HESPERIAN STUDENT
UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA.
V01..X.
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, MARCH 1, 1882.
No. XI.
(gflisccllmin.
THE FUTURE UNI VERSITY.
In nn article in "Our Continent" Pros
iilcnt Eliot, of Harvard University, says,
Ii is plain that by tlie steady expansion
and improvement of the elective system
the American college is to be gradually
I'onvofted into a university ot a new kind;
not 1111 English University, because it will
not Mibordiuato teaching to examining, or
enforce any regulations by means of bars,
gates and lines; and not a German univer
sity because the elective system does not
mean liberty to do nothing, and no Amer
ican university has absolved itself, as the
German university lias done, from all re
sponsibility for the moral training and
conduct of its students, but a university
of native growth. liioh will secure to
iN teachers an inspiring liberty and an
unlimited scope in leaching, oiler its stu.
dents free choice among studies of the
utmost variety, maintain a discipline adc
quale to the support of good manners and
jinml morals, but determined by tlie qunl
ity of the best students rather than of the
worst, admit o its instruction all persons
competent to receive it, while jealously
guarding its degrees, and promote among
all its members u productive activity in
literature and in scieutitlc research.
THE LIBRARY.
It is not oo much to say that only
npper.classinen know how to uso the
library, for it takes about u yeav to learn
what is in the library and another year to
learn what to do with it, and not until a
man ronchos the Junior or Senior class
does he appreciate fully what those shelves
can give him as tin aid to study.
As a child learns the uso of tv dictionary,
must a student the use of the enoyclo.
paedin. To glance at their backs in search,
say, of something under the letter O, and
seeing only "Nap-Pal," conclude that
there are no O's, shows that the disap
pointed ono is not accustomed to the keys
which unlock the great knowledge box.
Strange word that, Encyclopaedia, and
of admirable etynologicnl construction!
It was the name the wise old Greeks gave
to tlie knowledge of the liberal arts,
en in, kuklos circle, pnutea learning
" learning in a circle." So, speaking
broadly, we may say that Appleton and
Chambers and the formidable Briltanica
are not the only encyclopaedias in tlie
library, if we know how to get at the
treasury for what a fund irtkuklos-l.ni(lea
wo have in tlie two long rows of North
American reviews, or the Edinburgh, or
tlie Atlantic or Littel, (for which wo arc
soon to have nn index, thank 1 1 oward)
Indexes are deceptive, and some are
very meagre, so be not content In search,
ing for an article to look only under one
heading, but think of some other caption
beneath which the article jou desire may
stand. If you cannot find "Louis Qua.
torzo " in the Indexes, look for " France "
and run your eye down " laws of," '
lands in," and so on until you strike "
Louis XIV." When a woik is in several
volumes do not search the index of each,
but turn immediately to the last volume
for that will usually have tlie general
index for all.
Renicmbar, too, that index makers are
queer fellows and often confound the con
sonants J and V with the vowels I und U.
In some, other arrangements are very
bad. Do not be deceived into thinking
that "Mill on the Floss" has the same
author as " Mill on Liberty," becauso the
two titles foPow alphabetically. An arti
clc on Milton was onco set under tlie
heading, "Mr. John."
THE PRINCETON PERSECUTION.
"MTKKA11Y NOTES."
The hatred of the Philistines for the
children of light has been conspicuously
illustrated by the conduct of tlie Jersey
men who have caused the indictment and
arrest of a score of Princeton's students
engaged in pursuing their studies It is
perhaps to bo expected that ignorant men
should undervalue the importance of ed
ucation, and should even have some little
prejudice against college graduates and
undergraduates, but when this projudico
is curried so far as to result in the legal
prosecution of studious young men, it is
time for tlio press to spoak out boldly and
fiankly-
The of leu so with which the Princeton
victims of Pliillistino persecution have
been charged was nominally that of "riot
ing," but, as everybody knows, this is but
a pretense, and the real offense for which
they are to sufler is that of pursuing their
collegiate studies. On a recent evening
tlie students in question went through the
streets of a quiet New Jersey town, break
ing all the street lamps in their path,
wrenching off bell-knobs, destroying gates,
and carrying off' tradesmen's signs. Had
this been done by drunken Irishmen or
uneducated rovdics of any nationality, It
would very properly have been called
riotous conduct, and the offenders would
have deserved to bo arrested and sent to
jail, but the fact that it was done by col
lego students puts an entirely dilfurent
face on tlio affair.
In former years American college stu
dents were held to be boys needing to bo
kept in order by the Faculty. This was
doubtless to a great extent the result of
traditons brought to this country from
England. In spite of its lofty namo, the
American collego corresponded not to the
English universities, but to the great Eng
lish schools; schools such as Eaton, liar
row, and Rugby. At these schools the
pupils have always been regarded as boys
rather than young men, and have been
kept in order by discipline suited to boys.
As the ago of tlio members of the lower
classes in American colleges lias usually
been that of the older schoolboys of the
English school, our fathers fancied that
lliey needed, not precisely tho birch, but
a discipline nearly- as strict as that which
has made the English schools so succors
ful. Of Into years, howovor, wo have
learned better. Wo know now that tho
Froshman who is 17 or 18 years old is
not a boy, but a man: that he does not
need to bo governed bythe Faculty as if
ho were a schoolboy, and that it would bo
tyrannical and degrading to the student to
hamper him with rules as to his conduct
and to punish him for their Infraction.
The American collego student must bo
nllowed to do what seoins good In his eyes,
and tho utmost punishment that can ever
bo iulliclcd upon him is to suggest to his
parents that ho bo withdrawn from col
lege. The days whop students roomed to
gether in college buildings under the care
and inspection of tlio tutors are over, and
MrtiMirn.TtBi. narftttl
