The Monthly for January appears today. As a whole this number is an improvement on the three previous numbers of this college year, and it is far superior to the December number.

The opening article by Josiah Royce is entitled "Tennyson and Pessimism." In this essay Professor Royce endeavors to show that Tennyson has neither changed nor fallen into the hopeless and pessimistic ideas of old age, as so many have lately said, in his "Locksley Hall Sixty Years After," but that he has really come to a more perfect and real understanding of the life he has had to lead. In the Locksley Hall," there was the life and aspirations of a young and romantic poet disregarding the trials of daily life and looking forward into the future, made bright by an optimistic vision. In the "Locksley Hall Sixty Years After" it is the man lost, disregarding the existing incompleteness of life, and therefore more subdued and with a vein of sadness, yet one who sees and realizes the good when once attained, and therefore the man of true optimism.

"A Waft of Summer" follows, which, though a good idea, fails to show itself on account of the words used. We cannot conceive of the wind "loitering" in "snow dust" that is "sculpturisque and fine."

An article on "The Writings of Count Leon Tolstoi" by Mr. Berenson is an interesting paper and goes far to make up the interest in this number. And though not well acquainted with Tolstoi, we should say that he had been fairly judged and perhaps placed fully as high as he deserves to be. The whole is a good production, yet for enjoyable reading it might well have been given to us in more monosyllabic English. There is nothing so forcible in writing as honest, unaffected English words.

"To Night" by W. A. Leahy, follows, and we cannot help asking, - Why must a college man - or any other, - when writing poetry, think that it consists in placing the best where the worst should be and vice-versa, and in trampling the sense under the feet of most extraordinary similes and metaphors. There is good thought in this piece but it is so "hidden" that one finds difficulty in discerning it. About half way through the poem - we regret the inability to quote, - the metaphors clear away, and for some time there is real poetry we honestly think.

The next article "Two Types," is first, the thoughts of an anarchist and secondly the thoughts of an aristocrat: There seems to be little point to the piece, and we can but regret that such sides of human character, though merely fancied and only in a college paper should be put into print.

A short stanza, "The Coming of the Fog" is followed by "An After Dinner Story" written in an easy style which does credit to the author. The Monthly ends with two editorials and book notices.