40 Editorial Coinment. 
that it moves the sensibilities and warms the imagination. We 
do not affirm that Hteratiire is properly restricted to compositions 
of a nature so nearly on the level of popular sentiment, but we 
take our literary critics at their word, and speak from the liter- 
ary standard which the}' set up, and contemplate that public 
estimate of "literature" which their verdicts create and sanction. 
The undoubted facts being such as we have indicated, the predis- 
position to studies called literary, exerts upon the choice of 
students a controlling influence next to that of the fashionable 
affectations of classical culture. Literary studies, therefore, 
possess the adventitious power of pushing their own way, and 
guaranteeing their own prosperity. Because they awaken a 
wide interest in the scholastic community^ they feel free to 
make large demands on the sources of financial nurture; and 
the almoners of such nurture feel justified in graduating their 
generositv to the standard of the popular sentiment. 
Even within the circuit of the academic curriculum, there is 
often present a pi^ofessional motive which predisposes toward 
certain lines of study. Not unfrequently the academic course 
is pursued with ultimate reference to a course in law or medi- 
cine. \\'ith legal aiuis, linguistics and literature — including as 
before, history and civics — are conceived to be more germane 
than the natural sciences. With medical aims, Latin and chem- 
istry are thought to be more ancillary than the natural sciences. 
And among the latter, botany and zoology are thought to sus- 
tain more hopeful relations than geology. More frequently, 
the academic course is pursued with the purpose of engaging 
temporarilv, or sometimes permanently, in the profession of 
teaching. The foremost question before the mind in such case 
is, for what department of teaching is the demand most active? 
The statement of the question suggests the answer. The chief 
demand is in those studies which the university pronounces pre- 
requisites for entrance upon collegiate courses, and which by 
implication are the fundamentals of a good secondary or sub- 
collegiate education. In other words, the student who is aim- 
ing at a position as teacher, will seek to familiarize himself 
with linguistics, mathematics or literature. Where natural his- 
tory and geology are not demanded by the university as pre- 
paratoi-y for college, the schools will not offer preparation in 
