BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 280, 20 August 1921, Page 11

BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

(By

Liber. )

® Man. © pipe rmolte, (j-i'-ty! a man a boob he eon read; hit hams is bright with a calm delight ffydutiA the room be poor indeed. —JambB Thomson.

BOOKS OF THE DAY “The World In ’Revolt?* In "Tho World in Revolt: a Psyoholofcfoal Study of Our Times" (T. Fisher Unwin), Gustave Lo Bon, the wellknown French psychologist, and author of that remarkable book, "The Crowd," gives us a curious ineight into the French point of view on several of the post-war problem:*. In successive chapters he dieousse:* the mental evolution of the peoples, conflicting principles in modern warfare, tho influence of psychological factors in battle, the propagation of belief the "new revolutionary tempest," political illusions of to-day, and the political disorganisation of Europe. Dr. Le Bon is evidently not enamoured °f Socialism, and in his anxiety to prove his case that Socialism, especially of the Marxian variety, has boon largely responsible for tho presentday chaotio state of affairs in Europo, is apt to leave aside the consideration of that psychological factor with which his book is ostensibly concerned, and write es a political journalist. State intervention of an/ kind seems to bo his hugbear, mainly, no doubt, because he ee.es in it a gradual approach to the Socialistio state he bo heartily dislikes. Tho economic struggle with which the nations have entered since our military victory may bo even more disastrous to somo of them than was tho war itself. Wo must never tiro of repeating this. But what we must above all repeat is that ruin wfll certainly overtake those countries in which tho Ideals of State intervention are developed. And these ideals arc Intensified daily by the pressure of Socialistic theories.

Apart from tho purely political results of Socialism Dr. La Bon seas grave evil in tho effects of Socialism on industrial enterprises. "The constant attacks of tho Socialists upon Capital are doing," he gays, "a great deal to hamper the expansion of our industry." The au'thor la here writing of French conditions, but the same hampering process Is equally perceptible in Great Britain, •nd even in this far-awqj corner of the world we know how mischievous can be the all-too-freguont and unreasoning Tailing at Capital. Dr. Le Don’s book Is a very interesting contribution to the literature of psychology, and indirectly discusses many gravely important postwar problems. ' , r*From the Unconscious to the Conscious.” .

Many linos of inquiry have led away from the older mechanical view of man and th® universe. The profound change in our conception of matter, the increasing complexity in the scientific ideas of evolution, the philosophy. of Bergson and his school, tho rise of a science of psychology, th© emotional effect of tho war, and the popularity of Spiritualism, have all tended to lead the minds of many out of the old paths. In the volume under review, "From the U ncon " scions to tho Conscious," by Gustave Geley, Director of the International Metaphysical Institute, Faris; translated by Stanley de Brath (Wnt. Collins, Sons and Co.; per Whitcombo and Tombs), the author has attempted not only to state •nd criticise the principal theories that have been put forward to make the

"riddle of the universe” less perplexing to mortal beings, but also to frame a tterw hypothesis. The. book falls naturally into tiro parts: first, a statement and criticism of the classical hypotheses of ecience and metaphysics; second, an attempt to explain all things ns the development of psychic energy. In the former part the different views of evolution are clearly outlined, and their weak points and limitations made rnani-

fest. Tlio change from tadpole to frog 1 .'or from” chrysalis to insect, the problems of personality, sub-consciousness, double personality, hypnotism, and other abnormal mental states —to say nothing of Spiritualistic phenomena—do undoubtedly raiso difficulties perplexing to the thinker. The author makes it clear that tho last word on these problems has not been said, that the hypotheses of the schools have not robbed the world of mystery.' But does the author’s constructive work help us to solve these problems? He views the universe as a development of psychic energy directed to an end by a superior force, and gradually moving from the unconscious to the conscious. Schopenhauer’s "will,” not working blindly and leading us to pessimism, but directed by Divine wisdom, and pointing ns to optimism, provides the solution of tho problems that the scientists and philosophers have left on our hands. Tn

