in what many who are in daily contact with the Irish people predict, a desperate race-conflict for mastery.

A. C. S., '82.

NOON IN AUGUST.

Alone, among the hills, in full content I lie;

The yellow sunshine warmly wraps the languid earth;
Near me, a hidden brook flows gently purling by;

The daisies with each breath nod on their slender stems.

Amid the stern, dark oaks gleam out some willow trees,
Which seem as fair and soft as face of little child.
They bow and courtesy to each gently passing breeze,
Just as dear children in their pretty fancies play.

Noon steals o'er all the land-steals ling'ring slowly by;
She stoops to hush the brook's low purl-fainter it sounds.
The drowsy hum of vagrant bees, as past they fly,

Seems like a low-voiced lullaby to baby flowers.

De Temporibus et Moribus.

It does not seem likely that educators of women will be allowed to forget the problems concerning the physical and the social result of such education. It will be many years yet before the one unfortunate girl who leaves college to enter a state of nervous prostration, or the still more unfortunate girl who leaves college a blue-stocking or a virago, will not claim more attention than the ninety and nine whose lives are more healthy, and whose families are more happy, because of their intellectual training. With such one-sided pressure of external criticism, there is some danger that women's colleges may have little aid in questions concerning their intellectual status. In writing for the MISCELLANY, then, an account of Smith College, it is scarcely necessary to emphasize her attempt to conform to the demand for the most perfect physical and social culture. Her "Cottage System" is one of her best known characteristics. Her freedom from regulations is another. Seven years of experiment only confirms faith in small houses and few rules. No case either of severe illness or of severe discipline mars the fair record of the young college.

But good health and good manners are not all that we demand of college-bred women. The intellectual history of Smith College is not as much talked about as its cottage system. But it has some characteristics worth description.

The college was opened in September, 1875, with thirteen students, and six teachers. Its first class of twelve graduated

in 1879. In September, 1878, it had one hundred students. In '80 it added Music and Art Schools to its Academic Department. At present there are 264 students, divided as follows: 64 Freshmen, 52 Sophomores, 47 Juniors, and 36 Seniors, making an Academic total of 209. There are also 37 Special Students, of whom 18 are ranked as Freshmen, and the rest, in higher classes. The School of Music has 20, and that of Art, 7. The Resident Faculty of the College numbers sixteen-seven men and nine women. There are, besides, assistants in Chemistry, Rhetoric, and Music, and several nonresident teachers and lecturers.

The requirements for admission are substantially those of Vassar, except that Xenophon and Homer must be packed in every student's trunk, and she has, consequently, less room for Botany, and Ancient History, and Physical Geography. The Special Students must be examined in the required English, and in two of the three other branches, Latin, Greek, and Mathematics. For the one omitted she must substitute a course in French, German, Rhetoric, English Literature, or Natural Science. These courses are planned by the College, and each covers at least two years' work. Music Students pass an examination in Music whose very statement is formidable to the unpracticed eye, and are required to have a High School diploma, or its equivalent in the specified courses.

The most noticeable thing about the catalogue of Smith College is neither its cover nor its pictures,-but its course of study. Here we strike the great experiment which the institution has been trying. Women can be educated. Vassar College proved that years ago. But the question concerning the best method for that education is still open. Smith College had from the beginning a leaning toward the Elective System. In the earliest circulars an effort was made to lay out three courses-the Classical, the Literary, and the Scientific. All were to have in common certain studies,-notably Greek, Latin, and Mathematics,—and the small fraction of time left

from these was to be used in some one chosen course. But in 1880 the course of study was thoroughly revised, and the present Elective System elaborated. With the growth of departments since then, the curriculum has been constantly modified. Elasticity is, of course, the characteristic of the system. Careful records have been kept of the workings of the experi ment, and these figures have some significance.

In the first year of the course, some latitude is allowed in choice of studies. Only ten of the possible sixteen recitation hours are specified. This latitude is increased from year to year, until in the last term of the Senior year only five hours of work are laid out for the student. A distinction must however be made between Required and Specified work. At least thirteen recitation hours per week are required for the two lower classes, and twelve for the two higher. Sixteen recitations per week-the maximum number-is the exception rather than the rule. This possible concentration of effort is considered one of the best results of the system.

The following tables show the proportion between the specified and the Elective work of the course The figures indicate number of recitations per week. It should be premised that recitations are an hour long, and that at present Physics is the only study in which recitations occur five times a week. Classes average three meetings weekly. Laboratory work in Natural Science, and private courses in Rhetoric and Elocution can not from their nature be included in such a scheme.

Total number of recitation hours each year, 3360.

280/2072

Of the 3360 hours of recitation given in the college each year, 1298 are specified work, and 2072 are elective. Or, to state the proportion in another form, forty per cent. of the work offered for the first two years is elective. Seventy per cent of the offered work of Junior and Senior years is elective. So much for the facts in regard to the proportion of specified and elective study in Smith College. But these facts at once suggest the question, "What are the various elective branches from which students are allowed this liberal choice?" The circular of the college describes them with so much min uteness that little can be added to its particulars. In the first year electives are chiefly English courses and enlargements of the specified work in Greek, Latin, and Mathematics. In the second year the courses become more varied, and include Chemistry, Botany, Mineralogy, English Literature, Shakespeare, Anglo-Saxon, and Classic History, besides the usual Greek and Latin "optionals." Perhaps no better idea can be given of the opportunities for study of given subjects than by a bird's-eye view of one or two departments. Besides the four terms of specified Greek, which include the Odyssey, the Memorabilia, the Apology and Crito, and the De Corona, we find as electives in the department Herodotus, the Greek Testament, Selections from the Lyric Poets and the Tragedies, Plato's Phaedo and Gorgias, and a course of lectures on the Greek Philosophy and the Greek Drama.

In the department of Philosophy the elective courses are generous. These are confined to the Senior year. Starting