SIR ROBERT BADEN-POWELL'S NEW BOOK.* SrR ROBERT BADEN-POWELL'S new book
is for the young man who is too old to be a scout who is at the stage of being what used to be called a hobbledehoy. The book is directed to the abolition of this status. It may seem a little platitudinous to say that Sir Robert Baden-Powell is a remarkable man, but there it is, he is a remarkable man. He is a man of action who can think. Perhaps the more fastidious of us have occasion- ally been " put off " by an atmosphere of what seems forced breeziness, a habit of taking the value of certain qualities and virtues for granted, a certain inability to " put away childish things," which are apparent in his writings. But while we are thus uneasy Sir Robert suddenly surprises us by some pronouncement which shows that he appreciated a subtler point of view and that the rather unthinking and even schoolboy ideas which he appeared to uphold were not the only sort of virtues that he was able to perceive. The present writer has in mind, for instance, a letter which he wrote to this paper apropos of reform in the Borstal Prisons ; it was a letter which showed his tenderness and sympathy and his deep com- prehension of those who were far removed from following, or even seeking, after the path of robust physical self-expression which he appears to mark out for us.
Let us take the little summary with which this book is con- cluded. The two columns are headed, characteristically, " The Rocks " and " Antidotes."
Itik, ROCKS (Through herd temptation). Horses, betting and looking on at false sport. Wine, and other forms of self-indulgence.
Women, dangers of a wrong attitude and blessings of tho right one.
Extremists in politics, irre- ligion, etc.
The fastidious person will read this summary with indifference and say, " To what end ? " and will object to a teacher who is willing to beg so many questions and to make such large assumptions. He might point out, for example, that St. Francis of Assisi was a religious extremist, or he might enlarge upon the possibility of another ideal than that of Service, he might show how service may be a mere process of " taking in each other's washing." But though our imaginary fastidious reader unquestionably has a perfectly good logical case on his side, his objections in this sort to General Baden-Powell's book would be, we think, completely beside the point.
Sir Robert has a curious faculty; he is able to do what very few of us can do, write for a certain audience without cocking his eye over the hedge at someone else. Who does not know the writer of children's books who is for ever dishing-up little jokes which are intended for the grown-up reader and are so much nonsense for the children ? Who, having tried to write a book, has not found himself floundering, probably quite un- necessarily, in immensities and profundities ? Now, it is one of the maxims of modern education never to answer a question from a disciple before it is asked, and that is what our fastidious person would be doing. Sir Robert knows his audience exactly, and he knows that the young men to whom this book is addressed have not begun to ask the further—the more intellectual— questions. The solutions which Sir Robert puts before his young men are the highest ideals which they are at the moment capable of assimilating. The fastidious person, in telling this particular audience more, or even in telling them that Sir Robert's ideals must not be accepted blindly, but, like every. thing else in this world, must be weighed and changed and adapted, will simply be trying to teach them to run before they can walk. Sir Robert illustrates all his points by little stories ; we find the habit infectious. The most famous of the Russian dancers remarked to the present writer the other day, " In England you spoil all your ballet dancers, you try to teach them too young. In Russia we don't let a child begin until it is eight. You let yours start at five—you weaken the hip joints." Art is largely an affair of selection and limitation. How true this is of the art of Pedagogy I It is really only the perfection in which Sir Robert possesses this art that makes the over-fastidious person experience a frisson when confronted with his works.
General Baden-Powell knows what he is about. The present
• Roaring to Success. By Sir B.. Baden-Powell, Bt. London ; Herbert aenkina. [2s. dd. net.l
ANTIDOTES (Through individual effort). Active Hobbies and earning money. Self-Control and character.
Chivalry and health of mind and body.
Service for your fellow-men and God.
book is a masterpiece in its arrangement. Never again let it be said that the Devil has all the good tunes. How completely the author has realized that in the case of the young, to quote his own words, " to get rid of the bad you must put something good in its place." It is an amusing piece of work, full of enter- taining little drawings, anecdotes, conundrums, and so on. Anyone who has to do with young men, whether as a club organizer or as a parent, ought not to be without this very charming and very cunning book.
Sir Robert says that " this book is addressed to the chap who has never thought for himself or planned out his future," and it is an admirably adapted instrument for the purpose he has in mind.
Messrs. H. Jenkins are to be congratulated in producing so neat, well illustrated and well printed a volume at the price of 2s. 6d. We can well believe that, in the author's words, " they have nobly forgone any idea of making it a paying book, but have put all their energies into bringing it out at a price within the means of the average working lad."
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