In the April Century appeared an editorial discussing the need of a great metropolitan university which should be to the city of New York what Harvard is to Boston, Yale to New Haven, and Johns Hopkins to Baltimore. Although there are many colleges in New York, more or less fully equipped, not one of these can lay claim to the title of a great university. Feeling this need, the friends of higher education are anxious, if possible, to lay the foundations of a future university, of which New York may well be proud.

As Columbia, with its associate schools, is undoubtedly the most prominent and influencial seat of learning in New York, the question naturally arises whether this institution might not serve as a nucleus for the future university. A school of political science has recently been established there under the direction of a competent professor, and steps have already been taken towards establishing a school of modern languages, in which extensive facilities will be offered for linguistic and literary study. But in many directions, especially in scientific work, in chemistry and geology and in the school of arts, the instruction is limited. The true friends of the college fear, however, that it does not possess sufficient elasticity and progressive vitality to expand into a great university, responsive to every need of the age, and especially they fear the conservatism of its trustees who do not seem to sympathize with the great intellectual movements of the present century.

If this fear is well founded, it is thought, before many years have passed, "the college will be superseded by all institution which will be in closer sympathy with the scientific tendencies of modern life," for the public have come to the opinion that it is certainly a narrow policy "to devote time to drilling men in the writing of Greek verse, while leaving them in ignorance of the anatomy and physiology of their own bodies."

This project has occasioned considerable comment in many of the New York papers. The N. Y. Times says in regard to the financial aid required: "If local pride still counts for anything with the rich men of New York, substantial benefactions from some who are not specially distinguished as patrons of education may be expected," and their assistance together with the support which will undoubtedly be forthcoming from those especially interested, will make the difficulty of raising an endowment of $4,000,000 much less than was at first expected. This subject is also discussed in the N. Y. Post, which says that one great advantage for having the proposed national university located in New York is because New York has a greater number and variety of public institutions, such as hospitals, museums and collections of all sorts, which must serve as aids to a university, than any other place in the country, and that as to the cost of living, the larger a city the easier it is for anybody to live as he pleases unobserved, and the greater the constituency which the university will find on the spot.

The theory that New York is rapidly becoming the exclusive centre of the country for literature and education is a favorite one with the New York press. It is hardly to be feared, however, that Harvard will be immediately superseded and relegated to the second class as a provincial university.