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 had a different tone.

The college has indeed much to be proud of in its literature and journalism—­for it has been enriched with names like Bryant, Prime, Franklin Carter, Mabie, Stoddard, Scudder, Alden, Gladden, G.L.  Raymond, L.W.  Spring, G. Stanley Hall, H.L.  Nelson, G.E.  MacLean, Cuthbert Hall, Isaac Henderson, Bliss Perry, F.J.  Mather, Rollo Ogden:  many of them are represented here; and we are glad for the college that their fame had its beginnings, even if often modest, in our student publications.

For the purpose of embodying the literary history of the college as completely as possible in one volume, the compilers have added an appendix containing the names of the editors of the Literary Monthly for the twenty-six years of its existence.  For the same purpose, they quote below a chronological sketch of the various publications, which appeared in the Gulielmensian of the class of 1908.  The present editors cannot vouch for all the facts there set forth.

“So far as is known, the earliest periodical published by Williams undergraduates was The Adelphi, a bi-weekly, of which the first issue appeared August 18, 1831, and the last June 21, 1832.  After twelve years The Williams Monthly Miscellany was started in July, 1844, and continued until September, 1845.  After another lapse of several years, The Williams Quarterly Magazine was founded in July, 1853, and continued publication until June, 1872.  Meantime, April 13, 1867, The Williams Vidette had been started, and in 1872, the older Quarterly was merged into it.  The Vidette was published fortnightly until June, 1874, when it, together with The Williams Review, a tri-weekly, started in June, 1870, was united to form the fortnightly Williams Athenoeum, the first issue of which appeared October 10, 1874.  In May, 1881, another fortnightly, The Argo, was started, which, with The Athenoeum, appeared in alternate weeks until April, 1885, when the two gave place simultaneously to The Williams Literary Monthly and The Fortnight.  Two years later, April, 1887, The Fortnight was reorganized into The Williams Weekly.  In 1904 The Williams Weekly became The Williams Record.