New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-05-05
EDUCATIONAL AFFAIRS.
NEWS OF THE COLLEGES AND UNIVERSE
TIES-NOTES OF INTEREST.
A LITERARY CENSUS OF THE UNDERGRADU
ATES AT PRINCETON-AN linden OF THE
READING DONE BY STUDENTS.

ATEs AT PRINCETON-AN INDEX OF THE
READING DONE BY STUDENTS.
pri,ce+on \ T Nav during the last year
an interesting literary census has been taken
among the undergraduates of Princeton UNI
versity and the results have been given in the
April number of THE Nassau Literary Maya
zine" just published. This census was uhuef-
taken to find out what was the literary at
mosphere" of the university, about winch 81
many conflicting reports have been MADE NJ
man had a large and varied enough acquaintance
among the students to estimate their literary
life CORRECTLY If his intimate friends were
studious he would say that the standard was
very high: at the time another man. pet
fer acquainted with the loafing crowd, would
give a very discouraging estimate.
Rut since the actual record has been COM
piled in figures and percentages, 1t is easy u
reach more adequate estimate OF the reaoiiis
of the undergraduates An important Hlo'i'e
was to encourage each student TO READ 'ie
standard books contained in the census hs''
Ignorance and carelessness are perhaps INC
chief cause of a shallow acquaintance with
good literature. and when man makes d
photographed inventory. such as this census
necessitated, he is brought Sharply u ooiieO'
appreciation of his defects.
A list of books was drawn UP and submitted
to five prominent members of the faculty ior
criticism. The corrected list was then prlhteo
and distributed among the studehts' each Va
whom checked off what books or poems ne hao
read and returned it to the compilers EVERY
possible precaution was taken to insure dennlte-
ness; for instance the student was not asked
| if he had read Dickens but whether he had
read David Copperfield," Martin Chuzzlewit'
etc AS regards the composition of the list, the
. "A
standard fiction such as should form part OF
the foundation of every liberal English educa-
ton. Recent popular writer's were not included
because the list would be too long ana IN many
cases 1t was considered doubtful whether an
acquaintance with Kipling, Hope, Crockett, etc..
was essential to a liberal education. The desire
was not to find out ali the books that the I'M
dersraduates had read, but which of the books
, in the list they had read. The list includes UNI
der essays the following authors: Addison, Mat
thew Arnold Burke. Carlyle Emerson. Fiske'
Holmes Irving Lamb, Lowell, Macaulay and
Ruskn. Under fiction these novelists We're in
Guided: Cooper Dickens. George Eliot, HaW-
thorne Kingsley, Scott, Stevenson and ThacK-
cray Under poetry the list contains these
names: Arnold, Browning, Mrs. Browning,
Burns Byron Coleridge Hood, Keats, Long
fellow, Lowell, Macaulay, Marlowe, Milton,
William Morris, Poe, Shakespeare Shelley.
worth 1t also includes few biographies
travels, histories and miscellaneous books such
| as Robinson Crusoe," The Pilgrims Progress,
| Darwin's Descent of Man" etc.
The number of students who sent in their
records is 626. 90 per cent of the 1,O49 UNI
dergraduateS in the university. These records
have been arranged according TO the rank,
course and class of the men. So far be
ascertained this is the first time that literary
census of such magnitude and thoroughness
has been compiled. and as the work has
don al,- I1-n 1Aav hItatn in
addition to their regular college duties, II has
been found necessary to postpone the publication
| be classified according to religious denomina-
| tons, cities, States preparatory schools, in
tended professions and fathers professions. The
! single table that has been published involved
the careful examination of 296. 724 separate
swers,. the calculation of 10 16s percentages and
| of 5,6SS averages.
! The men in the academic departments. e.,
/ candidates for the degree of Bachelor of Arts
! are found to have read more poetry more Of
| Matthew Arnold's and Enersons essays, Of
| Hawthorne, Kingsley and Stevenson: yet, on the
| whole, the scientific mem e, candidates FOR
! Bachelor Of Scienee-seem to have been less
! erratic, more symmetrical in their reading.
/ In the comparison Of classes the Junior is the
! best read-better even than the senior; although
: the seniors excel IL poetry and the freshmen
have read more Of Holmes, Lamb, Lowell and
! Cooper In fiction there is little difference be-
| tween tie classes but in poetry there is wide
! difference, showing that good poetry is read
! a great deal more in college than standard fc-
! ton. The poetry varies all the way from
!
! of the students have read, to "Evangeline' and
! Paul Revere's Ride" each 81 per cent.
| Longfellow is by far the most popular poet,
| then come Shakespeare, Burns, Whittier Ten
| nyson, and so on, ending with Words worth,
| Shelley, Mrs. Browning, Morris and Arnold.
! The most popular of Shakespeare's plays are
| Hamlet" Julius Cesar" "Otheo." Romeo
and Juliet; of Tennysons poems. THE Charge
OF the Light Brigade 40 per cent?. In essays,
| Irving comes first. then Burke and finally Ar
mold. Fiske and Lowell. In fiction three rough
groups can be traced according to preference:
First, Scott, Cooper and Dickens second Ste
| venson and Hawthorne; third Thackeray,
Kingsley and George Eliot But of these
| are so popular as Robinson Crusoe' C}3 per
| cent?. The academic classes are divided into
! four groups. according to their rank in scholar
| ship. OF these groups the relative order in the
| amount of their reading is: In fiction, ID 4th,
| Sd and LIST; in poetry, LIST. I'd and Sd.
AS a whole, the table shows excellent ac-
quaintance with standard literature and indi-
Gates healthy tone in the literary life of the
undergraduates further proved by the fact that
such a work has been voluntarily accomplished.
| HARVARDS WESTERN INFLUENCE
A MISSOURI SCHOLARSHIP EsTABLIsHED-A MIN