It is very gratifying to note the large number of appointments that are being made by the different instructors, for consultation in their courses; and it is to be hoped that every student who has any doubts as to what courses or departments he would best choose, will avail himself of these excellent opportunities of learning something more about the various courses than the mere statements given in the elective pamphlet, and of conversing with those who, by experience, at least ought to know what the advantages of their courses are and what mental requirements those courses are capable of meeting. The necessarily greater Intimacy that arises from the informal meetings of instructors and instructed, is always beneficial and helpful to all concerned. To the instructors it gives a wider knowledge of their pupils that assists them in their teaching, and at the same time increases their interest in the work and the workers, or, as is very often the case, adds an interest where no interest had before existed. The students, on the other hand, have to profit from all their closer relations with those above them in knowledge, experience, and consequent wisdom; and by conversing informally with those same superiors, to learn to look upon them in a new and very generally in a more favorable light. Another advantage, that comes (it is true indirectly) from these conferences between students and instructors, should by no means be overlooked. The smaller colleges have long declared that Harvard, as well as other large colleges, are, from their very size, at great disadvantage as regards this very point of intimacy between the student and his professor. The establishment, therefore, of these conferences must in a large degree, if not wholly, do away with all the grounds which other and smaller colleges have for claiming any superiority over Harvard and the one or two other colleges that approach Harvard in size. So that it is earnestly to be hoped that this valuable practice, that has this year been widely extended, may in a very short time become universal.