The day has passed when the colleges could lay down entrance requirements unquestioned; high schools have taken the aggressive, and show a growing tendency to try to dictate the terms on which they will furnish their product. But it is to be hoped they will not try to break down the colleges' qualitative standards not to force acceptance even of preparation of good quality in improper subjects. President Lowell points out that the existing "diversity of admission requirements and curricula" is great, and "gives the boy a chance to go to the institution where he will get the maximum education of which he is capable." The youth who simply cannot pass except in a course largely technical or agricultural will find some technical or agricultural institution ready to accept his preparation. But the great body of general colleges cannot surrender their standards. They can find better ways of measuring compliance with them, and can apply them in a range of subjects somewhat widened, but their watchword should be conservatism. NEW YORK SUN.