THE HESPERIAN.
If fixed at York or any other point the
new university would undoubtedly have
encountered greater difficulties than at Lincoln; but
it must be admitted that under the most favorable
conditions the proposed institution will have much to
struggle against. It will not be enough to gather a
competent faculty and to furnish apparatus. Students
must also be had to make the school, and these of
sufficient attainment to make the institution some
thing more than an ordinary high school or college.
The establishment of such a university as proposed
under present conditions will, it seems to us, be apt
to weaken the colleges designed to be tributary
unless, indeed, it be held strictly to a high standard
of work. This will be difficult to do, but if it is not
done the proposed university will cut off the sources
of its own support, and will weaken, not strengthen
the Methodist educational interests in Nebraska,
Therefore we shall regard it as something of a calam
ity should the force of circumstances tempt those in
charge to place the new institution on a par with
those already established.
Those who have acquainted themselves with the
matter and policy of this paper will scarcely have
experienced a feeling of surprise that we published
the "resolutions" of the farm boys. Neither will
any of our readers demand of us a restatement of our
views on college papers and their province; nor yet,
an excuse for receiving and publishing what on the
face of it seemed a harsh criticism. Other and more
severe criticisms of the management of the farm have
been sent us, seeking publication. We have refused
to publish them because it would be taking an i ndue
and unjustifiable advantage, even though nothing but
the truth were stated in those contributions. Mat
ters purely personal are too often, however, the only
motives for such criticisms. There is some cause for
complaint somewhere perhaps, else why this stir? We
had, not long since, a sufficient demonstration of the
existence of such a cause to warrant us in making a
change in the management of the Jarm. A proper
length of time has not yet elapsed either to prove or
to disprove the ability of those who were called to
that place. We are ready to pronounce a part of the
new management an eminent success. Time only
can pronounce the final judgment.
But there comes up to us hints of another' fight
(over the college farm) now preparing for the legisla
ture which will soon meet. We are now looking for
ward to that body for the privilege and means to
erect new buildings, over and above our regular ap
propriation. The mismanagement of the farm has
before caused us no little trouble in securing any ap
propriation whatever. Our legislators seeing the one
department mismanaged deemed the whole unworthy
of support, and dealt out the neccessary funds very
sparingly indeed. We cannot afford again to allow
them the least cause to stint us. The management
of the farm should now have attained to such perfec
tion that there could be no just cause for complaint.
If there is yet blame we should bestir ourselves in or
der to determine, if possible, where it attaches,and how
far it is within our power to remedy matters before it
is taken up by less friendly investigators. If there is
no sufficient reason for a fight over this department
let us prove to those who would attempt to bring it on,
in the wrong; and establish the fact of a real improve
ment at the college faim beyond the chance of doubt
or fault finding.
MISCELLANY.
The December Harper opens in quite an unconventiona
way with an illustrated story by Gen. Lew Wallace, entitled
The Boyhood of Christ. We do not remember any similar at
tempt to produce a Christmas novelette except in the Decem
ber number at Putnam's Magazine with which the publication
was revived. This was, if we do not mistake, in 1869, and
the story in question, which was called The Carpenter, was
one of the remarkable productions of the year. In it no ef
fort was made to reconstruct the past; but into a household
upon which adversity and disgrace had settled, a stranger
makes his way on Christmas Eve, and mysteriously sets right
all the troubles of the family; this stronger proving none oth
er than the "Carpenter's Son." The author of the Harper
story wisely avoids the broad road offictionwhich he has used
clscwhcrc.but the .11 tide seems in some vague way to have
been cut down editorially from a more pretentious original.
Uoth the story and its author remind us of the extraordi
nary sale of Ben Htir, of which the 132nd edition has just
been issued. Nothing like this in so short a time, we sup
pose, has ever been known since the days of Waverly. It is
a still further proof how scanty arc the sources from which
the supplies for sentimental writing must be drawn. For the
book, though not irreverent, in its bold and almost vulgar
presumption falls below all proper standards of art, sets both
scholarship and the probabilities at naught, and turns out a
conventional love story after all. Something phenomenal in
deed is this unshrinking appropriation of sacred subjects for
secular treatment! As evincing a better spirit we would in
stance George Croly's Saathie,'m which the author sedulous
ly restrains his fancy from nil such Crusading to recover sa
cred secrets. Hut the book docs not deal directly wi h the
sentiments, and hence its comparative failure.
Before this paper is issued reviews aud examinations will
be over, but at the present writing they are in full progress,
with all the miseries which arc supposed to be attached to
them. Students are apt to regard this season as the most un
important portion of the term, as well as the most disagreea
ble. They arc apt to look upon examinations as very irk
some tesks, without mnch utility, unless to enable the in
structor to figure out the standing of the student. Hut a lit
tle reflection will show that this disagreeable consumation of
the term's work has a value not generally recognized. A sub
ject studied in class is necessarily taken up bypeaccmeal. Its