CONTENTS, NOTES OF THE W E E K ...................................................... CURRENT CANT ............................................................... FOREIGN AFFAIRS. By s. Verdad .................................... AUSTRALIAN INTERESTS IN THE PANAMA CANAL. By Grant Hervey .................................................................. NOTES TIIE PRESENT ON KALPA REPRESENTATIVES. J. M : By . Kennedy BUSINESS JINKS. By Charles Brookfarmer LETTERS FROM, ITALY-VII. By Richard Aldington ............ SIMPKINSWROTE PLAY.” By Norman Fitzroy Webb.... A TIIEGREATSHIP. S. N. Anglin 489 492 492 493 496 497 498 499 .. ............................................................... ........................ ........................................ _--- 500 GARVINIAN EVOLUTION. A. H. By LITERARY NOTES ............................................................ THE CHEMIST’S WIFE. By Anton Tchekov. (Translated by H. 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Abroad. a. d. - .......... ......... .___ . . .- NOTES OF THE WEEK. ’JhE chief difficulty i n theway of arousingpublicinterest in English foreign policy is that England has, SO far as the public knows, no foreign policy. I t is understood, of course, that by virtue of his office Sir Edward Grey must have .a policy of his own, but neither he nor his colleagues both in parties have succeeded yet in making plain the it to public. so-called The policies of Defencepureandsimpleand of Peace are, strictly speaking, not policies a t all. Defence and Peace are the natural aims of any policy, but they cannot be said to be policies in themselves. Everything depends upon the means which it is proposed to employ to accomplish these ends, the nature of the obstacles to their accomplishment,andthestepsnecessary to overcome those obstacles. Without understanding an of these broad particulars,it is impossible for thepublictosharein theday-todayprogress, of the Government ’s f’oreign policy. At one moment we are told that things are very critical, though and whom why with we are left to guess in completest the dark. Suddenly news the is vouchsafed that we are out of the wood again and that England’s relations with foreign Powers are bordering on those of love’s young dream. The mystery created by this absurd secrecy, punctuated alternately by panic and panegyric, is far from stimulating a healthy curio;sity or interest in the whole subject. On the contrary, public curiosity, too long baulked of satisfaction, ceases altogether;withtheseresults,thatwe find ourselves called upon to pay gigantic sums for shipbuilding, and denounced at the same time as a people without manhood and patriotism. I t wi;; hc observed, we hope, that we are not suggesti n g the impracticable plan of publishing, as they corne an,d g o , the daily documents of the Foreign Office. The nation, we are certain, not is so, moonstruck it that wouId demand or even consent the to “democritisation” of foreign policy to this extent. Our demand, on t h e otherhand,isfor a promulgation of thenational policy as conceived by the Government its in very us say, a s broad as, broadest outlines; in outlines, let though no broader than, the outlines of policy laid down by Pitt in the campaign against France. Then, i t will bc remembered, in a series of speeches extending over years, Pitt not only outlined a national policy, but filled inthedetailstotheextent of namingtheenemy,defining his own object, and enumerating the grounds of his h o p e s andfears. Only bysuch a concurrence betweenthenationandtheGovernmentwasitpossible to maintain national the interest necessary both to financeandtoinspirethetremendouseffortsrequired of England.But atthepresentmoment,aswesay, whenevengreatereffortsandsacrificesarebeingdemanded of the nation than Pitt ever asked, the nation isleftwholly in the dark not only as regards what is being done, but as regards what intending be is to done. For all we know, Sir Edward Grey may be sim ply engaged in hunting the Snark; and all our battle ships aad the rest of our accoutrements may be anklet. against shark-bites. W h o orwhat is the enemy? I s the nation arming against suspicion, building ships againstnightmares,and being calledupon to provide nearly a hundred millions a year against imaginary grow, by the enemies?Theimpressionisallowedto Press i f not by theForeign Office, that theenemy is Germany, Germany and only. But if there be any a foreign policy foundation the for suspicion, surely that is not simply negative would discover it-and attempt a t once put end to an to it. France, In M. AnatoIeFranceisdeclaringthattheproposedThree to culture.”InconYears’service will “putanend sequence of whatdevilryisthiscalamitythreatened? culture, it is German, it is, said. Mere, in England, true, is in n o danger, whether from Germany or Japan, since culture must exist before it can be destroyed ; but what is in danger is the whole movement of social reform, the beginning, at least, of culture, and the freedomfromconscription. These, togetherwiththecost in money, are what n-e arc already paying for a preca- 490 rious peace. And war, we boldly say, could not be more costly. If Germany is really responsible for the despair of Anatole France and the Navy and Conscription campaign in England, it is time that our national foreign policy defined its objective. I t .is dishonourableto live, (if we do) in a perpetual state of panic when the enemy is known and we have the means of, at least, challenging him.Defeatcouldnotbemuchworsethanpeace on the present terms. A national Foreign Minister would, we are certain, find a means, not merely of defendingEnglandagainst open attack,but of defendi n g her .against a standing menace. Until, ,at any rate, a Minister is found to say so and to mean it, no public interest need be expected to be taken in foreign policy. this moment. I t is impossible that theyshould become worse without national death ensuing within a generation. atthe outside. I t is even impossible that t h y should remain at their present height of fever without national delirium (iof which there are already disquietingsigns)setting in. Underthesecircumstances we say, in all earnestness, the that remedy for the apathy of which military our men complain, of and which every lover lof his country must b'e driven tlo complain, is not to be found in drum-beating ,or in raillery o or in abuse; it is b be found in deliberately lifting the proletariat, 0.r helpingthem to liftthemselves, out of the inferior, humiliating deadening and condition of wage-slavery intothecondition of free workmen and craftsmen. For it is not possible that a shall class spend its life in irresponsible servitude and, a t a moment's notice, suddenly develop responsibility. It is not possible that some seven million men shall, during a generation, be regarded a s possessing no rights an,d suddenly be prepared t o maintain that they possess duties. Even more deadly than the withdrawal of foreign policy fromthenation to the Government department has been and still is, in its effect upon England, the moral and spiritual attenuation of our proletariat under wage-system. the An English Napoleon would certainly be a social revolutionary a s a condition precedent to military glory. Glory, indeed ! Our Cabinet o f curs can o d y whine of defence and peace while all o England'sspiritare f broken thetimethedefences down and she knows no peace. * Q r. I t does not follow, however, that with a revivedinterest in foreign policy conscription would or could or shouldbeestablished in England ; even in its mildest form of compulsoryservicein the Territorials. In the first place, a foreign policy thatwas so obscure or dubious in character as to require conscription for its pursuit would almostcertainlybe a fallacious policy. Something, after all, must be credited to the communal instincts of a nation even by the individualist Ishmaels a something as shouldcomnow inpower,andsuch mand most respect when the occasion appears most critical. If a naturally bellicose nation like our own requires prodding to.defenditself,thesafeassumption, we may surely say, is that the nation divines no danger where the prodders profess to see it, and isprobably right in its judgment. On the other hand, if the danger really exists and our rulers are frank about it, the demand for conscription would be drowned in the tumult of voluntary enlistment. Too latefor effective training, it may be said. But the fault of that will lie and to-day does lie on ourpresentMinisters,whorefuse to take the nation into their confidence in respect of the contingencies of to-morrow. even But granted that conscription conceivably necessary, possimay be its bility is still another matter. Many objections have first to be overcome, of whichnone of the Conscriptionists seem yet to be aware. The industrial system is more advanced in this country than in any of the Continental countries ; and with its advance and the accompanying degradation of its wage-slaves, not only military ardour, patriotism, and the other national virtues suffer eclipse, but the mass of passiveresistanceintheclass of the proletariat increases in weight. As the slaves becomeand they are becoming-conscious of their status, this passive resistance wouldin an emergency turn active. They would ask, are already asking, what they have to fightforexcept topreservetheirpresentmasters :a prize by no means seductive. Quarrel as we may with the "selfishness"supposed to beunderlyingthisattitude,theattitude i s real. The Romans, realists in the truesense, recognised thefact by refusingtoadmit slaveseven asvolunteersintotheirarmy. By calling our wage-slavescitizenswe do not alter their nature. now They remain slaves and non-citizens, and are realising it. W e do not believe they could be conscripted under any circumstances. W e a r e certain th,at it would not be worth while putting them into uniform. * * * * * * The conclusion to be drawn, however, from these reflections isnotthatEngland will be ruined by the selfishness of her common people, but by their deliberate degradation under the wage-system. In short,is it the wage-system in England thatmustbe destroyed. That Continental nations have both wage-system the .and a national' army is, as we have .said, noreply to ourowncase. W e havehadthewage-systemlonger, we have had it more severely, and we have had it more extensively. Neither in Germany nor in France, neither in Russia nor in Austria, has the wage-system yetbecome anything like so universal as it still is in England. Those perhaps, countries, have th,eir troubles to come. They may have to be worse befo.re they are better. England's But troubles the from disease of capitalist industrialism are a t their worst at Greatthings,however,are to)bedone nextSession or the Session after, or the Session, after that, time and weather andelectoralconditionsandtheLabourparty permitting.Amongthem is thle creationofaneducational ladder fmm the slum infant school to the university.Lord Haldane hassaidit, Mr.Lloyd George h.as saidit,and now Mr. Peasehas s'aid it. In his speech to &he National Unison of Teachers a t Sheffield, Mr. Pease explained that the object o the Government in f itsforthcomingmemoranda f,or discussion is tot provide that " thebestbrains, shouldcometo the top." Laudable ambition, and identical, high-priest its. tells us, with the ambition. ( o f the life-form. there But is thesamelittle difficulty in Mr. Pease's scheme a s in Mr. Shaw's. Who is to see th,at th,e best brains c'ome to ,the top? A life-force without intelligence, a lifeforce, in fact, without a supreme and competent judge anddirector, is in danger, obviously, of advancing in all directions; .and a n educational system whose"top" is nothing in particular .andwhoseguidesandjudges are themselves blind mouths, is in danger similarly of retrograding in all directions.. Before there is the least hope for educationial reform in England, it must be decided whether system ,our is to continue, to8 produce wage-slaves amongthepoorandwage-drivers among the rich. I n other words,somedeliberate forecast of the future organisation of society is indispensable even to the teachers who wi'll have to carry out any of the Needless to s.ay, however, this plans o f education. preliminary requisite of reform is not only n0.t defined by Mr. Pease,its existence isno'tevensurmised. The question-begging phrase, " educating 6or Me,'' will doubtIesscontinue inuse, though nobodyisyet clear whatmeant is by life. The poor God-forsaken and proletariat, when th'ey hearthephrase, will doubtless think that life in some romantic sense is, intended (especially if Oxford is; promised to one in a hundred thousand of their boys), but,fromhintsletdrop by Mr. Pease himself, the meaning 'of "life" is intended by the governing classes to be confined to. industry, t.0 industrial and commercial life. Th'ebestbrains.atthetop means to the authors of the new scheme, brains almost a s good as thleir own : t h e only difference being the difference between brains servile in industry and brains dictatorial in industry. * * * Beyond this fundamental objection to a great change in education before the future of society is decided, there ::re other objections to be brought against even the bare 491 outline of theplan offered by Mr.Pease. No mention was made by him of the one real material impediment tothe education of thepoor, namely, the size of the classes in elementary schools. Large classes and education are a contradictionin terms ; andweshouldbe quite satisfied for thepresentwiththerevolutionin education brought about by reducing the classes in the schools of the poor to the dimensions o the classes in f theschools of the rich. If that, as we are told by the Education Department, is impossible, then any revolution ineducation is impossible. The more the remaining circumstances are changed, the more education will remain unchanged. I t would be quite possible now, with the existing type of teacher, to do for elementary education all that can be done under a national system (for we hate a “national” system of education), by merely reducing the size of classes without a single furtherprovision of “steps”orincreasedattendanceor even additionalpaymenttotheteachers. So great an obstacle to education is the large class ! Not only was this genuine grievance of both teachers and taught unmentioned by Mr. Please, but a grievance, n,ot less., ,and not less damaging to education, though peculiar directly to teachers alone, honoured was by his silence. The elementary teachers of the 318 local education authorities suffer under an inspectorship asbrutal as it is “efficient,” and a s wooden as it is tyrannical. The lay public canhavenonotion of theterror,anditsjust cause, which these bulldogs of the rates exercise upon elementary teachers in their pursuit of Government grants. Imagineworst the skunks wageammg will earnerspromoted to beforemenandourreaders perhapsform a sketch of the commonest type of the local authorities’ inspectors. That they have beenpermitted to look a secondtimeinto a schoolthey have oncevisitedis a reflectionon the spirit of elementary teachers ; butthattheircontinuedexistence,withall their powers reinforced, should contemplated be in vacuo by the Government is a proof that neither Lord Haldane nor Mr. Pease has evei1 the ignorance necessary to an educational revolution : being unable so much as to learn. word “Cheers”; was the it that Government hoped (merely hoped) that the local authorities would see their way to-to-to-raise teachers’ wages. Why call them salaries after that? * * * * * * W e shallhave,unfortunately, a great dealmoreto say on thesubjectastheprogramme of theGovernment develops, but one further remark we shall allow ourselves herr,. A t the meeting at Sheffield, addressed by Mr. Pease-a man who has never seen a normal elementaryschoolinhis life-were probablysomehundreds of teachers, one, any almost, of whom would make an infinitely better Minister of Elementary Education than Mr. Pease himself. The reflection isforced on any common-sense mind that the teachers above all arethepersons from whom. th’enationhas.theright to expect the plan, as well as its execution, of a system of nationaleducation. It is true, of course, that directionandexecution are separate branches in servile industry; but in th’e professions (a,nd teachers a r e f’ond of regarding their occupation a s a profession) the two are united. The laypublicdoesnotlaydown therules of medicalservice, it submits to them.Similarlywesubmit to the rules as well as to the conduct of professional lawyers .and dentists. Knowing our needs, they attempt to satisfy them-we are writing ideally-according to the laws of theirscience and the rules of their art. If the National Union of Teachers realised its professional character, treatment its of the subject of education would be similarly professional spirit. in In place of Mr. Pease pompously addressingthem 0.n themachinery he thought necessary, the changes he was preparing tomake,thecurriculum,grantsand classifications he waswilling to allow,theNationalUnion would have been addressinghim.Butwefearthathabitandthe local authorities’ inspectors have induced in elementary teachers a subservience,eveninmatterseducational, which nothingwecansay will remove. How,then, if they dare not call their own souls their own can they undertaketheresponsibility, a s a Guild, for the souls of their pupils? It was perhaps the irony ,of a reporter that punctuated one remark only of Mr. Pease with the TheParliamentaryCommittee of theTrade Union Congress, which mustbe carefully if laboriously distinguished the from Parliamentary Labour Partyis certainly superfluous-has tbough o.ne of them Ministers, topbeen #on its annual tour of Cabinet hat in hand, wit’h results,inthe way of collections, whi’ch must be disappointing even to Labour politicians. The whole object of Ministers on these occasions is to discharge the duties of the officers of Rabelais’ Queen Whim : to wash asses’ ears without losing the Queen’s soap; in other words, to satisfy the deputation at no cost to capitalism; and last week the duty ‘was faithfully discharged. In reply to hisparticulardeputation on the subjectofthe Nationalisation of Railwaysand Mines, Mr. Asquith had an amusing conversation with Mr. Walkden. T,he latter had innocently counted on the sacred inviolability of Mr. Gladstone’s infamous 1844 warningtoinvestorsthatthenationmight one day acquire the railways a t 25 years’ purchase of the average dividendsl. By thisreckoningthearithmetical geniuses o >theCongressestimatedthat f the present railways could be bought out and a sum o between f three and six millions per annum saved to increase the “ Never mind about Mr. wages .of the employees. Gladstone,”saidMr.Asquith ; “what abmt the capital?” T’owhich Mr. Hervey replied : “ W e a r e not out for spoliation o r robbery.” little Good boys ! Mr. Asquith did not say ‘that 77 railway companies and 50 coal companies haverepresentatives in theHouse of Commons, and, consequently, that nationalisation withoutpurchase o wateredcapitalis f impossible by Parliamentary action. H e contented hi,mself w,ith leaving his mind ,open for more facts from the Congress, on the subject o th,e railways and giving an invitation to f the deputation, ta mad the report on the working of thse Prussian State mines. Shocking, we understand ! Almost a s bad as the best of ours. Of the rest of the deputations we shall comment on one only, that which did puja before Mr. Runciman. Runciman, Mr. the “Daily News” obsequiously informs us, speaks with manifest conviction of .the necessity for a rural revival. He grows, upon this subject, as eloquent his .as mind allows. The form this revival takes I his n imagination is,, he tells us himself, a thoroughly business ,one. Rurality is to be re-vitalised on system the of strict profit. “ My leadingidea,”thisbagman told thedeputation,“,has been to put the problem (of rural housing) first of all And the method by which he, on a businessbasis.” assisted by a committee 0.f business men, landlords and designers, will proceed is to provide on demand for local authorities standardised plans of cheap cottages, with all their fittings, at A150 or, perhaps, Ago per-what shall we say?-kennel. Thesamesuggestion,with,an offer o freelandfor f t,hepurpose,was made a few ,days ago by a number o lords and ladies f andgentlemenwhohave evidently caught from Mr. Runciman his manifest convictions of the need for a Rural Revival. But what the had deputation to say of such a contemptuous a s well as contemptible offer? Nothingbutgratitude, so far as wecangather. Yet we will undertaketo say that the proper course for the deputation to have taken was to have spat upon Mr. Runciman and left him. The suggestion of segregated barracks for agricultural serfs-all standardised and as like each other as Labour Exchanges or public conveniences-is one that could only occur to a rnaggot in the corpse of English rural life. The country, God knows, is bad enough now;but with domestic prisons scattered over it like a constellation in hell, its revival will be a calamity. I s there absolutely nobody whose threats cam keep Mr. Runciman and his colleagues silent? We pray only that, if his cottages are once constructed, he and his friends may be the first and last tolive in them. 492 Current Cant. As a Socialist, I am very strongly in favour of compulsory service. All income-tax returns insurance and cards should in future have a column for chest measurement and age; all and able-bodied persons should be obliged to give the country 35 years’ service.”