LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2856, 9 December 1908, Page 80

LITERARY NOTES.

— Sir Gilbert Parker, unlike many other well-known authors r can write anywhere. Siience, he says, at times is painful, and an organ-grinder is welcomed as a positive relief. One of the concluding chapters of "The Trail of the Sword" was written m a railway train, and some of his best short stories have been written among crowds of people. One was written at a railway station when he was waiting for a train. I —Mr Werner Laurie will publish Dt Emil Keich's next book, to be called, "Nights With the Gods." The volume is ' a study of _ the social, religious, liferary, and political life of the present day, the author's opinions being quaintly declared through the itoedium of imaginary converea- i tions with Zeus, Apollo, Pl#to» and Aristotle, who are supposed to have recently visited England. —Mr Ivan Chen, the popular First [ Secretary of the Chinese Legation, has translated 'The Book of Filial Duty," which will shortly appear in Mr John Murray's "Wisdom of the East" series. : It was written about 400 8.C., and the Chinese themselves esteem it second only to the Confucian Classics. For centuries it has been the open sesame to their ideas on the subject of family life. Mr Ivan Chen has l-csided in England for several years. | —Mr Clement Shorter, author of the book on the Brontes, newly issued, has yet another book ready for publication. It is called " Napoleon and His Velio wtravellers," and will be published by ■ Messrs Ca-ssell. The author brings together some rare works that have never been printed since their first publication, nearlj a century ago, among them some private documents supplied by W r iliiam Warden's grahdiron ; a pamphlet printed by Lord Lyttelton, giving accounts of conversations with Napoleon on board the Northumberland ; and the story by George , Home of Napoleon at the time of his surrender. I

— Much has been written of the dogs of Constantinople, but nothing so astonishing as some observations by Mr H. C. Woods in his book of travel, "Washed by Four Seas." "A well-known man in Pera," he writes, "told me he had been e&corted home from dinner by dogs. The king of each pack in turn accompanied him through his domain, and handed him over to his neighbour at his boundary, as, of course, to pass his well-defined limit was forbidden to any chieftain, however strong." Pet dogs are looked a6kance at by the street dogs. "A dog living in Constantinople may, however, walk out alone in his own street after die once becomes known, and may even leave his street unmolested to proceed to some other particular destination when accompanied by his master, provided ,he is known to be a constant passer-by on the particular route."

— A writer' in an American journal has been comparing Lowell with Matthew Arnold in an article which begins with the shout, "Hail to the English-speaking Dioscuri of our past !'' Moat will acquiesce with him (says the Manchester Guardian) in his 'judgment of the superiority of Lowell's letters. They were published' by Messrs, Osgood and M'llvain© in. two large volumes of almost a thousand pages. Tliat was 14 years ago, and they do not seem to have been reprinted in cheaper form. Sooner or later this nius>t happen, and if not "sooner," a wi»c selection would be welcome on the English market. In addition to their great autobiographical value, they make capital reading, are full of wit, while certain of their literary judgments 6et one thinking.

— The "Odd Volume" is published in aid of the National Book Trade Proxident Society, - the prime objects of winch are ''to provide temporary or permanent assistance to members in distressed circumstances, and to contribute to the funeral expenses of members, and to . provide temporary assistance to the widows and children during minority of deceased members fully qualified at their death." A praj'er by .Robert Louis Stevenson concludes the last issue. It reads: — "'Be with out friends, bo with ourselves. Go with each of us to rest ; if any awake, temper to them the dark .hours of watching ; and when the day returns, return to us, our sun and romforter, and call us up with morning faces and with morning hearts — eager to labour — eager to be happy, if happines» shall be our portion — and if the day be marked for sorrow, strong to endure it."

— Probably no man living knows the Elizabethan dramatists as Mr Swinburne knowi> tb<;m. Certainly he knowe ihem more intimately than any scholar who is not a 100 a poet can ever know them. His knowledge of them is like the knowledge of a lover rather than that of a student. He praises their oharme as a lo\er praise the charms of his mistress. He has lived with them so long thait he is at home with their secret fragrance. They are not shadowy abstractions, but vivid friends. Most of us are unable to form any sharp portrait of .hese dead poets in our imagination. They are names to us and nothing more. To Mr >3winburns they are more real than his own contemporaries. Each of them stands out before him as a chining personality with his human characteristics blooming freshly He takc6 their vitality for granted, and bewilders us with his clear vision of their solid shape. We ha\e been uoed to regard them as thin ghosts, but suddenly he make them come alive, and we see them standing- round Shakeopeare in the full flush of their ardent vigour. If we abandon ourselves to the spell, we catch a glimpee of the miracle that happened in England once when poetry was in the very air, and poets filled our little island with song. We see dimly the splendours of the golden, age. — Jamea Douglas, in the London Star. — There changed hands in London three or four 3 r eara ago — wo behevo in an auction room. — an elegant paper-knife, to which was affixed a siher plate stating that it had been in daily use by Charles Dickons, and that it had been presented by one of his relatives as a remembrance, afier his death, to a Mrs Winter. There is much more than meets the eye in this little etory. The lady to whom the article waa given was the original of Flora Finching.who, as everybody knows, was the Dora of Copperfield^ when she reached maturity. Mrs Winter was a Miss Maria Beadnell, and the narrative oi her friendship with Dickens is recorded in a little book just privately printed for the Bibliophile Societj of Boston. Ther« w«a never any

