The last number of the Wake Forest Student contains an article entitled “Religious Life at College” in which three reasons are propounded why a Christian life and a College course are uncongenial companions. These are, first, that a student’s life is wholly of an intellectual nature and that his religious duties are made subordinate to his intellectual work; secondly, that a student’s associations wield a mighty influence over his spiritual life; thirdly, that a student is required to attend devotional exercises. The first two reasons are granted, and are too obvious to need comment. The third is at least debatable. When a boy first enters College, he enters upon a new life, and, as a general thing, discretion, as to how he shall act and what he shall do, is just as far absent from him as it was in early childhood. It is just as necessary that the Faculty should require him to attend divine worship, as it was that his parents should train him in childhood to attend church and Sunday school. In most colleges, in which attendance upon divine worship is left voluntary, many boys, who have been accustomed to attend devotional exercises at home, drop these duties, and, from want of their ennobling influence, fall into wickedness and dissipation. In all such cases, the Faculty should act in loco parentis. There is evidence that a student can but feel the holy influence of divine worship, though he be forced into its presence.
The same number of the Student contains an article headed, “The Sciences in Our Colleges,” by Prof. W. H. Michael of that institution. The Professor displays considerable thought in his treatment of this subject. He commences his article by saying, “The emancipation of science from its servitude to the dead languages in our colleges seems every year to be more strongly demanded.” He then goes on to state his reasons for so thinking, and sustains his positions by sound arguments. An extended review of the article is not intended, but merely to call attention to the fact that the demand for a more thorough study of the sciences is rapidly gaining ground in all parts of our country. Some few years ago, Charles Francis Adams, Jr., occasioned considerable discussion among the literary periodicals of our country by an address which he delivered before the literary societies of Harvard, in which he bitterly opposed the study of the “dead languages” to the neglect of the sciences, and regretted that he had spent the most of his college life in the acquisition of a knowledge of the classics, while he had learned scarcely anything of the sciences. Although Mr. Adams was somewhat of an extremest in his views, yet his speech did great good by arousing the minds of our greatest educators to the importance of this subject, and causing them, at least to some extent, to bestow that thought upon it which it deserves. Sentiment of late years, in the higher educational circles, seems to be changing in favor of a more liberal study of the sciences in preference to that of languages. The people of the present day demand an education which will both train their minds, and be of practical use to them in everyday life. They do not desire to live mentally, as it were, in the past, but want to be abreast with the great questions of the present day.
The Davidson Monthly deserves praise for the attention it shows to the Alumni column. Its essays, however, are long and lifeless, and its pride in the possession of a “cow-boy” is most too patent.
The Archive tenders welcome to The Morning Star, Carlisle, Pa., and The Binghamite, both of which have been received just on the eve of going to press. They are cordially entered upon The Archive exchange list.
Locals.
| D. C. BRANSON, Hes., | } |
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| J. C. MONTGOMERY, C., | } |
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One hundred and thirty-seven students now on the roll.
Ten Seniors this year.
New faces are still seen making their way to the President’s office.