and adopted here. In the other parts of the buildings we found that twice daily every bath-room, slop-hopper and waste-pipe is carefully disinfected by different chemical agents. Ozone generators were distributed through the class-rooms, hospitals and other rooms where there is any possibility of bad odors. But, best of all, the pure bracing air blowing over the hills and the lake, is brought into the basement through thirty freshair ducts to be heated and conveyed through the building in a constant and abundant flow. It is estimated that the annual extra expense which is incurred for ventilation is $2,000; but this is more than repaid in the health and comfort of the inmates.

If we had space we should be glad to describe fully the minute attention which is paid to everything that concerns the girls' health. Every day they are required to exercise an hour in the open air, if the weather is good. Practical hygiene is taught constantly and thoroughly. A resident physician gives all her time to the care of their health, a trained nurse acting as her assistant. A gymnastic teacher instructs in the modern scientific gymnastics. A teacher of elocution gives her whole time to instruction in vocal gymnastics and elocution. The girls are taught how to breathe (and very few people know how to breathe properly), how to walk gracefully, -in a word, everything that concerns health, dress, carriage and manners is taught with patient assiduity.

It is noteworthy that, in the College calendar, the Trustees announce plainly that they will receive none but healthy girls into the College. They will not waste their privileges upon those who have not the good sense to take care of their health,~ and they insist upon preparation in this respect from students who come to Wellesley, as much as in Mathematics, or Latin.

Every educator will appreciate the paramount importance of these precautions. Every physician knows the delicate health of American girls. But there is no prejudice so unreasonable as the popular clamor that hard study injures their health. They are right at Wellesley when they say that "the delicate health of school-girls is not caused by hard study. It is, in most cases, due to continual violation of the plain laws of nature as to fresh air by night and day; simple and nourishing food at regular hours; daily exercise in the open air; sufficient sleep, and suitable dress. Hard study, properly directed and regulated, strengthens the body as well as the mind."

We have not space for a full description of the building. It contains apartments for three hundred and thirty students and thirty teachers. There is a spacious chapel, that will accommodate eight hundred persons. The dining-hall seats three hundred and seventy. There is a large gymnasium, an art gallery, a library, a reading-room, a ladies' drawing room, recitation-rooms, laboratories, music-rooms, a large cabinet of collections in Natural History, a hall for the students' societies, and extensive trunk-rooms. There are bath-rooms in every story. A steam-elevator is running at all times for the students' use. The building is heated by steam. The College gas-works supply the gas for the building. Pure water is drawn from an inexhaustible artesian well. The girls generally live in pairs, having a parlor and bedroom for the two. The rooms are furnished with handsome black walnut furniture, and all of them are carpeted. The rooms are all lighted with gas, but the students are also furnished with German student-lamps, to use in reading and studying, the gas giving additional light and cheerfulness to the apartments.

We must not omit to notice that the building is one great Art Gallery. The halls are decorated with statues, busts, pictures and engravings. The design is that the students shall live among these treasures of art, and receive the education and culture of their constant presence. There are many models, pictures and busts in the Art Gallery; but the most valuable are placed in the halls where the girls are always passing to and fro, and thus by their silent teachings mold and influence their impressible young lives.

PLANS OF EDUCATION.

The founders of Wellesley College have shown great wisdom in their choice of Trustees. They have called to their assistance representative educators from the great institutions which are most accessible. President Porter, the distinguished head of Yale College, is the President of the Board of Trustees, and with him are associated presidents and professors of other institutions of learning in New York and the New England States.

It was apparent to these gentlemen that if the College was to be practically useful, it must be planned to meet the wants of that class of American girls who intend to become teachers.

Indeed, the Trustees announce officially their opinion that this great movement for the higher education of women has had its origin, and must have its fulfillment, in the great army of over three hundred thousand female teachers who are to-day engaged in the education of the country. This may be considered as the germinal idea that influenced the general plans of education. The main result which they desire to accomplish is to educate teachers worthy of the highest positions; to instruct them by example and precept in the best modern methods of teaching; to train them thoroughly in studies most valuable in their chosen profession.

It was also evident that in order to accomplish this design the College must have a rounded and complete development, in general accord with the principles that regulate our older colleges, but with wide divergencies to meet the wants of womanhood. Sweeping and intelligent reforms were necessary in regard to health, and the government and discipline were to be so arranged that the characters of the girls would be shaped and molded in the formative years, when the mind receives its life impressions.

