UNPUBLISHED REVIEWS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7847, 8 July 1911, Page 12

UNPUBLISHED REVIEWS

"Hunting the Piet in Britain,” By Julius Caesar. Curtius, Dollabella and Company, Home. Tlr> book, written by our great faunal naturalist ami exponent of the strenuous life, whoso hunting trip into Britain aroused such great interest, is sure to meet with an immense sale among those who love stories of adventure, or who are interested in sport, science, literature or •irt It should become a pocket compendium for all those hunters who hereafter attempt the hunting of the Piet. -Ur Caesar-who is affectionately known m Romo as "Our Jule -undertook this hunting trip fully equipped, and was accompanied by a stall ol trained .hunters. Ho tells his adventures in Ills usual modest manner. Perhaps the most interesting chapter is that in "bic.b ho kills his first Piet 4ho skin of which, bj the wav, he afterward forwarded to the Remusian Institution,. where it is now on v ; ,ow. The volume is illustrated with excellent views of live and dead Piets and other game, as well as numerous likenesses of Mr Coesa* in his hunting costumes In addition to killing great immbers of most ferocious Piets Mr Caesar■ was lucky enough to bag several good specimens of Scots, among winch was an excellent specimen cl the very rare bald-headed Paterfamilias fecotus.

"farthest East.” By Marco Polo, Plt G S Nicole and Maffeo, Venice. S 3 whteh he takes an utterly impossible iourncy bv way of imaginary countries Lsivas. Mosul, Bagdad, and Hormuz through Khorassau, to Lob Nor, and a wmV- S Shfnh.n o g. 'Though to S b £4T“ sn <•“ - condemn it.

"A Jump to tho Moon.”; By Baron Hieroaymous Friedrich von hausen. Easpe, Gluckstcm and .Com-

pany, Berlin. At length we have a satisfactory study of lunar conditions and life such students have been awaiting these many years. Baron Mnnchhauseu. who has aiready established a reputation for caie ful attention to details, in, njs lra ' el ? and Adventures in Russia (M agner and Blotz, Dusseldorf), gives us in , ls n volume a scientific study of Aloon and her peoples, the whole wir-tcn a reserved tone. In fact, the , ' verso criticism possible is that a man of greater imagination might have made the work somewhat, more The Baron’s well-known propensity toi sticking close to the actual makes the work a little dry in some places, particularly in the chapter where ho cle..cribes" the finding of the resilient clay in South Prussia which, when leaped, upon, continues to cast the leaner higher at each rebound, until, as the Baron, save: “had I hot, at this leap, landed full upon the Moon, ray next leap would have sent me hurtling into the bun. where I might have perished in tM flames/' We know this book will bo eagerly read by all interested in goographical science, but wo also recommend it to the attention of managers of Sunday School Libraries. The. moral, convoyed in the chapter dealing with the Baron's ‘return to earth cannot fail to find a resting place inthe infant mind: "The thought of jumping off the moo a at fiift aopalled, me, for while 1 kn-ew-b?yond* .doubt that I could eo aim to-self,-,as to- hit.the; earth, I could not, at such a distance, ‘even with my marvellous eyesight, make outgone part of tho earth from another, hud there was not only tho danger'of alighting in some vast desert, but of alighting atop of h pointed weathercock or m tho ocean,. However. I considered that a man that* had so valiantly battled for the truth on all occasions would be cared by Providence, and I leaped. .1 U’as right. Not only did I alight in my own beloved, laud, but full in the mouth of the great chimney of my baronial hall, and so squarely that 1 descended the chimney without touching either side or soiling iny garments/' ,

“Later Poems.” By H. H. Homer. Aristides, Hippias and Herodotus, Athens. !

It is •with 1 regret wo take up this volume for review, since truth compels us to call attention to its. many faults More -than once we hare mentioned Mf Homer as ono of the most promising of our minor poets, and his “Iliad J _amr “Odyssey" '(Aristides, Hippias and Herodotus, Athens) gave evidence of some spark of the divine fire, although we have always contended that they wero too lengthy. Still, we said frankly that wo honored the two poems, would be read for several years, and that parts of them m<ght he familiar to our, people for a decade or so, since portions have been included in “Choioo Itecitations for the School." In the new volume Mr Homer leaves the field of Aeolic and lonic legend in which-he did fairly well ae a. versifier of nor-Hive tales, and takes his stand—or fails to take it—among the : real poets., It is one thing to write a long drawn outl narrative in verso, and quite another to throw off ono of those blazing pearls such as a real poem should be. We fear Sir Homer has missed the idta entirely. Take for instance his “EhapFody on tho Outer Garb and Religious Relationships of a Young Stale of Chios":

There was a young man of Chios Whoso pcplum was cut on the bias: It was made of goat skin, • With the woolly , side in, But his rnotherls third husband was pious.

No doubt there is a whole story in this poem, but in our opinion it leaves toa much to the imagination of the reader. If this is an argumentative poem, it, in our opinion, is a failure, for the last line seems to us to beg tho question. If, on tho other hand, it aims to tell ‘tho, old legend of the ancient king of Chios' (the name escapes us at the moment and' our "History of Chios” is upstairs in. tho cedar chest) who for infidelity to tho gods fell into such poverty that his children pawned, their garments and went in goat skins, Mr Homer makes undue use of his license, for the family fortunes were not restored by the third husband, but by tho second, who worshipped Apollo properly. To take a noble old legend, introduce a third husband that did not exist, and oast an aspersion on a second husband by suggesting that he was not pious, when he was, is exceeding tho limits of poetic proprjgty. Of these "Later" poems of Mr iioinet) no must speak in all frankness, and we do so when wo say that ! in this case, at least, it is not better “late” than never. If Mr Homer’s friends have urged him to rush into, print with this book wq think, by this time, they Odyssey that ho' was llliadvised.—By Ellis Parker Butler, in “American Bookman."