the Divine wisdom of such prescriptions can justify them." Does not the President himself claim almost a superhuman infallibility when he straightway asserts: "Uniform prescriptions in secondary schools have been made impossible and absurd. We must absolutely give up the notion that any set of human beings, however wise and learned, can ever again construct and enforce on school children one uniform course of study."[1] Could any one, whether prophet or pope, speak with more certainty, than President Eliot does in this passage? How can uniform prescriptions be styled impossible and absurd, when they are exacted in whole countries, and not only among half-civilized Moslems, or "decaying" Latin races, but also in "Teutonic" States, for instance in Germany, a country which leads in scholarship and of late years has so rapidly advanced also in industrial and commercial enterprise, that it is considered a formidable rival of American industry and commerce? The absolute certainty with which President Eliot proclaims his views is all the more unwarranted if we compare them with what other distinguished scholars think on this subject.
We quoted before the words of Professor Russell of Columbia, that the experience of Germany can teach us much, especially that "a uniform course of study for all schools of a particular grade, and a common standard for promotion and graduation, can be made most serviceable in a national scheme of education."[2] Mr. Canfield, in his interesting book The College Student and his Problems, cautions the student in the following terms: "The more specialized your course,
