Joseph and Arnold Toynbee. By Gertrude Toynbee. (Henry J. Glaisher.
2s. 6d. net.)—Joseph Toynbee was an aurist of great reputation (he received the honour of F.R.S. in his twenty-seventh year and was called in to see Queen Victoria) ; Arnold Toynbee, whose name still lives in Toynbee Hall, was a Fellow and Tutor of Balliol and a pioneer in social work. Both died early, the father when he was fifty, the son when he had but just passed his thirtieth birthday. Miss Gertrude Toynbee, daughter of Joseph and sister of Arnold, publishes in this little volume some "Remi- niscences and Letters." The father's letters range over two-and- twenty years, the son's over twelve. Both are in their way very good to read, though we cannot help feeling the tragedy of the premature death to which both were destined. Joseph Toynbee's letters are singularly full of life. They express his keen sense of natural beauty, his interest in the experiences of travel, his deep family affection. A tenderly affectionate nature, always controlled by a rare and sober moderation, is conspicuous everywhere. The only thing that jars at all is his ridicule of Court ceremonial. Such forms and ornaments have to be, and really symbolise valuable facts. There is less of character in the letters of the son, though he was probably the greater man of the two. But the book is full of good things. Some interesting letters addressed to the two, or written on the occasion of their death (the father died in 1866, the son in 1883), have been added.
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