IN THE first catalogue published by the School, that of 1870, are the words "With the Head Master are associated four Tutors, all graduates, and a well-known French Teacher. The boys are fitted for College, up to the highest Standard." St. Mark's in the first five years sent ten boys directly to Harvard, and one to the United States Military Academy. Its curriculum had in general been directed towards the fulfilment of the Harvard requirements for admission, which in 1870 were as follows: Latin, all of Virgil, Caesar's Commentaries, Cicero's select orations, grammar including prosody, and composition; Greek, Felton's Greek Reader, or the whole of Xenophon's Anabasis and the first three books of the Iliad, omitting the catalogue of ships in the second book; Greek grammar including prosody and versification, and composition, with accents; algebra; geometry; ancient and modern geography; history of Greece and Rome; French, translation of ordinary prose. In 1865 candidates had been examined in reading English aloud, but by 1870 Freshmen were examined as early as possible after admission in reading English Prose." The preponderance of Latin and Greek we find likewise in the School schedule of studies, which includes Latin for all five (six) forms (there was a group called the Lower First Form) ; and Caesar, Sallust, Ovid, prosody and prose composition as early as the Third. There were only three years of Greek, but in this subject the work seems to have been more intensive. Arithmetic came in the first four years, algebra in the Fourth Form, and plane geometry and "reviews" in the Fifth; and geography was taught to the Lower First, First, Second and Third Forms, and history to the Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth. In French the simple college requirement was in the final year at school supplemented by "conversations," though as yet the College did not say that some knowledge of composition would offset slight deficiency in translation, as it did later. English was taught in all forms, grammar, spelling and composition coming in the first three years, and "compositions" in the last three. Physical science was taught in the last three years, and consisted of geology and botany in the Third Form, physiology and natural history or natural philosophy in the Fourth, and natural philosophy and chemistry in the Fifth. Other subjects were penmanship for the first four years; reading, declamation, instrumental and vocal music and drawing for all; German for the Third and Fourth Forms; and bookkeeping for the Fourth. Sacred studies were given to all forms, and were regarded as the most important matter in the curriculum, if we may judge by the Trustees' expressed opinion that they should be taught by the Headmaster. School diplomas were first awarded in the spring of 1886.

In 1872, besides three boys who went to Harvard, one went to Cornell, one to Williams, and one to Hobart; but the Harvard standards were at least as high as those of other colleges, and no changes in the School curriculum followed except as necessitated by those in Harvard's requirements, which were slight. We are told that only twelve boys were enrolled at the beginning of the School's first year in 1865, but before the following June this number had according to the Alumni catalogue of 1901 increased to twenty-one. The number was the same the next year, but with the increased accommodations it had risen by 1870 to forty-two. In 1872 it was fifty-eight and in 1876 forty-nine, but on account of the large graduating class in 1876 it fell to thirty-nine in 1877. It was forty-seven the next year, and rose gradually to sixty in 1883, where it remained for three years. The new building allowed an expansion to 104, where the number stood with but slight variation until 1894, the year following Mr. Peck's resignation, when it fell to ninety-four. In 1895 it recovered to 112, and from then on increased to 124 in 1897, 130 in 1904, 141 in 1911, 150 in 1919, 155 in 1921, 173 in 1922, and 185 in 1924, advancing in proportion to new accommodations. The first class to send boys to college was 1867, two of whose members went to Harvard. In 1868 one boy went to the United States Military Academy, and none to the other colleges; but thereafter, except in the years 1894 and 1903, when majorities went to Yale, Harvard was the predominating choice. In fifty-nine years St. Mark's has sent approximately 555 to Harvard, 110 to Yale, and the rest scattering between Princeton, Columbia, Pennsylvania, Williams, the Harvard and the Yale Scientific Schools, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brown, Amherst, Oxford, Union, Lehigh, West Point, Bowdoin, Cornell, Wisconsin, the Columbia School of Mines and Hobart. No records of the number of admissions from the School were kept by Harvard and Yale before 1906, and it is therefore impossible to give exact figures without a detailed investigation, particularly as there are cases in which boys did not go immediately from the School to college; but in the years since 1906 the average number of boys who entered Harvard has been fifteen, and of those who entered Yale a little over three. This proportion is not far from the total proportion given above.

