BOOKS & AUTHORS.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2319, 28 November 1914, Page 4

BOOKS & AUTHORS.

BOOKS OF THE DAY.

/By Libf.R.)

T''efssaysof Claudius Clear; '.» all' J '^nJi e f, rti , eSt of ' Welcomes is duo from wprinte t° tho recently-issued price £ tf; ; g llet e,v Zea-lanJf Sn V L r WO collections of wise Sir W-II- aU « U u Clear ' otllerwellloiowii f? Robertson Nicoll, tie Weeklv' /1' tO L, of " The Bntisli % ?i«l, "Tho Bookman.". In "Wwf ° , 9 iaudi ™ Clear" .and' (Hodrlfiv n oll !^ 6 ' 1 y t ' le Eamo aut h°r \i i Stoughton: per S and TV sit°tlw rro WI^ m 1 be Tombs) we' on lifn nn f, l! i of i the hundreds of essays Kobe!tson v- W M tl l, re Which Sir Wi] liam W j. ■ as contributed durcc™!;.years to that centre page in lovir^, MfclSh , Weedy '" ,rllere hookcorifidJf g learnt t0 look w » th ctofideaoe for. acute and pleasantly inii c f'^ lcism on new books, and niv» a +i ® en . thoughtful comment upon the various phases of social and veJigious progress. A few months ago other of these weekly essays of Claudius 6 i "iff 6 /"Published in sf volume entitled A Bookman's Letters." In that volume, tho essays were confined to purely literary subjects, and the book is one which "Liber" will always treaere is one essay in it, for instance, the one on .that curious but fascinating personality ."Mark Rutheri -■V a another on "Swinburne," winch are alone worth the price of the volume. In the othei; two books, cheap reprints of 'which have just appeared the interest is leas purely, literary. The essayist here deals. with the amenities or me, the small joys, and smaller — and larger—worries and anxieties of our march along tho corridors of time. Claudius Clear has liis own style. There is .here playing of the "sedulous •"-pe, as iStevensoii expressed it, to either Montaigne, or Hazlitt, or Dr. Quincey, or even Lamb. If he reminds nie of any predecessor it would be that hall-forgotten genius Alexander Smith, whose "Dreamthorp," in the ihaudy little "World's Classics" edition. I always keep on an easily accessible shelf. Claudius Clear is never ill-na-tured, never .finds great fault either ■»'«»;«? generally, or particular types or individuals. He does not gossip, as did Montaigne, and that a little querulously, of his ailments—if .he has any, •and lie is not "out for scalps," as an American critic once said of Hazlitt. jNeither is he ever pedantic, as, confirmed devotee as I am of the Elia cult, I sometimes find Lamb to be. He-is not too deliberately "genial" as E. V. Lucas, nor does he parade his special brand of theology, as does Hilaire Belloc." He abjures paradox just as Mr. Chesterton delights in it, and does, not everlastingly sneer and pose as does Mr. G. B. Shaw. He is ■ simplj' himself, ■ a well read man with "much experience of' life as it appears to a thoughtful, busy, unpretentious, and eminently sane 7 and tolerant Englishman. Perhaps, at times, ho may indulge, in the obvious. At. others even the subject itself may 1 be deemed so trivial'as to merit no t even careless word-spinning. But, as a rule, he lias something to say that is worth saying, and says it with commendable frankness and clearness. The pervading tone of his philosophy of life is one of a cheerful, but reasonable, optimism. To him tho world is not half so bad as it.'is sometimes made out to.be, and not at all a bad world to live in, if wp persistently maintain an attitudo of courage and, good temper. Better books for a young'mau—aye, and for many an oldster also—to read'could not well ue found than' these two modest' volumes, which bear TVni Robertson Nicoll's name .on the title page. To me, many of tlie essays are old friends, but I' have found it the pleasantest of tasks to renew'' acquaintanco with them in a collected form. To those who read them for the first time, I make no doubt they will 'give'."equal pleasure,