their own time and way. We hardly think this view would be well received at the British Foreign Office. Those who have to deal with German diplomatic schemers very quickly realize that they are dealing with alert, unscrupulous and very dangerous opponents. There is, as we have pointed out, one mistake which the German diplomatist has tended rather frequently to make; but even this he is learning to correct. Hitherto he has reckoned quite cynically and almost solely upon a frank appeal to the self-interest of his correspondents. He has allowed too little for the moral and generous motives which, despite the worldliness of the world, do really count in national affairs. Germany's worst blunder in this kind was her "infamous proposal" to Great Britain in July of last year. But now the German diplomatists are learning to change their ways; and of late such blunders have been rare. German diplomacy has in fact been, all things considered, remarkably skilful. The methods Germany have not been clean or pretty; but they have been effective. She has, within limits, had her way, Belgium is invaded and desolate; but the moral account has, so far as it concerns international virtue, yet to be settled. Germany has torn to shreds every international ideal, every shred of scrip to which the civilized Powers of the world have set their individual seals. But this has as yet made no difference whatever to her diplomatically. She is still exchanging polite notes and sentiments with the neutral nations. Diplomatists who can still obtain for a nation which has done what Germany has done the utmost courtesy and consideration from powerful Governments are clearly not to be regarded as simpletons. A Foreign Office which, with von Tirpitz hanging about its neck, can yet engage successfully in polite correspondence with a

of

humane and civilized Power has clearly to be taken seriously. We may say that the German Foreign Office is a wicked Office. But it is undoubtedly a cunning, and not a clumsy Office. There may even be method for those who can discover it in the inconsistencies which so heartily amuse the British Press, and in the rudeness which is so invariably mistaken for sheer hobbledehoydom.

They

At any rate it would be well for the public to study very carefully the documents now appearing in the New York "World." They are as unscrupulous as the invasion of Belgium. undoubtedly are a breach of what is commonly understood as international courtesy. But they are not stupid. They reveal, indeed, as complete and as clever a conspiracy as could well be expected of a Government which neglects no detail and no labor in any scheme which it seriously undertakes.

This particular conspiracy had for its object the spreading of the German point of view in America. It was to be kept secret from all but a half-dozen people in Berlin. No one was to know of the German money and direction which lay behind an apparently honest American undertaking. There was to be no coarse preaching of German ideas, no obtrusive pushing of German interests. This American syndicate was to offer "news" only-news which should be sold to American editors, and should have no apparent bias one way or the other. The common charge that German diplomatists are incapable of seeing any point of view but their own is rudely shaken by the very clear evidence in these documents of a close and intimate study of American editors. Thus it is laid down that "everything must be communicated to them in the form of news, as they have been accustomed to this and only understand this kind of propaganda." Also we are told that

the "news" must be sold to them because "the American editor despises news that is delivered for nothing." Also, as the American editor is a discerning man, not easily outwitted, there must be great care to keep any appearance of prejudice from peeping through. The success of the scheme is described as depending entirely upon "subtlety of representation." There are some interesting disquisitions on "American tastes and American feeling." Don't, the German Foreign Office is advised, mention Belgium any more, or suggest that England is responsible for the war, or talk about German culture (because the Americans, too, are cultured); and there is the following useful caution concerning the relative value of propaganda which can be traced directly to Berlin and propaganda which is furnished with an alias, and as to how this alias might be effectively worked:

"In this connection it may be mentioned that a single wireless telegram sent by Corey in the German cause has been more useful than all the official reports sent by the Government by wireless since the beginning of the war. Furthermore, a telegraphic code would have to be worked out which, got up The Saturday Review.

in a commercial manner, would make it possible to transmit such telegrams through a Dutch or Swiss bank friendly to Germany to a bank in New York also friendly to Germany. If this were carried out, an enormous quantity of material could be cabled over without the enemy knowing how it got there."

Is a Government which is so thoroughly well and artfully advised as indicated in this document to be treated as a clodhopper? Perhaps these timely disclosures will check the tendency to despise too utterly the German intrigues. It is dangerous to underrate the enemy in any field. The public gained nothing but bitter and continual disillusionment by assuming that Germany was making an obvious and terrible blunder in thinking she could sustain a war of more than a few months' duration. Let us be at any rate prepared to see her not always and inevitably fail when it comes to making mischief for the Allies in other ways. Germany, in the coming months, will have to be taken very seriously indeed in many diplomatic fields. She is working steadily and craftily to-day in places where it is easier to make difficulties than to meet them.

Ernest Barker's review of "Political Thought in England from Herbert Spencer to the Present Day" (Henry Holt & Co.) is necessarily rapid, because of the limitations of space in the Home University Library, in which it appears; but it is clear and cogent, and its statement of various and conflicting views of the relation of the State to society and the individual is illuminating. Its thoroughness and fairness will commend it to the student; and the fact that it touches,

directly or indirectly, upon many present-day problems of politics and statesmanship and civic responsibility gives it practical value.

