BOOKS AND BOOKMEN.

Evening Star, Issue 11610, 21 June 1902, Page 3

BOOKS AND BOOKMEN.

'The Land of the Lost.’ By William Satchell. London; Methuen and Co. Dunedin: Whitcombe and Tombs. , Mr Satchell’s book deals with our own colony,-the scene being laid between two and three hundred miles to the north of Auckland. This, as the crow flies, would land us far out in the Pacific, but the spot actually chosen is the gumlields, and the chief place of interest is a hotel, the Scarlet Man, with an occasional jaunt to a small township some mJes away. Here are gathered all the characters necessary for comedy or tragedy, and we get both hi full measure. Murder runs closely upon the heels of a drunken orgy; love hovers damtdy among the tents of the gtjgj-diggers; the villain and the hero, the friend and the beauteous maiden, the stern father and the bumptious man of means are all there, and go through their respective parts for all the world as though their stage were a m.ghty city, replete with the accessories of moaem civilisation. The story, though ordinary, is pleasantly told, and everybody, after the usual Tapia piling up of sensations and entanglements, manages to get on to the path that leads to justice and the dealing out of appropriate rewards and penalties—a path much more earily reached in novels than in Lie. ' The Land of the Lost ’ will prove, we imagine, of interest to outsiders mainly through its descriptions of the gumfields, the race meeting, the hotel dance, and its scenes of up-country colonial lire generaLy. Though neither powerful nor abnormal, it is above the ruck of present-hour l.teratnrc, and can be commended without hesitation. ‘ Nature in New Zealand.’ Compiled by Jamos Drummond, edited by Captain F. W. Hutton, F.R.S. Dunedin: Whitcombe and Tombs. An admirably-got-up book, reflecting credit on all concerned in its production. Captain Hutton, in a brief preface, states its genesis and raison d’etre. The book is published with the hope that the boys and girls of New Zealand will be interested .in its contents. It began in a series of conversations between the compiler and editor, which resulted in the former writing a number of articles for the ‘ Lyttelton Times’ entitled ‘ Rambles in a Museum.’ These were subsequently arranged in book form, pins a large selection of excellent illustrations, by Messrs Whitcombe and Tombs, and the result is a handy little work, suitable alike for child and adult; for though the subject is treated simply and in a manner easily comprehensible by the ’ intelligent youth of our upper standards, it is so brimful of information, gleaned from the best authorities (details of which appear on pages 177-181, inclusive), and supervised by recognised experts, that there are few among the general public who cannot take it up with pleasure and profit. It is divided into twenty-one chapters, and these embrace such intensely interesting topics as the Moa, Bird Land, the Insect World, Animals, Fishes, Shells, Plants, the Maoris, Great Navigators, Myths, Legends, Manufactures, etc, etc., in addition to a handy summary of contents and index. Printed in good clear type, on strong paper, and neatly bound in cloth covers, the work is a certificate of merit to its publishers, and should more than fulfil their most sanguine anticipations, whilst its authors may rest content in knowing that they have given ns a mnltum in parvo of information, served up in that most seemingly simple yet actually difficult form which renders a book acceptable both to old and to young. ‘The Trial of Man,’ an allegorical romance. London : John Murray and Son. Dunedin : Whitcombe and Tombs. The anonymous author of the above, in his endeavor to get out of thff beaten track and to enforce a moral, and yet not lay himself open to the 'charge of writing a “purpose” novel, has challenged comparison with names renowned in the world’s literature. ‘The Trial of Man,’ if we wished to give an offhand opinion, could be fairly described as ‘ Paradise Lost ’ reduced to prose, supplemented by a study of Dore’s illustrations of that work. Others, again, though with a lesser degree of general accuracy, might term it an elaboration of the first few chapters of Genesis, or a retelling of the story of Adam and Kve, plus certain scenes borrowed from Bunyan’s ‘ Pilgrim’s Progress ’ and ‘ Hie Holy City,’ blended with a dash of modern evolution. That these things are. so. will bo apparent when we state that the scene opens (at some unknown date) in a monastery, where Brother Martin, after being submitted to the discipline of the church, is borne aloft in a chariot through space to Heaven. On the way his guardian has a desperate conflict with an angel Irom Hell. The latter is defeated, and the journey accomplished without further peril. In Heaven he submits to a course of training, during which we are triven glimpses of the inhabitants and their manner of life, somewhat after the form, if we remember rightly, of Marie Corelli’s ‘ Romance of Two Worlds.’ From thence he is taken, under angelic guardianship, to an uninhabited world, on and over which he is to live and rule. A tremendous battle between the hosts of Heaven and Hell is fought out during thin aerial passage, ending in the discomfiture of the arch-fiend, who, with his attendant myriads, is driven in ignominy to the depths of the never-dying tires and ceaseless tortures. Arrived at his destination, the first chapter of Genesis is adhered to pretty closely. The birds and fish and reptiles are named, or rather intro duced. The gracious mother of mankind is found in one Lncy, who has apparently come from a world where the modern female and college education have formed an important part, and the subsequent temptations of-the evil one under various guises, such a® the confiding friend, the helpless wanderer, and the fascinating lady, are detailed at length, only it is the man, not the woman, who is tempted. Martin es capes these snares successfully, the fiend in each cas>\ when the sign of the Cros? is made or God called upon in prayer, dis appearing with a yell of rage to his sulpha* on® abode. It L pride that brings about Martin’s downfall, his exclusion from Paradise, and the introduction of sin am’ death and misery into his world, Wc do not know whether the mysteries of life and sin are in any wav made clearer or more easy to bear through ‘The Trial of Man.' nor whether any really fresh moral bar been pointed. Apart from its unique dress, the problems presented are the problems of to-dav, the discussions at least as old as Byron’s Cain, if not verv much older, and though the wording is good and the descriptive matter fair they are not characterised bv such intellectual insight nor splendor of imagery as to cause them to appeal masterfully to the reader; in fact, they weary at times, and one is not sorry when the tale is told and the book closed. THE LITERARY LEXICON. Arrival.—An author may be said to have arrived when he receives a circular from a literary agent. Balance.—Something at the bank which, among literary men, only novelists succeed in keeping. Coolness (justifiable).—The feeling entertained by an author towards his publisher when he has made a better bargain than the author anticipated.

