IN BOOKLAND.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 30, 5 February 1908, Page 4

IN BOOKLAND.

FROM THE POETS. A "SONG. I heard a soldier sing como trifle But in tho sun-dried veldt alone ; Ho lay and cleaned his grimy riflo idly, behind a stone. ""If after death lovo come awakening, And m their camp so dark and still Tho men of dust hoar bugles, breaking Thoir halt upon the hill. To mo tha slow and silver pealing That then the lasby high trumpet pours Shall poifef , than the dawn come stealing 1 ITor, with its call, comes yours!" What 'grief of lovo had he to stifle, Basking co idly by his ttonn, That/ grimy soldier with his rifle Out m tho veldt, alone? — Herbert Trench. ' ~— — • ON A RAILWAY PLATFORM. A drizzle of drifting: rain And a blurred white lamp o'erhead, That shines as my lovo will shine again, In the world of tho dead. H. Round me ths wot black night, And', afar in the limitless gloom, Crimson and green, two bloEEoms of light, Two stars of doom. 1 ni. But the night of death is a-flars With a torch of back-blown fire, And the coal-blaok deeps of tho quivering air Rend for my soul's desire. IV. Leapf, heart, for the pulse and the roar And the lights of the streaming train That leaps with the heart of thy love once more Out of the mist and 'the rain ; " ■ ,' „' V - ■* -■ * For th« thousand panes of light " *• And the faces veiled with mist, Streaming out of the desolate night In- ruby and amethyst. ■ ' i ' ' •> ?' ' ; ,Vl', Vl ' . ' '' ' Out of the' deßolatß years ' " " Tho thundering pageant flows ; But I see no more than a window of teara Which her face has turned to a. rose. — Alfred Noyes in tha Nation. THE FLESHLY SCHOOL OF FIC- , . > TION. "Some weeks ago . a representative', of The Post interriewod a-boQkseller. l "well- { known in Wellington, on the question of ! novels by certain English authoresses, whose work has been characterised by j a very low standard of morality. The \ bookseller confessed to burning all tho copies of them he had in his possession. | , Several prominent authors have written j to in© 'Bookman, on tho same topic, %naer jthe.hleaoW of "The tflfesHly ,SchVol ol JTietiun." '» From thoS corr.es jipn'dflnce pußlished' in tKe I?scember ".nmnijsrYwß extract a few opinion.*. Ellen Thorneycrof t Fowler (Mrs. A. ' L. Felkin) says she sympathises heartily with all those who disapprove of tha "Fleshly School of Fiction." the' first place she .thinks that thia school is,, ! artistically, incocrect. , .In ths second ' place , }t~ inculcates 1 the '■ dangerous and depressing and ''deleterious' 'habi^ r qf ';al- . waysMoo&iug'-.afc./wli&t iss diseased' and "sinful arid abnormal. ,' !■••': * f A. W/ Pinero has niade;it % his business to elanco at some novels belonging 1 to the Fleshly School. One of these, h»; says,' written by a lady and put forward' boldly as the work of the greatest living. JtegJiSn n^oveljst^wQj^d^in^vespeQt of its; ? -OMiip6sifat)Hj;' ifeflec^ Btaaii '" Cred vj;', om^a' kitcooilmaid. .Such' productions" aTe,-in-his opinion, most pernicions'. THey fc(w« their vogue, which is unquestionable, t6" publishers without conscience, and re-, viewers "without honesty or without brains. Let intelligent and high-mind-; ed, critics take $ .firm stand against;' this^ stnff ; -or) 'bptfce?; still,' let '^ditcr^ of 'fjrst--, class' journals forbid -all mentioii of jit mj tho columns of • their papprc. ' ' Then itwo.uid bft,fttr^ngled.at, its bjrth,. „'? Robart- -iltigh ,Bensbn consictors 'the primary danger lies more In Iho troatmept.of tho subject than in the subject 'itiself;^ To show a disgusting thing to be disgusting m,ay be a fijio and a necessary work^ but to show, it as being J harmier3i or-' 1 praiseworthy, or even as J pssentially, attractive, scorns to him shn- j ply diabolical. It is not mock modasty that' is wanted, but cleanliness of mmcl. Another writer, who signs himself "A 3lan pf; Jjettors," says there is an imv inense output' of, infected