New Magazines.

The eighth number of the Advocate is really a good number. The editorials deal with interesting and important subjects, and the matter is well handled. That upon the change in the examination system at Princeton is sound and we must all agree with the author that we have a noble example in Princeton and hope that we are men enough to follow it. The other editorials certainly express college opinion except that on the Harvard-Yale debate which does not express much of anything. The first article of the number is a sketch of the college life of the late Samuel Foster McCleary by one of his classmates.

"The Digression of Malton" is the poorest story in the number. Though it may portray one element of college life, the story seems improbable and is weak in its conclusion. There is no perceptible plot and the characters are not interesting.

"A Study in Physiognomy" by William Loyd Widdemer is a good story and is very cleverly told. The idea is nothing new but it is in a pleasing form. It is the story of a man who pretends to fall in love with a girl merely that he may accuse her of a crime, that he has himself committed, with some semblance of sincerity.

The last three stories of the number, "Lanty with the Left Hand," "Miss Harris's Love Affair," and Catharine" are excellent. The last of these by G. C. Christian is the best thing in the number; it is a simple little love story, and every one can sympathize with the hero. It is very well written and makes us wish that the Advocate would publish more of the author's work.

"Miss Harris's Love Affair" by P. L. Atherton, though not much of a story, is entertaining, and is well told. "Lanty with the Left Hand" by Townsend Walsh is very clever. As a whole this number Is far the best that has been published this year.

COSMOPOLITAN.The Cosmopolitan for March is a very good magazine. It contains enough solid and instructive reading for a month, with just enough fiction and poetry scattered through it to make a pleasant variety. For the most part the illustrations are excellent, the only ones to criticise are those in "Conquered," which are stiff and rather unnatural. The list of contributors alone is enough to insure an unusually good number, for among them are E. E. Hale, Frank Dempster Sherman, Brander Matthews, and W. D. Howells. The leading article of the number is "Berlin" by Friedrich Spielhagen. The most prominent feature of the article is the long list of pictures of all the principal buildings and places in Berlin. The most entertaining article in this issue is "The Abysmal Depths of the Sea" by J. Carter Beard. It gives a short sketch of the conditions of the water and the floor of the ocean, together with a description of some of the plant and animal life found at great depths. It makes fascinating reading. Rev. Edward Everett Hale has an article on "The Story of a Boys' Club," describing how a crowd of two hundred young loafers were enticed to join the Club, then how they were interested and finally set to work at useful occupations. A very good article is "Cervantes, Zola, Kipling and Co." by Brander Matthews. It is a comparison and a criticism of these three great novelists, each of whom has written masterpieces which are as widely separated as it is possible for novels to be. Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote, is the father of story tellers "when we see Fielding's Parson Adams, or Scott's Antiquary, we see children of Don Quixote." The most charming thing in Cervantes' writings is that he loves all his characters, - "Cervantes is not severe with the children of his brain; he loves them all - there is no one whom he despises or insults." Zola and Kipling are more briefly and less favorably treated. It is impossible to give a criticism here of each article, we can only say that the number is good throughout and that everything in it is worth careful reading.