connection with the indigenous culture is derived from the study of
a remarkable bird-cult which it is a chief triumph of the expedition
to have rescued from oblivion. Not only can it be thus shown to the
point of demonstration that the rock-carvings occurring in a deserted
village of stone houses on the south-western headland of the island
represent the annual "bird-man" who got the first egg of a sacred
bird, and so became himself highly sacred; but it can also be made a
probable corollary that the statues of the image-mountain are memorials
of bird-men, since it was close by that the bird-man must abide in
strict seclusion for the five months in which his sacredness was at
its height. Indeed, many are the clues which are afforded by a close
examination of this curious custom. Thus it seems certain that the
present cult which centres round the Sooty Tern is derived from the
worship of the Frigate Bird as practised in far-off Melanesia. The
Frigate Bird, too, seems to have suggested various symbols belonging to
the script. The inference is that there is a Melanesian stratum in the
population; though, as a Polynesian immigration must also be assumed
in order to account for the language, responsibility for the culture
as a whole must somehow be divided between the two parties. All these
difficult questions, we fear, cannot be thrashed out within the limits
of a brief review. Yet perhaps enough has been said to induce every
student of the wider history of man not to miss a golden opportunity of
learning that anthropology and romance are sisters.
SCIENCE
SOME WONDERS OF MATTER. By the RIGHT REVEREND J. E. MERCER. Society
for Promoting Christian Knowledge. 5_s._ net.
CHEMISTRY AND ITS MYSTERIES. By CHARLES R. GIBSON. Seely, Service &
Co. 5_s._ net.
THE REALITIES OF MODERN SCIENCE. By JOHN MILLS. The Macmillan
Company. 10_s._ 6_d._ net.
England has a high tradition in books on popular science. Men like
Faraday and Tyndall did not consider it beneath them to write for
children and laymen, and their books on the elementary facts of science
are models of their kind. Strangely enough--or naturally enough--the
best expositors of the elements of a science are, in general, those
who have themselves contributed to the advances of that science, while
those who are professedly popularisers present the subject not only
less correctly and logically but also less simply and pleasantly. The
books before us confirm this opinion.
Mr. Gibson is a practised hand at writing books for children, the
volume before us being the sixth of a series. He has the merit that
he attempts to bring before the reader the experimental basis of the
science of chemistry and some of its historical aspects, and does
not make a series of dogmatic statements without reference to the
researches on which they rest, as does Bishop Mercer. He describes many
experiments, and gives diagrams to illustrate them. The book covers a
wide field of interesting and, for the most part, elementary chemical
phenomena. The chief fault which we have to find is with the style in
which it is written. We find the imaginary questions put to the writer
by boys and girls distinguished as big, little, facially peculiar, and
so on, irritating, and we very much doubt if his patronising manner
will find favour with most boys, who, we believe, prefer to be treated
as friends who happen not to know. We do not pretend to Mr. Gibson's
knowledge of children, but base our criticism on the fact that Faraday
and most of his successors at the Royal Institution have managed to
interest and instruct their juvenile audiences without this painfully
evident condescension.
Bishop Mercer's method of striving to excite the wonder of his young
readers is based upon a liberal use of notes of exclamation (seldom
less than three on a page, and sometimes three together, for extra
effect) and of the words "wonder" and "wonderful," together with the
constant citation of very large numbers, which fill him with awe--"A
million is bad enough with its six cyphers. But eighteen of them--that
is awful--it is a million million million!" The machinery of nature,
as revealed by modern science, does not impress him as do these rows
of cyphers. If there were any serious attempt to show how they have
been arrived at we should think more highly of the educational value of
the book. As it is, the information is often incorrect on quite simple
matters--water does _not_ occupy "exactly" (or approximately) "the same
space as before" after sugar has been added to it; hydrogen is not
often regarded, in these days when it has been solidified, as a metal.
Often the book is most misleading, as in the description of how the
author saw a man's ribs by X-rays when the "machine" was put the other
side of the man in question. No mention is made of any phosphorescent
screen, and the inexperienced reader is led to infer by the analogy
given that he actually saw through the man. The style is vague and
slipshod in the extreme, a typical sentence being, "The elasticity of
the atoms is so perfect that they always bang about just the same."
