Magazines at Harvard.

Anyone who visits the college rooms here may note the prevalence of magazine reading. Monthlies like Harper's and the Century seem always to have a great fascination for college men. Such literature is thoroughly imbued with the spirit of the age, and we are in full sympathy - one thinks sometimes in too full sympathy - with the modern spirit.

Men often wonder whether the greedy devouring of magazine reading will not blunt the edge of their old-time appetite for classic works. It is the experience of most students to feel no such effect.

One reason why magazines are so popular is that everybody reads them at the same time. No matter in what part of the country one finds himself, he is never at a loss for polite conversation if he has read the latest magazines. And it need not be empty talk, to discuss some striking character of Miss Woolson's or Mr. Howell's, to disagree over an article on the social question, to wonder at the latest scientific discovery. It is not strange that the "Popular Science Monthly" should be so much read at Harvard. It is almost the only college where science courses are numerous and thorough. The political and philosophical reviews have many readers here: the fine courses in Political Economy and Philosophy explain this fact.

If all the world bought the magazines as our little college world does, they would be better than gold mines to the publishers. We are interested in all the contents; in the clever stories, serious discussions, and love ditties even. No doubt many of our college mates will be editors and contributors before long. Some indeed have begun to contribute already.