LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2982, 20 January 1917, Page 11

LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

To Correspondents. 1.6., Tariki, Taranaki —Lander's "Pentameron" and "Pericles and Aspasia" • are published ill two volumes in Scott Library. Series (N.Z. price Is. 9d. a volume). In tlie same series are three volumes of Heine's prose writjugs, the titles being "Proso Writings," "Heine in Art and Letters," and "Travel Sketches." Write to one of the booksellers advertising on this page, and if they have not them in stock they will procure them for you. Stray Leaves. The expression "I don't think" is, it appears, not of latter-day origin. A reviewer on the "Illustrated London News" having expressed surprise at finding "I don't think" in one of o.' Henry's stories written in 1894, a writer in the "London Daily Chronicle" points out that it is more than half a century older. Dickens uses it in "Martin Chuzzlewit." It is Tom Pinch who speaks. "You're a nice follow, I don't think, as* John used to say." As a matter of fact the expression occurs oven earlier, it being used more than once by Sam Weller in "The Pickwick Papers.". For instance, when Sam is boots at the 'White Hart Inn in the Borough, where Pickwick and old Mr. Wardle tracked down Jingle and Miss Rachel Wardle, he says to the maid:' "You're a nice young woman, I don't think." Later on, he says to Mr. Winkle, "You're an amiably disposed young man, I don't think." ■ Amongst the autographs oE distinguished authors recently sold in London for the benefit of the Red Cross Fund ivas one of Kipling's lottcrs, in which ho says: I simply -can't moke a speech in public. It isn't in my power—not for all the orphans in the world. I have experimented on grown-up people, and the result wasn't pretty. I'd sooner wash an orphan, or give it its bottle, than 6peak to the orphans' well-wishers after a heavy meal. All the same, Kipling has spoken in public, and spoken vory well, if we may -judge -by sonio of his efforts in this, direction iii aid of Lord Derby's recruiting scheme. Those who like literature of .the flesh-creeping kind should note that Colonel Meadows Taylor's "Confessions, of a Thug" is now included in that lmndy little series, "The World's Classics" (N.Z. prico Is. 6d.), published by the Oxford University Press. Colonel Taylor's Indian stories were very popular when "Liber" was a 'boy. In "The Confessions of a Thug : ' the authorgives a wonderfully detailed and gruesome account of the Thugs, the muchdreaded Indian professional thieves and murdorers. Thuggism has, I believe, been almost wiped out by the Indian police.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has informed the public that his experiences at the front have convinced him that there is a great deal more in spiritualism than ever he had previously imagined. An-other/well-known novelist, Mr. Arnold Bennett, writes of "Religion After the War" in the "R.P.A. Annual." He recalls the fact that l\e was brought up in an atmosphere of dogma, and that he regularly attended all sorts of divine services. It was, however, a moment of intense* relief when he was ablei to cut\himself free from any religious organisation. Mr. Bennett says there is a triple duty for future inspirers of tlife race: to ascertain the facts of .the universe, to face them, arid to.do justice According to them. From a little, book of verse by Louis Quilland, "A Song of the Open Road and Other PoerAs," I take the following clever lines on "Les Bootes":— They poison thelair above, They poison the wells below, They poison Pity\and Love With the fumes of Hate and Woe; Thoy poison the Heavens clear, They poison tlie'.sea's swell; Satan recoils in fear • Lest they should poison Hell.

The November "Bookman" (Hdder and Stoughton) contains an excellent appreciation of the now famous Canadian humorist, Stephen Leacock, or, to give him his full title, Professor Stephen Leacock, Ph.D., of the M'Gill University at Montreal, and author of what is now quite a respectably long series of books" in which a shrewd social philosophy is permeated by keen satire and genial humour. Leacock's latest book, "Essays and Literary Studies," lias, I notice, beon warmly'praised by the Home Press. Anothor article deals with the fine-literary work of Miss Rose Macaulay, whose "Lee Shore" was such a successful novel, Mr. J; J. Bell, author of "Wee Macgregor," has writton a book in which he describes the wonderful, and often very dangerous, work of the men 011 the patrol ships and minesweepers. Tlio title is "Little Grey Ships." • The author, it is understood, was givon, special facilities by the Admiralty for making a first-hand study of his subject. The most original, certainly the most curious, description of that popular edible, the sausage, that I can remember happening across, is, to he found in Cosmo Hamilton's "The Mystery of Marriage," "Breakfast's oold," says 0110 of Mr. Hamilton's characters. "Look at those sausages. They're just like cold, fat women huddling together in tight bathing-dresses!"

Mrs. .John Lane, wife of tho famuus Bodloy Head publisher, has written a new book entitled "War Phases." Mrs. Lano made a decided hit with her first book, "Tho Champagno Standard," and her "According to Maria" sketches have also been very popular. She is an American by birth. Thomas Hardy made his own selection for tho little volume of his verse which Macmillans have just published ns a r.ew volume of thoir admirable "Golden Treasury" series; It is an open question whether a 'poet is always the best judge of his, own work. Tennyson, it has been "Maud" his finest effort, a .verdict in which posterity. I aui afraid, will not concur.