The Bookshelf.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLV, Issue 19, 9 November 1910, Page 45

The Bookshelf.

By

DELTA.

BT BOOKSHELF FEUIIXETON. ■ 1 " yL Graceful Appreciation of “ The Happy Isles.” RITING to an Auckland friend </ 1 recently, Mr. D. M. Ross, IIJL author of .the “Afterglow,” speaks in ’well-merited and Ihighly-eulogistic terms of Miss Maude JPeacocke’s book of verse, “The Happy Isles.” Mr. Ross’ letter is too long to l>e given here in full, but he confesses to doing (with Miss Feacocke’s verse ia thing he had never before accomplished With a book of verse, viz., to being so intensely arrested by it as to begin and finish it at one sitting. Not content ryvith this, he again read it, confirming bis first judgment that it “is the most perfect book as a whole that has been issued from the Australian press for snany a day. There is nothing Ibad or immature—nothing prosy in it. On the contrary, the poems are distinguished (by literary polish and chastity.” The (modest reference to “earlier efforts” (might well have been omitted. “The poems,” continues Mr. Ross, “are remarkable for their evenness, on a high plane of excellence. Were I but to name all that are meritorious I would but (rewrite the index to the volume. Deserving of special mention, says Mr. (Ross, is “The Suicide,” a poem of wonderful power, and the subject one that only jgenius; could (handle effectively; while “The Cult of the Critic” is worthy of Browning in such a mood. There is a gem from “Pagan” that is full of forcefulness and simplicity. Burns himself could not have said it better. In “The (Pole” there are two lines I must quote (specially—

“The pulsing fires that went and came, The arc of soft auroral flame.”

Do not these lines “curve in beauty”? Their (music is touched (with magic. There is a mighty passage in “Aeolian,” and “The Maestro to his ’Cello” is enchanting. In speaking as we'll as in writing, it is genius that knows how and when to stop. “Gipsy Croon” is declared by Mr. Ross to be the best croon song written since “Wynkin, Blynkin, and Nod.” This by no means exhausts Mr. Ross’ eulogy of Miss Peacocke’s fine poetry, but space forbids (further mention, and we shall content ourselves by quoting the closing paragraph of Mr. Ross’ letter, which says: “You may think I praise too much and criticise too little, but there is eo little that offends the eye or ear. ‘The Happy Isles’ is a fine contribution to our literature. The book is genius made manifest.” We have great pleasure in giving Mr. Ross’ appreciation prominence, and, like him, wish Miss Peacocks fresh laurels.

Mr. H. G. Wells and His Critics The controversy that has raged so fiercely in England as to Mr. H. G. Wells being the real author of “George Meek, Bath Chair-Man,” has, it seems, crossed the Atlantic, and the super-subtle literary editor of the “Boston Transcript,” Mr. Edgett, simply denies Mr. Meek’s existence. “The internal evidence,” says this writer, “points to Mr. Wells as author. The story purports to be a frank narrative of the struggles of a social derelict against adverse circumstances and an adverse society, and the difficulty in accepting it as his own Work is that it does not bear the intellectual marks of such a man. It Tends exactly as if it were Mr. Wells’ own idea Of what George Meek would say. In (Other words, it appears to be either his own composition or else his Te-writing of an impossible manuscript, put into his hands for revision.” A writer in the London “Clarion” claims to know George Meek. Unless Mr. Wells is himself the author of the “Clarion” article, we must admit Mr. Meek’s existence, in Bptte of internal evidence to the contrary. Meanwhile, says the “Nation,” Mr. ’Wells deserves the gratitude of all lovers of life and literature. far Nov ember. There Is no mistaking “Life’s” enthusiastic Interest in that most modem of (sciences, vis., aviation. In tba “Explana-

tion Department” of its current issue is a splendid diagram showing “High flying and the vol plane, and how an aeroplane climbs up and swoops down.” In addition to this, several pages are devoted to the mechanical, the tragic, the sensational, and the fictional side of this heavy toll-taking science. It is, however, satisfactory to note that aviation as a holiday attraction is on the decrease. “An article that tells of the passing of the man with the hoe” is Mr E. A. Rumeley’s “Scientific Farming.” A capitally illustrated paper is that by Mr George A. Walker, N.Z., who details “The Sport of Netting Whales.” Dr. Fitchett’s article on “The French Part in Australian Exploration,” in which he queries as to whether Napoleon had any designs upon Australia, is of exceeding interest, embracing as it does a review of Mr Seott’s book, “Terre Napoleon” (Methuen). Other articles of merit are: “The British Lion,” by Mr Charles Nuttall, which is the first of a series of travel sketches, written and illustrated for “Life,” and which in this instance has depicted “London,” as seen through the eyes of an Australian artist. “Billy

