LITERATURE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3033, 1 May 1912, Page 78

LITERATURE.

*' BOOK NOTICE. “The Evidence for the Supernatural.” By Ivor LL. Tuckett, M.A., M.D. (Cantab.). London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Irubner, an/ Co. (Cloth, 7s 6d.)

The secondary title of this work, A Critical Study made with ‘ Uncommon Sense,’ ” is explained by thy author to moan "a critical and scientific study ot any subject, because what is generally known as ‘ common sense’ is not by Ascii an adequate protection against the fallacies which abound in complex philosophical questions.” By which, and man} similar remarks scattered throughout his book, we learn that Dr Tuckett is of the opinion that expert knowledge is needed on the part of any person who presumes ito criticise ' “ Evidence” of any km . Judged by his own standard, the au .cr seems to have undertaken a task for w nc he is unfitted, by reason of his ac o necessary training. He appears to have had no' first-hand knowledge of psychic phenomena of any kind. His knowledge has been obtained entirely trom books and that only of late years. He informs us that he read a senes ot articles which neared "in the autumn of 1 > - Westminster Gazette, under the > title ot * Occultism and Common Sense, • • just before sailing for New Zealand, and that during the voyage he thought over the matter,” and “accordingly, in the ensuing years that I spent m New Zealand, I filled up spare time by reading with a view to making up my mind on the suM iect.” These words express the author s position all through—he reads m order to make up his mind. That is to say, he accepts second-hand evidence, for the good reason that first-hand evidence is not obtainable. The result is an attitude of determined agnosticism, if not antagonism, towards so-called, supor naturalismlno thing is easier than for an arm-chair philosopher to pick holes in any evidence placed before him; and Dr Tuckett is so well aware of this that when speaking of th© evidence of Sir Oliver Lodge and others as to the value of certain phenomena witnessed by them, he declares that even very clever scientists may be deceived by the apparent evidence of their own senses, and that he would rather accept the evidence of a practical conjurer like Mr Maskelyne—that is to say, of an expert—than that of the scientist ignorant of his subject. He then disposes of case after case. Wherever there appears a possibility of fraud he pronounces it to be ■present. Unlike most modern inquirers, he not only traverses the deductions, but denies the phenomena. For instance, when speaking of such common experiences as "table turning,” he is not content to sav that the articles may move by natural law, but insists that they are consciously or unconsciously “pushed” by the persons sitting in the circle. A statement which is not borne out by the experience of those who have seen a table follow a finder. In the same way, when speaking of telepathy, he puts down the ■whole communication of mind with mind as “coincidence” ; and although in one place he does acknowledge the possibility of mentrl "vibrations in the ether, resulting from tnd acting on nervous matter, he adds: "Such a faculty, if it exists, might be compared with the homing instinct of birds, and bo regarded as a vestigial instinct inherited from our animal ancestors.” The recent performances of Mr and Mrs Zancig, the evidence of Mir W. T. Stead, the experiences of the Rev. Stainton Moses, and hundreds of other independent first-hand witnesses he dismisses as unworthy of notice. In the chapter on “Telepathy Dr Tuckett makes the statement: “Telepathy cuts at the root of clairvoyance,” meaning that if a person accept one he cannot accept the other. It does not seem easy to understand why, according to hie own showing, one error should or could of necessity eliminate another. In chapter 11, on "The Value of Evidence,” page 31, the author says: The psychical causes of unreliable observation are due to want of training and bias. Very similar are the causes of the erroneous interpretation of phenomena which may have themselves been accurately observed. For in order to see the proper bearing of any set of facts, we require the appropriate kind of training. Thus we do not go to a doctor for a reliable opinion on a" legal question, nor to a lawyer for ‘a medical opinion. In fact, though the need for expert opinion in life may be exaggerated, it cannot be dispensed with in the present state of differentiated knowledge. The l*».s, again, is a source of error, even greater, perhaps, in the interpretation than in the observation of phenomena. Unless the reasoning faculties are unhampered by preconceived views they are very liable to lead

