Mary F. Nixon-Roulet. Both books are illustrated, and they aim to convey to young readers, under the guise of a simple story, some idea of national habits and customs, especially so far as they affect child life.

Mr. Charles Brodie Patterson's "A New Heaven and a New Earth" adds one more to the huge volume of books expounding the "new thought" under varying names, but it is written in good English; it does not contain a discourteous phrase, or reflect an uncharitable thought, and it begins by defining its terms. These characteristics place it in the higher class of works of its species, separating it from those made to sell, and fulfilling their destiny; but its unique trait is its use of the phrase "fourth dimension" to indicate the atmosphere which each human being may create for himself, for his acts and the conditions under which they are performed; his thoughts and emotions and their reflex effects. To those who cannot take comfort from the phrase "The kingdom of God is within you," or believe that all other things shall be added unto him that seeks it first of all, the phrase will be immensely consoling, and according to Mr. Patterson, in its acceptance abide faith, hope, charity, and above all, having things in one's own way, which is the "new Heaven and the new earth." Thomas Y. Crowell & Company.

Some years must elapse before the company of American poets can be even numerically as strong as that which adorned the mid-nineteenth century; but already more than one of the younger men can point to performance quite equal to theirs in their earlier days, and the promise of this little group is greater than that of their predecessors merely by virtue of their being one curve higher on the ascending spiral of progress. They are better

equipped for their work by the effects of half a century of criticism and work, and they are in a world in which new roads have been broken, new vistas opened and they may seek the perfect word and phrase to describe their vision with no fear of finding it preempted. The group of aesthetes and the disciples of Morris have left them a rich heritage of experiments in the music of verse, and what more can they ask? The best of them ask nothing better than the "glory of going on," and their going is pleasant to see. Chief among them is Mr. Percy MacKaye whose "Poems" make one of the most noteworthy books of the season. Among them are "Ticonderoga," a ballad read at the Champlain tercentenary: "Tennyson" written for the Brooklyn Institute Tennyson centenary; "Choral Song for the New Theatre"; "Ode to the American Universities," the Harvard Phi Beta Kappa poem for 1908; and three groups of poems "Lyrical and Descriptive." occupying about a hundred pages. Of these last the second group, containing the sonnets on Norton and Child, is the most beautiful, but the verses in praise of nature are vivid and brilliant. As for the occasional poems they have none of the weaknesses popularly attributed to that species, but are strong and finished and the "Ode to the American Universities" is extraordinary both in execution and in spirit. The Macmillan Company.

The Rev. Dr. James Denney's "Jesus and the Gospel" is a book which may be read and re-read with delight and profit by lay as well as by clerical readers. Its sub-title. "Christianity Justified in the Mind of Christ," explains more fully its scope. The author seeks to show that the conception of Jesus as holding a unique place in His relation to God, and a supreme place in His relations to men as Lord and Saviour is not the invention of a later

Christology but was held by the earliest Christian disciples and was fully declared by Jesus Himself. Dr. Den

ney propounds and answers two great questions: Has Christianity existed from the beginning only in the form of a faith which has Jesus as its object, and not at all in the form of a faith which has had Jesus simply as its living pattern? and, Can Christianity, as even the New Testament exhibits it, justify itself by appeal to Christ? To both questions he gives an affirmative answer, and he reaches it by a searching and reverent study and comparison of what is recorded of Jesus and His word in the synoptic gospels. Dr. Denney is fully conversant with the results of modern criticism, and his attitude is fair and tolerant. His aim is, so far as he may, to allay the perplexity and distress now widely prevalent in matters of faith; and his appeal is not only to the churches but to those who are on the frontiers of the churches and have been repelled from them by theological misapprehensions. The conclusion to which he leads is that a uniting confession for the churches might be found in the simple declaration "I believe in God through Jesus Christ His only Son, our Lord and Saviour." Beyond this, and what this involves and implies he would have the widest latitude for individual thought and belief. In earnestness, temper and breadth of scholarship, Dr. Denney's book suggests comparison with Dr. Stalker's recent work "The Ethic of Jesus" and takes its place with that as a notable contribution to contemporary religious literature. A. C. Armstrong & Son, publishers.

