The Bookshelf.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIV, Issue 22, 1 June 1910, Page 47

The Bookshelf.

By

DELTA.

BOOKSHELF FEUILLETON.

A Few Selections From Three Fopnlar Magazines. E acknowledge, with pleasure, ■fl 101,1 Messrs. Gordon and Gotch the April numbers of “The Sunday at Home,” “The Boys’ Own,” and “The Girls’ Own Paper,” with ■which is incorporated “The Woman’s Magazine.” Among the usual admirable contents of “The Sunday at Home’’ is an exceedingly interesting paper by the Rev. W- E. Tomlinson, who has had considerable experience as an Indian missionary, entitled, “The Pope of the Hindus and the Home of Hindu Pantheism.” Mr. Tomlinson ’has been stationed in the Shimoga district of the Mysore State for the last year of his Indian experience, and has evidently made the best of his opportunities, as he has succeeded, in six short pages, in giving a thoroughly comprehensive idea of the life, environment, belief, superstitions, customs, history, legend, capabilities, and limitations of the people and district' in which San ikara, the high priest of Pantheism, stifi holds supreme sway, though it is twelve centuries since he lived in the flesh. Mr. Tomlinson’s choice of illustration is good, and represents the “Matt,” or Sacred College, founded by Sankara in the eighth century; the Jagad-Guru procession (the Jagad-Guru is to Pantheism ■what the “Pope” is to Christendom), and the Shrines erected to Saradamma, the tutelary deity of Pantheism learning, through whose agency Sankara was first led to Sringeri (the seat of Pantheism), and the goddess Kali, feared by the Pantheists as the dispenser of disease, destruction and death. We strongly recommend this article to those interested in Indian missions. The Power of Laymen. Another article in this number that should be of value to Anglicans is Chancellor P. V. Smith’s ruling on’ithe .power allowed to laymen in the administration of “Church" functions, maintenance,, etc., as exercised since the establishment of lay power. Mr. Smith’s ruling is sound, and covers the whole ground in dispute, by not only defining the meaning of the ■word layman, but detailing their status, rights,' duties, privileges and limitations, as decreed by Anglican Church law, ■which, while acknowledging the value of lay co-operation, strictly limits its power to administering things temporal. The article is divded into t'wo sections —the 'Anglican and the Nonconformist —the latter of which, written by “A Nonconformist,” is equally able. Space forbids further mention of a journal that does but increase in interest' a-s the years go by. The " Boys' Own.’’ This journal provides such an embarrassment of riches as to make it difficult to select which of its contents is most likely to interest readers. But we have been greatly interested in an article entitled “Drowned Towns of England,” by Mr. A. B. Cooper, wiio has interestingly shown the encroachment made by the sea on the east coast of England. “Some Tunny Creatures of the Zoo,” too, by Mr. Oliver Ransom, is a subject that should interest embryo naturalists and wild sportsmen. A beautifully-coloured picture is that of “Our British Finches,” which has been executed by A. F. Lydon. How it can be done at the price is the reflection with which we reluctantly lay down this journal, which caters so splendidly and so wholesomely for boys. The “ Girl’s Own Paper.” (Miss Flora Klickman is greatly to be congratulated upon her ability to gauge the tastes of her sex in general, who must truly be lacking in discrimination if they dp not appreciate this Easter number of 1910. For there is scarcely a pursuit, or an interest, or an amusement suitable for girls or women that is left uni-catered for. Happy the girl or woman who is a subscriber to the “G.0.P.” and ‘“Woman's Magazine,” which includes Among its many attractive and ideal edptents wholesome fiction, wise and interesting talks on hygienics, house furnishing and keeping, employments suit l nble for jvomen, latest fashions, needlewbrk, photography and literary compe-

A Notable Biography. “Tlie Life of William Thomson, Baron Kelvin of Largs,” has been written by Dr. iSilvanus Thompson, and is said to be one of the most fascinating books of the last decade. Fascinating, not only by the qualities of its subject, tout also because of Dr. Thompson’s masterly presentation of what has evidently been to him a labour of love and exceeding interest. Lord Kelvin was one of those rare intellectual giants, of perfect physique, whose private life could bear the strictest scrutiny. Of yeoman parentage, he worked his way not only to great scientific distinction, but to great wealth, the source of which lay’ in the many inventions patented by him, which had as object for their creation the sub-ordinat-ing of electricity to the use of man.

