to adopt. I had then no very positive ideas on the subject. I had thought of the church, of law, and of medicine, and so I told him. We were then about half-way up the board-walk that extended from the corner of Third and Walnut Streets to the Capitol-grounds. He stopped, and, turning to me, said: "Ah, my young friend, the most difficult task you have before you is to make the right choice. A bad start at the beginning is almost certain to result in a bad race and a bad finish. Don't leave it to chance. Think it over, and then decide."
I thanked him.
"One thing more," he said. "If, after you have decided, you find that you have acted hastily and without the knowledge of yourself that was necessary, don't be afraid or ashamed to change. Don't stick to a profession for which you are unsuited merely for the sake of sticking. It is better, however, to be sure in the first place."
Perhaps even at that time he had it in his mind to found this university. The world knows that he made no mistake. He had determined what to do, and how to do it; his brain worked easily and it worked well; and what he apparently did in the way of accumulating wealth for his own advantage was in reality done for the advantage of his fellow-creatures, whom he loved as members of the universal brotherhood to which he belonged.
| GERMAN TESTIMONY ON THE CLASSICS QUESTION. |
By FREDERIK A. FERNALD.
THE German practical-schools (Realschulen) are a recent institution as compared with the classical-schools (Gymnasien), and have never yet obtained more than a scanty allowance from the public treasury, from which their ancient rivals have long received an abundant support. But, in spite of this and many other disadvantages, the practical-schools have gradually increased in efficiency until they now furnish a training which, in the opinion of a large party in Germany, prepares students to enter upon a university course. In compliance with the demand of this party, the Prussian Minister of Public Instruction, in December, 1870, ordered that graduates of practical-schools of the first class should be admitted to courses in modern languages, mathematics, and natural science, at the universities of Prussia, withholding from them, however, admission to the studies of mental philosophy, philology, history, political economy, law, theology, and medicine, and leaving closed the avenues to the majority of state appointments, which are immensely more important to university men in Germany than in the United States. After an experience of eight years the Philosophical faculty of the Friedrich Wilhelm
