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published at 148. would in all its editions attain to a sale of close on 30,000, or that the sale of 'An Englishwoman's Love Letters' would come close to 50,000?

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One of the most remarkable cases that has come within my experience is Cramb's Germany and England.' In February 1914 Lord Roberts, who had been a most kind friend to me, called here and said, 'A man has just died who knew more about Germany than, perhaps, any other living Englishman. He delivered a series of lectures on the subject, but few people heard them and he had no written copy. Fortunately a lady of the audience made a shorthand report for her own use. Will you publish this for the benefit of his family?' I said that of course I would if Lord Roberts wished it, so we printed an edition of 1000 and hoped for the best.

A few weeks after the publication the war broke out, and suddenly this book, I know not how, was discovered by the public and blazed into popularity. We could hardly keep pace with the demand for copies. In the hope of reaching the Americans we sent 1000 copies to the States without any order and I wrote commending it to a publisher. He read it, and was so much impressed by it that he took it at once to Mr. Choate and asked him to write a preface for an American edition by the next day. Mr. Choate, after reading the book, did write a preface, and the book came out and had a very great success. So much so that the American publishers received threatening letters from Germans and German societies in various parts of the States calling upon them to stop the publication.

These are instances of pleasant surprises, but on the other hand there are very many unpleasant disappointments.

And in truth publishing is a most interesting vocation, although not one of those by which large fortunes can be amassed. It brings one into touch with all sorts of men and women-and with all sorts of subjects. It has always been the practice of our house for one of the partners to read the proofs of nearly every book that passes through the press and make suggestions. I have myself dealt with nearly a thousand books in this way, and sometimes when absence or illness, or death, has precluded an author from completing this work, I have

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had to do the whole of it. Often I get thanks; sometimes a mention in the preface; more often no recognition, but it compels a certain superficial study of many things, and very often a feeling of great regret that one cannot pause in the rush and go somewhat deeper into the many attractive questions thus dabbled in.

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When Mr. Gladstone's translation of the 'Odes of Horace' was in the press I read the proofs and sent him some suggestions. What struck me was that now and then he seemed to have ignored the recognised punctuation and run two sentences into one. In reply he thanked me with his usual courtesy and replied in effect, When I was doing this translation my eyes were awaiting an operation for cataract and I had to reserve what little sight I had for the proofs and trusted to my memory for the words of the original.' This is surely a remarkable thing for a man of eighty-five whose life had been spent in active political affairs. On the other hand, the Duke of Argyll specially invited criticism of his proofs, but when it was tendered he disputed every point, and did not, I think, accept one suggestion.

The trade and authors suffer under one strange, unique legal enactment in that they alone, among all producers, as a proviso of protection of their rightsand if there is such a thing as a natural right surely the product of a man's brain can lay claim to it-have to give away a copy of every book to six of the great National and University Libraries which would of necessity be among their best customers. We do not grudge this; all that we ask is that it should be recognised as a heavy burden, though cheerfully borne. Moreover, there is no tradesman or manufacturer who is asked so generally to give away his wares. There is scarcely a bazaar or charity fête held but what we are asked to give books for sale. Appeals pour in from religious denominations, hospitals, and many political organisations for presentation copies, and such appeals are met in a very ready spirit.

We must therefore for some reason have the credit of generosity, and further we seem to have the credit of great influence and almost universal knowledge.

When Lord Tennyson died I was asked to obtain for a total stranger the Poet Laureateship. I have also

been asked to find a wife for a man I never heard of. It afterwards turned out that these requests came from a lunatic asylum, but on several occasions I have been asked by quite sane people to obtain for themselves or for friends knighthoods and other appointments. The flow of daily requests includes the discovery of quotations; the value of second-hand books; the identification of portraits; the recommendation of a career for sons and daughters; an opinion on some precocious child's early poetry or prose, and so forth. I do my best to comply, but no fee is ever offered or asked for- and rarely is 'Thank you' said—and yet even a publisher's time has some value.

In conclusion I give two specimens of letters received from the Gold Coast. Every mail brings us two or three from the same quarter and in the same style though different in phraseology. I have tried in vain to discover to what form of local education this quaint use of the English language is due.

DEAR SIR,

Oct. 23, 1926.

Glad to report to you how I came to an encroachment of your address which I was nearly threw myself abush. Your name and address were given to me by my cousin K. A. Acquah who is one of my book store keepers.

