HARDER WORK.

A GRADUATE of Harvard, who has attained some eminence, recently expressed it as his opinion that graduates of Harvard were less likely to attain distinction in after life than those of the smaller colleges. As a reason for this belief he referred to the fact that no Harvard graduate of the last twenty-five classes had become distinguished in any profession. The cause of this seemed to him to be the largeness of our numbers and the consequent diminishing of the personal interest and influence of our instructors.

To us, who believe that Harvard more than any other college offers means for the most liberal and widest culture, the opinion stated above will seem an erroneous one. We have been accustomed to regard our college as offering to its students the best of advantages, and as initiating one so deeply in the mysteries of a department which he intends to follow as a specialty, that, when brought into competition with students from other colleges, he would at the start have such an advantage as to be able to quickly outstrip his competitors. The facts, however, seem to belie such a belief; and the explanation is, I think, a simple one.

The term "liberal advantages" has among most of our students a meaning quite foreign to that prevalent in the outer world. To us it implies not only favorable opportunities for developing our mental qualities, but also a certain liberality in choosing to take advantage of such opportunities. To be careless about our studies, to look down upon any show of energy and capacity for work, is "liberal." To make study the business of our college lives, and to believe that industry is an admirable quality, is at once to degrade ourselves to the level of students at the smaller colleges. "To work," in the language of a recent writer in the Crimson, "is ungentlemanly."

Such, as it seems to me, is, on the whole, the prevailing sentiment in college. As an evidence of this, I adduce the fact that our representative men are those who least apply themselves to the purpose for which the College was founded. One would think, from a priori reasons, that the representatives of a college would be its leading scholars. From experience, however, we know that such is not the case. And the consequence is, that instead of being a leader in discovery, invention, and opinion, the representative Harvard graduate of to-day is, as a general thing, a representative merely of a slight amount of culture and the most well-bred traits. He is able to pass a fair opinion in literature, art, and occasionally in science, but is far from being a forerunner in progressive work. He is amply satisfied to luxuriate in the attainments of the present. In other words, his civilization is stationary.

Now, a reflecting man would pronounce at once that such a state of opinion ought not to exist in "the foremost college in America." He would question whether the working man does not, after all, get the best of Harvard culture, and whether the "grind," discountenancing, of course, a too persistent and unhealthy devotion to study, is not, on the whole, more worthy of admiration and respect than the "swell." I suspect that much of our affected contempt for a "dig" is a result of indolence. It is very convenient for a lazy man to express the opinion that "grinds" and "grinding" are a bore, but such an opinion, he may be sure, won't in the end be a paying one. A summer vacation, when we get out into the world, and see the earnestness and labor of business men so absolutely necessary for success, is an excellent time for reflection; and more than one of us have in this way become convinced that some false ideas do exist at Harvard. We are soon to become participants in a world which shows no favor, and it would be well to have a definite idea of, and an adequate training for, our future duties.

To this sentiment in regard to work I ascribe what truth there may be in the opinion which I have quoted. To say that the sentiment ought to be corrected would be a mere truism. Of this we may be sure, that in the long run hard work will tell against liberal advantages. Harvard men are now judged in the outside world by their catalogue and list of electives; and their agreeable manners serve to heighten the favorable impression. But in time the artificiality and unfitness for real life of most Harvard men will be discovered by all, as it has been discovered by the gentleman of whom I have spoken. For the credit of our Alma Mater, therefore, may we show more respect for "digs" and, if possible, become imbued with a little of their spirit.

W.