The contemporary history of "The Great War" by Frank H. Simonds, Associate Editor of the New York Tribune, puts at the disposal of the reader a well-sifted and graphic narrative of the great struggle, in which the significance of events in the different fields of conflict is clearly

shown. Mr. Simonds's first volume told the story from the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Ferdinand to the fall of Antwerp. The present volume covers the second phase of the war, from the fall of Antwerp to the second battle of Ypres, April 22-25. Both volumes are of moderate size and free from bewildering technicalities. Singly or together, they will help the reader to a clearer understanding, not only of what has already taken place but of the military and naval operations reported in the daily despatches. Mitchell Kennerley.

At a time when most of the Christian nations of the world are engaged in the most merciless and sanguinary war known in history, it requires courage for a writer to study and apply the principles of Christian unity as William H. Cobb does in his work on "The Meaning of Christian Unity" (Thomas Y. Crowell Co.). But the principles for which he contends are enduring, and even in a storm-tossed time like the present, it is not unprofitable to consider them. He defines Christian unity as "the life of God in the lives of all His children" and declares that "the way to attain it is by the diligent use of the means of grace." His subject divides itself into two Parts, the teaching of Christ, and our consequent duties. His treatment of both is earnest, devout and practical.

The essay entitled "Whither?", first published anonymously in a recent number of The Atlantic Monthly, and now republished, still anonymously, by Houghton Mifflin Co., is a thoughtarresting, heart-searching study of present tendencies in philosophy and life. It contrasts the materialism of the present day, the concentration of thought and endeavor upon the merely physical, with the idealism and the

regard for spiritual things of an earlier day. The contrast is thus emphasized:

"It is an era of the flesh and its needs, its possibilities, — of unawareness, for the most part, of any aspects deeper than the physical. Many of us can remember the day when we were taught that we had immortal souls, to whose safeguarding thought and care and profound endeavor must go. The chief question was, 'Is it right or wrong?' The chief question now is, 'Is it sterilized?' Life, which used to be a brave flight between heaven and hell, has come to be a long and anxious tiptoeing between the microbe and the antiseptic."

Clear in thought, pungent in expression, arresting and appealing in its presentation of high ideals, it may be hoped that the little book may have the wide and appreciative reading which it merits.

Professor George Madison Priest, who fills the chair of Germanic Languages and Literature in Princeton University, offers, in his "Germany Since 1740" (Ginn & Co.) an unpretentious and compact, but extremely interesting and useful summary of German history from the time when what is now a closely-knit and powerful Empire was a mere aggregation of no less than 318 separate states, most of them of trifling importance, down to the present, when it presents an extraordinary spectacle of national strength and unity. Students of literature and students of history alike will find this resume of Germanic development very serviceable as a background to the history which is being so rapidly made to-day. The narrative is brought down to the beginning of the present war, to which only a few pages are given at the close. Three maps, showing the extent of Germany at different stages of its history, illustrate the book.

THE SONG OF THE SPIRIT. Sweet as the song of thrushes after showers

The Spirit's singing:-"All this life is merged

Into my single being, which spreads and towers

Flame-like and fountain-like, an essence purged

Of all reluctance. I, the song that sings

Above all singing: I, the fire that glows

Beyond all fire: the love whose brooding wings

Cover all loves for ever: I, the throes Of laughter unexhausted: I, the seeing And the thing seen, the Servant and

the Lord,

The burning lover and the love adored,

Sing the divine, exhaustless song of Being,

Flame-song and fountain-song of the tameless strength

Of joy, which moulds and fills the frailest shell

And calls from nought and peoples all the length

Of secret space where ancient planets dwell."

The British Review.

JUNE, 1915.

O Nature, we arraign thee now
Because a smile is on thy face,
And woodlands wear their wonted

grace,

And birds sing joy on every bough;

And nothing heeds the grief of Man, The war, the wounds, the agony, The broken heart, the helpless cry, The end of hope ere hope began.

Thy heart is greater than our grief, Thy bosom wider than our woe; The sympathy thou dost not show Is larger than the hour's relief.

I rest me in thine arms secure; Come what death may to me

mine,

Thou art undying and divine; All that I live for shall endure. F. W. Bourdillon.

The Spectator.

FROLIC.

The children were shouting together
And racing along the sands,
A glimmer of dancing shadows,
A dovelike flutter of hands.

or

The stars were shouting in heaven,
The sun was chasing the moon:
The game was the same as the chil-
dren's,

They danced to the self-same tune.

The whole of the world was merry, One joy from the vale to the height, Where the blue woods of twilight en circled

The lovely lawns of the light.

A. E.