The Reviews Reviewed. 



187 



I THE OCCULT MAGAZINES. 

 The Hindu Spiri/iui/ Magazine publishes an account 

 of a fire test which took place on July 3rd, 1909. 

 The account is written by Mr. Babu Prankumar 

 Ghose, Deputy Magistrate. Mr. Ghose describes 

 what took place in his presence. A fire was built in 

 a hole in the ground that was about twelve feet long 

 and nine inches deep. After the fire had burnt for 

 an hour and a half the hole was full of glowing char- 

 coal, and the heat was so intense as to be uncomfort- 

 able at a distance of fifteen feet. Thakur Taranikanta 

 came upon the scene barefooted : — 



He stood for a short time with his face towards the fire, and then 

 entered the blazing pyre, while pronouncing some incantations. 

 The flames covered him up to the waist, and the spectators were 

 struck with amazement at the wonderful sight, and began to 

 resound the place with the shouts of " Horibola." The Thakur 

 crossed the fire four times from south to north and from north 

 to south, again from west to east and from east to west, and 

 then came down from it on a side, .'\fter this his disciples took 

 the dust of bis feet and crossed the fire one by one. 



The Indian then invited any of those present to 

 share his experience. The ^Iagistrate with some 

 friends volunteered. Mr. Ghose thus describes his 

 own experience : — 



The Thakur came up and touched the head of every one of us 

 with his hand. At his touch we felt as if our whole frame were 

 completely cooled down and an inexpressible joy was given rise 

 to in our minds. We then got upon the pyre and gently crossed 

 the fire two or three times. It was wonderful ! The fire had, 

 as it were, lost its [lowcr. \Vc were in the midst of that fire 

 whose heat had been fell unbearable from a distance ! Could 

 it be that the burning power of the fire had been completely 

 destroyed? My friend thus made a test of it. lie had some 

 pieces of paper in his pocket. One of these was thrown into 

 the fire and was reduced to ashes in a moment. 



Mr. Morley Adams contributes to T.F.'s Magazine 

 for January an illustrated paper on "Water Wizardry," 

 in which he describes the mystery of the divining rod. 

 Mr. Adams, being an honest man, has come to the 

 same conclusion which every other honest man ha? 

 arrived at. He takes pains to investigate the fact 

 that the divining rod in the hands of a " dowser " can 

 locate water and minerals. Mr. Adams was present 

 at the tests to which Mr. Child, of Ipswich, was sub- 

 jected, and these e.xpcriments seemed to be quite 

 conclusive. 



T.P.'S MAGAZINE. 

 T.P.'s Magazine for January is an interesting bright 

 number. I notice the articles upon " The Young 

 Tories" and "The Railway Juggernaut " elsewhere. 

 Mr. Harold Macfarlane, the writer of a brief paper on 

 Monte Carlo, indulges in a variety of ingenious cal- 

 culations which enable us to realise the significance 

 of the fact that the gross receipts of Monte Carlo 

 amount to a million and a half per annum, or 

 jCS 15s. for each minute of the twelve hours working 

 day. The takings of Monte Carlo exceed the com- 

 bined incomes of the United Free Church of .Scotland 

 and the Presbyterian Church of Ireland by over a 

 hundred thousand poimds. There is a charmingly 

 illustrated p.ijxir on " .Some Bridges in (Jreat Britain." 

 Stamp collectors will turn with much interest to Mr. 



Barry Perre's article on " The Romance of Philately," 

 and the social reformer will find much to interest him 

 in the article on " The Problem of Prison Labour." 



THE RUSSIAN REVIEW. 



I AM delighted to welcome the appearance of a new- 

 half-crown quarterly, under the title of the Jiussian 

 Revie7i\ which is to be published for the pur- 

 pose of keeping the English public au courant with 

 Russian politics, history, literature, and art. It is edited 

 by Bernard Pares, Maurice Baring, and Samuel N. 

 Harper, and published by Thomas Nelson and Sons. A 

 brief editorial address states the objects of the 

 publication, and says that those who know and love 

 Russia are convinced that the wonderfully human 

 genius of this great people is destined to have a far 

 greater influence on the life and thought of Europe, 

 and to teach many lessons which Europe will be glad 

 to learn from it. The Review aims at making ac- 

 cessible to the English public the works and views on 

 various subjects of Russians of divers opinions, and 

 thus at giving some perspective of that enormous 

 Empire ; hoping that it may thus help to acquaint the 

 English public with Russia's work in art, science, litera- 

 ture and politics, both in the past and in the present. 



The first number opens with an essay by Sir D. M. 

 Wallace, in which he surveys the forty years that have 

 lapsed since he first visited Russia. There are two 

 articles dealing with the new land settlement in Russia 

 — one by Sergius Shidlovsky, and the other by Bernard 

 Pares. Mr. Harold Williams writes on " The 

 National Problem of Russia," and Mr. A. Shingarev 

 contributes a very solid article upon " The Reform of 

 Local Finance in Russia." The only literary article 

 is one by Mr. Aylmer Maude on Count Tolstoy, 

 which seems to^nie more balanced and just than 

 when he wrote on Tolstoy when he was alive. The 

 following passage illustrates what I mean : — 



I cannot help thinking that if Tolstoy had realised tliat sex 

 and property are in the world for some other end than to be 

 tabooed, and that, great as arc the evils that beset them, these 

 may be outweighed by the good that comes of their right use, 

 he might have presented his main thesis, that man is here on 

 earth to straighten the crooked paths, to smooth the tough 

 places, and to prepare a highway for his God, even more con- 

 vincingly and powerfully than he did present it. 



Altogether the Review, although a tride heavy, is a 

 valuable addition to our periodical literature. 



Blackwood. 

 TnK. February number is'.fuU of readable and enter- 

 taining matter. Three articles have been separately 

 noticed. " Musings Without Method " speaks very 

 contemptuously of Rcinhardt's " CEdipus " at Covent 

 Garden. " A lost letter of ancient Rome," purporting 

 to be from Cicero to Atticus, amtisingly describes 

 modern statesmen under the transparent disguises of 

 Clodius, Pompcy, Brutus, etc. Granville Sharp draws 

 largely from Paulsen's reminiscences of Ibsen in 

 1876 to 1881, in which the great dramatist is seen in 

 many lights. There are the usual interesting papers 

 from the outposts of Em[)ire. 