The changes in the Harvard requirements for admission of course continued after 1872 to be faithfully reflected in the School schedule; but it is noticeable that until comparatively recent changes the latter was not under the necessity of devoting almost all its periods to studies required by the college entrance examinations. As the colleges grew, however, they began to grant some slight option in the subjects in which candidates were to be examined, and to broaden the required subjects. These advances began to be felt in 1873; and it is possible that the vote of the Trustees on the twenty-fifth of April, 1873, to "draw up a course of study to be strictly adhered to hereafter " resulted from them, for the Vindex says in 1877 that in the last four years a change in preparation for college had taken place, and that during this time "many boys entered creditably, some excellently, and some with high honors." We find that in the Harvard catalogue of 1875-76 a choice of two courses is given, sight translation in Latin is required, and English has been raised to the dignity of a regular subject for admission. In English each candidate had to write a composition, correct in spelling, punctuation, grammar and expression, the subject taken from one of three prescribed books ---two novels and a play. At this point it is worth while to reflect that the boarding-school boy's home training in English was probably much better than that of the average public school boy; and that home training also in many cases extended to the easy subjects of French or German, which for many years after 1875 continued to consist of mere translation of prose: it was not until much later that English developed into the hardest subject for admission, and the modern language papers demanded an extensive knowledge of grammar, syntax, pronunciation and composition. One of the two courses referred to above, by which preparation for Harvard might be made, struck off somewhat in the direction of science; but St. Mark's was not inclined and perhaps not ready to take it. It was not always possible at this time to obtain teachers who combined special knowledge of the new subjects with other qualifications demanded by the School's standards, and there was as yet no special equipment for the proper teaching of the subjects.

By 1880-81 Harvard had divided the subjects for admission into prescribed and elective, the former Latin, with composition; Greek; ancient history and geography; mathematics, including arithmetic, algebra and plane geometry; physics; English composition, based on eight prescribed books; and French or German. The electives were Cicero and Virgil; Herodotus; either logarithms and plane trigonometry or solid geometry; and physics and natural science. These could be divided into "preliminaries" and "finals," the former to be taken a year before entering. By 1885-86 there were four groups of electives, two of which were to be chosen by the candidate; and it was announced that if a candidate should pass with high credit in any one or more of certain groups such distinction would be noted on his certificate of admission. Admission was also granted without examination, but those who were so admitted were not candidates for a degree. The later abolishing at Harvard of admission without examination seems to have been a very wise measure both for the College and for the schools.

Except for a general raising of the standard of scholarship no great changes took place before 1895-96. By that time a candidate rejected in June and reëxamined in September had to be reëxamined in all the subjects he had taken in June; and in 1896 English was made a two-hour subject. By 1901-02 composition had been added to the elementary French and German requirements. By 1904-05 the struggle was well under way at Harvard to obtain proper attention to English in the preparatory schools; and it may still be called a sore subject.

Before the establishment of the College Entrance Examination Board the School had sometimes been obliged practically to double the number of certain classes in the Fifth and Sixth Form years, though several colleges could be entered from the Fifth Form; and when, as in the classes between 1889 and 1898, many colleges were represented, the results were often unsatisfactory because of the great pressure on the masters' schedules. But since the standardizing of requirements the work of the secondary school has been simplified and improved, and the representation of the schools on the Board has helped to produce a much better and more searching examination for entrance to college. St. Mark's took advantage of this in 1912; and though the Vindex has not always in the earlier years reported the number of honors obtained at the college examinations as faithfully as the scores of the football and the baseball games, the evidence goes to show that a good record in the former was a matter of course.

The number of masters at the School each year can be calculated from Appendix 1. The criticisms of the Harvard examiners in 1893 led to an attempt to secure the services of well equipped men who could be induced to remain with the School an indefinite length of time; and how successful this policy has been in even the single matter of scholarship is well seen in the results of the last spring examinations, when, of ninety-six individual examinations taken, forty-six were of honor grade.