THE RELATIONS OF THE COLLEGE 
 TO THE LEARNED PROFESSIONS. 
 
THE RELATIONS OF THE 
 COLLEGE TO THE LEARNED PROFESSIONS. 
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED AT THE 
 
 COMMENCEMENT 
 Of Union College, 
 
 u 
 
 June 24, 1885. 
 By DAVID MURRAY, LL. D 
 
 HONORARY CHANCELLOR FOR 1885. 
 
 ALBANY : 
 
 CHARLES VAN BENTHUYSEN & SONS. 
 
 1885. 
 

 2«()34 
 
^ 
 
 to 
 
 CHANCELLOR'S ADDRESS. 
 
 I propose to speak to you to-day on the subject which of 
 all others comes most naturally to our minds, that is, on the 
 proper aims, purposes and plans of a college. And lest 
 this subject may be found too broad to be compassed in 
 the brief time which I am to occupy, I will limit myself 
 chiefly to a discussion of the relations of the college to the 
 learned professions. 
 
 Let us begin by settling what we shall understand to be 
 meant by the learned professions. Originally, and down to 
 a comparatively recent period, the term was understood to 
 refer exclusively to the three professions of divinity, law and 
 medicine. But the increased complexity of modern society, 
 and the necessity of a knowledge of the profoundest laws of 
 nature in various human industries, have led to the institu- 
 tion of other vocations which may fairly lay claim to the 
 same dignity. We have no hesitation in adding to this 
 honorable and venerable trio the professions of the archi- 
 tect and engineer, the chemist and metallurgist, the editor 
 and the teacher. Each of these callings relies mainly 
 on the labor of the brain. They are distinctively the think- 
 ing professions, requiring for their successful pursuit the 
 trained intellect rather than the skilful hand. To succeed 
 in them, still more to rise to eminence in them, calls for 
 not merely the common sense of ordinary life, but the wis^ 
 dom and insight which are derived from the profound study 
 of the phenomena of matter and mind. 
 
 Starting from this basis for our inquiry, let us see how 
 the college stands related to these learned professions. We 
 
will take the State of New York as furnishing illustrations 
 and examples both of the college and the professions. 
 According to the census of 1880 the population of New 
 York was 5.082,982. How many the census of 1885 would 
 have shown, alas ! we shall never know. By the same cen- 
 sus of 1880 there were in the State 6,701 clergymen, 9,459 
 lawyers, 9,272 physicians, 1,806 architects and engineers, 
 391 chemists and metallurgists, 2,1 1 1 journalists and literary 
 men, of whom, say, i ,000 are in positions where a liberal edu- 
 cation is essential. To these add 675 professors in colleges, 
 and 650 principals and chief assistants in academies, high 
 schools and other leading schools, aggregating, say, 1,325 
 college-bred men who make teaching a permanent profession. 
 Thus we have a total number of about 30,000 persons who 
 are in positions where a liberal education may fairly be con- 
 sidered an indispensable requisite. I do not mean to assert 
 that all this number in the present condition of things are to 
 be counted as educated men. On the contrary, it is the 
 disgrace of our State and of the whole country that persons 
 utterly unfitted by character and education have crowded 
 into these professions, until they are overrun with ignorance 
 and incompetence. But the fact still remains that the State 
 of New York has more than 30,000 places which call for 
 educated men, and which educated men alone can ade- 
 quately and properly fill. 
 
 Now,of every thousand of these educated men about twelve 
 each year attain the age of seventy years; and may be re- 
 garded as withdrawn from the active practice of their call- 
 ings ; and about eighteen more die before reaching the age 
 of seventy. That is, about thirty out of every thousand each 
 year are retired from their professions ; or in the whole 
 30,000 there are 900 persons who move on and make room 
 for 900 others to take their places. 
 
 We may estimate it roughly that we require each year, 
 200 new clergymen ; 
 290 new lawyers ; 
 
5 
 
 28o new physicians ; 
 
 60 new engineers, chemists, etc. ; 
 
 30 new authors and journahsts ; 
 
 40 new professors, head-masters, etc. ; 
 that is, 900 new recruits to the learned professions. Of 
 course you understand that this estimate refers to the State 
 of New York only. If we were to include in our estimate ■ 
 the openings which the sons of New York have made and 
 are yearly making for themselves in those parts of the 
 country where the native crop of educated men is still in- 
 sufficient, we might largely increase the number of avail- 
 able places in the learned professions which are awaiting 
 your advent. But against this must be put the invasion 
 into our territory, especially into our large cities, of a very 
 considerable number of ambitious young men from other 
 States, who come in to push and jostle us, and claim a 
 goodly share of our places of honor and trust; and these 
 may perhaps make an even offset for the like advantages 
 we gain in other States. 
 
 We have called these professions learned, because they 
 call for a liberal education on the part of those entering 
 them. Now, what is a liberal education? I do not pro- 
 pose to have much to say of the technical education 
 which each profession demands. That is not specially my 
 purpose. The lawyer must of course make himself familiar 
 with the laws and the procedure of courts ; the doctor must 
 learn the nature and potency of drugs ; the engineer must 
 acquire the use of the formulae and instruments of his pro- 
 fession. These constitute the necessary routine of these 
 several callings. A man may, however, learn all this and still 
 be in no true and broad sense a man of liberal education. The 
 education which we have to consider underlies and co-exists 
 with the special and technical knowledge which is demanded 
 of the professional man. It is designed to develop and 
 quicken his intellectual powers and put them under his 
 control in the same sense that the well-trained athlete has 
 his niuscles under his control. His memory and imagina- 
 
tion, his judgment and reai^oning faculties must be strength- 
 ened and trained to prompt and decisive action. His taste 
 as to the beautiful, his perception of the right, his humane 
 and patriotic impulses, his self-control, his patience amid 
 difficulties, his persistence against obstacles must be devel- 
 oped and cultivated. Besides this he must be sui)plied with 
 that common stock of knowledge which we look for in every 
 educated man, and which is the medium of exchange by 
 which men of varied occupations and interests can find 
 pleasure and profit in mutual intercourse. 
 
 This general intellectual and moral training ought to pre- 
 cede and lead up to the special professional training. It is 
 a necessary and fitting preparation for any considerable 
 achievement in any one of the professions. 
 
