The Bookfellow.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 101, 27 April 1912, Page 13

The Bookfellow.

(By A. G. STEPHENS.; IN NORTHERN MISTS. In his book "In Northern Mists"' (VV. Heinemann: 30/- net), the distinguished Arctic explorer, Fridtjof Nansen, has made a substantial addition to the store of human learning. These two quarto volumes, illustrated from Nansen's own imaginative paintings and drawings, and with many curious reproductions from old maps, charts, and other documents, amount to a full .survey of the earliest attempts of civilised Europe to ascertain what lay beyond the northern and western ocean. They rearrange the foundations of inquiry into Arctic exploration. Niinsen is nmv Professor of Oceanography in the University of C'hristiania. Mis design was to write a history of , Arctic voyages. But when he seriously confronted his subject he found that the task imposed upon him was far greater than he'had supposed. Much of what had recently been written proved untrustworthy. He found it necessary to return to the actual sources of information, in Arabic, (Jreek, Roman, and mediaeval literuture. anil to build up independently a new structure inevitably speculative?, but a> far as possible historical, based upon the results of original and comprehensive research.

On this plan his book became something quite different from what he had intended. He has not reached the history of arctic voyages proper. He has written the story of the dreams and legends of antiquity—of Pytheas of Marseilles and his voyage to Thule or Norway 2200 years ago; of the first settlement of Scandinavia and the voyages of the Norsemen; of "Wineland the Good" and the '"Fortunate Isles"; of .John Cabot and the Knglish expedition to North America; and of Portuguese expeditions to the North-West. There Nansen stops, 400 years ago, on the threshold of the book he had first thought of writ-

ing. With so much labour, Nansen ha* accumulated data and revised inferences that "In Northern Mists" seems likely to remain the standard work upon the subject and the epoch he has dealt with. Much of his matter is an attempt to answer thfi riddles propounded to themselves by dreamers in the dawn of European civilisation. Nansen. too. is a dreamer, despite his deeds—a dreamer in full sympathy with those prehistoric minds whom he pictures groping to extend the scope of man's knowledge of the earth. His sympathy is shown in many eloquent passages of which the merit has I>een preserved by Mr. A. G. Chater. his translator.

Why has the Frozen North fascinated so many generations of men? •The Norseman WHO -wrote the "Kings Mirror , gave the answer six hundred years ago: - If you wish to know what men seek In this land, or why men journey thither in fco great danger of their lives, then it is the threefold nature of man which draws him thither. One part of him is emulation, and the desire for fame, for it is mans nature to go where there is a likelihood of great danger, and to make himself finious thereby. Another part is the desire of to know and see those parts of which he has heard, and to 11 ml out whether they are as it was told him or not. The third part is the desire of gain, seeing that men seek after riches in every place where they learn that profit is to he had. even though there be groat danger in it."

From lirst to last, writes Nansen. the history of polar exploration is a mighty manifestation of the power of the unknown to attTact the mind of man.

"Ever Mince the Norsemen's earliest voyages Arctic expeditions have centainly brought material advantages to the human race, such as rich fisheries, whaling and sealing, and so on: they have produced scientific results in the knowledge of hitherto unknown regions and conditions!: hue have tempered the human will for the conquest of difficulties: they have furnished a school of manliness and self-conquest In the midst of the slackness of varying ages, and have held up noble ideals before the rising generation: they have fed die imagination, have given fairy tales to the child, and raised the thoughts of its elders above their daily toil. Take Arctic travel out of our history and will it not be poorer? i.'erfcips wo have here the greatest service it has done humanity."

"What a vast amount of labour lies sank in man's knowledge of the earth, especially in those remote ages when development proceeded at such an immeasurably Blower pace, and when man's resources 'vere Infinitely poorer. By the most manifold and various ways the will and Intelligence i>f man achieve their object. The attraction of long voyages must often enough have been the hope of tinding riches and favoured lands. Inn deepQr still lay the imperious desire of getting to know our own earth. To riches men have seldom attained, to the Fortunate Isles never; but through all we have won knowledge.

"The great Alexander. the conquering king, held sway over the greater part of the world of his day—the bright young lord of the world remained tiie ideal for a thousand years, the hero above all others. But human thought, restless and knowIng no bounds, found even his limits too narrow. H e grew and grew to superhuman dimensions, became the son of a god a child of fortune, who in popular belief held sway from the Pillars of Hercules. the earth's western boundary, to the treps of the sun and moon at the world's end in the east; to whom nothing seemed impossible; who descended to the bottom of the sea in a glass bell to explore the secrets of the ocean; who. borne by tamed eagles, tried to reach heaven, and who was fabled by Mohammedans and Christians to have even attempted to scale the walls of Paradise Itself -there to he checked for the first time: Thus far and no farther.' Xo man that is born of woman may attain to the land of heart's desire.

"The myth of Alexander is an image of the human spirit itself, seeking without iutermissiou, never confined by any bounds, eternally striving inwards height after height, deep a fte r deep, ever onward, onward, onward " THE WHITE WALLET. There are many good things in "The White Wallet," by Lady Glenconner (5/net); ami many good people will wish to find them. The author herself writes in verse and prose —pleasantly; she has had the idea of printing her own compositions with a miscellany of choice pieces and passages from her commonplace book. 'This," says the obliging publisher, "is a collection'made during a long term of years by one who has loved reading. Tt contains excerpt* from a throng of autb> ors ancient and modern, English and: foreign, well known and obscuro. The passages are of the most varied character, and reveal a catholic but sensitive taste on bL /he author."

