DISCOVERY 



107 



It is reasonable, in summing up, and taking all these 

 new tendencies into account, to assume that the pre- 

 sent acti\-ity in short-stor\^ writing is not simply of 

 experiment, but of discovery. No longer is it neces- 

 sary to abide by the dogmas of twenty years ago, nor 

 by the dogmas of the subsequent revolt. New possi- 

 bilities are being realised, and just as in our own time 

 we have witnessed a definite change in the charac- 

 teristics of the novel, so for the immediate future is 

 promised a new tj'pe of short stor}-, a blend of all 

 the better qualities that have appeared in its career 

 and persisted. What that new type will eventually 

 prove to be is a matter for everyone's speculation, 

 although if we looked for a precursor we might find it 

 in at least one of the older examples — that, say, by 

 Charles Dickens, called A Child's Dream of a Stay. In 

 sympathetic revelation through plot and emotional 

 analj'-sis of the one transcendent longing of the soul, 

 this story is surely a portent. " He grew to be a young 

 man ; and the star was shming." . . . "He grew to 

 be an old man ; and the star was shining." The 

 refrain haunts the reader. " And the star was still 

 shining ; and it shines above his grave." It is 

 certain that Rudyard Kipling and Henry James will 

 no longer be antagonists in method, which must be 

 dovetailed and amplified into something that for once 

 will overstep the old boundaries of what has proved 

 itself a fascinating and fruitful art. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



Tlie Country of the Blind, and other Stories. With a Preface 



on the Short Story. By H. G. Wells (Nelson's Shilling 



Library). 

 A Diversity of Creatures. By Rudyard Kipling (Macmillan, 



5S. net). 

 Tales of the Five Towns. By Arnold Bennett (llethuen, 



6s. net). 

 Wessex Tales. By Thomas Hardy (Macmillan, 3s. 6d. net). 

 Love of Life. By Jack London (Mills & Boon, 2S. net). 

 The Altar of the Dead, and Other Stories. By Henry James 



(Macmillan, 6s. net). 

 The Collected Stories of Leonard Merrick (Hodder &Stoughton, 



6s. net each volume). 

 Love a Ducli. By Stacy Aumonier (Hutchinson, 8s. 6d. net). 

 Bliss, and Other Stories. By Katherine Mansfield (Constable, 



9s. net). 

 Signs and Wonders. By J. D. Beresford (Golden Cockerel 



Press, 5s. net). 

 Adam and Eve and Pinch Me. By A. E. Coppard (Golden 



Cockerel Press, 5s. net). 

 Limbo. By Aldous Huxley (Chatto & Windus, 7s. 6d. net). 

 Collected Works of Padraic Pearse. Vol. II. Short Stories 



(Maunsel, Dublin, los. 6rf. net). 

 An excellent small anthology of Englishshort stories has recently 



been compiled and edited by Dr. Hugh Walker and 



Mr. H. S. Milford, entitled Selected English Short Stories: 



Vol. I, Nineteenth Century ; Vol. II, Twentieth Century. 



(The World's Classics. Humphrey Milford, Oxford 



University Press, 2s. each.) 



Reviews of Books 



THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF OUR 

 CALENDAR 



The Calendar: Its History, Structure, and Improvement. 

 By Alexander Philip, LL.B., F.R.S. Edin. (Cam- 

 bridge University Press, js. 6d.) 



The Beginning of the Year in the Middle Ages. By 

 Regin.\ld L. Poole. (From the Proceedings of the 

 British Academy, vol. x.) (H. Milford, Oxford 

 University Press, for the British Academy, 3s.) 



The scope of Mr. Philip's book is not so wide as his title 

 might be taken to indicate. His main preoccupation is 

 our own system, and primitive methods of time-reckoning 

 do not come within his purview, while ancient calendars 

 and the Chinese, Indian, Mexican, and Mohammedan 

 systems are little more than mentioned incidentally. In 

 other words, his histor\' of the calendar starts at that point 

 at which the approximate length of the year has been 

 fixed, and an attempt has already been made to correct 

 the approximation and bring it into accord with observed 

 facts. The difficulty arises out of the lack of correspond- 

 ence in periodicity in the natural time measurements, the 

 day, the month or period of the phases of the moon, and the 

 year. The various forms of calendar attempt to correct 

 this discrepancy by intercalation, the insertion of one or 

 more additional days at certain intervals, as our own 

 calendar inserts one day at the leap years. 



In its origin the calendar is essentially connected with 

 seasonal activities and, in particular, with those of agri- 

 culture. The Egyptian calendar, owing to the length of 

 time over which we can watch it in operation, affords a 

 highly instructive example of this seasonal relation, as 

 well as of the consequences of error. The annual event of 

 fundamental importance in the life of the Egyptians, and 

 the one of which it was necessary that the date should 

 be known beforehand with approximate accuracy, was 

 the rising of the Nile. The Calendar of Lucky and Un- 

 lucky Days indicates that originally the year consisted of 

 360 days, divided into twelve months each of 30 days. 

 To this year of 360 days, five days were added. According 

 to one system of dating, this took place as early as 

 4241 B.C. ; in any case this " vague " year, as it was 

 called, was in common use by 3000 b.c. This year, being 

 approximately ^ day short, failed to correspond with 

 the natural year by one day in every four years, and in 

 1461 " vague " years had moved completely round the 

 year. The discrepancy in the date of the inundation led 

 to the institution of the Sotliic year of 365J days, which 

 started with the heliacal rising of the star Sept (Sothis or 

 Sirius) about July 19 or 20, when the Nile flood usually 

 began. The Roman year originally had ten months, to 

 which number Numa is said to have added two, making a 

 year of 355 days, with an intercalation which took place 

 either every eight, or two, years. Owing to this system 

 of intercalation, which, with subsequent further interca- 

 lations, was in the hands of the Pontifices (or Priests), 

 there was great confusion and uncertainty in regard to 



