VIEWS AND REVIEWS.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1931, 13 December 1913, Page 11

VIEWS AND REVIEWS.

The l\omo University Library. Five now volumes have boon added to Messrs.'Williams and Norgate's "Home University Library," a series which has deservedly won widespread 'popularity with New Zealand students and book buyers. Each of tlio new issues is well deserving of a much longer and moro detailed notice than, at this season of the year, can possibly bo given 011 this page. To me tlio two most interesting volumes of the latest batch are Professor Gilbert Murray's "lOuripides and His Age," and Mr. H. N. Brailsford's "Shelley,' Godwin, and Their Circle." l'rol'essor Murray, who, by the way, is one of the general editors of tlio series, has long ago been recognised as a classical scholar, who, though profound, is never a pedant, and who has, by his admirable translation of more than one Greek and Latin author, given to their works a new and striking significance for twentieth century English readers. Euripides Professor Murray has made his own, just as Jowett 'did Plato. Professor' Murray believes, ho tells ns, in his introductory chapter, that "apart from his greatness as a poet and thinker, his amazing success as a playwright, Euripides is a figure of high significance in the history of humanity, and of special interest to our own generation."

"Shellsy, Godwin, and Tholr Circle." Of Shelley, his works, and his curious personality, much has been written, and not a little is known. But Godwin, in his way a much more interesting jxrsonality in the history' of later eighteenth century literaturo and thought, lias been to most of us ■ a somewhat vague and "foggy" figure. Mr. Brailsford's task has been to detach both Shelley and Godwin—and, incidentally, Tom Paino and tho unfortunate Mary Wollstonecraft, from the atmosphere of scandal, legend, and invention which has too long surrounded them, and to present them to present-day readers as living and practical forces in eighteenth century life and thought. This admirable little , book is'worthy of a place alongside Mr. Bailey's "Dr. Johnson and His Circle," and Mr. Chesterton's "The Victorian Age in Literature." And this, as those who know those two excellent works, will, I am sure, cheerfully. testify, is no small praise.

All About Nerves. It is at once a striking and pleasant tribute to the ever-growing recognition —in England—of the fact that there arc other centres of intellectual activity in the Empiro outside the Motherland itself, that the editors and publishers of educational and scientific works issued in London should no'.v make so much more frequent requisition upon oversea authorities. A rccent example of this new and laudable spirit of "Greater Britain-ism" is the appcaranco in the "Home University Library" of a volume entitled "Nerves," the author of which, Dr. David Eraser Harris, is Professor of Physiology in tlfo Dalhousio University, Halifax, Nova Scotia. Professor Harris's littlo work is not, so its author points out, all essay in physiology, because tlio activities ,o£ only one great system of the body are discussed. ' Neither does it deal specifically with psychology— tho science of consciousness and behaviour—for that is the subject of another volume in the saino scries. What Professor Harris, claims to. Flo in the book, which' bears, his. name is to give an exposition, limited as to ,its space and illustration, of .tho capabilities and peculiarities of tho nervous system, more particularly of these regions whoso activities are not associated with tho rousing of conscio-isncss. Tho author eschews, as far as it is possible, the use of technical terms, and his elucidations of many of tho more baffling problems of the nervous system should prove as interesting to tho general reader who is but littlo versed in physiology as to the student who has already some elementary knowledge of the curious workings of the nervo centres, impulses, and energies. The OoßEti and Its Wonders.

Sir John Murray, K.C.8., F.R.5.,, who is responsible for the volmno entitled "The Ocean". in-the "Home University Library," is specially and admirably qualified for the task of giving the reading public a "general account of the scicnco of tho sea." Sir John was, it may be remembered, Naturalist ti the Challenger Expedition in 187276, and afterwards served in the samo capacity with the North Atlantic Expedition in 1906. His description of the wonders of the ocean, of _ ocean life, plants, and animals, of marine deposits, of tho many phased effects of tlio- working of oceait waters—tides, waves! etc.—is- couched in popular terms, and should convey to the nonscientific reader much interesting information, not easily accessible- in so simple and direct a- form. The appendix of plates, somo in colour, should bo specially interesting and useful to students of oceJn lore.

