352 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



degree, and no regular account is kept of attendance at lectures. He 

 must give due notice of his intention to be a candidate, and must pre- 

 sent a list of the lectures he has heard, the list certified by the signatures 

 of the professors and of the quaestors ; the latter officer vouches for 

 the payment of all fees. But, most important of all, he must present 

 a dissertation which shall be an original and thorough investigation in 

 some portion, no matter how minute, of his general field of research. 

 Though he is treated to a rigorous oral examination, this written 

 work has the greater weight in forming the decision of the examiners. 

 But the degree is, after all, of little importance to the student ; the 

 question is, whether he would do well to study at the German univer- 

 sity at all. In general, we may answer that the center of the world's 

 scholarship is there, and, if a young man knows that he wants learning, 

 there is the place to get it at its best. The allowances to be made for 

 pedantry are not so grave as we are wont to imagine, and the fruits of 

 ripe and patient investigation are offered, with a generous hand, in 

 both lecture-room and pamphlet. There is, after all, no paradox in 

 the conclusion that, while the boy may lose promptness, alertness, 

 manners, fluency in English, and even health, the man gains, besides 

 knowledge, incentives and standards that may make him a better 

 citizen. 



STATE USURPATION OF PAEENTAL PUKCTIONS. 



By Sib AUBERON HEEBEET. 



{Letter to the London '■^ Times.'''') 



SIR : Your reviewer, reviewing Mr. Spencer's valuable book of 

 "Man vs. The State" with great sympathy and interest, seems to 

 wonder why Mr. Spencer does not believe in and admire the Factory 

 Acts. Surely to protect children against parents greedy of gain is 

 and must be a right act seems to be his instinctive thought, as it is 

 that of so many other persons. 



Will you let me point out one reason why these acts were and 

 always will be, till they are swept away, a very mischievous, though 

 a well-meant, stupidity ? They simply are one among the many other 

 stupid attempts to make an official regulation take the place of the 

 unselfish care of parents for their children. How absurd the whole 

 thing seems as one looks quietly back on what took place ! Before any 

 acts were passed, parents were supposed — and probably with justice 

 enough in many cases — to be overworking their children, selling their 

 bone and muscle for the wages they received. The acts are passed, 

 and then the air is filled with congratulations on the immense progress 

 made. Moloch shall not be worshiped any more ; the white slavery 

 is over ; neither the manufacturer nor the parent shall draw an unholy 



