The Bookman

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 70, 19 September 1936, Page 26

The Bookman

PHRASES SAYINGS THAT STICK MISFORTUNES OF THE EMINENT (Written for the "Evening Post" by A.M.) r "Education, ladies and gentlemen, has—er—made Britain—er—what she 'is," Many years ago, so I have been informed, a Governor of New Zealand made- this brief remark at a prize-giving. Next morning he was reported in this style: "Education, continued his Excellency, had oaen the prime-factor in elevating Britain to that -position of pre-eminence among the nations that she now enjoyed." With the Mayor of Wellington the process of expansion has been reversed. He was reported the other day as having said that New Zealand women, couldn't cook, and now he has explained—at a festive gathering—that he didn't say this. "What I did suggest, at one of those meetings which require a little gingering up in their dying hours, by throwing a bone of contention on the floor that might do some good, was that those who did retain the art of. treating the gifts of Nature in the proper way might help the many more to reach that stage a little more quickly than they are doing." .His Worship will be more careful in the future. Gingering up public proceedings is a dangerous pastime for public men. One's sense of humour is so often misunderstood. As Mr. Hislop said in his, subsequent comment, men in public positions "must speak, with an eye to consequences for years and years ahead:" They must, indeed, and sometimes, as also in this case, they must look to the immediate effect. Irony, for example, is dangerous. A man was charged with burglary. He had been caught in his stockinged feet among the family silver. He pleaded in defence that he had been paying a friendly call. The Judge told the jury that if they believed that a mail paying such a call would enter a house by the skylight with his boots off, they would acquit the prisoner, which the jury promptly did. ■ ' « •

ASQUITH'S MISFORTUNE. This, however, is a digression. My purpose is to comment on the moral that Mr. Hislop drew from this experience of his. Words, he said, were dangerous things, and ."passing phrases sometimes assumed meanings not intended at their utterance." He cited Asquith's '.'Wait and see," BethmannHolrweg's "Scrap of paper," and Woodrow Wilson's, "Too proud to fight." It is a curious selection because these phrases are not in the same category, though as a group they illustrate the power of phrase to influence public opinion. Asquith's. saying was made to-carry a weight it was never intended-to bear, and for Mr. Hislop's purpose' is the most interesting of the three. In 1909 Mr. Asquith was asked in the Commons what would happen when a certain measure went up to the Lords, and he replied. "I'm afraid we must wait and see." He used the phrase on several other occasions. It is the sort of haramless reply that Ministers have employed time out of number. It stuck :■ to Asquith' because to many it seemed indicative of his: character; the Press, of course, helped in the process. Asquith was sometimes relatively slow to act, but he by no means deserved the reputation the phrase gave him. "Asquith? Oh, yes. 'Wait and see.'. He's too slow for the country's, needs." The phrase acquired extra potency during the war, and helped to bring; him down' It is significant that in his "Life,: Journalism, and Politics" that wise journalist and. confidant of the great, Mr. J. A. Spender, thus refers to the year after Mr. Lloyd George's succession to Asquith, "The year 1917 was a deep disappointment. None of the new energy which we had been led to expect on the deposition of 'Wait and See' was visible either at Home or in the field." That year, however, was not the nadir of Asquith's fortunes. In the election of 1918 he was put out of Parliament, and doubtless "Wait and See" had some influence with the electors of East Fife.;;-,..'/ x •'A SCRAP OF PAPER." On the other hand, "Too proud to fight" was part of a deliberate, public utterance on policy by President Wilson,, shortly after the Lusitania had been sunk. Mr. Wilson may have been surprised at the effect these words produced, but let us first get them correctly. Apparently he did not say in these very words that America was too proud to fight. "There is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight . . . such a thing as a nation being so right that it need to convince others by force that it is right." This was summarised by a London newspaper into "We are too proud to fight—Woodrow Wilson;" and soon England was ringing with the words. Colonel House, Wilson's most trusted confidant, described how the reaction in England affected him. "I felt as though! had been given a kick at every lamp-post coming down Con-stitution-Hill." -.■'■:... - "A scrap of paper" belongs to the class of honest indiscretions blurted out in moments of crisis. In that momentous interview with the British Ambassador, Bethmann-Hollweg added to the crime and blunder of the invasion of Belgium a blunder of .his own which was to prove of priceless value to the enemies of his country. That suave and supple diplomatist Bulow saw at once how terribly BethmannHollweg had compromised Germany in that interview and in the' subsequent necessity-knows-no-law speech to the Reichstag. "A scrap of paper" provided an unsurpassable rallying cry for British sentiment, and nothing could explain it away. These three phrases rest on fact: Britain's "contemptible little army" does not. This alleged army order of the Kaiser appeared,, I believe, in "The Times," and T' ' think I have seen a statement that some words of the Kaiser bear something like this meaning.' The Kaiser denied emphatically ever having used the words, and after the war a British investigator into war propaganda made a careful search and reported that no such order could be found. This conclusion, I think, is, generally accepted, .--Here, again, the phrase was of great moral value to the Allies. The story, however, will never be overtaken, and the word "Contemptibles" is now a name affectionately bestowed upon and gladly accepted by the survivors of the original British' Expeditionary Force.