Carr’s Reincarnation,” and under this magazine’s stationary headings, appears diverse matter that is informative, bright, entertaining, humorous, and generally interesting. A New Methuen Publication. A new novel, by Mr A. A. (Milne, is a. notable autumn publication of Methuen's. The name of Milne may not have come into the ken of the general reader, but the initials A.A.M. surely have, for it is thus that he has for some years past signed his weekly fantasy in “Punch,” to whose round table he is the latest recruit. All “Punch” readers know the “Rabbits”—that delightful assemblage of young women and young men bound together by a love of cricket, amateur theatricals, and fooling. Mr Milne’s book contains the whole history to date of the “Rabbits,” and many of his best sketches as well, A Brief Will. The will of the late Sir George Newnes, of “Tit-Bits” fame, is a model of brevity. It runs as follows:—“Will of Sir George Newnes, Bart, dated 10th December, 1895. 1 hereby liequeath all I possess to my son Frank, out of which he is to pay his mother £3OOO a year for 4ife. —(Signed) George Newnes.” The

value of the estate is sworn at £ 174,153, so far as at present can be ascertained. A Sequel to Hebert Elsmere. Mrs Humphry Ward’s new story, which is practically a sequel to “Robert Elsmere,” is to be published as a serial in “Cornhill.” Like that famous work, it will present religious problems from a modern standpoint. The book’s protagonist, Stephen Pole, tries to keep “mystical Christianity” while abandoning its historical character. The book breaks off on the eve of an Anglican Council, in which the right of both “Traditionalists” and “Modernists” to exist will be recognised—depending on the choice of “Congregationists.” As it is mow some time since Mrs Humphry Ward has written anything that has in any way approached the excellence of her early style, the advent of Stephen Pole will be earnestly looked forward to by that author’s earlier admirers, of which we confess ourselves one. A New Social and Industrial Novel. Those readers who remember Mary E. Waller’s super-excellent novel, “The Wood-carver of Lympus,” will be delighted to hear that she is shortly going to issue a new story, entitled “Flamstead Quarries,” which deals with modern social and industrial conditions in America. A Lively Discussion. A lively discussion is proceeding on both sides of the Atlantic, for which Mr William Archer is mainly responsible. The majority of American writers of late have worked the corruption and fraud

business to such an extent as to have become epidemic. This “fearless exposure of corruption and fraud” is greatly admired by Mr Archer, who declares that American magazines are ahead of English, and proceeds to show three reasons why: First, because the latter are handicapped by the law of libel; second, because the English market is too restricted; and the advertising revenue too small to stand the huge prices paid by American editors. Though Mr Archer’s comments on these points are of great interest, those of tho “Chicago Dial,” referring to Mr Archer's statement are still more interesting to Englishmen, at least. Mr Archer’s statements, says the “Dial,” are overdrawn. If (America could support a group of monthlies like the “Contemporary,” “Tire Nineteenth Century,” an-d a couple of weeklies like the “Spectator,” the “Nation,” and the “Saturday Review,” she ought to bo willing, continues the “Dial,” to exchange for them gladly the whole galaxy of our •muck-raking magazines. Which is rather a facer for Mr Archer, who is a writer and critic of note. Interesting to Sconts. Three more books have been added to the “Scouts’ Library” (Pearson. 1/ net.) They include “Things AU Scouts Should

Know," which contains information specially selected for Boy Scouts, and ex plains numerons signs which would prove useful to them on land and sea; “Woodcraft for Scouts and Others,” by Owen •Tones and Mareus Woodward; and “Otters to the Rescue,” by E. Le Breton Martin, a sequel to “The Bovs of the Otter Patrol." French Classics. With the starting of a new scries of reprints of the French Classics at Ifr 25 centimes, Messrs Nelson and Sons arc making a most interesting experiment. For these are not translations, but tho originals, bound in fine artistic covers of cream and heliotrope, and are intended to circulate in France as well as in England. This is the entente cordials of publishing, indeed. The new venture deserves every success, and its start is made most propitious with Daudet's “Lettres demon Moulin,” that loveliest of all country books, where the very rah bits, whose white “scuts” are immortalised, become pleasant friends from the first page. Balzac is introduced to the reader of this series by his most fantastic story, “La Pean de Chagrin,” and the third volume of the series is a ‘book of memories, not of the gossipy kind dealing with the salons, but of the grimly realistic order which tells day by day of the retreat from Moscow, for it is General de Segur’s “La Campagne de Rtissie.” All these little books are capitally illustrated, the last one from pictures by Vercstchagin.

An Interesting Biography. Sir Lewis Michell has just completed his “Life of Cecil Rhodes,” which will be published in two volumes by Me Arnold in the early autumn. Sir Lewis Michell, who has been engaged upon the work for five years, is an executor of Mr Rhodes' will, and a trustee of the Rhodes estate. This is the first complete nnd well informed “life” that has appeared, and it is expected to take rank as the authoritative biography of one of the greatest of modern Englishmen.

