life, the harvest which his errors, or those of his early guardians, sowed.

In the preparatory course, too, the elements of the mathematics should be studied. The youth between the ages of fourteen and seventeen or eighteen is competent to master portions of algebra and geometry. Sufficient time for this purpose ought to be spared from the classics. The latter should be indeed the prominent and leading study in the preparatory school, as they are fitted beyond almost any other branch of knowledge to the lively susceptibilities of youth. Still, a good beginning may be made in the other great department of collegiate learning. The mental powers which are addressed by mathematics begin to be developed in the later stage of the preparatory school. This study, likewise, will furnish an agreeable relaxation from the classical routine.

The young scholar, having thus laid the foundation in the classical school, by mastering the elements of abstract science, and by becoming familiar with the forms and principles of the two great languages of antiquity, will be prepared for the wider fields which await him. Exact knowledge in the earlier course, has fitted him to climb loftier heights, has given him a keen relish for the profounder truths and more beautiful forms to which his attention will be called. If the classical school has done its work well, if the three years have been wisely occupied, the education is in one sense complete. Just habits are formed; the great aims of a student's life are appreciated; real and perhaps the greatest difficulties are surmounted, and that course is begun which will lead to the loftiest attainment. In short, the preparatory school occupies in some respects the most important place in our system. It holds the keys of knowledge. It has in its hands almost unlimited means of good. It may easily shape the destiny both as scholars and moral beings of most who are committed to its keeping. It should be fostered with the most benevolent care. It should be elevated to its high and true rank. The few who are now toiling for its improvement should be cheered with all good omens, and with all substantial aid. It is said that the endowed classical schools of England exert a greater influence upon the higher education, than the universities themselves. The same can by no means be affirmed of the Latin schools of our country. A very few have attained, or are laudably endeavoring to attain, a high rank. But they are met with many depressing influences. Instead of being allowed a six or eight or ten years' course, as is the case with the English schools and the German gymnasia, it is with the utmost difficulty that they can

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Quality of the Education to be the Aim.

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secure three unbroken years. The ill advised haste or economy of parents, or the relaxation of professed rules at the colleges, diminish the prescribed term to two years or eighteen months.

II. The standard of the prosperity of a Collegiate Institution ought not to be numbers, but the kind of education which is secured.

In the United States, with a population of twenty millions, one hundred and twenty or one hundred and thirty colleges are enumerated. In New England, with a population of less than three millions, there are thirteen incorporated colleges. One of the principal evils of this excessive multiplication is the practical lowering of the standard of admission in order that the college may show as large a list of names as may be. The competition between the different colleges has respect to numbers, not to the quality of the instruction, or the facilities for a thorough education. The terms of admission are about the same at all, but we fear that in some institutions these terms are a variable quantity, that in practice they are greatly lowered, and that, instead of a severe and conscientious examination, all the applicants are admitted with about equal facility. It is well if positive inducements to enter unprepared are not held out to young men who ought on every account to protract their preparatory course. The temptations to this ill-advised lenity are strong. The colleges are mainly supported by tuition fees. The larger the number of students, the greater the revenues. The standard, too, of the prosperity of a college which is sedulously cherished in the community, and which the public press widely extends, is numbers. This college is preeminently flourishing, because it has two hundred undergraduates; its neighbor is in a depressed state, for it has only one half that number, though it may be pervaded by the spirit of genuine scholarship, its rich results being seen in the culture and ability of its alumni. Another baneful effect, to which we have already alluded, is the premium for imperfect preparation, which it holds out to those who are technically said to be fitting for college. Industry is called into exercise, strenuous exertion is put forth by the members of the preparatory schools in proportion to the severity of the examination to which they are looking forward. But as it now is, if the door is shut against them at one college, it is wide open at another. Accordingly, the stimulus to exertion is in a large measure removed.

The evil in question, great as it is, is not irremediable. The current of popular opinion may be turned into the right direction. The attention of the organs which now control or guide this opinion, may be earnestly directed to it. The commendations which they bestow

on the public exercises of a college may be made discriminating and just. The public mind may be fixed on the rigid examination rather than on the large accession. The institutions which now adhere with commendable strictness to their published requisitions, may be encouraged to be still more exacting. And if it is impossible to induce the colleges to create a common law on this subject, or come to a mutual understanding, single institutions may well risk their prosperity for a season, and be content with smaller classes, and thus establish that high reputation for scholarship, which will surely be rewarded in the end. Indiscriminate admission to valuable privileges, or the relaxation of salutary rules, will prove at length to be short sighted policy. III. The course of collegiate study must be necessarily limited. A selection only can be made from the vast fields of human knowledge. This necessity obviously results from the almost infinite disparity between the time devoted to the college curriculum and the studies which might be pursued. The period is by courtesy four years, but by vacations it is reduced to three years, and in many instances, in consequence of absences, not more than thirty months or two years remain for effective study. This brief term is wholly inadequate for the attainment of the leading principles even of many important branches of science and literature. The time is fixed and short, the circle of knowledge is ever-widening. Life is momentary, art is long. The age of man is hardly sufficient to master the sciences which have had their birth within the present century. The science of entomology, for example, taxes the life-long energies of such a man as Ehrenberg. The great geographer, Ritter, is likely to leave his work but half accomplished. The student, who would become possessed of the leading principles of a science like Chemistry, needs time and great industry.

