/ 
 
 w 
 
 REESE LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Received W^?_^ _ .188 /_ 
 
 Accessions No./^2_?jf_ _ _ Shelf No. _ _ 
 
UNIFORM WITH THE A TLAS SERIES. 
 
 NEW DEPARTURES 
 
 IN 
 
 COLLEGIATE CONTROL 
 
 AND 
 
 CULTURE. 
 
 REV. CALEB MILLS, 
 
 EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF GREEK, VVABASH COLLEGE, IND. 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERS 
 
 CALIFOKN'/A. 
 
 A. S. BARNES & CO., 
 
 NEW YORK AND CHICAGO 
 1880. 
 
REESE LIBRARY 
 
 OP THB 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Received W!_ < 
 
 Accessions No. Z^^Z/^/. SJulf No., 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 I. INTRODUCTION. 
 II. OPPORTUNITIES AND OVERSIGHTS. 
 
 III. INSPECTION BY TRUSTEES. 
 
 IV. SUB-DIVISION OF CLASSES. 
 V. MODERN LANGUAGES. 
 
 VI. COLLEGE OPTIONALS. 
 VII. LENGTH OF THE COLLEGE YEAR. 
 VIII. THE BIBLE : A COLLEGE TEXT-BOOK. . 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1880, IJY A. S. BARNES & Co. 
 
INTRODUCTORY ^wx^. 
 
 REV. Caleb Mills, the first instructor, and for nearly forty years, 
 Professor of Greek at Wabash College, Indiana, was born at Dun- 
 barton, N. H. July 29th, 1806; graduated at Dartmouth College 
 in 1828, and, at Andover Theological Seminary, in 1833. He had 
 previously spent one year in Kentucky and Southern Indiana, in 
 Sunday school work, and, upon removal to Crawfordsville, Indiana, 
 with his wife, in the fall of 1833, he combined with educational Sun- 
 day school and missionary work, most earnest labor for the develop- 
 ment of that common school system, which is now the pride of In- 
 diana, and may justly recognize him, as its father. 
 
 In 1846, when the governors message, as usual at that date, ig- 
 nored common schools, Professor Mills, in his peculiarly striking and 
 direct method, published a " Message to the Legislature" signed, 
 " one of the people" This was followed by pithy Annual Messages, 
 year by year, until he became state superintendent of Education. In 
 that relation, as well as in that of college officer, he impressed his 
 views upon the people of that state. 
 
 A keen observer, a close and accurate scholar, genial in every re- 
 lation ; modest, but courageous ; uniformly conscientious, and su- 
 premely ruled by the fear of God and devotion to his Saviour, he was 
 marked for an intense yearning for the highest spiritual and mental 
 culture of the young of both sexes, as the hope of the nation. For 
 the young, he prayed fervently, a few hours before his death. 
 
 Declining to recognize literary titles, which were repeatedly ten- 
 dered, he was not without appreciation of the action of his Alma 
 Mater, which desired his acceptance of her highest honor, at his ap- 
 pearance on the fiftieth commencement day after his graduation. 
 
 One who was closely associated with him for nearly nine years, 
 in connection with Wabash College, and was at his side as he passed 
 away, now conforms to the wish expressed by him, on the day of his 
 decease, October, i/th, 1879, and no less tenderly than earnestly, 
 superintends the publication of his last message to scholars and the 
 people. May his last words bless ! 
 
 HENRY B. CARRINGTON. 
 
 CRAWFORDSVILLE IND. February, 1880. 
 
\ s '. 
 
L I 15 Iv' A k y 
 
 UNJ 
 
 NEW DEPARTURES 
 
 IN 
 
 COLLEGIATE CONTROL AND CULTURE. 
 
 HALF a century has passed since we bade our Alma Mater a 
 filial good-bye, and turned our back on the quiet village of her 
 residence, to face the stern realities of coming life. The semicenten- 
 nial anniversary of graduation furnished an opportunity to revisit that 
 locality, and recall the precious memories and hallowed associations of 
 college life. It was a source of no slight satisfaction to witness the 
 tokens of progress in her physical equipment and surroundings, and 
 note the evidence of a corresponding improvement in her literary 
 culture and curriculum. Proofs of the latter were no less manifest 
 and gratifying than marks of the former, both challenging the notice 
 of the graduate of fifty years ago. 
 
 A like change and advance are doubtless true, to a greater or less 
 degree, of all her compeers both in and out of New England. One 
 of the most striking and pleasant features of the picture to us, was 
 the contrast in the text-books, linguistic and mathematical, of the first 
 quarter of the current century and those now in use. Webber's 
 mathematics and Grceca Majora gave place to better substitutes, at 
 Harvard and Yale, at an earlier date than at some of their rural 
 sisters. Yet even in those venerable seats of learning, they lingered 
 far too long. The improvement in text-books during the interven- 
 ing period has been greatly surpassed by a superior advance in the 
 collateral helps, both Grammatical and Lexicographical. Hachen- 
 burg has been displaced by Crosby and Hadley. Old Schrevelius 
 has gracefully retired in favor of Liddell and Scott, and his cousin 
 Ainsworth has wisely followed the example in yielding his scepter to 
 Andrews and White. Old Lindley Murray has been totally eclipsed 
 by the superior orbs that now illuminate the grammatical heavens. 
 Whether his rays were obscured or absorbed by the superior efful- 
 
2 NEW DEPARTURES IN 
 
 gence of Brown or Maetsner, it matters not, they no longer reach 
 our vision. Webster of the first third of the century, and Webster 
 " unabridged," in likeness, have the comparative resemblance of 
 childhood and maturity. 
 
 The present programmes of culture, with their appropriate corps 
 of superior aids, are enough to make even a septuagenarian wish 
 himself a minor, " under tutors and governors." No. We recall 
 that wish and accept our lot and mission. We are not, indeed, the 
 men we would have been, had our efforts been aided by the literary 
 helps and guides of the current age, yet it is pleasant to reflect that 
 the results of the last generation's mission, even under all their dis- 
 advantages and lack of appropriate aids, are neither few nor small, and 
 it will become the future Sillimans, Marshes and Lewises to look well 
 to their line and degree of effort, lest they may seem to come short 
 of even an equal measure of eminence and usefulness to the race, 
 with their noble predecessors. 
 
 These historical incidents are, perhaps, the natural and appropri- 
 ate precursors as well as suggestive of the inquiry, is there not still 
 some occasion for additional progress in the line of new departures ? 
 Recent observation and inquiry only serve to confirm the impres- 
 sions that have long been crystallized into settled conviction that 
 there is yet not a little, that might wisely be done in the direction 
 of giving to our system of higher culture a little more stamina, 
 symmetry and completeness. While, in some departments, deficien- 
 cies of olden times have been supplied, progress substantial and 
 valuable has been made, and hope awakened that still greater may 
 be reached by similar wisdom and persistency of effort, yet in others, 
 evils that existed and attracted attention fifty years ago, are found, 
 in a great measure unredressed and undiminished in all the disas- 
 trous potency of their influence. 
 
 The memory of college life experience, half a century since, has 
 lost but little of its vividness and power, confirmed and intensified 
 as it has been, by subsequent and current observation. Convictions 
 then reached by the inexorable logic of personal experience, have 
 been clammering for utterance, audience and consideration, till 
 silence seem no longer wise or tolerable. Evils, whether moral, social 
 or political, will ultimately force themselves to the front, and demand, 
 at the bar of public opinion, both recognition and redress. Institu- 
 tions like individuals may fall into the ruts of evil habits, tolerate 
 shameful abuses and even gross wrong, till they have seemingly be- 
 
COLLEGIATE CONTROL AND CULTURE. 3 
 
 come oblivious both of their true character and existence. The 
 blinding influence of immemorial usages and the soporific power of 
 self-indulgence have contributed much to prolong the days of that 
 ignorance in which youth were defrauded of no small share of that 
 literary culture, to which their time, efforts and funds justly entitled 
 them. Let such usages, if they can offer no other plea for tolera- 
 tion than time honored custom, be relegated to the ages in which 
 they had their origin, and let that long slumber of apparently pro- 
 found indifference to the claims of justice and the demands of equity, 
 be broken by such an outburst of popular indignation as will not 
 only open the eyes of the transgressors and their abettors, but also, 
 make their very ears tingle. If any one wishes to have his convic- 
 tion of the reality and grossness of some of these hoary abuses in- 
 tensified, and his righteous indignation awakened at the tolerance of 
 short comings and official dereliction in the direction above named, 
 let him read the Report of the Royal Commissioners appointed to 
 inquire into the state, discipline, studies, and revenues of the Uni- 
 versity and College of Oxford, 760 pp. folio, 1852, and supplement 
 its perusal by a careful study of " The Recommendations of the Ox- 
 ford Commissioners with Selections from their Report," by J. Hey- 
 wood, M. P. and also the able articles on the above Document in 
 six of the large prominent English Quarterlies and two of our own.* 
 
 The unearthing of these hoary abuses and their exposure to the 
 sunshine of public inspection and comment have led to valuable re- 
 sults, not so much, perhaps, in the line of immediate modification 
 and radical correction, as in arresting the downward progress of 
 things at that ancient seat of learning and paving the way for sub- 
 stantial reform there and elsewhere, at no distant day. While these 
 reforms in the English Universities are advancing with the slow and 
 conservative progress so characteristic of that People, it may not be 
 unwise, nor inappropriate, to institute a few inquiries into some an- 
 tique customs in American Colleges. 
 
 The progress made in collegiate culture and curriculum in this 
 country, during the last fifty years, indicates a willingness to look 
 squarely in the face, usages of equivocal character, whenever shown 
 
 * Westminster Review, vol. 58. 1852, pp. 317-48. North British Review, vol. 18. 1852, 
 pp. 1-38. British Review, vol. 16. 1852, pp. 287-366. Edinburgh Review, vol. 96. 1852, 
 pp. 232-88. Quarterly Review, vol. 93* 1853, pp. 153-238. Dublin Review, vol. 36, 
 37. 1852, pp. 65. North American Review, vol. 76. 1852, pp. 87. Princeton Review, vol. 
 26. 1854, pp. 497-535- 
 
4 NEW DEPARTURES IN 
 
 to be in conflict with the interests of the Student, the obligations of 
 the Professor or the duty of the Trustee. A clear and distinct recog- 
 nition of the threefold elements in that entity, termed a college, is 
 essential to a wise discernment of its true mission and the best 
 method of its accomplishments. All hopes of a successful issue rest 
 on the judicious combination, candid sympathy and harmonious 
 action of these triple agents. Each must understand his own sphere, 
 responsibilities and possibilities, and all address themselves to their 
 appropriate work, with a purpose and principle that will command 
 as well as merit success. 
 
 The purpose of this paper is to call attention to some features of 
 current collegiate experience and usages that seem to furnish a 
 proper basis for, as well as demand discussion, and also, throw out 
 some suggestions in the direction of New Departures for the consid- 
 eration of those more immediately concerned. A board of associated 
 effort and trust is the nucleus of all collegiate enterprise, and around 
 this gravitates, in the natural order of sequence, a faculty and stu- 
 dents. This control and its associated elements constitute an insti- 
 tution which, once created, retains its existence and maintains its 
 activities through a series of agents, whose connection with it is 
 more or less temporary. The work goes on though the workmen 
 change. The governmental power and control remain unimpaired, 
 though the individual administrators do not continue, by reason of 
 age. The instruction is continuous and progressive according to the 
 type and attainments of the successive occupants of the professional 
 chairs. The student element also, is subject to an annual elimina- 
 tion of one fourth of its amount and a supplemental substitution of 
 a like volume of fresh material. This quadrennial change of the 
 entire student element, indicates the period of tutorial culture. The 
 success, growth, and perpetuity of the Institution depends on the 
 clear perception, by these three parties, of their respective reciprocal 
 duties and relations, and a corresponding purpose to be true to 
 their several trusts and obligations. 
 
 OPPORTUNITIES AND OVERSIGHTS. 
 
 There are chapters in human experience, both individual and 
 associated, of no inconsiderable extent and significance. More im- 
 pressive illustrations of the verity of the remark cannot be found 
 than those often occurring in the sphere of collegiate supervision and 
 
COLLEGIATE CONTROL AND CULTURE. 5 
 
 culture. College boards of control, whether perpetuated by a life 
 tenure, or a periodical election, often take far too limited and super- 
 ficial a view of the extent and character of their charges. Restrict- 
 ing their responsibilities to the increase, supervision and preservation 
 of the funds, filling vacancies in their own body and the corps of 
 instructors, and witnessing the graduating exercises of each succes- 
 sive class, they seem to regard an annual session of a closing hour, 
 (not unfrequently less,) as the full extent of the college claims on 
 their time and attention. Is this all that the prosperity and welfare 
 of the institution can justly claim at the hands of its trustees ? Are 
 they not in the highest sense the guardians of the students as well 
 as the custodians of the funds ? Do they not make the laws and 
 appoint the lower court, reserving to themselves appellate jurisdic- 
 tion in the last resort ? Have their wards no claim on them for 
 paternal notice, counsel and sympathy ? Could they not materially 
 benefit the youth, in charge, by the provision for the delivery of, at 
 least, one or more annual lectures, by one of their number, shortly 
 after the opening of the college year, in which the mutual relations 
 of the Board, Faculty and Students would be so portrayed as to 
 correct many of the misconceptions which are so often industriously 
 inculcated and fostered by the wayward and perverse, to create and 
 perpetuate an antagonism between students and teachers ? Would 
 not such a manifestation of paternal interest, such utterance of wis- 
 dom, such an exhibition of sympathy, such lessons of experience do 
 much to forestall transgression, neutralize the influence of indolence 
 and vice, found at these seats of learning as well as in other organiza- 
 tions of society, inspire and strengthen good resolutions, develop and 
 mature that manliness of character whose basis is loyalty to truth 
 and implicit obedience to laws ?. Would not an annual visit of a com- 
 mittee of the trustees, not only to lecture and express to the stu 
 dents the kind regards of the Board, but also to go into the recita- 
 tions and witness the tact, fidelity and competence of the teachers, 
 as well as take the gage of student industry and attainment, be pro- 
 ductive of valuable results, as well as suggestive of past short-comings? 
 The inauguration of such a policy would be not only a New 
 Departure of happy omen, but become a power for good of no 
 ordinary type and promise. Such a supervisory programme carried 
 out in good faith, with firmness and practical wisdom, would be the 
 introduction of a new era in collegiate oversight and culture, a sup- 
 plemental element of great potency and significance, not only 
 
O NEW DEPARTURES IN 
 
 reenforcing the influence and stimulating the zeal and activity of the 
 professional corps, but, also, calling into practical use the rich stores 
 of experience and observation hitherto untaxed by the Board in the 
 line of their own official duties. Such cooperation on the part of 
 trustees would do much to nip emeutes in the bud and render re- 
 bellion obsolete. Such introspection and knowledge of the educa- 
 tional machinery in charge, such manifestation of sympathy with 
 employees, such lessons of experimental wisdom, imparted with pa- 
 ternal frankness and love, to the youth gathered under their super- 
 intending care and culture, could not fail to be appreciated by both 
 pupil and patron, and prove potent incentives to patient continu- 
 ance in the way of honest endeavor. 
 
