away its scepter. Having no shred of truth in it, it must totally vanish away with the smoke of the past and give place to the sunshine of science. One of the writers sneeringly doubts whether Rothe really knows any thing about the spirit of socalled "modern culture;" the other sees in the liberal Christianity of the Verein the first step of the Church toward abdicating her throne; but it is only a single step, which of itself serves no good purpose. She must entirely abdicate and cast her already long-eclipsed crown at the feet of victorious science.

Such was the unfortunate movement into which a few such men as Daniel Schenkel (taking advantage of an erroneous speculative view of Rothe) tempted the over-charitable and overunsuspecting theologian to engage during the last few years of his failing and declining life. But to all who have intimately known him in former years to the multitudes who have sat at his feet and heard him reverently discourse of "his Lord Christ," and to all who come under the influence of the almost divine unction that rests upon his writings-there cannot be the least doubt but that the temporary vacillation of their master was simply an incident of his declining vigor. Indeed, it was clearly observed by his students, in his later years, that he not unfrequently "blieb stecken in der Konstruction" (lost the connection of his thoughts) when treating of difficult points. This slight obscuration, however, of his fair reputation will be of but very short duration. When the rancor of party spirit shall have allayed itself, the benign form of Richard Rothe will take its proper place in the serene company of great teachers, of whom God gives a few to the Church in every age.

To the great English-reading Christian public Dr. Rothe is destined to remain only remotely known. His writings are so peculiar in form, so utterly and crabbedly German - the thoughts are so imbedded in and identified with the expression that they will never be successfully translated. Their wholesome influence, however, will not remain shut up in Germany, but will flow over to other nations through manifold secondary and tertiary channels. But the personal life of the author-that beautiful life of love to Christ-is a perennial flower, whose rich fragrance is now extending to all climes, and will be wafted far across the ages of the future.

ART. III.-THE HIGHER EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS OF NEW ENGLAND.

[SECOND ARTICLE.]

SCIENTIFIC SCHOOLS AND SCIENTIFIC DEPARTMENTS IN COLLEGES.

IT has not required a very close observation to notice that there have been gradually growing up among us modifications of the educational ideas of our fathers. Without attempting to trace these modifications, or to enter into an exhaustive statement of them, we may nevertheless say that they have chiefly arisen from the new and increasing claims of Natural Science, Agriculture, Civil, Topographical, and Mechanical Engineering, Architecture, etc., which have led to the formation of Departments of Natural Science and Engineering in our Colleges, Institutes of Technology, and Agricultural Colleges.

There seems to be an increasing haste on the part of young men to get into their hands the tools with which to work in their various callings, to become experts in some particular line, to the neglect of a broad and general culture. Some of this class are becoming professional scientists. Of the evils which may come to the sciences from being developed by these men of defective general culture, and other questions connected with this subject, we will not now speak. But the fact exists that special departments in colleges, and also separate schools, like the Technical schools in Boston and Worcester, seem to be now rising in favor with young men. Many have been diverted from a full collegiate course of study into these institutions; and from this fact we think that we can explain, to some extent, the recent comparative decline in the number of college students in Massachusetts and Connecticut. Our view of the New England Colleges would be defective without a presentation of this part of the subject. We have therefore prepared tables giving statistics of the Scientific Departments and Institutions of New England in 1850 and 1870:

Total...

1:0

2

89

1 12 19 14

::

10 15

639

41 82

6 52

167 2 14 20 55 1 16 108

1849-50. But few students in this institution pursue the classical course.

Scientific Colleges and Departments-1870.

59

Partly scientific and partly agricultural, but partaking more of the character of the former than the latter.

NOTE.-Six of the above institutions have been endowed by Congress by gifts of public lands amounting to 1,170,000 acres in scrip," namely: Sheffield Scientific School of Yale College, 180,000 acres; Maine Agricultural College, 210,000 acres; Massachusetts Agricultural College at Amherst, 360,000 acres; New Hampshire Agricultural College at Hanover, 150,000 acres; Scientific School of Brown University, 150,000 acres; Vermont Agricultural College, 150,000 acres.

From the foregoing tables we see that in 1850 there were 167 students in the Scientific Departments of our New England Colleges and in the Norwich University, of whom 108 were from New England.

In 1870 there were 837 in all these Departments and Institutions, of whom 668 were from New England; 337 of these were in the Scientific Departments of Yale, Harvard, Dartmouth, Brown, Norwich University, and the University of Vermont; 187 were in the three Agricultural Colleges of Mas

sachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine, and 313 were in the two Technical Schools of Boston and Worcester. This is an increase of nearly four hundred per cent. in twenty years in students of this class.

It may not be amiss, and it may aid our conceptions of what is actually being done in the higher departments of learning, to combine the results of the two tables of scientific students for 1850 and 1870 with those of the Colleges for 1850 and 1870, as follows:

Scientific and Collegiate Students-1850.

Calculating on the basis of these tables, we find that the aspect of the field is somewhat changed. In 1850 there was in New England one student for 1,725 inhabitants, and in 1870 one for 1,490 inhabitants, which indicates a slight decline from 1830 to 1850, (as previously given,) but a good gain since 1850.

Connecticut had, in 1830, one student for 1,503 inhabitants.

By this method of reckoning the case is much improved in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Rhode Island, showing a greater gain upon the population in each State. Massachusetts has retrieved some of her loss from 1830 to 1850, but is still behind where she stood in 1830, and Connecticut is also far below where she stood in 1830.

But there are strong reasons why these two classes of students ought not to be combined in this calculation. The latter class, taken as a whole, and even a majority of them, do not hold the same rank with the former. They are all pursuing a course of study which is much more limited in its scope and power of culture, and the qualifications for admission to them are also far inferior. The conclusion, then, is inevitable, that there is not as large an average amount of collegiate training in the population of New England as there was in 1830 or in 1850.

How far this decline in collegiate culture may be accounted for from the general advancement made in the course of study pursued in our common schools, in their present graded form, under which our high schools are now imparting instruction nearly equivalent to the first two years of the college courses forty years ago, is worthy of being considered in this connection, but we will not now enter into it.

THE RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF NEW ENGLAND COLLEGES

is also an important topic, and of great interest in many minds. We have space only for the insertion of some valuable statistics, without comment, furnishing data for remark and discussion elsewhere. We are in debt to the Society of Religious Inquiry at Andover, Mass., for these statistics. We have selected those for New England.

In 1855, of 1,485 students in nine New England Colleges, 678, or forty-five per cent., were professors of religion. In 1865, of 2,203 students in twelve New England Colleges, 1,065, or forty-eight per cent., were professors of religion. But in the nine Colleges reckoned in 1855, Harvard, Yale, and Bates were not included, the statistics not having been obtained. In order to make a proper comparison between the same colleges,