COMPANY I HAVE KEPT. By Henry S. Salt. London: Allen and Unwin. Pp. 218 10s. 6d. net.
Mr. Salt has the distinction of having been among the first humanitarians, a vegetarian when vegetarians were looked askance at, and a member of the Fabian Society in its original great days. He has a great deal to record of the interesting personalities with whom he has associated, among them Edward Carpenter and W. H. Hudson, and of his heroes, Jefferies and Thoreau; and, writing in an easy style into which some pungency of irony is now and then allowed to creep, has made, out of a number of disconnected chapters—some dealing with flowers, some with animals, some with mountains, some with men,—an eminently readable book, with grace and humour on many a page and tolerance everywhere. Kindness, he has perceived if its inherent beauty sufficiently recommends it, and this is, of course, the special responsibility of its advocates; they are worthless, or worse, unless their principles shine from them and have the attraction of the light.
Book Reviewed: Company I Have Kept