The Review's Bookshop. 



625 



Mr. J.icobs's bret-zy yarns abxjut seamen and their 

 ass<.>cia!es never lack appreciative readers. 



To these successful novels must now \>e added 

 Mr. William De Morgan's new Ixjok, A Likely Story 

 (Heinemann. 6s.). It is certainly a quaintly humor- 

 ous narrative, but oh. ye critics, it is too short ! The 

 booksellers objected to length. Mr. De Morgan yield- 

 ed to them, and now we can see that if we are to 

 have our author at his best we must let him jog along 

 at his own sweet will. As once before, ^i^. De 

 Morgan here gives us e\ents of two different eixxhs 

 intermingled. Both Ijeing " likely stories," he inter- 

 weaves them in his own' whimsical way with the 

 most unlikely of threads, for it is the picture of his 

 lovely Italian which tells the most of her story, and 

 not her picture only, hut even the two iihotograplis 

 of it taken by the English girl's lover. '" Why not?" 

 savs .Mrs. .\iken'. " Don't strain at .1 gnat when you 

 have swallowed a camel. If you allow that a pi<-ture 

 can tell its story in a sweet, soft voice, why deiiv 

 that a photograph can do the same " .\nd how (K-- 

 liciouslv Mr. De Morgan keeps up his old game of 

 f)oking fun ! Whether it is at reviewers, as in his 

 Aj)ology, at the artist and his snappy, ridiculous wife 

 and her earliest Victorian aunt, or even at us. his 

 readers, or the psychic investig.itors. it is alwa\s 

 shrewd, witty .nid kindly, with that early Victori.m 

 genialitv which .seems to lie vanishing so lapidh. 

 Would that spaw permitted me to qut.te from that 

 quintessence of fun, his " .\pologv in Confidence." 



A'^ Siirnndir. liy Constance K. Maud (Duck- 

 worth, 6s.), can .scarcely be classed as a novel ; it is 

 rather a connected series of tableaux, constructed out 

 of the incidents connected with the Militant Suffrage 

 ntKivenK-nt. Dedic^ited to Mrs. Desparfl, her por- 

 traiture, and that of Lady ConstarKe Lytton. and 

 other well known Suffragettes, cannot be mistaken, 

 though the .lutiior ilerlares her characters to Ix.' fic- 

 tional. Two Caliint-t >[inisters repre.sent ll^e lo^•er-;. 

 N'ews|>.i|»er paragraphs come and go. but this pictuv 

 of the " torrnre " of the women political prisoners, 

 delicatcK \> iU-d .i> it is. cannot so easiK 1k' put 

 aside. 



Tlic Frtt Marriaf,<- is by J. Keighle\ Snowden 

 (Stanley p. Mil. fi-i.). " Free " does not mean illegal. 

 as it migh: .v«ni to dn; it is rather .1 protest against 

 that over-individualism which is the recrdl from th<- 

 ovpr-subnii<si<)n of the woman. Mr. Keighlev Snow. 

 den shows in a novel of seme considerabli' interest, 

 that husband .ind vvife must live for one another if 

 they are Xn have their full measure of ha])piness. 

 There is g'^-d charactrrisation in the l>o<)k. and an 

 accurate dt-seription of modern journalism. 



Till- nt-.it, of Ih, niack Fnx. I.v R. \. W(x,d- 

 Sf-ys (Mills .nid Wmiu. 6s.). is an id\llic tale of the 

 fa.shion of the " V.dhy of a Hundred Fires," with 

 sufficient adventure U. suit quiet tastes, and a father 

 of the <ild schoiil. wlm. rich as Carnegie, dt-siri's In 

 find a fitting male for his p.ission.ilt-ly-loved ilaugh- 

 t<T. The icnlinii-nt is not m iwkis'i. and \\v \"\\i- is 

 piinv 



SOCIAL AMELIORATION. 



Principhs of Economics, by F. W. Taussig, Pro- 

 fessor of Economics at Harvarrl (Macmillan. 2 vols. 

 17s. net), is a valuable book, inasmuch as the sub- 

 ject is .so treated that it is comprehensible to anv 

 educated and intelligent reader who has not yet made 

 a systematic study of the subject. Labour, specula- 

 tion, bimetallism. ' coinage, wages, trades unions, 

 strikes, trusts, railways — all have their share in a 

 .series of studies w-hich are statements of facts rather 

 than didactic lectures. The last chapter, however, 

 gives " some arguments for Protection." 



So much for broad statements; for advice as to 

 what we should do in order to help forward social 

 amelioration, and warnings as to what we should not 

 do, we must turn to the Rev. David Watson's Social 

 Advance (Hoilder. 5s.). In his sixth chapter, " \ 

 Programme for To-day," he boldly outlines .State 

 rule with regard to education, marriage, segregation 

 of the unfit, etc., and touches upon our city pest- 

 hou.ses and village wrong-doers with no squeamish 

 h.ind. 



Mr. Clement Rogers, in Circumstances of Charac- 

 ter (Methuen. 3s. 6d.), gives a record of practical 

 experience, in which he shows that character does 

 rise superior to circumstances, that charitv should be 

 organised ; but t'n<' workers should not be mere offi- 

 cials, but as sympathetic as wise. Also that only the 

 Church c.ui train such, for the State, represented by 

 the haphazard vote of adult males, can never be the 

 supreme arbiter of morals. 



Mr. C. Hanford Henderson, in Pav-Dav (Con- 

 stable. 6s. net), writes for the .American public, but 

 his words are just as applicable to us as to them 

 His motto is, " Thou shalt not steal." and he writes 

 as one of the "comfortable" class, who has lived 

 some of his days amongst the workers. His plan is 

 co-operation and brc'vtherhnod — and, in a word, thai 

 '■ Profit " is theft. 



Now that we ha\e got a new Dean of St. Paul's 

 wlio has the courage and tiie inde|)endence of Dean 

 Stanlev. we must prepare ourselves to find many of 

 llie idols of the mark<t-plac-e rudelv assailed in unex 

 IKili-d quarters. Hence m.my will welcome Mr. G 

 ■p. Wrencii's book. The .Unsferv of Life (Stephen 

 .Swift and Co. 15s.). if only be<"ause it makes a 

 ilesperate frontal attack u])on modern civilisation 

 Mr. Wrench de])lores the aliolition of serfdom, de- 

 nounces the ideal of personal liberty, .ind Ixildly de. 

 manils a return to patriarchalism if we would regain 

 the art <if life. It is a wonder that he stopped short 

 at cannibalism. But e\<ii Mr. Wrench must draw 

 the line somewhi're. " Tlie Mastery of Life" is a 

 le.irned JKxik. which will provoke much thinking and 

 not .1 little omtrriversy. The Dean of St. Paul's 

 >lv'urd preach on it. 



k book on Municipal (hif^iiis (Constable, tos 

 6(1. net), written b\ a lecturer on economics (F. H. 

 .Speni-er) out of the overflow of materials collected in 

 CI Haboration with Mr. .uid Mrs. Sidney Webb, pub- 

 lished as one of .1 .series of economic studies of which 



