LITERATURE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3250, 28 June 1916, Page 66

LITERATURE.

BOOK NOTICE. "A Dominie's Log."' By A. S. Neill, M.A. London: Herbert Jenkins. (Cloth ; 2s 6d net.) This is a first book, which is already making a great sensation, and being appreciatively noticed in the best English papers. According to the Scotch Education Code it is forbidden to enter refiections or opinions of a general character in the official log-book. A young dominie decided to keep a private log instead, to be used as a safety-valve for his own feelings and the expression of them. This is the book now before us. In it he jots down tiie comedies and tragedies of the day's work or play. Often he startles Jus own bairns by tiie unconventionality of his statements and the originality of his outlook, just as he will often startle the reader and make him sit up. He is a philosopher turned humourist or a humourist turned philosopher. lie himself cannot say definitely which, and it is of no importance: Ins sayings and doings ere a happy blend of both. Incidentally the book gives a realistic picture of life in a Scots rural school, and. of course, there is very much which (iocs not apply to educational matters in our favoured dominion.v—notably, all the remarks concerning the early age at winch the children leave school, the absence of further educational advantages, and the hardship of putting the whole weight of wage earning on the slim shoulders of a boy or girl of 14: Margaret Steel has 'eft school, and to-morrow morning she goes off at 5 o'clock to the factory. To-day Margaret is a bright-eyed, rosy-cheeked -. lassie; in three years she will be holloweyed and pale-faced. Never again will she know what it is to waken naturally from sleep; the factory syren will haunt her dreams. She will rise at half-past 4, -summer and winter ; she will tramp to the factory; when 6 comes at night she will wearily tramp home again. Possibly she will marry a factory worker, and continue working in the factory, for his wage will not keep up a home. It is 'such experiences as this, patiently accepted by the victims because not rightly, understood, which make our "Dominie" a Socialist; not a very violent one, but sufficiently on those lines to ardently desire better opportunities for his children, and seeing clearly that the only way to obtain them is to inculcate the seeds of the "divine discontent," which is ever the necessary "push" towards human betterment. He rightly sees that the object of all true education is to make people think; "so few children or adults really think." The wealthy owner of the factory and lord of the manor puts in an ad. in the local paper for servants '■'without encumbrance," and the Dominie wants to knov why gardeners and chauffeurs must have no encumbrance. If this system spreads, a day will come when the only children at this school will be the offspring of the parish minister. I like the lord of the manor's damned impudence. He breeds cattle for showing, he breeds pheasants for shooting, he breeds children to heir his estates. Then he sits down and pens an ad. for a slave ' without encumbrance.' " It will be seen that the Dominie does not object to a strong word now and then, when the occasion justifies it. But, as a rule, his criticisms are both kindly and humorous, and he generally sees two or more sides to every question. Even the lord of the manor, having at least "a dozen children," has earned the right to talk of "encumbrances." On the subject of co-education, and explaining what are caTed "'the facts of life" to young children, our author has very pronounced opinions. He thinks co-education admirable—" The greatest thing in our State education system. The bairns early learn the interdependence of the sexes; boys and girls early learn to understand each other. All danger of putting women on a pedestal is taken away; the boys find that the girls are ordinary humans with many failings ("Aw'll tell the mester'-') and many virtues. The girls find that boys—well, I don't exactly know what the girls' find." On Cue whole sex question he has thought deeply, and gives earnest expression to his thought: Most of us realise that something is wrong with out views on sex. The present attitude is to ignore sex education, and the result is that sex remains a. conspiracy of silence. The ideal some of us have is to raise sex. to its proper