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But all this must be absolutely ignored in

recitation rooms.
the special examinations for honors.

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In every university there ought to be at least five or six different final examinations for honors, namely: 1. Classics; 2. Mathematics; 3. Modern Languages; 4. The Natural Sciences; 5. Moral Sciences, including History, Ancient and Modern, Political Economy, Philosophy, Law, &c.; and 6. A general examination of all the studies required of all the students during the college course. To the marks gained in this examination, the marks gained in the recitations throughout the course might be added; or the latter might be used to form an honor list by themselves. Decent success in any one of these examinations should be made an indispensable preliminary to the degree, which will then mean something. At present it is much harder to get in college than to get out of it. The utmost care must be taken to avoid making any one of these honor lists "a refuge for the distressed." Let there be three, four, or five classes, as the case may be, in each honor list; but, as a sine quâ non, let no one be put into the first class who does not come up to a certain high and fixed standard. Let the first class be vacant ten years, rather than degrade it by putting into it a second-rate man. If this be done, does any one believe that the American public will be so foolish as not to value these honors, when it finds out that they are the sign and seal of high excellence in the very departments where high excellence is most needed throughout the country?

To sum up, then. Four hints of great value can be obtained from the English Universities:

1. The Scholarship system; including University Scholarships, and Scholarships offered before entrance; 2. Strict

To be thorough, these examinations will, of necessity, be very laborious, as none of them ought to take less than four days. (The Cambridge Mathematical Examination consumes eight days.) The examiners, therefore, must not only be the very best men obtainable in their line, but must be liberally paid for their work. There are four examiners in both Classics and Mathematics at Cambridge. Each receives £20 from the university chest; the position itself being considered a very high honor.

Classification, such as is adopted by the larger college; 3. Private Tuition, the first year; and 4. Final Examinations for Degrees. It is, perhaps, well that the habit of carefully developing a creditable average of culture should have been so thoroughly ingrained into the American system, before it attempted systematically to give the highest culture known to the race. For this last is so fascinating, so engrossing, that it is only too apt to monopolize all the enthusiasm which is due to the whole number of students, talented or untalented.

When we ascend into the higher regions, and deal with minds of the first class, a great many vexatious questions, really very perplexing on a lower level, disappear altogether. It is very hard to decide which is the best; a little classics, or a little mathematics, or a little science, or a little French or German, or music. It is quite an open question, whether it is worth while to learn the scales, if we only intend to study music half a year, or the grammar, if we do not intend to get beyond the First Reader. But once divide the type to which a first-class mind belongs, and all these questions settle themselves.

Small need of debating the value of classical studies with the scholar, when the simple fact is, that to the scholar, that is, to the student of the languages, literatures, and histories of men, they are priceless; for they form the basis of all his studies. All, therefore, be they few or many, who covet a complete scholarly culture, must begin with these; and upon them, as foundations, build the natural superstructure of the modern languages and literatures. The cultivated nations of Europeas Matthew Arnold well puts it-associate on the common ground of acquaintance with the ancient literature and with each other. The real question to be decided, then, is, what is the proportion of scholarly minds? or, rather, as that happens to be already settled by Providence, -1. How are we to discover those minds for whom a scholarly culture is the best possible? and, 2. How are we to secure them such culture? Equally futile is it to raise the question of the value of scientific studies. To the scientific mind they are the one thing needful. They are the atmosphere which he breathes.

As well debate with the carpenter as to the value of his tools, as to debate the value of mathematics to the mathematician. For such pronominal natures, then, their course is settled beforehand. There remains only that class among the higher minds which has a natural avidity for general knowledge, that class which mediates among first-rate minds of different orders, and also between first-rate minds of all orders, and the public at large. For them, it is a delicate and difficult task to know what of each branch to take, and what refuse. But, undoubtedly, the best way for them is to accept the guidance of acknowledged masters in each direction, and let them epitomize their results, as Herschel has done in his astronomy.

America is so ambitious of excellence, that she will never rest contented until her universities vie with the best in Europe. Candor compels any one who has any knowledge of the subject, to allow, that, at present, this is far from being the case. In the mean time, what is to be done for our finest minds?