one astray in assigning cause to effect. Here in Dr Tuckett’s own words he appears to us to be self-contemned. If we would not go to a doctor for a legal opinion, or to a lawyer for a medical one, most certainly we should not go to an avowed agnostic for an expert opinion on spiritual matters, of which he openly expresses his scepticism; “his training and bias” are strong in the opposite direction. He is. of course, at liberty to state his own views; but his criticisms on £he evidential value of the expert evidence on the other side can hardly be considered of much value. In his chapters on “Prayer,” “The Soul,” “Miracles,” the author takes up, and very fairly states, the agnostic attitude in relation to these questions. Miracles may not be explained by “ a better knowledge of the laws of Nature and their working,” and “soul is only a convenient way of expressing the fact that man’s mind has been developed far beyond that of any other animal, and presumably is cajiable of still further development.” “We are justified in talking about man as possessing a mind and a body. . . , Further, there is'no-

thing 'objectionable in formulating Hie

conception, or holding the hope, that man possesses an immortal spirit; but we are not justified in stating the latter as a necessary truth.” In his last and longest chapter the author sets*-be fore his readers his views on ‘‘Rational iiltruism, or the Gospel of Common Sense.” Here he speaks without reserve of the ideals of the highest humanitarianism, and as he no longer attempts to strengthen his position by finding fault with the foundations of other men’s belief, but contents himself with putting his own case as strongly as ho can, we follow Ms remarks with pleasure and profit. Very high indeed is his ideal of the perfect character, in which duty, morality, and love are pursued for their own reward; when selfishness is entirely eliminated, when man’s "only motive is to win the respect of unborn ages,” when self-interest is killed and altruism becomes the only law of life. But we must be pardoned if we point out that this has been the ideal of all the great teachers of all religions, and if they have* failed, as undoubtedly they have failed, to make such ideals universal, it remains for "the Gospel of Common Sense” to prove, in practice, its own working superiority. It is not a new goal which Dr Tuckett points out, though he would remove all, or nearly all, of the old signposts.

“ The Breath of the Desert.” By H. Clayton East. London : Duckworth and Co. (Cloth, illustrated, 3s 6d.) It is almost inevitable that any romance of the desert must be compared in the reader's mind with Hichcn's fine story, “The Garden of Allah,” which, to those who have never seen the desert, forms, consciously or unconsciously, a standard by which other works of fiction dealing with the same subject are judged. H. Clayton East’s book is, however, so different from Mr Hichen’s that anything like a close comparison is avoided. “ The Breath of the Desert ” is the autobiography of a woman of temperament thrown for the first time into the subtle, mysterious, overpowering atmosphere-of the'old land whose great tombs and temples still breathe of the past. Under the spell of this strange land, where Sand thinly covers the relics of the ancient dead, and sun-baked earth and elastic air intensely vitalise the living, Madeline Hamilton comes into the consciousness of a forgotten past. To her, young, ardent, passionate, with a mixture of Spanish (or Moorish) blood in her veins, Eastern life and thought make a distinct and immediate appeal. " I had always been asleep; I knew it now, for the awakening had begun, and it is only when the awakening comes that we realise the deadness that has gone before. . . . Suddenly the forewarning of something big gripped me, and I realised that I was resisting, putting out all my power to stand against it.” Here we have the keynote of the book. New strength, new power, new trials to fight against are in the air. Their nature is set forth in the three sentences :—“ There is no free will in lovei. . . . put the goodness in us makes the circumstances that set us free. . . . To each one is given a moment of illumination, in that moment we are free agents, and that is our chance.” Man is free to accept and act upon the illumination of that moment, or he may -close his eyes and refuse to see his chancE In the former case “ there is free will in love ”; in the latter, man becomes the sport of Fate and takes refuge in the cry “ It is Kismet. 5 ’ This world-old struggle between destiny and freewill rages in Madeline’s soul* throughout her travels; it intensifies all her feelings, and colours all her experiences. She is married to an amiable, stolid, materialistic Englishman, with whom she has no thought or feeling in common, whom she loves’ very sincerely, though without passion. In Egypt she meets her twin soul, the one with whom she has been linked through " past ages.” With the vivid life of the Land of the Sun this great passion awakes and demands fulfilment. For a while Madeline surrenders herself to tlie new happiness, not realising whither it leads* The sensuous atmosphere lulls her to a false security. " Love is the jaw of life, there is no freewill in love.” She is content to live in the dream, but Manners, manlike, is not content. He is devoured with jealousy as well as love. She must give herself to him or they must part for ever. Womanlike she will not consent. She plays with fire, she will not elope with him, but she must see him from time to time. Of course his persis- • tence increases and her resistance diminishes. At the crucial moment “ the good within” brings an old friend to her aid with the one word which carries illumination. She sees the abyss at her feet, erases her " one cliance, and is saved. Mingled with this inner drama of the soul is Madeline’s outward life of travel ond varied experiences, and the story is full of a thousand charming details and ex- j periences of Egyptian life. But undoubtedly the most attractive part is that in which we are brought in touch with the author’s interpretation of the desert itself, its mystery, and its fascination, the spell ; that it exercises over certain responsive natures, its immensity, and, above all. its silence : ‘‘ There is no silence save in the desert, and no man or woman who has not stood alone with all the great infinity of space around, can ever have heard, even from afar, the voice of the silence. I thought I had known the meaning of the word when I went out alone on summer evenings and sat in a wood, or in a field, or by the shore of the calm, blue sea, ’ and felt the peace of the _ homBut now I know that it is only in the* great Sahara, in the bare crumbling waste of sand and rock, that the voice can be heard which sings the Song of the ' Silence. And I tremble and am still, j