position as a wondrous beautiful thing. To-day we try to convey to bairns that birth is a -disgrace to humanity. The problem before mo comes to this: How can 1 bring my bairns to take a rational elemental view of sex instead of a conventional hypocritical one? How can I convey to them that our virtue is mostly cowardice, that our sex morality is founded on mere conventionality. . . . In reality I cat), do nothing. If I mentioned sex in school I should bo dismissed at once. If I had a private school to run as I pleased, then I should introduce sex in my scheme of education. Bairns would be encouraged to believe in the stork theory of birth until they reached the age of nine. . . . At that age they would be taken in hand by a doctor. . . . They would gradually come to look on sex as a, normal i'act of life. . . . Children must get the' truth from a teacher, because their parents find a natural shyness in mentioning sex to their own children. . . . Bairn" must be told. Of that there is no doubt. The present evasion and deception lend to the dirtiness which constitute the present sex education of boys and girls. In tins judgment ail who have had much to da with education will heartily concur; but the ae,e limit of nine years appears to us to bo rather too young. Of the purely humorous side of Mr Neill's work it is impossible to speak too liighly. We have rarely read an cduca-

tional book that was at once so wise and so whimsical : there is a laugh, on nearly every page, and a valuable thought to keep it company. The book is full of mental dynamite wrapped up in funny incidents, quaint jokes, and whimsical suggestions. Tor example: i here must be something in style after all, I had this note from a mother this morning: "Dear Sir. — Please change Jane's seat, for she bring.- home mere than belongs to her." I refuse to comment en this work of at t. I do not like strict discipline. I want my children to be human. But. I hud that I am almost a- good disciplinarian when my liver is bad. I demand silence then. But I tear I don't get it. I. want to teach my bairns how to live. I object to age and experience; I am all for youth and empiricism. I don't blame inspectors. Some of them are men. The Education Department is iniquitous because it is a department. A department cannot have a sense of humour. And it is humour that makes a man decent and kind and human. I won over my most troublesome pupil by interesting myself in him. lie discovered that i was only human after all. Romance means more to the Realist than to the Romancist. The usual school-history is a piece of snobbery; it can't keep away from kings and queens. They don't matter : history should ■> tell the story of the people, and their gradual progress from serfdom to—sweating. I find it the difficult thing to he a theorist and an honest man at the same time. My objection to most men and women and school books is that their ideals are too low. " Study hard and you m iy obtain wealth and position." What an ideal! My theories on education are purely personal; if I don't like a thing I presume that my bairns dislike it. -And the strange tiling is that my presumptions are nearly always right. All I would say to a young teacher is: "Ask questions. Ask why there's a fence round the field. Ask why there is a fence round that tree. Then ask whether any plant or tree has a natural fence of its own." The average parent looks upon the teacher as an enemy. If I hit a boy the parents side with him ; if I don't hit the boy who hit their boy. they ask indignantly what education is coining to. I object to my report. I hate to be the'victim of a man I can't reply to, even when he says kind things. . . . It would be a good plan to make teachers forward reports of inspectors' visits to the Education Department. I.should love to write one. And he does: producing one of the best things in the book. In short, "A Dominie's Log " is one of the best halfcrown's worth that we have seen for a long time, and we join the " Bookman " in begging " all teachers and inspectors, and especially all parents, ratepayers, and members of school boards and education committees, to glance at its bright and really suggestive comments." LITERARY NOTES. The virtual closing of the Continent to tourists has greatly increased the popularity of the little holiday, the day or halfday "jaunt at home. One of the results is a very agreeable increase