If the question were put, Do you advise a residence at an English university to give the finishing touch to a young American's education? we should answer by putting three others: 1. Are you sure of his moral character, and his selfcontrol as to personal expenditure? 2. Are his abilities of a high order in a scholarly or mathematical direction? 3. Are you sure that he is so impregnated with the American idea, that he will come back an American, with American ideas on the dignity of labor, and the duties of a citizen of a republic. founded on the central thought of the worth of man as man? Unless all these questions were answered unhesitatingly in the affirmative, we would say at once, He had better stay at home. Of all contemptible objects, a mongrel American is the most contemptible. Better sacrifice scholarship than one's birthright. But still it is a distressing alternative. The only real remedy on a large scale is to put our shoulders to the wheel, and resolve that our children shall have secured to them here, in the land of their birthright, - here, in the midst of this great Western wind which so expands the breast, that it can harbor the wildest and most impossible hopes for man, — here,

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where all labor is honorable, and the scholar feels the great pulse of the people's heart beating through his bosom, making the keen brain and the hard hand one in sympathy, here, to establish a university system, so high, so thorough, so allembracing, that there shall be no need of looking elsewhere for that culture which is to fine intellects the very breath of life.

ART. VI.—THE PRESIDENT'S RECONSTRUCTION.

1. Speeches of Andrew Johnson, President of the United States. With a Biographical Introduction, by FRANK MOORE. Boston: Little, Brown, & Co.

2. Great and Grave Questions for American Politicians. By EBORA

CUS.

THE late war was held to prove that a republic can be, at need, the strongest form of human government, surest of its resources, most confident in the temper of its citizens, most apt to deal with "sedition, privy conspiracy, and rebellion," most absolute in the exercise of that authority needed for its safety, its power, at such a time, being like that of a water-flood, each particle mobile and uncertain, but held in the one channel by elemental forces, and resistless in its accumulated sweep. Even the form of a confederation, which has been generally thought the weakest bond of States, has not checked the exercise of a central, consolidated power, practically as absolute and unchallenged as that of any monarchy. Respecting, to a remarkable degree, the traditions and scruples of a constitutional régime as to its genial policy, the Government has held, in carrying it out, the almost despotic control of an amount of financial and military str.gth, freely, nay, eagerly conceded to it by the people, - which has its only parallel in the revolutionary autocracy of Napoleon. The sudden coming-on of peace, with the Presi

dent's murder at its beginning, took this accumulated power from the tried and trusted hands, where we saw it rest without anxiety, and committed it to new hands, which few of us had once thought of in connection with that office. What if they should prove treacherous or weak? "The accident of an accident," the transfer of power by a rule arbitrary and impersonal, almost, as the divine right of kingly inheritance, - what if it should prove, at last, a calamity and mistake?

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The ease and dignity with which Mr. Johnson assumed the reins of administration, six months ago, were only matched by the secure and undoubting confidence which prevailed everywhere in the public mind. At the very moment our commiserating English cousins were deploring the "anarchy" into which the great Republic had fallen, at length, in the hands of an ignorant, weak, and untrusty ruler, there was on this side a clearer consciousness of unity and strength, a more hopeful confidence in the destiny and future of the nation, than any of us would have thought possible, with the wounds of war so fresh. The work of peace was already begun in earnest. Terms of conciliation were already offered, and getting widely accepted among the revolted populations. One army of the insurrection after another was laying down its arms in absolute surrender. The soil was extensively preparing, and the conditions of labor and employment were fast getting established, for the greatly needed harvests of the year. The nation, just rallying victorious from its life-and-death struggle, was exercising a wise and needful charity, in the supply of destitution, and a healing of desolation, absolutely unparalleled. One of the highest officers in the military service, a man as well known for his Christian humanity as for his soldierly fidelity, was the appointed agent of the nation's guardianship over the newly enfranchised race, that was still to be protected from the jealous cruelty of its former masters, and initiated in the painful, slow, first steps towards civilization, equal justice, and political liberty. This was the "reconstruction" which the nation required. And to the immense task of it, the new President had already devoted himself, with an intelligent purpose and a consecration of will

VOL. LXXIX.-5TH S. VOL. XVII. NO. III.

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