SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Under this heading we notice such Books of the week as hare not been vecerred for review in other fornzsa Individuality and Art. By Herbert E. A. Furst. (Macmillan and Co. 3s. 6d. net.)—What appears at first sight to be a piece of art criticism turns out on closer examination to be an argument against free will. Mr. Furst is a very earnest materialist who cannot bear to hear great men credited with achievements which are in his view merely the effects of an infinite concatenation of previous causes. To prove his point ho takes Turner's picture of the "Fighting Temeraire " and proceeds for a hundred pages to analyse some of the causes which led to its being painted. These include, to quote his own list " Candle Taxes, Martyr Kings, Gold- dust and Slave-traffic, Merry Monarchs, Philosophers, Norman Raiders, Whitebait, Champagne and Grog, and Poetry and Painters." Thus we see, Mr. Furst concludes, " that the ` Fight- ing Temeraire' is no more truly a product of individuality than the bower-bird's bower; it happened as inevitably as the fall of Rome, and is as much to Turner's credit as the rotation of the earth upon its axis." It all seems wonderfully simple, but it is to be feared that the appearance of simplicity is delusive. This however, is no place for an argument upon predestination.
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