THE HESPEKIAtf.
preciation of each oration, can never be seemed, and
thus decisions are rarely just to all parties. The work
is its best reward. If this is recognized by all par
ticipants, then the contest isan institution that should
be encouraged as a valuable adjunct to the college
course.
No one need complain that we are not doing
enough work. All the courses have been soenlarged
during the past year, that it is necessary for the stu
dents to work almost day and night to keep up.
Whether this is a good plan or not is doubtful. It
is certainly necessary to oblige the students to do a
great deal; but possibly to much is required by the
present courses. The Hesperian fears that the re
sult will be the loss of a number of students before
the end of the year some through the lack of ability,
some through overwork. Perhaps we can spare any
one who cannot keep along with his class, but cer
tainly it is not best to compel a student to leave
study on account of his health. There may be no
danger of this, but we are afraid of it, and would
like to call the atention of the "powers that be" to
the matterand see if it cannot be modinwl. This has
already been done in the department of History,
where a three hour study counts for five. Though
the work is not much lightened the recitations are
fewer in number and at least some time is saved.
Would not farther changes in the same direction be
beneficial?
Direct results from the study of Literature are
perhaps more unsatisfactory than from any other por
tion of a college course. Even one term of mathe
matics, or the languages, will give the careful student
a consciousness of new strength, but in Literature he
often feels as if the time had been wasted. The
cause does not lie in defective methods of instruction;
neither can it be charged to a lack of interest on the
part of the student. Knowledge and a due apprecia
tion of literature cannot be gained by a" few weeks
grinding. Hard work during the entire course
ought to produce tangible results in the Senior year
or at its close. Much cannot be expected sooner un
less a natural taste exists before the study is begun.
To the discouraged Sophomore we would say, then,
do not expect to become a critic at once. Dig
away at your early English in full confidence that
taste is gradually developing, and that before the end
of the course you will feel that the harvest has been
reached. It is as impossible to acquire a thorough
understanding of literature in one or two terms as it
is to become a musician in the same leugth of time
The study of both is unending and appreciation
comes in each case only after years of patient toil.
IMPRESSTOXS.
One of our exchanges perpetrates, in a late number, a fine
little piece of imagination in regard to the reality of existence.
Such things are amusing, perhaps instructive: but if one can
not definitely decide that life is a dream, it -were better to ac
cept it as a reality. A life may easily be spent in the vain en
deavor to prove or disprove our very existence; and what W9
at last, it should be reality? Yet the assumption that this ex
istence is but a dream appears to us to prove too much. The
dream must have a dreamer; and, 'whether waking or sleeping,,
the existence of that dreamer is certainly real. Therefore, if
we should wake up in death and remark on a queer dream or
earth, our present existence is no less real for that. So, friend,,
jet such thoughts be only a side show, a thing for amusement
only and in all else treat life as practical.
Few things are more patent than the over-weening ambition
which at some time or other affects all students. Freshmen
aspire to treat themes which would justly make even a learn
ed professor pause, and so high does the ambition of the Sec
ond Prep, soar that nothing earthly is worth his notice. As
an example, an article on "The German Element in the Euro
pean States," which appeared in our exchange from Notre
Dame some lime ago, is good. It would seem that any person
of ordinary common-sense should lenow that, within the limits
of a short article, only the broadest generalization could be
made. "When the author, therefore, tells us that he docs not
contemplate an exhaustive treatment of the subject, we are re
lieved and proToundly conclude that he either is, or is not, a
fool. His article is the result of "some thinking and xnore
jnvestigation." We think perhaps the positive and compara
tive degrees are well placed and become still more convinced)
when we read that we are to have a "few facts," not abstrac
li ons; but our conviction is clinched when our would-be writer
gravely describes how "deep and vast" the subject is in com
parison, (he should say contrast), with his abilities. Facts
cold facts are the results of investigation, abstraction is the
result of thinking; and applying this test to the article under
consideration it is fair to say that he should have said "no
thinking, some investigation." But having thus moderated
our anticipations, we are somewhat indignant when told what
preparation to make to fully understand the subject; why, bless
you! we didn't expect to fully understand it and don't yet.
But, if we must, we must, and so we proceed to "transport'"
our minds back to the time of Noah or, as our author has it,.
"Noe." We have taken it for granted thai our guide uses the
term "transport" only in a figurative sense and does not in
tend that we should charter a car or any thing else in that line
So we imagine that there was once such a man as Noe, andi
let visions of great big arks, and all sorts of wild animals float
through our brain and arc transported not with joy however
The author now having carried us to the valley of the Eu
phrates and thousands of years behind our time, gravely says
that Noe had, we know, three sons etc. It is bad enough but
to assume that Noe had three sons, nor have we any positive
knowledge that such -a person ever existed. But, perhaps,
enough of this. We have a sample of the piece in the foregoing
assertion. Evidently the writer spoke the truth when he in
advertently spoke of investigation. He has some paragraphs,
however, that are too choice to be omitted, e. g. "Among
these, Rome, more successful, perhaps, than others in her
augmentation by new-comers, gradually insinuated herself
into power; and being a nation for the most part composed of
lawless and desperate men, at last obtained such supreme-
