NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS

New Zealand Mail, 25 June 1902, Page 28

NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS

“No Place for Her.” By Jetta S. Wolff. Greeting and Co., Ltd.,_ London. Whitcombe and Tombs, Wellington. This is a story of an" illegitimate girl named Mary Whitly, and shows how the sins of the parents are visited on tho children. A young man named Edgar Stanton-Bemard, who is studying for the law near a country town, falls in love with a simple, innocent maiden, who reciprocates liis affection, ilo intends marrying her, of course, and does not believe in those old-world wretched notions of rank and station. As for money, he had plenty, and cud not care about marrying a woman for her* 4 fortune. His rosy-cheeked village beauty could bo made a lady in appearance. Sho could have a little stylo put into her gowns, gloves and shoes from Paris, and a littlo art put into the arrangement of her hair: and as for her dialetical peculiarities of speech, they were only naive and interesting. When tho next year expired and his articles had been duly taken, Edward felt himself bound to pay a long visit home.to his lady mother, but he promised to return soon and marry Mary, his country beauty. When at home ho did not find the society in which his mother and sisters moved as distasteful as he expected, and even saw there was a charm in the cultured refiuement of his home life which he had forgotten in his long absence. His mother had filled the house with visitors for his enjoyment and among them was a young lady between whom and himself his mother wished to bring about an alliance. This was Frances Lisle, a very witty and brilliant girl, a possessor of tact and common sense. He thought he would make her his confidante, and sho would he able to bring Mary out into society, but was too weak-minded, and gradually Edgar found himself less able to withstand his mother’s wishes and Frances’s charms. In the second part of the book we find him comfortably settled down and married to Frances, and everything goes smoothly until one evening a country farmer brings along a little girl, and tells Edgar that be is prepared to merry Mary, but is not going to keep Edgar's child. Frances is very angry at such <4 discovery, but consents to have the child brought up and educated. bVio is called Mary Whitly, and always spends her holidays with the StantonBernards, who are very good to her, but do not treat her as one of their daughters, and the unfortunate girl is made to feel alone in the world. By and bye she discovers who she is, and goes to see her mother, who has now a large number of other children, and does not feel the want of her first-born. At this Mary is sorely and goes back to her work as a governess. The book is very interesting, and shows hod hard it is for children to escape from the trouble their parents may have brought upon them. The book ends with this fine thought: “Mary has now gone where the children are no longer called upon to expiate the sins of their fathers, but where, in the | bosom of the Eternal, there is love and room for all.”

“Greater Love.” By Joseph Hocking. Ward Lock and Co., London. .S. and W. Mackay, Wellington. This is certainly as thrilling a story as Mr Hocking has ever written. It mainly consists of the adventures of a young man named Hector Tresillian while spending a brief holiday in. the littlo village of Carvossa, Cornwall. Hector’s home was in London, where lie lived on the bounty of a maiden aunt, who had taken charge of him since he was ten years of age, at which time his mother died. His father was a -worthless character. At. the opening of Mr Hocking’s narrative, Heecor’s aunt is chiding him because of his aimless life, and she urges him to have a purpose—to study for the Bar, to write a hook or to enter Parliament, for any of which of these she thinks he is eminently fitted. The aunt goes further. Sho says if he does not pursue any of these careers, and also propose to Eleanor Hitchens, whom she thinks would suit him admirably and arouse whatever manhood was in him—if ho does not do, in short, as sho wishes, she will stop his allowance in six months. Hector, who was a good fellow', went on carelessly enjoying life, littlo thinking there was any jieed for him to work when his aunt always gave him plenty of money to spend. However ho sat down quietly to study" the problem she now placed before him, and camo to tho conclusion that he

