LITERARY GOSSIP.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1746, 23 August 1905, Page 15

LITERARY GOSSIP.

An interesting collection of sailors’ poems under the name “True to the Flag” has been compiled by Mr E. O.; Gmmaney, and published by Routledge and Sons. The contents comprise one hundred of the best patriotic poems; and include many that have but indirect or no reference to ways of men oF the sea.

Dr F. Nansen's latest book “Norway and the Union with Sweden,” is a statement of the political trouble which has at length culminated in the severing of the bond which so long united thq countries of the Scandinavian Peninsula. Dr Nansen traces all the trouble of recent years to the constitutional changes made in Sweden in 1885, which took the conduct of foreign affairs out of the hands of the King, and gave it over to the Swedish Parliament.

Those interested in old-fashioned flowers an‘d plants of sweet -perfume should read “The Book of the Ssented Garden,” by the well-known horticulturist, Mr F. W. Burbidge, whose name has so long been associated with' the artistic side of English gardening. One of the main objects of the book is to urge the superiority of natural perfumes to tlie later products of the chemists’ skill —a contention with which every flower lover will agree.

Mr Swinburne promises shortly to publish a novel called ‘Love’s Cross Currents.” It is not stated, whether this is to be>a wholly new work, or a repiiblication of a work first issued thirty yrears ago vunder the name of “A Year’s 'Letters.” -

A recent number of the “Saturdav Review” pokes gentle fun at “The Times” regarding its celebrated and financially successful scheme of fathering the republication of the “Encyclopaedia Britannica” and other ponderous works. It says:—The Times’ itself, which, of course, represents all that is best and highest in journalism, and which has always upheld so worthily the dignity of the press, has lent itself to- the sale of atlases, dictionaries, and encyclopaedias. Why not, then, ‘Times’ book shops? ~ . Here the purchaser might browse at his will. He might even carry away the work for a week on approval and return it at the end of the period if found unsuitable. Easy terms might be arranged to suit all purses, and assistants reared pn the “Encyclopaedia Britannica’ would be employed to answer questions on the most recondite subjects and to point the way to the higher paths of literature. Moreover. ‘The Times’would be in an exceptionally good position for stocking its emporiums on the most favourable terms. It would be able to bargain with the publisher. It might, for instance, arrange that for every hundred pounds’ worth of books purchased a percentage—say fifteen pound®—should be taken out in advertising space in ‘The Times.’ The publishers oould hardly refuse so tempting an offer for obtaining publicity for their wares. . . . The project, quite apart from its business aspects, could be commended a® a notable philanthropic institution. Every volume sold at ‘The Times’ book shop would bear the hall-mark of true worth. It is easy to imagine how fathers of families, schoolmasters, and perplexed mothers of precocious girls would welcome such an establishment.” Discoursing on the literary use of alien words, the “Outlook” says:— ‘ln some cases it were almost as bad to forbid a foreign word as a foreign quotation. Many foreign words and phrases

have the very tang of an apt quotation and a similar justification. They do something more than say what you wish to say better than you can otherwise say it. They suggest all manner of harmonics: they give the thought the richness of a. history and make it suggest a picture and an atmosphere that the best adaptation could not. . Surely there is no objection to artistic theft. Our language /may still -claim to be a-well undefiled when it contains several bucketfuls of the more valuable salts of _ other nations, just as it is-the better for the mixture of Latin with the Saxon. , . After all, it is not against the better class of alien -• one would pass laws.”