Books: The Good Life

A PREFACE TO MORALS—Walter Lippmann—Macmillan ($2.50).

MID-CHANNEL—An American Chronicle—Ludwig Lewisohn—Harpers ($3.50).

In the chorus of U. S. philosophizing, somewhere between the deep notes of John Dewey and the loud guggling of the Menckens, two voices are raised—Walter Lippmann's, young and clear, Ludwig Lewisohn's, old and sad. The two have much in common. As Jews, both men can claim rich philosophical heritage. As conscious Americans, both incline to intense modernism. As intellectuals, both prescribe an adaptation of Greek philosophy.

"I want God—the absolute," says Mr.

Lewisohn. "There is none. Very well.

Then something to take his place: permanent values somehow embodied and so to be served." Embodied...