 In the older countries of Europe, where the intense com- 
 petitions of life have made necessary a more careful regula- 
 tion of the various privileged vocations, the necessity for 
 this preliminary as well as professional education has been 
 recognized and provided for. It is not merely in the laws 
 which have been framed that we find such requirements for 
 general culture on the part of those entering the professions. 
 The demands of public sentiment and of the sentiment 
 within the professions themselves are even more emphatic 
 and influential than the laws in enforcing a high standard 
 of general as well as technical education. In Prussia, where 
 the philosophy of education has been carried to its highest 
 perfection, the requirements for entrance into any one of the 
 professions are very definitely fixed, and pertain to literary 
 as well as professional preparation. If you wish to be- 
 come a lawyer in Prussia, this is the course of preparation 
 which you would be compelled to follow : You must take 
 a complete course in the Gymnasium* which extends from 
 the age of nine to eighteen or twenty. The studies com- 
 prise Latin and Greek, mathematics and natural science, 
 history and geography, the mother tongue and at least one 
 other modern language. The ground would conform in 
 
 * See the study-plan of the Gymnashini in note on page 19. 
 
extent to what would be covered in this State by a good 
 preparatory course in a high school or academy, together 
 with about two years in college. Then you must go to the 
 university and enter yourself as a student in the faculty of 
 law. Here you must study at least three years, attending 
 the lectures upon Roman law, international law, juris- 
 prudence, history of law, civil and criminal procedure, 
 German and Prussian public law, etc., etc. These subjects 
 are treated in a profound and philosophical manner which 
 is only comprehensible by those prepared for it by a long 
 and thorough training in classics and history, and ancient 
 and modern literature. At the close of this residence at 
 the university you are permitted to enter yourself for the 
 State examination in law. This is conducted under the 
 direction of a State commissioner, who, upon your success- 
 fully passing it, grants you a certificate to that effect. You 
 are then assigned to a bureau of legal administration, where 
 for a year or more you are expected to make yourself use- 
 ful in such service as may be demanded of you, and where 
 you learn the practical procedure in the administration of 
 justice. At the end of this apprenticeship, if you have 
 approved yourself competent, you may be admitted as an 
 advocate. With powers matured and trained, and with an 
 accumulated store of general and professional learning at 
 your command, you are allowed to class yourself among the 
 privileged number of those who may be employed in the 
 administration of the laws. 
 
 In France, admission to the professions is equally guarded. 
 As an illustration take a candidate for the profession of an 
 advocate. Before he can begin the study of law he must 
 be a bachelor of letters, which corresponds to our bachelor 
 of arts. Then he must attend two years the lectures in a 
 faculty of law, and must pass two examinations, one in 
 Justinian's Institutes and the other in Code Napoleon, the 
 penal code and the codes of civil procedure and criminal 
 jurisprudence. This entitles him to the degree of bachelor 
 of law. In order to become a licenciate of law and have 
 
8 
 
 the right to practice, the bacliclor must then attend a 
 third year's lectures in a faculty of law and undergo two 
 more examinations, one on the Institutes of Justinian and 
 a second on Code Napoleon, the code of commerce and 
 administrative law, and finally must prepare and defend a 
 thesis on questions both in Roman and French law. 
 
 The training for the learned professions in England is 
 scarcely less exacting than that just described. For admis- 
 sion as a solicitor the candidate must pass a preliminary, an 
 intermediate and a final examination. Persons are exempt 
 from the preliminary examination who have taken a degree 
 at one of the universities, or who have passed certain speci- 
 fied examinations at the universities. The preliminary 
 examination consists of the following: Writing from dicta- 
 tion, writing an English composition, arithmetic, geography 
 of Europe, history of England, elementary Latin, together 
 with two languages selected by the candidate from the six 
 following: Latin, Greek, French, German, Spanish and 
 Italian. The examiners give notice of the work in each 
 language in which the examination will be had. This pre- 
 liminary examination occupies two days and is in writing. 
 In difficulty it will compare fairly with the entrance examina- 
 tion to one of our New York colleges. After passing this 
 examination the candidate must enter into articles of agree- 
 ment to serve as clerk to a solicitor for five years ; but 
 persons who have taken a degree at a university have to 
 serve only three years. When half his term of clerkship 
 has expired, he must present himself for his intermediate 
 examination: The subjects are liable to change, but are 
 about equivalent to the following : Stephen's Commentaries 
 on the laws of England, judicature acts and rules, law of 
 real and personal property, equity jurisprudence and com- 
 mon law. At the close of his clerkship he must pass his 
 final examination. To this there are no exceptions. The 
 subjects are of two classes, obligatory and optional. The 
 obligatory subjects are essentially as follows : . 
 
1. Matters usually determined or administered in the 
 Chancery division of the High Court of Justice. 
 
 2. Matters usually determined or administered in the 
 Queen's Bench division of the High Court of Justice. 
 
 3- Principles of the law of real and personal property and 
 the practice of conveyancing. 
 
 The optional subjects must also be passed by those 
 who desire to enter for the honors or prizes which are 
 awarded at the examination. They are as follows : 
 
 4. The law and practice of bankruptcy. 
 
 5. Criminal law, and the practice before justices of the 
 peace. 
 
 6. The law and practice of the Probate, Divorce and 
 Admiralty divisions of the High Court of Justice, and 
 ecclesiastical law and practice. 
 
 The profession of barrister in England is entirely distinct 
 from that of solicitor. Admission as a barrister is gained 
 through the Inns of Court, which are societies in London 
 endowed by law with authority to examine and admit 
 candidates. There are four such societies, which hold the 
 place of schools of law, viz. : Inner Temple, Middle Temple, 
 Lincoln's Inn and Gray's Inn. Before a person can enter 
 as a student of law in one of the Inns of Court, he must 
 satisfy the council of legal education of his qualifications in 
 general knowledge. Barristers are almost always university 
 men, and a degree from a university or a certificate of having 
 pas^'^d one of the public examinations at a university is 
 accepted as evidence of sufficient general education. Other- 
 wise, the candidate must be examined in the English 
 language, the Latin language and English history. The 
 Latin examination is about equivalent to our college entrance 
 examination in Latin. Having been entered at the Inn, he 
 must, before applying for his final examination, have kept 
 twelve terms, of which there are four in the year, that is, 
 must have been constructively in residence for three years, 
 and must have attained the age of twenty-one years. After 
 keeping at least four terms, that is, after the lapse of at least 
 
lO 
 
 a year, the student may present himself for the examination 
 in Roman law. This is an examination upon Justinian's 
 Institutes, which may be studied in a translation. The final 
 examination is upon English law. The examination lasts 
 three days and comprises all the branches of the law of real 
 and personal property, common law and equity. There 
 arc also certain prizes and studentships, for which there is 
 a further and much more difficult examination. The student 
 then usually reads law for a time with some barrister in 
 actual practice, in order to make himself familiar with the 
 practical details of his profession. After this lie is in a 
 position to be called to the bar. 
 
