HALF-TOLD TALES—Henry van Dyke—Scribners ($1.50). If any man must moralize, let him be full of years and honor, and of a wit quick to sharpen points grown dull through lack of dispute. Dr. van Dyke surely qualifies under all three headings. He abjures Envy,
Hatred, Marriage under False Pretenses, in the round old-fashioned way. He assumes embattled political moods and delivers thumbnail diatribes on Normalcy, the Kaiser at Doom, the Foes of the League of Nations. More widely appealing will be the ex parte satires, which are very human and mellow indeed and written, as is the whole book, with notable artistic economy. These include: a Mystic, a Skeptic, and a suppressed Dyspeptic who called himself an Asthmatic; a Famous Author who Returned to the Primitive, enjoying both himself and the publicity; a nimble Ass and an Elephant, who grumbled “life is easier for the light-waisted.”
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