REVUE OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

That the principal, almost the only, value of English 28 is that those who take it are forced to road a certain amount of the best of English literature has long been agreed; but why the course cannot be made as fascinating and valuable as the corresponding survey of French literature, French 6, is a secret known only to members of the English department. One is inclined to think that the course is as dull and superficial as it is only because no one has ever seriously tried to improve it.

The two principal defects of the course, dullness and superficiality, can be traced to one source, the variety and uninterestedness of the lecturers. Messrs. Kittredge, Lowes, Lake, Greenough, et al., are undoubtedly fine scholars and eminent authorities in their respective fields; but their combined efforts produce only a hodge-podge of unrelated and uninspiring details, a result falling far short of that which might be obtained by one man of lesser eminence whose job it was to give to Freshmen and Sophomores a concise and integrated picture of English literature as a whole and of the various authors and their works in relation to that whole and to contemporary though currents throughout Europe.

Since the large size of the course and the general mediocrity of the section men prohibits organization of the course on the model of French 6, in which fairly small classes meet under competent men three times a week, the obvious way to get rid of the ungainly professorial chorines participating in the revue is to entrust the course to one interested man, who would give at least two, perhaps three lectures a week throughout the year. Only in this way can the unity and coherence so necessary and so lacking now be gained. A comparable system gives excellent results in History 1 and English 33, both large survey courses. That the lecturer would not know as much about each author or each period as do the present lecturers would be no disadvantage; such a vast field can only be covered in broad outline, and the man who knows everything is prone to spoil his canvas sketching in details. The shining lights of the English department should be relieved of the irksome task of lecturing to Freshmen and Sophomores, and Freshmen and Sophomores should be relieved of the irksome task of listening to them. Somewhere the man who can make English 28 as good as its subject matter can certainly be found, and should be found immediately, that the course may be reformed next year.