LITERARY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 47, 24 February 1923, Page 23

LITERARY.

Mr Georjre 11. I-noke. chief librarian ot the Public Librnry of Toronto, has had a rt ir..ulHtiiK idea. He ■■v.slms to make gn exhibition in "the jarjient library in Canada" of 10" renrrrtntlna the imaginative literature of Australia and yewv e w Zealand; and has asked A. U. Stephens, the editor uf "The Bookfel--1β,,- ;, to make the selection. Modern dancing is an art which takes such varied forms of interpretation that even adt-pt* requiro some authoritative direction. This Mr. Edward Scott gives iti a little book, "Three Hundred Hints on Modern Dancing" (George Allen and Inwiiii. The instructions arc lui.-ed on scientific study and personal experience of dancing in gll its phases. Messrs. William Heinemann, Ltd., announce that they have in preparation, and will publish earjv in 11)23, the delimit- liiography of the late Claud Lovat Fruser. This book "ill consist of a life of Lovat Kraser. hy John Drinkwater, and a critical study of his work by ' Libert Rutherston. It will contain examples of a number of Lovat jrasers pictures, drawings, and designs, reproduced in collotype, both coloured and uncoluiired. The edition will be printed on hand-made paper, and will be strictly limited. A "Little Girl's Cooking Book," edited by Flora Kliekmann, is among the more recent publications of the Religious Tract Society. The recipes »re such as a little pirl can easily put to practical use, and the practice so acquired will be excellent training for domestic usefulness. Late additions to the Religious Tract Society's publications comprise a larpe-type daily textbook, giving a text, for every day, taken from the Bible, also n s-eries of illustrated tracts setting out, in simple, ' language, interesting stories of incidents recorded in the Old Testament and passages from the Gospels relating to .the life of Christ. , ~ I Mr. Mills Whitham's latest novel, "Silas Braunton" (George Allen and Umvin), illustrates faithfully his conception of modern tragedy. The protagonist, -i young farmer, revolts tgainst his environment, suu-micuo ... tion to ambition, and becomes embittered when harsh success fails to solace him. He thrusts the submissive Minna, : Mβ wife, from her home, and she is forced to take refuge with a man whom ehe despises. Silas Braunton finds a temporary escape from himself in caring for Minna's child, but, in the de- • Telopment of the drama, ho is left to face the ruin created by his own unbending will. The setting is in the West Country, and simple manners and customs of the folk and the roll of the seasons form a background to the drama.

A aeries of admirable stories, sketches, and essays, specially written by the Rev. John T. Taylor for the entertainment and instruction of boye and I girls, has been published by the Reliei- . ous Tract Society. It has a coloured I frontispiece and many illustrations well ; conceived for the purpose of arresting the attention of young people Th* I good advice which permeates these sketches is presented in a pleasant way by a writer who evidently understands the rising generation and knows what they think and how they feel. For exciting incidents, hairbreadth escapes, and the thrills which may be derived from such experiences, however destitute of probability, readers may be confidently referred to "The 'Man in the Box, by Nigel Worth (Mills and I Boon). The plot concerns a gang of smugglers operating from Guernsey, and witji ramifications throughout Scotland. Lieutenant John Quin, recently ■i£ ln X fr v° m . V" 5 RNVR - v drawn into the hunt for these defrauders of the revenue, and his pursuit carries, • hiru to Smyrna, where he gets into a tight place from which he is rescued b >' a Tur kis" maiden, only to get into still more complicated situations. Mr. John Murray's quarterly magazine, "Science Progress," among its varied and interesting articles, gives the full text of a ecathing criticism which Mr. Alfred Noyes applied to literary charlatanism in an address to the Royal Society of Literature. He said: "On every side the same fight is being waged in art and letters as is being waged politically in Russia, a light not between old fogey- ; ism and bright young rebellion, but an I abnormal struggle between sanity and j downright insanity; between the conjstructive forces that move by law, and j the destructive forcee that, consciously jor unconsciously, aim at destroying real lvalues, at obliterating all the finer ! shades and tones in language and in. thought, and at exalting incompetence, i There ie an enormous difference between ' come of the destructive movements of I to-day and the progressive revolutions of the past. Up till about 30 years ago revolutions in art and letters had a way jof adding something of value to what jwe already possessed. The new revolutionists merely take away. They cay to the painter: It is unnecessary for you to know how to draw. (The Bolshevistic value of that statement, of course, can V estimated by the multitude that it ulmits into the fold). In poetry, your revolutionist invents no new metrical forms—that would involve a. difficulty, ! and the search among these people ie always for the easier way. He says, simply, you ehould abandon metrical form altogether, and he believes apparently that the regularly recurrent rhythms qf the tides, the stars, the human heart, and of almost every true poet from Homer to the present day. were an invention of Queen Victoria. His own contribution ie what he calls "free veree," and tie a brilliant writer said Tecently, "you might as well call eleep- ' ing , in a ditch 'free architecture.'"

