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About Hesperian student / (Lincoln [Neb.]) 1872-1885 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 15, 1882)
i i iurmmtiiMmmmmti THE HESPERIAN STUDENT. stituoncy we assume to represent. The obliteration of old disputed issues, and the radical change made in our corps of professors since last term, promises a brilliant and prosperous future for the University, if mutual harmony and enthusiasm are allowed a chance for existance, but we do not believe the "consumation devoutly to be wished" will be hastened by an un necessary alienation of three-fourths of the students for whom the inssitution is organized and supported, and for whose sake the state creates both Regents and ' Faculty. r " The proper relation of the societies to the Faculty is that of co-workers and assistants, and so long as the mutual friendly feeling, produced by such a rela tion exists between them, the legitimate efforts of each work to the best advantage possible; when friendship changes to suspicion, the probabilities of cither's prosperity are materially lessened. ghr gtudent's ir;it!-lnwh, FJtojr joirxs jiopktns. Dij.vu Studknt: A few words from one wlio has wandered from liis Alma Mater may be interesting to your rend ers, especially when those words are about a university which is attracting so much attention as Johns Hopkins' John Hopkins, the rounder of the university, was n wealthy Baltimore merchant, who has reared a monument to his memory which will not die so long as his trustees wisely administer the immense fund lcit for higher education. Thisifuiid of $3,500,000 is l.ot spent in costly buildings, but in furnishing he best men as instructors, and in giving its students Ibc most ample advantages that money will procure. The aim of the Trustees and President is to foui.d an American University, and thus give our young men who desire higher educatioh an opportunity to acquire it in their own country instead of being compelled to go to Europe to secure it. Dr. Freeman, thcgrca'.Vnglish historian gives his opinion of their success in the August No. of tho Contemporary Roviuw. But with such names as Dr. Gilderslecve at the head of the Greek doprtment, Dr. "Warren of tho Latin, Dr. Sylvester of the Mathemat ics, Dr. Rowland of Physics, Dr. Rcmson of the Chemistry, Dr. Adams of the History, and all marshalled by such an organizer as President Gihuan, how is a failure possi ble? The character of the enrollment tho first day shows that we have here a Univeristy, and not a College. The President in his opening address gave us the following figures: Enrolled, 180- graduated students, 104; the re maining 82 were classed thus, 54 undergraduate students, and 28 specials. A graduate student enters hero without an examination, yet he must satisfy eacli profossor that ho is prepared to do the woik of his class. The examination for matricu lation is said to bo very scvoro, and no mercy thown. Graduate students have morcy at first, but none afterwards, yet everything that a icncher can do for one is done. A graduate student is supposed to know what he w.tiits when he comes here, and is presumed to be prepared to do special work, rather than to acqulro general Informa lion. For example, ouo comes hero for Greek, and his whole time is given to Greek; another, for History, and his whole energy Ib bin I to u mastery of that subject. Thus It will bo seen that the work la not parcelled out; an hour to German, another hour to Latin, nml a third to Mathematics, but tho student's wholo energy Is directed to one subject. Greek, Physics, Biology and Chemistry seem to have been the favorite subjects, yet History is now coming to the front, having received an impulse from tho lectures of tho great Engllsu Historians, Drs. Fro cm.au and Bryce, who arc ably seconded by our Prof. Dr. Adams. A word to any ono who thinks of coming here jn tho future; which is, bo sure that you eau read both French aud Geiman readily; the latter at least, for it is u sine quit non in every department. The present buildings are near tho heart of tho city, and in close connection with the Peabody Institute, and tho Maryland Historical society. But a description of these noble buildings, and iheir fine libraries, the former of 75,000 and the latter of G0.000 volumes would require too much space. Eacli ha a largo art gallery with many casts of the Masters' works, and number of marble statues. The buildings, as I have said, of the Johns Hopkins arc not imposing, yet Ihey are well arranged for this object. When the now Biological building is finished, at least one block will bo given up to its, the (University's) uso. Each department has its own building and in that building may bo found its special library, and all needful apparatus. Our department, the Historical, has its building and its library, which is soon tobu increased by the celebrated Dr. Blnnullschli's libra ry, consiisting of 3,000 volumes, now at Huidleberjr, Ger many. This is said to bo ono of the finest private libra ries in Germany, and of course that means cf the world. But this letter is already too long, and there arc so many things to tell that I will have to put tho rest oil' till an other time. If you want to work come here, and join our ranks; a drone, however, will soon be stung out of the hive. In another letter I shall try to describe tho plan of scholarsnips, and fellowships adopted here. '80 TUB IMAGINATION. "It is the sense of sight," says Mr. Addison, "which fur nishes the imagination with its ideas." AVe cannot, in deed, have a single imago in the fancy that did not make its entrance through the sight. This limitation of the province of the imagination to one particular class of con ceptions Dugald Stewart, justly as it appears to us, consul ers as altogether arbitrary. Is not the composition of the ' musician as much lite product of tho imagination as the landscape of the painter? Such an hypothesis would de ny the possession of the inuiriimlivu faculty to a blind man; and yet one ot the finest organists in this country is blind. In accordance with the same idea Dr. Rcid ob. serves that imagination properly signifiiee a lively concep tion of objects of sight. This attempt sajs Stewart to lim it the province of the imagination to objects of sight has plainly proceeded from a very important fact, that tho mind has a greater facility and of consequence a greateij delight in recalling tho perceptions of this sense than thnt of any of the others, while at the same time, the vari ety of qualities perceived by it is incomparably greater. Imagination considered in its wholo province is a com plex power. It includes that conception which furnishes
