The last question is, "have our efforts in this direction increased the number of the ministers of the Gospel." Recourse is had to the statistics upon this point. It is found that there were nearly as many theological students in the seminaries of New England from 1830-34 as from 1845-49, and it is concluded that the tendency of this system of giving away an education is not to increase the number of clergymen.

We trust the clerical signers of this report will not think that we claim any originality for the suggestion, that it has been thought by very respectable authorities, that certain influences, usually denominated moral and religious, have somewhat to do with determining the choice of the clerical profession, and with the increase of the numbers in that profession. The writer recollects the fact that in a college class consisting of eighty-one members, at the beginning of the senior year, not more than five had any thought of studying for the ministry, whereas three years after their graduation, it was known that more than thirty had commenced theological studies.

We yield all deference to the calculations of political economists, and we believe that the principle of "supply and demand" holds good with reference to all matters to which it may properly be applied. But we do not believe that, given much or little money, the result will be more or fewer clergymen, any more than we believe in the rule, that given the old or the reformed colleges, the consequences will be seen in the diminution or the increase of the same class.

In view of the alleged failure in these three particulars, under the alleged-which in our view is entirely a fictitious-cause, that the funds were contributed, in order that tuition might be reduced and students might be increased, the report thus expresses the conclusion which it thinks justified by these premises.

"We are, therefore, forced to adopt the other supposition, that our colleges are not filled because we do not furnish the education desired by the people. We have constructed them upon the idea, that they are to be schools of preparation for the professions. Our customers, therefore, come from the smallest class of society; and the importance of the education which we furnish is not so universally acknowledged as formerly, even by this class. We have produced an article for which the demand is diminishing. We sell it at less than cost, and the deficiency is made up by charity. We give it away, and still the demand diminishes. Is it not time to inquire whether we can not furnish an article for which the demand will be, at least, somewhat more remunerative?-Report, p. 34.

In farther support of this view, a long extract is given from the report of the commissioners appointed in 1830 by the Crown, to examine the universities of Scotland. This report expresses decidedly and pointedly an unfavorable opinion of the influence of the bursaries in those universities. The commissioners say that these bursaries are too numerous, and bear so great a

proportion to the number of the really indigent, that they attract students to the university who have no fitness for the professions, by the simple hope of maintenance, and that the effect of so large a number of inferior scholars is to lower the standard of scholarship down to the capacities of inferior men.

All this may be true. When the funds in our colleges are large enough literally to pension and maintain students, as do the Scotch bursaries, and more numerous than there are worthy applicants, the extract will be appropriate. We would suggest that it be reserved for such an occasion.

We come now to the third head of inquiry, the consideration of the manner in which Brown University has been affected by the changes which have been taking place in collegiate education in New England.

We shall offer no extended remarks or criticism upon this part of the argument. If the Corporation of Brown University think that the college is suffering greatly from a diminution of students or for a want of funds, and think moreover that the only way to obtain more students and to earn more money, is to change the system it is no concern of ours. If they think, in mercantile phrase, that in order to do a larger business it is wise to do another kind of business, we shall not interfere. If they think that because there are too many colleges in New England, they will devote their buildings, and funds, &c., to an education that is not strictly collegiate, they must do as they think best. They may become an academy, a real school, a gymnasium and university, all in one, or they may add a department for instruction in any art or trade whatsoever, for this is a free country.

It is only when to justify themselves, they attack and depreciate the whole collegiate system, and respectfully yet really hold up all the colleges to popular prejudice and contempt, that we shall hold them accountable to show the reasons why, and shall take the liberty to criticise the reasons which they offer.

There is one point in this argument, however, which we can not comprehend. It is said that it would require an additional fund of $50,000 to enable the college to go on successfully and pay its expenses well. It is proposed to raise $125,000 to enable it to do a remunerative business, and become a "self-supporting institution." But with $50,000, on the old plan, it would pay its annual dues, only it would do it on the basis of $50,000 as capital. We can not see how the addition of $75,000 more to this capital is fitted to render it self-supporting, unless this is to be converted into scrip, to be repaid with interest after the new or self-supporting system shall have been in operation long enough to earn surplus profits. That however is not suggested. The scrip would constitute indeed a new kind of fancy stocks.

The next head of argument is "the measures which the committee recommend for the purpose of enlarging the usefulness of the institution."

These measures are briefly as follows: The fixed term of four years, or any other term, is to be abandoned, and every student is allowed to pursue as many or as few courses of study as he he may choose, subject to certain limitations. Every course of study, when once begun, is to be continued without interruption till it is completed. No student is to be admitted to a degree unless he shall sustain his examination, in all the studies required for the degree, but no student shall be under any obligation to proceed to a degree.

The advantages which it is expected will result from these alterations are the following: It will add to the number of students, because, 1. The course of instruction will, it is hoped, present a better preparation for the learned professions than that pursued at present. This class of pupils will not be diminished. 2. Those who wish to pursue a more generous course of professional education, can remain at college five or six years. 3. Many, who wish to enter the professions, are unwilling or unable to spend four years at college. This class would form an important addition to our numbers, and we should thus, in some degree, improve the education of a large portion of all the professions. 4. Most of the studies pursued in college, if well taught, would be attractive to young men preparing for any of the active departments of life. 5. Other students may be expected in these courses of study from those devoted to agriculture, chemistry, or science applied to the arts.

