LITERARY NOTES

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 103, 2 May 1914, Page 13

LITERARY NOTES

''It is a great thing to start life with a small number of really good books which are your very own," writes Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in "Through the Magic Door." "You may not appreciate them at first. You may pine for" your novel of crude and unadulterated adventure. You may, and will, give it the preference when you can. But the dull days come, and always you are driven to fill up the chinks of your reading with the worthy books which wait so patiently for your notice. And then suddenly, on a ,day which marks an epoch in your life, you understand the difference. You see, like a flash, how the one stands for nothing and the other Tor literature. From that day onwards you may return to ytfur crudities, but at least you do so with some standard of comparison in your mind, you can never be the same as you were before. Then gradually the good thing becomes more dear to you ; it builds itself up with your growing mind; it becomes a part of your better self, and so, at last, you can look, as I do now, at the old covers and love them for all that they have meant in the past." "Fear" is the theme of Mr. A. C. Benson's new book, which Messrs. Smith, ' Elder are to publish under the title "Where no Fear Was." A hook which promises to tell the inner history of the events leading up j to the existing situation in Mexico, from the beginning of the Madero revolution which unseated President Diaz, is in preparation with Mr, Heinemann. The author is Mr. Edward Bell. Sir Charles Tupper, who, now that Lord Strathcona is dead, is the most venerable figure of Canadian public life, has written his "Recollections of Sixty Years," and the book will be published by Cassell. Miss Elizabeth Lee is editing the correspondence of Mary Russel Mitford for Mr. Fisher Unwin. The letters will be linked together with sufficient narrative, explanatory and illustrative, to give coherence and clearness.' There will be an introduction dealing with Miss Mitford as a letter-writer, a side of her talent which has scarcely received adequate attention. Mr. Wilfrid Ward, in "Men and Manners" (Longmans), just published, tells how Cardinal Vaughan, then a Bishop, "was staying with my father at Weston, and Mrs. Camerom and Tennyson came to tea to meet him. Mrs. Cameron was, at that time, photographing various peo- j pie for the characters in the 'Idylls of the King.' Directly she saw Vaughan's knightly face and figure, she called out to Tennyson: 'Alfred, I have found Sir Lancelot.' Tennyson, not seeing to whom she referred, replied in deep tones: 'I want a face that is well-worn wiih evil passion.' The Bishop was greatly embarrassed, and the company a good deal amused." Speaking on the Anglo-American literary relationship, Mr. G. P. Brett of the Macmillan Company (New York) informed an interviewer in London that what America now looks for from England are "the big books," at all events the works of distinction. She has herself come to pioduce so jnany books of sound quality that she ohly needs what may be called the extra-special things from England. Mr. Brett's generalisation puts very well the change which has taken place with recent years as between the two book worlds. In "Club Makers and Club Manners," by T. H. S. Escc-tt {Fisher, Unwin), reI ference is made to clubs almost founded by intelligent foreigners and "gentlemen's gentlemen." Among the former was Francisco Bianco, a master in the making of coffee, chocolate, and" tea, who afterwards changed his name to the now historic one of White, and Heidegger, the fion of a clergyman at Zurich, who went into partnership with White's widow. When lie was ninety years old ho made this remark on the countries of his birth and adoption :—-"I:—-"I came to England without a farthing. I have found how to make £5000 a year and spend it. Now I defy the a-blest man to go to Switzerland to realise that Vej;enuQ or to consume, it Mere.,- 1

