SOME BOOKS OF' THE WEEK.
[Notice in this column dots not necessarily preclude. subsejusaf review.]
A SIGNPOST TO THE MAGAZINES.
Tan paper famine makes it impossible for us this month to do anything more than put up a signpost to one or two of the articles in the magazines which we think may specially interest our readers. Before doing so we must say a word on the centenary number of Blackwood's Magazine. Blackwood's first number appeared at the end of a great European war but in peace. It reaches its centenary in the midst of a still greater war. The wonderful thing about Bkwkwood is that it has kept its special character throughout its hundred years. That is a memorable fact, but it is one which may very easily lead to the most jejune and con- ventional commentary. Therefore we spare our readers. We simply offer our congratulations and salute Maga on its promotion, for promotion it must be for a magazine to enter its hundred-and-first year. In the present number readers, after they have read Mr. Whibley's retrospect and the " Noctes Ambrosianae : No. 73," will, we expect, be attracted by " Carry On !" by " The Junior Sub." This instalment opens with a delightful passage about the war custom of never calling a thing by its real name. A spade, for example, is officially " Shovels, General Service, One." Another article that is sure to bo widely read is " Be- sieged in Kut—and After."—In the Nineteenth Century them is a triple article on " Food and Labour " which is certain to be keenly appreciated. Less attractive to the general reader, but of course of great importance, is " The Irish Maze," another triple article. Mr. J. A. R. Marriott, the new M.P. for Oxford City, writes the first article on " The Supreme Issue."—Wo have dealt elsewhere with Professor Simpson's article in the Contemporary. Other articles which are sure to be read with interest are Mr. Henry Nevinson's " Dayspring in Russia," Mr.. Charles Mallet's " Value of Parliament " and Miss Elizabeth Robins's" Conscription for Women." From Mr. John Harris's " Germany's Lost Colonial Empire " we quote the following :-
"There are three cardinal facts which should be borne in mind in connection with Germany's Colonial Empire. First, almost the entire areas of these Colonies are incapable of white colonisation ; secondly, and this, I repeat, is of immense political importance, Germany knows that without the conquest or the annexation of populous Asiatic or other African territories, her Colonies were doomed to ultimate bankruptcy ; finally, that the value of any of these Colonies, if they should come under the flag of England, France, or even Portugal, would be increased tenfold for the simple reason that either of these Powers could do what Germany cannot—namely, populate them."
—In the Fortnightly Mr. Harris also has an article on " General Botha," and Mr. J. A. R. Marriott writes on " English History in Shakespeare." The magazine opens with a double-barrelled article on Our Educa- tional Future." Lord Bryce writes on the worth of ancient literature to the modern world, and Mr. Wells puts the case against the classical languages. Lord Bryce's article is well worth reading, and even if it does not wholly convert, it will delight all lovers of good literature and of history. We quote his concluding paragraph :— " To carry in our minds such pictures of a long-past world and turn hack to them from the anxieties of our own time gives a refreshment of spirit as well as a wider view of what man has been, and is, and may be hereafter. To have immortal verse rise every day into memory, to recall the sombre grandeur of Aeschylus and the pathetic grandeur of Virgil, to gaze at the soaring flight and many-coloured radiance of Pindar, to be soothed by the sweetly flowing rhythms of Theocritus, what an unfailing delight there is in this ! Must not we who have known it wish to hand it on and preserve it for those who will come after us ? " Though we are no friends of those who condemn our boys to the and mazes of the Greek and Latin grammars, that was very much what we ventured to say in our recent article on "Tho Consolations of the Classics."— The National Review remains true to type, and hits a good many heads with its shillelagh in tho editorial pages. This magazine, however, hardly requires a fingerpost from us. An interesting article is that by Mr. Hudson on " The Misused Potato." " The End of the Fisher Legend," by a Naval Correspondent, will of course be read by all who love contro- versy. There is a map to illustrate the submarine blockade which deserves careful study, for it brings home the tremendous task under- taken by the German Admiralty.
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