WHAT A GYMNASIUM MIGHT BE AND DO
that the men so lamentably deficient are by no means all from the new-comers; but often those who have nearly completed their course.
Yet here is a school which, rightly used, would do the average student more good; and would fit him better for his life's duties, than any other one branch in the whole curriculum.
Some years since a son of a lawyer of national reputation, a highly gifted youth, made a brilliant record at one of our best-known colleges. All who knew him conceded him a distinguished future; and yet he was hardly well out of college when he took away his life. Had there been a reasonable, sensible allowance of daily muscular work; had the overtaxed brain been let rest a while; and vigor cultivated in other directions; the rank, the general average, might have been a trifle lower; but an efficient man saved for a long and honorable life. And yet every college has men who are practically following this one's plan; overworking their brains; cutting off both ends of the night; forcing their mental pace; till all but themselves see that they cannot stand it long; and must break down before their real life's race is well begun. However exceptional may be the talents of such a man; does not his course show either dense ignorance of how to take care of himself; or a lack of something which would be worth far more than brilliant talents,—namely, common-sense?
Ought there not to be some department in a college designed to bring round mental development, where the authorities would step in and prevent this suicidal course? Oh, but there are such and such lectures on health. Yes, and in most instances you might as well try and teach a boy to write by merely talking to him;
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