Labour Co-Partnsrship. In these (lays of ever-recurring discord and strife in the, industrial world, tho subjcct of Labour co-partner-ship should attract careful attention. Mr. Aneurin Williams, M.A., tho author of "Go-Partnership and ProfitSharing" ("Home University Library"), is tho chairman of tho executive of tlio International Co-operative Alliance, honorary secretary of the Labour CoPartnership Association,' ami author of "Twenty-Eight Years of Co-Partnership at Guise," etc., and is therefore well qualified to sot forth the general principles and afford detailed information of tho system in which he and r,o many other social reformers profess to see tho only real and permanent solution of tho complicated problem of tho relation 'twist capital and labour. < Mr. 'Williams sees in co-partnership, a "movement destined to do in the industrial world what the introduction of constitutional rights . has clone in government—to transform autocracy'and monopoly into democracy, gradually, peacefully, and with profit in the long run to all concerned" His book includes examinations of co-partnership experiments not only in England, but on the European Continent and in the United States, and may fairly be accepted as a thoroughly up-to-date and. enlightening . exposition of a system from which,' rightly or wrongly, much excellent result is confidently expected. To each of the five volumes, of the "Homo University Library" above-men-tioned, js appended an index and a useful bibliography. Georsa Eliot. Recent additions to. the. reissue, at oiie-and-threepence, of the .Cabinet (copyright) edition of George Eliot's novels (William Blackwood and Sons) are "Seenes'of Clerical Life' 1 (2 v.), "Romola" (2 v.), and "Felix Holt—tho Radical" (2 v.). Allusion has already been made in these columns to the excellent typography arid neat binding of this admirable edition of ono of tho most justly esteemed of Victorian novelists. I confess to being rather doubtful whether the average 'novel-reader of to-day would caro very much to study tlie "sad fortunes of tho Kev. Amos burton," or would be likely lo evince more than u very tepid interest in ".Mr. Giltil's Love Story." Hut tlio "Scenes of Clerical Life are well worth reading, if oiilv for tho side-lights they throw °upon tinglidi provincial life of tiie mid-Victorian period, and similarly, alt-hough in these days of Syndicalism and so many oilier "isms," tho Kings-li-v inspired Radicalism of "I'Vlix Holt," niav seem to be mure philosophical than practical, . the valuo of the story, as a picture of by-gone times and phases of economic thought, is not to be too lightlv esteemed. "Romola," qf course, stands by itself. Historically accurate, an ingeniously and carefully— almost too carefully—wrought piece of

literary craftsmanship, Clc-urge -'.Eliot's' famous exposition of . Florentine mcdiaevalism may seem, to ' many present day readers, to _ lack the nil-inspiring ami convincing touch of romance —plus realism—to which in more recent historical fiction, wo have become accustomed. Bui as an historical mosaic impeccably correct ill every detail, though lacking, in the qualities which make for permanent beauty, and consequently permanent popularity, "Roinola" must ever rank high among Victorian novels. And, when for a modest fifteenpence the story is procurable in so tasteful and handy a form, it should surely not Sack attention and appreciation.

A Japanese View of Japan. •■,■..• Very many books on Japan and the Japanese have wo had of late years, but not many have come from the pens of those best able to give us a really inside view of tho most interesting of Asiatic nations, that is to say, from Japanese authors. A prcttily-produced volume, just published by Messrs. J. M. Dent and Co., "The Life and Thought of Japan," by Okakura Voshisnburo, Professor at the Higher Normal School, Tokyo, is therefore very welcome. Tho author's special object has been to bring about a better understanding of. his native land by the Occidental mind. He endeavours to show us that Japan, in spito. of such modern developments as the feminist or the anarchist movements, still remains in spirit very much the same as she ever was in the days of yore. Professor Okakura Yoshisaburo is clearly a believer in the virtues of tho old regime, and the old Japanese system of ethics and of national and private virtues, although he, wisely, does not disregard or underrate the value or certain latter-day developments. His opening chapter, "Cherry Blossoms," in which the Japanese cherry tree in full bloom is declared to symboiiso the highest ideal of the Japanese people, the ideal to live clean, undefilcd lives, the Japanese love of Nature and love of children, makes delightful rending,., the style is so simple, so unaffected,'' :so direct, the thoughts expressed so wholesome and palpably sincere. The author proceeds to describe, in the chapter •'entitled i "Old Jarmn at' a New School," some of the most ■notable • changes which the introduction, or rather tho < adaptation of certain features of Western civilisation has brought about. "Chinese Civilisation and . Japan." "Buddhism in Japan," "Japan and the AYcst" are the. titles of-succeeding chapters, the book closing with a very fascinating description of "Japanese Home Life and Society." A number of wellchosen illustrations from photographs add greatly to the interest of an unpretentious hut delightful volume, which adds much to pur knowledge of an exceptionally interesting people. (Price, 45.).