BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 13, 23 December 1911, Page 15

BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

VERSES OLD AND NEW. SATS SHE. My Granny sho often says to mo, Says she, "Yon'ro terrible Ixld, It's you have a right to mend your ways Before you'll ever grow ,o!d," Says sho, "Before you'll ever grow old. For it's steadfast now that you ought to be, An' you going on sixteen," says she. "Whnt'll you do when you're bid liko rae, Wliot'll you do?" says she. "What will I do when I'm old?" says I, "Och Musha! I'll say my prayers, I'll wear a net an' a black lace cap To cover my silver hairs," Says I, "To cover my silver hairs. When I am as old as Kato Kearney's cat I'll sell my.dress and -featherdy hat. j An' buy an old bedgown the like o' ! that, Tho very like o' that. Mv Granny she sighs' and says to m, ! 'Tho years fly terriblo last, The girls they laugh an' talk with tho boys, Bat they all grow old at last," Says she. .. v "They all grow old at last. 1 Epiphany cocks may skip," says she, : But kilt by Easter they're Jliko to be. By tho'Hokey! you'll grow as old as mo, ' As weak an' old," says she, "Maybe you tell mo no lie," says I, "But I've timo before mo yet. There's timo to danco an' there's timo to sing, i So why would I need to fret?" Says I, "So why would I need to fret? Old aso may lio at the. foot of the hill, I'wixt hoppiu' and trottiu' we'll get thero still. Why wouldn't we dance while we hare i the. will, : Danoe while we have the will?" —W. H. Letts, in tho "Spectator." ' GREEN FIELDS. ; The old time of Green Fields keeps buzzing in my head, iThe fino tunc of Green Fields that Tom the Piper played The night that I was married. 'Tis long ■ I'vo sat my lone, [And the very life and heart of me hidden under a stone. Gree* Fields I Tis strange tho young are taken and the old left in grior. I'm liko a-fly. iu the winter that shelters under a leaf. And still in the old cracked heart of me a fiddlo will play .Tho dancing tune that i'rn troubled with the livelong day— Orocu Fields. ■ . . I think when I have travelled that journey sad and: lone, And mo to como to the last wall that keeps mo from my own, I'll hear them playing so soft and low boyond the opening door, /And tho dancers gathering thick as be«a cm the stanr Hoot — Green Fields. —Ealhorino Tynan in "New l'ooms." THE DEARTH OF SONG. (The darkness deepens on the dim-lit shore; The mountains hide their glory in the shade. The notes wo heard aro mute, and nevermore - - , Tipo the glad voices thro' the' forest glade; °f Silence on tho earth is !Nor ' longer do we hear the Songs of yore; ' ->*" - / ° We list no carolling"of niaii or "maid: ixct shall some future day our joy restore. . Soon, soon the Night shall-pass, and on . the wing • . T air* al ' k upward thro ' the fioMen Soon shall tho throstle and the mavis sing, t Warbling their love-notes from each leaiy lair; And while, amid tho pines the licht _ winds sigh, 6pirit of Poesv! thon shalt not die. —Samuel Waddington, in tho "Westminster." TO THORALIS. TrCa( heart' TOUr feet are Bet n P° n my Smile seldom, for yon stab me with your smiles. Move gently, for about your every part Aly life lies linked, and wound with curious wiles. About your hands and hair Are-trammelling thoughts,'and there are fantasies Clasping beseeching hands about your knees. . 80, whilo you rest, all visions gather round you Frail spells aro woven, feigning future bliss, . - And hope may, think those thoughts of mine have bound you —Bonds so soon broken—Oh, my Thoralis, Keep silence, standing there, bo, looking still not at me, but abovo me, Or you will show or say you do not love me. •-E. N. da C. Andrade, in tho "Nation." MORE OBITER DICTA. "If you haven't time to read both sides for Heaven's sake read tho other side " lhis was-tho ccntral point in tho advice which Mr. birrell gave last mouth to tho members ct the National Home-Reading union in tils Caxton Hall, Westminster I am certain," ho added, "that if this course hud been pursued during the last . jUO'years—l won t say my Education Bill, but at any rate something very like it would havo become law." (Laughter and applause.) .Mr. Birrell recalled that on a somewhat similar occasion,in tho past, when the lato Archbishop Temple was presidium Dr. Tomplo used a remark which ho (who was to follow) thought was capable ot a jocose interpretation. Not feelin-* fiuro tuat it would bo wise to poke fun at an Archbishop, he asked a lady at his wdo—(whom he didn't know, but who had a mist delightful, intelligent, and humorous coimtenancej-wbether she thought he might make the comment, and sho said that undoubtedly ho might I said, Mr. Birrell went on, '"Archbishops don t liko being mado fun of,' and sho said, 'This Archbishop does.' Encouraged by her, I made my little joke, but it fell exceedingly flat. Nobody laughed except tho lady. I could no t help thinking thero was a sbudo of annoyance on the very expressive countenance of Archbishop Temple, and [ couldnt htolp remarking to tho lady that he didn't seem to like it. Sho re•r < >, /; >' ou m >nd; I'm liis wile. (Laughter.) The world was full of beautiful things, Mr. Birrell proceeded, about tho florv of book.-) and tho beatitude of reading; but'a most all those fino things had been , b £ ? nt,lor «, I 1"' not by readers. J.hat, he said, makes one a little suspicion.''. .It is like brewers praising beer. Ho valued that society because it kept the distinction between authors nnd readers in mind. The pang of (ho author was -the pang of parturition; the pangs of the render, if lie had uuv, were those of indigestion. (Laughter.) '•'lll-iwsorted reading excessive readin" wn-liout thought," he w*nt on, "undoubtedly does injure our hsMs of observation and our powers of reflection." He advised those who wanted to read for profit to follow first their own inclination. The moron subject was pursued tho moro it was found to be bound up with something olse. "Law and history—you cannot intelligently distinguish them. Science is a most fortilo field for the imagination— ayo, and the loftiest kind of imagination. The moro a person pursues scienco intelligently and the more poctic he becomcs." Mr. Hii'reH advocated the formation of circles for reading with, German and French associations. If it contributed aometbisc -to break down, national hat-

reds and antipathies, they would bo able to reflect that they wore not only improving thoir own minds, but adding to the happiness of their own race and of tho continent .of Europe. "Even from tho Philistine's point of view," observed Dr. Ingo, Dean, of St. Paul's, "thero is something to bo said for culture. Tho social value of a man doponds quite as much on how littlo he wastes as ou how much ho produces."