BOOKS AND BOOKMEN

Evening Star, Issue 20310, 19 October 1929, Page 22

BOOKS AND BOOKMEN

VERSES ONCE IH BRITTANY If I were a lady, gentle and tree Long ago in Brittany, I ■would pass full many an April hour Sitting iu a high.stone tower 'Tambour frame for company , Pale green satin would 1 stitch. .Watching from my window-niche. Green steal over wood and meadow. Holden furze in. every hedgerow, Blue of distant river and sea. Early spring in Brittany. 1, with slender golden thread Would follow where each hedgerow led. Tracing-on my satin green Every peasant’s small demesne Thin‘blue silk I would overlay ’Where the rivers made their way. Matching with a, careful eye Bine of silk and blue of sky; Seed pearls adding thereunto • For April rain and April dew, Primroses embroider there .With the pale gold of my hair. And violets with leaves and stems ’Finely wrought in silk and gems, ’Daylong I. would be content, Gravely over tambour bent To trace in fine embroidery Early spring in Brittany— All for lore’of Brittany. —Marie Emilie Gilchrist. THE CONTENTED ANGLER The angler hath a jolly hie Who by the rail runs dawn. And leaves his business and his wife, And all the din of town. The wind down stream is blowing straight, And nowhere cast can_he; Then 10, he doth but sit and wait In kindly company. The miller Inrns the water oil. Or folk be cutting weed, While ho doth at misfortune scoff, From every trouble freed. Or else lie waiteth for a rise. And ne’er a rise may sec; ’For why, there are not any Hies To bear him company. Or. if he mark a vising trout. He straightway is caught up: And then he takes his flasket out, And drinks a- rousing cup. Or, if a trout he chance to hook. Weeded and broke is he; Ami then be finds a goodly Vmk .Instructive company. —Andrew Lang. OLIVER GOLDSMITH Oliver Goldsmith was born in Ireland in 1728, son of a poor clergyman farmer. His first teacher thought him “ impenetrably stupid,’' but be began to scribble verses before he could write legibly, and though his schooling was interrupted by a serious attack of smallpox. which left him disfigured, entered Trinity College, Lublin, at the age of sixteen as a poor scholar. His father died three years later, and often the youth had to support himself by writing street ballads, which he sold for five shillings a-piece, and by pawning his books. Once- h© took part in a riot ; then a supper and dance he gave to celebrate his in winning an exhibition worth thirty shillings a year provoked his tutor to physical violence, and Goldsmith ran away to Cork. Lack of money induced him to return, and he took his B.A. degree iu 1749. WILD LIFE. .Ho refused to take holy orders (or could not because of his college pranks), returned to the country, and began to frequent village inns, playing the flute and telling stories. For a time he was a schoolmaster, but the uneventful life ill-suited bis turbulent nature, and he started for Cork with thirty pounds and a horse. There he sold the horse to pay his passage to America, but. having missed the boat, returned home penniless. _ A relative supplied him with fifty pounds to set up as a. lawyer in London ; Goldsmith lost the whole sum in a Dublin gaming bouse. Fresh fluids were obtained, and in 1752 he arrived in Edinburgh to study medicine. In the next year he decided to finish his education on the Continent Sailing for Bordeaux, Ida ship was. driven into Newcastle by bad weather, and on going ashore Goldsmith and some companions were arrested on suspicion. of having enlisted in Scotland for service iu France. But the fortnight they speut in prison saved their lives, for during that tiiiie Hi© slap sailed and was lost with all hands. Undaunted, Goldsmith crossed to Holland. and wandered on foot through Belgium, Germany, France, and Italy, eking out a bare existence by playing his flute to the peasants. OUT AT ELBOWS. He returned to London destitute and out at elbows. For a time he acted as assistant to a chemist on Fish Street Hill; then scraped together a little money and established himself in a. position on Bankside. The practice did Hot prosper—he used to hid© a patch in his coat by carrying his hat—and next he became an usher in a Beckham school. Finally he turned lo writing. Though for som© years he lived pieearionsly as a literary hack, often having to pawn bis books and even his clothes, his work became wi-ll known and brought him .many friends, including Johnson and Smollett. He produced books and pamphlets ■ with astonising rapidity. Always wretchedly paid (he received only fourteen guineas for a life of Nash), Ids income for 1762 was under £l2O. Landladies and creditors beset him. One© again he turned physician, taking advantage of the fame earned by the publication of his collected poems, and once again the venture failed. DR JOHNSON’S STORY. ’l'll© way in which bis only novel, one of the glories of English literature, was sold to pay his rent, is told by Dr Johnson “ 1 received one morning a message from poor Goldsmith, that he was iu great distress, and as it was not in Ids power to come to me. begging that I would come to him as soon as possible. I sent him a guinea and promised to come to hint directly. I accordingly went as soon as he was drest, and found that his landlady had arrested him for his rent, at which lie was in a violent passion. I perceived that he had already changed my guinea

