The Goldfish: The Confessions of a Successful Man. Anonymous. [The Century Company, New York.] Proves conclusively, for anyone who may need such proof, that the "successful" man misses those adventures which William James ascribed to poverty: "The liberation from material attachments; the unbribed soul; the manlier indifference; the paying our way by what we are or do, and not by what we have; the right to fling away our life at any moment irresponsibly--the more athletic trim, in short, the fighting shape...." Walt Whitman: A Critical Study, by Basil De Sélincourt. [Mitchell Kennerley, New York.] Any biography of Whitman which reveals a large understanding of his big poems of personality is notable. De Sélincourt proves in his closing sentence that he knows his subject, for it is the clearest and best characterization of the poet that has ever been written: "He rises ... above nationality and becomes a universal figure: poet of the ever-beckoning future, the ever-expanding, ever-insatiable spirit of man." Socialism: Promise or Menace? by Morris Hillquit and Rev. Dr. John A. Ryan. [The Macmillan Company, New York.] A sophomoric debate between two dogmatists that ran in Everybody's Magazine. One instinctively feels that two evils are guised as panaceas and he will have neither of them. The church, of course, has the last word--in the book. Penrod, by Booth Tarkington. [Doubleday, Page, and Company, New York.] At rare intervals we have a book on boys that holds the genuine boy boyeousness. The Real Diary of a Real Boy captivated us with the story of big little boys in a village; The Varmit told us of the irresponsible capers of little big boys in "prep" school; and now we have Penrod, in which Mr. Tarkington tells us much--well, of just boys. Joseph Pulitzer: Reminiscences of a Secretary, by Alleyne Ireland. [Mitchell Kennerley, New York.] An extraordinarily interesting piece of Boswellizing. Sadhana: The Realisation of Life, by Rabindranath Tagore. [The Macmillan Company, New York.] A quiet essay full of the queer charm of conquered strength memorable for at least one splendid sentence: "... life is immortal youthfulness, and it hates age that tries to clog its movements." But Tagore is vying too much with Tango just now among people who can neither orient nor dance. The Meaning of Art, by Paul Gaultier. Translation by H. & E. Baldwin. [J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia.] What is art? This book gives the best answer that we have read, but when the author is psychological he is wrong, in most cases. He has a rare faculty of compelling one to read between his lines, and argue things out with oneself. The Deaf: Their Position in Society, by Harry Best. [Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New York.] An astonishing compilation of facts and figures by a social economist who makes a morbid subject interesting to a healthy citizen unafraid of truth about life.