The Broom of the War-God. By H. N. Brailsford. (William
Heinemann.)—Mr. Brailsford describes his book as a "novel." We do not know why. It is really a description, founded, we suppose, on personal observation, of the war in Thessaly. Most, indeed, of the names are fictitious, though some of them are of actual persons. The incidents, too, are mainly facts, and there can be little doubt about the fidelity, even photographic fidelity, of the descriptions. The "Broom of the War-God" is, we presume, the strange influence which sweeps into such an army as that of the Greeks so very mixed a swarm of men as was to be seen in the volunteer companies of the Crown Prince's army. Mr. Brailsford describes their habits and reports their conversations with a fidelity which is not unfrequently revolting. But there are some fine studies of life and character in his pages, and there are some outspoken criticisms of the shameful neglect and incapacity of certain persons in high places in the Greek Army and Government. This was not the first time that a nation's welfare has been postponed to dynastic considerations. Kings have to be chosen out of the Royal caste. Very good; but then
the Royal caste must have, in all its branches, an innate capacity for war. But the dilemma that arises when a Crown Prince can neither command nor be passed over is one full of disaster. What is meant when it is said "it must have been so that Pericles smiled returning from the Agora after the first month of the Peloponnesian War," the smile being one "of pity and resignation " ? Up to the end of the first year, Pericles had no occasion for either. His great funeral oration breathes quite different feelings.
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