LIBER'S NOTE BOOK.

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

LIBER'S NOTE BOOK.

"The Human Slaughter-House." There was recently published in Gota littlo book, "Menschenenschlacthaus' ("Tho Human Slaughter-Houso"), which at ouco created a great sensation, over 100,000 copies being sold within two or three months. An English translation of the book now reaches me from the publishers (Hutchinson and Co., per Whitcombe and Tombs). Wilhelm Lamszus, the author of the work, is a master at one of the great German public schools. Shortly after the publication of his book he was l'elioved of his duties, but-Mis now-, says the translator, Mr. Oaklej' Williams, in his "Foreword," been reinstated in his old position. "The Human Slaughter-House: Scenes from the War' that is Sure to Come," is, I may say at once, a thrilling . denunciation of. modern warfare —"iiiurde<r by machinery," as the author puts it. It is supposed to be an account of a middle-aged German married man, father of a family, who is called up as a reservist to shoulder Ills gun and set off for the front. I have read not a few descriptions of real and imaginary modern warfare, but never anything so frankly horrible as those'contained ; .in this little book, by Wilhelm Lamszus. I can only compare the author's pen pictures of war .to those,'-done iu'.oil, by- tlie great. Russian ;painter, Verestchagin. Tolstoi and Zola have dealt with the horrors of war, and an Englishman, tho author of "The Green Curve," has hot shrunk from giving us pictures of war yet more ghastly than tlioso to bo found in Tolstoi, or in Zola's story, "La Debacle."' But in the pages of "The Human Slaughter-House" horrors are heaped on horrors to such a de-pee that tho reader requires a strong will and an equally-.strong.-, stomach if" he perseveres with, tho ghastly record of human suffering to tho batter end where the imaginary' narrator, driven mad by the sight of so much bloodshed, blows out his own . brains. , Herr Lamszus does not say that war under certain conditions is not defensible, but his book bitterly attacks those'who-make war on insufficient grounds, and it is clear he thinks that is how most modern wars have originated.' Tho book, which was specially ccmnionded by the Peace Conference, held at Geneva last year, as having "furnished the cause of peace with a weapon of considerable'importance," is certainly a most remarkable' and striking production. (Price, in paper covers, Is. net.)

A New Zeiland Writer. I am sorry I cannot congratulate Mr. Carlylo'Ferguson, who, sO .1 gather, from the introduction to hisbook, is a Dunedin journalist, 'upon either the subject-mat-ter of or the literary .style displayed in'his story "Mario Levant'' ("Whitcombe and Tombs). The author states that tho story is reproduced, in the main, from a manuscript headed ."The, Jonathan- "Wells," dlleSed : 'to r Bceif found in a sailor's wooden chest, purchased by Mr..Ferguson,'"'® u 'casual ijiood, at tho city of .Dunedin (New Zealand) - railway station .in 1910." The hero jf • the story is a young sailor, who, in 1832, finds himself- at the Bluff,- whero he is robbed at-a.liquor, shanty* and ships aboard the brimntine Marie, a' whaler trader, owned and ; commanded by Captain- Levant. "Wells discovers and- exposes a plan on the part of soine of the crew to seize tile ship, but at first is not believed. The mutiny takes place, there is much blood, shed, and ;the ' Princess Mario is burned, the hero and a sailor named Anderson and the captain s daughter, Marie, boing the sole survivors of the ship's company. They kind on Campbell Island, where they meet a mysterious old man, th's last of a pai;ty,of/ sealers' employed by an English company. By' this time the young sailor and the girl are in love, .but beforo they can be taken "off tho island Mario dies, not before sho has narrated at'considerable length-the story of Jjer life. Captain Levant, it appears, was none other than-the, true Louis, the Seventeenth of France, tho. Prince who has hithci'to'beori regarded as that monarch being "a child discovered in the slums of Paris, whoso only need was royal garments to make him a living facsimile'of tho new King." .'Mr. Ferguson can certainly take credit .to himself, or give credit to the real or supposititious young sailor, Jonathan "Wells,, for tho ingenuity in which Marie's claim to royoi blood is worked out, but the story as. a wholo ,is rather tedious, incidents which, in tho hands of Herman Melville.. Clark Russell, or Joseph Conrad, would have been richly imbued with, dramatic power liere falling littlo short of crude melodrama. Also the disquisitions on philosophical and theological themes too frequently interrupt tho. narrative. Mr. Ferguson may do.better next,time, bitt it is to be hoped he will avoid French royal history in future, and strenuously withstand what appears to be a natural inclination to moralise—and sermonise. (Price 3s. 6d.)

