SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[gads this heading we notiee ouch Bode of the week as have not been reserved for revise, in other forms.] From the Bottom Up. By Alexander Irvine. (W. Heinemann. 6s. net.)—Alexander Irvine began life at the age of nine with selling newspapers ; then he scared crows ; his next employment was in the stable ; his next in a coal-pit; at nineteen he enlisted in the Marines. His life in these varied scenes he paints with some very vivid colours. At the same time he describes some spiritual experiences, which became, as time went on, more and more definitely religious, and also tells us of the determined struggle for self-education which he kept up. He was apt, indeed, to learn anything. His thirst for knowledge took him into the gymnasium, where he was drawn into a boxing encounter with one of the instructors. He got a great thrashing at the time, but six weeks afterwards he had acquired so much of the art as to take his revenge. Then his conscience interfered. He vowed that he "vradn't put th' dhirty gloves on again," and he adds: "I kept the promise while in the training dep6t." He now "entered into religions work with renewed vigour" and aspired to teach. His North of Ireland brogue was against him. Among other troubles, it provoked :nicknames,—if you wish to irritate an Irish Protestant, call him " " Pat" he can stand, but "Mick" is intolerable. This brogue he proceeded to get rid of by studying literature, repeating aloud " John Halifax, Gentleman," for instance, and Browning, and, indeed, by taking every opportunity of self-improvement. In fact, we have a remarkable story. The mental progress is no small thing—there was no such striving in any of his kinsfolk—but the spiritual narrative is far more striking. And all along we see that the convert is very human ; that, according to his own description, he was "a hot-blooded Irishman." His military duties took him to various places, Egypt among them at the time of the Gordon relief expedition. Finally, he purchased his discharge, and going to New York, took up there the work of an evangelist. We cannot follow the story any further, but we may say that it is one of the most interesting autobiographies that we have ever read.
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