"In Pennell of the Afghan Frontier," by Alice M. Pennell (Seeley, Service), a fine picture of a medical missionary is furnished, justifying Lord Iloberts's description of tho late Dr. Pennell as "a power for good in the field of his labours," and one whose influence always upheld the best traditions of our race.- Dr. Pennell made it a rule to eat the food of the people amongst whom he worked, and to share their simplest meals. Apparently, nothing endeared him to them so much as this custom of his. The picturesque costume of the wildPathan was deliberately adopted by him as an expression of policy, and, as a friend describes it : "Our mental conception of Dr. Pennell's commanding personality is of necessity, and quite inseparably, bound up with the native dress he habitually wore on the North- West frontier." His medical career was a series of brilliant successes from first to last, and from his earliest years his mother had set before him the ideal of a missionary's life. M. Maurice Barres has gathered into a brochure a number of assays on Lamartine, to which he gives the naano of "Abdication dv Poete." From the descendant of M. Dubois de Cluny, Lamartmo's friend and neighbour (M. Jules Caplain), M. Barres has •received a hitherto unpublished letter in. which the poet speaks of his great financial difficulties, caused by his inability to 'finish the edition of his completed works, of which nine volumes were still lacking. He was looking for resources from every side, and was threatened with a sale of his belongings in order to meet his debts* Unless he brings off .% big stroke he will be rained, he says. "As to politics, I mock at them, and I am much like the country." This was some yeaTS after his retirement as Chiet of | the Provisional Government and member of the Legislative Assembly. He attempted to repair his fortunes by tremendously hard work, and issued volume* by subscription at a terrific rate. Money flowed in, but was quickly absorbed by debts. Mr. Jas. H. Blackwood, president of the Publishers' Association of Great Britain and Ireland, complained in the Times of " the doings of Mr. T. B. Mosher, of Portland, Maine, U.S.A. Mr! Mosher is an American publisher who battens at the expense of British authors and publishers by issuing piratical editions of ( English copyright books. He sends his list of contraband literature by post to buyers in this country, who cannot be expected' to realise the true position of affairs, and who are naturally delighted to find their favourite authors issued in attractive ' guise and at a low price — a price that enables Mr. Mosher. by not paying the author, to make a handsome profit. I feel sure that were his methods generally known he would cease to find a market here. As Mr. Mosher' s wares are sent into this country by post without any identifying label, it is practically impossible for the postal authorities to discover them ; but that he finds a ready sale for them is proved by the fact that numbers of secondhand copies are to be found in the vicinity of Charing Crossroad, and advertisements of his books unfortunately from time to time are teen in reputable English newspapers." Dr. Arthur Lynch, M.P., has arranged with the firm of Figuiere, of Paris, for the early publication of a novel, " Poppy Meadows, ' which he has written in French. An English version will follow. The story is simple but poignant. A young student is seized with passionate love for a beautiful girl, Poppy Meadows, whose character makes it impossible for him to marry her. His soul is beaten about in a series of fierce attractions and repulsions. At length he poses the question to himself s Why should I renounce her? To solve this he sends his thought abroad throughout the whole range of human - life. Tlie problem becomes essentially that of the data of ethics. Hence the sub-title — ■ "roraan' philosophique." The Colonial Institute of Hamburg recently invited Professor W. J. Ashley to deliver a course of lectures on the economic organisation of England. They are about to be published in volume form by the firm of Longmans. Their purpose is to give a rapid sketch of the whole course of English economic development. To tho general reader they should serve as.an historical introduction to modern industrial and agrarian problems. 'A reprint of the first printed edition of Thomas A'Kempis's " Imitatione Christi," done by Gunther Zainer at Augsburg in 1471 or 1472, is to be published by Methuen. It has been edited by Dr. Adrian and will be printed in red and black in a new type designed by Mr. Douglas Cockerell. There is a very amusing incident about the contents of a bottle in the story, "The White Linen Nurse," by Eleanor H. Abbott (Hodder and Stoughton). The newly married wife of a dipsomaniac doctor found in his ulster pocket " a bottle of something that smelt as though it had been forgotten." "I threw it out," she wrote to her husband, and received this reply: "Kindly refrain from rummaging in my ulster pockets. The ' thing ' you threw ou£ happened to be the cerebellum and medulla of an extremely interesting English • theologian! "Even so — it was sour," telegraphed his wife, " the white linen nurse." The telegram took an Indian with a canoe two days to deliver, and cost the surgeon twelve dollars. | "1 knew a Scotch Judge, a famous bon vivant, who was forced to drink water j for two months, and being asked what was tho effect of the regimen, owned that he saw the world really as it was for the first time for 20 years." This ip one of the anecdotes collected by Thackeray for the purpose of ''The Four Georges." It appears in a MS. volume sold, together with other Thackeray manuscripts, at Messrs. Sotheby's, and disposed of by Lady Ritchie, the great novelist's daughter. Canon Hannay, who as "George A. Birmingham," the novelist, recently paid a visit to America. Out of that he has written a book called "From Connaught to Chicago," and it will be published by Nisbet. He does not discuss politics or other large problems, but just talks of the triendly fac» of America as he saw it. Dr. Ginsburg, the eminent Hebraist, I whose death wns recently announced, was by biTth and education a Jew. Ho became a Christian at the age of J5 years, and as a young man. made his home in England. Two historical and critical commentaries on Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs, published in 1857, were his first works, and since thenhe hap been constantly engaged in research. The greatest achievement of his life was the publication and explanation of "The Massorah." This appeared in three huge folio volumes, consisting of nearly 2000 pages, from 1880 to 1885. "The Massorah" is a directory, indicating on almost every line in the margin of M.S. Bibles how the letters., words, forms, and phrases are to be written according to the most ancient rules, laid down by those who compiled, preserved, and transmitted the canon of Old Testa.ment scriptures. The greatest of Oriental scholars in our own time, Dr. Gunsburg enjoyed a world-wide fame. He was one of the original of the conunitteo appointed by Convocation in 1870 to un-dert-ake tlie revision of the Old 'J'«»ta«