Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-06-07
Great Refusal" etc. Boston:
Houghton Miffiin Company.

Upon it's surface this finely critical
| work appears hypercrtica1. reader to
ferret out flaws than to render large
justice. appearing to look upon the crit
| ical faculty as destructive rather than
constructive. AS soon as one discovers.
however. that Mr.. More is using William
BeckfOrd and Cardinal Newman. Walter
Pater and Fiona Macleod. NietZsche and
Huxley to illustrate his theory. using
them, to an extent. as evidence in sup
port OF his argument, he then realizes
the force and power and insight of this
study. In substance. these essays con
stltute analysis of modern roma nti-
cism in its drift toward kind of pan
theism where God and nature and the
soul blend, ''the infinite within the stream
of nature itself instead of apart from
this stream. with summary of the
dangers and misfortunes attending this
view The author describes the appeal
or this outlook to minds of certain quail
| ity. to men of certain accented mold,
citing the writers already named OK
amples or this wayWard tendency. To a
certain extent these men are studied in
their individual meanings. but to much
larger extent are they analyZed in their
relations and influences. in their standing
as cause or effect in this tendency to-
ward new romanticism. The book
repays careful study as one of the not
overabundant examples Of thoroughly
competent criticism
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT. BY Oscar s.
Straus. author of THE Origin of
Republican Form of Government in
the United States etc New York
The Century Company.
The essays and addresses Of this vol
ume come together under common head
ing because. together. they objectfy a
single thing, turning first one and then
another of its faces outward This body
of fine and distinguished ESSAYS sums to
an examination of the United States. to
determine whether or not. under its over
Whelming stress of industralism and
commerciaism. it is holding fast to its
supreme obligation. This highest duty.
nothing less than to shape its amazing
development according to the principles
OF pure democracy, toward the goal of
social Righteousness. \ wide variety OF
subjects converge upon this central
theme. Points of American history are
brought to bear upon 1t. economic plans
and policies. commerce at home and
abroad, diplomacy in its various aspects.
character sketches of certain men in
fluental in this democratic progression
all come together here in instruction. APP
praisal, admonition, encouragement Ripe
scholarship. broad experience dstirl-
guished public service, high idealism and
force and persuasion. stamp this volume
with distinction. and these. too. carry it
across to readers as an invaluably direct
and suggestive outlook upon the general
trend of our Americanism.
THE BEND IN THE ROAD; and How a
Man Of the City Found II. BY Tru-
man A. De Weese. illustrated New
York: Harper 4 Bros.
For reader to join hands with this
good adventure, certain conditions must
exist. First, he must be a city dweller
Next. he must have lived his early years
on q farm. And next. he must have come
upon the inevitable Inconsistencies of the
city man woman for the green fields
of his childhood rhis last is the bend
in the road These things true, the
book is more than delight 1t is a
gospel of the open. Another witness to
add to the evidence of our own hearts
and to the wisdom of the John Bur
roughs kind of man. that after all we
do dig the best of ourselves up out Of
the ground and set it out in rows and
hills Of green things growing. 1T is a
practical story, but none the less in
spring on that account The adventure
of a city man. once a country boy, who