in the number of visitors to Milton's Cottage at Ciialfont St. Giles. Dr David Cooper, who for a quarter of a century filled the editor's chair of the Scotsman,, died at Bournemouth recently. Dr Cooper, born in Hull in 1829, was the son of an architect, and from a humble start- in a printer's office ho went right through the whole mill of journalism. The first 20 volumes of "The International Library " are to be published immediately by Messrs Jarrold and Sons, comprising the. works of Edgar Allan Poe, in five volumes; Henry Fielding, in six volumes; Tobias Smollett, in five volumes, and Lane's "Arabian Nights," in four volumes. Unpublished poems by Sir Walter Scott must be somewhat rare, and this impression receives confirmation from the inclusion of one of them in an Edinburgh bookseller's catalogue just issued, where it is offered for £ls 15s. The poem is described as consisting of 30 lines, written on a folio sheet, signed " Walter Scott. Abbotsford, July, jGI7," and as bearing the title. " The "Victim of the Lake." An American journalist, whilst stranded at St. Omer some years ago, was invited to dine at mess with the Prince of Wales. After the meal his host, an officer »in the Grenadiers, handed him a book, saying, "If you don't know this you must read it. The Prince brought out this copy and urged us to read it." The rain-stained, battered book wa.s Patrick Mac Gill's " The Rut Bit." The number of English winters who have fallen in action is, happily, few, though we shall never know how _ much promise his. been cut off untimely in the cause of righteousness. France has suffered more severely. Amongst her dead are Ernest Bs'chari, the grandson of Rcnan; Guy de Cassagnac, Pit rre Loroy Beaulieu, Jaquos -Rambaud, .lean Muspero, and Georges Latagno, son of the director of " La Liborte." The war will produce now writers, probably too many of them. The list of ihse who will write no more will be a melancholy tribute to those who laid down the p<m to take up the sword. Mr William Le Queux is naturally indignant over a trick the Germans have played upon him. They have taken his book. "The Invasion," which ho wrote in 1905. and so rewritten it that the outcome of the invasion of England is a smashing victory for - Germany ! The Jaiok is illustrated with scones of the victorious entry of the German troops into London, and is to-day tho best-soiling book in Germany raid Austria. The Funs have stolen his convright, as well ns his- name, and tho publishers have alroruly—according to tho German n.ipcrs—-netted noarlv two million marks! Tho Russian novelist, Maxim Gorky, who is now lying seriously ill at I'.lcscow,

has probably enjoyed a succession of more varied experiences than any other living writer. Some years a*o he gave to the world a sort of skeleton autobiography. Here it is:—''IS7B, shoemaker's apprentice; 1879, draughtsman's apprentice; lcß2, scullion on a steamer; 1835, baker; 1884, hall porter; ISSS, baker; 1E56, chorus singer m .; travelling company; 1887, hawking apples iii the street; 11.83, candidate for suicide; ISB9, lawyer's copying clerk; ISSI, tramping through Russia; 1123, railway navvy; lc9-k publish,d my first story." Gorky's experiences as a baker have been incorporated in that -wonderful story, "'Twenty-six Men and a Girl." A letter written by Burns to Mrs Dunlop in 1783 was sold at Sotheby's, London, for ±>225. The I- tter contains the famous confession of his private marriage to Jean Armour. It is an interesting account of the poet's wife and her virtues and qualities, and further states that when he contemplated making his West Indian voyage her parents 'got a warrant to incarcerate mo in gaol till I should find security in my about-to-be paternal relation.'' The sum of £l6 was paid for an autograph verso bv Burns, endorsed "A Card from Hums. 1791." The Hies read: From gloomy desponding il st gladly absconding, ■ I fly ;o Gknriddel's good board, Where worth., wit, and wine— Alliance divine— Will make me as happy's a lord. The place recently of Mr David Douglas, of Messrs Douglas and Foulis, well-known Edinburgh publishers. He hat! reached the great aye of 93. Mr Douglas began publishing in 1854. and was soon recognised as one ol the leading editorpublishers of the day. The list of his publications is a long and valuable one. In 1 63 he became ediiot of the North British Review, and held that post for seven years. During 