Welsh Journals

The Soul." Rejecting the doctrine of substance as transcendent for an immanent interpretation of this conception, Professor Laird main- tains that the soul is a substance, and indeed the best example of a sub- stance, in this sense. For experiences are real and constitute a distinctive kind of beings. They exist; and, as we have shown, they cannot be regarded as mere qualities of anything else, be that other matter or what you will. They must exist as a unity, and the existence of all of them in a unity through time (though perhaps with intervals) is the soul, the psychical substance." Such a soul is not necessarily indes- tructible, but it may be so while its immortality, if it be immortal, must be personal. Professor Laird's discussion of the matters raised in his volume seems to me a distinctly valuable one. Within the limits prescribed by the point of view adopted, I do not see how the main question can be carried much further, while to the treatment of special points and difficulties he always brings acuteness of mind, an extensive acquaintance with the relevant literature, and a judicial temper. The most radical point on which I find myself in disagreement with him is in his limitation of experiences to acts of reference to an object. This means, for instance, that a toothache is not an experience, i.e., we do not actually live through the toothache itself, but only through certain acts of reference in relation to it. This position not only seems a defiance of introspection, but raises all sorts of difficulties, psychological and metaphysical. Against these Professor Laird struggles manfully, but not, I think, successfully. He has on his hands a strange class of objects," of which the toothache is an example, which are neither physical nor mental, but yet exist. Again, since it is impossible to detect more than a very few qualitative differences in the acts as distinguished from these objects," the mind, so far from containing in itself an inexhaustible wealth, is almost featureless. A more adequate conception of immediate experience would also, I think, have saved Professor Laird, in his account of what constitutes a sub- stance, from the necessity of falling back on the conception of matter or stuff in the absolute sense of an utterly formless or featureless element. "The Rise of Nationality in the Balkans," by R. W. Seton-Watson. Constable & Co. 10s. 6d. Pp. 308. Students of Balkan history have made a convention of approaching their subject from the international angle, and interpreting the Eastern Question in terms of a diplomatic game in which the Balkan States are the pawns and the Great Powers the players. Mr. Seton-Watson does not favour this method. He regards its use as the cause of the failure of the Western mind to appreciate the subtleties of Balkan psychology, and therefore deliberately approaches the subject from the national angle. In consequence literature on the Eastern Question receives a valuable contribution, in which the author by his sympathetic insight into the significance of the national aspirations of small states provides a key to much that has hitherto been baffling in Balkan problems. The book is divided into two parts. The first outlines the struggles of the nations of the Balkan Peninsula for national independence the second records the history of the formation and the break-up of the Balkan League. By the time we have reached the last page three central facts at least have impressed themselves upon our minds. The first is the utter incapacity of the Turk to understand and practise the art of government, notwithstanding his peculiar talents for war and diplomacy. The second is the callous exploitation of the Balkan States on the part of the Great Powers, whose selfish motives have been the dominant features ofa policy that has persistently run counter to the legitimate aspirations of these smaller states. The third is the rise, since the Congress of Berlin, of a new idea which has slowly taken shape and is reflected in the phrase The Balkans for the Balkan Peoples." It has been the tragedy of these Balkan peoples to suffer the geogra- phical disadvantage of being the buffer states between the conflicting interests of the Cross and the Crescent. Mr. Seton-Watson depicts and analyses the phases of this tragedy with knowledge, sympathy, and judgment. Moreover, in spite of the demand made by the War on the military services of the author, his book has been produced with great care, and is provided with maps, a bibliography, and an index. It is a book which gives light on a dark subject, and comes at an opportune moment to guide the steps of politicians through the labyrinthine diffi- culties of a Balkan settlement. F.J.M. "In the Wake of the War," by Harold Hodge. London John Lane. The Bodley Head. Pp. 226. 5s. net. This very interesting work by a former editor of the Saturday Review discusses the very important but very difficult problem of Imperial Government. The early chapters are in the nature of a frank, almost brutal, analysis of the fraud of Parliament and Party. The writer endeavours to show that democratic Government does not exist, that the affairs of the country are controlled not by the people but by the small band of politicians who constitute the Cabinet for the time being and that they are in turn to a large extent dominated by a group of newspaper writers. All this is preliminary and designed to show that a Parliament of the Empire would not conduce to Imperial well-being. Imperial matters to-day are ignored in the House of Commons. The proposal of the writer is that an Imperial Council should be set up which shall not be responsible to any Parliament but only to the King and the People. This Council is to take over the Foreign Office, India Office and Colonial Office together with the War Office and Admiralty. The Council is to be nominated by the King and is to include representatives of the self- governing dominions and India and a representative of Labour. No member is to be permitted to occupy a seat in any Parliament. Proposals for the government of the Empire are to be drafted by the Council and submitted when necessary to the Imperial electors by referendum. The annual estimates and taxation proposals will similarly be made the subject of a referendum. The proposal is explained in some detail, and an attempt is made to show that it is more democratic than other alternative proposals for Imperial government. The pros and cons of these alternative proposals and especially that of the Federal Parliament are very closely examined. The author says that the book is intended obviously to be read rapidly." It is so plausible, however, that a hurried reading would be extremely inadvisable. The subject is very well presented and the author's criticisms of present institutions are most valuable. To all who are interested in the great problems of Imperial reconstruction it can be confidently recommended. A Christian Social Crusade." Pp. 90. 6d. net. "Towards a New Era, a Draft Scheme of In- dustrial Reconstruction." SamuelE. Keeble. London: C. H. Kelly. Pp. 39. 4d. net. In these two pamphlets we have problems of reconstruction discussed from Roman Catholic and Wesleyan Methodist points of view. The first mentioned publication consists of a series of papers on the relation of Christianity to social reform, the living wage, unemployment, rest and recreation, housing, marriage, education, etc. It elucidates the Catholic Social Guild attitude to the scheme of social reconstruction put forward by the Undenominational Conference of the Social Service Unions of ten of the leading religious bodies in the country. The pro- gramme is mildly reformist in character. The second pamphlet suggests a policy for the consideration of Wesleyan Methodists. It suggests that Wesleyans should work for an era of active goodwill, for a more definitely Christian form of Society in which the material is subordinated to the moral and spiritual, in which developed personality will be the aim of education and in which great accumulations of wealth will be impossible, and lastly to secure for Labour the control of industry. Various par- ticular problems are considered, e.g., demobilisation, trade unionism, housing, leisure and recreation, land and agriculture, taxation public ownersnip of railways and mines. "Douglas Hyde, An Craobhin Aobhinn." By Diarmid 0 Cobhthaigh. Maunsel & Co., Ltd., Dublin and London. Portrait. 3s. 6d. net. Pp. x., 132. Irishmen of To-day series. Those who have been privileged to know some of the leaders of the Gaelic movements in Ireland are aware how utterly different they are in reality from the caricatures of the English Press. In his introduction to the present volume, Mr. Cobhthaigh says Men of his race, aware that once approached the Irish spell was irresistible, made stringent