-G. BERNARD SHAW, in the ‘‘ Daily Chronicle.” (( Foreign Affairs. By S Verdad. . “ Rag-time for the King.-Epoch-making incident of State Ceremony.-Forthe first timeinthe history of England theKing was played tothe opening of his Majesty’s Parliament yesterday in rag-time. All the glitterand glory of State coaches andcrystal windows and emblazoned panels were ushered in not to the splendid martial music of royal processions, but to the compellingstrains of ‘ Hitchy Koo.’ . . . When stately the melody o ‘ Waiting for the Robert E. Lee ’ banged out at f a quarter to two, every British heart must have thrilled to the splendour ‘of the moment, with its memories of histork Parliaments.”-“Daily Express.” “The National LiberalFederation is to be ccmgratulated on its unanimous resolution in favour of the abolition of the right to capture private property at sea.”-“News and Leader.” Princess Mary will be confirmed in the private chapel . . . The Archbishop of Canterbury will perform the actual layingon of hands,and he willbeassistedby the Bishop of London. . . . The Princess will be photographed in her confirmation dresson Monday. . . .”-“Daily Express.” of Buckingham Palace to-morrow mornlng. “ WE need not worry ourselves unnecessarily over the fall of theFrench Cabinet.In the first place, it had been generally expected, and in thesecond place, adequate arrangements had been made t o meet the situation. No one knew better than’ M. Briand! himself that ProportionalRepresentation, as embodied. in the Bill passed by theChamber, would meetwith determinedopposition in theSenate.TheUpperHouse,itmustbe recalljed, is elected not merely for a much longer period than tbe Lower House (viz., nine years), but in a somewhat different way. EachSenatoris elected for nine years., but one-third retireeverythreeyears,whereas the Chamber is dissolved and elected in a mass. I t follows that fully one-third of the members of the presentFrenchSenateareCombists,and absolutely opposed to the principle of Proportional Representationnot because theyseeanyinherent defects in the principle, but simply because they fear that, by its general adoption,the so-called “Reactionaries” would be returned to power. In other words, two the extreme minorities ,od Royalists and Socialists might well combine.againstthe Republican regime toreturn,say, a Royalist in a Royalist constituency and a Socialist in a Socialist constituency. + * * much alive kicking.”-and “Tariff Reform is very GEORGER. SIMS. “ To a majority o the people to-day the opportunity f is immeasurablysuperior thanatany for afullerlife ‘(Millgate previous time.”-EDwARD JACKSON, the in Monthly.” _- Women havealways been interestedandactive politics. . . .”--Sir C. HUBERT PARRY. H. “ “ in Civilisation is now at the point where a gigantic wave of doubt is testing ideasandconstitutions,and where faith is making ready a’ City of the Soul.”-F. J, GOULD. “ The East-end did not fail to do its part, and nowhere could theKingand Queen (with whom rode Mr. McKenna) have had a more stentorious and hearty welcome. The Voice of the People was, indeed, heard in the land.” Evening News.” Even under the present system of election there have, f it ‘is alleged with. some truth, been numerous cases o the member returned representing only the minority of theelectors,becausehisreturn has been effected by anti-Republicancombinations. It was, in fact, a consideration o these cases that induced M. Poincare, f when he was Prime Minister, hurry to forward the discussion of the ElectoralReform Bill. This measure has received the approval of the Chamber four times; but it was always perfectly well known that the Senate objected (tlo it. And the Senate objected to it because, in the opinion of the Republican leaders. there, the Bill would h:alve the opposite effect to that expected by &I. Poincare theythought, in, other words, that tbe new system would lead rather to the return o more “Reacf tionaries” than to the dismissal of those at present sitt i n g in the Chamber. * * + (‘A notable demonstration mas held under the auspices of the National Anti-Sweating League inthe Queen’s Hall on Friday. One of the speakers was the Rev. R . J. Campbell, who revealed a’n intimate knowledge of practical issues, ,despite his withdrawal from the political sphere two years ago.”---“ Labour Leader.” “ The Bishops were late. . . . The King was in crimson and white, and the crown npon his head flamed. . . . The Queen, too, in precious stuffs olf white and gold, was all ablaze with the light of diamonds. . . .”--ARTHUR MACHEN. “ The majority of the 45,000,ooo people in these islands enjoy a fairly high standard of comfort.”---HAROLD Cos. - “The desire for Christian union is rapidly growing abroad as well as at home, and I have proposed to several representativetheologians that a book should be issue(! on ‘ The Holy Supper : Its Place in History and Practice. . . . How blessed if, during this forthcoming holy week, ourmindsandhearts could be turnedtothis central verity of our common Christianity. ”--GEORGE FREEMAN, in the “ Standard.” CURRENT SENSE. The most intellectual race in the world, with the possible exception of the Chinese, are ruled by AngloIndians, and the oldest empire in the world is going down before the mostbarbaricnation in Europe. India under England, Persia under Russia-such is the product of imperialism-such is the victory of body over soul.”-“The Oxford Fortnightly.” “ Even this opposition, however, would not have led to the early rejection of the Bill had not M. Clemenceau, whose reputation as a Cabinet-breaker is well known, thought it a n excellent opportunity of “getting back” a t M. Poincare, who was elected to the Presidency in spite of hl. Clemenceau’s effects t o securethereturn of M Pams. M. Briand,it was realised, was in this instance pushing ahead with the Proportional Representation Bill chiefly in order to carry out the pledges of hisformerMinisterial colleague, n’ow President of the Republic. The defeat of M. Briand, therefore, would be indirectly the defeat ‘of M. Poincare.There was one grim, :reference in the d d “,tiger’s’’ attack that sent .a shiver through Senate. the M. Briand, on a previous occasion, had alluded to certain constituencies, which elected members under the present arrangement, as“stagnantpools” Anxious to alarm nervous the systems of .some .of the doubtful Senators, M. Clemenceau said that these “stagnant p o l s ” were often filled withconstituents who, like frogs., were croaking-for a king.ThereferencetotheBourbonswas not lost, and out went the Rill. * * * M. Briand’s, own speech in the Senate was not without value. H e intimated clearly that his Ministry would resign if the Senate left him in a minority, and hekepthis word. A.n hour or twoafterthe division the resignation of his Cabinet was in the hands o the f President. * * * I say that we need not worry ourselves unnecessarily over the business’. As I have often pointed out inthis 493 column, we are, as a nation, practicallyinterestedin the internal politics o other countries only in so far as f suchpolitics are likely ttol affect the foreign policy o'f the party in power. There have been a dozen or more MinistriesinpowerinFrance since theAnglo-French Agreement ,of 1904, buttheAgreement stillexists. It will go on existing ; and it may be predicted that, no matter what Government comes into power, the army will n,ot be neglected. I write this bearing in mind that almost anything may happen in French politics. Why, there might even be a "coup" by M. P o i n c a r e - - h i s Imperial Majesty Raymond the First. At ,any rate, his friends would nlot be surprised if such a thing happened. The name of #the next Premier is,for the time being, quite immateriaI, though M. Barthou, Minister of Justice in thle present Cabinet, is mentioned at the time o f going to press. Australian Interests in the United States. The Panama Canal. B y Grant Hervey (President Foreign Affairs Department t h e Young A Australian Movement. * * * Theassassination of theKing o Greece is, diplof matically speaking, a "regrettable incident," and raises no awkward questions of policy such a s would have to he considered if, say, the victim had been the Emperor of Austria or the Kaiser. The King many late had excellentvirtues;butit is, sheer fudge when mawkish newspapermentry to make outthat hewas a great man, simply because was he the brother of Queen Alexandra; for he was not even a man of average ability. Hisvirtueswerethevirtues of unostentation and simplicity. He never did anything unexpected, and he never made himself troublesome. H e meekly submitted when the politicians of the time expressed their dissatisfaction with one the adviser brought he with him from his own country when he was elected King-the phrase is almost acontradiction in terms-and he submitted equal with meekness when the Military Leaguewas formed andthreatened some of his pet in these .respects, plans in 1909. Hewasquitesafe and he never did anybody any harm in his life. Greece flourishedunderhim, it is true,but not through any exertions of his; and if he had made himself unpopular o r troublesome he would have either been assassinated by hisown loyal subjectsorforced by the Powers t o was unpretentiousand unassuming. abdicate. he But He frankly recognised that the problem. o the Balkans f was a complicated one, and he realised that he could not solve it. S o he left the solution to abler minds : to his fellow-Monarch Ferdinand of Bulgaria, to his own Prime Minister, M Venizelos, and even to the Servian . Premier, M. Pasitch, whom. heknewfairly well. H e withstood all temptations; 'to intervene anywhere in anything,andaccepted without a murmurthebackseat offered to him. Few rulers of our timehavedisplayed such a sublime spirit of self-abnegation. + * + mother, Queen Olga,daughter 0.f th,e Russian Grand Duke Constantine; for the Danish Royalfamily,with which we are so honourably connected, has never been noted for intelligence of anunusualorder.Itisexceedingly likely that the new King will claim Salonika for Greece; and it is not merely likely, but certain, that his claim will be rejected. I t is unfortunate that Greece, Bulgaria, and Servia should all want Salonika. In such circumstances somebody mustbedisappointed,andin the present case the port will probably be neutralised. That, at least, has been suggested at the Ambassadors' Conference a s the easiest way out of the difficulty. His son, th,e present King, is a man of much stronger character, but inexperienced. H e is a good soldier, even i f not quite the military genius his friends make him out to be. His brains spring chiefly from his * * * Fortherest,the peace negotiations aredragging slowlyalong. T h e Allies are chiefly haggling over the question of a n indemnity; for ,the war has almost ruined Bulgariaand Montenegro, and seriously affected the financial condition of Servia and Greece. T,he BulgarianforceatChatalja, which has done practically nothing for several weeks, is alone costing the impoverished CoUtry nearly ;f;~oo,ooo day. a P AT the conclusion of a short series of articles, embodying an Australian view o foreign Imperial f and affairs,prepared ,by thepresentwriterand published by THENEW AGE duringMarchand April of 1912, it was pointed out !that the indifference o England, with f of theOuterEmpire, would, regardtotheinterests sooner lor later, compelthoseCommonwealths Ito look elsewhereforfriendsand allies. Nothing that bas occurred in the comparatively short intervalhas providedreason for a changefromthat opinion. On ,the contrary, events the of this past year-and 'more especially thle ominous American event of last November, when ithe "stand-pat" element o t,he f Republican Party employed Governor WoodrowWilson'scandidature:as a final means of defeating Roosevelt-have vitally stressed the increasinginterest of Australiaintheforeignand domestic policy of the UnitedStates. For allpracticalAustraof theBritish Emlian purposes, the strategic centre pire-the Empireto which the citizens of this Commonwealth now nominally belong-is no longer placed in London. Washington is the military and naval centre of our world, andthe policy o Dr. Woodrow f Wilson matters infinitely more to us than all the polical incoherencies and platform vacillations of, alternately, Messrs. Asquith, Bonar Law, Lloyd George, Winston Churchill, and Lords Haldane, Morley, Crewe,Lansdowne. and W e stand or fall, as a Younger Nation, withtheUnitedStates of America. Intellectually, politically, commercially-in every department of human activity l wise and a far-sighted Australian policy compels us tlo turn o,ur backs on Engto seek an active offensive defensive and land and alliance with the land thtat nurtured Lincoln. The Americans themselves, doubt, no !taking the people of that Republic in th'e mass,areprofoundly unconscious of thisrapid pro-American,trend of AusTHENEW AGE, underthe tralianfeeling,Writingin heading of " The American Third-Term 'Superstition," the writer, mildway in the American Presidential struggle,said o the inhabitants o theUnitedStates f f that if they had one defect surpassinganyother,it consistedinthefactthattheyare, insomerespects, the .most provincial-minded Anglo-Saxon peopleunder the sun. So keen a critic .as Mr. Ezra Pound, himself a citizen 'of thle UnitedStates,has recently filled the same NEW AGE with columns upon columns of support for that contention. Only a people provincially-minded in the 'mass could have elected a Woodrow Wilson as Presidentinthestead of Roosevelt. The menace of medilocrity, ,in short, is not merely an Australian issue. It pervades the politics 0.f the United States every whit as much as it hangs over the national affairs of Britain. It is th.e most deadlymenace o the English-speaking f world-a menace that calls as emphatically for American as far British and Australian thought. The reasons actuating present the writer, in his anxiety fior the election of Roosevelt, had nothing to do with the respective personal ambitions of Mr. Taft, Dr. Wilson, or Mr. Roosevelt. Ha,d predecessor the of Mr. Taft refused in advance so much as .to consider a nomination, those reasons would [havestill affirmed the necessity for hiscandidature.Thosereasons 'may be condensed into a few words. After the sea-battle of Tsu-Shima, which annihilated the last prospect of success €or Russia in the Eastern . war, President Roosevelt, acting on behalf of .the American nation, addressed an identical Note to Russia and Japan, urging the expedience of a peace-consultation between theparties.OnAugust 5, 1905, representatives of the two belligerent Powers were 'brought together by Theodore Roosevelt, o,n board the " Mayflower,'' a t Oyster Bay. The conference at Portsmouth, in the State of New -Hampshire, duly followed; and Japan, after stipulating, at the commencement of the negotiations, for the ,most onerous terms, including a substantial cash indemnity, .had t accept an arrangeo ment embodying the views, not of Baron Komura a d Takahira, but those, substantially, of Count Witte, Now, the Baron Rosen, a n d President Roosevelt. practically identical part that Russia played,with regard to the claims of Japan.againstChinaafterthe absolutely automatic precision war of 1895, led with to the war whose terms of peace were settled by a t intervention sat Portsmouth. Tlhe Japanese do not forget. Thley commenced preparations their against Russia with instantaneous zeal. Similarly, their preparations against th'e United States date from the day that sthe Roosevelt conference ended. Roosevelt has committed America to a course whose end is 'war. Logic, at *he end lof his successor's term, demanded that Roosevelt, h,aving stood aside in 'deferenfce tothe Washilngtonian tradition, should nlow resume the Presidentship. Stsep by st,ep, the Americans are advancingalong,thepaththatleads to military and naval conflict withJapan.ThewarwithSpainthat ended at Paris on December 12, 1898, carried the flag of the United States almost to the doors very of Nippon. McKinley's assassination brought Roosevelt to the Presidency, enabling him to play the part of a virtual negotiator on behalf of defeated Russia at the Portsmouth conference in August, 1905. The strenuous policy inauguratted :by Roosevelt regard with to the Americanfleet, the diplomatic manoeuvres at Panama, the determined attack upon the problem of making an inter-ocean canal, enabling the fleets of the United States to patrol the Pacificand the Atlantic at willall th.ese were steps, and in thzeir effect 'they remain steps, whosesole conclusion iswar.Theodore Roosevelt having played thle decisive part in embarking the United States against the inflated pretensions o Japan, f Theodore Roosevelt, at the end of ,his successor's Presidential period, should have been permitted to resume his all-important duty-the duty of preparing America, parochial-minded, noisy, spread-eagle, but vigorous andpractical America, f'or thecertaintest of war. When one nation prepares silently but incessantly for war, whilst another-and that ,the provoking nation-allows its ,mind to dwell upon the workings of aninternal kaleidoscope that concealstheurgent by the glitttering exaltation (of the trivial, the end is (certain. American politics, seen fromwithin,aresuch a kaleidoscope. Thenation,as a whole, isintentupon the spectacle of itsown specific, sectionalaffairs. Its mind ison the small things,ignoringthegreat. Tlhe completely now, in day of reckoning isforgottenas Chicago, in Boston,in St. Louis, in NewYork,asit was forgotten ,in MOSCOW, in Odessa, in St. Petersburg, in Riga, prior to the swift and ruthless sinking of ,the first vessels of the Russian fleet at Port Arthur .a matter of onthe8th !of February, 1904. Yetitis almost absolute certainty that America's day of reckoning will come. The best antd biggestAmericans-the handful of statesmen thinkers and whose minds are international,notparochial, in their sweep-are alive tothis tremendous danger. Tchey knowthatAmerica needs a Roosevelt, needs a soldier and a man of vigour, arouse the not a lawyer or a college-professor, to nation t o a true conception of its peril. HOW Japan does make After German war? the method. In an Appendix to his Official History of the Franco-Prussian War, that method is succinctly stated by the Man W h o Knew-Von Moltke :Th'e war of 1866 was entered not on? because the existence of Prussia was threatened, nor in the voice of the obedience t o public opinion and people ; it was a struggle, long foreseen and calmly prepared for, recognised as a necessityby the Cabinet, not for territorial aggrandisement or material advantage, but for an ideal end-the establishment of power. Thosewords, applicable as much to the war of 1870 as to war the of 1866, exactly typify the fighting with Russia was such a methods of Japan.Thewar war.Thewar withChinabeforehandwasthesame. Thewarthat loomsbetweentheIslandEmpire and theUnitedStates will leap out with tahe same fury, and-unless America wakens-with ,the same result. The defeat of America meansthedisappearance of this Australian Commonwealth. England might become a tidy, well-governed province of the German Empire,andstill a White Australiamightexist; but with the successful invasion by Japan o America's f Pacific Slope our White Australia comes automatically to its end. Consequently, the course of American politics is a ,matter o life and death to us. Ourbusif men ness as a junior nation is, not to waste ships and in aiding England in the North Sea, but to make friends (>a)withGermany and (b) to prepare to assist America in the Pacific. The whole fabric !of Imperial Preference, Imperial Federation, Imperial this, Imperial that, nothing the is but disolving fabric of a dream. There are no men in England capable of translatingsuchvisions of Empireintowords. To us, the politicians, of Britain are divisible into two categoriesontheonehandtheConservative-UnionistUnspeakables,ontheotherhandthe Liberal-Radical Incomprehensibles. W h y should waste time we our and temper in the futile contemplation lof such ex-Imperial wreckage? Canada, in thewords of THE NEW AGE, has been persuaded to seal with the sum of seven million pounds its membership of fhe BritishEmpire. Any Dominion that pays over such instalments of financial tribute to a Government of Liberal-Radical Incomprehensibles, by and expects bo obtain security thereby, is governed fools, and puts its trust in political worthlessness. The people of thisAustralian Commonwealth aremaking no such blunder. Professor Goldwin Smith is dead, ,but the wisdom of his views with regard,toCanada'sfuture lives after him. Studentswhohave experimented withchemistry have seen blow two given chemicals, hostile and separate in a common vessel, require only t,he addition of a third ,to,fuse them into a solid, homogeneousmass. War between the United States and Japan will provide $he Dominion. >of Canada with the essential third chemical. f Canada, as a junior nation o the disappearing British Empire, would bebetter employedin establishingthe and most intimate relations &he with United States Germany,instead lof throwingitsseven millions into the North Sea. To mediate betweenGermanyandthe UnitedStates,drawingtheminto a warmfriendship, and warding off the possibilities of an alliance between Germanyand Japan-an alliance thatmight conceivably overwhelm England,Canada,theUnitedStates of America,AustraliaandNewZealandinacommon ruin-that is the sort of task whose execution would do more credit to the wisdom of Canada's Prime Minister Borden. W h y should the Canadians, more any than the Australians, wastetheirtime,temperand