i6 
-LAND & WATER 
Books to Read 
By Lucian Oldershaw 
March ;2 2, 1917 
NO gi'catcr compliment was evrr paid the English 
lanjtruage than when tlic Polisli sailor, Joseph 
Conrad, chost- it as the medium whereby to 
ixpress his creative genius. He has done more 
than make the language his own. He has mastered it 
in a way in which few luiglishmen master it themselves. 
He reveals its wealth and its resources. He c\en adds 
to its treasures. His use of words alone always makes 
anything he writes worth while. \'ou do not need to 
go further than the first paragraph of' his new book, for 
e.xample, to fall a victim to the seduction of his style. 
" It is the privilege of early youth to live in advance of 
its daj's in all the beautiful continuity of hope which 
knows no pauses and no introspection." How perfectly 
phrased that is, and how true ! It is perhaps the under- 
lying \eracity of all he writes — for Mr. Conrad puts out 
nothing that has not passed the mint of his rich ex- 
perience and intellectual con\iction — that makes the 
strength and beauty of his stvle. The style is certainly 
the man in his case. 
* * * « * 
■ This new book of Mr. Conrad's, The Shailoa- Line 
(J. M. Dent and Son, 5s. net), will rejoice the hearts of 
his admirers. It is a story of the sea, theadvMitures of a 
young skipper in his first command, a sailing vessel, in 
the (iulf of Siam, and it is written in the white heat of 
inspiration that characterised Lord Jim. The psychological 
exjK'rience that Mr. Conrad objectifies in 'J'/ie Shadoic 
Line is the passage from impulsive youth to steadied 
manhood. It is a wonderful little story, ^is intense as 
Lord Jim. as eerie as Falk, and as full of life-like studies 
of men who sail the seas as — any (.A its author's books. 
! Mr. Burns', the sick mate, Ransome, the steward, with 
a weak heart but high courage. Captain (iiles, the wise 
old skipper of. the dulf, and, not least, the wicked old 
man whose death at sea gaxe oiu" young man his un- 
expected chance of a ship and a heritage of troubles, are 
the most prominent in the little" group of ^xrsonalities 
vividly seen in the bright, light of a burning experience. 
They will remain long in the reader's memory. The 
Shadow Line is, in short, a literary portent — a nerfect 
example of "a master-novelist's art. 
* * * • * 
One of tJie most jMofound and original Ihinkii- .muiug 
our younger men of science was lost to the world when 
A. 1). Darbyshire, then a private in the Argyll and 
.Sutherland Highlanders, fell a victim to cerebral menin- 
gitis. Sa much is clear from reading his unhappily 
incomplete book. An Introduction to a Biology (Cassell 
and Co., 7s. 6d. net)! .This book, edited with pio\is 
1 horoughness by the author's sister, who has collected 
letters, notes for lectures, and the like to help the reader 
to com])letc for himself her brother's incompleted essay, 
has as its mulerlying idea the freeing of the study of 
biology from the narrow and ever-narrowing limits 
into which it has been confined. Darbyshire ""s advice 
to the biologist may be summed up in the much misused 
tag, " Know thyself." He suggests, man has forgotten 
himself, the student, and his fragment breaks off abruptly 
on till' following pertinent cpiestions : " Is the soul a mere 
aggregate symptom of a mechanism — the body ? Or 
is the body not rather the instrument of the soul ? 
» * * * • * 
There are many peojile \\ ho sec clearly the broad issues 
of the war, West and Mast, but who gi\e uj) as a hojxUi^s 
tangle the problems of the Balkans. Vet it is probably 
in this corner of Europe that the most crucial points will 
come up for consideration when a final settlement is 
made, and it is urgeiU that there should be a well- 
instructed public opinion focussed upon it. J'he liecon^ 
strnclion of South- liastern Europe, by Vladislav K. 
Sa\ic (Chapman and Hall, 7s. 6d. net), puts the case for 
a greater Serbia forcibly and sympathetically. The 
writer is a well-known journalist.'who has acted for maiiy 
vears as the rorrespondent of the Daily Telegraph and 
the Russkoe Slo\'0. He ciivct-^ the whole ground of 
, his subject, historical, ethnographical and political, and 
his book cannot be neglcctetl by anyone who wishes to 
arrive at a full understanding of the Balkan question;. 
