"Either night has really ceased love,
Or the light arise from you."
And these:
"I hear the trumpets of the sun resound
In muted cadence, drawing ever nigh
And saw, from where I lay on grassy mound,
The naked arm of morn stretched through the sky."
When it comes to politics, the outstanding item is the very clear exposition by Frederick W. Dallinger '93, of "Liberty and its Relation to Patriotism as Illustrated by the Berger-Case," followed by an adumbration of the issue, with a "qualitatively different perspective," by Mr. Harold J. Laski, who thinks that to act as Mr. Berger did "is of the essence of citizenship," and that "What we (meaning the English) would almost above all forget is our imprisonment of Bertrand Russell." He compares the intolerance of the United States to that of Germany before the war, and that of Russia before the revolution, and ends with the comforting remark that Mr. Berger's case only faintly reflects the temper which caused such upheaval, yet its appearance must be distressing to all who value the traditions for which America came into being." Clearly, we should all have refused to fight, as Mr. Berger wanted us to do; clearly, we should have made him dictator and interim, pending the arrival of the Kaiser's Governor of the United States. One thing we can learn from all this--that England has had her troubles, and that the worst is not quite over over there.
The faults of these two numbers of the Advocate are the weakness or obscurity of some of the essays on literary matters and the dearth of good fiction. "Beneath the Cliff," by Mr. M. A. Kister, in the June number, though perhaps decadent in spirit, shows undeniable power. And in the Class-Day number the fifth of Mr. J. F. Leys' "Billet Ballads" has real fun in every line. But there are not enough such contributions. Except in the field of politics, the essays are somehow strained and dull.
The College could enjoy more articles on industry, more biographical and historical sketches and more good stories. Next year should see the Advocate fulfilling every requirement that the most exacting of critics can lay down.