The December Monthly.

The history of the College papers for the last thirty years or so shows a curious tendency for the periods of most vigorous blossoming to come about ten years apart: there was the time of '76-'77 in which the Lampoon was shot forth on its joyous way, the time of '86-'87 in which the Monthly was launched with high hopes and ambitions, and the time of '95-'96 in which again there seemed to be an overplus of writers so brilliant that editors in chief could hardly set their standards too high. Between these periods the spirit of literature has sometimes seemed to nap, and the offerings to the editors have not seemed bursting with the promise of a new epoch of letters in America.

To speak frankly, the December number of the Monthly, in spite of plenty of good sense and sound judgment, does not seem a presage of a new period of inspiration. Its interest in things literary is strong, its effort to achieve literature is earnest and not unsuccessful: but it cannot be said to be stirring.

The graduate article, "A Man and His Watch," by Arthur Stanwood Pier '95, is half essay, half story, pleasantly written and entertaining. The review of Mr. E. A. Robinson's "Captain Craig" though somewhat cryptic in utterance and perhaps not free from what Professor James has lately called "oddity of emphasis," is nevertheless a hearty and deserved praise of a book of very unusual value and importance. Of the undergraduate articles, the essay on "Clever Modern Fiction" shows good sense of proportion and some felicities of phrasing; that on "Johnson and Addison" is clear and sound. The story "Don Decarnez" has atmosphere, though the ending is abrupt. Of the two poems the little "Requiem" is compact, well phrased and fresh in thought.