quality of scholarship that he exhibits and his general repute in
the world of letters. He has the satisfaction of feeling that his
researches, even the most abstruse, can be brought to bear directly
upon his official intercourse with his students. A discovery that he
makes is usually communicated to them in the first instance, before it
finds its way into print. The neglect to take account of this element
of originality in the lectures of a German professor has led to an
unfair estimate of the lecture-system. Americans and English are apt
to regard it as merely the oral inculcation of established truths.
Were that the case, we might be right in questioning its superiority
over our method of teaching by textbook. But it is not the case.
The lecture is the vehicle for conveying the latest discoveries made
either by the professor himself or gleaned by him from the labors of
his colleagues. So far from merely repeating established truths,
it rather promulgates truths in process of establishment. German
university lectures, taken all in all, represent the most advanced
stage of thought. The instances are not infrequent where a professor
refrains from publishing his lectures, lest he should lose his
hearers, who are attracted to him by reports of his originality and
thoroughness.

The evident tendency of such a system is to encourage productivity
and the highest degree of accuracy. A man who has to teach only one
subject, and teach it to such students only as are ready and anxious
to receive it, can afford to take the time for being thorough. The
tendency of the American system, on the other hand, is to beget a
spirit of routine and to check productivity. The professor falls
into a way of contenting himself with meeting the requirements of the
college curriculum. The effects of this curriculum upon the professors
are deeper and farther-reaching than is usually perceived. It is