944 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



On the Studies Proper to be Pursued Preparatory to Admis- 

 sion TO College. By Frederick A. P. Barnard, LL. D,, 

 President of Columbia College. 



Whenever it happens that any subject interesting to man be- 

 comes matter of protracted controversy, the zeal of opposing 

 parties often carries them so far as to make both of them equally 

 intolerant of one who is not wholly with themselves, though at 

 the same time he may be by no means with their adversaries. 

 The task, therefore, of one who undertakes to show — what is 

 usually true — that to a certain extent both parties are in the right, 

 while neither is wholly so, is by no means an easy one. ■ He is 

 very likely to incur the disapproval of both, while he is not sure 

 to conciliate the favor of either. 



This consideration embarrasses me in the attempt I am about to 

 make, to exhibit certain views connected with our system of higher 

 education, founded upon convictions which have long been gradu- 

 ally growing upon me, but which I apprehend are not likely to be 

 in full accordance with those of any considerable number of the 

 experienced educators whom I have the pleasure of addressing. 



In the discussions which have taken place in our time with 

 respect to the merits of our system of collegiate education, the 

 field has been occupied almost exclusively by two parties holding 

 opinions widely discordant ; so much so indeed as hardly to admit 

 of any description of compromise. One of these parties, which 

 may properly be styled the conservative, has made classical learn- 

 ing its watchword, and has steadily resisted the encroachments 

 upon our time honored course, of modern science in all its 

 branches. It has regarded every slight recognition which has 

 been made of the value of this knowledge, as an unwise concession 

 to popular clamor, and a wrong done to the cause of education ; 

 and has maintained, or if it spoke its full thought would doubtless 

 maintain, that the collegiate education of this country was vastly 

 better at the close of the eighteenth century than it is now, in the 

 middle of the nineteenth. The other, which styles itself the pro- 

 gressive, and is styled by its opponents the destructive party, 

 denounces with contempt a system which rests, as it asserts, upon 

 a literature and a history which have long since ceased to have any 

 living interest for the human race ; and occupies itself with the 

 painful study of languages which exist only as literary curiosities, 

 and which will never more be eitder spoken or written ; while 

 shutting its eyes to the condition of the living world of to-day, it 



