THE REWARD OF VIRTUE

Those delightful courses, Music 3 and Music 4, which have so long served as fillers in the programs of not over-energetic undergraduates, must now be regarded as especially choice academic tidbits, available only to those who have demonstrated their industry and sobriety by reaching the junior or senior class within the first four groups. This arrangement is far more just all round than the previous one. Students who have given such proof of earnest scholarship are more likely to be really interested in music than ennuied students merely in search of a quiet place to sleep. On the other hand students who have for two and even three years struggled up into the first four groups deserve some cool oasis in which to ease their labors.

The principle which has apparently guided this wise restriction might be applied to other courses. It is only natural that some subjects are easier to the majority than the average course, in spite of the fact that they are interesting and perhaps very valuable. But this is no excuse for converting these less difficult classes into popular playgrounds in which the professor tries gamely to drag and audience perfectly trained in passive resistance through a game which has no charm except its simplicity or its restfulness. Of course the professor is partly responsible for creating interest in his subject among the students who come to hear him. To expound its ins and outs to the class should be a privilege rather than a duty. But when a large part of that class comes with a fixed intent of communing solely with Morpheus, only a Disraeli or a Burke or perhaps a Fisher could unfix that intend. And the probability of getting such men is certainly considerably lessened when only the more meritorious students are admitted.

Naturally such a procedure would conceivably work hardships. There may be men in the lower two groups who are passionately fond of music and these unfortunates will suffer. Yet the "snap course" evil is worth diminishing and if this is one means to an end, the end will more than justify its use.