money ontheUnionist Unspeakables andLiberal Incomprehensibles of Great Britain? Ah-. Maurice Low, likenumber a of other British journalists, is worried about this pre-eminently sensible attitude of America with regard to the Panama Canal. He deals despairingly in the December " National Review " with the inclination of the Americans to repudiatecertainobligations laidupon thembytheHayPauncefote Treaty of 1901 If the Americans not only fortify the Canal, but also exercise the right of closing i t in time of war, the British-Canadian naval forces will run the risk of being shut out of the Pacific. The only 495 hope for Britain, in fact, is that Dr. Woodrow Wilson, thePresident-elect,maybepersuadedtoconvertthe Canal into a common ,international traffic thoroughfare. Onesuggestion onlymay here be offered. It is this : Will Mr. Maurice Low his and unhappy journalistic legion address themselves to a solution of this problem? WhathasGreat Britaindoneinthe Pacific thatshe shouldexpect to find an eleemosynarygate-openerin the person of the United States? TheTrans-Pacific peril thatthreatensthewestern coast of North America ,is a peril for which England is responsible. Lord Landowne’swasthestatesmanship -the statesmanship of a pluperfect Unionist Unspeakable-that negotiated treaty the of alliance between Great Britain and Japan. The army and navy of Japan wereenabled to smash the army and, navy of Russia solely by the connivance o England. That Japan now f dominates the Northern Pacific on the one hand, whilst Germany assumes mastership the of Central Europe on theother,isunmistakablyduetothe politicalinsanity of England. Britain tremendous Great had vested interests inIndia.Sound policy inculcated the encouragement of Russia in a continuous policy of Eastern expansion, away Afghanistan the from and Himalayas,andtowardsthe Yellow Sea.Thefurther Russia moved eastward, on a bee-line towardsPort Arthur, the better for England and for India. Rememer t h e words o General Kuropatkin-the f Kuropatkin of Liao-yang, of the Shaho-at Askabad in 1897 :The policy of our Government in Central Asia, since the accession of the late Tsar (Alesander 111)’ has been eminently one of peace ; and recourse has never been had to arms until every other means of gaining a given object has failed. . , . A solitary traveller can now cross Central Asia, from the Caspian to the Siberian frontier2 without incurringthesmallestrisk of attack.Thelast complication on thePersianfrontierdates from 1829--nearly seventy years ago. I am led to be explicit these on pointsby a sincere wish thatthe publicmay be convinced that we have a settled Asiatic policy which is in no way inimical to GreatBritain, and that we are perfectly satisfied with our present boundaries. to open and close as they builders claim right the please this Isthmian Canal-to-day, a review o the f world at large inclines the average thoughtfulAmerican to inquire : How much hide have these Britishers got ? Washington is now our Imperial centre. Australia’s interests are America’s interests. The peril of the one is the peril of both. And in the case of either country the external danger i’s a s nothing to the internal of The Australian Legislature, like the HouseS CongressatWashington,isnowgivenover to the sway of a plague of mediocre politicians; men whose minds are inaprocess of continuous orientation-towards the parish pump ! Condemnation of Dr. Woodrow Wilson,before lhe has assumed office, before he hasnominated the officers o hisCabinet, f wouId be entirely out of place. But Wilson is not Roosevelt. Behind t h k President-elect are all the triumphant forces of the Democrats, the ultra-parochial American party;thepartythat isopposed to warand to preparations for war; the party that has insisted upon the reduction of expenditure essential to t~heefficacy of the American Navy-a party, in short, whose administration, unless it differs in every particular the from Democratictradition, when ithasgonefarenough, along the line of national diisoganisation, will give the signal for the smashing onslaught of Japan. Mediocrity and parochialism are internal the foes against which the intellectual forces of this Commonwealth and o the United States must be directed. As f a prelude to politicalalliance, we seek a n intellectual entente with the thinkers of America. America’s m u lationis as (huge as ours is small, but Australia isa land of tremendous possibilities.Both countries are in urgent need of leaders of the Jeffersonian type. “Jefferson”--.olne quotes flrom a book by Dr. Albert Shaw, called “The Outlook for the Average Man”-“ Jefferson anticipated the breaking up of the Turkish Empire and the extension of the European system the across Mediterranean intoAfrica, and beyond ,theBosphorus and the Caucasus into Western Asia. It was Jefferson’s idea that the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea are essentially American waters, that and an American inter-oceanic canal must be under full American control. JohnAdamsregardedthesage of Monticello as the father of the American navy, and i t was the opinion of that sage that none but an armed and disciplined nation could dispense with a large expensive and standing army. It was a war, in short, in assertion of Jefferson’s Monroe Doctrine that brought America into the Pacific ; buttheAmericansremain a t Manilaforreasons that have reference no a t all to the Monroe Doctrinereasons that relate instead to America’s new Pacific interests and responsibilities. ” Dr. Albert Shaw is the editor of‘ the American “Review of Reviews”-one of the few American magazines that preserve a high political and intellectual standard. The pages of the average American periodical are filled with barbarous imitation humour and sloppily sentimental mush. Rut the magazine directed by Dr. Shaw belongs to a very ‘different category.Inlits issue of October, 1912, thisableAmericanwriterand thinker has done the present writer the honour of reprinting his viewsuponthe Americanpresidentialissuefromthe columns of THE NEWAGE. “Criticism from our cousins across Atlantic,” “Review the the of Reviews’’ observes, “is nothing new, but criticism from the young Commonwealth of Australia is something to which we are unaccustomed. ” Such criticism has for its cause the earnert desire to bring the two nations, the junior and thesenior,closertogether. W e a s k Dr.Shawto believe that there are other lands besides the United States whose destinies are wrapt up in the observance of the political creed of Jefferson ; other lands whose thinkers believe that it is America’s sole and sovereign right to control, to close and to open the Panama Canal ; other lands,aboveall,where Lincolnlives and Roosevelt’s gospel of strengthandcourageousenergybeginsto animate the spirit of the people. To-day, the complications fresh upon the Persian a commonplace of politics. Russia has frontier are been ,driven backfromManchuria,and compelled to fling itsweightalongthePersianline of leastresistance. India is threatened again, the war in the Balkans has stirred the Moslem world to its depths. Japan -at the cost of a staggering burden of taxation-is o its navy, Germany is f let increasing strength the loose on Britain like a peripetual nightmare; whilst the f crumbling bones of many thousands o Russia’s bravest sons-a sacrifice to age-long, hostility the mad of England-help on the growth of Manchuria’s crops o f Kaoliang. In what solitary particular England ,has proved a gainerbythisunspeakablealliance?There has been no gain, but one long and constant procession of loss. America, confronted with thecertainty of a bloody struggle for the Pacific, has reason to curse and denounce the insanity of England; Australia hates the of a modipolicy that binds Great Britain in the toils fied but detestable still alliance with Japan : the citizens o Canada bleed financial tribute to be spent in f an insensate effort to strangle Germany upon the sea; South Africa is splitting up again into rival camps of Britainand Boer, with the certaintythat a modified Hertzogism will win; New Zealand is playing the part of a lonely ocean outpost, ignoring America and Auswhole editralia to snivel at the heels of Britain-the fice of Imperialsolidarityhas been smashedasunder. And by whom? By Lansdowne. Lord By Balfourhy all the gang of Tory Unspeakables that leapt for joy when Russia’s armies the bit dust. To-day, the spectacle o this anxious England, dependent f upon the self-same Russia flor zld against the German menace; compelled to assent when Russian diplomacy ordered the American Treasurer-General Shuster out of Persia ; compelled to assent to the ruthless partition of ,Moslem Turkey, with all its consequences in India;and no’w howling to this same America because the American 496 Notes on the Present Kalpa. By J. M. Kennedy. XVI I I .-Representatives. for a causeisnot SO modern anintellectual vice asothers which have already been dealt with iR THE NEW AGE; but there seems to be little doubt that it is. becoming more and more common. When we find even Labour leaders objecting to strikes because of the inconvenience they causetothe public, we need notbesurprised if ,the same point of view is expressed in the newspapers ; and this very phrase, “inconveniencing the public,” may perhaps give us the key to the origin of much of the unrest which is characterising the present epoch. I t would ,be absurdforanypaper,orany political partyforthatmatter,torepresentthevagueentity which we call the public as caring very deeply for any principle, any At idea. moments ,of great national import we shall find amongthe public what we may a national call an average national opinion. Such opinion arose from, but did not itself develop, the Volunteermovement; o , to come nearerto o u r own r times, there was a very genuine ‘feeling of “national” grief when King Edward died. Instances like these, however, are infrequent, the and profound feelings awakened on such occasions’ are not lasting. Grief for the late King did not greatly interrupt the ordinary run of business and pleasure, and in a day or two the crowd was looking forward to the funeral purely as a matter of curiosity. Deaths, invasions, the and like, are all concrete cases. Theyawakenthefeelings of the crowd for an instant and no more. I t is much more difficult, a s may abbeimagined, to interestthe public at allinany stract idea. It is, in point of fact, impossible. An abstract idea has to be first seized upon by some prominentleaders off the public, andthencommunicated downwards to ,their followers in a concreteform. To take an example of recent legislation, the idea of Old Age Pensions never was adequately realised. by the public. The “people” never inquired into the justice or injustice of the plan-probably th’e only material from which an enduring idea can be formed-but, where they did consider the matter at all,theylooked at it solely of view o its expediency : anunsafe f fromthepoint basis for the consideration of any problem. Those who expected to benefit did notthink of theabstractside of the question-they felt thesilverjingling in their pockets even before the Bill became an Act ; and those who did not stand to benefit simply hoped thatthe “lower classes” would now be kept quiet for a while. “ Keeping the working classes quiet,” indeed, is the touchstone by which the “public” referred to by politiciansandpressmenjudgesany new legislativeidea. The “public” does not care two straws when tol,d that the bakers have had to work a hundred hours a week, that hotelsandrestaurants di’d notbother a b u t th,e Shops Act, that mining is a dangerous occupation, and that preventible fatalities among occur railwaymen every week. Theseareabstractions.The public wondersvaguelywhat all therowisabout,andrefuses to concern itself further. is It idle to pretend that either Socialism or Women’s. Suffrage, to mention two typical modernmovements, is taken intoserious con; sideration by the “public.” Certain groups included ,in the public may be for or against these movements; b,ut the public as a mass has no views, either pro o r con. Abstractions are associated the by great amorphous THE mistaking of a symptom public striking with concrete characteristics; and to the“public” evennowSocialism means redtiesand longhair,exactly a s women’s suffrage Means elderly females window-breaking with hammers. no In case is the idea underlying the movement (;and there can be or no movementwithoutan idea of somesort,good bad) included in the reckoning. It follows thatthe public will takenointerest,let us say, in miners’wages,butthat it will take an interest in aminers’ s t r i k e - n o t , of course,becauseof the economic problem as it affects th,e miners, but because of the economic problem as itaffectsitsown units.Lettheminers receive thirty shillings a week or thirty pounds, let the mines be located one mile or twenty miles behwthesurface,letthe minerswork tenhours a dayor twenty-four-thme public caresfor none of these things s o long as it can buy its c o a l a t whatitregardsas a normalprice. “Th,ePublic,” in short, will permit anything on the one condition that it is, n,o,t inconvenienced. It happens, in consequence, that the first tendency on the part o the public, when a strike breaks out, is to f laytheblameontheworkman, an attitude faithfully reflected in the popular Press.Fortheworkmenare, to the public, more “concrete” than the masters; it is the workmen that the public associates, with the trouble caused by strikes, rather than their employers. A strike mustbe“stopped.”That is ,the cry of the articulate l public. It is“inconvenienced.”Nevermindaboutthe justice or thewagesortheprofits-stopthestrike. Are women breaking windows?-put them in gaol. Never mind thedisease or the remedies. Get annoyances stopped; get them out of sight. so muchcallous asstupid, unTheattitudeisnot imaginative, and thoughtless. And if we agree that individualism is a fine thing, we cannot be astonished if the axiom : Every man for himself : is taken literally, or that this anti-social spirit will spread from individuals to groups. The politicians’public will ‘come ,to regard itself asonegroup, a distinct“public”opposingthe workmen,who will, justas erroneously,fancythemselves to be forming a public of their own. Neither group, presupposing individualism, this will care for the nation as an entity, but only for itself. In this way we can explain, though we cannot justify, the narrow outlook of the Labour Press. newspapers The that appeal to the middle and upper classes are less narrow minded; but each one of th,em, like each political group, has its “,public,” the and “public,” that to group, section, as means only a limited number of people-a we have said, of the population. found at Yet, out of all these groups, there is to be times an average opinion. True, it may find. expression only attimes ‘of greatnationalemergency ; ‘but the spirit that forms ,itisalway? latent, and not even the machinery of the party caucuses can crush it. The very difficulty experienced in rousing spirit this from, its customary apathy, and making ,it articulate, i s sufficient to show th,at only a really national appeal can be our instrument. there indirect But are means lolf ascertainingwhat athis opinion likely is to be.Somewhere in a nation there are menwho are national-in other words, men who typify the nation in themselves. They hav’e the virtues,goodqualities., and evenvisions and hopes, o the‘averagebody f of the people. To bring such men together, to ascertain their views, to realise that those views were national, and to legislate accordingly ; these would be the characteristics of theideal prime minister. Flor such ‘men would in be, every sense o’f t,he word, representative-their very prejudices, f and weaknesses, assuming a general harmony o spirit, would still typify the people as a whole. To act through such men is the only means of governing left to Demois a cracy. If itis difficult to find men likethese,it hundred times mlore difficult to get them elected under ,the present caucus system. when speak But, we of representative government is at it all, typical indivi,d:uals likethesethat we have, o r shouldhave in mind. A few names may besubsequentlymentioned. 497 Business Jinks: By Charles Brookfarmer- SCENETheprivate : office of JOHN BENNETT,Senior Partner of the firm of JOHN BENNETT AND S O N S , General Import and Export .Merchants. TIME About I 1 . 0 o’clock. : (The office is fitted up in the most up-to-date manner, radiators being scattered round the room, while on the desk bell-pushes, telephone two two receivers, and a small private line telephone instrument can be seen. A flexible electric light standard reposes on a small shelf on the left of the desk, in addition to the many .lights suspended from the ceiling. The floor is covered by a thick andexpensivecarpet. JOHN BENNETT, tall and a thick-set individual, seated is in a chair smoking a cigar,gazingabstractedlyat theceiling. Theprivate telephone bell rings.) JOHN BENNETT : Damn ! (Picks up receiver.) Hullo ! . . . W h o ? . . . What’s want? he . . . Tell him I’m busy. . . . Important? . . . . All right,ask him in. (Bustling into the outer office. The door is suddenly opened, andan ink-faced urchin bawls Sir. out : “Mr. JAMES DOLLMORE, ”) J. B. (aggressively) : What have you comeroundfor now? How many more times am I to tell you that I can’t do anything in your Your line? stuff’s rotten, Sir-rotten. Your Pavement Lights are vile. 3. D. (in a meekvoice) : Well, we’ve got a newline got out now, quite a new manufacture,Sir.I’ve a samplehere,Sir. (He shows it.) J.B. (taking it) : Idon’twantto look a t thedamned it.) Good heavens ! Call thing. . . . (Examines this Pavement a Light?wouldn’t I pave a pigsty with these. J. D. : Forpig-styes we have a specialline,D4, but unfortunately I have no sample on me, Sir. J. B. (wrathfully) : I’m not a pig-stycontractor,Sir ! If I were I might consider the advisability of using these to throw atthe pigs. would I not insult any pig by asking him totoleratean article of this description in his house. W h a t d’you make thethingsof?Brick? J. D. : No, Sir,glass. J. B. : Glass?Callthisglass?Thisisanimposition, Sir, nothing more nor less. Look a t it for yourself . . And,goodLord,look at Look a t it,Isay. theshape ! How much light d’youexpect t o g e t through here? The angle of refractionisabominable. And you think I’m going to ruin the reputation of thirty-five years by offering these as a saleable article? You’re mistaken, Sir, if you do. I refuse to make myself the laughing stock of the world. (Burstingoutafresh.)Why,GreatScott ! how you’ve got the nerve to come round hawking a thing of this description I can’t understand. The whole thing’s badly finished. The material’s cheap and tawdry. I could break one of these with a feather. If I were to sell an article of this description I should have all the trade down on me. I’ve And you neverhadsuch stuff in the office. . . call this a PavementLight. . . . And you think you’re going to induceme to buy these. . . Well, Sir,you’re not ! Irefuse to buythem. J. D. : That’s very extraordinary. J.B. : What d’youmean,extraordinary? 3 . D. : Well, yousee,thisisone of yourownPaveI got from it Thomas Jones and ment Lights. C O . , ofIslington. If you’ll lookverycarefully at the front edge, Sir, you’ll find that something has been scratched and surface out the re-polished. The letters that I’ve had scratched out were “J.B. 8z S . R 42.” That’syourownPavementLight, Sir. J. B. (dumbfounded) : Er. Eh . . Er. . . Ah. J. D. : Well, I’m sorry the quality is not good enough, . . . Sir. It struck me a s beingquite a fair sample of quality, but, of course, you know your own goods best, Sir. Good morning. J. B. (after two minutes of hard breathing) : Thomson ! Thomson ! (Pushesallthe bells near him and at thesametimeknocksover a telephone receiver.) Thomson, come here ! (The inky office boy enters.) What the devil d’you mean by letting that man in? T. : You told me to, Sir. with : And what if I did? Eh? J. B. (purple rage) Haven’t you got better sense than to let in a person of that description? Is it forthisthatIpay you 8s. a week?Do you wantto ruin us? . . . I shall have to consider this incident very seriously -very seriously-eh? . . Where’s Mr. Norman? T. (on the verge of tears) : H-h-h-he’s in his room, Sir. J. B. : Askhim to come in. (Exit THOMSON. a few In minutesenter NORMAN BENNETT, junior,Partner.) N. B. : Youcalled me? J. B. : Yes. W h a t the dickens have you been doing all the morning 2 Where are the cheques? Have you signed them yet? N. B. : No, I’mwaitingforArthur. J. B. : What? Hasn’t hecome yet? N. B. : No, notyet. J. B. (pacing the room furiously) : Good Lord ! What doeshethinkthis d a c e i s ? Howthe deuce you two are going to manage the business when. I’ve gone,Ican’timagine. . . . Half-past eleven and Arthurnothere yet. . . . I tell you whatit is. You young men don’t know what work is . NOW, in m y time,d’you think I would have come later than 9.0 o’clock, Sir? No ! We hadwork to then. . . . W h y , evennowI’m in the officeregularly every morning at half-past nine-every morning.