LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2849, 21 October 1908, Page 82

LITERARY NOTES.

— The late Marquis of Bute made a translation from the lAtin of the Roman Breviary. The book appeared in 1879, and it has been out of print for a long time. In fact, the price for a copy has rieen from the original Zgs to sgs. Now a fresh iisue of the Breviary, " for use in England, is announced by Messrs Blackwood: — Captain Harry Graham, the writer of witty verse, has prepared a book about a score of famous Scotch women. It will be published by Messrs Methuen, under the title "A Group of Scottish Women." The group includes such widely different characters as Elizabeth, Duchess of Lauderdale, Lady Grisell Baillie, Jane, Duchess of Gordon, and Mrs Grant of Laggan. — Mr Unwin will publish in the autumn a volume by Prmc^or F. E. HuJme, entitled "That Rock Garden of Ours." It describes the garden, /fhich i<3 his hobby, and dwells appreciatively on its cultivation and a~;ociation«, giving not merely the botanical side of the subject, but also much intoret tmg- plant-lore, legendary, medicinal, and hteiary. The -wor!^ will b-o illustrated by numerous coloured drawings by the author. —An important work, entitled "The Book of Nature-study," is about to be published. Tne airti of the volumes is to give detailed and syt-tematic guidance to parent? and teacher in inticducing children to the stulj and love of X<mu ~. 'J he common animal* and flowers a.-o <]/--ult with bjarknow !o<l<?od p«prrts who aie at the tame timo experienced teachers the latter being c "Uov.g point. Technical Language will bo ns far a«: possible avoided. The editor is Professor Farmer, of the Roya.' College of Scionee. — The greater poition of the library of Geor£« J Holyoake was handed over bj

1 his wish to Mr G. W. F. Goss, chief librarian of the Bishopsgate (London) Institute, who has written a Life of the famous agitator, and* appended to his voluiil. a complete bibliography of his varied writings. The biography is in no way intended to supersede, though, inasmuch as it deals more exclusively with Holyoake's literary work, it^will form a valuable supplement fco, Mr M'Cabe'* recently-issued life. —In a recent Fortnightly Review M. Yves Guyot was protesting how much French literature owed to England. Next issue Professor Churton Collins returned the compliment, and emphasised the debt of English literature to France. Happily (says the Evening Standard) both the compliments ire true, nor is the recognition of the truth so new as the political understanding. Tame and Joseph Texte mT.de it the theme of detailed exposition, and wo or our side have never denied our obligations to our sweet enemy France, even ! when she was oui enemy. I —It was in 1872 that the name of i Jefferies first became known from a letter of hit. in The Times on the labourers of : Wiltshire ; and it is just 30 years 4mce I he won his earliest success as a writer I with "The Gamekeeper at Home." Jeffaries's last book, "After London; or, Wild \ England," published in 1885, two yeara I before his death, is a curious romance of | the future. A Life of Jefferies, by ■Mr ! H. S. Salt, was published in 1893, and an appreciation cam© from the pen of Sir Walter Beeant, who declared that "he knew nothing in the English language finer, whether for the sustained style or the elevation that fills it, than 4 The Pageant- of Summer." A new book on Jefferiea is about to come from the capable hands of Mr Edward Thomas. — The youngest successful novelist of the . daj- — for that is really what Mr Guy Thorne is, being only just over 30 years of age — was intended for the ministry, hia father being a vicar in the North of England. In Mr Thome's own words, however, "At Oxford I made rather a hash of things, so far a* work was concerned. I learnt really nothing" — which was partly the fault of the sjst-em hnd partly of Mr Thorne's love of athletics. Anyway, he came to London with £10 in hia pecket ar.d two introductions to editors, and took an attic. "At that time," he once informed the writer, "I was prepared to undergo every hardship. I longed, in. fa/et, ( to pawn, my watch for food and pen-nibe, panted to emulate Chatterton and the early days of Dr Johnson." But these longings ■ ware his only unrealised hopes, for almost I from the first My Thorne gained success j as a journalist, and after travelling extensively upon the Continent, visiting all kinds of places and meetinc- all sorts of people, he decided to turn nia knowledge to account and become a novelist. How he earned name and fame in the realms of fiction is well known ; and the record} made by "Wihen It Was Dark" has not yet been equalled. — The' "Expert" has some interesting notes upon, the many attempts — rather foolish attempts, one thinks — to produce tiny books. A celebrated instance was *'The Court of Flowers," printed by 'B. Schmidt in Holland in 1674. "This book is just one-fourth the size of an English penny postage stamp, but contains such laTge letters that only a few words go to the page. Schmidt found he could not cast type sufficiently email to fill his pages ac they ought to be filled, and so he got over the difficulty by using the smallest type he could cast and spreading it over | the pages of a book much too small even ! with that." Actually the smallest book in j the world, however, was printed by Selmin, ;of Padua some dozen years ago. It con- | ta.ins the text of a hitherto unpublished I letter from Galileo to Mme. Christine, of j Lorraine. "Consisting of 208 pages, with. nine lines to each page and about 10 letters I to a line, it measures but 10 millimetres j by 6. It has been called the ' fany folio,' for, being the shape of a folio, it would be accounted one" were it only large enougih. The smallness of tjie characters, their elegance and even distribution, can be ad- ! mired with the assistance of a glass; with- ! out it, the strongest natural eyesight sees but a series of thin lines, following one upon the other, page after page." Surely such infinitesimal volumes are not wortn all the trouble they take to produce. — "There is no problem which may arise to any human being in the long course between the oradle and the grave which need be forbidden to public consideration, and which may not be wholesomely dealt with," writes Mr Bram Stoker, in dealing with "Censorship of Fiction" in the Nineteenth Century. "There is not a household which may not have its painful experiences of some of them, and they are solved to some end with boldness and decorum. But it may be feared that writers who deal with lewd subjects generally use the word ' problem. ' either as a shelter for themselves or as a blind for some infentfon. more base than mere honest investigation. TH<* problem they have in reality set themselves is to find: an easy and prosperous way to their desires without suffering f^pm public ignominy, police iaterfereryie. or the reproaches of conscience ; with the inevitable result that they rightly incur th< penalties distributable by all three. Tt is the <;ame old problem whioh has tortured fallible humanity from the beginning, or, at any rate, since desire of many things fouhd itself face to face with inadequate powers and insufficient opportunities for attainment." LIFE OF THE LATE MR DAVID SYME. Messrs Ward. Lock, and Co. (Ltd.) write; "We beg to inform you that we shall publish simultaneously in London and Melbourne during October, under the above title, the authoritative 'Life of David Synie.' The biography has been written by Mr Ambrose Pratt, the well-known Australian author, at the express wish of t.he laic Mr Syme, who supplied much of the mat-era I necessary for the purpose. The cordial sanction and approval of Mrs Symo Mr Herbert Syme, Mr Geoffry Syme, and members of t.he family has been accorded! to Mr Pratt's undertaking. The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth, the Hon. Alfred Deakin. M.P., has written a lengthy introductior to the forthcoming work,' which will have a photogravure frontispiece portrait of Mr Syme, several other full-page illustrations, and the format of the volume will bo of a character appropriate to the remarkable personality witli which it zs associated."

— Deprived of food, the mole will starr* to death, in day.. "