ctions and humanitarian sympathies which will be of
lasting satisfaction.

Noah Porter, in speaking of the benefits of association in a college
community, truthfully says: "It is enough for us to be able to assert
that thousands of the noblest men, who stand foremost in the ranks of
social and professional life, would be forward to acknowledge that
they are indebted to the cultivating influences of college friendships
and college associations for the germs of their best principles, their
noblest aspirations, and their most refined tastes. * * * True
manhood, in intellect and character, is in no community so sagaciously
discerned and so honestly honored as in this community. Pretension and
shams are in none more speedily and cordially detected and exposed.
Whether displayed in manners or intellectual efforts, conceit is
rebuked and effectually repressed. Modest merit and refined tastes are
appreciated, first by the select few, and then by the less discerning
many. Each individual spectator of the goings-on of this active life
is learning intellectual and moral lessons which he cannot forget if
he would, and which he would not if he could, and he comes away with a
rich freight of the most salutary experiences of culture in his
tastes, his estimates of character, his judgments of life, as well as
of positive achievements in literary skill and power."

Some of the effective means of social life among the students are the
_open_ and the _secret_ societies. They are purely voluntary, and are
originated and managed by the members.

The _Greek Letter Societies_ are _secret_, and prevail in nearly all
colleges. They are generally limited to ten or twenty members, and the
chapters in the different colleges bear a friendly and mutual relation
to each other. Among the Eastern colleges, nearly all these societies
have elegant chapter houses, in which the members have rooms, and
where they enjoy homelike comforts; while in the Western colleges the
societies have attractive rooms, with tasteful appointments, which
become a place of rendezvous for their members. Their only bond is
congeniality. Some very different types of character are manifest in
these societies. Students group themselves according to their common
tastes, habits, and character. Some societies aim at scholarship or
literary excellence, while others make wealth or social qualities an
essential requirement. Even "fast fellows," if there be such, are
eager to group th