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NEW BOOKS. 261 ways called Virtues these Virtues are many in number, but are all related as functions of the one Self hear them, in detail, what they are and how to realise them remembering always that they must be realised in the World and that the World is God's world. [The italics are Prof. Ladd's.] Such a reader will find himself strengthened by much thought- ful analysis ; he will be practically helped by many sound maxims, and will (doubtless) be sympathetically stimulated by the concluding exhorta- tion (p. 653) : " Hold to the Ideal and ever lift it up ; be sensible and wise in practical affairs, patient with yourself, and with all men, and with God also, courageous, and full of faith and hope ". W. H. FAIRBROTHBR. The Strength of the People. By Mrs. B. BOSANQUET. Macmillan & Co., 1902. Pp. vii., 345. Mrs. Bosanquet speaks, towards the close of this book, of the importance of expert opinion in social questions ; and there are few better qualified, by their combination of historical and speculative knowledge with practi- cal experience and sympathetic effort, to take rank as experts in the subject. Yet we think the book likely to illustrate how limited is the authority which in such a field expert opinion can hope to command ; some will welcome it enthusiastically as a statement at once scientific and sympathetic of the true principles on which social work should be undertaken ; while to others we can imagine it seeming cold and unpro- gressive. For the lesson it teaches is that there can be no short and easy road to better things, by legislation imposing new conditions from without ; that the secret of improvement lies in influencing character, in supplying people with more and better interests, in convincing them that circumstances are what they make them, and not they the children of circumstance. This is the keynote struck in the Introduction, a good exposition of some very simple psychological truths, far older than those researches of modern psychology into the life of the lower animals, to which Mrs. Bosanquet, on page 6, accords acknowledgment after the fashion of the time. The same principle is reiterated throughout the en- suing chapters, and very forcibly presented in divers ways : by a brief and striking summary of the mischiefs that followed from ignoring it under the old poor law ; by an account of Chalmers's success in the Parish of St. John's, Glasgow, as well as in various other passages. Perhaps we should make special mention of the typical history of the good and the bad housewife in chapter iii. It is not unlike Plato's descriptions of typical characters in Republic, viii. Like them, it carries conviction ; but like them also, it is a ' pure case,' such as but few completely illustrate. It is probably trie, that a man in whom the higher interests are strong enough interest in his family, in his independence, in the work of club or church or chapel will find in these a stimulus to work and save, that will bring him well through life, without recourse to charity or the reliev- ing officer. But can you expect so much character in the average man, especially when you consider the conditions under which childhood is passed by many in our cities ? Many, who answer no, are prepared therefore to give public assistance, in the form of free dinners, free breakfasts to school children, old age pensions, and such like, or a legal minimum wage. Mrs. Bosanquet's contention is that these palliatives 'are bound to fail ; that any provision which weakens a man's interest in his own independence costs him more than it can bring : economically, because by inducing an expectation of help for which he has not worked, it lowers his output far more than to the extent of the gift ; morally, to