Mrs. Gallichan's book is a scientific discussion of woman yesterday and today, without any attempt at sentimentalism. Her analysis is perfect and decidedly constructive. She goes back to prehistoric times and discusses in scientific phraseology how woman has progressed through the ages, and describes the part she has taken in establishing civilizations. Nowhere does she forget that she is writing for posterity and indulge in the petty foibles that are sometimes so noticeable in the work of women who write on feminism. LEE A. STONE. [The question of whether whatever it is that is meant by the word soul is immortal--immortal in the sense that it will live forever in a realm of the spirit or the blessed--is answered affirmatively by those who hold to the orthodox faith, is not worth discussing by a rational man who is informed, and is discussed by avowed or implied atheists with a fanatical seriousness that destroys whatever force their main contention may have. The legitimate domain of argument is limited; truth that is verifiable by men here and now is its only content. As regards what uncritical people call "immortality" serious argumentation is absolutely impossible. Faith, quotations, and personal desires are not arguments. Mrs. Gallichan's book is in parts scientific, and is therefore of importance to thousands of people whose religion is an achievement of courageous thinking and living. To many excellent persons their professed belief in what they term "immortality" is a kind of merciful necessity. They crave and even invent assurances of it. To such persons there is no argument against it. To persons who produce the "negative" arguments there is no argument for it. And there you are!--W. C. D.] Book Discussion Dostoevsky--Pessimist? The Possessed, by Fyodor Dostoevsky. [The Macmillan Company, New York.] Shatov was an incorrigible idealist, with a keen satirical ability to destroy his own ideals. He had made a god out of Verhovensky, the leading figure in Dostoevsky's The Possessed. Verhovensky was, he imagined, a god of selfish courage and supreme unconcern, the sort of man whom everybody followed involuntarily. Shatov knew that his hero had irreparably injured three women, one of them half-witted and defenseless. That did not bother the idealist at all; it was "in character." But when Verhovensky lied about it to avoid condemnation, Shatov hit him a savage blow on the cheek and brooded for weeks over the disappointment. The disappointment was deepened by the fact that Verhovensky did not kill him for the blow.