RELIGIOUS DECADENCE AT HARVARD.

EDITORS DAILY CRIMSON. - In contradiction of the interpretations which you see fit to put upon my views as expressed in the Nation, allow me to make the following statements.

I see no signs of "religious decadence" at Harvard, and I have never said that I did. Nor do I think that Harvard "is a hot-bed of incipient nihilism, scepticism, lying and irreligion." What I do say and think is this. Compulsory prayers are a positive injury to the religious sentiment of the college. They are a mockery of religion held continually before our eyes. They create disrespect for religion and furnish the readiest and most fertile subject for the expression of that disrespect. I do not say that irreligion is any more prevalent at Harvard than elsewhere, but I do believe that compulsory prayers are responsible for some of the irreligion that does exist.

ALUMNUS.