 Is not the suggestion worthy of an appropriate and honest ex- 
 periment ? Shall the New Departure, so rich in promise, ga untested, 
 on the ground of being too severe a draft on the time and literary 
 resources of the Board? Shall the proffered results be declined for 
 want of pluck, patience and effort to win them ? Most gladly would 
 we have listened to such annual utterance by the wise ones on the 
 Board of our Alma Mater, fifty years ago. We are willing to pledge, 
 even in advance, to all such visiting committees, a most cordial recep- 
 tion, earnest audience and hearty thanks from our younger brothers 
 at the old homestead, with the confident belief that a like reception 
 would be accorded to a simular mission to each and all the colleges of 
 the land. Shall the youth gathered therein be cheered by the pres- 
 ence and uttered wisdom of such a deputation ? Let me ask the col- 
 legiate " Head Centers" of the country, what more productive soil 
 could be desired on which to cast, with liberal hand, the abundant seed 
 of their rich experience and observation ? Bread cast on such waters 
 must not only be found after many days but in rich abundance. 
 
 Such lectures would be a happy medium through which to 
 counsel and encourage honest seekers after knowledge, and also, to 
 throw out suggestions that would not be amiss elsewhere ; for even 
 Faculties, though elected ones, the very elite of literature and 
 science, are not always exempt from infirmities, short-comings and 
 crotchets. No more felicitous method could be devised to reach 
 drones, touch up the laggard, and infuse new life into the whole 
 team. Such a quasi inspection would become as goads, and its 
 stimulating effect would be felt along the whole line, from the non- 
 commissioned to the field officers, as well as through the rank and 
 file. The harvest from such a sowing would be rich and abundant. 
 
COLLEGIATE CONTROL AND CULTURE. 7 
 
 In fields thus cultivated there would be much less of the ravages of 
 the rust of indolence, and under such a system of subsoiling, drain- 
 age and dressing, the mildew of lawlessness, intemperance and riot 
 would be much less frequent and devastating. 
 
 Nothing would be productive of happier consequences than such 
 a frequent and fraternal intercourse between College Boards of ad- 
 ministration and instruction. The introduction of such a policy and 
 practice would soon manifest its wisdom in a more intimate acquaint- 
 ance and cordial sympathy between the members of these two 
 bodies, and be followed by blessings to those under their charge, as 
 rich and lasting as the lack of them has often been signalized by 
 results of the opposite character. 
 
 What more appropriate means of reaching these ends than such 
 an annual visitation of a live representation of the Board ? What 
 more fitting opportunity for full and frank interchange of views and 
 mutual suggestion, in the line of wise administration and faithful in- 
 struction could be desired, than such periodic conferences ? Both 
 parties would be refreshed, thereby, and be prompted to address 
 themselves to their respective duties and fields of labor with new zeal, 
 wiser heads and warmer hearts. Both would gather fresh material 
 for thought from such fraternal interviews, and be able to embody 
 in their respective reports, richer stores of wisdom and practical 
 knowledge. 
 
 These annual reports of the visiting Committee and the Aca- 
 demic Staff would furnish ample means for an intelligent insight 
 into the real status and progress of the Institution in charge. Let 
 each member of the Faculty report the year's work in his own depart- 
 ment, embracing statistics of labor bestowed and time spent in daily 
 instruction, as well as of student attainment and deportment. Such 
 documents would bring distinctly to the view of each member of the 
 Board the actual state of both discipline and instruction. They 
 would also, be valuable material for an intelligent estimate of each 
 man's worth and work, and prove far more satisfactory and reliable 
 than the general grouping of ordinary exposes of college labor and 
 student character and culture. 
 
 It would injure no teacher's character to subject its grow th and 
 development to an annual inspection. It might, indeed, have the 
 happiest bearing both on him and his reputation, and be crowned 
 with valuable results, either in the elimination of serious deficiencies, 
 or, the subject of them. This new process would relieve moss backs 
 
8 NEW DEPARTURES IN 
 
 of much of their parasitical covering and prevent all future accumu- 
 lations. The policy and practice, in an analogous relation, of one of 
 the leading bodies of the Protestant faith, are highly suggestive and 
 wise. Indolent professors, who declare that,, for the last ten years, 
 they have not looked at their lessons before going to their recitations, 
 not only betray their lack of wisdom and conscience, but, also, pro- 
 claim themselves fit subjects for a well known algebraic process. 
 While Dr. Arnold's example, that prince of teachers, fails either 
 to shame or reform men, whom neither ambition nor principle can 
 inspire with any higher motive power than the quarterly distribution 
 of their annual stipend, this side track of a new departure migfrt, 
 perhaps, furnish a happy method of switching off some of these 
 empty, or half laden cars, to the great relief of the freight moving 
 power, and the business interests of the country. 
 
 Among the grave short comings of college administration, may 
 be named, a lack of wise and timely discipline, not unfrequently so 
 manifest and gross as to provoke the comment of both students and 
 outsiders. The prevalence of riot and rowdyism of every degree 
 and type in colors, is justly attributed to the feebleness, or laxity of 
 the powers in charge. The true purpose of college government is 
 happily expressed by the famous master of Rugby. " It is not 
 necessary that Rugby should have three hundred, or two hundred 
 and fifty, or even one hundred scholars, but it is necessary that she 
 should have gentlemen." The spirit of that declaration should per- 
 vade college faculties and find manifestation in such firm and wise 
 discipline as will ensure prompt elimination of all indolent and vic- 
 ious members of such communities, irrespective of their social posi- 
 tions. Trustees, also, should know whether their employees are in 
 sympathy with the aforesaid utterance, veritable vertibrates, or be- 
 long to the molusk species. 
 
 Here it seems to be both pertinent and proper to enquire, are 
 such trusts always administered to the full extent of the wisdom and 
 ability of those, who, by the acceptance of the position, pledge 
 themselves to unswerving fidelity ? Would not many of them be 
 both startled, and stimulated to greater activity, to be well posted in 
 the actual status of their charge, not only of its financial condition, 
 but, also, of the competency and faithfulness of their employees, as 
 well as the character, proficiency and promise of its students, at 
 least, at the close of each annual stage of their progress, were their 
 venerable founders and benefactors, like Moses and Elijah, to stand 
 
COLLEGIATE CONTROL AND CULTURE. 9 
 
 in their presence, and ask, " Are you making the colleges all that you 
 would justly expect, and indeed, demand of us, were we to exchange 
 our relationship to them ? " The responsibility of Boards of Control 
 in these several particulars is none the less, for the want of such stimu- 
 lating interviews. The claim is as real, valid and pressing, as though 
 audibly urged by those worthies, and should be so recognized. 
 
 We are happy to notice in a Western catalogue of the current 
 year, in immediate connection with the names of the Trustees, a 
 schedule of " Standing Committees" a suggestive fact, indicative of 
 progress, and that too. in the right direction. May it prove like the 
 little cloud to the prophet's servant on the top of Carmel, and con- 
 tinue to enlarge, till the heavens are black with the signs of abun- 
 dance of rain, and the collegiate Ahabs are put to the top of their 
 speed to keep ahead of the storm. 
 
 The Institution that promptly takes this New Departure, will soon 
 show her laggard compeers the folly of that conservatism which cannot 
 get out of the ruts of immemorial usage, for fear that the M'Adam- 
 ised road of human progress might provoke an increased speed, and 
 thus disturb the sing-song serenity of the driving Dons and wake up 
 the sleepy passengers. This utterance does not claim the character 
 and dignity of a prophecy, yet it will doubtless prove such a fore- 
 shadowing of the future as will be followed by sequences that 
 will challenge the attention, and command the cordial approval of 
 every lover of truth and progress. Trustees that have not the 
 shrewdness to appreciate, the enterprise and courage to make such 
 departures from the old beaten track of former usage, must not 
 expect large dividends from their investments, nor be surprised to 
 find themselves distanced in the race for patronage and approval, 
 by those who recognize the demands of current experience and pro- 
 gress. 
 
 We could never understand, when in college, nor have we yet 
 thereunto attained, why our Professors were not required to spend 
 more than two hours per day in the recitation room, nor why the 
 classes were not divided into sections of a dozen or fifteen each, for 
 instruction, instead of receiving their entire training, in masses, of 
 forty or fifty ; unless, forsooth, it be the fact, that the wisdom of 
 such sectional method of collegiate instruction had not yet been born, 
 and consequently its light had not dawned on the Corps of Control 
 or the Academic Staff. This evil is one that demands immediate 
 attention and redress. It is a gross wrong, nay, an intolerable abuse, 
 
10 NEW DEPARTURES IN 
 
 which still lingers, with but very slight modification, in most, if not 
 all of our Colleges, to the present day. It is nothing else than a 
 custom that has come down from previous generations with no 
 other endorsement than " immemorial usage." It is a marvel that it 
 has not long since received the attention that it deserved, and been 
 numbered among the things that were, and are not. Strange, in- 
 deed, that it has been tolerated so long, and is even still permitted 
 to stand, with unblushing front, on the threshold of the last quarter 
 of the nineteenth century, unrebuked and unabated as an educational 
 nuisance, still claiming prescriptive rights. 
 
 Our college wonder, seems, in its popular manifestation, to be 
 somewhat of a Janus faced type, and whether ultimate analysis would 
 resolve it into one or two elements we shall not attempt to decide, 
 for we do not propose to push inquiry in that direction, but leave 
 the solution of this problem to the sagacity of the public, after due 
 consideration of the facts presented. Whatever may be the primary 
 and fundamental causes of this unmitigated and unredressed wrong, 
 whether the careless and culpable oversight of the Trustees, or the 
 Professorial adjusted programme of self-imposed labor, or the two 
 combined, we leave to the wisdom of the court to which the case is 
 submitted. The popular grievances and charge might be appro- 
 priately formulated, thus. 
 
 First. A shameless imposition on the Parent, and a gross injus- 
 tice to the Student. 
 
 The parent, when he sends his son to college, expects that he will 
 receive all the attention, sympathy and counsel that the connection 
 may justly claim, and be taught in such a manner as to thoroughly 
 test his capacity, develop and discipline his powers, to the fullest ex- 
 tent. Nothing, short of this, meets the necessities of the case and 
 measures the extent of the pledge, implied in the relation formed by 
 that connection. Nothing, less, does the parent and the public 
 demand, and the Institution that does not, by wise and adequate 
 provision, substantially redeem this pledge, should go into speedy 
 liquidation, on the ground of bankruptcy of good faith. The mag- 
 nitude of the evil and the character of the wrong are not as clearly 
 perceived, nor as fully appreciated, by either the victims or the 
 public, as the interests at stake demand. It is high time, indeed, 
 that both were more thoroughly ventilated and the head light of 
 public scrutiny and reprobation was thrown down the track of this 
 hoary abuse of popular confidence and parental trust. 
 
COLLEGIATE CONTROL AND CULTURE. II 
 
 The father, in the simplicity of his faith in the fidelity of those to 
 whom he has intrusted the education of his son, toils on in patient 
 endurance and practice of self-denial, and not unfrequently, also, of 
 great personal sacrifice, to raise the means to meet the expense of 
 that culture which he fondly hopes will both make his son all that 
 his capacity will admit of, and become the richest legacy that a father's 
 love could devise. Though he may die in blessed ignorance of the 
 deception practised on him, yet that imposition is none the less real, 
 flagrant and deplorable. 
 
 The student, in his youthful inexperience and ignorance, has not 
 the slightest suspicion, at the time, either of the actual character or 
 extent of the imposition, of which his father is the special victim and 
 himself the unhappy medium, nor does the conviction of its reality, 
 consequences and curse become distinct and overwhelming, till, per- 
 haps, some chance retrospect from the long vista of a laborious life 
 reveals its legitimate results. The light thus shed on his path 
 through this rift in the clouds of life's countless cares, labors and 
 perplexities, reveals the real and underlying cause of many of the 
 failures and disappointments in his past career. He now discovers 
 that he is not, either morally or mentally, what he would have been, 
 had Trustees met their responsibilities and Teachers done their duty. 
 Such retrospects awaken sad memories, reveal direful sequences, and 
 provoke countless maledicions, unuttered, or expressed, on the heads 
 of those responsible for such disasters. This is no fancy sketch. 
 Would that it were. Its truth and substantial reality will be recog- 
 nized by thousands living, and has been the theme of like utterance 
 of many departed ones. 
 
 The pupil's claims are as imperious as the teacher's duties, and 
 the former's rights are but the counterparts of the latter' s obliga- 
 tions. The high contracting parties, back of the pupils and in- 
 structors, are the Trustees and Parent or Guardian. The Faculty, 
 represents the former and the Student the latter. These are the 
 factors in the solution of the problem. It is painfully evident from 
 the past and present status of our colleges, that the mutual obliga- 
 tion and relations of the said parties are not as clearly recognized 
 and fully met as they ought to be. It is with no feelings of complac- 
 ency with the past, in this direction, but rather of suppressed in- 
 dignation at the obliquity that underlies, and is, the legitimate cause 
 of such numerous wrecks of parental hopes, that we now proceed to 
 adduce the evidence that the second item of the first allegation is a 
 
12 NEW DEPARTURES IN 
 
 grave reality, a burden too grievous to be longer borne by the 
 shoulders on which it now rests. 
 
 The students introduction to his future Alma Mater has charac- 
 teristics and results of a peculiar type. The impressions created by 
 his first interview with the venerable President and his learned assoc- 
 iates are both vivid and permanent. To his inexperienced eye, 
 they seem the very embodiments of unmeasured wisdom and knowl- 
 edge, and moving in spheres so far removed and above the plane of 
 his orbit that he regards them with mingled feelings of reverence 
 and awe. More or less embarrassment is also experienced at the 
 first class exercise, arising from his misconception of their intellect- 
 ual greatness and his mental inferiority. The arcs of magnifying 
 their literary attainments and minifying his own are, however, easily 
 measured, and the pendulum of sober judgment and settled convic- 
 tions soon finds the limit of equated motion. The value of this in- 
 itiatory and impressible period, as a moulding power, is too often 
 neither appreciated nor improved. 
 
