180 REVIEWS OF RECENT BOOKS 



from the currents of modern life. There was considerable risk, there 

 were hardships and inconveniences : there were a few surprises, which 

 Mr. Kent shares with the reader. In so doing he will spend a very- 

 pleasant hour or two : and will experience in imagination the wide and 

 arid deserts — houses reeking with foul smells, and other varieties in- 

 cident on travel. 



Tartary has always had a fascination for men. It was once very- 

 great. Its past splendours still cast a glamour over men. Readers of 

 Coleridge will remember how his imagination was touched. 



Actually there is nothing left of this ancient grandeur not even a 

 vestige — except it be some skulls and bricks and desolation. The 

 student of history ought to be able to draw some very interesting 

 lessons from all this. Mr. Kent gives us a short historical introduction, 

 and then proceeds to tell us of his plans and difficulties and how he 

 went on his way. He gives us a racy description of the journey and 

 tells us a good deal of the social life of the Mongols : — the people, 

 their habits and manners : the dress they wear : their aversion to* 

 water : prevalence of rheumatism. Education is very backward. Few 

 can read and write. There are no facilities. With the remarks on the 

 language and the script (page 38) the reader should consult H. H. 

 Howorth's "History of the Mongols." 



The climate of course is cold and rigorous ; but it isn't quite so- 

 obvious why "the Mongols have neither trained nor aggressive minds." 

 Slackness marks the whole race. Morality is loose and indifferent. 

 The people's mode of life encourage a bad condition of things. Their 

 w T eddings are ordinary, the treatment of the dead atrocious. The- 

 prisons are in an awful state. Where is the reformer? There is an 

 urgent call for a drastic betterment of the prisoner. The very fact that 

 the country is so sparsely populated and that they have so much room 

 to move in is one of the causes of their present backward state. We 

 cordially commend this excellent book. The illustrations are good. 

 The price is $6.00. 



Recherches sur les Superstitions en Chine. III. Partie, Tome XIV. 

 Le Confuceisme. Le P. Henri Dore, S.J. Imprimerie de la- 

 Mission Catholique, Shanghai, 1919. $5.00. 606 pages, 70 plates. 

 This volume is fully worthy of its predecessors, although it comes 

 rather as a shock to find "The Doctrine of Confucianism" ranked as &• 

 sub-heading for a work on Superstition. Surely a superstition is a 

 belief which has survived only in uncritical minds, or by mere inertia? 

 Can this really be said of Confucianism save from a partizan stand- 



