SOME RECENT BOOKS.

Socialism, Fascism and Mussolini-An Ancient EpicSantiago-A.L. Smith-Johnsonian Gleanings-Trollope -Robespierre-Books on Art-Romans and BritonsMorals-Bi-Sexuality - African Jungle Life-Blue Trousers The Sacred Fire'-Explaining Maeterlinck -English Literature.

So much mere sentimentality has been blended with the Socialism of recent years-it began with the start of the Fabians in the 'eighties and Sir William Harcourt's casual, untrue assertion that 'We are all Socialists nowadays'-that it is time we looked steadily at the truth; especially since a Socialist Government has been in power and will shortly be making a bid for power again. Also we have seen in Russia the very brutal havoc wrought through the relentless application of Marxian ideas to the social life. No better clearance of the issue could have been made than is accomplished by Prof. F. J. C. Hearnshaw in 'A Survey of Socialism (Macmillan). This analytical, historical and critical examination of the various Collectivist movements and assertions of principles launched on an unsettled world is careful, illuminating, searching, convincing, overwhelming; and also is fair to the opposite side. The only judgment in it that we question is the severe one on John Ball, whose protest, surely, is amply justified by the pictures drawn of the suffering peasants in the contemporaneous Piers Plowman.' His denunciation of the inequalities which cast their rags and starving into a greater hopelessness was natural to humanity, and far removed from the positive cruelty of the Communism which has ruined Russia and would ruin this country too, if the impossible happened and the nasty little people, its advocates, gained the whip hand. Space at present prevents more than this brief commendation of a brilliant and most valuable book. If it does not absolutely break the theorists of Socialism altogether-wilful obstinacy being in the life-blood of those gentlemen-it is final to those who are prepared to weigh duly the evidences of experience and history.

We can get used almost to anything; and so it is that many who, the other day, looked upon Mussolini as, after Lenin and his evil company, the greatest danger to European peace and settlement, are beginning to forget old doubts and fears and to tolerate 'Il Duce' as on the whole a beneficent force, a constructive Napoleon. It is, therefore, perhaps opportune to have from one of its victims a volume describing the origins and early practices of 'The Fascist Dictatorship in Italy' (Cape). Prof. Gaetano Salvemini is an exile from his country because of his opinions and his opposition to Mussolini ; yet he was intimately working with the Dictator in the young days. As his editor points out, it is natural for a sufferer from any cause to exaggerate its evils; yet take away the possible extravagances of his story and still we see that, however fair and strengthening to Italy the results of the Fascist Dictatorship have been, it began with violence, cruelty and persecution; its bases were laid in moral mud and blood. History in time will tell the true story-more or less-and then the confident assertions of the successful Black Shirts will be checked by the striking and angry statements of this volume. Meanwhile, the Dictatorship goes on. And it is easy to see why it goes on, if Signor Vittorio E. de Fiori in his 'Mussolini, the Man of Destiny' (Dent) tells a true story; for Il Duce' in a very brief space of years has risen from extreme poverty to his present power and greatness; and that is the sole result of personal force and genius. The son of a blacksmith, he began to earn money as a bricklayer's labourer; a convinced Socialist, he edited Avanti' until the War broke out; and then after fruitless endeavours to keep international Socialism as a neutral influence, he threw himself ardently into the cause of his country. He served as a private and a corporal in the trenches, and then began that amazing change which has placed him at the head of a renovated and self-confident Italy. Cruelly sentimental' and 'bad tempered' are Signor Fiori's epithets for the Dictator at the beginning of the book; but, after that it is roses, roses all the way. This, again, is the tribute of a partisan; but how can bias be avoided in the case of so forceful a personality as Benito Mussolini?

'The Epic of Gilgamish' (Luzac) takes us back to the

very dawn of life when there were gods and heroes endowed with like passions to ourselves. Visioned and inscribed on clay so long ago as 5000 B.C., and copied by Babylonian, Assyrian, Hittite and other scribes, fragments of the tablets telling the wonderful tale have been found and pieced together; so that the Epic comprises not only a living account of ancient heroism and passion, but is a fairly complete record of the legendary wanderings and trials of the mighty Gilgamish, who amongst his other vicissitudes travelled in the Ark with UtaNapishtim, the Hebrew Noah. This latest version of that old, old tale, which left so marked an impression on the human mind, is retold by Dr R. Campbell Thompson in stirring hexameters. Granted that any translation must be far removed in form and spirit from the original, Dr Thompson has yet achieved a fine poem as well as a clear rendering of a tale which, despite the almost century of centuries that have elapsed since first it began to find expression through a human mind, still can move the heart. The legend is one of the mightiest, and this, its latest version, marches with power.

