interest as occupy the public mind during the time in which
they appear. More and more the best thought of the times gets reflected
in the pages of this portion of the periodical press. No investigator in
any department can afford to overlook the rich stores contributed to
thought in reviews and magazines. These articles are commonly more
condensed and full of matter than the average books of the period. While
every library, therefore, should possess for the current use and ultimate
reference of its readers a selection of the best, as large as its means
will permit, a great and comprehensive library, in order to be
representative of the national literature, should possess them all.

* * * * *

The salient fact that the periodical press absorbs, year by year, more of
the talent which might otherwise be expended upon literature of more
permanent form is abundantly obvious. This tendency has both its good and
its evil results. On the one hand, the best writing ability is often
drawn out by magazines and journals, which are keen competitors for
attractive matter, and for known reputations, and sometimes they secure
both in combination. On the other hand, it is a notable fact that writers
capable of excellent work often do great injustice to their reputations
by producing too hastily articles written to order, instead of the
well-considered, ripe fruits of their literary skill. Whether the brief
article answering the limits of a magazine or a review is apt to be more
or less superficial than a book treating the same topic, is a question
admitting of different views. If the writer is capable of skilful
condensation, without loss of grace of composition, or of graphic power,
then the article, measured by its influence upon the public mind, must be
preferred to the more diffuse treatise of the book. It has the immense
advantage of demanding far less of the reader's time; and whenever its
conclusions are stated in a masterly way, its impression should be quite
as lasting as that of any book treating a similar theme. Such is
doubtless the effect of the abler articles written for periodicals, which
are more condensed and full of matter in speedily available form, than
the average book of the period. In this sense it is a misuse of terms to
call the review article ephemeral, or to treat the periodicals containing
them as perishable literary commodities, which serve their term with the
month or year t