Pierre de Coulevain's "On the Branch" presents a heroine between fifty and sixty years of age, leading a life of lonely comfort and enjoyment, and thereby recommends her work to

such a woman's contemporaries, no small class among novel readers, although probably not very much concerned in the creation of "best sellers." Having secured their good will and presented a novelty to her younger readers, she farther propitiates the latter by making her heroine first tell the story of her happy married life, and then rehearse its secret passages never suspected until her husband's death, and finally trace the history of his son, a charming youth, whose mother, a married woman, was her near kinswoman, her schoolmate and her dear friend. Her relations with this young man are treated with exquisite art, but the heroine never for a moment loses her position as the most important figure, and her evolution from a French schoolgirl with all the limitations of her class, to a wise woman of the world, and a successful author, studying life from the independent footing of a dweller in hotels, deepening and refining in character with every passing year, is marvellously interesting. She touches lightly but surely upon the passing fancies of the moment, she shows that she is informed as to the latest announced discoveries; she describes her English friends and their home with a courteous grace which might well be studied by American writers of "international novels"; and she understands the best type of American woman much better than she is understood by many writers of American fiction. Her keen analysis of character and motive both personal and racial make her a most stimulating writer, and her description of a French woman's manner of regarding her duty to herself and to her neighbor and her responsibility in all matters may very well lead the self-satisfied Anglo Saxon to reflect upon his own thoughtlessness. But after all, Pierre de Coulevain writes "On the Branch" as a novel and as a

novel it should be judged. It is an admirable picture of manners and character with a plot in which one feels the inevitability of things as they are and the pervasiveness of Providence. E. P. Dutton & Co.

The title "Fifty Years of Japan," by no means suggests an encyclopædia, but the two large volumes upon which Count Okuma has bestowed it are nothing less than an encyclopædia of his country, and the sooner the other empires, kingdoms and republics offer it the sincere flattery of imitation the more agreeable for their citizens, and the better for each country as a whole. The work, he states in his succinct preface, is intended first, to preserve an authoritative account of the development of Japan during the fifty years since the ratification of its first treaties with the outside world; and, second, to make the present condition of the country more widely known both at home and abroad. The first two chapters, summarizing the history of Japan and giving an authoritative account of the exact conditions under which Prince Tokugawa sacrificed himself to his country are from Count Okuma's own hand. Each of the following fifty-four is written by a person or persons especially qualified by experience and training to treat it justly and fully. Mr. Saburo Shimada, M.P., tells of the introduction of Japan to the comity of nations; and the late Count TaneomiSoyeshima was the author of the chapter on Japan's foreign relations; the lamented Prince Ito contributed reminiscences of the grant of the new Con stitution; Professor Kazutami Ukita, and Counts Itagaki and Okuma jointly wrote a chapter on the history of Japanese political parties; F. M. Prince Yamagata wrote of the army; Admiral Yamanto, of the Navy; police, prisons, municipal government; communications, their history, and the various

species, post, telephone, telegraph, railways and mercantile marine; finance, joint stock enterprise; banking; industries, in general and in detail; language; the four religious beliefs; philanthropy, education in various eras and of various sorts; philosophy, science, medicine, hygiene, and the Red Cross; the fine arts; journalism, literature; social changes; the influence of the West; socialism and the separate chapters on Oshima and Formosa are similarly written and Count Okuma crowns the edifice with a chapter of some twentyfive pages entitled "Conclusion." Six appendices giving the text of the Constitution, an abstract of the treaty between Japan and Russia in 1905, a summary of a speech on Japan's foreign policy delivered by Baron Komura in the Imperial Diet, February 2, 1909; tables interesting to zoologists and botanists, tables of weights, measures and money, and a table of the daily wages of the workmen precede the index which, as the book has more than fifty authors, has probably been most vigorously revised and corrected. Henceforth there is no excuse for conjecture, rash assertion, or untruth as to most Japanese matters either in Congress, in the schools or in the papers. Here is the truth for all the world to see, and truth tested by a year of examination by interested persons, for the Japanese edition appeared in 1908. The translation was made in Japan, and has been carefully edited by Mr. Marcus B. Huish and the two great volumes are handsomely printed and bound. No college, university or high school library, no public or professional library, can afford to dispense with them. Indeed it would occupy much less space to name those who can afford not to read the book, than to enumerate those who should read it, and in the latter class must be included those who read for pleasure. E. P. Dutton & Co.

THE BANSHEE.

A voice came crying to me window
In the wind and the rain,

Like the voice of an old, old woman
Who was crying in pain:

And I knew that Michael (God rest him!)

Would never spake again.

I knew, but I didn't let on I knew,
For fear the childhern had heard:

I had it ready on me tongue to say,
It was only a bird-

But the voice cried mighty loud and close.

And not one of the childhern stirred. Not one of the childhern moved in their sleep

-But the red fire shone;

And out dhere in the wet blue of the night

The voice went on

It was sad with the sorrows that are to