WHY A MAN CHOOSES HARVARD.

In this season of the influx of new and old men, but especially the former, it is interesting to note President Eliot's views as to why a student should choose Harvard. His reasons are eight in all, and to well chosen that his arguments in favor of Harvard are unmistakably clear and logical. Parts of President Eliot's statements are printed below:

"What reasons can be given to an intelligent and ambitious young American for choosing Harvard University as his university? There are hundreds of colleges and universities in the United States. Why should the graduate of a good high school, an academy, or a private school think of going to Harvard rather than to some neighboring college or university, or to some institution supported by his state or his city? The reasons are many and various; so that to state them even concisely needs some space.

"Harvard College is the oldest college in the country, having been established in 1636; and it was the first of the American colleges to expand into a university. It was founded in liberty-loving Massachusetts at a time when the ministers were the ruling class, and the whole community knew that their ministers ought to be well educated.

Harvard University undertakes to prepare young men for all the professions, including the traditional liberal professions, all the new scientific professions, and all the higher walks of business. It maintains courses of instruction both elementary and advanced in all subjects of learning, both in subjects for which there is an active demand, and in those which interest but few students.

"Harvard University attracts more than four thousand regular students each year, exclusive of Extension students and students in the Summer Schools. Of this total, four-sevenths come from New England. The other three-sevenths are distributed among all the other States of the Union and twenty-nine foreign countries.

"The graduates of Harvard University are well organized in Harvard Clubs and Harvard Professional Clubs--united in the Associated Harvard Clubs--in all the principal cities of the United States, and in many foreign cities; and these clubs make themselves very serviceable to the home University, and to young graduates who go as strangers into communities new to them, where the immediate support of a friendly group of older residents is of real value to the newcomer.

"The University possesses a large number of funds the income of which is applicable to the maintenance of poor students. These aids are reserved for students who need pecuniary support in winning their education, and are allotted only to young men of proved capacity and decided promise. Such aids are desirable at Harvard in all Departments; because every student is required to pay a tuition fee, which varies in the different departments from a hundred and fifty dollars to two hundred dollars a year, a fee which does not pay more than half the actual cost of educating the average student. It is one of the most advantageous universities in the whole country for a poor student whose family is unable to pay for his education.

"The athletic sports are highly organized in Harvard University, and are usually maintained without resort to contributions from undergraduates, the gate money taken at football and baseball games supporting all the major sports and all the minor sports. The variety of sports is great; so that the individual student has a wide choice, and a large majority of the students enlist in some sport or other.

"The professional schools of Harvard University comprise not only the Schools of Divinity, Law, and Medicine, and Dentistry, but Graduate Schools of Arts and Sciences, of Business Administration, of Applied Science, and of Medicine. Each of these schools undertakes to furnish a thorough training for the corresponding profession or professions, and each is thoroughly equipped for its own characteristic work.

"Harvard University maintains a chapel in which daily morning prayers and Sunday morning services are conducted, and a Board of five Preachers which always contains representatives of several different denominations. Attendance at Chapel has been voluntary since 1886, but all the services are well attended, and a strong religious spirit prevails among the attendants. The University also maintains a Divinity or Theological School in which various denominations are represented among both the teachers and the students. This School not only provides for the scientific study of the usual theological subjects, but also prepares young men for the practical work of the ministry. The attitude of the University toward the different denominations of Christians being one of complete toleration, it cannot sympathize with any exclusive dogma, ritual, or polity, and inevitably prefers the freedom of the church polity called Congregational--a natural feeling in an institution which was founded by Congregationalists, and was carried on exclusively by that denomination for a century and a half. The Phillips Brooks House is the centre of the students' religious and philanthropic activities. The House is used by different students' societies, each of which is standing for some definite religious doctrine or ideal, but all of which are co-operating in social service. Among these societies are the St. Paul's Catholic Club, the Harvard University Christian Association, the St. Paul's Society for students who belong to the Protestant Episcopal Church, the Harvard-Andover Divinity Club, the Menorah Society (Jewish), and the Harvard Mission. Whatever the re- ligious nurture of the young newcomer to the University may have been, he will surely find an appropriate religious organization among the students, and a church of his family's faith ready to welcome him. The Boston churches as well as those of Cambridge make students welcome.

"During the first hundred and seventy-four years of the existence of Harvard University, it was fostered by the Colony, Province, and State by contributions to the cost of buildings and small appropriations of money toward its annual expenses. Since 1810, however, Massachusetts has made no direct contributions to Harvard; so that the University has relied exclusively on students fees, the income of endowments derived from private persons, and gifts for immediate use. It appears from the experience of the last hundred years that these methods of support, combined with the privilege of exemption from taxation, can be trusted in this country to maintain an institution of the first class generation after generation: and that the graduates of such an institution can hold their own in regard to professional success and public service-ableness in competition with the graduates of any other institution of higher education however supported.