482 



The Review of Reviews. 



MISS BRADDON AS CENSOR OF FICTION. 



In the Pall Mall Magazine for November Mr. 

 Clive Hollaiul gives an account of his cliat with Miss 

 Braddon at home. Miss Braddon is known in 

 private hfe as Mrs. John Maxwell, and lives now m 

 I,ichfield House, Richmond on Thames, havmg 

 recently given up her old home in the New Forest. 

 She has been writing novels, it appears, for more than 

 fifty years, and at the present moment no fewer than 

 seventy-two of her novels are before the public. She 

 has also written innumerable essays and articles. She 

 was an occasional contributor to Punch and to the 

 World. She has published a volume of poems 

 entitled " Garibaldi," and has also written plays. She 

 says that the greatest merit a writer of fiction could 

 have was the ability to tell a good story in an interest- 

 ing way. She lives with her son and his wife, and is 

 very fond of her grandchildren. It was interesting to 

 know how sternly she reprobates many of the modern 

 pornographic novels : — 



"That many of ihe books of which I hear— I seldom read 

 any of ihem myself," she said m parenthesis— "should be 

 published at all is a scandal ; that they should be written by 

 women is even worse— it is a disgrace. The only excuse I can 

 myself find for a really ' unpleasant ' episode or plot in a book 

 is that it should be the means, as is undoubtedly the case in 

 many of Zola's books, of leaching a salutary lesson. That it 

 ' should be introduced merely for the purpose of tickling the 

 depraved palate of a certain class of reader, and of selling what 

 may be in other ways a worthless book, is both debasing to our 

 art and to the writers who thus pander to the lower side ol 

 human nature. I do not quite see how there could be a public 

 censorship of novels, and I believe on the whole in the sound 

 fin.il judgment of the great reading public. A bad book 

 seldom lives ; a really good book seldom dies." 



Miss Braddon says that she has no specific time 

 for her literary work, but her favourite hour for story- 

 spinning is the quiet hour between afternoon tea and 

 evening dinner. 



THE RELIGION OF WILLIAM JAMES. 



This is the subject of an interesting paper in the 

 Bibbert Journal ioY October by Mr. J. B. Pratt. He 

 says that James gave up the beauty and peace of 

 Monism because he felt it inconsistent with the actual 

 universe. The basis of his religious philosophy was 

 h\s pluralism. He considered it the view most in 

 harmony with the facts of experience. The God of 

 such a pluralist universe is, as Jaines used repeatedly 

 to call Him, "a God down in the dirt." The writer 

 prepared a questionnaire, which James kindly 

 answered. To the question, " Do you believe in 

 personal immortality; if so, why?" he answered, 

 " Never keenly ; but more strongly as 1 grow older, 

 ■ because I am just getting fit to live." He also 



said : — 



"I believe in God, not because I have experienced IIis 

 presence, but because I need it so that it 'must' be true. The 

 whole line of testimony on this point [the existence of such an 

 experience] is so strong that 1 am unable to pooh-pooh it away. 

 No doubt there is a germ in me of something similar that makes 

 admiring response." This " something " in him which at least 

 corresponded lo the mystic's consciousness of God he once 

 described to me in another fashion. "It is," he said, 'very 



vague and impossible to describe or put into words. In this it 

 is somewhat like another experience that I have constantly— a 

 tune that is always singing in the back of my mind but which [ I 

 can never identify nor "whistle nor get rid of. Something like 

 that is my feeling for God, or a Ueyond. Especially at limes 

 of moral crisis it comes lo me, as the sense of an unknown 

 something backing me uy. It is most indefinite, to be sure, 

 and rather faint. And yet I know that if it should cease there 

 would be a great hush, a groat void in my life." 



" My personal position is simple. I have no living sense of 

 commerce with a God. I envy those who have, for I know 

 that the addition of such a sense would help me greatly. The 

 Divine, for my active life, is limited to impersonal and abstract 

 concepts which, as ideals, interest and determine me, but do 

 so but faintly in comparison with what a feeling ol Gcd might 

 effect if I had one. This, to be sure, is largely a matter of 

 intensity; but a shade of intensity may make one's whole centre 

 of moral energy shift." 



LAVENDER-GROWING IN ENGLAND. 



Among the topics de.ilt with in the latest Journal 

 of the Board of Agriculture is lavender-growing in 

 England. It may not be generally known that th 

 principal lavender plantations are to be found in th il 

 neighbourhood of Mitcham, Carshalton, and Bei ,'| 

 dington, in Surrey, and at Hitchin and Canterbury. 

 At each of these places the industry has been carried 

 on for many years, and a local reputation for their 

 lavender production has been established, which is no 

 doubt a valuable asset. Recently its cultivation has 

 been extended to Dorsetshire, where a somewhat 

 large area at Broadstone has been devoted to it in 

 conjunction with some other similar plants. 



SOIL AND CLIMATE. 



The lavender plant, we are informed, is probably 

 more dependent on climate than soil. It is sttccess- 

 fuUy grown at Hitchin on a light gravelly sub-soil. 

 Lavender is indigenous on the hills bordering on the 

 Mediterranean, and conditions which closely repro 

 duce those of its native habitat are necessary for its 

 successful cultivation. As regards soil, good natural 

 drainage, a light, fairly rich soil, and a warm position 

 are essential, while a mild winter, with a low rainfall,; 

 followed by a warm, dry summer, favours a good 

 crop and, what is equally important, a high-quality 

 oil. 



HARVESTING. 



The time of harvesting the lavender is usu \lly earlv 

 in August. A writer on the subject — Mr. F. Ransonl 

 — estimates the aver.ige yield of oil at i2lb. per acre 

 if the whole area under cultivation, including thai 

 devoted to cuttings and to the first year's growth, is 

 taken into consideration. But from 151b. up to as 

 much as 3olb. of oil may be obtained in a favourable 

 season when the plants are in their prime. The value 

 of the oil varies according to quality, demand, and 

 other seasonable conditions. From loos. per pound 

 thirty years ago it fell to from 20s. to 30s. per pound 

 but during the present year the price has risen, am 

 40s. per pound is given as the current wholesaK. 

 price. Apart from growing for oil, there is a limited' 

 sale for the dried flowers of the lavender at Covei) 

 Garden. , 



