IT i ------ | Read Four Books of iad" in Vancouver Considerable Humor In "Letters of Principal Denney to His Family and Friends"--S8ome of These Epistles Were Writien from Vancouver and Other Places In Canada --A Funny Story: and Nothing Else, Recorded While the 8cotch Professor Was in Winnipeg. By Prof. W. T. Allisoa. 4 me very famous literature was Brecon into the form of {ptters. Students of classics always heave a sigh of relief when they switch over from the. orations to the letters of that industrious writer and politic- | fan, Marcus Tullius Cicero; Pliny oy enother anclent whose letters to his friends are still read with enjoyment, Ir. English literature Cowper, Byron, ¢ Shelley, Keats, Lamb, Fitzgerald, hose (Clarinda) he rs that 1 os Browning and his wife, Matthew /did 0 and so he would be an 'un. Arnold, and Stevenson are only a few | feeling, insipid, infamous blockhead.' of those who revealed thelr person- Jn a grea: part of his life this 1s what alittes with singular frankness, he actually was and how he contrive charm and power in the epistles they ed to combine it with humor and despatcned to their inthmates, nol satire, and with writing Oley knowing that they would be spread (Macpherson's Lament and Auld Lang before the curious eyes of posterity. [ss ne, Is ths problem of his character In this country few letters exchang- Which I cannot pretend to solve." he advised them, "A preacher should be able, on occasion, to bite and fight." He was himself in a fighting, biting mood one day in December, 11915, when he was trying to prepare an address on Burns to give a: some birthday celebration. In a letter to his sister, Mr. Denney says, "In one of his (Purns') letters to Mrs. Macle- one of his hon mots. Another day | |dates he was heckled on this, and pronounced against -it. 'Gentlemen,' he said, 'I can remember when I my- sclf suffered under this brutal and barbarous custom. when every finger of may hand was scarred and bleeding from the lash. Ard what was the offence for which I was so barbarously treated? Gen- {much talk abcut travels across Scot- |tlemen, it was telling the truth.' The land and up into the Highlands in impressive pause with which he fol- these letters. Denney had to visit |lowed this impressive utterance, that many churches and, especially after [it might have time to sink int. the (he was made Principal, preach a |minds of his hearers, was broken by {great many sermons on Anniversary (a rasping voice {rom the front bench: {Sundays in various kirks all over the 'And I guess it cured you.! It was {country. That he had a good sense [the end of the meeting!" of humor and was aware of the fact -- | tha even the proverbial Presbyterian | He Read the Iliad" and "Don Quix- {reverence for echolarship would not ote" in Vancouver. {excuse a prcfessor for preaching a Perhaps it was the newness of {dull sermon. "I was at Dunniker," [every'hing about him in the Cana- {be writes, *'at the communion a fort- [dian west drove him to old books, right ago. Fairweather, our minis- |but it seems to me rather amusing [ter there, told me they had some very {severe critics of sermons. ---- had [takes up most of his space by talking {taken his prayer meeting one night [about Homer and other worthies. He {end had apparently not shone. Soma [read "Don Quixote" in Vancouver lone made a disparaging remark, but |and _ fairly romped through four |was answered, 'O, it wasna tha' ill | books of the "Iliad" which he found {for a market-day' Another time/in a lovely edition in my friend John --=-- preacher on 'I will be as the Mackay's library. Think of a man dew unto Israel.' WDew!' quoth a |reading the "IHad" in the original deacon,' there wasna drap o' dew [fit Vancouver. when he could have int frae beginning to Wad; it was ax | gone fishing in any one of a hundred dry as a mealsack.' * a Monday [places along the coast! He has this evening service an old woman was |inierosting little note in one of his overheard as she went out: 'I just letters dated at Vancouver, May rut on my auld shawlie the richt, | 23rd, 1909,-- "People here have the and deed it was gudo enough for a' (flag of British Columbia even in their We were to get.' Luckily he told me | prayers _and evidently think the these things af'er the preaching was |Dowers above would think twice be- over, or it might have been embar- |fore falling out with people who rassing, | have such a future as they. I must I can remember | ed between friends would be worthy of publication, but the English and the Scotch are assiduous letter-writ- ers. The lelsured Englishman spends about a third of life writing missives to his friends. I: is one of his favor- $te forms of recreation or should we say that it {s one way in which h4 follows the good old precept, "Eng- land expects every man to do his duty?" James Denney, the noted professor of Glasgow, © theological ¢ : 9y & hen (rel who dled in 1917, gave a good deal | dsh history and his favorite period lat, a professor in Neuchatel, who of his spare time to this exercise. By naing early he was able to write as many as fifteen