 The usual preparation for professional study in England 
 is, however, much more rigorous than that described above. 
 The bo}' destined for a learned career is sent to one 
 of the great classical schools, such as Eton, Rugby, 
 Harrow or Winchester. Here he is subjected to a severe 
 and prolonged course in classics, mathematics and ele- 
 mentary science. He leaves the school and enters the 
 university at the age of eighteen or twenty. If he is ambi- 
 tious for scholastic reputation he must enter on a competi- 
 tion for honors and prizes, which taxes not only his powers 
 of mind, but his endurance of body. The honor-man of 
 an English university, when he finishes his university career 
 and enters on the study of his profession, is the most per- 
 fectly trained animal in existence. The English hunter is 
 not more surely the most superb and magnificent specimen 
 of the horse than is the Cambridge wrangler or the Oxford 
 first-class man the most splendid type of intellectual man- 
 hood. 
 
 Let us now inquire what we have in our State of New 
 York to correspond with these systems of preparation for 
 the learned professions. We are at once struck with this 
 great diff"erence, that while in the great countries just men- 
 tioned an adequate preliminary education is enforced by the 
 regulations of the professions or made obligatory by legal 
 enactment, in this country admission to the professions is 
 
1 1 
 
 almost free. As a consequence of this facility of admission, 
 there is no such uniform standard of culture and education 
 as is found in the same classes in Europe. We have law- 
 yers who, in learning and ability, are the peers of any in the 
 world ; but the legal profession as a whole stands immeas- 
 urab'y below those of many other countries. The same is 
 true of nearly all the professions. But I am not ready to 
 admit that the American system does not after all furnish 
 facilities for preparing for the learned callings which if 
 judiciousl}^ employed are equal to those described. The 
 fault of our system is, that it does not compel every one to 
 submit to this preparation, and as a consequence there are 
 among our professional men many who can lay no claim 
 to be considered educated. This does not, however, prevent 
 those who desire to rise to eminence in their professions 
 from securing the means to acquire the highest culture and 
 preparation. While, therefore, oui* system does not secure 
 so high a general standard, it has produced men in every 
 one of the learned professions who will bear comparison 
 with the most noted names of other lands. 
 
 Now, what opportunities does our New York system of 
 education offer to a young man looking forward to a profes- 
 sional career? In the first place we have the public school 
 free to all, where the elementary branches can be learned ; 
 and it must be conceded that this opens the way to many 
 bright minds who otherwise would never enter upon an in- 
 tellectual career. We have our fitting schools and academies, 
 which provide a training extending through five or six 
 years, where the scholar may become well grounded in 
 classics and mathematics, with a general knowledge of 
 elementary science, history and geography. If he is so 
 disposed, he may also gain some knowledge of modern lan- 
 guages. With this outfit he is ready for college, which he 
 can enter when sixteen to eighteen years of age. He is not 
 the finished scholar that the German Gymnasunn or the 
 English endowed school turns out. His training in general 
 has been less exact, and he is usually two or three years 
 
12 
 
 younger than his European counterpart when entering the 
 university. But he is a splendid fellow, full of buoyant 
 ambition and ready to undertake any task which the college 
 lays on him. Now what can the college do for him? 
 
 And this brings me to explain somewhat more in detail 
 what I think the college ought to do for the young man 
 who comes to it for an education. I have said that the 
 learned professions are distinguished from other vocations 
 in that they rely for their results more on the labor of the 
 brain than on the skill of the hand. The chief end then 
 to be attained in tire education of our professional aspirant 
 is to develop his powers of intellect. Each of the profes- 
 sions has this in common with all the others, that it calls for 
 good brain-work. So far, therefore, as this intellectual 
 training is concerned, it is essentially the same for all, and 
 may be secured by the pursuit of the same studies. At 
 this point of development we do not require one college for 
 those who are to be clergymen, and another for lawyers, 
 and another for engineers. It is better that they grow 
 together and receive the same tillage. The commingling 
 of men of varying minds, of diverse temperaments, and 
 starting out with different plans and purposes of life, is an 
 advantage to each. 
 
 It must be remembered also that every member of a pro- 
 fession is also a member of the great social organization, and 
 that liis education must be such as to fit him not only for one, 
 but all his functions in society. A man cannot be a lawyer 
 and nothing else, or a physician and nothing else. Eight or 
 ten hours of the day perhaps he may be immersed in profes- 
 sional concerns, but what is he and where is he during the 
 remainder of the twenty-four? His friends demand that he 
 shall be a friend to them in turn, and reciprocate by his good 
 fellowship the pleasure which he seeks from them. His family 
 looks to him for instruction and aid in their plans and pur- 
 suits, which may be wide apart from his own. The com- 
 munity in which he lives gathers around him for counsel in 
 things of common concern, and would be justly disappointed 
 
13 
 
 to find that, in spite of his skill in his profession, he was a fool 
 in everything else. The more prominent and expert he 
 shows himself in his profession, the more his fellow citizens 
 look to him for leadership in public affairs. In our country 
 every man, whether he wishes it or not, is a public man and is 
 expected to hold himself ready at his country's call to sacri- 
 fice his private interests to the public service. It is for rea- 
 sons such as these, that the education of the professional 
 man must spread out into accomplishments far beyond the 
 limits of his own special calling. We are not content that 
 our lawyer should know only law. We may call upon him 
 to serve us as governor or president, and he must be 
 ready for the call. We send our doctors to congress, and 
 they must know something more than how to amputate legs 
 and arms. We make our college professors our diplo- 
 matists, and thanks to their culture and intelligence they do 
 not discredit us. It is mainly on his college training that 
 the professional man must depend for preparing him to 
 respond creditably to these various calls. And it is to meet 
 this demand for culture, intelligence and intellectual versa- 
 tility that the curriculum of a college should be planned. 
 
 What this curriculum ought to be, is a problem on which 
 a vast amount of thought has been expended. It is a 
 problem not yet solved. Educators of the highest distinc- 
 tion hold views widely divergent. The truth of the matter 
 probably is, that there may be many plans of study for a col- 
 lege which will almost equally well secure the desired result. 
 Any study or series of studies may be the instrument for 
 waking into activity * the dormant energies of a human soul. 
 It was geology which was Hugh Miller's school and school- 
 master. It was the study of the physical sciences which 
 started Joseph Henry on his splendid career. It was read- 
 ing the English Bible which educated John Bunyan. I have 
 
 * Many eminent men have undergone the discipline of business ; many, like 
 Franklin, have been self-disciplined, but I have never heard of a person who 
 had risen to intellectual eminence without voluntary submission to an intellec- 
 tual discipline of some kind. — Hammertoii' s Intellecttial Life, p. 50. 
 
