*
THE
CATHOLIC WORLD.
MONTHLY MAGAZINE
AP
GENERAL LITERATURE AND SCIENCE
PUBLISHED BY THE PAULIST FATHERS.
VOL. XCVI.
OCTOBER, 1912, TO MARCH, 1913.
NEW YORK:
THE OFFICE OF THE CATHOLIC WORLD
120 WEST 6oxH STREET.
1913-
CONTENTS.
Alcohol, The Political Economy of.
Frank O'Hara, Ph.D. . . 774
Among the Roses of Madeira.
Joseph Francis Wickham, . .524
At the Gateway of Italy. Joseph
Francis Wickham, . . .617
Aquinas, Bergson, and Newman.
Thomas J. Gerrard, . . . 748
Balkan War, The, . . .385
Bergson His Philosophy of Change.
Thomas J. Gerrard, . 433, 602
Bergson, Newman, and Aquinas.
Thomas J. Gerrard, . . 748
Canada and the Colonies : A Les-
son for the " Guardians of Lib-
erty." Edwin Ryan, . . 449
Catholic Deep-Sea Mission, A.
William P. H. Kitchen, Ph.D., 370
Catholic Poets, Our. Agnes Brady, 233
Catholic Scientist, A Great. Sir
Bertram C. A. Windle, LL.D., 627
Christian Science. Adrian Feverel,
180, 360, 466, 655
Christmas, The Poetry of. Kather-
ine Bregy, .... 350
Colonies, Canada and the : A Les-
son for the " Guardians of Lib-
erty." Edwin Ryan, . . 449
Cuthbert, O.S.F.C., Father : A New
Life of St. Francis of Assisi.
Virginia M. Crawford, . .322
Foreign Periodicals,
119, 264, 411, 551, 698, 840
France, The Social Apostolate in.
Max Turmann, LL.D., . . 225
Francis of Assisi, St., A New Life
of. Virginia M. Crawford, . 322
Henry the Fifth, Shakespeare's
Man of Action. Emily Hickey, 66 1
Indians, Father Serra and the.
Redfern Mason, . . . 745
Is Satan the Hero of Paradise
Lost ? Emily Hickey, . . 58
Italy, At the Gateway of. Joseph
Francis Wickham, . . .617
Johnson, Lionel, The Poetry and
Prose of. Elbridge Colby, . 721
Land System, Methods of Reform-
ing Our. John A. Ryan, D.D., i, 156
Land Where Dreams Come True,
The. Joseph Francis Wickham, 763
Lang, Andrew. Agnes Repplier, 289
"Lead, Kindly Light": Its Sources
and Its Meaning. James Mearns,
M.A., ' . . . . . 500
Legislation, Minimum Wage. John
A. Ryan, S.T.D 577
Literature of Relief, The. William
J. Kerby, Ph.D., . . .81
Madeira, Among the Roses of.
Joseph Francis Wickham, . .524
Methods of Reforming Our Land
System. John A. Ryan, S.T.D. , -i, 156
Minimum Wage Legislation. John
A. Ryan, S.T.D., . . .577
Mistral and His Work. Charles
Baussan, . . . . -379
More, Sir Thomas, and His Time.
W. E. Campbell, . . 192, 477
Mystery of Rodin, The. Thomas J:
Gerrard, . . . . . 302
Newfoundland : A Catholic Deep-
Sea Mission. William P. H. Kit-
chen, Ph.D., . . . .370
Newman, Bergson, and Aquinas.
Thomas J. Gerrard, . . . 748
Our Catholic Poets. Agnes Brady, 233
Our Past. M. Philip, . . .77
Paradise Lost, Is Satan the Hero
of? Emily Hickey, ... 58
Philosophy of Change, Bergson's.
Thomas J. Gerrard', . 433 602
Poetry of Christmas, The. Kather-
ine Bregy, . . . .350
Poets, Our Catholic. Agnes Brady, 233
Points of View. Vincent McNabb,
O.P., 801
Pombal, Marquis of, The Voltaire
of Portugal. Mary H. Allies, 46
Poor, The. William J. Kerby,
Ph.D., 215
Recents Events,
126, 273, 422, 559, 706, 849
Reform, Economic, The Spiritual
Factor in. Thomas J. Gerrard, 31
Relief, The Literature of. William
J. Kerby, Ph.D., . . .81
Rodin, The Mystery of. Thomas
J. Gerrard, . . . .302
Russell, Father Matthew, Personal
Reminiscences of. Katherine
Tynan, ..... 207
Scientist, A Great Catholic. Sir
Bertram C. A. Windle, LL.D., 627
Serra, Father, and the Indians.
Redfern Mason, . . . 145
Social Apostolate in France, The.
Max Turmann, LL.D., . . 225
Shakespeare's Man of Action.
Emily Hickey, . . . .661
Spiritual Factor in Economic Re-
form, The. Thomas J. Gerrard, 31
Tertiary Man in Argentina. Jabez
B. Cough, .... 807
The Poets' Chantry. Katherine
Bregy, 233
The Voltaire of Portugal. Mary
H. Allies, .... 46
Van Beneden, Pierre Joseph, A
Great Catholic Scientist. Sir
Bertram C. A. Windle, LL.D., 627
Wage Legislation, Minimum. John
A. Ryan, S.T.D., . . .577
With Our Readers,
137, 284, 425, 571, 7i7, 861
Work, Mistral and His. Charles
Baussan, . ... . 379
STORIES.
A Royal Maundy. E. M. Dinnis, 788
Celia's Lover. John Ayscough, . 587
The City of Goodwill. Jeanie
Drake, ..... 487
The Maid of Seraghtoga. " Oliver," 331
The Postboy. Jeanie Drake, . 170
The Red Ascent. Esther W. Neill, 733
The Wooing of Guesca. "Oliver," 637
The King's Cradle. E. M. Dinnis, 314 The Wound. Thomas B. Reilly, 72
The Least of the Little Ones.
E. M. Dinnis,
While Jane Anne Was Away.
Katherine Tynan, . . . 456
CONTENTS
in
Ballade of Unknown Saints. T.
Lawrason Riggs,
Christ's Cradle. Edward F. Gar-
esche, S.J., ....
Eternal Sequence. Caroline D.
Swan, .....
Father Doyle. Maurice Francis
Egan,
POEMS.
Oil Ancient Wharves. Caroline D.
191 Swan, ..... 30
Pennies. /o;yc Kilmer, . .601
523 The Hague Court. Caroline D.
Swan, ..... 224
773 The Monks' Church. Edward F.
Garesche, S.J., . . . . 298
238 The Wise Men. E. M. D., . . 348
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
Abbot Wallingford, . . . 409
A Book of the Love of Mary, . 838
A Dixie Rose in Bloom, . . 400
A French Kindergarten of To-day, 404
A History of American Literature, 821
A History of the United States for
Grammar Schools, . . . 832
A Montessori Mother, . . . 822
A Prisoner of War in Virginia, 115
A Synchronic Chart and Statistical
Tables of United States History, 825
Amelie in France, . . . 837
Americans and Others, . . 679
An Experiment in History Teach-
ing, ..... 408
As Caesar's Wife, . . . 408
Belgium, The Land of Art, . .691
Between Two Thieves, . . . 539
Blue Bonnet's Ranch Party, . .114
Books by Catholic Authors in the
Cleveland Public Library, . . 248
Cardinal Bourne : A Record of the
Sayings and Doings of His Emi-
nence Francis the Archbishop of
Westminster, .... 404
Cardinal Mercier's Retreat to His
Priests, ..... 690
Catherine Sidney, . . .261
Catholicism and Socialism, . . 241
Changing America, . . .250
Chapters on Christian Doctrine, . 1 1 1
Charles Louis Philippe, . . 697
Christian Science and Catholic
Teaching, .... 550
Christian Social Reform, . .103
Christ's Christianity, . . . 263
Chronicles of Avonlea, . .103
City of Sweet Do-Nothing, . . 263
Consumers and Wage Earners, . 676
Contemplation, . . . 697
Crowns and Palms, . . 550
Davidee Birot, .... 99
De Vasectomia Duplici necnon de
Matrimonio Mulieris Excisae, . 839
Dogmatic Canons and Decrees, . no
Early Christian Hymns, . . 248
Economic and Moral Aspects of the
Liquor Business, . . .115
Edgar Allen Poe, . . .113
English Grammar, . . . 696
English Songs of Italian Freedom, 115
Everybody's Saint Francis, . . 397
Exposition of Catholic Morality
Grace, . . 548
Facts and Theories, . . 674
Faith and Suggestion, . .691
Faustula, . . . 680
Fifty Famous People, . . 696
From Dante to Verlaine, . . 693
Further Notes on St. Paul Ephe-
sians, Philippians, Colossians,
Philemon, .... 109
Ginevra, ..... 689
God Made Man, .... 252
God, the Author of Nature and the
Supernatural, . . . .in
Gone Before, .... 549
Handbook of Composition, . . 550
He Is Calling Me, . . .116
Henrik Ibsen : Plays and Problems, 244
His Grey Eminence, A Historical
Study of the Capuchin Pere Jo-
seph Francois Le Clerc Du Trem-
blay, 262
History of English Literature, from
Beowulf to Swinburne , . . 533
History of the Royal Family of
England, ..... 833
Hospital Society Addresses, . . 834
Homiletic and Catechetic Studies, 687
Hound of Heaven, . . 550
Immigration and Labor, . . 686
Incidents of My Life, . . . . 107
In St. Dominic's Country, . .831
Introductory Philosophy, . . 397
John Hancock, the Picturesque Pa-
triot, 408
John Hungerford Pollen, . . 394
La Loi et La Foi fitude sur St.
Paul et les Judaisants, . . 837
Lessons in Logic, . . . 254
Le Modernisme_ Social-Decadence
ou Regeneration, . . .113
Life of St. Anthony of Padua, . 697
Looking on Jesus : The Lamb of
God, 543
Loretto : Annals of the Century, 116
Manual of Christian Pedagogy, . 117
Manuel Pratique de la Devotion au
Sacre Coeur de Jesus, . . 839
Margaret's Travels, . . . 263
Marriage and Sex Problem, . 820
Mary, Mary, .... 261
May Iverson Tackles Life, . . 682
Miriam Lucas, .... 538
Missions and Missionaries of Cali-
fornia, . . . , .98
Modern Progress and History, . 685
My Heaven in Devon, . . . 689
My Unknown Chum, . . .106
New Ireland, .... 824
Notes on the New Rubrics and the
Use of the New Psalter, . . 406
One Hundred Masterpieces of
Painting, . . . . .100
Our Reasonable Service, . ' . 828
Penal Philosophy, . . . 835
Peronne Marie : A spiritual
Daughter of Saint Francis of
Sales, . . . . . 262
Phoebe, Ernest, and Cupid, . . 690
Plane and Solid Geometry, . . 695
Polemic Chat 688
Prisoners' Years, . . 252
Race Improvement or Eugenics, 537
Reasonable Service or Why I Be-
lieve, ... .116
Religion in New Netherland. . 54
IV
CONTENTS
Reminiscences of a Diplomatist's
Wife 683
Retreats for the People, . . 101
Saint Francis Xavier, . . . 405
Saints and Places, . . . 824
Saleswomen in Mercantile Stores, 105
Sancti Benedicti Regula Monach-
orum, . . . . . 410
Sans Lumiere, . . . .112
Searching the Scriptures, . . 117
Sermons and Addresses of His
Eminence William Cardinal
O'Connell, Archbishop of Boston, 677
Sermon Plans, .... 688
Short Treatise on Confession and
Communion, . . . . 550
Socialism and Character, . . 97
Socialism and the Workingman, 118
Socialism from the Christian Stand-
point, . . . . . 674
Sonnets and Songs, . . . 839
South American Problems, . . 249
Spiritual Exercises for the Purga-
tive, Illuminative, and Unitive
Ways, . . ... . 830
Spiritual Progress, . . . 696
Steamship Conquest of the Sea, . 693
Story of Saint Mildred of Thanet, 693
The Advance of Woman, . . 549
The Adventures of Four Young
Americans, . . . . 837
The Appearance of the Blessed
Virgin Mary at the Grotto of
Lourdes, ..... 825
The Black Brotherhood, . .261
The Blessed Eucharist : Belief of
the Early English Church, . 831
The Book of Saints and Heroes, 242
The Boy and His Gang, . .118
The Catholic Church From With-
out, ..... 410
The Catholic Encyclopedia, . . 260
The Church and Eugenics, . . 550
The Church and Social Problems, 696
The Church of Christ, . 550
The Communion of Saints, . 544
The Consolations of Purgatory, 697
The Decision, .... 262
The Delinquent Child and the
Home, ..... 107
The Dramatic Festival, . . 694
The Elements of Dogmatic The-
ology, ..... 697
The Enthusiasts of Port Royal, 543
The Eucharist and Christian Per-
fection, ..... 696
The Eve of Catholic Emancipation, 545
The Flowing Road, . . . 407
The Golden Ladder, . . . 694
The Golden Prayer Book, . . 550
The Golden Rose, . . . 240
The Gospel and Human Needs, . 826
The Greater Eve, or the Throne of
the Virgin Mother, . . . 403
The Growth and Development of
the Catholic School System in
the United States, . . . 393
The History of Religions, . . 243
The History of the Roman Breviary, 832
The Holy Christian Church, . 535
The Home Book of Verse, Amer-
ican and English, . . . 532
The Home Rule Bill, . . .255
The House and Table of God, . 838
The Housing Problem, . . 550
The Idea of Mary's Meadow, . 263
The Inheritance, . . . 542
The Kiss, and Other Stories, . 683
The Last Frontier, . . .401
The Life and the Religion of Mo-
hammed, ..... 101
The Litany of the Sacred Heart, . 694
The Little Cardinal, . . . 408
The Living Flame of Love, . . 256
The Lost Art of Conversation, . 247
The Holy Mass According to the
Greek Rite, . . . .no
The Mass : A Study of Roman Lit-
urgy, 239
The Messiah's Message, . -255
The New Psalter and Its Use, . 406
The New Rubrics and Psalter, . 550
The New Rubrics Governing the
Recitation of the Divine Office, 406
The One Top Many, . . . 549
The Pleasuring of Susan Smith, . 114
The Poets' Chantry, . . .251
The Principles of Moral Science, 399
The Rich Mrs. Burgoyne, . 261
The Romance of a Jesuit, . 262
The Romantic Story of the Puritan
Fathers, ... . 690
The Rule of Saint Clare, . 409
The Science of Logic, . . 402
The Second Book of Kings, . 838
The Sisters of Bon-Secours, . 398
The Son of Man His Preparation,
His Life, His Work, . .109
The Spiritual Life or the Journey
of the Soul to God, . . 253
The Story of Christopher Columbus 115
The Story of the Bridgettines, . 104
The Story of the Sodality of Our
Lady, 695
The Sugar Camp and After, . 694
The Training of Children, . . 695
The Unbeliever ; A Romance of
Lourdes, . . . . .108
The Unknown Quantity, . . 403
The Vital Touch, . . .117
The Waif of Rainbow Court, . 695
The Way of the Cross, . . 550
The Woman Hater, . < . .829
Theodicy : Essays on Divine Prov-
idence, ..... 673
Troilus and Cressida, . . . 838
Twelve Catholic Men of Science, 674
Unseen Friends, .... 250
Vocation, ..... 697
Volonte et Liberte, . . . 684
Wild Flowers of New York, . 407
Williams' Choice Literature, . 407
Whippen, ..... 262
Why Should We Change Our Form
of Government, . . .108
Zebedee V., . . . .261
Musical.
Mass of St. Francis de Sales, . 410
Mass of the Immaculate Concep-
tion, . . . . . 49
Organ Accompaniment to the Can-
tate, 4
O Salutaris Hostia, . _. . 409
Recordare, Virgo Mater Dei, . 409
Requiem Masses, . . . 4 J
Tantum Ergo, . . 409
Tozer's Catholic Church Hymnal, 410
THE
CATHOLIC WORLD.
VOL. XCVL OCTOBER, 1912. No. 571.
METHODS OF REFORMING OUR LAND SYSTEM.
BY JOHN A. RYAN, S.T.D.
N economic and social discussion the word reform is
commonly opposed to the word revolution. It im-
plies modification rather than abolition; gradual,
rather than violent, change. When men speak of
reforming the land system they do not, as a rule, con-
template such radical schemes as land nationalization or the Single
Tax. Some extension of the scope of state ownership and of the
taxation of land values may, however, be quite properly included
under the head of land reforms. They are changes in, rather than
a destruction of, the existing system.
Almost all the land within the borders of the United States
was at one time held by the government, colonial, state, or national.
By far the greater part of it has long since passed into the hands
of individuals and private corporations. With regard to the arable
land, this disposition was, on the whole, the best plan at the time
available for bringing land into use. This statement is particularly
true of the Homestead Law, which distributed the public domain
in small tracts among actual settlers. In all probability no system
of leasing or renting would have been as beneficial to the community
or to the cultivators as outright ownership.
There are, however, other kinds of land which can be used on
conditions more advantageous to the whole people when the title
is retained by the state. Such are timber, mineral, oil, phosphate,
natural gas, and water power lands. In many countries of Europe
it has long been the policy of the government to retain these lands
under public ownership. This policy tends to prevent the socially
Copyright. 1912. THE MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF ST. PAUL THE APOSTLE
IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
VOL. xcvi. i.
2 METHODS OF REFORMING OUR LAND SYSTEM [Oct.,
injurious destruction of forests, the private monopolization of
limited natural resources, and the private acquisition of exception-
ally valuable land at ridiculously low prices. The products of these
lands can all be extracted and put upon the market through a leasing
system. That is to say, the user of the land pays to the state a
rental according to the amount and quality of the raw material;
for example, coal, lumber, gas, and water power, which he takes
from the storehouse of nature. To be sure, the state could sell
these lands at a price that would bring it fully as much revenue
as the leasing system ; but this result is very unlikely to happen, and
practically never has happened. Under the leasing system, more-
over, the state can easily secure just treatment for both consumer
and laborer, by stipulating that the former shall obtain the product
at fair prices, and that the latter shall be paid fair wages.
To the objection that capitalists will not invest their money in
nor carry on extractive enterprises, whether in lumbering, mining,
or water power development, on a leasing basis, the sufficient an-
swer is that they are doing it now. A very large quantity of
minerals are produced from land which the operator has rented
either from private owners or from the state. Thirty- four per cent
of the coal mined in the United States in 1909 was taken from pri-
vately-owned land which was operated under a lease. Much of the
iron ore annually produced is extracted under the same arrange-
ment. If the rental or royalty demanded is not unreasonably high,
the capitalist will be quite as willing to produce raw material from
leased land as he is to manufacture or sell goods in a rented build-
ing. The terms of the particular lease, not the leasing system, are
the important consideration.
Unfortunately both our state governments and the national
government have permitted the greater part of these valuable lands
to pass under private ownership. Forty years ago, three-fourths of
the timber now standing was public property; at present about
four-fifths of it is in private hands.* By far the larger portion
of our mineral deposits, coal, copper, gold, silver, etc., have likewise
fallen under private control (according to the estimate of Dr.
Howe, a royalty of twenty-five cents per ton on the mineral out-
put of the country in 1907 would have yielded five hundred and
seventeen million dollars, or almost the entire expenditure of the
Federal government for that year). The only considerable body
^Report of the Commissioner of Corporations on the Timber Industry in the
United States.
1912.] METHODS OF REFORMING OUR LAND SYSTEM 3
of such resources still owned by the national government are those
of Alaska, which are worth several billions of dollars. The Com-
missioner of Corporations estimates the total amount of water
power in the United States, developed and undeveloped, as some-
where between twenty-seven and fifty-two million horse power, of
which only about four million horse power is developed.* While
the Federal government owns comparatively little developed water
power, its undeveloped power has been roughly estimated at about
fourteen million horse power in the national forests, and consider-
ably less than that amount in other parts of the public domain. f
All the lands and natural resources just enumerated, which
are still publicly owned, ought to remain so. Instead of being sold,
they should be leased to private concerns on such terms of rental
and occupation as would yield the rates of interest and profit that
are ordinarily obtained from other enterprises and investments sub-
ject to the same degree of risk. In some instances, no doubt, the
government might with advantage itself undertake the development
and operation of these resources. In any case, not a single valid
reason exists for the sale outright of any more of this part of the
public domain. Happily the majority of the American people, and
all the disinterested authorities on the subject, are in favor of the
leasing policy. The National Conservation Congress, held in Sep-
tember, 1910, took this ground with reference to all national re-
sources; the Commissioner of Corporations strongly urged the
same policy in the matter of water power ;$ and the Secretary of
the Interior recommended it in the case of the public coal lands,
particularly those in Alaska. Through the adoption of this plan
the rental value of all these lands would go to the whole people
instead of to a comparatively small number of individuals, mo-
nopoly would become impossible, and the publicly-owned natural
resources of the country would be conserved and protected against
rapid and ruinous exploitation.
Those natural resources that have passed out of government
ownership, and that have become, or are tending to become, mo-
nopolized by private concerns, such as the anthracite coal mines
of Pennsylvania and the iron ore beds of Minnesota and some other
States, should be so regulated by the government as to prevent
*Report of the Commissioner of Corporations on Water Power Development
in the United States, pp. 4 and 5.
Wdem., pp. 193-195.
%Op. cit., pp. 201, 211.
^Address to the Mining Congress at Chicago, November, 1911.
4 METHODS OF REFORMING OUR LAND SYSTEM [Oct.,
their products from being sold at extortionate prices. While a full
discussion of the means by which this end may be attained is im-
possible here, one or two general indications will perhaps not be
out of place. Either of two methods might be adopted : First, the
monopoly might be destroyed through compulsory sale of the
property to several distinct owners, in order to enforce genuine
competition in production. Or, if this should not prove feasible or
desirable, the maximum selling price of the output, for example,
coal, ought to be fixed by law at a point that would prevent extor-
tion upon consumers. That is, the price should not be permitted
to exceed the level that it would have reached if the commodity had
never been monopolized. There are, indeed, good reasons for
allowing the owners of mineral and other especially valuable na-
tural resources to profit in the same measure as the owners of
other kinds of land by those increases in price which take place
under competitive conditions of production; but there is no reason,
either of morals or of expediency, why they should reap gains
from value increases which are due solely to the manipulations of
monopoly.
Grazing lands which are now in possession of the state
should remain there until such time as they become available for
agriculture. The cattle owner could rent the required number of
acres from the government on terms that would be fair to both
parties, and whatever improvements he makes upon the land could
be fully protected in his lease.
With regard to agricultural lands, the case is somewhat dif-
ferent. In order that they may be continuously improved and pro-
tected against deterioration, it is necessary in most cases that the
user should be given every reasonable opportunity to become the
owner. If he has not this hope and this intention he will not, as
a rule, make the best use of the land, nor properly attend to its
conservation. The difficulty of distinguishing between the value
of the land itself and the value of the improvements made in (not
upon) it, and consequently the difficulty of guaranteeing the tenant
full payment for his improvements when he quits the land ; the temp-
tation to wear out a piece of land quickly, and then move to another
piece; and all the other facts that stand in the way of the Single
Tax as applied to agricultural land, show that the government
should not assume the function of landlord in the matter of arable
land. In the majority of cases the state would do better to sell this
land in small quantities to genuine, settlers.
1912.] METHODS OF REFORMING OUR LAND SYSTEM 5
There will, however, be many instances in which recourse may
well be had to the leasing system. For example, the opportunity
ought to be given to those cultivators who are unable to buy the land
to become tenants of the state rather than of private landlords.
State competition in this province would compel the private land-
lord to adopt more reasonable methods in his dealing with the ten-
ant. In all such cases the state should lease the land for a suffi-
ciently long time, and with sufficient safeguards to the tenant to
encourage as far as possible the keeping up of the land and the mak-
ing of permanent improvements. It should, moreover, do every-
thing within reason to enable the tenant ultimately to become the
owner. To this end it ought to make loans to cultivators at
moderate rates of interest and for long periods, after the manner
of New Zealand and Australia. Such a policy would benefit not
only the persons directly affected but the whole community, on ac-
count of the resulting increase in agricultural products. It would
be especially feasible in connection with lands which are to be made
productive through government projects of draining and irriga-
tion.
Whether the state ought to purchase undeveloped land from
private owners in order to sell it to settlers, may well be doubted.
The only lands in regard to which this scheme would seem to be at
all necessary, are large estates which are held out of use by their
proprietors. Even here the transfer of the land to cultivators
could be brought about indirectly. An extra tax on such estates
would undoubtedly achieve the desired result. Here, again, New
Zealand and Australia have shown the way. Hence the only direct
action by the state that seems necessary or wise in order to as-
sist men who wish to become cultivators of privately-owned agricul-
tural land, is the making of loans to those who are capable of be-
coming efficient farmers. In the interest of cheaper food products,
and in order to reduce congestion in, and the abnormal growth of,
cities, our governments, state and national, will sooner or later be
compelled to undertake a systematic and extensive scheme of aiding
people to " get back to the land."
So much for productive lands of all sorts. No city should
part with the ownership of any land that it now happens to possess.
While capitalists are willing to erect buildings costing hundreds of
thousands of dollars upon sites leased from private owners, there
is no good reason why anyone should refuse to put up or purchase
any sort of building on land owned by the municipality. None
6 METHODS OF REFORMING OUR LAND SYSTEM [Oct.,
of the objections to the leasing system as applied to agricultural
land are valid in the case of urban sites. For the value of improve-
ments could easily be separated from the value of the land; the
improvements could be sold as readily as though both land and im-
provements belonged to the same person; and the owner of the im-
provements could not be deprived of them without full compensation.
So long as the lessee paid the annual rent, his control of the land
would be as complete and certain as that of the private landowner
who continues to pay his taxes. On the other hand, the leaseholder
could not permit or cause the land to deteriorate if he would. The
nature of the land makes such a thing impossible. Finally, the of-
ficial activities involved in the periodical re-valuation of the land
and collection of the rent, would not differ essentially from those
now required to assess for and collect taxes.
The benefits of this system would be great and manifest. Per-
sons who are unable to own a home because of their inability to buy
land, could yet secure possession of the necessary land through a
lease from the city. Instead of spending all their lives in rented
houses, thousands upon thousands of families could become occu-
pants of abodes that they could call homes, and that they could
hand on to their children. The greater the amount of land thus
owned and leased by the city, the less would be the power of pri-
vate owners to hold land for exorbitant prices. Competition with
the city would compel them to sell land at its revenue-producing
instead of its speculative value. In the second place, the city itself
would obtain the benefit of every increase in the value of its land, by
means of periodical re- valuation of land, and periodical readjust-
ment of rent. To be sure, the city would lose through a fall in land
values, but this is more in accordance with general welfare than
that the loss should rest upon individuals.
Very few, however, of our American cities are now in pos-
session of land that could be leased to prospective builders. Would
it not be well for them to buy land for this purpose? In the case
of the largest cities, where the housing problem has become acute,
and the value of land is constantly rising, the question would seem
to call for an affirmative answer. This policy has been adopted
with happy results by many of the municipalities of France and
Germany.* In Savannah, Georgia, no extension of the municipal
limits is made unless the land to be embraced has already passed
into the ownership of the city. Another method which has been
*Cf. Marsh, Land Value Taxation in American Cities, p. 96.
1912.] METHODS OF REFORMING OUR LAND SYSTEM 7
suggested is that no new street be opened in any suburban district
until the city has become the owner of the abutting land and lots.
Whatever be the particular means adopted, the objects of munic-
ipal purchase and ownership of land are definite and obvious : to se-
cure for the city, for the whole community, the municipally and so-
cially occasioned increases in land values ; and to facilitate the reduc-
tion of congestion, and the housing of the homeless. Indeed, it is
probable that no adequate and comprehensive scheme of housing re-
form can be successfully operated without a considerable amount of
land purchase and ownership. The city must be in a position to pro-
vide sites for those who wish to borrow money from it to build
houses, but who cannot obtain land on fair conditions from private
owners.
Municipal purchase and ownership of land have been advocated
by such a conservative writer as the Rev. Heinrich Pesch, S.J.*
Turning now from the direct method of public ownership to
the indirect method of reform through taxation, we observe at the
outset that the radical proposals of the Single Taxers must be re-
jected. To tax all economic rent into the public treasury would be
to transfer all the value of land without compensation from the
private owner to the state. For example, a piece of land which
yielded to the owner an annual revenue or rent of one hundred
dollars would be taxed exactly that amount. On the assumption
that the prevailing rate of interest is five per cent, the owner
would thus be deprived of wealth of the value of two thousand
dollars. If he wanted to sell the land he could not find a purchaser,
since no one would be willing to pay anything for land the rent
of which would have to be handed over to the state. Inasmuch as
\ve deny that the so-called creation of land values by the community
gives the latter a moral right to these values,f we reject absolutely
the Single Taxers' attempted ethical defense of the confiscation of
rent and land values through taxation.
Let us examine, then, the milder suggestion of John Stuart
Mill, that the state should impose a tax upon land sufficient to
absorb all future increases in its value. $ This scheme is com-
monly known as the appropriation of future unearned increment.
Either in whole or in part it is at least plausible, and is to-day
within the range of practical discussion. It is expected to obtain
*Lehrbuch der Nationaloekonomie, I., 203.
tC/. THE CATHOLIC WORLD, June and July, 1911, Henry George and Private
Property.
^Principles of Political Economy, book v., ch. ii., sect. v.
8 METHODS OF REFORMING OUR LAND SYSTEM [Oct.,
for the whole community all future increases in land values, and to
wipe out the speculative, as distinguished from the revenue-pro-
ducing value of land. Consequently it would make land cheaper
and more accessible than would be the case if the present system
of land taxation were continued. Before discussing its moral
character, let us see briefly whether the ends that it seeks may
properly be sought by the method of taxation. For these ends are
mainly social rather than fiscal.
To use the taxing power for a social purpose is neither
unusual nor unreasonable. " All governments," says Professor
Seligman, " have allowed social considerations in the wider sense
to influence their revenue policy. The whole system of protective
duties has been framed not merely with reference to revenue con-
siderations, but in order to produce results which should directly
affect social and national prosperity. Taxes on luxuries have often
been mere sumptuary laws designed as much to check consumption
as to yield revenue. Excise taxes have frequently been levied from
a wide social, as from a narrow fiscal, standpoint. From the very
beginning of all tax systems these social reasons have often been
present."* Our Federal taxes on imports, on intoxicating liquors,
on oleomargarine, and on white phosphorous matches, and many of
the license taxes in our muncipalities, as on peddlers, saloon keepers,
and dog owners, are in large part intended to meet social as well as
fiscal ends. They are in the interest of domestic production, pub-
lic health, and public safety. The reasonableness of effecting so-
cial reforms through taxation cannot be seriously questioned.
While the maintenance of government is the primary object of taxa-
tion, its ultimate end, the ultimate end of government itself, is the
welfare of the people. Now if the public welfare can be promoted
by certain social changes, and if these in turn can be effected
through taxation, this use of the taxing power will be quite as
normal and legitimate as though it were employed for the upkeep
of government. Hence the morality of taxing land for purposes of
social reform will depend entirely upon the nature of the particular
tax that is imposed.
The tax that we are now considering can be condemned as
unjust on only two possible grounds: first, that it would be in-
jurious to society; and, second, that it would wrong the private
landowner. If it were fairly adjusted and efficiently administered
it could not prove harmful to the community. In the first place,
^Progressive Taxation in Theory and Practice, 1908, p. 130.
1912.] METHODS OF REFORMING OUR LAND SYSTEM g
landowners could not shift the tax to the consumer. All the au-
thorities on the subject admit that taxes on land stay where they
are put, and are paid by those upon whom they are levied in the first
instance.* The only way in which the owners of a commodity can
shift a tax to the users or consumers of it, is by limiting the supply
until the price rises sufficiently to cover the tax. By the simple
device of refusing to erect more buildings until those in existence
have become scarce enough to command an increase in rent equiva-
lent to the new tax, the actual and prospective owners of buildings
can pass the tax on to the tenants thereof. By refusing to put
their money into, say, shoe factories, investors can limit the supply
of shoes until any new tax on this commodity is shifted upon the
wearers of shoes in the form of higher prices. Until those rises
take place in the rent of buildings and the price of shoes, investors
will put their money in enterprises which are not burdened with
equivalent taxes.
But nothing of this sort can follow the imposition of
a new tax upon land. The supply of land is fixed, and
cannot be affected by any action of landowners or would-be land-
owners. The users of land and the consumers of its products
are at present paying all that competition can compel them to
pay. They would not pay more merely because they were re-
quested to do so by landowners who were laboring under the burden
of a new tax. If all landowners were to carry out an agreement to
refrain from producing, and to withhold their land from others
until rents and prices had gone up sufficiently to offset the tax,
they could, indeed, shift the latter to the renters of land and the
consumers of its products. Such a monopoly, however, is not within
the range of practical achievements. In its absence, individual
landowners are not likely to withhold land nor to discontinue pro-
duction in sufficient numbers to raise rents or prices. Indeed, the
tendency will be all the other way; for all landowners, including
the proprietors of land now vacant, will be anxious to put their
land to the best use in order to have the means of paying the tax.
Owing to this increased production, and the increased willingness
to sell and let land, rents and prices must fall. It is axiomatic that
new taxes upon land always make it cheaper than it would have been
otherwise, and are beneficial to the community as against the present
owners.
In the second place, the tax in question could not injure
*Cf. Taussig, Principles of Economics, II., 516; Seligman, The Shifting and In-
cidence of Taxation, p. 223.
io METHODS OF REFORMING OUR LAND SYSTEM [Oct.,
the community from the fact that it would discourage investment in
land. Once men could no longer hope to sell land at an advance in
price, they would not seek it to the extent that they now do as a
field of investment. For the same reason many of the present
owners would sell their holdings sooner than they would have sold
them if the tax had not been levied. From the viewpoint of the
public the outcome of this situation would be wholly good. Land
would be cheaper and more easy of access to all who desired to buy
or use it for the sake of production, rather than for the sake of
speculation. Investments in land which have as their main object a
rise in value are an injury rather than a benefit to the community;
for they do not increase the products of land, while they do advance
its price, thereby keeping it out of use. Hence the state should dis-
courage instead of encourage mere speculators in land. Whether
it is or is not bought and sold, the supply of land remains the same.
The supreme interest of the community is that it should be put to
use, and made to supply the wants of the people. Consequently
the only land investments that help the community are those that
tend to make the land productive. Under a tax on future increases
in value such investments would increase, for the simple reason that
land would be cheaper than it would have been without the tax.
Men who desired land for the sake of its rent or its product would
continue as now to pay such prices for it as would enable them to
obtain the prevailing rate of interest on their investment after all
charges, including taxes, had been paid. Men who wanted to rent
land would continue as now to get it at a rental that would give
them the usual return for their capital and labor.
So much for the effect of the tax upon the community. Would
it not, however, be unjust to the landowners? Does not private
ownership of its very nature demand that increases in the value of
the property should go to the owners thereof? Res fructificat
domino : a thing fructifies to its owner ; and value-increases may be
classed as a kind of -fruit.
In the first place, this formula was originally a dictum of
the civil law merely, the law of the Roman Empire. It was a legal
rather than an ethical maxim. Whatever validity it has in morals
must be established on moral grounds, by moral arguments. It
cannot forthwith be assumed to be morally sound on the mere au-
thority of legal usage. In the second place, it was for a long time
applied only to natural products, to the grain grown in a field, to
the offspring of domestic animals. It merely enunciated the policy
of the law to defend the owner of the land in his claim to such fruits,
I 9 i2.] METHODS OF REFORMING OUR LAND SYSTEM 11
as against any outsider who should attempt to set up an adverse
title through mere appropriation or possession. So far, the maxim
was evidently in conformity with reason and justice. Later on it
was extended, both by lawyers and moralists, to cover such com-
mercial " fruits " as rent from lands and houses, and interests from
loans and investments. Whether this was a morally legitimate
use of the formula we shall inquire in another place. At present
we are concerned only with its application to an increase in the
value of land. This is quite a different thing from the land's
natural fruit, its concrete product. If increases in land value fall
under the justifying influence of the maxim, the fact must be es-
tablished by specific moral arguments, not assumed on grounds of
presumption or analogy.
Finally, we must bear in mind that in essence the formula
is only a convenient phrase to describe summarily the attitude of
the civil law and the conclusions of ethical teaching. It is not a
self-evident, fundamental principle. Rather is it a summary of cer-
tain conclusions which are drawn from the fundamental principles
of industrial justice. Consequently its validity in any particular
situation will depend upon the correctness of the conclusions which
it sums up, while the soundness of these must in turn be tested by
their reasonableness as rules of industrial distribution. All spe-
cific conclusions, rules, and maxims concerning ownership must
finally be judged by their fitness to promote human welfare in
the distribution of the goods and opportunities of earth among the
children of men. This is the supreme and fundamental test of
property rights.
Therefore, the question whether state appropriation of all
future increases in land value by taxation would wrong private
owners can be answered only when we have determined whether
this practice hinders the welfare of private owners to an extent that
is excessive, as compared with the benefits that it would confer upon
other individuals, and upon society.
In a certain community six per cent is the usual rate of return
from money invested in agricultural enterprises. The government
owns a tract of land whose net product is equivalent to six per
cent on a valuation of twenty dollars per acre. Any cultivator
of this land could out of its gross product get interest on his mov-
able capital, remuneration for his own and his employees' labor, a
fund to cover the depreciation of capital and the losses of bad
years, taxes, and all other expenses, and still have $1.20 per acre
remaining. Evidently this land is worth twenty dollars an acre
12 METHODS OF REFORMING OUR LAND SYSTEM [Oct.,
to anyone who wants to buy it for use, for the things that it will
produce, for the returns that will come from its cultivation.
The government offers the land for sale at twenty dollars per
acre, but on condition that all future increases in its value will be
taxed into the public treasury. If, for example, its value should
increase to twenty-five dollars, an additional tax would be imposed
of, say, six per cent of the increase, or thirty cents per acre annually.
Or the tax might be levied once for all, when the land was trans-
ferred to a new owner, in which case it would be five dollars. Now,
if we assume that the land is certain not to diminish in value, we
are safe in concluding that it will find purchasers at the price speci-
fied. Under our present system land that has a productive value
of twenty dollars an acre, and which is certain to rise in value,
brings more than twenty dollars because the purchasers know that
they will profit by the advance. Land of the same productive
power, but which is likely to fall in value, is not worth twenty
dollars in the market. Finally, if it appears certain that the value
of the land will remain stationary, its selling price is determined
solely by its present productive power. In these circumstances
land yielding a net product equivalent to the interest on twenty
dollars per acre sells for that price at present. There is no reason
to suppose that it would not bring the same amount in the eco-
nomically similar hypothetical case that we are considering; for,
after paying the increase-of-value tax, the purchasing cultivators
would still obtain about the same return that is got from the
average land investment under the present system.
In the case of such a sale it is clear that the purchaser would
suffer no injustice because they were deprived of future increases
in the value of their land. They would not be compelled to forego
any gain that they had a right to expect. They would, indeed,
be shut out from the hope of profiting by possible or probable
advances in the value of their land, but they would have bought
it at a correspondingly lower price.
The hypothetical situation just described would be actual for
all those persons who should have purchased land after a future in-
crement-tax law had gone into effect. Upon none of them would
the law work any injustice.
Different, however, is the case of many of those who own land
when the law is enacted. Some of these have paid more for their
land than it is worth when the law becomes effective, and when
all subsequent increases are to be absorbed by the state. Let us
suppose that the law comes into force at the beginning of the year
1912.] METHODS OF REFORMING OUR LAND SYSTEM 13
1920, and that the value of the land at that date becomes the basis
from which all state-appropriated increases are to be reckoned.
Brown owns a piece of land which is worth one thousand dollars,
and which in consequence of the new legislation can never be worth
more than that amount to him. Its value will certainly rise, but
the state will take the increase through taxation. Now the dis-
turbing fact is that the land cost Brown twelve hundred dollars.
He suffers, therefore, a loss of two hundred dollars as a direct
result of the law.
A second class threatened with loss comprises all owners of
unused or vacant land. When they bought their land they did
so with the expectation of selling it later at a price sufficiently
high to bring them in addition to the principal the prevailing
rate of interest on their purchase price during all the time inter-
vening. If a man paid five hundred dollars for a vacant lot
in 1915, and if the lot was still worth only five hundred dollars
at the beginning of 1920, he would be deprived of all hope of
obtaining interest on his investment during that five year period.
With interest at the rate of six per cent, his loss is one hundred
and fifty dollars. If his land is worth less at the latter than it
was at the former date, he loses an additional amount.
Now, all those owners who, in the absence of the increment-
tax law, would have held their land until its increase in value had
made good their losses, whether of interest or principal, have a
valid moral claim against the state for equivalent compensation.
This claim rests upon a tacit contract made with them by the state
when they bought the land. By the very fact that it sanctioned
their title to the land, the state virtually promised that it would
permit them to profit by all the increases in value that might accrue
while the land remained in their possession. It made this promise
by virtue of its silence on the subject of increment-tax legislation.
Had it given any intimation that it would enact such a law at any
future time, these owners would not have paid as much for their
land as they actually did pay. Consequently, when the state passes
the law, it violates its implicit contract with these owners, and is
morally bound to make good any resulting loss. So much seems
certain.
However, many of those owners who have suffered losses
either of principal or interest w r ould, even if the law had not been
enacted, have sold their holdings or died before the land had risen
in value sufficiently to offset the decline, and to cover the foregone
interest. Only that part of such losses which corresponds to the
i 4 METHODS OF REFORMING OUR LAND SYSTEM [Oct.,
decline in value due to the enactment of the law itself, can be
fairly charged against the state.
Nevertheless, it would seem that the state is bound to give
compensation in these cases also. Except in rare instances, it
cannot determine which owners would and which would not, in
the absence of the law, have held their lands until they had recouped
their losses. Hence the state is under the physical necessity of
compensating all or none. Since the latter alternative would vio-
late all the received standards of public honor and honesty, and
since it would eventually injure both individual and social welfare,
it may be dismissed as a flagrant and inconceivable act of civic
immorality.
There is, indeed, another method of adjustment that, theo-
retically at least, might be justifiable. Instead of compensating
owners for the full amount of their losses, the state might buy
their land at the value that it had just before the increment-tax
law went into effect, plus the ordinary bonus that is given when
land is taken for public uses. For example, a vacant lot is worth
four hundred and fifty dollars the day after the passing of the law,
which is fifty dollars less than its value before the law became
probable. For, as already noted, the very enactment of the law,
and therefore the probability of its enactment, causes the value of
land to decline. Men will no longer pay anything for the chances
of a rise in value, when the advance is all to be taken by the state.
In other words, the speculative element in land value would dis-
appear, and its price would be regulated entirely by its producing
power. In the case before us we are assuming that the speculative
element is worth fifty dollars. Now, if we assume that the state is
accustomed to add a bonus of fifteen per cent to the purchase price
of all land that it takes for public purposes, say, for parks, streets,
buildings, etc., it would pay for the price of land in question
$45o.oo+$50.oo+i5 per cent of $500.00, or $565.00. This might
or might not fully cover the losses sustained by the private owner.
Without actually purchasing the land, the state might give
compensation on the same principle by paying to the losers a sum
equal to the decline in value caused by the law, plus the usual
bonus that accompanies a compulsory sale. In the case that we
are considering this would mean $5o.oo-|-$65.oo, or $115.00.
The justification of this method, like the justification of all
other rules of distribution and all other practices affecting property
rights, must be sought in its consequence to social and individual
welfare. It cannot be too often repeated that no rule or principle
1912.] METHODS OF REFORMING OUR LAND SYSTEM 15
of ownership has intrinsic or metaphysical value. They all de-
rive their moral validity from their effects, from their conducive-
ness to human welfare in the complete sense of that phrase. This
means that any rule or method of distribution is morally lawful
which, while promoting the interests of the whole community,
causes no undue hardship to any individual or to any class of in-
dividuals. For the community is made up of individuals, and all
the individuals therein are of equal moral value and importance,
and have equal claims to consideration in the matter of property
and ownership. Whether any given rule or practice of distribu-
tion which seems conducive to public welfare is unduly severe on
certain individuals, is a question that is not always easily answered.
Some of the methods that have been employed are clearly fair and
just, others are clearly unfair and unjust, and still others are of
doubtful morality. In every country the state compels private
owners to, part with land at prices that sometimes are lower than
the cost to them; in more than one country of Europe freebooters
and kingly favorites robbed the people of their land, yet their
descendants, and heirs, and successors are recognized by both
statesmen and moralists as having a just title to that same land;
in Ireland stubborn landlords are to-day compelled by the British
Government to sell their holdings to the tenants at the present
value of the land, plus a slight bonus; in many countries men
may become owners of their neighbors' land by the title of pre-
scription, without paying a cent of compensation to the latter.
All these practices cause great harm to individuals, but they are all
held to be justified on grounds of social welfare.
The particular method of compensation that we are now con-
sidering must probably be placed in the class of doubtfully just prac-
tices. For those communities in which a future increment-tax
is urgent or necessary could well afford to pay all losses of principal
and interest in full. The cost to the community would be insig-
nificant as compared with its gains from the new legislation. If
the cost were very great it would mean that the upward trend of
land values was not yet sufficiently marked to render an increment-
tax law necessary or expedient. Social peace, tke security of
property, and the prevailing conception of the sacredness of private
ownership, are of sufficient importance to demand in most cases the
policy of complete compensation. The more generous course to
the individuals concerned would likewise be the more expedient one
from the viewpoint of public welfare.
Should not the policy of compensation be given a wider ex-
1 6 METHODS OF REFORMING OUR LAND SYSTEM [Oct.,
tension? Since an increment-tax would cause a decline in the
value of all land, is not the state morally bound to reimburse even
those owners who have undergone no positive loss on their actual
investment? Take the case of a man who has paid five thousand
dollars for a piece of improved land which just before the incre-
ment-tax law became imminent was valued at six thousand. In
consequence of the law, its value falls to five thousand. Is
the state obliged to make good this loss of one thousand dollars?
An affirmative answer is impossible of demonstration. Provided
that the law inflicts no positive loss upon individual owners, that
is, no loss that corresponds to any actual outlay on their part, it
may quite as justly appropriate past as future increases in value.
As soon as such legislation becomes feasible and urgent, human
welfare demands that both these kinds of value increments should
go to the whole community rather than to the minority who happen
at the time to be private owners. Since the land and its benefits
are intended for the whole human race, the institution of private
property is justified only to the extent that it promotes the welfare
of all, non-owners as well as owners. Now the welfare of land-
owners is sufficiently safeguarded when they are protected against
the loss of either interest or principal. There is no need that they
should profit by changes in value which have cost them neither
money nor labor. In fact, it is better for them that they should
not derive gain from any such source, and that all their income
should be due either to their own efforts or to a reasonable return
from their own capital. What is true of landowners in this respect
is true of all other persons. Under the head of reasonable return
on capital, we include, of course, compensation for the risks of
productive enterprises, which is an entirely different thing from
the speculative gains derived from socially occasioned rises in
the value of land.
In order that the morality of increment-tax legislation may
receive the fullest possible discussion, let us notice briefly a few
objections in addition to those already considered. We are some-
times told that the proposal is new and, in fact, revolutionary.
In some degree the charge is true, but the conditions which the law
is intended to meet are likewise new, if not revolutionary. The
whole case for the proposed legislation rests upon the fact, that
for the first time in the world's history land values everywhere
show an unmistakable tendency to advance indefinitely. This
means that the minority who own land are in the way of reaping
unbought and indefinite benefits at the expense of the majority who
1912.] METHODS OF REFORMING OUR LAND SYSTEM 17
are landless. This new fact, with its tremendous significance
for human welfare, may well demand a new limitation of property
rights in land.
Again, it has been objected that to deprive landowners of
the opportunity of profiting by changes in the value of their hold-
ings, would be an unfair discrimination against one class of in-
vestors. Nevertheless, there are good reasons for the discrimina-
tion. Barring the case of monopoly, advances in the value of other
goods than land are intermittent, uncertain, and temporary. In-
creases in land values are on the whole constant, certain, and per-
manent. In the second place, the important advances in the value
of other kinds of goods, that is, monopolistic concerns, can and
should be appropriated by the community. They could be taken
through special taxation, or prevented through state regulation of
the prices and charges which make them possible. Both methods
are now employed by the public authority in relation to public
service corporations, such as street railway, gas, and railroad
companies. The same policy should be extended to all permanent
monopolies. Save as the reward and encouragement of excep-
tionally efficient business management, no owner of any sort of
productive property has a valid claim to more than the prevailing
rates of interest and profits. Where gains are restricted within
these limits, property will not increase in value, except through
those general influences which bring about a general rise in prices.
A final objection is that this legislation would violate the
canons of just taxation. It would impose a specially heavy burden
upon one form of property. Now the general doctrine of taxation
held by substantially all economists to-day, and by Catholic moral-
ists for centuries, is known as the "faculty " theory.* According
to this theory, men ought to be taxed in proportion to their ability
to pay, rather than in accordance with the benefits that they are as-
sumed to receive from the state. And it is universally recognized
that the proper measure of " ability " is not a man's total pos-
sessions, productive and unproductive, but his income, the annual
revenues out of which the tax payments must come. Now the
proposal to take for the state the whole of the future increases in
the value of land does seem to violate this rule of taxation according
*Cf. Seligman, Progressive Taxation in Theory and Practice, part ii., chs. ii.
and iii. ; also the classical refutation of the " benefit theory " by John Stuart Mill
in Principles of Political Economy, book v., ch. ii., sec. 2. The traditional Catholic
teaching on the subject is succinctly stated by Cardinal de Lugo in his de Justitia
et Jure, disp. 36 ; cf. Devas, Political Economy, 2d ed., p. 594.
VOL. XCVi. 2.
i8 METHODS OF REFORMING OUR LAND SYSTEM [Oct.,
to ability; for it would appropriate not merely a percentage, as in
the case of other revenues, but the whole of this particular portion
of the landowner's income.
However, all the adherents of the " faculty " theory maintain
that it is subject to certain modifications. In the first place, funded
incomes, such as interest on an actual investment, and " unearned
incomes," such as interest on the socially occasioned increments of
value, should be taxed at a higher rate than incomes which represent
the expenditure of labor. All tax paying involves sacrifice, and
the sacrifice required to give up a certain per cent of the two former
kinds of incomes is not so great as the sacrifice that is undergone
when the same proportion is deducted from salaries or wages.
Hence the landowner may be really more " able " to turn over to
the state the whole of the socially occasioned increases in the value
of his land than the salary receiver is to pay ten per cent of his
salary; for the landowner gives up something that has cost him
no sacrifice either of labor or saving, but is of the nature of a
" windfall." In the second place, while excluding the general
benefit theory, the " faculty " principle allows a place for benefits
that are special. In American cities the landowner is compelled to
pay in full for the benefits that accrue to his land from public im-
provements, such as the opening of a street or the installment of a
sewer. Since these benefits can be clearly determined, and since
they are all enjoyed by the owner of the land, he is quite properly
required to pay for them. On the same principle it is fair that he
should return to the community the equivalent of those land value
increases which are due to general social causes, instead of to
specific public improvements. In both cases he pays for benefits
which are received by him alone, and which represent no previous
outlay on his part, either of labor or money. Since they have a
different origin from other portions of his income, they may be
taxed according to a different principle.
So much for the canons of taxation involved. The general
and fundamental justification of taxing land value increases into
the public treasury is, as already noted, to be sought in human
welfare. It is not to be found in the theory of the Single Taxers,
that these values are " produced " by the community. The in-
creases in value are a kind of no-man's property, which, provided
that they have not been sold to any person, may rightfully be ap-
propriated for the common good.
THE LEAST OF THE LITTLE ONES.
BY E. M. DINNIS.
HEY stood on the outskirts of the little Downside
village which has given an English saint to the cal-
endar more or less in a line first the Convent
of the Order of the Holy Infancy; next to it
the commodious cottage where " the Brown Lady "
entertained little visitors from the slums of London; and then the
hermitage in which the mightiest brain in England (according to
the coterie of discerning persons who treat of scientific matters
in the press) was resting itself in preparation for fresh labors in
the field of scientific research known as Eugenics. Beyond their
respective gardens lay the " Holy Wood," associated with the saint
already mentioned, and with many strange and beautiful legends
" some of the prettiest things in mythology," the Young Professor,
who was poetical by nature, called them.
Every new morning the nuns and the Brown Lady looked out
on the wood, and on the hills, and blessed the faithful Creator; and
every new morning the Young Professor of Anthropology and Eu-
genics looked on the green earth and joyous river, and opined that
the world would indeed be a fine place if only Man had not been
warped by the decrees of priest-made religions, and. so become a less
perfect thing than Nature's other handiwork. Who had ever heard
of " abortive " hills or " deficient " valleys?
The Brown Lady's hobby was a special source of aggravation
to the Young Professor, for, to use the Coming Man's own ex-
pression, this lady of the bright brown eyes, and unvaried brown
attire, was " a fancier of the unfit! " A worker in the city slums
during the Winter months, in the Summer time she loved to collect
little children the least of the Little Ones deaf, dumb, and
crippled, and to tend them with her own hands in this little restful
paradise, in the saint's country, near the Holy Wood. The young
man of science was a philanthropist in his way. Much of the
Brown Lady's work he approved of she sat on Care Committees
in addition to pauperizing the community " in her own pernicious
and pious way;" and her labors for the housing of the poor had
been applauded by sane secularists and a non-sectarian press but
20 THE LEAST OF THE LITTLE ONES [Oct.,
her incurable preference for the unfit was a thing abominable to the
foremost exponent of the doctrine of Eugenics.
The Brown Lady's youngest charge was especially on the pro-
fessor's nerves. John Ignatius of the Higgins' was indeed a deplor-
able specimen of humanity. Sickly in body, without being exactly
imbecile, he was certainly to be reckoned among the mentally de-
ficient. At six years of age he had nothing to say beyond a few
jumbled phrases, nor was it easy to interest him in things in process
around him. Enthralling contretemps, such as the discovery of a
missing shoe in the bedroom ewer, left him unmoved, while the
joys of a raspberry pie a thing unguessed in his native Whitechapel
failed to produce practical signs of appreciation from the queer,
phlegmatic child with the white, impassive face.
" That brat ought never to have been kept ! " the professor said,
pointing, as he leaned over the low garden wall, at the least of the
Little Ones domiciled with the Brown Lady. A chilling com-
ment enough, coming as it did from the greatest mind in Europe
(to quote the cheaper and more effusive press), but John Ignatius
apparently lacked even that discrimination possessed by dogs and
cats for those who dislike them, for he simply looked up at the
speaker and gave one of the rare and always irrevelant smiles that
occasionally lighted up his dull face.
" I suppose if I gave him a cherry," the other went on, severely,
stretching his hand up to the boughs of an adjacent tree, " he'd
only swallow the stone ? "
The Brown Lady, who was being addressed, laughed gayly.
" Try him," she said, " he's not so bad as all that ! "
The professor tried him. John Ignatius received the gift with
no outward signs of appreciation. His face remained stolid and
unsmiling. " He never ought to have been allowed to occur ! " the
Young Professor reiterated. " He can't even enjoy a cherry. The
little beggar hasn't got any senses ! "
" When you get your system to perfection," the Brown Lady
retorted, " they'll say that you never ought to have been kept. Didn't
you once tell me that you had lost your sense of smell through some
chemical experiment ? "
The young man smiled in disinterested admiration of the re-
partee. The Brown Lady, though religious, was very charming,
with her soft brown eyes and hair, and demure cambric collar and
cuffs.
" Now, John Ignatius," she went on brutally, " has a really
1912.] THE LEAST OF THE LITTLE ONES 21
remarkable sense of smell. You should see him when he gets hold
of a rose." She plucked a rose growing on the wall and gave it to
the child, who grabbed at it and sniffed at the petals with a certain
show of pleasure.
" I suppose you selected him for this beano out of a family of
healthy and normal boys and girls," the professor went on, censor-
iously, " simply because he possessed the least capacity for en-
joying it? "
The Brown Lady certainly did look rather guilty.
" Well," she said, " the Holiday Fund would take the others,
but this poor little man was disqualified. Besides, I don't deny it,
I do love the weakest best. John Ignatius is my favorite baby."
The Young Professor groaned, and swore under his breath.
" And you'll encourage him to grow up and marry and have a brood
like himself ! " he said, " and you call that being kind to suffering
humanity to bring more of it into existence ! "
" What do you mean by existence? " the Brown Lady inquired,
" so much depends on that," but the professor interrupted her.
" Look at it now," he ejaculated, pointing at the object of their
discussion; it doesn't know the difference between a rose and a
rosary ! And as for its sense of smell, may I ask if your beads are
scented ? "
John Ignatius, thus called attention to, had relinquished the
rose, and was engaged in apparently inhaling some fragrance from
a string of rosary beads which had been lying on the seat near
him. So enchanted was he by the result that he made one of his
rare speeches. " Goody, goody, goo ! " he cried, and shouted in
discordant joy a sound particularly distressing to the professor's
sensitive soul.
" Now, that's funny," the Brown Lady said, sturdily. " You
may scoff, but someone else once declared that my beads possessed
a scent. I believe that child has detected it, too ! It was a friend
of mine who was describing that mysterious perfume that some
people notice in the Glastonbury ruins, and he explained to me that
the aroma was 'just like the scent of my rosary beads.' '
" Hem," the Young Professor said, dryly, " the odor of sanc-
tity," and the Brown Lady was fain to acknowledge that he had
revenged her allusion to his physical disability. The professor
followed up his advantage, for they were excellent friends.
"How did he come to know that your beads had a scent?"
he inquired, demurely. " Was he odd like this child and given to
22 THE LEAST OF THE LITTLE ONES [Oct.,
mistaking rosaries for roses? " He indicated John Ignatius. The
boy was fondling the rosary with his lips and murmuring to him-
self, " Good God ! Good God ! " words caught from the professor.
" Go in and have your tea," the Brown Lady said, " you are
very impertinent. And don't send the children any more goose-
berries, or they will all be ill, and 'deteriorate/ and possibly con-
taminate the third generation from now !"
She disappeared into the house with the least of the Little
Ones. The Young Professor remained where he was, gazing after
them. His housekeeper appeared at the door. " Your tea is get-
ting cold, sir," she called, and added to herself, " always a-dream-
ing of his books ! "
On the following Sunday afternoon the Young Professor
strolled down his garden in the hope of finding the Brown Lady
resting in her pleasance. He had been out on the hills that morn-
ing. It was his custom to pay his devotions- assiduously to Nature
on Sunday mornings as a protest against stuffy churches and anti-
hygienic superstitions. The day was matchless, but he would have
pursued such devotions in the snow or pouring rain, and run the
risk of pneumonia, or lesser ills, in the furtherance of his cult, so
quaint are the ways of the apostles of Reason.
It was the festival of the local saint an unwholesome person
who had encouraged lepers near his hermitage in the Holy Wood
and there were to be great doings at the convent. An emi-
nent preacher was coming down from town; a man of learning
almost as profound as that of the Coming Man of Science himself,
though the enlightened press was loathe to admit it. The Young
Professor rather hoped that he might find him in the Brown Lady's
garden, and draw him into a discussion. He could not leave
Theism alone this young man ! An antagonism which the Brown
Lady found a very healthy sign. He would listen with admirable
fairness to arguments. He simply discarded this philosophy of the
Catholic Church because it failed to appeal to his intelligence, and
the Young Professor, though pledged in fealty to the tangible
alone, took pride in the possession of a " conscience " which would
not allow him to insult truth. Intelligence was the god of this
young man with the abnormal thinking apparatus, whose brain,
no doubt, weighed considerably more than that of, say, a Breton
peasant's wife ! The idea of encountering this Benedictine Father,
whose writings on certain scientific subjects were regarded as
1912.] THE LEAST OF THE LITTLE ONES 23
standard works, attracted him. The absurd philosophy of the
Brown Lady might be clothed in some semblance of plausibility
by this man of intellect. It might even assume a new aspect
for the discoverer of the latest " truth " in anthropology Theism
might insinuate itself into the favor of the Professor of Eugenics
by thus approaching and knocking at the gate of his reason. He
would certainly like to hear what the eminent ecclesiastic had to
say for himself.
He was doomed to be disappointed, however. The bower of
repose contained nobody save the least of the Little Ones with a
patient Abagail in attendance. From the latter the professor
learned (he was friendly alike with all sorts and conditions of
people) that her mistress had gone to Benediction at the convent,
where the Reverend Father was preaching a sermon to the children
who had that day made their first Communion. The other Little
Ones had gone, but John Ignatius could not be trusted in church
on great occasions on account of the sudden outbursts of uncanny
approbation to which he was liable to give vent, so it had been
necessary to leave him at home.
" Wouldn't you have liked to have gone ?" the Young Professor
asked. (He disapproved of this damsel, who came from an orphan-
age, and was, beyond doubt, contaminated.) " It sounds very gay."
" It's going to be beautiful," the orphan sighed, wistfully.
" There's to be a procession, and all white veils and candles."
" Good Lord ! " the professor interjected. " There ought to
be a law against it! Why don't we hear of them all being burnt
alive?"
" Good Lord ! Good Lord ! " John Ignatius repeated, with one
of his fortuitous smiles.
" Suppose," he went on, " I looked after the little chap for
you, you could go then, could'nt you? Come along, it will be all
right. I'll tell your mistress that I borrowed the child for pur-
poses of scientific experiment, and you couldn't refuse me."
The orphan closed with the offer with all alacrity. To her the
apostle of the elimination of the unfit was just the kindest and
most considerate gentleman in the world, and she entrusted the
most precious of her charges to him without demur.
John Ignatius was passed over the wall into the professor's
keeping.
" You wasn't going yourself to hear the sermon, sir, was you ?"
she asked, seized with compunction.
24 THE LEAST OF THE LITTLE ONES [Oct.,
The Young Professor smiled. He shook his head. " It
would be too difficult for me to understand, wouldn't it? " he said.
The little maid looked at him sympathetically. " But there' d
be Benediction," she said. " Oh, I hopes as you won't find him too
much, he's a bit fretful this afternoon."
She hesitated, and conscientious scruples seemed likely to
.arise in the mind of the contaminated orphan.
" Run along and get ready," the professor said.
'\'* ILeft alone with his charge, the Man of Science surveyed John
Ignatius with some trepidation. First he took due care to remind
himself of what perhaps he might have overlooked, viz., that he
had borrowed the child for purposes of scientific investigation,
and that he was about to have a very instructive afternoon. He
sat John Ignatius down on the garden seat with a peach, and so
proceeded to place him " under observation." Observation with
John Ignatius, however, proved to be of a peculiarly harassing and
unremitting nature. He fell off the seat and lamented the circum-
stance. He essayed a tour of the garden, and sat down dismally
on one crumpled leg, and again made lamentation. The professor
took himself in hand and laid a firm grip on the fact that he was
studying the characteristics of mental defection. He regarded the
attenuated form of the child, both physically and mentally unfit
incapable of getting anything worth having out of existence. Why,
even if the beautiful fairy tales of Christianity, and they were
beautiful, were true, here the mental power wherewith to grasp
their beauty was lacking. Who was to console this little unfor-
tunate for his " hard luck " with the idea of a heavenly Father,
or of supernatural recompense. Who, in short, was to convey the
conception of the supernatural to this enfeebled mind ? The Brown
Lady's thesis was impossible ! Its cruelty and tyranny towards the
race intolerable ! Others like John Ignatius must not be allowed to
occur.
At this moment the object of his meditation gave vent to
renewed signs of dissatisfaction with his present surroundings.
His custodian took him by the hand and walked him up and down
the garden, but the least of the Little Ones was not easily amused.
It then occurred to the professor that his charge might be suffer-
ing from thirst. He procured a cup of water which John Ignatius
of the Higgins' consumed in a sloppy and offensive manner, without
however giving any sign of assuaged discontent.
The professor took counsel of himself. Perhaps if he could
1912.] THE LEAST OF THE LITTLE ONES 25
take the child and show him something new it might soothe him?
An inspiration came to him. He would take him across the meadow
to the wood, and see what effect completely new surroundings had
on the child's intelligence. John Ignatius had not yet been taken
to the Holy Wood, although it was a favorite place of resort for
the Brown Lady and her Little Ones.
" Come for a ride, old chap," the professor said, jauntily,
hoisting the small person of John Ignatius upon his shoulder.
He strode across the meadow, to which the owners of the gardens
had access, and entered the Holy Wood. Strange tales were told
of the Holy Wood. The saint had lived there in a cell ; and there,
it was said, he had gathered the little children whom he loved, and
preached to them of Almighty God, and the Holy Child Jesus.
That, no doubt, was why the Brown Lady loved the Holy Wood.
It was further said that his remains lay buried \vhere the cell stood,
but the site of the same had long since ceased to be identified.
The Brown Lady went constantly to the Holy Wood. The
children used to say that when she took them through it, on their
walks, she would make them go quietly, as though they were in
church, and she had been nearly cross with Tom of Hoxton when
he had done to death a beetle that crossed their path in the centre
of the wood.
The Man of Science entered the Holy Wood carrying John
Ignatius on his shoulder, the latter breathing hard in the unpleasant
way he had, and grunting ever and anon. He made for the middle
of the glade from whence a narrow green path traversed the wood.
Along that path one obtained a vistaed outlook on to the green pas-
ture land and the gently sloping hills beyond, with the delicately
interlacing trees roofing the woodland avenue and distilling the sun-
light as it poured down from a cloudless sky.
" They call this the Holy Wood," the Young Professor com-
mented to his charge. " It's rather jolly, isn't it, John Ignatius? "
" Holy Wood, holy, holy ! " John Ignatius snorted, and kicked
his steed hard on the chest, causing pain.
" You young imp ! " the professor said, laughing, and setting
him down. A rabbit appeared on the scene and regarded the pair
with interest, and an amazing lack of fear.
" Why, little beast," the man of lethal chambers asked, " how
do you know that I'm not going to kill you ? "
" Holy, holy, holy ! " John Ignatius chanted.
It was an intensely hot afternoon. The professor sat himself
26 THE LEAST OF THE LITTLE ONES [Oct.,
down under a big beech tree, with John Ignatius on the grass near
at hand. The rabbit watched the proceedings, sitting upright in
the attitude of the domestic cat on the hearth.
The boy sat staring stolidly in front of him he was no longer
fidgety, that was something with a blank look of complete stu-
pidity on his wizen face. The Man of Science surveyed the unin-
telligent features, the dull, lack-lustre eyes of the boy before him.
" What's the use of him ? " he muttered, almost as though the
Brown Lady were there to answer for the delinquencies of the
creed which permitted John Ignatius of the Higgins' to occur.
" What was the use of him to himself if, granted the existence
of a supreme Spirit, that supreme Spirit could not convey the con-
ception of Himself to this so-called intelligence. How, indeed,
could a Spirit be supreme which depended for a comprehension
of Itself on the formation of the brain cells in a material
body?"
It was an ideal afternoon for meditating. As he lay there the
Young Professor did indeed wish that a supreme Spirit were pos-
sible. The Brown Lady's philosophy had its beautiful side as well
as the mischievous one that disapproved of Eugenics. And she
was such a practical worker, with so much sound sense in her
methods in spite of the pernicious superstition. Moreover, she pos-
sessed a delicious sense of humor. Her stories of quaint things
seen and heard among the poor were quite delectable hearing then,
an impenitent sentimentalist withal, she would interpolate some
story of human wreckage which insulted his principles, and drew
the tears to his eyes, and smile that wonderful smile of hers, but
magnanimously " let it go at that." He remembered how she
had silenced him by recalling his own physical deficiency; and then
he realized for the first time that he was missing all the sweet fra-
grancy of the woods. He glanced at his charge. The child was
sitting in his queer, aloof way, looking at nothing in particular.
A field mouse had perched itself on a fallen tree trunk near the
boy, but John Ignatius, as we have hinted, was not ap observant
child. The professor was vastly interested in the mouse. Like
the rabbit, it seemed totally insensible to fear of the terrible human
race. He wondered how much of the world around them was
accessible to the comprehension of the defective child. He wished
that, for purposes of research, he could get within the limits of
that straitened intelligence learn exactly how much of existing
things existed for this poor, pitiful specimen of humanity. Per-
1912.] THE LEAST OF THE LITTLE ONES 27
haps if he concentrated his will he might " get inside " the so-called
mind of the least of the Little Ones and gain some knowledge of
its disabilities. He leaned back against the trunk of the beech tree,
and bent his mighty intelligence on this end. At first he was dis-
turbed by the sight of a large, hairy caterpillar which was crawling
across the child's knees. He squirmed in anticipation, knowing
the ways of even normal children where insects are concerned.
John Ignatius regarded the creature soberly, showing neither re-
pugnance nor the delight which a distorted mind sometimes takes
in the gruesome. He put out a finger and very gently, with an
exquisitely tender touch, stroked the fearsome beastie. The pro-
fessor was egregiously relieved. He marveled at himself. There
was something uncannily benign about the atmosphere of this
woodland spot this afternoon. His ethical position in regard to
the encouragement of John Ignatius as a species even seemed
likely to be undermined. He was getting away from his normal
self. A heavy, lethargic feeling was overtaking him. Was he
indeed " getting inside " the little incomplete mind and sharing its
non-sensibility? He fixed his eyes on the child whom he had
" under observation " at one side of him, and a little in front so
that he could watch him as he sat.
The child who never should have been was sitting impassive.
The hairy caterpillar was making its way, whole and unsundered,
over the grass. Suddenly the least of the Little Ones began to
sniff the air, and at the same moment the professor became con-
scious of a strong, deliciously fragrant, yet wholly subtle aromatic
perfume. It was more like incense than anything else. " What
on earth could it be ? " the young man asked himself. " What was
this pungency that was strong enough to penetrate his obliterated
sense of smell? " He hadn't been able to smell anything for years!
The child threw his head back in obvious enjoyment.
" Nantie Clare," he said, which was more or less the name by which
the Brown Lady was known by the Little Ones, and looked round
him. It was evident that he associated the strange perfume with
the Brown Lady. The Young Professor wondered where the
connection came in; and then he thought of the rosary beads that
possessed the same strange scent that psychic people said clung
to the ruins of the holy abbey. The scent was sweet and pungent,
suggesting the odors of the East a fragrancy entirely alien to an
English woodland. He inhaled a long breath. The earthly scent
of the wood was not perceptible. Was this uncanny perfume so
28 THE LEAST OF THE LITTLE ONES [Oct.,
strong as to swamp all others, or had his sense of smell only be-
come available for this special purpose?
As the fragrance began to grow fainter John Ignatius showed
signs of restlessness. He started a peculiar kind of crooning that
got on his guardian's nerves to quite a remarkable degree. In an
ordinary way he would have taken the child home there and then,
but the spot held him prisoner. So long as that eerie, altogether
delicious, scent remained he could not tear himself from the place.
He thrust his fingers in his ears tightly to keep out the exasperating
drone, and peered out at the defective child from the artificial si-
lence thus produced.
Then a second strange thing happened. With his fingers still
thrust in his ears he became aware that the woodland was giving
vent to sounds that in some way resembled the most wondrous of
imaginable music. The boy, who was rocking himself to and fro
presumably still droning and crooning sat up motionless in the
attitude of listening. With something akin to fear in his heart,
the professor removed the fingers from his ears. The music con-
tinued, neither louder nor softer, but now intermingled with the
twitter of the birds and the crackling of dead wood under his
feet as he sprang up and shook himself. The strains were unmis-
takable, yet almost undefinable almost as though the very bracken
had become sensitized to the touch of some invisible maker of
melody. The sounds rose and fell immeasurably more beautiful
than the strains of the most perfect earthly music, which could only
be used as a simile in describing the nature of the phenomenon. He
pressed his fingers back into his ears. The sound continued. Grad-
ually it was borne in upon the professor that these sounds, so un-
mistakably real, were being conveyed to him by other channels than
his own sense of hearing; and this had, obviously, been the same
with the unearthly scent which still lingered in his nostrils. The
boy, who was listening with wrapt attention, suddenly, at that mo-
ment, cried out :
" Look! " he said; and the Young Professor looked.
But there was nothing to be seen.
"Oh, look, look!" the boy repeated; but the Professor of
Anthropology saw nothing. This time the least of the Little Ones
had failed to penetrate the density of the other's perceptions.
He was gazing with eager, observant eyes along the green
pathway. The little foolish face shone with intelligence, nay,
something more! The Young Professor recalled at that moment
1912.] THE LEAST OF THE LITTLE ONES 29
how the Brown Lady had once remarked, defending her pet Little
One from his onslaughts : " But he can look intelligent. You
should have seen him last night when he butted his little head
into my chest and said, 'Does love 'oo, Nantie Clare !' " No longer
vague, his gaze was fixed on a given point. But the Professor
of Anthropology and Eugenics saw nothing. A wild desire to see
what the child was seeing seized the professor. He hurled himself,
as it were, into the little feeble mind.
" Show me ! " he murmured, hardly knowing what he was say-
ing. He had knelt down by the child, and was holding one of his
little soiled hands. It was the attitude of prayer.
And then he looked out on the vistaed scene the tall waving
trees, the dim hills, the green sward, with the strange, refined light
shining on it; and there came into his mind a perception of the
secret of Nature.
She was no longer self-sufficient, not even introspective, as she
had appeared to him in her more mystical moods, but ( for so he en-
deavored to express it) she had become relative as the word is
to the speaker her existence depended on the existence of Some-
thing of Someone to whom she appeared to be perpetually singing
in the primal language of Being.
Benedicite, monies et colles, Domino:
Benedicite, universa germinantia in terra, Domino.
Then the Man of Science understood that he had " become
as a little child," and that he had entered into the Kingdom of
Heaven.
Slowly the mystery passed. The sun came out in full radiance,
and the more subtle light faded away in its rays. The woodland
ceased to give a message or to grant a vision.
John Ignatius turned to the professor with one of his rare,
misapplied smiles. " God's gone home," he said.
The Brown Lady and the Young Professor varied in their
theories as to the experience of that afternoon. Both were agreed
that it was through the instrumentality of the child that the profes-
sor had perceived the strange phenomena of the perfume and the
music that his own senses had been inadequate. The Brown
Lady was inclined to believe that owing to its having been the
Saint's Feast Day certain favors were in waiting on those who
sought the spot where he had lived and prayed, and made a pleas-
30 ON ANCIENT WHARVES [Oct.,
ance fitting for Him Who walked in Eden. But the Young Pro-
fessor remembered that it was also on that spot that the Brown
Lady found repose after the harassing duties of her day, and
where she, doubtless, prayed for fools and wayfaring men, and
he cherished a private theory of his own on the subject.
They never learned what little John Ignatius had looked on in
the wood that day with loving and intelligent eyes. As for the
latter, having accomplished his task, he went home to God a few
months later, on the very day that the newspapers were agog with
the extraordinary news that the Coming Man of Science had been
received into the Catholic Church.
ON ANCIENT WHARVES.
BY CAROLINE D. SWAN.
AROUND us lap the quiet harbor waves,
Now, in the sun's descension, grown to be
A miracle of color. Greenest sea
Beneath us shines, while silvered azure laves
Low violet shores and distant island caves.
Anear, a huge red building hurls in glee
Its cold, barbaric scarlet wondrously
Adown the tide. Supreme, the sway it craves !
In hues of amethyst and misty gold
Across the water looms a city fair ;
A distant bell flings angel-melody
Into our color-music. Life, grown old,
May totter like this wharfing, and yet wear
The visioned beauty of high thrones to be.
THE SPIRITUAL FACTOR IN ECONOMIC REFORM.
BY THOMAS J. GERHARD.
AVING examined* the nature of the true principle of
selection the Will of God acting upon the will
of man and having seen its operation in. main-
taining the existence of the race, our next step is
to observe its operation in promoting the well-being
of the race. It is better to be than not to be. A state of desti-
tution is better than no state at all. But a state of destitution is
not a becoming state for any human being. When Christ said
" Blessed are the poor," He did not mean " Blessed are the paupers."
He had regard to His Apostles, tent-makers, tax-gatherers, fish-
erman who owned their own boats and nets. A pauper can save
his soul certainly, but he may often have a better chance of sav-
ing it if he is raised out of the depths of destitution. Faith is a
habit of the intellect. A healthy intellect, therefore, is normally
the most apt instrument for a vigorous faith, and a healthy intellect
implies a sufficiently healthy body. Moreover, nothing is willed
unless it be first understood. Hence the principle of selection
cannot work efficiently unless mind and body are in a certain
minimum state of health. Here, then, is the next great problem in
racial progress, the prevention and cure of destitution.
The question is so far-reaching that I think we cannot do
better than follow the chief points of the Report of the Royal
Commission, which some time ago was appointed to inquire into
the Poor Laws of the United Kingdom. Some phases of the evil
may be more acute in America, others more acute in England.
America, for instance, is worse than England with regard to sweat-
ing and housing, but far better with regard to the treatment of the
feeble-minded. Human nature, however, is much the same all
the world over, and the Supreme Power which selects the good and
rejects the evil is absolutely the same: there is one God and
Father of us all. The Commissioners, moreover, had abundant
information from experts in the United States, in Canada, in
New Zealand, in Australia, and on the continent of Europe. The
report is divided into two sections, the Majority and the Minority.
*See Sanctity and Racial Betterment, in the September, 1912, CATHOLIC WORLD.
32 SPIRITUAL FACTOR IN ECONOMIC REFORM [Oct.,
It occupies forty volumes, and contains one hundred thousand an-
swers of the four hundred and fifty-two witnesses who were
examined. Then there are fourteen reports of special investigators.
The Commissioners begin by declaring the cause of pauperism
to be three- fold: physical, moral, and economic. But if we look
carefully into the causes described as physical and economic, we
shall find that they too have a moral cause. There are causes of
causes. Nearly all the critics of the report have noticed this.
Sir Oliver Lodge, for instance, writes : " But it is not to be sup-
posed that legislation alone, however enlightened, nor administra-
tion alone, however efficient, can do everything. Human beings
are the object of attention, and they can only be dealt with by
human beings."*
This is one of the first principles which the Church has ever
been proclaiming, and which was held up to the world some twenty
years ago by Pope Leo XIII. The Pope, however, goes further
than the Commissioners in so far as he indicates the whole prin-
ciple of selection, and not merely its proximate and less important
factor. " First of all," he says, " there is no intermediary more
powerful than religion (whereof the Church is the interpreter
and guardian) in drawing the rich and poor bread-winners to-
gether, by reminding each class of its duties to the other, and es-
pecially of the obligations of justice. Religion teaches the wealthy
owner and employer that their workpeople are not to be accounted
their bondmen ; that in every man they must respect his dignity and
worth as a man and as a Christian ; that it is shameful and inhuman
to treat men like chattels to make money by, or to look upon them
merely as so much muscle and physical power."f
The first cause of pauperism set down by the Commissioners
is that of old age. This would at first seem to be something non-
moral, something strictly physical. No one can help growing old.
Hence there would appear to be at least one unavoidable cause of
pauperism. This statement of the point is too bald. The ques-
tion is not one merely of growing old, but of growing old without
having provided for one's maintenance in old age. If we probe
the question a little deeper we shall find that a further question
needs answering, namely, as to what shortens or prolongs the wage-
earning period of life. Has the man, either through his own
or another's sin, grown old before his time? What opportunity
introduction to Prof. Muirhead's Analysis of Report.
J \Rerum Novarum.
I 9 i2.] SPIRITUAL FACTOR IN ECONOMIC REFORM 33
has he had during his wage-earning days of providing for his old
age? Then, again, what are the obligations of the community
when he has been unable or unwilling to provide for himself ?
At once the question is shifted from the sphere of physiology
to the sphere of morality. Certain it is that if the conditions of
work are humane the wage-earning period will be prolonged; that
if the man's wages are just, and if he is sober and thrifty, he will be
able to provide for himself; that if through unforeseen accident he
has been unable to help himself, it is the duty of the community to
look after him; that if he has been unwilling to provide for himself,
the community has a right to enact compulsory legislation accord-
ingly. The principle of selection, acting through the cardinal virtue
of fortitude, in securing for the workman a living wage, meets the
greater part of the problem. Acting through the cardinal virtue
of prudence, it ensures the worker shall do his full share in prac-
ticing thrift and laying by a store for the future. Acting through
the cardinal virtue of temperance, it protects the worker from
the ever-present temptation of alcohol. Then, again, acting through
the virtue of justice in the legislator, it keeps the shirkers from
preying unduly upon the workers.
