BOOKS THAT MIGHT NEVER HATE BEEN WRITTEN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2211, 16 July 1896, Page 50

BOOKS THAT MIGHT NEVER HATE BEEN WRITTEN.

There are some celebrated books which

have been produced under such circumgtances that they owe their existence, primarily,' to a happy combination of events for which the author was not responsible. In most of, if not all/the instances enumerated below, it is morally osrtain that but for the fortuitous conjunction of circumstances, the author would never have conceived the design which he afterwards executed, and the world would have been correspondingly poorer. It ie, of course, obvious that if a famous author like Victor Hugo— who as a child was extremely delicate— had died in infancy, there would have been no "Lss Mi-8 1 cables," and that if Laurence Scerne bad not been rescued as a boy from the mill-dam into which he fell, there would have been no "Tristram Shandy." Equally obvious le it that many books would never have existed if the events which they describe had not happened. But there are several interesting ex&mples apart from these. Suoh wa| the case with Creay's "Dacssive Battles of the World," that storehouse cf interest to all boys. The author states that the idea of this work was »nggested to Slim by reading a footnote in Hallam relating to the Battle of Tours, of which the great constitutional historian said that, had the Issue of the. battle been otherwise, the history of the world must have been essentially varied. "It was the' perusal of this note," to use Sir Edward Oreasy'e own words, «« that first led me to the consideration of my present subject " ; and thus ie appears that but for the passing reflection made by Hallam, Oreasy's book would never have seen the light. Another case .in point is"Tbe Pilgrim's Progress." The world undoubtedly owes the existence of that work to the imprisonment of it* author. The dream which suggested the allegory to Bunyan was dreamed in prison ; the encouragement which he received to prosecute his labours was given by a prisoner, and bis. enforced idleness gave , him that leisure indispensable to the execution of. his design. "The History of the World," a book of some importance in its day, was written by Sir Walter Raleigh to while away the tedium of a long imprison-, ment. It is not generally recognised that the production of "Paradise Lost" depended upon the combination of two events— the author's blindness and. the fall of the Protectorate ; yet such is the oase. This work, though conceived in early life, was not taken up till blindnasu overtook, the poet and made impossible two other undertakings deaier to his k ear t— the compilation of a Latin dictionary and the history of his own country... Yet even the lors of sight did not distraot his thoughts from public affair?, and it was only the fall of the Commonwealth, which deprived him at once of office, public duties, and income,, that stimulated him to vigorously carry his masterpiece to completion. Tbu?, bad not the Restoration taken place, Milton would have had no leisure to execute his conception ; or had his eyesight not failed him, he would rather have devoted his energies to compiling a Latin dictionary than to tmtiner an eric. In this

instance the poet'g loss was the world's gain. Poverty has at all times bean a fine spur fo authorship. Thackeray was first led to take up novel writing for a living, as, by his own confession, had he had independent means he would never have written at all. Dr Johnson was a genius whose necesaity has increased the sum' of human pleasure, of which truth one example will suffice. The entertaining " Rasselas " was written in the evenings of a single week, with the Bole object of defraying the cost of hia mother's burial and paying off her few outstanding debts. At the time of Mrs B^cher Sfcowe's death it was stated in the newspapers that " Uncle Tom's Cabin " was written in order to enable the authoress to obtain a silk dress.

The existence of the Waverly Novels huag fora while in the balance. The firs!; of the series, "Wavtrley," was written by Sir Walter Scott anonymously as an experiment. It is very probable that, had its reception been adverse, the subaequent books would never have been written. , . We are indebted to the enterprise of the publishers for Moore's " Lalla Rookh." Moore had made a name as a poet when Messrs Longmans approached him with an offer of £3000 for a poetical .production, the subject to be chosen by the author. With such an inducement— for Moore was a comparatively poor man — he buried himself in a country house in Derbyshire, saturated his mind witb Oriental factß and imagery, and produced a' work »o true to Natnre that it 1 was-trans-lated into Persian and sung in the streets of Ispahan. Many instances could also be given of a chance sight or Bound which has resulted in a well-known composition. The sight of a ploughman plodding his homeward way while Gray sat alone in the churchyard of Stoke PogJs inspired his immortal "Elegy";

the sound of a bell on a winter's night gave Poe an idea which he expressed in " The Bells." I

SACERDOTAL GARMENTS.

Th* churches offer some curious contrasts in costume. They differ, Indeed, almost as much in dress as in doctrine, and from time to time bitter controversies have arisen as to the cut and colour of the materials in use. The " holy garments " made for Aaron and his sons, " for glory and for beauty," were, we know, ablaze with colour. But apart from the old Jewish ritual— which is not kept up now— there was a feeling in the anolent world in favour of white. The sacerdotal order of the Druids, we are told by Pliny, wore long white robes When they entered the oak groves to cut the mistletoe. The late Dean Stanley was of opinion that .the now universal distinction between lay and clerical drees did not exist at all in the early ages of Christianity. His theory is that ecclesiastical vestments as we now know them had then origin " in the fashions common to the whole community of the Roman Empire during the first three centuries," and that at first the dress of the clergy had " no distinct intention— symbolical, sacredotal, sacrificial, or mystical ." To take an example, he says that the white surplice was once the common frock or pinafore drawn over the fur of our skin-olad ancestors; and in the waterproof onoe worn by the Roman peasant he sees the original of a vestment no,w dear,to the heart of the ritualist. .

In Anglo-Saxon times there was no difference in outdoor dress between the clergy and the laity, and even down to the fourteenth or fifteenth century the clergy seem to have been almost as free to follow the fashion as other men. One of Chaucer's pilgrims rails at the clergy of what would be the fourteenth century for wearing golden girdles and gowns of scarlet and green, and long-peaked shoes ; and the monk in the party 1b described aa having the sleeves o£ bis tunic edged with.

fur, « the finest, in the land." It is obtain the sumptuary laws were direoted as much against' the clergy as against the laity, Ecclesiastics indeed were restrained by special prohibition from wearing "long-peked Bhone." Gloves were at one time a striking feature of ecclesiastical dress. Those worn by bishops were sometimes so valuable as to be left as legacies. A bishop of London who died at the beginning of the fourteenth century had a pair worked with gold and enammelled, which, in the dear money of that time, were worth £5. Oae.of the sumptuary laws forebade gloves to the clergy, and an enactment of the fourteenth century advised " all persons devoted to God " to bava neither ring nor broach nor ornamental girdle nor glove. It was about this time that the Parliament of Scotland tried to regulate the dress of the ladies of that poor country to save the purse 3of " the puir gentlemen their husbands and fathers." Even so late as the reign of Elizabeth there was some difficulty in distinguishing the minister of religion from the general public. And in order " that they should be had as well in outward reverence as otherwise ■ regarded for - the ■ worthiness of their ministries, and thiDktng it necessary to have them known to the people in all places and assemblies, both in the church and without," the Qaeen issued an injunction that they ehould wear " eucb seemly habits, garments, and square caps as were most commonly and orderly received in the later year of: the reign of King Edward VI." " Not," her Majesty adds, " thereby meaning to. attribute "any holiness or special worthiness to the said .garments, hut,.as St: Paul writetb,- onmia deoenter at secundum ordinem Hanf'—d. neat turn to give the matter if these were "her Majesty's own words."— Sunday Magazine.