We must congratulate Mr. H. W. Household on the second
volume of his Hellas, the Forerunner (Dent, 3s. 6d.), which bears the explanatory sub-title The Glory Fades. The glittering age of Pericles, the beauty of Alcibiades, the discourse of the master Socrates and his death—here is a theme which never grows cold. And Mr. Household has brought particular qualities of insight and enthusiasm to his task. In his con- eluding paragraphs he grows gloomy, presaging the decline of our Empire from the same causes as led to the passing of the Hellenic ideal. " When the ' Mayflower' sailed, the general law of decay that Thucydides noted, gained its first tiny but inexorable hold upon us." Was it not perhapS the vastest rebirth of a race that history has ever seen ? We think the author might be inclined to agree : however that may be, we may warmly commend his book, not as an historical " reader ". (though it is also that), but as a delightful story.
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