THE BOOKFELLOW.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 94, 22 April 1911, Page 13

THE BOOKFELLOW.

Written for The Post, by A. G. Stephens. (Copyright.— All Rights Reserved.) WHILE THE NIGHT COMETH ON. Like a star made pale by the sun Leaping upon it at dawn, Like a rose whose petals have run Under the thrust of a fawn, | She for the other made place, The old love unto the new, And face in my heart changed face S ; wiftor than dew follows dew. And I laugh while I riße with the tide, And sink with the tide to the sun, M JL , ey , es to th? eyes of my bride, While the night cometh on. —Hugh M'Crae. LAURENCE STERNE. • Walter Sichel's "Sterne, a Study" (Williams, Norgate; 8s 6d net) represents a book needed in our libraries. One is not satisfied that either in matter or manner it does Sterne justice; Sichel is not content to interpret the artist, but would make over the man, referring his aberrations to a conventional ethical standard, and meeting each with its appropriate condemnation or — worse — its inappropriate excuse. Eulogy is not demanded, but we do not always find sympathy. And the book, as Sichel uneasily hints, is over-long for its merit. This said, there is to add that Sichel ha 6 steeped himself in his subject, and has omitted nothing that can illuminate. He adds the full text of the "Journal to Eliza," and gives, with other illustrations, five portraits of Sterne, adequately reproduced, and of great interest in their series. He quotes much and aptly ; and fairly 6ucceed6 in. hie object of revitalising Sterne and liis companions. Laurence Sterne was born at Clonmel in 1713. He died at London in 1768. He was brought up by an uncle, went to Cambridge, and entered the church. He wrote "Tristram Shandy" when he ■was 46. Sichel emphasises his English descent on his father's side; but his character seems to have owed more to his Irish mother. His lips were kissed bj an Irish fairy. Sterne is the typical man of sentiment, dreamer and philanderer "You can feel !" he wrote in the year before he died, in a passage which (says Sichel truly) seems to condense the whole of hie temperament. "You can feel < Ay, so can my cat. . . but caterwauling disgusts me. I had rather raise a gentle flame than have a different one raised in me. Now 1 take Heaven to witness, after all this badinage, my heart is innocent, and the sporting of my pen is equal, just equal, to what I did in my boyish days, when I got astride of a stick and galloped away." Yet Sichel often takes him seriously, admeasuring praise and blame (and Thackeray in smug horror took him stupidly, while borrowing his gentle lightnings). "He told young Suard," cays Sichel, "that the Bible, which he read daily, had shaped his style; would that it had shaped his life!" T?ie note of this fatuous ejaculation is struck frequently. Sichel's illogical complaint that Sterne's genius is not a moral exemplar a«s well as a moral warning lessens the literary value of his careful and comprehensive study. WOMAN AND LABOUR-. Olive Schreiner is one of the multitude of brave women who make the world better, and whose inetinct we uphold as often more truly directed than men's reason, though we rely upon men's reaeon to curb its excesses. Sincerity-is the greatest virtue, yet so many very sincere people do slop over so. ' Olive Schreiner's new book fell upon evil fortune. The , story is that for twenty years she had meditated the rights and wrongs, the duty and destiny of women, and her completed manuscript was destroyed when her African house -was "sacked" during the last war. Carlyle is said to have rewritten a volume of his "French Revolution" ; but Olive Schreiner found her similar task too heavy. She has been able to recover only a fagment of her work — virtually a single chapter. This has been expanded to the book just published in London by Fisher Unwin (8s 6d). "Woman and Labour" will b& read •with interest by many people; but its enthusiasm and eloquence do not make full amends for the incomplete co-ordina-tion, of theories and facts. The main argument is not as flattering to the sex as might be expected. The author says in effect that woman is here' to work : give her work ; give her scopa to be serviceable. Back along the evolutionary line, women not only bore and reared children throughout the natural period, but performed the tasks of horne — cooking and clothing; even the tasks of the field, the care of animals, the occasional cultivation, of the soil. The men were kept busy hunting for food, and in fighting to defend the family. In the progress of peace, the spheres of labour have changed. Many women have ceased to work; many do not even bear children, or bear only few children. The man supports the woman, and the choice is usually given to him to "find labour or die." "The position of the unemployed modern female is one wholly I different. The choice before her, as her ancient fields of domestic labour slip from her, is not generally or often at the present day the choice between finding new fields of labour or death'; but one far more serious in its ultimate reactions on humanity as a whole — it is the choice between finding new forms of labour or sinking slowly into a condition of more or le&s complete and passive sex-parasitism !" So Olive Schreiner preaches the gospel of sending women /back to work. Let them have full freedom to labour at all the tasks of civilisation — yea, ■ at the warlike tasks as well as the peaceful. Let them develop side by side with men, as diverse independent beings, fulfilling their womanhood in labour, even when joined with men in marriage. Let them cease to become parasites and possess their souls. The creed and the book are stimulating; but — isn't it natural for a lady to lean? and, after all, doesn't the gentleman like her leaning? The lot of independent woman who remain real women has always struck us as very sad. Yet, if you marry Olive Schreiner's theories to H. G. Wells's, and provide State husbands for serious females, one may see the Woman of the Future marching. Meanwhile, of course, the Woman of the Present is entitled to all the freedom she desires, as long as she 'dees not become a social nuisance in becoming a sweater's victim. In a failreckoning, the evil of parasitism is probably outweighed by the evil of the continual exploitation of women and children. NEWS AND NOTES. Another London publisher is discarding the dignity of literature for the impudence of advertising. ' Of a new book : " Many will accept the author's communion with nature" as a new religion; indeed, no one can read this little book without feeling that death has been robbed of some of its sting." From that height the advt. drops sud denly to tell . us that the author is " nephew of the famous Captain Webb, the Channel swimmer." Charles Frohman, the theatrical manager, says: "The triangle of husband, wife, and lover is dead. I am jJQffiiJ & have no, rnoi-a fi! thorn, Tho

I people don't want them. The play of j the future will still deal with the | division of husband and wife, but it will not be the lover that separates them. Some great new motive will be found." Oliver Onions' 6 title " Widdershine " is explained as good Anglo-Saxon. "It is in use in Germany at the present day, spelt ' widerschein ' — that is not in the direction of the sun's rays, but opposite to them. One uses it in speak- ; ing of ring game 6 moving from right I to left — instead of, as usual, from left to right. In dealing cards ' widerschein' would bring bad luck, etc." Charles Hawtry, telling of the luck of plays, jays " nvv own opinion is that the most experienced managers and ' critics in London conjointly could not produce a play of which success could be foretold with absolute certainty." Talking of Teading plays, he says he gets 50G 3 year, of which not more than twenty-five are worth serious consideration. A lady aent him a play with "Enter the villain, smelling of tobacco." Now how, asks Hawtry piteously, was the actor going to convey to the audience th^t he was smelling of tobacco? That's easy. The heroine would cay at once: "Pah! you smell of tobacco. Villain !" _ A Dublin's counsel's word, " pefnoctation" — "a place of ' pernostation " — recently surprised Chief Justice O'Brien. "That is a great word, I must say. I never knew there was such a word." A brother judge consulted a dictionary and said " Yes, here it is. It means ' passing the night.' and is a word special!}' in ecclesiastical use. meaning spending the nig^ht in prayer." America has invented the science of euthenics "to set a,gainst eugenics — good environment against good breeding. The rivalry is not incompatable : give us a little more of both. John Tenniel was ninety-one on Ist March. Years ago we remember reading how he carefully tapped out he dottels of his pines on the mantelpiece —saving them till lie had enough for a real good smoke. This is the result.