In dealing with the aged, the Church urges that legislation shall
do all that it can. But even when legislation has done its best,
and when the worker has done his best, there is always a residue of
aged destitute to be provided for. This ultimate residue the
principle of selection lays hold on through the virtue of Christian
charity. It is all very well for the Socialist to say that he has no
more need for Christian charity. But the hard fact remains that
Christian charitable organizations have far greater calls upon them
than they can cope with. The Church indeed has expended her
charity on multitudes of cases which ought to have been relieved
by the justice of the community. The Church is only too anxious
that the state shall do all it can, for she knows quite well that when
the state has done its best, she, the Church, will always have her
hands full.
The second cause of destitution named by the Commissioners
is that of sickness and disease. Much time was spent in trying to
find out how far disease was a cause and how far an effect of
destitution. In the case of consumption one expert declared that
after a careful examination of four thousand consumptives, nearly
sixty per cent were paupers because they were consumptives, not
consumptives because they were paupers. The limit of sixty per
VOL. XCVI. 3.
34 SPIRITUAL FACTOR IN ECONOMIC REFORM [Oct.,
cent leaves a wide margin for the other alternative. Alcohol and
immorality are well known to be predisposing factors to this
disease. Bad housing and bad cooking and over-work are all
important elements tending to foster the evil. The disease, there-
fore, is almost entirely due to the neglect of duty on the part of the
employers. But, again, the prevention and cure are to be sought
in the principle of selection, the Divine Will working on the human
wills, both of employer and employed. On the part of the em-
ployer it will act as justice, moving him to pay the living wage and
provide healthy workshops and sanitary dwellings. On the part
of the employed it will act as temperance and chastity, moving
them to a state of improved sobriety and higher morality.
After consumption, the sickness which tends most directly and
most degradingly to produce destitution is that of venereal disease.
Very much of the physical incapacity in the larger towns is attrib-
uted to this cause. That the remedy must first and foremost be
a religious one is obvious.
How far drunkenness is due to moral, physical, or economic
influences cannot be determined. Nor is it necessary that it should.
It is enough that we know that all three kinds of causes are at
work, and that the physical and economic causes can be controlled
by free will. Legislative enactments cannot make people sober, but
they can help considerably to that end. But even when an en-
lightened legislation has done its best to restrain the sale of liquor,
there is still ample need for the selective principle to act directly
on the individual workers. It is said that the Catholic Church has
more than her share amongst the inmates of workhouses and jails.
That is a sign that the selective principle is acting in and through
her. She has a peculiar aptitude for picking up those who are
fallen. Faith is the root of all reform. Therefore she sees to it
that her children cling to the Faith even though they are in the
workhouse and in jail.
The Commissioners next call attention to the housing question.
The common lodging houses and the " furnished rooms," which
abound in the poor centres of population, are the proximate occasion
of every kind of filth and vice. The so-called " furnished rooms "
are the worse. They are occupied by one tenant after another
without any cleansing. The sexes mingle together promiscuously.
At the end of the year 1909 the English Parliament passed a Hous-
ing and Town-planning Act. Its aim was to amend the law relating
to the housing of the working classes; to simplify and cheapen
the existing procedure for acquiring land for housing purposes;
I9i2.] SPIRITUAL FACTOR IN ECONOMIC REFORM 35
to deal with unsanitary areas and unhealthy dwellings; to extend
and amplify previous Acts requiring landlords to keep houses let
to working classes in repair; to give to the Local Government
Board power to enforce the execution of the Acts. But that aim,
after two years effort, is a very long way from being realized. In
fact, its comparative failure is a standing witness to the useless-
ness of legislative machinery when there is no spiritual force to
drive it The selective principle works on the mind of the legislator
and results in a beneficial act such as we have mentioned. But
then its fruitfulness is hindered because the local administrators
happen to be local property owners, and in them the appetite for
gold obscures the heart and mind against the working of the selec-
tive principle.
The cause from which arises the greatest amount of pauperism
is set down as economic. It is that of casual labor. To anyone,
however, acquainted with the conditions of life of the casual laborer,
the moral element in the problem stands out with distinct clearness.
The dock laborer, for instance, feels more keenly the brutal driving
of his foreman than the waiting about or tramping in search of
work. Thus one of them writes : " It was misery to be out of
work : it was murder to be 'on.' ' Another writes : " The tyranny
of the docks of Liverpool is such that human life is thought nothing
of, and men are bullied and driven to such an extent that at times
they do not know what they are doing, so that instead of avoiding
danger they rush into it and are either maimed or killed. In many
cases foremen are appointed not through any good quality of char-
acter, but rather for their ability as slave-drivers, where ruffianism
is at a premium and brute strength is the standard of fitness."
The Poor Law Commissioners declare that the pools of stag-
nant labor can to a large extent be drained by the establishment of
labor exchanges, by a little more good will on the part of the
employers to regularize their work, and by an organization among
the men to dove-tail their work. Different trades have different
seasons. Each industry is at its highest in a particular month.
By means of the labor exchanges the men can be moved about from
the slack places to the busy ones. Already the labor exchanges
have justified their existence. But the " little more good will on
the part of the employers " which the Commissioners ask for is
something which the Government cannot create. It can start a
labor bureau, but it cannot start a human will. That is the privilege
of the Divine Will. It is well known how a chairman of a public
company will agree to certain conditions before the world, and
36 SPIRITUAL FACTOR IN ECONOMIC REFORM [Oct.,
before the representatives of the men, and before the Board of
Trade, and then secretly tell his foreman that he is not getting
half enough out of the men. Hence both the Majority and the
Minority Reports have confessed that legislation without human-
ization can do little to solve the problem. Thus is the state con-
strained by the exigencies of its own needs to come round to the
doctrine of the Church that " it is shameful and inhuman to treat
men like chattels to make money by, or to look upon them merely
as so much muscle or physical power."* Or is it perhaps the
selective principle operating there ?
The question of casual labor leads to that of boy and girl
labor. Boys leave school at the age of fourteen, and are imme-
diately offered work at wages which seem high. They become
messengers and van-boys, spending four or five years doing that
kind of work when they ought to be learning a trade. The work
involves little or no mental discipline, but on the other hand involves
long hours of uninteresting routine. At the age of nineteen or
twenty the boy drifts away to become a casual laborer.
The problem of the girls is not quite so acute. They obtain
work at packing, labelling, and bottling. They begin at one
dollar per week, but never rise higher than $2.25. Worst
of all, they never, as the future wives and mothers, learn cooking
and household management. Continuation schools are suggested
as a remedy. That, however, does not touch the root of the matter.
The foundation of the family must be the starting point. The
selective principle, acting through the virtue of justice, must be
allowed scope nearer to the fountain head of life. The father must
have sufficient wages to keep himself, his wife, and family in reason-
able and frugal comfort. This all-important Catholic principle
humanizes the whole situation. It implies, on the one hand, that
employers must not use children to do men's work at children's
wages. It implies, on the other hand, that parents must not sacri-
fice the future of their children merely for the sake of a few
dollars during the first years after the children have left school.
The same answer must be given also to the question of unem-
ployment amongst women. On this point the Commissioners de-
clare themselves nonplussed. " The problems," they say, " arising
in the course of our inquiry from a consideration of the employ-
ment of women are too complex for us to attempt to offer any solu-
tion of them." Once again the state is forced to look to the Church
for guidance. The solution is to be found in a recognition of the
*Leo XIII., Rerum Novarum.
I 9 i2.] SPIRITUAL FACTOR IN ECONOMIC REFORM 37
Christian ideal of marriage. " They [women]," writes Leo XIII.,
" are not suited to certain trades : for a woman is by nature fitted
for home work, and it is that which is best adapted at once to
preserve her modesty, and to promote the good bringing up of chil-
dren and the well-being of the family." It is very hard to drive
this doctrine home even to well-meaning Catholics. They are so
infected with the spirit of the age that they think the preacher
is impertinent who would tell them of the obligations of home life
when they want to see the world. But listen to Cardinal Manning's
interpretation of the Papal Encyclical : " As we read these words,"
he writes, " the chainmakers of Cradley Heath, the pit-brow women
of the mines, and the mothers in our factories rise before us. Here
is a moral case to be solved. A woman enters for life into a
sacred contract with a man before God at the altar, to fulfill to him
the duties of wife, mother, and head of his home. Is it lawful
for her, even with his consent, to make afterwards a second contract
for so many shillings a week with a mill-owner, whereby she be-
comes unable to provide her husband's food, train up her children,
or do the duties of her home? It is no question of the lawfulness
of gaining a few more shillings for the expenses of the family,
but of the lawfulness of breaking a prior contract, the most solemn
between man and woman. No arguments of expediency can be ad-
mitted. It is an obligation of conscience to which all things must
give way. The duties of home must first be done, then other
questions may be entertained. Till then, nothing."
Here, then, we must say how heartily we agree with Dr.
Saleeby, that the true economics and true politics is true domestics.
This principle of the home life of the mother is equal in importance
to the living wage of the father. It accounts for one-third of
the destitution problem. Infant mortality is still a scandal to our
civilization. One-third of all blindness is due to neglected
infancy during the first three days of life. Some people seem
to think that our statute law is of high perfection because
it forbids mothers to return to work for three weeks or a month
after child-birth. By a higher law, the law of nature, the whole
care and time of the mother are due to the child for its mental
and bodily nurture. And by a still higher law, the law of grace,
the mother's care is wanted for the spiritual nurture of the child.
God's will acting on the mother's will chooses to subordinate pleas-
ure to duty, material culture to psychic culture, and psychic culture
to spiritual.
In the department of relief the Commissioners make a dis-
38 SPIRITUAL FACTOR IN ECONOMIC REFORM [Oct.,
covery which has ever been a commonplace in Catholic teaching
and practice. It is that indiscriminate and unorganized relief
tends to increase rather than to diminish destitution. The case
is related of a lady who, after hearing a sermon on the conditions
of life among the poor, drove down in a carriage to a very poor
street in the neighborhood, and there distributed a dozen half-
bottles of champagne and a dozen half-pound bunches of grapes.
Now if there is one characteristic of Catholic charities it is
their happy combination of personal service and economic efficiency.
They have a special aptitude for seeking out the really needful cases
and of making a little go a long way. Mr. Rockefeller bears wit-
ness that of all the charitable institutions which he has observed,
it is the Roman Catholic ones that get the most for their money.
And why is it? It is because they are human. It is because they
are inspired by some saint, say like St. Vincent de Paul, in whom
the Will which organizes the whole universe has had unhindered
sway. When Frederic Ozanam formed the first conference of that
world-wide society which bears St. Vincent's name, he made it a
first condition that they were not to be content with doling out
alms. That was a cheap and unwise charity. They were to go
and make friends amongst the poor. They were to give personal
help such as their better education enabled them. In no case was
a visitor to give money directly from his own pocket, but he might
recommend a case to the local Conference. The one thing to be
guarded against in the distribution of help was lest it should destroy
rather than promote self-help.
In the last item Ozanam seems to have anticipated the chief
difference of the Minority from the Majority Report. Through-
out all the Minority recommendations there is the fundamental
conception that what is necessary is to prevent destitution by
grappling with its causes.
Next comes the scheme for converting the shirkers into work-
ers. The most humane remedy to apply to laziness is starvation.
Let us not blink the word. There is good authority for saying that
if a man will not work neither shall he eat. Again the root of
the evil lies in the will. The will power has dwindled so low that
only a low motive will quicken it. Acting under higher motives
the legislator applies to the shirker the lower motive of appetite
for food. The Commissioners propose the Detention Colony. A
voluntary colony must be provided first for those whose wills are
not so completely atrophied. Then the voluntary colony must
be supplemented by a compulsory one. The function of this depart-
1912.] SPIRITUAL FACTOR IN ECONOMIC REFORM 39
ment is to reform those who wilfully refuse or neglect to maintain
themselves or their families; or, after receiving public assistance,
wilfully refuse to perform the work or observe the regulations
prescribed in regard to such assistance; or who give way to gamb-
ling, drink or idleness, with the result that a person, or his or her
family, becomes chargeable to the community.
The Church would go further. She teaches that parents are
not only bound to educate and clothe their children, but are also
bound to see that they learn a trade or profession suitable to their
state in life. She condemns as grave sin the offences of gambling,
drink and idleness leading to neglect of family. She is very explicit
in forbidding the state to interfere with the family when unneces-
sary, but equally explicit in urging the state to interfere when
necessary. Once more has the Pope anticipated the Poor Law
Commission. " True," he says, " if a family finds itself in ex-
ceeding distress, utterly deprived of the counsel of friends, and
without any prospect of extricating itself, it is right that extreme
necessity be met by public aid, since each party is a part of the
Commonwealth. In like manner, if within the precincts of the
household there occur grave disturbance of mutual rights, public
authority should intervene to force each party to yield to the
other its proper due; for this is not to deprive citizens of their
rights, but justly and properly to safeguard and defend them."*
We are now able to make a true transvaluation of all bodily
necessities. The body must be an apt instrument of the spirit, and
therefore must not be hampered by starvation and disease. The
things needful to keep men from destitution, since they are destined
to minister to an eternal end and purpose, acquire a correspondingly
high value. So also must there be a transvaluation of all those
things which are designed to improve the mind of the race. Whether
we have to deal with legislatures, or county councils, or universities,
or colleges, or schools, or factories, or workshops, or dockyards,
or hospitals, or jails, or houses, or gardens, or drainpipes, they are
all vastly more important when viewed as the means of attaining
everlasting life than when viewed merely as the means of attaining
natural happiness upon earth. Therefore no obstacle must be put
in the way when the Holy Spirit, acting on the mind of man, chooses
this or that natural or industrial process for its eternal purpose.
When we hear a bookish theologian, for instance, lamenting that so
many priests waste their time at municipal meetings discussing
water-works and drainage, we may bid him put his hand over his
*Rerum Novarum.
40 SPIRITUAL FACTOR IN ECONOMIC REFORM [Oct.,
mouth and reflect that the Heavenly Father knoweth we have
need of these things.
Mere existence, however, in a state of bodily health is not
enough for man's well being. He must cultivate his mind aright.
And this he cannot do if all his energy is absorbed in seeking and
caring for the bare necessities of life. The constant fear of hunger
paralyzes the mind against the higher interests of life. The first
economic reform, then, which is needed for man's psychic well-
being is the establishment of an all-round minimum living wage.
The mental freedom which could be thus secured is necessary, too,
for man's religious life. It is true that we find deeply religious
souls amongst the very poor. But, normally speaking, paupers
tend to adopt a bread-and-butter religion.
The time, however, is gone by for arguing the necessity of a
living wage. The present coal-strike in Great Britain has proved
that the men mean to have it, that the majority of owners wish to
give it, and that the Government intends to legislate against those
employers who refuse it. Naturally it must be met with a minimum
output of work. But what is not yet clear is the reason why a
living wage should be paid. These men who are now clutching
so tenaciously at their natural right would never have thought of
asking for it if more enlightened minds had not put it into their
heads. What remains now is to set the right on a permanent basis.
The living wage is a means of enabling the collier, for example,
to have sufficient food, clothing, shelter, and medical attendance.
It is also a means to provide him with opportunity to improve
his talent as a workman and his worth as a citizen: he
must be free to attend mining schools and political meetings.
It is also a means to provide him with leisure for necessary
amusements. Certain means of recreation are demanded by
all; and, when they are kept subordinate as means to their proper
end, are admirably adapted for preparing the mind for the Gospel
and the sacraments. The sport and the religion must not be di-
vorced, else both will suffer.
By putting the industrial machine under the influence of the
Holy Spirit a higher sanction is given to the natural moral laws
governing the industrial process. Industry itself is thereby ren-
dered more productive. Sound economics cannot clash with sound
ascetics. Slowly but surely the truth is crystallizing out that Catho-
lic principles are economically successful. The latest admission is
that the living wage has an economic basis. The industrial or-
ganism is a living whole. It does not come into existence and die
1912.] SPIRITUAL FACTOR IN ECONOMIC REFORM 41
out with each generation of men. If it is to be kept efficient, there-
fore, it must be renewed by a constant supply of energy. As the
older workmen die off, so must younger workmen be trained to
take their place. But before there can be young workmen there
must also be children and babies ; and mothers. And these are a
primary charge upon any individual process which is to be perma-
nently successful. The very efficiency, therefore, of industry as such
postulates a living wage. The danger is that the passion for per-
sonal indulgence will interfere with industrial efficiency. The selec-
tive principle, if not deliberately hindered, counteracts that passion.
The industrial system, thus properly treated, produces more
than its keep. Here we are brought to the inmost recess of the
social problem. How is the surplus product of industry, where it
can be proved to exist, to be equitably distributed? It is at once
the most complex and most difficult question in economics. We
cannot attempt its solution here, but we can discuss it intelligently
and observe which way the selective principle is moving.
In the first place, any solution whatever which does not allow
for the working of the selective principle, is hopeless. Before any
suggestion can be made as to a proportionate distribution of sur-
plus, there is wanted a correct declaration of balance sheets. Noth-
ing short of the direct action of the Holy Spirit upon the minds
of owners and legislators can assure this. Nature alone is quite
unequal to such a miracle of sincerity. The British railways, for
instance, are at the present moment on the horns of a dilemma.
By an Act of Parliament of 1844 the state has a right to take over
the railways on payment of a sum equal to twenty-five years' pur-
chase of the annual divisible profits estimated on the average of
the three preceding years. On this count the temptation is to
declare as large divisible profits as possible. But, on the other
hand, if the directors do this, they will attract the attention of the
tax-gatherer and the employee. Hence there is discovered a num-
ber of ingenious ways of evasion. The chief is the way of over-
capitalization. The Times calculates that railway stock has been
watered by at least eighteen and one-half per cent. Then there is
the distribution of bonuses, the writing off of capital, the sinking
of reserve funds, and the like.
Again, supposing that an approximately correct statement of
the value of surplus product has been arrived at, there comes the
question as to what proportion should be distributed by the govern-
ment and what by individuals. All external things were made
by God to supply the needs of all mankind. Whoever owns wealth
42 SPIRITUAL FACTOR IN ECONOMIC REFORM [Oct.,
carries with it also the duty of seeing that it does its appointed
work of supplying the needs of men. In designing a method of dis-
tribution, two besetting evils have to be avoided. On the one
hand both master and workman have to be protected each against
his strongest appetite, the appetite for gold. On the other
hand the state has to be protected against its tendency to substitute
mechanical contrivances for personal effort and ingenuity. In
order then to leave as much scope as possible for the develop-
ment of each man's individual personality, the aim of the state will
be to absorb as little as possible of the wealth of the nation. If
it confines itself to the correction of abuses, even then it will have
more than it can accomplish. And not only must the individual
mind and will be allowed a full healthy development, but the very
appetite for gold, inherent in every man, must be allowed its due
proportion of development. That, too, must be utilized for the
common weal. It is not something bad in itself, but only some-
thing which becomes bad when it rebels against the law of reason
and the law of God. It is indeed a normal and legitimate motive
power, having its own proper function to perform in the working
out both of the industrial and spiritual process. It is raw material
for the natural virtue of thrift and the supernatural virtue of pru-
dence, and is utilized by the selective principle when directed to these
ends. A man is not an isolated intellect nor yet an isolated will. He
is a human being with intellect, will, tastes, appetites, feelings ; and
all these faculties and functions must be ordained to his ultimate
salvation. Moreover, this plain psychological fact must be taken
into consideration in any scheme for the apportionment of the sur-
plus product of industry. The scheme that will succeed best
will be the one which appeals to a man's faith, reason, love, and
lower appetites, particularly the appetite for gold, but to all, of
course, each in its own order.
Now it would seem that there is a scheme already taking shape
which fulfills these conditions. It is not Socialism, for that ap-
peals only to man's lower appetites, and must eventually result in
the reign of brute force in the form of a servile state. Nor is it
that already existing in which the surplus product is kept by the
comparatively few. That ministers too readily to the indulgence of
appetite amongst those who are in possession. It is an incitement,
moreover, to the passion of those who are not in possession. It is
the strong weapon of the Socialist agitator. At present it is at
grips with the organized forces of labor. The desperate struggle
is a menace to the whole community. The straitness of the situa-
I 9 i2.] SPIRITUAL FACTOR IN ECONOMIC REFORM 43
tion, however, is obliging our statesmen to use their wits if haply
they can find out what is the right scheme in itself, rather than
what is the opportune scheme for political purposes.
Earl Grey, for six years Governor-General of Canada, has
just returned to England, and there expressed his surprise
at finding his fellow-countrymen so distrustful of each other.
Everyone, he says, seems to think that it is the chief end
of man to do as little for anybody else as he possibly can.
But there is a ray of hope visible in the very intensity of the
gloom. Co-partnership, says Lord Grey, in an interview with the
doyen of English journalists, is the only key which will unlock the
doors of our Doubting Castle. Co-partnership implies common
sense and the Ten Commandments. The present social unrest is
a symptom of the divine discontent with the existing social order,
which is becoming intolerable. There will undoubtedly be diffi-
culties in its application. The gas companies have tried it and
found it successful. At present over thirty gas companies, repre-
senting nearly 50,000,000, or one-half of all the gas stock owned
by companies, are working on co-partnership lines. The laborer
receives every year a share in the profits, which he invests in the
business. Thus he has not only an interest in the concern, but also
a share in the responsibilities of management.
Moreover, the arrangement is a success from the merely com-
mercial standpoint. Sir George Livesey, the man who first started
the experiment with the South Metropolitan Gas Company, says
that there never was a prouder moment in his life than when he
was able to stand up before his shareholders and tell them as a
result of co-partnership, and the spirit of brotherhood which it
engendered, the company had been able ( I ) to pay their employees
higher wages than were paid to any other gas workers in the
kingdom; (2) to pay the shareholders a higher dividend; and (3)
to sell gas at a lower price.
Surely all this is a symptom of the divine principle of selection
working in the political and industrial world. True, we do not
hear the name of God mentioned explicitly; but we do hear the
echo of the voice of the Vicar of Christ. " We have seen," writes
Leo XIII., " that this labor question cannot be solved save by
assuming as a principle that private ownership must be held sacred
and inviolable. The law, therefore, should favor ownership, and
its policy should be to induce as many as possible of the humbler
class to become owners."
Listen to the business man again. Sir Benjamin Browne once
44 SPIRITUAL FACTOR IN ECONOMIC REFORM [Oct.,
objected to Sir George Livesey that profit-sharing made no pro-
vision for the sharing of losses. Sir George asked Sir Benjamin
whether he thought the difference between a shop full of contented
men and one full of discontented men would make a difference
of five per cent. " Not five per cent," said Sir Benjamin, " but
twenty-five per cent." " That," replied Sir George, " is the work-
man's contribution to the reduction of the master's losses: in bad
times they are giving twenty-five per cent better work and receiving
no addition to trade union rates of wages." Here again is the
echo of the voice of the Vicar of Christ. " Men always work
harder and' more readily when they work on that which belongs
to them ; nay, they learn to love the very soil that yields, in response
to the labor of their hands, not only food to eat, but an abundance
of good things for themselves and those that are dear to them.
That such a spirit of willing labor would add to the produce of the
earth and to the wealth of the community is self-evident."*
Whether it is owing to the stress of the laws of nature, or
whether it is owing to the leaven of papal teaching, certain it is
that a reaction has set in towards the papal ideals. " I don't think
this," says Earl Grey, " a question of percentages so much as it is
of mutual confidence. It is as true in business as in religion.
By faith are ye saved. Faith in each other is essential if the best
results are to be achieved. It is the old doctrine which our friend
Mr. Stanley Lee expressed with such force when he said, 'The men
who can be believed in most will get the most business, and, what is
more important, the men who can make men believe in them most
will be able to hire employees who can be believed in most, and will
get a monopoly of the efficiency of the world.' ' And what is
most promising in this reaction is that those who are taking part
in it, statesmen, employers, journalists, are keenly alive to the
principle that although profit-sharing means increased dividends,
yet it is unprofitable to adopt it merely for the sake of increasing
dividends. The gospel paradox strikes home, that he who would
save his life shall lose it. " It is the spirit of mutual confidence,"
continues Lord Grey, " what Mr. Stanley Lee calls 'the evolution
of the genius of being believed in,' which is the secret of co-partner-
ship. It is a practical and tangible sign that you do care for the
welfare of the worker. Without that you may try what dodges
you like, you will not succeed."
So once again the gospel is justified in its spying. We must
absolutely seek first the kingdom of God and His justice, and then
*Rerum Novarum.
1912.] SPIRITUAL FACTOR IN ECONOMIC REFORM 45
the dividends in due and proper proportion will be added unto
us. This is a hard saying, because dividends are so very tempting.
" After all these things do the heathen seek." But the Holy
Spirit seeks for the Kingdom of the Spirit. Acting through the
spirit of man He seeks to adjust the industrial process to the
spiritual process. The sole function of dividends is to enable man
to improve his mind and enlarge his heart in order to his fuller
salvation. For this reason then must the wealth of the world be
more widely distributed and more equitably divided.
On the one side we have seen a small party holding power
because it held wealth, grasping the whole of labor and trade,
manipulating for its own benefit and its own purposes all the sources
of supply, working even through the councils of the state. On the
other side we have seen a needy and powerless multitude, broken
down, and suffering, and ever ready for disturbance. Now we see
the Spirit of God moving over the face of the deeps. Through
its mouthpiece, the Sovereign Pontiff, it bids the working people
to look for a share in the land, so that the gulf between vast wealth
and sheer poverty may be bridged over, and the respective classes
brought nearer to one another.
History, too, has recorded in favor of the Holy Spirit. See
where the Socialistic theory flourishes most. It is in the industrial
societies of North Germany, of the Northern United States, of
England, of the lowlands of Scotland, precisely those countries
where Protestant individualism has had most sway. The exag-
gerated individualism, the theory of man's self-perfectibility, which
derived a religious sanction from the sixteenth century revolt,
could have no other logical issue. Compare this industrial spirit
with that of the Catholic societies. Their whole tendency, derived
from or fostered by the Holy Father, is towards a state in which
capital and land is owned by the greater part of the citizens. The
instinct of the Irish race, for instance, is for the people to
own the land. The French, the Belgians, and the Italians are
moved by the same appetite. Its intellectual equation is the un-
answered challenge flung down to Individualist and Socialist alike :
Prove that a society in which the wealth is divided amongst the
majority of the citizens is not a stable society. Dynamic stability
is the sign of industrial, social, and religious happiness. The spirit-
ual factor fuses all other factors into one white glow, the organic
life of one magnificent eugenic society of supermen, the Kingdom of
heaven on earth.
THE VOLTAIRE OF PORTUGAL.
SEBASTIAN JOSEPH DE CARVALHO, MARQUIS OF POMBAL
(1699-1782).
BY MARY H. ALLIES.
HE announcement by some of the radicals that the
new Portuguese Republic would follow the policy
of Pombal was pregnant to the few, but meaning-
less to the majority in America and elsewhere to
whom Pombal is not even a name. Was he, as
the present writer was informed, " the greatest general who ever
lived ? " In gathering together a few facts connected with Pombal,
I am merely writing a memoire pour servir, first to produce a gleam
of recognition, and then a further knowledge of the man. The
prime minister of a pleasure-loving king in an unconstitutional age,
he worked out his own will to the destruction of the four cardinal
virtues in Church and state.
Portugal was made and then unmade by her colonies. Her
sun rose when the " Great Captain," as Vasco da Gama was called,
revealed India to his mother country, and founded those Portu-
guese possessions of which Goa alone now remains. Brazil poured
gold into the country, and in so doing impoverished it by weaken-
ing home initiative, trade, and agriculture.
" Home staying youths have ever homely wits." Gold mines
abroad were at once an inducement to the homely wits to remain
homely, and to the active minds to wander away from Portugal.
Gold poured into the country to its undoing, and Philip II. was
able to humble the national sentiment to the dust. In 1580 he
annexed Portugal to Spain, strengthening the antagonism which
has always existed between the two countries. Sixty years later
the Duke of Braganza became King under the title of John IV.,
and gave us our only Portuguese Queen, Catherine of Braganza,
who brought her heart, as well as Tangiers, to Charles II.
Sebastian Joseph de Carvalho e Mello was born in 1699
during the reign of Dom John IV. According to Portuguese
custom, he added the name of Mello, a maternal ancestor, to
his own. His second brother was named Francisco Xavier de
I9i2.] THE VOLTAIRE OF PORTUGAL 47
Mendonga, his mother's name, and the youngest, Paul de Carvalho
e Mendonga.* Sebastian Joseph was created first Conde d'Oeyras,
and in 1770 Marquis de Pombal, the title by which he is commonly
known. He adopted the career of diplomacy, and whilst at Vienna
lost his first wife, Donna Theresa de Noronha, to whom he was
much attached. In 1739 he was sent as Portuguese minister to
England, at a time when the court language was French rather
than English, during the reign of the second Hanoverian King,
George II. The country was no bed of roses for Catholics, even
for Catholic ambassadors. A proclamation had been issued in
1 744 " to put the laws in execution against all Papists and non-
jurors, and for commanding all Papists to depart from the cities
of London and Westminster, and from within ten miles of the
same, by the 2d of March."f
Carvalho was recalled to Lisbon in 1745, and shortly after-
wards went to Vienna, where he eventually married, as his second
wife, Countess Leonora Daun of a distinguished Austrian family.
Carvalho enjoyed the favor of Maria Theresa, both on his own
account and on that of his wife. Whether he used the said favor
in the interest of religion is difficult to determine. It seems cer-
tain, however, that Carvalho did not greatly distinguish himself
either in London or in Vienna.
Dom Joseph succeeded his father, John V., in 1750. and
through the favor of John's Austrian Queen, Maria Anna of
Austria, Carvalho was called to the ministry. At first he took
the portfolio of foreign and military affairs, but by degrees he came
to represent the whole cabinet, so that historians have asked the
question whether it was the reign of Joseph or of Carvalho, Mar-
quis of Pombal. The King began, as he continued, by making
only a show of transacting business. The Queen was Anna of
Spain, a daughter of Philip V., and consequently a great-grand-
daughter of Louis XIV. Queen Anna was a sportswoman, and
spent her days in the saddle by preference! Her one thought out
of it was to keep the King's affection and to pander to his love
of pleasure. The Queen Dowager looked on in disapproval. If
she had wished to strengthen the ministry by the introduction of
Carvalho, she had overreached herself. The King gave up all
cares of state, Queen Anna lived in her saddle, whilst Carvalho
drew into his own hands the reins of government. The cabinet,
*Marquis of Pombal. Conde da Carnota, p. 19.
t/rf., 24-
48 THE VOLTAIRE OF PORTUGAL [Oct.,
which had been composed of Diego de Mendozza and Pedro da
Motta, soon represented one man alone Carvalho.
Gold fields had drawn off husbandmen and laborers from home
vineyards, so that Portugal's rich soil and fine climate had never
been turned to good account. The commercial spirit was at a low
ebb, and Carvalho wished to revive it by strengthening the ancient
alliance between England and Portugal. Carvalho organized wine
companies as a spur to trade. Unfortunately, as monopolies, they
paralyzed individual effort. A few profited and grew rich to
the detriment, it would seem, of the wine trade itself. The best
known of these companies was the Port Wine Company. A con-
temporary describes the disaffection produced at Oporto by the
measure, in 1757, as nothing short of an insurrection. " For-
merly," says the Austrian Ambassador Khevenhiiller, " every man
sold his wine to the highest bidder, consequently chiefly to the
English. The price of wine rose or fell according to the vintage.
Now, however, only one company is authorized to accept customers.
The wine is priced every year by the company itself, and the
proceeding being beyond dispute, the cultivators are obliged to
sell at a loss."
The companies placed trading with foreign nations in the
hands of a few, thus offering no recourse against destitution
in the case of the individual cultivator. Resistance to these
monopolies was punished by imprisonment, which often meant
confinement in dungeons at Carvalho's pleasure. In 1757 Oporto
was under martial law, every house with its contingent of soldiers,
who were to stamp out discontent and grievances. Sixteen ring-
leaders of the public disaffection were condemned to death, as
death was then inflicted, by torture.* A few years later, in 1761,
the wine company of Oporto petitioned the King to allow a tax on
every pipe of wine to be levied for Carvalho's benefit. The favor
of the few was in proportion to the disfavor of the many. Under
Dom Joseph's successor, Donna Maria, the abolition of Carvalho's
companies was followed by a Te Deum of thanksgiving.
Carvalho feigned to patronize home manufactures. That he
did not forward them in reality is proved by his methods, which
were expensive and vexatious to the country by excessive taxa-
tion. The resources which he commanded over and above taxa-
tion were the fortunes of great nobles executed on the unproved
*This practice was in accordance with the Criminal Law in European countries
generally, as carried out until modern times.
1912.] THE VOLTAIRE OF PORTUGAL 49
charge of high treason; the capital and possessions of the Jesuits
in Portugal as also in their provinces for the missions of Goa,
Japan, China, Malabar, Brazil, and Maranhao, and further, the
property of the numerous clergy whom he consigned to perpetual
imprisonment. He succeeded in confiscating to the state the reve-
nues of many religious houses. The Tavora episode illustrating,
as it does, his dislike of an ancient house, was, however, preceded
by the catastrophe of the earthquake.
The 2d of November, 1755, broke over Lisbon without a warn-
ing of coming disaster. It was a perfect Summer day, sky and
water of that deep blue which seems to hold a promise of eternal
beauty. In a few hours all was changed: the fair city was in
ruins, the Tagus swollen to a torrent, which helped on the work of
destruction. Fires, too, broke out, and consumed those who might
have escaped the yawning chasm or the falling masonry. The
royal family were at the palace of Belem in the suburbs of Lisbon.
Carvalho found them in tears and consternation.
" What is to be done to meet this infliction of Divine justice? "
exclaimed the King.
" Your Majesty," was Carvalho's reply, " let us bury the dead
and help the living."*
Sixty thousand perished in the destruction of Lisbon. Crim-
inals no longer held by prison bonds walked abroad, seeking booty
amongst the dying and the dead. Burying the dead was no small
enterprise, owing to the fear of plague. These are the grim
accompaniments of the earth's upheaval ; from the scourge of earth-
quakes, O Lord, deliver us is a petition, not fifty years old, in our
liturgy. Carvalho displayed great courage and presence of mind in
the emergency. On him devolved the labor of rebuilding that por-
tion of Lisbon which had suffered most from the catastrophe. It
is the quarter on which the Rocio Square now stands.
Dom Joseph's blind trust in his prime minister was consider-
ably strengthened by Carvalho's energy over the smoking ruins of
Lisbon. The King lived for pleasure and the self-indulgence to
which pleasure leads. Carvalho pandered to it by holding the
reins of government in his own hands. The one reigned in name,
the other governed in deed. But in the moral order the powerful
prime minister had more capacity for pulling down than for build-
ing up. A few years after the earthquake, in 1758, an incident
occurred, which has always been enveloped in lugubrious mystery.
*Carnota, 46.
VOL. XCVI. 4.
50 THE VOLTAIRE OF PORTUGAL [Oct.,
The King was paying very marked attentions to the young
Marquise Tavora. He was returning one evening in September,
1758, from a visit to her, accompanied by a chamberlain named
Texeira, of doubtful character and evil reputation.* A shot was
fired at the royal carriage by the Duke of Aveiro, and the King
was wounded. It was really aimed at Texeira, not at the King at
all, for Texeira had grossly insulted the duke, and made the King's
downward course as easy as possible. For three months nothing
was done: then retaliation fell heavily on some of the noblest in
Portugal, notably on the Tavora family. The young marquis
bitterly resented Dom Joseph's visits to his wife, and it may be
that his attitude explains the fearful fate which overtook his family.
His father, the old marquis, came home from a ball in the early
morning of December 13, 1758, to find his house surrounded by
soldiers. In his bewilderment he went straight to the King, who
was closeted with Carvalho. He was arrested then and there in the
royal palace. A month later, after a summary trial, the victims
were brought to execution. The number of persons implicated
in the so-called attempt on the King's life ran into a hundred, the
Tavoras heading the poll. This ancient family was stamped out
in shame and ignominy.
Early in the morning of January 13, 1759, the condemned were
led out to suffer a horrible death. The old Marquise Tavora was
the first, and in consequence of her sex she was merely beheaded.
In some countries the criminal law sentenced murderers to be
broken on the wheel. It would seem not to have been current in
Portugal before Dom Joseph's, that is, Pombal's, reign. The second
Tavora son, Jose Maria, was stretched on a block in the form of
a cross, his arms and legs smashed by twenty-two blows dealt
by an iron weight. The third victim was the Conde de Atonguia.
The fourth the young Marquis de Tavora, who loudly asserted
his innocence, but was not allowed to speak. Next followed two
servants of the Duke of Aveiro, and a corporal in the service of
the old marquis, who suffered the same hacking as his young
master, Jose Maria. The old Marquis Tavora and the Duke of
Aveiro received nine deadly blows. The tenth, a servant of the
Duke of Aveiro, was compelled to look at the ghastly remains
of those who had been already executed, and was then cast into
*A contemporary Jesuit, Eckart, who was in Portugal from 1758, gives an
account of this in his Historia Persecutions Societatis Jesu in Lusitania, XIII., p. 361.
Quoted by Duhr, p. 82.
I 9 i2.] THE VOLTAIRE OF PORTUGAL 51
the flames, together with the bleeding limbs and bones, to be burnt
alive. His agony lasted a quarter of an hour. The Austrian Am-
bassador, Khevenhiiller, thus described this terrible miscarriage
of justice to Kaunitz, the Pombal of Austria. Twenty years later
the memory of the Tavoras was not cleared. Restitution was not
made during the lifetime of Queen Anna, who justly feared the
aspersion it would cast on Dom Joseph's own character.
An unfortunate man of Italian birth, Pele, by name, had
planned an attack on Pombal. He was betrayed and punished
in the same appalling fashion as the Tavoras. His hands were
cut off, and he was torn in quarters by four wild horses, and then
burnt (I775)-*
Ten Jesuits, as confessors to the parties concerned, had been
implicated in the Tavora trial, although no just cause of complaint
had been found against them. The year 1758 marks the beginning
in Carvalho of a more active dislike and distrust of the Church,
which he sought to uproot and to replace by a national establish-
ment, as if he could legislate for Portuguese souls. He determined
on the suppression of the Jesuits. No one of the Catholic powers,
not even Maria Theresa, put out an arm to prevent him. On the
contrary, the atmosphere was charged with disaffection, and it is
perhaps owing to this circumstance that Carvalho, Marquis of
Pombal, was able to carry out his design against the Church, and
against the Jesuits. The Tavora episode was a tragedy of state
absolutism. Pombal also marked in a dramatic manner his atti-
tude to the Inquisition. He secured the management of this tri-
bunal by putting it into subservient hands, and eliminating the
ecclesiastical element.
The appalling Tavora sentence had its parallel in the
trial and conviction of Fr. Malagrida, an aged Jesuit mis-
sionary, who had spent himself in the forests of Brazil, and nearly
fallen a victim to heathen savages. Still more cruel hands awaited
him. A Jesuit contemporary describes him as a man of the great-
est unselfishness and simplicity. Long suffering in the prison of
Junguiera was his portion for his supposed implication in the
Tavora attempt, itself a misnomer. Thus weakened and enfeebled
he was given up to the Inquisition in September, 1761, and burnt
to death in his habit at the age of seventy-four. The spirit, which
had braved the toils and dangers of missionary life, had become
weakened in Pombal's dungeon, and this was in fact the only
*Duhr, Pombal, Sein Charakter u. Seine Politik, 86, 96.
52 THE VOLTAIRE OF PORTUGAL [Oct.,
reproach which could be made against the aged religious. It was
not customary to deliver the religious habit, with the criminal,
to the Inquisition. The act in Malagrida's case was typical of
special degradation and dishonor.
A bitter hatred characterized Pombal's dealings with the
Jesuits because they thwarted his plans in two particulars. He
wished to depreciate the priesthood as well as the religious life, and
to break with Rome. To this end he dealt summarily with the
Jesuits, and thought to suppress them in Portugal and Portuguese
colonies before Clement XIV. had formally issued his Bull.
In a dispatch to his government, in July, 1760, Kail remarks:
" No disaster, nothing unpleasant of any kind, can happen here
nowadays, which is not at once put down to the hated Jesuits."*
Pombal sent them either into banishment or into prison. He
destroyed all activity in the Jesuit missions, whether in Asia,
Africa, or America, damaging his own country no less than the
colonies in the process. From 1760 onwards he was striving to
draw the Church in Portugal from the Holy See, and to give to
the Portuguese sovereign what the Parliament of 1535 gave to
Henry VIII. A decree of expulsion against the Jesuits was issued
in 1767, after their existence had been recognized as legal. The
proceedings bear a strong resemblance to the state authorization
of the French government, which has scarcely saved one teaching
body of religious in France from banishment and confiscation.
With the Jesuits, and even before them, suffered those bishops and
priests who would not submit to state interference in matters of
conscience. In 1760 the Archbishop of Bahia refused to accept
the suspension of Jesuit faculties without the consent of the Holy
See, and he had in consequence to leave Portugal. A man of
much learning and holiness, he retired into solitude in Portuguese
America. Not only were priests and religious of independent
minds removed, but whole convents were dispersed for having
incurred Pombal's displeasure.
The Bishop of Coimbra had condemned certain books in a
pastoral, for which crime of laesae mafestatis he was seized and
imprisoned in an underground dungeon. The Augustinian Order,
to which he belonged, was punished in the same degree with military
visits and seizure of papers. The bishop had been guilty of de-
nouncing Voltaire's works, and others, in the pastoral, which was
burnt by the public executioner. Dom Jose, taking his orders
*Duhr, p. 107.
1912.] THE VOLTAIRE OF PORTUGAL 53
from Pombal, wrote to the chapter of Coimbra, recommending a
new nomination in consequence of the bishop's proceedings. The
tribunal which sat upon the pastoral (1768) gave its opinion in no
equivocal terms : " To tell a man, 'You must not read this book
without the Pope's leave' means 'you must believe in matters of
government only what the Pope chooses, an absurdity which
shatters the foundation of all government.' "*
A certain book, which was drawn up by Pombal's orders, the
Tentative, Theologica, sets forth his conception of making bishops
independent of the Holy See and dependent on the Crown. First
of all admission to the priesthood was much restricted, and not
left to the bishops' discretion. Candidates for Holy Orders had
to obtain the King's permission for their ordination, and in the same
way monasteries were forbidden to receive novices. Marriage
dispensations of whatever kind are properly referred to the Holy
See, yet there were Portuguese bishops who acted against their
conscience and usurped the power which belongs to the Pope
alone. The Archbishops of Evora and Braga issued dispensations
in the third and fourth degree. A certain Dom Jose da Camara,
wishing to marry his deceased wife's sister, was dispensed by the
Bishop of Elva, who constituted himself and his canons command-
ing officers as reservists in case of a war with Spain. Kail's secret
dispatches to his government note these particulars as a conse-
quence of the breach with Rome, which was consummated at last
by the treatment inflicted on the Papal Nuncio.
In June, 1760, the Princess of Brazil, heiress to the throne,
married the Infante. Dom Pedro, in the midst of great rejoicings.
The Papal Nuncio, Philip Acciogoli, was a man of moderation, and
had shown himself compliant on many occasions. As a conse-
quence of receiving no invitation to the wedding festivities, he did
not illuminate his house. The omission was seized as a pretext
for his abrupt dismissal. On June I7th, his house was surrounded
by detachments of military, and he himself was required to quit
the kingdom within four days. Cardinal Acciogoli did not tarry,
but left at once with a few intimate friends, taking nothing with
him. Thus the Papal Nuncio was hurried from Portugal, and
Pombal effected a breach with Rome, which was most displeasing
to King, royal family, and people.
If the Jesuits upheld the Holy See. the Holy See upheld the
Jesuits, but in 1760 the Society of Jesus was approaching the fatal
*Duhr, 113, 114.
54 THE VOLTAIRE OF PORTUGAL [Oct.,
hour when Clement XIV. would order it to disband. This hour,
it seems, was prepared and made possible by Pombal. He had
outlawed, banished, and imprisoned those who thwarted his de-
signs. In 1769 Clement XIV. became Pope, and in 1773 he con-
sented to suppress the Society. Those Jesuits, therefore, who
escaped alive from Pombal's dungeons, came back to find themselves
no longer a body corporate when their prison doors were unlocked
after Dom Joseph's death.
In the meantime, in 1770, Portugal resumed diplomatic rela-
tions with Rome. Pombal, who had made the breach, repaired
it in his own fashion. The Archbishop of Evora, da Cunha, and
Paul Carvalho received the Cardinal's hat, whilst the Bishop of
Coimbra, who had fought a good fight, was suffered to remain in
solitary confinement. Lemos de Farina was consecrated as Bishop
in partibus with the right of succession to the See of Coimbra, and
confirmed by Clement, who was misled by Pombal's representa-
tions. The Pope's act is said to be unique in the annals of the
Church!* Other nominations were equally disastrous; in fact,
Pombal seized the opportunity for filling vacant sees with his
nominees. Cardinal da Cunha, as Archbishop of Evora, had taken
upon himself to give marriage dispensations, which are properly
reserved to the Holy See. Pope Clement did not remember this
against him, but allowed him to live out of his diocese, provided
he occasionally visited it. He was an absentee for six years, one
of his avocations being the presidency of a Jansenist Club, dis-
tinguished for irreligious opinions. Pope Clement, again misin-
formed, nominated da Cunha to the post of Grand Inquisitor in
the interest of the general peace of the Church (1770). These
were some of the proceedings which marked the return of the
Papal Nuncio and the years of power still reserved to Pombal.
These lasted as long as Dom Jose lived. The King expired on
February 24, 1777, expressing great contrition for having trusted
Pombal over much, and thus caused the miscarriage of justice
throughout the kingdom.
Donna Maria, who ascended the throne, received her father's
inheritance from Pombal's hands. Dom Jose spoke from the full-
ness of his heart on his death-bed, and charged his daughter to re-
lease prisoners, to pay his court, and to keep peace with the Church.
The imprisoned Bishop of Coimbra was released shortly before
the King's end at the request of his confessor. He had suffered
*Duhr, 135.
1912.] THE VOLTAIRE OF PORTUGAL 55
nine years imprisonment for doing his duty. The number of per-
sons imprisoned on a false charge of high treason was no fewer
than eight hundred and fourteen. Lebzeltern describes the opening
of prison doors a few days after the King's death : " Through
the release of an endless number of prisoners, people reappear
whose memory has been forgotten. These people have endured
the horrors of a terrible captivity from eighteen to twenty years
long: it is an image of the rising from the dead. This minister
[Pombal] is not only forsaken, but there is no class in the state
who does not bring bitter reproaches against him to the feet of
the throne, and load him with the most grievous charges." In
a dispatch in cypher, the ambassador gives an account of what
priests, religious and Jesuits, had been called upon to endure.
" It is stated," he says, " that the Queen has made up her mind
to free the Jesuits also. Amongst them there is a certain Fr.
Timothy, her former confessor, whom she has always greatly
missed, also there are subjects of our gracious Sovereigns."
According to Lebzeltern their greatest crime was the fact
that they were Jesuits, and knew too much about Brazil. He
reminded his correspondent that they would leave prison in rags,
and would require decent clothes and traveling expenses. A month
later, Lebzeltern reported that all prisoners belonging to the nobility
had been set at liberty. Wishing to test the nature of the cap-
tivity inflicted on the Jesuits, he visited in disguise the Fortress
of St. Julian, built at the mouth of a river, and saw dungeons
which froze the blood in his veins with horror. Underground
holes, four feet long, almost impervious to the light, occasionally
flooded by two feet of water, constituted the dungeon in which
these Fathers had managed to exist for eighteen years. Their
food consisted of half a pound of bread, two ounces of meat, and
a little salad daily. A shirt each, yearly, was contributed to their
clothing. Lebzeltern found nine German Jesuits amongst the num-
ber, one P. Kaulen, whose sufferings filled him with compassion,
and another, P. Szenmartone, a brilliant mathematician.
After much correspondence and many negotiations, Lebzeltern
finally succeeded in helping the German Jesuits out of their prison,
and sending them back to their own country. P. Kaulen remained
at St. Julian, together with thirty Portuguese Jesuits, whose desti-
nation could not be determined. One and all were ex- Jesuits : their
religious family no longer existed. Fr. Carelen had labored in the
Portuguese missions, with other German Jesuits, at the solicitation
56 THE VOLTAIRE OF PORTUGAL [Oct.,
of the Crown. He had converted a whole tribe on the banks of
the Amazon, toiled during seven years to make some provision
for his people. The material fruits of his labors were swept away
by Francis de Mendonc.a, Pombal's brother, and he himself was
shipped off to Lisbon, where imprisonment was the reward of his
devotedness. Dungeon rigor lost him the nails of his hands and
feet, and reduced his body to a mass of sores. When by force
of patient endurance he had somewhat recovered, he was trans-
ferred to the underground hole, which Lebzeltern had seen and
shuddered at. Many succumbed to their inhuman imprisonment,
and amongst them Fr. Butger Hundt. After twenty years of
missionary labors, he spent fourteen in captivity, and died of its
horrors.
Donna Maria's inheritance cost her one million. The court
officials had received no salary for fourteen years, but money griev-
ances were the lightest part of the woes with which she had to
contend. The Queen could not unmake what had " been made "
any more than the gods of old. Now at least Pombal's iron grip
on public affairs was loosened. It is said that the Bishop of Beha
remained his friend; not so Cardinal da Cunha, who broke with
him in his fallen fortunes. The Marquise Pombal became seriously
ill through much weeping. In 1781 a royal decree banished her
husband to Pombal, where he died on May 14, 1782.
And now to show how faithfully Pombal's spirit has been
evoked, I may quote recent events and the protest against them
uttered by the Jesuit provincial in Portugal. " It is passing
strange," says the provincial, " that to this moment not a single
offence has been alleged against us. The law of October 8th ( 1910)
assigns none, but appeals to the ancient obsolete legislation of
Pombal (1758) and Aguiar (1834)."
It is true that imprisonment in 1910 cannot vie with the under-
ground dungeons of 1760. Still the provincial has something to
say about " treatment in prison." " As to the sufferings of my
beloved brethren, I will only say that in the artillery barrack which
was under the control not of the military, but of the dregs of the
populace, not even a spoon was given to the prisoners wherewith
to eat their mess of food; that they were allowed to withdraw
privately but once in eight hours, and poor invalids to whom such
tyranny might prove fatal were told that they only sought a pre-
text for retirement. At night, the guards threatened to shoot
any one who attempted to get up. Finally, these warders had the
1912.] THE VOLTAIRE OF PORTUGAL 57
brutality to bring in abandoned women, but these were compelled
to retreat before the calm and dignified bearing of my worthy
brethren. As to their furniture, I will only say that afterwards
when, being transferred to Caxias, they were there provided with
a mattress laid on the ground, a hard bolster and a single blanket,
they thought themselves in comfort by comparison.
" In a dungeon of the Town Hall, before their removal to
the central prison of Limoiro, some of the captives were still worse
treated, being crammed together to the number of twenty-three,
where there was scarce room for three or four, and they had for
five days to breathe foul air, not being suffered to leave the
chamber, and there being no ventilation save through one small
aperture."*
Again, to turn to even more recent events of the drama, which
is history repeating itself : " Dom Antonio Barroso, the Bishop
of Oporto, has been arrested on the charge of ordering the Joint
Pastoral of the Portuguese Bishops to be read in the churches
of his diocese. On his arrival in Lisbon on March 6th, he was
greeted by an expectant crowd, who had been thoroughly demoral-
ized. The misrepresentations and calumnies of the republican
government have done their work, and the people in their ignorance
have turned against their best friends. At the cries of 'Down
with the Jesuits!' 'Death to the Bishop!' Dom Antonio, perhaps
remembering his long years of missionary work in South Africa
and his struggle in Oporto for the reform of abuses and for the
good of his people, turned to Dr. G. Martins and said quietly :
'And is all this for me?'"f
" All this " is for the followers of Malagrida, the Bishop of
Coimbra and their companions, who may lose the fruit of their
labors in this world, and reach the higher plane of suffering perse-
cution for justice' sake.
Since the Bishop of Oporto's arrest, we have witnessed the
joint protest of the Portuguese Bishops against the Decree of
April 20, 1911, separating the Church from the State. We have
read the Encyclical Letter in which Pope Pius X. enumerates
the evils of the present legislation, a too faithful reproduction of
Pombal's procedure. The one remedy lies in obedience to the
Holy Father, and the obedient man will yet speak victory.
*London Tablet, December 24, 1910.
t/d., March 25, 1911.
IS SATAN THE HERO OF PARADISE LOST?
BY EMILY HICKEY.
[ROM the time of Dryden, who, in the Dedication
of his translation of the Mneid, proclaimed Satan
the hero of Paradise Lost, the assertion, or at least
the opinion, that such is the part that he takes in
Milton's great epic has been by no means unusual.
In the Saturday Papers on Paradise Lost, published in the
Spectator just two hundred years ago, Addison considered the
question of Satan's title to be the hero of the epic, and dismissed
it on the ground that it was impossible for the hero to be degraded ;
that is, degraded in character, aim and end. " The hero need
not be faultless, but should be noble."
It is strange that Dr. Garnett, who, in his Life of John Milton,
maintains that Satan is the hero of Paradise Lost, appears to have
forgotten the essential ignobleness and meanness of Milton's Evil
One: for the same writer rejects the claim of Adam to be the
hero on the ground that when "he begins to wrangle with Eve
about their respective shares of blame, he forfeits his estate of
heroism more irretrievably than his estate of holiness." Is " wrang-
ling " for the moment (if we consent to call what passes between
the first guilty ones at that sorrowful time by that name) more
greatly ignoble than the determination to ruin the beautiful inno-
cent Eden dwellers for the sake of " spiting " the Creator whose
punishment Satan is under, and endeavoring to make out that
the ultimate blame rests with that Creator Himself?
Dryden saw, as many others later than he have seen, the
magnificence of Milton's conception of the Great Apostate; he,
like them, was so obsessed by the faded splendor of the " archangel
ruined " that he must have lost sight of his intense selfishness
developed from his intense egotism, his evil meanness and false-
hood, so well symbolized by the " black mist low creeping " whose
likeness he at one time assumes, his cruelty and his degradation.
He has been seen as a hero because of qualities which are so
specially interesting that their presence seems to throw into ob-
Jivion, or at least non-consideration, the side that is low and mean.
The lowest among God's servants shines with a fadeless splendor
1912.] IS SATAN THE HERO OF PARADISE LOST? 59
before which the " archangel ruined " shows but dark with the
deepest depth of darkness. Should this be forgotten, or ignored,
even in the face of " the unconquerable will," the strength of lead-
ership, the greatness of his language, the lingering beauty of his
form? All these things have fascinated men, inspiring them with
admiration, and even more; and to their effect in themselves has
been added their having been set for us in the magnificent poetry
of him whose style has given to the language of English speakers
a synonym for " sublime " in the word " Miltonic." We must
remember, however, how few know their Paradise Lost as a whole.
Most of those who have any acquaintance with the poem, knowing
only a few of those passages which are " selected " and among
which those dealing with Satan, especially that most splendid one
beginning with the Address to the Sun, must form a very prominent
part.
Can any character be called the hero of an epic which sees him
beaten and repulsed, not through those outward circumstances
among which defeat may be the highest success, but from the
necessity of God's good triumphing over the evil which that char-
acter has taken for his good? Can a hero of an epic be shown
to us degraded at the first, and going down into degradation deeper
and yet deeper, until at last the bestial change that overtakes him
as a part of his punishment is the outward sign that he has reached
the extreme of the deep still lower than the deepest?
Let us try to trace the character of Satan, as shown us in the
poet's description, in his own words and actions, and in the words
spoken of him and addressed to him by those of whom he had once
stood the peer.
High on a throne of royal state, which far
Outshone the wealth of Ormuz and of Ind,
* * *
Satan exalted sat, by merit raised
To that bad eminence.
This is the description given at the beginning of the Second
Book of Paradise Lost, which tells of the holding of the infernal
council in Pandemonium. We cannot but place Milton's Satan on
an eminence; there is nothing insignificant about him; the poet's
conception is so vast, so mighty, that we feel how these lines set
before us, in few words, the power of evil. It is indeed on an
eminence that the Adversary sits; and it is indeed a bad eminence.
60 IS SATAN THE HERO OF PARADISE LOST? [Oct.,
Pride, with its offspring, ambition, and its result, disloyalty, with
the corruption of others, and the audacity of disobedience, dyed
deeply with the dye of ingratitude, we know to have been the cause
of Satan's fall. His own lips tell us of his pride, and with pride
in that pride. He could not bear the rule of a superior; he hated
even to imagine that he could have a superior. It is in the Arch-
angel Raphael's story of the Fall of the Angels, related to Adam
for his aid and warning, that we find the fullest account of the
beginning of that fall.
On such a day as Heaven's great year brings forth,
the Imperial summons called the host of angels before the Al-
mighty's throne. Splendid was the great army with its standards
and gonfalons ; the great army with its distinction
Of hierarchies, of orders and degrees.
Thus when in orbs
Of circuit inexpressible they stood,
Orb within orb, the Father infinite,
By whom in bliss embosom'd sat the Son,
Amidst, as from a flaming mount, whose top
Brightness had made invisible, thus spake.
The Father declares His Son, His Anointed One, that day be-
gotten, appointed as the Head of all. The infinite Father has
sworn that to Him all knees shall bow : whosoever disobeys Him
disobeys the Eternal Father,
breaks union ; and that day,
Cast out from God and blessed vision, falls
Into utter darkness, deep ingulf'd, his place
Ordain'd without redemption, without end.
All seemed well pleased : all seemed, but all were not. Satan
the hypocrite, the seemer content, wakes in the ambrosial night,
full of angry envy against Him Who that day had been proclaimed
Messiah : his pride cannot bear this, and he thinks himself impaired
by the exaltation of the Son. He resolves
With all his legions to dislodge, and leave
Unworship'd, unobey'd, the throne supreme.
Contemptuous.
Satan wakens his next subordinate (Beelzebub), and tells
him that he is sure he will be at one with his leader. Thus he
plays on his " loyalty," he whose own loyalty is flung away. New
laws, he says, have been imposed.
1912.] IS SATAN THE HERO OF PARADISE LOST? 61
New laws from Him Who reigns, new minds may raise
In us who serve, new counsels, to debate
What doubtful may ensue.
Beelzebub is directed to assemble the chief of the legions
of which he is leader, and for this assembling a lying reason is
assigned. They are to haste, by the Most High's command, with
their leader to " the quarters of the north "
there to prepare
Fit entertainment to receive our King
The great Messiah, and His new commands,
Who speedily through all the hierarchies
Intends to pass triumphant, and give laws.
Bad influence is infused into the breast of Satan's associate:
the Regent Powers under him Regent are called, as by the sum-
mons of God Himself : and the suggested cause for the assembling
having been given out, the ready false tongue of the Adversary
casts between
Ambiguous words and jealousies, to sound
Or taint integrity.
The legions obey their Potentate.
for great indeed
His name, and high was his degree in Heaven:
His countenance, as the morning star that guides
The starry flock, allured them, and with lies
Drew after him the third part of Heaven's host.
In Satan's attitude to service we may find much of warning
for ourselves.
Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven
is his conclusion. He despises service, which by him is described
as servitude and slavery, to which his pride will not bow; and in
this, as all through, we see the contrast to the Divine Master Who
took on Himself the form of a servant; Who served in all ways;
Who commanded service as the lesson and meaning of social life;
and Who left to His Vicegerent to bear through many a century
the title of Servant of servants. So too, the flawless Lady whom
next to Him we honor; she who proclaimed herself the handmaid,
or even the bondmaid, of the Lord.
A characteristic of him who is considered to be the one and
62 IS SATAN THE HERO OF PARADISE LOST? [Oct.,
only man whom Shakespeare has given to us as unredeemed by
a touch of goodness, lago, is hatred of service. And here is
Satan's blindness transmitted to his followers : he cannot see that
to serve is to be exalted ; that to be the servant of God is to possess
the highest freedom.
The apostate taunts Abdiel, the one found true among the
myriads under his Regency whom Satan had made false, who
comes against him in the war which is waged between high Heaven
and those who are to inhabit Hell; taunts him as a slothful being,
one who knows no liberty.
At first I thought that Liberty and Heaven
To heavenly souls had been all one; but now
I see that most through sloth had rather serve,
Minist'ring spirits, train'd up in feast and song;
it is just the poor " ministering spirits " who are against him,
he says ; servility contending with freedom. And in Abdiel's reply
we come to the kernel of Satan's sin;
Thyself not free, but to thyself enthrall'd.
There it is, the egotism, the being centred in self, with all the
blindness, the cruelty, the weakness which springs therefrom, es-
saying to assume the form of strength. We notice how he who
rages against service is accused by the Angel Zephon of base ser-
vility.
And thou sly hypocrite, who now wouldst seem
Patron of liberty, who more than thou
Once fawned, and cringed, and servilely adored
Heaven's awful Monarch?
Even in Heaven the false one had given to service that note
whose dishonesty had turned its outward manifestation into despic-
able servility. We may be quite sure that the other side of pride is
meanness; meanness perforce instead of humility by will.
The first speech of Satan, to his followers, delivered in Pande-
monium, from his throne of royal state, reveals this intense ego-
tism of his. His claim to the first place he puts forward as a
two-fold one. Just right and the fixed laws of Heaven have, he
says, created him their leader, along with their own free choice ;
and the loss of Heaven has further
Established in a safe unenvied throne,
Yielded with full consent.
1912.] IS SATAN THE HERO OF PARADISE LOST? 63
Let us note carefully what follows. In Heaven dignity com-
mands a happier state, which might indeed " draw envy from each
inferior;'' but from this envy he is now safe; for being
Foremost to stand against the Thunderer's aim
as their bulwark, and being condemned to the " greatest share of
endless pain," he thinks that envy cannot touch him. There is
an uneasy consciousness in his mind that he who has envied may
be the mark of envy; and he therefore puts it to his companions
that " none sure will claim in Hell Precedence ;" there is none that
will covet a larger share of pain. This, he proclaims, is the ad-
vantage
To union, and firm faith, and firm accord,
More than can be in Heaven.
Thus an infinite loss is to be part of the basis of his power.
We shall again see his egotism in his taking the part of pioneer
and his reasons for so doing. Here, too, his meanness comes out.
When he undertakes the terrible journey to seek out the means
to injure the Almighty by injuring His creation, he imposes on
his followers the belief that in so doing he despises his own safety
for the general safety, and he receives the homage which their ad-
miration for this offers him, as they bend towards him " with
awful reverence prone."
It is true that he excels the other fallen spirits in courage,
for none of them had dared to undertake "the dreadful voyage;"
it is also true that the fear comes upon him that, after he had
announced his resolution,
Others among the chief might offer now
(Certain to be refused) what erst they fear'd;
And, so refused, might in opinion stand
His rivals; winning cheap the high repute,
Which he through hazard huge must earn.
This is his " prudence ! "
Take Satan as a reasoner. We have to think of him either
as illogical, which would not fall in with the height of his intel-
lectual being, or else as blindingly sophistical, which indeed he is,
being the father of lies. In his speeches to his followers, to the
angels, and to Eve, Satan sets things in a wrong light. It is when
he is alone that we find from what he says how truly he can see,
64 IS SATAN THE HERO OF PARADISE LOST? [Oct.,
although to others he has spoken falsehood in the guise of truth.
As an instance of this, we may compare what he says to Beelzebub
concerning God, with what he says in the speech which begins with
what is known as his Address to the Sun. In the former speech
he appears not to understand why God must be supreme ; he builds
His claim to supremacy on force.
He
Who now is Sovereign can dispose and bid
What shall be right : furthest from His is best,
Whom reason hath equal'ed, force hath made supreme
Above His equals.
How different from this assertion is what Satan says in the
later instance :
pride and worse ambition threw me down,
Warring in Heaven against Heaven's matchless King :
Ah, wherefore? He deserved no such return
From me, whom He created what I was
In that bright eminence, and with His good
Upbraided none; nor was His service hard.
* * *
all His good proved ill in me,
And wrought but malice; lifted up so high
I 'sdain'd subjection, and thought one step higher
Would set me highest, and in a moment quit.
The debt immense of endless gratitude,
So burdensome; still paying, still to owe:
Forgetful what from Him I still received,
And understood not that a grateful mind
By owing owes not, but still pays, at once
Indebted and discharged ; what burden then ?
The whole of the address to the sun is most important in any
study of the character of Milton's Satan. We see how vividly
awake he is to the truth, and how determined to reject it. If, he
says, he had been some inferior angel, he would have stood
happy, for his could have been no " unbounded hope " to
raise ambition. Yet, even then with none of that greatness, which,
as he argues, has been his temptation, he knows well that he might
have sinned as a subordinate angel as well as a leader.
I9i2.] IS SATAN THE HERO OF PARADISE LOST? 65
some other Power
As great might have aspired, and me, though mean,
Drawn to his part; but other powers as great
Fell not, but stand unshaken, from within
Or from without, to all temptations arm'd.
Curiously, in this one passage, he acknowledges " other Powers
as great " as he.
Hadst thou the same free will and power to stand?
Thou hadst : whom hast thou then or what to accuse,
But Heaven's free love dealt equally to all?
That " free love " Satan acknowledges, and holds accursed,
since love or hate,
To me alike, it deals eternal woe.
He sees clearly; there is now no sophistry, for he has none
to blind by it, and he goes on to say,
Nay, cursed be thou ; since against His thy will
Chose freely what it now so justly rues.
* * *
Oh, then at last relent: is there no place
Left for repentance, none for pardon left?
None left but by submission.
And this submission never will be his.
Many of the sayings of Satan, taken from their context, and
quoted not as from the lips of the Arch-liar, who knew so well
that a truth misapplied becomes a lie, are household words; and
words they are in which the ultimate expression is reached of what
must ever in the right sense be true. Such are :
The unconquerable will.
to be weak is miserable,
Doing or suffering.
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.
Awake, arise, or be for ever fallen.
who overcomes
By force, hath overcome but half his foe.
Unspeakable desire to see, and know.
All these His wondrous works, but chiefly Man,
His chief delight and favour.
at whose sight all the stars
Hide their diminish'd heads.
TOL. XCVI. 5.
66 IS SATAN THE HERO OF PARADISE LOST? [Oct.,
These utterances, and the like, apart, as I have said, from
their context, and outside of the personality of their utterer, give
some clue to the admiration lavished on Milton's Satan, who aims
at making Hell of Heaven. But the words that he speaks, of
treason, of defiance, of encouragement to treason and defiance,
are indeed what are spoken of as
high words that bore
Semblance of worth, not substance.
This " semblance of worth, not substance," describes the posi-
tion of Satan in Paradise Lost.
Wordsworth says, " We live by admiration, hope and
love:" and a French writer, Theophile Gualtier, has said,
" The distinguishing characteristic mark of Satan is that he
could neither love nor admire." This is true; he cannot
love; he cannot admire; Hope he has none. He stands alone
in his desperate pride, knowing nothing of love. He is
his own object: how should he have admiration for any other?
In his eyes there is none like himself for might and glory and
beauty. There is evidence of this all through the poem. In his
madness of pride he declares that force alone has made God
Sovereign above His equals. Mark " His equals." Over and over
again the assertion is made of power, leadership, greatness, mag-
nificence. What does he say to the accusing angels, who have
found this glory of angelhood " squat like a toad " at the ear of
Eve? Yes, "squat like a toad!" Oh, meanness! Oh, degrada-
tion! What does he say when the touch of Ithuriel's spear has
made him return " of force to his own likeness," but that the an-
gels had once known him no mate for them ; " there sitting where
ye durst not soar." Then, abashed, awed before the power of
good, feeling how lovely in her shape is virtue, Satan sees and
pines his loss; and his chief regret is the hearing from Zephon's
lips how his shape is no longer the same as it was in heaven; how
his brightness is diminished ; how the glory has departed from him,
with his goodness, and how now he resembles his " sin and place
of doom obscure and foul." For all Satan's claims are lies : power
is not his; true leadership is not his. The greatness he had has
dwindled to a shadow; and the excellency of his beauty had fled
from him.
To find here observed
His lustre visibly impair'd
1912.] IS SATAN THE HERO OF PARADISE LOST? 67
grieves him most : the external sign of its loss is far more to him
than the loss itself.
It is in comparison with what he once was that he is without
beauty; the obscurity and foulness of his sin have not yet ruined
entirely that which distinguished him of old; for Gabriel says
when he announces the return to Heaven of Ithuriel and Zephon
from their mission to Eden,
And with them comes a third of regal port,
But faded splendour wan.
The bearing is still regal, and the splendor has not quite de-
parted, faded as it is, and wan. But we have always to bear in mind
the remembrance that the beauty remaining to Satan is but a mere
shadow compared with the unspeakable, unthinkable beauty of high
angelhood, itself as a shadow of the eternal beauty of God Himself.
It is Gabriel who exposes Satan as a liar in his excuses for
having entered Eden: he has therein said and straight unsaid;
he has pretended
first
Wise to fly pain, professing next the spy.
And this
Argues no leader, but a liar traced.
He has lost his high name for that of Adversary; he who was
of the first, if riot himself the first, Archangel; and so surely as God
is Truth, His Adversary is Falsehood, His Enemy is the great Lie.
In Satan's hatred of gratitude, though indeed he knows that
this hatred is ignoble, may we not be reminded in some faint way
of what is in those among us who do for others what their pride
will not suffer them to allow to be done for themselves? those who
are desirous to give what they would not willingly take ? This, too,
is a lighter shade of that painful dislike " to be under an obligation "
which we know of; but it is a shade of it, and it marks an ignoble
tendency, which its possessor often mistakes for a noble one.
We must not forget the touch of nobility which is seen in
Satan in the sorrow that comes to him for a little space when his
cruel eye is softened, and remorse and passion are his as he beholds
his followers
condemn'd
For ever now to have their lot in pain ;
Millions of spirits for his fault amerced
Of Heaven, and from eternal splendours flung
For his revolt.
68 IS SATAN THE HERO OF PARADISE LOST? [Oct.,
He sees them yet faithful to him, standing their, " their glory
withered." His speech is stayed by his emotion.
He now prepared
To speak ;
Thrice he assay'd, and thrice, in spite of scorn.
Tears, such as angels weep, burst forth:
but his pity is of no avail, for he wills to be followed; he wills
to be obeyed; he wills that his followers should be lost in his loss
and damned in his damnation; and this struggle against the pity
that for a little space took hold of him becomes by his resistance
to it only the means of plunging him deeper in his selfishness
supreme. In the exquisiteness of Eden he sees " undelighted all
delight." There is no room in him for sympathy with beauty
and joy; and as he looks on the lovely ones whom he has come
with intent to destroy, he can say, as he sees in them divine re-
semblance and the grace that
The hand that formed them on their shape hath poured,
that his thoughts pursue them with wonder, and could love. What
love! What wonder!
He can appreciate grace poured out upon them, and the like-
ness to God which is shining in them : but he is unmoved from his
purpose, and in bitterest irony he speaks of the league which he
seeks to make with them, and the " mutual amity, so strait, so close,"
that henceforth he and they must dwell together !
Mark too his falseness here. They must, he says, accept Hell
for their dwelling as the work of their Maker. Satan is, he says,
no purposed foe to them; he, himself unpitied, could pity them in
the forlornness that is to come; but the revenge on God through
these His creatures is for " public reason just."
So spake the Fiend, and with necessity,
The tyrant's plea, excused his devilish deeds.
Let God have the blame. It is He Who has brought things
to this pass! It is He Who has ruined His Archangels! It is
He Who has wrought the ruin of this His new preation!
" Evil, be thou my good," Satan has said. As good is to the
unfallen, so shall evil be to him, the fallen one. He has no hope
to be less miserable himself, but only desires to make others such
as he, even though worse things come upon him thereby.
1912.] IS SATAN THE HERO OF PARADISE LOST? 69
For only in destroying I find ease
To my relentless thoughts ; and him destroyed,
Or won to what may work his utter loss,
For whom all this was made, all this will soon
Follow, as to think in weal or woe,
In woe then; that destruction wide may range:
To me shall be the glory sole among
The infernal Powers, in one day to have marred
What He, Almighty styled, six nights and days
Continued making, and who knows how long
Before had been contriving.
Here is the contrast; the Creator; the Destroyer; He Who
makes; he who mars. Ever and ever to make will be higher than
to mar ; the Creator sits above ; the Destroyer lies below.
The various shapes and disguises which Milton's Satan as-
sumes afford much study in themselves. Doubtless Milton had
in his mind St. Paul's word of Satan transforming himself into
an angel of light (2 Cor. xi. 14), when he shows him as the strip-
ling cherub, graceful of limb, in whose face youth smiled celestial,
who deceives even Uriel
held
The sharpest-sighted spirit of all in Heaven,
and learns from the abode of Man and the way thereto. It is
when anger, envy and despair marring his borrowed visage be-
tray him counterfeit, that he is recognized as " one of the banished
crew."
When he enters Eden, he sits in the likeness of a cormorant
upon the highest tree in the midst of the garden; using the very
Tree of Life itself as a lookout while he devises death to the
loving. Here he sees " undelighted all delight." In the likeness
of a toad he squats close to the ear of Eve, trying to injure her
by ill dreams; those ill dreams against which the Church lifts
her prayer in her Compline hymn.
Let dreams depart and phantoms fly,
The offspring of the night.
Next, to elude the vigilance of God's angel guardians of Man,
he glides obscure, wrapped in mist of midnight vapor, to find the ser-
pent, and hide himself in its mazy folds. This disguise is indeed
a horror to him.
70 IS SATAN THE HERO OF PARADISE LOST? [Oct.,
O foul descent! that I, who erst contended
With gods to sit the highest, am now constraint
Into a beast; and mix'd with bestial slime,
This essence to incarnate and imbrute,
That to the height if Deity aspired!
But what will not ambition and revenge
Descend to? Who aspires, must down as low
As high he soar'd, obnoxious, first or last,
To basest things.
In this shape he wins a seeming victory; in this shape he
shrinks back to the thickest of the serpent's lair.
But he deems himself Victor;
Victor over God as over Man.
The terrible offspring of Satan, Sin and Death, those insep-
arable comrades, hasten to take possession of the new world to
be inhabited by them; making a great way for the passage of foul
spirits, those ill beings who wander through the world for the
ruin of souls, those spirits against whom we pray.
They meet Satan " in likeness of an angel bright," the likeness
he had before assumed to deceive Uriel, the Regent of the sun.
They know him through his disguise; they well know it to be but
a disguise, that of "an angel of light," and he is congratulated on
his " magnific deeds." Satan commissions Sin and Death to go to
Paradise and thence exercise their dominion,
Chiefly on Man, sole lord of all declared,
Him first make sure your thrall, and lastly kill.
Vain command, whose vanity was one day to be proved,
when the bruising of the head, of which Satan makes so light,
should come. Then soon comes the last scene in which Satan
makes his appearance. Through the midst of his hell-doomed
followers he passes
unmarkt
In shew plebeian angel militant,
Of lowest order;
invisibly he ascends his high throne and sits there for a while,
unseen
At last, as from a cloud, his fulgent head
And shape star-bright, appear'd or brighter, clad
With what permissive glory since his fall
1912.] IS SATAN THE HERO OF PARADISE LOST? 71
Was left him, or false glitter: all amazed
At that so sudden blaze, the Stygian throng
Bent their aspect, and whom they wish'd beheld,
Their mighty chief return'd : loud was the acclaim :
Forth rush'd in haste the great consulting peers,
Raised from their dark divan, and with like joy
Congratulant approach'd him, who with hand
Silence, and with these words attention won.
Drunk with pride in what he believes to be his great and
ultimate success, mad with wrath and malice and all that is unholy,
he tells of this success. In the shape of a brute serpent he has
seduced Man from his Creator has seduced him by fraud,
and, the more to increase
your wonder, with an apple. God, he says, offended at this his
offence, worth your laughter (ay, worth the laughter of fools and
devils), has caused him to surrender.
Both His beloved Man and all this World,
To Sin and Death a prey.
So can his followers now possess that World given over to
them by its Creator !
Their universal shout, and high applause,
which he expects does not go up to fill his ear. Instead, there
comes
A dismal universal hiss, the sound
Of public scorn.
It is the hiss from his innumerable followers, now mysteriously
transformed into the shape their Leader had once assumed. He
himself is changed in shape into the serpent whose likeness he had
borrowed. Still he is predominant in shape and size above the
others, as he has been predominant all through.
Thus Milton symbolizes that lowest degradation which Satan
has reached: thus does the outward at last attain to the full mani-
festation of the inward, not yet, indeed, forever, but as a fore-
taste of the period wherein the Power of Evil shall be deprived
of every vestige of attraction, being broken, and broken for ever-
more.
THE WOUND.
BY THOMAS B. REILLY.
IGNORINA had a narrow escape. An inch lower and
the wound would have been a serious matter. She
had best not try that cliff path again. It is fraught
with dangers A scar ? Yes, the reminder will
be life-long That is true; there are worse mis-
fortunes than such a wound. Yesterday I was down at the Santo
Spirito Hospital: the sufferings, the tortures there
Oh, that was the Signorina's meaning! But, my poor skill
is of no avail in that province. Only the great Physician himself
can cure the wound in the heart one more turn of the bandage,
Signorina there Yes, indeed, God's surgery is a deal
more painful. Still we have the consolations of but a thou-
sand pardons! Signorina, perhaps, is not of the Faith?
Ah ! A convert a fortnight ago and in Rome !
That was an enviable experience No, indeed, life is a great
puzzle without such a Faith Its greatest gifts? But, I am
not versed in such things. Our parish priest, Don Vincenzo, he
would be able to get at the heart of a question like that The
spirit of self-sacrifice? That is certainly a great gift. What
has it not accomplished !
But Signorina would come into the garden to rest awhile?
Good. She is at the Albergo Briganti? A very modern house.
They tell me it is "quite up to date." Time was when it would have
been a foolish luxury. But we have been discovered, and are now
a part of the great route. This way, Signorina ; here on this bench
under the peach trees. Look what a magnificent sweep! The
color ; the lights ; and there to the left that tiny fishing fleet wear-
ing out upon the blue waters. Over there to the right see how the
roofs and the towers flash and fade under the drifting shadows.
And here, between these two mulberry trees, behold how the dome
hangs above the City that for all the world Signorina, per-
haps, recalls the lines?
Rome, in the ages, dimmed with all her towers,
Floats in the midst, a little cloud at tether.
1912.] THE WOUND 73
Signorina marvels that I should speak her language? Well,
I am indebted to one of her own countrymen for the blessing.
It has more than once served me a good turn. It has given me the
thoughts and feelings of a great people. It was difficult, naturally;
and one at three and sixty is slow to learn. Yes, my tongue was very
stubborn in its allegiance to the mother speech. Still, I persisted
and your countryman was patient. I finally succeeded. I found
myself sitting here one Spring morning thinking in English. Be-
lieve me, that was a sensation. In a few days I was no longer
merely reading, I was tasting the real flavors of your prose and
verse.
Now, I follow with increasing wonder and interest the life of
America. It is grossly material? Well, all youth is that. It
must have its dolls and mud pies. Signorina smiles ; but it is true.
Your great American people ? Oh, they are arriving Very
slowly? That is a hopeful sign. Besides, there can be no hurry
and. . . .and " hurrah " is it not? in things of the spirit. We all
of us come to them the long way about. They follow the dolls and
the playthings the sawdust and the chagrins.
Eh, Signorina, patience, patience! The philosophy of leisure
is not to be taken on the jump. Your people will eventually pause
in their labors and mad processions. They have yet to see the
marvels of daybreak on the hills ; the star of a flower in the ditch ;
heavens afire in the west; the awful beauty of His white worlds
trailing across a soundless night. And when they are spiritually
aroused, to what heights may they not attain, what emotions, what
happiness !
Signorina surely doesn't doubt that! Secret? There is
none. The gateway stands wide open. Beyond living according
to the conscience, there is no secret Signorina says true. The
step forward is very difficult. The life of your countryman was an
instance at point. He, too, was a convert.
If it were yesterday, Signorina would have the pleasure of
getting his point of view No, early this morning he was up
and off to Monte Cavo. Always on " on the go." His restless-
ness is very marked of late. It disturbs me. Only last evening,
as we sat here in the cool airs, I said to him half-jokingly : " Why
not try the contemplative life?" He looked at me, and then
I regretted my words. I understood. He was trying not to think.
