The second issue of the Monthly as a whole has much more character than the first. The scope of its contents is broader. A more marked personality distinguishes it. The field covered by the different articles includes the historic, the critical, the imaginative, the analytic, the poetic. Prof. Sanborn contributes a testimony of Harvard's part in the movement of emancipation. His words bring before the undergraduates of to-day a picture of noble work, and lead them to look forward with sturdier ambitions. All, however, will not see the paradoxical feature of Harvard's reputation. To many, Harvard may be conservative, but to more the Harvard of to-day would seem to champion the side of new ideas. If Harvard is conservative, the "New Education" shows the liberal side of her conservatism.

The essay on "Marlowe and His Times" shows familiarity with subject. Mr. Norton has also presented it in an attractive diction. His philosophy may be attacked, but his style is fully in accord with the high ideal of the editors of the Monthly.

To the students at large Mr. Tyler's story will be the feature of the issue. It is well introduced, well maintained, and well concluded. The fancy is not too fanciful, and the realistic is life-like. All students will recognize their freshman feelings in the "uncertainty as to how and where to walk," and the "decision not to learn of elder brothers."

Mr. Fullerton has given a good maxim for the novelist. There are, however, a few examples of the base made beautiful by art, that seem to combat with his conclusion. The question he has presented is a nice one, and his treatment of it is, one the whole, to be commended.

In looking at the poetry of this issue, one cannot help wishing that the ballad by Mr. Houghton had been inspired by a more optimistic view. The beauty of these verses is not heightened, at all events, by the gloomy theme. The other poems are graceful, but on the whole not characterized by forcible thought. The ideal portrayed by Mr. Fullerton is applicable to poetry as well as to novels.