REVIEWS. The Lost Halo : By Percy White. London: Methuen nnd Co. Auckland: Wildman and Arey. 2/0, 3/6). Mr. White has always some new idea or human problem to prenent, ami he always presents it wholesomely, often whimsically, nnd with an ever-present tolerant sympathy with the shortcomings of humanity, which disarms oven those of his readers who confess his views somewhat startling. In “The Lost Halo” we are shown some of the more

Immediate fruits of a popular higher education, implanted in virgin ground. Mr. and Mrs. Allington, small, but highly respectable tradespeople of 24, Blair-etreet, Notting Hill, have a son and daughter, whom it has been the sole ambition of their lives to highly educate, without in the least reflecting how their own lack of education and their sordid environment may strike the recipients of an exotic education and a superficial culture. At the time the story opens this son and daughter have finished their school and college education, and when we inform readers that the girl is handsome, of charming manners, socially ambitious, pagan and selfish, and that after a brief, a very brief, holiday at home, she sails as governess into a wealthy titled family under false colours, and afterwards contracts a secret marriage with the son of one of her’ patrons, and that the son, Frank Allington, develops during the process of his education a morbidly ascetic, yet highly artistic, temperament, coupled with a slender will, we shall have no occasion to assure readers of the exciting nature of the book, flow Alfred Allington lost and recovered his “halo” and honoured place and affluence for his sister, constitutes the finest bit of writing Mr. White has ever penned. And that is saying a great deal. We have received our copy of “The Lost Halo,” which we can confidently recommend to all our readers, from Messrs. Methuen and Co.

The Peer and the Woman: By G. Phillips Oppenheim. (London: Ward, Lock and Co. Auckland: Wildman and Arey. Price, 3/6.) Dangerously near as Mr. Oppenheim has often been to toeing the line of demarcation that separates the thrilling from the shocking, he has without doubt overstepped the line in “The Peer and the "Woman,” which is a ghastly story of a double murder, a wretched suicide, and mysteries galore, all of which are described with such an evident appreciation of the situations as to be painfully realistic. But whatever Mr. Oppenheim writes, he will find a large audience who like strong meats, and revel in sensation■alisni. For what else his critics may say of him, they cannot, in all conscience, accuse him of lack of ingenuity and variety of plot, luridness of style and atmosphere; and though he may sometimes nauseate, he is never a bore. Our copy has been received through the courtesy of Messrs. Wildman and Arey.

Matthew Fowlds, Centenarian and Covenanter. Edited by Rev. J. Kirkwood, Fairlie. Standard Printing "Works, Kilmarnock. To attempt an exhaustive review of a compilation which is the work of several individuals, and which not only embraces the biography and pedigree of the right worthy centenarian, whose memory it has been compiled to perpetuate, but also the history of Fenwiek, and those Covenanters who have made its history since the “Secession,” is a task which we take leave to state at the outset of this review, to be impossible in the unavoidably limited space at our disposal. But we cordially hail this work, both as heroically stimulating history, and as an intensely interesting human document. Matthew Fowlds, centenarian and Covenanter, was born on May 22, 180 G, and died from the result of an accident on January 31, 1907. Fenwiek, sacred in the annals of covenanting history, was his birth-place; his pedigree, a notably worthy one, is too long for us to traco here; his spiritual lineage includes some of the highest names in covenanting history, With regard, however, to the family tree, it will be interesting to New Zealanders to learn that he was closely related to that Dr. Robertson, whose memory will long remain green in the hearts of those Canadians among whom he so lately laboured, and whose biography, written by Ralph Connor, was reviewed some time ago in the columns of the “Weekly Graphic.” Of Fenwick’s participation in covenanting history, Dr. William Anderson, preaching in its kfrk

in 1853, on the "Cloud of Witnesses of Scottish Martyrology,” said: "Fenwiek! I have spoken of the cloud of witnesses which overshadows Scotland; you dwell under its very focus. They speak of classic ground; yours is sacred—not a stream but gave a resting place, not a thrash bush but gave a footing through the moss to the martyrs of the Cove-

nant.” . “Its fame is unique, far flung, and undying in covenanting history.” Its flag bears the legend: "Phinigh for God: Country and Covenanted Work of Reformations, its galaxy of illustrious martyrs and covenanters are not outshone by any parish in Scotland.” Of its physical features we are told that its situation, configuration, and other contributing elements make it the most salubrious, as well as the brightest parish in Scotland. The streams from which its water supply is derived take their rise in the parish, and are kept absolutely free from contamination. All of which must have contributed largely to the longevity of its inhabitants, as recorded by statistics in this work. There is also no doubt whatever that the intensely spiritual atmosphere which environed the inhabitants of Fenwick helped to make Matthew Fowlds the sterling character he was. There are many in these days of slack faith and slacker heroic virtue who lightly rate, ignore, or have lost sight of the sublime sacrifices and bitter sorrows of those days of religious persecution, sacrifices which have secured for British posterity at least, a perpetual freedom of religious and the free thought that has inevitably followed in its wake. To these we offer Rolrert Burns’ lines: “ The Solemn League and Covenant Cost Scotland blood, cost Scotland tears. But it sealed freedom’s sacred cause; If thou’rt a slave, indulge thy sneers.”

