punished, if his crime happens not to be in the catalogue, the Faculty use the right, which of course belongs to them, of punishing it as a crime, whether named or not. With this right of punishing wrong per se, what need of the Code? Why not abolish it and leave the Student to his own conscience and fear of punishment to restrain him? Certainly if these will not do it, something else than the Code must be resorted to.

There are

A positive evil is created by the Code in this manner. some laws specified in it which every Student knows he cannot pass through College without breaking. Yet he cannot be matriculated without giving his oath to keep them. So he makes a virtue of necessity and takes the oath, with a mental reservation, or justifying himself by the plea that it is compulsory. I have known some Students postpone becoming matriculated as long as possible, expressly because they did not wish to perjure themselves any sooner than necessary. If these statements cannot be refuted, ought not Mother Yale to abolish her Code of Laws? It is a sign of weakness not to be able to govern without a printed volume of laws, when all that is necessary for the government of young men is to suppose them afflicted with a slight sprinkling of common sense, and respect for what deserves respect. Without this all the laws in the world will have no effect. With this, laws only make their makers ridiculous, and tempt unfortunate youth to the pleasure of breaking them.

The next change which I could wish made in College institutions is one to which I am led by merciful regard for some of my unfortunate classmates. It is in regard to College Appointments. After two years have been spent, during which some, by reason of ill health, sore eyes, or youthful folly, have wasted or lost their opportunities so as to obtain a low or no appointment for Junior Exhibition, it is no more than fair they should be allowed, if they wish, to retrieve their characters and standings during the remaining years; and to know that by being faithful during this time they can receive an honorable award at its close. It certainly is just. Junior Appointments are the reward of the first two years. Senior Appointments should be of the last. But as it now is, excepting those who enter as Juniors, those really wishing to "make an effort" for the remainder of their course are discouraged by the certainty that however diligently they may apply themselves, they have their past sins pulling them down and effectually preventing their rising. The result is, that many who are anxious to stand higher, both on their own account and that of friends, are discouraged at the outset. One of these characters asked an officer

of College, if it was possible for him to obtain an appointment at Commencement. The reply was "If you can take a Philosophical stand from now till then (two years) you perhaps might obtain a Second Colloquy!" Is it wonderful that the attempt was respectfully de clined?" Where is the injustice of allowing all to start even, for the last two years? If those who have already won cannot keep their honors, they ought to lose them. Now they can work leisurely and rely on ther acquired momentum to carry them through; knowing that their might-be rivals are burdened with a weight which will prevent their progress. This reform, while it could result in no evil, would elevate the standard of scholarship and prevent many from wasting their opportunities and neglecting regular College duties for reading, or worse occupations. Is it not a needed reform?

There is one other evil here to which I wish to direct attention. An evil which although apparently small, results as seriously as any. It is the lack of friendly intercourse between Faculty and Students. The latter come here strangers to every one. They are met by the Faculty as their guardians; perhaps invited to their acquaintance, probably not; certainly never urged. I know a classmate who brought a letter of introduction to a Professor from one of the Professor's classmates. Professor read the letter, smiled, bowed and -that was all. Under the circumstances, the Freshman did not cultivate the Professor's acquaintance. Of course, the majority of Students have no means of making acquaintances excepting through the Faculty. Some fortunately-as the present writer-ask no better company than their books and meditations; particularly abominate society, and when they think it necessary to spend a social evening, desire no greater or more ethereal pleasure than to invite some kindred minds to their room, and there indulge in some metaphysical discussion, as to the "Primum Cognitum," or the "History of the Conditioned." Thus pleasure never, though stern duty sometimes, calls such ones out to mingle with the unappreciating world.

But there are some unfortunate beings in College, who, having come from a distance, accustomed to pleasant evenings spent in friendly intercourse, long during their four years sojourn in a strange place, for an occasional interlude in the tedious monotony of student evenings, and wish for some friendly place where they might exorcise the Student's devil-the blues-with an hour of social chat.

The result of a lack of sociality from those where alone they can expect it, is very evident. Forced to find some relief, it is sought perhaps in a night's carousal, or in the company of those of a lower grade,

who readily receive them. Either resort is to be deprecated, and must result at least in a diminution of self-respect. They are the first steps to a total loss of character. And this results from the influence of the Faculty for which they have many excuses-in treating Students, save a favored few, as strangers. The evil is apparent as is also the remedy.

There are many lesser improvements needed here. Would, O Tender Faculty, that your limbs could be compelled to rest for several Sundays on the seats you furnish us in Chapel! It is a cruel punishment to desire for any man, but possibly sad experience might convince, where complaints will not. Seats of the hardest boards, placed at an agonizing angle with the backs, so that the poor benumbed body is compelled to seek relief in sleep, only to be harassed with dreams of marks, warnings and letters home. The aching limbs of five hundred Students cry aloud for cushions" ab imo pectore."

There would be no object in asking for these improvements were it not evident that Yale is a progressive Institution. Many reforms have been made during the last few years. Changing prayers from the middle of the night to morning, the building of a gymnasium, abolition of evening prayers, &c., all show that the officers of Yale are not afraid of reform.

