V^'^v' "V^*'/ "v^^V' "''"^-"^ ^ :. ^^ -°.-^'*/ V-^\/ .%*^-^*/ " " Ao^ ^^-n^ V^^ o V 'V 0^ oO.r.^'^O, -/ '^<>.'^^^\^^' "-^^^*'%o' V^^\/ \. * q\ c " " " -» O^ HARVARD UNIVERSITY TWENTY YEARS OF SCHOOL AND COLLEGE ENGLISH CAMBRIDGE publtsbeb bi^ tbe 'ITlniverstt^ 1896 CONTENTS. Page. Introductory Notk . . . . . . . .5 An Answer to the Cry for More English B^j A. S. Sill 6 The Harvard Admission Examination in English By L. B. B. Briggs 17 The Correction of Bad English as a Requirement for Admission to Harvard College Bi/ L. B. R. Briggs 33 The Preparatory Work in English as Seen by a Harvard Examiner By B. S. Hurlbut 4.4. College Requirements in English . By B. S. Hurlbut 46 Appendix .......... 55 TWENTY YEAJaS OiF SCHOOL AND COLLEGE ENGLISH. INTEODUCTORY NOTE. The papers iu this pamphlet are republished as a contribution to the discussion provoked by the reports which were presented in 1892 and 1895 to the Board of Overseers of Harvard College by the Committee on Composition and Rhetoric. Each paper was written independently; the author of each was, at the time of writing, charged with the duty of reading the examination books in English produced by candidates for admission to Harvard College. The first paper, copies of which were sent by the College authorities to the ■masters of over two hundred and twenty schools, was published only five years after an examination in English composition was for the first time prescribed for admission ; the last, after examinations in that subject had been going on for nearly twenty years. Taken together, the five papers show a remarkable agreement both in facts and in inferences ; and both facts and inferences tend to sustain the general conclusion reached on independent grounds by the Committee of the Board of Overseers — the conclusion that the Secondary Schools need to pay more attention to English. The first paper was originally published in " G-ood Company" (Springfield, Mass.), Vol. iv, No. 3, 1879; the second, in "The Academy" (Syracuse, N. Y.), September, 1888; the third, in " The Academy," September, 1890 ; the fourth, in "The Academy," October, 1891; the fifth, in "The Academy," June, 1892. The articles from "The Academy" are reprinted with the kind permission of Mr. Bacon, the editor of the magazine. The Appendix traces the history of the entrance requirement in English and shows what instruction in English was offered by the College for the year following the first entrance examination in that subject (1874-75), for the year following the publication of the first paper in this pamphlet (1879-80), and for the year 1896-97. A. S. H. L. B. R. B. B. S. H. TWENTY YEARS OF SCHOOL AND COLLEGE ENGLISH. AN ANSWER TO THE CRY FOR MORE ENGLISH. By Adams Sherman Hill, Harvard University. We can all remember a time when our schools and colleges gave even less instruction in the art of writing and speaking the English language correctly than is given at present, and that too without much complaint from any quarter. Children who learned their A B C's under the old system could call the letters in a word by name, 1)ut were often unable to pronounce the same word, or to understand its meaning. Boys and girls who were well on in their teens could talk glibly about " parts of speech," " analyze" sentences, and "parse" difficult lines in Young's "Night Thoughts" or Pope's "Essay On Man," but could not explain the sentences they took to pieces, or write grammatical sentences of their own. Those of us who have been doomed to read manuscript written in an examination room — whether at a grammar school, a high school, or a college — have found the work of even good scholars disfigured by bad spelling, confusing punctuation, ungrammatical, obscure, ambiguous, or inelegant expressions. Every one who has had much to do with the graduating classes of our best colleges, has known men who could not write a letter describing their own Commencement without mak- ing blunders which would disgrace a boy twelve years old. Common as such shames were, they went on, not indeed without protest, but without criticism loud enough to disturb those through whom reform, if reform was to be, must come. The overburdened and underpaid teacher had every inducement to cling to the pre- scribed routine ; the superintendent of schools was too busy to listen, too busy Avith the machinery of " the marking system," with his pet theory of education, with the problem how to crowd a new study into "the curriculum," or how to secure his own re-election; the pro- fessor, absorbed in a specialty, contented himself with reqjLiiring at recitations and examinations knowledge of the subject-matter, how- ever ill-digested and ill-expressed ; journals of the better class affirmed that, though such a book was not written well, it was written well enough for its purpose, and sneered at those who took pains to correct gross errors in others, or to avoid them themselves ; and even some acknowledged masters of English held, with Dogberry, that " to write and read comes by nature." TWENTY YEARS OF SCHOOL AND COLLEGE ENGLISH. 7 AYithiii a short time, people have partially opened their eyes to the defects of a system which crams without training, which spends its strength on the pett}'' or the useless, and neglects that without which knowledge is but sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. Voices have been raised which command attention. At least one school- committee and one board of super^^sors have moved in the right direction. At lea.st one college has increased its force of instructors and its number of courses in English, and has done what it could to stimulate the schools ; and one president of a university has gone so far as to say, in an oft-quoted sentence : "I may as well abruptly avow, as the result of my reading and observation in the matter of education, that I recognize but one mental acquisition as an essential part of the education of a lady or a gentleman, — namely, an accurate and refined use of the mother tongue." We should, however, not blind ourselves to the fact that the reform has only begun. "What a recent article in "The Saturday Review " says of England is at least equally true of America : "A large proportion of our fellow-creatures labour under the hallucination that they could write as well as Macaulay, Thackeray, or Dickens, if they chose to take the trouble." They are like the man who told Charles Lamb that he " could write like Shakspere if he only had a mind to." "All he wants, you see," said Lamb, " is the mind." The scepticism on this point which used to pervade the high places of education still lingers on the low ground, and must be dispelled before a healthy state of feeling can exist. So long as people think literary skill easy of acquisition, they will be unwilling to have their children spend time in acquiring ' ' an accurate and refined use of the mother tongue." If the movement in favor of those things which make for good English is to be of much practical utility, it must spread widely and penetrate deeply; every school-committee must insist that, whatever else is done or is left undone, a serious effort shall be made to teach boys and girls to use their native tongue correctly and intelligently ; all our colleges must put English