BOOKS WE LIVE BY
=i=
_The Parallel New Testament_ is by Dr. James Moffatt, whose _New
Translation of the New Testament_ has excited such wide admiration and
praise. _The Parallel New Testament_ presents the Authorised Version and
Professor Moffatt's translation in parallel columns, together with a brief
introduction to the New Testament.
I suppose there is no sense in my expending adjectives in praise of Dr.
Moffatt's translation of the New Testament. I could do so very easily. But
what I think would be more effective would be to ask you to take a copy of
the Authorised Version and read in it some such passage as Luke, 24th
chapter, 13th verse, to the close of the chapter and then--and not
before!--read the same account from Dr. Moffatt's _New Translation_, as
follows:
"That very day two of them were on their way to a village called Emmaus
about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were conversing about all these
events, and during their conversation and discussion Jesus himself
approached and walked beside them, though they were prevented from
recognising him. He said to them, 'What is all this you are debating on
your walk?' They stopped, looking downcast, and one of them, called
Cleopas, answered him, 'Are you a lone stranger in Jerusalem, not to know
what has been happening there?' 'What is that?' he said to them. They
replied, 'All about Jesus of Nazaret! To God and all the people he was a
prophet strong in action and utterance, but the high priests and our
rulers delivered him up to be sentenced to death and crucified him. Our
own hope was that he would be the redeemer of Israel; but he is dead and
that is three days ago! Though some women of our number gave us a
surprise; they were at the tomb early in the morning and could not find
his body, but they came to tell us they had actually seen a vision of
angels who declared he was alive. Some of our company did go to the tomb
and found things exactly as the women had said, but they did not see him.'
He said to them, 'Oh, foolish men, with hearts so slow to believe, after
all the prophets have declared! Had not the Christ to suffer thus and so
enter his glory?' Then he began with Moses and all the prophets and
interpreted to them the passages referring to himself throughout the
scriptures. Now they approached the village to which they were going. He
pretended to be going further on, but they pressed him, saying 'Stay with
us, for it is getting towards evening and the day has now declined.' So he
went in to stay with them. And as he lay at the table with them he took
the loaf, blessed it, broke it and handed it to them. Then their eyes were
opened and they recognised him, but he vanished from their sight. And they
said to one another, 'Did not our hearts glow within us when he was
talking to us on the road, opening up the scriptures for us?' So they got
up and returned that very hour to Jerusalem, where they found the eleven
and their friends all gathered, who told them that the Lord had really
risen and that he had appeared to Simon. Then they related their own
experience on the road and how they had recognised him when he broke the
loaf. Just as they were speaking He stood among them [and said to them,
'Peace to you!']. They were scared and terrified, imagining it was a ghost
they saw; but he said to them, 'Why are you upset? Why do doubts invade
your mind? Look at my hands and feet. It is I! Feel me and see; a ghost
has not flesh and bones as you see I have.' [With these words he showed
them his hands and feet.] Even yet they could not believe it for sheer
joy; they were lost in wonder. So he said to them, 'Have you any food
here?' And when they handed him a piece of broiled fish, he took and ate
it in their presence. Then he said to them, 'When I was still with you,
this is what I told you, that whatever is written about me in the law of
Moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled.' Then he opened
their minds to understand the scriptures. 'Thus,' he said, 'it is written
that the Christ has to suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and
that repentance and the remission of sins must be preached in his name to
all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. To this you must bear testimony.
And I will send down on you what my Father has promised; wait in the city
till you are endued with power from on high.' He led them out as far as
Bethany; then, lifting his hands, he blessed them. And as he blessed them,
he parted from them [and was carried up to heaven]. They [worshipped him
and] returned with great joy to Jerusalem, where they spent all their time
within the temple, blessing God."
I am particularly glad to say that Dr. Moffatt is at work now on a _New
Translation of the Old Testament_. No man living is fitter for this
tremendously important and tremendously difficult task than James Moffatt.
Born in Glasgow in 1870, Dr. Moffatt has been Professor of Church History
there since 1915. Of his many published studies in Bible literature, I now
speak only of _The Approach to the New Testament_, which he modestly
describes as "a brief statement of the general situation created by
historical criticism," aiming to "bring out the positive value of the New
Testament literature for the world of today as a source of guidance in
social reconstruction, so that readers might be enabled to recover or
retain a sense of its lasting significance for personal faith and social
ideals."
