expenditure of the British Government and local authorities, the
National Debt, and the study of financial statistics. It is clearly and
simply written, and might be a valuable schoolbook. For the interested
and courageous student there is some useful advice on further reading.
But Mr. Higgs will strike fear into the heart of many beginners by
telling them in the first chapter that the science of finance is so
vast a subject that Professor Jèze of Paris is preparing twelve bulky
volumes upon it, and that his elementary treatise alone consists of
over 1100 large octavo pages!
THEOLOGY
THE SUPREME ADVENTURE. By MERCEDES MACANDREW. Chapman & Hall. 7_s._
6_d._ net.
Certain Nonconformist ministers had a habit--it is now fast dying--of
interspersing the reading of the Lesson in service-time with comment
and illustration. Mrs. Macandrew has applied a similar method in this
volume. Writing to satisfy the needs of an agnostic friend, Mrs.
Macandrew retells the story of the four Gospels and supports the
narrative with critical expositions of her own or, occasionally, of
such authorities as Edersheim. It is not easy to see for whom the book
is intended. Mrs. Macandrew is frankly uncritical. She not only ignores
the whole body of "higher criticism," but she makes no reference
to textual difficulties, and, in discussing such a passage as the
Confession of Peter, does not even mention the fact that a considerable
controversy has gathered for some years around the precise significance
of the promise, "On this rock I will build my Church."
It will not be to everybody's taste to have the annunciation described
in this way:
God the Father sent an angel called Gabriel to that city of
flowers--Nazareth in Galilee--sent him to a sweet and good and lovely
_but quite poor girl_ called Mary who was soon to be married to a man
much older than herself, called Joseph.
And when we tried to read Mrs. Macandrew's paraphrases of the parables
we recalled with a sigh Mr. Birrell's complaint against Canon Farrar,
"who elongated the Gospels." It no doubt gave Mrs. Macandrew some
months of happiness to write the book, but we think she was ill-advised
in submitting it to the public.
SCIENCE
CATALYSIS IN THEORY AND PRACTICE. By ERIC K. RIDEAL and HUGH S. TAYLOR.
Macmillan & Co. 17_s._ net.
In spite of the difficulties which war-time placed in the way of
publishers, the production of scientific books, both in England and
Germany, has been astonishingly large during the past five years. The
greater number of them have--naturally enough--been devoted either
to technical subjects or to branches of science having an immediate
technical application. The field of industrial chemistry, especially,
has been well tended by the writers, and not only new books, but new
series of books--such as Messrs. Longmans' _Monographs on Industrial
Chemistry_, Messrs. Churchill's _Textbooks of Chemical Research_,
and Messrs. Baillière, Tindall, and Cox's _Industrial Chemistry_
series--have appeared to bear witness to the activity of the English
chemists. Certain subjects in particular have been extensively treated;
we may instance synthetic colouring matters, colloid chemistry, and
catalysis, the last-named subject having books devoted to it in all
the series just specified. In these the subject is handled from the
industrial point of view, but it is frequently seen that the commercial
and the theoretical developments of a science are mutually stimulating,
discoveries made in the laboratory without any object but the wresting
of knowledge from nature finding commercial application, and the
commercial processes suggesting fresh theoretical problems. The great
industrial importance of catalysis has led to a revived interest in the
scientific theories of the process, and the latest book on the subject,
by Drs. Eric Rideal and Hugh Taylor, deserves praise for having devoted
considerable attention to the historical and theoretical aspect of the
subject, which has been rather neglected of late.
