Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 62.djvu/266

260 in American fields; when one must be a 'scholar' in the incorrect sense of the grammar school to obtain a scholastic recognition which can not be earned by the slower self-denial and effort of the man who devotes his leisure from the earnest of life to broadening his own intellect and extending the limits of human knowledge—may we not well ask if the reaction against honorary degrees has not carried the colleges too far in the opposite direction?

The necessary regulation of study in præsentia may be applied with only literal alterations, to study in absentia. There can be the same supervision by a faculty committee, the same minima of time required after the receipt of the bachelor's degree, the same inspection of work or formal examination, the same insistence upon a thesis the same or even higher standard of originality, the same precaution against too great concentration, even the same fees unless the college prefers to guard against the superficial appearance of interested motives. The post-graduate student in præsentia is seldom held to a definite schedule of attendance; the student in absentia needs only an extension of the same courtesy, and he may be required to report in person at stated intervals. Evidence of adequate resources for the special kind of study undertaken may be required and this could be supplied, so far as museums, libraries, art galleries, laboratories, mechanical workshops, etc., are concerned, by nearly very resident of a large city, while there is scarcely a region of the entire country which does not offer opportunities for one or more kinds of scientific fieldwork, in which original investigation is urgently needed. A slightly less formal requirement in regard to the customary 'two minor' subjects of study, would probably be wise in most instances and more careful inquiry into the probity and reputation of the candidate would be necessary than in the case of the resident student who is under the immediate and almost constant observation of the faculty, but it would seem that these various modifications of the regulations of study in præsentia are feasible, without too great effort on the part of the college authorities.

In conclusion, the writer would again emphasize, as the main plea of this article, that the present custom of limiting the post-graduate degrees to students in præsentia, places the intellectual consumer on a higher basis than the producer while it has a corresponding tendency to lower the scholastic value of the titles which ought, par excellence, to represent the highest attainments of the broadest scholarship.