LITERATURE AND ART.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10079, 14 March 1896, Page 4 (Supplement)

LITERATURE AND ART.

Thb author of "Th« Heavenly Twins" has another book on the stocks which may possibly see the lighb by March, 1896. For Mr. i. M. Barrie's now story, "Sentimental Tommy," Messrs. Scribner have refused a thousand pounds from an English magazine for tbo right of simultaneous publication. An account of the so-called devil-worship In France, now prominently before the public by reason of certain lawsuits, is being writton by Mr. A. E. Walto, the translator of the works of Eliphas Levi, and will be published shortly by Mr. George Hod way. Nearly a million volumes have been sold of Mr, Silas K. Hocking's works. Formerly his books were popular chiefly in Lancashire, Yorkshire, and, the West of England, but they are now In groat demand in London as well, and, i) is reinarkod, thero is scarcely an author living at the present day that can claim so large a constituency. The Duke of Argyll's now book may bk expected soon. Id will boar the title of "The Philosophy of Boliof," and will probably be His Grace's matjnum opus. Tho Duko has been at work an the book at intervals during tho past fifteen years. Among other interesting works promised by Mr. Murray are "General Sir Daniel Lyson's Reminiscences," the "Life and Letters of Samuel Butler, D.D.," by his grandson; and an iesue as a separate volume of that portion of Sir Bartlo Frero s biography already published which relates to the Transvaal. Theeducational policy of tho Government, there is some reason to bolieve, says the Athenaeum, is likely to be limited during tho session of 1596 to arriving at a basis of agroamonb on the subject of primary education, the relief of tho voluntary schools, and the claims of the elementary teachors in England and Ireland. Secondary education would be affected indirectly by the contemplated measures, which prevent any further extension of the irregular course of establishing Higher Grade Schools out of the money provided for elemsntary instruction.

Someone once compiled a work to show how much Shakesperi owed to the Bible. To the same old book Mr. Hall Caine admits that he 1? very largoly indibtod. " I think," he says in McClure's Magazine, " that I know "my Bible as few literary men know it. There is no book in the world like it, and the finest novels ever written fall far short in interest of any one of the stories It tells. Whatever strong situations I have in my books are not of my creation, but are taken from the Bible. ' 'The Deemster' is the story of tho Prodigal Son. ' The Bondman' is the story of Esau and Jacob. ' The Scapegoat' is the story of Eli and his eons, but with Samuel as a litblo girl, and ' Tho Manxman' is the story of David and Uriah."

Stevenson's love for Edinburgh was as keen as Walter Scott's, and many will be interested to learn that a new and improved edition of his " Picturosque Notes" will see the light shortly. It will contain an entirely new set of illustrations, v all the engravings chat have appeared in previous editions being excluded. The publishers, Messrs. Seeley and Co., placed the com mission in the hinds of Mr. T. Hamilton Crawford, of the Royal Scottish Water Colour Society, who knows Edinburgh intimately, and who has now been occupied there for some months upon the work. The original illuitrated edition of " Picturesque Notes," which was published in 1878, has bsort for some time out of print, and commands a high price. It would almost seem that the new PoetLaureate's prose is more popular than his poetry. The fifth thousand of Mr. Austin's "Garden That I Love," and the fourth thousand of his "In Veronica's Garden," will be issued by Messrs. Macmillan shortly. Of how many of his poetical volumes have five thousand been sold ? It would be interesting, too, to have a return of the Free Public Libraries in which no copy of Mr. Austin's poems oould be obtained before ho was made Laureate. A few days after the appointment a reader looked in at a provincial library boasting of 40,000 volumes, and was told, with profuse apologies, thab the new Laureate was not represented on the shelves by a single volume. The deficiency would, however, it was added, be supplied at once, for six volumes had already been ordered 1