It is announced in the catalogue of the university that students are allowed to anticipate the prescribed Rhetoric of the sophomore year by taking an examination in that course at the beginning of the year. The regulation is a commendable one, and it was probably intended by a body as exact as the Harvard faculty that it should be taken advantage of. Every one recognizes that Rhetoric is not a very entertaining study, and there is considerable doubt whether, as it is at present taught, it is of sufficient value to justify a man devoting to it the required time. At all events it is advisable to finish the course, if possible, before the beginning of the sophomore year, and at present it is probably the intention of the majority of '85 to do this.

But it is to be feared that the purpose will be seriously interfered with before leaving Cambridge. In a few days a notice will be posted, inviting all those who desire to anticipate Rhetoric to assemble at a certain time and place to receive instructions as to the best manner of preparing for the examination. Would-be candidates amounting in number to, perhaps, three-fourths of the class will be surprised to find on assembling that the main efforts of the instructor who receives them is not to make plain how best to study the subject during the summer, in order to successfully take the examination in the fall, but, on the contrary, he strives almost entirely to convince them of the complete impracticability and utter folly of such an attempt; and we are sorry to say that he generally succeeds in discouraging (the idea would be better expressed by "bulldozing") the majority of men present.

Why he should desire to do this is difficult to understand; the permission granted to anticipate Rhetoric is doubtless a good measure, or else it would not stand among the enactments of the faculty. And we wish to urge upon all '85 men who desire to relieve themselves of an uncomfortable burden of their coming year, not to allow themselves to be in the least frightened or disheartened. The work required to master the subject for the examination can readily be accomplished by an hour's reading each day during the three months' vacation. The examination assigned is not as difficult as is threatened, and as a general thing candidates for anticipation obtain better marks than those who take the course regularly, and upon whom are inflicted ever-recurring hour examinations.