upon a par, at least, with Latin and G-reek, and must provide their students with ample opportunities for practice in writing and speaking the language they will have to use all their lives. If the schools and the colleges do this work thoroughly, a short time will suffice to bring parents to a sense of the paramount importance to every one of knowing how to read and write, and to show them how much labor that knowledge costs. The better to understand what has yet to be done in order to secure the desired end, let \is first see what is now done in the 8 TWENTY YEARS OF SCHOOL AXD COLLEGE ENGLISH. schools, as tested by the exanihiation in Enghsh which all applicants for admissiou to Harvard must pass, and what is now done at Harvard. In 1874, for the first time, every applicant for admission to Harvard was required to present English composition. The require- ment * was as follows : English Composition. Each candidate will be required to write a short English composition, correct in spelling, punctuation, grammar, and expression, the subject to be taken from sxich standard authors as shall be amiounced from time to time. The subject for 1874 will be taken from one of the following works : Shakespeare's Tempest, Julius Caesar, and Merchant of Venice ; Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield ; Scott's Ivanhoe and Lay of the Last Minstrel. It was hoped that this requirement would effect several desirable objects, — that the student, by becoming familiar with a few works holding a high place in English literature, would acquire a taste for good reading, and would insensibly adopt better methods of thought and better forms of expression ; that teachers would be led to seek subjects for composition in the books named, subjects far preferable to the vague generalities too often selected, and that they would pay closer attention to errors in elementary matters ; that, in short, this recognition by the College of the importance of English would lead both teachers and pupils to give more time to the mother tongue, and to employ the time thus given to better advantage. Naturally enough, these ends were not reached at once. Some of the schools did not, at first, take the requirement in a serious light ; others failed to comprehend its scope ; others still deemed it a high crime and misdemeanor to take an hour for English from Latin, G-reek, or mathematics. In applying the requirement, moreover, the examiners gave it a liberal construction — as was proper while it was new — and the Faculty of the College, posted on the heights of the classics and mathematics, descended with difficulty to petty ques- tions of spelling, punctuation, and grammar. This laxity of con- struction, coupled with the belief that a good writer had no advantage over a poor one in the studies of the Freshman year, and but a slight advantage in the subsequent years of the course, confirmed the schools in their disposition to slight the new requirement. "Within the last two years there has been a marked change for the better. More work is done in the schools ; greater proficiency * "Requisition" in the article as originaUy published, that being the word then used in the University Catalogue. " Requirement " is the proper word. TWENTY YEARS OF SCHOOL AND COLLEGE ENGLISH. 9 is demanded from the candidate for admission ; the Faculty frankly accept the requirement in English as standing upon a par with the other requu'ements ; and many of the college instructors take account of a student's ability or inability to express his ideas with precision and clearness. As yet, however, the amount of improvement in the schools is slight, as is shown by the results of the examination for admission to Harvard last June. For that examination the requirement was as follows : — English Gomjjosition. Each candidate will be required to write a short English composition, correct in sj)elling, punctuation, grammar, division by jsaragrajDhs, and expression, upon a subject announced at the time of examination. In 1879, the subject will be drawn from one of the following works : — Shakspere's Macbeth, Richard II., and Midsummer Night's Dream; Scott's Guy Mannering ; Byron's Prisoner of Chillon ; Thackeray's Henry Esmond ; Macaulay's Essay on Addison ; the Sir Roger de Coverley Essays in the Spectator. Every candidate is expected to be familiar with all the books in this list. The time allotted for the examination in this subject was an hour, and the paper set was as follows : — ENGLISH COMPOSITION. Write a short composition upon one of the subjects given below. Before beginning to write, consider what you have to say on the subject selected, and arrange your thoughts in logical order. Aim at quality rather than quantity of work. Carefully revise your composition, correcting all errors in punctuation, spelhng, grammar, division by paragraphs, and expression, and making each sentence as clear and forcible as possible. If time permits, make a clean copy of the revised work. I. The Character of Sir Richard Steele. 11. The Duke of Marlborough as j)ortrayed by Thackeray. HI. The Style of "Henry Esmond." IV. Thackeray's account of the Pretender's visit to England. V. Duelling in the Age of Queen Anne. The whole number of persons who presented themselves for examination in this paper was 316 — including those applying for immediate admission and those taking the first, or " preliminary," half of the examination, the rest to be taken in some subsequent year. Of this number 157, almost exactly one half, failed to pass, the per- centage of failure being but slightly larger among the applicants for a "preliminary certificate" than among the candidates for admission. 10 TWENTY YEARS OF SCHOOL AND COLLEGE ENGLISH. The causes of failure were diverse. Some of the unsuccessful, an eighth or a tenth of them perhaps, avowed or displayed utter ignorance of the subject-matter : several, for example, confounded Steele with Sir Roger de Coverley, others the period of Queen Anne with that of Richard Coeur de Lion, others the style of ' ' Henry Esmond," the novel, with the manners of Henry Esmond, the hero of the novel. Some — a smaller number, however, than in previous years — showed such utter ignorance of punctuation as to put commas at the end of complete sentences, or between words that no rational being would separate from one another ; and a few began sentences with small letters, or began every long word with a capital letter. Many, a larger number than usual, spelled as if starting a spelling reform, each for himself. Of these vagaries specimens are subjoined, including vain attempts to reproduce proper names that were printed on the examination paper itself : — duetts, jelosie, cheif, ojpposit, suprising, Cottossus, compaired, repetedly, fourth (for forth) , to (for too) , thrown (for throne) , fide, white-winged angle, lyeaverage, break, carrige, champaign (for champagne), insted, haled (for hailed) , endevors, sitcess, preasant and preasance, widly, looting, differance, superceeded, prepaired, comand, conspiritors, to finnish, avaritious, undouhiihly , granfather, peice, fashionable hell, writen and writtings, maniger (for manager) , untill, jovility (for joviality) , ficticious, couard and couardise (for coward), exhisted, origen