MINOR PROGRESS

Sentimentalists may sigh upon inspecting the Announcement of Courses for 1935-36, which has just been released. The Department of English has actually challenged the Medieval picturesqueness of the prevailing arrangement and has substituted clarity and logic. Many sensitive heartstrings may quiver at the thought of corrupting English 2 into English 22; to some the progression from the Anglo-Saxon of 3a through the Elizabethan of 32 and the Alexandrian of 50b to the Georgian of 26 may spell abracadabra. Nevertheless, hoary-headed tradition must retire to its armchair when faced with a definite improvement.

When military and naval science were the only defenders of simplicity; humanists might conceivably defend the cultured nebulosity of the catalogue from the encroachments of bureaucratic efficiency. Now, however, the arch-humanistic department of English has put its house in order. Further action should follow spontaneously. One may hope that within a few years an exploration of the catalogue will require no sixth sense but will be guided by a few simple and uniform rules.

Obviously the listing and numbering of courses is not a major educational problem. For this reason it has been long neglected. Nevertheless despite current practice to the contrary, a university pamphlet should be intelligible and logical. The English Department deserves congratulation upon its initiative in this minor but significant respect. Professor Munn in particular should be thanked.