Burns’ only known reference to Fenwick immortalised it, when, in 1870, on an unapproved presentee being appointed to the living of Fenwiek, by the Earl of Glasgow, its community seceded to a man; thus striking at once a blow against patronage and for liberty of religious thought. Burns’ lines show the result of that spirited action: — “ Lang patronage wi’ rod o’ airn, Has shor’d the kirk’s undoin.’. . As lately Fenwick sair fosfairn Has proven to its ruin.” But the ruin, as this book shows, was only temporal. The history" of’ Fenwick, spiritual and temporal, since the first decade of the nineteenth century, is the history of Matthew Fowlds since' he largely helped to make it assisted by those associates who confess themselves privileged to have laboured or been associated with him in either spiritual, parochial, industrial, political, social or domestic life. Many personages celebrated in British history, in religion, art, letters, etc., make their entrances an dtheir exits in these pages, as ships pass on the high seas. A charter drawn up by the “ Fenwick Weavers’ Society,” of which Matthew Fowlds was later a member, reminds us in some respects of later day trades ■unionism. This ancient charter was framed then as labour laws are framed now, for the purpose of guarding industrial rights. But there are clauses in it which, if included in the present labour laws, are mostly inoperative. The clause which we append makes most delectable reading. Here it is:—Clause I.—

“That we shall be honest and faithful to one another and to our employers, and make good and sufficient work, and exact neither higher nor lower prices than are accustomed in the towns and parishes in the neighbourhood. Rules and regulations which we agree and oblige us shall be observed to one another in time coming.” Though this Society was dis-

solved in Matthew t Foyrids’ time, he.adhered to its charter both in spirit and letter to the end of his life. The Hon. George Fowlds’ “reminiscences” and various appenda which record the centenary celebrations ind other matters, bring the book to a elose. We must not, however, omit to mention the excellent portraits, illustrations, facsimiles of ancient documents, letters, maps, ete., which serve admirably to embellish and point the book’s text. Two of the illustrations are reproductions from the “ Weekly Graphic ” and “ New Zealand Mail ’’ of April 14, 1909. More precious, indeed, than rubies must be this “Memoir” to the Hon. Geo. Fowlds, from whom we have received it. And we heartily subscribe to the sentiment of its presentation leaf which declares that “ To live in the hearts we leave behind is not to die.”

Lady Molly of Scotland Yard: By the Baroness Orczy. (London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne: Cassell and Co. Auckland : Gordon and Goteh. 3/6.) That the author of “The Scarlet Pimpernel” and “I Will Repay” could, if she chose, write really good, detective stories, goes without saying, and we recommend these clever stories with a great deal of pleasure as illustrating how two and two can be pieced together as well, or

better, by woman’s intuition, as by man’s deeper delving in the mystery that surrounds some crimes. We are not a lover of woman in the role of detective. But readers of “Lady Molly” will not only acquit her of unwomanliness, but admire and respect her for her temporary excursion in the world of crime for the sake of securing the evidence that should acquit her lover; innocent of the crime that had sent him to penal servitude for life. Twelve exciting stories, ingeniously conceived and naturally written, constitute this book, which we have received from Messrs. Cassell and Co., by the courtesy of Messrs. Gordon and Gotch.

Diana of Dreams: By G. B. Burgin, (London : Hutchinson’s Colonial Library. Auckland: Wildman and Arey. ‘ 3/6.)

This is a sequel to “The Slaves of Allah,” and shows the heroine of that story rewarding the hero of that and this story. The book’s scenes are laid, respectively, in rural England, Asia Minor and Constantinople, during the reign of the lately-deposed Sultan, and the uprising of the Young Turkish party . As is usual, with these Eastern stories of Mr. Burgin’s, exciting adventure succeeds dangerous adventure, political intrigue succeeds private intrigue, and there are tragedies' enough and to spare. What the reader will think of the English heroine marrying the Christianised Turk we cannot say. But it is quite certain, and Mr. Burgin knows his East, that he is not a subscriber to the Kipling belief that “never the twain shall meet.” Mr. Burgin is a trifle prolific, maybe, ami his English scenes have an air of unreality. But once on’ Eastern ground, and his atmosphere- is everything that can be desired.