SMITH, ALICE RAVENEL HUGER, and SMITH, DANIEL ELLIOTT HUGER.Dwelling houses of Charleston, South Carolina. il*$6 Lippincott 975.7 17-29203
“This book is the story of Charleston told in pictures of its houses and streets and in word-sketches of the interesting, historical, and personal incidents associated with them. In order to convey the quality of the place as a whole, the authors selected those houses which best showed the distinctive evolution of architecture in Charleston, with all its details in the way of fireplaces, paneling, doorways, and furniture. In so doing they have called up a vivid picture of old Charleston life, its history, and the ways of its people generations ago. There are, in all, 128 illustrations from drawings by Alice R. Huger Smith, from photographs, and from architectural drawings of Albert Simons.”—Lit D
“The book has evidently been compiled with care, it contains drawings and documents of great interest, yet somehow it conveys a sense of opportunities unfulfilled, of curiosities unrewarded. This is because it is not so intelligent and authoritative architecturally as it is historically.”
“The very beautiful book about ‘The dwelling houses of Charleston’ carries between its covers a real treasure of interest, historical, biographical, and architectural.”
“After all it is to architects and house lovers that his book will make its strongest appeal.” Ruth Stanley-Brown
SMITH, MRS BERTHA (WHITRIDGE).Only a dog. il*$1 (10c) Dutton 940.91 17-5815
“Only a dog” is a little story of the war. The Irish terrier, who tells his own story, had had a happy home life with a French family until the Germans came. He escaped the fate that overtook his master’s family and found refuge with one of the British regiments. A kindly Tommy became his new master and to him the dog remains faithful even after death. A note says that the story is based on a true incident. The proceeds from the sale of the book are to be devoted to relief work.
“‘Only a dog,’ in its tenderness and its simplicity, is exquisite.”
“By a Montreal writer.”
SMITH, EDGAR FAHS.Life of Robert Hare, an American chemist (1781-1858). il*$5 (3c) Lippincott 17-18697
Robert Hare, inventor of the calorimotor and the oxyhydrogen blowpipe, who, “for half a century was considered an unimpeachable authority in chemical research” (Boston Transcript) was born in Philadelphia in 1781, and from 1818-1847 was professor of chemistry in the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania. This life is written by Provost Smith of the University of Pennsylvania, himself a chemist, for students of chemistry. The story is “told largely by Hare himself in a series of unpublished letters, and in other documents which were practically buried in forgotten journals and pamphlets.” (Preface) The frontispiece is a colored reproduction of the oil portrait of Hare in the University of Pennsylvania. There are four other illustrations.
Reviewed by W. D. Bancroft
“Through what the author terms the second period of Hare’s activity (1818-1847), the book is extremely technical, requiring advanced chemical knowledge for its complete comprehension.” H. S. K.
SMITH, ELVA SOPHRONIA, comp. Mystery tales for boys and girls. il*$1.50 Lothrop 808.8 17-23758
Miss Smith of the Carnegie library of Pittsburgh has selected a number of the stories and poems of mystery that are suitable for older boys and girls. They are stories of “ghosts and haunted houses, hidden treasure and strange enchantment.” It is suggested that librarians and teachers will find the collection useful in meeting the demand for Hallowe’en stories. Among the selections are Poe’s “Gold-bug,” Lord Macaulay’s “Last buccaneer,” Keats’ “La belle dame sans merci,” Goethe’s “Erl-king,” Irving’s “The haunted house,” Scott’s “Alice Brand,” Coleridge’s “Ancient mariner” and Hawthorne’s “Gray champion.” Among more recent selections are a story by Selma Lagerlöf and a poem by Alfred Noyes.
“Good for Hallowe’en, an excellent collection for about the eighth grade.”
Reviewed by J: Walcott
“A combination of thrills and good literature.”
“The selections are admirable, and boys and girls of a suitable age will find the book a most convenient means of acquainting themselves with some of the best imaginative writing in the English language.”