and origonal (for origin and original), kneeded (for needed), genious, marrid, mad (for made), iver (for were), cleaverly, differcidty, existance, abscent, lolier, rep>are, ennoubling, agrieved, of (fov oft), susceptable, proclamed, loose (for lose), principle (for principal), lead (for led), Ripj Van Bincle, Adison and Adderson, Queene Ann, Macauley, Thackery, Steel (Sir Richard), Henery, Harries (for Harry's) . Of these mistakes some are evidently much graver than others ; but some of the worst were found in several books, and not a few are apparently due to an unconscious effort to represent to the eye a vicious pronunciation. Many books were deformed by grossly ungrammatical or profoundly obscure sentences, and some by absolute illiteracy. To bring himself below the line between failure and success, a writer had to commit several serious faults ; and even if he did "commit such faults, he was allowed to pass if he offset them by tolerably good work in the rest of his book. Even apparent igno- rance of the nature of a paragraph, or of the principle of sequence in thought or in language, did not of itself form an insurmountable obstacle to success. The books of many who managed to get above TWENTY YEARS OF SCHOOL AND COLLEGE ENGLISH. 11 the line were, as regards all but the A B C of composition, clisereclit- able to the teachers whose instruction they represented. If the examiner erred, it was in giving the candidate the benefit of too many doubts, in tempering justice with too much mercy. He meant to make the requirement more serious than in previous years, but he did not mean to demand as n^uch as might reasonably be expected from boys between sixteen and twenty years of age. The great majority of the compositions this year, as in previous years, were characterized by general defects, which, though not taken into account by the examiner, point to grave imperfections in the method (or want of method) of the preparatory schools. The suggestions at the head of the paper were often disregarded in the letter, and almost always in the spirit. The candidate, instead of considering what he had to say and arranging his thoughts before beginning to write, either wrote without thinking about the matter at all, or thought to no purpose. Instead of aiming at good work, and to that end subjecting his composition to careful revision, he either did not undertake to revise it at all, or did not know how to correct his errors. Evidently, he had never been taught the value of previous thought or of subsequent criticism. To the rule there were, of course, exceptions. A few boys showed the results of excellent training ; l^ut out of the whole number only fourteen received a mark high enough to entitle them to the distinc- tion of passing " with credit." On the whole, the examination makes a poor showing for the schools that furnish the material whereof the university which pro- fesses to set up the highest standard in America, has to make educated men. If she does not succeed in giving to all her graduates the one mental acquisition deemed by her president the essential part of education, the fault is not altogether or mainly hers. For her to teach bearded men the rudiments of their native tongue would be almost as absurd as to teach them the alphabet or the multiplication table. Those who call for "more English " in the colleges should cry aloud and spare not till more and better English is taught in the schools. In the schools the reform should start. From the beginning to the end of the pre-collegiate course, the one thing that should never l)e lost sight of is the mother tongue, the language which the boy uses all the time as a boy, and will use as. a man. Till he knows liow to write a simple English sentence, he should not be allowed to open a Latin grammar. Till he can speak and write his own lan- guage with tolerable correctness, he should not be set down before the words of another language. Whatever knowledge he acquires, 12 TWENTY YEARS OF SCHOOL AND COLLEGE ENGLISH. he should be able to put into clear and intelligible English. Every new word he adds to his vocabulary, he should know in the spelling and with the meaning accepted by the rest of the world. Every stop he inserts in a sentence should serve a definite purpose. The work begun in the primary school should be carried on by the grammar school, the high school, the private tutor. No translation from a foreign language, whether oral or written, no examination book, no recitation, should be deemed creditable unless made in good English. Gradually a boy should be led from the construction of a well-formed sentence to that of a well-formed paragraph, and from paragraph to essay. Gradiially he should be led from the skilful use of materials for composition provided by others to the discovery and arrangement of materials for himself, from the practice of clothing another's thoughts in his own language to the presentation of his own thoughts or fancies in appropriate language, — care being taken, of course, to provide, at each stage in his education, subjects suited to his powers and attractive to his tastes. The teacher of English should be equally quick to detect faults and to recognize merits of every description, and should know how to stimulate his pupils' minds till they are as fresh and alert at the desk as on the playground. He should possess special qualifications, for his task is at once diflScult and important. The best talent in each school — it is not too much to say — cannot be better employed than in teaching the use of the great instrument of communication between man and man, between books and men, the possession without which learning is mere pedantry, and thought an aimless amusement. When schools of all grades are provided with instructors in English who are neither above nor below their business, it will be possible to make the requirement in this subject for admission to college decidedly higher than it is at present, and the work after admission correspond- ingly better. When the schools shall be ready to teach the laws of good use in language and the elementary principles of rhetoric, a great point will be gained. The next best step would be to give to English two hours or more a week during the Freshman year. Could the study be taken up at the threshold of college life, the schools would be made to feel that their labors in this direction were going to tell upon a pupil's stand- ing in college as well as upon his admission. Unfortunately, however, it has not been found possible to make room in the Freshman year for English, no one of the departments which now occupy the year being willing to give up any of its time, and each supporting the others in opposition to change. TWEXTr YEARS OF SCHOOL AND COLLEGE ENGLISH. 