"THE FELLOWSHIP BOOKS."

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1824, 9 August 1913, Page 9

"THE FELLOWSHIP BOOKS."

The professed aim of the editor and authors of a new series, "The Fellowship Books," is "to recall' those simple and essential ideas by which we live and move amd have our. intellectual/being, in which rests nil that is best and most vital-in art and letters." "Comradeship." savs the general editorial foreword to the series, "is an aid to gladness, and joy 'in', widest commonalty spread' inav come to munv through tho message' of their fellows." A sample volume, "Springtime." bv 0. J. Tait, is sent mo by the publisher, B. T. Batsford, London, uer WhiteomH* and Tombs.ln outward 'garb the volume is a sheer delight 'to the eye, The type is of a laudable clearness and dignity, the ttflo paee is most tastefully e'esigned, and the binding, in bine anil gold possesses a quite notablodistinction. Prettier volumes than these "Fellowship Books" could not well be imagined. Mr. Tait writes pleasantly enough, quoting from the poets when desirable, and including ••some very,dainty verse of his own. He ingeniously symbolises the spring feeling In literature and life; his gospel is one of checrful contentment with simple, trutf. things, and although the thoughts he expresses may not be profound, they are essentially. wholesome and helpful, and tbeir expression is . jigveeably graceful. But though his quotations from Wordsworth, and Blake, ami-Horrid; (the "Fair Daffodils"), and Cloufrh are apposite and well 'chosen, I can hardly forgive the author of a book entitled "Springtime" failing to recall Edward Fitzgerald's littlo gem "The Meadows in Spring." whra-cin, after sinking the quiet, domestic pleasures of winter, he breaks out:

Thus,- then live I, Till 'mid all the (rloom . By heaven! the bold sunIs with, me in the room, Shining, shining! Th9n tho douds part, Swallows soaring between; The spring is alive, • And tho meadows are green! I jump up like mad Break tho old pipe in twain, And away to the meadows Tho meadows again! Walt Whitman's lines:— 0 the gleesomo saunter over fields anil hillsides! Tho leaves and (lowers of the commonest weeds, the moist still freshness of tho tho woods, The exquisito smell, of the earth at daybreak, and all through the forenoon might also have found a place. in the sdiome. But in sixty-three pages, there is not much space to spare. Mr. 'fait liils given his renders a .charming little volume, very suitable, by tho way, for presentation purposes. Other volumes in tho first batch of tho "fellowship Books" nro "Friendship," by Clifford Bax; "The Joy of tho Theatre," by Gilbert Cannan; "Divine Discontent," bv James

Guthrie; "The Quest of tho Ideal," by Grace Ithys; and "The Country," by Edward Tnomas. I notice that the next batch, to be published in November, will include volumes by Alice Meynell ("Childhood"), and Sir A. T. Qitillcr Couch ("Poetry"). These should both bo well worth reading. (Tho price is 2s. Gd.)