LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2817, 11 March 1908, Page 77

LITERARY NOTES.

"_lhe recent vuit of Sir John Gorst to New Zculand, as representative of the Imperial Government at the opening of the Chr:stchvrch Exhibition, has borne fruit :n a book of recollections, called "New Zea.- | land R< visited," to bo published by Sir Isaac lit man and Son., — Byror was rarely tiue to himself in his poetry; no, not altogether, I believe, m "Don Juan," at least, not in the closing cantos.. Indeed, I doubt whether, during a good portion of his life, until he was weary ot vanity and acting, he had any self U which to be true, so much had he overlaid his own personality with another which he dressed up for the world. It JS this falsehood, or, rather, fiction, in his work which will always prevent men and women from loving it as well as they love Shelley, who is always true to himself.— Stopford Brooke. — The vira'.ity of Dickens's works is singularh great. They are all a-throb, as it were. " w ith hot human blood. They are popular in the highest sense, because their j appeal is unhersal, to the uneducated as well as to the educated. The humour is superb. and most of it, so far as we can judge, of no ephemeral kind. The pathos is most ' que--tionable, but that, too, at its simplest and best — and especially where the humour is shot with it— is worthy of a better epithet than excellent. It is supremely touching. Imagination, fancy, wit, eloquence, the keenest observation, the most strenuous endeavour b-' reach the highest artistic excellence, the largest kindliness— all these he brought to his life-work. — Frank T. Marzials. — I kr.ow of no more delightful occupation than loving books. Love of books may

be acquired, but the greatest bibliophiles are born bibliophiles. The pure bibliophile loves a first edition as a miser loves gold, but there is a larger class of people who love to be interested in the written word. Nowaday cne can get a good book for a meal. I have often said to myself, "I cannot afford to buy that book," and then I have said again, "My dear fellow, if you will fast one day you can buy three of them.' It is a book for a meal. To obtain books in that way needs self-denial, but " self-denial is the -►secret of all life. Those who have made;great progress in life are those who ha\e denied thetneelves for some beautiful thing: — Sir jGilbert Parker. —It q»ua<it {says the Tribune) tha< the bulk of ColericTg^B poetry is of gieat or permanent value. He will live by a few -selections, and these will rank him with the piaster-singers of all time. As the irteiise vision of early manhood faded into the light of common- day,..hiss.poetio gift gradually disappeared, and Coleridge became absorbed in the study of metaphysics to the exclusion of all other interest. Domestic unhappiness, too, may have hao its influence, and it is certain that ths evil opium-habit, at first an inspiration, ultimately checked and retarded the coherent expression of ideas. "The radiance of his prime was of the dew of the- morning." — One of the striking- passages in the musical reminiscences of the late Sir Georgo Smart (''Leaves" from his journals have just been published) refers to the death in 1836 of Malibran. Her end was, lie thought, hastened by her rivalry with another pnma donna, who was singing as she was on a Manchester platform. The lady unexpecttdlj let off some vocal fireworks not anticipated by Maiibran. Determined not to be outdone, Malibran performed tho same fea r with brilliant success. During her encore she turned to Smart— "lf I sing it again it will kill me," she said. "Then do not," h<- answered. "I will sing it again, and annihilate her," cried Ma'ibran. She did 50 fainted away, and was carried to her inn. On the last day of this Manchester visit she was to have taken nart in "The Messiah." She insisted on being brought on a couch to the church, intending -to sing ; bui. had to be carried back to the hotel. It was her last appearance. — It was on January 5, 1838, that Thackeray began his Essayettes in The Times, entitled "Old England," and „ above the signature "Cceur de Lion." Almost unknown to the generality of Thackeray's public, they are an excellent example of his power in parody, and were brought home to the author by Carlylc, the" victim. "A man in The Times newspaper, for the last 10 days, is writing a series of papers extravagantly in my manner, so that several friends actually thought it was I. I did not see them till last night, and had a laugn over them. It is that dog Thackeray, my reviewer on The Times . . . he, lam persuaded, and no other. I take it as a help and compliment, under the circumstances, and bid it welcome as far as it will go." — Chronicle. — A writer in the Atlantic Monthly tel/s an interesting story of the "discovery" of Bret Harte. "A copy of the Overland Monthly had fallen into my hands," ho says, "and I was exceedingly interested in a sketch, 'The Luck of Rearing Camp,' by an author whose name I had never before heard. I asked Mr Fields to read it, and he cared more for it even than I— being much older and wiser — and he very soon, dictated a letter to Mr Harte, beggirTg him to send something to the Atlantic. The reply which came in due time, I think not only expressed a willingness to become a contributor, but spoke of the writer's probable departure from California. I cannot tay how long it was before the Harta family reached Boston and became the guests of Mr Howells in Cambridge. I only know that it was the time when every man was quoting from "The Heathen Ohinee,' and #enerallv carrying the versei in hi« poeketbook. There was, I thought, a gODc! deal of curiosity. felt about the offico as to the sort of man the suddenly popular author would prove to be. He was found good-looking (and\exceedingly well-dressed), extremely self-possessed, with a gracefully friendly and even affectionate manner to th« new business and literary acquaintances of his own age in the establishment, with whom ho speedily became intimate."

— Of what wiH some always be left even when yon have taken th<? whole? — The word "wholesome."