n of them are college graduates; that five more
had a part of the college course, but did not graduate, while only
twenty-eight did not go to college at all. As not more than one young
man in five hundred goes to college, and as this one-five-hundredth of
the young men furnishes four-sevenths of our distinguished public
officers, it appears that a collegian has seven hundred and fifty
times as many chances of being an eminent Governor or Congressman as
other young men."

The college graduate generally has the pre-eminence among professional
men. The proportion of successful men in the professions is difficult
to obtain, but if a wide reputation be regarded as the criterion of
success, the college-bred men take the lead.

President Thwing has carefully estimated that, of the 15,142 most
conspicuous persons of our American history, whose record is sketched
in "Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography," 5,326 are college
men. Among the latter, the percentage found in the various callings is
as follows: "Pioneers and explorers, 3.6 per cent.; artists, 10.4 per
cent.; inventors, 11 per cent.; philanthropists, 16 per cent.;
business men, 17 per cent.; public men, 18 per cent.; statesmen, 33
per cent.; authors, 37 per cent.; physicians, 46 per cent.; lawyers,
50 per cent.; clergymen, 58 per cent.; educators, 61 per cent.;
scientists, 63 per cent." He further estimates that one college man
in every forty attains recognition, to one in every ten thousand
non-college men; and a college-bred man has 250 times the chance of
attaining recognition that the non-college man has.

Dr. Channing says: "The grounds of a man's culture lie in his nature,
and not in his calling;" and, in keeping with this, the primary aim of
a college is to train men. Yet, it should be the door of approach to
all professions. The studies pursued in college are the foundations of
the practice of the various professions, and a young man does himself
and his profession no credit when he neglects to master a college
course because of his impatience to rush into a professional career,
and thus help to swell the army of poorly-equipped professional men.

"To practice law or medicine in France," says Matthew Arnold, "a
person must possess a diploma, which serves as a guarantee to the
public that such a person is qualified for his profession. A
licentiate of law must first have got the degree of Bachelor of
Letters; have then attended two years' lectures in a