CHAELES W. ELIOT 181 ing the student's choice to the election of certain groups of subjects, each group being so balanced as to involve general culture and mental discipline as well as specialization. For some years the ^^ elective system" formed the chief sub- ject of discussion in college circles. Gradually, however, other colleges followed the lead of Harvard, and this system is now permanently established in nearly all institutions. It has even been extended to high schools, where, in spite of many abuses and much unintelligent application, it is being per- manently accepted. Thus students are no longer burdened with studies which have no bearing on their future work; they are no longer put through a uniform process without regard to their individual needs, but the training of each is being measurably adapted to his capabilities and to his probable career. Education, in short, is no longer regarded as some- thing invariable, to be imposed on the student from without, but is looked upon as a process of development from within and of preparation for future work. The Law School, as well as the College of Liberal Arts, underwent radical transformation under President Eliot's administration. Here the so-called ^^case system" was devel- oped. The old method of instruction in law consisted in teaching a great mass of principles and decisions, as though the law were something fixed by a superior power and the stu- dent's task were merely one of memory. The new system as- signs to the student certain typical cases to investigate just as the lawyers and the judges investigated them in the first instance. He is thus made to reason cases out, to decide them, and to justify his decision. In this manner he gradual- ly introduces himself to the general principles of the law; he masters, not some text-book which someone has written about the law, but the law itself. The **case system" is, in the high- est sense of the word, inductive. The extent to which it has been adopted elsewhere, as well as the fame and the large at- tendance of the Harvard Law School itself, shows the success whch has attended its development under the direction of President Eliot. The theological department has also undergone a notable
