THE BOOKMAN

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 1, 1 July 1922, Page 17

THE BOOKMAN

"Little Essays at Love andl Virtue." , By Havelock Ellis. London: A. and C. Black. One main point of this book is that people may have been rnaavied for years, andi haive a family, without realising fully what love means. The author holds that "the natural tendencies have been surrounded by taboos and terrors, tinged with artificial stains of impurity; and degradation, derived from alien and antiquated . traditions. Havelock Ellis holds that the population of the world is already overgrown. An increase in the birthrate always means mainly a great increase in the population of the graveyard!! . Australia and New Zealand are held up as examples to the world. "It is perhaps in Australia and New Zealand that we find the most satisfactory proofs of the benefits of a failing birthrate in delation to 'race suicide.' The evidence-may well appeal to us more, since it is precisely, hare thatrthe race suicide fanatic finds freest scope for his wrath. He looks gleefully, at China, with its.prolific women; at Russia, with its magnificent birth rate before thenar of nearly 50'; at Rumania, with its. birth rate of 42; at Chile and Jamaica, with nearly 40. No nonsense about birth - control there! No shirking by women of the sacred duties of parpetual maternity! No immoral notions about claims to happiness and desire for culture. And then he turns from those great centres of prosperity and) civilisation to Australia, to New * Zealand, andl his voice is.choked, and tears fill Ms eyes as he sees the goal of :race euicide' nearly in ' sight, • and the spectra of the last man. rising before him. For, there is no doubt about it, Australia and New Zealand contain a population which is gradually Teaching the highest point yet Known to democratic organisation and general'social weUbeing, and the birth rate has been falling with terrific speed. Sixty years ago in the Australian Commonwealth it. was 44, only forty years ago. in New Zealand it. was 42. Now it is only 'about 26 in both, lamdls. Yet the survival rate, the actual growth of the population, is not so very much less with this low birth rate than it was withi the high birth rate. For the death rate has aho fallen, in both lancts to about 10 (in New Zealand to 9), which is lower than any. other country in the world." "Thus. Australia and' New Zealand, says Mr. Havelock 'Ellis*, "actually present the highest rate of rate-inorease in i the world (only- excepting Canada, where | it is less firmly and less healthily, based), \ ■nearly twice that of Great Britain, aad able at the present rate to double itself every. 44' years."; Not that this las£ capacity is, to his mind, an ■ advantage. Increase in population means to him overcrowding, disease, immorality, a lowered standard, with a constant. tendency, to war. He quotes a .disquieting suggestion from a, leading American biologist that "the present rate of.increase in th« population of the worldi (chiefly of white, who are increasing most Tapidly) will, within the life of the grandchildren of the present generation-, "lead to a struggle for existence more terrible thai* imagination can conceive. His-motto seems to be "Fitter .andl Fewer." Thus he speaks out boldly for. dealing effectually with infants who are obviously unfit. After .the way in which, we have recently _ sacrificed : in war the very flower of our _ manhood, "we cannot easily find anything to disapprove in the merciful disposal! of the poorest specimens-before they have even attained conscious possession of their senses. . . . It is certain that some of the most highly.-developed people of the world1-have1 practised infanticide.' This, is a book .full-, of shocks, stimulative of thought;, apd.with material in it for half,a.-dozen; fierce controversies. "Middle-age Health and Fitness." By Edwin L. Ash, M.LV London: Mills and Boon. . "There should be no fear of middle-age," is the opinion of the author of this book. On the contrary, as a medical man of long and varied experience, he holds that for the majority middle-age should be the time of success,, the age of fruition, the period of accomplishment. At forty a man is in the prime of life, whilst at fifty he is still well within the season of vitality and splendid endeavour. For woman the years past forty need have no terrors. Girlhood and youth lack manysweet gifts brought by the fairy of middle-age; experience brings contentment and added powers of enjoyment. In society, in sport, as in, her friendships and in her home, the woman of fortyfive may still be a queen and yet look forward to a, long and happy reign. But good looks and nerve, athletic success and!social charm ar.e certainly more Mid more -dependent on physical fitness and mental poise as the years.go by after forty; health is, indeed, as essential to the enjoyment of middle life as in the more buoyant time of youth. In this little book the author gives a bright and hopeful message, with many useful hints on how to keep up and doing in the."forties" and "fifties" of life. "The Mother of All Living." By Robert, Keable. London : Constable and : Co. (Australasian Publishing- Company, Sydney). Playing with fire is always dangerous, no matter whether the players are children or grown-ups. Mr. Keable does it rather 'adroitly in this novel, and he makes several of his principal characters do it'too. For instance, what can be said of a married /woman "with a decent sort of husband, exclaiming—to another man whom she had permitted "to press her to him until she had hard work to suppress a cry"—"Oh, Chris, Chris, my darling; my love! How I love you, Chris. I had no idea love was like this. It pains, Chris, so that I can hardly speak. I can bear no more now"? It is the kind of playing with fire that usually ends in the Divorce Court, often with details suppressed from publication. "The Mother of All Living" will, no doubt, be "a best seller," for if it may not be described as "palpitating with passion," it is certainly sticky with love, to the consistency of honey. It is hard to accept j it as a faithful description _of feminine j character. But if its publishers' claim forit is to be admitted, then it is a study of perverted young women, culpably indiscreet, thrusting themselves in such compromising situations as all proper women would, inherently avoid. However, this is th.3 stuff that sells. Mr. Keable is .a clergyman and a clever writer. He has the knack (if one skips the billing and cooing passages) of holding the reader's interest all the time. His descriptions of South African scenery are , exceedingly fine. Mr. Keable is an artist in description of the natural beauties of the land.:. One is prepared to accept, (with gratitude) his assurance that "the principals of the story are entirely fictitious." "The Passionate Puritan." By Jane | Mander. London: John Lane, The Bodley Head. I The author, who has already achieved fame on account of her previous work, "The Story of a New Zealand River," must be considered as one of the few writers of the past fifty years who have found it possible to handle the local colour of the backbloek's scene with that mastery which is able to convince those most familiar . with the country (writes the London correspondent of The Post). " Again, har story is subdued, and she ,c«rtijtoto 4pfie 4.»»nisr^,.fl9gyM=SS..Me.. J