=ii=
With Alfred Dwight Sheffield's _Joining in Public Discussion_ was begun
publication of a unique collection of books suitable alike for general
reading and for use in trade union colleges. This is the Workers'
Bookshelf Series. These books, in many instances, are being written by the
chief authorities on their subjects--men who have dealt exhaustively with
their specialties in two and three-volume treatises, and who now bring
their great knowledge to a sharp focus and a simple, condensed statement
in small but wholly authoritative new books.
The work of preparing these little masterpieces has been undertaken by an
editorial board chosen with the aid of the Workers' Education Bureau of
America. The board consists of Charles A. Beard, Miss Fannia Cohn, H. W.
L. Dana, John P. Frey, Arthur Gleason, Everitt Dean Martin, Spencer
Miller, Jr., George W. Perkins and Robert Wolf.
Trade union colleges now exist all over the United States, training armies
of workers. The lack of suitable texts for use in these colleges has been
a serious obstacle to the training they desire to give.
This obstacle the Workers' Bookshelf overcomes. The books that compose it
will each be distinguished for (a) scholarship, (b) a scientific attitude
toward facts, and (c) simplicity of style.
Each volume is beginning as a class outline and will receive the benefit
of every suggestion, and criticism through its gradual growth into the
written book.
Each book will be brief. Its references will help the reader to more
detailed sources of information.
By binding the books in paper as well as in cloth, the volumes will be
brought within the reach of all.
The Workers' Bookshelf will contain no volumes on vocational guidance, nor
any books which give "short cuts" to moneymaking success.
The series will not be limited to any set number of volumes nor to any
programme of subjects. Art, literature and the natural sciences, as well
as the social sciences, will be dealt with. New titles will be added as
the demand for treatment of a topic becomes apparent.
The first use of these books will be as texts to educate workers; the
intermediate use of the books will be as the nucleus of workingmen's
libraries, collective and personal, and the last use of the Workers'
Bookshelf will be to instruct and delight all readers of serious books
everywhere.
In our modern industrial society, knowledge--things to know--increases
much more rapidly than our understanding. The worker finds it increasingly
difficult to comprehend the world he has done most to create. The
education of the worker consists in showing him in a simple fashion the
interrelations of that world and all its aspects as they are turned toward
him. On the education of the worker depends the future of industrialism,
and, indeed, of all human society.
The author of _Joining in Public Discussion_ is professor of rhetoric in
Wellesley College and instructor in the Boston Trade Union College. His
book "is a study of effective speechmaking, for members of labour unions,
conferences, forums and other discussion groups." The first section is
upon "Qualifying Oneself to Contribute" to any discussion and the second
section is upon "Making the Discussion Group Co-operate." A brief
introduction explains "What Discussion Aims to Do."
The following titles of the Workers' Bookshelf are in preparation:
_Trade Union Policy_, by Dr. Leo Wolman, lecturer at the New School for
Social Research and instructor in the Workers' University of the
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union.
_Women and the Labor Movement_, by Alice Henry, editor of Life and Labour,
director of the Training School for Women Workers in Industry.
_Labor and Health_, by Dr. Emery Hayhurst of Ohio State University, author
of "Industrial Health Hazards and Occupational Diseases."
_Social Forces in Literature_, by Dr. H. W. L. Dana, formerly teacher of
comparative literature at Columbia, now instructor at Boston Trade Union
College.
_The Creative Spirit in Industry_, by Robert B. Wolf, vice-president of
the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, member of the Federated
American Engineering Society.
_Cooperative Movement_, by Dr. James B. Warbasse, president of the
Cooperative League of America and instructor at the Workers' University.
=iii=
Side by side in Esme Wingfield-Stratford's _Facing Reality_ are chapters
with these titles: "Thinking in a Passion" and "Mental Inertia." Those
chapter titles seem to me to signify the chief dangers confronting the
world today--perhaps confronting the world in any day--and the main
reasons why we do not face reality as we should. I regard _Facing Reality_
as an important book and I am not alone in so regarding it. What do we
mean by reality? The answer is explicit in a sentence in Mr.
