SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Under this Heading we notice such Books of the week as have not ban reserved•for review in other forms.]
The Theory of a Leisured Class. By Thorstein Verblen. (Macmillan and Co. 75. net.)—Mr. Verblen does not mean his book to be amusing, but it certainly has this quality. We are far from saying that it is not much more ; indeed, it is eminently suggestive of a class of truths which we are apt to forget. It is a great advantage to be made to look into the real origin of various highly prized conventions. Here are some instances. Of fashionable horsemanship :—" A person of decorous tastes in horsemanship to-day rides a punch with a docked tail, in an uncomfortable posture, and at a distressing gait, because the English roads during a great part of the last century were impassable for a horse travelling at a more horse-like gait, or for an animal built for moving with ease over the firm and open country to which the horse is indigenous." Of fashionable figure in women : " Both of these [the constricted waist and deformed foot of the Chinese] are mutilations of unquestioned repulsiveness to the untrained sense Yet there is no room to question their at_ tractiveness to men into whose scheme of life they fit as honorific items sanctioned by the requirements of pecuniary reputability." Of the tall, fair-haired hero of fashionable fiction : The dolicho-blond type of European man seems to owe much of its dominating influence and its masterful position in recent culture to its possessing the characteristics of predatory man in an exceptional degree." Of duels : " It is only the high-bred gentleman and the rowdy that normally resort to blows as the universal solvent of differences of opinion." Of classical education and athletics, and German University customs : "Athletics have an obvious advantage over the classics for the purpose of leisure-class learning, since success as an athlete presumes, not only a waste of time, but a waste of money in the German Universities the place of athletics and Greek letter fraternities, as a leisure-class scholarly occupation, has in some measure been supplied by a skilled and graded inebriety and a perfunctory duelling." Of English spelling : " English ortho- graphy satisfies all the requirements of reputability under the law of conspicuous waste. It is archaic, cumbrous, and ineffective, its acquisition consumes much time and effort ; failure to acquire it is easy of detection."
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