.the words of the author it is stated that: “Ono single hypothesis—that of an essential dynamo-psychism, objectified in representation and passing, by those re-

presentations, from unconsciousness to consciousness—suffices to explain everything, with no other limitation:: than those natural to the facilities wo now actually possess." Those who find this clearer than the blunderings of science will read the volume with interest and profit, and those who are not convinced of tho truth of Spiritualism, and not impressed by tbo photographs of "materialisations" with which the book closes, will, nevertheless, find much within its pages that will open their minds and induce them to re-examine the foundations on which their beliefs are based. “Our Social Heritage.” Professor Graham Wallas, the author of those well-known works on modern society, "Human Nature in Politics" and “The Great Society," each of which was reviewed in these columns on its first appearance, now presents u« with a third and equally interesting book,. entitled "Our Social Heritage" /’London, George

Allen and Unwin). That section of our , social heritage with which he now more particularly deals includes "the ideas, Mbits, and institutions directly concerned in the political, economic, and social organisations of modern communities.” The urgent necessity of radical changes in onr Institutions which has been created by the Great War is admitted, but <n making that change the author contends that we must allot careful contdderation to the basio origins of the institutions sought to bo reformed. Bays the authori

A tradition which seems to any one n.nt The social heritage of any race or whwe A change which In one country L e Tf O flmly^t a S&bMh t|J| blem of social and Intellectual , re fe’ o7M°Wsz°^ Be X a tiie O wffi war in !«»• W of our task ia greater. The new fact or modern industrial organisation is a r>J In* over the earth, and we have learnt that the dangers arising from that fact Sire equally universal. Unless, therefore, an attempt is now made In many■eounSSnY’in&K"WX •? sion—another and more destructive stags Jn the suicide of civillsa-tion. Professor Wallas sets forth in the oohrse of his book not a few theoriea and contentions which cannot fail to excite antagonistic criticism in certain quar-

ters, as, for instance, when he argues that in the Church, the Army, and the legal and medical professions, there can be developed a professional spirit in which the intoresta of each particular group are apt to be more carefully studied and protected than those of the oommunitv in general. But this is an age in which increased allowance has to bo made for differences in opinion, and Professor Wallas’s now book is just is rich in material for useful thought and profitable discussion as were its two predecessors. “Tha Elements of Social Science." The ever-increasing interest in the study of sociology is reflected in the large number of books in which sociological problems are set forth and examined in the light of modern thought. A recent addition to Messrs. Methuen s series of works dealing with economics and sociological questions generally is "The Elements 'of Social Science, by K. M Maciver, Associate Professor of Political Economy in the University of Toronto. (London, Methuen and Co.). in successive chapters. Professor Maciver discusses the Nature of Society, the Stages of Society, Society and Environment, Interests and Associations, tho Structure and Evolution of Society and the Great Law of 'Social Evolution. Hie book, so it is claimed, will enable the reader to see society as a living unity born and sustained out of the instincts and interests of social beings, and subject always to its own unique laws; to examine its essential structure, and to truce its stages of development. "Tha Social and Industrial Problem.” Under the title "The Social and Industrial Problem" (Cassell and Co.; per S. and W. Mackay), Mr. Alfred Hook, a Fellow of the Royal Economic Society, provides a brief, compact, and in. many ways excellent introduction to tho study of social economics. The problems of capitalistic production, of land occupancy and utilisation, of banking, .of the various relations of the industrial and producing classes to the capitalistic and employer classes, are all set forth with clarity and point. There are also useful chapters on State enterprise, distribution, profits and taxation. The lectures which form r the basis of the book were originally delivered to audiences of workers in a London industry, the object of the lecturer being not to ' provide a course of study for students of eoonefnics, but to convey a knowledge of social and economic facts to those workers who are keenly interested in the practical problems of the time, but to whom the merely academic makes no appeal. LIBER’S NOTE BOOK From "Liber’s” Scrap Book. Old Friends to Trust, Old Bookes to Keep, Old Wine To. Drink, are a solaciotig good old Trine. Your Artes, your Parts, your Wisdom and your Worth Are out of fashion, Coyne’s the God o’ the Earth. —Cocker’s "Morals,” 1675. “Blind People in Fiction.” In 3 recent article in London “Observer," that ingenious compiler of literary history, "Penguin." discusses "Blind People t in Fiction." Pew, the blind pirate in “Treasure Island," was a specially realistic creation. “Penguin” also reminds us of the blind girl Lucille, in Wilkie Collins's novel, "Poor Miss Finch," which, by the way, though not nearly the squal of “The Woman in- White" and "The Moonstone," or even “Armadale,” is well worth rereading. Of course, Dickens’s beautiful character Caleb Plummer's blind daughter, in "The Cricket on the Hearth," is prominent in "Penguin's" article, os is also Nydia, in Lytton's "Last Days of Pompeii." Dick Haidar, in Kipling's "The Light That Failed," and Amyas Leigh, in Kingsley’s "Westward Ho,” are heroes who lose their sight in tho progress of the tale. .Stagg, the blind man in "Barnaby Rudge," and "Wandering Willie" in Scott’s Redgauntlet,” should also be remembered. "Penguin" concludes his survey of Blind people in fiction with a hope that there may be truth in Wilkie Collins’s statement in the dedication of "Poor Misa Finch," "that the conditions of human happiness are. independent of bodily affliction and that it is even possible for bodily affliction itself to take its place among tho ingredients of happiness." This strikes "Liber" at least as rather far-fetched. Happiness would surely very largely disappear from life were a booklover deprived of his sight.

