in Northern colleges. There is, however, an earnest effort making by the best universities and colleges in the South, to improve the standard of education, not only by requiring more thorough scholarship on the part of candidates for degrees, but also by broadening and elevating the courses of study leading to degrees. That these courses-pursued in many cases by pupils of irregular and inferior preparation—are so crowded with studies as to aggravate the evil of cramming and leave but little time, even to the best students, to acquire literary taste and culture, is generally recognized by thoughtful teachers as a defect that must be remedied. There is, also, a growing tendency towards uniform methods in the work of higher education, and this tendency is likely to receive impulse from the gradual improvement of the public school system throughout the Southern States. Sooner or later there must be a more intimate connection between the public high schools and the colleges. Another decided gain is noticeable in the higher attainments required of the professors in our best colleges, and the increasing number of graduates of Southern schools who seek the best university advantages offered in this country and in Europe. This means that a higher degree of literary culture is to prevail at many of our seats of learning. A few words in conclusion. To discuss with any degree of satisfaction a subject so comprehensive as that presented in this paper, one should have ample time for study and comparison. It has been impossible for me to discuss all important points; and I am sensible that the task assigned me has been imperfectly performed. It is too much to expect that what has been said will meet the views of all parties. A Southern man by birth and education, I know very well how sensitive many persons are on questions involving a comparison of the North and the South. My life has been spent among Southern people, and since my graduation— fifteen years ago—has been given to the service of my alma mater; and hence I know from long and anxious experience how to sympathize most fully with the people of the South in the losses of the war and in their subsequent struggles to improve and strengthen their educational institutions. It would have been a more agreeable task in this discussion to praise and please by magnifying what we have, and what we have done, in the South, and omitting any comparison that would show us at a disadvantage; but after careful study of the situation and extended observation in both sections, I am convinced that the best service a true son can render the South is to show what remains to be done, to point out imperfect methods, and to suggest plans for making needed improvements. I would not be understood as favoring the concentration of our higher institutions to the extent of having only a few great universities and a few large colleges. The small colleges are needed as well as the large A college may be small, and yet strong and useful in good honest nes. work; it may be large, and yet so weak as to be unworthy of being classed among colleges. The tendency of institutions to become more. expensive as they grow larger and richer, is a tendency that should be checked. The cost of attending some of our largest American institutions would prevent a majority of Southern college boys from enjoying the superior advantages offered. While readily granting that many colleges are needed in this great country and that new ones may be demanded by increasing population in the far West, one may still regret that in some states the number needed has been far exceeded, and that some of the newer states seem to profit so little by the experience of the older sections of the country. It is to be regretted, too, that in nearly every state it is so easy a matter to have any school chartered as a college, with power to confer degrees. The time has come when this whole subject should be fully and frankly discussed in all its bearings in the hope of bringing about a better state of things. The better class of colleges in a state or section should organize associations for the discussion of college work, the correction of evils, and the advancement of higher education. Such an organization exists in New England and another in Ohio; and similar associations throughout the country might produce good results in shaping public sentiment, if not in securing suitable legislation. |