could not many Eleanor, as he did not care sufficiently for her, sensible, refined, good-looking and rich as she was. His better nature told him to go to work at once, but indifference and the habits of the past urged him, . Swivellerlike, to wait and see if anything turned up. In the meantime, he thought he would spend a week in Carvossa before settling down to anything. In this village his ancestors used to own an estate, and on the very evening he arrived at his destination, he found all the men folk of the village gathered together in a state of consternation. Cn his inquiring the cause, he discovered that Peter Osborne had lost, his maid. They were all intensely excited and anxious, and explained that Odessa Osborne was the schoolmistress and was the most loved and most beautiful maid, for miles around; and although they" had been hunting everywhere, not a trace of her could they find. They appealed to Hector for help, 1 spying, as he was a Londoner, he would know what they ought to do. She had no sweetheart, they said, but a young farmer, George Pentenudn, had fallen violently in love with her, and although she had given him no encouragement, he wa3 now quite frantic on account of her disappearance. Hector’s interest was aroused. He determined to find" her, and suggested to her parents that they should get a warrant from a magistrate to search alt likely and unlikely houses. Squire Edgar Retallick was the nearest, so Hector; with a number of others, went to the squire to explain matters. Ho was a distant relative of Hector’s, and when they arrived at Carvossa Hall he listened patiently to their story, promising 'to engage a private detective. Odessa’s parents dreading the idea of the police coming into the affair aroused Hector’s suspicions. He consulted an old hermit near Carvossa. who was considered a wizard, and he admitted to Hector that the Osbornes were not her parents. Next night Hector was invited to the squire’s for dinner, and in one of the windows he distinctly saw the face of Odessa Osborne. He was most astonished at liis discovery, and wondered if she were there of her own free will or as a prisoner. He determined to keep his own counsel, and managed an interview with Odessa. She was there of her own accord unknown to the squire to study the diary of the squire to discover the mystery of her birth, as she knew sho was in some way connected with him. Hector fell deeply in love with her, and found her all that liis fancy pictured. How the detectivo and the squire managed to spirit her away, how Hector, with the aid _of George Pentenwin, thwarted their plans, how the boat which contained Odessa was wrecked, how she Was saved by Pentenwin, who subsequently rescued Hector on the entreaty of Odessa, and lost his own life in the effort, must all ho left to the reader to discover for himself. The story is captivating. The characters are moving and realistic. The story also has a fine moral, and shows how Hector obtained at last a stimulus to work that brought him success in his profession.

“The Hinderers.” By Edna Lyall. Messrs Longmans, Green and Co., London. S. and W. Mackay, Wellington.

Tho authoress, who is in sympathy with tho Boer cause in the war just concluded, writes an interesting story in which the characters give their opinions in language at times impressive and grand. The story opens in Espaniere, where tho dying Governor speaks very plainly about the “accursed war which has hastened the end of the best and most tender-hearted Queen the world has ever known.” Nothing irritated him more than to hear of the terrible blunders made at the seat of war, of the dreadful remedy of brute force when a peaceful settlement might have been accomplished by arbitration, and an immense amount of blood and treasure saved to the country. Soon after tho Governor heard of the death of liis beloved Queen, he, too, passed away, and his'grand-daughter, Irene de St. Croix, who had watched over him tenderly—she had, indeed, no one else to watch over, her parents being dead —left for England, where her only relations were. There she had rather an unpleasant time among some of her friends, who only lived for society, and scoffed at her notions in respect to the Boer war, which she had imbibed from her grandfather. On one occasion her cousin went with her to hear a sermon by Dr. Beresford, who chose for his text the short hut forceful words, “Ye Hindered.” He was a tall, powerful-look-mg man with white hair, grave face and far-seeing eyes. His cono , re° r acion were deeply impressed, and listened unto wrapt attention while ho dwelt on the Bible definition of tho Kingdom of God. Among other things, he said: “A nation whose thoughts are full of the passion of conquest, constantly seeking to gain fresh possessions, though unable to promote the true good and” to heal tho grievous needs of the people for whom it is already responsible, is in oppostion to the mind and teaching of Christ. Let us hush our strife and clamour and think quietly of tho character of that Leader Whom we have all solemnly vowed to follow and obey . . . The Prince'of Peace was meek and lowly of heart. . . H 0 overcame evil, not by tho devil’s

