3 OCTOBER 1908, Page 12

The Gospel of Pain. By Thomas J. Hardy. (G. Bell

and Sons. 3s. 6d. net.)—This is essentially and practically a book of devo- tion. We do not mean to say that it does not contain much powerful argument. This it does. The reader may find not a little valuable matter of this kind. It will help him to combat, anyhow in his own mind, the tendency to agnosticism which comes so often from the contemplation of the disorders of the world. But it will be for himself rather than for others that he will be able to utilise these reasonings. When one goes beyond the simple philosophy of pain, that it is Nature's warning against danger, and liable,' like all other agencies essentially beneficent, to take a wholly different form, we get on to uncertain ground.