 The students comparative mental immaturity and- limited attain- 
 ment, at the period of entering college, indicate the character of the 
 training he needs, and the direction and degree of culture best 
 suited, as the basis of future nurture. The stern discipline of thor- 
 ough and daily drill, in every branch of the entire curriculum, in its 
 regular sequence, is indispensible. This is the only road that will 
 conduct him to the desired goal and give him intellectual vigor, 
 symmetry, and a ready command of his mental powers. Nothing 
 should be permitted to interfere with this programme, interrupt or 
 disturb the continuity and thoroughness of the process. No reasona- 
 ble amount of either time or labor should be spared, in the line of 
 faithful instruction, to stimulate, encourage and direct his efforts in 
 the work of real discipline and liberal culture. Fidelity on the part 
 of teachers, at this point, will be followed with rich and abundant 
 fruits at all succeeding ones. His docility will be responsive to every 
 wise and honest endeavor to aid ; his confidence strengthened by 
 every manifestation of a hearty interest in his welfare ; his efforts re- 
 doubled at every encounter with difficulties, when assured that all 
 judicious assistance will be forthcoming, in the hour of need ; his 
 moral sensibilities quickened into livelier activity, and his heart won 
 by the cordial sympathy and counsel of kindred spirits, manifested 
 through such media. These results can be reached only through 
 appropriate instrumentalities. Instruction must be thorough, assidu 
 
COLLEGIATE CONTROL AND CULTURE. 13 
 
 ous, and sympathetic. The teacher must bring himself into a living 
 contact with his pupils, so intimate and vital, that he can so study 
 their character and capacities that he may wisely tax their intellects 
 and give a corresponding direction to their moral development and 
 culture. If these be the only conditions of success, then the reasons 
 for the numerous failures and sad experiences in the annals of college 
 graduates are both patent and suggestive. 
 
 The history of a class, whose semicentennial anniversary of grad- 
 uation occurred in 1878, will furnish some material highly illustra- 
 tive, in the line of the present discussion. At no one time did it 
 embrace more than fifty members, and although sixty names were 
 on its roll during its four years course, yet only two thirds of that 
 number graduated. During its two years of tutorial instruction, not 
 more than one half, on an average, (perhaps less), recited daily, while 
 through the uncertainty of the lot, or the imperfection of the tutor- 
 ial memory, others were not called up for two or three days in suc- 
 cession. Some had a year, or a year and a half of advanced prep- 
 aration, while others, like Virgils' " Rari nantes in gurgito vasto," 
 came in, struggling under the embarrassment of deficient training. 
 The class, at its entrance, was not more motley in preparation than 
 in age, (fourteen and thirty), and indeed the tout ensemble of the 
 whole, was not much unlike the crowd gathered in Bethesda's 
 porches, some ready and able to step into the healing fountain, 
 whenever its waters were troubled, while others were more or less 
 dependent on foreign aid. Such was its initial type and such its 
 training, both under tutors and professors. Though in after years, it 
 made a distinguished record and won no slight renown as a profes- 
 sorial class, yet it fell far short, in finish and efficiency, of what it 
 would have attained, had it been taught in sections of ten or a dozen, 
 grouped according to capacity and attainment, each receiving the 
 amount and degree of attention needed, or not en masse, as it was 
 during the whole four years. This photograph will be recognised by 
 the alumni of not a few of our older colleges, from an analogous ex- 
 perience, and many will say, that, minus the incidents of age and 
 numbers, " That is a true sketch of our class, college life and experience, 
 and we not only most cordially add our testimony to the fidelity of 
 the picture, but, also, our most emphatic protest against the per- 
 petuity of the wrong." 
 
 The gross and unforgotten, if not unforgiven, injustice done that 
 class, more than fifty years ago, is still repeated, with very slight 
 
14 NEW DEPARTURES IN 
 
 modifications, in all of our older colleges, as will appear from the facts 
 now to be produced. Centennial year witnessed the following 
 scene in one of our oldest and richly endowed Institutions. The 
 recitation of the junior class, which consisted of one hundred or 
 more members, commenced at ten o'clock A. M. The first section, 
 fifty one, by actual count, attended at that hour, and of these, only 
 fourteen were called up to recite, and the entire hour was occupied 
 in the exercise. The next hour summoned the second section to a 
 similar task, as we suppose, for the writer did not tarry to hear the 
 passage from " De Corona," repeated. The class experience of that 
 day, as thus stated, was probably its experience for the term. Be 
 that as it may, it raised the ghost of fifty years ago. Was anything 
 more than justice done that fourth of the first section ? Was it not, 
 also, their due, to be subject to a like test at every recitation, and 
 would anything, materially short of that amount of daily instruction 
 and drill, be their just claim, as well as that, also, of each of the other 
 three fourths jof the section, untaxed on that occasion, or even meet 
 the reasonable expectation of parents and guardians ? It is said 
 by way of rebutting the argument, and breaking the force of the 
 logic of such interrogation, that the uncalled three fourths of said 
 section were constructively taught, by being subject to the same con- 
 tingency of being called up, as the fourth that recited, and were 
 actually constrained to make the same thorough preparation that 
 they would, had there been no such contingency? The fallacy of 
 such reasoning is sufficiently exposed by the fact, that the character 
 of the recitations of several of those called up, on that occasion, 
 plainly indicated that the doctrine of chances, probably, had had some 
 influence on their preparation. Human nature, in its present type, 
 and in the period of collegiate inexperience, is very much disposed 
 to take a practical view of all contingencies involving escape from 
 intense thought, and protracted toil, especially when the ratio of ex- 
 emption from hard study is three to one. Such a method of defense 
 is rather an aggravation than an exculpation of the wrong. Leave 
 such logic to the exclusive use of those whose bump of conscien- 
 tiousness is not yet developed, and group its wisdom with the os- 
 triches'. Student laziness will neither be exorcised, nor migrate, till 
 daily recitation, by every member of a section or class, becomes as 
 inevitable as fate, nor college disturbances cease, till this, their taproot 
 is severed. Vain are all hopes of permanent elimination of their tricks, 
 deceptions and outrages till this spirit of evil is cast out. 
 
COLLEGIATE CONTROL AND CULTURE. 1$ 
 
 The reply of the secretary of the President of one of the older 
 colleges to the enquiry, " What are the maximum and minimum num- 
 bers into which your respective classes are divided for recitation, or 
 is each still taught en masse ? " reads thus, " In the senior year the 
 divisions are sometimes as high as seventy, in other years, from 
 twenty to thirty-five or forty." The response of the President of 
 the Institution, next in age, is also, in the same line of illustration, 
 " From twenty-five to thirty-five or forty." The reply made to the 
 same question, by the head of a college whose annual catalogues, 
 for several years, have reported from ten to eleven hundred students, 
 is, " In mathematics and languages, rarely more than forty, often 
 less." 
 
 Though we are willing to let this case, on the first charge of the 
 indictment, go to the jury, without any more testimony, simply re- 
 marking that these three witnesses are fair specimens of the forty 
 summoned, yet we wish, before proceeding to the second, to bring 
 out more prominently, to view, the practical operations and results of 
 the two methods of instruction, small sections, and, en masse. For 
 illustration, we will take the semicentennial, photographed class. 
 Divided into three equal sections, (four would be better,) the num- 
 ber of each, during its college life, would have oscilated between thir- 
 teen and sixteen, and that classification, based on scholarship, would 
 have so grouped the members as to give each the opportunity to 
 become, in a good measure, all that his powers and application could 
 make him, in symmetry and culture. The first section were capable 
 of accomplishing much more than the curriculum portion, in each 
 department of study. They could have extende^d their researches, 
 and under wise and competent guidance, made substantial attain- 
 ments far in advance of what they actually did reach. The second, 
 under similar auspices, could have successfully mastered, what, under 
 the old regime, they did not satisfactorily do, the prescribed course, 
 and even made, perhaps, some material advance. The third, by the 
 concentration of their time and effort on a somewhat limited portion 
 of the curriculum, would have attained a far more valuable culture 
 than they did, by the unwise and constrained attempting, what, under 
 the en masse policy, was beyond their capacity. Under such a classi- 
 fication each section would have prosecuted their studies with more 
 satisfaction and better results, unannoyed, some by the conscious- 
 ness of being restrained from accomplishing what they were compe- 
 tent to do, others, chafing under the conviction that they were over- 
 
l6 NEW DEPARTURES IN 
 
 taxed, and others restive from a feeling that they had not had a fair 
 chance of showing, that, under more favorable circumstances, they 
 could have mastered the prescribed course. 
 
 This sectional arrangement gives every individual in the class 
 both opportunity and facilities for thorough development and cul- 
 ture, and also, ministers no slight stimulus in that direction, unac- 
 companied by any drawbacks of invidious and mortifying compari- 
 sons. It will prove far more pleasant and satisfactory to the student 
 to be grouped with peers, in intellect, than classed with either inferiors 
 or superiors in talent. The en masse method duplicates the evils, and 
 the sectional policy extracts its very root. 
 
 The detailed process of the individual test of the two systems is 
 both striking and suggestive. One is thorough and in a good degree 
 exhaustive, the other superficial and unsatisfactory. One affords 
 time to accomplish something indicative of honest work and real 
 capacity, the other, the reverse of this, is too brief to demonstrate 
 the true degree of either the student's knowledge or ignorance. The 
 one furnishes each member the daily opportunity to show his pro- 
 ficiency in every study, while the other affords no certainty of a like 
 exhibit, either of his attainments, or even the full extent of his de- 
 ficiences, for the obvious reason that the en masse policy compels the 
 teacher to hasten on rapidly from one student to another, in order to 
 secure to as many as possible a participation in the recitation. Con- 
 sequently, under this mode of instruction, a student seldom reads 
 more than two or three sentences, (often less) in either Greek or 
 Latin, and in Mathematics the case is seldom any better. The loss 
 and damage of such a process of training, to the victim of it, is mani- 
 fest and positive. The results of the first method are in striking and 
 happy contrast with the sequence of its opposite. The former proves 
 as satisfactory to the teacher as to the pupils ; the latter is "a thorn 
 in the flesh " to both, doing justice to neither. These facts are too 
 numerous and too patent to admit of a successful challenge, in the 
 face of such a crowd of witnesses and such a multitude of victims. 
 
 When the former system supplants the latter, there will be no 
 need of Modern Language supplements and a countless host of sci- 
 entific substitutes, as complements of the old curriculum, for its 
 prominent elements will furnish ample scope for linguistic talent of 
 the highest grade, and mathematical genius of the grandest type; for 
 each and all the sections, will find ample opportunity of doing their 
 utmost in all the departments of that course of study, which experi- 
 
COLLEGIATE CONTROL AND CULTURE. 17 
 
 ence has shown to be wise and sufficient for the best of culture. 
 Let each section of the several classes penetrate these vast territo- 
 ries, inviting exploration, to the fullest extent of their several ability, 
 and they will return richly laden with the fruits of a stern and 
 stalwart discipline, which they cannot fail to recognize and appre- 
 ciate as real entities. 
 
 The second alleged dereliction is " the pitiful demand made on 
 Professorial time, and their seemingly complaisant acquiescence in 
 the perpetuity of the wrong." 
 
 It is very evident that the witnesses who have just left the stand, 
 have pretty clearly foreshadowed the character of the testimony they 
 will give when recalled to testify on the second charge. This count 
 is no less grave and worthy of consideration and analysis than the 
 previous one. The trustees of a college, who open their doors and 
 invite students to enter them, are responsible for the sufficiency, as 
 well as the quality, of the instruction given. To outsiders, the de- 
 mand made on professorial labor, in most of the colleges of the 
 country, seems both small, and entirely insufficient to meet the neces- 
 sities of the case. The work pledged, can not be done, as it ought 
 to be, in the present brief period of professorial attendance in the 
 recitation room. It is simply impossible. It is evident, that, if a 
 professor of Greek, Latin or Mathematics, teaches each of his two 
 classes, en masse, the measure of his daily toil is found within the 
 limits of two hours, and professors in some other departments are 
 seldom taxed as much, often less. If two or three hours per day is 
 all that can reasonably or safely be required of college teachers, then 
 boards of control should double or even quadruple their teaching 
 force, or close their doors to further applicants, for the longer toler- 
 ance, of the en masse imposition, cannot be expected, nor the days 
 of that transgression be much longer " winked at " by their hitherto 
 patient constituencies. 
 
 Were college trustees, themselves, subjected to a little cross ex- 
 amination on this point, or even to a sharp interview by a shrewd 
 reporter, it might possibly reveal no little leaven of scepticism in this 
 matter, even among their own body. We have not the slightest 
 hesitancy in expressing the conviction that the question, " Why do 
 we require only the brief period of two or three hours of daily labor, 
 of our professors," and this, supplemented and reenforced by the 
 kindred interrogatory, " Why may not they spend at least five or 
 six hours, per day, in instruction, for five days in the weeks?" has 
 
18 NEW DEPARTURES IN 
 
 often risen in the mind of the venerable Judges, Ministers, Lawyers, 
 Doctors and Bankers on College Boards. No other professional or 
 business men do less. No judge, either State or Federal, ordinarily 
 sits on the bench less than six hours per day, week in and week out, 
 and often, even seven or eight. Is his toil less exhausting, and his 
 mental strain in listening to shrewd and able pleas, charging juries, 
 and drawing on his legal lore for precedents and authorities to sustain 
 his decisions, less severe than the Professor's labor, in traveling over 
 his annual routine of instruction ? Does the weekly programme of 
 ministerial duties call for less aggregate hours than the Judges ? Can 
 the faithful physician, the successful lawyer, energetic banker or 
 business man, get through his daily task, even in six hours? Why 
 this anomalous exception in human experience? 
 
 Were such interrogatory doubts and mental misgiving to find 
 free expression in these boards of control, the individual having the 
 simplicity to entertain, the frankness to express, and the independ- 
 ence to defend their claims to consideration, would unexpectedly 
 find himself sustained by the approving utterances of not a few of 
 his official associates. " I have thought so, for a long time." Let 
 it be at once, and distinctly, understood by all concerned, that col- 
 lege constituencies consider themselves no longer bound to respect 
 the logic that has hitherto sustained such abuses. This usage, also, 
 personified, is not a mere solitary member of the family of college 
 vagabonds, who, whether mythical or material, should be promptly 
 arrested and sent to the pillory of public scrutiny and scorn : nay, 
 more, be placed in the focus of popular inspection and reprobation, 
 there to undergo a cremation, so complete and perfect, that not even 
 the bones of the culprit could be found. 
 
 Let us analyse this quasi claim to exemption from the ordinary 
 amount of daily labor, common to professional toilers, and examine 
 its elements and character. The great burden of professorial labor 
 in American colleges is mainly teaching by text-books, not instruc- 
 tion by lectures. The legitimate fields of these two classes of in- 
 structors are distinctly marked. The former is simply tutorial, the 
 latter is purely professional. This distinction is broad, significant 
 and fundamental. The appropriate mission of the one is develop- 
 ment and discipline, of the other, professional culture and the explo- 
 ration of the realms of individual science. This classification rele- 
 gates most of college teachers to tutorial rank, and confers profes- 
 sorial dignity only on university instructors. There may be occa- 
 
COLLEGIATE CONTROL AND CULTURE. 19 
 
 sionally, a slight interlacing of field and function, for the tutor may, 
 now and then, sandwich his teachings with a quasi lecture, and the 
 dignified professor embellish his didactic utterances of fundamental 
 principle with an occasional flavor of rhetoric. 
 