13 While things remain as they are, the only way in which progress can be made is by a disposition on the part of those who instruct Freshmen in other studies to insist upon the use of good English whenever, in oral or written work, any English is used ; and this to a certain extent is done, some of those who are most unwilling to surrender a half hour of their own time to the instructor in English taking most pains to require good language from their pupils : but they have too many other things in hand to do this thoroughlj^ and there are obvious obstacles in the way of their achieving results that could easily be reached Avith younger boys in smaller classes. At Harvard, then, a student receives no direct instruction in English till his Sophomore year. During that year two hours a week are given to the study of rhetoric. A text-book is used which aims at familiarizing the pupil with the principles that underlie all good composition, as deduced from the best authors and illustrated by examples or warnings from recent works ; exercises are written and criticised ; and writers noted for clearness, like Macaulay, or for strength of statement and logical coherence, like Burke or Webster, are studied to the extent that time permits. Every Sophomore, moreover, writes six themes on assigned subjects, which are corrected and criticised by the instructor, and are rewritten by the student to the end that he may seize the spirit as well as the letter of the sug- gestions he has received. The books studied ought to tell on the themes, and they do so tell with faithful students who assimilate what they learn. Juniors are required to write six themes and four forensics. The themes are in the hands of three instructors. One has the A division, which is composed of the best writers in the class, and is small enough to enable the teacher to read each theme either with its author or aloud to a section of the division, and thus to make the criticism more searching and the revision more thorough than is possible under any system of notes on the margin. The B and C divisions, comprising the rest of the class, are so large that their themes for the most part have to be treated like those of the Sopho- mores. The forensics, which, in theory at least, are execises in argumen- tative composition, are read and weighed, but not criticised. For them candidates for Honors are allowed to substitute theses in their several departments, that is, writings which call for learning rather than for argumentative power. Seniors have to write four forensics, which are criticised from a rhetorical as well as from a logical point of view. For them, as for 14 TWENTY YEARS OF SCPIOOL AND COLLEGE ENGLISH. the Junior forensics, theses may iu certain cases be substituted ; and for two of them a Commencement Part is accepted as an equivalent. Commencement Parts themselves (with the exception of one or two written in Latin) may be regarded as exercises in English composi- tion. Early in November, the professor of rhetoric meets those whose rank at the end of the Junior year renders it probable that they will receive degrees "with distinction" at the end of the course. He tries to impress them with the importance of the academic festi- val in which they are to take part, and with their duty to do their best, both for their own credit and for that of the University. Each is left to choose his own topic, subject to the approval of a com- mittee of professors representing all departments of the University, and to treat the topic chosen in the way that best suits his powers. The Parts must be written by the first of May. The best of them are read by their authors to the committee, who select from the whole number the five or six best adapted to the occasion, — subject, treatment, and delivery, being all taken into account. Every year the honor of speaking is more highly prized ; every year the com- petitors show better work and more thorough comprehension of the essentials of a successful essay ; every year the committee find more difficulty in deciding which among several productions to select — a difficulty which is likely to increase now that, in consequence of certain changes in the regulations concerning degrees, the number of .competitors is more than doubled, over fifty being entitled to write this year, as against twenty -three or twenty-four last year. The testimony of those who are in the habit of attending Harvard Com- mencements (that of Rev. Dr. Bellows, for instance, as expressed in his enthusiastic speech last June) supports the opinion that there is, from year to year, a gradual improvement, sufficient to indicate that the labors of those who have helped the cause of good English have not been thrown away, that the ambition of the young men has not been appealed to in vain, and that the newly- awakened interest of the community in its own language has penetrated the academic shades. In addition to the prescribed work in English, an advanced elective course was established two years ago. To this course none but Seniors or Juniors who have proved their ability as writers are admitted. Every member of the class is required to write a composi- tion once a fortnight, sometimes on a subject of his own, sometimes on an assigned siil)ject or on one of several assigned subjects. Occasionally the instructor calls for a written criticism of an author whose works he deems worthy of study, or for a critical estimate of the relative merits of two authors of the same o-eneral character. TWEXTY YEARS OF SCHOOL AXD COLEEGE EXGLISH. 15 Three hours a week are spent in criticism of the tliemes in the presence of the class, criticism in wliich all take part and which now and then leads to animated discussion. Often the best themes present the most matter for comment ; and some of the best as well as some of the worst writers make great improvement in recasting their essays after they have been criticised. Two examinations occur in the course of the year, at which the class write upon sub- jects announced at the time, subjects drawn from books that have been read in preparation, or from current questions or familiar topics. Last year, a course in "Oral Discussion" was established. In order to give ample time for preparation, the class meets only once a fortnight ; in order to give ample time for debate, each session lasts for three consecutive hours. A question — political, historical, or literary — which presents a fair field for argument, and demands both reading and thought, is announced a fortnight before the time fixed for its discussion ; two members of the class are appointed to open the argument on each side, and one to close it, each of the opening speakers to have ten minutes and each of the closing ones fifteen minutes. Between the opening and the closing speeches nearly an hour is given to volunteers on either side, each being allowed five minutes only. The rem'aining hour is spent in comment by the instructor on the debate to which he has been listening, com- ment which extends to points of manner as well as of matter, to the way of putting things as much as to the things put, the general aim being to teach the young men how to make everything serve the main object — the object of convincing or persuading a hearer. Awkward attitudes, ungrammatical or obscure sentences, provincial or vulgar locutions, fanciful analogies, far-fetched illustrations, ingenious sophisms, pettifogging subtleties, ineffective arrangement — all come in for animadversion ; and corresponding merits for praise. The debate is judged as an exercise in spoken English as well as in reasoning ; and observation shows that, as might have been antic- ipated, a strong writer is usually a strong speaker