book partial to the cause of the Mexican proletariat would in any event be rather refreshing after the deluge of literary sycophancy that has come to the United States from paid press agents of the Diaz and Huerta régimes or from misled outsiders whose observations of Mexico have been made from the parlor cars of these dictators.

Messrs. de Lara and Pinchon begin at the beginning, with the Spanish conquest, and their narration of the struggle of the common people against the oppression of the master class at home and the tyranny of sovereign princes abroad is instructive and absorbing. The chapters dealing with the war of Texan independence, the war of 1846 between Mexico and the United States, and the downfall of the Mexican Empire of Maximilian are particularly interesting because of the light they throw upon the history of our own country at these periods. The authors of this volume declare, and cite evidence to prove, that the Texan colonists were heartily opposed to secession from Mexico, and that the war between Texas and Mexico was as much due to the desire of the clerical party in Mexico to divert the people's attention from the propaganda of revolution as from the wish of the Southern planters of the United States to add slave territory to the Union. Essentially the same causes are ascribed to the war of 1846. Upon the opinion, commonly accepted in the United States, that during the intervention of England, Spain, and France in Mexico in 1861 the United States was the firm friend of Mexico, the authors of this book freely throw cold water, and they are equally emphatic in asserting the falsity of the belief that the departure of the French in 1865 was due in any considerable degree to the influence of the United States.

The book is profusely illustrated with photographs of modern Mexico and Mexicans. It is a painstaking effort to present the view-point of the intellectual Mexican revolutionary, and it is incidentally a compilation of historical data of no little interest.

Man of Genius (The). By Hermann Türck, Ph.D. The Macmillan Company, New York. $4. This is the first English edition of a work that has reached its seventh edition in Germany, where it has been highly praised as a work of critical and literary genius quite adequate to its subject. The titles of its introductory chapters indicate the wide range of the author's thought-" Artistic Enjoyment and Productivity," "Philosophical Aspiration,"

Conduct in Practical Life." He goes on to show the man of genius as delineated in Shakespeare's "Hamlet," in Goethe's "Faust," and in Byron's "Manfred." These chapters are fine specimens of sthetic criticism. The genius is termed a superman," showing humanity at its highest power. A "temporal

657

superhumanity" is seen in great conquerorsAlexander, Cæsar, Napoleon. The essential attributes of the man of genius are named-disinterestedness, objectivity, and complete devotion of the heart to a noble idea. These appear conspicuously in Jesus and in Buddha. A notable chapter exhibits the essential elements in their teachings and their mutual agreement. A thorough idealist, Dr. Türck insists on a healthy realism as leading to true idealism. For this he wages a vigorous polemic against Stirner, Nietzsche, and Ibsen as egoists and "antisophers." A striking feature of these essays are the frequent parallels he draws between his idealism and Christ's. A keen and subtle and mentally stimulating thinker is he, at times paradoxical. Hamlet is pronounced "morally great," though showing an unscrupulousness without which great actions are impossible." Is not this the very taint that is grossly apparent in the present apologists for Germany's treatment of Belgium?

Memories of the Kaiser's Court. By Anne Topham. Dodd, Mead & Co., New York. $3. The resident English teacher of the only daughter of the German Kaiser, Princess Victoria Luise, now the Duchess of Brunswick, writes of her experiences in the Prussian Court from 1902 until the marriage of the Princess in 1913. She gives a view of the royal family life intimate yet discreet, candid yet entirely free from sensationalism-a view which, in the face of present events, must go far to balance in the public mind some natural misapprehensions of German character. The well-written, simply told narrative of every-day royal life is especially timely and should be widely read. The dominant, joking, energetic, and adored "Papa," the ever-thoughtful, kind-hearted, submissive, yet efficient Mamma," with the two younger children at home, always zanking (bickering), yet warm-hearted and childlike, make a most attractive domestic picture. It may be noted that Miss Topham was the only woman about the court, not excepting the Empress, who knew the least bit about cooking, in spite of the three Ks-Kinder, Kirche, und Küche-upon which the Emperor insists, and to which he has recently added a fourth-Kultur!

Men Around the Kaiser. By Frederick William Wile. The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis. $1.25.

Some of the makers of modern Germany, including the most eminent of them, are here sketched by an American who has served for several years as the Berlin correspondent of the London Daily Mail." An earlier edition has already been noticed in The Outlook. This edition, just published, contains an Introduction by the author written since the war, and interpreting the spirit of modern Germany which these men have helped to form. The book is informative. The author leaves no doubt in the mind of the reader that he is not in sympa

thy with the militaristic aims to which Germany has committed itself.

