CURRENT LITERATURE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16169, 4 March 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

CURRENT LITERATURE.

1 '-NOTES ON NEW BOOKS. ■ ■ • —_—* — , by CRITIC. It is becoming difficult to remember that Scotland' was onoo a. somewhat turbulent part of the kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. 4, By. the profusion, of names originally French.there will bo traced for some length of, time tjio fact that she was over tho friend, of .Franco. But Pretenders and Jacobites arc terms of the.; past so loyally, has tho final bond of allegiance to the united crowns been keptSummarising the rebellions of the 'fifteen and the 'forty-five from our own days, one is compelled to wonderment at tho lack of really well-organised plan which accompanied , these abortive efforts, Launched as they were in a land teeming with friends of the Stuarts, and in a country where tho natural recesses for conspiracy and for concealment were so many and so secure, they should, ono thinks now, have swept the whole countryside homes against a foreigner who' was evidently not too well liked in England, and in Scotland cordially detested, and for princes of Scottish blood of personality pleasing enough to friends. That Hie Hanoverian troops were able- to make . their punitive expeditions into mountainous Scotland among a clannish, tenaciously loyal peoplo with such success as to finally destroy all the Stuart hopes, and that fine courageous and intelligent Scots lived out their lives in Continental exile for a cause so lost, is for ever a. serious reflection upon the lack of military organisation which surely must have accompanied the various schemes launched by the Pretenders to recover their ancestral thrones. THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF FREDERIC THE GREAT. V A. copious history of one of those staunch adherents of Jacobitism is furnished by the account of the life of the last- "Earl Mariscliall by Edith Cuthell (Stanley'.Paul,'London). It ; ' gives what must be : brvalueVto many-a modern Scot, '.-"'., a glimpse into-the . European ■ lives of those: faithful'.' souls who/ lose ' riches, %, titles, and recognition by 'reason, of their loyalty to principle.' No reward/ was. I ' - theirs' for; their fidelity;' and'it would ap- '£. - . pear from these volumes ; that the last < • * Earl..Marischall, which title was all that the House of Hanover could not take, from him, was ever able to see that only ;.•.' failure could result from warlike expedi- % tions to regain the lost, kingdom. He, ;■ v was poor:, he was often solitary: he was, idle' when,.., his V temperament, demanded ; ' activity. He saw, without bitterly commenting thereon, ; the weakness' of the *i--. Stuart character; and he, having lost-all that- made life a good and pleasant thing /• '~ to him," endured his ; hardships and * his ':■' -••'• isolation very nobly until friendship came ■' :■■ *to -him from; Frederic the, Great: Then, ;X"-: indeed, being made commander of armies, '■';■ he ••rejoiced'in; his work, and enjoyed the p peace of 'mind resulting from the'-just and ; favourable recognition of 'his 'undoubtedly able services in Russia and • elsewhere. '•:'*■■: i- And in "these•' later' years, too, he ;was: in close touch with his brother in Scotland. ■•"V. After half a : century, of banishment, when V* banishment had ceased to mean anything "V; to him, he received pardon from George ;/;>lf. and !the"restoration of . portion of his '■/■:< ancestral estates, ,; and >so returned to Scotland to find " in the vast crowd not : ."""' : one" was ' known' -to him. :.■ At last, his. eye i '6n*'M^^f'orbfeis,' 6ne old ■/ ; '•':'■ companions. '. * Instantly a'flash of recogp.: :■'•' nition ■'passed; over ~his"'face '< arid/■ he i held put his hand. -i "Forbes, stepping forward, : :A'■hook'- it heartily; and< then, for'a l little while, they^could' not speak, from the * 'rush of memories which came upon them. ,v.v Boys they were when i last they met to-> I ,' ■ gether; ; and ? now, ■ after a; separation of '■■,■' nearly fifty years,) they ■■ stood side by. ■s- side, old y men whose v locks {had)! turned ' grey. To almost every, question regard- '. ing their old r companions , the earl received ■ tho solemn: worbV—Dead." > •His rrlMdship v aid ' His Philanthropy. ' ' ; ''?Qt?,& Earf . MarischaU's opacity; for u'--': fr^ndship"his.biographer leaves one', little /. doptVi'.-i" Milord ■ had a host'of friends. ' r j,' Three % generations had ; loved f him;; +; To ~> : ~ eam ; his friendship^:was the sign-manual ': of tsolid :qualities. -C-1-He-.' had ;. correspon- ■*. - dents in. nearly . every ' capita! ,and every country/ to he wrote' witty, merry s.;;" letters,- showing the charm of. ; the kindly /.• old man. vt To , the' French philosopher, f Helvetius, -he "• sent; turnip-seeds ';' for his •;:■. garden, and also \ to Madame de Vasse, <;c :'■• whose rooms in the Convent of St. Joseph g; . at-Paris had ; for three years, on and; off, 0 '• ' been tine of - Edward's i secret' hid- « • ing-places, and whom the Earl Marischall *': '. had known well in those now,far-off days of mystery. To Hume, in France,' he wrote often, ; and ; when supping with the ; , king,", wished i the; stout -philosopher were - of the -party.. •;•-.•-..•. -. i- ■ :.- ;':,; ; " Many compliments to the good, or %': r '.i wicked {David 51 he; will-be , -glad,; t to hear "/..';: V.that he'has been;'elevated 'by public '«■ ac:„..;.:.clamation to the-supreme. of saint. ?■'■ ; ". The street where he lives in Edinburgh is called St.- David's Street.;- ■ Vox populi, ' vox' Dei.' Amen.'.' k-v : ,'. v « >■ ' ."His philantrophy," remarks his bio- / jgrapher, " was ;discriminating.;r He did '; _ ;not ;■; pauperise, nor did he -assist the 't ' vicious or the'idle. -But he was afraid ;V^of resembling a philosopher friend. who •ji-'J said, 5 That one of the 1 misfortunes of old - age is ' that it brings' coolness ,to charity, ;; because one has : learnt ; how - unworthy ■si -■ .people' are," and '» regrets, having '.'• helped -amiss,' and who, therefore, -r proposed to ■'"'. use his /last moments in asking pardon f of; God for-the good which he imagined • he had done "during his life.' ,'■ . . When- more than middle-aged he offered marriage, in name only, to a lady he liked 1 and. respected, who was leiffc a widow, with two children, many debts, and no money. The Earl Marischall proposed to settle seven thousand livres on her. Discarding any idea of a happy, home for himself, he expressly stipulated that neither of them should change their place of abode. However, the King came to the rescue, paid the deceased general's debts and ' gave his widow ai pension, and thero was no Countessj Marischall." For ten years he maintained a poor old woman, whose goodness and misery had touched him. Many times he would ask: "My old woman, is she well? Is she happy? Does she lack anything?" One day ' he bought a poor pedlar's stock-in-trade, and gave him a louis to boot. Two years later the man returned, and with tears in his eyes told " Milord Marechal" that his kindness had brought him good luck, and begged him to accept the present of a turnip. Milord thanked him, and invited friends to dinner to partake of " one of the finest presents he had ever received, and one ho last fort'ot." This .then was, one of the friends of .Tacobitisin, who,-'exiled from his native land for the practice" of his principles, became honoured among the great men of "the Continent, and so 'further cstablishedin 'Europe" the tradition'-'of the integrity and fine nature lof Scottish noblemen. '' ' : FICTION. "The Rearguard"-by Sydney Giior (Blackwood, Edinburgh).—Mr. drier indines always to the historical, and though "V in fictionising past events, he inclines £* slightly to the ponderous in style, it is >\ noticeable that with each book this defect is, lessening. The present novel would '-..-- appear -to -be, founded on . tfie occupation of Sarawak, under Bajah Brooke; and although, it may be claimed that in Brooke's biographies- full justice has been done to the event, it is yet true that ' • "IF? .lead l novels who •do not read uio- ■ Hpp.ny, ? nd that such ,a romantic hap- ' ' -K"*! a the acquisition- Of this territory— against the wishes of the British Govern. |§;': .:

