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But what strikes us more forcibly than any other feature in this quaint old volume in the literature of Yale is the earnestness and sincerity which the editors display on every page. No careless or vulgar expression can be found and the writers seem to be imbued with the idea that it was an honor to have one's contributions appear in the pages and to have their articles accepted they must exert themselves to the utmost. This fact more than any other tends to make every college publication more highly respected, both in the college sphere and the outside world.

P. C. P.

IN CAMP.

The spot is chosen, and the camp is made
Just where the rugged, unshorn forest ends,
Upon the bluff, from which the bank descends
'Twixt shore of lake and lofty pine-trees shade.
A covering of bark and leaves o'erhead
Affords a rustic shelter for the night;

The hemlock boughs furnish a fragrant bed,
On which to lie and watch the camp-fires light,
When darkness all the landscape has o'erspread.
But now the evening sky is all aglow

With tints and colors of a painter's quest,
Blending themselves in ever changing flow,
While the low sun sinks deeper in the west.
The foliage lies mirrored in the lake
As in a glass, without a single break
Or ripple, save where swallow dips a wing,

Or hungry fish leaps in his foraging.
Hid in the deeper darkness from the sight,
The leaves begin to whisper on the trees;
Around the circle of the ruddy light,
Dance elf-like shadows in the evening breeze,
Lending themselves to wildest imagery,
And forms of fancy that enchant and thrill
The soul, forgetful of the world, until

It almost loses its identity,

In silence and the magic of the night.

E. D. C.

MEMORABILIA YALENSIA.

Townsend Essay Subjects

Have been announced as follows:

1. Margaret Fuller.

2. Revival of Lynch Law.

3. English Ritualists of the 17th Century.
4. Pagan Element in Mediaeval Christianity.

5. Plato the Mystic.

6. Moral Interpretation of Nature.

7. McClellan's Peninsular Campaign.

8. Symbolism and Impressionism in Contemporary French Literature.

9. Dangers that Threaten Government by Legislative Assemblies.

10. The American Colleges and American Literature. 11. The Snob as a Social Symptom.

12. Thomas Hardy's Novels.

The Gun Club Shoot

Between Yale and Harvard took place at Hartford, Saturday, November 25, and resulted in a victory for Harvard by the score of 119 to 113.

Yale-Harvard Joint Debate

Was held December 5, at Newport, R. I. The question was: "Shall our Senators be Chosen by Popular Vote?" Harvard was represented by Mr. Thwaite and Mr. Apsey, who took the affirmative. The Yale speakers were W. E. Thoms, '94, and L. A. Welles, P. G.

Died, November 20, at the Yale Infirmary, Silas H. Goodenough, of the class of 1895.

Yale Courant Board.

George F. Dominick, Jr., '94, has been elected chairman of the Yale Courant in place of W. J. Price, '94, resigned.

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The Elevens of the four colleges were as follows:

YALE-F. M. Hinkey, '95, Capt., 1. e.; F. T. Murphy, '97, 1. t.; J. M. McCrea, '95 S., 1. g.; P. T. Stillman, '95 S., center; W. O. Hickok, '95 S., r. g.; A. M. Beard, '95, r. t.; J. Greenway, '95 S., r. e.; G. T. Adee, '95, q. b.; S. B. Thorne, '96, h. b.; R. Armstrong, '95 S., h. b.; F. S. Butterworth, '95, f. b.

HARVARD-Emmons, 1. e.; Manahan, 1. t.; Acton, 1. g.; Lewis, c.; Mackey, r. g.; Newell, r. t.; Stevenson, r. e.; Beall, q. b.; Waters, Capt., h. b.; Wrightington, h. b.; Dunlop, h. b.; Brewer, f. b.

PRINCETON-Trenchard, Capt., r. e.; Lea, r. t.; Taylor, r. g.; Balliet, c.; Wheeler, 1. g.; Holly, 1. t.; Brown, 1. e.; King, q. b.; Ward, h. b.; Morse, h. b.; Blake, f. b.

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - Simmons, 1. e.; Mackey, Capt., 1. t.; Oliver, 1. g.; Wharton, 1. g.; Thornton, c.; Woodruff, r. g.; Reese, r. t.; Newton, r. e.; Vail, q. b.; Williams, q. b.; Osgood, h. b.; Knipe, h. b.; Brooke, f. b.

Yale-Harvard Freshman Game

Was played at the Yale Field, December 2, Yale, '97, outplayed their opponents at every point, and won by the largest score ever made by a Yale Freshman eleven against Harvard. 30 to 4.

BOOK NOTICES.

