These missives, which deal not only with spiritual themes, but also with numerous current mundane topics, and include references to "spirit-doggies and the "Angels of Mons," are alleged to have been received from an unnamed "Communicating Spirit," through the method of automatic writing, by two anonymous persons-A.B., the questioner, and C.D., the lady amanuensis. The foreword is from the pen of the Rev. W. F. Cobb, who states that he is prepared to vouch that the reader " may trust the accuracy and honesty of the amanuensis, even though he may doubt her explanation." 200 RELIGION. Con189.5 Böhme (Jacob). SIX THEOSOPHIC POINTS; and other writings. Translated by John Rolleston Earle. stable, 1919. 9 in. 216 pp., 10/6 n. Pfleiderer in his history of religion gives a very just account of the merits and defects of Jacob Böhme as a religious philosopher. That he was a man endowed with extraordinary powers of thought anyone who has taken the trouble to read his work, and has seen the flashes of intellectual writing that burst, every now and then, from its troubled darkness, will agree. He failed to be a great philosopher because he was unable to express his thoughts. He was perpetually getting entangled in words; he would make use of metaphors and analogies to be led away and deceived by these children of his own essentially poetical brain. In the Six Points translated in the present volume Böhme explains the relation of the three principles that underlie the universe. There is much that is suggestive, in what he says of the wedding of the principles of love and will, light and fire; but here, as usual, he gets mixed in his own metaphors, and takes light and fire as though they were real and not poetical images. In this way the man who might, if he had been able to express himself, have written a great systematic work on ethics and religion wanders off aimlessly into the realms of fancy. *Church of England. TOWARDS REUNION: being contributions to mutual understanding by Church of England and Free Church writers. Macmillan, 1919. 71⁄2 in. 416 pp. app., 7/6 n. 283 See review, p. 686. *Croft (Herbert). THE NAKED TRUTH. Published anonymously by Herbert Croft, Lord Bishop of Hereford in 1675. Reprinted with an Introduction by Herbert Hensley Henson, Lord Bishop of Hereford. Chatto Windus, 1919. 8 in. 156 pp. por. bibliog., 5/ n. 283 The author of this plea for toleration in the government of the Church of England was son of Sir Herbert Croft, who had become a convert to the Roman Catholic Church. When twenty-three years old, the son followed the father, and was admitted into the Roman Communion. Morton, Bishop of Durham, a great recoverer of lapsed Anglicans, not long afterwards re-converted him, and by Laud's advice Herbert Croft matriculated at Oxford as a member of Christ Church. In 1636 he was allowed to precede B.D. Croft became Dean of Hereford, and at the Restoration was nominated to the Bishopric of Hereford, which had been refused by Baxter. Bishop Croft excelled as a preacher, and was Ivery friendly and loving to his clergy." Affectionate by disposition, he was nevertheless" dictatorial and prejudiced," and his concessions to Nonconformity "implied no weakening of his Royalist convictions." He violently disliked Popery, fear of which, as well as " a clear sense of the spiritual destitution of his diocese,' carried Bishop Croft into the camp of the moderates." He advocated a policy of reasonable comprehension, which, in the opinion of the writer of the introduction, might have satisfied the majority of the Nonconformists, and made the Church of England genuinely national." "The decline of sectarianism,' says Bishop Henson, has brought the . . . policy of comprehension again within the sphere of serious consideration." But denominational vested interests, the Bishop remarks, are far more formidable obstacles to religious unity in England than discordant convictions." " Leo of Assisi (Brother). THE MIRROR OF PERFECTION : to wit, the Blessed Francis of Assisi. With a Preface by Father Cuthbert, O.S.F.C. Burns & Oates [1919]. 6 in. 244 pp. ind. 2/6 n. 271.3 Dating in all probability from the end of the thirteenth century or the beginning of the fourteenth century, this work was compiled from earlier documents with the object of setting forth what the writer and others of like mind believed to be the true life of a Friar Minor, according to the intentions of Francis of Assisi. The compiler almost certainly had in his hands a copy of the writings of Brother Leo and of other companions of St. Francis. McClure (Mrs. M. L.) and Feltoe (Charles Lett). THE PIL- 71⁄2 in. 151 pp. il. ind., 6/ n. See notice, p. 686. 281.1 an Müller (Max). THOUGHTS ON LIFE AND RELIGION : aftermath from the writings of the Right Hon. Professor Max Müller. Ed. by his wife. Constable [1919]. 