A Williams Anthology - A Collection of the Verse and Prose of Williams College, 1798-1910 by Unknown
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page 3 of 234 (01%)
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Westermann, Gibson, Holley, all of the same collegiate generation--they
are names which are widely known and which have brought the college renown of a nature which, ordinarily, she is apt to obtain rather by athletic than by intellectual means. It is striking, too, to notice how the college poetry has changed during the seventy years of its existence, as the present compilers have known it. There are specimens of the "poetry" of the early days included herein, which find a place, as is intimated elsewhere, not so much for their intrinsic merit as for the interest attaching to them in other directions; and as for the prose of the _Quarterly_ and the _Vidette_, it was, indeed, like the essays of the college press to-day, carefully written and with a degree of that indescribable something called "style"; but so philosophical, heavy, and devoid of any human interest that we cannot imagine the average student going through the magazine at a sitting as (despite all reports to the contrary) is done with the college papers to-day. An interesting light on the alteration in undergraduate problems that has gradually come about is furnished by a reading of Mr. Mabie's essay included herein. At the time of its production Mr. Mabie saw the need of a greater degree of organization among the students, in order that the college might thereby become more of a community. How directly opposed the present-day cry is! Student organization has to-day so spread and so wound itself about the very life of the college, that it threatens to hide the intellectual aims for which the college exists. The editors venture to express the opinion that, had Mr. Mabie written when they are writing, his essay would perhaps have had a different tone. The college has indeed much to be proud of in its literature and |
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