 Let no one, however, who finds himself, by this classification, 
 grouped with tutorial worthies, think himself less honored or use- 
 ful, for in the English university hives, the tutors are the workers, 
 and the professors the comparative drones. The latter deliver lec- 
 tures on their several specialities to those disposed to enroll them- 
 selves as their pupils. The account of their beggarly audiences is 
 highly suggestive of the sinecure character of their mission in Ox- 
 ford and Cambridge. The entire instruction in the colleges com- 
 posing these universities is given by the tutorial corps, public and 
 private. It is the latter, though an unofficial yet recognized factor, 
 that turns out, from their teams of drilled and trained minds, the 
 " senior wranglers and other tutors." These college tutors will not 
 suffer in comparison, in talent or attainment, with their American 
 cousins of more pretentious prefixes or suffixes, neither should the 
 latter feel themselves uncomplimented by the comparison. It is, 
 also, in these universities, that we find the tutorial mission, both 
 official and unofficial, carried to its highest perfection both in num- 
 bers and hours of daily instruction, reaching, in the line of the small 
 section policy, the maximum point of wisdom, ranging from six to 
 ten pupils, and in time, from six to seven hours daily, as manifested 
 in the superior scholarship and statesmanship of England. 
 
 Let us return from this foreign illustrative excursion to home ex- 
 perience and observation, and ask where is the professor of Greek, 
 Latin or Mathematics, or indeed in any other department of the cur- 
 riculum of study, who, in these days of substitutional policy and 
 option branches, has daily charge of more than two classes in his 
 line of duty ? If he teaches each of them, en masse, the draft on his 
 time will be but two hours, and the maximum extent of preparation 
 can be only for two exercises. Will the mental strain of these two 
 hours be so excessive, or the physical demand so exorbitant as to 
 exhaust his energies and require the rest of the day for recuperation ? 
 Let the other departments of human toil, both physical and mental, 
 furnish the answer. If he divides each into three sections, even then 
 he can not boast that he surpasses, in time devoted to official duties, 
 men in other professions, or has even done anything more, in his 
 own line, than to bring himself abreast with his brethren, the labo- 
 
20 NEW DEPARTURES IN 
 
 rious preceptor and the superintendent of city schools. No more 
 preparation is demanded for the six, than for the present two recita- 
 tion. Is the monotony of daily repetition so much more abhorrent 
 than annual, as to become absolutely intolerable ? There is an 
 effective remedy for this evil. Let him throw the order of the first 
 exercise into the second, remembering that his wisdom, tact and 
 resources will have a fresh field for exhibition, and they will, also, be 
 as highly prized by the third section as by the first. The wise and 
 wide awake professor will find these new and consecutive opportu- 
 nities not without their benefit even to himself, stimulating his 
 habits of observation, and often suggesting methods of solution not 
 indicated in the text book, happier illustrations and more felicitous 
 rendering of difficult passages of classic lore and beauty. The con- 
 sciousness of doing a better work and converting his motive into 
 more useful form and finished specimens of his skill, will be an am- 
 ple compensation for all additional time and toil. What more bitter 
 ingredient in the unfaithful teacher's cup of retribution than the 
 conviction that many of his pupils are not what they would have 
 been, had not his indolence, or his ambition to become an author, or 
 a desire to explore other regions of literature or science, or excur- 
 sions into outside enterprises of profit or renown, intervened, en- 
 grossed his time and diverted his energies. 
 
 " Well done " has more real worth than all the glories of mere 
 authorship, or the combined distinction of literary or scientific 
 renown. 
 
 There is a talismanic stimulus as well as power in tutorial tact, 
 patience and fidelity to conviction of duty. Patience to bear with 
 conscious ignorance and temporary dullness, skill to rightly guage 
 the mental capacity and direct its development, and a cordial sym- 
 pathy with honest worth in its aspirations and efforts, whatever may 
 be its intellectual grade, are cardinal virtues as well as potent agen- 
 cies for good. Though the lack of them may have been occasionally 
 deplored in the past, and the wish also expressed that there were no 
 cause to lament the rarity of them in current experience, yet it 
 must not be forgotten that such zeal and earnestness have had no 
 obstacles so appalling, no disheartenment so oppressive, as the neces- 
 sity laid upon them of teaching forty or fifty, or even a larger num- 
 ber, en masse. 
 
 In imparting instruction under such disadvantages, the faithful 
 and earnest worker sees, at a glance, that efforts, however wise and 
 
COLLEGIATE CONTROL AND CULTURE. 
 
 k -TX j 
 
 AjcvvVV 
 indefatigable, must necessarily fail of reaching results, satisfactory 
 
 either to himself, pupils or patrons. In those groups annually 
 brought under his instruction, he perceives that there are minds of 
 very different type and caliber, capable of attainments of correspond- 
 ing grade. The en masse method of teaching satisfies the wants of 
 neither class. One is chafed, another dissatisfied, a third dishear- 
 tened, and the instructor little else than shamefully maltreated. No 
 wonder that many a worthy man, under such circumstances, and in 
 utter discouragement and disgust, abandons his tutorial mission, or, 
 if he remains in it, that his subsequent labor becomes little else than 
 mere perfunctory toil. While some of these, yielding to seemingly 
 manifest destiny, trudge on in the old ruts of immemorial usage, ap- 
 parently contented ; others, in hopes of better times and a wiser 
 policy, protest against the evil, and give a practical shape to their 
 protest. We know a professor who would never teach a class of 
 twenty-five, without dividing it, into two sections, and we are happy 
 to know, also, that there are others of kindred faith and works. 
 May their number increase and multiply till Trustees of American 
 colleges open their eyes to the enormity of the evil and take effective 
 measures to redress the wrong: wakened from their " sleepy hollow " 
 repose, by such self prompted sacrifice and loyalty to honest convic- 
 tion of the true and the right, if not of the beautiful. With these 
 facts and suggestions we submit the case to the consideration of an 
 appreciative public, with the supplementary remark, that the entire 
 testimony on the amount of daily professorial labor, ranges within 
 the limits of one and three hours. 
 
 We cannot refrain from expressing, in transition, the conviction, 
 that even a brief yet honest study of the practical workings of this 
 subdivisonal method of college instruction would be of great service 
 not only to those in charge of colleges, both Trustees and Faculty, 
 but, also, to all interested in the higher culture of the country. The 
 method of instruction contemplated by this classification is simple, 
 honest and direct; demanding fidelity and patient labor on the part 
 of both teachers and taught. Short comings in either are sure to 
 come to the surface for correction. The happy effect of its introduc- 
 tion into our colleges would soon be seen, and its wisdom and worth 
 be fully appreciated. It would correct some of the evils that greatly 
 need elimination, and supply some sad deficiencies that now mar the 
 symmetry and solidity of collegiate training. Under such an admin 
 istrative appliance, industry would supplant indolence; manliness be 
 
22 NEW DEPARTURES IN 
 
 a substitute for meanness ; honesty and a cordial respect for the 
 rights of others, be regarded as virtues worthy of assiduous culture. 
 The pressure of such a requisition would be uniform and constant on 
 all the mental material of the college community, in proportion, at 
 least, to the square of its surface. 
 
 This subdivisional policy has ever been a characteristic feature 
 of the West Point system. As an illustrative fact of its practical 
 working and wisdom, the mention of a single item of current experi- 
 ence is sufficient The class that entered in 1878 numbered one 
 hundred and thirteen, and was divided into ten sections of eleven or 
 twelve each, in mathematical studies, and where are mathematics 
 taught more thoroughly or extensively ? 
 
 The same principle controls and directs the other departments 
 of the academic instruction, developing the happiest results. Men 
 of medium, or even less mathematical grade, may and often do take 
 a high rank in other branches of the course, thus exhibiting capacity 
 and culture of rich promise for some arm of the service. This sys- 
 tem works up the raw material annually furnished, as thoroughly as 
 possible, though about one half of it is thrown aside, before the end 
 of the process is reached. A like thorough and eliminating policy 
 in our colleges would produce analogous developments. High 
 Greek and Latin grades of scholarship, might be associated with low 
 mathematics and medium belles lettres rank, and there might, also, 
 be as many vice versa results, as the combinations of the curricula 
 branches would admit. While there would be but few " double 
 firsts," yet the stimulus and culture of this system would be exceed- 
 ingly happy in the direction of each one's peculiar capacity, secur- 
 ing valuable attainments in the line of that power. Such a method 
 of training would fully meet and tax the various grades of talent 
 found in the annual accessions to our colleges, and present at the 
 close of their course, a far more worthy array of candidates for grad- 
 uation than the current policy has hitherto done, or indeed can do. 
 
 It is a notorious fact, patent to all who have had anything to do 
 with colleges, and deeply deplored by many conscious of the evil 
 but powerless to correct it, that there is no small amount of un- 
 developed mental power and undisciplined intellect, annually let 
 loose, under the endorsement of college diplomas, which if subjected 
 to the proposed process, would present, at the terminus of the four 
 years course, a very different result and a much more cheering 
 prospect of a successful and useful life. Were college boards to 
 
COLLEGIATE CONTROL AND CULTURE. 23 
 
 assemble their alumni and ask them this question. " How many of 
 you are painfully conscious that you are not the men you would 
 have been, had you been taught in sections of ten or a dozen each, 
 and so grouped that the members of each could have prosecuted 
 the several branches of the curriculum to the fullest extent and to 
 the utmost limit of their individual capacity ? " The response to such 
 a challenge would both surprise and astonish them, revealing the 
 enormity of the wrong, the gravity of the complaint and the necessity 
 of prompt and radical redress. When such a jury renders their ver- 
 dict, it will become these courts to wipe the glasses of their wisdom. 
 On whom rests the responsibility of perpetuating a policy that en- 
 tails regrets, irreparable losses, and not a few maledictions, shall be 
 the closing interrogation on this topic. 
 
 MODERN LANGUAGES. 
 
 We have reached a point at which it may not be inappropriate 
 to throw out some suggestive enquiries relative to other matters 
 german to the general purpose of this discussion. Change is not 
 always equivalent to improvement ; nor advance, irrespective of the 
 direction, synonymous with progress. A rail road train may run on 
 to a side track, and while it is laying there, another may rush by to 
 its destination with lightning speed, to the no slight chagrin of the 
 be-switched passengers. We have serious apprehensions that those 
 who have so zealously advocated the introduction of the study of 
 the modern languages into our college curricula, either as a regular, 
 or an optional substitute for the classic tongues, are destined, at no 
 distant day, to meet with a sore disappointment. Years of careful 
 observation, and not unfrequent inquiry, have awakened the suspi- 
 cion that the wisdom either of their partial, or complete substitution 
 for the ancient classics, does not rest on a basis so firm and unques- 
 tionable as to forbid all doubt, or reinvestigation. No one of lin- 
 guistic experience will pretend that these languages, even with all 
 the advantage of being living tongues, and each embracing a valua- 
 ble literature, can compare with the venerable repositories of ancient 
 lore, either in disciplinary power or literary culture. If this be ad- 
 mitted, then the inevitable sequence is, that the substitution of the 
 modern for the ancient language, to any extent, from totality to 
 the lowest fraction, is an absolute and positive loss, just in propor- 
 tion to the degree of their comparative inferiority or disciplinary 
 agencies. Do not facts, experience and observations confirm the 
 
24 NEW DEPLRTURES IN 
 
 views suggested? To what other conclusion does an honest and 
 thorough investigation bring us ? What else than the merest 
 shadow of a doubt, bordering on the conviction of absolute certainty, 
 if even that, remains, on a rigid analysis of any genuine specimen 
 that can be produced ? It is an axiomatic truth that the whole of a 
 good thing is better than any fractional part, whatever elementary 
 good that may be. 
 
 Have not the doctors of college curriculum unconciously become 
 the dupes of their own credulity, in the experiment of linguistic 
 substitution, whether partial or total? Happily for the cause of 
 sound learning, we have legitimate specimens of both, for compara- 
 tive analysis. Some forty-five years ago, one of our best colleges, 
 was, shiplike, swept from its classic moorings by that huge tidal 
 wave of anticlassics that then rolled on the Institutions of the land, 
 and carried out to sea, by its deceitful undertow. Happily for its 
 rescue, the next wave brought it back to terra fir -ma anchorage wiser 
 for its erratic experiences. In other words, at the dictation of the 
 then popular clamor, its guardians changes its curriculum by the 
 entire substitution of the modern for the ancient languages, only to 
 acknowledge their unwisdom by taking but one class through the 
 new process, and then gracefully backing off of that wooden tram- 
 way on to the T. rail of the old classic road. So much in the line 
 of demonstration of the wisdom of that diagnosis and the sanitary 
 effect of the accompanying prescription. Though an alopathic dose 
 killed the patient, (for the memory of that case of manifest mal- 
 practice has not entirely faded from the public mind), yet his remains 
 had hardly been laid to rest, before literary homeopathy claimed 
 attention and experiment. Let the subjects of this superior prac- 
 tice be thoroughly examined, and the reality and soundness of its 
 cures be subjected to the crucial test of life experiment. 
 
 Will it not be found, dropping the figure, that nineteen twentieths 
 of recent graduates, five years after leaving college, are more igno- 
 rant of modern than ancient tongues ? Will not even a dissolving 
 view of the latter be far more distinct and vivid than even the mid- 
 day splendor of the former ever was ? While, perhaps, one in twenty, 
 in after life may prosecute the study of one or both of these lan- 
 guages, and thus his initial acquisition may have some practical 
 value, nineteen will give them no postgraduate attention. Shall the 
 interests and better culture of the other nineteen be sacrifized for 
 his solitary benefit ? Such embellishment, (if forsooth, they merit 
 
COLLEGIATE CONTROL AND CULTURE. 25 
 
 that appellation) are too costly to justify the investment of such an 
 amount of funds, and too insignificant to deserve so much time and 
 attention, in a curriculum whose primary mission is discipline, sturdy 
 and symmetrical. The legitimate inference is obvious, demonstra- 
 ting both the comparative disciplinary power and instructive ele- 
 ments of the two. Now if an entire substitution of living for dead 
 languages proved a sad blunder, would not even a partial use of 
 these rise to the gravity of a mistake ? What is the candid, actual 
 fact in the case ? Is not this patent and undeniable, that the smat- 
 tering knowledge of German and French obtained by the student, in- 
 two or three terms of the last two years of his college course, does 
 not rise to the dignity of a culture, nor reach the reality of a practi- 
 cal attainment, and therefore, their study leaving no substantial evi- 
 dence of any marked disciplinary power but rather the reverse, is 
 soon numbered among the things that were and are not ? The rea- 
 sons for this disappointment may be substantially found in two 
 causes, one, that as their study is supposed to be easier than that of 
 the ones for which they are substitute, it is therefore, treated accord- 
 ingly, and the other, the unwillingness of students, at that period of 
 their course, to submit to the drudgery of that primary drill in lin- 
 guistic forms and structure, indispensable to a thorough mastery of 
 a laneuaee and its literature. This conclusion accords with human 
 
 o o 
 
 experience and observation in other things. 
 