also. These two are the only elective courses'which make the writing or the speaking of good English their principal aim ; and since the efficiency of each requires that the class should be limited in number and that preference should be given to the most competent writers or speakers, it is not unlikely that some who become conscious, at the end of their Junior year, of deficiencies in their powers of expression, are unable to avail themselves of these opportunities to supply their deficiencies, and that many more do not open their eyes to their needs till after they have left college. If, however, the demand for 16 TWENTY YEARS OF SCHOOL AND COLLEGE ENGLISH. elective work in English should greatly exceed the supply, the College will doubtless pro^^.de new courses sufficient to meet the demand. In establishing a course in composition in 1877, and one in oral discussion in 1878, the Faculty anticipated, rather than gratified, the wishes of the students ; but both courses, as the event has proved, supply real wants. Though the courses described are the only ones which aim, first and foremost, at good English, there are others Tvhich exercise a marked influence in the same direction. Prominent among these are the courses conducted by Professor Child, one of the most accom- plished living English scholars, — those in philology making the student familiar with the sources of the existing language, and those in Shakspere, Bacon, Chaucer, Milton, and Dryden, bringing him into close contact with the greatest of our writers. There is also a course in the English literature of the last and the present century ; there are readings and lectures in English, and literary courses in other languages, none of which can fail, in one way or another, in a greater or a less degree, to cultivate a faithful student's powers of expression. A similar influence may be traced to the courses in the fine arts, in mental and moral philosophy, in histor^^, in political economy, and even to some of the scientific courses. Every instructor who himself speaks and writes good English, and who demands good English from his pupils, is of great service ; and the number of those who keep this object in view is steadily increasing. On the whole, it seems fair to conclude that Harvard College, if not doing as much for the English of her students as can reasonably be expected while the schools do so little, is yet doing more and more every year, and that the most serious shortcomings in this respect on the part of her recent graduates cannot justly be laid at her door. English composition is the only study that every student must pursue after the Freshman year, every other subject being now optional ; in the elective courses in writing and speaking English, the best men have ample opportunities for practice ; in other courses, the best infiuences are indirectly at work to cultivate the students' powers of expression ; instruction in elocution is given to all who desire it ; Commencement Parts and Bowdoin Prizes (for disserta- tions on stated subjects) offer rewards for excellence in writing, Lee and Boylston Prizes for excellence in reading aloud and in spealring ; and there is now no doubt that in all the governing bodies of the University the current of opinion sets strongly in favor of good English. November, 1879. TWENTY YEARS OF SCHOOL AND COLLEGE ENGLISH. 17 THE HARVARD ADMISSION EXAMINATION IN ENGLISH. By L. B. R. Briggs, Harvard University. The Harvard admission examination in Englisli is widely dis- cussed and little understood. It is worth while, therefore, to show what this examination is and what sort of work the candidates do in it. Every candidate is expected to write oif-hand a respectable little theme, and to correct specimens of bad English. Subjects for com- position are drawn from a few English classics, which the association of New England colleges prescribes ; specimens of bad English are taken from the examination books of earlier years, from students' themes, from newspapers, and from contemporary literature. A scheme of examination must meet two tests : it must be rational on paper, and must be rationally administered. Whether the English examination at Harvard meets the first of these tests is still an open question. Substitutes for it and modifications of it are suggested on every hand. One teacher would try the candidate's knowledge of English by all his examination books, considered, whatever their subjects, as English Composition. This is an alluring plan, ideal in its excellence, and, alas, ideal in its impracticability. The books must be read under the lash : it is only by straining every nerve that the examiners can finish their work in time. If all the books of each candidate should be collected and should be examined as English Composition by some competent person, the delay would be unbear- able. Moreover, such an examination would not touch English Lit- erature ; and in this " practical" age it is well to teach a boy that classics exist. The proposal to substitute for the present test an examination in English History, and to mark each book twice, once for History and once for English, is open to like objections : it would double the time needed for handling the books, and it would require no knowledge of literature. It would introduce, besides, the danger of fixing a boy's study of composition on what is known as " the historical style," which is often conventional and unlovely. Some teachers would prescribe Mr. Stopford Brooke's Primer of English Literature; but this plan, too, is objectionable. It would force the candidate to study not literature, but facts (and opinions) about literature — names of authors whose works he had never seen : 18 TWENTY YEARS OF SCHOOL AND COLLEGE ENGLISH. dates, which, without a first-liand acquaintance witli tlie books they represent, stare Ibhxnkly at the mind, and at wliich tlie mind too often stares blankly in return. Other teachers would do away with the correction of bad English, and would fasten a boy's attention on good English only : yet up to this time no one has devised a better half-hour's test of acuteness and accuracy than the Bad English paper ; and until the English of Freshmen becomes less slovenly than it now is — or until accuracy becomes a lost art — some test is essential. Others still, would have no English requirement. They would suffer boys to come to college without a sense of literary form, and to ' ' dump " their knowledge promiscuously into their examina- tion books. I am no admirer of the present requirement ; I live in hope of something better : but I am as yet unable to see in any of the proposed substitutes a scheme at once superior and practicable. Besides, the present plan has passed, for a time at least, beyond the control of Harvard examiners and of Harvard University ; it must stand for several j-ears more whether we like it or not. The second test that an examination is bound to meet is the test of rational administration : it is not enough that the scheme of requirements is defensible ; the examiner must ask none but reason- able questions, and must mark the answers by a reasonable standard. Nobody who has inspected examination papers and the records of admission to colleges pretends that he can