There are many chemical reactions which are promoted or accelerated by
the addition of a small quantity of some foreign substance which is not
used up in the process and does not appear in the final products. Thus
one of the romances of chemistry was the discovery, occasioned by the
chance breaking of a thermometer in the vessel, that the presence of a
small quantity of mercury greatly hastens the oxidation of naphthalene
to phthalic acid, a process of great importance in the manufacture
of synthetic indigo. Similarly the presence of finely divided metals
accelerates many reactions, such as oxidations and hydrogenations--for
example, asbestos impregnated with particles of platinum promotes
the oxidation of sulphur dioxide to the trioxide in the manufacture
of sulphuric acid. The researches of Baker and others, showing that
certain gas reactions, which ordinarily take place rapidly, proceed
very slowly indeed if the gases are thoroughly dried, point to a
catalytic action of small traces of moisture. The enzymes of the
human body which accelerate the chemical processes of digestion and
assimilation constitute another class of catalysts, and Drs. Rideal and
Taylor class under catalytic action the effect of radiant energy in
promoting such combinations as that of hydrogen and chlorine, although
it is perhaps rather extending the usual conception of the term to do
so. These examples will indicate the wide range of the subject and
help to make intelligible Ostwald's famous generalisation that "there
is probably no kind of chemical reaction which cannot be influenced
catalytically, and there is no substance, element, or compound which
cannot act as a catalyser," which is no doubt true if very slight
accelerations of reaction be taken into account. Of course a catalyst
cannot affect the final state of equilibrium, but only quicken or
institute (the discussion as to whether, in some cases, the catalyst
initiates or merely accelerates a reaction already taking place
imperceptibly slowly seems to us pointless) a reaction theoretically
possible. Other, the so-called negative, catalysts hinder reactions;
other substances "poison," or stop, the action of ordinarily activating
materials; others again, the "promoters," increase the efficacy of the
catalyst. The phenomenon is a complex one.
By no means the least interesting and valuable feature of the book
before us is the exposition of the historical development of the
subject. We who are apt to look on the feminine scientist as a product
of the last twenty years are reminded that there was at least one woman
chemist of ability in the eighteenth century, Mrs. Fulhame, whose
_Essay on Combustion_, published in 1774, emphasised the importance of
the presence of moisture in gaseous reactions. Faraday, "the prince of
experimenters," also worked on catalysis, and, in fact, originated the
adsorbtion theory of the process, which attributes the action to the
extended compressed film formed at the surface of a porous solid. It
is not only in the chapter expressly devoted to the early history that
we find an account of the original workers; the advances made by them
receive recognition throughout the book in connection with the branches
in which they experimented. The treatment of the various theories of
catalysis--the intermediate compound, the adsorbtion, electrochemical,
and radiant energy theory--might have been extended with advantage.
The mathematical exposition of the adsorbtion theory is one of the
weakest things in the book, and McLewis's work is not very clearly
handled. The difficulties of giving an adequate summary of this part
of the subject are undoubted, but the need of it is so marked that we
regret that the authors have not spent more energy on the task. This
is not the place to deal in detail with the account of the practical
applications of catalysis, which is excellently done and includes the
most recent work, some of it, such as Partington's improvements in
oxidising ammonia, only made public last year. The use of catalysts in,
to take a few examples at random, surface combustion, the hardening of
oils by hydrogenation (used so extensively in margarine making), the
fixation of nitrogen, and electrolysis is well described, and there is
a good chapter on ferments and enzymes, and another on the Grignard
reagent. Omissions may be noted here and there, but the book is not,
of course, intended to give detailed instructions to the commercial
chemist. Rather, we believe, is it meant to supply to chemists in
general, and even to the lay reader, an idea of the nature of the
process of catalysis, which is becoming more important every day,
and the extent of its applications, with sufficient detail to make
the reactions clear, as far as they are at present understood. As a
general exposition of the subject the book is really needed, and will
undoubtedly find a place on the shelves of all who follow the advances
of science.
TEN BRITISH PHYSICISTS. By ALEXANDER MACFARLANE. John Wiley & Sons, and
Chapman & Hall. 7_s._ 6_d._ net.