 Does not their seeming failure, which we have no doubt future 
 experience will demonstrate to be real, suggest the wisdom of a new 
 departure in the direction of the old paths of classic culture ? The 
 happy sequence of such a return to a more generous curriculum of 
 classic studies would soon be seen, in the symmetry, breadth and 
 vigor of American scholarship, and a Cis-Atlantic attainment, to a 
 greater or less degree, of the literary force and finish of a Macauly, 
 a Gladstone, a FajSrcett, and a host of English scholars and statesmen, 
 who reached their degree of college eminence and culture without 
 the garniture of modern language in their course. 
 
 Let the stalwart culture of the classics be extended, in due pre- 
 portion, over portions of the entire four years, and then the results 
 may fearlessly challenge comparison with the product of any and all 
 the educational humbugs of the age. The directors of the higher 
 educational institutions of the country might learn a valuable lesson 
 from the fable of the Lioness and the Fox, and, like the mistress of 
 the forest, be satisfied with the character rather than the number of 
 
26 NEW DEPARTURES IX 
 
 their literary progeny. There is too much in the competitive char- 
 acter of the times that resembles the immigrant's ambitious address to 
 his only hen, who, having largely supplemented the contents of her 
 nest, through the kind contributions of neighbors, inaugurated the 
 labors of his incubating fowl, with this laconic utterance, " Now 
 spread yourself." There are too many points of analogy between 
 his short-sighted wisdom and the policy of many scheming educators, 
 to be pleasant themes of contemplation, except as admonitory les- 
 sons. Let the genuine college be true to its mission, and content with 
 its proper sphere ; then she will have reason to be proud of her off- 
 spring. Let not those, in charge of its interests and work, be led 
 astray by any foolish ambition like that of the immigrant's, who, ignor- 
 ing the incubating capacity and habits of his solitary fowl, found him- 
 self at the expiration of a given period, the possessor, not of a fine 
 brood of chickens, but a crowded nest of addled eggs. 
 
 We close the discussion of this topic with a feeling, kindred to a 
 settled conviction, that while classical instruction has greatly im- 
 proved in character, within the last thirty years, yet its field of op- 
 erations has been seriously curtailed, some of its richest fruits left 
 ungathered, and its best opportunities appropriated by interlopers 
 of doubtful antecedents and equivocal claims, and also, that the 
 cause of sound and reliable culture would suffer no loss by the 
 relegation of the modern languages and also, of a long portion of 
 what might be properly termed scientific specialities, to the depart- 
 ment of professional studies. They are obviously more nearly allied 
 to them in character and mission, than to branches more strictly 
 disciplinary in their function. Why should they be grouped among 
 the developing agencies of recognized character ? 
 
 If these studies, both modern linguistic and scientific, be truly 
 and properly specialities, or semiprofessional, and that they should 
 be so classed, is but a fair and legitimate inference from the fact that 
 probably not one student in fifty ever gives them any past collegiates' 
 attention, why then should they not be kept out of pure disciplinary 
 curricula ? Why should students, in their pupilary course, be re- 
 quired to pass over scientific ologies in all their arid detail and 
 tedious momenclature, at the expense of what they need far more, 
 and also of much that would be of far more practical value to them ? 
 A modern linguist is not made in one-fifth, or even one-third of a 
 Junior's life, nor is a Botanist, Geologist, Metallurgist or Chemist, 
 created, and all pronounced " very good," within the period of a 
 
COLLEGIATE CONTROL AND CULTURE. 2? 
 
 senior's activities. What else, in fact, at their very best, are these 
 college scientists but mere sciolists, in these several departments, 
 more perhaps, by stress of circumstance, or others' unwisdom, than by 
 their own lack of efforts ? What but the merest smattering knowl- 
 edge of either these languages or sciences can be gained in the period 
 usually allotted to their study, in college curricula ? The suggested 
 relegation of them to scientific schools, or their appropriate depart- 
 ment in university culture, is no crusade against them, but an ex- 
 pression of our high appreciation of them in their proper sphere, 
 and our unwillingness to stand by and see them murdered in cold 
 blood, without a protest. It is desirable for the success of real cul- 
 ture and sound scientific attainment, that the hybrid Institutions, a 
 sorry cross between a genuine college and real university, should be 
 well understood and a wide berth given them by an appreciative 
 public. 
 
 The relegation, suggested, will furnish both time and opportunity 
 for a more careful and extended study of our mother tongue than it 
 now receives in most of our colleges. Are not the claims of that 
 language worthy of consideration, of whose capacity, past achieve- 
 ment and future destiny, Jacob Grimm has spoken so eulogistically ? 
 " The English tongue is fully entitled to be called a world-language, 
 and seems chosen like the Anglo Saxon race, to rule, hereafter, more 
 widely, in all the ends of the earth. For in richness, rational power 
 and campactness, no living language can be compared with it." A 
 language sixty-eight per cent of whose vocabulary is Graeco-Latina, 
 thirty per cent Anglo Saxon, and two per cent Celtic, surely de- 
 serves a much larger portion of time and attention than has hitherto 
 been given to its elements, growth, literature and history. The 
 large per centage of its elements being of classic origin, may suggest 
 even to uncultivated minds, that, possibly, there may be more wis- 
 dom and worth in an extended and thorough study of these dead 
 languages, so berated by the zealous advocates of scientific studies, 
 than they themselves were aware, or ever dreamed. Even the ma- 
 ligners of liberal culture seem unconscious of the fact that they are 
 indebted to the poor despised Greek language for the very word, 
 practical, on which have rung so many changes, and over which they 
 have wasted so much eloquence. What would even the scientific 
 solons, themselves, also do for names for their fossil collections, did 
 not the Greek tongue come to their rescue ? Their 0?r<a would be 
 running about loose, without any f^ya or pupa prefixes, in a deplorable, 
 
28 NEW DEPARTURES IN 
 
 if not a worse condition than Adam found them, at the commence- 
 ment of his designating labors. Without this Grecian aid, the dis- 
 tinguished laborers in the various departments of Natural Sciences 
 would themselves be destitute of both name and nomenclature, even 
 the geologist would be, in designations, like the man without a country, 
 and his eocine, miocene and pliocene classification would be nothing 
 else than sheer blanks, like chaos waiting the fiat, " Let there be 
 light." The whole family of ologies, more numerous than Jacob's 
 household, from the oldest to youngest, from //oology to entomology > 
 would be in as forlorn a situation as the waifs of the street picked up 
 by the police, or gathered into eleemosynary retreats, by the hand of 
 benevolence, It cannot be kept too distinctly in mind, that collegiate 
 training, discipline and development, are far more important and 
 necessary than the mere acquisition of miscellaneous knowledge, and 
 that the latter should ever be subordinate to the former. 
 
 COLLEGE OPTIONALS. 
 
 In this connection we may properly notice another popular ex- 
 periment, that will soon need ventilation. The fundamental objec- 
 tion to the current hobby of the day, the optional study feature of 
 college curricula, is, that it is a pure assumption, not a demonstation, 
 that the student has the requisite wisdom to made a judicious choice ; 
 and it is also a like assumption, not a proof, that in fact, any such election 
 is either desirable or wise. Have not wise men embodied in college 
 curricula the combined experience of the past ? Is it not almost 
 puerile to practically assert that youthful inexperience is equal, if not 
 superior to the matured wisdom of ages ? The whole optional scheme 
 seems to us to be a forced concession to "Young America" wisdom, 
 and not a hearty conviction on the part of the powers that be ; some- 
 what analogous to the anti-classical epidemic of previous experience, 
 and in fact, little short of a barefaced absurdity, for two reasons, one 
 that the student is called upon in a majority of cases, to make this 
 important selection, at an age, when he has neither the requisite 
 maturity, nor wisdom, to make a judicious choice ; and the other is, 
 that the election, when so prematurely made, is to a greater or less 
 extent, based on the real or supposed superior ease with which the 
 substituted study can be mastered. Both of these considerations are 
 painfully indicative of the true character of this modern device. The 
 soundness of the above named reasons seems to be strongly corrobo- 
 
COLLEGIATE CONTROL AND CULTURE. 29 
 
 rated by the caveat found in catalogue announcements, " No change 
 in optional studies will be permitted in term time," a wise provision 
 against contingences, and highly suggestive not only of student 
 fickleness and incapacity to make so grave an election, but also of 
 adult folly in devolving such reponsibility on immature years. 
 
 The intellectual magnates of the past and passing generation 
 were not nourished on the namby-pamby diet of modern languages, 
 and the elective ologies that now grace the curricula of the spread- 
 eagle type of colleges, which, like the frog in the fable that inflated 
 itself till substance could not longer resist the expansive power of 
 compressed air, may be in peril of a similar fate. Such 'men as 
 Webster, Calhoun, Choate and a host of eminent statesmen and 
 lawyers ; Alexander, Crosby and Headly in linguistic research and at- 
 tainment ; Mussey, Wyman and Mott in the medical profession, and 
 a multitude of ministerial worthies that might be named, did not 
 reach their distinguished eminence, in the palace cars of modern 
 languages and scientific option, now so multitudinous as to outnum- 
 ber even the switches of great railroad centers. It is said in a recent 
 work, that, at Harvard, five twelfths of the studies are required, and 
 seven twelfths are optional, and " she offers one hundred and ten 
 elective studies, providing for two hundred and seventy recitations 
 per week." This programme, whether wise, or otherwise, partially 
 solves the enigma involved in a students reply to the enquiry, " Of 
 what class are you a member ?" " I do not know till I graduate." It 
 is to be hoped that John Hopkins' institution will not come down 
 into the hybrid arena, but maintain her self-respect and fulfil the 
 high and dignified mission of a real University, unquestioned, and 
 worthy of the name. 
 
 Let the Goliah advocates of the optional system, now so boast- 
 fully defying the hosts of classic learning, remember the old caution, 
 " Let not him that putteth on the armor boast as he that putteth 
 it off." It will be wiser and more appropriate to prefer their claim 
 to educational superiority when their literary progeny have reached 
 full stature and mature age, and proved their giant pedigree by 
 the actual possession of the genuine number of fingers and toes of 
 superior discipline and richer culture. Till then, let them postpone 
 their scoffs and supercilious disdain of the modest David of less pre- 
 tensious airs and more solid work. 
 
 It is greatly to be deplored that the restive impatience of inex- 
 perienced youth, in the direction of those studies that best develop 
 
30 NEW DEPARTURES IN 
 
 and train the mind to stalwart vigor and reliable action in subse- 
 quent life, has received such consideration at the hands of staunch 
 advocates of classic learning, college Boards and their respective Fac- 
 ulties. The character or extent of that deference crops out in the 
 substitutes and electives that have been injected into those college 
 courses, whose previous disciplinary power and culture, time honored 
 experience has abundantly illustrated and proved. The compromise 
 seems to us to have more elements of weakness than wisdom, and 
 that its real basis is not conviction, but fickle expediency, which is 
 as deceptive and unwise in mental as in moral experiments. 
 
 A recent examination of college curricula reveals the comforting 
 fact, that the ravages of the optional fever have not been so extensive 
 in the rural, as in the metropolitan Institutions. The former have 
 not ventured out so far on the sea of this experiment, as the latter. 
 This may, perhaps be owing more to their poverty than superior 
 wisdom. Which ever it may be, let them thank God for the wis- 
 dom, or even the poverty that has kept them within the shore line of 
 former experience, and also, trust Him, for future guidance, in the way 
 of loyalty to conviction of what is true, use/ul and wise. 
 
 The currents of popular caprice and fancied wisdom are far more 
 fickle and fallacious than even the currents of the ocean. What 
 skilful navigator hesitates for a moment, to cut or cross these, at any 
 or all angles, that the interests of his employers demand ? As in 
 steam navigation, head winds, cross tides and opposing currents are 
 practically ignored or disregarded, so in literary, let the will power 
 of tried wisdom control, take the noonday observations, and work out 
 the daily latitude and longitude of the educational voyage. There 
 is no place for amateur navigators on board this craft, for the inter- 
 ests of the owners, underwriters and passengers, forbid the presence 
 or control of any such pilots. In taking leave of this topic we will 
 throw out this interrogative suggestion. Is not the optional study 
 policy an unconscious admission of the existence of serious evils, and 
 does it not, also indicate to some extent, their character and loca- 
 tion ? The old en masse method of instruction, as set forth in 
 another part of this paper, furnished just ground for complaint and 
 dissatisfaction. Unfortunately the remedial policy took the optional, 
 rather than the sectional classification, Jype. The latter is manifestly 
 in the line of a higher grade of both classical* and mathematical cul- 
 ture, and wisely conducive to its accomplishment. We have not the 
 slightest apprehension that the final results of the optional experiment, 
 
COLLEGIATE CONTROL AND CULTURE. 3! 
 
 (for it can claim no nearer kindred to wisdom), will be any thing 
 other than in harmony with the views thus frankly expressed. 
 
 THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 
 
 The issue, however, may be considered as fairly and squarely 
 taken. Modern wisdom has thrown down the gauntlet to classic cul- 
 ture and defied her advocates to take it up. The scientific crusaders 
 with their confederates, of divers stripes, have opened the campaign, 
 by the construction of a railroad into the very heart of the disputed 
 territory, and propose to carry passengers to the promised land, at 
 reduced rates and a higher speed. By the establishment of a rival 
 road, a right royal highway to knowledge, the new corporation con- 
 fidently expect to run the old company into bankruptcy and a tame 
 surrender of their chartered rights. They invite, by various devices, 
 the public to take passage in their light and splendid coaches, on the 
 narrow gage, short line, running into the grand central depot of 
 " Practical Education" recently erected, at great expense of brains 
 and funds, on north side of the ** Hill of Science," at the foot of its 
 rugged sides and in full view of the dense clouds that envelop its 
 towering clifts. The Company, by the greatly reduced cost of con- 
 struction and equipment of their road, are able to make large reduc- 
 tion both in the ordinary fares and the sleeping and dining-room car 
 charges. Their engineers are men of large experience and scientific 
 attainments, the conductors are affable, polite and ready to answer 
 all questions, and the passengers are furnished with patent checks 
 for baggage and can stop off at any station. The only reply to these 
 posters, stuck up at every cross road, that the old company has seen 
 fit to make, is, that their trains run on steel rails of the heaviest weight 
 and their depot is located on a southern spur of the Hill of Science, 
 in full view of its sunlit summit. No sleepers or dining room cars 
 run on this road. If the first train on the flat bar met with a Gas- 
 conade catastrophy, would it be wise to take the new route, even if 
 the tickets have insurance coupons attached ? 
 
