UNIVERSITV TENDENCIES IN AMERICA. 145 



pends oil liis innstci'v of iiiccliaiiics mid tlic calculus. Tu ilie same 

 fashion, the student in medicine is willing to accept chemistry and 

 physiology as prescribed studies. But a year in chemistry, or two 

 years in higher mathematics, put in for the broadening of the mind 

 or because the faculty decrees it, has no broadening effect. Work 

 arbitrarily prescribed is always poorly done, sets low standards, and 

 works demoralization instead of training. There can not be a greater 

 educational farce than the required year of science in certain literary 

 courses. The student picks out the easiest science, the easiest teacher 

 and the easiest way to avoid work, and the whole requirement is a 

 source of moral evil. Nothing could be farther from the scientific 

 method than a course in science taken without the element of personal 

 choice. 



The traditional courses of study were first broken up by the addi- 

 tion of short courses in one thing or another, substitutes for Latin or 

 Greek, patchwork courses without point or continuity. These substi- 

 tute courses were naturally regarded as inferior, and for them very 

 properly a new degree was devised, the degree of B.S. — Bachelor of 

 Surfaces. 



That work which is required in the nature of things is taken seri- 

 ously. Serious work sets the pace, exalts the teacher, inspires the 

 man. The individual man is important enough to justify his teachers 

 in taking the time and the efl:ort to plan a special course for him. 



Through the movement towards the democracy of studies and con- 

 structive individualism, a new ideal is being reached in American 

 universities, that of personal effectiveness. The ideal in England has- 

 always been that of personal culture; that of France, the achieving,, 

 through competitive examinations, of ready-made careers, the satisfac- 

 tion of what Villari calls ' Impiegomania, ' the craze for appointment; 

 that of Germany, thoroughness of knowledge; that of America, the 

 power to deal with men and conditions. Everywhere we find abun- 

 dant evidence of personal effectiveness of American scholars. Not 

 abstract thought, not life-long investigation of minute data, not sepa- 

 ration from men of lower fortune, but the power to bring about results 

 is the characteristic of the American scholar of to-day. 



From this point of view the progress of the American university is 

 most satisfactory, and most encouraging. The large tendencies are 

 moving in the right direction. What shall w^e say of the smaller ones ? 



Not long ago, the subject of discussion in a thoughtful address 

 was this: the 'Peril of the Small College.' The small college has 

 been the guardian of higher education in the past. It is most helpful 

 in the present and we can not afford to let it die. We understand that 

 the large college becomes the university. Because it is rich, it at- 



VOL. LXIII. — 10.* 



