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to original research. And yet, perhaps, to an outsider, fond of old. fashioned methods of recitation, these classes would have appeared better than the first class. They did harder work, but it was less spontaneous and less scientific. The fault was a fault of method.

"With the senior class the topical method was tried with marked success. With text-books on modern history as a guide for the whole class, the plan was followed out of assigning to individuals subjects with references for private reading and for an oral report of about fifteen minutes' length. The class took notes on these reports or informal student-lectures as faithfully as on the extended remarks and more formal lectures of the instructor. This system of making a class lecture to itself is, of course, very unequal in its immediate results, and sometimes unsatisfactory; but, as a system of individual training for advanced pupils, it is valuable as a means both of culture and of discipline. Contrast the good to the individual student of any amount of mere text-book memorizing or idle note-taking with the positive culture and wide acquaintance with books, derived in ten wecks from such a range of reading as is indicated in the following bonâ fide report by one member of the senior class (1879), who afterwards was a special student of history for two years in the "Annex" at Harvard College, and who in 1881 returned to Smith College for her degree of Ph. D. First are given the subjects assigned to this young woman for study, and the reading done by her in prepa ration for report to the class; and then is given the list of her general reading in connection with the class-work of the term. Other members of the class had other subjects and similar reports:

1.-SUBJECTS FOR RESEARCH.

"1. Anselm and Roscellinus.

Milman's Latin Christianity. Vol. IV, pp. 190-225.
Ueberweg's History of Philosophy, Vol. I, pp. 271-385.

"2. Platonic Academy at Florence.

Roscoe's Life of Lorenzo di Medici, Vol. I, p. 30 et seq.

Burckhardt's Renaissance, Vol. I.

Villari's Machiavelli, Vol. i, p. 205 et seq.

"3. Colet.

Seebohm's Oxford Reformers.

"4. Calvin.

Fisher's History of the Reformation (Calvin).

Spalding's History of the Reformation (Calvin).

D'Aubigné's History of the Reformation, Vol. I, book 2, chap. 7.

"5. Frederick the Great.

Macaulay's Essay on Frederick the Great.

Lowell's Essay on Frederick the Great.

Ency. Brit. Article on Frederick the Great.

Menzel's History of Germany (Frederick the Great).

Carlyle's Frederick the Great (parts of Vols. I, II, III).

"6. Results of the French Revolution.

French Revolution (Epoch Series).

II.-GENERAL READING.

"Roscoe's Life of Leo X (one-half of Vol. 1).

Mrs. Oliphant's Makers of Florence (on cathedral builders, Savonarola, a Private
Citizen, Michel Angelo).

Symonds' Renaissance (Savonarola).

Walter Pater's Renaissance (Leonardo da Vinci).

Hallam's Middle Ages (on Italian Republics).

Benvenuto Cellini's Autobiography (about one-half).
Burckhardt's Renaissance (nearly all).

Vasari's Lives of the Painters (da Vinci, Alberti).

Lowell's Essay on Dante.

Carlyle's Essay on Dante.

Trench's Medieval Church History (Great Councils of the West, Huss and Bohe

mia, Eve of the Reformation).

Fisher's History of the Reformation (Luther).

White's Eighteen Christian Centuries (16th).

Macaulay's Essay on Ranke's History of the Popes.

Lecky's European Morals (last chapter).

Seebohm's Era of the Protestant Revolution.

Froude's Short Studies on Great Subjects (studies on the times of Erasmus and Luther, the Dissolution of the Monasteries).

Spalding's History of the Reformation (chapter on Luther).

Carlyle's Essay on Luther and Knox.

Hosmer's German Literature (chapters on Luther, Thirty Years' War, Minne

singers and Mastersingers).

Gardiner's Thirty Years' War.

Morris's Age of Anne.

George Eliot's Romola (about one-half).
Hawthorne's Marble Faun (parts).