(And so on for a few minutes, when ARTHUR BENNETT, partner inembryo,suddenlymakeshis appearance in an immaculate morning coat and tophat, smoking a cigar.) A. B. (cheerfully) : Morning. J. B. (bitingly) : Good afternoon. You’rejust in time to catch the I I. 40 home. A. B. (serenely) : Oh, no ! I’ll stay till half-past three. It’s not a matinee, so I needn’t go early. (ReJ. B. (taken back for the minute) : Eh-er-what? covering himself) W h a t d’you mean by turning up at this hour? Haven’t I got enough to do besides waiting and watching to see what timeyou’re corning? I tell you whatit is. You’ve nomore idea of business than the man in the moon. You come here a t any odd hour-look round-go out to lunch -come back-go out to tea, then and you go home and complain of the hard work you are the now victim of. . . . As I was telling Norman just . . . . (etc., etc., until exhausted and breathless he stamps out of the room in a fury.) A. B. (grinning amiably) : What’s the matter with the Guv’nor ? Got the pip, hasn’t he? N. B. : Something’s annoyed him, I think. He’ll be like A. B. : So Iinferredfromhislanguage. this all day now. Thank heavens, I’m clearing out early.(Theywalk out.) . .. . (Meanwhile, in the outer office, one of the clerks has discovered thattheprivatetelephone receiver in the private office is not on its rest, and has availedhimself of the opportunity to listen to the conversation betweenMr.JOHN BENNETT and Mr. JAMESDOLLMORE, and afterwards between the former gentlemen and his, two sons. All the details are generously communicated to his fellow clerks,totheirintenseamusement.The rest of the week is spent by the office in hurling forth such phrases as, “Call this a Pavement Light?” ‘‘DO you thinkI’mapig-stycontractor?’’ Luckilyfor the peace and harmony of the office the object of their imitations is blissfully ignorant of such a state of affairs, but as may be imagined, the spirited but unfortunate Mr. JAMES DOLLMORE ever a stranger to the portals os‘ is for the house of JOHN BENNETT AND Sons.) 498 Letters from Italy. ViI.--Ostia, Genzano, Frascati, Tusculum. HAMPSTEAD HEATH and Richmond all are very well, and I supposethegardensatHamptonCourt,when the spring flowers paint them with delight, are the most beautifulinEurope.And I knlowSuresnes,and " St. Cloud on the Hill," and the Foret de Meudon, where the long avenue of limes leads up to the chAteau. But they are things poor beside the b'eawtiful country round Rome-Frascati, Tusculum, Genzano. is Ostia not beautiful;but i't ismoreinterestingthaneitherRichborough Castle or the Roman amphitheatre in the Rue de Navarre-the second o which I sawon a stuffy f of dust, Socialists, June afternoon when it full was stench and incredible sultriness. Rome has the loveliest f environs o any cjty I have seen. I was taken to Ostia in a motor-car by one o the idle f rich. He was charming, and had almost ostentatiously Also c a m e a young Italian Count correct manners. and, anEnglish Country CourtJudge.(I forget their names, and th'ey are not likely to read THENEW AGE, and if t,heydid they'd probably be more flattered than amoyed). judge The hurled Matthew Arnold, Coleridge, Mr. and Frederic Harrison when at me I suggested that John Milton was a pock-bitten poetaster. Ecco ! the joys of education ! Ostia was the Tilbury, Liverpool, and Portsmouth of ancient Rome. I t -is not yet properly excavated, but even now it takes nearly You begin by two hours to walk through the remains. the ancient Forum andgo through various buildings and streets. You see the Temple of Vulcan, the and Palaestrum, and guard-house of the firemen o the city. f In this latrine is a small marble shrine dedicated to the in houses; mosaics with Goddess of Fortune. Frescoes the " bipedes equos " of Pervigilium ; and two long you perfectly-paved streetsare shown toyou.When see these Roman roads, perfect still after seventeen centuries, you realise that the Romans believed in4the At end o the ar'e f city two eternity of Rome. th,e arches, a recently discovered statue of Victory, and the cemetery. T h e last is rather beautiful. Among the brown clay pots which hold the dust and charred bones grow dark violets frail above of Roman citizens clustered leaves. They are not Shakespeare's " violets blue," those scented little things which cover the English copses in April, but t'he tall " nodding violets " of Theocritus. I suppose enough Greeks came to Ostia for flowers to have been scattered over the dead. And now the violets grew there. I was amused by my companions,. There were crowd a of more less or attractive American girls collecting culture from an oild guide. The Italian youth urged us to hurry and keep as near the damsels as possible. T h e judge stayed to read each Latin inscription and specuto late on the exact date o its erection. I g a v e a false f quantity to " Commodus " i,n. reading to him the inscription on the theatre. Horror ! Not my even, polished friend can hselp me to forget that ghastly error. And still the poor Italian urged us to hurry ! Genzano is a very different place. You take a tram close to the Thermae o Diocletian. (From the same place the tram f goes to Frascati). The line goes through the clattering of Rome into the flat streets and the sordid outskirts Campania. For a time you are close to the Via Appia, and pass multitudes of tombs and broken a q u e d u c t s chiefly those which are joined with sheep and a tawdry sunset to make flummery picture post-cards. Is filthy. I nt h e The town of Genzano amazingly middle o the chief Piazza is a fountain,with a short f over-decoratedpillar a s a centreornament.Herethe inhabitantsdorepair for water,whichtheycarry in large pitchers of bronze (imitation). All the Hydrophoroi are women, and a s t.hey place the filled pitchers on, their headsandstandstill t o balanceth'eweight,they LI~consciously take the beautiful attitude of the Caryatides on the Erectheum. One leg is slightly forward, the hips a little shifted,and the torseandheadareupright. i.c., the women. Still, they are mostly unattractive, Thse first thing to do when one arrives at Genzano is to get out of it ,as expediently and swiftly as possible. The male inhabitants are indolent, unclean, and not even picturesque.Theinside of thosedwellings I glanced intohadneitherfloor-coveringnor wood around t h e walls. Theylooked as ragged and damp and dirty as the battered walls of a ruined Roman villa. 0, the days,thatarenomore ! Laus Deo. I don't in live the Middle Ages. Outside the town the country is most beautiful. Tbe Lago di Nemi lies i'n the deep cup of a crater, and the dear water holds colours of the green thme and brown hills and 'ofthe sky. It was a grey day when I saw it, but the lake must be brilliant when )the sky +is clear. I sat on a ledge o barerockanddangled f my feet over a cliff edge ; the silence was like oil a burn upon after the horrible din of thecity.Andonthe hillside behind were bare saplings and violets and pale-coIoured periwinkles growing in the damp grass. And I Iooked over to Nemi on the other side of the lake ;and watched the still water and the roll 'of the green hills. YetthecountryroundGenzanoisnothingtothat about Frascati. When you come to 'the town you are f angered by touts s allkinds-hotel-touts,cab-touts, guide-touts, kid-touts, donkey-touts. I was so annoyed with a donkey-tout wh8en I went to Frascati once with a beautiful lady, that as he dinned m,e with his " W a n t a donkey, want a donkey?" I snapped, "No, can't you see I'vegot one." Alas ! for my puerile joke-some things cannot be forgiven. But the Villa Falconieri has lovely gardens. Y'ou ,eat lunch-God, can an Englishmando,think,orbeanything withtout eating?-you eatlunchby a romantic p o l , green-olive ,in, colour, surrounded with Cyprus trees. N o noise, n o tourists, onlythesound of a fountainsplashing a lightjet of water. There pictures are inside the villa-horrible eighteenth century thhgs-those wh,o can, may admire. I t is the walk to Tusculum which most delights mc: You wind up th'e hillside past a half-broken late Renaissance gateway towards a cross stuck arrogantly on ,the hill by Cicero,'s villa. The country on'on'e sid'e 3 Sussex s in early spring--fields of grass, deciduous trees bare c S leaves, oaks with a few brown clusters ,still remaining, beechtrunkswithbrightgreenlichensand soft moss upon them. On, the other are side olive-groves and vineyards ; and the flat Campania stretches over to the hills by Tivoli; and behind them gleam like yellow pearls 'of the Abruzzi mountains. the snow peaks To; get toCicero's villaI have always taken to 'the fields and gone straight up the hill, over walls, through brambles and birch saplings, and 'over trees to the top. Tiens, ilv a d e la vue, la ! If you stand by the wall that Roman Theatre you look the over runs beside the country on allsides. To the Abruzzi, to Rome, to the sea, andtothe hills. In afternoon sea tbe the is a shining gold plaque on the horizon, and the more distant line of hills is clear blue. I used to think the hills by Storrington the most lovely I had ever seen, but I guess Cicero knew 'better. You could imagine not a more beautifulplacefor a villa. Whatdayshemusthave spentherewith Tiro, turningoverhis rolls of Greek w h e , or authors, correcting- his speeches,sippinghis hearing some choice Attic piece in hisl little theatre, SO different from ;he vulgar spectacles inl Rome. As I left the grey stone theatre and took the path tcr Frascati, I saw lovely little crocuses blue poking through the grass, and beyond them a shepherd's hut. T h e walls a r e built of rubble from the Roman houses, 2nd statues are used like blocks of stone-among them was the figure sf a naked !ad wantonly and. obscenely affronted by some low peasant. ?ind still that wooden rood stuckoutagainstthe sky. How I hated it, 2nd the insult to the statue. Yet again, vicisti Galilie. RICHARD ALDINGTON. 499 “ Simpkins Wrote a Play. B y Norman Fitzroy “ Webb. in the hope that he would dry-nurse it. Everyone considered Simpkins very in lucky his acquaintancewithJones,forJones was widely known and respected among the theatres-I think he had put money intosome of them. Whateveritwas,hewas the man for Simpkins and his play. The play was a long one, with a Biblical setting, and one wonders how it was that Jones allowed himself to meddle with it. When you havemoney i n the theatre you mustknowagood play when see you it.That was how they argued, at the time, but as an argument it not does really hold water, because I understand thatJoneswas in love with Simpkins’ wife. Thisis certainly the supposition now. Well, Jones showed the play to Smith, actorthe manager, and the end of it was that it was to be produced early in the autumn, and Simpkins was busy rehearsing, I and suppose Jones making was love to Simpkins’ wife-that is, if theyreally were in love. I t was vaguely known in the neighbourhood where he lives thatSimpkins’ play was going to be acted, and lhat was he rehearsing himself, had it and actually seen the stage from the other side of thefootlights : otherwise the affair made no noise. And then, one fine morning, Simpkins hailed Brown, and asked him whether he had heard about the play? “ What play? ” asked Brown. And then remembered. “ Haven’t you heard that the Censor has banned it? ” said Simpkins,excitedly. “ NO,” said Brown. “ W a s it too ‘ steep ’ for them? 9 thought it was religious.” “ Steep !” cried Simpkins. ’’ Here, rake this copy of It homewith you and judge for yourself. Youcanlet I suppose. Bring round it to :ne have to-morrow, it be there W e are the theatre. I shall rehearsing. making another appeal. ” “ Couldn’tyoucutoutthe bittheydon’t fancy?” suggested Brown. “ Never,”saidSimpkins, ina voice that caused a littlegirlwhowaspassingtojumpandnearlytwist herankle. Brown took the play home, and sat up late to finish it. He kept his eyes open for the morsel that had proved indigestible the to Censor. I think this that attitude helped him to finish the play, as it does in the case of Shakespeare. with But all vigilance his the particular bitseemed tohave eluded him. Therewas .a good deal of the Bible in the play, and some of Simpkins, and Brown went to bed wonderingwhetherhe liked theblend. The next morning he brought it to the theatre. He found Simpkinscentre the of an excited group. Doctor Jones was there, and Smith, the actor-manager, :ind theartist,Puddleworth,andtherewasRobinson, the play-decorator. Brown outside group, stood the waiting for an opportunity to hand the manuscript to Simpkins. They were all talking excitedly, once and or twice Robinson and Puddleworth shook. Simpkins by the hand. The word “ masterpiece ” was used several times. Robinson was most enthusiastic ; he said he saw- the thirdact a lurid yellow, and Brown > v u s trying- to remember what the third act was about to effect upon Robinson, when Simpkins have such a : ~ caught sight all him. a n d they all turnedround, 2nd Simpkins said, LVell, what do you t h i n k of it ’’ Of course, Brown thought it w;?s splendid, and he .-old them SO.. ’e’eu don’t firid pmp!e like Puddleworth ... : .1nd Robinson praising rubbish.,.;! ,. .q SIMPKINS wrote a play and took it to Doctor Jones “ I . 1 , It appeared thattheCensorwasadamant; several passages must be deleted. Simpkins had told them that he would die sooner than ‘‘maim thechild of his spirit. ” Puddleworth and Robinson shook hands with him over this. Smith said that a formal protest should be drawn up, and that all the influential people should sign it. This was done. Popworth, poet, the worded it. It was a really fine document. The play was referred as to “ The offspring of Simpkins’ mind.”Popworthwent even further, and accused the Censor of attempting to murder it in the womb. the Rut Censor remained unmoved. Puddleworth had invited Brown round to his studio. He said that any friend of a genius like Simpkins was a friend of his. Robinson wasthere,andJones,and Smith, Popworth. and Talk ran only upon the play. Robinson said that he lived but to produce it, and Smith was in the same state to act it. “ Itmustsee’ th; light,” criedRobinson,striking his head. “ Even in the teeth of all officialdom.’’ Puddleworth raged up and down the room. Then Brown suggested that a subscription should be raised and a private performance of the play be given, and between them they promised three hundred pounds. There were tears in Simpkins’ eyes, and Mrs. Simpkins weptoutright. The subscriptionlistwasmadepublicthroughthc columns of the “ DailyCoil, ” and Popworth wrote a. poem : for had it been decided to do thething perfectly, even though it was only for three performances. Subscriptions came in well, and there were many letters of condolence.Complimentaryticketsweresent to all thedonors. .4t last, the day of the production : With its dawningcamewordfromtheauthoritiestothe effect that Smiththreatenedtoperforman unlicensed play in a licensed playhouse, and that if he persisted they would be forced to take steps. Sotwithstanding, the preparations forward. went Oh ! it was wonderful ! The house filled ; everyone who was anyone was there. Outsidetherewasanimmense crowd.Smithstepped before the curtain and readthe official message about rakingsteps.He said that,though he should todie morrow, Simpkins’ masterpiece should see the light. He called theplay a transcendent work. The audience rose and shouted and waved their handkerchiefs. Brown had a box, because he had given seventy-five pounds. And just whenthe hubbubhadquieted down andtheaudiencewaswaitingforthecurtaintorise upon the Prologue, an attendant brought him a note. It was irom Jones to say that the critic some paper or o f other had arrived, and had no seat, and wouldBrown give him one inhisbox. Of course,Brownwas delighted, went and and fetched the man. When they were seated the critic startled Brown by saying, “ By the way, what is the playI’vebeen away for the last two months. I only came to-day. back They never told me whatitwas. Is it a charity matinee? ” Brown explained as well a s he could, but the curtain was just rising, and he didn’t want the critic to miss any of the play. Attheend of eachacttheaudienceroaredits approval, the but critic in Brown’s sat box silent and perplexed. During fourth the interval Brown found time to ask him what he thought. “ ,%re you the author? ” he asked in return. Brownshookhishead. “ IVell, but it’s the usual sort of rot, isn’t i t ? ” said perplexed. The curtain the critic. He was obviously rose on the last act. During the ovation whichSimpkins received at the end of the performancethecriticmusthave slipped out,for when Brown lookedround to havethepoint o u t u7ith him he had disappeared. Brown tells me that he has often thought since of what the critic said, and especiallythissummer,when he couldn’t go away for lack of the seventy-five pounds that he had-well, given to Simpkins. 500 The Great Ship. By S. N. Anglin. OUT in the stream lay, she magnificent in length, towering. A wonder ,of snow-white deck-houses, boats and ventilatorscunningly piled uptosupportthehuge lemontintedfunnels.Passingsteamers,lords of thesea in their way, grew suddenly insignificant as they approached her; ferry-boats swinging against tide the fromunderherstern seemed aslittle pieces of wood, stream swept, eddying round a log; the occasional lines of strung out lighters wallowing laboriously in rear of somesmokingtugboatwere, in comparisonwiththe monster, mere flies upon the water. The sun shone out and burnished up the glory, emblazoning a golden bar on each of the lem0n fields, seekingthousand a reflections in the repeated rows o tiny ports. f Fromthemighty city upon thebank of theriver down to the water’s edge came men to do obeisance. The first was a poet : he looked afar ,at the tapering spars, around them a cloud of wheeling gulls, precious handful of silverfilingsflungover the muddy stream. Then, to the four great funnels, colossal ,in their elegantvastness, poised aslant,highabovethetiers of promenades, the river and its swiftly moving life ; from themanet of cordageseemsto fallandenvelop the faintly pencilled lines of her upper works ; they cast cold shadows on ,all beyond them. T o whlat volcanic depths did they not lead ; how, when thepulsingheatcame roaring up, royally would they lift the wreathing sable t thestars. o Whence mighttheynotbeborne, emblems $ofa great endeavour of a mighty nation? So th’e poetwenthome, chewed his penforawhile, and wrote a poem describing the wonders he had beheld and before which he had humbled h’imself on the beach below the city. The builder of shipscameand in a comprehensive glance took in the lines 0.f the model before h8im: the mighty bows and the thin line of the anchor chain running aslant into the water, the half-hidden winches on thIe for’ard deck and the mass .of terraced promenades aboutthenavigatingbridge;thespacing of thefunnels(, theventilatingplant,theboat accommodationeach in their turn received professional attention till thle discarded husk $of the ship’s mystery fell from her and floated away. A man dressed in black, one whose business it was to minister to men’s souls, was the next t come. Having o neither the eye of the poet for beauty, nor that of the builder of ships for utility, he looked out on the stream and seeingahugemasswithfunnelsandmasts,and murmured : “They that go down to the sea in ships and do business in great waters,.’’ Uncomprehendingly he gazed, at the huge structure, vaguely wondered why it did not topple .over,then went away musing-musing on the progress a civilisation that he might sit down, f and, like ,th,e poet, write something-somethinginhis case that would ,help the souls of men. The financier brought his1 daughter : fingering blnoculars they swept theship. The father paidmuch attenf tion to the ability o hi,s costly lenses to enable him to spell out thle distant name ; it was the glitter of gold that thle myriads lof ports flashed back bo him ; in the blackness (of the mighty hull there were enclosed enormous profits; thie girl, however, as her eyes wandered over the distant promenades, was lost in ,a reverie. The scent of many flowers, thle rhythmic beat of the engines -she stood at ,the entrance ‘of one of file thickly carpetedsaloons;behindrose th’e noble sweep of the staircase, above rays from the of the sun filtering through the glass of the dome lit on pillar, cornice, and dainty moulding ; she heard the clang of the lift gates, as they closed upon the groups ‘of fashionably-dressed men and women chattering unconcernedly as they were swiftly sunk to a lowerdeck, while from some distant part of the ship came the sugary, easy flowing strains of a seductive waltz. So they came there, men andwomen of the city by theriverandworshippedthegreatship. I would not say whether any otherof them wrote sermons or poetry, but one and all went home praising business acumen in building such amonster.Therewas often wonder at the skill of .theship’s officers, sometimesenvyfor the purses (of herpassengers,butalwayspraise for the soundcommercial policy ‘of herowners.Buttowards night, when even the red from th,e setting sun had deserted the icy grey of the wavelets rippling the shore, there camean old man to- look on the ship. He was bent with toiland age, and couldsee but poorly, that perhaps was why he failed to cry out in wonder at the length of the port-hole dotted hull, or gape in amazement at the glory of the tiers of promenades, while he shook a s though buffeted by a wind that was strong, while he raised a quivering arm, wheezed out a cranky voice, stared with a blood-shot eye, and cursed-cursed the ship, then slowly turned away and left the beach. But as he cursed a mist came up the river from the sea, it crept around the ship in a swirling film of grey, winding its way along the straight white wallson the upper decks, blotting out one by one the ports in the black beneath, up, curling round and causing to vanish the beautiful fields of lemon-tinted paintabove;and there was left-theold man’s vision :As it were a mass, alive, not beast nor yet man, and in the mass there was pain, the pain of the work that consumesmorethanthat with which therecuperative power can cope ; and for the work, the mass received the right to exist t.0’be still a mass. And of the work that the mass did a portion seemed t,o be still with the mass and keep it a mass instead of por-. becoming a nothing ; another portion, the greater tion, supported something thatwasabovethemass, another mass that lay a s a crushing weight o,n the mass below. But whereas the mass below strove and worked the massabove,the heavier mass, the mass that was crushingthemass below, itworkednot,butwasan inert dead thing, a thing that had lost its life andlay rotting, powerless to dlo, powerlessto’vanish,till the rot in its own time had consumed it. And the old man, as he crept away, away from the beach,. was muttering, muttering ‘the name that he had found for the dead thing that he had seen in his vision, th,e thing that -1 have called the rotting mass. But he called it by a different name, a strange name, he called it “The Bloody Toffs.” GARVINIAN EVOLUTION. Garvin, Garvin, burning bright, Inthe “P.M.G.” eachnight, W h a t immortal hand awry Could frame thy fearful symmetry? ’Neath what strange exotic skies Opedthineall-propheticeyes? On what wings dost thou aspire To lead thy Party through the mire? What the secret of thy art That wins the way to Bonar’s heart? To what elements belong The magic of thy siren-song ? Garvin, Garvin, burning bright, I n the “P.M.G.” eachnight, Some immortal from the Styx Framed thy fearful politics ! A . H. 501 Literary Notes. to republish the Bohn Libraries at what now seems to be th.e standardprice f o most reprints-one shilling mr net.Th,e announcement was naturally welcomed by all lovers of literature.Inparticularthelarge numberanumberwhichiscontinually increasing-of readers who havebecometired ,of the tawdry productions cof modern writers l’ooked forward with unusual eagerness to a cheap edition of the Bohn translations of the Latin and Greek classics. Of all the Bohn series, probably this series o translations the f is most celebrated. I t was with keen disappointment, then, that we read the preliminary announcements of the newreprints. There is hardly a book among them which we cannot already buy at the same price in s’ome other series. With the LatinandGreektranslations,apparently,wearenot yet to be comforted. Messrs. Bell doubtless have their reasons for postponingpleasure. our Perhaps the translations “pay” so well at the present prices that it seems to the publishers a pity to bring them out at a business speculate this to on shilling. I t is not our point. W e have merely to place on record our disappointmentandthedisappointment of our readers. MESSRS. BELLrecently announced that theyproposed upon. There is still extant, for example, the correspondence between th,e celebrated Roman “ rhetorician,” Marcus Cornelius Fronto (h’e appears in Pater’s “ Marius”) and his even more celebrated pupil, Marcus Aurelius; and the traditional “Have mi Fronto merito carissime,” “ Magistro suo Caesar suus,” and “Domino meo” stand at the heads of letters which alucky find by Cardinal Mai has enablednearly three generations of philoclassics to appreciate. Again, both Cato and Varrowroteon agriculture-the former as a shrewd farmer, soldier, and man of affairs, the latter morein themanner of a bookishGilbert White. Yet both( of them might as well not have written at all, so far as English readers are concerned. And Varro, in addition,wrote on Roman antiquities. Whlo, again, would wish tobe deprived ‘of thefragments of the Greek “ Fragmenta Philosophlorum philosophers, those Graecorum,” published by the famous firm of Didot in three huge volumes? + * * * * * Surelyitis strange that after a generation ,of cheap and ever cheaper reprints there should still be considerable difficulty in obtaining Latin Greek and translations;andit is no less strangethatthetranslations with which we are provided should be, as a rule, so inferior.Publisher after publisher hasreprinted a few classics, and publisher after publisher has reprinted the same few-Virgil, Horace, Tacitus ; Thucydides., Herodotus, Aeschylus., Sophocles, more o r less complete ; and selected pieces from Plautus, Homer, Cicero, Demosthenes, Catullus. Messrs. Dent giv,en have us, or are about to give us, a cheapLivy,andtheScott Librarycontainsa version of Petronius. But, with the veryfewexceptions we havenamed,it will generally be found that the classics are presented to u s in a more or less fragmentary condition, with frequent omissions and “toning down.” We havenotyet come to the second andthird-rate classicalwriters we spoke of. We have not mentioned theearlyChristian authors-Tertullian,the master cF savage irony, example. for W e have not mentioned the later Greek (Alexandrian) writers, or the Byzantine historians. What a mine of literary wealth, .and wha: an influence it has all exercisedfor nearly twenty centuries ! * * * * * * Believing, as all men of taste will believe withus, that even the secondandthird-classGreekand Latin authorsare infinitely higher in theliteraryscalethan the Masefields and Gibsons of our own day, we regret that so many classic authors are practically unobtainable in translations, cheap o r dear. Even the best authors are not fully covered. Thereareoverahundredvolumes in print in the Bohn translationseries,buteventhis large number does not include Dion Cassius, Manilius, Aulus Gellius, Suidas, Publilius Syrus,QuintusSmyrof Halicarnassus, naeus, Diodorus Siculus, Dionysius W e havenotgone out andtheAugustanhistorians. of our way tobokfor names. Even if we exclude Suidas a s alate Greek book of reference-though a book of reference of unsurpassed philological interestw,e mustrecognise t a t nso lover ofpoetrycanafford to pass by Manilius, nlo lover of anecdote Aulus Gellius, and no ,historian Dion Cassius the and. others. The shrewd apophthegms OF PubliliusSyrus will doubtless havetoappear in THE NEW AGE beforethemanis brought to the recollection of the modern reader. W e come back to practical details. The Bohr! translations are good in their place. But many of them weredone in theeighteen-fortiesand eighteen-fifties, and since thenwehavehad manybettertexts.Texts aside, thee craftsmanship in many of the Bohn versions does not-well !-dloes not adequately represent the originals,let us say.Yet,takeawaythe Bohn series a t all. Is itnot and me havehardlyanytranslations appalling? There was a time when we fondly believed that Mr.Heinemann’sLoebLibrarywasgoingto fill thevacancies eon the bookshelves; but notabit of it. If Mr. Loeb is, “supporting” this series of translations, his charity, like m,mt forms of ‘charity, will b$ean expensive matter f’or the recipient. Five shillings a volume net ! W e shall look .at our two half-crowns twice before we hand them over in exchange for ApolloniusRhodius. And fancyspreading Terence intotwo ! The thing is prevolumes and Appian four into posterous. * * * * * * We.haveindicated a fewwriterswhoseworksare only to be had with difficultyinEnglish versions, and a,t relativelyconsiderableexpense.But there are other classical authors of a1 descriptionswhoseworkscan .1 hardly behad a t allintranslations-eitherthey have never been translated, or only in part. Let u s mention, Statius, instance, CaIpurnius, for Valerius Flaccus, Ausonius, and Claudian among the Latins, and Lysias, Aeschines and Anacreon among the Greeks. And with thesenamesweare only on thefringe of classical translations; for th.ere are innumerableworks of quite different varieties thatwehavenot touched The initial mistake made in connection with the Loeb Library was the publication of the Latin or Greek on one page the and translation on the page opposite. N o Latin o r Greekstudent will, care a snap- of his fingers for the even best translation. No one who cannotunderstand Latin .and Greek will want to Iook attheoriginal. And thefew people whowanttranslations as cribs will buy cribs, and not expensive, wellboundvolumes. W e have referred tothe Loeb twovolume Terence, and on looking up a few prices we find that he may be taken as a typical example ‘of our argument. A perfectlytrustworthytext,edited by Weise, is published by Tauchnitz, Leipzig, a t IS. 4d. Th,e more elaborate edition of th,e text, edited by Fleckeisen and published by Teubner,costsonly 2s. 3d. And a most minute “key” by thefamousDr. Giles, giving theLatintext an’d theEnglish version of every mdlvidual word, is published by Cornish a t 7s. 6d. less thecustomary 2 5 per cent. The Bohn Terence is 5s., lessdiscount,and Phaedrus-Phaedrus, of all men !is bound up in the same volume. * * * W e have taken a very typical example, and if NEW AGEreaders were not by this time aweary of prices we could give many more instances. The long and short of i is this : English. publishers d o not know their k business.They a r e inefficient, hesitating, and lacking in knowledge of th’e public. Go down t’o Nutt’s or Mudie’s. any day, and you will find lovers o the classics f (those, we mean, wfio read the classics in the original) 502 buying cheap, well-edited, well-produced both texts, Latin and Greek. Are these texts published Lonin don? NO; they come from the House of Teubner as a rule, sometimes from theHouse o Tauchnitz.Think f of this : tlie TeubnerSallust, edited by Eussner,and including the fragments o the orations and the epistles, f costs sixpence. T h e Tauchnitz Sallust, also quite cornplete,edited by th.e celebrated Nobbe (whoalsoedited Cicero) costseightpence. * * * It is notourintention, I.et itbe well understood,to glorify cheapness; mere we are only showing what can be done abroad. The textual editions we have referred to .are editedby well-known scholars, who. would, in most cases, Tiave to be paid as much by the publisher €or supervising the text as a translator for rendering it into .a modern language.Therewasnoreason at all why English publishers should not have had this business of sellingLatin and Greek texts; but they might a t leasthave sold translationsonthesamebasis of price. The fools would probably tell you that there was “no demand,” “afraid to risk it,” and so on. The Germans, th,eir competitors, risked it. And if it be objected that wte havequotedtheTeubnerpricesfor paper-backed books,whereasbooks publishedin England are usually bound in cloth,we reply a t 0nc.e that Teubner has for some years published all his Latin and Greek texts in paperand c l o t h - y o u canhave whichever you prefer, and the cloth-bound editions cost only from threepence t o sixpence per volume more than the unbound *editions. The type used, by \the way, and the that th,e most quality of the paper, are everything fastidious student could desire. althoughtheir works survive,the“atmosphere” they created has died with them. Perhaps the estimable gentlemen we have mentioned will create another poeticalatmosphere,but we have our doubts.Can we pictureSirHerbertTree,after“washingdown” solid pudding with improvising ale, the lordly hexameter wi,th a m u g i n onehandand a churchwarden in the ‘other? W e cannot. -4nd we arereadyto swear forit that Mr. I. Zangwill never perpetrated an impromptu stanza i n all his life, and that Mr. R h y s could not if he tried. The Chemist’s Wife By Anton Tchekov. **.x I t isdoingtheOxfordUniversityPressthe barest justice t o mention that it has recently begun to publish Latin and Greek texts, bound or in stiff paper covers well printedand well edited. The series is creditable; butit is moreexpensive than the Teubner s e r i e s - t h e bookscost, o n anaverage,at leasttwice as muchand of course it does nl& yet include even a tithe of th,e books published by 'the Teubners. But it is at least an attempt to do something, even if it is not quite on the Iines we should have recommended. A great deal more praise is due ,bo the OxfordUniversityPressforits complete Aristotle, which is graduallycomingoutat f an average price o 3s. 6d. net per volume. It is surprising- tothink that we have not yet had .a complete Aristotle in English,thoughthe first (and by far the worst) edition of Jowett’sPlatoappeared so far back a s 1871. The Oxford Aristotlevery is well done : print, paper, editing, and translation are all in harmony. we When we think of classical texts and translations, always u7ish that some wealthy person would sub;idise the Oxford Press and allow the Delegates a free ‘hand. * * * Let us -pass to theliteraryevent of theday.The members of the Poetry Society are going to meet and dine and drinkandsmoke in the cellaroftheOlde Cheshire Cheese. Why? You would never guess. “The sponsors of the proceedings are seeking to revive the atmosphere which surrounded the company of wits at the old ‘ Mermaid ’ nights,” says the and poets “Daily News ” of March IO. The well-known 6‘ pudding” will1 be “ washed down”--imaginepoets “ washing down” !-by ‘‘plenteous supplies of John Barleycornfrom little brown three-handled mugs, and digested overmerryjest, repartee, and, w.e mayhope, smoke seventy impromptu stanzas, amid the from churchwardens.” The company, we are told, will include Mr. John Hassall, Mr. Ernest Rhys, Sir Herbert Tree, and Mr. Israel Zangwill, among many others. “Revivetheatmosphere,” indeed ! ,4s if an“atmosphere” could be revived ! An atmosphere,itistrue, :an be created. One was created a t the Mermaid in the time oi Ben, and another created was at the Cheshire Cheese itself by the literary set od the eighteenth century. ZLI: thesecreatorsaredead, and, THEtiny town of Balmish,which consists o not more f than tw’oor three crooked stre,ets, lies fast asleep. Not a breath is stirring, all i s still. There is, no sound save thefaint, hoarse barking of a dog somewhere in the distance, probably beyond thee town. Dawn is imminent in the east. Everybody has gone tfo sleep long ago-only the young wife ?of Tscbornomordik,th,eproprietor of the solitary drug shop in, Balmish is awake. still Three times s’he lain has down, but has sleep stubbornly refused to come-she knows not why. S h e i s seated at the open window, in her night dress, and is looking out into the street. The heat oppresses her. Afeeling of suchunmitigatedboredom. and irritation overcomes her she that feels inclined t.0 burst tears. into But why?That,too,sheis unable t o explain. A sort o f lump lies in her throat and mounts steadily higher, In the background, but a few paces distant, M. Tschornomordik himself lies extended, his face toward th,e wall, blissfully snoring. A rapacious flea has fixed itself to the bridge of his nose, but the sleeping man is quite unaware o this. He isevensmiling,for f he dreams that every soul in the town is afflicted with cough and that the entire population is buying Danish cough drops at his shop. Not by pin-pricks, nor by cannon-thunder, nor even by tender caresses, will he permit himself to be awakened. The chemist’s shop lies close to theborders o,f the town-this offers a wide vista t,o his wife. She observes howthe horizon growssteadilybrighter in (theeast, and th,en dyes itself with purple, asthough a great conflagration were raging there. Quite unexpectedly the great moon emerges from behind a mass of foliage in the distance, The m o m is ruddy-one is disposed to wonder why the moon, whenever comes it out from behind the bushes, should be afflicted with Mushes. What might that mean? Suddenly in the midst of this noctural quiet is heard a sound of footstepsand the jingle of spurs. Voices become audlble. “ They are officers who have been to see the circuit judge,” thinks the apothecary’s wife, “ they are nw returning to camp. ” Soontwofigures in white linen military coatsare visible, tall one andstout,theother small and lean. They are saunteringlazily along the; wall and are talking loudly. Having reached th,e shop their steps grow still more leisurely an,d their eyes wander t o the widows. “ I smell drugs !” remarks the lean man. ‘‘Here is [-he chemist’s. Of course ! I rememberthat I dropped inh’ere last week for slorne castor oil. You oughtto see th,e chemist ! T h e sour face o th,e fellow ! And f jaws ! jaws, ‘my dear fellow, like an ass ! It must have beenwith a jaw bone such a s his that Samson licked the Philistines !” “Well, ‘’ the stout ‘man answers in a deep bass, “ the pharmacy shut. is And the chemist’s wife must be sleepingtoo. For this chemisthas a very pretty wife, Obtessoff. ” “ Y e s , I’ve seen her-and like her. I wonder, doctor, if she could really be fond of those jaw-bones, e h ? ” “ I supposenot,”th,e doctorreplies,witha sigh, as though he felt sorry for the chemist. “ The dear thing is now sleeping behind that window. Just picture it 503 to y o u r s l f , Obtessoff. She has thrown off the burdensome blankets because o the heat-her little mouth is f slightly open-,and onetiny foot protrudes beyond the h d . Apparently thatdolt of a chemistbasno id’ea of the value of his property-no doubtit is all 0n.e to him whether he has to do with a pretty woman Or a bottle of carbolic acid.” “1 say,doctor,” remarks thle officer, standing still, suppose -“;o, :he shop and buy something? Perinto< haps we may ‘get a glimpse o Mrs. Chemist !” f ‘‘ What an idea ! At thils time of night !” (‘What’s the d d s ! Thley .ar,e forced to sell things at all hours. Comealong, old fellow.” “ Very well. Lead on.” The chemist’s wife, who had concealed herself behind the window curtains, hears ,the hoarse little bell- She casts a glance a t her husband, whko is still snoring and smiling, then she flings on a gown, slips her feet into heelless slippers, and runs in,to the shop. Twoshadows b o r n behind thegIass door of the shop. She turns up the lampandhurries to open the door. N’ow sheisnolongerbored,.norirritated,nor feels inclined toweep-herheart is beating rapidly. The fat doctor and the lean. 0btessoff enter the shop. Qne is ~ Q W able to scrutinizethem plainly. T b e fat doctor is brown,andbearded, a heavy, cumbrous sort ofman. At the slightest movement his linen coat cracks as i8fabout to tear asunder, his face is covered with a dew s f perspiration. The officer, on the contrary, has a rosy complexion and is smooth-shaven. There is about him something a h o s t feminine-he is as pliable as a n English riding-switch. “ What may I serve you, gentlemen?” asks Madame at the Tschornomordik, holding dress her together throat. “ I should like-er-er-give m,e fifteen kopecks worth of peppermint lozenges,” replies the doctor. She reaches quietly 6or a glass jar upan the shelves, and then proceeds to weigh out the peppermintlozenges. The customers keep the?! eyesrivetedupon her back. The doctor half-closes his eyes, lik’e a full-fed tom-cat; the lieutenant, however, is in deadly earnest. “ This is the first time that I’ve seen a lady officiating in a drug shop,” remarks thedoctor. “ Why, there’snothingextraordinary in ,that,” the chemist’s wife replies, “ my husband has no assistantso I’m forced to help him out. ” “ 1 see. You have .a very pretty little shop h,ere. What-ahem !--what do you \keep in. d those jars there ? l And are you not afraid to meddle with all these poisons? kh 7;:: &-:--I- !” She wraps up the lozenges and gives the packet ,to the doctor. Obtessoff hands her a piece o fifteen f kopecks. Half a minute passes in silence. T h e men look at eachother,make a step or twotowardthe entrance and then look at each other once more. “ I should also like ten kopecks worth o carbonate f o soda,” says the doctor. f Again, with a slow, deliberate motion, the chemist’s wife stretches her hand toward the shelves,. “ Don’t you keep some sort of--” murmurs Obtessoff with lively twirlings of his fingers, “ some sort of drinkable, you know-something refreshing-like-like seltzer water. Do you keep seltzer?” “ Oh, yes, we keep that,” she replies. ‘‘ Good ! Why, you’re a regularangel ! A fairy ! Just let us have three small bottles.” T h e chemist’s wife hurriedly wraps up the carbonate o soda and disappears through the rear door into the f darkness. “ A pretty bit of fruit !” says the doctor, his eyes .twinkling. “ I t isn’t likely, Obtessoff, that you’ll find anything like that in favourite your Madeira, eh? W h a t dot you think? Then-just listen to those snores, will you?worship, His the honorable apothecary sleeps within. ” After a few moments Madame returns with five bottles which sbe sets upon th.e counter. She has tvcn to the basement, so, her face is flushed 2r1d she is just a trifleheatedwithherexertions. “Hush,” says Obtessoff, as she drops the corkscrew with which she has opened the bottles. “YOUshouldn’t make so much noise-you’ll wake your husband.” “ Well, what does it matter if I do wake him ?” ‘‘ He’s sleeping SO sweetly. He must be dreaming of you ! Here’stoyourhealth !” “And besides,” the doctor remarks in his deep bass voice, after several hiccoughs-due to the effect of the seltzer water-“ husbands are such dreary fellows that the best thing they codd do-would be to s k p without any periods of wakefulness a t all. Ah, if we only had a little claret with this water !” “ W h a t a queer notion !” saysthe chemist’s wife, laughing. “ I t would be splendid ! It’s a thousand pities that n o spirituous liquors may be sold in chemists’shops. But surely-you sell wine a s medicine? Don’t you keep minum gallicum rubrum ? “Oh, yes !” “Well then ! let us havelittle. a Devil take it ! Fetch it out !” “ How much do you wish?” us each have an ounce o f “Quantum satis. First let it in seltzer-then we’ll we. What do you think ‘ Obtessoff? At first cum seltzer-then per se? The doctor and Obtessoff seat themselves bdore the counter, take off theircaps,and begin to sip the red wine. “But really ! I must this say wine villainous is ! Vinum elendissimum ! I n your presence, howeverYou are ravishing, ah’! it begins t,o taste like nectar. Madame. In thought I kiss your dear littlehands.” “I’d give a good deal if I might do it-net only in thought," says Obtessoff. “ ’Pon my word I’d give my life !” “ O h , don’t be foolish ! ” exclaims Madame Tschornomordik. Her flush hasdarkened,and herfaceis very sombre. “ But what a charmer you are !” remarks th,e doctor, tittering, and regarding her mischievously with a sidelong look. “ Your eyes are regular rapid-fire guns. Pop ! nop ! I congratulate you ! The victory is yours. Here we lie a t your feet !” The wife of the chemist looks their at red faces, listensto,th’eir merry speeches, and th,en grows lively herself. Sheis already quite light-hearted. Shetakes part in th,e persiflage, laughs, practises sh,e she her coquetry, and then after prolonged begging on the part of her customers, she sips a little of the claret. “You gentlemen ought to come in oftener from camp --for it is dreadfully monotonous h e r e - I ’ m almost bored to death. !” “ Surely not cries the doctor, a s if horrified. “ Great heavens ! A peachlike you-a marvel of Nature-and you waste your sweetness ‘on the desert air ! Do you remember that fine song of Griboiedoff : “Off to Saratoff -in the wilderness !” Butit is timethat 1 we went. Delighted to have made your acquaintance-vastly delighted. HIOW pay?” much to I The chemist’s wife lifts her eyes to the ceiling, her lips move slightly. “Twelveroubles, forty-eight kopecks,” says s h e Obtessoff draws out a fat wallet, digs about for some time in a mass of bank notes, and then pays. “Your husbandsleeping is so soundly. I’m sure he’s dreaming,” he murmurs, as he presses her hand in farewell . “Don’t say such stupid things !” “ W h a t stupid On things? the contrary-these thingsarenot at all stupid. W h y even Shakespeare says : “Who’s young i8nyouth hath happiness.” “ Let go ,of my hand !” At last, after a long parley, two the men kiss Madame’s hand andleaveth.e shop, albeitwith great hesitation, as though theyhad forgotten something. She, however, runs quickly into the bedroom and once more seats herself at the self-same window as before. She sees the doctor and the lieutenant emerge from the shop, walk slowly some twenty paces, thenstand still and begin t o whisper. About what may they be whispering ? 