“The Shifter; A Sea Eomance.” By Captain Herbert W. Platts. Dunedm, Christchurch, Wellington. London, etc. : Whitcombe and Tombs. (Cloth, j illustrated ; 3s 6d.) “ The Shifter ” is a sailing veseel of the bad old type often denominated as “ a floating coffin,” and her captain and owner is “ a firm believer in. marine

insurance.” Hie numerous disasters were so cleverly contrived that, although “ Lloyd’s were suspicious, no evidence of trickery or neglect could be brought home,” and Captain M'Phee was enabled to buy “the Shifter” expense of three previous craft. The crew of this promising vessel are delivered ‘‘dead drunk” by a crimp who is well paid for the job. The first mate is a native of Nova Scotia, standing six-feet-three in his stockings and broad in proportion, whose father and grandfather had been notorious bullies, and who lived up to their reputation, so that before they had been a week at sea “ the men jumped at the sound of his footstep.” He was ‘‘an instinctive criminal, holding human life, especially a sailor’s very cheap,” and he boasted that he had killed two men aJid crippled a third. The second officer and historian is what such a life would naturally produce, and although less cruel than his shipmates, is by no means a humane or agreeable person. He holds sailor-men in the utmost contempt, and is quite unscrupulous in his treatment o.f Polynesian and other natives, frankly declaring that ‘‘a dead native is the only 'good native.” The story told with this dramatis person® is gruesome. It includes mutiny, murder, a. terrific storm at sea, shipwreck, the finding of a derelict liner turned into “ a floating hell of infection by the'' rotting carcases of tons of frozen mutton ”; the discovery of a treasure; an, attack by Chinese pirates; some experiences as a Chinese slave; and almost every kind of unpleasant experience possible under such conditions. The hero is not much of a lady’s man, and though he rescues a beautiful girl, sole survivor of the ** death ship,” and duly falls in love, he does not suffer much when the lady on her return to civilisation very naturally changes her mind and begs to be released from her engagement. ‘-The Shifter” is an improvement on Captain Platts’s previous novel, ‘‘Horace Danby,” but it cannot be described as an agreeable tale, though it is full of life action, and adventure.

