"Latin-American Issues and Policies," "The Mexican Imbroglio," and "The Pacific and Asia." Here the discussion is for the most part full, accurate, and impartial. Mr. Ogg apparently does not attach a great deal of importance to President Wilson's declaration on the Monroe Doctrine nor does he consider the President's Pan-American policy as an attempt to make successful the endeavor of twenty-one states-the whole of the Western world-for friendly intercourse and peace among themselves. The treaties which it was announced in the early part of 1916 were to be negotiated with Latin-American states guaranteeing territorial integrity under Republican forms of government, promising aid against the exportation of arms to any but legally constituted governments, etc., are not mentioned. They are of special significance when taken in connection with the other elements of Mr. Wilson's Pan-American policy, the importance of which has been obscured by the attention given the Mexican imbroglio.

Our interest in the European War and the events leading to the entrance of America are covered in two chapters thirtythree pages. It is doubtful whether justice can be done the subject in such brief compass. Mr. Ogg's attempt, in brief, is clear, non-partisan when it comes to describing Mr. Wilson's attempts to keep the United States out of war, and for the most part accurate. It is the Declaration of London of 1909, not 1911; and the "peace without victory" phrase appeared in the President's address to the Senate on January 22, 1917, not in his note to the belligerents (December, 1916) calling for a statement of war aims.

But these errors and the other criticisms that have been ventured are minor. Mr. Ogg's book should appeal to every American who desires accurate and well-digested information on the events he has lived through. The footnotes and a bibliographical essay indicate a wealth of material for intensive study. LINDSAY ROGERS.

REPRESENTATIVE PLAYS BY AMERICAN DRAMATISTS, 1765-1819. Edited, with an Introduction to Each Play, by Montrose J. Moses. New York: E. P. Dutton & Company. 1918. $3.00.

A gratifying phase of the present-day study of American literature is the rapidly growing interest in the history of our drama,

long a neglected field. Thirty-three years ago the Dunlap Society went pioneering into this region, which now claims the serious attention of a goodly number of recognized scholars. During the last half dozen years in particular it has risen from a book collector's hobby to a matter of real literary importance. Within that time some early plays have been carefully edited and published separately; numerous articles and several university dissertations on various divisions of the subject have been written; in the winter of 1916-17 the New York branch of the Drama League of America presented an extensive exhibition of native plays and two delightful matinées of scenes from important dramas of the past century and a quarter, while at the other centres similar efforts were made to stimulate interest; at about the same time Professor A. H. Quinn's excellent collection of Representative American Plays from the beginnings to the present issued from the press, and late in 1917 the first volume of The Cambridge History of American Literature devoted a chapter to our early drama. As immediate evidence of the continued appeal of the subject there appeared in March the first of three volumes of Representative Plays of American Dramatists, edited by Montrose J. Moses. This compilation, and that of Professor Quinn, are especially hopeful signs, for they mean that the plays themselves are being called for and will be widely read.

Mr. Moses's previous indefatigable labors in this field were sufficient assurance that his new work, announced several months ago, would be a thoroughly valuable contribution, and the first volume amply fulfils the expectation. It covers the period from 1765 to 1819, and contains the following plays: The Prince of Parthia by Thomas Godfrey, Jr., Ponteach; or, the Savages of America by Robert Rogers, The Group by Mrs. Mercy Warren, The Battle of Bunkers Hill by Hugh Henry Brackenridge, The Fall of British Tyranny; or, American Liberty by John Leacock, The Politician Out-witted by Samuel Low, The Contrast by Royall Tyler, André by William Dunlap, The Indian Princess; or, La Belle Sauvage by J. N. Barker, She Would Be a Soldier; or, The Plains of Chippewa by M. M. Noah. Incidentally it may be noted that the series agrees in plan with Professor Quinn's book, but it is more exhaustive, since Volume I includes ten

plays while Professor Quinn has but four from the same period. Mr. Moses has preceded each play with a reproduced title-page, and there are portraits of six of the writers. The introductions, which stand at the beginning of the book and before each piece, though at times somewhat unsatisfactory in style and arrangement, contain much illuminating historical, biographical, and critical information. They throw many side-lights upon theatrical conditions, and taken together compose in a measure a summary of the dramatic history of the period. There is a selected bibliography for each author.