letters in a long fore- noon, The letiers that he wrote to | Bir W. Robertson Nicoll between 1893 and 1917 filled a stout volume. and now his friend, Professor James Moffatt, has found no difficulty in making up another good-sized book with "Letters of Principal Denney 'o His Faniily and Friends" (Hoddsr and Stoughton, Toronto). There Was an Edge on Denney's Style. He who opens up a book like this mast not expect to find anything ex- citing or diverting. The life of a theological professor in Scotland in 'modern times can scarcely be called an action story and those who de-, mand reading of the Zane Grey or James Oliver Curwood sort would probably rather go to jail tham be compelled to assimilate this volume. But for those who take their pleas- ures sadly, who wish to relieve hign 'blood pressure, who like '0 breathe "the still air of delightful studies," these letters will afford much satiz- faction. They were written by a great scholar who 'was able '0 express himself in simple lafiguage but who + managed even in ordinary, every-day epistles to convey the impression that his thoughts were long thoughts and He brain a subtle machine. Heo could, when occasion required, say sarcasiic things apd dn his letters there is often an edge to his style. * One day, after listening to a paper on the mystical imaginations of Maeter- dinck, he exclaimed, "It's bad enough %0 be at sea, but to be at sea in a | tog!" He summed up Bishop West- | otis quality of mind in this phrase, ' "He is not philosophical, he 1s oracu- lar." . He was an adept at handing out good advice to theological stu- flents. "Don't become the pet lamb of your flock: be their shepherd" waa |The wind must have been blowing {down Denney's chimney that day or De never would have indulged in such a wild or unsympathetic judgment. |A Slash at Andrew Lang, the Jaco- bite. Andrew Lang was a great literary light in his day. He wrote a good | deal of history and innumerable |€ssays. One of his hobbies was Scot- {was that of the Stuarts. He was a {gallant defender of Mary, Queen of | Scots, and he loved to ridicule John | Knox and the Coventers of a later {Cate. Hence this fighting, biting let- |ter of the usually placid professor, | Written to a Miss Wilson on Nov. | 8th, 1911 --"We had a little visit jor Mr. Struthers last night, and he {and I went to hear Andrew Lang lec- ture on the Covenanters. You cou'd not imagine anything more pitiful. The Covenanters at least killed peo- ple and got killed, which was serjgus enough in all conscience; but ha, ly they were spared the anticipation of being made the subject of imbecile attempts at wit by such a creature as A. Lang." Probably Denney would have classed Lang with Bernard Shaw, for the latter was another bril- Liant contemporary whom he criti- cises somewhat harshly in one of his letters where he says, "Bernard Shaw and the rest of them don't attract me, for the very reason you give. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the cleverness of men wbo have the A B C to learn is in every sense the cleverness of the na- tural man, and, however entertain- ing, does not build up." Similarly bo wrote to a friend about a local series of Gifford lectures: --*1 have not been able to hear any of 's lectures, but the reports have not at- tracted me. It is too much to have a succession .of philosophical persons getting up the A B C of religion ad Loe, and stammening through i¢ be- fore the public to the tune of £30¢ Per annum or so. But I suppose it will go on till it is stopped. If a lec- turer has an honorarium he can do without an audience This last ex- tract eontains a generous squeeze of tLe Denney acid, but it does not seem quite sn deadly as the Andrew Lang cne above, -- | The Sermon-Tasters of Dunnikier, As might be expected there is A Frank Criticism of Balaam"s Ass. A large number of these letters were addressed to brother ministers and "the tone of many of them is therefore theological. Often Dr. Den- ney is'polemical and heavily serious, but in the. following paragraph he handles a higher critic with a light {pen,--* Lately," he says, "I have | been reading a book by a man Gretil- eulivens his solid theology with ismart remarks about his enemies-- sometimes rather personal, but-- {sometimes very witiy. German (critics, he says, are so habituated to jtell everything they know, and some- times more, that they naturally ai- sume the Evangelists know nothing they do not tell. In one place he mentions, with evident sympathy, an old professor of apologetics, who used to say to his students, 'And if they say they don't agree wih you, tell them they are wrong." He makes the best remark I remember to have seen on Balaani"s ass. 