Examinations are few and far between, and when given display a broadness not displeasing to the student who is taking the course as a study of history rather than as a study of economics.
English 16
With Mr. Hersey taking over this course on the principles of English versification, it seems likely that it will lose most of the air of long-haired aestheticism which has pervaded it in the past, and take on a more normal aspect.
Mr. Hersey's well known faculty for helpful criticism, added to the obligation of writing a weekly composition in verse, should prove valuable not only for the earnest poet and the vague dilettante but for anyone who wishes to acquire an appreciation of good poetry through the simple means of personal trial and failure. Genius, by the way, has never been required for a C in this course, as the writer of this bit of confidence will readily testily.
English 50b
The most difficult task encountered in English 50b is the perusal of huge stretches in the works of John Dryden. Were it not for the fact that Congreve and to turn to the opposite pole, Bunyan are also included in the reading list the course would be just what one would expect from the author of "The Hind and the Panther." Few undergraduates have reached that precious stage where Dryden delights rather than bores.
The presence of the Congreve comedies, however, and of minor delicacies of the seventeenth century such as the pastoral ruminations of Cowley and the sundry writings of the Marquis of Halifax make English 50b not only informative but oftentimes entertaining. Professor Greenough, possessing a very human insight into what appears at time to be a mouldy enough age, is an excellent guide. With him the student may enjoy the brilliance of Restoration Comedy and even come to appreciate the state of mind which finds Dryden exhilarating.
English 75
An elementary knowledge of Latin and German and the patience of Job are the prerequisites for this course. Grubbing for roots may be an enjoyable task in pleasant sunny garden, but it is less happy in the dusty purlieus of the English language, except for those who have a natural bent for grubbing.
The grubbing process is not made easier by the professor in charge. An excellent scholar himself, he can wander on and on in total oblivion, which is shared by most of the people in the room.
Fine Arts, amatory poetry, and all American football teams fill the notebooks of the listeners. Of two evils, we should take a cold every time.
Fine Arts 1d
Fine Arts 1d is one of those large, popular courses, which combines at once most excellent qualities with large disadvantages. Perhaps the most excellent thing about Fine Arts 1d, at least for the ordinary undergraduate, is Professor Edgell; even at Harvard it is all too rare to have the opportunity of hearing a lecturer to whom it is a pleasure to listen. The vast majority of those who come to marvel that merely human flesh and blood can speak so rapidly, smoothly, and interestingly, remain for an hour under a species of trance in which scenes from the Mediaeval Renaissance and Modern masters flash before the eye to the accompaniment of a symphony--multo allegro--of words.
On the other hand, the greatest disadvantage of Fine Arts 1d is that it seeks to cover, in the space of half a year, all of art from 300 A. D. to the present. Why this course is not expanded to occupy a full year is just one of those inexplicable mysteries. As a result, however, of its present conduct, the student is forced to learn a very large number of slides in a comparatively short time--and hence gets merely a bird's eye view.
In short, Fine Arts 1d does what History 1 does, but in an even more rapid and cursory way--and it does it excellently well.
