TRUTH IN ART.

AT a recent lecture the Professor of the Fine Arts informed the members of his elective that he should not require them to hand in their blank books previous to the examination, and that he should request the Faculty to allow him to dispense with proctors during the examination. These remarks, coming as they did from an instructor who has always shown himself exceptionally kind and considerate in his relations to the students, as well within the recitation-room as without it, were welcomed by many as a sign that some members of the Faculty, at any rate, while desiring to raise the standard of scholarship, and to treat the students less like school-boys than has formerly been the case, desire also to improve the relations which exist between students and professors, and to increase the feelings of confidence which each body should have in the other. The request in regard to proctors was apparently not granted, the Faculty thereby signifying their disbelief in the existence of a feeling of honor among the members of the art elective sufficient to justify the confidence which the instructor placed in them.

Now supposing that proctors had not perambulated the room during the examination, and that half a dozen students had taken advantage of their absence to make use of illicit help, and had thereby added ten per cent to their average by wrongful means, would this circumstance have outweighed the advantage which might have accrued to the feelings of confidence between instructor and students, resulting from the absence of proctors?

From the opinions which we have heard expressed upon this subject, we may state with some degree of certainty that the lack of proctorial supervision would have been looked upon by most students as a compliment paid to their sense of honor, and that the confidence thus placed in them would have been fully justified.

Again, many students regard the use of illegal help in examination as free from deception or disrepute, on the ground that the Faculty show that they expect them to use illegal help by the supervision of proctors; and many who use such aid at present would not think of doing so if proctors were dispensed with.

Thus we may conclude with justice, that an innovation such as that proposed by the instructor in Fine Arts would not only have the effect of not increasing the use of help in examinations, but would also have an effect upon the relations of the students to the Faculty, and upon the standard of honor in College, the advantage of which could not be overestimated.

B. T.