The Harvard Monthly for January.

The January Monthly contains much that is good; more perhaps that is mediocre. It would have been better for the reputation of the Monthly had one or two of the articles not been published. Enough good matter is presented, however, to make the number as a whole enjoyable.

As in the last issue, the editorials deserve particular mention. They are frank and honest, and will serve to enlighten more than one student in regard to two questions closely connected with college life: the athletic question and the "coaching" question. From personal experience we know that there are scores of students who are almost entirely ignorant both of the status of the body which now governs our athletics and of the course of events which led to the establishment of that body. There are also scores of students who have never stopped to think of the evils which attend the system of private "tutoring" as it exists at Harvard. To all such students we recommend these editorials. We have now the right to expect in the Monthly a continuation of the good work it has done in its attempts to build up an enlightened public opinion among students.

The leading article, "A Need of Newspapers," by Mr. Eliot Lord, is an argument in favor of the foundation at Harvard of a department of journalism, with "an editor of high reputation as a professor and a competent city editor as an assistant professor." The writer believes that the "primary schools of journalism" should be moved from the rooms of the daily papers to quarters in the universities." We believe that the time is coming when the rapidly growing demand for training is journalism will have to be met. Suggestions such as those made by Mr. Lord will greatly help to remove many difficulties at the present time in the way of such an innovation.

The contribution, "A Study of Rossetti's Verse," is a piece of work which badly needs revision. What is said of Rossetti is undoubtedly based on extended reading and upon an adequate appreciation of the poet's nature, but the article itself is remarkable for nothing except its lack of clearness and method and its exhibition of some of the most rudimentary of historical blunders.

Of the short contribution, "A Widow of Appomattox to her Son," there is little to say. A faithful mother tells to her son, who is with the Confederate army in the defenses at Petersburg, the vision she has had of his safe return to her side at Appomattox. There is deep pathos in the story.

Mr. Marsh in translating a portion of the "Wasps" of Aristophanes is very courageous in his attempts to turn Greek slang of the fifth century B. C. into the modern language of the street. The translator gives us a spicy bit of reading, but it is a question whether he has not gone too far in his desire to be true to his author. We are inclined to think that there is a hint of an anachronism here, but, however that may be, we have no difficulty in understanding Aristophanes through the medium of such a translation.

Mr. Dodge's sketch of Benvenuto Cellini presents vividly some of the characteristic traits of that wonderful man whose history people are never tired of hearing. The writer's style is, it is almost needless to say, pure and vivacious. Well-chosen anecdotes of Benvenuto's life, interspersed with sagacious criticism, make this piece of character study extremely interesting.

The verses "Venus at Twilight" are better than the average of contribution to the Monthly. They are rhythmical and even musical, and contain one or two very pretty turns of thought.