NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19138, 22 October 1927, Page 13

NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

THE WORLD'S GREATEST GARDENER. The Harvest of the Tears. By Luther Burbank ■with Wilbur Hall. Houghton, Mifflin fco. It is a pity that Mr Hall was not content to reveal Luther Burbank as the greatest horticulturist in history and to keep the philosopher out of the picture altogether. There was glory enough there for anybody, and it would hare been glory that time could not take away. But we are asked to seo Burbank as a great man, which is a different story altogether. It is a little difficult to endure this kind of thing: "What he knew was only the beginning of what he wanted to know. That is why his judgments were both profound and tolerant; he saw through men and events and movements and motives, but the incompleteness of all data caused him to stop short of conclusions." There was perhaps a shadow, though only a shadow, of justification for this in the attitude of Burbank himself. There are traces in his notes, letters, and daily conversation, very faint, but just definitely perceptible, and most clear as Iris fame grew, of something that it Would be harsh to call vanity but which was a little more tha,ti a wholesome belief in himself. The mere fact that he died, in Mr Hall's phrase, "not a martyr to truth, but a victim of the fatuity of blasting dogged falsehood"—in other words, from the effort of trying to reconcile Nature, Science, and Religion after the Dayton heresy trial—would suggest that he believed, if hd had not definitely said, that he thought a pronouncement from him "would carry weight with a lot of folks who wouldn't listen to others." But these are the shadows in the picture, and they do not greatly disfigure it. Burbank was not only a figure in California, but long before his life ended had become the greatest plant breeder in the world, and no more striking indication is required either of his fame or of his personal worthiness and charm than the thousands of people who were working for and with him all round the globe. Missionaries, miners; cowboys, lords, soldiers, . farmers, tramrjs in a hundred different countries would send him seeds, dften. at a very great cost in conifort and cash, but the truly remarkable fact is that so few ever hiade a real discovery without wishing to share it with him, or at least know what he would tliittk.

EDUCATION. ffThe Foundations of Education: A Surrey of Principles and Projects. By J. J. rlndiay. Volume 11. tfniversity of London Press.

The fact that this work is dedicated to ilabindranath Tagore, "Poet, Philosopher, arid Teacher of Boys in. Bolpur," will perhaps convey more than the bald assertion that it is not a text book. It will be used as a book, or at least be read preparing for examinations, but it is really "clinical material" served tip by. a master of enormous experience and liberal mind, who knows how to avoid doing all the thinking. It is, of course, incomplete without the first volume > but it is less incomplete than second volumes usually are, and is actually in some, respects an entirely independent work. Fbr the author both to the beaten track (of subjects for discussion) and sCbrhs it. He cbtoes to grips with all the accepted problfeiris— • co-educatioil, rewards, and punisb> nifents, intelligence tests, .."P***™*! subjects, postprimary doUrsfes, AW so Ott (including even the answer to the question, "How can yoU stick it all day long in the company of kids? >— arid he grapples with them. SO to speak) witliin the school walls, but the vfery last, thing he is looking for is a system" "The best of class teachers* he saiys in one place,,"clever as he may be in helping the members to united effort, is all the while watching each fa&'ftb individual, examining the work of one or another, breaking ub the class at one moment, white Uniting it the next"; and that though he not intend it, is the best possible description, of his iriethod in writing this boot. He is all the .time shattering the traditions and bringing tlieta together again, with such happy, results that the most technical discussions are never heavy dt dull.

ABOVE THE AVERAGE. Fulfilling. By George Stevenson. *3ic Boaley Head. This book, which is distinctly above the average; lias the following text: "for all life is in threflj in > h ?/* s * we have our Being, in the second We have our Increasing, » toe third We Lave our Fulfilling." Really it etabraces the complete idea, and WW merely the third as the title It is the story or an. Anglican' ddrttjrman's eight children and with siicTi a number, the Write• giVfes more attention to sofiie than tb BtHels, but he concentrates bhieflly on the youngest, John Bill, whose birth Caused hfs mother's dfeatk. Mr Stejefon traces the children's gradual development, and by excellent character-draw-ing makes th« entire fatally Jive: There is not a great deal of incident, ana whftt there is is treated so dispassionately that it never detracts from the book's gener.il tranquillity. Those people who look for great emotional crises and splendid tragic scenes .will be disappointed, though of course there are the troubles and sorrows which every big family has. But they will find a thoughtful, essentially English I novel, with the fragrance ahd wholesomeness of a country garden. INGENUITY. The Curse of the Reckayiles. By Walter S. Martennftn. Atetßuen. Though the Eeckavlles were SUch an aristocratic old English family, they •were so wild that, When the last of them was found murdered, most people rejoiced But of course Scotland Yard could npt take such a casual View of the affair, and sent doWn a junior to take Up the case. He did some spadework, out got everything into such a hopeless tangle that one of the heads had to extricate him. The extricating is ingenious. FROM PLAY TO NOVEL. Interference. By Boland Pertwee. Casaelt and Co. It is relatively so easy to obtain effects on the stage that we are apt to underestimate the difficulty of reproducing those effects when the play is adapted as a novel. In this book Roland Pertwee has told his story, but the book, as a whole suffers from explanations which should have been i more subtly conveyed. We have both the wife who had a past, and laid herself open to blackmail and the villainous first husband who turned up when he was supposed to be dead. , But the celebrated Barley street specialist is the only character who is entirely without reality. . (Through Whitcombe and Tombs.)