SMITH, EPHRAIM KIRBY.To Mexico with Scott; letters of Captain E. Kirby Smith to his wife; ed. by Emma Jerome Blackwood; with an introd. by R. M. Johnston. il*$1.25 Harvard univ. press 17-22326
“In the war between the United States and Mexico (1845-1847), which followed on the annexation to the States of Texas and the dispute with Mexico as to the boundary of the new state, Captain Kirby Smith fought first under General Taylor and then under General Scott. His letters ... provide a close chronicle of events, with here and there a note on the habits of the people or the scenery.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
“A valuable addition to the first-hand literature of the Mexican war. The reader of these, as of all other such documents, must ask himself here and there whether the writer was in a position to know the truth of what he believed and said, and by doing so will avoid accepting some errors.” J. H. Smith
“Good letters are the best of reading, and Captain Smith had the gift of letter writing. Now and then one gets a glimpse into the very depths of the soul of the man. Mr Johnston’s introduction is a valuable contribution to the book.” F. W. C.
“The ‘Letters of Capt. Smith’ are full of interest and form an important sidelight of history. But they are unfortunate in their editor who has not proved himself a big enough man to keep his very questionable political ideas out of an historical work.”
SMITH, FRANK WEBSTER.High school; with an introd. by J: Calvin Hanna.*$2 Sturgis & Walton 370.9 17-287
Believing that the high school is “the determining factor in American school life,” Mr Smith attempts to study the origins and tendencies of secondary education. “In the superintendence of public schools, in teaching and supervision in high school and academy, in the training of high school teachers in normal school and university department of education, and in supervision of and participation in the training of high school graduates for teaching in elementary schools, he has had opportunity to observe the work of the high school from various angles.” (Author’s preface) The first 292 pages cover the period from primitive times to the nineteenth century, including a chapter on “Jesus, teacher—new principles of education.” Two chapters are then given to the high school in the nineteenth century, one to the development of secondary education in the United States, and one to a review of the evolution of secondary education from different view points. The last three chapters treat of the high school of the twentieth century. A graphic summary is inserted just before the nine-page bibliography.
“The relation between the educational institution and the economic and social conditions is emphasized consistently, and there is brought together a wealth of illustrative material.”
SMITH, SIR FREDERICK EDWIN.Destruction of merchant ships under international law.*$1.75 Dutton 341.3 (Eng ed 17-17631)
“The British Attorney-General presents the perplexing question of merchant ships’ status in war time. He first discusses enemy merchantmen, and goes into the question of visit and search, seizure and destruction, examining the various points in the light of former decisions on similar cases. He then considers neutral merchantmen, and their position under the customary law. He bases his findings on the practice that obtained in the Russo-Japanese war, and was later modified by the discussion at the Second Hague conference, and the Declaration of London.”—Cath World
“Does much to clarify this very difficult problem, and gives a comprehensive, trustworthy basis for the many decisions that must be made at the close of the war.”
“In days when enemy ships are being fired upon in neutral waters, when new measures of naval warfare interfering with neutral rights are assumed to be legal in spite of unquestionable and unanimous authority directly to the contrary, when the rights of neutrals are entirely disregarded in the attempt of belligerents to exercise full military power, a book setting forth what was international law on one phase of belligerent operation, without considering the complications of the whole situation, is not very valuable; and when it is written by a man of the brilliance and standing of Sir Frederick Smith, one is inclined to regret the fact that more originality and vigor are not in evidence.”
“It is well that there should be available such a sober and well-reasoned remembrancer of German sea crime as this little book, which the Attorney-General states is prepared largely from the notes of Dr Coleman Phillipson, who has already written admirably of the problems of international law arising out of modern warfare. ... There is no page which cannot be understood by the lay reader. ... It reduces a mass of international law almost to syllogistic form in language that is wholly free from pedantry and ambiguity.”
