DEBATING AT HARVARD.

In a letter from one of the graduates of the College-himself one of the speakers in a debate with Yale-are some words which are quoted below in the hope that they may appeal to undergraduates who wish to hold the distinction won by Harvard in former speaking contests.

"What I hear about our debates is truly surprising and pleases me beyond measure. The men who are heard in the college debates have positive reality and naturalness, and these qualities are always most effective. How often some of us have heard 'Be natural,' 'Meet with force the resistance before you,' 'Speak out straight from the heart,' 'Suit the action to the thought.' Heeding these directions, because they have appealed forcibly to the common sense of those who heard them, Harvard men have become more impressive and convincing on the platform. These qualities have helped immeasurably to our success; and we like to do the things in which we are successful. Hence interest in debating and speaking has grown remarkably not only with us, but among colleges in general. Harvard sets the pace in things intellectual in the college world.

"To show you how much impression our debates make throughout the country, only a short time since, I heard from a man in a North Carolina college, asking for help in the question of the debate in which I took part. Only a few days previous to this application, I had a letter from an Illinois college asking for some directions, and last year I got a dozen or more such requests. In the constant growth of college interests, debating and speaking will have a chief place, and the success of the work already done in these matters is heartily recognized and appreciated. The increase in debating interest and the credit which the college will receive for it have only just begun.

"As a graduate of the college, I feel grateful for the incentive given to me for meeting men in the discussion of questions that should interest every man in a republic like ours. I look with earnest hope to the enlargement and progression of the work in public speaking which is doing so much for our College."