EVOLUTION OF THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM. 229 



to the excess or deficiency in denominational zeal, 

 or to the exigencies of the struggle for existence. 

 For the fiercest conflicts of the average American 

 college have not been with the black giant Igno- 

 rance, but with the traditional wolf at the door. 

 In other words, this new country has not been lib- 

 eral in its support of higher education ; and more- 

 over the funds available for this purpose have been 

 used to found a multitude of weak schools rather 

 than to make a few schools strong. There have 

 been several reasons why this is so, and there are 

 some reasons why it has been well that it is so ; 

 but these questions I do not care to discuss now. 

 The law of the survival of the fittest can be de- 

 pended on to rectify sooner or later all mistakes 

 of this kind. Suffice it to say that we recognize 

 the existence of the American college, and that 

 this college possesses a more or less definite col- 

 lege curriculum. Of the changes in this curricu- 

 lum I wish now to speak. 



I shall not try to follow out in detail its history 

 prior to the time when its germs were brought to 

 us from England in the landing of the Pilgrims. 

 We can go back in England to the time when the 

 philosophy of Aristotle constituted the college 

 course. Then the entire curriculum was taught by 

 a single teacher, the man of universal knowledge. 

 This teacher for the most part gave his instruction 

 by dictation. The students noted down the con- 

 tents of old books, which the master himself had 

 copied before ; the place of the teacher was simply 

 that of a medium of communication between the 

 ancient manuscripts and their later duplicates. 



