this fact has become more and more self-evident. The mourners are getting crowded. Where, then, is the remedy ? The hall is comparatively new and so cannot be altered, therefore it follows that for the sake of comfort and convenience, the audience should be made to fit the hall. But who are to be deprived of this sacred privi lege? From whom is to be wrested this daily consolation ? Surely the Senior is the man to be thus tried. He is the man of men to set forward this noble example of martyrdom and self-sacrifice. Let him manfully accept his fate, and next term, when called upon to release his right of attending morning chapel, let him do so with cheerful mein and smiling countenance. THE carelessness of some of the division offi cers in reporting marks, in excess of their actual number, is an act which cannot be too strongly condemned The system, which is useless and inefficient at its best, becomes rotten and worm eatefi when recklessly and inefficiently administered, and produces much harm for which there is no repair, if the recipients of these re ports would treat them with the contempt that they deserve, nothing would be lost but a little ink and paper, but distance and high sounding phrases having greatly magnified these little tales of woe, it is not remarkable that twenty-four marks will make a man an idler and a shirker, in the eyes of his friends at home. It is a bad state of affairs, for which there is no cure, except time. THE STUDY OF GREEK. It has always been a matter of wonder and ad miration to the world that the language of Greece has persisted for more than twenty-eight centuries -granting that Greek is still spoken in Athens. But in this lies a fallacy not easily detected except by a most careful analysis of the facts. We doubt THE FREE LANCE. if any language has lasted twenty centuries. Cer tainly Sanskrit did not; but, according to the in scriptions and records, it was already breaking down into the Praknit dialects of India as early as 300 B. C. As a recent writer has shown, the name Modern Greek is delusive. There are real ly two such languages in use, the rude dialect of the provinces and country districts, utterly unin telligible to the stranger, scarcely better to the native dweller in cities ; and the idiom in use in Athens. And what is the latter ? With a vocabu lary largely composed of words which can also be found in classic writers, it has changed the mean ings beyond all reason and recognition. It is the language of the newspaper, the market and the courts of law. In our own land where, under a democratic form of government, the lawyers are naturally the ruling caste, they are corrupting and debasing the style of our language daily and con stantly. Their contemptible and tiresome verbi age is a harmful element. In Athens something of the same influence is felt. Add to this the con scious and acknowledged imitation of o'ther mod ern languages in Europe, especially French, and the tremendous number of words, phrases and ideas which are imported bodily into the language, and we see what a jargon Modern Greek really is. In fact it does not represent the people of the land throughout its length and breadth, but is merely the conventional dialect of the newspaper and the public school. It is an artificial product; useful to the traveler and commercial agent, of course ; so is Swahili if he visits Zanzibar or Cherokee in the Indian Territory; but of what value would these be in an educational system ? Who wants to study them for the improvement of his mind, the development and refining of his taste, the training of his faculties of thought and expression ? Setting aside then the modern dialect, why should a student study ancient Greek ? A great deal of this time is spent upon the language, lit erature and history of Greece in our colleges. If there is no good reason for this, it is a criminal waste of time ; the sooner such a plan is abandoned
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