THE NEW POLAND. DESCRIBED BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR. The creation of a united Poland, with a democratic constitution, and the liberation of its people from the thraldom in which they have been held for a hundred and thirty years, is one of the moat important results of the Great War. The new Poland comprises a population of thirty millions, and the existence of euch a_ free aelf-governing State must exercise an important influence upon the balance of power in Central Europe. But the stability of the new State is not only menaced by divisions within, but is threatened by enemies on the east, west and south. Bolshevik Russia has very reluctantly surrendered its hold over the province, which was so long under Muscovite rule, and German hostility and intrigue may be counted on as a permanent factor. Within, there is a population of five million Jews, who have, to a largo extent, remained alien, with German sympathies. A majority of them do not even speak the Polish language, and they lay claim to distinct treatment and the privilege of separate laws which were conceded to them in past centuries when Poland became a sanctuary for the Jews, who were driven out of every other country in Europe by relentless persecution.

All these difficulties and problems are set out in a book on "The New Poland,"* by Major Charles Phillips, M.A., late member of the American Red Cross 'Mission to Poland. Major Phillips gives a vivid account of his experiences, a graphic sketch of the country, its scenery, industries, commerce, inhabitants, and customs, a lucid statement of the provisions o f the constitution of the new Polish state, and pen portraits of Pilsudski, \Vitos, the "Peasant Premier," and Paderewski. FRIGHTFUL DEVASTATION. A gTeat deal has been published about the devastation suffered by Belgium and Franco in the war, but no country suffered more than Poland, which was invaded both from the east and the west, Russia and Austria. The coiintry was wrecked by four terrible years of ceaseless fighting, destruction, and devastation. Poles had been forced td-fight Poles—l,ooo,ooo of them in the Russian army against 500,000 in the Austrian and 400,000 in the German armies. Wave after wave of battling forces had swept back and forth over the length and breadth of Poland, until the country wa-3 completely stripped and pulverised. The suffering when the Red Cross Mission arrived in Poland was appalling. Old men and children were found lying in the gutter from hunger and weakness; wretched people covered your hand with kisses in gratitude for a bite j to eat. Twenty per cent of the children of the country were rickety or consumptive or crippled for lack of nourishment; two million labourers were unemployed, and 250,000 families destitute. The town of Lodz before the war wae the Manchester of the Continent, with 1.500 factories and mills and 200,000 workmen. When the Germane retired they systematically stripped it of every vestige of machinery it possessed, carting it off to enrich their own German factory centres. Engines which could

not be carried away were ruthlessly damaged. Major Phillips states that the ! people eet to work with such earnestness that in 1919 750,000 of its 2,500,000 spindles had been replaced, and 5,000 of! its 30,000 looms. Fifty-thousand textile \ workers were again employed. By February, 1922, the cotton output had equalled the pre-war figure of the same month. On the land, cultivation had been resumed, and fields were farmed' and gardened to their last ditch. Over a million and a-half of buildings, 60 per cent of them houses, were destroyed in Poland after 1914; some 2,500 of these were churches. Nevertheless, 50 per cent of the country's destroyed buildings are replaced now. i PADEREWSKI AS PRIME MINISTER. Major Phillips describes the advent of Paderewski, and hia appointment to the position of Prime Minister —a musician turned statesman, and directing the destinies of a nation of thirty millions, as "one of the greatest of ail the surprises of that astounding post-war period of shocks and readjustments, in which only the extraordinary and the paradoxical could at all stir" the jadetr world." He had known Paderewski before the war, and bears testimony to his remarkable gifts, not only as a "musician, but as an orator. His energy and

indomitable courage were exemplified throughout his remarkable career. The Constitution of Poland provides for equal suffrage. A woman may be elected to the presidency. The National Assembly elects the president. The Senate numbers one-fourth of the deputies in the Diet. No senator may be under forty years of age. One deputy » elected to every 50,000 of the population. "The Constitution is at once progressive and conservative. advanced and well weighed." Provision is made for its revision ten years hence on a vote of the National Assembly. Major Phillips gives an historical sketch of the past history of Poland, and describes the bitter ordeal through which its people have passed. He does not minimise the difficulties that lie ahead of the new republic, but believes that the sterling qualities of the people will enable them to pass through the ordeal triumphantly.

•"The. New Poland." hs Charles Phillips George Allen mid L'nwin, Ltd.

LITERARY DISCOVERIES.

The discovery in an old book of a large number of verses written by Jlilton in his boyhood looks like a literary event of great importance. Also it will raise hopes that other and more im-

portant discoveries relating to that and earlier time 3 are possible. The meagreness of our information about Shakespeare is most disappointing and exasperating. The Baconians are as active as ever, and one of their latest declared converts says that while there are 720 pages in the newest edition of ,Sir Sidney Lee's "Life," six would more than suffice to contain all that ia known with certainty about the life of Britain's greatest genius. The Milton discovery will revive the hope that somewhere in old manor houses, libraries, or record offices there lie data that will throw light on Shakespeare's career, and eettle the Shakespeare-Bacon controversy to the satisfaction of all- There may "even be hidden somewhere a new Shakespeare play. Shakespeare lived three hundred years ago, and scholars have not given up hope of finding some of the lost treasures of the golden age of Greek literature, hundreds of years before the Christian era. Sappho, first of women singers, and one of the greatest of all poets, survives in only two odes and some fragments. Many tragedies by the three greatest of the Greek dramatists have been lost. It is possible that from the monasteries of the East or the sands of Egypt—the latter have already yielded up very valuable manuscripts—some of these treasures may yet be recovered.