706 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



facts. A correct college curriculum is scarce- 

 ly possible as middle education stands now. 

 Kecognizing, then, the fact that the order in 

 which the mind can best learn is the order 

 in which it can best be taught, it becomes of 

 the utmost importance that the college, ad- 

 mitting the necessity of present compromise, 

 should exert its full influence to reorganize 

 the education below. 



It thus appears that the antagonism 

 of the classical institutions to the pop- 

 ular schools in their real purpose is of 

 a very radical kind. Our colleges, by 

 their history and traditions, are aca- 

 demic, scholastic, and literary institu- 

 tions, designed at least theoretically to 

 form a learned class ; while on the other 

 hand the great body of the subordinate 

 schools is devoted to the general edu- 

 cation of the people, which should be 

 practical and useful, based upon com- 

 mon needs and a preparation for the 

 working duties of life. The colleges 

 by their policy are chiefly solicitous to 

 make the lower schools tributary to 

 their own prosperity; but they must 

 take larger views of their own interests 

 by ceasing their indirect resistance to 

 the progress of education in the lower 

 schools, and by efficiently helping it for- 

 ward. In an enlarged view, as Mr. Bow- 

 ker well remarks, " the colleges can not 

 do their proper work, nor can an approxi- 

 mately correct curriculum be put into 

 practice until many features of the mid- 

 dle schools are not only reformed but 

 revolutionized. 1 ' But this revolution 

 of the middle schools is a revolution 

 that must begin in the colleges them- 

 selves, by which their exclusive exac- 

 tion of a classical preparation is aban- 

 doned, and the sciences are given an 

 equal chance with the dead languages. 

 The classical gentlemen may league to- 

 gether to resist this change, but it will 

 be of little avail ; sooner or later it is 

 sure to come. "We observe by the last 

 report of the President and Treasurer 

 of Harvard College, 1882-'83, that this 

 question is under serious consideration 

 by the authorities of that institution, 

 and, if they shall see fit to take the step 



now so urgently demanded, other insti- 

 tutions will be certain to follow. 



President Eliot says (page 16) : " The 

 College Faculty is the body in which 

 almost all the considerable changes, 

 made during the past sixteen years in 

 the educational methods of Harvard 

 College, and of the schools which reg- 

 ularly feed it, have been first studied in 

 detail, and then wrought into practical 

 shape ; and it is at present engaged, not 

 for the first time, in the discussion of 

 the gravest question of university pol- 

 icy which has arisen, or is likely to 

 arise, in this generation namely, the 

 extent to which option among the dif- 

 ferent subjects should be allowed in 

 the examination for admission to col- 

 lege." 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



Excursions op an Evolutionist. By John 

 Fiske. Boston : Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 

 Pp. 379. $2. 



Mr. Fiske has laid the reading public 

 under many obligations by the reissue of 

 these more recent papers, which embody 

 his matured views on a wide and varied 

 range of topics. Nothing need be said in 

 commendation of the literary work of a 

 writer who has been long recognized as 

 unrivaled in the art of lucid, effective, and 

 pleasing exposition. But we are not to 

 forget that these accomplishments have 

 been put to the noblest service, and make 

 him the most admirable interpreter of a 

 new epoch in the advance of human thought. 

 Mr. Fiske's writings belong eminently to a 

 transition era in philosophic and scientific 

 progress, and are in a high sense authori- 

 tative representations of it. And this is 

 much to say of any one man's relation to a 

 mental movement more comprehensive in 

 its bearings upon widely received opinion 

 than any that has ever before taken place. 



There can be no doubt that Mr. Fiske's 

 " Cosmic Philosophy " must rank first among 

 the few masterpieces of expository state- 

 ment contributed by this age on the subject 

 of evolution. It is the book for the people 

 upon this subject. It is not only an emi- 

 nently instructive but a most charming work. 



