conceited “bluffs.” We believe that
college journalism could do no nobler
work .than advocate the abolishment of
these debasing customs of our colleges,
which so many would-be .young men
regard as the “essentials of college
life.”
THE elective system of education as
recently adopted by some of our
higher colleges is thoroughly in keeping
with the spirit of the times. Though
there is a long line of antagonists ar
rayed against it, we verily believe that
with the present tendency of the age it
will ultimately become the universal
system.
This age is pre-eminently a practi
cal one. Men who can apply as well as
explain theories are in greatest demand,
and the nearer our colleges come to the
fitting of their students for practical
work the more nearly will they comply
with the needs of the times. The
great majority of young men cannot
afford to attend college just for the
sake of “gaining a liberal education,’’and
indeed many who have been so favored
are so often found engaged in the hum
blest occupations as to frequently nli’ake
such attainment unadvisable..
The present system has no regard
whatever for individual differences. To
all are prescribed the same intellectual
regimen irrespective of its individual
effect. Students are not allowed to :
follow their own choice of studies but
THE FREE LANCE.
are confined to the prescriptions of the
curriculum. Knowing this the great
body of students enter college without
any other purpose than taking the pre
scribed course. Ask them what they
intend doing after completing the
course, and they cannot tell you. What
wonder then that we have so many
purposeless young men. Carlyle’s
answer to a young man at college,
whom he had queried as to his future
intentions, is very significant?- Says he,
“Young man, a man without a purpose
is like a ship without a rudder. Have
a purpose in life, be it but to kill and
dress an ox well.”
If a young man is allowed to
shape his own course, at least a
part of it, while at college, he will
do it with reference to some par
ticular end, and that end will inva
riably lie in the line of his natural qual
ifications, which fact in itself would
stimulate his every effort, for there are
few young men who would not be too
proud to be found wanting in the
course of their own choice. A college
faculty, therefore, should specify the.
amount of work rather than the kind of
work, a student should do.
In this age of invention and scien
tific research the field of human knowl
edge has become so extensive as to be
far beyond the survey of any one indi
vidual, and with each recurring year
man’s sphere of action is becoming more
and more specialized. The man who