A LITERARY CORNER

and Had. got a bottle of Madeira and a glass before him.”

Johnson put the cork into the bottle, desired his friend “ Goldy ” to be calm, and was presently handed a novel ready for the press. It was ‘ The Vicar of Wakefield’;—“l looked into it, and saw its merit; told the landlady I should soon return, and, having gone to a bookseller, sold It for sixty pounds. I brought Goldsmith the money, and he discharged his rent, not without rating his landlady in a high tone for having used lam so ill.” HIS PLAY HISSED. This masterpiece was not published until’ 1766. after he had achieved real success with his long poem, ‘The Traveller.’ Biographies, histories, and poems con Li lined to appear at frequent intervals, but a play of his was hissed at Covent Garden on the first night, and bursting into tears, declared to Johnson that lie would never write again. However, the offending scene was removed, and Goldsmith received nearly five hundred pounds. In 1771 he wrote his greatest comedy, ‘She Stoops to Conquer.’ The theatre manager to whom it was offered hesitated for a year. Probably it would never hare been accepted bub for Johnson’s fervid praise. Some of the actors even threw up their parts, but eventually in 17711 it was staged at Covont Garden, and Goldsmith’s friends. Johnson, Burke, and Joshua Reynolds, were present to witness the play's phenomenal success. £2,000 IX DEBT. ''Nevertheless, Goldsmith’s liberality, his gambling and love of line clothes, still kept him impecunious. His debts began to worry him, ho fell ill, and, despite tho apothecary’s advice and his own knowledge of medicine, insisted on doctoring himself with a quack’s nostrums. Physicians were called in; to them Goldsmith admitted that liis mind was not at ease. He died iu April, 1774. owing some two thousand pounds. He was buried in the Temple. Oliver Goldsmith, says Boswell superciliously, was “ short, his countenance coarse and vulgar, ids deportment that of a scholar awkwardly affecting tho easv gentleman.” \aiu and jealous, ho lived and died in debt, and was withal a great writer, a charming companion, and an incorrigibly generous friend. THE ‘ CANADIAN BOAT SONG ’ WHO WAS THE AUTHOR ? A hundred years ago last month there was printed in ‘ Blackwood’s Magazine’ a poem entitled ‘ The Boat Song of the Canadian Highlanders.’ Because it is, perhaps, more true than any. other known composition to the atmosphere of tho Highlands and the sentiment of Highland people, it lias secured a remarkable place in the affections of Highlanders. _ The song, in-deed-has been more widely quoted than possibly any verso of the kind, particularly the second stanza, which the late Lord Rosebery held to b© “on© of the most exquisite that has _ ever been written about the Scottish exile ” : From the lone shieling of the misty island Mountains divide us, and a waste of seas—■ Yet still the blood is strong, the heart is Highland, And we in dreams behold the Hebrides. It is remarkable that alum the lapse of a century no one has been able to name the author with any degree of certainty. It has been ascribed to at least half a dozen writers.

