THE BOOKFELLOW.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 41, 18 February 1911, Page 13

THE BOOKFELLOW.

Written for The Post, by A. G. Stephens. (Copyright. — All Rights Reserved.) WRITING POETEY. Prof. Schipper has iusfc published at th© Clarendon Press "4 History of English Versification" (8s 6d net), -which translates the abridged edition of his famous "Englische Metrik" — one of those monuments of German scholarship that make English scholars of the present day shake a discontented head before they go off to climb Alps or catch trout in the Long Vacation. " The work is so painstakingly thorough, so aggravatingly solid, that there is no shifting it from its pedestal unless you are prepared to give your whole life to the job. In that case, look at the fun you arelosing, the sport ! Between French interlopers in the Brito-Celtic field, and German in the Anglo-Saxon, it is difficult for an Englishman to live easily with his conscience nowadays, if his scholar's duty calls him to the same conquest. Why will these wretched foreigners persist in malting a pleasure out of a business ? Let us admit the exceptions — honourable, if you choose; and add that Prof. Schipper's "History of English Versification" is prooably the best available handbooks. Prof. Saintsbury's "Historical Manual of English Prosody" (Macmillan; bs net) is a similar reduction oi his tnree volumes of "History of English Prosody" to one volume. Prof. Saintsbury is highly to be valued, but less to be followed. To a fine taste in literature he adds' a full knowledge of English verse; and his mind is so alert, his pages are so lively, that one reads with a continual gusto. But ho adopts and advocates the "foot" system of measuring verses, which in English is simply a misapplied relic of antiquity, a mortifying clutch of the dead hand of our fathers. English learning grew up with Latin verses ; and because Latin verses ?re counted by fpet it Fsemed easiest to apply the plan and the terminology to English verses. As Old English verses were made before England knew Latin, the classical graft on ilae English stock hindered growth for a long time. The change of form iv the early part of last century was no less important to poetry than the change of attitude. As Coleridge and Wordsworth returned to Nature so they returned to muMC. They found that the truu principle of English verse is irregularity la regularity — a principle which is inconsistent with the classical rule of two short quantities equal to one long tjuaiitity, or with the rule of feet definitely disposed in a line. Nevertheless, to strong is the force of tradition that even when the approximation to classical form has been abandoned, Saintsbury and others persist in applying the classical -divisions and nomenclature. But revolters like Bridges and Omond are fighting the way up. Let us look tAf facts in the face, regardless of tradition. Rhythni is the recurrence of emphasis in time. Poetical rhythm is the recurrence of emphasised syllables in time. Time is> the basis of every human rhythm. Then — what makes tho unit of verse* What makus the unit of music? — another human rhythm. iSTot the note ; but tiio bar — the period of time in which the notes are set. One note, one syllable, cannob fix a rhythm ; the rhythm is fixed by th-air recurrence. Nor can two notes or two syllables fix a rhythm; they can found a rhythm, but if their succession changes, tho rhythm ahanges. Notes>, syllables, steps in dancing, clacking of bones, beating of aboriginal thigh* — ail must be Bpaced and. marked in time before they become rhythmical. The first thing you have to do in writing poetry is to keep time — not to count non-existent teet, or to mark stresses, or to measure values. But across the woof of time the warp of stresses runs to make the stuff of poetry, and in the stuff is woven the pattern oi syllabic values. Inexpert poets fellow time unconsciously, with car a stretched for the stresses that show the easiest way of marking time — paying no attention to values, and coming down bump on the rhyme that hides poetical deficiencies. Take one of the popular Australian Labour lursery rhymes for example: Billyboy Hughes, come blow us your horn! The cow's in the caucus, your sheep are all torn. Where iB the Billyboy, minding the cow? He prophesied trouble, and dodged the row. The foot system, being radically wrong, does so many remarkable things in the hands of different exponents, that it is hard to say what it would do with a popular rhyme like this, easily explained on the tune-system ; but the popular rhymer s method is clear. For his line he takes roughly the time of a single breath, as J. C Anderson shows, and comes comfartaoly to rest on the rhyme while he draws a breath foi- the next line. Thsn he divides his line into timebars marked for his ear by lour stresses to the line. Then he tumbles his '"feet" "all over the shop" for agoiiised believers in the folly of our lathers to tidy up. But the popularity oi the rhyme may show that, though the foot is all WTong, the time is all right, for in pcetry you can "trust the" people" as far as their instinct goes ; and, when it is let alone, it goes a long .?ay. Take another Australian Labour nursery rhyme : Little Miss Holinan, She took off her dolman, And thought she had come to stay. There came a big W, Who said "May I trouble U?" And frightened Misrf Holman away. Hire is a pretty instance of changing shytlim which defies the foot-system to make it orderly without anacrusis and other classical things. But the popular rhymer has found no difficulty in making the breath-time of his last three lines equal to the breath-time of the first three, and ranging his stresses in a harmony of lines. • TAKING STIMULANTS. Sidney Hillier's "Popular Drugs" (Werner Laurie ; 5s 6d net) is a readable and sensible medical survey of the properties and performances of all the seductive or disastrous stimulants that depress us. The author writes eeriously-; but sufficient humour lurks below his lines to make his sermon decidedly palatable. A liteiary man informs me that in his own case alcohol sheds a glamour over everything ; people appear more interesting, more attractive, and he feels more benevolent. He seems to ! have a greater flow of ideas, more fluency oi' speech, more assurance. He never found it made him quarrelsome, although, if attacked, he felt more ferocious. ■ Nob "ferocious," observe; bufc "more ferocious." This admission thai; a literary man is already ferocious beforo taking alcohol is important. Later, there comes a reflective stage, in which he reviews all his past troubles, and they assume an exaggerated importance. There is a tendency to magnify any injuries that have been done to him. The connection between alcohol_ and literary moanings and bewailings is suggestive. The same writer, however, assured me that if he wished to do any literary york alcohol was distinctly deterrent in iis effects. And that, of course, is the sum of what is said on the subject. The alcoholic rule, for literary people, and every bod v else, is — the less, tho better. The least that you can get along with

