[Footnote 4:  The words of the decree of the Imperial Diet, 1654.  See Von Raumer, Geschichte. der Pedagogik, iv. 45.]

The advantages of the present system of instruction by classes are not to be overlooked.  Yet they are attended with one serious evil.  The members of a class, reciting day by day, term after term, upon the same subjects, acquire the notion of a certain average of work.  The class, as a unit, has only so much to learn, and the professor is not to exceed this maximum.  Furthermore, each class gauges its work by the work of its predecessors.  The Sophomore class of this year, for instance, is not willing to do more than the Sophomore class of last year.  To introduce more difficult text-books, or to increase the number of hours, or to lengthen the lessons, is injustice.  The notion of unity extends itself to social relations.  Each member considers himself identified with his comrades.  Tradition—­everywhere a power, and especially powerful in college—­establishes nice distinctions.  It lays down the rule that one class shall not wear beaver hats or carry canes—­that another class shall steal the town-gates on a particular night of the year or publish scurrilous pamphlets.  Each member of the class must do certain things or must refrain from them, not because he wishes to, but because he is a member of the class.  The strength of this community of feeling and interests can be estimated only by one who has experienced it.  Were its operations confined to the relations among students, they would be less formidable.  We might perhaps shrug our shoulders and leave the young men “to fight it out among themselves.”  The case becomes quite different, however, when a class arrays itself in opposition to its professor or to the entire faculty.  Then we see plainly the dangers of insubordination.  The immature and inexperienced set themselves above their elders:  they arrogate to themselves the right of deciding what they shall learn, how much they shall learn, how they shall learn it.  And, being a class, they stand or fall as a class.  They exhibit tenacity of purpose and an unscrupulous use of improper means.  Many a professor has learned to his cost what it is to be defied by his class.

An example will be more instructive than vague generalities.  About seven years ago a gentleman was engaged by one of our colleges to take charge of a new department until a permanent appointee might be found.  The resident faculty committed one blunder after another.  It added the new study outright without adjusting it to the previous studies.  It also fixed upon Saturday as the day for beginning.  Thus, the students were prejudiced against their new instructor before they had even seen him.  Besides, they regarded the innovation as an “interloper.”  The victim to student rule may now tell his own story:  “I took the 6 A.M. train Saturday morning from the city.  After breakfast I was directed by the president to go to a certain room, unaccompanied, to