The Bookfellow.

Auckland Star, Volume XL, Issue 253, 23 October 1909, Page 11

The Bookfellow.

(Copyright.—All Rights Reserved.)

(Written for the •' Auckland Star " by A. G. Stephens.)

George Manville Fern, deceased last I month at 78, was something liko an ■luther! He completed about 130 considerable novels and boys' stories, and more than 1000 short novels and tales. He | was editor of "Cassell"s Magazine' , and | editor and proprietor of "Once a Week."' i Cedrie Chivers lip.s been telling the American Library Association about the degeneration of paper. The tensile strength of the paper in the average book printed this year, as compared with the average book printed before ISilO, has decreased, he declares, from ]01b to 61b. The aerated "featherweight"' papers are the worst offenders. It seems that literary immortality is farther oft" than ever. What is the use of printing our imperishable thoughts with fading ink on rotting paper ? LITTLE WHITE GIRL. Fears are mine fnr a face so pretty: Vinlets perish, lilies are few: Theie is an ache in my heart for ynu: Id nil the tawdry, treacherous city You are the oue thins white and clean, The only riches where all is mean. Little white girl, so pnle and pretty. F*cnrs nre mine for 3. fhop so prett y ' I have been lover of lips and chins, And a listener to violins Cryinc for love and calling for pity. And it nil comes back with your eyes and hall , ; But t lie , durkness th rent ens you everywhere. Little white girl, so pale and pretty.

SHAW NEILSON. "HERE'S HEALTH!" The civilisation of mind? is necessarily accompanied by the degeneration of bodies; partly because the mind thrives generically at the expense of the body, and partly becau-e in a savage state the weaklings die or are ?lain, while in a civilised state they are charitably pres( rved as long as may be, and sometimes for tile propagation of the unfit, "the physical decay of the Maori, continuing under our own eyes, is an example of the universal proce.-s. Naturally the printed books that are the expression of civilisation devote what seems to be an increasing to our maladies and their medicaments. An interesting book put into English I his year \< i'inot's "Philosophy of Long Life." translated from the fourteenth French edkion. Finot adopts the romantic mr.nner of a Miehelet in recitinff the arguments of medical science v. by some men live longer than others; and every reader is handed a bouquet ol sentiment in appreciation of his prnwcs.« in living as long as he has been able. Incidentally the Wellington crpmationUts are kindly but firmly set right regarding the error of their ashes, though it must be admitted that Finot's science seems in this case to be tinctured with his passion for romance. There are charming chapter- on the mysteries of longevity, including all the recipes of the aires down to theatricalmanager J. C. Williamson's diet of sour milk, sanctioned by the great modern name of Meti-hnikoff. In the end the mystery resolves itself into the precept that the best way of living is simply not dying. •The' gobbleuns '11 catch you ef you don't watch out."' But if t'-iey watch out. and take it for granted that they won't be caught, many men .-nd women are good enough to live till ninety. Mo-r men and women commit suicide, a little deferred. Another new book that will interest I the anxious or comfortable health-

seeker is Oliver Huekefs -.Mental Medicine" (Xrn- York; T. V. Crowell). The d<:< trine of will to be well, and you are, is spreading in America as elsv.vhcrc; and it goes along nicely on greased rails, with philosophers, physician?, and the clergy uniting to shove it for the common good. It is pleasant to find the function of faith and the pftleney of prayer admitted by enlightened materialist.-, and to see the instinct of i he ages traced to Hh root in the accumulated experience of the human corpus. The Rev. Dr. lltieke! writes agreeably of the new compromise In Inger-oll's day. his remonstrance that it could not be advisable to throw away your reason in order to save your soul was met with a. vociferous expression of pulpit indignation. It appears that Ingersoll's doctrine \vn« a> crude as that of some of liis opponents. In the latest, light the soul is rehabilitated in ppwnce, if not anatomically: and Or. Hm-kel shows how the salvation of body and soul may —nay. must—proceed simultaneously. Our author wisely suggests that the> currpnt advertisement of the sub-con-scious self gives no excuse for making a fad of it: and that if people drag sub-consciousness continually into thn light of consciousness they must expect to defeat their own object.

