Evening Star Newspaper, December 14, 1930, Page 110

@ONS OF THE EARTH: The Geologist’s View of History. By Kirtley F. Mather, professor of geology, Harvard University, New York: W. W. Norton Co. NTIL science came along the earth was able—indeed, quite enviably able—to conceal her age. Four thousand years—well, maybe five or just pos- . sibly six, but beyond this she refused $0 go—spinning away in a convincingly compe- tent demonstration of undiminished powegd. A spledid show of buoyant youth. Then the scientist stepped out. And he has o régard whatever for mere appearances. In this respect he has no heart, no manners even. True of the geologist, no less than of the other gribes of this increasing body of truth hunters. Austere and inexorable, the geologist has bul- fied and harried and third-degreeed this blithe and giddy earth into astonishing recessions from Xhe claims which she so long and so success- fLully put across. " The effect of thesz admissions upon the aver- @age human is interesting. As the earth stopped about her age, as the earth was made to own up—first to half a million and then to a million years—man, the individual, began to phrink in his own esteem. Less than a grain of dust in so monstrous an involution of the Folling eons. “Sons of the Earth” is the last straw, so to g k. For when science calmly steps over into illions of years as the age-tally of this place of man’s abode, it is time for him to own up to his own infinitesimal meaning. Time for him $o fade away, to crawl off the edge. Here we are with exactly that claim of earth's Bge from a scholar whose sole business it is to Ppromulgate the truth, the whole truth and noth- ing but the truth—“S’help me!” This book covers eight phases of earth activity and per- formance from its beginning as these are now decipherable. Records made by herself, too, for, #t_turns out that, womanlike, the earth kept a diary. That manlike, the male has pried into it with astounding discoveries as his reward, and our reward. It tells, this diary tells, of the ceaseless creative energy, within and from with- out, working the earth into gigantic compliances and accommodations of which the human— after 2 000 000 000 000 years—is the triumphant issue. And, according to science, the end is not yet—not by a very long yet. What this human shall become—however, that is outside the do- main of exact demonstration. So it is outside of science—a field left to poet and dreamer and Beer. Following this record of fact we come, in the Pourse of the astounding tale, to our own an- pestral line. We peer up, or down, into the Ffamily tree.” We djscover that there were Brtists and artisans in those far ages—a com- ing thrill comes out of this kinship to our- lves. We discover, at last the “first families America”—indubitable triumph, this for the Bettlement of many scores upon the subject. At the end there is an “Outlook for the Puture.” ot strong on prognostications, the scientist. Nevertheless, here is a book that is as deeply fiseful as it is thrilling to read. You may talk Bbout adventure, about man's daring and Drowess, about the valors and glories of human THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, DECEMBER 14, 1930, Geology and History—“The Last Voyage” by Alfred Noyes— Book for Children. existence—and they are very great, quite sur- prisingly great under the circumstances of a mere “three-score and ten.” But Here is an epic of the earth’s becoming, just becoming the thing it now is, of man’s becoming that which he now is. Electrifying, terrifying, too. And this fact of “Sons of the Earth” leads to a recognition of what the scholars are, now- adays, doing to inform the average man in terms of his own understanding and interest, of the astounding activities which, under science and the scientific outlook, are coming into the wide open of common instruction, of common awak- ening to the wonders of the world. Great book! TALES OF A BASQUE GRANDMOTHER. By Frances Carpenter. Illustrated by Pedro Garmendia. New York: Doubleday, Doran & Co., Inc. Junior book. ET’'S go along with the pictures first, since they talk even better than words do. And a “Basque Grandmother” is a bit of a puzzle. We know them separately—one the comfort- ingest thing in life. And the other—well, no, it couldn’t mean that. So for the pictures. And the very first one opens the path wide and happily, “Look at the grandmother, spinning” —“Look at the cat, alive if ever cat was, all ready to jump at the moving spindle”—“That’s Manesh sitting on the stool and Mayi on the bench.” Beautiful pictures that tell a charm- ing story all by themselves. By the time we have seen them all the Basque country where they live stands out, plain, away down, high up, between France and Spain. Marshal Foch’s country, of which he so proudly claimed parentage in the time of the Great War, However, this is someting else. This is a book of stories, gatheged from this Basque lands, tales and fairy make-ups that "have grown up there just as these grow in every corner of the world. Back, now, to the print, where another sort of artist has taken a hand. Putting the whole adventure pretty generally upon the boy and girl, Manesh and Mayi, little Basque folks, Frances Carpenter seems to follow along in the trail of these two. Wise and inspired lady—for of all guides to ad- venture, beautiful and daring and free, chil- dren are the surpassing ones. So while the author