BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 300, 12 September 1908, Page 12

BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

VERSES OLD AND NEW, CUT OF THE GREAT OF OLD THEE, I looked from a temple - ■ - Walled round with the yean, I hgard a great people Make moan of its feara With high lamentation. With no sound of tears. For this land's more honour We fought, and we fed Our hunger of living With sorrow for bread, And unto our shadows ■ Now have men saidLet the dead Past bury its dead. We knew not a blessing Of still fruitful years, Nor hearthi-fire nor kindred Might comfort our fears, ,We that were dreamers Strong swordsmen and Eeers. The feet of the people Walk safe where we led, For they shall lie softly Where we made a bed, 'And mocking with laughter Now have men said— - Let the dead Past bnry its dead., s-Ethei Talbot, in the "Westminster Gazette." BE NOT AFRAID. Be not afraid; it was some wise . • Daemon amid that glade of . Fate Tore off the'bandage from our eyes And stamped, us mate and mate. I am all yours. I kneel, I burn, Feel every naked rushing nerve 'And tendril of my being, yearn For you; for you I starve!. I am all yours. What creature eke Exists but you? Passion divine , Pursued * through half-a-thousana hells I make, I keep you minel Endless yon yield what else none gives,' That torturing, aoute'st bliss That quenches self-hood while it lives Enheavened in your kiss. So as the eagle on his ledge Huddles and broods above his prey Eternal terrors in me rage Lest,some one take away; Lest I-be not the universe" For you (as you, my mate, for me) Of every sense—all that confers This fearful ecstasy. None other living shall feel thns The blaze consummate light the breast. For like Death I am covetous i Of this too perfect zest; None shall share what possesses ua Nor what I have possessed! , —Herbert Trench, in the "Nation." THE COUNTRYMAN. ■ I am' sick of the sizzling arc-lights—l want a , country moon; Your cities and towns they weary me midnight or morn or noon. I want the full moon o'er the tree-tops, in the whispering country night, Instead of the brazen electric lamps with ; their blue and garish light— Oh!'I want to go home. The scents of your pit-like streets appal a man with a heart, - And I will not famish here all my life—nor ' even a further.part Of my life. I long to break free from'these daik and horrible dreams, And in place of unmusical feminine mirth hear laugnter of little streams— Oh! I want to go home. 'Machine-made airs: of mechanical fans fail when the country breeze Flies to my mind—tho great, strong wind pouring through clean pine trees— -. My ears are stunned with the; vile cab-calls, shrill and piercing and long, But I mask my face, : though my. heart cries out for the sound of a blackbird's song— ' - Oh! I want to go home. Is there a man on the countryside who desires to return to the town? ■ - I ask for unfeasible 'things—but how swiftly I would go down ... •.- Exchanging with him the whole of my life, if I could, for a single year In the places I know whore the heather can grow and a city is nowhere near— Oh! I want to go homo. —Bertram Atkey, in "St; James' Budget." THE ART OF OPENING, • ■ Ba it history, essay, _ romance, _ scientific tract, or sermon,' there is an admirable art; of opening. Every writer ambitious of distinction, must have, striven for the right beginning, yet not all the great' ones have achieved it. Are there precepts'? It is not easy to show them, inasmuch as every good beginning is a precept in itself,'and of good beginnings there are many kinds. . The reader should be so far an adept'in "his delightful recreation as to know bv instinct whether the writer has led off well, indifferently, or jll. The first sentence of Macaulay's "History"—"l purpose to write ' the history ofEngland from the accession of King James tho Second down to a time which is within the memory of ■ men ' still living," is suffii' ciently direct, but less engaging to ear and eye than : Gibbon's beginning of the "Decline and Fall":—" In the second century of the Christian Aera, the Empire of . Rome comprehended the fairest part, of the earth,, and the most civilised portion of mankind." Among political addresses, the exordium of Walpole's speech on .the Peerage Bill , (inGeorge I's reign) is often quoted :— "Among the Romans, the,,wisest people upon earth, the Temple of Fame was placed behind the Temple of Virtue, to denote that there was no coming to the Templo of Fame but through that of Virtue. But if this Bill is passed, one of the most powerful incentives to virtue would be taken away, since there would be, no arriving at honour but. throughthe winding-sheet of an old, decrepit lord, or the grave of an extinct family—a policy very