Dr. Thompson Strongly Protests. Dr. Thompson strongly protests against Mr Gladstone’s dictum “that the present is by no means an age

abounding in minds of the first order,” and proves that there was never an age so rich in minds of the finst order in science, and, further, declares that “though Lord Kelvin was not the last of these, he was assuredly the greatest; and that his name will be revered, and his memory cherished long after those who ‘sat at his feet and listened to hits voice shall have passed away.” Dr. Thompson’s masterly work is certain to obtain both the keenest attention and a big circulation in the highest scientific circles. For no man has ever demonstrated more brilliantly than Lord Kelvin that the highest thought is not incompatible with the busiest practice. The price of these two handsome volumes is 30/, and Macmillan’s are the publishers. According to Maria. Everybody ought to read Mrs John Lane's new novel, which bears the above suggestive title, and which is shrewdly humorous. We offer two extracts, in which is embodied much shrewd wisdom. Here is a woman's notion of “Mental I’eace or Supreme Satisfaction”:— “When you know you are all right behind you can face the world.” A Truism Aneut “ Our Classes." “The lowest class don’t know and don’t care; the middle classes don’t know and does care; and the upper class knows but doesn’t care.” —From “According to (Maria,” by Mrs John Lane. The Bodley Head,,

BITS FROM THE NEW BOOKS.

The Sex Which May Ask. “The woman who doesn’t got 'the man she wants is unlucky, and can’t help it —has to put up with it; but the man who doesn’t get the woman he wants is an ass.”—“Three Plays,” by Mrs. W. K. Clifford. Civilisation. “Nobody knows exactly wiia't civilisation is. To the enlightened men it means a condition of mutual confidence, esteem, and encouragement in the higher ideals. To the unbiassed savage it looks like a collection of mixed drinks and merry-go-rounds.”—“Senator Sorghum's Primer of Politics.” Majestic Bartering. “The Amir of Afghanistan favours English fusions in clothes, and occasionally brings a ‘tailor from India to replenish the Royal wardrobe. After such a revision, his Majesty spends days in sorting up his discarded suits, hosiery, topees, gloves, etc., into lots. When at last they are all ready, he will call up one of his page-boys, and, pointing to a lot, say: ‘You anay have 'those flor thirty rupees, and you'—beckoning to another luckless one—‘may take these

for eight rupees.* The young - fellows have uo alternative, and therefore pay, and remove their bundles without murmuring as the Amir proceeds with his sale.” —"Leaves from an Afghan ScrapBook,” by E. and A. Thornton. John Murray. 8/ net. Our Hidden Virtues. “What’s really best about any man in life is what you don’t know of him, and maybe what’s better still is just what he don't know of himself.”— “Joan of the Hills,” by T. Ji. Clegg. The Telephone Savour. “I wish you were on the telephone: it’s as much a necessity of life as salt. Existence loses its savour if you can't make somebody listen that doesn’t want •to hear, or make somebody answer that wants to be silent.” —“A Golden Straw.” by J. E. Buckrose. Mills and Boon. (>/. Anglers’ Ecstasies. “The indications which tell your dryfly angler when to strike are clear and unmistakable, tou't those which bid a wet-fly man raise his rod-point and draw 5n tlie steel are frequently so subtle, so evanescent and impalpable to the senses, that when the bending rod assures him that he has divined aright, he feels an ecstasy as though lie had performed a miracle each time."—• “Minor Tactics of the Chalk Stream and Kindred Studies," by G. E. M. Skues. London. Black. 3/6 nek

X Record Output. Guess the numliei- of hooks brought out. during the year 1909? The total exceeds 10,000 —or. to Iw exact, 10,725. ‘"The Publisher's Circular” is our authority for this statement and it sayo it means an increase of 904 over 1908. The rise is chiefly in new books not new editions.

REVIEVER

Morning Star: By H. Rider Haggard (London, New York, Toronto, and Melbourne. Cassell and Co., Ltd, and all booksellers. 3/6.) This is one of the fascinating romances of Old Egypt in which Mr Haggard sc. excels in the writing of. It is the Jove story of Neter-Tua and Raineses, descendants of the rival dynasties of tha Pharaohs and the Humeses. To quote from the author’s note, this romance has not been written so much with a view to demonstrating, and thereby instructing readers in the history, beliefs, super stitions, customs, lore, etc., of old Egypt, as to demonstrate "the triumph of true love over great difficulties and dangers. We acknowledge to a belief, not only in

the existence of the Egyptian Ka or Double, hut ill the possibility that every human being has its Ka. and that, the use 'and value of it is commensurate with the owner’s recognition of its existence and. power for good er for evil. To criticise a work on Egyptology that has been passed unci it ieised by Dr. Wallis Budge, keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities at the British Museum, would be absurd, and nothing remains but to congratulate Mr. Haggard on a -telling romance, which we leave read with cliarmed wonder, great profit, keen interest, and absorbed attention, both in serial and in book form. 'lhe book's three illustrations are by Mr. A. C. Michael, and are worthy of the text, the frontispiece especially, being beaut iltillv executed in tlie marvellously rich yet. subdued colouring that 1s chartlcteristie of the East. Our copy has been received from Messrs. Cassell and Co., mid we cordially wish both author and publisher the large circulation the book’s undoubted merits entitle it to. The Lords of High Decision: By Meredith Nicholson. (New York: Doubleday, Page and Co. Melbourne: George Robertson and Co., 107-113, Elizabeth street. Price 3/0.) The reclamation of the society drunkard ami degenerate would seem to have obsessed nearly all those of the Amort-

