LITERARY.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 299, 16 December 1911, Page 14

LITERARY.

The lore of pins and pincushions—let no one slight it, for such lore certainly exists, and trill be discovered in a volume to be brought ont under the above title by Longman. It gives many odd facts and has illustrations of more ox leas famous pincushiona.

The new novel by Joseph Conrad greatly deepens interest in that brilliant author. This story of his of Russian life, "Under Western .Eyee," marks ac increase in his stature as a novelist and suggests that for him, on the future, almost anything is possible.

"The Work of the Sunday School," by R. C. Harker, and "How to Teach a Sua-day-school Lesson," by H. E. Carmack, are published by Fleming H. Revell 00. These books apply the vigorous American method to Sunday school teaching; they are founded on psychology and battressed by pedagogics, while maintaining the plan of devout religion.

"As Flows the River," by Mrs. Fred. Rynolds:—"Lowrie was pure as the moonlight. He loved her. Wretched man that he was, he loved her; now, only when he realised his own baseness, did he know how he loved her. And yet, never would he dare to meet the pure gaze of her blue eyes." Oh, these men! these men!

We have wondered what new title Mr. Lang could find this year for the annual story book enthusiastically anticipated by his young readers. He has apparently ended his traffie with fairies, for the forthcoming volume contains a delicious mixture of true tales of adventure, stories of Indians, of witches and Greek heroes, and he has given to it the judicious title of "The All Sorts of Stories Book."

"The World's Mineral*," by I* J. Spencer, is a book of permanent use for Australasian miners. Its notable feature is a series of 163 naturally coloured illustrations of minerals taken from museum specimens. The text deals wltb the forms and physical characters of minerals, and proceeds to describe metallic and non-metallic elements and earths. For the matter and merit of the work the price is low; and every prospector will buy it as soon as he sees it.

Mr. Hillaire Belloc, in a recent lecture on "English as a Classic Tongue," declared that men and wnmen of the cultivated classes in F-tfand could still be found who read their Pope and their eighteenth century prose and condemned as rubbish that whi-ch was produced in their own Lives. "If, however," said the lecturer, "you wish to know where the old model" of classic and exact English eurvivTß as a living tongue, you will discover it at Washington. The Declaration of Independence is almost a perfect example."

A volume dealing with the William Penn Memorial erected in London not kmg ago by the Pennsylvania Society of New York will shortly be published by that society. It will contain various papers devoted to Penn and a full account of the dedication ceremonies. It is to be illustrated. The tablet in the Church at Allhallows, Barking, bears these word's of Penn: "I shall not usurp the night of any or oppress his person. God has furnished me with a bettor resolution and has given me His grace w> keep it." The fortnight's sale of the second portion of the Robert Hoe library will begin on January 8. The three fine Cartons which will be found therein will undoubtedly be fought for with energy. The copy of Gowert "Oonfessio Amantis," 1483, is said to be the finest of the seven copies in existence. The copy of the first edition of Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" is valued at from £SOOO to £OOOO. The copy of Higden's "Polychronicoa," 1482, is perfect with the exception of a missing blank leaf—which can hardly be called an imperfection. " The question of the superfluity of books which Mr. E. Grose hna ranted has evoked the following pertinent anecdote from Mr. George Saantsbury: "Nearer forty than thirty yean ago tha late Dr. Richard Garoett took me behind the scenes of the British Museum. I was thoughtless enough to ask. 'What do yon do with the rubbish?' Be turned to me with that quaint little smile and bow which many people will remrmber, and Mid, 'Well, you see. It's very difficult to know what Is rubblst to-day, and quite impossible to know what will be rubbish to-morrow." It appeared and appears, to me that this finishes the question."

"The Roundabout," by Gladys Mendl, Bhowß how an art student may meet the wrong man before she meets the right one "He could have screamed aloud. He knew be did not love her any longer, yet the sight of her dressing-table, of her hairpins and brushes. . . reduced his nerves to wild disorder. Trembling, he approached the dressing-table and took up her comb. It was an ordinary one of black vulcanite. He put it down again. On her brash two of ber hairs snuggled amongst the bristles, and the sun shone in and made them seem alive. . . Could it be, he wondered, that she kept her soul spread upon her dress-ing-table?" We give the girls three guesses as to whether this was the right man or the wrong one, being confident they'll guess the wrong one. The story is better than the passage, and makes fair library fiction for ladies.

"Vanishing Rome" is the title of a finely illustrated article in the November "Windsor Magazine" on the changes that are ever taking place in the aspect of the Eternal City. The author says: —"The only free spot along the Tiber—namely, that between the Janiculan ■bridge, recently built, and Ponte S. Angelo, on the side of the Hospital of &. Spirito—will also disappear soon, on account of the building of Ponte Vittorio Emanuele, which is to join the Corso of the same name too the Prati Quarter, through the 'Borghi.' If, however, the loss of this last surviving tract of the original shore of bhe Tiber, with its mediaeval houses jutting out black and sullen over the waters of the river, will give us a painful impression, we shall, at any rate, be able to look forward to definitive removal of the horrible iron 'bridge which at present impudently hides from view the lofty cupola "of the Vatican Basilica. The work of demolition has proceeded steadily, till the relentless pickaxe, after having trained itself by degrees to the destruction of tang-standing edifices, has at present attacked the last and most firmly-based obstacle that intercepted the way to the grand piazza dedicated to the memory of the king who delivered his country from the chains of bondage." Tile fine art feature of the November "Windsor Magazine" consists of seventeen reproductions from the landscapes and river scenes of Vicat Cole, R.A., including his "Windsor Castle" and other Thames pictures, with a frontispiece plate finely printed in colour*

Mm. Humphry Ward's new story "Tin Case of Richard Meynell," is just published by Macmillan—serious and sad.

