Closing the Subject.

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

Being the instigator and chief promoter of this insidious attempt to divert the columns of the CRIMSON to a meaningless and purposeless discussion of education, I suppose it is now my office to make some sort of apology for its brief and miserable life.

Mine were quite well-intentioned motives in perpetrating this airy and cloud-like "pedagogical debate." It seemed to me that there was more than one defect worthy of attention in our system of education; it seemed to me that collegiate opinion on matters of vital importance had for too long a time been moribund; it seemed to me that it was the duty of those who remained at home to exert themselves in their feeble or feeble-minded way in an effort to solve one of the many problems that will confront them after the war; but in all this seeming I was wrong,--Mr. Prosser says so.

What are we going to do about it? That is what all the discussion is about; we are trying to discover what is the proper course to pursue in regard to the matter. Unoffending taciturnity will not get us far along the road; better that a few of us, apparently aware of what the other was saying, should venture to discuss something so remote from our daily lives, than that all of us should keep our lips closed for fear of incurring the righteous indignation of an uninitiated person. But this step of ours was premature; we are "entirely incompetent" to deal with such problems. Let us, then, with reluctant but expectant hearts, give over the further discussion of the question to Mr. Prosser for more intelligent treatment.

Before closing this article, let me say with Tennyson:

"I trust I have not wasted breath--"

Perhaps a few readers of the CRIMSON, gifted with uncommon powers of insight and penetration, have been able to understand what we have been talking about; to such as have, we do commend our crushed and humbled spirits.

Mr. Prosser speaks truly; it is getting warm and we have other things to do. So, with the fawning reverence of an English commoner, we bow ourselves out of these columns into the impenetrable oblivion of classroom and study. C. S. JOSLYN '20.