Wingfield-Stratford's introduction, where he says:
"But if we are to get right with reality or, in the time-honoured
evangelical phrase, with God, it must be by a ruthless determination to
get the truth in religion, even if we have to break down Church walls to
attain it."
Then the author proceeds to assess the social and ethical conditions which
threaten the world with spiritual bankruptcy. As he says:
"Whether Germany can be fleeced of a yearly contribution, of doubtful
advantage to the receiver, for forty years or sixty, what particular
economic laws decree that Poles should be governed by Germans or
vice-versa, whose honour or profit demands the possession of the town of
Fiume or the district of Tetschen or the Island of Yap, why all the horses
and men of the Entente are necessary to compel the Port of Dantzig to
become a free city, what particular delicacy of national honour requires
that the impartial distribution of colonies should be interpreted as
meaning the appropriation of the whole of them by the victors--all these
things are held by universal consent to be more urgent and interesting
than the desperate necessity that confronts us all."
And yet, for some, reality is not immanent in the affairs of this world
but only in those of the next. Among the men who, with Sir Oliver Lodge,
have gone most deeply and earnestly into the whole subject we call
"spiritualism," Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is now the most widely known as he
has always been the most persuasive. The overflowing crowds which came out
to hear him lecture on psychic evidences during his recent tour of America
testify to the unquenchable hope of mankind in a life beyond ours. Sir
Arthur has written three books on this subject closest to his heart. _The
New Revelation_ and _The Vital Message_ are both short books presenting
the general case for spiritualists; _The Wanderings of a Spiritualist_,
the result of a lecture tour in India and Australia, commingles incidents
of travel with discussions of psychic phenomena. I believe Sir Arthur has
in preparation a more extensive work, probably to be published under the
title _Spiritualism and Rationalism_.
In recent years there has been something like a consensus honouring
Havelock Ellis as the ablest living authority on the subject of sex; or
perhaps I should say that Mr. Ellis and his wife are the most competent
writers on this difficult and delicate subject, so beset by fraudulent
theories and so much written upon by charlatans. Let me recommend to you
Havelock Ellis's slender book, _Little Essays of Love and Virtue_, for a
sane, attractive and, at the same time, authoritative handling of sex
problems.
=iv=
_Little Essays of Love and Virtue_, however, is, after all, only upon a
special subject, even though of extreme importance. There are others among
the books we live by which I must speak of here. It is tiresome to point
out that we are all self-made men or women, consciously or unconsciously,
in the sense that if we gain control of our habits, to a very large extent
we acquire control of our lives. If, in _Some Things That Matter_ Lord
Riddell did no more than point out this old truth, his book would not be
worth mentioning. What makes it so well worth mentioning, so much more
deserving of discussion than any I can enter upon here, is the fact that
Lord Riddell tells how to observe, how to read, and how to think--or
perhaps I should say how to develop the habit of thought. I think, so able
are his instructions, so pointed and so susceptible of carrying out by any
reader, that his book would carry due weight even if it were anonymous.
But for those who want assurance that the author of _Some Things That
Matter_ is himself somebody who matters, let me point out that he is one
of the largest newspaper proprietors in the world, a man whose grasp on
affairs has twice placed him at the head of news service for two
continents--once at the Peace Conference in Paris and afterward at the
Disarmament Conference in Washington.
_Some Things That Matter_ is the best book of its kind since Arnold
Bennett's _How to Live on Twenty-four Hours a Day_, a little book of
trenchant advice to which it is a pleasure again to call attention. Of all
Mr. Bennett's pocket philosophies--_Self and Self-Management_, _Friendship
and Happiness_, _The Human Machine_, _Mental Efficiency_ and _Married
Life_--_How to Live on_ _Twenty-four Hours a Day_ is easily of the
greatest service to the greatest number of people.