7 in. 244 pp., 3/ n. 204 A new edition of the aphorisms collected by Mrs. Max Müller from the works, published and unpublished, and letters of her husband. Max Müller's strong faith in the ultimate goodness and moral orderliness of the universe is illustrated in almost every one of these extracts. was 300 SOCIOLOGY. Booth (Meyrick). SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTION IN GERMANY. *Burns (C. Delisle). POLITICAL IDEALS: ... of a mob of traditional diplomacy." At present he discerns only a tendency towards democracy. In no country in the world has democracy ever yet existed." He traces the history of the theory of a League of Nations, and says of the present attempt: There is good reason to suppose that we shall succeed where our forefathers have failed . . and the ideal of a League will certainly survive the defects of its first embodiment." " loss of personal responsibility, is one of the causes of the present anarchic condition of society. 370.1 Hughes (E. P.). THE EDUCATION OF A NATION. Black, 1919. 7 in. 64 pp. paper, 8d. The lady who writes this booklet is a member of the Glamorgan Education Committee, and has studied education of all grades, both in the British Isles and abroad, for more than half a century. She surveys the whole field, and has much that is hopeful and stimulating to say on the ideals and the methods to be followed in training for full and responsible citizenship. " Barry W.H.. Blackett 19 Aircraft eng ng-machines me of Mr. F ear, untech soon be ause it for abes how t EN PROSE 398.2 Lot (Ferdinand). ETUDE SUR LE LANCELOT ("Bibliothèque de l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes : Sciences Historiques et Philologiques," fasc. 226). Paris, Champion, 1918. 10 in. 456 pp. il. apps. paper, 27 fr. This important treatise, relating to a work which exercised a profound influence upon English literature and was the forerunner of the romances of chivalry, deals with the question of the authorship of "Lancelot of the Lake"; the date of its composition, and the purpose of the author; the sources and construction of the work, and its merits and defects. The volume includes an analysis of the corpus Lancelot-Graal," comprising L'Estoire del saint graal,' Le Livre de Lancelot del Lac," Les Aventures ou la Queste del saint graal," and "La Mort le roi Artus." M. Lot's researches have led him to the theory that, apart from Merlin," the corpus Lancelot-Graal is the work of one author. Under an apparent diversity, it presents a unity of conception and a definiteness of plan. It is not the most perfect of the romantic and mystical works of the French moyen àge, but it is the most powerful. A review will appear. *Todd (John Allon). THE MECHANISM OF EXCHANGE: a handbook of currency, banking, and trade, in peace and in war. Milford, 1919. 8 in. 287 pp. diags. apps ind., 7/6 n. Cuningham (Granville C.). WAKE UP, ENGLAND! King, 1919. 7 in. 126 pp. app. 354.4 The author of A Scheme for Imperial Federation" (1895) pleads with renewed ardour for the preservation of the Empire by the establishment of a Supreme Chamber-" the ancient Parliament at Westminster" freed from the trammels of local affairs by the formation of provincial legislaturesand by developing the resources of the Empire so as to make it self-dependent in regard to food and raw materials. The book is short, but sets forth the details with much elaboration, though it evades many formidable difficulties and objections. Dauzat (Albert). LÉGENDES, PROPHÉTIES ET SUPERSTITIONS DE LA GUERRE. Paris, La Renaissance du Livre, 78, Bd. Saint-Michel [1919]. 7 in. 283 pp. paper, 5 fr. 398.2 It is well known that seasons of public trouble, and especially periods of war, strongly react on people of emotional temperament and feeble mental powers. An inevitable result is that false statements, baseless legends, and informal rumours spread to an extraordinary extent; collective and individual hallucinations are not infrequent; and irrational beliefs in apparitions, omens, prophetic visions, amulets, talismans, and mascots are met with on every side. The author has kept a record of such manifestations of war-time superstitions. M. Dauzat regards newspapers as among the most active disseminators of legends; and he refers to the intentional nurture of popular misconceptions by agents of governing authorities, as well as by religious, political, and social groups. Tatlers, braggarts, and agitated or hysterical persons are among those who spread untrustworthy news; and many soldiers and fugitives are prone to deceive or to be deceived. One of the apocryphal legends quoted by the author is the story of the ""usine aux cadavres humains "-which arose out of a mistranslation of the German word "Kadaver." Another legend widely believed was that Lord Kitchener had survived from the wreck of the Hampshire." Some psychological experts regard as a collective hallucination the alleged appearance of angels to British soldiers in the course of the retreat from Mons. Persistent credence, it will be recalled, was lent. in this country to the statement that Russian troops had been secretly transported across England during the early days of the war; and variants of the legend seem to have flourished in France. M. Dauzat's book is crowded with instances of war-time superstitions, some of them half-playful-such as Rintintin,' "Nénette," and Roudoudou," little Parisian fetishes which were supposed to protect the wearers from Gothas, and soon became quite the mode." The author considers that the wooden statues of Hindenburg and Von Tirpitz (the latter only a symbolical board into which people hammered nails) descended in a direct line from the primitive cult of the fetish tree. Haynes (E. S. P.). THE CASE FOR LIBERTY. Grant Richards, 1919. 