SAINTS AND HEROES.*
PRESUMABLY we must realise that this is the last of the many delightful story books to be connected with the name of Andrew Lang. No one could read his preface without realising that children have lost a friend whose comprehension kept him one of themselves. As to fairies, he admits with Joan of Arc, "I never saw a fairy, not that I knew to be a fairy." Still, he says, "they are seen in the Highlands" and elsewhere, "and seeing is believing." However, this year the book is not., strictly speaking, one of fairy tales. If anyone says with cynicism that stories of the early saints are very like fairy tales, let him read how the same thought is expressed by Mr. Lang, and he will be cynical no longer. The choice of tales must have been embarrassing; one has merely to see the outside of Mr. Baring Gould's books to know that. We can only say that each was worthy to be chosen, and they are excellently told by Mrs. Lang. Twenty- three saints are presented to us, of various countries, from St. Francis Xavier in Japan to St. Brendan in Ireland; simple women such as St. Dorothea or St. Elizabeth; men of action, as our patron saint or St. Louis. There is not only charm but considerable learning of a kind in a book of this nature. Mrs. Lang proves herself fully competent But it is difficult to know why she says that St. Jerome translated "St Paul's" Epistle to the Hebrews "into Greek and Latin ": St. Jerome himself believed a story that St. Luke translated it from Hebrew or Aramaic, and modern critics believe it was originally written in Greek. St. Richard's chief teacher and friend at Oxford was Edmund Rich rather than Robert Grosseteste. But it is pedantic to carp at trifles in so delightful a whole. Mr. Ford as usual shows himself a faithful and generous supporter with his graceful figures and careful detail. In some of the coloured plates his reds appear a little riotous, but they are generally successful. To draw a picture of St. Jerome, even a cheery St. Jerome, with his lion in the study, risks obvious comparisons, but Mr. Ford carries it out in the spirit of a disciple rather than in pre- sumption. For his own pleasure as well as for accuracy's sake we advise him to make a pilgrimage to Iona before he again draws a picture of that romantic island.
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