Essays in our changing order

THORSTEIN VEBLEN died on August 3, 1929. With his passing there was removed from the ranks of social philosophers perhaps the most profound thinker and one of the best informed men of his generation. Among his papers there was found the fragment of a codicil which read:

It is also my wish, in case of death, to cremated, if it can conveniently be done, as expeditiously and in expensively as may be, without ritual or ceremony of any kind; that my ashes be thrown loose into the sea, or into some sizable stream running into the sea; that no tombstone, slab, epitaph, effigy, tablet, inscription, or monument of any name or nature be set up in my mem ory or name in any place or at any time; that no obit uary, memorial, portrait, or biography of me, nor any letters written to or by me, be printed or published or in any way reproduced, copied, or circulated.

It will be seen from this brief testament that he wished to remain as inaccessible to public view after death as he had been during his life. But already a num ber of obituaries and biographical sketches have ap peared and at least one portrait of his is scheduled to adorn the wall of one of the rooms in a university which, having neglected her illustrious son in life, per haps thinks to make belated amends by thus honoring him in death.