TO THE EDITORS OF THE CRIMSON:-

I HAVE lately seen a good deal of discussion in outside quarters as to what we are doing here at Harvard, and it has set me to thinking upon what strikes me as being a very serious error in our present system. It has become generally admitted in Europe, that one gains more from his University course if he spends his time on one department of study, than by "spreading" himself over a variety of subjects. And even here it is gradually getting to be acknowledged that a thorough education is better than a superficial one. Now, no one will maintain that a thorough education can be gained by electing one or two courses in each department that appears on the scheme. Yet how often this is done! How many men are there who choose their studies for the Sophomore year without the slightest thought of what they are going to take in the Junior year, and continue their plan by choosing their Junior studies without regard to those that they will select for their Senior year. Hence it is that we find men taking Classics as Sophomores, Modern Languages as Juniors, and finishing with Natural Science when Seniors. The remedy is simple. At the end of the Freshman year, the student, instead of sending in a list of electives for the Sophomore year, should choose electives for the entire remainder of his course. Each of these lists should be carefully examined by members of the Faculty to see that each student has chosen a course of study, and not a miscellaneous mass of subjects taken as they happened to hit his fancy.

F.EARLY BREAKFASTS.TO THE EDITORS OF THE CRIMSON:-

THE question as to the desirability of earlier prayers is one of so much interest to all of us that I venture to bring it up again.

I understand that the Faculty have decided to make no change this spring in the present arrangement of chapel and recitation hours. On what grounds this decision is based I do not know, but I think it can be taken for granted that their action was influenced by the supposed desire of the students not to have the change made. I say supposed desire, since I venture to assert that this decision does not represent the real desire of a majority of students. I cannot establish this assertion by positive data, but my purpose in writing this is to bring out a vote on this two-sided question. I can readily understand that there are men - not "bummers" or "society men," but good students - whose habits of study lead them to carry it far into the night, and who therefore consider the extra morning hour very valuable for sleep. But I think these men are exceptional, and that the great majority of men would find this morning hour much more valuable for study. The morning is the time when the brain is naturally freshest and clearest, and it is a time also when there are none of the distractions of athletics or entertainment which accompany the afternoon and evening hours. Again, considered from the sluggard's standpoint, the change is not a serious one. Seven o'clock in summer is not as early as eight in winter, and it is also much the cooler and pleasanter time for study, - a valuable consideration in view of the hot summer days. But this morning hour cannot be secured without a change in the breakfast and chapel hours, since studying before breakfast is difficult and exhaustive, while breakfast before chapel is certainly impracticable. I would suggest, then, as a solution of this problem, that the chapel hour be at a quarter before seven, with breakfast immediately following, and that otherwise no change be made, the hours for recitation remaining just as they are. This arrangement would leave to those who desired it a full hour and a half between breakfast and the first recitation hour; time enough for the review of work already prepared or for a good deal of further preparation.

To secure such a change would require a well-signed petition to the Faculty, or some other decided expression of opinion from a majority of the students. To such a plea the Faculty would certainly yield, since this is a matter that concerns the students only.

I would suggest, then, that those interested should circulate a petition for signatures, or else that a book be placed where all could sign their approbation or disapproval of the plan. And let the names be written out, since character as well as number will have its influence here.

L.