14 
 
 seen young men aroused into intellectual life by becoming 
 interested in a single study, like botany, or chemistry, and 
 going on from this one success, attain successes everywhere. 
 But exceptional results, such as these, cannot be made the 
 basis for a system of education. Our college course must 
 be planned for the average, healthy mind. It must make 
 provision for a steady, normal development of the intel- 
 lectual powers by well-considered successive steps in study. 
 By the common consent of educators in all lands the best 
 discipline is secured by a mixed curriculum of languages, 
 mathematics, science and philosophy. We have never seen 
 any reason for losing faith in what is known in America as 
 the "regular college course" as the best curriculum for 
 the average young man. 
 
 In the first place, the students entering college, even those 
 with the best preparation, need a continuation of the disci- 
 plinary drill begun in the preparatory school in order to 
 train their minds to orderly and continuous work. They 
 are still too young, with minds too immature, to enter upon 
 the advanced problems of science and philosophy. We 
 must always take it for granted that many young men come 
 to college with very imperfect preparation. The deficiency 
 is not always in the amount of their attainments, but much 
 oftener in their habits of study and powers of continuous 
 thought. They come with a little Latin and less Greek 
 and a smattering of mathematics, but with minds untrained. 
 The first thing to be done with them in college is what in 
 military phrase is called " setting up." They must be put 
 into the " awkward squad," and by a course of drill under 
 competent drill-masters must be taught the intellectual 
 manual of arms. For this purpose nothing has ever been 
 found so effective as the study of the classical languages 
 and mathematics. Other studies may and ought to be 
 intermingled with these, but for two years of our college 
 course I would keep as the main purpose the development 
 of the intellectual powers of the student, using as the instru- 
 ments for accomplishing this result the well-tried studies of 
 
IS 
 
 the classics and mathematics. I would always include in 
 the curriculum, especially during the early years, a per- 
 sistent, obligatory course of instruction and of exercises in 
 the mother tongue. Human knowledge, without the ability 
 to give it due expression, is of small value. Young men 
 often groan over the requirements in English composition 
 and public speaking, but there is nothing for which they are 
 more grateful in later years than that they were compelled 
 in their college course to give attention to the easy, grace- 
 ful and perspicuous expression of their thoughts in writing 
 and in speech. 1 would combine also with the disciplinary 
 studies of these early years others which are chiefly valuable 
 for the facts they impart. Dr. Arnold says : " It is so hard 
 to begin anything in after-life and so comparatively easy to 
 continue what has been begun, that I think we are bound 
 to break ground, as it were, into several of the mines of 
 knowledge with our pupils, that the first difficulties may be 
 overcome by them while there is yet a power from with- 
 out to aid their own faltering resolution, and that they may 
 be enabled, if they Avish, to go on with the study hereafter." 
 The elements, at least, of the descriptive sciences, such as 
 geology, physical geography, botany, zoology and physi- 
 ology, should be known to every man who is to be called 
 educated. To this extent I would require that every student 
 should be familiar with such branches. Beyond this ele- 
 mentary knowledge these subjects should be pursued as 
 special studies to be taken up in the later years of the 
 course and to be treated in a manner requiring the highest 
 exercise of the mental powers. 
 
 Gradually the range of studies in the college course should 
 be widened, keeping pace with the development of the 
 student's powers of comprehension. In the Junior year 
 we may introduce studies not only more difficult, but 
 different in kind. The group of studies connected with 
 language may take a more philosophical aspect and widen 
 out into comparative philology and literature. It is need- 
 less to say that I mean the classics to be taught throughout 
 
i6 
 
 in a sensible and philosophical manner. It is not surpris- 
 ing that students revolt against the endless grammatical 
 drudgery which often passes for classical learning. The 
 great authors of Greece and Rome are worthy of better 
 treatment. They should be read not merely for their lin- 
 guistic peculiarities, but much more for the matter and 
 literary style, in which they will always furnish us with the 
 most perfect models. The reading* of these authors should 
 be made to serve as an introduction into the history and 
 culture of antiquity. 
 
 The mathematical training of the student prepares him 
 for the advanced study of physics and chemistry and 
 astronomy. The problems of organized society as they 
 are presented in history, political science and constitutional 
 and international law, form the studies demanding the use 
 of those powers which his early training has put at his com- 
 mand. Formal logic, ethics and metaphysics rise still higher 
 in their requirement of mental insight and connected 
 thought, and may well be deferred till the advantages of 
 age, development and training are all on the side of the 
 student. These studies thus roughly grouped compose the 
 regular course of the American college. They present diffi- 
 culties of precisely the kind which the professional man will 
 encounter in the practice of his future calling. The man 
 who can investigate scientifically the hypothetical prob- 
 lems of science in the college laboratory has acquired the 
 ability to do the same as a p'rofessional chemist. He who 
 has mastered the questions of political economy and ethics 
 and jurisprudence, as they arise in his college course, may 
 be trusted to do the same thing when the exigencies of his 
 profession call for a like exercise of his powers. The 
 methods to be employed, the powers of discernment, of 
 analysis and statement, which are called for in his college 
 course, are those which will be in requisition in the practice 
 of his profession. And so it comes to pass that, while the 
 
 * Those of my hearers who liad the privilege of reading Plato with Pro- 
 fessor Tayler Pewis will know what I mean. 
 
problems and difficulties which he has met in his college 
 course may never reappear in the same precise form in 
 practical life, yet the method of work, the sense of power 
 and confidence which he has acquired will fit him to en- 
 counter an infinite variety of even greater difficulties. 
 
 It is time now to say something of two or three practical 
 questions which are much discussed, relating to college 
 courses of study. The first of these is, " Is it best in a 
 college course to exact from all the study of Latin and 
 Greek? " 
 
 I am ready to say without hesitation that any young man 
 purposing to enter one of the learned professions will be 
 better prepared for it by a thorough classical training. 
 But as we- expect in our colleges to educate many young 
 men who will not enter professions, I am also prepared to 
 concede that we may, with economy and profit, establish 
 alongside of the classical course, other courses in which 
 modern languages and other branches may be substituted for 
 the ancient languages. But we are dealing now with those 
 who intend to enter the learned professions and who expect to 
 make for themselves an honorable position in them, and for 
 these I am perfectly assured that a classical training is by far 
 the best preparation. Take this illustration : Suppose two 
 boys of equal ability ; give the one a hard drilling in Latin 
 and Greek and mathematics, preparatory to entering college ; 
 then in college give him a well-ordered course in classics, 
 history, literature, rhetoric and mathematics, say, up to the 
 end of the Sophomore year. Now, take the other boy, pre- 
 pare him for college by the study of the descriptive sciences, 
 such as botany, zoology and physical geography, and of 
 mathematics and experimental physics ; by readings in Eng- 
 lish literature and by lessons in conversational French and Ger- 
 man. (You see I am providing a really good education.) 
 Then in college let him take what is commonly known as the 
 scientific course up to the end of the Sophomore year. Here 
 are two young men at the same point of their educational 
 experience, having come to it by very difi"erent roads. We 
 
