It is a matter of regret that the University has not the means to enable it to secure the delivery of a greater number of public lectures by men eminent as specialists or as writers, than at present. The opportunities offered at Johns Hopkins in this respect are far superior to those at Harvard, while at Cornell the instruction given by nonresident lecturers, is a prominent feature of the college curriculum. Harvard cannot take her just position as a university till free opportunities of this sort are offered. It is true that Boston, particularly by means of the Lowell Institute, partially fills this field; but for the average student, and even for the ardent specialist at Harvard, Boston is practically inaccessible, except on rare occasions.

The gap in this sort of work at Harvard has been somewhat filled in recent years by the efforts of some of the college societies; but these efforts have been limited necessarily. To secure any lecture, even those given as a matter of courtesy, involves considerable expense upon the society under whose auspices the lecture is given-an expense which often prevents lectures from being arranged which might not only be of practical value as a means of instruction, but might also be of intrinsic value in themselves, for the advancement of knowledge. Thus were it not for such considerations, we understand that it might be possible (as was proposed last year), for the Historical Society to secure the delivery of a course of lectures upon the Civil War from the Southern point of view, complementing the valuable series on the same subject given last winter. Instead of one lecture from Mr. Gosse, secured by the enterprise of this Society, if the university were able to undertake such matters, it might supplement its regular instruction in English literature by a more extended course by the same distinguished critic and scholar. Or again, Mathew Arnold, when he makes his proposed second visit to America, could be secured to give a course of lectures in the same field before the university. Such lectures would be strictly academic, and would be in the proper line of university work.