Review of the Current Monthly

In the current number of the Monthly, the high standard which the present board of editors has set is well maintained. Between Mr. Lewis's "Harvard Men and the Outside World" (a pica for a more general interest in political and social movements), the reader is presented with a variety of stories, poems, and critical essays, some of which are distinctly above the average of undergraduate writing, and all of which are interesting.

Of the stories, "The Coward," by E. B. Sheldon '08, seems to the reviewer the most successful. The story of a reformed "sport" who becomes a clergyman, and ultimately, through fear of his inability to resist the attractions of the world, gives up everything, even love, to enter a religious order, is not by any means easy to handle, and the avoidance of sentimentality on the one hand and melodrama on the other deserves the highest praise. The dialogue, also, is handled with admirable directness and naturalness, and the characterization of the principal figures is excellent. Something of the same admirable restraint appears in R. J. Walsh's "Little Wanderers," which treats a difficult situation with delicacy and good taste. K. B. Townsend's "Deus ex Box Car" is marked by vivid and convincing description, and his picture of the brakeman and his wife and the happy-go-lucky youngster who "don't have to work" is skilfully drawn.

"Desert Wanderings," the eighth of the "Travel Papers of Arminius," is disappointing. Perhaps the earlier papers of the series have raised our expectations too high, but this instalment certainly lacks the freshness of the earlier numbers. The workmanship, too, is careless in places, and suggests the approach of the end of the year. "We had reached the Fayoum after a long day's travel over the desert the night before," would hardly be expected on an entrance examination. D. Carb's "Ellen Terry" is a thoughtful and well-written appreciation, and R. Altrocchi's "Vaudeville" an excellent bit of satire.

Among the poems, the most ambitious is J. H. wheelock's "Paris and Oenone," a remarkably successful attempt to treat a Greek theme in a Greek manner, even to the Introduction of a chorus. The verse is somewhat uneven, but the poem as a whole is well sustained and the handling of the chorus and the difficult stichomythia is unusually good. As a minor point it may be noted that the characterization of Paris as the "husband of Helen of Troy, mortally wounded by the arrow of Philoctetes" and of Oenone as "a demi-goddess--who can heal mortal wounds--and the love of Paris until he saw Helen" ought not to be necessary in a college community, but perhaps the author is right in taking no chances. The other poems call for no special comment H. Bagedorn's "Song among Ruins" is finished and pleasing, W. H. Wright's "Ballad of Primeval Things," conventional. A. Davis's "Battle Hymn" suffers from too evident striving for vigorous phrases, which sometimes ends in grotesqueness.

Editorial on "The Young Instructor."

The editorial on "The Young Instructor" is the one jarring note in the number. Conched in extravagant language and containing many obvious exaggerations, it is intended, ostensibly, as a protest against some aspects of the system of employing a large number of young instructors and assistants to correct themes and to supplement the instruction given by lectures in large courses. The protest is directed especially against the employment for such work of men just graduated from college, who, it is agreed, are "bound to be" narrow; and in some cases, where three-year men are assistants in courses taken largely by Seniors, and are called upon to correct themes of their own classmates. The remedy suggested is a regulation that shall prohibit the appointment of any Harvard man to a position as instructor or assistant in the University who has not been graduated at least two years. Personally, the reviewer doubts the efficacy of such a rule. To his mind, the question of the young instructor resolves itself into a question of individual fitness and personality, and the good judgment of those who are responsible for the appointment of such instructors. Every class contains a number of men who, owing to their peculiar aptitudes and interests, are quite competent to act as assistants in the departments in which their special work has been done. To take a concrete instance, the editorial board of the Monthly itself contains a n umber of men whose proclivities show conclusively that they are fully competent to criticise intelligently the themes at least of Freshmen, if not of upper-classmen. Such men are not "bound to be" narrow. If they are of the right sort, they bring to the work of the small section new ideas and a different point of view. The failure of those younger instructors who have proved unsuccessful (and the number is gratifyingly small) has usually been due to lack of the personal qualities necessary for successful teaching rather than to lack of knowledge, and such defects are rarely eradicated by two years o graduate study or of teaching at another college.