SONE BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Under this heading we notice Ruth Books of ths walk as hare not been reserved for review in other forms.]
The Shadow of the Dial, and other Essays. By Ambrose Biome. (A. M. Robertson, San Francisco. 88. net.)—When an American writer says : "For nearly all that is good in our American civilization we are indebted to England : the errors and mischiefs are of our own creation," a critic on this side can hardly avoid being favourably impressed. Still, to be honest, we must own that Mr. Bieree's words seem to us not unfrequently to be scmewhat wild and whirling. Same unflattering pictures, for instance, have been drawn by native artists of political life in the States ; but it is startling to be told that "the best service you can do for a candidate for high political
preferment is to prove him a little better than a thief, but not quite so good as a thug." It is quite clear that what Mr. Bierce writes must be taken cum grano. But there must be something genuine in it. The essays were originally published in newspaper form, and met, it appears, with so much acceptance that it has been found worth while to publish a collected edition of thorn. That locks like a proof that they have appealed successfully to a large circle of readers. The author is not hopeful of the world in general. The huge armaments of Europe he holds to be "purely constabular." They will keep order for a time. "Eventually they will fraternize 'with Disorder or become themselves Praetorian Guards more largereus than the perils which have called them into existence." DLit it is in America that the storm will burst :—
" There is thunder in Europe, but if the storm ever break it is in America that the lightning will fall, for here is a great vortex into which the decivilizing agencies are passing without obstruction. Here gather the eagles to the feast, for the quarry is defenceless.
Here is no power in government, no government The militia is paternal, the magistracy elective."
"Emancipated Woman" is a particularly forcible utterance. Mr. Bierce objects to the facilities for women's work of which so much is made towadays. "The enlargement of women's opportunities has benefited individual wcmen ; it has not benefited the sex as a whole, and has distinctly damaged the race." It has increased the difficulties of the unemployment problem. "The contention of two lions fighting for one bone is exacerbated by the accession of a lioness." The women take the work out of men's bands, and in so doing injure both the men and themselves. The diminished courtesy shown by men, the fact that "to the language of compliment has succeeded the language of raillery," has, Mr. Bierce thinks, a very serSeris meaning indeed. As to woman's franchise, he says with much force : "Good government is devoutly to be wished, but more than gcod government we need good women." There is the crux. Women who take an equal share in politics cannot be "good women," that is, good wives and good mothers.
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