HUBERT WALES, ESSAYIST.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2120, 11 April 1914, Page 9

HUBERT WALES, ESSAYIST.

'.'Tho Purpose—Reflections ■ and DiFessions" (John Long) is the title of B collection of essays, written'by Mr. Hubert Wales; author of "Cynthia in the, Wilderness" and "Mr. and Mrs. .Villiors," novels which have attained a certain notoriety by .reason of tho way in. which their author dealt with certain aspects of the sex problem. In a somewhat high-flown "puff preliminary" we. are informed • that "no longer the hidden operator, pulling tlib;strings'that move his puppets" he.. (Mr» Wales)

I draws aside- the curtain,- appears in "I 3 »W, person, and talks familiarlj with Jus readers upon 6U6h- absorbing and vital, topics as Life and Death, iithics, Sex and. Beauty."' Having carefully perused some utloast oftho essays I; am sorry to have to 'express my opinion that Mr. Wales can be as dull as an essayist as ho was "naughty" as a,novelist.. For the most part his "rc.neotions". are set .forth- with quit© amusing pomposity. Mr.-WaJes has a'trick of announcing somo long-accepted theory >'ith, the air of a man •. who has made a.discovery of colossal importance, and r .despite tho.fact-that his publisher vouches for the .book not being "heavy" I confess I v .have found- him-positively platitudinous. "For instance, take-an instance," from the essay on. "Being": : I sometimes wonder if most'people grasp 'the.' immense purport'of eh-, ergy. ,-. .Apart from-the original momentum in tho whole m'assof a. planetary body, lifeless matters coiltain tho immense energies of vol- 1

eanic activity, atmospheric motion, gravitation, heat; and electricity. , ..For,my part, I look forward to o time, in , the course of'centuries, when such powers as heat and electricity,, and others.that may bo discovered, will have been so developed and harnessed that they will perform every industrial detail, which now exacts the physical'labour of man, and when all human energy will be available for its, highest function, the driving of the mind.

'_ There-now, who , would' have'thought it? Of course, no one could have, or ever has, fully realised the possibilities of ■ stored! energy t before the, gigantic brain-of' Mr. Hubert Wales,' desirous, as I can well imagine,' of some release from the imagining of more or less erotic fiction, impelled its ,1 "driving energy" to the study of this great great problem. Elsewhere, Mr. wales fires off such aphorisms as. "The appeal to hate is always a surer abpoal than tho appeal to love"; "The hope of levelling mankind is chimerical"; "We are all traveling farther and farther from simplicity"; "In proportion as intellect grows, instinct becomes weaker"; "Even the best of men has his prejudices"; and so forth, and so forth. No. mention is, however, made of the fact that "two and- two make four," or. that "Queen Anne is dead." When, however, 1 turn to the essay entitled "Oil Sex," I find Mr. Wales has 'at last something. new to .say. He examined such delicate problems as "What is to happen, eay, when a passiouate" attachment springs to-life between a mother, and the husband of her. daughter—a' daughter' whom she loves."; .Such a 1 situation' -would naturally-appeal .to ■'the :" author ;of '.'Cynthia, in ."-'the;Wilderness"*, as "one specially suitable for. "discussion in- an essay. It' might not- appeal'.to other essayists, but, then, perhaps Very for'tunately, > the other . essayists do not write novels of the kind '-Mr.', Wales- has Written. 'It..is good/.hb.wever,-to have his'views , .fells. us, tor' instancp^^thlt" V'V:'wbinan who gloves a man cdown upon •tho; very .grass, and.' kiss;if." •-. Th'iß is a. statement be accepted 'Mu'clr depend,. I should 'imagine,' upon the gown the-lady had-ori at the time, and upon : i.he s secondhand -equally, -.im;-r portant jioirit,''as , to- the dampness' of , . dryness':. of -the' grass. :

' I am afraid I cannot commend Mr. Walos's essays, save to readers who are troubled with insomnia. Hβ means well, no doubt. By his photograph he seems quite a nice looking. young mart, who couldn't do otherwise than mean well ; but he is exasperatingly dull. Once, when he tells a story how at a Swiss hotel a. German, by accident, squirted '.'a good part of tho contents, of .a. siphon" over an Englishman -who was engaged in explaining, somewhat pedantically, .to a friend that he was "drifting fast to materialism," I, had hopes of him, and thought perhaps his nest attempt at the humorous might be more euccessful.. But: in all the arid desert of verbiage which followed there is but one '. other small oasis—this time a etory about a.little:niece who cries out from a bathroom: ."Goodness" me, I'm in the bath.'.' Whereupon, says good Uncle 'Wales, "I beat a hasty and blushing retreat." • It is good to know that there are ..times when even the author of "Cynthia in the iWilderness" can blush—this.is:usually loft to his readers; but I fail io see much point in the etory. No, Mr. Wales,is not in his true metier as an essayist. He should stick 'to writing fiction which shocks Mrs. Grundy. That is a role in which hohas undoubtedly achieved some success, and he should bo content with his triumphs in that direction,' and learo essay-writing to others. (Price 55.)

