Blessed, no doubt, is the nation or the man without a history, but blessed too is the biographer who has something definite to write about. Mr. C. CARLISLE TAYLOR, in putting together his _Life of Admiral Mahan_ (MURRAY), the American naval philosopher and prophet, must have felt this keenly, for rarely can a man whose work was so important that he simply had to have a biography have done so few things of the kind that help to fill up a book. The Admiral not only foresaw the great War before 1914; he even suggested definite details of it--for instance, the loyalty of Italy to Western civilisation and the final surrender of the German fleet; yet in himself, though the writer draws an attractive picture of his home and religious life, he was only a kindly Christian gentleman who lectured to a few naval students. This is not the stuff to turn into a thrilling life-story, yet his studies on _Sea-Power_ in relation to national greatness must certainly be reckoned among the prime causes of world-war. They set the Germans trying to outbuild the British fleet; more fortunately they were an inspiration to naval enthusiasts in this country also. Mr. TAYLOR has a pleasant chapter describing the immediate recognition and welcome his hero received in England, while it has taken quite a number of chapters to do justice to all the written tributes to his genius that the energetic author has collected. Personally, if ever I had been in doubt about it, I should have been quite willing to take that genius for granted some time before the end, and could indeed recommend the volume much more happily if it were reduced by about half. It will be valuable mainly as a necessary work of reference. * * * * * [Illustration: _Artist_ (_condescendingly_). "I DID THIS LAST SUMMER. IT REALLY ISN'T MUCH GOOD." _Candid Friend._ "NO, IT CERTAINLY ISN'T. BUT WHO TOLD YOU?"] * * * * * Our Well-Informed Press. "At Kensington Palace the ground frost registered 9 deg. Fahr., which represents 23 degrees below zero."--_Evening Paper._ * * * * * "WELLS HITS BACK AT CHURCHILL."--_Sunday Paper._ Not the Bombardier, as you might think, but BERT WELLS. * * * * * Transcriber's notes: Page 481: Tristan d'Acunha--this spelling also appears in the previous issue of 'Punch'. Page 488: Single quote corrected to double quote. Page 493: Replaced missing double quote. Page 494: Replaced missing opening quote. Page 498: Removed extraneous closing quote.