Agreed. Ancient and modern gain new values in jostling; and well-known shine 3 again in contrast with obscure that is often raised from obscurity to shine also. Our favourite Drayton, with the glorious roll of—

Since there's no help, come let us kiss and part, Xay, I have done, you get iv more of mc. And I am glad, yea. glad with all my heart That thus so cleanly I myself can free. Shake hands for ever, cancel all our vows, And, when we meet at any time again. Be it not seen in either of our brows That we one jot of former love retain.

Now, at the last gasp of love's latest breath When, his pulse failing, Passion speechless WSen Faith is kneeling by his bed of death And Innocence is closing up his eyes. Now, if thou would'st, when all have given From death to life thou mrght'st him yet recover, does no disservice by accompanying Lord Alfred Douglas's plea to the World to be written up—an interesting example of the wood that can't be seen for its noble trees:

Each new hour's passage is the acolyte Of inarticulate song and syllable. And every passing moment Is a bell To mourn the death of nndi«cerned delisht. Where is the sun that made the noonday bright? And where the midnight moon? O let us tell, In lons carved line acd painted parable. How the white road curves down into the night. Only to bnild one crystal barrier Against the sea which beats upon our days: To ransom one lost moment with a rhyme! Or. if fate cries, and grudging god-s demur. To clutch Life's hair and thrust one naked phrase, Like a lean knife, between the ribs of Time! Then there are effective matters of unknown authorship—some that we have not seen for a long time, like this from the "Pall Mall Gazette": 'Tis well, 'tis well, in the lowest hell, And I !augh at the lick of tie fire; The flame roars up in its brimstone cup, And it lives what lies on the pyre; They've done their worst for the man they cursed, They've made damnation dire; But they can't undo the joy I knew VVhcu I knew my Heart's Desire. There's one will scream, and one blaspheme, As they writhe in the molten mire. And curse- the earth that gave them birth, And damn their dam and their sire: It pleases the devils to watch their revels, But I -wake the devils to ire. When I laugh and rhyme at the thought of the time Whoa 1 found my Heart's Desire. Oh. Heart's Desire, who are not by my side, Whoso love, so sweetly lived, so strangely died, Thro" faltering, falseness, failure, and the fire. Be still, for ever, all my Heart's Desire. And some that we had not seen: My ornaments are arms. My nastiino Is in war. My bed is cold upon the wold, My lamp a star.

My jonrneylngs are long. Mv slumber short and broken. From liill to hill I wander still,

BoTh anonymous. And famous verses and phrases that come with changed faces to a new welcome; as Sir Henry Wotton's "Well-being hath three conditions: firmness, commodity, and delight." Such a collection anybody can attempt, but Lady Glenconner has made her colleotion well. With 400 meditated pages. 'The White Wallet"' is a table book to prize. AN ADVENTUROUS WOMAN.

Mary Gatrnt, Mrs. H. L. Miller, now past her fortieth year, was born at Chiltern, Vie, daughter of a former Victorian County Court judge in Victoria. .She was the first woman student at Melbourne University, and came naturally to writing books. Two of her Austra lian stories, "Dave's Sweetheart" and "Kirkham's Find," have still some importance in a literary view.

In "Alone in West Africa,* , a considerable book just published, Mrs. Miller tells how an hereditary taste for travel brought her solace after the premature death of her husband. She left Warrnambool with £30 a year, and struggled at journalism and story-writing in London. Always she had wished to go to Africa, and a fortunate book gave her opportunity. She went to the West Coast, first to the Gambia, then to Sierra Leone —''the most beautiful spot on all the west coast of Africa." "I have seen many of the harbours of the warld, Sydney, and Dunedin, and Hobart, which to my mind is the most beautiful of them all, Capetown, and Naples, and Vigo. Genoa. Palermo, Messina, and lovely Taormina. which, after all, is not a harbour. I know them intimately, and with any of these Sierra Leone can hold her own/ Unfortunately Mrs. Miller has not seen Auckland. Xext to Liberia and the Gold Coast. At Keta she struck inland, crossing the German border into Togo, and returning to the coast. She travelled alone, with native bearers, and though she travelled from station to station the journey was adventurous —an exploit remarkable for a woman. Certainly she justified her publisher's commission to go wandering and write a book; and >; Alone in West Africa" is a particularly interesting book.

Mrs. Miller sees with a woman's eye, prattles with a woman's pen, and gives precisely the information of small things that one rarely finds in a man's book. A man travels usually to rea<:h a goal, and incidents of the journey natter less. Mrs. Miller notes and comments upon the detail of the day's journey, and depicts her plot of Africa minutely. The natives and their manners; towns and their governments; social life among expatriated Europeans; and a hundred things more. She praises the German hous-frau in Togoland —an asset of her nation —■ "worth more to it than a dozen fine ladies who pride themselves on not being a haus-frau." She does not wholly approve of missions:

Very. very strongly do I feel, when I look at the comfortable, well-fed native of West Africa and the wastrel of the knglish streets, that the Knglish who subscribe to missions are taking the bread from the children's table and throwing it to the dog?. Hundreds and thousands of people are ready to zive to missions, but I am very snre not n fraction of them have the very im/t'o" Their idea is that they are giving to the poor heathen «~ho lire sunk in the deepest misery. Now .there is not in all the length :md breadth of Africa. I will venture to swear, one-qnarter of the unutterable misery and vice yon may see any day In the streets of London or any great city of the British Isles. There is not a tribe that Iras not its own system of morals and sees that they are carried out: there !s not the possibility of a man, woman, or child dying of starvation in nil West Africa while there is any "food among the community. Can we say that for any town in England?

Her approval of West Africa is whole-1 hearted. It is a country to live in, she declares, not merely -to go to— country with limitless potencies of life in civilisation. The book is illustrated with a portrait of the author and with many novel and striking pictures of' scenery and JJfiftsl*.