Sunny Side of Diplomatic Life, 1875-1912 (The). By L. de Hegermann-Lindencrone. Harper & Brothers, New York. $2.

The author of "In the Courts of Memory" adds to her reminiscences a large illustrated volume of letters, extending in time from 1875 to 1912, and including in places Washington, Rome, Stockholm, Paris, and Berlin. One turns instinctively to the last Court, at which she was the wife of the Ambassador from Denmark, and finds much interest in the portraiture of the Kaiser and his circle. The letters are lively, though somewhat over-egotistic. It is perhaps too much to expect of a pretty, accomplished, prominent woman that she should vacate the center of the stage at times, but these vivacious accounts of uninterrupted social triumphs, quite suitable for family letters, might have been toned down for publication. The impression left on one's mind is of gracious and admired royalties, equality with famous artists, and an amused condescension toward the rest of the world.

Social Heredity and Social Evolution: The Other Side of Eugenics. By Herbert William Conn. The Abingdon Press, New York. $1.50.

In this latest of Professor Conn's valuable publications he calls attention to facts that eugenists and their readers need to make more account of. These facts weigh more heavily in determining human progress than the laws of inheritance on which eugenics is based. What eugenics can effect for the cultivation of a better physical type of humanity is highly desirable. But the organic heredity on which it is intent simply gives us certain powers. The use of these is determined by the forces of social heredity.

The aim of human evolution is to produce a better society rather than a better animal. Society is a superstructure built by social inheritance on a foundation laid by organic inheritance." Whether any individual fits well into society depends more on the social forces that nurture him than on the powers that nature gave. Adult man possesses far more than he inherits by nature, and is largely the result of the action of his environment upon his plastic organism. Thus civilization grows. It is an accumulation of conditions and experiences transmitted from generation to generation. Its history from the first has been "an attempt to escape from the continual condition of free fight." It has been a seesaw between egoistic and altruistic instinct, an attempt to supersede struggle by mutual service. Human evolution advances only in this line of ethical development, especially when religion imparts vitality to ethics.

Matthew Arnold defined civilization as the humanization of man. Professor Conn so

treats it in a biological view. As distinct from animal nature, human nature is ethical. Its ethical development produces real civilization, and civilization is real only in so far as it is ethical. The foregoing summary presents the main points of this lucid and masterly sketch of its evolution.

Short History of Italian Painting (A). By Alice Van Vechten Brown and William Rankin. E. P. Dutton & Company, New York. $2.25. While this book is designed primarily for students, it is of special and practical value for amateurs and collectors. Its bibliographical

list, its descriptions of artists and paintings and pictures, its references and foot-notes, and its carefully selected and well-printed illustrations greatly reinforce the text. Moreover, the text is distinguished by its literary merit from that of many art books of a popular kind. Its judgments are well considered and scholarly. Miss Brown is the head of the Art Department of Wellesley College, and Mr. Rankin speaks with authority as a critic of Italian art. While the volume is encyclopædic and technical in design, it is not at all a dry-as-dust production, but possesses an inspirational quality for those who really want to understand Italian art. Take Botticelli, for example. His famous and beauful" Primavera," with its symbolic composition and curiously drawn and draped figures, is a stumbling-block to the conventional. But no one can read the following bit of critical interpretation without turning to the picture with a new interest:

The "Primavera " is a pure pictorial idyl. Before such a song of the spring, the more epic art of Giotto or Masaccio seems prose. Against a background of tree-stems, Venus and the Graces, with symbolic figures-the months, the lingering breath of winter, and the zephyrs of springare disposed in ethereal motion. It is an exquisite design of lines and spaces, formed by branches, sky. flowers, diaphanous garments, and tender, unearthly color. The idealized images are abstract, as in Greek and Byzantine art, but admit a naturalistic basis. The leaves and flowers are unconventional, the wind in the March and April passages is whistling through real pines. But the design controls the naturalism. This is the chief lesson of the picture. The thought is dominant over the objective material.

Boy Emigrants (The). By Noah Brooks. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. $2.

A new edition, very well illustrated, of "The Boy Emigrants" will doubtless attract almost as many readers as it did when it first appeared in the Centennial year. Stories of adventure on our Western frontier should be read by our boys.

Sicily Ann. By Fanny Heaslip Lea. Harper & Brothers, New York. $1.

Sicily Ann was a terribly foolish, simpleminded girl, but because she was pretty and appealing and inconsequent we are asked to believe that everybody fell in love with her. Everybody did-in the story-and the story is a bright little sketch which brings in the social side of American army life in Honolulu.

