Page:Essays on the Higher Education.djvu/27

 "liberal? education. In this country both these questions have generally been debated in a rather narrow way. The first has ordinarily been proposed as follows: How much of the college curriculum should be required, how much optional? The second has ordinarily been reduced to a strife over the point, whether Greek is necessary to be studied by every one who shall be entitled B.A. The limits of this paper do not, of course, permit me to elaborate and argue my opinion on either of these two questions. Nothing more than an intelligent and defensible opinion, appealing to probabilities in the light of past experience, can be gained upon such subjects of discussion. The purpose before me, however, makes it desirable that I should briefly state my opinion upon both these subjects.

The question as to the choice which the person under education shall have in the material and form of his education is one both of degrees and of expedients,—that is to say, it is a question as to how much such choice shall be allowed, and at what time it shall begin, as well as a question concerning the best means for guiding the choice and for taking the expression of it.

For the sake of convenience I will speak of the grades of education which may be secured at present in this country as four in number; these are, the primary, the secondary, the higher, and the university education, the last being understood to