a New

"Readable" Books

READABLE SCHOOL MECHANICS. By R. C. FAWDRY, M.A., B.Sc., Head of the Military and Engineering Side, Clifton College. Crown 8vo. Illustrated. About 2s. 6d.

[Bell's Natural Science Series (Editor, E. J. HOLMYARD, M.A.). The author thinks it deplorable that pupils should leave school without a chance of acquiring any knowledge of Mechanics. In this little book he has provided a really interesting general survey of the subject which can be read by those who possess but an elementary knowledge of Mathematics.

READABLE

PHYSICAL

GEOGRAPHY. By J. A. O. MUIRHEAD, B.A., Science Master, Clifton College. Crown 8vo. Illustrated. About 2s. 6d. [Bell's Natural Science Series.

In this book the author has attempted to retain a strictly scientific treatment and yet to present the subject to the untrained mind in a readable form. It is the opinion of the author that Geography in its elementary stages should, and can, be taught by the form master, and it is primarily for the non-specialist teacher that this book is intended. The specialist should, however, find it useful as a permanent reference for his pupils.

ANIMALS IN THE MAKING. An Introduction to the Study of Development. By J. A. DELL, M.Sc., Bootham School, York. Crown 8vo. Fully Illustrated. About 2s. 6d. [Bell's Natural Science Series. CONTENTS: The Nature of Growth-Pocket Lenses and OthersThe Development of the Frog-The Microscope--The Cell TheoryThe Earliest Stages in the Development of the Egg-How the Eggs are Produced-Birds' Eggs-The Development of Birds-The Development of the Rabbit-Apparatus and Materials.

Mr. PEPYS: An Introduction to his Diary together with a Sketch of his Later Life. By J. R. TANNER, Litt.D., Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. Crown 8vo. With Portrait. 7s. 6d. net. This volume forms an admirable introduction to the Diary, with plentiful quotations from Pepys himself on many topics. Apart from these extracts, well chosen to exhibit Pepys's personality and the vitality of his pages, the volume has a further interest inasmuch as it contains a description of his later life by Dr. Tanner, who is one of the chief authorities on the Diarist.

THE FOREIGN POLICY OF CASTLE-
REAGH, 1815-1822. By C. K. WEBSTER, M.A.
Professor of International Politics, University of
Wales. Demy 8vo. With Portrait.
25s. net.

[Immediately.

This volume describes the methods by which Castlereagh tried to institute the new system of diplomacy which followed the Second Peace of Paris, and traces the relations which existed between Britain and the European Alliance. This singular chapter in our foreign policy left a permanent impression on European diplomacy.

R. T. HUGHES, M.A., Assistant Master at Harrow School. About 2s. 6d.

In spite of the vast output of literature upon educational topics, Note-making seems hardly to have received the attention it deserves and it is hoped that these two books will be found useful as a guide to students and young teachers on this important subject. The authors' aim has been to gather together what is believed to be the common experience of teachers, and to present it in an orderly, and, above all, a practical manner.

Books for School Libraries

CONCERNING THE NATURE OF THINGS. Sir WILLIAM BRAGG, K.B.E., F.R.S., Director of the Royal Institution. With many Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. net.

This volume contains the Christmas Lectures at the Royal Institution delivered in 1923. The author shows us Nature as a builder, fashioning the world by different combinations of very few materials, making everything we know in earth and universe out of less than ninety different sorts of atoms.

CHATS ON SCIENCE.

By Prof. E. E. SLOSSON, Author of "Creative Chemistry," &c. Crown 8vo. 6s. net.

The author of this volume is one of the most delightful and popular writers on science to-day. In this volume, in a series of eighty chats, which are a model of swift narrative and simplicity, he deals with a multitude of fascinating facts belonging to the various branches of science, among them, of course, the latest scientific discoveries, relativity and atomic structure.

TIME MEASUREMENT. By L. BOLTON, M.A., a Senior Examiner in H.M. Patent Office. Illustrated. 6s. net.

An introduction to means and ways of reckoning physical and civil time. "The author has, in our opinion, succeeded admirably in his object. Very clear and informative."--English Mechanics.

OLD MASTERS AND MODERN ART. The National Gallery-Italian Schools. By Sir C. J. HOLMES, Director of the National Gallery. Demy 8vo. 112 Illustrations (8 in colour). 21S. net.

