2 6o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



in American fields; when one must be a 'scholar' in the incorrect 

 sense of the grammar school to obtain a scholastic recognition which 

 can not be earned by the slower self-denial and effort of the man who 

 devotes his leisure from the earnest of life to broadening his own 

 intellect and extending the limits of human knowledge may we not 

 well ask if the reaction against honorary degrees has not carried the 

 colleges too far in the opposite direction? 



The necessary regulation of study in prasentia may be applied with 

 only literal alterations, to study in absentia. There can be the same 

 supervision by a faculty committee, the same minima of time re- 

 quired after the receipt of the bachelor's degree, the same inspection 

 of work or formal examination, the same insistence upon a thesis 

 the same or even higher standard of originality, the same precaution 

 against too great concentration, even the same fees unless the college 

 prefers to guard against the superficial appearance of interested mo- 

 tives. The post-graduate student in prwsentia is seldom held to a 

 definite schedule of attendance; the student in absentia needs only an 

 extension of the same courtesy, and he may be required to report in 

 person at stated intervals. Evidence of adequate resources for the 

 special kind of study undertaken may be required and this could be 

 supplied, so far as museums, libraries, art galleries, laboratories, me- 

 chanical workshops, etc., are concerned, by nearly very resident of a 

 large city, while there is scarcely a region of the entire country which 

 does not offer opportunities for one or more kinds of scientific field- 

 work, in which original investigation is urgently needed. A slightly 

 less formal requirement in regard to the customary 'two minor' sub- 

 jects of study, would probably be wise in most instances and more 

 careful inquiry into the probity and reputation of the candidate 

 would be necessary than in the case of the resident student who is 

 under the immediate and almost constant observation of the faculty, 

 but it would seem that these various modifications of the regulations 

 of study in prwsentia are feasible, without too great effort on the 

 part of the college authorities. 



In conclusion, the writer would again emphasize, as the main plea 

 of this article, that the present custom of limiting the post-graduate 

 degrees to students in prcesentia, places the intellectual consumer on 

 a higher basis than the producer while it has a corresponding tendency 

 to lower the scholastic value of the titles which ought, par excellence, 

 to represent the highest attainments of the broadest scholarship. 



