LITERATURE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2997, 23 August 1911, Page 87

LITERATURE.

BOOK NOTICES. "Kapak." By Alexander Crawford. London : '\V. Blackwood and Sons, (3s 6d, 2s 6d.) Tie ancient kingdom of the lncas, so marvellously described for lis in Preseott's "History of Peru," still exercises a weird fascination over the imaginations of men. Now and again some traveller, more daring or pernaps fortunate than others, straying from the beaten track, tells of a meeting with isolated descendants of some exceptionally fine Indian race, speaking' a strange language, and giving an impression of great mental and physical power. Such stories are generally discounted as mere travellers' tales,, for in the vast unexplored regions of the Andes there is much room for the play of fancy concerning lost tribes as well as lest individuals. Mr Alexander Crawford has don© wisely to make of the lncas • and their present-day representatives the heroes of his deligntful romance. "Kapak" is the name, or perhaps the title, of "the King of the lncas, representative of the oldest race on the suriace of the earth, lineal descendant, not merely of the rulers of Peru, but of that ancient Atlantean kingdom of which Plato wrote, and whose destruction lingers in every cusanogomy of the world as 'The Deluge' par excellence." Colonies of Atlantis survived in Egypt, Yucatan, and many other places, and tHe old Maya inscriptions on the monuments and temples of Central America are almost identical with. tho£>e of Egypt, and show a like origin. In the great city of Setelec—placed by the present writer in a remote valley ot the Andes, at such altitude that it enjoys a climate of perpetual spring—these "ancient people still live and nourish under a form of communism which does not forbid almost slavish devotion to a monarch, whose authority is, however, strictly limited. Mr Crawford does not descend to minute details, and is not greatly concerned if the bits of his puzzle do not fit quite accurately. Unlike nis master—Mr Rider Haggard,—he is content to give an impression, of barbaric magnificence and power without entering upon details, which—if his own mental picture is not exceedingly clear—might easily involve him in many contradictions "Setelec is unlike any other known city Its' style and architecture are strange as its name.." The only thing of which- it reminded the beholder was "a picture of Babylon he had once seen in a German museum, a work, of couise, of pure imagination." As with the city so with its surroundings, manners, customs, and inhabitants. This picture is powerful but distinct —a city of dreams; shut in by impenetrable mills of rock, dominated by a triple-headed extinct volcano, and reached by means ot powerful airships; built to resemble huge condors of the mountains. Kapak nima?lf is a compound of old and young, ancient and modern: "His hair was black and lank, with a dull straightness which seemed to accentuate the pahd swarthiness of a hairless face. The eyes were yellowish and largo, but deep sunken. He nad the high cheekbones, the hooked ncse, and the cruel mouth of the Red Indian j but the brow was broad and intellectual, with great prominence over the eyes. He had an air of indescribable majesty and power, so that other men, who were great in their way, became immediately dwarfed in his presence and lelt ill at ease with a moral and physical inferiority which almost amounted to crinehvr." KapaK is a scientist, a linguist, a strategist, a patriot and he desires to become an acknowledged sovereign among the other rulers of the world To obtain this coveted position he allies lnmself with Juiius Sebag, a wealthy financier whose operations on the Stock Exchange occupy a considerable part of the story and bring the Inca Monarch into touch with modern social and business life, where he, preserves a thin incognito as Baron Kapak lhe little South American Republic ot lorndor is the spot most threatened by the ambition of the Inca ruler, and it is with Count Riesco, its London Consul-general, that the great game of Torndor scrip is fought, the shares rising and falling in the market as the "bulls" or bears obtain the upper hand. r lo make this part of the book realistic, we are introduced to a number of characters, including Benyon and Emery, the newspaper men; Greville and Shipway, the travellers; Lady Erdington, the fairly wealthy woman, who longing to be rich beyond the dreams of avarice, dabbles in Torndor shares, squanders her niece's trust money, and puts herself entirely in the power of the unscrupulous Sebag; also Maude Forrester, the niece herself, who supplies the sentimental interest of the story. There are thus two distinct parties of opposite interests; those representing Torridor, the little Republic, whose existence is threatened by the unseen enemy at her gates; and that of Kapak and his friends. It is a struggle of will and intellect ; moral and ethical force, even more than one of men and munitions of .war. Kapak works in the dark: a secret blow is essentia] to his success. Riesco, representing Torridor, strives to discover <md bring "these schemes to the light of dav, and then to circumvent them by the help of the Hague Peace Conference of the United Federated Nations of the world. All the numerous dramatic persona? take part, though often unknown to themselves, in this great fight, and a unity of interest is thus provided which' accompanies the action of the tale from London to Setelec, from the Highlands of Scotland to the snow-clad peaks of the Cordilleras, and permits no long lapses of time or of interest. The structure of the tale is therefore unusually clever, and—as we have already hinted—reminds us much of "She" and other kindred volumes. But the plot is not so well thought out as that of the African yarns, j or so immediately convincing; and there fire many signs of hurried and careless

