30 STATE BOAED OF AGEICULTURE. 



EEPOET OF THE PKOFESSOK OF ENGLISH LITEEATUEE. 



MiCHiGAK State Agricultural College, > 

 November 26, 1875. f 



To the President of the College : 



.Dear Sir : — Herewith is presented a report of the duties and the accomplish- 

 ment in my department during the college year just closing. The usual routine 

 has been departed from by a change in the course of study by which Ehetoric 

 precedes English Literature, and prej^ares the way for greater advancement in 

 the latter study. This change has necessitated two classes in Ehetoric with none 

 in Literature. 



The Junior class had a course of eleven weeks in Whately's Ehetoric, taking 

 all of cowyic/w;i and jyersz^asio/i, and select portions of style. The attention and 

 diligence shown by the majority of the class were excellent. The class began with 

 twenty members, but lost two by excuse from college. The remaining eighteen 

 passed a satisfactory examination at the close of the first term, June 22d. 



The Sophomore class took up Hepburn's Ehetoric on August 23d, and con- 

 tinued the study for eleven weeks. The entire book was passed over in recita- 

 tion, and the most of it was reviewed before tlie final examination, I^ovember 

 9th. This class numbered twenty, of whom two took honorable dismission from 

 college before the close of the term, one was absent for sickness, and one failed 

 to pass. The remaining sixteen attained a satisfactory standing and passed the 

 required examination. The new text-book was found, with a class of such ad- 

 vancement in the course, not so satisfactory as was expected. By especial effort to 

 give abundance of familiar illustration in the class-room its too concise form was 

 made less objectionable, and the interest of the class seemed not to flag in the 

 least. 



The senior class had the usual courses of twenty-six weeks in French, using 

 Otto's Grammar and Eeader, as edited by Prof. Bocher. The first course of ten 

 weeks was devoted to Part 1st of the Grammar, with written themes daily in 

 review, and closed with an examination June 21st, All but one of the seventeen 

 members showed a passable progress. The second course of sixteen weeks em- 

 braced a short stay upon irregular verbs and idiomatic expressions with written 

 themes, and other daily lessons in the reader with attendant grammar lessons 

 till Part 2d of the Grammar was completed, and some fifty pages of the reader 

 were translated and reviewed. The class also followed the teacher in an easy 

 translation of a comedy found in their reader, and were thus aided in familiar- 

 izing corresponding idioms of French and English. All of the members, six- 

 teen in number, finished the course with a creditable examination, October 29th. 



The senior class completed Fairchild's moral philosophy, and renewed most 

 of it in the twelve weeks ending May 21st. The class of fifteen members was 

 reduced to fourteen by the death of one of its best scholars, Mr. Emmet Fuller. 

 All of the fourteen passed the required examination. 



The very brief course in political economy is made more complete by being 

 given in the form of twenty five lectures with reviews. A full list of the topics 

 presented in order and dependence, was kept before the class by chart, while my 



