LETTERS TO A FRESHMAN.

DEAR JACK, - You took my last letter so good-naturedly that I am going to reward you with another; and, as you seem to be rather doubtful as to the comparative expediency of studying and of doing nothing, I shall preach to you this time about college work. You ask me whether it is advisable to study or not. It is pretty much as if you had asked me whether it was advisable to be good; and my answer will be the same. Of course you ought to, but sometimes you had better not.

The more people you please in the world the better off you will be; and although it is known that an attempt to serve God and Mammon at the same time is sure to end in failure, I have reason to believe that by careful management the same person may win the favor of college tutors on the one hand and of college students on the other. And your endeavors during the beginning of your course ought to be directed to that end. So I shall now try to tell you in this letter when you had better study, and when you had better not.

You will find that about nine tenths of the fellows that you meet have limited their ambition for the last few years by the entrance examinations. When those are once passed, they see no reason for further exertion; and they are so anxious to acquaint themselves with the new phase of existence which they erroneously term life, that they find no time for anything else. Their college work is sure to be neglected. Their half-stupid, half-mischievous, wholly careless behavior in the recitation-rooms is sure to exasperate their tutors to the point of numerous warnings.

NOW college tutors are human beings, although it is the fashion to regard them as diluted demons. Like other human beings, they are subject to prejudice. Like other human beings, they habitually communicate their prejudices to others. And if you make a bad impression upon the first ones with whom you come in contact, you will find that your bad reputation will spread as fast as the report of a Boston engagement. What is more, this bad reputation will cling to you through college. Your instructors will regard you as your conduct leads them to suppose that you regard them, - as a natural enemy; and every stroke of work that you do will be criticised with the most merciless rigor. On the other hand, if in the beginning you are reasonably attentive to your books, and, above all, if you flatter the tutor's self-love by taking copious notes, and by appearing to be interested in his numerous remarks, you will soon be distinguished from the great body of your classmates. You will be spoken of as a man of marked promise. You will be welcomed by any college magnate whose courses you deign to elect. And an occasional weak examination will be attributed to some unavoidable mischance.

Don't take it upon yourself, though, to ask questions or offer observations in recitations. Your questions would bore the students, and your observations would bore the tutors. And don't talk to the tutors out of hours. A Freshman who is intimate with the powers that be is looked upon by his classmates of to-day pretty much as a man who was in league with the powers of darkness used to be regarded by their Puritan ancestors. They are naturally rather afraid to maltreat him openly; but he is sure to be excluded from decent society. And before you have been in college long, you will learn that decent society - or decent societies, for the word is generally used in the plural number - is the sole end of the ordinary student's life.

A man who is without social honors is generally without much influence. A man who is unpopular, usually lacks social honors. And a man who is persistently out of the fashion is not apt to be popular. Now, very unfortunately, study is horribly out of fashion; and if you want to command the regard of your Freshman classmates, you must endeavor to make them believe that you only work when you have nothing better to do. You must never allow yourself to openly sacrifice pleasure to duty. The truth is, that any American is provoked by the presence of a person who is in any way his superior; and if you hint to your classmates that you are walking away from them on the rank-list, they will take good care to establish a balance of power by walking away out of sight down a vista of society rooms.

At the same time, if you do not talk about studying, it is not probable that they will trouble themselves enough about you to discover that you are working hard; and as long as you are not caught at it, the more work you do, the better. There is a rather popular theory at college, that all exertion ought to come under the same head. Study and gravel-digging are both dubbed "work," and work of any sort is thought "ungentlemanly," - a horrid word, by the way, which you ought never to use. A man who is always ready for everything, however, is rarely suspected of being a worker. And you will find before long that almost everything in college takes place in the evening.

Days, during the Freshman year, are spent in doing nothing in a "gentlemanly" way, i.e. in smoking, talking small gossip, and playing occasional games of poker for undergraduate stakes. And you will not find it difficult to pass most of your mornings in a way which will secure the favor of the Faculty. If any popular movement is on foot, you had better throw aside your work for the time being, and take part in it. But in ordinary times you will find that your evenings will give your classmates quite as much of your company as they will be apt to want, and will, very probably, give you rather too much of theirs. Evenings ought to be devoted to pleasure. That is what they were made for; and if you ever try to devote them to anything else, you will probably succeed in ruining your eyes by the vile gaslight which Cambridge people endure.

I find that my letter is as long as a real sermon, and I will close it at once, with the hope that you will have had the patience to read far enough to discover that it comes from

Your affectionate brother

PHILIP.FRESHMEN, and others who row at all, are requested to enter next Saturday the single-scull race. Those who have formerly competed in this race will not enter this fall, in order that less experienced oars-men may have an opportunity of showing what they can do.