UNIVERSITY COURIER.
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men where he has been, what his soul was, or where it dwelt before it quit this earthly clay. The child and the philosopher each attempts a solution and both arrive at the same conclusion. If any one rudely attempts to raise the sacred veil of Isis and penetrate the unknown he is smitten with spiritual paralysis. He sees nothing, he hears nothing, he learns nothing, why tamper with the unknowable?
Men of all ages and climes have sought to solve futurity, and have failed. The future life of the Arab appeals to all emotions and passions of man. He would have it an eternity of pleasure, a sultans seraglio. Milton's paradise was pictured after the most approved Puritan idea. What is the idea of the future to us today? Does it not arouse dreams of unexampled enjoyments? Does it not appeal to the most selfish side of our natures? Live "a constant ascetic course of the severest abstinence and devotion" and you will receive a reward that will eclipse any pleasure that you can conceive of on earth. Cannot any of us in a kind of ecstasy of feeling, enchanted by some sensuous dream, create a heaven in our imaginations that would compare with the dream of John? What is it but false and fleeting speculation? To-morrow the dream of to-day will be past. The good health of to-day may be supplanted by melancholy to-morrow, and again the mind will draw a picture of hell, where hissing, scorching scenes would rival the dream of Dante. One may see it in a dream speeding past him like a flash of light. Words can give no satisfactory representation of the intensity of the dream. And what does it amount to? Has his dreams added one jot to human knowledge? Have they even satisfied his emotions?
In our weakness we try to raise ourselves to some higher standard, and in order to attract the minds of men we dress our vision in gorgeous hues. Man would create a soul with all the senses that it might enjoy itself in this future state. But alas! with all our speculation, the thought insinuates itself into our mind—we die and are forgotten. How many men of the millions and millions that have lived still live in our memories? Vanity makes us hate to die and leave all the pleasure of life behind us, and therefore we solace ourselves with the thought that when we die pleasures will continue, only they will be of a higher and intenser character. What a false and foolish dream. What a selfish, narrow-minded delusien. Cannot the dignity of men be preserved in this life? We are not on earth to prepare for eternity, such a doctrine is false and pernicious. If that be necessary let us recall the monasteries, and nunneries, and cloisters, let us return to the dark ages when men dared not disobey their consciences and judgments by bringing into life an offspring that would live in nought but woe and misery; let us establish hermitages, for there only can man hope to approach perfection.
So long as society exists so long will it be productive of happiness and contentment, wisdom and virtue. To destroy the happiness derived from the present is but to undermine society and restore chaos. In the dark ages when men dwelt more on future life than at any other time in the world's existence, the present was undesirable, it meant nothing but slavery and serfdom. But now that society has advanced and the pleasures which it creates are more plenty, why parade the past before us? There is pleasure for us in this life why should we not enjoy it to the fullest extent?
A FRIEND IN DISGUISE.
The true relations that exist between the professors and students are rarely understood and appreciated until many years have separated men from college life and influences. A great many students regard the professor as an unapproachable being whose sphere of action is so far above them that they are unable to span the intervening space. They look upon him as an instrument through which they must secure a certain amount of Latin, Greek and Mathematics. The thought that this being has soul and sympathy never enters their minds; that he has any particular interest in the student is absurd; that he would care to descend from the lofty seat in which he has been unwillingly placed, and mingle with the young ideas, is improbable. Our professors, for we are privileged to observe them more intimately than any others, feel that they are regarded as persons clothed in dark, deep and impenetrable mysteries; that they spend their time philosophyzing on hidden secrets and that to be disturbed is positive sacrilege. The student rarely dares to venture an opinion for fear of being overwhelmed and discomfited with learned logic and profound arguments.
But could the student once discover the pure stream of true sympathy and interest that flows through the hearts of many of our professors, he would never cease to reproach himself for the unjust standard he has placed upon them. Half the mistakes, if not more, that have been made in life are owing to the fact that the student refused to make an advisor of the professor They are not drills for filling the heads with knowledge; they are friends and guides.
Youth is fickle; it is the natural state. When it sees anything attractive, without reasoning or seeking advise, it plunges headlong after it. The chances are that the attraction proves but a shadow. Youth requires the restraining hand of experience and if it attempts to navigate without experience it goes astray. Students may be divided into two classes: those who do not expect to graduate, and those who do. The former have more need of the advice of the professor than the latter, for the latter has more chances of coming into intimate contact with the professor. But even these abuse their advantage and pass through college life ignorant of the true position of their instructors. Those who have but a limited time in which they ought to be contended to seek but the rudiments of knowledge, see a great many studies which they would like to investigate. They forget that there is no such thing as knowledge without thoroughness. They soon discover that they have a very large mouth full, both hands full, and the time to dispose of the load short. The result is mental dyspepsia. The professor who has witnessed hundreds of such cases, would have been glad to volunteer his counsel, but the student is as difficult to approach as he considers the professor to be. If the professor seeks his confidence he is looked upon with suspicion. He feels that he has no right to force his counsel upon the student, and when he is treated indifferently he has no alternative but to withdraw; but he feels that somehow he is amenable for the future life of the young man or young woman.
Of those who have graduated from colleges hundreds have failed,failed because they made a fatal mistake at the start. When it is too late they see that the hurtful effects of that mistake could have been obviated had
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