tailment there has been, owing to the adoption of
the "group system" of studies on the part of most of the colleges, and
as the colleges are relieved of more and more of the elementary work
there doubtless will be more. But, in any case, it is safe to say that
French, Spanish, and Italian are now firmly installed as liberal
studies in the curricula of most of our colleges. Now, how do they
fulfill this function? What changes will be necessary in order that
they may fulfill it better? What particular advantages have they to
offer as a college subject? A brief consideration of each of these
points follows.

In general, our colleges require fifteen units of entrance credit and
about twenty collegiate units for the college degree.[88] Of the
entrance units, a maximum of four in French and two in Spanish is
allowed; and of the college units, an average of five, or about one
fourth of the entire college work,[89] must be taken consecutively in
_one_ department of study or in not more than _two_ departments. This
last group of approximately five units thus constitutes, so to speak,
the backbone of the student's work. It is his so-called "principal
sequence" (Chicago) or his "two majors" (Amherst) or his "major
subject" (Wisconsin and Colorado); and while in the case of Amherst it
cannot be begun "until after the freshman year," in general it must be
begun by the junior year. Considerable variety prevails, of course, in
carrying out this idea; for example, Johns Hopkins requires "at least
two courses in the major and at least two in some cognate subject."
Harvard states that "every student shall take at least six of his
courses in some one department, or in one of the recognized fields of
distinction." Princeton demands of "every junior and senior ... at
least two 3-hour courses in some one department." But almost all
representative colleges now recognize four general groups of study:
Philosophy (including history), language, science, and mathematics;
and the student's work must be so arranged that while it is fairly
evenly distributed over three of the groups it is at the same time
definitely concentrated in one of them.

=Normal prescription in a Romance Language=

In answer to our first question, it follows that the student entering
with the maximum of French should be able, before graduation, to get
enough advanced courses to give him an intelligent grasp of the
literature as well as the language. In our better-equipped