He had not yet forgotten. I, too, for all the six and forty years
74 THE WOUND [Oct.,
that lie between, sometimes find myself remembering. But he is
in the very noontide of life. And I can understand what it must
be for him my poor David.
'Signorina is pale as death. She is not hiding some secret
injury? One moment, then. A glass of water No, no, I
insist. It is only a step There Signorina feels better?. . . .
Yes, indeed, the heat is very oppressive at this hour of the day.
She will not think of returning to the hotel just yet? She is to
stop over night with the Signora Carlucci! Now that is strange.
That was where my David lived till the signora fell ill, and I per-
suaded him to come and stay with me. It was a happy thought.
He has great gifts. Signorina should hear what he can draw
from Don Vincenzo's old violin the depths, the feelings, the
spirituality! And always, at the end, the sudden flash, a stir, as
of some old familiar hope. It is very suggestive. Time and again
I have wondered at it. Sometimes I think I have caught its mean-
ing and presto it is gone! At first I used to think that it
was a mere trick of expression; but it goes much deeper than that.
Only once did it fail, and that on the day he was received into the
Faith up in our little church of San Silvestro.
Never had he given us such music as that night here in the
garden under the starlight. We were charmed. I was back in the
springtime of life. I was listening to voices that had been hushed
for years that of my lost Elizabeth among them. It seemed that
I had only to reach out my hand to feel the touch of hers when
pian piano with a sudden catch and sob the music fell in ruin.
I jumped up, startled at the touch of my hands against each
other. For the moment, I was dazed. Then I heard Don Vin-
cenzo's voice saying : " That was a sweet song." And, when I
looked around, David had left us. Don Vincenzo held out his
snuff box, and when he bade me " Good-night," I saw that his eyes
were wet. The sudden ending moved me profoundly. I could not
understand. It was so very unusual. I sat thinking for a long
time, but could make nothing of it. And as I went up to the
house, I recalled Don Vincenzo's emotion and wondered. For he
is not at all easily moved.
Well, Signorina knows that dawn comes to us early up here
on the hills. The shock of the fresh morning air is a tonic that
I never like to miss. The next day I was up before sunrise. I
was standing on the walk over there behind the shrubbery when,
1912.] THE WOUND 75
suddenly, I felt that I was not alone. I could not master the feel-
ing. So I retraced my steps and came down this path. And there,
true enough, sat David right where the Signorina is now.
I turned aside, meaning to withdraw, but he called my name.
I came, and, wondering, sat down beside him. I tried to say some-
thing and could not. Some minutes passed. Then, without look-
ing at me, he asked :
" Did you ever love a woman ? "
Believe me, Signorina, I was dumbfounded. It was the last
thought I should have guessed was in his mind. I was just on
the point of passing off the question with a laugh, when I chanced
to look at him. The laughter on my lips died away and I said:
" You are going to leave us ? "
It seemed hours before he answered. And I have often since
found myself repeating the word he uttered. We have nothing
in our language that says quite so much.
" Home ? " he said. But the way he said it ! It touched me
closer than tears. Suddenly I thought that I knew. Laying my
hand on his knee, I whispered:
" She is dead."
He looked at me strangely for a second, shook his head from
side to side, and then:
" Conscience is a costly possession, is it not ? "
In a flash, Signorina, I realized the truth.
" Your conversion ? "
He simply nodded his head. I had not the heart to say
another word. I could not even look at him. I sat beside him,
waiting. When he spoke again it was to say :
" Strange, is it not, she was the first to turn my thought
to such a matter. We studied the subject very carefully. In time
we had arrived at a point where it was either one thing or the
other. I accepted the inevitable. When, suddenly, she told me
the whole thing was impossible. We argued. We went over the
ground again. We quarreled. And I went abroad. You know
the rest. I had not heard of her in almost a year and a half until
one day. . . "
For a long time David sat staring across the valley silent.
I realized then what it was he had been telling us in his music the
night before. Not for worlds would I have pursued the subject
further, had I known the truth. As it was, I said softly:
76 THE WOUND [Oct.,
" God is good, my child, patience."
He hesitated a moment and then : " This day two weeks she
is to be married."
What could I say? I could only sit staring out into the
white dawn silent.
Well, that was eight or nine months ago. We have never
spoken of the subject since. And yet I know it is uppermost in
his mind, very vivid, very real. One can't forget such things in
a day. After a few years, perhaps, my David will look back with
less bitterness. It is possible that he may even forget this hour in
the presence of another and a deeper What? You must
return to the hotel at once ! But I thought that don't, Sig-
norina! See, you have started the wound; it is bleeding afresh.
You are crying! There there What ! You ....
you! But the marriage announcement? False! Then you
never ah, the pity, the great pity Yes, yes, I do under-
stand. I understand all. And if but quick, Signorina, look!
No, no, this way: coming down the mountain path. See he is
turning aside at the spur. In three minutes he will be here
Nonsense ! Signorina will stay right where she is. She will pardon
me? I have an imperative engagement with Don Vincenzo. A
thousand regrets, my dear, and and felicitations !
OUR PAST.
BY M. PHILIP.
I come from where night falls clearer
Than your morning sun can rise,
From an earth that to heaven was nearer
Than your visions of Paradise.
* * *
From the heart of an ancient garden
Girt fast with four walls of peace,
Where he who is set for warden,
From his vigil shall never cease,
Nor quench the flame of his sword,
Till the trumpet shall sound release.
OT the least token of Shakespeare's genius is his care
to put you in touch with the past of the principal
characters in his plays, and to give you by subtle and
artistic means the sense of continuity in their re-
gard. You meet them at some violent crisis of their
lives, but it seems partly to arise out of their character and or-
dinary circumstances, and is not a meaningless bolt from the blue.
Macbeth and Richard II. have a past that leads up to the catas-
trophe of their present; and the failure of Brutus, for instance,
was to be expected in the man of theories, living in an ideal of the
past, and realizing nothing of the changed conditions of the Rome
of his day.
In the case of the good men cut off quickly, we feel their end
to have been a sudden tragedy in one sense, but never a mean-
ingless one to them. The " sainted Duncan " had, in Shakespeare's
mind, the best of it. It is part of his tragedy that Macbeth real-
izes this. We do not find it out of place that one who " died
daily " should have gone swiftly from a world above which he
lived. And so with the other victims of men's passions we know
that the end of their lives will be fulfilled beyond.
" What is past is Prologue." It is three hundred years since
he wrote that! We are now more conscious of the fact that we
are the " heirs of all the ages," and that in a sense " each of us
has all the centuries in him " than Shakespeare was. Individually
we often realize that a man's heritage from his own and his an-
78 OUR PAST [Oct.,
cestors' past isolates and differentiates him. It is this background
that makes the difference this stream of influences and tenden-
cies that finds his soul, fresh from the hand of God, and which
started long ago to claim him. It meets him out of the background
that had its beginnings with the thousand years behind yesterday,
even outside the gates of old Eden.
It is this mysterious background that accounts for so much
of the difference between people of seemingly similar characters
and tastes. Apart from the eternal distinction of soul from soul,
there is the widely separating difference of the tradition, the asso-
ciation, moral and social, that have come down to us with a spiritual
atmosphere we have lived in and carry with us.
" The earliest and the longest have still the mastery over us,"
says George Eliot. Still, from the hills that surround our homes,
or the streets of the cities our forefathers knew, invisible tentacles
reach us, touching nerve and fibre of spirit to a melody that is
only ours.
Again, the strong aesthetic bias, which may be brought out by
education, and which tends to govern a man's choices, his rejections,
his appreciations in the work of others, as well as in his own, has
its beginning in " the dark background and abysm of time." Why
he chose this and not that, we feel to be justified by some ten-
dency of his character we can neither analyze nor define unless
we call it the law of truth to his own temperament, or the result
of the subtle currents that stream on his will from the heritage
into which he was born, and out of which he must save his soul.
To each his own background, as well as his own vision of
life! Out of this come, too, the charming differences in style,
which are the personal aura in art, in literature. Elusive style!
who can define it? As the author of Dreamthorp says, " It is never
a separate quality, but rather the amalgam and issue of all the
mental and moral qualities in a man's possession, and bears the
same relation to these that light bears to the mingled elements
that make up the orb of the sun." This is perhaps as near to a
definition as anyone can go. It but says, what Bnffon said before,
" Le style, c'est 1'homme." It is surely generated by the beating,
living wings of the past that touch the spirit of the writer to fine
issues, whose essence distils through his pen to our soul's stirring.
In a subtle way it reveals a man, and we know people we have
never met through the delicate communications of their style alone.
I think one acquainted with the writings of Newman, or Browning,
1912.] OUR PAST 79
has a picture of each in his heart that no " Life " can take from.
It is not what they have said, so much as the impress of their
style, that causes me to be glad at heart that I have known the one
or revered the other. What they never told has come to be the
truth of them to my judging soul the moral, traditional, and
educational background.
This is what makes the difference. This it is that every
teacher, more or less, consciously contends with, which de-
mands his attention and reckoning. The mind and soul of
the pupil! who knows the alchemy that is ever at work there?
making strange new combinations with old ideas that the teacher
knows nothing of. The boy or girl who sits to-day on our school
benches brings each his or her background with him, and into that
scene and into the atmosphere blown in, so to say, from their past,
you, and every fact you teach them, is viewed and fitted with,
if you could but see it, very different results from what your
mind would naturally tell you to be the expected ones. In the
intellect, even, the proposition of Euclid you place before them
is apprehended in as many different tones of light and shade as
there are individuals in the class. I do not speak of mere com-
prehension but of its setting against the background of the mind.
Much more, as Euclid says, the passages of history they learn,
or the literature you expound to them, for these evoke more than
mere intellect. They call in from the lanes and alleys of the
past a thousand tones and touches of light and shade: a thousand
spirit hands paint in the new picture on the quivering background
they have prepared. Could some cinematograph reveal to us the
living pictures thus formed as they move across the spirit's land-
scape, what fascinating hours would be afforded us !
To each his own vision of life, his own temperament! This
territory no one can rob us of. Others may enter, but they can-
not explore. Influence may modify the tone and atmosphere, in
part, personal magnetism may disturb or overlay, but the ego
emerges enlarged, or blighted it may be, but conditioned still by
temperament, which is always our own heritage. You may wish
to change, to influence, to educate in your sense of the word. You
may do much but you will never do what you think you are
doing. The mental or moral handicaps that may seem to you
so easily dropped have their cords from the past, and if you ruth-
lessly cut across them, you may injure the life and not lessen the
burden. You may, of course, come to gauge the intellectual capac-
8o OUR PAST [Oct.,
ity, the proximate amount of will power, but all the subtle forces
that make up the temperament and condition the natural vision are
only fully known to the Giver of the daily grace.
We have all known various types of people whose past has
not been prologue to their present, but is always with them. It
remains the drama, the rest is but epilogue! They lived once
vividly but not since ; they only exist now. They blossomed once,
and everything is measured by the height to which they then grew.
Their mental backgrounds are, as far as their will is concerned, as
fixed in tone and atmosphere as the scenes in some old theatre.
They would keep at all costs the " unities," if not of time and action,
at least of scene. The chorus neither grows old nor changes, but
eternally chants a commentary of unvarying motif. They remind
us of a passage in one of Galsworthy's novels. " A new idea in-
vading the territory of the Squire's mind was met by a rising of the
whole population, and either prevented from landing, or, if already
on shore, taken prisoner! "
To understand, even in small measure another, is to pardon
much. Even a slight realization of the, to us, foreign tone and
atmosphere around each differing soul should contribute to sym-
pathetic tolerance of our neighbor. To each his own background
and who but God can know the strange inner drama into which each
soul has entered, and to which his Past was Prologue.
THE LITERATURE OF RELIEF.
BY WILLIAM J. KERBY, PH.D.
INCE the days of Christ, the genuine Christian has
no need of research in order to discover the spiritual
nature of service of the poor, the supernatural mo-
tive which inspires it or the reward which follows it.
Our Lord used plain words and homely illustrations.
They took on majesty and force from His personality. Centuries
have not dimmed the clearness with which He stated His law, nor
have the vicissitudes of history changed the inspiration which re-
enforces it. Christ taught the infinite value of the individual
soul, and the deeper brotherhood which ignores differences of
culture, talent, station, and charm in the blessed democracy of
service. When He identified the poor with Himself, He astounded
the world. Preachers may arouse us anew ; scholars may elaborate
their commentaries on Gospel texts; accidental experiences may
aYouse our dormant sympathies to splendid action; but no result
of preaching or writing or explaining can excel in simple direct-
ness and compelling clearness the original teaching of Christ con-
cerning the poor. He stated the law, the motive, the inspiration
and the reward of charity for all time for those who believe in Him.
Now just because the organic spiritual character of charity is
so clear in the Gospel; just because it has been fundamental in the
Church's consciousness throughout the ages and it remains
so to-day, it is not always easy to keep this great truth in mind.
Prevailing tones of thought and expression tyrannize over us.
We catch the atmosphere of current discussion, and we find at-
tractive what is new and conspicuous and popular. The sociological
features of poverty command attention to-day. The world at-
tempts to set aside, by either neglect or denial, the spiritual character
of the problem of poverty and the spiritual law of its relief. New
views, new terms, novel explanations, many of them of a very
high order of merit no doubt, appeal to many among us, and when
we are under the influence of their presence, we incline to be silent
about the original inspiration and law of charity as Christ delivered
them.
Of course, inspiration alone is not enough. When the young
VOL. xcvi. 6.
82 THE LITERATURE OF RELIEF [Oct.,
man answered Christ correctly and stated the law of service, Christ
approved of the reply. Then when the questioner asked for knowl-
edge of conditions and for interpretations, saying " Who is my
neighbor ? " Our Lord answered him by describing a condition, an
understanding of it, a service and a spirit. The situation to-day is
analogous. The Christian comes to the work of relief to-day
well informed as to its law, its principles, its spirit and motives,
all of which he has from the Gospel, but he needs knowledge, under-
standing and direction. In a simple civilization, one's neighbor
is easily known and served. In a complex civilization, one's neigh-
bor is known with difficulty and served with tedious effort and
much sacrifice. When social relations are few, simple and personal,
relief is not complicated. But when poverty is massive and com-
plex, and relations are impersonal, we have need of knowledge
and of interpretation in seeking out our neighbor, just as we have
need of careful direction in serving him well.
The modern emphasis lies along these sociological lines. There
is demand for knowledge of conditions, for understanding of them,
for wise direction in dealing with them. Hence, there is, generally
speaking, relatively less insistence on motive and relatively more
on method in charity. There is less reliance on religion, and more
on science and statesmanship. There is more attention to reliev-
ing the poor, and less inclination to pray for them as spiritual
brothers. The zealous Christian will endeavor to obtain the greatest
possible advantage out of everything good and helpful in the
modern temper, but he will, at the same time, seek to protect the
precious inheritance of the teaching and law of Christ concerning
the poor. He will seek knowledge and understanding and direction,
but he will not lay aside his spiritual inspiration. To the end
that he may profit by what is strong and helpful in the modern
movement, a hurried sketch is here offered of the lines along which
the literature of relief has developed.
Poverty presents to modern society some of the most serious
problems which confront it. It is a travesty on our civilization, an
acid test of our religion, a challenge to our culture, a commentary
on our statesmanship and institutions, and a radical menace to our
moral integrity, our spiritual peace and our social progress. If
we ignore it and its thousand implications, we abandon shamelessly
the standards by which our institutions are defended. If we deal
ignorantly with it, we impeach the wisdom of our social leadership,
and void its claims to recognition, while, at the same time, we
1912.] THE LITERATURE OF RELIEF 83
justify the terrible indictment that radicalism draws against the
established order. If we face modern poverty with honesty, in-
telligence and courage, we must be prepared for far-reaching
changes in our views of rights and obligations, and for tedious
modifications of institutions and of laws, all of which, looked at
in the aggregate, are little short of revolutionary.
Everything has contributed to cause poverty; everything must
serve to combat it. Poverty which implies only lack of food, of
clothing and shelter presents rather simple questions of relief, which
may be dealt with simply. But the atmosphere in poverty, the
state of mind without incentive or hope, the absence of the congre-
gation of social forces on which culture depends, the lack of out-
look for ambition and of motive for discipline, the crushing ex-
clusion of the poor from all that is gentle, secure and inspiring in
life these and similar implications of poverty will not be remedied
in a day, nor may we expect to allay them through the generous
giving of food and clothing where these are needed. Poverty
is an organic disease of the social body, and it must be dealt with
as such.
It is a definite result of the conjunction of principles, phil-
osophy, social organization, and social conditions which charac-
terize our civilization. It is the outcome of a social process, and
it itself exhibits a hundred other social processes. Every orphan,
every working mother, every ignorant, illiterate child, broken-
down drunkard, deserting husband, cheerless hovel, is a cross sec-
tion cut out of the social process telling social history and fore-
telling conditions as definitely as the cross section of a muscle or
of a nerve tells its story to the scientific mind. This is now gener-
ally recognized by those who deal with poverty in the light and
in the strength of modern knowledge. Municipalities, states, in-
dustries, social classes, trade organizations, schools, religious
societies, individual thinkers, commercial and civic bodies under-
stand this fundamental truth, and obey with varying degrees
of intelligent fidelity the precepts which flow from it directly. Each
has its own angle of vision. One differs from another in emphasis,
in interpretation and in method, but all are practically agreed in
accepting the fundamental view referred to and in accepting di-
rection from it. But poverty is more than the outcome of a social
process. To neglect the element of sin in it; to reduce sin itself
to mere sociological terms, is to abandon the only philosophy which
includes God within its circle.
84 THE LITERATURE OF RELIEF [Oct.,
Many observers miss certain factors in modern life which bear
very directly on our conflict with poverty. The social classes which
are ignorant of the actual facts of poverty greatly hamper the
work. Their ignorance insulates them from the currents of sym-
pathy which sweep through the world. These classes lack social
imagination and knowledge. They enjoy life, foster ambitions,
achieve distinction, and live as though there were no poor, or at
least none to whom they are beholden. The literal ignorance and
lack of sympathy in this relatively large class hinder progress in
dealing with poverty by robbing the- work of its support, and by
furnishing a medium in which misunderstanding, false assump-
tions and misleading views flourish with unhappy vigor. These
are not asking Christ, " Who is my neighbor ? "
There are other classes which know sufficiently well the facts
in modern poverty, but feel no responsibility for them, and are
conscious of no obligation to cooperate in remedying the situation.
These are individualists who are misled by their narrow, unin-
formed views, and blame the poor entirely for their poverty.
These classes remind us frequently of the orphan who became a
governor, of the bootblack who became a bank president, of the
newsboy who became a great churchman, and of the section hand
who became division superintendent. The fallacy in this appeal is
too obvious to merit refutation. Unfortunately, the view is effec-
tive in hindering sympathy for the poor in many representative
circles. False philosophy and misleading experience hinder this
class from understanding neighbor as Christ understood the
term.
There are other classes in modern society who know the facts
of poverty, and who correctly understand them; who feel called
on to work bravely and honestly for the poor, but who do not know
how to begin or what to do. These feel helpless, but would seek
guidance and follow it were they to find it. One meets many of
this type who are inactive merely because they are confused, and
not because they are unenlightened. Our organization and our
leaders have not found them. No one has called them, and they
have remained idle. They share the yearning of him who asked
Christ, " Who is my neighbor? "
Finally, there are those who are active in working among
the poor, but who work among them unwisely. They do harm by
narrow views, isolated service, and misdirected sympathies. It
is nothing short of distressing to the last degree to find " unwise
igi2.] THE LITERATURE OF RELIEF 85
philanthropy " enumerated among the more important causes of
poverty and pauperization.*
Thus we find ignorance in one social class, lack of sense of
responsibility and of spiritual understanding in another, lack of
leadership and organization in a third, and blundering methods in
a fourth, standing in our way when we attempt to wage our war-
fare against poverty. Fortunately, however, the movement toward
the relief and prevention of poverty has taken on such proportions
and such momentum as to promise a conquest of these obstacles,
at least in a qualified way, in a reasonably near future. The char-
acter of leadership and the quality of thought and power now devel-
oped in this tremendous struggle will often compare favorably with
those found throughout the entire range of movements serving the
cause of human progress. Were it always inspired by the law and
spirit of Christ, we could dismiss the reservations under which we
praise it.
So-called organizations of charity or relief associations have
not been alone in this work, nor has its force been derived from their
isolated efforts. Christ, first of all, gave the world its correct
understanding of the poor. The modern judgment of poverty
and of the poor, the modern estimate of society's obligations toward
these and the principles upon which this whole movement rests,
cannot deny their debt to Christianity. In addition to religion,
however, economics, political science, ethics, medicine and sani-
tation, psychology, history, sociology, anthropology, commercial
and industrial sciences, biology, not to mention others, have con-
tributed their compelling principles to this movement, and they will
not be denied. The typical leader dealing with poverty is not a
sentimental visionary; not an impulsive and impractical philan-
thropist. Keen vision and wide horizon, subtle interpretation and
fine analysis, scholarship and personal force, have always been
found among the champions of the poor. Principles, definitions
of duty and right, and details of service of them, are as conspicuous
in the Summa of St. Thomas as they are in modern sociology.
It was inevitable that this movement should create a literature.
Charity has had a literature since the Gospel was written, and
it has had a commanding inspiration and a law supremely sanc-
tioned since the days of Christ, but the modern literature of
relief is on its sociological side unique in its aims and quality, in
its origin and uses. No wise friend of the poor in these days will
*See THE CATHOLIC WORLD, September, 1910, Problems in Charity.
86 THE LITERATURE OF RELIEF [Oct.,
wish to remain in ignorance of it. No tempered view or clear
understanding will be had of the complicated problems, that con-
front relief work without comparison, observation and appeal to
the experience of others. These may be had on a small and un-
certain scale by personal observation, but they will be found most
reliable, most representative and helpful when drawn from the
whole range of the literature which the movement has created.
This literature may be reviewed briefly as it appeals to the
individual worker from a four-fold standpoint: that of investiga-
tion, interpretation, direction, and inspiration. The review is made
rather to bring out the way in which problems may be approached,
than to describe in any detail the range of contents of the literature
to which reference is made.
I.
There is widespread demand for accurate knowledge of the
facts in modern poverty. The cold-blooded individualist and the
indifferent classes who have constantly denied that serious condi-
tions exist, or that when found they are typical, have conferred a
great favor on the movement to conquer poverty through the atti-
tude of opposition which they have taken. As a result of it, we
have a relatively exact literature of investigation. Vague and
general statements are no longer desired. Sentiment and emotion,
splendid in appeal, are useless in drawing an indictment. The
statistician replaces the orator. Understatement and overstatement
lose their standing. Men and women have investigated the con-
ditions thoroughly and honestly, and have proclaimed them with
tempered zeal. Facts and not guesses are demanded, and they are
at hand concerning hungry children going to school ; the death rate
of the babies of the poor; income and expenditure; hunger and
nakedness; wages and "conditions of unskilled labor; about work
of women and of children, homeless men and involuntary idleness,
housing and sanitation; about occupational diseases, normal death
rate in trades, accident and death in hazardous trades ; about wife-
desertion, non-support and the disintegration of the family; about
drunkenness and crime, education and ignorance, fraud and debt.
These and a hundred similar features in the life and lot of the poor
are studied with exact care, and are presented in this literature
of investigation with such charm as high-grade scholarship and
serious study can impart.
City, state and federal governments; universities and schools
1912.] THE LITERATURE OF RELIEF 87
of philanthropy; privately endowed bodies and individual investi-
gators, are working everywhere in this line of research. Their
results are presented through this literature, and in turn they filter
through the newspapers and magazines, through sermons and ap-
peals, through books and lectures, into the mind of the public, and
exert a tremendous, .silent pressure which is awakening society
to a realization of the injustice and inhumanity of it all. Public
and academic libraries make collections of this literature, and place
it at the service of the thoughtful public as well as that of the
professed worker in the field of relief. Thus, the public comes
to know of these investigations, then to know them, then to respect
and to use them, then to be aroused and guided by them. Ignor-
ance of the facts of poverty is melting away in the face of com-
pelling knowledge. The individual worker in the field accustoms
himself to judge his individual problems in their larger relations,
and he is thus led to breadth of view and correctness of under-
standing which promise well. Many of the publications of the
Federal Bureau of Labor, notably the recent investigation of work
of women and children; the reports of the Russell Sage Founda-
tion; notably the Pittsburgh Survey; in some respects the Chicago
Vice Commission Report, and similar investigations as to
lodging, sanitation, unemployment in many cities, suggest the na-
ture of this literature clearly.
II.
Facts as facts carry us but a short distance in this world.
The passion to understand follows closely on the passion to know.
The active mind seeks to organize its knowledge, to correlate and
interpret facts and relations. Statistics cannot satisfy the soul.
Investigation has revealed to us the masses of facts in poverty, and
it has led us to see individual problems in their place in these masses.
But we must explain, classify and interpret. The effort to do this
has given rise to a most impressive literature of interpretation.
We seek to learn the condition in which facts occur, to find the
relations of cause and effect among them. When we find one class
of facts accompanying another, we do not rest until the relation
of concommitance or sequence is discovered. Thus, for example,
it is the literature of interpretation that leads to the discovery of
the relation between drunkenness, bad cooking and exhausting
labor ; between infant mortality among the poor and filthy dairies ;
between sweatshop clothing and outbreaks of disease; between
88 THE LITERATURE OF RELIEF [Oct.,
sickness among the poor and sloppy backyards, indifferent collection
of garbage and defective plumbing; between faulty administration
of city government, retarded legislation and out of date laws on
the one hand, and the persistent exploitation of the poor on the
other. Thus, we are taught to judge the single case of distress,
disease, dependency, or neglect and shame in the whole mass of
facts of the same kind. We then take the whole mass and view
it in its place in the whole social process; we seek for its rela-
tions to conditions and to other facts, and we are led thereby to
discover heretofore hidden meanings in the complex field of pov-
erty. That one metal polisher dies of tuberculosis may not startle
us. If we realize that a thousand metal polishers die of it, we are
aroused. We then study conditions and endeavor to find out the
relation between that kind of occupation and that kind of disease.
This is interpretation. This is the work of the literature of which
we speak. One orphan raised in an asylum may turn out badly,
or one dependent child placed in a home may do so, but not until
we examine the career of a hundred or of a thousand orphans
similarly placed can we understand the merit or the demerit of either
the institution or the home, and only then can we deal intelligently
with the particular problems that present themselves in our care
of dependent children.
Much of this is now so commonplace that even reference to it
appears superfluous, and yet the interpretation of the mass of the
facts of poverty is far from final, far from complete. The point
in mind, however, is that they who would understand poverty and
serve intelligently in the warfare against it, must cultivate the
habit of seeing problems in their relations, of acquiring informa-
tion concerning related facts, and of being guided by the interpreta-
tions which this literature offers.
It is through this literature of interpretation that prevention
has attained to its prominence in modern work among the poor.
It is through this literature that the organic relations of poverty
to political philosophy, to industrial conditions and jurisprudence,
have been made clear, and it is this literature which is the chief aid
of religion, forbidding the conscience of society ever again to for-
get the claims of the poor for social justice. It is this literature
which has explained to us the social causes of poverty, and has
eased the bruised shoulders of the poor from the cruel blame which
we have falsely placed upon them. In doing this, it has swept
away many gross illusions and false assumptions. It has intro-
1912.] THE LITERATURE OF RELIEF 89
duced a few of its own, but these are by no means so threatening
as to cause us any worry, if we except the mistake of eliminating
sin in explaining poverty. It is a source of infinite consolation to
the friends of the poor to realize that nowadays many a political
chief and legislator, many a landlord, statesman and executive,
many a loan shark and lord of the sweatshop, many a heartless
employer and soulless corporation, stand burdened with the guilt
for poverty which heretofore we have generously imputed to the
poor. The literature of interpretation has brought truth, justice,
wisdom, and intelligence where they have been sadly needed. It
has placed in their right relation many institutions of individualism
which we have uncritically and blindly worshipped. It has brought
odium on many material aims which were once our pride, but
are now our shame, as the torrent of literature loudly proclaims.
It may be well not to overstate the achievements of this litera-
ture of interpretation. Analysis and interpretation of social con-
ditions are extremely difficult. Forces interact at so many points
that it is not easy to trace conditions back to causes, and to under-
stand the relations unerringly. There may be in this literature
much that is fantastic in form, inaccurate in detail, and misleading
in construction. Allowing for all of this, we must admit that its
contributions to the understanding of poverty and the mastery of
it are fundamentally sound and helpful. It is largely in its inter-
pretation that literature shows its departure from Christian tra-
ditions. We look in vain through its pages for recognition of
sin as a factor in poverty: for causes in the human will deeper
than institutions, and reached by grace alone. The Christian in-
terpretation of poverty will not eliminate human passion in its
interpretations, nor divine grace in its plans of reform.
III.
New and complex social conditions have naturally occasioned
new and complex interpretations of them. Our manner of dealing
with any social problem is governed largely by the way that we
view it, and our understanding of the elements in it. It was to be
expected, therefore, that this newer literature of interpretation
would be followed by an equally impressive literature of direction.
By means of it we are guided in our aims and methods in relief,
and by the aims and methods which we follow in endeavoring to
hinder the processes which cause poverty constantly to recur. We
90 THE LITERATURE OF RELIEF [Oct.,
are taught now that there is a technique in dealing with poverty, as
there is in dealing with commerce, diplomacy or lawmaking; that
there are wise and unwise methods, safe and unsafe impulses,
mistaken and approved views of the work between which we must
always distinguish. We are assisted in this duty by the literature
of direction. On the theoretical side, we are taught the obligations
of state, of city, of church, and of the public; we are taught the
reciprocal relations of these in the field of relief, and we are in-
formed as to the limitations under which each may operate. On
the practical side, this literature sets aside the unfounded pre-
sumptions against the poor, which so often mislead us and places
before us, instead of them, the well-founded presumptions through
the influence of which we may work efficiently in the field. Here
we find proclaimed the wisdom of organization as against isolated
individual service of the poor, the advantages of systematic as
against haphazard work, the fundamental need of specialized train-
ing as against the impression that anyone without training or
insight can serve the poor efficiently; the necessity of observ-
ing the results of our work as against the habit of working, indif-
ferent to results.
We are taught in this literature to charge ourselves with the
logical consequences of our methods, and to surrender them when
we find them wrong. Here we are taught how best to deal with
orphans, when and how to place them in homes or in institutions;
how to observe and treat the juvenile delinquent, and to adjust
the system of courts in a way to serve him best. Through this
literature, in a word, the finest and highest results of research in
sanitation, in medicine, in economics, in education, in technical
training, in housing, and in a hundred other lines, are placed at our
disposal in working in the interests of the poor. Thus, too, we
are led to realize that every present-day case of distress with which
we deal is best understood through its own history, and that our
practical aims in dealing with it must be directed in the light of
that knowledge, and in view of the approved aims which this litera-
ture sets forth for all such work. It is unnecessary to insist more
on the character of the service of this literature of direction. It
summarizes the best results of our current experience and wisdom.
It organizes our activities toward approved ends. It disciplines the
strong, good impulses to service which so often hinder results, be-
cause the heart which loves the poor and would serve them is more
impressed by the goodness of its impulses than by their wisdom.
1912.] THE LITERATURE OF RELIEF 91
If we wish to distinguish between the unworthy and the worthy
poor, and to treat each class intelligently, and in a way suitable
to its needs, method is necessary, and method implies direction.
If we wish to restore normal social and domestic relations among
the poor who have any resources; if we would be tender, thought-
ful, just and wise in caring for the helpless poor; if we would do
all of this work with economy, promptness and efficiency, method
is necessary, and method implies direction.
Differences occur in this field as in others. Varieties of
temper, ability, imagination, philosophy, prejudice, religion, and
politics will lead the friends of the poor to disagree in immediate
aims, in interpreting particular conditions and in emphasis on
elements in them, and these differences will reveal themselves in
the methods employed or directions given in concrete cases. We
have abundant evidence of this in practically all fields of relief.
Even where agreement on principle is frank and unqualified, dif-
ferences in the judgment of conditions will at times disrupt har-
mony and lead to criticisms which do not lack bitterness. This,
however, is the common lot. In all of the history of statesman-
ship, religion, science, art, and education, equal differences have
appeared with similar results. The net agreements, however, found
in the literature of direction are of highest importance and of
fairly wide range. A tendency is everywhere to be seen these
days, to look for and emphasize the points of agreement in all
questions of method and direction, and to give diminished impor-
tance in a certain sense to the permanent disagreements which we
may not hope to extirpate. Within limits this is praiseworthy.
But we may not at any time forget Christ's law and spirit, nor the
spiritual nature of the work which we perform. The tendency
nowadays to federate city, state, and national organizations of
charity into corresponding conferences, and the generally peaceful
and satisfactory issue of their meetings, encourage us to hope for
even greater harmony in spirit and endorsement of principle and
method than we now boast. The numerous publications of these
organizations constitute a conspicuous portion of the literature of
direction.
IV.
All great movements in human history are directed by ideals.
Standards are derived from them. Inspiration is due to them. All
of the high motives which lift man above himself and organize his
92 THE LITERATURE OF RELIEF [Oct.,
life toward the seeking of great and exalted aims are derived in
one way or in another from ideals. Charity has not lacked its
ideals. They are proclaimed in its literature of inspiration.
The faithful Christian who serves the poor in any capacity
takes Christ as the ideal, and he recognizes this service as an or-
ganic part of his spiritual experience. The Gospel is the first
volume in his literature of inspiration. Not only as an inspired
narrative is it such, but as well in the service which it gives him in
organizing his motives and controlling the spirit of his relation to
the poor. The fundamental law which the Christian draws from
the Gospel is that strength must be sanctified by serving weakness,
and his first principle is that the service of the poor is service of
God. The Christian's earliest heroes in this work are the saints,
and the leaders through whose providential action the Church has
been directed and inspired in her monumental charities. The re-
ligious communities which have honored the history of the Church
were led and inspired by our traditional understanding of the law
and the ideal which Christ gave to us. Wealth is sanctified by
serving poverty ; learning is sanctified by serving ignorance ; virtue
is still more sanctified by serving sin; health is sanctified by min-
istering to the sick. This law and inspiration is the key to the
understanding of the great religious communities in the history of
the Church which gave themseves entirely to the service of the
poor under the warrant of the Gospel itself. And so the faithful
Christian does not depart, and wishes not to depart, from Christ as
his ideal, nor from Christ's law as the guide to his action. Even
in the face of the spiritual disintegration through which the world
is going, the faithful Christian holds still more sternly to his spirit-
ual understanding of the service of the poor. And it is well for
the world and for religion that he does so.
Other ideals present themselves, and they do not lack dis-
tinguished following. Some friends of the poor are inspired by the
ideal of human progress. Others are stimulated by the compelling
nature of human sympathy as the lot of the poor calls it forth.
Others follow as their ideal a self -sufficient standard of social
justice. Others, perhaps, find their ideal and inspiration in the
name of philanthropy divorced from the supernatural in principle,
and dealing with it merely as an assumed natural social force like
any other.
As ideals differ, standards, motives, methods, and aims will
vary. Differences of ideals go back in last analysis to differences
I 9 i2.] THE LITERATURE OF RELIEF 93
of religion, of philosophy, of psychology, and of science. But
while we differ in these respects we are all human, and consequently
identical in nature and in our way of dealing with motives and
ends in everyday life. All have need of ideals and inspiration.
All require standards of judgment and principles by which decisions
are guided. It is the function of this literature of inspiration to
meet that need, but it is the duty of the Christian to hold with
undiminished loyalty to his own spiritual ideal and law at all times.
V.
The literature of relief may in the light of the foregoing be
looked at from a four-fold standpoint, that of investigation, inter-
pretation, direction, and inspiration. The works which make up
the body of this literature are not labelled thus, nor are they .written
expressly to verify such a classification. However, the individual
who undertakes to enter actively into the field of relief will prepare
himself most wisely, and will develop efficiency most easily by ap-
proaching his problems through these standpoints, and by reading
on them in the same way. The recorded experience of others in
our times, in other times, and in other fields, are of the highest
value to all of us. Knowledge of like conditions, and under-
standing of them, cannot fail to be the greatest service when one
offers one's talent in any field of relief. Hence, some knowledge
and understanding of the literature of relief is an elementary
necessity in preparing for this work.
One may object that all of this is academic; that one can feed
the hungry and minister to the sick poor without a library of sta-
tistics and philosophy, and without surveying the universe before
yielding to the impulse of sympathy. This is, no doubt, true, and
it would be a sufficient refutation of our point were that all that
relief involves. It is one thing to obtain a milk and egg diet for
a tubercular dependent, but that is the least of the problems in
dealing with tuberculosis as the curse of the poor. Only by in-
vestigation, interpretation, and direction carried on in a hundred
directions by an army of learned and careful observers have we
obtained the knowledge that we require in dealing with every
particular case of tuberculosis, and only through the achievements
of these high-grade scholars and friends of humanity has the prom-
ise of the conquest of tuberculosis been given to man. When \\e
94 THE LITERATURE OF RELIEF [Oct.,
shall have conquered it, we shall have removed one of the great
accompanying curses of poverty.
Again, it is only by investigation, interpretation, and direction
that we have been able to discover the conditions in which it is wise
to place the orphan in a home instead of in an institution, or in an
institution instead of a home, and the kind of watchfulness that
must hedge in the child even in the home that has welcomed it.
It is not a difficult matter to break up a family, scatter the children,
send the mother to work and care for her when she falls ill, but
investigation and interpretation have taught us that this may be but
a last resort, and that every effort must be made to preserve the
family in its integrity, and to maintain the normal family relations
among its members at almost any cost. It is an easy matter for
us to sit by our firesides and utter pharasaical comment on the
daughters of the poor who lead lives of shame, but investigation
and interpretation have opened our eyes to the pitiable truth that
not they but environment and industrial conditions are often to
blame. And most of the wisdom of direction that we now accept
in dealing with this distressing problem has come to us because
we have investigated, and we have interpreted, and we have faced
the truth with courage and honesty, and we have not been unwilling
to surrender the lazy presumptions under the influence of which we
have seen so many go down to shame without stretching forth a
hand to save them.
One might take up a hundred such situations in anticipation of
the objection that an exposition such as this represents the service
of the poor as too learned, too pedantic, and too theoretical. It
requires, however, little good will and easy analysis to discover that
very many of the axioms which are found in the service of the poor
have been discovered simply because many have investigated with
painstaking care, and they have interpreted with honesty and cour-
age, and they have proposed methods and views in the
light of these interpretations. Experience teaches. Memory after
all is but the accumulation of experiences of one. Literature at
heart is but the record of the experiences of many, whether these
experiences be subjective merely or objective. Organization has
made it possible to draw together the experiences of many. Meet-
ings of organizations have carried the process still farther. When
papers are read and discussions are encouraged; when men and
women of wide experience and approved judgment are asked to
address gatherings, they are doing nothing but transmitting their
1912.] THE LITERATURE OF RELIEF 95
own experience, presenting to wider circles the results of their
investigations, of their interpretations, and of their experiences
in dealing with large situations.
Investigation and interpretation of the facts of poverty have
done much to modify our legislation and our institutions. It is
through their influence that the prevention of poverty has come into
a commanding place in the imagination and the thought of modern
life. The very foundations of the social order have been stirred
because the conscience of humanity now insists on the prevention
of poverty as far as prevention is possible, and after that on the
humane and tender care of poor who cannot of themselves escape
their lot.
It would be a mistake to imagine that investigation, interpreta-
tion, and direction are purely modern discoveries. We have had
them throughout the centuries, but they have varied as conditions
have varied, and as sociological knowledge has increased in quan-
tity and improved in accuracy. Of course, when the world was
treating the poor and the helpless without mercy, inspiration and
ideal were needed in order that they should obtain their destined
place in social and in individual imagination. Hence when Christ
came to us, He fittingly offered inspiration and direction. It re-
quired many centuries for the world to realize the ideal and law.
In simple civilization, interpretations are simple and relations are
local and unchanging. Where conditions remain identical decade
after decade, and where the world assumes that existing institutions
are permanent and stable, the primary work to be done for poverty
is to relieve it. There is practically little place for interpretation,
little need of it. Direction is relatively simple, and one is patient
of results without far-reaching judgment of their bearing on the
wider life of society.
But when poverty becomes massive, dynamic and subtle ; when
far-reaching and complex social relations stretch back until they
touch every point of the social circumference; when the organized
exploitation of the weakness, ignorance, and diffidence of the poor
becomes known and violates conscience and the standards of jus-
tice and decency; when converging streams of knowledge flow
from every point in the world of thought, bringing to us new knowl-
edge of social relations and new interpretations of them, new views
on the changing nature of institutions and the contingent quality of
all social conditions, then it is natural to find supreme emphasis
placed on investigation, interpretation, and direction. Hence it is
96 THE LITERATURE OF RELIEF [Oct.,
that to-day these phases of the work stand out in a position of com-
manding eminence. Charity is scientific. It must be so. The
suspicion with which the phrases " scientific charity," " organized
relief," are met is in principle but little justified, although often
enough justified in practice.
The poor as a class will not have social justice until the pro-
cesses which overwhelm them shall have been mastered by the ac-
credited leadership of society. In as far as they are the victims
of blameless ignorance, the conditions that control it must be
mastered. In as far as they are the victims of wretched and cor-
rupt and inefficient city administration, city government must be
improved before we may hope for progress. In as far as they are
the victims of industrial accidents and diseases, these, in as far as
preventable, must be prevented, else little may be hoped for. In as
far as the poor are victims of false social philosophy which controls
the relations of the social classes, such false philosophy must be up-
rooted from the mind and heart of society if we would gain the vic-
tory that we seek. One might mention a dozen other factors in the
lot of the poor, many, if not all, of which enter in one way or in
another as causes or as conditions in the misery of practically every
dependent family or individual that we meet in the work of relief.
Surely this a world-embracing task. The habit of investigation
and of interpretation; the practice of basing direction of our work
for the poor on interpretations established by careful thought, and
based on wide knowledge, cannot lack sanction in the mind of an
intelligent public. We owe our best equipment in sympathy, in
knowledge, and in method to our work for the poor. That alone
will enable us to obey the inspiration which we proudly take from
the law and the example of Christ.
SOCIALISM AND CHARACTER. By Vida D. Scudder. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Co. $1.50.
Wide reading, good power of analysis, and social sympathies
deep and sincere, make Miss Scudder a capable guide in the prov-
ince to which she introduces the readers of her latest volume.
She is keen to detect and untrammeled in interpreting each point
of contact between literature and the developing conscience of the
modern world. The gradual growth of that new sense of social
solidity, which has been one of the most hopeful phenomena of our
time, is shown in a series of convincing estimates of men who have
echoed or formed the spirit of their contemporaries. Out of the
ever-deepening discontent with the existing order there has finally
come the recognition of certain principles whi'ch, as the author
affirms, must necessarily control any successful process of recon-
struction. The burden of her message we take to be, that the com-
ing order will require and will enforce the prevalence of a spirit
of service, so unselfish and so fine, that the common type of noisy
agitator will be disciplined out of sight, if not altogether utterly
out of existence.
For the larger portion of the volume that portion, namely,
where the writer is in her proper domain we feel and we take
pleasure in expressing admiration. There is a deeper love of truth
and a nobler devotion to the common good, a nearer approach to the
Christian spirit of consecration, and a far more persuasive appeal
to the upright conscience than we find in many written and spoken
assaults upon Socialism. Her indictment of what we fear is still
the state of mind of a certain comfortable class of professing
Christians, and her convincing plea for a new conscience and a
new policy of social justice, contain pages which the serious student
of society cannot disregard.
In accomplishing what we understand to have been her chief
purpose, the author has succeeded so splendidly thaf no one with
an intelligent interest in the common life and the common welfare
can fail to receive from the reading of these pages some helpful
direction, and to be touched with some sentiment of holy enthusiasm.
But she goes beyond this, apparently because bent upon being out-
spoken, and upon setting forth the whole contents of her mind.
VOL. xcvi. 7.
98 NEW BOOKS [Oct.,
She is not content with analyzing present conditions, nor even with
giving us a searching retrospect and illuminating forecast although
this surely would have constituted a wide enough field of activity,
and have sufficiently taxed her powers. Unfortunately perhaps
inevitably, since her love of whole truth is so characteristic
unfortunately, we say, the volume ranges the heights and depths of
philosophy and theology, insisting much on those largely personal
conclusions to which private study and experience and meditation
have inclined the author's mind. For this reason it happens that
one is unable to express entire satisfaction with the book, unless, with
regard to the great principles of philosophy and the truths of reve-
lation, one has arrived at the same convictions as the author.
In spite of our thorough agreement with what seems to us
most pertinent and most important in her book, we must regret
that she has rushed us into fields of discussion where we
cannot but feel and express dissatisfaction. The readers best
adapted to appreciate the good points of Miss Scudder's unquestion-
ably fine work will probably close the book with a sigh that she
has not had that advantage of position which the Catholic possesses.
Her book, revised by the standards of a sounder philosophy, would
be no less objective, no less inspiring, and for practical purposes
af social regeneration which after all is the aim of the book
of immeasurably greater value.
MISSIONS AND MISSIONARIES OF CALIFORNIA. By Rev.
Zephyrin Engelhardt, O.F.M. Vol. II. San Francisco:
James H. Barry Co. $2.75.
The utter unselfishness of the Franciscans in California, their
infinite patience, their unwavering gentleness towards the Indians,
and their unflinching hostility towards the white robbers of the red-
skins, the deep affection of the Indians for their true friends, and
the faith and virtue which that affection and example inspired, form
a history which reads like a romance. But every line of Father
Engelhardt's history is founded on documentary evidence, the
burden of which, however, is saved the casual reader, and the veri-
fication of which is assured the student by the use of copious and
exact references, foot-notes, and appendices.
The first volume of this most important work appeared in
1908. It dealt with the missions of Lower California. The
present volume is the first of three on the general history of the
Upper or American California missions. It comprises the history
1912.] NEW BOOKS 99
of the three first presidents of California missions, Juniper Serra,
1768-1784; Francis Lasuen, 1785-1803; and Stephen Tapis, 1803-
1812. These names should be as familiar to well-informed Ameri-
cans as are the names of Jogues, Marquette, and de Smet.
Few men are so well equipped as is Father Englehardt for
the work of writing the history of Indian missions. He has him-
self labored for thirty years as a successful Indian missionary in
Michigan and Wisconsin, Arizona and California. He has published
works for Indian readers in Chippewa and Menominee, Spanish
and English. He has established schools, built chapels, tilled the
soil, laboring with the Indians to teach them after the manner of
the ancient missionaries. He has lived their life, spoken their
tongue, sat about their camp fires, presided at their councils, en-
tered into their homes and hearts.
He has had at his command not only the knowledge of
the Indian tongue and character, but he has had constant
access to the best historical documents, thanks to the well-earned
leisure which has been granted him for several years by his religious
superiors, and which he has improved with a marvelous literary
activity. One instance will suffice to show the value of the service
performed by Father Engelhardt. He copied out most of the mat-
ter of value contained in the original Bancroft library, which served
as the source of Bancroft's work, of which no other considerable
copy besides Father Engelhardt's exists. The Bancroft library was
destroyed in the San Francisco fire. Henceforth the extracts of
Father Engelhardt, which he has utilized for his published history,
must become the court of last appeal for many points of California
history.
The style of the book is exact and clear rather than elegant;
the mechanical work is neatly and substantially done; the illustra-
tions are unusually good and numerous; the price is moderate.
This work should be in the library of every Catholic, and in every
public library in the United States.
DAVIDEE BIROT. By Rene Bazin. New York : Charles Scrib-
ner's Sons. $1.25 net.
Davidee Birot, the young heroine of M. Bazin's new novel
of the same name, is the product of a materialistic home and edu-
cation. She becomes a teacher in one of the national schools.
Very young, and full of pathetically young ideals, Davidee has a
heart that includes all her small pupils, and after them all the
ioo NEW BOOKS [Oct.,
world outside. But she soon begins to feel herself handicapped
at every turn. Her own instincts are good and pure, and she can
pray dimly to a dim Father in heaven, but how is she to teach these
children right and wrong when she possesses no fixed code of
morality? How is she to decide the problems of her own life
without such a code ? She approaches slowly to Christianity : not
so slowly, however, as to escape the notice and the reproof of the
supervisors, whose aim it is to keep religion carefully out of the
schools. Davidee Birot is a calm, logical study of the inevitable
results of godless education. That it is also a novel finely con-
structed and charmingly written, goes without saying.
ONE HUNDRED MASTERPIECES OF PAINTING. By John
La Farge. New York: Doubleday, Page & Co. $5.00 net.
Works upon art and matters relating thereto written by persons
more or less capable are quite common. But a volume dealing with
the masterpieces of painting, and written by one who was himself a
great painter, has its own unique, exceptional value. Such a man
can never be dull or commonplace. To visit an art gallery wherein
hang the world's masterpieces, in the company of a capable teacher,
is both instructive and pleasant ; but to view such paintings under the
guidance of such a writer as John La Farge is a blessing to be
seized upon and enjoyed. One Hundred Masterpieces gives us not
only the paintings themselves in beautiful reproduction, but the
learned, penetrating and very personal estimates on them of John
La Farge.
" The contemplation of art," he says in his preface, " is a form
of study of the history of man, and a very certain one. Its records
are absolutely disinterested from any attempt at proving anything.
It is all the more accurate that it is confused like life itself.
He (the artist) hands to us a multitude of impressions with
a greater unconsciousness than is given to us by the forms of writ-
ing. He is not suspected of intentions ; perhaps he has none. The
tyrant, who is the subject of the congratulations and praises of the
poet and the clergyman and historian, is handed down to us in the
bare fact of his nature by the portrait painter of whom he has no
suspicion."
With these words of general introduction we begin our journey
through this art record, " confused like life itself," companioned by
this critic of rare charm and subtle insight. It is hardly possible
to quote with justice from these chapters with titles such as " For-
I 9 i2.] NEW BOOKS 101
traits of Civic Life," " Dreams of Happiness," " Sacred Conver-
sations," "The Sadness of Certain Portraits," "The Borgia
Rooms," etc., etc. We should be looking at the pictures in the
book to enjoy La Farge's talk about them. At the end of the chapter,
entitled " Portraits of Civic Life," he says, " The little museum in
quiet Haarlem where the Hals' are strung along the wall, has more
energy, more testimony to struggle and success, than the living town
itself They tell us of the solid reasons of a little country
holding its own against its gigantic enemies England, Spain,
Austria, and France. The solidity of character represented carries
us to our own day, and explains for us the strenuous resistance of
Dutch descendants in South Africa, and the value of the blood
which stiffened the courage of the Boers against gigantic odds."
THE LIFE AND THE RELIGION OF MOHAMMED. By Rev.
J. L. Menezes. London : Sands & Co. 60 cents.
Father Menezes, a priest of the diocese of Mangalore, India,
has written a life of Mohammed which he has compiled from the
works of Sale, Bettany, and Stobbart. He treats in detail the life
of the founder of Islam, the history and analysis of the Koran, and
gives a brief account of the various Mohammedan sects. The
author realizes well the imperfection of his work, for he says in
the preface : " Since my chief aim has been a popular exposition
of the subject, I have not aimed at 'style or at literary perfection.
I am conscious of many .repetitions of the same ideas, and of many
defects both in language and mode of expression."
The book is poorly written, uncritical, badly punctuated, full
of typographical errors, and Mohammed is pictured throughout
as half impostor and half saint. We do not think its tone at all
calculated to win over the Mohammedans of India, for whom
it was written.
RETREATS FOR THE PEOPLE. By Charles Plater, SJ. St.
Louis: B. Herder. $1.50.
" Consider the significance of Silence," says Carlyle, " it is
boundless, never by meditating to be exhausted; unspeakably pro-
fitable to thee! Cease thy chaotic hubbub, wherein thy own soul
runs to waste, to confused suicidal dislocation and stupor; out of
Silence comes thy strength."
Carlyle preached silence with a capital, observe, and wrote
102 NEW BOOKS [Oct.,
more than any man of the nineteenth century. He did not take
his own advice. And probably if the retreat houses now scattered
over England had been in existence in his day, he would not have
availed himself of the opportunity of taking a " dose of calm,"
as Father Plater calls it.
Yet we feel that the crabbed, cross old Scot would have ap-
proved the idea of people leaving the noise and excitement and
hurly-burly of our modern civilization to spend a few quiet days
in silent communion with God and their own souls. Never before,
perhaps, were such retreats so necessary. " We see restlessness
everywhere among the idle rich, in the professional classes, among
workingmen. The mania for freakishness, increasingly prevalent
among the wealthy, the shifty ingenuity with which expensive new
sensations are discovered, and the rapidity with which they pall,
take us back to decadent Rome, with its mad quest for luxuries, its
instability of character, its childish whims."
The remedy that is being offered and applied to this restlessness
in France, England, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Holland, and to an
increasing extent in our own country, is the plan of lay-retreats.
Convents already built for school purposes are used during the
Summer, and in some cases special buildings are erected simply for
this object. A schedule of retreats to be given by priests making
a specialty of this work is published, and persons engage accommo-
dations at the retreat house.
In our own country, with the exception of the " Laymen's
League for Retreats and Social Studies" oh Staten Island, these re-
treats have been made principally by women. In Belgium, however,
during the last ten years 97,868 men have made retreats, and
the numbers in Spain, Holland, England, and elsewhere are very
encouraging.
As Father Plater points out, these retreats have been made, and
can be made to a greater extent still, a powerful weapon of social
reform. To bring capitalists and laborers together for a week
end of identical spiritual exercises under the same roof, to have
them mix together freely during the recreations when speaking is
allowed, will do more to foster a good understanding between all
classes than the most convincing expose of Socialism.
Father Plater deserves our thanks for bringing together a
history of this movement throughout the Catholic world, and we
venture to think that everyone who reads this book will resolve to
make such a retreat himself at the first opportunity.
I9i2.] NEW BOOKS 103
CHRONICLES OF AVONLEA. By L. M. Montgomery. Boston:
L. C. Page & Co. $1.25 net.
Miss Montgomery has written a series of short stories full
of pathos and humor. Old Lady Lloyd and Old Man Shaw's Girl
are quaint and original stories of foolish pride and perfect human
love. We can see before us Old Man Shaw sitting on the old bench
in the garden, wondering whether the little girl he sent away to be
educated will return to him spoiled, as Mrs. Blewett informed him,
" after three years of fashionable life among rich stylish folks at
a swell school ;" but we are glad when Baby Blossom returns " a
little taller, a little more womanly, but his own dear Blossom and
no stranger." " The world out there is a good place," she said
thoughtfully. " There are wonderful things to see and learn, fine
noble people to meet, beautiful deeds to admire," but she wound
her arms about his neck, and laid her cheek against his ; " there was
no Daddy."
For quaint, clean sparkling humor, The Winning of Lucinda,
'Aunt Olivia's Beau, The Courting of Prissy Strong, and The Quar-
antine are remarkable. The author is very fond of one particular
theme, namely, the marrying of old spinsters to their lovers of
twenty or thirty years ago. She succeeds in disposing of at least
five such hopeless cases.
Frequently in these stories we are reminded of J. M. Barrie;
the author has not his finished style, but she does share his sym-
pathetic and kindly understanding of human nature.
CHRISTIAN SOCIAL REFORM. Program Outlined by its
Pioneer, William Emmanuel Baron Von Ketteler, Bishop of
Mainz. By George Metlake. Philadelphia: The Dolphin
Press. $1.50.
" The most difficult question, which no legislation, no form
of Government has been able to solve, is the social question. The
difficulty, the vastness, the urgency of this question fills me with
the greatest joy. It is not indeed the distress, the wretchedness of
my brothers with whose condition I sympathize, God knows, from
the bottom of my heart that affords me this joy, but the fact
that it must now become evident which Church bears within it the
power of divine truth. The world will see that to the Catholic
Church is reserved the definitive solution of the social question;
for the State with all its legislative machinery has not the power
to solve it."
NEW BOOKS [Oct.,
These are bold words, and they were bolder still in 1848. It
took a brave, confident, powerful nature, especially in the deplor-
able condition of the Church in Germany at that time, to welcome
the social question as giving an opportunity for religion to prove
itself. In looking back with the experience of sixty years,
with almost the same problems confronting us, with poverty more
widespread, with discontent growing, the whole system apparently
more hopelessly at variance with the dictates of Christian justice,
we cannot, to the same extent, rejoice at the opportunity afforded
the Church, but we must, nevertheless, look with pride upon what
Bishop Ketteler has done to justify these words.
Bishop Ketteler did not solve the social problem, and to our
mind his chief work lay in the example he set of working for a
solution. Hundreds, thousands, probably millions, have been in-
spired by his heroic figure to assume " the white man's burden," and
labor zealously, bravely, hopefully for the betterment of men. The
truly great live for all time, they have the gift of prophecy that
makes their words ring down the ages, and the great Bishop of
Mainz was one of these. May we not in this twentieth century
find food for thought in some suggestive direction of the " fighting
bishop?"
" It would be great folly on our part if we kept aloof from this
movement merely because it happens to be at the present time to be
promoted chiefly by men who are hostile to Christianity. The air
remains God's air though breathed by an atheist, and the bread we
eat is no less the nourishment provided for us by God, though
kneaded by an unbeliever. It is the same with unionism; it is an
idea that rests on the divine order of things and is essentially
Christian, though the men who favor it most do not recognize
the finger of God in it, and often even turn it to a wicked use."
The present work is the best English treatment of Bishop
Ketteler. It will serve to correct the prejudiced and distorted view
of Nitti's Catholic Socialism. But it is not entirely satisfactory.
There are no thorough studies of the European and local conditions
that surrounded and limited Ketteler 's work, no study of the be-
ginnings of scientific Socialism and the communistic movements of
1848. An index would add to the volume's usefulness.
THE STORY OF THE BRIDGETTINES. By Francesca M.
Steele. New York: Benziger Brothers. $1.80 net.
Miss Steele has made a complete study of conventual life
1912.] NEW BOOKS 105
before the Reformation, as her works on the subject attest. The
present volume evinces wide and patient research.
The Bridgettines, or " The Order of St. Saviour," founded
at Wadstena on the shores of Lake Wetter, Sweden, in 1346, by
St. Bridget, a Swedish Princess, enjoyed for more than two hun-
dred years the favor of royalty and the nobility, and was an ever-
present aid to the poor and needy. Candid Protestant historians
bear witness to its influence as a centre of light, learning, and
holiness a well-spring of Catholicity for the whole of Scandinavia.
The Order spread rapidly, and at the time of the Reformation
possessed over seventy houses scattered over the countries of
Europe. Worthy of all admiration is the constancy of these re-
ligious in the days of persecution which followed the apostacy of
nations. Pathetic indeed are the tales of sorrow, which beginning
at Wadstena about 1524 extend to our own times; for the last
victim of -Russian persecution died in 1908. The suppression of
Wadstena was preceded by many years of cruel suffering and
temptation, in which the Abbess and her nuns manifested the cour-
age of martyrs. Finally they were forced to leave their beloved
monastery and go into exile. To English-speaking Catholics the
most interesting chapters are those connected with the famous
Syon Abbey of Isleworth. The tyrant's hand fell heavily on Syon,
and in 1539 what remained of the community sought refuge
abroad. The tale of their wanderings on the continent and their
happy return reads like a romance. An unbroken continuity links
the present Syon Abbey near Chudleigh, Devonshire, with the
ancient foundation. Of all the glories of the past only four
houses remain : one in England, one in Bavaria, and two in Holland.
SALESWOMEN IN MERCANTILE STORES. By Elizabeth
Beardsley Butler. New York: Charities Publication Com-
mittee Russell Sage Foundation. $1.08 (cloth) ; 75 cents
(paper), postpaid.
In 1908 the Consumers' League of Maryland, desiring to
prepare a " white-list " of stores, asked the Russell Sage Founda-
tion to send Miss Butler, who had recently investigated for the
Pittsburgh Survey the conditions under which Pittsburgh women
worked, to make a similar study in mercantile stores in Baltimore.
The investigation was begun in January, 1909, and continued
during several months. The present volume embodies the results.
Thirty-four establishments were investigated. The material ob-
106 NEW BOOKS [Oct.,
tained is clearly presented. It covers such points as store con-
struction, comfort of employees, hours, wages, training, beneficiary
societies. The data will prove useful to employers as well as to
students of social conditions.
MY UNKNOWN CHUM. New York: The Devin Adair Co.
$1.50 net.
By all the laws of bookdom, " Aquecheek's " volume should
have died long ago. In the first place it is a book of travel, and such
books are usually almost as ephemeral as guide books ; and, secondly,
it was published anonymously, or rather with the unattractive pseu-
donym of " Aquecheek." When a work lives in spite of such
handicaps, and rises under a new and equally anonymous title,
My Unknown Chum, it argues an unusual vitality for a book of this
class. And, indeed, the book is too well-known to the discrimina-
ting public to need more than a word of introduction to call atten-
tion to this new edition. Those who are familiar with the delight-
ful " Aquecheek," will be glad of the opportunity of purchasing
a copy of the handsomest edition that we have seen, one really that
shows as much improvement in the art of bookmaking as in the
means of transportation since the day when " Aquecheek " crossed
the Atlantic in a sailing boat.
The qualities that have kept it alive in the affections of many
who welcomed it years ago, and have made one enthusiastic admirer
reissue it now, may be found in a certain piquancy of style, a knack
of apt illustration, some delightful gossip of old persons and
places that are now only memories, a philosophical outlook upon
travel, the value of which persists after the information is out of
date.
And yet the mere fact that the scenes pictured here have passed
away adds to its charm. To those who knew the Boston and New
York, the London and Paris and Rome of fifty years ago, it will
bring back many a tender recollection Old Theatre Alley lives
again, and the words of praise for old Bishop Chevereuses of
Boston will be warmly seconded by many. It is said that this good,
simple old soul left Boston to assume the red hat and live abroad
with all his belongings packed in two dilapidated trunks. Dignities
sat lightly upon him, and he was as approachable and simple as a
prince of the Church as he had been as bishop and priest.
The reputed author of the book is Charles B. Fairbanks, a
New England convert, and we think that bis authorship has been
1912.] NEW BOOKS 107
too easily set aside in the preface. Though this robs the many
tributes to Catholicity of much of their apologetic value, it still
remains true, that a book of this kind, where the references to re-
ligion arise naturally out of other subjects and are never over-done,
will reach many who will not read a professedly Catholic work.
THE DELINQUENT CHILD AND THE HOME. By Sophonisba
Breckinridge and Edith Abbott. New York : Charities Pub-
lication Committee. $2.00.
Probation officers, social workers, and students generally, will
find the present careful study suggestive. Though concerned
almost altogether with the experience of the Chicago juvenile court,
it has a wider significance than its immediate topic. For other
juvenile courts will largely tell the same tale regarding the causes
and occasions of the children's downfall. The philosophy under-
lying the book, however, is little in accord with Catholic principles.
It is an indictment of many homes, and seems to infer that the
State must be a sort of over-parent. To answer this we need a
careful and ample exposition of the rights and duties of parents.
There is a helpful abstract of juvenile court laws.
INCIDENTS OF MY LIFE. By Thomas Addis Emmett. New
York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. $6.00.
Dr. Emmett will always be remembered as one of the most
eminent gynecologists of the past century; he will always be
honored by patriotic Irishmen for his work in connection with the
Irish National Federation, and his book on Ireland Under English
Rule; he will never be forgotten by New Yorkers for his forty-
five years of untiring service in the Woman's Hospital; for the
Catholic youth of the future he will ever remain an example of
indefatigable energy, of spotless integrity, and of boundless charity
to the sick and suffering. He has written a most interesting auto-
biography. He was born in Virginia, May 29, 1828. He is a
grandson of Thomas Addis Emmett, a brother of the illustrious
Irish patriot, Robert Emmett. He chats in a most entertaining
manner of conditions in the South before the war, tells us about
old New York and its citizens in the forties and fifties, describes
his experiences as surgeon in the Woman's Hospital, and gives
a full account of his great work furthering Home Rule for Ireland.
We are introduced in these pages to many eminent Americans
io8 NEW BOOKS [Oct.,
and many distinguished Irishmen; we are told many a good story;
we listen to long discussions on the authenticity of the portrait
of Robert Fulton; the burial place of Robert Emmett; the original
copy of the Declaration of Independence, and the place of Nathan
Hale's execution; we listen to the author's views on such varied
subjects as education, Home Rule, England's treatment of Ireland,
Civil War, the tariff, the high cost of living, Tammany Hall, and
the management of hospitals. Many an old New Yorker will read
this book merely for its mention of the old Bowery Theatre, the
visits of MacCready and Jenny Lind, Barnum's Museum, the old
Broadway stage, etc., etc.
Some pages of uninteresting details might well have been
omitted, and more attention have been paid to literary finish, but we
are too much in the author's debt to be hypercritical.
WHY SHOULD WE CHANGE OUR FORM OF GOVERNMENT.
Studies in Practical Politics. By Nicholas Murray Butler.
New York : Charles Scribner's Sons. 75 cents.
The Author of these six brief and readable essays, by keen
analysis and clear expression, has done much to help the intelligent
citizen towards forming a definite opinion upon certain momentous
questions now engaging the attention of our electorate. Further
than that, these essays, based upon patient study of history and
developed with careful logic, should instruct many a reader in the
constructing of political philosophy. Initiative, referendum, re-
call, trusts, railways, collective ownership are among the points
which the author illuminates not indeed by means of exhaustive
discussion, but by pertinent and sage comment. The volume comes
as a reminder of the need of adding sane and careful thinking
to our political activity, lest we make progress towards disaster.
t
THE UNBELIEVER; A ROMANCE OF LOURDES. By a Non-
Catholic. New York: Benziger Brothers. $1.25 net.
This story gives us a perfect picture of Lourdes, with its train
blanc, its dames hospitalises, its brancardiers, its bureau des consta-
tations, its malades, and its miracles.
Angelique is cured miraculously of consumption after a bath
in the Grotto. Her friend, Andree, to obtain this cure, and to bring
about the conversion of her unbelieving lover, Dr. Felix, had made
a vow to God to become a nun, or even to give up her own life, if
1912.] NEW BOOKS 109
it were God's will. She dies rather dramatically; her lover is con-
verted, and becomes a Franciscan.
No one will read this book for the story. But everyone who
has been to Lourdes will appreciate the accuracy of the author's
description of the shrine, the marvelous faith of the invalids, and
the careful investigation of Dr. Boissarie. Zola and his book on
Lourdes are stigmatized as they deserve, " Zola was a man of one
idea, everything to him was unclean. It never struck him that the
uncleanness was in himself that he defiled everything he touched."
" Zola lied from start to finish, no one could have witnessed
what he witnessed and remained unconvinced." The story of
Bernadette is told in brjef, and the whole book bespeaks a most
sympathetic attitude towards the miracles of the wonderful Grotto.
THE SON OF MAN HIS PREPARATION, HIS LIFE, HIS
WORK. By Rev. Placid Huault, S.M. New York : Benziger
Brothers. $1.10.
This volume from the pen of Father Huault treats with
theological accuracy of the Fall of Man, the Expectation of
the Redeemer, the Blessed Virgin, the Divinity of Christ, Miracles
and Prophecy, the effects of Christianity, the Unity and Universal-
ity of the Church, etc. It shows a sound knowledge of
these fundamental questions, and gives in popular form the
teachings of the Church with regard to them. But we fear that the
tone of the book, unnecessarily harsh at times, will not readily
effect the worthy purpose of the author, which is to influence and
win the souls of unbelievers.
FURTHER NOTES ON ST. PAUL EPHESIANS, PHILIP-
PIANS, COLOSSIANS, PHILEMON. By Joseph Rickaby,
SJ. New York: Benziger Brothers. $1.35.
In Father Rickaby's former volume, Notes on St. Paul
Corinthians, Galatians, Romans, published in 1898, he used the
text of Challoner's 1752 edition of the Rheims New Testament.
In the present work, he sets aside as unsatisfactory all our English
translations, and makes a new and, we must add, a most excellent
paraphrase of St. Paul's words. Even those who may not know
enough Greek to appreciate a successful attempt to get at the mean-
ing of difficult passages, will welcome this part of his work.
These notes are disappointingly brief, but they are always
no NEW BOOKS [Oct.,
clear, interesting, and scholarly. Realizing that some of our trans-
lations of the Apostle are enough " to drive the Christian to
despair of ever understanding St. Paul," he does his best to suggest
in a most modest way the needed corrections.
He points out corruptions in the Vulgate; suggests readings
in doubtful passages; quotes the classics and the Fathers to bring
out the meaning of a word ; corrects mistakes in the interpretations
of Clement of Alexandria, and St. John Chrysostom; calls atten-
tion to faulty translations; discusses various readings, etc.
His commentary on Col. ii. 16-23, which, as he rightly asserts,
is " the crux of the whole epistle, and one of the most difficult
passages in St. Paul," is a fair sample of the scholarly character
of these notes. He frequently acknowledges his indebtedness to
St. John Chrysostom among the Fathers, and to Bishop Lightfoot
among the modern interpreters of St. Paul. A few misprints (pp.
140, 145, 146, 164, 193) should be corrected in a new edition.
DOGMATIC CANONS AND DECREES. New York: The Devin
Adair Co. $1.25 net.
This volume contains English translations of the important
doctrinal definitions issued by the Church from the Council of
Trent down to the present time. Catholic truth is here set forth in
the authoritative words of Popes and Councils. And as Trent
was forced to restate and clarify much of Catholic teaching, the
volume forms an excellent epitome of doctrine.
The basis of the work is largely Cardinal Manning's transla-
tion of the decrees of the Vatican Council, and Canon Waterworth's
translation of those of Trent. The latter work has long been out of
print. An index facilitates reference to this useful volume.
THE HOLY MASS ACCORDING TO THE GREEK RITE. By
Andrew J. Shipman. New York : P. J. Kenedy & Sons. 25
cents.
The increasing number of Slavic peoples of the Greek Catholic
Rite now making their home among us, have brought to our doors
the more elaborate and very beautiful oriental liturgy of the
Church, and given it for us a personal as well as a Catholic interest.
This English translation is, therefore, most opportune. Mr. Ship-
man prefaces the text of the Mass with a scholarly account of the
Greek Rite, its followers, and appurtenances. This little pamphlet
I 9 i2.] NEW BOOKS in
of forty-four pages is within the reach of all, and cannot fail to
appeal to every student and lover of the Universal Church and her
liturgy. It contains, however, the translation of only one of the
three forms of the Mass in use in the Greek Church that of St.
John Chrysostom. Upon its favorable reception depends the ful-
fillment of Mr. Shipman's promise to follow it with an English
rendering of the Mass of St. Basil and the Mass of the Presanc-
tified.
GOD, THE AUTHOR OF NATURE AND THE SUPERNA-
TURAL. By Dr. Joseph Pohle. Authorized English Ver-
sion by Arthur Preuss. St. Louis: B. Herder. $1-75-
Those who wish to go deep in their study of Catholic Theology,
but are handicapped by an inadequate knowledge of Latin, owe a
great debt of gratitude to Mr. Preuss, who has translated into Eng-
lish from the original German Dr. Pohle's three volumes on God.
The most recently published of these volumes considers God as
the Creator of all things, natural and supernatural. The second,
and considerably larger portion of the book, deals with the created
universe the earth; man; angels; and takes up of necessity such
questions as the Biblical account of Creation; the unity of the
human race; the immortality of the human soul; the nature, trans-
mission, and penalties of original sin; the fall of some of the
angels and their relations with men, etc.
The work of translation is very well done. It is but rarely
that one happens on a phrase that could be set aside for a simpler
or more idiomatic expression. Technical terms abound, it is true,
but that is practically unavoidable in a work of this kind.
CHAPTERS ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE: Reason, the Witness
of Faith. New York: Fr. Pustet & Co. 75 cents.
As is stated in the preface, this book "aims to instruct American
and English Catholics who are constantly confronted by both
press and pulpit, and by daily intercourse with the ever-ready
ridicule of their destructive views of life." As chapters of par-
ticular importance for our age and country, that on " Truth and
Essentials " and that " On Purity " may be noted. As an aid
in the task of instructing an intelligent and earnest convert, it
will also be found useful. But it is doubtful whether the catechetical
form, or the morning and evening prayers in rhyme, will appeal to
adults. There is a lack of smoothness in the English which makes
ii2 NEW BOOKS [Oct.,
it sound like a translation; constructions are sometimes foreign.
Should it reach a second edition, an index would add to its use-
fulness, as the grouping of subjects is somewhat novel, making it
difficult to find information. There is a good analytical table of
contents, but an alphabetical index would be a help.
SANS LUMIfeRE. Par Jules Pravieux. Paris: P. Lethielleux.
Sans Lumiere is a short tale of a French country village,
robbed of its church and Cure by the bitter anti-clerical hatred of
its Masonic mayor. Everything possible is done by the mayor and
his pagan schoolmaster to teach the people that : " Science has
vanquished superstition. Nature is the only true religion. The one
god we know is reason."
They succeed beyond their expectations. While a few faithful
souls go to a neighboring parish to Mass and the Sacraments, the
vast body of the townsfolk totally abandon the faith of their
ancestors. As a result, superstition takes the place of religion,
thievery becomes common, the cabarets do a most flourishing busi-
ness, discontent rules in place of the old-time peace and happiness,
and the workingmen join the party of revolutionary socialism.
One of the Mayor's sons becomes the leader in the revolt against
his capitalist father, and, when jilted by his unbelieving financee,
commits suicide. Another son goes to Paris, and becomes wealthy
by stealing millions from the sequestered property of the religious
congregations, only to be thrown in prison finally as a sacrifice to
an aroused public sentiment.
A most pathetic scene is the meeting of the Abbe Brivet, the
Cure of Larochebilly, with the Mayor after the burial of his son.
The disconsolate official, angry at the logical outcome of his
theories, is cursing the strikers as " savages and brutes," when the
old Cure approaches him and says : " Pardon them, I beseech you ;
they deserve your pity rather than your hate. They are simply
what irreligion has made them. It has taken from their hearts
all resignation, all faith, all hope, all goodness it has robbed them
of their God. It has extinguished every light that used to brighten
their path, and yet you expect them to walk uprightly as of old.
They have nothing but hatred to guide them, and hatred in its
implacable logic does nothing but destroy, pillage, and kill. Pity
these men, for they know not what they do. Pity these men, for
they know not what they desire. They are children of the night,
walking in darkness. They are men sans lutniere."
1912.] NEW BOOKS 113
Such a book gives us a very good insight into present-day
conditions in France, and, if its lesson is learned, will teach the
modern French unbeliever that, without religion, man is little better
than the brute. " In Jesus Christ alone," says the Abbe, " there is
hope. He is the light, He is goodness, He is love, He is God."
LE MODERNISME SOCIAL-DECADENCE OU REGENERA-
TION. Par Abbe J. Fontaine. Paris : P. Lethielleux.
Social Modernism is a continuation of the thesis defended in
the Abbe Fontaine's last book, Sociological Modernism, published
a year ago. This volume is both a strong indictment of Socialism
to-day in France, which, as the Abbe clearly shows, means the de-
struction of the State with all true liberty, and an able defence
of the Catholic social principles set forth by Popes Leo XIII. and
Pius X.
While fully admitting the Abbe's honest endeavor to express
accurately the Church's teachings, we find him often disappointing
in his unfairness to opponents, who cannot see eye to eye with him
on many open questions. In the Revue du Clerge Frangais, a few
months ago, the Abbe Dubois pointed out clearly the injustice
of his attack on M. Lorin of the Semaine Sociale of Marseilles.
Again his writings are always dominated by a bitterness
against Protestant and Jew which is hardly Christian, and by an
utter lack of sympathy with the aspirations and claims of modern
democracy. He has a perfect right to be alarmed at the false
social theories advocated by some of the over-enthusiastic Catholic
Sillonists in France, but it is always in bad taste to question the
sincerity of a man who has made his public submission to the well-
deserved condemnation of Rome. He is, moreover, frequently as
severe in condemning things debatable, e. g., the income tax, as in
denouncing things positively uncatholic, which is rather confusing
to the average reader. A better use of the distingno of the theo-
logical schools would have given us a more accurate and a more
scholarly volume.
EDGAR ALLEN POE. Par Emile Lauvriere. Paris: Bloud et
Cie.
This volume is an abridgment of a much larger work of the
same author Edgar Poe, Sa vie et son Oeuvre published by
Alcan of Paris in 1904. It is both a psychological study and a
VOL. XCVI. 8.
ii4 NEW BOOKS [Oct.,
literary appreciation, and from both viewpoints has been highly
recommended by the Academic Frangaise and the Academic de
Medecine.
The life of Poe was cursed from beginning to end by his
excessive fondness for drink and drugs. He came of bad stock
originally, and the taint in his blood developed finally in a degener-
acy of the most debased type. He seemed totally devoid of the
religious sense. Drink cost him devoted friends like Burton, White,
Briggs, and Lowell ; it broke his engagement with Mrs. Whitman ;
it made him write and speak in so caustic a way as to engender the
most bitter enmities; it worried a loving wife to death, and made
a veritable slave of the devoted Mrs. Clemm; it caused him to
become a proud, ungrateful, unreliable, erotic madman, who wasted
not merely natural talents but genius of a very high order. As a
man he is the most repellent figure in the history of American
letters.
The best chapters of the book however deal with Poe's literary
output. A careful analysis is given of his weird, imaginative tales,
and an appreciative estimate of his melodious, fantastic poems.
The author holds that most of Poe's morbid creations, whether in
prose or verse, were due to the fumes of alcohol or the dreams of
opium. L 'Amour desespere pour une beaute morte seems to have
been " his habitual theme, the favorite formula of his morbid art,
combining under the symbolic appearances of Beauty and Death
both ecstasy and melancholy."
'THE PLEASURING OF SUSAN SMITH, by Helen M. Wins-
*- low (Boston: L. C. Page & Co. $1.00 net), is the story of a
Miss Susan Smith, who in her fortieth year inherits a large fortune.
She determines to go to a metropolis and enjoy herself. Her city
cousins in Boston, who never give any money themselves, take
her to all the charitable institutions in the hope that she will dis-
tribute her money freely. Cousin Jack introduces her to society
and to many pleasures, etc. Of course she acts as fairy godmother
to young Jack, whom she reconciles to his fiancee after a mis-
understanding, and everything ends most happily.
BLUE BONNET'S RANCH PARTY, by Caroline E. Jacobs and
Edyth E. Read (Boston: L. C. Page & Co. $1.50) tells the
story of a girl's life on a Texan ranch. A party of boys and
girls from Massachusetts are introduced by their friend, Blue
I 9 i2.] NEW BOOKS 115
Bonnet, to all the wonders of outdoor life; swimming, horseback
riding, driving, lassoing cattle, camping out, etc. The heroine
is not too exact in her deportment, and at times shows evidences
of selfishness, bad temper, and lack of courtesy, which she always
redeems by her quick repentance. The book is rather long drawn
out, and disfigured by many poor attempts at wit, but still will
be interesting to the average schoolgirl.
PNGLISH SONGS OF ITALIAN FREEDOM, chosen and ar-
9** ranged with an introduction by George Macaulay Trevelyan.
(New York: Longmans, Green & Co. $1.25 net.) By bringing
together these songs, Mr. Trevelyan has done a service for those
who love liberty and poetry and Italy, even if they cannot worship
Mazzini and the Carbonari. Political verses are unusually ephe-
meral. The work of Byron, Shelley, the Brownings, and Swin-
burne in this field undoubtedly deserves re-reading.
A PRISONER OF WAR IN VIRGINIA, 1864-5, by George
** Haven Putnam. (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 75
cents net.) Under an appearance of calm, judicial fairness, we
think that Major Putnam has been decidedly unfair to the South in
several places. " It was impossible for [the Confederates] to make
appropriate provision for the care of prisoners," says Dr. Putnam;
but he adds, without the least proof to support his assertion, there
was no honest desire to do so. Again, he tells us that when
walking through Richmond on parole in a Federal uniform, he
" met hardly any instances of discourtesy." Why should he im-
mediately theorize that a year or two earlier he would have met
" abuse of some kind or other? "
ECONOMIC AND MORAL ASPECTS OF THE LIQUOR
C BUSINESS, by Robert Bagnell, Ph.D., D.D. (New York:
Funk & Wagnalls Co. 75 cents net.) This is a fairly handy
presentation of interesting facts regarding the liquor business.
The part dealing with the economic side is much more satisfactory
than the seventy-five pages devoted to establishing the moral basis
of state regulation.