can novelists who are In the first flight of those American authors who count. Whether it is due to the facfc that the drink demon has been, and is, more than ordinarily active in the ranks of the jeunnesse doree of America’s aristocracy, and that writers, feeling their responsibility, are taking a hand in its extirpation, or whether tho theme has been found to be both an attractive and a payable one, wo cannot quite determine. But it is impossible to read and digest “The Lords of High Decision’’ without feeling strongly, that Mr. Nicholson’s motive hag Loen a high one, and that his task lias been undertaken to show that, however low the dipsomaniac may have fallen, and however agnostic he may have been, he can be made sane, clean, and wholly God-fearing by the agency of human love, which is a reflection of the divine. We like Wayne Craighill in spite of his one-time degeneracy, and we like brusque, but wholly estimable, Toni Walsh, and we admire Joe Denny no end, and Jimmy Paddock also. We like Jean Morley, too, and, in different fashion, Colonel CraighilFs second wife. And we were not a little diverted by the satiric, pictures drawn of the fine shades of social distinction that prevail between the upper classes of society in Boston and Pittsburg, where the majority of the book's scenes are laid. Our appreciation of “The Lords

©f High Decision’’ is very gieat, and we, unreservedly recommend it to all of cur Bookshelf renders who love a blehd of the ideally romantic with high moral instruction and purpose. We are indebted to George Robertson and Co. for our copy of a story, which to read is to purely enjoy. ILive Men’s Shoes: By Richard Marsh. (London: Methuen and Co. Auckland: Wildman and Arey. 2/6, 3/6.) Though "Mr. Marsh gives his readers a'j early promise of an extraordinarily vivid <1- liplion of the horrors of the M easin’!.m earthquake, he does not carry out that promise, but transports his hero a nd heroine, who are both British, with ind'eont ha-io, taking into consideration, that this is meant to be a novel of more .than ordinary sensation, to Cornwall, England, by wav of Naples and London, v hero, for a tihie, they find they have reaped one great' danger only to fall into another equally •langerous, and with the addiul element of sordidit y. The plot, though not wholly original, contains several new features, an I develops wiih startling Fen- it ion. ll effect, and a hriskne-s and a brevity highly conimenlable in these days of slMipigc novels and circumlocution of plot which frequently en Is in the writer gelling 10-d in his own mazes, through forgetting his original design. Mr. March’s lords ami ladies are not in the least like the louis and lading we have met or heard of in real life, and his villains, like J acks-in boxes, pop up at all . orts of in convenient times, and in all sorts of unexpected places. But it is, nevertheless, a story of exciting and absorbing interest; a story, too, of a hasty marriage that was not repented o< nt leisure, and also a story of a seemingly false impression in the presenlaUon

of which Mr. Marsh so excels. We can confidently promise investors in “Live Men's Shoes” compound interest on their investment, in the shape of horrors, thrills, romance, sensation, and probable and improbable happening, be-ides, as fat .■is it goes, an ‘eedingly vivid pen picture of the horrors of the night and of the early morning that followed after the first shock of the Messinian earthquake. For. with all its exaggeration of later happening, "Live Men’s Shoes” is a book that cannot fail to grip tin' inter, st and fire tlie imagination of live men. We are indebted to Methuen anil Co. for our copy of this book. “ Maoris of New Zealand.” Mr James Cowan’s “Maoris of New Zealand” is noticed al some length in the "Literary Supplement” of the “Times.” “Tho book will do very well,” says the critic, "for anyone who wants a general

view of the Maoris of New Zealand. Mr Cowan is a capable journalist who has lived among them and known them well, and has read much about them; and when he gets down to modern things, and is able, for instance, to give native accounts of the ‘massacre of Wairau’ and the last battle of the Waikato ‘Kingites’ he is very interesting.” The “Times complains of a certain sameness in the book about the Maoris: “Scores of-Euro-peans are ready to lend the brown man a hand in the salvage of his traditions; if New Zealanders read all the books published in New Zealand, they, must indeed be fairly sated with the relics of ancestral Maori lore. Since they were to publish so much on the Maoris. it is a pity that the New Zealand booksellers have not mapped out their subject better, and created specialists on this branch or of that. As it is, each’author repeats very much the same thing as his pj-edecessons, in the same rather redundant and enthusiastic style.”