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IN recent years the public libraries in the United States have been trying to place more and more of their resources directly in the hands of their clientele by so arranging the book‐stacks that visitors can go immediately to the books without consulting a catalogue or an attendant. The same idea is utilized in those restaurants and stores where patrons serve themselves, a merchandizing scheme which at present is enjoying considerable popularity in America. Some of the smaller colleges have been able to follow a plan similar to that in use in the public libraries, but it has not been successful in the large universities where resources are comparatively large and space for storing books is limited. To permit students to browse at will, would create confusion and prevent the library employees performing their work efficiently.

DOSTOIEVSKY'S father was a spendthrift and gave his sons a bad start in life. Fyodor became an epileptic, and suffered much through ill‐health. All his books reflect his hard lot; and they are also permeated by the spirit of fear which held in thrall the minds of the Russian intellectuals. This unhappy condition caused not only the writings of Dostoievsky, but also most of the Russian literature of the time, to be what it is: humorless, cruel, violent, and strained: saved only from utter hopelessness by the eternal element of pity.