Τ

HE fifteenth week of the warNovember 11 to 18-passed with no notable improvement in the position of the Germans. The Berlin reports claimed that the Russian invasion of East Prussia was checked; that a German offensive movement starting from the fortress of Thorn was advancing up the Vistula in northwestern Poland and had defeated the opposing Russian forces, capturing 23,000; that the fighting in this section was as yet indecisive; that the German army which was retreating from Warsaw was preparing defensive lines near the Silesian frontier; and that slight advances, at widely separated points, had been made against the Allies in the western campaign, the most important of which was the occupation of the village of Dixmude.

All of these claims from Berlin were either flatly denied by the reports from the Allies or counterbalanced by more sweeping claims. But, accepting the German version of the week's work as true, it does not amount to much. The Czar can readily replace 23,000 men. Since the capture of Antwerp the German arms have not accomplished anything of major importance.

The unforeseen and unexpected has played an immense rôle in the wars of the past. And, despite the modern developments of the spy system and of aerial scouting, this incalculable element still exists to the extent that any forecast is little more than a guess. But, taking into account only the known elements of the problem, it appears that the German military machine must have reached -or very nearly reached-its maximum strength The newspapers have published during the week. elaborate statements to show that Germany could arm 12,000,000

men. If the war lasts five years, it is extremely improbable that Germany couldduring its duration-put half as many men in the field. If she manages to get five million in action, it will be a marvelous achievement, and the majority of them will not be as good soldiers nor as well equipped as those she first used-and to a large extent used upin her dash into France during the first month of the war. Every week which passes without definite German gains makes the prospect more favorable for the Allies. They are holding the Germans now, and slowly but surely they are getting stronger.

The situation in East Prussia and northwestern Poland is uncertain. The reports from Berlin and Petrograd have been so often misleading that it is necessary to wait a week or so to get any idea of events. It is altogether probable that the German advance from Thorn up the valley to the Vistula will prove a serious matter. An army marching up both sides of a river which divides a hostile force is in a favorable position. If this German advance is not checked, the Germans will in a few days be free to put all their force on either side of the river, blow up the bridges behind them, and, wheeling east, strike at the rear of the Russians in East Prussia, or, wheeling south, fall on the flank of the Russian Center Army, which is now in the neighborhood of the Warta.

The occupation of Pleschen, within German territory, which was reported last week from Petrograd, seems to have been a flash in the pan. The main Russian army has not yet caught up with the retreating Germans, who are therefore having plenty of time to fortify themselves somewhere near the Polish border.

The Russian advance toward southwest

Poland seems to have been more rapid. Some despatches claim that the investment of Cracow has begun, and even that the town is in flames.

In the western campaign very bitter but indecisive conflicts have raged all along the line. Snow has fallen on the two wings, in the Vosges and in Flanders, where the Allies have opened more dikes and so have increased the inundations. Necessarily the fighting has somewhat relaxed in these territories. In the center, along the old battlefront of the Aisne, there have been a dozen bloody combats, but apparently the alignment has not been changed by ten miles in any place.

The lack of any great military movements this week threw into relief the death of Earl Roberts and the rumored loss of the British super-dreadnought Audacious.

LORD ROBERTS

There is immense dramatic and inspirational value to England in the passing of this aged soldier. He could not have planned a better means for aiding the recruitment of the volunteer army-the cause nearest to his heart-than the manner of his death.

Something of his life and achievements is told elsewhere in The Outlook. Much that was finest in the old ideals of chivalry was combined in his career-a faithful soldier, a courageous gentleman, and as courteous as he was strong. In one of his latest published interviews he said: "We will not defeat the Germans by calling them barbarians." He had small use for vituperation. He knew the strength of Germany and realized the effort it would need to win

in this war. His influence over his countrymen will be increased by his sudden death on the battlefield. And ever his influence has been towards the ideal of "a nation in arms."

His death will strengthen the British "will to win," and it will not weaken their military machine. The great soldier of to-day does his work in times of peace. The epoch is long past when the successful military leader sticks a white plume in his helmet and calls on his men to follow it into the mêlée. This war will be won-whoever wins-by the work of the last ten years. And if victory comes to the Allies, "Bobs" will deserve his share of the glory, although he did not live to see it and did not give a single order during its progress.

It is wrong to expect especially good sense from any department of so senseless a thing as war, but the palm of senselessness will certainly be carried off by the military censors.

The benefits of secrecy in war are obvious, and no one should grumble over such agonizing silences as the general staffs ordain-so long as they have any utility. But everywhere the army officers intrusted with this work seem to have gone a little mad. War

is no longer carried on by mercenary armies ; it is a national affair, and when the citizens can no longer have confidence in their governments the battle is half lost. Some weeks ago I gave a summary of the reports of the German War Office which was published in the Swiss "Journal de Genève." This influential newspaper, in a neutral country in much closer touch with Germany than we, warns its readers that the German official reports are not trustworthy.

