BOOKS OF THE DAY

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17949, 16 November 1918, Page 4

BOOKS OF THE DAY

(By " LIBER.*')

THE OUTER COURTS. Manv beautiful thoughts concerning the life'beyond death tire enshrined in "The Outer Court: A Waking Dream," M. Agnes Fox (Longmans, Green and Co.). In a brief foreword Br Brent, Bishop of the Philippines, says that there are myriads to-day who aro wistfully looking for every token of God's Presence in our torn and broken, world, and who, as never before, arc reaching after the hope of eternal life on earth beyond. .Reverent speculation concerning the unseen world, such as inspired the "Divine Comedy" of Dunte, still lives and must in the hearts of men. Miss Fox's mystical vision reveals, an after life in which all that is good, true and noble on earth is reproduced. whilst the gross, sordid, false and ennM disappear. " The author's ideas of Heaven may surprise some readers, bub she has treated a difficult subject with both strength and delicacy.

ELECTRIC LIGHTING. A recent addition to that excellent series of Cassell'e Work-Handbooks is entitled Electric Lighting, a. practical gtiidc to the wiring of houses and the installing of electric light plants. (Cassell and Co., per Simpson and Williams). The author, Mr Alfred H. Avery, A.1.E.E., an electrical' engineer of high qualifications and wide experience, discusses the chief considerations preliminary to the installation of electric light in a dwellinghouee, and next proceeds to explain fully how the wiring is planned and executed. In later chapters the installation and erection of self-contained lighting plants, using as power wind, water, steam, gas or petrol, is dealt with. The book is liberally illustrated by lino drawings and diagrams, and should prove of great practical use and value to those who are interested in the subjects dealt with.

SOME RECENT FICTION

• EARTHWARD."

Miss Lindsay Kusseli's latest book, "Earthware" (Cassell and Co., per F. H. East and Co.)', marks a distinct advance in the quality of tins now well practised novelist's work. In earlier novels Miss Russell has dealt mainly with Australian life. In "Kurthwaro" the background is first a village in the Highlands, the scene then changing to Paisley, and, later on, to London. The principal figure, Eltrym Hardie, is the daughter of a wastrel but lovable Irish father and a grimly puritanical Highland woman. Possessed of a highly emotional temperament, a dreamer of dreams, Eltrym, as she grows up into womanhood, begins to find the harsh, crude life of Bald Cowrie almost unbearable. She marries a young Glasgow schoolmaster, Sandy M'Kinnon, a well-intentioned man, but a dreadful nrif, and after bearing her husband a child, who dies in infancy, finds life in the cold Calvinistic household of her father-in-law so intolerable that she runs away to London, bearing with her the manuscript of a book of poems, by which she hopes to win literary fame. How she finds for a, time rest and happiness, but why and how, in the long run, she returns to her husband, I must not tell in detail. The heroine is a very charming and lovable creature, but the strong point of the story lies in its character studies of the older people, especinllv the strange ill-mated parents at Bald 'Cowrie, and the grim old woman, Sandv's aunt Christina, who so completely fails to understand poor Eltrym'e nature.

DAVID GRAYSON'S NEW BOOK. David Grayson, the American essayist, whose two books, " Tho Friendly RoiuJ" and " Essays in Contentment, have been so popular, has now produced a third and similar work, under the title, "Great Possessions." An English reviewer describes the book as being "like a draught of fresh milk, alter most modern ' novels and sketches which aro clever and bitter, and highly spiced." As in his earlier works, the essnvist is enthusiastic in his praise of the "simple life," but he warns city peoplo who retire, to the country that human ills and passions arc not exclusively urban appurtenances. In his essay, "On Living in the Country,' ho writes:—

" Ono who lives on a hill, or a bit of valley, will experiment lonsr until he finds the best upot to take his joy of it: and this is no more than tho farmer himself docs when ho experiments year after year to find tho best acres for his potatoes, his corn, his oats, lis hay. Intensive cultivation is as importam in" these wider fields of the spirit as in any other. . . . The real advalascs of country life Have como to be a strong; hire to many peoplo in towns and cities; but no one should attempt to 'go back to tho land with tho idea that it is an easy way to escape the real problems and difficulties cf life. . . All Nature seems to strive ncninst evil odours, for when she warns us of decay, she is speeding decay; and a manured fiold produces later the best of .all odours, almost all shut-in nlaco* sooner or later acquire an evil odour; and it seems a. requisite for cood smells that there bo plenty of sunshine and air; and i-o it is with the -heads and souls of men. If they aro lone shut in upon themselves they crow rancid."

RUPERT BROOKE. Some interesting sidelights on Rupert Brooke's character are shown in the memoir, by Edward Marsh, one of the dead plot's most intimate friends, with which the recently published collected edition of Brooke's verses is prefacedWhen Brooke went to Cambridge from Rugby he became, it appears, a keen Socialist of the William Morris order. He protested very strongly against the wav some Socialists have of taking it for'granted that all rich men, and those who" do not see eye to eye with them, aro heartless villains. " I have already," he says. " got some faith ■fn the real, sometimes overgrown, goodness of all men. And this faith I have tried 16 hammer into those Socialists of my generation whom I have come across. IJut it's Ppmelimes hard. The prejudices of tho clev-r ani harder to kill than those of tho dull. Also I sometimes wonder whether this commercialism, or competition, or whatever the filthy' infection is' hasn't spread almost too far. "and whether tho best hope isn't in some kind of upheaval."

MADE A MAN. From a, little volume of verse, "The Coming Dawn," by Habborton Lulham, an American writer, 1 take the following lines: — My lad went wild and careless, like And laughing to tho war, But in his leek there's souietliinß now I nover knew belote. Your lad has felt his soul leap up, Ono with his nation's.strife; He's looked death level in the eyes And loarnt tho worth of life. I used to fear his lovo was .light And just a piißsintr whim; But, somehow, now he's back with uit I know I'm safe with him. Ho learnt tho worth of quiet lovo Out where tho fiorco blood ran; You lad was but a lad; my lass, iio'a como back made a man. The noed for an up-to-date Bibliography of Now Zealand Literature is seriously felt both, by booklovors and students of New Zealand history, so that the 52-pago explanatory catalogue just issued by Whltcombe and Tombs, Ltd., is certain of prompt appreciation, especially so as it is given free to applicants.;. All subjects aro dealt with —Biography, Early History, Literature and Poetry, Maori Language and Legends, Life in Canterbury, Agriculture', Natural history, etc., in addition to nates on each, information is added as to the number, of pages and price. Early application is advised- 1