Page:The Library, volume 5, series 3.djvu/104

 92 RECENT FOREIGN LITERATURE. the fatal effects on human affairs of a too great absorption in work. MacAllan neglects his wife and child to such an extent that they are killed in a riot due to a strike of the workmen engaged in the construction of the tunnel following on a terrible accident, the description of which is a fine piece of realistic writing. From that moment things begin to go wrong, and the situation is only retrieved by MacAllan's marriage with the daughter of the millionaire who took over the financing of the scheme. She requires a great deal of attention, and insists on having it. Thus Allan is allowed no chance to become overworked and exhausted, and things go much better. To accomplish great ends of any sort, effort, concentration, heavy toil are absolutely necessary, but the man who deliberately shuts out the human side of life and never rests from his work, no matter what it be, is less likely to succeed than he who interests himself in the ordinary affairs of human life, and takes proper periods of rest. The following recently published books deserve attention : Oesterreichische Geschichte. Von Richard Kralik. From the beginning to the Balkan War. Forms a necessary complement to the author's history of Vienna. Memoirs are largely used as a basis. Histoire de Gand. Par Viftor Fris. Froissart mentioned Ghent as the sovereign town of Flanders, and as abounding in everything that could be desired in ' une