These expected consequences are all presented, it will be seen, in the form of reasons why the number of students will be increased under the new arrangement. This fact, of itself, disinclines us to discuss the merits of the new system. But, inasmuch as the old system is distinctly and positively depreciated. in the comparison, we hope it will not be deemed out of place to offer our own views upon the one as compared with the other.

We object to the new system, because it throws away the advantages which are peculiar to the college system and to a collegiate education. What is a college? A college, as its name imports, is a collection of students, who, from beginning to end, pursue together an appointed course of study. What are the peculiar advantages which result from an education at college? These do not result from the fact, that the student receives better instruction in one or all of the branches of science in which he might perfect himself, or that in one or all he makes greater attainments than he might under other circumstances. Under a private tutor, he might attain to very great eminence in every one of these studies, with the aid of his particular inspection and

constant drilling, he might, in the same time, become a more finished scholar in every branch of study. Nay, at an academy, or a high school he might go over the same ground, and apparently with greater thoroughness than many students do at college. Or, he might, in a large city, attach himself to different classes in different branches of study and selecting the best professor in each branch might derive very considerable advantages from the stimulus furnished by his associates. In this way his progress might be very rapid, and his attainments very great. But he will still lack the peculiar advantages of being educated in a community of youth, who start from the same point, are carried over the same ground and part at the same goal. The college system receives its inmates for the period of life when the habits, intellectual and moral, are formed. They are received when passing out of boyhood, they are discharged just as they begin to be men. They are not too old to receive new impressions with freshness, to enter upon new enterprises with excited ardor, and to submit themselves to unpleasant tasks with a dogged energy, and they are not so young as to forget the impressions which they receive, and to outgrow the habits which they acquire. During this most important and hopeful period of life, they are met by the same corps of instructors, each in his turn,-a corps numerous enough in a well-manned college, to prevent them from being formed after any one-sided and imperfect model, and to secure every desirable form of intellectual culture and excitement. Under the same course of study, from day to day, and from year to year, they watch the development of each other's minds, with observation sharpened by the keenest emulation to detect each other's failings, to take note of any striking improvement, and with feelings wakeful enough to be most deeply excited and instructed by all these various impressions. They meet each other, after each day, in chapel, at the place of recitation, on the play-ground, at one another's lodgings, and in various voluntary societies, for the noble strifes of excited intellects. Never afterwards in life, are they brought in so close and so long continued a contact with so many minds, under circumstances of so great interest. There is but one period of life when such excitement and such impressions are possible. Hence has it been in this country most extensively true that the discipline of college life is always remembered, that a wasted college life is always deplored, that college acquaintanceships are never forgotten, and that the college who does her duty to her sons, is regarded as the alma mater of their noblest life.

The course of study is, we believe on the whole, wisely selected, and best adapted to train men who shall be capable of thinking while they act, and of acting as they think. These are in the highest and most rational use of the word, practical

men, and the studies which train them, are practical studies. We know that in this report it is often asserted and more frequently implied, that our colleges were originally designed and are exclusively fitted to prepare men for the professions, which design it is more than once very confidently intimated, they do not realize so well as other institutions-so that if we are to believe this report, they are not very good, even for this object, and by consequence are very well fitted for no purpose whatever. The supposition in our view is wrong, that they were designed or are exclusively fitted for this object. They are fitted to train men for all the duties and offices of life, not in the special art or profession which is to occupy the chief attention of the life, but in that general culture which an education in a profession presupposes, and which a man without a profession preeminently requires, in order to be a truly practical man. For these reasons the course is not special in any department. It does not consist exclusively of Latin and Greek, for its aim is not primarily to train philologists, but to give to the mind familiarity with language, and thought as expressed by language, and in the way which long experience has proved to be the best practical training for this peculiar and most important instrument and accomplishment. Hence though the ancient languages may be disused and partially forgotten, their effects remain. It is not confined to the mathematics, for an exclusive education in the mathematics is a onesided and narrow education, while in their place the mathematics give a singular strength and discrimination to the mind, and above all, teach the habit of severe and consecutive application. Nor does it consist principally of the physical sciences. These sciences, grand and glorious as they are, can not be understood as sciences, by any mind that has not learned to reflect, and to apply itself severely to other subjects. If made familiar to a mind as yet immature, though they may in a sense be mastered, they are not comprehended as sciences, their grandest laws are reduced to facts for the memory, but are never principles for the reason. So far as they consist of facts, they can be learned from private study, by one who has a tact for them, and if the mind has been already trained, far better in the study or the laboratory, than when passively imbibed from the lips of a lecturer. To these are added logic and rhetoric, and the laws of the mind, and the principles of morals and politics, as furnishing the rules of thought and expression, with their application to sciences with which every thinking man is conversant, and on which every educated man must practically have principles, and know how to express and apply them.

These studies are imposed upon all the students, in tasks which are to be completed at stated intervals, and to the acquisition and recitation of which, the entire energies of the college community