OUTLINE OF THE UNIVERSE .sx AN OUTLINE OF THE UNIVERSE .sx By J. G. Crowther , London :sx Kegan Paul and Co. Pp .sx xvii .sx 376 .sx 12s .sx 6d .sx net .sx By the author's own description this is an essay in scientific journalism , and it has the advantage of being written by a scientific journalist .sx It is not , that is to say , the spare-time product of a specialist , temporarily leaving his own business of research to attempt a form of popular interpretation in the technique of which he is necessarily an amateur ; nor does it view the scientific work of the present generation - in which the men of genius are by all the old standards comparative youngsters - through eyes which have lost much their liveliness .sx Mr. Crowther has made the business of conveying the atmosphere and the facts of recent scientific research to the public a whole-time job , in which he is justified by fears of the ultimate collapse of society should it fail in general apprehension of that atmosphere and of such of the facts as can be prepared for public digestion .sx For at least four centuries science has concentrated on the particular to the neglect of the general , and the tendency still gathers momentum ; its specialisations have been its pride , and they have not lacked justification in results .sx Meanwhile it is all too easy for the plain man to learn almost all that there is to know of what is going on in one carefully segregated branch of science , without any idea of how it fits into the general picture .sx He has the excuse , at least , that many a specialist whom he feels he can trust in his own department is , apparently , in little better ease should he venture outside it .sx Is the time not come to relearn the mediaeval habit of seeing the universe , of reviewing the particulars in their relation to the general ?sx Mr. Crowther makes a wide sweep over the world of modern research and discovery wider even than that of Mr. Wells and his latest collaborators .sx Between his opening discussion of finite and infinite universes and his last sociological chapters he brings all the specialisations into orderly sequence , art as well as philosophy going to their arrangement .sx The result is creative as well as interpretative .sx As individual essays his chapters reveal qualities in the author which we have come to expect .sx Of such minor universes as the star , the cell , or the atom , of the relations between chemistry and physics , of that intractable entity the colloid , of the filtrable viruses with their clues to some of the missing links between matter and organism , he writes with a clarifying zeal and an enthusiasm which is wholly infectious .sx But , indeed , to pick out less than the whole list of chapter headings is to do an injustice .sx It is the list itself , and the fact that it is more than a list , an organic sequence , that gave Mr. Crowther his aim and gives the book its chief value .sx Whether by contrast or similarity with his own notions , the readers in search of the modern universe will find in this sketch a first-rate provocation to clarity ; and that , probably , whatever the variety of his scientific attainments .sx H. D. N. .sx PARODY THROUGH THE AGES .sx A SURVEY OF BURLESQUE AND PARODY IN ENGLISH .sx By George Kitchin , Edinburgh :sx Oliver and Boyd .sx Pp .sx xxiii .sx 388 .sx 16s .sx net .sx Dr. Kitchin's title suggests entertainment , and since he is liberal in his quotations he provides much that is agreeably or pungently witty .sx But his purpose is a serious one .sx In his own words , " This book is intended to fill a gap in our literary history .sx The author desired not merely to recount the annals of the comic muse , but to present burlesque as a serious art , a long-established mode of criticism , which is often far more incisive , and certainly more economical , than the heavy review to which the public has been accustomed since the days of Dryden .sx It is clear that the intelligent study of parody and burlesque should furnish us with a history of English taste at once amusing and instructive .sx " Certainly this is such a study , and although Dr. Kitchin confesses that the output of decent parody in the various periods is very unequal and the accent is often uncertain , he traces its history with industrious thoroughness from the scholar vagabonds of the Middle Ages down to Mr. Max Beerbohm and Mr. J. C. Squire .sx Parody exists for the correction of excess on either side , but since the seventeenth century it has generally represented " the reaction of custom to attempted change , of complacency to adventure of the mind or senses , and of the established political and social forces to subversive ideas .sx " It has , in short , been anti-Romantic .sx In the Mediaeval and Renaissance periods , however , as Dr. Kitchin shows , it was far more often opposed to the static and established , and , indeed , helped to eat away the foundations of feudalism in Church and State .sx Yet it was , also , at one time the weapon of the spiritual against the material , as George Herbert's answer in " A Parodie " to one of Donne's profane lyrics shows .sx The subject , however , is so vast and various that it is impossible in a short review to do justice to its many-sidedness .sx But little of importance concerning it has escaped Dr. Kitchin's searching eye .sx He might perhaps have included less than he has , but he could hardly have included more .sx H. TA .sx F. .sx THE TURN OF THE DAY .sx By Marion Angus .sx London :sx Faber and Faber .sx pp .sx 46 , 3s 6d net .sx Though Miss Angus's writing life goes back only seven years she has established her position high among the leading verse-writers in Scots today .sx ; and as this book ( her fourth ) is mainly a selection from her others , it is a fit occasion for a backward glance at her work .sx She is bilingual , and her English verse is good ; but when she writes in Scots it is clear that no other language would have served her for what she says here ; the colour , the music , the atmosphere , the connotation , the romance are the soul of Scotland and are all in the words .sx Moreover , the creatures that haunt her poems - fairies , witches , ghosts , denizens of