19 FEBRUARY 1916, Page 23

The Individual. By Muriel Hine. (John Lane. 6s.)-- Elizma Lee

was a violinist who possessed a " sensitive artist soul." We are given to understand that she was a musician of no mean order—the could even play the barcarolle from the Tales of Hoffmann. When, in addition to this talent, she de- veloped another for writing poems—we are allowed -to see one about a harebell and one Eastern love song—of course Orde Taverner fell in love with her; and the rest of the book, which becomes more convincing and more interesting as it goes on, is concerned with- the married life of these two. Mrs. Coxon revives the time-honoured problems of eugenics, and the.-question of the justice of bearing children in a family of hereditary insanity. Whether or not we approve of the hero's rather dogmatic assertions, and of his lack of consideration for his wife, the subject is one which cannot fail to be rich in emotional and dramatic possibilities ; and we were more thrilled by this rather conventional story than we should care to admit in our critical moments.