shown in the title poem of the volume. It expresses real convictionnot a vague emotion-and throughout the tone of self-restraint is apparent. In "Sirmione" his powers of poetic description are to be seen at their best, whilst in "The Crusader" he gives freer rein to introspection than is to be traced in most of his impersonal poems.

No one can cast doubts upon the versatility of Mr. Charles Doughty's imagination, and he may claim to be the first among the poets to celebrate in verse the aerial invasion of England in his volume The Cliffs (Duckworth). Mr. Doughty has on previous occasions shown his mastery over rhymed verse; and in this respect his new volume sustains his reputation; but the subject he has chosen in which science jostles with the supernatural, and modern mechanics with ancient myths, lacks the necessary materials of "a drama," and is more suggestive of a skit on the follies and frivolities of the time.

Whether the Selected Poems of R. W. Dixon (Smith, Elder) will give to their author a posthumous fame, is a doubt which his admirers repudiate. His friend Mr. Robert Bridges, who is a competent authority in such matters, thinks that public taste was not ready for Canon Dixon's work when written, and that in time his lyrics will be reckoned among the best in our language. From his Oxford days, when he threw himself into the Pre-Raphaelite set and became the intimate friend of Burne-Jones and Morris, Dixon was carried away by the desire to write mystical poetry. His earlier work was certainly obscure in meaning, though marked by a richness of imagination. It is rather on his shorter poems-lyrics, sonnets and songs-that his reputation will rest, and in such odes as "On Conflicting Claims,' "The Spirit Wooed" and others, his strength is seen at its best and the bias of his mind most easily appreciated.

Mr. Maurice Hewlett is not singular among modern novelists in challenging public opinion as to his claim to rank among the poets. It is more surprising that one who has earned distinction as a romantic should in his volume of idylls and songs, Artemision (Elkin Mathews), have drawn his inspiration from classic sources. In this respect his affinity to Keats claims the reader's notice, and to their points of divergence. The Greek myths offer endless themes to the imagination and fancy, and Mr. Maurice Hewlett shows a remarkable power in weaving fresh and beautiful thoughts and words round the original. Artemis, under her varying aspects, occupies the chief place in this volume. But it is by his idylls rather than by his sonnets that Mr. Hewlett will take his place and that a high one-among his contemporary poets. His metrical experiments may not always meet general approval, but all who have a true ear for the music of poetry will recognise that Mr. Hewlett has learnt to sound the magic shell.

In Mrs. Edith Wharton's volume of verse, Artemis to Actæon (Macmillan), the theme is dealt with in a very different spirit, and it may be doubted if Artemis of Arcady stands for her as the idea of innate virginity as in Mr. Hewlett's poem. In her other poems, especially in one entitled "Life," of which the poet is the reed, Mrs. Wharton expresses the bewilderment and hesitation of the modern thought, and in another, "The Mortal Lease," its graver side. There is throughout

this volume a faith in the future well-being of the individual as well as of the race. The thought is often too elaborately worked out, but the language is moulded to the need.

Mr. R. C. Trevelyan's Sisyphus (Longmans) affords good proof that the talent for easy verse-making is hereditary in the writer's family. Under the guise of an "operatic fable" in which humour and fancy play an even greater part than rhyme or reason he conveys a serious moral. The idea is that Sisyphus has obtained temporary relief from his never-ceasing task in order that he may return to earth to punish his wife for her impiety. A condition is further introduced by which Sisyphus' stay may be indefinitely prolonged. He manages by adroit intrigue to put Thanatos into a coffin made by Hephæstus which neither god nor man can open. Having thus abolished or held Death in suspension, Sisyphus makes his own terms with the gods; but he is outwitted at length by Hermes. The fluency and graceful ease of much of the verse is now and again broken, though not marred, by statelier forms of verse. And the variety of the metre combined with the truly comic situations make Mr. Trevelyan's "operatic fable" excellent reading.

SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY.

The celebration of the centenary of Charles Darwin's birth was the occasion of the publication of several works in connection with his services to science. Amongst these was an interesting volume edited by his son, Mr. Francis Darwin, on The Foundations of the Origin of Species (Cambridge University Press), a brief sketch of the ground-work of the great work, written in 1842 and only discovered after the writer's death. Simultaneously there was issued from the University Press a volume of essays entitled Darwin and Modern Science, bearing testimony from competent witnesses of the services rendered by Darwin not only to anthropology and the evolution of matter, but to his influence on modern philosophy and religious thought. The writers were worthy of their subjects and the editor, Professor Seward, must be congratulated on his tribute to Darwin's memory.

