Reminiscences of Princeton College 1845 1848

urriculum possessed the great essential studies of a sound education,?languages, mathematics and philosophy. If there were gaps in its curriculum, according to present-day standards, they were not peculiar to Princeton. They were to be found in the courses of study in other colleges; they were due to the state of education at that time in the country. It was natural in colleges founded by clergymen, who belonged to conservative churches, that Trustees and Faculties should challenge the modern sciences, and ask their advocates to show cause why they should be allowed a place in the circle of the long established sciences, and kinship with them. Some of these sciences had been used as a means of assailing what was then understood to be the chronology of the Bible; and others seemed but little fitted, in the eyes of these grave men, to be used in education. As one places the catalogues of '48 and of 1912 side by side, there are two reflections that will be suggested. One is, how greatly the course of study has been secularized. The old college of fifty years ago, which still bore traces of its church origin, and was a fortress of conservatism, has new tenants. The unworldliness of the old college has not been effaced, but relatively it is not so much in evidence. The old curriculum is included in the new, but the ampler development of modern society has caused the introduction of many new subjects, some of which like Art and Politics would have been thought unsuit...