64 



REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 



March 1, 1913. 



ships would have to make a deviation 

 from the regular line, but the advantages 

 would outweigh the disadvantages of 

 such a small deviation. All Dutch 

 steamers would naturally use the har- 

 bour, for coal and water could be ob- 

 tained. The harbour at present is not 

 ready for such a large increase as may 

 be expected, but it can be enlarged. 

 "The Earliest History of the Jews" 

 gives some readable details concerning 

 the Israelites in Holland, where they do 

 not appear to have taken up their abode 

 until the fourteenth century, although 

 they had settled in surrounding coun- 

 tries much earlier, and Holland was a 

 trading nation that would attract such 

 shrewd merchants. The writer supplies 

 what seems to be good evidence that the 

 Jews were there long prior to the four- 

 teenth century and that there were 

 Jewish persecutions in Holland in 1146 



and 1 1 7 1 



tempt to construct a theory of the true 

 measurement (or the value) of words ; 

 the writer gives tables showing how a 

 word first strikes us as we see the thing 

 it represents (as a tree) and the poetisa- 

 tion of the word and its general eleva- 

 tion into something almost divine. The 

 Balkan war forms the peg on which to 

 hang an account of the Balkan States 

 (the number of their inhabitants, their 

 respective areas and trade), the history 

 of the different nations and the ambi- 

 tions of the people. Another contribu- 

 tion consists of a somewhat poetical 

 description of the mountains in the 

 neighbourhood of the River Manzanares, 

 concerning which river a writer said long 

 ago that the nroper time to see Madrid 

 was when there was "not a drop of 

 water in the Manzanares." The scenery 

 and the river, as described by the author 

 of this article, are magnificent. 



THE SPANISH REVIEWS. 



Espana Moderna contains an article 

 on the " Incapacity of the Spaniards," 

 in which the writer explains the present 

 conditions in his country. It is often 

 said, and very gUbly, that Spaniards 

 are behind in science, industry, art, and 

 what not, and that they are incapable 

 nowadays of anything great ; by all this 

 is meant that Spaniards are decadent. 

 As a matter of fact, the Spanish people 

 are as capable as most others, but there 

 is a rise and fall, a time when talent is 

 seen everywhere and a time when there 

 is little or none. Spain is now in the 

 trough of the sea, while Germany (with 

 whom she is frequently compared in an 

 vm favourable manner) is on the crest of 

 the wave. Spain will have her time 

 again. In the essays on " Modern 

 America " we have some facts about 

 South American Imperialism ; it is not 

 at all like the European variety, and 

 is in reality an instinctive consolidation 

 for protection against North American 

 and European dangers. The A B C of 

 South America is the rapprochement of 

 Argentina, Brazil and Chili. 



In La Lectiira we have the continua- 

 tion of the article on Logometry, an at- 



THE BRITISH REVIEW. 



W'e welcome the first ntmiber of the 

 British Review, which absorbs the Ox- 

 ford and Cambridge Review, and bids 

 fair to rival the established reviews in 

 its breadth of view and attainment of a 

 human level of sympathy and useful- 

 ness. 



The editor, Mr. Richard Johnson 

 Walker, is to be congratulated upon his 

 team, and the writers upon their ordered 

 restraint, for the workaday reader soon 

 tires of the false values of inflated style 

 and topsy-turvy strictures on men and 

 things which are merely clever. 



We notice the articles by Mr. Gibbs 

 and Mr. Litchfield Woods in another 

 column, but these by no means exhaust 

 the good things. Sir Arthur Quiller- 

 Couch touches a pleasing chord with his 

 " If Every Face were Friendly," from 

 which we cannot forbear to quote the 

 closing paragraph : — 



The sliorlest way to this would seem to be by 

 living bravely, loving where we can, dealing cour- 

 teously, endeavouring to give our adversaries 

 credit for good intentions. No one — if men were 

 frank — can give us sixpennyworth of information 

 concerning any other world we may inhabit; but 

 there's a pleasure in leaving a name to call up, 

 when m^en happen to remember it, a certain 

 light in the eyes and the impulsive words, " I 

 wish you had known him I" 