"It is but fair to say in reference to this vast amount of reading that it represents the chief work done by the above-mentioned young lady during the summer term, for her class exercises were mainly lectures requiring little outside study. The list will serve not merely as ant illustration of senior work in history at Smith College, but also as an excellent guide for a course of private reading on the Renaissance and Reformation. No more interesting or profitable course can be followed than a study of the Beginnings of Modern History. With Symonds' works on the Renaissance in Italy, Burckhardt's Civilization of the Period of the Renaissance (English translation), and Seebohm's Era of the Protestant Revolution (Epoch series) for guide-books, a college instructor can indicate to his pupils lines of special investigation more grateful than text-book 'cramming,' more inspiring thau lectures or dictations. The latter, though good to a certain extent, become deadening to a class when its members are no longer stimulated to original research, but sink back in passive reliance upon the authority of the lecturer. That method of teaching history which converts bright young pupils into note-taking machines is a bad method. It is the construction of a poor text-book at the expense of much valuable time and youthful energy. Goethe satirized this, the fault of German academic instruction, in Mephistopheles' counsel to the student, who is advised

to study well his notes, in order to see that the professor says nothing which he has not said already:

"Damit ihr nachher besser seht,

Dass er nichts sagt, als was im Buche steht;
Doch euch des Schreibens ja befleisst,

Als dictirt' euch der Heilig' Geist!

"The simple-minded student assents to this counsel, and says it is a great comfort to have everything in black and white, so that he can carry it all home. But no scrap-book of facts can give wisdom, any more than a tank of water can form a running spring. It is, perhaps, of as much consequence to teach a young person how to study history as to teach him history itself.

"The above notes were written in the summer of 1879, and were pub. lished in October of that year, after the author's return to Baltimore. Subsequent experience at Smith College, in the spring terms of 1880 and 1881, when the lecturer's four years' partial connection with Smith College terminated, showed the necessity of a reference library for each class, the resources of the main collection in the reading-room having proved inadequate to the growing historical needs of the college. Instead of buying text-books, the members of each class, with the money which text-books would have cost, formed a library fund, from which a book committee purchased such standard works (often with duplicate copies) as the lecturer recommended. The class libraries were kept in places generally accessible; for example, in the front halls of the "cottage" dormitories. Each class had its own system of rules for library administration. Books that were in greatest demand could be kept out only one or two days. The amount of reading by special topics accomplished in this way in a single term was really most remarkable. Note-books with abstracts of daily work were kept, and finally handed in as a part of the term's examination. Oral examinations upon reading, pursued in connection with the lectures, were maintained through. out the term, and, at the close, a written examination upon the lectures and other required topics, together with a certain range of optional subjects, fairly tested the results of this voluntary method of historical study. The amount of knowledge acquired in this way would as much surpass the substance of any system of lectures or any mere text-book acquisitions as a class library of standard historians surpasses an individual teacher or any historical manual. This method of study is practicable in any high-school class of moderate size. If classes are generous, they will leave their libraries to successors, who can thus build up a collection for historical reference within the school itself, which will thus become a seminary of living science."

The present character of historical instruction at Smith College is thus described by Professor John B. Clark, who now represents a welldeveloped department of historical and political science:

"The course of instruction in history offered at Smith College extends through eight terms, requiring, during each term, about two hours a

week of work in the class-room, which implies about six hours per week of actual study. Of these subcourses three are now devoted to ancient history, one to mediæval, and four to modern. They are consecutively arranged, the freshmen beginning with Grecian History, and the seniors ending with the Recent History of Europe and the Political History of the United States.

"The method pursued involves the use of some text-books and of many books of reference; it depends, however, chiefly upon lectures, which extend throughout the course. Of the subcourses the first three are required of all students in the classical department, and the remainder are elective. Somewhat more of historical study is required of students pursuing the Literary course, and somewhat less of those pursuing the Scientific.

