SPENCER PRAISES NEW EDITION OF ADVOCATE

This is a well-balanced issue of The Advocate, containing verse, fiction, and criticism in about the right proportion. Mr. Winship's poem, "The Saturday Evening Post" has a proper satiric intention, but it is not accomplished very sharply. The poem sounds like Eliot's "Boston Evening Transcript," in regard to both rhythm and subject matter, and it falls into two halves, one satirical, the other discriptive; a fact which sports any unity of tone. Mr. Laughlin's "Pirates Pass" is a more accomplished piece of work. It is written with much deftness, its vocabulary is interesting, and its use of quotation is admirable-really finished piece of craftsmanship. I find in it, however, one or two mannerisms that ought to be cut out, and I don't like the ending. The last three lines are flat; the poem should be left to speak for itself without this unnecessary exhortation.

Both the stories in this number are above the average in quality. "Distortion," by Mr. Washburn, is about what happens to a Harvard Junior when he discovers that his girl has become engaged to another man without telling him. The dialogue is convincing, and the character of the girl is will described. Mr. Ferris' "Attis" is a more ambitious piece of work, concerning the relation between an artist and the conventionality of a Southern town. So described, the theme sounds conventional, but this story is not conventional at all. Mr. Ferris puts his reader rapidly into the middle of the action, almost uncomfortably so, for his artist is such a strange individual that we ought to be more carefully prepared for him than we are. There is something hectic about the atmosphere we find ourselves in, and we get uneasy. But this is an impressive story; even if it is a little feverish, it has power and authoriticity, and Mr. Ferris should, with more practice, develop his already considerable technical ability and talent.

I find Mr. Case's study of George Moore's criticism of Hardy disappointing. He has a good subject, and he could have made out of it either an amusing character study or a serious piece of literary criticism. Unfortunately be has done neither. He does not stick close enough to his main points, nor does he develop his ideas as fully as they deserve; the result is that his essay stagnates; it never comes to life. This is not true of the other critical work in this issue, the book reviews. These are on the whole, excellent. Mr. Stanford's criticism of the poems of 1000 winters is extremely sensitive and intelligent; if the poetry criticism in most of our journals were as sensitive and intelligent as this, American poetry would be much better off than it now is. I should like to single out also Mr. Barber's review of Arden's "Dance of Death." While not as distinguished a piece of criticism as Mr. Stanford's, it is very well planned and written, an has a fine feeling of proportion and judgment.

This issue also contains an appropriate tribute to the late Dean Briggs by Professor Hillyer, and an essay on Henry James and Harvard by John Brooks Wheelwright. Articles like these by older men, lend distinction to The Advocate, and the practice of including them is one that I hope will be continued