Oxford and Harvard.

Sir Edwin Arnold in a recent interview, compared the discipline at Harvard with that at Oxford. The comparison is not unfavorable to Harvard as may be seen from the following quotations from the published intereview:

"What are my impressions of the university? Well, to tell the truth, I had some very distinct impressions of Harvard before I came here, and I cannot say that they have changed very materially. We editors, you know, keep our eyes on the whole world, and we know what is going on at all the great colleges and universities, whether they are in Heidelberg, Germany, or in Cambridge, America. I have walked about the college grounds a good deal during my visit here, and I have seen many fine fellows among the students here. I have met a number of professor, too, and they are a set of cultivated and intelligent men.

The system of discipline at Harvard differs materially from that in vogue at Oxford. In the English university the discipline is quite rigid. The college gates are closed at a certain hour of the night, and the students are supposed to be within college limits at that time. There are other restrictions that are designed to keep the members of the university more or less in check. At Harvard, no such strictness of discipline prevails. The students are given a wider liberty, and each man is thereby thrown upon his own responsibility. The effects of the two systems are, of course, widely different. The discipline of Oxford inspires in the men a respect for authority and a reverence for the college officials, and develops in them a fine sense of courtesy. On the other hand it seems to occasion among them a tendency to shirk their work and to violate authority somewhat. The Harvard system, as I have said, throws great responsibilities upon its undergraduates, and I believe that they are able to shoulder them. It makes them earnest and gives them an enthusiasm for their work.

The difference between the two systems is to my mind typical of the general difference between the English and American people."