LITERARY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 130, 2 June 1923, Page 18

LITERARY.

A practical application of certain cardinal principles of political economy to a study of the chief causes and consequences of the existing instability of prices and production, has been made by £. M. Lloyd, in "Stabilisation." (George Allen and' Unwin.) The author sketches a programme of currency reorganisation based on the plan approved at the Genoa Conference for stabilising the geueral level of prices by international cooperation between the Central Banks; and suggests an extension of the same principle of stabilisation to particular commodities such as coal, oil, wheat, cotton, rubber, arid other staple raw materials and foodstuffs. A comprehensive policy of stabilising prices aud production by international co-operation, in the interests of producers and consumers alike, is put forward as the best means of combating .agricultural and industrial depression and of checking an otherwise inevitable drift towards a further period of high prices and profiteering

The two works by Charles Bandouin on suggestion and auto-suggestion have been followed by a third, entitled "The Power Within Us," a translation of which, from tlie French, has been published by George Allen and Unwin. Proceeding from the premises that mental phenomena, are real causes, having an • action not only upon other mental phenomena, but also on the body, through j the working of natural laws, be proceeds to shew how this faculty can be* applied through the medium of autosuggestion. He lays special stress upon 'the culture of our own persqnality, which involves a searching examination into our own powers. One important matter iv this connection is to ascertain the physical and mental aptitudes requisite for each profession and the extent to ,which they arc developed in a person seeking vocational guidance. On these subjects M. BandoOin writes lucidly and in popular style.

"The Mallee Fire, and Other Verses," by Charles H. -Souter (Angus and Robertson)', describes country life in Australia from twenty to thirty years asro. Originally printed in current literature, the poems form an interesting contribution to that volume of Australian verso which has done more perhaps to extend our knowledge of tho life, experiences, and feelings of the backblock settler than the sketches and stories of prose writers. The author makes free use., of tho slang and picturesque phrases that were current among men on the land, and there are many allusions to tho bird life of Australia and the natural difficulties with which the settler had to contend, at a time when the price of wheat ranged from half-a-crown to one and threepence a bushel, and the yield, under primitivo forms of cultivation, was eight bushels per acre. The author made an excursion overseas, the outcome of which is represented by a number of chanties and verses on England.

. Mr. Bernard- Gilbert has inscribed the fourth volume of his "Old England" series with the title, "The Rural Scene." 'He again describes in verse, written in the 'dialect of Lincolnshire, the daily life of the English farmer and villager. Tho poems are divided into two parts —peace and war—and some ol them express the bitterness that was felt towards "the sturdy young bachelor riding about his farm on horseback, or going to market to sell his crops at un-heard-of prices, whilst his married labourers were being killed to defend him." 'Mr. Gilbert endeavours' to show, however, that there is -much to be said for the farmer. He is an ardent champion of rural life, and believes that cities are dwarfing to man's average intelligence. He pictures "England returning in the twentieth century to something like Elizabethan days under a modified feudal system, and possibly under Roman Catholicism, with about one-third of her present population." There is much quaint humour in the poems, and they create a picture of the ways of the English villager and his outlook on life with an insight that is convincing and entertaining, written by a man who was reared among the people he describes and thoroughly understands them. The book is published by Collins and Sons; our copy from Whitcombe and Tombs. "The Lass of the Sword,' 'by C. E. Lawrence (John Murray), is a medieval romance, with the usual concomitants of love nnd chivalry, feirfs of arms and hairbreadth escapes. Rosalind, daughter of a noble, has fallen, when an infant, into the possession of a brutal soldier, and been brought up by him as drudge in a peasant household- £he discovers that the people who claim parental althOrity are not her father and mother, and Ivheri threatened with a forced marriage deserts her home. At the outset a gallant knight, Seeking distinction, comes upon the scene, "and the story follows the fortunes Of this interesting pair. Baron -G. V. Romberg, a German diplomat, has publisned a series of dispatches, which passed between Paris and Petrograd prior to the war, shewing that, in the Russian Orange Book, these were deliberately falsified, for the purpose of throwing responsibility for the war entirely on Germany. He contends that tlie true cause of the war was the irreconcilable Balkan policies of Austria and Russia, and that France encouraged Russia in warlike action by promising unconditional support. Messrs. George Allen and Unwin have published an English translation of this book, which has been made by Major Cyprian Bridge. "Pippin," by Archibald Marshall (Collins, per Whiteombe and Tombs), is the story of a young man, tired of tho monotony of life at the farm on which i he has been reared, who sets out afoot through the English countryside to see life and make his way, and on his return meets odd, interesting, pathetic, and ludicrous people, and has surprising experiences and adventures a-plenty. He travels through tlie rural districts, makes acquaintance with various tramps, reaches the great metropolis, and supports, himself as waiter in a bar, and obtains generally an insight into human nature. Archibald Marshall, with his love of the quiet beauty of English scenery and his intimate knowledge of it, his limpid and delightful style, has written a novel which is of unusual charm. "The Red Star," by A. R. l"alk, is the latest addition to the N.S.W. Bookstall series of" Australian novels. It is a detective story with Sydney as the chief scene of. action. "Seaways," by "Bartimeus" (Cassell, per Cbamptaloup Edmiston), is a new volume of snort stories which depict, with a master hand, the perils, the glamour and the chivalry of life at sea. Every one of them reveals pictures intensely vivid, clear-cut, and tempered by the light and shade of human passions and human emotions,. . .