Dominion by making of her characters living, modern people, and not the cari- i catures which the unthinking' public too ' often, expect from writers who are deal- • ing with' the great open spaces of the ■; Empire. It ia this artistic handling : which is going to make the present : volume an important contribution to ' New Zealand literature.- Sidney Carey, the passionate Puritan, is a young school teacher of Auckland, who has done well in her axaminations, and has also tried j - but in vain, to evade the regulation and obtain a place in a city school instead of spending the regulation two years in the country. In spite of her friendship with the chairman of. the Education Board, she is sent to take charge of a new school at Puhipuhi, near Whangarei. There she is absorbed into the routine life of the mill settlement. The .bush, the mill, and the surrounding country generally become very real in the fabric of the story, and are treated with just-that incidental artistry which gives the book its greatest value. The lesser characters, too, are all. very true and convincing. As to the main theme— the Passionate Puritan's progress to tolerance of an easier standard of sex morality—it is handled with equal dexterity." The Post's correspondent describes " The Passionate Puritan " as ail interesting story, but hardly an elevating one. One sentence of a. review of the book in a leading London daily will' perhaps show ; how it may be misunderstood: "As she •approaches her curtain, Miss Mander be- . conies increasingly sportive in her handl- , ing of the. moral issues of her. heroine's • story. Take this tolerance as typical.of i the Southern clime, and compare it with , the grim and rigid view, of conduct in ! Canadian backblock fiction; the contrast ; illumines our sense of far-flung Empire.-" i "Chattels." By Hamilton Drummond. London': Stanley Paul and Co. • The author of '-'Shoes of Gold" and 1 "Her Chosen Part" is a past master in 1 the art of setting a scene,' and in this ' latest work has drawn a fascinating his-, ' toxical romance, and introduced a spirit- " ed story that must commend itself to • readers. It 'is a pleasing „ tale of '■ French medieval times, full of interest, • -with strong love passions, treachery, and • loyalty. It is a readable addition to 5 any library.