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good book. He brings together all the various material on Joan of Arc, subjects it to close cross-examination, and sums it up with the carefulness of a judge. Better still, he has succeeded in making Joan of Arc human task only to be fairly measured when we remember how much legend and supernaturalism have added to the inherent strangeness of her career. He shows her to have been simple, healthy-minded, thoroughly feminine -in a word, the most sensible of pious enthusiasts. Even toward her "voices," which she obeyed implicitly, she preserved as reasonable an attitude as Socrates towards his daemon. She was never in the pietistic flutter common to the saints and visionaries with whom she has too often been classed. To have shown her in this light, which we believe to be the true one, is greatly to Mr. Lowell's credit; it is a view which will probably be generally accepted when the evidence on which it is based is widely known. Contrary to what might be expected, the earlier part of the narrative, in which Mr. Lowell describes Joan's military exploits, has much less interest than the latter part, in which he analyzes with great legal ability the intricate proceedings at her trial and her own internal conflict. With perfect fairness he sets forth the position of her prosecutors, showing how natural it was for them to assume that she was possessed by evil spirits, and how, accordingly, they were justified in condemning her. The question of the origin and nature of her voices Mr. Lowell leaves for psychologists to decide, holding that the historian's duty is simply to record them and the public events to which they gave rise. In an appendix he discusses this matter, besides drawing an interesting

parallel between Joan and St. Catherine of Siena, and sketching at considerable length the repulsive character of Charles VII — the beastly monarch for whom Joan sacrificed her life.

The Evolution of Horticulture in New England. By Daniel Denison Slade, '44. (Putnam: New York.) In this dainty book of 180 small pages Dr. Slade has given us a charming sketch of the introduction of the art of gardening into the wilderness of New England, together with some account of the origin of the art in Old England and its more recent development in America, particularly about Boston. The writings of the English herbalists, botanists, and gardeners, from Gerarde and Parkinson to Worlidge and John Evelyn, are here reviewed, in order to discover the ideas and practices which the colonists brought with them to the New World. The wild forests of New England are described by quotations from the explorers' writings. The rude agriculture of the Red Men is briefly touched upon. The horticultural trials of the Plymouth Pilgrims are sympathetically noted: "Our pease not worth the gathering; the sun parched them in the blossom." The early stages of other settlements along the coasts and in the Connecticut Valley are similarly described in the settlers' own words. Lastly, some of the more famous of the early and recent private gardens and country seats of the neighborhood of Boston are pleasantly mentioned, and the little book closes with some rambling reflections on the fine art of "landscape gardening," the educational value of horticultural societies, and the possible future perfection to which the art of horticulture may attain. By all persons who may be interested in the past conditions of

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The Christ of To-day. By George A. Gordon, '81. (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.: Boston. $1.50.)

Visions and Service. Fourteen Discourses delivered in College Chapels. By William Lawrence, '71. (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.: Boston.)

Lines read at the Centennial Celebration of the Hasty Pudding Club of Harvard College. By John T. Wheelwright, '76. Illustrations by Washington Allston, 1800, J. G. Curtis, '66, and F. G. Attwood, '78. (Little, Brown & Co.: Boston. $1.00.)

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Regeneration. A Reply to Max Nordau. With an Introduction by Nicholas Murray Butler. (Putnam: New York.) The Bibelot: "A Flower of Laurium;" "A Maker of Forgotten Tunes; "Sentences from The Story of My Heart;'" Songs of Dead Florentine." Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Edited by Herbert Bates, '90. (Longmans: New York.)

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Algebra for Schools and Colleges. By Wm. Freeland, '81. (Longmans: New York. $1.12.)

Genealogies: The Hassam Family; The Hilton Family; The Cheever Family. By John T. Hassam, '63. (Privately printed: Boston.)

The Expansion of Religion. By E. Winchester Donald. (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.: Boston.)

Buddhism: Its History and Literature. By T. W. Rhys Davids. (Putnam : New York; for sale by W. B. Clarke & Co., Boston.)

Elementary Algebra. By J. A. Gillet, '63. (Holt: New York.)

Les Misérables. Abridged, with Introduction and Notes by F. C. de Sumichrast. (Ginn: Boston.)

Lorenzo de' Medici. By E. Armstrong, M.A., Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford.

Heroes of the Nations Series. (Putnam: New York. $1.50.)

A Dictionary of Chemical Solubilities: (Macmillan: New York; for sale by Estes Inorganic. By Arthur M. Comey, '82. & Lauriat, Boston. $5.00.)