In both these books the implied stress on the avoidance of doctors and drugs is noteworthy. That feature also represents a very ancient wisdom: it is Scriptural. You may read in the fifteenth chapter of Second Chronicles, the ■twelfth and thirteenth ver?es: "And Asa in the 'thirty and ninth year of his reign was diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceedingly great, yet in his disease he sought not to the Lord, Imt to tie physicians. And. Asa slept with his fathers. . , . " The faithhealer could not desire a more significant climax. It was an officer of the Australasian branch of the British Medical Association who told mc significantly that "There are about a thousand doctors registered in New South Wales—mostly quacks." The quackery, to be sure, lies usually at the doors of the patients. Having by their own physical misdeeds made themselves ill. the\ J come to the doctor to be rid of the natural penalty. The doctor knows that they cannot escape the penalty; all h< can do is to minimise it sometimes, or sometimes to relieve a local malady at the expense of the general organism. Yet the doctor must live, and he must live at the expense of his patients; that is what the patients are for. "?o I patches them up and I passes thsm or.."' fays a cheerful New Zenlandcr. "There is a well-beaten track from my consultinjuroom to the cemetery. "but the patients make it: not T. I'm only a house of call on the road they have built, and drained, and macadamised for themselves. Man is born to medicine, and woman to surgery: but nine times in ten it's their own fault. They never ce-me to the doctor soon enough. Twenty years before consulting mc they should have tried one of those oldestablished family practitioners — Dr. Diet, Dr. Quiet, and Dr. Merryman."

ART TX WELLINGTON. Gentle painter! srowinc fainter in the Btmgplc to be nunintpr, , ; Willie a landlord - * vile distraint or beastly Laker's bill you dodge: Cease t.« bother with bitumen; since from Art. pa, catechumen! The Mayor shmvs that Newman-nature no one run dislodge. Art is lonff and cash Is fleeting: artists liave to ki'op on ejitinfr. For the YVansunul raster's often slower in a hearse: Once advance, there's no retreat ins: journeys end in bankrupts mcctiiis: So the cult c,i" Art That Isu't Is tlie moral of the verse. Art that Is Art weds tue real to the artist's blsh Ideal And the rapture hymeneal Cows from Heaven's deepest fonts: But when Art and Nature marry they don't please Tom. Dick, and Harry. So, lest ■Wellington miscarry, "Give the public wbat It wants:" |

Fur a Mayor is purveyor to the public'Of 111!' iMililic- taste in pictures, and he!' If mi artist Ikis a notion to express his own einntiun I Coiiiiiinii people will despise him — "for they like a llauram." '■That's my house! I rockcrnlse It! Just as I ■ 1 would advertise it '■ There's Hie door ami there's the winder— (here's the enn [lie. rnu- kicked twice— Theies Hie creeper Haulier's tr.-illlnc - there's Hie same old hroUen p.ilhifr— And vmuv .-..„ ..,„ ,h,. on it! Mister, uaiiic your pi-ice :" ThoiiEh a Mnynr In- iho mouthpiece yet the matter is licit novel: "l.cst they turn again and r.-nd you." is the warning of the mart; Kveiy ilreauier in a hovel, every man who s -ns to crovel. Has iilteriiiiiive eiern.nl! "('boose! Their money? or your heart?" "XOTES AND QIERIES." ! For -'.Wiles and Queries." that unique English weekly gathering of literary and antiquarian commentary, Austin Dobson wrote this rondeau: — In "X. & Q." we meet to wei^h The llnnuilials ..f ycstord.-iy: We trace. Him* all its moss o'erprnwn, The s.-ript lip.vi Time's oldest stone, , Nor sn.ru his liiiest waif ami stray Letters and Folklore, Alt. the I'lilj-; Whate'er. in short, men think or siiy We make our theme.- we make our

In "X. & Q." Strnutter. whoe'er yon he. who may From China In l'eru survey. Aghast, the waste of things unknown Take licari of grace, ymi'ip not alone And all (wUo wilh may mill their way lv "N. & (,>'.''

"Notes find Queries" has been established for 60 years, and the indexes themselves are formidable volumes. The volumes of text are nn island of knowledge piled up liy ten thousand laborious eoralinseets of learning, adding each his grain to the growing heap, though some devotees have added metaphorical tons. Almost every writer upon time and men past in England must consult "Notes and Queries." and sometimes one. will find there the vital fact that has been lost by other sieves of history. By way of Australasian criticism, it may be said that the publication is so characteristically English that current issues do not always commend themselves to local readers, who naturally are beginning to differentiate- themselves from their brethren in Britain. In what way? Well, they live under another sky. with another horizon. As they accumulate their own tradition, the English tradition is not indeed dwarfed, but it prows more remote in perspective. There is a limit to the concentration, of attention, the employment of energy; and every year under Australasian eyes more men' and decils and dicta are produced that are worthy to absorb the Australasian mind. The pressure of the time is s o gresit that we cannot take all the knowledge of "Notes and Queries" for our province. Besides, though the idea is ventured only tentatively, the bent of the Australasian mind is modern. It is occupied with the present much more than \vith # the past: and the present suffices it. the future attracts it. To what purpose delve amid old-world lore, when this fascinating new worM palpitates with living interest at every step? This nne may suppose to be inevitably the "colonial" attitude. Until institutions settle down the lnudator temporia acti must he subordinate to the factor temporis novi. And when at last we have leisure to extract the intellectual honey of tradition, will it not be that of our own tradition, predominant? Literature remains: that literature which is independent of time or place, and makes its appeal to humanity. It is the literary note that is struck most strongly in John Collins Francis' "Notes by the Way" (London: Unwin). Mr Francis (he tells us that the rule of the '"Athenaeum" is a pood one. which confines the prefix "Mr." to living people) is the publisher of ''Notes and Queries." and has collected in an entertaining volume his own contributions to the magazine. The book's value is enhanced by

