Books

...Membres et Ceintures des Vertebres Tetrapodes, by L. Vialleton (Paris: Gaston Doin) does not seem a hopeful title, and indeed the first and most considerable section of the book is wholly unintelligible save by experts in vertebrate morphology...

...An Alphabet of the Altar, by E. Vincent Wareing...

...With the addition of Heredity and Environment, by E. G. Conklyn (New York: Princeton University Press...

...New York: The Century Company...

...it is needed just now, especially by students...

...And there were other and minor characters whose names will occur to students of the time...

...1923), and Convergence in Evolution, by A. Willey (London: Murray...

...The Beginnings of Science, by E. J. Menge (Boston: Badger...

...Last of all, one cannot omit that bizarre character, Blanco White, ex-priest, quondam Anglican parson, finally Unitarian minister, the author of what many think the greatest sonnet in the English language...

...but the section will be incomplete without Mendel and His Principles of Heredity, by W. Bateson (London: Cambridge University Press...

...2.00...

...Thoughts of a Catholic Anatomist, by the late Thomas Dwight (New York: Longmans, Green and Company...

...There is no folly greater than over-shooting a good mark...

...Darwinism Today, by Vernon L. Kellogg (New York: Henry Holt and Company...

...Canary Dutch HERE is a play written and acted by Willard Mack...

...At least the man who has mastered these books can scarcely find himself at a loss in any discussion of the question...

...Froude, on his death-bed, said that if he were asked—as a certain thief is said to have been— what good deed he had done during his life, he would name that as his most useful action...

...1908) is a most valuable book of reference as it gives a brief biography of the persons concerned in this controversy...

...And I wonder how many today have read his Historic Doubts as to Napoleon Bonaparte, one of the most brilliant and biting pieces of satire ever penned, and wonderfully adaptable to the modernists of this moment, who, being modernists, have probably never heard of such a piece of ancient learning...

...The book by Haeckel still does great harm with the imperfectly educated, and it is well to remember that there was a sixpenny edition of the reply...

...The late Father Gerard, S.J., was the author of a number of bright and simple criticisms of evolutionary writings, which none the less were very searching...

...I say acted by Mr...

...Le Darwinisme au Point de Vue de l'Orthodoxie Catholique (Brussels: Vromant...

...I say this with real regret—because there are few playhouses in New York where good taste usually attains a higher level and maintains it than at the Neighborhood...

...Holland has no patience with the theory, so promulgated by some sentimental historians, that the empire fell because Christianity had weakened its ancient fibre, and is not inclined to range himself with those who seek the main reasons for the collapse in the economic field...

...1918) is a good simple account by a competent authority...

...As a general compendium, perhaps out of very many might be chosen Outlines of Evolutionary Biology, by A. Dendy (London: Constable...

...I suppose no one now ever reads Whateley's Logic...

...Bertram C. A. Windle...

...In general, this is a play patterned after They Knew What They Wanted, and the part of Kate has a distressingly close resemblance to that of Amy, in which Pauline Lord made so marked a sensation last year...

...6 d. 1 N its present form, an Alphabet of the Altar invites, as the author says—"and may perhaps evoke, constructive criticism...

...For a whole-hearted treatment from the extreme materialistic standpoint, The Organism as a Whole, by the late J. Loeb, (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons...

...They are published by the Catholic Truth Society of England, and the most important is Evolutionary Philosophy and Common Sense...

...She finds herself projected into a tense struggle with her father-in-law, a mordant personality to whom everyone must submit...

...If you like this kind of play in which a rather helpless old man is buffeted about by fortune, and in which the ultimate happy ending is inevitable from the first five minutes on, you will find Canary Dutch good entertainment of its kind...

...The Mud Turtle THIS unappetizing title adorns a play of rather snatchy merit, dealing with the trials of a young waitress who marries into a French Canadian household of northern Minnesota...

...1921...

...London: Harding and More...

...In the writings of Salvianus, Bishop of Marseilles—a somewhat obscure author of the fifth century—which he uses as the text of his article, Mr...

...1912...

...It is not easy reading, but then that is, and must be, true of most close pieces of criticism...

...and no one could imagine two persons less alike than Disraeli, as I remember him in his old age, and his former playmate...