Books and their Makers during the Middle Ages. A Study of the Conditions of the Production and Distribution of Literature from the Fall of the Roman Empire to the Close of the Seventeenth Century. By Geo. Haven Putnam, A. M. (Putnam: New York.)

COMMUNICATIONS.

HARVARD AND THE SECONDARY
SCHOOLS.

At the twenty-ninth annual meeting of the Massachusetts Association of Classical and High School Teachers, held in Brookline, Saturday, April 11, 1896, there was expressed in terms not to be mistaken a feeling of great dissatisfaction with the present methods of admission to college. As Harvard University is generally acknowledged to be the protagonist in making examinations difficult to pass, the criticism was largely directed towards that venerable institution which possesses to so high a degree the love of its graduates, no matter how critical they may be about the details of Harvard's administration. The topics for discussion at the Brookline meeting are, of themselves, suggestive of a sort of Sturm und Drang period in educational circles. These are the subjects :

1. "To the College via the Public High School."

2. "The Essentials of College Preparation."

3. "Sight Translation from Greek and Latin Classics as a Test of Pro

ficiency in English Composition."

Both in the papers and in the discussions the opinion was freely expressed that something is wrong in

the relations of the colleges and the secondary schools. The so-called substitute for Greek in the Harvard examination requirements was denounced as a "hollow mockery," a characterization that certainly is supported by the statistics regarding the number of candidates who offer the supposed substitute for Greek. Particularly vigorous were the denunciations of the English requirements. And truly one might ask many puzzling questions about these requirements, for example:

1. Why select the particular works of certain authors in preference to other works equally meritorious?

2. Why limit the reading to any specified authors?

3. Why expect pupils to write good essays on subjects in which they are not necessarily interested, while there are hundreds of other subjects in which they are interested, and on which they could write well?

4. Why make so many changes in the lists of required authors?

Furthermore, is translation at sight a fair test of a pupil's English, and ought the results of such translation to be made public either with or without the name of the student or of his school? Is not the task of translating a passage of Greek or Latin at sight difficult in itself, and is not such translation naturally accompanied by something of the Greek or the Latin idiom?

The fact that the examples of incorrect English found in many text-books on rhetoric are taken from the works of the best English authors shows that English is a difficult language to write. Even a professor of rhetoric has been known to request one student to "drop upstairs and get a calendar," and to ask another "to get rid of the scaffold

ing and seek ease and flow," in the case of his commencement part.

If examinations in any subject fail to show good results, may not the fault be in the examinations and the examiners quite as much as in the candidates?

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Is it not possible to imagine a student who might not have many clear ideas either on "The Stage Coach," 'Evangeline," "Dame Van Winkle," or "Grand-Pré," not to mention kindred themes, who yet might write very tolerable English on some subject in which he was personally interested? And might not a candidate, whose translation at sight shows traces of foreign idiom, do much better if his mind should not be distracted by so many things at once? The most accomplished scholars often give to the translation of a few lines more time than is allowed young students for the translation of long passages. Of a truth, translation at sight is a "Serbonian bog," and "getting through it" is often more a matter of luck than a result of merit. And why, to go still further, as one of the speakers at Brookline said, "Why have entrance examinations at all?" Will not a half-year's probation be a better test than any scheme of examinations yet devised? Still further, why is it possible for a student to go to dozens of other colleges four years, and then by going to Harvard one year get a full Harvard diploma? I ask this question very seriously, as it has been propounded to me more than once, and I have never been able to answer it to my own satisfaction. The students who went to other institutions never had to run the gauntlet of Harvard examiners, but in many cases entered those institutions on certificate.

To fit them for Harvard

would have required at least one year more than the time necessary to fit them for almost any other American institution. Why not let the student who is ready for Amherst or Williams enter Harvard and take his course in five years? Many preparatory schools could thus send pupils from the junior year of the preparatory course. And, finally, are not the headmasters of the preparatory schools, thoroughly acquainted as they are with their pupils, better able to judge the capacity of these pupils than are a board of unfamiliar examiners? There is very little sympathy or human nature in a printed examination. You may pipe to it, but it will not dance.

examinations and of the certificates of the headmasters, the candidate should be admitted on probation.

6. The right of certification, if unwisely or improperly used, should be withheld from any headmaster so injudicious as to make an unwise use of the right.

FREDERIC ALLISON TUPPER, '80. QUINCY.

CORPORATION RECORDS.

Meeting of Dec. 30, 1895 (Additional).

