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HESPERIAN STUDENT
tJNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA.
v' 6k xi.
LINCOLN, NEB,, JUNE i, 1883.
No. XV.
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MISCELLANEOUS MENTION.
Another tragedian, Col. J. L. Burleigh is coming, into
prominence. His presence mid bearing nrc noble, li Is
voice is rich mid of great compass mid flexibility mid
his notion strong, graceful mid subdued.
The Santa FoTertio.Millcnninl Celebrationis dotincd
to bo one of the grandest events of present year;
the press throughout the United States have received
special invitations and no doubt they will bo well rep.
resented at the festivities.
David Swing says "Mau is a river which goes on for
over, but you and I are creatures of a day and aro crowded
aside by the noy inflowing crowd. Individual souls aro
only the leaves with which the living forest clothes itself
for only one summer time."
The authorities of Harvard are deliberating as to
whether they will couflr tho.degree. of, L. L. D. as usual
upon the governor of the state. A degree should bo an
indication of scholarship, but Butler possesses neither
learning nor marked ability and has no sympathy for that
institution. The degree should by no means bo granted.
In the June number of the North American Review is
an cxcelloi.t article on tho Modern drama. The ground
is taken that there Is necessarily no conflict between tho
stage and tho church. The object of the drama is to
show the nature of man as it is and that of the
church to correct it. Tho duty of tho church there
fore begins where tho drama ends, both working
harmoniously to accomplish the 0110 great end.
Tho beauties of earth and sky, of the changing scacons,
nd of day and night, cannot bo monopolized by ono build
ing in a street, or by ono street in a city; they cannot bo
closed ngnlnst thosu who have not a golden passport for
admission ; but they aro free and open to whomsoever
-may have an eyo and an imagination that havo been llrst
taught to enjoy them. A taste for tho beauties of nature
should bo cultivated by all. In these there is nothing cor
rupting or meretricious.
Tho noblo poet has found another biographer in a cer
' tain Mr. Jefferson who claims to have presented in a
volum of six hundred pages a portrait of tho "real" Lord
Byron. His ancestors according to this author, consisted
of masculine cranks and feminine termagants, of which
crankism and termagantism Byron was tho pure essence.
He has composed this whole work iu.a truly misanthro
pic spirit and deserves congratulation on his successful
eflort at cyniclo criticism. Wo hope that for tho sake of
.humanity that ho will write no more mid trust that in
tliis instance his obscurity may prevent him from tar
"nlshing tho brightness of a noblo man.
Science is not sectarian. :It dries 11OI confine Itself to
any segment of tho qlrclo ot philosophy, but seeks to em
brace tho entire circumference. At tho present day a
bigot in science cannot live. Its pure empyrenm either
exorcises tho demon of bigotry out of him or sends him
and It after tho swine of the Gar.lons to bo choked in a
sea of oblivon.
It lias been assorted In a scientific essay that since
three fourths of the hnman body consists of water and
since tho mopn influences tho waters of tho globe, it
must therefore, exert a powerful influence upou tho body.
This js especially noticeable in lunatics and college
studqntb.. Careful observations and oxpormonts upon tho
latter havo established this sciontific fact, that a full
moon has a tendency to iucreasc noctornal prcambula
tions, yet tho subject is most disposed to deeds of daring
during the "now moon ," but many phenomena havo not
yet been sufllcontly accounted for and many careful ob
servations must bo mado boforo such cases can bo treated
scientifically.
Tho study of Latin and Greek is antagonistic to tho
judgement of thousands in this utilitarian ago. Unless a
young man is to become a minister, it cannot bo seen
how it will be of much advantago to him to bo a clas
slcal scholar. Ho may bo obliged to talk German in his
business, but ho never will need to talk Latin or Greek.
An excellent classical scholar cannot, on account of bo
mg such, raiso more corn to tho acre or succeed in a
commercial venture. Pollutions look down upon him
with scorn and the vulgar population ridicule his culs
ture. On account of this feeling many young men mo
driven away from classical colleges of well-known thor
ougliness to "commercial" schools of equally well-known
superficiality, whore mental training is not esteemed and
lu "liractical" receives divino worship. Hero they leain
to perform wlint thoy havo not tho intelligence to croato.
They beeomo educated tools, always dependent, neyer
self-asserting, always slaves, never masters. A purely
technical education, 0110 that trains tho eye or hand for
special work, is necessarily one-sided. It may make
great artisans, copyists and automatons, but never great
thinkers.
What is needed is a courso of study that will awaken
thought in the student mid lead him to original invcstU
gatiou. This need is not supplied by tho sciences sinco
it only after years of patient toil that original work be.
gins; nor by mathematics wlicro all that is required of
the student is that he bo able to follow tho reasoning of
tho author and a memory capable of retaining it; but by
tho classics in which ahuio original thought and iuycsti.
gation begins witli the first lesson and continues through
the course.