If anybody wanted to be convinced of the gratifying fact that the Serbian talent and soul are vividly alive, let him think of the products of Serbian genius which have been exhibited at the Serbian Exhibition in the Grafton Galleries. The great talent of Mr. Mestrovic is well known and appreciated, but I refer also to those whose reputation lies perhaps in the future. This is not all. In support of my assertion, I must recommend to readers a charming book just published, and translated by Mr. G. W. Wiles, M.A.: SERBIAN SONGS AND POEMS.¹

I think the dedication of this book, so simple and unpretentious, is very sympathetic. It is dedicated to “All those brave and childlike souls who unto death have sung and cheerfully endured, as seeing Him who is invisible.’’ I also like the few words of the preface written by Mr. Harold P. Cooke, M.A., and the poem with which he closes it. As a sister of Nicolai Kiréeff, who died for the Serbian cause in the year 1876 in defending them against the Turk, and of Alexander, who worked all his life for the same cause, I, as the last of the Kiréeffs, cannot read without emotion the following charming lines:

“Stern bulwark once against the Turk,

The crimson-horned Crescent’s foe

Ere that fell field of Kossovo,

There greets thee soon a greater work:

“Not thine for all time foreign strife,

The future days are on the wing;

Fair drive the western winds that bring,

Dear Serbian land, the saner life.

“Arise, but not from land nor sea,

That sleepest not where tyrants lie;

Arise, resurgent from the sky,

The greater Serbia to be.”

But I would strongly recommend the whole volume to English readers, who always appreciate vividly a noble and genuine appeal to real patriotism. The fact that the majority of these poems are folk-songs, to my mind only adds to their charm. They are pathetic in their simplicity, and that is just what we like in our days of exaggerated mannerism and pompous conventionality.

This book really ought to have a wide circulation in England, and I should say also in America, our great Ally, who so unmistakably felt the wrongs wrought by the unscrupulous Germans and their fraternal alliance with Turkey against a humanitarian cause. I insist upon the word “our” Ally, as my faith in divine justice allows me to hope that Russia will soon recover her former position, and will strongly prove her faithfulness to her duties, pledges, and alliances. America has appreciated Russia with an earnestness that we Russians should consider as a noble and generous lesson given to us in our moments of despondence and apathy, when people should certainly not be allowed to indulge in either one or the other of these weaknesses. In fact, our motto should always be: “Faith and courage”—and success naturally follows these two predominant feelings.

“NEW AND OLD GREECE,” by F. R. Scatcherd, has been crowded out with other items, which will appear in the next issue.

News comes from Greece that the Bill for the Protection of Animals has passed, and is now an Act of Parliament. We congratulate Dr. Platon Drakoules on this successful result of so many years’ exertions on behalf of humane legislation in the Near East, for assuredly other Balkan peoples will follow Greek initiative in this as in other directions.

1. London: George Allen and Unwin. 2s. net.