The circulation of this book will probably depend upon the number of men and women who are in search of a religion; not of a new religion, but of the oldest religion, made applicable and applied to personal, social and political life. The second part of the book is prefaced by a letter of Tolstoy’s to the author, endorsing his view of life.
The allegories which form the first part show how in ordinary life, as Olive Schreiner puts it, greatness is to take the common things of life and to walk truly among them; happiness is a great love and much serving; holiness is an infinite compassion for others.
There is an introduction by Ernest Howard Crosby, which is a complete sketch in itself.
Through Field and Fallow.
A Choice Collection of Original Poems.
By JEAN HOOPER PAGE.
CLOTH, GILT TOP, $1.00.
It is not always the brilliant work which appeals to us most keenly. Sarcasm and rhetoric have their place, but the book that lies on the desk and is found in the mending-basket is the book, nine times out of ten, that deals with everyday life and sweeps across the strings of the heart. While Mrs. Page’s work, “Through Field and Fallow,” often touches the subtle minor chords, it invariably swells to the triumphant major and rings clear and true in the sweetness of undying hope and unquenchable faith.
Much of Mrs. Page’s work has appeared first in our great daily newspapers, but its life has been less ephemeral than theirs. Here and there a woman has treasured some bit in her scrap book; a man has clipped a verse and put it away in the drawer of his desk marked “private.” Sooner or later in this little volume the reader will find the poem that was written for him.