NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12484, 21 April 1906, Page 7

NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS.

One of tho least, agreeable features of the new journalism it. is to be feared is its divorce from literature: at any rate, we seem to mis-- in the newspaper-* of to-day the finer flavour of literature and philosophy which pervaded tin* writings of some of the older journalists. This conviction is strengthened when one roads tho volume of "Brief Literary Criticisms." by the late Richard Holt Hutton, which, we are very glad to see, lias been brought out. in the charming "Even-ley Series" of Macmiilan and Co. Ot Hutton it may be .aid that he was one of those 'line, spirits" of tlie older journali-ni, who, when he took pen in hand, ever seemed ""touched to fine issue.-." In point, of -style he is. no doubt, equalled, and po-sibiy excel led, by Mr John Morley. who. to a fine appreciation of literature, adds a keen logical intellect, and a philosophic mintt. Hinton's powers ol logic were not **o keen, but he pa-ses.-ied a warmth of human .sentiment, and a reverence tor that, which lies deeper than plummet can sound in the great oceans of tii." unknown, which we mi-- in tho writings of Mi Morley, who views

everything in the high, dry light of cold critical analysis. It was in his philosophic articles on religious subjects that Hutton, as editor of the •"Spectator," gave that journal a tone which distinguished it from oil other lay newspapers, but. as the present collection shows, when ho wrote on literary subjects he managed to invest hLs writings with ineffable charm. To a wealth of knowledge, used to tho best _dvantage without ostentation, he added the power of judgment exercised always in a spirit of sweet. reasci-.able-nc._., which convinces the reader, even against his will, while it captivate-, hi.-, affections. The merest hint sufficed him for a text on which to hang his most delightful essays. Take, tor example, the opening article on 'Hookishness and. Literature." A ehiiK-e remark by Sir John Lubhock to thr> effect that there wa.-i no danger of tlii.« English people becoming a r-.ntion of bookworms, leads .Mr Hutton to oon.sidcr how far a national litei.iture is affected hy the absence of •■ii.;oki>uiu-->.*" on the part of the people, and In.' comes to the conclu.-itin that .-.•> tar from ,-uch alx-enee being unlavourable to literature, that i-pocial trait in the. Kugli.*ii ck.ararter l- the veiy reason why our literature is as great a*. it it*. A liwiki-h i>ei-j)le. lie hold*, cannot produce the greatest books, if we mean by the greatc-t. books miiuctliit!_: ni':re than monuments of investigatic:i or learning, namely. living j.oweii-. powers that stir the heart. Homer, who Man not a bookish man, wrote a. hook that- had t.he hie cf a whole world in it, while Kuripede.-. S:;p!iock.-, and po-ihly even -—-chylns '■ were in a be use bookish, and niado you feel that the life they dealt with was, a:-, il were, the distilled water ot lite, not- the water of lilt: as it bubbled up trom the hesh earth." One of the greatest English writers. Milton, was undoubtedly a bookirdi man, but where, Mr Hutton asks, would even he stand bei-ide Shakespeare, who is the most unbookish man who ever wrote great book.-:" The whole es-ay is i-uggeritivo and full of charm. Mr Hutton's eriticisniN of Dickens, Wordsworth, Scott, George Eliot, Matthew Arnold, Browning, and other great writers are alike sympathetic and luminous. It. would have been a thousand pities had ! then 3 delightful essays been left embedded in the tiles ot -The Spectator," I and our thanks are due to Hutton':. niece, Mi*s Rc-scoc tor having selected and edited the collection, and to ; Messrs Maemillan and Co. for having given them to tho world in Mich an 'attractive form. (London: Mttv-is iMacMillan and Co., Ltd.)

"Tho Yarn of Old Harbour Town," by Mr W. Clark Russell, is yet another iilustration of the author's extraordinary fertility an a writer of sea tales. The period is just, lie fore Trafalgar. Among tho inhabitants of "Old Harliour Town" aro old Admiral Sir William Lawrence and Captain Acton, R.N. (retired). Tinlatter has a charming daughter, Lucy, and the former a handsome ne'er-do-well sou, who, falling in love with Lucy, and being refused on account of his wilrl ways, incontinently abducts the damsel and carries her off in a vessel of which he has been given command. Both tlm Admiral and tho girl's father set off in pursuit of him in another craft, and once more Mr Clark Russell is in his element in describing "the way of a ship in the sea." On tho voyage they fall in with Nelson's fleet then in pursuit of Villenouve, and this gives tlie opportunity for a stirring piece of description. Tho further unravelling of the plot may be left to the reader, but already enough lias been said to show that it does not err on the side of probability. (London : T. Fisher Unwin, Paternoster square. Christchurch: Whitcombe and Tombs. 2s 6d.) "The A.B.C. of Parliamentary Procedure," by W. Marshall Freeman, bar-rister-at-lair, Speaker of tho Birmingham Parliament, and J. Carson Abb-'tt, MB., M.S., Speaker of the Astou Manor Parliament, is a handbook which will be found very useful not only by Parliamentarians, but by memlwrs of local bodies and debating societies, in fact by all who have to do with public debate, seeing that the Hcuso of Commons' procedure is the great standard to which appeal is made in settling rules of dieousHion. In an appendix rules aro given for the conduct of a local Parliament or Parliamentary debating society. (London: Butterwoith nnd Co., 11 and 13 Bell Yard, Te.mo'e Bar.)