ment, be it noted—is , one of the great achievements of adventurous and patriotic Britons, and is an episode, fertile in incident, and excellently suited for prescntatioii in '"novel" form, Mr. brier is, therefore, to bo greatly congratulated on tlio attractive manner m which, retaining the verity of the historical story, ho has woven fiction among the facts. For the story stands .forth, in itself almost pure history in every detail, and glorifies once more the sacrifice and patriotic endeavour for country against calumny and misrepresentation, and well-nigh incredible opposition on the part of official England. CONTEMPLATIVE LITERATURE. Cyril Hepher is one of the meditants who in serious fashion tend to popularise, if the term bo allowed, the State Church of the day. His studios are always on spiritual subjects; .and with his special knowledge of Scriptural works . he unites a very wholesome common-sense point of view, and a charming simplicity. His latest Ivor): is entitled, "The Fruits of Silence" (llacmillan, London). .To it George Cosgrovo supplies a preface, in' which he gives ' graceful recognition to tho value of the author's insistence mon the worth of silerico as a prayer. " Hero," ho writes, " for example, is an old labourer on his way homo from work; the door of the parish church is open to all who pass. Tlio old man comes in quietly every evening, leaves his tools by the door, and kneels there a long time before the altar. The old priest meets him one evening' coming out of church and asks, ' What do you say to our Lord in these long visits that you pay here?' Ho answers, 'I say nothing to Him. I seek His face. I look up td Him and ho looks down on me.'" And again he writes : "To a member of any active community two months' enforced retirement and idleness in hospital; was a strain upon personal resource. How was he to survive this almost endless pause in life, as, it seemed to him. He 1 found in himself no reply, and dreaded tlio vast emptiness and solitudo as he entered it. Then came happily his > friend's visit, who read to him (each.week)' the: sermons on silence This at once' suggested" to him a hope that long weeks'to. spend 'in- the desert might be a gift of : God to him, occupied, as he had, been, so continually- for. half a century. . .'. He was encouraged by his study of these "sermons; to set'himself to face "the desert and/explain its mystery." Ho further quotes Wordsworth' as an instance of the silent contemplant: "The evening silence 1 carried far into this boy's heart voices "of nature inaudible before. The hooting owls that answered him were his accustomed playmates,. but the silence brought surprise, for it opened to him— Which is tho bliss of solitude. The inward eye, . " And under its influence his spirit awoke to discover unimagined things in the familiar scene. ... " The .beat of this enormous world machine—the society of, to-day— never relax, but must for ever increase to more and more waste of human life, more weariness and exhaustion." Acknowledging this, we must all admit that the Quakers were and are right in their idea of the fellowship of silence,. and the Church is right, and its clerics are right, when they remind us of '■ this > rest ■• from ' the strain of a strenuous world. i There is very much to quietly enjoy in i Cyril Hepher's sermons concerning the value of silence as a prayer. . , it ,.,; /'• ..-,;'..' . ■ ■