+ Outlook 126:470 N 10 ’20 30w
“Mr Beers is a clear expositor, is at ease with facts, and can make them agreeable by almost imperceptible departures from the jogtrot of chronicle. Without humor, he has something of the buoyancy of humor.”
+ Review 3:506 N 24 ’20 180w
“In his essays there is no trace of a professional tendency to carry on with the class room manner in one’s relations with the world beyond the class room.”
+ Springf’d Republican p6 Ja 31 ’21 310w
BEGBIE, HAROLD. Life of William Booth, the founder of the Salvation army. 2v il *$10.50 Macmillan
20–5263
In the preface to this life of the founder of the Salvation army, the author says: “William Booth is likely to remain for many centuries one of the most signal figures in human history. Therefore, to paint his portrait faithfully for the eyes of those who come after us—a great duty and a severe responsibility—has been my cardinal consideration in preparing these pages. Only when circumstances insisted have I turned from my attempt at portraiture to examine documents which will one day be employed by the historian of the Salvation army.” The work opens with an account of social conditions in England at the time of William Booth’s birth and reflections on the probable effects of his early surroundings on his mind and character. Volume 1 covers the years up to 1881 and volume 2 continues the story to his death in 1912. There are a number of portraits and other illustrations and an index.
“The world may be divided into people who pray with General Booth, people who are angry with General Booth, and people who turn their face away and look out of the window. Mr Begbie, unfortunately, seems to have considered that it was necessary for his official biographer to pray perpetually with the General, and his 1,000 pages of biography even conform to the tradition of prayer in their repetitions, vagueness, and verbosity.” L. W.