On another page we print a protest against the present course pursued in that branch of the English department which has to do with the prescribed sophomore themes. Looking at the subject impartially, we think the writer has fairly stated the case and from the numerous complaints that have reached us, we judge that his opinions are shared by a large number of men in the class. One piece of descriptive writing is worth, to the student, half a dozen criticisms, no matter how well or carefully the latter may be written. It seems like reiterating a self evident truth to say that almost anyone can sit down and pick to pieces or show defects in the best of written work. But, does anyone think that merely because a person is able to show faults in some one else, he is also able to write perfect English himself and avoid all the defects and blemishes he has seen in another. No one will deny that our English department, taken as a whole, is conducted with ability - and understanding, yet no one can reasonably wonder if the members of a class demur at writing criticism after criticism, when they have been led to suppose, by the experience of the leading writers, past and present, that criticism is a secondary matter, and that the critical writer is by no means necessarily a respectable descriptive writer of any kind.