LITERARY GOSSIP.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18680, 1 May 1926, Page 13

LITERARY GOSSIP.

The '"Morning Toft" reviews Mr A. E. Mulgan's "The English of tho Liuo and Other Verses," and sa.vs that the author litis already a reputation as a poet. Verses from several poems are quoted, and the reviewer then remarks: "Ho lias found a place in ovorjea'? anthologies, and he is destined to find 0110 in those 'at home'—to use a phrase that is still congenial to tho lips of a poet who was born iu New Zealand, and who had never seen England till after tho war. Indeed, it is the English tradition that Mr Mulgan inherits. There is no hint in his poetry of new influences, whether of enviroiuent or period; and* there is a very strong hint of old influences—of Mr Jiudyard Kipling's, for example, to which may bo directly tn\eed tho principal poem in tho book, 'Tho English of tho Line.' But Mr Kipling would not bo ashamed of tho disciplo who has written so spirited a piece of rhythmical rhetoric, in praisa of tho British Tommy. Thero is a swing to the lines, and" a picturesqueliess in tlie phrases that catch in tho memory . . . But it would be a great mist ako to measure Mr Mulgnu's poetical quality only by such an apostrophe. He can 'write tho tender and beautiful, things, which only true pootry can ns in his poem 'lnarticulate,' liis ode to England, and his lines on The Unknown Warrior. In his ode thero are echoes of moro than one poet, but tho effect is not less memorable . . . Thero can be no question that Mr Mulgan has the stuff of poetry in him. A slip of the authentic English muse has been transplanted to Xew Zealand soil, and it is the more precious that the flower in its blossoming breathes still of tho English air and scent."

The "Observer" recently enlarged itSelf and added some new features. It had also the great good fortune to persuade Thomas Hardy to write those lines in celebration—"Tha Newspaper Soliloquises": Yes; y«s; I am old. In me appears The history of 4 hundred yearn; Empires', kings', captives' births and <fo»th»: Strange faiths, and fleeting shibboleths; Tragedy, comedy, throngs nxy page Beyond all mummed on any stage: Cold hearts beat hot, hot hearts be«t cold, And I beat on. Yen; yes;. J am old. Leonard Woolf, who _ combines the functions of publisher and literary critic, has been advising the poets that they would enormously benefit art by adopting the self-denying ordinance of a fifteen-year moratorium. The poetic currency, ho says, has for many years been subjected to an appalling system of inflation, and it is now thoroughly debased. Present-day poets arc "handing out the old, worn, worthless coins, the flimsy, greasy, poetic notes" that issued years ago, from the Golden Treasury. Mr Woolf's pessimism seems scarcely to be shared by other publishers. Heinemann, for instanco, has just produced a representative Ksollection of J. C. Squire's poems, and Collins is similarly issuing in a single volumo those of Edward Shanks. Borne hitherto unpublished poems by the late Arthur Clutton-Brock will constitute the second volume of the Julian editions.

Even our scientists nowadays are unable to resist the temptation to cultivate the Muse (according to H. W. Horwill, a correspondent of the "Manchester Guardian"). Sir Charles Sherrington, Professor of Physiology at Oxford, and recently President of the Royal Society, has completed a .book of lyrical and narrative poems entitled "Tho Assaying of Brabantius and Other Verse." Moreover, there is a revival of interest in poets whom one had rashly supposed to have beon long sinco forgotten. Even Jano Taylor's "little star" is beginning to twinkle again. Not only has the Bodley Head issued an l illustrated, edition of "Meddlesome Matty and Other Poems for Infant Minds," with an introduction by Edith Sitwell, but the Oxford University Press has added "Jane Taylor; Prose and Poetry" to its Miscellany Series. In his introduction tho editor, F. V. Barry, remarks that readers of the "Child's Garden" will fin& in Ann and Jane Taylor the great-aunts-in-literaturo of Robert Louis Stevenson. ,

Professor Gilbert Murray, whoso appointment as first incumbent of the Charles Eliot Norton Chair of Poetry at Harvard is announced, has .the strange gift of being able to read other people's thoughts under certain conditions! Professor Murray doesn't take his gift very seriously, and only occasionally uses it for the amusement of his friends. He regards it as a gamevery much like the parlour trickb with which most of us aro conversant. As a matter of fact, it is very difficult to get him to do it at all. Several months ago, however (so an exchange says), Professor Murray submitted to a test of his uncanny powers—if that's tho right way to put it—at a meeting held in the London home of Gerald Balfour. Among those present was Lord Balfour, who, at tho conclusion of the test, confessed that he had no explanation of what had happened.

Here is what happened, according to the report of the meeting printed in the London "Dallys News" at tho time: Professor Murray was sent out of the drawing room, the door of which was shut. Ho went to another room with a thirty-six foot room between him and tho drawing room. While he was out Lord Balfour said In a low voice: "1 am thinking of Robert Walpole talking in Latin to Georgs I." when Professor Murray camo into tho room ho said: "Something eighteenth century!" Lord Balfour nodded.' Professor Murray then said: "I don't think I shall get it. Dr. Johnson met George 111. in tho King's library; but) I am sura he is talking Latin to him, which he would not do. I don't think I shall get it right. Wait, I have, nearly got it. Eighteenth century; somebody talking .Latin to a King."

Many of the experiments were made with Mrs Arnold Toynbee (professor Murray's eldest daughter) as principal agent. The Professor holds the agent's hand while he is trying to re,ad the thought. One example, out of many, was when the agent thought of the girl in Tehekov's "Cherry Orchard" saying: "WJjcn I was in Paris, I went up in a balloon." Professor Murray entered the room and, after saying it was Bussian and out of a feoo'k, said: "De dura dum, do durn dum . . , up in a balloon. When I was in dumdum I went up in a balloon. When I was in Paris I went up in a balloon." Professor Murray says it is an effort of attention of a quite general kind. Noise interferes with the gift; and any irritation or anger in the room- acts like a loud noise and disturbs him. He suggests that the basis of his telepathy is subconscious sense perception. •{? two caßes the impression began witn a smell. Ope was the smell of •® l " nj#ls when the too bad bsen thought of. In another case he sewed the nm of opium or hashish when an opium night club was the subject.