The war offices of other countries have been little, if any, better. On the whole, with the exception of the first weeks, when everything was confused, the French reports seem to have been the most reliable. have admitted reverses with better grace than any other country. And they have seldom, if ever, been definitely false. But they have been exasperatingly meager. The French censor has come in for very severe criticism from the Paris press. "Le Temps is typical. Every issue has a number of blank spaces where the censor at the last moment, after the plates were cast, has drawn a blue pencil mark. "Le Temps " has pleaded with the Government for more liberty; it has tried to be scornfully dignified about it; it has threatened. And recently it has tried ridiculewhich is proverbially powerful in France. It has published a clever satire, purporting to be a despatch from the front. The censor is supposed to have expurgated even the Lord's Prayer. It has been the rule to excise all names of localities, so the prayer begins: "Our Father, Who art in

But the prime stupidity so far has been the work of the British censor in. regard to the fate of the super-dreadnought Audacious. At present the story of its loss is on a par with the early canard about Russian troops being brought to England from Archangelsk. It is solemnly vouched for by several "eye-witnesses." Up till the 18th the British Government press bureau has neither affirmed nor denied the report.

1914

Assuming that the Audacious was lostand the silence of the Admiralty certainly lends credence to the report-why was the news suppressed? There are two possible reasons: to keep from encouraging the enemy, and to keep from discouraging friends. But the most that could be hoped was postponement. An affair which must have been known to a thousand people could not have been permanently hidden. The fact that the secret was kept so long is the thing which makes it hardest to believe. it is not true, why not deny it at once? If it is true, the tardy admission will discourage the English tenfold. It is treating the English public as if they were children. Under such

If

circumstances, confident reliance on the reports published by the Admiralty is impossible. And as long as this uncertainty exists every one is asking: How many other of the important British ships have been lost without our knowledge?

BRITISH NAVAL LOSSES

A German correspondent sends me a list of the British naval units which have been reported destroyed. Taken by itself, it is impressive. But it does not justify his hope that the English control of the sea is doomed.

Inevitably the British fleet will suffer more than the German under the existing circumstances. It is forced to take more risks. Most of the German war-ships are very wisely keeping behind the defenses of their strongly fortified bases. It would be quixotic folly for them to take chances. The English fleet must keep to sea, exposed to floating mines, to the attacks of submarines, and the stress of weather.

But the rate of destruction in the Allies' fleets-unless the British censor has hidden an immense number of catastrophes-has not yet become dangerous. Even if no new ships were being built, the present rate of "attrition" would not endanger the Allies' naval supremacy for five or six years, and few people believe that the war can last so long.

651*

have ten ship-yards to every one in Germany, which are at present equipped to turn out the smaller war craft. And, so far at least, the honors have been to mine-layers and submarines. There were already laid down before the war began, in the great ship-yards of the Allies, more ships of every class-almost two to one-than the Germans have under construction. The longer the war lasts-at the present known rate of destruction-the greater will be the naval predominance of the Allies. If Germany is to win in this war, she must-as all her military writers have foreseen-win on land.

THE FRANCO-GERMAN BORDER

A correspondent asks why the Germans attacked France by way of Belgium, instead of going directly across the frontier between Luxemburg and Switzerland.

Immediately after the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 the French Government spent vast sums to fortify this eastern frontier. Four great strongholds were constructed at Verdun, Toul, Épinal, and Belfort. Between them lines of lesser forts were built. The "Military Geography" of our Army Service School has this to say of the first link in the chain: "From Verdun the line is continued along the Meuse, defended by forts established on both banks of that river, known as Forts Genicourt [this fort has, however, now been included in the defenses of Verdun], Troyon, Camp des Romains, Liouville, Gironville, Jouy-sous-les-Côtes, all of which are of the second class. Thus we reach Toul, a fortress of the first class, and situated on the direct line of rail from Paris to Strassburg." This system of fortifications was considered the strongest land defense in existence. The French people placed great reliance in it.

But from the early eighties the attitude of military men towards these giant fortresses changed. There were three principal reasons for distrusting them: First, rapid strides were being made in siege artillery. I wrote in an earlier article of how the French General Staff tested some of its own new guns on the fort of Malmaison and blew it to pieces in short order. It was certain that the Germans had at least as good guns. And further progress was equally certain, A fort which was the very last word in 1890 was sure to be "obsolete" in 1900.

Secondly, the more people studied the Franco-Prussian War, the more the unwisdom