aginations are far beyond anything which present knowledge justifies us in ascribing to the inarticulate kindreds. To say this is in no way to depreciate such work, but merely to classify it; and to the same class, in their varying dignities, belong all those animal tales in which the animals, while otherwise conforming to the observed facts of nature, nevertheless express themselves with all the complexities of human speech. There are stories written to-day which, for interest and artistic value, are not to be mentioned in the same breath with the Mowgli tales, but, nevertheless, occupy a more advanced stage in the evolution of this genre.

It seems to me fairly safe to say that this evolution is not likely to go beyond the point to which it has been carried in the later stories of Mr. Ernest Seton (Thompson) and his disciples. In "Krag, the Kootenay Ram," the interest centres about the personality, individuality, mentality of an animal, as well as its purely physical characteristics. The field of animal psychology so admirably opened up by Mr. Seton is an inexhaustible world of wonder. Sympathetic exploration may advance its boundaries to a degree which

we hardly dare to dream; but such expansion cannot be called evolution. There would seem to be no future evolution possible, unless based upon a hypothesis that animals have souls. As soul is apt to elude exact observation, to forecast any such development would seem to be, at best, merely fanciful.

The animal story, as we now have it, is a potent emancipator. It frees us for a little from the world of shop-worn utilities and from this mean tenement of self, of which we do well to grow weary. It helps us to return to nature, without requiring that we at the same time return to barbarism. It leads us back to the old kinship of earth, without asking us to relinquish, by way of toll, any part of the wisdom of the ages, any fine essential of the "large result of time." The clean and candid life to which it reinitiates us, far behind though it lies in the long upward march of being, holds for us this quality. It has ever the more significance, it has ever the richer gift of refreshment and renewal, the more humane the heart and spiritual the understanding which we bring to the intimacy of it.

Charles G. D. Roberts.

Into white clouds, as white as snow,
The smother springs as on we plunge and quiver,
And through the shrouds are blown the clouds
Or drift across the decks that lean and shiver.

Somewhere within the mists, I know,

Belike just where the silver sail is lifting,

Sweet Iris floats on pearly motes

To draw her magic bow athwart the drifting.

And "Iris! Iris!" cries the sea, Leaping aboard to pluck her thin gown under, And "Iris!" sings through harp-like strings The wind above the green sea's mellow thunder.

THE HE title of Mr. Archibald R. Colquhoun's book, The Mastery of the Pacific, might lead the reader to suppose that, like Captain Mahan's "Problem of Asia," it was a discussion of the problems of military, political, and commercial strategy involved by expansion in Eastern Asia. As a matter of fact, however, it is really a sequel to his last volume, "Overland to China." In that book he described at some length the economic conditions now prevailing in different parts of China, the opportunities that empire offered for European and American exploitation, and the probable share which the different Western powers would obtain in the division of the spoils. But the aim of the book was chiefly descriptive, and so it is with the new volume. The latter describes the arms and the resources of the different countries, savage and civilized, China and South America excepted, possessing any coast-line on the Pacific, whose interests will be vitally affected by the course of political events on the shores of that great ocean. deals very sparingly in prophecy, and he does not enter at all into the stragetic problems which the geographical situation, and the military and naval power, inevitably suggest. He is content to give a bird's-eye view of conditions as they now exist, together with a faint foreshadowing of the possible complications of the early future.

He

The book is of great interest to American readers, because, whatever may be the course or the success of our national policy in China, the United States is bound to be the dominant power in the Pacific. On the Atlantic Ocean she is faced by European countries possessing interests as

THE MASTERY OF THE FACIFIC. By Archibald A. Colquhoun. The Macmillan Co., 8vo, $2.00 net.

important as her own, and naval power at the present time somewhat greater. In the Pacific she is faced by decaying empires like China; by young and vigorous but still comparatively weak commonwealths like Australia; or by European countries, whose naval power may at the present time be greater, yet who are operating many thousands of miles from their effective bases, and whose strategic situation is consequently entirely inferior to that of the United States. The only progressive and expanding power that can compare to our own country in the strength of its position and in the vital importance of its interests is Japan; and so far as Mr. Colquhoun can see, the only proximate cause of difference that may arise between that country and our own will come from our exclusion of Japanese immigration on the ground of race-inferiority. However that may be, the long coast-line of the United States on the Pacific, and its outposts in Hawaii and the Philippines, give it, from the military and commercial point of view, an advantage over every other power except Japan, which, if it is backed by sufficient energy, cannot but give this country effective control of the politics of the Pacific.

