EVOLUTION OF THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM. 239 



of the judgment through its exercise on first-hand 

 knowledge. Wherever science is yet in the meshes 

 of bookishness, it is best that students should be 

 turned away from it. Wherever its limbs are free, 

 it will hold its own, whatever the pressure from 

 those who do not value it as a factor in education. 

 In other words, a competent teacher of science 

 need never complain of obstacles in his way, for 

 the odds are all on his side. The same thing is 

 true, I believe, of a competent teacher in any other 

 department. A growing man incites growth ; but 

 even mould will not grow on a fossil Some ten 

 years ago I heard a College President boast that 

 although his college had two other courses, yet 

 three fourths of his students had been kept in the 

 classical course. My question was, Wliat sort of 

 teaching have you in science? There was nothing 

 worth speaking of; only husks which the swine 

 w^ould not eat, and the most hungry student could 

 not. 



As I have said, I do not think that the average 

 college curriculum, as we have known it in this 

 second stage, is the result of any sort of theory of 

 education, of any appreciation of the relative value 

 of studies, or of any thought as to the best order in 

 which such subjects could be arranged. I have 

 myself taken part in the preparation of too many 

 such courses to have much respect for them. 

 They are simply the results of an attempt to put a 

 maximum of topics into a minimum of terms, — to 

 squeeze ten years of subjects into four years of 

 time. The predominance of one group of subjects 

 in a course reflects the predominance of some pro- 