The poem was first published in ‘ Blackwood’s Magazine 5 in September, 1529, included in No. -Id of the ‘ Noctes Anibrosiauao ’ series contributed by “Christopher North” (Professor Wilson). The particular article was written not by the professor, but, as it happened, by John Gibson Lockhart, who described lb© verses as a translation just received from a friend in Upper Canada of a boatman’s song in Gaelic which he had heard on. the St. Lawrence. The first suggestion that the poem imd another origin was made in 1849, when, in an article in Tait’s ‘Edinburgh Magazine ’ on the prosaic enough subject of ‘ Employment or Emigration,’ the writer, Donald Campbell, attributed the authorship of the poem to the twelfth Earl of EgUriton. who had a. high opinion of the loyalty and bravery of the Canadian Highlanders, and had left a “translation of one of their boat songs among his papers, set to music by his own hand.” The Rev. Dr Norman Alnclcod, who. perhaps, did most to popularise the poem, although, like Robert Louis Stevenson in ‘ '.The Silverado Squatters’ and Air Joseph Chamberlain iu his famous Inverness speech, ho badly_ misquoted it, attributed the authorship to Professor Wilson. Authorship lias also been attributed to John Gibson Lockhart; John Galt, tho Ayrshire novelist and author of ‘ Annals of the Parish. ’: James Hogg, the ‘ Ettrick Shepherd ’; and even Sir Walter Scott. If -we accept Hie views of Gaelic scholars and exports on Highland life and culture, including Dr Neil Afnnro, tiie, novelist, the one thing certain about ‘The Canadian Boat Song - is that it is no translation from the Gaelic but English in its thought and origin.— * Observer.’ ISAAC NEWTON’S LIBRARY A REGENT FIND The library of Isaac Newton, consisting of 858 volumes, was recently found in" an English country bouse, and is shortly to be offered for sale in London. Many of the books show actual marks of Newton’s handwriting, and twenty have his autograph, one written in* March, 1661, in a Latin-Greek dictionary, being probably the earliest autograph of Newton known. By far the most important books iu the collection are the first and second editions of “Pfincipia.” They are corrected copies, ' which form the basis of later editions. “ It is not too much to say that the discovery of these copies forms the most important bibliographical find in the domain of science that has been made in recent years.” These are the words of Alessrs Sotheray, Ltd., the King’s booksellers, who are offering the collection for sale.

