of the priesthood superior to that of the common people, it is difficult to see how the Greek Church can reform itself from within.

But of some reformation there appears to be great need. At present the Church seems to be full of formality and superstition. The doctrine of baptismal regeneration, the rite of baptism with its useless ceremonies, the practice of admitting infants to the communion, the kisses and prayers given to pictures of saints, the practical divorce of morality and religion (every baptized person being a Christian, and everybody being baptized), the use of masses for the dead, the worship of the Virgin, the doctrine of transubstantiation, the virtue imputed to the outward acts of fasting and partaking of the communion, such things as these indicate a mournful departure from the truth and spirituality of the Gospel. It is interesting to know and appreciate these facts in view of the tendency manifested by a small party here and in England to fraternize with the Greek Church,-a tendency which the Greeks have heard about, and which has confirmed them in their confidence of superiority. They make a boast of it as a sign of a desire of the wanderers to return to the true orthodox Church. The Episcopal Church in this country has gone farther on the way back to the middle ages than most of us think, if it can cordially fraternize with the Greek Church as it is. There are some good things to be said, however, of the Greek Church; that it does not prohibit or discourage the use of the Bible by the people, that its services, though recited or chanted at such a rate of speed as to be almost unintelligible, are still in a language understood and in a form obtainable by all, that it does not actually avow the policy of keeping the people in ignorance in order to control them, but rather encourages education except by its example. On these things, and on the desire of the people for education, must rest any hope of the reformation of this Church from within. But if the latter outruns the former, as it is now doing, if the people make progress in enlightenment while the Church remains unchanged, and the study of the Bible is neglected, the result can hardly fail to be that the educated classes will become infidel, and the ignorant superstitious, even more than now.

There are two different systems of missionary work among the members of such a church as this. One is to endeavor to promote reform within the existing organization, discouraging every attempt to form a new church, and dissuading individuals who may be awakened to new life from leaving the old Church. This is the policy of the "Anglo-Continental Society" of the English Church, on whose list of patrons are the names of halfa-dozen bishops of the American Episcopal Church. The other missionary system is to promote the study of the Bible, in the expectation that the conscience of the converts will under that influence alone revolt against the errors of the corrupt church, and so they will be constrained to leave it. This latter policy is that of the missionaries of the "American and Foreign Christian Union" at Athens; the former has, we believe, no active representative in Greece. It is much to be desired that an earnest effort should be made to give the principle of the Anglo-Continental Society a thorough trial in Greece. For if it should succeed, it would accomplish the great object of missions at less cost in the excitement of sinful passions and the wounding of feelings; if it should fail (as seems more probable), its failure would define the position of the Greek Church, and concentrate missionary effort on the other plan. The only other hope for Christianity in Greece is in the formation of a pure Protestant Church under the constitutional guarantee of religious liberty. As the law is now, such a Church, consisting, pastor and people, of Greek citizens only, may be formed, and may claim the protection of the government against violence. It would meet with fierce opposition at first, and its members would have to make great sacrifices. But the right is clear and could be maintained. Let such a Church, by the blessing of God, have wise management and pure character, and it would soon make for itself a hearing, and command respect. The intolerance of the Greeks is of the kind that would give way before enlightenment, and there could be no better enlightenment than the sight of such a church. It would in course of time work reform in the Greek Church by the influence of its example. The Greeks themselves see and confess in private their need of reform, and now and then a bold priest advocates it publicly. But they must do the work themselves. The best

way to bring them to it is to build up such a church as we have described.

On the whole, the tendency of things in Greece is toward improvement in education, in civilization, and in government. We hope that when the Gospel they have buried out of sight is brought back to them, even from the distant West, the improvement will begin in the Church also.

