BOOKS OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 241, 29 June 1918, Page 11

BOOKS OF THE DAY

. i A BOOKMAN'S BUDGET. Mr. Austin Dobson, to whom wo owe a long series of hooks dealing mainly with ■ eighteenth century lilo and loiters, and who is also well known by his graceful verse ("Ola World idylls" and "At the Sign of the Lyre"), has had tho happy idea of rummaging through his portfolios and note-books, and collecting a number of extracts from his favourite authors, also anecdotes and literary varia generally. The' result he now presents in a charming little volume, entitled "A .Bookman's Budget." (Oxford University l'rtus; per Whitcoinbe and Tombs). Spenre's "Anecdotes"; . Rogers's "Tablo Talk," and Frederick Locker's "Patchwork" are pnvious books of the" same description, ideal books for the bedsido shelf and for "dipping" purposes generally. Mr. Dobson's love for the eighteenth century is - exemplified j>y the number of extracts from the literature of that period, hut lie is delightfully catlio-k-in his tastes, and can gossip about and quote from Ueorge .uereduli, V ictor Hugo, Cardinal Newman, Andrew Lang—he has oven a good word to say for the oftenunderrated George Augustus Sala—and other writers of oven lateiv date, quite as frcelv and with as keen an appreciation as ho does when Fielding and Smollett, Goldsmith and Johnson, Hogarth and Reynolds aro being discussod. Ilis oxtracts are never lengthy, and' they are often accompli nied by brief notes by tho compiler, which frequently throw a, now and {interesting sidelight on the subject dealt with v or tho personality of the author quoted.. ■ Mke Moliere. Mr. Dobson takes, his good things where he finds them. Thus from an obituary notice; in "The Times," of the Oxford don, Ingram By water, hq quotes some very wise words oil "True Learning"'by Mark Pattison: Learning is a peculiar compound of memory, imagination, scientilio habit, accurate observation, all concentrated through a prolonged period on tho analysis of the remains of literature. The result of this sustained effort is'not.a/book but a inan. It cannot bo embodied in print; it consists in the living man. . . . True learning does not consißt of a Btoek of facts— l tho merit of. a dictionary—but in tho discerning spirit, a power of appreciation—"judicium," as it was called in the sixteenth century— which is the result of tho possession of-<a stock of facts.. Included in tho collection aro numerous i examples of what I maji call liter-ary-preferences and dislikes. Thus, Mr. 'Dobson tells us that M. Renan, the great French philosopher, had jio taste for what ha.s been called "au6dyne" literature. lie could never read a novel. Mr. Dobson quotes, from the "Life of Taine," a story ■■ of how ono day by a lake In Savoy Taine settled the philosopher comfortably under a tioo and equipped him with a volmuo of Balzac, of whom Eenan know nothing. Taine then went for his usual constitutional. "When he returned Kenan had fallen asleep, and Balzac had fallen into tho wntor." "Liber'-' is a great admirer of Balzac, but .there are certain of the Master's novols which have terriblo "longueurs,'', and to fall asleep over one of these is quite pardonable. Taine,'s .special weakness in .fiction was, Stendhal's "Chartreuse do Panne," which' lie professed to have, read fifty - times.Mr. Dobson quotes a still'stranger, preference'''for. one dish."- In Doan Stanley's "Life and' Correspondence" it is recorded how Dr. Arnold, if Rugby, was a great admirer of Smollett's "Humphrey. Clinker." "Uponiny telling him.' that' I--(Stanley) had; never read: it ho: cried,-. 'Oh; bM> you' riiust--'read'' "Humphrey Clinker." If you" have not got - : it' I willlend it to you. It is not too much to say that- 1 havß read.it. through-fifty times,' and accordingly ho jumped up and got it down for me." Now, Arnold was about tho lost man, so "Liber" would liavo thought to be an admiror of Smollett's novols. Under.the'heading "Jane Austen," Mr. Dobson quotes Mr. Gladstone as one of those who did no't care for tho novels, of her whom Andrew Lang (if I remember alight) onoe called "tne incomparable Jane." Of the author of "Pride and Prejudice," the G.O.M. is reported to have said, "She neither dives nor soars." Dickens, too, failed to appreciate her, but, on the other hand, she numbered amongst her admirers Soott and Coleridge and Maoaulay, to say nothing of such later devotees as Jowett, of Balliol, and Lord Beacoiisfield. '"Dizzy," indaed, declared on one occasion that he had read "Pride and Prejudice" no fe'vor than seventeen, times. But that keen, independent and always outspoken critic, "Omar" Fitzgerald, could not stand lie.