BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 163, 30 March 1918, Page 11

BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

(Bγ Libek.)

BOOKS OF THE DAY i Mission Work in Torres Straits, In a lieatly-priuted little volume entitled "Round About Torres Straits" (the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge; per Whitcombe and Tombs), the Right llov. Gilbert White, D.D., Bishop of Willochra, gives an interesting record of' the splendid and self-sacrificing work which is carried on in tho Torres Straits Islands, in New Guinea, and on the Gulf of Carpentaria. Tho author was for some years intimately connected with mission work in Northern Australia, having been Bishop of Carpentaria from ISJOU to 1915. Ho gives an interesting description of tho mission work carried on at Tarrab"ah, Western Australia, and on the Mitchell and Roper Rivors, in (Queensland. Thenco the Australian Church extended its mission work a few years ago to Moa Island, in torres Strait, and also to New Guinea. Bishop White pays a high tribute to the work done in Now Guinea by tho London Missionary Society. Some of this work has now been taken over by the Australian Church, and shows fair promise of ever-increasing success. Totemism appears to bo almost as strong in Now Guinea as it is amongst tho Australian blacks, and, with animism, . which _ peoples the world with J spirits, practically represents tlio prinI ciples which regulate the social life of the people. It is good to learn from this interesting little book that wherever Christianity is introduced there is ;i gradual but very marked decrease in the belief in sorcery. , Many of tho native converts display a much higher order o? intelligence than is usually credited to the Papuan;. The converts take very kindly to musical instruction, and the missjoners have wisely followed the good example set by tho Melanesian Mission in teaching the natives useful handicrafts. The book contains several interesting illustrations. (Price 2s. 9d.)

Some Pleasant Versa. It-seems but the other day dial 1 was reading Mr. Bryce Jtowden's pleasantly lilting lines of his "Wellington Verses," and already is here a second booklet, '-Itoada and Fairies" (W.hiteombo and Tombs), in which liavo been gathered together a number of poems .contributed by tho young AVollingtoiiian to tho columns of the Sycltioy "Bulletin." :Tis but a slender shoaf the poet , now lays before us. but if it be modest in quantity the quality is of an all-round excellence rare indeed in bo young a writer. As in "Wellington Verses,'! Mr. Bowden's new poems are instinot with a. tender spirituality, and the grace and charm of his poetic exjpresßion are again most fascinating. Takb, for example, the second stanza of the fine poem entitled "The Coastlnnd," and it will at once be seen how ingoniously and yet simply the poet can read the high things of life into a seascapo:

Midway whore the crouching headlands gazed across the open south, I havo marked the tongue of ocean moving in the wonder-mouth; Felt the cleanly robes of spindrift lightly, sweep across my. fa.™, ' Whoa-'the breathing' of' the Godhead grandly ilowed from space lo place. I have heard the'jocund eunset, folded in her jewelled scarf, Titter in feo faco of Nightfall, tottering on.her tapping etaff; And mine ears have held the music when

the joyous ealt airs pass, Swinging on the swaying branches, playing %id the singing grass.

Tho Swinlnirniun inilueuco is here plainly manifest, but this is verso of no mean order, quit* equal in depUi of thought and grace of literary expression to that of more than one young English writer whose work finds a place in the successive volumes of "Georgian Poetry." In quite another vein :is a. delightful poem entitled "Road Fairies," which is permeated by a spontaneous and gay humour which is quite captivating. A sample stanza:

Oh, every road the fairies take leads on to plasant things. The mumbling of humble bees, the laughter of the brook. They bite their thumbs a_t Parliament and thumb the noso at kings, And leave to grey and wagging heads the bondage of the book, Tho cleanly joys of sun and sky they gather for their need; On, overy ioofs a joyous foot that joins the fairy dance; And in the jowl of Grime nid Greed they fling the fairy creed, And strip from oft then - limbs tho hodden garl> of Circumstance. By all means Siiend a shilling on Mr. Bowden-s latest booklet. The Old Country. From what I-read in Home papers, a recently-published anthology, "The Old Country: A Book of Lovo and Praise of '.England," 6hould be worth buying. It is not confined to verse, bub contains many proso passages new and old, grave and gay. Mr. Ithys, the compiler, is general editor of the "liveryman" series. He is laudably eclectiv'e in his choice of pictures' of England and English life, for 1 see ho goes back to Camdcn's "Britannia," quoting his praise of England as "the most flourishing and excellent, most renowned, and famous isle of tbo whole world," and comes down to such purely moderns as Kipling, Lord Grey of Valloden, and Hilaire Bolloc. An English reviewer points out that, oddly enough, it is two American authors who give us what are perhaps tho most strikingly English pictures of England that the book contains. Ono is Nathaniel Hawthorne's "English Weather," which contains the pliraso "the austero friendliness, sliy, lmt sometimes almost tender, in the veiled, shadowy, seldom smiling summer." The other is Emorson'e description of his visit with Carlylo to Stonehengc, in which, lie.snys:—

Far and wide a few shepherds with their flocks sprinkled the plain, and a bagman dvovo along t'lio road. It looked as if the wide margin given in this crowded isle to this primeval tcmplo wns accorded by the veneration of tho British race to the old egg out of which all their ecclesiastical structres and history bad proceeded.'

