We are at last to have an Academy of Literature, but it is not to include fiction. It is to be called the sh Academy Brit for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies," and most of the leading historians, philosophers and philologians of the day have petitioned the King for a Royal Charter of incorporation. There is no doubt that they will get it, for the urgent need of such a body has been forced upon our notice by the fact that the International Association of Academies is to hold its conference in London in 1901, and that there is no body in this country which represents history and philosophy in the way that the British Association represents science. The only question in dispute is as to the wisdom of the promoters of the new Academy in not including poetry and fiction, and so making the new body a representative Academy of Literature. They have doubtless avoided great heartburnings and many difficulties, by restricting their scope as they have done; but there are many who regret that they have not faced these difficulties with a determination to overcome them.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.