SMITH, GERALD BIRNEY, ed. Guide to the study of the Christian religion.*$3 Univ. of Chicago press 207 16-24312
“A dozen scholars, all excellent authorities in their respective fields, have joined in producing this ‘Guide’ under the general editorship of Professor G. B. Smith of the University of Chicago. Their primary purpose has been, to help students to understand the meaning of the various aspects of education for the Christian ministry. They have also wished to help pastors to keep in sympathetic touch with the latest scholarship. But so largely has the Christian religion been shaped by its history, so largely must the explanation of its various features rest on historical study, that nearly two-thirds of the book is historical in character.” (Am Hist R) Among the contributors are Shailer Mathews, J. M. P. Smith, E. D. Burton, S. J. Case, F. A. Christie, and George Cross.
“May well be invaluable to many an historical professor or student. ... The statements are clear, comprehensive, and judicious. The successive essays are kept remarkably uniform in method and in texture. Frequent brief bibliographies at the end of sections—perhaps two hundred of them—describe the books mostuseful to readers of the classes for whom the manual is designed. The book is well conceived and well executed.”
“‘A remarkably comprehensive work, surveying almost the entire field of the material of the curriculum of the theological seminary and showing the present-day general situation in theological education.’”
“Of the thirteen authors ten of them are connected with the University of Chicago.”
SMITH, GRAFTON ELLIOT, and PEAR, TOM HATHERLEY.Shell shock and its lessons. (Manchester univ. publications)*$1 Longmans 17-25982
“This brief book is described by the authors as a ‘simple non-technical exposition of the ascertained facts of that malady, or complex of maladies, for which we have adopted the official designation “Shell-shock.”’ ... The authors rely on data which came from France, Russia, and Germany, as well as our own army, and which fortify their own experiences and conclusions. They end with a chapter on the need for reform of the British attitude towards the treatment of mental disorder.”—Sat R
“Suggests methods for the treatment not only of this condition but of similar nervous conditions in time of peace. ... ‘The civilian should be offered the facilities for cure which have proved such a blessing to the war-stricken soldier.’”
“It would have been more accurate, we think, to have called it ‘war-shock,’ for the conditions described have been witnessed in cases that have not been to the front. The reviewer is scarcely in agreement with the authors, who adopt so wholeheartedly the exclusively emotional origin of shell-shock as against the physical origin. That shell-shock is entirely of psychic origin and can be overcome by psycho-therapeutics is too sweeping a statement.” Robert Armstrong-Jones
“Though the book inevitably involves some knowledge of psychology, it is clearly written, and popular enough to refer to Sherlock Holmes, Bernard Shaw, and the author of ‘Erewhon,’ ... The various means of treatment are lucidly described, and the moral objections to psychological analysis are fairly considered. The corrections throughout the book of the casual views and suppositions of the public on mental cases of difficulty deserve a wide circulation.”
“The authors do not agree with Dr Eder (of the Malta hospitals) and the extreme school of the psycho-analysts. Nor do they agree with the ‘materialistic’ school. They advocate the use of a common-sense combination of methods, and especially of persuasion by the physician and suggestion when the patient is in the waking state. Especially do they advocate a better education of the physician in psychology. The latter part of the book is devoted to this advocacy and to an indictment of our asylum system. The book is exceedingly interesting—and, best of all, optimistic. It is well written and quite untechnical.”
Reviewed by Gertrude Seymour
“What the authors press for is clinics attached to general hospitals and to medical schools, to which patients in the early stages of mental disturbance may go without legal formalities and free from the stigma attached to an asylum. The Psychopathic hospital at Boston, Mass., and other similar institutions in the United States and elsewhere are quoted as examples to be followed.”
SMITH, HARRY BRADLEY.Establishing industrial schools; with an introd. by C: A. Prosser. (Riverside educational monographs)*60c Houghton 371.42 16-20752
“Concrete and practical methods of determining what sort of industrial and trade schools are needed in our large industrial communities are considered by Harry Bradley Smith, director of industrial education in the New York state college for teachers. ... While the greater part of the work is devoted to the problems of the survey for vocational education, the author with commendable foresight has included in addition a closing chapter full of information and suggestions as to the steps to be taken and the best ways of getting such things as a proper course of study, advisory committees and trade agreements.”—Springf’d Republican
“Contrives to be concise without being obscure, and matter-of-fact without being dry-as-dust.”
