The subject whether or not the great preparatory schools have been fitting men in a too advanced degree for the freshman class is one that has been attracting some little notice. Recently we noticed an article in one of the school papers commenting on this fact, and it seemed rather inclined to believe in the affirmative. This is by far the most natural supposition and we are inclined to think it the correct one for several reasons. These advanced fittings are aimed to cover a large part of the work of freshman year if not quite all, while it is very possible that the work could be better done here, yet the chances are that it would not be, and that the repetition would bring out but little of advantage to faithful students while it would work great harm to ordinary ones, by cultivating and fostering neglectful habits of work. To be sure there are certain advanced courses which a man can take if he pass off his freshman work in them, but these are not always taken. Bad habits of study formed in freshman year are very apt to extend all through the college, and anything which cultivates this tendency is not in any sense an advantage to the student. But more than this is the loss of comparatively a whole year and one too of the most importance in a man's life. Of course it must be admitted that it is most foolish for a student to be thrown into college so prepared that he can only struggle along with great difficulty. But it must be granted also that if a man is thoroughly prepared to take his entrance examinations, he can easily keep along with his class. If, however, it comes to a question of a man's working hard or working in fact not at all, we are heartily in favor of the former, What is wanted is a broader and more liberal education, and not the process of forcing a boy along with the only object in view of passing a good entrance examination. This would effectually remove any temptation to overfit and would result much better for both boy and college.