PRUDERY.

I AM frequently reminded in recitations of the emphatic statement of an instructor here, delivered in such a striking manner that it is impossible to forget it: "Gentlemen, this college is not a young ladies' boarding-school." I am inclined to doubt this assertion whenever I hear the familiar words, "You may omit the following passage"; but a look around the room, and the sight of N.'s imposing siders and T.'s incipient moustache convince me of its correctness. Then I wonder why the omission was made.

Freshman year, when I was told to omit the shocking passage in which mention is made of Maecenas' kissing his wife, I did n't see the impropriety of the verses; but I finally found an explanation, - the tutor was unmarried. However, that did n't account for other omissions, so I was forced to suppose that we Freshmen were treated as very young boys, because the tutor did n't think we were yet "men," in spite of our own very decided opinion to the contrary. "Well," said I, "in the electives next year, at any rate, this over-delicacy will be done away with, and a beautiful passage will not be passed over because in it a spade happens to be called by its right name."

But I was mistaken; in my classical elective we at once began a systematic omission of everything which could be twisted into a broad allusion. Of course, it is not desirable to read a passage which is merely indecent; but to omit one simply on account of a word which is not used in society, is certainly straining the point a little. It is like the use of "limb" for "leg," "retire" for "go to bed," and other similar absurdities, and reminds me of Moliere's prude, who had the bare limbs in pictures carefully covered.

We use no expurgated editions here, and read the lesson entire, outside the class; for, in the words of Macaulay, "a man who, exposed to all the influences of such a state of society as that in which we live, is yet afraid of exposing himself to the influence of a few Greek and Latin verses, acts like the felon who begged to have an umbrella held over his head from Newgate to the gallows, because it was a drizzly morning, and he was apt to take cold." I don't suppose that any instructor is so absurd as to think that a student will be injured by reading in the class what he has just read outside in preparing the lesson. The instructor's motive, then, in being so exceedingly particular is, probably, to avoid all laughter and disorder. To this I can only say, after the manner of a parable: There were two sections, Freshman year, - in the one, passages were constantly omitted; in the other, those only were avoided which were wholly unprofitable; in the first, the order to omit was always the signal for laughter and "wooding up"; in the second, there was never the least disorder of any kind when a slightly improper passage was read. I leave it to the instructors to find the interpretation, and will only say that, if they continue to treat us as school-boys, - or, rather, as school girls, - they must not be surprised at occasional boyish behavior. Prudery should be banished from the place to which it is least suited, - a university.

R. X.