The November issue of Forum is an exceptionally good one; everything considered, it is better than any of this month's samples of the other magazines in its class, abounding as it does in pertinent articles, and covering enough territory to interest a wide circle, or to give a definite circle a broad field for thought. In short, it attains the end in view of the "intellectual magazines," and does so gracefully.

The Editorial Foreword, commencing the magazine, deserves its leading position, As its title, "Gnothi Seauton," would lead one to fear, it has a faint aura of uplift and exhortation clinging to its verbal draperies. But this aura is indeed too faint to bother any but the most far-fetched nuanciren; if one disregard it, the discussion appears as an apt and thoughtful one. It is arranged around two quotations from Emerson: "Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind," and also, "Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members." These two more or less general and philosophical ideas are tied down by the able Mr. Leach, and are constrained most convincingly to apply to the needs and trends of the moments. Essentially, the argument involves the Menckenian attack on the "joiner," but it employs this jeremiad in a gentler, more discursive, and more appealing way; it is a bit of comment apt and in good taste.

An article, "How Trivial Are Modern Books?" by Mary Colum will interest those without any too definite ideas on literature. There is a fair review, with comment, of the trends centering around Flaubert and the Realists, and of the exudations of the followers of Charcot and Freud. The article eventually degenerates into a dissertation on style, with a great deal of maundering on "the passion of the inner rhythm." The worst fault of the piece is the conspicuous absence of a satisfactory answer to the question propounded in the title, and to the other questions raised.

"How The Arms Makers Work," by Vita and Joseph Friend, is an article that will appeal to almost everyone. While it is largely a catalogue of the facts, figures, and activities of the great war materials firms, it contains information not generally available in such terse form. The pacifist will find here material for endless confounding of his opponents; the militarist and members of the firm of Du Pont de Nemours will be stimulated to thought and research into their consciences. After listening however, to the recital of the enormous war-time profits of arms manufacturers, and of the interlocking directorates of the companies in various nations, and of the coy manner in which English arms are used by England's enemies on English soldiers, one feels that the solution to the whole thing is to give every soldier a block of the stock in the major arms company of his country, thus bringing him home rich and satisfying everyone concerned. The authors draw other conclusions; in any case, most will agree that some conclusion to the affair is necessary, to say nothing of unattainable.

"An Unbeliever Goes to Church," by Norman Hapgood, is, as the title presages, merely an account of the spiritual release of one man. It is rather vague because it tries simultaneously to show how a person can be both a eligious mystic and an unbeliever, and what the future of the Church is to become of the ideas are reminiscent of Macterlinck's essay on Emerson, others all up the image of an on-the-fence minister trying to be liberal and let the young 'uns have their game of golf on Sunday. For all its erraticism, the article will strike home in a few hearts.

The issue also contains a rather good story, entitled "Brownstone Front," and several other articles, of which perhaps the most appropriate in an academic circle is "The Case Against State Medicine." The crown is put to an excellent copy by the attractive make up, and by the illustrations interspersed in the text, which are a feature pleasant to the eye and noval in effect.