A LITERARY CORNER

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9740, 16 August 1917, Page 3

A LITERARY CORNER

CR.A-L.) A WAR BOOK BY MACAULAY. Wo note a great many writers are beginning to draw parallels between tbo last great war of Frederic the Great and tho greater war .which every ono hopes will bo the last war of his blatant descendant. There are, of course, between these two a good many contrasts. For example, the contrast between Frederic's masteiful capacity in tho field and tbo Cabinet, and tho military futilitv and diplomatic silliness of his descendant. One quality is common to both rulers: deceit of a specially tortuous and most unscrupulous kind. But in all other respects the difference is striking. The old king at the head of a staff of generals, every ono of whom acknowledged him as master at every point; of a body of diplomatists, none of whom even in bis heart pretended to bo able to rival the sovereign; of a body of Government servants, every ono of whom know tho extreme keenness of the King’s eye for detail, and shared with the diplomatists and the soldiers tho fullest appreciation of tho dmperviousness of tho King to flattery. To the latter there was an exception; in tho department of letters tho great Frederic was one of the smallest of men, even as small as his pettifogging descendant who goes about in “shining armour.” As for this one. be is at tho head of an army that calls him a nuisance, and knows him to bo a nincompoop. His position is head of these soldiers, and his unfitness just now as emphasised by tho fact that the groat soldier who is adored from one end to the other of the Fatherland was at tho outbreak of the war in retirement because ho had beaten tho nincompoop at manoeuvres. In the three years of war tho commander of the armies lias been changed twice, and the third is this vanquisher of the man who knows more about buttons than battalions. But never, either in the Seven Years’-War, the 'last and greatest of Frederic’s trials, or in the whole of Frederic’s troubled reign, in which was laid down the foundation of the army the Entente as now fighting with such desperate energy and varying fortune, was there any other commander than Frederic himself. If Frederic had fallen in battle, and ho was constantly exposed to fire, tho Kingdom of Prussia would have gone at once to pieces. If Wilhelm were to die—there is no chance of a soldier’s death for him, for he takes precious care never to go under firo —tho Germanic Empire would suffer no change. There are people who think that it might become a Republic, but even these few consider that its President would be Handenburg, and its chiefs the Jnnker Party, while tbo effigy of the Kaiser in “shining armour” would be condemned to tho disgrace lasting throughout posterity of standing in line with the effigies of Frederic and Hindenburg.

Tho pacifists pro not troubled with these contrasts. For them the Kaiser is the head of .the Germany they still love in epito of all the crimes committed in the name of Kultur. They have found in the history of , Frederic a parallel with the contemporary prospect of their dear friend of Potsdam. At tho very crisis of the Seven Years’ War, when Austria and her allies wore closing round the failing King, subjecting him to relentless co-ordinate pressure, much as the Entente had actually begun to enforce on all its fronts last year—in that very crisis tho Czarina Elizabeth of Russia died, and her successor, the Czar Peter 111., turned _ dog, and made a separate peace -with Frederic. That lucky bandit hiad no difficulty in breaking up what remained of the disorganised and dismayed coalition. The Kingdom of Prussia, thus saved, shot up in the meteorio career which brought it tp tho overlordship of the Germanic Empire. Tlio pacifist hope that this history may repeat itself is plain. Indeed, the hope has almost passed into the certainty that tho disasters to tho Russian army have already brought doom upon the enemies of the beloved successor of the greatest of bandits and icings. It is bonxo in on the pacifists, in fact, that tho Prussia that was saved by Russia 150 years ago to rule. Germany is about to be saved again byRussia to rule nil mankind. Tho crimes of Frederic having brought on him tho danger of Prussian destruction, Russia, as benevolent and treacherous fairy, rewarded him with German dominion. His successor having duly qualified by a course of startling crimes against humanity, is about to bo rewarded by tho same treacherous fairy so benevolent to tho House ot Prussia, by the dominion of the world. And the pacifists aro chuckling over the parallel which finds no applause but theirs anywhere out of Hell. “Quo diable vient il faire dans cetto galore?” You aro insinuating, dear sir, that all this is as much out ot place in a Literary Corner as a bull in a china shop. Now, is the literary page to bo the sole refuge of unrebuked aggression and unpunished crime ? But that is not, and ought not to be all. There is this also by way of answer: This is a review of the conduct of a publication which has written up this beautiful parallel—“ Stead’s Review.” It is a very industrious publication, very informative, and deserves what Lord Northcliffe—as quoted in its own page advertisement—says of it, viz., that he reads it always with great interest. It is, however, impossible to agree with the Napoleon of advertisers that “Stead’s Review” always secs things with “clearness.” On tho contrary, in this matter of peace tho “Review”

