Evening star., 1934-12-29
THE LIBRARY TABLE
BY SARAH G.. BOWERMAN.

THE FARTHER SHORE. An anthol.
ogy Of World Opinion on the I'M
mortality of the Soul. Ed. by
Nathaniel Edward Griffin and Law
renee Hunt. Boston: Houghton-
Mif1in Co.
Alfred North Whitehead says in his
foreword that this anthology Is espe-
cially timely because mankind is now
passing through one Of its recurring
periods OF reshaping ways Of thought" !"
but there has never keen time and
probably never will be when the cub
ject of Immortality does not seem Of
supreme importance to the average hu-
man being. The primitive savage groped
about for some explanation Of death
and produced superstitions and magic;
the philosopher speculates about the
whence and whittier Of the soul. The
selections In this volume begin with
"The Song Of the Egyptian Minstrel" I"
about 2160 B. c., In which the min
strel advises his hearers to follow thy
desire and thy good, fashion thine af-
fairs on earth after the mandates Of
thine own heart" for mo man taketh
his goods with him. Yea, none re-
turneth again that is gone thither." 4"
They close with an extract from Theo-
dore Roosevelt's The Great Adven-
ture," written after the death in air
combat Of his son Quentin. 1t begins:
only those are fit to live who do not
fear to die. Both life and death
are parts Of the same Great Adven-
ture." There are 81 selections, by rep
resentative philosophers. religious
leaders, poets and scientists, Of many
countries. varying as widely in thought
as Homer, Buddha, Saint Augustine,
Bede, Mahomet, Dante, Bunyan, VOL
taire, Jonathan Edwards, Kant,
Wordsworth, Emerson, Ingersoll and
Osler.
THE GREAT DESIGN. Order and
Progress in Nature Ed. by Frances
Mason. New York: The Mac
milan Co.
This volume is also an anthology, by
IA prominent scientists, all Of whom
believe that the mathematical preci-
sion and ordered harmony Of the uni
verse point to a great design and
purposing. directing mind. These es-
says tend to show that the discoveries
OF science may strengthen rather than
weaken belief in an infinite Creator.
In the introduction Sir ]. Arthur
Thomson says that the contributors
have been asked to state in outline
how the world seems to them, first as
scientists and then as men. Is the
scientifically disclosed world Of order
and intelligence one in which the re-
ligious mind can breathe freely? That
Is the adventure of this book" Some
OF the contributors are Robert Grant
Aitken, director of the Lick Observa-
tory; Baily Willis, professor emeritus
in geology. Stanford University; C.
Stuart eager, director of the Brook
lyn Botanic Gardens, and Arthur
Stewart Eve. professor of physics, Nc
Gill University.
WE ACCEPT WITH PLEASURE.
BY Bernard De Voto. Boston:
Little, Brown & Co.
A group of Harvard men who went
to Plattsburg AID then to Europe in
1917 have in 1927 become almost mid
die aged. They and their families
and friends feel lethargy, a nostal-
gia, which is deadening to effort and
not normal for their age The war
is responsible. Julian, the most bril-
liant OF the group, has died in 1920
and his memory has come to symbol
ize for them all the hopes which they
shared n those happy college, pre-
war years. Mr.. De Voto confines his
story TO is months in the lives of the
Gales, the Ewings, Ric Barreda, Ted
Grayson and the others. They all
accept" what life obliges them to en-
dure, but the pleasure is ironical.
Marriages fail. careers go wrong, So
ciety seems all swry Serious. idealis-
tic Jonathan Gale shocks his circle
and risks his legal career by offering
to defend Sacco and Vanzetti. His
cousin, Loring Gale, becomes a
journalistic champion of lost causes.
Into his novel of characters and a
period, Mr.. De Voto has packed many
emotions. intense, vague, shifting,
While OeAeath the surface OF the mar
rative is current of criticism, which
never becomes specific enough to be
attack or propag ganda.
x X X
FEBRUARY HILL. Bv Victoria Lin
coin. New York: Farrar g. Rine-
hart.
Though Vergil Harris is a Harvard
man, his family lives in a shanty,
waterproof to be sure, on a bleak hill
near Providence, R. l. Harvard has
given Vergil considerable scholarship,
but has neglected his character edu-
cation, or has been unsuccessful with
it, for he has been unable or unwill-
ing 10 reform his drunken habits
His wife Minra has not been alto
gether the unfortunate victim of an