LITERATURE AND ART.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9184, 13 October 1888, Page 4 (Supplement)

LITERATURE AND ART.

In the series of "Philosophical Classics for English Readers," the new volume will be " Bacon," Part 11., Philosophy, by Professor Nichol, Glasgow. Mrs. Damant, author of " Peggy Thornhill," has nearly finished a volume of genuine fairy tales from the North of Ireland. Faith in fairies dies hard among the true Celts, and Mrs. Damant has been able to preserve some original and interesting folk-lore. Mr. R. L. Stevenson, in conjunction with another writer possessing a more practical knowledge of the stage, has written a romantic drama, founded on one of his own stories, with a special view to the talents of Miss Calhoun. Its production may be expected in the autumn. Mr. Alina Tadema has nearly finished a charming picture, one of the most richlycoloured, broadest, and most harmonious in its way that we have had from his hand. Called "An Interrupted Gossip," it represents the inner waiting-room in the shop of a Roman hairdresser and perfumer. A series of esoteric books, consisting chiefly of reprints of old works dealing with alchemy, astrology, freemasonry, magic and Rosicrucian mysticism, is announced by Mr. George Redway. Among the first to appear will be the works of " Eirenneus Philalethes," and the " Lumen de Lumine" of Thomas Vaughan (" Eugenius Philalethes"). A son of Browning's is said to have replied some time ago to a New York artist, who asked him if he undertood his father's poetry, " Some of it," and then related that his father observed, alter reading a passage in one of his poems referred to him for explanation, "That passage certainly did have a meaning some years ago, when I wrote it, but 1 have really forgotten now what ibwas." The next volume of the Hakluyt Society's series will contain a description of the two famous old globes in the library of the Middle Temple. Its editor is Mr. Clements Markham. These globes, one terrestrial, the other celestial, were the fin-t ever made in England. The maker was E. Molyneux, and the date is 1593, although the geography on the terrestrial globe was subsequently brought down to 1603. "The Public Education of Austria: Primary, Secondary, Technical, Commercial, (fee.,"' by Mr. J. Russell Endean (of the London School Board), will shortly be issued by Messrs. Simpkin and Marshall. During a visit of some months, and with the special authority of the Austrian Minister for Education, Mr. Endean examined the system of public instruction in the schools, of the various grades, from the primary upwards. Dr. Hill has in the press a series of unpublished letters written by David Hume, largely regarding the revision of his book, to William Strahan, the King's printer and Member of Parliament, between November 30, 1756, and August 12, 1776 — just a fortnight before Hume's death. Hume, writing on public affairs to a brother Scotchman, shows without concealment the bitterness of his feelings toward* England and his hatred of "that wicked madman," "that cut-throat," the Earl of Chatham. He early saw the folly of the war with America. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes speaks thus of his own poems : —"ln my opinion, 'The Chambered Nautilus' is my most finished piece of work, and I think it is my favourite. But there are also 'The Voiceless,' 'My Aviary, , written at my window there, ' The Battle" of Bunker Hill,' and 'Dorothy Q., , written to the portrait of my great-grand-mother, which you see on the wall there. All these I have a liking for ; and when I speak of the poems I like best, there are two others that ought to be included—' The Silent Melody' and 'The Last, Leaf.' I think these are among my best. What is the history of ' The Chambered Nautilus V Id has none—it wrote itself. So, too, did 'The One-Hoss Shay.' That was one of those random conceptions that gallop through the brain, and that you catch by the bridle. I caught it and reined it. All ray poems are written while I am in a sort of spasmodic mental condition that almost takes me out of my own self, and I write only when under such influence. It is for this reason, I think, that I can never remember a poem a short time after it is written, any more than the subject of double consciousness can recall the idea of his other state."