The Bookfellow

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 67, 19 March 1910, Page 13

The Bookfellow

(no-pYTnraTT —at.t. kiuhts

(■Written for the " Auckland Star " i i>7 A. G. Stephens.) i

EUGENICS. Six Francis Gal ton, in the newest i English review, '"Hie Eugenics Review," ■ decides incidentally that New Zealand is a prosperous ccanmuni'ty. The application of his words, of course, is not his; j but it will 'be agreed that New Zealand j exhibits the stigmata he mentions. j "A prosperous community is disfcin- i guished by the alertness of its members, | •by their .busy occupations, ;by their tak- j ing pleasure in their work, t>y their doing I it thoroughly, and 'by an honest pride in j the community as a -whole. The mem- j ibers of a decaying community are, for j the roost part, languid and indolent; ; their very gestures are dandling and slouching, the opposite of smart. T&ey shirk work -when they can do so, and scaarcp what they undertake. "A prosperous community Jβ rem&TkafbJe for the variety of the solid interests in which some or other of its members are eagerly engaged, but the questions that agitate a. decadent community are for the most part of a frivolous order. Prosperous canmmniuies are also notaible for enjoyment of Hfe, for their menibers must .work in order "to -procure the necessary luA.uj.ies of an advanced civilisation, yet <tiiey are endowed "with. so large a store of energy that, •when their daily toil is over, enonglh of it remains unexpended to aiQtJw them, to , pursue their usual hobbies daring the remainder of the day. In a. decadent comanunity, the men tire easJy and soon sink into drudgery, tibere is consequently Tmrrih languor among ffchem and little enjoyment of lHe." "The Engenira lEeview 1, is decidedly- a review for earnest New Zeslarafers. I* made its publication bow last year; it is"« puMished quarterly iby the Eagenics iEdncation Society, a* 6 York BnildHigß, Adelphi, liondtm; it costs 1/3. And what is Eugenics'! 33ie term was originated by Galten. It means loosely the eefenEe of good parentage. The lofty -jrarpose of the "Bngenics Keview" is "the betterment of the Innnan race." The first four numbers axe <well compounded, and contain a great deal of airf£iOTita.trve matter 1 that is appKcaMe to Neiw Zealand Ttses. C. W. Saleeby is quoted: "We mask establish eugenic selection. And &a education we must educate ass for parent- j liood, in 'both sexes. It is of little -use j that a. girl has played oentrefOTw*crd at hookey, or has .been a •wasengler, if she cannot nurse her ibaiby 'or produce one. That education which teacihea a. girl to despise motteribood, iwMsfc anafrrng iher incapaMe of it, is not ' hagler,-' but lower' education." The Key. W. E. Inge, lady Margaret, Professor of Divinity ait Cambridge, •writes an article fall of irdigion, <wJßdom, and wit. He points , out the danger of too nvnch "hmnnniifcarjianism. ,, "One good principle whidh I believe to be incontestable, is, that if natural seleci:,, :.. !.1,'Vf..l 1 - - --•■ -'■ ' to take her soWjO-'wayjroi-eßininErfarjg hat j place. Otherwise nothing can prevent the race from reverting to an inferioT type. Humanitarian legislation, or practice, requires to 'be supplemented, and its inevitable evil effects counteracted, by eugenic practice, and ■ultimately iby eugenic legislation. "I cannot say that I am Iwrpeful aibont the near future. I am afraid that the urban proletariat may cripple our civili7,ation, as it destroyed that of ancient Borne."

