Professor Ladd has written a strong statement of his side of the case in his controversy with Professor Palmer. The attendance at recitations, significant as it is of the use or abuse of Harvard's system, is not a criterion of the ultimate merits or defects of such a system. Professor Palmer shows that, on the whole, Harvard seniors had not abused the privilege extended to them, and thereby refuted the charge often made, that college students are not capable of governing themselves in attendance at recitations. Statistics of attendance at Harvard and Yale cannot be compared unless several facts are taken into account, which Professor Ladd has ignored. The marks of Yale students depend to a greater degree on regularity at lectures and recitations, than do the marks of Harvard students. The latter can cut lectures, and actually gain in standing thereby. Oftentimes a student is so pressed in one course with special work that he receives ultimate benefit by neglecting his other course for a day or two. A friend's notes or diligent reading can make the omission good. In these cases, non-attendance shows, not absence from the post of duty, but concentrated work in some other department. Again, the free elective system is not claimed to benefit everyone and anyone. There are some at Harvard who ought not to be here, who are positive drags on the college. Deduct the records of these men, who at other colleges would be compelled to make a good paper showing, and the average number of absences would be greatly reduced.

The fears that Professor Ladd expresses as to the results of the New Education, to one who is not predisposed to feel them, seem groundless. Is there a greater smattering and shallowness of study under the elective than under the prescribed system? The adherants of the latter have claimed again and again that the elective system tended, not to give a man a smattering knowledge of many subjects, but to make him one-sided by leading them into specialties. The causes for the change from the old to the new, have been fears, nay even realizations, of shallowness, of knowledge gained from the many prescribed elementary courses. The elective system seems especially adapted to promote the interests of higher education. Students are led to special subjects with a view peculiar and fitted to each one's nature. Professor Ladd is earnest and sincere in his views, although we may differ with him yet we give him credit for his careful argument.