In the general introduction Mr. Moses says: "The plays included in this series have very largely been selected because of their distinct American flavour. The majority of the dramas deal directly with American subjects. But it seemed unwise and unrepresentative to frame one's policy of selection too rigidly on that score." Indeed, one might wish that the policy had been followed less rigidly than it was so far as the first volume is concerned, for of the ten plays all except The Prince of Parthia are American in theme, a proportion which does not indicate the actual practice of that era. Hardly more than half the early plays treat native material, and some of the best are foreign in subject-matter. By way of substitute one of the three Revolutionary plays might have given way to Peter Markoe's The Patriot Chief (1784), a piece of some comparative merit, which illustrates the contemporary leaning toward semi-classical themes and treatment in tragedy. In place of Dunlap's André his Leicester might have appeared, not only because of its superior literary qualities, but also because it marks a turning from the pseudoclassical form of tragedy to the romantic and Gothic. However, those who wish to consider our early drama as a social reaction to the national conditions will find Mr. Moses's selection above criticism.

To the student of American literature this first volume comes as a most welcome acquisition, containing as it does a number of plays hitherto almost inaccessible. The care and grasp of the field which it manifests are proof that the two succeeding volumes will complete a work of large value and excellence. It is understood that the intention is eventually to publish the collec

tion in Everyman's Library. Surely nothing could be more of an incentive to the study of our drama than the appearance of this carefully chosen series in a popular-priced edition.

ORAL SUMNER COAD.

PUBLICATIONS OF THE MISSISSIPPI HISTORICAL SOCIETY. Edited by Dunbar Rowland, LL.D. Centenary Series. Volume I. Jackson, Miss. 1916. Pp. 664.

The Mississippi Historical Society, which, under the direction of Professor Riley, has achieved a preeminence in local historical work, begins with this volume a new series under a new editor, Dr. Rowland. Of the 616 pages of text, excluding index, 395 consist of an intensive study of Provisional Government in Mississippi, 1865-1868, by J. S. McNeily; a well-written and welldocumented monograph, notable for its lack of footnotes and absence of chapter division. Other titles are "Mississippi," a State song, and "Mississippi's Colonial Population," by Mrs. Dunbar Rowland, "History of Company C, Second Mississippi Regiment, Spanish-American War," by James Malcolm Robert Shaw, "Colonel Strother Gaines and Main Traveled Roads," by George J. Leftwich, "James Lockhart Autry," by James M. Greer, and "Walthall's Brigade, Army of the Tennessee, C. S. A.," by E. T. Sykes.

The contents compare favorably with preceding volumes; but a notable contrast is the absence of biographical sketches of the contributors, the entire neglect of footnotes, and also the absence of bibliographies. The sub-title, Centenary Series, is a tribute to the one-hundredth anniversary of Mississippi's admission to statehood, which occurred in 1817. Source material is promised for future volumes. WM. K. BOYD.

AMERICA'S CASE AGAINST GERMANY. By Lindsay Rogers. New York: E. P. Dutton & Company. Pp. xiv, 264. 1917.

Dr. Rogers's purpose in writing this book may be stated in his own words: "To describe the origin and development of the controversy which was the immediate cause of the war between the United States and Germany." Though the author's point of view is that of the writer on international law, the book may be

recommended to the general reader for its clear, untechnical, and very readable statement of the principles of international law involved in the American trade in munitions and foodstuffs on the one hand, and in the German effort to put down that trade by submarines on the other. Dr. Rogers's treatment of the diplomatic correspondence between the two countries on these subjects is to be commended. Leaving out side issues and unessentials, he brings only the main points of the diplomatic notes before our eyes, and he does it adequately and interestingly, as well as calmly and dispassionately. S. L. WARE

CARNEGIE Endowment FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE.

Division of Inter

course and Education. "The Imperial Japanese Mission, 1917." Washington, D. C. Pp. 125. 1918.

This handsomely bound pamphlet is a record of the reception accorded throughout the United States to the Special Mission headed by Viscount Ishii and sent by Japan to this country last year. The record is a very full one, the speeches of welcome and the responses are given verbatim, and all the attendant circumstances and incidents of the triumphant progress of the Mission are set forth. The whole forms a fitting memorial of a great display of international friendship between the two nations. S. L. WARE.

PLATONISM. By Paul Elmer More, author of the Shelburne Essays, The Louis Clark Vanuxem Lectures, Princeton Unlversity, for 1917-1918. Princeton University Press. Pp. ix+307. 1918.

"Only through the centralizing force of religious faith or through its equivalent in philosophy can the intellectual life regain its meaning and authority for earnest men. Yet, for the present, at least, the dogmas of religion have lost their hold, while the current philosophy of the schools has become in large measure a quibbling of specialists on technical points of minor importance, or, where serious, too commonly has surrendered to that flattery of the instinctive elements of human nature which is the very negation of mental and moral discipline."

These words from the preface of Mr. More's book give the spirit of his undertaking. He might have added, in all fairness,