composition on the literary side, of which Mr Rider Haggard would never have been guilty. "Kapak" is also over long, and would have gained power by the judicious use of the editorial pencil; nearly 400 closely-printed pages in small type being rather a strain on the patience of any reader. On the other hand, the plot is well constructed, the interest never flags, the conversations are sprightly and spontaneous', and the characters are well individualised, "Reisco, Benyon, and Greville being a really delightful trio. The sympathy of the writer is distinctly on the side of law mid order, and the romantic personalities of the Inca Monarch and his beautiful sister are swamped by those of the English lovers and the Scotch engineer. In view of further instalments from the same pen, it seems rather a- pity that Mr Alexander Crawford should end his story with the total destruction, by earthquake, of the mysterious Inca city and its million inhabitants, including Kapak and Hetua, their friends and attendants, the grand army, the birdlike aerials, etc., all in the same "red ruin blent." Thus: "A fine nation of virile strength and incredible lineage, instructive to the economist and fascinating to all lovers of antiquity, was wiped from the slate of life, leaving not even the shadow of a palimpset behind. Yet we may safely praise those who faced all the terrors of that six months with courage and singleness of heart. As Senor Riesco said in one of his homely similes, 'Men and women are like gramophone records. Outwardly they are much alike, and it is not until they are placed under the needle of affliction that one can discover what music they will play.' "

LITRARY NOTES.

"The Crooked Way," by WiPiam Le Queu, will be added to Messrs Methuen's " Novelist" series. They also publish an exciting romance of the wilder North America of to-day, entitled " Two on the Trail," described as "a husband hunt, which ends in the finding of a wife." The larger edition of Dr Rioe Holmes's "Caesar's Conquest of Gaul" has been out of print since the beginning of 1909. A new edition, revised throughout and largely rewritten, is about to be published by the Oxford University Press. —Mr H. H. Stephenson is editing for Messrs Churchill a new reference book, which is to be entitled " Who's Who in Science." If well carried out, remarks the Daily News, such a work would be of inestimable value in enabling men of science to communicate more readily with one" another through all parts of the globe The autobiography of Mr H. M. Hyndman, whom somebody has called the "father of English Socialism," is t,o appear shortly. That phase of his activities will only be one part of his book, for ais "G. K-. S." recently pointed out in the Sphere, Mr Hyndhain has had a full and varied life. He pursued journalism under the inspiring editorship of Frederick Greenwood, and he has enjoyed the friendship of many distinguished men, including George Meredith end William Morris. America has lost one of her most distinguished students of English literature by the death, in his eighty-third year, of Dr Hiram Corson. From 1870 to 1903 he was a professor at Cornell University, where his lectures won an exceptional popularity. Dr Corson wrote a large number of .literary text-books, introductions, etc., and his discussion of "The Aims of Literary Study" aroused special attention. It is said that ho was constantly receiving letters from women asking how to form a Browning Club, and that his invariable reply was "Don't!"

Another biography which is to see the light in the autumn is Miss Annette Meakin's "Life of Hannah More," whose plays and novel, to say nothing of " Village Politics," are almost unread to-day. But sho was an accomplished wameurl, whose friends included Dr Kennicott, Bishop Porteous, Dr Home, and Dr Johnson, Edmund Burke, Sir Joshua Reynolds, an.cl Garrick, Mrs Montagu, Mrs Chapone, and Mrs Delany. Hannah More lived a long, busy, and blameless life, and bequeathed £33,000 to religious and charitable institutions. Messrs Smith, Elder, and Co. will' issue the book.

