Evening star., 1933-05-27
THE LIBRARY TABLE
BY SARAH C. BOWERMAN.


to become merely museum piece by
1850. and when the Monitor and the
Merrimack met in their famous combat,
armored vessels were already built or
in process Of building in Europe. Euro
pean navies were revolutionized and
war talk became common. Reverbera-
tions affected diplomacy. On the whole,
the ironclad warship perhaps caused as
great changes in the world as the in
vention Of gunpowder and the inven-
ton Of printing, and certainly more
changes than the discovery of the Elm
stein theory. This book, by an asso-
ciate professor of history in Harvard
University, may, therefore, be classed
as diplomatic history. as we'll as naval
history and discussion of naval archi-
lecture. As early as the, 40's there were
projects for ironclads, and in the Cri-
mean War the Russians constructed
Is armored RATS. while some British
and French gunboats Of the time had
sheet-tron screens as protection against
musketry fire. The first seagoing iron
clad feet was French, and the great
revolution in naval construction was
due to the will of Napoleon III and to
VIC SChAlS VI OuPuy uc hoHiC, Io III
recteur du materiel, who had submitted
as 1845." With France in the lead,
Great Britain entered the race, which,
with the addition of other entrants and
rapidly accelerated pace, has con-
tinued ever since. The beginning of
the ironclad revolution in the United
States vas. of course, the battle Of the
Monitor and Merrimack, but Prof. Bax-
ter thinks that its influence on the
policy of European governments has
been greatly exaggerated. The battle
was symbol of the passing of the old
and the coming of the new. 1t taught
the average man what naval construct
orS already knew. But the consequences
of Hampton Roads have been many
and some Of them are discussed in the
final chapter of the book. The bib
biography, which is extensive and in
tensive. includes manuscripts in the
French Archives de la Marine and Ar
chives Nationales, in the British Ad-
miralty records, and In the United
States Navy Department archives, as
we'll as many general works of refer
ence.
OTHER FIRES. BY Maxim Cork
Translated from the Russian by
Alexander Bakshy. New York: D.
Appleton g. Co.
This is the third in Gorki's series of
novels about the growing spirit of revolt
in Russia and its climax in the Revo-
luton and Bolshevist rule; the two for
mer novels are "Bystander" and THE
Magnet" Gorki has lived through the
whole course Of revolutionary progress
in Russia, and has been in turn hon.
ored and discredited by the Soviet gov
ernment. For most of his life he has
been tuberculous and has sought health
in Switzerland and along the Mediter-
ranean, but his writing has been con-
tinuous and he Is without doubt Rus
sia'S greatest living writer. The chief
character in this series of three novels
is CHM Samghin. through whose obser-
vations, reflections and emotions the
whole historical period of forty years is
represented. In "Bystander" the spirit
of revolt is still individual. anarchist
In THE Magnet" the next stage Is
reached, the formation of more or less
organized revolutionary theories and
activity, which leads to bloody Sun
day." in January, 1905. In "Other
Fires" we see the Bolshevist insurrec-
ton in Moscow. in 1908. Cork does
not neglect the human story In his pre-
occupation with the history of these
troubled times. Samghin's life reflects
the disorders Of the society about him
as well as its bewilderment and disori-
ented action. He goes to the provinces,
where disorders are more individual
less organized, where assassinations
and hold-ups defy what law and order
are left. He becomes estranged from,
hi vxyffo uikt, oif
side to prevent 1t; enters into q liaison
with Duniasha and a friendship with
Marina, whom he comes to fear because
of her growing influence over him. She
is the head of a secret religious sect
which believes in communion with pure
spirit and the practice of faith. This
Is in opposition to revolutionary princi-
piles, and Samghin finds 1t also incom-
patible with his trained intelligence
The book ends as he leaves Marina to
60 abroad. A fourth volume In the
series is to follow. The style of the
three books is the naturalistic style OF
Gorki's other works and, In fact, OF
most Russian novels. Samghin is a
middle-class intellectual and he and his
friends talk endlessly and as elliptically
as people actually taik in real life.
MAJOR MYSTERIES OF SCIENCE
BY H. Gordon Garbedian. New
York: Covici-Friede.
The five parts of this popular book
on the mysteries of science and their
partial solution through the years to
the present time are THE Problems of
the Machine Age" The Story Of Life, II
THE Secrets of the Earth" THE
Challenge of Cosmic Problems" and
THE Romance of the Skies" The fore
word states that prominent scientists,
including Robert A. Millikan, Henry
Fairfield Osborn, Arthur Compton,
Ales Hrdlicka, George Grille and Alexis
Carrel, have read the chapters pertain
given advice concerning them. MT
Garbedian has as his purpose to de-
scribe the march of science from the
early time when notice began to be
taken of phenomena which we today
call scientific down to our complicated
scientific speculation and discoveries OF
the l930s. Future possibilities OF sci
ence are also suggested. THE differ
ence between the cave man, who for
aged for food with club on his shoul-
der and crept into the nearest hiding
place at the sound of thunder, and the
modern man. who jumps into high
powered motor car or electrically driven
express train each morning to drive to
his once in an 80-story Office building,
may be summed up in the one word
science" The part on the machine
age ends with Chemistry remaking the
world" the same conviction as that
expressed in w. j. Hale's Chemistry
triumphant" The part on the story
of life eliminates with the enigma OF
the human mind"-still an enigma, as
Is the origin of life. The part on the
secrets of the earth concludes with
some of the riddles which still defy the
explorerl The part on cosmic prob
lens asks the final question, Can we
conquer space and time?" The NTH
part, on the romance of the skies, COM
pletes its story with discussion OF
beginnings and endings of creation.
summarizing the theories of Jeans. Ed
dington and Einstein. SO 1t is all
riddle, an enigma. Will 1t ever be any
thing else? If a scientist should arise
who could unravel all the mysteries for