Review of Advocate by B. A. G. Fuller

The present number of the Advocate is, like most numbers, rather uneven. The editorials, fortunate in finding suitable subjects, are free from desperation. Timely congratulations to Mr. Norton on the occasion of his approaching eightieth birthday are written with sincerity and dignity; and the advantages of human relations between teachers and pupils, though frequently discussed, can bear reiteration. Apropos of a modest forbearance in this second editorial to prove the point, it may be remarked that the benefits of class-room friendliness accrue equally to both parties.

Mr. Wheelock's contribution to "Varied Outlooks" attempts to cover too large and complicated a field. Hence he seems confused and hurried. But the questions he raises are pertinent and interesting. Is, however, his criticism of our immersion in athletic, club and other college interests--to the "detriment with us, unfortunately of the larger vision"--truly sympathetic and pro-found? The activities and institutions with which he finds fault are, after all, what few marks we have left of a distinctly collegiate way of living, and the culture of them is but a natural devotion to what later cannot be paralleled or refound. They, or more and better than they, must inevitably be the foundation of any college life worth the name. Learning needs but the laboratory and the lecture room; but it is by the distinctions of the external and attendant circumstances of physical surroundings and social organization that a large part of a college's influence on character is measured. With us it would seem that what is really at fault is our inadequacy in these respects, and our preoccupation, not with college things, but with the thousand and one "outside," "practical" interests and ties, which might well be postponed till of themselves they are later forced upon us.

Of the verse, Mr. Powel's "Love Song a la Mode," gracefully and lightly makes the best of modern conditions. "Up in the Old Church Tower," by Mr. Husband, is perhaps the best thing in the number. The lines are good, and a simple and genuine mood irresistibly communicates its vision and its feeling to the reader. It touches and awakens response as Mr. Wheelock's "The Ghost to his Beloved" fails to do. There the lyric cry falls flat and one is left unmoved.

Mr. Townsend's "Fishing" and Mr. Bowles' "A Course in Journalism" are perfectly commonplace stories, unenlivened by anything in the style of their telling. Better far is Mr. Whitman's "Morning with the Army." Though if one remembers aright, it is not so good as some of his other "small-boy" stories. Mr. Biddle's "His Last Resort" is cleverly conceived and told, but too improb- able even though laid in a land broader-minded than our own.

Mr. Tinckom-Fernandez has completely spoiled an otherwise unobjectionable transcript of the vivid and irrational impressions of port after long days at sea, by an awkward exit in a temporizing last paragraph. As a result, the whole article has the air of not knowing what to do with its hands. Mr. MacVeagh's "The Young God's Holiday" is a true and graceful allegory, well told, phrased and staged.

In "The Grind and the Sport," with which the number closes, either Mr. Erwin is a deliberate caricaturist or for once has fallen into a sin of overstatement and violent figure of which his clear insight and good judgements have not before been guilty