different-from that glorious and enlightened nation who made it their pride to hold out' to the world illustrious examples of merited elevation." A powerful and artistic opening, marred by a tiny but most flagititious error of omission in the last clause of the second sentence. Junius is in general extremely-effective at tho start:— "Tho submission of a free people to tho executive authority of government is no moro than a compliance with laws which they themselves havo enacted." Yet he is capablo of two grammatical blunders in such ail execrable first sentence as this :— "While Parliament was. sitting, it would neither have been' safe, or, perhaps, quite regular, to offer any opinion to tho public upon the justice or wisdom , of their proceedings." Turn to one or two of the essayists. Bacon is almost always a magnificent beginner:— "It was an high speech of Seneca (after the manner of tho -Stoics) that tho good things which belong to prosperity are to be wished; but the good things that belong to adversity aro to bo admired." "A king is a mortal god on earth, unto whom the living God hath lent His own name as a great honour; but withal told him lie should die like a man, lest ho should bo ' proud, and flatter himself that God hath with His name imparted unto him His naturo also." In stately and well-chosen terms Sir Thomas Browne begins the second part of the "Christian Morals" with a sentence in which he thrice repeats himself:— "Punish not thyself with pleasure; glut not thy senso with palliative delights; nor revenge tho contempt of temperance by the penalty of satiety." Almost any opening of Addison's might be chosen, for its artistry, its' humour, or its finely-pointed malice. From speculations aB to tho fate of Dr. Sschoverell (or had the Lords already found him guilty?) and inquiries as to what Marlborough was doing in tho Netherlands, the wits and big-wigs of the coffee-houses must havo come eagerly to tho reading of the famous No. 1 of the "Spectator, in which Addison strikes up with a characteristic note of banter: — "1 have observed that a reader seldom peruses a book with pleasure till ho knows whether the writer of it bo a black or a fair man, of a mild or choloric disposition, married or a bachelor, with other particulars of tho like nature, that conduce very much to tho right understanding of an author." Macaulay, in his "Essays," is often a curiously inoffectivo beginner (for a writer, we rnnnn. who has easily at command almost

every, expedient of tho craft), but he occasionally throws off in. a .fine hilarious vein: — "The work of Dr. Nares has filled us with astonishment similar to that which Captain Lemuel Gulliver felt when first lie landed in Brobdingnag, aud saw corn as high as the oaks in tho New Forest, thimbles as large as buokets, and wrens of tho bulk of turkeys." Professor Miuto/ by tho way, has noted now Macaulay koptup to the last his familiarity with Swift,'Cervantes,'Danto, Bunyan, the Arabian' Nights; and tho Bible, for tho purposes of literary illustration. Lamb makes his,bqw f in a stylo inimitably his. own, .and with, a, felicity beyond compare. It is a piece of deft simplicity such as this: "Ihavean almost feminine partiality for old china," or something fantastic or drolly hyperbolical as.in. that portentous first sentence on "Poor Relations":— "A Poor Relation is tho most irrelevant thing in nature—a piece of impertinent correspondency—an odious approximation—a haunting •• 1 conscience — a preposterous shadow, lengthening in the noontide of our prosperity—an unwelcome remembrancer —a perpetually recurring mortification—a drain on your purse—a moro intolerable dun upon your pride—a drawback upon success —a rebuke, to your rising—a stain in your blood—a blot on your escutcheon —a rent in your garment—a death's head at your banquet-rAgathocles' pot—a Mordecai in your gate—a Lazarus at your door —a lion in your path—a frog in your chambor—a fly in your ointmentr-a mote in your eye—a triumph to your enemy, an apology to your frionds—-the one thing hot needful—the hail in harvest—the ounce' of sour in a pound of j sweet." The sentence is Rabelasian in its' wealth of; illustration, vocabulary,. and piling up of the effect. - • Of Stevenson we have little at hand that is of his choicest', but what a vivacious play of fancy marks 'this" opening of the essay on " Talk/and Talkers "There can to no fairer ambition than to excel in'talk; to be'affable, gay, ready, clear, and Welcome;, to have a fact, a thought, or an illustration, pat to every subject; and, not only to cheer the flight of time among our intimates, but bear our part in that great international congress, always sitting, where public, wrongs aro first declared, public- errors first corrected, and tho course of public opinion shaped, day by day, ;) littlo 'nearer'. to' the; right." In fiction examples might be multiplied, but we may not multiply them. Who begins thus?