The book, which is published, I may say, under tho well-known sign of the Red Triangle of tho Y.M.C.A. (the publishors guarantee £1000 ae tho profit thorofrom), has some delightful illustrations by Herbert llailton, Charles S. Brock, and other well-known artists. It costs hut 3s. 6d. (English price) and ho will ho wise who ordors a copy in advance, for I expect a big run on the volume when copies reach New Zealand. William tie Morgan's Novels. A posthumous novel by William du Morgan is shortly to bo published. Tho story was left uncompleted by its author, and has beevi finished (from tho author's notea) by his widow. In these- days of war troubles and anxieties, one of Mr. do Morgan's long a.nd leisurely told novels provides an adniirablo mental "rosfc cure." Mr. de Morgan's earlier novels, "Joseph Vauoe," "Alice for Short," and "Some-

Give a man a pipe ht can smoke, Give a man a book he can read; And his home is bright with a calm delight Though the room be poor indeed.

—James Thomson.

how Good,' deserve, to my mind, to rar.k alongside some of the best works of Dickens aud Thackeray. My own favourite is "Alice for Short."". The later novels were not so good, but the throe works above mentioned placo De Morgan in the front rank of English nov&lists. Mr, Chesterton ss Historian. Mr. Chesterton has come out in a now role, as historian, but 1 am afraid bis recently-published "Short History of England" will scarcely add to liis reputation. Tho author's conversion to Roman Catholicism has evidently influenced some of his judgments, nnd amusing as his trick of paradox has so often been in his essays on literary and social subjects, it is eacily out of place in any history which claims to 1)B takon seriously. "Tho Times" reviewer says, inter alia.: — "Eis other concern is with that 'revolution of tho rich against ike poor' which ho thinks Kichard J.I tried in raiu to etop by placing himself at tlio head of Wet Tyler's leaderless mob. 'The failure, or rather tho betrayer,' of that Peasants' Hevolt 'was.tho real turning-point.of our history"; and, in spito of the reappearance of 'tho real mob' with the rick-burning and iramo-brcaking of Cobbett's days, Mr. Chesterton can isee no escape from the descent into that 'servile s.tate' into which our Protestantism and our Prussianism have led us, 'but by doing what the meclievals did after tho other barbarian defeat: beginning, by guilds and small independent groups, gradually to 'estoro the personal property of tho poor aud the personal freedom of the family.' In hie revolt against Prussia Mr. Chesterton throws himself into tho arms of M. Lenin, and exhibits about as much eanity as his Russian exemplars. It would be unjust to deny the sincerity of his' indignation against social wrongs and inequalities, but his 'history' is.a liot of paradox. He is always standing on his head in order to proclaim that tlio world is upsido down. The "habit may have ite advantages as an occasional pose; it amuses people, and gives the performer a fresh point of view. But it is well to know that you are standing on your Lead when vnu aro doing so, and that is whoro Mr. Chesterton fails. He thinks history is all wrong because he is indifferent to historical truth, and unfamiliar with the ways of finding it."

Apropos to Mr. Chesterton's "History," C.K.S. -in "The Sphere" notes the curious fact, that while G.K.C. mentions Mrs. Panklrurst, Dn'an I-Soru* Old King Cole, Mrs. Mldy, and Ueorge Bernard Shaw, he is apparently oblivious of the fact that such people a3 Canute, Harold, King Jol»i, William Pitt, Charles James Fox, and Edmund Burke ever existed. C.K.S. cuds his criticism by declaring that Mr. Chesterton's "history would, be a fatal book for the schoolroom, but in tho study, with one's feet on the fender, it would give the reader an abundance of entertainment."

The -Creat Duke's Flirtation. In 1889 an American firm published the "Lotters of the Duko of Wellington to Miss J." They were found in a trunk in an attic of a country house within thirty inilca of New York. Their authenticity has been questioned, but Mr. G. W. E. llussell, in his new book, "Politics and Personalities," expresses agreement with Sir Herbert Maxwell in regarding them as genuine. A certain Miss. Jenkins, young, beautiful, and evangelical, made a .great effort to involve tho Iron Duke in a religious flirtation. The lady opened tho campaign with the gift of a Bible, which she left at Apsley House, "with a suitable note." The' Duke replied with a call. During this visit the lady road the Bible aloud, and the Duke exclaimed "I lovo you." The flirtation prospered. Finally tho Duko extricated himself, but not before many interesting letters were penned. The lady was always ostentatiously good, tho Duko usually repressive. Sometimes they quarrelled mildly, the Duko always getting tho better- of it. "Onco," says Mr; Itusscll, "Miss Jenkins was annoyed by a fellow-traveller in a stage coach who indulged in blas.pliemy. When this occurrence was reported to the Duke he took no notice, and was sharply rebuked for his indifference to her outraged feelings; but he was quite equal to tho occasion, 'I don't consider with you that it is necesary to enter into controversy with every wandering blasphemer,' he'wroto. 'Much must dopend upon circumstances.' " Stray Leaves. Heineruanns, who liavo taken over all the Swinburne copyrights from Ohatto and Windus, piomiso two vulumes of Swinburne's "Letters" for early publication. The same hrm is issuing a pocket edition of some of Swinburne's best-known poems. There would seem to be a decided revival of interest in Swinburne of late, for Mr. Gosse's life of the poet, one or the best literary biographies ever written, and well deserving of standing alongside tho late Professor Dowden's "Life of Shelley," has, I see,- gone into a third editiou.

