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UNIVERSITY COURIER.
BY MAIL.
The exchange editor has no easy task. He holds the responsible position of critic; hence a student of fair ability, keen perception, and endowed with good judgment, is required for this important part of a college journal. It is our purpose to treat all our exchanges fairly and squarely, and to perform our duties in as exemplary a manner as possible. Since school opened we have received several papers, among which we notice the Southern Collegian. Its outward appearance is very neat and invites us to a careful perusal. The first article is an essay upon Shakespeare's victim of the green-eyed monster, Desdemona. The author seems to have fallen in love with his subject. He is a little too elaborate and profuse in his descriptions of the different characters. He seems to pay too much attention to other characters rather than the heroine. The essay is excellent however, and shows an appreciation of Shakespearean characters quite uncommon. The author of "The Constituents of True Greatness" should have spent his time on a subject less antiquated. Quite a large amount of space is devoted to local matter; and very appropriately too, as this tends to satisfy the appetites of students generally.
The Asbury Monthly is just the same paper it was last year. Its columns are filled with one or two moderately well written productions, and all together a fair exponent of student thought in Hoosierdom.
No. I, Vol. 3, of Student Life is exceedingly well arranged. The articles are brief, and upon subjects that interest the students.
THE Niagara Index next meets our view. It is completely filled with articles of various kinds, most of them instructive and interesting. The exchange editor is not unlike his predecessors, a cross between a hyena and a wolf. Always on the alert for something to tear to pieces, always ready to raise a row. He is too bilious. We would recommend to our sallow complexioned brother the use of Holman's Liver Pad. It will do him an inestimable amount of good and probably relieve him of the chronic desire to be so bitter and sarcastic in his criticisms.
The verbosity of the contributors to the Index is something remarkable. The article on novel reading is a fair example. If there were even a few grains of sense woven in this production, the the writer's morbid attempt to be eloquent might be forgiven. Hear him squeal: "The evils of
this appetite must be apparent, for where it is indulged, the relish for sober pleasures and rational pursuits is lost, the understanding dwarfed and the judgment enslaved to an inflated imagination. Here ennui, the inseparable companion of excess, sheds its destructive mildew on the soul by suddenly transporting it from the contemplation of refined and elegant distress to the repulsive scenes of coarse and squalid misery to which real practical benevolence must call it."
THE Montpelierian comes to us for the first time, and we are happy to extend a cordial greeting. The Literary department is well conducted, and the article entitled "The Poetry of Wordsworth," is excellent. It is out-spoken in the extreme and we congratulate the managers and editors on their success. Come again.
THE University Magazine, in the opinion of the Colby Echo exchange editor, is one of the six excellent college papers published in the United States. We are pleased with its tidy appearance, and as a model of typography it deserves great praise. If the paper were a little more literary it would suit our idea of a college journal.
THE Wittenberger comes full of literary productions and excellent editorials. We are glad to notice that F. D. Altman, an old student of Kansas University is one of the editors. The editor hits the nail on the head when he says, "It is better to look back upon a year's hard study than one of wasted time. Much better to battle in the present than reproach ourselves in the past."
THE Centre College Courant seems to take exception to the last number of the Courier and devotes quite a good deal of space in its criticism. We feel highly honored, scarcely expecting notice from a journal of so great pretensions as the Courant. We think, however, that one solid article would do the Courant a great deal of good.
LITERARY NOTES.
PROMINENT among the new books received for the library is one on Gœthe and Schiller, by Professor H. H. Boyesen, of Cornell University. It is an outgrowth of his lectures in the University, and assumes the form of a joint biography and a comment on Faust. A thorough perusal of the book shows that the writer has had a wide range of reading and a very thorough study of the character and writings of these illustrious cosmopolitan Germans. The book is dedicated to the memory of Bayard Taylor, and as he was not allowed to undertake the task, we know of no