NOTE. It seems worth while to add a few particulars about the University of Athens (ro vixóv Taveriorμov). It was organized soon after King Otho's coming to Greece, by some German scholars who came with him, and, as has been said above, strictly on the plan of the German Universities. Like them, it has a rector (in Greek, puravis) appointed yearly from among the professors. Like them, it has four faculties, of law, medicine, theology, and philosophy, containing ordinary and extraordinary professors (τακτικοὶ καὶ ἔκτακτοι καθηγηται), and privat-docenten (¿qnynrai). Like them, it gives instruction almost entirely by lectures, and confers degrees on condition of a certain term of residence, and after examinations. The lectures are free and open to all, and are attended by many who do not enroll themselves as students. Many, probably most, of the professors have been educated in Germany or France, and present the fruits of European science in their instructions.

The University occupies one large building, erected by subscription, and well arranged for its purpose. It contains a lecture-room for each faculty, an anatomical theatre, a laboratory, and a large hall for public occasions. There is deposited in it also the national library, the property of the government, which is said to number over 80,000 volumes, and a smaller one, containing some 5,000 or 6,000 volumes, belonging to the University, and for the use of the instructors only. The nucleus of this latter was the private library of Thiersch.

A newspaper just received from Athens contains some statistics about the University, from which the following facts are derived. The whole number of students enrolled as candidates for degrees from Sept. 1, 1837, to Sept. 1, 1866, was 4,347, classified as follows:-in the theological faculty, 198; in the law faculty, 1747; in the medical faculty, 1986; in the philo

Those

sophical, 182; and in the school of pharmacy, 244. who obtained the degree of doctor during this time were 1014, with about the same proportion in the several faculties, except that there were only five in the theological school, and 158 in the school of pharmacy. Of instructors of all grades, there have been 8 in theology, 20 in law, 28 in medicine, 36 in philosophy. During the year 1865-6 there were 1182 students enrolled, more than in any year before, of whom more than half, 678, were in the law faculty.

The expenses of the University for that year are given as about $10,000, of which a little more than half was to make up the salaries of the professors for two months when the government was unable to pay them. The receipts from all sources are stated to have been a little over $29,000, and a large part of the surplus was invested in shares of the National Bank.

The lectures are all in Greek, and show in an extreme degree the tendency to conform the modern language as far as possible to the model of the ancient. The degree of this tendency is the test of a man's scholarship and style, in the view of most of the modern Athenians. Many people attend the lectures for the mere pleasure of hearing their language skillfully and elegantly wielded, or even to improve their own style of expression by hearing from the professors a sort of Greek which they never hear in common life.

ARTICLE IV.-NEW PHASES OF THE SCHOOL QUESTION IN CONNECTICUT.

Circular respecting the Abolition of the Normal School at New Britain, issued by the State Board of Education in Connecticut, September 12, 1867. 8vo. 4 pp.

The Daily Public School in the United States. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1866.

A Shorter Catechism on Consolidation. 1866. 8vo. 4 pp.

In respect of education, as well as of politics and religion, Connecticut is a sort of battle ground between the friends of progress and the advocates of reaction. In almost all questions of public policy two parties appear, nearly equally balanced, and both of them eager to maintain the ascendency. First one succeeds, then the other; and thus the "Land of Steady Habits" is in danger of being known as the Land of Unsteady Habits, so hard is it to foretell what course will be pursued in any matter which depends upon the action of the people.

We can cite some recent illustrations of this changeable policy. For example, the same legislature which bestowed, last summer, upon the Insane Asylum for the Poor a second appropriation fifty per cent. more than the directors asked for, declined giving aid to a Reformatory for girls, caused the Normal School to be abolished, and were only led to make a decent appropriation for the salary of the State Superintendent of Schools, by the personal representations of the Governor and the Lieutenant-Governor. A Republican citizen of New Haven, who desires to be known as an educator by profession, sat by the side of one of the leading Democrats of the Assembly, while he was attacking the established system of public instruction, giving countenance to his effrontery, and poison to his arrows. Just as the Board of Education of the State had