Editorial Comment. 
39 
liberal education, and they are induced to devote four formative 
and determinative years of their education to the same studies as 
occupied the youths of the dark ages. The high educational 
authorities do not inform them that real culture w^ould result 
also from the devotion of four preparatory years to the modern 
languages and the natural sciences, and the faithful prosecution 
of a collegiate quadrennium inaugurated by such a preparation. 
In all sincereity and earnestness, therefore, the candidate for a 
diploma of culture places himself in a position where the old 
trivium appropriates the lion's share of his efforts during a 
period of six or eight years. The classical department of the 
university is thronged, consequently, w^ith those who have been 
taught, and honestly believe, that no liberal education is possi- 
ble without such offerings of time, labor and money as it exacts. 
Of classical learning in the abstract we have nothing adverse to 
offer. We wish only to make clear the nature of the conflict 
for educational existence which geology is compelled to wage. 
Among the more moiern subjects which have gained recog- 
nition in the collegiate curriculum, the class which may be 
called " literary " possesses marked advantages over the scientific 
— especially those studies in natural science which are not re- 
garded as leading directly to some money-making profession. 
Chemistry, in its accessory relations to medicine, pharmacy and 
metallurgy, falls into the fortunate category of "practical" and 
"productive" studies, and has little fight to make in securing 
appreciation and support. But the literary group of studies 
obtain appreciation and support through the relation of their 
subject matter to popular literature. They present no array of 
technical terms or conceptions. Their language is that of the 
intelligent public, and their themes are those which beforehand 
occupy the thoughts of the masses of intelligent readers. Lit- 
erature and history, in their educational pursuit, make compara- 
tively light demands on the powers of abstraction, induction 
and reflection. Their themes also lie close to the personal ex- 
periences and interests of the reader. They are narratives of 
social life, dressed in pleasing style, or of biographical adven- 
ture, or of national happenings in which a few heroic personali- 
ties constantly appeal to the personal interest of the reader. 
The subject-matter is easily comprehended, at the same time 