“The monograph is really a primer full of valuable information for any person interested in the new and difficult problem of getting the right kind of vocational education started in a community.”
SMITH, JAMES HALDANE.Economic moralism. il*$1.75 Macmillan 330 17-14559
“This is an ‘essay on constructive economics’ which may interest those who concern themselves with theoretical or economic utopias. ‘Economic moralism’ is equally opposed to capitalism and to socialism. It demands on one hand that all individuals shall be assured equal opportunity by the state—the organized people—owning and working the land and industries, and asserts that rent, interest, and profit are usury and have no ethical justification; and, on the other hand, it vigorously opposes the socialist principle of free supply of the wants of the individual at the public expense. The ‘moralist’ principle is that of collecting from each individual the cost of what is actually supplied to him.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
Reviewed by E. L. Earp
“If all his book had been as interesting to us as is this chapter [on interest] we should have been hard put to it to find a limit to our notice. ... In his second part he outlines plans for initiating and carrying out what he terms ‘economic moralism.’ We find ourselves so little in sympathy with his idea of coercive action by the state that we admit difficulty in judging his proposals on their intrinsic merits.”
“The book is characteristic of the present tendency of economic theory. It contains many original contributions in thought and is interesting and suggestive throughout.” R. W.
“No references are given for any passages quoted: and much later and better work both in ethics and in economics is hardly given the place one would expect. For surely Herbert Spencer is easily shown to be deficient, without the principles of ethics being more clear on that account. And a far graver deficiency in Mr Smith’s book is that the principles of ethics are neither stated nor proved.” C. D. Burns
“On the whole, the work is ingenious as well as serious, and will prove interesting and stimulating to anyone interested in the constructive literature of extreme radicalism. Many of the assumptions in regard to human nature, its capacities and adaptabilities, and the like, are of the usual socialistic type and will appeal to nonsocialists as unwarrantable in the absence of more proof than is offered.” F. H. Knight
“It is very creditable of him to think so hard; but he cannot make economic moralism intelligible.”
SMITH, JOHN TALBOT.Parish theatre; a brief account of its rise, its present condition, and its prospects.*$1 Longmans 792 17-30252
A wide chasm exists between the damning of the theatre by Christians in 1850 and the staging of plays by church folk which led up to the branch of the amateur drama known as the parish theatre. The spanning of that chasm has been a part of the evolution that has developed a social conscience. In this small volume we are told specifically of the growth of the parish theatre, its aims and service. The parish play demands a parish hall, a pastor manager, or a substitute, the right kind of play and an audience. The institution to be built up must work “quietly and gaily in the shadow of the church towards the redemption of an art which commerce enslaves for the sake of profit, and the Puritan leaves in the gutter for the sake of righteousness!” A list of one hundred plays suitable for this kind of production is given.
“We predict a heavy demand for this practical and valuable little book. For a good many years Father Smith has been the foremost Catholic spokesman for the drama in America.”
SMITH, JOHN THOMAS.Nollekens and his times, and memoirs of contemporary artists from the time of Roubiliac, Hogarth and Reynolds to that of Fuseli, Flaxman and Blake. 2v il*$7.50 Lane 709.42 16-23956
Joseph Nollekens was a portrait-sculptor of the eighteenth century. He was born in 1737 and died in 1823. His biography written by his contemporary, John Thomas Smith, keeper of prints and drawings in the British museum, was published in 1828. Wilfred Whitten, who now edits the work, calls it “a great lucky-bag of detail for students of London topography and of the practice of the arts in London from Hogarth to Blake.” The author, he says, “is essentially a gossip.” His idea of literary form “is to let one thing lead to another, with unlimited licence to revert, to anticipate, and to go off at a tangent.” Eighty-five illustrations add to the interest of the two volumes.
