TO THE EDITORS OF THE CRIMSON:-

CONSIDERABLE dissatisfaction has been expressed among the students, especially among members of the Senior class, in regard to the action of the Faculty in preventing men from taking an elective a second time. I refer to English 2, the course in Shakspeare. Fully a dozen men who took the course last year, and became interested in the subject, desired to extend their knowledge of Shakspeare by taking the course a second time. Before making out their elective lists, they consulted the instructor, who assured them that no objection would be opposed to their taking the course again, since different plays were to be read, and the course would be essentially different from that of last year. This autumn, after purchasing their text-books, they were met by a decree of the Faculty, forbidding them to take the course. They were thus obliged to take another elective and destroy the harmony of their studies this year, besides being deprived of the profit and pleasure which they had depended on.

I fail to see why a man could not take English 2 a second time, as well as a Greek course in which different plays by the same author are read. The Clouds of Aristophanes is read in Greek 2, and the Frogs in Greek 9. Why not prevent a man from taking the latter after the former?

It is the opinion of the instructor that two years can be spent on Shakspeare with profit, and the remark was made in a Boston paper this summer, that it was a sign of the increasing attention paid to English literature at Harvard that Shakspeare could be studied for two years in succession.

Again, if it were a "soft course," and men wished to take it on account of the marks, there might be some propriety in a refusal on the part of the Faculty; but to prevent men from extending their knowledge on so important a part of English literature as Shakspeare seems contrary to the principles professed by the government of the College.