448 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



with it, and which may be incorporated with advantage to the former 

 course, also. There are many subjects, outside the liberal courses as 

 usually prescribed, which, nevertheless, will be found quite as valuable, 

 as cultural and as educational, as are some subjects which are the usual 

 elements of that older scheme. The wise man will look for opportuni- 

 ties to secure a good hold upon these, in substitution, if needs be, for 

 more usual electives. . 



It will also be sometimes found that, to the earnest, competent and 

 ambitious man, the commonly prescribed courses of instruction are by 

 no means sufficient to provide a good day's work, each day, and that he 

 may, with great advantage and without the slightest difficulty or sacri- 

 fice, increase the prescribed time and number of subjects by perhaps a 

 third. He can not afford, in fact, to forego the opportunities which 

 present themselves in such numbers and such wealth, up to the natural 

 limit of his powers of safe and healthful exertion. He has but one 

 such opportunity in his lifetime and only the man lacking in intelli- 

 gence or in moral fiber will waste one hour of such precious time. In 

 the large universities and the leading colleges of our time, the student 

 is perplexed and embarrassed by the wealth of opportunity which is 

 presented him. He will usually find that it will require very great care 

 and deliberate thought to make a wise choice of subjects, to adjust him- 

 self to a wise limitation of time, so to adjust and schedule his work 

 and his play as to make each day and each college-year in maximum 

 degree profitable. This he should do, having in view the coming life, 

 private as well as professional, and contemplating the utilization of that 

 life most perfectly in the promotion of the highest interests of self, 

 family, friends, country. 



Thus, in summary, the ideal preparation of the aspirant, profes- 

 sionally, involves even a supervision of the child in its earliest efforts 

 to obtain a knowledge of the outside world into which it has been intro- 

 duced, a guidance of kindergartner and of the pupil in the elementary 

 schools in the acquirement of those fundamental knowledges which fur- 

 nish the means of acquirement of all knowledge, a discreet steering 

 of the course of the older student in the preparatory schools and the 

 finishing school or the college, and deliberate, earnest and careful choice 

 of subjects of study and investigation in higher learning; all to the 

 purpose of insuring that no hour of work shall be wasted by misappro- 

 priation to studies which have a less value for the ultimate purpose of 

 the individual life than others equally available. 



The preparation of the aspirant to professional standing and dis- 

 tinction, or even to the most modest success, thus involves wise counsel 

 from older and more experienced minds, from the earliest to the latest 

 years of this long apprenticeship. 



