alyzing and arguing. A "New Republic" on manners instead of religion would be very diverting, if Mr. Mallock or another Mr. Mallock could do it for us. The key no doubt would be found in history rather than in philosophy. In our, the European, conception of manners there is obviously much of knighthood, and that is bound up with Christianity. The ideal character and his bearing to his brothers and sisters, especially those less fortunate than himself, is, we should say, at the bottom of the Western conception of good manners. But those who know the East tell us no Westerner has any manners; indeed can hardly know what manners are. The manners of the Oriental we must admire and leave alone; we cannot change our skin. After all, our Western feudal conception is a great one. We have had good manners. Can we not get them back? Old world courtesy," "old world dignity," "the grand manner"-all these phrases show that we are conscious The Saturday Review.

that we have left these things behind; but with regret. It is only a few after all who rejoice in their gracelessness. The aristocratic lady who sits with both elbows on the table, knife and fork in either hand pointing to the ceiling (we write of what we have seen), would not admire that attitude in her little daughter, and would at heart prefer the habit of her formal ancestress on the wall. The boardschool girl, who shrieks in groups and doubles up with laughter, is a nuisance to passers-by, and "cheeks" her employer, has no manners not from love of bad manners, but because she has never seen good manners either at home or at school or anywhere.

Could we not have a Manners Club and try to regain some of our lost estate? Make it a social distinction to belong to the Club and we should soon be mending our manners. But how shall we start it? Where are we to find the well-mannered men and women?

Three new volumes have been added to the charming "Tudor Shakespeare" which Macmillan & Co., are publishing. The Second Part of Henry the Sixth is edited by Professor Charles H. Barnwell of the University of Alabama and has for frontispiece a picture of the tower of London. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, is edited by George Pierce Baker, A. B., Professor of Dramatic Literature in Harvard University, and is illustrated with a photogravure of John P. Kemble as Hamlet. The Sonnets, to which is added A Lover's Complaint, are edited by Raymond M. Alden, Ph.D., Professor of English in the University of Illinois, and have a portrait of the Earl of

Southhampton for frontispiece. Each volume has a critical and analytical Introduction, Notes, a list of Textual Variants and a Glossary.

Elizabeth Wallace's "Mark Twain and the Happy Island" (A. C. McClurg & Co.) is a delightfuly sunny and interesting record of a personal acqaintance with Mark Twain in the later years of his life, when he spent many happy days in Bermuda, opening his heart freely to all with whom he came in contact and especially to children, and diffusing an atmosphere of mirth everywhere. The book is charmingly written, from the first chapter, which describes Mr. Clemens's

arrival on the island and his cheerful jesting with young Margaret, to the last, which gives some of his letters, and records his death. Altogether, such a record as this is better than formal biography, both because it is more manageable, and because it is more intimate in its disclosure of the real Mark Twain, as his friends knew and loved him. Thirty or more illustrations from photographs deepen the personal impression of the book.

The seven chapters in which Edward Sandford Martin discusses "The Unrest of Women" (D. Appleton & Co.) are written in so cheerful and courteous a temper, and evince so keen an appreciation of present-day political, industrial and social conditions that readers who differ most widely from the author's conclusions can hardly be offended by the manner in which he states them. From his point of view, the unrest of women is part of a general unrest, extending over most of the world, and manifesting itself in many different ways. "There is unrest among women," he writes, "because there is unrest in the air they breathe, but, naturally, it takes its own special forms," the most conspicuous of which is the aspiration for the suffrage. Mr. Martin does not believe that this aspiration is a wise one, nor that its gratification would work out the best results for women or for society. He is so old-fashioned as to hold that the natural destiny of women is to marry and have children and raise them, that this is the same now that it always has been and always will be, and that for this, primarily, girls should be trained; and he looks with misgiving upon any social theory or industrial compulsion which makes against this. He reviews in some detail and in a whimsical humor "The Disquiet of Miss Thomas," "The Agitation of Mrs. Belmont," "The Ad

mirable Miss Addams," the modern demand for "Self-Supporting Wives," and the revolt against the "dual standard" voiced by Miss Milholland and others, and urges in conclusion that the only force equal to so huge a task as the straightening out of the tangles in our affairs, the unrest among women as well as other forms of unrest-is "the spirit of Christ, working through individuals, and shaping and inspiring our politics." Religion, he insists, is the great agent in pacifying human life and making people content to live it, the only force that can make men wise enough to be men, and women patient enough to be women.

"What can Literature Do for Me," is the title of a book by C. Alphonso Smith, Poe professor of English in the University of Virginia. It gives in a popular form the substance of what are undoubtedly some of the author's lectures to undergraduates. In fact it seems intended not for the confirmed lovers and readers of great literature but for practical open-minded people who are seeking to know and to be convinced of the uses of books. Considered as such, the book should be valuable, for it tells definite things which literature does for the individual and illustrates its arguments by numerous examples, thus giving the reader a foretaste of the treasures he may discover for himself. Most of the references are to the familiar household poets of America and to the greater English poets and novelists. According to Professor Smith, we should read not for æsthetic enjoyment so much as to build up our moral natures and to acquire a broader outlook which may make us more sympathetic and useful. This book will reach people who would never give time or thought to the ordinary accepted form of literary criticism, and it deserves a large circulation. Doubleday, Page & Co.

