LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2785, 31 July 1907, Page 81

LITERARY NOTES.

*".■• ? o '— TChfre -was riecen.tly^.sold .tgr auction in London', tl*& histei;iea^ r 'a^£l iarDsaroils , dßcft-~ ■ment s^via^^e oi-der -£pr «iKaesacre- of Okncc-e| I^l^eigne^b^^ob^rt'.^uncanno'ni^', =a<)ting fo^jhev-AiaSjjgr $air ?^w£6se^den 7 sign wsfej^^^acai^S^TjwtiK, 7?to^butch.e#. the wljole """race of •Qiieves, "the ' whole' damnabje race. Mr Tregaskis, the weilknown |x>ck-seller^ -of Holborn, bought this ipiserabi"-*rdkrsf6r £1400. T , - — Tiis -$isKtee^_,ofr the-- late-" &incipal Rainyj *'!$> <oM«d- in Melbourne, have choeen .is ,h"is p. Carnegie ,?3iinpsOH, of Renneld United Free Church, ' Glasgow, spoken of as one of the rising I 'young- jjttmisftfrs of hisriclinrth. Dr Rainy left' *ap|injiH»ctioTl that no member of his '"fifohflj* *hoiH& a> write his biography. -'•^Charles A. Dana, by reason of his tfhafce id[ the American struggle with slavery, <botti a&^Cjou;nalis.t v an;d^&taiesQian, commands a fame! not Ifr^tect W the" ' Atlantic." TSis work with Horace Greeley in' fighting "the cause ol Lincola as candidate for the Presidency j |md his -subsequent : - eerVites at"tfc©:i ■War Office,- waeH intrigues against? <3wnrt , rffe, «hould- make-' a- story-of^ much ipfcdresfi It has been >tcffd- irsf 'Gfener&l 1 "Ja.nieJ M. Wilson in "The LifeJ/tf Charles A?;Da^," which M«s'Srfei3tfrper announce. >^rfr^ r * :clsworl^"*^®CEiily tt«* hjs^japresd 'B'iori'ablf jdfflywaboqd^ ..o.jj&ed, , iis^.. uyjp»*tk)ft •to' l oth<*E«§Qenes i^Bksi^Ms^^^i^-^k his native country. He had felF.. the" iie< travepfeff^extenlively ~m ili*CDOTiStnrP ■the went fhrough his course ajL Canibridee, 'She. Qua|tocks and jsWl<gipllffil flj&ft ..inspired gome of \i& ff*s* wrowcT*' Traus ft" 16 possible to ex*^nfite.""tho *ijrflue»ce 'of- 1 Lakelancg on Hie genius. — Westminster Gazette.-* -' *- — A contribution, out of the common) run is promised in the 'first number of the new Oxford and Cambridge Review. When John Stuart 3fiil died there was found in his housa at Avignon an essay "On Social Freedom: Or tho Necessary Limits of Individual Freedom Arising Oat of the Conditions o^ Our Social Life." It was considered to be the prelude of a longer worki on the subject which the author never carried out. Messrs Constable have been fortunate enough to secure it for the new review. Such a presentment by the .great champion of individualism of the other side of , the question will be awaited with some eagerness. '. — The greatest admirer of Shakespeare (says the Field) cannot always be reading him. though he likes i^y be. reminded easily "and frequently of the beauties and points he used to study. Such a volume, therefore, as "Shakespeare," just published in tb» English Men of Letters series" (Macmillan; price 2s net), cannot fail to be widely welcome. It is so exhaustive a study that it may be termed the essence of Shakespeare, and Mr Walter Raleigh, who is Professor of English literature in the University of Oxford, has' contrived to impart a freshness to his analysis which one might have thought impossible in a field so closely shorn and heavily gleaned. But there are a few subjects still left as to which it cannot yet be averred that the last word has been said; and Shakespeare is in the forefront. ' — A vivid little portrait of fluskin in the days of his professorship at Oxford is. contained in "Mr Graham Wallas's introduction to "The Two Paths," which Messrs CasseH are including in their "National Library." Mr Graham Wallas was an undergraduate at Corpus when Ruskin had rooms in the Fellows' Buildings there which look out upon the Christ Church meadows. "I heard his lectures," Mr Wallas writes, "and for a short time saw him almost every day. His mobile lips were not yet covered by a beard, and he wore always with his precise costume that intensely blue neckcloth, which he constantly renewed. His face was that of a man who had seen, and was to see again, Hell as well as Paradise, but who yet was not stem, like Dante, but of a tender and playful humour." —In the fifth volume of "The Times' History of the Boer War," which narrates the guerilla fighting, justice is done to the qualities of Lord Kitchener. As the seemingly interminable struggle dragged on there was, it may be remembered, some carping at Kitchener (on the part of the Spectator, fer example), and we now learn that be was quick to act on this. Mr Erekine Childers, who has had the telling of this part of the story, saya:— "Besides an irorf constitution, Kitchener had the r*te gift of equinimity. Under a burden- which would have -crashed smaller men _he preserved a serene and confident spirit, and ho transmitted this confidence to the army, the Government, 4u*d the nation. All recognised in him a great and commanding personality, not, indeed, above criticism, but. compelling trust. He had no rivals. There was never a moment when his fitness for the high place he occupied was not manifest and unquestioned. Once, in October, 1001, thinking he detected dissatisfaction, be offered to resign his post. The Government firmly refused to entertain the idea." — The interchange of ideas in the scientific world should be materially advanced by the new international quarterly, "Rivista di Scienza," of which the first number has just appeared. It is described as an "international review of scientific synthesis/ and contains articles by eminent writers in English, French German, and Italian. It really ow«s its birth to Italy, and is published simultaneously in Bologna. London, Paris, Leinzig. The English publishers are Messrs Williams and Norgate. Each number is to contain from 150 to 200 pa^es, and the price i« 7s 6d net. The first issue is quite representative in character, embracing articles on mechanics, chemistry, biology, economics, and history. The English contributor i Professor W. Cunninebam, who writes on "Impartiality in History. 1 * In addition to the articles there is & section devoted to reviews of scientific publications. — There was a time when it had to be decided which of two men, Sheridan Knowles or Tennyson, should have a pension, and Peel, who was Premier, knew neither of them! He consulted Monckton Milnes., "What!" said the latter, "have you never seen the name of Sheridan Kfcowfes on a playbill?" "No," said Peel. "Atrd have you never read a poem by Tennysonf "No," was again the answer, accompanied by " the request that Milnes v«ouidi let him see something which Tenny-

