EVOLUTION OF THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM. 243 



in the personal presence of Agassiz ; and when he 

 died, it vanished. 



The final theory of the patchwork stage of the 

 curriculum has been, as I have said, that of 

 breadth of culture. The student should possess 

 the elements of everything, that no part of the 

 world should be a sealed book, that no part of his 

 mind should be developed at the expense of any 

 other. But the result was, in a general way, oftener 

 confusion than culture. The bed-rock of the mind 

 was never reached. So far as mental training was 

 concerned, almost every result of this curriculum 

 was distinctly inferior to that secured by the old 

 classical course. In broadening and modernizing 

 the curriculum, its sharpness as an implement was 

 lost. The only real gain in the change, according 

 to Professor Bain, has been *' the relaxation of the 

 grip of Classicism." Another was perhaps that 

 many who got nothing from the old course could 

 with the right kind of teachers get something from 

 this. But a criticism I once heard at one of our 

 college exhibitions was still pertinent as to most of 

 the work done by either professor or student under 

 this regime : "What the boys want is to plough a 

 little deeper. There is nothing like subsoiling ! " 



From the second to the third stage" in its his- 

 tory the curriculum of the American college is 

 now passing. This is marked by the advent of 

 the elective system. It is impossible to study 

 everything or even many things in four years. 

 Thoroughness of any sort is incompatible with 

 the so-called breadth of culture characteristic of 

 the patchwork era. True breadth of culture comes 



