A retrospective glance upon the state of our athletics and upon the records made by our teams fails to cause our hearts to throb with that bashful modesty which for so many years has been a conspicuous feature of the character of every Harvard man. In fact to put it squarely we have been disgracefully whipped in foot ball, the chief fall sport, and even in tennis we bend the knee to our victorious rival, Yale. If as we sincerely hope, defeats are the best incentives to victories, our teams must have received enough incentive during the last few months to make them well nigh invincible for many years to come. For the present let us live on in the hope that this theory of incentives may have some foundation in fact as well as in fancy.

Turning to our base ball prospects, we may well be happy. It is seldom indeed that a year opens more auspiciously for Harvard success in this sport than does the present. With a nine nearly if not absolutely as strong as the '84 team, we can confidently expect that hard work and honest, faithful training will bring the champion ship to Cambridge in 1885. The chances of our winning the race with Yale depend upon two variables,-the members of the crew, and the Athletic and Advisory Committees. As to the first we have no fear; as to the second-well, as we do not wish to risk our reputation as a prophet we had better be silent. In lacrosse, tennis and track athletics there can be but little doubt every effort will be made to better our records, and there seems to be great probability that these efforts will be successful. In short, although we can get but little comfort from the past, the future still seems to smile kindly upon us. How honest this kindness really is, tim