A READING OF LIFE

Evening Post, Issue 86, 11 April 1936, Page 20

A READING OF LIFE

|ffi PATHS WE TRAVEL

A VETERAN'S PHILOSOPHY

(By "Quivis.")

In a sense all literature is a com- v mentary on life, but, whereas in fiction v and the drama the writer may be said to present the case through witnesses ; and let their evidence speak for itself. c the poet and the essayist address them- t selves directly to the reader and tell v him what they think it all means. It £ might seem that the direct method t were the more effective, but in reality E this is more than doubtful. Most of us are like the Man from Missouri: we want to be shown, not told. Like- < wise the thoughtful teacher knows that the indirect method of approach is • often the more fruitful of results. Mr. i H. G. Wells has used both methods to ' the full and it might be a nice test { of the relative value of the two for the ] reader, on reflection, to express a pre- ] ference. In practice a great deal de- ' pends on how the job is done, clumsily or with craftsmanship. This is espe- j (jcially true' of the essay; it must be well ) "done or it repels. The novelist or 1 the playwright may lose his own per- \ '"sonality in the story or the drama, but J essayist is definitely in the com- \ ■■'pany of his readers and the manner | ,a£ his discourse must please or they • will soon cease to listen. So when , we get a book of essays under the ] rather ambitious title of "A Reading of Life," by an author hot .previously known to us, we are naturally inclined - to be a little chary of making, his ac- . qiiaintance, certainly rather- wary ?s , to'his first words. In this ■ case the j caution proved unnecessary, as it often , does. This book of essays is the work . 0f..-'a sincere and thoughtful man of ■ lohg and wide experience and deep j reading and the literary merits are ;] considerable. . . ■ . . , 1 THE IDENTITY OF THE AUTHOR. \ The author of "A Reading of Life" : (Macmillan) is Mir. S; R. Lysaght, of : . whom one is astonished to learn that he/ is managing director of the great firm of that name, that he has written several other books, . including four novels, a volume of poems, and a drama in verse, and, lastly, though one would never, have guessed it from the internal evidence of style, that .he is nearly as old as Mr. Bernard Shaw. The names of .the. novels are: "My Tower in Desmond," "Her Majesty's Rebels," "One. of the Grenvilles," and "The Marplot." ' The drama is entitled "The Immortal Jew.", , None of these .books could I find in the City Library nor; -do'-. I know any more about. Mr. Lysaght, but, though literature must be to him a hobby, as it was to the banker, Sir John Lubbo'ck', and indeed to all men who do .not have to write for a living, the quality of Mr. ~Lysaght's work is far above the ordinary effusions of the successful business man. Of his philosophic verse tX can only quote this from "The Impinortal Jew," as it is given in "A Reading of Life" (pp.' 25 and 26): l"!>. ■ ' i «■ In the immeasurable lapse ffii Of Time, amid the myriad haps .5 Of Being, was it chnnce or. plan #" That brought me hither and made me man; t*; That chose the hour and set me here; *• Here In this land, in this abode. S' This homeland on an island sphere 3* Bc-vond which man has found no tonal <*" Why now, not then? Why I, not he? IS Why here, not there? «£• And why at all, or, ir at all, » Then why not always? : What am I ■&\ Who call my life my own, yet die Si And leave that life beyond, recall? S;- Whose choice am I, for I chose not *' The hour, the person, or tbe spot? *{■ Oh what inscrutable decree, ¥.■ What law that had to be obeyed, & Fulfilled itself, at last, and marto j£. Tills, the inevitable ME? | SPECULATION ON THE EGO. % And so, with all its mysteries, the Swriter of these lines discusses life. 'trhere are nine essays whose titles will !*give some idea of the scope of the $book: . First-; Outlooks; A .Reading of Mature; Beauty and Truth;1 Love and *35ex: The Individual; Good and Evil; %)ld. Age and Death; A Reading, of SPoetry" ami 'Our Island .World. In the on the Individual," Mr. ■ Lysaght Ihas an interesting speculation on "the "inevitable: Me," a quotation from which ■will illustrate his lucid style: ■ The individual may be proud of his forefathers and inclined to talk about them if they were distinguished people; or If he does not know who his great-graudfathcr was, or does know that he was an insignificant member of Society, he may regard references, to. pedigrees Sms ■ snobbish; but In any case when he is mS&lned to be^valnglorlijus about himself and his i&wn- performances.,he* shoujd be oWht back Sfo th> question—'-! How much of this Pejsoninitvof mine'is JIB? Am I anything but the resultant of those lives which preceded'njlue,— lives which 1 had no part in shaping? Is this eno-something Independent of the. mental aid bodily characteristics inherited from my ancestors, or is It also transmission? Cau 1 not even call my 'soul my own? . . • Throughout his —life a man's body and mind undergo- modiflcatlona; his opinions, his-tastes, his very1 principles change; hut from childhood to old age he Is cousclous of being the same person. There would be nothing unreasonable, therefore, in Imagining that what happens from decade to. decade might v be extended from life .to life, and that though he Had forgotten his pre-exlstence as completelj as he >as forgotten''his "Infancy,'lie miglit be an ancestor re-embodled, with tastes and characteristics perhaps quite, different hut with the same ego.' If this reading of the design of life be true, it would remove the injustice of the hereditary transmlslson of defects and it would also relieve the individual from the humiliation of the feeling that he Is no more than the obedient product of hlstforerathcra' activities ■ A MANLY PHILOSOPHY. The title of Mr. Lysaght's book is jitself not original, as George Meredith ;.;jrears ago gave the name "A- Reading of Life" to a group of his poems, but Mr. Lysaght's interpretation is essen tially his own, though he admits to a strong leaning towards the manly philosophy of Meredith in his outlook an life. Of all the essays, the best are Love and Sex, where the attitude is wise and tolerant to human frailty, and Old Age and Death, where the personal touch is unusually poignant. ■Sphere is,no, space. to quote further. f r LIMITATION OF OUTLOOK. One must, however, close with what may seem a discordant note. These and .similar books of essays, like Sir John'Lubbock's "Pleasures of Lif'j," W. B;, Lecky's "Map of Life," and the ]£tterS;of the late John Bailey (reviewell in this column some months ago) are the work of men of independent means and leisure and this must inevitably colour their outlook. This is a'harsh and dangerous age in which millions of men and women have sufjfered from the horrors of war and may have to suffer again, and in which peace and poverty have long gone hand in hand for many. What would be the ii-'reading of life" from one of these? We have some idea from Walter Green*wood's "Love on the Dole" and James Hanley's "The Furys," to mention but '•two examples of a type of literature "ffiat reveals a world of action hither,t<!> unknown, anil may give a truer read%hg of life than can ever come from thought alone in Olympian security and serenity. ' In saying this one is ■$bt ungrateful for an honest, sincere, pid? stimulating' survey of life such as jflr. Lysaght .has,.given us..