iS 
LAND & WATER 
December 13, 191/ 
Books of the Week 
Last Words on Great Issues. By J. Beattii; Croziek. 
I.L.D. ('li;ipm;in c\ Hall. lOs. 6d. net. 
TheCompiete Despatches of Lord French, 1914-1916, 
("iuipni^ii .'iiif! H>ill. i-td. -'IS. lilt. 
A German Deserter's War Experience, (irant Richards. 
3s. net. 
Vse Victis. Bv An.\me\'iv.\nti Cii.vrtres. Edward Arnold. 
C>>. net. 
World Without End.' Rv W. !•:. Crisp. J. M, Ouscloj' 
and Son. ()s. 
HERE are a rolUrtion of essays vvliicli will delight 
th" thonelitful n-adcr. Already, Ix^forc tho war 
Dr. Crozier mentions that si^ns were discernible 
that materialism was on the wane, and the scien- 
tific explanation of life and the causes of life, of which Darwin 
and Herbert Spencer were the chief prophets, was no longer 
linding general acceptance. 
.And now what do we Ihmj imu.in .- Spencer's philosophy 
is said to be dead, great as was its colossal supcrstructiirc, 
and its real power : and yet, in my judgment, there is scarcely 
a divi.sion r)f it in which he cannot give all of ns " points" 
even yet. Darwin's basis has been siiper.seded in tmn by 
the once despised Butler; and as for the .-icadeniical dons 
who in the old days listened to the lightest, whispers front 
( lermany as if they were oracles, they are now seen flyi4ig 
front them as from a pestilence, and, like St. Peter, denying 
that they had ever known them. 'I'lie old academical political 
economy, too, which entrenches it.self on the free trade princi- 
ples of John Stuart .'Mill and Marshall, has not only been 
suspended during the war, but, in my judgment, has gone, 
never to return — imtil the conditions, summarised in the 
article in these" l-ast Words," are realised. 
" Last Words," we take it, is not to be accepted too seriously, 
for Dr. Crozier still writes with all the \'igour and bright- 
ness of youth. His trouncing of Mr. Wells and Mr. Wells's 
tiieological writings is as good sport as we hav.e come across 
on a jirinted page for a long time. Nor does he spare Sir 
Oliver Lodge for his exctn-sions into spiritualism. On both, 
these popular subjects he brings rare common sense and con- 
suminate irony to l)ear, never lacks courage, and his thrusts 
strike home. Im]X'rial c}uestions also interest him ; tliere is 
an essay on the Canadian tariff, whicli, though controversial, 
is tilled with important facts. T/ic (iovernment oj India 
Prohlem was written just after the Delhi Durbar, and is an 
acute comparison Ivtween the Roman Empire and the l^ritish 
Empire as exemplified in, our dominion over India. 
When the war is over, and official and other liistories of 
the w-ar are being prepared, much consideration will be given 
to the contents of the books, but probably little to the form. 
This important matter has received evident attention in this 
\olume of Lord Erench's Despatches, and tlie result is a book 
that can he handled and read with pleasure. The tyjw, paper, 
size and binding are altogether excellent, and form a model 
that others will lx> wise to follovv. 
The book contains the Complete Despat'clies and the names 
of al! those "mentioned," also many excellent maps and 
jwrtraits. The despatches themselves give the wonderful 
record of " l-'rench's Contemptible little army," and tell 
in the simple and straightforward language of the Commander- 
in-Chief the finest 'story of British anns. Reading these 
despatches again in the light of recent knowledge, one is 
filled with astonishment and admiration for the greatness of 
the achievement. It is a story that will live for ever, and it 
IS well that it has been produced in sucli an excellent manner. 
The edition is limited to five hundred copies, wliich seems a 
pity, as there are sure to be many thousands who will want 
the 1x)ok both for its military, historic and personal value. 
***** 
According to an unsigned preface the author of A German 
Deserter's War Experience escaped from Germany and militarv 
service after fourteen months of fighting in Erance ; he is 
said to bt^ an intelligent young miner, the book itself deals 
with the first advance into Belgium and Erance, the battle 
of the Marne and tlie trench warfare that succeeded it. Many 
jiassages are singularly renu'niscent of Steplien Crane's book. 