DANGEk MTPHRASteS. Man is governed largely by phrases. They inspire himi instruct him, and mislead him. They provide the generalisation of thought for which he craves, and generalisations are dangerous. He seeks to. simplify—as when he reduces Darwinism to the statement that "man is descended from monkeys" —and life is not simple. A phrase, as

we have seen, may be invested with an importance it did not possess originally. It may have no foundation in fact. It may be taken out of its context and given a meaning that was not intended for it. We find pretty examples of this last in the use made by publishers of extracts from reviews. "Despite its faulty English, its not infrequent inaccuracy, and its somewhat disagreeable egotism, this is a very readable book." So may run a review in the "Clarion Call." The publisher puts on the cover of the book "Very readable—'Clarion Call'." Or a phrase may contain words that are seldom defined. "Liberty, equality, fraternity." What do we mean by each? "The liberty of the subject." "The freedom of the Press." "The gospel of efficiency." . What do we mean here by "liberty," "freedom," and "efficiency"? The same word may not mean the same thing to parties to an argument. "The great majority of arguments and discussions in everyday life are utterly futile—sheer waste of time and temper—hopeless from the start . ... . simply because the • parties are using, the same words, but using them in different senses. They are speaking different languages, but-they do hot recognise the fact." So writes Mr. A. E. Mander in his excellent little book "Clearer Thinking." PHRASE-MAKING. Phrases may be powerful and dangerous, but they may also be magical and lovely. It is the aim of every orator and writer to make phrases that will strike home, and this making of phrases is the commonest aesthetic act in literary art. Our daily speech and writing are thick with phrases that have come down to us from literature, some through many centuries. "Conspicuous by their absence," perhaps the most frequently-used of all epigrams, we owe to Tacitus the : Roman. We speak the Bible and Shakespeare every day without ' knowing it. "Skill in phrase-making was perhaps the literary gift that Disraeli most admired, and shortly before'his death he said to Matthew Arnold, "You are a fortunate man. The young man read you; they no longer read me. And you have invented phrases which everyone quotes—such as 'Philistinism' and 'Sweetness and light.'" How much the world needs sweetness and light today is obvious. Phrases are 'part of that measure of immortality that is vouchsafed to uses of words. But the humblest of writers may be able to make phrases, and in doing so feel the glow of the creative artist. Their verse may lack distinction, and their fiction reality, but now and again a phrase may come to them that bears the stamp of literature. Phrase-makers are the largest confraternity of writers. LITERARY NOTES BOOKS AND AUTHORS A street in Ypres is to be named Avenue Kipling in memory of Rudyard Kipling. Maxim Gorki, who died recently, is to be commemorated by monuments in Moscow, Leningrad, arid Nijni Novgorod- (Gorki City, his birthplace), and by three annual prizes for short stories.

Two. Lond'pn houses where famous men lived are in the news. Nelson's home in Bond Street has been opened as an art gallery, and Hogarth's house in Leicester Square is being used temporarily as an art school by the L.C.C. .