A rumour that Lord Moriey was writing a biography of George Meredith has not been confirmed. It is known, however, that Morley is editing a collection of the novelist's letters.

"Bverylady's Journal'' lor December contains a good deal of Christmas matter. The articles include the story of the Kohi-i-Noor diamond, which Queen Mmry is to wear in her crown at the Indian Durbar, and a pictorial description of a bush hospital in North Queensland. The stories aire all of an excellent and readable class, and the fashion notes full and up-to-date.

Another valuable text-book has been added to Pitman's commercial series. It is a "Manual of Commercial English," and is edited by W. Shawcross, B.A. It comprises some clear and concise instructions in the essentials of R "g KQt ' grammar and composition, especially directed to the cultivation of a good style in essay writing and correspondence. Chapters are devoted to precis writing, the indexing of correspondence, reports, resolutions, and amendments at meetings, and kindred work of a mercantile character. The sameimbUahers are also issuing at a shilling "The Junior Typist," a book of exercises and instructions for learners at the type-writing, specially designed to cultivate a good and fast style.

Lord Cromer's admirable surrey of •Modern lifeyipt"—the history and politics from 1876 to date—is republished in one volume. Lord Cromer admits the final doubt whether Britain will remain in occupation of Egypt; adding that her only opponent is France (now pi.ivuted with Morocco). As an academic question, he himself has never favoured the occupation. The question, however, has long ceased to be academic; and for many years to come Australasian interest in the Egyptian occupation will be even greater than Britain's. That occupation, indeed, is not absolutely essential to the preservation of our Bed Sea route to Europe; but so many risks would follow the governance of Egypt by any other nation that we are bound to urge strongly the maintenance of British rule. Despite Wilfrid Blunt, the skin is closer than the shirt; and the Briton than the fellah. The material profit to Egypt is clear enough, and material considerations outweigh sentimental. What is mentioned as the finest collection of English poetry in the wor!d is now on the market. It is the prop-T----ty of Mr T. J. Wise, who has long been known as the indefatigable collector of rarefies in the way of books, manuscripts and annotated works. Among these is the only known example of Gray's "Candidate," He has a specially valuable group of Bronte letters, books and manuscripts, including the first letter Charlotte ever wrote. It is addressed in a large, childish hand to "My d-ar Pbpa." Several unpublished manuscripts of Swinburn are in the collection. It is stated that the library has already been offered to Mr J. P. Morgan. It is said that the late Dr Joseph Bell, of Edinburgh, was modestly proud of the fact that he was the original of Conan Doyle's "Sherlock Holmes." He is described as walking into his drawingroom one winter evening to find a group of women absorbed in reading and discussing a new book:

"With his habitual spirit of Inquiry he asked what they were reading, and they told him that It was the "Adventujes of Sherlock Holmes," the Btory of a most entrancing individual whom they only wished It were possible to met In real lite. " 'I know the man,' observed the doctor quietly, hastening away before they hsd time to ply him with the many surprising questions that naturally rose to their Una. Returning shortly from seeing his patient, he came back (or one brief minute to finish his story and to announce with a* much modesty a* might be, 'I am Sherlock Holme*.' "

Dr Bell's methods are illustrated in an interview in his consulting room with a bricklayer suffering from spinal complaint. "It aches, doea it?" said the sympathetic doctor, "1 have no doubt it does, and carrying a heavy hod of bricks won't improve it, will it!" "Tlie afflicted bricklayer, being a reticent Scot, kept his anrprlee to himself till the end of the interview, when he asked somewhat cannfly, 'I am no saying you're wring, but wha' telt ye I was a bricklayer to trader " "It had never occurred to the workman that the man, presumably occupied with bis sp.ue, tOiUu Uftii m-Utea tile bands that, to the practised eye, at once revealed his trade.

Romance seems far removed from the manufacture and sale of soap. Yet a writer in "Chambers's Journal" for November succeeds in proving that the two things axe not absolutely incapable of being Associated. lie shews that the purchase of Millais' picture "Bubbles" as an advertisement for Fears' soap had a good deal to do with the development of artistic advertising. The Levers, of Port Sunlight, in twenty-five years built up a business which now, with a capital of fourteen millions sterling, has ramifications all over the world. Messrs. Pears are credited with spending £126,000 in one year in advertising, and altogether three millions sterling in making the merits of their eoap known. The founder of Pears' firm was a London barber, a native of Cornwall, and Lever Bros., of Port Sunlight, were sons of a wholesale grocer at Bolton, and were brought up in their father's business. Sir William Hesketh Lever, the founder of the firm, was born at Bolton in 1851. The November number of "Chambers's Journal" contains the usual assortment of well-written stories and miscellaneous articles.

The "Empire Review" for November contains the customary notes on foreign affairs by "Diploma tist," who remarks wi&h relerence to German emigration that t'he total for 1910 was only 25,531, shewing that German industries provide work for the greater part of the steadily-increas-ing population. A very interesting article on the Zambesi, describing the conditions of settlement in Portuguese East Africa and Nyassaland, is contributed by an old colonist. The advantages of the country for cotton-growing are warmly eulogised. "Australia's New Province," the Northern Territory of South Australia, (is made the subject of a wen-written afrticle by C. O. Burgc, C.E., who discusses the question of railway construction as affecting the development of thd country. The northern tablelands, which attain an elevation of 3500 to 5000 feet, are described as ideal for horse-breeding, sheep, and cattle; the land is excellent. Other articles deal with secondary education for girls in England, insurance laws In Germany, and "Animal Sanctuaries in Labrador."