BOOKS AND BOOKMEN

Evening Star, Issue 19616, 23 July 1927, Page 14

BOOKS AND BOOKMEN

VERSES MEMORY’S GARDEN. Prim box hedges , London Pride, Clove carnations Down each side. Old flagged pathway Crown with moss, Where the lilacs Meet across. Grey sun-dial, Where wo trace All youth’s golden Hours of Grace. Hero at sunset When His dusk, Breathes the fragrant, Scented musk. Low the sobbing Of the breeze, . As it whispers Through the trees. Close the latticed Window panes. Night is creeping Down the lanes. Close the gate and Como away— Sad the dreams of Yesterday. —in the ‘Spectator.’ THE SOUTH WINO. The South Wind has been sighing here; Kissed all the gorse aglow. Wherever ho has touched the earth The frail, fresh colors flow. There’s mating in the hedgerow, Where feathered lovers fly; New lambs are by the old, grey sheep, Born as his breath passed by. The bees have found the flower bells, There’s honey scent in air; White magic from the South Wind • In blossom everywhere. Oh! wonder of the South Wind, Lias even lit men’s eyes; Swept from them fret and sadness With joy that glorifies. —P. Hoole Jackson, in ‘ Thanksgiving.’

• HAKLUYT'S VOYAGES ’ A now edition of ‘Hakluyt’s voyages is being published, eight volumes in all. The title deserves quotation in full, lor to those who have never had the opportunity even to dip into the pages ol Hakluyt it will conjure up visions of delight—‘The Principal Navigations. Voyages, Tralfiques, and Discoveries of the English Nation, Made by Sea and Overland to the Remote and Farthest Distant Quarters of the Earth at any Time within the Compass ot these 1,(300 Years.’ Mr John Masefield has written the introduction. In it ho writes;— "Michael Drayton, the poet, 'always a felicitous critic, speaks ol Hakluyt as the ‘ industrious.’ Industry was a common virtue in the time of Elizabeth; but the industry of Hakluyt was extraordinary. His great work, the result of many years of weary labor, is a monument of industry. His ‘ three several I volumes ’ were only collected ‘after great changes and infinite cares, many watchings, loiles, and travels, and wearying out of his wcako body.’ He had to ride on many far journeys, to search into many libraries, to look through vast stocks of manuscript and black letter, and to talk with many seamen and geographers, before his great work could bo begun. Ho was not only ‘ industrious ’; lie was wise and far-seeing. “ In his beautiful dedications, where ho reveals himself most clearly, without laying aside his humility, he show's how eager he was to advance his country among the nations. He wished that a lectureship might bo established in or near London ‘ for the banishing _of our former gross ignorance in marine causes.’ Ho grieved to see Englishmen without employment, begging in the streets, or going to the gallows for petty thefts. He wished to see such wasted lives made profitable in the New World, where ho writes ‘we of England ’ might ‘ share and part stakes’ with our forerunners; as. in fact, we did before Richard Hakluyt “He had before him the vision of England, a queen among the nations ; prosperous and peaceful, beautiful with ail noble arts, busy with all honest labor, perfect in all knightly virtue. His love of England, his desire for the honor of England, ‘ devoured all difficulties ’ and pricked him forward in his ‘ troublesome and painful ’ work. His 1 Principal Navigations ’ is our English epic. It is a great and noble poem, which commends the sailors of our nation with fit humility and truth, lor their high courage and singular activity.’ The poets of that groat period, living in the kingdom 6f the imagination, have left the deeds of our heroes unsuflS' It wns leit to Eicbaicl linkhvyt, a humble preacher, to bring totho stray records of them that future ages might admire, and coming venerations imitate, * tho high heart ami manly resolution ’ el those who tried ‘ the fortune ol the sea, under such Inird conditions, for the advancement of thoir country’s honor..