 2 
 
i8 
 
 will suppose at this point that both are put upon a difficult 
 study, of which neither has had any previous trial, such, 
 for example, as analytical mechanics or quantitative analysis 
 in chemistry. Which of the two has the best chance for suc- 
 cess in his pursuit of this study? I appeal to the professors 
 of engineering and chemistry in this college to tell us which 
 of these young men according to their experience is likely 
 to succeed best. I venture that both of tht-m will testify 
 that the chances are by far that the classically trained man 
 will in the very field of scientific investigation outstrip the 
 man who has been trained in what seemed the better scien- 
 tific curriculum. 
 
 In Prussia there are two classes of schools which prepare 
 young men for the university — the Gyiiinasinvi and Real- 
 sclutlc. The first has a thorough classical curriculum,* 
 composed mainly of Latin, Greek, mathematics and the 
 mother tongue. 
 
 *The study plan of a German Gymnasium is given below. It is divided in- 
 to six classes, the first four of which (VI, V, IV and III) are supposed to 
 occupy each one year; the last two (II and I) occupy each two years. 
 
 
 VI. 
 
 V. 
 
 IV. 
 
 III. 
 
 11. 
 
 I. 
 
 Religion 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 lo 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 10 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 10 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 10 
 
 6 
 2 
 3 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 10 
 6 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 I 
 
 2 
 
 (Jerman 
 
 3 
 8 
 
 Latin 
 
 Greek 
 
 6 
 
 French 
 
 
 2 
 
 Geography and History 
 
 Matlieniatics 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 4 
 2 
 
 Physics 
 
 Natural History 
 
 Drawing 
 
 2 
 2 
 3 
 
 
 Writing 
 
 
 Hours per week 
 
 28 
 
 30 
 
 30 
 
 30 
 
 30 
 
 30 
 
^9 
 
 The Reahchiile* on the other hand is a scientific prepar- 
 atory school. It does not ignore the classics, especially 
 Latin, but it substitutes for much of the work in classics a 
 training in science. 
 
 The graduates from these two classes of schools enter the 
 universities on an equal footing, and take their lectures 
 together from the same professors. There is here then an 
 opportunity to observe the comparative efficiency of these 
 two systems of preparation. In German university circles 
 the subject has attracted wide attention. In 1880, Professor 
 Hofmann, the eminent chemist, having been elected rector 
 of the University of Berlin, devoted his inaugural address 
 to a discussion of this subject. He gathered together the 
 opinions of professors from all the German universities, and 
 along with their testimony recounts his own experience in 
 the department of chemistry. I will not detain you with 
 a detailed statement of the discussion, but merely give you 
 the conclusion to which Professor Hofmann| arrives. It is, 
 
 * The curriculum of the first-class Realscluile is given below. In the Real- 
 schule of the second class no Latin is included, and the time is occupied by 
 more work in German, French and English. 
 
 Religion 
 
 German 
 
 Latin 
 
 French 
 
 English 
 
 Geography and History 
 
 Physical Science 
 
 Mathematics 
 
 Writing 
 
 Drawing 
 
 Hours per week 
 
 VI. 
 
 V. 
 
 IV. 
 
 III. II 
 
 30 
 
 31 
 
 32 
 
 I. 
 
 32 
 
 t Nevertheless the total result of this great investigation cannot be a moment 
 in doubt, and may be briefly summed up as follows : that the Rcahchule of the 
 first rank, however generous acknowledgment may be due to what it has actu- 
 ally accomplished, is nevertheless incapable of furnishing a preparation for 
 academic studies equal to that offered by the Gyninasiuiii ; that the Realschiile 
 lacks — this, for instance, is the opinion of the philosophical faculty in Berlin — 
 
20 
 
 that as a preparation for university work the classical drill 
 of the Gyvinasiiini is far more effectual than the scientific 
 drill of the RealscJiulc; that the men from the former, 
 even in the pursuit of scientific subjects in the university, 
 show a decided superiority over those who might have been 
 supposed to have received the more pertinent preparation. 
 
 I do not think, therefore, that there can be a question as 
 to the correctness of the position that the best preparation 
 for entering on any one of the learned professions is a gen- 
 eral education founded on the classics and mathematics, 
 and rounded out by a liberal curriculum of history, litera- 
 ture, natural science, social science and philosophy. If I 
 wanted a good preacher I would wish him to have had such 
 a preparation. If I needed a lawyer to manage a difficult 
 case for me, I would feel safer if he had had his powers 
 developed by such a training. If I were going to choose 
 an engineer for a great railroad, I would of course first 
 demand that he should possess the highest technical skill, 
 but I would expect that he would be the better engineer, 
 certainly a much better man of affairs, if he had had a 
 liberal education of the kind described. 
 
 But we must not forget that the college is not exclusively 
 for those who design to enter learned professions. Every year 
 the circle of college-bred men is widening so as to include 
 men of every business and vocation in life. The culture and 
 general knowledge which the college imparts, and especially 
 
 a certain point about which all other branches may group themselves, while 
 the Gynuiaiiiiin possesses such a point in the classical languages ; that all 
 efforts to find a substitute for the classical languages, whether in mathematics, 
 in the modern languages or in the natural sciences, have hitherto been unsuc- 
 cessful; that after long and vain search we must always come back finally to 
 the result of centuries of experience ; that the surest instrument that can be 
 used in training the mind of youth is given in the study of the languages, the 
 literature and the works of art of classical antiquity. According to the unani- 
 mous judgment of experienced teachers in the department of mathematics and 
 the natural sciences, graduates of the Realschule are almost without exception 
 overtaken in the later semesters by students from the Gytnnasiitiit, however 
 much they may excel them in the same branches in the first semester. [Inau- 
 gural address of Dr. August Wilhelm Hofmann as Rector of Berlin University, 
 1880. Translated by John Williams White, Boston, 1883, p. 31.] 
 
