Welsh Journals

understand that the issue in our international reconstruction is between civilization and barbarism, and that means simply between civilization and its extinction. The actual development of new engines of war, the illimitable potentiality of science in the discovery of weapons still more destructive, and the ruthless breaking-down of the distinction between soldier and civilian, are ample enough lessons that war may soon mean the extermination of whole communities. Unless the world can react against disruptive forces so terrible as these, it is clear that science which has in a manner been the foundation of what is most distinctive in modern civilization, must end by destroying it." To avert what is in simplest truth, a genuine possibility of the immediate or not remote future will demand more than the pious aspirations of decent men. It will require their hardest thinking and most active service. The forces which have brought Europe to this crisis go behind and beneath the war, though the war has added a fresh element to them of the first importance. It is hard to summarize them, Professor Hobhouse describes them accurately enough when he shows their consummation in the decline of that respect for the idea of Law which was the characteristic of European morals, politics. literature and art in the middle of the nineteenth century. In two brilliant essays (iv. and v.) he marshalls impressively the evidence of the intellectual impatience and political tastelessness with which the younger minds of every country regarded the prin- ciples of their fathers. One feels the inevitability of a social crash of tremendous magnitude. And when those spiritual forces operated in a continent of exclusive and ambitious sovereign-states, there were all the conditions of war. It happened, indeed, that one Power was more keenly disposed for war than the others. The pace of Germany's economic and military expansion, accompanied by her in- creasing isolation from the more liberal elements in Western culture, forced her into more open aggression than her neighbours. When Europe realized the peril of the situation, and the error of its indifference to German claims, the mischief was done. The forces of peace and sanity could not be organized and, indeed, it is doubtful if anything could have availed to stay Germany from her course. She was in the mood to take concession as an evidence of timidity, and when that spirit has once arisen, the hour of the statesman is already passing. As for the future, though Professor Hobhouse is fully aware of the complexity of the problems that have to be faced, and the unpropitious atmosphere in which the negotiators wiU have to work, he is hopeful. Civilization, as long as it has believed in itself, has always defeated the enemy at the gate." The solution must come, he thinks, by a fairer approximation-it can never be more-to the coincidence of national sentiment and political unity, and by the transformation of the existing Entente into a permanent Federation with a definite constitution functions, armed with compulsory powers over its constituent members. The ideal, of course, is the extension of that Federation to include all the nations of Europe-truly a grievously distant ideal for the present, but the only genuine way, and in the end the way of the plainest common- sense as well as of the highest idealism. I have, of necessity, done less than justice to this book. especially to the constructive part, in which, though the ideas are current in our ordinary specula- tions, there is much incisive and well-informed thinking. Nor have I said anything of the few points on which I should differ from the authot. But the one urgent business of a reviewer of this book is to appeal for a careful reading of an eloquent. sincere and highminded discussion of the grave issues that confront European statesmanship to-day. Professor Hobhouse would render a service of the utmost public importance if he would work out in greater detail the ideas which have governed these admirable essays. H. J. W. Hetherington. Education Through Play." By Henry S. Curtis. Published by the Macmillan Company. 1915. Education Through Play sounds an interesting title, and one turns to the book with the hope of gaining fresh light on the development of play and its relation to education. Unfortunately, the title is more interesting than the contents, possibly this is to some extent due to the form in which the book is written and to the wide range of material included. Every- thing is arranged in paragraphs, and Mr. Curtis includes almost everything from the philosophy of play to the administration of schools. Curiously enough he omits all mention of handwork, which surely cannot be legitimately neglected when the subject of play is being considered, more especially as such comparatively remote subjects as school camps, the best method of obtaining land for play- ground purposes, the prevention of Tuberculosis and so on are touched upon. It is probably due to this lack of appreciation of the value of handwork that Mr. Curtis says There is no apparent reason why he (Froebel) perceiving, as he did, the value of play, should have stopped with the play of little