The Reviews Reviewed. 



401 



THE CONTEMPORARY REVIEW. 



A GOOD numliir ihis, lur April. Soim ut its excellent 

 papers are noticed elsewhere. Mr. H. W. Horwill 

 explains vvl.y. in his opinion, the Anglo-American 

 Arbitration Treaty without the Joint Commission 

 clause is not worth proceeding with, but his argument 

 does not carry conviction. Principal Forsyth, in his 

 slightly ponderous style, discourses on " Liberty and 

 its Limits in the Church." The Hon. Stephen Coleridge 

 exults over the fact that the Royal Commission on 

 Vivisection refused all demands to extend the licence 

 accorded to vivisectors, and only recommended addi- 

 tional restrictions. Mrs. Daunccy writes on " Easter in 

 a Philippine Town " ; and Professor Parker tells us 

 the history of the Manchus. The most interesting and 

 suggestive paper is that in which Mrs. J. A. Hobson 

 tells us how she was led by her own difficulty in 

 educating her daughter — an " unpractical bookworm " 

 — (or the duties of motherhood to see the need of a 

 mission for mothers. She says ; — 



I sent ipy ilaughler lo four different places for what I had hoped 

 to find under one roof. .She worked for several months in the 

 workroom of a AVest-end dressmaker ; she took a three-months' 

 course at Mrs. Buck's Housekeeping School at Malvern, 

 supplemented by cookery classes in London ; she taught the 

 younger children for a term at her old school ; and, last of all, 

 spent several months at a Cottage Hospital. 



She even defines with minute details how to start and 

 conduct home schools for mothers in country villages. 

 In the literary section there is a paper describing the 

 visions of Heaven indulged in by Augustine^ Dante, 

 Thomas ii Kempis, and Chaucer. 



THE WORLD'S WORK. 



The article un farming by dynamite has claimed 

 separate notice. 



Mr. Arthur James deals with the menace of feminism 

 in a singularly feminine way. He wisely warns anti- 

 suffragists that they make a great mistake when they 

 enter on argument, and also when they produce women 

 upon platforms. " The case against woman's suffrage," 

 he says, " does not rest upon argument, but upon an 

 intuitive perce|)tion," upon the evils of the defeminisa- 

 tion of woman and the emasculation of man. " The 

 thing is unnatural and horrible ; and that is all there 

 is lo say about it." Surely this is the last ditch. 



" The Air Above," as explored by recent science, is 

 the subject of a paper by Mr. C. F. Talman. The 

 atmospheric sounding is effected by means of balloons, 

 by which it has been discovered that after about six 

 and a half miles the fall in temperature abruptly 

 ceases, and ociasionally a rise in temperature occurs. 

 But colder air is found over the Equator than an\- 

 wherc else in the world. The lowest temjicrature ever 

 recorded, 119 degrees below zero (Fahrenheit), was 

 found at a height of twelve miles above the heart of 

 Africa. The first aeronautical weather bureau was 

 founded in Germany at the beginning of it;ii. Every 

 morning between seven and eight, at fourteen stations 

 scattercil over the German Empire, the movement of 

 the upper air currents is observed by small free 

 l)all<)ons. So the science of aerology is advancing. 



There's money in pigs. Such is the impression left 

 by " Home Counties " in writing on " John Bull's 

 Breakfast Bacon." The total of pig products imported 

 into this country has dropped from over seven millions 

 hundredweight in 1908 to under fiye millions in 1910. 

 Yet the price was nearly the same. " There is scarcity 

 in pigs throughout the world, because people are get- 

 ting better off." The writer says there never was a 

 time when the outlook for well-considered agricultural 

 co-operative proposals was more hopeful than is the 

 case just now. There is plenty of room for bacon 

 factories in England. 



With the aid of pictures by Alfred A. Wolmark, 

 John Rivers tells us what is post-impressionism, or, 

 as he prefers to call it, pre-Hellenism. The Egvptian 

 ideal was totally eclipsed by the artistic genius of the 

 Greeks. But pre-Hellenists insist that the Egyptians 

 had grasped an important artistic conception which 

 the Greeks overlooked. The pre-Hellenist picture 

 presents a perfectly flat appearance. Imitation of 

 reality is conceived not as a goal but as a point of 

 departure. The outlines of objects, as in a stained 

 glass window, are defined by a thick black line. There 

 is a complete absence of graduated tones. 



Wood from straw is an important development 

 invented by Mr. Louis Carre and described by Mr. 

 Frank Xorlon. The wisps of straw are cut lengthwise 

 into three pieces, then cooked with chemicals, then 

 subjected to immense pressure. So manufactured, the 

 artificial wood is produced in a continuous length of 

 any thickness. It saws well and planes well, but 

 requires sharper tools. Matches are made in this way. 

 In the cereal countries, where wood is scarce, this 

 process will be very useful in providing fuel. 



HISPANIA. 



The .\pril number of this Spanish-American journal 

 contains many interesting articles covering a wide 

 range of subjects. A writer on the tragedy of France 

 considers that as the numerical element is the one 

 that decides all questions in the long run, the outlook 

 is pretty hopeless for the Republic. Mr. James Douglas 

 writes on " The Coal Strike," pointing out that it 

 marks a transition from the old slate of things to a 

 new — from a slate based on brutal competition to one 

 which must guarantee to each citizen a fair share in 

 the amenities of life. .Mr. Cunninghame-Graham gives 

 the fourth article in his series on " Lite on the .Vrgentine 

 Pampas," telling how cattle were handled bv the 

 cowboys there in the old days. Mr. I-^nrique Perez 

 writes again on the fraternity of Spanish-speaking 

 countries, ;ind suggests an International Congress of 

 students which would arrange an exchange of pro- 

 fessors and students between the different Spanish 

 universities throughout the Spanish-speaking world. 

 This would seem to be a f^ood idea to promote better 

 understanding between the republics of South .America 

 and Spain. Professor Lammasch, the well-known 

 Austrian jurist, writes in strong approval of Sei'ior 

 (le Manos-.Mbas's " .Manifesto to the American 

 Kepubli<s," which appeared in a previous number. 



