SCIENTIFIC COURSES OF STUDY. 193 



physical geography over and above the amount of science taught in 

 the classical department ; and, in the main, substitutes for Greek some 

 sort of theological instruction. Perhaps a portion of the latter might 

 be put under the head of Paley ontology, and in that sense be re- 

 garded as essentially scientific. But, to speak seriously, the course, as 

 a whole, however respectable it may be from some points of view, has 

 certainly no right to the scientific title. It is an easy, trivial course, 

 fitted to accommodate inferior students, and ought, in common hon- 

 esty, to be called by some definite and appropriate name. To call such 

 a course " scientific " is simply dishonest. This case, I am sorry to say, 

 is by no means an exceptional one. Scientific courses of this type are 

 exceedingly common ; and, because of their existence, scientific studies 

 often fall into disrepute. There are in Ohio, fortunately, quite a num- 

 ber of colleges which give scientific instruction of a very much higher 

 order than is here indicated, where faithful efforts are made to put the 

 scientific and classical courses upon an equal footing, and which fall 

 short only because of the lower standard for admission to the former. 

 There are still others, and some of our best colleges among them, which 

 refuse point-blank to establish special courses in science at all, on the 

 ground that they have neither the means nor the appliances to make 

 such work as effective as it ought to be. These institutions deserve 

 the highest credit. Although I am fully convinced that the new edu- 

 cation is far superior to the old, I also recognize the fact that any gen- 

 uine work is better than any sham ; and that a good drill in the classics 

 is immeasurably better than a mere trifling with science. The former 

 is scholarly ; the latter is not. It is a truism to say that a college had 

 better do one thing well than two things badly ; but this truism is too 

 often forgotten or overlooked. It would be a decided gain if some of 

 our colleges could make the scientific course the one thing well done, 

 but, in default of that, it is cheering to know that the other is properly 

 attended to. 



Now, having seen what the scientific courses often are, we find our- 

 selves in a position to discuss what they ought to be. As the name in- 

 dicates, science should predominate in them, but not necessarily to the 

 exclusion of other things. French, German, mathematics, English lit- 

 erature, logic, and possibly some drawing, ought to be included ; the 

 relative proportions of these branches varying with circumstances. A 

 certain. range of election should be allowed the student, since different 

 students have very different needs. No prescribed course of study can 

 be devised which shall be universally acceptable and invariably pro- 

 ductive of beneficial results. If every student attempts to study every- 

 thing, no thorough work can be done in any department. A college 

 certainly ought not to be an institution for the encouragement of dif- 

 fuseness. Scholarship and the character formed by scholarship are its 

 true aims. A student does not gain breadth of mind by dabbling a 

 little in a dozen different things superficiality and the consequent nar- 



VOL. XIII. 13 



