1 MAY 1915, Page 22

Mr. L. Cecil Jane in The Interpretation of History (J.

M. Dent and Sons, 5s, net), a book which was completed before the outbreak of war, seeks "to discover some underlying factor in accordance with which history may be interpreted and the occurrence of all events explained." This aim, the ambitious nature of which he himself confesses, he believes be has achieved in his theory of a conflict alike in individuals and States between the ideal of "Universalism," or complete sub- mission, and the ideal of " Individualism," or complete self- assertion. In the conrse of his book he passes rapidly through modern European history, showing in what way this conflict acted, and in an appendix discusses the present war and its probable results in the light of his theory.