VIEWS AND REVIEWS.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1940, 24 December 1913, Page 11

VIEWS AND REVIEWS.

T/ie Eternal Fomlnine. As ail antidote to the often specious and illogical arguments and hysterical gush with which the sympathisers with the Pankhurst sisterhood support tlio cause of tho Suffragists, a little book, recently published in London, is well worthy of attention. This is "Tho Unoxpurgated Case Against Woman Suffrage," by Sir Almroth E. Wright, M.D., Rll.S. (Constable and Co.; per George Robertson and Co.). A little over a year ago Sir Almroth Wright wroto a letter to "Tho Times" on what he called "Militant Hysteria." The letter was violently assailed by the Suffragists as an unfair and misleading'criticism of their causc, and attracted widespread attention, not only in England, but oil tho Continent, and in America. Tho author has now followed first onslaught by a longer and much more detailed attack upon woman suffrage arid upon what is generally called feminism. Ho argues that tho woman's suffrage movement cannot be supported, on either intellectual or moral grounds, contending that tho vast majority of tho women who claim the suffrage do not do so from any motives of public interest, or philanthropy. As to its intellectual prestige, tho movement depends, ho says, entirely on tho fact that it has the advocacy of a certain number of distinguished men who aro influenced 1 by the feeling that to grant women- tho franchise would soothe the ruffled feelings' of a number of very worthy women. Sir Almroth is specially severe upon male supporters of tho movement. Thero are, ho says, only two classes of men who havo tho cause of woman's suffrage really at heart—tho cranks who prefer what they conceive to bo moral principles above all considerations of public expediency, and that curious typo of man, which ho designates as "the supplemental male," who, interpreting the whole sex in terms of his own wife, objects to the assertion that the species woman, measured by certain intellectual and moral standards, is the inferior of tho species man. Ho then proceeds to examine the arguments for and against tho concession of the suffrage to women, and concludes . by stating what ho imagines to be tho Suffragist's grievances. Theso arc— the economic difficulties of the woman who seeks to earn her living by work other than unskilled manual labour; the difficult physiological conditions in which woman is placed by the exccss of the female over the male population and by her diminished chances of marriage; tho tedium''which obsesses tho life of the woman who is not forced, and cannot forco hersolf, to work; and lastly, the fact that the Suffragisttconceives herself to bo harshly and unfairly treated by man. Tho urgency of the woman's problem he admits, "but says that when a way of escape stands open revolt is not morally justified. 1 The ways of escape ho indicates aro emigration, descent into a humbler class in which it is possible for a woman to be self-supporting, and the forsaking of conditions in which she must ,remain a spinster for conditions' in'which she may perhaps becomo a mothei. As mayibo : seon'from ; tho'brief'summary I have given of this remarkable littlo book, the author takes up an entirely original attitude with regard to woman's suffrage. His charges and conclusions, have, as might have been expected, been warmly and indignantly assailed, but unquestionably they cannot bo treated with mere contempt, based as they are, to a certain extent, upon certain special psychological and physiological influences upon the femalo mind, influences of which the author, as a leading physician and' scientific authority, may be expected to havo an expert knowledge. Tho prico of the book is 2s. 6d. net. Coorgo Eliot, The new and admirable Cabinet edition of George Eliot's novels ("William Blackwood, and Sons) has now been completed by the publication, in this form, of "Middlomarch" (4 vols.) and "Daniel Deronda" (2v.). Personally, I am all for tho earlier novels, notably "Adam Bedo" and "The Mill on the Floss." To me they represent tho author at her very best. Here sho was pimple, direct, writing of persons and places sho knew. : "Middlemarch" and "Daniel Deronda" were written when tho author had come under the Lewes influence. The, former has, I know, its many admirers, who can interest themselves in tho too brilliant heroine, Dorothea, ' but I have yet to meet anyone v who can nonestly say. he would read "Daniel Deronda" a second time. Still, it is good to havo a complete set of George Eliot on one's shelves, and good to bo able to got it at so absurdly lew ft price— fiftcenpenco a volume. Well printed,neatly bound, this Cabinet Edition of George Eliot—the only conipleto "copyright" , edition, bo it remembered— should find many purchasers. The How Bohn's Library. Our grandfathers and fathers owed much to tho admirable scries of classical translations and standard English works which were known as Bohn's Libraries, inaugurated in 1847 by Henry Gcorgo Bobn. In the old days tho prico was 3s. 6d.—for some of the, volumss Sa. 6d. Messrs. Gcorgo Bell and Sons, who, somo years ago, purchased all tho Boliu copyrights, have now commonced a re-issuo of sonic ot the best of the old books—with somo latter-day additions—and tho new Bohn's_ Library should provo a formidable rival to tho several other cheap series of standard authors, which havo appeared during the past two or three years. .The English price is tho popular shilling, a shilling not, which, for tbo New Zealand book-buyor, means fiftconpencc. Tho format is commend- 1 ably handy—"Give me books," said I Dr. Johnson, "that I can hold in my hand, and read by the fireside"—the tvpc is largo and delightfuly sharp and clear, tho. paper, though necessarily thin, is tough and opaque, and tho cloth binding is stout and slightly flexible. The excollent example set by Mr. Dent of binding oneclass of works in ono colour, a second in another colour, and so on, has wisely been followed, and in general get up tho new series does honour to tho bell, tho time-hon-oured trade-mark of the publishers, which appears on tho covers. A3 for tho works so agreeably presented, they include many well-known masterpieces of literature, history, biography, essays, being specially well represented. The sample volumes sent mo (through Messrs. Whitcombe and Tombs) are "Montague's Essays" (Cotton's translation), 3 vols.; Ranke's "History of tho Popes" (2 -vols.); Mjgnnt-'s "History of the French Revolution" (IV); Emerson's Works (Vols. 111, IV —Vols. I and ll'have previously appeared in this aeries), "Shnkcspearo's Heroines," by Mrs. Jameson; and "Tbo Early Diary of Fanny Burney" (Madanio D'Arbl&y), -2 vols. Tfie latter work has the advantage of a well-written introduction by Mrs. Ellis, who rightly praises tho diary as a wondorfuly interesting human document,_ which throws many amusing and historically valuable sidelightson English socia and court life during many and markedly notablo years of the long reign of George the Third. Cotton's