...As editions of this are constantly appearing, the last should be asked for...

...The Dublin Review for July, August and September, is an eloquent body of interesting papers...

...Canary Dutch follows the formula set for The Music Master and all subsequent German dialect plays...

...The Genesis of Species, by St...

...It is not only a piece of criticism which seriously troubled Darwin and his supporters, but it has stood, and some of its contentions are generally conceded today...

...That there have always been opponents of the Darwinian hypothesis everybody knows, and its author's special thesis of natural selection has been totally abandoned by some, and holds with hardly any the high position which it once occupied...

...But the second part—Critique Morphologique du Transformisme—is a study which cannot be left out when the theory is under discussion...

...You have presented in an attractive way a conclusive proof of the fallacy of the evolutionary hypothesis as applied to man...

...1925) both of which have recently been reviewed in these columns, are easy to read, even by the nonspecialist, and must certainly find a place in such a collection of books...

...In her first study, Intelligence and Proteus, she distinguishes the intelligence from reason and logic, which issue dictates and enunciates laws and argues that —"Intelligence is rather irresponsible and, one might add, cannot help being so because it is essentially responsive...

...With Intelligence and Aesthetics, she is on safer, if mistier, grounds, and with the Uses and Abuses of her strangely named faculty of intelligence, the wheels of her style result in a blue whirl which is, of course, of an attractive hue...

...but he was a saintly and remarkable character, and what astonishes one about him is, that with his amazing abilities and extraordinarily early flowering, he did not achieve fame—perhaps he had no desire to do so...

...This is meant to be a play of considerable power, but'unfortunately it falls far short of the mark set in the author's mind...

...There is no rival to this as a simple but truly scientific exposition of the subject...

...a question very hotly contested today...

...New York: E. P. Dutton and Company, $1.00...

...Mack with a plethora of sentiment and a frank appeal to the tear ducts...

...I have tried to, but it is a most arid work...

...Two great works by Father Wasmann must by no means be omitted—Modern Biology and the Theory of Evolution (Kegan Paul...

...When we read this book the thought comes to us—who influenced Newman most...

...Newman sees these things with perfect clearness and makes them obvious to his readers with equal lucidity...

...Whateley, by the way, was just a little bit of a modernist himself, and hating Catholics and Evangelicals with an almost equal fervor, went to live 486 THE COMMONWEAL September 23, 1925 in Ireland, which at that time contained none but those two varieties of mankind...

...The Theory of Evolution, by Karl Frank, S.J...

...J\ LITTLE book of Bergsonian trifling comes from the author of Vital Lies, Satan the Master, and other works of rather aesthetical legerdemain that have given a certain reputation to Vernon Lee...

...1919) is not easy reading, but it contains the account of the profoundly important experiments on the breeding of the fruit-fly, and the bearing which they have on the question indicated in the title...

...A translation in English, published both in New York and in London, by Canon Henry de Dorlodot, is as important a work as any alluded to, and no one should discuss the evolution question from the Catholic standpoint who has not mastered what the erudite professor of palaeontology in the Catholic University of Louvain has to say on the subject...

...Miss Helen MacKellar makes Kate plausible enough in spite of a dubious motivation and a plot that hinges too entirely on the unbelievably domineering character of the father-in-law...

...BOOKS BOOKS ON EVOLUTION IT IS wholly impossible to indicate a tithe of the books which have been published on this subject which is so much before the public today but the following will at least provide a selection from which all the angles of evolution can be examined...

...Nor that of Hurrell Froude—a man forgotten today, who died young but not before he had graven himself on the memories of his friends...

...I am not sure, with judicious skipping I found them quite readable, far more readable than Nemesis of Faith, written by his brother, James Anthony, which cost its luckless writer a professorship...

...At least we can say that in returning to this type of play, Mr...

...Letters of Louise Imogen Guiney are valuable and charming matter in any appreciation of our great poet, whom we are only beginning to value at her real worth as a lofty, faithful, and divinelywhimsical soul...

...Well...

...1871), is a book long out of print, but still to be obtained, which certainly should be in the possession of any student of the subject...

...Price $2.15 postpaid THE STRATFORD COMPANY BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS BRIEFER MENTION Proteus, by Vernon Lee...