Psalter, ah illuminated manuscript on vellum dating back to the thirteenth century, has been sold in London, for £2400. It is to go to the British Museum. It consists of 283 leaves, and the exquisite colours are still clear and bright. It is believed to have been written and illuminated at the Abbey of Evesham, shire.

"Unsaleability is almost the hallmark, in modern times, of quality in writing," says Logan Pearsall Smith, "The enormous and half-educated publics of present-day England andAmerica, though welcoming the novels of our famous novelists, have as a rule acclaimed as masterpieces books that were soon forgotten, while ignoring at first:all that was exquisite and rare."

Tarzan of the Apes, the creation of Mr. Edgar Rice Burroughs, is to be seen in person in the Ibilaos, one of the tribes in the interior of the Philippine Islands, according to Mr. Carl N. Taylor, in his. "Odyssey of the Islands." Warriors of this tribe can run at high speed a hundred feet above the ground. They do-it with the aid of a knife, called a bolo, and a 40-foot length of rattan with a hook at one end and a loop at the other.

Mr. Baldwin, pleading at Cambridge for more poets, was rather in the position of Glendower summoning spirits from the vasty deep; indeed, the operations are identical. But poets, as has been remarked, are' born, not made, and as the birth-rate dwindles they are likely to show an increasing reluctance to trust themselves to so dangerous a planet. And even when the poet comes there is not a great deal for. him ,to do except write poetry; and that only means one more uneconomic unit.

, Those who. recall General Gordon's fate will be. interested to hear that one of the last messages he sent from KhartoumJs.to be sold in London. The message was written en a piece of paper the size of a postage stamp, and it was carried through the Mahdi's lines concealed in the.quill which was stuck in the' Arab camel rider's hat. Another notable manuscript that is coming up for sale is a "certificate of capable seamanship and good conduct" written for young Lieutenant Horatio Nelson by his commander, : Captain Locker, in 1778. The manuscript is in the possession of Mr. -, Godfrey iocker-Lampson, M.P., great-grandson of Captain Locker. • AQUATIC LIBRARIES Circulating libraries have had strange methods of travel which have been responsible for masterpieces of literature in bur language. A librarian in a river punt, distributing , reading .'matter to the occupants of other punts, is a new phase that has developed in England "ufh.ereJhe silver Thames doth glide," and is one that should give ,the aquatic librarian scope of I 'adding to' her stock of books with one of her 6wn impressions.; and servations, the : librarian in "this case being-a woman. ,; Every weekend a 'young, woman punts ''■ a book-laden cfaft along the upper reaches of the Thames, calling on houseboats, .punts,, -and sailingboats. She: has discovered' that the river book-borrowers' have special tastes—they prefer volumes of short stories. "Punt-lounging bookworms," she says, "want a book that they can put down, when their hour is up, without the annoyance of wondering what is going to happen next." Perhaps that is one of the reasons for the revival in popularity with publishers of the book of short stories.