Perhaps the most interesting chapters in Mr. Colquhoun's book for American readers are those in which he discusses the present condition of the Philippines, and the future of those islands under the rule of the United States. He brings to this discussion exceptional qualifications, for, as a member of the English Civil Service, he has occupied some important and responsible positions in India and Burma, and his experience in dealing not only with Orientals in general, but with people nearly related in blood to the Filipinos, has been long and varied. On the whole he

approves of American policy, but with some doubts. It differs essentially from the policy which England has used in Singapore and the Straits Settlement, or which Holland has used in Java, the difference being entirely one of liberality. England has been most liberal with her colonies in refusing to tax them for the benefit of the mother-country, and in enabling them to trade wherever they may find profit in so doing; but she is disinclined to encourage their progress either in education or in the art of self-government. Holland's policy has been illiberal, both commercially and politically, so that, while her subjects are contented, they are neither prosperous nor progressive. The United States, on the other hand, has adopted a policy, which, however autocratic it may seem to the American anti-expansionists, is, according to the precedents of colonial governments in the Far East, extraordinarily liberal. No other country has given the inhabitants of its subject territories anything like the same opportunities for education, or anything like the same degree of self-government. Mr. Colquhoun believes that the experiment will have momentous consequences, not only for the Filipinos themselves, but for people of similar race in the neighboring islands. His chief fear is not that this country is going too slow in giving the Filipinos a chance to educate and govern themselves, but that it is going too fast; and he repeats many times his advice to be cautious about granting privileges, which may be abused and will have later to be withdrawn. For he calls the Filipino clever, responsible children, who lack homogeneity, initiative, and true patriotism, and fears that the whole experiment will fail if it is pushed too fast. Whether or not this advice proves to be good advice, it is encouraging to keep in mind that, short as has been the time in which the United States has possessed over-sea

colonies, she is already undertaking an experiment which is a strict fulfilment of her traditional democratic belief in the possibilities of human improvement, and which, if successful, will provide a model which other colonizing powers may be driven or encouraged to copy.

The position of the United States in the Pacific will, however, never be consolidated and assured until the east as well as the west coast of our country is made easily accessible thereto. It is a transisthmian canal which will assure the superiority of its position, and which will enable us to compete in the Chinese markets not merely from San Francisco and Tacoma, but from New York and New Orleans. It is in this connection that the book of Mr. J. W. G. Walker, U.S.N., gets its relation to the problems of the Pacific. Mr. Walker does not indeed trouble himself with questions of national or international policy. He went to Nicaragua in 1897 with the Commission to investigate the feasibility of that trans-isthmian route; and his book is a narrative of historical events and engineering experience. But it is a mine of information upon the natural history of the country and the character of its population and government, as well as an entertaining and instructive account of his own individual experiences. Mr. Walker gives a much more favorable account both of the climate and of the people than one is apt to gather from ordinary sources, and his book leaves the impression that, in case the Nicaraguan route should be adopted, the American engineers, who will be engaged upon the work, will be repaid for much hard work and many discomforts by abundant opportunity for unusual and interesting experiences. And this is, perhaps, one of the greatest advantages which the country will gain from expansion over

FROM OCEAN TO OC AN. By J. W. G. Walker, U.S.N. A. C. McClurg & Co.. 8vo, $1,50.

the seas. It is a good thing that young Americans, whether their callings are scientific, administrative, or educational, should have chances to satisfy their appetites for adventure, while at the same time serving their country and themselves.

And it is to be hoped that, should these chances occur, they will seize these opportunities as unhesitatingly and put up with the necessary hardships as cheerfully as did the author of this book. Herbert Croly.

THE enormous popularity of "Social

Evolution," which not all the protests of the critics have served to diminish appreciably, will undoubtedly insure for its author's latest contribution to sociological theory an immediate and enthusiastic welcome.

66

Western Civilization can, however, in no sense be regarded as supplementary to the earlier work. On the contrary, it is to all intents and purposes an exponent of a radically different point of view. For whereas in Social Evolution religion was characterized as essentially ultrarational, Mr. Kidd now essays the establishment of the theory of ultimate responsibility on a rationalistic, not to say an empirical, basis. His modus operandi involves an ingenious dovetailing of the "Origin of Species" and the "Critique of Pure Reason"; a relegation of the "Synthetic Philosophy" to the pre-Darwinian period of thought; a denunciation of the Manchester School and of the English Utilitarians from Homer to Spencer, and an exaltation of Hobbes and Locke, in whose writings he discerns a recognition not only of the "ultimate principle to which the philosophy of history is related," but also of its corollary, that man stands in a 66 position of personal responsibility to principles, the meaning, the claim, and the operation of which are projected beyond the bounds of political consciousness."

