The "boss" is vividly portrayed in all his repulsiveness. And a rough scheme for the reconstruction of primaries and safeguarding them by law, which the author thinks will strip the "boss" of his power, is offered for consideration. How the proposed scheme would work I am not prepared to say, but I see no hope for better things until city elections are separated from state and national elections by the longest possible interval of time. If city officials were elected in seasons of political rest in state and nation, the needs of the city and the character of the candidates might receive proper attention, and the result of the election might show that citizens were interested in choosing the best men. The volume is valuable as a presentation of the views of one who has had unusually favorable opportunities for discovering the motives that actuate the political boss whose domination works so disastrously to the weal of the community and to the fair fame of the city; and it will no doubt be regarded as an important contribution to the discussion of the subject. Some of the author's generalizations seem too sweeping for general acceptance. Many will not be able to concur in his unqualified assertion that "Popular opinion is always a sure gauge of the justice of a measure"; and when they recall such outbursts of popular fury as followed the ratification of Jay's treaty, for example, they will prefer to coincide in the view expressed by a shrewd New Englander when he said to a distinguished exile, "Remember, sir, that everything great and excellent is in minorities." It is the opinion of the "saving remnant" that exalts a nation, and only when the people follow their lead is there much truth in the saying, vor populi, vor dei. The usefulness of the book would be much enhanced, at least for busy men, if the author had provided a suitable index, and it is to be hoped that this lack will be supplied in future editions. BEAUTY FOR ASHES.* REVIEWED BY JULIA A. DAWLEY. "In all that has been said, written or thought about the souls of the departed," says the author of this singular little book, "it seems to be conceded that when the body dies, the souls of the faithful take up their abode in heaven and are at rest for all eternity. But the others, what of them? . . . To all these questions the answers are all speculation. . . . When they escape or depart from the body then it is possible that they are borne about this revolving earth by restless winds, until, as air rushes in to fill the vacuum made by lightning, the wandering soul steps into the first resting place it can find." Beauty for Ashes," by Kate Clark Brown. Beacon Series. Pp. 120; cloth 75 cents, paper 25 cents. Arena Publishing Company. This theory of wandering souls seeking reëmbodiment in order to perform some unfinished work, to make reparation for wrongdoing, or worse still, to carry out some plan of vengeance or mischief, is by no means new. It has been taught for untold ages, but like many teachings of the kind, only in a semi-private way and mentioned with bated breath as a grewsome possibility, not a reasonable probability. But latterly, as the French say, “we have changed all that." There seems all at once to be a flood of literature good, bad and indifferent turned loose upon the reading world, all full of these hitherto occult speculations and teachings. "The time of making known has come," the masters are said to have declared; a call has gone out for books setting forth in every possible way in order to catch the notice and hold the attention of all sorts of readers the lesson that "The dead alone are living— And the living alone are dead." "The thing that hath been, it shall be"; the inevitable law of Karma, unchangeable as God and no less just, must be fulfilled by every soul sometime, somehow, somewhere; and finally, Love is the greatest thing on earth, the Secret of Life, and only unselfish devotion which seeketh not its own and never faileth can bring beauty for ashes into a blighted life. Such is the decree. The little book which is the subject of this notice brings out all these lessons in a pleasing way, taking up the earth life of a wandering spirit still held close to the earth by her own misdeeds done "in the form," as mediums say. She finds a medium in an innocent child-wife, loving, pure and unselfish, and when the child, Lorris, is born in a terrific, howling storm and the young mother's soul set free, the reembodiment of Ray Lorris Cameron begins. The story is well told, the action is never tiresome, and the end is a happy one, even though it is at a deathbed. He staggered to his feet and looked down with dazed eyes. It was Ray that lay there dead, with Lorris' gentle smile upon her face. "The thing that hath been," he murmured, "it is that which shall be." In his latest work Dr. Forbes Winslow, member of the Royal College of Physicians, London, and physician to the British Hospital of Mental Disorders, observes that "Something more potent than the mere intellectual culture is required to be put in force for the "His Perpetual Adoration; or, The Captain's Old Diary," by Rev. Joseph F. Flint, author of In Potiphar's House." Price, paper 50 cents, cloth $1.25. Arena Publishing Company, Boston, Mass. purpose of regulating the conduct of a respectable being with a free will, like man, safely across the stormy sea of life from birth to death. The moral senses alone touch the relationships of life. The intellectual is manifestly subordinate to the spiritual." This tremendous truth has been so thoroughly ignored in education, in literature, and in home training that it, probably more than anything else, is responsible for the deplorable condition of affairs which meets the conscientious student of human life on every side. There is a manifest lack of appreciation for the eternal verities; a torpidity of conscience which leads to the most unfortunate results. In "His Perpetual Adoration: or, The Captain's Old Diary," the Rev. Joseph F. Flint, who is a strict orthodox clergyman and who at times goes far beyond my own views in regard to the religious sentiments expressed, has done a splendid work in the way of awakening conscience and giving to thoughtful people a psychological work. There are innumerable writers at the present time who are giving the world productions elegantly finished and well nigh faultless in literary style, but which exert no moral influence upon the reader. Mr. Flint tells a plain straightforward story. He is a clergyman rather than a purely literary writer, hence in some respects his work lacks in literary finish, but this is more than made up in the strong moral atmosphere which pervades the book. It is a story of our late civil war, told in diary form, but unlike the numerous stories which have flooded the market in recent years and which deal with the exterior aspects of the war rather than with the interior workings of the brain, it concerns itself little with the outward show although there are two or three graphic descriptions of scenes in our late civil war related in a vivid and stirring manner. The great charm of the work lies in its being a psychological study. It is an appeal to the moral nature of the reader; it is in fact a diary of a soldier in which are revealed