TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11482, 15 January 1903, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

How ia the literary profesA Literary eion to be defined? The Pontiff. question has been raised in toe couise of an entertaining controversy recently earned on in tbe columns of "The Times" between Sir Edward Clarke, K.C., and Mr Edmund Gosse, the editor of the literature section of the new "Encyclopedia. Britannica.' , The dispute arose out of Six Edward Clarke's lecture upon "The Glory and tbe Decay of English literature ,1 during tne Victorian period. The lecturer referred in terms of admiration to the great writers of * past generation, and lamented the absence of any like them in the present. He cited two great poete, Tennyson and Browning; two great novelists, Dicker* and Thackery; two great historians, M&oattlay and Fronde; and aeked, in tones whiob implied that he must **k in vain, whe» were tbe poet*, the uovelfete, 4h» fciettfc

rians of to-day. Us* not* of •taction for —«» past wad depreciation of the present appears to have aroused the scorn of Mr Gosse, who at the recant "Encyclopedia" dinner in London ridiculed the Jecture. Sir Edward Clarke replied in a letter to "The Times," and in the controversy which followed Mr Gosee rather rashly challenged the right of Sir Edward to criticise literature, referring to him as '"a certain prominent advocate who did not always confine himself to hia own business." Sir Edward's reply to hie critic was very cutting *nd effective. "The iiterature of England," he concluded, "i* a fair and spacious domain, and it does not belong to Mr Edmund Qosse. He is totiner like the intelligent ruetio whose business it is to open one of the gatee. It ie a useful occupation, and I do not grudge Mr Edmund Gosee ita rewards. But I have nos used that entrance, and I know the estate well enough to find my way about »t without his assistance." Mr Augnsftine Birrell, K.C., hirasedf an emdnejrt criwc, capped Sir Edward Clarke's rejoinder by pointing out that many famous men of letteis had fallowed other pursuits in addition to the profession of literature. Cervantes had been a soldier, Montaigne v. country gentleman, Bacon a lawyer, Scott a lawyer, Izaak Wakon a draper, while Mr Goase himself was in the Board of Trade. Mr Birrelt'e comment on the point raised by Mr Gosee eeeme to hit off the situation with sufficient accuracy. "Six Edward Clarke," he eaye, "may be a good critic or a bad one; but to tell an educated man that he has no right to find fault with the books in the shops because he ie not an author by profession, but a distinguished member of the Bar, is to play the Pontiff with a vengeance." Consequent on the Meat-Eating publication of Mr in Australia. Cog Wan's statistics as to the meateating proclivities of Australians, a good deal is being said in the Melbourne paper* just now as to the consequences of such a diet, and incidentally about the badness of Australian cookery. We referred yesterday to Dr. GresswelTs views as to the cause of the excessive consumption of meat, in which he extenuated the habit as being due to the sunny nature of the climate. Dr. John Williams, who also gave his opinions to an interviewer, found no such excuse. Most Australians, he thinks, and especially Australian children, eat far too much meat. "A diet consisting principally of meat forces the development of children at an undue pace, and tends to promote prematurity in both sexes. Chil dren .who are fed freely on meat arrive at the period of adolescence at an earlier age than those fed principally on a farinaceous diet. They bloom at an earlier date, and, as an inevitable consequence, they wither at an earlier date, than persona in whose cam the process of development has not been thus unduly stimulated." He believes thai, diet ought to be adapted to climate, and that the Australian climate demands the consumption of less meat and more farinaceous foods and fruit than is toe custom at present. He goes so iar as to express hearty approval of the practice of abstaining from meat altogether on one day a week. " The religion of an important section of the community enjoin* thiv practice, and it k, in my opinion, *n ordinance of health as well as of religion." Unfortunately, however, while fasting in spring is, he thinks, beneficial to health, fasting in autumn, the season at which Lent occur* here, ie not «o. Inter alia Dr. Williams remarked that the evil of a heavy meat diet is aggravated by the villainous cooking which i* common in Austtirfaa. This wholesale condemnation Australian of Australian cookery found Cookery, hearty support in some remarks made by Mrs Pawcett Story, the Government "instructress" in cookery. She agreed tihat Australian cookery is "deplorable." One reason why it is so much worse than in England is that "no tradition of good cooking (has ever arisen here, and Australian women have grownup to believe that on* w*y of cooking is as good as another." This, she t&inks, is because people had to live very roughly in the early days in Australia. "In England, though the Average woman until recent yean toad no scientific knowledge of cookery, she had the traditions which were handed down from mother to daughter, and consequently she cooked fairly well without really understanding the art. The old traditions of good cooking and careful 'housekeeping have not yet come to an end in (England, but they have never had a beginning in Australia." It is not quite clear, however, why emigrants to Australia should lave lost them traditions of cookery on the voyage from England. Quite as harsh things la&ve been said <f average cookery as were ever said aoout Australian, and one is inclined to attribute the superior state of the art in England less to tradition than to the invaluable service* rendered to the national digestion by ecnoole of ooofcery. Another cause of Australian inferiority, according *U> Mrs Story, is the extreme eradeness of the cooking appliances, wthile want of cleanliness is another fertile source of bad cooking. She had a good word to say for the useful gas-stove, by which the perfection of roasting, attained by a roast-ing-jack in front of good open fire, can be more nearly obtained than by any other metood. If tibe meat is cooked on a shelf in an ordinary oven, "one side is usually sodden, and tihe other » overdone". Boast meat, she remarked, is much more digestible than boiled, and grilled meat is-the most digestible of all. She stigmatised the frying-pan a* "the curse of Australia," and declared that while a frying-pan ie a good servant, "it is a very bad thing when ,\, becomes mistress of the kitchen." Besides eating too much meat and coofclng H badly, Mrs Story accused Australians of further taxing their digestions by eating too few fresh vegetables, &ud with habitually eerving them badly-cooked and waterlogged. She deeply - regretted that the movement for retreucbmeni had prevented the establishment of College of Domestic Economy an. Victoria, and really, in view of her denunciations of Australian cooks, A seems unfortunate thai the Government oaimot afford to do something more than is being done to save tie digestions of posterity.