LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1912, 13 July 1888, Page 32

LITERARY NOTES.

Tvo million copies of the first instalment of General Boulanger's work on the German invasion are to be distributed gratis throughout France.

There be, even to this day, great numbers of Southrons who cannot read Burns at all, and to whom the noble idiom of Cuddie Headriggand the Mucklebackits and Andrew Fairservice is at once an eyesore and a heartbreak. — Saturday Review.

German papers report good news from Russia. Hitherto spedial permission was required in the Czar's dominions for the sale of Carlyle's histories of Frederick the Great and of the' French Revolution, and of Heine's works ; but recently the vexations censorship has been removed from those works.— Athenseum.

lii "Consuelo George Sand tells us of music ; in " Horace," of authorship ; in " Les Chateau oles Desertes," of acting ; in " Les Maifcres Mosaiates," of mosaic work ; in "Le Chateau dv Pitordu," of portrait-painting; and in "La Daniella," of the painting of landscape. What Mr Kuskiri and Mr Browning have done in England, she. did for France. She invented an art literature. — Pall Mall Gazette.

Professor Henry Drummond has a new book — " Tropical Africa " — in the press, which will be published immediately by Messrs Hodder and Stoughton. It will contain an account of the author's recent travels in Central Africa, with one ov two chapters of natural history and notes regarding the latest phases of the slave-trade, and African politics generally. The author's former work ( " Natural Law in the ypiritual Wold ") is still selling, and has now reached the extraordinary sale of 75,000 copies.

The Academy says that, as a memorial of last, year's Mary Queen of Scots Tercentary Exhibition, at Peterborough, it is proposed to print one of the MSS. from Losely, there exhibited. This is an account of "J he Examynacon and Death of Mary Queen of Skottes," signed by R. Wynkfielde, which is of special interest as identifying Bnrghley's correspondent, "E. W." and as differing in some details from the common reports. It will be published (by subscription) by Messrs Taylor and Son, Northampton.

" World-English : the Universal Language," is the title given to a work that Professor Alexander Melville Bell has in the press. The work has been written to demonstrate the fitness of the English language for adoption as the universal language ; the writer's idea being that the only drawback to the extension of English hitherto has been its difficult and unsystematic spelling. "World-English" introduces to the student an amended alphabet with new letters for unrepresented sonnds. Messrs Trubner and Co. are to be the publishers.

The most memorable event of last year for bibliopoles was that day in June when Mr Quaritch gave £2G50 and £1025 for two successive lots in Lord Crawford's sale— .the so-called Mazarin Bible, and the first Bible with a date (Mentz, 1462). Next, perhaps, may be mentioned, Caxton's " Game and Play of Chesse, 1 ' from "an old Essex library," which also fell to Mr Quaritch for £G45. A fairly good copy of the first folio of Shakespeare fetched £255, while a miserably mutilated edition of the same went for £20.

Lovers of Keats will probably feel (writes the Athenssum) more than reasonably aggrieved that the owner of Lawn House, Hampstead (formerly Wentworth Place), should contemplate pulling down a building so replete with Keatsian associations. In that one house, which in Keats' days was two, the poet was more than familiar with no fewer than three households. There he visited constantly his friend Charles Wentworth Dilke (of the Athenaeum) ; there he " domesticated with " Charles Armitage Brown ; there he fell in love with, and became engaged to, Fanny Brawne ; and there, between his last sojourn with Leigh Hunt and his departure for Haly, he was nursed and cared for by Mrs Brawne and her daughter. It is sad that material interests should constantly prevent the preservation of houses thus associated with great names of the past. Some living poets have, it seems, the art, though old in years, ;of keeping young at heart. In Mr Browning's latest verse there glows the core of fire nnquenched by winter snows ; and Tennyson, at three-score years and ten, as many think, writes better now than when he sang of " Hallam's loss and Arthur's fall," and wrote the earlier tale of " Locksley Hall." Columbia's muses, if indeed we can call Mr Lowell an American, seems no less dowered with immortal youth. " Heart?ease and Kue," Mr Lowell's latest volume, we know to be in truth the work of one whose earliest writings date from 1837 and '38 ; but it is pleasant to observe that time has not yet jangled the sweet mellow chime of Mr Lowell's bells when he inclines to shape his serious, polished, lyric lines. — St. James' Gazette.

