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HESPERIAN STUDENT
UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA.
Vol. XI.
LINCOLN, NEB(, JUNE i, 1883.
No. XV.
MISCELLANEOUS MENTION.
Another tragedian, Col. J. L. Burlolgh is coming, into
prominence. Ills presence) and bearing arc noble, bis
voice is rich and of great compass 11 ml flexibility and
his action strong, graceful and subdued.
The Santa Fe Tertio.Millcnnial Celebrationis detincd
to bo one of lliopvniidcst events of present year;
the press throughout the United Stales have received
special invitations and no doubt they will bo well rep.
resented at the festivities.
- David Swing says "Man is a river which goes on for
ever, but you and I ore creatures of a day and arc crowded
aside by the noy inflowing crowd. Individual souls arc
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 thc.dcgreo. oil L. L. D. as usual
upon the governor of tho state. A degree should bo an
indication of scholarship, but Butler possesses neither
learning nor marked ability and lias no sympathy for that
institution. The degree should by no means bo granted.
In the June number of tho North American Review is
an excellent article on tho Modern drama. Tho ground
is taken that thoro is necessarily no conflict botween tho
stage and tho church. The object of tho drama is to
dhow the nature of man as it is and that of the
church to correct it. The duty of the church there
fore begins whero tho drama ends, both working
harmoniously to accomplish tho 0110 great end.
Tho beauties of earth and sky, of the changing seaeons,
and of day and night, cannot be monopolized by one build
ing in a street, or by one street in a city; they cannot be
closed against those who have not a golden passport for
admission ; but they aro free and open to whomsoever
-may have an eye and an imagination that have been first
taught to enjoy thorn. A taste for tho beauties of nature
should bo cultivated by nil. In theso there is nothing cots
rupting or meretricious.
Tho noblo poet has found anotiipr biographer in a cor
Main 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 cyniolo criticism. Wo hopo that for tho sake of
.humanity that ho will write no more and trust that in
this instnnco ltis obscurity may prevent him from tar
nishing tho brightness of a noblo man.
Science is not sectarian. -It drteu not crinflno itself to
any segment of tho qirclo.ol philosophy, but seeks to em
brace tho entire circumference. At tho present day a
bigot in science canhot live. Its pure empyream either
exorcises tho demon of bigotry out of him orsonds him
and It aficr tho swino of the Gar.lens to bo choked in a
sea of oblivon.
It has been asserted in a scientific essay that since;
three fourths of tho 'human body consists of water and
since tho mopn influences tho waters of tho globe, it
must therefore, exert a powerful inllucnco upou tho body.
This js especially noticeable in lunatics and college
8tijdc.ntb.. Careful observations and experments upon tho
latter have established this scientific fact, tltat a full
moon lias a tendency to increase nocturnal preambula
tions, yet tho subject is most disposed to deeds of daring
during tho "now moon;" but many phenomena have not
yet been sufllccntly accounted for and many careful ob
servations must bo made before such cases can be troated
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 advantage to him to bo a clas
sical scholar. He 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 be
ing such, raiso more corn to the aero or succeed in a
commercial venture. Pollutions look down upon him
with scorn and the vulgar population ridicule his culs
ture. On account of tliis feeling many young men aio
driven away from classical colleges of well-known thor
ougliness to "commercial" schools of equally well-known
superficiality, where mental training is not oHcemed and
the "practical" receives divine worship. Hero they leatn
to perform what thoy have not tho intelligence to create.
Tltejf become educated tools, always dependent, never
self-asserting, always slaves, never masters. A purely
technical education, ono that trains the oye 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 course of study that will awaken
thought in tho student and lead him to original invest!,
gation. This need is not supplied by the sciences since
it only after years of patient toil that original work be.
gins; nor by mathematics where all that is required of
tho student is that he bo able to follow the reasoning of
tho author and a memory capable of retaining it; but by
the classics in which alone original thought and invest 1.
gation begins with the first lesson and continues through
tho course.
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