iS 
LAND & WATER 
Books to Read 
By Lucian Oldershaw 
November 30, 191 
MR. BERTRAND RUSSELL is a philosopher of 
some repute, antf as such demands our respect. 
He is also out of sympathy with the majority of 
his fellow-countrymen in the present crisis, and 
ilierefore challenges, and indeed seems to expect, a 
certain measure of obloquy. I confess that I approached 
his new book. Principles of Social Reconstruction (George 
Allen and Unwin, 6s. net), with misgi\ings bred 
of the reputation of the author. What dangerous doc- 
trines of Pro-Germanism would be found therein, pro- 
pounded with the irresistible force of Cambridge logic ? 
Would I, as a result of readmg it, be less whole-hearted 
in my support of the national elYort to burn a plague-spot 
out of Europe ? Is the book, in other words, likely to 
hinder the successful prosecution of the wai" ? 
Without attempting to decide whether in any legal 
way the book offends against the Defence of the Realm , 
Act, I should be inclined to say that the answer to the 
last question is, in the language of Westminster, in the 
negative. Mr. Russell certainly believes that the war 
is wrong, and that England was wrong in going to war. 
But he brings no comfort to the enemy whom he severely 
trounces for their crime against ci^■ilisation. Nor can 
he hope to gain any great measure of support for his 
views, since the pacitists are for the most part con- 
temptuously dismissed as men whose impulsive nature 
is atrophied, and who are thus more harmful to a nation 
c\en than those whose impulse is towards war. 
***** 
The theme wliich Mr. Russell expands in his Principles 
of Social Reconstruction is easily summarised. Men 
are m3re often moved to action by impulses than by 
conscious purpose. Impulses are of two kinds, the pos- 
sessive and the creatiye. The former are bad, and to be 
discouraged ; the latter are good and to be encouraged. 
Here is a formula that is obviously capable of wide 
ap]>lication, and Jlr. Bertrand RusseU appUes it always 
with interesting and sometimes with surprising results. 
How does he derive from it a '--ondcmnation of England's 
war policy ? He admits that GexTnany is the aggressor. 
Aggression is obviously a possessive impulse, and there- 
fore wrong, but — and here Mr. Russell leaps a chasm of 
thought where few will follow him— opposition to 
aggression is also a possessive impulse and is therefore 
also wrong. Even if that were granted, and it is an 
arguable matter, how can Mr. Russell sweep aside all the 
creative ideals which have inspired men to give up the 
final and most cherished possession of their Uves ? 
Mr. Russell se^s in an artist killed in battle simply a 
loss to civilisation, but is not this to fall into that error 
of materialism against which his whole book, where it 
has any value, is directed .' He is all for the things of 
the spirit, it would seem, but for the spirit enjoying the 
fruits of the earth. He cannot see the value of that 
most fruitful of all impulses, the impulse of self-sacrifice. 
One suspects whether he has entirely purged fiimself of 
the possessive impulse. 
***** 
After all, how much of this sort of argument is merely 
a matter of \Nords ? Mr. Russell is a master of words, but 
e\en they sometimes betray him and show, as it seems 
to me, the weak points in his theory. Let us take an 
example, almost at random. Mr. Russell is talking about 
j)roperty which, like war, is one of the obnoxious in- 
stitutions due to the possessive impulse. We look 
anxiously for his treatment of that crux of the socialists 
and the communists, the question of the minimum amount 
of property which must be individualised, if only for a 
short time, for the support of life. One would almost 
miss fiis treatment of the point in the text where 
it is dismissed in a sentence : " When we are fed and 
clothed and housed, further material goods are needed 
only for ostentation." We have read that so often- 
before that we should perhaps pass it by without further 
consideration were not attention called to it by a foot- 
note : " Except by that small minority who are capable 
of artistic enjoyment." How this footnote illuminates 
the text ! What is " ostentation " in one class, is appa- 
rently " artistic enjoyment " in another ? Are there not 
degrees of " artistic enjoyment ? " Who shall decide 
where " artistic enjoyment " ends, and " ostentation " 
begins } Of a truth this is largely a matter of words. 
We thank Mr. Russell for the stimulating interest of an 
old-fashioned academic debate, but — let us get on with 
the fighting and get it over successfully as soon as possible 
so as really to enjoy these things again. 
***** 
Here is a contrast as strong as possible to Mr. Russell's 
placid tract. Some Russian Heroes, Saints and Sinners, 
by Sonia E. Howe (Williams and Norgate, 7s. 6d. net), 
is a book of blood and thunder. It gives us a vivid 
but rather dreadful study of Russia, by means of a series 
of portraits, up to, but not including the time of Peter 
the Great. We begin with some ghmpses of the com- 
munity of traders in furs and honey in prehistoric 
times. We pass in review a scries of strange figures, 
such as St. Vladimir, Sergei, Radonejski, Ivan the Terrible, 
Yermak, and the false Dmitri, heroes, saints and sinners, 
some one, some another, some a strange blending of all 
three, all belonging to an age when human hfe was held 
of little account. We finish with the great schism in 
the Russian Church and the martyrdom of the Boyar3'iwia 
Morozov for the Old Faith. Mrs. Howe, who has made 
an interesting book out of material in wliich slie is so well 
versed, concludes with the hope " tfiat Russians of the 
present day in their loveablencss, or even in their 
apparent unreasonableness, may become better under- 
stood by their British friends, it it is borne m mind that 
they are of the same flesh and blood with the Heroes, 
Saints and Sinners portrayed in this \olume." For 
this hope to come to fruition, the reader must bring 
some faith and sympathy to the reading. 
3|( S|! !(C «|C 9|E 
In My Life and Work (John Lane, 7s. 6d. net), Mr. 
Edmund KnowlesMuspratt, who started the book in his 
eightieth year three years ago, writes a record of a life 
of useful ser\ice. Mr. Muspratt is particularly well 
known for his benefactions and other services to the 
University of Liverpool, and to the historian both of 
Liverpool (of which Mr. Muspratt gives seme interesting 
reminiscences of seventy j^cars ago), and of its University 
his book will provide much in\aluable material. Mr. 
Muspratt was as a young man, a pupil of the famous 
Baron Liebig (indeed it was to save the author's sister 
in a serious illness that the famous meat essence was in- 
vented), and both he and other members of his family 
have had a great deal to do with many of the 
developments in commercially-applied science during the 
past century. Mr. Muspratt does not, however, take a 
purely materialistic view of life, and indeed ascribes the 
surrender of the better German spirit to Prussian 
militarism, chiefly to the rapid growth of wealth that 
followed the Franco-Prussian War. He is a lover of 
the Arts, having an hereditary fondness for the stage in 
particular. We learn a great deal about the development 
of our newer centres of learning in our old centres of 
industry from this provincial celebrity, who is at the same 
time a cultured man of the world. His book has also 
considerable political interest. 
***** 
Every week now brings its volume of poems— one of 
the most significant facts of the war. There is usually, too, 
something worth noting in each volume. Mr. E. Vine 
Hall, as The Last Line (T. Fisher Unwin,' 2s. 6d. net) 
shows, has the lyrical impulse without much originaUty 
either of thought or expression, but he gives us two or 
three poems on flying that are worth lingering over. 
Less ordinary are the poems, chiefly in Lincolnshire 
dialect, in Mr. Bernard Gilbert's War Workers (Erskine, 
Macdonald, is. 6d. and 2s. 6d. net). Here we see the 
war as it affects the rustic mind, and there is some true 
pathos and humour, together with some very savage 
.satire, in several of these verses. I particiflarly like the 
countryman's dirge for his pal, Nichol Bee. 
A: 