son had written. Milnes sent him ''Locke-, ley Hall*' anß "Ulysses." Thereafter Peel quickly decided on giving Tennyson. £200 a 'year m order-that his talents might not be diverted from .tfcair proper channel by the sordid cares "of a'struggle for existence. For the moment there was nothing left for the aged and infirm Sheridan Knowles, but BeVsl Tnk-de .haste to secure for him a bcnefU..similar to that conferred upon the younger man. —Evening Standard. — The "Quiver for June ie the five hundredth- number- of that periodical, and in it Mis\S%jddart tells of Dr Fairburn-'s first entrance^ "into the world of literature: — While' at Bathgate he wrote an essay-on "The Genesis and Development of the Idea ■bf God," and sent it &> the Contemporary Review, then under the editorship of Mjt •Alexander Sfcrathan. "I well remember," he saicF, "sitting one morning in ihe par- ! lour window -of the old manse, with my eldest-born baby boy in my arms, and my I wife- sitting opposite me, when we saw the postman approaching. Little guessing what a treasure he carried, I raised the window and_ took Jfrom his hands a large roll of paper, Tfrhieh I thought contained my manuscript. "Inside, to my intense joy, were the. proofs of my article from the Contemporary. It was a proud moment of nay life. Foe years I had been minister of a small church in a small denomination, without any encouragement to nereevere in literary effort; , and. here in * moment it seemed as if the .opportunity.. I had waited for had come." "Imagination,'' adds the doctor, "saw the end" winch ambition had so eagerly desired already attained." —In a capital' article on sea terms in common user contributed to Macmillan'a '-Magazine, W. -B. 'WhaH "{master mariner)' draws some of his instances from the writSirifrtbi the Elizabethans. "Shakespeare!* play teems with sea words," he says, "some pf them apparently dragged in head and 'shoulders for no apparent-purpose, as when tha melancholy Jaques likens the dryness of the fool's brains to* 'the" remainder biscuit.' Bacon, again', in a letter to Raleigh, says, 'the knee-timber of your voyage ia money.' Here he uses not only a seaterm, but a very technical one. Kneetimber was' the most valuable of all the. material going to the construction of a wooden ship. Knees were the timbers, shaped like a peg bent at the knee, which! bound the beams to the frames of the hull, these pieces were not so easy to obtain as the planking, which oould be sawn out of any fairly straight tree-trunk, for the* bend of a knee must be natural, and was §ot .where a branch grew from the stem, hakespeare never uses sea terms wrongly. The first scene of "The Tempest,' for example, might have been written by a sailor so far as the nautical terms go, -Many of &em are archaic, but they are all correct, and properly used. 'Bring her to try with main-course' and 'Lay her ahold' would not be'understood now, even by an average seaman, but they ara^ perfectly right and professional. The first means in modem &ea speech, 'Heave her to'; the second (when it ie found that eea room will not allow of the first) means, "Bring her to the wind/ to try to claw off the lee shore." —ft ie curious to notice (says London Opinion) how frequently the same talent is found in various members of the same family. This is, perhaps, most notable in the theatre, the Grossmiths being one example among many. But one also finds the same tendency developed in other directione. Mr E. F. Benson, for example, * new novel from whose pen has. just appeared, shares his literary ability with two of his brothers. The Bensone are the sons of the late Archbishop of Canterbury. Mr ■ Arthur ChristopHer Benson, who was for eight yeaTs a master, at Eton College, has written poetry, essays.'and biography, and ia now" busy with' Viscount Eeher in editing the correspondence of Queen Victoria. Father Robert Hugh Benson was received into the Catholic Church four years ago, and has written several novels, in which his religious opinions are naturally- made' very evident. Mr Edward Fsderick Benson, the Archbishop's third son, is probably the best known of the three. His first novel* "Dodo," published in 1893, was an im- \ mense success, and since then he has written a large number of novels of almost the first order. He is a quiet, well-knit' man, bearing the nn"-|i <rt#Vnbln m«.rlr« of the public school and the University.

— Mamma '(suddenly entering): "Weil, "Edith, I am surprised to find Mr Smithson kissing you." Daughter: "I am surprised myself, mamma; he bas been calling her* for five-years, and never tried it before."