- at all. Ho found her "quite capital," lie admitted, "but in a circle he had found it quite. unendurable to walk in." Fitzgerald's preferences in. fiction were Scott, Dickens,. and Thackeray, and amongst the foreigners, Cervantes. He ne«r tired of recommending "the Grand Old Don", tq his correspondents, • f- ' 1 . A warm 'exponent' of catholicity, oftaste in literature is Mr. Frederio Harrison; who, by the way, though now over eighty, is still, I notico, an active contributor to the "Fortnightly Review," • in which his ''Obiter Scripta" is. now appearing every' month. Mr.: Dobson quotes from Harrison's essays on "Tho Choice of Books" as follows I protest that I am devoted to no school In particular. I condemn no Bchool, I reject Bono. I am for the achool of all tho great men; and X am against the school of tho smaller men. I care for Wordsworth as well as for Byron, for Burns as well as Shelley, for Boccaccio as welt as for Milton, for Bunyan as well as Kabelais, for Oervantea .as well as for Dante, for Oornoillo aB well as for Shakespeare, for Goldsmith as well iib Ooethe. t stand by the sentence of tho world. As an illustration of what ho calls the' "Perils of Irony"—that "awkward edged tool," Mr. Dobson quotes a capital anecdote of the late Lord Justice Bowen. Unce, when acting as" a Puisne J ndge there catno Bofore him the case of a burglar who, having entered a house by the top.Btory, was afterwards captured, below stairs in the act of sampling tho Bilver. The defence was mora ingonuous than ingenious. The accused was alleged to be a person of eccentric habits, much addicteil to perambulating tho roofs of adjacent houses, and occasionally : dropping in "permiscuous" through an oiten skylight. This naturally stirred the Judge to caustic comment. Summing up, he is reported to have said: "If, gentlemen, you think it likely that tho prisoner ■ was merely indulging an amiable fancy Xor midnight exercise on his neighbour's roof; if you think it waß kindly consideration for that neighbour which led him to tako off his boots and leave thorn behind him before desconding into the house; and if, you believe that it was tho innocent curiosity of tlio conuoissour which brought him to tho bilvor pantry and caused him to borrow the pot, then, gentlemen, you will acquit the prisoner. To ,:Lord Bowen's dismay, tho jury did instantly acquit tho prisoner. A pleasant feature of this mine ol' good things is Mr. Dobson's trick of taking an extract from some well-known writer and showing how it finds a parallel in tho works of some totally different author. Thus ne quotes a saying of Carlylo'e (from tlio "Reminiscences"), entitling it "Cheap Praise." Carlyle wrote: "In this liberal London, pitch your sphere one step lower than yoursolf, and you can get wliat amount of flattery you will consent to." Next Mr. Dobson quotes from a much older writer, Boilcau, who,,in his "Art Poetique," wrote; Tin sot'lrouve tonjours un plus sot q,ui l'admire, and then glv.y his own, a clever versified variant, of the Frenchman's words. As til is: You need never lack praiso if you sloop to acquire it, For folly finds always its fools to admire it. .Interspersed willi the many excellent anecdotes, criticisms, and character sketches which Mr. Dobson has taken either from his own books or the works of bis favourite authors, • are. many charming lil;.!o poems sjgned "A.D. from one of tho longer poems, "On tho

Kulure of Poetry," I lake the following four concludi'.g stanzas:— I hold that they who deal in rhyme Must take the standpoint of tho time— But not to catch the public car, Ab mountebank or pulpiteer. That the old notes arc still tho new If the musician's touch be true: Nor can the hand that knows i!« trade Achieve the trite and ready-made. That your first thome is HUMAN LIVK, Its hopes and fears, its love and strife— A theme no custom can efface, Common, but not commonplace. For this, beyond all doubt-, is plain: The Truth that pleased, will please again, And move men as In bygone years. When Hc-ctor's wife smiled, through her tears.. Included in. some "Epigrams on Art" is Mr. Dobson's "Advice to a Poet":— My . counsel to the budding bard fs "Don't be long," and,"Don't be hard"; Yom' "gentle lublic" good, my Friend, Won't read what they can't comprehend; And what they really liko tho best Is something'short and well expressed. Therefore, if you would hold their ear, Be brief, above all things, and clear. My final, quotation shall be from a short series of "Rondeaus, 1 of the War," by Mr. Dojwon I select the. beautiful liiies headed ".When T'hero is Peace".