HIC JACET

The recent questionable left on the undergraduate door-sill by the Harvard Critic reminds us that that defunct publication is stirring within its whited sepulchre. With what rosy promises they beguiled the eager freshmen into the wolf-tended folds of their subscribers; with what lurid phrases they depicted the Alpine peaks of journalism which they were about to scale! Tenacious memoirs will recollect that toy booklet which appeared last fall, so scholarly in its denatured, so anxiously emulous of its elder brethren. A column of humor painted the Lampoon's lily an article on Harvard indifference fairly stole Mother Advocate's bustle, and in a soft, artistic way, other pundits refined the dross from the Graduate's Magazine. The editors were not lacking in brilliance, but, are gratia artis, they eschewed such fundamental principles of journalism as might have gained them a wide and interested public. Journalism curdled their aesthetics, and the Parnassine fluid of their though became distillate to the point of dullness.

No issue of the magazine has appeared since. What their subscribers must think at this late date one does not care to conjecture, yet their defalcation has had a more serious effect than the quenching of but another torch of culture. In the field of Harvard publication, there is definite place for a fourth magazine. It should cover controversial topics of a sociological, political nature, collegiate and national, in a hard-hitting, strikingly readable style, somewhat in the manner of the New Republic or The Nation. It should not squabble in the abstract, rummage in the antique. It should be backed by a reputable organization, by a large enough group to guarantee its continuity and lend coherence to its columns. Indeed, it is to be marveled that the Harvard Liberal Club, which has been showing signs of rejuvenation recently, did not foresee the opportunity that such a sheet would give to its projects.

Most unfortunate of all, the apparent passage of the Critic will render any new attempt in this field increasingly difficult, since the past subscribers of that magazine would naturally be loath to risk their money on anew venture, and possible backing for another Fourth Publication could scarcely the expected to consider the precedent an suspicious omen for their hopes.