DEEP THINKING A YOUNG PHILOSOPHER Fortunately for the future of the Dominion, there are amongst the younger generation some to whom life means something more than cocktails, jazz, and sport. When fate about a year ago intervened and Keith Charles Anderson accidentally stepped into a lift shaft and was killed, the earthly life of a brilliant young philosopher was cut off in its prime, for Keith Charles Anderson was one who, had he reached full maturity, would undoubtedly have influenced the thought and thereby the destiny of New Zealand. He was one who was far from satisfied with current superficial thought: he was not afraid to think for himself, and, although at the time of his death he was still what one might call groping, he had achieved sufficient to show that had he lived he would have been a force. Fortunately before his'death he had committed much of his philosophy, his I thoughts and hopes, to writing, probably more with a view to clarifying his' own thoughts than with a view to subsequent publication. His father and a close friend have collaborated in publishing in book form those writings, and they appear- under the title of "Freedom: The. Wisdom of the Now." There are essays on philosophy and politics, as well as a number of pages of verse. The value of this publication lies in the glimpse that it affords of the serious thinking indulged in by a young man of the present generation. That such a young man as Keith Charles Anderson must have had and will continue to have, although no longer in the flesh, an influence on others of his generation goes without saying, and it must be an influence for good. To summarise briefly this young man's philosophy and his outlook on life is not-easy. He would probably have been the first to admit that he still had a long way ty go before his views were clarified. But it is evident that he was a firm believer in the old Greek axiom, "Man, Know Thyself." He believed that it was supremely important for man to know himself: without that knowledge man cannot be a useful instrument for constructive thought or action. Mr. Anderson was not inclined to waste time regretting the past or speculating about the future. He wanted to tackle the problems of the day, to understand realities. He was apparently prepared to take what help he could from the teachings of Krishriamurti and others, but not to follow them slavishly. He was all for action, and in the realm of politics he believed that there was a very definite call to the youth of today. These essays must be judged in the light of what they are. They are not the product of a mature philosopher, but their very lack of maturity is one of their chief charms. Their spontaneity and youthful outlook are what appeal. The book has been attractively printed by Messrs. E. S. Cliff and Co., Ltd., Hastings, and there is a photograph of the author as a frontispiece.

BOOKS ON RUSSIA Two interesting books on presentday Russia have recently been issued. They are.particularly valuable because, taken together, they form an admirable contrast—at least in point of view. One is by Sir Walter Citrine,, the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, and the other is by Sir Bernard Pares,, who is an acknowledged authority on the old Russia. Sir. Walter Citrine's book, "I Search for Truth in Russia," published by Routledge, is the extended diary he kept on his recent visit to the U.S.S.R. It is an entertaining combination of personal anecdote and expert observation. Sir -Walter surveys the constructive achievements of the Soviets with the experienced »eye of a British trade unionist. While he readily gives credit where credit is due, he refuses to subscribe to the eulogistic reports which so many recent visitors have brought back with them. Sir Bernard Pares calls his book "Moscow Admits a Critic," and Nelsons have, published it. For many years the author has been a frank critic of the new Russia, and it is [Only after an absence of twenty years that he has been allowed to go back to Moscow. He • returns impressed with what he saw and heard, and the ./book gives an account -of the work of construction, of social services, education,,museums and .theatres, law, religion, and much else besides. He also discusses Hitler and Japan in relation to Russia, and all that he has to say is of importance to a better understanding of international, affairs as they are today. . BALFOUR'S BIOGRAPHY The most important political biography of the year will shortly come from Hutchinson's, the life of Lord Balfour, by his niece, Blanche E. :C. Dugdale. The book has developed from an autobiography that was long contemplated but. never written. Its present author has had a hard task, as the compilation of material involved delving into half a century's accumulation of papers of all kinds, important and trivial, casually thrown together. Lord Balfour's own principle in dealing with them, according to the testimony of his niece, was: "Where the tree falls, there let it lie," whether on the floor of his sitting-room or the counter-pane of his bed. Somebody would presently gather them up and stack them in dispatch boxes or other receptacles. Consequently the winnowing of the tvheat from the chaff has been no easy job. And as many of the documents were used by the biographer during her uncle's lifetime as decoys with woo him'along the paths of reminiscence, some of the most interesting and valuable passages in the biography will be reports of talks in dialogue form, in the manner of Boswell.

• A certain type of modern fiction, largely a series of interjections and splashy sentences, has neither beginning nor end.—Lord Tweedsmuir.

PUBLIC LIBRARIES BOOKS OF THE WEEK* The Chief Librarian of the Wellington Public Libraries has chosen "Perhaps Young Man," by George Woden, as the book of the week, and has furnished the following review:— In his latest book, "Perhaps Young Man," Mr. George Woden has produced a very entertaining story of rural England. Of course, Mr. Woden is first of all an accomplished craftsman, therefore his book is ,a pleasure to read from the point of view of its being so well written. Without effort and with the - utmost simplicity the special characteristics of the English countryside ... its peaceful beauty, its mellow cultivation, its charm in all seasons, is captured for the reader with a minimum of words. There are no long descriptions of the countryside in this book, and yet the natural surroundings play a vivid part in the story. The characters in "Perhaps Young Man" harmonise with their surroundings. They are simple village folk, and it is refreshing to read about them as they are portrayed by Mr. Woden. There is no writhing in the pangs of profound psychological problems, no exhausting intellectual hurdle racing or -. intense analysing of repressions and inhibitions. And yet without all this the story is movingly human and true to life.

