For seven well-known Harvard professors, who have taught at the University for periods ranging from 12 to 43 years, yesterday marked the end of careers as active members of the Faculty.

Included in the group, whose resignations of last March went into effect with the first day of September, was Edward K. Rand '94, Pope Professor of Latin, and one of the most eminent classicists in the nation. But in his case, the new status changed his routine little, for he has not been teaching since the end of the first session.

Called Classics Vital

Defending liberal education, and especially the study of the ancients in these days of the rush to the scientists, Professor Rand pointed to the ideas of the classical thinkers as models for present-day thought. "What could be better for the man in Government than the reading of Plato and Aristotle in the original tongue?"

As for the direct relation of the classics to a world at war, Prof. Rand, mentioning President Conant's statement that a "liberal education is part of a military education," asserted that the basic military tactics can be found in the history of the great Greek and Roman soldiers. He also said, "if every soldier spent half an hour a day reading Horace in the original, he would be much more rested than if he spent many times the amount of minutes swapping stories with the other men."

Together with Prof. Rand, Reginald A. Daly, Sturgin Hopper Professor of Geology, a nationally-known scientist who received an honorary degree here last June, became emeritus yesterday. Also retired were Eldon R. James, professor of Law, Joseph Warren '97, Weld Professor of Law, Walter B. Cannon '96, George Higginson Professor of Physiology, and Edward S. Thurston '98, professor of Law.