Especially and above all things ought our literature to reflect the mind. and heart of the student, delineating only and exclusively what of the intellectual, the moral and the social exists within College walls. It should be kept free from foreign influences. Men, whose feelings, if not absolutely averse from, are yet not by any strong ties connected with our Alma Mater, should be forbidden to intrude their views into our midst.

Hence it is urged that we should select our subjects from the classics which we every day read, and from the scenes with which we are every day surrounded. Such, in fact, has been partially accomplished. For some time past our Magazine has been confined more than formerly to ourselves and our own pursuits. But there are many features in our organization which the pens of our authors have not as yet described. They have overstepped the boundary of the province-have dug the mines, plucked the fruit, and cultivated the soil along its borders; but beyond are regions where their feet have never trod. In the interior there are fields, broad and rich, which no plough has ever turned up.

Yes; behind the exterior of College life topics may be found, so many and so various as to preclude altogether the necessity of searching after material in the outer world. But while we reject extraneous matter, we cannot prevent ourselves, living as we do in the heart of a stormy nation, from catching some of that nation's spirit. Though walled in, we yet inhale to some extent the enthusiasm which prevails about us. Peeping over the fence of our confinement and seeing the multitude as it runs to and fro, we become instinctively and by the force of sympathy thrilled with the same maniac frenzy which animates our fellow-men. At this juncture, for instance, our country is agitated by the slavery question. For more than a year it has been in a glow of excitement from one end to the other. Parties are deserting their ancient landmarks, and without regard to former prejudices arranging themselves for or against slavery. Ultraism exerts all its power and shows all its malignity on both sides. Abolitionists rage and old fogies grumble. Conservatism has been shaken on its throne and now contends, in deadly strife, with Young America. Loud calls are made all over the land for a new order of things. The Genius of Reform presides everywhererules and reigns in all hearts. It has crept not only into our politics, but into our literature. We see it in Whittier, in Whipple, in Giles. The feeling of resistance to error which it begets, is manifest in the harangues of our popular orators and in the addresses of our public lec

turers.

But this war of words, between those who demand change and those

who wish things to remain as they are, may be carried to such excess as to assume the character--and hence deserve the name--of distemper. Under such a form has it spread itself among retired Collegians. Here it has certainly done no good. During the outbreaks of party animosity students have read the papers and have swallowed editorial wrath. In the measure of Douglas they have found a theme for discussion with the tongue, and for treatment with the pen. Debates on the Nebraska Bill have roused the Literary Societies by calling forth fiery speeches, and encouraged the more regular members by drawing out, for one or two evenings, an unusually large attendance. In the division room, also, have the dangers of our country and the wrongs of the black man been pictured. Oh memorable 1855! "This," coming Yalensians will say, was the glorious old year in which Juniors dared stand before Professors and under many different heads, but with statesmanlike sagacity, dispose most successfully of the question-whether the New England Clergymen ought to have protested?"

66

But to agitate sectional differences like these, amidst the retirement of a literary institution, is wrong-decidedly wrong. It gives expression to feelings which should be suppressed. It divides and classifies individuals, between whom, coming from all parts of the United States for one common purpose, no line of separation ought to exist. It makes him of the far South look upon him of the far North as an enemy. It begets alienation between the Western man and the Eastern man. If you doubt this last statement, reader, I'll whisper something in your ear by way of parenthesis. Somewhere "round College," I'll not say exactly where or when, there was a discussion on Squatter Sovereignty. A New Englander was relieving himself--and, by continually approaching to a close, his audience--of a most painfully brilliant speech. He remarked, among other things, that the people of the territories, because they not only had no knowledge of the principles of government, but were absolute rowdies, were unfit for self-rule. Thereupon a sturdy son of the West stood up and seemed somewhat

displeased.

But from the external atmosphere, when thus broken into undulations by the snorts of human passions, it is not always unhealthy for us to quaff. When we see the masses in commotion and hear men crying with angry vehemence, on the one side, "Let old things pass away and all things become new;" on the other, "Let old things be old things still, and no new things thought of," we can participate in the excitement, and by it, when skillfully directed, be benefited. Let the dirty world spit forth its rage to its heart's content-to us it is allowed to lick