1887-1890 ho edited and published Si:- Walt l' Scott's Journal and Familiar Letters. Air Douglas's charming personality won Inm many friends in the social and literary life of Edinburgh, among these being Dr John Brown (author of " Rab and His Friends'"), Dean Ramsay, Alex. Russej (of the Scotsman), Professor Biackic, and others. Mr Robert Bridges, the Poet Laureate, presided at a meeting of the Fight for Right movement in London a few weeks back. " The Poet Laureate gave an excellent speech/' says the Westminster Gazette —" strong, simple, and direct, and all the mote effective because so entirely free from the smallest suggestion of conscious literary artifice, lie concluded with a telling reference to Blake's linos, which he explained he had persuaded his friend, Sir Hubert Parry, to set to music for the Fight for Right movement. The last verse ran: I will not cease from mental fight, !\or shall the sword sleep in my hand, Till we have built Jerusalem In England's green and pleasant land. ' Jerusalem,' in Blake's phraseology, the Poet Laureate went on to- say, meant the City of God on the foundations of peace, and these lines might be taken as an admirable summary of the aims and objects of the Fight lor Right crusade." '"The Songs ot a Sentimental Bloke," by C. J. Dennis, has received a favourable notice by J. E. G. Do Morgan, in tho Contemporary Review. The author Is classed as 'a poet of the Southern Cross,"and it is predicted that we shall hear more of Mr Dennis. Of the wooing of the Sydney larrikin, the reviewer says: ''His wooing is the story of the gradual development of his character and, indeed, of hers. The realism of it all is wonderful. It is pure sentiment, we repeat, but it is. alt the same, pulsating with life; and if tho reader shudders at the dialect (with a glossary to rub it home like an edition of Burns), ho has to remember tljat it is is dialect used by some of the most virile people on earth who have laid down their lives by the thousand for the ideals of Eng land." Mr Patrick Mac Gill's "Red Horizon," just to hand, contains an amusing description of a "trench" banquet: " 'We miscalculated the enemy's strength, of course,' said Mervin. "'That's it,' Pryor cut in. 'But tho trenches we lost were of no strategic importance.' " ''They never arc,' said Kore. ' I suppose that's why we lose thousands to take 'em, and the enemy lose as many to regain them.' " ' Soup, gentlemen,' Stoncr interrupted. bringing a steaming tureen to' the table. ' Help yourselves.' "'Mulligatawny?' said Pryor. sipping the stuff which he had emptied into ins messtin. ' I don't like tin's.' " ' Wot,' muttered Bill —' wot's wrong with it?' " 'As soup it's above reproach, but tho name,' said Pryor. _' It's beastly.' "'Wot's wrong with if?' "'Everything.' said the artistic youth; ' and. besides. I was fed as a child on Mulligatawny —fed on it until I grew up and reboltcd, To meet it again here in a dug-out. Oh. ve gods!' " ' I'll take it,' I said, for I had already finished mine. " ' Will you?' exclaimed Pryor, employing In's spoon with Gargantuan zeal. 'lt's not quite etiquette.' "As he spoke a bullet whistled through the door and struck a tin of condensed milk which hung by a string from the rafter. The bullet went right through, and tho milk oozed out and fell on the table. " ' Waiter.' said Goliath in a sharp voice, fixing one eye on the cool; and another on the falling milk. " ' Sir.' answered Stoner, raising his head from his mess-tin. " ' What beastly stuff is this trickling down? You shouldn't allow litis, you know.' "'l'm sorry.' said Stoner; 'you'd better lick it up.' " ' 'Ad 'e.' cried Bill. ' Wot will we do for tea?' The cockney held a spare mcrstin under the milk and caught it as it fell. Tin's was considered very unseemly behaviour for a gentleman, and we suggested that he should go and feed in the servants' kitchen. "A stew, mane of beef, carrots, and potatoes, came next, and this in turn was followed bv an omelette. Then followed a small portion of beef to each man. We 'called this chicken in our glorious gam" of make-believe, Kore asserted that he had caught tlie chicken singing 'The Watch on the Rhine' on the top of a neighbouring chateau, and took it as lawful booty of war. "'Chicken, my lug foe!' muttered Bill, using his clasp-knife for a tooth-pick. 'lt's as tough as a rifle sling. Yer must havo got hold of the bloomin' weathercock.'"