268 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



LIBER TY IN ED UCA TION. 



DR. McOOSH has published an ar- 

 gument on freedom in the higher 

 education. He bad discussed the subject 

 with President Eliot before the Nine- 

 teenth Century Club, and he has since 

 issued a pamphlet, entitled " The New- 

 Departure in College Education, being 

 a Reply to President Eliot's Defense of 

 it in New York, February 24, 1885." 

 The traditional collegiate system which 

 has descended to us from old mediaeval 

 and monastic times, so little impaired 

 in its essential method, is now brought 

 to the test of modern ideas. Not only 

 is it a question of introducing and or- 

 ganizing modern studies in place of the 

 classical studies, that are losing their 

 hold upon the cultivated mind of the 

 age, but this involves an inquiry into 

 the theories and principles of the older 

 and the newer education as to how far 

 we should go in the direction of a more 

 pliant, adaptive, and liberal system, and 

 how far students are to have liberty of 

 choice among the subjects of collegiate 

 study. 



Dr. McCosh argues against freedom 

 in the higher education, taking the 

 ground that has ever been taken against 

 the progress of liberty that it will be 

 abused and run into license. As politi- 

 cal liberty was resisted because it would 

 destroy government, and lead to an- 

 archy ; as religious liberty was resisted 

 because it would destroy the Church and 

 put an end to religion ; and as the liber- 

 ty of the press was resisted because it 

 would subvert public order so the lib- 

 erty of study is now opposed because 

 it will degrade education and destroy 

 the colleges. To all this, the reply dic- 

 tated by the world's experience is sim- 

 ply that, while there are undoubted 

 objections to liberty, its advantages 

 outweigh its drawbacks. Dr. McCosh 



maintains that, if the students are left 

 free to elect their subjects, they will 

 choose those which are easiest, and 

 therefore most worthless for purposes 

 of mental cultivation. But this is con- 

 trary to both reason and experience. 

 President Barnard, of Columbia Col- 

 lege, in a passage appended to this arti- 

 cle, testifies that students left free do 

 not choose the easier subjects. But the 

 reason of the case is, that what is hard 

 to one student is easy to another ; and 

 this fact, with its implications, is the 

 key to the movement in behalf of great- 

 er liberty in the choice of studies. Dr. 

 McCosh makes little concession to those 

 rights of individuality which originate 

 in personal aptitudes and diversities of 

 mental constitution, and which impel 

 students to different lines of effort. He 

 would enforce a common method upon 

 all under a theory of mental discipline, 

 rejected by reason and experience, and 

 fortified only by long tradition. Dr. 

 McCosh protests that he is not behind 

 the age or an obstructive, and is "for 

 freedom quite as much as Dr. Eliot is," 

 and he allows "a certain amount of 

 choice of studies," but this is in strict 

 subjection to the classical ideal and the 

 old college practice. 



There is talk in this option contro- 

 versy about a great number of things, 

 but the issue is over compulsory Greek 

 and Latin. It is a fight of the classi- 

 cists, and, so long as they can force the 

 dead languages, they care very little 

 what else comes or goes. Classical edu- 

 cation knows nothing of this modern 

 spirit of liberty. It has ever been 

 closely associated with priestly domina- 

 tion, with religious intolerance, with 

 despotic collegiate authority, and arbi- 

 trary state regulation. In the old and 

 powerful English universities the dead 

 languages are the one tiling that has 



