UNIVERSITY COURIER.
9
PERSONALITIES IN POLITICS.
Personalities in political discussions are like a piquant sauce. They stimulate the passions of the disputants and create excitement. They whet the appetite and provoke a demand for more. They are condemned by everybody, and yet they are relished by all. In Congress it is the rigid law never to permit personal allusions in debate, and members are prohibited from speaking of each other even by name, but it is difficult to eliminate human nature even from a member of Congress, for it is by no means an unusual occurrence for members to become excited and use abusive expletives which can be productive of bad blood only. There are to-day questions of vast importance forcing themselves before the people of the United States, and of our own State, to which our statesmen should give strict attention, and not waste their time in using abusive epithets to defame an opponent. It is true we are in advance of our ancestors, in regard to the way of carrying on a political campaign, but still our system will admit of vast improvement. If our candidates would confine themselves to the questions involved, and not spend their time in ransacking old histories to discover damaging facts against an adversary, it would be better for the nation. No sensible man is ever convinced by the use of personalities, and yet we seldom attend a political meeeting without hearing the candidates of the opposite party bitterly denounced as hypocrites. It is to be hoped that the coming generation may consider personalities in politics as relics of the past, and confine themselves to the questions at issue. C. L. S.
READING.
Why do not our students read more? Many books are taken out of the library, but investigation will show that but a small minority of the students read systematically or thoroughly. The books in the library are not used as they should be. Books which every one should read stand in dusty array upon the shelves. The first volume will be read and the second left untouched. We grow weary in well-doing. For instance, the first volume of Taylor's Goethe's Faust was in great demand last year, but more as a "pony," it is to be feared, than for its own merit. But look at the second volume, just two names on the card. Upon the card of the first volume of the Divine Comedy may be found about ten names, upon the second but one. Truly the Emerson is nearly to pieces, but more I suspect for chapel declarations than for Emerson himself. No one has as yet touched the new edition of the British Poets, but few the works of Ruskin or De Quincey. Even in the old Shakespeare, which has been in the library I know not how long, the names are far from numerous. I was told last year by a certain Professor that out of seven Juniors in a class under his charge, but two had read Hamlet. No doubt, since '83 must now study English master-pieces, it makes a better showing. But I very much doubt that out of the class now reading Chaucer, two will read him beyond the Knight's Tale. How many of these Seniors, when they graduate next June, will have read twenty-five plays of Shakespeare, or the Fairy Queen, or the Canterbury Tales, or Hudibras, or Tom Jones—read them, I mean, beyond what they are required to read? Most will say that they have no time, but every one has time to read the great books. Students who go to the city library to read are generally
seen engaged with the daily papers. Now, daily papers are well enough in their place, but when it comes to deciding between the great dailies and the great masters, I cannot see that there should be a moment's hesitation. And others who do not read the dailies, read third-class magazines and wishy-washy novels. Not that I condemn magazines and novels, but let us read vigorous novels and first-class magazines. Let us read Thackey-ray, George Eliot, Dickens, Scott, Fielding, and take the Atlantic and the North American; then sell Mrs. Holmes, Lord Lytton, Mrs. Southworth, and Oliver Optic to the rag-man. Let us read the best literature; let us prefer Hawthorne to Harland, Tennyson to Meredith, and Shakespeare to—Sol Smith Russell. R.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES.
Additions to cabinets in Natural History Department since our last number:
Prof. Snow has just received, by exchange, a box of beetles from a German entomologist in Philadelphia. The box contains over five hundred specimens, representing over a hundred species, among which were Bupretis ultramarina, Saperda puncticollis, and several others of the "very rare and much desired kind." with which the Professor is much pleased.
The family of deer, consisting of a buck, doe, and two beautifully spotted little fawns, is a valuable and handsome addition. The doe is the mother of the twin fawns. The group is represented as standing on the side of a ledge of grey moss-colored rocks. The buck has just been shot and is falling back dead. The doe has a frightened but very natural appearance. The fawns look innocent but create as much disturbance among visitors and students as did Mary's lamb at school.
One of the cutest things we have ever seen in the line of taxidermy was secured last week. It is a little baby pointer-dog in the attitude of "pointing" a bird. The bird is cunningly hid in the grass a short distance from the dog's nose. It is worth seeing.
Notes from the Department of Physics and Astronomy, contributed by Prof. H. S. S. Smith:
A collection of Lepidoptera, from Honduras, contributed by Dr. Fritz-Gaertner. There are several species which are new to science, and consequently are not named as yet. Prof. Snow and party made the acquaintance of Dr. Fritz-Gaertner in New Mexico the year the Indians made it so interesting for us.
The thirty-first meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science was held at Montreal, Canada, from August 23d to 30th. There were nearly one thousand names enrolled, and the meetings were full of interest. About 175 papers were read before the various sections. Among the important subjects discussed were (1) Standard Time for North America, (2) Forestry, (3) Economic Expansion in Steam, (4) Prospects of Successful Aerial Navigation. Prof.C.A.Young, of Princeton, was elected president of the association for the coming year, and it was decided to hold the next meeting at Minneapolis, Minn., in August, 1883.
Dr. C. W. Siemens, in his presidential address before the British Association at its recent meeting, claims that "the electro-motor, on account of the small space it occupies, its high working speed, and the absence of waste