"An admirable book. should find a place in every school or college library."-Journal of Education.

STUDIES IN STATESMANSHIP. By D. C. SOMERVELL, M.A. Demy 8vo. Illustrated. 15s. net. "The nine essays constitute a luminous connected outline of history from the age of Pericles to that of Gladstone, in which the past is made to live again and the doctrine of the unity of history illustrated in a masterly style."-Birmingham Post.

ARCHITECTURE-THE FIRST OF THE ARTS

A History of Architecture on the Comparative Method: For Students, Craftsmen, and Amateurs. By Sir BANISTER FLETCHER. Seventh Edition, Revised and Enlarged, with about Three Thousand Five Hundred Illustrations. (42s. net. Batsford.)

The unremitting energy with which Sir Banister Fletcher revises his great work and brings each successive edition nearer to perfection fills us with ever fresh admiration. In its old familiar form the book has long had a world-wide reputation and has had a far-reaching influence on art training in the schools and universities of Great Britain, America, Australia, and Japan. The sixth edition, published in 1922, differed from all previous editions, as it was entirely re-written and recast in the light of recent discoveries, while illustrations were re-drawn and greatly increased in number. In this the seventh edition text, maps, and illustrations, have been further amplified, while the use of thinner paper has reduced the weight and thickness of the volume.

Architecture, the first of the arts, is a matter of supreme importance to each one of us. Whether we consider it as a chronicle in stone, as the " printing press of all ages," as a memorial of national greatness, or as a ministrant to rightness and convenience in civic affairs and domestic comfort; in each and all of these functions it "comes home to men's businesse and bosomes." Being a social and co-operative art, it expresses the mind of man more completely than any of the more individual arts. There is no need to dwell on its religious significance. Men who have had glimpses of the infinite have always wished to record the fact in stone, in cromlech or basilica, from Jacob's pillars at Bethel and Peniel to the spire of Salisbury Cathedral.

In this standard work we may learn of the influences, geographical, climatic, religious, social, and historical, which have gone to the making of the various styles of architecture, from Stonehenge to the modern skyscraper. To take the book from our shelves is to be enticed through page after page of the entrancing story; to look for old friends and to make new ones among the unrivalled wealth of illustrations. Such a complete review is a safeguard against the abuse of archaeological study. The first result of such study was the stylistic self-consciousness of the Renaissance. We cannot recapture the spontaneity of the youth of the world, but this book should help us to achieve a manhood worthy of the promise of that youth. As noble an utterance is possible in steel and concrete as in Pentelic marble, but not while one apes the other. We may love our oak beams and half-timbered houses, but we doubt the propriety of a certain magnificent falsity recently erected off Regent Street.

Ruskin has somewhere said that he believes that when a thing is once well done in this world, it can never be done over again. We venture to think that Sir Banister Fletcher's "History of Architecture " is a case in point. It is difficult to imagine that it will ever be superseded.

CROCE'S ESTIMATE OF SCOTT European Literature in the Nineteenth Century. By BENE DETTE CROCE. Translated from the Italian, with an Introduction by D. AINSLIE. (16s. net. Chapman & Hall.)

The title of this volume is somewhat misleading. The book consists of twenty-five studies of authors-Italian, French, German, one Norwegian, one British, and one Spanish; or rather, deals with certain aspects of these authors which appear to call for special comment. The scope of the work is thus circumscribed: indeed, the English title is the translator's; Croce called his book

Poetry and Non-Poetry. The latter is the more suitable, for that distinguished philosopher and critic keeps constantly re-reading the great European classics, and seeks to apply to their works his theory of criticism so as to discriminate between genuine and spurious poetry.

For Croce," poetry " is more than verse: it includes the best prose; it is literature-the outpouring of that inward expression" which takes place in an artist's mind simultaneously with the intuitive idea or dream-like revelation of Beauty. The aim of the literary critic is to attain the artist's point of view and to judge whether, or to what extent, his outward product is consonant with his inward "expression." Croce's hope, impeded meantime by other activities, is to continue these notes "in such a way as to furnish a fairly adequate picture of the poetry of that period "-to complete, we take it, an account of nineteenth century literature.