'Considering how the attention of Christendom has been diverted by this incident from the sublime oracles of Balaam, I have been tempted to think in my bad moments that this learned crea. ture Jost an excellent ovportunity of holding its tongue.' Isn't that good, though not for a prayer meeting?" Mr. Denney's Impressions of Canada. In 1909 Principal Denney visited Canada on the invitation of Principal Mackay, to deliver a course of lec- tures to Presbyterian students in Vancouver. At Halifax he leciured end preached for ten days, and then made his way across Canada stopping at Montreal, Toronto and Winnipeg. There is nothing in his letters about Montreal or Toronto and Winnipeg- gers will not be flattered by the fact that the only thing he thought worth recording when he was in tho gate- way city was a funny story which he had heard in Nova Scotia. "I must 'ell you," he writes, "one story 1 heard about Fraser, the Governor of Nova Scotia, who was very polite to me. He told it-himself as belonging to the only occasion on which he was completely baffled at a public meet- ing. He was a candidate for the provincial legislature, which has charge of the schools, when for some reason the question of corporal pun- ishment came up. Like other candi- f say, however, they are very hospit- {able and very much addicted to their husiness, whatever it may be. There is no approbation or toleration of loafers, and not very much considera- tion for the inefficient or ungifted. |The Very prosperous are not usually | very sympathetic." : -- Two Drawbacks at Lake Touise. Dr. Denney complains bitterly that there were no old books at tlie hotel lat Lake Louise. For once, however, he lets himself go in praise of the '"The lake," he writes, "is long, and three- | scenery, a mile and a half quarters of a mile in width, of a |changing emerald color, and the | mountain, with its vast and dazzling | fields of snow, is not unworthy of be- {ing compared with the Jungfrau You will have some idea of how im- posing it is. I do think it almost the most wonderful , place I have ever seen." There was a second draw- back, however, in that famous beauty spot,--mosquitoes. "It does een queer," he continues, 'that man should subdue the Rocky Mountains and be victimized by a ittle hack fly. Coming up here in the bus from the station, there were two elderly gentlemen opposite me who discussed them, One was American and took them gaily; I slapped one on my knee; 'No go,' he said; 'kill one, and iwo come to the funeral.' The ther, who, I am sorry to say, was Scotch and had some connection with Glas- gow, took them prosily, complacent- ly, instructively. He had been every- where, and gave us his expeyiences of mosquitoes in Japan, Aus'ralia, New Guinea, Singapore, the Valiey of the Ganges, the Zambesi, and Ugan- da--besides most places in Europe! You never met such a bors. The mosquitoes were a positive relief to him: what doctors call a counter-irri- tant." He winds up his letter by a paragraph on Goethe's "Wilheln Meister." That was another old jrook which he read while in Van- couver. I find that I have managed, after all; to find some entertaining mater- fal in this rather formidable-looking volume. Fven a Scotch theological vrofesfor is not so dry as the public night imagine him to be. In his learned commentaries and such a doctrinal work as hig classi on the atonement, Dr. James Denney is solemn enough, but in these leltors Here It Is----The Old Favorite No Treatment for Coughs and Colds Was Ever So Satisfactory > All these years Dr. Chase's Syrup of Linseed and rpentine has held its place in the famil y medicine chest because there has been nothing to equal it. It holds the confidenc Tu lief from Asthma. e of all as Croup, the most certain re- Bronchitis, Whooping Cough and THE DAILY BRITISH WHIG. that in his letters from the coast ho | | | | { | ' SATURDAY, NOV. 25, 1022. ee T Distinguished for their supreme quality and delicacy of flavour 10 for 15¢ 25 35¢ IMPERIAL TOBACCO COMPANY or CANADA, UNITED. he shows that his constant reading of his favorite volume, Boswell's "Life of Johnson," had humanized him considerably. --W. T. ALLISON. Literary Notes, Librarians all over the couniry to- day are doing a great work in en- couraging boys and girls to read good books. Every normal child loves a story and in our big city libraries now-a-days they have hours when someone with a genius for narrative entertains and instructs ihe little fclks by practising what is ome of the most ancient of arts. In other ways, algo, the modern dibrarian sirives to obtain the suffrages of his young constituents. He leaves no stone un- turned to awaken their interest in 'he treasures"that he has on his shelves. When I was a boy, librar- fans viewed me with suspicion when I entered their keep, and when 1 signed for a book they handed it to me w! . seeming reluctance. Today, however, all is changed. Tha books are out in the open for boys and girls to handle and the librarian is hap- plest when he sees the largest crowd cf young readers that his building can accommodate. He is as kaen to persuade young folk to taka story books home with them as a merchant to sell perishable goods, An interesting exampie of this mis- slonary zeal of public librarians is afforded just now by a book compe- tition that has been put on by J. H. McCarthy of the Winnipez Public Library. He has induced the boys of the manual training departments of the Winnipeg public schools to make samples of attractive litzla