“Appended to the biography is a volume of a similar type containing sketches of artists and other contemporaries. ... After the second edition, 1829, the book dropped out of sight until, in 1895, Edmund Gosse edited the portion of the book relating to Nollekens. The present edition, by Wilfred Whitten, covers the entire work and is enriched by very careful and very full notes.” J. T. Gerould
“He has left us a vivid picture of an interesting age. Nollekens and his friends have long been known to connoisseurs of art and literature. It is to introduce them to a wider circle of readers that the present handsome edition has been issued, an edition copiously illustrated with rare drawings of old London and with reproductions of water-colors and engravings of worthies of the period.”
“Service to the antiquarian interested in ‘old London’ and in the Europe of that age is uniquely rendered by the rich foot-notes of the edition, involving much patient research.”
“The average reader will balk at the enormous quantity of oddities—literary, artistic, and personal—which Smith many years ago collected, and will question seriously whether, instead of two large volumes one small volume would not have been all that was needed of this material.”
“Of interest to all who love the flavor of a past age. While it is written with a pleasant touch of formality, its character is primarily that of gossip, but it is gossip like Pepys’s, that never grows dull.”
SMITH, JOSEPH SHUTER.Trench warfare; a manual for officers and men. il*$1.50 (6c) Dutton 355 17-16322
“Lieutenant J. S. Smith is an American who enlisted at the beginning of the war with a Canadian regiment. He has been at the front ever since, and so has seen and taken an active part in the entire development of the trench system. Two years ago he was given a commission in the British army and is now fighting ‘somewhere in France’ as an officer in a famous British regiment. He describes with full technical detail the principles, rules, and methods for the location and construction of the three complete lines or systems of trenches that are called for by the new plan of warfare, explains methods of drainage, and the making of obstacles and entanglements. There are sections also upon bombs and bombing which classify and describe all the kinds of bombs that are used at the front, upon gas warfare, sniping, care of rifles, duties of an officer, prevention of frostbite and trench feet, and other matters.”—N Y Times
“There is so much of value to the student officer condensed within a small space, that we can but note the chapters, location of trenches, trench drainage, and training as of particular importance. ... Numerous diagrams are helpful by way of clearer explanation.”
“An admirable little manual for the men to whom trench warfare is as yet only a name.”
“The work seems to be strictly a technical war manual, and no doubt has considerable value for that purpose, for if American soldiers do go into the trenches in any numbers, this information will prove most valuable in saving many lives that would otherwise be lost in discovering the most efficient trench methods.” J. W. D.
“Although it is intended to be a practical handbook the non-military person who wants to know more about such matters as dugouts and revetments and grenades and tear bombs than it is possible to learn from the newspapers will find the book easy and interesting to read.”
“The information contained in this work must sooner or later be mastered by every American officer and private who is to serve in France.”
SMITH, LOGAN PEARSALL.Trivia.il*$1.25 (5½c) Doubleday 824 17-28834
A book of thoughts and impressions, inspired by sights and scenes in rural England and in London. Some of the brief essays and sketches, which run to little over a page in length, were privately printed at the Chiswick press in 1902; others have appeared in the New Statesman and the New Republic. The author is an American who has lived much abroad. He has also written a life of Sir Henry Wottan, a book of short stories about Oxford, and a volume on the English language for the Home university library.
“Little essays, often provoking, like scraps of good talk overheard and lost—they give one a sense of the whimsical and perilous charm of daily life, with its meetings and words and accidents.”
“I know of nothing since Lord Bacon quite like these ineffably dainty little paragraphs of gilded whim, these rainbow nuggets of wistful inquiry, these butterfly wings of fancy, these pointed sparklers of wit.” E. F. E.
“Some of the little sketches are rather too ‘precious’; occasionally there is a veritable descent to flatness.”
“Some of the numbers are in the nature of prose poems, somewhat in the manner of the vers-librettists, but better than the run of such things. ... It is a pretty book in form, sad and wise in its contents, and sometimes exquisite.”