off a portion of the foam, and, using it rightly, to profit ourselves. But we must eat the fire, without considering how it originated. We must allow the flame to burn and purify us, but stop not to inquire who kindled it. The horse, as he stands shut up in his stable, hearing without the shouts of the crowd and the noise of fife and drum, elevates his ears, cocks his tail and prances most frantically; but he has no conception of the nature of those feelings which, existing in the bosoms of the crowd, influence it to raise its hurrahs, play its fife and beat its drum. He feels the eloquence of the distant hubbub, though ignorant of its character. In the same way ought we to appropriate to ourselves the heated temper of the world. If the land has become frantic on the question of slavery, it is our duty to steal some of the franticness, while we forget all about the slavery. We should become impregnated with the spirit, but take no account of the subject-matter, which that spirit vivifies. We should gather inspiration from the ideas of Reform, Reform, Reform, which float around us, exercising, at the same time, no pains to find out what abuse among outsiders is to be corrected. We should, in short, borrow from the nation its enthusiasm, but, instead of expending that enthusiasm in the discussion of national problems, baptize with it our own politics and our own literature. If we do not, we suffer ourselves to lag behind the age. Because we are a distinct and separate community, we are not, for that reason, to permit other communities to go ahead of us. When all creation--except us--is excited about its affairs, let us be excited about ours. Excitement is the soul of all existence. Let things sink into a calm quiet and decay will inevitably follow. Revolutions are needful in the course of every people's history. As in the Reformation, they call forth energies hitherto dormant. They breathe the breath of life into authorship, and seldom fail to renovate the

state.

Here in our own midst we have abundant room for the exercise of a reformatory power. Here is a system of wire-pulling and electioneering, as hideous as any which darkens the avenues to American halls of legislation. Here is a slavery-subjection to secret societies no less galling than that of the South. Here the issue of Presidential elections is always suspended, as by a delicate hair, on the voice of one or two otherwise weak and puny associations. Here in every case of honorgiving, where the tribute, paid to talent and good-heartedness, should be unanimous, or where, if division exist, it should result only from difference of opinion in regard to individual merit, faction rears its ugly form, upsetting the calmness of judgment, calling out the virulence of prejudice, and making College a perfect Pandora-box. There are errors,

also, in our style of writing, which deserve to be warred against. The code of morals, too, might furnish food for some sober minded reformer to make a dinner upon.

But the object of this article is not merely to bellow against the enormity of our sins. These have been alluded to in a shy and modest way over and over again. The idea, designed to be made most prominent, is that of raising a clamor, real and earnest, against deep-rooted evils. To waft among the dry bones of this, our little world, a breeze of desire after reform, to stir up the minds and hearts of these undergraduates to the importance of some great change, to smother all minor differences and separate ourselves into two parties, the one Conservatists, the other Young Americans, to do battle, when thus separated, with intellectual weapons and passionate interest, but in the absence of hatred and ill-will--would give to affairs such an impetus as should be felt for many generations. It would have the same effect as the voice of Luther during the darkness of the Middle Ages--as the appearance of Washington amidst the wreck of human liberties.

The efforts, put forth a short time since, to abolish a portion of the Prize Debates in our Literary Societies, accomplished enough to show that rebellion against established, but injurious, customs, is beneficial even in College. Never were our Debating Halls better filled-never were better speeches made in them. Questions which, like this, concern us immediately and directly are much more profitable for discussion than those which relate to the welfare of state and the destiny of nations. The latter are subjects which the immature mind is unable to handle with any degree of advantage or satisfaction. The former, having reference to the speaker himself and his own possessions, enlist in their consideration his whole soul. They tinge his cheeks with a glow of enthusiasm. They bring into play that warm feeling, which makes a debate eloquent, as well as argumentative.

Nor would it be necessary to confine this spirit of Reform to the Brothers and Linonia. It may penetrate beneath the tightly-stuffed breastplates of our authors. It may give vigor and vivacity to the pages of the Yale Lit. Attacks upon principles in our politics, stylė or social relations, may provoke from lovers of the old forms fiery refutations, and thus set in motion a controversial ball, which will hit the shins or the calves-according to the relative position of the individual -of all the students within these musty walls. This ball, Mr. Editor, by the peculiar interest which it would create, would swell enormously your subscription list.

Memorabilia Valensia.

REGATTA.

A Regatta took place at Springfield, on July the 4th. The boats entered were as follows: Nereid, 6 oars; Transit, 6 oars; Thulia, 6 oars; Atlanta, 8 oars; Rowena, 4 oars. The distance raced was three miles, and the time, according to the Judges, of starting, 5h. 16m. 48s.

Nereid passed the Judges' stand, 5h. 39m. 46s.

The 1st Prize, a Silver Goblet and Salver, was awarded to the Nereid; the 2d, a Telescope, to the Transit; and the 3d, a pair of Colors, to the Atlanta.

Woolsey Scholarship, A. Van Name.

Clark Prize to the second in merit, G. B. McLellan.

Class of '55.

W. D. Alexander,

Astronomical Prizes, G. Potter,

G. Talcott.

Prizes for Latin of 2d Term-Class of '56.

1st, L. L. Paine,

2d, D. J. Brewer, W. J. Harris.

Prizes for English Composition-Class of '57.