LONDON TOWN

Oh London Town's a fine town, and London sights are rare,

And London ale is right ale, and brisk's the London air,

And busily goes the world there, but crafty grows the mind,

And London Town of all towns I'm glad to leave behind.

Then hey for croft and hop-yard, and hill, and field, and pond,

With Bredon Hill before me and Malvern Hill beyond.

The hawthorn white 'the hedgerow, and all the spring's attire

In the comely land of Teme and Lugg, and Clent, and Clee, and Wyre.

Oh London girls are brave girls, in silk and cloth o' gold,

And London shops are rare shops, where gallant things are sold, And bonnily clinks the gold there, but drowsily blinks the eye,

And London Town of all towns I'm glad to hurry by.

Then hey for covert and woodland, and ash and elm and oak, Tewkesbury inns, and Malvern roofs, and Worcester chimney smoke, The apple trees in the orchard, the cattle in the byre,

And all the land from Ludlow town to Bredon church's spire.

Oh London tunes are new tunes, and London books are wise,

And London plays are rare plays, and fine to country eyes,

But craftily fares the knave there, and wickedly fares the Jew, And London Town of all towns I'm glad to hurry through.

So hey for the road, the west road, by mill and forge and fold, Scent of the fern and song of the lark by brook, and field, and wold, To the comely folk at the hearth-stone and the talk beside the fire, In the hearty land, where I was bred, my land of heart's desire.

John Masefield.

THE SONG OF AMERGAN.

By Amergan, a pre-historic Bard.

I am the wind on the sea for might; I am a wave of the deep for length; I am the sound of the sea for fright; I am a stag of seven points for strength.

I am a hawk on a cliff for lightness; I am a tear of the sun for brightness; I am a salmon in wisdom's fountain; I am a lake that afar expands; I am knowledge and poesy's mountain; I am a spear in a spoiler's hands. I am a God who fashions smoke from magic fire for a Druid to slay with. Who but I will make clear each question the mind of man still goes astray with?

Who but myself the assemblies knows of the house of the sages on high Slieve Mis?

Who but the poet knows where in the ocean the going down of the great sun is?

Who seven times sought the Fairy Forts without or fear or injury? And who declareth the moon's past ages and the ages thereof that have yet to be?

Who out of the shadowy haunts of Tethra hitherward draweth his herds of kine?

Who segregated them from each other to browse the plains of the watery brine?

For whom will the fish of the laughing ocean be making welcome if not for me?

Who shapeth as I can the spell of letters, a weapon to win them out of the sea?

Invoke, a satirist fit incantations to

weave for you, O folk of the waves, Even me, the Druid forth furnishing Ogham letters on oaken staves, Even me, the parter of combatants, even me who the Fairy Height Enter to find a cunning enchanter to lure with me your shoals to light! I am the Wind of the Sea for might.

Translated by Alfred Perceval Graves. The Dublin Review.

the

It has been a very brief Session, as Sessions now go-and inglorious as brief. Within living memory none has been so sterile and barren. The harvest of legislation was never so thin and unprofitable. For what stands to the Government's credit? A Bill for the Amendment of the Insurance Act, which would never have seen light this year but for the by-elections at Newmarket and Altrincham, and was hurriedly produced for the exigencies of a third by-election at Leicester. The Mental Deficiency Bill, which was sacrificed last year to party necessities, but which in its altered and much improved form may safely reach the Statute Book before the Session ends. A Plural Voting Bill, a partisan measure positively indecent in its nakedness, the second reading of which the Government took at the earliest possible date, and then postponed the Committee stage to the latest possible--and both with a view to the Parliament Act. In addition to these, and again under the shadow of the Parliament Act, the Irish Home Rule Bill, the Welsh Church Bill, and the Scottish Temperance Bill, have been bustled across the stage for the second time. Such is the recordthat and Marconi!

The truth is that it has been a Parliament Act Session. That deadening instrument has been seen in full operation, and those who prophesied the worst in respect of it came nearest to the truth. The Prime Minister has interpreted its provisions in the narrowest possible spirit. It was, indeed, always obvious from the first to those who know how the business of the House of Commons is conducted that the second passage of a Bill under the Parliament Act would be a somewhat formal and perfunctory pro

ceeding. That was inherent in the Act itself. But the Government took infinite paius to assure the country that there would be real reconsideration, and that the interposition of two years' delay would infallibly prevent the passage of an unpopular Bill. Unhappily, they were talking to deceive, and they succeeded in deceiving. Whatever may be said of the Home Rule Bill-and we believe the majority of the electors to be quite apathetic on the general question, and only vitally interested in the resistance of Ulster-the unpopularity of the Welsh Church Bill is beyond dispute. Its friends dare not attempt a single demonstration in its favor; they can scarcely raise so much as a petition. The general opinion of moderate men we believe to be this: that while a connection between Church and State may be ideally the best thing for the State-even Cromwell said that "no temporal government could have a sure support without a national church that adhered to it"that connection must command the willing assent of a clear majority of the people. There is no such majority in Wales. That is clear as noonday. The Welsh national spirit is against the Church for reasons reflecting no discredit on the Church of our own time, but reflecting the gravest discredit on both Church and State during the two preceding centuries. The case against the Establishment in Wales, from the point of view of the Welsh-Radical-Nationalist-Nonconformist, is cumulative and overwhelming. But what has revolted public opinion in England is the meanness of the disendowment clauses, the paltry spirit which inspired them, the purely political motives which are responsible for this greedy clutching