Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1885-06-20
ELECTIVES IN COLLEGES.
EFFECT OF THE voLUNTARY PRINCE
PIE UPOS THoROUGH CULTURE
The Distinctions of College and Academy-Har-
wards Misguided Attempt to Make Univer-
sity students From sophomoros--Coursc
of Conservative Christian Colleges.

Rev. DIR. Henry Nj. MacCracken, who has i
recently been made vice-cbancellor of the | v
university OF the city of New York, recently
delivered an address on ''rhe Voluntary
Principle in College Education and Disci-
pline before clerical association. About
100 leading clergymen Of New York and its
vicinity were present, and an earnest discus
sion followed the address. The following is
the substance of the address:
Let u.s. in beginning, distinguish the col
lege from the academy or high school, which
nevertheless is its vestibule or threshold, and
from the university which has as its object
professional or special training, while the
college makes most prominent a general
mental training preparatory alike TO all the
professions aud To other serious busir ess of
life. or To use an easily remembered SEN
tence which approaches correctness: The
| college is a school that teaches something
| about everything tho university is "a collec-
tion of schools, each of which teaches every
| thing about something. Let us not think
| of the college or any part of IL as university
| of arts and science. Dr. Patton in the last
| Presbyterian Reuter-, argues against post
ponng the university work In arts aud |
| science till after graduation from college. He |
| proposes to begin IT with the junior year |
just as President Elliott proposes TO begin |
| it with the freshman. DIR. Patton gives |
three argumentsagainst postponement: first,
life is not long enough, nor money abundant
enough second, he says " the university
| tDdt would make AZ tue
condition of admission to lectures in its
faculty of arts would have very few stu
dents"; third "President Eliot, of Har-
ward, says that the plan of adding the uni
yersty course 10 the college course Is not
possible (which three arguments, like
FdistdB'S eleven men in buckram, can be
disposed of by one word of plain fact The
one only foundation in America that has
made it its principal business to set up a
university faculty in arts and science, mean
John Hopkins (whose work have studied
by personal inspection and by careful read
| ing of its publications), enrolls this year ia
| graduate students in arts and science repre-
scnting ninety seven colleges.
$ Harvard may be pardOned for attempting
{ To manufacture corps of university students
| in arts out OF sophomores, because she has
u failed after two centuries of existence to
y gather one-thrd as many graduate students
a | as John :. Hopkins has gathered after less
than ten years. Professor Patton, too may
be pardoned for attempting to make body
Il of university students out of Juniors aud
:, seniors, because the situation of Princeton
:, college in country village iorbids her ex-
u | pecting ever to attract many graduate
II | students in arts and science outside Of those
! who are pursuing at the same time theology.
J. But better for America one faculty of arts
$. and science with III students all past the de-
n, gree of bachelor than q score of cheap univer-
" sity courses made by an extravagant multi.
le plying of undergraduate electives to the in.
D. jury OF the college in its prime object.
10 WHAT CHOICE SHALL BE GIVEN.
Granting then the college to he a place e
learn something of everything for the SAX,
of mental training and for propmdeutic pur
poses, as well as for the other uses of tn,
Is knowledge acquired, aud the question is
he | How far shall choice to fields of stud,
az | or as to the amount Of study in each field b
admitted. The question ~ not, Shall an,
H. choice be given BY the last report of tn
l. | commissioner of education there are 365 col
- leges in America, OF which go are sufficient
i' ly active to send report Ofthcse in roun
rs, numbers, forty offer but one course, and tina
m classical ten one course, and that scientific
while 200 offer both classical and scentifi
ic- courses. Many Of them offer also a large
ye, variety Of courses. The question, then,
lao | not whether choice in courses and studle
"o shall be given, but what choice shall b
er. given?
of / maintain two positions as bulwarks ,
, :, | the true college education: First, the choic
afforded by colleges 10 their students seekin
EN- | tho degree of bachelor should be strictly
: - choice between or among full courses adni
ting as full courses such as include through
,,, out four years studies in considerable amour
s ha' in each OF the three great fields-languae
nm and literature, mathematics and natur
he science, history and.philosophy. | would ~
sed withhold the name of full course from OF
which gave, i'll the field of languages an
literature, the modern larger measure
use time than the ancient and classical; b,
b;s | second, There should be a clear distnctiC
made between two full courses, one of whi,
oi included the classes and the other no la
are guage save the modern, and this by rcser
1se. ing for the former the degree of \. b., gi
ary | ing the latter Ph. b. or H. =.
for These positions are to-day assailed pOwe
,,L fully. The opposition may be named fro
~ the leaders Of its two wings, the Harval
mai wing and the Johns Hopkins. Harvard cri
cer " Down with the so-called full course throul
tied four years let it end at freshman" Ha
il ward to-day takes the man through fres
tho | man, the boy rather of sixteen or seyente,
~ and says, now taken for the sophomore ye
'oa physical geography, moteoroogy, zoolog
geology and botany and we will pass "
to the Junior. For the junior take ad va
tir- ced zoology, advanced botany advanced 9
n ia ology ard biology, and we pass you to So
ior For senior take embryology, entom,
gy, advanced morphology and histolog
phanerograms historical geology and strU
CIV ture and development of cryptograms, al
mes we make you Bachelor of Arts-thou,
800 you have never seen logic or a mental
the moral philosophy or a modern history or
II tronomy-never have seen these and othe
ao equally important in all your life thou,
90 you have never seen book in French, q,
yer, man, Greek or Latin, or even a book in ge
zen. eral English literature, save in your ear
is a days AS freshman
ath- DEMANDS FULL COURSE FOR "a. H."
res. The Johns Hopkins wing commits no su
les folly as this. 1t agrees with the conservati
7 Christian college in demanding for A. b
3; full course. Its one otIense against soul
ats learning is its putting two young men on t
uld same footing for degree, one OF who
enters sophomore with three years of Gre
and three years of Latin-and who pursu
these Languages and also French and Germ
for two years further; the other of who
ears enters sophomore without a particle of Gre
icle or Latin, and with but one year of Fren
IN and German and who learns no Greek
Latin in his three years remaining of und,
to a graduate instruction. Johns Hopkins putt
bar | premium on its college course upon neglt
ltri of the ancient languages, for it gives A. Is.
the student who neglects them IN at least o
girl year shorter time than To the student w
| studies them.
cen Let us repel the Harvard wing OF assailal
ing by the following arguments against inyiul
sophomores to become specialists, and y
mar obtain A. b.. 1t is injustice to boy
ears , So,ei'oon.s,ia =, ,0 e. 20, ,"a 1, oiii ~; -
y 40 mature marriage of himself to some "ology
his or "ism," and New England youth a
ned ! prone enough to mistaken marriages, requ
ing frequent divorces, without Harvard G
couraging them. How can the youth