BOOKS AND BOOKMEN.

Evening Star, Issue 14625, 22 July 1911, Page 10

BOOKS AND BOOKMEN.

"Brother Copa*.* By "Q." (A. T. QuaierCouch) London: George Bell and Sons. If the reader is looking for fnn, or sensation, or a problem, or a study in sex, he (or she) bad better leave "Q.'s" latest—and most others—alone. If, however, he wishes to be mentally invigorated, or hear die great and serious questions of politics and religio.i that now agitate the minds of earnest men and women everywhere discussed briefly, wittily, and wisely, why, he will reid and think over 'Brother t'opas.' Who and what " Brother Copas " s is told by Sir A. T. Quiller-Couch in bis oreword to " the gentle reader " : In ' Brother Ccpas * I try to express something of that eortelative scorn which must come sooner or later to every man who puts his faith (i.e., in hi 3 fellows to treat life as a noble sport) into practice. I hold the faith still; but that He who would love his fellow-men Must not expect too much of them is good counsel, if bad rhyme. I can only hope that both the faith and the scorn are sound at the core. For the rest, I wish to state that St. Hospital is a society which never existed. T have borrowed for it certain external features from the Hospital of St. Cross, near Winchester. t have invented a few external ani all the internal ones. My "College of Noble Poverty" harbors abuses from which I dare to say, that nobler institution' is entirely free. St. Hospital his no existence at all outside of my imagining. So, while we have no problem, we have a moral—unexpressed in definite terms, per haps, but still there—the key to which is found in yet another foreword, this time from the old Hebrew Scriptures—" And a little child shall lead them." Within the precincts of the Hospital we meet men and women who are, above all else, human. They are human in their hates, coarseness, greed, likes, gentleness, and love, and the rhild who leads them all—in one way and another—is an American firl of nine, who. to the charm of childood adds the occasional precocity of forward youth. Apart from the child and Brother Copas—scholar, humorist, satirist, tnd true man, though, in his old age, au mmate of the Hospital—the attractiveness of the book lies in its author's own comments (chiefly spoken through Brother Copas| on such things as total abstinence, Greek, "this dear, dear land." Latin, pageants, the education question, ritualism, church discussions, the House of Lords, etc. One couJd quote from page ,-ifi.er page and not exhaust the kindly wit and homely wisdom of the book. What could be better than sentiments and opinions such as these?— '• Between ourselves there is always something lacking in au abstainer, as in" a man who has never learnt Greek. It is difficult with both to say what the lack precisely is; but with both it includes an absolute insensibility to the shortcoming." "' The r<val tost of any roligion is not what form it takes in a virtuous mind, but what effects it produces on those of another sort." '" For the ordinary gentleman in this world there's either Catholicism or sound paganism: no third choice." "' Blessed are the poor, but there's no reason why they should have it both ways. Since theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven—the* real So- nd Chamber—we see fair by disfranchisuig them on earth." " But. in the main, most mercifully, youth lives for itself, not for the old." Right through the book those garnered fruits of observation and experience are dropped freely along the reader's path. There are no dull pages, even though there are many long passages in which the author leta his puppets speak, after theii kind, the thought that is in them, and range across the world of life as men know it in England. FROM RECENT NOVELS. ! '" Lots of women are flighty. Most wo- ! men would like to be flightier than they i are." "An odd one here and there may pretend not to mind, but every owmau has, firmly rooted principles in matters of dress, even if she is devoid of principle in everything eke."—'The Irresistible Husband,* by Vincent Brown. I "The difference between being fond ot a woman and being really fond of her is not as easily explained to the woman as to one's self." "With life, as with fiction, a woman is always eager to peep at the las: chapters first, but a man generally prefets to like i the chapters in order."—' Double Lives,' by Francis Gribble. "Not one woman in a thousand is clever enough to keep silent when there is no mere to be said."—"The Happy Van net 6,' by KobLe Howard. , j WHAT MASTER MINDS SAY. i The grand assentials to happiness in thir I life are something to do, something to : love, and something to hope for. ; The wiser we are, the more readily do \ we perecive that happiness lies in our ! grasp ; that it has no more enviable gift than the uneventful moments it brings.— Maurice Maeterlink. It has been noticed, again and again, now much better everyone is able to bear pain after a good period of absolute mental ] inactivity, or a spell of congenial out-door occupation. It was Montaigno who 6aid that love should occupy the years of youth—"th.3 next years 3rter childhood." 'PRINTERS' PIE' TRUST Mr Hugh Spottiswoode, the editor of ' Printers' Pie,' is about to place the publication on a permanent fooling. A , large proprietor of newspapers arid maga- j lines values ihe copyright of "Printers'; Pie * at £IO,OOO, and Mr Spottiswrode has ; decided to form % prirate limited liability [ syndicate, with £IO,OOO preference shares. ! These will be placed in the hands of trustees of the ' Printers" Pie' Trust. Under : the deed of trust 60 per cent, of the in- ] come received will be handed over to the ] Printers' Pension Corporation • _IS per j cent, to the other charities which have ' benefited by the profits in the past—viz., the Royal Literary Fund, the Booksellers' Provident Institution, the Newsvendors' and Benevolent and Provident Institution, the Newspaper Press Fund, and the Artists' General Benevolent Institution ; antr the remaining 25 per cent, will be reinvested in other securities antil the trust funds accumulate to a certain figure, when the whole of the income will be divisible among charities. Mr Spottiswoode also feels that he has sufficiently trespassed on the good nature of his friends in the way of free contributions, and proposes this ■ year and in future to pay literary and j irtktic fees. I 'LITTLE WOMEN." I Lovers of Louisa Alcott's ' Little Women ' | will ba pleased to bear that a movement i has been started in America with the ob- j jeet of preserving and keeping intact the i Orchard House at Concord, Massachusetts. . in which the Alcott familv lived for many ; years. A portion of the funds required has ] already been subscribed, mostly ia small : amounts, and an international appeal is : now being made for assistance. Those interested should communicate with Mr Henry i Smith, jun., Middlesex Institution for Sav- I bigs, Concord, Ma« 6., U.S.A. The preference of many women writers for a male pseudonym is doubtless a survival of the old superstition that to engage in the task of authorship was " unwomanly." The Bronte sisters set the fashion in appearing as Currer. Acton, and Ellis Bell respectively. Their example ■was followed by George Eliot. But " George" is a name to which the distressed lady novelist flies as to a city of refuge. We have had George Egerton, George Fleming, George Paston, and a host of others. Then, too, there have been John Oliver Hobbs, Ralph Iron. Frank Hamel, and Frank Danby. On the other hand, Mr Oliver Madox Hueffer ihares with the late William Sharp the distinction of a feminine disguise, being known to tho novel-reading public until quite recently as "Jane Wardla."

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