SMITH, ONNIE WARREN.Trout lore. il*$2 (5c) Stokes 799 17-10443
A series of papers on trout and trout fishing by the angling editor of Outdoor Life. The chapters were written originally for that magazine and are reprinted with slight revisions. The author says of the book, “This is primarily a popular description of the ways of the eastern brook trout, though nearly everything set down here as true of the eastern fish may roughly be applied to his western relatives.” Among the chapters are: A page of natural history; Nuptial dress and etiquette; Comparative merits of char and salmon trouts; Trout and the weather; Fly-fishing for trout; A dissertation upon the dry fly; Bait-fishing for trout; Trout of the little brooks; The trout of the lakes. There are twenty-four illustrations from photographs.
“Delightful illustrations from photographs.”
“An interesting feature of the book is the classification of trout according to habitat. In the chapter on ‘The trout in the pan’ are some promising recipes for brook-side cooking that tempt to experiment this spring.”
“He writes with charm upon an old theme, and fearlessly raises many debatable questions.”
“Readable even for the rank amateur.”
SMITH, WALTER ROBINSON.Introduction to educational sociology. (Riverside textbooks in education) diags*$1.75 (1½c) Houghton 370.1 17-14234
The author, who is professor of sociology and economics in the State normal school at Emporia, Kansas, approaches educational problems from a new point of view. He says that in the past education has been too much of an isolated institution. “In the past our schools have drawn their inspiration more largely from their own traditions than from their social environment.” Books on education have been written from the psychological and individual rather than from the social and sociological viewpoint. His aim in this book has been “to make a preliminary application of the uses to be made of the group unit in educational theory and practice.” The book is divided into two parts: Sociological foundations, and Educational applications. Selected references follow each chapter.
“The treatment is sane. The style is clear. A wide influence is predicted for the book.” F. R. Clow
“As a textbook in educational sociology it will fill a much-needed place in the training of teachers in the broader aspects of the educational problem.” J. P. Lichtenberger
“Dr Smith’s book is the most conspicuous contribution to the literature of this subject that has yet appeared. If one were to offer a criticism it would be that the work lacks philosophy.” R. L. Finney
“It seems to us the best single book now available as a textbook in social education or educational sociology.”
“His sociological bibliography is not very extensive. ... The book has in it a great deal that is true and useful, and is well written, for the most part. Very likely it will help a number of educators to realize that education is not an isolated institution. But it does not drive compellingly to the point, as such a book must do, even though elementary, if it is going to attract attention to a novel point of view.”
Reviewed by W. D. Lane
SMUTS, JAN CHRISTIAAN.War-time speeches; a compilation of public utterances in Great Britain.*75c (3c) Doran 940.91 17-23463
“As a former antagonist of those who are now its comrades in arms, General Smuts can criticize the British commonwealth—as he calls it in preference to empire—with something of detachment. ... Throughout his speeches he stresses the fact that Great Britain is a congeries of separate nations. He says the federal principle, as elaborated by us for instance, cannot work. Liberty and complete local sovereignty can alone hold the commonwealth together. Imperial conferences for foreign affairs, of an advisory order and preferably continuous, will bind each part of the commonwealth to every other part in a net light as air legally, constitutionally, yet tenacious as steel in actual practice.” (New Repub) These speeches were delivered in Great Britain in 1917 in connection with the session of the Imperial war cabinet and Imperial war conference.
“The speeches show the breadth and depth of view of General Smuts, but as reading matter some of the book is disappointing, because the repetition of expression which is often an asset in a speech is not so in printed form.”
“England has need to-day of a man of this type, one who is under the fringe of her robe, yet near enough the edge to feel and comprehend the just criticism of men on the outside. Smuts is direct, superbly logical, human and prophetic. That is a good deal to say of a man, but it is true in this case.” S. A.
“The tone of the speeches is admirably fair.”
