DOCTOR FOGG. = BY -Norman Matson: (Bean. 6s.):--;' Doctor Fogg
has the supreme merit of being•very'entertaining, The author has discovered that it is not necessary to take serious people seriously, and the discovery of means of com- munication with another planet, With all the ceremonies and misunderstandings attendant on such an occasion, provides an admirable occasion for treating them otherwise. Most of the characters in the book do not come out very clearly except when they are intoxicated—when their conversation is admir- ably intellectual and witty. But Dr. Fogg himself, per- petually intoxicated by the philosophy of space and time, is full of character. Underlying the whole book there is a sense of the tragic futility of most public life, but this is not sufficient to spoil the fun, or to dignify the book with the name of satire. It is merely extremely good fooling, and thus as worthy of our respect as the more seriously intended works of perhaps less talented authors.
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