LITERARY.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 305, 21 December 1912, Page 14

LITERARY.

"The Foundations of Freedom" is the title of a new book of essays about to be published by John Bagot, Ltd., Middleton[ near Manchester. The contributors to the book are experts on the subject of the taxation of land values, and include well-known men in Great Britain, France, the United States, and the British Colonies.

That remarkable personality, Lafcadia Hearn, is the subject of a short biography by Mr. Edward Thomas, in "Constable's Modern Biography," published at one shilling. There also appear in the same series a biography of J. M. Synge and an account of the Irish Dramatic Movement. The author of this treatise is Mr. Francis Bickley, who gives an informative review of an interesting recent phase of dramatic art. The latest issue in Constable's admirable shilling library of "Religions Ancient and Modern," are "Mahommed, the Great Arabian," by Meredith Townsend; "Congregationalism," by Benjamin A. Millard; and "Unitarianism," by W. G. Tirrant. The new issues in Constable's "Philosophies Ancient and Modern," comprise "Rationalism," by J. M. Robertson, M.P., and "iTagmatism," by D. L. Murray." " A Regular Madam," by Alice Wilson Fox (Macmillan's Colonial library), is a story of a high-epiri'-ed girl, Lady Barbara Burdone, who lived towards the middle of the eighteenth century, with the scenes laid in Somersetshire and in Canada. It provides interesting glimpses of schoolgirl life in the days of George 11., and later on, vivid pictures of the war between the French and English in Canada. Here Barbara meets with adventures of a thrilling kind, before the story is brought to a conclusion with the capture of Quebec by Wolfe. Notable at a season which abounds in beautiful books for juvenile readers, "Rainbow Children," by Edith Howes, will find a generous welcome. It consists of a charming collection of brief tales, in which the hewers and trees of the garden are symbolised in verse and allegory. Nature study Ls presented in the most delightful form, and the little folk are led to associate happy thoughts with the common things around them. The book will take rank with the author's ever popular "Sun Babies." The publishers, Cassell and Co., have done full justice to the work by presenting it in a tasteful typographical setting. " The Heroine in Bronze," by James Lane Allen, is a love story of a typical American college youth and a college girl graduate. The scene is laid in New York, and the action takes place at the present time. The book tells of a misunderstanding which arose betwen the two principal characters owing to the girl's belief that her lover, who is a young novelist proposes to make "copy" of her life and his courtship of her for his new and —what he hopes will be — his greatest story. This misunderstanding leads to a series of incidents which, taken together, compose a wholly unusual love story, a love story which traces also the rise from obscurity to success in the literary world of the principal male character. The publishers are Macmillan and Co. E. Nesbit's books are well known to all children and lovers of children. Her Majesty the Queen pronounces them to be "charming," and Mr Rudyard Kipling says that the children portrayed in the stories are the "real right thing." The author has the rare talent of com-bining the convincing details of the everyday world as we know it, with that elusive charm of the world of magic. She gives us adventures like those of the Arabian Xights, only they happen in Bloomsbury or Gamden Town, and the moral is always excellent; not unduly rubbed-in and insisted upon, so that children learn lessons of honour and pity and kindness and nobility, while they think they are only reading a story. It will be found in her new books, '"The Magic World," the distinctive qualities of this writer are no less apparent than its predecessors. "The Magic City," and "The Wonderful Garden." It contains delightful illustrations by Mr H. TL Millar and Mr Spencer Pryse. The Oxford illustrated edition of Tennyson's poems, published by Mr. Henry Frowde, forms a very attractive volume, which will be held in high favour by lovers of the great Victorian poet. The introduction is contributed by Professor T. Herbert Warren, M.A., Hon. D.C.L. of Oxford, and the illustrations, ninety-three in number, two in colour, are reproductions of classic pictures by G. F. Watts, Millais, Rosetti, and other eminent artists. Speaking of Tennyson's place among the immortals, Professor Warren says: "What is he to us to-day? In this Oxford volume 1 quote Oxford's Chancellor: ' He is at least these things, " a great artist, a great singer, a great prophet, a great patriot, and a groat Englishman." What will he be hereafter? He moved among the men of his time, a natural force, the neer of the foremost, in touch with the humblest, the nation's voice to itself and to other people and lands. Yes, but as he sang: Age to age succeeds. Blowing a noise of tongues and deeds: A duet of systems and of creeds. The voice of an age, like that of a man finds itself, if it lasts long enough, speaking to a strange generation, to new faces, other minds.' It can then hope to be listened to only so far as it is charged with a universal, a timeless appeal. Some, nay much of Tennyson's work, surely has, and will have* that. This is to be a classic, and a worldclassic; such as Tennyson has long taken, and cannot lose. his place." The "National Review" for November prints the full text of the speech delivered by Field Marshal Lord Roberts at Manchester urging compulsory military service. An article entitled "The Radical Plutocracy," declares that seate in the House of Lords have practically been put up to auction, being conferred in return for large donations to the Liberal party chest. He says: "The Liberal Government -tiha-t was to end the House of Lords has manufactured a new peer and two new baronets every five weeks. The writer contrasts the extravagant profits earned by the companies from -which the rich supporters of the Liberal party derive their incomes with the three per cent, yielded by agricultural land to the British landowner. Among the general articles are "The Pros and Cons of Domestic Service," by Lady Willoughby de Broke; "The Way We Dance. Now," by Miss Annabel Straehey; "The Three-spin«d Stickleback," by Miss Marion Black Hawkine; "The Proposed Land Taxes," by Sir Robt. I. Palgrave, F.R.S.; and "A Plea for the Mid-Scotland Ship Canal," by Commander Carrey, R.N.