Few people, even among those whose business and circumstances it is to have a knowledge of such matters, are aware that there are as many as 465 newspapers in the United States printed in foreign languages. Most of these journals, too, have a circulation of SCCO ■copies. ' Sixty-three of thus number, are daily papers. Italian journals head the list with a total of 95 ; there are 55 Polish papers, 54 Swedish, and 27 Hebrew, besides Norwegian and Danish. Those printed in French were curiously small in number, only 15, and these include Canadian, Belgian, and Swiss periodicals. There arc, in addition to these papers, five Chinese, eight Croatian,' and two Japanese. —Mr Basil Hall Chamberlain, who was a. professor in Tokio, has a work on. Japanese poetry nearly ready with Mr Murray. It is intended, says the Chronicle, to give, in a popular form and through the medium of metrical translations, some idea of the whole development of standard Japanese poetry, from its beginnings in the name of tho Heotarchy down to the nineteenth century. The lyrics of the earlier age and the medieval dramas are freely rendered into flowing English verse. Tho curious epigrams of more modern times—tiny poems each of which is complete within the limit* of 17 syllables—are explained in detail, bein? considered as the ultimate and most characteristic product of the Japanese mind.

Yet another biography to come out in the autumn is announced bv Mr Martin Pecker —Mis? Clementina. Black's " The Linlevs of Bath." Tho romantic story of Shsrklan's marriage with the beauty of the familv 'will be remembered. Both Thomas Lin.loy the elder and the younger were- musical composers, and were associated with the concerts in tho Assembly Rooms which, in the Georgian Era, were tho haunt of the fashionable world. Old Thomas Linley afterwards, directed the music at T)rury Lane, and joined forces with Sheridan in the production of " The Duenna," in 1775. Miss Black has been fortunate enough to obtain many unpublished letters, and her book will contain reprciductions of portraits bv Revr.olds. Gainsborough, Lawrence, Westall, and Oosway.

--Sir Charles Dilke's biography, too, will be awaited with (interest. A mass of papers on various subjects, many interest-

ing manuscripts, and a selection of correspondence of a political as well as literary interest, were left by Sir Charles, and these, with other material she is gathering, is now being arranged for a Life by Miss Tuckwell, his niece and literary executor. When it is remembered that Sir Charles entered the House of Commons in 1863, knew the inner side of politics, not only in the United Kingdom, but also on the Continent, and that the fact of proprietorship of the Athenaeum, as well as his individual tastes, brought him into connection with many of the representative men of letters of the last generation, a biographical volume of unique interest is assured.

