THE HESPERIAN STUDENT.
R
J
s
The New York Evening Post tried to run with
three co-ordinate editors but did not succeed. The
Hesperian Student has been trying to run with
six or seven co-ordinate editors and is failing in th e
attempt to have things move harmoniously. We
judge that our past experience has been much like
that of other college journals. At first it was thought
that the paper would be mainly filled by articles con
tributed by the students, but as it was found to take
more time to tease the students to prepare copy than
for the editor to write it himself it came to pass
that nearly all the writing was done by members of
the board and so the number of editors had to be
increased, and each was given as his part of work a
ertain amount of space to fill. The result ofths
cdivision of labor is that there is no one responsible
for the general appearence of the paper. The differ
ent departments argue back and forth about any mat -ters
in which the several editors may happen to be
interested; the locals admit matter that creates hard
feelings and is at times absolutely indecent; the
medical man puts in a lot of stuff that is as interesting
to the average reader as a Sanskrit work on theology
written backwards; the proof is often carelessly read
and the whole paper bears the marks of negligence.
What we want is a managing editor, and the easiest
way to get one seems to be to have the President of
the Association fill the place ex-officio. This shall be
done if there is no preventing providence, or nwt
jority.
he tud$uin cyip goeh,
RIVER OF LIFE,
JOHN RI0HA1W GHMtiN.
Tho more wo live, more brief Appear
Our life's succeeding etngei;
A day to childhood seems a year,
And years like passing ages.
The gladeomo current of our yonth,
Bre passion yet disorders,
Steals lingering liko a river smooth
Along its grassy bordor.
Bnt bb tho careworn .cheek grows wan,
And sorrow's shafts fly thicker,
Ye stars, that measure life to man,
Why aeon your courso quicker?
Whom Joys have lost their bloom and brath,
A life itsoli is rapid,
Why, as we near tho Fall of Death.
Feel wo its tdlo moro rapid?
It may be strango, yet who wonld change
Tlmo'a courso to Hlowor speeding,
When one by one onr friends have gone
And left our boeoms bleeding?
Heaven gives om years of fading strength
Indemnifying fleutness;
And tlioso of youth, a seeming length,
Proportional to their sweotness.
Tjiovah IHllrBlLT,,
Tho true way, porhapi, to critclso or eulogize a literary
man is to road carefully his works, taking into consider
ation tho circumstances under which thoy were wrltton
and tho motives or underlying principles that cruised
thorn. This modo very often necessitates long and tedi
ous labor.
Green, though almost unheard of until within tho last
ew years, has como to be acknowledged ono of tho load
ing historians of our day. Born at Oxford, and nbo edu
cated thoro, ono would suppose that ho would bo over
ready to uphold Oxford and its ancient institutions; but
on tho contrary lie seldom speaks of them and then not
always with ptaise. Nothing scorns to ailed him in any
way that would tend to keop him from a thorough investl
gation of his subject. In England ho was an Englishman,
in Italy tin Italian, and in Franco a Frenchman; ahviys
adapting himself to his situation. Ho possessed that fac
ulty of standing, os it wore, in tho footprints of tho men
of whom ho was writing and of seeing tilings as thoy saw
them. But Freeman says his greatest faculty, and that
in which ho was superior to 'ill other historians, wus his
keen perception of tho topography of a country aid the
relation it bore to tho events that had transpired iu it
Ho took ono of the principal steps to prove that history
is a science.
Ho could go upon tho old battle fields, or trace he
settlements of his country, tho invasion of it by tho
Danes and Normans, and could point out accurately the
reasons where there were anyfor every movement.
His History of tho English people is not a simple recita
of tho facts as thoy occur, although he lias few superi
ors iu making a fact interesting and attractive to tho
careless reader as well as tho careful student, of history,
but ho associates cnUbO and eifect so carefully that after
a thorough study of his history the student can under,
stand tho reasons for tho once blind appearing acts of
some of its subjects of his history. Yet his work is not
without defects. Wo can hardly see in tho his'ory of
England tho time of which ho speaks when tho people
became so powerful and prosperous that tho lowest of
them had to bo degraded to participate in tho follies and
vices of Kings. He portrays beautifully tho chauge of
English rule from west to east which followed the inde
pendence of tho American colonies, and show? that Eng
land is so jealous of her eastern subjects, became her
treasure is thoro, and where tho treasure is thero will the
heart bo found also.
While yet an undergraduate ho wroto his "Oxford in
tho Eighteenth Century," which has attracted considera
ble attention in othar counlrios as well as his own. HU
paners on Dunstan and Stoven were received as the best
productions regarding these men over written.
Green had a power of creating an intorest in his pu
pils that low men possoas, and many look back to him,
not only as tho most clmrmlug of friends, but also the
most earnest and inspiring counscollor, Not contented
with tho noblo work he was doing with his pen, he
turned his attention to the ministry, and iu eighteon.hun.
dred sixty began preaching; yet never for a moment
thinking of abandoning his historical work.
Tho greatest fault with which he has beon charged, is
hisBtylo. In this respect Green has shared tho fate of
Mncauley,who, it is admitted, as a croat nolhlnn num.