...It ought to have a great influence with the students who are so likely to be misled by the manner in which teachers present as if true the unsupported hypothesis that makes man a blood relative of every other form of life...

...The book deals mainly with Newman as a literary personage, as one of the greatest masters, not only of the English language, but as a permanent influence in literature...

...Serious students must also have his Life and Letters, as well as those of Huxley and Wallace to complete this part of the section...

...Yet there can be no kind of doubt as to the influence that Whateley had upon Newman's development...

...Some of the letters of this alphabet are followed by verses that are of an instructive nature, and others of a simple spiritual uplift...

...1911) we may call the general section tolerably complete...

...And the major hypothesis of transformism, or evolution, as it is commonly called, has always had its opponents, though none of them so far have endeavored to set up a rival hypothesis...

...The first person of real note who had, was Whateley, a Fellow of Oriel, as was Newman...

...The Physical Basis of Heredity, by T. H. Morgan (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company...

...1916) should be read, and for serious and most valuable criticism, two books by T. H. Morgan—Evolution and Adaptation (New York: The Macmillan Company...

...Cardinal Newman, by Bertram Newman...

...1911) is known to many, and should be read by all Catholic students...

...1913) written by one of Father Wasmann's pupils, should be added to the list...

...George O'Neil is a contributor of verse and critical essays to current periodicals...

...But Kate, the waitress, is not the kind to submit...

...Further, it was not only the object of unjust and even blunder-headed attack by Huxley, but it was the first work to show what the bearing of the theory upon Catholic teaching really was, and to inaugurate the apparently unending discussion as to what Saint Augustine did, or did not, mean by his celebrated Rationes Seminales...

...Not everyone understands what the Oxford of that day—centuries removed from that of today—was, still less what the position of things in the Anglican establishment then was...

...The part of the aged convict who comes back into the world after serving a term for counterfeiting, is ably handled by Mr...

...In September 23, 1925 THE COMMONWEAL 485 recent days, three books have appeared, all worthy of the most serious study by anyone who would know what is to be said against the theory...

...The Conversion of the Norse, by Henry Harrington, is an able study of a subject of great importance at the present moment...

...Theodore Maynard is a poet and essayist, and the author of American Poets...

...O'Toole (New York: The Macmillan Company...

...Taking Darwin, himself, first—The Origin of Species and The Descent of Man must be studied, and The Voyage of the Beagle should be added...

...George Mivart (New York: The Macmillan Company...

...1896) should certainly be added for its historic interest...

...I hope the book will have a very wide circulation...

...The Problems of Evolution (Kegan Paul...

...1907) as far as its date of issue, gives a most useful account of the controversy with the pros and cons fairly indicated...

...and the occasion was one not easily to be forgotten...

...Biology and Its Makers, by W. A. Locy (New York: Henry Holt and Company...

...Too Much Folly in Grand Street THE romping spirit of satire and burlesque which took most of the sting out of the more sophisticated parts of the Grand Street Follies has unfortunately over-reached itself in the later editions of that Neighborhood Playhouse review...

...An unfortunate and ignorant anti-Catholic bias is exhibited here and there, but it is a book which is well worth a place in this collection...

...1889) especially for its discussion of and dissent from the materialistic views drawn from Darwin's writings by many of his followers...

...I heard the last discourse that he ever uttered from a pulpit and listened to the few whispered words which he addressed to a deputation of the Catholic Truth Society, headed by Archbishop Vaughan less than a month before he died—the last official utterance of his lifetime...

...IT IS now more than forty years since I had the privilege of making the acquaintance of Cardinal Newman...

...1923...

...Anne Easby-Smith, Marcus Selden Goldman and R. R. Macgregor are new contributors to The Commonweal...

...To write well for children is a difficult task, and while the intent of this little brochure is excellent, we may be dubious that some of it will have the desired effect on the childish soul...

...The familiarity with sacred things that is supposed to be a beautiful characteristic of Catholic character, calls for very careful adaptation to the child mind, which is sometimes more inclined to the reverential than to the familiar...

...And from a period even earlier than our first meeting, I have been a constant student of The Oxford Movement...

...Herder's...

...There he lived for some years on Saint Stephen's Green, opposite his former pupil, Newman, without a sign of recognition passing between them...