Harold Begbie's new story is entitled "Mr. Sterling Sticks It Out," and is described a.;, a. "novel of the times." But Harold Begbie,after-H. G. Wells!

Iu her latest, story, "The "White Morning," that clover American novelist .Gertrude- Atlierton deals with what she predicts will bo a storm in Germany—a woman's revolt. Very littlo has been allowed to leak out as to the condition of India during the war. A new work, therefore, entitled ''The Awakening of India," doaling with the changed conditions of the country since August, 1914, should be very welcome. The author is a Mr. do "Witt Mackenzie, an American journalist, and the book has an introduction by that eminent authority on India's politics, Sir Francis Younghusband. A forthcoming novel which should be. worth looking out for is "The Island Mystery," by G. A. Birmingham (Canon" Hannay). As in the cneo of the same author's "Spanish Gold," there is no buried treasure, bub a secret of quite a different kind. George Birmingham is always very amusing, but ho is becoming somewhat too prolific to koop up the high standard of his earlier works. Another novel which I shall await with curiosity is Mr. Gilbort Cannan's "Tho Stucco House." Anything by the author of "Old Molo" and "Round tho Corner" should be worth reading. Last summer was celebrated the eentonary of tho birth of the famous botanist, Sir Joseph Hooker. Mr. Leonard Huxley has now written a "Lifo of Hooker," which is based on Hooker's letters and on material collocted and arranged by Lady Hooker. The book will contain selections from Hooker's correspondence with such lifelong friends as Lord Kelvin, Lord Sandford, and, abovo all, Darwin, whoso confidant, helper, and critic Hooker was throughout the fifteen years before "The Orkrin of Snocics" appeared. Hugh Walpole's new stnry is to bn railed "The Green Mirror," and is, I. understand, not a war story, but in tho stylo of that, excellent novel of society "Tbo Ditohess of The Now Year honours inclunV a knighthood for Mr. Anthony Hope Hawkins. Ho has not written any-

tiling very notable for-some time past, and i am afraid will chiefly be remembered by those two capital novels, "The Prisoner of Zcuda" and "Rupert of Hentzau." Hawkins just missed becoming a front-rank novelist. Mr. John Ualsworthy, whose work, especially his earlier work, is of so much liner quality, declined a knighthood. Hβ bogau wonderfully well with "The Country 11 mi so" and "A Man of Property,,' each in its own way a stinging satire on English society, but I confess that I found his latest story, "Beyond," very hard reading. There are to be two more volumes, to be published simultaneously, of "The Life of Benjamin Disraeli." The concluding volumes will cover the last thirteen years of the statesman's career, including his rise to full political power, his dealings with Germany ill 1875, the purchase of tho Suez Canal shares, and tho Berlin Congress. Id is not generally known, 1 think, that Mi's, lilundell, who writes under her maiden iiaine of M. E. Francis, is a sister of 51 rs. Egerton Castle. There is vory littlo affinity between tho stories, mainly o<; English rural life, of tho former and tho gay aud dashing romances (written in collaboration with her husband) of I.ho latter. In a yolumo entitled "Tho Tilings of a Child," Mrs. Blundell is to tell the story of her early years aud those of her sister, Mrs. Castle, down to her eighteenth 'year.

A volume of selections from Henri Fnbre's "Souvenirs Entomqlogiques" is to be published shortly, bringing together tho most striking passages by tho author on the phenomena of instinct in the insect world. Tho volume, which is entitled "The Wonders of Instinct: Chapters in the Psychology of Insects," has been translated by A. Teixeira de Mattos and Bernard Miall.

Those who have read that remarkable novel of Mr. Compton Mackenzie's, "Sinister Street," will remember that curious character Sylvia Scarlett, who exerted so evil an influence over tho pretty, but morally weak, Lily-lJaden. A now story by Mr. Mackenzie, ie, I sn.e, now announced, under the titlo "Sylvia Scarlett." It is to be hoped that the author is not going to elaborate his study of tho London underworld which he gave us in the second volume of "Sinister Street." The study was, no doubt, most powerfully realistic, but it was terrjbly repellant in: its pictures of tho vicious side of London' life.

It is some time now since we had a long story from Sir Arthur Quiiler Couch, and, as an old and faithful admirer of "Q.," I am glad to see that Collins and Co. announce a new 10manco from the pen to which wo owe "Dead Man's Rock" and "Tho SplondidSpur," to say nothing of the charming stories of Cornish life to be found in "Troy Town" and "The Delectable. Duchy." The title of tho now "Q." story is "Foe Farrell." As it is described as "a novel of London and the South Seas." it is, I may presume, a story of adventure.