CORRESP ONDENCE. 



23> 



CORRESPONDENCE 



THE QUESTION OF COMPULSORY AT- 

 TENDANCE ON SCHOLASTIC EXER- 

 CISES IN COLLEGES. 



To the Editor of the Popular Science Monthly: 



THE press has recently occupied itself 

 to an unusual degree with matters 

 which concern our system of higher educa- 

 tion ; and a poiut on which the widest di- 

 versity of views has been expressed, and 

 on which the argument on both sides has 

 been maintained with the greatest ability 

 and earnestness, is the question whether 

 mental training is a process which can only 

 be successfully conducted by assuming that 

 its subjects will not in general receive it 

 voluntarily, and whether, therefore, it is or 

 is not necessary to proceed upon the plan 

 of coercing them to their own good. This 

 discussion originated in an intimation 

 thrown out by President Eliot, of Harvard 

 University, in his last annual report, to the 

 effect that it might possibly be thought ex- 

 pedient in that institution hereafter to abol- 

 ish the rules which make the attendance of 

 students upon scholastic exercises compul- 

 sory, holding them, nevertheless, to rigorous 

 examination upon the subjects taught, and 

 conferring degrees in arts only upon satis- 

 factory evidence of proficiency. This sug- 

 gestion encountered a prompt and vigorous 

 response and expostulation from the Rev. 

 President McCosh, of Princeton, in a com- 

 munication addressed, in January last, to 

 the New - York Evening Post. Other writers 

 took up the argument at greater or less 

 length on both sides of the controversy ; 

 but nowhere has there appeared a more 

 able or conclusive vindication of the wisdom 

 of the principle involved in President Eliot's 

 suggestion than that which was put forth in 

 the March number of The Popular Science 

 Monthly. I cannot but thank you for your 

 bold and free treatment of a subject in re- 

 gard to which prescriptive usage, and the 

 bias in the public mind which long prescrip- 

 tion always carries with it, are against you ; 

 but which concerns in a very high degree 

 the influence of our svstems of education 



on the formation of the moral no less than 

 the intellectual character of the youth who 

 are subjected to it. 



Immediately on the appearance of the 

 article of Dr. McCosh, it was my design to 

 offer a slight contribution to the literature 

 of this subject, founded on my own per- 

 sonal observation of different educational 

 methods during a thirty years' connection 

 with the administration of colleges ; but, 

 owing to unforeseen interruptions, my labor 

 remained unfinished on my hands until the 

 favorable moment had passed by. My at- 

 tention has been recently drawn to the sub- 

 ject again by the publication (also in the 

 Evening Post) of a letter from Prof. Yen- 

 able, Dean of the Faculty of the University 

 of Virginia, describing the educational sys- 

 tem of that institution, of which compul- 

 sory attendance is an essential feature, but 

 referring in respectful terms to the plan 

 proposed by President Eliot. This letter is 

 presented by the Post as one of unusual im- 

 portance and interest ; yet it adds nothing 

 to what has been universally known of the 

 Virginia system for the past forty years, 

 although it sets forth the leading features 

 of this system with clearness and concise- 

 ness. In commending it, I understand the 

 Post to be once more commending, though 

 indirectly, the compulsory system ; and this 

 brings back to me my nearly-forgotten pur- 

 pose above referred to, to have my word in 

 this matter also. 



I will commence, therefore, by remark- 

 ing that all that Dr. McCosh has said, or 

 that anybody may say, as to the importance 

 of regular drill to the efficiency of any sys- 

 tem of mental discipline, will be readily ad- 

 mitted by every experienced educator of 

 youth. Whether, as that learned gentleman 

 assumes, the undergraduate student is to 

 be regarded as being too immature to be in- 

 trusted with a freedom which he may pos- 

 sibly abuse, or whether, with President Eliot, 

 we suppose that he is as likely to attend 

 to his collegiate exercises from a just ap- 

 preciation of their value to himself, and a 



