20 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



to adopt. I had then no very positive ideas on the subject. I had 

 thought of the church, of law, and of medicine, and so I told him. 

 We were then about half-way up the board-walk that extended from 

 the corner of Third and Walnut Streets to the Capitol-grounds. He 

 stopped, and, turning to me, said : " Ah, my young friend, the most 

 difficult task you have before you is to make the right choice. A bad 

 start at the beginning is almost certain to result in a bad race and a 

 bad finish. Don't leave it to chance. Think it over, and then decide." 



I thanked him. 



" One thing more," he said. " If, after you have decided, you find 

 that you have acted hastily and without the knowledge of yourself 

 that was necessary, don't be afraid or ashamed to change. Don't stick 

 to a profession for which you are unsuited merely for the sake of 

 sticking. It is better, however, to be sure in the first place." 



Perhaps even at that time he had it in his mind to found this uni- 

 versity. The world knows that he made no mistake. He had deter- 

 mined what to do, and how to do it ; his brain worked easily and it 

 worked well ; and what he apparently did in the way of accumulating 

 wealth for his own advantage was in reality done for the advantage 

 of his fellow-creatures, whom he loved as members of the universal 

 brotherhood to which he belonged. 



GEEMAK TESTIMONY ON THE CLASSICS QUESTION. 



By FKEDEEIK A. FEENALD. 



THE German practical-schools {Bealschulen) are a recent institu- 

 tion as compared with the classical-schools {Gymnasien), and 

 have never yet obtained more than a scanty allowance from the pub- 

 lic treasury, from which their ancient rivals have long received an 

 abundant support. But, in spite of this and many other disadvan- 

 tages, the practical-schools have gradually increased in efficiency until 

 they now furnish a training which, in the opinion of a large party in 

 Germany, prepares students to enter upon a university course. In 

 compliance with the demand of this party, the Prussian Minister of 

 Public Instruction, in December, 1870, ordered that graduates of prac- 

 tical-schools of the first class should be admitted to courses in modem 

 languages, mathematics, and natural science, at the universities of 

 Prussia, withholding from them, however, admission to the studies 

 of mental philosophy, philology, history, political economy, law, the- 

 ology, and medicine, and leaving closed the avenues to the majority 

 of state appointments, which are immensely more important to uni- 

 versity men in Germany than in the United States. After an experi- 

 ence of eight years the Philosophical faculty of the Friedrich Wilhelm 