last of famous garden HOWARD GIBSON AMD “ A GREAT PASSAGE M Something nmro than a century ago Byron and Shelley went on a romantic tour together, in the course of which they came to Lausanne ami visited Gibbon’s famous summer house, where the ‘Decline and Fall was finished. “My companion,” Shelley noted, “ gathered some acacia leaves to preserve in remembrance of him. Yet there will soon be no opportunity to find at Lausanne, a town specially clear to English people, dear, above all, to Gibbon, England’s greatest historian. any trace or memorial of Gibbon’s life there. The Hotel Gibbon ceased to exist long ago, and it is icported that its garden is in course of being built over. Yet it is ono of the spots in the world that are worthy of remembrance. Perhaps there is no passage in literature more generally familiar than that m which Gibbon records the completion of his enormous It was on the day, or rather night, of June 27,1787, between the hours of eleven and twelve, that I wiote the last lines of the last page, in a summer house in my garden. Alter laying down my pen .1 took several turns, in a bcrceau or covered walk of acacias which commands a prospect of the country, the lake, and the ■ mountains. The air was temperate, the sky was serene, the silver orb or the moon was reflected from the waters, and all Nature was silent. I will not dissemble the first emotions of joy on recovery of my freedom, and, perhaps, the establishment of my fame. Put my pride was soon humbled, and a sober melancholy (spread over joy mind, by the idea

A LITERARY CORNER

that I had taken an everlasting leave of an old and disagreeable companion, and that whatsoever might be the future fate of history, tho life of the historian must be short and precarious. One thinks of John Morlcy released from the lesser toil of his ‘Gladstone.’ He was asked whether he was not glad to have finished it. “Yes,” ho said, “ and very lonely.” Gibbon was not a lovable man; there was something about him rather inhuman, but there is no passage in literature more entirely human and unaffected than this. Lausanne was Gibbon’s true homo. In the preface of tho fourth volume, while 1 gloried in the name of Englishman, 1 announced my approaching return to the neighborhood of the Lake of Lausanne. Tho last trial confirmed my assurance that J had wisely chosen for my own happiness; nor did I. onco in a year’s visit entertain a wish of settling in ray native country. Britain is the free and fortunate island; but where is tho spot in which 1 could unite the. comforts and beauties of my establishment at Lausanne. . . ? Few men of letters, perhaps, in Europe are so desirably lodged as myself.

“ 1 gloried in the name of an Englishman'”—is it not a little discreditable to us if we are to allow the great Englishman to bo forgotten in a town so familiar to many Englishmen ? The fact seems fn ho that, excellent as is tho custom of remembering groat men on their centenaries, there is a danger attached that we shall bo content to forget them at all other times. On the centenary of Gibbon’s death there wero various celebrations, but that was thirty-three years ago. Ten years hence falls the bicentenary of his birth; apparently that will be too late as far as Lausanne is concerned.

HEW BOOKS BRITAIN'S SEA LANES It is appropriate just now, when a tense struggle is proceeding at Geneva on the question of sea power, to read a little book by an eminent authority which stresses tho importance of the protection of Britain’s sea lanes, This is ‘The Islanders,’ by Archibald Hurd. It contains much in a small compass. Indeed, it would bo hard to find a better example of efficient condensation, Tho author traces the development of British shipping from tho days of Queen Elizabeth, when, as a result of tho discoveries of Venice, Portugal, a,nd Spain, British merchants acquired the practice of building ships, loading them with goods, and going over tho seas, exchanging those goods for other things which could bo sold at a. good profit in England.' Then ho goes on to refer to the impionse stores of coal that lay beneath tho surface in the country, the invention of the steam engine, the movement of tho people towards the coal seams, and tho beginning of the great industrial revolution. Thus Britain’s immense trade overseas developed, and ho explains why 45,00(J r 000 people can exist iu so much comfort on so relatively small an island. By trading and saving tho couiitry ha,:arrived at its present position, and. tributes are paid to the shipbuilders/ merchants, and adventurers, to whoso courage, vision, and enterprise the nation owes so much, and whose achievements are the result of a long struggle in the face of keen competition on tho part of other countries. In his chapter on ‘ Tho Blessings of Sea Power,’ the author says: “The British mercantile marine remains a conspicuous illustration of the virtues of private enterprise, in which the individual has every incentive to work hard, and in gaining profit for himself contributes to the prosperity and wellbeing of tho nation at largo. British shipping, instead of being a burden on the community iu those ‘ hard times,’ as it is in some countries, remains an asset of_ inestimable value as a cheap and efficient instrument of sea carriage, and it also earns on the high seas ‘invisible exports’ in the form of freights, which materially assist in balancing our trade acount—in other words, paying for our food.” The author dwells iu an illuminating way on the many aspects of sea transport and British trade, and ho concludes with a chapter entitled ‘The New Transport Era.’ in which the coming of the airship and its possibilities arc discussed. Our copy of ‘The Islanders’ is from tho publishers, Cassell and Co.

