BEHIND AND BEFORE. By W. E. Hoitland. (Cambridge University - Press.
6s. net.) An adequate review of this short book would take several whole numbers of the Spectator, including its advertisement space. The reader must not overlook the fact that this analysis of modern politics is by the author of three large volumes on the Roman Republic, a work which is in many ways the most masterly history yet written on that period. The learned historian of the greatest political experiment the world has yet seen in this present volume has turned to the politics of his own day. The result is one of the most suggestive essays on our social embarrassments that have yet appeared. It is not light reading ; for its 164 pages are a concentrated miss of vital first principles and far-sighted warnings, which are as much above the trivialities of professional politics as the Alps arc higher than the malarial swamps. It is a very happy sign that such men as historians of Rome arc taking part in the affairs of State, which have too often been left to inferior, if well-meaning, persons. In this book Mr. Heitland has only stated the problem ' - his favourite conclusion is a mark of interrogation. It would be very helpful if, putting on one side his natural modesty, he would assume for one moment that he is an autocrat. What would he do with this muddled world ? His own great history of Rome will answer many pressing questions for which we moderns are seeking an answer. But, alas ! only the wise go to history for wisdom.
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