THE VALUES OF LIFE By Ernest Barker
Professor Barker has reprinted the articles which he con- tributed last autumn to The Spectator, with what a composer would call variations on each theme (Mackie, 3s. 6d.). He has thus made an interesting little handbook of practical ethics. His paper on " Duty and the Family," for example, is supplemented by notes on marriage, parents and children and the household, and his paper on " Political Duty " by timely comments on " Responsibility in the Realm of Foreign Affairs " and on nationalism. It is characteristic of the author to believe firmly, in spite of all the mad excesses of national- ism, in the superior power of " the common heritage of Europe " to unite and not divide. Thus he advocates the cultivation and maintenance of friendships in Italy and Germany despite the dictators. One of his lighter " varia- tions," " On Standards of Art and Poetic Duty," is a genial rebuke to the new poets whose work the author has tried and failed to comprehend. Professor Barker's sincerity and quiet humour will ensure a long life for these essays on the things that really matter.
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