THOMAS CARLYLE STATUE UNVEILED AT EGCLEFECHAH The Carlyle statu© erected at Ecclefechan was unveiled on September 3 iu the presence of about 7,000 people from all parts of Dumfriesshire. The statue was presented to the county by Mr Alexander Carlyle, of Edinburgh, a nephew of the historian, ft is a replica of Boehm’s statue of Carlyle at Chelsea. Among those present at the ceremony were Mr Alexander Carlyle; Miss Margaret Carlyle Aitken (Dumfries), niece of Thomas Carlyle; and Miss Betty Carlyle, a granddaughter of the donor of the statue. Sir Janies Crichton-Browne delivered a eulogy of Carlyle. He said that Carlyle was our supreme historian. Most other modern historians were dry-as-dust beside him, lacking that revivfying power that enabled him to pass before us, as on a film, stirring epochs of tho past, with the men and women who took part iu them behaving before ns as if still hi the flesh, and speaking to us in their veritable voices, with the warm flush of imagination over all. Bub it was not only with the past that Carlyle concerned himself. He was an earnest social reformer, had broad human sympathies and deep compassion with tho suffering and afflicted, lie strove passionately to arouse his fellow-countrymen to the clangers that lurked in wrongs unredressed and in mere drifting. The material for induction in social science was scanty in Lis day, trustworthy statistics there were none, and so lie w r as sometimes- vague and sweeping in his statements, but many of the predictions that were scoffed at when he emitted them had been fulfilled, and many of his recommendations that were derided have been adopted. No one had appealed for the unemployed more zealously than Carlyle. No one had insisted more strongly on the need of compulsory education. No one had more cogently urged facilities for State-aided emigration. He advocated vigorously the better housing of the poor. He set himself against every law or custom that made harder the bard lot of tho poor; but at thq same time he distinguished clearly between true and false philanthropy, and was intolerant of indolence and waste. Resides being a social reformer ancl moralist, Carlylo was a mighty preacher, whoso sermons gave check to the aggressive materialism of his age. _ He abandoned the ministry, for which Lo was intended, because of certain_ doubts, but he remained a deeply religious soul, with unshaken faith in a Supreme Bower above us. acting for us and hi us. Genius had always its calumniators, and no genius had suffered more than Carlyle from misrepresentation and misunderstanding. The critics who had stood in awe of him while ho lived became vociferous when ho was safely interred, and had ever since from time to time kept alive the old detractions or invented new ones. Bub critics might come and go and carp and cavil, ancl blame and praise, and bless and curse, bub Carlyle’s good name stood .secure for ever, founded on the rock of a just interpretation of him and his work. He had his faults —who had not? Genius was not exempt from indigestion; frayed with work he was testy at times, and even fiercely indignant against the evil ho .saw around him, but, take him all in all, he was a truly noble, brave, generous, just, and kind-hearted man. NEW BOOKS ‘ ‘ THE REALIST ’ The ‘ Realist. ’ for September excels in human interest. Air Bertrand. Russell reveals “How I came by my creed.” At the age of eleven, he tells ns, an elder brother undertook to teach him Euclid, and he was overjoyed, as he had been told that Euclid proved things, so that be hoped “at last ” to acquire some solid knowledge. “ 1 shall never forget my disappointment when I found that Euclid started with axioms. When my brother read the first axiom to me I said that I can see no reason to admit it, to which he replied that in that case wo could not go on. As I was anxious to go on, I admitted it provisionally, but my belief that somewhere in the world solid knowledge was obtainable had received a rude shock.” Dr AL J. Brown gives an illuminating account of ‘ Germany’s to Other Countries,’ and Air Ramsay Aluir discusses electoral anomalies. Topical for Dunedin readers is an article on ‘ The Water Supply of England,’ w.hile Professor Julian Huxley writes on ‘The Size of Living Thing#. * Air G. J. Reider gives an entertaining impression of the English character as it is seen by a foreigner, and Air H. G. Wells.explains his views of Imperialism. Those arc less than half tho articles. Alacniillan and Co., London, publishers. E. V. LUCAS Mr E. V r - Lucas has written many entertaining books, but now that he is immersed in the business side of publishing ho is not abl.o to concentrate so much on authorship. ‘ Windfall’s Eve ’ is his latest literary effort, and those people who know ‘ Over Bemerton’s ' and 1 Air Ingleside ’ will rejoice in the possession of ‘ Windfall’s Eve,’ which is of a similar type. The theme gives plenty of scope for Air Lucas's philosophy and humour. An elderly scholar who is a bachelor, with a post at the British Aluseum, becomes suddenly possessed of a large fortune by winning the Calcutta sweep, and in describing his reactions and those of his relatives and friends, the author has set himself a congenial task. Air Lucas views tho development of the modern spirit with a detached and tolerant interest, and his comments illustrate the fact that, whatever may be the modes and manners of the moment, people in succeeding generations make or mar their lives in Hie same old way. As might be expected. Air Lucas’s knowledge of pictures is revealed hero and there in the book, and so is liis intimate acquaintance with London and tho Londoners. Contrasts are to he observed in his love themes. His young people as a rule love, if not wisely, at least ardently for the moment, and his men of more mature rears with restraint and resignation. 'Not to know' Mr Lucas’s work is to miss much. Our copy of Windfall’s Eve ’ is from the publishers (Methuen and Co.).

