LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1897, 12 June 1890, Page 41

LITERARY NOTES.

The comparative study of languages, now that it may be pursued without prejudice, demonstrates that Aryan speech took its rise, not in the highlands of Bactriana, but in the neighbourhood of the North Sea and Baltic. — Scots Observer.

The Czarewitch, accompanied by the Grand Huke George of Russia, is about to make the "grand tour." Nowadays, the "grand tour," of course, means something more than a visit to the capitals of Europe. The Czarcwitch and his brother are going round the world.

The term caucus has now pas3ed into the vocabulary of the newspaper reporter. But though the word, the origin of which is still in dispute, came into being in the eighteenth century, though Carlyle and Lord Lytton made use of it as early as 1850, it was not until 1878 that it won the meaning which now attaches to it. In that year Lord Beaconsfield applied it in scorn to Mr Chamberlain's Birmingham wire-pullers. — •Scots Observer.

In comparison with the ordinary novelist, Mr Besant is spirited and vigorous enough ; but he does not show the happy audacity that made his early books so popular. We have an uncomfortable feeling that he has been guilty of research lately, that the shadow of mere accuracy has darkened his humour, that he studies facts and dates with a view to future use. We do not think that he has lost in the least degree his old power; but that the power is, as a rule, less conspicuous in those of his stories which have a historical setting. — The Speaker.

A London society paper recently commented severely on the disgraceful state of the grave of Burns' Highland Mary, and with good effect, for as a result a substantial and handsome monument now marks her last resting-place, on which is the following inscription :—: — Erecteil ovor the grave of Highland Mary, 1842. My Mary, dear d'-parted shade! Whore is thy place of bliesful rest ? The grave is put in order and decorated with flowers and shrubs twice yearly, which unfortunately are not allowed to retain their beauby long, as the numerous visitors from a distance (cockneys included) in a few weeks carry off every green leaf as a souvenir of their visit. The old West Kirk was rebuilt some years ago. Mr Weatherly, who is one of the most successful writers of verse set to music, says that the ideas for his songs come at the most unexpected moments. It is while walking along the Strand or in seme crowded thoroughfare that most ideas come ; but he adds that scarcely any of his songs indicate the circumstances under which they were written. His nautical songs were composed far from the sea, and his rural ones miles from the country. Above all things he must feel happy. His most melancholy dirges were composed when ho was in the best of spirits. Jules Verne, it appears, is no longer able to go about the world and study localities for his journeys in fiction. An insane nephew four years ago sent a ball into his leg, and maimed him for life. He reads hard, however, and so gives an air of truth and probability to all his inventions. His habits are very simple, now that he is confined to a sedentary existence in the city of Amiens. In the morning he writes until breakfast — (the usual French meal at 11 or 12 o'clock, we presume) — is announced. Afterwards he visits a club, and in the evening he goes to the theatre with his wife.

When Mr Swinburne is at his best it is well nigh impossible to do justice to the music of his verse. You are fairly carried off your feet ; you are as

Ono who drinks from n, charmed cup Of aparkling and foaming and murmuring wine. And the melodies are as varied as they are faultless ; the cadences are now caressingly tender, now lulling, lingeringly mournful, rich and sweet as " the very food of love," now resonant as the blare of silver trumpets. The verse now rolls majestically, now dances airily, now ripples with a chime as of fairy bells, now sweeps along with a fury and a clamour of words resistless as the galliambics cf Catullus. There has been no such metrical inventor since English was English. — Scots Observer.

The delegates of the Clarendon Press have arranged for the publication of a series of half-crown volumes, to be entitled "Rulers of India," to be edited by Sir W. W. Hunter, X.C.S.I. Each volume will take a conspicuous epoch in the making of India, and under the name of its principal personage will set forth the problems of government which confronted him, the work which he achieved, and the influences which he left behind. Thus the volume on Asoka will endeavour to present, for the first time, a comprehensive view of the political organisation of ancient India. The rise and culmination of the Mughal Empire will be briefly sketched under Akbar ; its decay under Aurangzeb. The volume on Dupleix will sum up the struggle of the European nations for the possession of India. The volume on Daliiousie exhibits the final developments of the East India Company's rule, and so on Among; the writers will be Professor Seeley, Professor Rhys Davids, Captain Trotter, Colonel Malleoon, Sir Lepel Griflin, Sir Owen Burne, Sir H. Cunningham, Mr Boulger, and the editor.

When 1 first had the privilege — and I count it a very high one— of meeting Mr

Walter Pater, he said to me, smiling, " Why do you always write poetry 1 Why do you you nofc write prose ? Prose is so much more difficult." •It was during my undergraduate days at Oxford ; days of lyrical ardour and studious sonnet wiiting; days when one loved the exquisite intricacy and musical repetitions of the ballade, and the villanelle with its linked long-drawn echoes and its curious completeness ; days when one solemnly sought to discover the proper temper in which a triolet should be written ; delightful days, in which, I am glad to say, there was far more rhyme than reason. I may frankly confess now that at the time I did not quite comprehend what Mr Pater really meant ; and it was not till 1 had carefully studied his beautiful and suggestive essays on the Renaissance that I fully realised what a wonderful self conscious art the art of English prose-writing really is, or may be made to be. Carlyle's stormy rhetoric, Ruskin'e winged and passionate eloquence, had seemed to me to spring from enthusiasm rather than from art. I don't think I knew then that even prophets correct their proofs. — Oscar Wilde.