Writing of the life of Rankine, Professor P. G. Tait gave as his
opinion that "the life of a genuine scientific man is, from the common
point of view, almost always uneventful," and, if the man in question
has no interests but science, this is, in general, true. Engaged in
researches on the laws of nature, the most that he demands from life
is that he shall have his study, his laboratory, food, shelter and
peace, and such an attitude does not lead to high adventure or romances
of passion. Consequently, in writing biographies of physicists it is
advisable not to dwell too long on their everyday life, marriages and
meals, for there is a certain monotony about the material lives of
these great men. In the lives before us, which are little more than
sketches, the author has rightly laid most stress on the scientific
achievements of his ten physicists, but he has a tendency to reduce
his account to a catalogue of the discoveries and advances made. An
estimate of the place of each man in the thought of the time, and of
his scientific character, of the general tendencies of his work and the
place it now occupies in the history of the science, deserves to take a
rather larger place in these short biographies than it has received.
Happily many of the ten are men of very interesting personality.
The selection--James Clerk Maxwell, W. J. M. Rankine, P. G. Tait,
Lord Kelvin, Charles Babbage, William Whewell, Sir G. G. Stokes, Sir
G. B. Airy, J. C. Adams, and Sir J. F. W. Herschel--if based on no
clearly-defined plan, has the merit that it includes one or two men who
have been unduly neglected. Rankine, in spite of his important work on
thermodynamics, does not receive much attention from the physicists of
to-day, possibly owing to his unattractive "molecular vortices," and
Babbage is known to most people rather from the sneer in the _Ingoldsby
Legends_:
Master Cabbage, the steward, who'd made a machine
To calculate with, and count noses--I ween
The cleverest thing of its kind ever seen,
than for his really great, though imperfect, achievements. Why Babbage
is set down as a physicist, when his whole effort was devoted to the
perfecting of calculating machines, we do not know, but the life is
one of the most interesting, and makes an attempt to expound the
causes--obvious enough, perhaps--of his misfortunes. It is a generous
appreciation of an ill-starred genius, now seldom heard of. Whewell,
again, is scarcely known as a physicist, but rather as the historian
of inductive science; we suppose that his writings on the tides have
secured him his place. Joule is mentioned in early life, and was
certainly one of the leading physicists of the century, yet he is not
among the selected ten--neither, for that matter, is Faraday, so it is
evident that scientific prowess has not been the test of admission.
On the whole the ten are versatile men, although no one of them could
come near in diversity of performance to the great Thomas Young, who
was not only a physicist of the first rank but also a physician, a
classical scholar, and one of the first successful decipherers of
Egyptian hieroglyphics. Rankine and Whewell were fair poets, and Clark
Maxwell deserves higher praise for his verses. His description of
Kelvin's reflecting galvanometer, in the form of a parody of Tennyson's
"Blow, bugle, blow," illustrates the ease and finish of his light verse:
O love! you fail to read the scale,
Correct to tenths of a division.
To mirror heaven those eyes were given,
And not for methods of precision--
Break, contact, break, set the free light-spot flying,
Break contact, rest thee magnet, swinging, creeping, dying.
The poem is quoted in the life of Kelvin, and two of Rankine's
songs are given. We hope that physicists can still show the same
accomplishment.
The lives are well written, and, while not a very profound contribution
to the history of the science, make very pleasant reading for scientist
and layman. There is, however, occasionally a lack of proportion, as
when Clark Maxwell's work on electro-magnetic waves receives little
attention compared to his other far less important achievements.
A LETTER FROM FRANCE
THE PRESENT STATE OF THE FRENCH NOVEL
_Paris, October, 1919._
In France as much as, and perhaps more than, in England the novel has
been since the eighteenth century the central massif of literature.
While in England the poets and the novelists formed two quite distinct
groups, while the poets Byron, Shelley, Wordsworth, Burns, Tennyson,
Swinburne remained pure poets, in France there have been few poets
who have not wished to write novels. Lamartine, Hugo, Musset, Vigny,
Gautier have done so. A pure critic like Sainte-Beuve wished, with
_Volupté_, to try his hand at the novel. Taine left in manuscript
the novel _Etienne Maylan_ and Renan the novel _Patrice_; they did
not publish these books because they recognised them to be mediocre,
but both wished to obtain the glory of the novelist. The novel is in
France the highest object of literary ambition. It alone assures a
position of material and social importance. Thus it is that a novelist
who is read by the upper and middle classes is necessarily admitted
to the Academy while a historian or a philosopher is admitted only in
exceptional circumstances, and great poets like Baudelaire, Gautier,
Banville, Paul Fort remain outside unless they have certain connections
and certain sources of support. The prosperity of the novel at a given
moment may then be considered, in France, as the most obvious mark of
a powerful literary activity. No form of literature addresses a larger
public, provokes more discussion, or gives more of its own colour to a
generation or to an epoch. I will endeavour to indicate here in a few
pages the condition of the French novel on the morrow of the war.
