THE STATE COLLEGE. 53 



'work, and be enters into it with enthusiasm and zeal, tem- 

 pered with judgment. This gentleman, our President, is 

 now before you, and he will address you on the subject of 

 the College — President Jajmes C. Greenough of Amherst. 



THE PLACE AND THE WORK OF THE STATE COLLEGE. 



BY PRESIDENT JAMES C. GREENOUGH. 



The State College meets a want. The study of Latin and 

 Greek maintains a very prominent place in our New Eng- 

 land colleges, necessitating from two to four years of special 

 preparation for admission. However valuable a course of 

 study and training in the ancient classics may be, and its 

 value I do not care to deny, there is an increasing number 

 of young men whose educational needs the classic college 

 does not supply. These cannot, or for good reasons will 

 not, spend from two to four years in preparation for college, 

 four years in college, and from one to four years in prepara- 

 tion for the business they have chosen. And many of the 

 graduates of our classic colleges deplore the waste of the 

 years spent in the study of the dead languages, and demand 

 that the college course shall be so changed as to give to the 

 modern languages and to the natural sciences most of the 

 time now given to Latin and Greek. The State College, by 

 its course as now proposed and in good part arranged, meets 

 the wants of those young men who desire to pursue a col- 

 lege course of study, ])ut do not wish to spend much time 

 in the study of the ancient classics. The classic colleges 

 continue the work begun in the classic department of our 

 high schools, the State College should continue the work 

 begun in the English department of our high schools. The 

 State College will thus supplement the English high school, 

 as the classic college supplements the classic high school. In 

 the future as in the past many will successfully complete the 

 college course who have never attended a high school, but 

 have prepared for admission elsewhere. 



The main object of the college course should be to form 

 men intellectually and morally ; but while doing this, by 

 a well-arranged course of study and training the student 

 «can receive that practical instruction which will directly 