The educators and teachers who have made Wellesley what it is, have from the beginning been very positive in their determination not to follow tamely the old model of boys' colleges, but to make it emphatically a college for girls. The purpose has been steadfast, not only to give ultimately a higher and a broader culture than can be obtained in most colleges, but to make all the plans original; not to fashion woman's education to the standard of the old college courses, but make the curriculum conform to the wants and peculiarities of woman's mind and character.

Connected with this purpose is the determination to cultivate the aesthetic side of woman's nature. Everything has been planned so as to encourage and educate that love of the beautiful which is so essential a part of woman's being, and to provide for the pure and wholesome development and education of the imagination.

The first step in carrying out these plans has been to create a college complete in all respects, according to the best modern standards, with its systematic collegiate courses, rounded culture and varied instruction. It has been shaped in accordance with the established principle, that the object of a college proper

is, not to educate finished specialists in any line of study, but to develop the minds of the students by a systematic, well-proportioned curriculum, and to prepare them to become specialists in future post-graduate studies. But, while this is the first step in the development, there are wider aims beyond. It is designed that Wellesley shall eventually expand into a university, with more comprehensive views, and a much wider field of action. This intention has had its strong influence in shaping the courses of study, and should be understood by educators who are studying its progress. We may characterize the curriculum as a college course, with strong tendencies toward the special studies of a university. This intention has also been the occasion of some of the peculiarities in the methods of instruction, that are already producing such good results, and interest all who have watched the actual workings of the College life.

The rule of action, which has been the most influential factor in giving shape to this new College, is the adoption, in its widest application, of the great modern idea of object-teaching, or instruction by natural methods. The young must be first taught to observe accurately; then to reason correctly upon the results of their observations; and, finally, to reproduce their results and reasonings, and in their own language. In a word, to become observers, reasoners and producers.

Another position of great moment is the positive, and, as it seems to us, wise course that has been taken in regard to elective studies. Harvard takes the lead in the controversy which is going on in college circles upon this question, and allows its students the widest range of elective studies. Many of the other colleges vigorously oppose this course, and insist upon the ancient method, viz.: that all their students shall pursue the same studies and conform to the same course. At Wellesley they have taken, from the beginning, the middle ground, which seems to be the just one; that is, to allow elective courses of study, but to keep the control, at all times, in the hands of the Faculty. Students who desire to fit themselves for special positions, or develop their talents in any particular direction, are allowed the choice of suitable studies, provided the choice seems to be reasonable and wise, and the previous education of the student has been such as to justify it. But it is the rule that the studies must be connected, the elected course harmonious,

and the subjects selected not from caprice or because they are easy, but for substantial reasons. Indeed, it may as well be said here that an "easy" course at Wellesley is utterly out of the question. No girl who is not a good scholar and of good capacity should think of going there. It is a place for hard, honest, thorough work.

It is significant that in the growth of the College they have arrived at results which were not contemplated at the outset. We were informed that originally the Trustees had some misgivings, at least, with regard to the success of girls in the higher mathematics and in some of the sciences. It had been asserted so long that the mind of woman was not adapted to the study of the higher mathematics and the exact sciences, that many of the strongest advocates for the rights of women had their doubts and fears. All these doubts vanished during the first year, and now, perhaps, it is not too much to say that the progress of the students in the natural, physical and mathematical sciences, is the pride of the College.

This strong tendency toward the pursuit of scientific studies is one of the marked features that even the most superficial observer must notice at Wellesley; and as we lead our readers from class to class, and from one department to another, this should be kept in view. It is fortunate for the College that these are the preponderating influences. Those who observe the signs of the times, do not fail to notice this strong tendency toward scientific studies all over the world. There is an increasing demand for some positive and practical instruction in the lower, as well as the higher schools. Parents require that their children shall be taught, at least, the elements of natural science. Educators are grappling with this difficult problem, and it is easy to be seen, that if Wellesley is to furnish the future teachers in the higher departments of instruction, they must be thoroughly trained in the sciences. In carrying out these plans the rule has been kept constantly in view that thoroughness is the first essential in education.

INSTRUCTION IN LATIN AND GREEK.

The classes in Latin and Greek exhibit the same thoroughness and the same enthusiasm which we noticed everywhere. Great prominence is given to these studies. The various exercises are