INENUBILABLE SPIRIT CAPTURED BY ADVOCATE

The following review of the September number of the Advicate was written especially for the Crimson by Paul Birdsall '21, new Assistant Dean of the Freshman class.

The professional reviewer likes to tell the world what it should think of the matter he reviews. State and uninteresting is his task if prose or poetry have an earlier and a higher approval than his own by a prize award of competent judges, or even dangerous his task if he set out to contest the verdict of the judges. Combative originality or tame endorsement are his alternatives. But to the present reviewer it, is a positive pleasure to receive his September number of the "Harvard Advocate", replete with prize essay and poem, and graced by Dean Mayo's glance at "The Good Old Days", which is worthy of a prize--were such ever granted to University 4.

No one who has not attempted it knows how difficult it is to capture in prose the "inenubliable spirit" of a great institution like Harvard, to present its spiritual and physical aspects of another date. To any one who would learn the technique, as well as to any one who would find the perspective of the Harvard he knows today, I may commend Mr. Mayo's charming essay.

Then let him turn to Kunitz' poem, "John Harvard", which won the Lloyd McKim Garrison prize for 1926 and read in vigorous and musical verse of "the silent one" who sits enthroned with his back to University 4.

And having read of the Harvard he knows and of the Harvard of an earlier time, and of John Harvard whose "School Abides, his testament", he is ready for the sterner stuff contained in Aswell's Bowdorn Prize essay, "This Modern Chaos Called Education." It is a cogent plea that Education, Philosophy, and Life be linked in an indissoluble bond. Teachers must make of their subjects a framework for their philosophy. A philosophy of life must be the aim of Education, and whether it result in a religious or a humanistic philosophy is of little concern to the essayist, though one may suspect from his strong classical bent that he would prefer the latter result.

And finally there is much that is both amusing and pleasant, "Jeremiah Marston--Freshman", a farce of the Beerhohm variety, "Purple Plush" by Donald Gibbs, who always enjoys himself and usually amuses others. Hollander's Aven "Simple", and the book reviews, which are excellent, especialy Howe's remarks concerning "Chimes" by Robert Herrick.

I sincerely hope that the "Advocate" will not later find itself embarrassed by the standard it has set in the first issue of the year.