Is it a New World ? (Hodder and Stoughton. 7s.
6d.)— Is it a New World ? is a reprint of a correspondence which was started in the Daily Telegraph with an article by the Dean of St. Paul's. As is usual in this sort of symposium, the writers suffer horribly from a lack of definitions, every writer using the same terms but each giving them different meanings. Some of the letters are admirable, and all are valuable as evidence of what clever and stupid people think—people with nothing in common but sufficient initiative to write to a newspaper International social science is of course the only science about which such discussion could take place, for in this science alone we are still in the position of the Royal Society, the goldfish, and the tumbler of water. We cannot make experiments even on a small scale for many reasons—who, for instance, has not heard of the story of the man who had been told that parrots lived for a hundred years and so bought one to see ? As for experiments on a large scale, the better is the enemy of the good. Fifteen years ago we should have probably said that that had nothing to do with the case, as in a modern community, u ith its ill-distributed wealth, health, and leisure, the status quo is far from being "the good." But since the example of Russia there is probably not one of us who is quite so sure of this as he was A further depth has opened. There is no doubt that the book is, as we have said before; interesting evidence of public opinion. Incidentally, it is entertaining to see Dean Inge and Mr. Chesterton join issues.
Previous page
