LITERARY NOTES

Otago Witness, Issue 2815, 26 February 1908, Page 86

LITERARY NOTES

—It is understood thait a life of lord Kelvin has been in preparation for some months by Professor Silvanus Thomipscin, who was entrusted with this work, and to whom Lord Kelvin .himself furnished nui meroua biographical details and otiher- ■ matter for the purpose. It wili be published in the course of the present year oy | Messrs Maomillan and Co., Limited. j — A work that has remained incomplete I for some years (says the Montreal Witness) is John A. Doyle's "Engiish Colonies in America," of which the last two vodumes are but just published. The twenty years that lie between publication have acted rather to the detriment of these volumes, but although somewhat disappointing, they form the desired conclusion to wba* ie, on «he _ whole, a valuable work. The five -volumes consider in detail ihe government , and general history of the various colonies up to and including the conquest of Canada. — A good story told by tlhe late lan Maelaren is refuted in the Reader, illustnxfrmg What he called the eatinrafckm in wihioh a Scotch writer's work is held in the bosom of bis family. "My young-eat and schoolboy son," he said, "had vainiry been, trying to read some of my books, and in a confidential mood .observed to me, 'J say, father, -why don't you wribe a propei sort of book— one of those Sherlock Holme* stories, like Conan TQoyle, or "Jack Harkaway," or somarthnng of that sort, and not so mucih Scotdh rot?' " Part 111 of "The American Revolution," by the Right Hon. Sir George Otfto Tre- , veiyan, Bart., considers "Saratoga and Brandywine, "Valley Forge ; England and Pranoe at War." This history, of wiuah the second pari was pubiiahed some four years aigo, has met wi+h the r«adi3S-t app-re- ; ciajtion thj-ougliourf- the United States. Sir , George Trevelyan is a warm admirer of . WafihJington, although he also considers > titoa/ when Washington "deem-sd it incum- j ' bent on him to practise deoeptoion, he > showed capabilities and aptitudes which placed him on a level with the most, famous masters in the higher branches of the art/ and it is not a little to his skill along this line that the author traces the sue- , cess of the Revolution. The hi<<toTy is ■published by Langmans, Green and Co. } —The Frencth Minister of Public In- ' struolion has directed a committee to dra-ft 5 a bill for the creation at a "University of * Africa." in Algeria. Comm-eriting on this i announcement in the Peris Temps, a correspondent writes to the Manchester Gua I*;*La.n1 *- ;*La.n : — "I well remember be^ng struck when I was in Algeria some time ago by 9 the sight of posters in the vernacular ad5 vooating rival candidates for eieo'iicn toifoe c Chamber }f Deputies, which brought hftine > to the mind of an Englishman the novel i few* that a dependency inhabited almost en- - tirely by aborigines was given reprosentat tdon in the Parliament of the steprodilher | . country. The French have shown more cyjurage in dealing wrfcb the education -problem than we in Egypt, for the hißh^r Behoofs employ the native tongue, and in i- ' iih© new university will probably devote b themselves to the nrach-Trcgleoted study of . African dialecits. It is extraordinary how I little we, with our vast Empire over Orieni tal and African subjects, *° encourage tfchose studies. As a recent dopustation to j Mr Morley pointed out, we, with miHrions I of Oriental subjects, make far leas provi- } «Ma for the Boienfrifio study of Oriental k«-

