Ex-President White of Cornell in addressing the students of that university a day or two ago said: -

"We constantly have these two things: a vast number of young fellows running about the country, doing almost anything and doing it ill; and on the other hand, a considerable number of places looking almost in vain for somebody to do the best work."

This is a most important and weighty statement; and it is a very true one. The more students in our American colleges attach themselves to courses of study which will lead them in practical work in after life, the better for them. Courses in French, English Literature and Fine Arts make good conversationalists; but they help one but little in the stern realities of a legal or business career. Men ought to think previously how they are drifting, before they make their election of courses; for they frequently lose all track of their previous education, their previous convictions, and their previous manner of thinking, by dabbling in the pleasant but deceptive waters of philosophy and art. It is a certain fact that only one man in thirty has a fine philosophical mind; and like the "little learning" which is so dangerous, a smattering of philosophical cant develops a sophistical way of thinking and reasoning that is often absolutely destructive to high purposes. How many of the amateur philosophers and nineteenth Greeks in college to-day could give even a plausible reason for the constitutionality of a bill in Congress - a question asked on a recent examination paper. And if they could not answer intelligently to themselves, whether the promoters and the signers of such a bill were doing their country a service, pray how much more intelligent voters, and how much more useful citizens would they make than their own gardners or coachmen? There are plenty of places waiting for these young men - our national politics offer a tremendous field for the high spirited and intelligent; and even if it is "English" for the sons of noble families to go in for politics for the glory of the thing, why don't the college men at the same time make so good a custom American?