— l '• " I was ever of opinion that the honest man who married , and brought up a large i family did moro- service that ho who continued single, and only talked of population." Who but Goldsmith, in tho "Vicar of Wakefield " ? ' The opening sentence, observes a carefiil' H critic, '"'touches the heart of the story'; it!is. sententious; 'but its sentiment is instantly lightened .by a ray'of humour." Again, remembering what is immediately to follow, could .Bunyan have commenced the " Pilgrim's Progress " : more perfectly than on this wise:— ■ • "'As I-walked-through tho wilderness of this world, I lighted on a ccrtain place where was ' a den, and laid mo down in that place to sleep,; and as I slept, I dreamed a droam." ; The "beginning"""of."•" Tristram Shandy " stands quito alone in, English fiction; but we prefer infinitely the-first four sentences of the "Sentimental ;Journoy." Would that Sir Walter-had always started as grandly as lie does in tho " Antiquary "! It has been, well remarked that Jano Austen is an invariably good begiunen :; .Thisj cortainly, is suggestive and adroit" No" one who has ever seen Catherine' Morland in her infancy would have supposed hor born to .bo an heroine?' And this is a bright, neat littlo load' in "Pride and Prejudico":—"lt is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must jbe, in want of a wife. I '' Shall/we be par-, doned for submitting that tho first sentence of "Esmond" is careless, cumbersome,' and idull? "When Francis;. fourth " Viscount Castlewood, came to his title, and presently 'after to take possession of his house of Cas- , tlewood, County Hants, in the year 1691, almost'the., only tenant, 1 of ; the place besides tho; domestics was j,a'. fed 'of S twelve years of age, of whom no one seemed to take any note until my Lady Viscountess lighted upon him, going over the h'ouso with the housekeeper on tho day of iher. arrival." Here we have " take possession" and "take note" iii most inelegant proximity,-while it' might be ' the boy and not : my Lady -Viscountess who was going over the house with housekeeper. It' is a ' bad opening for ■ so skilful a hand. In the familiar first sentence of " Vanity Fair," lot us'hasten to add, Thackeray is felicitous enough':)—" While the present century was in its teens, and on one sunshiny morning in. Juno, there drove up to the great iron gate of Miss Pinkerton's academy for young ladies, on Chiswick'Mall, a large family coach,-with two fat horses in blazing harness,driven, a fat coachman in a three-cornered hat and wig, at the rata of; four miles an hour." Hero also the structure of tho sentenco is loose, but the reader is sei7,cd on the spot. We have often thought that, among tho many characteristic openings of Dickens, not one exhibits his peculiar quality more distinctively than that_of.;"Dombey and Son":— ...' "Dotabey sat in tho'corner of the darkened room in tho great armchair by the bedside, and Son>lay tucked iip warm in a littlo basket bedstead, carefully disposed on a low sotteo immediately in front of the fire and close to it, as if his. constitution were analogous to that of a muffin, and was essential to toast him brown while ho was"very new." < Two lecturersl .since they are of the staturo of Ruskin and Lord Acton, shall for one moment take the stage. Can we not detect the note of arrogant modesty in' tHo tonos of the great John, as ho stands on the platform of Bradford Town . Hall, setting forth in his haiar.gue on "Traffic"?— •"My good Yorkshire friends, you asked mo down here among.your hills that I might talk to you about'.this,Exchango that you aro going to build, but, earnestly and seriously asking you to pardisn mo, I am going to do nothing, of the .kind." Imperturbablo, refreshin}! John I ' Acton, his editors have told us, eschewed rhetoric, and colour-pieces in his massivo pr.ges are rare. But he cannot wholly escape from,rhetoric;'the senfeo' of which is abundantly devoloped'in him: Tho first sentenco of his lecture on "The Rise and Fall of tho Mexican Empire" runs thus'"The scene of the tragedy, which I will attempt to describe, is a country on which Nature's fairest gifts liava been lavished with an unsparing hand, but where man has done his utmost to thwart the designs of Providence." A littlo stiff perhaps, yet not lacking' in sonority. It would possibly surprise the reader to knew how many beautiful beginnings could bo cited from : purely scientific writings, and parenthetically it' may bo said that Mill's "Logic"- abounds in paragraphs of exquisite and impeccable construction, One small example