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THE HIGHER EDUCATION

than to the former institution from outside of the State in which it is situated. If, then, Massachusetts may be said to sanction the New Education, as yet the country at large cannot be said to have done so. It is not yet cosmopolitan.

But we shall better appreciate the statistical argument for and against the New Education if we compare figures concerning matters that may more fairly be held to indicate its direct results; and among them, first, the amount of regular attention given by the students to the college exercises, to lectures and recitations. Professor Palmer thinks it creditable to the method he advocates that, by actual count, under a wholly voluntary and wholly elective system, the last senior class at Harvard "had cared to stay away" only two exercises per week out of twelve,—that is, rather more than sixteen per cent. of the whole. Now the point of fidelity and regularity is of such supreme importance in the life of the student that I have taken especial pains to secure its statistics here; the reader is requested thoughtfully to compare them with the statement of Professor Palmer. At Yale this term, for the seven weeks for which the record is complete, the average per cent. of absence in the class of '89 has been 8.7 per cent.; that is, the average freshman of the Academical Department has been present 15.4 out of a possible 16 of his weekly recitations. This record includes absences