Beyond doubt it is passing through a moment of mediocrity. This is not
because its public is beginning to break up. Publishers and readers
demand novels. In default of genuinely new novels many old ones are
reissued and read again and cheap reprints are swarming. Every new
novel in which any grain of originality can be perceived is discussed
and brought into the light and sells satisfactorily. And yet nothing
so far has told us of the appearance of the Flaubert, the Zola, the
Maupassant of to-morrow.
Naturalism proves to have been the last great school, massive,
compact, and powerful, of the French novel. Well, the survivors of
the naturalist movement, such as MM. Céard, Hennique, Descaves, have
ceased to write novels or else, if they still write them, have given
up completely the methods of naturalism, and seek, without success, to
adapt themselves to new tastes. It is not, however, impossible that in
a little time from now naturalism in several ways may again be somewhat
in fashion. There is a tendency among young writers and critics to
revise the judgment given in the case of Zola, as the judgment on
Dickens has been revised in England, and to consider that the poverty
and emptiness of his last books has unjustly thrown a shadow on the
profound and powerful works of his maturity. Those works, born of the
war, which have been most favourably received, have been on the whole
inspired by naturalist methods of observation and composition. The
European success of _Le Feu_ is due in large part to the fact that the
author applies to the great war the point of view and the methods of
Zola. It was also from the point of view of the story of a squad that
Zola wrote _La Débâcle_.
So far the novel of manners and psychology born of the war has only
been attempted by writers of the older generation, that which knew the
masters of the naturalist novel, which lived their life, which took
part, from one side or another of the barricade, in their struggles.
I am here thinking especially of the works written during the war by
the doyen of the French novel, M. Paul Bourget. M. Bourget occupies
to-day in the novel a position analogous to that of Zola in his
last years. The young literary generation is hostile to him or
regards him with contemptuous indifference, except that part of this
generation which is grouped round M. Maurras, whose political ideas
he has adopted. He is justly reproached with a painful style, with
conventional psychology in upper and middle class surroundings, with
laborious intrigues carried out according to antiquated formulæ. He
must be regarded, nevertheless, with respect as a great worker, who
seeks conscientiously to extend the limits of his manner, and, above
all, as the sole representative to-day of the old tradition of the
French novelists of the nineteenth century--that of Balzac, of Sand,
of Flaubert, of Maupassant, of Zola. Perhaps he marks the irremediable
decadence of this style which the twentieth century will replace by one
more supple and more precise.
The war novels of M. Bourget, _Le Sens de la Mort_, _Nemesis_, are
mediocre, though showing always the same technical qualities of solid
construction. But he has written a short _nouvelle_ of profound beauty,
_Le Justicier_, on a great theme of human peace and reconciliation
within a divided family; and this sketches perhaps the general lines of
to-morrow's reconciliations on our torn planet.
Among the innumerable books written by combatants, in which novels
abound, no novel has achieved the powerful interest of certain
collections of letters and journals which render, without literary
modelling, fresh, authentic, and actually seen impressions. The
generation which has lived through the war as an immediate and tragic
reality has not written and certainly will not write the novel of the
war. The Thackeray, the Balzac, the Tolstoi of to-morrow have probably
been born, but are hardly out of the nursery.
The two forms of the novel preferred by the young generation of to-day
are the novel of adventure and the little novel of irony and sentiment.
Neither has yet produced any great result. The first, after a year, is
already out of fashion, and the second will probably follow it in a few
months. And the writers of value who have passed through these phases
are now passing through some other.