hook shelves to be placed on exhibition in the juvenile departmen's of the city libraries. His idea is to encourage Loys and girls to make ar have their rarents huy just such shsives, so that they can begin building up a little library at home. Moreover, he has invited them to send in a list of the best twenty-five books for a juvenile librery, There are three erwveti- tions In all for the bes: suggestion for (1) a library for a girl or boy of elevew years or younger, (2) a lfbr- ary for girls of twelve to fifteen years of ace. and, (2) a library for boys of twelve to fifteen years of age. This Is an excellent plan to f.ster a love for good Iterature and I shuld like {0 see {it adopted in every public "|library in Canada, Pd Some very amusing literary ance- detage is to be found in the "Private Diaries of the Rt.-Hcn. Algerncn West," who was Glads'one's "rivate secretary and intimate friend for mary years. Bir Algerron died in 1927 in his 89th vear. In his diary he tins reported that one day at a ¢in- ner party the question was raised whetlier Oscar Wilde was really witty. "Augustine Birrell contended le was, and gave this Instance, Je had met Lewis Morris, who said, 'T have ten a book, and not a paper nora.r has 3""vded to it. There is.a col of slicnce." Directly aftervards I met Oscar Wilde, and asked him what I oug*: to have said. 'You should have said," anewered Oscar Wilde, 'My dear Morris jon it yourself." Sir Algernon refounts another story that was told by Lowell abou: Methusaleh. It is based on the fact that old men seem to diminish in skoe-strings will go flapping in my face! Should Canadian writers refuse to follow the fashions set by English and American novelists and seek to be absolutely original? This is the question raised regarding American n:akers of fiction by Miss Frances Newman in the semi-annual official bulletin of the Carnegie Library of Atlanta, Georgia. She quotes Pro- fessor ¥2mil Reich, as saying, "The Huvgarians produced great writers becuuse they preserved their native Magyar so effectively, and were more tenacious of thelr native culture than any other people." He also believes that no great works of art are pro- duced in efther South or North Am- erica, because both in thé Latin and English-speaking continents 'he vriters have tried to employ the cul- ture of the parent countries which was entirely unsuited 'o new condl- tions. iss Newman thinks that since American writers have been producing some great fiction be- cause they have been entirely Ameri- can in their simplici'y and clarity. "Babbitt" might be regarded as en- tirely American, ~W. T, A. ------------------------ : OPENWAY, By Archie McKishnie. 233 pages Price $1.25. Hodden & Stryugh- ton, Toronto, publishers. Open way, all you will take up this book--open way for the refreshment you'd take from the wind over the hill or the mist by the streams. Open way--open way in your hearts for a tenderness you will ney- er lose again. Thrift and a Savings Account . enables time to pra a time as deus, Capital Reserves KINGSTON Thrift Account lead to prosperity, in- dependence, contentment, and give assurance of plenty when earning days are past. Your growing bank balance A Savings Accoynt the putting away of a little at - Open way--open way in your pursq that you may lat it in the hands of some boy who is dear to you and tell him to keep it by him always-- but read it first yourself. It is the story of a boy who loved wild creatures, but whose only friend and companion, old Trapper Bob cone sidered most animals just "varmits." To him an animal wag a pelt; ta Benny, an animal was a pulsing life as warm and as dear as his own, He couldn't seem to make Bob unders stand. Still, he was able to protect the few who sought protection, and to that end he dedicated the length of a certain rail fence where any wild dweller of Shagland might find a home unmolested. Benny trapped for skins in'the winter with Trapper Bob too; there was nothing foolish about him, but he beljeved in giving the creatures a fair chance and fair bat- tle, and found much that was wonder- ful end heroic in their lives, To kill an animal on sight for the mere sake of killing it, seemed murder in his eyes. To Benny, the happiest part of the day was when he could nestle down in some hidden covert and watch the life about him unnoticed. Watching and listening with Benny, you will find a new world, a new summer, a new winter, forever at your hand at the turning of a page. You will learn to know the myriad low cries of the wood, the wimper- ings, the soft paddings, the sorrow of little tragedies, the everlasting sweet rustling hum of the under bush that is its life. And as the creat ures lie warm in the soft home nest, or run or swim or fly from season , to season; as they return after the (Continued on Page 13.) nl 8 and the Savings ou to invest from e in good bonds or or other promising its j you can spare it, and allows you to spend when necessary with opt going into Open your Savings Account today at any of our Branches and join hands with Thrift. "BANK<TORONTO 1,000,000 . LYNDHURSY