We do not feel called upon to more than mention the numerous lectures and readings which are regularly posted in the weekly calendars, no to expatiate upon the rare opportunities afforded the laziest to receive knowledge without any personal outlay except an hour's attention. But we cannot suppress our astonishment at the meagre audiences which gather to hear the greater part of these readings. Every man who in the future will say he spent four years at college, could reasonably be called upon for some acquaintance, however superficial, with the masterpieces of Greek and Latin literature, and comparatively few of us would care to be shown up as mere ignoramuses in these branches which colleges are supposed to emphasize. Every one naturally enough does not care to devote several years to a thorough and scientific mastery of the classics, unless he intends following such studies as a profession, but every college man should, and does, take some pride in his superiority over the unschooled who have not engaged like privileges with himself. To devote an hour, which would be spent after dinner in idle loafing, to a classical lecture or reading, is not a very heavy tax upon a man when it is all for his own personal profit, and, if we come to the point, we generally are willing to acknowledge by our senior year that we have spent a great many hours to no purpose. We have heard it said that only freshmen attend these lectures. If so, even they go in remarkably small numbers and at long intervals, when we consider how attractive the opportunity is. With a programme which seldom repeats itself, and with such a list of lecturers, it is a mystery to us why they do not command more universal attention.
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GAIN OF FIFTY-NINE.