"Montaigne," admirably edited by Mr. V\. Carew Hazlitt, is also very welcomo m so handy a fona, and at so low a pneo. Ifc is fashionable nowadays to ?u °' s transl ation, but although the Elizabethan version has its merits, the stylo may be found a trifle too archaic by many present-day readera, and the wit and wisdom—and ho had Jiis full sharo of both— of the famous French essayist lose! nothing in being presented in a style less likely to baffle tbo averago reader. A complete Emerson, m four eolumes, is another decided boon to lovers of good literature, whoso purses are not too liberally garnished. A complete list of the first and second batches of the Bohn's new Popular Library can bo seen at Messrs. Whitcombe and lombs, and I strongly recom. mend local booklovers to seo theso excellent little books for themselves, and inako themselves acquainted at first hand with a series which for neatness and utility has never been surpassed, "Liber's" Mots Book, Roviews of several important books "t 6 -! ! over nex ' when Liber s" contributions will again appear in the Saturday issue. "Liber" takes the opportunity of wishing his readers the compliments of the season. Amongst their Christmas gifts may books be many, and may none of them bo dull It may not bo generally ki own that the early ambition of the great Chinese statesman, Li Hung Chang, was to bo the Poet Laureate of China. In his just published by Constables, I find a curious entry mado in the futuro Viceroy's diary. Ho writes: "I hope I shall never grow so careless as poor brother At Feng. Ah! If I had failed to pass the chu-ien, as he did — bo even failed, thrico in the Budding Gonitis examinations. I would havo hidden my body in the hills or le't it float in the river." Instead of becoming Poet Laureate, he lived to bo, according to one authority on Far Eastern politics, "the greatest liar in China."

'& new book by H. H. Munro, otherwise "Saki," whoso "Unbearable Mr. Bassington" was such an amusing production, will bo out very soon. Tlio title is "When William Camo, a Story of London Under tho Hohenzollerns." This sounds promising.

Thero should be some law to compel publishers to state the sex of authors whose names appear on title pastes. This woud save reviewers from falling into such errors as the London "Times" committed'tho other day when, in a column review of Frank Hamel's new book of historical memoirs, the reviewer kept 011 alluding to tho author as a man, whereas sho is a young lady.

"Tho Thunderer" is getting rather careless as it grows older, for in another recent issue, Gillan Vaso's "A Great Mystery Solved" (an attempt to complete tho uncompleted Edwin Drood) is taken as a new book. I havo had a copy of tho first edition of this book on my shelves< these :m,my Tears.' ;-The new edition has some editorial notes by S. B. Jevons. It is a stunid and tedious nroduction, having no literary value, but interesting in a way, to collectors of Dickensiana.

Lady Richmond Ritchie, Thacker-nv-S'surviving daughter, whose previous books of reminiscences have been so readable, has produced another littlo batch of pen partraits, this timo of 6omo of tho great women writers of her day. Charlotte Bronte, George Eliot, Mrs. Gaskell, and Mrs. Oliphant. Tho titlo is "Under the Porch."

If you want a good shilling's worth, fifteenpence worth of light literature, and c }epr lectures; buy this year's issue of "liie Odd Volume." By so doing you not only got somo capital stories and some amusing sketches by some of tho leading writers and artists of tho day, but you help a very deserving institution, the National Book Trade Provident Society, to. whose funds all the profits go. To my mind "The Odd Volume" is much bettor than "Printers' Pie," or, as they call it nowadays, 'Winter's Pie." But both are good valuo for the money.

There is a, strain of tho departed and lamented Mrs. Nickleby in Mrs. Blanche Lcith, a leading character in Maxwell Gray's now story, "Something Afar." Here is a sample of her artless prattle: "Familiar as I am with the symptoms of true lovo, I found it all out tlio very first day. Quite a romance, England and Italy. Italy and England. Tlio one all fire; tho other air snow. Their mutual attraction and union so inevitable. » ... Oil! it is a case—llo doubt about it. Beatrice too, cold and haughty Beatrice, touched at last! Dear child, like her father, sho has many faults, but 'oil fong!' her nature is a fino one, 'a rotten apple, goodly at tho core, as Longfellow—or was it Mrs. Hemans, so sweetlv writes."