=v=
I read Dr. George L. Perin's _Self-Healing Simplified_ in manuscript and
enthusiastically recommended its acceptance for publication. Dr. Perin was
the founder of the Franklin Square House for Girls in Boston, a home-hotel
from which 70,000 girls, most of whom Dr. Perin knew personally, have gone
forth all over these United States. His death at the end of 1921 was felt
by thousands of people as a personal loss. He left, in the manuscript of
this book, the best and simplest volume I know of on what is generally
called autosuggestion. And I have examined a great many books of the
sort.
Discarding all extreme claims, Dr. Perin says in the first place that the
mind can heal; that it may not be able to heal alone; that obviously no
form of healing can be successful without a favourable mental state; that
the favourable mental state can usually be acquired by the sincere and
conscious effort of the sufferer. This effort should take the form of
certain affirmations.
It is at this point that the ordinary book on autosuggestion breaks
down--so far as any practical usefulness is concerned. Either it
degenerates into a purely technical treatise or it becomes lost in a
mysticism which is to the average reader incomprehensible. What has long
been needed has been a book like _Self-Healing Simplified_, readable by
the ordinary person who has his own troubles to contend with and who knows
not how to contend with them; who is willing to believe that he can do his
part by cheerful resolutions and faith toward getting well, but who has no
idea what to do.
Dr. Perin tells him _what_ to do, _what_ to say, _what_ to think and how
to order his daily life. Actually Dr. Perin does much more than this; his
own confidence and personal success inspire confidence and give the
impulsion toward one's own personal success. However, excellent as the
book might be, it would be worthless if it were not clearly and simply
expressed. It is. I remember no book of the kind so direct and so lucid.
=vi=
It is a pleasure to feel that his new book, _Poets and Puritans_,
introduces T. R. Glover to a wider audience. The author of _The Pilgrim_,
_Essays on Religion_, _The Nature and Purpose of a Christian Society_,
_Jesus in the Experience of Man_ and _The Jesus of History_ is a scholar
and somewhat of a recluse whom one finds after much groping about dim
halls at Cambridge. A highly individual personality! It is this
personality, though, that makes the fascination of _Poets and Pilgrims_--a
volume of studies in which the subjects are Spenser, Milton, Evelyn,
Bunyan, Boswell, Crabbe, Wordsworth and Carlyle. Mr. Glover notes at the
foot of the table of contents: "An acute young critic, who saw some of the
proofs, has asked me, with a hint of irony, whether Evelyn and Boswell
were Puritans or Poets. Any reader who has a conscience about the matter
must omit these essays." There you have the flavour of the man! It is
expressed further in the short preface of _Poets and Puritans_:--
"Wandering among books and enjoying them, I find in a certain sense that,
the more I enjoy them, the harder becomes the task of criticism, the less
sure one's faith in critical canons, and the fewer the canons themselves.
Of one thing, though, I grow more and more sure--that the real business of
the critic is to find out what is right with a great work of art--book,
song, statue, or picture--not what is wrong. Plenty of things may be
wrong, but it is what is right that really counts. If the critic's work is
to be worth while, it is the great element in the thing that he has to
seek and to find--to learn what it is that makes it live and gives it its
appeal, so that, as Montaigne said about Plutarch, men 'cannot do without'
it; why it is that in a world, where everything that can be 'scrapped' is
'scrapped,' is thrown aside and forgotten, this thing, this book or
picture, refuses to be ignored, but captures and charms men generations
after its maker has passed away.
"With such a quest a man must not be in a hurry, and he does best to
linger in company with the great men whose work he wishes to understand,
and to postpone criticism to intimacy. This book comes in the end to be a
record of personal acquaintances and of enjoyment. But one is never done
with knowing the greatest men or the greatest works of art--they carry you
on and on, and at the last you feel you are only beginning. That is my
experience. I would not say that I know these men, of whom I have written,
thoroughly--a man of sense would hardly say that, but I can say that I
have enjoyed my work, and that, whatever other people may find it, to me
it has been a delight and an illumination."
Another welcome book is E. V. Lucas's _Giving and Receiving_, a new volume
of essays. Since the appearance of _Roving East and Roving West_, Mr.
Lucas has been looking back at America from London with its fogs and
(yes!) its sunshine. The audience for his new book will include not only
those readers he has had for such volumes in the past but all those
personal friends that he made in a visit that took him from California to
the Battery.