The "Monthly."

The February Monthly is out and abounds in excellent reading matter. The prose articles of this number are exceptionally fine, while the poetry is not quite up to its usual mark. The eminent historian, Mr. James Schouler, contributes the first article on "Andrew Jackson, Doctor of Laws," and in it he gives a very entertaining sketch of the farce of conferring the degree of L. L. D. on so uncouth a Westerner as President Jackson was. Mr. Schouler's description of Andrew Jackson's characteristics and his estimate of his culture are particularly interesting. Harvard's attitude in conferring the degree on the people's president is freely ridiculed and a vivid picture is given of the scene in University Hall, where the grand farce was enacted. The article is in Mr. Schouler's best style and is a valuable contribution to local Harvard history.

Mr. Fletcher, whose remarkable "Moon Fragment" will be recalled by readers of the Monthly, gives increased evidence of his imaginative faculty and of his literary power in "The Fire-Maiden." The story of how a young student becomes interested in Socialism, then implicated in its worst form, and draws down in his ruin a noble but deluded woman, is in itself extraordinarily well done. But when we add to this the extraordinary turn which the narration takes in the course of the doctor's tale, in which we learn how the two victims of the infernal plot become also the victims of the theories of science and surgery, the imaginative faculty that evolved this story assumes very extraordinary proportions. This article is noticeable in more ways than this. The perfect balance between its various parts, the delicacy with which the most exciting moments are rather touched than dwelt upon, and above all the excellence of the style and general treatment deserve high praise. The writer has his imagination, great as it is, under such control that it pictures only the dramatic, thus avoiding that retailing of what is simply extraordinary that is so common a fault with people who indulge their imagination very freely.

"Tom Ingoldsby and His Legends" is an appreciative study of the writer of that remarkable book of tales. The writer points out with effect the main characteristics of Barham's poetry and of the general attitude of mind portrayed in it. These "legends" abound with some of the purest fun in the English language and it is extraordinary that they are comparatively so little known.

"Harebells" suffers from two very noticeable faults-lack of mastery of a very difficult form of verse, and the clothing of an otherwise pretty simile in too many words. While there is a good line here and there, it is lost in the effect of the whole, which impresses one rather as an attempt at versifying than as a piece of poetry. "The Templar's Song" is very musical and is full of martial notes. It sets us right in the midst of the Crusades. This poem breathes more healthy life and has much more blood in its veins, if I may so express myself, than much else that we have seen from the pen of the same writer.

"Iterum Iterumque" is a metrical version of the pure optimist's views.