LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1949, 2 July 1891, Page 41

LITERARY NOTES.

When Mr Wemyss Reid approached his task of writing the life of Lord Houghton he found awaiting him no less than 30,000 letters.

A memoir of Mrs Begg, the sister of Burns, has been prepared by Robert Burns Begg, of Kinross, for '• family circulation," the edition being limited to 150 copies.

Mr George W. Cable, the wellknown American novelist, is a skilful ethnologist. He says:— "lt is not difficult for me to tell by the pronunciation what section of country any Southerner is from. The Virginian has his accent, distinct from the South Carolinian and the Louisianian. And, of cdnrse, the Creole has his delightfully musical accent or intonation. Not long ago I met a young man, and, after hearing him speak, -I said : ' You are from Northwest Louisiania, the pari3h of Bossier, and your ancestors were Anglo-Saxons, who landed in Virginia just prior to the Revolutionary war.' He replied that I was correct."

"Census Curiosities," by "An Enumerator," in Home Words, will both interest and amuse. We have only space for a very short extract. "In some cases even the rich and educated are very silly. One rich old lady was so determined in opposing the ' inquisitorial process,' as she called' it, that she not only refused to fill the census paper, but bolted and barred her doors against the enumerator. Some times very odd names are discovered. One read thus: "Albertina Regina Victoria Gotha Boulfc." She certainly ought to have married an agricultural labourer who gave his name as "Prince Albert Daniel Gamon."

At a public dinner in Edinburgh recently a very amusing story was told of James Payne, the novelist. Mr Payn, as is well known, is the editor of the Oornhill Magazine, and next door to his office a medical journal has, or had till recently, its sanctum. One day Mr Pay'n's door was cautiously opened, and a pale-faced, long-haired gentleman entered. " I have brought a little thing about sarcoma and carcinoma," said the visitor. "Very sorry, sir," said Mr Payn, politely, •• but we have all the poetry we want." " This is not poetry," exclaimed the visitor; "it is an essay on two varieties of tumour." " Oh, I beg your pardon," said Payn, "I thought ,they were a pair of Italian lovers." The long-haired man was a well-known professor who had entered the wrong office.

M. Barthelemy St.-Hilaire, the French savant and translator, who, after 59 years ot labour, has finished his translation of "Aristotle," a work in 35 volumes, and whose opinion should carry weight, has not a doubt as tp the authenticity of the recentlydiscovered work of Aristotle on the city of Athens. He says that no other mind oould have produced it. The Greek is of the Aristotelian period, and there are some lingual peculiarities common to the other works of that philosopher, and accounted for by his long contabt with the Macedonians. M. Barthelemy St.-Hilaire thinks that all writings on papyrus which may be brought to light in Egypt should be carefully examined, with a view to finding lost works of anoient Greeks.

Mr James D. Brown, of the Olerkenwell Free Public Library, and Mr Stephen S. Stratton,' of Park "House, Monument road, Birmingham, are rewriting Mr Brown's admirable biographical " Dictionary or Music " published five years ago, and are reorganising it on an entirely new plan. In all probability the book will be confined to British musicians only, and the authors request music lovers, particularly in the provinces, to send them names and information regarding the biography and music of minor local musicians who have published original works or edited collections of music. The more important men will, of course, be dealt with by the editors th3mselves, Mr Brown taking the deceased, and Mr Stratton the Kvinjgmusioians. The idea that a complete volume^sl^jifigraP 00 * 68 of British musicians can be compfleS-^k&Hijwll give a rude shockto the foreigner, who so^ttfmJjU^igjres that the English have not a particle of musical talent.

People who dislike taking their fiction in instalments should be grateful to Lippincott. The complete-novel-in-a-number system has its conveniences,, particularly to the patrons of the bookstalls, Any odd number of Lippincott is sure to be readable from cover to cover, instead of being more than half devoted to matter of no use except to the regular subscriber. A magazine of this sort meets a want, and will probably find imitators. The story of the April number fills 100 out of 135 pages of the magazine. Ie is a quiet little tale of New York life, by Ellen Olney Kirk (Henry Hayes), a writer whose acquaintance most English readers will make for the first time. There is not much freshness or originality about it, but it is quite readable, and, after its manner, well written. The shorter papers inolude a farther instalment of Horace Greeley's familiar correspondence, quite commonplace, chatty letters, bat giving a genial idea of the man.

There are some good bits of criticism, and other matters worth reading. The poetry is weak.

OLIVE SOHRBINBR AND THE POET EMEBSON.

Surely this is not a coincidence merely, or if so, a very remarkable one indeed. I had been reading the "Story of an African Farm " ; and pondering over the queer ideas expounded there, I could not fail to recognise them as the children of the great American poet Emerson. Many of the ideas are his identically, and it is not difficult to notice some peculiarities in style which the two writers have in common. It was after I had settled in my own mind that the 'poems of Ralph Waldo Emerson had, at any rate, been very well known to Miss Schreiner that it struck me that the following was a very curious fact: — The words "Ralph Waldo Emerson " supply Miss Schreiner with names for "the little firstling of her pen." Thus, the book is written under the norn de plume of "Ralph Irons," and has two leading characters in Waldo and Erne. Putting these words together, it will found necessary to change their order very slightly to form Ralph Waldo Emerson. Of course, in " Irons " we have an I instead of an E, but otherwise the same letters are used in both sats of words." — J. A. M.