21 
 
 the experience of the world which its associations afford, are 
 valuable, not only to those who are to follow learned callings, 
 but to the merchants and farmers, the mechanics and 
 manufacturers, the bankers and politicians. The colleges 
 therefore must not repel, but invite representatives of every 
 class, and modify, if necessary, their plans of study to 
 meet the wants of these various classes. I by no means 
 affirm that we ought not to abate somewhat of the require- 
 ments of the classical curriculum in deference to the different 
 educational ends to be secured. I see no reason why in 
 the same college we may not establish courses of study 
 which shall be specially designed for those who desire a 
 different or even a less thorough education. Modern lan- 
 guages may receive more and ancient languages less atten- 
 tion. The useful and industrial arts and modern literatures 
 may very well be substituted for some of the requirements 
 in classics, mathematics and metaphysics. It must, how- 
 ever, be distinctly understood that this is done at the 
 expense of the high intellectual training which is derived 
 from the more exacting studies. 
 
 I am ready to concede also that for certain of the scien- 
 tific professions, such as the engineer, the chemist and the 
 metallurgist, it is important at a not too late point in the 
 course of study to direct the student to subjects whose dis- 
 cipline shall prepare him for his special work. While the 
 clergyman and the lawyer and the doctor will be best pre- 
 pared for their future work by a good classical education, 
 those preparing for scientific callings will receive more aid 
 by a course which shall include the advanced mathematics 
 or special laboratory practice. And yet I beg you to re- 
 member that the standard of these scientific professions is 
 being advanced year by year, and any man who expects to 
 attain any creditable position in them must bring to his aid 
 every possible advantage of training and preparation. And 
 I commend to your consideration the thought that it is 
 better to spend a few more years in laying a broad and firm 
 foundation for your professional education, than to narrow 
 
your preparation down to flie barest necessities of )'our 
 future calling. I am confident that even for the man who 
 is to spend his life in scientific pursuits, the time would be 
 well spent which he would employ in acquiring a thorough 
 liberal education. 
 
 A second question which is much discussed at the present 
 time is this: "To what extent shall we allow elective 
 studies in our college course?" The discussion of this 
 question has been somewhat confused by assuming that the 
 American college is the counterpart and equivalent of a 
 German university. Assuming this, it is inferred that, 
 because entire freedom is allowed in the choice of studies 
 in a German university, that the same freedom ought to 
 prevail in an American college. Now, as a matter of fact, 
 the circumstances are very diff'erent. When a German 
 student enters the university he is generally twenty years 
 of age. He has been for nine or ten years under the disci- 
 pline of a school curriculum to which our preparatory schools 
 furnish no equivalent. He has had no options there in 
 regard to studies, and no concessions on account of a dis- 
 like of or want of capacity for particular studies. When he 
 leaves the Gymnasium he is on a level not with the Ameri- 
 can student entering the Freshman class of a college, but 
 much more nearly with the young man finishing his Sopho- 
 more year. In extent and exactness of scholarship, in mental 
 discipline and in a developed sense of responsibility he stands 
 on an entirely different plane from our young Freshman 
 at the beginning of his college career. We must remember 
 also that however free the choice of studies may be in a Ger- 
 man university, there is no such freedom in the examinations 
 by which the student obtains his degree. He may amuse 
 himself as much as he pleases by attendance upon easy 
 lectures and fascinating lecturers, but when he comes up for 
 his degree he must prove attendance upon the lectures 
 which go to make up that degree, and he must pass an 
 examination which shall evince his complete mastery of the 
 subjects included. 
 
23 
 
 But we can never settle such questions by foreign prece- 
 dents. The American college is an American institution. It 
 has grown up on American soil and amid American environ- 
 ments. We must settle our own policy and make our own 
 precedents. I think I liave shown that the ordinary student, 
 prepared to enter the Freshman class and no higher, is almost 
 certain to be deficient in the discipline of his mental powers 
 and deficient in the knowledge of those fundamental facts 
 and principles which will enable him to enter successfully 
 on the higher studies of a liberal education. The best use 
 then that can be made of at least the first two years of his 
 college course is to continue these disciplinary studies. I 
 see no need of providing in these years for a wide range 
 of optional studies. The drill that is good for one of the 
 professions is good for another. The strength and supple- 
 ness of muscle which fit a man for a soldier fit him as well 
 for a fireman or a sailor. The vigor and alertness of mind 
 which prepare a man to take up the special studies of the 
 lawyer are just as necessary for him in the career of an 
 engineer. These two years, therefore, may well be taken 
 up with studies of common utility. Especially they should 
 be used to give to the student a good mastery of the mother 
 tongue in writing and speaking. They should introduce 
 him into the elements of those descriptive sciences which 
 may never be carried further than the elements with him, but 
 which to this extent at least are the necessary equipment 
 of every educated man. Along with the continued study 
 of mathematics and of the classical languages, especially in 
 their higher literary and philological rather than their gram- 
 matical aspect, I would provide for the student a good 
 course in rhetoric and English literature, with systematic 
 and compulsory practice in original composition and the 
 criticism of style. I would also give a continuous and 
 entertaining, but not too profound a course in elementary 
 science, which should include geology, zoology, botany and 
 physiology. In all these subjects I would keep in mind 
 that the course should be adapted to those who are to enter 
 
24 
 
 upon varied professions in which a general knowledge of 
 many things, rather than a minute knowledge of specialties, 
 is the point to be aimed at. We have now put our young 
 man on a sound and broad platform. He stands where the 
 German youth stands when he leaves the GyinnasiiiDi, and 
 a little ahead of the English youth when he leaves Eton or 
 Rugby and goes to the university. 
 
 The two years that yet remain may be dealt with some- 
 what differently and with a different aim. The young man 
 is older, his mind matured by natural growth and years of 
 .systematic study. He is prepared to grapple with more 
 difficult problems. His tastes and aptitudes may be sup- 
 posed to have shown themselves. I would, therefore, give 
 to these years a greater liberty and a wider range of studies. 
 I would recognize differences of tastes and talents, and try 
 to make the most of these differences. At the same time I 
 would keep in mind that there are certain general and essen- 
 tial subjects which should belong in every course and with- 
 out which the college stamp ought never to be put on any 
 student. I place among these the study of social science as 
 developed in history, political economy and the elements of 
 constitutional and international law. I place among them 
 the study of the human mind as it has been wrought out 
 by the great masters of thought from Plato down to Kant 
 and Sir William Hamilton. I place in this category the 
 study of the principles of right and duty and reverence as 
 they have been formulated in works on moral philosophy 
 and religious belief. In these studies I would have no 
 options and no concessions. Outside of these I would 
 provide for variations of talent by establishing elective 
 courses of study. This may be accepted as the legitimate 
 and appropriate recognition of that variety which God has 
 made in the human mind as he has made in the human face. 
 There should be a course for those whose aptitudes run in 
 the direction of mathematics and science ; another for those 
 whose aptitudes lie in the direction of language, .philology 
 and philosophy, and another in history and political science. 
 