SNAITH, JOHN COLLIS.The coming.*$1.50 (2c) Appleton 17-24695
“Accepted at its surface value, ‘The coming’ is a portrayal of what might be expected to happen if the Second Advent were to take place to-day in England. The scene is an English village, very insular and stereotyped in customs and opinions. In this village is a young carpenter of scanty education and frail health—in fact an epileptic, and reputed to be of weak mind. He hears inner voices, and relates how the spirit of Goethe has visited him at night and asked him to join in prayer for stricken Germany. All this so shocks the good vicar of the village that he feels it his duty to take action ... and has the man committed as a dangerous lunatic. ... While shut up in the insane asylum, the new Messiah writes his message to the world in the form of a drama entitled, ‘The door,’ which is accepted enthusiastically by a little American Jew, the head of a syndicate of fifty theaters, who, after reading the manuscript, is so miraculously wrought upon that for the first time in his life he is indifferent to profit and loss. The play is a phenomenal success; it is translated into all the European tongues; it brings all nations successively to a realizationof the error of their ways; the Nobel peace prize is awarded to the author, but when the commission arrives to confer it he is already dead.”—Pub W
“The opening scene, with its atmosphere of wonder, is more impressive than the later action, which is too neatly contrived, and, in its madhouse episodes, borders perilously upon the ridiculous.” H. W. Boynton
“It is impossible to take ‘The coming’ seriously. ... It is an absurd commingling of farce and melodrama. It brings to the reader absolutely no conviction of its reality.” E. F. E.
“It is utterly unconvincing. The incidents are forced and strained, and the characters, who are vague throughout, seem mere lay-figures for the working of the plot. As a novel ‘The coming’ is an unsatisfying and unimportant performance, but as an indication of spiritual unrest it has significance.”
“The least favorable thing that can be said about ‘The coming’ is that the personages in whom the ideas are embodied are not sufficiently specific and individual. ... The essential ideas are good, and at present it is real service to have presented them in an attractive way.” J: Macy
“Mr Snaith’s sincere and interesting novel is somewhat weakened by this serious misconception of the personality of the Messiah.”
“Unluckily for the effect of the story, it is too patently ingenious. This is not a theme for cleverness. It is a theme of unfathomed possibilities, but one thing, at least, is clear: they will never be realized, or approach realization, by such means as Mr Snaith has at his command.”
“In so far as Mr Snaith is an iconoclast, he is delightful; his satiric portrayal of the vicar as a representative of modern society is the artistry of a skilled workman. The book is flimsily constructed and cumbersomely written. It has all the disadvantages of a mongrel religious essay-novel. The warp of theology and woof of novel produces a cloth neither commendable as an intellectual contribution, much less as a thing of beauty.” H. J. Szold
“Written in a style delicate, subtle, often beautiful. ... The exceedingly difficult subject is handled with delicacy and considerable skill.”
“We should not quarrel, however, with anyone who chose to say that in this singular and touching book—that is in the main so shrewd, so witty, so astringent, so deeply pitiful, of so level a gaze, so true a vision—there are passages of an unpersuasiveness that are hard to forget.” Lawrence Gilman
“As a piece of literary art the book is remarkable.”
“To many readers there are numerous incongruities which cross the boundary of irreverence—the epilepsy, the patronizing and ever-recurrent phrase, ‘He’s a dear fellow,’ the conception of Divinity in the role of a playwright. Furthermore there is a lack of inspiration verging upon the commonplace in the conversation of the central character, with the exception of his frequent quotations from the Bible. ... In conclusion, one wonders whether the author himself realized how very pro-German his special brand of pacifism sounds.” Calvin Winter
“Recognizing the difficulties of handling such a plot, one cannot deny that Mr Snaith has developed it with taste and restraint. The story does not, however, touch the high standards as a novel attained in the author’s previous stories. The influence on Mr Snaith of ‘The servant in the house’ and ‘The passing of the third floor back’ is apparent.”
SNEATH, ELIAS HERSHEY, and others. Religious training in the school and home.*$1.50 Macmillan 377 17-24241
This manual for parents and teachers has been written in connection with the preparation of the two series of books known as “The golden rule series” and “The king’s highway series.” It may be used independently however. It is based on a similar manual, “Moral training in the school and home,” six new chapters having been added, certain portions omitted, and the remainder revised. Chapters discussing the importance of religious training and considering aims and method are followed by others devoted to: The bodily life [2 chapters]; The intellectual life; The social life [6 chapters]; The economic life; The political life: The æsthetic life. Suggestions for the children’s reading follow each chapter and at the close there is a bibliography for teachers.
