The Charles Eliot Norton Chair of Poetry is uniquely designed to stimulate culture. By the terms of Mr. Still man's bequest, the incumbent of the chair must be a man of international reputation, whom Harvard in all probability could not otherwise secure. Under the broad definition of poetry the new professorship makes provision for men of ability in the cultural arts of music, painting, sculpture, and architecture as well as in the rhythms of language. Professor Murray of Oxford, an authority on the Greek drama, is of the type which the chair was designed to attract.

His knowledge of the English system of instruction and his undoubted scholarship will give an impetus to the tutorial system which will go far toward completing its success. Under the stimulus of Professor Murray and similar scholars in later years, tutors and undergraduates of every department whose work comes under the broad definition of poetry will benefit by personal contact with leaders of thought. Truly the chair in honor of Professor Norton is an unusually valuable addition to Harvard scholarship. In the words of President Lowell, the professorship of poetry "helps the struggle of years to place college emphasis on intellectual culture."