for the year 1885-86:

"The corporation of Boston University was the first body in America to discern what similar opportunities and privileges (referring to those enjoyed by Germany and France) at the ancient centers of Greek and Roman life could do for American scholarship, and to take practical measures for securing them. Though unable to found beyond the seas national schools with generous stipends for officers and students, it perceived that we could at least direct public attention to the advantages existing in those historic cities, and to the need of traveling fellowships to enable earnest and exceptionally qualified students to reach them. By direct negotiations with the authorities of the National University at Athens, and with those of the Royal University at Rome, we secured a reciprocally advantageous alliance by virtue of which we became entitled to represent those institutions annually to the American public, and to offer to the graduates of American colleges the opportunities named in the circulars of our School of All Sciences. One of the conditions of this academic reciprocity treaty' is that graduates of the Universities of Athens and Rome shall be entitled to attend without tuition charges any of the lectures and instruction presented in Boston University. As early as in the second volume of the University Year Book, the indispensableness of foreign study to every candidate for the highest chairs in the classical and modern languages, in history, in archæology, and in art, was set forth at some length, and the successful consummation of our negotiations announced.

"Of the alliance the rector of the University of Athens, a year or two later, wrote: 'We feel a deep and hearty satisfaction in the spiritual bond which unites the Universities of Boston and Athens, and prize to their fullest extent the advantages which may arise from the connection, and accordingly wish to contribute in proportion to our ability to their preservation and enlargement, by communication and interchange of intellectual advances, and of yearly statements of events.' Equally cordial and friendly were the terms in which the rector of the University of Rome expressed the good will and appreciation of his colleagues: 'We desire that our relationships may become ever more and more intimate, and that we may be able mutually to assist each other in augmenting the intellectual forces of our respective countries.'

"Only a very few years after attention had thus annually been called to the importance of archæological and related studies on the very soil of ancient Greece and Italy, and partly in consequence of this call, a number of American Hellenists united in a movement looking to the establishment of an 'American School of Classical Studies' in Athens."

1 See Twelfth Annual Report of Boston University, pp, 51, 52. Year Book, vol. xIII, p. 4.

Boston University

UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION.

From this account of the department of graduate instruction to the consideration of the status of the graduates as a body the transition is easy and natural. In few things did Boston University more radically depart from general American tradition than in its conception of graduation and in its statutes relative to its convocation. The following extract from the fourth annual report explains the conception in question: In most, if not all, American universities graduation terminates the membership of the student. Commencement day sunders not only the bond that binds him in daily association to his class, but also that which unites him to the institution itself. A triennial or quinquennial catalogue may thenceforward, as a matter of history. show that he was once a member, and that he is living or dead; but it is only as a matter of history. In the universities of Germany, where graduation is a matter of little account, and is sought by exceedingly few, the laws of the institution genetally fix a limit, for example, 5 years from the time of matriculation, when by force of the regulation the membership of the student expires.

Entirely different is the theory of membership adopted in this university. Here real membership is to begin when in the other case it ceases. Before taking his first degree the student is in an important sense a probationer. He can reach a permanent life-membership only by gaining at least one degree. If he can win his first degree, he is immediately promoted to membership in the university convocation, where through life he is effectively related to the conduct and government of the institution. Under this plan, which more resembles that of the English universities than any other, graduation is not the excision of a student from the body academic, not the disinheriting of a son by a Mater no longer alma, not the expatriation of a citizen by a local literary republic; it is promotion, a reception into fuller membership, a loading with new honors and responsibilities. The superiority of the plan over the ordinary one, its tendency to give unity and strength and commanding public influence to the university, is obvious at a glance.

The university convocation, then, consists of all persons who have received any degree or diploma of graduation from any of the schools or colleges of the university. Unlike the case of an alumni association, . membership in it is not a voluntary matter with the individual. In another important respect it differs from alumni associations, and that is that the president of the university is ex-officio president of the convocation. The body is thus no subordinate appendage or annex to the university; it is a most important, if not the most important, constituent of the university itself. It is entitled to representation in the govern ment of the institution, and is at present represented in the governing corporation by several trustees of its own nomination. Other members are found in the faculties, in the senate, and the council. As time goes on and the scholarship of the graduates matures, such representations will naturally increase in numbers and in influence. The convocation already numbers more than 2,000.1

There are multiplying indications of literary and scientific fruitfulness on the part of many members of the convocation. Just now (1888) the public is enjoying the reading of an unusually able and fair-minded historico-scientific review of the Darwinistic discussion, entitled "Evolution of To-day." H. W. Conn, PH.D.. the author of the work, is a youthful member of this convocation, having been ad

Subordinate divisions of the convocation are called chapters. Thus the graduates of the School of Theology constitute the Alpha chapter of the convocation, those of the College of Liberal Arts the Beta chapter, and so on. These meet for literary and scientific work once a month. Each of the professional schools and the College of Liberal Arts has also an alumni association which meets once a year or oftener for purposes of a more social character.

