The God - seeker: a Tale of Ohl Styria. By Peter Rosegger
Authorised translation by Frances E. Skinner. (G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1.50.)—The God seeker is a tale of terror and gloom founded on facts recorded in an old chronicle. The time is the end of the fifteenth century, the scene a village in the Styrian Alps. An unworthy and tyrannical priest is condemned to death by the " Vehmic law" of the villagers, and the assassin's lot falls to a man of high character and pure life. The conflict between Christian principle and false honour is finely described. The erime is perpetrated in a manner to bring before the reader's mind every plea that casuistry can urge in defence of tyranniide. But the art of the novel lies in showing, nevertheless, how futile, as well as how unjustifiable, murder must always be. The assassin is hid len by his friends. But vengeance falls on the community, and the horrors of the excommunication exceed the miseries suffered under the bad priest's rule.
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