BOOKS OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2836, 29 July 1916, Page 6

BOOKS OF THE DAY

WHAT OF TO-DAY? - ; v - ; l'ather Bernard Vaughan is not only rV/ery popular preacher of the Roman ; faith, but has been much in the public , eye during the last years by reason of -his uncompromising denunciation of ■' ' social shams and hypocrisies: ' During the present war ho has beoir eloquent in his protests against the barbarities .-• 'committed by tho enemy, and ho is crcd- - ited witlr having dono excellent service ■ \in the way of stimulating recruiting. ' His. book, "What .of Tij-dny?" (Cassell • and Co., per S. and W. Mackay), in eludes a selectiou from the addresses he has delivered during the past few years • ,oni.social reform and other subjects, in-' ■■ eluding, of course, the war. The profits' from the sale of the volume are, *1 note, to bo devoted to assisting the 1 vßelgian, refugees, of .whom the'ro are so ' jihany in England. The addresses , and .essays include discussions of such questions as "Is England Christian?-" "Who ,cWants Religion?" and so forth, whilst pothers deal, with ."Spiritualism—Satanic Spiritism," "Marriage aud Divorce," Woman Movement," "The Fetish i ief. Sport," "Socialism and Christianity/' ;■-'ijarid other subjects of topical -interest. ; Naturally, most readers will turn first _ .-1 to those discourses in which tho war .is -.dealt with.. In his preface, Father M.Vaughan analyses tho two schools of .. ..-:jthought,■ "the one represented by. . • Nietzsche and Bernhardt, and the other Iby Tolstoi and llamsay Macdonald." , J According 'to tho former class "war is • lithe supreir* good, a biological necesy fity," tho essential factor of morality, - the religion of valour, tlie legitimate ex- . •pression of tho highest'virtue. Tho lat•terisclas, on the contrary, has no "words i. -' strong enough with' which to condemn war.. Father Vaughan contends thero •,. ;• is clearly a' via media botwee'n these two extreme lines of thought. Ho says:

We must be reasonable,'and must not ' .'allow ourselves to bo. unduly influenced r iin giving unqualified praise to or in ©xpressing -wholesale condemnation of war. To, those "who have persuaded themselves *5 that-war must be a supremo good because, . jiorsooth, it evokes noble and Bplendid •qualities.both!-in those at the front and . those remaining at home, I should like ; Ho j say that plagues and earthquakes, •| '.shipwrecks .and conflagrations, also protide the oooasion for the display of all . manner of Virtues, which make no less for •heroism. And as wo pray to bo deliver.ed:from these latter calamities, so, also,

,'wejbeg deliverance from war itaelf and its f ravages. .. On the other hand, to those who teaoh that war is m supremo evil, . ,• tiat nothing nan'justify it, and that to suppress violence by violence is criminal, .. ;-■• I„Bhouhi wish to 'point out .that it Buch ■ a dootrine as this were to obtain "universally, then there -would presently be .an end to the practice of righteousness ' • and justice on earth. Honour would go, ' 'Truth would go, Justice would go. There . would.be nothing left but what you want ■ to get. lid of—internecine war. . . ' Later, on; in the address headed "A Scrap of Paper/' the author'says: . ; Let us look forward to the day when , this world-encounter will be at an end, when Europe shall wako np to feel once . . more that sho may breathe and dwell in en atmosphere of peace,, when monster , armaments shall 'be - like a, had dream, with no further reality, when the Allied foroes will be <lblo to guarantee tonomy, integrity, and independence to small States that had been forced to surrender their freedom at tha dictation of tyrant forces astride Europe and dominating it. Oan you; conceive, a nobler work - than, that to which., we find ourselves, under the piovidenee of God. committed? > Wihat loftier or holier mission can there "be on this earth''thanHo protect the -weal; • against the strong, to uphold truth and "ihonpur 'against iaJsehood and slander, •and to build up oiice again with Christ and for Christ, on tho ruins of barbarism and savagery, His saving civilisation? There is much sound common-sense in 'the addresses "Socialism and Christian-ity"-and "Social Reform and Individual lioform," and oven where the reader may ■ 'differ from'the opinions expressed by leather Vaughari, he cannot fail to ad- - - mire the vigour and courage with which the famous preaoher seta forth his .views, (New Zealand price 25.; 6d.}