LITERARY NOTES. Tito life of Mr Labouchcre, which will be written by his nephew, Mr Algar Laboucher© Thorold, who for th© last 10 years vas in intimate personal relation with him, will be published by Messrs Constable. Mr Cabouchere communicated to Mr Thorold many details of his early life. Messrs Methuen are adding to their popular shilling library General Sir Evelyn Woods autobiography “From Midshipman to it 1 Id -marshal. From a diary kept for 40 years and from letters written daily to his mother Sir Evelyn tells the story of a career which is second to none in its romantic interest. The work had a remarkable success in its original issue, and is now published in an abridged form. , Mr S. B. Jevons, who, after holding the post for eight years, recently resigned the editorship of a well-known London daily paper to take up again its dramatic criticism, lias also been appointed literary adviser to the publishing house of Sampson Low, Marston, and Co. (Ltd.). It was on the recommendation of Mr Jevons (says the Daily News) that this firm secured “The Broad Highway,’’ of which over 100,000 copies have been sold, and to him it) was dedicated by the author, Mr Jeffrey Farnol. A new metrical translation of the'Book of Job by the Rev. William Jennings, under the title “The Dramatic Poem of Job,” is to he published by Messrs Methuen. In this translation the Poem of Job is presented in something like the form and man- ‘ nor in which it was originally composed by the Hebrew writer; and the translator’s object has been to make the book readable and intelligible, without ainy deviation from strict accuracy, as well as to elucidate certain difficulties which remain, despite all that has been written on the subject. It is intended for general readers, vet also for scholars. A large part of Mr Jeans’s book of press gallery reminiscences, which he is issuing, is to be taken up (says the Daily News) with the stormy period'of Mr Gladstone’s second Government, which covers the years from 1880 to 1885. Mr Joans attributes Mr Gladstone's conversion to Home Rule in groat part to. the lesions of these** years, and_ tries to make his impressions of them as vivid and lifelike as possible. It is hard to tell a fresh story about parliamentary life, but Mr Jeans claims that his bJtok will contain some anecdotes that have never been in print before. “A Poet’s Children; Hartley and Sara Coleridge,” by the late Mrs Eleanr.r A. Towle, an account of the son and daughter of S. T. Coleridge, and of their surround* ings, is to be published by Messrs Methuen. Opening with the picture of Hartley’s visionary childhood and brilliant gifts, the book describes the melancholy sequel, the deplorable weakness of which he was the victim scarcely detracting from the charm of a singularly attractive figure. His sister enjoyed, to an unusual degree “a private reputation,” and was the centre of a circle of devoted friends, including many of the most distinguished literary men of the day. The book contains a number of hitherto unpublished portraits.

- - Those who read that remarkable book. “Tit© Dangerous Ago,” will bo interested to hear that its author Mme. Karin Michai-lis, has just married a prominent American, Mr Charles Emil Strangeland. who is known as a political economist and scientist, and recently was appointed as \ secretary to the American Legation in Bolivia. About a year ago Mme. Michaelis obtained a divorce in Copenhagen, from the Uanisn dramatist, Sophus Michaelis, whose play, “A Son of the People,” has boon translated into English and produced at New Theatre. Now York. The author of “The Dangerous Age” has achieved not only a European reputation, J-.ut her works have had considerable vogue Tn the United States of America. / A curious cast; of mistaken identity, in respect of the authorship of a well-known poem, has recently been brought into some prominence. Tt was frequently and confidently asserted that Charles Dickens was ' the author of the poem entitled “The Children,” but in a book of verse published by the firm of Sampson Low and Co. this poem appears under the name of Charles Dickinson. The mistake was nob entirely due to the similarity in the as the subject of tho poem was one which might well have been chosen for treatment by tho author of “Pickwick.” Tho mistake

