THE NORTON CHAIR

The appointment of Arthur Mayger Hind, Slade Professor of Fine Arts at the University of Oxford to the post of Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard is of peculiar interest since it marks the second departure from the field of literature in the choice of an incumbent for the Norton Chair.

One of the most attractive features of the Norton Chair is the fact that although theoretically dedicated to poetry, the terms of the bequest are sufficiently broad to allow it to be held by an exponent of poetical expression in such allied fields as Music or Fine Arts as well as in Literature. In this way the Norton lectures are considerably widened in appeal and the opportunity for cultural refinement to be found in their consistently high caliber is made attractive to a wider range of students than those concentrating exclusively in the field of literature.

The advent of Professor Hind, an art critic of recognized authority, is awaited in the confident expectation that the high standards set by previous incumbents of the chair in their interpretation of poetry in its-stricter sense will be maintained in the consideration of poetry in its broader scope.