not an informative agency," and the more emphasis placed upon the subject-matter itself, the less stimulus is awakened in the individual. The resulting knowledge is very apt to be cursory and to leave far less lasting impression than when the student has been obliged to gain it by herself from a text-book. A course covering a vast amount of ground does not begin to carry with it the force or give the mental training, which a less comprehensive one, demanding a more active response, offers.

Then, too, it is urged that a true scholarly spirit is made impossible by the routine of the recitation system, whereas the lecture method allows more free play in the student's habits of study. Undoubtedly there is some truth in this, and it is also true that the recitation system has a considerable drawback in not allowing opportunity for extensive research carried out according to the individual's pleasure. Thus, for example, in a literature course, it might be very interesting and profitable for a student to follow out an extensive line of reading in connection with certain aspects of the course, but this is utterly impossible when daily preparation within prescribed limits is required. One feels that the student ought not to be too closely "tied down" if she is to attain a scholarly ideal and undoubtedly the lecture offers one of the most pleasant modes of acquiring information. Yet as one of Harvard's professors has expressed it, "Research work, the study of seemingly unimportant and lifeless facts, is not only the very foundation of all truly vitalizing scholarship, but is at all times inseparable therefrom." This seems to imply that even drudgery has its place in the struggle for education, and that the scholarly mind is developed by it with more satisfactory results than by traversing the less rugged roads. If the fact is true, which was recently stated, that "not more than three students in ten go to college because they have a genuine and abiding interest in the pursuit of scholarship", it is evident that the remaining seven need a more or less constant application of incentive to make the four years bear fruit of any value, and that a freedom to roam where fancy may lead, would not carry these students very far in the pursuit of learning. Hence it seems that the definite methods insisted upon by the recitation system, are more likely to inculcate in the average student scholarly ideas than the somewhat lax method which is often compatible with a lecture system.

It is affirmed that the lecture represents the best which the

professor has to give and that with this tool, he can do the most for his students. According to this, the value of the course to the undergraduate would depend almost entirely upon the lecturer himself, and very little importance would be attached to the individual's work. A further difficulty is found when it is considered that the profit derived from the lecture is largely dependent upon the student's ability to take notes, and that these are apt to be very unsatisfactory in many cases, so that essential points are easily lost sight of when the time comes to study them. By this method the professor has no personal contact with those taking the course and what is even more important, he has almost no opportunity for passing criticism upon individual work, which is one of the most helpful results derived from the recitation system. In addition to this objection, the lecture by frequent repetition soon loses all its vitalizing power and becomes merely mechanical, which is not conducive to arousing much enthusiasm in the hearers. "The natural craving of every student for personality in teaching" is a direct appeal which the average lecturer is very apt to overlook, substituting in its stead pure information which could be gained. elsewhere with no loss to the student.

In returning to the two colleges, Radcliffe and Smith, it may be noticed that on the average the Radcliffe student carries a larger number of courses than her Smith friend. Allowing for differences of environment and other factors, the total amount of work done strikes a closer average. This would seem to show that more work on the part of the student in the separate courses is required by the recitation system than by the lecture system and that the study is therefore more thorough. This tendency to attempt too many branches of study is a harmful one and its outcome is a "dissipation of energy and distraction of attention." Concentration on fewer subjects is more likely to lead to results which will wear well in the future.

As has been stated, the worst features of the lecture system appear at the time of examinations. "Cramming" is encouraged since it yields far more satisfactory results in meeting the demands of the average Radcliffe examination than of a Smith one. In the case of the former the effect of the examination is intensified by the marking system. Related to this more closely perhaps, yet showing too, the strain which accompanies an examination where the whole semester's work is at stake, might

be stated the case of a Radcliffe girl last year who although usually maintaining a high standing, received a low mark in one of the June examinations as the result of a poor physical condition. Hysterics followed the news of the mark and by making the most of this the professor was finally induced to raise the mark. Such a thing is impossible at Smith on the face of it, since there is no striving for "marks", and the unhealthy atmosphere created by the examination period under such conditions cannot be a benefit to any college.

