The attitude of the Pharisee only became dangerous when it was enunciated. This danger Harvard has always been able successfully to avoid. It has consistently "given thanks that it is not as other colleges are," chiefly because it has never said so, at least for publication. It has succeeded in maintaining this feeling by means of example, not by precept. The incoming Freshman comes to feel that he has at last reached a grown-up institution and that it is up to him to put away childlike things. Very often his illusions of what a college ought to be are shattered. Gone are the Ralph Henry Barbarism of "frattiness" and the "rah-rah" spirit. He must even desert the "campus" for the more prosaic Yard. Usually the illusion is broken in a few months, and he begins to accept complacently and finally with satisfaction,--Pharasaical, if you will,--that this college is different.

Ever since the Freshman class has been separated from the main body of the College, unmistakable symptoms have arisen of the growth of that spirit which is anathema to the hypothetical "Harvard man." This has at times shown itself in its most objectionable form, which is an inevitable product of such an attitude,--that of rowdyism and muckerism.

Heretofore, it has not been necessary to mention such things; they have gone without saying. Since, under changed conditions, there have been signs of such a spirit developing, it seems necessary to hint to the members of the Freshman class that they have at last stepped over the azure threshold of childhood, and that they should realize it as soon as possible.