must suffice. It is the opening of Tyndall's treatise on "Light":;—" Experiments have two great uses—a; u,so in discovery and verification, and a use in tuition. They were long ago defined as the investigator's language addressed to Nature, to which she sends intelligible replies." That is something moro than an utterance of science; it is an utterance also of literature. Yet must we over at tho last roturn to The Book: — "In.the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light." The nlanner of that I —"The Nation." THE CHURCH AND THE PRESS. "Wo do not hesitate to say that tho duty of the church to tho press has hitherto either been misunderstood altogether or flagrantly noglected," says the "Guardian." "It must bo understood that when wo use the word 'church' in this conneotion wo indicate those persons and organisations that are in the habit of going to tho press, and especially tho church press, for assistance and publicity. The view which theso ladies and gontlemon take of the relations botween tho two is prccisoly on all fours with Mr. Kipling's overturo vorsion of the relations between tho British public and tho privato soldier 1 in time'of war-arid in timo of peace. 'It's Tommy this, an'''Tommy that, an' "Tommy fall be'ind;", (But it's "Please to walk in front, sir," when there's trouble in tho wind.' ILLOGICAL PEOPLE. "When chufchpeoplo: or church organisations want to obtain anything from tho

church pross (and that is by every post), their communications are 'frequent and freo'; when the church press desires any courtesy in. roturn, it is far too often treated with neglect, and occasionally, wo are sorry to say, with something worse than neglect. Every week we ourselves rccoivo dozens of requests to print appeals for monoy, yet tho same persons, or the samo class of persons, who make theso appeals, do not hesitate to accuso us of printing too many of those advertisements without which it would bo impossible to conduct any newspaper. INSTANCES OP INEPTITUDE. "We are moved to make these remarks by many recent instances of ineptitudo in the treatment of church newspapers by those responsible for the business : arrangements of great organisations more or'less directly connected with Anglicanism. Even the PanAnglican Congress, which, generally speaking, was managed skilfully and without friction, was not well served by its press department. We fear, it must be said, quite frankly, that whore church matters generally are concerned newspapers aro not well treated. _ It is tho general experience that information, tickets, and other necessaries for the ineffi : cient reporting of news have to be extracted from the responsible persons at the. point of the bayonet. The last minute is oft-en too early for attending to these important dotails. "It will perhaps hardly be believed that tho official figures of tho Thankoffering have not been corrvumnicated to the 'Guardian.' We have had to take them on trust frqpi tho daily newspapers. "Wo may mention as another case in point that our representative's card of invitation to the opening service of the Winchester Pageant in Winchester Cathedral. reached us two and a half hours before the moment at which, by a happy stroke of humour, ho was begged to bo in his place in tho choir. For the pageant itself no cards whatever were sent. We regret, therefore, that beyond this reference no mention of the, Winchester Pageant can appear in the 'Guardian.' We mention theso examples, not as the most flagrant, but as involving smaller blame to individuals than others-much more remarkable. UNBUSINESSLIKE HABITS. "Unbusinesslike habits aro indeed the bane of the Church of England in its external relations. If the church were'a corporate body we should be disposed to suggest that the traffic manager, of. ono of the great railway companies or tho administrator of some lingo industrial concern should be tempted by the salary of a Lord Chancellor to become general manager of the temporal, affairs. of the Church of England. Failing such, a possibility we would earnestly beg those who professionally or as volunteers are concerned in church organisations to essay the much smaller task of settng their house in order so far as tho press is concerned." NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS. "From the Old Dog." By Frank Fox. Melbourne: T. C. Lothian, 2s. (3d. . Mr. Fox is the editor,- we believe, of tho "Lone Hand," and was formerly a member of the staff of the "Bulletin," for which ho wroto leading articles. In emulation of Mr. Lorimer, tho author of tho "Letters From a Self-mado. Merchant _to His Son," he has dressed up some of his articles and converted them into "letters" from an ox-Primo Minister to his nephowi Ho discusses . many