In spite of his criticisms of some of the methods of the modern realists, Mr. Harben believes strongly in the importance of one realistic dogma, that which has to do with detailed description.
"Why is it that Pepys's Diary is interesting to us?" he asked. "It is because of its detail.
"But if Pepys had been a Howells—if he had been as careful in describing great things as he was in describing small things—then his Diary would be ten times more valuable to us than it is. And so Howells's novels will be valuable to people who read them a thousand years from now to get an idea of how we live.
"That is, Howells's novels will be valuable if people read novels in the years that are to come! Perhaps they will not be reading novels or anything else. For all we know, thought-transference may become as common a thing as telephony is now. And if this comes to pass nobody will read!"
LITERATURE IN THE COLLEGES
JOHN ERSKINE
Brown of Harvard is no more. The play of that name may still be running, but of Harvard life it is now about as accurate a picture as Trelawney of the Wells is of modern English life. At Harvard, and at all the great American universities, the dashing, picturesque young athlete is no longer the prevailing type of the undergraduate ideal.