the compass of twenty pages. And yet, .without passing upon the merits of the controversy, regarding the excess of arithmetic in the grades, we find something like four years of higher mathematics still maintained as an absolute requirement for any college degree whatever, either liberal or technical.

Once let the public come to realize that mathematics has its place in our curricula purely as a culture study, and our mathematical friends will be put quite as much on the defensive as the classical men have been in the past.

For drill in close, consecutive, exacting thinking, the languages and mathematics stand together, with advantages at some points in favor of the one side, at others, in favor of the other; whereas, in the character of the discipline, the advantage is in favor of the languages. Each, however, supplements the other, and both are needed. The mathematics, in inculcating exact reasoning, afford an invaluable training in the application of inexorable law, where one has present all the factors, and by their accurate application arrives at a result with absolute certainty. But unfortunately, we are not able to apply the principles of exact reasoning to many of the problems of life. In most results some of the factors are hidden. Others are opposed to each other, and their relative strength has to be estimated. This involves what we call probable reasoning, and it is this sort of reasoning that is required in language study, in common with the laboratory sciences.

There is a popular belief that the ancient languages have no practical value, and are studied solely for discipline. But, in fact, with the exception of English, they are the most utilitarian of all the subjects pursued in high school and college, for the reason that they have to do directly with language and thought, with interpretation and expression. Chemistry is directly utilitarian for the few who devote their lives to some of its practical applications. Similarly, other subjects are of immediate utility within narrow circles. To the average man a knowledge of the family history of the polliwog is less valuable than that of the human family. A liberal education, so far as utilities are concerned, should have to do with that which touches the common experience of us all, and this applies in a superlative degree to language study.

The value of language study for purposes of etymology and nomenclature is generally conceded. But the fact is not so well appreciated that the very genius and spirit of language can be grasped only by comparative study. The study of any foreign language contributes to this, but an ancient language far more than a modern, for the reason that an antecedent or parent language would naturally be more illumining than a parallel language. Another reason is that an ancient language is more foreign. A modern language is so similar that it is taken up and learned in very much the same way as we learned our own language, the chief difference being that the book and dictionary play a larger part. An ancient language, owing to its highly inflected character, we are compelled to approach in an entirely different way, and in the mastery of its rigid laws of structure we are usually brought for the first time really to appreciate the underlying principles of our own language, and of language in general. The etymological value is greater, also. Words come to have an atmosphere, and one acquires a feeling for their value, and incidentally a range and command of synonyms that nothing else gives.

Power of interpretation and expression is now being recognized as the most urgent demand upon the secondary school and college. The demands of the college upon the high school have been everywhere met by additional years of English and better methods of instruction. But foreign language, in particular Latin, must be relied upon as an indispensable ally. Every sentence studied and recited in Latin, if properly taught, is an exacting drill in both interpretation and expression, and this alone, though the least appreciated of its advantages, vindicates its claim to stand side by side with English in its close relation to the demands of everyday life.

There is the additional consideration that the student of the classic languages is dealing with the life and thought, the history and religion, the literature and art of a people by whom the world has been mightily modified. For this reason they take rank with the other humanistic studies.

An incalculable advantage, which the highly inflected languages share with mathematics, as disciplinary studies, is

in the fact that the teacher can gauge his results with absolute certainty. A bright boy cannot cover up a failure in preparation by a clever turn in the topic under discussion, as is so often the case in other subjects.

The language question has been discussed in this paper at what may seem disproportionate length, because this has been, and still continues to be, the storm center in the controversy. It is about the only point where there is radical disagreement. Indeed, even here the doctors all agree that the medicine is good for the boy, but some maintain that he should not be made to take it if he does not like the taste.