504 Her heart throbs, and in her temples there is a riot of blood-but for what reason she cannot say. Her heart beats violently. I t is just as if these two whispering men ‘out there in the street were deciding h,er destiny. Aft’er some five minutes th’e doctor leaves Obtessoff standing and walks .away. Obtessoff comes back again’. H e walks past the shop once-twice. Nowhestands at door, the now h,e resumes walk. his Then, very carefully, he pull’s the bell. “What’s up ! Who’s there !” She suddenly hears the voice o h,er husband. f “The bell’s ringing-and you’re not .answering it !” he cries sharply. “ A nice state o affairs,!” f H e tumbles out of bed, puts on’ his dressing gown. and still half dizzy with deep, shuffles in carpet his slippers into th,e shop. “ W h a t can I ‘dia for you, Sir ?” he asks Obtessoff. “ Give me-give me-fifteen kopecks’ worth of peppermint Iozenges !” With interminable yawns ,and puffs, almost dropping off intosleep as h’e moves about, banging against thae counter with hi,s legs, the chemist goes to the shelves and takes down the jar. Two minutes the laterchemist’s wife observes Obtessoff come out o th’eshop. f After makinga few steps, he throws the peppermint lozenges, into the dusty road. As heturns th,e cornerthe doctor advancesto meet him, They join arms,and thlen disappear, gesticulating violently, into the mists, of the morning. . “ H’ow unhappy I ami !” murmurs ,th.e wife to herself, and throws an evil look upon her husband, who is swiftly disrobing so that h8e may plunge into sleep I am she repeats, and again.“Oh, how unhappy then suddenly bursts into a fit ,of bitter weeping. “And nobody, nobody knows. . . .“ “ I left fifteen kopecks lying on the counter,” grumbles the chemist, as h’e wraps himself in’ the bedclothes. “ Please go andputthem into the drawer.” And then h.e drops ‘off into the profoundest sleep. (Translated by H. S.) !’ I . Views and Reviews. THEwriter of “ Literary Notes ” began his career with a strange remark. said He : “the ‘output’ is in full swing.’’ I am, of course,obligedfor theinformation, I receive itnotwithunduescepticism, but with legitimatedoubt. “ The ‘output’ is in full swing,” and we have no evidence of it in THENEW AGE. To ask me to believe thattherearesuchbeingsaspublishersisto makeapreposterousdemandonmycredence. A publisher is a person who publishes books, and a book is not published if it is not sent to THENEW AGE. I have seen about two new books since Christmas, and if I reason from my definition, I must conclude that nearly all the publishers are dead ; but logic is not always a satisfactory method of arriving a t truth.Iamassuredthat volumes are “now pouring from the printing machines,” and accept testimony I the as credible. Somewhere, somehow,books arebeingproduced,andhurledinto the vast inane of the circulating libraries. Furtively is NEW AGE sees none of them ; this being done, for THE it is as though the publishers handed out their commodities through a secret window,with a wink of the eye andawhisperedinjunctionnot to let THE NEW AGE know about it. Iwritethisarticletoreassurethe publishers. Furtiveness is unbecoming to men who are engaged tin legitimate business; it look’ssuspicious,andmay in time f lead to serious misapprehension. Of course, we o THE NEW AGE know that all is “done in love and reverent care” flor u s ; but the public, that baffle-headed beast of many burdens, cannot be expected to understand this. W e know that the publishers withhold their books from us because they thinkthat weshould not like them. “THE NEW AGE,” they say, “is so superior in style and taste to the mass of our publications that it would be almost offensive to offer themto it. Resides, thereading of our publications mightcorruptthestyle of THE NEW AGE, and degrade its taste ; and we do not wish to spoil the only literary periodical that now exists.” That diffidence is not only intelligible, itis admirable; it shows that even publishers have somewhat of tenderness and graciousnessleft i n them. But thepublic, that baffleheaded public, will suppose that THENEW AGE is being boycotted, for even courtesy may be misunderstood by people who have no manners. I thank the publishers for their consideration, although Iprotestthatit is unnecessary. W e are used to bad books ; indeed,they are as manna unto our souls, for they provoke u s to writing good reviews. From all points of view, it must be admitted that agood review is of reviewdesirable. It maintains the reputable nature ing as a craft ; it should sal-e the author from succumbingtothehireling voice of praise ; and does it no damage to the sale of a book, for sales are determined not by reviewers’ but by travellers’ eloquence, and the average book has a saleable life oT only about a month, during which period, as a rule, THENEW AGE reviews do not appear. 0 . f course, it must be admitted that ‘THE NEWAGE does notsupply thosepellets of praise that disfigure the publishers’ advertisements. You may read “this isMr. Penman at his best.-‘Daily Liar ’ ” ; or “Mr Penman has never done anything better than this. -‘ Another Daily Liar’ ” ; or “ Balzac is surpassed and Hugo submerged by theamazinggenius of Mr. Penman.-‘ More Lies’ ” ; but you will never see THENEW A G E in that galley. But it argues a lack of originality on the part of publishers to continue to print these delectableextracts.When every book is everybody’s best, and is. betterthan ‘every other book ever published, ‘even advertisement loses its pro-per reward, and is unable to influence the sale of a publication. I t happens sometimes, but very rarely, that unfavourable reviews of a book, are received from the daily press ; usually,theproportion of favourabletounfavourable reviews is that announced by Mr. Eveleigh Nash in the case of Lord Somebody’s reminiscences. Out of 150 reviews 146 were favourable. With plays, the proportion would probably be reversed, for dramatic critics always damn ; but a woman showed the way to deal with this sort of thing. When a play by Mr. Arnold Bennett was unfavourably noticed, Miss Marie Tempest published the mostunfavourableextractsshe could find as heradvertisement of the play. I t is not beyond the reach of intelligentprophecythatpublishersmayyetrecognise the advertising value of a damaging criticism by THE NEW A G E ; certainly, the fact must be chronicled that we never condemn a man but he straightwaybecomes p o p lar, and loses his prestige as an artist or thinker. Mr. Masefield, for example, think may thathe won that LIOO ; but it was “ The Reviewer of ‘Nan’ ” and prize myself who established Mr. Masefield’s claim t o popular recognition,. We finished with Mr. George Bernard Shaw about three years ago, with what result? Mr. Shaw has become popular ; one of his works o art, at least, has f been played on the music-halls ; and no one takes any of hispublicpronouncementsseriously.Eveninpolitics, the same phenomenon is apparent. The members of the Labour Party were electedwithmuch enthusiasm and with many hopes, and were subsidised with about A200 a year per man. THE NEWAGEturned its critical faculty on their work, and a grateful country voted them A400 a year. Indeed, we are the only creators of wealth, and THENEW AGE no man thrives with the populace until has solemnly declared that he is one of the mob. It has been suggested privately that authors instruct theirpublishersnot to’send copies, o theirbooksto f THENEW AGE; but the suggestion is incredible. Take the case of Mr. H. G. Wells, for example.Mr. Wells is a serious artist, and a serious thinker, not merely ir: his own but in the estimation of his class. I t is a fair deductionthat .a seriousartistlikestobetakenseriously ; the only sort of criticism that would annoy him would frivolous be criticism. THE NEW AGE was the only paperthatgaveaseriousregardto“The NewMachiavelli ” ; all other the papers praised it, Dic! Mr. Wellsprotest? No ! Hemadenosign of disap- 505 proval,andweknowthatsilencegivesconsent,and us thatitistheperfectest Shakespearehasassured heraldof joy. True, there was that unfortunate lapse from felicity when Mr. Wells claimed damages from US for breach ofcopyright, ; but any man nota lawyer might misunderstand his legal rights. W e cannot suppose that Mr. Wells deliberately damaged commercial the pro“ Marriage,” by instructing spects of hislaternovel, his publisher not to send a copy to us ; it is more probable that he had a hand-illuminated copy prepared for us, bound in rich leather and elaborately tooled, and that the porter employed to convey it to us purloined it, and disappeared from the haunts of men with his treasure. Authors, I am sure, are not to blame for the defects o distribution of their f output; is publishers’ it the exaggerated regard f1o.r us, and t.he jealousy and cupidity of their minions, that are responsible for the apparent boycott of THENEW AGE. But I assure them that what is good enough for the public to read is bad enough for us tocriticise;andasthepublishersareamongthe most enthusiastic admirers, of our criticisms, I may remind them that it is not advisable to drive us to writing reviews of imaginarybooks.Ithasbeendoneinthe columns of THE NEW AGE, and correspondents have protested their frantic desire to read the books. It is better for everyone that s0m.e verisimilitude should di,stinguish the reviews in THE NEW AGE; and if the “torrent of volumes now pouring from the printing machines ” turns this way, I will say, like another Lear : “ Pour on, I will endure.” A. E. R. with backsliders. the Th,ere and be, is, can nothing wrongwithDiet;to go, gatheringnutsand whey is th,e only satisfactory method of obtaining and imaintaining health; and if any untoward consequences hav,e followed the adoption of the new regime, not Diet, but the folly and stupidity of the newly redeemed must be held responsible. You cannotservetwomasters; you must not eat Haigs and bacon, or you are yet in your sins, and Gollaemia, which may be defined as the Diabolism oQ theDevil, will afflict you. To th.ose who are strong in the faith, Dr. Haig practically promises a new heaven and a new earth. There be shall no more fatigue; th’ere shall be no ‘more pains in childbirth; and he even prophesies thatovulation will not be accompanied by haemorrhage. There be shall no more influenza, there shall be no more gout or rheumatism, there shall be no more Bright’s Disease, there shall he nomoretuberculosis,there&allbeno mlore cancer. Ev,enl cancer,thatDr.ForbesRosshasshownto be due t,o a ,deficiency of an alkali, is assumed to be due tothe(presence of an acid. But “ not everyonet,hat saith unto .me, Lord, Lord, cometh into my kingdom;’’ therearepeople so diseased thatnotevenDietcan cure them. They shall handed to be over Uric-Acid, andthereshall be weeping and wailing 2nd gnashing of teeth.Apartfromthesewho will die in theirsins, nooneis tool youngortooold,toosick or too well, forDiettoimprove them. If you havebeen ill, Diet ill, Diet will will cureyou ; if youhaveneverbeen o Diet f likewise cure you; indeed, the greatest benefits are bestowed; onthelatterclass o people. ForDr. f Haig says that, although they have never been ill, they have never knownHealth,;anditis to, besupposed that they will knowit,probably by memory, I f tEey adopt th’e Uric-Acid -Free Diet. For tips and startingprices, readers may be referred to the book ; (everything that .is needful is either given advertised or therein; and we have n o doubtthatwhennextweask,with Job, “ I s there any taste in the white of a n e g g ? ” w e shall hear a chorus of affirmative answers, he and further instructed that the white of an egg also contains albumen. ’ REV I EWS. Bar. Collected and Arranged by Arthur H. Engelbach.WithanIntroduction by the Right Hon. F. E. Smith. (Grant Richards. 3s. 6d. net.) Th,e stories in this quite unnecessary book have not ” ; there is been “ arrangedbyArthurH.Englebach n’o sign o anyarrangementwhatever.Theyarenot f placed: in chronological order; ar,e grouped they not ; theyare underauthors’names,exceptintheindex not gr,ouped according to their subject-matter or ev,en according t o th,e courts or circuits wherein or whereon they uttered. are arranged; were They not and so many of them were told in Jerrold’s, recent “ Book of be reallyunfair to FamousWits,”thatitwould’not say they that w,ere not collected Mr. by Englebach. True, Mr. Englebach gives a bibliography, which dims not include Mr. Jerrold’s book; but the fact that he is unaware of the existence o the “Book o f Famous Wits,” f does not make own his. compilation more valuable. Mr. F. E. Smith says in his Introduction : “ I am satisfied that one glances no who through these goodhumoured pages will refuse an expression ‘of gratitude t,o thegentlemanwhohasmade so discriminating a compilation.’’ Mr. Smith is satisfied about many things t h a t dto no,t satisfy us; an’d we are no4 satisfied that this compilation is “ discriminating. ” I t tells us all th,e stories we ever knew, and a few others, that a merciful Providence withheld had from us; and proper the description of such a compilation is “ comprehensive,” n o t “ discriminating.” But we never were satisfied with Mr. Smith’s u s e of the English language; and th,e fact that is he ignorant of the proper use o the f word “ discriminating ” i s indicative ,of the lack of compreo his, public statef h’ensiveness manifested other in ments. By Kenneth G. Haig. (Methuen. 3s. 6d. net.) Every Christ has a St. Paul; even a lawyer sometimes has a devil; why and should not a doctor havean interpreterandapostle?Dr. Kenneth H a i g istheson of his father, Dr. Alexander Haig; and he has written this book to tell us. briefly and clearly what his father saidaboutthenewdevil,Uric-Acid,andhiswarfare with the Great God, Diet. H e warns the unregenerate of the error of t h e ways; he counsels and corrects the long andearnestly weak in thefaith;andhepleads Anecdotes of Bench and Health Through Diet. Movement of America. By Julius Moritzen. (Putnam. 12s. 6d. net.) T h e peace movement of America began in 1809 with a David Low Dodge; this is another of them. For in spite ‘of itsprice,anditsappearancebetweencovers, Mr. Moritzen’s work is admittedly no more than “ the first attempttotreatthesubjectasrealnews.”The proper place for news is the newspaper, .of which there are some even in America; in a book, we expect a more exhaustive treatment, more complete and concise infor,mation, m!ore balanced judgment, more and literary style. this In. volume, we get none of these things; ”o f althoughin proportion tomass,weget“more everythingthan!wed.ointhenewspapers.Thebook is not exactly a history of the movement, nor a biographicaldictionary Ioc portraitgallery +of thepeople who take, have and taken, in nor part it, a record of the tours of various speakers, nor a report of their speeches’; nor is it exactly an enumeration of th,e various societies’ for tbe propagation off peace. I t is something of a1.l six; it is everything by turns, and nothing long; an,d it may be recommended to those who like to know how many people can say the same thing in the same words. book not in The does state, summary or extensively, the arguments for peace or the arguments against war; are only we told of the eminence and number .of thle speakers, ‘of the solemnity or gaiety o,f the occasions o a which they spoke, and are expected to be interested in ‘extracts from after-dinner speeches and pulpit utterances. G. W E. Russell. . 7s. 6d. net.) (Grant Richards. Mr. Russell continues in this volume the publication o’f his reminiscences, reviews, his his and romances. H i s reminiscences are so likehisreviewsthatoneis o themoughtnot f to be notquitesurewhetherall included under th.e heading o his f romances. His The Peace Half-Lengths. By theRightHon. 506 romances, olf which “ A Forgotten Panic” is an example, bear so obviousaresemblance to certain interludes in Disraeli’s novels (in this case, Coningsby’s first meeting with Sidonia andwith Mr. G. 0 A. Head, of StalybFidge, come to memory), that we hardly needed to be of thisnarrativeis figtold that “ thepersonalpart titious.” We could not imagine Mr. Russell ever doing anything so romantic a s talking to a stranger inth,e train. His review of Mr. Wilfrid Ward’s “ Life of Cardinal Newman ” iscompetent,andhisarticleson the Duke of Devonshire, Coleridge, Lord and Mr. Labouchere, were acceptable in the periodicals and on the occasions of their publication; but they are no more worthy of exhumation than “ A Cabinet of Miniatures ” is worthy of Christian Burial. Not all reminiscences are interesting, and Mr. Russell tells his with such discretion that they ar,e no morevaluable asbiography than the records of the Court Circular. catchnodisease ; but I amsometimesthrownout.” Therefore, Government the oughtmanage to these houses,. price the women, inspect them, provide police protection for the innocent young men; in short, nationalise oldest the industry in the world. And so’ on, and so forth. Really, whenMr. Willis has become accustomed to his new knowledge, should he be in much request as a teller of spicy yarns. Some of these, stripped of their sociological surplices, have a decidedly high temperature, and really ought to bepublishedin yellow-backs. The European in India. By H. Hervey. (Stanley Paul. 12s. 6d. net.) of inThis is a volume of noparticularmerit,and terest only to those Europeans who have been in India and are nowcontenttoexchangestories in theclub smoking-room. Mr. Hervey gossips about people to be met in India-military men, pressmen, cranks, medicalmen, Civil Servants,-etc.,and of all thevarious types of women. Indeed, the book is not unlike a dissected novel, with its character sketches, its anecdotes, of life inthestation.Hereisall anditsdescriptions the material of a novel, except the story, the and skilltomake a book. W e advise Mr. Hervey to turn his attention to the writing of novels : he has all the cliches pat, and nothing particular to say. The volume is illustrated, as it deserves to be. A Crystal Age. By W H. Hudson. (Duckworth. 2s. 6d. net.) “ The Mr. Hudson deserves republication his in Readers’ Library,” and “ A Crystal Age ” may delight a generation that finds “ Looking Backwards,” as well as itsantidote, “ NewsfromNowhere,” intolerable. For Utopianasthisstoryis,itisnotdoctrinaire;it cannot conceivably be called either Collectivist or Communist. Exactly how thework of the world is performed in “ A Crystal Age ” we do not, know ; but we never doknowthis inromance,nor,indeed,do .we need to know. But it must be confessed that the conclusion of this volume is tantalising ; we do not know whether draught the from bottle Smith the sent to sleep for ever, or for only a little while. The opening, too, is unsatisfactory ; even an Englishman might find himself in Utopia without tumbling into it. These things apart, “ A Crystal Age ” has the haunting beauty of imagination that is denied us by this life of ours ; and if we find that Mr. Hudsonarrangesforthe renewal of the family bv adevicesimilar to that of the bees,weneednotobject to thesexualpassionbeing relegated its to proper place in fiction. “ A Crystal Age,” in spite of a few longueurs of description, is a delightful book. The Redeemer. By Rene Bazin. (Stanley Paul. 6s.) Leaning out of her bedroom window, gazing into the : “ I should like to see warm spring night, she mused him well married-married into some one of the many respectable families round about. I n a well-kept house, with two children on his knees, or three, or four. . .” Andhe?