Dickens on the Platform. The admirable Dickens recitale given by Mr. Alexander Watson should do much to increase the popularity of "Boz’s” delightful works with the younger generation of New Zealand readers. Dickens himself practically "acted" tho highly condensed scones from his stories which he gave in his so-called "Readihgs." Just recently there has been published a reprint of a privately printed copy of "Sikes and Nancy," from "Oliver Twist,” which wag one of the readings specially prepared for his final tour. The copy used for the new editon was given by Mrs. Billington, the actress, to Mr. John Hollingshead, the famous theatrical manager, who, in his turn, presented it to Sir Henry Irving. Dickens waa very keen, so he toldl his friend and biographer, John Forster, upon doing the murder scene out of “Oliver Twist," being anxious, he said, "to leave behind him the recollection of something very passionate and dramatic, done with simple means, if art would justify tho theme.” Forster strongly opposed the project, but Dickens persisted, and an experimental reading was given, and made a grait hit. Dickens himself wrote from Clifton, in a jocular strain, to his sister-in-law, Georgina Hogarth, that "from a dozen to twenty ladles fainted and were taken, out stiff and rigid at'various times” during the performances in that town. Carlyle was greatly struck by the dramatic intensity the novelist got into this particular rending, saying: "Dickons acts better than any Macready in the world, a whole tragio, <7omic, heroic ‘theatre’ visible, performing under one hat." The "Oliver Twist" rending, however, took so much opt of Dickons, at that time in very indifferent health, that his medical advisers finally had to enter a strict taboo on the “Sikes and Nancy” performance.

Stray Leaves. Miss Jans Mander, who wrote "The Story of a New Zealand River," han published a new story, "The Passionate Puritan," with tho John Lans Co. Miss Mander, who has resided in New York for some years now, is a daughter of Air. Francis Mander, M.P. Arnold Bennett has expressed ths opinion that D. H. Lawrence is "the foremost of tho younger British novelists," and praises Lawrence’s last story, "The Lost Girl," as a "novel of great beauty, distinction, and force." Copies of "The Lost Girl” have not as yet reached the Wellington bookshops. Sir Walter Scott’s favourite walkingstick has been plaqed in a museum at Edinburgh. It la the same stick which Is represented in the well-known .portrait

