A Suggestion for University Lectures.

To the Editors of the Crimson:

An idea has lately occurred to me which is, I believe, of enough general interest to deserve publication in your columns. Among the many lectures given each year at Harvard under various auspices, few if any have dealt directly with the past history of the College. We have attended in greater or less numbers, lectures on politics, re- ligion, reform, Greek Antiquities, and even, if I am not mistaken, on the place of the snake in the art of some unheard- of people; but the traditions of Harvard, her great men, the development of her present customs and peculiarities, have been altogether slighted.

The subject would be popular, without a doubt, for not one undergraduate in ten knows about anything that happened here before, say, 1885; except, perhaps, that John Harvard died in time to found the first college in America, leaving it his name and a few books. Under the circumstances, is it remarkable that we have at times been accused of a lack of college spirit? The University is too large, now, for one man to be familiar with the whole of it, so surely the next best thing is acquaintance with its past history, an acquaintance close enough to give its possessor a feeling of pride and loyalty obtainable in no other way.

This result could easily be had by a few talks, the more informal the better, on topics particular or general as the speaker might to qualified. At this moment, there are half a dozen or more men, connected with the University, who could handle such a series of lectures in a most attractive manner. Several are old enough to make their remarks in part reminiscent; others would have little trouble in preparing a few facts that could not fail to interest an audience of College men. And if such lectures are ever announced in the CRIMSON, let us have them prefaced by "*" (open to the University), not by a "*" (open to the Public). Let us have no picnic suppers in the Fogg Art Lecture Room, so that the helpless undergraduate, arriving at 7.45, may be able to find a seat.  1903