The trend in college circles thus far has been decidedly toward freedom in the choice of studies. There is a marked tendency at the present time, however, to provide very careful restrictions against the absolutely desultory choice of studies, such as is possible at Harvard and Cornell. These restrictions take different forms at different institutions. The group system has come into great favor, and on the whole offers the simplest solution of the question. It is attractive to the student, and at the same time provides a means of meeting the three requisites in a course of study. For in the first place, each group is made to contain the set of constants which the college regards indispensable to a liberal education. Secondly, each group contains a set of closely related studies calling for an amount and intensity of application sufficient to insure a substantial training and to ground the student fairly well in a given field of study, thus furnishing at once a basis for future study and an impulse toward keeping the student habit after graduation. Thirdly, it provides the maximum of privilege in election, for the student regards the election of the group as great a privilege almost as the choice of individual studies, while instead of being encouraged to dissipation of energy, he is moored to a definite course with a specific goal in view. Then in addition to the choice of a group, the scheme still provides for a considerable number of free electives.

The constants should be of such character as to secure symmetry and breadth of culture, and should provide some instruction in each of the three fields into which the various studies

are coming to be grouped, with careful provision always for training in English.

There is substantial advantage in postponing the choice of a group till the sophomore year, as the reponsibility is thereby postponed till a time when the student is far more capable of choosing wisely. By requiring the student to pursue in the first year studies chosen from the constants belonging to all groups, this postponement would not really abridge the elective privilege. Furthermore, it should be made easy to change groups if the student finds he has not chosen wisely. The change will only involve counting the required studies already taken in the abandoned group as free electives in the new one.

A principle has been adopted at Yale that has the merit of securing continuity between the preparatory school and college. The student is required in his freshman year to choose three of his four studies in subjects he has presented for entrance. If he presents Greek as a preparatory subject, he must continue it in the freshman year. If he presents solid geometry and trigonometry, he must continue his mathematics, and so with the modern language offered.

The same institution has a modification of the group system that has decided merit. The entire list of courses offered is broadly classified under three departments, the first consisting of languages, the second of mathematics and sciences, and the third of philosophy and history. The student is required to complete two major and three minor units before graduation, and not more than two of these five units may be in one department. This provision compels the student to take some work in each department. These requirements cover only about half the course, leaving the rest for free election.

As stated earlier in this paper, the elective question has a bearing upon professional courses. The demand for a shortening of the time of preparation for a profession is insistent, and the college and professional school must combine in an effort to meet it wisely. The professional schools can well afford to make concessions, if need be, for the sake of securing the college product. Even with a year less of professional training, the college-trained men will always outstrip in the end the ill

trained throng that make up the majority of the matriculates of professional schools under present conditions. But no real concession will be required. It will be an easy matter to agree upon a list of subjects equivalent to a full year's work which can be given a place among the free electives of the college, without any compromise whatever of liberal culture ideals, and which will be likewise acceptable to the law school authorities. A like number may be agreed upon that will be mutually acceptable to the medical authorities and the college. This will reduce the time for the combined courses by one year. Furthermore, the college authorities should give every possible encouragement to ambitious students who are disposed to subtract an additional year by completing the four-year course in three years. Many of the best students in every college are already doing this. Dean Smith states in his annual report for 1900, that at Harvard more than one fourth of the students by taking extra courses do the four years' work in three.

The shortening of the scheduled course to three or two years, as is proposed in certain quarters, would entail an untold sacrifice in the scholarship of the country. I believe it is entirely legitimate, however, to offer a premium to ambitious students who do a high grade of work, by granting an exemption from one course in the senior year to such as shall have maintained a specified high average standing in the preceding years. No one will question that the students earning such exemption are far more worthy of a degree than those who complete the entire course as scheduled, but with barely passing marks. The rule would encourage high scholarship, and hence have positive value. To my mind, the shortening of the period of study should be effected along these two lines.

The plan here proposed provides for securing the degrees of the college and professional school in two years less than the scheduled time, without any sacrifice whatever, and effectually meets the demand for a shortened course.

The so-called six years' combined medical course offered in several leading Western schools might as well be a six-year course in a medical college, so far as the college side is concerned, as it entirely defeats the ideal of a liberal education by completely crowding out the humanistic studies. Any adjustment that puts the person who has pursued a liberal course of study at a disadvantage as compared with the one who has confined his course to the materialistic studies, should be rejected as narrowing, and foreign to the ideal and purpose for which the college stands.