Malplaquet Part 5

The cry for something new in literature, the indefinable, the unexpected, has been answered. Prince Azreel comes to claim his place, not as one who has sounded the depths and shoals of the current modes of the day, but as one entirely careless of these things, discoursing freely of life, easily throughout its whole purport and scope.

The Devil comes into the action, but he also is new--rather the Spirit of the World, "man's elder brother." His methods are those neither of _Faust_ nor of _Paradise Regained_. His temptations are suasive, his lures less material.

In the search for the Ideal of statesmans.h.i.+p Azreel and the Devil come to our own Parliament, Azreel filled with warm enthusiasm, high conceptions.

They see, they learn; they discover "types," and discuss them. We find the Devil at length defending the Commons, supplying the corrective to Azreel's strange disillusions. This part will not be the least piquant.

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POEMS

BY CHARLES GRANVILLE

_F'cap 4to. 5s. net._

_REAL POETIC TALENT_

The present volume is composed of a selection from the previous poetical works of the Author, who is also well known as a writer of prose. The distinctive feature of the poems in this collection--the feature, indeed, that marks off and differentiates the work of this poet from the ma.s.s of verse produced to-day--is their spiritual insight. Mr Granville is concerned with the soul of man, with the eternal rather than the transitory, and his perception, which is that of the seer, invests his language with that quality of ecstasy that const.i.tutes the indisputable claim of poetry to rank in the forefront of literature.

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THE HUMOUR OF THE UNDERMAN

And Other Essays

BY FRANCIS GRIERSON

_F'cap 8vo. 3s. 6d. net_

_CHARACTERISTICALLY INCISIVE_

This volume contains the latest work of the greatest Essayist of our time.

Maurice Maeterlinck has said of the Author, "He has, in his best moments, that most rare gift of casting certain shafts of light, at once simple and decisive, upon questions the most difficult, obscure, and unlooked for in Art, Morals, and Psychology ... essays among the most subtle and substantial that I know."

This opinion has been endorsed by every critic of note in the British Isles and in the United States of America. Indeed, in the latter country a veritable Grierson cult has sprung into existence.

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LA VIE ET LES HOMMES

BY FRANCIS GRIERSON

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_PENSeES PIQUANTES, INDePENDANTES_

SULLY PRUDHOMME (de l'Academie Francaise):--"J'ai trouve ces meditations pleines d'apercus profonds et sagaces. J'ai ete frappe de l'originalite puissante de la pensee de l'auteur."

JULES CLARETIE (de l'Academie Francaise):--"J'ai ete charme par les idees originales et justes."

L'Abbe JOSEPH ROUX:--"Il y a la des vues originales, des appreciations neuves et frappantes."

FReDeRIC MISTRAL:--"Ces pensees m'ont paru neuves et piquantes, et independantes de cette ambiance de prejuges a laquelle il est si difficile d'echapper."

Le Pere P. V. DELAPORTE, S.J. (Redacteur des Etudes Religieuses):--"J'ai admire dans ces pages delicates l'artiste, le penseur et l'ecrivain, et j'ai ete singulierement touche de la facon dont vous appreciez le genie francais. Vous avez su le comprendre et vous avez dit votre pensee franchement, je pouvais ajouter _francais.e.m.e.nt_."

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THE ROLL OF THE SEASONS

Nature Essays

BY G. G. DESMOND

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_A NATURE BOOK FOR TOWN FOLK_

This book for all Nature-lovers appeals perhaps most strongly to those in cities pent, for whom a word in season can call up visions of the open moor, the forest, the meadow stream, the flowered lane, or the wild sea-sh.o.r.e. The extreme penalty for reading one of these spring, summer, autumn, or winter chapters is to be driven from one's chair into the nearest field, there to forget town worries among the trees. The author does not spare us for fog, rain, frost, or snow. Sometimes he makes us get up by moonlight and watch the dawn come "cold as cold sea-sh.e.l.ls" to the fluting of blackbirds, or he takes us through the woods by night and shows us invisible things by their sounds and scents. The spirit, even if the body cannot go with it, comes back refreshed by these excursions to the country.

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THE MASTERY OF LIFE

BY G. T. WRENCH, M.D. LOND.

_Demy 8vo. 15s. net_

_OLD VALUES RE-VALUED_

This book is a review of the history of civilisation with the object of discovering where and under what conditions man has shown the most positive att.i.tude towards life. The review has been based not so much upon scholars.h.i.+p as upon the direct evidence of the products and monuments of the different peoples of history, and the author has consequently travelled widely in order to collect his material. The author shows how the patriarchal system and values have always been the foundation of peoples, who have been distinguished for their joy in and power over life, and have expressed their mastery in works of art, which have been their peculiar glory and the object of admiration and wonder of other peoples.

In contrast to them has been the briefer history of civilisation in Europe, in which the paternal and filial values of interdependence have always been rivalled by the ideal of independence from one's fellow-man.

The consequences of this ideal of personal liberty in the destruction of the art of life are forcibly delineated in the last chapters.

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