BOOKS REVIEWED

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 154, 27 December 1924, Page 17

BOOKS REVIEWED

"The Human. Pedagogue." By R. G. ' Jennings. , Australian Authors' -Agency, Melbourne. Per Messrs.

Whitcombe and Tombs, Wellington.

By. its rather; forbidding title, "The Human Pedagogue," might at first impression be taken to be another of those books, on "teaching made pleasant" or "the royal road to learning," otherwise a.textbook on the new education, with the schoolmaster in a new role as "quits one of the. boys, you know." Happily it is none of these things,' but just a pleasant story of public school life in Australia, bearing every, evidence of being, founded; on experience and recollection- It is this which gives the book its value as a fair picture of life, in a great Australian public 'school. Ao names are. mentioned, but by various allusions and the. context let us hazard the guess—Melbourne Grammar School. Indeed, :if it were not for references to Australian topography . anil flora and. fauna, it might be the story of an English public school. , .The,. llero of the'story, who tells it himself m the first person, is an-Eng-lish lad who comes out to Australia with, his father, of whom he says: "He was a man of the old Conservative type, which holds.family to the opinion, in spiteof much cheap criticism and op-position-from various quarters, that the public schools' ol England are the moulds of what' is best in the national character, not merely ■ training a man J-? PW the game and play it cheerfully, but cultivating in generation's of cleanlivmg Englishmen that sober, solid public opinion which is the soul of a nntlo?|_: Iv a ■ world which literally seethes with the vapourihgs of the exponents of technical skill and mere mental .efficiency, these schools have refused to bow the knee" to the god of materialism, holding tenaciously to that which is old and tried, cherishing their own traditions. and going . back lor their wisdom to the days of Calvary ar»d beyond, loving and venerating their own old age and such deep things as are older than the ages." From this passage may be gained a just idea of the tone of the story and the angle from which the community life, of the public school is viewed. There is just a little of the manner of "Eric or Little by Little:," Dean Farrar's masterpiece, about it,' but one appreciates the life-like characters as created (or remembered) by the author. "And yet . . ..'.!" he says. "Are these schools sending out year by year men grounded and steeped in a faith that will not waver—men capable of leading public thought, and equipped,»by reason of their mental and moral training, to grapple with the complex problems that beset us, or is all that left to the stump orator , and. revolutionist? Ars they standing aloof from the turmoil of politics and public life because'politics and public life are reputed to bo corrupt, or are they going m undaunted ■to make them clean? Are these schools holding but the hand of. common brotherhood, or are ' they merely the foster-beds of self-complacency, fanning into flame the embers thai roiis* the sinimerings and vapouringg of bitter class hatred ;■. Are they., turning out clean-mmded, chivalrous men, imbued with the doctrine of reverence and service, or is all that just a self-satisfy-ing. fallacy to justify t&eir existence— a mere eoft-bedded pretence to pilot the spineless along the paths of luxury ajid ease? What is the answer?

"The answer iB in the soul of every public school man and between the lines of this book."

With this message we may leave a very sincere and refreshing story to n reader who will overlook some of its crudities and shortcomings, for the light it throws on the public school.and its ■work here as well as in Australia. The recent jubilee celebrations of Wellington College have grven us an inkling of the feeling the old boy has for his old school: ■ .'■■■';'; .. .

i'Eollyston." By Victor Manley Davidson. London:. George Gv Harrap . and Co., Ltd. : .!■■'■■-.

The. latest work from Mr. Davidson's hand is an eighteenth century romance, well written, very readable, and of more than usual interest in that the novelist has been to' some pains to introduce in an unobtrusive -way historical facts, and a very fine interpretation of the people -ways, and doings of Kent and London in the year' 1759. The w.ork deals with titled people for the most ■ part, commencing with the -disappearance of the heir of Earl Rollyston, and>resuming some twenty years later to describe the exciting times through which \ the heir passed before his identity was ■ estab-. lished. The descriptive' passages are very fine, _ particularly at the end of the story in a Court scene. The work v.ill be noted by most as fit to be added to a collection of standard novels.

"M'Glusky the Sea Rover." By A. G. Hales. London: -Hodder and Stoughton, Ltd..

;Like most of the other of the -works of Mr. Hales,- "M'Glusky the Sea Rover" is a capitally entertaining work, spiced with humour. It is the Btory of two super men, one being M'Glusky and the other the captain of the sailing ship on which he finds himself after a street fight. The ship is used for several hazardous purposes, but chiefly in assisting rebels and their kin, who paid ■well.for the service. M'Glusky quickly establishes himself as bosun of the ship, and after^ that ' the daring adventures recorded in Algiers and other countries make a fine story.

•"Gem of the Flat." By Constance Macknen. Sydney: The Cornstall Publishing Company! :

• Gem is a little Australian girl, a character drawn with sympathy and understanding and most probably from life; at any rate there are half-tone illustrations from photographs showing scenes referred to in the story and a photograph of Gem on a ladder picking apricots. The great interest of the story is the insight it affords into rural people and their mode of life in New South Wales. The "love element" is skilful, and Gem is made out to be a thoroughly lovable Australian girl.

"Bound us the soiiturie is complete. It is, the great silence of dead lands. One must have known these Saharan nights, the immobility of the grey rocks, tragically erect above the infinite plains, bathbd in bluish moonlight, to understand the complete sense of the word 'silent." Silence here is something tan gible, 3 natural physical force like graviattion, cold, or the electric fluid, a constraint to which we submit, an imperious .tyranny which is imposed, and against which one hardly dares rebel, speaking low as if the sound of a loud voice were a sort of .sacrilege."—From '.'Across the Sahara by Motor-car from Touggourt to T'imbuctoo." By George M. Haardfc and Landouin Dubreuil (T; Fisher Unwin.)