— "When there is Peace our land no more Will he the land wo' knew of yoie." Thus do our faoile seers foretell The"'truth that buy or sell, And e'en the Wisest must ignore When we have, bled at every pore, Shall wo still strive for gear or storo? Will it -be Heaven? . Will it be HellP Whon there is Pcace. This. ; let' us pray for, this implore: That all base'dreanis thrust out at door, Wo may in loftier ainiß cxcel, And, like men waking from a spell, Grow stronger, nobler, than before, 1 When there is Peacc. A. lew well-chosen illustrations, including some clever silhouettes by tho author's friend, Hugh 'Thomson, are a pleasant feature in a little volume which should give permanent pleasure to all lovers of gflnl literature." (N.Z. price, 4s". fid.) ' '" "My Erratic Pal." ■"My Erratic Pal," by Alfred Clark, N.Z.M.C-. (London:-John''Lane),° is the title of a volume of verse, written, by a l'nend of the editor, and known to him as "My Erratic Pal." The-«oldier au-. thor was English born,' but camo out to New Zealand when about twenty-live, his first experiences of colonial lifo including his working on' tho StratfordOngarulie railway. Ho-afterwards found more congenial employment in Auckland. When Uie war broke but he at once enlisted, and served for some time -in Egypt. lie was wounded in the L'atift engagement, and died at Alexandria of septic pneumonia, following upon tho chest wound he had received. The poems included in the voluino ileal with u variety of subjects, being for tho most part 1 based, upon the author's philosophical standpoint. ' His love affairs nlso bulk largely in the poems, which vary .much in merit,'.in sonic both subject and treatment boing rather banal, in others both original and vigorous. The editor atlixes it brief introduction'to each poem,' contributing interesting notes as to the. circumstances under which tho various verses or sets ".of verses written. , Several'of tho poems lire suggested by the "Pal's" New Zealand experiences. "New Zealand," says' the editor, "Cast her spell over him, as she does over all who have walked in' the. 'great green silences, of her bush and by the shores of her nmny-hued seas": For the faith and'the'love that 1 bear, New Zealand, for'-theo"; ■ . Por tho magic and -spell- of -thy-air, Thy earth, and thy set/.- ' : Of words ! would weave tlics a crown Of blessing and prayer, With iove for its fair ce'ntrc-stonc, Pure, priceless, '• and rare. May wino for thy heart bo outpoured, Eod wino for thy Boul; '. . Thy bread and thy. oil' be assured Whilst ccnturieß roll;May. thy Bword in ' its 'scabbard-' be bright, In battle be keon ' To champion thy God and. His Right With heart and hand clean. So ever brave, honest and wise, Thrice orowned and thlico blest Shall the meed of the year be thy prize, Love, Honour, and Hest. Surrounded by the storched saud and buffeted by- tho torrid Khamsin, the "Pal's" thoughts go back to tlio breezy uplands of his native Dorsetshire. Here is his memory of "Giant's Hill from the Sahara":— . ' Brave yellow furze upon Giant'i Hill You grew there once; do you grow thero . still? Does tho scont of your flowers still 1 fill the air? Are tho moths and-bees-still busy there? Is the grass beneath you still crisp aild fine, And the air above you liko sparkling wine? Do tho larks still spring from tho top to tho sky? ' ' ' And the while-tailed ivtbbits go scuttling by? Are the clouds as high and the sky an blue? Is your soul tho same as the soul I know Iu your noontide heat and your morning (low, , When 1 was a boy and tho world' was new? As a rule the humorous elemenj: is cohspicuous by its absence from these poems, but there is a welcome lighter touch and a good vigorous swing in the stanzas in which the poet pays tribute to the all-powerful "Egyptian Thirst":— When you've drunk six limes and sodas and a pannikin of tea, A lemonade, a ginger bei;r, and shandies two or three, . ' And introspection finds you still as thirsty as at first— Why, then you have-indeed, you have-tlic truo Egyptian thirst I When your mess-obits soar to hundreds, and you smile and sign again, When you think a Cairo lager is better than champagne, . . When you feed on water-melon until you , ought to burst, Bnt still keep well and happy, you vo the great Egyptian thirst. It's something superhuman, Olympian and divine, • • That makes warm yellow water tasto like good F-tilornian wine, It is tho greatest blessing wherewith mankind is cursed, This passionate, inordinate, uniijiie Egyptian thirst. The'editor tells us that when "The Erratic .Pal" was nenring bis end iu the Alexandra Hospital he wns forbidden w work. -But after his death there was found under his ipillow by the ward sister an old envelope, on which, "the dear chap hiid silently ind surreptitiously scribbled" the following striking lines:— Well, Death, old man, how do you do? i'ou : vo looked for me and I for you, And now wo meet at last.. J don't much liko tho face you wear. But, as we've mot-, let's both play fair, And make a bargain fast. I'll pay my lifo, and gladly pay— "i'is only fit to throw away(Tlie sorry sport of Fate) j If you, for your part, undertake For kindness and sweet mercy's sake To lead mo to my Jlato. In some of the earlier' poems the editor might well have omitted a few lines which are in doubtful taste, but lie is to be commended for his ellective presentation of the verses selected, the biographical notes are specially valuable as creating n spirit of continuity winch assists the reader to grip the progress of the poet's intellectual and poetic development. 1 •'