LITERATURE AND ART.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10347, 23 January 1897, Page 4 (Supplement)

LITERATURE AND ART.

Messrs. Pdtsam announce the first parti of a study of the " Historical Developmenb of Modern Europe," by Professor Charles Andrews.

It is interesting to find' from the reports of the booksellers that) naval and military books have been this year in much larger demand by the general public than heretofore. Mr«. Raymond Maude, the daughter of Madame Jenny Lind - Goldechmidt, has written for publication this year an account of the home life of her famous mother. Dr. Theal, the Cape historian, has arrived in England for the purpose of overhauling archives in London, Lisbon, and Rome for the purpose of a popular history of South Africa in Dutch. The municipal council of Ravenna, where Dante died, has again taken under consideration the proposal to erect a monumental tomb for the reception of the remains of the poet. A movement has been eel) on food in Spain for the erection of a monument to Velasquez, the tercentenary of whose birth will be celebrated on June 6, 1899, at Seville, his native city. Messrs. Macmillan and Co. are issuing immediately " The Alhambra," by Washington Irving, illustrated with about 250 drawings of the places mentioned, by Joseph Penned, and an introduction by Elizabeth Robins Pennell. The original lithographs are to be exhibited by the Fine Art Society. On the nob very easy question as to what is the essential distinction between poetry and prose, Mr. Courthope, the new Professor of Poetry at Oxford, is on the side of the metrists. " Thegreacelementalideas,"he said in his recent lecture at the Taylorian, " which lie at the root of all society extend beyond the conception of science and the expression of prose; metrical language alone is the vehicle of their utterance." James Macpherson, of Ossianic famo, is not to have his centenary passed over in silence. His life was recently written, Patrick Geddes "and colleagues" intend to bring out a new edition of his works, and the students of Aberdeen University, of which he was an alumnus, are taking steps to reverence his memory. The student Celts of Aberdeen, too, are trying to'form a Celtic library in connection with their University. Two posthumous volumes by Dr. Romanes are in the press. One will consist of "Essays," on, among other subjects, " Primitive Natural History," " The Darwinian Theory of Instinct," "Man and Brute," "Mind in Men and Animals," "Origin of Human Faculty," "Mental Differences between Men and Women," and " What is the Object of Life 2" It has been edited by C. Lloyd Morgan, Principal of University College, Bristol. The other volume will be entitled "A Selection from the Poems of George John Romanes," and will contain an introduction by T. Herbert Warren, President of Magdalen College, Oxford. Messrs. Longman are the publishers,

" The London Roberb Burns Club" assembled as usual on Hallowe'en, 150 ladies and gentlemen sitting down to dinner in the Holborn Restaurant. Scottish food and music were provided, and broth and haggis had their places in an elaborate menu, the haggis being carried round the room by cooks preceded by a Scotsman playing on the bagpipes. The chairman, Mr. Philip E. Clunn, said thab most of them were united to the land of Burns by sympathy rather than by birth. Few of them had any inheritance in its banks and braes, its lochs and glens, its mountains and mists, but their club endeavoured to cherish the principles of the great Scottish poet. For himself he had tried to become a Scotsman, had struggled with haggis, had taken Scotch whisky, had heard the bagpipes, and had even taken to the kilt, but to no purpose, for he remained an Englishman. (Laughter.) Mr. A. Macnaughten, vice-president, humorously proposed the toast of the " Scottish Poets," remarking thab he had consulted Scotsmen as to making a selection of names and quotations, but he found that there were at least 200,000 illu3triousand minor poets who belonged to Scotland, and he therefore gave up the task.