The amount of earnestness and industry which such pupils would be likely to bring to their studies can be best appreciated by those who have had the great pleasure of teaching night classes in London, or elsewhere, the students at which worked with their hands all day, and looked up at their teacher in the evening, with that eager thirst for knowledge you so seldom see in the eyes of any other class.

As the College itself sprung from small beginnings to rapidly increasing dimensions, the buildings connected with it have been successively erected at different times, and in various styles of workmanship. The oldest building of all, which was erected in 1833, and contained the germs of all the future departments, has passed from the hands of the College, and is probably now hardly recognisable. The next in age is the Ladies' Hall, built in 1834, a plain wooden building, in questionable repair, which is about to be superseded by another, already finished, in brick, of much larger dimensions. Other buildings have grown up around, placed at irregular intervals, some without, and some

within, the square of ground more especially belonging to the College, and containing the Young Men's Hall, the Chapel, &c. &c.

The appearance that Oberlin now presents is that of a loosely-built village, or, in local parlance, "city," with numbers of ill-defined streets, more or less thickly sprinkled with unpretending wooden houses, and converging into a somewhat closer group in the immediate vicinity of the College. The population is now estimated at about three thousand, besides the students, whose numbers average another thousand.

The life of the whole community is in more or less close connexion with that of the College, almost every person in Oberlin being there either to receive or impart instruction, or to minister to the material wants of those who do one or the other.

The roads are still somewhat rude, and the pathways or "sidewalks" are made (Western fashion) entirely of planks, cut in short transverse lengths, the crossings being also of planks, laid longitudinally. These planks make a sufficiently pleasant and even footway when first laid, but are apt soon to warp in

the sun and rot in the rain, needing frequent repair or renewal.

The whole place has an appearance peculiar to itself, and very hard to render by description.

There is an utter absence of all the appearances and pretensions of wealth, and though the universal frugality had its painful side, (in the case, for instance, of the professors, whose meagre salaries must be terribly apt to cumber them with the cares from which they so much need to be free,) there was, at the same time, something very refreshing in the sight of a community where money did not rule,-where it was the normal state to have very little of it, and where nobody thought it necessary to strain after any particular appearances.

In the morning, when the students first meet, and at the times of changing the classes throughout the day, the streets present a very bright and busy look. The students of both sexes come hurrying along from their various

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halls," or from the private houses where they board, for none of the buildings are together, and every one has to pass, often many times a day, along the different roads and

pathways, in going to the different classrooms. Each professor has his own domain, and to this each class comes at its appointed hour, passing away, when its time has expired, to some other building, to attend another recitation.

The two sexes are about equally represented among the students, though the full College course is taken by a smaller number of women than of men. "Coloured" students-varying widely as to hue-form about a third of the whole number, and I suppose there is hardly any community in America where the coloured and white races meet on so real and genuine a footing of equality as at Oberlin.

Oberlin College, as now existing, comprises several distinct departments, each of which has its plan of study laid out separately, and to any of which all qualified students are admitted, without distinction of age, sex, or colour. The College course proper is designed to "afford as extensive and thorough a course of instruction as other Colleges" in America; and, on the completion of the prescribed course of study, male and female students alike receive the Academical degree. I heard with

C

great interest, that in the year of my visit (1865), it so happened that the only woman who graduated was a coloured girl, originally a slave, who had not even then paid her full ransom to her former owners.

The "Schedule " (as they call it) of studies in this and the other departments will be found at the end of the chapter.

The number of students in the "College proper" in 1864-5 was 112, of whom 95 were male and 17 female.

The Theological Department, though usually comprising but a small number of students, holds a very prominent place in Oberlin College. It is designed to prepare students for the University, and its undergraduates are usually somewhat more advanced in age than the others, and are wont to take a leading part in the meetings for prayer, and similar purposes, which form so large a feature in Oberlin life. The number of students last year was 13.

The Scientific Course comprises a somewhat exceptional course of study, and is, I suppose, chiefly resorted to by students whose education has been further advanced in other directions,