THE CHOiiOH AND DIVORCE ‘I Pronounce Them/ writeen by G. A. Shiddert Kennedy (a priest of the Church of England) and just published by Hoddcr and Stoughton, will probably cause a stir in those sections of church members that aro easily moved or disposed to criticism, and may bo it will cause disquiet to many -who live, as it were, in the shadow of that church , not active participants in its privileges, but traditionally connected and ready when definitions arc demanded to avow themselves as on its side if sides have to bo taken. For tho reverend author attacks by argument, by sentiment. and by illustration a canon law of the church—the law that refuses to recognise the validity of divorce, and therefore refuses to admit to communion divorced persons who remarry. He contrasts tho church’s denial of tho sacrament to such persons with her readiness to marry men and women who are notorious evil-livers or physically unlit to bear children. His principal characters aro Maisio. who is foully treated and then deserted by her husband, and Charlie, who comes to her relief, worships her with tho purest love, and would marry her if ho could. This couple steadily adhere to the church and reverence"its services. hut have to abstain from tho token of membership. Tho argument of tho book is that their position is unfair. In an apparent endeavor to be just, the Rev. Mr Kennedy states the other side: “The church'seems hard about this, and even cruel, but she is not really so. The hex passion is the most unruly part.of our nature. The Christian marriage vow has done more to help the human race in its battle with this blind and lawless passion than anything else in the world. It has been our strongest weapon, and it is entrusted to the church for our good. We dare not throw it away.” So on and so on. Nevertheless, despite the author’s attempt to treat the subject judicially, the reader is insensibly directed by this romance to the thought that the church law is unnatural and harsh. Perhaps the subject, when treated in the stylo of the modem novel, could scarcely avoid that tendency. This, in turn, suggests that tho question at issue would be more effectively handled by petition to the Lambeth Conference or in some other manner that would dispense with sentiment and rely on logic and authority. Tho teaching of this romance, or at any rate its insinuation, is Hint Maisio and Charlie arc lo he held up as patterns—their troubles beget sympathy, and tho reader is apt to he led away from the particular illustration of the book to a general and wholesale condemnation of

a law which has its uses, but possibly calls for amendment. Somehow or other the narrative does not ring true. Nor is there a great deal to say as to its literary value. In ‘The Perfect Round’ Mr Herbert Adams has gathered together a series of golf stories which not only enthusiastic golfers will acclaim, but the ordinary reader will also enjoy. Several of the stories have appeared in English publications of note, while others are included in the “round” for the first time. And Mr Adams tells them well, and makes even murder assume humorous aspects. There run mystery stories, romances, yarns audit newspaper reporters as caddies—all with a golf flavor. The reader will chucklo oyer some; others will make his spine crinkle; others, again, will almost bring tears to his eyes. It’s a very readable book of yarns, and it is published by Messrs Methuen and Co., Lid. (from whom our copy comes). ‘ Dawn of Desire,’ by Nellie TomGallon, is a story of the South Seas, and a white man “gone native” who fights his way back for the sake of a boy who is starting to travel the same road as he himself. The story is well told, and with Papeete as a background the authoress introduces problems which face the white man in these sunny, sleep-laden islands, . where work is an anathema and laziness is natural. The island “color” permeates the whole book, and the descriptive work is excellent. The characters —both native and white—are splendid studies, and fit well into the story. Our copy is from the publishers, the Diamond Press, Ltd. (London).