"In addition to the instruction given in the historical department itself, there are provided courses of lectures in the History of Art and of Literature, most of which are open to all the students. Lectures are also given, in the French language, on the Early History of France. By relying in part on the assistance thus afforded by supplementary courses, the instructor in General History is enabled to use the time' allotted to him mainly for the study of the political development of ancient and modern states. The chief aim is to enable the student to view intelligently the political events now taking place. To this end the time and labor devoted to specific periods increases as the end of the course is approached. Modern History is studied more minutely than Mediæval, and Recent History more minutely than the Early Modern. The culmination of the course, in so far as European History is concerned, consists in the study of the development of popular government in France, and of national unity in Germany and Italy.

"Although the most that can be done within the limits of a college course is to make a selection from the mass of materials embraced in general history, it is the aim of the instructor to incite the students to pursue courses of reading which, as carried out, to some extent before graduation, but more afterwards, may give a somewhat adequate knowledge of the events of the past and the tendencies of the present.

"The materials for historical work, though fairly adequate for what is attempted, are less ample than it is expected that they will be in the near future. An endowment, now amounting to $367,000, given to the city of Northampton by the late Judge Charles E. Forbes, will, in a short time, be available for the establishment of a public library, in addition to the one which the city now possesses. The library facilities upon which, in the meanwhile, the students depend consist of a reference library of somewhat over 5,000 volumes, belonging to the college, and a circulating library of about 21,000 volumes, belonging to the city. The books in these collections have been carefully selected, and are well adapted to the student's needs. They are constantly used, and have

afforded, if not facilities for original research, at least the means for attaiuing that insight into modern political events which it is the aim of the course to secure."

IV.

BRYN MAWR College.1

Bryn Mawr College, for women, was founded and richly endowed by a member of the Society of Friends, Dr. Joseph W. Taylor, of Burlington, New Jersey, who died in 1880. During the latter part of his life plans for the college were thoroughly discussed. He visited in person Smith, Vassar, and Wellesley, and endeavored to combine the best features of all three. The site of the proposed college was chosen at Bryn Mawr, a Welsh name meaning high land. It is a beautiful suburban region near Philadelphia, with which it is closely connected by the Pennsylvania Railroad. The place is in the world and yet not of it—an ideal position for all scholarship. Rural, yet metropolitan, Bryn Mawr is one of the happiest combinations. With the health and charm of country life it has the conveniences of a great town-libraries, museums, art, and social connections. It has a background of wealth and family clientage in Philadelphia, where the Society of Friends has always been influential.

Bryn Mawr, which was opened to students in 1885, adopted the "cottage-system" of Smith college, with all that could be learned from the more centralized life and administration of other institutions. It has borrowed its most striking academic features from the Johns Hopkins University, notably the "group system" of combining undergraduate studies. This system, to which Bryn Mawr first gave a felicitous name, promises to reconcile the new idea of electives with the old idea of a required course by opening up a variety of curricula, any one of which insures a liberal education and leads to the A. B. degree, while affording the candidate special training in a group of at least two congenial subjects, for example the two classics, history and political science, physics, and chemistry, mathematics and one of the classics. Whatever curriculum the candidate elects, he is bound to have two years of English studies, a knowledge of the modern languages, and a fair acquaintance with natural science, history, and philosophy, in addition to two years' special training in two major courses, which constitute the so-called "group." In this novel system there are required studies, in connection with an elected group, and a certain number of free electives. The whole system is one of remarkable elasticity, symmetry, and power.

1 Information on Bryn Mawr College may be found in the Proceedings of Conferences on Education in the Society of Friends, in 1880; in the addresses at the inauguration of Bryn Mawr College, 1885 (James Russell Lowell and President D. C. Gilman were among the speakers); in programmes of Bryn Mawr College; and Bryn Mawr College for Woman, an article by Miss Kitty M. Gage, A. M., published in Education, Septem ber, 1886.

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