things that Prime Ministers: do not usually bother themselves with, but he presents what is, on tho whole, a wholesome enough gospel for Australians. With some of his observa-tions-most people wilL disagree, but even whero he runs most strongly against the conventions that aro the distilled wisdom of the social life of .'centuries, it is possible to excuse him on the doublo ground of his sincerity and,his innooonce of any paltry desire, unhappily cherished by a fyw Australasian writers, to flout conventions 1 in order to be considered original. The worst that can be 1 said of- the book is that it is rathor dull. It was the illustrative anecdotes that made Mr. LorimorV. book worth reading. But it iB perhaps too much,tq i expect .that a serious leading ;Srticle- cain';be.. made, light and bright by putting "Dear John" at tho beginning, and "Your affectionate Uncle" at tho end. In any event, • the- articles'lacked the pungency of Mr. Edmond's strango metaphorical style • or Mr. Archibald's .whimsical hyperbole. " "A Gentleman of London," by Morico Gerard. London: George Bell and Sons (Colonial Edition), 2s. Gd. and 3s. 6d. "The two men swayed up and down in deadly struggle. . . The birds sang in the trees as if no -life-and-death strugglo were taking place so near at hand. Nature often refuses to .sympathise with man's extremity. Do Sceau was no mean antagonist; neither so large of frame nor so muscular as' 'his English opponent, he had- great agility, and a lithe, wiry force which made up for a, good deal in 'actual power. V. . 'Sacro!' Do Sceau exclaimed, grinding his .teeth, ' you have escaped me now; next time it will be my turn.' Casting upon Maynard a glanco of intense hatred, ho turned and plunged into the thicket." _ This is : not a quotation from a Deadwood Dick tale, but from "A Gentleman of London," by Morice Gerard, who in his time has written a better novel than this. Ho could hardly write a weaker ono. "The Lost Angel," by Katharine . Tynan. Fisher's Colonial Library, 2s. (3d. and 3s. Gd, In this book there are nearly a score of short stories, slight of structure, quiet of tonor, distinguished only by that literary felicity which ono expects from their poetic authoress. If they would not "hold children from their play," they might delight old ladies, rather than old men, in tho chimnoy corner. \ "During her Majesty's Pleasure," by M. E. Braddon, London. George Bell and Sons. (Whit-combo aud Tombs, Wellington, 2s. 6d.) From "The Trail of tho Sorpent" in 1860 to this, the latest of Miss Braddon's books, is a loug span, and tho last work from tho pen of this most prolific writer does not bear favourable comparison with her earlier novels. The plot of tho story, which is somewhat weak, is based on tho oft-discussed question of hereditary madness, aud concerns a famous physician and his adopted daughter, whoso birth has been wrapped in mystery. She falls in love, and is about to be married, when tho secret'of her mother's affliction is anonymously revealed to her. She decides to join hor mother, who is still alive, and does so. The physician and her lover after many months at length trace them, and a satisfactory ending results. "Tho Splendid Coward," by Houghton Townley. Greening and Co., Ltd., London. (Whitcombo and Tombs, Wellington), 2s. 6d. This is an interesting and exciting love novel, with a capital plot. While thero is nothing highly sonsational in. it, tho story is told naturally, and the interest is wll sustained Tho ending is also cleverly worked out. The story centres round a titled society lady, who marries a clergyman against-thowish of her father, and her son, tho "Splendid Coward." Tho family is in straitened circumstances; tho son, owing to poverty, cannot go to the war which calls him, and ho is taunted with cowardice. A forgory relioves , tho financial pressure and produces a numbor of unexpected complications, which aro cleverly dealt with'. After many exciting situations, matters aro cleared up in a very satisfactory mannor. Tho current number of tho "Lono Hand" is not so interesting, though as varied, as usual. There is an excellent sories of caricature portraits of public men by Will Dyson, with commentaries by "F.F." Edward Dyson has a short story, as well as anothor advonturo of his now vory tiresome " battlers and a bear." Tho "public good" section has a roniarkablo discussion of an alleged euro for deafness, which is worth reading. Tho stories aro of small merit, although Mary Leitli has a really humorous littlo scrap of a talo Uiat is a model of its kind. Louis Esson and Walter Kirton have contributions on Japan and India. Tho illustrations aro good and tho poetry mediocre. Jack Sommars fails dismally to picture some of the most famous .Maori myths, ■ >