the inner thoughts, which are so seldom given to the public and in which we are able to enter the holiest of holies of the human soul and see its struggles and temptations; the struggles and temptations of the lower nature surrounded by the environments of camp life which are so demoralizing to many sensitive natures. Fortunately for the "captain" there was in his case, a noble, pure-minded girl at home whose words, no less than her thought and atmosphere, which ever environed him, rescued him in the most perilous moments of his career. The world to-day is hungering for books which appeal to the conscience or the moral side of man's nature. Indeed, the salvation of the race depends largely upon works which will awaken the spiritual side of our being. Perhaps it would be impossible to get a better idea of the purpose of the author than by making a few brief quotations from his preface which I give below: Let it be said at once, that it is because most people live the life of the flesh that they find Venus and Bacchus so attractive. They live for the immediate present, and that means for the fleeting and the sensual. The life of the spirit is already intensely interesting and highly prized by all who know by personal experience of its supreme blessedness. Granted the inner preparation of mind and heart, then anything short of whitest purity is absolutely vapid and repellent. It is altogether a question of appreciation; the aristocracy of moral culture has never had any trouble to decide what is truly fascinating and worthy. The only question worth considering is, Can the majority of mankind be induced to appreciate the best, and eventually come to live the life of the spirit? We believe they can. We believe the time is coming when men will turn with unspeakable loathing from the gross and carnal (as a finality), and cling with joy to the elevated and, therefore, permanent advantages of chastity. Next must be mentioned the appeal to manhood. Is it manly to betray the innocent and then forsake them? Is it the part of true manhood to starve the higher nature and pander to the baser instincts? Certainly not. But not all men are manly men; many have not the faintest conception of true gentlemanly qualities, and, what is infinitely worse, bluntly assert and defend a type of manhood that would disgrace a Turk. They glory in their shame, ruthlessly despoiling the helpless, and then bragging over their villainous escapades. But the difficulties in the way should not discourage the friends of moral reform. Let us do what we can, "if by all means we may save some." When General Grant besieged Vicksburg he drew up division after division, and planted his batteries in every coign of vantage, until at last the Gibraltar of the West fell. So in this fight against entrenched vice we must push the battle to the wall. In this book I wish to give prominence to a piece of artillery additional to those already mentioned, namely the argument from psychology, the necessary workings of the human soul. What we think and do, even in our most abandoned moments, leaves its impress upon the quality and force of our personal life ever after. Each man's moral status is at any given moment the product of his entire past. The physician who habitually fixes his attention upon the processes of the human body comes, in time, to have a very different outlook upon existence from that of the preacher, who is chiefly occupied with conscience and man's inner world of the spirit. And, in turn, the Roman Catholic priest undergoes a distinctly different psychological development from that of his Protestant brother, who lives, as it were, in a different world from the former. So with the sailor, the artist, the merchant, and the lawyer; each imbibes a different set of impressions, hence is to that extent a different being. Why should not this same law of psychology operate in that which is most fundamental to every man's consciousness-his physical manhood? The heaven-wide difference in the habits and opinions of mature men in matters of sex may surely be traced to what they thought and did in this particular during the formative period of their lives. Marriage is not so much the beginning as the culmination of moral discipline. It is not the signal for reform, but the fruit and blossom of virtue. This thought has been uppermost in the preparation of this book, and for the setting of the story the great American conflict has been chosen. An attempt is here made to portray, not primarily the outward facts, but the inner history and unfolding of character of one soldier to whom the war proved a splendid training-school. The central idea of this book is the attainment of character under difficulties, with special reference to the problem of personal morality and deathless love. The hero is the representative of a growing class of young Americans whose mental grasp and moral stamina enable them to see clearly and desire ardently the highest and best within the range of human experience. What is possible to one is possible to all who will fulfil the conditions. From the above it will be seen that this diary, which is written in a plain, straightforward manner, but which is nevertheless exceedingly interesting, is chiefly valuable as being a psychological study of the workings of the human mind, and the triumph of the moral over the animal in a young man's nature. After the preliminary chapters, the diary opens with the call to arms, the parting of the soldier with a high-minded, true-hearted, noble young woman, whom he hopes at some future time to win. The terrible temptations of camp life, especially to a young man with unfavorable hereditary tendencies and early environment, are experienced. He is subjected to a peculiarly strong temptation, but the words and the ideal of his betrothed save honor and manhood, and from this crucial moment he develops into a higher and nobler man. The happy union of the two souls, one of which has from the first borne the stamp of nobility, and the other which has grown to greatness through resisting temptation, makes this book exceedingly helpful. It is a fact that cannot be too frequently emphasized that the memory of a noble life, a high ideal or a noble sentiment thrown into the mind at a crucial moment in life very often leads to the development of a nobler manhood. This thought is strongly presented in Mr. Flint's work. As I have before observed, the world is full of elegant literature of a dilettanti character, but we need more of that literature which will appeal to the conscience of men and women and especially to the young; and while being an interesting story, this work has its chief value in appealing directly to the higher impulses of the soul. NICODEMUS.* REVIEWED BY B. O. FLOWER. This exquisite little volume is a gem from cover to cover. The lines are in stately blank verse, and a lofty spirituality pervades every page. The following extract will convey to the reader the style and spirit of the writer: One night from sleepless bed I rose, and went "Nicodemus," by Grace Shaw Duff, bound in vellum stamped in gold, profusely illustrated by original drawings, reproduced in half-tone by Frederick C. Gordon. Illuminated initial letters. Price 75 cents. Arena Publishing Co. |