LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1851, 30 March 1904, Page 73

LITERARY NOTES.

— A new English novel which appears ariiong Mr Long's announcements is one by Mrs William O'Biien, wife of the Irish agitator, who has just resigned his eeat as a member of Parliament for Coik. "Under Croagh Patrick," as the book is entitled, is a story of Irish MM f f>.

—Mr Wilfrid 'Yard is writing a monograph on Aubrey -de Vere, illustrated by selections from his unpublished diaries and correspondence. It will contji.i contemporary records of his intercourse with Wordsworth, Tennyson, Oarlyle, and Cardinal Newman. Then there will be correspondence with Sara Coleridge, Sir Henry Taylor, and Mrs Edward Villiers. Descriptions of the Irish famine of 1846-7, which the poet wroteab the time, will form another featuie of the book.

— It is announced that "Tho Life and Letters of the Late Lord Salisbury" will bo published at a date not very l emote. It io known that the private papers of the late Marquis were arranged with methodical exactitude, and the, work of editing them ehould not entail a great strain. While references to In ing personages may be many, it ia not lo be thought that Lord Salisbury had much to hide. He took biu little part in actual negotiations, such as some prominent politicians have dono; but his reflections on foreign policy and other matters should prove of infinite interest and value.

— Dr Alfred Russell Wallaea ia a remarkable example of the maintenance of intellcotual energy at a great age. The preparation, within a few months, of his recent book, "Man's Place in th& Universe," with its wide collection of facts and brilliance of argument, has been the admiration even of astronomers, who aio totally un&ble to accept his conclusions, and have little diffioulty in refuting his logic. Dr Wallace will bo le-membered as having independently coneoived the idea of natural selection — though 20 yeara after Darwin set himself the tac-k of proving it — and for having coined the phrase "struggle for existence"— a phrase only less valuable than Spencer's "survival of the fittest." Dr Wallace believes in phrenology and spiritualism, but balances that by a disbelief in vaccination.

— Mr Dic&y tells an amusing story on good authority of how Spencer's complete works ever oame to be published. "A number of his personal friends who knew tho extreme narrowness of his means, "who admired his extraordinary energy in the meet depressing circumstances, and who wereanxious to relievo his embarassments, agreed to publish a complete edition of hb works and to pay him a salary for editing the volumes and seeing them through the press which would, with his simple tastes, keep him in comfort during his advancing years. After some few volumes had been published, the- signatories of the agreement, who were all personal friends, found the cost of publication far exceeded tho amount anticipated, and suggested to Mr Spenos-r that the publication should be suspended. But to any suggestion of this kind Mr Spencer absolutely refused to listen. He informed his friends that they had made a contract, and that he muse insist on its rigid execution."

— Japan has recently lost one of it 3 foremost literati in the person of Mr Osaki, better known by hia norn d<? guerre of "Koyo Sanjin." He shares with Professor Tsubouchi the honour of having introduced tho modern style of novel-writing in Japan. The older novels were written in ornate classical style, and were Aery difficult to understand. But the modern, school of fic-tion-writers, following Europeau models, make their -characters «=peak in common colloquial. In addition to his proficiency aa a novelist, "Koyo" was an adept in the composition of the 17-syllable ode known aa "haikwai." On his deathbed he composed a verselet which the Japan Mail described as "an, admirable example of Japanese impressionist poetry. Freely rendered, it reads, 'Let me die in autumn before the dew dries' — words which recall, though they do not express, the familiar idea of the d-ewdrop evanescence of life in Buddhist eyes." Just before Osaki's death he urged a group of his disciples "to cooperate loyally and strive to riss still higher in their profession." He also paid: — "Had I seven lives to hve, I would devote all to literature."