judge the severity of an examination by the printed scheme alone. Harvard College and other colleges print the same English requirement, but set different questions and mark hj different standards. Acquaintance with the method of marking is clearly necessary to the u^nderstanding of an examination. I have in mind two questions from the Greek admis- sion papers of minor colleges : one asked who Zeus was ; the other called for an account of the uses of the genitive case. Either may have demanded enormous intelligence in the candidate, and may have demanded none whatever ; neither, I must add, showed much in the examiner. In such discussion of the English examination as I have heard, nothing has impressed me more than the ignorance of teachers about the real nature of the test. The College is quite as responsible for this ignorance as the teachers are, since it has not done much to enlighten them ; but the teachers are responsible for irresponsibility, if for nothing more, when they publicly express such views as a thorough acquaintance with the subject would prove untenable. The candidate, as I have said, is required to write a short compo- sition on one of some half-dozen subjects from one or more of the TWE]N^TY YEARS OF SCHOOL AND COLLEGE ENGLISH. 19 prescribed English classics. It is possible, no doubt, to pick out from a collection of Harvard admission papers a few subjects nnin- telligently chosen ; it is possible to pick out many that demand either a close acquaintance with the books from which they come or a touch of originality in the boy who treats them well : but it is, I believe, impossible to find a paper that does not offer at least one subject of which no conscientious boy can complain. If one or two subjects are hard, candidates (and teachers) should remember that among the three hundred applicants of a single year there are a few whom indi- viduality or literary instinct guides to the maturer subjects, and that these few may be worth a hundred of the others. Nevertheless the multitude has carried the day : the Commission of New England Colleges* has practically tabooed the more advanced subjects ; and the paper for last June — as printed below — contains nothing that is abstruse, and little that even in appearance is minutely exacting : — ENGLISH COMPOSITIOX. 1. Write a composition — with special attention to clearness of arrange- ment, accuracy of expression, and quality rather than quantity of matter — on one of the following subjects : — 1. The Story of Viola. 2. Viola's Errand to Olivia. 3. How Malvolio was Tricked. 4. Sir Andrew Aguecheek's Challenge and What Came of it. 5. Mr. Darcy's Courtship. Whatever the subjects offered, it is safe to say that no candidate ever failed through ignorance of the details of a prescribed book. Doubtless many candidates have believed, and asserted, that they failed for this reason ; possibly their teachers have believed it, and have spread the report : but, as a matter of fact, the examiner's first question to himself is always, " Can the boy write English?" If he can, he may pass the examination, though, with Julius Caesar for his subject, he declares that Mark Antony loved Caesar less and Rome more. In June, 1887, two or three boys passed who acknowledged that they had never read the book from which the subjects were drawn, and who substituted subjects of their own choice from the other prescribed books. They would not have passed if their own English had not been good and their correction of bad English in- telligent. When a boy takes his own subject, it is right to demand a better theme of him than of others ; and since he may have come to the examination primed with a composition not his own, it is right * "The Commission of Colleges in New England on Admission Examinations." 20 TWENTY YEARS OF SCHOOL AXD COLLEGE ENGLISH. to demand of liim unusual skill in the correction of bad English — the only work that is beyond question his. This year a candidate passed with a disgracefully ignorant little theme, called " The Story of Viola " but really a feeble fiction of his own. He knew almost nothing of Viola except that she wore boy's clothes. He was saved because his work with the " specimens" was good, and the English of his composition bearable. Besides, he needed clemency in order to be admitted to college, and a condition in English would have tui'ned the scale against him. Here is his theme : — "THE STORY OF VIOLA." "As it happened, Viola went out in a shij) in company with her brother. They had been gone some time and were far out at sea, when a storm arose and wrecked the ship. During the disaster Viola got separated from her brother, and each was obliged to look after himself. They succeeded in saving themselves, but each one thought that the other had been droAvn. "Some Avhile afterwards, Viola happened to wander to the town in which her brother at that time was staying. She saw him and recognized him, and so went and put on a boy's apparel and engaged herself into a family as a messenger boy to run on all errands that should come up. She kept her position for some time, continually making trouble for the people around her, and playing jokes on the lovers in the play. ' ' Finally she gave up and told her brother of her identity, which he would not believe at first, but finally accepted her as his sister Avith great joy." I was ashamed to pass this theme, and am ashamed to print it as part of a successful examination ; but I wish to show that Harvard does not insist upon that minute and diversified literary knowledge which strains a boy's head and baffles a teacher's impart- ing skill. Leniently as the books are judged now, it might be well, as some one has suggested, to supplement the test of a theme written off-hand by that of one written at school and certified by the teacher as a fair specimen of the boy's work. The plan resembles that already adopted for the examination in Experimental Physics. The certified theme, if presented by a trustworthy teacher, might now and then offset in the examiner's judgment, the effect of nervous excitement or examination fright. So far Harvard might move toward the plan of admission by certificate, but no farther. The master of a famous preparatory school makes two complaints which deserve special consideration : first, that his worst pupils TWENTY YEARS OF SCHOOL AND COLLEGE ENGLISH. 21 always pass in English ; and secondl}^, that his best pupils fail to get " credit" or " honors." Good and bad are lumped, he declares, so that he can rouse neither ambition nor fear. It is easy to see why his poorer scholars pass. He has boys of more than average intelligence ; he pays more attention to the English requirement than most teachers are as yet willing to do ; he uses good English himself, whereas many teachers do not ; and, above all, he gives admirable instruction in G-reek and Latin. Thus his pupils have peculiar advantages ; and even the weakest of them do as well at the English examination as better scholars from many other schools. Some masters push English Composition into a corner, and a dark corner at that ; others are guilty of sentences like "When tvill we be able to really commence work?" others, not so inaccurate, prefer oratorical or dressy English to the style of a straightforward gentleman, and vitiate a boy's writing with a vulgarity that it takes years to counteract ; others still — to borrow Professor Hill's expression — praise the English that is " free from all faults except that of having no merits ; " and many suffer their pupils to turn Greek and Latin into that lazy, mongrel dialect, "Translation English." The Greek and Latin requirements tell for so much more than the English requirements that a boy spends at least three school hours in producing hybrid translation to one in producing English. Consequently, at the English examination he writes, " One of the strangers having been informed of the youth's mission, set out to find the sought for uncle of the youth.'' I condition him, but with pity rather than blame ; for the teachers, too, are infected with the dis- ease of construing. When a boy writes " ?