stenson and Wrangel, where human life went for nothing, and honor
for less than nothing. Some of them, perhaps, could not name their
parents. They were waifs of the camp, their only education the crumbs
of knowledge picked up in the camp-school mentioned by Schiller in his
_Wallenstein_. Our students, on the contrary, are anxiously shielded
against temptation and are carefully trained for their work. Why,
then, should they be the only set of persons to disobey, as a set, the
rules of public order? The answer suggests itself: Because they have
acquired the habit of joint action without the sense of individual
responsibility.

[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 immatur