Wellesley College - Legenda Yearbook (Wellesley, MA)

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SCIENCE BULLETIN. The Evolution of Light HpHE following is an essay on the Evolution of Light in and through the Class of ' 98. The aim of the essay is to be inspiring, imaginative and instructive. For the sake of attaining these desirable characteristics, the more ordinary qualities of clearness, unity, and coherence have been omitted. Infor- mation on these topics can be found in Exercises in Rhetoric and English Composition, by G. R. Carpenter; Publishers, MacMillan Co.; pp. 177, 182, 187. In a few portions of the essay, truth, accuracy, and brevity have been introduced, but these cases are very rare, and will be carefully indicated in the notes. The history of that marvelous physical phenomenon which we call light, has ever been involved in mystery. As in the early morning the darkness slowly gives way to dawn, which reaches its full glory in the rising of the sun, so the brilliancy of Wellesley College has been slowly and silently increasing until its recent culmination in ' 98. 1 Let us glance back thirty years. How vast and glorious have been the changes which have brought us to our present happy state ! 2 Upon our Col- lege Hill, in those far distant days, the squirrel blinked serenely at the sun by day, and nightly whisked his brushy tail by the light of the moon. 3 Far was the thought from his nodding little head that Wellesley could ever need any other light. With sun, moon, and stars to brighten his pathway, what more could squirrel wish? 4 Highly imaginati Inspiring. nd poetic, Extremely imaginative. Inspiring. But as time went on, in 1875 ]t was » another light was added to our squir- rel ' s domain. It was the lamp of learning, crowning the top of College Hill with beauty, and shedding abroad a radiant light which has never yet gone out. To keep this matchless lamp in order, various lesser lights were called into being. These lu- minaries, in the common parlance of every-day life, were called stu- dent lamps, and a noble power for good did they exert. To the dam- sels who were allowed to gather together to read their books by the lamp of learning, these smaller lamps were a great boon. It was by their aid — they made them- ■ — j selves beautiful t as to their hair. 1 curtains, and b By them they burned their useless them they cooked their daily (?)

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Prologue ' 98 has gone through such a process of evolution since she came to college that the college in pure self-defense has been obli ged to develop to keep up with her. This one motive is at the basis of all the progressions which the college has made in the last three years. Domestic work was abolished to give ' 98 more time ; the student parlors were formed for her to rest in ; the Barn Swallows was organized that others might have a chance to know and appre- ciate ' 98. Every innovation, every development, can, if sufficient time and thought are devoted to it, be reduced to this same cause — a desire in Alma Mater to strew with roses the path of development of her favored child. To be sure, Alma Mater can not always distinguish between a credit note and a rose ; but this much we always know — she means well.

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food. In this, their noble work, the lamps were aided by the more flickering and fickle gas, and thus College Hill was supplied with the light adequate to its needs. All went smoothly until the Class of ' 98 appeared upon the Hill, her face beaming with intelligence and enthusiasm. Her brilliancy, at first so dazzling that it blinded the eyes of the college world to her true worth, at length did great service in revealing direful deficiencies in college life, which had never before been discovered. 1 The corridors began to seem very dark, except where some transient streak of light revealed the fact that a ' 98 was passing. The dimness of the chapel became so very dim that it was difficult to see the hymn-books, except upon the Freshman side. And to speak of the time when ' 98 was secluded in class- meeting, what words can depict the deplorable gloom of the groping college world ? Yet this was but the darkness before the dawn — of the electric lights. The blessing of electricity to Wellesley, who can estimate? One can see 1 Remarkable feat of imagination. its gladdening influence even in the alcoves of the library, where sight of any kind has before been impossible. Through electricity the charming walks of Wellesley have become as safe as a city thoroughfare, and through the same genial light the catacombs have at last become suitable for living beings. To electricity also we owe the present classic style of hair. All hail to electricity ! All hail to Ninety-Eight ! The reader is earn- estly requested to write for himself a conclu- sion to this ' essay, the electric light of the author ' s mind havin suddenly(?) gone out. 1