A Williams Anthology

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Compiled by Edwin Partridge Lehman and Julian Park
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Title: A Williams Anthology
A Collection of the Verse and Prose of Williams College, 1798-1910
Author: Compiled by Edwin Partridge Lehman and Julian Park
Release Date: March 22, 2004 [EBook #11658]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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A WILLIAMS ANTHOLOGY
A Collection of the Verse and Prose of Williams College
1798-1910
COMPILED BY
EDWIN PARTRIDGE LEHMAN
JULIAN PARK
EDITORS OF THE LITERARY MONTHLY
1910
INTRODUCTION

The present work owes its existence to a conviction on the part of its
editors that much material published by past Williams undergraduates
in past and present literary periodicals of the college, deserves a
resurrection from the threatening oblivion of musty library shelves.
That this conviction has been justified by the quality of the verse and
prose herein published, the editors believe; and they therefore submit
this volume to the public without undue fear as to its reception, adding
only the caution that its readers remember always the tender age of the
writers of these pages.
The purpose of the editors was to collect material which might be
adjudged to possess real literary merit; but in some cases in which the
historical interest attaching to the production, either by reason of its
subject or by reason of the fame attained in later years by its author, is
obvious, this rule has been waived. Among such exceptions may be
cited that of the Resolutions addressed to President Adams by the
students, and copied herein from the pages of the Vidette. The matter
has been arranged in the order of class seniority, with two exceptions. It
has seemed fitting to the editors to begin the work with that immortal
song, "The Mountains"; the second exception is that of the series of
biographical sketches entitled "Nine Williams Alumni," which for
obvious reasons were published as a whole.
The editors burrowed through all files of the college publications which
the college library contains, files which are reasonably complete. In
such a mass of material, some ninety volumes, it will be astounding
indeed if some creditable work has not been passed inadvertently over.
If such a mistake has occurred it is at least pardonable. The editors fear
only the presence of some unworthy matter in this volume, a sin of
commission and hence vastly more heinous.
In going over the works of their academic ancestors the editors have
been struck by several very interesting facts. The literary quality of the
poetry, as all will recognize, has made a steady advance, until the last
six years of the Lit. have seen the magazine second to none, for verse at
least, in the intercollegiate press. Dutton, Westermann, Gibson, Holley,
all of the same collegiate generation--they are names which are widely

known and which have brought the college renown of a nature which,
ordinarily, she is apt to obtain rather by athletic than by intellectual
means. It is striking, too, to notice how the college poetry has changed
during the seventy years of its existence, as the present compilers have
known it. There are specimens of the "poetry" of the early days
included herein, which find a place, as is intimated elsewhere, not so
much for their intrinsic merit as for the interest attaching to them in
other directions; and as for the prose of the Quarterly_ and the _Vidette,
it was, indeed, like the essays of the college press to-day, carefully
written and with a degree of that indescribable something called "style";
but so philosophical, heavy, and devoid of any human interest that we
cannot imagine the average student going through the magazine at a
sitting as (despite all reports to the contrary) is done with the college
papers to-day.
An interesting light on the alteration in undergraduate problems that
has gradually come about is furnished by a reading of Mr. Mabie's
essay included herein. At the time of its production Mr. Mabie saw the
need of a greater degree of organization among the students, in order
that the college might thereby become more of a community. How
directly opposed the present-day cry is! Student organization has to-day
so spread and so wound itself about the very life of the college, that it
threatens to hide the intellectual aims for which the college exists. The
editors venture to express the opinion that, had Mr. Mabie written when
they are writing, his essay would perhaps have