regular engagement between the novelist and Miss beadnell— who soon became Mrs Winter. Id the 1 volume of Dickens's letters there are epistles to Mrs Winter, whom the editors of the letters describe as "always a very dear friend" of Dickens. The curtain is .lifted further in the' "little book -which' suggests this paragraph ; but one feels that its contents might well have been kept" private. It .is not -" always well -that " whatever record leaps -to light should be published. 1 • Bat, r needless to «ay, there is "nothing to" "shame" the novelist ~or his correspondent.

—Dr Rohertson Nicoll, in his "Life of lan Maclaren," published by Hodder and Stoughton, /.tells, the story of how "Beside the-" Bonnie Brier- -Bush** came _tcj be. During a -visit from Wafson, Dr Nicoli was so much struck with his xacy stories and character -sketches that he suggested that the teller should make some articles out" of them. The idea was at first unwelcome, 1 but at last Watson promised to try. The first sketch he sent was clevey, but disappointing, and Dr Nicoll returned it. A second was also more or less unsatisfactory. Then he sent the first four chapters of what is now known as "The Bonnie Brier Bush." and Dr Nicoll knew on reading then! that his popularity was assured. The title, for one thing, * was a happy one, and no doubt in lSany cases titles tell. There was, at any rate,' vefy little mystification about the authorship of the book. Watson's own friends knew the tales they had heard from him. Dr George Adam Smith sent him a post-card on the appearance of' the first .sketch, "Bravo, lan Maclaren," and was answered by another post-card containing the words "Bravo, Higher Criticism." ' In Great Britain 256,000 copies of "Beside the Bonnie JJrier i Bush" have • been sold in various editions ; in America the sale has amounted to 484,000, and this exclusive of an incomplete pirated edition which was circulated in enormous numbers at low prices. Queen Victoria was, it is said, an admiring reader.

— The career oi rhe late" Bishop Crowfcher is rightly enough described by Mr Eugene Stock as unique. He was a negro, and he was the first of his race who ever reached the episcopate. But what an adventurous road led to that honour ! In 1821 he wa» kidnapped a slave, the following year he was rescued, in 1823 he was attending' a m i6s ion school, in 1825 he waa a baptised Christian, in 1826 a college student,' in It2B a teacher, in 1843 a clergyman, in 1845 a. missionary to the country whence he had been stolen into slavery, in 1857 be founded a new mission, and in 1374 -was made Bishop of the Niger. Such a record could not fail to be full of interest. For the long period of 62 years BisJsojji CwwtJieir was connected with the Church MfesEonacy Society, having laboured at Sserrm Le»ae, in the Timini and Yortiba cocmitiriies, awd in the Niger territory. In the coumse of hie career — he lived till be *as SB — be paid no fewer than 10 visits to Eogland, ivhere he was in constant demand as a speaker all over the country; and, as Mr Stock points out, if he had accomplished 1 nothing in Africa, he would have been a valuable helper of the missionary cause a*t home. But he did accomplish much in Africa. "Amidst circumstances of almost unexampled difficulty," says Mr Stock, "he went steadily on his way; and: if the Upper Niger in his lifetime bore little fruit, the Delta to-day, with its cannibalism and infanticide and horrible superstitions practically at an end, is a monument to Bishop Crowther's indomitable perse\erance in a holy cause." In. the course of his narrative giving an account of v the life of the Black Bishop, Mr Page makes reference to the devastating effects of the drink traffic Among .the authorities quoted as to the havoc wrought by liquor is Bishop Tugwell, who has an accurate knowledge of things as they are in this respect. He tells us that the people are killing themselves with drink in their own homes and in clubs formed for the very purpose; that the Kroo-boy, who was famous for his physique and charaoter, has been, demoralised ; that so great is this mad craze for alcohol that the natives will only receive .payment in trade transactions in gin ; and that nothing but immediate and absolute prohibition will save the country from ruin. Mr Page touches upon lAany interesting points of missionary service in that part of the world with which Bishop CrowtheT's name is more particularly associated ; and his 'book is entitled to rank among the stirring romances of the mission field. It contains a number of illustrations.