The Microphone as Magnet
Both on The Problem of Patriotism and on The Meeting of Britain and Europe, Mr. Birley was wise and humane, and original without being eccentric. His analysis of England's influence on Europe in the eighth century must have seemed to many, as to me, arresting. But elsewhere he was not, so to speak, so strict in his arrest. I have a fancy that his talks so far, though lucid in detail, have not enough plainness in plan. They lack, moreover, both in the script and in the delivery, that telling phrase and that flash of illustration that make a talk light up. They read very well, naturally, for they are generously full of matter ; but the listening ear demands something more. There would be no point in broadcast talks at all if there were not some attraction additional to the attraction of print, some further magnetism. I cannot avoid a comparison with Bertrand Russell, who gave the inaugural series of Rcith Lectures. It was possible to disagree with him ; but it was difficult to stop listening. Mr. Birley seemed to have composed his lectures for the study rather than the studio.
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