The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1899-06-25


per volume.)
Essnyists.
Penalties of Taste, and Other Essays"
by Norman Bridge, is precisely the sort OF
book which the title Enthusiastically,
thoughtful, and not strikingly original or
remarkable in any way. 1t may easily be
imagined. also, what the argument of the
| first essay is. The author points out the
usefulness of taste to its owner, gives some
definitions of the different varieties of that
quality, and goes on to describe the un-
pleasant sensations TO which the person of
taste is necessarily subjected while liv-
ing in an imperfect world. Perhaps the
best of the essays is 1.-TWO Kinds of Con-
science" which deals with Individual and
collective conscience. The one produces
reformers and people of independent up
rightness the other produces mobs, perse-
! cutions, and great waves of patriotic or
religious feeling. But both kinds of con-
science are necessary in the evolution of
the world. That is the argument.
II may be worth while to discuss this
essay at some length, because 1t really
defines a truth which should be generally
understood, and the authors Illustrations
are pat. One of them, illustrating what
may be called the mob spirit, is the story
of class of students who had been gath
cred to witness a clinic by a great sur
geon. The surgeon had warned the class
| that on operation day there must be no
demonstration or noise to disturb the pa
tients. In spite of this. at the appear
ance of the surgeon, preceding the first
patient into the hall there was an out
break of applause, accompanied by yelling
and whistIing. Mr.. Bridge says of this
incident:
The class was composed in the main of fine
fellows, not of whom would have yelled
or clapped his hands had he been the only
man waiting for the exhibition; would he
have been one OF four, or even ten-then he
would have been indyidualized and identifable.
But OF hundred, the man instinctivey felt
himself merged in the mass, and his acts were
governed by a different motive Moreover, not
but would have burned with a sense Of
outrage at the performance had the patient been
his mother sister.
The end of the matter was that the pro-
fessor dismissed the class and did his work
IN the private operating room, and that the
students held an Indignation meeting at
what they considered his insult. Now,
that is as good an example as can be
found of the mob spirit-the spirit which
impels q crowd to do what one alone
would not do. And it may be added that
the man who would yield to this ungentle-
manly impulse under the shelter of the
crowd has some flaw in his makeup. He
is not thorough gentleman. He is nine
tenths, perhaps ninety-nine hundredths a
gentleman but there is a fraction of the
boorish barbarian in him yet. Chicago:
Herbert S. Stone G. Co. 81
Studies in the Psychology of Woman
by Laura Marholm, is a book whose title
promises something interesting, and whose
contents are extremely disappointing. The
author who is a German woman, the book
being originally published in that Ian
guage, begins with the assertion that no
one but a woman can really understand
the psychology of womanhood. This seems
likely enough, but after one has waded
through the interminably prosy pages of
the book. one is inclined to believe that
the writer either has no very original ideas
or does not know how to express them,
for there are very very few of these in
her work, and for the most part the ar
guments are tiresome Teiterations OF abuse
OF the modern woman.
There are two notions in the book, how
ever, which are worthy of attention,
though clumsly handled. One is that the
Catholic Church, setting up Madonna TO
be wOrShlped, dld mucn 10 sO!Ne the
woman question" in this way: 1t set
woman apart from man, made her the OBJ
ject of his reverence and concentrated his
attention on the one marvellous mystery
of her motherhood. 1t made childhood
holy and womanhood a thing to be borne
with, gently and patiently, without exac-
tons The author thinks that in tearing
down this ideal Professionalism forced man
TO look for his embodiment of the eternal
feminine" to the actual woman herself
and embittered him by subjecting him to
disillusion. This notion is, at any rate,
new, and there IS something in it. The
second idea, which is thoroughly practical,
is that when the reorganization of society
has been properly managed, women wi
be assigned TO work which they can do
better than men, instead of competing with
men, as at present. The author suggests
somewhat Utopian plan of a sisterhood
which shall embrace all women desirous of
rendering service TO their kind, and do
the work which the Catholic sisterhood
did in the days of universal Catholicism,
but without religious condition. Whether
this plan of humanitarian nunnery will
ever be realized or not is at present un-
certain. Chicago: Herbert S. Stone & Co..
Sl.50D
Minor Fiction.