"THE HOME UNIVERSITY LIBRARY." Tho tenth issue in that admirable series, "The Home' University Library" (London; Williams and Norgate), consists of 'five' volumes,' each making special appeal to the educated reader. In view of the interest now being taken in British-land questions, the-volume entitled "Problems of Village Life" ahould be useful,to many students. Mr. Bennett is an Oxford man, a Fellow of Hertford. College,- and an ex-M.P. for the Woodstock Division of Oxfordshire. After a short historical sketch of tho British , land question, the author discusses its leading contemporary aspects, euch as the rural exodus, rural education, village education, the religion of the village, homes and wages, small holdings, and co-operation and .credit. Much benefit might come, Mr. Bennett thinks, from more adequate credit facilities. To the County Councils were assigned the duty of encouraging the establishment of credit banks for small holders, but after five years', working of the Act,. not a single bank of the kind has beeu established in England by the agency of the Councils. Duties on wheat might help the large landowner, but would, so ■ the author coneiders, infallibly mean higher rents, and it is clear Mr. Bennett is not a tariff reformer.. Nor is he very hopeful that ealvation- is to be found in the eingle-tax. "One would imagine," he says, "from some 'single-tax' speeches, that everybody in the. country is clamouring for a small holding, and that a threepenny rate on the bare valuo of a pheasant covert will transform it into allotments." "Some of tho twelve million and odd acres of mountain and heath, now devoted to rough grazing, might, under the pressure of heavier rates, be placed upon the' market or rendered more productive ; ■ but this anticipation is not onough to justify wild prophecies of cheaper land/ extensive house-building, and better wages." Mr. Bennett's own < favourite solution is tho wholesale purchase by the State of agricultural land. "If," he says, "the taxpayer accepts the principle of investments in the Suez Canal, in Sudan cotton, in Uganda railways, or the vast expenditure of the South African war, he need have no theoretical misgivings about fha wise and productive outlay of the nation's money on the sound security of tho nation's land.". . In "Common Sense in Law," that admitted authority on jurisprudence; Professor Paul .Vinogradoff,' D.C.L.,

..'. -~.J.'X ■•■.. •*:.-.■ .: .. ... LL.D., of Oxford, sets forth to explain r social and legal rules, legal rights and ' duties, -Jind;facts anil acts in law, expounds the connection between legislai tion and custom, discusses various juI dicial precedents, and shows how far equity can be safely accepted as a judicial factor, arid ends with a brief disquisition upon what ho terms tho Law of Nature, and the many attempts to justify "rules of 'positive iaw by reference to standards set up by tlie philosophical:doctrine of the-age." . In "Prehistoric Britain," Robert Munro, M.A., L.M.D., summarises tho evidences; up to date, of early human remains in Britain,' and explains . the main, types .of "civilisation—palaoolithic, neolithicj bronze,' and early iron ages. A vast amount of curious and deeplyinteresting information, conveyed with a complete.and agreeable absence of scientific pedantry, is. to bo found in the pages of Dr. Munro's excellent little bools. Tho illustrations are.numerous and greatly enhance tlie interest and value of tho text.

■ "Unemployment," by A. C. Pigou, M.A., Professor of Political Economy at Cambridge, gives d. useful eurvey of several important prwsent-day ; phases of aproblem ~a workable solution of which would be welcomed in so many countries. Professor. Pigou 'examines the meaning, measurement, and distribution of unemployment in. Great Britain —with parallel'reference to the unemployment problem as it exists-on tho Continent —and deals with the relation of unemployment to wages, trade fluctuations, and disputes, concluding with,an examination.of various proposals of remedy or relief. In "The Literature of the Old.Te'sta-' ment," Dr. George Foot Moore, a Hat , : vard professor and editor of the "Harvard Theological Eeyiew,!'. submits the 1 books of tho Old Testament to a detailed examination-in the light of the most recent research. The erudition of the'author does not, very fortunately, prevent his dealing with his subject in a : manner to" be Understood by the people, and the little. volume ,of which he is the author,' will, diubtless be read with great interest by all who possess the companion, volume in the Same series.' "The-Making of the New Testament," of which Professor Bacon is .the. author. Both these, books, are remarkable for their admirable lucidity. ■JSo each of the five, volumes 'is appended a useful little biblography, and each ■ possesses air excellent index. (Now Zealand price, fifteenpenoe.)