We will not criticise the Bishop's theology, or his philosophy, which
insists that "what you really see is not the matter of the tree, but
the ether-quiverings which that matter throws off." We will, however,
take it upon ourselves to suggest that, if he should decide to write
another book on elementary science, he should model himself rather upon
Faraday's "Lectures Upon the Physical Forces" than upon an American
temperance lecture.
Mr. Mills' book on _The Realities of Modern Science_ is in a different
class from the two already noticed, and is intended for adult readers.
It gives a sketch of modern conceptions of the composition of matter,
the electron theory, and the recent experimental work on the magnitude
of molecules and electrons. The early chapters of the book are devoted
to a very brief but excellent treatment of certain aspects of the
history of physical science. A great merit of the book is that it
devotes particular attention to the recent important advances in
molecular physics, which are neither yet included in the text-books nor
easily available in popular form. We may mention especially the work of
Millikan on the electronic charge, that of the Braggs and Moseley on
X-ray spectra, and the photographs taken by C. T. R. Wilson (whose name
is not, however, mentioned) of the paths of α {a} and β {b} particles
and of X-rays. The style is simple and sober, and the author, who hails
from the research laboratories of the Western Electric Company, wisely
leaves the results which he describes to produce their own impression.
The book is, of course, written for more advanced readers than the
others here noticed, but, all the same, an intelligent schoolboy with a
smattering of scientific knowledge would, in all probability, prefer it
to the books written expressly for his benefit. The adult reader is not
likely to find a better presentation of the more striking aspects of
modern physics.
BOOK-PRODUCTION NOTES
By J. H. MASON
Last month, in laying down the chief matters to be considered in
producing a satisfactory book, I began with type. And as if the subject
were in the air, as it were in solution, I find it precipitated in the
form of an important article in the pages of the _Saturday Review_. An
illustrated article, too, with specimens of the chief types referred
to. This is all to the good; if this example is followed by other
literary journals we shall soon form a right opinion in the lay public
on what is a good type. The appearance of our books will be improved,
the offensive advertisement--I am speaking typographically--will lose
its vulgarity, and public lettering in posters, shop names, and street
signs will reflect the improvement.
* * * * *
It is interesting to note that my view on the importance of the work
of the private presses is also confirmed by the article referred to,
and that their work is beginning to influence the typefounders, however
tardily.
* * * * *
It is quite frequently said that it costs no more to print from good
type than from bad. We might go further in the case of certain bad
types and say that their use sends up the cost of printing. For when
"modern" type of the extreme form is used, as De Vinne pointed out,
their hair-lines are soon battered by any inequality in the paper and
print imperfectly, or involve a loss of time in changing the damaged
letters. The attempt to emulate the hair-line of the engraver of plate
lettering is altogether misplaced in relief or letterpress printing.
* * * * *
The Victorian greyness of page led some printers and publishers to
resort to the use of heavier type to give their pages a richer black.
But almost all the heavier types at their disposal had been designed
for display lines in advertisements, and went too far in the thickening
of the line. Even Morris's "Golden" type, excellent as it is in his
use of it, is too heavy to be adopted as the staple type-face of our
printing.
* * * * *
Not till quite recently have type-faces of the right weight for
bookwork been designed and placed on the general market. The work of
the American Goudy, the type cut by Mr. Prince (who cut the punches
for the Kelmscott, the Doves, and other celebrated founts) for Messrs.
Shanks and christened "Dolphin," and some of the modern versions of
Venetian founts are pretty satisfactory and generally available.
* * * * *
With the exception of the Monotype Company, who designed an excellent
modified "old style" type for the "Imprint," the composing machines
that produce our newspapers, journals, and a large proportion of our
books have repeated the stock designs originally made for movable
or hand-set type. It is very desirable that they should not limit
themselves to these, and the instance mentioned above is a most
encouraging one to follow up.
* * * * *
The _Studio_ has just issued a special number dealing with modern
woodcuts and lithographs--British and French. This is the first
attempt to collect representative work of modern artists who practise
wood-cutting. The revival of the woodcut in book illustration demands
special discussion. This will form the subject of next month's Notes à
propos of the _Studio_ Woodcut Number.