...CONTRIBUTORS Stanley B. James is an English writer and the author of The Adventures of a Spiritual Tramp...

...It should not be necessary to call attention to his crushing exposure of Haeckel's shallow book, The Riddle of the Universe, in The Old Riddle and the Newest Answer (New York: Longmans, Green and Company...

...He certainly had, as everybody knows, a large nose, but it was in no way Semitic...

...The author rather warns his readers of Froude's Remains (the quaint title then in vogue for posthumously collected writings...

...1925) and The Case Against Evolution, by Dr...

...The method adopted is to trace the events of his life dealing with each of his works as they appeared...

...He was an old man, and I was a young one...

...And few reviews are better than four-fifths of this one...

...1910) is certainly the most important work which has appeared from this side of the controversy, and its learned Jesuit author, the leading authority in certain branches of entomology, is preeminently entitled to pronounce an opinion on this subject...

...1903) and A Critique of the Theory of Evolution (New York: Princeton University Press...

...In the case of Newman—of any great thinker—it is always interesting to look back upon those who built him up, or rather helped him to build himself up...

...Scott was a truly remarkable character though there are very, very few today who could tell you a single fact about him, and his influence must have been important...

...1907...

...Evolution and Dogma, by J. A. Zahm (Chicago...

...In his short life, Hurrell Froude influenced Newman profoundly, and perhaps as much by making him known to Keble as in any other way...

...Further must be added Darwinism, by A. R. Wallace (New York: The Macmillan Company...

...Belasco, the producer, is rendering a better service than in the unfortunate material with which he sprayed Broadway last year...

...Blanco White is nearly forgotten, but no one can doubt that the long evenings when he and Newman played the violin together (an instrument at which they were both adepts) had their influence...

...He, at any rate, had no influence on Newman...

...Holland finds abundant testimony that Rome fell because moral disintegration had gone too far for the Christian religion to transform it in the comparatively short time before the barbarian inroads...

...1909) in which are given translations of Mendel's classical papers as well as a very full account of the whole subject...

...he had been a convert for some forty years, and I some forty days, perhaps...

...The individual child should be studied in this matter...

...The author very naturally does not mention Thomas Scott of Aston Sandford, "to whom," as Newman said, "I almost owe my soul...

...In her second chapter, she grapples with a tougher, question— Intelligence and Ethics...

...If You Are Interested in the Question of EVOLUTION Read How George Edwards "Scrapped" Religion By Reverend Simon FitzSimons From the late Honorable William Jennings Bryan Dear Father FitzSimons: I am a very busy man and do not have much time for reading, but I took time to read your book...

...An article that is particularly interesting today, when the parallel of Rome is so often invoked by our social prophets, is The Crash of Empire, by Bernard Holland...

...But what of the better known men ? It is again interesting to be reminded that Newman and Disraeli were playfellows in their childhood, thus recalling once more the ancient fable that Newman was of Hebrew extraction...

...Sir Bertram C. A. Windle, Nelson Collins, George Shuster and Padraic Colum are frequent contributors to The Commonweal...

...The Commonweal would greatly appreciate the receipt of copies of numbers 5, 6, and 9, Volume J, from any of its readers who may possess extra copies of these numbers...

...He may not, and will not, be agreed with by everyone, for he is a convinced evolutionist—but he should be read...

...and in The Church and Science, by B. C. A. Windle (Catholic Truth Society of England...

...Mack, because the play is so written and presented that only one role has any real importance or interest...

...The Mendelian aspect of the question is today far the most important, and if the reader wants to confine himself to one book, he may confidently choose Mendelism, by R. C. Punnett (New York: The Macmillan Company...

...1924) will be found a fairly complete account of the evolutionary discussion up to date, and an inquiry into the attitude of the Church towards it...

...Keble has become a halfforgotten memory, and his poems are probably read by few in these days of vers libre...

...Even real wit has its limits of good taste and appropriateness...

...1909) is an account of the famous discussion which took place in Berlin between the Jesuit and a picked body of materialistic scientists...

...It is a little book, but full of valuable thought...

...In the end she brings the old farmer to terms after many harrowing scenes...

...Nevertheless, The Dogma of Evolution, by Louis T. More (New York: Princeton University Press...