A N excellent book for school use is The Story of Christopher
*> Columbus, by Charles W. Moores. (Boston: Houghton
Mififlin Co. 75 cents net.) It comprises short but careful accounts
ii6 NEW BOOKS [Oct.,
of his four voyages, is written in a simple, interesting style, and
has well-chosen illustrations. That Columbus was a mystic, that
a divine impulse urged him, and that America was discovered by
the Will of God these facts have not been presented to the children
in our public schools. This volume makes them clear, and for that
reason, as much as for its general excellence, is strongly to be
recommended as a textbook.
T ORETTO : ANNALS OF THE CENTURY, by Anna C.
^ Minogue, with an introduction by Archbishop Glennon of St.
Louis. (New York: The America Press. $1.50.) The volume
is an elaborate and carefully compiled history of the Lorettine Con-
gregation, which was founded in Kentucky one hundred years ago
by the pioneer missionary, Father Nerinckx, and which was the
first community of native American women. It traces with a
wealth of detail the .growth and achievements of the Congregation
through its century of existence, and is supplemented by an un-
usually large number of illustrations.
TREASONABLE SERVICE OR WHY I BELIEVE, by D. I.
^ Lanslots, O.S.B. ; adapted from the Italian of Dr. Mioni.
(St. Louis: B. Herder. $1.00). "The purpose of these pages
[less than two hundred] is to show conclusively that faith
is entirely consistent with sound reason and that true science
is not in contradiction with divine revelation." While heartily
agreeing with the author's conclusions, we do not feel that this
would be the most attractive book to put into the hands of an
inquirer after Catholic truth. Its manner is too confident; its
method too severely logical; its contempt for opposing views too
evident.
TTE IS CALLING ME; Helps in Visiting the Blessed Sacrament,
-"-* by the Rev. Matthew Russell, SJ. (London: Burns &
Oates, 2s. 6d.) Years ago in a little book, The Irish Messenger
of the Sacred Heart, we came across a poem entitled Omnia pro
Te Cor Jesu, and signed " M. R." It was such a whole-hearted
offering of self to the Sacred Heart that it captured the youthful
imagination, and was quickly committed to memory. Since then it
has often proved a stand-by in short visits to the Blessed Sacrament,
and this present book sounded like an appeal from the past. For
many aids in the love of our Eucharistic Lord are we indebted
I 9 i2.] NEW BOOKS 117
to the Reverend author; and not least for this latest reminder that
Jesus is waiting for each one of us. The little prayers of other
holy souls of our own generation must prove a spur not to be
behind in our loving homage to Christ our King.
CEARCHING THE SCRIPTURES, by Rev. T. P. Gallagher,
P S.T.L., B.C.L. (Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son, Ltd. 6j.net.)
In this volume Father Gallagher examines the principal passages
of the Old Testament relating to the Jewish hope of a Redeemer.
He shows that his hope of a Messiah existed through all the ages
of Jewish history. We hope that in the next edition Father Gal-
lagher will give us more explicit references to the authors and
volumes quoted.
1UANUAL OF CHRISTIAN PEDAGOGY, published by The
''-' Brothers of Mary, Dayton, O., is a modest little volume of
about one hundred pages, confining itself to general principles of
Catholic education, for it says, " books containing suggestions for
the teaching of the various branches of study can be readily found."
It consists of chapters on the objects of education, physical, moral,
etc., and will be found helpful, especially by the young teacher.
The article on surveillance seems somewhat stringent and over-
drawn, especially in one particular. We note likewise that while
the teacher is advised to encourage frequent Confession, no word
is said of frequent Communion. The book concludes with the
beautiful prayer of Gerson, the great Chancellor of the University
of Paris, who devoted himself in his latter days to the souls of little
children. The paper is not good, and that tends to obscure the type.
'THE VITAL TOUCH, by Frances M. Schnebly. (Chicago: Laird
& Lee. $1.00.) This is a story of the conventional perfect
hero falling in love at first sight with the conventional perfect
heroine. She, however, rejects him once she discovers through her
brother, a priest, that he was studying for the priesthood to follow
out his mother's vow.
He in despair travels abroad, but is recalled to America by a
cablegram informing him that the dear girl is sick unto death.
Of course she recovers, the vow of long ago is set aside, and rightly
so, and they live happily ever after.
None of the characters in the book are well drawn; there is
a total absence of local color, Paris being undistinguishable from
ii8 NEW BOOKS [Oct.,
Chicago; there is no grasp whatever of the spirit of Catholicity,
or the moral or mental makeup of a Catholic priest. The old-
maid cousin with a slanderous tongue leaves a bad taste with the
reader, and adds nothing to the interest of the story. Altogether
it is an uninteresting and insipid tale.
T^HE BOY AND HIS GANG, by J. Adams Puffer. (Boston:
-*- Houghton Mifflin Co. $1.00 net.) This is an objective and
sympathetic study of some of those traits of boyhood which are
to the average adult more irritating than interesting. That " sociol-
ogical " phrases and theories are so frequently mixed with com-
monplaces, or intruded into keen observations, will scarcely lessen
the usefulness of this really very practical contribution to the
enlightenment of teachers and parents. The reader will learn to
look with new patience on certain inevitable if trying manifesta-
tions of boy-life, and will get an insight into the possible ways of
controlling and utilizing them.
COCIALISM AND THE WORKINGMAN, by R. Fullerton.
^ (New York: Benziger Brothers. $1.20 net.) In fourteen essays
the writer touches upon the points of the Socialist position which
seem most unbearable, and adduces counter arguments and illus-
trations that his own thought or the publications of Catholic writers
have suggested to him.
price of the Interior Castle by St. Teresa, published by
-*- Thomas Baker, London, England, is 6s. net, not 4$. as stated
in our July issue. The volume is sold in this country by Messrs.
Benziger Brothers at $1.90 per copy.
Jordan jperiobicais,
The Future of Religion in England. By John Straight. The
Church of England has lost twenty per cent in membership, and
shows an annual falling away of 350,000; Nonconformity is declin-
ing; only Catholicism holds its ground. But its nine thousand con-
verts a year are not in proportion to the increase in population, and
are offset by an equal leakage. Even leaving leakage out of ac-
count, it would take at this rate four thousand years to convert
England. The toleration the Catholic Church now enjoys in Eng-
land must not encourage her to think the nation is ready for a
wholesale entrance within her fold. She must arouse herself to
vast missionary efforts against new foes Christian Science, Theos-
ophy, Esoteric Buddhism, indifferentism of every shade. Who can
say that this awakening will not come, and Catholicism once more
regenerate the world ? Oxford and Cambridge Review, September,
The Fourth Gospel. By Maurice Donin, What is the funda-
mental thought, whence arises the unity and the specific character of
the Fourth Gospel? It is not the effort to convert the Jews by
showing the blindness and the injustice of their fathers; to prove
the superiority of Jesus over John the Baptist; to conquer the
Gnostics and the Docetae; to complete the synoptic account of Our
Lord's life, though all these are part of St. John's plan. He is
not striving to produce a Christology different from that of the
synoptics, to prove that Jesus is God while they sought to prove
Him man. Such a view rests on an over-emphasis of a few
verses of the prologue to this Gospel. The author's aim is to
portray a psychological drama, to expose the growth of faith in
the disciples in opposition to the growth of unbelief among the
Jews. Revue Pratique d'Apologetique, August.
Frederick Ozanam. By De Lauzac de Laborie. It was
around Frederick Ozanam that the Society of St. Vincent de Paul
grew, and to his guidance and encouragement was due, in greatest
measure, the success of its beginnings. The Society was established
in May, 1833. At Lyons, Ozanam met bitter opposition, but he
was persistent in outlining the spirit and distinctive features which
he wished to mark his Society loyalty to the Church, humility,
Christian solidarity.' Revue Pratique d'Apologetique, August.
120 FOREIGN PERIODICALS [Oct.,
Socialism in the Public Schools of the United States. By N.
Noguer. The results of education where only science is taught, and
no religion, is the cause of the increase of crimes among the young,
as declared by a New York jurist, who states that forty per cent
of the crimes in that city are committed by young men under
twenty years of age. This increase of criminal ideas among the
young people is the result of the socialistic training received in
their schools eventually where the religious and moral education
is neglected, the generations will become corrupt. Razon y Fe,
August.
Eating Places for Women. By Abbe J. de Maistre. Young
working women of small salary are confronted by dangers both
moral and physical in the great city of Paris. Morally, because of
the unscrupulous people they meet in their lunch hours at the
various restaurants which they have need to frequent; physically,
because many of the young women receive such meager salaries
they are often forced to go without food or else to eat very little.
These dangers were well studied out by Pere Stanislas du Lac, and
he strove to overcome them by establishing restaurants exclusively
for women. Now the city of Paris has a net-work of restaurants
for women, the idea of this thoughtful priest. At some gas, water,
and cooking utensils are loaned to the women workers for the
slight sum of ten centimes; the utensils are washed by the users
at the completion of their meal. At other restaurants lunches are
provided at a very low cost. Such an innovation has been greatly
welcomed by the working women of Paris, as i evidenced by the
attendance. Le Correspondant, August 10.
Eugenics. By Mrs. Huth Jackson. It is a nobler thing to
bear and rear five healthy children than to allow a dozen out of
fifteen to die. Priests should preach self-control rather than the
implications of the text, " it is better to marry than to burn."
To leave births to " the designs of Providence " is as foolish as to
refuse the use of disinfectants, " because if God wills us to catch
a disease we ought to accept it." " Every child has a right to be
born under the best conditions. And we, we who know, are
shirking, if, for reason of the trouble entailed, we do not bring our
fair share of children . into the world." There should be no un-
necessary suffering, it is true. " See to it that life is made a
sweeter, better, nobler thing as each year goes by; but where pain
1912.] FOREIGN PERIODICALS 121
is inevitable accept it bravely, and even joyously, realizing that
certain truths can be learnt in that way, and that way alone."
Women must not " refuse that necessary suffering which is part
of the inscrutable law of the universe, and which, bravely accepted,
will bring us to the feet of Him Who, being God Almighty, yet
when He took upon Him to deliver man, did not abhor the Virgin's
womb." The National Review, September.
Labor Problems. By G. de Lamarzelle. This article reviews
the troubles of labor unions from their earliest days in England,
with a complete study of the recent miners' strike. Le Corre-
spondant, August 10.
Conservation of Natural Forces. By Paul Girardin. A new
chair has been founded at the College of France for the study of
how best to conserve the natural forces, which are so important
to the welfare of the numberless inhabitants of the earth. This
article contains a complete account of this new study. Le Corre-
spondant, August 10.
Property Reform. By Hilaire Belloc. Has the process of
confining property to a few (and consequently turning the many
into a proletariat) (a) proceeded so far, or (b) resulted from such
economic causes, that it is impossible for society to retrace its
steps and to achieve a better distribution of property in the future?
The author answers both questions negatively. In a future paper
he proposes to discuss the means of reform. Oxford and Cam-
bridge Review, September.
Lessons of the War in Tripoli. By Earl Percy. The Italians
have shown themselves a united nation with splendid military
capacities. Their quickness in mobilizing and landing troops, their
cheerfulness in bearing the cost, the remarkable cooperation between
army and navy, have " revealed a remarkable national efficiency
and discipline." All this means that Italy is no longer the child
of the Triple Alliance. She is a Great Power, and her friendship
or enmity must be reckoned with in case of war with Germany.
The National Review, September.
England's German-Phobia. By Navalis. Mr. Churchill's
policy is " condemned as absolute treachery to the navy and the
122 FOREIGN PERIODICALS [Oct.,
nation." He has refused to keep pace with German increases;
he has scattered the fleets so that it would take four days to mobilize
in home waters; he has demoralized the whole force. The history
of his administration can be written, " organization, re-organiza-
tion, disorganization." The National Review, September.
More German-Phobia. By E. Capel Cure. England was once
almost adored by Italy. She was looked upon as the friend who
had made Cavour's government possible. But the attitude of the
British Press towards the war in Tripoli has nettled the Italian
people. If England and France were at war with Germany, Italy
might side with the Kaiser. England must strengthen her fleet in
the Mediterranean, and strive by every possible means to lessen
German influence in the Italian peninsula. The National Review,
September.
The Portuguese Revolution. By Homen Christo Filho. This
article deals with the lamentable state of affairs in Portugal to-day,
and gives an account of the monarchy, with a study of the Repub-
lican Party. In Portugal, as in France, secret societies have
worked havoc. The activities of the Freemasons dates back to the
eighteenth century. The explosive bombs of six different models
are the work of one of the members of the Carbonaria Jose Maria
Nunes. Explosions killing dozens of people are reported daily.
Le Correspondant, August 25.
The Land of the Rising Sun. Unsigned. This article deals
rather with the work accomplished by Mutsuhito, the late Mikado,
than with his biography. In the sixteenth century Japan carried
on extensive commercial relations with Portugal and England for
eighty-seven years, after which its port was closed to all outside
trade. It was only during the middle part of the past century that
it was opened again. Mutsuhito worked wonders for his Empire.
He introduced the most progressive reforms, and placed most
capable men at the head of all departments of the government,
allowing them to work unhampered. This he could do with safety,
for the Japanese give the greatest homage to their Emperor. The
article reviews the Russo-Japanese War, and shows the growth
of the Japanese army and navy since that war. Japan strives
to become the great naval power in the Pacific. The talk of a
national religion is now stirring the country. The Emperor and
FOREIGN PERIODICALS 123
his counsellors have for years been striving to fuse the two religions
Shintoism and Buddhism. The writer of this article has re-
sided in Japan for many years. Le Correspondant, August 25.
George Meredith. By Alfred Austin. The author pleads
guilty to not understanding much of Meredith's verse. He is
consoled by the fact that Meredith himself did not understand it,
and is reminded of how Jean Paul Richter, being called upon to
explain some of his writings, said : " That once upon a time two
persons had known what an arraigned passage signified, himself and
Le Bon Dieu. But now only God knew." " That George Mere-
dith's novels must have as novels very high qualities, I do not
question nor doubt for one moment. But I believe it on the testi-
mony of others, themselves of high literary repute, for to be truth-
ful I cannot myself read them." The wine at Meredith's table is
said, on the whole, to have been better than the conversation. Ox-
ford and Cambridge Review, September.
Cromwell and the Literature of the " Protectorate." By J. B.
Williams. There was very little real literature produced during
this period. Much of what was then written does not owe its
inspiration to the " protectorate." Cromwell censored the press
with a strong hand, and imprisoned the printers right and left.
Through his licenser, Cromwell authorized one news-book that was
" stuffed with profane and obscene matter." It was promptly sup-
pressed under Charles II. Oxford and Cambridge Review, Sep-
tember.
Parliamentary Oratory. By F. E. Smith, M.P. Persons com-
plain nowadays that there is no oratory in the House of Commons.
The trouble is that they are looking for something that is out of
date. Parliament has become more business-like. We do not
deliver long, florid perorations because we don't wish to. " In
cultivation, in natural eloquence, in the subtlety of dialectics, there
are probably at least as large a number of members entitled to a
high place as have ever debated in the House of Commons at any
period of its history." Balfour, Asquith, Lloyd George, Bonar Law,
and others are discussed. Oxford and Cambridge Review, Sep-
tember.
Coppee's Letters. By Jean Monval. The final installment of
124 FOREIGN PERIODICALS [Oct.,
the letters of Francois Coppee to his sister Annette end with this
number of the Le Correspondant. They breathe of the tenderest
sympathy between brother and sister, also describing the points of
interest in his travels. Le Correspondant, August 10.
Teaching Run Mad. By Isabel Henvey. We are too self-
conscious in our theories of education, too much pre-occupied with
the subject, too wedded to infallible " systems." Another fallacy
is to think the child is indefinitely malleable, that it is simply clay
to be moulded by the teacher in any shape wanted. As a matter
of fact the teacher is probably producing entirely different results
from those aimed at. A third mistake is to waste time teaching
what a child has no talent for. This is especially noticeable in
music. Oxford and Cambridge Review, September.
'A Valiant Woman. By Marc de Germiny. This article
describes the heroism of a child of fourteen years of age Marie
Magdeleine de Vercheres of Canada, who commanded a fort during
the French and Indian Wars against a band of Iroquois Indians.
She died in 1752 as Mme. de la Perade, having seen the government
of Canada fall into the hands of the English. Le Correspondant,
August 10.
The Tablet (August 31) : Editorially The Tablet takes the posi-
tion that the United States has violated the Hay-Pauncefote treaty
by discriminating between American and British vessels as regards
Canal tolls. The French Government finds that it has nourished
a serpent in fostering the state schools. Six thousand teachers
assembled at Chambery solemnly passed radical anti-patriotic reso-
lutions. Lady Edmund Talbot urges the necessity of Catholic
women taking an active part in Social Reform and Social Settle-
ments.
(September 7) : Claude Harrison replies to Hilaire Bel-
loc's anti- Jewish articles in the Eye-Witness. Mr. Harrison
denies that the Jews form a distinct Semitic race in Europe. He
attempts to prove from head-measurements, complexion, etc., that
Jews intermarry with Europeans and conform to the racial type
around them. Miss Bregy's Poet's Chantry, a collection of
papers that originally appeared in THE CATHOLIC WORLD, is re-
viewed at length. Text of Fr. McNabb's Norwich Congress
paper on the Mental Deficiency Bill. He claims the Bill is based on
1912.] FOREIGN PERIODICALS 125
false data, faulty in logic, unscientific, and a menace to liberty.
The Roman Correspondent writes that plura scripta of Fr.
Lagrange, O.P., have been declared by the Consistorial College to
be unfit for reading or consultation in Catholic seminaries.
Le Correspondant (August 25) : A biographical and character
study of Raymond Poincare, through every stage of his life to his
present position as President of the Council of the French Govern-
ment, is presented in this number. Count De Ballore contributes
a scientific study of the before and after effects of earthquakes.
An Heir to a Throne, by De Lauzac de Laborie, is a review and
synopsis of a life of the son of Napoleon III. and Empress Eugenie.
Revue du Clerge Frangais (August) : L. Cl. Fillion presents
a study of the person and the redemptive work of Christ. Herein
he shows the perfect harmony which exists between the teachings
of our Savior and St. Paul. Paul has systematized and developed
His Master's precepts. Even more than a theologian, Paul is a
witness, a confessor, an apostle of Jesas. L. Venard reviews the
commentaries of Montefiore and Goguel on St. Mark ; Buzy on the
parables of Our Lord; Lilievre on His teachings. Abbe Pasquier
had thought to arrange the Synoptic Gospels as follows: the
Hebrew version of St. Matthew, A. D. 41, identical with the Logia
of Papias; St. Luke between 50 and 54; St. Mark, a combination
of the two former, after 55. L. Venard shows the weak points
of this theory, which is untenable since the decisions of the Biblical
Commission.
IRecent Events,
The visit of M. Poincare, the Premier, to
France. Russia, and the conclusion of a Naval Con-
vention with that Empire, are the chief
events which call for mention. By the fact that M. Poincare went
by water, and in this way avoided passing through German territory,
the feelings of many in Germany were deeply wounded. Its gov-
ernment, however, would not permit itself to be deprived of an
opportunity of showing honor to the representative of France. The
German Fleet waylaid the vessel in which the Premier was em-
barked, and gave to him the salute which is as a rule only given
to Royal persons. In Russia M. Poincare was received with special
marks of honor not only by the Court, but also by the people.
Frequent and long-protracted conferences were held with the chief
ministers of state. The result has been to remove any anxiety that
may have been felt by the recent meeting of the Tsar and the
Kaiser. The terms of the Naval Convention were settled; but
what precisely they were will not be disclosed before the meeting of
the Assembly. The conversations which were held, according to
the official statement communicated to the Press, enabled the govern-
ments of France and Russia not only to exchange views, but to
arrange concerted action in a practical manner. Complete agree-
ment, it is affirmed, exists between them: the ties uniting the
two nations have never been stronger. The usual assurance is
given that all that has been said and done is to furnish a guarantee
for the maintenance of peace and of the equilibrium of Europe.
In France the utmost gratification is felt, both on account of the
visit and its attendant circumstances, and of its results.
Hopes had been entertained that the negotiations with Spain
for the settlement of the relations of the two countries in Morocco
would by this time have been brought to a conclusion. These
hopes have not been realized, but there is reason to think that
a settlement has been made of the chief points under discussion.
The boundary of the region over which Spain is to have the control
has been fixed. In this matter France has acted in a more liberal
way that was at first expected. For the elimination, by means
I 9 i2.] RECENT EVENTS 127
of the grant of territory in the French Congo, of the German
claims upon Morocco, there were those in France who were ready
to demand an amount of compensation which Spain was unwilling
to give. The difficult question as to the division of the Customs
has still, however, to be settled, as well as the internationalization
of the city of Tangier. In regard to the former of these questions,
it is rumored that there has been another intervention on the part
of Germany. But the good feeling that now characterizes the
relations of the two countries prevents apprehension being felt
that any serious complication will arise.
Mulai Hafid has carried out his purpose of abdicating the
throne, and has followed his brother into private life. A third
brother, Mulai Yusef, has been proclaimed Sultan under the aus-
pices of the French. He has not, however, been accepted by the
whole of the tribes that dwell in Morocco. There are, in fact,
two Pretenders in the field anxious to rule their fellow-countrymen.
It is wonderful how many are found to be willing to accept so
ungrateful a task. The Pretender, in the South, El Hiba, has se-
cured a large following, and claims to be a prophet. He has met
with considerable success. The French are finding that the pacifi-
cation of their recent acquisition is a work not of easy accomplish-
ment. The whole country is in a ferment from Fez to Marakesh.
The conduct of the teachers of the secular schools to whom the
Republic has entrusted the upbringing of the rising generation,
must have deeply hurt the feelings of those by whom they were
appointed; it may, perhaps, even have enlightened their minds.
At the Congress of the National Federation of Teachers' Unions,
recently held at Chambery, the teachers unanimously threw in
their lot with the semi-revolutionary Confederation Generale du
Travail, and passed a resolution of lively sympathy with its efforts
for liberty and education. With passionate attention the teachers
watched, they declared, the daily struggle waged by the working
class for the improvement of its lot and the defence of its dignity.
" Sharing its anguish and its hopes, they are proud to fight in its
ranks, and once more declare their solidarity with all the wage-
earners united under the G. C. T." To the Syndicalist movement
they gave their support, and to all victims interned in capitalist
gaols they sent fraternal greetings. They went so far as to give
the adhesion of the Federation to the anti-militarist organization
known as the " Sou du Soldat," which seeks to spread disaffection
128 RECENT EVENTS [Oct.,
within the ranks of the army. So horrified was the government
with these proceedings and resolutions that it issued a decree
ordering the Teachers' Unions to be dissolved. In doing this it
is not exceeding its power, for the Unions have no legal existence.
It is thought that public opinion will support the government in the
action which it has taken, and that the support of the less militant
among the teachers will not be wanting.
Secret societies consisting of officers in the army is another
evil with which the government has been dealing. The Minister
of War has issued a circular informing officers of the Reserve
who belong to certain so-called Military Leagues, that they must
decide between giving up the league and ceasing to be officers.
These leagues, one of which is Masonic, and the other hostile to
Freemasonry, have acquired an aggressive and political character
which is considered to be altogether incompatible with discipline.
The increase of crime which has of late been so strikingly
characteristic of France has led the Minister of Justice to direct
the magistrates to inflict severe sentences on rioters, drunkards,
and all old offenders arrested with arms in their possession. Ex-
tenuating circumstances are not to be admitted so easily as here-
tofore, for by so doing the essential security of the community has
been menaced. Great stringency is to be exercised in enforcing the
laws already in existence as to carrying weapons until the stricter
laws under discussion have been passed.
The serious decline in the birth-rate has led the Minister of
Finance to appoint a Commission for the purpose of investigating
the causes of what amounts to a national calamity, and to suggest
remedies. M. Jacques Bertillon, brother of the inventor of the
finger-print system, and himself a distinguished statistician, points
out that whereas a century ago twenty-seven per cent of the popu-
lation of the Great European Powers were French, to-day the
proportion is only eleven per cent. Formerly French was the most
widely-spoken language; to-day it is the mother language of only
forty-five millions, as compared with one hundred millions who
speak German, and one hundred and thirty millions who speak
English. Prussia, Saxony, Norway, Sweden, and parts of Swit-
zerland, M. Bertillon says, have passed laws for reducing the
taxation upon fathers of three or more children in proportion to
their number. For France he advocates the adoption of a similar
plan.
1912.] RECENT EVENTS 129
For Germany festivities have been the chief
Germany. feature of which mention need be made.
The Krupp Centenary gave an opportunity
to the Emperor to make a speech in praise of a firm which has done
so much to make the Empire what it is. " Krupp guns," he said,
" have been with the Prussian lines, and have thundered on the
battlefields which have made ready the way to Germany's unity,
and won it at last. Krupp guns are still to-day carried in the
German Army and the German Navy. Krupp docks build ships
which fly the German flag. Krupp steel guards ships and forts.
Krupp war material is used by numerous foreign armies." Wider
sympathies for the Krupps will be felt for another characteristic
of the firm of which the Emperor spoke, that is, the ideal relation-
ship which he said existed between the firm and its workmen.
If the donation given by the firm in celebration of the Centenary
is typical of its every-day conduct, the Emperor was justified in de-
claring the relationship ideal. No less a sum than three millions and
a half was presented by it to be applied in part as jubilee presents
to the officials and workmen, and part to benevolent institutions
in the town of Essen, and to soldiers' and sailors' institutions.
The firm began in 1812. Fourteen years afterwards its founder
died, leaving the carrying on of the work to Alfred Krupp, to whom
its subsequent success was due. He was then a boy of fourteen
years of age, with a little workshop, and five or six workmen, the
secret process invented by his father, a load of debt, and his mother
and three younger children to keep. When he died in 1887 he was
employing twenty thousand workmen. At the present time the
firm is employing seventy thousand men, and is the owner not
merely of steel works at Essen, but also of coal and iron mines, blast
furnaces, and shipbuilding and engineering works in various places.
Upon the present head of the firm the Emperor has conferred the
somewhat singular honor of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister
Plenipotentiary, and upon his wife the Order of Louise.
His Imperial Majesty's indisposition prevented his making
the visit which was contemplated to the King of Saxony. So
quickly, however, did he recover that he was able to go to Swit-
zerland in order to be present at the military manoeuvres. His
visit is not considered to have any greater political significance
than the desire to show to the Republic the friendly feelings en-
tertained by him. The only event of any political importance that
can be mentioned is the visit of the German Chancellor to the
VOL. XCVI. 9.
130 RECENT EVENTS [Oct.,
Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister, but of what then took place
we have so far no account.
Count Berchtold, the new Foreign Minister
Austria-Hungary. of the Dual Monarchy, has signalized his
accession to the administration of his office
by a reversal, in an important point, of the policy of his predecessor,
Count Aehrenthal. It may be remembered that, when the latter
commenced his career, the first step he took was to dissociate him-
self from the Power in cooperation with which Austria-Hungary
had been working for a long time. Russia and Austria had had
a common plan for the protection of their respective interests in
the Balkans. They both expected that the Turkish dominion over
the races inhabitating that district was not far from coming to
an end. Little did they care for the interests of those races. Its
own aggrandizement was what each Power had in view. How
precisely each was to benefit had been settled between them. With-
out warning, however, Count Aehrenthal entered into a private
agreement with Turkey, by which he obtained for Austria a dis-
tinct and special privilege. From that day to this Russia and
Austria-Hungary have been more or less at variance, at one time
to such a degree as to be on the verge of war.
Of late, however, something like a reconciliation has been
brought about. Count Berchtold's recent action may result in
the removal of all difficulties, and may put an end to that distrust of
Austrian policy which has lately been felt by the Powers in general.
In view of the accession to office of the recently- formed Cabinet
of Ghazi Muhktar, and of its more conciliatory attitude to the
subject races, Count Berchtold suggested to the various Powers
that each of them should, not collectively, but severally, and in the
way which each should judge best, make to the Porte representa-
tions of good will, and of their desire to support the new policy.
At the same time, the various States in the Balkans, Bulgaria,
Servia, Montenegro, as well as Greece, were to be exhorted to
have patience, and to give to the Turkish government a time for
repentance, for the carrying out of the newly-promised reforms.
While fault was found with the proposal as too vague and ill-
defined, satisfaction was expressed at the return of Austria to
agreement with the other Powers, and to its re-entry into a common
line of action. This may indeed be the most important result,
for like other countries, however weak and impotent they may be,
1912.] RECENT EVENTS 131
Turkey has resented the action of Austria's Foreign Minister
as an uncalled-for interference with the internal affairs of the
Ottoman Empire. In fact, Count Berchtold has put a weapon
in the hands of the Young Turks, who are the opponents of the
existing government. The advent to power of the Young Turks
in 1908 saved Turkey, so they maintain, from the carrying out by
Europe of a programme which had in view the breaking up of the
Empire. During the four years of the Committee regime, no
Power ventured to suggest intervention in any shape or form.
Now that the reins of government have fallen into the hands of
the opponents of the Committee, this menace from Austria has
arisen, and the loss of Macedonia may ensue.
The chief criticism which was made of the proposal of Count
Berchtold by the Powers, to whom it was addressed, was its ex-
tremely indefinite character. Hence a more concrete and better
defined plan was asked for. Such a plan was promised, but at
this writing these further proposals have not reached us. Little
hope, however, is felt of any great success being attained. The
problem is so complicated, the interests so many and so divergent,
that it seems to be beyond the power of man to find a solution
other than that of the expulsion from Europe of the brutal invader
who has so long a time held in subjection Christian races. Even
if this were brought about, the conflicting ambitions of the three
kingdoms who aim at becoming Empires Greece, Bulgaria, and
Servia do not promise a peaceful division of the spoils, even if
Austria and Russia were to renounce every desire of their own
aggrandizement. Hence the prospects for the future, although
it may be interesting for outside observers, promise little of peace
for the inhabitants of this long-suffering portion of the globe.
In internal affairs, not only Austria but Hungary are passing
their existence in the enjoyment of peace and quiet. Even the
arbitrary action of Count Tisza in his dealings with parliamentary
obstructors has so far produced no reaction, and has not yet
received the just punishment which such conduct deserved. The
reason doubtless is that the parliament is having a recess. In
Croatia the suspension of the Constitution is still maintained, and
the Hungarian government is proving itself to be as despotic in
its treatment of the Slavs as ever the Austrian was in its treatment
of the Magyars. The would-be assassin of M. de Cuvaj, the Royal
Commissioner for Croatia, has been condemned to death, although
the reasons are strong for the belief that he is insane. The result
132 RECENT EVENTS [Oct.,
has made Croatians indignant, and has made Austrians ashamed of
this exhibition of what is called justice. The government fears
that there is a widespread conspiracy of Serbs and other Slavs
to secure, if not independence, at least autonomy, and is determined
by any and every means to suppress every such attempt. To prove
the need of the dictatorship recently established, crimes and con-
spiracies are needed, and these the judiciary are ready to supply.
The Emperor, King Francis Joseph, has been celebrating his
eighty-second birthday, and is said to be in perfect health, and as
well able as ever to attend to his duties. On the fourth of last
July his reign equalled that of Queen Victoria, and now, of course,
it has exceeded that record. Francis Joseph has now reigned longer
than any monarch ever reigned in Europe. Two rulers, indeed,
the Elector Charles Theodore of the Palatinate, and Louis XIV.
of France, were on the throne for a longer period, the. former
for sixty-six years, and the latter for seventy-two years. They
were both, however, minors when they succeeded. The Emperor
Francis Joseph has both reigned and governed from the day of his
accession on December 2, 1848.
The increase of armaments has had its natural sequence in
a deficit of some twenty-five millions, and there is a prospect of
still further expenditure. During the last decade the public debt
has increased by nearly four hundred millions. It is, therefore, not
to be wondered at that misgivings are felt at the expense involved
in the recent programme for the expansion of the Navy, and that
hopes have been expressed that such an expansion might be ren-
dered unnecessary by an agreement with Great Britain, that in the
event of a war with Germany the Austro-Hungarian coast should
not be attacked by a British Fleet. Doubt must be felt as to the
realization of this proposal. It has been widely believed that the
Navy of Austria was destined to cooperate with that of Germany in
the event of such hostilities, nor is that belief yet proved to be
without foundation, although it is possible that the Treaty of
Germany with Austria does not commit the latter country to the
naval support of the former. As great uncertainty exists at pres-
ent as to the real relations between Austria and Italy, and between
the latter country and Great Britain and France ; it is not clear who,
in the event of war, would be allies and who would be enemies.
Outside of the alliance between Germany and Austria-Hungary and
of its counterpoise the alliance between France and Russia with
Great Britain as a mutual friend, room is left for a variety of
I 9 i2.] RECENT EVENTS 133
conjectures. The Naval Convention recently made between France
and Russia, the precise terms of which have not yet been disclosed,
has raised suspicions in the minds of some in Austria that
Russia wishes, with the support of France, to secure for her Fleet
an open passage through the Dardanelles, and afterwards a Naval
base in the yEgean. France and Russia might then cooperate with
Italy and secure the control of the Mediterranean to the disad-
vantage of Austria. With anxious thoughts of this kind the
old world is never allowed to be at rest.
The new world has been giving to the old a fresh mani-
festation of its influence, not, indeed, this time in the sphere of high
politics, but by enabling Austrians to get better acquainted with their
own country. The most delightful districts of the Austrian Alps
have recently been opened by the construction of several new lines of
railroad; but, so bad has been the management, travelers have not
had the opportunity of enjoying the mountain and valley scenery.
It has been left to the agents of the Canadian Pacific Railway
to suggest a plan to put an end to this. Arrangements have been
made for the construction and running of observation cars by the
Canadian Pacific similar to those which have so long been used on
their own road. The first of these trains made the opening trip
in the middle of August. Before the train started a short religious
ceremony was held on the platform of the Western Station at
Vienna, when Father Burke of Toronto blessed the new cars. The
inhabitants at every stopping place turned out in large numbers,
and offered to the representatives of the railroad, who were travel-
ing on the train, bouquets of flowers and baskets of fruit.
A few weeks ago Macedonia and Albania
Turkey. were described as having sunk into a chronic
state of anarchy. But even then there had
been an improvement. The outrages indeed continued to be nu-
merous, but were isolated and partial : whereas in previous weeks
something like a general revolt of the Albanians had taken place.
The leaders of both the Northern and Southern Albanians, at the
head of large forces, demanded the redress of their grievances ; that
an Inspector-General should be appointed for the Albanian prov-
inces; that recruits for the army should in the time of peace
perform their military service in their own districts; that the
taxes levied in Albania for educational purposes should be spent
locally; that a general amnesty for political offenders should be
134 RECENT EVENTS [Oct.,
granted; that the Albanian language should be the medium of
instruction in all government schools, and that the houses destroyed
in the recent fighting should be rebuilt at the expense of the govern-
ment. Further demands included the increase of schools, the con-
struction of roads, an improvement in the administration of justice,
the restitution of arms, and the impeachment before the High Court
of the Cabinets of Hakki Pasha and Said Pasha. All of these
demands, with the exception of the last two, were conceded by the
government, and even the restitution of arms was not completely
rejected. After some hesitation, the government favors were ac-
cepted, and the Albanians returned to their homes. But this did
not bring a restoration of peace. On the borders of Montenegro
there has been carried on, without any formal declaration, a savage
warfare. On the other side of the Balkans a more formidable
enemy is, with difficulty, being kept back from an attack upon
Turkey. A massacre which took place at Katchina has greatly
excited the Bulgarians. In this case Turkish soldiers, in conse-
quence of the explosion of bombs in the market-place, made a
fierce attack upon an unarmed, unoffending crowd. They then
proceeded, on a house-to-house visitation, to arrest every Bulgarian
in the place.
It is hard to believe the degree of demoralization to which
have sunk districts situated within a few miles of the
chief centres of civilization. Utterly inexcusable as are the pro-
ceedings of the Turks, those of certain Bulgarians seem to be even
worse. A revolutionary organization has been formed with the
deliberate purpose of provoking these outrages, in order to inflame
the minds of their fellow-countrymen, and if possible of Europe,
and thereby to secure the liberation from the Turkish yoke of the
Bulgars living in Macedonia. Nothing is, of course, more desirable
than the end which they have in view : nothing more deserving of
reprobation than the means they have chosen. A measure of success
has, however, followed their efforts. Throughout Bulgaria meetings
have been held, calling upon the government to declare war upon
Turkey. The whole country was in a state of excitement, and
King Ferdinand, who had just been celebrating the twenty-fifth
anniversary of his accession, had all he could do to restrain the
people. A defensive alliance has been entered into between Bul-
garia and Servia; the two States, however, declare that they do
not entertain any hostile designs towards the Ottoman Empire ; and
that they have no intention to profit by the existing disturbances.
I 9 i2.] RECENT EVENTS 135
It cannot be doubted that all of these small Balkan States are being
held in check by the counsels and influence of the greater Powers.
The existing Cabinet represents the victory which after long
efforts has been achieved over the Committee of Union and Pro-
gress. This Committee violated every promise of equality and
fair treatment which had been made to the Christian races when
the revolution of 1908 took place. The recent change is so great
that it has been called a new revolution. It has been brought
about, however, by similar means the revolt of army officers
dissatisfied with existing conditions. These officers formed what
is called the Military League to oppose the Committee, secured
followers among the troops, took to the mountains, and became
strong enough to enforce their demands. They have now been
amnestied for any military offense of which they were guilty, and
have re-entered the ranks. Such proceedings, of course, are very
irregular from the point of view of the soldier, and a new military
oath has been imposed upon cadets entering the army, by which
they are required to swear that they will not join or follow any
political party or association, and to abstain from all interference
with the internal or foreign policy of the Ottoman government.
The new government's first act was to put an end to the
martial law under which the capital had been placed ever since
1908. They were, however, obliged by the unsettled state of things
to re-impose it for six weeks. In order to put a check upon recal-
citrant members of the Committee of Union and Progress, Salonika
had to be placed under martial law. Some members of the Com-
mittee were so dissatisfied with their loss of power that they threat-
ened open rebellion, but they failed to meet with support, and
have been driven into a sullen acquiescence. The second Parlia-
ment, which had been elected not more than two or three months
before, was dissolved, it having been packed with supporters of the
Committee. New elections are impending; the government has
pledged itself to secure their perfect freedom. It will maintain
a strictly neutral and conciliatory attitude towards the two parties.
They are exhorted to cease regarding each other as deadly enemies,
and to treat each other with the respect due to honest adversaries,
and to devote all their energies to the service of the Empire. " The
Revolution," so the Cabinet declares, " has ceased." Several
resignations and rumored discussions have, however, cast a doubt
upon the ability of the Cabinet to maintain itself in power.
Its fall would be a matter of regret, for it seems to hold out the
136 RECENT EVENTS [Oct.,
only promise that Turkey will not revert to the loathsome state from
which it has been making an effort to rise.
The political troubles of Turkey have so much engrossed
the attention of the public as to divert its attention from an earth-
quake on the southern shores of the Sea of Marmora, in the region
of the Dardanelles, which is said to have been as bad as that
which took place at Messina three years ago. Forty thousand
people were made homeless, and there was a vast destruction of
life and property. The number of the killed and injured amounted
to six thousand.
Little need be said about the progress of the war in Tripoli.
The Italians remain in possession of the coast, but have not begun
that advance into the interior which will be necessary for success.
In fact, there is good reason to think that they are getting tired
of the war, and apprehensions are beginning to be felt that what
will have to be paid for it will not be compensated by any possible
advantage. The informal negotiations which have been going on
in Switzerland are said to have been initiated by the Italians. They
have so far produced no result. Within the past few days, however,
rumors are being circulated of a successful issue. It is thought that
the meeting which has just been held between the German Chancellor
and the Austrian Foreign Minister may lead to some step being
taken to bring that end to the war which both parties so much desire.
A dozen or so of the ^Egean Islands remain in the possession of
the Italians, but no recent attempts have been made in this region.
An officer in the service of Italy has made the public declaration
that none of the islands could ever again be subject to Turkey, but
it is not known that he was authorized by his government. Other
Powers will have something to say in this matter.
With Our Readers.
CANCTA simplicitas, has been long the favorite expression of
O saints. The man without guile was pleasing to Our Lord, and
holy simplicity remains still a rare and beautiful virtue. When one
possessing it can, in his writings, give his soul to others, he confers
upon them a blessing beyond words. With such a one it is always
direct and simple speech about the things that are worth while, and
that all of us can understand. Though he have literary taste and rare
ability ; though he be widely read ; though he be a poet of rare power
it is not for these things we are attached to him it is because he
has revealed to us the thoughts of his own simple heart to which our
own heart responds. He has lightened our burden, he has refreshed
our spirits, he has elevated our tastes but above all he has revealed
himself as a humble, saintly soul and for this we love him. Such
a one was Father Matthew Russell, S.J., who, after long years of
labor, died in Dublin on September I3th.
His personality had gained for the Irish Monthly a unique and
enviable place in Catholic literature. A new book from his pen was
like a long letter written by his own hand, revealing to us the sanctuary
of his soul. The childlike simplicity of his appeal was irresistible.
His books became companions ; their charm was contagious, and many
are the souls who through them were led to converse familiarly with
Our Lord. Father Russell is a light that has gone out of the literary
firmament. The stilling of his voice means less of the song of heaven
upon earth. The prayers and blessings of the many who have loved
, him and his books will follow him, and his works hold blessings
for many yet unborn. May his soul rest in peace !
T TNDOUBTEDLY, the question of when, how, and by whom child-
vJ dren shall be instructed in sexual matters is an important and
complicated one. In our days there is not a choice between ignorance
and knowledge, but as to how the child is to be enlightened. If those
having the immediate care of the child, particularly parents or the
guardians who take their place, remain silent, in nine cases out of
ten there will be others who will speak.
The agents of evil are everywhere and ever active, and a policy
of silence often simply plays into their hands. Whatever else might
be said, the omnipresent newspaper, the cheap story-paper and maga-
zine, the easily-accessible book, have scattered and are scattering the
138 WITH OUR READERS [Oct.,
things of sex all over the world. We can no more get away from it
than we can get away from the atmosphere in which we live.
Such being the case, it is essential that the proper person should
wisely guide the innocence of childhood, teach the child himself
how to preserve that innocence, warn him of pitfalls into which he too
often unknowingly falls. In our judgment, the proper person to
teach the child in these matters is the parent.
It is the parent who knows the child best, who is closest to
it, who has its trust. To the parent the child looks to know the
things it ought to know in order to safeguard it from evil. Other
agencies we do not refer now to the confessional may give some
help, but they are, as a rule, too irresponsible, too non-religious, too
prone to rely simply on natural powers to give effective help. In-
struction does not necessarily promote virtue. The love of parent
for child will in itself tend to convey both instruction and holiness.
Because the burden falls principally upon the parent, there is need
that our fathers and mothers should be prepared to instruct their
children at an early age in those matters of sex of which the children
should not be ignorant. It is not necessary that parents should be
skilled in physiology, nor do we mean by instruction in these matters
anything like a detailed course in physiology. As some would rob
this world of the supernatural, so would others strip it of that mystery
and that privacy which make up romance. And the world without
romance would be as unattractive as a museum of natural history.
We wish, indeed, that our children, while their souls are still
strong with the grace of Baptism, of Holy Communion, and Confirma-
tion, might know the things they ought to know from the lips of a
worthy parent, and before they have been led by sinful companions into
dangerous ways. We risk too much when we risk their entrance,
in ignorance, upon a warfare in which we must all engage. Nor can
we shirk before God the responsibility that rests upon us as the guard-
ians .of their souls and bodies. Each one of us, whether parent, priest or
nun, will be held accountable for the little children intrusted to our
care, and a policy of silence will not answer.
The parents, then, and those who stand in their place, must be
prepared to undertake the duty of such instruction. But how are
they themselves to learn how to perform a task that all admit to be
peculiarly delicate? What we would like to see is a small volume,
cheap in price, which would include not only the necessary physio-
logical and hygienic information, but would show, together with this,
the dignity of the human body in all its members from the first act
of creation by God to that abiding fruit of the Redemption the trans-
cendant glory of the body as the temple here of the Holy Ghost a
book that would instruct parents how and what to teach their children.
1912.] WITH OUR READERS 139
No one book, as far as we know, does this. But a volume that
in some measure answers such a demand has just come to us. It is the
work of two Jesuit professors at Innsbruck.* Their treatment is sane
and courteous, yet frank enough to meet the desire of any save the most
radical. The authors pass lightly over the physiological side, and
dwell especially upon the religious safeguards to be thrown around the
child. They point out the usefulness of lives of the saints, of ideals
of chastity and virginity, and especially the powerful influence of the
Blessed Virgin. We regret, however, that in its present translation,
a long, rambling, ill-digested appendix of notes and quotations has
been added. A simple translation of the original would have been
much more satisfactory.
Another book recently sent us is by Dr. Philip Zenner,f and
consists of three talks to school children and to college boys, with
added chapters on the mode of teaching and the teacher. Dr. Zenner's
exposition is simple, clean, and healthy. The spirit of the book is good.
He recognizes the benefits and also the dangers of instruction. On
the physical side he covers the ground well ; yet is becomingly reticent.
His intention was to expose only the physiology and hygiene, but he is
inevitably led into the moral, and here, of course, a Catholic may well
take exception not to anything actually present in the book but to
vital matters that are absent. Though with regard to one thing that is
present, we feel that it is emptying religion of all positive value to put
it on a basis with " beauty, truth, friendship, honor, heroism."
In all discussion of this matter we must never forget that if ig-
norance is not virtue, neither is knowledge in itself salvation. We
must avoid the dangerous error of many modern writers that mere
exposition of the evil and man's unaided natural power are sufficient
to keep him pure and undefiled. History, past and present, universal
and personal, tells emphatically a different story. Man has cried
from the beginning for a Redeemer to help him and to save him in that
warfare of which each one is fully conscious wherein the flesh
lusteth against the spirit. Only in the light of those great truths
which man could never know and which Christ has revealed to us;
only by the power of those Sacraments whereby a greater strength than
we possess is given to us, can man attain the victory. In the dignity
of the sacrament of matrimony, made indissoluble by heaven; in the
worth and saintly examples of virginity and chastity, can man find the
answer which lifts him out of shame and despair; which enables us
to honor and love one another, and which proves to him the immeas-
urable worth of the body when glorified by the dominion of the spirit.
^Educating to Purity. By Dr. Michael Gatterer, S.J., and Dr. Francis Krus, S.J.
New York: Fr. Pustet & Co. Price, $1.25.
^Education in Sexual Physiology and Hygiene. By Philip Zenner. Cincinnati :
Robert Clarke Co. Price, $1.00.
140 WITH OUR READERS [Oct.,
To understand fully the height and depth of these truths, we must
know the laws of physical life. Unless we know them, we can never
comprehend the sublime purposes of God. Fortified by faith in them,
and armed with the knowledge of the make-up and the care of our
bodies, our sons and daughters will be strong indeed in their fight
against the world, the flesh, and the devil.
KEGAN PAUL AND HIS ESSAYS.*
(WRITTEN BY LIONEL JOHNSON, MAY 2, 1891.)
ASERVITE father lately gave from his pulpit the following ex-
hortation : " My children, if the devil ever tempts you to think
yourselves very superior persons, and to give good advice to poor
sinners, who would be much better without it, say an Ave Mary, that
you may have the grace to keep quiet."
This excellent warning might well be applied to men of letters,
in their critical capacity. The present age swarms with superior per-
sons, enamored of their own virtues, and ever set upon preaching
the way of salvation in literature to poor simple folk, who are merely
worried by fine theories and subtle expositions. And sometimes,
wearied and confounded by the hubbub of voices, all confident and
clamorous, the simple reader longs to forswear the reading of all
books but the great classics of the world. Yet we cannot always live
at that great height ; the immortals cannot be our constant companions,
because we are unequal to them. Who would read Milton at odd mo-
ments? Milton, before reading whom, said Lamb, there should be
" a solemn service of music." And so, to take Congreve's phrase, we
" refine upon our pleasures :" and, instead of reading the great classics,
we sometimes like to read wise and pleasant things about them.
It is because criticism in this age has become arrogant and
tedious that we welcome the more heartily such a book as this collec-
tion of essays by Mr. Kegan Paul. It is sane, and it is simple; and
how ill-used many an essayist would consider himself upon receiving
that praise ! For, whereas sanity and simplicity were once counted for
good gifts, in these days an obscure and unwholesome manner is pre-
ferred: to be sensible is to be inartistic, and to cultivate sobriety is
to hinder beauty. Could but an Horace or a Pope, a Quintilian or a
Dr. Johnson, come among us, and visit our affectations with the scourge
of his wit ! Failing that, the best thing is to cherish those books which
quietly and pleasantly put before us the forgotten virtues of sound
reason and of common sense. Mr. Kegan Paul has here gathered
*Faith and Unfaith, and other Essays. By C. Kegan Paul. London : Kegan
Paul & Co.
I9i2.] WITH OUR READERS 141
together seven essays from among his contributions to various maga-
zines. Four of them, Faith and Unfaith, Thomas a Kempis, Pascal's
Pensees, and The Story of Jean Calas, deal with matters of religious
sentiment; the rest, upon What We Know of Shakespeare, The Produc-
tion and Life of Books, and On English Prose Style, deal with literary
things. These are somewhat varied topics ; but the careful reader will
assent to the writer's claim when he says :
"To myself there appears a spiritual affinity in most of them, in that
they were the outcome of doubts and difficulties now at rest. It has seemed
right, however few the matter may concern, that since the record of inward
strife was given to the world, the same essays should be published with trifling
necessary changes, showing that the strife is over, and with the intimation that
if I have been in error in what I have said concerning any of the Church's
doctrines, I submit in this, as in all things, to Her teaching."
The book has, therefore, this especial interest : that it is the work
of one who has handled the great records of spiritual life and history
in the spirit of inquiring liberalism; and who has found an answer
in the august doctrines of Catholic Christianity.
Plurima quaesim: per singula quaeque cucurri:
Nee quidquam inveni melius quam credere Christ o.
Now the signal merit of the first essay, Faith and Unfaith, lies
in its clear (p. 412), broad statement of the facts ; it has no patience with
elaborate compromise, and nice calculation, and precarious balance.
There are certain things in which the mean must be wrong, and one of
two extremes must be right. In the question of Faith and Unfaith, the
mean is tentative Christianity in all its forms; the extremes are the
Catholic and Roman Church, and Positive Science. Probability is,
indeed, as Butler and as Newman insist, the guide of life; but prob-
ability has its degrees, and a probability which is merely the expression
of cowardice, prejudice, or fear, is worth little. The countless sects
and heresies of Christendom have just this sort of probability on their
side ; religious truth, they say, is uncertain, and Rome must be wrong,
because to think so is a first principle of common sense; let us scrape
together what beliefs we can, and trust in Providence. So, in the
hope that what they hold will prove enough for safety, the severed
churches and congregations abide in their narrow borders. Mr. Kegan
Paul appeals primarily to such believers, showing that from the first
premises of faith follow in logical order and in grand procession the
whole array of Catholic doctrines. " The first step, I am master not
to take;" but, that step taken, the whole journey is undertaken. You
may halt here and there, and imagine that you have found a home in
some half-way house ; none the less, between the complete suspension
142 WITH OUR READERS [Oct.,
of judgment and the complete venture of faith, there is no tenable
position. This is worked out by Mr. Kegan Paul in detail ; and, while
there is no question of his strong assurance that truth lies only upon
the Catholic side, he shows a generous appreciation of whatever is
estimable in the doubts and difficulties of other men. Those who know
his earlier volume of Biographical Sketches must have admired the
cordial sympathy which, with no sacrifice of logic, could discern and
respect the various excellencies of Catholics, Anglicans, Protestants,
Latitudinarians, and Agnostics. In the two essays upon Thomas a
Kempis and upon Pascal, there is presented to us a fine contrast be-
tween two spiritual characters : the profound peace of cloistral medi-
tation, and the profound faith of a soul long troubled by philosophy
and by the world. Quietist and enthusiast ! both Thomas and Pascal
have something of either spirit ; but the one gives us a calm consolation,
and the other a consuming ecstasy; and those in modern days, whose
minds are restless and ill at ease, can find much to help them in these
two teachers de contemptu Mundi. In contrast with such unhappy
and querulous thinkers as Amiel and his fellow-mystics of science,
Thomas and Pascal are healthy and practical, for all their withdrawal
from the noisy world ; for, as St. Bernard said, " Si de fatuis virginibus
es, congregatio tibi necessaria est: si de prudentibus, tu congregationi"
Wherever the Imitatio and the Pensees are read, Thomas a Kempis
and Pascal have their congregations.
The essay upon The Story of Jean Colas naturally induces the
reader to compare it with Pattison's essay, written, we imagine, at the
same time, and certainly suggested by the same book: Coquerel's
tude Historique. Mr. Kegan Paul's essay is not that which suffers
in the comparison; it shows admirably the artistic superiority of
moderation to rhetoric. Pattison, for all his learned taste and his
severe ideal, never wrote anything perfectly sober in tone; his pre-
judices, and a strange intellectual irritability, got the better of him.
The concluding paragraphs of either essay will illustrate the difference
of manner. Pattison writes :
" M. Coquerel ought to know his countrymen better than to think that
even demonstrative evidence will procure from Catholic opinion justice for a
Protestant. Reasonable and well-informed men of course will see the truth.
But the mass of Catholics are carefully protected from reason and information.
We have little doubt that as long as the Catholic religion shall last, their little
manuals of falsified history will continue to repeat that Jean Calas murdered
his son because he had become a convert to the Catholic faith."
Mr. Kegan Paul, who no less strongly condemns the cruel bigotry
of the outrage, concludes thus:
"I have endeavored to make more audible, perhaps, to some, the cry,
I 9 i2.] WITH OUR READERS 143
which rises louder and louder from men of all parties and creeds, for toleration
and forbearance, greater belief in the virtues of our adversaries, and greater
trust in man."
There can be no doubt which of these passages has the greater
sweetness and light.
Of the other essays directly concerned with literature, that upon
English Prose is the most profitable for the present day. It insists
upon the necessity of good workmanship in an age tolerant of sloven-
liness. To take once more a writer so scholarly as Pattison, we find
him writing thus in his Memoirs: " Even at this day a country squire
or rector on landing with his cub under his wing in Oxford, finds him-
self much at sea, etc." And of late Mr. Symonds and Mr. Arthur
Galton have exposed many similar faults in his style. When so
laborious and judicious a writer can so fail, what can be expected of
the canaille ecrivante, of the scribbling herd ? Mr. Kegan Paul has no
mercy upon technical blunders; good writing must be correct, before
all else. He gives excellent advice and useful warning; he points
to approved patterns of good work ; he dwells upon the patience, care,
and simplicity indispensable to success. This account of Shakespeare
is itself a fine example of an enthusiasm which is ardent yet perfectly
restrained; no German heaviness, no fashionable English rhetoric.
Mr. Kegan Paul can read without self-reproach the last words of his
own book:
"A great responsibility is laid on those who write, and also on those who
read. If we leave the circulating library on one side, and study the acknowledged
great writers, in them devoutly read by day, on them meditate by night, so
shall the great treasure of speech committed to our charge suffer no diminishing
nor loss."
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THE
CATHOLIC WORLD.
VOL. XCVL
NOVEMBER, 1912.
No. 572.
FATHER SERRA AND THE INDIANS.
BY REDFERN MASON.
OLUMBtJS was mocked by pedants, and he enriched
mankind with a new world. The order of Friars
Minor was scoffed at, and the humility and holiness
of its members changed men's attitude to one of
worship. Every great undertaking has had a similar
history. While the edifice of the ideal is still incomplete, and its
form and proportions are still obscured by scaffolding, men smile
incredulously. Because the conception transcends their imagina-
tion, and the narrow circle of their experience furnishes them with
no parallel by which they may judge it, they jump to the conclu-
sion that the projector must be mentally unbalanced. Once, how-
ever, the ground is cleared, the network of ropes and poles removed,
and people can contemplate the fabric in all its glorious beauty,
they acclaim the achievement of the great man with an enthusiasm
in which exultation and shame are strangely mingled.
Every great project for the good of mankind has to be tried
in the fire of contempt and opposition. It was so in the beginning,
and so it will be to the end. Nor need we flatter ourselves that
men and women of the twentieth century are different from those
who went before. If, in our own day, some dreamer of dreams
were to propose to make good citizens of the Indians of the West,
most men would look upon him as a madman. Has not the attempt
been made before and ended in failure? Are not the Indians in-
vincibly hostile to civilization? Is it not their manifest destiny
Copyright. 1912.
VOL. XCVI. 10.
THE MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF ST. PAUL THE APOSTLE
IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
146 FATHER SERRA AND THE INDIANS [Nov.,
to perish from the face of the earth? Who then is this upstart to
think he may succeed where so many excellent men have tried
in vain? Thus men reason, forgetful of the fact that the work of
making Christian citizens of the Indians has already been accom-
plished in notable measure, though wrong-doing and tragic misfor-
tune brought the enterprise relatively but not absolutely to
nought. But we have still an unfulfilled duty towards these un-
taught children of the human family, and past failure is no justi-
fication of present supineness. For that reason and because, next
year, the world will celebrate the two hundredth anniversary of
his birth, it will pay us to consider the achievements of a poor friar
who, nearly a century and a half ago, made the attempt to do what
men now deem impossible, and, in the doing of it, showed so noble
a humanity that Father Junipero Serra is to-day the most exalted
figure in the history of California.
Everything about Brother Junipero is remarkable, even his
name, which he took from that companion of St. Francis whose
joyous spirits made the Seraphic Doctor wish he had " a forest of
such Junipers." When he came into the world the eighteenth cen-
tury had only reached its thirteenth year, and, in his native Majorca,
tales of Pizarro and Cortez, of Peru and the Indies, must still have
kept their glamor. Perhaps the impressionable youth was fired by
talk of St. Francis Xavier, and how he covered half the globe in
his missionary labors, to die, at last, a castaway for Christ, on the
shores of Japan. Some deep vision must have printed itself on
his youthful imagination; for we find him, at the age of sixteen, a
Franciscan novice, full of longing to go and preach the Gospel
of his Savior to die. savages of America. Ultima Thule must have
seemed no more remote to the ancient Romans than the New World
seemed to the Spaniards in those days. The ship which bore
Father Serra from Cadiz to Vera Cruz was ninety-nine days on the
way, and in a letter which he wrote from Monterey to Mexico
City, years later, when he had begun his work in California, he asks
the name of the Pope that he may pray for him in the Mass.
The padre was a man of one idea ; but that idea was the greatest
in the world to bring, souls to Christ. The thought was ever
present with him, and it made him shed bitter tears when, just as
he had raised his hand to baptize an Indian child, the parents,
carried away by superstitious fear, snatched the little one from him.
The same hunger for souls made him tramp the whole way from
Vera Cruz to Mexico City. He hoped that in so doing he might
igi2.] FATHER SERRA AND THE INDIANS 147
learn something of the country in which it would be his lot to labor.
On this journey he met with an accident to his foot. Timely treat-
ment would probably have removed all cause of trouble; but, pre-
occupied with many cares, Father Serra neglected the wound, and,
from a comparatively slight mischief, it grew into a chronic evil.
But the friar did not grumble. He seemed rather to welcome the
sore as a salutary reminder of mortality. He would not even allow
himself to be carried in a litter on the long journey to San Diego.
It seemed to him unfitting for one vowed to poverty to ride. But
the sore pained him, and, as there was no physician with the ex-
pedition, he called to one of the muleteers :
" Son, do you not know of some remedy for this sore on my
foot?"
" What remedy can I know," the man answered ; " I have only
cured beasts."
"Then consider me a beast," said the padre; "consider this
sore on my leg a sore back, and give me the same treatment you
would apply to a beast."
So the man made an unguent of herbs and hot tallow, and with
it allayed the inflammation. But, of course, more radical treatment
was needed in order to effect a cure.
The same strong simplicity characterized the friar in all his
dealings, and gave him an empire over the Indians which no diplo-
macy would have enabled him to acquire. There was something
childlike about him; he had that noble ingenuousness which we
sometimes find in the great poets and painters the ingenuousness
which speaks in the prayer which Villon wrote for his old mother,
the divine artlessness of Fra Angelico's angels. A portrait of Fra
Junipero, painted, in all likelihood, when he made his visit to the cap-
ital to beg aid for his starving missions, is preserved by the brethren
of the college of San Fernando. It is the face of a man absorbed
in a great ideal. The expression is of a noble candor. The eyes
glow with an inward illumination; the lips quiver with sympathy.
Looking at this portrait, it is easy to believe what we are told of the
original, that, when the time came for him to bid good-bye to the
Fathers, he kissed their feet and took leave as one who knew that
never in this world would he see them more.
Father Serra gained his insight into the Indian character
among the aborigines of the Sierra Gorda, and it is a melancholy
commentary on civilization that the greatest obstacle in his path
was the unbridled passions of the white men. While he was telling
148 FATHER SERRA AND THE INDIANS [Nov.,
the Indians to love one another, professed Christians of the domi-
nant race did not scruple to murder their enemies and to lust after
women. But he overcame even these difficulties at last, and the
confidence of the Indians, once won, he never lost. In appealing
to their spiritual nature, he followed the wisdom of the Church in
all ages to tell the story of Redemption through the medium of
art. To present the scheme of salvation before these primitive
people in the form of pure reasoning would only have bewildered
them. But a painted banner they could understand; and they fol-
lowed the action of a play with an earnestness of which we colder
Caucasians can with difficulty form an idea. When the Indian
women saw the picture of the Infant Jesus, they would stretch out
their arms to embrace Him. At Christmas the young people gave
a Nativity play. In Lent the whole community made the Stations
of the Cross outside the town, as if they were verily in Jerusalem,
Father Serra carrying a heavy cross. On Good Friday the image
of the Crucified was taken down from the cross and borne to the
sepulchre, and, in the evening, there was a procession in honor of
the Mother of Sorrows. Nor was the padre less wise in secular
matters. To encourage them in habits of thrift and industry, he
gave each Indian a piece of land and a yoke of oxen, and showed
him how to till it. These same methods, amplified and developed,
were the means by which he exercised such a marvelous civilizing
influence on the Indians of California.
When the word came for him to undertake the task which was
to be the crown of his life's work, Father Junipero was in his
fifty-seventh year. The Jesuits had been exiled, and part of their
work was entrusted to the Franciscans. But whereas the members
of the Society of Jesus had confined their labors in California to
the Old or Southern part, the Friars Minor were to go farther
afield. Spain had long cast eyes of desire on that upper region
which is now the Golden State. The Franciscans were chosen
to be the pioneers. Theirs was the task to bring the Indians into
such a state of civilization as would make the eventual transition
from the patriarchal rule of the priests to ordinary civil government
an easy and natural one. A few soldiers accompanied them for
protection; but they were so very few that, if the padres had not
won the affection of the Indians, they must inevitably have been
massacred. Even after several years work, when five missions had
been established, and the Indian converts numbered between four
and five hundred, there were only sixty soldiers in the whole of
igi2.] FATHER SERRA AND THE INDIANS 149
California, and when, a couple of years after Father Serra's death,
the French navigator, La Perouse, visited the country, he found
a handful of fewer than three hundred soldiers amply sufficient
defence for the five thousand converts and missions scattered over
four hundred miles of territory. This small proportion which the
military bore to the friars and their converts negatives the possible
suggestion that, because they did their work under government
sanction, the padres were mere tools of statecraft, and could be dis-
missed whenever there was no further need for their services. How
far that was from being the case may be gathered from the fact
that the very expenses of the establishment of the missions were
largely defrayed out of private treasure. The revenue upon which
the Spanish authorities drew for the carrying out of the religious
side of their project of territorial expansion was known as the
Pious Fund. This fund was started in 1698 by Don Juan Cabal-
lero, who gave $10,000 for the founding of a mission. Others
followed his example, and, in 1747, the missions received $67,000
as heirs to the estate of the Duchess of Gandia. Without this
fund, or some similar private endowment, the missions would in
all probability never have been founded.
Arriving at San Diego in 1769, Father Serra set about the
establishment of the first mission. Meanwhile a party had set out
overland to find the harbor of Monterey, described by the explorer
Vizcaino, who discovered it in 1603. With nothing but a compass
to guide them, they went astray, and, penetrating far to the north-
wards, were the first white men to set eyes, from the landward side,
on the Bay of San Francisco. Worn and dispirited, they made
their way back to tell the story of their failure to their comrades
at San Diego. Here too hardships had to be faced. Provisions
ran low, and Portala, the military commander, declared that, unless,
at an early date a ship came with supplies, the undertaking would
have to be abandoned. By earnest entreaty Father Serra succeeded
in persuading Portala to remain until March nineteenth, the feast
day of St. Joseph, under whose protection the expedition had been
placed. Night and day the friar spent his hours in prayer, and
at last, on the very day set for the return to Mexico, a sail hove
in sight. But for Serra's importunity, the missions of California
might never have been founded.
A second time the attempt was made to find Monterey. This
time it was rewarded with success, and on June third of the year
1770, Father Serra said Mass in the shadow of an old oak that
150 FATHER SERRA AND THE INDIANS [Nov.,
had seen Vizcaino's men bow their heads before the same Mysteries
a century and a half before. Portala unfurled the royal standard ;
the Te Deum was sung, and formal possession was taken of the
country. The history of civilization in California had begun. A
little more than an hour's walk from Monterey the padre built
the mission of San Carlos. He chose a site near the River Carmel
so called by some monks from the Holy Land who accompanied
Vizcaino on his historic voyage. Indians and Spaniards worked
together to build the mission, cutting down timber and squaring it,
making houses of adobe, the good priest working side by side with
his neophytes, ever and anon pausing to say the Rosary or to
venerate a great wooden cross which he had caused to be set up
in the middle of the busy scene. He won the hearts of the Indians
by a hundred gentle acts. When they came to visit him he would
give them presents of beads and ornaments. He taught them to
salute one another with the words " To love God," and when they
took their leave, he marked their brows with the sign of the Cross.
Carmel was Father Serra's home; here he would return after
his visits to the other missions. Half a dozen times he made the
toilsome journey to San Diego, covering the whole seven
hundred miles on foot. He walked to San Francisco to be present
at the consecration of the Mission Dolores, remarking, after he
had gazed upon the great bay, that if St. Francis wished to go
farther north, he must go by boat. His earnestness must sometimes
have seemed quixotic to his more phlegmatic associates. On one
occasion, searching for some fertile valley which would afford a
good site for a mission, he came within half a dozen miles of where
King City now stands. Here he decided to build the mission San
Antonio. Tying bells to the limb of an oak, he began to ring, re-
gardless of the fact that there was not a soul in sight, calling out
as he did so :
" Hear ! O ye Gentiles, come to the Holy Church ; come to the
faith of Jesus Christ." To the friar's companion it seemed that
the padre was wasting his time and strength in this ringing for the
birds and trees.
" Let me unburden my heart," cried Serra ; " it could wish that
these bells might be heard by all the world."
So he went on ringing, and, by and by, an Indian appeared,
followed by an old woman, who begged to be baptized. When
there was trouble with the Indians at San Diego and Father Jaime
lost his life, the padre only rejoiced.
I9i2.] FATHER SERRA AND THE INDIANS 151
" Now is the soil watered," he exclaimed; "now will the sub-
jugation of the Dieguinos be complete."
When he preached, the padre's seriousness was that of a man for
whom the unseen was the one great reality. He was one for whom
the invisible world really exists. To give his hearers an idea of the
terrible consequences of sin, he would smite his breast with a stone
and burn the flesh with a torch. Yet, as Carlyle notes of Dante, his
intensity was linked with a tenderness as compassionate as that
of a mother for her child. It was only the sin that he hated;
the sinner he loved. The Indians regarded him with measureless
affection, and, as he went by, they would scatter their choicest seeds
before him. When they knew his last hour was at hand, they
were like children soon to be bereft of a beloved parent. The
account of his death reads like the passing of some great-hearted
saint. On the evening before he breathed his last, he walked over
to the church to receive the last Sacraments. Father Palou would
have come to him ; but the dying man shook his head. " As long
as I can walk to the Church there is no reason why Our Lord
should be brought to me," he said. The church was full of people,
and in their presence the aged priest knelt before the altar. In a
voice broken by tears, his colleague read the prayers for the dying;
then he gave him absolution and administered the Holy Viaticum.
The Tantum ergo was sung, and people caught their breath to
hear " loud and strong as ever " the voice of Father Serra. He
spent the night listening to penitential psalms and litanies. In the
morning he was visited by the captain of a vessel that lay in port.
" You are come just in time to throw the earth on my body,"
said the father. For a moment a feeling of terror overcame him
the terror of the soul about to look upon the awful innocence
of God.
" A great fear has come over me," he said ; " I am much afraid.
Read the commendation of the dying; read it aloud, so that I may
hear."
When it had been read, he exclaimed : " Thank God ! Thank
God ! the alarm has left me ; there is nothing more to fear." He
rose from his bed; went to the kitchen and drank a cup of broth.
" I feel better now," he said, " I will rest." Those were his last
words. A little later the booming of the cannon of the presidio
and the answering thunder of the ships in harbor announced to
the sorrow-stricken people that the founder of the missions of
California was no more.
152 FATHER SERRA AND THE INDIANS [Nov.,
We have seen how the dead Franciscan taught his people to
lead practical Christian lives. He also made them master of those
useful arts in the exercise of which the great races have progressed
from pastoral simplicity to the highest civilization. Every man
followed some occupation, according to the measure of his ability;
every woman learned the arts of the home. The Indians' first
schooling was the building of the missions. Timbers had to be
shaped and joined, adobe made, and mortar compounded of lime
made by grinding up sea-shells. In doing these things the Indians
learned some of the essential features of the crafts of builder and
carpenter, and we may be sure that Father Junipero did not fail
to remind them how He Who is the Lord of All worked in a car-
penter's shop in Nazareth. Each mission started on its career
with a small number of cattle, sheep, and goats, and so fast did
the stock increase and multiply that it became one of the chief
forms of mission property. To take care of these cattle there was
need of herdsmen, shepherds, and drivers. Then the horses had to
be shod, and metal work became an immediate necessity. A black-
smith from Mexico taught the Indians of San Francisco his trade,
and, within a few years, we find the Indians at several of the
missions working in iron and copper. They made anvils, horse-
shoes, locks, and hinges; scissors were fabricated for the women;
bells cast to summon the faithful to worship. In 1852, when the
missions had ceased to be, the Hon. B. D. Wilson, of Los Angeles,
in a report to Congress, stated that the Indians furnished " the
majority of the laborers, mechanics, and servants in San Diego
and Los Angeles counties."
Eulalia de Guillen, the first owner of the San Pasqual ranch, on
which the city of Pasadena now stands, taught the Indian women
how to make their own and their husbands' clothes. Fifteen hundred
Indians in the San Gabriel mission were clothed in the handiwork of
their women folk. At first blankets were imported from Mexico.
Once, however, the Indians had learned to weave, all the blankets
used in the missions were made in California.
The young people who wished it, youths and maidens alike,
were taught to read, write, and cipher. They were also instructed
in singing, and the more musical learned to play instruments. The
bass voices of the men intoned the liturgical plain song, and it is a
pathetic proof of their proficiency that when, in 1879, Robert Louis
Stevenson attended the Mass, then said annually in the ruined
church of Carmel, the Indians came down from the mountains,
1912.] FATHER SERRA AND THE INDIANS 153
bringing with them their old chant books, and sang the Gregorian
music. Even the frescoing on the walls of the churches was in
some cases the work of the Indians. Crude it may be, but not more
so than the early work of the great peoples of Europe and Asia.
The French navigator, La Perouse, was at Carmel within two
years of Father Junipero's death; Vancouver was twice a guest
at the same mission. Both left glowing accounts of the pastoral
well-being which they found there. In 1806 Count von Langs-
dorff, aulic councilor to the Emperor of Russia, inspected the
missions of Santa Clara and San Francisco. He praises the pru-
dence and paternal care of the friars, and testifies concerning the
Indian converts that " peace, happiness, and obedience universally
obtain among them." De Maufras, an attache of the French lega-
tion to Mexico, who visited San Luis Rey in 1842, when the forces
which ruined the missions were in fierce activity, found an atmos-
phere of practical beneficence. Yet within three-quarters of a
century of Father Serra's death, the great undertaking to which he
devoted his life had crumbled into utter failure. The friars were
scattered, their property sold, the Indians driven out.
This misfortune for mankind was primarily brought about by
the cupidity of statesmen. Spain set the example by enforced
loans from the padres, and Mexican adventurers bettered the
lesson. They called it borrowing; but the right word is theft.
The Mexican dictator, Santa Anna, placed the Pious Fund under
government control, promising to pay interest at the rate of six
per cent. On this income the friars were to exist and do their
work. But the interest was not paid ; the missions were secularized,
the property sold, and the padres literally reduced to beggary. Pico,
the last Mexican governor, disposed of mission lands with such
unscrupulousness that the Departmental Assembly, by one of its
last acts, declared his sales null and void. They were too late.
It was trying to save the harvest after the passing of the tempest.
The missions fell into disrepair; strangers preyed on their stone
and timber. Here and there, for years afterwards, would be found
an aged friar, in abject poverty, the helpless friend of more helpless
Indians. In the year of De Maufras' visit one of the padres was
discovered living in a hut, sleeping on a rawhide on the bare ground.
Asylum was offered him elsewhere; but he refused to abandon his
people. The priest at Soledad shared what little food he had with
the Indians, and one day, when he was saying Mass, he tottered
and fell, dying of starvation.
154 FATHER SERRA AND THE INDIANS [Nov.,
But the priests had at least the satisfaction of dying in the
discharge of their duty. The Indians lost all. When California
ceased to be Mexican, hundreds of ranches and farms passed, by fair
means or foul, into the hands of the newcomers. The lands on
which the padres had established the Indians were taken away from
them. The old patriarchal law of the Indies, by virtue of which all
grants and transfers of land were made " without prejudice to the
Indians," was disregarded. Under the old regime, so long as they
were law-abiding, the Indians were left in undisturbed possession
of their holdings. But the American cared nothing for the law of
the Indies. He looked upon the Indians as vermin. The only good
Indian was a dead Indian. When a man coveted land on which
Indians were settled, he made an official declaration to the govern-
ment that it was " unoccupied," and, under this iniquitous fiction,
hundreds of families were driven into the wilderness. The evic-
tions from the San Pasqual and Tecumela valleys were carried out
with a thoroughness that left not so much as an Indian to tell of
the happiness that once was there. In each of these cases the land
had been given to the Indians by the padres, and was as legally theirs
as though the transfer had been ratified by a court of the United
States. But there was a conspiracy to rob the Indians of their
lands, and American justice closed its eyes. Begun by the Mexi-
cans, this infernal work was consummated with tragic com-
pleteness by Americans. In 1834 there were in the missions
from fifteen thousand to twenty thousand Indians; within six
years time they had dwindled to six thousand. They retreated
to desert spots where the white men would not go ; they sought hid-
ing places in the fastnesses of the hills. Mrs. Helen Hunt Jack-
son, authoress of Glimpses of California and the Missions, visited
such a retreat of the Indians of Carmel Mission, and the priest at
Monterey sadly told her that even there they could only remain
" by the patience of the thief." Those who shrank from the wild-
erness met a worse fate. The white men knew their weakness,
and cynically profited by it. Every other house in Los Angeles was
a drinking shop for Indians. Even their work was paid for in
spirits, and, after a night of drunkenness, they would be fined
for breach of the peace, and handed over to their employer to
slave out the amount of the fine. " Had they been left in the hands
of the mission fathers," says Mrs. Jackson, " they would slowly but
surely have progressed to racial manhood ; given over to our tender
mercies, they have hurried down an incline smeared with every
1912.] FATHER SERRA AND THE INDIANS 155
known form of slippery evil, in order that their destruction might
be more rapid and complete." Even the government seemed to
connive at their destruction. Congress refused to build homes for
them on the ground that they were American citizens; the election
officials of California would not let them vote because they were
Indians.
What form then shall the celebration of the bi-centenary of
Father Serra's birth assume? Is it to end with pageants and
speech-making and the restoration of the few missions that are
still in ruins ? Or shall Catholics unite in an effort to take up once
more the work which was dearest to the padre's heart, and set up,
on an enduring basis, the one monument to his name which he would
wish perpetual? If Christian civilization is to be spread among the
Indians, it must be by our own efforts. The government will do
nothing, and, as for Mexico, in spite of the award of the Hague
Tribunal, it is idle to expect of Maderist anarchy what the des-
potism of Diaz failed to restore. Cannot tracts of land be bought
in California and the Indians be settled on them under a regime
approximating to that of the old days? The good tradition still
lingers. The Indians welcome the ministrations of such priests
as can reach them in their isolation; the mission chant book is
treasured in many a miserable hut; the women still make lace as
their grandmothers and great-grandmothers were taught to make it
by the ladies of Mexico and old Spain. If we are to honor Father
Serra's name in a way that would be grateful to him, it must be
by taking up his work anew and caring for his children, in so far
as in us lies, as he himself would have cared for them.
METHODS OF REFORMING OUR LAND SYSTEM.
BY JOHN A. RYAN, S.T.D.
N the last article the attempt was made to determine as
fully as possible the morality of a law which would
at one stroke appropriate the whole of the future or
unbought increases in land values. At present there
is no likelihood that such a measure will be enacted
anywhere, least of all in the United States. What we shall prob-
ably see is legislation which will aim at taking a part, and a grad-
ually increasing part, of those values. In all probability this will
come about through one or both of two distinct methods. The
first may be called the German, the second the Canadian plan.
By the former a special tax is laid directly upon value increases;
by the latter the general land tax is raised relatively to the taxes on
other kinds of property.
The unearned increment tax, or increase-of -value tax (Werth-
zuwachssteuer), originated in the year 1898 in the German colony
of Kiautschou. In 1904 it was imported into the city of Frankfort-
am-Main, and in 1905 into Cologne. By the month of April, 1910,
it had been adopted by 457 cities and towns of Germany, some
twenty of which had a population of more than one hundred thou-
sand. In 1911 it was inserted in the national fiscal system, and
thus was extended over the whole German Empire. It was em-
bodied in the famous Lloyd-George British budget of 1909. While
the German laws on the subject are all alike in certain essentials,
they vary greatly in details. They agree in taking only a per cent
of the value increases, and in taxing rapid increases at a higher
rate than slow increases. The imperial law imposes a rate of ten
per cent on increases of ten per cent or less, and thirty per cent
on increases of two hundred and ninety per cent or over. In Dort-
mund the scale progresses from one to twelve and one-half per
cent. Inasmuch as the highest rate in the imperial law is thirty
per cent, and in any municipal law (Cologne and Frankfort) twenty-
five per cent; inasmuch as all the laws allow deductions from the
tax equal to the interest that was not obtained while the land was
unproductive; and inasmuch as only those increases are taxed
which took place while the land was in possession of the present
1912.] METHODS OF REFORMING OUR LAND SYSTEM 157
owner, it is clear that landowners are not compelled to undergo any
positive loss, and that they are permitted to retain the lion's share
of the " unearned increment"*
It is to be noted that most of the German laws are retroactire,
inasmuch as they apply not merely to future value increases, but to
some of those that occurred before the legislation was enacted.
Thus, the Hamburg ordinance measures the increases from the last
sale, no matter how long ago it took place. The imperial law uses
the same starting point, except where the last sale occurred before
1885. Accordingly, a man who had in 1880 paid twenty-five hun-
dred marks for a piece of land which in 1885 was worth only two
thousand marks, and who sold it for three thousand marks in 1912,
would pay the increment tax on one thousand marks, unless he
could prove that his purchase price was twenty-five hundred marks.
In all such cases the burden of proof is on the owner to show that
the value of the land in 1885 was lower than the amount he had
paid for it at the earlier date. Speaking generally, we say that no
wrong is done to the owner by this retroactive feature of the
German legislation, since it does not touch value increases that
have been paid for by the present owners.
The British law taxes only those increases that occur after its
enactment in 1909. These are subject to a tax of twenty per cent
on the occasion of the next transfer of the land, by sale, bequest,
or otherwise.! In some cases this arrangement undoubtedly will
cause hardship. If land which was bought for one thousand
pounds in 1900 had fallen in value to eight hundred in 1909, and
was sold for one thousand pounds in 1920, the tax of twenty per cent
on two hundred pounds would mean a net loss to the owner of forty
pounds, to say nothing of the loss of interest in case the land was
unproductive. It would seem that some sort of compensation might
be in order here; yet the rarity of such instances, the administra-
tive difficulties of compensation, and other circumstances might
well condone such individual losses in the interest of the general
welfare.
