Review of Graduates' Magazine

The December number of the Graduates' Magazine, which appears today, opens with a biographical sketch of the late Professor C. C. Langdell, former Dean of the Law School. Professor Langdell's work during the transition period of the school when, through his efforts, that branch of the University grew from a small, poorly organized affair with a poor Faculty and a worse library to "a great school in a great University;" and the early difficulties which Professor Langell encountered in his attempts to introduce the now widely used "case system" of studying law, are interestingly described. Following is a timely characterization of the new Dean of the Lawrence Scientific School, whose exceptional fitness for that most important office is again recalled.

In "The Report on the Choice of Undergraduate members to the Phi Beta Kappa Society" the seemingly sound reasons for an increased undergraduate membership of the Society are set forth at length, and the proposed changes in the method of electing members, including the formation of a membership committee, to report on qualifications of candidates, are urged. In view of the prevalent cry about professionalism in athletics it is interesting and rather amusing to read what a "recent undergraduate of high distinction" has to say concerning the spirit of professionalism present in college scholarship. The opinions expressed parallel those which are often heard in regard to the decadence of amateur collegiate athletics.

President Eliot's "Address to New Students on October 1, 1906," which is printed in full, recalls a notable speech to the Freshmen on the greatness of the freedom of choice as exemplified in University life--a speech which may well stand as typifying the spirit which prompted the elective system at Harvard.

"In the Fifties" and extracts from the minutes of the Arionic Society--founded in 1813 and one of the oldest of Harvard's musical clubs--give an insight, the more pleasing because it is so rare, into the customs and the life and the spirit of the older Harvard. In "Academic Leisure" a plea is made for a real leisure in the life of our higher institutions of learning, and an active opposition by these institutions of "worship of energy and the frantic eagerness for action" in favor of "an atmosphere of calm reflection."

A complete account of the dedication of the new Medical School buildings and the attendant exercises, reviews of recent books by Harvard men, a few sketches on varying subjects, and the usual departments complete the number. The departments, as is customary, chronicle the recent important events of University and undergraduate life, and in "Student Life" is to be noted the reflection of undergraduate feeling at the delay of the joint committees on investigation of athletics.