‘ In Chimley Corner ’ is a collection of humorous stories in Devonshire dialect, stories told by Jan Stewer to his cronies in flic “ best kitchen ” of an old-fashioned Devon farmhouse on all sorts of subjects, from a cricket match to a hot water bottle, from prize potatoes to the yarn of Will Brewer and the hoots. It is all simple, provincial fun; nothing subtle, nothing witty; just that humor which one would meet in just such a “ chimley corner ” before the big open fireplace gave way to the American, stove. Those who enjoy dialect —for instance, “ So ho ups with th’ portmantle and throws ’en out o’ winder. But I spause he did’n aim ’on very straight, an’ the bag kotched poor 010 Dan Murrells right on top of his haid ” —will like the book, from tho publishers of which (Herbert Jenkins, Ltd.) our copy comes. In these days of expensive volumes the price of ‘ln Chimley Corner ’ will be an added inducement to buy it.

He was a temperamental, wild, irrational creature returned from the inferno of war, a wreck physically and menially. “Sit down and try to promote calmness. Say to yourself all tho charming words you can think of. You remember the advice the psycho-analyst doctor gave you—such a clever man ! Say them aloud—soothing, tranquil, quid, still, peaceful, serene. . . .” l.etitia Oa Ivey’s methods to neat her broken son were severity and calmness. He revolted, disobeyed the c m mauds of his patronising family, and entered small-town journalism—and a romance with the editor’s daughter. He sets out to expose a 'ocal scandal., and finds ■himself, innocently enough, in an embarrassing and disturbing scandal of greater magnitude, which ends his romance and plunges him back into Ids old moods. Bohemian Undo Guy’s philosophy swings him hack again. “ There is only otie cure for neurasthenia, and you won’t get it by going to any of your psycho-analytical quacks,” said Guy. “ t is too simple for them. Do you know what it is? Loving someone bettor than yourself. For, reduced to its essence, neurasthenia is Juno times out of ten nothing more than colossal selfishness.” And the erring Eugene followed his uncle’s advice. That is the outline of a delightful story, ‘ Wet Weather,’ by Hilary Starch, who has a light touch and ingenuity in tho way he tells Ids talc. ‘ Wet Weather’ is far above the average in novels in plot, characters, and the telling. Methuen’s are the publishers.

‘ The Feathered Serpent,' by Edgar Wallace (Redder and Stoughton) .—Mr Wallace now devotes his literary abilities lo the writing of mystery storjes of tho most thrilling kind. Ho has a gift for this sort of work, though at times lie becomes so absorbed in his plot that ho is inclined to overlook the fund of humor which he possesses. _ln ‘ The Feathered Serpent’ the solution of the. mystery is presented in a. most unexpected'way. Tho chief figures in the drama are two men, originally from the underworld, who have prospered in the city—one being a force in the realms of high finance—a successful actress, and a very rich man, who is supposed to have just returned after an absence of years from a visit to the ancient Maya ruins in South America. There aro also a, very nice girl, an enterprising young journalist who specialises in crime, and sonic Scotland Yard men.

‘ The Dig House,’ by Mildred Wasson {Methuen-and Co.), is a. very .successful attempt to portray the characters of a New England family. First in order comes Grandpa Price, a man of a type made familiar by -writers of American type of half a century ago or earlier. He is a self-made man, of strong mentality and indomitable courage. ' When tho tale opens, however, ho is on the shelf, and the interest eonrtes on his sons and daughters and their children. They aro commonplace, resting mainly on the achievements of their fathci. The chief character in the book is a granddaughter, Victoria. Her father, a Price, had been a man out of the ordinary, but he had mined his material chances by marrying a girl of whom tho old man did not approve. Roth husband and wife died not long after the marriage, leaving little Victoria, who is taken back to the old home, the Big House as it is called. Victoria is so independent, virile, and altogether likeable that she stands out front rim other members of ilm family like a planet in the sky on a. frosty night. In creating her the author has done good work, and lifts the book above the average of tales planned on similar lines.