Whether it operates according to the German or the British
plan, the practice of taking a part of the increases in land values is
*Cf. Marsh, Taxation of Land Values in American Cities, pp. 90-92 ; The Single
Tax Review, March-April, 1912; Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 22, pp. 83,
et seq.; vol. 24, pp. 194, et seq.; vol. 25, pp. 682, et seq.; Stimmen Aus Maria-Laach,
October, 1907.
tC/. Marsh, op. cit., pp. 92, 93 ; Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 24, pp. 243,
et seq. ; 279, et seq.
158 METHODS OF REFORMING OUR LAND SYSTEM [Nov.,
not likely to offend against justice. The interests of the private
owner are on the -whole very well safeguarded in both schemes.
The Canadian method consists essentially in the imposition of a
specially heavy tax on the entire value of the land, not merely its
value increments. It implies a corresponding reduction in the taxes
on improvements and other kinds of property. Thus, in New
Zealand improvements and personal property are exempted in part
from national, and entirely from local taxation.* The general
principle of the system has been adopted in Vancouver, B. C,
Edmonton, and some other cities and communities of Alberta. In
all probability it will be extended within the next few years over
the whole of Western Canada. Beginning with the year 1896,
the city of Vancouver reduced the rate of taxation on land im-
provements at intervals, and finally abolished it entirely. f As a
result of the investigation made by the New York City Commission
on the Congestion of Population, a bill was introduced in the New
York state legislature, in 1912, providing for a gradual reduction in
the rate of taxation on buildings in New York City until it should
be only one-half the rate on land. In Missouri a movement has
been organized to secure legislation exempting from taxation all
personal property after 1913, and all land improvements after 1920.
An exception is made against public service corporations, which
provides that their land improvements and personal property would
continue to be taxed until their charges for service were reduced
to a level that would yield only a reasonable return on their actual
investment.!
None of these measures or proposals seems to involve any un-
due hardship or any injustice to landowners. The important
considerations are, of course, the rate of the tax, and the rapidity
with which the taxes on other property are transferred 'to land.
If the tax were so high as to absorb for a long period of years all
the increases in the value of land which had fallen in value while in
the possession of the present owners, and all the increases in the
value of unproductive land, it might work considerable hardship
to these two classes of persons. An adequate treatment of this
question will require a comprehensive review of the various forms
and methods of taxation now in existence.
In the United States we have three principal taxing jurisdic-
*Cf. Bliss, New Encyclopedia of Social Reform, article, " New Zealand."
tC/. Marsh, op. cit., pp. 33, et seq. ; Single Tax Review, May-June, 1911.
tC/. Marsh, op. cit., pp. i, 2, 100.
1912.] METHODS OF REFORMING OUR LAND SYSTEM 159
tions, corresponding to the three divisions of our governmental
authority. The bulk of our national revenues are raised through
tariffs on imports, duties on tobacco and intoxicating liquors, and
a tax on the earnings of corporations. The tariff taxes ought to
be abolished entirely, for they are no longer needed for the pro-
tection of any home industry that is economically worth protecting,
and they are a heavy burden on consumers. As a rule, taxes that
fall ultimately upon consumers are inequitable, because they bear
heaviest on the classes that are least able to pay. Inasmuch as the
poor and those in moderate circumstances expend a much larger
proportion of their incomes upon the taxed articles than do the
rich, they yield up a much greater proportion of their income to the
state. They are not taxed in accordance with their ability. While
the tax on intoxicating liquors is likewise subject to this defect, .it
should be retained for social reasons connected with public order and
sobriety. The revenues now obtained from taxes on imports, and
on the manufacture and sale of tobacco, ought to be raised through
a progressive tax on incomes. With the exception of the tax on
land values, the income tax is the fairest of all, since it stays where
it is put, and compels men to pay according to ability.
Most of the forms of state and municipal taxation now in exist-
ence should in the interest of justice be abolished. Chief among
them are : taxes on goods in the possession of the consumer, such
as household furniture, clothing, libraries, carriages, etc.; taxes
on the products of agriculture and manufacturing which have not
yet reached the consumer; taxes on all forms of concrete capital,
such as machinery, railroads, factories, stores, and agricultural tools
and chattels; and taxes on paper certificates of wealth, such as
money, credits, mortgages, stocks, and bonds. With the exception
of buildings, all these goods fall under what is known as the per-
sonal property tax. Now economists and fiscal authorities gener-
ally are practically unanimous in asserting that the personal prop-
erty tax is antiquated, inequitable, and for the most part uncol-
lectable.* It is antiquated because the kinds of property upon
which it is levied have long since ceased to be few, tangible, and
simple, which was the case when the tax was first adopted. It
is inequitable because a considerable part of it is levied in the first
instance upon goods in the hands of the consumer, while that part
of it which is placed upon capital of all kinds, and upon merchants'
*Cf. Seligman, Essays in Taxation, ch. ii., N. Y., 1911; Taussig, Principles of
Economics, ch. Ixvi.
160 METHODS OF REFORMING OUR LAND SYSTEM [Nov.,
and manufacturers' stocks of goods, is in most cases ultimately
shifted to the consumer. As we have seen above, a tax on general
consumption is unfair because it takes a larger proportion of small
incomes than of large ones. But the personal property tax is in--
equitable for an additional reason. Persons in poor and in mod-
erate circumstances cannot easily conceal their personal property
from the tax collector, since it consists for the most part of simple
and obvious household goods. On the other hand, diamonds, costly
furniture, and luxurious wardrobes can be either hidden or repre-
sented to the assessor at a ridiculously low valuation. Sufficient
evidence that the personal property tax is largely uncollectable is
seen in the fact that while the value of personal property in the
United States greatly exceeds the value of real estate (land plus
buildings and other structures affixed to the land), the former was
assessed in 1904 at only seven and one-half billion dollars as against
an assessment of twenty-six and one-half billions on real estate.*
Even if no changes were to be made in the taxation of land, the
personal property tax, at least in its present general form, ought to
disappear.
There is one variety of the personal property tax which should
be retained temporarily in certain circumstances. That is the tax
on public service corporations, such as railroads, street railways,
telephones, and lighting concerns. It is sometimes levied on the
basis of earnings, sometimes on the basis of the securities, and some-
times on the physical property. In all cases it aims to reach all
the wealth or property of the company, and is consequently in part
a real estate tax, and partly a personal property tax. Under what-
ever form it is imposed, it is all ultimately paid by the consumer,
the user of railway services, telephone services, gas, electricity, etc. ;
for the corporation always makes its charges sufficiently high to
cover the tax, and still yield at least the prevailing rate of return
on the investment. In this course the corporation is quite prop-
erly protected by our public rate-making bodies. Nevertheless,
a truly scientific and just system of public control would free these
concerns from taxation entirely, and compel them to reduce their
charges accordingly. There is no more reason why people should
pay taxes in their capacity as patrons of railroads or consumers of
gas than in their capacity as users of household furniture or con-
sumers of potatoes. In both situations the tax reaches a larger
proportion of the small than of the great personal incomes. The
*United States Census, Wealth, Debt, and Taxation, p. 891, Washington, 1907.
1912.] METHODS OF REFORMING OUR LAND SYSTEM 161
rkh man does not pay as large a percentage of his income for car
fares as does the unskilled laborer. But wherever the public au-
thorities are unable or unwilling to reduce the charges of public
service corporations to a point that will allow them only a reas-
onable return on their actual investment, the tax ought to be re-
tained. In such cases it amounts to an appropriation, partial or
entire, of excessive profits, monopoly profits. While this practice
is just whenever a better arrangement is not feasible, the normal
method and the goal to be kept in view is the wiping out of these
excessive profits through a reduction of charges to the consumer.
An ideal system of taxation would exclude not only the per-
sonal property tax, but that part of the real estate tax which falls
upon improvements, such as buildings, fences, trees, ditches, and
other artificial things affixed to the land. In so far as they are of
the nature of capital, for example, factories and stores, the tax
can frequently be passed on to the consumer in the form of higher
prices. In so far as they are consumers' goods, such as dwellings,
the tax is either paid by the occupying owner or passed on in the
form of higher rent to the tenant. To the extent that this shifting
takes place, which is probably in the majority of instances, the tax
on improvements is as inequitable as any other tax on con-
sumption.
It does not follow, however, that all the foregoing forms of
taxation should be converted into higher taxes on land. Unless
the process of conversion were very gradual, extending over a very
long period of time, it would in all probability reduce or keep down
the value of land to such an extent as to work injustice upon a large
proportion of existing landowners. Moreover, there is great
danger that a tax on land alone would not be sufficiently elastic
to provide all needed revenues in bad years and in good years, nor
sufficiently high to meet the rapidly increasing demand for public
improvements and works of social betterment.* Consequently the
tax on land should be supplemented by state taxes on incomes and
inheritances. These are entirely just, inasmuch as they cannot
be shifted, and can be so adjusted, in the matter of exempting
small incomes and applying at a higher rate to large incomes, as to
fall upon the persons who are fairly able to bear them. They would
have the additional merit of reaching a great part of past increases
in land values, those increases, namely, which had been sold or
*Cf. Seligman's fiscal objections to the Single Tax in Essays on Taxation, pp.
73-75-
VOL. XCVI. II.
1 62 METHODS OF REFORMING OUR LAND SYSTEM [Nov.,
capitalized. In fact, they would go a long way toward making
value-increment taxation more nearly universal, and therefore more
equitable.
Whatever be the proportion of personal property and improve-
ment taxes that is transferred to land, the process ought to be
gradual, covering a period of, say, ten or fifteen years. Even then
it will increase the losses undergone by those persons who part with
their land at a lower price than they paid for it, or at a price which
is not sufficiently high to provide interest on the investment in the
case of unoccupied land. For if the additional taxes had not been
imposed the value of all land would have been higher. Only to
such owners, however, would the scheme cause even apparent in-
justice. Productive land which, despite the tax, remained at or
above the price paid by the present owners would presumably have
continued to yield the ordinary rate of return on the original in-
vestment. Hence the owners would suffer no loss either of interest
or principal.
Theoretically it would be possible to exempt from the operation
of the tax all owners who could prove that the value of their land
was not yet sufficiently high to cover their losses of interest or
principal. Practically this plan would scarcely be administratively
possible. Nor is it demanded by practical justice. The process
of transferring other taxes to land could be spread over such a long
period that the individual hardships need not be unusually numerous
nor unusually great. Even under our present system increases
sometimes occur in the tax rate on all kinds of property, including
land. Again, the inconveniences, the inequities, if that term be
preferred, inflicted .upon individual landowners through the changes
in taxation that we are now considering, could scarcely be as numer-
ous or as grievous as those that are inherent in our existing fiscal
system, or lack of system. No one who is even moderately ac-
quainted with our present forms of taxation and their effects will
deny that they are unfair in the extreme, and that their hardship
falls not merely upon a small minority, but upon the great majority,
including the whole of those who are poor and of those who are
in moderate circumstances. If the change brought no compensa-
tory advantages . to those landowners upon whom it bore most
heavily, and if it possessed no special merits of its own, it would
still, from the viewpoint of the majority and of the community as
a whole, be an improvement on things as they are. While chang-
ing the personnel, it would considerably reduce the number of
1912.] METHODS OF REFORMING OUR LAND SYSTEM 163
owners who were taxed excessively. Though inequities are in-
separable from any fiscal scheme, it is still important that their
volume should be made as small as possible.
But this is only a negative argument. The great and positive
justification of the proposed plan lies in its beneficial effects upon
the general welfare. In the article* on the abuses of the present
land system we saw that a great deal of land is held out of use,
and that in general land is becoming more and more difficult of
acquisition by the landless. These evils would be squarely met,
and to a great degree leseened, by heavier land taxation. If the
tax were increased with sufficient rapidity to prevent land from
rising above its present value, owners would no longer have any in-
ducement to hold it for an advance in price. Its selling price and
its rent would be little if any above its value for actual use, its
productive value. Men would be anxious to sell, or lease, or im-
prove their holdings. Consequently every user of land, and every
person who desired land for use, would be able to get it at a lower
rent or price than he would have to pay in the absence of the tax.
If the advance in the tax were less rapid its influence would be
correspondingly less, but would be the same in kind. It would
still keep land relatively cheaper and more easy of access.
In all our cities a great deal of the best land is either kept
out of use entirely or used uneconomically. Vacant lots and lots
cumbered by tumble-down shanties exist side by side with " sky-
scrapers." As a consequence, this grade of land is artificially
scarce, and its rent and price are correspondingly higher than would
be the case if all portions of the land were put to the best use of
which they are capable. To force such land into its best use
through a tax making speculative holding of it unprofitable, would
be virtually to increase the supply of business sites. For all eco-
nomic purposes the supply would be increased quite as effectively
as through the draining of a swamp or the filling of a lake. Now
the value of land, of its uses, and of its products are, like the value
of any other commodity, determined by the relation between supply
and demand. When, therefore, the supply of land is increased
relatively to the demand because owners become more active in
offering it for use, and in putting it to more productive uses, a fall
must occur not only in its rent and price, but in the prices of the
things produced on it, whether these be manufactured commodities,
*Cf. THE CATHOLIC WORLD, September, 1912, The Abuses of Private Landowner-
ship.
i<H METHODS OF REFORMING OUR LAND SYSTEM [Nov.,
distributive activities, or the personal services of the physician and
the lawyer.
To be sure, if all the business sites were already put to their
best uses, the heavier taxes would not bring about a reduction in the
price of the things produced thereon. The supply of products
would continue to bear the same relation to demand as before.
Since all land is not thus employed, the occupation for business
purposes of the unused portions at the existing or lower rents and
prices, would mean an increase in the supply of products which
could be sold at existing or even lower prices.
Owing, therefore, to the virtual increase and comparative
cheapening of land through heavier taxation, men would find it
easier to get homes, and would be able to buy more cheaply all
sorts of products and commodities. These beneficial effects would
be reinforced and added to by the other element in the proposed re-
form, namely, the removal of taxes from residences, all forms of
capital, and all articles of consumption. The man desirous of
building a home would find, on the one hand, that the site and the
material were cheaper, and, on the other hand, that his residence
was free from taxation. The man who wanted to rent a house
and lot would get both at a lower rent than would be possible
in the absence of the tax. Obviously these statements would be
equally true of business buildings and sites. The eagerness of
landowners to improve their holdings in order to get an annual
income with which to pay the increased tax, would be stimulated
and encouraged by the knowledge that raw materials were cheaper,
and that the improvements would no longer be subject to a tax.
Hence it is conceivable, and not at all unlikely, that the process of
multiplying improvements would continue until the rent of a build-
ing and site combined became only slightly in excess of the annual
return that could be got by investing the cost of the building in
some other enterprise.
Through the untaxing of capital the farmer would be freed
from annual payments to the state on buildings and other improve-
ments, on animals, implements, and agricultural products; the
merchant and the manufacturer would be relieved of taxes on build-
ings, machinery, and stocks ; and the owner of representative capital,
stach as corporation securities, promissory notes, money and mort-
gages, would likewise go tax-free. This would happen in so far as
these taxes are at present finally paid by these persons, and not
shifted to the consumer or to somebody else. To this extent, then,
1912.] METHODS OF REFORMING OUR LAND SYSTEM 165
the tax reforms here advocated would encourage capital, promote
production, and further the general welfare.
As a matter of fact, the greater part, perhaps by far the greater
part, of the taxes on the different forms of capital, concrete and
representative, is shifted to the consumer of capital's products, .or
to the borrowing user of the capital itself. The consumer pays the
tax in the form of higher prices for articles of food, clothing, shelter,
and the other necessaries and comforts of life; the borrowing user
pays the tax in the form of higher rent for his dwelling, and a higher
rate of interest on, for example, the loan for which he has given a
mortgage.* The owner of any form of capital which happens
to be taxed is able to pass on the burden whenever other investments
are available upon which no tax is collected. " Commonly enough,
in the actual working of our American system, alternative invest-
ments are in fact available."! Hence the apparently plausible as-
sertion that it would be unfair to let the owners of " skyscrapers,"
wholesale stores, great tenement houses, and factory structures go
untaxed, overlooks the fact that the owners of such property >go
virtually tax-free now. While they do hand the tax over to the
fiscal authority, they have already added its equivalent to the rents
and prices that must be paid, respectively, by the users of the build-
ings, and the consumers of the products therein stored or manu-
factured. Owners of other forms of capital can shift the tax in
the same way. What enables them to do it is the fact that they
can put their money into " alternative investments " which are not
effectively taxed, as, many kinds of corporate securities, or into land,
which is always bought at a price sufficiently low to provide the tax
in addition to the prevailing rate of interest. Obviously, therefore,
men will not invest in buildings until the demand for them and their
products is great enough to furnish both interest and taxes. In
other words, the tax is shifted for the simple reason that owners and
investors are in a position to limit the supply of the things taxed.
To be sure, if all forms of capital were actually compelled to
pay taxes at the same rate, this process of shifting would not be pos-
sible. Any attempt to limit supply, say, in the matter of office
buildings, with a view to forcing up rents and prices, would soon
make the profits on this form of investment so high as to attract
a large amount of new capital. As a consequence, the supply of
*Cf. Seligman, Shifting and Incidence of Taxation, pp. 187, 245, 272, and all of
Part II., N. Y., Macmillan Co., 1899; Taussig, Principles of Economics, II., pp. 518-
549, and chaps. Ixvii.-lxix.
tTaussig, Idem., II., 547.
166 METHODS OF REFORMING OUR LAND SYSTEM [Nov.,
buildings would before long reach a point that would bring rents
and prices down to a level that would give only the ordinary returns
of interest and profits.
The foregoing paragraphs describe the economic theory of the
situation. But it is notorious that economic laws do not work with-
out friction, nor produce the results that would follow from per-
fectly free competition. Hence the most definite statement war-
ranted by the facts is that the greater part, perhaps by far the
greater part, of taxes on the various forms of capital is shifted
under the guise of higher rents and prices to the consumer. The
lifting of this burden would not be the least of the beneficial effects
resulting from the proposed tax changes.
Finally, all direct tax on articles of consumption would like-
wise be abolished. This would affect chiefly those goods of a
relatively durable character which remain in the possession of the
consumer for a sufficiently long time to fall under the attention
and action of the taxing authority; for example, articles of personal
apparel and adornment, household furniture, furnishings, and con-
tents of every description, and the instrumentalities of comfort and
recreation, as, horses, carriages, automobiles, boats, bicycles, etc.
The general reduction in the cost of living which would follow
reduced rents and the untaxing of capital and of consumers' goods,
would necessarily increase the amount of money available by the
masses for the purchase of the products of industry. Whence would
follow some increase in employment, wages, and industrial prosper-
ity generally. The principal features of and changes in the economic
situation may be thus summarized: Increased use of land would
mean a greater volume of products; reduced cost of living would
mean enhanced purchasing power for the new products; out of the
enlarged product would come more capital ; out of the increased pur-
chasing power would come the increased demand necessary to keep
the new capital employed ; on the one hand, there would be a greater
volume of products ; on the other hand, a better distribution of in-
comes and purchasing power. The reasoning underlying these state-
ments is identical with that which supports the economic theory that
high wages and large purchasing power in the hands of the masses,
who have the desire to consume, is more conducive to general pros-
perity than low wages, and high consuming power in the hands of
those whose desire to consume cannot keep pace with their power. To
reject this reasoning is essentially to adopt the discarded wages-
fund theory.
1912.] METHODS OF REFORMING OUR LAND SYSTEM 167
Such, then, are the ways in which the community would be
benefited through higher taxes on land. Evidently these advantages
would be shared by landowners as well as by other classes of per-
sons. For this reason the hardships suffered by the former on
account of the new taxes would be to a great extent counteracted,
and in a large proportion of cases completely neutralized. The
smaller the holding, the greater would be the degree to which the
heavier land taxes would be offset through the untaxing of build-
ings, capital, and consumption. It is probable that the average
owner of the ordinary house and lot would gain rather than lose
by the proposed changes in taxation. We repeat, then, that if the
changes were made gradually, and if a goodly part of the trans-
ferred taxes were put upon incomes, the hardships to landowners
would be so small in number and so insignificant in volume, speak-
ing relatively, that the whole process of reform would easily be
justified on the ground of social improvement and general welfare.
The objection might be raised that, when the tax reforms here
advocated had been fully accomplished, all persons who owned no
land, and whose incomes from other sources were not sufficiently
high to fall under the income tax, would escape taxation entirely.
But this is in reality a commendable feature of the scheme, for it is
in the fullest harmony with fiscal and social justice. On the one
hand, such persons have no land, and consequently receive no profit
or income from that source ; on the other hand, their incomes are so
low that they are not able in the true sense of ability to contribute
anything toward the support of government. Every citizen, every
human being, has a moral right to at least the means of living
decently, of developing his mental, moral, and physical faculties
to a reasonable degree. Hence personal and family incomes which
are only sufficient to meet these requirements ought to be entirely
available for that purpose. To deduct anything' from them for
taxes would be to treat this section of the community unjustly,
and to violate the principle of taxation according to ability.
Two other tax reforms, which are more or less implicitly con-
tained in the measures that we have been discussing, deserve brief
special mention.
Whatever may be the rate of any land tax, it ought always and
in all places to be applied as rigorously to vacant as to occupied
land. In some countries of Europe, the law deliberately taxes the
former at a lower per cent of its value than the latter. According
to the theory of the general property tax, which underlies a!'.
i68 METHODS Of REFORMING OUR LAND SYSTEM [Nov.,
American legislation on the subject, no such discrimination is per-
mitted, but assessors very commonly appraise vacant land at a much
lower valuation than land which is occupied and productive. Ap-
parently they act on the principle that, since the former yields no
present income, its owner is less able to pay the tax than the owner
of revenue-producing iand. This is a perversion of the " faculty "
theory, for the social need of cheap and accessible land is a more
urgent requisite of justice than the individual's claim to a low
tax on land that he is holding for speculation. The discontinuance
of this illegal practice in our American cities is immediately feasible,
and would be a considerable contribution toward the desirable re-
sults outlined in die foregoing pages.*
In the second place, a super tax might be placed upon very
large individual or corporate holdings. Every estate which con-
tained more than a maximum number of acres, say, ten thousand,
whether composed of a single tract or of several tracts, could be
compelled to pay a .special tax in addition to the usual tax levied
upon land of the same value. And the rate of the super tax should
increase the size of the estate above the maximum. The obvious
purpose of the tax would be to compel the breaking up of large
holdings, and their division among many owners and occupiers.
For several years it has been successfully applied in New Zealand
and Australia, t Inasmuch as it exemplifies the principle of pro-
gression in taxation, it accords with the requirements of justice.
As we have already seen, relative ability in the matter of tax
paying is closely connected with relative sacrifice. The less the
sacrifice involved, due greater, other things being equal, is the ability
of the individual to pay. Now the man with an income of ten
thousand dollars per year makes a smaller sacrifice in giving up ten
per cent of it than die man whose income is only one thousand; for
in the latter case die one hundred dollars surrendered represent a
privation of the necessaries or the elementary comforts of life,
while the one thousand dollars taken from the richer man would
have been expended for luxuries or converted into capital. Both
men do, indeed, use all their incomes to satisfy their wants or
desires ; but to reduce both incomes by a given proportion will not
diminish their satisfactions in the same proportion. The wants that
are thus deprived of satisfaction are much less important in the case
*Cf. Ely, Taxation m American States and Cities, pp. 248, 249 ; Seligman, Essays
on Taxation, p. 92.
tC/. Bliss, New Encyclopedia of Social Reform, articles, "New Zealand," and
" Australia."
1912.] METHODS OF REFORMING OUR LAND SYSTEM 169
of the richer than in the case of the poorer man. Hence the only
way in which anything like equality of sacrifice can be brought about
is by increasing the proportion taken from the former. This means
that the rate should be progressive.*
It might be objected, indeed, that the principle of progression
should not be applied to large landed estates, since a considerable
portion of these is unproductive, and consequently does not favor-
ably affect sacrifice. But the same objection can be urged against
any taxation of unoccupied land. The same social reasons that
justify the equal taxation of unproductive with productive land,
apply to the levying of an exceptionally high tax on very large
estates, even though at present they may not be revenue producing.
While the tax is sound in principle, it is probably not needed
to any great extent in America. In the great majority of cases,
the ordinary tax levied on smaller holdings of the same value
would probably be effective to compel the sale of the larger tracts
on reasonable terms. Perhaps the only exceptions to this statement
would occur in connection with a few immense holdings of mineral
and timber lands which are important adjuncts to the maintenance
of monopolies. " There are many great combinations in other in-
dustries whose formation is complete. In the lumber industry, <m
the other hand, the Bureau finds now in the making a combination
caused, fundamentally, by a long standing public policy. The con-
centration already existing is sufficiently impressive. Still more
impressive are the possibilities for the future. In the last forty
years concentration has so proceeded that one hundred and ninety-
five holders, many interrelated, now have practically one-half of the
privately-owned timber in the investigation area (which contains
eighty per cent of the whole). This formidable process of concen-
tration, in timber and in land, clearly involves grave future possi-
bilities of impregnable monopolistic conditions, whose far-reaching
consequences to society it is now difficult to anticipate fully or to
overestimate. "f Evidently an effective remedy for this condition
would be a super tax on large holdings of timber land, whether the
holder were an individual, a corporation, or a group of interrelated
concerns pursuing a policy of " community of interest."
*Cf. Vermeersch, Quaestiones de Justitia, pp. 94-126; Seligman, Progressive
Taxation in Theory and Practice, pp. 119, in, N. Y., 1908; Mill, Principles of Politi-
cal Economy, book v., ch. ii., sec. 3.
^Summary of Report of the Commissioner of Corporations on the Lumber
Industry in the United States, p. 8.
[THE END.]
THE POSTBOY.
BY JEANIE DRAKE.
NYTHING for me? " called the little schoolmistress.
She stood below the schoolhouse, high on the hill,
her slim figure, in clinging white, outlined against
the darkly-verdant mountain side the wind blowing
the light tresses about her brow and neck into a
shimmering halo.
The postmaster, who also kept the village store, would, doubt-
less, have answered after a deliberate five minutes or so; but one
of a later, more pushing, generation, playing marbles in the road-
way mud, called back, slowly and nasally : " He ain't got the
bags open yit."
Once more her urban training made her chafe against sluggish
tardiness ; once more her cheery nature triumphed in the little laugh
which tinkled down the hillside.
" Who's thet thar? " suddenly asked the lolling postboy, com-
ing half-way out of what seemed slumber or trance on the top of
a flour barrel.
" New school teacher," drawled the urchin in patches. Then
resigning, once for all, the honorable but exacting office of chief
of information, he gave himself single-mindedly to pitching of
marbles.
However, the group which sat about the store, and spat from
its doors, and munched an occasional apple taken, as of custom,
from its boxes, would just as soon discuss Miss Anniston, at the
rate of a word a minute, as anything else. And the postboy could
listen.
" Mighty good-lookin' gal," said one.
" Ain't too flippety, neither," approved another.
" My Ben says she's way up in algebry," remarked the black-
smith. " An' she kin pound the life outen' thet new pianner Pick
Brattle's got for his boarders. I wouldn't give shucks myself
for them thar pianners. They's nothin' but crash an' bang an'
squiddle an' bumble the endurin' time. You'uns hed orter hear
I 9 i2.] THE POSTBOY 171
my Ben play the cordial. He jes' makes goose-flesh all over ye.
Thet's music ! "
" Well," said the postmaster, evading this issue, " my kids is
powerful stuck on the school teacher, too. But it's my idee she won't
be so mighty long with us in these yere parts. It's her beau up to
Vineland thet's a-writin' her every day; an' she's a-sewin' an'
a-hemmin' an' a-frillin' everlastin'; an' thet thar's a sure sign.
Here, you Balsam " to the postboy on the barrel " stretch them
long legs o' yourn an' climb up to Pick Brattle's with teacher's mail."
The postboy, hearkening with his mouth open, as was his
habit, stretched out a horny hand, galvanically. He had to wait
while each, passing Miss Anniston's mail from one to the other,
inspected it as a matter of course.
And the blacksmith, after slow scrutiny, said to the postmaster,
with such significance as their slow monotony of speech permitted :
" Dientical handwritin', an' dientical man, you kin swar."
When Balsam Driggs at last received it, he also read the post-
card, fingered and weighed the package, and inspected at length
the address on the envelope. But with such customary practices went
a novel elation in the thought of carrying these, and so having
word and sight of the apparition on the schoolhouse hill. He
scrambled, ungracefully, up a short cut, swinging himself higher
here and there by aid of tough rhododendron root, or a branch
of low hanging kalmia. Awkward consciousness of the waiting
eyes above, and the lazily watchful eyes below in the postoffice door,
interfered with ordinary sure climbing, and near the top he slipped,
and landed at sprawling full length before the teacher.
Instantly unrestrained shouts of rough, bucolic laughter, mag-
nified a thousandfold by echo in his crimson ears, went up to the
mountain top. " Did she laugh, too ? Did she laugh, too ? " The
harsh stammering of his own voice was unfamiliar when he
muttered, miserably : " I reckon I done got a heap o' mud on this
yere mail."
" It doesn't matter at all. I hope you didn't hurt yourself.
You couldn't help it," she assured him promptly, and with seeming
undisturbed gravity: in spite of which she was amusedly aware
of his ungainly lankiness; his faded, shrunk, and patched home-
spuns; his shock of uncombed hair; his freckles decorated with
a splash of mud; his grotesquely outstanding ears; his wide, half-
open mouth. " He looks like a cod-fish," she reflected, with re-
morseful inward mirth, and wished him immediately away that she
172 THE POSTBOY [Nov.,
might open her dear, daily letter. But it was, to her conscience,
clearly a case calling for encouraging reassurance. " Are you our
mail-carrier ? " she asked him sweetly.
" Yessum."
" Then your name, I hear, is Balsam Zero Driggs." A little
smile twitched the corners of her lips, but was firmly subdued.
" Ought you not to be at school? You're surely under age."
" The contractor at Vineland, he ain't noways particular as
to thet. But my maw she's my stepmaw up an' swore I was
twenty-one. I guess she'd orter know; but thar's others thet used
to know my real maw allows I'm sixteen."
It was clear that the second Mrs. Driggs' passion for truth was
weaker than her desire to provide for a growing, and, probably,
voracious boy.
" She's a hard-working woman, I'm told," said the school-
mistress tentatively.
" Mebbe she is," said Balsam, with vagueness. " She's power-
ful hard-handed," he supplemented, rubbing his cheek, reminiscently.
The schoolmistress let loose again her rippling laugh, which,
in his thoughts, he compared to " a plumb, sweet, cowbell."
" Why! " she interrupted her mirth, " your wrist is bleeding!
You poor boy! You cut it when you fell." She touched it with
merely one smooth finger, for it was also very muddy ; yet that was
enough to crimson afresh the great ears.
" 'Taint nothin'," he protested, gruff stolidity masking shame-
faced emotion. " I kin stand right smart o' hurt. I ain't no
gal-baby," and he hid his hand behind him.
But from that moment he was her slave. However hungry
he might be when he threw his pouch into Tumbling River post-
office one end of his route he hurried no more to cold potatoes
and greasy cabbage, sauced with a stepmother's scoldings, until he
had first mounted the hill with Miss Anniston's mail.
Generally there was some small offering besides, as a branch
of flowering rhododendron, or a specially ripe and rosy apple,
sweet raspberries laid on a leaf ; or it might be a many-celled wasp's
nest, or a silvery mole skin. Her face and voice and smile came
to represent all brightness to a starved, ill-used, ignorant, and
squalid existence. Her soft : " Thank you, Balsam," was com-
pensation for everything, even the increasing reluctance he felt
to deliver a certain daily letter addressed in script that was bold
and firm, and evidently brought her comfort in exile.
1912.] THE POSTBOY 173
" Thet thar galoot's e'en a most teacher's dog," commented
the village loafers ; adding tolerantly that she was " powerful good
to larn him o' nights an' Sundays," and that she was " thet kind
thet sorter filled in mos' anywhars, bein' nice an' common."
Tribute came from even the redoubtable Mrs. Driggs, who,
after cuffing Balsam for *' foolin' his time up at Brattle's, admitted,
in grudging undertone, that while he was " a good-for-nothin' gad-
around, mostly, he hed a leetle excuse this time, teacher bein' thet
brightsome she chirked folks up same's a sunflower."
This same cheery adaptability of Miss Anniston's, partly
natural, partly induced in uncongenial surroundings by sustaining
visions of a happier future, was proved in ways useful to others
as well as pleasant.
" Thar ain't a grain o' cornmeal in the house/' declared Pick
Brattle's wife one afternoon. " Our Billy horse is ploughing an'
the mar gits too gaily fer me. I was a-thinkin', Miss Mary, sence
you're so powerful fond o' ridin', you'd mebbe not mind takin' the
corn to mill with you."
Miss Anniston smiled. Cantering the little mare through the
crisp air and inspiring mountain scenery was one thing; jog-trotting
to mill quite another. But " Bring forth the bag, Mrs. Brattle! "
she cheerfully agreed.
She sat " squar' on the poke," as directed, and heeded the
warning " to hold the mar in, or spill the corn." Down the hill
and through the village, with its appreciative, grinning onlookers,
went she, safely if slowly, until a braying mule at large startled the
mare, which reared and plunged for some moments.
" 'Taint so blame easy to stick on the critter when you've
got a chunky poke on your saddle," suggested admiringly the
ungainly knight who lurched to the rescue and quieted the snorting
mare.
" It's the poke I'm anxious about, Balsam," she laughed. " No
cornmeal, no bread for supper. It's well I was so close to the mill,
and not crossing a ford." She knocked with her whip handle on
the door of the picturesque, ramshackle old mill. A thin and
sallow woman opened it. " Where is the miller ? " asked the
young lady.
" I'm the miller."
"You? Well, I believe the women do everything in this
cotmtry except loaf. Half an hour, you say? Hitch my horse,
Balsam, and we'll wait outside."
174 THE POSTBOY [Nov.,
When the great wheel began to revolve and send its glittering
creamy showers below, she strolled a little way along the Tumbling
River and sat down upon a log, while Balsam stood and stared
devoutly at her, a thing to which she had long grown accustomed,
and heeded not at all. She mused in contented reverie, which the
glowing, autumnal mountain side, the murmuring water, and the
spicy smell of burning brushwood harmoniously accompanied. The
two were so still that, presently, the hum of voices from the nearby
forge resolved itself into distinguishable words.
" Oh, yes, thet's the same old song. We been agoin' to git
a railroad thet'll kerry our crops to market for the las' twenty year,
an' it ain't come yet! An' what we'uns kin make here, a-workin'
an' a-haulin', a-workin' an' a-haulin', fifteen mile to market ain't
enough to keep soul an' body together ! "
" No, an' we ain't allowed to use our corn other ways by
them revnoo chaps up to Washington. Dod rat 'em! Sittin'
thar an' swillin' champagne outen the people's money; an' ef a
poor man makes a drop outen his own stuff what he's ploughed an'
planted an' raised penitentiary for him."
" Thar's some's a-talkin' about thet thar young dude Commis-
sioner up to Vineland," said the first speaker, very slowly. " Thet
ef he don't let up on the poor folk a bit, he'll git, mebbe, a load o'
birdshot to spile his fine clothes. Mebbe somethin' heavier."
" Thet ain't no way to talk," interposed the blacksmith for
the first time. " What you'uns want is to keep your eyes on thet
thar sneakin' cur, Sim Gasway. Why's he a-gettin' letters in same
hand as comes to school-teacher ! "
The girl, pale now, had risen to her feet. " Who told them
my letters were from Commissioner Torrance ? " she asked, in a
whisper.
" They axed me," Balsam muttered miserably. " I seed him
post one to you, an' another to Sim Gasway."
"Who are these men?" she asked again, when he had re-
placed her and the bag of meal upon the mare, and walked beside
her, his head hanging.
" Fellers from Dark Corners. Lot's o' stills up thar. Some
o' their kin folk been up for trial last month."
"And they would kill a judge for punishing lawbreakers?"
" I ain't a-sayin' thet. But," he added, his vacuous expression
changing not at all, " I'd jes' as soon, myself, shoot a low-down
spy an' informer thet was a-takin' money for jailin' his own
I 9 i2.] THE POSTBOY 175
neighbors as I would a mean hound-dog thet was pullin' down
a dumb critter."
" You don't know if this suspicion against Gasway has proof,"
she said, severely, " and you would better attend strictly to your
mail and your lessons, Balsam."
Consternation at this revelation of unsuspected deeps in her
uncouth subject filled her mind for a while. But, as he made no
answer, she lapsed into thought, anxious now and quite unob-
servant of the gorgeous mountain tops or the swiftly-flowing river.
Only last week she had written her Commissioner, " I beg
you to use all possible patience and indulgence in dealing with
these poor misguided offenders. For seeing near at hand their
hard and pitifully meager lives must inspire compassion for even
their errors."
The answer to this had been : " Sweetheart, I accepted, for
the time, an uncongenial post only to hasten a certain happy day.
I have good hope of being soon transferred to another, different and
permanent. Meanwhile, you would not have me, as an honest man,
do less than my whole duty, even if this involves a seeming severity
to lawbreakers, distressingly poor and ignorant." Following this,
to-day's letter told her he was coming to visit her.
" Would the road you ride be safe for the gentleman they
spoke of ? " she added, suddenly.
He shuffled uncomfortably, busying himself with the bags of
meal on her saddle, and was dumb.
She was still standing on the brow of the hill when he re-
turned from stabling her mare, and she gave him a hastily-written
note to mail. With this in her mind, she murmured : " If any-
thing happens to him, I shall surely die I shall surely die ! " not
knowing that she was speaking aloud, nor that the shambling
carrier was aware, as well as she, that her note held reasons
though not the real one against her lover's coming.
While she yet lay in dream-haunted sleep, the postboy set forth
in the grey of the next dawning. It was still dark and cold.
Since midnight the rain had fallen in heavy sheets, blown hither and
thither by wind gusts. But to be wet, or shiveringly cold, or hungry,
were mere details in the boy's life; and beyond a shrunken and
dripping forlornness, he gave no sign that this day's work differed
from that of others less dreary. Mile after mile he and the bony
sorrel jogged, heads down, along the rugged, muddy route, crossing
a swollen brook here and there on their way. Not until he reached
176 THE POSTBOY [Nov.,
the South Fork of Tumbling River did he need to hesitate. Here
fragments of the bridge swept past him, whirling and dashing down
stream, and at the ford the risen water spread and foamed across
the road.
A woman who had known his dead parents shrilled from
her doorway, across the rain : " You, Balsam Driggs, you ain't
fool to try the ford in thet thar freshet! Come right along in
here with me, an' let me git ye some hot coffee."
Unheeding her, he put the sorrel at the ford, and the animal,
quickly loosing its footing, tried to swim across the rushing current.
But it was glad to quickly scramble out again.
" It's all plumb foolishness," said the woman in the log cabin,
raking up the embers and throwing on wood that the boy might
dry his clothes. " You ain't paid for drownin' yerself, nor your
horse neither. Ez for letters, they're not thet partickler, bein'
mostly writ by folks with nothin' much to say." She fed and
warmed and would have kept him longer, but, after some hours,
the rain ceasing and the waters abating, he sought his horse, in
stolid disregard of her protests. " With night a-comin' on ! " she
said, her hands uplifted, in useless dissuasion.
She was unaware how the lad was urged on by the unforgettable
words in someone's soft voice : " If anything happens to him,
I shall surely die! " He was driven by the dull instinct of danger
lurking in delay. The ford was yet unsafe, but he and the sorrel
managed it ; swimming and resisting sturdily. A mile beyond there
was a worse and deeper passage to make ; and now dusk was near,
with cloud drifts scurrying on high, and a single star trying to peep
from the troubled ether beyond. Close to this ford, a trail ended
which led from far-away Dark Corners; and while the sorrel still
splashed, ankle deep, resisting the rushing torrent, there closed in
from the farther side three men, and one laid hands on his bridle.
" Keep right still, sonny," said he, " an' you won't git hurt.
Otherways, there might be a accident see ? "
Through his surprise, Balsam did see quite clearly that he was
one defenceless boy to three armed men; and he sat stiff and mute.
The three wore soft hats pulled over their brows, and handker-
chiefs tied beneath their eyes.
" We'uns been a-waitin' for you a right smart while," re-
sumed the first speaker, grimly. " Hand over thet thar bag."
One man, with gun shouldered, kept guard on the lonely road,
while the others pulled the mail bag down. The postboy wondered
1912.] THE POSTBOY 177
to see them then produce a duplicate key, by which they
soon had the bag opened and its contents scattered on the wet
ground.
" Here's what we're a-lookin' for," muttered the leader, in
triumph, and, under the single, peeping star, he scratched, with diffi-
culty, his damp matches to light a tiny lantern. " Mr. James
Torrance, Vineland," he read, more quietly and inexorably than
the judge who sentences.
" Thet thar ain't Gasaway's fist."
" It's his wife's. She's made out my bills offen."
Such information as the letter contained regarding themselves
and the illicit stills in their mountain eyries ; such offers of personal
but secret guidance to constables ; such acknowledgment of reward
already received by the informer, passed from hand to hand in a
deadly silence. It gave to their half-savage minds full justifica-
tion for this first crime which, affording evidence against the spy
in their midst, should lead to a second, revengeful, greater one.
It now set flame to their passions, and oaths to their lips.
" Here's another to Commissioner," said one. " Lady's
writin'."
"Open thet, too," said the leader. "It'll tell, mebbe, when
we kin git a chanst at him as well."
But first they piled the other mail back, locked and re-slung
the bag upon the sorrel, and bade the boy, " Be off ! "
" S-t-t ! " warned the guard, who had heard across the rushing
water a faint sound of hoofs. So had the country boy's ears
caught this, and it waked his dormant faculties to a reckless action.
The letter which held all the mail's sacredness for him was in the
nearer man's hand. He snatched it suddenly, and was deep in the
swirling flood before they recovered.
" Cussed varmint ! " breathed the leader, hissing, and levelled
a shot which lifted a spray of water.
" Thet ain't no use," dissuaded the other, less furious. " He's
not our game, an' he'll drown, anyway."
This was, indeed, likely, as the poor sorrel labored and
struggled midway, and neighed in terror while the powerful waters
dragged at him. The guard meanwhile, with another " P-st-st,"
had prudently disappeared, for the hoof -beats were quickening and
nearing, and to the other bank rode a horseman alert and keen-eyed.
" It's Torrance," said the leader, savagely, and sent a bullet
through the rider's hat.
VOL. XCVI. 12.
178 THE POSTBOY [Nov.,
The Commissioner whipped out a revolver, but the moun-
taineers were already in covert behind bush and rock, from which
a ball grazed his knee.
Then to Balsam, plunging down stream, and gripping desper-
ately at his horse's mane, came for once in his sodden life a divine
inspiration. " If anything happens to him " he remembered, and,
at the clicking of a flint lock behind a tree, he shouted : " Why
don't you shoot at me, you cowards, 'stid o' him ? He ain't a-knowin'
who ye are; but I know everyone of you'uns, an' I'll swar to ye
in court ! "
Thus the mail robbers' final shot before retreat was aimed at
him. Their silent, instantaneous disappearance was scarcely
heeded by the Commissioner, who spurred his horse through sub-
merged elders and willows along stream until, in shallower spot,
he could ride in and catch and lead the sorrel out. It was full time,
for the half-drowned and bleeding lad sank at once to earth.
When he opened his eyes many stars twinkled down at him through
the leaves, and the Commissioner watched anxiously over him.
" Whar's the bag?" asked Balsam weakly.
" I'm afraid it dropped in the river when your horse lost
footing and rolled," said the Commissioner.
" 'Taint no matter," said the boy, " long's this yere's safe," and
gave him the precious letter with a ruddy stain upon it.
How the Commissioner bound his wound, and placed him on
his horse, and led it over the stream where fordable, and paid the
woman who had known his parents to nurse him back to life and
health, need not be written. It could not remove the deep and
rankling hurt which the young official's straight, slender figure, well-
fitting clothes and easy manner held for Balsam. These mountain
folk are not excitable, and the blacksmith voiced the community's
opinion when he remarked without enthusiasm : " The boy only
done his duty, I guess."
They held this less doubtfully when Sim Gasway's body was
found stark on a far trail, and Balsam was summoned to identify
three held on suspicion.
" I ain't see anybody's face thet thar evenin', an' they talked
husky-like," he maintained, stolidly.
" But you said at the ford you knew them," expostulated the
Commissioner.
" I spoke thet away jes' to skeer 'em, so's they'd stop shootin'
at you," repeated the boy, and persisted immovably in this. His
1912.] THE POSTBOY 179
lacklustre countenance made the magistrate dismiss him, with an
impatient aside :
"He's evidently half-witted."
But the little schoolmistress knew otherwise. " You will learn
farming and lots of useful things at the Industrial School, Balsam,"
she told him, gently " And, when you're through there, Mr.
Torrance and and I will be living in Washington ; and we remem-
ber what you did, and mean that you shall have a small place of
your own. Then, 'who knows' " with a smile to brighten his
dumb defection " you will be over twenty-one, and will be want-
ing a nice little wife among the girls here. But you must not
make her work too hard, as mountain men do."
" She shan't do a thing," said Balsam, cheering up a little, " but
cook and wash and scrub, and feed the chickens an' milk the cows,
an', an'"
" So, so, that's enough," declared the young lady, laughing.
" Let her do all inside the pretty, little log cabin, and you take
care of the farm outside."
A touch of what would be called wistfulness on less irregular
and freckled features came upon Balsam's : " Ef she could look,
an' laugh, an' speak like you," he said, " she needn't to do nothin'
at all but what she'd a mind to."
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE.
BY ADRIAN FEVEREL.
I.
THE CULT OF THE IMMORAL.
F the making of sects, there seems, like the making of
books, to be no end. Yet the making of sects has
been, until recent years, conducted along the lines in-
augurated by Luther in the sixteenth century; the
numerous divisions and sub-divisions among the
Protestant churches have been rigidly Protestant in doctrine and
organization; but in the latter part of the nineteenth century a
new religious movement began which has in a large measure in-
fluenced the latest innovations in religious thought, and has, more-
over, from obscure beginnings, developed into an organization of
world-wide magnitude. This movement was begun by Mrs. Mary
Baker Eddy, " the discoverer and founder of Christian Science."
At its inception it numbered Mrs. Eddy and another student; at
her death it was organized and on a substantial footing in the five
continents; it numbered over one hundred thousand adherents,
and it had enabled its " founder " to rise from obscurity to promi-
nence, from poverty to wealth.
The modern therapeutical ideas that are embodied in so many
new religious movements may all be traced largely to the
basic ideas of Eddyism, misnamed Christian Science. And of these
innovations, the source of them is infinitely more formidable and
dangerous than any of the rivulets which have sprung from it. It is
dangerous spiritually and materially; spiritually, because it
strikes at the very fundamentals of Christianity; materially, be-
cause it strikes at the fundamentals of health and morality. Let
us, in order that we may see whether this is so, examine Eddyism
in four of its aspects: first, as immoral; second, as un-Christian ;
third, as unscientific, and, fourth, as ridiculous. Before we proceed
to a detailed examination let us first glance briefly at its history
and the history of its " discoverer and founder."
Mrs. Mary Baker Glover Eddy was born at Bow, New Hamp-
shire, in 1821. Her childhood was uneventful according to her
unauthorized biographers, though Mrs. Eddy endeavors to make
herself a child like the young Samuel, and asserts that she frequently
I 9 i2.] CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 181
heard " voices not our own " calling her. She had no exceptional
educational advantages ; though she avers that her brother taught
her Latin, Greek, and Hebrew during his vacations. This, how-
ever, must be taken cum grano salis, as indeed must all of Mrs.
Eddy's assertions regarding herself. Certainly her writings give
no evidence of such classic learning as she claims was hers. In
1842 she married George Washington Glover, who died six months
later; a child was born of this marriage, George Glover, Jr., who has
lately figured in litigation regarding his mother's estate. After some
years of widowhood she married a Dr. Patterson, from whom she
later secured a divorce. During her widowhood, and after her
second marriage, she suffered greatly from nervous disorders, and
was constantly under the care of physicians, from whom, however,
she obtained little relief. She seems to have been of an experi-
mental disposition, for she tried allopathic and homeopathic doc-
tors, and even indulged in the water cure at Dr. Vail's sanitarium
in New Hampshire.
It was while she was at this institution that she first heard of
Dr. Quimby. A patient at Dr. Vail's had gone to him and had
been much benefited. Mrs. Eddy and some other inmates of the
institution also wished to go, and accordingly, after some delay,
due to meager finances, they set out. It was from Dr. Quimby
that Mrs. Eddy got her first idea of the system " she afterward
denominated Christian Science."* Dr. Quimby was not at this
time a mesmerist, as Mrs. Eddy afterward endeavored to make
him out. He taught that all physical effects may be traced to a
mental cause ; that with this idea Jesus of Nazareth had healed the
sick; he denied the hypostatic union, believing that in Christ were
two natures, the divine or Christly, the human or visible, expressed
in Jesus. Mrs. Eddy seems to have been much benefited by his
treatment, and became an enthusiastic disciple, as well as a patient.
She wrote " poems " and articles for newspapers and periodicals
praising her teacher, and likening him to Christ. When Dr.
Quimby died in January, 1866, Mrs. Eddy wrote a " poem " entitled,
" Lines upon the death of Dr. P. P. Quimby who healed with the
truth that Christ taught in contradistinction to all isms."f
After his death Mrs. Eddy continued to teach his doctrines,
and received money frequently for the " great truth " she imparted
to her students. She began to achieve a deal of success in this
manner, and among her students was her future husband, Asa
^Science and Health, p. 107. Retrospection and Introspection, p. 32.
^History of Christian Science. By Georgine Milmine.
i82 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE [Nov.,
G. Eddy. Her students soon began to speak of her with a show
of reverence, an attitude which Mrs. Eddy encouraged. Gradu-
ally Dr. Quimby receded as the originator of her system. When
her book, " the precious volume,"* Science and Health, appeared
in 1875, Dr. Quimby had ceased to have any share in his own
doctrines. Mrs. Eddy had arrogated them to herself, and had
transformed his almost harmless ideas into a direct revelation from
God.
Her students increased, also her finances and ambitions. She
saw a vista of a great religious movement that bore her name,
and that encircled the world. She saw, too, quite clearly that organi-
zation was necessary. Accordingly she organized " The Church of
Christ, Scientist," in 1879; later she became its first pastor and took
without any real right the title Reverend. To quote her own
words. "I accepted the call, and was ordained in i88i."f Her
propaganda was augmented in 1883 by the establishment of a
monthly magazine, The Christian Science Journal, and later by
a weekly, The Christian Science Sentinel; shortly before her death
a daily newspaper made its appearance. The story of her gradual
rise and the rise of her cult is too well known to merit repetition.
In December, 1910, Mrs. Eddy died, full of years, her am-
bitions fulfilled, her church organization wonderfully developed,
and herself adored and accepted by at least one hundred thousand
people as one to whom God had revealed a new dispensation. One
can estimate her own opinion of her character from many quaint
remarks about herself contained in her writings. Answering a
query on this point she gives, as a " concise, yet complete summary "
of her character, the words of her last husband, " Her works are
the outcome of her life ; I never knew so unselfish an individual."!
But Miss Milmine paints a very different portrait. She presents,
moreover, substantial documents to show that she does not exagger-
ate. She pictures Mrs. Eddy a woman, ambitious, unscrupulous,
fond of adulation, gifted with a certain charm of manner, a wonder-
ful power of organization, thoroughly selfish, domineering and
with an eagle eye for " the dollar."
Let us examine very briefly Mrs. Eddy's book, Science and
Health. The first edition was published in 1875. ^ nas since
been revised and re-revised until the present volume is very unlike
the first edition. The philosophy it contains, if one may dig-
nify such nonsense with so dignified a title, is a mixture of ignorant
^Retrospection and Introspection.
^Miscellaneous Writings, p. 35.
I 9 i2.] CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 183
Gnosticism, Hypnotism, Pantheism, and very bad logic. Starting
with the proposition that all is Mind, that every physical effect
may be traced to a mental cause, the domain of the physical is
at once swept out of existence.* In short the physical is mortal
mind as opposed to Divine Mind. Sin, sickness, death, are errors.
Become conscious that these do not exist, and they vanish. f God
ceases to be God in Science, He becomes Divine Mind or Divine
Principle. t Christ becomes Truth, Jesus the " highest material
concept of man." The two natures of Jesus Christ are declared
separate. " The corporeal Jesus was human." || The Holy Ghost
becomes Divine Science, or Christian Science.^ The Trinity is
" suggestive of Polytheism."** God is no longer Our Father, but
rather " Our Father-Mother God." ft The Atonement and Cruci-
fixion are efficacious only in so far as they demonstrate God's love
for man.|$ Sin, sickness, and death are to be overcome in Science,
through the knowledge that they are mere beliefs, hence non-ex-
istent. Yet all this is declared to be " corroborative of the Bible."
In following these leadings of scientific revelation the Bible
was my only text-book. The Scriptures were illumined.
The Bible and Science and Health are our only teachers ....
the Canonical Writings, together with our text-book, corrobor-
ating and explaining the Bible texts constitute a sermon
undivorced from Truth, uncontaminated and unfettered by hu-
man hypotheses, and divinely authorized. ||||
By the Bible Mrs. Eddy means the Protestant version. A fact
not difficult to understand when one remembers that in the book of
Ecclesiasticus we may read, " Honor the physician for the "Lord
hath created him."
Let us examine this system more intimately as the cult of the
immoral, and see whether or not in its teachings of sin and mar-
riage it merits this adjective. Of course the Bible is full of in-
stances which might be cited to show that the inspired writers re-
garded sin as a terrible reality. But Mrs. Eddy avers that the
Scriptures are not properly interpreted. Scientifically interpreted,
sin becomes an unreality. It is like all else that is inharmonious
with God, (good) error or illusion.
*Science and Health, pp. 113-468. llbid., p. 14.
Hbid., pp. 330, 112, 115, 587. Vbid., p. 589. R/frui., pp. 332-473-
Ubid. p. 55. **Ibid., p. 256. tflbid., pp. 16-592.
ttlbid., p. 24. /&/., p. no.
I! II Explanatory Note, read each Sunday before the Lesson Sermon, see Christian
Science Quarterly.
184 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE [Nov.,
The only reality of sin is the awful fact that unrealities
seem real to human belief until God strips off their disguises.*
In Christian Science the fact is made obvious, that the sin-
ner and the sin are alike nothingness ; and this view is supported
by the Scripture where the Psalmist saith, " He shall go to the
generation of his fathers; they shall never see light; man that
is in honor and understandeth not, is like to the beasts that
perish."f
God never made man capable of sin $
Man is incapable of sin For he derives his essence from
God, and does not possess a single or underived power.
These extracts from Mrs. Eddy's writings indicate quite plainly
her ideas upon this subject. She clearly says that sin is impossible.
Man cannot sin since there is no sin. It is the most dangerous
of her many dangerous doctrines. It is no answer to show that
Christian Scientists are, as a whole, decently behaved people. They
are so, not because they disbelieve in sin, but because they, uncon-
sciously perhaps, really do believe in it. Their old training, for
most of the converts to Eddyism were formerly Protestants of the
New England type, had taught them to regard sin as other sane
people do, and " Science " has not yet destroyed their faculty of
discerning right and wrong. It will be interesting to see how a
third generation, supposing the sect can continue its life that long,
and there is nothing to indicate at present that it cannot, will deport
themselves.
In the teachings outlined above, free will has obviously no
place. God guides man's every action. Such theories are the
servants and allies of temptation. Even Mrs. Eddy realized that
" a belief in sin " could be held even by the elect of her own fold,
as the different scandals of Christian Science indicate. Let us sup-
pose a " scientist " suffering from a " belief in sin." In other
words, let us imagine a man grievously tempted. What effect
would a declaration a mental declaration, merely that there
is no sin have upon the temptation? It is possible that it might
prevent him from yielding to it; possible, but not by any means
probable. On the contrary, given a person of average weakness,
and " scientists " are not above the average human being in this
respect, such a declaration would have rather the result of driving
one headlong into sin, where a reasonable struggle might deter one
from falling. The average " scientist " cannot, as yet, demonstrate
^Science and Health, p. 472. t Retrospection and Introspection, p. 87.
^Science and Health, p. 480. Ibid., p. 475.
I 9 i2.] CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 185
perfectly over his " beliefs in sickness." He has frequently to
call upon his practitioner. Why should it be at all easier for him
to demonstrate over " beliefs in sin ? " And supposing he has
recourse to a practitioner in sin as in sickness, how does the healer
treat the case ? By declaring, as he does in sickness, " There is
nothing the matter." Obviously, then, the last state of that man is
worse than the first.
Let us go to Mrs. Eddy's " sole teacher,"* the Bible. A mul-
titude of texts at once occur to us in which our Savior and His
Apostles admit the reality of sin. We think, for example, imme-
diately of St. John's words, " If we say that we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." But the strongest
text in refutation of Mrs. Eddy's doctrine are the words of Our
Lord in St. John's Gospel. " Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are
remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are re-
tained." Mrs. Eddy could perhaps take refuge in her charge that
commonsense interpretations of the Bible are " unscientific ;" she
could point out that St. John may have meant " a belief in sin," not
sin itself. But even Mrs. Eddy cannot give a " scientific interpreta-
tion " to our Savior's charge to His Apostles. It refutes her
theory completely, for it is inconceivable that Christ would give
His Apostles power to retain that which was non-existent. And
here, too, let us note another inconsistency which this theory of sin
implies in relation to the Scriptures. It is this: It makes of
absolutely no effect the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. If
there was no sin, there was obviously no need for our Redeemer to
become " the propitiation for our sins." Mrs. Eddy evidently saw
this contradiction, and endeavors to dodge the issue with such
cloudy phrases as " the efficacy of the Crucifixion lay in the
practical affection and goodness it demonstrated for mankind."!
We can see quite clearly that this theory of sin is in direct
conflict with the teachings of Christianity. As such, in a sense it is
immoral; but it is also immoral in the wider and more commonly
accepted meaning of the word. Its teachings practically applied
to the temptations of life would not only make but a poor bul-
wark, but would actually encourage one to sin. If there be no sin,
that which I commit, whatsoever it be, is not sin. Webster defines
the word immoral as " Not moral, dishonest, vicious." Surely it is
plain that a doctrine cannot be moral which teaches that there is no
such thing as immorality. Morals are usually considered the duties
human beings have toward one another and to God. Denying that
*Science and Health, preface, p. viii. llbid., p. 24.
i86 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE [Nov.,
human beings can sin absolves them entirely from all duties, moral
or social. It makes them not responsible for their actions, denying
them the exercise of free will. So, too, denying that there can be
dishonesty is essentially dishonest. And in this connection it is
interesting to consider that Mrs. Eddy's " revelation " has been
dishonestly appropriated from Dr. Quimby, who was its real " dis-
coverer and founder." Miss Milmine makes this fact quite evident
in her History of Christian Science. Are we, perhaps, not justified
in thinking that this very doctrine was responsible for the dishonest
foundation of Mrs. Eddy's divine " revelation? " And what more
vicious idea could be implanted in the human mind than this, that
viciousness is an unreality ? There are several scandals in Christian
Science that make most unsavory reading. And here, again, may
we not be justified in tracing this " error " to this immoral dogma
of Eddyism?
Let us examine Christian Science as The Cult of the Immoral in
another of its phases. What does Mrs. Eddy teach regarding mar-
riage? And before entering upon this subject let us remember
that our Savior never condemned marriage. He Who said:
" What God hath joined together let not man put asunder," and
" they being twain are one flesh," was surely one Who rather com-
mended marriage to those whose vocation it was. What does Mrs.
Eddy say? We can find little directly immoral in the chapter on
" Marriage " in Science and Health. In the volume entitled Mis-
cellaneous Writings, however, she expresses herself quite openly.
Answering a question upon this subject, " it is not well for Christian
Scientists to marry," she avers. And the following quotations
from articles in this volume show quite clearly her view, a rather
inconsistent one, considering her life, on " Wedlock."
Until Time matures human growth, marriage and progeny will
continue unprohibited in Christian Science. We look to future
generations for ability to comply with absolute Science, when
marriage shall be found to be man's oneness with God.*
To abolish marriage at this period and maintain morality and
generation would put ingenuity to ludicrous shifts, yet this is
possible in Science, though to-day it is problematic.!
Is marriage nearer right than celibacy? Human knowledge
inculcates that it is, while Science indicates that it is not.$
Human nature has bestowed upon a wife the right to become a
mother; but if the wife esteems not this piivilege, by mutual
consent, exalted and increased affections, she may win a higher.
^Miscellaneous Writings, p. 286. ^Ibid,, p. 286.
$Ibid., p. 288. SIbid., p. 289.
I 9 i2.] CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 187
A man or a woman having entered into wedlock and accepted
the claims of the marriage covenant is held in Science as mor-
ally bound to fulfill all the claims growing out of this contract ;
unless such claims are relinquished by mutual consent of both
parties, or this contract is legally dissolved.*
It is worth while also to call attention to two peculiar state-
ments in Science and Health.
In Science man is the offspring of Spirit. The beautiful,
good and pure constitute his ancestry. His origin is not like
that of mortals in brute instinct, nor does he pass through
material conditions prior to reaching intelligence.!
Proportionally as human generation ceases, the unbroken links
of eternal harmonious being will be discerned, and man not of
the earth earthly, but co-existent with God, will appear.^
Just what do these citations from Mrs. Eddy's writings mean ?
Briefly this: Marriage, like sin, sickness, birth, and death, is but
an illusion, a " belief of mortal mind." Take the first quotation :
" Until time matures human growth, marriage and progeny will
continue unprohibited in Christian Science." When " time does
mature human growth," will marriage and progeny be prohibited
in Science? The inference is Yes. Especially, as Mrs. Eddy
implies, that in those days marriage will be " found to be man's
oneness with God." In fine, then, marriage is a mild form of error
which Mrs. Eddy permits at present. " Suffer it to be so now."
In the second extract, however, she goes a step further : " To abolish
marriage at this period and still maintain morality and progeny
would put ingenuity to ludicrous shifts, yet this is possible in
Science." Her meaning here is a trifle ambiguous. Does she
mean that it is possible to put ingenuity to ludicrous shifts in
Science? This indeed is quite possible, and has frequently been
done, but it is not at all her meaning. Put in other words, or
rather expressed more clearly in the same words, her meaning is:
" It is possible to maintain morality and progeny in Science and yet
abolish marriage." She does not tell us how. These doctrines are,
of course, immoral. For " mental generation " caused one of the
greatest scandals in the history of Eddyism. Practically applied
to the affairs of family life, these teachings yield one of two results
either childless homes or homes built upon dishonest and sinful
^Miscellaneous Writings, p. 298. ^Science and Health, p. 63.
tlbid., p. 69. ^Science and Health, p. 56.
i88 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE [Nov.,
foundations. Mrs. Woodbury, a disciple of Mrs. Eddy's, endeav-
ored to put this teaching into practice. She asserted that her son,
Prince, as she named him, was " an immaculately conceived child."
Did Mrs. Eddy accept this practical demonstration of her teaching?
By no means. She saw at once that her teaching put into practice
would greatly discredit her church. Mrs. Woodbury was promptly
excommunicated. Again, may we not be justified in attributing
her downfall to the immoral doctrines of Eddy ism regarding sin
and marriage?
Take the third citation. Mrs. Eddy teaches that celibacy is
nearer right than marriage. The Church teaches that while celi-
bacy is a higher state of life than matrimony, yet it is possible to
attain a state of sanctity in the world as in the cloister,
although a different degree of sanctity. The Church recognizes
that celibacy is a state of life possible only to the few. Mrs. Eddy
teaches that it is the state of life we should all endeavor to follow.
This, however, is a mild form of dishonesty and immorality com-
pared to the teaching of the fourth quotation : " Human nature has
bestowed upon a wife the right to become a mother; but if the wife
esteem not this privilege she may win a higher." Again
she does not say how. It is universally held that the most beautiful
ideal of womanhood is the mother. Our Blessed Lady, God's
perfect masterpiece, was a mother. How then can a wife win a
higher privilege? Does Mrs. Eddy mean that it is nobler for a
husband and wife to live as brother and sister? Or does she mean
that a wife is justified if, desiring no children, she frustrates the
true end of marriage by artificial means? It matters not which
horn of the dilemma she chooses. The former would be practically
meaningless, and, preached as a general teaching, decidedly immoral.
It would make marriage a ridiculous sham and farce, be an express
disobedience on the part of mankind of God's command, a contempt
of Christ's teachings, and inevitably lead to free love. Of the
other horn what need we say save that it is a cowardly manner of
committing an atrocious crime a crime that is, in essence at least,
infanticide. Doctrines such as these are immoral, and no subtle
analysis is needed to prove it.
Then there is the fourth extract : " A man or woman having
entered into wedlock is held in Science as morally bound to
fulfill all the claims of this contract. Unless such claims are re-
linquished by mutual consent of both parties, or this contract is
legally dissolved." Here Mrs. Eddy goes a step further and
sanctions divorce, though with na'ive inconsistency she says in
1912.] CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 189
Science and Health, " Husbands and wives should never separate
if there is no Christian demand for it"* Strange that Mrs. Eddy's
" sole teacher " should contradict this teaching of hers. " Whom
God hath joined together, let not man put asunder."
But what are we to make of those two citations from Science
and Health, " the precious volume " as Mrs. Eddy lovingly terms
it ? " In Science man is the offspring of Spirit nor does he
pass through material conditions prior to reaching intelligence."
Does she mean here that man is not born in the flesh ? That man is
co-existent with God ? The other quotation seems to indicate this :
" And man not of the earth earthly, but co-existent with God, will
appear." Take, too, the words : " Proportionally as human genera-
tion ceases, the unbroken links of eternal harmonious being will be
discerned." In other words, when " absolute Science " is under-
stood we will no longer have fathers and mothers, we will exist in
life without " birth, death, or decay."f
We have seen in the extract from Miscellaneous Writings
that Mrs. Eddy teaches that it is possible to abolish marriage, and
yet maintain morality and progeny. We have seen, too, how this
doctrine is essentially immoral, and how closely it borders upon
free love. Mrs. Eddy disclaims this likeness, of course ; indeed, she
says in the volume just mentioned, " it was in 1875 that Christian
Science first crossed swords with free love, and the latter fell
hors de combat."% None the less her teachings on marriage open
the door to gross immorality. Taking human nature as it is, and
guided by such ideas and doctrines, how long would it be able to
resist the temptations to which it is inevitably subjected?
Consider, too, in this connection Mrs. Eddy's teachings regard-
ing sin. Place her doctrines of sin and marriage together and
train two generations in them, and what does commonsense tell
us would be the result? Obviously disaster. In this regard it is
interesting to note Mrs. Eddy's definitions of children :
(a) The spiritual thoughts and representations of life, truth,
and love.
(b) Sensual and mortal beliefs; counterfeits of creation,
whose better originals are God's thoughts, not in embryo, but in
maturity; material suppositions of life, substance, and intelli-
gence, opposed to the Science of being.
How Mrs. Eddy explains the inconsistency of these two defin-
itions, it would be interesting to know, though it does not really
*Science and Health, p. 66. ^Miscellaneous Writings, p. 286.
p. 285. ^Science and Health, p. 582
190 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE [Nov.,
concern the issue we are considering. It is the latter part of the
definition which defines children as we understand them. Children
of whom our Savior said, " Of such is the Kingdom of Heaven."
Children, then, are " sensual and mortal beliefs, opposed to
the Science of Being." In other words, children are errors. This
shows clearly the horribly immoral tendency of Eddy ism. For a
moment we will consider how these doctrines have already worked
in practice. Mrs. Woodbury who, as we have seen, cited them in
her own defense, was excommunicated. Mrs. Woodbury was not
to be silenced, however, without a protest; she wrote an expose of
Mrs. Eddy, which was published in The Arena, and Mrs. Eddy in
her turn retorted in her message to the Mother Church, referring to
her as " The Babylonian Woman." Mrs. Woodbury sued for libel.
She lost her case, because the Christian Scientists called to the stand
denied that they understood that Mrs. Woodbury was the " Baby-
lonian woman," though it was commonly so understood when the
message was read. Here, again, may we not be justified in tracing
this " wholesome perjury," as some extravagant critics of Eddyism
term it, to Mrs. Eddy's teaching regarding the nothingness of sin?
To sum up, then, our indictment of Eddyism as The Cult of the
Immoral. It is immoral because, denying sin, it places no obstacle
in the way of one tempted to sin; denying that man is a creature
endowed with free will, it limits his actions, and denies that he is
capable of sin. In thus denying the reality of sin and man's pos-
session of free will, it opens the way to immorality, and affords
no support in time of temptation. Further, it is immoral because
claiming to be founded upon truths contained in the Bible, it is in
reality directly opposed to the fundamental teachings contained in
the Scriptures; and claiming to be Christian, it is in reality un-
Christian, since it makes of no effect our Lord's Crucifixion. It is
immoral because it teaches that marriage is unnecessary for the con-
tinuation of progeny; because it teaches that a wife can attain a
higher ideal of womanhood by " esteeming not the privilege of
becoming a mother." Lastly, it is immoral because it teaches that
children are " errors," thus denying the Scriptural and Christian
teaching concerning them. We have shown that these doctrines,
though perhaps only latently dangerous when held in theory,
become positively immoral when put into practice. We have shown
that Eddyism in holding these doctrines and in teaching them is dis-
honest and vicious ; hence our indictment is none too severe.
[TO BE CONTINUED.]
BALLADE OF UNKNOWN SAINTS.
BY T. LAWRASON RIGGS.
NEAR the rose-leaves flecked with red
Thousands kneel at Francis' fane;
Beaupre's blessed Anne has led
Throngs to seek her help in pain ;
Asian Goa's dusky train
Swarm round Xavier's coffin-throne;
Ye who shrineless still remain,
Pray for us, ye saints unknown!
Ye who, though your sorrows bled
Life-long, could your trust maintain ;
Ye whose h amble solace sped
Trodden souls, anew to strain
By your lives, that scribes disdain,
By your graves, which God alone
Watches, by your dearth of gain,
Pray for us, ye saints unknown!
Perfect crowns adorn each head,
Gold without an earthly grain;
Seeking you, we fear to tread
Holy ground with feet profane.
Yet, oh help us, 'gainst our bane,
Pride, our pampered god of stone !
Knew ye not applause is vain?
Pray for us, ye saints unknown!
Envoi :
Saints we love yet name not,
To receive our homage prone ;
That to know you we attain,
Pray for us, ye saints unknown !
SIR THOMAS MORE AND HIS TIME.
ERASMUS.
BY W. E. CAMPBELL.
IV.
E have seen* how considerable an influence the writ-
ings of Pico della Mirandola exercised on More's
spiritual life, and it was pointed out how this in-
fluence differed from that of Erasmus, which was of
a more exclusively intellectual kind. In this paper
we shall deal with Erasmus and his relations with Sir Thomas
More.
Erasmus was born late in 1466, More early in 1478, so that
Erasmus was More's senior by eleven years. He first came to Eng-
land in 1499, when he was thirty-three, and he came for the last time
in 1517, when he was fifty-one. Of the eighteen years that passed
between these dates, he spent seven years and a few months in the
country, though not of course continuously. His first visit lasted
eight months; his second, in 1505-6, fourteen months. From 1509 to
I 5 I 5 his stay was almost unbroken, and in 1517, as we said, he
returned for a last brief month. In addition to their personal con-
tact, there was a mutual correspondence between the two men, of
which about two dozen letters remain to us.
What manner of man, then, was this Erasmus who, first com-
ing to England at the age of thirty-three, then began and long
continued to exercise so quickening a mental influence upon the
best Englishmen of the time, and upon More, perhaps, the most
quickening of all ?
Before we can place Erasmus either in relation to More or in
relation to the whole European life of his time, we must recognize
that he was the prototype of a new race of critical thinkers who
were prepared to challenge much that was generally accepted, and to
despise much that was generally revered. Previous to the invention
of printing such men as he had very few chances of attracting
universal attention; but after it they found themselves armed with
a new and easy method of distributing their opinions, which soon
enabled them to become the intellectual tribunes of their age. Eras-
mus was the first of these intellectual tribunes, and he had so much
*THE CATHOLIC WORLD, April, 1912, p. 76.
I9I2.J SIR THOMAS MORE AND HIS TIME 193
to say about those who were established in the high places of civil
and religious authority that we are entitled to ask what personal
equipment he brought to the exercise of so responsible an office.
The story of his parentage is well-known, and has been told with
substantial fidelity, but with strong anti-Catholic bias, in Charles
Reade's The Cloister and the Hearth, certainly one of the greatest
novels in our language. His mother and father both died when he
was about twelve, and he was left to the care of three guardians,
whose management of his early life is open to some suspicion of self-
interest. One of them, Peter Winckel, at first undertook his school-
ing ; then he passed to the choir school at Utrecht, and after that to
the famous school at Deventer, which numbered at its height some
two thousand boys. Finally, he was sent to an Augustinian mon-
astery at Steyn, where he made his monastic profession and remained
for ten years, from 1482, when he was sixteen, until 1492, when
he was twenty-six and just recently raised to the priesthood. He
seems to have made great progress with his intellectual studies while
at Steyn. It was here that he became familiar with patristic
writers, especially with St. Augustine and St. Jerome. To a friend
who at a later date recommended him to read St. Jerome's Letters
he replies : " I have not only read them long ago, but have written
every one of them out with my own fingers." To the same friend
he also mentions his favorite Latin authors, " My authorities in
poetry are Maro, Horace, Naso, Juvenal, Statius, Martial, Claudian,
Persius, Lucan, Tibullus, and Propertius; in prose, Tully, Ouin-
tilian, Sallust, Terence (sic)."
But it must be admitted that Erasmus, though making full use
of the intellectual opportunities afforded by an Augustinian monas-
tery, made little use of the religious opportunities there offered him.
In fact it seems quite evident that as soon as he felt himself grow-
ing out of the mental possibilities of the place, he became discon-
tented with the religious life altogether, and his superiors, under-
standing the nature of his discontent, thought it wise to release
him from immediate discipline.
Between 1492, when he left his monastery at Steyn, and 1499,
when he first visited England, Erasmus led a varied and interesting
life, as those letters of his, in which he has caught for ever the
living spirit and picture of his time, so plainly show. At first he
secured the patronage of the bishop of Cambrai, but finding court
life at Brussels unfavorable to study, he moved on to Paris, where
he stayed with some intermissions until 1498. He first of all
VOL. xcvi. 13.
194 SIR THOMAS MORE AND HIS TIME [Nov.,
took up his residence at the College of Montaigu, where his studies
were principally of a theological nature. " He was (now) a man
of mature age, in priest's orders, and already the most accomplished
scholar of his time." While there he preached some sermons,
probably at the great Augustinian Abbey Church of St. Genevieve,
which was not far off. But Montaigu was a hard-faring ecclesias-
tical seminary, ill-suited to Erasmus' delicate nature and fastidious
temperament. Each Lent his health broke, and he had to return
to Holland for recovery. It was ruled by John Standonk, a prelate
of established character and reputation, who at one time rather
ruffled Erasmus' vanity, but at a later period the latter was glad to
stand with him and John Mauburn in their attempt to reform the
French Augustinian monasteries. Standonk determined to make his
seminary an exemplary place, and to keep it, by its severe discipline
and meager diet, for that poorer class of students for whom it had
been founded. He certainly succeeded, but his very success brought
upon his institution the very unjust criticisms of Erasmus and of
Rabelais, who merely repeated Erasmus in his Gargantua*
Erasmus left Montaigu before the end of 1495, g m g to Hol-
land, and returning to Paris again in 1496. His life now took a
more sociable turn, " vixit verius quam. studuit" he writes of him-
self at this time. He resided at a rather sumptuous boarding-house
in the Latin Quarter, much frequented by young Englishmen of
rich or noble parentage. Here he made the acquaintance of Lord
Mount joy, who was to introduce him to More, William Blount,
Thomas Grey, and Robert Fisher, a cousin to Blessed John Fisher.
Living under such conditions was a more expensive affair than at
Montaigu, and so he was obliged to take pupils, and to make the
most of, if not out of, his wealthy patrons. He appears to have
been treated with marked respect at his boarding-house, and even
dates a letter written to his prior at Steyn, E mea bibliotheca,
speaking as if the whole household were his own. In the same
letter he dilates with a rather unusual fervor upon his devotion to
purely theological studies, and one cannot help surmising that all
this was written rather with a wish to edify his religious superior
than to inform him quite correctly of his actual manner of life.
The conditions of his life at this time were evidently congenial
to Erasmus ; but there were people about him who were scandalized
by his indifference to certain religious observances, and busied
themselves in carrying tales to his friends in Holland. But it
*See Colloquies, trans. Bailey, pp. 38-98; Rabelais, Works, tr. vol. i. ; c. xxvii.
1912.] SIR THOMAS MORE AND HIS TIME 195
may be said that Erasmus was a man both by nature and habit
little inclined to excesses of any kind, and the solid regard in which
he was held by such people as More and Colet* confirms us in this
opinion. On the other hand he had already acquired too prominent
a European fame to be free from criticism and attack; and, un-
fortunately for himself, he was too thin-skinned to receive such
with the indifference or even with the silence that they often
deserved.
We come now to the time of Erasmus' first visit to England
in the June of 1499. He stayed at the beginning with his young
patron, Lord Mountjoy, at the London house of Sir William Say,
Mount joy's father-in-law, and here it seems almost certain that
he first met More. Soon after another meeting took place, of which
he himself speaks. " I was staying at Lord Mountjoy's country
house (at Greenwich) when Thomas More came to see me, and
took me out for a walk as far as the next village (of Eltham),
where all the king's children except Prince Arthur, who was then
the eldest son, were being educated." It was on this occasion that
Erasmus first saw the young Duke of York, afterwards King Henry
VIII., and from that time he had a free entry into the best English
society social and intellectual. He seems to have thoroughly en-
joyed himself, and his praises of English life are too well known
to be repeated. More could not have seen a great deal of him on
this visit, for he soon went off to Oxford, where he stayed with
Prior Charnock; but they corresponded several times, as his only
surviving letter shows, and he returned to stay with Lord Mountjoy
in London or at Greenwich for a month before his departure for
Paris in January, 1500. During the interval of five and a half
years which passed between his first and second visit to England,
Erasmus devoted himself to the study of Greek.
My Greek studies are almost too much for my courage [he
writes to his friend Batt at the end of 1500]. A little money
must be scraped together from somewhere with which I may get
clothes, buy the whole works of Jerome (upon which I am
preparing commentaries), as well as Plato, procure Greek books
and hire the services of a Greek teacher. . . .It is incredible how
my heart burns to bring all my poor lucubrations to completion,
and at the same time to attain some moderate capacity in Greek.
I shall then devote myself entirely to the study of Sacred
Literature, as for some time I have longed to do.
*See Epistle 99.
196 'SIR THOMAS MORE AND HIS TIME [Nov.,
About the same time he writes again:
I have long ardently wished to illustrate with a commentary
the Epistles of St. Jerome, and in daring to conceive so great a
design, which no one has hitherto attempted, my heart is in-
flamed and directed by some divine power I am not unaware
of the audacity of my project what a task it will be, in the
first place, to clear away the errors which during so many ages
have become established in the text. . . .For my own part, I may
be led astray by my partiality for that holy man, but when
I compare the speech of Jerome with that of Cicero, I seem
to miss something in the prince of eloquence himself.
Poverty was never far off in these days.
You think perhaps that I am sufficiently provided for, if I
am not reduced to beggary [he writes to Batt] . I on the other
hand am disposed to throw up my studies altogether, if I cannot
obtain that which literature requires; and that is a life not al-
together sordid and miserable.
