NOTES.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 775, 26 March 1910, Page 9

NOTES.

A splendid littlo thought from '."Ihe Seafarers," in L. J. Straker's "Poems": Only the moon, slow rising from thp s ea, : . Crowning with silver every dancing ivavo That rises joyous to her touch, and sinks ' So that its brother may be honoured too. In a Teview of a new book on Aristophanes the Springfield "Republican" makes the striking comment tnat "in a a way comedy : might be called the yellow journalism of the Greeks." "It was made a vehicle," that journal reminds us, "for personal attack and for malicious accusations against prominent people;" Tolstoy is now a man of eighty-one. but Mr. Henry George tells us in the "World's Work" that his mind is as active and clear as ever, and that he is at work upon .a new book. Asked what he thought about his own novels, he made the pathetic reply: "I believe I have forgotten what thoy were."

Sir. John Murray, calls attention in the "Bookseller" to the fact that Lord Byron did not write "Now Barabbas was a publisher," nor was tho' joke made aziinst his ' father. Thomas Campbell was tho perpetrator and another publisher was the'object of it. Mr. Murray has Lord Byron's Bible, and there is no such note in it, and tho passage to which the story refers bears no mark whatsoever against it.

Mr. Wells's "Ann Veronica" has been withdrawn from circulation by tho Beverley Public Library Committee. We gather from the "Yorkshire Evening Post" that at the same meeting at which this was decided upon the Beverley librarian advised that in future no work of fiction should, bo bought until it had stood the tost of 'twclvo months' criticism, and that this view was unanimously adopted!

Professor Gollancz, speaking at tho annual dinner of tho International Association of . Antiquarian .Booksellers' tho other evening, told an interesting little story as to how a literary: treasure caine into bis possession:

"On one occasion," ho said, "I went into a little corner placo iii a great main thoroughfare, and I saw a charming first edition of tbo first throe hooks of tho 'I'acrio Quceno.' I noticed on tho title page two little Greek words, which'l found a littlo puzzling; but I found it might bo a translation of tho Latin words ad se—-i.e., to himself,which ' tho ...author miglit.havc written if ho had only, kept tho first copy'; and I found I possessed Spenser's first copy of tho 'Faerie Quceno'; and I am glad 1 possess it still, though I am afraid it, is quite passible I need not possess it long. Meanwhile it is very safely looked after,. and. I. would like to aay it is not in nrj private houM.".

We are to have, in tile near future, from tliio pen of Miss E. E. Major and tho publishing houso of Messrs. Nisbet, a sketch-.of tho life-story of Lord Morloy. • Tho most interesting portion of tho monograph (tho "Westminster Gazette" notes) will, of course, ho that in which his literary work and influence, is dealt with. Not'many of Lord Morlcy's admirers are familiar, it may bo assumed, with a. paper ho read forty-sis years ago in his native town of Blackburn, entitled "Remarks on Heading." Hero are one or two of his closing sentences, the truth of which ho lias verified in his own exporieuco: "As a. stimulus of flagging energies, as an inspirer of lofty aim, literature stands unrivalled. . .... Other resources are not availablo to every circumstance, at all times, and in all ages; but literature is an adornment to prosperity, a refuge arid a solace in adversity; in private it is our delight, in public our help; and whether at home or abroad, whether in town or country, by day or by night, it remains an abiding joy and employment."

Everyman's Library has already become something of a national institution, and no publishing venture of a similar kind, in this country has ever been followed with tho same general interest and expectancy. Fifty new volumes were. to be added to tho series last month. Among them are Rawlinson's "Herodotus," in three volumes; Dryden's. "Plutarch," ' revised by Clough, also in three volumes; John Wonlman's Journal; Hazlitt's "Lectures on tho English Comic Writers"; Florio's "Montaigne," in three volumes; Count Lutzow's •■ "History of Bohemia"; Romesh. Dutt's condensed translation of the "Ramayaua," and the "Mahabharata"; Bates's "Naturalist on the Amazon"; and Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations," in two volumes. Among; the fiction volumes may be noted Balzac's "Catherine do Medici," Henry Ejngsley's "Geoffrey Hamlyn," Hawthorne's "Marble Faun," and a volume containing Daudet's "Tartarin of Tarascon" and "Tartarin on tho Alps." A usefulbook should be "A Biographical Dictionary of, English Literature," newly compiled and brought down to the present time. Dickens,' Macaulay, Thackeray, Hugo',' Gait, Miss Edgewcrth, Spenser,' and Goldsmith are among the other authors represented in this every interesting list of announcements.

Canon. Jessop tells in the "Athenaeum" the story of a, lost. copy of George Meredith's littlo volume of his. early poems, published by' John W. Parker and Son, West Strand. More than' fifty years ago (1857) he started with his wife and sister to revisit Heidelberg. He carried tho book in his pocket,, and they spent a nisht at St. Goarhausen. Next morning they pursued their way up tho Rhino, when, to his dismay, he: discovered he, had left the precious volume behind him. Eight or ton years later, he was put out at. St. Goarhausen again '..with no other object in view than to recover the book ho loved. But tho landlord vowed that ho had never seen it. The Canon thinks it may. still bo in the keeping, of the finder, and, if so, he asks that it bo restored to it 3 lawful' owner.' Canon Jessopp mentions that he had five copies of this notable little volume. One of them he lent to Meredith abow; the time of his second marriage. Meredith asked for the loan-of it to read to his new wife. When Canon Jessopp, receivod it back ho was obliged to have it bound—a circumstance which' would soem to show that it had-been pretty frequently- read. Once, in response to Canon JessoppV expression, of' .wonder, at. the cold reception which these early poems had met wi'tlv-Mcredith: said, "not without a certain \ bitterness ' of tone." "My dear, fellow,' I . made a bundle of thorn and burnt them all" '

There can- be littlo doubt (says the "Manchester Guardian") that Mr. Percy Lubbock,js .right-in'his contention' that "character, is.the corner-stone of fiction." :It :is tbojbook which prcV scnts the'most ..interesting and convincing types of human'being.that appeals most-strongly.to the reader; -and to which ho'most willingly returns. In that case novels that lay their chief stress upon any/other of .the various ingredients that may go 'to the composition of a work of fiction 'donot belong to the highest class. Thus, tho novel'of incident,' so called, although a most work,, belongs only to tho second best "class, be-: cause, however striking, each incident' may be in itself. and however cleverly incident may be woven into incident, yet in tho long run weariness must.supervene . unless tho successive incidents light up successive aspects of the hero's character. In the same way the novel of_ plot has its dangers. Indeed, intricacy in : the plot and excellence in the characters are very difficult to combine. A novelist who has invented his plot first is apt to find, however carefully he may have adapted his characters to it, that he has created an.iron framework into which they will not en-, tor without firm but gentle compulsion. On.the:other hand, one'who begins by. inventing characters, and then allowing them to act as they will, may soon find that they make mischief onough to keep tho story going, but that they cannot be induced to como to' an end. Scott himself sometimes has obvious difficulty in getting the young people to marry, while there.is a legend of a writer of fiction whoso creatures so entangled the fablo that he lured them all into the same steamer, put them to sea, and blew them all up in mid-Atlantic.