626 



The Review of Reviews. 



tlie Hon. \V. P. Reeves is the editor, and cimimfinlcd 

 by Sir Edward Clarke as the liest and most complete 

 account he has yet seen of the Ijeginnings of that 

 system of local goxernmeiit and administration of 

 which England is very justly proud, needs no fur- 

 ther commendation to the student. 



The report of the Divorce Conimissir>n has not yet 

 Lieen published, but books on divorce increase and 

 multiply. David Nutt has reprinted, in a sixpennv 

 pamphlet, the evidence given on l)ehalf of the 

 Women's Co-operative Guild in favour of greater 

 treedom of divorce. Mr. Plowden, the magistrate, 

 contributes a preface to Mr. Charles Tibl>ets' Mar- 

 riage-making and Marriage-breaking (Stanley Paul). 

 Mr. Plowden is in favour of greater lilierty of 

 divorce, and so, I take it, is Mr. Tibliets, although 

 he conscientiously gives the pros and the cons. 



WANTED AN INSPIRED MILLIONAIRE. 



Two books, which ma) well be read together, re- 

 veal the utter dissatisfaction of the American people 

 wdth mere riches, and still more with the unfortunate 

 possessors of riches. Tlic Passing of the Idle Rich 

 (Hodder. 6s.), by F. T. Martin, who claims to 

 speak as a member of rich society, and as one who 

 knows it intimately, after an exposure of the mad- 

 ness of extravagance which has prevailed, declares 

 that all attempts at mere self-indulgence have so dis- 

 gusted the lich, as well as the consequent social 

 odium which attends them, that "mere pleasure- 

 seeking idlers are disappearing so fast that it is but 

 a question of a few years more liefore their extinc- 

 tion is complete." They have found out the futility 

 of riches, and young millionaires are now starting to 

 work. He expects that the wiping out of the idle 

 rich is to be one of the first steps in a programme of 

 national advancement. He would regard Socialism 

 with terror. This horror of Socialism is shared bv 

 Mr. G. S. Lee, in his Inspired Millionaires (Grant 

 Richards. 3s. 6d. net). With the oi)timism of an 

 American, and with the dogmatism of a prophet, he 

 declares that, though no inspired millionaire has yet 

 api)eared, such a genius will appear, and one would 

 l>e enough to inaugurate a new fashion and a new- 

 order. The inspired millionaire would make his 

 business or factory an organi.sm of thinking .souls, 

 who, by being transferred from one operation to an- 

 other, would be the source of endless invention — a 

 genius who, by appealing to the imagination of the 

 men, would destroy their slavery to the machine, and 

 would Ix; so overwhelmingly successful, both in his 

 own fortune, and in the fortune of his emi)Ioye<.'s, 

 that all would desire to follow in his steps. Mr. 

 ],ce objects to Mr. Edison making a pre.sent to the 

 public of his i)Ian of a ;^20o house. He thinks Mr. 

 Edison ought to keep the jiatent and the monojwly in 

 liis own hands, thus ensuring that all the houses 

 would be built in a way that would do the birilders 

 good, as well as the ocrujjants, while ensuring the 



inventor a handsome fortune. Given away, the idea 

 will, he thinks, be exploited by all manner of build- 

 ers, and with much less good resulting to humanity 

 as a whole. But, except as a potential preparation 

 for this destined superman of business, the 

 existing millionaires are, in the author's judgment, 

 a, very sorry lot. Perhaps in despair of the advent 

 of an inspired millionaire, the reader may turn to 

 Tlic Case for Socialism (Jarrold. 192 pp. 2S. 6d. 

 net), which is \'ery forcibly and vigorously put by 

 Fred Henderson. He deals very shrewdly with cur- 

 rent objections, and is especially fierce on the argu- 

 ment that the present system is practically the only 

 one possible to human nature. 



MYSTICISM. 



Of mystical books the month has brought us full 

 store. Mr. Algernon Blackwood's T/ie Centaur (Mac- 

 millan. 6s.) is a wonderful study, by a profound 

 thinker of the material world as a living creature. 

 It is the most striking exposition of what may be 

 described as the mysticism of Nature in distinction 

 from the mysticism of theology. Another mystical 

 book is Mr. Claud Field's Mystics and Saints of 

 Islam (Griffiths. 3s. 6d.), a most instructive study 

 of famous Eastern thinkers too little known in the 

 West, whose meditations are as lofty and as spiritual 

 as anything that the Christian Church has produced. 

 Mr. kudolffe Steiner's Mystics of the Renaissanct 

 (Theo.sophical Publishing Co. 2S. 6d.) may lie read 

 as a companion volume. Common to all the mystics 

 of East and West is the consciousness of the Divine 

 Spirit that dwells in man. Of a very different class 

 is The Story of My Reincarnation, by Zivola (The 

 Century Press. 6s.). It professes to be an auto- 

 biography of the reincarnated Jesus of Nazareth, 

 who, it is asserted, is now living on earth amongst 

 men. It does not carry conviction. If the audacious 

 claim l)e ailmitted, a soul in reincarnation must be 

 liable to lose all the distinc.ti\e greatness of its pre- 

 vious existence. 



7' he A'ext Room, a tin\ \olume by Doris and 

 Hilary Severn (Constable, is.), contains a series 

 of invaluable experiences of the help given by tiie 

 Invisible upon an earthly path. Photographing the 

 Invisible, by James Coates (L. N. Fowler. 7s. 6d.), 

 is a description of personal research in this depart- 

 ment of psychic science, and contains accounts of 

 that which Boursnell, Glendinning, Colley, Wallace, 

 W. T. Stead, and others have done and thought. 

 The illustrations of alleged spirit i)hotographs are 

 numeious. The last chapter is devoted to observa- 

 tions as tothemo.st favourable conditions for psychic 

 photographv. Studies of Paul and His Gospel, 

 liy Dr. Garvie (Hodder and Stoughton. 6s.), is a 

 s<'holarly treatment of the main features of St. 

 Paul's Go.spel. Some of its statements will .scarcely 

 be acceptable to those who do not hold with St. Paul 

 in his dire<'tions alnxit women. 