Some hitherto unpublished letters of Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author of " The Scarlet Letter," have recently bean, discovered. They deal with his visit to England, and give his impressions of John Bull and his island. But Hawthorne has already recorded these impressions. Ho came to see the land of Bums, and was pretty frank about what he saw. He was staggered to find that Burns dwelt in " a| wretched Dumfries hovel " in "a vile lane without a tree or a blade of grass between the paving-stones." Mauchline he found to be ''as ugly a place as mortal man could cojitrive to make." Mossgiel, where the poet once tilled his acres, was "less fit for a human habitation, than for a pigsty or a donkey stable." And so on. On the whole —remarks the Glasgow News sardonically—we have had perhaps enough of Hawthorne's impressions. A White Paper has been issued setting forth a list of recipients of Civil List pensions, amounting in the aggregate to £I2OO. Many interestijnig names are included. Mr W. B. Yeats, the well-known Irish poet and dramatist, heads the list with a pension of £l5O. Mr Joseph Conrad, the novelist, receives £IOO, and a similar pension is granted to Margaret, Lady Huggins, in recognition of her services to science in collaboration with her late husband, Sir William Huggins, 0.M., the great astronomer. The widows of Mr John Davidson, the poet, and Colonel Conder, the Orientalist, each receive £75, while the daughters of- the late Mr Frederick Greenwood, the first editor of the Pall Mall Gazette, jointly receive £IOO. Amongst other names are those of MiFrederick Rogers, the pioneer of the Oldage Pensions movement, who is now nearly 70 years of age; Mr Thomas Kirkup, the well-known writer on Socialism and economics generally; Mr W. H. Davies, the Monmouthshire poet; and Professor Knight; who has won literary fame for his writings upon Wordsworth. Messrs Methuen will publish in the early autumn Miss Marie Corelli's new romance, "Life Everlasting." It is now three years since her last novel was issued. "Life Everlasting" is said to be of a nature to delight and enthral all lovers of the occult and iinseen. It will be remembered that this brilliant novelist started her career with that remarkable psychical experience, "A Romance of Two Wor'ds " —a book which is as eagerly read to-day as when first published; and other works of a like character have come from her pen, notably "The Master Christian." The present work is on the same lines of psychic thought, and deals with a strange lovestory of both mortal and immortal passion, combined with some new and startling suggestions on the cause of life and death. The writer propounds her theories with lucidity and po'wer, bringing the latest discoveries of science to her aid, and proving herself to be a deep student of mysteries which perplex yet ever fascinate the human mind. It is likely that her work will bring hope and consolation; to many for whom the present life seems futile, and the futui'e one uncertain. —" There is no need to celebrate the centenary of Thackei'av by wallowing in an orgy of insincerity, ' writes Mr James Douglas in the [Morning Leader. " Thackeray was born on July 11, 1811. but the newspapers have already sickened us with indiscriminate eulogy. They might have allowed us to slleep off the debauch of hypocrisy which dehumanised the Coronation before asking us to plunge into a carnival of Thacolatry. Servility to a man of genius is a nauseous as servility to a monarch. Posterity ought at least to be sober. With Tegard to Thackeray we are posterity. What is the good of being poserity if we are not sincere? Have we outgrown Thackeray? Let us pull our.selves together and try to be men. Let us hold up cur heads and say quite fearlessly that Thackeray is not to us what he was to the Victorians. Our world is a larger place than the world of Thackeray. We have broken out of his tiny parlour, and we breathe in the open air l , AVo are no longer choked, and stifled in the stuffy atmosphere of gentility. We have killed the Victorian conception of life as a club out of whose windows gentlemen gazed with ironic contempt upon the pcor devils outside. We have destroyed tho superstition of gentility in which Thackeray was born and bred, in which he lived, and in which he died." Phrases/' Tho "Times says: "Most bad writers write badly because they think they must adopt a literary style, which to them means a style made up of stale phrases. They also often write badly because they have nothing to say; but tbov would discover this fact, and perhaps give up writing, if it were not concealed from them by their command of phrases that mean nothing in particular. The phrases tempt them to write, for they make writing seem easier even than talking, since them is no one to tell a, writer that he is tiresome except the reviewer, who can only tell him when the mischief is done. Thus many a man, too humane to be a boro in conversation,, becomes one when ho writes a. book, because he thinks that literature has only privileges and no duties. If he were determined to write as he talks and better, he would either not .write at -nil or would only sav what was 'worth saying, and in the simplest possible language-." It is pointed out that there are" hundred* of phrases (like " his lips were sealed") which "are not used seriously by writers who snatch at the easiest means of exoressing an emotion which they do not feel." The writer goes on to pointout that the mind of even a good writer is infested with those stale phrases which he must reject one after another before he can find the fresh phrase for his freshlyfelt emotion. "This is the penalty ho has ■to pay for living at a time when lit.piratture is old and language sophisticated." A police manual on scientific lines has been issued from the University of Lausanne by Professor R. A. Reiss, and contains a quantity of interesting material about both criminal history and modern methods of detection. "The contest be-

tween the polio© and crime (remnito 3b* Times, in reviewing the book) " began unequally, for crime dates froun Cain, and the police, at furthest, from La Regnio, late in the seventeenth century. It is Irtvfj more than a century since watchmen, armed with rattles, staff, and lantern, were the only guardians of publio security during the" nig-ht; in London alone on© man in every £OO was a known thief. The annual losses by burglary and pillage of shipping it- the Thames was estimated each at half a million sterling. In London alone there were nearly 50 mints of base coin, which was regularly consigned by ooach to country agents. The Committee, of Bankers retained a solicitor whose duty it was to negotiate for the ranscrn of stolen bonds, and the theft of a ' child',' as a banker's parcel was called in thieves' slang, was so common an occurrence that a tariff for compounding felony was almost established by usage. The rogues of those davs were engaged occasionally in sham fight with a skeleton army of Bow street runnel's, and though from time to time they would lose a man or two bv the gallows, suoh casualties only served to impart a sporting intere- c ' ' t their profession. And yet, so rapidly 1. >olioe administration been developed that a really hardworking burglar finds it difficult in these days to make a living."