"The Wilderness," by Amy Eleanor Mack (Angus and Robertson) is an attractive booklet descriptive of the aninials, birds and insects that frequent an Australian garden wilderness. They are a gay and entertaining fraternity, whose ways the author describes with the enthusiasm of a nature lover. In "Christianity and Auto-suggestion," the authors, C. Harry Brooks and Rev. Ernest Charles, institute a comparison Mr. Cove's method of self-healing aftd the teaching of Christ on cognate subjects: "Finding between them," they state, "an essential harmony, we attempt to place autosuggestion in its true position in Christian life and thought, and to utilise the Christian dynamic for extending and deepening its power. The secular practice of auto-suggestion continues unaltered, but side by side with it we attempt to erect, in essential outlines, a Christian practice of auto-suggestion." The book reveals in simple language the part played by suggestion in the miracles of Christ, and examines the relation or autosuggestion to prayer and faith. The publishers are George Allen and Unwin. "THE NEW REPUBLIC." AN OLD SENSATION RECALLED. . (By Cyrano.) There died the other day in England one of those writers who live mainly, or entirely, by one book. W. H. Mullock was a pupil of the great Jowett at Oxford, and lived into the profoundly new time of 1023. During. a long life he wrote much. He was a novelist, and he discussed philosophy, religion and politics. Revolting against the Liberalism of his day, he stood for individualism against the encroaching powers of the .State, aud worked actively against Radical and Socialist tendencies. His "Critical Examination of Socialism," published iv 1908, is one of the standard books on the Conservative side of the great controversy. Apparently neither this controversial work nor his novels brought him in very much, for in the last years of his life he enjoyed a Civil List pension. The tragedy of his literary life was that his first book, "The New Republic," published in 1577. when he was 28, was probably his best, and was certainly the most widely read of his imaginative works.- It was full of promise, but the promise was only partly redeemed. "The New Republic" is good reading to-day, though the religious and economic controversies that it enshrines have largely moved to new ground. In the late 'seventies and tlie 'eighties it must have been almost dazzling in its daring, its wit, the uncanny success of its parodies, and the ease of its style. Disraeli figures in a delightful story about the book. Some one urged him to read it and, by giving it his approval, help a promising young man who would be of use to the party. Tlie old cynic, grumbling, sat down there and then and wrote that he was going down to the country for a week, and "would that my solitude could be peopled by the bright creations of Mr. •Mullock's fancy." There was, however, no need for such a puff. Tlie book caused a resounding sensation on its merits, and no wonder, for Mr. Mallock got together a»number of the famous men of his time under thin disguises and made them talk freely, each in his own style. In those days, it must bo remembered, revolt against orthodoxy was now, and to moßt people terrible.

A young Englishman of culture, wealth, and good social position, who has inherited a country estate from a pagan uncle, invites these celebrities and some ladies to a house party and sets them discussing religion and the tendencies of the age. Dr. Jenkinson, the central figure, is Jowett, whom Mr. Mallook did not like, and we have it on the authority of Mr. G. W. E. Russell that the sermon ho preaches in the book is an extraordinarily faithful copy of Jowett's style. Mr. Storks is Huxley (at least so a note in my copy says), Mr. Stockton is Tyndall, Mr. Herbert, Ruskin, and Mr. Luke is Matthew Arnold. A young Oxford iconoclast called Saunders I cannot bo sure of, but I believe he wa3 W. K. Clifford. Saunders is fiercely rationalistic, denying tho existence of God with contemptuous passion, describing Christianity as a "deadly malaria," and taking with supreme cocksureness an entirely material view of progress. Mr. Storks is also rationalistic, but even he protests angrily when Saunders foresees the higher philosophy of tho future recognising prostitution as "an honourable and beneficial profession." Ruskin is drawn to tho life as Mr. Herbert. His replies to the materialism of Saunders are in the very Ruskin manner. " Your mjiid, my good sir, that you boast of is so occupied with subduing matter, that it is entirely forgetful of subduing itself —a matter, trust mc, that is far more important." -Had lie his way, he declares, he would "make a clean sweep of all the improvements that the present day so mtich vaunts," Mowing up all the manufacturing towns for a start. Jlr. Luke does not do justice to MatthewArnold's charm, but this does not seem to be very far from the original: " 'Really now.' said Mr. Luke, in a voice whose tone seemed to beseech everyone to be sensible, 'personal immortality and a personal Deity are no doctrines of Christianity.'" —.

The book has charm of wit and epigram and grace of style. "He was one of those of whom it is said till they are thirty, that they will do i|iraothing; till they are thirty-fivej that they might do something if they cftose; and after that, that they might have done anything if they had chosen." "A cynic'is a kind of inverted confessor, perpetually making enemies for the sake of what he knows to be false." "Conscience, in most souls, is like an English Sovereign —it reigns, but does not govern. Its function is merely to give a formal assent to the bills passed Iby the passions." There is some admhv able verse, some serious, some light. This should find its way into anthologies of light poetry: Let others seek for wisdom's way In modern science, modern wit — I turn to- love, for all .that these, These two can teach, Is taught by it. Yes, all. In" that first hour we met. And smiled and spoke so soft and long, love, Did wisdom dawn; and I began To disbelieve in right and wrong, love. Then, as love's gospel clearer grew. And I each day your doorstep trod, love, I learned that love was all in all, And rose to, disbelieve in God, love. Yes. wisdom's book! you taught mc this, And ere I half had read you through, love. I learned a deeper-wisdom yet— I learned to disbelieve in you, love/ So now, fair teacher, I am wise. And free; 'tis truth that makes us free, love, But you—-you*re pale! grow wise as I, And learn to disbelieve in mc, loiie. Since "The New Republic" is still in the shops, presumably there continues to be some demand for it. It has qualities of insight and eloquence, beauty and wit, pathos and humour, fused in a fine mastery of English, all of which should save it from oblivion for some time longer.