BOOKS AND THEIR WRITERS

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17216, 6 December 1923, Page 11

BOOKS AND THEIR WRITERS

NOTES BY "THE REVIEWER"

MIGHT HAVE BEEN YOU AND I. “Strowde (measuring his mind to th<

sponaibility . . .if you really think I can do something for the boy that no one else can. Lady Peckham (grimacing and dragging out the accusing word) You’re so dry, Evan. Strowdo (undisturbed) But he’s Lady Peck ham : Twenty-five. Strowde : And he is what he is. He’s looking ahead, why should lie thank us for tying ‘this corpse of a. story round his neck?” When one reads plays that appeal in the reading one wonders why they so comparatively win out in the playing. There is probably the same number of reasons as there are “ways of constructing tribal lays ’’ and probably with equal certainty “every single one of them is right.” It is always a difficult matter t>o become- a true prophet with regard t-o the chances of any particular production’s success or failure. Read Harley Granville Barker's “ The 2cret Life ” and form your opinion as to its chances of success, say in Christchurch. if interpreted by'a cast- the equals" of the Brough-Boucicault combination. In this play thirteen persons—at any rate a lucky ntimber— English and American. young and middle-aged and old, carry on ” in the swim of English political life. The playwriglit gives the ( impression of thoroughly understanding English politics and viewing the same with interested detachment and with a growing sense of the futility of English and all other politics. The persiflage is clever; early it reminds one of the work of a lady novelist of a couple of decades ugo whose characters tongued it so brilliantly that they ran the risk of losing you with brilliancy, but when you are in the grip of the under-cur-rents you begin to enjoy it. And you must appreciate Clum-bermere and Susan, to say nothing of immature pessimistic Oliver. Strowde might depend very greatly upon the actor who undertook the impersonation. The moral of “The Secret Life if it has n moral—seems to b-c that life, like most of its subdivisions, is far from simple. Perhaps there is the teaching, too. that “an honest mind ” and “unclouded youth ” are great assets. A piece of fine work. / (London : Chatto and AYindus.) NATURE’S SIMPLICITY. “In the lectures contained in the following pages it has been my endeavour to describe the picture of nature revealed by modem physics in the most intelligible manner possible and without the use of mathematical formulae. J have aimed at including no

more tnan is necessary to obtain a clear and general view of the subject.” For these two abstentions the thanks, especially of non-technical' readers, are due to Dr Haas. Physics Professor at Leipzig University, author of “ The New Physics—Lectures for Laymen and Others.” As compared with the original German edition which appeared in 1920, this edition has material additions. including now treatment of the Theory of Chemical Elements and an extension of treatment of Einstqin’s Theory of Relativity. This is one of the books absolutely necessary to the average layman who has a desire to keep an fait, even superficially, with niodei'n developments. which have “ completely revolutionised the foundations of Natural Science.” Besides the subjects referred to there are lectures on the Electromagnetic Theory of Light. Alolecular Statistics, the Electron Theory, the Quantum Theory. Though Dr Haas confines himself strictly to main issues, there are footnotes. dated as lato as June, 1923. dealing with points connected with the subjects discussed. There are an historical summary from 1820 to 1919,' s and a subject-index. The translation by Jl. AY. Lawson, like the work of Dr Haas, testifies to the translator’s earnest endeavour to make his subject clear. (Loudon: Methuen.)

MAGAZINES. “ The Desolation that was Yokohama,” is the footnote to one of the illustrations of an article on the great Japanese disaster in Stead's Review, October 27 : the impression the Japanese left on the writer. Air J. A. Brailsford. uotrrith&taiiding the killing of Koreans. “is of a supremely patient, kindly, people, setting to • work as cheerfully as may be in a new battle of life.” Imperial preference is examined. and is not accorded support. Australia’s Cotton prospects are discussed. Louis Pasteur is appreciated. The usual features, humour, etc., are up-to-date. “The phenomenal step of getting the Budget passed for two years exposes Poincare’s dread of the reckoning.” The November 19 issue of .Stead’s Review sees bankruptcy staring France in the face, sees India doomed to another Mutiny unless the Colonial Office “ bows to the overwhelming opinion of Indian leaders and British experts on the spot.” contradicts the view that the recent disaster will put Japan hack a generation, has a word of praise for the: “ way in which the vastly swollen Melbourne Cup traffic .simply controlled itself all <lay in the city.” The first part of the sensational history of the Comite des Forges-—” Big Business ” in steel—tells how the depreciated mark helped the German metal industries and resulted to the French in a lack of coke and "a lack of markets. The magazine’s usual features are up-to-date. “Of all the dramatic events which took place during the reign of Alary Queen of .Scots, that connected with the miniature coffin hidden in the wall of tftdinburgh Castle, although tho least well known, was more important in i'.s effect than anv other episode in Scottish hisiory.” The Dowager Ladv Forbe--, ’some of whose ancestors took part in the making of Scottish history of Alary's day. teils of the mystery coffin in. the October Chambers’s Journal. Robert Alachray in an article on Lithuania explains the bitterness between', that country and Poland. Pri-son-breaking at Parkhurst. Nottingham J*ace. Panama, Brown Trout. “ Houses of God” in Ancient England, tho Backwoods of ilie North Pacific, the Durian (a fruit that Now Zealand could do with). are other articles. There' is a, good storv of a Burmese who became an Oxford 8.A.. and later showed that “ What is Bred- in the Bone.”