LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2674, 14 June 1905, Page 77

LITERARY NOTES.

— The granting of the honorary degree cf LL.D. to Mr Thomas Hardy is interesting to old students of Aberdeen University, where the late Professor Minto's influence, sa3 r s the Westminster Gazette, is still strong. For Mr Minto, in the Examiner, was_ one of the first critics who gave to Mr tlardy a very high place among novelists. Mr Minto lived to write the review, in the Bookman, of "Tess." —In connection with the appearance of the cheap edition of Macaulay's History m tho St Martin's Libraiy, one of the most striking of the many tributes paid to the work on its first appearance may bo fittingly recalled. A gentleman near Manchester having read the History aloud to a number of his poorer neighbourers, ihe latter afc ihe conclusion of the reading passed a. vote of thanks to Macaulay "for having written a history .vhich working 1 men oan unde-.-stand." Sir George Trevelyan notes in the Life, Macaulay "really prized this vote."'

— Everybody is writing essays who is not writing novels. We have had during Ihe past few months Mr Charles Whibley's "L'terary Portraits," Mr Arihur SymonVs "Studies in Prose and Verse," the late Armine Kent's "Otia," Mr W. L. Courtney's book, "The Feminine Note in Fiction," and Mr Lewis Hind's "Life's Lesser Moods." And now come three new collections of essays — Mr Andrew Lang's "Adventures Among Books" (Longmans), Mr Henry Nevinson's " Pocks and Personalities" (John Lane), and Mr G. S. Street's "Books and Things"' (Duckworth). "Let them all come !" cries James Douglas, in the Star. The- more the merrier.

— Mr T. Fisher tin win has just published Mr Kosmo Wilkinson's book "The Personal Story of the Upper House."' The object of the work is to present porsonail sketches of the. notabilities of the" House of Lords at different epochs, from the thirteenth century to the present day. An introductory chapter gives* as much 'of the purely constitional history as is necessary to render the subject intelligible to the ordinary reader, and then the doings of the House in its different abodes are related, full attention being paid to the most recent developments of its work and influence. The personal and social, rather than the political, aspect is kept throughout in view. — Electricity is entering so intimately into our everyday lives that ifc behoves everybody to understand something of it. In "What We Know Concerning Electricity" (Methuen and Co.) Miss Antonia Zimmern, B.Sc, explains with perfect clearness the accepted theory, together with the more or less conventional or metaphorio terms by which the different manifestations of electrical and magnetic forces are indicated. It is a stumbling block to the uninitiated that such terms as "electromotive force" and "difference of potential" are wont to be taken as having, an absolute rather than a relative significance, but these and many other difficulties which even in the most elementary text-foooks Usually confront the otherwise fairly well-instructed student are completely removed. Although enough is said to explain the principles upon which such application as telephony and wireless telegraphy are based, the mechanical details of dynamos, commutators, and meters are very wisely left unmentioned. The book, in fact, is one for the general reader who may wish to comprehend the philosophy of the subject. — Mr T. B. Aldrich insists upon the point that poets are made as well as born. "They are made possible," he claims, "by the general love of poetry and the consequent imperious demand for it." Mr Aldrich does not appear to detect in the public of tho United States an imperious demand for poetry. . Mr Henry Van Dyck takes quate a different point of view, and questions whether ifc is at all the function of poetry to "attract attention," bub he maintains that there are still people who will welcome a vital poetry, and urges .the poel to remain faithful to his art. Mr Frederic Lawrence Knowles, in his contribution to the symposium, cites a. concrete but anonymous example of a distinctly minor poet who has made 39,000d0l from the rhymed product of bis brain. This is quit© in harmony with the vi3w of Ella Wheeler Wilcox, who maintains cheerfully that verse has usurped the r.lace of poetry. Verse, she urges, k as much valued to-day as ever in the history of the world.— T.P.'s Weekly. — I should like to call the attention of my readers to a book of "Songs and Poems" by Lizzie Twigg (.Dublin: Scaly). Dr P. A. Sheehan says, in his sympathetic preface to th ; s little volume 1 , that "its greatmerit is that it is one of the thousand voices that are calling, calling to our countrymen at home and beyond the seas to understand the greatness of their heritage, and the form and features and beauty of that Motherland that has inspired so majiy^generations of patriots and poets." Let me quote as typical of the simplicity of this poet's love for Nature the two verses called "A Song of Joy" : A gresn bank under a hawthorn tree, Sing, oh, sing right cheerily; Violets blue and violets white, Primroses yellow, and cowslips bright; Lilt of a lark and the blackbird's note, Thrush's tiill on the air afloat — A green bank under a hawthorn tree, And many a queen might envy me! A green bank under a hawthorn tree Is dearer far than a throne to me; Over my head the blue, blue sky, Wind's low 3oug as it passes by — Far in the West the glad sea smiles With its golden cliffs ard its hundred isles; A magical cup filled full with glea Is a young heart singing cheerily. Miss Twigg regret* that she is unable at present to write her song 3in the Irish language.— T.P."s Bookshelf.

—Mr Jules Verne, "he of the great imagination," who pa^-od to his rest the other day "Jackdaw," in ih-& L-eeds Mercury), marie a "record" for himself in more senses than one. He wrote continuously for over half a ceniuvy. never failing to produce two volumes a year during that lengthened perior' — occasionally even managing tbree — so that there arc move than 100 works to bis creel. t. Tie was always, aho, ahead of his publishers. Ho ne^er konfc the printers waiting. As a matter of fact. "he. being dead," will yet speak, not alone through the medium of the groat array of volumes bearing his name that are already in existence, but in a dozen or moro fresh stories prepared by him in advance of requirements. It is doubtful wlipthor there has boon any author of whom as much can he said. Nor did Jules Verne's prcdud.i\e-ncss outrun his

popularity. His later stories may not havef created the sensation of some of his earlier ones, but they at least found an open market. He never lost the patronage of young people. This he secured at tho outset, and successive generations of boya and girls in their teens have paid him the tribute of tkeir admiration. This should mate for the permanence of some of hig books. His name will not take a high' rank in literature, but the writer who caa produce work that takes captive the fajicy of young people is in no clanger of being quickly forgotten. The school children ol his own country have already begun" tc voice their indeibtedn3ss to their great en* tertainer. They are subscribing thei* pennies to a boys' and girls' memorial to him, and it would not be surprising if this, movement became international, for Jules Verne has been translated into many, lonq-u-es; and juveniles, a-nd not a few" adults, revel in the achievements of ihatj wonderfully fertile and scientific fancy q , his.