FOR EVER ENGLAND By Maj .- Gen. the Rt. Hon.
J. S. B. Seely, C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O. General Seely is becoming one of our most prcilific writers. It is for him to see a danger in that. We are as yet content to welcome his books. The last, For Ever England (Hodder and Stoughton, 12s. ed.), is dedicated to " The Boys of England," and may be described as 'written by a boy for boys. The hearty philosophy of the boy-author is never really profound, but it is impossible to condemn it as shallow, for it is rooted in the wide experience of life of a man who reached Cabinet rank before the War, and has faced responsibility and death closely throughout the years of the Boer War and the Great War, and at sea and in the air. His theme here is the British character, which the next generation must keep alive as their ancestors did. He takes many facets of it and illustrates them plentifully, often with excellent stories, most of all from the villagers, landsmen and lifeboatmen, of his beloved Island. He makes no dis- paragement of foreigners ; he has loved too many. Perhaps it is because his generous and capacious heart loves so many fellow-creatures, human and animal, too, that we can enjoy and commend, not to boys alone, General Seely's frank patriotism and even tales of his own feats, just the things that make us squirm when some other writer tries to do likewise.
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