NEWS AND NOTES.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1437, 11 May 1912, Page 9

NEWS AND NOTES.

Some interesting paragraphs from the New York "Post's London correspondent: London, Jfarcli 30.—Every one knows how Darwin believed he had lost his appreciation of poetry through, his exclusive devotion to science. Dr. T. H. Warren, tlio new professor of poetry at Oxford, maintains that, in point of fact, this supposed atrophy was by no means complete. Darwin himself remained to tho end "a most poetical writer." The closing paragraphs of "The Origin of Species" wero worthy of Lucretius. Professor Warren does not sliaro tho general apprehension that the development of science will be hostile to literature In liis opinion, tho "scientific use of tho imagination," on which Tyndall discoursed forty years ago, will be balanced more and more by the imaginative use of science.

Thero are many things that surprised Matthew Arnold in his own day. but he would have been still more astonished if he could have foreseen tho strange phenomenon of his "Scholar-Gipsy" being quoted in a speech by a labour leader. J. Bamsay Macdonald, who as leader of the Labour party in' Parliament, is just now ono of tho most influential politicians in the country, introduced tho following lines into a recent address on the relation of tho churches to social problems. Light half-believers of our casual creeds, Who never deeply felt, nor clearly will'd, Whoso insight never has borne fruit in deeds, ■ Whose vague resolves never have been fulfill' 3; For whom each year wo see • Breeds new beginnings, disappointments Who hesitate and falter life away, And lose to-inorrow the ground won today.

Unfortunately, Mr. Macdonald described these lines as having been written a year or two ago by his friend, William Watson. That bciug so, perhaps it was as well for Matthew Arnold's comfort that ho did not possess the gift of foresight. The conflict between stylists and scho : larsthat was started by the, publication of the Revised Version of the Bible has lately been revived. Sir Edward Clarke, an eminent lawyer of pronounced ecclesiastical interests, will issue next week an edition of St. Paul's Epistles which has as it secondary title "The Authorised Version amended by tho adoption of such, of the alterations made'in the Revised Version .as .are necessary for corI recting material mistranslations, or makling clear the meaning of the inspired writer." Sir Edward makes a great point of his intention to "retain as far as possible tlio language with which our ears are familiar." He bases his qualifications for tho task upon the fact that his life has been spent "in endeavouring to put logical thought into clear, forcible, and harmonious language." His conception of what is required in a further revision h.is already been challenged by Canon Cruicksliank, professor ■of .classics at the University of Durham, who declares that "no scholar who deserves the name will be content with a new translation of the Bible which is not far more drastic thnn tho Revised Version, or will allow mere literary men to have the controlling voice in a matter of such importance alike from the religious arid the scientific point of view. Ihe changes which'he expects to bo made in any newer version will be changes based on fuller knowledgo of tho Koine, and on a revised estimate of all tho M.S. evidence. Much that is now to be found in the margin of tho Revised Version will then, he anticipates, take its placo in tho text. Of Sir Edward Clarke's enterprise, .Canon Cruickshank predicts: It may amuse his leisure; it will doubtless give pleasuro and profit to many readers; but .-it will not commend itself to the world of learning, which.,after all, should havo tho first word in matters of this sort, and I cannot help .thinking, the last, also." Ernest Thompson Seton is lecturing this winter in London, and is getting large audiences and good press notices. His stories, so ho explains, are both true and untrue. He describes what he has never seen and what no oue has ever seen, but ■he-keeps always to what is known either_ ! by obMrvation ? or"b'T'iiifereiice:'He claims;, therefore, for his. work that it is essentially scientific. To make it readable— what, bv the way, would Huxley or Tyndall have 'thought of the. implication?— he has'converted it into fiction by assigning to ono animal what has happened to many, and thus endowing it with a personality of its own. A few eccentricities in titles are worth, recording. Frederic Harrison contributed to ono of the magazines recently an attack on so-called realism in fiction, and headed his article "The Cult of tho i'oul." In another by a learned institution, too—this is quoted as "The Cult of the. Fowl." A bookseller reports having received n. written order for "The Shadow of a Shy Idiot. His guess that Mrs. Henry Woods "Shadow of Ashlydyat" was tho' book wanted proved to 'be correct. "Jacob Omnium . suggests in the "Bookseller" that • Panes and Ponalties" would be an appropriate title for a novel founded on a recent incident in the Suffragette • campaign.