weapon of violence, hut by the divine power of self-sacrificing love. Ask yourselves honestly : Have we a* a nation been truly helping the Savionr of the world through this sorrowful crisis—this heartbreaking war—or have we hindered? You are a free people, the responsibility rests on each man and woman in the country; you can’t thrust the blame on to some convenient scapeHave you followed- with the multitude to do evil, or have you, jrith all your might, tried to obey the tlUhmg and imitate tho example of the Prince of Peace?” The sermon greatly impressed the hearers,, and was spoken with a rare attractiveness, a gentleness and a mingling of. strength which characterised Dr. Beresford. Irene's cousin Victor was also touched with the sermon, which cemented a bond of union between the cousins, as' is Aoticed in his giving a largo subscription towards her fund for the clothing of the Boer women and children in the concentration camps. Later on, Irene met another relation after her own heart, with whom she had great sympathy owing to his being persecuted by thoughtless who dubbed him a “pro-Boer.” What their friendship ripened into must he left to readers to find out, who may spend some quiet and interested hours in- studying Edna Lyall’s view of the Boer question. The book'is not written from-a popular standpoint, hut now that the war is over, and the Boers are our loyal fellow subjects, such books as “The Hinderers” may bo read by those who would consider all physical warfafb from its ethical and religious aspects.

“The Elements of Mind: An Examination into the Nature of the First Division of the Elementary Substances of Life.” By H. Jamyn Brooks. London: Longmans. Green and Co. Whitcombe and Tombs, Ltd., Wellington.

The great problem of life, the nature and working of the mysterious something that underlies existence, the reason why, of all that is, and has been, has fascinated thinkers, in all ages. In consequence there have been many theories of the universe, the early ones wild and vague, the later ones marking the continual widening of the limits of human knowledge. The latest is here before us in a wonderfully interesting volume. Mr Brooks believes tba,t he. has made a new discovery, which will enable mankind to correctly investigate the ultimate problem of the universe. This discovery is that of the “elements of mind ” and the modes by which these “elements,” compounding with force and matter, constitute the complex entity we call life. These “mind elements” are, the author tells us, “actual technical elementary substances,” which means, if it. means anything, that mind is in itself a form of matter, rarefied, if you will, but still a substance, and therefore ponderable. A somewhat similar theory, we may point out, was broached in a little volume published some twenty years ago, entitled, scientific Transcendentalism.” The author was anonymous, and his treatise a brief one, but he outlined a theory of the universe that Mr Brooks seems very successfully to have filled in. Briefly, the new hypothesis would seem to ho that enveloping and permeating the universe I—that1 —that is, all we can see, know or imagine—is a self-conscious, impersonal entity or “universal ego,” from which everything proceeds, to which everything returns, and that really embodies all human ideas of God. This all-per-vading will' or mind exhibits itself in the lowest form in the affinities that lead to the combinations of what we know as the material elements, and so in infinitesimal gradations to its highest form, or the highest form we can recognise—namely, the self-consciousness of a man or the personal ego. To the support of this theory Mr Brooks brings all tho later discoveries of science as to the strange likings and dislikings of seemingly insensate atom? tor each other,, the merging of organic and inorganic life, and the real one-ness of the apparent opposites—evolution in animal life and the intimate relationship between physiological and psychical conditions. There is nothing of irreverence in Mr Brooks’s methods, nothing to shock those who ask, as Zophar the Naamathite asked of Job, “Canst thou by searching find out God?” He has not given us a book for the many, but a volume for - thinkers to ponder over. Readers may not see eye to eye with the author in his belief as to tho value of the - newly discovered “elements” of mind, hut they will hate to admit that he brings home to us a strange and forceful meaning of +h e saying, “All tho world’s akin!”

