REPORT OF THE EXAMINING COMMITTEE FOR 1872-73.

THE above report has been received, and its perusal has convinced me of the fact that the committee have been examiners in deed as well as in name. The insight the report gives into the real merits and defects of the various departments is a proof of the conscientious diligence with which the committee have performed their task. They have, by a personal and unannounced attendance on the recitations in each department, been able to judge of the instruction from the students' point of view, and have not formed their conclusions from the reports of the instructors themselves. The influence for good attendant on such inspection of the College is very positive in its effects. It is almost inevitable, even with the best instructors, that, through long service, they fall into certain mechanical methods of teaching, of which they are not themselves aware, but which are injurious in the extreme to the student, and can only be detected by a man from the outer world. The really striking and important points of a subject - those which, if pointed out with enthusiasm, would at once interest the student - are too often passed over, and comments made only on insignificant details. This failing is, of course, the most natural thing in the world. In fact, it is difficult to see how it could well be otherwise, the wonder being that instructors of long standing can impart the freshness that they do to a subject which through much repetition has lost its original significance to them. Still, as subversive of all good instruction, this fault must be sedulously guarded against, and it is with a view to this that the committee have made some of their most important criticisms.

This quotation needs no comment. The technical, almost quibbling manner in which the classics are sometimes treated is in danger of running their study into the ground; and unless a man pursues his reading outside of the class-room, even a four years' election of classics will afford no general idea of this field of literature.

The committee proceed to remark on the pleasing increase of interest in metaphysics and psychology, and pay a deserved compliment to the Alford Professor, whose gentlemanly, kind, and interesting conduct of recitations in the "vast and elevated regions of studies confided to him" is remarked by all who have the good-fortune to be his pupils.

The departments of History and Political Science the committee consider as well taught. Modern languages are not treated of as fully as could be desired. The committee, however, have recognized what may well be considered the great bane of this department, namely, the number of students who elect them for a "soft thing." This evil in the French studies has in a great measure been done away with by the acuteness and good sense of the Professor, but we fear that, especially in the Sophomore electives, these studies are pursued with little effort, and the benefit derived by the student is at its minimum.

The committee are liberal and far-sighted in their treatment of physical culture, and this, together with the new projects in this regard of late agitated among the students, will undoubtedly lead to a better state of things. They recommend the erection of a new gymnasium, and even go so far as to suggest the purchase of marsh lands on Charles River, to be drained and diked in the interests of out-door sports. It is also proposed that the College, by the erection of boat-houses, encourage this branch of athletic exercise among the many. Before closing this review, I cannot refrain from noticing the high and elevating view taken of education in general throughout the report, and particularly enunciated under the head of Courses of Study. It is a bright omen for the future, that the gentlemen to whom the guidance of the College is to such a large extent intrusted should be men of sufficient breadth and culture to discard the utilitarian and materialistic view of education which has so largely obtained in America, and from whose influence Harvard has not been exempt. The low view of education which regards it as means to an end, and not as an end in itself, has resulted in a demand for special education. The same spirit which keeps from college the young men intended for business pursuits, even in college requires them to follow certain studies as a preparation for their particular vocation in life; thus regarding man as a mere machine whose chief function is the getting of his daily bread, and not as a mind of infinite capabilities to be developed symmetrically in all its energies. As the report wisely remarks, a general education "instead of being less, is more necessary for men designed for certain callings." It quotes Mr. Agassiz's advice to young men professing to be naturalists, namely, to pass first through college, giving "full scope to literary studies, whether in ancient or modern tongues, to moral and intellectual philosophy, to the moral and social history of mankind, and to pure mathematics." This report is recommended to the attention of any who desire to go back of the outward form, and understand the principles that are at work in making Harvard University what it is and is to be.

S.