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HESPERIAN STUDENT
UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA.
Vol. XL
LINCOLN, NEB., MAY i, 1883.
No. XIII.
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MISCELLANEOUS MENTION.
It is said that Oscar Wilde is composing 11 drama enti
tled, "The Duchess of Padua."
Land on Wall street, Now York, is worth $15,000,000
nn acre; on Broadway, $2,000,0000.
Steps have been taken by Austria, Germany and Italy
to sccuro tho simultaneous disarmament of the pow
ers. This is one more advance toward the millennium.
Tho Emperor and Empress of Russia will be crowned
at Moscow on tho 27th of May. After tho festival, which
will continue to tho 8th of Juno, they will set out for
Qt. Petersburg whore they will arrive on the 10th, 710
Nihilist preventing.
Huxloy says "I fancy wo are almost the only nation
in tho .world which seems to think that literary com
position comes by nature. Tho French attend to their
own language, the Germans to their, but the Englishmen
do not think it worth their while."
Charles Bradlaugh, the noted atheist, has at length
been acquitted and will, perhaps, bo allowed to take his
seat in Parliament. It is unjust that a test 3f religion
should bo required of tho candidate for any ofllco; yet
atheism was not tho only charge brought against him.
His immoral character, in tho opinion of his opponents,
was a sufllcient reason for his oxclusion.
Hast thou conceived, O Rulushor of criticisms, how
great and inevitablo the humiliation that awaits theo?
Thinkcst thou that thy plagarisms sic ignorabitur (will
bo so disguised) that no ono can toll whence they
camo? Dost thou presume to bo tho solo gleaner in tho
fields of Whipple and llazlitt? If thou wouldst ccck de
liverance from awful doom, quote not; but let thy soul be
an alembic whence base gleanings may flow in golden
streams.
Blessed is the student -who passes a lifo that tastes
not of suspicion ; fur in whoso possession a pony shall bo
discovered, to him naught of terror is wanting lurkiiig
through tho fullness of his courso. I see tho disasters
of tho primitive pony-rider like malignaut soa-travorsing
bloats alighting upon his successor's head; nor does any
one of tho species ever graduate, but somo ono of tho
keenly-scouted critics keeps galling him, nor docs he
have a moment's release 1 O Zeus I what cautious
mortal can usurp the pony that nether tho meek profes
sors may over suspicion, nor tho unwearied eyes of
'chums t" Though thy wasted time enthroned on thy
cheek thou dwellest in tho glittering blaze of popularity I
For theo this law will suffice I "Nothing comes to the life
of pony-riders far removed at least from calamity."
A perfectly literal translaton from a well known Greek
Tragedy.
"Litoraturo and Art aro eminently catholic not sec.
tional or provincial. The history, manners, customs, usu
go's, language, scenery aud other incidental peculiarities of
particular countries, races, and sections may furnish ma
terial for tho oxorciso of high art, pictorial or literary;
but that is a very different thing; tho art itself must bo
foimcd upon catholic principles, upon thoso touches of
nature that mako tho whole world kin."
Note Orleans Times.
This is true. No work that is pervaded by an exclu
ively local interest can attain to universal popularity.
To those literary men whom wo cill immortal belongs
neither space nor time, but having divested themselves of
tilings stransitory and local they rise to an atmosphere
beaming with eternal truth.
If English could bo written as pronounced, 720 hours
in six years of primary instruction could bo saved.
Second, When children have been taught to read first
on phonetic, and phonic principles, ordinary spelling
and reading has been learned in a shorter tune thin is
usually required to learn the latter alone. Third, Tho
spelling of the Italian is said to bo tho most perfect of all
European languages. In 005 hours an Italian will learn
to read and spell in his language as well as an American
will in 2,820 hours. Fourth, German children, who com
menco school life later than Amcricau, arc at tho ago of
fourteen at least two years in advauco in ability to read
and spoil fluently and correctly their language. Fifth,
By the adoptio.i of a rational mode of spelling at least
ono fourth of the time occupied in obtaiaiug a good En
glish education would be saved. Is not such a reform
desirable ?
It is well that tho rago for purely scientific education ,
Spencers hobby, has abated. It has at length been de
cided after many experiments that tho sciences and math
ematics in particular when pursued to excess, i. 0. exclu
sively tend to dwarf tho mind and tliat language and liter
ature, especially poetry and tho drama, rightly termed
"humane studies," contribute most to the intellectual and
moral growth of man. There is no necessity, however,
that preference should be given to the so called "Classic,"
while the modern languages teem with deeper thoughts
and fancies equally bright and luxuriant. The modern,
taken collectively, is in no way inferior to tho Greok
world in the realm of mind. Plato abounds in sophisms.
Tho orators of Greece and Rome aro rivalled in both pat
riotism and oloquonco by the Chathams, Burkes and Web
storsof modern times, and even Aeschilui famed for rug
ged grandeur and Sophoclo,? king of tho drama have yield
ed to the intellectual giants cf tho Elyzabethan age.
Mtrsssia