REVIEWS 531 



admire lofty aspirations ; but we cannot forget that there must always be some 

 one to get up early in the morning, to make the fires, to clean the boots, and to 

 cook the food ; and, when war comes, to destroy our fellow creatures. The real 

 question is, not what we wish, but what we can actually do in the conditions which 

 the present state of things imposes on us. Mr. Branford leads us quite in the right 

 direction— towards his City Beautiful ; but at the end of our long journey with him 

 we find ourselves only upon the brink of that great chasm which still divides us 

 from the phantasm on the far horizon. 



R. ROSS. 



Some Main Issues. A Collection of Essays by G. Walter Steeves, M.D. 

 [Pp. iii + 109.] (London : Chapman & Hall, 191 3. Price 3s. td. net.) 



A BOOK of essays by a medical man is always expected to be charming, and 

 therefore medical men who attempt such excursions from their ordinary duties 

 must face the somewhat jealous criticism of expectancy. Dr. Walter Steeves's 

 unpretentious little book will, however, not meet with censure, but will certainly 

 appeal to many reflective readers. The author is already well known both as a 

 physician and as the writer of a most delightful little monograph on Francis Bacon 

 from the standpoint of a bibliophile ; and his essays exhibit the same characters. 

 His subjects are Toleration, The Child, Appearances, Courage, Is it Worth 

 While ?, Letter Writing, In Sickness and in Health, Choice in Literature, Grati- 

 tude, Egotism, Gifts, and The Book Collector. The style is simple and of the 

 best ; but the author gives us many acute observations and weighty judgments, 

 and does not hesitate to speak very plainly where he thinks it necessary. The 

 whole is illuminated by the calm and gentle light of quiet wisdom. It is, of 

 course, a book to be kept and studied on many occasions rather than to be read 

 through at a sitting. That is to say, it is the kind of book which comes into our 

 life, and stays there. 



A Way of Life. An address to Yale Students, Sunday Evening, April 20th, 1913, 

 by William Osler. [Pp. 61.] (London : Constable & Co., 1913.) 



Another booklet by another physician, already famous among his brother 

 medical men for his excellent addresses both on scientific and literary lines, will be 

 welcome to all. It is merely an address to students ; but we all belong to this 

 category, and Sir William Osier's teaching affects every one. The style is delight- 

 ful and full of apothegms which we can put under the pillow and sleep upon. For 

 example, " The load of to-morrow," he says, " added to that of yesterday, carried 

 to-day, makes the strongest falter. Shut off the future as tightly as the past. No 

 dreams, no visions, no delicious fantasies, no castles in the air, with which, as the 

 old song so truly says, 'hearts are broken, heads are turned.' To youth, we are 

 told, belongs the future, but the wretched to-morrow that so plagues some of us 

 has no certainty, except through to-day. Who can tell what a day may bring 

 forth ? Though its uncertainty is a proverb, a man may carry its secret in the 

 hollow of his hand. Make a pilgrimage to Hades with Ulysses, draw the magic 

 circle, perform the rites, and then ask Tiresias the question. I have had the 

 answer from his own lips. The future is to-day — there is no to-morrow ! The 

 day of a man's salvation is now — the life of the present, of to-day, lived earnestly, 

 intently, without a forward-looking thought, is the only insurance for the future. 

 Let the limit of your horizon be a twenty-four hour circle." This is a fine philo- 

 sophical attitude — not perhaps the finest. It will not lead to very high and long- 



