BENEDETTO CROCE: AN INTRODUCTION TO HIS PHILOSOPHY. By Raffaello Piccoli. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Company. 1922. Pp. 315. Croce's theory of art has for some years been a storm-centre in American literary criticism. The opponents of the Italian philosopher have been almost as unreasonable as his adherents, and neither side has made much effort to understand his system and its implications. The result has been general condemnation or unstinted praise. To some extent this state of affairs is pardonable, for Croce's theory of art, as well as his philosophy as a whole, is full of pitfalls. Its abstract and somewhat perverse terminology and its ultra-idealistic tendencies have combined to make it obscure. It is, therefore, gratifying to be able to point to Mr. Piccoli's study of Croce as a book that fills a gap in our store of information. One other careful exposition of Croce's work is accessible in English, namely H. Wildon Carr's The Philosophy of B. Croce (London, 1917). The latter book is, however, both more technical and less comprehensive than that of Mr. Piccoli. Croce's philosophy is exceedingly personal; that is to say, it is based very largely on introspection. For this reason a study of the gradual unfolding of the philosopher's ideas is of especial importance. Such a study Mr. Piccoli, as an Italian by birth and as a former pupil of Croce's, has been able to give us. The writer has given us a sympathetic exposition rather than a criticism. Only now and then does he hint at dissent. This is perhaps as it ought to be, for what we need first of all is a thorough understanding of Croce's ideas. That this system of thought offers us a complete and satisfactory theory of art and criticism, I, for one, do not believe; but I do believe that Croce is an exceedingly vigorous and stimulating thinker, and that a conscientious study of his ideas will help to clear up some dark spots in our present confused world of art and criticism. Croce's greatest service lies, perhaps, in his offering us abundant material for further thought. It is as an introduction to this material that Mr. Piccoli's book should prove to be of much value. THEODORE T. STENBERG. The University of Texas. BOOK NOTICES BARCHESTER TOWERS. By Anthony Trollope. Edited by Clarence Dimick Stevens, Professor of English in the University of Cincinnati. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1923. Pp. xxi, 409. ESSAYS BY WILLIAM HAZLITT. Edited by Percy Van Dyke Shelly, Assistant Professor of English in the University of Pennsylvania. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1924. Pp. xxxix, 401. These two texts are worthy of The Modern Student's Library, of which they are new members. Professor Stevens's sympathetic and well-written Introduction gives us much of Trollope in small compass. Professor Shelly's essay on Hazlitt is less happy in point of both balance and style, being loose in organization and staccato in expression, but his selections are well made. THE MAKING OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. By William H. Crawshaw, Professor of English Literature in Colgate University. Boston and New York: D. C. Heath & Company. 1924. Pp. 536. A BRIEF ENGLISH LiteratuRE. By Abby Willis Howes. Boston and New York: D. C. Heath & Company. 1924. Pp. 231. These two manuals have been revised and extended in order to further their usefulness for schools and colleges. The changes in the larger text make for real improvement, but the work done on the primer seems rather casual. Both have maps and illustrations. OUR WORLD TO-DAY AND YESTERDAY. By James Harvey Robinson and Emma Peters Smith. Boston: Ginn & Company. 1924. Pp. 625, xlix. We are given here a very useful, readable and reasonably full outline of the whole story of man. Nevertheless, "All this book is really about the present, since only those events and achievements of yesterday have been included that explain things as they are." Professor James Henry Breasted has collaborated in the preparation of Book One, Man's First Progress. The other Books deal with mediæval civilization, the beginnings of our modern world, the eighteenth century, the French Revolution and Napoleon, the century from 1814 to 1914, and the World War and its aftermath. There is a good bibliography, together with tables of European rulers, index and twenty-six maps. V. Galilco with Milton at Torre del Gallo (a translation) CORNELIA C. COULTER XI. Hymn to Bacchus (a translation) Bennett RICHARD HOFFMANN FRANCIS A. WATERHOUSE XIII. Pailleron: A Study in Romantic Psychology XIV. Book Reviews XV. Book Notices PUBLISHED BY THE SEWANEE REVIEW, INC. AT THE UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH, SEWANEE, TENN. Entered at the postoffice at Sewanee, Tenn., as second-class matter. Contributors to the January Review Mr. WILLIAM ALEXANDER PERCY, of Greenville, Mississippi, will shortly publish a third volume of poems. Miss MARY BRADFORD WHITING is the author of two novels and of a new biography of Dante. She contributed The Aspirations of Giotto to the REVIEW for October, 1922. The late Dr. GEORGE BURMAN FOSTER was Professor of the Philosophy of Religion in the University of Chicago. Mr. PAUL SELVER is attached to the Czechoslovak Legation at London. Dr. LANE COOPER is Professor of English at Cornell University, and an honored contributor to the REVIEW. Mrs. FRANCES W. KNICKERBOCKER, of Syracuse, New York, has contributed articles on Joseph Conrad and on War Poetry to the REVIEW. She was formerly Instructor in English at Simmons College and at Vassar College. Mr. VERNON LOGGINS has spent much time in Provence, and has translated a number of modern Provençal poems, including Mistral's masterpiece, Mirèio. He is a member of the Department of English in the Washington Square College of New York University. Miss EDITH HORTON, of Ithaca, New York, has previously contributed verse to the REVIEW. Dr. FRANCES THERESA RUSSELL is Assistant Professor of English in Leland Stanford Junior University, and the author of Satire in the Victorian Novel. Dr. CORNELIA C. COULTER is Assistant Professor of Greek in Vassar College. She was one of the editors of Vassar Medieval Studies, published last year. Mr. RICHARD SANFORD HOFFMANN, a graduate of Williams College, is now at Exeter College, Oxford. Dr. FRANCIS A. WATERHOUSE is Professor of Romance Languages in Kenyon College. He has several times contributed to the REVIEW. 貝 ΤΗ 貝 HE SEWANEE REVIEW is carrying on the best traditions of The Southern Literary Messenger, De Bow's Review, and other well-known literary journals of the Old South, and is playing an important rôle in helping to stimulate Southern thought aud Southern letters. Its thirty volumes form a rich storehouse of literary essays and literary criticism, ready access to which is to be had through Poole's Index and the Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature. 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