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4 fmgia Cdlfgnm, ATHENS, GrA.. Saturday Evening, April 30 ? 1870. Published by the Literary Societies of the University. EDITORIAL CORPS. J. B. B, SMITH, Term Editor prom the two Societies. Dei.iosthenian Society. Phi Kappa Society. W. B. HILL, R. H. JOHNSTON, Jr W. DESSAU, N. E. HARRIS. Executive Committee. D. B. Fitzgerald, I W. A. Broughton, J. L. Hardeman, |P. K. Yonge. TEEMS OF SUBSCRIPTION, Single copies, one year.... $ 2.50 “ “ six months 1.50 u “ three months 1.00 Clubs of five, one year 11.00 “ “ ten, “ “ 20.00 “ u twenty, one year.. 40.00 And an extra copy to the one who gets up a Club of 20. , Remittances should be made by regis tered letters or P. O. order. jfigS" Address all Letters to “Georgia Col i.egian,” Athens, Ga. INDUCEMENTS TO AGENTS. Any, one who constitutes himself an agent, and gets us 5, or more than 5 subscribers, can have the advantace of our olub rates. Thus one who gets 5 subscribers (at $2.50 each), need remit us only $11.00; if 10 subscribers, he need remit only $20.00. Tpgt' Contributions solicited from the Alumni of the College, the students at the institutions of learning throughout this State and other States; and from the friends of the University generally. ■ , ■ .■ 4 - The Art of Couching Themes For composition, seems to be little understood. Its great importance must never have occurred to gram marians and rhetoricians, els© they would certainly have offered some suggestions or advanced some princi ples by which we (literateurs) could be governed while determining on the phraseology of our literary pro* ductions. This subject, as trifling as it may appear to some, especially i<f those who write and never read, or those whp read and never write, to us, seems one of great moment. Has any one ever coiisidered the subject long enough to inquire what was the object of designating or naming lite rary compositions ? We propose the question. “To distinguish the many articles from each other,” say half of those whom we address. The re maining half are silent; and we ven ture to say there is not one in twenty who could suggest a single otherobs ject so be attained or another princi ple to be consulted in wording these subjects for composition; yet there is one, and one which we consider of paramount importance. An author may write because he is fond of it; but he never publishes without a motive, without an ulte rior object in view. He either wishes to advance the happiness of his peo pie or enhance his own reputation.— To effect either of these ends his work must have an extensive circulation ; THE GEORGIA COLLEGIAN. to be circulated it must be discussed; to be discussed it must be read—and to be read in this era and stage of literature, it must be attractive. To securing this almost indispensable property, there is nothing that con tributes more than the naming; and there is nothing about the article upon which we ought to bestow more care, in which we should exercise more ingenuity, than this seemingly insignificant matter of adopting a phraseology for our subjects of com position. The name is the advertise ment, and we all know there is a deep principle underlying this art of ad vertising. Some authors study to compress into the titles of their books or the themes of their essays the gist and substance of the whole discussion; but this is evidently ill advised. Will this secure a reading? Who, after reading his lengthy proposition—for such it amounts to—is going to plod his weary way through what would seem to him a legion of redundancies and a perfect mass of monotony ? Every article, whether scientific or purely literary, should have a denoue ment or catastrophe; and while the subject of the essay, book or whatev er, should be intimately connected with this denouement, it should by no means reveal it. Madame De Steel would have displayed poor ar tistic skill had she adopted as the title of “ Corinne,” something to this effect:—“How Oswald, an English Nobleman, loved and broke the heart of a beautiful Italian improvieatrice.” The book would never have found its way into the English language. In determining on the phraseology most proper for the title of a book, the subject of an essay, or the head ing of an article, never fail to consult the mysterious , if the subject be in the smallest degree characterized by this quality. A prying, inquisitive pro pensity is a common element of man kind, whether they be philosophers or children ; and just so soon as they learn there is a mystery about any thing, this propensity is raised to the highest pitch of excitement. Edgar A. Poe certainly apprecia ted and observed this principle to better advantage than any author of the present century. In all proba bility, his “Purloined Letter” has been perused by two millions of souls; but bad be designated this master piece of his by “ The Paris Police,” (which is really one of the most con spicuous ideas in it), it would have never met the eyes of more than one million of individuals. Suppose he had termed his “ Black Cat,” the Horrors of a Superstitious Mind. In the first place, we doubt seriously whether we would have ever read it; and, secondly, if we had, we would