— At the dinner the other evening in London of the New Vagabond a' Club, Mr Frankfort Moore laid it down, in the course of 'a humorous speech, that writers of romance and poetry had at all times been the progenitors of tho most valuable discoveries of science. Was it not Shakespeare who, through the mouth of Ariel, suggested the electric telegraph — if not the telephone as well? Then it was Bacon — that was to say, Shakespeare (who, it was now admitted, had written Bacon's works), who paved the way for the modern «oienoo of refrigeration. Tenn)-son invented the airship of M. Santos-Dumont, bui. he- could not at the moment remember who it was that invented Signor Marconi. There was, however, a poem- entitled '"The Message," which had reference to the successful transmission of a despatch by wireless telegraphy. It was Jules Verne, of course, who invented the submarine boat, and Mr Wells who first discovered the man in tho moon. In point of fact, it took science now all its time to keep pace with the ideas thrown out by the writers of fiction. Sir William Ramsay, who was the gueet of the meeting, admitted the indebtedness of men of science to tho writers of romance. The former took all th&ir ideas from the latter. The history of radium was in iteelf a romance, and 1 its discovery appeared to point to the possible transmutation of one element into another. But he was very far from saying anything that could bear out the suggestion that silver, or copper, or lead could be transmuted into gold.

— Browning wrote the greater part of "Sordello" when he was 24. It was in his youth, at the time when a man is thinking of love and publicity, of sunshine and singing birds, that he gave birth to this horror of great darkness ; and the more* we etudy the matter with any knowledge of the nature of youth, the more we shall come to the conclusion that Browning's obscurity had altogether tho opposite- oiigin to that which is usually assigned to it. He was not unintelligible because he was proud, but unintelligible beoause he was humble. II& was not unintelligible because his thoughts ■were vague, but because to him they were obvious. A man who is intellectually vain does not make himself incomprehensible, beCAUse h& id so wiioruoouely impressed with

the difference between his readers' intelligence and his own that he talks down to thorn with elaborate repetition and lucidity. What poet was ever vainer tiian Byron? What po&t was c\cr s=o magnificently lucid? But a young man of genius who has a. genuine humility in his heart doe^ not elaboiately explain his discoveries, because he does not think they are diseoverfos. Ho thinks that the whole street is humming with his ideas, and t'.iat the postman and the tailor are poets like himself. Browning's impenetrable poetry was the natural cxi ression of this beautiful optimism. "Sordello" was the most glorious compliment that has ever been paid to the average man. — G. K. Chesterton. A LITERARY CURIOSITY. In the following little poem, each line is a quotation from some one of the standard authors of England and America. The number of each line refers tc the author below. 1. Why all this toil for triumphs of an hour? 2. Life's a short summer — man a flower. '■i. By turns w-3 catch the vital breath and die ; 4. The cradle and the tomb, alas! so nigh. 5 To bo is better far than not to bo, 6. Though all men's lives may seem a tragedy ; 7. But light cares speak when mighty griefa are dumb ; 8. The bottom is but shallow whence they come. 9. Ycui fate is but the common fate of all; 10. Unmingled joys here no man can befall. 11. Natiire to each allots its proper sphere; 12. Fortune makes foll> its peculiai care. 13. Custom does not often reason overrule, 11. And throw a cirucl sunshine on a fool. 15. Live well; how long or short, permit to Heaven ; 16. Those who forgive most shall hz most forgiven. 17. Soar not too high to fall, but stoop to rise, 18. We masters grow of that -which we despise. 19 Oh, then, renounce that impious self-es-teem! 20. Riches have -wings, and grandeur is a dream. 21. Think not ambition wise because 'tis brave ; 22. The paths of glory lead but to the grave. 23. What is ambition? 'Tis a glorious cheat — 24. Only destruction to the brave and great. 2a. What's all the gaudy glittei of a ciown? 26. The way of bliss lies not on beds of down. 27. How long -we live not years but actions tell — 23. That man lives twice that lives the first life well. 20. Make then, while yet ye may, yom God your friend, 30. Whom Christians worship, yet not comprehend. 31 The tiust that' 3 given guard, and to yourself be just, 32. For live we how we caii, cl;e we must. 1 Young, 2 Dr Johnson, 3 Pope, 4 Piioi, 5 Sewell, 6 Spenser, 7 Daniel, 8 Sir Walter Scctt, 9 Longfellow, 10 Southwell, 11 Congreve, 12 Churchill, 13 Bochestei, li Armstrong, 15 Milton, 16 Bailey, 17 Massingtr, 18 Cowley, 19 Beattie, 20 Cowper, 21 Sir Walter Davenant 22 Gray, 23 Willis, 21 Add-on. 25, Dryden, 26 Francis Charles, 27 AVatkins, 23 Herrick. 29 William Mason, 30 Pitt, 31 Dana, 32 Shakespeare.