The first college journal ever published at Harvard appeared in the month of July, 1810, and was known as the "Harvard Lyceum." Its editors, among whom were Edward Everett and Samuel Gilman, the author of "Fair Harvard," written for the centennial celebration in 1836, were all members of the class of 1811. The magazine appeared semi-monthly and was devoted to the discussion of such abstruse and heavy subjects that it was unable to maintain any popularity with the students and died after the short existence of one year. The last number, which appeared in March, 1811, contained a farewell address of the editors, in which they complained that the cause of the failure of the magazine was due to jealousy and envy, "in a place too, where the bad passions should never come, in the sacred groves of Academus, where we have witnessed the emotions of an envious spirit, which has shown itself an unnatural foe to its literary seniours."

The address contained this warning to future aspirants for literary honors; "The legacy which we leave to our collegiate posterity, is our advice that they enjoy those exquisite pleasures which literary seclusion affords, but that they do not strive to communicate them to others." The last words are almost pathetic in their tone. "To obscurity and neglect, then, we commit the "Lyceum." In obscurity and neglect it will find honorable company, and it may be satisfied with this lot, which, though it waits the most inferior, is the fate of the most learned productions. Where are the works of Chaldean, of Persian and of Egyptian wisdom? Ages have revolved since their utter perdition, and if in the sack of Alexandria it was their office to heat the baths of the Saracens, we may be contented to cumber the shelves of the book-seller."

For sixteen years after the extinction of the "Lyceum" there was no magazine to preserve the best literary work of the college. But in 1827 a new periodical called "The Harvard Register" was initiated into the world of literature. It was published once a month, its editors being members of the senior class. The motto adopted by its founders, Byron's famous dictum, "I won't philosophize, and I will be read," seems to indicate that the lesson of the failure of its predecessor had been learned and that ponderous articles would be eschewed. Among its more famous editors were C. C. Felton, later professor of Greek and president of the University, George S. Hilliard and Robert B. Winthrop. Many articles of real literary merit appeared in its pages and it deserved a longer period of existence than it enjoyed. But indifference on the part of its contributors made its continued publication impracticable, and it died in 1828, about a year and a half after its foundation.