As Mr. Woden explains, he wrote "Perhaps Young Man" for those who like a love story, and he proceeds to reveal love in various aspects—calf love, middle-aged love, and married love of long standing. Mickey, the younger son of the village vicar, is the "calf-lover." It is, of course, very difficult to portray calf love, particu.larly if the woman, as in this case, happens to be older than the man, without becoming either ridiculous or over-sentimental. Mr. Woden handles his love scenes with skill and understanding of the adolescent mind, and We find ourselves sympathising with Mickey, though certainly gently amused, as he passes through the calflove period from which he eventually emerges. Then we have a picture of middle-aged love. Hilda Waterland, a woman half of whose life has passed away as she nursed her invalid father, finds herself free but alone after his death. She has a cousin, Lucy, a brilliant pianist, who comes to live with her at "The Beeches"; and it is this Lucy who is the object of Mickey's adolescent infatuation. Hilda, however, after her father's death is undecided about her life, and thinks perhaps she will sell "The Beeches" and go and live in London. However, fate decides otherwise, for Arthur Mollen, a successful middle-aged business man, spends a holiday in the village. And then there is the vicar, the Rev. David Bevo, and his wife. Mr. Woden's picture of these two kindly people is delightful. Though their life has not been free from sorrow and difficulties, they have come to the evening of their days with their regard for each other undiminished. "Perhaps Young Man" achieves its purpose in being entertaining, v and it also has such sincerity and charm and warm humanity that one regrets coming to the final page. RECENT LIBRARY ADDITIONS. Other titles selected from recent accession lists are as follows:—General: "Dance," by L. Kirstein; "North Australia," by C. P. Conigrave; "March Hare," by E. Smithers. Fiction; "Figure of Eight," by. C. Mackenzie; "Was Murder Ddne?" by S. Fowler; "Erica's Son," by E. Morrison.

THE RUSSIAN BALLET '"The Birth of Ballets-Russes," by Prince Peter Lieven, tells the romantic story of the efforts which culmin-| ated in the creation of a new branch of theatrical art; It will appeal to all art-lovers, since modern tendencies in music, painting, and drama are dealt with, while the importance of the tradition of the old Imperial Ballet is not neglected. The book provides an answer to the question of why modern ballet has taken the form in which we know it today, and in the course of the book the author analyses several problems of art in general; the main principle of creative imagination, modern and conservative tendencies in art, the significance of the fusion of arts in: ballet, convention, 1 and style; The narrate is lively with anecdote and pen-portrait. The striking personalities of Bakst and Diaghileff himself seem to leave the printed page and pass before us in the very life, while Benois is at last put in the true perspective as the leading figure in the creation of the-Ballets-Russes. We see their early struggles, their youthful enthusiasms, their temporary failures, and their ultimate triumph, and we are introduced to such great artists as Nijinsky, Pavlova, and Karsavina. The book ends with a short description of the ballet today and the everfresh charm which it-possesses in the eyes of a balletomane of the older generation. Forty or so, illustrations, two of which are in colour, are included in the book, which is published by George Allen and Unwin, Ltd. LURID LITERATURE Britain is making a determined drive against the entry from America of "doubtful" and too lurid magazines. American magazines of the "thriller", variety reach British ports in huge roped bundles and sacks. . They are often used by ships returning from America as ballast, so enormous are sales both for reading and the more useful purpose of pulping. Customs officers at all principal and subsidiary ports are now making more rigorous inspections of these loads. Underneath the perfectly innocent top and bottom half-dozen copies are often discovered, confiscated, and destroyed, many hundreds of magazines, some "doubtful," and others about the value of which exists no probable, possible shadow of doubt whatever.