BOOK NOTICES. THE BIBLE AS ENGLISH LITERATURE. By J. H. Gardiner, assistant professor of English in Harvard University. New York. Charles Scribner's Sons. 1906. The title of this book is rather misleading. Professor Gardiner treats the Bible not primarily as a landmark in English literature or a historical link in the development of Elizabethan and Jacobean prose. It is rather the English Bible as world literature which forms the subject of this pleasant and valuable treatise. By far the greater part of the volume deals with the Old Testament and the Epistles as exemplifying various stages of the Hebrew temperament and literary style. The two most characteristic deficiencies of Hebrew literature spring from deficiencies of the language. The Jewish vocabulary contained no means of subordinating thoughts to one another or combining them in periods, and had no words to express abstract ideas. These very deficiencies, however, greatly encourage and stimulate the primal virtues of Hebrew literature-its clear grasp of facts, its richness of metaphor and concrete imagery, the vigorous strength of its move ment. In six chapters Professor Gardiner traces the development and modification of these qualities, and of the type of mind manifested by them, as shown in the narrative, the poetry, the wisdom books, the epistles, the prophecy and the apocalyptic writings. Among the most interesting passages are the exposition of the great poem of Job as the attempt of a profound thinker to express metaphysical ideas with a purely concrete vocabulary; the analysis of the Hellenic influence which shows itself in the New Testament epistles, but is unable to overcome the fundamental principles of Hebrew literature; and the tracing of the rise of Hebrew prophecy to its highest point in Isaiah, and its subsequent decline in the hands of men either over-emotional or over-precise. In the last two chapters the author for the first time approaches the nominal subject of the book-the English translation and its place in the development of prose. He gives a clear account of the various translations which led up to our Authorized Version and closes with an excellent appreciation of the effect of the Bible on subsequent English literature, giving its great “general qualities-simplicity and earnestness." B. M. C. THE MIRROR OF THE SEA. By Joseph Conrad. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1906. A sincere love for the sea, combined with an intimate knowledge of it, is something which does not very often find its expression in our literature. There are plenty of sea journalists, it is true, but the real lovers of sea life are not usually the men who write much or say much, and the men who "write up" the sea usually know very little about it. In Mr. Conrad we have a splendid combination of powers. He has the love of the sea and its people, derived from years of experience with life on the big ships, and is at the same time blessed with perhaps the most vivid pen of any man of our day. His most recent book, as the title leads us to expect, is a series of impressions and reflections of many of his varied experiences. Some explain to us the sailor's point of view-his philosophy. Others are descriptive and impart the sense of poetry and mystery in the changing moods of the sea. Still others are "plain tales." A few of them resemble in plan the earlier "Nigger of the Narcissus," in that they are descriptions of merely one voyage or perhaps only part of a voyage. In all of them the personality of the sea or the ship is the important thing. The sailor's self is merged with that of his ship. The description in all the stories is so wonderfully vivid that all we can do is to read and reread with ever-increasing admiration. It not only makes us admire the sailors, but brings us into such sympathy with them, that we want a share in their life. It brings back the old feeling of longing to run away and ship as a sailor before the mast. If any one desires in his imagination to go off on a voyage full of interest, hardship, pleasure and delight, let him take ship with Mr. Conrad in the "Mirror of the Sea." R. B. G. PUCK OF POOK'S HILL. By Rudyard Kipling. New York. Doubleday, Page & Co. 1906. In "Puck of Pook's Hill" Kipling evidently intended a story for children, but he has failed to the fortunate extent of creating a work of art for grown-ups. Since the first "Jungle Book" nothing more admirable, at least in the way of prose, has come from Kipling's pen. The keynote is perhaps a love of historical fiction; and here it has full sway. The Child in the House, that irrepressible youngster who lurks perennially in the most acrid of natures, will find in "Puck of Pook's Hill" page upon page of delight, wonder and mystery. One envies little Dan and Una, for whose entertainment the lovable shades that haunt Pook's Hill are evoked by their friend, Robin Goodfellow, the self-same Puck of Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream." This, too, is the very idyll the children are rehearsing in a snug nook of the hill, very dear to them as the scene of many past adventures. It is midsummer eve, and by a felicitous chance they stumble unawares into the very centre of the fairies' ring. Then and there the diminutive favorite of immemorial song and story discovers himself to them, and the seance begins, with Puck as medium, and the children as rapt and wide-eyed spectators. Out of the gray centuries of the long ago the fairy calls up a band of picturesque ancients, who turn out to be raconteurs of the first class. Had the art of fiction flourished in their several historic periods, they could hardly have failed to produce enduring novels of the school of Dumas. They tell of old gods whose memory faded ages since with the incense of their last faithful votary; of barbarians "yellow as honey," harrying the coast of Britain in their beaked ships, the sight of their winged hats making the wild natives cold with terror; and of depleted legions of Rome, anxiously awaiting the promised auxiliaries from Gaul, guarding the great wall of Hadrian. Thoreau once said a man was old when he no longer responded to the spring. The same may be said of those who, in reading "Puck of Pook's Hill," do not feel childhood resurgent within them. Surely they are under "the spell of Oak, Thorn and Ash," which takes the memory prisoner. The verses serving as mottoes for the chapters are uneven in their merit. "The Runes on Weland's Sword" and "The Little People" are especially poor; the former is scarcely good prose, the latter might serve as the chorus in some musical farce. But in the love poems Kipling has undoubtedly enriched our language with verse sincere in feeling, and fascinating in rhythm. There is enough gore in the book to satisfy any normal child, and enough of adventure, hidden treasure, pirates and hairbreadth escapes to please any conscionable adult. There is sailing into enchanted seas, encounters with all manner of perils, and there is sailing home again freighted with gold won from outrageous devils and outlandish peoples; indeed, there is everything to rejoice the heart of childhood, related (fortunately for grown-ups) in the diction and accents of a great teller of tales. G. E. Established 1818 Brooks Brothers Clothing Gentlemen's Furnishing Goods Broadway, cor. 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