VOLUNTARY RECITATIONS.

PRESIDENT ELIOT, in a few pregnant sentences, has suggested the change, and Dr. McCosh has made haste to declare himself firmly opposed to it. At this point it may not be unpardonable presumption for a student, a party chiefly interested, to express his opinions upon the matter.

Early in the Freshman year those who profess a love of study and of scholarship are persecuted by a merciless prejudice; later this is changed, and the fine scholar, before he graduates, is honored with general respect. Various circumstances combine to cause this change, but all have their root in reflection upon the part of the students. They see that men of learning are esteemed in society; or perhaps they ask themselves the question, "What am I to do after graduating?" Any such thing does all that was necessary, that is, excites thought; then the boyish prejudices by degrees grow weak, and a new public sentiment, more favorable to scholarship, takes their place. Unless the students really feel the necessity or the dignity of learning, there can be no great advance of it. The question at issue is, whether they can be roused better by strict discipline and repeated exhortations than by being compelled to depend on themselves in meeting the exigencies of college life. The first system has been tried, and with tolerable success; but it is significant that, after pupils have got almost to manhood, the slacker the government has been, the more marked the success. It is also to be noticed - and Dr. McCosh is unfair in not noticing - that the two serious objections offered to the plan of voluntary recitations apply also with great force to the present system. It is indeed true that great numbers of men enter college without any appreciation of study; but it is also true that great numbers leave college in the same condition. So, too, even now, cramming is very prevalent. Both these evils are unavoidable in a large college; nor do I see how they can be avoided in a small one. At any rate, the advantages of concentrating educational resources are so great, that it is reductio ad absurdum if the opponents of President Eliot are compelled to maintain that, on the whole, small colleges are better than large.

The chief advantage the new system will have over the old is that it will compel the students to plan for themselves. This will have the same good effect in college that it has in the outside world, where men who find their judgment a safe guide in some things are likely to trust to it in others rather than to public opinion. College, at present, by no means causes such independence of thought as one would naturally expect.

There are also likely to be several other advantages, some of which I will enumerate. The tutors will pay more attention to the system and the matter of their lectures. For the sake of exact scholarship, many things must always be given in the class-room of interest only to the specialist; if others find these notes too soporific for endurance, they will have their time for more general study in their rooms, such as the tutors may advise.

There will be an opportunity for continuous application to one subject, and for a deeper interest than usual, which shall lead men to thorough investigation. At present this is impossible, when all the time is divided among eight or ten different studies, no one of which is looked at oftener than three times a week.

Much is said of the evils of cramming, by which is usually meant the filling of the mind with a multitude of facts a day or so before examination. But cramming applies also to the process of learning perfectly each part of a subject as it is presented in the daily lessons. There are very few really hard students, or else this method of cramming would be decried as much as the other. For many ideas are forced upon the memory without being understood, and whenever this is done evil surely results. My experience, which I think is not peculiar, is that it is best to neglect in great measure the recitations, till a general idea of the whole matter and of the relation of its parts to one another is impressed on the mind. Then, by several reviews, minute, thorough knowledge can be gained with great ease and no injury. If President Eliot's suggestions are acted upon, there will be, no doubt, much cramming for examinations, but very little for recitations. In this respect the proposed system has a decided advantage over the old.

I see little reason for believing, with Dr. McCosh, that the students will be able to prepare themselves for the examinations and still be absent from Cambridge for weeks at a time, without thinking of college work. Now, most find it necessary to be pretty attentive to their tasks; if there is a change, more work rather than less will be necessary.