uing his personality. The expiring generation, represented by
_James_, is urgent upon this duty to the family. You may imagine what
Mr. GALSWORTHY makes of it all. These possessive persons, with their
wealth, their hatred and affections and their various strongholds in
the more eminently desirable parts of residential London, affect one
like portions of some monstrous stone-fronted edifice, impressive but
repellent. I have some curiosity to see, with Mr. GALSWORTHY'S help,
how the _Forsyte_ castle stands the disintegration of 1914-18.

* * * * *

What with the scientists who explain things on the assumption that we
know nearly as much as they do and those who explain things on the
assumption that we know nothing, it is very difficult for you and me
to persevere in our original determination to learn _something_. But I
have always felt that Sir RAY LANKESTER is one of the very few who do
understand us, and I feel it still more strongly now that I have read
his _Secrets of Earth and Sea_ (METHUEN). He is instructive but human;
he does not take it for granted that we know what miscegenation means,
but he does credit us with a little intelligence. And he realises how
many arguments we have had about questions like "Why does the sea look
blue?" Personally I rushed at that chapter, though I must say that
I was a little disappointed to find that the gist of his answer was
"Because water _is_ blue." You see, if you had a tooth-glass fifteen
feet high and filled it with water--But you must find out for
yourself. Then I went on to the chapter on Coal, and discovered that
"it is fairly certain that the blacker coal which we find in strata of
great geological age was so produced by the action of special kinds of
bacteria upon peat-like masses of vegetable refuse." I wonder if Mr.
SMILLIE knows that. It might help him to a sense of proportion. The
author is constantly setting up a surprising but stimulating relation
between the naturalist's researches and the problems of human life, as
when he observes that "the 'colour bar' is not merely the invention of
human prejudice, but already exists in wild plants and animals," and
in his remarks on mongrels and the regrettable subjection of the males
of many species. There are chapters on Wheel Animalcules, Vesuvius,
Prehistoric Art--everything--and all are admirably illustrated. A
fascinating book.

* * * * *

_The Diary of