“The Crimson Clown,’ by Johnston MTallev (Cassell), is an entertaining book of the mystery type. Deltou Rrouso is a. man about town, popular in the London clubs which he frequents. He has another side to his character—that of a “crook.” He alwavs appears in tho guise of a crimson clown, and both the police and the ordinary criminals are anxious to “ get him.” He is cool and resourceful, and his methods are ingeniou; to the last decree. .1 hov nmy bo vi strain on tho reader’s crmiulilyy but this is passed over us the breathless incidents are narrated. Tho employment of tear gas is one oi the author’s favorite methods of outwitting those who are trying to bring about, his downfall. His crimes are not committed for personal profit entirely, for ho is scrupulous in settiim aside half of the proceeds of his enterprises ior charily, i’urthei, Ins victims are chiefly those for whom little sympathy is felt—men who while kcepiiicr inside the letter of the law have little consideration for others.

‘The Gold Chase,’ by Robert WChambers (Cassell and Co.).—-Mr Chambers is a competent craftsman. This book is not one of his very best, but it is thrilling and amusing. Buried treasure, with a strong flavoring of love, is the theme. There are the mysterious map, the bad men who get to hear of it, the semi-tropic saud in which the treasure is buried, and the hero and the girl. Louis Aulone, an irresponsible sort of person with a love of archmologv, sails from the Duited States to Europe to look up his ancestry. He finds the key to buried treasure. This key is in the form of a map left by Aulone’s ancestor. who took part in De Solo’s great march with his Spaniards from Central America to what is now United States territory. Aulone is tracked by the criminals and so badly injured that he has to abandon the quest t'oi the gold His niece. Josephine, a plucky and unconventional girl, takes up the chase, helped by Alee Grey, a young Scottish scientist, who had rescued her from a position of "rave danger. The incidents are related briskly, and the hook is one that the reader is reluctant to ,ay down till the end is reached. Our copy is from Messrs Whitcombe and Tombs.

NOTES Darrel Figgis came to a tragic end in lodgings in Bloomsbury, hut not before ho had written his ‘Recollections of the Irish War,’ a picturesque story which Messrs Benn arc preparing for early publication. ‘Mysteries’ is the latest book ..by Knut" Hamsun, Iho gifted Norwegian, who won the Nobel Prize in 1920. Now aged sixty-seven, Hamsun was once a shoemaker’s apprentice, thou a tramp, a. coal-heaver, a school teacher, a road mender, a. farm hand, a. tram conductor, a lecturer, and a free-lance journalist. Jn common supposition that Lord Oxford meant his ‘ Fifty Years of Parlia-. ment’ to bo a sort of synthetic substitute for an autobiography supposition was happily a mistake (says the ‘ Observer ’). The real autobiography, or something like it, will appear next autumn, and Messrs Cassell have been fortunate enough to secure it. These ‘ Reminiscences ’ will be in two volumes of very moderate size. Candor is the spice of memoirs, but chiefly, as with Saint Simon, is the art of the disappointed. Lord Oxford and Asquith, on the contrary, was Prime Minister for over eight continous years. And he is one of the very few ex-Premiers who have had leisure enough to tell their own story. Izaak Walton’s famous ‘ Lives of John Donne, Sir Henry Wotton, Richard Hooker, George Herbert, and Robertson ’ has been reprinted by Mr Humphrey Milford at the Oxford University Press, and added to the World’s Classics series. There is an introduction by Professor Saintsbury, who remarks that Walton’s faculty of anecdote has “ a great deal to do with the singular readableness of his work ”; moreover, his naturalness is Walton’s greatest charm. A copy of a very rare edition of Bacon’s essays, published in 1589, was sold in London for £470. It was found lying on the floor of a room at Betley Hall, near Crewe, and had been purchased at one time for only a penny.