The English novel of adventure has been in favour in France for some
time. The novels of Wells have found here for twenty years, like those
of Kipling, great numbers of ardent readers. Before that, a long
time ago, in symbolist circles, it was the fashion to speak with the
greatest admiration of Stevenson. And the novels of Chesterton, the
influence of which was visible in André Gide's _Les Caves du Vatican_,
have been appreciated by a narrower, but select, circle. Nevertheless
it was only during the war that the younger writers were tempted
systematically to compose romantic novels of adventure. The two novels
of M. Pierre Benoit, _Königsmarck_ and _l'Atlantide_, are clever books,
in which old methods are enhanced by a true novelist's temperament. An
Englishman will find little in them which Stevenson, and even Rider
Haggard, have not already given him. The _Maître du Navire_ of M. Louis
Chadousne seems to introduce in addition a note of irony which shows
that the author writes to amuse himself and does not believe in his
adventure. And this note of irony is still more obvious in _Le Chant
de l'Equipage_ of M. Pierre Mac-Orlan, which parodies the novel of
adventure. The French novelist is a rationalist who pretends to believe
in his mystery and does not believe in it. Between the adventure of
the English novel and the adventure of the French novel there is the
same difference as between the ghost in _Hamlet_ and the ghost which
Voltaire brings on to the stage at full noon, without deceiving anyone,
in _Semiramis_. The novel of adventure proves to have been a season's
fashion which those who launched it abandon in the following season.
What I have called the little novel of irony and sentiment has had a
longer, a more vivacious, and a more durable existence. It is almost
peculiar to French literature and produces every year a good harvest of
agreeable books. It is generally an invertebrate composition, made up
of humorous episodes and reflections, the slight daily impressions of a
man of letters, delicate and fatigued, in Parisian surroundings. It is,
as it were, the chronicle-novel of French literary life.
A great number of the works of M. Abel Hermant belong to this style,
and among them, in particular, the Anglo-French novel, half of Paris,
half of Oxford, which he is now publishing, and the first two parts of
which are called _L'Aube Ardente_ and _La Journée Brève_ (the latter
in course of publication in the _Revue de Paris_). These are, like M.
Hermant's books, the elegantly but frigidly written compositions which
come only from a literary and conventional atmosphere and appear to
have been developed in the author's mind as in an artificial incubator.
The true novel of this sort comes into existence under freer and more
fanciful conditions than obtain in the intelligent and tidy, though
somewhat melancholy, manufacture of M. Hermant. A young writer, who
died a score of years ago, Jean de Tinan, produced masterpieces in
_Pense-tu réussir?_ and _Aimienne_, which have not been surpassed.
To-day this type of novel has a right and a left--elegance on the
right and Bohemianism on the left, the latter as a rule being more
picturesque and more highly flavoured. On the right there is what
one might call, using the word in the sense in which it is used by
historians of mediæval literature, a _littérature courtoise_--I mean
a literature of the court with some refinement and some sensuality.
Here the author describes his little amatory adventures, endeavouring
to relieve their inevitable banality with a certain piquancy in the
introduction of portraits of his men and women friends, chosen among
an elegant society. _Les Papiers de Cleonthe_, by M. Jean-Louis
Vaudoyer, and _Le Diable a l'Hôtel_, by M. Emile Henriot, which
have just appeared, though they fall sometimes into banality, make
agreeable reading. On the left there is the little Bohemian novel,
which deals with Montmartre as ancient stories dealt with Miletus. Its
characters are artists and their more or less interesting friends,
young women and their more or less interested friends. The novel of
Montmartre, in which style Charles-Louis Philippe wrote the earliest
masterpieces, is practised to-day in the most agreeable fashion by M.
Francis Cares, author of _Bob et Bobette_, M. Mac-Orlan, author of _La
Clique du Café Brebis_, and M. André Billy, the author of _Scènes de
la Vie Littéraire_. Nevertheless these sometimes shady cabarets, where
boredom is chased away, must not be confused with the higher spheres of
literature.
* * * * *