“The book is good, but not so good as one has a right to expect from the scholarship and experience of the authors.”
“In a useful way it correlates what has been written and said on the subject in recent years.”
SNEDDEN, DAVID SAMUEL.Problems of secondary education. (Riverside textbooks in education)*$1.50 (2c) Houghton 379.17 17-4796
“The conflicts regarding educational aims, characteristic of much of the current discussion, center largely about the high school. Professor Snedden considers these in ‘Problems of secondary education,’ a series of twenty-five ‘letters’ to superintendents, college presidents, principals and teachers. The restatement of aims in terms of concrete purposes of obvious value to men and women living today, and the adaptation of materials and methods to the attainment of these aims, constitute the text of these articles.”—Ind
“Where Dr Snedden is critical, one follows him in hearty agreement. He touches, with a gentle pertinence that even high-school teachers should understand, these sterile attitudes and outworn notions that must be made over. It is only when he becomes dogmatic that one finds fault. Dr Snedden’s conviction of the necessity of separating cultural and vocational education will certainly be shared by few educational progressives.” Randolph Bourne
“The book will be of real service to those concerned with the readjustments taking place in our educational systems.”
“What we need at this juncture is a clear statement of the aims that underlie the changes that are taking place. Dr Snedden’s ‘Problems of secondary education’ is a forceful and comprehensive statement of these aims. Not the least interesting part of this book is the introduction by Mr Cubberley, editor of the ‘Riverside textbooks in education.’” F. W. Johnson
Reviewed by W: A. Aery
SNELL, ROY JUDSON.Eskimo Robinson Crusoe. il*$1 (4½c) Little 17-28598
The story of Kituk, a little Eskimo lad, who is cast adrift on an ice floe. Kituk is the proud possessor of three Eskimo dogs, and he has also as a pet a white bear that he has tamed. These four animal friends are with him when he finds himself drifting out into Bering sea, and in all his adventures they are his faithful companions and helpers.
“Here is the note of extravagance that little people love rather than the air of truth. But with its amusing illustrations of animals in action it will please those for whom it is intended.”
SNORRI STURLUSON.Prose Edda; tr. from the Icelandic, with an introd. by Arthur G. Brodeur. $1.50 Am.-Scandinavian foundation 839.6 16-22078
“‘The prose Edda’ is a Scandinavian classic [of the early thirteenth century], and one of the greatest. It has found a very skilful and sympathetic translator in Dr Brodeur. His version contains all of the ‘Gylfaginning’ and all of the Skaldskaparmal (the poesy of the skalds). It is the first translation in English which contains all of the second part. Dasent renders only the narrative passages of this portion.”—Nation
“The Library of Congress enters this book under Edda Snorri Sturlusonar.”
“This should attract three classes of readers, students of Scandinavian history, myth and literature; lovers of folklore and the primitive simplicities in language and literature; and poets.”
“Not only in respect of completeness, but in respect of accuracy and spirit, Dr Brodeur’s translation ought to supersede the other English ones.”
SNOW, WILLIAM LEONARD, ed. High school prize speaker.*90c Houghton 808.5 16-20119
A book of selections adapted for use as readings. The preface says that they are selections that have taken prizes at the J. Murray Kay prize-speaking contests held annually at the Brookline (Mass.) high school. Among them are such old favorites as “The death of Steerforth,” “My double and how he undid me,” “How ‘Ruby’ played,” and “Lasca.” Among the newer selections are Robert Haven Schauffler’s “Scum o’ the earth,” Alfred Noyes’ “The highwayman,” and stories by Myra Kelly, Jack London, Joseph C. Lincoln and others.
“The collection, as a whole, is judicious, being diversified, and combining things old and modern.”