LITERACY NOTES.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 11217, 6 May 1899, Page 6

LITERACY NOTES.

Whilo Mr Kipling is holding tha larger publio, and while his books aro selling better than ever, he is losing ground in distinctly literary circles.— Clement Shorter. One oannot take up any of William Morri.'a verse anywhere without feeling In it the inexplicable magic. Inferior artists have copied hia designs, but tbey cannot oopy hia poetry. They may have the seed, but they oannot raise the flower.— A Private Diarist.

The stndy of Japanese literature is becoming bo widespread that Mr W. E. Aston's history of the subject will be looked for eagerly. It will apnear in a series edited by Mr Edmund Gosse for Mr Heinemann. Japanese literature is npwards of 12 centuries old. The Elizabethan literary men were not strong on memoirs and correspondence. Nowadays, every man prepares bis own biography, and when an illustrious personage dies he leaves about sixty thousand letters neatly docketed. — L F.Austin.

Another nail has been hammered into the coffin of anonymous criticism by the introduction in the Morning Post of signed reviews. Among the names whioh have already been appended to notices of books Is tbat of Mr GK S. Street, author of ' Some Notes of a Straggling Genius ' and other books of an extremely humorous oharaoter. Mr Robert Buchanan has already beeo master of a very strong-winged aerial singing, a singing like fairy-bells shaken unseen in a morning sky, very delioate and elusive, air-fed and dew-, fed, and yet with a remarkable power of sustaining itself through long-drawn. Intricate, and poignant melodies. — Biohard Le Gallienne.

In Mr Edmund Gosße's contribution to the new number of the North American Eeview — ' The Literature of Action ' —there is & little bit of literature history which has reference to 'Treasure Island,' which, as we all know, first appeared ln a periodical for boys. Says Mr Gosbo : 'It Ib a onrlous circumstanoe (of whioh I could give documentary proof) that it was found too romantio a tale of aotion for the boy sub soribers to this silly print. If the editor could have broken off his oontraot, the end of ' Treasure Island' would never have appeared.'

If the same amount of talent, hard work, energy, and perseverance devotedlo literature were expended on other professions, trades, and oraf ts, life would be much easier, and tbe peouniary gain would be infinitely superior. Besides, literature and journalism is nowadays bo overcrowded that there is but little chance for anybody. When any jour nallstic appointment falls vacant in the present day, there are probably at least 50 applicants for It, and very often not one among the number equal to filling the post properly. — J. Ashby Sterry.

I am told that it is quite true, as announced, that Mr William Watson, the poet, has received a legaoy whioh ' raises him above fear and oare as far as money goes,' but that it is not a ' fortune,' being just sufficient to keep him in comfort; £ do not know if I am revealing a seoret in saying tbat it comes from an admirer who was greatly influenced by the poet's series of sonnets on England's desertion of Armenia ; in whioh be uttered a solemn warning of the dangers that follow a stifled and outraged national oonsolenoe. — A, DeCamp, in the Sun.

'Doea anyone read " Rasselas" today V It is mercifully brief ; but it is not quite tbe sort of book one would take upon a fishing excursion ora honeymoon, nor Is it to be supposed thatit is to be fonnd in the library of the Empe ror Menelek, although the absurd hero purports to have been a prinoe ia Abyssinia. Most men of letters, perhaps, read or try io read it once in their lives — usually during that early stage of their pilgrimage when they have not yet learned what an uncommon amount of rubbish is contained in books once reputed classical. As to the man in the street, he haß probably never heard of It — and his state ia the more gracious.— • Academy.