Evening star., 1927-11-26
By the BooklOper

uudIliISS InlS NY duAAiE' Ai'.'
does not apply to notions of art and
religion, because in these fields taste
and emotion are our chief guides. But
popular notions about matters of fact
and natural law, il they have never
been tested and corrected by science,
are always wrong. They almost have
to be wrong It is well-nigh a psyche
logical necessity that they should be
wrong. This Is because people in gem
eral observe only the exceptions to the
rule and they make guess as to the
cause of the exception" This Is an
other way of saying that minority
frequently makes more noise than a
majority. Some examples Of popular
beliefs which are, according to Mr..
Wiggam, altogether wrong are that
opposites tend to marry each other,
that badness is due to tight hats. that
handling t0ads causes warts, that bull
lies are always towards, that mySteri-
GUS dangers lurk in night air (Which
is likely to be purer than day air..
that there are equinOctial storms that
educating parents makes them pro-
duce more intelligent children, that
prenatal impressions of mothers may
cause birthmarks in children that
mothers may produce musical ability
in children by singing and playing
musical instruments in the months
preceding the birth of the children,
that persons Of unusually brilliant
minds are more likely than stupid per-
sons to become insane, that most
geniuses are immoral, that drowning
people have water on their lungs, that
one cannot reason with a woman.
X X x
Concerning one of these popular
misconceptions, the immortality of
geniuses, Mr.. Wiggam takes some
pains to furnish evidence to the con-
trary. "A little examination easily
proves that ordinary folks run off
with each others wives and husbands
and do all sorts of stupid immoral
things more often than do people of
genius. Men and women of ability,
talent and genius are the most moral
and virtuOus persons in the world
The Ten Commandments were
not written by moron. F.. A.
Woods told me just the other day that
he had been searching throughout all
history for 25 immoral, dssolute men
of science of first rank and failed to
find them" An attempt to name
number of immoral geniuses offhand
might easily produce the names of
Poe, Burns, Oscar Wilde, Byron, Aaron
Burr, Shelley, Lord Nelson, Peter the
Great, Catherine the Great, Louis XIV
and some Others. But test yourself
and see how many famous men and
women you can recall without cy-
clopedia whose noble lives and char
acters gleam from every page of hui
man history. Without the slightest
effort [ think of Moses, Isaiah, Shake
speare. Lincoln, Washington, Hamil-
ton, Jefferson, John Randolph, John
Marshall. Roosevelt, Florence Night
ingale, Joan of Arc, Charlotte Cush-
man. Mary Lyon, Harriet Beecher
Stowe. Sarah Siddons, Plato, Aristotle,
Socrates, Pericles. Cicero. Seneca,
Martin Luther, Thomas More, Sir
Walter Scott, Dickens, Thackeray,
George Eliot, Faraday, Pasteur, Helm
holts, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt,
Edward MacDowell, Caesar Franck,
John Milton, Dante. William the
Silent, Gustavus Adolphus. Alexander
II of Russia, Hegel, Spinoza, Herbert
Spencer, Huxley, John Tyndall,
Charles Darwin, Alexander Graham
Bell, Robert Fulton, Louis Agassiz."
X X X
TWO recent romances of China
which, whatever their deficiencies of
style and Characterization, never lag
in plot are Louise Jordan Minis "In
a Yun-Nan Courtyard" and Lewis
Stanton Palen's 1.-The Red Dragon"
The scene of Mrs. Minis book shifts
often. but the most interesting parts
Of the setting are Yun-Nan and vari-
Gus places along the Yangtze River.
So Wing, man of many occupations,
Including music, banditry and trad.
ing, is the main character. Mr..
Palen's plot concerns the activities
of certain Chinese secret societies as
they affect a young diplomat attached
to the American consulate at Caption.
A charming Russian woman who is in.
volved with the secret societies plays
her part in the adventure of the young
American.
Basil King has joined Conan Doyle
in the introduction of spiritualistic
speculation into the field of fiction,
with his volume of stories 1.-THE
Spreading Dawn" Each story tells
of spirit return. In Going West"
soldier killed in the World War
comes back and makes his presence
felt in his family. In THE Ghosts
Story" a murdered man returns to
the scenes of his life. "Heaven' and
"Abraham's Bosom" show the immor-
tai state of two people who have led
lives of goodness and faith. Perhaps
the best is the title story, of an old
woman who passes to the spirit life
SO easily that she is unconscious of
the transition and continues about
her home, watching those she has left
in the flesh.
Following Lord Byron and Emma.
Lady Hamilton, Napoleon has been
made the subject of a novel by E.
oS,,-iy rrI,~ ;1. T..
Mrs. l.. Adams Beck of Victoria,
British Columbia, author also of
stories of the Orient. "The Thunderer'
tells the romance of Napoleon and
Josephine. Napoleon the military hero
and politician becomes secondary. AS
lover he does not appear heroic. |
From the time when he commands
Josephine, mistress of the Director
Barras. to marry him until he divorces
her. their life together is turbulent
She is frivolous, he is heavy and
severe; she is eXtravagant, he is
thrifty. That extravaganza of hers is
cause Of trouble with her "in-laWs," "
the numerous Bonaparte family. They
are continually starting quarrelS with
the naturally peace-loving Josephine, |
subjecting her to petty annoyances. |
and intriguing against her whenever |
they can gain the hearing of Napoleon. |
1hey are TO q certain extent RESPONSE |
BILE for his divorcing her. The novel |
is far indeed from being a great one. |
1t is merely ratively served dish |
Of scandal, not as well prepared as |
GLORIOUS Apollo"
X X X
The last didactic novel of H. G. |
Wells. Meanwhile" rather tiresome |
as a story, is piece of pamphleteer-
ing on the discouraSing tendencies of |
the period between the World War and |
the emergence of England and the |
world into the light to pursue the way |
of peace and progress. In nearly all |
of Mr.. Wells novels one character is |