Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-23
BOOK REVIEWS.
ruE MYSTERY OF EDUCATION, AMI

THE MYSTERY Or EDCSAAAON' onu
Other Academic Performances. BY
Barrett Wendell. professor of Eng
Ish at Harvard College. New YORK:
Charles Scribners Sons. Washing
ton: Woodward & Lothrop.
-F education could be carried on with
the same high outlook, the same
gertrude of conviction and simplicity
of exposition as mark it's discussion
in these essays, then the general
clatter about keeping school would give
way to the less boisterous. more effective
process of educating youth. Given orig
inally as lectures. in widely separated
localities to audiences as broadly variant
as their limited number and special theme
could command. these essays. despite
such superficial influences toward d.
versity, deal essentially with single
thought--the fundamental aim and test OF
education Settled in his belief that
there is but one thing to be said on
this subject. the author says it again ana
again. with the authority of long and dis
tingushed experience. and in the sturdy.
unconventional phrase of sincere ana
eager purpose. He makes of 1t truly
communicable message by speaking the
language that his hearers and now. his
readers, use. The essays gathered UP
in the mind as unit make an example
of the perfect classifying power that Ia
held up i'm each of them as the goal of
knowledge and intellectual cfhclency
thinking things together Is his con-
stantly recurring phrase. phrase Won
derfully set forth and elaborated in his
lecture to the public school teachers OF
Chicago on THE Study of Literature
Every teacher, every worker in any llne
should read and ponder this essay. 1t
is significant to know that had this
author been addressing a group OF poets
a band of carpenters a class of clerks.
about their purposes and plans. he would
have said, in substance, what he has
said here, and. thereafter. these would
have been more intelligent. more efnclent,
worthier poets and carpenters and clerks
The word is universal one Education
is defined adjustment to environ
ment' familiar expression. but EN-
vironment' here makes different con-
notation from the usual one. 1t is APP
pretended and discussed. not as d thing.
but as a force-in these wonder-working
days of invention and application. ire
mendously accelerated force-adjustments
to which must he prompt and exact This
makes of education a dynamic power
of extreme sensitiveness and instant re-
Spouse, and opens up a stimulating, eX-
citing vista
If this clean-cut path were followed
straight to its end education would
soon cease it's woeful laggings and in
consequent meanderings and take its
rightful place the leading business
of the world.
ONE DAY AND ANOTHER. BY E. V.
Lucas. New York: The Macmillan
Company. Washington: Brentano's.
On the title page is this meaningful pic
ture: The book of life has wide margins:
lend me pencil Susanna S Haul" With
this borrowed tool, thereafter. the broad
borders of every page are written fine
and close with the manifold doings and
beings Of the common day. Little stories, as
true as they are simple and tender. are
among these marginal jottings: ref1ec-
tions. rich in feeling and suggestion, set
a-going by the homely things at hand;
gentle fancies. woven in playful mood, or
grave: and here and there in crowded
space a telling sketch struck quickly off
in an impatient protest at the slow course
Of the writing hand. Only. wise and
ginal life notes. Read 1.-The Collector"
the last of them, but a hands breadth in
measure. yet it holds a perfect picture
and perfect story: and more. too, for out
of it there breathes a haunting, melan-
choly spirit of human yearning and un-
rest.
PRISCILLA OF THE GOOD INTENT; a
Romance of the Grey Fells. BY Hal
Barbara" etc, etc. Boston,: Little.
Brown & Co.
This is litany of spring. SURPRISINGLY
beautiful in all its cadences. The youth
and fair promise of the year are here:
the rhythmic forecast of the pregnant
earth: the blind and ardent outrea aching
of young life everywhere. That Is the
story. To those of palpable habit 1t tells
of man and a maid. of parents. neigh
bors. and, wisest Of them all. Of BILLY the
Fool; of work. of play. of sorrow and it's
uses. To try TO talk about this book
is unseemly. If you can read 1t at all.
you will lie close to the ground with it
O. nights; and Billy the Fool and nesting
grave by the stream. under the rowan
trees round which the curlews plant, will
bring their message to you with words of
healing borne on the brooding wings Of
the deep, mysterious night.
THE STORY OF HEREWARD, the
Champion of England. By Douglas
c. Stedman. Dublin University prize
English. author of 'Hereward -
Romance" Illustrated by Gertrude
Domain Hammond New York:
Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.
One must admire and praise all that
goes into the making OF this book for
boys and girls. Here Is the patient,
scholarly delving into forgotten annals
and chronicles for an authentic. substan-
tal foundation. and after building to
which is added. where the records fail
consistent. artful invention. Out of these
spring graphic pictures of those bold and
lusty days. There is the thrill of stirring
action the glow of heroic conduct straight
on from boy to man. Even the generous
externals of the book appeal: the broad
and ample page, the big, clean type. the
delightful pictures that so help the story
on. Now. whether stories, even of his
toric mold. about our fighting, brawling
blood-Ietting, blood-drinking ancestors
are worth while. even to give answer to
some subtle, racial. back-casting call of
youth and adolescence, is another story.
JUST FOR TWO. By Mary Stewart
Cutting. author of Little Stories of
Married Life. etc, etc. Illustrated
by Edmund Frederick, A. T.. Keller
and Robert Edwards. New York:
Doubleday. Page & Co. Washington:
Woodward & Lothrop.
In each of these half dozen stories the
elemental Two appear together, absorbed
in solving some part OF the original prob
lem These stories are strikingly vivid:
quality growing, in part, out of their
constructive excellence: in larger part,
out of the concrete personality and con-
sistent natural conduct of their charac-