The Sundered Streams. By Reginald Ferrer. (Edward Arnold. 60)—This is
another book which concerns the world of spirit, although the personages of the story move in the most materialistic of modern worlds and have the inevitable Duke of twentieth-century fiction as a near relation. Mr. Ferrer, unlike Father Benson, feels that the mystic religion of the East —by which one may conalude that he means a species of esoteric Buddhism—is more satisfying than the religion of Christ. The spiritual theory of the book is the reincarnation of souls on earth, and Mr. Farrar describes with great complacency a species of immortality which contains periods at least of complete annihila. tion,—for reincarnation without memory is, to our conception at ass rate, equivalent to iumihilation. The half of the book which is concerned with the world of sooiety is admirably written, and the introductory chapter on the family of the Dadds makes the reader confidently hope that a comedy of manners of no ordinary interest is about to be played before him. This is far from being the case, although Mr. Ferrer contrives that interest in his characters should never be lost. It might, perhaps, be suggested that if the hero of the book, Kingston Darnley, had ever tried to do an honest day's work, his outlook on life would have been very Much improved ; but Kingston Darnley is entirely the centre of his own consciousness. He feels no responsibility for his riches, and spends his life in a vague dream. The character of his wife, Lady Gundred, is excellently drawn, and her capacity for irritating will exasperate the reader even although he knows that he has nothing to do bat to shut the book in order to get rid of her for ever. Gundred is a very capable person, and keeps things together while her husband is indulging in day- dreams. Her development of religious frenzy at the end of the story, and the consequent tragedy, do not, however, carry complete conviction. The book is of decided interest, but if the comparative spiritual capacity and mystical quality of the religions of the East and the West are to be judged, even for a moment, by comparing The Sundered Streams with Father Benson's stories, the religion of the West must be pronounced to be not only of more practical morality, but of greater spiritual significance.
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