25 
 
 The option should He between these organized, systematic 
 courses of study, and the student having once made his 
 choice should continue to the end. It is in this sense and 
 with these limitations that elective studies have obtained a 
 legitimate footing in all our colleges. 
 
 I suppose the thought has frequently occurred to you 
 during this discourse, — What, after all, is the necessity of 
 this long and expensive preparation for entering on our 
 professional studies? Can I not be admitted to the privi- 
 leges of these professions without any such tedious proba- 
 tion? And when after my four years of college training and 
 my added professional education I am admitted to my pro- 
 fession, am I not put on an equality with others who have 
 submitted to no such course of probation, and have incurred 
 no such expenditure of time and money? 
 
 There is no question as to the reality of the grievances 
 implied in these interrogatories. It is true that neither in the 
 laws of the State, nor in the regulations established by the pro- 
 fessions themselves, nor in the demands of public opinion 
 which are often stronger than laws, is there any provision for 
 an adequate preliminary education as a requisite for the pro- 
 fessions. The story of the low standard of requirement for 
 admission to the professions is a sad and humiliating one. I 
 ought, perhaps, to except from this indictment the clerical 
 profession. It must be admitted that in churches of almost 
 'every denomination there is provision for an educated minis- 
 try. But on the other hand look at the legal profession. 
 Down to 1882 there was nothing in the rules of admission to 
 the bar to prevent young men utterly uneducated from taking 
 up the study of law, and after acquiring a little technical knowl- 
 edge, appearing before the supreme court for examination 
 and admission. In this way hundreds and thousands of 
 young men found their way into the profession who had 
 never seen a college or even an academy. The office boy, 
 who made the fires and could barely read and write, picked 
 up enough of the jargon of the courts and waded through 
 a few elementary books, and then suddenly, about the time 
 
26 
 
 he should have been entering college, he blossoms out as 
 an attorney and counselor-at-law. In 1882 a little step in 
 advance was taken. Under authority of a statute* the judges 
 of the Court of Appeals were empowered to establish rules 
 for admission to the bar. They dared not go very far in 
 requiring a preliminary education. But they did specify 
 that unless a student was a graduate of a college, he must, 
 before entering on his legal clerkship, pass an examination 
 in arithmetic, English grammar, geography, orthography, 
 English and American history and English composition. 
 This was not a great advance, but it has doubtless done 
 something to stop the tide of ignorance which was rolling 
 into the profession. How inadequate it is, we may safely 
 appeal for an opinion to the learned and accomplished 
 members of the legal profession who have gone out with 
 the diploma of this venerable college. 
 
 In the medical profession the case is even worse. The 
 license law of 1880 provides that every person graduated 
 from a legally incorporated medical college in the State is 
 entitled to registry as a regular practitioner of medicine. 
 There is no legal requirement as to preliminary education. 
 It is left wholly to the medical colleges to determine what 
 educational qualifications they will exact from those enter- 
 ing upon their courses of lectures. 
 
 There are twelve legally established medical colleges in 
 active operation in this State. I have looked over the cata- 
 logue of each one with reference to the literary qualifica- 
 tions required for admission. Eive of them, including the 
 oldest and largest, make no mention of any qualifications 
 for admission. That is, they admit to the study of medi- 
 cine everybody who asks admission, without any require- 
 ment as to preliminary education. One requires " the sim- 
 ple English branches ; " another, " a common-school educa- 
 tion ; " another, "the branches considered necessary to fit 
 for the study of medicine," but gives no intimation what 
 these branches are ; another requires a certificate from the 
 
 * Chap. 486, L. 1871. 
 
27 
 
 medical preceptor and naively adds that the responsibility 
 for the fitness of the entering student must rest with the 
 preceptor ; one gives as the subject of a required entrance 
 examination the four elementary branches and elementary 
 physics ; another, the four elementary branches and algebra 
 through simple equations, and two books of geometry, but 
 waives examination on presentation of any kind of a school 
 certificate ; and the last requires spelling, arithmetic, and 
 Latin through declensions and conjugations ! Such is a 
 summary of the requirements for admission to our medical 
 colleges. In the best view of them, they amount only to a 
 presumption that the students have a common-school educa- 
 tion. Of course the great majority of the students in repu- 
 table medical colleges have a much better preparation than 
 that. Many are college graduates, many others have enjoyed 
 the advantages of good academies. But the fact still 
 remains that there is no barrier to prevent the medical 
 profession from being entered by persons with little or no 
 general culture, and with no discipline of mental powers 
 except that which is to be derived from the study of their 
 profession. 
 
 I will not go through the details of the deficiencies of 
 general culture in the other learned callings. In some the 
 state of things is not so bad, and in some it is worse than 
 that which I have detailed. The engineer on whose learning 
 and skill depends the safety of millions of lives is required 
 to submit to no tests of his competence or ability before 
 undertaking the responsibilities of his profession. We 
 employ men to build bridges for our railroads, engines for 
 our ocean steamers, hoists for our mines, sewers for our 
 streets and water-works for our cities, and are innocently 
 content to trust to the laws of competition in trade to secure 
 the exclusion of the incornpetent and the employment of 
 those who know their business. I will only add that the 
 restrictions the law imposes on those desiring to become 
 teachers of our schools are of the most ineffectual sort, and 
 even these are omitted in the case of those desiring to be- 
 
2 8 
 
 come teachers in an academy Or a college. Any person, 
 no matter how uncultured or ill-bred or unlearned, who can 
 make terms with a board of trustees, may be put into one 
 of our academies as a teacher or even as its principal. 
 
 Hence I am ready to confess that, so far as legal restric- 
 tions are concerned, and so far as the canons of the profes- 
 sions themselves deal with the admission of new members, 
 there is no special encouragement given to general scholar- 
 ship. You, who have to-day received the diploma of this 
 college, as well as the long line which during this commence- 
 ment season is taking up its march from other colleges, must 
 enter on your professions on an even footing with those 
 who go from the log school-house or from the positions of 
 offtce or stable boy. 
 
