BOOKS AND AUTHORS

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 235, 27 June 1908, Page 12

BOOKS AND AUTHORS

VERSES OLD AND NEW. "THE LOST GARDEN." Somewhere hidden in the world's yaet distance,: . 1 here's .a little garden, lying grebn and cool,' Hazol-bushes rouna it, fringe or silver birches, Willows drooping softly o'er a lilicd pool, ' Somewhere hidden safely, roads a-tangle near _ it, . , .Winding lanes that 6kirt. it, leading far. : aivay, Onco, just once, I found it, , found that trel-' lised gateway, . Wandor'd down white pathways in the month of Hay. Lavonder and lad's lore scented all the breezes/ , Birds sang all of lovetime in the cherry's • ; • snow, ' Trees thoir bp'de-veils wearing : drifted bloom* ■ ■ of I Laughed a little streamlet 'mid. its silv'ry ■ -\ i.. ■ flow,' Mists of blue lay softly' in the tender dis-' ' : _ tancc, _ \ Fairy bolls a-tinklo horder'd all the way, Long, so long, I wandor'd where the white .-■ ■ glades led mo ■ . Thru' the dreamland garden in the month of May. .-' Ttro' the world's far country, hand in hand - ■ with niem'ry, ' .■) ,'Long, so lonp, I've sought it, sought that gardon fair, .< ! - • Where, whito flame of lilies blazed beside the: ; gatoway, | And/the breath of lilac drifted down the ; < '■ air,

Could I once more enter,' never would I leave • . it, '■ ' • ■ • Home of bees and blossoms, home of Spring . and day. Earth might woo me vainly with its thousand y : voicos,. ' Lovo : from that lost garden !• calls in month of May, —"Pall Mall Gazette." ' 0N HAVING KNOWN AN ASTEONOMER. I think some constancy was his . Of worlds that move from ours apart, Hushing with - deeper, harmonies Tho rioting passions of the heart. ... Though darkness brooded on .the way; . • Wherein his measured course was run, . He dwelt in a screner d;iy With movements of a groater sun. And we who know him' came to know Sonie touch of that high silent grace - Which let . no clouded tempest blow The calming starlight from his face. No. intiriiate dream can give release From life's 'enforced and narrow bars; Yet was there in .that bosom's peace 1 Something not sundered from his stars. < —Arthur Davison Ficke. ffHEN SHALL.I CEASE TO LOVE THEE? When all the roses Jupe can'blow, . A 1 "}"11 the blossoms, born in May, . And all the"tender buds that grow ' Shall lift their leaves and float away. ,Whon winter winds the wide world rove, . ; , Till earth neglects to . welcome spring, [ When all the birds within the grove Forgot that once they , used-to sing. ..When the proud eagle stoops to build v Its nest upon the lowly ground, ■: The tender, dove with,passion filled . Sweeps wildly up to heights unfo'und. Whon truth and honour downward ring, And leave the world to endless night, ...When love and : every,lovely thing ■ ' Have passed for over out of sight. —Could I forget ev'n then? Ah no! Me^inks..lacrofis -that darkened, •> .'My loneljr star would brighter glow, V • And guide thee to my heart's embrace. .. ( . —A.C.A., 1 in the "Glasgow Herald." i

p; ... ; l?T?: $ ARE BOOKS DISAPPEARING)! ■'It is an .interesting speculation by what «eans the book lost its old position in this sonntry," y/ritos. Mr. 5, Bolloc, M.P,, .in thfe ; interesting May issue of the "Bibliophile," the now ■ magazine for - the collector ftn.d general reader. "This is not," says Mr. - Belloc,."oiily an'interosting speculation),but one which; nearly, concerns a vital matter. .For if men fall it\to the habit of neglecting true books in an'old a.lld traditional civilisatipi),. the inaccuracy of their judgments and the illusions to ivmch they .will- bo subject iriustMiicrease.v : "Tb" take buton'e example: history: I Tho less the true historical book is read and the iflore men depend, upon ephemeral statement, .the more will, legend crystallise,'the harder will it be to destroy in the general Blind some comforting;lie, _an.d the great pbi bet lesson of politics (which is an accurate :powledge of how men havo acted in tho past) will become at last tinkriown. • 1 \ ."There are :uiany, especially among' younger men, who would contest the promises •! upon which all this is founded. They, may point out, for instance, that the actual: number of bound books bought in»a given time at. pioseiit is much larger than: ever it was bo-. lore. They may point put. again, and with justice, that ,tbe proportion' of the popular tion which reads bonks,of 'any sort,: though-: perhaps not larger than it wis 300 years ugo, is very much larger _thiiir it was one hundred years ago. And it may further be affirmed with trillli that the range of subjects noiv covered, by books produced and sold is much wider than ever it was before, ■' ■

•. All this lis truo; and yet it is, also 'true that the book as a factor in our!civilisa-' lion has not only declined but has almost disappeared. "Were many more dtigfj to ha possessed in England than; are now possessed, bufcs wore they to be all mongrels, among -.jvhich none could be found capable of retrieving, or of following a fox or a„hare with any discipline, ono would, have a.■tight *9 ~? a y. that tho dog as a factor of our civilisation had declined. Were many more men 1 in ICngland able to ride horses moro or less, but were'tho number of thoso who rode constantly and for plcasuro enormously •to.diminish, and were tho new' millions who could just manage to keep on horsebackto prefer animals without spirit on which ■ they would feel safe, ono would have a right' to that the horso was declining as a' factor:in our civilisation; and this is exactly. Miat has happened with the book. The excellence of a book and its value as a book dopond upon two faotors, which are usually, though not alwavs, united in varied proportions: .first, that 'it should put something of valuo to tho reader, whether of value as a discovery and an enlargement ? . , w,s mor of value as a new omphasis S IP?",?! 1 d and _sound rao rals; secondly,' that this thing added or ronewod in human lite should bo presented in such a manner Bs to givo permanent aosthctic pleasure.' . It may be said with truth that hi our poration no singlo first-rate piece of hiajory Jias enjoyed an appreciable salo. That tt -ij t^° J c{ Franco, ifc is not truo of the united btates, it is not evon true of Germany in her intellectual declino, but' it is true, of England, History is an excellent test. No man will road history, at least history of an instinctive sort, unless ho is a mar., who can read a hook, and desires to : pO3£OSS 0110.