visit to her father's fine old manor by counter-suggestion. The plot is full of incident, and concludes with a murder trial, in which the hero, proving his restored powers, defends an intrepid young preacher whose zeal for social service has imperiled his reputation and his life. J. B. Lippincott Co.

S. G. Tallentyre has rightly thought the present a good time to translate from the French of Paul and Victor Margueritte the story of "Strasbourg: an Episode of the Franco-German War" (E. P. Dutton & Co.). It is a story based upon the experiences of the people of Strasbourg when the Germans bombarded the city, and the German commander refused permission to the women and children to leave, on the ground that "the weak point of the fortifications of strong places is the suffering of the inhabitants, who are exposed without protection to the bullets of the enemy." This was an anticipation, by forty-five years, of the present doctrine of "frightfulness." The personal elements in the story are full of interest, culminating in the separation of a betrothed pair, because patriotic feeling bound one to France and the other to Alsace.

A novel of unusual promise is "The Conquest," by Sidney L. Nyburg. Its central figure, John Howard, is a young lawyer of great natural ability, who concentrates all his strength of mind and will on the purpose to become a financier. Parting from the girl he loves at the moment when he has just achieved an income on which he can marry her, because he feels in her a nature whose generous sympathies would always weaken his resolution, he offers himself, a few years later, to the daughter of a magnate, whose influence in a sudden crisis of his affairs is indispensable to him, and is accepted. His earlier love re-enters the story in its

closing chapters, as a doctor and settlement-worker, and through her the problem of labor and capital is presented from a new standpoint. From beginning to end, the book is a study of character as affected by and affecting present-day conditions, and the simplicity of the plot adds to the force of the impression made. Mr. Nyburg's skill in dialogue is not yet equal to his talent for presenting legal and ethical problems, but he has given us a story decidedly out of the ordinary. J. B. Lippincott Co.

Robert Herrick's "The World Decision" (Houghton Mifflin Co.) is a brilliant piece of writing. That goes without saying, for it is not in Mr. Herrick to write a dull book. But it is a good deal more than that. It is a spirited and sympathetic portrayal of actual conditions, as he watched their development last year in Italy and France: in Italy, in the months of hesitation before the plunge was taken, the conflicting counsels of the politicians and the people, the prolonged dickering with German diplomacy, the swift and silent mobilization, the awakening of the national conscience, the final decision; and in France, especially in Paris, during the eventful months of last summer. Following these, in a third and concluding section, are awakening and warning words regarding the American attitude, the short-sighted absorption in material gains, and the possible perils of the near future. Altogether, this is a stirring and absorbing book.

name

calling herself Patience Worth, whose language and manner of expression suggest seventeenth-century England. They are made, or are recorded as being made, to a little group of well-known people in St. Louis; and Casper S. Yost, editorial director of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, whose appears on the title-page, claims to be nothing more than an amanuensis, taking down the messages and sifting from them those that seemed most characteristic and important. They cover a wide range in prose and verse, conversations, dramas, lyrics and narrative poems, maxims, epigrams and allegories. The phrases are often ingeniously turned, and there is not infrequently a beauty of thought and form which separates them widely from the alleged revelations of spiritualism. Psychic students and investigators will find them interesting and baffling material.

It is some fifteen years since Dr. George Thomas White Patrick of the State University of Iowa, published the first of the essays contained in "The Psychology of Relaxation," and in the intervening period, nearly all of them have been remodeled until they make a little volume of perfect unity, although varied in subject. "Play, Laughter, Profanity, Alcohol, War," cries one, running over the chapter titles: "What is the link in their psychology?" Roughly speaking, modern man regards all of them occasionally as necessary to his pleasure, but the loud laugh shows the vacant mind and it is the fool that deliberately takes his Maker's name in vain. On the other hand, it is illogical to refer the occasional crazes for this or that pastime entirely to "frivolity," and in passing, it may be said that a Boy Scout is supposed to be preparing to be a better citizen, not to

be amusing himself, and should be praised. As Dr. Patrick pursues his argument, one perceives that he finds the remedy for modern errors in wise reformation of the popular mind, in effecting gradual change in its ideals, and in steadfast adoption of Aristotle's "mean." He is tolerant but not flaccid, and his book can displease nobody but the indolent and the intolerant. It calls to every reader, "Arise and in every way reform yourself first and so suggest reform to others," and in this it follows the Great Teacher. The reader who brings an open mind to its perusal will discover that it is as salutary in doctrine as it is interesting. Houghton, Mifflin Co.

Eric Fisher Wood, whose "NoteBook of an Attaché" was one of the most vivid and authoritative of last year's war books, now follows it with a small volume entitled, "The Writing on the Wall" (The Century Co.) in which he makes a graphic presentation of the risks attending the American policy of unpreparedness. During the months of his service in the war-swept countries of Europe and his close association with diplomatists and military commanders, he was at pains to gather information and opinions regarding the position of the United States, and, before publishing the present volume he submitted his facts and conclusions to prominent military and naval officers of the United States, whose official positions forced them to reticence, but who appreciate, as civilians cannot, the real peril of the existing conditions. Mr. Wood's book, therefore, is no ill-considered note of an alarmist, but the serious warning of one who has lately witnessed the horrors of war, and has been in a position to study the causes which led up to it. The book is illustrated with a dozen photographs and maps.