Few persons have revealed themselves more fully in their letters than Dr. Asa Gray. So these volumes of his correspondence, with the short autobiographical fragment, coming down to the second year of the Harvard professorship (1843), and the remarks interspersed among the letters, explanatory of their sequence, where explanation is needed, almost make a complete autobiography. Portions of journals, now and then introduced, emphasize this effect. A very difficult task it must have been to choose from the immense mass of Dr. Gray's correspondence the comparatively small amount here given. Undoubtedly much more might have been used to present in more detail various sides of his character. But the editor has done the work of selection with admirable judgment, and as a result we have a clear and full picture of Dr. Gray. It reveals him as he was before known, as a distinguished botanist, a devoted patriot, a courageous defender of the Christian faith, and a man of singularly lovable and beautiful character, and besides it shows the qualities, notable among them the almost unfailing cheerfulness and gaiety, which gave such an indescribable charm to his character, apart from its kindly beauty. Of course, as is proper, the letters make particularly prominent the character and extent of Dr. Gray's botanical studies. As they show, rarely has there been a man who devoted himself with such singleness of aim, such constant enthusiasm, such untiring industry, and such singular success to his chosen pursuit. They cover a period of more than fifty years of active and well-appreciated labor, and they show the author as the correspondent and also the intimate friend of nearly all the eminent botanists of his time. The only respite he had in his toil was given by journeys, but these were all made contributory to his work. Still, though even in his travels his work was thus ever with him, he came with ever fresh delight to new scenes, and records unreservedly, even in his more purely scientific correspondence, his pleasures. The whole of the correspondence of this kind contains much interesting friendly gossip of various kinds, not botanical. And though there are in it many letters, in particular those to Darwin, which are of great interest to botanists for purely scientific reasons, the greater part of the writing on botanical subjects in this selection partakes more of the nature of gossip than of scientific discussion, and can be read with interest and profit even by those who are ignorant of botany. A very noticeable thing in these letters and a witness to the writer's kindly spirit, is the generous attention he gave to the work of other botanists whom he knew. He kept them and their various labors constantly in mind, and was always ready to help them with suggestions and advice and every way.

But these letters show that, notwithstanding his intense devotion to his work, their author was a man of the widest interests in other ways. He shows warm appreciation of beauty of landscape, particularly of the Alpine

*The Letters of Asa Gray. Edited by Jane Loring Gray. 2 vols., pp. 838. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Company.

scenery, of which he was passionately fond, and of beauty in painting, in sculpture, in architecture and in music. The letters written during the civil war attest how keen an interest the untiring student felt in the great struggle for his country's preservation. Almost every letter contains some reference to the war, and the only thing which he ever speaks of as distracting him from his work is the excitement over it. He seems to have seen early in the fight that the destruction of slavery and the foundation of a new South must be the result, and he rejoiced when the South, where he had spent much time in botanical work, was freed from its curse of slavery. Though he is never obtrusive in mentioning his religious views, the quality of his references to them, and the frequent “ D. V.” and “deo favente " throughout his letters, prove him to have been a man of strong and beautifully confident faith.

Everywhere in the letters one happens on flashes of humor and keen critical remarks, but there is never bitterness or anger. Occasionally there is a very human and useful impatience, but the sweetness and kindness of his character are everywhere apparent-in his friendly relations with all his correspondents, and in the ease with which he made new and warm friends; in his devoted love for the members of his family; even in his fondness for his pets. And this gentle and beautiful spirit remained unembittered, despite all the many discouragements and the immense labor of the tasks which he constantly carried on. Dean Church, for many years a beloved friend of Dr. Gray, in a letter written to Mrs. Gray after Dr. Gray's death, speaks of him these words, with which we reluctantly close our survey of these charming letters: "The sweetness and charity, which we remember so well in living converse is always on the lookout for some pleasant feature in the people of whom he writes, and to give kindliness and equity to his judgment."

In An Old Town by the Sea,* Mr. Aldrich has given us some sketches of the past and present, mostly of the past, the Colonial past, of Portsmouth, his early home. His sketches from Colonial times pretend not at all to antiquarian research, but are only a few bits chosen here and there from the chronicles of the Colonial history of the town to give the reader some notion of the people and the life of the Portsmouth of those days, and some amusement therewith. For their purpose they are admirably well chosen. They are put before us, too, with a sympathetic artistic touch, in an agreeable, vivacious, conversational manner, and with a pleasant, quiet humor. The book has an atmosphere peculiarly its own-an atmosphere of that New England whose gradual passing away Mr. Aldrich laments. "Everywhere in New England," he says, "the impress of the past is fading out. The few old-fashioned men and women-quaint, shrewd, and racy of the soil-who linger in little, silvery gray old homesteads strung along the New England roads and by-ways will shortly cease to exist as a class, save in the record of some such charming chronicler as Sarah Jewett, or Mary

*An Old Town by the Sea. By Thomas Bailey Aldrich. pp. 123. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Company.

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