"TOO MUCH HONOUR."

THE two chief objects of the new system of Honours are: to incite students to greater effort for good scholarship, and to reward men who are, it is said, unjustly deprived of reward. The effect in the first respect will be, on the contrary, to diminish the total amount of true scholarship among the students. The value of honours under the new plan will be much less than that of the present ones. The very value of graduating honours at present is that there is a general interest as to who obtains them; there will be much less interest taken in a list embracing a large proportion of the class, - it will rouse as much excitement as the list of Bachelors of Arts. Our Harvard honours will become much like those of a certain college, one of whose alumni, on being asked if he graduated with honours, said with a shrug, "O yes; half my class did."

Having seen the worth of these honours, let us examine their effect upon the students, who may be divided into three classes. The first, those who already get Commencement parts or Final Honours, will have less instigation, for the worth of a part will certainly be greatly diminished. Those who now do not stand well at all in any subject will not be much affected by "honourable mention"; if desire for knowledge, a position on the rank-list, etc., will not lead a man to study at all, it is not likely that the prospect of being "mentioned" will spur him on to exertion.

Now we come to the middle class, - those who, without taking honours in a subject, or getting a part, have a fair general average. This class, say the inventors of the new scheme, will be greatly benefited; the result on this class, to the contrary, will be rather to diminish good scholarship than to increase it. Some will, undoubtedly, be incited to further exertion by having a prize put within easy reach; but a great many, who at present take hard courses, and do very fairly in them, will give up Philosophy or English, and substitute German and Natural History, in which they are sure to get "honourable mention." The author of the article entitled "Honours and Honourable Mention" spoke of the new system as less conducive to studying for marks than the present one; it seems to me that it will double the amount of studying for marks. Under our present system, some of the Commencement-part men take easy courses to help on their general average; under the new system there will be a greater rush for the easy courses, in order that men may get in them eighty per cent, and "honourable mention." Any one who takes a look at the new scheme will see how prominent a feature marks and averages are.

The new system, then, will tend in a few cases to increase good work; in many it will have no effect; in many others studying for marks and a direct decrease of true scholarship will be the result.

The second object is, to reward those who now distinguish themselves in special branches. A man who is enough of a specialist to stand well in a certain subject, and no others, should try for Final Honours; they are for specialists, and convey great distinction. A student who does not care enough for his special study to take honours in it, or for other studies to get an average of eighty per cent, ought not to complain if his merits are not rewarded by a place on the Commencement programme, and should be satisfied with the credit given him each year on the rank-list.

It was recently remarked that this scheme was like the great bill for "Giving Everybody Everything," and it certainly is. Everybody cannot be rewarded; if they were, rewards would lose all their worth. Half the essence of a prize is the distinction from others it conveys. By lowering the standard of the requirements for honours, we decrease the value of those prizes, and the hitherto highly valued graduation honours of Harvard College will soon degenerate to the level of the numerous prizes lavished among the classes of small-sized colleges.

R.