has, however, been definitely put to rights by the inclusion in the new edition oi Charles Dickinson’s poems of a letter from Mr Charles Dickens, jun., stating that the poem was not written by his father. —As a record of a joyous and ehimng pilgrimage, we have hardly any book like Sir George Trevelyan’s “Life” of Macaulay. Macaalav always wrote characteristically. He was at his best in unstudied and hasty letters to his sister. Every dine from Ins pen ought to be put in print. His ailecs ticnate, brilliant, varied steadfast, carnet life has found a chronicler who can appreciate its freshness, its exuberance, its picturesque and dramatic forms. Hie iography will ever be the delight of all true bookmen. They -will read it to the end of time, and be “awed and touched by Macaulay’s wonderful devotion to tune.” I have found it a biography that bears a yearly reading. -Sir W. Robertson Nicoll, in the British Weekly. ' The appointment of Mr Harold Cox as editor of the Edinburgh Review lias created so much - interest that the statement that there have been only six editors during tno 110 years’ existence of the Review may surprise not a few. The Review ua& projected by Sydney Smith, “in the e'ghth or ninth story or flat in Bucoleach place, the elevated residence of the then Mr Jeffrey, as he afterwards wrote. Sydney Smith was responsible for the first number, and Lord Jeffrey, with whom Lord Brougham ana Francis Horner were for some years associated, conducted the Edinburgh till He was succeeded by Macvey Napier, who was editor until 1847, when he died, and the running was taken up by Professor bmpson, cf Hailebury College, son-in-law of Lord Jeffrey. He was followed by ,S*r George Cornewall Lewis; and in 1855, on his relinquishing the editorial chair, the direction of the Review came into the hands of Henry Reeve, who was editor for the long period of 40 years. The retiring editor* Mr Arthur Elliot, nas occupied the editorial chair for 17 years. A new stray by a famous author is a great event in these days. I-or some reason or other the authors whoso names are household words are not producing a traction of the books that might have been expected It is therefore with pleasure that w,. record the fact that Sir A. Conan Doyle has written a striking new' novel, which will be published exclusively in the May Strand Magazine. A clever and interesting study of a strong personality from tno creator of Sherlock Holmes is naturally expected l . and in “The Tost World in the Strand we certainly get it. The principal character is Professor Challenger, and it will bo surprising if he does not cause as profound a sensation as any other of Conan Doyle’s immortal characters. Challenger s overwhelming personality, immense mental and physical strength, pluck, and determination should go right to the heart of every reader, and good judges who have read this eventful story are of opinion that Conan Dovle has added a new, original, and permanent, type to the portrait gnbcr.y of fiction. Sherlock Holmes appealed by his quiet, gentlemanly genius. Professor Challenger will, probably appeal quite as strongly with his tempestuous bluster and irresistible force. “ihe Lost World” is worthy of Conan Doyle. * - Mr Putnam Weale (says the Daily Mail in reviewing “Revolt”) lias put exiraorcl usury vitality into those •‘Confessions,” which he professes to edit. It is a story of a modern Cain and Abel, 'with David and Bathsheba grafted on. Th oprotagonist sketches his own life from boyhood in the East to manhood in the West. He hates his brother and loves his brother’s wife. The action misses in a phantasmagory of fever that, beats into the reader’s brain with pulsations almost agonising. The scene of supreme temptation is laid in a; dingy Jtondon restaurant, curiously at variance with the refinement of the tempted, but tltis only heightens the effect. It rct calls a similar scene in Zola’s “La Curce.” but the psychology of the actors is finer here, because they are not gross-minded. Thus far the writer probes deep and strikes true. Towards the end ho seems to stray into unnecessary melodrama. When the Furies are at last unloosed, and a brother s blood has been shed, the betrayer and -murderer does well to burry out of life himself, after saving the woman’s name, but his method is 100 complete. An extraordinary sense of justice loads him to make his suicide a veritable execution. lie weighs himself, calculates the drop to an inch, prepares a mask for Ids face, and builds a scoffold of chairs and tables. He dwells minutely on the cfficacv if the knots placed behind the car. When all is ready the MS., “ends abruptly.” It is to Mr Putnam Wealc’s credit that, at the first reading. 'ic arc thrilled. Later, our sense of humour rebels, and wo go away regretting that a fine and unusual analysis of character should have been x-obbed of its proper dignity by a grotesque travesty of the supremo penalty. One wonders why the self-condemned, so German in bis thoroughness, did not toll the dinner boll and arrange that his descent should hoist automatically a little black flag.

Speaking to the Hon. H. G. Ell on tlie 15th in Napier upon the question of posting live chickens, Mr W. C. Davis said that he had sent out 3000 chickens last year a-nd they travelled so eafely in the cardboard boxes ho had adopted that he had only 30 deaths.