/ou ivas" or "a little loays," he may show the influence of an uneducated home — an influence that his teacher is perhaps powerless to offset. What gives a peculiarly melancholy aspect to " He having been informed, set out to find the sought for uncle " is the fact that no illiterate boy could produce it ; that it is the direct result of an educational process for which the teacher is beyond escape to blame. In a school where the teaching of Greek and Latin is, as it should be everywhere, the teaching of English also, no boy will have much trouble with the English requirements. The complaint that boys of marked capacity in English fail to get " credit," is a serious one, and I am unable to meet it satisfactorily. Before this year the requirement for credit was too high. This year the college lowered it slightly ; yet, even with an unusually easy 22 . TWENTY YEAES OF SCHOOL AND COLLEGE ENGLISH. paper in " Sentences," it was impossible to give "credit" to more than five books ; and not one of the five showed remarkable promise. I print one as a specimen : — "THE STORY OF VIOLA." "The stor}^ of 'The Twelfth Mght,' in which Viola aj^pears, opens with the landing of Viola, with her friend, the captain, upon the shores of Illyria. She is in quest of her brother, Sebastian, whom she has not seen since the time of the ship-wreck, a disaster which sej)erated [sic] them some time ago. She remembers having heard her father speak with the greatest admiration of the duke Orsino, who lives in a city near by, and determines to enter his service as his page. ' ' Xow the duke is at this time violently in love Avith the Countess Olivia, a beautiful Avonian, who is ha mourning for her brother and has vowed that man shall never look upon her face again. Every advance of the duke is rejected; his entreaties are in vain. When he sees Viola, Orsino at once employs her, thiidiing her to be a man, and sends her to press his suit with the comatess. He sees that Viola is beautiful and thinks that she can more easily obtain an interview with Olivia. ' ' He is right ; Viola not only gains access to the palace, but a private interview with the countess. She tells Olivia of the duke's insatiable love, but all her efforts come to naught ; again and again, she tries to soften Olivia's heart, but always with the same result. " Meanwhile, Olivia, also thinking Viola to be a man, has fallen in love with her, and Viola has grown to love the duke. These three are now entangled in a web from which time alone can extricate them. The duke is in love with the countess, the countess loves Viola, and Viola tells the duke that she will never love wife more than him. "At the palace of Olivia, lives her cousin. Sir Toby, whom Sir Andrew Aguecheek is visiting. Sir Andrew is wooing the countess and, seeing that she looks with favor upon Viola, sends Viola a challenge for a duel. "In the mean time Viola's brother, Sebastian, has arrived in the city. In walking about, he happens to enter the court-yard of of Olivia's palace. Sebastian looks exactly like his sister, and, when Sir Andrew sees him, he thinks it is Viola and attacks him. Being very skilled in the use of the sword, Sebastian easily overcomes Sir Andrew. " Olivia, now meeting Sebastian and taking him to be Viola, tells him of her love for him and proposes that they be married. Sebastian, not disliking the looks of the countess, accepts, and the knot is tied. " Viola noAV enters with the duke, and brother and sister meet for the first time since the ship-wreck. Everything is quickly explained, and Orsino, remembering Viola's professions of love, mairies her. ' ' Thus happily ends ' The TAvelf th Night ' and the romantic experience of Viola." TWENTT YEARS OF SCHOOL AND COLLEGE ENGLISH. 23 This composition has none of a boy's freshness, no marked sign of literary taste, no peculiar \dgor. Besides, there are taints of transla- tion in it, such as " heing very sJcilled," and " tciking him to he Viola * * * proposes that they he married." Its English, however, is xisually accurate and unpretending; and the boy, tame as he is, shows undeniable skill in marshalling his facts. He has constructed a clear and well-proportioned summary, has done a solid hour's work, . and deserves praise. He makes some bad slips with the " specimens," but not many; and I give him the coveted " Good." Other boys show more cleverness and more imagination ; but their English is slipshod, or grandiose, or miscellaneously exuberant. They may be brilliant writers by and by ; but they lack those quali- ties "ndthout which no elementary work earns a high mark. In three cases of failure to get "credit" complaint has reached the examiners. In two of these cases Professor Hill re-read the compositions and found plague-spots of "Translation English." Complaint in the third case came to me, nearly two years after the examination. I had then seen the young man's work in his Freshman and Sophomore years. He was interested in literature, and his mind was strong and fertile. At his best he wrote admirably ; at other times he was diffuse and undisciplined — fond of tricks that seemed almost too vicious for his good sense to overcome or his vitality to struggle through. Nor was he even accurate. He wrote '•'• tiviglilight," for instance, with all dictionaries at his command and a fortnight for preparation. Such a young man might earn from sixty per cent to one hundred, according to his mood ; and nobody could foresee whether he would or would not deserve " honors" in English. It is almost inevitable that the extremes of marking should lie nearer together in the English examination than in any other. In mathematics and even in translation, total failure is possible ; but every boy who thinks himself ready for Plarvard College can produce a few English sentences, and correct some of the more glaring errors in the specimens of bad English. A book in mathematics may be perfect, and a book in translation accurate ; but no one knows what perfect English is, and scarcely any one keeps clear of conspicuous inaccuracy. Again: the "sentence paper," though easy to do something with, is hard to treat perfectly in the time allowed by the Faculty. These causes narrow the range of marking. I have tried to show what the English examination is ; it remains to consider some characteristics of the examination books. Spelling is bad, and probably always