LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2506, 2 April 1902, Page 70

LITERARY NOTES.

! — One of the successful books of the autumn was Sir James Paget's "Memoirs and Letters,"' for it has gone into six editions. Now it is to be followed, so Messrs !• Longman announce, by a volume of his essays and addresses. It also will be edited by Sir James's son, Mr Stephen Pagct. "—Mr W. B. Yeats contributes to the l Speaker the first of some "New Chapters of the Celtic Twilight." Here is his credo: "I belie\e, generally, that all nature is full of people w horn we cannot often see. and that some of those are ugly or grotesque, and seine wicked or foolish, but very many I beautiful beyond anyone in our world, and I that these beautiful ones arc not far away j when we aie walking in pleasant and quiet I places." I —The title, "Head Hunters," of a book ! which Messrs Methuen are just bringing out is only alarming at first sight. It is a book of travel and anthropological study in ths Torres Straits and in. Sarawak, which bordero Borneo. The author is Mr Alfred C. I ITaddon, who ib university lecturer on ethnology at Cambridge. Ho went to Torres Straits in 1888 to study the coral leefs and zoology of the region. — Among tho works which Mr Murray lias in Hand for publication are Lord Goschen'* "Life and Times" of his grandfather, also named George Joachim Goschen; Lord Ronald Gower's "Old Diaries, 1831-1901"; the late C. E. Elton. Q.C., M.P.'s "Es=ays in Illustration of Shake«poare'fc Life and Plays" ; and "Contentio A T eritatis." Tho last-named book contains 1 "Essays in Constructive Theology" by "Sir Oxford Tutor?," and is likely, =o it is said, to create a good deal of controversy. — Few people are aware that there is a Royal Society of Literature in England, which has enjoyed a charter since its foundation in 1820, under the patronage of Georgo IV. During that reigu it drew an annual sum of £1100 from the King's privy purse through what was^ originally a misunderstanding. The King meant to give £1000 down and £100 ■ annually, but the Bishop of Salisbury, who was the originator of the scheme, mistakenly announced the larger amount, and his Majesty was praised fo warmly for his munificence that he accepted the situation. William IV cut his contribution down to £100, consequently 10 pensioners of the society lost their £100 a year. Under Queen Victoria this particular bounty was discontinued altogether. Literature suggests an attempt to levive the usefulness of tho society by attracting the ycung hous of literature, with the \iew of j making it, as originally intended, something 1 like a replica of the French Academy of j Letteis. — There is no iign yet of that forgetfulness of Dickens and Thackeray which has j been so confidently predicted by some during the last decade. In the case of favourites of this rank the public forget slowly, and will continue to do ao while the press stimulates memory by attractive reissues of the books by which those favourites became celebrated. Chapman and Hall, Limited, ond Henry Frowcle have now added to their wonderful half-crown "Oxford India Paper Dickens," to be completp in 17 volumes, "David Coppeifield," "with 40 illi'strations, by Phiz, and "Nicholas Nickleby," with 39 illustration, by the same artist, and Maclise's well-known portrait of Dickens. Thackeray \b nobly leprebented in his "Virginians," and it i 3 this masterpiece that Bradbury and Evans have published as the last, of their three-and-6ixpenny series of Thackeray'" -works. The original title ppge= of vol. i and 11 (1858 and 1859) arc given. — While to the younger generation_ the poetical writings of Mr Aubrey de Vere, v. ho has just passed away in his eighty-eighth year, may be almost unknown, they were rceognihcd by his contemporaries as being ivorthy of a high place in the literature of 1;- day. His first volume, "Tho Wal-clon-os, ' was published in 1842, the year ul'on lie stayed at Rydal, and saw a good dral of Wordsworth, who, by the way, ent( rtiiined an exalted opinion of the drama, "Mary Tudor." written by hi.s father, Sir A d< Vcre. It was this* work) which tho late Cardinal Manning placed "next to Sh:il<r -[jfaio." I\lr Aubrey de Vpre, who?e» death oicurr. d ut l.is home in Ireland, \\:<- brought un ;i-> Protestant, but bocame a Roman Cyt!.oli<- at the time of the Traut.iruui moir-menr. When staying with WorcUw 01 th on the ocrafeion above mentioned, Mr do Vere frequently went out walking with the poet. In hid "Recollections,"' published a few years ago, he said: During the^e walks Wordbworth's chief theme. n> \t to Nature, was poetry. He did not think \ cry highly of our modern pcets, except Coleridge, of whom he affirmed that no other poet had ever had so exquisite a-i car, and that if he had gone on writing poetrj for 10 years more ho must have been the greatest poet of the modern world. — What h it that makes people buy popula- novels? Novelists themselves have been known to say that success or failure depends on the verdicts of the first 20 women into whose hands the book falls. Being either unsatisfied with this explanation or else in ignorance of it, Me*«rs Harper and Brothers have been trying to find out the reason why Mr Gilbert Parker's latest work, "The Right of Way, ha-- become f-o popula." in tho United Stat<>- They appealed to tho public 10 re!] tlifr), and the public has j grandly le-iioiuleil. Out of 1466 people j who luplieJ. 711 said (hey lu'd hcaid >l , fa\ouij.blv .tfokeu of by fricii/l.i v '>« l**** '

read it serially or in book form ; 468 had seen it advertised or 60th advertised and reviwed; 114 had lead reviews of it; 86 had read some of tho author's previous hooka and liked them; 84- had read the serial themselves, and wanted the book in consequence ; and 23 gave what tho publishers very unjustly call "frivolous reasons" — be- r - causo "a fool and his money are soon "- parted," because "they were dull aud wanted something exciting,' 1 because "they wanted something to talk about," because "they resd all the new books," "they wanted to be up to date," etc.

— Although by no means a work of surpassing^ literary merit, "A Sailor of King Georgo" contains so much information about everyday life in the British Navy a century ago that everyone interested in the naval annals of his country (and who is not?) may consider the time occupied in reading the book a& so many hours well spent. The period embraced by the journal (which is practically a diary of Captain Hoffman's life) is from 1793, at which date he entered the navy as a midshipman, to 1814, when Napoleon abdicated in favour of the Hous© of Bourbon and the allied armies marched into Paris. In the plain unvarnished narrative of the events which befell him during these 20 years of active service, the author describes his experiences from midshipman to commander. People who are in the habit of deprecating the navy of tho present day, and who refer to the naval wars with France and Spain as the "good old times," would no doubt be surprised to learn of what comparatively inferior etuif the men of our old wooden walls were composed. The seamen, it is true, were for the most part true grit, but there was a considerable admixture of riff-raff as a result of the impressment necessary to keep the crews up to fighting strength. It was with the officers of all grades, however, that the inferiority wa3 chiefly manifest, and the harshness and want of common Pcnse of some of tho commanders were apparently responsible for such disasters as the mutiny at the Norc and that on board the Hermion© at the West, Indie 3. It is witli feelings of relief that one turns to the contemplation of the naval officer of the present day, for although we may have no Collingwoods or Nelsons, it is comforting to know that wo at any rate have no such ill-bred and woilhless characters in command of our vessels as some of the captains described in "A Sailor of King George." The book is readable and instructive, and contains 10 illustrations, including a portrait of the author. — Field.

— A plan for diminishing the> force of waves has recently been tried at Havre. It is the invention of an Italian residing in Paris. The apparatus consists of a network) of waterproofed hemp, 360 ft long by 50fL broad, anchored on tho surface of the waterIt flattens out heavy waves and prevents them from breaking, after the manner of oil spread upon the sea.