PRINCIPLES OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION. Kidd. The Macmillan Co., 8vo, $2 00 net.

By Benjamin

The principle of projected efficiency is termed a natural logical deduction from the law of natural selection as formulated by Darwin

"When we look at the statement of the law of Natural Selection as Darwin left it, it may be perceived on reflection that there is a consequence involved in it which is not at first sight apparent. It is evident that the very essence of the principle is that it must act in the manner in which it produces the most effective results. . In the

process of selection from which the curtain now rises, we see not only individuals, but whole generations, nay, entire species and types, unconsciously pitted against each other for long ages in a struggle in which efficiency in the future is the determining quality."

Undoubtedly the reasoning process by which these conclusions are reached is conceived to be of so elementary a nature that it would be superfluous to set it forth in detail. It cannot be denied that Mr. Kidd's way of bridging logical gaps with such ingratiating phrases as "it is evident," " it can readily be perceived," "the mind instinctively turns," etc., is peculiarly persuasive. So effective indeed is the method, that when in his concluding chapter he nonchalantly declares that from a consideration of his exposition of the evolutionary process, "by one bound the mind. springs, as it were, to the very centre of Kant's position," one is for the moment impelled to regard this remarkable feat in mental gymnastics as quite within the realm of the commonplace.

It is their crass blindness to this obvious "shadow of the future," and their

consequent slavish subjection to the claims of the present, that constitute the main counts in the indictment against the Utilitarians. The arraignment of Spencer as the chief apostle of the school is particularly searching

"The central idea around which Mr. Spencer constructed his theory of human development in the Synthetic Philosophy,' namely, that the meaning of the evolutionary process in history lies in the progress of the struggle between the present and the past, has been relegated to a place in the background. The central principle of the evolutionary drama in progress in the world, namely, that it is the meaning of the struggle between the future and the present which controls all the ultimate tendencies of progress, and into which all the phenomena of history are being drawn, has remained, we see, outside the field of Mr. Spencer's vision."

Within the range of Mr. Kidd's larger vision are two great epochs in the process of the subordination of the insignificant present to the all-significant future. The controlling principle of the first is described as the period of military efficiency, which reached its culmination in the civilizations of Greece and Rome, was the subjection of the individual to the state. The second epoch, the beginning of which is made coincident in time with the dawn of the Christian era, is "concerned with the rise to ascendancy of the ruling causes which contribute to a higher type of social efficiency by subordinating society itself, with all its interests in the present, to its own future."

With the spread of Christianity came the projection of human consciousness into the future, and the emancipation of Western Europe from the overwhelming power of the present, which had been the distinguishing characteristic of its antecedent civilization. The course of social development, which in the first epoch had proceeded with practically no interruption to a satisfactory climax, threatens, however, as a result of this very perception of

the "shadow of the future," to take an atavistic turn; for we are assured, at the conclusion of a brilliant résumé of the struggle between Church and State in the pre-Reformation period, that "No tyranny, therefore, within which the present could cramp the free play of human energies, could ever be so overwhelming as that which appears to present itself as lying latent and involved in the concept that what is defined as spiritual welfare is of more importance than temporal interests."

This statement is quite in line with the admission made in an earlier chapter that no future efficiency would avail to preserve any type of society not sufficiently adapted to the existing environment to hold its own with competing types. The sweeping condemnation of the Manchester school, however, on the ground that the inevitable result of the laissez-faire policy is the absolute suppression of the weaker competitive forces by the stronger, is scarcely consistent with either theory. If individuals count for nothing save in their relation to future generations, and if their future or projected efficiency is in direct ratio to their present efficiency in the struggle for existence, if even the Utilitarian ideal of the greatest good to the greatest number of existing individuals is conceived as of no importance in the evolutionary scheme, is not the annihilation of the unfit a necessary condition of progress?

Mr. Kidd accounts for this apparent discrepancy by describing the recent past of the evolutionary process as a period of the emancipation of various forms of human energy, and asserting that this fact was involved from the beginning in the principle of Projected Efficiency. After the Reformation, the most important factor in this disfranchising process has been Western Liberalism, "which is a creed not of ease and of conscious political Utilitarianism, but of sacrifice, the principles of which cannot be conferred within any