Thirty-three Courses Open to Upperclassmen Reviewed In Third Installment of Crimson Confidential Guide

With the treatment of 33 courses open to upperclassmen in today's issue the Crimson prints its third installment of the seventh annual Confidential Guide. The remaining advanced courses will be considered in tomorrow's paper.

In other years it has been the custom to reprint reviews of courses which appeared in the Freshman Guide for the benefit of upperclassmen but the large scope of the guide this year will not permit this. Anyone desiring to see reviews of all the courses regularly open to Freshmen can call at the Crimson Building, 14 Plympton Street, and procure copies of the two previous issues.

Twenty-seven courses were considered in the Freshman Guide. This, together with the 33 printed today and 20 more to come tomorrow makes this the largest and most complete Guide that has over been compiled.

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Chemistry 6

By no means easy, Chemistry 6 is one of the most interesting courses in the department to those who have any flair for mathematics. The subject covered is elementary Physical Chemistry, often a meaningless name to the uninitiate. It involves simply the measurement, with accurate instruments, of the physical quantities connected with the simplest reactions. The laboratory work, especially the second half year, is not irksome, and often may be accomplished in one afternoon a week.

Slightly more important are the problems assigned about twice a week. These cover all phases of the subject, and are usually rather difficult. The course demands previous knowledge of a Chemistry course, more advanced than Chemistry A or B; Physics C or D; and Math A. It is necessary for concentration in the field of Chemistry, and for most further work in Chemistry, including medical studies. The lectures cannot be said to be particularly illuminating, perhaps because they merely cover the substance of the text-book.

Comparative Literature 9

There should be at least one Babbitt course in every Harvard man's curriculum if only because he is Harvard's most honouredd prophet in every country but his own. This particular one carries on the good only family fond; Babbitt, I., vs. Rousseau et al. You'll enjoy Les Confessions (the English editions are expurgated) along with an apple and a fire on a few could autumn evenings; and when spring rolls around there's La Neuvelle Heloise to be read aloud on the shores of Walden Pond. You'll learn all about conchiliomania (a disease) and how if you get it you're liable to become the father of modern specialization. You'll wish it were a half course; but if you throw together a good thesis and make out a fat bunch of reading cards you'll get a good grade. Anyhow, you can't just ignore Babbitt: either you've got to throw the baby out with the bathtub, or get away with him and be cleansed of all Romanticism, or, if you're really wise, you'll wash away his prejudices and persiflage and get to the main body underneath.

Engineering Sciences 3

Quite out of keeping with the usual liberal mindedness with which the Engineering School gives instruction to members of the College who have a slight but not a burning interest in the subject is this course in engineering drawing, which presents the material in such a rigid framework that it is extremely difficult for the student to develop flexible methods in analyzing engineering drawing problems. To be sure, a large part of drafting consists in the knowledge of conventions, but convention stressed to the utter stifling of any individual attack on a problem is hard on any man who has been tutored in the mathematical world, for example, and who is accustomed to enjoying a certain small amount of freedom in choice of methods.

The course is not hard for those who enjoy copying exactly so-called models of solution such as are used in the course, but for one who likes to work out solutions of his own the penalty is swift and sure. Possibly Professor Norton, in whose charge the course will be this year, will be somewhat more lenient with his demands of solutions, and at any rate it is hoped that there will be a revision of the notes used in the course. Compiled as engineers would make notations on a drawing, the mass of material is difficult to assimilate and adds little to the interest of the students.

English 1

English 1 just misses being one of the best courses given in Harvard College. Most of its value lies in the author studied; half of the lectures at least are interesting. The course, falling as it does into the middle group, often has a tendency to bore the undergraduates, but the text usually saves the student.

A smattering of Middle English grammar is taught the first half-year, when the Canterbury Tales are read with Professor F. N. Robinson, whose edition of Chaucer's works is being prepared by Houghton-Mifflin. This year Professor Lowes returns to the second half of the course after an absence from it of two years. While abroad he lectured on "the morning star of English poetry," and with his gift for classroom brilliance, so long known to members of English 72, he should make the reading of the "Troilus and Criseyde" thoroughly enjoyable. The minor poems also will come in for their share of attention.

The lectures throughout the course vary widely in interest; the never ceasing stimulus to work is Chaucer's poetry. For an intimate knowledge of the great poet English 1 is recommended; indeed, through it alone can an undergraduate secure that knowledge.

English 2

English 2 is Professor Kittredge: conversely, Professor Kittredge is English 2. And the combination produce a course which will never be regretted by one the least interested in Shakespeare.

English 2 is not easy. There is an uncanny method by which unfamiliar spot passages appear on the exams; there is frequently a rude awakening after the November hour exam, which may cover only two acts of one play. Yet, if the system of answering can be mastered, hours of enjoyment will be gained from attendance at the lectures, and a minimum of cramming is necessary if work has been done with fair regularity.

The intricate derivations and meanings of words are not the only facts to be gleaned from the course, either. One discovers that Professor Kittredge was born in--well, that would be giving it away; let it suffice that he did not have personal acquaintance with Shakespeare. And there are some illuminating comments on the opposite sex, not to be misquoted. And, more, too. While the reading period involves careful but not minute study of ten other plays