CAPTAIN MARGARET.  By JOHN MASEFIELD.
   I bought this book thinking to find a jolly pirate yarn.  Instead, in a
style recalling now Bart Kennedy now Hall Caine, the meanderings and
maunderings of a crew of ill-assorted sexual degenerates.
   And I wasted sevenpence on this nauseous nastiness!


THE PORCH.  Vol I, No. 1.  THE OVERSOUL.  By RALPH WALDO EMERSON.

   "The Porch" promises to be a delightful addition to our periodical
literature.  Its first number gives in clear type on a nice page the
magnificent essay which we all know so well, yet of which we never tire.
   The one objection to Emerson is that he thinks all men know this Oversoul.
They don't.  It's a few holy illuminated men of God, and I hope that this
includes John M. Watkins.                                         A.C.

Vol. I, No. 2.  June, 1910.  A TRUE CHRISTIAN.  By JACOB BOEHME.
   A most exquisite treatise on the life of the soul.
   Boehme is a passive mystic, or quietist, of the very first water; he really
perceives the underlying realities of Christianity, a religion which is so
hidden by mounds of dirt and rubbish that it needs a very great mystic to get
to the bottom of things without becoming defiled.
   I hope Mr. Watkins is a true Christian.                       V. B. N.

THE PORCH.  Vol. I, No. 3.  ON THE GOOD, OR THE ONE.  By PLOTINUS.
   We took up this book with avidity, thinking from the title that it was
about Mr. Watkins.  But no; at least not under that name.
   Plotinus' method of mystic exercise is practically that of Liber XVI
(A ∴ A ∴ publication in Class D), but it takes a deal of research to
discover this in his dull pages.  He drones on in such an exalted kind of way,
don'tcherknow!
   There is hardly a mystic living who wouldn't be a better man for reading
Gal's Gossip now and then.  I wish I had a copy here!
                                                 DORIS LESLIE ("BABY").


THINGS A FREEMASON SHOULD KNOW.  By F. J. W. CROWE.

   It is a pity that the title of this excellent manual should suggest the
sexual sliminess of Sylvanus Stall, D.D., for it is a most admirable
compliation, a capital handbook and "vade-mecum" which no Mason should be
without.  It is intensely interesting and beautifully illustrated with
portraits of Masonic worthies past and present --- there are no future
celebrities; why the omission? --- historic regalia and charitable
institutions.                                               H. K. T.

{36}