us life all about me, brisk, confident,
cheerful young men, friendly, sensible, amenable, at that pleasant time
when the world begins to open its rich pages of experience, undimmed at
present by anxiety or care.

My college is one of the smallest in the University. Last night in Hall
I sate next a distinguished man, who is, moreover, very accessible and
pleasant. He unfolded to me his desires for the University. He would
like to amalgamate all the small colleges into groups, so as to have
about half-a-dozen colleges in all. He said, and evidently thought,
that little colleges are woefully circumscribed and petty places; that
most of the better men go to the two or three leading colleges, while
the little establishments are like small backwaters out of the main
stream. They elect, he said, their own men to Fellowships; they resist
improvements; much money is wasted in management, and the whole thing
is minute and feeble. I am afraid it is true in a way; but, on the
other hand, I think that a large college has its defects too. There is
no real college spirit there; it is very nice for two or three sets.
But the different schools which supply a big college form each its own
set there; and if a man goes there from a leading public school, he
falls into his respective set, lives under the traditions and in the
gossip of his old school, and gets to know hardly any one from other
schools. Then the men who come up from smaller places just form small
inferior sets of their own, and really get very little good out of the
place. Big colleges keep up their prestige because the best men tend to
go to them; but I think they do very little for the ordinary men who
have fewer social advantages to start with.

The only cure, said my friend, for these smaller places is to throw
their Fellowships open, and try to get public-spirited and
liberal-minded Dons. Then, he added, they ought to specialize in some
one branch of University teaching, so that the men who belonged to a
particular department would tend to go there.

Well, to-day was a wet day, so I did what I particularly enjoy--I went
off for a slow stroll, and poked about among some of the smaller
colleges. I declare that the idea of tying them all together seemed to
me to be a horrible piece of vandalism. These sweet and gentle little
places, with a quiet, dignified history and tradition of their own, are
very attractive and beautiful. I went and explored a little college I
am as