In one of the leading periodicals a few weeks ago there was a long article in which the library of Columbia college was described and among the many improvements to the present college library system mentioned, was a portable electric light which the reader might place in any position on the table at which he sat. On reading of this convenience we were painfully reminded of the lack of advancement of our own library in Gore Hall. There can be but little doubt that the larger the college grows the greater effort ought to be made to enable the students to pursue a course of reading with their studies. The scarcity of time to devote to reading is the cry of most men, but almost all agree that if our library were open one or two hours during the evening it would enable many men who are fully occupied during the day with recitations and exercise to get at least a few moment's reading. We know too well the old cry that if men want to read they can do it in the daytime, but the fact remains that men do not go to the library as often as they should. Surely the expense of putting two or even four electric lights in the library would be small, since all the machines necessary for generating electricity are in Boylston. If this should be done the library would be filled during the long winter evenings with men who as it is but rarely enter its doors. It is said that constant dropping will in the end wear away a stone, but if the amount of communications, editorials and special articles written on this subject were to be printed altogether we are sure that the rock of opposition would melt away like mist before their formidable array. The experiment is worth trying for one year at least, and then it could not be said (?) that Harvard college was behindhand in the march of college improvements.