Evening star., 1926-03-21
IDA GILBERT MYERS.

.Nichol Smith. Oxford University.
Illustrated. New York: The Mac
milan Company
THESE two volumes OF letters
will be of great interest TO
many American students at
Oxford who, only u few years
ago, had literature in that
under Sir Walter Raleigh.
The spirited and inspiring personality
Of the man will, to these students,
expand under this reading to cover
also the traveller, the professor OF Eng
lish literature at the Mohammedan
College Of Aligarh in India, the keenly
alive wayfarer from kashmir to Cey-
Ion. the loiterer in Italy searching FOR
health, the informing and engaging
letter writer from all of these points,
from all of these various occupations
and preoccupationS.
Intimate letters. these. to members
of his own family--his mother and
sisters and wife--and to intimate
friends Such intimacy and freedom
Of intercourse set the key of this cor
There Is not stilted
line in it. There is never a ponderous
attitude suggested, nor pretentious
sentence set down. There is plenty
of enthusiasm. however. Indeed.
frank enthusiasm on all manner OF
themes marks the great bulk or THESE
letters. Here is man who. clearly,
is in love with life-with the people
and places where his lot Is from time
to time cast, with the conditions of
the various countries of his pursuit
their conditions Of culture and their
general condition of progress as well.
A man greatly in love with his own
land and it's rich literature in which
he has stepped his individual life ana
from which he has gained his own par
ticular outlook upon all culture.
robust man Of strong convictions,
which he gives out now and then in a
vigor as remote from the teachers OF
our own acquaintance Is life is unlike
coma. And this Zest of life, this gusto
of approach, this fearlessness OF
together. quite apart from
the learning and world sophistication
of the man, are what make these let
ters the best Of contacts for the gen
orally conventional and circumscribed
tribe of teachers. Hardly anything
conceivable could be better for these
than Sir Walter Raleigh's robust hold
upon life in all of its outstanding
aspects.
COLIN II. BY z. r. Benson. author
of David BlaiZe." etc. New York
George II. Doran Co.
UCOLIN II" is the modern version
~ of devil possession. In olden
times. to be in partnership with Satan
carried with it the unmistakable sign
of this compact-some mark OF fea-
ture. some wickedness of deed, some
evil threat in every association. But
times have moved along since then
Nowadays a man may be the devil
own self and yet look and act exactiy
like his fellow men. So 1t was WIN
Colin II, whose ancestor. the first
Colin, had passed on to him clear
partnership with the prince OF DARK
ness.
Such is the motive Of Mfr. Benson's
latest novel. With this motive the
author develops character which,
under an exceptionally pleasing ex-
terror, is clear instrument OF de-
struction vitafized and directed by its
own human ingenuity. There's not
a thread Of melodrama here. although
the theme itself clearly invites such
an effect. Instead. along the daily
run of English country life Colin III
finds innumerable ways OF serving his
master. Handsome. gay. agreeable OF
theless, in a thousand laughing deeds
repudiates friendship, love. filial feel
ing and plain duty An artful man
in the ways Of unkindness. a subtle
man in the thrusts of hatred. All the
time. however, the modern man OF
standing and influence.
1t is hard to see just how MIR. Ben.
son created this effect, where he with
held. where he let go, to turn out this
character so at war with itself. Yet
a character in whom one has q shred
of ultimate faith. as his remarkable
wife also had. Then Dennis. the son,
came. And here you will hardly be
able to hold yourself for the indigna-
ton that the man arouses in you
over his brutality smooth and
laughing brutality--toward Dennis.
And the boy. such trump, too, ador-
ing this bedeviled man. Not a pleas
ant story. One reads 1t sitting on
the edge Of his chair, ready to pounce
upon the fellow himself. And so en-.
crossed does one become, so personally
enlisted in the struggle that. when
the change does come, as 1t does
finally, one hates the dramatic sus-
pension of the end Of the matter.
Great story. nevertheless. despite ones
sense of dissatisfaction at the close
Of 1t.
BINDON PARvA. BY George A.
Birmingham. author of Found
Money" etc. Indianapolis: The
Bobbs-Merrill Co.
YOU'VE thought about it yourself
l. many a time. You've wondered
IL the walls and floors and rooms Of
old houses have not taken on the
feelings Of those living in them gen.
Grafton after generation. II these
have not absorbed many a drama set
there: If these have not recorded the
joys and sorrows. the hopes and fears
and failures and trtumphs OF many an
individual life spent in this old house
or that one. 1t is unbelievable that
these walls of wood or even Of stone
could remain impervious to the
urgencies of the spirit OF man.
Sometimes it comes to one. sitting
quiet In the dusk, very open to even
the faintest Of influences, that these
absorbed fragments of human life
may emerge again from the sur
rounding walls; that they may emerge
and meet and coalesce and float be-
fore our eyes. faint re-embodiments
Of men and women who used to be
even as we are now. Romancers and
poets and philosophers have time and
again played with this idea as fact
or fancy or supposition. An endless
fascination in it: a very humanizing
influence in it, too.
Such Is the motive Of this group Of
short stories. Their author declares
them to be pure invention. made Of
whole cloth. Neither legend nor folk
lore. Whether illusion or delusion.
they are a clear fascination. Two
ancient churches down in Dorsetshire
are responsible for these inventions: !: