should be left to the opponents of revealed Christianity, and in his "Origins and Faith" he quietly appropriates as many species of science and as much of each as he finds useful in Biblical exegesis, and makes a book of sixteen resultant papers. A very vivid book it is, too, courageous and encouraging, not afraid to declare that the old condition of simple trust, once lost, returbs not again, but boldly teaching that the duty of the moment is to use new knowledge to attain a higher spiritual level. He even puts forth such an explanation of the Trinity as, although it would hardly content an orthodox theologian, would assuredly be scornfully rejected by all Humanitarians. The last three chapters, "The Missionary Work of the Church," "Christianity in the Social Order" and "Some Criticisms and a Conclusion," touch upon many current questions, some purely British, but many of universal interest, and suggests a Christian solution. "An Essay on Reconciliation" is the sub-title of the book, but by reconciliation the author means nothing apologetic; the preservation of the essential truth of the great traditions is as important in his eyes as the discovery of an agreement between the religious and scientific systems as part of a reasonable basis of belief. Fleming H. Revell & Co. One must have lived and worked in Fleet Street to judge Mr. Philip Gibbs's "The Street of Adventure" with per fect justice, but it is altogether consistent with the work which comes thence, with the evidence offered by books and papers written by other English journalists, and it is delightfully unlike the matter put forth by certain novelists who may be supposed to have been once admitted to the office of a real newspaper. On the other hand, the hero is of a verdancy wondrous to exist in a civilized land, a verdancy in cluding ignorance of every conceivable clue to traversing the labyrinth of London, but Mr. Gibbs may be trusted to know whether or not such a creature ever appeared in a London editorial room. He would be tolerated in New York about two days, "on space;" in Boston two weeks, with warning at the end of the first, and in neither city would he gain footing without vigorous protest from more than one quarter. The extraordinary merit of the book lies in the vividness with which Mr. Gibbs describes the feeling of the journalist for his work, his belief that it is the one work for him; the meekness with which, whatsoever his rank, he submits in the sacred name of "the paper," to be deliberately overworked and worn out by an unscrupulous proprietor, and to be underpaid or even robbed of his salary by a dishonest owner or purchaser; and lastly the invariable celerity with which he tries to re-enter the business, if discharged, or otherwise left outside its limits. The personages are excellently drawn, and the futile little love story is a logical product of its conditions but a melancholy side issue. E. P. Dutton & Co. Mr. Francis Lynde's "The Taming of Red Butte Western" is one of those railway fictions which seem at least as strange as any truth ever published, and it combines the merits of that class of literature, and of the detective story, and adds a very good picture of a man's struggle to overcome the purely physical cowardice which sometimes paralyzes him in the face of danger, and has separated him from his betrothed. It is not one of the tales of capital and labor but of intrigue among minor officials. undertaken partly to secure better places, partly to conceal dishonesty, and the diplomatic skill used in the work would suffice to conduct the interrelations of about six Balkan States. Were it not for the revelations made by Mr. Fagan in the Atlantic Monthly one might be tempted to call the book incredible, but viewed in the light of his statements, it seems possible, and while one reads it, it seems entirely true, and quite obscures the rest of the world. Men who fight one another with personally-conducted locomotives and passenger trains are at least as interesting as men who fight with guns, while the actual fight continues, and motives are not considered. When they are, it may be seen that a powerful agent holding in its charge the lives of many citizens, the fortunes of many interests and the general welfare of a large section of country may very reasonably receive loyal affection from those who serve it, and that in time that service may take on something of the quality of patriotism. If nothing but wages and salaries gave the railways the service of men, all companies would be in difficulties as great as those encountered by Red Butte Western. Charles Scribner's Sons. Mr. Will Irwin, looking out upon an unscientific world so puzzled by subconscious selves, telepathy, hypnotism, psychology, psychotherapeutics and other polysyllables that it is ready for the reacceptance of materialization and other thoroughly discredited phenomena, strikes a blow for health and common-sense in his "The House of Mystery"; it is the story of a clever trick ster calling herself a spiritualist medium and glibly talking of "controls" and all the other apparatus of the trade, at the same time professing to live on a much higher plane than her rivals in the trade, and incidentally supporting her pretensions by demanding prices far above the regular market rates for sittings. In writing this book he has done his country substantial service and it is to be hoped that he will be rewarded by mammoth edi tions, the more so that he has not trusted to his good intentions to attract attention to his argument. but has made it part of an exceedingly pretty love story which it is to be hoped will attract the attention of some manager able to discern the merits of a brief comedy covering a wide range of emotion and containing five parts, each worthy of good actors. The Century Company. Like all its predecessors, "The Sermons, Epistles and Apocalypses of Israel's Prophets," the latest volume of Professor Charles Foster Kent's "The Student's Old Testament," fulfils the demand made by the reasonable child upon the public library. "I want," said she, "a book that looks good." This book looks very good; the translation of the scriptural text into a form which suggests its metrical phrasing tempts one as the pages are turned to stop and recall the familiar phrases, and unless one is acquainted with Hebrew, to learn something new from the translations of names and epithets, and to find countless crumbs of knowledge in the notes. The general introduc tion, half historical, half biographical, considering the prophets and their times by groups and periods, is written with the charm with which Dr. Kent has invested the earlier volumes, and the indexes and chronological charts and maps make search for references a pleasure. Like each of the preceding volumes, this represents many years of work not only of the editor himself, but of his students, and it embodies the latest results of Biblical research both in this country and in Europe, and the latest discoveries in many fields. Its printing and binding are models, being uniform with earlier issues. Charles Scribner's Sons. Mr. Clayton Hamilton's "The Theory of the Theatre" is a treatise much needed both by the theatre-goer, and by the reader of plays, for, although criticism of literature is to a certain extent taught in the schools, both by text book and by oral instruction, dramatic criticism is entirely neglected even in the study of English dramatic poetry, and of the extraordinarily selected group of modern French plays read in class. On the other hand, the theatre-goer seriously inclines to read dramatic criticism, and the very newsboys may be seen opening their papers to ascertain what is said of a new play. For this reason, and also because the lower dramatic types are offered to the public by an ever increasing number of cheap theatres, Mr. Clayton Hamilton's "The Theory of the Theatre" is sure of readers, and its author has so written it that it will be equally useful to those who approach the play for its own sake, and those who regard it merely as a means of amusement. The author explains the theatre-goer to himself, showing him why he is pleased or repelled by what passes on the stage; teaches him to discriminate between the work of the dramatist and the actor, and expounds the nature of the four chief species of plays. In the second part of the book the reader is prepared to judge current dramatic criticism, including his own involuntary essays in the art, and in both parts the author's touch is so sure and his style so lucid that he is perfectly comprehensible even by young and uncultivated readers, although he is always dignified and worthy of his subject at its best. Henry Holt & Co. Doubtless Americans are not the people and no wisdom whatsoever shall die with them, but it may be that Mr. Ian Hay rather exceeds necessity in his apology for the recondite nature of his clever book, "The Right Stuff." The hero is a Scotsman, and occasionally reverts to dialect and idiom of his na tive glen; an election and a day's shooting are among the incidents and all the events take place in Great Britain. Had Mr. Hay foreseen an American edition, he would probably have defined, described, and carefully explained all of these matters in the course of the story, but under the circumstances, he can only buttonhole the American reader on the very threshold of the book and caution him "We'll break it gently to you, father," said Bella Wilfer. Like Mr. R. Wilfer, the American can stand a good large breakage. Scott, Aytoun, Hogg. Burns, Lockhart, Mr. Lang, the entire Kailyard school, have given him some slight knowledge of the Doric; with such aids as Samuel Warren, Thackeray, Dickens, George Eliot, Trollope, Mrs. Humphrey Ward and Miss Robins, he has become sufficiently acquainted with the British election fearlessly to contemplate a specimen in full career, and a few Americans, Irving, Mr. James, and the late author of the Rollo books, have laid the scene of their books in England. Had Mr. Hay kept silence, his American readers would have read him with no especial emotion except that of thankfulness for a new and very agreeable author. The Scottish hero belongs to the great brotherhood of self-made men, gallant lads who win an education by fighting poverty for it, and the narrator, a member of parliament, is one of those modern Britons who take themselves and their womenkind humorously with occasional lapses into sentiment. "The Right Stuff" is as good a name for the book as for the hero to whom it is meant to apply, and if Mr. Hay should make another as good, he may adorn it with a preaching shepherd, a painfully wise servant or any other Scottish luxury known to him, and still be sure of being liked and understood. Houghton Mifflin Company. SEVENTH SERIES No. 3446 July 23, 1910 FROM BEGINNING CONTENTS A Fortnight in Seoul. By Sir Francis Piggott, Chief Justice of OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE REVIEW 207 The Story of Hauksgarth Farm. Chapters XXXII. and XXXIII. By Emma Brooke (To be continued). 214 ENGLISH REVIEW 221 . CHAMBERS's JOURNAL 227 BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE 231 SATURDAY REVIEW 240 V. Some of a Hundred Best Books. By Sir Henry Lucy.. Emma. By C. H. B. Crete and Her Protectors. Evolution. By John Galsworthy. FOR SIX DOLLARS, remitted directly to the Publishers, THE LIVING AGE will be punctually for warded for a year, free of postage, to any part of the United States. To Canada the postage is 50 cents per annum. Remittances should be made by bank draft or check, or by post-office or express money order if possible. If neither of these can be procured, the money should be sent in a registered let ter. All postmasters are obliged to register letters when requested to do so. Drafts, checks, express and money orders should be made payable to the order of THE LIVING AGE CO. Single Copies of THE LIVING AGE, 15 cents. A KING OF TANG. BY WANG PO. (A. D. 648-676) There looms a lordly pleasure-tower o'er yon dim shore, Raised by some King of Tang. Jade pendants at his girdle clashed. and golden bells Around his chariot rang. Strange guests through sounding halls at dawn go trailing byGray mists and mocking winds; And sullen brooding twilights break in rain on rain To lash the ragged blinds. The slow sun-dappled clouds lean down o'er waters blue, Clear mirrored one by one. Then drift as all the world shall drift. The very stars Their timeless courses run. How many autumn moons have steeped those palace walls! And paled the shattered beams! What is their royal builder now? A lord of dust? An emperor of dreams? Translated by L. Cranmer-Byng. The English Review. A REQUIEM FOR LOVE. The roses of resplendent youth are dead, Hushed is the music and the lights burn dim, The guests are gone, their brows ungarlanded: Love sleeps alone, and none remember him. Here, by the uncurtained windows. watch with me, Sing we Love's requiem while our hearts are young; Life's master-singer and her lord was he, Let no man say that Love shall pass unsung. Uplift the lyre that faltered from his hand, Let rose and violet, and the mystic vine With laden lilies from his lovely land Deck for this gracious dead a goodly shrine. And sing with me a song of Love in life, A song of Love in life while Love lies dead; Take thou his lyre, its crimson-hearted strife Smite into sorrow while we guard his bed. Sing of his setting forth, at break of day, Love in his splendor, Love the undefiled, So sweet a stranger, all men bade him stay, For all men rose to welcome Love, the Child. |