An interesting phase of the elective system was suggested by the casual remarks of one of our professors recently. The remark was to the effect that there was too great a tendency to choose the "practical" courses in the curriculum; that men were thus in danger of losing the peculiar benefit which a college education is supposed to impart. Considering the fact that the slurs of the country press are aimed at a supposed tendency towards the choice of Fine Art, Natural History, Spanish and Italian courses, the leaning towards the other extreme is worthy of comment. This is a phase of the subject which deserves more attention than it has ever received, and one which possesses the uncommon property of furnishing an argument on each side of the elective question. To those who think that a college education is only for putting on the finishing touches and gilding with belles lettres or polishing off with an essence of dilettanteism, such a tendency must cause the utmost consternation. On the other hand, those who hold that the education obtained here should be of the greatest possible benefit in our business or professional life will have an argument equally strong, for it is true that most men prefer to study things useful rather than purely ornamental.