Robert Browning's "The King and The Book," is the latest addition to the Oxford editions of standard authors, published by Mr. Henry Frowde. Mr. Edward Dowden, who contributes an introduction, quotes the poet's statement to an inquirer that any lover of poetry desirous of making acquaintance with Browning's work, should read these poems first, which, in Mr. Dowden's opinion, represent the whole of the poet' 3 mind more fully than in any other of his writings, and are his largest and most sustained achievement. The worfe contains more than twenty thousand lines of verse, or doable the number of lines in "Paradise Lost."

Dr. Morreon, formerly "Times' , correspondent ai Peking, and now adviser to the Chinese Republic, is the subject of a biographical sketch in "Life" for January. From this it appears that Morrison is a native of Geelong, Victoria, born in 1562, and he set out on ■his adven'fauroue career at 16 years of age by canoeing several hundred miles down the Murray River alone, walking from Melbourne to Adelaide, and at the age of twenty walking 2,000 miles across the Australian Continent. Since then be has travelled extensively all over the world. Dr. W. H. Fitchett, in January "Life," givee a graphic account of the ill-fated attempt of Burke and Wills to cross the Australian Continent. He says: "No other exploring expedition in Aihstralian history cost so much, and, perhaps, none achieved so little, or offers such a symmetrical proof blunders ac that connected | with the names of Burke and Wills. It j cost in all £57,000, to say nothing 011 seven lives. Sturt's expedition of 1845, which penetrated as iar as that of Burke ami Wills, bad to struggle with difficulties a hundredfold greater, and cost only £3,961. The difference was due to leadership." Every woman ought to possess a simple yet comprehensive book on health and hygiene. Some of the books published on this subject are inaccurate and incomplete; others are so full of technical material that the average reader ' finds it difficult to understand them. A work which avoids both faults, written by Elizabeth Sloan Chesser, Ch.B., j • has just been published by Methuen and . Co., at 3/6 net. It deals with the sub- j ject from the woman's and the doctor's j point of view. It provides information on the preservation >pf heailth and youth, on sick nursing and first aid, and on everyday ailments, and how to deal with them. A section is devoted to tlie care and mana. cement of children. It contains much practical commonsense advice about questions that arise in every household. The management of the home in health and in sickness, and the measures which should be adopted in order 10 preserve health and promote happiness are dealt with in a series of what may be described as friendly talks. Section IX is devoted to sick nursing in the home, and section 111. to "Common , Ailments and How to Treat Them." Al together the book is admirably designed I to become the wise counsellor of the in- ■ telligent housewife. "The Insanity of Genius, and the General Inequality of Human Faculty Physiologically Considered,'' by J. F. NLsbet, I author of "The Human Machine," etc. I Sixth and new edition, with an introduction by Dr. Bernard Hollander, its to be published shortly by Moss re. Stanley Paul and Co. From time immemorial some subtle relationship hae been thought to exist between genius and in- ' sanity. Aristotle noted how often emm"- --" I ent men displayed morbid symptoms of ' \ mind, and Plato distinguished two kindfl ' oi delirium —one being ordnary insanity, J I and the othor the spiritual exaltation I 1 which produces poets, inventors, or pro- ; phots, and which he regarded not as an , evil, but as a gift of the gods. On the j otlic-r hand, there has always been a l strong body of opinion, pliilosophic-al and , 1 scientific, agaansi the supposed connec- . J tion of gcniiiri with insanity. Locke L ascribed all intellectual superiority to , education, and Dr. Johnson maintained) j' that genius resulted from a mind of > large general powers being turned in a L particular direction, while Goethe held ', that a man of genius sums up in his own •' person the best qualities of the family -j or the race to which he belongs. The - J author discusses the subject in the light I! of later discoveries and more modern " methods of investigation, and with a knowledge of the localisation of the functions of the brain and the establish- ■ I ment of kinship between an extensive group of brain and nerve disorders, which 1 j loads him to the conclusion that, appari entry at the opposite poles of human in--1 ■ tcllect, genius and insanity are, in real--1 ity, but different phases of a morbid sus- ' I ceptubility of. or want of balance in, j the cerebro-spinal system. What may be taken as a semi-official ; account of the visit of the King and Queen to India last year, and the Durbar I at Delhi, has been written by the Hon. John Fortiacue, a member of the suite. rhe publishers are Macmillan and Co. The author, in describing the State entry , into Delhi, mentions the curious fact that , 11 ie Majesty, wearing the uniform of a • Field-Marshal, was unrecognised as he . passed in the procession through the : crowded streets. The Queen followed, , and was identilied by a goirgeooe fan and umbrella, and the natives assumed that the King was not present. Yet His Majesty had deliberately ridden on a horse instead of on an elephant—as had been done by Lord Curzon in 1902—in order to be more easily seen. Mr Fortescue suggests that on all future occasions the person of the King should be notably distinguished. A standard 1 should be borne before him, and a host 1 of native attendants with Imperial insignia surround him. There was one occasion at Delhi when a catastrophe seriously threatened. This was at th<? investiture held by the King in the larg- ' set of th-a reception-tents, which was packed with 3,000 or 4,000 ladies and ■ gentlemen. The ceremony was about . half over when the electric light flicker--1 ed, the fire-alarm sounded and there was ■ a strong smell of burning. Someone i cried "tire," and 200 or 300 people rose ;to their feet. The officials taking part - in the investiture pursued their functions ? with perfect calmness. The King con- ' tinued to distribute orders, "as if he had been at St. James's," and the Queen, ' ''who hae a peculiar horror of fire, sat ■ motionless and apparently unconcerned." ' Someone gave the order, "Sit down, -, 3 1 which was obeyed. The light steadied, ! and presently confidence was restored. Tlie danger, however, had been real. One. ! hundred yards away a tent had been ! burned down, and everything in it mii stantly consumed, and thence to the reI ception-tent was an unbroken spread of ! canvas. Happily there was no wind, and 1 the ropes of the adjoining tents were [ cut, so that the conflagration was crreetj cd. But even so, says Mr Forteseue, a ' ! panic must have caused a great disaster, and it was not safe to pack peoplo by 1 the thousand in a single tent in the midst lof a great camp.