Newman's Masterpiece.' To that excellent series "Tho Oxford Edition of Standard Authors" (Humphrey Milford, the Oxford University Press) has recently been added Newman's masterpiece, the "Apologia Pro Vita Sua." Tho Oxford Press editions of English classics are always remarkable for the completeness and. accuracy of their text, and"their careful editing.. In this instanoe, New•inan's splendid prose is' preceded by his own and Charles Kingsley's pamphlets and by a lengthy and interesting introduction by Mr. Wilfred Ward, a> recognised authority on Newman's life and work. It was Jlr." Birrell, I' think, in one of his "Obiter Dicta" volumes, who described "The "Apologia" as 0110 of the greatest of literary masterpieces, andalthough tho dispute between Newman and Kingsley is to-day almost foreotten, it is useful to .learn, from Mr. Ward's preface, the exact circumstances under which it happened, and of the sensation tvev/man's reply caused in tho now far' away iniil-\ ictorian days of the 'sixties, there have been ■ many editions of the Apologia,", but this is the most complete and-best to date, and will be not soon, if ever, superseded. Beautifully printed and bound with appropriate neatness, the book has for frontispiece a reproduction ot\Sir ;\Vm. Richmond's wellkuown portrait of Newman, at present hung m the National Portrait Gallery'. (Prico 25.)

The Everyman Encyclopaedia, (IT M Ie fifth volume, Dec-Pot, of Dent's Lyeryman Encyclopaedia" (to be completed in twelve volumes at iifteenpence each) is to hand from Messrs. Whitcombo and lombs. t have frequently commended this excellent and astonishingly cheap work of reference to tho attention of my readers. That tho articles are kept well up-to-dafe is proved by the fact that under "Education" details are given of the new-scheme of national education foreshadowed by Lord Haldniie, the Lord Chancellor, as late as January of tho present year. Under the heading of "Edward VTI" is a compact little biography of the late King. "The Lone-Hand." Tho steady improvement in the Australian monthly, "Tho Lone Hand," is of late very marked. In tho August issue, Norman Lindsay, who can write as well as draw very cleverly, has an interesting article, "Tho 10ml of Lope de Vega," in which he examines the theory, advanced by Mr. Lawrence Jlargravo, that certain rock carvings 011 Woolahra Point, in Tort Jackson, constitute u record of ,Lopo ds Vega, the great Spanish explorer's visit to Australia, some time in 13U5-G, in

Iho Santa Isabel, Mr. Lindsay puts forward several interesting theories of his own concerning Spanish voyages in tho South Seas, anil accompanies his article by fomo excellent sketches. Other good features are articles on "The Adelaide Literary Theatro"; "Rolf Boldrewood," by Bertram Stevens; "Butterfly Hunting in Papua"; and an appreciation' by James Collier,, onco Parliamentary Librarian in Wellington, of the ethnological and literary work of Professor Macmillan Drown. I). Halves Wright contributes a fino poem, "By:Kendall's Grave." Altogether an excellent number.

Scott and Shelley. In the second volume of "Tho Diary of Frances, Lady Shelley," just published by John Murray, one of the most interesting of tho many letters referred to bv the diarist . is. Sir Walter Scott's letter, written in 1819, to "my husband's young kinsman, Percy Shelley, who seems disEosed to bo a poet." _ After declaring that e'"is a very capricious and uncertain jvidgo of poetry," Scott proceeds to describe, the poems submitted to him as "fanciful, tender, and elegant, exhibiting both'command of language and luxuriance of imagination." But he considers them "too' wordy"—"there is too much there to s> make tho " most of everything." His 'filial advice is: "Bo in. no hurry to publish. A name in poetry is foon lost, but it is very difficult to regain it."