Medieval Contributions to Modern Civilisation. Edited by F. J. C.
Hearnshaw. (Harrap. 10s. 6d. net.)—This very readable book contains a series of lectures delivered last year at King's College by highly competent scholars on various aspects of the Middle Ages. Professor Hearnshaw outlined in a spirited lecture the part played by the Middle Ages in the evolution of the modern world. Professor Claude Jenkins dealt with religion, Professor Wildon Carr with philosophy, Dr. Singer with science, Professor Adamson with science, Miss Johnstone with society--a lively and thoughtful sketch, including some useful criticism of the pseudo-mediaevalists—and Professor J. W. Allen on politics. Mr. E. R. Adair, in a capital paper on mediaeval economics, points out that William Morris, who thought that mediaeval London was clean, was just as wrong in idealizing the mediaeval gild. Some of the modern Guild Socialists have deluded them- selves into the belief that the craftsmen of the Middle Ages were disinterested enthusiasts, whereas they were neither better nor worse than modern trade unionists. Professor Dearmer's enthusiastic discourse on mediaeval art contains some fierce diatribes, in the manner of Ruskin, against the Renaissance and modern architecture ; it is amusing but not helpful.
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