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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
