ILFELD.

Beautifully situated on the southern slope of the Hartz Mts., where the river Bahue flows down into the valley below, is the German school of Ilfeld. It was originally built in A. D. 1174 as a monastery, but about the time of the reformation it was changed to a school. The buildings, some of which were part of the old monastery and are still occupied, are all of sandstone. The school, which is very richly endowed, is intended for young nobles, although a few commoners who have shown marked talent and ability have been admitted. Everything is conducted in a most extravagant style. The cuisine and service can not be excelled. Of course so wealthy a school has had the very best of professors, of whom two of the most noted are Michael Neander, the famous scholar and hymn-writer, and F. A. Wolf, the greatest Homeric scholar of his time. The school owns many miles of mountain forests and to induce the students to exercise the authorities have laid out long walks through them. Regular instruction in riding, shooting, swimming, fencing, and dancing is compulsory. In an old cloister are two bowling alleys and in another building are billiard and reading rooms. There is also a splendid library containing many very old and valuable manuscripts. A custom which would be very attractive to a Harvard man is that there is no marking system. At the end of the term each student is given a certificate of his attainments in his different studies. Another custom is that the professor, and not the students, is to do the work. At a recitation the professor, who, by the way, always stands, reads or explains the next lesson, and at the following recitation the students review it. If, at the close of a term, the students are found deficient in some study the fault is considered the professor's, not their's, and yet the professors are on the best of terms with the students whom they treat as gentlemen and equals. It is a very common occurrence for a student to invite a professor to lunch with a few of his friends in his rooms.

The object of the school, which corresponds to the English school of Rugby, is to fit its forty or fifty students, who are all the way from 15 to 19 years old, for the German universities. Any student who has received a sufficiently good certificate here may enter a university without further examination.

F. S. M.