 In other words, the friends of classic learning, sturdy discipline 
 and sterling moral culture will have nothing to fear from this maraud- 
 ing fancy, when the suggested revision is made and the supplemental 
 modifications are thoroughly incorporated into the system of super- 
 vision, training and control. The patronage, which College Boards- 
 seek and desire to secure by the prompt adoption of such improve- 
 
32 NEW DEPARTURES IN 
 
 ments as experience and practical wisdom suggest and approve, will 
 be cheerfully and liberally accorded to them, and ample material will 
 be furnished to faithful and wide-awake Faculties, on which to ex- 
 pend their utmost skill. 
 
 One effort of this irrepressible conflict will, undoubtedly, be an 
 extensive, if not complete riddance of not a little of the countless 
 impediments, which in the guise of conceit, unconscious ignorance, 
 aimless purpose, and inveterate laziness, have hitherto so severely 
 taxed the patience, ingenuity and firmness of teachers to eliminate. 
 Under a firm and rigid adherance to conviction of what is wise and 
 true, on the part of Boards of control and instruction, much of the 
 crude and floating mass of wild educational speculation will soon " go 
 to its own place." 
 
 Though the classics may be temporarily pushed to the wall, or 
 crowded into a corner, and even branded as outlaws, as they were, 
 more than forty years ago, yet they can bide their time, for the 
 present scientific billow seems but a type of the huge anticlassic wave 
 which, though it then swelled and roared, and even threatened to 
 sweep, to a bottomless gulph, all vestages of classic lore, soon passed 
 by, and found its level in the great ocean of exploded experiment. 
 Let no one be either impatient or desponding, for the day of reac- 
 tion will surely come, which will sweep the track, of all incumbent 
 rubbish, and reinstate them more firmly than ever, as the grand un- 
 rivalled conservators of mental discipline and symmetrical culture. 
 What could more effectually forestall the fulfilment of Lamartine's 
 sad prediction, " Before this century closes, journalism will be the 
 press, the whole of human thought. Thought will not have had time 
 to ripen and assume a book-form costume. The book will arrive too 
 late ; the only book, possible, soon, will be a newspaper," than a 
 stalwart and thorough classic drill and culture?" 
 
 The basis of this confidence of success, notwithstanding the popu- 
 lar hue and cry, a "practical education " and even a temporary hum- 
 bug triumph, is the conviction, that, however great the abundance of 
 scientific wisdom and the thousands of its admirers and professors, 
 yet there are, and ever will be found, in every intelligent community, 
 people enough, who appreciate mental discipline as a real entity, 
 know that its acquisition is the product of nothing short of a wise 
 thorough and practical training, and can also, distinguish the differ- 
 ence between the semblance and substance, to assure earnest and 
 faithful workers an ample supply of rich and reliable material. 
 
COLLEGIATE CONTROL AND .CULTURE. 33 
 
 Though the latter, less blatant and boisterous, may, for a while, be 
 like Gideon's three hundred lappers, and the former the appropriate 
 representative of his ten thousand loungers, yet there is no uncer- 
 tainty who will be the victors. Honest work is a currency that will 
 ever be at par, and in no department of human enterprise is the 
 figure more emphatically illustrated than in the realm of higher 
 culture. 
 
 Nay, more, so profound is the conviction of the reality and in- 
 trinsic worth of thorough and symmetrical training, that were an In- 
 stitution to adopt the suggested " New departures of supervision con- 
 trol and instruction," both biblical and classical, test them in good 
 faith, with parental firmness and perfect independence of the whims 
 and caprices of a fickle and croaking public, and faithfully and nobly 
 work in the direction of its eclectic -model, patronage would soon 
 exceed its capacity of accommodations, and thus, others be stimulated 
 to imitate its example. Such independence and fidelity to convic- 
 tion would attract attention and draw material of the best quality, 
 as well as in rich abundance, from all parts of the country. Maine 
 and California would have their representatives within its walls. 
 
 LENGTH OF THE COLLEGE YEAR. 
 
 There is another topic, which may not be unworthy of the atten- 
 tion of college trustees, and which ere long may justly claim their 
 consideration and action. The American views and usages in refer- 
 ence to the length of the college year, are much more in accordance 
 with the dictates of common sense than those prevalent in England. 
 The length of the annual college sessions at Oxford is only twenty-six 
 weeks, and at Cambridge twenty-three, and the entire period of re- 
 quired attendance, for graduation, is but eighty-four weeks. One 
 university syncopates senior year to fifteen, and the other to six 
 weeks. There is also this curious and anomalous fact, in connection 
 with the abridged period of the fourth years^ study, that there is no 
 recognition of its serious curtailment in the annual charge for tuition 
 and room. This reminds us of the somewhat analogous custom in 
 American colleges, of charging a student who enters an advance class, 
 back tuition, unless he came from another college. Perhaps, also, 
 the foolish custom of a senior vacation of five or six weeks before 
 commencement, once prevalent in the older colleges, had a Trans- 
 atlantic origin, and was designed to be only a modest and reduced copy 
 
34 NEW DEPARTURES IN 
 
 of the grand original six months senior vacation of the English uni- 
 versities. 
 
 Possibly Harvard or Yale antiquarians might trace its origin 
 to the early college custom of seniors delivering their graduating 
 speeches at the opening, rather than the close of the college year, 
 hence the familiar term, " Commencement," which, then, was an ap- 
 pellation both appropriate and suggestive of a completed and rounded 
 period of four years collegiate study, and also, of the practical fact, 
 that, while the remaining classes enter on a new stage of their 
 educational career, the graduating class now commence life's expe- 
 rience of being no longer " under tutors and governors." That 
 custom gave them a long vacation in which to make their prepara- 
 tion. But when experience suggested the wisdom of transferring 
 graduating exercises from the beginning to the close of the college 
 year, the name of that anniversary seems to have shared in the trans- 
 position of time of its occurrence, without attracting attention to the 
 incongruity of its application to the new departure. So much, by 
 way of exposition of the archaeology of the name of the great literary 
 anniversary of the country. 
 
 If the modern senior vacation was appropriated to the aforesaid 
 preparation, its propriety might not be so justly questioned, but 
 when it is known that all such labor must be completed, in advance 
 of that holiday period, the absurdity of a plea for either the intro- 
 duction, or the continuance of the custom, becomes too manifest, and 
 its insincerity too gross for toleration. If the substance has de- 
 parted, why foolishly cling to the shadow ? This exotic has had a 
 slow growth west of the Alleghanies, and it seems the consummation 
 of unwisdom to attempt to galvanise into life what is fast becoming 
 a fossil on most of the Atlantic slopes. This is another college 
 tramp that needs legislative extirpation, and richly merits the prompt 
 attention of College Boards of Control. 
 
 The annual period of study in our colleges has, hitherto, been, 
 for divers reasons, a somewhat variable quantity, yet gradually ap- 
 proaching a substantial uniformity. The American maximum is 
 forty-two weeks, 'and the minimun not less than thirty-six, in striking 
 contrast with the brevity of the collegiate year in the English Uni- 
 versities. It is obviously wise for Boards to secure to the student as 
 long a period of tuition in each year of his college training as may be 
 consistent with a due regard to health. Anything short of this is his 
 loss, and the Institution failing to meet the legitimate obligation of its 
 
COLLEGIATE CONTROL AND CULTURE. 35 
 
 mission. There seems no good reason why the annual aggregate of 
 college vacation should be more than ten, or twelve weeks, at the 
 longest. The mother college of the Mississippi valley entered on her 
 career with a vacation programme of ten weeks, and we are not aware 
 that, in her more than fifty years mission, she ever made anything, 
 in the period of it, but merely in the distribution. She has sent out 
 many stalwart sons z/wcrippled by dispepsia or other diseases claiming 
 kindred to a too close and protracted confinement to hard study. Is 
 not her example worthy of consideration and imitation ? The ten- 
 dency to reduce the length of the college year comes out in replies 
 to a question on this point. The true source and animus of this re- 
 duction we will not attempt to indicate, but merely suggest the wis- 
 dom of the expansion of the study, rather than vacation period, 
 mauger the maledictions that the advice may provoke from some dis- 
 interested sources. 
 
 THE BIBLE A COLLEGE TEXT-BOOK. 
 
 Does the Bible occupy its true and proper position in the college 
 curricula of our country? is an inquiry of fundamental and practical 
 importance. It is, in fact, a live issue, destined erelong to reach the 
 front and demand recognition and action. Touching, as it does, 
 on points of vital interest, civil, social and religious, it justly claims a 
 prompt, earnest and candid consideration from three classes, society 
 at large, the custodians of our higher institutions and those enjoying 
 their culture. The community sorely needs all the moral invigora- 
 tion that a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures, on the part of those 
 standing on the high places of influence and power, can impart to 
 the body politic. College trustees are justly responsible to the 
 public, patrons and pupils, for ample provision for biblical training of 
 the youth in charge, the full benefit of which the future men of 
 culture and control in this land must have, or we are a doomed 
 nation. 
 
 In these times of effort and struggle to eliminate some of the 
 alarming evils of the age and retrace the steps that have led us astray 
 into political, social and moral obliquities of startling character, noth- 
 ing could be more appropriate or pertinent to the end sought, than an 
 honest and thorough discussion of the question standing at the head 
 of our opening paragraph. 
 
 Efforts, whether trivial, or serious and far reaching, have their ap- 
 
36 NEW DEPARTURES IN 
 
 propriate and legitimate causes; and experience has long since taught 
 those seeking to avert dangers, eradicate evils and inaugurate real 
 and substantial reform in a given line of human progress, to rest their 
 hope of ultimate and permanent success in nothing short of a tho- 
 rough and exhaustive investigation of the case in hand, and a cor- 
 responding application of the appropriate remedies. In such inqui- 
 ries as the subject now proposed for consideration, there is no au- 
 thority so pertinent and conclusive, no correction so radical and re- 
 liable, no counsel so wise and satisfactory, as the Bible principles and 
 inculcations. They are applicable to all human wants under the ever 
 varying circumstances of earthly experience, and to none are they 
 more important and instructive than to youth developing into man- 
 hood, under the molding powers of a thorough intellectual culture. 
 They are absolutely essential to a complete and symmetrical moral 
 training, in the formative period of youthful character and habits. 
 They cannot be dispensed with, neglected, nor despised, without 
 peril and ultimate ruin to the individual, and serious loss and damage 
 to the commonwealth of which he is a member. 
 
 Let us note a few illustrations of their pertinence, truth and 
 power. In the Old Testament, the Divine Law stands forth in all 
 its uniqueness, simplicity, perfection and majesty, and in the New, 
 its divinely authorized epitome, is equally conspicious, the only infalli- 
 ble guide of individual conduct and the true basis of all sound juris- 
 prudence and wise legislation. Then follow those axiomatic utter- 
 ances, so expressive of human experience, both punitive and praise- 
 worthy, admonitive and commendatory. " Be sure, your sin will find 
 you out," (whether personal or national) is as true and salutary now, 
 as it was when it first fell from the lips of the Jewish Lawgiver. 
 " Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall," 
 gives us, in no slight degree, a clue to the real cause of most of the 
 financial distress and ruin that have overwhelmed both nations and 
 individuals. " They that will be rich, fall into temptation and a 
 snare," not only illustrates the deceitfulness of riches, but also throws 
 the light of midday revelation on the history of many a hopeless 
 bankrupt, both financial and moral. " The hand of the diligent 
 maketh rich " contains the germ of all real and permanent thrift, and 
 is the genuine backbone and basis of *true economy, both personal 
 and political. " Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise 
 of the life that now is and of that which is to come," is an inspired 
 utterance, revealing to the votaries of Mammon the true riches, whose 
 
COLLEGIATE CONTROL AND CULTURE. . 37 
 
 attainment is the crowning mission of life. Such passages are highly 
 suggestive of the ethical value of the Sacred Scriptures, and the 
 supreme wisdom of giving their principles and precepts far more time 
 and consideration than they now receive in any college in the land. 
 
 Under no form of civil government do the animus and acts of 
 rulers reflect so directly and truly, the wisdom, or the lack of it, on 
 the part of the ruled, as in a representative democracy. Civil office 
 is a mirror, of magic power and accuracy, in which representative 
 and constituency are compelled to look each other and themselves 
 squarely in the face, and contemplate their respective images, how- 
 ever unlovely, or otherwise, they may be. The incumbents of official 
 position are the unchallengable types of those who put them there, 
 nor can their legitimate paternity be justly questioned. The major- 
 ity's moral images and superscription are stamped upon their repre- 
 sentative, as distinct and ineffaceable as the impress on the coin of 
 the country. In our Legislative and Congressional Halls may be 
 found political and moral types of every grade, shading off from the 
 high-toned, incorruptable and patriotic statesman, down to the reck- 
 less, trustless and demagogical representation of city slums, and 
 rural civilization of corresponding shade. 
 
 Under these inevitable sequences, it is obvious that the common- 
 wealth is no mere idle and uninterested spectator of the proposed 
 discussion, but has far too much at stake, in the direction of a right 
 solution of the question raised, not to be numbered among the 
 parties whose welfare demands a thorough investigation and an 
 honest verdict. The community may justly claim precedence of 
 consideration, embracing as it does, in its ample folds, all shades and 
 types of political thought and policy, all degrees of mental culture, 
 moral development and religious progress. Its energetic and patri- 
 otic purpose and wise activities, however divergent, seemingly, and 
 antagonistic, are all professedly aimed at the public welfare. From 
 such distant and diverse standpoints does even the best of human 
 thought slowly converge to the common centre, the general good, 
 and the discovery of truth. There is, therefore, a stern and obvious 
 necessity that these rays-, more or less distorted by prejudice, or be- 
 dimmed by ignorance or moral obliquity, should pass through some 
 recognized and accepted medium, to correct their incidental aberra- 
 tion. What medium could there be more appropriate, pure and 
 perfect, than the law of the Lord, so beautifully set forth in the nine- 
 teenth Psalm ? 
 
3 NEW DEPARTURES IN 
 
 There is another characteristic feature of human masses, for what- 
 ever object combined, that bears on the point at issue, the necessity 
 of leaders to shape and give a right direction to their purpose and 
 power. Every host, whether political or military, must have leaders, 
 competent and trustworthy, would they secure the triumph of sound 
 principles and a wise administration of civil government, or achieve 
 a military victory. These masses, also, for lack of culture and 
 trained habits of reflection, depend, in no slight degree, on their 
 fellows of more gifted intellects and liberal education, to formulate 
 their views, form their creeds and political platforms, direct and con- 
 trol their fir arcial and eleemosynary enterprises. 
 
