THE SUN'S HEAT. 19 



life is short, and that there are many different types of intellectual 

 ability calling for many different combinations of studies. The num- 

 ber of subjects of study has become so enormously large, and the value 

 of our own literature has increased to such an extent since the time 

 when Greek was incorporated into our school curricula, that it is now 

 utterly idle to think of requiring Greek of all students to whom we 

 will accord the distinction, so far as college degrees will do it, of being 

 liberally educated. 



It will not do to say that we can have a separate degree for those 

 who have not studied Greek. The subject is no longer important 

 enough in comparison with other studies to deserve a separate degree; 

 and, as long as we make this distinction, we shall practically close the 

 doors of many of our institutions to numbers of students who would 

 otherwise be found in our academic halls. It may be said that the 

 degree of A. B. will have no recognized value such as it has at present. 

 It is a stretch of language to say that the degree of A. B. has in this 

 country a recognized value in the sense in which that expression is 

 used in this connection. Institutions of all kinds can give the degree 

 at pleasure, and some give it to men who could not enter the freshman 

 class at Harvard College. At any rate, it would mean something in 

 the same sense as the German Ph. D., which is one of the most honor- 

 able of degrees, and has lost neither in dignity, or value since Greek 

 was dropped from the list of studies required for it. 



Whatever we may think of the movement, whether we favor or 

 oppose it, it seems perfectly clear that it is bound to go forward; and, 

 as in the case of all other great changes, those who oppose it so valiant- 

 ly at present may never be converted that is too much to expect of 

 those whose careers are identified with the old regime but they will 

 be overruled; or, when they retire, their places will be filled with men 

 who will wonder how their predecessors could ever have held such 

 opinions. 



THE SUN'S HEAT * 



Bt Sir WILLIAM THOMSON, F. R. S. 



FROM human history we know that for several thousand years the 

 sun has been giving heat and light to the earth as at present ; 

 possibly with some considerable fluctuations, and possibly with some 

 not very small progressive variation. The records of agriculture, and 

 the natural history of plants and animals within the time of human 

 history, abound with evidence that there has been no exceedingly great 

 change in the intensity of the sun's heat and light within the last three 



* Lecture on " The Probable Origin, the Total Amount, and the Possible Duration, of 

 the Sun's Heat," delivered by Sir William Thomson, F. R. S., at the Royal Institution, on 

 Friday, January 21, 1887. 