“Drift.” By L. T. Meade. Methuen’s Colonial Library. Whitcombe and Tombs, Wellington,

This novel is essentially a domestic one, and points out where the happiness of all the parties concerned is spoiled by the over-reaching ambition of the father. Walter Raymond, a rising young doctor with a growing practice, becomes dissatisfied with filling a mediocre position. He is ambitious and wants to ho in the front rank of society. -To do this he tells his wife they must take a fashionable house in a first-class locality, buy grand furniture, have up-to-date . servants and

everything that people in. high' society possess. When she questions thq'wisdom of leaving their pretty home, where they have every comfort, and wonders, where tho money is to come from tu pay for such luxury, he suggests that she should give him £IO,OOO left to her by her father and preserved by herself for- her children. Raymond scoffs at such a paltry sum, and contrasts it with the millions he will make in .a more fashionable quarter. To please her husband she finally agrees, not,, without many inward misgivings. They shift into their new quarters, and there the .wife finds what a great deal society requires of her, and leaves her so little time to devo'te to her children, whom she dearly loves, and whom she had so carefully tended and educated in the old home. She becomes president of the Society of Helpers—a set of new women faddist** and though greatly disliking being mixed up with such wellintentioned, hut not over wise, folks, she gives in to the wishes of her husband ; meanwhile regretting being so much away from her children, who are now left to the mercies of a fashionably dressed governess, whom their father -procured for them. By and bye she finds that the children are not being so well trained as she would like, and she intimates to her husband• her intention of dismissing the governess.. He strongly disapproves, because the governess is the daughter , of one of his richest patients, hut who is so miserly that his daughter has to go out to earn, her living. The. governess haw also fallen in love, with the doctor, who ia very handsome and fascinating. When, the wife discovers this, she thinks it is time she was gone, and tells the governess she will he her friend, but she mustT never see the doctor again. Eventually her father dies, and when the will is read, it is found the daughter only inherits £SOOO, .and houses, estates, furniture and valuables, which are worth many times more, all go to the doctor. They just come in time for him, as he is on -the verge of ruin through extravagance, gambling and other vices. But while he is searching in drawers, ho finds another later will leaving everything to his daughter. He burns this, and still goes on in the downward track, but we must not spoil a captivating story by continuing its brief narration. The reader must find out for himself to what straits Dr. Raymond found himself reduced, and to what subterfuges he resorted to hide his criminality. The book is powerfully written,, and shows how ruinous unlawful ambition and ambitious self-aggrandisement are to men. Something of the character of this excellent book, as well as something of the style of the-author, nqay be gathered from the following: The doctor is engaged in conversation with the old governess, who is sure there was another will, which the doctor must have 'destroyed, She says: •.“I must speak of the past. When I knew you, you were a man with great possibilities in life. You were gifted in every way above the ordinary. Your looks wero immensely in your favour. Surely to look beautiful, to look kind, to look sympathetic, is a marvellous weapon for making or marring of life. In addition to your wonderful look, your wonderful voice and your marvellous sympathy, you were gifted with considerable talent. You could pierce almost with a glance through the husk in which the poor worldling wrapped himself. You could read motives. You could see through shams. The victim of hysteria found no mercy at your hands. The valetudinarian saw life from a more healthy standpoint. You became a nerve doctor, and no man ever fitted tho post better. I visited at many houses where you were regarded as the good angel, the one person who kept back madness, who held even death at bay.” Then again she observes: -

“When I left England, I pitied you,. I never envied you. I knew well that it would, he your terrible lot to pay the full price for that thing which you had no right to keep. It is the law of life that we never get that sort of possession except at a most woful price. I see it in your face. There are lines in that face which ought not to he there. There is anxiety in those eyes. A look of stealth has replaced that frank expression. The sensual is more present with you than it used to -be. You appeal to the pleasures of life, to tho grosser pleasures, to keep thought at bay. Don’t tell me, for I know. You are on a far lower plane than you used to be. You wero meant to stand high among the angels—you are so low now, that the devils have a fair acquaintanceship with you. You are not happy, for yts are consumed by fear.” Drift’ is a good book, well written.