The reason for placing beyond the reach of the ordinary reader the late Dr. Bell Pettigrew's Design in Nature (Longmans) is probably known only to his executors. In view of the popular demand and supply of the works of Darwin, Wallace and the like, it would have seemed logical to have put their antagonist on a more equal footing. Dr. Pettigrew holds that there can be no more unsafe guide than the theory of natural selection. He asserts that design, law and order are visible or discoverable throughout nature and that plants and animals do not possess the power claimed for them by the evolutionists. How far Dr. Pettigrew succeeded in understanding Darwin's real theory, and how far he has substituted his own reading for that of its author, is a matter which can only be determined by the student of these three elaborately illustrated and expensive volumes.

Although the publication of Dr. Gilston Knott's volume on The Physics of Earthquake Phenomena (Clarendon Press) followed swiftly

on the disasters in Calabria and Sicily, it was not provoked by them. During many years' residence in Japan Dr. Knott and other Europeans set themselves to a systematic study of seismology; and later he found at the Free Church College, Aberdeen, the opportunity of expounding the results of their investigations. The deductions so far made as to the cause and the recurrence of these phenomena are more hypothetical than convincing. It is however now possible to locate earthquakes notwithstanding the distance at which they occur from the registering instruments. For the present, the balance of probability as to the cause of earthquakes is the irregularity now recognised in the earth's axis of revolution. The data, however, are still inadequate to furnish a scientific cause, and Dr. Knott's book marks only the initial stage of an interesting subject of inquiry.

The readiness of Europe to follow the lead of America in speculative science seems a strange reversal of the older influence of the East over the West. The need for the publication of such a book as The Faith and Works of Christian Science (Macmillan), by the writer of that remarkable work "Confessio Medici," shows that the crusade of Mrs. Eddy and her supporters in the old world has wakened up orthodox believers in religion and medicine. The writer is ready to lead the hosts of the latter, but meanwhile he urges the dangers of delay, in view of the progress already made in Europe and especially in England by "Christian Scientists," whose claim to be either Christian or scientific he vigorously assails.

Mr. Frank Podmore's Mesmerism and Christian Science (Methuen) approaches the same question from another side. He recognises in the most recent development of the sympathetic school of medical treatment methods which can be dated back to the dark ages of Paracelsus. The history of illusion is a long chronicle of cases of the influence of the mind over the body. Many cases are indubitably well authenticated, but Mr. Podmore goes further and traces the growth of a more scientific belief in the possibilities of the so-called mesmeric condition.

The attitude of the Church towards "faith-healing" has at various times caused much dissension amongst orthodox thinkers and by general consent the theory has been left an open one. In view, however, of the recent development of psychical study, an earnest Churchman, the Rev. Percy Dearmer, in a volume of much insight and sympathy, Body and Soul (Sir Isaac Pitman), deals with the work of healing from the New Testament to the present time, and inquires searchingly into the effects of Religion upon Health. He argues that religious influences "have a valuable effect in the maintenance of that inward balance or vitality which we call health." From this point to the use or need of "healers" appointed by the Church, the inference is obvious, but the dangers of such a theory were recognised by the committee of bishops appointed at the Lambeth Conference of 1908. Mr. Dearmer admits that this is not the view of those who hold that the working of miracles ceased with the Apostles; but he does not recognise that such teaching is binding upon himself or upon such as contend that the Church retains spiritual powers of which the efficacy is at least tacitly admitted.

The Survival of Man (Methuen) by Sir Oliver Lodge is not the first excursion of an eminent man of science into the unseen world; but it

may be fairly doubted if arguments based upon little evidence and much assumption will carry conviction to the unprejudiced student of the phenomena of psychical research. Sir Oliver Lodge, starting with the conviction of man's bodily survival, regards automatic writing and trance speech as "direct evidence for posthumous activity." He apparently is not satisfied with the half-way house provided by telepathy and the subliminal self. These faculties, of which the range and working are still so obscure, might reasonably attract men of Science to the study of Psychism, and possibly at some remote distance of time lead to a better knowledge of the relations between things seen and

unseen.