And then once more, with reference to the great end he had
in view, he writes to the Abbot of St. Bertin :
I see it is the merest madness to touch with the little finger
that principal part of Theology, which treats of the divine
mysteries, without being furnished with the apparatus of Greek
.... I have on my side all the sacred authority of the Pontifical
Council .... I wish to follow the path which St. Jerome, with
the noble hand of so many ancient Fathers, invites us. ,
In those early days on the eve of the Reformation, and before
its consequences were dreamt of, much less discerned, Erasmus was
undoubtedly regarded by many Englishmen of eminent orthodoxy
as an apostle of sound Catholic learning. Whether, as time went
on, these men were confirmed or shaken in their good opinion of
him one cannot venture to say. But many who live now, after the
fact of the Reformation and amid its disastrous social and moral
consequences, must feel bound to hesitate before they pronounce
an opinion upon the spirit and quality of his work. One cannot
help asking oneself again and again, as one reads his letters, and
the other records of his life, whether he was the kind of man
fitted to revive the best Catholic traditions of textual criticism and
commentary. Had he the preliminary moral qualities for such a
delicate and difficult task ? Was his spirit the spirit of faith ? Did
he fulfill the ideal of the Catholic scholar and man of learning in
1912.] SIR THOMAS MORE AND HIS TIME 197
such a complete manner, for instance, as that great Benedictine,
John Mabillon fulfilled it ? " Anyone," writes Abbot Butler, " who
thinks of Mabillon as a mere erudit altogether fails to understand
the man or the source of his greatness. His works and his method
are what they are because he was a devoted monk, ever true to the
inward spirit and the outward practices of his monastic life. Had
we to enumerate the most salient features of his life and character
we should give the following : Love of prayer, zeal for the monastic
life, devotion to ecclesiastical studies, unswerving fidelity to truth,
a singular sweetness of disposition, and a modesty and humility
that were as proverbial as his learning."* Tried by such a standard
as this, Erasmus, who was a monk and a priest as well as a scholar,
falls very far short; and just in so much must his work and its effect
have fallen short of perfection. It must not be forgotten, however,
in justice to Erasmus, that in all probability he was forced into
the religious life against his will, and consequently that he had no
true monastic vocation. But this does not affect the question as to
whether in his life and in his work he remained " ever true to the
inward spirit and the outward practices " of the Catholic Faith.
More himself had no monastic vocation, but he was " ever true to
the inward spirit and the outward practices "of the Church. It
is necessary, then, to be careful in our judgment of Erasmus, and
while giving him all the credit possible on the score of intellectual
acuteness and industry, not to exaggerate his services to the Church
beyond their value, nor forget to record, on the other hand, where
he positively failed in this respect.
No one will dispute Erasmus' zeal for the revival of Scriptural
and patristic studies; no one can doubt that such a revival was
necessary. But what we also desire to know is the spirit in which
that revival was initiated, and the results which can be traced to it.
Was it properly related to the authority of the Church and to the
depositum fidei with which the Church is entrusted ? This question
should be answered by objective evidence, and not by the subjective
opinions of writers however well-informed. All that in fairness
can be done in a paper like this is to put the readers in actual touch
with certain of Erasmus' more characteristic and popular writings
they will then be able to formulate their own answers to this
important question. Two easily accessible works of his may be
taken as samples, the Enchiridion Militis Christiani, a manual of
piety which attained great popularity, and was translated into many
*See The Downside Review, vol. xii., pp. 116-132.
198 SIR THOMAS MORE AND HIS TIME [Nov.,
languages, and the famous Encomium Moriae or Praise of Folly.
Both these books were written during the time of Erasmus' ac-
quaintance with More, the latter actually in his house if not indeed
at his suggestion. They show Erasmus in two entirely different
styles, but nevertheless they show the same man choosing now one
and now another means towards the same end.
The Enchiridion Militis Christiani was written between 1501
and 1503, and was published in the latter year. Writing in 1523,
Erasmus himself describes its inception.
A common friend of mine and of Batt was in the Castle
(of Tournehem), whose wife was a lady of singular piety. The
husband was no one's enemy so much as his own, a man of gay
life, but in other respects an agreeable companion. He had
no regard for any divines except me; and his wife, who was
much concerned about her husband's salvation, applied to me
through Batt to set down some notes in writing, for the purpose
of calling him to some sense of religion, without his perceiving
that it was done at the instance of his wife
The military gentleman, for whose benefit it was compiled, is
reported to have said that there was more holiness in the book than
in the writer. As compared with the traditional manuals of Catho-
lic piety the Enchiridion lays great stress upon the intellectual side
of religion. Prayer and almsdeeds have ever been the staple
weapons of the layman's spiritual warfare, but Erasmus places
beside these a third, knowledge, which at times he appears to think
of even equal importance.
Whosoever [he says] will take upon him to fight against
the whole host of vices, of the which seven be counted as chief
captains, must provide him two special weapons, prayer and
knowledge, otherwise called learning. Prayer verily is the more
excellent, as she that cometh and talketh familiarly with
Almighty God. Yet for all this doctrine is no less necessary.
In another place he compares prayer and knowledge to Aaron
and Moses who led the Israelites out of Egypt.
I cannot tell whether that thou, fled from Egypt, mightest
without great jeopardy commit thyself to so long a journey,
so hard and so full of difficulty, without the captains Aaron and
Moses. Aaron, which was charged with things dedicate to
the service of God's temple, betokeneth prayer. By Moses
is figured the knowledge of the law of God.
1912.] SIR THOMAS MORE AND HIS TIME 199
And again he writes:
The surest thing of all is to be occupied in deeds of piety
Yet lest thou shouldst despise the help of knowledge, consider
one thing. The Israelites were never so bold as to provoke
the Amalachytes until they had been refreshed with manna from
heaven and water running out of the hard rock .... And what
thing, I pray thee, could more properly have signified the knowl-
edge of the secret law of God than did manna? For first in
that it sprang not out of the earth, but rained down from heaven.
By this property thou perceivest the difference between the doc-
trine of God and the doctrine of man. For all holy Scripture
came by divine inspiration and from God the author. In that
it is small or little in quantity is signified the humility, lowliness
or homeliness of the style, under rude words including great
mystery. That it is white, by this property is signified the
purity and cleanness of God's law. For there is no doctrine
of man which is not defiled with some black spot of error, only
the doctrine of Christ everywhere bright, everywhere pure and
clean.
In the same way the water running out of the hard rock is used
to signify the knowledge of the law of God, (for) what
signifieth water hid in the veins of the earth but mystery covered
or hid in the literal sense? What meaneth the same conveyed
abroad but mystery opened and expounded ? Wherefore if thou
dedicate thyself wholly to the study of Scripture, and exercise
thy mind day and night in the law of God, no fear shall trouble
thee, but thou shalt against all assaults of thine enemies be
armed and exercised also.
Erasmus also defends the study of profane authors as being
helpful to that study of Sacred Scripture itself. " It shall be no
rebuke to thee," he quaintly argues, " if after the example of
Solomon thou nourish up at home in thy house sixty queens, eighty
sovereign ladies, and damsels innumerable of secular wisdom : so that
the wisdom of God be above all other, thy best beloved, thy dove,
thy sweetheart, which only seemeth beautiful." With regard to
those who have interpreted Scripture, he advises his penitent " to
choose them above all that go farthest from the letter, which chiefly
next after Paul be Origene, Ambrose, Jerom, and Augustyne,"
and he considers that the lack of fervor so much to be observed
200 SIR THOMAS MORE AND HIS TIME [Nov.,
among many professedly religious men is due to a mistaken pref-
erence for a literal rather than a spiritual knowledge of Scripture.
Again, we find in another place:
Bread is not so natural meat to the body as the word of God
is meat for thy soul. If that seem bitter, if thy mind rise against
it, why doubtest thou yet but that the mouth of thy soul is out
of taste and infected with some disease ?
But the Word of God must be approached with proper dis-
positions.
Thou must ever remember that Sacred Scripture may not be
touched but with clean and washen hands, that is with high
pureness of mind, lest that which of itself is a preservative or
treacle, by thine own fault, turn into poison. ... (Thou wilt
remember) that Oza, which feared not to set his profane and
unclean hands to the ark of God (inclining on one side), was
punished with sudden death for his lewd service.
Erasmus, while trying to redress what he thought deficient in
the piety of his day, was not altogether one-sided in his advocacy.
He knew that there was another and a deeper side to it than that
which was merely intellectual, but his own temperament, training,
and mentality urged him to insist especially on the intellectual side.
Know thyself and pass not thy bounds, keep thee within thy
lists. It is better to have less knowledge and more love, than
to have more knowledge and not to love. Knowledge, therefore,
hath the mastery or chief room amongst mean things .... So only
shall the soul (as Socrates saw full well) depart happily from
her body at the last end, if af orehand she have diligently through
true knowledge recorded and practiced death, and have also long
time before by the despising of things corporal, and by the con-
templation and loving of things spiritual, used herself to be as
it were in a manner absent from the body.
After speaking of human frailty, he finally urges valiant per-
severance.
When thou hast grounded thyself upon a sure purpose, set
upon it and go to it lustily : man's mind never proposed anything
fervently that he was not able to bring to pass .... Thou hast
sworn a great while agone and hast holily promised in the time
1912.] SIR THOMAS MORE AND HIS TIME 201
of baptism to die as touching sin; to die as touching carnal
desires ; to die as touching the world .... and this is the common
or general profession of all Christian men. Either we must
perish, or else without exception go this way to health, whether
we be knights or ploughmen. Notwithstanding though it for-
tune not to all men to attain the perfect following of the Head,
yet all must enforce with hands and feet to come thereto. He
hath a great part of a Christian man's living, which with all his
heart, with a sure and steadfast purpose, hath determined to
be a Christian man.
I have been at pains to give with some exactness Erasmus'
teaching on the necessity of Scriptural study : first, because of the
importance he himself attached to it; secondly, because of the novel
way in which it is there presented; and, thirdly, because of its
appropriateness to the times in which he wrote. We should remem-
ber when reading this little manual that the substantial forms of
popular piety had been laid down by the Church, and practiced by
her children, centuries before the invention of printing. It would
have been little use in those earlier days to have made spiritual read-
ing a sine qua non of popular piety. Our Lord came upon earth
to set the pattern and practice of human life, which all could
imitate and adopt should they so choose. And the Church has
always followed Him in His heavenly condescension to the ways
of common humanity.
Until after the invention of printing, book-knowledge was
too rare and difficult an attainment to be named as a general
means of sanctification, but after the invention of printing the
case stood differently. There is no suggestion, of course, that
mere book-knowledge ought ever to rank in importance with prayer
and almsdeeds, but this much should be allowed, that since reading
has come to fill so tremendous a place in the ordinary life of men,
reading itself should be hallowed by the Church's blessing, and
used as a powerful means to holiness of life. It must be acknowl-
edged, however, that every new discovery vouchsafed to the human
mind has great possibilities of initial abuse. We may say indeed
that the Protestant Reformation was the great initial abuse of the
invention of printing. But the mission of Holy Church is to
restore all things in Christ, even the Printed Word. I think it may
be claimed for Erasmus that he saw the necessity of this great
restoration, and did something to hasten its approach.
202 SIR THOMAS MORE AND HIS TIME [Nov.,
V.
Erasmus left England in the January of 1500, and did not
return again until 1505, devoting himself during the interval to the
study of Greek with his characteristic ardor and thoroughness.
When he did return he stayed at first with Lord Mount joy at the
latter's London house, which stood opposite what is now the
Herald's College. More was just married, and Erasmus was only
too delighted to stay with him when Mount joy and his courtly
friends were out of town. At this time, during 1506, More, it
will be remembered, was none too engrossed by his professional
duties owing to royal disfavor; there was all the more opportunity
on that account for very considerable intercourse between the two
friends. They must have devoted a good deal of time to the dis-
cussion of the New Learning and its beneficial effects on sound
piety. What Erasmus thought of it I have tried to show above,
and More's view, though expressed in his own way, was in sub-
stantial agreement with that of Erasmus. They spent some time
in making Latin versions of Lucian's dialogues.
At about the same time they also engaged in a sort of literary
tournament, each making a Latin translation of Lucian's Tyranni-
cida, and, each, again, composing a reply to Lucian's argument.
Erasmus speaks of this in a letter to Richard Whitford, " the
Wretch of Syon," which also contains a reference to More as
charming as it is sincere. " I do not think," he says, " unless the
vehemence of my love leads me astray, that Nature ever formed
a mind more present, ready, sharp-sighted, and subtle, or, in a
word, more absolutely furnished with every kind of faculty, than his.
Add to this the power of expression equal to his intellect, a singular
cheerfulness of character and an abundance of wit, but only of the
candid sort; and you miss nothing that should be found in a perfect
advocate."
Erasmus left England about the middle of 1506, and paid a
visit to Italy, which need not concern us here. In 1 509, Henry VII.
died and was succeeded by Henry VIII. The new accession was
hailed with delight by all lovers of sound learning, and Erasmus was
induced to come once more to England, and hoped to sun himself
in this new splendor at once so royal and so learned. He found
More, too, in his house at Bucklersbury, rejoicing in similar hopes
of royal favor. To begin with, Erasmus was unwell and suffering
from one of his painful attacks. He could not devote himself at
1 9i 2.] SIR THOMAS MORE AND HIS TIME 203
once to serious study; so he amused himself by jotting down in
satirical vein a sort of haphazard criticism of men and things which
he had thought out on his journey from Italy. One day, a company
of friends being gathered at More's house, he brought out the
results of this desultory effort, and so thoroughly delighted them
all that they insisted upon his making a book of it. A week later
the Encomium Moriae or Praise of Folly was finished.*
In this work, Folly, attended by her retainers, Self-Love, For-
getfulness, Laziness, Pleasure, Sensuality, Sound Sleep, Intemper-
ance, and Madness, introduces herself. She points out that she alone
is the universal, source of mirth and jollity, to whom all, even kings
and potentates, owe their allegiance. The Stoics held that man wise
who was led by reason and that one foolish who was driven by
passion. But, Erasmus claims, since human nature contains a pound
of passion to every ounce of reason, surely all men are bounden
subjects of Folly, no matter what their style, state, calling, or
profession. Erasmus then sets out to touch the weak spot of
Folly in everything and everybody. He spares neither high nor
low, and what oftentimes makes his sallies so piquant is the wicked
joy he takes in touching most sharply upon the follies of those
most highly placed. In our own time and state, so far removed
from the plain speaking of our pre-re formation forefathers, the
very law of the land penalizes candor exercised at the expense of
the great and rich. The fool, who could say what he liked about
kings, nobles, and bishops, has been banished as an irreverent im-
propriety.
But in More's time a healthy, humble, and spiritual common-
sense granted the privilege to the fool a privilege often abused
it is true of criticizing the great. Nay that same sense encour-
aged it as a help to make that vocation the more certain which is
so precarious with us all. The spirit that grants such a privilege
was honest and without hypocrisy. It was frankly recognized that
pride a deadly sin might dwell in the highest place, and it was
well at any and all cost to root out pride. Let the fool do for us,
then, what we oftentimes have not courage to do for ourselves.
Pride was not then made a virtue as it is now; pride was not
allowed to strut in arrogance uncondemned as it is now by a
generation too exclusively devoted to the service of Mammon. At
that time both wit and humor were used as spiritual weapons in
the warfare against it, and under such a banner the critic might
enjoy the widest liberty.
*EpistIe 212.
204 SIR THOMAS MORE AND HIS TIME [Nov.,
In his Encomium Moriae Erasmus made Folly find votaries in
every walk of life. The gentleman of leisure; the grammarians
and teachers ; aspiring authors ; courtiers, kings, priests, bishops, and
Popes none escape the shafts of Erasmus' criticism. We also
may allow him the liberty that goes with cap and bells, and learn in
humility what we may from the fool, but we cannot refrain from
saying that the part of the Encomium which shows Erasmus weak-
est is that in which he deals with the monks.
Here he is nothing if not prejudiced and malicious. There
are two ways in which just criticism may be undertaken. There
is the heavier way of direct reproof, and there is the lighter, but
no less effective, way of humor. There can be little question as to
which is the more difficult. Humorous criticism requires in the
critic a very high and special temper of heart and mind; for it
draws heavily upon all the resources of a properly developed and
finely balanced character. The highest kind of humorous criticism
can only be expected from a truly compassionate man, and can
almost be defined in the words of that well-known maxim : " To
understand is to forgive all." Erasmus sadly lacked this great
spiritual quality of compassion, and hence it is that his criticism
should rather be described as witty than humorous, for it only
embraced these weaker and more negative qualities, such as irony,
satire, and sarcasm, which are always at the command of a thin and
biting intellectuality.
In dealing with the ecclesiastical abuses of his day, Eras-
mus made the profound and un-Catholic mistake of judging
according to his own private judgment a very partial and
superficial judgment at best. He judged the monks, for in-
stance, not according to their own traditional and objective
ideals, but according to his own subjective ones. The first in-
tention of monasticism is not an intellectual one at all, it is a relig-
ious one; and Erasmus (who appears to have entered into religion
without or even against his consent) seems never to have solidly
grasped this simple truth. He did the monks the great injustice
of judging them by a standard they had never professed to follow
by a standard, indeed, which Our Lord Himself had never pro-
fessed or followed. The end of monastic life is communion with
God. A " religious " who would arrive at that needs a discipline
both long and severe a process of self -limitation and self-refusal
which must be carried into every detail and department of his being.
The good things of body, mind, and will must be held at a dis-
tance before their true use and value can be properly estimated;
191 2.] SIR THOMAS MORE AND HIS TIME 205
and even after that it is better that some of them should be re-
nounced forever. A soul is best fitted for communion with God
by becoming simple and at one with itself; and in order to arrive
at that happy state it must be in resolute and difficult retreat from
multiplicity in all its forms. Just as there is an indulgence in the
pleasures of sense which destroys the unity of human character, so
too, there are mental indulgences which lead a man from great to
little issues, " the little foxes that destroy the vines." And, fin-
ally, the will must be simplified. Not until these three have be-
come one in a constant and largely unconscious habit, working
throughout the whole man, can the soul be said to have embraced
the life which leads simply and solely to God.
Erasmus was unfitted by habit, sympathy, knowledge, and ex-
perience for the work of moral criticism. He had great mental
talents of a certain order, and had he limited himself to the field of
textual as distinguished from that of moral criticism, he would have
left behind him a more unassailable reputation.
The Encomium Moriae cannot be called an edifying composi-
tion, for it was never intended to be such. After all, at so great a
distance from the time and circumstances under which it was written,
it may be wiser to accept More's verdict upon it than to venture
upon one of our own. A young English monk had written to
remonstrate with him on his continued friendship with the author
of the Encomium. His reply is sufficiently direct.
The Encomium Moriae contains more wisdom and less folly
than many books that I know. I shall not defend it. It needs
no defence He sneers, you exclaim, at the religious orders.
Why be so sensitive? When he ridicules your ceremonies he
ridicules only the superstitious use of them Erasmus is
the dearest friend I have.
More makes further favorable references to the Moriae in his
well-known letter to Dorpius (1516). Again, he writes to Erasmus
in 1517 : "I am not surprised to hear of that black Carmelite being
opposed to you, unlike you, as he is, both in learning and character ;
but that he inveighs against the Praise of Folly is scarcely credible
a man of folly all compact ! " Finally, in his Confutation of
Tindale (1532), he replies to Tyndall's sneer at Erasmus.
He asketh me why I have not contended with Erasmus whom
he calleth my darling, of all this long while for translating of this
word ecclesia into this word congregatio. And then he cometh
forth with his set proper taunt that I favor him of likelihood
for making of his book of Moria in my house.
206 SIR THOMAS MORE AND HIS TIME [Nov.,
There had he hit me low, save for lack of a little fault,
1 have not contended with Erasmus, my darling, because I found
no such malicious intent with Erasmus, my darling, as I find
with Tyndall. For had I found with Erasmus, my darling,
the shrewd intent and purpose that I find in Tyndall, Erasmus,
my darling, should be no more my darling. But I find in
Erasmus, my darling, that he detesteth and abhorreth the errors
and heresies that Tyndall plainly teacheth and abideth by, and
therefore Erasmus, my darling, shall be my darling still
As touching the Moria in which Erasmus doth merely
touch and reprove such faults and follies as he found in any
kind of people, perusing every state and condition spiritual
and temporal, leaving almost none untouched Howbeit
that book of Moria doth in deed but jest upon the abuses of
such things (that is reverence to saints and holy relics) after
the manner of the divers parts in a play, and yet not so far,
neither by a great deal, as the messenger doth in my dialogue.*
Of the further intercourse between More and Erasmus, while
the latter remained in England, we know very little ; but after they
had separated, their correspondence shows them as intimate as ever,
at any rate down to the year 1517. Erasmus took great interest in
More's Utopia, and undertook to see it through the press. But
after that More became so involved in business that he had little
time for writing, or at least for writing those lengthy letters so dear
to his friend. There can be no doubt that More owed a very great
deal to Erasmus' intellectual influence, and he seems to have suc-
ceeded in drawing from him all that was good, and leaving behind
all that was of a doubtful quality. We must remember in justice
to them both that what they thought and said and wrote together
was thought and said and written before the Reformation had
come to a head, and before its consequences were at all clearly fore-
seen. That there were very great ecclesiastical abuses is certain,
and that both Erasmus and More were most anxious to remove them
is evident. It is difficult to imagine what means they could have
taken towards the checking of these abuses other than those which
they availed themselves of. More had as much wit and humor as
Erasmus, and he had far more prudence and charity ; he was an im-
measurably greater man. Erasmus was out for the intellectual
heights, but he had no such passion for the moral ones. More had
both these passions blended at a white heat in a splendid and fruitful
amity.
*E. W., pp. 421, 422.
PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF FATHER
MATTHEW RUSSELL.
BY KATHARINE TYNAN.
.THER RUSSELL, who died on the I2th of Sep-
tember, 1912 a day of mourning henceforth to
many of us till we are past all mourning was in
a sense, I believe, the most beloved priest in Dublin.
Everyone, high and low, called him " Father Matt ;"
and that, I think, was eloquent in itself, for humanity, from the
schoolboy upward, has a way of familiarizing the name of the one
to whom it gives its special affection.
All sorts and conditions of men, women and children, were
at the funeral. At the graveside we were surrounded by Dublin's
shabby and Dublin's poor, women with crying children clinging
to their skirts, poor broken-down old men, everyone his pensioners
for spiritual or material gifts.
I was reminded of a day he and I walked along a mountain
road. I was revisiting my old home, and he had come to pay
me a visit; I met him at the junction of the roads where the light
railway had deposited him. As we came along the road we met
a tramp, who looked about as bad and dangerous a specimen of
his class as one could imagine. He begged, in a ruffianly way, and
Father Russell gave him an alms, calling him " my poor child."
The contrast between the little, rosy, dear, benign priest, the " Little
Robin of God," and his terrible " child " was almost humorous.
" I wonder what the poor fellow's history was," he said, as we
walked along; "how he came to look like that." Which showed
that he was not unaware of his " child's " unpleasantness.
He was my dear, tender, and faithful friend and father for
some thirty years. He had two missions, one to the literature
of Ireland and its young and old writers; the other to the poor.
His mission to the poor is only known to the poor, and they are inar-
ticulate. Everyone is talking about his mission to Irish literature,
and how much he did to help it always; but just at the cross-roads
where an Anglo-Irish literature was struggling to emerge from
all sorts of weak and poor traditions, his fostering was something
not to be over-estimated.
208 FATHER MATTHEW RUSSELL [Nov.,
It is quite thirty years ago since by special invitation I knocked
at the door of 87 St. Stephen's Green, Dublin, and asked for
Father Russell. I had at that time practically no literary friends :
I" had just written a long legend in verse of Blessed James of Ulm,
a memory of the Dominican Convent where I went to school,
and by happy thought had sent it to Father Russell. By return
came the kindest letter possible.
When that door was opened to me, a wilderness of doors
opened with it. It was really the beginning of my literary life. I
had not then any books of my own, though the house was full
of all manner of books. The very first book given me by its writer,
the predecessor of many a one, was Emmanuel, which Father
Russell gave me that day. I was very young and correspondingly
foolish. I talked in a pietistic strain about the effect his religious
poetry had had on me. The brisk, matter-of-fact way he received
these remarks has always remained with me. He had a very brisk,
bright way with him. He had a gift of always being at home
when you called. For many years I visited him, perhaps once
or twice a month. He must have gone to Gardiner Street soon
after that first meeting, for I never remember him at St. Stephen's
Green again. Gardiner Street, up among the dreary northern
streets of Dublin, was the goal of my pilgrimage for many a day.
There used to be a very friendly porter at Gardiner Street
in those days named Pat. I mention him because he was a pro-
tege of Father Russell's, who helped him afterwards, and found
employment for him when he had fallen on evil days. Pat used
to welcome me nearly as warmly as Father Russell. Having
set a chair, and opened or shut a window with affectionate solicitude,
he would go off to hunt for Father Russell, while the visitor was
left to contemplate a table which might be adorned by a blotting
book, a bare floor, horsehair chairs placed at intervals around the
wall, a bookcase which showed only curtains inside its panes, and
some religious pictures on the walls.
Sometimes you might have to wait awhile, for Father Russell
might be in the confessional or otherwise engaged, but you always
waited with a happy expectancy, although the room was bare,
and the view through or over a wire blind of Upper Gardiner
Street very depressing. Many feet passed along the corridor.
You might deceive yourself into hoping that one pair of coming feet
belonged to Father Russell, but when he came you knew it. He
used to come with a brisk trotting sound. The door would open,
1912.] FATHER MATTHEW RUSSELL 209
and in would come the sunshine. " Good morning, my dear child.
Upon my word this is very good of you." Then you might
talk of everything under the sun. I am sure I stayed inordinately
long many a time. He never dismissed me, and I can never
remember by the smallest sign that he wearied of me.
Yet he was very careful about the convenances for other
people! He had the most unexpected little vein of worldly wis-
dom, at which we laughed with a tender laughter. When I went
to see my very first literary person a literary person at that time
was very great to me he used to warn me : " Now, just twenty
minutes, dear, is quite long enough for a first visit." In the same
way he was a stickler for dress. He never quite forgave a visitor
from overseas who had accompanied him to a garden party wearing
a grey flannel shirt. Almost to the last you could stir him up to
indignation about it. He would always make the same reference
to a relative of his own, who had gone through all sorts of diffi-
culties in order to reach his dress clothes, which he needed unex-
pectedly when far away from his base.
He was the most tender comforter imaginable. Many a one
stripped by death of their joy found comfort and help with him.
Yet he used to speak of himself as " a hard-hearted little fellow,"
always illustrating it with the same anecdote. When he was a boy
at Newry he had gone into some public reading-room, and had
read in a newspaper of the sudden death of a cousin. On carrying
home the intelligence some considerable time later, his mother had
thought that he was too overcome to carry the bad news at once.
" But, not a bit of it," he would say. " I had just waited to read
all the papers I wanted to read. I was always a hard-hearted
little fellow." He would even lug in his being a hard-hearted
little fellow to explain why he could comfort people. " Upon my
word," he would say, " I don't feel those things at all. Not a
bit of it. We must be Christians, and look at death as Our Lord
meant us to. Other people feel things too much to give comfort.
I'm such a hard-hearted little fellow that I can go through with it."
From my own knowledge I may say that he had the most
extraordinary efficacy in comforting mourning mothers. He wrote
a very holy, beautiful, and comfortable little book for them espe-
cially. He had the healing touch; he could pluck the poison from
the wound, lift up the despair and the rebellion to an amazing,
unexpected comfort. Like most priests he had a great tenderness
for children. For women he had that lovely feeling which seems
VOL. XCVI. 14.
210 FATHER MATTHEW RUSSELL [Nov.,
to belong to the highest type of priests a tenderness as for a child,
mingled with something of the love for the mother, which is the
one perfect human tie the priest need not cast away from him, and
the love for the Mother of God.
He opened many doors to me. One of the first friends he
gave me was Mrs. Atkinson, who wrote the Life of Mary Aiken-
head, the Foundress of the First Sisters of Charity, now among
the candidates for beatification. Through Mrs. Atkinson I came
to know Rosa Mulholland, or at least our first meeting took place
at Mrs. Atkinson's house. That and the friendship which followed
were lovely things in their time.
In those days Father Russell had been some ten years editor
of the Irish Monthly. From the first his contributors were notable.
If he had a mission to young writers, he had a great piety towards
his contemporaries and those writers who had influenced his youth.
Another conspicuous loyalty was to his friends and the members
of his own family. They were worth being loyal to. His uncle,
Dr. Russell, President of Maynooth College, of whom his nephew
wrote as " a nineteenth-century gentlemanly saint," had his part
in the greatest event in the life of the Catholic Church in England
during the last century. Newman wrote after his conversion:
" Dr. Russell had perhaps more to do with my conversion than any-
one else. He came to see me in the summer of 1845. I do not remem-
ber that he said a single word to me about religion. He let me alone."
The Russell family was indeed a distinguished one. Of course, the
one most in the public eye was Lord Russell of Killowen, Father
Russell's elder brother, who died Lord Chief Justice of England.
Father Russell was oddly like his great brother. Indeed
knowing one you must recognize the other. Only all that was rapid
and dominating in Lord Russell's glance was changed to something
winning, kind, and gentle in Father Russell's. Lady Russell was
literary as well as her two sisters. I think an early Irish Monthly
contains a story by her. Father Russell used to say she would have
gone far if she had been able to devote herself to literature.
The work of Rosa Mulholland, now Lady Gilbert, needs no
praise from me. I have only to say that when Father Russell took
charge of the Irish Monthly, he brought with him in Rosa Mulhol-
land the most precious asset the magazine had or was likely to have
except himself. Her exquisite stories and poems, more than any-
thing else, have made the little magazine memorable.
Father Russell had just the friendships one would expect him
to have. Judge O'Hagan, himself a writer of ringing patriotic
1912.] FATHER MATTHEW RUSSELL 211
poetry, one of the choice little band of high-minded Irish gentle-
men who were influenced by the lofty ideals and teachings of
Thomas Davis, was one of his dearest friends of those days.
Another friend w^vs Aubrey de Vere; and a more beautiful
and benign spirit than his never inhabited mortal frame, I do
truly believe. He devoted his life to poetry and religion. He
wrote a great deal too much poetry: but a selection from him
would be among the immortal things of poetry. Some day, please
God, I am going to make the selection, so that the beloved old
poet whom I keep in my mind like a light may reach those who
would never search through his many volumes for the truly inspired
things. Still another friend and poet, whose work was of the un-
exacting rhetorical kind which was accepted as poetry in the Ireland
of that day, was Denis Florence MacCarthy.
Those three friends were by Father Russell's side when he
started the Irish Monthly. The little new magazine had distin-
guished recruits from England, Lady Georgiana Fullerton, Canon
Oakeley, and Cecilia Mary Caddell though she was Irish by birth
came to help the very first volumes. The contents are signed
by initials oftener than is usual in a magazine perhaps from
some old-fashioned idea of modesty. There was something
more than modesty in Father Russell's several initials and pseu-
donyms. He did a lot of work himself for the Irish Monthly
in those early days: and he did not want to appear too often.
Indeed it was Father Russell's personality that made the Irish
Monthly possible. I don't suppose that there was really " a felt
want " for it when it made its appearance. Dublin is strewn with
the wreckage of periodicals. The inception of the Irish Monthly
was before my day, but I dare say there were plently of Cassandra
predictions about it.
He never allowed his contributors to be subscribers : he must
have had an enormous free list. To be sure the contributions
were mainly gratuitous : yet if a contributor was in need of money,
the modest fee would be forthcoming. He paid us in loving kind-
ness; but he paid us in coin of the realm, too, if the need arose.
At one time I wrote a good deal in the Irish Monthly, and
induced others to write. I may say, now that Father Russell
is here no longer, that he helped me with an occasional charity.
He would send money to someone I was interested in, and I would
repay him with a story or an article. One special form his bene-
factions took was the helping young poets to produce their books.
I have always understood that there was a little fund of profit
212 FATHER MATTHEW RUSSELL [Nov.,
derived from the magazine, which he used in this way. When my
first book of poems, Louise de la V oilier e, was published my father
found the 20 fee. When my second book, Shamrocks, was in the
air, Father Russell sent me unexpectedly another twenty pounds.
I was able to return it to him, as the publisher did not require a fee,
but he bought ten pounds' worth of copies of the book when it
appeared.
He used to knock at all manner of doors, slow to open, for his
Irish Monthly. He used to say that the Convents ought to support
Irish literature, and he dunned them for subscriptions. In Ireland,
where everyone expects to be placed on the free list, and it is a
delicate form of flattery to ask an author for a free copy of his
or her book or books, I imagine that Father Russell's exertions may
have given him a slight unpopularity : or perhaps being what he was
he was immune. His little dunning notices in the Irish Monthly to
the many who loved the magazine, but could by no manner of means
be induced to pay for it, were among the things we used to smile over.
He was oddly practical in ways for his friends, not himself.
He used to scold us for being over-hospitable. " Now don't ask
people to lunch or dinner, my child. Tea is quite as much as can
be expected." He was very careful of one's time if it happened to
be at all valuable, though he apparently never thought of his own.
He was altogether against a professional writer being asked to
work gratuitously, even in a good cause. A very different matter,
he would have termed it, to accept gratuitous work from
leisured amateurs who did not depend on their pen for bread.
He was very sensitive in this way; and after I was married, if I sent
him a poem, he would return me the smallest gold coin of the
realm, apologizing for its smallness, but saying that he always liked
to pay for poetry in gold.
Another quality of his I remember was his tolerance. He
was ever loving, warm, comforting. He had a great charity. I
think he would always give credit for purity of motives, even if he
did not approve. There were no hesitations, no chills, no wearying
in his friendships.
I brought a good many oddly assorted people to him and
the Irish Monthly. Some of the friends of my youth, Dora Siger-
son, Rose Kavanagh, Ellen O'Leary, " Ethna Carbery," would have
come to him in the natural order of things.
Of the unexpected visitors whom I brought to Father Russell
there was a Norfolk minister and his entire family. The father
was a brilliant eccentric scholar, of Irish blood and Irish sympathies.
1912.] FATHER MATTHEW RUSSELL 213
All the children were nurtured on poetry and art. It came as easy
to the young people to write as to draw and paint. Their mother
used to say that a pencil and paper were their first toys. One of the
young daughters showed me her poems. The most natural thing
in the world was to send them to Father Russell. One of the poems
appeared in due course in the Irish Monthly. Presently there came
a letter to the poet's mother from a sister-in-law, which read : "What
is this I hear of Mary's poems appearing in an Irish magazine con-
ducted by a Romish priest? Dear lamb! She ought to be saved
from such things. I hope you will put a stop to it." Afterwards
every member of that family visited Ireland and made a pilgrimage
to see Father Russell. The number of such writers included Willie
Yeats, Richard Hodgson, Douglas Hyde, Jane Barlow, and Richard
Ashe King.
It is a long time now since he announced that he had given up
visiting, except the poor. Perhaps we who loved him were of
his poor, for he visited us when the occasion arose. A few years
ago we visited him at Gardiner Street for the first time for many
years. It was one of the sweetest glimpses I ever had of him.
Father Russell was even then not in very good health. He lunched
with us a few days later at our hotel, and was interested, like
a child, in everything. He even sipped a minute quantity of
white wine in his glass " to see what it tasted like."
But he was never happy out of Gardiner Street. So many
needed and depended on him there, that it was like the busy mother
who cannot take a rest or a change because she feels that everything
will go wrong in her absence. He was sent to Tullabeg for change
of air when his health first showed signs of failing, now a good
many years ago. He had to be sent back to Gardiner Street to live.
He was always waiting, up to the very last, when one wanted
him. He was always ready to do research work in Irish matters
when one was away in England and wanted help : to be sure the
Irish Monthly is a treasury of information about Irish matters in
general. His little books came constantly to me and the children.
He often duplicated them, especially of late years, so that there were
many of them about the house. Now one gathers them together
tenderly as precious things, with their dear, loving inscriptions,
full of hope and faith.
I saw him for the second last time in my own home on the
3d of July. We had newly returned to Ireland and settled : and
I think he wanted a picture of us there to take with him. We had
intended to send for him to the station, which is about half a
214 FATHER MATTHEW RUSSELL [Nov.,
mile away, but he came by an earlier train, walking in in the old
brisk way, while the children were playing a game of croquet.
For the last two or three years the shining of the inward light
through the thin veil of the body had become more and more
beautiful, and terrible to those who loved him. But of late he did
not suffer. His letter announcing that visit mentioned that he was
quite well, had not felt so well for years. When he left, he said
that he was not coming to see us any more, and when we said
that he would come often he replied : " Oh, no, indeed, my dear
good children, I am not coming any more : it is my very last visit."
We left him reading his office on the station platform while he
waited for the train. He would not let us wait with him because
" our time was valuable."
When next we saw him he was dying. We were allowed only
a few minutes with him. He wanted us to stay awhile, and was
anxious about a chair for me, but he had so many things to say, and
it tried him so much to say them, that we felt we dared not stay
beyond the few minutes. He talked of the kindness of the whole
world to him, and of the nurses' kindness especially, and of how
he was so comfortable. He asked me to forgive someone who had
injured me and hurt him in those last days. He gave us a blessing,
trailing off into Latin oh, such a blessing, so full of love and
kindness ! " may the Sacred Heart help you through all your
difficulties, my dear, good child," and " the poor little boys and
poor little Pamela," as though he, with heaven opening, pitied
those little ones who had the journey to make. My husband said,
" We will come again." " Ah, no, my dear good boy, you must
not come again. This is the last time: this is good-bye."
I have a feeling about that blessing that it will be with me
when I need it most. He said to my sister, when she was with
him, that he hoped he would not rally: " Do not tell me," he said,
" that I shall be disappointed as I was two years ago."
He was concerned with his friends and with literature to the
last. Before he lay down to die he had partly arranged the con-
tents of the next number of the Irish Monthly, and he was talking
about a new edition of Rose Kavanagh and Her Verses, one of his
many tender pieties. He was of earth almost to the last, remaining
with his loving and toiling children as long as he might, looking
back to them when his foot was already on the threshold of heaven.
As I think of the last glimpse of him I say to myself : " Lovely
in the eyes of the Lord is the death of His saints."
THE POOR.
BY WILLIAM J. KERBY, PH.D.
I.
UR impressions about the poor are confused. We
represent them as a certain social class whose mem-
bers are in identical discouraging social conditions,
and are alike in their feelings, views, and outlook.
Some are born into this class, live and die in it.
Others are driven into it by accidents of industrial organization,
wrong doing or illness. Some enter it and remain pure of heart,
gentle in feeling, and worthy. Others add to their poverty the
stain of sin and the stigma of vile association. Many who are
guilty, draw into poverty the innocent ones of their kindred. Some
escape from its circle. Wise assistance and friendly advice recall
some to freedom from its yoke. Others rise by native sense and
industry. Accidents of good fortune will redeem many. But
allowing for the coming and the going into the circle of the poor
and out of it, there is a stable remnant, possibly of millions in our
own country, who are poor and must be so classed.
The poor are unlike the rest of us, and yet like us. They are
unlike us in as far as radically different experiences of life go a long
way toward shaping differently, temperament, feeling, aims, and
standards. The whole range of an army officer's interests, stand-
ards, and valuations is quite unlike that of a country grocer. The
two are unlike, yet alike. We are like the poor in original endow-
ment, destiny, capacity to know, feel, and strive. We know that,
were places exchanged, we would be like them, and they like us.
Hence in attempting to describe the poor, we really endeavor merely
to understand the average life experiences through which they go,
and to take account of the atmosphere in which they are compelled
to live. As the climate of a country will, on the whole, account
for a people's health, and fail to explain that of any given individual,
so the atmosphere of poverty will explain the class as a whole,
while failing to explain many individuals in it. Under the obvious
restrictions which present themselves then, we may use the term
poor and think of it, for the time being, as indicating a class.
216 THE POOR [Nov.,
The poor as a social class are unable to protect themselves in
modern society. Ordinarily, our social classes are well prepared
by instinct and resources to do so. They know their rights and
assert them. They set up ideals and cherish them. They under-
stand their wrongs, and anticipate them with both keenness and
vigor. Self-confidence permeates them, and they are quick to
organize for self-defense. Leadership is at hand when needed, and
means rarely fail when some great class purpose calls for thought
and action. If a proposed change in laws invade the heretofore
recognized rights of physicians, merchants, scholars, and authors,
or foreign born citizens, concerted movement occurs at once. Com-
mittees are formed, meetings are held, statements are issued, the
aid of a press is secured, and through all of these the mind of the
class comes to vigorous expression. Even the laboring class, living
as it does in presence of acknowledged wrongs and political neglect,
never lacks organization, press, leadership, and plans. The value
of platforms, picturesque complaint, timely speeches and the power
of public opinion to compel justice from a reluctant social order, are
thoroughly understood in all of these circles.
Of the unhappy poor alone is this not true. They are, to a very
great extent, an inert, unorganized mass. Generally speaking, no
sense of social justice inspires them, and no acute sense of social
wrong stings them into concerted action. Their faculty of col-
lective moral indignation is practically atrophied by their experience
of life. They are, as a class, inarticulate, passionless, and unre-
sponsive. They are conscious of no class ideals, of no latent re-
sources, of no instinct for organization. We find among them
few mass meetings which by size and feeling may symbolize the
anguish of their " defrauded hearts," no literature voicing the as-
pirations of irrepressible human souls, no accredited leadership to
whip them into sullen and determined battle for justice.
The poor feel their wrongs individually more as bitter exper-
iences than as wrongs. They live near to reality and suffer from it.
We live our lives in walled cities. Knowledge, ideals, culture, asso-
ciation, property, resources, credit surround and protect us. We have
not known hunger, nakedness, hovels, the shame of dependence, the
anguish of lost hope, and the melting away of every motive for try-
ing to rise. Our walled city has protected us against these enemies
of peace and joy and comfort. But the poor live in no walled city.
Hunger, nakedness, dependence, ignorance, despair stand day and
night, within striking distance to harass when they do not attack,
1912.] THE POOR 217
to paralyze when they do not kill. The poor know their lack of
defense. They realize that when help comes, it must come from
classes alien to them in experience, however friendly they may be,
distant from them in social standing, unacquainted largely with
their thoughts and feelings. These friendly strangers offer to the
poor aims to which they are largely indifferent, methods which they
find more or less distasteful, motives and ambitions in presence of
which they remain often unresponsive. This alien, though thought-
ful, class must think for the poor, offer leadership, feel for them,
decide for them, and lead them by the hand. Who can understand
who has not lived this life?
The normal inner resources available in other social classes are,
as a rule, lacking among the poor. It is self-evident that they lack
wealth, power, credit, education, and opportunity. But in addition,
the appeals on which humanity professes to depend for progress
are unheeded by the poor. We are told, in the argument against
Socialism, that the prospect of owning property is absolutely neces-
sary to stir human nature to systematic action, far-sighted plans,
enterprise, and self-discipline. In working with the poor, we deal
with a class to which the prospect of owning property is denied.
It is true that here and there with encouraging frequency, individ-
uals among them rise superior to an environment, and accomplish
wonderful things. We do find among the poor splendid efforts
to prove true to duty as it is conceived, or to fight against menaces
understood and feared. But we ought never forget that we attrib-
ute to the prospect of owning property many of the great virtues
of this life, and that this incentive is practically denied to the poor.
Motives of accumulation are lacking to them. When motive is
felt, opportunity is denied. When opportunity is presented, in-
telligence is wanting. Goldsmith remarks, with some shrewdness,
that the way to cure poverty is to make the poor avaricious. The
improvidence of the poor is due not to wickedness, but to inability
to understand the thinking that leads to saving. There is no sense
of guilt in the poor woman's heart who regularly passes by the
United States Postal Savings Bank to attend a moving picture show.
We are told by psychologists that the passion for power and dis-
tinction is universal, and that self-confidence, self-respect, jealous
regard for reputation are nearly related to it. The typical poor are
largely untouched by these forces. Their dull surrender to environ-
ment hinders such passions from acting in any noble way. The
inertia which baffles and discourages their friends is the most natural
218 THE POOR [Nov.,
trait which poverty causes. We need but recall the tedious labor
that is necessary to awaken ambition and foster it in children
who have every advantage, and the effort required to lead these
natural strivings for distinction and power toward high and holy
objects, in order to realize how the poor are weakened in inner re-
sources, because these forces for good have not been rightly trained
in them.
Physicians tell us that immunity from disease is largely a
matter of capacity for resistance to it. That is to say that while
a dozen who live in the same environment may be exposed to the
same risk of health, they will show different results, depending on
vitality and general condition of health and blood. Those who
resist well, escape. Those whose resistance is low, succumb. An
analogous condition is found among the poor. Their capacity
for resistance is reduced to the lowest possible terms. If mis-
fortune or temptation, illness or embarrassment, strike the well-
to-do, they are usually well qualified to resist. If their own powers
are not sufficient, family, associates, friends, organizations, law,
quick social sanctions, and many similar forms of resource are at
command to carry one past danger. It is one of the appalling
features of poverty that this " backing up " is lacking. When the
poor are struck, they stand dumb, without resource or thought of it,
and they suffer from the full force of the blow. No strong family
stands by to aid; no vigorous fraternal or professional society
undertakes defense; the law is too remote, too fearful, too uncer-
tain to offer aid. Only accident or charity will come to rescue
them from shame, hunger or injustice.
Remote from law, remote from culture, remote from religion
in many instances, the poor suffer all that such separation implies
and are blamed for it. Even the Church, admittedly the friend of
the poor, finds it immeasurably more difficult to reach them than to
reach the well-to-do. It is infinitely harder to teach the undis-
ciplined, unformed, careless, disorganized poor children than the
disciplined, schooled, and trained children of the well-to-do. It is
easier to teach religion to children who live in refined home at-
mosphere than to those who play, sleep, live, and move in degrading
neighborhoods. Those who go to church present themselves before
the altar to worship and to hear the Gospel preached. But the
minister of religion must go out and seek the poor ; must be infinitely
patient, tender, persevering in inducing them to remain near, and
faithful in their hearts. It is not easy to preach ideals to those
IQI2.] THE POOR 219
who cannot know them, or insist, with the poor, on the exalted sanc-
tions of a moral law which has failed to force many of the strong
classes to secure justice to the weak. Three papers presented to
the First National Conference of Catholic Charities on Loss of
Faith Among the Poor furnish sad illustration of the point in mind.
As with the Church, so often with the school. Ambition,
nursed in parents' hearts, holds the children of the well-to-do at
school. Compulsory education laws are necessary to hold the
children of the poor. The ignorance, short-sightedness and sel-
fishness of parents rob children of childhood and send them to
factory and mine, driving them away from what might uplift
and strengthen them, incapacitating them for all their days, to get
into sympathy with the hopes and ideals by which we live.
By some trick of the atmosphere in which we see things, we
give to the poor less credit for their virtues, and more blame for
their failings than to the well-to-do. We are governed more by our
expectations than by our observations in judging others, and we
expect either too much or too little from them. And in a general
way we are more or less infected by unfavorable presumptions about
the poor. Furthermore we lack imagination. We do not see the
perspective in poverty. Poverty is to many of us merely a flat con-
dition. Processes, origins, tendencies, atmosphere are unknown
and unguessed by us. Because we lack imagination and knowledge,
we are unjust to the character of the poor and indifferent to their
interests. The presumption that the poor are to blame for their
poverty ; the impression that they are " no good anyway ;" and the
feeling that they are ingrates and full of deceit, laziness and vic-
iousness, penetrate into least expected quarters, and arrest many
a holy impulse to befriend them. The fraud that we detect in our
iceman, coal dealer, grocer, statesman, does not appear to awaken
one-half the moral indignation that is aroused when a dependent
woman lies to us to get aid, or a street beggar spends our alms in the
nearest saloon, or a baby is baptized in three different churches in
order that abundant clothing may be given to it. The virtues that
we must admit among the poor are credited to the individuals
who show them, but the faults that we find are attributed to " the
poor " as a class. And thus we condemn where we do not know ;
we rob the poor of the little reputation that many might have, and
cheat ourselves into mistaken peace about them. Of the cultured
we ask, " How can they do wrong," but of the poor we ask, " Why
can't they do right."
220 THE POOR [Nov.,
II.
We are told by social philosophers that confidence in the social
order is back of all stable government, and that we are compensated
for the discipline of law by the security given to our rights, the
opportunity offered for our progress, and the definiteness furnished
to the conditions of our civilization. It is the business of govern-
ment to protect us in life, liberty, property, and to promote the
conditions of our happiness. We clothe the state with the majesty
of supreme human authority, with the awful sovereignty of human
society, because in return it clears the path for us and surrounds us
by inspiration, opportunity, and social order. And hence patriot-
ism is a stimulus to noble action and exalted aim. Love of country
and of its institutions has been placed by our philosophers among
the virtues sanctioned in heaven. But the poor are robbed of this
inspiration, cheated of this motive, and, hence, are cynically un-
interested in all that patriotism means. Not that they are political
agitators. The soil where charity is found offers no hope for the
seeds of revolution.
Much of the state's activity is taken up with protection of a
property system which has hindered the poor from all ownership.
They really, from their standpoint, lack all motive to respect it.
Much of the state's activity is given over to the punishment of
wrong doing, in which, unfortunately, many among the poor have
experience. " The law," as the poor know and see and feel it,
is the law which punishes, not the law which protects. They need
protection in health against unsanitary occupations; in life against
unnecessary risks in industry; against fraud of merchants and
extortion of loan sharks : against their own ignorance fastened
on their reluctant souls during their darkened childhood; against
the breaking up of the home by labor of mothers and children;
against greed of landlords and indifference of employers. They
have need of protection in their right to labor and a living wage;
to decent comfort and reasonable security against want. They
need protection for the virtue of their daughters and the health
of their babies, but they seem not to have it. These are the great
overwhelming menaces which terrify them. However, the majestic
state of which they are a part seems not to know it, or knowing, not
to care, or caring, not to be able to give the protection which is re-
quired. Technicalities of legal procedure, sanctity of worn-out
1912.] THE POOR 221
phrases like " freedom of contract," " class legislation," constitu-
tionality of laws in defense of elementary justice, are questions of
no direct concern to the poor, when involuntary idleness, preventable
disease, and needless deaths are prostrating them.
Not even the hopeful beginnings of protection which we now
see seem to revive zest of life, or to call back hope as the bright star
in the firmament which covers them. German economists apply
the term " conjunctur " to the sum of institutions, laws, customs,
arrangements, and standards which surround us, and make ,each
man's economic activity stable, fruitful, and orderly. The poor
know only a " conjunctur " of neglect, oversight, uncertainty,
defenselessness which make it improbable, if not impossible, that they
rise. Even the rudimentary relief which government has attempted
to provide for the poor in hospitals, almshouses, asylums, reforma-
tories, has rarely won their confidence or awakened any sense of
dignity in them or of gratitude. Unfortunate administration of
such institutions has made them a source of horror to the gentle
types among the poor, and they have often preferred starvation.
Dickens wrote for other lands and times in telling us of England's
care of her poor in such institutions.
Of course every political constitution fails at some point.
Government is compelled to deal with the entire range of human
temperament, skill, character, and sense. The fool, the idler, the
criminal, the mentally and physically defective, the scholar, the
social and the anti-social, those whom liberty blesses and those
whom it curses, are found under every government, and they must
be dealt with. The conflicting needs of these classes must be served,
though it seem impossible. Institutions which favor the strong may
harm the weak. Those which protect the ignorant may hamper the
cultured. Those which encourage genius may crush the dull and list-
less. Now the institutions upon which our civilization rests have
favored the strong and harmed the weak. Our modern state has
failed to develop a supplementary constitution to take care of its
failures, among whom we count the poor. The endeavor of the
historical Church to develop a supplementary moral constitution to
protect the weaker classes, to define their rights and sanctions, and
to teach the strong classes natural and supernatural duties which are
above and beyond constitutions, gives to the Church a role of infinite
nobility in the history of the world.
The action of the state is guided not so much by principles
as by definition. States have no ordinary power beyond what is
222 THE POOR [Nov.,
defined and implied. They exist to protect our rights to life,
liberty, property, and happiness. But government protects these
rights only as it defines them, and not beyond. Much of the
supreme effort now made to bring justice to the weaker classes,
centres in the attempt to expand definitions of human rights in a
way to protect these classes against the distinctive menaces to their
rights. The state has fallen lamentably short in its mission because
of the narrow definitions under which it operates. Morality is
after all as much a question of definition as of principle. No man
is cowardly if he may define cowardice. No man is dishonest if
he may define honesty. No employer is unjust if he may define
justice. No man is cruel if he may define cruelty. High morality
depends on noble definitions. Social justice depends on such defi-
nitions of rights and of justice as secure a broad, humane, sufficient
protection to men and women and children in the peculiar con-
ditions in which their rights to life, liberty, opportunity, property
are threatened.
The state does not, will not, possibly can not, change its
legal definitions of rights of man as rapidly as complex modern
social conditions change the menaces to those rights. What can the
poor think of the opinion of Justice Brewer, who claimed that it is
a lesson which cannot be learned too soon or too thoroughly, that
under this government of and by the people the means of redress
of all wrongs are through the courts and ballot box. What can
such words mean to the poor?
There are however grounds for hope. Determined forces
are at work which promise relief. Great ideals of humanity and
justice are operating throughout our civilization. Society is at
work preventing industrial menaces to life and health where pre-
ventable, and forcing property interests to automatic compensation
to sufferers for risks that must be faced. Knowledge of the horrible
facts of massive poverty is forced daily into our higher and stronger
social classes, and of itself is bringing about hopeful changes.
Sciences are pointing out wiser ways and surer aims in voluntary
work for prevention and relief. Lawmakers are more kindly dis-
posed toward claims of weaker classes, which their predecessors
once dismissed 'with impatient gesture. Charity itself, both as
humane service and as the organic expression of organized super-
natural faith, finds its resources multiplied, its hand strengthened,
its field more clearly defined, and its efforts more heartily seconded.
The task before all of these agencies is gigantic. In some
1912.] THE POOR 223
way which our collective wisdom must work out, the poor must be
brought to believe in themselves, and in the benevolent mission of
civilization toward them. They must be brought, through the way
of definite opportunity, to the prospect of owning property neces-
sary to decent comfort, and of securing it not at the price of health,
home, education or youth, but in a way which will favor, not
threaten, these blessings. Hunger, nakedness, hovels, hopelessness
must be made speculative to the industrious and worthy among them
as such things are to us. They must be touched, refined, strength-
ened by culture, and they must be brought by happy experience to
believe in those ideals on which civilization rests, and to respond to
those appeals which strengthen hand and heart for the work of life.
Although many have departed from the way that Christ points
out to accomplish this, we must hope that the benevolent Providence
of God may yet bring the world to this ideal of justice and peace
through the accepted guidance of Him Who is the Way, the Truth
and the Life. The imagination of the world is beginning to take
hold of poverty as a world problem. The thousand activities now
witnessed, such as insurance, pensions, legal intervention in indus-
trial relations, improved methods in charitable institutions, scientific
research into processes and tendencies of poverty, minimum wage
agitation and compensation acts, pensioning of widows, and placing
of orphans are organically related in a blundering and fragmentary
and unsympathetic endeavor of humanity to obey its ideals. Eu-
genics, Criminology, Surgery, Sciences notably Biology Single
Tax, Socialism, and related sections of human thought and action
aim in varying ways at the conquest of poverty, the elimination of
inferior types, the strengthening of the race, the improvement of
institutions, and the establishment of justice. In all cases, these
agencies ask of us faith, trust, and cooperation. There is more to
be hoped for if we go back to Christ, His Law, His Ideal, and to
His Philosophy to get our bearing on the problem of poverty.
If we but recognize the social sin that causes it, the massive sin
that grows out of it, the change of life and purification of heart
that the strong classes must experience before we may hope for
much, we will gradually recover the view in which alone God and
grace, repentance and surrender, brotherhood and service, are seen
in right relation to institutions, social reform, industrial organiza-
tion, and laws.
When this view shall have been recovered, we will work in
the lines of Christian perspective. We will first work with the
224 THE HAGUE COURT [Nov.,
zeal of apostles and vision of prophets to purge poverty of its sin,
whether in cause or in effect. We will next labor to prevent and
anticipate it, and bring to the weaker classes, which Christ loved, the
heritage of hope, joy, comfort, and peace to which they have a right.
The poverty that can not be headed off will then be purified and
freed from all of its nameless terror. When this shall have been
accomplished, we may understand the thought of Ruskin, furious
lover of his kind (if memory may be trusted to quote him), that
our banks be built of brick and our houses for the poor of marble.
And if there will always be poor among us, their poverty need not
be the harvest of sin, the ugly outcome of ignorant selfishness, the
hideous price of civilization. Freed from these horrible implications,
it may yet be seen in the light of Christian Brotherhood, and once
we see the poor as our brothers, we and they will forget that there
are any poor among us.
THE HAGUE COURT.
BY CAROLINE D. SWAN.
O SPOKEN word ! How strange a breath of air
Should have such power! For thou hast wings to fly
From soul to soul, soft as a trembling sigh ;
Now passion-fired, now lost in dull despair.
Yet, be thy burden love or light or prayer,
Thou hast electric thrill to bind and tie
Assenting hearts. A foreknown Victory
Of Peace is thine, a clasp divinely fair.
The word shall arbitrate; the deed of wrong
Wait for its sanction, which will never come.
Behind it dwells the high controlling thought,
Both throned, seraphic as archangel's song!
The Word Divine is evermore the sum
Of clear-cut Justice and pure Grace, blood-bought.
THE SOCIAL APOSTOLATE IN FRANCE.
BY MAX TURMANN, LL.D.
IV.
THE PROGRESS OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION.
F one who had been absent from France for several
years, returned and looked into the Catholic life
of the country, he would be struck by the growth
and extension of popular and religious education.
We mean by this the foundation and organization of
institutions, societies, etc., that supplement and complete the work
of the schools.
The perils and difficulties of the present time seem to have
opened the eyes of Catholics to the need for institutions that would
give both moral and intellectual training. For some time past
there has not been a single diocesan congress which has failed to
call the attention of the clergy and laity to the service rendered
the school by these complementary works. In several dioceses some
of the sessions are devoted to the exclusive study of these questions
a notable instance of this was given lately by the diocese of La
Rochelle. Of course, in certain sections great deficiencies may still
be found, but almost universally, in the country as well as in the
city, we see the beginnings and, pretty generally, the development
of associations for young people.
The young apprentices and farmers, leaving school at the
primary classes, are but poorly instructed. This lack of education
accounts for the fact that in many ways, and in many movements,
popular opinion has been blinded and led away by false shepherds.
So long as the young neglect their education in matters Catholic,
as has frequently been the case, the existing state of affairs cannot
change. It is easy to understand, therefore, why there should be
a sharp fight between Catholics and their adversaries over the sub-
ject of popular education. Peace lovers, temperate spirits, possibly
may deprecate the spirit of sharp hostility with which the war is
waged, instead of remaining what such weak souls wish it to be
a pleasure contest between people working each on his own side,
according to his own convictions and methods for the general good.
But to work aright for the general good, one must work for
VOL. xcvi. 15.
226 THE SOCIAL APOSTOLATE IN FRANCE [Nov.,
that on which the general good is founded the primary school.
Around the primary school, then, the battle wages. The law, which
ten years ago proscribed religious instruction, undoubtedly struck
a heavy blow against the " free " schools, mostly Catholic. But,
notwithstanding, private instruction has little by little been regain-
ing popular favor. Not only have the " free " schools been re-
opened under the direction of secularized religious or of Christian
laymen, but the number of pupils in these schools is steadily in-
creasing. For confirmation of these assertions we will go to the
Lanterne, .a publication that cannot be suspected of clerical sym-
pathies, and which has recently collated comparative statistics of the
changes in the school population of both primary and public schools.
Here is what this paper, which has bitterly fought against religious
education, says on the subject :
Comparing the figures for the last school year with those
of the previous year : In a year the number of public schools in
France and Algiers has grown from 71,269 to 71,491, an
increase of 222. The number of pupils instructed in these
schools has increased from 4,064,559 to 4,135,886, a gain of
71,327. On the other hand, in the same period of time, the
number of private schools in France and Algiers has grown from
14,298 to 14,428, an increase of 130. The number of pupils
taught in these schools has increased from 933,749 to 960,712,
a gain of 26,933.
Compare the results: In a year the public schools have in-
creased 3.10 per 1,000; the private schools 9 per 1,000. The
pupils in the public schools have increased 17.26 per 1,000, and
the pupils in the private schools 28 per 1,000. These are the
general results. They prove primary private education to be
advancing more rapidly than primary public education. Some
may perhaps object to this conclusion, and say the danger is
more apparent than real since the disproportion between the
two in numbers of schools and pupils is still very considerable.
But this objection may be easily silenced by the statistics from
some of the departments of the west.*
We have quoted the Lanterne' s testimony in favor of " free "
education to show that, far from being exterminated, it lives and
prospers because it answers to the preferences of parents.
Still there are numbers of Catholic children in the lay or
public schools whom their parents have been obliged to place there
*The Lanterne gives figures showing that public primary schools are being
gradually deserted for the " free " or private school, especially in the departments
of the west.
I9i2.] THE SOCIAL APOSTOLATE IN FRANCE . 227
for various reasons. The teachers are required to give them
strictly neutral teaching : such is the law. " Associations of
Fathers of Families " have been formed in recent years to see to it
that this law is obeyed, and that since it is the law, nothing be
taught detrimental to the Catholic faith. This association, under
the presidency of M. Guiraud, professor at the University of
Besangon, founded last year a " Union of Diocesan or Departmental
Federations of the Associations of Fathers of Families." At the
time of its first national congress, last May, the Union was com-
posed of sixteen diocesan federations, including three hundred
and fourteen allied bands. The committee started a magazine
Ecole et Famille which already issues several thousand copies.
These groups assigned to their members the following objects
of endeavor: to incite Catholics to place the school question fore-
most among their demands; to inculcate in parents a sense of
their rights and duties in the education of their children; to oblige
the public schools to respect the faith of parents and children;
to develop in the schools the spirit of patriotism ; to oppose legisla-
tion which attacks freedom of education; to demand for the " free "
schools a proportionate allowance of the municipal grants and the
state subsidies. These associations exert a most salutary influence,
which, exercised with tact, in no wise hampers the teacher who is
respectful to the faith of his pupils and of their parents. Never-
theless, the politicians who openly, or otherwise, wish the teacher
to overstep the bounds of strict neutrality, consider these asso-
ciations a menace to public instruction, although the courts have
declared them perfectly legal : hence all the projects for the " de-
fense of the teacher." Formerly in the Cote d'Or a teacher
dared proclaim, in open class, that " all who believe in God are
fools. The father of one of the children who heard this
abominable speech denounced the man to the courts. And from
this originated (it is impossible to call too much attention to the
fact) that movement which, by the curiously tortuous path of
a violation of neutrality, has led to-day to a project for control
of the " free " schools !
But the battle no longer rages solely around the primary school ;
it is fought equally and not less obstinately, although perhaps
less noisily, over the field of works and organizations intended to
supplement and to continue the office of the school. In the follow-
ing pages we will see just what point it has reached.
These works, complementary to the school, and organized by
228 THE SOCIAL APOSTOLATE IN FRANCE [Nov.,
Catholics, are gaining in numbers and strength. I am positive that
if we had general statistics taken annually and kept up to date, we
would recognize a great development in the last four or five years.
Later I will give in detail figures to substantiate this statement.
But it must be admitted that in many such lines of endeavor,
particularly in Mutual Benefit Societies for scholars and in classes
for adults, there is a noticeable inferiority in the works of Catholics.
In some cases this inferiority, especially in the case of Mutual
Benefit Societies, may, perhaps, be owing to the fact that Catholics,
as a rule, desire to build up societies that will benefit the whole
family, and not the children only. An example of noteworthy suc-
cess in this regard is the Jeunesse Prevoyante of Paris.
With regard to the classes for adults, we cannot but note
a lamentable indifference on the part of Catholics. The numbers
reached by the adult classes of the public schools, that is by the
secular and anti-Catholic government, are grossly exaggerated.
Yet it is true that large numbers of adults, who desire further edu-
cation and who form a superior class intellectually, could be reached,
and French Catholics should make every possible effort to reach
them. Federations and Catholic reunions are on the increase,
and in some way supply this lack of organizations that would
provide for these classes for adults. The Bonne Presse has instituted
a notable series of conferences; it has placed at the service of
lecturers all necessary material, texts, illustrations, etc. In this it
is rivaling the secular institutions of the Musee Pedagogique and
the Ligue de I'Enseignement. Associations have been organized
in over thirty dioceses for the purpose of giving lectures to adults,
and they have done good service. In 1911 the total number of
lectures given by Catholics in the Department of Eure-et-Loir
amounted to over six hundred. This is a splendid showing when
we remember that this association is only in its beginnings.
Elsewhere the number of such popular lectures given by Catho-
lics decreased considerably from 935 to 211. All departments,
therefore, do not show the energetic zeal of Eure-et-Loir; yet on
the whole the reports presented at the Congress of Conferences
and Illustrated Lectures show that Catholics have made notable
progress during the last five or six years.
And in this work of wider, popular education should be in-
cluded the work of the " Social Days " held in Paris, or in the
provincial capitals, whereon the young people gather to hear the
discussion by experienced leaders of some vocational or economic
1912.] THE SOCIAL APOSTOLATE IN FRANCE 229
problem. Both men and women attend these " Days," and in fact
some of them are devoted solely to questions of women's welfare.
The spread of such excellent formative and educational works
cannot be too ardently desired. The Catholic speakers do not
confine themselves to strictly doctrinal questions. They attend
meetings of the opposition, and if the opportunity is given them
they there defend Catholic truth. The clergy, the members of
the " Catholic Youth," or of any of the various bodies of young
people allied to the committee on Popular Lectures, vie with one
another in their zeal to uphold the truth in the face of anti-Catholic
attacks. It is safe to say, therefore, that our fellow Catholics
have made consoling progress in this work. However, we must
not shut our eyes to the fact that what has been done does not begin
to compare with what we would wish to see done.
A noticeable advance is being made by Catholics in the ex-
tension and development of Catholic Clubs, Vacation Farm Schools,
Athletic Societies, and Study Circles. The inspiration and leader-
ship come from the hierarchy. Almost without exception the
numerous diocesan congresses held in recent years have taken
up the study of such works, with the aim of spreading and strength-
ening them in the cities and the rural districts. The report of one
diocese, that of Belley, to take an example, will enable the reader
to estimate the zealous work done by Catholics. Belley includes
a section of France wherein anti-clerical radicalism is very strong.
Religious Works.
1905. 1912.
Voluntary catechists 500 750
Children instructed annually 2,000 3,ooo
Closed Retreats 5 for young men.
Closed Retreats 2 for women & girls.
Parochial committees 40
Educational Works.
Since 1905, twenty new free (*. e., Catholic) schools were
opened; there are now 125 free schools in the diocese, with a
marked increase in the attendance.
Since 1911, a diocesan director of free education has been
appointed and a diocesan fund established.
A " Friendly Society of Women Teachers of Free Schools "
has also been formed, with monthly classes in pedagogy, and
an annual Closed Retreat during the vacation. In 1905 there
was no established means for maintaining neutrality towards
230 THE SOCIAL APOSTOLATE IN FRANCE [Nov.,
religion in the public primary school; in 1912 every one of the
36 parishes of the diocese has a " Society of Father of Families."
Works for Young People. ^^ ^
Clubs for young girls about 35 1 10
Study Circles for young girls 12
Post-school Domestic Economy classes 15
Classes for young girls: in 1905 there were only singing
classes; in 1912 recitation classes have been organized in about
50 parishes. The diocesan Board is now inaugurating a dio-
cesan federation of women's clubs and classes.
Works -for Young Men and Boys. IQQ - IQI2
Boys' Clubs about 15 50
Classes for young men about 40 140*
In 1911, 130 young men attended Closed Retreats; 23 par-
ticipated in the Catholic " Rural Week " at Lyons. Thanks
to the Retreats and Study Circles, popular leaders are gradually
being formed. Many of the Study Circles are federated ac-
cording to districts, and hold district or inter-parochial meet-
ings three or four times a year.
The Catholic Athletic Societies now number 14. In 1905
there were none. The meet of these Catholic Societies in
July, at Bourg, the capital of the department, brought together
3,500 athletes from the Departments of Ain and Rhone.
Press Work.
Since 1905 : ist. At Bourg the institution of an important
library, the Jeanne d'Arc Library, for religious and social
propaganda.
2d. Organization of a circulating library of books and maga-
zines, with a small subscription price.
3d. Establishment of the work of the Sou de la Presse in
75 parishes, with a membership of 5,000.
4th. Publication of the Parish Almanac (circulation 20,000)
and the Parish Echo (circulation 30,000).
5th. Increased activity of the Christian press. Each year
shows decided gains. The Cross of Ain has increased its
circulation from 10,000 to 14,000. The Liberty of Ain has
been started, and issues 7,500 copies.
In addition many congresses have been held since 1905,
two for priests, three diocesan congresses, and a score of dis-
trict congresses. All were most successful. In the district
congresses at least one thousand men were assembled.
*Nearly 70 of these are Study Circles.
1912.] THE SOCIAL APOSTOLATE IN FRANCE 231
Broadly sketched, such has been the apostolic activity exercised
in the diocese of Belley during the past seven years. The figures
speak eloquently of the progress made, and of the intensity of
religious life following upon the separation, in spite of difficulties
and uncertainties. This report illustrates, in a way most grati-
fying to Catholic hearts, the topics which we have already treated
in THE CATHOLIC WORLD in our endeavor to make clear to our
brethren in America the religious situation in France at the time
when the government brutally severed relations with the Holy See.
I hasten to add that the diocese of Belley is not exceptional.
Many others give evidence of equal activity, and an awakening of
religious energy is universally noticeable in France.
In clubs and other Catholic works for the young present
effort tends towards directing them into Christian Vocational Feder-
ations ; this is an imperative necessity to which last year M. 1'Abbe
Boyreau, Cure of Notre Dame du Rosaire, Paris, called attention
during the " Social Week " of Saint fitienne. Besides our Belgian
neighbors have put these ideas into practice, and find themselves
none the worse off, as the recent aldermanic and parliamentary
elections have proved. In his report to the second Congress of
" Popular Works " in Paris, April, 1911, M. Heyman, the assistant
general secretary of the Christian Vocational Unions of Belgium,
gave the following interesting information on this subject :
The clubs have changed very much in recent years. They
are no longer solely works for Christian preservation, but
centres for social preparation as well. In my native town, for
instance, they began by instituting a winged federation, i. e.,
of all trades for young workingmen between the ages of twelve
and sixteen, drawn from the clubs, and who, according to the
law regulating trades unions, cannot be admitted to the federa-
tions as effective members until they have attained the age of
sixteen. The young workmen pay a trifling weekly tax of
ten centimes. In case of sickness or enforced idleness they
draw fifty centimes a day. Between times, social courses are
given at the clubs. In simple, concise language, by a pre-ar-
ranged and uniform plan, five professors give the same lesson,
in the same way, in the five clubs of our city. The audience
has before it a printed summary of the lesson. Every lesson
is followed by a friendly talk. After thirty lessons all the big
practical questions have been impressed upon the minds of
these young workmen, and so the club becomes the vestibule
of the federation, the exit of the one being the entrance to the
232 THE SOCIAL APOSTOLATE IN FRANCE [Nov.,
other. At sixteen the greater number of the young men leaving
our clubs are well up in their respective trades. Their ability
soon attracts the attention of their comrades, and they are soon
promoted to hold offices, through which generally they exert
a salutary influence.
The example of the Belgians is most suggestive. We trust it
may be universally followed. This method of social and vocational
education resolutely pursued will make the young workingmen
vigorous, generous, and loyal Catholics. Nothing is equal to
Study Circles for the formation of Christian Catholic char-
acter. There is probably not a single city club, nor a single
work for the young, worthy of the name which is without a Study
Circle. And, as a rule, such Circles show vitality and vigor. To
maintain a taste for intellectual and social work among the youthful
members of these associations requires " counsellors " or directors
of study with alert minds, ready adaptation to circumstances,
and a range of information not readily to be found. At times
these Circles have vegetated through the fault of their directors,
who have not known how to formulate a suitable plan of work.
To-day the number of " sleeping " Circles is rapidly diminishing, as
the directors have at their disposition a quantity of magazines
and other publications which provide documents, plans of work,
indexes, bibliographies, etc., etc.
Then, too, judging by the congresses and the " Days " in
which the young men participate, we see that these Study groups
are valuable centres of formation. We cite as proof of this the
words of His Eminence Cardinal Amette. The first Sunday of
October, 1911, the "Union of Study Circles of the Parisian
Suburbs " held in the popular faubourg of Clichy its fifth Congress.
The Archbishop of Paris presided, and urged the members of the
Study Circles to pursue their work unrelentingly.
Study in order to preserve your faith and defend it. For this
purpose unite your efforts. Alone, you would be powerless;
banded together and united, you will be powerful, and will
command respect. For this reason I recommend throughout
my diocese organizations like this, which must be fruitful of
good results.
OUR CATHOLIC POETS.
BY AGNES BRADY.
MAZING as is the fecundity of Nature which sets
an orchid beckoning to us from the dry bark of a
fallen tree, or the delicate edelweiss amid the silent
Alpine summits History has equal phenomena. For
History, too, has blossomed 'in purple and red' down
many a stony highway, up many a forgotten and thorn-choked by-
path. One of these gracious miracles has been the persistence of
the Catholic note in English poetry, with all the powers of this
world uniting to drown and silence it." So Katherine Bregy points
out very gracefully in her volume that devotes itself to the
several manifestations of that " gracious miracle." Its title is
The Poets' Chantry* and its contents the nine papers that have
appeared in THE CATHOLIC WORLD, giving the sequence of Catholic
poets from Southwell down to Francis Thompson and Mrs. Meynell.
A sequence of jewels opals, are they not? For Francis Thomp-
son a ruby perhaps, but for the others surely it is opals, now too
pallid in their purity, now glowing to a soft, rosy fire of emotion,
and each in a circle of tiny diamonds, for truth and clarity. How
heartrending if they should be strung on a massive gold chain of the
labored and ponderous criticism so easily imaginable! And how
disgraceful if they should be held together loosely by an absurd little
pink ribbon of undiscriminating and sentimental enthusiasm ! But
Miss Bregy has given them to us threaded on a silver chain that is
slender and flexible, but strong in every link. She has that strangely
rarest of rare possessions a clear, accurate mind. She does not
call Habington's Castara a " truly great poem," and she refrains
from suggesting Crashaw's superiority to Milton. Instead of re-
volving the entire poetical universe around the one particular star
whose bright rays she happens to be observing, after the fashion
set by a lamentably large number of critics, Miss Bregy never loses
her true perspective. The clearness with which she sees, and makes
us see, the power, the trend, the limitations of each one of her
poets, as well as the positive and the relative value of his work,
is itself, in these days of abstractions and superlatives, a " gracious
*The Poets' Chantry. By Katherine Bregy. St. Louis: B. Herder. Price, $1.50.
234 OUR CATHOLIC POETS [Nov.,
miracle." Combining exactness and love of finality with large
vision, she assigns to each poet his place in the scheme of things
with relative justice, and with a definite correctness that can very
seldom be found at all questionable. So much for the sterling
strength of her silver chain. For assurance of its grace and
delicacy we need take only a random paragraph this one,
for instance, in which the poetry of Father Gerard Hop-
kins is quite summed up for us in the two phrases
" its subtle and complex fancifulness and its white heat of spirit-
uality." Or this other, which describes in a phrase of quick, deli-
cate picturesqueness " that purple cloud of chaotic magnificence
which so often wrapped, and sometimes obscured, Francis Thomp-
son's thought." The critic handles the frail beauty of the poems
studied with a touch correspondingly delicate, and her comments
by their lightness and calm grace are admirably adapted to her
subject-matter.
Crashaw receives from Miss Bregy an admiration less restricted
and stinted than is his usual portion. Francis Thompson, despite
his debt to the older mystic, does not hesitate to point out " his
deficiency in the human element, and the ethereal insubstantialities
of his genius," and berates him pretty severely for the many of
his conceits that are hard and ingenious rather than graceful or
poetical. Such elaborate images, for example, as the well-known
couplet that describes the weeping eyes of St. Mary Magdalen as
Two walking baths, two weepings motions,
Portable and compendious oceans.
That is certainly the poet's very worst offence; but hundreds of
conceits almost as absurd mar the beauty of his work. Miss Bregy,
though perhaps a bit too indulgent, is not blind to this fault, but
she graciously suggests the poet's present repentance in heaven.
" 'Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa/ one seems to see him smiling
down to us, from his high eternal place." And of the rapturous
and tender beauty of the best of Crashaw's poetry our critic is a
sympathetic exponent. By far the greater part is, of course, relig-
ious, and through it she is happy in tracing the potent influence of
Saint Teresa, to whom, it will be remembered, the poet was strangely
and beautifully devoted, and in whose honor he wrote perhaps
the most exquisite of his poems. To the few secular lyrics Miss
Bregy gives but little space; we are tempted to regret that she
does not dwell longer upon the Wishes to a Supposed Mistress.
igi2.] OUR CATHOLIC POETS 235
Instead of Shelley, to whom the poet is more often, and Coleridge,
to whom he is surely more appropriately, compared, this lyric in
many of its lines bears a marked resemblance to Browning. Note
these two especially of the Wishes:
Days that in spite
Of darkness, by the light
Of a clear mind are day all night.
Life that dares send
A challenge to his end,
And when it comes, say, " Welcome friend ! "
Both in thought and in manner do these not suggest the yet
unwritten Prospice and Rabbi Ben Ezra?
The paper on Aubrey de Vere, after recalling the too frequently
forgotten fact that it was not Fiona MacLeod or W. B. Yeats or
any other of this new school, but Aubrey.de Vere to whom we owed
the poetic revival of the old Gaelic legends and hero-cycles, insists
for the most part on de Vere's two " closet dramas." Francis
Thompson is emphatically of the opinion that it is by his lyrical
rather than by his narrative and dramatic poems that de Vere
should be judged a discouraging sentence, surely, since it is ob-
vious that the emotional and the musical \vere the two big deficien-
cies in de Vere's makeups. His lyrics may easily be called graceful,
but with the exception of the Autumnal Ode and the Ode to a
Daffodil, they deserve no warmer adjective. No, rather is it the
nobility, the deep truth, and the grandeur of de Vere's thought
that we find most impressive, and since sue a elements appear to
greater advantage in the narrative poems and in the dramas, Miss
Bregy has chosen wisely, we believe. She studies particularly the
tragedies, Alexander the Great, and St. Thomas of Canterbury,
which, she thinks, " contain much of the noblest poetry de Vere
ever produced." In her final estimate of the poet she is more
generous in praise than Francis Thompson (who, we can guess,
would have liked more de Vere and less the Words worthian),
and, on the other hand, she is not nearly so admiring as Maurice
Francis Egan. Though according him his full meed of praise
running over, indeed she yet (if we may be permitted a bit of
guess-work) remains personally untouched. His poetry, with its
lofty, cold gravity, its holy serenity, very naturally makes no per-
sonal appeal. He does not win the same warm devotion that she
gives to Crashaw, to Mrs. Meynell, and most especially to Lionel
Johnson. And by instance of that fact we see the comparative
236 OUR CATHOLIC POETS [Nov.,
failure of de Vere's work. Noble and profound and deeply, truly
poetical though it always is, it yet is not widely loved; because of
its remoteness, its unrelapsing dignity. De Vere is the Addison of
poetry.
The longest and probably the finest, as well as the most difficult,
of the papers is the one devoted to Coventry Patmore. The biog-
raphy is unusually vivid and detailed, and of the poetic philosophy
formulated in the essays there is an illuminating exposition. That
wonderful poem, the Unknown Eros, is treated with rare insight,
and with a sympathy by no means always granted to it. The
Angel in the House is studied too briefly. We had hoped for some-
thing finer than Edmund Gosse's very satisfactory but not at all
inspiring study, and we are cheated of it. There are a thousand
thoughts explanatory of or derivative from the poem, and we can-
not be content that our critic has not given us pages upon pages
of the subject, instead of the few paragraphs to which we are
limited. Of Patmore's value and position in literature, the estimate
is exceptionally good.
Of Francis Thompson most of us must say humbly that " we
cannot praise, we love so much." But Miss Bregy can say rather
" There is delight in praising." The delight is also ours who
read; at first we tremble lest the tender, sweet notes be suddenly
snapped by some harsh or even some coldly formal word ! " Heard
melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter," we whisper.
What of our love for the poet, our secret, unphrased thoughts?