-he was livingwithanother’s wife. Oh, the sin of it ! And when she meets him he pleads : “ ‘ You want her to drive me away? Youwould be the cause ofhler driving me away? ’ “ The schoolmistress forgot all conventions. “ ‘ So much the better,’ she replied, invirginal indignation. “ ‘ Ah ! you want her to desert me. You will repent those words. ’ “ ‘ It is yourplace to repent. You-who are living an evil life ; you-the lover of a married woman.’ ” And, of course,repents. he And, of course, she marries him. And another sinner’s soul is saved. Magnificat. The Pearl Stringer. By Peggy Webling. (Methuen. 6s.) Miss Webling has tried to write the story of a simple friendship between a man and a woman. Weary of all the sexual slush of to-day we naturally were inter! The bookfull is of bad writing; ested. alas But grammatical errors are frequent, syntax is ignored, and the style is altogether abominable. Faith. By R. B. Cunninghame Graham. 2s. 6d. net.) (Duckworth. W e could have dispensed with this republication, but Messrs. Duckworth no have mercy. Cunninghame Graham,withhiskeennoseforstinks,andhissharp eye for thedetestablefeatures of thehumanrace, is thrust upon us. Wce find “Sor Candida and the Bird” still charming, but for the rest of the volume we have anything thanks. Graham but Mr. smells much too powdered horse-dung in th.e air, sees t,oo much ophthalmia, to say nothing of scabby heads, among $is Arabs, too prone is to imagine that the cutting of throats is more heroic than, say, the cutting of corns, tomakehissketches valuable. Hisbrothelyarnsare in outclaassed by those of Mr. W. N. Willis, whom Mr. Graham has a most formidable competitor inthis genre. His disdainforthisdisgustingglobeisrather antiquated at this time of day, and, as Mr. Graham is still alive, it does not seem genuine. W e discover that Mr. Graham’s mental equipment is really insufficient for any office butthat of mob orator;and if, as he says in his preface, he has some difficulty in writing, we canassure him thatthereisno necessity forhimto take the trouble. Really, we do not deserve his pains. Western Men with Eastern Morals. By W. N. 5s. net.) Willis. (Stanley Paul. Mr. Willis continues to about talk other people’s love-affairs, and t pretendthattheyare o scandalous. Of course, Mr. Willis has the best intentions when he exposes concubinage the adopted by the white men ; he only wantsto livingin ourEasternpossessions rouse public opinion to compel employers to pay wages that will enable an employee tosettle in thecountry of hisadoption,andenjoythelegitimateembraces o f what Mr. Willis would .call “ a duskyspouse.” Bas tardy, it seems, accompanies the white man in Burma andsimilarplaces, andbastardy, Mr. Willispredicts, will lose us our Eastern Empire if we are not careful. Celibacy, he agrees, is not possible in that climate, nor is that climate suitable to white women ; moreover, the wages paid would not enable a man to support a white woman there. But really, you know, it is not proper for white men to live with coloured women out of the bond of wedlock ; bastards are horn, hearts are broken, murders are committed, and all sorts of fearful things happen if anybut a life-long union regularised by law the be custom.Besides, what would mothersay if sheknew whathersonwasdoing in Burma,gettingwenches withchild, andallthatsort of thing? So Mr. Willis tells her, and gets the editor of “ Truth ” to write a preface declaring the scandalous nature of these facts. Of course, Mr. Willis could not keep out of the brothels in Japan or Singapore or wherever he went ; but ‘he no longer pours treble-priced champagne down a whore’s throat. No ! He has become worldly-wise, and watches the other fools doing that : “ Look at them,” he savagely reflects, “paying exorbitant prices for bad liquor, runningtherisk of robbery andmurderthat a filthy disease from an undesirable they may catch woman. I , Willis, admirable am thus man, never X sit your brothels Ibuy no drink,. I tempted, + 507 Drama. By John Francis Hope. ALTHOUGH The Pretenders ” will have been withdrawn “ by the time thisarticleappears,itisnonetheless worthy of consideration, it for relieves us from the as necessity of solvingthesex problem.Reminiscent it is of the work of Shakespeare (Hamlet and Macbeth, two of Shakespeare’s tragic most characters, were both infirm of purpose, like Earl Skule, when it came to killinga king),yetthecharacter of BishopNicholas givestheplay its distinction. For “ The Pretenders,” unlike “ Hamlet ” or “ Macbeth,”is a philosophic drama ; like “ Emperor and Galilean,” it is a proleptic refutation of Nietzsche’sdoctrine of the will. In other words, “ The Pretenders ” is Christian in its assumptions and in its demonstrations ; and if Nietzsche’s will to power ” is dictum that “ Christ is the priest’s tooextreme,thecharacter of BishopNicholasshows that Christianity at least fulfils that purpose. I have said that the play is a philosophic drama, and in that fact is concealed ‘an artistic weakness. The whole play is self-conscious : the motives are not revealed to the audience by the actions of the characters ; they are clearly anddeliberatelystated by thecharacters.The play is argumentative in its basis ; the action only accompanies the argument illustrate to it. Hakon Hakonssonpleadshisrightto tLe kingshiplikeany lawyer, with attestation of veridical proofs ; Earl Skule justifies his ambition, and his defect of will to achieve its object, by the lack of decisive evidence of Hakon’s legitimate descent. The self-consciousness is carried to its extreme in the death-bed scene of Bishop Nicholas, whentheDiabolus exmachinagiveshisreasonsfor fosteringenmity between SkuleandHakon.Infact, we have reason substituted for motive, with the consea psychologicaldemonquence that the playisreally a spiritual effluence. Ibsentries, strationratherthan it must be confessed with some skill, to attach a larger significance tohischaractersthanthat affordedby a dynastic struggle ; by the addition of somereferences a politito the supernatural, he attempts to transform of universal purposes. But his cal issue into a combat debating skill is too great : he argues and argues until he convinces our intelligence, until there is nothing for us to believe, except what he tells us, with the consequence that we cannot believe all. W e can accept Hakon Hakonsson as an exemplar of faith, Earl Skule as an exemplar of doubt, and Bishop Nicholas as envy denying to others the pre-eminence it could not attain for itself. Butpuerile as thisconcepthe issues are that tion is, we cannot accept larger intended to add majesty to it. For if Hakon Hakonsson wereGod’schosen (the Son of God, as the conclusion would suggest), and proved it by thinking “ the king’s thought,” i!t is a littlestrangethatthisthoughthad not something more of theDivine wisdom. “ Norway become a people,” says has been a kingdom,itshall Hakon ; thatis “ the king’sthought,”thatisthe “ God’s living spirit ” that Hakon claims to be able to breathe the into body politic of Norway. what But does the phrase mean, even toHakon?It does not mean the renunciation of will (that is left to the unsuccessful Earl Skule at the end of the play) ; it means the supremacy of one will. It means the abolition of faction, the uniting of warring tribes into a nation of tributariesto--KingHakon ! To whatend?Noone knoweth ; once a king is established by Divine right the purpose of the Universe isaccomplished, according to Ibsen. W h a t is called, by the modern sociological school of thought, the constructive genius of God’s chosen is not very remarkable; indeed, his greatness is not intrinsic, it is apparent only by contrast. “Religions are like glow-worms,” said Schopenhauer, “ they requlre darkness to shine in.” God never descended to tell the Pretenders that he was in favour of an absolute monarchy for Norway;butIbsenraisedupHelltoshowthat Satan disapproved of .any such conservation of energy. Goethe’sMephistopheles was importedfromGermany of to appear as Bishop Nicholas, and to lure the soul Earl Skule to perdition. The man who could not think the “king’s thought,” nor renounce pretensions, his who could not wlll thedeath of theking becausehe was uncertain of the rectitude of his claim, is induced to divide the kingdom by rebellion, to set up two kings in Norway, by thelast cynical suggestion of Bishop he beats Nicholas. For a time things thrive with him; Hakon in battle, only tobe perplexed again by his victory. “ When the thought of the kingly right comes over me unawares,’’ he says, “ ’tis ever he, not I, that is thetrueking.”Heasks why itisthat evenvictory f is cannot assure him o his right, and discovers that it the ‘‘ king’s thought ” that gives assurance of Hakon’s right not only to Hakon, to but himself. “ W h a t if God’s glimmered these calling through strange asks. “ If God had garnered the up words? ” he thought till now,and would now strewitforth,and had chosen Hakon as the sower? ” I t would have been anunconstitutionalinterference with the political destiny of Norway, none the less reprehensible because He gave no authentic sign of His approval of the idea; but had Earl Skule thought in this wise, “ The Pretenders’’ might have been dramatic, and less psychological. The tide of events turns : the very thing that Skule desired forvictory,thepresence of a beingwho believed in him,proveshisundoing. To hisbastardsonhe tells “ the king’s thought ” as his own, and seals an already fixed allegianceto himself with a lie. The infirmity of doubt that perplexed him troubles not Peter ; all that isnecessary to Skule’svictory,beitsacrilege or the kidnapping of the heir apparent, Peter will, anddoes, do. His daring paralyses father, his estranges his army, and enrages the townspeople. The battle is lost, and Skule flies to sanctuary. Beforereaches he it Mephistopheles makes one more attempt to secure his soul; the ghost of Bishop Nicholas rises from the grave to ‘offer him th,e kingdom if he will vow that his bastard sonshallsucceed him. ButPeteris a church-robber, and Skule sees that Nicholas is seeking the perdition of Peter’s soul. Strange, Heaven that and Hela should compete the for throne of Norway, and that Hell should chooseforitscandidatetheless wilful man; but has thatand Skule sworn pure blameless son to the as he received him will he render back his mother, and in his extremity he callson the mercy of God. There is then no other way but renunciation. He tells Peter that the “ king’s thought ” is Hakon’s ; he renounceshispretensions tokingship, on theground that only the king can think the “ king’s thought,” and carryinto it practice ; he commends the “ king’s thought ” to the careof God, a n unnecessary precaution if H e inspired it; an,d hand in hand with Peter, meets the death that awaits all Pretenders. His soulissavedto lost to God ; but his kingly arm and kingly brain are Norway. The powers of Hell are defeated : Norway is his theappanage of .oae king,andHakonstepsinto consolidatedkingdom.overthe corpse of EarlSkule, “ God’s stepchild on earth.” Of the pious naivete of the conclusion, I shallsay nothing ; but it is remarkable that Christian poets can never portray magnificent Hakon a Christian. Hakonsson is the merestmechanical hero of melodrama; but the Bishop and Earl Skule, particularly the Bishop, are masterlyprojections of character. I t would seem that Christians know more of, and have more interest in, Hell than in Heaven ;certainly, their genius is better exemplified in the denunciation of evil than <n the revelawhere Milton tion of good. Ibsenhasnotsuceeded failed : Paradise is still lost to us, in spite of the triumph of King Hakon over the mere Pretenders. 508 Art. A Question of Finish, By Anthony M. Ludovici. is fartoo vexed a questionto be settledin a single artilde, even if I weretheperson t o settle ita suggestionwhichI should be veryloath tlo make. Still, it is possible to, discuss it to some purpose, I believe-more particularly when at least half the pictorial art-problems of our time can, in asense,beshown tlo cluster it. round F,or the question of finish is the question of adequacy of expression,without and plunging any into metaphysical vapourings, we all have mo,re lor less of aclearidea of t h meaning of me adequacy of expression. I t means that original the conception 1o.f the artist-be he p e t , architect, musician or painter--has been sufficiently fully exterorised to do justice, in the ear, eye or heart (of the man of taste,tothatoriginal conception. I t maybe argued that to the artist the most adequate expression alwaysfalls very far short of his original conception; but in this respect let allowances be made for the exuberance of the artist's spirit at the moment of generation andconception,whichbearsthesamerelation to thelover'sfeelingsbefore the consummation of love, as the artist's comparative indifference tohis .expression once it is done with, bears to the lover's feelings, after the consummation. of every It is constant the endeavour, however, sound,unromanticartist,tomakehisexpression as adequate aspossible-onlythuscan he exercise the power he feels within him, only thus can he materialise that power. If this be so, then every sound artist must instinctively and long strive f.or an ever greaterand greater mastery his over means, so thatthe power within 'him can be exteriorised with ev,er less. and less loss Thismustconstitutethe passion *of the classic artist;it must constitute apprenticeship, must his it constitute ,his struggle. In other words, to be true tlob my original definition, 'the sound artist will be for ever strivingtoattaintothathighdegree of finish which will yield the closest material approximation to his original conception. Becauseloss of vigourmeans inadequate expression, provided the that original conis, a ception vigour. had Finish, in this sense, th,en, highly desirable quality. But l'et it not be forgotten, that it is a quality which, if insisted upon to-day would drive not a quarter, nor a half, and not three-quarters -but at least seven-eighths of the present poets, architects,painters,furniture builders,sculptors,musicians and other artists out of their jobs. Because it is a very difficult quality to acquire. It is a very ardvous undertaking arrive that to at mastery one's over means whereby one's results approximate in a high degree to the original conceptions in loae's heart express and something of their vigour. So wh,at is it we see to-day ? W e see no attempt at finish, forfearlestwhatlittlevigourthere 'mayonce have be'en in the original conception, should be entirely spent, before the utterancecomplete, is in a f hopeless struggle with thme, difficulties o ,expression. It is as though all the jokes in the worldwere being bungled in the tellingbecause only stammererswere retailingthem. I t is as if all theartistic conceptions of the world such were delicate and sickly little children thatitwas impossible to rearthemtoma~ turity.Finally,itis a s if all were s ' rottenthatour very food was only half dressed, for fear lest another minute’s delay should cause it to putrefy and dissolve. And now let .me turn to the cry against finish. How f and where did it arise? I havespoken o these things before; but they bear again being repeated. For some reason o r othfer finish is associated witah'decadence and decline. Why isit SIO associated? With all,duereverence to $hose who see only this association, let me say thtat it is entirely superficial and foolish. As a rule, finish in technique is to be seen at the very zenith of a rich artistic period. I t is to be seen at the zenith of THxs Hellenic art, and at thezenith of Gothicand Renaissance art. Now, at the zenith of a high artistic period, artists still have something t'o,say ; there is still passion and vigour and love in their conceptions. But what o a decline. Their f happens?Theyareonthebrink followersdonotinherittheirhealth,theydonotinherittheir vigour, ortheir love, which gil-es the value to the content of their art--and this break in theinheritanceactually,constitutesthe decline-but they inherit the only thing which without healthy spiritual gifts can be inherited, and that is asoundtraditional mastery over a set of instruments or means. Thus, the followers of a great period of art, such as the sculptors o the Hellenistic period,thepainters f of thecounterRenaissance,andthe Graeco-Roman school which followed th'e Empire school in France, all reveal 'the qualities, of high finish and academic exactitude without any longer possessing wherewithal the to, exercise these qualities ; without, that is to say, possessing the love, passionandvigourtocreatea fine content,agreat work of art. In this way high finish has become associated in modern minds with decline, with emptiness of motive, with jejuneness and with speciousness. Folr, what was the artistic movement provoked and practically brought into bleing by the Graeco-Roman school o f France in the first half of the nineteenth century?Itwas Impressionism. TheImpressionistsprotested against all this high finish, this consummate of heart or soul technicalmastery,withoutavestige behind it. They protested against mere technical excellence, devoid of all love and passion. And th,ey were right. They were entirely justified. They were, 1 1 0 ~ 7 ever,quite,mistaken in supposing,as some st31 suppose, that becausehigh finish happened tobe unf,ortunat,ely connected #these with sterile painters of the Graeco-Roman school, it t'hat wasthereforeaquality wholly t o e b condemned. This was a facile and of settling the difficulty. It was a plausible way manner (of shelving the question *once and for all, which opened the flood gates to all the ruck and scum of the studios, and which allowed every Tom, Dick and Harry-and, alas,everyKateandMary, too, !--who haad noaptitudeforcommerce,fortypewriting,or for anything else, to imagine that he or she could wield a brush o r achisel. Butitwas wrong, criminally,blasphemously wrong ! These men of the Graeco-Roman 90 skilled in finish, were suffering school who were a single o:ne lof theImpresfrrorn adiseasethatnot sionists were able to diagnose successfully. They were suffering from the disease of having no love, no passion, no hope, no aim in existence. The cure for their malady not was to abolish finish. fools, Only only empty-headed cafe-loafers, could have conceived of such a cure. The cure was to correcttheirscheme of life, orthescheme of life of theirnation.Thecorrective would have consisted in giving a meaning to their lives; which might have given a meaning and a purpose to their skilful technique. W h a t did the Impressionists They do? painted " atmosphere," "values"; they reformed the paletteall mere accessories-and theyinveighedagainstthe careful technique of the Academy in such a manner which allowed every impudent and incompetent little student upstart to regard his confounded rubbishy daubs a s masterpieces ! In fact, these people, some of whom, in my presence, turned up their noses when the Futurists came actually the prepared over, pavedway, the terrain, for these Italian anarchists, and did everything in their power to make Futurism in painting possible. And now, are we to suppose that this mistake, this blasphemous error, perpetrated was in the pictorial arts alone? Is 'there nlot evidence enough that it has also in literature and in been perpetrated in music and architecture? those cry Let who too readily against high finish consider these matters, and look into their own hearts. Nothing is understood nowadays. The whole of the Impressionistic movement has not yet been " placed " by those who are the most eager to " gas " and to scribble about it. When painters began to talk they damned their calling. 