This work is, then, scarcely meant for the general reader; it is for highly-trained specialists, conversant with the authors, of whom Croce treats, and endowed with such aptitude for philosophical criticism as will enable them to keep in view his special theory and to judge of his success in applying it. While full comprehension is likely to be thus limited, there are, of course, authors of international repute Schiller, Leopardi, Heine, Scott, Zola, Ibsen, and others-whose names, and perhaps works, the average reader cannot fail to know in some measure. But so allusive is Croce's style, that a fairly intimate acquaintance must be assumed if benefit from the perusal of these studies is to accrue.

Even in so restricted a list of European authors, one feels a little surprised that English literature should be represented only by Sir Water Scott. And Croce's scope of poetry being borne in mind, one's astonishment is increased on reading this verdict : Scott's poetical vein, always slender, rapidly dried up in his altogether prosaic temperament." As to Scott's romance in poem and novel, he proceeds, "there was a demand by the English and European public, and Scott satisfied it with his goods." He was a mere industrial producer, a hero of industry.” (We are evidently still regarded as a nation of shopkeepers!) Further, his art is monotonous, his method mechanical." Then, after a reference to the herculean task to which Scott set himself in order to pay his debts, and the national feeling his effort called forth, Croce comments: "This great national movement may have been in commemoration of the great writer, or of the great man of business-one remains doubtful which of the two it was that English commercial honesty proposed to honour." We venture to think it was neither the one nor the other. What moved men was the noble spirit that refused, while life lasted, to accept failure, the determination to play the man, the indomitable heart that was faithful unto death; and the feelings evoked were somewhat akin to those of the recent mourners at Beaumont Hamel on the unveiling of the monument to the immortal 51st.

We believe Croce's insight has here failed him, and we trust (which is doubtless the truth) that in other cases less easily assessed in this country than is Scott's, the critic has attained greater success in his estimates. Space forbids reference to others of Croce's studies; but the judgment of a great scholar and a profound thinker will be eagerly sought by those into whose hands the volume

comes.

The translator appears to have done his part well, though he assumes that Croce's readers find difficulty only with his vernacular; the copious French, German, and Spanish quotations are not translated, but only those from Italian. A good many sentences are somewhat involved in structure; but this may arise from the inherent difficulty of the subject. The book, in truth, is not one for the easy-chair.

TWO IRONICAL PHILOSOPHERS

Gilbert Keith Chesterton. By P. BRAYBROOKE. (7s. 6d. The Chelsea Publishing Co.) Samuel Butler (1835-1902). By C. E. M. JOAD. (4s. 6d. net. Parsons.)

"

Braybrooke's" Chesterton " and Joad's "Samuel Butler' are thoughtful and illuminating studies. Though they differ widely in many respects from each other, and from Swift and other ironists whom they in some ways resemble, the topsy-turvy way Chesterton and Butler have of putting things perhaps justifies the classification indicated in our title. They are somewhat alike, too, in their versatility. Of Butler in this respect more will be said later; Chesterton, chiefly essayist, is also poet (his biographer thinks him one of the best in all but quantity of output), playwright, and novelist. Each is something of a prophet and has exerted great influence on his contemporaries.

"

Mr. Braybrooke's volume may be regarded as a criticism of G. K. C's criticisms, and if it fails in clearness this is due to the occasional difficulty of determining where reported criticism ends and Mr. Braybrooke's comments begin. "Dickens is pronounced Chesterton's most original study. In common with Browning and Thackeray, Dickens "knew men were kings though ordinary men. Each of them (Browning pre-eminently) founded his optimism on man's imperfection. To sum Mr. Braybrooke's view: "Orthodoxy' is the finest of his essays, Browning' is the best of his critical studies, 'The Ballad of the White Horse' the best of his poems. 'The Ball and the Cross' the best of his novels."

Each volume contains a readable, though subsidiary, biographical chapter where much that is lovable and human in the two thinkers is disclosed.