"Christian ethics does not (as is often supposed) teach the duty of preserving 1 uncj. TOulUplydng life at all hazards. Once convinced' that so-and-so was an undesirable citizen, the Church, while it believed in itself and had the power, lost no time in hurrying him out of the jworld. I No doubt they usually bur&t "the wrong] people, which was very unfortunate; and! you must not suppose 'that' I want to see j I autos da f c even of our most degraded ; 'specimens; but my point is that there I I is nothing inconsistent with Christianity I in imposing as well as enduring personal j sacrifice where the highest welfare of ! the community is at stake. j "Genuine Christianity—the real thing I is a joyous 'but robust and austere ideal- | ism, and an enthusiastic devotion to an ' ideal of personal perfection which is be- ; lieved to be also the will of the imminent ! guiding principle of the universe. | I "All morality aims at subverting the i ' J conditions of its own existence, and if , ; it does not it at once ceases to be moral.; . The Christian prays to be delivered I from temptation and from evil, which ! are the conditions under which alone ! moral activity is possible, and his whole ' life is a struggle against' obstacles, which ' j at the same time he recognises to be inI tegral parts of the constitution of the ' I phenomenal world. If you once give your moral assent to another's sins, and sorrows, as affording a field for your altruistic activities, your moral sense most be in a sadly diseased condition. ] "The churches must recognise that increasing knowledge has revolutionised 1 our methods of dealing with evil. In--1 etinct and superstition have 'been useful to the race in many ways.; hat, in the ' 'higher stages of culture, they must give - -way .to & far finer instrument, namely, 1 reason. It is not Christian, it is only '■ -barbarous and mediaeval, to say that ' cure is right and prevention wrongs" ' - This opinion, so eignal from such a • source, is directly applicable to on important * aim of eugenics prevention • of degenerates from .propagating other degenerates. s lAiHrrtfT ' A professor of divinity «wiho takes a gloomy view of the -future of English f , (society has joist .been quoted. It -is not , enconraging-'to find a professor-of poetry 1 expressing doubt that is scarcely less gloomy. The spiritual ideals predomin- . ant in the mind of the English nation. I are obscure and ambiguous, says W. J. > Couxthope. Until £he day of Six Walter f Scott, "the unbroken continuity of our • national life is reflected in all the-ohxnges 6 of our art-and literature, and presents for ."■ the study, of the notion, a veritable 'poli- . tike paideia,' a public school of liberty ; and patriotism. "Now we are being - asked to -decide whether or -not we will - abruptly take our leave of the great. > continuous traditions of the past." ; Mr. W. J. Couxthope is a.fellow of the i British Academy. He wes formerly pro- . lessor of poetry in the TJniveisii,y of Ox- > ford. He has came to the end of this ■ great task of writing a "History of Eng- ; lish Poetry"the sixth volume has just ■been .published by Macmillan, & firm that , is publishing many excellent- English , books. , [To -tads ■work Mr. >Oon!±lK>pe sh-as f- brought TjTxnsual learning, ihe necessary industry, and a sufficient talent. It is > really a work that transcends the capacity of any one man, however erudite. So 1 vast a field really requires a. committee • of scholars to cultivate it to the finest. , issue; since an independent judgment ■ upon every worthy author in the long roll. • . of English letters is not to be reached . ■ hy the moat studious commentator. Even 'so, Mr. Conrthope cannot have fewer % ■ than ten thousand definite images of r (-authors assorted in the pigeon-holes of .his 'brain. Not that there are ten thou- • 'sand worthy authors in English; but Mr. » . Courthope builds a. foundation of Euro- . pean languages, ancient and modern, and ■ besides the worthy he must have mea- ' isured tho unworthy. Think what' it,

means to have acquired a knowledge of the territory, and some knowledge of the territorial place, of virtually every: European writer from Homer to the (moderns, including the mediaevaJs of I whom most people know nothing! .! I : Perhaps it "is. in dealing witn those--1 mediaevals that Mr. Courthope's 'rtrength | ••j Is most evident. When he comes to By- j I ron and Shelley, Blake and Burns, ; hel3 ! fin a domain traversed by many • special- 1 lists; and to some extent he relies in- i evitably upon other people's opinions, j His last volume, dealing with the rise j of the Romantic School, is perhaps the j most generally interesting of all. Yet] ■ it is also, perhaps, the volume among i ' all that displays his own powers to the! • least advantage. TTth complete history well deserves to be read throughout, ; and remains a valuable work 'of referj ence. It is written in an easy and»-eip^ ; j tivating style, and in .those mos£3ii&iSilt ; I summaries of an age or an author it dis- ■ j plays many passages of clear vision and I just' expression. ' ; 1 The chief critical objection to be made ' to Mr Courthope's work is an objection ! to the theory upon which his work is 1 based. He has treated poetry as "an ex- ■ pression of th 6 imagination, not simply ! of the individual poet, but' of the Eng- • lish people." That is, he has considered ' poetry, not wholly as a reflex of the " poet, but partly as a reflex of the social ! surroundings in which the poet lived and wrote. ' The theory worked well until the eigh--1 teentai century, while Tttngri<di poetry re- ' mained chiefly a description of English life or a commentary upon current Eng- ! lish thought and manners. . Then came 1 the Romantic escape, when the poet look- > ed into his heart and -wroto; when he realised himself as an individual living ' often in a society alien or aloof, and commenced to sing joys and sorrows 1 that "were no longer typically English, 'bat cosmopolitan, human. The Lake 1 School," with Byron, Shelley, and Keats, ' come into Mr. Courthope's scheme as reactionists. One cannot help feeling that the -anti-Engiwh quality in their reaction has vitiated Mr. Courthope's "RVnglifsh .judgment concerning them. He raises c 'the question whether the principle which 1 he ihas "deliberately adopted of regard- ' ing Poetry as the- reflection- of our social 7 life," rather t'hun as the reflection of 1 the life of the individual poet, ie not, a.3 anything but a working plan, -»arwar--1 ■rantskhle, \ '■ ' "TvrpißrypTaTt" " uoVtKLS. i Tie TCrTgiTwV aHianco of libraries r agajnsft' "improper" books -eantmxtes to - excite a great deal of discussion; but, t except- as-concents -Jthe Ixbraries, the plain ; as plainly futile. That is, while their 1 acfiottt is emphasised, the libraries-will be t. purged at -the expense of tho-comnranity. For, as in , the beginning, .fin-Trta-n nature i covets the forbidden?* A publisher or a - ■bookseller has only to advertise a book - by Miss Blank or Mrs. Dash as "Pro--3 hibited at all the- libraries," and ihe-igaine - a certain sale for "his (runbieh. The first • result of the legal prosecution- of-certain; i> books in New Zealand two years ago i was to fill the booksellers' shops wifeh furtive inquirers, who promptly 'bought ' the whole available stock. t As the writers of the tabooed books ' axe chiefly women, so the readers are - chiefly women and girls. The head of a > Sydney ' circulating library, claiming 5 3000 subscribers, recently picked out for °- mc a dozen* current novels that he det scribed as 'being "in- great demand 1 by the ' ladies. We cairt keep one of them on 1 the shelves." Eleven of the twelve -were 1 written by -women. Not one was written r weH —not one was worth reading f one could be read. All were erotic, which £ ' is not necessarily a fault in fiction; but - all "were cheap, obvious, tiresome. I had • never heard of nine of the twelve au- " there; they are never reviewed or 1 criticised; but some of them 'hpve half • a dozen books to their discredit, and i the books' are read.

