BOOK NOTICE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XX, Issue 16, 5 February 1892, Page 19

BOOK NOTICE.

" Our Alma Mater." — A School Annual, edited by the Btudents of St Ignatius College, S.J , Riverview. Yes, on the whole, we think, as, for all theii modesty, they themselves think, the editors tbia year have done their work quite as well as their predecessors last year did theirs. The editors of a periodical, moreover, that leave no chance to their criticsand reviewers 1 , bat, even in the most invisible type, ruthlessly publish the criticisms and reviews of the preceding year, are in honour bound to keep their matter up to the mark, so that no mortih'caiion may be felt by the deponents ia question, owing to the impossibility of their making what they have written one year serve also for the next. The editors, we say, have well fu filled their obligation, and given us a number tbat may be read with pleasure. It may be read with profit, too. It is, for example, profitable to acquire a word that is new to you. and not only a new word, but one whose meaning is fully explained and developed — albeit with a little cynicism. "Dichotomy," can our readers gness what that means, well let them read Our Alma Mater, and they will learn very pleasantly, and will find thembelves on the right side to boot. But fancy the heart of granite, which, when a young lady in a railway carriage pokjs her head out of the winaow, fears for itself only about the draught, and never pictures the danger of her being decapitated, or, at the least, breaking her fair nose against some protruding post or wall. That individual ia decidedly on the wrong side, and, dichotomically considered, if be does take the influenza, serves h<m right. Are Australians really brought up on fresh air 1 We may, perhaps, consider this also dichotomically. Fresh air, indeed, about Sydney — except perhaps when it blows a

" southerly buster," and then you get too much of it to be good for anything, and besides it comes from foreign parts. Nobody, we presume, will make such a claim for a " brick fielder " — when there ia no air at all, and nothing but sand and dust. At ordinary timts again, with the thermometer in the shade as high as it can go, and out of it far higher than that, where are yon, we should like to know ? In the freßU air forsooth 1 As to the remarks about the Benedict and the survival of his blessing, they are too deep for us. We leave them to the writer and those who have been there. It may be suggested to " J. O' M,," who writes from Melbourne, that, if be does not want little boys, or big ones either, to answer as he reports, he should not set them such questions. " Bxplain why it would be difficult to boil an egg on Mont Blenc." There is a riddle. No wonder the little boy, or the big one either, did not know— if he did not ; but as to that we have not the slightest idea — why, his grandfather could not tell him that. For ourselves, we would inquire is it because you cannot make a fire out of avalanche debris or glacier chips, or, stuff of that kind ? and; of course, if you have no fire, it would be difficult to boil an egg. Farther, the chamois is not oviparous, and where there are no eggs you can't boil them. Is it, besides, on the top of Mont Blanc, or the bottom of Mont Blanc, or half way up ? When we come to consider the question we find its expansions infinite. No wonder, we say again, the small boy or the big one either was puzzled. We hope, meantime, that next year the editors will give the answer that " J.O'M." wanted, because, as we have ourselves hazarded a guesa, we should be " tickled "to have it confirmed, But . here is an answer that is just splen lid, and exactly to the point. " Q —Describe the mechanism of a pump. A. — Yon get a pump with a tube or a thing in it, and you put it in the water, and it comes up."— Well, that is exactly what happens, and we defy "J.O'M. " or anyone else to deny it. The small boy has forgotten the pump handle, bnt he is smart enough in other respects to convince us he knows all about it. An extremely interesting article is a translation from an MSi lately purchased at an auction in Lisbon, and which contains an account of the prison experiences of the Jesuit Fathers who were Pombal's victims. There are several other articles, either original or selected, worth reading, and the reports of the work done in the college and of life there generally are also very interesting. The volume contains a number cf illustrations, the most imposing being a group of lads who were performers in the play of " Julius Ciesar " performed on the evening of Speech Day, in the presence of Lord and Lady Jersey and a distinguished company. The lads are represented in full costume, and look remarkably well as old Romans. If it were not invidious, there are one or two, perbaps, whom we might pick out as apparently fit to adorn the gladiatorial ling — but that possibly arises more from the lights and shades of the photographer's art than from any special ferocity ia the individual. Tbe kindly looks of the cleric in the centre reassure us. Another thing we learn from our Alma Mater seems to be the departure of the Sydney Native of the present day from the matter-of-fact primness that distinguished his predecessor of a quarter of a century ago. Then a jest or a scrap of badinage was received by the Native in a manner tbat reminded you of that supercilious young woman in Tenuj son's versea. It did not quite drive you to cut your throat, but it made you wish heartily you were somewhere else. The refinement and culture for which provision has been made of more recent ysars — and of which our Alma Mater is a sufficient witness, account for the improvement. The editors and sub-editors of our contemporary are to be congratulated on the creditable manner in which they hare done their work.