PROFESSOR DEVINE'S "Misery and its Causes," like
Professor Patten's "New Basis of Civilization," with
which this series began, attempts to articulate a new
social philosophy, pragmatic, economic, and socially
adaptable to the existing conditions of American life.
Both volumes contain in substance the Kennedy lec-
tures for the year of their respective publication, as pre-
pared for the School of Philanthropy on a foundation
made possible through the generosity of Mr. John S.
Kennedy, for the express purpose of creating a literature
of social work which shall guide, inspire, and make more
efficient the busy practical worker who must replenish
from time to time the sources of his energies in order to
serve with power.

With fascinating realism, with astonishing concen-
tration, with the keenest insight and interpretation of
the results of an unusually rich, deep, and varied per-
sonal experience, and with a charm of style and a per-
fectly irresistible optimism in treating some of the
saddest facts of human life, Professor Devine has placed

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