THE SHILLING WONDER BOOKS.

Evening Star, Issue 14631, 29 July 1911, Page 10

THE SHILLING WONDER BOOKS.

The second set of 10 volumes of the Home University Library are now out. It is good to hear that the success of this shilling series has been such that there is no doubt of the completion of the ambitious design. Some 70 volumes are, in fact, already arranged for. The third set will be issued in September, and the fourth in November. These 10 wellprinted and handsomely-bound volumes will confirm, and, indeed, increase, the favorable impression made two months ago by the first issue of the Home University Li bra ,- y, in many ways the most rcmnrkable venture of recent years. The authors are all acknowledged experts of tne .ast class, and several of them—Sir Harry Johnston, Six Oliver Lodge, Professor Thomson, and Mr J. A. Hobson, in particular—are widely known. Sir Harry Johnston describes ‘The Opening Up of Africa ’ from prehistoric times to the present day. The earlier portion of the narrative, dealing with the traces of the ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman civilisations on African soil, are certainly not the least interesting in this notable volume: and some of the author’s views are likely to give rise to much discussion among those interested in the origins of races, white and colored. Mr H. W. C, Ha-vis, a distinguished Oxford scholar, gives a bird’s-oyo view of 1 Medieval Europe.’ He traces the anarchy that accompanied the fall of the Roman Empire, the ephemeral life of the barbarian kingdoms, the rise of the Empire and the new monarchies between a.n. 800 and 1,000, and the later “ Expansion of Europe.” Mr Davis succeeds in showing the greatness of the error which misrepresents the centuries separating the ancient and modern worlds as '• a long night of ignorance and force.” The professor of Arabic at Oxford devotes the third of these little books to an account of the life and faith of the one-sixth or one-seventh of the human race who call themselves after Mohammed, prophet and dry goods merchant. They estimated at 233 millions, more than half of those being Asiatics, and more than a quarter Africans. Mr J. A. Hobson’s ‘Science of Wealth’ must command respectful consideration, because it is the ripe fruit of many years’ work by one of our most powerful and fair-minded thinkers. The author analyses the structure and workings of the modern business world, working out an* original theory of an “ unproductive surplus ” of wealth, with special reference to trade crises, and finally uiscussing the Labor movement and State socialism, foreign trade and “human values.” Dr Leslie Mackenzie brings us down from the complexities of social disorganisation to the familiar personal realities of health and disease, probably the most universally interesting problems that can bo put before the reading public. Dr Mackenzie gives particular attention to the connection between disease and poverty, and he winds up with an emphatic approval of Mr Lloyd George’s National Health Insurance scheme. Mr A. N. Whitehead is properly critical of some current treatises on elementary mathematics, which fail, as he says, because the fundamental ideas of the science “ are not explained to the student disentangled from the technical procedure which lias been invented to facilitate their exact presentation in particular instances.” He sets oui. therefore, not to teach mathematics, hut ”to enable students from the vary beginning of their course to know what the science is about and why it is necessarily the foundation of exact thought as applied to. natural phenomena,” fn his introduction to Professor Gamble's ' Animal 'World ’ Sir Oliver Lodge

All the wealth of knowledge of a biologist is made available to the reader of keen aptitude but small knowledge. For the thoughtful and philosopbicaJlyminded student at the present day such a book is most timely and helpful. In ;t the salient ft: is ” are dissected out from an overwhelming mass of material, and attention concentrated on a few lunctions of overwhelming importance and on the variety of ways in which they are performed. . . . The information that be gives is the kind of information which, in a genera! Wav, every educated person would wish to possess. Changing order, orderly change, and thus everywhere—in nature inorganic and organic, in individual and in social life. Such is the vast subject of the volume in which two of the most brilliant living Scottish thinkers—Professor J. A. Thomson (the sciunco editor of the Library) and Professor Patrick I leddes—-collaborate. This sketch of the evidences and meaning o! " Evolution ” is no dull primer, but a many-colored and romantic panorama, opening up. like no oilier book we know, "a rational vision of world-development.” Lord Hugh Cecil's • Conservatism ’ bring unavoidably postponed, contemporary political thought is represented by Professor L. T. Hobhouse's ‘ Liberalism.' After analysing the various ranges of ‘•liberty” which constitute the '‘element.cf Liberalism." the author traces the de velopment of tin- party of Gladsiom through “ Jaissex faire "* to its modern social programme, and foidolls for it a brilliant future of constructive effort. Finally, Or Charles Mercier, the eminent specialist, undertakes to tell the general reader what crime is, why (■'.riatu acts, even if they husm nobody, are regarded as crimes ; what insanity is, how i.t contributes to various kinds or crime, and how the criminal law stands in need of amendment London correspondent.

A LETTER OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. Mr John W. Tail, isent tho ‘British Meekly' a letter written and signed by Sir Walter Se.-.tt. anrl'dated January 12, IBC3 Mr I ait ,vi.ys : "This was in reply to a lotfor from a great uncle of mine, in ! widen he askid for information regarding j an ancestor (a knight) believed to have ! boon killed at the" Battle of Flodden.” ; The letter is characteristic of tho man ; • ■‘Sir,--! Ji.ivo the honor to acknowledge your polite, letter, and to return you iny best thanks fur the flattering opinion which you have been pleased to ospma of my literary efforts. My time has lately been employed upon the poem t/> which you allude; but as it does not give any bistorical account of the, unfortunate Battle of Flodden, being in truth merely a, poetical romance t-enninaud by that memorable event, i have not felt myself called upon to make any minuto researches into the. circumstances of the defeat; nor do I at present remember anything corrr.-.pondiug to the circumstance which you inquire atiout. If I should happen to light upon anything likely to be useful to you in 'establishing your right to tho 'arms and chieftainship of your family, I wii), have great pleasure in communicating it, and i am, with great respect, eir, your obliged and obedient servant, Walter Scott. FMmburgh, Jan. 12, 1808.” MISCELLANEOUS. Qu'-ie as interesting to Thackeray lovers as any of the novelist's homo.-: are tho houses where his characters Jiv«*d. Amelia Sedlcy’s house in Rneseli square still exists, although this square has undergone more alterations than any other in Bloomsbury. A little further west may be seen the house in Fitzroy square occupied by Colonel Ncwcome, its black door “ cheerfully ornamented in tho style of tho end of the last century, with a funereal urn in the centre above tho entry, with garlands and the skulls of rams at each corner.” Then, although the Charterhouse boys have removed to God aiming, tho pensioners still remain in their old home, and visitors are freely admitted to view the fine old hall which sheltered the colonel in his laat years. The authoress of ‘ The Autobiography of a. Charwoman,’ -Annie Wakaman, an American, and daughter of the late Melsou Titus Wakeman, of the New York Bar. is dead. She was the wife of one of America’s cultured representatives in England, who is known as “ Andrew Loring, and whose story recently ran through tho pages of the ' Daily Chronicle.’ ' An attack by Professor J. G. Adami, Professor of Pathology in tho M'Gili University, on Air Bernard Shaw was the feature of a medical dinner given in Montreal on June 7 Professor Adami called the dramatist a fool for hie gibes at Christianity, and decadent for his “ >yicked perversion ” contained in the introduction to hw, phjyv ‘.The