HESPERIAN STUDENT
UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA.
Vol. XIII.
LINCOLN, NEB., OCTOBER 17, 1884.
No. II.
"Do what yau ought let como what may.'
"The hardest life a man can lead on earth, the most full
of misery is to be always doing his own will nnd seeking
to please himself."
A few years ago the women of India were not allowed
to learn to read. Now there are 120,340 girls attending
schools established for them.
Mr. Moody says London is the most religious city in
the world. The Sabbath is observed better than in any
American city. This ho attributes largely to the revision
in the Church of England. It is more christian than it
was ten years ago. In referrunco to tiie tempcr
aucn cause the Evangelist says: "It is a liurd thing to
argue when such men as Spurgeon, Canon Parrar and
Canon Wilberforce had wine nt ihc table, where it form
ed as much the part of a meal as the bread or meat; but
when these great ministers donned the blue ribbon and
advocated the cause from the pulpit, it was a great vic
tory. There are members in the Houo of Parliament to
day who attend the sessions with the blue ribbon in their
lapels."
The Boston Advertiser has an article to show that while
the man with but one idea may be a social power
he who has only the half of several ideas may be a danger
aud is an actual nuisance Upon this subject of semi
educaton the Advertiser says: The typical New Engend
er of former days had few books and convictions, but his,
books were well read, his convictions profound, and he
was, in every true sense of the word, a better educated
man than his more versatile successor, who lives in nchaos
of books, magazines and uows-pupers. The general diff
usion of superficial and fragmentary information lias given
rise to a multitude of half educated writers, who, some
times for money and sometimes out of mere vanity, are
anxious to instruct the world in theology, philosophy and
politics, or prepared to amuse it with attenuated fiction.
How much better honest ignorance, or wholesome unpre
tentious dullm-Bi than the self-deluding conceits of the
parlor metaphysician or the painful introspections of the
fashionable novelist Selfded
One of the stono masons engaged on the Washington
monument told a reporter that the summit of (lie monu
ment is a terrible place to bo during a thunder storm.
He had seen the lightning Hush lug about, above aud be
low hint, while the thunder peals almost knocked him
from hid feet. "I have seen," ho said, "a great flash o.f
lightning blaze aud cruckle among the iron worn above
my hsa'd, and then follow the girders through the inside
t tii gfouad, brilliantly illuminating the dark interior
for an instant and filling the air with a strong sulphurous
smell.' The Washington monument will be the highest
work of man to be found in the world. It has a height
of over 484 feet and the enormous weight of 00,000 tons.
The highest point reached by man so far is the Bpire of
the cathedral at Cologne, which is 520 feet high, and was
nompleled in 1882. The Washington monument will be
555 feel high when completed. The tallest of the great
pyramids is only 480 feet in height. The monument will
bo capped witli a pyramidal peak 55 feet high. Visitors
will ho allowed to look throu&ii iargd windows on each
of the four sides 400 feet from the iirouud. Selected
From a brief speech made by GurQeld to (lie students of
Hiram college, we learn oue of the secrets of his great
success in life.
One mind, he says, h not greater than another perhaps,
but its margin is greater. This idea he made plain by
means of globes used to represent minds with living prin.
ciplcs at their centres which throws out its tcutacle-llkc
arms in every direction as If to explore for knowledge.
The one goei a certain direstion and stops. It has
reached its maximum of knowledge in that direction. The
other sends its arms out and reaches a quarter of an
inch farther. So far as the tint mlud Is able to tell, the
other has gmo infinitely beyond it. Many minds you
may consider wonderful in their capacity, and yet they
may be able to go on'y a quarter ot an inch beyond you.
What an incentive this should be for thestudeut to work
to make his margin as gre-it or if not greater thau that of
his follows! I recall a good illustration of this, adds Gar.
field, "When I was in college a certain oung man was
leading the class in Latin. I thought I was studying
hard. I could not see how he got the start of us all o.
To us ho seemed to have an infinite knowledge. He
knew moro than wo did. Finally one day I asked him
whuu he learned his latin lesson. "At night," he replied.
I learned initio at the same lime. H s window was not
far from mine, mid I could see him from my own. I
had finished iny lesson the next night as well as usual,
aud feeling sleepy was about, to go to bed I happi'iiod to
saunter to my window and there I saw my classmate
bending diligently over his book. 'There's where he gets
the margii on mo' I thought. 'But he shall not have it.
for once,' I resolved. 'I will study just a little louger
than he dors tonight." So I took down my books again
and opening to the lesson went to work with renewed
vigoi. I watched for the light to go out in my classs
mate's room. In fifteen minutes it was all dark. 'There
is his margin" I thought. It was fifteen mjnutes moro
time spent on rules and root-derivatives. How often,
when a lesson is w ell prepared just five minutes spent in
perfecting it will make one of the best In his class. Here
the margin is very small, but all important.