and strange things, it is because these move me
most. Happiness needs no understanding; but these darker things--they are
kept too much from sensitive eyes and polite ears; and so are too harshly
judged upon the world's report. I am no reformer; I have never 'studied'
people; and I have no 'purpose,' unless it be illumination.

"What we all need today is illumination; for only through full knowledge
can we come to truth--and understanding."

=ii=

Burke's new book, _The London Spy_, is described by the author as "a book
of town travels." Some of the subjects are London street characters, cab
shelters, coffee stalls and street entertainers. The range is very wide,
for there is a chapter called "In the Streets of Rich Men," which deals
with Pall Mall and Piccadilly, as well as a study of a waterside colony,
including the results of a first pipe of opium ("In the Streets of
Cyprus"). Mr. Burke tells a good deal about the film world of Soho and is
able to give an intimate sketch of Chaplin. Perhaps the most charming of
the titles in the book is the chapter called "In the Street of Beautiful
Children." This is a study of a street in Stepney, with observations on
orphanages and reformatories and "their oppressions of the children of the
poor."

Thomas Burke was born in London and seldom lives away from it. He started
writing when employed in a mercantile office, and sold his first story
when sixteen. He sincerely hopes nobody will ever discover and reprint
that story. His early struggles have been recounted in his _Nights in
London_. He married Winifred Wells, a young London poet, author of _The
Three Crowns_. He lives at Highgate, on the Northern Heights of London. He
hates literary society and social functions generally. His chief
recreation is wandering about London.

=iii=

There is very little use in doing a book about China nowadays unless you
can do an unusual book about China; and that, precisely, is what E. G.
Kemp has done. _Chinese Mettle_ is an unusual book, even to the shape of
it (it is nearly square though not taller than the ordinary book). The
author has written enough books on China to cover all the usual ground
and, as Sao-Ke Alfred Sze of the Chinese Legation at Washington says in
his foreword, Miss Kemp "has wisely neglected the 'show-window' by putting
seaports at the end. By acquainting the public with the wealth and beauty
of the interior, she reveals to readers the vitality and potential energy