tells us very simply what these two do at home, in the house and around the flelds, it is the grandmother herself who, when early night begins to fall, gathers us all—Manesh and Mayi and Frances Car- penter and you and me and the cat—together by the fire to tell us tales of Basque land while she spins the yarn im that lovely old Reservations Now Being Entered for THE FIRST COLLECTED EDITION OF BERNARD SHAW _ Ayot St. Lawrence Edition. Named After Shaw's Country Place NF,W novels, new plays, new prefaces, nearly half the contents never before in book form. The Superman of modern thought, at 74 years, has put his complete works into final shape. S — N Limited to 179 Numbered Sets kitchen. Fairy tales come first, of course. They do all over the world. Here are witches of frightening ways. Here are animals, foxes and birds that behave like the rest of us—and why not? Here are great serpents and an amazing white mare. Well, I cannot begin to tell you of the many things—humans and animals and plants and just a crowded world—all doing magical deeds before our very eyes. And these stories have been growing for hundreds of years, just as in every land stories do grow. From a larger budget even than this one Mrs. Carpenter has selected, most happily I think, such as show how many there are, how many kinds, how much of beauty, how much of strangeness. Nothing really excellent, you know, just happens. Let's see how this beautiful book came to be. I do not know—probably nobody knows—just where and how the first spark was struck. What we do know is that Mrs. Carpenter and her husband ransacked the Basque country, clearly in love with it. Then the idea of the book came. Then, the choosing and the throwing away. Then the straight and simple and charming making up of the setting and the retelling of the age-old stories of Basque life and legend. So, in substance here is a true story; incidentally, a book of poetry besides. And the artist, Pedro Gar- mendia, a Basque artist living in a bit of a mountain hamlet, accounting, I think, for the feel of these pictures, native and lovely, Frances Carpenter is a daughter of the late Frank G. Carpenter of Washington, Artist, journalist, traveler, historian, political sage, Prank G. Carpenter did much for school chil- dren everywhere in adapting his travels to the uses of public education. “Tales of a Basque Grandmother” is the Junior Guild’s choice for children, It is the writer’s first story book. One thét shows thorough preparation, in fact, for the fine sub- stance and clear beauty of the story itself, i THE LAST VOYAGE. By Alfred Noyes, author of “The Wine-Press,” etc. New York: Fred- erick A. Stokes Co. THE third, and last, of “The Torch-Bearer” series, wherein Alfred Noyes pays tribute in verse to the great pioneers of science, The first W%, Here’s of the three, you recall, gives due to the astronomers, “Watchers of the Sky.” The sec- ond, “Book of Earth,” tells the story of evolue tion in the sounding cadences of blank verse, And here, by way of the same medium, is the Odyssey of science through the domain of human benefactions—medicine, surgery, disease preven< tion and the like. “The Last Voyage” roams wide, through old philosophies and beliefs and practices onward toward the present where science, the great wonder-worker among facts and aetualities, is transforming the world and man’s outlook upon it. A goodly company and a great one is assembled here. Stage by stage and era by era, they talk together, set- ting out their views of life, comparing one with another—disagreeing, coming together, form- ing and reforming under the common search for truth upon which they are all bent. That, it seems to me, is the motivating element of this beautiful poem-story, that is the drive of it—that each of these is in his own day and time devoted to searching deep into the truth of life, into such meaning as it may have, into 1its drift, into its issue. More and more, under science, do these activities move into the real world of men—to do them good in their multifarious neéds—receding by that much from the domain of the logic of words applied to theory and to supposition. RICHARD E. BYRD’S Own Story of His South Pole Adveniure Little America Superbly Illustrated $5.00 a Welcome Gift! Who Wouldn’t Be Delighted with This Treasure of a Dictionary! delight anyone who reads, writes, or studies. Webster’s Collegiate is the best Now published in an edition so finely made it will be the choicest gem in almost any library. L For the first time it is possible to enjoy the full sweep of Shaw’s genius! 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It is an amazing product of accurate and usable scholarship.” A Wide Range of Knowledge For all quick-reference purposes WEBSTER'S COLLEGIATE con- tains an amazing amount of information. 106,000 entries includi many new words, with definitions, spellings, use of words; a dictionary of Biography; a pronunciations, Gazetteer; rules of punctuation, use of capitals, abbreviations, etc.; a dic- tionary of foreign phrases. Many other features of prac- tical value. 1,256 pages; 1,700 illustrations. Get The Best! The Thin-Paper Edition is handsome and convenient. Special Merriam Cloth, $5.00; Fabrkoid, $6.00; ther, $7.50. Purchase of your bookseller; or send order and remittance direct to us; or write for information. Free specimen pages if you mention this paper. G. & C. MERRIAM COMPANY, Springfield, Mass.