THE further abolition of prescribed studies in the Sophomore and Junior years shows that the Faculty are steadily and surely moving forward to a purely elective system, which will make Harvard a real University. The steps taken towards this system have now proceeded so far, that to go on is an absolute necessity. But in order that there may be no need of taking any steps backward, the Faculty wisely "make haste slowly" in their reform. For this reason we have no fault to find that all the courses for the Freshman year are still prescribed. The reform will reach this class in due time. We believe, however, that it is an error to require a greater number of hours in the first year, - in studies, too, in which the student is deprived of a selection. There is good ground also for the complaint often heard respecting the severe requirements of the Freshman year in the various branches of Mathematics. These are so difficult that many students become discouraged and disgusted to such a degree that few electives in Mathematics are ever chosen. The result is that students are not so well educated in these most desirable branches, at the end of the college term, as they would have been had a more judicious method of instruction been employed. We do not appreciate the wisdom of making the Freshman the hardest year. The standing of a student at the end of the Freshman year is no criterion of what he can or will do in subsequent years, and if the course complained of is intended to weed out the poorest scholars of the class, it is a mistaken policy.