Coolness (unjustifiable).—The feeling entertained by a publisher towards que of bis authors who accepts a more lucrative offer. Definitive.—The word applied by publishers to editions that are about to be superseded. Generosity.—The word applied to a publisher when, on the unexpected success of a book, he increases his original offer. Handling.—The deduction by literary agents of 10 per cent, of their clients’ earn ings. Meanness. —The word applied to a publisher who, on the unexpected success of a book, adheres to his agreement. Notice.—A paraphrase of a preface. Review. —A shorter but better-informed work on the same subject-ns a new book. Strength.—The quality possessed by. all novels that treat of the East End or free love.—' Books of To-day and Book® of Tomorrow.’

Mr Gosse's article on ‘ English Literature’ in the new volume of the ‘ Bncydlopaedia Britannica’ brings vividly before us the losses we have sustained since the publication in 1879 of the article on the same subject in the last edition of the work. At that moment there were alive in Great Britain Carlyle, Darwin, Tennyson, Browning, Raskin, Arnold, Beacoasdeld, A. P. Stanley, Froude, George Eliot, Freeman, Huxley, Tyndall, Rossetti, Stevenson, Fitzgexald, Patmore, Wilbam Morris, and Pater. Any attempt to match such a galaxy of genius from among living English men of letters would indeed be vain; bul then, as Mr Gossee points out, “perhaps there are only two dates in English literarv history—l6oo and 1810—which could compete with 1880 in the magnificence of tht living names producible - on ■ a tore list. What about 1715?