LITERARY COLUMN. NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS.

Evening Post, Volume LXVIII, Issue 56, 3 September 1904, Page 11

LITERARY COLUMN. NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS.

"The Red Pagan." By A. G. Stephens. Sydney : Bulletin Newspaper Company. Mr. iStephens's critical work, eloquent and incisive, is well known to readers of Australian literature. It has long been idontified with the most rcudablo page of the Bulletin ; readable iv the figurative rather than tho litorul sense — for small print in black on doep red is about the worst combination printer ever devised to irritate and distress the nerves of vision. Tho book opens with ono of tho author's characteristic criticisms, whero ho exposes tho strange fallacy with which Lord Bacon'a essays open — "Jesting Pilate." Never, perhaps, was man lusb in a mood to jest than tho procurator on that occasion 5 but wo aro inclined to think that Mr. Stephens's picture of tho gentle and courteous • Roman with his "largo tolerance" is equally wide of tho mark; "What is truth?" — tho hulf-con-temptuous quory muy have been rominiscont of past struggles when tho questioner did seek" tho Pearl with some earnestness, but would not pay the price^ — tho "great renunciation." So it was no mild philosopher, but a wavering and irascible dictator, who put the question — arbitrary, unreasonable, and penetrated already with that self-dibgust which afterwards led nun to suicide. "And would not stay for an answer," says Bacon. But au answer is found in tho text, though most versions, taking an unwarrantable liberty by substituting "Pilate" for tho ambiguous Greek pronoun, attribute it to tho Governor himself. Tho schoolmen read it otherwiso, and, in characteristic fashion, mudo of answer and reply ono of tho best anagrams oxtant : — "Quid est Voritas?" — "Kst Vir gui adest." Mr. Stephens forms his own literary ostimates, and cares littlo for conventional veidicts. Ho shows appreciation of tho tronius of Jean Ingelow, and his contrasts between her plane of thought uud that of Culverloy snows insight us well as power of expression. In "Kipling curiously considered," tho adject ivo is open to application in its vulgar sense. Kipling may I not be free from the imputation of plagiarism — certain lines, lor instance, in "The I'iles," about "Tho Concbinarian j horns of tho Noras," echo another writer with singular fidelity — but Mr. Stephens's laboured effort to show j thab tho "Recessional" is a piracy breaks down badly. Tho metre, ho maintains, was taken from Quarles (or perhaps from a little-known writer named Richardson), and tho thought from Newman. Kipling may or may not have been a student of tho "Lyra Apostolica," but the resemblance in the thought is slight, and there is but one point of contact. Richardson's is a little nearer, and Quarles has also a point of contact — but that is in a paraphrase from, ono of the Psalms, with which modern poets are presumably more familiar than with Quarles. The metre is familiar to hymn-writers. On the same principles any poem in existence might bo proved to bo stolon. Thoro is, however, always tho possibility of unconscious borrowing, as a psychologist like Mr. Stephens musb bo fully awtiro. Christio Murray, it is said, can recite any chapter from his works if- tho opening linos aro quoted ; bvvt the author of normal memory forgets much of his own work, and sometimes does it over agunf himself unknowingly his own pirate. Tennyson fully believed thab ho first invented the measure of "In Meinoriani," but it had often been used before, and Herbert of Chorbury had adopted it for tho same themo : "Is lovo immortal?" It is more than, possible that Tennyson read tho poem in youth, and that tho thoughts and cadences, lying dormant in the unconscious memory, germinatod and blossomed into his noble poem. Yot to somo minds one theory only would bo possible —that he consciously and deliberately "went and took" "what ho thought ho

might require" on the principle formulated by Kipling. Mr. Stephens'* fanciful conceit, of tho "nousoineter" — a bculo of cerebral vibrations sot forth in diagram, in which all grades are set forth from tho dull or idiotic end of tho spectrum to the ultra- rapid or intense- vibrations of madness, wilh illustrative names along tho lino, is worthy of tho "Autocrat." Tho bcalo is interesting, us giving a list of tho men whom the author hu.s chielly studied — ib contains, for example, most of tho Bulletin stall". It- ir interesting, too, as putting, tentatively, of courts, a fragment of scientific truth into diogiammatic form. Mr. Stephons'h book is ono that takes hold of the reader, however widely his atfitudo may ditVor from, that of the author. Tho "Pagan" has lead much, and thought much nnd to a largo extent independently. Thoiefore, ho has produced a book that puts aside a planned ovening's work und keeps ono an hour or two out. ot bed. Mr. Stephens is movo succc*«sful in analysis (of the. tlootvines of otheia) than in construction, 110 has an extensive code of prmcipia, firmly established no doubt in bin o«n mind, but which he cun .scarcely expect his renders to take for granted. "'Die Fourth Financial and Economical Annual of Japan. 1904. The Department of Finance." Tokyo : Government Printing Office. This handsome quarto pamphlet of over 150 pages is i.ssued by the Japanese Vice-Minister of Finance, Y. Sakatuni, and is forwarded to us by the local consul for Japan. It is printed throughout in English, and to some extent, as in tho tonnage- of shipping, British weights and measures are used. Of course, accounts uro set' forth in "yen," and geographical measures in "ri," bub a comparative table of native standards with British and French equivalents at the outset makes them perfectly intelligible. To describe tho fyook as a model work of its kind is only to give an imperfect idea of its excellence. From tho quiet and tasteful cloth cover resembling brown morocco, with its neat and harmonious gold lettering, to the minutest details of the coloured diagrams and the tabulated returns, it would bo difficult to suggest an improvement in tho outward form and presentment of tho book. Type, arrangement, paper, ink, presswork, and binding — all are of tho best, and a complete analytical table of contents gives a ready key to the whole Almost any information required about Japan of 1903-4 is hero to bo found. Tho excellent English in which tho financial statements aro set forth, and tho absence of any affectation of fine writing, might bo imitated with advuntage in similar publio documents in other communities. The book is profaced by an excellent coloured map of Japan showing railway and steamship lines. lb shows also, separately, Porb Arthur and a large portion of Manchuria. Half-a-dozen coloured plates givo graphic summarios of the detailed table which follow. The diagrams aro ingeniously con'tH'ivod to givo the fyrenbesb possible amount of comparative information almost at a glance, and tho brilliance and purity of tlie colours employed is very noticeable. Apart from the introductory tables and plans, tho book is divided into six sections : Finance ; agriculture, industry, and commerce ; foreign trade; hanking and money market; communications; Taiwan (Formosa). Ono vory interesting table is No. 22 in blio second section, "Various Government Factories," which (shows tho industrial enterprises, including railways, telegraph and lighthouse services, arms 'and ammunition factories, dookymdH, steel foundries, woollen cloth and military clothing factories, paper-mukiug, public printing, etc., in which the State Is engaged. Somo of theso are of considcrablo magnitude. The Government, for instance, omploys 701 males and 760 females in the State printing office, besides 460 males and 371 females in the paper-making department connected therewith ; and ib has also a printing department in the military surveying bureau employing 16 males and 20 females. In lbs steol works ib employs 1383 workmen and 3000 horse-power.

Tho Annual is a work of gieat interest and practical value, affording n, striking picture of the business enterprise and industrial progress of Now Japan.