As we come to the close of another week, we note with almost a shiver the rapid flight of time which has nearly brought us to the end of our first collegiate month,- one ninth of the college year already gone. Scarcely yet has the Tabular View been fully committed, the new names of classes rightly applied, or any one fairly settled down to the plan of work he had laid out for himself. Wonderfully seductive are these golden autumn days to lovers of the country and out-door sports, and although, by dint of required recitations judiciously disposed from the first hour to the last, the body may be kept in Cambridge, the mind inevitably wanders from the printed page to catch the gorgeous hues of that almost tropical picture with which New England compensates her sons, once a year, for the dreary length of her inhospitable winter. Saturday sees nearly the whole college scattered through the adjoining country in quest of rural enjoyment.

Some are content to stroll along the gold-arched avenues in quiet contemplation of the beauty of the scene; other robust natures require the exhilaration of the sharp gallop through the crisp, invigorating air; while to some the sweet-scented woods are a delight, where the whirr of the partridge or the soft whistling of the quail, followed by the quick crack of the fowling-piece and the dead thud of the victim, announce the unerring aim of the sportsman and the plumpness of the game.

But, carpe diem, all this will soon go by, and the winter fireside be the only substitute for autumn's glory; an enjoyable one, notwithstanding, for winter drives every one within himself; and its long evenings give ample opportunity for that deep thought or light fancy suggested by our contact with the master minds of all ages in science or letters. When one thinks of the opportunities for culture here possessed, he cannot but wonder at the insignificant results attained by most men. The present Freshman Class have an unequalled opportunity for instituting a new order of things in this respect, since they have not to follow blindly in the path of absurd and frivolous precedent.

In one thing where Freshmen have usually been deficient we hope to see an improvement, and that is in making themselves felt through the college press. And this applies to the class as a whole, and not to those few who in their own or partial friends' opinion have literary ability. On such as have, perhaps, never entertained the thought of their ability to write, we would enjoin the advisability of trying; for the main requisite is to have something to say, and surely among so large a number it cannot be but there are ideas and information for which the college at large would be the better. The success of the college press should be a matter of pride, not to any class, but to the college; and the motto of which the observance would do more for us in the future than any other is, "College, not Class."

Of news there is not much to note in any department of our little world. Boating and ball are supported as usual by their own little band of devotees, and no extraordinary interest seems

to attach to either. Even the class races for the graduates' cup excite no particular stir, perhaps because the result is already considered by most as a foregone conclusion.

In regard to studies there is the usual amount of grumbling and dissatisfaction, and it is undoubtedly the fact that many of them look more attractive on the elective schedule than they

afterwards prove to be. The idea, too, of free choice in one's studies has become rather a mockery by the requirements of the Tabular View, which insists upon recitations in two subjects during the same hour.

On the other hand, the Senior and Junior Classes seem to be composing themselves to harder and more careful work than they have yet undertaken, and the result cannot but be a pleasant one both to themselves and their instructors.

WE have heard much dissatisfaction expressed, lately, at the refusal of our foot-ball players to join Yale, Columbia, Rutgers, and Princeton in a convention for the purpose of forming an intercollegiate association and a fixed code of laws. It certainly does not seem natural for Harvard to keep aloof from anything of this kind, and while we think our players are perfectly right in not being willing to alter their rules (which are undoubtedly far superior to those of the other colleges), still we ask whether it would not have been much better to have sent delegates able to explain our method of playing the game and to make a strong plea for it before the convention. Harvard would not necessarily have been bound to enter into the matches if her demands were entirely disregarded, and if our rules are best the other colleges will probably agree to them at last. But this result cannot be brought about if we keep out of the affair entirely.