Would it not be better to leave such fragile, beloved beauty un-
discussed? But reading we find relief, and soon pleasure, for our
critic touches poet and poems with tender hands; we even find our
own thoughts, our own , affections, phrased charmingly for us. We
breathe a sigh of content when she says simply of Her Portrait and
Manus Animam Pinxlt that they are " ethereally yet poignantly
beautiful;" we note gladly her phrase of the poet's " unified vision "
of nature; and we like the reticent grace of the comment on
The Hound of Heaven. Best of all, we applaud when we
discover the refutation of the title so often bestowed
upon Thompson " the greater Crashaw." Both were Catho-
lics, yes, and both wrote religious poetry. But here is a critic at
last who points out (finally, let us hope!) that Crashaw's was a
lyric, and Francis Thompson's a dramatic genius. Again, that the
beauties of Crashaw were high and soaring, those of Thompson
deep and passionate. " The one," adds Miss Bregy, " might well
I 9 i2.] OUR CATHOLIC POETS 237
be called the poet of Bethlehem the other of Gethsemane ! " In
remarking in the nature poems " the mingling of the dainty and the
profound," our critic has somewhat the same thought expressed
by G. K. Chesterton in his essay on Thompson. Making a com-
parison with Browning, Chesterton observes :
But his real energy, and the real energy of Francis Thompson,
was best expressed in the fact that both poets were at once fond
of immensity and also fond of detail. Any common imperialist
can have large ideas so long as he is not called upon to have
small ideas also. Any common scientific philosopher can have
small ideas so long as he is not called upon to have large ideas
as well. But great poets use the telescope and also the micro-
scope. Great poets are obscure for two opposite reasons ; now,
because they are talking about something too large for anyone
to understand, and now again because they are talking about
something too small for anyone to see. Francis Thompson
possessed both these infinities. He escaped by being too small,
as the microbe escapes ; or he escaped by being too large, as the
universe escapes. Anyone who knows Francis Thompson's
poetry knows quite well the truth to which I refer. For the
benefit of any person who does not know it, I may mention two
cases taken from memory. I have not the book by me, so I can
only render the poetical passages in a clumsy paraphrase. But
there was one poem of which the image was so vast that it
was literally difficult for a time to take it in ; he was describing
the evening earth with its mist and fume and fragrance, and
represented the whole as rolling upwards like a smoke; then
suddenly he called the whole ball of the earth a thurible, and said
that some gigantic spirit swung it slowly before God. That
is the case of the image too large for comprehension. Another
instance sticks in my mind of the image which is too small.
In one of his poems he says that abyss between the known and
the unknown is bridged by " pontifical death." There are
about ten historical and theological puns in that one word.
That a priest means a pontiff, that a pontiff means a bridge-
maker, that death is certainly a bridge, that death may turn
out after all to be a reconciling priest, that at least priests and
bridges both attest to the fact that one thing can get separated
from another thing these ideas, and twenty more, are all
actually concentrated in the word " pontifical."
In Francis Thompson's poetry, as in the poetry of the uni-
verse, you can work infinitely out and out, but yet infinitely
in and in. These two infinities are the mark of greatness ; and
he was a great poet.
238 FATHER DOYLE [Nov.,
It is a temptation to linger over the others of the papers,
especially that treating of Lionel Johnson, which is perhaps the
most eminently artistic, and certainly the most exquisite in sym-
pathy. And it is almost impossible to pass over the very last paper,
which devotes itself to Mrs. Meynell, the poet of renunciation, the
lover of the Lady Poverty. But space fails for anything beyond
the quotation of a memorable paragraph :
Mrs. Meynell's poetry, 'like a certain school of modern
music, suggests and betrays rather than expresses emo-
tion. It is definite but intangible. It creates an atmosphere
of angelically clear thought, of rare delicacies of feeling, and
speaks with a perfect reticence. Mistakenly, perhaps, the hasty
might dub it a poetry of promise: on the contrary, it is a
poetry of uncommonly fine achievement. But it does not
achieve the expected thing. We are conscious of a light, a
flash, a voice, a perfume the soul of the muse has passed by.
And we were looking for the body, flower-crowned !
FATHER DOYLE.
BY MAURICE FRANCIS EGAN.
WHO was this man, whose memory in our hearts
Is touched by flame as frankincense by fire,
And like prayer's symbol, floats above the mire
Of sordid worldliness in earthly marts?
How well he knew the sad and various parts
We creatures play, each heart a lyre
From which he drew some music ; his desire
To raise each soul above the stinging smarts
Of vulgar lust and pride! Not of this world,
But in the world, he, living, understood
The proud Athenian and the simple mind.
He was unmoved, while o'er him evil hurled
Deceptive threats ; with the ensanguined wood
Of Christ's blest cross his heart was deeply signed.
IRew Boohs.
THE MASS: A STUDY OF ROMAN LITURGY. By Adrian
Fortescue. New York: Longmans, Green & Co. $1.80 net.
" This book," as the author says, " is intended to supply in-
formation about the history of the Roman Liturgy. The title
shows that it is a study of the Roman rite. It is only in the
Roman (or Gallican) rite that the Eucharistic service can correctly
be called Mass. The chapter about other liturgies, and the frequent
references to them throughout, are meant only to put our Roman
Mass in its proper perspective, and to illustrate its elements by
comparison. In spite of the risk of repetition, the clearest plan
seemed to be to first discuss the origin and development of the Mass
in general; and then to go through the service as it stands now,
adding notes to each prayer and ceremony."
Dr. Fortescue in discussing the difficult problem of the develop-
ment of the Canon, does not give us any new theory of his own.
On the contrary he sums up clearly and accurately the views of
the chief liturgical specialists, such as Bunsen, Probst, Bickell,
Cagin, Bishop, Baumstark, Buchwald, Drews, and Cabrol. He
favors indeed the main ideas of Drews and Baumstark, but while
giving his reasons, he is never arbitrary and dogmatic like some
of the scholars he quotes.
I have occasionally met Protestants who labored under the
delusion that all Catholics believed that our present liturgical books
and ceremonies were all existent in the first and second centuries.
We recommend them Dr. Fortescue's introductory chapter on " The
Eucharist in the First Three Centuries." Answering this very
question, he says : " In the earlier period there was certainly no
absolute uniformity in every prayer, in every detail of ceremonial
as in our Missal now. The prayers were neither read from a book
nor learned by heart. Liturgical books do not appear till later.
The lessons were, of course, read from a Bible; psalms and the
Lord's Prayer were known by heart ; otherwise the prayers were all
extempore. As for ceremonial, there was none or practically none.
Things were done, as they had to be done for some practical pur-
pose, in the simplest way A ritual grew naturally out of
these purely practical actions, just as vestments evolved out of
ordinary dress " (p. 53).
The table of liturgies at the end of Chapter II. gives us at
240 NEW BOOKS [Nov.,
a glance the parent rites of Antioch, Alexandria, Rome, and Gaul
with their descendants. We see at once how mistaken those are
who imagine that the uses of Sarum and Salisbury are really sep-
arate rites, essentially different from that of Rome, whereas in
reality they are only local varieties of the Roman rite (p. 201).
Chapter IV. tells us of the Mass Since Gregory I. We no
longer have the obscurity that marks the origin of the Roman rite.
" There was first an infiltration of Gallican elements, then the
evolution of prolific mediaeval derived rites. But neither affected
the fundamental essence of the Mass. All later modifications
were fitted into the old arrangement, and the most important
parts were not touched. From the time of St. Gregory, roughly
speaking, we have the text of the Mass, its order and arrangement,
as a sacred tradition that no one ventured to touch except in unim-
portant details " (p . 173).
Part II. gives us the Order of the Mass in detail. For many
this will prove the most interesting part of the book. We learn,
v. g., that the Introit was originally the processional psalm; that
the prayers at the foot of the altar were for a long time simply
the celebrant's own private preparation; that the Kyrie was a
fragment of a litany introduced at Rome from the East about
500 A. D. ; that the Gloria is a translation of a very old Greek hymn ;
that the short ancient Collects are characteristically Roman ; that the
Homily after the Lessons is one of the oldest elements, etc., etc.
There are two scholarly appendices on the Names of the Mass
and the Epiklesis. A small but good bibliography concludes the
volume.
It is without question the best book on the subject in the
English tongue. It is clear, concise, and scholarly. It will be
studied by many who otherwise might have been content with vague
and inaccurate ideas about the great Christian act of Sacrifice.
English-speaking Catholics owe a very great debt of gratitude
to those who first conceived the idea of the Westminster Library.
THE GOLDEN ROSE. By Mrs. Hugh Fraser and J. I. Stahl-
mann. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. $1-35 net.
Mrs. Hugh Fraser, who is known as Marion Crawford's sister,
and as the author of A Diplomatist's Wife in Many Lands, has
written, in collaboration with J. I. Stahlmann, a novel of unusual
strength and brillance, called The Golden Rose. It bases itself
upon the doctrine of the beauty and the discipline of suffering.
NEW BOOKS 241
Countess Pauline Karolai, of a noble and Catholic Polish family,
has been struck into agony by the horrible, shameful death of the
young husband whom she had blindly revered and loved, and upon
the birth of her child, Rose Aurore, the Golden Rose, she has taken
a terrible vow. In her bitter resentment against God, she has
sworn to obey and serve Him outwardly, to be a loyal member of
His Church, so long as He shall keep her child from pain, and
no longer. Believing herself to have purchased all happiness for
Rose at the price of her own past suffering, she educates the child
in religion, it is true, but only in a formal religion, without any real
love of God or submission to His will. And Rose Aurore, while
an innocent, wilful child, is led into a secret and legally incomplete
marriage with the second son of the king of a German principality.
This, of course, spells tragedy; the Prince's gradual inconstancy,
and finally, upon his accession to the throne, his repudiation of
Rose and his remarriage, mean for her an agony that bitterly
punishes poor Pauline's sacrilegious presumption. In the end, how-
ever, it leads both mother and child safely back to the feet of God.
Such is the theme of the story, and it is overlaid by brilliant de-
pictions of court life that are doubtless expert, and by character
drawings that are exceptionally fine.
CATHOLICISM AND SOCIALISM. London: Catholic Truth
Society.
We recommend very highly these brief but excellent essays on
Socialism by Father M'Laughlin, Father Rickaby, Father Garrold,
and Hilaire Belloc. Some among Catholics may have been led to join
the ranks of unbelieving Socialism, because appreciating the intoler-
able evils of our present industrial system, and anxious for their bet-
terment, they were convinced by lying witnesses that the Catholic
Church and her priesthood were on the side of capital against the
workers. Such men read the writings of the Socialist enthusiast day
after day. Pamphlets of the above type are a good antidote for the
poison. Let us quote a few extracts: "Your (the Socialist)
program is impossible to us because you want to suppress not only
the evils of private ownership, but private ownership itself."
" The Socialist argument on surplus value does evince this much,
that the said surplus ought not to be turned merely to the private
emolument and gratification of the capitalist. But it should be
administered by the capitalist for the common good of himself and
of his working people. To some extent already working people do
VOL. xcvi. 16.
242 NEW BOOKS [Nov.,
share in the benefits that spring from surplus value. It cannot be
contended that the people's share in these benefits is so full as
it ought to be." " But this disproportion is not to be all put
down to industry, and thrift, and public services rendered by the
wealthy, and to idleness, wastefulness, and crime on the part of
the poor." " State interference to rectify this wrongful inequality
is of the nature of a surgical operation, to be dispensed with where
not necessary. There is no heroic remedy to ensure the right
application of riches." . . . . " Socialism is a political theory, according
to which people would be happier and better if the means of pro-
duction that is, the land of a country and its buildings, ships, ma-
chines, rails, etc. belonged to the government instead of belong-
ing, as they mainly do, to private citizens and corporations.
This is the only exclusive meaning of Socialism. All the other
wobbly ideas that have been tacked on to it by its enemies or
its friends that it is 'atheistic,' or that it involves 'sexual im-
morality,' that it is 'progressive,' that it is 'Christian,' have nothing
to do with the one proposition which alone distinguishes it from all
other policies." " No man in a Socialistic state would be what we
now call free." " Socialism would destroy what we call the
satisfaction of the desire of property." " The Catholic Church
does not admit that the possession of the means of production differs
morally from the possession of objects which cannot be used or are
not used as means of production."
THE BOOK OF SAINTS AND HEROES. By Mrs. Lang. Edited
by Andrew Lang. New York: Longmans, Green & Co.
$ i. 60 net.
A noted non-Catholic writer on pedagogical subjects stated
some time ago that if his own religious body had the wealth
of story contained in the lives of the saints of the Catholic Church,
it would be abundantly supplied with religious literature for chil-
dren. It is true that the lives of the saints are an inexhaustible
treasure-house for all that will interest and stimulate children ; and
that the same treasure-house is too seldom drawn upon. Its riches
are, comparatively speaking, little known to our children or, indeed,
to our older folks.
A book that taps this vein of Catholic inheritance is : The
Book of Saints and Heroes, by Mrs. Lang, and edited by the late
Andrew Lang. Needless to say the work is admirably well written,
and no child, even though tired, would think of sleep while the
1912.] NEW BOOKS 243
story of Jerome and the Lion, or Francis and the Wolf of Agobio,
was being read. Here is all that will arouse the imagination, fas-
cinate the mind, and instill that romantic love of heroic deeds which,
in turn, is so powerful a stimulus to virtue. The book is most richly
and tastefully illustrated with page drawings, many of them beau-
tifully colored. The author has combined legend and history, and
has sought to give us an interesting story book. She has suc-
ceeded well, and the only criticism that we have to make is that in
the preface Mr. Lang permits his playful humor to descend almost
to frivolity.
THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS. By Joseph Huby. Paris:
Gabriel Beauchesne et Cie.
The great battle to-day between faith and infidelity centres
in great part on the battlefield of Comparative Religions. German
rationalist scholars like Bunsen and Seydel, and their French pop-
ularizers like Reinach and his confreres of the anticlerical camp,
are continually lauding to the skies the merits of Buddhism, Mith-
raism, Mohammedanism, and the pagan cults of Greece and Rome,
the better to prove the inferiority and borrowings of Christianity.
Ten years ago when the Catholic university student demanded
of us a good history of religions, we had nothing to offer him.
Now Catholic scholars are beginning to supply the demand. In
England, Father Martindale has given us the five excellent volumes
of the History of Religions published in this country by B. Herder
of St. Louis; in France, the Abbe Bricout, editor of the Revue du
Clerge Frangais, has edited two scholarly volumes, entitled Ou En
Est I'Histoire des Religions, and now the Abbe Huby offers us a
third manual of Comparative Religions.
Eleven of the Catholic specialists who have contributed to
the present volume have already written for the series published in
England by the Catholic Truth Society. The only new writers are
Albert Carnoy on the Religion of the Persians, Ernest Bominghaus
on the Religion of the Ancient Germans, John Nikel on the Religion
of Israel, and Pierre Rousselot and Alexandre Brou on Christianity.
The lengthiest and most important contribution to the present
series is the History of Christianity (pp. 671 to 1,012). This
chapter is even more complete than the treatise of the Abbe Vac-
andard in the series published in the Revue du Clerge Frangais.
As Father Huby says in his preface, " In our days the adversaries
of our Faith are most dishonest in the arguments they deduce from
244 NEW BOOKS [Nov.,
the comparison of Christianity with other religions. In ignorance
or in bad faith they say nothing of the differences that exist, while
they exaggerate every analogy with the secret or avowed design
of robbing Christianity of its divine aureola. Such a method
is false and sophistical; it originates in their concept of the super-
natural. Some deny a priori its existence; others, like some of our
apologists who are more zealous than learned, seem to think that
the world of nature and the world of grace are total strangers to
each other. Because they happen to discover some points of contact
between Christianity and other religions, they at once flatter them-
selves that they have utterly destroyed all transcendental religion.
They are utterly ignorant of the fact that the supernatural and
natural orders are not separate nor contradictory, but that the
supernatural builds on the natural, and supposes in us natural
powers, which it develops and perfects Honesty demands
that the comparison should refer not merely to isolated details, but
to Christianity as a whole to Christian dogma, Christian morality,
and Christian worship. Instead of merely discussing gestures and
words, the scholar must try to grasp the principle of life and the
spirit which animates them."
This volume, the work of some of the best Catholic specialists
in the world to-day, argues conclusively against the evolutionary
theory of religion. " It shows the absolute superiority of Chris-
tianity; and makes us appreciate more and more the unfathomable
riches of Christ." It will be a good corrective to the superficial
manuals of the French lycees, which are doing so much to-day to
undermine the faith of the rising generation. It is a most worthy
contribution to Catholic scholarship.
HENRIK IBSEN: PLAYS AND PROBLEMS. By Otto Heller.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. $2.00 net.
Of writing books on Ibsen there is apparently no end, since
Bernard Shaw first set the fashion with his Quintessence of Ibsen-
ism which, by the way, was, of course, about one-fourth Ibsenism
to three-fourths Shavianism, that critic's trouble being, as usual, too
much Shaw. But much can be said in praise of this newest arrival
Henrik Ibsen: Plays and Problems, by Otto Heller, Professor
of German Language and Literature in Washington University. It
is a careful and scholarly study, devoting special attention to the
social plays, the so-called problem plays, rather than to the roman-
tic and historical. It is Ibsen the social thinker that this present
I 9 i2.] NEW BOOKS 245
critic shows us. Ibsen the artist interests him not so much; be-
yond stating a general admiration, and pointing out an occasional
fault of technique or a needless ambiguity of construction, he is
silent. Which is a bit disappointing, because Ibsen has not yet
been summed up with any finality from the artistic standpoint;
between those who exalt absurdly and those who drag down un-
duly, he remains suspended, like the prophet's coffin, between heaven
and earth.
It is Ibsen's philosophy that is Professor Heller's chief con-
cern, and although he evidently believes in it to an irrational extent,
yet he presents it very sanely and fairly, and in as clear outlines
as its shifting vagueness will permit. He defends his Ibsen with
justice from the charge of indecency and immorality a charge
which we should really put by as cheap : anyone can fling stones
at Goliath's feet, but an intelligent David will aim at his head. He
even makes a half-way reasonable defense against the charge of
morbidity. But he quite misses the point that Ibsen was a de-
structive, never a constructive, thinker. He was only half a phil-
osopher. That he was an intelligent demonstrator of sins and of
their result, is perfectly true. But he suggested no cure of sins,
no scheme of morality that should combat sins. A man has no
right to pull down a house until he knows how to rebuild it in
better shape. Socialists and anarchists are alike in this, that they
are all complete thinkers. They know what they want. They
have a definite social ideal. Accordingly they are at least logical
when they lay society upon the Procrustean bed of their ideal,
and stretch it to fit. But Ibsen has no such bed, and it is really
unfair of him to stretch society on the rack of his revolving theories.
Perhaps the biggest satisfaction that Professor Heller gives
us is his study of that much and variously misunderstood heroine,
Hedda Gabler. Every Ibsen critic sees Hedda through his own
spectacles. To one she is insane; to another, her physical con-
dition is responsible for her actions (an obviously untenable
theory, since we are explicitly told that her traits were the same
in childhood) to a third, she seems to have the full sympathy and
approval of the dramatist.
In fact, to one critic (Mr. Grant Allen) Hedda is "nothing
more nor less than the girl we take down to dinner in London,
nineteen times out of twenty." Professor Heller offers, we believe,
the true interpretation of Hedda as a heartless egoist, a " demi-
vierge," a type of the over-emancipated woman. Her emancipa-
246 NEW BOOKS [Nov.,
tion, he observes, " has led her clearly out of the path of duty into a
moral wilderness. No profitable order of society can exist di-
vorced from domestic obligations. Ibsen, his thoroughgoing cham-
pionship of female independence notwithstanding, abhorred the
type of woman whose 'social' interests lie wholly outside her family.
And he simply loathed the Hedda Gablers of 'society,' surface
idlers whose existence is equally barren at home and abroad." But
what he fails to note is that this egoism, this theory of " living
one's own life," is exactly what Ibsen himself preached in the
Doll's House. Hedda Gabler is simply Nora ten years later.
Another frequent misunderstanding of Ibsen is corrected by
this critic in his chapter on " Little Eyolf." The high burst of
rather stagy philanthropy at its close has recommended the play
for much mistaken applause, as Professor Heller notes, and he
continues :
The conventionalist may even be seen pointing with satis-
faction to " Little Eyolf " as a proof of Ibsen's abandonment
of ultra-radicalism, and his return to the standing moral notions
of "general humanity." The plain fact of the matter is
that in " Little Eyolf " a theory of marriage is preached which,
to my knowledge, has only one other open advocate among the
great social thinkers of modern times ; the same theory, namely,
that is advanced in Toltsoy's Kreutzer Sonata Since by
the outcome of the play the maintenance of platonic relations
between husband and wife would seem to be commended,
Ibsen is apprehended in the preposterous tenet that happy
marriages must be childless.
In this Professor Heller is undoubtedly right. This immorally
ascetic theory of marriage, though not elsewhere in Ibsen recom-
mended, is, of course, the main idea in " Little Eyolf," and the
play should be judged by it, not by a bit of philanthropy that is
only a side-issue.
Of A Doll's House there is a lengthy and very able study,
aiming to present a clear notion of Ibsen's ideas on the woman
question. In the process of so doing our critic draws a rather
doleful picture of woman's position here in America.
The national sentiment [he remarks], despite all appearances
to the contrary, is still distinctly unfriendly to higher feminine
aspirations, and refuses stubbornly to apportion between the
sexes the responsibility for the nation's important concerns
1912.] NEW BOOKS 247
At all events, the woman cult of the American man is limited
and qualified. His sheltering gallantry is capable of nearly
every sacrifice, but stops absolutely short of the concession of
equality. It is really not such a fearfully far cry from the
average relation of the sexes in wedlock to the domestic order
pictured in A Doll's House, against which Americans more than
any other people protest so loudly.
How discouraging! How really too bad of the professor!
But he does not mean all that. Overstudy of his subject has left
him temporarily minus his sense of humor, and in the mood which
caused a lady to observe to her companion after a " Doll's House "
matinee :
" Really, my dear, isn't Ibsen too perfectly lovely, and doesn't
he just take all the joy out of life? "
THE LOST ART OF CONVERSATION. Selected Essays. Edited
with an Introduction by Horatio S. Kraus. New York:
Sturgis & Walton. $1.50 net.
If the art of conversation be indeed lost (as universal com-
plaint and individual experience would seem, for the most part,
to imply), then modern society may well leave tea drinking and
bridge playing and motoring and esthetic dancing and the rest
of her ninety-nine polite accomplishments in the wilderness, and
rest not until the fugitive is won back to her tents! The present
well-chosen array of critiques on the subject may serve not only
as incentive for the search, but perhaps even for guide-post on
the way. For here we find Lord Bacon's terse sentences Of Dis-
course, a serious essay by De Quincy, and Hazlitt's ever-charming
edict upon the Conversation of Lords and the Conversation of
Authors. That the latter is "not so good as might be imagined,"
the author himself readily admits, with the afterword that " such as
it is (and with rare exceptions) it is better than any other! " He
metes out sincere admiration, also, to the originality and naivete of
artists' conversation; while his judgment upon the conversation of
women is witty enough in itself to justify a perusal of the book.
Dean Swift contributes to this really classic collection certain
" hints " toward an essay, and J. P. Mahaffy a rather formal
analysis of the Principles of the Art of Conversation; while all
lovers of Robert Louis Stevenson will be glad to find his Truth
of Intercourse and his sympathetic pages upon Talk and Talkers
included. The book as a whole is worth while and interesting.
248 NEW BOOKS [Nov.,
BOOKS BY CATHOLIC AUTHORS IN THE CLEVELAND PUB-
LIC LIBRARY. Compiled and annotated by Emilie Louise
Haley. Published by the Cleveland Public Library.
This careful catalogue does credit both to the intelligent and
painstaking compiler and the library which can make so good a
showing of valuable Catholic works. Too often the Catholic books
in our public libraries are lost on the shelves, with no guide to
point them out to the willing Catholic reader. Special catalogues
have been attempted before, but few have reached the high point
of excellence of the present effort. The catalogue is arranged
according to subjects. Books in which Catholics have collaborated
with non-Catholics are included, also Catholic works translated or
edited by non-Catholics, but none but Catholic names are found on
the carefully verified list of Catholic authors at the end of the
volume. Annotations, comprising telling passages from the book
itself, a brief summary of its purport, or notices from standard
Catholic reviews, add unique value to this work as a guide to
readers. We note, however, among these a serious misprint which
the Errata has failed to correct. On page twenty-six in the quota-
tion from Questions of the Soul, by Rev. I. T. Hecker, " supple-
ment " should read complement. The catalogue is prefaced by a
note of cordial congratulation to the compiler from the Rt. Rev.
Bishop of Cleveland. It is to be hoped the appreciation of Miss
Haley's work may lead others to render a like service to Catholic
readers in other public libraries.
EARLY CHRISTIAN HYMNS. Series II. By Daniel Joseph
Donahue. Middletown, Conn. : Donahue Publishing Co.
$2.00 net.
This second volume of Judge Donahue's Early Christian
Hymns is designed to augment the first series by a " more general
survey of the work of the most notable Latin writers of the early
and Middle Ages," outside of the limits of the Breviary. Begin-
ning with hymns of St. Hilary and St. Ambrose, it traces the golden
thread of sacred song from Augustine and Prudentius to St. Peter
Damien ; so to the German Strabo and Benno ; to Thomas a Kempis
and Bernard of Clairvaux; closing with two sacred poems of
Pope Urban VIII., and a pathetic fragment written by the hapless
Queen of Scots in her own prayer-book.
Many of the most famous hymns of Christendom the Adeste
Fidelis, for instance, the Veni, Veni Emanuel, and the Maris Stella
I 9 i2.] NEW BOOKS 249
songs are, of course, of unknown authorship; and in this same
category Judge Donahue places the popular Anima Christi, so long
attributed to St. Ignatius Loyola. The merit of his collection lies
less in the poetic excellence of any particular translation than in
the fidelity and comprehensiveness with which he has revealed to
modern Christians this ancient treasure trove of the Church. Any
library is the richer for including Judge Donahue's two volumes of
these noble hymns.
SOUTH AMERICAN PROBLEMS. By Robert E. Speer. New
York: Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions.
If any Catholic has ever wondered why Protestant missions
are universally so unsuccessful, despite the many millions squan-
dered by unthinking and prejudiced multitudes at home, let him
read this book. It is hardly worthy of a review in any serious
monthly, unless perhaps to call the attention of fair-minded Prot-
estants in the United States to the mental and moral calibre of those
whom they pay to make converts abroad. The book is unscholarly,
inaccurate, prejudiced, dishonest, and hypocritical.
Like a character Dickens would have loved to paint, Mr.
Speer makes his bow to the American Protestant public with a most
eloquent and unctuous appeal for a great many American dollars
to win over " an unbelieving, superstitious, and immoral " conti-
nent from the grasp of an " intolerant, impure, and avaricious
priesthood." The authorities he loves to cite are infidel apostates
like McCabe, drunken renegades like O'Connor, professional anti-
Catholics like Lea, and a host of South American priests whose
names are wisely withheld.
We are solemnly informed, without the quiver of an eyelid,
that the Catholic religion in South America is a horrible mass
of corruption, superstition, externalism, Bible-hating, Mariolatry.
and ignorance. " Is not celibacy," asks this modern defender
of truth and righteousness, " a wrong and evil principle ? Does
not the Church through the confessional take over all past sins,
allow the penitent to do what he likes, and be sure of salvation?
Is not the Catholic Church radically hostile to free institutions,
the advocate of a mere external conformity, the determined foe
of all independent inquiry and intellectual progress, the bitter
enemy of the Word of God, the foster of illiteracy," etc., etc. ?
We are certain that Mr. Speer has mistaken his vocation.
He ought to pose as an " ex-priest " in some of the small, illiterate
250 NEW BOOKS [Nov.,
towns of the South land; he would then be certain of an audience
prepared by tradition and lack of mental culture fully to appreciate
his mouthings.
Only among the absolutely ignorant will his presentation of
Catholic doctrine pass unquestioned, his so-called facts be swallowed
whole, and his protestations of sincerity be accepted at face value.
We beg to remember the commandment, " Thou shalt not bear false
witness."
CHANGING AMERICA. By Edward Alsworth Ross. New
York: The Century Co. $1.20 net.
Professor Ross writes no page that is not entertaining, and few
that do not suggest matter for thought. In this present group of es-
says he touches upon several topics that lie near the heart of all con-
cerned with current American history. In what are, perhaps, his
best two chapters, he describes the rampant commercialism which
has made business the supreme interest of life.
Very pertinent are the instances given of the way in which the
daily newspaper constantly suppresses important news not agree-
able to the interests of the big advertisers. But they would have
been so much more impressive as arguments if the professor had
been able to furnish us w r ith specific data as to the newspapers and
firms that figure in his illustrations.
The chapter on the falling birth-rate is as might be antici-
pated frankly pagan. Professor Ross affirms infant mortality to
be so high among the French Canadians that they " show the cen-
sus-taker no larger families than other Canadians."
We think that any candid reader of Commissioner Beale's
monumental work on Racial Decay will begin to wonder whether
Dr. Ross has not been led into this declaration by
The instinctive theorizing, whence a fact
Looks to the eye as the eye likes the look.
UNSEEN FRIENDS. By Mrs. William O'Brien. New York:
Longmans, Green & Co. $2.25 net.
If the " Unseen Friends " of whom Mrs. William O'Brien
writes are unknown to any of our readers, we strongly advise them
to secure the book and experience the joy of introduction. To
those of us who already know the friends, there will be an equal, if
not greater, pleasure in reading these pages. The author has se-
I 9 i2.] NEW BOOKS 251
lected fifteen of her favorites, and in pleasant, easy style, with
evidence of much careful reading, has told the history of lives that
for literary charm, personal worth, and spiritual inspiration will
never grow old. Of the fifteen, ten are great Catholic heroines;
the remaining five are women, who, beyond mere literary ability,
have possessed the charm of a personally worthy Christian char-
acter.
Mrs. O'Brien is partial towards women not a man is allowed
into this famous company. But we will not object. The book is
too fascinating to admit of any such criticism. Mrs. Oliphant,
Charlotte Bronte, Felicia Skene, Jean Ingelow, Christina Rossetti
are all sketched attractively. The lives of religious founders and
heroines who have become famous throughout the world, and whose
story here will be of special interest to the members and special
friends of the different communities, are interestingly reviewed:
Mother Margaret Mary Hallahan of the Irish Dominicans, and
Mother Francis Drane, her biographer; Nano Nagle of the Presenta-
tion Order; Mary Aikenhead of the Irish Sisters of Charity; Emilie
d'Oultremont or Marie Reparatrice, and Marie Antoinette Fage of
the Little Sisters of the Assumption.
A very valuable asset of the book is the intelligent suggestion
and guidance it offers, particularly to Catholics, of further ex-
cellent Catholic reading. One who would read this volume, and
then read the other works which it mentions, would be well-versed
in Catholic life and activity of the last century and better still
have a treasury of inspiration for his own daily betterment. It
was a delight to us to see that Mrs. O'Brien included Eugenie de
Guerin and Pauline de la Ferronnays. The Letters and Journal
of the former both may be purchased at small cost ought to be
household books among Catholics. In Eugenie de Guerin, as all the
world admits, and has long since admitted, the grace of unsel-
fishness and the pure love of God, and in Him of her dear Maurice,
gave birth to a literary art unexcelled. The man, who knows not
A Sister's Story, by Mrs. Craven (Pauline de la Ferronnays), has
missed much. Years ago it was named by the Edinburgh Review
as one of the one hundred classics of the world.
THE POETS' CHANTRY. By Katherine Bregy. St. Louis : B.
Herder. $1.50.
A review of this work appears in an article in this issue of
THE CATHOLIC WORLD under the title : Our Catholic Poets. We
252 NEW BOOKS [Nov.,
wish to call direct attention to the work here in our review pages,
because it is one of exceptional value, not only to all who are inter-
ested in our great poets, but also to Catholic schools and colleges.
It is a lamentable fact that courses in English poetry are given in
our Catholic schools year in and year out, and yet the pupil is gradu-
ated from them without any idea not only of the Catholic inheritance
in English literature, but of the still greater fact that Catholic
teaching has been the prolific and faithful mother of all that is en-
during in that poetry. It is a large claim to make, but it might
easily be defended, that the soul of English poetry is Christian, and
when that soul goes out poetry will die. The supreme value of Miss
Bregy's work is that she has given a valuable contribution to the
defense of that thesis. Her volume is happily illustrated by photo-
graphs of the different authors, and is well presented. We bespeak
for it the wide circulation which it merits.
PRISONERS' YEARS. By I. Clarke. New York: Benziger
Brothers. $1.35 net.
This is a novel of remarkable excellence. The title is taken
from the lines in Ben Jonson's Sad Shepherd:
How long are lovers' weeks,
Do you think, Robin, when they are asunder?
Are they not prisoners' years?
and the lovers are a young English couple, Felix Scaife and
Evodia Essex, who part in anger a week before their arranged
marriage. It is Felix's announcement of his sudden conversion
to Catholicity that loses for him his inheritance and his fiancee,
but in the face of the double trial he remains loyal to his newly-
found faith.
The second half of the story carries us to Italy and to the
north of Africa, and we follow the slow evolution of Evodia's
mind to the point where she, too, discovers religious truth and a
simultaneous understanding of her lover's sacrifice. The story is
told lightly, and with much skill and humor.
GOD MADE MAN. By Rev. P. M. Northcote. New York: Ben-
ziger Brothers. 90 cents net.
" In this work," as the author correctly states in his Preface,
" there is no pretense at scholarship as the term is generally under-
stood It is simply the record of the thoughts of one who
desires above all things to be loyal, true, and loving toward the
1912.] NEW BOOKS 253
Divine Person, Who, whether as Creator or Redeemer, did so
much for man."
A busy priest will find this volume helpful in the preparation
of his Sunday sermons, although we would advise him not to harp
so much on the coming of Antichrist, which " dread event " Father
Northcote feels " is at hand." That prophecy has been made too
often by those outside the Church for us to imitate their false fore-
bodings. Again we were tempted to get angry with him for his
absurd " mistrust of government by democracy," which he thinks
" so easily merges into Socialism," and his view that " the modern
democratic spirit is a transient phase in human affairs " due to the
stupidity of the masses. But our kindly oracle rather disarms us
when he declares later on that we are at perfect liberty to disagree
with him. He is fairer than some lovers of the old regime in
France who would fain commit the Church to their own private
political opinions.
Some of his expressions (v. g., " the Patriot God ") rather
jar upon our hypersensitive ear, and as a rule he is absolutely
devoid of that aristocratic " distinction " of style which we look for
in a man so distrustful of the vulgar mob. Some kindly critic
should have told him to omit the useless appendix on the Coming
of Antichrist.
THE SPIRITUAL LIFE OR THE JOURNEY OF THE SOUL
TO GOD. By Father Malige. Paris : P. Lethielleux.
This beautiful treatise on the spiritual life is in three volumes,
which deal respectively with the purgative, the illuminative, and
the unitive ways of perfection. The style is clear, graceful, and
interesting; the theology sound, and the pious practices recom-
mended are most attractive.
The learned author had a prolonged and varied experience
in the direction of souls. He was for years professor of theology;
he prepared generations of ecclesiastical students for the sacred
duties of the ministry. The numerous retreats which he gave to
seminarists and to religious communities, both of men and women,
endowed him with a profound knowledge of the human heart, and
a far-reaching sympathy with the difficulties and temptations of the
spiritual life.
As has been said, the book is in three parts. The greater
bulk of the work, however, deals with the purgative and illumi-
native ways. The unitive way is touched upon, but not elaborated.
254 NEW BOOKS [Nov.,
This is probably because for the majority of those leading a
spiritual life, those books are more necessary which treat of the
means of practicing virtue, and of avoiding faults and hindrances
which impede the progress of the soul in its flight towards perfect
union with God.
The author has made a loving and profound study of the
works of the masters of the spiritual life, and is fond of quoting
Saint Thomas, Saint Augustine, and St. Francis de Sales. Indeed,
the charm and sweetness of his style remind one, at times, of the
gentle Bishop of Geneva. For Pope Pius X. he has the filial affec-
tion and reverence of a devoted son.
Some of the chapters are exceedingly beautiful, notably those
dealing with: Spiritual Direction; Frequent Communion (Vol.
I.); The Vows of Religion and Prayer, (Vol. II.); and the ex-
quisite chapters treating of Charity both with regard to God and
to our neighbors; Devotion towards the Suffering Souls; and,
finally, the concluding chapters on the Adoration of the Sacred
Heart in Vol. III.
In conclusion, we heartily recommend this work to priests
and to religious communities both of men and women, to whom it
will prove a sure guide in the ways of the spiritual life. We wish
it a wide circulation, and hope it may be the means of drawing souls
ever nearer to God until the day of their complete and intimate
union with Him.
LESSONS IN LOGIC. By Rev. William Turner, S.T.D. Wash-
ington, D. C. : Catholic Education Press. $1.25.
The present volume admirably fulfills the purpose for which
it is intended as a textbook for high schools and colleges. The
reader must not regard it as a treatise meant to satisfy all the
needs of advanced students, though these will find in it much in-
formation. The lucid thinking displayed in this work is charac-
teristic of all Dr. Turner's writings. In his exposition the crooked
ways of logic are made straight and the rough ways plain. A
special example of his clear thinking, as well as a model of powerful
refutaton, is the defense of syllogistic reasoning against Mill's
charge that the conclusion adds nothing to the premises. Dr.
Turner shows that one may know the premises before attaining to
the knowledge of the conclusion, and that the conclusion, conse-
quently, adds to our knowledge, while it makes no addition to ob-
jective truth.
I9i2.] NEW BOOKS 255
The definition of logic given in this volume is the best we have
seen. It is clear and complete. Logic is defined to be " the science
and art which so directs the mind in the process of reasoning and
subsidiary processes as to enable it to attain clearness, consistency,
and validity in these processes."
Dr. Turner emphasizes the point that work is meant to have
a pedagogical value. His own example, too, as an unmistakable
practicer of the logical arts, will have its influence upon students
with their imitative instincts. For orderly arrangement, however,
the chapter on " Method " is not in the best place, coming after a
discussion of the methods of induction.
The author's treatment of the various moods of the syllogism
might have been omitted. The practical utility of knowing all
about Baroco, Bocardo, Bramantip cannot be discovered. In actual
life we forget them. Nobody, consciously or unconsciously, makes
use of his knowledge of this dialectic legacy from highly speculative
times. The received method of discussing them at length might
be substituted by a full treatment of some of the important, subtle,
and complex logical processes of practical life which logic does not
yet consider. Newman was a pioneer in explaining them by his
theory of the " illative sense," but he has few followers. This
omission, however, is not Dr. Turner's peculiar fault; it is a fault
of the times. His work deserves the best success in the field for
which it is intended.
THE MESSIAH'S MESSAGE. By John Joseph Robinson. St.
Louis: B. Herder. $1.00.
A refutation of the preposterous claims of modern scientists
first engages the attention of the author of this apologetic work.
He then proceeds to treat the fundamental questions of man's
destiny; the necessity of religion, and Christ and His Church.
The chapters on religion are particularly cogent. They display
an immense amount of research, and give copious, useful quotations
from the world's great writers, ancient and modern. The author
writes in a strong, impressive style, and his zealous labor has pro-
duced a valuable book.
THE HOME RULE BILL. By John Redmond, M.P. New York :
Cassell & Co.
The Home Rule Bill, written by John Redmond, leader of the
Irish parliamentary party, though not so entertaining as a good
256 NEW BOOKS [Nov.,
novel, is instructive and interesting. It contains the text
of the bill itself, which were Greek to the common run of readers
without commentary or explanation. Mr. Redmond is severely
precise and impartial in his analysis of the great document, writing
more like a lawyer than a partisan. Several of his own speeches,
bearing on the subject of the book, are given in that earnest,
solid, convincing style so characteristic of Mr. Parnell's disciple and
successor. The mass of English voters are now definitely con-
verted and committed to Home Rule, according to him; so that
even though an accident were to befall the present bill and prevent
its final passage, or the Liberals underwent untimely and unex-
pected defeat, Home Rule for Ireland is now inevitable.
THE LIVING FLAME OF LOVE. By Saint John of the Cross,
with his Letters, Poems, and Minor Writings. Translated by
David Lewis, with an Essay by Cardinal Wiseman, and addi-
tions and an Introduction by V. Rev. Benedict Zimmerman,
O.C.D. London: Thomas Baker. $1.75.
The Saints show forth the glory of God in two ways : by their
doings and by their writings. The life of a Saint is an epic poem
in which the training, the combat, and the victory of his heroic soul
are set out for our example, in order that we may be stimulated to
imitate the harmony and discipline of his life, the generosity of
his sacrifices, and the ardor of his onslaught against the enemy.
Through him, too, we can catch a tempered ray of the unapproach-
able light of God's sanctity, even as we may safely look on the sun
reflected in water. The exterior works of a Saint are but the
material expression of an intense spiritual fire ever burning within
his soul, which sends up flames to illuminate the heart, the will and
the intelligence; heating, purifying, and stimulating into life first
the thought, then the act. The Saint rarely reveals the secrets
of his mind, but when driven by the mysterious promptings of
the Holy Spirit, and seized by the burning ardor of divine love,
he takes the pen and transcribes in a style that savors more of the
celestial than the human, some of those inner experiences out of
which grew his sanctity, and which he will tell you himself baffle
the powers of language to relate.
Saint John of the Cross glorified God both in his life and in
his writings in an admirable degree. His whole earthly pilgrim-
age was given up to the practice of the most sublime and heroic
virtue, and his four volumes of poems and prose are there to reveal
I 9 i2.] NEW BOOKS 257
to us something of the marvels of God in the Saint's inner life. In
them he describes with the genius of a seraph the steps which the
soul must take on its upward journey from the low life of sense to
the high hills of the infinite. No other Saint has surpassed him
in describing the trials and desolations of the way, but he is also
unequalled in his power of showing the peace, the sweetness, the
happiness awaiting the soul if she will only persevere along the path
of heavenly love.
The Saint draws for us a survey of the country through
which he himself traveled. We may think the route beyond
our powers of endurance, and his standard of sanctity un-
approachable to souls of more earthly calibre, yet this is not so.
" To be commonly good, the easiest, indeed the only way, is to
be heroically so.'' True, we shall not suffer so acutely or feel so
intensely; we shall not see so clearly or realize the joys (or pangs)
so deeply; our capacities for suffering, for love and for sanctity,
will be greatly inferior to his, and unless God has a special vocation
for us, He will not require us to pass through either the profound
obscurity of the " Dark Night " or to taste to the full the ecstatic
rapture of the " Living Flame of Love."
God asks goodwill and absolute fidelity on our part these
are the conditions He puts for the ordinary graces. If we seek to be
exalted with Him, to be united " to Himself in His wisdom," then
His will is that we should be tempted, afflicted, tormented, and
chastened to the utmost limit of our strength. " For the joy of
knowledge of God cannot be established in the soul if the flesh
and spirit are not perfectly purified and spiritualized, and as trials
and penances purify and refine the senses, as tribulations, tempta-
tions, darkness, and distress spiritualize and prepare the spirit, so
they must undergo them who would be transformed in God as the
souls in purgatory, who, through that trial, attain to the beatific
vision some more intensely than others, some for a longer, others
for a shorter, time, according to those degrees of union to which
God intends to raise them, and according to their need of purifica-
tion."
If so few attain to spiritual bliss, it is because so many are im-
patient and restless under suffering, that they refuse to take up the
cross with the vinegar and the gall, and are unwilling to endure the
least discomfort or mortification, or to labor with constant patience.
Finding such souls negligent in the use of His graces in the earlier
stages of their purification, God proceeds no further in the work,
VOL. xcvi. 17.
258 NEW BOOKS [Nov.,
because He demands a greater courage and determination than they
have brought to Him. Yet the need of this purification
comes from their own imperfection; God would cleanse the
vessel in order to fill it with divine gifts, and does not
oppress the soul or exact suffering as a tribute to His inexor-
able justice. Let it not be thought that the natural faculties die in
this transformation from the material to the spiritual. The de-
scription of the state of the soul in this new life is among the most
beautiful things found in all mystic (or any) literature. " When
the soul shall have attained to perfect union with God, all its affec-
tions, powers, and acts, in themselves imperfect and vile, become as
it were divine." The understanding is broadened under the in-
fluence " of a higher illumination of God;" the will is strengthened
and " moved by the Holy Ghost in Whom it now lives ;" the memory
is changed and keeps in mind " the eternal years ;" the desire tastes
and relishes the food that is divine the sweetness of God; the soul
is keeping a perpetual feast " with the praises of God in its mouth,
with a new song of joy and love, full of the knowledge of its
high dignity."
How true is all this of Saint John of the Cross himself. En-
dowed by God with the most splendid natural faculties, with an un-
usually keen and brilliant intellect, imaginative and poetic, philoso-
pher and psychologist, learned in all that goes to make an ecclesiasti-
cal scholar, he yet submitted his mind to the mental discipline of the
schools, and his soul to the keenest sufferings, trials, and ignominy
through which it is possible for a sensitive and refined nature to
pass. He emerged from these ordeals with an intellectual vigor and
energy of soul which not only taught him how to couch his burning
thoughts into such logical order and shape that his writings are
excluded for all time from any reproach of looseness of construction
or illogical thinking, but makes him also the master-guide to the
spiritual mountain. He leads us over perilous paths where
we can scarcely breathe, so unaccustomed are we to the rare, fine air
at such an altitude, or descends with us into the awful darkness
of some deep cavern, holding us securely in his grip, and, if we
will but trust him, lands us safely at last in the arms of God.
The Living Flame of Love is a piece of poetry consisting of
four stanzas composed by St. John of the Cross during his nine
months imprisonment at Toledo. A few years later he wrote an
explanation of the poem in the same way that he had done for the
Ascent of Mount Carmel (which includes the Dark Night) and the
1912.] NEW BOOKS 259
Spiritual Canticle. He did this at the request of one of his peni-
tents, a lady living in the world, which should do away once for all
with the prejudice that this book was solely intended for contem-
platives living in the cloister.
This is not, strictly speaking, a critical edition of the work,
although Father Zimmerman has enriched David Lewis' admirable
translation with a long and important passage which had been
omitted in all former editions, Spanish and foreign, and supplied
it with an Introduction, in which he tells us that " there is every
prospect that a thoroughly reliable edition [in Spanish] will shortly
appear." This volume contains also the Instructions and Precau-
tions, eighteen Letters, the Spiritual Maxims, and a number of
poems, six of which have been discovered since the appearance of
the last edition, and are published here in an elegant version pre-
pared by the Benedictine nuns of Stanbrook.
The book contains also an essay on St. John of the Cross, which
was written as a preface to the first English edition by Cardinal
Wiseman. In it the Cardinal defends all contemplatives from the
charge so frequently made against them, by a material and ignorant
world, of being " the drones of the human hive." He roots up, too,
some other prejudices " firmly fixed in many non-Catholic minds,"
and traces succinctly the various steps which lead up to the highest
contemplation. He shows us the Saint not only in his highest and
distinctive character as a mystical theologian and a contemplative
of the purest order, but as a man " of active life and practical
abilities, industrious, conversant with business, where prudence,
shrewdness, and calculation, as well as boldness, were required."
Eighteen letters are, indeed, few compared to the number we
have of his twin-saint, St. Teresa, but we should consider our-
selves rich if we only possessed the single letter to the religious of
Veas (No. III.), in which he gives them "some spiritual advice,
full of heavenly instruction, and worthy of perpetual remembrance."
This letter alone proves to us the eminent practicalness of the Saint
in his direction of souls. " What is wanting," he says, " if, indeed,
anything be wanting, is not writing or speaking whereof ordinarily
there is more than enough but silence and work As soon,
therefore, as a person understands what has been said to him for
his good, he has no further need to hear or discuss; but to set
himself in earnest to practice what he has learnt with silence and
attention, in humility, charity, and contempt of self; not turning
aside incessantly to seek after novelties which serve only to satisfy
260 NEW BOOKS [Nov.,
the desire in outward things failing, however, to satisfy it really
and to leave it weak and empty, devoid of interior virtue. The
result is unprofitable in every way; for a man who, before he has
digested his last meal, takes another the natural heat being wasted
on both cannot convert all this food into the substance of his body,
and sickness follows."
In the maxims the Saint becomes epigrammatic, and con-
denses into short aphorisms his profound science of the spiritual
life. A more beautiful book than The Living Flame of Love
could hardly be found, containing, as it does, such an inexhaustible
mine of spiritual wisdom. Perhaps the key-note of the teaching of
St. John of the Cross is struck in the following lines : " An instant
of pure love is more precious to God and the soul, and more profit-
able to the Church, than all other good works together, though it
may .seem as if nothing were done." The book is published in the
United States by Benziger Brothers, and the price is $1.95.
THE CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA. Volumes XIII. and XIV.
New York : Robert Appleton Co.
The Catholic Encyclopedia is now almost completed, and the
one volume remaining will have to fall far below the standard
hitherto maintained to keep the work from a high place in the
general estimation. The task of selecting contributors continues
to be judiciously performed. Thus the religious and ecclesiastical
aspects of the French Revolution are treated by M. Georges Goyau
in an able and exhaustive article ; Dom Chapman writes on " the
Semi-Arians " and " Tertullian ;" Dom Hunter-Blair on "Scot-
land " and kindred subjects; Dr. Kennedy on " Sacraments " and
"Thomism ;" Dr. Salembier on "The Western Schism ;" Father Pol-
len on " The Society of Jesus ;" Dr. Ryan on " Socialistic Commu-
nities;" Dr. Gigot on "The Book of Ruth" and other spiritual
topics, etc. But while the Encyclopedia is thus in every sense
" catholic," the faithful of America may be pardoned an especial
gratification in that it was planned in, and is being directed from,
this country. The manifold difficulties attendant on the production
of a work of scholarship for general reference have been almost
entirely overcome, and now that they are near the completion of
their labors, the editors are entitled to an added word of con-
gratulation and thanks.
1912.] NEW BOOKS 261
17 ATHLEEN NORRIS, author of Mother, publishes a new story
** called The Rich Mrs. Burgoyne (New York: The Macmillan
Co. $1.25 net), in which she again preaches the old-fashioned
virtues of simplicity and womanliness to a fashion-crazed genera-
tion. She attacks again the extravagance and the selfishness of
American women, and points out the beauty of " plain living and
high thinking." And she manages to give us, into the bargain, a
very pretty little love story.
ly/TARY, MARY is the title given to his first novel by the Irish
^*- poet, James Stephens. (Boston: Small, Maynard & Co.
$1.20 net.) It really can scarcely claim to be a novel at all, but is
merely an exquisite sketch of a poor young girl on the Dublin
streets, done with the mixture of humor and tenderness that sug-
gests J. M. Barrie.
D EV. R. P. GARROLD, S.J., has written another of his school-
er boy stories; this one is called The Black Brotherhood (New
York: Benziger Brothers. $1.35 net), and relates the adventures
of Tommy, Billy, and Aleck, banded together by solemn vows as
" Black Brothers." Their story is screamingly funny, the kind
of farce that will be enjoyed even more by grown-ups than
by boy readers, but there are many touches of pathos, and there
is throughout a quiet, tender sympathy with boy nature.
A MARYLAND village is the setting of a little story called
*** Zebedee V ., by Edith Barnard Delano a truly rural farce.
(Boston: Small, Maynard & Co. $1.20 net.) It tells of the
shrewd or pompous or childish absurdities of the village " char-
acter," and is really very amusing.
/CATHERINE SIDNEY, by Francis Deming Hoyt (New York:
V Longmans, Green & Co. $1.35 net), is a very well-meaning
novel, based on sound Catholic principles, but deplorably stiff and
stilted in style.
T) EADERS of Bulwer Lytton's Richelieu will remember the char-
ffV acter of the Friar Joseph who appears in that drama. He is
presented as a foil to Richelieu himself; servile, obsequious, and
crafty, he offsets to dramatic advantage the great-minded Cardinal.
That the historical Friar Joseph did not at all correspond to Bulwer
262 NEW BOOKS [Nov.,
Lytton's portrait we learn very fully in a short biography now
published under the title of His Grey Eminence, a Historical Study
of the Capuchin Pere Joseph Frangois Le Clerc Du Tremblay, by R.
F. O'Connor. (Philadelphia: The Dolphin Press. $1.00.) In
this little volume we see Pere Joseph as he really was religious
reformer, statesman, theologian, and poet, and in the account of
his various activities we get a valuable summary of the religious
and civil history of France at the time.
TT is a little weakness with many of us always to be sure that
* the most expensive thing is the best. We prefer ermine to fox
because it costs more. We prefer an imported automobile because
our own are cheaper. The hero of a very clever little book called
Whippen, by Frederick Orin Bartlett (Boston: Small, Maynard
& Co. 50 cents), takes advantage of this human weakness. He
places a new candy upon the market, advertises it at " A Dollar and
a Half the Pound : Never cheaper," and it sells like wildfire, simply
because of the price. His enterprise makes an amusing story
but isn't there a moral ?
''THE ROMANCE OF A JESUIT, from the French of G. de
-*- Bugny d'Hagerue, translated by Francesca Glazier (New
York : Benziger Brothers. $1.10 net), is the story of a young man
who entered a Jesuit novitiate as a spy, in the employ of the French
government, of his slow conversion, of his confession, and of his
final acceptance as a legitimate novice. The story is very well told,
but the title, we think, is ill-chosen.
A RELIGIOUS of the Visitation Order has written a very fine
** biography of Mother Peronne Marie de Chatel, one of the
first Mothers of the Visitation. It is published by Burns and
Oates, London, and in the United States by Benziger Brothers,
under the title Peronne Marie: A Spiritual Daughter of Saint
Francis of Sales. $1.25 net.
T^HE old, old question: Is it ever right to take a human life to
-*- relieve pain? is the theme of a newly translated French novel
by Leon de Tinseau. The Decision (New York: G. W. Dilling-
ham Co. $1.25) is the story of a French officer a man without
faith who kills a comrade to free him from horrible torture, and
whose conscience later punishes him, despite the sincere approval
I 9 i2.] NEW BOOKS 263
of his reason. The fact that he unknowingly falls in love with the
man's widow almost leads the story into the cheaply melodramatic,
but it is redeemed by dignity and real strength. The trans-
lator is Frank Alvah Dearborn.
A BOOK unusual in scope and treatment is The Idea of Mary's
* Meadow, in which Mrs. Armel O'Connor (Violet Bullock-
Webster), (London: Alston Rivers, Ltd. 5^. net), describes the
cottage and garden of " Mary's Meadow," in Ludlow, England,
and outlines the life there, which she planned for the purpose of
" making a saint of Betty," her adopted daughter. Although the
spiritual note is predominant, Mrs. O'Connor has known how to
harmonize with it the practical, the humorous, and the charmingly
sentimental.
A N unusually charming book about Naples is just now published
^ under the title City of Sweet Do-Nothing. (New York:
The Alice Harriman Co. $1.35 net.) The anonymous author,
who signs herself simply " An American Girl," and who dedicates
her book to Cardinal Farley, writes cleverly and very gracefully.
Evidently a Catholic, she delights in retelling pretty legends of the
saints, and in depicting the holy and memorable corners of Naples.
Otherwise, she uses a piquant style that is distinctly up-to-date,
and quite delightful.
AfARGARET'S TRAVELS, by Anthony Yorke (New York:
-" P. J. Kenedy & Sons. $1.25 net), is a letter-diary describ-
ing a trip through Ireland, England, France, and Italy. It is
written in an English that would bring the blush of shame to the
cheek of Macaulay's schoolboy, but its subject is one that always
interests.
selection and arrangement shown in the little volume en-
titled Christ's Christianity of the precepts and teachings of
Our Lord as given in the Four Gospels are worthy of much praise.
The author, Albert H. Walker, makes no attempt at interpretation,
and as he is not a Catholic, the selections are made from the Revised
Protestant version. The volume is well printed, and is published
by the Equity Press, New York.
Jperiobfcals*
The Tablet (September 17) : The New Spirit in France. A
change is gradually creeping over France. Catholics, clergy and
laity, are organizing themselves for the maintenance of religious wor-
ship and for the defense and spread of religion. The progress of this
great movement is assisted in no small measure by the congresses
which are being held in increasing numbers. - The Eucharistic
Congress Happenings at Vienna. - "The ownership of the prop-
erty of Woodford, together with all its appurtenances, and of the
house and garden known as 'The Oaks,' belongs exclusively to the
Order of Friars Minor of St. Francis," was the decision of the
Rota regarding the claims of the Franciscans to the property at
Woodford. - Mr. Lilly and Modernism.
(September 21): Shall the Democracy be Christian? A
further step towards answering this question in the affirmative was
taken when the Newport Trades Unions' Congress resolved to
eliminate from any future congress the discussion of the question
of secular education. - Some Memories of Father Matthew
Russell. A last interview. - In their reply to the address of the
American Cardinal and Bishops, the Portuguese Hierarchy gives a
deplorable picture of the religious crisis in their country, where,
day after day, the violent and harassing persecution of the Church
and her ministers assumes new and fatal aspects.
(September 28) : The Eucharistic Congress A Wonderful
Display of Loyalty to Catholicism. Nations and peoples are di-
vided, but the Catholic Church is one, governed and guided by
Christ, its Eucharistic King. - The Position of Home Rule. In-
adequate time for discussion may mean death of the bill. Lord
Dunraven suggests that proposals for separate post offices and
separate custom houses be dropped. The opposition attempting
to make affair a struggle of religion. Charges against Catholic
party of intolerance and unfairness answered by the tolerant spirit
and fair play it has manifested in the past. - Revocation by the
Syrian Bishop Raphael of allowing, in extreme cases, ministrations
of Anglican clergy. Differences in the two churches in doctrine,
ceremony, and practice. - A. F. in Definitions shows that the ac-
cepted sense is the proper sense of words; therefore they should
be used as they are understood by present-day society. They should
igi2.] FOREIGN PERIODICALS 265
not be abused. An example of abuse is the way some use the term
" Catholic." Pius X. admonishes the Tertiaries of St. Francis
against too strenuous activity in social problems. This essentially
religious organization is chiefly a means of promoting evangelical
perfection, and of giving to the world examples of ideal Christian
lives. Congress Papers. Father Cuthbert, O.S.F.C., gives in
brief the story of the Franciscan friary in Norwich ; also the work of
its members.
The Month (October) : Under the caption An Anglican Critic
on Probabilism, the Rev. Sidney T. Smith reviews a recent article by
the Rev. C. J. Shebbeare, an Anglican clergyman, on Theological
Probabilism. Father Smith takes each section of the article and
points out where the Anglican divine has grasped or has missed the
Catholic teaching on the various phases of this question. In
conclusion he shows how impracticable would be the system of
Tutiorism advocated by the Rev. C. J. Shebbeare. Vitalism, by
James Scoles, discusses Professor Schafer's recent paper on The
Nature, Origin, and Maintenance of Life. The article first gives the
new evidence for Vitalism on which the professor's paper is based.
Throughout the article he gives many excerpts, all of which he re-
futes. In conclusion he maintains that the only lesson taught by
Professor Schafer's paper was the utter bankruptcy of the system he
advocates. The Study of an African Mission, by J. F., gives
an interesting account of the sufferings, persecutions, and successes
of a Catholic mission established in 1885 at Onitsha in the British
Colony of Southern Nigeria, Africa.
Studies (September) : A. J. Rahilly, discussing the recent
address of Professor Schafer at Dundee, states that it followed the
well-known lines of Huxley and Tyndall. It was rich in state-
ment and poor in argument. The speaker disclaimed all attempt
at philosophy, and yet at once began to put forth a materialistic
philosophy. The Penal Laws and Irish Land is discussed by
T. Arkins. The need of courses in social work in Ireland is
dwelt upon by T. Corcoran, S.J., in an article entitled Social
Work and Irish Universities. W. H. Grattan Flood in Ormonde
and the Irish Catholics of the Seventeenth Century, tells of the
hatred in which James, the first duke of Ormonde and Viceroy of
Ireland for over forty years, held the Irish Catholics. The paper
is of value because it shows how unreliable is the portrait of this
266 FOREIGN PERIODICALS [Nov.,
same James given in Lady Burghclere's recent biography. H.
Browne, S.J., maintains, in The Future of Classical Education
in Ireland, that modern education must include the classics, and yet
that it must employ modern methods making Homer and Demos-
thenes facts rather than phrases if it is to play its right part in
preparing students for modern social life.
The Oxford and Cambridge Review (October) : Under Cur-
rent Topics it is stated that in England education has gone to the
dogs, and, in spite of the recent unparalleled advance in positive
knowledge, the present generation of Englishmen cares less for, and
knows less about, the things of the mind than any generation of
their predecessors since the " Wars of the Roses." Francis Mey-
nell contributes a poem entitled Greater Love Hath No Man Than
This, That a Man Lay Down His Life For His Friend. The
third paper of Hilaire Belloc's study of Reform is entitled The
Restoration of Property. In view of the beginning of hostilities
in the near East, the article Constantinople and the Holy Cities of
Islam is of special interest. E. Cecil Roberts contributes a
lengthy and able poem called The Strike.
The International Journal of Ethics (October) : The Decline
of Culture. E. Benjamin Andrews, after drawing a comprehensive
definition of the word, uses it as a criterion in showing that " our
times, as compared with the not very remote past, display a lack."
That which is termed individuality is no longer in the foreground
of men's actions. In the world of art, industry, in thought, cus-
tom, and fashion all has become stereotyped and imitative. Growth
in wealth, the spread of communistic socialism, bad theory and prac-
tice in education, and depressing views of the world, life, and man
are diagnosed as the causes of this condition. The Value of
Social Psychology. In this lecture, delivered to the Leeds Sum-
mer School of the Workers' Educational Association, 1911, Helen
Wodehouse disagrees with those authors on " social psychology "
" crowd psychology " whose endeavors seem to be to empha-
size the doctrine founded on observations of what moves the crowd,
in opposition to the rule that " every man seeks what after delibera-
tion he proposes as his greatest good." The writer would
make both elements complimentary. Originality and Culture.
J. W. Scott treats of " the progress of mechanical invention, and
the growing ease with which the material needs of man have
I 9 i2.j FOREIGN PERIODICALS 267
come to be supplied." This condition has changed standards, given
rise to a new and more complex problem of life, and spurred on mul-
titudinous wants, which before slept in unconsciousness, to clamor
for satisfaction.
The National Review (October) : A. Maurice Low discusses
the Hay-Pauncefote treaty and the new Panama Canal Bill. Mr.
Low writes : " His Majesty's Government must either vigorously
combat what is clearly a violation of treaty rights, or else tacitly
admit that any treaty between Great Britain and the United States
is to be observed only so long as it suits the convenience of the
latter." The Treatment of Cancer is discussed by Dr. Lovell
Drage ; and Liberalism and the Empire by E. Bruce Mitf ord.
Revue des Deux Mondes (August 15) : The interesting article
Feminine Questions in Ancient Rome traces the development of
women's rights during the Republic and the Empire. It is impor-
tant to note the contrast between the rigidity of the laws regard-
ing women of ancient Rome and the laxity with which the gradual
abolition of these rules was regarded in later times. Intellectually,
woman was always recognized by the Romans as the equal of man ;
professionally also she might have been if it had been advan-
tageous to her ; but politically it was impossible, since tradition and
popular sentiment were against it. M. Rene Pichon ends his article
with the paradox that, among a people who never prided themselves
on being feminists, women had more liberty, activity, and influence
than in many nations that boast of having emancipated them.
The curious disappearance of sculpture, as represented by statu-
ary, from the beginning of the Christian era until about the
eleventh century is discussed in The Origins of Romance Sculpture.
M. Louis Brehier attributes this not only to the Christian reaction
against pagan idols, but also to the Oriental influence in art, which
favored conventional designs that could only be moulded in relief.
The reawakening of mediaeval sculpture was owing to the custom,
which became popular in the eleventh century, of keeping the relics
of saints in statues. One of the most celebrated of these reliquaries
was that of " Sainte Foy."
(September 15) : In a very clever and well- written article,
M. Emile Faguet reviews some of the work, principally character
sketches, of the Vicomte de Launay (Mme. de Girardin), an un-
usually witty, subtle, and acute observer of human nature, par-
268 FOREIGN PERIODICALS [Nov.,
ticularly its feminine side. M. Faguet well says that if two places
in the " Academic Franchise " had been given to women, at that
time, George Sand should have had the first and Mme. de Girardin
the second. The Emperor Mutsuhito and his remarkable re-
organization and reconstruction of Japan are the subjects of an
article by M. le Marquis de la Mazeliere. He points out a curious
fact, that, although the late emperor was always in favor of adopt-
ing European scientific progress, he remained uninfluenced by Occi-
dental thought.
Etudes (September 5) : Anglican Ordinations, by Joseph de la
Serviere, states that the controversy on the validity of Anglican
Orders ended in 1896 when the bull of Pope Leo XIII. , Apostolicae
curae, appeared. But the literature on the subject since that
date has been quite extensive, and the recent book of Lord
Halifax is of special importance. The author accuses the
members of the Commission, which met in Rome in 1896,
of failing to examine all the evidence in favor of the
Anglican claim. Dom Gasquet and Monsignor Moyes give con-
vincing proof to the contrary. Lord Halifax further questions
the sincerity of the consultors, the Cardinals, and even of the Pope.
This charge also is refuted by Monsignor Moyes. Leo XIII. and
Anglican Ordinations serves ill the cause for which it was written.
Albania and the Turkish Empire makes it clear that the most
pressing problem now before the Turkish government is the demand
of the Albanians for autonomy. The Young Turks try to repre-
sent the uprisings as the work of a few malcontents, but in reality
many serious and important leaders are behind the movement. To
crush it by force would be to purchase a legacy of hatred and
future reprisals, and probably to provoke the intervention of the
Powers. Yet it is doubtful if the Albanians are fitted for self-
government. Paul Bernard begins a study of the late Edouard
Rod, novelist and critic, describing the stages by which he gradually
lost his religious faith, and leading up to those wherein he came to
see Catholicism as the only salvation for society.
(September 20) : Lourdes and the Eucharist, by Paul Aucler,
reviews the report presented to the Eucharistic Congress at Vienna
in the name of Monsignor Schoepfer, Bishop of Tarbes and Lour-
des. That report shows the great part devotion to the Blessed
Sacrament has in the miracles at Lourdes. An account is given
of some of the more notable cures and conversions which have
I9i2.] FOREIGN PERIODICALS 269
taken place at Lourdes in the past two years. The New Spirit
in France, by Henri Dutouquet, tells how the past generation of
French youths adored science, scorned religion; they were pessi-
mists, dreamers, dilettantes. The coming generation, as described
by its members in reply to magazine investigations, is practical,
socially active, moral even if not always religious. Renan, Ibsen,
Tolstoy, Loti are losing ground as popular leaders to Brunetiere,
Bourget, Husymans, Maurras. Patriotism is reviving. The change
is due partly to the improvement in Catholic secondary and higher
education; and still more to the growing realization of the danger
of non-Christian theories and the weakness of non-Christian in-
stitutions.
Revue Pratique d'Apologetique (September 15) : Dr. R. Van
Elst, in article entitled L'Extase, shows that Catholic mysticism is
not the same as the elevated spiritual efforts made in the Chinese,
Indian or Persian religions; it is not the contemplation of the
Neo-platonists or the Jewish Kabbala ; still less is it that vague, uni-
versal aspiration after the ideal which animated Tolstoy, Mallarme,
and Nietzsche. The saints have carefully guarded themselves
against all deceit and hallucination.
Le Correspondant (September 10) : Origin de la Pensee Re-
ligieuse is a study of Andrew Lang's work: The Origin of Re-
ligions. Napoleon in Russia, by Edward Gachot, reviews the
reasons that led Napoleon to turn to the conquest of Russia; his
campaign therein, and his humiliating defeat. French and Ger-
man Students, by Gaston Choisy, summarizes the results of investi-
gations in the public libraries of the literature popular in each
nationality.
(September 25) : Alfred Michelin tells in Pour nos Eglises
of a great meeting, held under the auspices of the Catholic Com-
mittee for Religious Defense, to consider the government's attitude
toward Catholic churches. The delegates included men prominent
in every walk of life, and the convention received the hearty appro-
bation of the hierarchy. Every member of the hierarchy sent a
message urging the delegates to make diligent use of press and of
platform; to dwell on the importance of municipal elections, and
to instruct the people on the necessity and right use of the ballot.
Supremacy in the Mediterranean is at the present time exciting
all the nations whose shores are washed by its waters.
270 FOREIGN PERIODICALS [Nov.,
Revue du Clerge Frangais (October) : Dr. Sivoboda's Ideas
of the Pastoral Ministry in Paris, by Leon Desers. Dr. Henry
Swoboda, domestic prelate to His Holiness and Professor of Pas-
toral Theology at the University of Vienna, attacks in his Le min-
istere des dmes dans les grandes villes the clergy of Paris, describ-
ing the parish priests as unapproachable, and leading back to the
time before the Revolution, in which an exterior piety, a pastoral
activity limited to appearance, and a lack of pastoral success
hitherto unknown in history, prevailed.
Annales de Philosophie Chretienne (September) : The lead-
ing article is on The Religious Attitude of T. H. Green, who exer-
cised perhaps the most potent philosophical influence in England
during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The author,
Edward Coutan, acknowledges Green's merits as a metaphysician,
moralist, patriot, and scholar. He makes the point that Green's
sympathies inclined to Unitarianism. He summarizes thus : " The
philosophic error of Green lay in not discerning conditions under
which he could and should admit the supernatural intervention of
God in the world. His religious error consisted, despite his sym-
pathy with the humble attitude of believers, in not appreciating
that it was correlative with their faith in Jesus of Nazareth, and
that by Him alone they attained their enfranchisement." The
second and concluding installment appears of A. Favre-Gilly's ex-
haustive treatment of the Pagan Mysticism of the Poetry of the
Comtesse Mathieu de Noailles. There is also a contribution by
Maurice Blondel, containing a hitherto unpublished and recently
discovered marginal note made by de Lamennais against Natural
Religion and " Semi-Deism " in an old copy of Volume I. of
Brucker's History of Philosophy, on pages 66 and 67.
Stimmen Aus Maria-Laach (September) : M. Meschler, S.J.,
gives a valuable apologetic on the subject of ecclesiastical celibacy,
and also an historical review of the same question. W. Duch-
mann, in view of the coming celebration of the anniversary of the
Edict of Milan, has an interesting paper on the religious views
of the first century of the Christian era.
Freemasonry in Turkey. By Flavin Breuier, General Secre-
tary of the French Anti-Masonic League. The Masonic lodges of
Turkey were politically inactive until 1850. In that year they were
1912.] FOREIGN PERIODICALS 271
thronged with many discontented officials and many young am-
bitious enthusiasts. In 1859 a conspiracy was discovered against
the life of the Sultan, Abdul Medjid. Several Freemasons were
convicted of complicity in it. Some twenty months later the Sultan
died in a manner which has never yet been satisfactorily explained.
His successor, Abdul Aziz, surrounded himself with Freemasons
as his ministers, little suspecting their future treachery. Among
these was Madhol Pasha, who was destined to stain his hands with
his master's blood. The Freemasons secured control of Turkey.
They instituted many reforms, but they drove religion out of the
educational system of the country, and aimed at restricting the
liberty of all creeds, including the Mohammedan. They taxed
religious funds, promulgated a civil code, persecuted Christians,
and put down uprisings with much bloodshed. To hold office both
Christian and Mohammedan would first have to affiliate himself
with the Masonic sect. The Freemasons aimed at establishing an
atheistic republic. The document issued by the head worker in this
movement, Canesco, shows us that its prominent men were Free-
masons. The Oxford and Cambridge Review, October.
Suicide in Japan. By M. Le Boulanger. Attention has been
drawn to the Japanese view of suicide by the recent deaths of
General Nogi and his wife. In Japan there are two classes of
suicide, namely, the " Hara-kiri " and the " Shinju." The exact
origin of the former is unknown, but is traced back as far as the
tenth century at the accession of the Shoguns. It became in the
fourteenth century the penalty for the Samurai who forfeited their
rites. About 1500 A. D. it was a privilege reserved for the warrior
class, and after every war there were many who employed hara-
kiri. The hara-kiri is held in great esteem by the Japanese nation.
The shinju is the suicide of love. On the death of one of the
lovers, the surviving one seeks to be joined to the departed, and
seeks it by suicide.
In 1869, O no Seigoro, who was an ardent propagator of
European ideas, strove to induce the Japanese Assembly to pass
a law against the hara-kiri. They were then opposed to foreign
ideas, and the vote stood two hundred in favor of the retention of
the hara-kiri and three opposed to it. Intelligent leaders are ener-
getically combating this idea of suicide in general, but they dare
not mention the hara-kiri by name, since it is held in such reverence.
Le Corrcspondant, September 25.
272 FOREIGN PERIODICALS [Nov.,
France and Russia. Unsigned. This article deals with the
financial and commercial relations between Russia and France.
France is reputed to be the richest country in the world. Owing
to the wretched state of government in Russia, it has become neces-
sary for that country to borrow extensively. France seemed to
be the only country which could supply the needs of Russia, and
within the last fifteen years have loaned Russia seventeen millions
of French money. Russia has always had a leaning towards
Germany, and Russia imports more from Germany than from any
other country. Again, Russia's largest exports are sent to Ger-
many. England ranks second, the United States third, Holland
fourth, and France fifth. This has greatly disturbed the French
Government, and accounts for the visit of M. Poincare to Russia
within the past few months. That visit means much for better
commercial relations between the two countries. The article is of
further interest, since it deals with conditions within Russia, for
example, cruelty to prisoners, religious differences, and army dis-
content. Le Correspondant, September 25.
French and German Armies. General Maitrot compares the
equipment of the French Army with the German Army in regard
to guns, cannons, aeroplanes, dirigibles, etc. He also gives a
tabulated account of the number of men in the different depart-
ments of the army of both countries. He says that the infantries
of both countries are on a par, but that the French mounted artil-
lery is superior to the German; and, on the other hand, that the
German horse artillery and cavalry are superior to the French.
There is an equality between the two countries as regards the
mechanism of war. In the active army Germany has an excess of
one hundred and thirty thousand men over the French Army.
Le Correspondant, September 25.
IRecent Events.
The parliamentary recess in France seems
France. to give pause to political discussions. Politi-
cians do not indulge, to any thing like the
same extent as in the neighboring island, in appeals to their constit-
uents. The consequence that for the period in question, there is little
of which notice can be taken. The Shipping Strike, which at one
time threatened to cause a serious hindrance to commerce, after hav-
ing lasted for nearly three months, was brought to an end by arbitra-
tion. The board consisted of three umpires appointed by the Prime
Minister. The award went against the men. They have, how-
ever, accepted the decision, but only for the time being. The dis-
content among the working people of France, which has manifested
itself on so many occasions and in such violent ways, seems either
to have disappeared or it may be that they have sullenly acquiesced in
the acceptance of existent conditions. Perhaps they are biding their
time. Even in the Confederation Generale du Travail, the organiza-
tion chiefly responsible for the troubles of the past, there are those
who offer open opposition to the methods previously adopted.
These argue that every time the revolutionaries in their ranks have
got the upper hand, and have pursued their quarrel with capital
by illegal means, so often had capital, with the aid of the State,
regained the upper hand. Hence they maintained that it was wiser
to seek reforms by legal agitation than to estrange pub-
lic opinion and to struggle in vain against the power of
the State by committing illegal acts. At the recent Con-
gress of the Confederation these views were urged. They
were, however, decisively rejected by the Congress, and the Con-
federation is thereby pledged to measure swords once more with
the Government. This action separates the workingmen of France,
so far as they are represented by the Confederation, from the So-
cialists of whom M. Jaures in the leader. The latter, in comparison,
are men of moderate views. It is worthy of note that the policy
of Syndicalism for such is the name given to the aims and methods
of the Confederation du Travail has been adopted by large num-
bers of the workingmen in England, and has been openly advo-
cated there. In fact, it formed the basis of the strikes that have
recently taken place. Most of the Unions of the Teachers in
VOL. xcvi. 18.
274 RECENT EVENTS [Nov.,
the State schools who had thrown in their lot with the Confedera-
tion, and had been on that account ordered to dissolve by the govern-
ment, have submitted to the order. A few, however, have refused.
They are being prosecuted in the Courts of Law.
The concentration of practically the whole of the French
Fleet in the Mediterranean has excited very wide attention.
What the new disposition means has caused much speculation in
various quarters. Before the outbreak of war in the Balkans an
event of such serious import that it may upset every previously
established arrangement the European situation was briefly stated
as follows : The outstanding fact was the Triple Alliance between
Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, all of them formidable
naval Powers, and two of them, at least, bound to assist each
other with their total armed forces, if the casus foederis arose. On
the other side, there was a definite Alliance between Russia and
France. Quite recently a naval convention between these two
Powers has been made, the precise terms of this convention, how-
ever, have not been disclosed, but they are thought to involve co-
operation in case of war. Between Great Britain and the two
Powers, Russia and France, there existed a cordial understanding
of friendship and good will, but so far as is known, no definite
alliance either offensive or defensive. In the event of war with
Germany, the French Fleet, if divided, would be too weak in both
the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, to cope with the former power.
The concentration in the Mediterranean makes secure the mainte-
nance of French power in that sea, thereby preserving her communi-
cations with her African colonies. As for the Atlantic, if Great
Britain were an active ally, its Fleet would guard the French ports ;
if neutral, they would have to rely upon themselves; but the weak
Fleet recently sent to the Mediterranean would be saved from cap-
ture. This seems to be a reasonable explanation of the action of
France. The German Press, however, see in it a scarcely-veiled
menace to Italy, and take the occasion of urging upon Italy the
policy of widening the scope of the Triple Alliance, which is to
be renewed next year, so that it may include the interests of Italy
in the Mediterranean.
In Morocco the French have had to extend the sphere of their
military operations to a district a long way from the capital, which
they had at first proposed to make the centre of their operations.
Complete success, indeed, has attended their efforts, and the Pre-
tender, El Hiba, has been driven from the country. The fact,
1912.] RECENT EVENTS 275
however, that something like sixty thousand soldiers are now
employed in holding Morocco, and that the resistance of the tribes
is by no means at an end, makes it clear that, in undertaking the
protectorate, France has a serious work before her, a work too that
might be a source of weakness in the event of European com-
plications.
For the same reason as in France, there has
Germany. been a lull in the political activity. The dear-
ness of food has been the chief subject of
public discussion. This rise of prices has been so great that the
members of the Socialist Party in the Reichstag have presented a
petition to the Imperial Chancellor calling attention to the distress
among the population, and demanding, among other things, the
suspension of import duties on cattle and meat. Last year trans-
port charges on the Prussian railways were lowered, but this meas-
ure has proved inadequate. To the petition the government did
not turn a deaf ear. It has proposed a scheme for the relief of the
distress, which is described as a fairly bold encroachment upon the
Agrarian privileges, which are thought to be at the root of the
evil. Fresh meat is, under certain conditions, allowed to be im-
ported, and transport rates on the railways reduced. These pro-
posals are expressly described to be of a temporary character, and
while not completely satisfactory, will, it is hoped, lead to a re-
duction of prices.
The Pan-German League has been holding a Congress.
Among the subjects under discussion was the decline of German
feeling which has taken place among the Germans in North Amer-
ica. With the exception of some retired military officers, no one
of any great distinction was present, and no very great importance
is attached to the League's deliberations a thing which indicates
the good sense of the mass of the German people.
The Social Democrats have been holding their annual Con-
gress. The registered members of the party now number 970,112,
an increase on last year of 133,550. Like every other human or-
ganization, the Party has its Right and Left wings. Among the
Social Democrats the line of division is between those who are
Radicals and those who have Revisionists' tendencies. A member
was expelled by the vote of the Congress, who, while sound on class
warfare and on general tenets, had doubts about an entire nation-
alization of all production without exception.
276 RECENT EVENTS [Nov.,
The sudden death of the recently appointed Ambassador to
London, Baron Marschall von Bieberstein, has put a premature
end to the special effort to improve the relations between Great
Britain and Germany which had been entrusted to him. A sub-
stitute will doubtless continue the work of the Baron if that is
the fact to which Mr. Andrew Carnegie has given public ex-
pression as his reasoned conviction, namely, that the Emperor
William is and always has been a most determined supporter and
maintainer of peace.
