DEBATING.

It is to be hoped that the announcement made yesterday in regard to the first trials for the triangular debate with Yale and Princeton will receive wide-spread and serious attention. There are few, if any, College activities more profitable than debating to the individual or to the University. Yet few receive less attention from the student body. The successes of Harvard in debating have been secured through the efforts of a very limited number of men, but needless to say, those victories have been won in spite of this indifference, not because of it. More general support would put Harvard debating on a very much surer foundation.

The muscular development of the athlete is in itself of little value in after life, but the power of argumentation and the logical habit of thought, as well as the ease and freedom in extemporaneous speaking to which debating work leads, are permanent elements in one's mental make-up invaluable throughout after life.