In spite of its brilliant program, the size of the _Academy_, even at its price of sixpence, was too slight to rank as a monthly. After four years' experience, first as a monthly, then as a fortnightly, it became and has remained a weekly. The editorial succession since the death of Dr. Appleton has been C.E. Doble (1879-81); Mr. James Sutherland Cotton (1881-96); Mr. C. Lewis Hind (1896-1903); and Mr. W. Teignmouth Shore. The issue of November 7, 1896, announced Mr. Cotton's retirement and the inauguration of a new policy, which, in addition to technical improvements, promised the issue of occasional supplements of a purely academic and educational character, and the beginning of the series of _Academy Portraits_ of men of letters. At the same time the publication of signed articles was abolished and the _Academy_ remained anonymous until the recent editorial change. A new departure in October, 1898, made the _Academy_ an illustrated paper--the most attractive though not the most authoritative of the weeklies. It has departed widely from the set traditions of Dr. Appleton, but most readers will agree that the departure has been justified by the needs of the hour. There is small satisfaction in reading a one-page review from the pen of an Arnold or a Pater; we feel that such authorities should express themselves at length in the pages of the literary monthlies; that the reader of the weekly should be content with the anonymous (and less expensive) review written by the staff-critic. Whatever the personal bias, it is at least certain that under present conditions the _Academy_ appeals more generally to the popular taste. Its recent absorption of a younger periodical is indicated in the compounding of its title into the _Academy and Literature_--a change that does not commend itself on abstract grounds of literary fitness and tradition.