It is pleasant to see that the spirit of fierce rivalry that once prevailed among many of the colleges of this country is fast dying out, and is giving way to a more just spirit of courtesy and friendly emulation. The obliteration of all differences of method is an end not at all to be desired, but the establishment of a firmer basis of agreement among all rival colleges cannot but result in good. There are one or two outcomes of the ordinary growth and experience of college faculties towards which all are tending; and one of these is the elective system, in some form or other.

But, still, notwithstanding the substantial accord of spirit towards which all are tending, we cannot admit, as some of our Western friends would seem to wish to have us do, that the difference in degree in the comparative amount of instruction in the regular course of the larger universities, as Yale, the University of Michigan and Harvard, and in the smaller colleges of the West, is really inconsiderable. Each class works its own work, but it is mere pretence to claim that the work of both is equal. The mere statement of courses catalogued, of authors read and of subjects treated, is often deceptive and is no criterion. The real difference, indeed, is so great between the actual extent of true education performed at either place, that, as we have said, the preparatory course for e. g. Harvard, taken in connection with the work of the freshman year, is a just equivalent to the entire course of many of the smaller Western colleges. But when this fact is admitted work in harmony by all becomes a pleasant and an admirable thing.