LITERARY NOTES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 104, 25 January 1908, Page 13

LITERARY NOTES.

'iW most striking featuro. of the lato 'Francis' Thompson's poetry was his free uso of extraordinary Latinisms. The following lines, which appeared in . a London journal in the Jubilee Year, 1897, hardly exaggerate tho defects of his qualities. Incidentally they mark tho'time when his popularity was at its height:— v ' Hymn we our Queen, . With all our viaual shouts accipitrine; Our Queen of arcane soul, Wearing the sealed and curchecl inaureole! Let tho mute monstrance of our vaultages, With songs gnld-tesserate bo, dove-nunciocd i Let mo embrace uneuphrasied surceaso From shunless fardels like this Jubileeodo. And,so on. Amongst others, Mr. Chesterton has been writing of the dead poet. "There was ono of his poems," said Mr. Chesterton, who was quoting from memory, "of which the imago was so vast that it was literally difficult for a time to tako it in; he was describing the 'evening earth, with its mist and fume and fragrance, and represented the wholo as rollms upwards like a snioko; then suddenly lie called the whole ball of the earth a thurible, and said that some gigantic spirit swung it slowly before God. That is ; t-ho case of tho imago too largo for comprehension." The remarkable lyric passago to which Mr. Chesterton referred was evidently the following from a poem on "Autumn" "Tho calm hour strikes on yon 'golden gong, ■ In tones of floating and mellow light A spreading summons to evensong; Keo how there The cowled night Kneels on tho Eastern sanctuary-stair. What is this feel of incense everywhere? Clings it round folds of the blaiich-aroiceil clouds, , Unwaftcd by tho'solemn thurifer, The mighty spirit unknown That swingeth the slow earth before the embannered throne." A British contemporary, being asked "What is the longest word in the English languago?" said tho conundrum was a difficult oiie. Renders may tako thoir choice of tlio following:—(1) From the "Liverpool Daily Courier," circa 1870—"Velocipedestrianisticalistinarianologist." . (2) From an Edinburgh paper—"Ultradisestablishmentarists." (3) From "Wyiitoun'a Chronicle"— "Honorilicalitudinatibus." (4) From Archbishop Benson's Diary—"Antidisestablishmcutarians." (5) From tho Welsh— '' LianfairpwllgwyngyllogorychwyrndrobwHandysiliogocoh." (G) Rabelais—"Antipericametanaparbeugedampbicribratioiiis" (Bk. 11., chap. vii.). (/) From ai Highland paper— "Antitransubstantiationistically." ' In describing the speech of Speaker Cannon in defence of tho rules of order adopted in the House of Representatives, a New York nowspaper which prides itself on its good English says that tho substance of it was that "if you don't like it you can lump it." Doubtless (remarks tho "Independent") that is idiomatic if somowhat slangy. Tho Oxford Dictionary knows no derivation for lump in that sense, and thinks it uiiornate-poctic, like grump. It finds' no illustration of it before 1833, and then from New England. Ono might almost suppose some Chinese tongue caught it from the Latin "Si non lubeat rumpatur," which is found in Milton's reply to Salmasius. Tliero comes from Jarrold (London) a little booklet, which is tho blank-verse poem "The Promise of the Star," by David Ross, a Now Zealand writer. The poem is an expansion and revision of "Immanuel," ono of tlio longest pieces in the author's earlier volume of verses issued under the titlo pf

Afterglow." Mr. Ross took a very paribus thomo for his "Immanuel." Tho tempting of Christ by tho fiend, dramatically interrupted by tho suppliant intervention of the mother of mankind, and ending on an unscaleable height, of renunciation—that is a subjeefc not lightly to be undertaken. For all its dramatic fascination, it does not-give itself to the poet's pen as it does to tho silent heart. .Somo themes cannot bear development in 'any 'medium grosser than; unspoken thought. Accordingly, Mr. Ross jars as expected. This is not, to say that lie has uttorly failed, for his poom is rich in felioi-i tous phrases, moving eloquenco, and exalted omotion. For faults of technique : - "Like a lone nightingale, she, gleaning, sang" "And in .the dark hour that precedes tho ! dawn," • "Of some uneasy lamb—and other sounds 1 -." "Hunger came too, that, human need for food" Respectively awkward, "'flat,' slovenly, prosaic—they are four bad samples. But tho pendulum' swings to i the other- extreme. Thus:— ... "And in tho night when white star cataracts "Foamed-through'the'sky." "That cursed lake , "That lays on.Sodom's lips its waveless gall." "Ere Night, struck blind tho ..tfith all her stars." "In deep, unfathomed wells of dusk, "There lay twin moons of Sorrow in His eyes." "Far on the'Mount'of Olives little winds "Whispered each other of the laggard morn: "Tho ' codars shook themselves away ' from sleep .. . ~ < . ■ ■■> Nor are fine images wanting:— "X have: been watching God's great dial stone, The.,ceaseless and unwearied, firmament, Marking tho march of. the. retreajin? night,. Not' with reluctant sjiadows but white suns; And as Aldebaran set of, Sirius roso, Slid into placej and rested, beckoning Tolsomo flowcr world, impatient on tho marge, It seemed a bell gave tongue—not brazenly— But in whito silver,/thro' tho Univorse." Tho. author's alterations from his . original are not all improvements. The. curious may' find them interesting. In tho concluding'extract .reprinted on this pago, tho final,word "burned" is a well-judged revision of tho original "rose.''

