MR. COPELANDS LECTURE.

Mr. Copeland gave his first evening lecture of the year last evening in Sever Hall before an audience of fully five hundred. Previous inquiries had made necessary some explanation of the title of the address,- "The Friendships of Young Men in Literature." The interpretation of this was two-fold; relating in the first place to the friendships of young men who have made literature, and secondly to the friendships of young men who appear in history, or in works of the imagination.

After choosing three instances, out of many that might have been chosen, Mr. Copeland dwelt at some length on the noble relation between David and Jonathan, and especially on the difficult position held by the son of Saul, between loyalty to his father and eager devotion to his friend. The whole Bible story of David and Jonathan was briefly retold and followed with the reading of the psalmist's lament, "How are the mighty fallen.

The second illustration of the lecture was drawn from the "Merchant of Venice," in the self-sacrificing affection of Antonio and Bassanio for one another,- an affection, the speaker said, which is often lost sight of between the grandeur of the Shylock theme and the romantic charm of the history of Portia and the caskets.

The concluding instance of the three was that of Tennyson and Arthur Hallam. The friendship of these two young men has taken poetic shape in Tennyson's elegy, "In Memoriam." Mr. Copeland said a few words by way of comparing, or rather contrasting, "In Memoriam," and the two other most famous elegies in English,- Milton's "Gycidus" and the "Adonais" of Shelly; and he commented on the suggestion once made by a clever woman that, although literary ambition would have been more highly gratified by writing "Adonais," there is, nevertheless, a more complete expression of personal and intimate human feeling in the lines in which Tennyson commemorated the lost friend of his youth.

The address finished with some remarks upon friendship and the lack of it in college life; Mr. Higginson's friend-commemorating gift of the Soldiers Field as a play ground for the University; and a reference to the speech made by Mr. Higginson in gift of that field to the College, in Sever Hall, five years ago. The usual illustrative reading was made up last evening of selections from "In Memoriam," and the speech just spoken of.

Mr. Copeland will probably give no lectures next year as his time will be much occupied with class-room work of one kind and another.