GUESSES AT TRUTHS.
Guesses at Truths. By David Christie Murray. (Hurst and Blackett. 6s.)—Mr. Murray is known to most of us as the writer of a number of novels of varying merit, but sometimes, as in " Aunt Rachel " and "The Primrose Path," reaching a high level of excellence. The present volume contains a selection from a series of articles which he contributed to the Referee during the last years of his life under the pseu- donym of "Merlin." There was always in his work a note of thoughtful originality, and it is interesting to compare his speculations as we find them here with the allusions of his work in the domain of fiction. The papers, which number sixty-five in all, are arranged in sections,—ethical, social, political, literary, and miscellaneous. Among the best of these are "Facing the Inevitable," a meditation, so to speak, on " Death " ; " Prayers for the Dead,"—the prayers in which Mr. Murray would have joined would be excluded from any Roman service ; "Ethics of Poverty," a forcible comment on one of Mr. Keir Hardie's speculations ; " Sanity and Suicide" ; " Why Socialism Must Fail"; "gmile Zola," largely the result of the author's personal knowledge of the French writer and his objects; " Are Other Worlds Inhabited?" and " Dreams and Illusions." But almost everything that Mr. Murray wrote will be found worthy of attention.
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