The New York herald., 1922-10-01


test of all-comers, for be Europe momen-
tarily ready for the junk heap or for long
| tour on the road Of and to civilization. the
fact remains that she gave the world about
all that it has of good at this moment.
Asia may have had her treasures, material,
intellectual and spiritual, but it took Eu-
| rope to bring them out from the tombs Of
aesthetic and commercial inertia and broad
cast them over the other continents. Sup
pose Commodore Perry did lay to in the
Bay of Yedo (now Tokio) (1S53), shake
hands with the Mikado, point to his war
ships and ask that the harbor be opened. It
was England, France and Spain that had
'europeanized' North America and made
his act possibility. 1t was the first euro
peanization of a non- European people. But
it was not the last. And if any one wishes
to read a remarkably concise account of
how colonies have been established in
Africa, Asia, Australia of the differences
between the colonial policies of the various
countries and of the numerous subsequent
incidents-wars, opening up of new trade
routes, interchange of ideas-that have
gone to make this world a political and
cultural unit this book can be recon-
mended to him without fear And it is
harder to recommend text on history
than to recommend a friend; the latter
may make amends for remissions by chang
ing his ways; the former is immutable.
The fact that Europe made the world"
however, is not the only lesson to be
great story could be told in 490 pages
will be news to those who are noted for
their much speaking and much writing
For, bear in mind this is no Outline of
history; this is history ITSELF And it is
gloriously replete with neat little ideas
thrown in just about the time you begin
to feel that it is getting unpleasantly sub
stantial. There is the interpolated thesis
that sea forces always show greater love
OF liberty than land forces. for there are no
garrisons on sea where the very spirit of
liberty may be drilled out of men. There
is the suggestion that the grand places in
front of the railway stations in Paris are
not solely of esthetic origin; they were put
there in order to handle outgoing troops
plete denial of the familiar contention
that the English are race of shopkeepers.
There is the justification with the evidence
for the corruption on the part of the
early Russian colonizers There is the
reason why England has always conceded
the main point when it came to a dispute
between her and us. And there is the
af fla
the concluding section, with its references
to our part which read as though the
author had taken unstinted pleasure in
writing them
Is this book dull? Not in the slightest
In addition to reading well in Prof. Fay's
admirable translation it is happily inter-
larded with literary illusions that bring
home once more the part poets have PLAYED
in making the world a unit This sensible
Swiss historian has shown how old Johann
Peter Hebel gave the real picture of Medi-
terranean piracy; how Swift satirized the
course of Irish history; how Heine in
those remarkable feuilletons he sent back
nome from Paris foresaw the coming of
trouble both in France and In Germany:
how Lamartine versifed the social revolu-
ton in France. And so on-until you feel
that the poets have written the real his
tory. They have; but history is made"
by those who are not poets. And in be-
tween the Cavours and Carduccis. the
Burkes and Byrons, the Harriet Beecher
Stoves and the Shermans stands the his
torian If unable to marshal century of
facts he remains in between and writes