ESSAY-REVIEWS 



THE CULT OP INCOMPETENCE, by Geraldine E. Hodgson, 

 Litt.D. (Trin. Coll., Dublin) : on Le Culte de 1' Incompetence, par Emile 

 Faguet, de l'Academie Francaise. Published by Bernard Grasset, Paris, 

 in the Series Les Etudes Contemporaines. Eighteenth Edition, 191 2. 

 [Pp. 231.] — English translation, The Cult of Incompetence, by Beatrice 

 Barstow, with Introduction by Thomas Mackay. [Pp. 236.] (London : 

 John Murray, 191 1. Price 5s. net.) 



The opening years of the twentieth century were marked by 

 an unfortunate taste for self-exaltation. The infant era, 

 scarcely attaining to perfect good manners, proclaimed its 

 own wonderful superiority to all the " dark ages " lying behind 

 it. The war's unexpected revelations of more than barbaric 

 horrors have possibly chastened this temper sufficiently to 

 make it tentatively patient of the arresting title which M. 

 Faguet has chosen. Unlike some pre-war publications, this 

 book seems to have gained cogency from subsequent events. 

 Instead of revealing only the failures of the past, it presents 

 reflections auxiliary to future reconstruction ; which is natural 

 enough since M. Faguet does not content himself with super- 

 ficialities, but reasons from a close, penetrating, discriminating 

 observation of fundamental facts. Though this method renders 

 none of us infallible in our conclusions, yet whether, accord- 

 ing to their bias, men call it scientific or philosophical, it is 

 the way to advance knowledge and edify civilisation. The 

 whole book is a considered and, in the main, measured indict- 

 ment of the essential failings of Democracy ; weaknesses 

 obvious enough in the ancient polities of Greece and Rome, 

 familiar in the city-communities of fifteenth-century Italy, not 

 unknown in modern Europe. An author writing of France 

 must sometimes deal with points not applicable to England, 

 just as some of our deficiencies are unknown in France. Eng- 

 lish readers, then, will select such parts of the indictment as 

 fit us, adding our peculiar tributes to incompetence. 



At the outset, M. Faguet, with French thoroughness and 

 25! 



