BOOKS & AUTHORS.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2371, 29 January 1915, Page 7

BOOKS & AUTHORS.

«—- — (By libee.) < i BOOKS OF THE DAY. BEYOND THE BEYOND. A symbolist, a mysticist, Maurice Maeterlinck, that brilliantly gifted son of gallant little Belgium—Ghent is his birthplace—shows in his latest work, "The Unknown Guest" (Methuen and Co.), evidences of if not an actual belief in occult or supernatural forces, at least a decided inclination to champion the cause of very careful and sympathetic study of phenomena not to be explained by any blown law of natural science or accepted doctrine of life— and what may follow life. The essays comprised in the present volume, are, to some extent, a complement of or sequel to M. Maeterlinck e much-discussed work entitled "Death," which in an enlarged form was re-issued in 1913, under the title "Our Eternity." As he proceeded, however, to investigate the enthralling subject of an after-life M. Maeterlinck saw, he tells us, the field so widening under his feet that he has been obliged to divide his work into , two almost equal parts. The first, compnsed in the volume now published, is a "brief study of veridical apparitions ami hallucinations and haunted houses, or, if yon will, of phantoms of the living and the dead" ; of those manifestations which have been oddly and not . very appropriately described as psychometrio"; of the knowledge of the future; presentiments, omens, premonitions, precognitions, and the rest; and lastly, of the famous calculating horses of Ellierfeld. In a succeeding volume, the author promises a discussion of "tho miracles of Lottrdes and other places, the phenomena of socalled materialization, of tho diviningrod, and of flnidic asepsis, not unmindful withal of a diamond dnst of the miraculous that hangs over the greater marvels in that strange atmosphere into which we are about to pass." «. W $ k® seen from a « aboTe tnat the author is deeply interested in the Various phenomena and theories the investigation of which is the special field ot the members of the Psychical ■ Research Society. He is not in the least deterred from his quest after the Unknown or the apparently Incomprehenii ?Jr° fact tllat maji y of what he calls 'the legendary miracles" could not withstand the rigorous scrutiny of our day "Those which emerge triumphant from the test and defy our less credulous and more penetrating vision are " he contends, "all the more worthy of holding our attention." They suggest (says. M. Maeterlinck), blows struck from without by an Unknown, oven more unknown than that which we think we know, an Unknown which is not that of the universe, not that which we have made into an inoffensive and amiable Unknown, even as - we have made lie universe a sort of province of the earth, but a stranger arriving from' another world, an unexpected visitor who . comes in rather a.sinister way to trouble the comfortable quiet in which we were slumbering, rocked by the firm and watchful hand of orthodox science. Discussing the often-made charge —made in reference to various socalled spiritualistic phenomena—that imposture and fraud are indissolubly connected with the work of the mediums, M.- Maeterlinck admits that "even the most powerful mediums, those possessing 'the most genuine and undeniable gifts, such as the celebrated Eusapia Palkdino^—are upon occasion—and the occasion occurs but too often—incorrigible cheats." Nevertheless there remain,_he argues, "a considerable number of incidents so rigourously attested that we must needs- ; accept tbem or else abandon all human certainty."' Under the heading of "The Unknown Guest," the author sets forth .his present attitude towards the problem of sub-consciousness. What, ho says of certain features uf the spiritualistic seances, so popular in the United States and elsewhere, and 1 of the results obtained through certain professional mediums will hardly prove pleasant reading in certain quarters, ..' We see (says M. Maeterlinck) the, dead crowding around us like wretched puppets, indissolubly attached to the insignificant scene of their death by the thousand little threads of insipid memories and infantile hobbies. They are supposed to be here, blocking up our homes, more abjectly human than if they were still alive, vague, inconsistent, garrulous, derelict, futile, and idle, tossing hither and thither their desolate shadows, which are being slowly swallowed up by silence and oblivion, busying themselves incessantly with whan no longer concerns them, but almost incapable of doing ■ us a real service, so much 60 that, In short, they would end by per- . suading us that death serves no purpose, that it neither purifies nor exalts, that it brings no deliver-' anca, and that it is indeed a thing of terror and despair." I should like to quote further passages from M. Mueterlinck's thoughtimpelling and fascinating studies of the occult and so-called supernatural, but space limits forbid this being done. A special word of praise is due to the translator, Mr. Teixera de Mattos, who, on so many previous occasions, is singularly successful in repii/ducing tho clear and graceful language of the original. (Price, 65.) THE HOME UNIVEBBITY LIBRARY. Five 1 new volumes have been added by Messrs. Williams and Norgato to their excellent series, the Home University Library, now so widely known, and well appreciated by students and the reading public generally. Three of the five volumes belong to the historical section of the library. These are:— "The Ancient East," by D. G. Hogarth, M.A.; "Ware Between England and America," by Professor T. C. Smith, of Williams' College, Massachusetts; and "A History of Scotland," by Professor R. S. Rait, of the University of . Glasgow. Mr. Hogarth's well-plauned little work affords its readers an admirably clear view of the evolution of the history of the.races of the East—the Near East of Egypt, Persia, and Asia Minor i 3 here understood—who arc recognised to have been the parents of civilised thought. Tho author describes tho fate of Assyria, Babylon, Oilicia, Persia, and Macedonia, and . explains the relations of Egypt and Greece to Asia. The work may be described as a worthy sequel to Professor Mjres's volumo, "The Dawn of History,"which was one of the earliest' and most popular of the series to which both belong. Professor Smithls admirable resume of tho wars which have taken place between the two great English-speaking countries, Great Britain and tho United States, should be well received on both sides of the Atlantic, providing as it docs a thoughtful analysis of the divergences in social and political views , which havo led to disputes between the two branches of the Anglo-Saxon raco. Specially interesting at the presoni moment are two chapters dealing with tho commercial antagonism in 1805-1812, and what Professor Smith calls the war for "sailors' rights" and Westward expansion, 1812-1815. Politics, history, and literature are : all three dealt with in Mr. G. P. Gooch's volume, "Political Thought in , Eug|and, from Bacon to Halifax." Mr. Goooh, whose excellent "History of Our ■ Times," published a year or two ago, was so well received, not only succeeds in showine U6 the foundations of the , moftow. rnlciMtitu n| the British. *uu to Uoligicui, tha Crara, to trade, and, above

