SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Muter this heading no notice suet Books of the week aa nano not Nan maned for review n other forms.] Robert Bridges : Test Laureate. By T. Herbert Warren. (Oxford University Press. ls. net.)—As Dr. Warren himself remarks, thew pages (a version of the lecture recently delivered by him at Oxford) do not contain a critical study of Mr. Bridges' poetry. They consist rather of the best possible
introduction to it—namely, a number of well-chosen tions, accompanied by a sympathetic and helpful commentary from a critic who possesses at once a finely appreciative sense and a happy gift for expressing it. But although the Presi- dent of Magdalen contents himself for the most part with what he describes on his title-page as " readings " from the poems, there is one paragraph in which he asks, and satisfactorily answers, the question whether any one spiritual basis can be discovered in Mr. Bridges' work. We will quote what he says In full
"Has it any dominant notes / think it haa. ' 'Tis Love, Love' mays the old Preach reveals, 'that makes the world go round' C'est l'Amenr qui fait le monde h la ronde. That is the secret of Ill life. And this is certainly Mr. Bridges' creed. But love implies an object; it is of many kinds, love of husband, wife, child, and friend, of man in general, of beauty in man's work, in all the various arts, of the fair face of nataro, and containing and crowning all these, the love of God."
Those who are unfamiliar with the Poet Laureate's work could not find A more attractive appetiser than Dr. Warren's paper; while those who know it will not be sorry to renew their acquaintance with it in such pleasant company.
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