Crimson Issues Confidential Guide to Coming Half-Courses

Continuing in its policy of publishing a Confidential Guide not only to whole courses but to half courses, the CRIMSON commences this morning a guide to the courses which are continuing after the Midyear Examination period. The purpose and spirit of these criticisms remains essentially the same as that followed in other guides of the past few years.

That they are being published early in December instead of in January, as they were last year, is explained by the fact that the date for the filing of Study Cards for the second half year has been advanced over the practice of former years to December 20.

Comprises Individual Opinions

The CRIMSON endorses in no official manner the criticism in the Confidential Guide. It can guarantee only that they are sincere opinions of competent individuals. The reports are representative only in so far as the critics themselves, who may be considered as representing fairly the undergraduate opinion, are representative of the student body.

An innovation in this particular guide is that the criticisms have been drawn, not only from editors of the CRIMSON, as previously, but from a comparatively wide range of undergraduates.

The courses are listed alphabetically and in numerical order. The Guide will be continued in tomorrow's CRIMSON.

Anthropology A

There are just about two good reasons for taking this course. If you are concentrating in Anthropology it is probably a good idea to have it behind you; and secondly, if you want to ease your program for the second half year it will turn the trick very nicely. Lest there be any misunderstanding let it be made clear that it is not an out and out snap course. It probably used to be; but Professor Hooton found that out, and it has been so stiffened that it is only a very simple course now.

The work consists in two divisions,--lectures and assigned reading. It must be said, in all truthfulness, that they do not both cover the same ground. The reading is tested separately from the lecture material. It consists in considerable assignments of Darwin, Newman and others, but any one of these will cover the ground of the others. The lectures strike a certain percentage of the class as amusing. At the opening sessions there are considerable guffaws, but this soon wears off and you find yourself confronted by the awful reality of having to listen to Professor Hooton read from his little cards in a low monotone.

The material of the course is officially listed as "Human Evolution", and covers the descent of man and his distribution over the earth's surface. There is no doubt that Professor Hooton is a very eminent anthropologist, but when taking the course one cannot help having the feeling that he is not particularly interested in the work in question. With this attitude in evidence on the professorial side, a show of wild enthusiasm on the part of the members of the course is hardly to be expected. In short, it is a half course covering what could be a distinctly interesting field of human knowledge, in a most decidedly uninteresting way. This being the case, concentration in Anthropology or the search for a relatively easy half point toward the degree are the only plausible reasons for taking the course.

Comparative Literature 6b

Any man registering for a course dealing with "the literary history of England from the Norman Conquest to 1500" is probably fully conscious of what he is undertaking. The only thing to be done in this particular case is to extend sympathy and condolences.

Economics 7b

This course, originally intended as a small, intimate course on the socialist economists, when given for the first time last year, proved too popular to be labelled as small. Its intimate nature however was retained through Mr. Mason.

One of the youthful prodigies of the Economics department, with an Oxford education behind him, Mr. Mason conducts the course along lines that are wholly enjoyable. Informal lectures--you may interrupt any time you wish--are the backbone of the course, but there are also occasional sessions devoted to a general class room discussion, with the conservative students standing off their more radical colleagues and with Mr. Mason holding the scales.

Examinations are few and far between, and when given display a broadness not displeasing to the student who is taking the course as a study of history rather than as a study of economics.

English 16

With Mr. Hersey taking over this course on the principles of English versification, it seems likely that it will lose most of the air of long-haired aestheticism which has pervaded it in the past, and take on a more normal aspect.

Mr. Hersey's well known faculty for helpful criticism, added to the obligation of writing a weekly composition in verse, should prove valuable not only for the earnest poet and the vague dilettante but for anyone who wishes to acquire an appreciation of good poetry through the simple means of personal trial and failure. Genius, by the way, has never been required for a C in this course, as the writer of this bit of confidence will readily testily.

English 50b

The most difficult task encountered in English 50b is the perusal of huge stretches in the works of John Dryden. Were it not for the fact that Congreve and to turn to the opposite pole, Bunyan are also included in the reading list the course would be just what one would expect from the author of "The Hind and the Panther." Few undergraduates have reached that precious stage where Dryden delights rather than bores.

The presence of the Congreve comedies, however, and of minor delicacies of the seventeenth century such as the pastoral ruminations of Cowley and the sundry writings of the Marquis of Halifax make English 50b not only informative but oftentimes entertaining. Professor Greenough, possessing a very human insight into what appears at time to be a mouldy enough age, is an excellent guide. With him the student may enjoy the brilliance of Restoration Comedy and even come to appreciate the state of mind which finds Dryden exhilarating.

English 75

An elementary knowledge of Latin and German and the patience of Job are the prerequisites for this course. Grubbing for roots may be an enjoyable task in pleasant sunny garden, but it is less happy in the dusty purlieus of the English language, except for those who have a natural bent for grubbing.

The grubbing process is not made easier by the professor in charge. An excellent scholar himself, he can wander on and on in total oblivion, which is shared by most of the people in the room.

Fine Arts, amatory poetry, and all American football teams fill the notebooks of the listeners. Of two evils, we should take a cold every time.

Fine Arts 1d

Fine Arts 1d is one of those large, popular courses, which combines at once most excellent qualities with large disadvantages. Perhaps the most excellent thing about Fine Arts 1d, at least for the ordinary undergraduate, is Professor Edgell; even at Harvard it is all too rare to have the opportunity of hearing a lecturer to whom it is a pleasure to listen. The vast majority of those who come to marvel that merely human flesh and blood can speak so rapidly, smoothly, and interestingly, remain for an hour under a species of trance in which scenes from the Mediaeval Renaissance and Modern masters flash before the eye to the accompaniment of a symphony--multo allegro--of words.

On the other hand, the greatest disadvantage of Fine Arts 1d is that it seeks to cover, in the space of half a year, all of art from 300 A. D. to the present. Why this course is not expanded to occupy a full year is just one of those inexplicable mysteries. As a result, however, of its present conduct, the student is forced to learn a very large number of slides in a comparatively short time--and hence gets merely a bird's eye view.

In short, Fine Arts 1d does what History 1 does, but in an even more rapid and cursory way--and it does it excellently well.

Geology 5

Geology 5 deals with the historical aspect of the subject. It does not lend itself to as interesting lectures as does Geology 4. Professor Mather's lively nature, however, makes even an account of the Devonian Age less musty than it might else be. The laboratory work is eminently uninspiring. The section men, on the whole with Professor Mather's teaching ability and personal magnetism, make little or no attempt to raise the study of topographical maps from a boring task.

The field trips in the spring are worth while, giving one an excellent idea of the geologic structure of the area in the immediate vicinity of Boston.

German C

Those who flunk German A for the first half year or fare not too well in that course may take the first half year over again under the name of German C. It leads to German D, corresponding to the second half year of German A, which may be taken in the following fall. Dr. Howe, who is in charge of German C, is a teacher of the old school and is one of the very few men who can make nearly bearable a course which the vast majority are taking merely to satisfy language requirements.

German A has had enough abuse heaped upon it, both for its nature and for the prevailing poor instruction under green section hands. German C is just like German A, in that it is an unpleasant necessity for most of those who take it, but it has the advantage, at least, in Dr. Howe's sections, of being well-taught.

Government 7b

This course in "American National Government" sends the student post haste to Washington and keep him