Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1913-09-26
HATH COLLEGE YEAR.
President Thomas Delivers Elo-
quent Address to Students.

Jne opening OF Jne ll4ln year VI hlNuiS
bury College described the changes in
the course of study, which were de-
clared to be the most important step
forward which Middlebury College has
taken since the announcement of the
first elective courses in 1890, The ad-
dress was in part as follows;
Zone day during the summer looked
over with a good deal of interest col
lection of old Middlebury College cata-
logues in the Egbert Starr Library. l
examined particularly the issue of the
year 1899, seventy-four years ago. 1t
was a slight pamphlet of sixteen pages,
three of which were blank. The Faculty
consisted of three professors and two
tutors. The names of the students were
printed in large type, page to class,
the Senior class being nearly twice as
large as the Freshman. The admission
requirements were Andrews and Stod-
dard's Latin Grammar, Cicero's Select
Orations, Vergil, Sallust, Greek Gram
mar, Jacob Greek Reader or an equiva
lent, Latin Prosody, Writing Latin,
Arithmetic and Geography. There was
no requirement of Algebra or Geome
try, no history, no science, no English,
no modern language.
The course of study for Freshmen
consisted Of Xenophon, Livy, Homer
and Horace Algebra and Solid Geome-
try Tytler's History and Porter's
Analysis The Sophomores continued
Homer and Horace, finished Euclid,
read further in Xenophon and Cicero,
and as foretaste of Junior year took
up Demosthenes and Tacitus In mathe-
mates they were advanced through
Trigonometry, and the only other sub
jects of the year were Jamison's Rheto-
ric and Whately's Logic. In Junior year
the students completed Demosthenes and
Tacitus, and were introduced to Sopho-
cles and Euripides, and made to master
Cicero's De Oratore. The fall term of
the Senior year was the only term of
the four years in which there was no
Latin or Greek but in the remainder of
the year there was a review of all that
had been read throughout the course, in
preparation for the final examination,
which included every subject pursued
during the students four years. Yet
the Senior found time also for Blair
Rhetoric, Paley' Moral and Political
Philosophy, Vattell's Law of Nature
and Nations, Locke's Essay on the
Human Understanding, Stewards Ele-
ments of Philosophy, Buffers Analogy,
and little Zoology and Geology.
Turning from this old catalogue of
1889 to the Senior class which published
it, one finds material for reflection Of
the twenty-one scarcely man failed to
achieve a position of leadership in the
in which he lived. Lysander
Kelley became superintendent of the
American Home Missionary society in
Ohio and pressed on with the vanguard
of American pioneers until he reached
Oregon, still a missionary, at the age
of 73. Alexander Miller became presi- |
dent of a college for women in Ohio,
now part of the Ohio Wesleyan Uni
versity, twelve years before Vassar
College was opened. Henry Norman
Hudson, whom tradition designates as
the lad who walked from Cornwall bare
foot every day until the snow to save
the wear on his shoes, became the inter-
prefer of Shakespeare to the American
people, his lectures and annotated edi-
tions having had a larger circulation
than any similar publications ever
issued. Most distinguished of all was
Edward J. Phelps. Kent Professor of
Law at Yale, President of the Ameri-
can Bar Association, Minister to the
Court of st. James, Counsel for the
United States in the Behring Sea Arbi-
tration, a lawyer learned shrewd and
a diplomat unsurpassed in
the brilliant records of American Diplo-
macy, a gentleman whose essential
democracy never marred his cultured
grace.
These were the men who spent four
years with Homer and Cicero, Demos
themes and Tacitus, with a sprinkling
of Mathematics, Paley, and Butler The
curriculum by which they were educated
was practically the same pursued by all
classes of this college from its founda
tion to about thirty years ago.
There was one feature of the old
curricula which was chief factor in
the making of the men whom we regard
with such honor. There were certain
subjects, closely interrelated, which
every student pursued thoroughly. He
began with Latin and Greek and he
continued with Latin and Greek to the
final examination Two thirds of his
time in Freshman and Sophomore years
was devoted to the classics, and about
one-half the time of Junior and Senior