 Well, are you afraid of such a competition? Is it for 
 you who have had these four years of mental discipline, and 
 have gathered in from professors and books these stores of 
 knowledge, and had your wits sharpened by daily inter- 
 course with men of culture; is it for you to shrink from a 
 trial of your powers with the unlettered youth who come 
 across the lots and enter the same field with you ? No, no, 
 you must not whimper and complain after this fashion ; 
 and I know you do not and will not. It is not rivalry and 
 competition which you need fear. The real grievance is 
 not a grievance personal to you. The harm done by the 
 lax and inadequate conditions of admission to professional 
 privileges consists in the demoralization of the profession 
 itself. If you wish to keep up a high standard in a college 
 society, you are careful as to the character of the men )^ou 
 admit. If the legal or medical or any other profession 
 wishes to stand well in the eyes of the community it must 
 guard its avenues of admission with jealous watchfulness. 
 Its members must think well of each other and well of 
 themselves if they wish to be thought well of. It is fatal 
 to this self-respect and fatal to the respect of others when 
 men without character, or culture, or fitness find easy access 
 to its honored prerogatives. 
 
After all it is not the members of the professions who 
 have the greatest reason to complain of this low standard 
 of culture and ability. The injury falls upon the public, 
 for whose service and benefit they have been established. 
 An engineer is employed to build a bridge. He is ignorant 
 and incompetent, and some day his bridge gives way under 
 a load of precious lives, which are sacrificed to the insuffi- 
 cient regulations as to the qualifications of engineers. 
 
 The other day a boy in Batavia died under the influence of 
 a hypodermic injection of morphine, given by a regularly 
 authorized medical practitioner. He was an ignorant coun- 
 try doctor, who not long before had been a hostler and 
 taken some short road into the profession, and had given 
 the boy an overdose of the drug. 
 
 A rich man wishes to place in his will a large benefaction 
 for a great educational or charitable institution. He employs 
 a cheap lawyer to draw his will, and his intended benefac- 
 tion is lost in unsuccessful litigation. 
 
 How are we to be protected against such fatalities and 
 misfortunes? I mean we who belong to the plain people 
 and are neither lawyers, nor doctors, nor engineers. I can- 
 not tell whether this bridge will carry me over; it seems 
 to my untutored eye strong and safe enough. The doctor, 
 with his new diploma and his mysterious bottles and mystic 
 prescriptions, seems to the common people among whom 
 he practices a miracle of learning. How are they to know 
 that he is an ignoramus or a quack? Think of the in- 
 justice and absolute cruelty of giving the authority of law to 
 the pretensions of such a man, and sending him out among 
 these simple and trustful people, to be admitted to their 
 homes, to be entrusted with the interests of life and health 
 and to stand by them in their moments of weakness and 
 agony ! It makes me indignant when I recount to myself 
 the wickedness and criminal negligence which are involved 
 in the present system of regulating these privileged profes- 
 sions. The State owes it to itself, and especially educated 
 men owe it to the State, to bring about a reform. 
 
30 
 
 For what purpose have these professions been estabHshed 
 and clothed with special privileges? Is it not that the. pub- 
 lic may be benefited by having at their call men in whom 
 they can confide? The legal profession, according to the 
 theory of all judicial systems, is a branch of the -court, 
 and is expected to give its aid in the administration of 
 justice. Are the men that are admitted to the profession 
 in the State of New York under the present lax and in- 
 suflicient regulations, even according to the most charitable 
 view, qualified for this high privilege? They are admitted 
 within the bar and sit as supporters of the judge, and 
 are authorized to take part in the august proceedings 
 of the court. But is it not too often true that they are in 
 no sense a support to justice, and neither in character, nor 
 education, nor manners fitted to discountenance crime and 
 add dignit}^ to the forms of law? We set apart a class 
 of men to whom we grant a monopoly of the healing art. 
 We say to them : You are entrusted with a great duty, and 
 in order that you may be protected in its performance and 
 have the motive and ambition to prepare yourselves for it, 
 we confer on you an exclusive right to practice medicine. 
 Have we no right in return for this franchise to demand 
 that those who receive it shall prepare themselves fully and 
 adequately? Why should not the laws of New York, like 
 the laws of every civilized country in the world, require 
 those desiring to enter these privileged professions to make 
 proof before some State board of their ability to perform the 
 duties pertaining to them ? And is it not reasonable that this 
 preparation shall include not merely a familiarity with the 
 routine duties of these professions, but an equipment of 
 general knowledge and intellectual capabilities which will fit 
 them to meet every emergency of their careers ? It is the very 
 least that ought to be demanded of the candidates for pro- 
 fessional privileges, that they shall have secured a college 
 diploma before entering upon professional studies. There 
 is no hardship or injustice in exacting such a requirement. 
 There are in the State of New York twenty- two colleges 
 
31 
 
 which confer the degree of bachelor of arts. They are 
 open to every young man, rich or poor, high or low, who 
 has the ambition to seek an education. They furnish this 
 education at a price so far below its cost that in most cases 
 it amounts to a gratuity. They offer to the young man 
 who comes to them the use of their libraries, their apparatus, 
 their buildings and grounds, and the services of the most 
 learned and eminent instructors, and all this for an annual 
 sum less than would be needed to board a horse at livery or 
 keep a smoker in cigars. Furthermore, it is a real service 
 which we render a young man to compel him to take the 
 time for adequate preparation before entering his profes- 
 sion. He is himself not aware until it is too late of the dis- 
 advantage under which, without this preparation, he must 
 labor through life. It was Milton who said that it is better 
 to enter late on life than to enter unprepared. In the mere 
 matter of saving time it is more economical to use the early 
 years of life in making ready for our duties in advance than 
 to undertake these duties prematurely and endeavor to pre- 
 pare for them afterwards. Many a young man who has felt 
 that it is a hardship to postpone for a single month his 
 admission to the bar or his licensure as a doctor, finds that in 
 the intervals of waiting for clients or patients he has abun- 
 dance of time to have gone through college. 
 
 There is only one remedy for this deplorable condition 
 of things, — a remedy which every well-governed State must 
 sooner or later discover and apply. This consists in amend- 
 ing the system of licensing those entering the professions 
 so as to insure the public against the intrusion of incom- 
 petent persons. The first and simplest step would be to 
 require a college education as a preliminary to entering 
 upon professional studies. The second step would be to 
 insist upon the right and prerogative of the State to license 
 those who are to be entrusted with special professional priv- 
 ileges. This license should be issued upon due proof, by 
 examination or otherwise, of the adequate education and 
 training of the candidate. 
 
32 
 
 I need not point out that such a system would have an 
 immediate and wholesome effect, not only on the professions 
 in their relations to the community, but on the colleges in their 
 relations to the professions. The college would then be fully 
 invested with its most important and beneficent function. 
 It would be, as by its organization and system of studies it 
 is fitted to be, the recognized avenue of access to the 
 learned professions. It would become the necessary instead 
 of the optional and incidental resort of all those preparing 
 for professional careers. 
 
LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 
 
 019 615 869 8*