THE CHAPLAINCY.

AN article appeared in the last Magenta entitled "Cant," expressing, I hope, the views of but a very small portion of the class. The question first discussed, of abolishing the custom of dancing around the tree, being one of personal opinion, I will only observe that it is strictly in keeping with the iconoclastic spirit of '75. It is the suggestion of doing away with the chaplaincy that I would decry.

In all countries and under all forms of religion signal events of public and private importance have been commemorated by proper ceremonies. Paganism as well as Christianity celebrated the coming of age, the safe return from sea, and numberless other similar incidents. Nothing is more grateful to the human heart in its right state than a sense of gratitude, and nothing more becoming than its expression.

As Senior students we have had an eventful life, we have been ferried into the longed-for haven, we have come into the full inheritance of the legacy of our Alma Mater; yet it is suggested to us, not indeed to be ungrateful, but to crowd it back into our hearts, unacknowledged and unexpressed. I do not wish to be guilty of sophism. The article named rather attacks the office of our Chaplain as a mockery of a sacred duty. But such it is not. Though some may laugh, shall we, through fear of them, hesitate to express our thanks openly to the Almighty for the rich gifts of our Alma Mater? Does the fervency and success of our Chaplain's prayer suffer from the want of appreciation of the many? Are we the more likely to feel our own gladness by treasuring it in our hearts, or by recording it with a full heart in the person and lips of our class Chaplain?

These are poor arguments for some. They presuppose a grain of love for our college bricks and a spark of life still lingering in that poor ghost of a "glass feeling." But I offer them as an appeal to our better feelings.

There is another consideration in the person of the Chaplain. Many of us, most of us, feel a respect we should like to express for some substantial, steadfast character we have admired through college. We choose an Orator whose skill will express our acquirements to our friends and fellows. We choose a Chaplain to express our sentiments and freshness of heart. A wrong selection (as has once or twice occurred) does not dishonor the office, but the class. He stands as their prayer to heaven, - if it be a curse, they must bear it; if a blessing, they must receive it. And though he should speak but the thought of one or two beside himself in his class, let us have him, for he is the title-page to our book of life, the Nunc Demitis to our college days; if it be a lie, we deserve to suffer its consequences, and if the truth, may it be accredited to us.