9 in. 128 pp. ind., 6/ n. In writing this book Prof. Todd tried to carry out a cherished idea of showing how economics ought to be taught to the elementary student and the plain man. The first edition appeared in 1917; the present contains new matter, chiefly in the chapter on "Further Effects of the War" and in the revision of the statistical appendix. The war chapter deals with the rise of prices, the question of a return to gold, international currency and the League of Nations, and the possible effect of such an international paper currency on the quantity theory, of prices. 331.2 Webb (Beatrice). THE WAGES OF ΜΕΝ AND WOMEN: Step INSECT ARTIZANS (Edward). WORK. ("Hutchinson's Nature Library "). Hutchinson [1919] 8 in., 328 pp. il. ind., 7/6 n. The author discourses pleasantly upon wax-workers" (bees), tailors (such as the caddis fly, and the housewife's bête noire, the clothes moth), masons (the termites, or white ants), "paper-makers" (wasps), lamp-bearers" (like the glow-worm, Lampyris noctiluca, and the Italian firefly, Luciola italica-which, by the way, are beetles), sanitary officers (various species of flies), and the like. Burglars" are included in the list of artisans! Mr. Step endeavours to remove some of our prejudices. The wasp, it seems, is one of the most useful and harmless of insects.' Its one great defect," says Mr. Step, is that it "does not store up honey or wax that could be raided by man and turned to a profit expressed in f.s.d. The unceasing good the wasp does to man all the summer by destroying millions of his insect foes does not count." Even the house fly, "the disseminator of germs," is not an entirely abandoned creature. For the individual the harm he does may be greater than the good; for the race the latter may predominate. We do not observe a reference to that curious insect, the praying mantis. As a ruthless freelance, he is certainly difficult to class. The illustrations in the book are attractive as well as numerous. Berry (W.H.). THE NEW TRAFFIC (AIRCRAFT). Hurst & Blackett [1919] 8 in. 192 pp., 3/6 n. 629.13 Aircraft engines have much in common. They class with sewing-machines and typewriters." Such is the heading of one of Mr. Berry's short chapters, which are written in a clear, untechnical way to show the average man what he will soon be able to do if he wishes to keep an aeroplane; and use it for business trips and week-ending. Mr. Berry describes how to learn flying, the different points of engines, costs of purchase and maintenance, the rules of the air, and everything that the airman will need to know about flying in peace-time. He also has chapters on airships, a postal service and transport system by air, and public aerodromes. It is a thoroughly practical manual. *Bower (F. O.), Kerr (J. Graham), and Agar (W. E.). LECTURES ON SEX AND HEREDITY: delivered in Glasgow, 1917-18. Macmillan, 1919. 7 in. 125 pp. il. ind., 5/ n. 612.6 & 575.1 That the essential feature of sexuality, in animals and plants, consists in the fusion (syngamy) of two sexual cells (gametes) to form a new cell (zygote), is generally recognized; and that heredity is a fact (although the sexually produced offspring practically always differs to some extent from each of its parents) is equally well known. Information relating to these and cognate subjects will be found in the admirable lectures of Professors Bower and Kerr and Mr. Agar, which are expressed in clear and, so far as may be, non-technical language. The increase of numbers by fission, or budding, and the effect of a fixed position on plant sexuality, are predominant themes in the first two lectures. The reproductive processes in animals, and the evolutionary modifications which have adapted these processes to a terrestrial as distinguished from an aquatic existence, are dealt with in the third and fourth lectures. The theories of Darwin, Galton, and Weismann, and Gregor Mendel's law, form the subject-matter of the fifth lecture. The concluding discourse has for its topic the inheritance of characteristics by man. " 735 This well-produced brochure is a serviceable, descriptive guide to the thirty-two statues of famous British painters, architects, sculptors, and craftsmen-the last-named including printers and workers in metal and wood-to be seen on the walls of the Victoria and Albert Museum. The author accurately designates the series of statues as unique among the memorials of London." He remarks that only two of the public monuments which have been set up about the streets of London commemorate artists-the statue of Millais outside the Tate Gallery, and the medallion of Rossetti at Chelsea. To these might be added the