Swiss Life in Town and Country. By Alfred Thomas Story.
(G. Newnes. Ss. 6d. net.)—This book (one of the "Our 'Neigh- bours " Series) is all that could be desired. It is a thorough and careful study of the Swiss character, manner of life, social, moral, and economical situation. Mr. Story is not content with superficial observation. He goes into the reason of what he sees, and has an art of setting forth what he sees in a very lucid and interesting way. The casual visitor to Switzerland—we are, of course, not speaking of those who see nothing beyond the mountains and the hotels—must be struck with the apparent absence of poverty. A town such as Neuchatel, for instance, has everywhere a well-to-do leek. Yet nowhere, ex-ept, it may be, in Polar regions, is the struggle of man against Nature harder and more persistent. In one respect the issue goes against the human coMbatant The proportion of physical infirmity is con- siderably above the European average. Mr. Story illustrates his descriptions with the malts of special observation, telling us what he has seen himself and heard at first hand. Personal acquaintance, it might be said friendship, with typical Swiss has given him an insight into national qualities which it is not given to every one to acquire. Probably the political and economical sections of his volume are intrinsically the most valuable. They seem to us distinguished by sobriety and good sense. But there is a special charm in what he tells us of social life and individual character. There is a pleasant little story, for instance, of how a vigneron, stricken with sudden illness at a critical time, when the vines had to be banked up, had this work done freely for him by his neighbours, all of them, it should be said, sufficiently occu- pied by their own work.—Denmark. By Margaret Thomas. (A. Treherne and Co. 6s. net.)—Miss Thomas's book is not on a level with that noticed above. It is a very pleasantly written and readable description of Denmark and the Danes as they appear to the traveller. We can easily imagine a visitor to the country spending some weeks with this volume in his hand, and finding that it generally gave him the information that he desired. But we cannot call it a study. Danish politics, for instance, remain, for all that we are told about them here, a remarkably obscure subject The people seem to be prosperous and contented ; poverty, if not unknown, makes no great pressure on them. The Royal house is popular. Yet for some years past there have been very unsatisfactory relations between the representative bodies and the Executive. There is something more to be said about the Danes than is to be found in this volume. The relations of the country with Iceland called for some notice. Even the commonplace matter of Danish butter is somewhat superficially treated. It occupies little more than a couple of pages. It is a subject of considerable importance both to Denmark and to this country.
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