mitted to the degree of bachelor of arts as recently as 1881, and to the degree of master of arts in 1882. The ablest theological reviews in their current issues are paying high and deserved honor to Prof. Henry C. Sheldon's two-volumed work on The History of Christian Doctrine." Its author is one of our own bachelors of sacred theology, class of '71. A lately issued American volume gives, in beautiful English, original metrical versions of the famous Italian "Sonnets of Michael Angelo." To a number of them, as indication of the authorship of the translation, there are appended the two modest initials "E. C." The same, being interpreted, signify Miss Eva Channing, of the College of Liberal Arts, class of '77. From the same pen the scholarly public has previously welcomed an excellent translation of Professor Delbrück's "Introduction to Comparative Philology." The most successful of recent text-books for the study of the Hebrew is undoubtedly Dr. H. G. Mitchell's "Hebrew Lessons," and Professor Mitchell, now in the service of the university, is an alumnus, class of '76. One of the most valued collaborateurs upon the Boston review which bears the name "Education" is Miss Marion Talbot, of the class of '80, College of Liberal Arts. Critics of varions church affiliations speak in high terms of a late work entitled "Hymn Studies." It is from the pen of Rev. C. S. Nutter, class of '71, School of Theology. In the Peabody Museum of Ethnology at Cambridge, Miss Cordelia A. Studley, M. D., now deceased, accomplished scientific work which found appreciative mention in European periodicals. She was a graduate of our School of Medicine, class of '76.

Several of our law-school classes can already show more than one author of recognized worth. Thus the class of '75 presents us with at least two: Mr. John M. Gould, author of a standard treatise on "The Law of Waters," and Mr. George F. Tucker, author of a useful manual on "The Law of Wills." In the class of '76 may be noticed Mr. Edmund P. Dole, who has now passing through the press a book entitled "Talks about Law," and Mr. William V. Kellen, who has published a very acceptable "Index-Digest to the Massachusetts Decisions from the Beginning to the Present Time." Of the class of '78 Mr. George W. McConnell has written a valuable treatise on the "Law of Trustee Process;" Mr. George R. Swasey has edited "Benjamin on Sales;" and Mr. Francis L. Wellman, in the "American Law Review," has published an article on "Legal Education" which has attracted wide attention. The class of '79 is represented by Mr. Wayland E. Benjamin, who has brought out a highly esteemed edition of "Chalmers on Bills and Notes." For '80 Mr. Eugene L. Buffinton may answer, he having prepared and printed the first volume of the "Boston University Reports," and being now at work upon the second. Not to be behind her brothers in authorship, Miss Robinson, of the class of '81, is carrying through the press an octavo of 600 pages, entitled "Law made Easy: A Book for the People." Even a student who was a member of the school as late as 3 years ago, Mr. Elisha Greenhood, has just brought out a large volume treating of "The Law of Contracts-againstPublic-Policy." Evidently our School of Law is training writers as well as pleaders. Time would fail me, were I to allude ever so briefly to the literary work of the older and younger theological graduates who have made important contributions to the future bibliography of the university, several of them in languages other than their own.

FINANCES OF THE UNIVERSITY.

The chief of the deceased benefactors of Boston University have been Isaac Rich, Jacob Sleeper, and Lee Claflin. The founding of the institution first became possible by the decision of Mr. Rich to devote to this purpose the bulk of his estate. On his decease, January 13, 1872, it was found that by the terms of his will private bequests to the amount of $23,000 were to be paid from his estate, together with life annuities to the amount of $3,000 per annum; and that at the end of 10 years the whole remaining property, together with its accumulations, was to be made over to the trustees of Boston University. The trustees under the will were also directed to pay to the university, 3 years from his decease, the sum of $10,000; 2 years later the sum of $20,000, and 2 years after that $30,000. The estimated value of the estate after its settlement was over $1,000,000.

The Hon. Jacob Sleeper, in whose honor the hall of the College of Liberal Arts is named, gave at different times property valued at more than a quarter of a million dollars.

The great fire of 1872 laid in ashes nearly every building in which the Rich estate was invested, while the panic which followed so nearly destroyed the marketable value of other investments that new buildings could be erected only by mortgaging. In this way a staggering blow was inflicted upon the infant institution-a blow the more serious as it disabled so generally all who would gladly have rallied to its sup port. Fortunately, however, courageous and able men were at the head of its affairs, and by prudence and good management the crisis was safely passed. Few large gifts have been received, yet so skillfully has the property been administered that for every year which has elapsed since the present fiscal year was established the treasurer's report has shown a gain of assets.

The following table, exhibiting these gains, is one well worthy of per manent historic record:

PRESIDENT WILLIAM F. WARREN.

Boston University is largely the creation of a single individual. To establish and endow it there was certainly need of the founders' money, but a greater need than this was to place at its head a man of broad