EXCHANGE NOTES.

It is a very warm and tired and breathless editor that sinks into her chair before the month's pile of exchanges. Should you like to know the reason? She has spent over an hour in a frantic search for the Yale and Amherst Lits, which two disobliging magazines have taken unto themselves wings, and have left their usual haunts on the reading room table, without leaving us their address. Why they should go off in this unaccountable manner, we can't imagine. Certainly not through bashfulness. Their former reputation is enough to have cured them of such youthful follies. Perhaps it is out of pure goodness to the rest, fearing that if they stayed, they would engross all our attention. Well, we will imagine they contain an unusual store of "literary treasures," just to repay them for their generosity. Really, the table does look strange without them.

But here is the Harvard Monthly, its clear print and wide margin a pleasure to the eye, even before we glance at its contents. We like the plan that the Monthly and several of our other exchanges follow, of publishing articles by the faculty or prominent alumni. To us, it does not lessen the value of the paper as an under-graduate organ, and it both serves to show the interest taken in the college, and presents thoughtful, well-written articles as models for the student.

As a story "A Common Marriage" is not pleasing, and we dislike to believe that the title is a true one, but it is simply told and well developed. College fiction generally leaves too much to be read between the lines, there are too many dots and asterisks, and one is tempted to ask whether it is because these are more significant, or because the writer has not skill and originality enough to bring the plot to a well rounded conclusion. The clumsy use of the machinery often spoils what would otherwise be excellent. Speaking of Harvard, the

Advocate certainly pleads eloquently for itself. Many a monthly does not contain so much good matter.

The Williams Weekly has a new cover, in much better taste than the old one. Although it deals chiefly with local interests, the paper is well edited, and a credit to its college. Its big brother, the "Lit.", contains a varied assortment of short essays and stories, on the whole above the average. Perhaps it is only because we weary of reading so many different magazines, but a number of short articles seem to us much less heavy and monotonous than one or two long ones, filling a whole issue, as is so often the case.

The college press of late, following the example of the outside world, has broken out into a regular epidemic of articles on Kipling (we believe we had one ourselves last month) until we long for a respite from discussions of Mulvaney and Mrs. Hauksbee; but the Butler Collegian has an article, headed "Concerning Rudyard Kipling", which we really enjoyed and which seems to us the best estimate of Mr. Kipling that we have seen in any college paper.

The Brown Magazine-but how easy it is to ramble on, in this desultory way, picking up each paper as it comes to the top of the pile!

We know it is not the proper method of work, but we haven't quite formulated our own theories yet, and we want to get better acquainted with our Exchanges before we hold ourselves to rule. Then it is so hard to be business-like in this beautiful sunshiny weather, when the world is so much pleasanter on the other side of the Sanctum window, and the vacation is so near, and-but excuses are always stupid. Come, let's go out and have a game of tennis.

BOOK NOTICES.

Received from H. S. Acker, "The Question of Copyright. A summary of the copyright laws at present in force in the chief countries of the world." This book is in the "Questions of the Day" series, published by G. P. Putnam's Sons, and is interesting in face of the recent copyright bill.

Chansons Populaires de la France," also from H. S. Acker, is the latest volume of the Knickerbocker Nugget series, and is a handy collection of French Ballads.

ALUMNÆ DEPARTMENT.

On Saturday morning, February 21, a business meeting of the Associate Alumnæ was held in Washington, D. C. This was followed by a social and literary meeting at which the following papers were read: "Occupations of Vassar Alumnæ by Miss F. M. Abbott, '81; "The Scientific Training Demanded by the Farmer," by Mrs. V. R. C. Barlow (Miss Crowe), '70; "Kingwood Farm" by Mrs. Frances Fisher: Wood, '74; and "The New England Kitchen" by Mrs. Mary ParkerWoodworth, '70.

An afternoon tea at the White House followed the meeting and in the evening the Washington Alumnæ gave a reception. Friday evening a reception was given to the Alumnæ by the Anthropological Society; and on Monday they attended an afternoon tea at Mrs. Philip Chapin's. At this meeting Dr. Taylor made an address, and a Washington branch of the Vassar Students' Aid Society was formed. On Tuesday the Alumnæ listened to a talk on Tapestries, and were also entertained by Mrs. Wannamaker. The accounts of the festivities of these few days may well arouse the envy of the absent majority.

An association of teachers in private schools for girls has just been formed in New York, with Miss Weed, '73, as President. The society aims, among other things, to promote a friendly feeling among such schools, to discuss text-books and methods, and to urge the adoption of a uniform standard of requirements for admission to several women's colleges.

PRESS OF A. V. HAIGHT, POUGHKEEPSIE, N. Y.

In his introduction to Mr. Ward's “English Poets" Matthew Arnold defines poetry as "a criticism of life, under the conditions fixed for such a criticism by the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty." Elsewhere, Mr. Arnold tells us that "conduct is three-fourths of life." Now by putting these two statements side by side we conclude that, whatever else may be found in the poetry of their author, that poetry will clearly reveal his views of human life and conduct, and that it will answer the question "To what shall man attain, and how?"

And indeed, the more we study his poems themselves, the more we are convinced that in them Mr. Arnold has given us the truest expression of his ethics. In his prose works he appears as the teacher whose function it is to enlighten the dark places of prejudice, to heap scorn upon Philistinism, and to patronize with a touch of condescension all struggling toward sweetness and light. But in his poetry his attitude is no longer that of a teacher, but of a puzzled learner. Here he betrays weaknesses with which we come into instant sympathy, and we are the more ready to hear his words.

Matthew Arnold's ethical system is of interest to us, because his mind is a type of that questioning spirit which,