One can, if he wishes, and lias the money, inhabit a house that has associations with Dr Johnson, says ‘John o’ London’s Weekly.’ Lord Charnwood is letting Stowe House, Lichfield, unfurnished or furnished, for a period of years. This fine Georgian residence was built in 1737, and was once tenanted by Thomas Day, author of ‘ Sami ford and Merton.’ At another ■period it was occupied by Mrs Gastrell, the groat friend of Dr Johnson, whose visit to the place in 1776 is described by Boswell in his ‘ Life.’ Sir Francis Younghusband, is probably the best known of living English travellers, has written yet another account of his strange experiences under the title of ‘The Light of Experience.’ It is described as “a general volume of reflections and memories and judgments and experiences.” Sir Francis probably knows more about tbe secrets of the Tibetan hinterland than anyone now living.

For the first time for 100 years we are to have a reprint of William Godwin’s famous little memoir of his wife, Mary Godwin. There arc to be ten drawings by William Blake in it, most of which have never been reproduced before, and the complete series of Mrs Godwin’s love letters to Gilbert Imlay, which have hitherto only appeared in fragments. Mrs Godwin, it will bo remembered, was Shelley’s mother-in-law.

Philatelists will bo interested in Mr F. J. Melville’s 1 The Mayfair Find of Rare Stamps,’ published by H. R. Harmer, London. It is there recorded that sixty years ago a young enthusiast had sent a few pounds apiece to the postmasters in Western Australia, | Queensland, Ceylon, and other colonics, j and had received sheets of their local j stamps. He put them away and forgot them. A year or two ago tho lady of the family, while searching for a document in an attic, found the boy’s correspondence with the stamps. She had the good sense to call in an expert vainer, and the result was a sale that thrilled the whole stamp-collecting world, and yielded a total sum ol £7.707. One complete sheet of 240 British Columbia 2fd stamps of 1861. , fetched £7/50, and a probably unique sheet of the halfpenny (lilac) stamps at Ceylon, dated 1858, brought £660, Tho thirteenth annual report of tho ' Carnegie Trustees, now issued under tho auspices of the chairman, the Earl of Elgin, contains a piece of news of some importance (says ‘John o’ London’s Weekly ’). This is to the effect that by the end of 15)27 the long programme of public library construction which was initialed in this country in 1830 by Mr Carnegie will be complete, except .or one or two outstanding schemes. This seems to mean, not that the trustees have tired of doing good, hut that the country is satisfactorily covered with libraries of various kinds. It remains now for tho trust to assist in maintaining those libraries they have set up and to develop their resources in tho direction of adult education. However, if the libraries cease to keep, the staff at Dunfermline busy, the officials will have plenty to do in the near future in tightening up the conditions in which university students in Scotland are assisted financially. With the object of requesting that the Victorian Ministry should stipulate that a proportion of tho grant to conntry libraries should bo spent in Australian literature, a deputation from the Australian Literature Society waited on tho Chief Secretary (Mr Prondereast). The president of the Australian Literature Society (Dr J Booth) said that at the present time there were a. good many people whe were not aware that an Australian literature existed, and for this reason his society asked that the Ministry should stipulate that 10 per cent, of the grant to libraries outside the metropolitan area should be expended in the purchase pf Australian books. The apiount of the grant to institutions beyond the ten-mile radius was £2,720 last year. It might be contended that there were not enough Australian authors to justify the request. He was able to preedit a list of 400, and more could he added to these. Every department of literature was represented. Not only poetry and fiction, hut drama, history, law, anch> theology had writers of outstanding merit. Mr Proudergast, in reply, said that ho had Ini sympathy with the qims of the depute lion. He would see that all libraries in receipt of the State grant would receive circulars asking that Australian honks should be obtained where possible. Hewas afraid that a per cent, condition' could not ho imposed in view of the small amounts received and the necessity for purchasing works of reference.