LIBER'S NOTE BOOK.

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 300, 7 September 1918, Page 11

LIBER'S NOTE BOOK.

Tennyson and America. In most editions of Tennyson's Poems, the- poem, . • "Hands All Round," originally written in 1852, is printed in its amended form—the form in which the poem was recast in 1882. Two stanzas'of the poem, as originally published, were then omitted, but today, in view'of-America's enthusiastic co-partnership with Great Britain in the Great War, the omitted lilies have a special and peculiar significance and value. To many of my readers Tennyson's appeal—and tribute —to the America of the Victorian fifties, so splendidly answered by America of to-day, may be unfamiliar."They run as follow:— Gigantic daiishter of the. West,

Wβ drink to thee across the flood We know thce most, we iovo thce'best. For art thou not, of - British blood? Should war's mad blast again bo blown, Permit not thou the tyrant nmrcrs To fight thy mother here alono. But let thy broadsides roar with ours. Hands all round! God the tyrant's -cauee confound! To our great kinsman of the West, my friende, And. the great naino of England, round mid round. , 0 rise,, our etrong Atlantic sons, When war against our freedom sni'iiiErs! 0 spoak to Europe through your ruds! They tan be understood by kings. You iuubl. not mix our Queen with'those That wishi'to keep their people fools; Our freedom's foemen are her foes. She comprehends the race sbe rules. , . Hands all round! God the tyrant's cause confound! To our d-mr kinsman of the West, my friends, '-. And, the great name of England, round , and round. Coleridge as Pessimist,. lieviewinp tho new edition of Coleridge s "Table Talk," recently published by the Oxford University Press, "The Spectator" makes a series t>f interesting' quotations. In liis loutli Coleridge was an ardent democrat. Later nn in life, like Wordsworth, he modified very greatly his earlier hiHiusiasms,. thereby incurring reproaches and abuse.. To one charge oi having recanted.his early faith ho replied:

"I never said that tho vox populi was of course tJie vox Dei. It may be; but it may be, and with equal -probability, a .priori, vox- Diaboli. That t>, voice Of ten millions of men calling for the same, thing is ft spirit, I believe; but whether that lie a, spirit of -hwvcn.or hell I.can.only know by trying the thing .called for hy tho prescript of reason and God s will.

Coleridge, in common with many thinkers, had his moments of suspicion of the stamina of his race. In 1833 he wrote: — • '

"low. after a lons continuance of high national glory and influence, when a revolution of a mo=t marching and Ecneral character is actually at work, and the old institutions of the country aro all awaiting .their certain destruction or violent, modification-the people at large aro perfectly secure, slocpiiiK or gambolling on the very brink of a- volcano. ' Covont'ry Patinore, fifty years later, rebuked the pessimist, but added o.n bis own behalf :— "A nation in the heart of wfiicli thcro is so much vigour as there was in the England of 50 years ago taUca a good while n-dying: but the alarmingly diininiehed vitality. of our present England more than justifies llift foreboding; of tho philosophic polilioian."

The pessimist as to England's decadence was common enough before, tb.2 great war. But where is he to-day? Stray Loaves. ...Some interesting announcements for tho (English) autumn publishing season are made by the famous house ot Murray. , Sir H. Eider Haggard's romaiicej '-'Tim Moon of Israel, ,, now running as a serial in "Cornbill." a new collection ul' short- stories by Sir Arthur CoiiairDnvle, and a new story by Agnes and Bgerton Castle, all liguro on Sir. Murray's list.

•Those of my readers who are interested in astronomy, and ivlio may remember the admirable books on that subject by the Swedish astronomer, Svantli Arrlie'miis, will be .glai! to know that a later book by thn same antlio" has nmv iippcarcd in'an English translation, the titlo being "The Destinies .of the Stars." Arrhcmiis argues, I notice, against the existence of intelligent life in Mars or Venus. He is, however, responsible for the suggestion that life-germs may be roaming through space, repelled by light pressure from hot stars, but able to settle on any planets cool enough to satisfy the conditions of development.

A second series of studies of "Economic Problems of Peace after War," by Dr. W. It. Scott, Adam Smith Professor of Political Economy in the University of Glasgow, is announced by the Cambridge University Press, containing-'. Mr. W. Stanley Jevons's lectures at University College, London, in 1.918. Among the problems discussed are the "Freedom upon the Seas' , .; trade and the proposed League of Nations; "The Financial Burden of To-day and To-morrow," "Conscription or Proscription of Wealth"; "The Period of Financial Transition"; and "Ten Years After." . ~ ■ ftlopford Brookes's literary criticisms, in his letters to his friends, were amusingly free from that scrupulous caution, and, at times, overpowering sentcntiousno.ss which marked such hooks as liis "Tennyson," "Four English Poets," and others. In one. of tin , letters quoted in his recently-published "Life," by Professor Jacks, there is the following reference to Charles Kingsley:— K. screams often when he oueht I" speak. All his books scream It lm tells you it is live, o'clock, it seems an if it were the Inst hour of the world The vulgarity is not in Charlotte JJrojite herself, but in the fact that she is drawing characters ill a society -which, as slio had n'o experience of it, she. is forced to invent out of her .prejudices.*

And, finally, of Mr. Shaw's ".Man and Superman": Ann's character is the best, tliiitu in It. mid is admirably <ionc. I know those soft cuts, ivho ]uiiT you out. of existence. "One of the loftiest English singers" is tho title bestowed i.n Herbert Trench, whose "Poems with Fables in Prose" is icviewecl ii; "Tiio Times." His distinction is dra'yn- from the quality in which I'imiar ;.iid Virgil are pre-eminent, style as Matlbev ( Arnold used the word,'a peculiar heightening, a happy excitement, an intoxication derived from the beauty cf one's.own voice, which all'musical poets share with thrushes and nightingales, which is shown in such lines as thesesShe comes not when Noon i= on tho rosesToo bright is Day. She comes hot to the soul till itieposes From work and lilay. ■ But when Nicrht is on the V.i!ls, fciul the great Voicec . iioll in from sea, . . ' ■ . By starlight and. by candlelight and dreamlight She comes to me. ■

Our erstwhile visitor, Mr H.B. Irving, the famous actor, is a devoted student of criminology. In his recently published work, "A Book of Remarkable Criminals," lie quotes a'computation made by tho late J aines Pn.vn, the well-known novelist, that one person in.every live hundred is an undiscovered murderer, with the comment that "this'gives us all iv hope, almost a certainty, that wo may reckon one such person at least among our acquaintances" ; and he adds in a footnote that "tho author was one of three, men. discussing this subject it a London club: They were able to name six persons .of their various acquaintance who were, or bad been, suspected of being successful murderers.' , James Payn. in. more than one of his: novels (notably in "Gwendoline's liar-, vest,"- by which "Liber"'well remembers having been thrilled as a boy—it came out in C'hambers's Journal) introduced a lmrderer. Tt is difficult, however, to'accept as credible his story, especially when one remembers that tho novelist was . a member of the famous ■Rol'orm Club, the . home, so one would 'liavi>_ thought, of unquestioned 1 respectability.

The "Ministers" have proved Ibemsolves "lirst-class . iishtiu' men" all through tin) war, and ' considerable interest: will therefore attach to the account of their doings, more particularly at .Fe.stubert, line du Bois, and Hulhich, which, under tho title "The Story.of the JtnnsltTs.'-'-'-lias l jeen written !)y Mr. Victor J{ickards, and will bo published by Hoddor and Stuughlon.