. So-iatrndes the point of view. Mine dees not settle the matter; but there j is a fair personal argument to the genj eral inutility of such fiction. It serves for. the sensual excitement of inexperiI once. Publishers booksellers are. ia. -. business-to -make money,, and the few I who taboo the rubbish do not stop tins ■j sal«. News of a novelty fiies from i reader to reader like, wildfire. It is cvii dent that the only appeal worth making !is the old appeal to the home and the I parents. In default of success there, J perhaps, it is reasonaible to suppose that j in the end a healthy organism breeds its i own anti-toxins and creates its own ; I taboo. An unhealthy organism doesn't. 1! The crux is the betwixt-and-between organism, . with a predisposition that may , or may not fall victim to a plague. NOTES. " ' It is reported that the Australian ' "Lone Hand" magazine Trill presently reduce its price from 1/ to 6d. So far ! this magazine does not appear to ho.ye I been commercially successful. In ' view of the profits of "life," the ' magazine was started with the idea j that an original "monthly" -would a,p- , peal Australian audience more than an unoriginal one. The idea of j the first editor, Mr. J. F. Archibald, was I really the literary and artistic interpretation of Australia as far as the interpretation could be made interesting. Everything, it will be seen, comes in the : 'editor's definition of "interest" 1 judgment of copy. The first editor's ill- ' ness threw , 'the burden of judgment upon ' Mr. ,F. Fox, and later upon Mr. A. H. Adams. The result, on the 'whole, has ' been that the magazine has failed to > attract decisively either the intellectual ox the general audience; its policy has 1 '■wavered and its contents have ■been nn- ; certain. Size, character, price, contents ! ' —nothing seemed, in the Chinese phrase, ' ''heaTen-fborn." The cprrtemplatedyirednc- [ tion of price may be -taken ac the last ' weapon in the campaagnr of popular cc- ' dnctxon. . ' The opening of the Mitchell library j in Sydney makes free to approved students and others a vast collection of c ' litera-tttTe relating to Australia and New P 'Zealand, including many old newspapers and documents elsewhere unprocumble. ' Its coDecfcion-was a labour of love-to the deceased donor, parallel to the-tabtrar re- ' presented Iby Dr.-' Hocterr'e : similar collection at Dnnedin. For local anti- ' quaaians, historians, and biographere— i " when they' —the ' Mitchell -iEhrary i ■will be a 'treasure. Just : at present it , is not dear what precise! use will ibe ' made of the treasure, other than' for re- ' fefreßce; and what <wQI he the precise use • of the use when made. The trumpets • "have soundted, but -where- aie-the -literary '■ " warriors- arrayed for battle?