NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20648, 10 September 1932, Page 13

NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

LITERARY CRITICISM. Criticism. By Desmond MaeCarthy. Pntnarn. 311 pp. (7s 6d net.) This is tho second volume in the collected. series of Mr MadCarthy's essays, and these are as good as tlie "Portraits" welcomed here some time ago. The preface admirably fixes Mr MacCartliy's critical point of view and defines his critical object, while it'elucidates in a few words what Mr Kellett, in his "Whirligig of Taste," left still in shadow; namely, the reason why works of art are so variously judged in different periods. One of the "disconcerting discoveries" which the student of literature should make is that beauty to which "aesthetic emotion" is the response resembles tho shimmer upon a butterfly's wing; told to the light at a particular anglo it may dazzle and delight, but shift that angle and what was before a/ blaze of beauty turns dun und brown in our hands. Each generation holds the butterfly to the light at a slightly different angle. All changes in aesthetic response are caused by changes in beliefs and morals. .... Aesthetic taste Is only further discrimination upon preferences determined by other causes. And since the "direction of our interests, whether intellectual or aesthetic, is decided by the times in which we live ; " it becomes one of the main duties of the critic, in expounding the literature of the past, to put the reader at the point o! view from which its contemporaries saw that literature, at tho same time, of course, judging it from his own; and, confronted by contemporary literature, to show its relations to the world to-day. Mr MacCarthy's example gives body to liis precept. There is no other critic now writing—it is difficult to think of any since Arnold —who deals so lucidly with the substance of art, the ideas it expresses; with its individual and personal character; and, in vital connexion, with the technique that gives it form and gives them voice. He says nothing to startle, much to arouse and direct. Ho is the kind of critic who sends the reader to the bookshelf, not with the vague purpose of self-improve-ment implanted by some writers about books, or with the equally vague enthusiasm generated by others, but with the definite wish to re-read,,to review, and to re-estimate. Mr MaeCarthy does this, for example, in his quite short essay on Browning:

If wo examine his mind we {shall discover its bent to (in spitn of it 3 religious and speculative curiosity) not that" of the philosopher, but of a very different typo, the advocate. Browning had the instincts,_ the faculties, and the zest of an incomparable special pleader. Tlie statement and defence of a case was tlio task which aroused his mind to its keenest acti%'ity. Sometimes the caso was one which ho wanted with all his heart to prove, more often one taken up because its defence and statement, put his master-faculty to the hardest tests. Advocacy was his ruling intellectual passion, and into its service ho pressed one of the moat vivid and alert imaginations in literature. Consider hid work: apart from lovo poems (though many of these are statements of cafes, speeches for the prosecution or the defence), apart from historic scenes in verse, the mass of it is composed of magnificent special pleadings, matchless for agility and verve, amazing; for the tactical skill with which advantage is taken of every stray strap of evidence, every weakness, every doubt upon the opposite side, to secure _ a favourable verdict {or his client or to mitigate a hostile one. Like (he horn advocate, the poet is never go formidable, übiquitous, and alive, as when ho stands for the ■weaker ride. He reminds one of a fighting engineer like Gordon, never so happy as when defending a position which seems hopelessly weak? by means of impromptu trenches, blankets, bales, and pneking-iases, keeping Uia enemy nt ba« with the slenderest resources deftly and daringlv employed. He i« attracted to subjects in proportion as they offer such opportunities. "The Ring and the Book" in a prodigious tour-de-force in stating; with incredible fullness and intricacy the case for each actor in the story. "Mr Sludge the Medium,". ''Aristophanes' Apology," "Bishop 'Blougram's Apology." were "subjects made to hiß hand," because they wero cases in which the defence was by no means easy. "Paracelsus" is the defence of a rate myotic, and "Sordello" the apology of a man who has failed to answer the call of his spirit. What is "The Grammarian's Funeral" but tho justification of an apparently useless dry-as-dust, or "Ivan Ivanovitch" but a. difficult murder trial, or "The Statue and the Bust" but an unexpected indictment of a couplo who in pleading innocence might well liavo hoped to have the Court willi them? And if the poet is grappling with the arguments of Strauss or confuting Rcnan through the mouth of St. John, is it not still emphatically a case ho ia elating? The dramatic soliloquy (Browning's specialty) is the form that lend 3 itself most readily to intimate justification. His very style is that of an advocate. He does not, like other poeta, bring you into the presence of the subject and leave you there, but he remains at your elbow, to see that not one point, no, "not the minutest, escapes you. You feel the pressure and ardour of his mind as of a man arguing with yon personally. He watches and interprets your thoughts, anticipating objections, forestalling in parentheses the possible trend of your thoughts, varefully netting you in a complexity of suggestion before he drives home his strongest point. Like an orator, he neyer suiinks from repeating himself; like a" orator, hp knows that once he has etaggere4 ycu, adumbrations, hints, faint corroborations, will carry weight; like an orator, he would sooner forget his subject ■ than his auditor. And all these processes are parried through with ft top speed rush. His obscurity is pot obscurity but swiftness of thought; op the surface of his page lies not darkness, but rather the quick dazzle of too much light. Lastly, in this master-faculty of his mind we discover also the secret of' his failure as a dramatist. He puts himself in the place of his character", lending them his quickness of. thought '' and imagination. He sees their motives" and actions through their own eyes; he has to a supreme degree the gift of dramatic sympathy. But dramatic sympathy, though it is necessary to the dramatist, is not sufficient by itself. The dramatist mast also Jmvp the power of contemplating characters from outside, of seeing them not "only as they appear to themselves, hut ejctemally in relation to other characters. Browning's characters derive their dramatic vividness rather from their relation to his own mind than from their relations to each other. Consequently' when he wrote drama, a. form which compels the commentator to ■ withdraw, the life and energy which his men and women possessed as long as he could explain thetn faded away.

