BOOKS AND BOOKMEN

Evening Star, Issue 17548, 31 December 1920, Page 5

BOOKS AND BOOKMEN

FLOWERS' NAMES. MARIGOLDS. As Mary was a-walking All on a summer day, The flowers all stood curtseying And bowing in Tier way. The blushing poppies bung their heads And whispered Mary's name, And all the wood anemones Hung down their heads in shame. The violet hid behind her leaves And veiled her timid face, And all the flowers bowed a-down, For holy was the place. • Only a little common flower Looked boldly up and smiled To see the happy mother come A-carrying her Child. The little Child He laughed aloud To see the smiling flower; And as He laughed the Marigold Turned gold in that same hour. For she was gay and innocent— He loved to see her so— And from the splendor of His face She caught a golden glow. —Anonymous, in Punch.' 'Wealth: Its Production and Distribution.' By Professor A. \V. Kirkaldy. London: Methuen and Co., Ltd.

Once upon a time economics■ was known as the dismal science, and there was justification for the stigma. The philosophers of that day were pessimists, It was in many ways one of the darkest periods in English history. Happily, we have travelled far since that time; and, although certain schools of philosophy are still shrouded in gloom, the economists of to-day are full of hope and optimism. There are still people, of course, who regard economics as a dry and forbidding subject. Such persons make a great mistake. Economics is related to life. Treated with knowledge and imagination, it may become as entrancing as a novel. A dreamy professor was once prevailed upon to deliver a lecture to a merry houseparty. They intended it as a joke. But. this is what happened:' "The lecturer plunged into his subject—the history, habits, looks, and emotions of the stickleback—and as he spoke the little fish grew from the colored chalks in his hands on to the b'ackboard before us, planned, worked, wooed, fought, lived an intelligent creature, ' beneath our eyes. Then the lecturer moved on to other marine creatures, and broke down the barrier between them and us, and showed us how all created things are bound together by the chains of emotion .as well as of life. Everyone seemed to sigh involuntarily as the professor ended. It was as though he had kept us dreaming, and we awoke and came back to common things with a start." _ Why should not economics be treated in that way 1 It is, in our opinion, a subject of immensely greater importance than the stickleback, and it is intensely related to life and action. Why should it ever have been "dismal"? The subject, indeed, was never dismal. The economists may have been. Oliver Wendell Holmes has told of the .astonishing mass of life to be found under a boulder. If our writers and lecturers had the wit, they might find even more astonishing things underlying tables of statistics. But the ordinary text book of economics is, we must confess, usually Tepulsive. Too often it pins itself down to " facts, hard facts," like Gradgrind. It breaks our spirit upon such mental rocks as " total -utility," "diminishing utility," "marginal utility," and "final utility"; or upon "subjective value," "objective value," "market value," "normal value," and "monopoly value." Economics, we feel, will before long be purged of these forbidding topics, and it will be humanised and vitalised by being brought fully into relation with life. That was what Ruskin did for the subject, and everyone who turns from the orthodox 'Principles of Economies' to 'Unto This Last' will realise the difference. There are, unhappily, very few Ruskins; but present-day writers are endeavoring to emulate him, and some of the later works are eminently " readable" and illuminating. We do not mean to infer that Professor Kirkaldy's book is in the Ruskiniaii style. It is very far from that. But it is vastly different from many of its predecessors. Evidently intended for beginners, it is written in simple, untechnical words, and does not contain a single table or diagram. Compared with, say, Walker's or Chapman's works, it is pellucid. Nor is there anything even mildly revolutionary about it. Professor Kirkaldy maintains the view of the orthodox modern economist. He sees society a 6 a delicate piece of machinery, liable to come to grief if mishandled; and commerce and industry built upon principles that may be apprehelded by all who seriously wish to understand them. Of the substantiality of those principles he has no doubt. "Could any study," he asks, " be more interesting or more profitable? And yet all too little is known by the average man of a subject which affects him at almost every point. A very large proportion of the evils from which we suffer—nay, most of the discontent and frictions which keep the modern world seething—are due to ignorance of economio laws and tendencies. This state of affairs ought to be rectified. The fact that among working men there is a growing desire to study industrial history and economics is a good augury for the future." Professor Kirkaldy hopes that the result of such study will be" compromise and cooperation between the . wealth-producing factors. "Individual bargaining, with the individual at a disadvantage, has been replaced by collective bargaining; but that policy is only in its infancy. Should the next step be towards what is known as Syndicalism—i.e.; each industry working for self against the community—and this is an anti-social movement, the future will see an intensification of the friction which has been working up for the past two decades. If the next step be towards State Socialism, there will result a change in the direction of industries, followed by a species of enslavement weighing heavily cn the whole community. Industrial freedom is the desired goal, and that can best be obtained by all the factors and all industries co-operating for the common good, with the State acting as the guardian cf the consumer and the national wellbeing. Amidst the clang of faction, this list seems destined to prevail." That paragraph clearly Teveals the writer's position. His views are of the " safe" order, and, as we have indicated, the book is eminently suitable for those desiring an understandable introduction to the subjects dealt with.

