The Eye of the Wift. By E. Temple Thurston. (Cassell.
7s. 6d. net.)—Newspapers and magazines are essentially ephemeral. The present is pre-eminently theirs, but no single issue can be said to have a past or a future worth the name. They can hardly therefore be regarded as a fit shrine for literary studies which clearly merit some measure of pernianence. These reprinted essays of Mr. Temple Thurston's are a case in point. That so much of good writing, of trained observing, of understanding insight and of " sweet reasonableness " should lie buried in the dusty files of any newspaper office were a pity.
It is unquestionable, therefore, that The Eye of the Wift and its fellows will come into their own to some extent with their reappearance in book form. The perfections which distinguish their author's 'style are displayed to great advantage in this
collection of very varied pictures of life and phases of living. They are none of them stories in the strict sense. They are bettor described in Mr. Temple Thurston's own words, appended to one or two of his titles, as " dry-points." And many of them do indeed show all the fineness and finish of the etcher's art. Always in intimate sympathy with the outdoor world—not merely with Nature in the-abstract, but also with the contact which subsists between man and the elements—there are several papers in this book which reveal in the author a mind extraordin- arily in harmony with the spirit that informs the green wood and the ploughed field.. " The Eye of the Wift " is one example ; On Agriculture " is another. But Mr. Thurston understands men as well as trees, and nothing of dramatic intensity is lost to The Meanest Woman in Bannow "—an Irish study in the vernacular—by its juxtaposition to the delightful portrait of "The Sheep Dog." But it is no matter. Whether it is the English climate, the aspidistra in a lodging-house window, the connexion between boastfulness and blood-alleys, a shoemaker, or the green withe that binds a faggot, to each and every theme Mr. Temple Thurston brings a command of the King's English and a philosophy of life which are satisfying in a very high degree.
Previous page
