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LANGUAGE STUDIES IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS. 201 
parity between preparation for scientific studies and the extensive field 
opened up to students on entering college, a disparity that amounts not 
-0 what is humorously called a college fit,” but to a most distinct misfit 
_this disparity, I say, that existed twenty years ago, has not yet been 
~emoved ; for while it is true that schools that pretend to give a boy a 
;horough preparation for college, a preparation that enables him to do the 
aigher work with ease and profit—while such schools have undoubtedly 
made large additions to their courses of study in the sciences, still the 
colleges and universities have vastly developed the area covered by them 
'n these subjects. So that in reality the gap between the amount of 
science done in secondary schools and colleges to-day is as great as that 
vhich existed twenty years ago. 
The point urged is this, that in view of the extension of the elective 
system in the higher institutions, and the remarkable development that 
as been made and must continue in nature studies, the secondary school 
cannot be regarded a preparatory school unless it fits its pupils to enjoy 
-he large privileges offered to them in the sciences by the elective system 
as it now holds in college and university. 
Preparation for the elective system, then, makes necessary a consider- 
able development of scientific rather than language study in the second- 
ary school. Language studies, the humanities, never to be discarded or 
ignored, have long held preéminent position in the curriculum of the 
schools. The enormous stimulus that all departments of knowledge have 
-eceived in this century has been felt most sensibly in the sciences, not 
only vastly extending the range of human knowledge, but revolutionizing 
methods of study in all departments. 
The elective system, while greatly enlarging the lines along which 
men may push study and investigation, points for any one student in the 
direction of specialization. Specialization means centralization, the focus- 
‘ng and massing of the powers of the mind to the prosecution of mental 
work for which a man has special aptitude. It means to “note well 
wherein kind nature meant us to excel,” and when we have caught the 
plain hint from nature, to call into operation all resources to develop 
this taste and follow this bent. It is the logical expansion, under the 
great increase of knowledge in these last days, of the wige dictum of 
Ascham : ‘“ Small area well cultivated.” 
Again, a wisely ordered scheme of study will inevitably apply a divin- 
ng rod to the untouched and unsuspected mental resources of a pupil, 
secause it will be inclusive, and from its very breadth will lie tangent to a 
greater variety of types of mind. 
This is not the folly of saying that any one course of study will create 
brains where none exist, or touch gross stupidity and warm it into mental 
life and activity. But it is the experience of every teacher that many 
a pupil’s mind has lain barren and unproductive, though the virgin soil