Poet and Pioneer

Mr. Henry S. Salt, socialist, vegetarian, anti-vivisectionist, and philosophical radical, has always been one of the stoutest champions of Shelley’s memory against the many attacks that have been directed against it on personal and critical grounds. He made the poet the subject of two monographs some years ago, and now adds a third to the list. “Percy Bysshe Shelley, Poet and Pioneer” (Scribner) is the title of the new volume, which is not content with the apologetic attitude assumed by most of Shelley’s admirers, but is boldly aggressive, defending both the poet’s character and principles in the most positive way. The thing is perhaps a little overdone, but on the whole we think Mr. Salt more nearly right than wrong, and commend his work as a brilliant and well-nigh convincing piece of special pleading.