260 SCIENCE SKETCHES. 



to that of our best classical colleges ; for in the 

 American system the university methods of work 

 will begin lower down than in Germany. This is 

 associated with our qualities as a people as com- 

 pared with the Germans. The American youth of 

 twenty-one is more independent, more self-reliant, 

 and so far as his relation to the world is concerned, 

 more mature than the average German student is 

 at twenty-five. America is, of all lands, the land of 

 protestantism ; and in education, as in other things, 

 every American is a law unto himself. This fact 

 has its bad side as well as its good side, but is a 

 fact nevertheless ; and as educators of Americans 

 we must take it into account. 



The old forms in education are passing away; 

 the old barriers are being taken down ; the old 

 restraints are being removed or relegated to the 

 days of boyhood and girlhood. All this we can 

 see, for it takes place before our eyes ; it is taking 

 place under our hands, and this whether we wish 

 it or not. The college boy is becoming a man, and 

 the college woman now stands beside him. Not all 

 are ready for freedom, perhaps, who have freedom 

 thrust upon them. There are not a few students 

 to whom an enforced discipline is the only road 

 to scholarship. But with all imaginable drawbacks 

 our college work in America yields every year 

 better results than it has ever yielded before. We 

 may be sure that in the future, even more than 

 in the past, the American college, the American 

 university, will stand in the front rank of civilizing 

 influences. 



