SUNDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1923 THE MICHIGAN DAILY P,GE FIVE
Books an Writers
THE NUPTIAL FLIG T By iar problem story, designed to force hone ries a crook, who despoils and then but it is one which offers in convenient
Lee Masters. Bon &'Liverght 19,3. some thesis nd spread propaganda. deserts her. More ignorance, artifi- form a dea1 of inormation that we are
$2.50. Mr. Maters knows too much to waste iaity, and disaster, with the woman apt to want. For the person who
Here is a novel that is bound to his time with that sort of thing, which the victim instead of the man. ' wisto apply the discoveries which
cause much argument, probably much has, but the slenderest chance of be- The case of the grandson is more e1"t and his associates have made,
in-g real art. He states a general idea, npathetic. Alfred Houghton is a musi-as well as to avoid some of their er-
heated argument, involving dscus-,th idea which ferms the background clan, an idealist, a lover of all that is ros, i't is worth while.
sions of psychology, morse, sociology, of the book and nolded the selection beautiful. Ite marries an old woman,
and philosophies of life. Yet it is not a tof characters. Then tee lets these a sex-greedy parasite, who destroys A HISTORY OF TlE GREEK PEO-
characters work out their lives as hu- him with a thoroughness that would PLE (821-1921), by William Miler.
man beings, contradicting the "thesis" tave excited the envy of the dead E. P. Dutton Co. 1923. $2.40.
where life makes them contradict, and :Fanny. W ith an insatiable appetite, "I a man has no freedom to fight
bear ig it out where and when they and a malice toward all that is beauti- for at home,
must. ful and idealistic, the old wife drains Let him combat for that of his
The story is of the failures in love her husband of vitality and spirit. He neighbors;
of the son and two grandchildren of loses his ability to play, becomes en- Let him think of the glory of Greece
William and Nancy Houghton, two ervated and hopeless; his wife ridi- and of Rome
pionecrs from Kentucky who settled cules himi aend turns to a new lover! And get knocked on the head for his
in Illinois before the 50's. William who possesses the vigor which her labors.'
and Nancy have no failures; they husband has lost. The parasite de- So wrote Byron, and followed his
*. grew up in an Eden, where things stryer has no time for pity. own advice. But others, who followed
sseemed as things were, and a man and What are the main ideas of the it for a while became tired of the job,
his wife-had common interests from story? The biggest of them is that and disappointed with the nation of
the very nature of their existence. love, depending solely on sex, is a their benevolences. Most of them de-
They wished much for their children, blind force ruling human life with parted for lands that were cleaner
but reckoned without the new civili- neither reason nor kindness. A fewy and safer, leaving the newly freed
zation. The son, neither a student people escape its disasters-the true Greece to the tender mercies of the
nor a farmer, failed at both occupa- artists, perhaps, who love without too politicians. Those worthies proceeded
tions, and while he was hanging great responsibility, but with much to cut the country on one side and
around waiting for sf-adjusteent, grace; the reflective philosopher, who another until there was little of value
fell in love with a beautiful woman combines emotion with intelligence; left; then their descendants con-
'from the East. They married, and the occasional pair who, neither 'plained that the nation which once
therein lay the root of future disaster. knowing nor worrying, come by ac- produced Solon and Homer was poor,
L us cident upon a safe course. For the brigan-ridden, and dissatisfied.
Let us consider this pair the son rest of humanity there is little chance For a hundred years the history of
~'4Land daughter-in-law of two pioneers.
Fanny was the typical predatory e- and no mercy; men and women act Greece has been one. of headline
Fnae, whose only possile ocupation as heredity and environment make events-murders, wars, highwaymen,
commonamema Se po ad them act, and free will is something and so on. At the close of the war
iden " i the makers s marriage. She was poor and a that exists only in the imaginations the little country almost landed on
de.ntis shoes yet he offeed a ane of the theologically-minded. Meet its feet, the size of the new territory
substance in love. She isund a man love ends in disappointment, ether which Veneelos wheedled out of the
.Smar who was phically attractive and fl-through the natural action of the a-. penny-wise old men at Versailles is
ternal instinct, or through the per er- atounding. Yet more troubles have
In eerj detail-long. nanciaily eligible; he offered her the sion and exploitation ot the sale..Of come and it is. .gut a matter of days
ipearng and success- c fthe two, woman is themare uncons- since the aedo-Ital an scrimmage
fully sold throughout she captured him. What did she get cious, the more biological destroyer, filled front pages.
