THE eagerness with which about one fourth of the Senior Class embraced the opportunity offered them to obtain instruction in elocution is worthy of notice, as it is a very good indication of the opinion of the student mind of the value of such instruction. The importance of elocution is gravely questioned by some educators, who claim - and reasonably so for the most part, it seems to us - that when one has anything to say, he will be able to say it, and most forcibly, in his own natural manner, and that therefore all artificial helps are useless.

However true this may be of the more advanced attainments in the art, the reasoning does not seem to hold with regard to the fundamental instruction like that now given to one class, and which might well be extended to the others, - instruction, we mean, in ordinary reading, in which we are notably slack, and instruction in the cultivation of the voice. It is in these that we need not only what we have, but more. We should have not only a course for the last class, but for all, - a course, or a series of courses, which shall not be just thorough enough to make us wish that it was more perfect, but one which shall develop all one's powers in that direction. Of the truth of our remarks we think no better test could be applied, than the fact that so many men have of their own accord, and in addition to the regular required work, availed themselves of the opportunity offered.

The plan of the instructor, which changes the exercise from a farcical affair, such as it was a few years ago, to a highly advantageous study, is to divide the time among the applicants in such a way that each man may have the undivided attention of the Professor during the twenty minutes allotted him. In this way all remarks are made to him personally, and to correct his individual faults. Such an elective, or rather extra, should be offered to the other classes as well as the Senior, to supply a want long felt among the students.