will be : loose for lose is so nearly universal that lose begins to look wrong ; sentance prevails ; 24 TWENTY YEARS OF SCHOOL AND COLLEGE ENGLISH. dissapointed and facinating are not unusual ; sporadic cases are Sir Tohhy [Belch] , Sheassjjhere [of Stratford] , and welthey aeris * [Por- tia of Belmont] . Punctuation is frequently inaccurate — that is to say, unintelligent and misleading. The apostrophe is nearly as often a sign of the plural as of the possessive ; the semicolon, if used at all, is a spasmodic ornament rather than a help to the understanding ; and — worst of all — the comma does duty for the period, so that even interesting writers run sentence into sentence without the formality of full stop or of capital. To many candidates the principle that punctuation has no excuse for being, except so far as it guides the reader to the writer's meaning, seems never to have occurred. As for paragraphing, I am aware that it is a delicate art : yet that is no reason why some whole essays should be single paragraphs — solid, unindented blocks of conglomerate ; or why in others nearly every sentence should make a paragraph by itself, so that a page, except for its untidiness, might be taken from a primer. Here is a compo- sition of the former kind : — "Tiola, disguised as a boy, was sent by the Duke to see Olivia. Viola was sent with intention that she should tr}' and persuade Olivia to love the Duke. Viola, however, instead of gaining the love of Olivia for the Duke, gained it for herself. At last, even, Olivia wanted to marry Viola, but Viola being a girl was forced to refuse her. It happened that Viola's brother passed there soon after this. Olivia taking him for his sister asked him to marry her, wliich he, after he was over his surprise, did. Olivia the next time she met Viola, taking her for her brother, was quite indignant because she did not recognise her as her wife. Sliortly after this Viola's brother meeting Olivia and Viola together, is overjoyed to meet his sister, whom he thought dead. The Duke then also comes by and recognised Viola. After the Duke hears that Olivia is married he askes Viola to be his wife which she with great pleasure does. The Duke and Olivia therefore instead of becoming man and wife, become brother and sister.'' I give two specimens of the minced themes, one narrative and one ethical : — I. «' Mr Darcy was invited by Mr Bingley to make him a visit at his place. ' ' It hapjDened that, early one morning, Elizabeth Bemiet had taken a walk, and on her way had visited the Bingleys. f " Here she met Mr Darcy, and at first sight took a dislike to him. • ' She took cold on account of her walk and was not able to go home for two days ; so her sister came and took care of her. * The reformed spelling of heiress. t There is some doubt whether the writer meant to begin a paragraph here. TWENTY YEARS OF SCHOOL AND COLLEGE ENGLISH. 25 ' ' The sister of Bingley wanted to marry Mr Darcy on account of liis money, although she could not consider herself poor. ' ' It seems that Mr Darcj^ was struck at the first sight by the handsome face of Elizabeth and Mr Bingley also was not slow to acknowledge that he liked Jane, Elizabeth's sister, " Soon after the malady was cured, the sisters returned home. " In a few days Mr Bennet invited Mr Darcy and Bingly to a dinner. " Here also Mr Darcy showed a desire for Elizabeths company. " At this time there was quatred at Longbourn a regiment. " This was a very pleasing addition to the pleasures of the Bennet's, for there was always some entertainiment going on, in which they gener- ally took part. "A Mr Wickham made his appearance here in ordei to join the regiment. ' ' He was very handsome, and could keep up a lively conversation so that he was liked by everyone, especially the Bennets. »* One day Mr Darcy with Mr Bingley were riding through Longbourn when they met the Bennets who were with Mr Wickham. As soon as Wickliam saw Darcy he turned colour and passed on. Elizabeth noticed this and related it to her sister and they two had a great amount of gossip over the event. ' ' The next time Elizabeth met Wickham she enquired of him when he and Mr Darcy had met before. ' ' He told her a story that threw a dark light on Mr Darcy and made himself out as a very wronged man. ' ' This was believed by all who heard of it untill Wickham eloped with Lydia Bennet leaving great many debts behind him. "These Mr Darcy paid and fomid out Avhere the eloped couple Avere staying, and reported his find to Mr Bemaet's brother. ' ' This transaction was f ovmd out by Elizabeth, who immediately had to admit to her sister that she liked Mr Darcy more than ever. " This soon grew into love which finaly resulted in her marraige." II. "MR. DARCY'S COURTSHIP." In the Courtship of Mr. Darcy we see one hand, much for lovers to copy after and desire, while on the other much that they should avoid. " A warning should be taken from tlie despicable maimer in Avhich Jane is treated by Darcy's sister. It is unfair to say the least. ' ' Why should a respectable young man be prevented from courting a young lady even if she be not wealthy ? " The course of true love camiot be put to an end, no matter what is brought to bear ujjon it. ' ' If every lover would have the patience and faith of Jane in a man, especially when outward circumstances are very, very dark, we should have less divorce cases to-day in the courts. 26 TAVEXTY YEARS OF SCHOOL AND COLLEGE ENGLISH. *' While Darcy is 2)i' APPENDIX. 63 14 hf, English Literature. — The Drama from the Miracle Plays to the Closing of the Theatres. Half-course. Wed., at 11. Asst. Professor Wendell. (Ill-) Course 14 is open to those only who take or have taken Course 2. 'd^ hf. English Literature. — Spenser. Half-course. Tu., Th., Sat., at 10 {second half-year). Mr. Fletcher. (VIII.) 23 hf. English Literature. — The works of Shakspere. Half-course. Wed., at 2.30. Asst. Professor Baker. (V.) Course 23 is open to those only who have taken English 2. 29 hf. The English Novel from Richardson to George Eliot. Half-course. Wed., at 10. Professor A. S. Hill. (II.) 24' hf. The Poetry of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Scott, Byron, Shelley, and Keats. Half-course. Tu., Th., at 11 (first half-year). Professor A. S. Hill. (IX.) *5. English Composition (advanced course). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 12. Pro- fessor A. S. Hill. (IV.) With the consent of the instructor. Course 5 may be taken in two successive years. With the consent of the instructor. Course 5 may be taken as a half- course during the first half-year. Courses of Research. 20. During the year 1896-97 the instructors in English will hold themselves ready to assist and advise competent graduates who may xjropose plans of special study which shall meet the approval of the Department. 20a. English Literature in its relation to German Literature, from 1790 to 1830. Wed., at 4.30. Mr. Gates. [205. English Literature in its relation to Italian Literature in the Sixteenth Century. Mr. Fletcher.] Omitted in 1896-97; to be given in 1897-98. ^ " \^ .. -^ "^0^ -^ ^o. '*r^'* ,0'' '^-^ '^'rrr.^ .^ >** _''*<\Va-, U .?^ /^feW..** A^lfA'. **.^^ -j^" . * ^^ '<^. * o ^' ^oV^ ^^ r . ^--s^' ^^'\ .0 •^0^ HO, , AUGUSTINE 'V^*-'"-