the shadow land - have a more pervading glamourie than English would give them .sx And when we come to her love-songs there is a native freshness , a pure racial consciousness in the very grain and fibre of the vocables .sx " Mary's Song " is perhaps her best in this kind :sx The same melancholy and poignancy of longing mark " The Turn of the Day , " " The Stranger , " and " The Doors of Sleep , " the rhythm and melody varying with the intensity but always in accord with the emotion .sx There is life in this language .sx It is the true poetic use of dialect .sx There is little need for a glossary here .sx Miss Angus draws her words from where she wants to .sx It may not be the speech of the folk - Burns's wasn't - but it comes from her as her own living voice , too free for the facile , too full for the sentimental .sx Mrs. Jacob has written the songs of Angus .sx Here are the songs of another Angus that are worthy to be set beside them .sx C.P. .sx The Writings of Alfred Edgar Coppard .sx A Bibliography by Jacob Schwartz , with Foreword and Notes by A. E. Coppard .sx London :sx The Ulysses Bookshop .sx Pp .sx 73 .sx 21s .sx Mr. Schwartz has compiled a typical bibliography with all the minute details which mean so much to the collector of the works of a modern author .sx The author himself , in foreword and notes , adds human interest to the bibliography , and makes the work almost a literary autobiography .sx Mr. Coppard began writing rather late in life , and was forty before he first received payment of his pieces .sx This encouraged him to throw up other work and to risk starving as an author , which he almost literally did for some time .sx The " Manchester Guardian " was one of the earliest papers to welcome his contributions and to give him books to review .sx His first book , " Adam and Eve and Pinch Me , " published in 1921 , was also the first book issued by the Golden Cockerel Press , a circumstance which may have had some bearing on the vogue of his first editions .sx He had the doubtful pleasure of seeing some copies of his early works sold at prices which left profits to the speculator quite out of proportion to those of the author and publisher .sx This may have suggested placing a very high price on the present volume , which the collector cannot do without .sx There is much humour in Mr. Coppard's notes on his books , publishers , reviewers , editors , and admirers .sx This book will be appreciated not merely for its utility as a bibliography but also for its being a very characteristic work of its author .sx E.A. .sx Mr. J. M. Robertson has essayed in ELECTORAL JUSTICE ( British Periodicals , Ltd. , pp .sx xii .sx 104 , 1s net ) to summarise the history of the idea which has evolved , after many centuries , into that of Proportional Representation .sx He begins by dismissing with some scorn the view that there was anything democratic about the old Anglo-Saxon moot .sx The idea of democracy , he holds , was a Latin one and first came over with William the Conqueror .sx Thereafter successive stages are clearly defined .sx From 1688 onwards government was definitely Parliamentary but in no sense representative .sx The Reform Bill of 1832 introduced ( after forty years' acute agitation ) territorial equality of representation , and we have now reached the stage when the idea of representing fairly different points of view is beginning to receive general assent .sx Here an exposition and defence of P.R. follows naturally .sx Mr. Roberson criticises destructively the arguments put forward against P.R. by certain Socialist critics , and is very severe with the Liberals for not including it in the Representation of the People Act of 1918 .sx The argument for P.R. gains greatly from being seen in historical perspective , and Mr. Robertson's book should be read by all students of the subject .sx In COLLECTION OF WHITMANIA IN THE REFERENCE LIBRARY , BOLTON ( Libraries Committee , pp .sx 28 ) Mr. Archibald Spark , Chief Librarian of the Bolton Public Libraries , catalogues and describes , with bibliographical accuracy , the valuable and interesting collection of books by and about Walt Whitman in the Bolton Reference Library .sx Dr. Johnstone , who made the collection , and by whose beneficence it came into the possession of the Bolton Library , was an admirer and personal friend of Whitman's , and many of the volumes bear the autograph of the poet .sx The catalogue is illustrated with a reproduction of Sydney Morse's portrait of Whitman , now at Bolton , and with facsimiles of autographs the originals of which are presumably in the collection but are not catalogued here .sx MANCHESTER STAGE AND FILM .sx " After All " .sx MR. VAN DRUTEN'S PLAY AT THE PRINCE'S .sx The revolt of modern youth against family discipline is a favourite theme of the contemporary theatre , and too often the success of the rebels is presented as though it were the end of the affair .sx Mr. Van Druten knows better , and shows us the insurgents hugging in later life the very chains they insisted on snapping , and creating precisely the atmosphere against which their children in turn will revolt .sx His commonplace Kensington family are keenly observed and refreshingly authentic .sx No desperate crises chequer the six years of their life in which we know them , no skilfully contrived curtains conclude the six scenes into which the play is divided .sx Yet an effect of complete truth is got that more sensational means might well have missed .sx The father who cannot understand why his children should wish to leave a home distinguished for its kindness and comfort , the mother whose love for them is subtly blended with egotism and selfishness , the daughter whom an unhappy love affair detaches from her parents' confidence , and the son who prefers the freedoms of Bloomsbury and Chelsea to a safe career in his father's office - these are of the very stuff of English middle-class life .sx It is the playwright's triumph that having given them two acts to denounce and escape from the swaddlings of home , he finds them in the third poring sentimentally over a family photograph album at which , when we knew them first , they would have disdained to look .sx