The Reviews Reviewed. 



79 



THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. 



The first half of the North American Rrciew for 

 December is almost entirely concerned with the 

 discussion of problems local to the American con- 

 tinent, such as " The Anti-Trust Law," " Can the 

 Republican Party Reform ? " " The Inter-State Com- 

 merce Commission," etc. There are two papers on 

 " Canada's Conservative Policies "—one by J. Castell 

 Hopkins, and the other is a rejoinder by the Editor. 

 There is also a paper on " The Industrial Problem in 

 America," by .Mr. Andrew Carnegie, which is noticed 

 elsewhere, as also is Mr. Bonsai's paper on the 

 Manchus. 



Mr. O. R. Howard Thomson gives an interesting 

 sketch of the Russian author .\ndreyev's new version 

 of the Faust legend in " Anathema," which Mr. 

 Thomson thinks is an interpretation of the old legend 

 in the thought of the day. His Spirit of Evil is the 

 mouthpiece of the modern school who attack revela- 

 tion in the Christian code. Anathema is the name 

 of his Mephistopheles, and his Faust is called David 

 Leizer. Anathema tempts Leizer to distribute the 

 whole of his riches among the poor, with the result 

 that the poor, after having taken everything he had to 

 give them, demand still more. As he is unable to 

 work miracles at their demand they stone him to death. 

 Nevertheless, David attains immortality, and lives for 

 ever in the deathlessness of light which is life. 



Another interesting paper is Miss F. L. Ravenel's 

 criticism of the work of Arvede Barine, the pseudonym 

 of Madame Charles Vincens, who died in 1908, who 

 was a moralist and interpreter and a j>ai)iter of por- 

 traits in words. The article is entitled " A Woman 

 Critic of Women." 



London Quarterly Review. 



The January i-sue contains a number of valu- 

 able papers, but none that lend themselves to citation. 

 Dr. J. H. Moulton glorifies Dr. Frazer's "Golden 

 Bough." Dr. Frazer's own beliefs, he says, are not 

 these of orthodo.\ Christianity, but he is no foe to 

 true religion. Mr. Brailsford indulges in a pa;an 

 over the growing sense of the human race as a cor- 

 porate unity. Mr. W'aterhouse welcomes the increas- 

 ingly recognised kinship of St. Paul to Greek thought 

 as a Divinely intended combination. Mr. F. W. O. 

 Waid treats of conversion as a p.sychological fact, 

 more and more recognised as a fact by open-minded 

 men of science. 'I'here are leviews of the lives of the 

 Duke of Devonshire, John Ruskin, Frederic Harrison, 

 Charles Dickens. 



In the Get\i;raf-hical Journal for December Miss 

 Ida \mv brings to light the achievements of a for- 

 gotten navigator. Sir John Hayes, who followed, 

 quite unconsciou>ly, on the heels of d'Entrecasteau.x 

 in the exploration of New Caledonia and Tasmania. 

 Sir John was evidently the first to enter the opemngs 

 <if the reef, and to anchor off the west coast. 



THE FORUM. 



The Forum for December is chiefly notable for 



two papers, separately noticed — Horace Traubel's 



reminiscences of \Valt Whitman's conversation, and 



Sydney Brooks on patriotism in England and .\merica. 



QUIET ZONES FOR SCHOOLS. 



Mrs. I. L. Rice pleads earnestly for the urgent 

 need of protecting the young from the injurious eft'ect 

 of outside noise. The Society for the Suppression of 

 Unnecessary Noise brought this question to the 

 attention of the educational and health boards, and 

 has evoked a very great upflaming of interest. 

 Hospital zones of quiet were created several years 

 ago, and it is now hoped that there will be school 

 zones. In one case it is said that the noise robs 

 class and teachers of twenty-five per cent, of their 

 time. The work of both pupils and teachers would 

 be increased in efificiency and made easy by quietude. 

 She advocates, first, removal of all rough pavements 

 and the substitution of sound-deadening material, pre- 

 ferably wood : second, the diversion of traffic, when 

 practicable, between the hours of 8.30 and 3.30 ; 

 third, the car-line should be kept in order ; and the 

 prohibition of rapid driving, cries of hucksters, blow- 

 ings of auto horns. The reader is led on to reflect how 

 very much better it would be if every school were sur- 

 rounded by its school garden, which would automatic- 

 ally deaden the sound from the streets ! It would be 

 an admirable investment of public money. 



Miss .\nna (iarlin S|)encer dilates upon the advan- 

 tages of the lady in ancient and in modern times. 



Cornhill. 



Sir Algernon Wesi's character sketch of Lord 

 James of Hereford, Sir Henry Lucy's exposure of 

 Disraeli's plagiarism, and Thackeray's poem in praise 

 of wine, have been separately noticed. Sir James 

 Yoxall gives a very vivid description of the last day 

 of Louis XV^L, who was executed on January 21st, 

 1793. He insists that the accounts given by the 

 King's priest were written up and suggested much 

 that was very iniprobable in the conduct and con- 

 versation of the dull, slow, stodgy, bourgeois king. 

 Paul Bourget pictures a Christmas Eve under the 

 Terror, when a French Duke and Duchess, the latter 

 with a babe one day old, escaped from the clutches 

 of the Jacobins. Miss D. V. Horace-Smith describes 

 life in a truant school. 



" In the Protestant religion there is no priesthood. 

 There are ministers of religion who sometimes call 

 themselves priests, but they are merely lecturers or 

 social entertainers, and exercise no spiritual authority 

 over members of their flock, unless these members 

 happen to be quite poor |xople." So says Constance 

 Clyde, writing in EiUt and //Vj/on " Roman Catholi 

 cism : England's Coming Religion." 