the United Staes - as a husband? man the more conscious and intellec- With such a history for its subject,
Walter Scott Houghton was, aside Itual. . . ...But both are bound to Dr. Miller's little book is an exciting
from money and bodily beauty, an or- destroy.' one. Yet with al his enthusiasm for
dinary man, with ordinary brains and the land of Plato, Dr. Miller retains a
which keep iour feet less than ordinary ability to use them, One may like or dislike the book sense of proportion and unity, and he
feeligandlookingthe He knew nothing of women-had only for its substance; he may like or dis- succeeds in giving the reader a just
wa7 theg should. ,Es the faintest and falsest notions of like it for its style. Mr. Masters has and well-balanced view of .a gifted,
sentiall aector in the loveand marriage. He might have a big field to cover, and he wastes no though rather decadent people,
iel.dressed ltran'ea he. Instead he inte time in wordiness. Sentences are
wardrobe - Show ig treat her. Instead,s hei msisted short; words are short. There Is a THE STORY OF THE DEVELOP-
on takg the advantages which mar- curtness, a business-like lack of emo- MENT OF A YOUTH. By Ernst
riage legally afforded, even though tion about the book that arrest one aeekel. Harpers.
Fanny wanted to withhold them. His' H A
foolish ignorance disappointed. and because they are unfamiliar in prse: THE HUMAN SIDE OF FABRE. By
royed what little love Fanny had . They call to md the Spoon Percy F. Bicknell. The Century
drosssteel frhi;nry turnseattkedyhm River Anthology by their bluntness company.
oss & D etZel for him; in return she attacked him and force. Without doubt the style fits There are few men prominent in
with nagging fury. Walter was not the subsance. making the evidence fields of natural science who have so
7 E. Washington Street kiled; he was destroyed spirit, more convincing by its candor, and Iheld the attention of the rwoli as did
(though to the end remained a fool. the forces the more inevitable by ItsErnst Haeckel and JeanRfuri Fabre.
Two children of Fanny and Walter candor.'Whether one thinks "The Bth men put themselves whole-heart-
Phone 572-T fail equally in .marriage. Elaine Nuptial Flight" a good book, a great1 edly into their work; they set out
makes a successful match, to a con- one, or the merest tommy-rot will de- their innermost thoughts, asking the
ventional easterner who is convention- pend on his prejudices rather than his world to take them for what they
ally in love witiI her-and convention-; sane judgment; it touches things so were worth. But there the similarity
ally ignorant. He dies, and she mar- fundamental that few men have al- ends, for in both purpose and attitude
lowed their judgments to consider the two men were as far apart as the
them. poles. Fabre's daily life, and the lives
of his beloved insects, formed the sub-
SPSYCHOANALYSIS AND GLAND ject of his writing. With him all is
GiPe Your Friends PERSONALITIES, by Andre Tridn. open; he tells us how much he earned
BreStan IAs. 1923. and what he spent his earnings for;
Brenano'. 198. 'what sort of clothing he wore and
A Real Treat-- There have been two outstanding what the neighbors thought Of it;
fads in science within recent years; what food he liked and what food he
the new science (some disagree) of could buy; what he said to his garden-
psychoanalysis, and the discovery of er, and what his gardener said to him.
the part layed by glandular -secre- Haeckel, however, is more reserved,
tion in animal activity. Interestingly and if one excepts the accounts of his
enough the second fad, which is the life while on zoological expeditions,
more respectable of the two, upholds there is but little to be found about
I RFthe first. Many orthodox physiologists his daily life. Until the appearance
hate to admit this, but it seems true, of the letters which make up the
nevertheless, and both Freud and "Story of the Development of a Youth"
glands have come to stay. few people knew how Haeckel lived-
Back in the days when men argued what be spent for clothes, books and
heatedly over free will, the activities dancing lessons, and whether he pre-
of glands were unknown. Samuel fered liver-or weiner-wurst. Even
Johnson would have ridiculed the idea now it is the devil's own task to un-
that the emotionalism of Shakespeare earth similar data of thE later life of
was due the thyroid, or that his own the man and there is much one should
choleric temper was a matter of adre- like to know that cannot be found at
nal secretion. Yet today we accept all.
WEST HURON STREET these ideas as fact, or the nearest ap--

ACROSS FROM D. U. R. STATION proximation to fact which the human There are, of course, other diffeN
mind can attain, and only the uniniti- ences-of training and necessity t
ated ridicule. Mr. Tridon's book is an well as of temperament. Haeckel's
attempt to popularize such inforina- father, though not rich, was well-to-do,
tion, and put it into a usable form. and supported his son accordingly.
WE'VE BEEN SERVING TH E BEST mBa Iaayan toh ewr "1dE~e2'e'iaar
VIE'E BE N SE VINGTHE ESTMe writes clearly and to the point; he There was never any dsubt that Ernst
makces plain the point of view from .lohould attend college, and take an ad-
which he approaches the subject, and vanced degree. Indeed, the whole of
FOR YEARS states his conclusions honestly and
well. The book is not one which most American Secular Union Service
of us will want to read for pleasure, (Continued on Page Six)