The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-08-18

course at home and often, it is true, find
Their money well spent, when they see not
only the prosperity, but the intelligence and
high-toned lives, also, of which this expendi-
ture has been largely the cause But for the
many this plan is far too expensive, and there
fore impracticable. The question still re-
mains unanswered.
The validity of this position against the old
collegiate education is by no means univer-
sally acknowledged. Many educated men, as
| well in business as in the professions, con-
! tend that both time and money are well ex-
! pended for regular college course-Greek,
Latin, and mathematics that if young man
does enter the store or bank at eighteen or
twenty, and though neither Euripides, Ho-
race, nor the Calculus helps him in planning
ventures or in keeping a ledger, yet the we'll
balanced judgment which he brings with him,
as capital more than represents all that it cost.
This opinion, however, it is not our purpose
to discuss. We wish to present to those
parents who are unwilling to give their boys
classical educations other possibilities which
they may have overlooked.
1t is never denied, we suppose, that every
system of education must fulfil two condi-
tions-O That it strengthen, by develop
ing the mind and CD that it literally sup
ply valuable information. A boy who aim
to be an eminent merchant, therefore, no
more than one who is to study medicine, may
fail, without loss, to acquire by course of
study such intellectual power and genera
knowledge as will make him both the more
able to solve the problems of his occupation,
,,,1 l.. I'll. I
worthy of influential social position. Other
wise, though he be a member of a firm, he i 3,
below his proper station. His ability is of an
inferior grade, and his success is apt to be as
his ability. The examples of successful un-
educated men, few as compared with the
whole number of men in business, can gene
rally be accounted for opon the ground of
genius, self education, efficient help from
educated employees or partners. An educa-
ton for business, then, should fulfil both the
conditions named above, though, perhaps, it
should comply with the second in greater
degree than the first.
To furnish the course of study apparently
required for this purpose, several colleges
and among them our own University of Penn
sylvania-have so arranged their curriculums
that, while the classical or the scientific course
may still be pursued by those who wish it,
two other courses, the elective and the par
tial are open to other students. In the
former, a conspicuous place is assigned to the
modern languages and their literature, espe-
cially English French, and German, while
enough of abstract study remains to insure
mental development. AS set forth in the last
catalogue of the University, this course is un-
usually attractive; and, as at Harvard, is re-
warded at its completion with the degree of
A. B. The partial course is se5ecti0e, the stu
dent pursuing any selected course sanctioned
by the Faculty of Arts. No degree is given,
and therefore the time occupied by it may be
considerably shortened for students whose
age renders it advisable. During the last year
four students pursued studies belonging re-
gularly to the two first years, and a similar
plan might be pursued we suppose, for the
last two, if the case were urgent. Such a
''half loaf is surely better than mo bread "
Business men, whose sons are to succeed
in their firms, and who desire to avoid the
Scylla of what they term the g dead culture, "
find in these suggestions plan by which to
escape the Charybdis of no culture at all.
Many young men to-day read nothing but the
newspapers, because they lack the intelli-
| gence which makes standard works interest
ing. Hence their dissipated lives: they have
nothing else to do, after leaving the store. If
the boys who in the next generation are to
conduct the great material interests of our
country are to be at all equal to the possibili-
ties of the coming age, their intellectual
training must compare, more nearly than at
present, with that of our prospective lawyers,
physicians, and theologians.