The Web of Indian Life. By the Sister Nivedita (Margaret
Noble). (W. Heinemann. 7s. 6d.)—The writer of this volume keeps herself, for the most part, out of the range of the ordinary understanding. When she cries, for instance, "Oh, for a know- ledge undimensioned, untimed, effect of no cause, cause of no effect !" we have nothing to say. But when she descends into the sphere of common things, we are able to apply the usual tests to her utterances. "The passionless desire of Pheidias that wrought Olympian Zeus." We do not know much about Pheidias, but we are pretty sure that lie had the usual artistic tempera- ment, .to which this particular epithet is scarcely appropriate. Then we read that "Leo X. of the Papacy, Charles V. of the Empire, Henry IV. of France, and Elizabeth of England are among the strongest personalities to whom thrones were ever given,"—this is to prove that the sixteenth century was "an era of great Kings." "Since God has given us the Papacy, let us enjoy it," was Leo's characteristic utterance. As for Henry IV., he was certainly a great soldier and proficient in statecraft, but always liable to ruin his best-laid schemes by one fatal weakness. He was, as Aristotle would say, frrcev -yuvabadv. It is borne in upon us that " Sister Nivedita" has but a slight acquaintance with many of the things about which she writes. Not unfrequently, too, her pen seems to run away with her. As for her proper subject, the life of woman in India, we can only say that she looks at it from a point of view very different from that commonly taken. Are the best Hindoos satisfied with the status of woman? Is her education what they would like to see ? Is her life as free and as well endowed with opportunities of good as they could wish?
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