That is excellent. Certainly it is not "new"; it is all implicit in what has previously been written about Browning. Others have walked the same hillside; but Mr MacCarthy's path leads to vanta;jj»-points from which the landscape conies better into sight and opens itself to- closer comprehension. Or again, how usefully is fin old term of criticism revived, explained, and applied, in tlio "Notes on the Novel": Invention: that is thp master quality of the novelist. A great noVel, as I have said, is tho reflection of a great man's experience of life; but it cannot be conveyed in the farm of a novel unless the writer has this specific faculty of invention. He must he ablo to dev-se a constant flow of incidents which will exhibit his characters. This may eeem a commonplace, but it iB one usually overlooked by reviewers and entirely forgotten by many intelligent authors who take to novel-writing-. Invention seems raiher more common in novelists who make no pretence to be artists or critics of life; ajid the result is that their novels are often better than those nf writers endowed with aesthetic sensibility, ideas, and psychological insight. Reviewers and critics are seldom peoole with g, talent for invention; on the other hand, they are usually appreciative of literary ability and cleverness. Consequently they over-value those qualities to the prejudice of the story-teller's specific faculty, and they do not even discuss stories which exhibit that faculty, if those stories dq not contain fine phrases pr arresting comments. Until it becomes an accepted fact that a vivid enumeration of particularities is not tho same as creating character, and that psychological analysis is only a means to making men and women seem real in a book, never an end. in itself, writers who are not novelists will continue to write novels.

The prevailing- defect of serious modern novels is a lack of interest in the normal, and an artifieHl heightening of moments in the liven vrhich thoy describe, either feeeau;*

those moments illustrate tome theory, or because they are queer. Nothing evaporates so quickly as the fascination of the queer, or dies sooner than a theory.'

