A Schoolmaster's Diary. Edited by S. P. B. Male. (Grant
Richards. Gs. net.)—This book purports to be the autobiography of Patrick Traherne, a schoolmaster who was out of sympathy with his chiefs, his colleagues, and his pupils, and finally lost his post for publishing a dubious novel. As a novel, it is dull reading ; as a denunciation of the Public School system, it is ineffective because Traherne was obviously unsuited to the work that he undertook. His heated imagination detected evil in the most innocent relation- ships ; his ambition was to create super-boys, if we may use the term, out of very ordinary material, and could not be fulfilled. Some of the detailed criticism of school methods in which Mr. Maio lets his hero indulge may be of interest to schoolmasters. The layman can only wonder whether such erratic and unpleasant men do obtain posts in reputable Public Schools.
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