SUGGESTIONS FOR SEVER HALL.

THE architects of the new Gymnasium are aiming to make it as complete as possible, and with that end in view have expressed themselves willing to receive suggestions from the students. It is to be hoped that a similar spirit will actuate the architects of our mental gymnasium, - the new hall for recitation and lecture rooms. That these rooms will be properly heated and ventilated, after all that has been said on the subject, we may reasonably expect. There are other points, however, that may be overlooked by those who have not profited by bitter experience. The windows, for instance, in the University recitation-rooms are, in nine cases out of ten, so arranged as to throw the sunlight right into the faces of the class, and to envelop the instructor in a deep shadow, whence, like the Homeric gods, he can see without being seen. Unpleasant as it is to be unable to distinguish the instructor's expression or to see what he is looking at, it is still more unpleasant to have the light bewildering our notes or shining in our eyes as we recite.

These puzzling cross lights and dazzling sunbeams may be seen to advantage in U. 2. There on a bright morning the different portions of a class are divided from each other and from the instructor by bands of sunlight and zones of darkness. Moreover, through the windows right before us we have a full view of Thayer or Weld, as the case may be, so curiously and fantastically distorted by the peculiar quality of glass used at Harvard as irresistibly to distract the attention of our imaginative and speculative mind. As the preservation of our eyesight ought to be one of the chief objects attended to, we hope that the architects will devise some way to avoid the existing evils.

Another point it would be well to look to is the arrangement and kind of seats. At present the College has quite a varied assortment of benches and chairs, but the popular verdict seems to be that they are all more or less uncomfortable, and there will be great interest taken in what will next be given us to rest on. We have even heard it proposed that every man should provide his own chair, - a plan which certainly would make a novel and interesting recitation-room ; for if there is one thing on which every man has certain pet ideas it is an easy-chair. Perhaps, however, long narrow tables and plain cane-seated or wooden arm-chairs would be the most acceptable in recitation-rooms. For lecture-rooms such seats as are now in use at the Botanical Garden are probably most popular.

It is very evident, also, that we have great need of a large lecture-room. Fine Arts 2, a course which has a larger attendance and which exerts a greater influence than any other elective, requires a much better room than can be at present given to it. To take notes and sit with any ease in Upper Holden is wellnigh impossible; while the difficulty of showing engravings and illustrations to the class is very great. This leads to another idea. There is no reason why the recitation-rooms should not be made attractive. If rope-matting be out of the question, why should not appropriate pictures and maps, at least, be hung upon the walls? Diagrams, plans, and models in the scientific lecture-rooms would be a constant instruction through the eye; pictures and bronzes in the classical and fine arts rooms would be both useful and ornamental ; or at least they could be finished so that pictures and statuary, should the future provide any, would not seem out of place in them. Other suggestions might perhaps be offered, but even if these few are attended to, we think a great deal of good will be done. If we are to have new recitation-rooms, they ought to be made with all the improvements that the art of building has attained and that experience can suggest. If our present recitation-rooms are poorly ventilated and lighted, have bare walls and hard benches, let us hope that the new ones will be light, airy, comfortable, and attractive.

"Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished."