It is universally conceded that a course to be successful must inspire men with a live interest in the subject it treats,-an interest sufficient to lead them to attend regularly and to devote to it at least a fair amount of work. The old method of conducting half courses, by which two lours of recitations per week were held throughout the entire year, was certainly a failure when viewed in this light. And in truth this was only a natural result. Aside from the lack of interest which was due to the intervale between the recitations, every man felt that such courses demanded more work from him than he was given credit for doing. It was openly acknowledged that two half-courses were far more than an equivalent to one full course, and yet in reality they were held to be equal, and could be substituted for each other. Naturally such a state of things proved most unsatisfactory, and some change was felt to be needed. Then the present system, by which a half course became a three hour course for half a year, was tried in some subjects, and this new method has been found to be entirely adequate to fulfill all the needs of such a course. It has been found that these new courses have succeeded admirably, both in arousing interest and stimulating work. While the ground, necessarily, is gone over more rapidly than by the old method, it is yet covered fully as thoroughly, while, what is of more importance, a real interest is kept up from the more frequent recitations. The amount of work done in them, we believe, fully equals that done by the old method. Moreover, when once the course is completed, the men are free to take similar courses which run to the end of the college year, and this is an obvious gain to the student of nearly three hours a week for half a year,-a very considerable item in a man's college career. Besides this, they supply the need of those who are willing to devote half a year to some special branch of a subject but are unable to assume the extra work that a half course for a whole year really meant, for the new courses only require one examination.

Such courses as these have now proved themselves in every sense a success, as, for instance, shown by History II. and Philosophy II. At the last lecture in Philosophy II., Prof. James expressed himself as greatly pleased with the new method by which the course was now conducted, both from the work accomplished and the interest manifested, and other similar statements show the same feeling among the faculty. With such precedents as these, it seems most advisable that the old method be done away with altogether and all the remaining half-courses brought into conformity with the new. When the work men do, and the interest they feel in a course are both increased, it indicates a great superiority in this new method, and it is a superiority that should be given due weight.