GAPE'S CHILDREN'S LIBRARY Messrs Jonathan Cape, Limited, are issuing a series of excellent books embraced in the Children’s Library series. In them history, legend, and romance are judiciously blended. In ‘Tales of the Norsemen,’ by Arthur F. Wallis, we read of the doughty deeds of the Vikings in war and in their contests with the elements. This book tells of the very beginning of things, according to the ancient legends, of the gods and giants, and how men came upon the earth. We are told, also, of the visit of a King of Sweden to Valhalla, and what ho learnt there; of Thor, and Baldur, and Brynhilda, and Beowulf, and others whose names are so familiar. ‘Hnvelok the Dane’ is by M. St. Clair Byrne. It begins with the tale of the good King Athelwold in England, who loved God truly, and after him honest men. Outlaws and robbers he hanged on the gallows tree. The king fell sick, and he entrusted the care of his little daughter, his only child, to Earl Godrich of Cornwall, who swore upon the mass book that he would truard the child carefully and marry her to the best man he could discover. How the ear) carried out his trust is the theme of the story, in which Havelok the Dane, also the orphaned child ot a kinv, plays a prominent part. In tliis book, are two other stories—‘Chiide Horn’ and ‘William the Merwolf.’ Another book in the same scries as entitled ‘ Greek Nature Stories,’ told by E. IlifP Robson, 8.D.. and the subjects dealt with are ‘Why Things Grow, ‘ Fan and the Wild,’ ‘The Dawn, the Sun, the Moan, and the Stars,’ and winds, and clouds, the sea, trees, flowers and birds. The stories are interwoven with the deeds of the heroes of the mythology in the days when strength and beauty set the standard of all earthly tilings. These three books are written in simple and picturesque language—impeccable English—and are admirably adapted for young people. They stimulate the imagination and carry with them an atmosphere of elemental things enveloping ideas that are lovely and of good report. Each of the books is well illustrated, the artists being E. M. Bali and Paul Rotba. S. V. B. MAiS S. !’. B. Mais has travelled far on the novel-writing road since he produced the “ domineo ” stores, and las latest book, ‘ First shows that he is an accomplished craftsman and a finished writer. He generally manages to introduce a schoolmaster or something pertaining to scholastic subjects into bis work, and as this is a matter with which ho is an fait tlio benefit is the readers. ‘ First Quarter ’ is an enjoyable story from start to finish, and presents the problem of the child of divorced parents. The characters arc alive and well contrasted, and the author’s descriptions of historic England are delightful. Our copy is from the publishers, Messrs Cassell and Co. (England). MURDER MYSTERY The ‘ Murder at the Keyhole ’ is a murder mystery story out of the ordinary. Tito author, R. A. J. Walling, has constructed a remarkable plot as the centre of his tale, and the reader is completely mystified till tlio final chapter, when the tangled threads are sorted out and the solution q* the crime is unfolded. There are plenty of thrills and exciting incidents, which, however, are not overdone, and there are not too many false trails to bewilder the leader. The book is ono of Messrs Methuen and Co.’s clue series, and is a fine example of this type of popular literature. NOTES “ 1 have never been able to believe that G.B.S. believes what he professes to believe.”—Horace Amiesley Vachcll. ‘ln the Evening of Thought ’ has been chosen as tlio title of a volume of memories and reflections by Clemenceau, to be published shortly. The ‘Nation ’ tells a delightful story of tho late Sir Edwin Ray Lankester, whose wit was as merciless as his scientific accuracy. Once, it is said, ho was present when Sir Edmund Gosse announced to a circle of friends: “I’ve just been travelling with R.L.S.” “ Ob,” says Ray Cevennes?” If you don’t see tlio point, look up the titles of Stevenson’s works. A library for the youth of Albania, which was founded by the late Countess of Carnavon, has been opened at Tirana, tli© capital of tlio country. The novel, says Shaw Desmond, k undergoing many changes just now. and the next change will probably involve the complete disappearance of plot. The report from Stockholm that Erich Remarque, the author of ‘ All Quiet on the Western Front,’ is th& likeliest candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize this year is certain to cause some heartburnings in Gorman military circles (?ays the London ‘ Evening Standard’). In spite of its enormous success (in itself a proof of Republican strength), the book lias been badly received by certain sections of the German 'public, who resent its attack on tho old German ideal that war is a breeder of strong men and heroes. Prance has just come very near to losing one of her most precious literary relics—the house at Sully, near Chinon, in which Francois Rabelais was born between 1483 and 1500. It is a humble little house surrounded by vineyards, and bears the name of La Devinicre. Once it was surrounded by a tall garden wall, but this has long since disappeared and only the house itself remains. ft was about to be sold and demolished when admirers of the genial creator of Gargantua and Pantagniel moved the Ministry of Fine Arts to take action. The result is that the house is being classed as an historical monument, and will, therefore, have nothing to fear from tho housebreaker’s pick. The bicentenary of Richard Steele’s death fell on .September 1. Gilbert Thomas, in the ‘ Spectator,’ distinguishes between Steele and his great collaborator: To these inseparable names file honours must be awarded evenly. Addison was the greater scholar, Steele the better man of affairs. Addison excelled in refinement of taste; Steele bad the warmer heart. Addison dressed ideas impeccably, but tho ideas themselves were often Steele's. Steele set the pace for Addison in the revolt against impure drama. Steele—- ‘ a kind of guardian to tho fair ’—inspired the nobler conception of womanhood. and Steele germinated the idea °f the I'] 11 ' 5 an d gave the bare bones to Sir Roger De Coverley, though 't was Addison’s finer touch that turned him mto a garrulous, ridiculous but immortally lovable creature of flesh and , 99r* Steele was the better editor, Addison tlio better writer; thougli even as a writer it is only to the consummate Addison that Steele himself, in the same genre, comes second.

