It is a very unfortunate fact that the superficial side of the Harvard student's life is almost always the one which in the columns of the press is prominently brought to the notice of the outside public. Few who are not connected with the college have any opportunity, as matters now stand, of rightly appreciating the different influences which are at work upon the undergraduate mind, or of estimating their effects. The interests of the student not unnaturally seem to be confined to the various forms of athletic or social activity, with now the possible exception of debating, which is often supposed to be stimulated only by the prospect of contests with Yale.

In all this there is great injustice done to the college and to the student. There runs through all the comment on Harvard's apparent devotion to things of little real moment, a harsh note of accusation. The suggestion is that at Harvard the high ideals which properly belong to advanced education are lost sight of. On whom the responsibility for this fancied neglect of the ideal rests, is not generally understood; but instructors, as well as students, are implicated in the charge. The absurdity of this would be realized at once by one who knew anything of Harvard. There could hardly be a body of men who would more consistently set before the students in their charge all worthy ideals of education than do the instructors of Harvard, from highest to the lowest.

For the accusation against the students there is some plausible ground, but far from sufficient to justify its sweeping character. Beneath all the seemingly absorbing interest in athletics and social activity, there is a deep current of earnest, strenuous life in the college, the goal of which is attainment to educational ideals, in the very broadest sense in which these can be understood. It is this undercurrent which really determines the value of the undergraduate life and is significant of the tendencies in it which shall prevail. In its superficial aspects the life of the Harvard student is deceiving: those who would form a fair estimate of it must look below the surface.