DISCOVERY 



307 



if somewhat dry textbook for the earlier part of an 

 Honours Course in any Uni\-ersity ; but we fear it will 

 rather " put the beginner off." Anything more terrifying 

 than Fig. 8, a diagrammatic plan of the view of the 

 human skull, could hardly be imagined. The illustra- 

 tions are numerous and, on the whole, good ; but some of 

 them are very diagrammatic. One merit the book 

 •certainly has, and that is its moderate cost. 



A. E. Shipley. 



MISCELLANEOUS BOOKS 



All Intyoduction to the History of England, 1815-18S0. 

 By C. R. L. Fletcher. (John ^lurray, 3s. bd.) 



Dr. Fletcher makes so engaging an apology for writing — 

 to wit, the pleasure of scribbling — that we are straightway 

 heartened to face with him the tortuous political history 

 of the years 1815-1880. 



Though he declares of Sir Charles Schuster and the Rev. 

 Henry Johnson, who read the book in typescript, that 

 " each is equally anxious to disclaim any responsibility 

 for the opinions of the writer," we cannot believe that 

 many people would find fault with the following state- 

 ment of his estimate of the whole period : " The ideal 

 history of the last hundred years would be one in which 

 Simpson and l~araday would be of more account than 

 Peel, Darwin and Kelvin than Gladstone or Disraeli." 

 Indeed, the belief in the unimportance of the politician is 

 the popular view in most circles to-day ; there is even a 

 danger of too great a reaction in this direction. It may 

 be forgotten that though the statesman would do well to 

 draw a moral from the story of King Canute and realise 

 his impotence over the tide of progress, he is nevertheless 

 capable of an important discretion in the building of piers 

 and houses. 



But although there is so little danger that the import- 

 ance of the modern statesman will be over-estimated, we 

 still have an exaggerated reverence for the " Great 

 Reformers " and the " Victorian Statesmen." Most 

 of us have been so frankly bored by the period that we 

 were only too willing to admire all the reformers and their 

 reforms vaguely and leave it at that. Dr. Fletcher does 

 succeed in disentangling the various personalities and 

 presenting them fairly to us as human beings. He even 

 dissipates the atmosphere of irritated awe with which some 

 men regard the Pope by such casual remarks as, " the 

 Pope, who, poor man, had recently consoled himself for 

 the loss of his last temporal possession, the city of Rome, 

 by declaring himself infallible." 



Dr. Fletcher has taken the period in considerable detail, 

 covering some four hundred and seventy pages, and 

 possibly the student who makes his first acquaintance with 

 the period may find such detail confusing. But those 

 who have even the vaguest knowledge of the personali- 

 ties with whom he deals should find the book of real 

 interest. It is almost a duty at the moment to become 

 familiar with the years that followed the Napoleonic wars. 

 Wliile we may have but little admiration for the scrambling 

 reforms into which the statesmen of the period were 

 forced by the facts of social progress, we cannot but 

 sympathise with their post-war difficulties. " If you take 



a file of any newspaper to-day and compare it with a file 

 of The Times of those years, you will see much the same 

 sort of remedies for present discontents — including a 

 repudiation of the National Debt." The analogy between 

 the position of Germany to-day and France then is too 

 close not to have a lesson for us in dealing with the problem 

 of Reparations. Then as now England was at some pains 

 to urge the practical advantages of making a defeated 

 enemy work as against the barren joy of sitting on the 

 said enemy's head. Further, " the position of Russia was 

 not unlike America, 1918-19 ; she had come compara- 

 tively late and unwilling into the war of which Britain 

 and Austria had for many years borne the brunt ; but the 

 accidents of her geography and her climate enabled her 

 to ruin Napoleon." Her advantageous position further 

 enabled her with England to force reasonable terms for 

 France from the other Allies. The trade revival made 

 possible by this settlement is an excellent illustration of 

 the fact that the quality of mercy " blesseth him that 

 gives and him that takes." 



It remains to be seen whether the present League of 

 Nations will meet the fate of that " sort of League of 

 Nations," the Holy Alliance. There is room for hope 

 in the fact that science has made a more intimate know- 

 ledge and understanding of our neighbours possible. 

 Further, the scientific mind and subsequent attitude 

 towards life is daily becoming more common, and as the 

 author says : " An entire devotion to any branch of 

 Natural Science probably leads to the happiest life of 

 which a man is capable. ... In the pure and rarefied 

 atmosphere which they breathe the horrors of politics 

 pass unheeded, the zeal for discovery swallows up the lust 

 for fame, and little room is left for personal, and none for 

 international, jealousy." E. L. M. P. 



Below the Snow Line. By Dougl.\s \V. Freshfield, 

 D.C.L. (Constable & Co., Ltd.) 



A former president of the Alpine Club and Royal 

 Geographical Society and a mountaineer in the Caucasus, 

 Italian Alps, and Himalayas, describes with much 

 colour and erudition climbs and adventurous wanderings 

 in the IMaritime Alps, Corsica, the Apennines, North 

 Africa, and elsewhere. 



The Elephant ^lan and Other Reminiscences. Bv Sir 

 Frederick Treves. (CasseU, ys. 6d.) 



This book may please lovers of abnormal and morbid 

 subjects. It struck the reviewer as neither a work of art 

 nor as a piece of entertaining reading. 



A Fairy-tale of the Sea. By M.^cleod Ye.\rsley. 

 (Watts & Co., is. bd.) 



This is an attractive little book which may amuse and 

 instruct (a little) the very young. Just the thing to 

 while away a wet day at the seaside or a too hot day when 

 even paddUng paUs, and nothing but a " stor}'," with 

 head in shade and feet in a pool, can pacify the day's 

 fretfulness. 



The author should reaUse, however, that itahcs in 

 excess reveal the prentice hand ; and that a too colloquial 



