The San Francisco call., 1899-10-29

velous talent in the attainment of his
great popularity No one need grudge
him the least trif1e of his fame; but we
should all be careful not to take him too
seriously as a moral force, and should be
on our guard against his encouragement
of our narrowness and our commonness.
The truth is that most of us need moro
to believe in ideas than in acts. We need
to recognize that even the material con-
ditions Of modern life-machinery, rail-
roads. telegraphs-,are due to an idea, a
We need to be convinced that laws and
customs, governments and states, are
ideas, created by, men OF thought. New
Mil, and thousands of unknown and 81
lent workers, are the makers Of our mod
ern world. The United States is not made
by an act but by an idea. Civilization Is
a set of ideas. The advance of civiisa-
tion is the acquisition by the mass of men
of points of view more and more closely
approximately accurate, and of ideas
more and more completely covering the
phenomena Of human experience. It Is
the despised persistent, ineffective scholar
who teaches the world and who leads the
march of ideas.
The demand for action, above every
thing the logical issue of which is the
worship of warrior the soldier is the true
man Of action-is inimical to the highest
civilization; and the influence Of Mr.. Kip
ling's work. is perceptibly injurious in low
ering the ideals of those who are most
affected by his writings.
These. ungracious comments on an
author entitled to love and honor very far
this side ,idolatry have been +wrung from
judicious insistence on his own narrow
and inadequate view of life. A clear rec
ognition of its narrowness and of the
somewhat eXtravagant character of his
art need not interfere with the fullest de-
light in his abounding energy and his
spontaneous imaginative power Double
sngS s. gSo.5 ana Mcclure company New York
"Kiplingiana" is a scrap book about
Rudyard I<iplIng. 1t contains a brief
information, fac-similes Of the frontis-
pieces and title. pages of Mr.. KipIing's s
early books, a photography. prefaces and
dedications, quotations from reviews
portraits and caricatures, in short, all
kinds of desultory information of interest
to Mr.. Kipling's readers. Much of the
compilation is amusing. and not little
Is valuable. 1t is book to refer to, not
by the absence of dates, and by the i'm
perfections of the index. For example, we
are not told when Mr.. Kipling sent re-
"Cantab.' or contributed to the Hors7
monden School Budget. The origin of the
name "Rudyard" is indexed only by the
title, "A Kipling Romance" and Mr. Kin
ling's change Of feeling as to the reguia-
tion of the traffic in drink appears under
the head. From American Notes. NJ,
de Paris is indexed merely as "A French
Opinion and is not dated
These are grave faults. but in spite OF
them and Of little padding the book is
well worth its price to lover or critical
student Of Mr.. Kiplings work. Mans
field & Westels, New York. 81 25)
Quaint Corners of Ancient Empires.
by NJ NJ Shoemaker, whirls along with
the dizzying rapidity of an actual Jour-
ney from Rameswaran. off the coast of
Ceylon, through Southern India and Bur
man, to Manila. The impressions of the
hasty traveller are conveyed with vivid
ness and in a very readable manner With
the help of the excellent Photographic
illustrations, a reader may obtain a dis
tlnct idea or the appearance of the vast
temple at Rameswaran, the curious spre
on the balanced rock at Moulmein. or the