Again, the average talent of a class must be taken into the account. The ablest men may accomplish tasks to which the majority are not equal. To adopt a circle of studies which the men of average ability could master only by the utmost exertion, would leave all below them in hopeless ignorance. It would in effect debar not a few respectable scholars from all the advantages of a college.

It is, furthermore, indispensable that a considerable portion of time should be taken up with reviews and reëxaminations, in fixing the knowledge already acquired, in considering it from various points of view. It is not enough that the teacher is skilled and able in communicating the principles and outlines of knowledge. The student must have opportunities for personal investigation. IIc needs time

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Limited Number of Studies.

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for calm reflection, for a patient survey, and for gathering up his scattered knowledge into a regular system. The judgment, we believe, of all experienced instructors, coincides with that of the veteran Wyttenbach, that frequent reviewing is the secret of success in study. A little land, well cultivated, enriches the owner. A country is not thoroughly subdued while a single fortress is standing.

The necessity in question arises, also, from the nature of our collegiate system. This system is peculiar to the United States. It differs in essential points from the university systems of England, Scotland and Germany. The schools at Westminster and Winchester secure a discipline and form a character for nice scholarship to which but few of our colleges can lay any claims. Many of the late Dr. Arnold's pupils had acquired fixed habits of scholarship, and settled moral principles long before they left his school. Many, who join the English universities have already gone through a course of discipline longer and more thorough, than is reached by our entire American system, preparatory, collegiate and professional. It would be more pertinent, therefore, to compare our colleges with the English classical schools. With these, however, there are more points of dissimilarity than of resemblance.

The Scottish universities are conducted on principles very unlike those which lie at the basis of the American colleges. They are in a great measure professional schools. The instruction is communicated by lectures. The attendance upon them is optional. They have often been the theatre where brilliant discoveries have been propounded, rather than schools where old and simple truths have been taught. Eminent metaphysicians, original investigators in science have illuminated these venerable halls with their researches. Institutions, like the High School in Edinburgh, are far more analogous to the American collegiate system. The attendance is compulsory; the members are arranged into classes; a complete circle of studies is pursued; and many pupils are trained immediately for practical life.

How divergent the German university system is from ours is well known. No two systems could easily be more unlike. Many of our colleges are far inferior to the German gymnasia. No college in the United States pretends to give so complete a classical training as is effected in a multitude of the German gymnasia. The German universities are admirably fitted to receive the students from the gymnasia and carry forward their studies in some special department, or perfect their training, with the aid of great libraries and eminent professors, so that they may fill the offices of school superintendents,

principals of gymnasia, assistant professors in the universities, and many others in the gift of the government. The object is not so much the discipline of the mind, as the acquisition of positive knowledge, or the investigation of some special topic to its farthest limits, or the publication of a book which shall secure an appointment. On the contrary, the great design of the American collegiate system is the discipline of the mental faculties, the educing and culture of all the mental powers, the sharpening of the instruments by which success in life is to be achieved. This has always been regarded, we believe, as the special aim of our collegiate system. The communication and receptionof instruction, highly important as they are, have been viewed as of secondary consequence. Adequate discipline has not been acquired in the preparatory school. It must now, if ever, be secured. No one is prepared for the professional school, or for professional life, till he has undergone this hardy discipline. But the attainment of it is impracticable, if the course of study be extended too far. It is a trite remark that it is immaterial what science or branch of literature, one studies, provided he masters it. The robust discipline is attained if the principles of a single science are apprehended. Each branch of literature is a microcosm. It admits of infinite analysis. It involves topics for inquiry to which no limits can be set. The student, who has made himself familiar with the splendid theories and wonderful results of modern Chemistry, or who has studied the Greek language with all the light thrown upon it by comparative philology, and the researches of German scholars, has girded his mental system for almost any effort in any other field of knowledge. Still, the remark in question requires modification. That science or branch of literature is doubtless to be selected, which, while it invigorates the intellect, ensures the greatest amount of useful information. Regard is, also, to be had, in the selection of studies, to the mental defects of the scholar, and to the symmetrical and complete development of his understanding. The peculiarities of individuals may require a somewhat varying discipline. It remains, however, an unquestionable and fundamental truth that the great design of the college system is to secure mental discipline, and not to anticipate the professional studies, or to attempt to survey the vast fields of science and literature.

IV. It hence becomes a question of the deepest interest, What studies lie at the basis of a college education? What branches of knowledge are best fitted to accomplish the end in view? We may confidently reply, Mathematics with the related branches of Natural Philosophy, and the two Classical Languages. There are, indeed,