CURRENT COMMENT.

Otago Witness, Issue 2928, 27 April 1910, Page 87

CURRENT COMMENT.

Sir W. Robertson Nicoll, editor of the British Weekly, was expected shortly to visit America. Rumour has it that he intends to start a "publication in that country similar to the one with which he is identified in England. Georgine Milmine has been the recipient of two kinds of criticism for her book, " Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy and the History ot Christian Science." On the one hand, religious periodicals that have advertised the work have been censured for aiding " Christian Science propaganda," and, on the other hand, Miss Milmine has been commended for her " exposure of a gigantic fraud." On her own part Miss Milmine is said to have had as her purpose in the book the writing of "a strictly impartial biography of a remarkable woman, and the history of the movement which she inaugurated." Meetings in celebration oi the centenary of Sir Samuel Ferg-uson, the distinguished Irish poet and archaeologist, were held recently in Belfast, where, on March 10, 1810, he was born. An exhibition of Ferguson mementoes was opened in the Public Library buildings by Miss Alexander, daughter of the venerable Primate. There was also a pilgrimage to Ferguson's grave at Dunegore, in County Antrim, and a public meeting in Belfast at which an address was delivered by Mr Alfred Perceval Graves. However much the doctors may disagree as to the importance of the productions of Edmond Rostand as literature —and heaven knows that they do disagree—no one questions their title to be rated as first-class publishing propositions, remarks the New York Times Saturday Review. Thanks to the clever manner in which the curiosity of the public regarding " Chantecler " has been piqued during the last three years, the publishing house ot Fasquelle is said to have received orders for 200,000 to 300,000 copies of its 3f 50c edition of that work, and the weekly LTllustration is paying M. Rostand for the serial rights thereof a sum which the most conservative reports set at 75,000 f per act—that is, 300,000 f in all. No living dramatist has ever been able to command more than a tenth of this price, and the majority ot the dramatists do not get more than one-seventieth. Furthermore, the publishing house of Pierre Lafitte has purchased for a sum which it is safer perhaps not to specify, but which is admitted to be large, the right to issue a de luxe illustrated edition of Rostand's complete works. This edition will appear in 70 weekly instalments of 20 pages each. The slow but sure progress of the Oxford Dictionary is brought to our notice, says the Chicago Dial, by the appearance, at irregular intervals, of a new volume. Dr Murray's great work, the greatest ever undertaken in English lexicography, has now advanced, in its seventh volume, to the end ot the letter !P, and hopes are entertained that Q and R will be disposed of in the present year. Thus there is good ground for expecting that men now living will see the completion of this scholarly and useful publication. But (melancholy thought) the dictionary of a living language, like the catalogue of a growing library, is no sooner published than it is out of date —a disability that becomes more serious with every passing day. Among the more interesting entries under P in the Oxford Dictionary is the word " psychological," especially as used in the expression, "the psychological moment," now conceded to be a blundering translation, or application, of the German " das psychologische moment" (that is, the psychological momentum, or impulse). It is probable, however, that in defiance ot logic, " the psychological moment," like " the personal equation," will continue to enjoy an undeserved reputation for peculiar aptness and force. Anything from the pen of Count Tolstoy that recalls the literary magician who gave us " Peace and War " and " Anna Karenina" must, remarks the Pall Mall Gazette, be welcome to thousands of English readers; and, although the little story called " Singing in the Village," which appears in the English Review " for March, is a trifle which might have been thrown off in an hour or so, it has the qualities which distinguished the writer in what we cannot but consider were his greatest days—insight into humanity, pitifulness, and supreme graphic power. It is just a picture of the working of conscription in a Russian village—of gaily courageous men and weeping women; and it sticks. At the same time, we take leave to differ emphatically from the author's views of compulsory military service. Were the world perfect, we should agree with him; but, alas! it is very imperfect; and so long as one nation goes on arming all the others must follow its ■ example. Perhaps, two or three hundred years hence, the poet's dream of " the Parliament of Man" will be nearing realisation. But, meanwhile, the world will become worse before it becomes better; and Tolstoy's appeals to the spirit of human (brotherhood are aesthetically beautiful, but nothing more. In the course of an article in " Novels, Present and Future," in the British Weekly, Sir W. Robertson Nicoll writes : " The present state of the English novel, Is not supremely encouraging. There is a steady demand for new novels. Many people—and their number is increasing—• find- that a supply of fresh fiction is indispensable. They ask only that it should be readable. The moment they finish their reading they forget all about it. There are novelists ready to supply the demand, and most of them do their work skilfully. They are adequate to the need. They have chosen a profession, and they work in it. But we have very few novels that are written slowly, with brooding earnestness, and from the depths of the heart. We have very few writere

who will be content to say their say in f a small number of books. And so, out of the great output of fiction, only a book here and there has the faintest chance of a long life. To serve a turn, to be laid aside, to go on writing the new book for the new season seems to | be the fate of many men and women | vvhose gifts fit them for higher things. j