Bevieiu of Eeviews, l/i/13. 



LEADING ARTICLES. 



i8s 



THE OPIUM THRALL. 



Mr. Letchtield Woods has imagina- 

 tion, and this is used to some purpose 

 in his pen-picture m tlie British Re- 

 view. 



Mr. Woods is a master of colour, and 

 gives, as from experience, the impres- 

 sion of his dreams while under the m-. 

 fl-uence of opium : — 



" I had been lying upon the bed some 

 little time, musing upon these things, 

 until a semi-unconsciousness began to 

 creep upon me, which deepened and 

 darkened until 1 passed from the realms 

 of daylight through the gateways of 

 dreams. 



" Millions of white, tiny lights ; sweet 

 and ethereal music ; thousands of beau- 

 tiful women floating in the mazes of 

 rhythmic dance, their jewels gleaming 

 in the light which caressingly bathed 

 their forms. In and out they moved 

 and floated, the mute music of their 

 motion harmonising perfectly with the 

 music of the sfiheres which attuned it 

 to rhythmic grace. They danced in a 

 forest glade aglow with every tint of 

 autumnal beauty, and carpeted by red 

 rustling leaves — beautifully tinted 



mementoes of the bygone summer. 

 Every variety of fern in every stage of 

 exquisitely tinted decay trembled m the 

 gentle breeze, gathering fresh beauty 

 from the all-irradiating light. Round 

 and round outside the ring of dancers 

 gyrated a host of fairies, their fragile 

 forms clad in garments of lightest 



gossamer. 



" I had an indescribable sense of in- 

 dependence of material restriction as I 

 gazed upon this wonderful scene ; 1 

 seemed to float on a sea of bliss up- 

 buoyed b)' thousands of invisible hands. 

 A pleasure so exquisite as to be almost 

 pain thrilled me, and I came near to 

 swooning from excess of bliss. 



" One of the most beautiful of the 

 dancers disengaged herself from the 

 rest and came slowly towards me, her 

 face aflush with the light of happiness. 

 I leaned eagerly forward ! our lips met, 

 and ah, horror ! . . ." 



We acquit Mr. Woods from posing as 

 a De Quincey, and would prefer to ap- 

 preciate his art in more cheerful chan- 

 nels. 



WHAT WOMEN NOVELISTS READ. 



From a symposium in the Book 

 Monthly we learn something of the 

 favourite reading of our women nove- 

 lists. 



Miss Beatrice Harraden, for instance, 

 reads mostly biography nowadays, 

 though she also manages to find time 

 for Sudermann, Anatole France, 

 Thomas Hardy, Meredith, Shelley and 

 others. For the moment, however, she 

 is finding active life of more interest 

 than books, and probably other women 

 are also learning more by taking an 

 active part in life than by contemplat- 

 ing it. For pure interest and living 

 excitement Miss M. P. Willcocks puts 

 mental science far above novels. 01 

 the novelists, she never tires of Fielding 

 and Richardson. Thackeray's sentiment 

 revolts her, and his attitude towards 

 women makes it impossible for a short- 

 tempered person, she says. Among the 

 moderns, she flnds John Galsworthy 



and May Sinclair special jo}-s. Madame 

 Sarah Grand likes a long book, and 

 delights in a long novel. The critic 

 acclaim a scrap of a book, she szy^ ; 

 the\' keep the giants of literature to- 

 da\' in cages, but we must have them 

 out and give them room to stretch their 

 limbs. Miss Betham-Edwards has ever 

 been a ])arsimonious novel-reader. It 

 is with life itself that novelists are 

 concerned. They must not shut them- 

 selves up with their books, but run 

 about the world and see the best and 

 the worst of human nature, she ex- 

 plains. The great books of the world, 

 such as the Bible, Shakespeare, Milton, 

 Plato, Cervantes, Goethe, etc., she adds, 

 are as necessary to the mind as bread 

 to the body. !NIiss Mary L. Tendered 

 sa\-s that as a rule she prefers American 

 novelists to English ones, because they 

 are more natural, antl write of what 

 they see aiul know. 



