The custom of providing series of evening readings is yearly gaining strength at Harvard. It is an unquestioned fact that these series enable a person to make himself acquainted with the works of writers whom he would never otherwise find time to study at least during his college course. The good we derive from these readings if of course somewhat superficial; it could not be otherwise, when such a wide field is covered. Superficial knowledge, however, is far better, in many cases, than no knowledge at all.

A recent addition to these readings is a series from the German Ballad Poets, by Mr. Hochdoerffer, an eminent philological student.

Last evening Mr. Hochdoerffer began his series with a very interesting translation from Buerger. This course, like most of the other courses of readings, is too apt to be unappreciated. The hour selected for the readings is a convenient one for most of us, and we fail to attend them more from carelessness than want of time. If we fully appreciated the benefit and pleasure we should derive by devoting one or two hours a week to the readings the faculty have provided for us, the attendance at them all would undoubtedly be greatly increase.

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