The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1882-10-22
LITERATURE.

late professor OF literature ana logic 10
the government OF India; special war
correspondent of the London Daily
Telegraph in Afghanistan and Zulu
land. Author OF In My Indian Gar
den, +" "Under the Punkah," "Nosh's
Ark" etc. With preface by Edwin
Arnold, author Of ''The Light Of
Asis.n Boston: Roberts Brothers,
Salt Lake: James Dryer. Price. $3.50
"Under the SUM- did not need a
preface by Edwin Arnold to make
it attract attention, for it is the
work Of one of the few thoroughly
original writers Of the times, and
whose style is as entertaining as it
is original. Of course the preface
at once puts the book into favor, for
the readers of two continents
have learned to look upon
the author of "The Light of Asia"
as among the most gifted and &C
complished literary men of the age;
and when he so heartily commends
the production of a brother author
as he has done in this instance, it at
once gives the public confidence in
the work. Owing to our peculiar
literary conditions and the lack Of
an international copyright, Mr..
Robinson is very little known ia
America as an author, though he
has brought out several books, the
best things in which have been Sc
lected by himself for i'Under the
Sun" The result of this selection
is a volume of really great merit,
and one of which the reader will
not tire. 1t is hard to say what it is
about Mr.. Robinson's writings
that makes them SO delightful,
but delightful they are in every
way. He has an original and
strangely peculiar faculty of writ
ing lovingly of animals, and birds,
and trees and plants, and while his
skill as a naturalist and semi
scientist is in no manner made
prominent, he familiarizes us with
nature and makes us feel, rather
than tells us in so many words, that
man and all the lesser creatures of
nature and natures God are so
closely related that we ought to be
Intimate, if not friendly, with
everybody and everything. Nothing
escapes the observation of the author
whether it be the rufiing of hens
feathers, the dog gnawing a bone,
the peculiar crook Of q tree, or a
thousand and one things that
every body knows all about but never
thought worthy Of remark, much
less to write of; and the best of it is
Mr.. Robinson mentions all these
matters and things in such a charm
ing way as to please, interest and
instruct. The author loves all OF
Gods creatures, and if he does not
understand their modes of thought
he nrows all about their actions
and what is of greater moment tC
Ibis readers, he tells what he knows
in a pleasant manner, instead of the
rigid, forbidding and lesson-like
Istyle of the schoolmaster or the
professor. His command of Ian
Iguage is wonderful. never getting
the wrong word and always finding
the expression significant of the
Thing talked about. A sample is
lgiven in the Indian Garden"
In green colonnade stand the mys
ferrous, broad -lesved plantsins with their
strange spikes of fruit; then the dark
mango. Ia grove together the Gpare-
leaved peepul, that sacred yet PREACHER
GUS trea that drags down The humble
lshrine which it was placed to sanetify;
the shapely tamarind with its clouds OF
foliage: the graceful neem; the pstuiouc
teak With its great leathern leaves, and
the BAN boos the tree-cst loves. Below
them grand wealth of roaes, the lsven.
lder- blossomed durantas, the csctua
: groteeque in growth, the poyntzsttia witt
its stars Of scarlet the spiky sioes, the
sick-scented jessamine, aud the quain
coral trees, while over a 4 shoots up ths
palm. The ciiron, lime, and oraL g;
trees, all beautiful alike when they loat
the cir with the perfume of their wsxer
flowers, or when they are shoWerinl
their sweet petals about them, or when
heayy-fruited, they trail their burdene
branches to rest their yellow treasures o.
the ground.
He writes SO deliciously of hen
and al the feathered tribe tn
crows, the parrots, the mynas, ETC.
and talks of the ants and insects al
in his inimitable way. Of famil
lar chap to US all he says:
Ridiculous round beetles tumble O
their backs and scramble and slide abeu
the dinner table till they get a purchas
on the cruet stand, up which they CHM
in deliberate and solemn manner. anC
having reached the top, 60 Forthwith
hesdlong into the mustard. Sometime
they get out sgsin unlerceived, but q
irregular track Of mustard on the clotf
with drop wherever the beetle stuppe
to take breath, leads to the discovery {
the Wsnderer sitting among the salad an
pretending to be q caper.
And now read briefly how niue
he can make of something nobod
ever dreamed of writing chapte
Iabout:
There is no malice in the motion of
isquirrel's tail. It does not resem bic Il
locked up gesture OF the robins or II
wreu's. II doesn't swing like the cat
or dart like the scorpions. It is new
offensiVely straight on end like q COW
on windy day, nor blinking like
psriah deg. It has none Of the odio
mobility Of the MONKEYS, nor the thr
inch arrogance of the goats. Neither
there in il the pendnlous monotony
the wsgtail's nor the spssmodie wigeIe
the sucking lambs Yet it lie q speakir
feature. That fluffy perkiness is an i
dex OF the squirrels mird. With an u