A LETTER FROM FRANCE
THE FRENCH POETRY OF TO-DAY
_Paris, December, 1919_
French poetry has not been renewed since the Symbolist Movement by any
new and powerfully original poet. Besides, the Symbolist Movement is
not finished, and it is in its spirit, in its influence, in its metric,
that our poetry still lives to-day. The majority of the best French
poets have passed the age of forty and come from Symbolist circles.
The influence of the four Symbolist masters, of after 1870, Rimbaud,
Laforgue, Mallarmé, and Verlaine, is still visible. A sleeper, like
Wells's character, who fell asleep in 1898 and woke up twenty years
afterwards, would find poetry much as he left it and with the same
essential names.
He would see only that a reign has ended and that another head wears
the crown on the coinage; but this by itself is not in the ordinary way
a capital event. In his time the name of the prince of the poets was
Mallarmé. To-day his name is Paul Fort; and it is very obvious that
there is hardly any resemblance between the two. But our sleeper would
very well remember having known Paul Fort at the Thursdays in the rue
de Rome and in the _Mercure_, and having once read five or six volumes
of _Ballades_, among them what was perhaps the poet's masterpiece, the
astonishing _Roman de Louis XI_. The prince has nothing absolutely
novel to show except his crown.
The sleeper would then ask news of the prince who reigned in his time,
and would learn that in the year when he closed his eyes for twenty
years Mallarmé closed them for ever.
One of the numerous surprises of the war was the sudden return of the
purest and most authentic of the disciples of Mallarmé, M. Paul Valéry,
to the poetry which he had abandoned for twenty years. M. Valéry then
produced that admirable pendant to Mallarmé's _Hérodiade_ which is
called _La Jeune Parque_, and he published in reviews a few poems that
connoisseurs cut out and keep jealously as once they did the sonnets of
Hérédia. The volume, which will doubtless appear in a short time, will
be published by the _Nouvelle Revue Française_, and will be a jewel
of the same kind as the poems of Mallarmé, and will make the second
peak of a double snow-covered Parnassus. Another disciple of Mallarmé,
M. Jean Royère, has published a collection of poems, _Par la lumière
peints_, that the master of Valvins would have loved. One finds in them
a curious contrast between a somewhat cold and Parnassian form and a
beautiful mobility of images which change without ceasing one into the
other.
The sleeper, happy to see that the spirit of Mallarmé is still alive,
would ask news of the two poets who were in 1898 the leaders of the
Symbolist school, M. Henri de Régnier and M. Viélé Griffin. "They
still make an honourable figure," we should answer, "but the twenty
years during which you have been asleep have not added much to what is
essential to their work. In 1898 they had already written all their
most beautiful verses, those that your generation knew by heart, which
made indeed two original visions of the world."
"I remember, also," the sleeper would continue, "two other poets who
were frequently named together and who, if they did not resemble one
another in their inspirations, resembled one another in their life
apart and their solitary work. One of them lived in a little town of
the Pyrenees, and painted there with a naive fervour like that of
Francis of Assisi, and also with the irony of a shrewd observer, the
things and the faces of his quiet life, the animals and the people
of his small countryside. This was Francis Jammes. The other had
made at the age of eighteen or twenty two tragic masks shining with
genius, _Tête d'or_ and _La Ville_. Then he went as consul to China and
elsewhere. We received sometimes from him strange things, printed at
Fou-Tcheou by a widow named Rosario. This was Paul Claudel. Are they
still of this world?" "Of this poetical world and of another world
still: these are to-day our two great Catholic poets. These in the last
twenty years have, all the same, produced new works that you could not
have looked for in 1898. But they also belong to the generation that
you knew, and all of Claudel was already potentially in _Tête d'or_, as
all of Jammes was potentially in the trilogy of the _Poète_."
"Am I myself," the sleeper will ask, "an image of this poetry?
Has it, like me, been asleep for twenty years or repeating itself
indefinitely?" "Not altogether, but it has added nothing essential,
except this little in Claudel and Jammes, to what was germinating
or flourishing in the garden of 1898." "I understand. You must have
been for twenty years one of these happy people who have no history.
