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About Hesperian student / (Lincoln [Neb.]) 1872-1885 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 1, 1885)
0 THE HESPERIAN The question of employment after graduation -would worry the life out of the average Senior if his work did not keep his mind fully occupied. The in crease of the number of houis that has greeted '86 is perhaps, a wise precaution on the part of the faculty to keep the class out of the Insane Asylum. A Portion of the new chemical apparatus has al" ready arrived. It should not be forgotten that thsi department will in a few months be supplied with appliances for work second to that found in but one other college in the United States. This truth should not be hidden. Spread the good news. MISCELLANY. The per cent of self-supporting students is greater in this University than in any institution of equal reputation in the country. The causes of this not unworthy characteristic of our community can easily be ascertained. With the increase of Nebraska's wealth will come an increase in the number of stu dents whose only method of attracting attention is the profuse expenditure of money. When this contempt ible class, or the rules laid down by its members, is allowed to rule in the social life of the college, the im pecunious student is at once forced to the wall. Our plain duty is to foster a spirit of frugality and to worship the brain instead of the pecket ; to give the poorest all the opportunity for social improvement that the college affords. Any college "aristocracy" not founded on intillcctual worth is most decidedly a "snobocracy" with no excuse for living in the young democratic University of Nebraska. This paper is not closely enough connected with the Medical Department to be its champion, but will take occasion to express the conviction that the Professors of that school are receiving very shabby treatment in return for the time and energy gratuit ously given for the upbuilding of their department. In the matter of securing subjects for the study of practical anatomy, in particular, every hinderance that superstitious fear can suggest is thrown in their way. Legitimate subjects are numerous enough to supply the college, but in a majority of cases the University cannot secure them on occount of a squeamish public sentiment. In the recent unfor tunate case the Medical men were clearly sacrificed to enhance the "reputation" of a couple of police officers. The interference of Lincoln policemen in these matters lias always been of an unsavory nature, and is generally more dangerous to the community than are the raids of the "resurrectionists." One thing is clear: if the cases allowed by law are turned over to the University there will be no necessity of engaging unknown and irresponsible men to furnish the necessary subjects. Numerous attempts have been made to comprehensively define literature, none of which seem to give entire satisfac- tion. However this is no serious drawback, that a proper la bel should not be secured; for wc continue to utilize it wheth er we have a theory of its scope and structure or not; and all the benefit that results from a study of literature is not at all dependent upon a definition. Evidently the masses read the novel or poem without pausing to look into their organic parts. They care only for the result. They do not trouble them selves whether a drama ought to produce a certain effect but whether it does. Their test for literature is the interest it calls out; whether it embodies something which has been felt and thought by them, and presents it powerfully. If so they read it, are irresistably drawn toward it. If it docs not touch some point in the circumference of their experience, it appeals to them in vain. For men can not acquire what they have not in their own life and thought the key to unlock. Like only understand like. Aristotle once said of his works after their completion "they are published and not published," meaning that only to kindred spirits would they be revealed. The reason then why literature is read is because it contains something that we by sympathy are drawn to study; that we gravitate toward as the magnetic needle, the pole. To answer this purpose it must be infused with life; must incorporate what enters into the existence of men. The difference in con ception as to what this is, may influence one's theory of the province of literature. Some critics proceed on the basis that man is only a highly organized animal whose purpose is to eke out a comfortable existence, to enjoy thoroughly the physical world. Thus he is pleasantly affected by nature, the sunshine, forests, beautiful scenery, all that makes up sensuous life. This the critic calls the normal man and hence asserts that literature should conform to this type; that it should be imbued with the colors of the landscape and communicate its happy, pleasing effect. But there is another class of men whose life flows in a dif ferent channel. Not the objective but the subjective world compels their attention. Their thoughts and feelings centre about the problem of their own life, its meaning; whence it comes and whither it gees; its relation to Present, Past and Future; its struggle with Experience and the outcome. Their gaze is fixed on the landscape within, that of the mind and heart. They are absorbed in watching its hues and col ors, lights and shadows. Now the question arises whether the life of these men U not natural; whether the world of the intellect and heart is no less real than the external; and he who is engaged in deep earnest thought leads not an abnormal but a normal ex istence. It seems to us that such a class is as much hu man as the cultured Fauns. The mass of men are more absorbed in fighting the hard battles of life, in the struggle for power, than gazing at scenery. They do not have time nor inclination to loiter about, dreaming in forests, enjoying their alluring influences. They are constantly in the current of activity and intense effort. Their life is realistic and vivid, but its experience belongs to the world within, not the exter nal. If this is unnatural, then is the literature of Dante, Goethe and Schiller unnatural. It is in these two directions that critics have diverged; the one school insisting on the aesthetic, the other on the moral in its general sense. . h 1'erliaps personal experience makes the difference. The man whose life has been a perpetual struggle; whose, energies have been taxed to the uttermost in the fight against his weak