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BOOKNOTESConference of Czecho-Slovak SoldiersFrom " Trailing the Bolsheviki.'' by Carl W. AckermanNo visitor to our shores has shown abetter understanding of Americancharacter and ideals than has John Galsworthy.Perhaps the Atlantic Monthly hasbest expressed the debt we Americans owehim for his searching yet kindly criticismand suggestion when it said: ''We mustlisten to Mr. Galsworthy. If the future ofthe world depends upon understanding betweenmen and nations, we have reasonto be thankful for his peculiar gift of sympatheticinsight; he lives always in theHouse of the Interpreter." Mr. Galsworthy'scollected "American Addresses,"delivered in various parts of this countryduring the past spring, will be publishedthis summer by Charles Scribner's Sons.AT a dinner at the Metropolitan Clubin New York the other evening ProfessorNitobe, of the Imperial Universityin Tokyo, referred to the recently publishedvolume on "The Mastery of the Far East,"by Arthur Judson Brown, in the mostlaudatory terms in the course of his addressand stated that he and Baron Goto, formerMinister of Foreign Affairs in the ImperialCabinet, who was also present at the dinner,were each buying several copies of thebook to send back to Japan.THE clash between the faith and idealsof the older generation and theyounger, a perennial struggle rendered particularlyacute by the war, is the theme ofJohn Galsworthy's important new novel,"Saint's Progress." The following passagefrom the book presents one of the chiefstorm-centres in the story:" 'God's mercy is infinite, and you knowit is.'"Laird looked at Gratian before he answered:" 'God's mercy is exactly the amount ofmercy man has succeeded in arriving at.How much that is, this war tells you. Ichallenge you, sir, to show me where there'sany sign of altruistic pity, except in man.'" 'My dear George, is not man the highestwork of God, and mercy the highestquality in man?'" 'Not a bit. If geological time be takenas twenty-four hours, man's existence onearth so far equals just two seconds of it;after a few more seconds, when man hasbeen frozen off the earth, geological timewill stretch for as long again, before theearth bumps into something, and becomesnebula once more. God's hands haven'tbeen particularly full, sir, have they—twoseconds out of twenty-four hours—if manis His pet concern? And as to mercy beingthe highest quality in man, that's onlya modern fashion of talking. Man's highestquality is the sense of proportion, forthat's what keeps him alive; and mercy,logically pursued, would kill him off. It'sonly a by-product, or perhaps a disease.' "15