Irving Babbitt /

The authors tell us that nowhere in his published work does Irving Babbitt mention Henry James, and presumably he may never have read him. Too bad, for he might have encountered in James's The Bostonians a satirical portrait for which his father could have been a model (Tarrant, the spiritualist father of the heroine). The original contribution of this concise account lies in the portrait of the elder Babbitt, Edwin, and of the extent of his influence in the making of Babbitt the humanist: ``In every sentimental humanitarian he saw his father's saintly face-or rather the saintly mask of the con artist impotent to express a deep-seated desire for power.'' The book has other merits: the portrait of Babbitt as person and teacher is an engaging one, countering the derisory carcatures of so many of his early detractors; and the close analyses of his humanism as ``a philosophy of disciplined choice'' with all its ramifications in literary theory, education, politics, and religion, constitute one of the best expositions of Babbitt's humanism we have. The authors strive, too, to mediate wisely between the Babbitt of the 1920s and 1930s and some emergent theorists of today. But it seems unlikely he will be welcomed by many: defining ``the higher will'' of Babbitt as ``the humanist equivalent of grace'' names him still a Puritan, albeit no caricature of one. Recommended for graduates and upper-division undergraduates, general readers. Excellent notes; index; selected bibliography.-J.R. Vitelli, emeritus, Lafayette College