Equally or even more analytical and penetrating is his interpretation of the imponderables of American life, the customs, social progress, educational system, forms of government, race conflicts, and intellectual activities, which combine to produce "l'esprit de la nation."

The vigor and élan of his presentation are best seen in his response to the sky-line of New York City as seen from the deck of the incoming steamer:

Les côtes, les îles, la rade de si vastes proportions et d'un dessin si majestueux, les constructions gigantesques qui rivalisent avec la grandeur et la beauté du cadre, l'activité incessante des navires de toutes les nations concentrés là en plus grand nombre que dans tout autre port du monde, suggèrent avec insistance l'idée qu'ici, à la nature puissante répond une égale force humaine de création et d'énergie. Cette impression irrésistible, qui vous saisit de nouveau à chaque voyage, en dépit de l'accoutumance, semble bien traduire l'esprit de la vie américaine: un effort vigoreux, d'inépuisables ressources, dans une nature vaste, généreuse et splendide, c'est là, autant qu'on peut le résumer en quelques mots, le caractère essentiel de l'activité américaine, au centre-nous allions dire au coeur-du Nouveau Monde.

His artistry is not restricted to his concise, incisive, but revealing comment, but reappears continuously in the illustrations, selected with great care, and grouped in juxtapositions which add not a little to their dramatic force.

The presentation of the industrial development of the several parts of the United States is done sympathetically and with discrimination. The textile industry is a case in point. This is discussed from the standpoint of material, its sources, relations to tariffs, historical development, the uses of textiles, comparative prices and qualities here and abroad, styles in clothing, the impeccable crease of the pantaloon as guage of gentility and the union-suit (vêtements de dessous) as a proof of success of the cotton industry. The 5- and 10-cent store is cited as the triumph of democratic commerce of America.

Educational institutions are happily related to their historic backgrounds, civic and literary associations, and cultural contributions. The free public library thronged by the workers of the great cities and administered in the spirit of public service excites his unbounded admiration. One will search far to find a more comprehensive, appreciative, and at the same time discriminating account of American institutions of higher education than Professor Cestre's description of these institutions on the Atlantic Slope.

Of equal interest is his discussion of the coal and steel industries and the growth and accomplishments of the great railway systems of this country.

Livre III deals with the Rocky Mountain region and the Pacific Slope, and is the least satisfactory part, apparently condensed or restricted for lack of space. Thus the section on the literature of the Far West contains only twenty-eight brief lines, and the Sierras are to be satisfied with a short account of the Yosemite. Perhaps we are prejudiced, but the new edition of Les États Unis should be revised backwards.

All Americans will find this work informing to a degree, and enjoyable on every page. The understanding ones will have many occasions to chuckle and to ponder.

CHARLES A. KOFOID.

Bibliography, practical, enumerative, historical; an introductory manual. BY HENRY BARTLETT VAN HOESEN and FRANK KELLER WALTER. New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1928. $7.50.

Dibdin's epigrammatic statement "book openeth book" aptly characterizes a work that has for its aim the guidance of students in their use of books. Few American colleges and universities offer separate courses in general bibliography and too few instructors acquaint students with the bibliography of their particular field. If the bewilderment displayed by students who have been required to make an independent investigation, can be taken as a criterion by the librarian, then instructors are not introducing students to bibliographic method. We teach the content of a few books but fail to give the means of discovering what lies hidden in many books.

Sporadic efforts at instruction in bibliography in American universities are being watched with interest. Yale has inaugurated courses as evidenced by the establishment of the Sterling Professorship of Bibliography. The courses thus far announced at Yale cover practical bibliography for graduate students, and the use of the library for undergraduates. A third course on the more cultural aspects of bibliography is designed for the beginning book collector. The book under consideration is the outgrowth of instruction given at Princeton University and at the University of Minnesota. Those who have undertaken similar work heretofore have been handicapped by the lack of a text suitable for upper division and graduate students.

The authors of Bibliography, practical, enumerative and historical, have produced a work that not only presents to the student bibliography in all its phases, but lists the important books through which he may collect and evaluate the literature of a subject. They introduce the reader to the history of writing, of printing, of book decoration and of book production. They describe briefly the use of books in libraries and give some account of the world's great collections of books. The more important chapters comment in some detail on the fundamental subject bibliographies in the historical and social sciences, in music, art, language, literature, and in religion, philosophy, and science. Under any one subdivision descriptive and critical notes give approach to the retrospective and current compilations that record what has been written in the various branches of knowledge. In the opinion of the reviewer the chapters on subject bibliography are the most valuable. A fuller treatment might well have been accorded certain subjects, e.g., the literature of economics. With this work in hand the persevering student may find for himself the extent of earlier literature on many subjects, and the sources that must be watched for the appearance of new publications. The excellent classified bibliography appended to the text greatly facilitates its use.

This book, then, will be of value to those students who want guidance in their investigations. It will be no less acceptable to instructors as a textbook for bibliographic courses in academic colleges or in professional schools of librarianship. It is noteworthy as being the first comprehensive and scholarly text in English in its field.

