The October Monthly.

The editors of the Monthly state in the number just published that their object in the coming year will be to show that literature to be good must be natural. As the editorial has it: "The gloomy sonnet is the healthy vent for a moody moment," and "the writing of it is a pathological cure."

The leading article of the number, a discussion of Professor James's teaching, is decidedly interesting, emphasizing the helpful arguments of "The Will to Believe" and explaining a formula of the writer's own on ethical learning. "Before a Statue of Achilles" is an entertaining poem by Mr. Santayana. The fiction of the number is composed of three short stories and an autobiographical sketch of French school life. "With the Morning," a story by H. M. Rideout is capitally written. The writer succeeds in making a readable tale out of an unpromising subject. On the whole the Monthly starts the year with a very creditable number.