Welsh Journals

The College Council has recently taken a notable step in deciding to inaugurate, in a small way, facilities for training those who contemplate taking up social work as a professional or voluntary career. Large numbers of those engaged in War services, especially women, will pro- bably be attracted to this kind of career. Many have had the most valuable kind of practical experience already, and will require only comparatively short theoretical training. The Council does not find itself yet in a position to establish a fully staffed and equipped Department of Social Study and Training--though it is hoped that such will not be very long delayed. But, meantime, it has been so impressed with the necessity for "Money — Its connexion with Rising and Falling Prices," by Edwin 'Cannan, M.A., LL.D. London: P. S. King & Son, Ltd. Pp. 66. 2s. 6d. Professor Cannan possesses a remarkable gift for lucid exposition. In his Wealth (P. S. King & Son, Ltd., 5s. net), he presented the main principles of Political Economy in a form which any person of intelligence could understand and appreciate. He does not evade difficulties, nor does he create them. Without any suggestion that the subject is difficult, or any professed attempt to simplify it, he expounds theories by means of apt illustration and careful selection of words. Of all writers on the subject he is the least technical, and yet in no sense is he elementary. The subject is beset with considerations, conceptions and laws which confuse the student. Professor Cannan knows what to omit-a rare gift. The present little book was originally intended to be a supple- mentary chapter to Wealth. It has been expanded and published separately. The general reader probably regards the theory of money as a subject much beyond his comprehension. Inflation has less terror for him than the economists' discussions of it. He would do well therefore to secure and read this book. He will put it down with a feeling that there is nothing very recondite about the matter after all. "The conclusion of the whole inquiry is that the value of money, which is the same thing as the general level of prices regarded universely, is not an anomalous or even very peculiar thing, but depends in the same way as the value of other commodities upon the various influences which affect demand and supply and that if peoples dislike the rise of prices which is another name for a fall in the value of money, they should insist on adequate limitation of the supply of money." (P. 63). This is Professor Cannan's conclusion. The book shews with complete clearness how he arrives at it. Can there be any higher recommendation ? J. F. Rees. "Shakespeare's Workmanship," by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch. London Fisher Unwin. Pp. 368. 15s. These studies of Shakespeare possess the freshness, the geniality, and the independence which one has been trained to expect in Sir Arthur's critical work. He is not hampered by tradition. Without ceremony he consigns to the dust-heap much of the laboured criticism of the old school, because its effect is to obscure rather than elucidate the genius of Shakespeare's work. He insists on Shakespearean students getting back to first principles. Shakespeare was not an inventor of psychological puzzles. He wrote plays-plays which were to be acted on a stage, before an audience. Moreover, he wrote these plays" not for an audience of Goethes and Co!eridges, but for an audience of ordinary men and women." This is the key-note of Sir Arthur's studies. He wants to find out just what Shakespeare was trying to do as a playwright," which is more than an army of pedants and philosophers has been capable of doing. However, notwithstanding his ind: pendent spirit, it would be unfair to assume that in his attitude to academic criticism he is nothing but an iconoclast. But what he accepts he simplifies. For instance, he con- denses the essential rules laid down by Aristotle into one-that a hero of Tragic Drama must, whatever else he miss, engage our sympathy. Each one of us must feel in his heart, There but for the Grace of God go I." This brings us face to face with Shakespeare's capital difficulty he had o assure this intimate sense of sympathy; and it is the success with .which he solved this problem that marks his greatness as a dramatic artist. By the careful examination of at least ten plays, Sir Arthur seeks to discover the secrets of Shakespeare's method, never losing sight of the fact that the great playwright wrote primarily to win the applause of an meeting the special emergency created by the release from War service of many people well qualified for this kind of work, that it has decided to institute a special course designed primarily for them. Various bodies concerned with social effort will be invited to advise as to the nature of the course; and it is confidently hoped that the experience gained in connexion with this effort will be helpful in planning and establishment of the larger scheme. Application should be addressed to the Dean of the Faculty of Arts (Professor H. J. W. Hetherington), University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire, Cathays Park, Cardiff. REVIEWS Elizabethan audience and one is especially grateful for his remarkable chapters on Hamlet and Macbeth. To be able to say something fresh about Shakespeare is a notable achievement. Sir Arthur has succeeded in doing this. His book oupht to prove the salvation of pedants it will certainly arouse the enthusiasm of lovers of Shakespeare. F.J.M. "Wales in the Seventeenth Century, its Litera- ture and Men of Letters and Action," by the Rev. J. C. Morrice, M.A., Vicar of Bangor. Bangor Jarvis & Foster. Pp. viii. 352. 103. 6d. The reader rises from the perusal of this volume with a sense of dis- appointment. He feels that he has been set down in a valley, and the valley is full of bones and, behold, there are very many in the valley and, lo, they are very dry. The title of the book with its reference to men of letters and action had led one to expect a brave array" yn ymdaith yn amlder eu grym instead of that we have failed to meet a single living figure in the whole volume. The writer appears to have no clear conception of the personalities with whom he is dealing. Edmund Prys, for instance, is to him a name to which is attached a list of literary works for which he was responsible, and certain superficial characteristics of style. He burdens his narrative with such passages as the following Edmund Prys died in 1623-4, and was buried in the chancel of Maentwrog Church, where a grave was discovered when the Church was being restored through the unstinted beneficence of the late W. E. Oakeley, Esquire, of Has Tan-y-Bwlch, in 1896, but no trace of any remains was found." Who cares now whether the remains of Edmund Prys are at Maentwrog or not? It is Edmund Prys' soul and not his dust that is of supreme value to the 20th Century Welshman and these paragraphs fail to reveal that soul to the reader. And so with the other great figures mentioned in the volume. After an interval one takes up the book again in cold blood expecting no entertainment, and fearing not to be bored; then gradually one comes to realise that it has a certain use in the world after all. The valley is full of bones, no doubt, Mr. Morrice has not succeeded in making them live but he has toiled hard to clear away the dust of indifference and the rank grass of ignorance that had partially buried them out of sight, and has brought them once more into the light of day. He has in some instances even caused sinews to appear and flesh to come upon them. And we are sincerely grateful to him for this service. The bones are now displayed before our eyes in all their pitiful nakedness. Who knows but that one of these days the sight may inspire a more potent voice than that of Mr. Morrice to call to the four winds for the breath to come and breathe upon the bones that they may live and stand upon their feet an exceeding great army. Then will the memory of the Kymric dead in- spire the Kymric living to higher achievements in the realization of our national destiny. The Leaf Burners and Other Poems," by Ernest Rhys. Dent & Sons. Pp. 146. 4s. 6d. Some of Mr. Rhys's poems are familiar to readers of the Welsh Outlook, in which they first appeared. They serve as a fair sample of his work, for the poems are of a standard which neither reaches the highest nor sinks below a creditable level, in respect of matter and form. Speaking both as soldier and critic, we must say we find "The Tommiad (comprising twenty poems expressing soldiers' emotions) somewhat unconvincing. Oscar Lloyd.