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About Hesperian student / (Lincoln [Neb.]) 1872-1885 | View Entire Issue (April 15, 1883)
ttfaHKu:npHiEj HESPERIAN STUDENT UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA. I Vol. XI. LINCOLN, NEB., APRIL 15, 1883. No. XII. r MISCELLANEOUS MENTION. It Is said thnt the Panama canal will be completed in 1888.' Our great Utile men are always surprised that they are not appreciated. A valuable addition to German historical literature by the publication of the second volume of Treitschkis "Ro cent German History." Profesor Mommson has boon acquitted of the charge 0! libeling Bismarck. The youth should bo placed where he can come in contact the greatest minds intellectually and with the best men morally; whero ho can see the most of life as it is, and as he must bco it soon or late. Not more than one in twenty attends school after the age of ten. Of these how few uttend a college Our uni versity for example contains not more than two hundred and fifty students. Of these perhaps, one in ten will grad ualc. Surely this is an ago of culture ! Book learning in the sciences is a pitiable sham. The reason why so many go through lifo without ever seeing daily the wonders and beauties of nature is because they have been taught by books alone. They have not been lifted into tho pure sunshine of actual life. A terrible diseaso lias broken out in a certain medical college of this country. Eminant physicians call it "gran, ular conjunctivitis complicated with photoplivitis, An tihydruplivbia and blepharasphosis inducing blcphara yrllvcal" Hope the contagion will not reach us. Recent improvements in tho buildings of Columbia College have involved that institution in heavy debts which will require at least ten years to liquidate The condition of the finances is another reason for refusing to admit women. There is need of a better excuse. There is an old story of a customer at a grocery who alto examining some butter repeated "to much salt for tab use and not enough for building purposes." A similar case happened lately, the report being too much talk for caching and not quite enough for good stump speaking. Men of brains have always been in demand, but they have not always been honest, and honest men have not ways had brains. The mind is so apt to bo warped by prcjudico and training, that it is seldom that we can find a man with independence enough to rise a 'jovo surrounding circumstances and seo things correctly. Why was early graduation moro common years ago then at present? Longfellow, it is said, graduated at eigh teen, Everett, at sovonteen, and "Webster, at filtecn. Are our young men less brilliant than formerly or have our colleges Improyed? The latter is undoubedly the correct reason. Fifty years ago even Harvard and Yalo were mere high schools for boys. It is said that Dartmouth College has always had mora brains and poor students than almost any other col ego in the country. If tho catalogue of eminent me.i that have graduated from her halls could lie mado known, It would cause a sensation. She is like the Polar Star, always above the horizon of thought, aud ono always knows where to find her. Lessing, the German philosopher, being remarkably absent-minded knocked at his own door ono evening, when tho servant, looking out at the window and not rec ognizing him, said "The Professor is not at homo," "0 very -veil" replied Lessing walking quietly away, "I shall call another time." Another well known Prof, asked his wife what tho difference was between his head and a hogshead. She said there was no difference, but this reply did not seem to satisfy him. Symmetrical education is a humbling Thnt a person dislikes matliamatics is no reason why he should study It is said that a vacuum in any region of the intellect requires filling up, and, therefore, if a student hates Latin he should be compelled to take the classical course even though it requires six hours for a single lesson. Thus a university smothers the fires of genius and con verts its victims ('. e. students) into symmetrical mas chines. The great scholar is tho specialist. Genius it self is a kind of monomania. Even College students can not know everything. Let him, as soon as possible, ob. serve what lino of thought ho delights to pursue aud make an attempt to know something well. Tho motto of many of our schools is "Death to Special ties." Half tho failures of life are duo to tho fact tl.at men try to do what they canuot do well. They aro in tho wrong pew and never find tho right one. The strong est man is ho of ono book. Even our best colleges give their students an assortment of poorly classified ideas, be causo there is a dabbling in so many things. A little chemistry and natural philosophy, much Latin aud less Greek, with r. smattering of German, French and Span ish is about the length and breadth of the Procrustean bc.1 on which the students are stretched. These schoole are doing great good, but it might bo vastly greater if there were more flexibility and longer continuance in ono thing. RWH