memoirs of Joseph Knight, editor of "X. and Q. , ' from ISsrS to 11107. and of Joseph jKlisworth, a famous contributor particularly known for his knowledge of English balladry and as editor of the Isallad Society's publications. One is keenly impressed by the happy comradeship thnt [existed among "N. and Q." collaborators. The book is in many ways a manifestation of English character, ■which essentially is the best character in the world. There are beads more acute, there are hearts more impulsive, than the Englishman's; yel the right English heart is so warm, the right KnglUh heart is so sound, that the combination is genetically incomparable. And this is an Australian's opinion, not an Englishman's. Mr Francis' "Notes" make a small quarto volume of more than three hundred pages, containing much that is worth [reading and much that is usefully reI corded. There are happily many people ' who will appreciate its fine spirit, and who will linger with pleasure amid its memories. RKCEXT NOVEL?. Hall Came. of course, has ceased to be of literary importance: some readers may- , urge that he was never of importance. ■ Yet his early no.vels. such as "The Bondman," were passionate and dramatic. There was strength behind the exaggera- , tion of their characters, and the lurid

colouring did not overpass that of a par- | tieularly robustious sunset. In Caine's recent, liooks the passion seems tawdry and false, and the dramatic element has become merely a theatrical sensation. ''The White Prophet," in the publisher's new form, at the publisher's new price. is simply a "penny dreadful" in masqueradp; and what it purports to be or to say does not matter except as a sign of the times. Of course, people who find that such books make an addition to their stock of vitality have a philosophical justification for perusal: but it remains unintelligible why what is not ginger should be considered hot i" the mouth. There cometh an end to all things, a season to every man; and to nearly every sensational novelist a book when his readers discover suddenly that they are weary, (ireat interest is added to the sport of bookselling if large numbers of a popular author's hook have been ordered at the precise moment when the new book is not wanted. "The White Prophet" is thus in several ways an unattractive experiment. The publishing firm of Harpers has scored two circulating library successes with Elinor Lane's "Katrine" and the j anonymous "Inner Shrine." The circulating libraries in Sydney and Melbourne are supported chiefly by women. One in Sydney counts 2000 subscribers at 2}gs per annum, and the total amount paid in subscriptions to the six most popular I libraries cannot be much less than £20.----(100 yearly. Many parcels are sent from Sydney to country readers. In Melbourne the number of readers is nearly as great. Fiction, of course, is the staple; and the newest fiction is naturally preferred. For the mental and sentimental slop of "Katrine" there was such a. demand that

the I.ion! supply of bonks was exhausted: nr\(l many renders waited a ltinnth on the outskirts Oi fashion. •'Tim Inner Shrine" xvns nlmrot as fur from de-=crvin<; its vnsriie. A theatrical novel, it seemed to hnve boon written for the footlights; and in substance it. was iramemorable. A mnntli ; and the demand falters and subpidps. and the liorde of readers is pesterintr the librarian for another delusion of the moment. A jsrood circulating librarian is really a. diplomatist worthy of inclusion in an historical corps. Since, if even 200 copies of a hnok are put in circulation, they are often desired by a thousand ladies at once, it is plain that somebody mus t be disappointed. The librarian's art coii=i s ts in sending a lady away content and hnppy with a. book she doesn't want, Sydney Grier's "A Young Man Married" may be mentioned as a pseudohistorical novel, unusually ingenious in expedient and lively in effect. Seivell

Ford's "Cherub Dovine" i? one of the books justifying publisher Heinemann's quotation that "false weight is an abomination"; there is an hour's reading of a, pleasant American short story; and bang goes three-nnd-sixpenee. Ford's -Shorty MeCabe" and -'Sidestepping with Shorty" may be. recommended to stray readers who have not met them—and to men, for choice. Issued by an American publisher little known on this side, they lmve made their ivay without reviewers' drum-beat-ings, and are now stocked by nearly every bookseller or, account of their selling virtue. This is one of the incidents that impel us to "trust the people' , after all.