4o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



The constant endeavor after " broader fields of usefulness " does 

 great all-around injury. The anxiety for a constantly increasing 

 number of students, instead of for high quality of work, compels fre- 

 quent and wasteful public appearance of presidents and professors, 

 that the college may become known to those who do not read the sport- 

 ing pages of great dailies. The importance of a college education is a 

 staple for editorials in religious journals. Inventive genius is strained 

 in the effort to discover new methods of doing good. One university 

 boasts of 5,000 correspondence students and another of 4,200 ; others 

 have reached the status of boasting, but without giving details. It has 

 been announced that, by correspondence, one may easily complete the 

 first two years of the college course. Some prominent universities 

 have admitted that the last two years of the course are unimportant; 

 others are endeavoring to convince the community that college attend- 

 ance during the first two years is quite unnecessary. If the chief pur- 

 pose of college attendance be to gain a diploma, one must acknowledge 

 that they are all quite right. Students enrolled in correspondence 

 have not reached the dignity of a place in the catalogue, but they need 

 not feel discouragement; correspondence schools, like the summer 

 schools, can not be ignored, and soon the enrollment in some American 

 universities will rival that of medieval Italian universities. 



The example of larger universities has not been lost upon small 

 colleges, for they, too, recognize the great importance of extramural 

 work. The writer has just received the bulletin of a small co-educa- 

 tional college, which includes in its scope a college, an academy, a school 

 of pedagogy, a school of music and a school of art. The college cur- 

 riculum is divided into the proper number of groups, so that the stu- 

 dent may specialize promptly with a view to future work. The pro- 

 fessors offer from 15 to 31 hours a week in the first semester of the 

 college, which might be regarded by some as a reasonable requirement 

 in the way of work, especially as it appears to be supplemented by 

 duties in the academy. But this is clearly a mistaken opinion. The 

 institution is " planning to bring college instruction, with college 

 credit, to many who can not enter the college halls." Saturday classes, 

 evening classes, correspondence work are offered. Affiliated instruction 

 is proposed for communities which members of the faculty can not 

 reach; high-school instructors, ministers and others of the locality will 

 be in charge of the classes and college credit will be given. Popular 

 lectures by members of the faculty on lyceum and platform occasions, 

 Memorial day, Sunday-school associations, etc., are available; and the 

 college offers lyceum courses of five entertainments for $100 a course, 

 including two concerts, an entertainment in the way of recitation and 

 singing, and two lectures of popular or semi-popular character. " Write 