not have had the moral courage the next day to drawl out to a friend such a train of abstract terms, in an effort to acquaint him with what we had read. While there are a few who seem to understand the art, there are others who have never given the matter a moment’s consideration; and if their works succeed it is because of their su perior merit, or because of some cir cumstance that lead them to adopt a becoming title for them. Who, with one particle of curiosity could resist reading “ What Will He Do With It,” after having read such a stri king title? Who will not say there is not enough of the sad and myste*. rious about “Until Death Us Do Part,” to invite an anxious reading from any one ? In Poetry, this principle is far more important and potent than in prose. Here, Poe, who seems to be the only being who ever studied the subject, stands pre-eminent. The titles of every one of his poems stamp them as the production of a genius. Mark these, “ The Yalley of Unrest,” “The City in the Sea,” “ The Haunted Pa lace,” &c. Tom Moore, if he did not appreciate the principle, was wonder fully fortunate in this respect.— “ Lallah Eookh,” as two isolated words, are a poem in themselves.— Tennyson knows but little of this se cret power; Byron cared less. Long fellow is.strangely fortunate, since it is unreasonable to suppose he ever gavo the art any study. A hundred others could be mentioned and criti cised, but want of space forbids; and these adduced are quite sufficient to illustrate the new-born theory. We havo not the glimmering of a doubt that half of the effect and suc cess of our literary works depend upon the phraseology of the titles.— Let the wording of the theme be sug gestive, for it will then excite our imagination; let it proceed from some conspicuous circumstance, for then it will awaken suspense; let it be mysterious, for then it will arouse curiosity; and if these fail to secure an audience, so will everything else. call the attention of the students to the advertisements of Macon merchants. The establish ment of J. W. Burke & Cos., deserves our patronage in every way that we can give it. The clothing store of J. H. Hertz & Cos., we know to be in every respect reliable. Students de desiring to obtain a summer outfit, cannot make better bargains than with Mr. Hertz. We again refer to the Collegian as an advertising medium. Our paper goes to nearly every town, and cer tainly to every county in the State. The students who are here from so many sections, all send it to their homes. Besides this, the Collegian goes to the leading hotels of the cities. It will Come. The primary effect of almost every powerful remedy is to aggravate the disease, just as the late war has bad a tendency to expose, without the least palliation, the undercurrent of the Southern People’s real desires.— As regards government, we have had no voice in the general council; our agricultural and manufacturing inte rests have been somewhat advanced ; but of literature, have we unmistaka ble evidence that a radical change will ensue for the better. . It would be tedious to the writer, as well as to the reader, and quite unprofitable to both, to minutely dis cuss the primary and secondary ef fects of a revolution. But certainly the fact has not escaped notice, that a large, an enormous amount of ener vating literature has made its appear ance amongst us—not that which is the true exponent of any deep feeling or original idea, but a surplus of abortive enthusiasm, the residuary of violent action. We have always en deavored to be as liberal as is consist tent in our views—we did not hope that all the blessings of a change would immediately prosper our con dition—we did not expect that the body would be at once freed from disease and be left compact with liv ing energy—nor do we think that enough time has yet elapsed for these occurrences, for “ The mill of the gods grinds slowly.” All these considerations however, should not prevent us from stigmati zing, with but few exceptions, the productions, which day after day, emanate from the American Press. Are they scientific ? They only debase the laws of nature to the most absurd theories, distracting the minds of the people, and causing public opinion to hurl its shafts of indignation at them, from the armories of forum, press ahd pulpit. Are they political ? They are only the effete, the cast-off and .long-ago annihilated whims of some quondam statesman, now buried in the solitude of a misspent life; these haveour far-seeing politicians caught up in their frantic inspiration, and illuminating them with the dull rays of their own duller imaginations, have presented them to cur people, to be admired as gigantic works of stupendous intellects, and to be re ceived without a murmur. Are they literary ? ‘ Shades’ of Cicero, of Me lancthon, of Addison and of Swift, oh ! shades of all ye mighty and illustrious dead, surround and defend us from these Herculean giants, clad in‘bristling logic,’ and armed with souherushing rodomontades and elo quence ! It is time for our people and espe cially for our students, to discard from their attention and notice, all these flimsy books. We can well ad vance in equal pace with the spirit