MIDDLE EAST

I confess to disappointment, for I had hoped that, this time, chance had given this intrepid traveler an opportunity to link recent experiences with world affairs. ""Middle East"" to me conveyed modern scenes of struggle- his maps showed places that had been headlined. But he makes no attempt to merge the patterns, and after all, why should he. What he shows is of more lasting fame,- the Oasis of Siwa, Alexandria and Cairo, Luxor, monasteries, deserts, pyramids, tombs; Jerusalem and Bethlehem; Baghdad, the site of Babylon; the trail of St. Paul; Turkey old and new; and the glory that was Greece. Morton invests his travel books with his ineffable spirit.