NEW BOOKS REVIEWED.

Waikato Times, Volume 102, Issue 17008, 22 January 1927, Page 11 (Supplement)

NEW BOOKS REVIEWED.

CURRENT LITERATURE. “The Game’s the Thing.” By M. A. Noble. “Cricket teaches us never to use our mental or physical powers in an unworthy way. It teaches honesty, appreciation, persistency, loyalty, enthusiasm, fair-play, fighting spirit, self-control, unselfishness, end, above all, how to accept success and defeat,.” These words appear in the first few pages of “The Game s the Thing,” ' by M. A. Noble, and they strike the keynote of the book as a whole. He speaks with a simple charm of his early days: “The pavement was our pitch, ihe front wall of a house the back-stop, and a biscuit-tin the wicket. I remember only one incident in Hie game, and it is indelibly fixed in my mind. I hit a ‘nincr.’ It was on the leg side, and as I ran to and Do across that footpath I was not a bit, concerned to see my brother urging the ball farther up the street with his hoot.”

Mr Noble, like others of his generation, deplores the importance given by bowlers to swerve at the expense of length and spin.

All through the book runs shrewd advice, with here and there a little gentle chiding of the young, who seem to think that they know so much more than the men who made hundreds before them. “A half-volley in a Test match is the same as a half-volley in a club game,” the author wisely points out “and should be dealt with accordingly.” But how many of our players remember that simple truth? Here’s another piece of sound advice : “When your side has to make 350 runs to win, and you are batting, the scores being, say, 5 for 175, it may seem that you have a long way lo go; but you will find it helpful to ignore the number of runs to make and think only that you are half-way and are on the easy side of the hill.” A pretty theory, hut how hard it is to put into practice! “A Detestable Book.” The first of a series of lectures on contemporary books and plays was given by Professor William Lyon Phelps at New York, under the auspices of the League of Political Education. Professor Phelps reviewed “The World of William Clissold” of 11. G. Wells, vvhich he characterised as “a detestable book that is steadily interesting.” “ ‘The World of William Clissold,’ ” said Professor Phelps, “is, strictly speaking, not a novel at all, hut rather a gigantic tract containing a resume of all of Wells’ political, anti-religious, social, and scientific, theories. It is a detestable hook that is steadily interesting, and I read every word of it with intense interest.” The author’s attacks on religion, on the churches, both Protestant and Catholic, and on the clergy, said Professor Phelps, are “stupid and slapdash statements that, coming from a historian and novelist of Weils’ attainments, are amazing in their lack of understanding of other peoples’ points of view.”

“If Wells’ thesis that big business will take over the world Is true, wouldn’t it he a hell on earth?” said the speaker. “It would mean that every one of us would have to he efficient. Lazy people, it seems to me, are among the most charming and gracious I have ever met, who say things that contain more wisdom than the talk of all the busybodies on earth. Nevertheless, every one with what is generally spoken of to-day as an •adult mind,’ should read this book.” Speaking on, “The Dictionary of Modern English Usage” Professor Phelps declared that the modern tendency toward informality has made many people afraid to use good grammar through fear of being thought “high-brow.” “Not one person in the world,” he said, “can speak English correctly, but we would try to do the best vve can.”

“A Wayfarer in Switzerland.” By

James F. Muirhead

This is an agreeable hut somewhat fragmentary account of Switzerland and its delights by the well-known editor of the “Blue Guides.” Those who know Switzerland well will agree with most of his judgments. He is quite right, for example, in commending the view from Muottas Muraigl, in the Engadine, as one of the finest in the world; he is equally right in commending the magnificent views from the Bernina Railway in its great descent from the summit of the Bernina Pass.. Yet, as be reminds us, Ihere have been great English authorities who condemned the. Eugadino and even thought it ugly. It is now too much fashion-ridden to he attractive to the enthusiastic climber, but its beauty has not gone, if the prices of its hotels—as of those at Zermatt—have soared to remarkable elevations. Here and there in Mr Muirhead’s usually careful pages there arg. some mistakes vvhich should be corrected in a future edition. Thus the railway up Monte Generoso is a rack-and-pinion one not a rope railway. And at Altdorf there is a tramway from the post office to Fluelcn steamer pier and railway station.

“Aussie.” “Aussie” fits itself into the mood of the season of the year, but always in the cheerful sense. So it is that vve find the January issue of the Magazine soaked with warm sunshine, the fun of the holiday party at the beaches or in the bush, and in the general care-free spirit that characterises the glad month of the golden weather. The leading humorous writers and artists of Australia and New Zealand are well represented in all these humorous phrases. Outstanding features arc provided by Fred J. Broomfield, P. J; Miller, Rod. Quinn and other leading writers. The New Zealand section of the Magazine is full of humorous interest. From the New Novels.

“At forty or so one is easily scandalised.” “The marriage founded on friendship was undoubtedly a success.”—“lllusion,” Janet Ling. “Life often looks very empty when you’re past forty.” “A real expression of our personality—that is what a home should be.” “A little hardship at the beginning of married life doesn’t hurt young people.” It’s part of what people learn as they grow older—to stand things. It makes up for some things you lose as you get older.”—“Her Son’s Wife,” Dorothy CanfielcL