One of the most puzzling questions of student life is the question of summer reading. No period of the year is so little devoted to purely intellectual pursuits as the period from June to October. A hard year's work at college is hardly fitted to inspire a man with a profound idea of his intellectual duty to himself during the warm months. But a zealous student finds during his collegiate term that he has but little time to devote to collateral reading, and is only allowed by pressure of circumstances to gather a list of those books which he deems it his duty to read subsequently when he shall possess more leisure. But if this is neglected, the student falls into the ever ready snare of summer reading. The inadequacy of college life for many of our higher intellectual needs has at length come to be recognized, and several of the instructors have directed their attention to courses of reading to be pursued by the students during the summer vacation. No instruction of the university, if judiciously used, could be pursued to greater advantage than such courses. There are many courses in the schedule of studies which of course no one student can pursue, however he may desire to elect them. The only manner in which he can gain a knowledge of such studies, is by outside reading. The establishment of courses of summer reading should be made general throughout the college. The effectiveness of the present system of study would be enormously increased while conforming to the convenience and task of all. The students would by this means be saved from the too common aimless reading of leisure moments, and would have their minds directed into a channel which would repay every effort, at the same time that it would relieve the harsher strain of studies more peculiarly collegiate in their character.