Harvard and Her Elective System.

The following is taken from an article published some time ago in one of the religious papers and written by the Rev. Chas F. Thwing of Cambridge. His remarks on the Elective System are interesting and valuable.

"For nearly a score of years one of the distinguishing features of Harvard College has been the elective system of studies. This system has been limited to the three upper classes. In them the prescribed work has consisted mainly of a few essays. With the beginning of the next college year this system of elective studies is to be introduced into the freshman class. A slight amount of work, chiefly in rhetoric and composition, is still to be required; but the freshman is to be allowed a liberty of selection as great as has usually been granted the members of the sophomore or junior class. The objections to this extension of the elective system have been quite as numerous and strong as have been those urged against the system in its ordinary application. Indeed, the objections have been quite identical. It has been said that students are no qualified to choose their studies; that they select "soft" courses; that they select in accordance with their preferences, rather than guided by their intellectual needs. These objections, presented against the enlargement of the elective method, are the old objections, urged for years against the method itself. On the other side, I venture to affirm that the arguments in favor of the system are as strong in its behalf when allowed to the lowest class in college, as the higher classes. The system is a preventive of, and a cure for, poor scholarship. It introduces the student to those studies in which he may attain excellence. It abolishes the ne cessity of his knocking his head against departments of knowledge in the attaining of which his ability is slight. It tends to establish the habit of intellectual thoroughness; it advances scholarship in every realm of study, in the case of the professor as well as of the student.

Another prominent feature of the intellectual training which the college affords is made possible by the elective system. This feature consists in the habit of personal investigation of special subjects. It might, perhaps, be called the university, as distinguished from the college, ideal. In many departments each student is asked to investigate certain authorities, and to make a report upon the results of his voyage of discovery. In physics a student may be instructed to study certain peculiar phenomena. In American history he may be permitted to devote his attention for a time to one series of events. Subjects, rather than a single text-book, are studied. The remark of Lessing, that the second year the truth is more important than the finding of the truth, is thus illustrated. The advantages of this method are great. The use of books and of authorities is taught; and, above all else, a vigorous and discriminating intellectual discipline-the supreme object of all education-is promoted."

In a subsequent paragraph of the same article Mr. Thwing says, "The intellectual results of four years spent in Harvard College may be made, and often are made, at least as valuable as those of any four years spent in any institution, I do not hesitate to say, in the world" Mr. Thwing is a Harvard graduate, and has written much on his Alma Mater. He has never hesitated to condemn her where she needed condemning, or to praise her where she has deserved praise, and it is just this openness and freedom that gives weight to what he writes. In the few lines I have quoted at the beginning of this paragraph, the may is an important word. Harvard merits the praise that is given her; but whether the substance of it is realized depends on the students themselves. As a college, Harvard offers the most superior advantages for education, in her library, laboratories and corps of instruction. Whether these advantages are properly appreciated or not must be proved by the number of highly educated, able, talented men that graduate at Cambridge. College men are of two classes, those who come to college for the sake of the college life, and those who come for the sake of the college education. It is on the latter class that the reputation of the college depends. There is also a third class, which perhaps should not go unmentioned, which is intermediate, including those who come to college because they think it a "good thing to be a college man," who come not so much for the sake of college education itself as for the name of it. Such men may have the honor of becoming college graduates, but that it is an honor to be a college graduate, is due to the labors of others, not to themselves.