“_Press on, reaching after those things which are before._” OFFICERS. _President_—J. B. Underwood, Meriden, Conn. _Vice President_—C. M. Nichols, Springfield, Ohio. _Treasurer_—Miss Carrie Hart, Aurora, Ind. _Secretary_—Miss M. M. Canfield, Washington, D. C. _Executive Committee_—Officers of the class. * * * * * After Commencement, what? More of the same sort, undoubtedly—of a better sort, if possible. The members of the class of ’85 are now near enough to the “finish” to arrive at some more or less mature conclusions as to the future. They find that the word “commencement” is to be no misnomer, and is not even to be criticised. For after four years of reading and study the students find that they have not come to the end, but only to the beginning. The matter selected for them has been so good, so substantial, and really so inspiring, as a whole, that an immortal, if not divine, sort of hunger for the best in literature, science, art, philosophy, has been created in their minds, and they could hardly stop if they desired. The aggregate amount of literary and scientific information which has been acquired is really large, and much of it has been retained as a permanent fund of knowledge, but this has proved to be but a small part of the benefit that has been derived. Thousands of people have just begun to find out how little they really know, and how much they ought yet to learn, to satisfy their own ideas and notions as to what is required to make one, not learned, indeed, but reasonably well informed! And what they think they need to know, they feel sure that they have now discovered how to learn, and have acquired habits of reading and thinking which will make the processes easy and enjoyable, instead of laborious and tiresome. They have already looked beyond bounds into the green fields and pastures new of that which is best, most beautiful, and grandest in the domain of thought, and suggestion, and philosophical research and discovery, as brought out by poets, philosophers, statesmen and philanthropists, and they are likely to pass through the Golden Gate and out from the Temple on the hill into a still broader fraternity of thought and action, whose limits will correspond with those of the world itself. * * * * * A breezy letter from the plains of Dakota contains the following: “I have been studying entirely alone, and have found the course a blessing that can not be valued. Here, quite removed from society, while winter winds howl round my cabin home, I find help, companionship and pleasure in the studies of the dear ‘Home College.’ The most attractive corner of my little room is the one where my beloved books lie on the home-made shelves. My little ones love them too, and there is scarcely a time when I need help but what I can find it in my books.” * * * * *