France has lived peaceful days. And this united and undisturbed life
has proved favourable to the continuity of the poetic routine?" "Not
at all, O Epimenides. You went to sleep precisely when France was
beginning the Dreyfus affair, which was a famous earthquake, and you
wake at the moment when we are emerging from a world-wide war which has
killed a dozen million men on our planet, and which has given to Europe
the appearance you can see here, on the wall, on this map." "And all
this has not yet produced any new poets? And, in 1919, when my eyes
open again to the light, you send me back where I was in 1898, you give
me again all my old poets and none but them, and the great news is that
Mallarmé's workshop is open again, that the attention of the poetical
world is hung on the new _Hérodiade_, which M. Valéry is exhibiting
there! That is a stupefying thing which is enough to wake up a sleeper,
which might even wake up a dead man!"
"Well, my dear sir, poetry has its own logic. The war has, we know,
been favourable for those who trade in iron; learn also that it has
been an age of gold for those who trade in diamonds. It has pleased us
to hold in our hands the diamonds of former times. But be reassured.
The war has sometimes brought into the poetic light a kind of iron
which is not without beauty. We have had true war poets. The _Hymns_
of Joachim Gasquet make a superb book. He is certainly not attached to
the Symbolist Movement. Gasquet is a southerner, a classic, a man with
sonorous lungs, with an unquenchable abundance of oratory. The book of
this poet from Aix seems as though it were written by a Mirabeau of the
trenches."
"But in 1898 I knew Gasquet pretty well, I read his verses. They
resembled most closely those of Emmanuel Signoret, and they were very
beautiful. Can you only quote to me these ghosts of my own time? Are
there, then, no young men?"
"Here are the poems of Henri Ghéon, delicate in their harmony, pure in
their emotion, _Foi en la France_."
"I remember Ghéon very well."
"The devil! I forgot that he also was of the group of 1898. All the
same, here are some that will be new to you. Here is _Europe_, by Jules
Romains, in which we find again the powerful and vigorous poet of the
_Vie Unanime_.
"Here is a charming little book which Louis de Gonzague-Frick wrote
in pencil on his military postcards: it is called _Sous le Bélier de
Mars_. In that book we find again the succulence and verve of Laurent
Tailhade. And you will find them again, in a different form, in Fernand
Fleuret's _Falourdin_. It is a pity that Georges Duhamel has written
nothing during the war except some admirable books of prose; but that
will not prevent me reminding you of his earlier, beautiful poems in
_Compagnons_. You would also like Charles Vildrac's _Livre d'Amour_.
You should certainly also read the poems, sometimes rather awkward
but very original and robust, that Jules Supervieille wrote in South
America. And as dessert I will keep for you that exquisite confection
_L'Appartement des Jeunes Filles_, by Roger Allard. Together these make
a charming bouquet, but I grant you it is a small one."
Here I end this dialogue, designed to show French poetry stationary in
the positions of twenty years ago. We may end by saying that in thus
remaining alive and healthy, in thriving for a longer period than the
Parnassian movement, French symbolism has made a place for itself which
will deserve the respect of posterity. The poetic form which will take
its place is not yet in sight. But that form will surely appear when
the generation of our sleeper has gone down, to the last man, into
slumber irrevocable.
ALBERT THIBAUDET
LEARNED SOCIETIES, ETC.
THE SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES
The Near East has been opened up by the war, and reports are coming in.
The Augustinian Priory of the Holy Sepulchre, a complex of buildings,
including the Calvary, St. Helen's Chapel, and the Prison of Christ,
has been described by Mr. A. W. Clapham, who, being on military duty
in Jerusalem, recently surveyed the ruins, and succeeded in making
an almost complete plan of the Latin monastery, founded in 1114.
