There has recently been published a complaint from some of the colleges in the South and West concerning the low standing of the preparatory schools to which they are compelled to look for students. The low standard of scholarship which is maintained in many of the preparatory schools in the Southwest prevents the colleges which receive their pupils from demanding as a requisite for admission any very advanced course of study. And yet the true cause of the inability of Western colleges to compete in scholarship with the colleges of the East, cannot fairly be ascribed to the low standard of scholarship in the preparatory schools. If Western colleges could for awhile forget their more immediate interests in a higher consideration of the future; if they could, ignoring the present, look to the future for the reward of a progressive advance in their curricula; if, neglecting the standards of the preparatory schools, they would demand a higher order of work for admission to their doors, and by so doing force the preparatory schools to elevate the character of their work, we would hear less comparisons between our various colleges and find that the work of all more nearly approached the standard of the ideal university.