The Monthly.

The number of the Monthly issued today certainly attains its object, "the publication of the best literary work of the students of the University." There are only four articles but these are thorough and excellent treatments of subjects full of interest to a thoughtful reader. The leading article is "Renan," by II. Gardiner. It is a long and systematic treatment of the life and works of this, perhaps the greatest of modern Frenchmen. The article gives a short biographical sketch of Renan tracing step by step the development of his ideas and opinions, giving even the hasty reader a clear notion of who Renan was, what position he held in the hearts of his people, and making plain what a great and wonderful thinker he was. Renan was a rationalist, not a Christian, and though few of us can agree with him in his radical ideas, we must all acknowledge that his conception of the relations of all matters, spiritual and physical, and his views of life and duty are the product of one of the deepest minds of the age. The article is well written, abounding in quotations, and will fully repay a careful reading. "Gottfried Seumer - a Poet among the Hessians," by Dr. Conrad Bierwirth is a very interesting article. Its attraction consists not so much in the information about the poet as in his interesting historical connections and his strong personality. Seumer was the son of a poor man, but he succeeded in obtaining a good education. He was taken to America with the Hessian mercenaries in 1780, then a year or two later returned to Russia, where he became implicated in the troubles between Russia and Poland. Fate never favored him - "the irony of fate twice enlisted the most ardent lover of freedom against freedom's own cause, in America and Poland." "The Poetry of the Commonplace," by II. G. Pearson is a study in the Wagnerian Drama. It is well conceived and well written. The only story of the number, "the Rewards of the Republic," is a strong and entertaining story. The best thing in the number is the editorial on Dr. Peabody. It is seldom our pleasure to read in a college paper an article at once so charmingly written and so expressive or the deepest sentiment of the University. The poetry of the number, "Wanderer" and "The Gull," is good, though the former is somewhat obscure in its meaning.