The writings of Rafael Angel de la Peña are didactic, thoughtful, and chiefly in the fields of language and philosophy. “His diction is chaste and correct; his style careful, pure, and polished; his form elegant, terse, and limpid.” Some of his addresses have attracted notable attention and are in print. Many of his most important studies were submitted to the Mexican Academy and are contained in its _Memorias_ (memoirs). Rafael Ángel de la Peña was elected to membership in the Academy in 1875 and, since 1883, has been its Permanent Secretary. He is a correspondent of the Royal Spanish Academy and contributed upward of four hundred articles to the twelfth edition of its famous Dictionary. He is a member of the _Sociedad Humboldt_, the _Liceo Hidalgo_, the _Sociedad de Historia Natural_, and other Mexican societies, and an honorary member of the _Sociedad Mexicana de Geografía y Estadistica_. Outside of his important contributions to the Academy and to the Dictionary, his most valuable work is _Gramática teórica y práctica de la Lengua castellana_ (Theoretical and Practical Grammar of the Spanish Language), published in 1898, which has called forth high praise from the most competent judges in Spain and in South America. THE MEXICAN ACADEMY. The Mexican Academy has thought well to begin the third volume of its memoirs with a brief summary of its literary labors and of the most notable events which have befallen it since the year 1880. Perhaps someone may think such a sketch needless, since--the Academy living almost completely isolated, without holding public meetings or participating in those promoted by other literary or scientific societies, printing its productions very slowly, and avoiding publicity so far as it may,--it may be assumed that no one remembers it, or, if knowing that it exists, has an interest in how it discharges the aims for which it was established. But, if such considerations inclined it to preserve silence regarding its internal life, it has nevertheless felt that it should make a report to the Royal Spanish Academy, as to how it has endeavored to respond to the high honor which that body extended to it, in inviting it to participate in the formation of the last Dictionary. It believed, as well, that it was under obligation to supply notice of its doings to its few devoted friends, who, far from relegating it to oblivion, do not lose sight of it, but stimulate and nourish it by the favor with which they receive its publications.