509 Pastiche. The Profound and Poignant Musings Arts, who has relinquishedthePosition after Divers Vicissitudes i,n that Calling. of of Pedagogue aBachelor of The deuce take all this usherdom ! At length, Haggardand woebegone I hang my gownInk-eaten,shabbyspectre, that hashaunted Class-room and corridor and dormitoryOn yonder nail, where now i t idly sprawls, An emblem of futility. Good God ! Only to think that I have borne thus far Blatant chicanery blustering and Of pettifogging dullards with their names Puffed and upholstered with a’ bloated wad Of padding alphabetical ; whase portent, Vouched for by framed diplomas-gaudy t r a s h Wasdarkly dubious ; while I-enough, A truce to brawling. Often while I strode A dusty room and mouthed out Latin verbs, Stale tit-bits for the urchin-palate, all My being scaled the empyraean; through The sordid catalogue of feminines That end in us, andsuch-likejettison From Roman galleys, I could hear the sweet Uncumbered music of the men, whose art Knew not Declension, stumbled not upon Defective Verbs, and soared above the litter Of Ablatives andSupines.Pindarsang And Homer wove his jewelled threads, the while A smirking imp declaimed some doggerel To lure the Latin genders, or my wrath Was vented on a blubbering brat, who strove With dim Ovidian utterance. And yet My compeers were not otherwise in this, In betterplight nowhit.Theirponderings, Tho’ not comparisoned as mine, would leave The narrow bridle-path, where they should amble Forlavishing of lore. Thus Elliman, Burly of frame,full-throated,headstrong, loud Of laughter,dolesouthis didactic shredsAlgebra, Latin, French, Geography, Scripture (ye gods !) and other items, such As chance prescribes-for an emolument Of fiftypoundsperannum, bed and board. well, Elliman I say,unlockshisstore And shares it piecemeal out; tho’ not intent His thoughts Thereon quite undividedly. Circle around that colt, upon whose prowess He wagered eighteen pence. And Willet too, Fills up a blackboard with amazing things, Angulardiagrams to guide theyoung Across the asses’ bridge, while, nimble-souled He skims the fourth dimension, or his brain Is seared withintegrals. Then Rees, whose voice Rasps out its Celtic twang, purveys the date r Of Domesday Book, o buffets stubborn skulls Impervious to mortmain and the gloom Of archives and their mustiness-the while He gloats-with furtive leer on amorous deeds Of yesternight, or plans a fresh campaign Forhotpursuit of skirt. And CharlieJoyner, Humped like a moulting vulture, rails upon His stolidchargeswith some quaint abuse Culled from the gutter, while his recreant thoughts Rove heaven’s playground,withadiadem, Hymn-book and harp. And Curwen, nose tip-tilted, Eyebrows serenely arched-where his thoughts drift Remains a secret shared by him and God . . . Old Porkley too, the craven parasite, Glib sycophantand would-be pensioner. Pot-bellied scrivener on black-boards,-he Dispenses weights and measures, threads the maze Of England’svariateorthography, The while his phantasy, his paunch’s pander, Conjures up images of juicyjoints, Of puddings wrought in cunning moulds of dough, Of draughts of ale whose froth o’ertops the stoup, And buxom trulls to serve. And so they all Ply their mechanic round, thlat bores themselves, And bores their listless audience, whose ears Deaf to all else, are doubly grown alert To’catch the tinkle chiming out the knell Of irksomejousting. Well, enough of thi s - Thisandtheniggardskimping out of fare, This and the scowls of domineering apes, This and the skulking fellowship of fools, Of weaklings, braggarts, liars, knaves and curs, Alert to fawn and wheedle for a coin. To stab and slanderwith - a peevish sneer, To oust and trample under foot. So I Spurning the dust as Holy Writ ordains, Go forth-I reck not how-to gain release, As fiddler, sexton, huckster, fisherman, Tramp, tinker, forester, an I but find Freedom and space and airand buoyancy. P. SELVER. THE BLACKBIRD. Up at five, by half-past on the road, Footing it bravely, dinner-box in hand ; And meeting now and then, with friendly nod, A fellow-worker ; sometimes joining band Of laughing, joking, argufying friends, Till fact’ry reached, each to his own place wends. And such it was in Winter’s cold, dark morn, In Spring-time’s windy, rainy, sunny dawn, In Summer’s coolth before the heat is born, In Autumn’s dusty swelter ere ’tis gone, ’MI somehow, how it was I cannot say, I met and walked with Katie all the way. Ah ! he’s a’ rogue, the blackbird, so he is ; A tricksy ping of the blackest shade. Who’d thinkthose mellow, flute-like notes were his, That well, and tell, of dell and wooded glade ? Who’d dream that such could make a man rejoice When near the woman of his heart’s own choice? Morning succeeded morning, .yet I couldn’t Speak to Katie except on wind or weather, Work, or the lack of it and pay, but wouldn’t Touch on the why we walked the road together. And then, ’twas in the lush and leafy June, The blackbird helped me speak by his sweet tune. Twittered he : “Folly: folly, folly so silly. Sweetheartssweet, he chuckled, “ and never a‘ kiss. Oh do it, do it, do it now, willy or nilly. Kiss her, kiss her, do it now, taste of bliss.” He sang it, whistled it, danced it, laughed it, till I turned to Kate and did it with good will. And Katie, she got red in the face a bit, to rub it off. Said “Haw, you silly.”Pretended While blackie the rogue was ever in front with twit Of “Heigho ! heigho! Do you think one enough ? Again ! Again ! Summer’s the time for sweethearts. Sweet . . . sweet . . . sweethearts, thetime for sweethearts.” Oh, how he piped it! “Marry ! Ask her to marry.” My heart played jump; a mist was. in my eyes. “Oh why,” he pleaded, “why, oh why, do you tarry? Hurry! oh, quick now. Time, the sweet time flies.” And I ? I settled i t ; how I cannot say. Rut Katie and I ne’er got to our work that day. Settled it-yes. That’s Katie smiling there. She pokes her fun at me about it, too. She says she never dreamed that I would dare Do as I did; I seemed too shy to WOO. It’s true, tho’, hadn’t that blackbird told me plain ta’en. Theright of it, God knows how long I’d J. ’r. FIFE. DEFINITIONS. Art for Art’s sake, Art for Life’s sake, Life for Art’s sake, Life for Life’s sake. They told me, Aristippus, they told me you were dead ! J. A. M. A. Shame ! 510 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR., articles certain British journalists, invited by the “ PropagandadePortugal,”havevisited Portugal. This excursion trip did not, of course, attract any attention here in England. exceedingly But, to surprise, tour, my the which was the result of inspiration from the Portuguese Legation in London, has been turned into a sort of semiofficialvisit of BritishjournaliststoPortugal. However absurd this delusionmayappear tojournalists in this country, its prevalence may do some mischief in Por!Ugal. For what is believed to be the fact has often more Influence in Portuguese politics than the fact itself. Motives of prudence, Sir, might have prevented the Portuguese Republicans from making their new device known at full, still their Press delights in the fact that the guests of the ’‘ Propaganda de Portugal ” saw one of the prisons, and that ‘‘ their impressions could not have been more favourable.” Into the prison horrors I do not enter here. The incredible duration of preliminary detention, the congregation of prisoners in filthy chambers, the physical degradation of prisoners, are accusations not yet withdrawnby the ‘‘ Times,” “ MorningPost,”and the *‘ Daily News”-papers which, I note,ignored this opportunity of visiting Portugal. It is sufficient, however, for my purpose to mention the following fact : “ Several non-commissioned officers,” to quote the ‘‘ Times ” (February 13), “who were arrested some twentyone months ago for conspiring against the Republic, and imprisoned in the Castle of Saint George, are still waiting a letter to the Press asking for trial. They recently sent that some foreign (sic) journalists who are about to visit Portugal should inspect their prison 2nd investigate their case. As a punishment for this, the Government now refuses to allow the prisoners to receive the usual visit from relatives friends.” and This, Sir, will once more make your many readers realise the distance that divides thetwo civilisations-that of NorthernAfricaand that Y. DE BRAGANCA CUNHA. of Western Europe. Sir,-It is not long ago that I attempted to comment in THE NEW AGE on the treatment of political prisoners in Portugal. Since, however, THE NEW AGE publishedmy BRITISH JOURNALISTS IN PORTUGAL. ’ + * + AMERICAN LIBERTY. Sir,--I enclose a most exquisite cutting from the Galvary “ Herald ’’ describing- the advance of civilisation is atown of i”n Spokane. I mayexplainthatSpokane something over IOO,OOO people in the State of Washington. Washington is famous as the most “ progressive ’’ State in the Union, and very proud of its ‘[advanced ” legislation. Its pride is fully justified. It has led the world in appointing schoolboy policemen to supervise the morals of the other children, and i t lately prosecuted an editor for sedition for advising nude bathing. R. B. KERR. Spokane,February 2 5 , No person, boy or girl, under the age of 18 years, may attenda public or semi-public dance i n Spokane hereafter. An ordinance to &is effect has been passed bv the City Council. It provides jail sentences for offenders. The passage of the ordinance marks the crisis of a long fight against “rag” dancing. Mayor W. J. Hindley h a s led thebattleagainst the “Bunny Hug,” the “Spokane Dig,” the “Caby Glide,” and kindred terpsichorean eccentricities. The mayor appointed a commission of dancing masters to frame ananti-rag ordinance. This body submitted a measure going into the minutest details o their E art. It provided that no couple should take more than twelve steps without reversing, or dance more than three steps to a‘ bar o the music, and that “the lady” f shouldnot to put rest her head on her partner’s chest, permit him both arms aronnd her, or exchange “chaws” of chewinggum with him. The members of the City Council laughed at the measure, and for it substituted the ordinance just passed. This provides that no dance may be given withouta city permit. It forbids turning down olf lights for “moonlight waltzes.” It declares no dance may begin before 8 a.m., and that all must leave the floor a t 11.45p.m. *** RACE=MANAGEMENT. Sir,-As Mrs. Hastings has such a very low opinion of the position and calibre o the female as compared with f the male, I am amazed that she takes up so much of the effusions from her spacein your very “virile” paper by male mindhas feminine pen. If there is“nothingthe left unexamined,”andthere is “nothing a woman can teach them,” i t seems so very superfluous for her to contribute the numerous articles I have seen over a,nd under her name. Why does she notretire to aharem, occupy herself withherchildren, and leave thehighermatters of philosophy, politics, and the arts to him, who alone is truly wise and great-Man ! ? Can it be that she regards herself as not truly feminine and one of the rare exceptions to the mass of unintelligence in which the rest of her sex wallow-or ought to wallow ? Of course, the whole history of civilisation, of the rise and fall of nations, the position of subject races (subject in exact proportion as their womanhood is subject), gives the lie to her contention. Even to-day we see the nation which holds as a doctrine more than any other European country the theories expressed by Mrs. Hastings now tottering to its fall, killed by the very “maleness” and consequent stagnation of its civilisation, and driven out of Europe tothe Orient where such lifelessness truly belongs. It were well Mrs. Hastings and THE NEW AGE generally learnt th,e truth that “all Life is feminine,” and this is true whetherphysical, spiritual, or intellectual. of theEast,itistrue,is wonderful xnd Theintellect deep, but it is sterile,unrelated to life andleading nowhere; but to annihilation. That is also where the philosophy of THE NEW AGE, with its overweening male vanity, leads. But thank heaven for the Women’s Morea life and energy which will be the ment, glowing with f machine-made world. salvation o a decadent and K. B. Chelsea. [Mrs. Hastings replies : Whatevercan I reply to this infuriated female? I must rise, plane by plane, after her I cannot in the own manner. First about the harem. least comprehend why I should go into an harem on the ground thatmen have examined allthings I might possibly writeabout.Literarymen would have an equally good excuse secluding for themselves, since nothing new is under the sun, but some people can say the old things I havesomething more than a combetter than others. mon talent in literature, and that is why 1 contribute to THE NEW AGE.. But I will answer further about this purely womanly way, without harem suggestion in a more literary style creeping in than I can help. This is, perhaps,ahappy idea for Mrs. K. B. and Co., but, for my part, I have never been so luckless as to have to share a man with another woman-in fact, things have so happened that it would never occur to me even to advise need seems inother women to retire to harems-the credible ! We get a little higher : my intelligence, my distinction from the wallowing mass. Yes : when I consider that Adeline Duchess of Bedford, for instance, so endowed with all that civilisation can give a woman, supported an Act which reintroduced flogging, I decide that there must be some fundamental difference between me her. and Nothing more can be done for her by civilisation than has her been done. Whatcan I suppose butthatsheand other hundred thousand fellow-floggers have a nature usual fashion, women are now than mine? their In denyingthattheymeant flogging. It will still remain for men to let it once more become obsolete, t,o undo what they did under the spur of Adeline, Duchess. The whole history of civilisation, the position of subject races, etc. : Finland, I suppose ! But I cannot very well argue with a lady who credits the harem system with the Turkey rose to glory with the harem. fall of Turkey. Turkish women are more “free” to-&y than ever they were while theircountry was a first-class Power. The “rise” o’f women seems invariably to accompany decadence in nations-such a rise means’that men ha,d better look out. Next we come to mysteries. great Mrs. K. B. has dabbled a bit. And let us see how unscrupulous a woman may become. I do not know precisely where she got her dogma that “all life is feminine ”-but I would stake my witsshe read it in some man’s book ! The“physical, ” I guess she threw in on spiritual, intellectual and her own persuasion for the glory of the Cause. I ask her to prove it without reference to any masculine work. She must not come at me with arguments borrowed from men todeny that men have examinedallsubjects.Her cliches about ‘‘ the East ” may pass along-she has nothingtosay,andwodd probably declaim similarlyto Krishna himself, whose only reply could be : Blessed be thou ; be off ! Highest of all-the Movement. A woman wrote to me the other day asking : How, when Christ failed to reform humanity, is the possession of votes by women going to do i t ? It is a big question.] 511 WOMAN’S SUFFRAGE. Sir,-May I add briefly to your what courtesy has already permitted me to say on this subject? with the Miss Frances H. Low, whose fine dealing woman’s question appeals strongly, nevertheless appears to me to leave too much on one side-the problem of the numerical disproportion between the sexes which denies to so many women the full normal human life as homemakerandparentwhich she holds in honour. Yet that is surelyradical to the germinationandgrowth of this movement. The old-timed refuges of the unmated or unmating woman are replaced simply by the wage market, with its competitive cruelties, so destructive of Individual woman’s revoltagainst and of race vitality.Surelythe conditions which I haveventured to describe as “ race suicide ” is the most hopeful sign in our grey skies today. Miss Low saysthattospeak of women (or pari passu, men, I presume) as “ human beings ” as well as women has nomeaning for her. But I think it has a meaning, and that a real one. Sex surely colours human life, but is not thematrix of it. Men and women arc one not to my mind different species united by sex, but species differentiated thereby, finding self-unity and achieving race-destiny through the experience that neither can win to without the other. Since writing to you, I have read a remarkable book, entitled “ The Nature of Woman,” by Dr. Lionel Tayler. I find myself profoundly in sympathy with itsphilosophy. His. conclusion may, perhaps, be briefly expressed in the saying : “ Man is an activity, Woman a presence.” It will ill betide the people that seeks to override this unalterable decree. Yet that, if not the deliberateaim of ourWesterncivilisation, is already its almost unheeded tendency. It is, I believe, claimed by advocates of political activity for women that the infant mortality records alone justify woman’s demand to share in the shaping of laws which have hitherto so tragically failed to protect the helpless, who are also the hopeandfuture of the race. It is admitted that the disproportionate mortality of male childrenhasraised the most perplexing aspect of this human problem indenying free opportunity of thefull human life tomany women. Who candoubt that it is the failure rightly to reverence andprotect motherhood My own belief that lies behind this silent tragedy? (though it is not my original thought) is strong that the greater delicacy of boy children is due chiefly, if not solely, totheir feebler vitality.Thefact that the man’s vital resources are freely at the service ol his activities, physicaland mental, while the woman’s are held in reserve, has concealed this truth. Man’s brain-power is by nature established on a war footing, readily mobilisable; the woman’s is her citizen reserve. Can the biologist admit that Nature’sindomitablepurpose is the continu-* xnce of life, yetquestion on which sex she must needs bestow thegreatervitality?The man’s contributionto actual(though not, of course, to potential)man-making is no more than as the bird’s seed-carrying to the patient mothering of the kindly earth. I do not think the honestlyunbiasedmind can consider the evidence without suspecting that the woman’s is in €act the more deepseatedvitality. We have got to realiseas we have not yet done the enormous and increasing demand made on the woman’s vital powers in making and mothering the children of a highly developed anddeveloping race. If, as the fashion is iil certain quarters, we are fated to regard motherhood as a disturbing incident in a woman’s life, and not as its supremepurpose, then anothercivilisationhas failed to “ make good ” and will go the way of its forerunners. My reading of the woman’s movement is that its biologicalintention is to rouse man tothoughtand from awakened perception to imaginative the leadership demanded of him. It is inconceivable that a race with a spark of generous manhood should remain in doubt how to regardthose who arebeing called byasummons so Imperious. It is to a sacrifice astrulyinspiredasany that in the great story of mankind has endured present martyrdom to win a nobler inheritanceforthosethat so can men and women shall come after. Surely only be content. know themselves immortal, therewith and But let the sacrifice of women and the chivalry of men us tothetruenature of the woman’s alikenotblind presentactivity. It representsessentially the effort of ;L disease-invaded organism to throw off the morbid effects of the poison in its system. I t is not a condition of health, but of a strong vitality fighting for life and health. If we adopt the wrong remedy, the organism will eventually succumb. Now, to my thinking-, the wrong remedy is not in granting the suffrage. That is a decision o no ultimate E importance. I t may, I believe, be legitimately regarded as a right use (in the political economy of the State) of the normally undesirable fruits of race error. The fatally wrong remedy lies rather in failing to recognise the source of our error and the abnormal nature of its consequences; in plain words, ineducatinggirls as though they were boys, or at worst might with luck and application grow tothe man’s M e , if not to his by thusdenying thc: pattern, It is infalliblytruethat glory of womanhood women will beget men lackingin noble manhood who will be pitifully incapable of the quality of leadership the race so greatly needs. It would surely be the very soul of tragedy if the women thus lifeinspired and self-devoted to the warning and guiding of the race should consciously givethemselves, not to the far-thought protection of womanhood, but to a false ideal, hurrying women and together men down the slippery path to destruction. If that should indeed content them, the triumph would be short-lived, for their race will be tumbled headlong among the debris of forgotten things. It is the divine mission of the great race-mother to bc soul-passive :“ Dreaming visions of the future, children’s children shall renew, Till the Crowning Race, her offspring, shallawaketo find them true.” I can conceive it possible that one in sympathy with the view of human affairs I have sought to express might yet judge it right to withhold the political suffrage from women. What I hold not to be permissible is that, recognising its essential truth, any man should elect to treat, however kindly, the woman’s movement de haut en bas on the intellectual plane. It calls for generous, frank be the practical dealing on the broadestlines,inspired, decisions what they may, by a deep-hearted reverence for CHARLES CECIL human life and race destiny. * * * Sir,--As I do not quite understand Mr. William I,. Hare’s attitude vith respect to a point he raised in connectionwith one of myarticles,perhaps you will allow me to suggest,withduerespecttoyour well-informed correspondent, that he is confusing a poetical explanation with a scientific one. He, like the rest of us, has the two alternatives : either to accept the poetical interpretation of a myth or the many scientific explanations of it, bearing in mind that, as a rule, a poetic interpretation contams the elements of many scientific explanations. A scientist will probably dismiss the former alternative with contempt ; an artist is at liberty to take a scientific view into consideration if he wishes. A s Mr. Hare knows, there are numerous treatises dealing with the Antichrist legend and the Ten Tribes. Most of them, and certainly a11 the important ones, are known to me; but I did not refer to them in detail, simply because they had no bearing on the poetical part of the subject under treatment. I a m unable. at the moment to refer to my back numbers ; but I believe I am right in saying that it was Mr. Hare, and not I, who first mentioned the purely scientific aspect of the question. TFIENEW A G E , T take it, does not edition of “ Notes and profess to be a threepenny Queries.” If it did, I should never havereferred to the Talmud at all. J. M. KENNEDY. T H E LOST TEN TRIBES. Miscellaneous Advertisements 512 MR. EDWARD KNOBLAUCH.