All intelligent jiersons. moreover, should have this wish. 
♦ « * *■ ♦ 
Mr. Harold Harvey, who was getting known as a 
painter when war broke out, joined the Royal l-'usiliers 
in August 1914, and, after being wounded and gassed 
at Ypres, was invalided out of the service. He now 
gives us, in A Soldier's Sketches under Fire (Sampson 
Low, Marston and Co., js. 6d. net), his impressions of a 
period of training in Malta and of some time spent in the 
trenches, cliiefly in the .\rmentieres section. The 
pictures are accompanied by a modest modicum of letter- 
press. All attempts at self-expression from men in the 
lighting line are of interest. What Mr. Harvey does with 
his pencil, Ronald (iurner attempts in the more familiar 
medium of verse. War's Echo (Fisher Unwin, is. net) 
is a little collection of poems written at the Front, of 
modest pretension and achievement. Its spirit is of the 
right kind, and it awakens and will awaken memories. 
" Why, yes, 'twas so indeed : 
To east of Ypres that summer. 
By Arras in the snow, 
Thinking the while of Vertiun 
And fighting — it was so." 
A new and revised .edition of Dr. (1. L. Johnson's 
Photoi^raphy in Colours (Routledge and Sons, 4s. 6d. 
net) will be welcomed by amateur photographers who 
have experimented in this fascinating branch of their 
hobby. There is no need to chvell on the book as a whole, 
since it is well known to those interested in the matter, 
but for the benefit of those who are taking up colour 
photography for the lu'st time it may be pointed out that 
Dr. Johnson introduces his subject with a sufficiency 
of theoretical optics to put them on the right lines 
for experimental work of their ^own or, at any rate, 
for getting a scientific interest in the undertaking. The 
additions include a section on the increasingly popular 
Raydex process of colour ])rinting, and a chapter on .'\rt 
in Colour Photography, which is more practical than even 
such disquisitions usually are. Photography in Colours 
is now a thoroughly up-to-date text-book. 
It was Mr. Philip Gibbs who converted drub Street into 
the Street of Adventure, and if report speaks true the proto- 
types who gave life to the work were not invariably please<l. 
S'ow comes Mr. H. Simonis with \i\acious and kindly pen 
who gives to the Street of Adventure true reality, and in 
'J'lic Street of htk publislied to-day by Messrs. Cassell (7s. (kJ. 
net) draws tlinnibnail sketches of tHe actual men who wi^ld 
the enormous power bestowed by the reading public of this 
country on its Press. Nor can any man take exception to 
this pleasant portraiture. .■ The pui^lication of the volume is 
timely, since the part of the British Press is playing in the 
Great War is a matter of history.. Wherefore tlu' volume 
possesses historical value. There is no section of the British 
Press to which Mr. Simonis does' not make reference, so his 
work, as he confesses in the Introduction, naturally has the 
defects of its qualities. The story of the most famous ])ublica- 
tions has to be strongly compressed,, and the writer, obviously 
often against his will, has to' refrain from anecdotes,; yet 
he is never dull and throws a flood of light On many of the 
developments of the wondcrf\il newspaper industry in whiih 
tlie complete success of any venture isdependent on a unique 
collection of talents ^literary, commercial, scientific, linuncial. 
etc. " It is a good thing," writes .Mr. Simonis, " that 
journalists should Iw able to stand aside from the details of 
their work and view from a d<>tache(\ plane the romance of 
their profession." It is also a good thing that the individual 
journalist, no matter who he may be, should not take hiinseU 
too seriously. And in butli directions -Mr. Simonis renders 
good service to his colleagues. He has attempted the biggest 
;task that has, yet been undertaken, in order to put on record 
a, concise encyclopa-dic history of the Hritish I'resS ; and is 
to be congratulated On his success; v\-hich was onW possible 
for ;i man of e\n'j)tion;il (mkii'w kiiowledt'i' and ahilitv. 