Voted to proceed to the election of a Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics, whereupon ballots being given in, it appeared that Edward

What then may be suggested in the Cornelius Briggs, M. D., D. M. D., way of improvement? was elected. Voted to communicate

1. No lowering whatever of the this election to the Board of Overseers, standard. that they may consent thereto if they see fit.

2. The appointment of an examining board at Harvard to see that the courses of study pursued in the secondary schools are well adapted to the preparation of students for college.

3. The validity of certificates from the headmasters of secondary schools as a very important part of the requirements for entrance.

4. The entrance examinations should be continued, but they should be changed in nature, particularly with regard to flexibility, and they should not be, as they have been heretofore, the only means of determining the candidate's qualifications. For example, I shall send to Harvard this year a young man who has a good knowledge of the Swedish language and literature. Ought not such a knowledge in a flexible system of examinations to avail him as much as a knowledge of French or of German?

5. On the combined testimony of the results of reasonable and flexible

Meeting of Jan. 13, 1896 (Additional).

Voted to appoint Charles Wesley Birtwell, A. B., Lecturer on Scientific Methods in Philanthropy for 1896–97.

Meeting of Feb. 10, 1896.

Voted to appoint Morris Hicky Morgan, Ph. D., Assistant Professor of Latin for five years from Sept. 1, 1896.

Voted to rescind the vote passed at the last meeting in regard to the geological exhibit of the University at Atlanta.

Voted to send the thanks of the President and Fellows to each one of the generous contributors towards the recent valuable gifts to Harvard University, of materials illustrative of economic geology.

Meeting of Feb. 24, 1896.
The Treasurer reported the receipt

of $31 from Mr. Daniel W. Shea, as the final repayment of the principal and interest in full of beneficiary money which he received while in college, and the same was gratefully accepted to be credited to the account of Scholarship and Beneficiary Money Returned.

The Treasurer reported the receipt of $50 from Mr. John L. Gardner, 2d, for present use at the Botanic Museum, and the same was gratefully accepted.

Voted to appoint Assistant Professor Morris H. Morgan, Marshal for Commencement exercises in Sanders Theatre.

Voted to appoint Asaph Hall, Ph. D., Lecturer on Celestial Mechanics for 1896-97.

Voted that from and after Sept. 1, 1896, the laboratory fee in Hygiene I be $5, instead of $2.50.

Meeting of Feb. 28, 1896.

Voted that the thanks of the President and Fellows be sent to Mrs. Henry Draper, of New York, for her additional gift of $833.33 received Feb. 28, 1896, towards the expenses at the Observatory of Harvard University, on account of the Draper Memorial.

Voted that the thanks of the President and Fellows be sent to Mr. Edward Habich for six chiaroscuros by Andrea Andreani from the "Triumph of Caesar," by Andrea Mantegna, which he has given to the Gray Collection.

The President submitted a letter from Mr. Horace Howard Furness, of which the following is a copy :—

WALLINGFORD, Delaware County, Penn. DR. CHARLES W. ELIOT, Pres't Harv. Coll., Cambridge, Mass.:

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1890, to the last will and testament of the late Rev. Dr. Furness, occurs, inter alia, the following:

"The portrait of Charles Sumner I leave to Harvard College. It was painted by my son." I now beg to inform you that it will be my care to see that this portrait is duly delivered into your hands as soon as I learn that the bequest is accepted, and remain, dear sir,

Yours respectfully, (Signed) HORACE HOWARD FURNESS, Executor. 24 February, 1896.

It was thereupon Voted that Dr. Furness's bequest be gratefully accepted.

Voted to appoint George Angier Gordon, D. D., Ingersoll Lecturer on the Immortality of Man, for 1896.

Voted on recommendation of the Faculty of the Divinity School that from the beginning of the academic year, 1897-98, the tuition-fee of students in the Divinity School be $150 a year, except for persons who are now members of the School.

Meeting of March 2, 1896. Voted to proceed to the election of a Professor of Romance Languages, to serve from Sept. 1, 1896, whereupon ballots being given in, it appeared that Charles Hall Grandgent, A. B., was elected. Voted to communicate this election to the Board of Overseers, that they may consent thereto if they see fit.

Voted to appoint Robert Jay Forsythe, A. B., Instructor in Metallurgy and Metallurgical Chemistry for one year from Sept. 1, 1896.

Meeting of March 9, 1896. The Treasurer reported that he had received from Messrs. Storey and Putnam, trustees, the additional sum of $325, to be used in payment of certain salaries in the Medical School, and the same was gratefully accepted. The Treasurer reported the receipt

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