American Ideals, Character, and Life. By Hamilton Wright Mabie. (Macmillan
and Co. Os. 63. net.)—We should like to know what Dr. Johnson would have said if he could have been told that within a hundred and thirty years of his death Japan and the United States would mutually exchange Pro- fessors who should aim at making two of the great World- Powers better acquainted with one another. Professor Mabie's interesting book is based on the addresses which be thus delivered in Japan, under the auspices of the Carnegie Peace Endowment. The idea seems to be a very happy one. "Ignorance is the prolific source of race prejudice and hos- tility; it creates the conditions which make race bigots, light- minded public men, and irresponsible newspapers dangerous foes to the highest interests of the world." Many of us suffer from a kind of intellectual Chauvinism which leads us to regard " foreigners " as synonymous with "barbarians." Travel corrects this fault in the individual, but for the people at large some such scheme as that in which Professor Mabie Ins been employed seems to be an excellent remedy. The language difficulty often stands in the way, but in this case the Japanese audiences displayed "unusual intellectual alert- ness and remarkable knowledge of the English language."
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