MR. ARTHUR SYMONS'S "CITIES."
Cities. By Arthur Symons. (J. M. Dent and Co. 7s. 6d. net.) —Mr. Symons has written descriptions of—or shall we say meditations about ?—eight European cities. (Strictly speaking, there are ten, the three South-Eastern cities of Budapest, Belgrade, and Sofia being grouped together in one chapter.) It is difficult to estimate the value of the book. This value must very much depend on the mood of the reader, the natural consequence of its being the outcome of the mood of the writer. There are, it is true, vivid touches in which the colour and form of that which he writes about are given. But these are not the prominent characteristic of the book. This may be rather found in such a passage as the following. In Paris, Mr. Symons writes, "I find it more nearly possible to be myself than in London ; for Paris is not merely the city of the senses, but the city of ideas, the ideas of pure reason. But Rome has freed me from both tyrannies, the tyranny of the senses and of the ideas of pure reason." It is not too much to say that this will be practically unintelligible, or, at least, will seem not worth understanding, to many, possibly to most, readers. What they want is to be told about the present or past of a city, what has happened to it, what may be seen in it. To know what Mr. Arthur Symons saw in it or felt in it is less important. Yet he tells us this with not a little ornament of speech, and some eloquence. The illustrations may be praised without reserve.
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