of the novelist, walking with his two favourite dogs. Rafael Sabatini, the Anglo-Italian novelist, who wrote “Bord-slys, the Magnificent," and a fine "Life of Cesare Borgia," has written a story of the French Revolution, entitled “Scarar mouche.” Am a ton r reciters should note tho appearance of an excellent little volume of recitations from Dickens, adapted and compiled by Mrs. Alice Hasluck. Methuens are the publishers. A. J. Mannings, the English artist, whose pictures of horses and hunting scenes have now such a vogue, has, it appears, a gift of verse. He has recently issued a privately-printed edition of "The Tale of Anthony Bell: A Hunting Ballad," which, on the suggestion of John Masefield, was published in "The Field” in 1919. The quaint old house in the picturesque old town of Rye which was so long the residence of Henry James. the American novelist, is now occupied by Mr. E. F. Benson, of "Dodo" fanxe. “Brown Sugar"” is the curious title Miss Ruby M. Ayres has given to her latest novel. Miss Ayres’s stories are generally very saccharine in their sentiment. A recent addition to that excellent series "The World’s" Classics" (Oxford University Frees) is a volume of selected tales from the Polish.

For many years all the Samuel Butler books were published by tho firm of A. G. Fifiold. Mr-. Fifield has, I see, disposed of all tho Butler copyrights, and his. publishing business generally, to tho recently-established publishing firm of Jonathan Cape. Madame Rachilde’s new novel "La Souris Japanaise,” is said by the critic of "Le Temps" "to combi no the qualities of Don Juan with thoss of Des Esscinites, tho morbid protagonist of tho eatanic drama of Huysmans. The book reminds us of Barbey IFAurevilly and Jean Lorrain.”

Many a New Zealander of the older generation will recall with pleasure reading tho once wonderfully popular stories, mainly dealing with Napoleonic times, of tho two Alsatian novelists who worked in collaboration, Erckmann and Chatrian. 1 specially remember "The Conscript," "Madame Therese,” and “L’Ami Fritz. A monument to ths two authors is, I see, to be erected at Phalsbourg. I wonder why these charming stories are not reprinted in chenn editions. It is years since "Liber has seen a copy of any of them in a New Zealand hookshon. Scraps from the recently discovered batch of Carlyle letters (mostly addressed to Thomas Speckling) continue to bo quoted in tho English papers. Here is a characteristically Carlylean plain - "From time to time I feel it absolutely necessary to get into entire solitude; to bog all the world, with passion if they will not grant it otherwise, to be so kind as leave mo altogether alone. No wonder that his old friend Fitzgerald once wrote of "tho grey and worn old philosopher of Chelsea, lonely, but on the whole happier in his very lonelin<“C.K.S.,” in the "Sphere,” counts May Sinclair—whose “Divine Firo" "Liber' well remembers reading, now a good many years ago, and whose hire 0 Heaven," as a picture of English prewar society I have always held to be greatly the superior of the unduly belauded “Mr. Britling"—amongst the first six greatest living women novelists. Jhe other five are: Mrs. W. K. Clifford. ..Virginia Wolff, G. B. Stern, Clemence Dane, and Constance Holme. But surety Mr. Shorter has forgotten Sheila Kaye-Smith. I should certainly rank her more worthy of first place than G. B. Stern. Thus Mr. A. G. Stephens’s "Bookfellow”: “We are sorry to say that it is time that William Doan Howells shut up his literary shop —his critical adjectives no longer match tho book ribbons. Surelv the omniscient "A.G.S." ought to know that Howells "shut up his literary sh.op*'* nearly two years when he died! SOME RECENT 7 FICTION “Adam and Caroline." The second instalment of Conal O. Riordan’s trilogy, which was commenced in “Adam of Dublin," is now to hand, bearing the title "Adam and Caroline" (William Collins, Sons, and Co., per Whitcombe and Tombs). The story of the Dublin street artib is now taken n further stage, with a second instalment of his school experiences, and the gradual development of Hie intellectual side of his striking personality. Also, we get Adam’s first love affair, with its tragio end for the unlucky Caroline Brady. As in "Adam of Dublin," there is' some exceptionally fine character drawing, tho shrewd and cynically humorous old barrister. Stephen Macartby, bring very prominent. There is also a most amusing old German professor, ‘ that Frenchman," ns Adam’s landlady persists in calling him, and some cleverly-contrast-ed priests. The mystery of Adam s birth is still Ifft undisclosed, but certain hints are given as to what we may expect in the volume still to come. Adam is a ."human boy." os Mark Twain would have called him, and no reader who follows his fortunes can fail to have a. real affection for the very lovable lad. As in the,first book, certain aspects of Dublin literary and Bohemian life are cleverly and very amusingly described. The concluding volume la to Ik* called "Adam and Barbara." It will he eagerly awaited. “Hidden Fires.”