Mr. Campbell Thompson who writes for students of anthropology, rather than for the general public, has done well to pursue his studies into the domain of Semitic Magic, Its Origins and Developments (Luzac). He has found materials in the dust-heaps of Assyrian tablets, in Rabbinic traditions, in Syriac manuscripts, and in Arabian legends. Having garnered a rich store of materials he offers them for use to fellow-workers. Magic and its allied form of witchcraft would seem to have been the basis of the later religious beliefs of the various Semitic races. Tribal traditions which took the shape of " tabu” varied according to the localities frequented by the tribes. In some sanitation seems to have been raised by "tabu to the level of religious observance. The connection and subsequent divorce of cannibalism and sacrifice is another point on which Mr. Campbell Thompson adds some fresh details, and draws debatable conclusions.

The Hibbert trustees are responsible for having disturbed many who were enjoying the slumber of convinced opinions. Professor William James is the latest intruder, and in his course of lectures on A Pluralistic Universe (Longmans) he carries flame and sword into the heart of Hegelianism. He charges its exponents with ambiguity, and with taking refuge behind vague talk about "the absolute." He attacks monism both on metaphysical and moral grounds, regarding it as too abstract to bring ordinary men into real contact with life. Of the absolute mind, Professor James affirms, we know nothing, and it is only by faith that we assume that in it the infirmities of the human mind are reconcilable. For ordinary mortals experience drawn not merely from science and psychology but from religion and emotion will be the true guide. In other words Professor James would link up philosophy with human life, for his studies in the varieties of religions have brought home to him the constant effort to effect a compromise between Pantheism and Polytheism, and to discover a normal religious consciousness.

SOCIOLOGY.

There is abundant material for serious reflection in Mr. C. F. G. Masterman's survey of The Condition of England (Methuen), and it would be well for those who comfortably believe that all goes well to take note of the warnings given to various responsible classes. The richer and higher ranks of society, he thinks, are frivolous rather than intentionally wicked, but that they give a tone which finds its echo in

other circles is obvious and regrettable. The man of the middle-class cares little for efficiency, a note which distinguishes the present from past generations, whilst the artisan class seems to be more anxious to avoid than to encourage social legislation. He admits, however, that among the poor there is a growing desire to have restrictions put upon the hours and opportunities for drinking, a movement in which the women are the most serious workers. In rural districts Mr. Masterman thinks that the blame for the existing condition of agricultural labourers lies upon the landowners, who have done little to rescue their dependants from decay by giving them an interest in the soil on which they spend their lives.

The contribution made by Mr. W. H. Beveridge to the study of that side of the social problem known as Unemployment (Longmans) will be welcomed by all who are interested in the industrial question. Mr. Beveridge's aim is to provoke discussion, not to theorise or to dogmatise. He insists, however, upon the view that the growth of population and the supply of labour go hand in hand. Practically, therefore, the ratio between population and the unemployed would remain unchanged but for certain failures to adjust the supply and demand of labour. The causes of fluctuation in demand are limited to no country and to no economic systems, they are recurrent everywhere. In all trades unemployment exists even in the best years, arising probably from the decay of certain local industries, the substitution of machinery, and above all "the personal factor." Mr. Beveridge considers our present industrial training inadequate and to improve it Government help and guidance are needed. The main point, however, is to organise the labour market, so as to meet its fluctuation, to find work suitable for the old as well as for the young, and to distribute public works on a more systematic basis.

Another view of the question is taken and discussed with knowledge and acuteness in Mr. J. A. Hobson's Industrial System (Longmans), in which the thorny points of earned and unearned income are dealt with from a fresh standpoint. He holds that the wasteful standard of life which is set up by the rich is owing to the surplus produced by industry, after all legitimate claims upon capital have been met. This unearned surplus Mr. Hobson would place at the disposal of the State, to raise the standard of subsistence and to regulate the alternate over-expansion and shrinkage from which trade suffers periodically, and which is the chief cause of unemployment.

Thoughts and theories for the improvement of the race have recently assumed prominence in our own and other countries. Such a serious contribution to the study of Eugenics as Dr. Saleeby's Parenthood and Race Culture (Cassell) will therefore be welcomed by all who take interest in this problem. The aim of Eugenics is the moral complement of the theory of natural selection. If the fittest are bound to survive, it is the duty of responsible men to see that the fittest shall also be the best. This can only be effected by public opinion being raised above the level of sentimentalism, preached as it is with much vehemence by short-sighted humanitarians. Future generations, if the teaching of Eugenics be adopted and practised, will look back with gratitude to the efforts of Charles Darwin and his cousin Sir Francis Galton as the