EDITH M. COULTER.

The Temptation of Anthony, and other poems. By ISIDOR SCHNEIDER. New York Boni & Liveright, 1928.

Ever since fiction has come to be recognized as the preeminent literary expression of the modern world, there have been hopeful efforts to mate it with the elder muse, poetry. During the Victorian era several of their hybrid offspring, such as The Princess, Aurora Leigh, and Lucille, achieved wide success; but the very popularity of those melliferous narratives produced a subsequent reaction, and for a while the poets avoided the incidents of contemporary life. The recent dominance of psychological analysis, however, has been potent enough to break down the inhibition, and the vers librists prepared the way by giving poetry the vocabu

lary and topics of everyday life; accordingly, poetic fiction-or fictional poetry-bulks large once again. Edwin Arlington Robinson, Edgar Lee Masters, and Robinson Jeffers stand in the forefront, and the newest recruit is Isidor Schneider.

The nearest ancestry for their productions is probably the later work of Browning, such as Red Cotton Nightcap Country and The Inn Album. They have in common an interest in pathological states of character and the disasters resultant therefrom; and the general method and atmosphere of the modern poems are strongly reminiscent of Browning's in those tales which were condemned at the time as "morbid" and "prosy."

Although Mr. Schneider labels The Temptation of Anthony “a novel in verse," it is really more like a short story-one of the episodic stories of Sherwood Anderson. In fact, the actual incidents and characterization are so Andersonian that if it had appeared anonymously one might easily have believed that the author of Winesburg Ohio had taken to verse. If Mr. Schneider's persons and events seem at times unconvincing, the reason is that they resemble too faithfully the observations of Mr. Anderson, Mr. Masters, and others. In literature the accumulation of evidence does not always fortify plausibility; and when we meet several familiar figures in Mr. Schneider's poem, we do not become more persuaded that every American town is populated by narrowminded fanatics, hypocritical elders, innately noble prostitutes, and groping persecuted geniuses, but rather we begin to suspect that they constitute a literary tradition more than a fresh observation of life.

When the author is recording the mildly radical views of his protagonist, and piling up the indictment of his persecutors, there is not enough genuine poetic emotion to remove the flavor of propaganda; but there is much else in the poem which gives it distinction. Its poetic quality consists primarily in a vigorous conciseness of phrasing and a consistency of original but not extravagant imagery. Mr. Schneider has developed an effective technique for presenting his narrative, and succeeds in harmonizing such words as "radio," "victrola" and "movie-still" with the accepted poetic themes of natural beauty. It is in the latter, however, that he excels, painting his landscapes with strength and economy.

His verse-forms are also interesting. The early part is predominantly in blank verse, little more broken than that of the

Jacobean dramatists. The later sections of the story are in longer lines of seven stresses, recalling the favorite rhythms of Jeffers. After a time one begins to realize how much he reverts to AngloSaxon versification; alliteration plays a large part, and his long lines could almost be separated into Beowulfian stitches:

Sun shearer Autumn, tree plucker, wild whistler, all the land rode; life into shallows sucked, like a tide dropped away. South searching, the birds marched in calling clouds. Leaves spurted in the wind, crackled in the road like many small skeletons. The long rains came, stalactites out of stony cloud. Crests of cold capped everything.

Another Anglo-Saxon characteristic, illustrated by this quotation, is the creation of compound epithets. The device, which is sometimes carried to wearisome excess, is another reminiscence of Browning, giving the cryptic effect which requires a pause for deciphering. In short, Mr. Schneider is gifted with undeniable phrase-making and image-seeing power, and is not too wilfully defiant of poetic tradition.

LIONEL STEVENSON.

Five Restoration Tragedies. Edited with an Introduction by BONAMY DOBRÉE. Oxford University Press, American Branch, New York, 1928. xviii+450 pages. 80 cents.

This little collection of plays issued as one of the volumes in the World's Classics will surely be serviceable both to students and general readers. The choice is made on a somewhat unusual basis. All of the tragedies are in unrhymed verse "so as not to assault popular prejudice" against dramatic poems in rhyme, but for this the editor apologizes. He expresses the hope that he may add another volume of rhymed tragedies to the series.

The plays are Dryden's All for Love, Otway's Venice Preserv'd, Southerne's Oroonoko, Rowe's The Fair Penitent, and Addison's Cato.

Mr. Dobrée would not be the critic of the Restoration that he is if he were not partisan. In his Introduction he is a most loyal Son of Ben when occasion offers to find "more tragic effect" in All for Love than in Antony and Cleopatra: "Shakespeare's play, indeed, suffers from the disadvantage of all 'histories' in being overcrowded with themes and events. Closely founded upon North's translation of Plutarch, it is a piece of magnificent poetic journalism, and it is extraordinary how little any formative capacity is brought to bear on it, either in design or character." This is one way of approaching a delicate matter.

WILLARD FARNHAM.