"The American University.' By E. R. Holme. Angus and Robertson, Sydney. Higher education throughout the world is being readjusted to meet the conditions oi the day, and the governing tody of every university is more or less occupied in weighing and considering the new icbas that are presented to them. The uiiversity occupies an important place in the lives of the American people. Many of the educational institutions theTe have bean richly endowed by individuals, and as a result, they have the means to equip themselves well in the matter of buildings and teaching staff. Not very much is known in New Zealand about American universities, and the book under notice cones at an opportune moment. The auihor is professor of English language at; the University of Sydney. He has msde the personal observations on which the book is based, and they formed a report for his university. Necessarily they ar» _ incomplete, for Professor Holme had a limited time at his disposal, but the book contains a great deal of information tlut will prove of interest not only to those directly connected with university lifa, but to all who are interested in education.

A FAMOUS LIBRARY. KTORIES ABOUT THE BODLEIAN. There are some good stories about the world-famaue Bodleian Library, the public library of Oxford University, to which Mr

A LITERARY CORNER.

Walter Morrison has just made the munificent gift of £50,000. In a chamber lighted by four windows in St. Mary's Church, Oxford, was started about 1367 the first University library, called after Bishop Thomas Cobham; of Worcester. This library, enlarged: and transferred to a new building, came to an end in 1550, when the Commissioners deputed by Edward VI. for reformation of the University "visited the libraries in the spirit of John Knox, destroying'without examination all MSS. ornamented by illuminations or rubricated initials as being eminently Popish, and leaving the Test exposed to any chance of injury and robbery." "SOLD TO TAILORS." According to one account, some of the MSS. were " sold to tailors for their measures, and to bookbinders for covers." The library, -which came to such a tragio end, had been greatly extended by Duke Humphrey of Gloucester, fourth son of Henry IV., and the "patron of learning," and had become known as Duke Humphrey's library. Actually the Cobham Library and the Duke Humphrey Library grew out of some chests of books which were kept in St. Mary's Church. Another precursor of the library was found in the collection which came "to Durham College in 1345 from " the earnest lover and preserver of books," Richard of Bury. Some of these books, on the dissolution of the college by Henry VIII., are said to have been transferred to Duke Humphrey's Library, and. some to Balliol College. Four years after the Commissioners camo an undergraduate.- Thomas Bodley, and he, after diplomatic service abroad, volunteered to restore the library. An account of his great work is given in the admirable 'Annals of the Bodleian Library,' by William Dunn Macray (Clarendon Press). His first act was the presentation of a large collection of valuable books purcased on the Continent for £IO,OOO. He was knighted by James I. A STORY OF CHARLES I. Famous men left bequests of books and money, including 8,000 volumes from the library of the celebrated John Selden. There is a remarkable anecdote about a visit paid to the library by Charles I. during the Civil Wars, Lord Falkland suggested to the King that'he should tell his fortune by the 'Sortes Virgiliance,' the idea being (an ancient one) to open Virgil's ' JEneld' at random and take the first passage on which the eye chanced to rest. The King opened the book, and read that part of Dido's imprecation against ..Eneas beginning: Yet let a race untam'd, and haughty foes, His peaceful entrance" with dire arts' oppose. Oppress'd with numbers in th' unequal field. His men discourag'd, and himself expell'd, Let him for succour sue from place to place, Torn from his subjects and his son's embrace. This, to say the least, was rather unfortunate, so "Falkland had a try. This was what he read : 0 Pallas, thou hast fail'd thy plighted word To fight with reason, not to tempt the 6word. 1 warned thee but in vain, for well I knew What perils youthful ardor would pursue; That boiling blood would carry thee too far, Young as thou wert in dangers, raw to war.

