The Washington times., 1932-09-07

contributions from Bertrand Russell, Count Her
mann Keyserlng and Bernard Shaw; in their various
ways all three refuse to answer. l might like the
whole book better if DR.. Durante didn't call Mr. Rus
sell 'the Bad Boy of England" Was Socrates the
Bad Boy of Greece?
What's All the Shootn' For?
Dr. Durante asked all these and many more people
"What is the meaning and worth of human life?" and
instead of letting it go at that, gave his ideas
free rein and dark color putting himself in the posi-
tion of pessimst for the odd reason that human
beings, had discovered something he calls truth" in
quotation marks, and this truth had not made us
happy Not few of his correspondents haven't heard
of the dscovery-the Bad Boy of England among
them. CDR. Durant also calls him scandaizer of all
continents and prospective terror of the House of
Lords.') Some of the contributors write codly,
obviously get worried about the big words, Life and
TRUTH most of them somehow reduced in sgnifi-
canoe, if they felt that what they wrote going
to be thrown into cheap anthology. They right.
Hard Going
Able Dmnes book is about the true the beautiful and
the good. It's motto is that "the art of arts is the
guidance of the sou book in which all things true
and all things beautiful lead to all things good which lie
in religion Like his aboundingly popular cart of Think
ing" Dmnet's work is difficult reading only
suspect that the people of the United States have de-
veoped passion for dull and dry disputation when
think of the hundred thousands who have reador read
part of-these books
eve should be careful" says Dmnet, ito live on the
highest plane possible to u.s. and he makes chart of
lower and higher selves. In the lower drawer you
find small grievances and gossip and flrtatons and
frivolous wee-ends continuous radio; the upper
good music and reading with purpose and studying
issues and real religion Yet at the very end he writes,
"Where live how live is of little consequence.
What is almportant is to live" Perhaps this-which
needs another book to expan-s the best part of the
present
A Girl Who Lives s
It might, at any rate be the motto of Laughing
Torso" the autobiography of Nina Hammet painter
and sculptor and model, friend of the whole artistic
gang of London and Paris. She tells and tells,
nothing particularly shocking, everything rather interest
ing, and what she says falls like tumble of sentences
if she had been talking for long time and had
put down every word. 1t is of the simplest tales
have read without much thinking, without any
moralzng The author lived loved and worked she had
friends and curious things. Now she puts them
record She emphasizes thing at the expense of
another Her only regrets in life two: that she did
go with friends to Corsica and that she married
On the whole her book is better account of the artistic
life in Paris than the highly coored stories. Life
there isn't particularly vicious; is usually entertaining,
sometimes gay, and late 1880 the artistic life in
Paris brought together number of genuses, number
of takers and vast number of worthy untaented people
who not, good company. The great merit
of Miss Hamnetts book is that she has desire to
aggerate In fact she tells her story casually that you
almost think she had desire to tell it. And that makes
the result attractive.