CO-EDUCATION.

We perhaps owe an apology to our readers for again trespassing upon the much-debated question of co-education. Direct testimony, however, from those who have had actual experience with it, such as was presented in the letter from Cornell, which we published a few days ago, and such as is given below by our Ann Arbor correspondent, cannot but be of some value. Besides this, we attempt to give below expressions of opinion from the several colleges where the advocates of co-education have been most actively pressing their claims of late - Columbia, Brown, and the University of Pennsylvania - expressions which, we think, quite fairly represent student opinion on the matter at these colleges. Vassar's voice on the question is quite significant. In regard to the subject of co-education at Columbia, our correspondent writes, there is but one opinion among the students, and that is a feeling of the deepest hostility to anything that in any way points to the admission of women to Columbia's walls. We are all opposed to it, and many personally known to me would leave at once were women allowed to attend. The faculty, with two exceptions, are also opposed to co-education, as are a large majority of the board of trustees. Several attempts have been made to overcome the objections of our trustees, the most determined of which has just been defeated, as you probably know. A petition was circulated, asking that the trustees extend as soon as possible the advantages of the lectures and examinations of Columbia to such properly qualified women as may present themselves. The committee of the board reported a set of resolutions, in which it was not deemed advisable for the interests of Columbia that women should be admitted to her lecture rooms, but recommending that some separate form of instruction, with examinations and granting of certificates, be instituted for such women as may desire it. Coeducation has never had a worse chance of being established here than at present.

No decided movement has as yet been made for establishing co-education at Brown. The question has been brought up lately by a letter from J. G. Whittier, one of the corporation, to another member of the corporation. From present appearances no change will be made in favor of co-education. Of course there is a difference of opinion on the subject. The majority, however, are opposed to the movement. The plan of an "annex" is regarded favorably, but to admit women on equal grounds and to mingle them with the other sex indiscriminately is not regarded as desirable.

The question of co-education has been agitated considerably at the University of Pennsylvania since a young lady passed the entrance examinations to the freshman class last year and applied to the faculty for membership. The secretary of the faculty of science is very much in favor of co-education, but the secretary of the faculty of arts - that department which the young lady wanted to enter - is opposed to the scheme, At a joint meeting of the two faculties to consider the advisability of admitting women to the collegiate departments of the university, it was carried in the affirmative by a majority of one vote. The board of trustees afterwards refused to sanction this, with the proviso that women would be admitted when a special department was made ready for them. The secretary of the faculty of arts, Professor Jackson, delivered an elaborate argument against co-education, covering all the points very fully It has since been published in pamphlet form for distribution. The students of the university are almost unanimously opposed to co-education. At a meeting of the trustees, a committee report was presented setting forth a plan for the education of women, by which they will receive the same course of instruction as the male students, but at a different time and place. The female students will also receive degrees on the same terms as the males. The report will be acted upon at the next meeting of the board.

On the subject of co-education at the University of Michigan, our correspondent writes: "The attitude of the authorities and students at Ann Arbor, is, so far as I know, favorable. Doubtless among the faculties and students of the various departments there are those who are opposed to the system, but they are in the minority by a "large majority." The ladies who have graduated from here, are many of them holding prominent positions at various points. Six members of the present faculty of Wellesley College, including the president, are graduates of this university. A comparison of the number this year with last year's attendance of ladies in the several departments, shows 174 this year and 184 last year. The total number of students 1440. I do not attribute the falling off, however, to opposition on part of faculties and students to the system. The system has been in vogue here about ten years and thus far seems to be successful.

Our Vassar correspondent writes: "What Vassar students think of co-education is hard to discover, but those of us who are here show by our presence what we prefer for ourselves. And yet I do not think we dislike to have other women do differently. Perhaps we believe in co-education theoretically more than we do practically, for it is useless to deny that it is easier to study books when there is no interesting human nature to study. Those with whom I have talked - and I think they are representative girls - think that after a college course is completed, when people are earnestly studying some special course and have an object in view, then men and women will study together better than separately. The sentiment might vary greatly in different years, but I think I have told you the general opinion.

From other sources the New York Critic has been collecting testimony and presents in a recent issue expressions of opinion from the presidents of the leading American colleges on co-education, the result of which investigation it may be interesting to summarize.

President Eliot writes: "I do not think that young men and young women from fifteen to twenty are best educated together in intimate association; but that method may nevertheless be justifiable in a community which cannot afford anything better." President Seelye of Amherst expresses himself as opposed to co-education, as also does Dr. Howard Crosby. The majority, however, are non-committal, including President Robinson of Brown, Porter of Yale and White of Cornell. President White, however, as our correspondent from Cornell recently stated, is to be counted for co-education. President Bascom of the University of Wisconsin expresses himself strongly in favor of co-education, and altogether presents the best arguments for the scheme. "It is uneconomical in theory," he says, "and impossible in practice, to provide a second series of colleges equal in extension and education force to those already in existence. Seclusion in the education of women means weakness, and weakness means continued subjection to a faulty conventional sentiment; seclusion means inferiority.