and infecting VUteratiire.' ' v {sav'e^the mark!) abroad. Us calls for? roettsUres to prevent tho spread of in&ciipn. - : /' . ' :-- Vory entert^MHiia, >'tys, the Bookmanj should be the,' volume on .Mr. George . Btonard^ >Shaw''in the ( "Stars of the .Stage" series, for it has been written by. v person", no, less .ontspbken than Mr. (J;'; : K. phestortoiii/' It is' tcibe' hopqid that, after a peru'sah of this monograpli, Mr. Shaw .may be.Tnduced enterprising publisher to express his opin : ion of Mr. Chesterton. * ; Among tJje reprintß promised, two of the most wonderful thillingsworths are Prescott's "Conquest o( Peru" in Every■man'a Library; with an introduction by ,Mr.Th omas Seccomba, 'and Gil Bias in j the .World's Classics, with an introduc- i •tiijn by c Mr. ' Fitamaurke Kelly, the .well-known authority on Spanish nistory and literature. j Mrs. Philip de Crespigny, the author : of "The Spanish. Prisoner," an historical novel which has, been very favour- , ably received, is planning' a new book, the scene of which is laid in Italy at the tune of the Borgias. The authoress lives a busy life,- for she divides her time between writing and painting, and has exhibited water colours in many of the London galleries. Among tne new novelists, no one is more prominent than Mr. Wiliam de "Morgan and Mr. Archibald Marshall, the editor of the Daily Mail Books Supplement. Mr. Marshall's latest story, to be published shortly, will bo awaited with much interest for his improvement as a writer of fiction hals been steady. Mr. E. V. Lucas has enshrined some 150 ' specimens ,of the lost art of letter writing from Cicero to R. L. Stevenson. From his delightful volume, entitled "The Gentlest Art: A choice of letters by Entertaining Hands, we extract ono or two passages. Abraham Qann, the Devonshire wrestler, Polkinghome, the Cornishmah in t nes» terms : 'Polkinghorno,' I will taka off my stockings, and play barelcggiyl with you, and you may two of tho hardest 'and heaviest shoes 'yon like that can be made of leather in the County of Cornwall, and you shall bo allowed ,to stuff yourself as high as the armpits, to any extent not exceeding the size of a Cornish peck of wool; and I will, further engage not to kick you, if' you' do not kick me/< The earliest letter, According to Mr. Lucas, may -We "putj about 1035 8.C.. and runs thu k s<:'"(pp''vul < to Joab, sent by the hand of'.tJriaH) :^Set ye Uriah in the forefront of tlie- hottest battle that he may be smitten 1 and die/ A model of brevity may be found 'in "Mr. Rogers to Lady Duffenn: 'Will you dine with me on- Wednesday?' " "Lady DuKerin to 'Mr. Rogers: 'Won't IV"! Mr. G. K. Chesterton will shortly need a shelf in the library all to himself. Messrs. Arrowsmitb, of Bristol, have in tho press a novel by him with the whimsical titlej "The Han who yva&

Thursday." If; seems that Mr. Chesterton intended the book to be a farce, but, in process of writing, it became an allegory representing the struggle which is apparent . in the universe, n.id attempting to reconrilo tha existence of evil with a belief in God. So tlut although written in the fantastic style of "The Napoleon of Notting Hill," there is, as in that volume, an undercut rent of serious meaning. Other books upon which Mr. Chesterton, ia intermittently engaged are a- biography of Mr. Bernard Shaw in "Tho Stcra of the Stags" series, a Life of Charles Kingsley for the "English Men of Letters" series, a fairy tale tq be called "St. George a.nd the Dragon, '•' arid a companion volume to "Heretics," which will be published by Mr. John Lane. This latter volume is called "Orthodoxy," and is a reply to tho critics — in particular, Mr. G. S. Street — who have objected to what they regard as the destructive character of a great deal of Mr. Chesterton's writing, and havo challenged him to produce a statement of his own position. It will b» interesting to read Mr. Ghesterton'a dialectics in defence of orthodoxy.