That titles of books do not always suggest the quality of the contents to which they are the signposts is proved by 'The Cult of Santiago' (Longmans). At the first sight of that title the idea came that the volume would be profound, esoteric, blue-bookish. It looked like wares for Dryasdust; and the assurance on the title-page that the Author had made of it a 'sympathetic study' was not vastly re-assuring. Happily we went on with it, and now recommend cordially the reading of this book, for infinite entertainment is packed within its pages. The purpose of Dr Stone, the author, has been to write, sometimes almost in a gossiping spirit, round the personality of the Apostle James, the Son of Zebedee, and the traditions, myths and pilgrimages associated with him. Wielding a happy pen, he talks, digressing here and wandering there, in the manner of a cultured conversationalist who has admitted his readers to a fireside intimacy. Much of the story is focussed upon Compostella, the great Spanish shrine of the saint; and, reading of its pilgrims and legends, we meet a multi-coloured company, from Charlemagne and his fierce contemporaries to the little pilgrims of the other day. A very engaging book. The

author wins the reader's heart with his humour and simple subtleties. The calm way in which in one paragraph he will take and refuse a miracle is most attractive.

So, too, with the next book. No small part of the success of the biography of Arthur Lionel Smith' (Murray), written by his wife, is due to the delightful candour with which it has been penned. The Master himself is almost a subordinate figure in the congress of persons who pass across these entertaining pages; and yet, through their reactions to him as well as from the occasional direct testimony to himself, we realise his helpful, kindly, energetic, easy-going, workful, playful, sometimes crotchety, but essentially sympathetic spirit. 'A.L.S.' was not every man's man, obviously: he was too indifferent to mere clothing for that; but what a great guide he proved to masculine youth in its greenness! Despite its lonely beginnings, he was fortunate in his life, and supremely fortunate in his choice of wife and biographer. One is compelled to revert to the manner in which her book is written, with its frequent points of subtle frankness, of kindly acid; though never is it touched with malice. How many of those who possibly trembled before the shrewd personal examinations of the Master were aware that his much-occupied wife, despite her many children and the care of the students resident in her crowded home, was as closely observant as he! The subsequent Deputy-Master of the Mint beaten in a race by a little girl, who became in time a prominent actress; Mr Bennett of Hertford,' who now is made aware of the horrific truth that he ate up all the cakes meant for the children, and others; how will they take these pleasant barbs? But, of course, they will take them well, for it all has been done with the real kindness which marks the whole book,

Mr Aleyn Lyell Reade is almost out-Boswelling Boswell in his meticulous study of details and even amazing devotion to Dr Samuel Johnson; and it is safe to predict that any future biographers or students of the life-history of the Great Cham of our literature will be compelled to come with obligation to Mr Reade. His 'Johnsonian Gleanings,' privately printed in a limited edition at 3, Amen Corner, London, have been in progress for many years, as was to be expected when it is

seen how extraordinarily patient, careful and elaborate his labours have been, In the fifth Part, now issued, he treats of The Doctor's Life' from 1728 to 1735; and the period comprises Johnson's entry at Oxford, his residence there-amply discussed with discoveries of new facts and material-and the very anxious period following his leaving the University, until the eve of his marriage. In quantity and essential quality this work of eager research may be described as great. What a tribute it is to the superb strength of Samuel Johnson's personality that such widespread devotion as this volume illustrates is still being given, in spite of the more than multitudinous tomes on the subject already published! Mr Hugh Walpole's volume on 'Anthony Trollope' (Macmillan) is in the best tradition of the famous series to which it is the latest addition. It has authority, interest and style. Doubtless, Mr Walpole's study of the subject has been helped by Mr Michael Sadleir's irreplaceable work, but as surely also it has been not helped by it; for this volume shows that its author has approached and mastered his subject with independence of conjecture and judgment, helped by his own experiences as a craftsman in fiction. That is one of the supreme attractions of this book; that its writer knows the ropes, and is able to show how Trollope used his material. The concluding chapter, in which Mr Walpole summarises the artistic qualities and shortcomings of the Victorian, who after long waiting has come vigorously and stedfastly into his own, is especially admirable.

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The purpose of M. G. Lenotre in his study of 'Robespierre's Rise and Fall' (Hutchinson) has been not to write a biography of that man with a cat's face,' whose destiny and influence upon France were equally disastrous; but to study his psychological characteristics, especially in the later years of his gradual and then rapid fall. The only important aspect of Robespierre in this otherwise realistic and revealing volume not sufficiently brought out is as to how, in five brief years, he managed to secure supreme power over the forces and victims of the French Revolution. What was the cause of the undoubted devotion of his friends? Something more than we are shown must have appeared to produce that effect. It is an unsolved aspect of Robes