This is the autobiography of an introspective mind searching for
a design in the universe. The framework is an account of a transatlantic voyage (Dent, 10s. 6d.). His thoughts swing between the seas, the ship, the mountains of Persia, his love for Christine, and the spiritual questioning which uses these as symbols. He can describe the Persian snow-line, the plunge of a ship, spring in Kasvin, his own moods and thoughts, a wave breaking, but his men and women are rare and shadowy, and he detests humanity in the mass. The early chapters are full of bitter memories, especially those of the Near East where he was a despatch-rider during the War ; and a day of sea-sickness, minutely recorded, is paralleled by the expression of a cynical disgust with mankind and sex. Then as he recovers he works out his conception of the rhythmic destruction and rebirth of a creation whose centre is Eros, passionate love, and circumference Agape, parental love. It is essentially a religious search, and his deep know- ledge of, and reverence for, Shakespeare and the stage often illuminate his path, and his reverence for Christianity directs it. One regrets sometimes a disproportionate seriousness, as in his chapter on flirting, and occasional overwriting, the defect of a colourful style.
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