Asked whether research avas still being done on tho Shakespeare-Bacou controversy, Mr Ellis, the newly-appointed deputy-leader of printed hooks at the British Museum, said that work upon Shakespearean documents was now being undertaken by Mr Morgan, an American who believes so profoundly that the cipher which would disclose “ the greatest secret- in the world of letters ” is to be found in the titlepages and running titles of the works that lie has sold his business in. America and gone to live in London, so that be may devote all his time and energy to the task.

How do you spell Izaak Walton’s ‘ Angler’? (asks a contributor to ‘John o’ London’s Weekly’). Like most other people, I. had always spelt it nnquesiioningly with an “a” until the other day, when I. came across a first edition in the British Museum. To my surprise I found that, although the main title page had “ compleat,” tho inner title page had “complete,” and so had every other page in the book across tho top. Moreover, the second edition drops the “a” even on the title page, although it is put back again in the third edition. What is the explanation ? Can it be that for nearly 300 years, in a book which has run through 160 editions, wo have been tyrannised by a mere misprint? That, at any rate, is the view of one distinguished authority at the museum with whom I discussed the matter.

"When Walter H. Page was editing the ‘Atlantic Monthly ’ (says the Chicago ‘ Tribune Ocean Times’) a woman contributor sent him a story. She believed editors usually rejected the MSS. of unknown authors without reading them, and therefore set a trap for Page by pasting together certain sheets. The manuscript was returned with these sheets undisturbed. Tho angry woman wrote to Pago, explaining how she had caught him, and denouncing tho whole editorial tribe as humbugs. “Dear madam,” Page immediately wrote back. “ when T break an egg at breakfast I do not have to eat the whole of it to find cut that it is bad.”

Air Bernard Shaw, Socialist as lie is, occasionally falls foul of workers’ unions. A few weeks ago a committee of tradesmen wrote to Shaw asking if they might present a performance of his*play ‘The Showing Up of Blanco Posnet ’ free of tho usual royalty fee. He wrote in answer:—“Under no circumstances can any play of mine be performed without payment of Hie standard author’s fee. A labour advisory committee ought to understand this as a point of trade unionism, ft is hard enough for my poor followauthors to meet the competition of any plays without the additional handicap of having them performed gratuitously. You see tho point, I Lope.”

About 300 people assembled at the Briglitoai TV.) Cemetery on the afternoon of Sunday, September 29, the occasion being the annual pilgrimage to the grave of Adam Lindsay Gordon (says the ‘ Australasian ’). The president of the Gordon Memorial Committee (Mr C. 11. Long) said that tlio coaumittee wished to collect £1.50 beforo Christmas to enable it to have the making of a statue of Gordon beguai. The design and tho proposed sito of the statue have beeaa approved by Parliaauent. Selections from Gordoaa’s works were recited by Miss Eugenie Duggan and Mr Mostyn Wright.