ess provi-

guaspee than the Germans, who have pi*i tioaily no such subjects a* all." — Eari Howe's ooll«ctian of early edivi tians of Shakespeare was in vie market at a famous London auction room in Cbriet* mas week, and 37 volumes realised £5355. This total was, as a matter of fact, fats exoeeded, for an unnamed purchaser- -jisre before the auction started secured by pro* ■vat© ooEitraot a number of the most valu' able quanfeoß— priae not disclosed. Among) /these treasure* was one of the only titoee known oopdee of the second quarto «8 ' Hamlet," dated 1604. Of the fixat quarto^ dated 1603, only two copies are known to exist (the British Museum and the Duks of Devonshire have themir Of the querttjpa that were sold a copy of the fourth brought £+CO. One 6f tfhe "doubtful" plays sold for £222— "The Whole life and JJeafch of llbomaa Lord Cromwell, Written by "W.S." (now generally admitted to refer to Wentfworth Smith). Even an early Ben Jonaoqi realised £70. But the greatest price the* ■went to the hammer was a first folio qjs Shakespeare's oolleobed works, dated 1625. It was bougiht for £2025 by a. London bookseller for "a portion of the Empire overeea-." — It is curious (wrote Mr T. P. O'Oonno* recently) that Mirabe&u, the most eAoquenb of mem, ooMaeseended to steal wholesale from BossuaPs funeral oration upon -tlha dea«h of ■ MademoisegJe -de -la, Taterfe* Wihen all tihe ablest lawyers in Franoe were arrayed against him in hia suit to eomnel the return to him of bk wife, he undertook to piead.it himself. He did, aneTwtmv "He had arrayed against him the most) brilliant legal talent in Foance, and wsa still furhhec. handicapped by reading nia speech, which, prepared wrtsh fpxmib oare, 'he hesitated to aommdt -to memory fatnm ieair of massing a, single point. He delivered it, however, with an eloquence that no one ever dreamed that he possessed 1 . The greets plagiarisms with which it was packed aided rather than detracted from the effect he Bought to produce. Hi's penofaition, wOiioh he had stolen word for word from' Boesuet's eetafbr&ted oradson funebre on Mademoiselle de la Valeric, was particularly effective. The -ardour, pathos, and tenderaiesß with whidb he declaimed it carried the court away, and reduced even Ms noicdb imipllaoajble enemy, Ms wife's father, to tears." —On the question whether oor not the Bible is litenry, a oorreapondent, iifao signs himself "AngkvFaxisntn," wrote to TJP.'s Weekly recently: "Two facts have doubtless largely, oontributed to spxead the ioraprestdori that the Bible t&B nothing' to do with, literature.' One is the system of numbered verses— imagine any of one's favourite literary passages cut up and ticketed in this fashion I—and1 — and the second is the way it is read^ in most dhuirahes. Pull>st eloquence is studied by many clergymen of all denominations, but few read without droning or affectation — in .t&e Anglican Ohuroh, at any rate. The fact that our old vioar, whose tremoJo effeote in the pulpit had ppoonred 1 Jor him the local nickname of 'crocodile te&rs,' read simply, distmotly, -and Teverently early impressed me (and posmMy. many more of hw hsaseic) with the real beauty -of many bocks." But, surely, for a- man to eompli&in th«t the Bible hoe not seemed literary to -him becatwe ihe preacher read -ttie lessons undnt<iHgibly" is bad policy and worse exor* — "A -new 'idea is explained in -thetSulJetin de I'lnsttirtut Iratemaitional de Bibliographic, No. 1-3 *nyn v by 8,. Goidsciumdtj and TSau! Otlefc, wMch will, if Bwoeeaful, revoluiticiwse our libra-ries," says the Internafciorial. "Tlteir plaii oonaietta of substi* burtinjj for the toxge pages of our books micro-phctoga-aphac reproductaons of same to be read through a -magnifying lens. It is proposed tbatt tihe size of the pistes representing pages should be internationally ataadardfeed, so that anyone possessing fhs ma^nifyinK apparatus, sfhould be abCe tQ ! read any book produced in -fihiß -way. No teolinica! difficulties are said to be in the way. It is claimed that the cost of production --would be enormously reduced, thus a volume of 536 pefres now costing sfr oould be produced for o.Bfr. Ate> it wouM greetij reduce the work of our Hbrairiee now cumbered' by tomes of every shape and size. The plaihes would be, moreover, of a fireproof and durable material, wnile system admits of -an edition being enlarged to any dimension desired in accordance with demand." — A very interesting, even important, article on the Cenei is eoratributed to the Century Magaaine for January by Mr F. Marion Crawford, w%o has oome into possession of an unpublished leriter from the hand of Trancesco Canoi, Beß*rice ; s f«<4»er. and, supported by this and other -orisiinal document*, telfe the jfhaabh/ *totT m very differcnl gruke from that , presented by Shelley. Mr Crawford practically proves ifaa* & great part of the tragedy is swrtplj poetio embellishment of the real facts, and although the crimes of violence of Cenoi remain uashaken. he Bhows. that theig* is hardly a shred <£ evidence to supptw* tb« idea of his major atrocity a «*ui»t Beaitr»e. After ihe murdear she refused, even under torture, to admit this as a reason for the slaying of her father, although she de- ! posed thai during the last months of Jws life he frequently bead: her (a woman of 22) with die nerbo or courbasoh used m Itaiv for criminals. Mr Cmwford 3n*kes i tiie "point that Pope Sixtus would probably not have ihad the Cenoi DUt -to death had it not happened that dunnsr their trw.l there wer» two other cases of parricide in patrician families.