Mrs. Patrick M'Gill’s new novel, “Hidden Fires” (London, Herbert Jenkins Ltd), is an agreeably writton, mildly exciting story, the heroine of Lola Bruce, is the pretty young wife of a shell-shocked officer. Tho Bruces are hard put to It to make both ends meet. Lola goes on the stage, in musical comedy,, as a chorus girl, and helps very materially to support her husband and a very jolly little youngster called Buster. As Bruce is rather n prim, not to any priggish, fellow in his way, the wife pretends she is employed by a dealer in antiques. Tho truth, however, comes nut and Bruce’s mischief-making cousin, Olive, who had wished to marry him. vyry nearly succeeds in causing a permanent breach between man an A wicked stage manager also plays a rinistor role in the little domestic drama, which ends happily enough for the mucntried Lola.

“Prince of the Palais Royal. It is some time now since I came across the name of Max Pemberton on the title page of a, new bwk. lu "Prince of the Palms Rovnl (Gossell and Co., per S. and W. Mackay), Mr. Pemberton gives what pu[P° Tts f n series of extracts from the jouninl of a famous restaurant manager Monsieur Prince, of Bigny’s in the Palais Ro-m, who was quite a social personage during the later years of the. Pwond Empire. Prince plays a prominent part in a number of political plots, domestic dramas, and social ecaudate, ana « though be eomet’mes plays an nnheroic role, ns where ho confessedly acts as n go-between in tho illicit love affairs of certain Parisian celebrities of his day, the stories aro decidedly entertainliu*. Such once notorious but now long dead and gone "frail as Leonide :e Blanc, Allarguerite Bellangor, Adobnu Mellon, Ninon Lebrun, and other «oealled "queens of the demi-monde, appear in Monsieur Princes chroniqnes pcandaleuses, but for the meet part, if not always, the gay ami shrewd old restanrateuty-or 1,,8 piece, Mr. Pemberton-is carefnl not to err against good taste.

A Cape Cod Story. Thoee who remember those highly entertaining stories "Cap’n Abe, Storekeeper" and "Cap’n Jonah’s Fortune, will welcome Mr. Cooper’s latest novel of the Caps Cod folk, "Tobias o’ the Light” (N.Y.,. George Sully and Co., per Whitcombe and Tombs). Tha principal figure in tho story, the hardy old light-

house-keeper, Tobias, and his shrewdwitted and warm-hearted, if ehnrptonguod sister Heppy, are drawn witn a firm hand. Both have command of t* hoiuely philosophy which assists them not a little in solving certain domestic and sentimental problems with which they become temporarily, but prominently connected. The story, tho ugh slight in plot, is full of pleasantly humorous touches. "The Wall Between.” Miss Sara Wore Bassett’s novel, "The Wall Between” (Littlo, Brown and Co, pea- Whitcombo and Tombs) is a wellwritten story of life in a quiet littlo village in one of tho New England States. The plot turns on a feud which exists between two families, the Howes anil the Websters, caused, by a dispute over the boundaries of their farm. Ellen Webster, a grim old spinster, has inherited the family feud, but there comes to live with her an orphaned niece, Lucy, from a Western town, and gradually a marked change is brought about in the relations, of the two families. It is Cupid who finally dissolves the ancient feud, for he brings about a maCch betwen Lucy and Martyn. Howe, but not before the former’s malicious old aunt has caused a good deal of trouble and unnappiness. The various types of New England character are firmly and convincingly drawn, and there is some excellent comedy in the story.