Review of Illustrated Magazine

From cover to cover (for the advance copy is without advertisements) the October number of the Illustrated Magazine is interesting. Designed to give the incoming Freshman a survey of the opportunities that the College and College life provide for the development of oneself through service to others, it points its moral clearly,--the necessity, if a man's college life is to be successful in the highest sense of that word, of self-control, careful thought, wise choice, and firm decision. In a single page, full of the rare spirit that for thirty years has been one of the greatest blessings of our College,--sweet and wise,--Dean Briggs opens the number with a talk about the Chapel, even better and more compelling than the good five-minute sermons he so heartily commends. "A Senior" writes with genuine and convincing fervor of the opportunities for service that Phillips Brooks House offers, incidentally showing one of the advantages of the city college over the country college. It is to be regretted that in his fervor his rhetoric and coherence suffer, and he fails to attain the standard of the Illustrated, as set forth by Mr. Hamlin in the "Need of Attachment," "the ability to think clearly, to write very decently, and to work efficiently enough not to need to hustle." It is good (and somehow amusing) to know that "atheists, agnostics, or others taking philosophy courses are always welcomed" at "the Association meetings (like the mid-week meetings of the St. Paul's Society)"; but he is indeed hardened who does not experience a genuine shock when he finds Episcopalians and members of "smaller organizations, like the Catholic Club and the Christian Science Society" accorded the position not infrequently assigned to Unitarians and heathen (or, as some prefer to phrase it, "other heathen").

Mr. Hamlin, Mr. Gustafson, and Mr. Seymour set forth clearly the claims of many avocations, and Mr. Gill's "Student Council Problems" calls the Freshman's attention to the very best way of serving his College. Mr. Fenn has delved humorously and effectively into history to show us the pit from which we have climbed out. From the point of view of "the Offise" 1914's "Forestry as a Profession since if one can one should always make some trial of a profession before deciding thereon, is, in these seductive autumn days, decidedly dangerous; but if the moral of the earlier pages of the magazine be well laid to heart, one may perhaps resist the temptation.

All in all the number is excellent, and most timely in these "troublous days," a clear call, as the vigorous editorial article, "Opportunities and Services" sets forth, to the College man to do his duty,--the duty which President Lowell so clearly and forcibly pointed out at the opening meeting of the year, to work to fit himself to serve.