Review of Current Monthly

Given an imaginative girl camping out alone, a gallant youth happening upon her, and a rainstorm enveloping both, and what will be the result? If you desire a pleasing answer, read in the current Monthly Mr. Roy Follett's "The Fires,"--a story which treats a difficult situation with poetic delicacy of sentiment. Mr. E. E. Hunt's prize poem, "John Milton," may be regarded as a welcome addition to what seemed to some of us our inadequate celebration of the poet's tercentenary; and it deserves the high praise of being called worthy of its lofty theme. Mr. George Meredith, whom also we ought particularly to delight to honor, since Harvard men were among the first to recognize his peculiar genius, is the subject of the ablest article in the issue. It is not a criticism which can be termed original, learned, or profoundly analytical; but it is an appreciation which, by means of cleverly intermingled quotations and allusions, clearly presents the notable qualities of Mr. Meredith's work.

In "Honor versus Proctors," Mr. Kenneth R. Macgowan '11 severely condemns placing proctors in charge of examinations, because that system seems to him humiliating, undemocratic, and unsuccessful. Few will, I think, agree with him. In my opinion, at any rate, cheating in examinations is so rare as to be almost negligible. Nor ought there to be a sense of humiliation because of the presence of a proctor; he is there to protect the honest against the unfair competition of the possibly dishonest. To call that "espionage" is, it seems to me, improper; as well take offence at the mildly inquiring eye of the policeman on your beat. The so-called honor system which Mr. Macgowan advocates has, so far as I can see no real and certain advantages. The fact that under it the student is required to write at the end of his blue-book the statement that he has neither given nor received assistance, would make it, to those hypersensitive should who feel humiliated by proctors, equally offensive. As Mr. Macgowan himself admits, it has not wholly eliminated cheating in those institutions which have tried it. Whatever fancied advantages it may possess seem to me more than outweighed by the fact that it places the perplexing duties of detection and discipline upon the students themselves. This question should not be confused, as it sometimes is, with that of honesty in written work done outside of the class room. Here we have a real honor system, and here there is abundant opportunity for the exercise of that virtue which Mr. Macgowan extols. When we see how frequent and great the temptation is, we ought to be glad and proud that so few fall before it.