Students and graduates of the C. L. S. C. will examine with interest
and with much satisfaction the course of study for next year printed
in this number. It does not appeal to the jealousy but to the pride
of the alumnus to know that Alma Mater is providing better things for
the student of to-day than she did for him. Certainly the work of next
year is so constituted as to yield most satisfactory results. It is
neither too wide nor too narrow; neither too deep nor too shallow. It is
admirably arranged, embracing most important and attractive subjects, by
authors of highest qualifications for their work.
That which impresses us most is the scope and thoroughness of each
department. Let him who has imagined that this work is “smattering”
surface work, scrutinize the single department of Greek in next year’s
study. True, there are not four or six years of drill in translating the
language, but we do not hesitate to say that the student who _studies_
the works prescribed here will know more of the Greek life and thought
than the average graduate after his six years’ translating. He will also
be able to stand comparison with the latter in his acquaintance with the
Greek literature. Nor is this designed as a criticism of the work done by
the college, but as a word to that particular critic of the C. L. S. C.
In the department of science the titles of the text-books themselves
indicate that the C. L. S. C. is abreast of the times in repudiating
the absurd notion that science can be learned by the memorizing of
descriptions and definitions. Such titles as “Home Studies in Chemistry,”
“The Temperance Preachings of Science,” and “Studies in Kitchen Science
and Art,” bespeak the scientific method which requires the observation
and arrangement of facts and phenomena by the learner himself.
We are glad to note the liberal attention bestowed upon our English in
the curriculum of the coming year. “The Art of Speech,” by Dr. Townsend,
“Talks about Good English,” in THE CHAUTAUQUAN, and “Lessons in Every Day
Speech,” by Professor MacClintock, are a quantum of English quite beyond
the fashion of these times. No study has been so inexcusably neglected
by our schools of every grade. Just now there are signs of repentance in
some quarters. President Eliot of Harvard is pleading for its admission
to a place equal with Greek and Latin. If what should be will be, not
many years hence will witness it so.
Prominent also, as heretofore, is the aim to keep before the C. L. S.
C. both the moral and the religious. No one can read “The Character
of Jesus,” by Bushnell, without mental and moral profit, without the
awakening of a deeper homage of soul for the world’s Redeemer. Then there
is Mrs. Field’s work on that perplexing, every-day question, “How to
Help the Poor.” Bishop Hurst’s “History of the Reformation” is among
the very best works on that eventful period in church history. These
are to be supplemented by the continuance of those well-chosen Sunday
Readings in THE CHAUTAUQUAN. Beside these classified departments we are
promised a series of articles on miscellaneous subjects, such as Memory,
Self-Discipline, Thinking, Selection of Books, etc. Taken altogether, a
course of study for a year which, faithfully pursued, is an education
in itself. We predict for the C. L. S. C. a year of increased interest,
pleasure and profit.