COLLEGES, AMERICAN, have been organized mostly according to one general plan. A corporation, acting tinder a charter granted by the legislature, has control of the property, appoints the instructors, makes laws for the government of the institution, and confers degrees. In some colleges, the trustees fill the vacancies which occur in their body; in others, the state appoints some or all of the board; and in an increasing number, the alumni elect a certain part. In this country, the distinction between a college and a university has never been sharply drawn. Some of the youngest and smallest institu tions call themselves universities, and some of the oldest have out-grown the condition of the college, assuming the name of the university.
As a large number of American colleges were established with special reference to the training of young men for the Christian ministry, the course of study was naturally arranged in accordance with that design. A century ago the studies chiefly pursued were Latin, Greek, mathematics in limited measure, and, in larger proportion, logic, meta physics, rhetoric, and oratory. Theology received special attention during the latter part of the course. Towards the close of the last century, natural philosophy and astronomy began to be more thoroughly studied. Modern languages and physical and political science had hardly an assured place in the course until after the present century began. Towards the middle of the century, there was manifest an increasing dissatisfaction with the restricted course. Formerly there had been three distinctively marked professions—theol ogy, medicine, and law; but as new employments were developed, having the dignity and responsibility of professions, modifications in preparatory studies became necessary. To secure them, various methods were proposed. Some persons demanded that the course of study in existing colleges should be changed by dropping certain studies, so making room for those with new and higher claims; others desired that new studies should be added to the old, or that parallel courses should be established with liberty of choice between them; a third class believed that new institutions were required for the new studies. Much has been accomplished in all these directions except the first. No previously established college has abandoned the old course, and it is not probable that any one will. But very many have added to the old course elective studies which are submitted to the student's choice. Parallel courses, also, have been established. The old method aims first at securing mental development, culture, and discipline, which may afterwards be applied to the chosen course of life. The new makes immediate preparation for that course its first aim, and is satisfied to have mental discipline and culture as the incidental yet the assured result of the studies pursued. In most of the new institutions of the west, there are several courses of study, among which students are allowed their choice. The older colleges of the east, even the oldest, are impelled to follow in the same path. They have
all, for some time past, given a limited range of elective studies during the latter half of the course. In 1869, Harvard extended the liberty of choice through three out of the four years. The movement has beyond the Atlantic, even the university of Oxford, where the supremacy which Latin and Greek had maintained for centuries has been broken. In 1872, the statutes were amended so as to include mathematics, natural science, natural history, jurisprudence, and theology, among the subjects in which can didates for degrees may be examined, and to allow a wide range both in subjects and authors, on which the examination may be passed. The latitude of choice is even greater than in most American colleges.
Besides elective courses la a college, separate colleges have been established exclu sively for scientific and practical studies. Some of these are departments of existing colleges, e.g., the scientific schools iu Yale, Columbia, Princeton, and Lafayette colleges; and some are independent, e.g., the institute of technology, in Boston, and the Stevens institute at Iloboken, and the agricultural and industrial colleges endowed under the congressional grants of 1862. These changes are partly the result and partly the cause of the great development of physical science which marks the present generation. The science of matter, as distinct from the science of man and of mind, now importunately demands a high place in public Ngard. Yet the old science cannot be driven out. It has a sphere into which nothing can intrude. The greater the increase of material knowl edge, the more will mental and spiritual attainments ultimately be required. The wisest friends of metaphysical study, therefore, view with no disfavor the splendid augmenta tion of facilities for physical investigation.
Examinations at college, when designed as tests of comparative scholarship, are now, from the beginning of the course to the end, conducted in writing and by means of questions furnished alike to the whole class and at the same time. This method com mends itself by its fairness to every mind; yet "examination papers" are scarcely more than one generation old.
Separate colleges for the education of women have been established with great suc cess. But because of the inadequacy of these, at least in point of numbers, many persons are debating the .question—Shall not young women be admitted into the same institu tions and be taught in Alio Mine classes with yount men? On the affirmative side it is maintained that as the sexes are associated together in the employments of childhood and of mature life with safety and advantage, so may they be in acquiring their education. Those who take the negative side reply that this is the period during which their asso ciation together is attended with the greatest dangers, and is most in need of restrictions, which cannot, in general, be fully maintained during the exercises of college life.