SECRETARY'S REPORT. 179 



are amply sufficient for the accommodation of all, and many 

 more, I do not suppose they are charged with rent. 



The students of the higher institute are admitted, after the 

 age of eighteen, without examination, on certificate of willing- 

 ness on the part of parents and of industry and good conduct 

 at the schools hitherto attended, and at any time during the year, 

 and are held to no very rigid discipline, being required to attend 

 three of the regular courses every week, which they may select. 

 They rise and go to bed when they choose, and employ their 

 time as they choose, and go out from the institute with an ex- 

 amination. Many sons of wealthy families are no doubt attracted 

 there by the beauty of the institution for an agreeable temporary 

 residence. They have as complete control of their time and their 

 actions, within the reasonable limits of good conduct of course^ 

 as the students at our law, medical and divinity schools. It 

 may not be generally known that all students in German uni- 

 versities are left or thrown upon their own responsibility to a 

 far greater extent than the students of any of our colleges. 

 Their whole early education familiarizes them with this liberty, 

 and it is not probably so liable to abuse as it would be with us. 

 But it is no less true that real severe study requires the stimu- 

 lus of emulation, and necessity or compulsion, especially upon 

 minds not arrived at full maturity. 



The lectures begin at six o'clock in the morning in summer 

 and at seven o'clock in the winter, and end at seven o'clock in 

 the evening throughout the year. They continue with only two 

 hours' intermission for dinner at noon. Two lectures, for differ- 

 ent sections, are often going on at the same time. It may be 

 proper to remark that there is a sort of impassable aristocratic 

 barrier between the institute pupils and those of the school of 

 practical agriculture. The instructors of the institute alone bear 

 the title of professors, a dignity rather inaccessible to the tutors 

 and teachers in the lower or school of practice, although these 

 latter often give courses before the students of the institute. This 

 barrier falls, no doubt, when they separate at the close of the 

 course and go out to take their places in society, according to 

 the capacities of each. I avn inclined to think it is a fact that 

 the graduates of the lower school are more successful in secur- 

 ing places as stewards and managers of estates than those of the 

 institute, many of whom have to rely on such positions. 