I therefore wishing you to send me your valuable catalouge and one of your valuable books as a sample.

Hoping my letter to reach you in sound health, with all your parents,

I remain, Sir,

Your unknown friend.

22nd Nov. 1926.

DEAR SIR,

This is to inform you that which will meet you good well. Please I lake to see your catalouge and patarn, but please if you see my letter you must reply me. And I want the thing from you by the next chance, but if you send this thing you must with envelope and orform too. So I very glad to make my friend, because I like to see you catalouge and patarn but if you see my letter and you must send thing I want from you, and you must reply me too.

I close my letter to you which will meet you good seat, I, your truly, seanvet.

JOHN MURRAY.

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Art. 9.-THE OCEAN OF STORY.'

The Ocean of Story, being C. H. Tawney's Translation of Somadeva's Katha Sarit Sagara (or Ocean of Streams of Story). Edited with Introduction, Notes, and Terminal Essay, by N. M. Penzer. Ten Volumes. Chas J. Sawyer, Grafton House, London, W.1. 1924.

IT was the great German scholar, Benfey, who first pointed out, in 1859, the enormous debt of all Europe to India in the matter of her popular tales and fables. Before the results of his careful investigations into this branch of Sanskrit literature were made known to the world, it was not realised that a very large proportion of our popular tales, which have given pleasure to every people in Europe since the spread of letters, came to us indirectly from India. No more conclusive proof could be offered of this claim than the Ocean of Story' (in Sanskrit, Kathā Sarit Sāgara'), which was translated half a century ago by Charles Henry Tawney. This monumental work, which in its original form, as a publication of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, never had a very wide circulation, and for many years has been unobtainable, is now being reissued in a style worthy of its importance, thanks to the enterprise of Mr N. M. Penzer. The whole edition is to occupy ten volumes, of which six have already appeared, and the moment seems fitting for a discussion of this work and of the form in which it is now being offered to the public. Tawney's translation was already furnished with copious notes, such as a book of this nature demanded, but great strides have been made during the last half century in the study of wandering tales, and many works which have served as intermediaries between India and Europe have been brought to light and subjected to close study. Thus Mr Penzer has been able, not only to add to the notes in the original edition, but further to bring Tawney's translation up to date. Even more important than the notes are the appendices which Mr Penzer has himself supplied dealing with the general topics arising out of the various groups of stories contained in the original work of Somadeva. Finally, he has in the case of each separate

volume, invited some eminent scholar to supply a foreword bearing on its contents.

From the point of view of European literature it is the fifth volume of the series that perhaps offers the most interesting subject of study, containing as it does so many tales with which we are familiar. And while in no way suggesting that on the mere score of storytelling it makes the best reading, a description of it will best serve our purpose in explaining the debt of Europe to India for so much of its amusement. For this volume includes Somadeva's recension of the famous collection of tales known as the 'Panchatantra,' or the 'Five Books of Ruses.' Of the original text nothing has been preserved, but many scholars have been busy with attempts to reconstruct the lost text on the basis of later recensions. It was only one of many similar collections made in various parts of India, and it is best known to us to-day because, in the form in which it existed in India in the sixth century, it was introduced into Persia, and in the eighth was translated into Arabic under the title of Kalila and Dimna.' It is through this Arabic version that the stories of the 'Panchatantra' reached Europe; for in its turn it gave rise to over two hundred versions in over fifty languages. 'Kalila' and 'Dimna' are the names of two jackals who as counsellors of the Lion King are the chief protagonists of the main story which serves as a frame to the other stories. According to the Arabic version, the stories were told by a sage named Bidpay or Pilpay, to a certain Indian King named Dabshalim (Devasarma). The Arabic Kalila and Dimna' appeared in the middle of the eighth century and purported to be translated from a Persian (Pahlavi) translation of the Fables made in the sixth century by a certain doctor of the Court of Anushirwan, named Burzoe. The Arabic translation which was made by a famous writer at the Court of the Caliph Mansur, named Ibn Muqaffa, quickly gained a wide popularity, and still holds its place as an Arabic classic. Already in the tenth century it had been rendered into verse by Rudaki, the father of Persian poetry, and by the end of the eleventh century, a translation had been made into modern Greek. Thanks, however, to the penetration of Southern Europe by the Arabs, the stories must have

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