Oh! curst array of arms, disastrous doom Prelude of bloody fields and fights to come.

It is not recorded what Charles said on this occasion. Dr Constantine Simonides, a notorious forger of MSS., called at the library in 1853 "in the hope of disposing of some of the products of his Eastern ingenuity." He had been successful in most other quarters. Here is the account of his interview with Mr Coxe, the sub-librarian: Mr Simonides showed some fragments of MSS. to Mr Coxe, who assented to their belonging to the twelfth century. " And these, Mr Coxe, belong to the tenth or eleventh century?" "Yes, probably." " And now. Mr Coxe, let me show you a very ancient and valuable MS. I have for sale, and which ought to be in your library. To what century do you consider this belongs?" "This, Mr Simonides, I have no doubt," said Mr Coxe, " belongs to the latter half of the nineteenth century." The Greek and his MS. disappeared. The number of volumes in the library has been estimated at about a million, in addition to between 30.000 and 40.000 in manuscript. _ Among the treasures, in addition to the Selden bequest, are Archbishop Laud's magnificent donation of 1.300 MSS. in more than twenty different languages, and wonderful collections of Oriental. Greek. Latin, and Hebrew books and MSS. There is a Latin translation bv Queen Elizabeth, while Princess, of an ItaUan sermon by Bern. Ochini, 'De Christo.' written entirely by herself, and sent as a New Year's gift to her brother. Edward VI.—"H.R.S.," in 'John o' London's Weeklv.'

"A GENTLEMAN WITH A DUSTER."

A collection of character studies called "The Mirrors of Downing Street,' has aroused much discussion in England, ft it anonymous, the author calling himself "A Gentleman With a Duster .""'* 'The Times,' noticing the book, says:—"His ' Arthur Balfour' is a cruel but penetrating piece of analysis. He is ' the most egotistical of men,' who would make | almost any sacrifice to remain in office.' ' He knows there's been one Ice Age, and he think's there's going to be another ' is a saying of George Wyndham that is quoted about him. He thinks that the worst thing in his life was the way hj?. threw Wyndham to the wolves when he might have championed him and saved both him and Ireland. Alas for these might-have-beens! His 'Lord Kitchener.' too, is so severely critical as to be almost hostile. ' He lacked almost every grace of the spirit. . . ". Very few men liked him a, great deal and none, I should say, love him. I do not think he was brutal by nature, although his nature was not refined, but he cultivated a brutal manner. He had the happinness of three or four friendships with cultivated and good women, but the beautiful creature whom he loved hungrily and doggedly, and to whom he proposed several times could never bring herself to marry him. . . . One sees the fullness of his limitations by comparing him with such figures of Indian history as the Lawrences and Nicholson; in that comparison he shrinks at once to the dimensions of a color-sergeant. " The author's 'Lloyd George,' continues 'The Times,' has some excellent passages both of praise and censure, but he fails to make a unity of his character. He sees in him an ' illustration of the value and perils of emotionalism.'. 'He took upon his shoulders a responsibility which was nothing less than the future of civilisation, and here he trusted not to vision and conscience, but to compromise, makeshift, patches, and the future of civilisation is still. dark indeed. This, I hope, may be said on his behalf when he stands at the bar of history, that iae cause of his failure to serve the world as he might have done, as Gladstone surely would have done, was due rather to a vulgarity of mind for which he was not wholly responsible than to any deliberate choice of a cynical partnership with the powers of darkness. "His view of Mr Asquith is that his original Puritanism was spoilt by his marriage. ' There are some natures to whom easy-going means a descent. There are some men, and those the strongest sons of nature, for whom the kindest commandment is "Uphill all the way." Mr Asquith, both by inheritance and temperament, was designed for a strenuous life—a strenuous moral life. He was never intended for anything in the nature of & flaneur. If he had followed his star, if he had rigorously pursued the path marked ouL for him by tradition and his owe

earliest propensities, he might have been an unpleasant person for a young ladies' tea-party and an unsympathetic person to a gathering of decadent artists, lie might indeed have become as heavy as Cromwell and aa inhuman as Milton; but he would never have failed from Olympus with the lightness of thistledown.' The gentleman dustman regards Lord Northcliff eas 'in the matter of intention' one of the most honorable and courageous men of the day."