29 MARCH 1930, Page 31

Professor Hcarnshaw has edited a fifth series of the valuable

lectures on social and political ideas for which King's College, London, has become noted. This volume, Social and Political Ideas of Some Great French Thinkers of the Age of Reason (Harrap, 7s. 6d.), has an introduction by Professor Laski, and deals with Bossuet, Fenelon, Montesquieu, Voltaire and Rousseau, as well as with some of the lesser men. It is curious, by the way, that the revolutionaries of 1789 ranked Helvetius and Mably above Rousseau and Voltaire as inspirers of the great upheaval. Mr. C. H. Driver's careful study of Mably and Morelly deserves attention. The editor writes well on Rousseau, and, while despising the man, does justice to his ideas.

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