The New York herald., 1922-12-03
Foreign Books
Continued from Preceding Page.

the author of many books, the best known
of which is "Enstein: Einblick in Seine
Gedankenwelt' ("Einstein: How He
Thinks"). Published last year, it has gone
through forty-six editions. Moszkowski is
one of Einstein's most intimate friends
The two have had many long talks to-
gether, during which the one explained the
theory of relativity to the other The
Newton of 1922 has given his personal ap-
proval to this book.
Moszkowski has been a globe trotter in
addition to a writer. About one year ago.
he was again taken down with tranderlast,
only to realize that his case was incurabe
owing to the fact that what would have
been considered fortune in Inter den
Linden eight years ago is at present only
few dollars in. say, Kansas. So Mosz-
kowski saw that he would have to stay at
home. This inspired him with the idea of
writing this book. in which he visits, in his
imagination, islands that have never been
visited before. Quantitatively it is a big
book he has written; and. for the indi-
vidual who can endure a riot of phantasies
1t is also a big book qualitatively.
friends, including Albert Einstein, they
discouraged him; they told him that this
was a rather worn theme; that Marco
Polo and Columbus and Vasco da CANA
and Nordenskjold and Sven Hedin had
done at first hand what he was planning
to do from his study. This left him undis-
mayed He remarked that there were but
two names that gave him pause-Rabelais
and Swift. This moved his publisher Fon-
one. to state on the jacket that the book is
far superior to "Gulliver's Travels while
it makes anything Pantagruel said sound
jejune and insipd.
Well, Moszkowski has at least written a
remarkable book. He has boarded the
good ship "Atalanta" and visited the Pla-
tonic Islands. the Islands of Happy Condi-
tions, the Retrogressive Islands, the
Islands of the Pacifists of the Liberal
Arts, and so on and on, around a world
that does not exist and over seas of his
own making. Returned home, he con-
cludes. following Nostradamus before him,
that there is not single principle formu-
lated by man that will stand the test If
adequately tried out Relatively again
Let us make confession: There are
2S3 tall pages in the book. Printed after
American usage it would make volume
of about 400 pages. The copy placed at
my disposal was uncut. For reasons that
concern no one but me, / was obliged to
read as much of it as / could without
cutting the leaves, / read nothing, in this
way. that was not provocative, revolu-
tionary and yet relatively compelling.
Moszkowsk has made bold attempt to
overthrow the prevailing opinion, and when
a mind of his type sets itself task like
that he rarely fails to be interesting
The fate of the book shall not attempt
to predict. l shall only say that "Gul-
livers Travels" is at least tame in COM
parison with il. and that Moszkowski has
q special copyright on il which makes
quotation illegal.
And now for the reverse side-the face
side-of the medal Germany is and al
ways has been a land Of contradictions:
the Germans as individuals are Hydes and
Jekylls. Richard Wagner. for example. was
in a way a man of great saintlness Of
character, OF well nigh unctuous spirlta-
ality and Their i'm a WAY ne Was not re