ON THINGS IN GENERAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13202, 13 June 1906, Page 1 (Supplement)

ON THINGS IN GENERAL.

NOVELS AND KISSING.

I\t:i-KRKt.v<; last week to the " thumping great kiss"' which the King of Spain bestowed upon ins agitated wife just after the bomb-throwing outrage. ;it: Madrid, 1 gave ii short account of the origin, development, and history of the kiss. ( Since theft I tame a,cross' an interesting hi tide tin the same subject in the Saturday Review by Miss F. A. Steel, a. well-known novelist, an extract- from which will be of interest. .She veiates how one day she found six newnovels by various authors on her table. After her custom, she looked at their last pages to see what they were about. Ihe following gives her treasure .■.trove:—'The -.first ends with these - words: "She flung her arms about his neck. 'Oh how I love you,' she cried." The second finishes thus, briefly, baldly: "'Kiss we.' she said, and theii "lips met." Number three, while varyin- the tempo, harps upon the same string : ""You may kiss me it you like,' she said." Number four returns incontinently, and almost without change, to number one : " Her sums were 'ound him in an instant. Oil Benedict'.' she. murmured, 'how much I lore you."' The fifth, in which the man speaks, is naturally a trifle more ambiguous and delicate in treating of the same subject : ' And so at last, my dear and only love, the bride has come home.' Number six ends the series by a, dua.l or stereoscopic view of the same interesting theme : " With their arms around each other, and their lips meeting, they felt,"; etc., etc.

" SMACKING OF THE LIPS." "11l all seriousness what does it mean?' she asks. "Is life—especially for human beings of mv sex—nothing but a final smacking of the lips? Or are we novel writers at fault in thus presenting life to .our readers?" Miss Steel goes on to ask why should it be necessary to end a novel with kisses. Why, if the writer hankers after raged should their absence be deemed the most direful of human troubles. '•Some years ago," says Miss Steel, I "a* asked to write a play. It was to be something really original; but close questioning as to the plot revealed » settled conviction on the part ot a very great impresario that th* motif should be the effect of a good woman's love in redeeming a bad man fcaturaih 1 passed. To make such a theme original would require a more able pen than mine And vet 1 have 110 doubt it might have pleased the thousands, the millions, who day after day titillate their own emotions by reading the narrations of the way of a man and a maid. For it comes to that in the end. Despite Girton, despite Lady Margaret's, despite all the colleges and schools set in the British Isles, a bright love story is the most paying literature for women. Perhaps this is inevitable ; 1 without doubt it is natural. But it is not uatura that any ot those six phrases culled from the last pages of those six novels ,IK.»W 111 deed or in truth be Ills ending of W should be in any way a description of the culminating glory of womanhood. " P.R.8." \ telegram published in the Hkbalb last week stated that Holman Hunt s' great, picture. "The Light of the World was to.be exhibited at the coming New. Zealand Lxh - bition to be held at Chnstchurch. When we think of the hundreds of . tl ? i ° u«oDle in all -pasts of the British Empne who have, seen arid admired this great woik of art,, it is difficult to believe that its &** in It. earlic- pit of ¥ ygg to live down a great outburst ot hatie<l, ridicule, and contempt. - Holman Hunt. . . K MilW.s.-and D. G. /Rossettr were the founders of what was known as the pie Rapliaelite Brotherhood. They , „ all their painting should be signed by the Cystic-letters " P.R.8.," and al S ,> dcc dcd to keep the meaning ol the signature. a close secret. Their idea was to throw over 11 that was conventional m contcnn.oianj •tit The name was given psutlj m jest, but it expressed the belief that the conventional methods which tliev thongut tended ° V event «,iv true artistic development could i, traced baek to the last works , l : Raphael. The meaning of the 1.L.8. at Si! leaked out and then there was a | ore',it outcrv, concerning which Holman Hunt writes": —" Now, with the exposure o j our • wicked' designs, an almost mm ,al , I'utv was excited against us. Jar and new it seemed as if the honour of Raphael « the dearest feeling existing m the bo om of Englishmen, and in our imputed ho.-.tilitj. to this master we had put oi n- S clvesor.tMdc th pale of toleration. However . n tin cmnse of time tiling changed. ltoe i .1». b. found a friend in Rusk in. and in the end [renins triumphed, and "11* Light ot lh World." which was dismissed by the lime* ■Vn " few curt words, has" now achieved a i-ovld-wide popularity. It appears tin. Holman Hunt's friend Miba.s want,c« 1 pjunt a companion of»feet. rd and the sinner"' falling -d. Ch st s , tat progtejl. o,e would 10 respond. • and the proposed his v»ro"i«c-L. It is - f interest to note that Car yle ,I,J »oU,k» „lhv eil the i eat.u. uU. saying: . hand .ui'J eye, for something your cunnmg hand anJ eve \ lmt > : 'c voui understanding " iil) li«t 'I" » ltis,s "JSt riband the e ;^ r i" l himS ll tbe surrounded ht m K i„■ sc .i e „ce has deepest mvstery of all- , m : n j 0 f T' Wf Sc.rsrti.ini! mm***- «« mfiH. Wc \ .t i -py* mental vision those through 6 a glass darkened, and the heari"of man knows that things are none the less real and . truthful because they Jit mysterious.

THE EXAMINATION CRAZE. The Inspector-General, of Schools. Tfo-ben) says be is sorry (» sec that u^. ll 7v the whole of the educational woi.d old has examinations 011 the brain. 1m : . ; minds me of a story about Professor Lain, which occurred in the " sixties. He w« • then an examiner in Moral Science at the open competitive examination for tne Indian Civil Service. A candidate appeared to answer viva voce any question the professor might ask. A good many other candidates were waiting, and it seemed an interminable length of time before this one reappeared. When at hist he emerged, .looking radiant, he was eagerly questioned. •'Oh! nothing happened, only I got the old hoy to talk. I told him I bad read his 'Senses a.nd the .•.Intellect' and his 'Emotions and the Will,' and. that there were certain points in them on which I should like more, light. He rose to the bait, and fired away at tne for halt an hour, while I just put in a word or two to et- linn 011. Then he suddenly slopped and said. ' Wliv, goodness gracious, we've been talking. for halt an hour, and 1 only. reckoned to allow vou ten meenits.' But. continued the candidate. "I think be gave me full marks." So he did, although the candidate did ail the questioning. : ; - THK GENKRU..