Word: certain
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Dates: during 1870-1879
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...college the most careful and painstaking students receive the highest percentage of marks; but they are not brilliant men, nor do their fellows always admit that they are the best scholars. Thus, certain affable, graceful, and politic men, able in popular amusements, are admitted into clubs and societies to the exclusion of others who, when weighed by real merit, would be more entitled to the privilege and honor. There is far too much of this politic seeking for popularity in college; the methods are many, and the results various. Popularity which is sought after and courted is a dangerous thing...
EVERY year, or, at the most, every five years, witnesses the rise and fall of a popular poet. His coming is as certain as that of a financial panic, rather more frequent, and, in its way, almost as disastrous; but, though his end is often pitiable, he enjoys, for a time at least, the rewards and flatteries due to genius real or supposed. The papers have always a spare column for his productions, and a well-trained band of reporters and reviewers to invent, or, if needs be, discover, his antecedents; while the reading public lavishes upon him that superfluous...
...John Bull as a new phenomenon of American life. Meanwhile, the critics were as kind as they could have been if bribed; they occupied themselves more harmlessly than ever before or since, - they sorted his words, and with most gratifying results. One eminent philologist discovered that in a certain poem ninety-five per cent of the words was of Anglo-Saxon origin, three and a half was Western slang, while but one and a half per cent was Latin or Greek! He was proclaimed the people's poet, and, for a time, all went well: but he had climbed...
Some seem to have an ill-will against Harvard, based on no other ground than the contemptible one of jealousy. There is a certain amount of "growl" to be indulged in by those who are opposed to everything connected with us; the sooner they vent themselves of their spleen the better for themselves. Their criticisms are not damaging to us, but only irritating; and this even is caused more frequently by a misstatement of facts than through a presentation of the truth...
...system" will be of great use to us in public assemblies, when we are older. This is the lowest kind of debate, and has always been most indulged in by the most vulgar politicians. "A. C." would probably extol the ready wit of a celebrated demagogue on a certain trying occasion. One night, during a political campaign, he was addressing a disorderly crowd in a New York square, and, being unpopular with many of his hearers, he was frequently assailed by flying fruit and vegetables; stretching forth his hand, he caught an apple thus thrown, and, taking his knife from...