Monthly Reviewed by Dr. Fuller

The December Monthly is to be commended perhaps more for its variety than its quality. Even geographically reckoned, the range of subject-matter is passing great; from China to the shores of Lake Michigan; from Canada to the other world of Orpheus. This is as it should be; the undergraduate mind has ever felt free to embrace the world entire, both fact and fancy. One expects to find, however, in that embrace more real grip than is evident in the present instance. With but few exceptions, the pieces have the fussiness of old age, without the latter's choice reflectiveness; they lack the urgent passion of youth.

In the leading article Dr. Sargent argues well for medical supervision of athletics, and makes the suggestion that the "H" should perhaps be given to those men only who have all-round athletic ability. It would indeed be comforting to feel that your hammer-throwing specialist could at a pinch fill in creditably at baseball or hockey, or even turn a handspring upon a wager. Another serious article, by W. Lippmann, pleads for more robustness of interest, on the part of students, in American politics. By all means,--and in other matters too. "The Chinese Classics and Modern Research," by A. D. Sheffield, is closely reasoned, as it goes, but fails to make Chinese literature itself seem vital.

As for the verse, there are two poems of merit. E.E. Hunt, in his modern rendering of "Sir Orfeo," shows genuine literary conscience in sticking to the spirit of the original and in avoiding plenty of chances to decorate the phrasing. "A Shell Found Inland" proved a truly poetic find for J. G. Gilkey, who would have done better, nevertheless, to tell of it in two stanzas rather than in three. The rest of the verse and all of the fiction, save for passages here and there, have already been noticed at the beginning of this review.