The central statement of ["My Belief"] is made in its title essay….

Far from playing about with ideas of an imminent apocalypse, or vague romantic notions of self-liberation through "magic," or what the more scientifically-inclined barbarians call "consciousness-expanding drugs," Hesse was a deep and original thinker who prescribed ways by which a man might make his way "from the realm of the spirit to the realm of the sense" before finally achieving "the liberating synthesis on the river that flows between the two realms."…

This volume is significant in that it fills a gap by presenting us with Hesse's mind unclouded by the symbolism which sometimes disfigures his novels. Literary criticism, personal credo, social critique—all three genres are represented….

The final essays, written in a spirit of semi-mystical withdrawal from the world, are impressive. These contemplations often begin with idyls of childhood innocence but they soon stride...