ANOTHER GUEST DEPARTS

Professor Gilson's Harvard lectures are all over except for the echoes scheduled in the next few days. His fame as a scholar and philosopher had long preceded his visit which revealed above all else a very charming gentleman. Those fortunate enough to have attended either of his courses or his series or public lectures will long remember with what an unusual combination of objectivity and sympathy he dealt with the various representatives of Medieval thought. They were presented not as "ists" perambulating a pet "ism" but as men straining their eyes to catch a glint of the truth behind the mists that swirl about the human mind. Any lingering doubt as to the brightness of the so called "dark ages" in the minds of his hearers was completely, dispelled. As Professor Gilson often points out it is only possible to paste this label on the centuries following the fall of Rome if intellectual activity is confused with philosophical speculation.

However those who had any contact with him often felt that Professor Gilson's choice of field was a comparatively unimportant accident. As is so often the case with a great personality what he taught about Aquinas or Abelard, interesting though it was, acted merely as a bridge from his mind to those of his listeners. With communication once established first papers for citizenship in the super national, super temporal country of cultivated minds were quickly passed across. Yet, though Professor Gilson fought against Germany without a trace of hate, his type of mental distinction is very French. Only one nation in the world could have produced a mind imbued with a clarity so finely poised between the obvious and the obscure. It is to be hoped that Professor Gilson will soon again repeat his American adventure.