The New York herald., 1922-03-05

tory and literature.
He devotes a whole lecture to He
brew Psalmody; here he is more con-
troversial than in most of the book,
since he regards the Psalms as
largely, liturgical and disagrecs with
the opinions of Prof. Kent and others
in their late dating and explanation
of the poems. DR.. Peters brings
out, fully, the relations between Gen.
esis. the whole body of Hebrew myth,
legend and literature and the earlier
Babylonian manifestations of the
same character. He also recognizes
the influence of Egyptian and other
civilizations. But he does not go
TO the extremes reached by some OF
the earlier critics who are known as
"Babylonians" because of their too
sweeping attributions to that source.
1t is impossible to summarize, even
briefly, the contents of so fun book
as this: ii must suffice to refer the
reader to 1t as the latest compendium
Of research and critical opinion In
it's field.
Professor Moulton's recension of
the Old Testament is q companion
volume to the similarly treated New
Testament. issued some time ago.
It's aim is to present the important
parts of the Bible. divested of obso-
lete matter, passages of small Inn
portance, and other negligible por-
tions. as a coherent whole. The pas
sages preserved are given unchanged;
between them Is sufficient connective
tissue. both narrative and explana-
tory. to link the whole together.
Prof. Moulton insists upon the unity
of the whole" as a record of "the
spiritual evolution of Israel as pre-
scented by itself" II falls naturally
into a historic outline, interviewer
with song and legend. which covers
about half the full Bible. Thence ii
shows a passage from history to
literature" with the Prophets, the
Psalms and finally what he calls, apt
ly, "the poem of Zion redeemed" as
the climax of the Old Testament. To
this is added a supplementary chap
ter dealing with the Books OF Wis
dom, as intermediate between the Old
and New Testaments.
The rearTangemento on this basis Is
radical. To the old fashioned it may
seem revolutionary. but it Is certainly
likely to be more easily understood
and absorbed. and is thus more eff
fective. more impressive. than the
unaltered original The work is
done with great skill. and IS OF
course based upon careful canons Of
literary and textual criticism. To
Mr.. Bryan. who has told US that ''its
parts were not arranged by man. but
prearranged by the Almighty" such
a revision of the Bible must seem sac
rilcgious. The contrast between Mr..
Bryan and Prof. Moulton Is oddly
symptomatic OF the mal-adjustment
Of our times
Ill
Turning TO AIR. WIlis's book we
enter different land; q cloudland.
but with curious solid bits about 1t
that suggest that no form of ORR
entail pantheism quite fits itself to
the Occidental mind. Mr.. Willis
writes well, without much of the ex-
travaganco and adjectival exuber-
ance that one usually finds in such
transcendental speculation. II fact,
he aims at practically. and achieves
more of it than one might suppose
possible. The book contains twenty
five aphorisms on the spiritual life.
with an explanatory scrmonette or
note upon each. He also reprints an
epitome of j. KrishnamurtIs AT
the Feet of the Master" followed by
n summary of the steps in the path
of spiritual development" To these
he adds an interesting chapter on
+l,n 1f ahn1ran r.1,.,