is physiologically the most that you can afford. To be sure, doses differ; but as soon as the dose ceases to be medicinal, it bsgins to be dangerous. After alcohol, Sidney Hillier deals with tea, coffee, cocoa, opium, tobacco, and mixed drugs. His attitude remains intelligent; his remarks continue interesting. It may be unhesitatingly affirmed that, of all forms of self-indulgence to which frail humanity is addicted, that of tobacco-smoking is most general and least harmful. That is possibly a little further than we .would go, but not much further. And, having gone so far, our author retraces hie steps, and adds up warnings of the. evils of misuse. A gardener was found dead by the door of his greenhouse ! He had "used a decoction of tobacco for toothache ! Let us remember that tobacco is meant to smoke, not to dodge dentists with. The author recommends motoring for insomnia. A' FOE TO DEMOCRACY. "The Religions and Philosophies of the East," by J. M. Kennedy (Werner Laurie), is an eclectic survey of facts relating to the origin, development, and doctrines of Brahmanism, Buddhism, Mohammedanism, Judaism, Confucianism, Shintoism, and several Asiatic creeds of minor importance, though not necessarily of minor interest. The book is valuable because the author does not rewrite other people's accounts, and his information is modern, and because his view of his subject is individual and interesting. Kennedy is captive of Nietzsche and an apostle of the Nieteschean tenets, which are decidedly anti-Christian and a J nti-"Labour." But whether you are disposed to agree with Nietzsche or not, it is of course desirablei to equip yourself with a knowledge of what he says and what he means. So much is due to your own intelligence and to Nietzsche's position in ths world of European thought. Kennedy looks at the religions and philosophies of '•' the East'" with a mind biased, or based, by the excogitated philosophy of Zarathustra, and this makes his book piquant. His contemporaneous knowledge makes it serviceable. It has virtually been established, for instance, that the present upper or governing classes throughout Europe are the descendants of the invading Western Aryans, the menials (i.e., the so-called "working" classes) beiug the descendants oi' the uncivilised and ill-develop-ing aborigines. The caste system did not develop in Europe to the same extent as in Asia, and not even feudalism could prevent constant intermarrying between the. Aryans and the natives. The result is that at this day the two i-aces, the higher and the lower, appear to the superficial eye to have fused,, more especially as common advantages and necessities have long since developed what. 4or want of a better term, we may call semi-instinct, "patriotism." Nevertheless, when great moral (not political) crises occur, the difference between the high and low races becomes apparent. Christianity, for instance, was seized upon by the lower classes with delirious joy at the time of its introduction into Europe as as excuse for rendering themselves morally inde pendent of their rukrs. The process of weakening tile power of the strong by every conceivable means, has proceeded steadily for nineteen hundred years, and is fast reaching its culminating point. Here, clearly, is no doctrine 1 of democracy. But a sapient democracy will always keep open ears for what may £>© said against its doctrine ; if only to obey that' maxim &£ warfare which counsels a prudent general to assure himself of the enemy's numbers, position, and resources. One can always linger with Confucius, who said, for example, that "The nobler sort of man is dignified, but not proud ; the inferior man is proud, but not dignified" — though, «ff course "dignity" is very often the cloak and defence of dullness. Kennedy seems to prefer Lao-Tze as the more aristocratic philosopher. So he quotes this with gusLo : "As restrictions and prohibitions multiply in an empire the people become poorer and poorer. When the people are subjected to overmuch government the land is thrown into confusion. The greater the number of laws and enactments, the more thieves and robbers there will be. Therefore, the sage says : 'So long as I do nothing, the people will work out their own reformation. So long as I love calm, the people will light themselves. If only I keep from meddling, the people will grow rich.' " At 6s net this useful book is priced too highly for general sale here; but the libraries should have it.