The last sentence states in plain terms one of Mr Chesterton's most striking phrases—about the old stories being alive with the extraordinary adventures of normal people; the new, dead with the dull adventures of abnormal ones —but while Mr Chesterton's bright epigram kindles, only an interest that expires with it, Mr MacCarthy persuades the eye to follow his steady beam of light and penetrate with it all "These Bailen Leaves." There are not more than thirty essays in this book, raised from the oblivion of periodical files, and perhaps ten times that number could have been chosen without relaxing the standard; but they are enough to show the full play j of Mr MacCarthy's mind, from its J widest and strongest grasp to its light- j est touch. THE FAR EASTERN SCENE j Russia and the Soviet Union in the Far East. By Victor A. Yakhontoff. Allen and Unwin. (18s net). This is in more than one respect a noteworthy book. It is the first work of historical reasearch by a former Tsarist official, living abroad and owning no allegiance to Marxist doctrines, which has beep assisted by the Soviet authorities to the extent of placing at the author's disposal unpublished material from their archives. M. Yakhontoff, liku all competent historians, roundly condemns Russian policy in the Far East during the last years of the Tsarist regime; and he writes with sympathy of the Communist movement in China. But he displays no parti pris in his handling of facts, and does not attempt to make history the handmaid of Marxist, or any other, propaganda. • M. Yakhontoff has another qualification. Many Russians have claimed that the geographical situation of their country, on the confines of Europe and Asia particularly, entitles them to interpret the East and the West to each other. The events of the last. fifteen years, by removing Russia from the orbit of the great European Powers, have emphasised her unique position vis-a-vis the Far East. M. Yakhontoff exercises an independence of thought of which Anglo-Saxon writers on the subject are rarely capable. He can, for instance, understand and share Japanese bewilderment at an American policy which loudly demands the "open door" in China, but thinks the Monroe Doctrine and stringent immigration laws good enough for the American continent. And he quotes with effect the somewhat naive) recommendation of an English professor of economics that the European races should solve the problem of over-popu-lation" by migration to America, Africa .and Australasia, and the Asiatic races by migration to—other parts of Asia. The slogan "Asia (with reservations) for the Asiatics and the World, for the Europeans" is one which consciously or unconsciously, lies at the root of nearly everything that is written in Europe on the Far Eastern question. After a full introductory section on "Old Russia and the Far East," M. Yakhontoff • comes to the post-War period; and the most interesting chapters in his book aro perhaps those in which he discusses the progress of Communism in China. Tfyo Russian specific does not, he admits, entirely meet Chinese requirements. Sun-Yat-Sen, and after him the Kuomintang, bluntly rejected the panacea of class- , warfare, which has not indeed much meaning when applied to Chinese conditions. In Europe, Bolshevism has been associated with a reaction against Nationalism. In China, conditions are nearer those prevailing in Europe more than a hundred yoars ago, when Revolution and Nationalism were the twin bugbears of conservatism. The period of the organisation of Chinese Com; munism under the expert guidance of Borodin and his coadjutors came to an abrupt end in the reaction of 1927; for the Chinese appear to have as kee& a dislike of foreign revolutionaries as of foreign capitalists. The seeds sown were non'e the less fruitful. The Chinese Communist Party as a centralised organisation has remained almost ludicrously weak. 'But M. Yakhontoff'fi estimate that "early in 1930 ... at least 30,000,000- of China's population of 400,000,000 were living under regional communistic regimes," though it may startle most English readers, will not be found exaggerated hy those most familiar with the present-day situation in China. The degree of organisation achieved by these local regimes, and the extent to which their precept and practice correspond to the Soviet pattern of Communism, are points on which, unfortunately practically no evidence is available.

It is on the whole a good thing that the present work was completed before the recent occurrences in ' Manchuria and at Shanghai.- The author has not been distracted by such immediate, though Jess fundamental, issue? as that of Japan's obligations under the Covenant of the League or the Kellogg Pact; but he presents us with an excellent sketch of the background against which the Sin 9-Japanese drama is being enacted. M, Yakhontoff's book broadens out from a study of Russia's positionin the Far East into a . review of the whole Par Eastern question. He says quite enough to demonstrate the consistency and tenacity of Japanese policy, and even to show that Japanese tactics have pot varied perceptibly during the past thirty years. At various dates between the declaration of Korean t( independence'' in 1895 and the formal annexation of Korea by Japan in IP 10, Japan gave the most explicit pledges of her innocence' of any territorial ambitions in that country; and there seems no reason to doubt that the sfime pledges given during the last pis months in regard to Manchuria will be crowned by the same consummation. On the other hand, occasional Japanese encroachments on the mainland of» China proper have always in the long run been abandoned in deference to pressure from the Powers; and this precedent sepms likely to bo .followed in the case of the present occupation of Shanghai. But these questions are unsuitable for discussion within the limits of a review. Enough has been said to show both the wide scope and the topical interest of M. Yakhontoff's able work.—From the ' 'Speet&tor.''

UMCKALABOISTS. (1) The Treatment of Tuberculpsis with Umckalabo. By Dr. Adrian Bechehaye. B. Tracer and Co. 162 pp. (tl) Tuberculosis: Its Treatment and Cure with the Help of Umckalabo. By aa English Pbysielan. B. Fraser and Co. 153 pp. These two books, one by a Swiss, the other by an English doctor, are well and temperately written and show no trace of being "inspired" by a commercial interest. The question is: Does

