We have taken much interest of late in our monthly exchanges, and after reading them we find it hard not to make comparisons. The Yale Literary Monthly, the Nassau Literary Magazine, the Williams Literary Monthly and the Harvard Monthly are now before us. In looking over the numbers from abroad we are struck with the attempts at depth of thought and at real argument. In many cases the writers have opinions, and show a willingness to express them; in a word they are not afraid of being serious. As a result, the magazines become something more than literary, and please the thought as well as the taste of the reader. But setting them aside and taking up the "Harvard Monthly" we are inclined to think that the name "literary" would be far more applicable to it than to any of its contemporaries. But strange to say, the apparently proper order of things is exactly reversed, and while all the other publications are called "literary," the Harvard publication is not so called. Of course names are of little importance. Still, that the chief aim of our Harvard magazine thus far has been to be literary can hardly be disputed. It may be a question as to whether a college publication should aim at being anything more than literary; but for ourselves we would gladly see in what is supposed to be the best work of Harvard undergraduates something besides what has merely "beauty of style and expression." We believe that the "Monthly" deserves a place in Harvard life, but we feel that it cannot be wholly successful until it is willing to be "serious" as well as literary.