Theodore Savage. By Cicely Hamilton. (Parsons. 7e. 6d. net.)—Miss Hamilton
always writes forcibly, and her present novel deals with the heartshaking effects of the next war. It might, indeed, be used as a tract to convey an awful warning to all politicians that, unless they wish for the annihilation of civilization, they had better relax no efforts to ensure the peace of Europe. Nevertheless, one cannot help feeling that for the purpose of her story Miss Hamilton has a trifle exaggerated the rapidity of the return of England to a state of utter barbarism. It is surely more than doubtful whether, unless Great Britain were isolated and without allies, any com- bination of nations could mobilize sufficient forces of the air to destroy all the buildings of England. No doubt, however, in time the whole of Europe would revert to barbarism, and if we once grant her premises the way in which Miss Hamilton convinces us of the truth of her picture of the coming of primitive conditions is most ingenious. Theodore Savage, the hero, appears to have been the only member of what may be called the intelligentsia to survive, and—again granted that this could be so—the picture of his gradual lapse into wife-beating and the rule of the strongest is admirably done. But the reader will be inclined to say, "What was America doing all
The Secret Places of use Heart. By- H. G. Wells. London: Cassell. Lis.- ed. not4J this time ? Surely there, at any rate, civilization would have survived I " Possibly the end of the Continent of Europe may be like that of Duncan's horses in Macbeth—" they say they ate each other." If that is so, we can only feel, as did our ancestors in the days of Elizabeth, "There lies our way due West. Then Westward ho "
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