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454 matters concerning his success as a student. In this way, more than any other, does the young man get a good view of the benignity and wisdom of his professor; as the latter also obtains a direct knowledge of the pupil's aspirations and fears, and is enabled to conform the impulsive ardor that meets him into a hearty co-operation with the university's efforts for its members. The "advisers" act very considerately, yet very heroically sometimes. Though once in a while a pair of knit brows coming out of a study may announce positively that at least one person "can't see it that way," on the other hand I have known a consultation to make sunshiny and hopeful what had seemed to one student a dark fruitless year, and relieve it of a trouble which, without the inducement of such confidential relationship, would never have been confessed through the whole college course.

After the session has worn on a little and every one is settled well to his work, a pleasant diversion occurs in a number of grand receptions given by the President at his residence. Through these, the professors and students are still more generally introduced to each other. It should be understood that as a rule the student has had neither time nor opportunity to meet more than a few professors outside his own special department of study, and a very small proportion of the great number of students that do not attend the same lectures and recitations. With this last large body of gentlemen, whose names are not yet known to him, he is thrown in daily contact, in the libraries, the gymnasium, or the business office. He wishes to learn their names, have some conversation with them, and feel quite at home whenever he meets them. At these receptions the opportunity is offered for becoming pleasantly acquainted.

Another friendly help by which this circle of acquaintances and pleasures is widened comes from the University Y. M. C. A. This association is very happy in entertaining all who come to its halls. On Sunday afternoons during the past year it has offered a series of entertaining and spiritual addresses by prominent clergymen and men of letters of Baltimore. Through earnest, devout students, this organization sustains an active interest in various kinds of mission-work. On Sunday, all through the city its workers may be found as Sunday-school teachers, visitors of the sick and the poor, lecturers in mission-churches, leaders of classes in the penitentiary and jails,—enjoying the work, and learning profound lessons from actual life.

A very interesting phase of our life here is the attendance of the students on the professor's "Privatissima,"—a good instance of how the American does sometimes import foreign customs to his own benefit. These are cosey meetings of students of some one department of study, usually held at the home of the professor of that study. His pupils gather around the doctor in his library, and listen to the statement of some new chapter of science, or the analysis of some complex philosophy. One of them will then probably present a paper, or give a review of a scientific journal or monograph. After about an hour the company moves to the drawing-room, where discussion is less formal, but where science is by no means ignored. Literature, music, and conversation is then the round for the evening, to which is added the corporeal com-