will eventually show sufficient promise to warrant him, if he changes his mind, in proceeding to the higher degree. If so, the fact that the would-be Master of Arts will have already absolved the requirements of an allied subject will enable him to go forward to the Doctorate with considerably less loss of time than would otherwise be the case.

The remaining conditions attending the Master's degree as they are set forth in our university register are:

"The student must be in attendance at the university during the year immediately preceding the final examinations, unless, for some extraordinary reason, special permission to the contrary is granted by the Board of University Studies. To be admitted as a candidate for this degree, the student must make application, according to a prescribed form, to the Board of University Studies at least one academic year before he expects to present himself for his final examinations. The essay must be on a subject approved by the professor in charge of the principal subject, and must be completed and submitted to the Board of University Studies at least four weeks before the time of the final examinations. Two referees will then be appointed to examine the essay and to present a written report on it to the Board. This essay shall be prepared for presentation to the Board in the manner prescribed for the dissertation submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. If the report on the essay is satisfactory, the candidate will then be admitted to the examination."

The three conditions just mentioned also apply equally to the candidate for the Doctor's degree. In other respects, the conditions governing the two degrees differ as follows:

The Doctor's dissertation must be founded on an original investigation, and the dissertation must be printed within a specified time after the degree is conferred. The Master's essay is not founded on an original investigation. Of course, it might be a piece of original work so far as it goes, but from the very nature of the case, such an essay would be too rare and exceptional to be either asked or expected. Also it is not printed.

Again, there is a difference between the two in the matter of examinations. The Doctor must pass final written examinations in all three of his subjects, also, an oral examination before the Board of University Studies in his principal and and first subordinate subjects. The Master is given no oral examination, passes a final written examination only on his principal subject, and on the subject followed during any academic year he is permitted to take examinations at the end of that year or at the beginning of the next, and, provided these examinations are satisfactory, he will not be examined again in the same courses. Finally, the rule is that courses on certain subjects in the Summer School, provided they are approved by the Board of University Studies, are, in accordance with specified provisions, accepted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Master's degree.

I have already called attention to the fact that so far as the Johns Hopkins is concerned, both the Master and the Doctor in the vast majority of cases are fitting themselves for the profession of teaching. This is brought out and emphasized by the extent to which the preliminary training of both, so far as it goes, is identically the same. On the other hand, the divergences in the training of the two bring out the fact that the Master's degree is a teacher's not an investigator's degree, whereas the Doctor, altho he too expects to teach, must also vindicate his right to the title of an original investigator.

Now, of course, all first class teachers are not necessarily original investigators, nor, on the other hand, is every original investigator bound thereby to be a good teacher. At the same time a real investigator is practically certain in nearly every case, even in his own despite, of being an inspiring teacher, at all events, in the higher ranges of the profession. And in most cases it is also true that other things being equal, the Master expresses himself to the best advantage in the vastly important business of training students who are less advanced.

From what precedes it may be gathered that so far as we are concerned the Master's degree occupies a definite position

in the path leading directly from the Bachelor of Arts to the Doctor of Philosophy. As such it has a distinctly practical value of its own. Sometimes it happens, for example, that a candidate for the Doctor's degree does not or can not proceed to the end but is impelled by choice or necessity to take up his profession of teaching without further delay. To such a man the Master's degree is peculiarly helpful in securing a place. It is the formal official recognition and sanction of the fact that he has the ability and training of a desirable candidate. In short, it meets the more or less pathological craving created by what Professor Calvin Thomas has termed "pergamental psychosis," that peculiar affliction which at the present time appears to be epidemic among all classes of the American people.

Occasionally such a student is one who entered as a candidate for the Doctor's degree and did full and satisfactory work, but did not develop the taste or the talent of an investigator. He deserves the degree of M.A. but probably would not be successful in winning the Ph.D., at least with distinction. It is best, therefore, for him to be satisfied with the Master's degree. But this type is extremely rare, quite too rare to affect, as it sometimes seems to do, the definition of what is represented by the Master's degree. Whatever it is, the Master's degree is not a consolation prize. To be sure, it is not an investigator's degree but it does not follow by any means that the possessor of it lacks either the ability or the inclination to become an investigator.

The above is a brief exposition of the theory and practise of Johns Hopkins University as regards the degree of Master of Arts. It will be seen that the following points are emphasized: 1. The Master's degree is a graduate degree.

2. The Master's degree is not an investigator's degree. But, nevertheless, it is meant that the possessor of it shall have both the training so far as it goes and the point of view of an investigator. 3. Therefore the period of study required of the candidate is not less than two years.

It has been said that this position of the Master's degree directly on the path leading from the Baccalaureate to the

Doctorate exposes it unduly to the attentions of the collector of degrees. This type of man, however, is rare and can easily be dealt with in the individual case. It will also be seen that if he complies with the conditions mentioned above, the candidate for the degree of Master of Arts is practically driven to pursue his studies only in certain favorite localities. In other words, assuming as we do that the degree is a graduate degree, the candidate for it naturally selects an institution large enough to furnish the necessary equipment for graduate work. Such equipment is special and very expensive. The smaller colleges do not possess it, and, therefore, ought not to attempt to do graduate work to any extent. This is a general rule which is in no way invalidated by the undoubted fact that in individual instances the smaller colleges have done well to give this degree.

The usage of Johns Hopkins, however, is presented here merely as such, not as something unique nor as a model to be followed by other institutions. Local conditions must always have their weight in the solution of this problem, and local conditions are rarely identical. The value of uniformity is undoubted and the most striking characteristic of this country is lack of uniformity, lack of a common standard by which to estimate the value of many important things. We have improved in this respect as in many others and doubtless we shall continue to do so. But it is not likely that we shall ever be distinguished for our uniformity. We Americans are united but we are not standardized. And when I reflect that the wealth, the variety, and the glory of Greek life, Greek thought, Greek art, Greek poetry are due in no small degree to the fact that Greece was and always remained a bundle of local interests, traditions and developments, that she too was not standardized and to the very last was successful in resisting the process, I am not at all disturbed by the fact that we, also, are in no danger of being standardized overmuch. Certainly at our present rate of progress we Americans shall never become too efficient for our own good. KIRBY FLOWER SMITH

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY

V

WHY TEACH?

At the risk of offending my friends in the profession who, like me, believe that teachers are over-worked and underpaid, I invite young people to become teachers. When asked why I seek to steer them away from the supposed glittering prize of the market-place or the supposedly better-paid professions, I reply somewhat like this:

First, I teach school because I want to. It is unnecessary to expound the proposition already worn by the process of exposition, that teaching gives me an opportunity to meet boys and girls of all sorts and conditions on a ground that is foreign soil to the minister, or piously to exclaim that I love boys and girls despite their faults, or to protest that I have a message for them. Let me merely repeat that I want to teach. The exercise of explaining to others what I, at least, think that I understand, of working upon living models, of making them respond to me whether they will or not, and express themselves even when they declare that they have nothing to express-this is as dear to me as is the conquest of a customer to a salesman, or the triumph of a modeler over an obstinate piece of clay. Tho these pupils of mine grow away into what they will be pleased to call their successes, and receive full credit for their accomplishments, they and the world that crowns them together forgetting my part in their success-I do not forget. Rather I take a keen joy in my workmanship, even tho, like an Athenian artificer, I carve in the dark; for in the craftsmanship my soul is satisfied that could not be satisfied except thru the suffering of the teacher.

Second, others want me to teach. My business friends speak to me, sometimes in the street-car, sometimes in the newspaper, sometimes from the platform of the conventionhall or across the club dinner-table, urging me to continue in