AMERICAN NEUTRALITY. "American Neutrality, Its Cause and Curo" (G. P. : Putnam's-Sons; per Whitcomba and Tombs) is'tho title of a volume in which are republished, in English, three lectures written by' Professor James Mark Baldwin'for: the Paris Committee of . the Harvard foundation, and intended to be delivered before the French provincial universities. ■ The author's object has been not only to point out to the French the real Reeling =of-the American people inwards their cause, but also "to explain to them -thft .internal conditions .which hinder the free expression of tho American'. ntaionaT conscience and will in this great crisis.? / If, he Bays, it may seem that telling the truth, as ho now claims to tell it, "reflects upon tho pre- . sent American Government, it should be - remembered that one of the great lessons of the war has been "tho reality 'i of.'the(distinction between a people and its government."

, I'.; Greece and Bulgaria come at 'once to s mind. The Frcnoh Republican Oonsti- , tutibn has been criticised in view of the •place without authority it assiffns to tho •President. Events show that the American Constitution is open to the opposite criticism, that it reposes in the President an authority in some respects too great. Such an authority may qn occasion fail to make' itself' felt in tho direction in iWhioh th« tme sentiment of tho nation. • .Would express itself. • The influences which make,, in America, - for a blunting of the sense of national honour, espeoially the presence of so' . large a population of alien or semi-alien .birth or extraction, are skilfully analysed, and tho exposition of the actual Tights . and powers of th 6 oitizons-and-tho legisi'ature, in relation to the Federal Government, is extremely interesting. Tho .problem before the.people' of the United States is, says Professor Baldwin, to see that— ; American national , sentiment and its official expression really and fully reflect the moral feeling of tho pcoplo. It may not be actually incumbent upon the na- , tion to depart from its neutrality, but its readiness to do so, its rccofmition of its international obligations, should be made clear beyond dispute. 1 . Professor Baldwin notes the great change which has come over American public opinion .upon the war. Popular sentiment is now strongly anti-German; the necessity ,for defence preparedness is widely recognised; an- intense, und, in many quarters, quite now admiration for Franco and England has sprang into i existence; the. conception of the duties as.well as the rights of a frco democracy 'has been,greatly broadened. "This," he says, "is'not a conflict, it is not an unAmerican, war; it is 'a human conflict, t, world-war—for the . preservation • anil extension of what' is x of eternal value— the right to soltgoverninent and the maitnenanco of public morality." Tho author concludes by expressing tho hopo that the war--will have drawn together tho thrco great Towers of tho Atlantis that) love justico and' tho lite of pcaco—Prance, England, ond the United States. Could thoEo .OPowers but ■ form a Pan-Atlantic teagno ' to cnforce peace, inviting other nationH to join them, a long stop would bo taken towards a more rational Utopia, and the spiritual interests of mankind would have - a permanent and powerful advanco guard. So .bo! . This littlo, book,. by ' one of thejoremost and niost esteemed 'of American scientists, should find a place in every public library. (N.Z. price, 23. 6d.) ,

"The Diamond Trail," by Tom Gallon (Mills and Boon; por Whitoorabo and Toralw), is a decidedly thrilling 6tory, in which the leading characters, some of them most desperate scoundrels, others very pleasant, honest folk, contend for the possession ,of a diamond of immenso value. The difimond is constantly changing Lands, and the way in which the author dovises now complications, arising out of its temporary possession by rascals or honest people, rcficcts high credit upon his ingenuity. A protty sentimental interest is also introduced. Readable, if not notable.