memorial to Onslow Ford at St. John's Wood; and we believe that a memorial of Whistler, by Rodin, is to be placed in the gardens of the Chelsea Embankment. The statues of artists and craftsmen on the walls of the Victoria and Albert Museum range from St. Dunstan ("craftsman "), of the tenth century, to Watts, Morris, and Sir C. Barry of our Cosway, A. Stevens, Caxton, Tompion, George Heriot, Grinling Gibbons, Josiah Wedgwood, and Chippendale, are included. Of considerable interest are the short biographical among those accounts which acompany the reproductions of photographs of the statues, taken by Messrs. Walsham. POETRY. Own age. Craigie (W. A.), ed. THE MAITLAND FOLIO MANUSCRIPT : containing poems by Sir Richard Maitland, Dunbar, Douglas, Henryson, and others, vol. 1 (Scottish Text Society, new series, no. 7). Edinburgh, the Society, 1919. 9 in. 472 pp. il. inds. paper. See review, p. 685. 821.2 Houghton (Claude). THE TAVERN OF DREAMS: a volume of verse. Grant Richards, 1919. 8 in. 87 pp., 3/6 n. 821.9 No poet should be allowed to use the word "dreams except in the most strictly scientific and Freudian sense of the term. A century of abuse has given this unhappy word a flavour that is peculiarly sickly. In minor poetry the stuff that dreams are made of is generally poor stuff; and when it is mixed, as in the present volume, with pixies, elfin music and the thin-blooded satyrs of sham classical pantheism it is most melancholy. Legge (J. G.). ECHOES FROM THE GREEK ANTHOLOGY. Constable, 1919. 71⁄2 in. 62 pp. paper. 884.9 Mr. Legge's echoes from the Anthology are perhaps a little too sweet and romantic like the reverberations of the Alp-horn among the crags of Grindelwald. The clear tones of the original are somewhat blurred in the echo; but who could hope to recapture so elusive a melody? Mr. Legge's version, neat, elegant and literary as it is, may not be perfect; but it is certainly better than most attempts at verse-translations from classical poetry. Nichols (Robert). INVOCATION AND PEACE CELEBRATION HYMN FOR THE BRITISH PEOPLES. Henderson, 1919. 9 in. 12 pp. paper, 1/ n. See notice, p. 681. 821.9 Till one cursed monk found whisky in the still; but even this does not altogether reassure us. a little later, we come to the author's French productions we are paralysed with astonishment and perplexity. Mr. Whitham's French is very individual. These lines: Moi, l'ainé, passe a Dieu, le Dieu des Celtes, Contre tous les noirs, are characteristic of his peculiar idiom. It is all very peculiar FICTION. Adair (Cecil). THE CACTUS HEDGE. Stanley Paul [1919]. 71 in. 288 pp., 6/ n. A readable story of a young woman of Flemish extraction who marries the son and heir of a French nobleman, and passes some years of wretchedness in consequence. husband dies; and after her little son has been adopted by The the grandfather, the heroine, who is a fine character, marries again. The novel would have been more pleasant to read if the author had refrained from attempting so frequently to reproduce French idioms in English. Werner *Conrad (Joseph). WITHIN THE TIDES ("The Wayfarer's Milton (C. R.). THE EYES OF UNDERSTANDING. Melrose, This is an incisive picture of society in India, where the heroine becomes superintendent of a training college, and finds herself face to face with a mélange of unrest, attempted revolution, and official muddling. A "neoagnostic" colony, native agitation, and several types of Indian Civil Servants figure in the story. 3 Roberts (Theodore Goodridge). THE EXILED LOVER. Long Martinique and French Canada early in the eighteenth Roche (Arthur Somers). PLUNDER ("The Wayfarers' Library," 910 GEOGRAPHY, TOPOGRAPHY, ANTIQUITIES, &c. The Agent-General and late Premier of New South Wales 930-990 HISTORY. Canada. GENERAL SURVEY OF CANADA'S REPATRIATION 971 has been adopted as from February 14, 1918." It is note- 954.8 Webster (Nesta H., Mrs. Arthur). The FRENCH REVOLUTION The problem of reconstruction now confronting the world " " 940.9 THE GREAT EUROPEAN WAR. A succinct account of the military, naval, industrial, financial and other efforts made by the Dominion. Numerous statistical tables are included, and some of the figures are very striking. For instance, the total number of men enlisted in Canada from the beginning of the war to November 15, 1918, was no fewer than 595,441. The total casualties were 218,433. The value of munitions and materials" exported from Canada during the war period to December 31, 1918, amounted to $1,002,672,413. Davis William Stearns), in collaboration with Anderson was a completely new orientation after the secession of William II. They also adduce as evidence of Bismarck's Machiavellian conduct reports of such conversational vivacities as his remark to the Dutch envoy that he would rather annex Holland to Germany, and his assurance to Beust that he would greatly prefer to annex the German provinces of Austria. Statements in one part of the book correct the tenor of chapters elsewhere, and the significance of Bismarck's indifference to Balkan problems is not sufficiently appreciated. |