Butler's life falls naturally into three portions-his early years and education in England (1835-59); his successful career as a sheep-farmer in New Zealand (1859-64); and the years 1864-1902, during which in London he led the life of almost a recluse. In the last of these periods he displayed remarkable versatility: he wrote satire, criticism, philosophy, one first-rate novel (" Erewhon "); he painted, translated Homer, and composed two operas. His outstanding achievement, however, was his work in establishing the theory of creative evolution. In opposition to Darwin and the materialists of the nineteenth century, he believed in purpose and design as manifested in evolution, and vindicated the supremacy of mind over matter. Vitalism, now increasingly held instead of materialism, is the outcome of his views; faith (in a biological sense), or intuition, not logic, he regarded as the guide of life. Bergson, Shaw, and others have developed and applied these views. 'Butler was Socrates to Shaw's Plato.' Το professionalists, in whatever line, he was anathema; and to the ordinary man he was an iconoclast. In opposition to stylists like Pater and Wilde he insisted on being brief, pointed, and plain; and so helped to revolutionize writing.

"

Mr. Joad has set forth Butler's philosophy with clearness and detachment; and to his chapters, readers whose tastes lead them to philosophical speculation of the kind, may with confidence be directed.

THE MEANING OF SEA-POWER

The Naval Side of British History. By Prof. G. CALLENDER. (4s. 6d. Christophers.)

Prof. Geoffrey Callender has written a book of singular fascination as well as decided importance. He is gifted with a pungent and picturesque style; he has a remarkable faculty for fixing upon essentials and making them stand out from his narrative with unmistakable eminence ; he has a lucid and logical mind. His knowledge, moreover,

of his subject is encyclopaedic. Recently he has compiled for the Historical Association by far the fullest and most complete bibliography of naval history which has ever been published. The present work shows that the contents of all the leading authorities on sea-power are as familiar to him as their titles. As a historian, and not a naval officer, he is free from those exaggerations and overstatements which marred the pioneer work of such writers as Admiral Mahan. That is to say, he recognizes that, great as has been the influence of sea-power in history, it has not been the sole determining factor.

In Prof. Callender's opinion, British history had no naval side until the Tudor period. It was, he considers, the discovery of America and of the Cape route to India which made it possible and necessary for Britain to take to the ocean. This, no doubt, is true. But still it is possible to contend-as Sir John Laughton did in fact contend-that there was a naval element in the Roman occupation, in the Saxon conquest, in the Danish incursions and Alfred's defence against them, in the Norman invasion of 1066, and in the long medieval wars between England on the one side and Scotland and France on the other. It would have been interesting to have from Prof. Callender's able pen a preliminary chapter on the naval side of pre-Tudor history.

From 1485, however, he traces a connected story, constantly increasing in interest, until it culminates in a vivid picture of the battle of Jutland in 1916. He describes the making of the Royal Navy in the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII, tells of the exploits of the Elizabethan seamen, and gives a lively account of the defeat of the Spanish Armada. Next he pictures the decline of the navy under James I and Charles I, due largely to the poverty of these kings; explains the part which the fleet played in the Civil War, and depicts the revival of sea-power under Blake. He then passes on to narrate the story and the struggle which Britain had to wage for command of the sea with the Dutch in the seventeenth century and the French in the eighteenth. Finally he shows the vastness of the transformation which the navy underwent in the nineteenth century owing to the introduction of steam, the substitution of iron for wood, and the prodigious increase of the power of guns.

Not only is this book one which presents British history in a new light; it is also a book which should enter into the education of every person interested in politics. For Prof. Callender makes it abundantly clear that upon the maintenance of an invincible navy depends not merely the security of the British Empire but the very existence of Britain itself.

A PIONEER OF SCIENCE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

The Life, Letters, and Labours of Francis Galton. By Prof. K. PEARSON. Vol. II.-Researches of Middle Life. (45s. net. Cambridge University Press.)

Ten years after the publication of the first volume of Prof. Pearson's "Life of Sir Francis Galton," the generous financial assistance of the late Mr. Lewis Haslam, M.P., has alone made it possible for the second volume to appear. Our gratitude is due to his memory for a record which is unique in the light it throws on the development of certain branches of scientific study in the latter half of the nineteenth century. It is also a stimulating study of a great and attractive personality.

This volume of Galton's biography, following on what Prof. Pearson has called "the fallow years,' covers The Researches of Middle Life." It opens in the year 1854, when Galton was 32 years old, with his work as a geographer. His experience as a traveller in Africa led to the publication of his Art of Travel," in which he showed the practical genius and the ingenuity in adapting material and methods to his needs which characterized his work throughout. It

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