Umckalabo (Stevens's Cure) cure consumption 1 Both physicians are of the opinion that it does. They give many case histories to support their view*— admittedly an unreliable form of evidence but the only sort that can possibly be given. The British Medical Association regards the "cure" as sheer quackery, absurd, useless, and, because of its diversion of attention from sanatorium treatment, a public danger. In "Secret Remedies" the British. Medical Association said so very plainly, and Mr Stevens brought a libel action against the Association. However, ho lost it, and had to pay up £2OOO into the bargain. Two thousand pounds was evidently not a crippling matter; for he still employs fifty assistants to prepare and distribute his "Consumption Cure" to all parts of the world. Not only is TTmckalabo a fine sonorous name, but it has the usual romantic history of nostrums. Many years ago Mr Stevens was suffering from consumption, or thought he was. In th 6 Orange Free State ho met an old Basuto tribal doctor who clicked and grunted and then prepared a decoction of a scarce veldt root, which ho told Mr Stevens to swallow. Mr Stevens swallowed; the consumption left him; and he then set about telling the good tidings to his fellow-man. One important difference between Mr Stevens and most other reformers, however, is that whereas they generally must be content with poverty the Umekalaboist has been singularly blessed.

THE ATONEMENT. The Atonement in Experience. By ZMWI Arpee. Allen and Unwia. (5i net.) This little book is divided into three parts, the first dealing with sin and repentance, the second with God in the act of redemption, and the third with the ministry of reconciliation. The perennial problem of the meaning of Christ's Atonement is the theme witE which Mr Arpee deals, and his treatment of the subject is both valuable and competent. No recent writer has dealt so well with ' the doctrine of Atonement in the Epistle to the Hebrews. Mr Arpee claims that no complete and satisfactory explanation of the Atonement can be fonnd unless it covers the following facts: the actual events of Christ's passion; His own and His apostles' views of it; the Old •Testament perspective to it; the psychology underlying both Old and New Testament teaching on the subject; the experience of the Church as recorded in biography, missions, evangelism-, and hymnody; the general scheme of orthodox Biblical theology; all theories of the Atonement as far as they present phases of the truth; human experience in so far as it affords analogies to the Atonement of Christ. It need hardly be supposed that in a book of 155 pages the above facts are dealt with adequately. But that is not the author's purpose, and he has produced a book which is a credit both to his heart and his head. The discerning reader will wish to hear more from* Mr Arpee in the future. > '

AN OtJTLINE OF SCIENCE. The Story of Science. ' By David Diet*Allen and Unwin. 387 pp. (10/6 net.)

The aim of . the book is to give the enquiring layman a unified and organised view of the achievements and tendencies of modern science. It bcginß with "The Story of the Universe," proceeds to "The Story of the Earth," then to "The Story of the Atom,'' and ■ finally to "The Story of Life," from the microscopic forms up to the present climax in the brain of man. Dr. Diets lias spared no pains to select the moat significant discoveries of science - in all these fields and then, with .tho proper amount of restrained enthusiasm, to con- , noct them in a running, valuable account, very delightful to read. Nowhere ~ is tho story unbalanced; but a special word of praise is due to tho author for the astronomical, section, and for that' which deals with modern researches into - the structure of the atom and their mathematical counterparts in the theory of quanta and the general theory of relativity. About fifty photographs, * charts, and diagrams add considerably to the attractiveness and usefulness of the boolc. . ' ■; .

AN INFORMAL ECONOMIST. Honey Power, Mid Sum an Life. By Fred Henderson, Allen and TTnwisu I»td.' 2015 pp. (0a nst,) ; . "The outstanding* fact in the world'* life tordoy," says Mr Henderson, "i» that while financially wo are passing through hard time? —tiroes, in which we cannot afford visible abundance at our disposal in the world's actual wealth of supplies is greater than it haa eyer been *in human history. . . . Our hard times are in no way related to the physical - reality of things. They are, let- itagain be emphasised, . financial hard times." The book is an exempt-to explain money and the policy een- , trolling it in relation to the actual experiences ©f everyday lifei Mr Henderson holds that the depression is entirely a consequence of the tendency to regard money as wealth in itself and to disable it from effective 1 service as a medium of exchange and distribution. His- analysis of the nature and the functions pf money is clear and useful; but his explanation, of the crisis .is suspiciously Bimple. , After all, there is sijch a thing disequilibrium of pioducjion; and this, ■ and not faulty monetary ppliqy, ia probably the root cause of thp' depressiori.

TRAVELLING PHILOSOPHER^. Three Laqda on W&Mta. By fan juid Cora Gordon' George (J. mrrap juid Co., j,td. 358 pp. im n new This is ostensibly an account of a tour through Prance, England, and Ireland in a motor-cycle and side-car. Actually it is a collection of frequently profound and* invariably amusing essays about men and places. The authors are not tourists recording first impressions. They know the countries they visitj and the incidents of their journey • are excuses for imparting their knowledge in a pleasantly frivolous manner. Half the charm of the bopk lies in the illustrations, which are the work of the authors themselves.