 Popular opinion, unaided by such training and wisdom, vibrates, 
 back and forth, over every degree of the arc of its fluctuations, from 
 profound conservatism to reckless radicalism, on all subjects within 
 the purview of the people's consideration and action. This natural 
 instability of uneducated sentiment, has long since taught the un- 
 trained masses to distrust, in no slight degree, their own judgment, 
 and lead them to supplement their lack of wisdom and knowledge, by 
 a proper deference to the opinion of more gifted powers and liberal 
 culture. Mere mental discipline and development, however finished 
 and profound, fail to meet and satisfy the demands of man's asso- 
 ciated necessities. Without the moral complement, literary train- 
 ing, let it be ever so wise and complete, is, at its best estate, but an 
 unsolved problem of doubtful issue. Even the untutored masses of 
 sound moral instructors are not unconscious of the radical defect, and 
 are slow to accord their unquestioned confidence and cordial trust to 
 any of doubtful moral antecedents. This homage, though almost 
 unconscious, yet not the less real, paid to moral worth, indicates the 
 popular estimate of its intrinsic value and absolute necessity for na- 
 tional permanence and prosperity. Whatever modification or en- 
 largement of the curriculum of study in our higher institutions, that 
 will more effectually meet, and satisfy, the demands of a thorough 
 and extended culture of the hearts of our youth, developing their 
 moral sensibilities and bringing them into a more intimate acquaint- 
 ance and cordial sympathy with Bible characters and inculcations, 
 will not fail to receive the hearty approval of the American people. 
 
 There is, also, in the mass of our people, an innate consciousness 
 and conviction, more or less profound, that a familiarity with, and a 
 love of, the precepts and principles of God's word, will ever prove the 
 most effectual shield to our youth against all the fiery darts of the 
 
COLLEGIATE CONTROL AND CULTURE. 39 
 
 adversary and the corruptive suggestions of their own evil natures; 
 and therefore, they are deeply interested in a prompt and hearty 
 adoption of the New Departure policy, suggested by our initial enquiry, 
 and will not be slow, nor equivocal, in the expression of their senti- 
 ments in the premises. Their verdict would be, give young America 
 the full benefit resulting from a careful study of the historical and 
 biographical sketches of the Bible. Nothing could more appro- 
 priately and profitably occupy a due share of their four years college 
 course than a profound study of the prominent Bible characters. 
 Frequent visits to and thorough study in such a picture gallery could 
 not fail to produce happy and permanent results. Let them study 
 the outlines and lineaments of those worthies, whose life experience, 
 from early youth to extreme old age, has been portrayed in those 
 sacred pages, till they are changed into the same image. Let them 
 ponder those features till they are inwrought, in all their beauty and 
 loveliness, into their own characters, both mental and moral, and the 
 result will prove, at least, a partial assimilation, even by absorption. 
 
 As the educated mind of a country is a recognized power, for 
 good or evil, in whatever sphere it is found, whether, Cincinnatus 
 like, at the plough, or guiding legislation, or moving in professional 
 or business life, and, its moulding influence and unconscious tuition 
 are felt and appreciated to a much higher degree than the popular 
 impression or a superficial glance would indicate, so therefore, it is a 
 matter of prime importance, that it should receive, cotemporaneously 
 with its mental development, a moral culture of higher worth than 
 Horace ever contemplated in his " Teres atque rotundus 3 ' utterance, 
 even in an ethical application. 
 
 Were an American Christian to go into the Mohammedan Uni- 
 versity at Cairo, with its ten thousand students, nothing there wit- 
 nessed would impress him so deeply, as the fact, that so much time 
 is occupied and so much attention given to the study of the Koran ; 
 and a like impression would be created, were he to make a similar 
 visit to a corresponding Institution in the sacred city of Benares, and 
 witness the exercises of that Brahminical college and listen to the 
 lectures of its learned Pundits on the Shaste?- literature and religion, 
 If, then, returning to his native shores, he should make a correspond- 
 ing exploration of some of our colleges, proud of their number of stu- 
 dents and the spread of their curricula, and ask the venerable presi- 
 dent thereof, Why has not the Bible a place, if not a prominent one, 
 at least a position, in your course of study ; what reply would he re- 
 
40 NEW DEPARTURES IN 
 
 ceive ? Would it be anything but a humiliating one, awakening a 
 train of thought, not the most pleasant, or complimentary to our 
 consistency or profession as a Christian people ? 
 
 Were a learned Brahmin, or a Moslem moblah, to visit one of 
 our first class Universities, listen to the recitations, interview the 
 professors, spend a Sabbath at the institution, witness the devotional 
 exercises, call on the president for the last instalment of the know- 
 ledge of which he was in pursuit, and ask for a catalogue, and, running 
 his eye over the course of study but not finding the Bible among 
 the textbooks, should turn to the venerable Head and scornfully en- 
 quire, u Where is your Shaster, or Koran ? " what Christian man would 
 wish to be present, at that interview, and witness the undisguised 
 contempt with which he would turn his back on such an Institution, 
 and his footsteps toward his native land, confirmed in his delusion, or 
 idolatry, by the inconsistency of such a specimen of our Christian 
 Universities? No special pleading or apologetic explanation could 
 efface the impression produced by his explorations and final inter- 
 view. Are we prepared to receive such distinguished visitors and 
 court their scrutiny and comments? 
 
 The reason why more than three-fifths of the Bible are in 
 the form of history and biography, is evidently found in one of 
 its own utterances, " As in water, face answers to face, so the heart 
 of man to man." In other words, it is a record of human ex- 
 perience, alike adapted to the comprehension of trained and un- 
 trained intellect, and therefore, becomes, as it were, a great picture 
 gallery, on whose walls are hung specimens of divine photography, 
 challenging the study of the race. Where can such pictures, histori- 
 cal or biographical, bearing traces of a master hand, be found, so 
 true and graphic ? Of the abstract type, what, in the historic line, 
 can equal this sketch? " Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is 
 a reproach to any people," and in the biographical, the specimen is 
 no less unique and significant, " Blessed is the man that walketh not 
 in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, 
 nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful." Of its numerous concrete 
 examples, we can indicate only a few, and that, too, merely by some 
 one of their most salient features. 
 
 Where do we find a more emphatic expression of God's detesta- 
 tion and abhorence of treason, traitors and sympathizers, than in 
 Numbers 16: 1-50? Whom did an archangel accost with this re- 
 markable salutation, " O man, greatly beloved ? " Who are the three 
 
COLLEGIATE CONTROL AND CULTURE. 41 
 
 worthies, whom God grouped together, and of whom he said, 
 "Though these three men were in the land," (visited for its wicked- 
 ness) " they only shall be delivered, themselves? " Who was that 
 ancient saint, that from the very depths of affliction, uttered these re- 
 markable words of triumphant faith and confidence in God. "The 
 Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of 
 the Lord ? " What distinguished statesman of Israel, at the end of a 
 long life, challenged any one of his countrymen to say, that he had 
 ever wronged him, in person or property ? To whom, and under what 
 circumstances, was this terrible announcement made. " Inasmuch as 
 thou hast let him go, whom I appointed unto death, thy life shall go, 
 for his life, and thy people for his people?" Where did sublime faith 
 find expression, in this emphatic declaration, " Thy people shall be 
 my people, and thy God my God ? " In whose life experience do 
 we find these two characteristic utterances, " As for me and my 
 house, we will serve the Lord ? " " Should such a man as I, fear ? " 
 Where can we find such an exhibition of the ruling element of char- 
 acter, both of the speaker and the person, to whom these words were 
 addressed ? " Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom 
 for such a time as this ?" Who were the two youths, one repelling 
 temptation by the suggestive reply, " How can I do this great wick- 
 edness and sin against God? " while the other, in getting his educa- 
 tion, preferred the simplest diet, to the richest viands, and having 
 graduated with the highest honors of his class, subsequently rose, 
 like his noble peer of an earlier period, to high rank and reached a 
 ripe old age ? Who was he who so wisely responded to the Divine 
 challenge " Ask -what I shall give thee ? " 
 
 Where can such groups of noble characters, as these, and others of 
 kindred type, scattered with such rich profusion through the sacred 
 record, be found in all the broad domain of mere human literature, 
 both ancient and modern ? Are they not worthy of profound study 
 and a corresponding imitation ? What proportion of the members 
 of all the senior classes in our colleges could name the individuals 
 referred to in the above interrogataries? As skilfull naturalists, with 
 a single prominent bone of any animal, can reconstruct a complete 
 skeleton and tell the genus to which it belongs, so, how many of 
 these prospective graduates are such skilful scriptural anatomists, that, 
 from these salient features, they could reproduce the Bible sketches, 
 in such fullness as to indicate a practical knowledge of the lessons 
 designed to be taught by them ? Who can estimate the moral effect 
 
42 NEW DEPARTURES IN 
 
 that a careful study of such specimens of character and life ex- 
 perience would produce, on the educated mind of the country, in the 
 process of its development, earnestly commended to its attention 
 by wise and sympathetic teachers? How much practical truth 
 would thus be lodged in heads, which, like the heart, have hitherto 
 remained, both unblessed and undeveloped by any such analytical 
 processes of investigation, or personal application of such lessons? 
 Why should language, science and philosophy, (to use an agricultural 
 figure,) be plowed in, to say nothing of the cross-plowing and even 
 subsoil process of thorough drill in their mastery ; and biblical 
 culture, receive either no attention, or an amount that does not rise 
 even to the semblance of a culture? Who is responsible for such 
 ignorance ? 
 
 It might, perhaps, prove to be unwise, if not hazardous, to push 
 such enquires into higher circles, lest others than undergraduates 
 might be imperiled thereby, " the joints of whose harness" might 
 present openings to such random shafts as would inflict annoying, if 
 not fatal wounds. These are not groundless apprehensions. How 
 many of the legislators of our land, both State and National, could 
 not repeat the Decalogue, or even the Lord's Prayer, to say nothing 
 of the Seven Beatitudes? How, in fact, would the Alumni of our 
 Christian college compare with the graduates of the universities of 
 Cairo and Benares, in relative knowledge of their respective sacred 
 books ? The very question is, both ominous of the response, and 
 suggestive, both of past dereliction and the proper remedy, in the 
 direction of the new departure. If the Koran of the great Impostor 
 receives such attention and careful study from his deluded followers, 
 and the Shasters are no less venerated and studied by the devotees 
 of Brahma, Vishnu and Siva, what amount of attention should the 
 Sacred Scriptures receive, at the hands of those who profess to re- 
 gard them as a revelation from God, and what position should they 
 occupy in the curricula of our higher institutions, is a problem that 
 now claims consideration and solution at the hands of college boards 
 of control. 
 
 Reliable statistics, recently collected, reveal some peculiar facts 
 in relation- to collegiate use, and neglect, of the Bible as a textbook. 
 Of forty six colleges reporting, eighteen use it, in a proper sense, as a 
 textbook, and twenty-eight do not. Of twelve New England col- 
 leges three use it, and nine do not. Of twenty-two Western institu- 
 tions, nine use it, and thirteen do notgive it a place in their curriculum 
 
COLLEGIATE CONTROL AND CULTURE. 43 
 
 These comparative facts are very significant, as well as suggestive, in 
 this character. 
 
 It may seem, to the Christian public, a strange announcement 
 that, in a majority of our colleges, the Bible has no other recognized 
 place in their course of instruction than in the daily morning and 
 Sabbath religious exercises. These indeed, are appropriate and not 
 without some salutary influence, but who, that has ever witnessed 
 them, does not feel that they are altogether inadequate to impart 
 such a knowledge of God's word as youth and manhood need? In 
 both of these exercises the student's mind may be, and often is, else- 
 where. Neither of them has the compulsory attention of a recitation 
 exercise, reenforced by the certainty of a subsequent examination. 
 The forlorn hope, of catalogue statistics, supplemented by the re- 
 sponses made to a circular inquiry on this point, reveals the fact, 
 that, in an overwhelming majority of them, there is an utter and ab- 
 solute non-existence of any, even imperfectly developed, system of 
 biblical culture. In a few colleges there is a weekly recitation in 
 the Greek Testament, required of the two lower classes, in other few, 
 it is in the vernacular tongue. In some, its study is not subject to a 
 term, or, annual examination. In a very few it is placed on the same 
 footing with other studies in this respect. The study, as yet, is 
 largely, though not exclusively confined to the New Testament. 
 The time allotted to the recitation, also, varies. In some Institu- 
 tions it is on Monday, or other secular day, in other on the Sabbath. 
 Biblical culture, as far as there is any systematic provision for it in 
 our colleges, seems to be passing through a tentative period, both as 
 to time, method and extent. We hail both its advent and progress, 
 and rejoice to know that, in some localities, it has gotten out of the 
 chrysalis state, though in other, the egg does not yet seem to be 
 deposited. The field for biblical training in college is both broad 
 and promising. Large portions of it however are still an unbroken 
 prairie, over which the herds of cultivated ignorance are yet roaming, 
 unconscious of their poverty and leanness ; in others, the sod crop is 
 springing up, and in others, the golden harvest is waving, under the 
 Spirit's gentle breezes. 
 
 The practical ignoring of the Book of books, by a large majority 
 of American colleges, as far as any methodical study is required, or in- 
 struction given therein, and the comparatively tentative and timor- 
 ous policy adopted by some of the small number which recognize its 
 claims and worth, are phenomena of rare and unique type. It will 
 
44 NEW DEPARTURES IN 
 
 be almost universally admitted, theoretically at least, that no other 
 volume contains such treasures of wisdom, preceptive, and practical, 
 drawn from human experience (often of a painful character) and 
 divine teaching ; no other book presents such specimens of history, 
 biography and ethical instruction, touching on every point of human 
 duty, interest and welfare, both for the world that now is, and that 
 which is to come ; yet, practically, heathen authors are often more 
 carefully read and studied than the sacred scriptures, and pagan 
 mythology, not unfrequently is more familiar to classical students 
 than scriptural theology. It is to be hoped that loyalty to convic- 
 tion of what God requires and man needs, will not permit the literary 
 " Head Centers " of the country to yield to sceptical opposition, 
 popular indifference or professorial demurrers, nor suffer this long 
 withheld provision for biblical instruction to be any longer postponed. 
 Assurance may, with confidence, be given to Trustees, that homage 
 to truth and duty, on their part, will receive a most cordial and 
 ample backing from their most reliable patrons, in any wise scheme 
 of honoring God's word. 
 