Lady Macbeth was a fascinating, scheming little Scotchwoman, who looked after the " bawbees," and knew her husband well enough to recognise that however brave in battle, he could not resist the influence of a petticoat. If Delilah could subjugate Sampson, and Judith get round Holofernes, why should not a sharp, red-haired Scotch thane's wife " talk over " so superstitious a husband as Macbeth, who suffers alternately from "warnings" and chronic indigestion? Lady Macbeth has yet to be played from a new point of view. The Mrs Siddons' idea can be improved opon, and there *s no further need of the asthmatic breathing in the sleep-walking scene. Sarah Bernhardt made an ambitious failure of this unscrupulous Scotchwoman, making her a frenzied Joan of Arc. What will Miss Ellen Terry have to say on the subject. — Truth.

The Climate of New Zealand.— The geographical position and physical features of the Islands produce great variety and remarkable salubrity of climate, resembling that of Great Britain. Most of the diseases prevalent there resemble those of the Mother Country, hence the popularity which Freeman's Original Chlorodyne has obtained in the treatment of Consumption > Bronchitis, Asthmatic Affections, Croup. aT'd Whooping Couch. - 3he colonists of New Zealand t*eat these diseases the moment the symptoms c idence themselves by Freeman's Original Ohlorodyne, which they iraplicitlrbelieve in. iDsisfc upon having" Freeman's" only. * Trade mark, an Klenbant.— Sold everywhere. Obtainable from aU ohemi*** And storekeepers.

The world wat sad— the garden was a wild ; And man, the Hermit, tighed—till woman smiled. —Campbell.

TO CORRESPONDENTS. Alice will be Dleased to receive letters from nnv correspondents on any matter of interest to th >n\ and to reply through the medium of this page the norn de plume only of the correspondents being published. Letters to be addressed "Alice." care of the Editor.

ANSWEBS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

B. G.— (l) She would be expected to return the visit as a matter of com se. ( ) Will answer at length next week. (3) A binhel and three-quarters of ground malt are required for 18gal of good family ' beer. The temperature of the water should nob exceed ITOdeg Fahr. Divide the water, which must be soft, pouring half upon the malt as speedily as possible. Thoroughly stir and cover the vessel over for an hour nud a-half. Then draw the wort off into another vessel and add the remainder of the water to the malt. Boil the first worb with Jib hops for one hour; then draw the second and boil for half an hour with £lb fresli hops. Mix the two liquors and allow to cool to 60deg, when a pint of good thick yeast should be stirred in, and as soon as the fermentation censes the liquor should, be drawn off into a cask previously rinsed with boiling water. When' the Blow fermentation which will ensue hns ceased, the cask should be loosely bunged for, two days, and then properly fastened. . Mauy. — If your hands are as rough and as red as you drscribe, you had better avoid the use of soap, at least during the cold weather ; and use oatmeal water instead. Take some good oatmeal, such as you would use for making porridge, aud boil it in wafer for au hour, strain, and use the liquid night and morning. This will soften and whiten tbe skin,,but you mast dry it thoroughly. The lotion of oatme.il, too, should bs made freshly every day or two, for it soon becomes sour, and will emeil unplf asanfc if kept too long. A little starch added to the oatmeal will help to produce a white skin. J. B"— (I) I know of no reason why glycerine should make the blood thin. 1 have seen it recommended for indigestion, but I am not aware whether it is efii aciousornot. (2) Yes, I have heard complaints about kerosene destroying the clothes. It is said that clotues washed regularly by this labour-saving method quickly become perforated with smull holes. lam inclined to think that under the old method of washing the result would be much the same, however. Ir. is further asserted that after using the Kerosene a few times, instead of taking the dirt out it rather iixes it in the clothes. This I consider not at all improbable, as the clothes must gradually accumulate a quantity of oil in the texture, which will no doubt tend te discolour them, 'lheremedyis.no doubt, to use the kerosene alternately, or only now and again. (3) There is only one remedy for preventing decayiug teeth tainting the breath, aud that is to have them removed. You should never have allowed your front teeth to have gone so far. 1 f you hud taken them in time a skilful dentist could have killed the nerve and Btopped them for you, and they would have lasted for several years at all events.