* * * * *

“And what do you think of Bohemia?” asked Afra as we returned that night.

“It is different from what I expected.  They are refined, and, though frank, never rude.  I think—­”

Afra laughed:  “You had unconsciously thought them a set of sharpers; but there is a great difference between living by your brains and living by your wits.  My dear, you have broken bread with giants to-day:  such men live in another world that they may rule this one.”

ITA ANIOL PROKOP.

PROFESSOR AND TEACHER.

The two words that recur most frequently perhaps in the discussion of matters of education are “teacher” and “professor;” yet there are no two that are used so carelessly and loosely.  It seems as if the thought that they may not be synonymous seldom, if ever, occurs to those using them.  If one of our writers or speakers upon education were suddenly called upon to state exactly what he meant by a “professor” in distinction from a “teacher,” he would be at a loss for an answer.  He might reply, after some hesitation, “Why, a teacher is a man who teaches at a school or an academy, and a professor is a man who teaches at a college.”  If he were pressed still more closely, and asked to give the precise difference between a “school or an academy” and a “college,” it is safe to assume that he would find himself nonplussed.  There are colleges in the country, some large and others small, some old and others young, some good and others poor; but aside from the fact that they provide a curriculum of four years and teach a certain amount of Latin, Greek and mathematics, they do not possess features enough in common to enable us to define with exactness “a college.”  It is not in the power of language to devise a formula so elastic as to embrace Harvard, Brown, Princeton, Trinity, Cornell and Michigan University, without at the same time ignoring the characteristic features of one or the other.  Even if we admit that there is a vague ideal unity underlying the so-called college system, by virtue of which it is a system and not a mere aggregate, we shall not make much progress in our search after the proper definition of the term “professor.”  The utmost that can be said of our college system, as a system, is that it stands on a somewhat higher plane than the schools, that it is supposed to finish a young man’s education, and consequently that the men whom it employs for such a purpose—­its professors—­are, or at least ought to be, abler men than the teachers proper.  The difference, then, between professor and teacher is one of degree, and not of kind.  Both teach, and both teach in great part the same subjects and in substantially the same way; that is, by means of textbook and recitation.  Herein lies the explanation of the disposition evinced by some of our best schools to call their teachers “professors.”  An institution like Phillips Exeter or Andover can scarcely be said to assume more than it is entitled to in putting itself on an equality with Hobart College or Racine.