 One of the most formidable obstacles to the introduction and 
 successful progress of this new departure, in some institutions, will 
 be found in the unwillingness of professors to assume this new re- 
 sponsibility and meet this additional draft on their time and biblical 
 capital. Some may say, that it is a demand for labor not embraced 
 in the contract, and therefore, not obligatory on them. Others may 
 plead a want of familiarity with the original languages, or a lack of 
 exegetical culture, and under these various subterfuges seek to con- 
 ceal a want of sympathy with the religious element of the enterprise. 
 To the former class of demurrers, let the response be, Broaden the 
 basis of the contract, or dissolve it ; and to the latter, it may be ap- 
 propriately said, for their comfort, that neither of these deficiencies 
 is a bar to success, though both are valuable helps in the work, for 
 the exercise will be in the vernacular tongue. To such distrustful 
 pleas, it may be a sufficient reply, The best supplement to your liberal 
 culture of such a mission, is a cordial love of the truth, a hearty in- 
 terest in the spiritual welfare of your pupils, and a cordial sympathy 
 with them in their search " after that godliness which is profitable 
 unto all things." What students most need, is not exegetical train- 
 ing, but a familiar acquaintance with the Bible facts, so illustrative 
 of its doctrinal revelation. Let them, like the Psalmist, hide God's 
 word in their hearts, which safely lodged in their memories, like a 
 
COLLEGIATE CONTROL AND CULTURE. 45 
 
 sword in its scabbard, the Spirit can draw forth and wield in his own 
 good time and manner. 
 
 Such a weekly exercise will furnish Professors with fine opportu- 
 nities, (which would not otherwise occur) for saying many things to 
 their classes, drawn from their own experience and observation, that 
 may be of great practical value to them in subsequent life. To a 
 teacher, who wishes to leave an impress for good on the hearts of 
 his pupils and give a right direction to their moral development, 
 nothing could be more opportune, or promising, than the contem- 
 plated exercise, each Sabbath morning. The time, opportunity and 
 theme all concur to aid his effort, stimulate his zeal, and encourage 
 his purpose. Familiarity on the part of youth, with Bible characters 
 and the lessons they were designed to teach, is the best preparation 
 for a profitable reception of the truth from the sacred desk. Many 
 of its best utterances are either utterly lost, or greatly shorn of their 
 power, for lack of just such kind of biblical training. When this 
 New Departure is fairly inaugurated and its power fully developed, 
 there will no longer rest upon the Christian colleges of this country 
 the stigma of sending forth, annually, scores of graduates unable to 
 repeat the Decalogue, and less familiar with God's revelation than 
 the moslem is with the Koran, or the Hindoo with the Shaster. 
 
 On whom rests the responsibility of taking the initiatory step, in 
 the direction of the proposed New Departure? All eyes are instinc- 
 tively turned to the Trustees for a response. Is there not wisdom 
 enough in these venerable boards to find a place and time for this 
 biblical study, and firmness sufficient to inaugurate the new policy? 
 Is there not, in their respective faculties, tact and talent sufficient to 
 render that study attractive and profitable to their pupils ; soul, and 
 sympathy with the sacred volume and its students, enough, to com- 
 mand their best efforts and enlist their hearty cooperation in that di- 
 rection t Can the Hindoo and the Mohammedan find time and place 
 for a careful study of their sacred books, and Christian Trustees and 
 Teachers be unable to devise any way, or means, or find any nook or 
 corner in their curricula, for an hours weekly study of God's word ? 
 Shame on such apathy and inaction, in a matter of fundamental im- 
 portance ! 
 
 We hope and trust that none will attempt to break the force of 
 these interrogatories,*by the vain assertion that the daily reading of 
 the scriptures, at chapel exercises, and a weekly discourse on some 
 Bible, or semi biblical theme, will meet the moral necessities of the 
 
46 NEW DEPARTURES IN 
 
 students, or the claims of that volume, whose Divine Author has left 
 us this emphatic injunction, " Search the Scriptures." If there be. 
 however, any, disposed to seek shelter in such a refuge, or quiet their 
 consciences with such logic, let them try its edge and test its force 
 by applying it to the acquisition of other branches of knowledge. 
 Could mathematicians, or linguists, profound and accurate, be made 
 by such a process ? How much of the influence and instruction of 
 the chapel reading, be it ever so wise, expository, and devotional, is 
 neutralized, on the very spot, by the intrusive thoughts of the recita- 
 tion that is immediately to follow ? How much, also, of the Sabbath 
 afternoon lecture is like water spilled on the ground, through the 
 inattention of the hearers ? Truth delivered under such circum- 
 stances, needs a boomerang range and curve, to reach the mark, and 
 an Australian skill and dexterity, on the part of him who wields it. 
 
 There is no apology for the apathy, or the pusillanimity, that has 
 hitherto excluded the Bible from the curricula of so many American 
 colleges. The sceptic has manifested more consistency and moral 
 courage in the defence of his negative religion, than many who pos- 
 sess an orthodox and positive creed. He insists that others shall 
 not, even by way of any direct inference or contrast, assail his 
 shadowy system, by the introduction of Bible instruction, whose power 
 and practical achievements underlie all human progress, and thus 
 asserts its claims ; while they, in deference to his manliness and de- 
 mand, seemingly denude themselves of all semblance of Christian 
 manhood, in declining to " nail to the mast " the unfurled flag of 
 God's word, under which they profess to sail. No plea of constraint 
 can be legitimately offered by denominational college boards to their 
 Faculties. Even the corps of instruction in those institutions tram- 
 melled by State entanglements and control, have not used the liberty 
 to which they are inalienably entitled. Were the presidents of the 
 State colleges to say to their respective boards. * We can no longer 
 retain our present connection with the institution, unless God's word 
 can be so far honored as to have a place in its curriculum of study. 
 Our Bible teachings will be no more sectarian than our prayers. If 
 you require or expect their daily utterance, why refuse us and our 
 associates the Sabbath opportunity, for a fuller and more satisfactory 
 exposition of what you expect us to daily read, at the opening ex- 
 ercises?" Such logic would be appreciated and such homage to 
 principle would be honored. Such frankness and loyalty to consci- 
 entious conviction would both win the victory and command the 
 
COLLEGIATE CONTROL AND CULTURE. 47 
 
 profound respect of the most sceptical member of the Board. 
 Such moral intrepidity would be worthy of a Luther, and would win 
 a Luthers' crown. No board would venture to raise against itself 
 the cry of persecution. The people, whether pious or not, would 
 honor such a man, and his tenure of office would be much more 
 secure after than before such a declaration. 
 
 Let it not be said, this is mere heroic speculation, for, back of it, 
 is a grand analogous historic fact, to illustrate and show, that the sug- 
 gestion has something more real and substantial than a mere hypo- 
 thetical basis. The noble example of the first President of Miami 
 University, in reference to the Bible's position in its curriculum, is 
 worthy of all commendation and consideration by those presiding 
 over similar institutions. Dr. Bishop took the position, that God's 
 word should be honored in that University, and he was never dis- 
 turbed in carrying out his views, which took shape in a biblical ex- 
 ercise every Sabbath morning, in each class, conducted by himself and 
 associates, which was continued by his successors, till the temporary 
 suspension of the University, for financial reasons; and this will 
 doubtless share in its no remote resurrection. Whether any other 
 college has as good a record, in respect to the Bible, as a bona fide 
 text book in its course of study, we know not, but are disposed to 
 think that Miami's record ante-dates that of all others, East or 
 West. 
 
 We rejoice to learn from her current catalogue, that our Alma 
 Mater has taken this New Departure, and that hereafter, our younger 
 brethren will enjoy a culture that it was not our lot to receive, but of 
 which we sorely felt the need. Most gladly would we, when in col- 
 lege, have responded to a summons to a biblical exercise every Sab- 
 bath morning, under the guidance of our regular instructors. We 
 hope that her present example may be imitated by all her New 
 England sisters, and also, that the day is not far distant, when no one 
 of the whole American fraternity of colleges will send forth its quota 
 of graduates, without including biblical knowledge among the " pre- 
 meritis " for which she bestows her honors and parting benediction. 
 Nay more, parents and patrons may justly expect that this New De- 
 parture will be promptly taken, and their demands be righteously and 
 strenuously urged, till the point is gained and the policy inaugurated, 
 to the joy of every Christian patriot and parent in the land. 
 
 In the conduct of this discussion, we have preferred, in the line of 
 illustrative argument, to use materials of the concrete and actual 
 
48 NEW DEPARTURES IN 
 
 type, rather than of the abstract and hypothetical. All the points 
 presented are both practical and practicable'. Nay more, they are 
 just and equitable in their demands. Although some few Institu- 
 tions have adapted the New Departure, and are working their way to 
 a harmonious and symmetrical adjustment of this new element in 
 their curricula, yet there still remain large portions of the promised 
 land to be possessed. We therefore commend to the favorable 
 consideration of the collegiate Joshuas of the country, the immediate 
 occupation of the entire tribal allotment of their inheritance, leav- 
 ing no stronghold of the Philistines unoccupied, from which they 
 might hereafter be annoyed ; and beg them not to let ignorance of 
 God's Word, on the part of their present and future charge, become 
 as " pricks in their own eyes', and thorns in the side " of the body 
 politic, a just and manifest retribution for persistent disregard both 
 of God's promises and warnings. 
 
 How can those lessons of practical life, so profusely scattered 
 through the historical and biographical portions of the scriptures, be 
 taught the educated youth of this land, unless the Bible has a recog- 
 nised, bonafide position in our college curricula? What more worthy 
 textbook, both for teachers and taught, could be used ? Its intro- 
 duction; as such, will be perfectly feasible, wherever there is a prompt- 
 ing disposition on the part of boards of control and instruction. 
 Inaction in the premises will 'be rightly understood by the public, 
 and its real animus be appreciated. 
 
 An hour's careful study and recitation every Sabbath, under the 
 guidance of teachers, in earnest and lively sympathy with the work, 
 would put every Freshman class in possession of the great leading 
 historical and biographical facts of the Pentateuch ; a like appropria- 
 tion of time and teaching would make each Sophomore class more or 
 less familiar with the Gospel history and its wonderful exhibit of 
 God's infinite wisdom, love and mercy. The remainder of the Old 
 Testament history and biography, would furnish ample material for 
 the Junior's study and mastery, and Seniors would find the books of 
 Job, Psalms, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, an interesting field for ex- 
 ploration and culture, during the entire period of their college life. 
 
 There is one significant and suggestive fact in the line of en- 
 couragement and assurance, that honest, patient and persistent labor, 
 in this direction, will not lose its reward. We have in mind one In- 
 stitution, which has honored God's word from its establishment to 
 the present time, by requiring weekly exercise in it, by each and all 
 

 COLLEGIATi: CONTROL AND CULTURE. 49 
 
 its classes, and which has been, almost invariably, the scene of an- 
 nual displays of God's gracious visitation. This fidelity to truth and 
 its accompanying experience, has no slight connection with the potent 
 fact that its number of students, academic and collegiate, surpasses 
 that of any other collegiate institution in the land, and the underly- 
 ing cause of this popular favor, will not be difficult to divine, from the 
 aforesaid antecedents. 
 
 These considerations ought to have weight with college boards, 
 and be a sufficient guaranty, both of the wisdom and duty of im- 
 mediately inaugurating the new policy, and supplementing their 
 course of study with the proposed addendum. If the above inter- 
 esting and suggestive fact is a legitimate sequence of a systematic 
 and patient study of the Bible, the reverse moral condition and ex- 
 perience, of those institutions, whose emeutes and disorders have 
 given them an unenviable notoriety, may be suggestive of the cause 
 of the deplorable contrast, as well as illustrative of the Divine utter- 
 ance, " Them that honor me, I will honor, and they that despise 
 me shall be lightly esteemed." 
 
 The inauguration of the New Departures, above suggested, will 
 constitute a marked and memorable era in collegiate progress. 
 When the students in our American colleges are taught by able men, 
 in full sympathy with the true character of their mission, in all the 
 dignity and grandeur of its results, and subjected to as minute, tho- 
 rough and daily drill as the proposed classification will ensure, then 
 the type of scholarship, discipline and attainment will be greatly im- 
 proved ; and, when the process of elimination of the incompetent, in- 
 corrigible and unworthy is promptly and wisely carried out, a higher 
 grade of culture, conduct and character will be reached, with corre- 
 sponding satisfaction to all parties concerned. Firmness and fidelity 
 to the dictates of wisdom and the promptings of duty, will win the 
 confidence of the public, as well as command the respect even of the. 
 subjects of discipline, when promptly and impartially administered. 
 Nothing is more quickly seen by students, or more heartily despised 
 than timidity and fickleness in the administration of college govern- 
 ment, whose legitimate sequents are, laxness on the one hand, and 
 rashness on the other. Each and both are a weakness and calamity 
 wherever found. 
 
 Broad and intelligent views on all that pertains to higher culture, 
 clear and settled convictions as to the best methods of carrying them 
 out, and a corresponding purpose and independence to fully and fairly 
 
5O NEW DEPARTURES. 
 
 test them, are admirable aids to Boards of Control, both as to the 
 nature of their own duty and responsibility and, to learn to estimate 
 the animus and worth of popular demand, as well as to resist outside 
 clamor, pressure and dictation, whether individual or associated. 
 Vigilance, activity and a firm adherence to conviction, based on such 
 views, will soon detect and correct oversight, defects, short comings 
 and mistakes, both individual and corporate. When there is such 
 firmness, alertness and fidelity at head quarters, they will be seen 
 and felt to the very extremity of even the picket line, and the press 
 will have less occasion to chronicle college emuetes and outrages, and 
 the public less cause to question the wisdom or competence of College 
 Boards, whether of Administration or Instruction. 
 
 Here it seems to be both pertinent and proper to enquire, Are 
 such trusts always administered, to the full extent of the wisdom 
 and ability of those, who, by the acceptance of the position, pledge 
 themselves to unswerving fidelity ? Would not many of them be 
 both startled and stimulated to greater activity, to be well posted in 
 the actual status of their charge, not only of its financial condition, 
 but, also, of the competency and faithfulness of its employees, as well 
 as ..he cha r acter, proficiency and promise of its students, at least, at 
 the close of each annual stage of their progress, were their venerable 
 founders, and benefactors, like Moses and Elijah, to stand in their 
 midst and ask, Are you making the colleges all that you would justly 
 expect, and indeed, demand, were we and you to exchange relation- 
 ship to them ? The responsibility of trustees is none the less, for the 
 lack of such stimulating interviews. The claim is as real and valid 
 as though audibly announced, and should be so recognized. 
 
THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW 
 
 AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS 
 
 WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN 
 THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY 
 WILL INCREASE TO 5O CENTS ON THE FOURTH 
 DAY AND TO $t.OO ON THE SEVENTH DAY 
 OVERDUE. 
 
 MAR 27 1S34 
 
 lUN 
 
04035 
 
 U.C.BERKELEY LIBRARIES 
 
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