all, to liberty, but bis book contains many brief but effectively-drawn character sketches of the leaders of seventeenth century political, social, and literary movements. In the'purely literary section of the Home University Library, no more valuable and, especially at the present time, no more interesting volume, has appeared than that in which the Hon. Maurice Baring, who has written so much and so well on Russia- and the Russians, gives us "An Outlineof Russian Literature." Mr. Baring's "Landmarks in Russian Literature," published two or three years ago, was acclaimed not only in London but in Russia itself as a most, comprehensive and illumining treatise. His new work,' though necessarily smaller in bulk, ajid conceived and carried out on more popular lines, again exhibits \ the' author's mastery of his subject. To those who only know Russian literature by name, or through a chance perusal of some badly translated novel by Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky (I am hero adopt-' ing Mr. Baring's spelling of the name), or Turgenev, this little book will come as a complete renelation; Russian literature is far more worthy of being systematically studied than is often examined, even by quite well-educated people. I quote Mr. Baring's concluding sentences:— Looking back over the record of Russian literature, the first thing which must strike us, if we think of the literature of other countries, is its comparatively short life. There is in Russian literature no MiMo Ages, no. Villon, no Dante, no Chaucer, no Renaissance, no Grand Siecle. Russian literature begins in the nineteenth century. The second thing which will perhaps strike us is : that, in spite of its being the youngest of all the literatures, it seems spiritually the oldest. In some respects it seems to have become over-ripe' before it reached _ maturity. But . herein, perhaps,' is the secret of its greatness, and this may be the value of its contribution to the soul of mankind. It is "Old in grief and very wise in tears," and its chief gift to mankind is an expression, made with' a naturalness and sincerity that are matchless, and.a love of reality which is all Russian literature, whether in nrose or verse, is rooted in reality—of that grief and that wisdom; the grief and wisdom which come from a great heart; a heart that is large enough to embrace the world and to drown aU the sorrows therein with the immensity of its sympathy, its fraternity, its pity, its charity, and its love. . Each of the five volumes is equipped with a bibliography—in Mr. Baring's book being replaced by a chronological index—and a full index. (N.Z. price, fifteenpence per volume.)