LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1776, 14 June 1913, Page 33

LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

To Correspondents. . : . Several replies held over. ; ,Yet Another New Review. Yet another new English weekly i ejj 6lT has- madeits appearance. This is The New Statesman, a weekly review of Eolitics and literature,, a copy of which as reached me from the publishers. Ihe New Statesman" is in format much the game as "The Nation," the Liberal weekly which, yota remember, succeeded. The •Speaker." "The Statesman" represents, so far as. I can, see,, the views of the Fabian Collectivists, and will, of course, ,mdke a speciality of social problems. Amongst the contributors to the first issue, which, were I a journalist, I should probably consider a trifle too heavy, are Mr. and Mrs. Sydney Webb, Hubert Bland, Harold Massmgham, W. H. Davies, and the Socialist poet, Desmond M'Cnrthy. - It is generally understood that the great G.B.S. is interested in "The Statesman," and I fancy the article entitled "Wireless Indignation is from his pen. For a Socialist paper, the tone of "The Statesman" is decidedly quiet, evHL to the verge of tameness, but 'possibly it will wako up a little later on. 'At sixpence, however, it is rather dear. The book reviews are rather stilted, in stylie, and some' of the so-called literary "news" is very stale. Still in a first number much must always be overlooked. In the literary supplement theTe is an excellent article by Havieloqk Ellis, on Remy de Gourmont, about whom J. had something to say a few weeks ago in this oolumn. i ■

A Clever Parody. Most of the articles in "The New Statesman" are heavy rather than nght. but the editor is to be congratulated upon having discovered a clever parodist who under the heading "How They Do It, contributes a capital burlesque of Mr. Hilaire Belloc's literary style and little mannerisms. I quote the verses in. full ;— At. Martinmas, when I was born, Hey diddle, Ho diddle, Do, There came a cow with a crumpled horn, Hey diddle, Ho diddle, Do. She stood agape and said, My dear. You're a very fine child for this time of year, '~-., „ And I think you'll have a taste in beer. Hey diddle, Ho diddle, Ho, do, do, do, Hey diddle, Ho diddle. Do, A taste of beer I've certainly got. Hey diddle, Ho diddle, Do, A very fine taste that the Jews have not, Hey diddle, Ho diddle, Do, And though I travel on the hills of Spain, And Val-Pont-Coto and Belle Fontaine, With lusty lungs I shall still maintain Hey diddle, Ho diddle. Ho, do, do, do, Hey diddle, Ho diddle, Do,

S» Sussex men, wherever yon be. Hey diddle,'Ho diddle, Do, I pray you sing this song with Hey diddle, Ho diddle, Do; That of all the shires she is tho queen, And they sell at the "Chequers" at Chanctonbury Green Th# very best beer that evor was seen. Hey Dominus, Domine, Dominum, Domini, Domino, Domino. Kipling in Demand. Despite the high price of the new Bombay edition of Kipling's works—23 volumes at a guinea each—the whole edition of 1050 copies was taken up by tho trade before the day of publication. Sets are now at two guineas premium. One Wellington bookseller sont orders for two sets, but has received word that they can only be supplied at' tho advance mention-

ed. The probability is that by the end of the year sets will be worth not far off thirty guineas. Stray Leaves. A new life of Mirabeau, by the new French Premier, M. Bartliou is about to bo published, in an English translation, by Heinemann. . I have on moro than one occasion drawn attention to that excellent scries, Methuen'a Shilling Library.. A recent addition is, I see, what, is far and away the best of Mr. Hilwro Belloea books. "Hills and the Sea." Belloc is at his very best in what might bo called visiialio.i fnnnomnlir and some of the tiny collection makeclelightful reading. Up to tho present Kills and the Sea" lias only been procurable u a five-shilling edition. « t *

"Chance the Piper," Airncs and Egerton Castle's latest novel, is a vo in.of dramatic stories, ranging m periodjnd scenery from the days of tho- flap* of London to the Kegency. but throughout runs one leading idea, the far-reaching effects of « seeming freak of chance >n bringing out the man and the houi. "Have you read Freckles?" said one young lady to another at an afternoon tea K the allusion, of course, being to tho popular American novel .of that nam*. S >fo," came tho repl.V, "rame are brown! A good many people. "Liber" included have thought that Mr. Men PhUpotts was influenced in the writing of his earMist" before he had read a single line of Hardy. # , „ Last week I noticed the. republication very old novel. "Expiation " by E. Phillips Opoenheim. It was written nearlv twenty years ago, and is but poor stuff. TheM • Oppenheim of to-day tarns out very different books In the las "Sphere to -diand I notice that Mr. Clement K. Short" warmly commends Mr. Oppen heim's latest story. "Tantalhon, ]ust published by Hodders.

A sequel to Morley's famous work, The Rise of the Dutch Republic/ 'has been written by a Dutch historical Air H. V!. Van Loon. The title is The Fall of the Dutch Republic." Constable will publish an English translation.

Tennis players should note the appearance of what is described by English papers as a well-written little book, Iho Story of the Davis Cup, by A. Wallis Myers (Methucn's, Is.).

The Strindberg flood continues. Grant Richards announces "Easter, a Play and Stones," bv Strindberg, translated by V. S: Howard

, That clever literary gossiper, Mr. Arthur Pendennys, who conducts a smart little trade magazine, "Hooks of To-day and Bookß of To-morrow," for the firm of Hatchards, has sometliing to say in praise of fools. It is better bv far, lie says, to praise fools than to condemn them, those who condemn them mercilessly, as Popo did, are apt to be pilloried themselves as fools. A study of the fool in literature would reveal much that- was kind and attractive, and oertainly much that is entertaining. Besides I opes JJunciad," and as opposed to it, may be set TCra=mus's "Praise of Folly, a wise work l,y 'a heavy Teuton. But the maxims of our forefathers are now regarded by many as hocus-pocus. AVe manufacture maxims in these days to suit our cwn foolishness, and, having read them to our friends, expect them to say how wise we are. '

Make a neat epigram, and two.people in a hundred .laugh; clap a false noso on your face .'and bray like an ass, and ninety-eight split their sides-John. Trevena. # When all is said and done in the matter of high ideals, we love people not because they are angels, hut" because they are men»and women—E. F. Benson. 4* # . The catalogue of the Browning Letters -sale-included also letters which the poet had received from some of In inm'ous contemporaries. In one, Carlyle expresses contempt for Shelley, thereby, it may' be remembered, holding the same views as those of Buskin. Tennyson describes himself as "physically the most unbumptious of men .and authors. Thackeray, in a charming letter, refuses to accept Mrs. Browning's "Lord Walter for the "Cornh'ill," and Mrs. Gtoskell deplores Charlotte Bronte's lonely life at Haworth.