None Other Gods. By Robert Hugh Benson. (Hutchinson and Co.
6s.)—Father Benson does not contrive to be entirely articulate in his new noveL He leaves so much to the reader's imagination that the book itself is only a very bare outline, and it is impossible to find the character of the hero as attractive as he evidently means it to be. The story is that of a young man of the name of Frank Guiseley, who, having a quarrel with his father because he has become a Roman Catholic, rather than make- it up becomes a casual labourer, and goes on tramp on the King's highway. He takes up with two other tramps, a man and a girl, and, the girl not being the man's wife, sets himself the task of rescuing her. If Mr. Guiseley had adopted his manner of life after setting this aim before him, the reader might have some• sympathy with him ; but it is hard to condone the perversity that first leads him into the ranks of the casual labourer. It is quite obvious that Father Benson means his hero to inhabit the world of the spirit rather than the world of everyday ; but he fails to convince the reader except by bald statements that this is what Frank eventually succeeds in doing. The book shows the- sordid side of a tramp's life in all its nakedness, and neither Frank himself nor his friend, Jack Kirkby, is a sympathetic figure. The feminine interest is supplied by a most cold-blooded and self- interested young person, whose motives are all that is reprehensible. In spite of this, however, no girl can be blamed for breaking off an engagement to a young man who insists on being a tramp. If this mode of life did not appeal to her, what else was she to do?
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