Again, the inadequacy of the lecture to supply reliable material to meet the demands of the student at the time of examination is proved by the important position occupied by "printed notes" and other more or less legitimate means. At Radcliffe, to be sure, these do not begin to play the part that they do at the men's colleges, yet the want of something definite, such as a text-book would offer which had been discussed in class with the professor, is strongly felt.

Of course opinions differ and many would regard the recitation system as adapted only to the secondary schools, and yet there is a wide-spread feeling that in many cases the lecture fails to attain the best results. Professor French states that "mere pouring out of facts, however important, and principles, however sublime, upon the devoted heads of our students will not teach them to think. There is no way to learn to think but by thinking." Hence the system which demands the most thought from the individual is calculated to be the most helpful, and just as far as the recitation method seems to call for more personal attention and emphasizes individual opinions, in so far it seems superior.

The strongest advocates for the lecture system emphasize, as is natural, its somewhat ideal phases. For example, Professor Pratt of Worcester says of the lecture, "Its province is not so much to impart knowledge as to inculcate methods by which knowledge may be gained-methods of observation and interpretation, and methods in the use of literature." But cannot this be done by the professor even better, when practically all the subject-matter is acquired by the student, and his sole duty is to have a careful oversight of this, to guard against misinterpretations, and by criticism to stimulate the student to exert her individual powers to the utmost? This is one of the aims of the recitation system, "to change the student from the

merely receptive attitude of the lecture room to an active attitude of mind."

A combination of the two methods is strongly advocated by Professor French, yet the balance of weight is usually given to one side or the other. "Students taught chiefly by lecture become effectively trained in but one subject-the passing of examinations." This is certainly not the aim of the college education in its highest sense, and yet if by "recitation" is meant "a mere recital of things diligently garnered from the pages of a text-book", it is to be doubted if the results would be any more satisfactory. Much is left for the professor, but the main thing is the response of the individual student, which the recitation system not only desires, as does the lecture system, but also demands.

The tendency toward the lecture method is undoubtedly increasing in the universities of to-day, but in the college, especially for women, where thoroughness and at the same time breadth of view is desired, the recitation still holds its own. The lecture in advanced work is a very different thing from what it is for the average undergraduate, whose needs are necessarily of a less specialized order. "Mental training", that old by-word which has followed us since our childhood days. still remains a feature in the college, whose business it is to "train men rather than specialists", as it has been expressed. The latter are the offsprings of the university, which has methods of its own to pursue, but let the college still continue to emphasize the "expression" of the individual as well as the "impression", that education in its highest and broadest sense may be attained.

MARGUERITE ELIZA EMERSON.

A SPRING SONG

Clear through the odorous night of spring

The white road runs glimmering straight and long.
Hawthorn branches their fragrance fling,

Apple-tree blossoms are sweet and strong.
Strong rings our song along the way.
What is life but a night in May!

Scattering foam flecks along the way,
The joyous white stars go rioting,
Riding in state, though elate as they,

The moon hears the vehement planets sing,
Sing as we, singing, swing along,
What is life but a song of song!

ALICE MORGAN WRIGHT.

ADEIRAN AND THE Lord of the counTRY OF THE YOUNG

(Done after the fashion of the Irish)

It was I, Adeiran, the son of Adeiran, who had been wandering to be away from the sorrow of living that came upon me in my own land; and I went down a rude hill and forded a fast river, and I was suddenly in the Country of the Young, where the grass is not brown on the moors and the streams are not dry in their beds, and if on the roads you meet a man or a woman with a wrinkled face, you may know that it is no Christian soul before you, but one of the Strange People going masking.

On the green slope of a hill I saw an apple-tree, a tree in blossom, full of red and white pleasant flowers; and beneath it in the grass I saw a young man lying and asleep, and he was the goodliest young man that the eyes of earth have ever seen. Then I, being drowsy with journeying, and with the rising of the day across the roof of the sky, laid myself in the grass on the other side of the tree from him, and slept soundly there,