For somo . tiino,. (says tho "Atohison Globo") members of tho Continued Story Club (composed of women who carry in their heads from one month to anothor heroines and heroes, left , in, all sorts of .hazardous, and perilous circumstances till tho next month's magazino is due), havo „ been watching with eagerness for tho, appearanoo of '.'Appletoil's,'' that they might got another instalment of. "Tho Younger Set," 'a story, as', lurid as . a' sunset painted by an amateur. The (igonv ended with this month's dose, and tho hero- and horoino wero unitpd'in' tho following closing paragraph:— "Sbo stood waiting as lie camo up thru the purplo gloom of tho moorland, tho stars' brilliancy silvering her—waiting—yielding in pallid" silence to his arms, crushed' in them, looking into his eyes, dumb, wordless. Then, slowly, tho palo sacrament, changed, as tho . wild roso tint crept into her her arms clung, to his : shoulder-s, higher,' tightened arouud his neck. . And from her lips,' she gayo into his keeping, soul and body, guiltless as God gavo thorn, to havo and to hold beyond such incidents as death and tho eternity that no man clings to save in the arms of such as she." i .' And how. (asks tho "Globo") in tho naiiie of all that's holy, can a husband expect his wifo to got up,and fry liver and eggs, and wipe tho baby's noso, in a spirit of contentment, after reading stuff liko that? In tho "Contemporary Review" for Dccomber Mr. Edmund Gosso ' discusses tho change of tho critics' attitudo towards tho lato Sully Prudbomme, tho most popular of French poets, in 1870,. and tho most heartily in his last years. Mr. Gosse enquires. into tho question whether thero can bo an absoluto standard of criticism, and ho concludes: — ; ... "J? it,v,however, tjuito, so - cortain , after .all, that there is no standard? It must bo .admitted that thero seems to be no fixed rule of taste, not even, a uniformity gf practice or general ■ tendency ; to agreement in particular-cases. But tlio whole study of tho'fine arts would lead to deSpair if wo allowed ourselves to.accept this admission as implying that no conceivable principlo of tasto exists. Wo may not be ablo to produce it, liko n yard-measure, and submit works of imagination to it, unco, and for .-ill, in tlio eyes of a consternated public. But when wo observe, as wo must allow, that art is no bettor at' ono ajje than at another, but only different; that it is subject to.modification, but certainly'not to dovelopment; may wo n<)t safely accept this stationary quality as a proof that thero does exist, out of sight, unattained and unattainable, a positivo norm.of poetic beauty? Wo cannot define it, but in each generation all excellence uni3t bo tho result of a relation to.it. It is tho moon, \heavily wrapt up in clouds, and impossible exactly to locato, yot rovealcd by tho. light it tbrotrs on distant portions of the sky. At all events; it appears to mo that this is the only theory by which we can justify a continued interest in poetry when it is attacked, now on ono side, now on anothor, by tho vicissitudes of fashion." The seventy-fifth anniversary of tho founding of "Chambers's Journal" occurs next month. "The Glasgow Herald" has an interesting note of reminiscence:—lt. is not easy in theso days when magazines seom to bo born and to die, not singly, but in dozons annually, to imagino tho intellectual condition of Scotland, or the periodical ministrations to its betterment, when in the year of tho great Reform Kill "Chambers's Journal" inado its first appearance. Tho "Kclinburgh" and "Ulaclswodd"' flourished, as they continue to do till this day; hut "Chambers's" supplied a kind of literary and general'culturo for popular uso which was otherwiso altogether lacking; and tlio editor is not immodest in asking his readers to "recognise in it a v - living stream of instruction and entertainment which has liowed for three-quarters of a century; has refreshed, stimulated, and inspired i'ts millions of readers; and is still flowing with scarcely diminished volume." Tho original Chamberses had business capacity.as well as. literary tasto and ability, and a' member of the family has always been, as ono still is, in tho editorial chair. The most notable of their associates in editorship was Mr. James Pavn, tho novelist,; less known men wore Mr. Leitcli Ritchio and Mr. John Russell, tho author of "Tho Haigs of Bemersydo," referred to by Dr. John Brown / in a letter to Lady Minto. It says a good deal for tho fame of "Chambers's" in those early days that it should havo attracted to its pages Georgo Meredith and Thomas Hardy, 6ach of whom had his first published work printed in tho "Journal." Mr. Meredith's "Chilliauwallah" appeared in 18-19 and Mr. Hardy's "How I Built,' Myself a House"— which now serves chielly to- recall tho novelist's early profession—in 1865. A list of contributors, which includes names liko Hugh Miller, Mary Russell Mitford, David Masson, Mrs. Crailc, Sir Walter Besant, Mrs. Oli,pliant, and Grant Allen, to namo only somq of tho more notable of those whoso work is done, ought to bq all inspiration to any editor. Mr. H. G. Wells, to whose prophetic romances wo referred last week (says tho "Daily Mail") is at work on another one, of which the first chapters will be published in tho "Pall Mall Magazine" next January. It will bo entitled "The War iu tlio Airj" and will, of course, deal with dyinginachincs. Wo confess to being rather tired of living-machines in fiction', but wo havo lio doubt that Mr. Wells will interest us in his ideas on tliMu in spito of ourselves. Wo believe in tho "heavier-tlian-air principlo" in the "vnlors" themselves, but not in tho allied fiction. Wo hope also that thero will not bo too much bloodshed, ami that what there is will not, be too realistic. Let it bo of tho kind sung by the poetic villains:— Our past is black beyond compare. Our hands are stained wilh gore; You know the sort of stuff we mean, That stains the dungeon floor. The slain is made of red, red ink, It wasn't there before. It's sixpence each to come and stand Inside the dungeon door. It will bo six shillings in this case, and we trust that tho entertainment wdl bo as harmless.