A CONTINUOUS grumble becomes monotonous and loses its efficiency. And it is also true that more than half of the complaints directed against the Faculty might as well be aimed at the stars, as far as they have any power to correct them. However, as the papers pretend to be open to every one, and to be the organ of the undergraduates, now and then grumbling and faultfinding will occur. It is unjust to blame the Faculty for preventing beer in Memorial Hall, or the continuance or discontinuance of Prayers, and yet many are firmly impressed with the belief that the Faculty are responsible for everything that does not suit them.

We have had several complaints which it seems our duty to notice, and find no fault but with the system itself. We refer to telling men under examination of their "suspension," "conditions," and the like. Because a man is a poor scholar, unfortunate, or stupid, or call it what you please, it does not follow that he has no feeling whatever, and could hear of his dismissal or leave of absence during a trying ordeal, and work as well afterward. It is not fair to say that the man brings this on himself, and unless he had neglected his studies, disregarded the College laws, wasted his time, he would not have incurred it. It is presumable, or what is the same thing, it should be held that a man may come to his senses some day and try to do better, and when working hard in an examination with perhaps a fair chance of being dropped staring him in the face if he fails to do well, the chances are that any sudden announcement of being put on "special probation," or what not, may be fatal. Let men be told after having passed their examination, or even summon them and then report conditions; but to mention casually to a man writing for dear life with a long paper, a limited time, and an aching and possibly slightly muddled head, that "you were conditioned in - ," results, in nine cases out of ten, in upsetting him and spoiling his work. Men are not mere machines, and cannot be stopped momentarily and told of failure, and then expected to go right to work again and do just as well.

Personal experience we have not, and would be far from affecting the carping spirit so popular in most papers, and especially college journals. The complaints were laid before us, seemed well grounded, and so we have mentioned them. Anything of this kind must be mere thoughtlessness, as no instructor would voluntarily endanger a student's "passing."