A Bird in the Hand. By Rosalind Denis-Browne. (Methuen and
Co. 2s. 6d.)—In this volume we have twelve essays, chiefly about women and women's affairs. Now an essay is a very difficult thing to write well, and Miss Denis-Browne has not quite learnt the art. The first requisite is the power of thinking clearly, though this does not exclude the liberty of occasionally mystifying the reader. Here our author is distinctly at fault. What can she possibly mean when she says that the "artistic temperament. . . simply means. . . the power of regarding the problems of life, not from a selfish and personal standpoint, but from an impersonal, broadminded, tolerant one" ? Why, again, does she think that "rigid adherence to duty" implies "narrow- ness of outlook" in the person who practises it? Why, to take a detail, is "spinster" an odious word ? It points to a time when the question of woman's employment was not a burning one. Why so scornful of the person to whom "family prayers are the breath of life" ? The phrase is a foolish extravagance, but any life with which this observance fits in has something to be said for it. Miss Denis-Browne's style leaves much to be desired, and an essayist without style is nought. What a use of "one" we have in the sentence quoted above !
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