The Loss to Harvard.

Whatever storms may have raged round the head of Professor Muenster-berg, there is no doubt that the Harvard faculty has suffered a serious loss by his death. This loss is the more unfortunate from the point of view of the University authorities because it comes so soon after the death of Professor Royce, and because it removes the last of the famous men in Harvard's department of philosophy and psychology. Less than a dozen years ago Professors James, Royce, Palmer, Santayana and Muensterberg were all teaching at Harvard, and their great and varied talents attracted students from all over America and even from Europe. For example, L. P. Jacks, an Oxford scholar, and now editor of the Hibbert Journal, came to America to study under James and Royce. More than this, the fame of the department attracted even the undergraduate, and young men who would not otherwise have studied philosophy at all enrolled for one or more courses just to be in contact with the department's distinguished men. Of the five men mentioned above, Muensterberg was the only survivor. James and Royce are dead, Palmer has retired and Santayana has gone back to his native Europe, where his sympathies always were.

Since the death of Professor Royce, who held the Alford professorship of natural religion, moral philosophy and civil polity, in succession to Professor Palmer, it has been rumored that Bertrand Russell would be called from England to the chair made vacant by Professor Royce. It is certain that no such offer has ever been made to Mr. Russell, though he had been invited to lecture at Harvard during the present year. Whether or not such an offer ever will be made remains to be seen, but it does not seem likely that if Mr. Russell is called to Harvard he will be asked to take the chair held by such men as Professor Palmer and Professor Royce. The chair demands a philosophical scholar who is an ethical thinker of distinction, and Mr. Russell, with his provocative individualism, is hardly that. If any Englishman is wanted for the post, Canon Rashdall is probably the man with experience as an educator who is best fitted for it. But greatness in such a place is largely a matter of personality, and the Harvard authorities have no small task on their hands in finding men who shall make philosophy a living interest in this America of ours which so greatly needs it. Springfield Republican.