is. in our opinion, what is familiarly described as “thick in the clear. ' Mr Stead has outlined the history of tho Seven Years’ War with conciseness and vigour, letting tho facts speak for themselves. It is a history, however, with a moral winch should not bo lost sight of just now, a moral against the crimes and treacheries which have made Prussia the head of Germany, and tho crimes and treacheries by which Prussia seeks to obtain the mastery of the bodies and souls of all men living in tbo world. You will find nothing of this moral in “Stead’s Review” of tho Frederic cpisodo. Don’t lose time in abusing him tor neglecting that obvious duty, especially as the duty is by no means lost sight of throughout tho British Empire. Turn to Macaulay's Essay on “Frederic tho Great,” and you will get a fascinating narrative' —no doubt, dear sir, it will be merely a reminder to ono so well road —with the moral fairly drawn, and full of reasons for believing that the thing which took place so easily in the- middle of tho eighteenth century is quite impossible undid', the totally different pi.i'cuinstances of the early twentieth. Even if the Russian failure becomes absolute? If it- leads to n separate peace with Russia ? \vell, dear sir, neither of these things is going to happen. Hut, for the sake of argument, we may suppose them to have happened. In that case the degenerate bandit Kmperor, descendant of the capable bandit King. AVill bo beaten just as completely, but not quite so soon, as if Russia had nofailed. , , - Of course, there are better books for tho study of the famous period which is inspiring the rvacifists with wuu hopes. But as a rapid antidote to tho Stcadian poison you cannot do better take ALaoaulay. _ You will see tho ineptitude, the hollowness, tho dishonesty, the selfishness of the concert ot Royalties which made the catastrophe of th© eighteenth century possible, and you will realise the opposite qualities of the concert of Democracies which the same catastrophe impossible at this stage of the twentieth. History does not always repeat itsolf. But only shallowness and prejudice fail to understand the reason why. - •‘CONSTANCE DUNLAP.” “Tho Exploits of Elaine’’ (Author of). (Hoddor and Stoughton, London.) This is a female Craig Kennedy, a very presentable person indeed,' and she makes you acquainted with some queer stories in which human hawks and human doves play important pants, the former exciting, like Bret Harte’s hero with th© tenor voice, the envy of the regular predatory orders of the feathered kingdom. Science —an tho airy, convincing manner of the Sherlock Holmes tribe —and Human Nature, combined in intricate play, have enabled this clever author to produce another collection of short stories. Tlie piquancy added by changing the sex of the detective is a distinct attraction. “THE GRAND CHAIN.” G. B. Stem. (Niebct and Co., 22, Berners street, W., London.) You know the Grand Chain —pretty figure in the Lancers, very effective? It has a distinctness of purpose, starting off on tho signal of th© music, going through a stately succession of alternate hands given and taken, until it completes the circle back to the spot where it began. The title is allegorical. The beginning is earth, the figure is life, and the end is earth. Earth to earth, with every imaginable change of pose, variety of expression, method of dance, or march, or walk. Chatting or laughing, bright-faced or darkfaced, bouncing or gliding, loving or hating, all have liberty of going with one law to obey. Keep going with hands offered and taken right and loft, and: the figure succeeds in giving “earth to earth,” with all that passes between. It is a variation of “Play thp game,” a new tiling, to h© commended in these days when all situations wore exhausted long ago, for its novelty. Tho story thus fashioned is written well, and though many people would like tho grand chain to- have been shorter—they would argue that with a hundred couples there would be distinctly a danger of collapse—the brilliancy and the play of fine quality is kept up effectively. There is pathos and wild impulse, wonderful originality, taking, clever, attractive} yet everybody keeps the chain, in spite of tbo characters Whose misunderstanding of things is often a temptation to more gifted natures. And such, after all, is life. ‘ ‘SERVICE VERSUS~RO'BBERY.” Sydney Wyndbam Fitzherbert. (A. Dykes, Ltd., Shortland street, Auckland.) In tlie matter of economic reform, Mr Fitzhcrbert has written with courage of a new remedy which, on tho face of it, looks more like an as piration than a remedy. To abolish rent and interest and divide all profits with the workers, approaches, if sounded sympathetically, to the pleasant noise the Millennium will make in the air when the world lives in perpetual afternoon on the shores of the magic river of forgetfulness. To bring about this state of things -Mr Fitzherbert appeals to a clearsighted and unflinching democracy. But he is not so idiotic as to osk them to write out the abolitions and the distributions at once. He asks them to study the subject by tho light of his diagrams, which have a far-off air of Euclid about them, and get tfie new ideas put into practical practice. Wo do not know if Mr Fitzherbert has ever written a treatise making skinning attractive to the live cel. But we gather from the cheery determination with which he writes here that he Must have written an exceedingly popular brochure on tho subject. Mr Fitzherbert is probably, like most writers on economic reform, quite wrong. He cannot, therefore, when ne wipes them all off the slate, be called crude. On the contrary, he writes' with much force, and sufficiently pointed correctness to draw attention to manifest evils, and to persuade the world of the need for tackling them in earnest.