/ he Red Bad'^e of Courage. Tiierc is little in it that might not 
]|,1^■e been wTitten by any soldier in anv war except that now 
and again we come across passages like the following : " I 
am feeling convinced of how little the soldiers can be held 
responsible for the brutalities which all of them commit, to 
\vhatever nation they belong. They are no longer civilised 
human beings, they are simply bloodthirsty brutes, for other- 
wise they would Ix; bad, very bad soldiers." This is, of 
course, a specious failsehood, but Germany has been endea- 
vouring for some months past to use this verj' plea as an 
excuse for the State policy of " frightfulness," seeing that 
" frightfulness " failed to accomplish its purpose. The 
jiideoiis atrocities of the German Army from the early months 
of the war have been almost excelled by the cold-blooded 
brutalities and a'bominations of the (lerman military autho- 
rities in the later px'riod,s() that this excuse carries no w'eight. 
But it is curious to find it so strongly expressed in this German 
deserter's lx)ok. The writer gets leave, obtains civil clothes, 
and after risks manages to get across the Dutch frontier, 
finally finding his way to America as a stowaway on a pas- 
senger steamer. He ends by saying that he has entered the 
ranks of American .Socialism, to extirpate capital. It would 
be interesting to know what he has been doing in the land 
of his adoption since the United States entered the war . 
* « * * . * 
Vce Victis, by Annie Vivanti Chartres, is the story of 
two women of eastern Belgium and of a little girl, daughter 
of one of the women. It is tlie story, too, of the first German 
thrust toward Liege, and thus a story of outrage and rapine. 
As a novel, it is altogether too horrible, although the author 
has lightened it as mucii as possible ; as a tract, that men 
and women of this country may realise and remember what 
Germans did in Belgium, it is a very valuable piece of work, 
and one for which its writer deserves hearty thanks. Eor 
the long series of outrages against all law that have followed 
on the initial crime of Belgium, although they have not sufficed 
to cover the fact that Germany put necessity above the law 
of humanity at the outset, have, to a certain extent, blunted 
our realisation of all that Belgium gave in defence of honour. 
Here, in the fate of one family, is an epitome of the cost of 
the Belgian defiance of Germany, a record by which we may ^ 
realise how much was taken from those people who once 
lived beyond and about Liege, for many of \\'hom — old and 
voung alike — life ended in the first week of August, 1914. 
It may be urged that this story is not true, and in the strictest 
sense of the word that may be so, but that facts to parallel 
the story can be found is equally true. Considering it purely 
as a novel, it is very dramatic work — but we prefer to con- 
sider it as a book that should be produced wherever a 
pacifist dare to raischis voice, for it would be difficult to 
find a better antidote to the efforts toward a German peace. 
***** 
There arc over six hundred pages in World Without End, 
by W. E. Crisp ; if there had been about half as many the 
story would probably have been far more convincing. The 
aiithor is concerned mainly with elementary spiritualism, and 
with the fact that the essential ego can never really know 
itself in this life, since its true perceptions are clouded by 
the purely human desires that arise from occupation of an 
earthly body. It is a present-day story, dealing with the 
iniquity of Germany, and not devoid ofa good deal of dra- 
matic incident, though undue diffusencss rather militates 
against the effects of otherwise striking scones. 
()nc very good point that the author makes is the way in 
which the Scandinavian nations stood by and watched, 
knowing full ^vell the enormity of the German crime. Yet, 
lor their own safety, the Scandinavian nations could have 
done little else. Mr. Crisp, however, is not concerned with 
expediencies, but with straightforward rights and wrongs, 
and one thing to be said for his book is that it takes the reader 
right out from twentieth-century materialism, in which 
profit and loss count for more than anything else, to the 
land of dreamers who put ideals first— the book is not life 
as it is, but life as it ought to be. This view is ex- 
pressed through purely material happenings ; although 
the author deals with spiritualistic phenomena, he does it 
fairly sanely and without undue stress. 
The main fault of the work is the pressing need for condensa- 
tion, and understanding of the fact that trifles only count when 
they are relevant to character development or plot develop- 
inent. The publishers emphasise the fact that this is a " full- 
dress novel " : We would that some of the superfluous 
clothing had been removed hcloxQ the manuscript went to 
the printer, and, with that for cavilling, willinglv acknow- 
ledge the high motive which animated the writer in his work. 
i 
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