Architectural features, both Western and Byzantine, were noticed, and
the hope expressed that cleaning and repair would soon be undertaken
now that the Holy Places are under British protection. In Babylonia
Mr. H. R. Hall has been excavating for the British Museum at Eridu and
Ur of the Chaldees. Work on the former site was begun by Mr. Campbell
Thompson last year, and buildings of the First Dynasty at Ur have been
discovered, dating about 2400 B.C. Still earlier finds of Sumerian
origin, dating from pre-Semitic times, have come to light at Tell
el-Obeid near Ur, including heads of lions and panthers in copper, on
a bitumen foundation, with inlaid tongues, eyes, and teeth of coloured
stone and shell; and a lion-headed eagle in copper relief, flanked by
stags, the group being 8 feet long and 4 feet high. Nearer home Mr.
Reginald Smith has brought forward evidence to prove that flint daggers
belong to the early Bronze Age in Britain, but to the last phase of
the Stone Age in Scandinavia. The earlier daggers point to connection
between the two areas about 2000 B.C.
THE SOCIETY OF GENEALOGISTS OF LONDON
Since Her Majesty the Queen graciously consented to become a Patron
membership has considerably increased, and now stands at 377. During
the winter papers have been read as follows: By Mr. Watson-Taylor on
"Joan of Arc, Her Relatives and Descendants"; by Mr. Austen-Leigh on
"Editing a School Register," Eton to wit; by Dr. G. C. Peachey on
"Bookplates"; and by Mr. George Sherwood on "Pedigrees and Next-of-Kin
Cases," all of which were well attended, and the papers recommended
for publication. A paper is promised by the Rev. T. C. Dale on "Durham
Records." The last _Report_ of the Royal Commission on Public Records
has been much discussed, and measures suggested for getting its
recommendations put into practice. Recognition has been accorded by
the British Museum authorities, with the result that the genealogical
papers of the late R. W. Twigge, F.S.A., have been added, with the
consent of Mrs. Twigge, to the Society's collection.
The Society's aim is simply to facilitate research: by making records
more accessible, by forming a collection of printed books, documents,
and MSS., and by making a great index on the card-index system to the
less-known records of biographical fact. Application should be made for
the latest Annual Report to the Secretary, at the Society's Rooms, 5
Bloomsbury Square, W.C.1.
THE VASARI SOCIETY
The Committee of the Vasari Society have decided to resume the
publication of their annual Portfolio in 1920 if enough subscribers
are forthcoming. The Society's aim is to reproduce in facsimile fine
drawings by the Old Masters from both public and private collections.
While attempting in the first place to publish less-known drawings
from private collections, it will not forget that the essential aim
is to reproduce masterly drawings rather than secondary pieces of
historical interest, and on that account will draw, as in the past, to
a considerable degree on the better-known works in public collections.
In the first ten years of the Society's work an annual Portfolio
was published with an average of thirty reproductions, covering the
fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries. The new series may be somewhat
broader in scope in admitting the nineteenth century, and allowing "Old
Masters" to include any deceased master of acknowledged excellence in
draughtsmanship. Moreover, it is desired to give ampler representation
to draughtsmen of the British School than has been done in the past.
To continue the annual publication at the same subscription of one
guinea, it has been decided to reduce the size of the Portfolio from 18
by 15 to 16 by 11½ inches, and it is thought that this will be welcomed
by members who have little space for the larger folios. It will not
imply reduction in size of the reproductions, which will continue to
be as far as possible facsimile in size and colour, and every effort
will be made to keep up the standard of quality. Intending subscribers
should communicate with the Hon. Secretary, Mr. A. M. Hind, at the
British Museum, London, W.C.1. Subscriptions for 1920 will not be due
until May 1st, and those who have intimated their willingness to become
members will be informed before that date if the number of subscribers
promised does not justify the committee in issuing the publication.
THE BIBLIOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY
The Annual Report of the Bibliographical Society announces that the
Society's _Transactions_ will henceforth be published in quarterly
parts, and that with a view to lessening the cost it is proposed
to allow copies to be purchased by non-members and to accept
advertisements. It is hoped also that _The Library_, founded by Sir
John MacAlister in 1888 and edited during recent years by Mr. A. W.
Pollard, the Keeper of Printed Books at the British Museum, and the
Honorary Secretary of the Bibliographical Society, may be brought into
the scheme, and that the quarterly numbers may be gradually worked up
into a full bibliographical magazine.