When in 1871 I return to Yale to attend my Class Decennial, bringing with me my adorable and the "wee todlins," to show them where the head of the family obtained the intellectual development which fitted him to adorn so well the honorable and responsible position in life which he will then occupy, I expect to find Mother Yale, not looking like a Grandmother, but with her old cap and frills gone, her wrinkles removed, her spectacles off, her false hair and snuff box no longer visible, but like the fresh and blooming matron that she is, rejoicing in her children, and a source of pride as well as joy to them. I expect to visit 27 South, and find there no longer the carpet covered with mud in rainy weather, or the room reeking with the odor of kerosene, but well lighted with gas, with water accommodations nearer than old South Pump, and at the top of every flight of stairs a large mat, furnished by the enterprising Faculty, taking away the necessity of stumbling over one at every door. I expect to find more paving stones and less mud, sweeps less afraid of finding dirt, and aquarius more cleanly. With such large hopes for the future I leave old Yale, while her elms sorrowfully nod a kind good-bye, and the wind, whistling through her halls, wails for the bright light she is losing, and whispers Mispah.

J. C. K.

About Faces.

ALEXANDER POPE, in a didactic strain, gave us our proper intellectual occupation, in those now trite words:

"The proper study of mankind is man."

This is somewhat indefinite, unspecific-therein, it may be remarked, lies a distinction between poetry and prescriptions. Poetry's charm in general lies in its unworldliness: does it touch on everyday duties and deeds, it must not risk its dignity by too close handling. As thus indefinite, we are privileged in speculating, in a weak way, on the line,—not on its truth, but the methods it may be applied. The "proper study" indicated, is somewhat extended; the matter of some millions of volumes, bound variously in white, black, and copper color, and every volume full of puzzle and wonder. Evidently, in studying mankind, it is out of question to study every man or ev. rything about a Here then taste must have a voice.

man.

It is certainly an orthodox, if not an original doctrine, to declare the mind, far above all else we meet with, the most worthy object of our best attention. With its mention a peculiar study, of no mean merits, steps in the study of Faces. Its relationship to the study of the mind, differing in ordinary means as it does, is a perfectly valid one. Its end is better to understand our mysterious nature; if it arrives there by unusual eccentric routes, or if its work is only half accomplished, the dignity of the end will excuse much in themeans.

Some of the study's peculiarities are, that under the shadow of a dignified aim, we have a very easy and interesting occupation-a pursuit with hands washed of wrinkled brows and a midnight lamp. Instead of dealing directly with a very intangible, shadowless personage, whose birthplace, exact residence, and precise destination you know nothing of, it is satisfied with its revelations in the eyes. It has breathing life to deal with, and Art as a handmaid and helper, whereby you may read men's characters of a century ago.

It may not be out of the way to learn the tastes of mankind, of the past and present, in the matter of this "proper study," using art as an index or revelation. If I have read aright. they have taken two directions, either devoted to the Form or Face as favorite subjects, and the two periods are known respectively as those of Greek and Christian Art. In the first the Form was perfectly rendered, the Face but poorly. The influence of Christian sentiments turned the scale.

Men came to regard the mud-garment, which chance had shapen or misshapen, as almost unworthy of thought; but that there should be an earnest seeking for glimpses of the mysterious dweller locked within, that its workings on its only index-its smiles and hate-should all be carefully noted in colors or marble, was a natural consequence in minds awakened to the vastness of the soul's destiny.

It would be too late a discovery to find that this study was an eminently practical one. It may decide charity in many cases and regulate confidence in a certain degree, but it is the peculiar province of the curious Student-to such as seek wherewith to relieve the general tedium of existence, in spectacles of oddity, ugliness or beauty. Its ultimatum is not dollars or fame, but a peculiar satisfaction comprehended in the artist-classification of books, pictures and the face of Nature as the great sources of happiness in life.

There is a certain amount of pleasure in reading painted faces and in comparing your individual judgment of the face with the historical character of its possessor. Art best pleases as it is a faithful representation of what we have at some time seen or have some notion of; outside the limits its effeet is usually lost. A desert scene, though it be of far more sublime conception and though its horizon, tents, camels and all are rendered by a master-hand, will in most cases please less than the Village Blacksmith. And so those art-faces please in general best, which are the embodiments of features we have sometime seen, heard of, or dreampt of. More than half the pleasure in looking on the storm-swept face of a Lear or the calm suffering of an Evangeline is in seeing how far and how well the artist has shaped our ideal conceptions. Opportunity or taste, however, may not lead our philosopher among works of art: but breathing life is a better field, as much as universally the original is better than the imitated. Here some choice of place must be made, at churches and parties, hypocrisy, in a mild sense, is too prevalent. The true essence of a face is best caught in its every-day, unguarded suit. Street-life with its restless forms of varied nature is better; reviving it leisurely from a shady Stoic schoolhouse if the day is hot, or, still better, if your philosophic courage amounts to a Diogenic disregard of appearances, penetrating into dark alleys and dirty by-ways. Faces, washed or unwashed, are faces still, and stamped the same with some expression. In pacing these life-galleries, with their animated pictures framed in beards and bonnets, you are struck with the quick succession of extremes or opposites. No artistic taste could better oppose and contrast melody and discord, than chance does, unlike characters generally, in these