236 SCIENCE SKETCHES. 



to the college or gymnasium or the university is, 

 among the educated classes in these countries, a 

 matter of course to a much greater extent than 

 can be the case in America. The Bachelor's degree 

 in America, or even the Doctor's degree, carries no 

 privileges of any sort worth the name. Very few 

 of our students would work for a degree if it were 

 believed that the title were all they got. Thus it 

 comes about that in America the average student 

 goes to college or is sent to college for the help to 

 be gotten from study rather than for the sake of 

 graduation. And he must be convinced, or his 

 parents must be convinced, that this good is a 

 real good, or he will not seek it. Thus the differ- 

 ence in the conditions under which our colleges 

 work has tended to modify and modernize the 

 curriculum more rapidly than has been the case 

 in the corresponding schools in Europe. 



Many devices have been adopted for dealing 

 with the modern studies. Some have admitted 

 them as extras, or, in the expressive language of 

 a New York College President, as " side-fixings," 

 reserving the old-time Tripos as the solid part of 

 the scholastic meal. But no matter how little a 

 hold these modern studies had, their presence has 

 weakened the force of the old-time discipline. It 

 is a law of physics that two bodies cannot occupy 

 the same space, not even though one of them 

 be badly squeezed. And these subjects will sub- 

 mit to squeezing no better than the others. So 

 part of the old course must be crowded out and 

 part of the new must be admitted on terms of 

 more or less perfect equality with the former ; or 