Among political events, in a certain sense,
Austria-Hungary. must be reckoned the meeting of the Euchar-
istic Congress at Vienna. Never has there
been in recent years a greater manifestation of religious feeling
among vast masses of the people. The Legate of the Pope was
welcomed on his .arrival by tens and hundreds of thousands. The
Emperor himself and members of the government were the enter-
tainers of the visiting Prelates. The annual manoeuvres of the
Army were cut short in order that the heir to the Throne might
take part in the solemn Procession of the Blessed Sacrament through
the streets of the capital. A Catholic organ in the Press declared
that the celebration showed " the highest ideals of nations to be
based on Christianity, and that our era is capable of manifestations
which prove how little the rationalism and materialism of scientific
and political systems are able to extinguish the yearning of humanity
for the Eternal and the Divine." Non-Catholics, too, have been
impressed with a demonstration of faith and piety which twenty
years ago would not have been possible in Austria. Its success
is attributed to the failure of what called itself the Party of Progress
to prevail over the forces which spring from the fundamental
needs of the soul. This Party of Progress, it is recognized, has
lost all driving creative power, and has resulted in sinking man-
kind even deeper into making the acquisition of material wealth
the sole worthy object of effort, divorcing it from all idealism and
from all sense of moral and social responsibility.
The proceedings of the Hungarian Parliament on the occasion
of its re-assembling, prevents one from being hopeful of the growth
of political wisdom in that country. Hungary boasts, indeed, of
having possessed for more than a thousand years the privilege of
Constitutional government. Age, however, has not added to per-
fection. It will be remembered that last June the President and
I 9 i2.] RECENT EVENTS 277
Government put an end to something like two years obstruction
on the part of the Opposition by the most violent of measures. It
was hoped that during the summer recess an agreement might have
been arrived at. Those hopes, however, were frustrated. When
Parliament met the proceedings were interrupted by, or perhaps it
should be said consisted of, the singing of songs, the performance
of solos on musical instruments, such as cymbals, penny whistles,
tin trumpets, drums, and motor-car hooters. On the arrival of
the police, the Opposition Deputies linked their arms in solid re-
sistance to the efforts which were being made to remove the of-
fenders. Sometimes six policemen were required to remove a
struggling legislator. The language which was used was very
strong indeed. " Filthy pigs, rogues, villains, traitors," were
epithets freely applied to members of Parliament. After having
for two days given in this way adequate expression to their feelings,
the Opposition retired, and allowed the government to proceed with
the election of the members to the Hungarian Delegation, making,
however, a protest against the legality of the election. The Em-
peror-King has expressed his approval of the methods adopted by
the President of the Diet, for securing the working of parliamentary
government.
In Croatia parliamentary government has been openly sup-
pressed with no pretense of observing any of its forms. To this
has been added an effort to restrict the facilities for the education
of the peasants. In fact, every effort seems to be made to exas-
perate the Serbs and the Slavs just at a time when a policy of
conciliation is of supreme importance.
Many pages would be required to give any
Italy, Turkey, and thing like an adequate account of recent
the Balkans. events on these fields of action; and if an
attempt were made to bring it up to date
it would not be reliable, for the news as given in one day's paper
is often contradicted in the next. Several times has it been said
that peace had been made between Italy and Turkey. The latest
statement, however, seems positive and definite, although the terms
as given in one column of the paper containing the news do not
precisely coincide with those given lower down in the same column.
Both versions agree that Turkey relinquishes the sovereignty in secu-
lar matters over Tripoli and Cyrenaica, while in religious matters
the Sultan is to be left in possession of his authority. According
278 RECENT EVENTS [Nov.,
to one version, he is to have a representative in the country to
exercise jurisdiction. Turkish regular troops are to be recalled, and
Italy is left free to deal with the Arabs in the interior. The pro-
portion of debt owed by the Turkish Empire which attached to the
lost provinces is to be paid by Italy, but no indemnity is to be paid
by either side towards the cost of the war. Those of the /Egean
Islands that had been occupied by Italy are to be restored to Turkey,
but guarantees are to be given by that power that the rights of the
inhabitants shall be respected.
The main motive which made Turkey ready to accept these
terms was, of course, the imminence of war in the Balkans. At first
sight there seems reason to regret the unwillingness of the Balkan
States to accept the concessions made by Turkey. The existing Cab-
inet is made up of men holding far more moderate views than those
held by any of its predecessors. It had put forward proposals which
seemed worthy of acceptance by the Great Powers. But exper-
ience has shown over and over again that no reliance can be placed
on any promise made by the Turk. He holds the doctrine
that an absolute ruler can never deprive himself of his powers, nor
is faith to be kept with the infidel. Further demands were, there-
fore, made by the States which Turkey looked upon as studied
insults. It is clear that for some time the population of Bulgaria
at least it is not so certain about Servia has made up its mind
to bring things to a decisive issue. Montenegro has always been
willing, but is itself alone too weak to cope with Turkey. That it
has ventured to declare war seems to show that an agreement
exists between the States. So far the Powers remain united in
their opposition to the war, and in the event of its breaking out,
in the endeavor to restrict its limits. But any day may bring forth
a complete change in the situation.
Senor Canalejas still retains power in Spain,
Spain. enjoying a longer term of office than is
customary. As very little news comes to
hand, it is to be presumed that no change of the political situation
has either taken place or is impending. The death of the King's
sister, the Infanta Maria Teresa, wife of Prince Ferdinand of
Bavaria, has plunged not merely the court but the nation into
the most profound grief. It was the occasion of a remarkable
expression of public sympathy towards the Queen Mother; the
Press paid a universal tribute to the memory of the Infanta for
1912.] RECENT EVENTS 279
her many charities. Thousands of messages of sympathy were
sent, many of them from the humblest classes. The Spanish Royal
Family seems to have found out the way in which its hold upon the
nation is to be retained.
The attempts of Royalists to overthrow the
Portugal form of government which has been adopted
by Portugal seem to have met with complete
failure. The refugees who had fled to Spain, and who at one time
threatened to bring about a collision between the two countries,
have taken their departure to Brazil, where a home has been
offered them. Those who fell into the hands of the Portuguese
have been sentenced to long periods of imprisonment and to ulti-
mate exile. The victory of the Republicans, however, has not
led to the realization of the spirit of true freedom of government.
Under republican forms the methods of a despotism survive. Ar-
bitrary arrests have been frequent, the censorship of the press is
very strict. Political prisoners are treated far worse under the
Republic than under the recent Monarchy. They have been sub-
jected to a penitentiary system of the hardest character. Courts
martial are dealing at random with hundreds of peasants. Num-
bers have been arrested merely on suspicion of not favoring the
Republic. In fact the regime of the present administration is one
of terrorism and violence. Every one is cowed, and few dare to
complain. There is no such thing as freedom of the Press. Papers
presumptuous enough to offer advice unpalatable to the authorities
have been attacked and wrecked, having been unable to secure
protection from the mob. The Carbonarios continue to threaten
and intimidate all who are not of their way of thinking.
No mitigation has taken place of the measures which have been
taken against the Church. The change in the form of government
has not changed the character of the rulers. Instead of correcting
the fatal mistakes made by the self-seeking " Rotavists," the Re-
publicans are following the same courses, wasting time and money
in party politics, frivolous schemes, and doles to supporters, while
allowing the real wants of the country to be neglected.
The only set-off to these many evils, of which mention can
be made, is the following, which is given on the authority of the
Portuguese Minister in London : " The prosperity of the country
is progressive ; the commercial transactions in the movement of ex-
portation and importation have augmented considerably during the
2 8o RECENT EVENTS [Nov.,
last two years; the revenue of the State has increased; the traffic
on the railways and other modes of transport has augmented; a
great number of material improvements has taken place; the army
has been reorganized in an evident and material manner, and all
these without the necessity of recurring to the credit."
The situation in Persia is very strange.
Persia. The Sultan is a child of fourteen; the
Regent has taken an indefinite leave of ab-
sence. The ex-Shah has departed under a solemn engagement
never to return. His brother, Salar-ed-Dowleh, although so far
thwarted in his efforts to secure the throne, has not been definitely
defeated. The Mejliss has been dissolved, and although vague
promises have been made that a new House will be elected, no
signs of their fulfillment are visible. Russian forces are in the
occupation of several places in the North, while the South
is the scene of anarchy. There is in existence a Cabinet, but its
power is merely nominal, and it is afraid to make use of the little
it has. Mr. Shuster has a successor in the office of Treasurer-Gen-
eral, but there are scarcely any funds in the Treasury. Such funds
as exist, are chiefly derived from small loans obtained from Russia
and Great Britain on most usurious terms. It is a wonder
that there should be even the appearance of a government. In fact,
in some parts there is not. Large areas are overrun by banditti,
or are the scene of chronic warfare between hostile tribesmen.
Governors appointed to restore order prefer to remain in the
capital. The Swedish officers appointed to form a gendarmerie
have not been able to collect a force strong enough to cope with the
situation.
It is felt that such a state cannot be permanent. In Russia
there is a party outspoken in favor of the partition of the country
with Great Britain. The Russian government, however, is thought
to be opposed. It looks upon itself as bound by the agreement
made in 1908, which had for one of its objects at least so it was
avowed the maintenance of the integrity of Persia. The general
feeling in Great Britain is opposed to any partition. There is no
desire to have Russia for a neighbor, even among those who are
for other reasons supporters of the existing Entente. In fact, on
this account, a strong opposition has been shown to the project
of a Trans-Persian Railway, which, if made, would link India with
Europe. It is felt that this would involve a readjustment of Indian
1912.] RECENT EVENTS 281
defense. For even the most sanguine in their hopes for
the future are not quite sure that Russia and Great Britain will
always continue to be on the friendly terms existent at present.
At least, they will not risk the secure possession of India upon such
a project. It is thought that the recent visit to London of the
Russian Foreign Minister, M. Sazonoff, had for one of its chief
objects the discussion of the situation in Persia. The inability to
maintain order in its own dominions is the plea advanced by those in
favor of the virtual absorption of Persia. The defenders of the
maintenance of the integrity of the country deny that a fair or
honest chance has been given it to recover from the grinding tyranny
of rulers to whom she has been subjected. They allege, and with
justice, as is proved by the treatment of Mr. Shuster, that every
effort of the Persian reformers has been paralyzed by outside
action. The pressure exerted by Russia preventing the regenera-
tion of the country has been relentless, unceasing, and persistent.
Great Britain, forced by her desire to have the support of Russia
in Europe, has been actually, however unwillingly, compelled to
abet the aims of Russia. The question is arising in the minds of
many whether or not too high a price is being paid.
What is in reality the state of the Chinese
China. Republic, and what are its prospects, are
questions very much in debate. On the
one hand, there are those who find both the one and the other
satisfactory. The mere fact that Dr. Morrison, who has for some
fifteen years been so well known as the correspondent of the Lon-
don Times at Peking, has accepted the office of Foreign Adviser
of the Provisional President, indicates that confidence is reposed
in the stability of the new government by one who is most com-
petent to form an opinion. In his judgment the Chinese Re-
public is an accomplished fact; an extraordinary change has taken
place since the outbreak of the Revolution, and the inauguration
of the Republic. There is no foundation to the pessimism which
looks upon foreign intervention as imminent, universal anarchy as
likely, or at least that China will be split up into warring kingdoms,
involving bankruptcy and the ruin of the bondholders. There is
no cleavage, he says, between the North and the South, both being
equally Republican. The Customs returns of this year promise to
be the highest on record. All debts have been punctually paid.
Every railway is doing well. Inland China is the scene of im-
282 RECENT EVENTS [Nov.,
provement and progress. As to the new rulers, although they
may not have experience, they surpass in intelligence, training, and
education all who have ever held rule in the country. The so-called
dissensions in the Advisory Council are merely the differences
which exist between political parties in all countries, and are the
direct consequence of free institutions.
Believers in these views have been found to be numerous
enough to enable a loan to be raised of twenty-five millions, and to
place this sum in the hands of the Chinese government without
the imposition of any conditions as to the collection of the taxes
upon which the loan is secured, or as to the expenditure of the
funds. It was on account of these conditions that the negotiations
with the Six Powers Group of Bankers, which began some time
ago for a loan of no less a sum that three hundred millions, came
to an end. This group insisted upon the appointment of a foreign
auditor for the control of the expenditure, and upon foreign super-
vision of the collection of the revenues pledged for the security of
the loan. These terms the Chinese government looked upon as
inconsistent with its dignity. So the negotiations with the Six
Powers had no result. There is a remarkable difference between
China and Japan in the matter of financial transactions. Japanese
private traders are said to be untrustworthy and dishonest, but full
faith is placed in the government of Japan. In China, on the other
hand, the individual trader can be thoroughly relied upon, while
it is the government that so far has been looked upon as untrust-
worthy. The loan just made marks the opening of a new era
in financial transactions with China. What the result will be
remains to be seen.
Notwithstanding the confidence of Dr. Morrison in the future
of the Republic, very general apprehension is felt in wide circles
as to Young China's capacity to administer the country, and serious
doubts as to their honesty. They think that it is impossible that
real representative government should be established, that it is con-
trary to the racial characteristic of time immemorial the Republic
will be merely a new name for an old despotism. Nearly a year,
these critics assert, has passed since the beginning of the Revolution,
and nothing has yet been done to make the definite Constitution.
The provinces are developing a spirit of disintegration, and this can
only be checked by enforcing the necessary unity by means of a mili-
tary dictatorship. The growth of opium is an instance of the
way in which the country is ceasing to act as a whole. The
1912.] RECENT EVENTS 283
Emperor succeeded in a most remarkable way, by the issue of an
Imperial Edict, in suppressing this growth. Since the establish-
ment of the Republic, however, in no fewer than eight Provinces
has the poppy begun to be cultivated again, and this in defiance
of the Central Government, and in violation of Treaty obligations
entered into by that government. As to honesty, the same author-
ities say that there are not to be found six men in high position
to whom either Young China or Old China could entrust the hand-
ling of public funds.
Whatever doubt may exist as to the character of the change
that has been made, whether a genuine Republic will result, or
a veiled despotism, there seems to be substantial agreement that
no change is possible in the social conditions of the vast masses
of the people. All the changes will merely be on the surface.
For centuries, and tens of centuries, the people have formed a
character of their own, which has remained undisturbed by the
overthrow of dynasties, and even of religions. The precepts of
Confucius have retained their hold upon the population, and it is by
the standards which he laid down that their rulers have been judged,
accepted or rejected. The substance of the people have remained
the same, only the dynasties have varied. The recent change is of a
more radical character, but it has been brought about by a com-
paratively small handful of men. The Emperor had little power
except within a small circle; the power of those ostensibly at the
head of affairs in the Republic, should it succeed in establishing
itself, will not be materially larger than his.
Recent conduct of Great Britain has excited indignation
throughout China. Between the two countries an arrangement ex-
isted that there should be no British interference in the affairs of Ti-
bet, and that Chinese suzerainty should be respected. China has
lately by armed force substituted sovereignty for suzerainty. Since
the revolution Tibet has regained her old position. Great Britain has
now stepped in and forbidden any effort on the part of China to
deprive the Tibetans of the comparative freedom which they have
been able to secure.
With Our Readers.
IT is gratifying and encouraging to all thinking patriotic men to hear
such words as were uttered by Henry M. MacCracken, Chancellor
Emeritus of New York University, at the dedication of the Saratoga
monument on October i8th:
" It fell to myself twelve years ago," said Dr. MacCracken, " as
committeeman of the Hall of Fame, to choose for the bronze tablet
of George Washington some utterance of his which represented his
loftiest thought. I made choice of these words from his Farewell
Address He says :
" 'Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political pros-
perity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. Reason and
experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail
in exclusion of jfcligious principles.'
" The message of Saratoga to-day, I repeat, is the message of
Washington's farewell words: 'The safety of the Republic is the
morality of the people. Morality cannot be expected to exist with
religion excluded.' May Americans ever be true to God and to
native land."
THE COLLEGE OF ST. FRANCIS XAVIER,
30 WEST i6TH STREET.
NEW YORK, N. Y., September 21, 1912.
To THE EDITOR OF THE CATHOLIC WORLD.
DEAR REVEREND FATHER: I find in your issue of September, 1912, on page
862, a reference to the recent affiliation of Fordham College and St. Francis
Xavier's.
May I call your attention to an erroneous assumption in your comments on
this event. You say that older and better college students are expected, as in
the former arrangement the age of the college student was lower. This assump-
tion is altogether incorrect. In our high schools we admit only those students
who are qualified to enter high school, by the fact that they have completed
their grammar school course in either the parochial or public grammar school.
The age of our high school students therefore depends entirely on the age of
graduation in the grammar schools, and as a consequence the age at which the
boys enter our college is altogether dependent on the same fact. The age of
our college students cannot be affected in the slightest degree by this change
in St. Francis Xavier's College. If you desire to see our college students older
than they are at present, I quite disagree with you.
The average age of students leaving grammar school is about fourteen;
they graduate from high school at eighteen, and from college at twenty-two,
which is entirely too old.
The fact is the children are too old when they complete their grammar
school course. Yours sincerely in Domino,
JOSEPH H. ROCKWELL, SJ.
1912.] WITH OUR READERS 285
NEW YORK CITY, September 25, 1912.
To THE EDITOR OF THE CATHOLIC WORLD.
DEAR SIR: May I again remind you of the effort of this League, cordially
furthered by the press, to urge upon the public early Christmas shopping for
the sake of the workers in the stores and factories. If you have any oppor-
tunity, will you use your influence to arouse a stronger public sentiment on this
subject. The shopping rush of December means a travesty of Christmas for
thousands of over-strained and over-time workers.
Yours very truly,
HANNAH ANDREWS,
Chairman on Publicity.
THE IMITATION OF BUDDHA.
(WRITTEN BY LIONEL JOHNSON IN 1891.)
TJNDER this most suggestive title, which is not really a challenge
M. but an exhortation, Mr. Bowden put together many precepts of
Buddhist morality: one for each day in the year. His little book is
a true and valuable statement of much that is admirable and worthy
of imitation in that impressive code of ethics ; and Sir Edwin Arnold,
who provided the book with a preface, did not go too far in saying that
one who read its pages daily " must become a better man at the
year's end than at its beginning." And yet, in spite of the moral
loftiness, the gentle tranquility, the resigned patience, of these calm
precepts, we seem in reading them to stand face to face with some
image of Gautama: there is the sad, sleepy smile, the stone-cold eyes,
the comfortless and satisfied immobility. Austerely we repeat the
solemn words : " He whose mind is subdued and perfectly controlled
is happy ;" or " Let him not cause others to drink, nor even approve
of those that drink ;" or " Happy is he that is virtuous." Austerely and
gravely we repeat them, and the words turn to ashes in our mouths.
These sonorous and sententious precepts come from the lips of an
adamantine sphinx, with a cold and hollow sound. The muezzin,
calling aloud upon the faithful, finds his way to our hearts; so does
the hoarse street-preacher bawling outside a public-house under
the gas lamp. But the Buddha still smiles at us with his eternal look
of apathy: and, whether or no he were flesh of our flesh once, now
he is as frozen as a lovely icicle. The beauty of that fabled life and
character seems gone into thin air : the suffering devotion, the winning
tenderness, the gentle and compelling appeal, all have vanished. And
here we have the residue : a very table of stone, engraven by an iron
pen with laws and rules of life. Follow them, and you will die from
"this delightful world," and reach at last that Paradise of uncon-
sciousness, where " the souls of just men made perfect " fade into
a dream. Tread the appointed Path, practice the holy Virtues, repeat
the august Forms : one day, in one of a thousand lives, you will attain
286 WITH OUR READERS [Nov.
the cessation of all desire, and upon your lips will abide the beatific
smile of satisfaction, and in your eyes the beatific vision of nothingness.
You say there is no substance here,
One great reality above :
Back from that void I shrink in fear,
And child-like hide myself in love :
Show me what angels feel. Till then,
I cling, a mere weak man, to men.
If " Mimnermus in Church " felt that, what would not he have felt
before the shrine of Buddha?
The answer to these shivering doubts is given by the one religion
which sustains and is sustained upon personality. Let us turn to the
weighty Bampton Lectures of Mr. Gore : " Compare Christianity with
a system based on an opposite principle and observe the contrast. To
the Buddhist personality is an evil, a hindrance; spiritual progress
lies in the gradual evacuation of consciousness, of desire, in a word,
of personality. With Christ the case is the opposite : 'I am come/ He
said, 'that they may have life' full, personal, conscious life 'and may
have it abundantly.' " In Christianity there is an inexhaustible depth
of mysticism. Mystical theology, in all times and places, is no less
illimitable in its desires and dreams than is the severest Buddhism.
But the difference is a difference of heart and soul ; here you find the
thought of human personality reaching after the divine. It is for the
sake of divine personality that theologians have lavished upon Pan-
theism such hatred and scorn. For Pantheism, perverting the truth
of a divine immanence in nature, identifies the divinity with nature,
and the divine personality is lost, just as the human personality in its
Buddhist absorption. In the wildest Christian mysticism, in its least
admirable expression, the sense of personal communion with the divine
remains ; thus Sir Thomas Browne : " Pious spirits, who passed their
days in raptures of futurity made little more of this world than the
world that was before it, while they lay obscure in the chaos of pre-
ordination and night of their forebeings. And if any have been so
happy as truly to understand Christian annihilation, ecstasies, exolution,
liquefaction, transformation, the kiss of the spouse, gustation of God,
and ingression into the divine shadow, they have already had a hand-
some anticipation of heaven : the glory of the world is surely over, and
the earth in ashes unto them." The restless and wandering souls who
fly to the Mahatmas of Tibet, who yearn for astral bodies, for magical
powers, for higher knowledge, might as well stay at home in their
commonplace parishes, and find there what those lies distort.
There are plenty of modern doctrines which, without imitating
Buddha in good or bad, make the same error ; in especial the schemes
I 9 i2.] BOOKS RECEIVED 287
of those persons who call themselves humanitarian. In effect, hu-
manity counts for everything, men and women for nothing; classes
and masses, interests and communities, are substituted for the indi-
vidual. Statisticians do it, doctors do it, priests do it, trade unions
do it. Insisting upon their general laws, their working averages, they
turn us into cyphers, insignificant in ourselves, important only in com-
bination. There is always some great end in view, some great theory
to prove; and we poor men, women, and children are absorbed into
the great theory and lost to sight in the great end, no less really than
the devout Buddhists in their Nirvana. If only our theorists had in
view a Paradise as noiseless! But no; on go the great movements,
with their tremendous mechanism, which is to twist and mould us all.
" I will not give up my personality ! " cries the badgered victim. But
the pickets of civilization are down upon him; the universities extend
him all in one direction ; the philosophers feed him with their fads and
inoculate him with their ideas. Between them the man disappears.
O swimming baths and cookery classes, Botticellis and banjos, con-
gresses and councils, what are you worth compared to a talk and a
smoke with a friend by the fire ? Which of us in these vexatious days
can say with the long-suffering Buddha, " He felt compassion upon
those who tormented him?"
BOOKS RECEIVED.
BENZIGER BROTHERS, New York:
Prisoners' Years. By I. Clarke. $1.35 net. The Romance of a Jesuit. Trans-
lated from the French of G. de Bugny d'Hagerue by Francesca Glazier.
$1.10 net. Love, Peace, and Joy. A month of the Sacred Heart according to
St. Gertrude. 75 cents net. The Growth and Development of the Catholic
School System in the United States. By Rev. J. A. Burns, C.S.C., Ph.D.
$1.75 net. The Black Brotherhood. By Rev. R. P. Garrold, SJ. $1.35 net.
Little Mass Book. By Rt. Rev. Mgr. J. S. M. Lynch, D.D. 10 cents net.
The Way of the Cross. Adapted by a Jesuit Father. 10 cents net. Looking
on Jesus, the Lamb of God. By Madame Cecilia. $1.75 net. The " Summa
Theologica" of St. Thomas Aquinas. Part I. Translated by Fathers of
the English Dominican Province. The Story of St. Mildred of Thanet, a
Saint of Saxon Times. By Minnie Sawyer. Notes on the New Rubrics
and the Use of the New Psalter. By Rev. Arthur J. Heterington. 60 cents
net. Marriage, Divorce, and Morality. By Henry C. Day, SJ. 50 cents net.
The Greater Eve, or the Throne of the Virgin Mother. By Rev. Joseph
H. Stewart. 90 cents. The Litany of the Sacred Heart. By Rev. Joseph
McDonnell, SJ. 90 cents net. Catholic Home Manual. 25 cents. The
Little Cardinal. By Katharine Parr. $1.20. Gone Before. The Story of
the Sodality of Our Lady. By Rev. Edmund Lester, SJ. 30 cents net.
A Practical Guide for Servers at Low Mass and Benediction. Compiled by
Bernard F. Page, SJ. 35 cents net. The Sisters of Bon-Secours. An
Abridged History. Translated from the French. $1.15 net. The Living
Flame of Love. By St. John of the Cross. Translated by David Lewis.
$1.95 net. St. Lydwine of Schiedam. Virgin. By Thomas a Kempis. Trans-
lation and Introduction by Dom Vincent Scully, C.R.L. $1.10 net. Saint
Joseph of Leonessa. By Fr. Anthony Brennan, O.S.F.C. 30 cents net.
THE C. WILDERMANN Co., New York :
The Holy Bible; Translated from the Latin Vulgate. $1.00 to $6.Sb.
THE MACMILLAN Co., New York :
The Golden Ladder Book. By E. H. Sneath, G. Hodges, and E. L. Stevens.
40 cents net. The Rich Mrs. Burgoyne. By Kathleen Norris. $1.25 net.
AMERICAN BOOK Co., New York: ,, r .i. i
Kreuz und Quer Durch Deutsche Lande. By Robert Mezger and Wilhelm
Mueller.
288 BOOKS RECEIVED [Nov., 1912.]
LONGMANS, GREEN & Co., New York :
Catherine Sidney. By Francis Deming Hoyt. $1.35 net. The Catholic Faith.
A compendium authorized by H. H. Pope Pius X. 40 cents net. History
of English Literature. By Andrew Lang, M.A. $1.75 net. The Book of
Saints and Heroes. By Mrs. Lang. Edited by Andrew Lang. $1.60 net.
Unseen Friends. By Mrs. Wm. O'Brien. $2.25 net. The Eve of Catholic
Emancipation. Volume III. By Rt. Rev. Mgr. Bernard Ward. $3.75 net.
A Child's Rule of Life. By Robert Hugh Benson. Paper, 40 cents net ;
cloth, 75 cents net.
CHAS. SCRIBNER'S SONS, New York :
The Enthusiasts of Port Royal. By Lillian Rea. $3.00 net. The Unknown
Quantity. By Henry Van Dyke. $1.50 net.
THE AMERICAN PRESS, New York :
The Church and Social Problems. By Rev. Joseph Husslein, SJ. $1.00.
D. APPLETON & Co., New York :
The Inheritance. By Josephine Daskam Bacon. $1.30 net.
THE MANHATTANVILLE PRESS, New York :
Elements of Logic. By His Eminence Cardinal Mercier. Translated by Ewan
Macpherson. 60 cents.
THE SENTINEL PRESS, New York :
Special Devotions. 15 cents. Short Treatise on Confession and Communion.
By Joseph Frassinetti. 5 cents. The Eucharistic Way of the Cross. By
Ven. Pierre J. Eymard. 5 cents.
FREDERICK A. STOKES, New York :
Between Two Thieves. By Richard Dehan. $1.40 net.
JAMES POTT & Co., New York :
My Irish Year. By Padraic Colum. $2.50 net.
DODD, MEAD & Co., New York :
The Golden Rose. By Mrs. Hugh Fraser and J. I. Stahlmann. $1.35 net.
Race Improvement or Eugenics. By La Reine Helen Baker. $1.00 net.
MOHONK SALESROOMS, LAKE MOHONK, New York :
Wild Flowers of New York. By Chester A. Reed, S.B. 50 cents.
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN & Co., Boston :
The Holy Christian Church: From Its Remote Origins to the Present Day.
By R. M. Johnson. $1.50 net.
SMALL, MAYNARD & Co., Boston :
Whippen. By F. O. Bartlett. 50 cents net. Mary, Mary. By James Stephens.
$i..20 net. Zebedee V. By Edith B. Delano. $1.20 net. The Pope's Green
Island. By W. P. Ryan. $1.50 net.
LITTLE, BROWN & Co., Boston :
Woman in the Making of America. By H. Addington Bruce. $1.50 net.
Folk Tales of East and West. By John Harrington Cox, A.M. $1.00 net.
THE DOLPHIN PRESS, Philadelphia :
Eucharistica : Verse and Prose in Honour of Our Hidden God. By H. T. Henry,
Litt.D. $1.25.
J. B. LIPPINCOTT Co., Philadelphia :
The Flowing Road; Adventuring on the Great Rivers of South America. By
Caspar Whitney. $3.00 net.
PETER REILLY, Philadelphia :
Faith and Suggestion. By Edwin Lancelot Ash. $1.25 net.
CARNEGIE LIBRARY, Pittsburgh :
Classified Catalogue of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, 1907-1911. Part I.
50 cents.
CATHOLIC TRUTH SOCIETY, Pittsburgh :
The Guardians of Liberty and Roman Catholics. By Rev. Thomas F. Coakley,
D.D. Pamphlet. 5 cents.
THE OHIO APOSTOLATE, Cleveland :
Thy Kingdom Come. By Wm. Stephens Kress. 10 cents. The Red Devil.
By Wm. Stephens Kress. 10 cents.
CLEVELAND PUBLIC LIBRARY, Cleveland :
Books by Catholic Authors in the Cleveland Public Library. By Emilie Louis
Haley.
B. HERDER, St. Louis :
The New Rubrics and Psalter. By Very Rev. Canon Welsh. 10 cents net.
Quern Vidistis Pastores. By Richard Crashaw. 25 cents. St. Augustine,
Bishop of Hippo, 354-430. $1.25. The Golden Prayer-Book. By a Member
of the Ursuline Community, Thurles. 60 cents. A Pilgrim of Eternity. By
Rev. George S. Hitchcock, D.D. 60 cents. The Poets' Chantry. By Kath-
erine Bregy. $1.50. Cardinal Mercier' s Retreat to His Priests. Translated
from the French by J. M. O'Kavanagh. $1.50. Progress: What It Means;
a Study of the Evolution of Religion, Education, and Woman. By Mrs. Ran-
dolph Mordecai. 35 cents. The Waif of Rainbow Court. By Mary F.
Nixon. 60 cents.
THE SOCIETY OF THE DIVINE WORD, Techny, 111. :
St. Michael's Almanac, 1913. 25 cents.
THE
CATHOLIC WORLD.
VOL. XCVI. DECEMBER, 1912. No. 573.
ANDREW LANG.
BY AGNES REPPLIER.
IVE months have passed since the sudden and lament-
able death of Mr. Andrew Lang. The echoes of
comment and criticism, of keen appreciation and of
patronizing praise, are silent at last. And as this
silence deepens, we begin to feel with increasing dis-
tinctness the nature of our loss. We are dull enough at all times,
heaven knows, nor is it the coveted function of modern literature
to quicken our spirits; but the blotting out from our literary hori-
zon of this familiar figure has left us sensibly depressed. It can-
not be that Mr. Lang, fighting single-handed, held dullness at bay;
but now that his infectious laugh, his wise, light, raillery, are heard
no longer, we are more than ever at the mercy of that portentous
gravity, which, fooling heavily over trifles, acquires the name of
knowledge.
The two qualities which in these days of sedate specialism are
held to be unpardonable are levity and universality. They were
united in Mr. Lang. He could no more forbear a jest because the
occasion did not call for jesting, than could Charles Lamb when
he made a pun at a funeral. This was not the spirit of journalism,
which is flippant, because it understands nothing deeper than flip-
pancy; it was the unconcern of the scholar who can afford to be
whimsical because of the breadth of his scholarship. Mr. Lang felt
no need to be solemn, no desire to be staid; the foundations of his
knowledge were firm enough to put him at his ease. That preter-
Copyright. 1912. THE MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF ST. PAUL THE APOSTLE
IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
VOL. xcvi. 19.
290 ANDREW LANG [Dec.,
natural stodginess with which the self-made critic deals with litera-
ture is meaningless to a man who reads Homer and Horace.
The Saturday Review says that Mr. Lang " wore his scholarship as
lightly as a flower." This is both graceful and true. He hated
pedantry, and he hated with his whole soul the pedantry which
busies itself over matters of no moment.
As for universality, it grows daily in disfavor, and with some
reason. We can hardly expect a man who has worked all his
life in one field of research to regard with pleasure the brilliant
invasions of a free lance; and when the free lance harries the ex-
pert with his own weapons, the provocation is very great. But it
must be remembered that, until these days of grace, it was not
considered amiss for a scholar to be informed on more than one
subject. There was even an impression that he ought to know a
number of things, in order to understand rightly any one of them.
Mr. Matthew Arnold said that a man who knew nothing but his
Bible, did not know his Bible. No one can accuse Mr. Lang of
meddling ignorantly with any theme. If he did not know as much
about it as did the expert who knew little else, his general informa-
tion was so wide, so deep, and so accessible that it leant weight
as well as lucidity to his views. From the days when he first
crossed swords with Professor Max Miiller over Aryan mythology,
until his last passage at arms with that distinguished scholar and
translator, Mr. Gilbert Murray, over the unity of the Homeric
poems, his thrusts were no less keen because he waged war in many
fields. His love for the rare cante-fable of early France never
interfered with his diligent researches into the intricacies of Scot-
tish history.
In the matter of bookmaking, Mr. Lang's record is unsur-
passed and unsurpassable. Eight hundred publications books
written, books translated, books edited, lectures, broadsides, etc.
stand attached to his name too many by far. Sixteen pages of
the British Museum catalogue are filled with the titles of these
publications too much space for one author to hold. Yet a great
portion of his work was journalistic, and never took permanent
form. Well may the Athenaeum call Mr. Lang the most remark-
able man of letters of his day, and well may those who love him best
wish that he had worked on a less heroic scale. An army of
assistants probably collected and arranged the data for his later
books, and this may account for the superfluity of data in many
of them. James the Sixth and the Gowrie Mystery, Sir George
1912.] ANDREW LANG 291
Mackenzie, John Knox and the Reformation are so crowded with
facts, and with documentary evidence for these facts, that they
confuse the most careful reader. Salient points in the narrative
are blurred by detail. Even The Mystery of Mary Stuart and the
noble defense of Jeanne d'Arc sin in this regard. We know the
less about the central figures in these narratives because we are told
too much.
To follow Mr. Lang's meteor-like flight through the vast spaces
of history, tradition, and literature is beyond the compass of a critic.
He went too swiftly and he went too far. Nor was he often wont
to reappear in the same orbit. Having scored a success with his
Letters to Dead Authors, he was never tempted to repeat the ex-
periment. Having gathered a handful of fugitive papers into
two volumes, Lost Leaders and Essays in Little both of which
were among his most popular books he cheerfully abandoned their
companion papers to oblivion. For years his whole heart and soul
were turned to Greece. He wrote Homer and the Epic; he made
his beautiful translation of Theocritus; he published, in conjunction
with Mr. Ernest Myers and Mr. Walter Leaf, a prose translation of
the Iliad; and, in conjunction with Mr. S. H. Butcher, a prose
translation of the Odyssey. It sounds like the labor of a lifetime,
but it was only one episode in Mr. Lang's laborious career. For
years the study of primitive religions held him in thrall; but even
this pursuit, with its engrossing hostilities, could not long absorb
his superabundant energy. It sought and found other outlets. In
1892 the University of Pennsylvania, meditating a series of lectures
on the history of religions, asked Mr. Lang to cross the sea and
give part of the course. He declined the invitation, writing to the
Provost of the University that the delicacy of his throat made
public speaking impossible; but this is what he wrote to me: " If
your good people of Philadelphia know how to read, why not give
them my book, Myth, Ritual, and Religion, which I wrote five years
ago. They will then know all that I knew about the subject when
I wrote it, and far more than I know now, as, unfortunately, I
have forgotten a great deal in the interval."
I doubt whether many of these searchers after truth did
read the book, which is a stout and learned volume, bristling with
notes and references. It is one thing to hear a few lectures, and
another to read a book; and the people who hear the lectures are
apt to think the book a superfluity.
There was one love to whom Mr. Lang's allegiance never
292 ANDREW LANG [Dec.,
weakened nor wavered. The flame of romance burned steadily in
his breast, burned with the clear white light of the North. It
hallowed Helen of Troy as "a Saint in Heathendom;" it lit up
every page of Aucasson and Nlcolette, made familiar to thousands
of American readers by pirated editions of Mr. Lang's translations.
The audacity with which this book was pilfered, the coolness with
which the pilferers pleaded its beauty as an excuse for pilfering, Mr.
Lang's helpless wrath, and the lofty self -commendations of the pub-
lishers all made tip a controversy which can never be forgotten,
and which, in these more stringent days, can, happily, never be
repeated.
Romance touched by reason held Mr. Lang faithful to the
great Jacobite traditions of Scotland. Romance untroubled by
reason held him faithful to the ghostly traditions of that beautiful
and ghost-haunted land. " Brought up under grey skies and in
a hostile atmosphere," says an acute modern critic, " the Scotch
have realized that it is only against grey skies that flaming ad-
ventures stand bravely out. Realists in material things practical
and 'canny,' they have reacted toward a strange pursuit of the
mysterious." In truth, Scotland and Germany have always been
the ghost-ridden countries of the world. A French ghost seems
as preposterous and paradoxical as an American ghost. The Latin
mind, orderly and logical, the American mind, skeptical and indif-
ferent, have no affiliations with the preternatural. But the Harz
mountains are of necessity haunted mountains; even the casual
tourist sees this much; and the Scottish fens are of necessity
haunted fens. There is hardly a corner of Scotland (save Glasgow
and, I presume, Thrums) where a ghost might not be reasonably
content. When Mr. Lang dedicated his edition of Kirk's Secret
Commonivealth to Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson, he did so in the
spirit of sympathy, inasmuch as his exiled friend was parted forever
from the boggarts and banshees of his youth.
O Louis ! you that like them maist,
Ye're far frae kelpie, wraith, and ghaist,
And fairy dames, no unco chaste,
And haunted cell.
Among a heathen clan ye're placed,
That kens na hell.
Even in his cheerful Angling Sketches, Mr. Lang tells many a
grisly tale the story of the Black Officer who sold himself and
1912.] ANDREW LANG 293
twelve soldiers to the Evil One ; the story of the witch who ran as a
hare to lure the sheep dogs from the fold ; and the story of the three
shepherds in a lonely sheiling by Loch Awe, to whom came at night
their three sweethearts, with smiling eyes, and laughter on their
lips. Two of the lads sat in the dusky corners of the hut, each with
his arm around his girl; but the third was playing on a jew's-harp,
and he continued to play, albeit somewhat tremulously, for fear was
upon him. " Harping is good if no ill follows it," said the sem-
blance of his sweetheart ; but the shepherd made no answer. From
one dark corner he saw red blood trickle into the firelight, and from
the other corner came a second crimson streak to meet it. Then
he rose, still harping, backed to the door, and fled into the night,
far from those cruel shapes of false desire.
The noblest aspect of romanticism is the love it bears for the
heroic, and its understanding of great emotions. Mr. Lang's son-
net on the death of Colonel Burnaby, and the verses, beautiful and
poignant with regret, which begin
When Nelson's sudden signal came,
bear witness to the strength and depth of his emotional tempera-
ment. In the gayety of his habitual moods, with sadness ever
underlying them, in the light laugh with its echo of a sigh, we read
the signs and tokens of romance. Realism is wont to make the most
of its troubles, and to parade them liberally before the world; but
romance, with its zest for the feast of life, and its sob over the
pathos of lost causes, sees sorrow clearly, and holds it bravely at bay.
The one flaw in Mr. Lang's romanticism was its wilfulness.
It was a too exclusive affection. It severed him from the great as
well as from the petty realists, from those who deal with the vital
things of life, as well as from those who are wedded to the in-
significant. It inclined him kindly to any fiction which dealt with
the unlikely or impossible. Mr. Rider Haggard makes, after all,
an indifferent substitute for Ibsen. Mr. Lang's gay little verses
in praise of Miss Braddon and Gaboriau are but a perverse pleas-
antry, and his partant pour la Scribe can hardly be taken as a sober
confession of faith; it belongs in the same category as does Mr.
Rudyard Kipling's Three-Decker. But a serious sonnet on Mr.
Rider Haggard's She is more than the reader can stomach. What
place has a charlatan like She in the golden land of Romance?
For the lost cause of the Jacobites Mr. Lang pleaded heroically,
294 ANDREW LANG [Dec.,
nor was this wholly a matter of sentiment. He saw what other
and more hard-headed historians have seen as clearly that if
England lost little in losing the Stuarts, she gained less in gaining
the Hanovarians; and that if the French alliance placed Scotland in
a precarious position, the triumph of kirk and covenant was an in-
tellectual blight, and a political error, involving years of bloodshed.
An oligarchy of preachers seemed to him the worst form of govern-
ment under which civilized men could live and suffer. " Cal-
vinism," says Mr. Chesterton, " which, among the fickle English,
passed like a fashion, remained with the fanatical Scotch like a
disease." It spared neither ancient creed, nor ancient monument.
It burned the manuscripts of St. Andrew's; it "broke down and
wasted" the abbeys of Kelso and Melrose; it wrecked the tomb
of the Bruce in Dunfermline.
Contemplating these events without enthusiasm, Mr. Lang
spoke many a bitter truth. The Spectator gently hinted that,
although he was a leal Scot, his countrymen were " always a little
uneasy about him " which is hardly a matter of surprise. There
was room for uneasiness when he rooted deep into documents which
had lain snugly hidden for centuries, dragging them ruthlessly to
light, and hurling them with scant and bitter comment at his foes.
There was some room for uneasiness when he let fall his little
scalding jests, his sarcasms so gently spoken and so full of guile;
when he said that the English Litany was regarded by Knox " as
rather of the nature of magic than of prayer;" that " It was Mary
Tudor's misfortune to be able to execute on a grand scale that
faculty of persecution to the death for which her Presbyterian and
other Protestant opponents pined in vain ;" and that " If an his-
torical event could be discredited, like a ghost story, by discrep-
ancies in the evidence, we might maintain that Darnley never
was murdered at all."
This last remark tells its own tale of earnest pursuit after
a glimmering truth. Mr. Lang's enthusiasm for the Stuart's never
extended to the Queen of Scots. She made no appeal to him, as
to so many generous hearts; her sorrows, nobly borne, never out-
weighed the passionate follies of her youth. For Jeanne d'Arc
his devotion was the sentiment of a lifetime. He loved and hon-
ored her above all women, and, after the fashion of lovers, he
brooked no dissent, and no half-hearted allegiance. Even the slow
and orderly processes by which the Church approached the beati-
fication of the Maid puzzled and angered him. He would have
1912.] ANDREW LANG 295
liked to see her canonized by acclamation. But upon the meager
claims of Mary Stuart to sanctity, he looked forever askance.
When I was in Rome in 1895, he wrote me: "Tell your Pope
to hurry up Jeanne d'Arc, and to let Mary Stuart alone. You don't
want her in your hierarchy. She'd be making eyes at every male
saint in heaven."
Yet when, six years later, Mr. Lang came to write The Mystery
of Mary Stuart, he did not do so in the spirit of a public prosecutor,
but of a true historian, keen on the scent, and with a mind honorably
open to conviction. When he sought to ravel the hideous web of
plot and counter-plot which culminated in the murder of Darnley;
to sift the evidence for and against the Casket letters; to throw
his searchlight upon the men who were Mary's advisers, men with
historic names and lying tongues, gallant bearing and treacherous
hearts, he confessed in sorrow and scorn that the noblest figure in
the group was that of the young queen. " Mon naturel etait bon,"
sighed poor Mary Stuart, realizing how little chance life had allowed
her, and the words are the saddest on record. Never was an en-
throned queen so harried, so insulted, and so deeply betrayed.
Never was a girl of twenty so friendless in her father's land.
Had she possessed the innocence of the dove and the wisdom of
the serpent, she could have escaped neither calumny nor defeat.
For John Knox and the Presbyterian divines who helped to
drive Mary Stuart to her doom, Mr. Lang had little more liking
than for the Bishop of Beauvais and the Burgundian clerics who
left to Jeanne d'Arc no loop-hole of escape. The militancy of the
Scottish preachers was of a singularly offensive character. Harlot
and fornication were words forever on their lips, and to liken their
young queen to Rahab and Jezebel and Athaliah were the current
compliments of controversy. Mr. Lang quotes in John Knox and
the Reformation a letter written by Lethington from Edinburgh
to Cecil, with whom (being by taste and habit a traitor) he kept up
an intimate correspondence.
" The Queen behaves herself as reasonably as we can require :
if anything be amiss, the fault is rather in ourselves. You know
the vehemency of Mr. Knox's spirit, which cannot be bridled, and
yet doth utter sometimes such sentences as cannot easily be di-
gested by a weak stomach. I would wish he should deal with her
more gently, being a young princess unpersuaded. Surely in her
comporting with him, she declares a wisdom far exceeding her age."
There is one incident in Knox's career which is calculated to
296 ANDREW LANG [Dec.,
fill the unregenerate with joy, and that is the refusal of Elizabeth
in 1559 to permit him to set foot on English soil. The Tudor queen
was more than willing that he should harry Mary of Guise and
her Catholic adherents in Scotland; but she had neither forgiven
nor forgotten the " First Blast of the Trumpet against the Mon-
strous Regiment of Women," and was ill prepared to brook in her
own person any such denial of authority. In vain Knox pleaded
his close alliance with the Protestants of England ; Elizabeth would
have none of him; and the reformer, smarting under such an in-
dignity, bitterly reproached Cecil, telling him he was " worthy of
hell" (Knox was always so hospitable with hell), and affirming
that Turks actually granted such safe conducts as were now refused
to him. " Perhaps," comments the historian softly, " he exag-
gerated the amenity of the Turks."
Mr. Lang's last great battle was fought against M. Anatole
France in defense of Jeanne d'Arc. The brilliant Frenchman's
denial of Jeanne's mission and her genius, of her visions and her
feats of arms, was based rather upon the law of likelihood than upon
the testimony of historic documents. It seemed to him more prob-
able that she was hysterical than that she was inspired; that she
was the dupe of priests than that she was the deliverer of France;
that she was a mere mascot than that she was a military leader.
Therefore he made light of contemporary evidence, as being on the
whole untrustworthy. But, as the English doctor said of night air,
" it may be bad, but it is the only air we can procure at night."
So Mr. Lang contended that contemporary evidence, being the only
evidence obtainable, is better than no evidence at all. To ignore
it is an error; to misuse it is a crime. He himself was sometimes
inaccurate, as the result of speeding to conclusions; but neither
prejudice nor enthusiasm could have tempted him to withhold from
his readers any portion of a text which militated against his views.
It was perhaps because his deepest feelings had been aroused
by M. France's belittling history, that Mr. Lang wrote his own
book in a spirit of guarded composure. It was not an occasion for
rhetoric or for reproaches, and he indulged in neither. With
patience and determination he searched every available document,
and a series of quiet refutations is the result of his scrutiny. They
seldom go further than, " As the authority cited for this belief is
not to be found in the passage cited, it may be a misref erence ;"
or " Jeanne 'passed for being rather crazy,' " says M. France, " but
cites no evidence for the statement;" or " M. France says that the
1912.] ANDREW LANG 297
quarrel which led to the slaughter of the prisoners (at Jargeau)
was a dispute between the nobles and the common people. There
is no word to that effect in his only authority, Journal du Siege,
as printed in the Proces." The keenness with which Mr. Lang
piled proof upon proof in defense of Jeanne's military genius never
betrayed him into any excess of speech. His sorrow over her
shameful death was veiled in decent composure. At the close of
Chapter XII., which tells of the relief of Orleans, he writes:
" She had kept her word, she had shown her sign, Orleans was
delivered, and the tide of English arms never again surged so far as
the city of St. Aignan. The victory, her companions in arms attest,
was all her own. They had despaired, they were in retreat, when
she, bitterly wounded as she was, recalled them to the charge.
Within less than a week of her first day under fire, the girl of seven-
teen had done what Wolfe did on the heights of Abraham, what
Bruce did at Bannockburn; she had gained one of the 'fifteen
decisive battles' of the world."
The last chapter, which tells of the tragedy of Rouen, closes
with these stern and bitter words:
" That the world might have no relic of her of -whom the world
was not worthy, the English threw her ashes into the Seine."
Mr. Lang's death robbed English letters of a rare element of
distinction ; but it is a matter for rejoicing that he struck this brave
blow before he died. It was in a cause dear to his heart, and
worthy of his sword.
THE MONKS' CHURCH.
BY EDWARD F. GARESCHE, S.J.
NOTE. There stands on the brow of Mt. Adams in Cincinnati, a stone church
dedicated to the Immaculate Conception. Its position on a commanding height,
which rises suddenly from the smoky river bank, makes it a striking feature of
the city front, while there cluster around it some remarkable customs and traditions.
It is said that the statesman Adams, for whom the hill is named, declared, at
the dedication of an astronomical observatory there, that here at least the cross
should never come to domineer over science. Two cross-tipped spires now top
the hill. There is a devout custom among the Catholics thereabouts of ascending very
slowly the long stairs which lead to the church, and with a prayer at every step,
to commemorate the Passion on Good Friday. The sight is a remarkable evidence
of simple faith and devotion. [D. C. W.]
ERE is a shaggy hill that struggles free
From the swart city's peopled wilderness,
A little nearer God, a little high
Above the stress and clamor of the world,
And on the bold hill's brow, a temple stands,
Serene and simple, rising from the earth,
As though itself were earthly, yet fore'er
Stretching to heaven. Its door is open wide,
And lowly folk are there, who whisper prayers
Or sob awhile, or smile at Mary's face
Wrought tenderly in marble. All within
Is twilight reverence, and the tender thrill
More eloquent than tongues, that shakes the heart
From yonder Hidden Presence. 'Tis the throb
Of that great Heart, still leaping 'neath the veil
That hides, not stills it. Unregarded love!
Unthought of, yet unending lonely Christ
Because Thy love hath distanced all our thought !
About, above, the wild air hath its way.
The winter's gale, careering livelier here,
Raves round the spire, the fingers of the rain
Pick at its crannied stones, the summer's heat
Makes the strong sunshine quiver on its walls
IQI2.] THE MONKS' CHURCH 299
But still that rest within, heart's ease, surcease!
Beneath, the city lies, begrimed with toil.
Seen through the rollings of its vaporous shroud,
Filling the vale with dust and din of trade,
Wailings, and shouts of merry lads at play,
The harsh, quick breath of engines, and the roar
Of laboring factories, sounds that blended rise,
Like a hoarse litany, to where Mary stands
Carven in stone, on the roof's topmost verge,
And watching o'er all her world, unwearying,
Mother of men. And oft the red-eyed morn
Hath waked the dim hill and the slumbering town
With unregarded splendor, gorgeous noon
Hath touched the smoke-drifts with unvalued gold,
And oft the thickening mantle of the night
Shrouded the sable city, till the lights
Brake from a thousand windows, and the gloom,
Sparkling all diamonded with sudden stars,
Out-stared the midnight heavens more black than they,
More thickly sown with fiery brilliancies,
Till the wan morn crept weary from the east
And bid them pale their beams but still she stands,
And still sweet Mary watches all the world,
Uplifted, unregarded, merciful
Most, where her mercy finds no gratefulness
Pleading for good and evil. And above
Gleams the sweet emblem of the Crucified
Bright on the darkened heavens.
Runs the tale.
Or true or false I know not, yet I know
That in its inner meaning it is true,
That one, far-famed for wit and eloquence,
Speaking one morn to festive multitudes,
Who gathered round a new-built dome where men
Nightly should turn their lenses to the stars,
Gleaning the golden harvests of the sky,
Spake boastful, " Here upon this windy height
Is Science free! No bigot's frown shall here
Check her sublime outwanderings never here
Shall flame the slavish emblem of the Cross ! "
O frantic boast! and that was long ago!
300 THE MONKS' CHURCH [Dec.,
Where now the dome ? The churches rule that hill,
Crowned each with Christ's meek emblem, humbly high!
Proud Science! still God's mighty fanes must come
To crown thy dearest summits. Time tries all,
All works and toils he tries, for false and true.
The false, his own, he crumbleth, truth hath naught
From Time, nor Time can take from truth,
And so thy truth shall stay, a mountain heaved
To lift aloft the higher truths of God
To higher bear the emblem of the Cross!
So thy dross crumbleth, but thy gold remains
To honor goodness all truth praiseth Truth
God's Church fears but thine error, that shall die,
Then she will love thee wholly! Lo! the fane
Heaves its gray walls against the western sky,
An emblem of the changeless cares of God !
Its walls are builded of a shelly stone,
The hardened ooze of ages. In what blank
Primordial night, or from the sobbing breast
Of what primeval and forgotten wave
Rose up its massy ridges, or how long
Fell the soft shells in showers to make the stone,
God knoweth only ! Then He built for now,
Now builds for undreamed ages, ever thus
With long prevision, through the gaps of time,
Worketh His prescient Will, nor swift nor slow,
Building eternal temples. Trust Him yet!
How did the blind worms, in their limy beds
Dream they were building high a fane to God!
He wills the slight deeds of our petty days
Each trifling as a shell shall fall in showers
To the dark fathoms of forgetful pasts,
Till Time's deep sea shall heave, and from its breast
Cast up the treasured merits of our lives
Grown to pure, gleaming marbles, fit to build
The Heavens' city. Now we cannot dream
Those bright, eternal mansions. Trust and wait !
Gaze toward the shaggy summit-yonder stair
That trails its dark way down the rude hill's side
Is that the stair of penance ? There at noon
That sweet, sad day on which our Savior died,
Throng the devout and simple, every one
1912.] THE MONKS' CHURCH 301
Intent on his own purpose, wisely bent
On his own cure, and scorning curious eyes,
Climbs painful up this summit, step by step,
As Christ went up to Pilate, moving slow,
And at each tedious moment breathes a prayer,
Craving his sins' forgiveness touching scene!
Is this the age of scoffers? Gentle God
Still live Thy lowly martyrs witnesses
Who in the proud front of the sneering world
Bear Thy sweet shame, and lift Thy holy cross,
One time the joy of princes. Tenderly
Thy prescient eyes forever blessed the poor
Thy poor shall never leave Thee!
Slow from the city's breast upbreathes a night
Of noxious vapors, and the smoky veil
Ere yet the pitying skies beam forth their stars
To cheer the dusk whelms roof and tapering spire
And wraps the church in shadow. Fare thee well
Dear guardian of the hill ; keep well the world
Through the dim night, till smiles thy tower with dawn!
THE MYSTERY OF RODIN.
BY THOMAS J. GERRARD.
HAT is that secret of Rodin which makes him at
once so attractive and so repulsive? The whole
of the younger generation of sculptors adore him as
their hero. His influence is evident in all their work.
Yet he is a decadent. Some of his work is su-
premely lovely. Most of it is hideous. All of it is fascinating.
Get away from the company of artists and move in the society of
critics, and then, instead of adulation, you will hear criticism.
One of the functions of the literateur is to correlate art with the
wider interests of life; and it is in this correlation that we must
seek for the mystery of Rodin. Rodin has plumbed some of the
profoundest depths of experience. If, therefore, we are to under-
stand him it will be needful to make a deep plunge of explora-
tion into that " something more " in art, which Mr. Lewis Hind
has accentuated so well, but which so far, I think, he has not
explained.
A definition must describe all and only the things defined. In
seeking for a definition of art, then, every art must be included.
The definition must not be confined to painting, sculpture, and the
like. It must be extended to such occupations as nursing babies,
sailing yachts, or directing souls. By common consent there is an
art in all these things. In its widest acceptation, art is the trans-
lation of thought into work. If thought is merely expressed in
words coordinately, yet without any particular regard to literary
form, it constitutes science. This may be seen in the ordinary
books on arithmetic and geography. Or again, art may be de-
scribed as the right way of doing things. There are always two
ways of doing a thing, the right and the wrong. Thus art does
not consist in meaning well. It is the worst compliment one can
pay to an artist to say that his intentions are good. He must be
able to carry his intentions into practice. Of course, he cannot
do well unless he also means well.
According to the predominant use of head or hand, art falls
into two divisions, the fine arts and the useful arts, the work of
the artist and the work of the artisan. There is no hard and fast
1912.] THE MYSTERY OF RODIN 303
dividing line between them, for every artisan is in some measure
an artist, whilst every artist is in some measure an artisan. Since,
however, art is the translation of thought into work, the artist
must begin by using either his own thoughts or someone else's.
In so far as he merely reproduces the thoughts of others he is
an artisan. In so far as he puts his own thought into his w r ork
he is a true artist. The artisan imitates. The artist creates. A
work of art, then, considered as mere art, is good or bad accord-
ing as it is true to the thought from which it springs. It may
represent something ugly, or something immoral, or something
untrue, and yet at the same time be good art in so far as it is
a correct translation of thought into work. The work is intrin-
sically good though extrinsically bad. The thought has been well
expressed even though, when conceived in the mind, it was neither
beautiful, good nor true. Thus the parrot cry of " art for art's
sake " is a declaration that anything whatsoever may be expressed
without any reference to external standards, whether of beauty, of
morality, or of truth.
Let us give full value to this opinion. To express a subjective
experience merely for the sake of expressing it is a normal tendency
of the human spirit. Some people never can keep secrets. Most
people long to tell them. If I conceive a good plot for a story I
want to write it. If I imagine a good subject for a picture I want
to paint it. Whenever I see a great truth, or feel a strong emotion,
I am not at rest until I have uttered it. The word of the mind
ever tends to become the word of the flesh. The tendency is
present whether there are others to see the result or not. It is
enhanced when there is a chance of others admiring the effect.
The instinct for self-expression, since it is natural and normal, is
a good thing in itself. But then arises the question : Shall an artist
express his higher self or his lower self?
Before a thought can be translated into a picture or a statue
it must first be translated into an imagination. Ruskin, indeed,
used to say that the imagination was the greatest faculty of man.
He was obsessed by his artistic predilections, and forgot about the
faculties of intelligence and will. The quality of artistic work
depends on all three faculties : intelligence, will, and imagination.
The intelligence sees the greatness of the truth to be expressed;
the will measures out the ardor with which it is loved ; the imagina-
tion hints at the possibilities of external expression. Thus, although
a rich and vivid imagination is wanted for high art, yet, since each
3 04 THE MYSTERY OF RODIN [Dec.,
phantasm is but a particular instance of a universal idea, there is
first wanted a fertile stock of ideas.
Whence does the artist get his ideas ? He gets them from his
experience of life. The deeper he has drunk of life the richer will
be his ideas. The richest of all life is the life of love. It is even
better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all, because
then one has tasted what life is. Such love, however, is that sub-
stantial energy which consists in willing good for the loved one.
It is not mere emotion, sensation, sentiment, or sentimentality. It is
the ultimate force of the universe, the force of will power. Then,
after love, the richest form of life is that of intelligence. It shares
with love the power to produce a lasting satisfaction. The third
best of the vital activities is that of emotion. This is put third
because of its transitory nature. It passes away with its own
satisfaction. Thus those critics who regard art merely as a medium
of expressing and exciting the emotions, extol music as the highest
form of art. By the law of association certain sounds suggest
certain ideas. But music is the least apt of all the arts for ex-
pressing ideas. Try, for instance, to paint a picture of Beethoven's
Eighth Symphony, or to write it out in blank verse. Literature,
on the other hand, is the most apt. And painting and sculpture are
but an extension of literature.
In order, therefore, that an artist may bring thought into his
work, he first looks at an outside object, say a landscape, a studio
model, or an historical event. He reflects upon it, asks himself
what is the meaning of the subject, what is its relation to life. Then
he transfers the likeness of the landscape, the model or the historical
event, together with the meaning he has attached to it, on to his
canvas. The painted form must utter the invisible thought. Hence
the finished picture has two values : a fact value and a spirit value.
The fact value could be given by a camera. The spirit value can
only be given by an artist. The deeper the spirit value is, so much
the greater is the artist. Wherefore an artist must be educated in
far more things than the technique of his art. The more liberal
his education has been so much the better for the artist. The
wider his experience of life, especially the life of love, also so much
the better for the artist. And one may give an exceedingly rich
interpretation to a very narrow experience, as did the author of
Wuthering Heights, whilst another may depend more on experience
and less on interpretation, as did the author of Adam Bede. In
the case of Emily Bronte, her philosophy was unequal to her art,
I 9 i2.] THE MYSTERY OF RODIN 305
whilst in the case of George Eliot, her art was unequal to her philos-
ophy.
Now we are able to say precisely what is that " something
more " in art which Mr. Lewis Hind speaks of so freely. It is the
universal idea, spiritual in its nature, which is suggested by the
material image. Further, if this idea is a very complex one, or
if it is a leading idea connected with a series of subordinate ones,
then the picture may be said to have mystery about it. A real
mystery is a truth which is partly revealed and partly concealed, the
revealed part suggesting the concealed part. If a picture has no
clear idea about it other than the likeness of the object represented,
then it is no better than a photograph. If it seems to have some-
thing, but that something can neither be explained by the artist
nor discerned by the spectator, then the picture has no mystery, but
only mistiness. The distinction is quite clear in literature. Take
the hymn, for instance, " Lead, kindly Light." There you at once
see the fact value, and at least two spirit values. But then take
William Morris' " Two red roses across the moon/'* There you
at once see the fact value, but the spirit value is a vague nothingness.
Yet if, on the one hand, we emphasize the inward truth, we
must not, on the other hand, undervalue the outward expression.
The artist must know his technique. That is the first consideration
in dealing with art pupils. Then he must have a wide experience
of external signs as well as of internal truths. He must both
know and love nature.
Nature, as an object of artistic study, may be divided into three
parts : irrational nature, man, and the human nature of Christ.
The reason for this division is that it is an orderly introduction to
the deepest truths of the spirit world. Irrational nature, such as
animals, trees, fields, rocks, sea, and sky, bears the footprints of
God. It is as if He has passed by in the night, leaving the marks
behind Him where He has been. There is no being in the universe
which is not in some way an analogy of a divine attribute. In so
far as an artist recognizes the divine attributes through the medium
of the analogies, even so keen is his spiritual intuition. He has
now something to express, and provided he has learnt how to
express himself, he has something which will appeal to his spectators.
Rational nature, man, provides a still clearer sign of God. Man
*There was a lady lived in a hall,
Large of her eyes, and slim and tall,
And ever she sung from noon to noon,
Two red roses across the moon.
VOL. XCVI. 20.
306 THE MYSTERY OF RODIN [Dec.,
shows an image of God, whereas animals and trees only show faint
suggestions of Him. Man has this in common with God, that he
can think and love. Moreover, through knowledge and love he
can arrive at a purer conception of the spirit world than if he had
nothing but emotion or mechanical action to help him. Lastly,
the richest expression of God is the human nature of Christ.
Christ is the Eternal Invisible Word made visible and incarnate.
He is the most brilliant splendor which mortal eyes might behold.
He is the Sum of all creatures.
We are now able to discern some of the elements in Rodin
which make him fascinating. First and foremost, he is a master
craftsman. He can make bronze and stone say the things which
he wants them to say. When he has finished with a piece of marble
he is satisfied that his work is an expression of his thought Long
and hard training was, of course, a necessary means of arriving
at this perfection. But apart from this constant labor there was
another important factor which told upon his craftsmanship. He
discovered that if the work to be produced must be strong and
original, the thought from which it sprang must be clear and vital.
The thought in the mind must be replenished not only from other
thought, but also from life and experience. Hence we find Rodin
giving every attention to Greek thought as it appeared in Greek
sculpture. But that was not enough for him. He must not only
have the idea, but he must make it more vivid and active. He must
observe those general ideas as they are particularized in the living
individual model. He had already, in fact, grasped this principle
before he traveled in Italy to study the Renaissance. " I went to
the Salon," he says, " and admired the works of Perraud and other
leading sculptors, and thought, as ever, that they were great masters,
though in their sketches I saw that they were not strong. In
looking at the hands they made, I thought them so fine that I
should never be able to equal them. I was all this time working
from nature, but could not understand why. But when I got
my hands all right from life, I then saw that theirs were not well
made, nor were they true. I now know that those sculptors
worked from plaster-casts taken from nature; I thought only of
copying my model." His visit to Italy and his study of Michel-
angelo confirmed him in his discovery. Michelangelo and Dona-
tello had not derived their forms from their predecessors, but from
life. Rodin would not copy the antique, but he would learn from
it. He would go to the same source.
1912.] THE MYSTERY OF RODIN 307
But unfortunately this new strength of Rodin proved also to
be his weakness. He was caught as in a snare. The life to which
Michelangelo and Donatello could refer was a life of religion.
It was a life already illumined by the Christian revelation. Whereas
the life to which Rodin referred had no other revelation but
that of Beaudelaire. Rodin naturally wanted some thought. He
had a philosophic mind. Hence he tried to use Dante in order
to get some clear and noble ideas. But he spoiled them by mixing
with the foul miasma of Beaudelaire. He had a certain half-
truth on his side to give some justification to his procedure : " Since
I hold all existence to be beautiful, and all beauty to be truth, I have
the right to choose from amongst all true things." Certainly
all being is good in so far as it is being. Omne ens est bonum. But
the defect which may be inherent in a being is not good nor yet
beautiful. Rodin forgot this; and hence he mingled good and bad
together, and produced the hideous. A clear example of this is his
Man with the Broken Nose. Here we have a head fashioned with
supreme craftsmanship. There is clear idea expressed by it. The
face is that of a tragic poet. All this fires the emotion of the young
student of sculpture. But then comes that want of being in the
place where it is due. The man has a broken nose. To the
layman in art that incident outweighs all the artistic and intellectual
qualities. It makes him laugh.
Or take the bronze statue of St. John the Baptist. Rodin felt
that it ought to be something more than a lay figure. It must
express some idea. Yet he deliberately shut out from his mind the
idea of the mission of the Baptist. He would have nothing from
the inspired Word that could be associated with that mission. A
loin-cloth of camel's hair must be discarded for a fig-leaf. More-
over the statue was produced under the inspiration of the sting of
wounded pride. Some of the critics had said that in his Age of
Bronze he had made his figure with moulds cast direct from life.
So he would show them that he could produce honest work, and
would do so by making a figure true to Nature, yet larger than
life. In consequence, we have a statue of supreme workmanship,
yet which, to an onlooker who has other interests than those of
workmanship, is nothing but ludicrous. There is idea in the work :
the figure is in the attitude of preaching, and certainly appears
to have a message. But through over-emphasis of nature and
through neglect of the rich Christian tradition, the spiritual element,
which is undoubtedly present, has been made subordinate to the
carnal element. " I endeavored simply to imitate nature," says
308 THE MYSTERY OF RODIN [Dec.,
Rodin ; " I interpret it as I see it, according to my tempera-
ment and feeling, and the sentiments which it evokes within
me." But the Baptist happened to live two thousand years
before Rodin. Consequently the sculptor could hardly appeal di-
rectly to nature in order to get an impression of the Baptist. A
Parisian model would hardly produce the same effect, nor could the
temperament or sensibility of the artist supply the deficiency. No
study of St. John could afford to neglect either the written word
or the living tradition.
We are now able to formulate the truth which the modern
artistic world, with Rodin at its head, is groping for, but which,
through want of vision, it has not yet grasped. Man's highest
happiness consists in the keenest activity of his thought and love.
His emotion and feeling are but subordinate to these. Further,
the keenest activity is obtained when the faculties are directed
towards their highest object, namely, God. Thus, whether in paint-
ing or singing or modelling or writing, if you are living life at its
keenest activity, you are enjoying the greatest amount of happiness
compatible with your present state. You are declaring the glory
of God and showing forth His praise. Having seen a ray of divine
goodness, truth or beauty, you love it and you want to tell it.
Praise is the utterance of love.
It is not enough, therefore, either for the artist or for the
society with whom he lives, that he should choose haphazard any
particle of truth, beauty, or goodness for expression. If he wants
life he must choose the best. If his patrons want life they must
demand the best. Only in a Futurist salon have I heard the doc-
trine that happiness is not the thing to be desired. If the modern
painter does not want happiness then by all means let unhappiness
be provided for him. But let it be arranged in such a way that
he shall interfere as little as possible with the happiness of those
who do want it. Let him be detained at his country's expense.
Happiness, in the widest acceptation of the term, is the same
thing as well-being. It is the eudaimonia which 'Aristotle makes
the starting-point of his ethics. We want not only well-being, but
we also want the richest measure of well-being. We seek the
highest good. We must have an aim which is final. The man
who gets into a railway train with the interition of going to nowhere
in particular is an idiot. Therefore in planning our lives we must all
decide definitely to go somewhere. We may dispute with our
friends as to what our highest good consists in, but we shall all
agree that we want the highest good. We cannot be content with
THE MYSTERY OF RODIN 309
the intermediate stages. The highest good must be something
final. There must be nothing beyond it
Yet how do we know that man's highest well-being consists
in the highest exercise of his highest faculties? All things have
their proper function. The purpose of a bicycle is to enable the
rider to get from one place to another more easily and more
quickly than by walking. The function of an organ-grinder, as
organ-grinder, is to grind organs. The function of a mole-catcher
is to catch moles. The function of an artist, as artist, is to paint
pictures and carve statues. But what is the function of the organ-
grinder or the mole-catcher or the artist as man? It is the exer-
cise of those faculties which he possesses apart from irrational
nature. It is the exercise of intelligence and will. Just as the
mole is a higher being than a barrel-organ because the mole .has
imagination and feeling, and the barrel-organ has not, so man is a
higher being than a mole because he has intelligence and will and
the mole has not. Mere emotion is not the distinctive character of
the human being. As regards this function, the mole can give us
points, for every time a female mole falls into the trap of the
mole-catcher the male mole dies of grief.
To think and to love, then, are the characteristic faculties of
man. His highest well-being, therefore, will consist in knowing
and loving according to his full capacity. But the highest possible
object of knowledge and love is that which is infinite and ultimate,
namely, God. Man's highest happiness, therefore, will consist in
knowing and loving God, and in knowing and loving creatures, each
as it were being a broken arc indicating the perfect circle of God's
beauty. If, however, anyone does not see this at present, still let
him strive after that which, intellectually, morally, and aesthetically,
is the best. Man, at any rate, is made for the best that man can do.
Nor by happiness do I mean pleasure. Pleasure is the nice
feeling which arises when the nerves are in a condition desired by
the intelligent will. Pleasure is the less nutritive jam of sensa-
tion, which is spread over the more nutritive bread of knowledge
and volition in order to promote their activity.
Obviously, then, art as such, the mere drawing, painting,
modelling, writing of that which has been conceived in the mind,
must be made ministrant to the higher spheres of experience. The
artist must not forget that he is also a man, and that as man he has
a higher destiny than the mere manipulation of paint. His tech-
nique must be instrumental towards his higher well-being.
Now well-being is normally promoted by what is beautiful,
310 THE MYSTERY OF RODIN [Dec.,
good, and true, whilst it is normally retarded by the representation
of what is ugly, wicked, or false. Rodin says that the ugly can
be made beautiful by art. Once again there is a grain of truth in
what he says. The skill of the craftsman gives a certain amount
of pleasure which to some extent counteracts the disgust which
is caused by the ugliness. The supreme example of this is Rodin's
statue of Balzac. It took him five years to complete it. So much
thought and so much work of such a genius could not fail to com-
mand the admiration of those who knew anything about technique.
In fact, every artist raves about it. Yet, after all, what is it to look
at? Simply a clown trying to be funny. Something of the spirit
of the author of Comedie Humaine is certainly expressed. In
comedy there must be some presentment of absurd contrast. Rodin
has given us a very exaggerated example in his statue of Balzac:
a man grinning with irony, carved in marble, dressed either in his
dressing-gown or his night-shirt.
Perhaps La Vieille Heaulmiere is more hideous. Probably its
very hideousness has deterred artists from praising it too much.
It is a representation in the nude of a woman of the streets, grown
old. Yet there are to be found critics who, in their zeal for the
manifestation of craftsmanship, will go into ecstasy over such a
subject.
There is more excuse for the Ugolino. This is the naked
figure of a starved emaciated man bending down to gnaw the corpse
of his son. Dante has told the story in poetry. But we may well
doubt whether the incident is fit to be perpetuated in sculpture.
The hideousness would there seem to be too much in evidence, and
not, as it is in Dante, subordinate to the beautiful. Indeed, the
whole subject, of which this is a detail, namely, La Porte de
L'Enfer, has been treated so repulsively that even Rodin's con-
science could not include the fair form of Beatrice. There the
literary tradition had left its mark on his mind, forbade him to
represent Beatrice in the nude, and determined him to call his
central figure Le Penseur instead of Dante. Nor can we admit
that Le Penseur wholly justifies its title. Its face and attitude does
give the impression of a person absorbed in thought, but the muscles
and the fist suggest rather the thought of the prize-fighter plan-
ning a method of attack against his adversary.
For an impression of thought as a means to the higher spirit
life we must undoubtedly choose La Pensee. And here we not only
have the spirituality of the ancients, but we have it brought near
to us, and made personally applicable to our own thought. We
1912.] THE MYSTERY OF RODIN 311
feel that we are units of that race of beings who think, participa-
tors in that eternal process of thought, symbolized by the simple head
in marble. Here is all the universalism of the Greeks and of
Michelangelo, yet it is arrested and thus made particular to each
one of us. The block of marble from which the head is carved
is left rough and unfinished, thus accentuating the craftsmanship
of Rodin in being able to model such a spiritual form from such
hard material.
First fashioned in the artist's brain,
It stood as in the marble vein
Revealed to him alone ;
Nor could he from its native night
Have led it to the living light,
Save through the lifeless stone.-
In La Pensee Rodin announces the true mission of impression-
ism. It is to redeem art from an extreme of objectivism, but to
do so without rushing to the other extreme of exaggerated sub-
jectivism. We want the personality of the artist, but we want it
at its best, corrected of its eccentricities, brought to its highest per-
fection by constant reference to universal experience. Yes, Rodin
has a few fine things which correlate art to happiness.
None, however, is more eloquent than his " Hand of God."
There he discloses the secret of deepest personality. Man is most
man when he is most flexible to the Hand of God. Then it is that
the faculties which constitute his personality, namely, his intelligence
and will, are actuated to their fullest extent and capability, for they
are reinforced by divine wisdom and divine volition. The spirit-
ual idea which Rodin here wished to utter would seem to have
dominated all his technique. The light and the shade of the
modelling are counted as some of the finest work in all sculpture.
Anthropomorphic analogies of the divinity are from their very
nature crude and earthy. But here the analogy is redeemed from
its native roughness. The artist, under the inspiration of his idea
of the transcendent God, has formed a hand which, although it is
flesh, is not fleshy ; a hand which is strong, yet delicate, supple, and
clever; a hand which at once symbolizes with a natural and pro-
portionate symbolism the infinite distinctness of God and His
intimate closeness to us. The glorious contrast between human
figures and the rock from which they are being hewn tells of the
triumphant power of the Divine Hand which can together uphold,
move, and mould all things according to the Divine Will. But
wtoy are the human figures so unlovely? Why are the bones and
312 THE MYSTERY OF RODIN [Dec.,
muscles of the back so unduly accentuated? We have high au-
thority for saying that the less comely parts of the body should
have more comeliness put upon them. Somewhat in harmony with
this, Rodin holds that all ugly things can be made beautiful by the
hand of the artist But the temptation is very strong to believe
that Rodin was striving too violently to break away from past
traditions. The pose of the " Danaid " is of course his extreme
example of this. And there is something more than a suggestion
of the same thing in the figures representing our first parents in
the " Hand of God."
Many ugly things are also strong, and perhaps by the law of
association of ideas ugliness may frequently express strength.
But it does not necessarily do so, as Rodin would seem to think.
This is clearly his chief eccentricity which, by reference to the
ancients, he ought to correct. Elsewhere* I have ventured to call
Corot the Newman of painting. Rodin just falls short of being
the Newman of sculpture. He is impressionist; he takes ideas from
the world's experience; he sees God transcendent as well as im-
manent; he makes man essentially a spiritual being; he arranges
the flesh subordinate to the spirit. But he does not strike a fair
equipoise between the objective and the subjective elements in his
work. The subjective element is slightly but persistently exag-
gerated. He expressly professes to accentuate those lines repre-
senting the spiritual idea which he wishes to portray. And that
is well. But then there is only a narrow margin between the
sublime and the ridiculous. Rodin hovers about that margin. His
fine and delicate accentuation of characteristic lines keeps his genius
always in evidence. But the subjective element in his work, being
overweighted, hinders him from holding the balance of artistic
perfection constant.
Whilst insisting that artistic craftsmanship must be subor-
dinate to the higher activities of the spirit life, one must be on
one's guard not to pervert it from its essentially liberal nature to
one of mere utility. The fine arts have their proper function
quite distinct from the useful arts. It is as much a desecration of
art to devote a novel to the purpose of religious controversy as it
is to devote a magnificent picture to the advertisement of somebody's
soap. Fine art is, of its very essence, liberal. It is free. It is
the work produced from the activity of a free mind, not from the
activity of a determined sensation. If we remain steadfast to
this conception of it, and resolutely refuse to favor any lower con-
* Dublin Review, July, 1912.
1912.] THE MYSTERY OF RODIN 313
ception, then we shall see why the very exercise of it constitutes
the highest joy of life. The mind is the highest faculty of man.
Its highest exercise, therefore, must be his highest grade of well-
being, and consequently his highest joy. When art is thus made
subordinate to truth and love, it is raised to its highest perfection.
When thus raised to its highest perfection, then, and then only, can
we admit the principle of art for art's sake. There is a grain
of truth in the modern maxim after all. The joy of craftsmanship
becomes keen and satisfactory when the mind plays upon truth,
goodness, and beauty, rather than when it plays upon lying, hatred,
and hideousness.
The symbol of the Hand of God deepens this lesson. It is the
Hand of the Divine Artist. Only an infinitesimal part of His
work is seen of men. He is the uncreated Truth, Goodness, and
Beauty, substantial and personal. Although He has an infinite
satisfaction in the production of the eternal Word, yet He also
takes a pleasure in producing millions upon millions, upon millions,
of finite reflections of Himself. Nor does He do this merely or
chiefly in order that we may admire them, for, indeed, we see few of
them. He does it chiefly for the joy of doing it, for the purpose
of manifesting His glory. Yes, there is purpose in it all, infinite
wisdom, infinite love, and infinite good taste, but it is not therefore
utilitarian. It is, in the supreme sense of the word, fine art.
So likewise does the human artist find his highest well-being,
and consequently his highest joy, in the very work itself, and not
in the market, or exhibition, or patron to which he may afterwards
send it. When he is working aright and at his best, he is exer-
cising his highest faculties of intelligence and love, and, moreover,
he gives to these their most delightful and liberal play when he
reproduces the best analogies of God which he knows. Nature is
to him a veil through which he peers dimly into the features of
Divine Beauty. In reproducing them he is telling the glory of
God and showing forth His praise. He has seen the " Something
More " in the picture of the Divine Artist. And having seen, he
loves. His love is his joy, and must burst forth in outward ex-
pression. Whether in carving, or in painting, or in writing, if he
speaks the inner beauty which he has seen and loved, then is he
doing that for which precisely he himself was made. He is doing
the best of which he is capable. It is deepest life. It is highest
well-being. It is richest wealth. And this is why the work itself
is the artist's chief reward.
THE KING'S CRADLE.
A CHRISTMAS STORY.
BY E. M. DINNIS.
AVE you a crib for the child to sleep in? " the doctor
at the Children's Hospital had asked, diagnosing the
complaint from which Jimmy's mother habitually
suffered. Their baby (Jimmy considered that he
went shares in the proprietorship of that wizen scrap
of humanity) had been taken to the hospital suffering from the
direful results of neglect, and of a case of sudden and violent
over-laying, which had caused a superficial injury, for which the
infant was being treated.
" Crib ? Lord love you, sir ! 'Ow is a pore widow like me
to git a crib ? " the mother had responded, weeping. " It was the
magistrite as said 'as 'ow I ought to 'ave 'ad a fireguard when the
Lord took my Willie ! "
" Well, then," the doctor said, " you must get hold of an
orange box and make the child a bed in that. Do you understand?
It will be brought in manslaughter if you go to bed intoxicated
and suffocate the child. What's the matter with this one ? " He
had turned to Jimmy, who stood open-mouthed, pitifully flushed,
and short of breath, by his mother's side. Jimmy had been many
times to the " 'orspital " in the course of his seven years existence.
It was nothing new to him to hear the doctor pronounce, after a
brief examination, that he was suffering from valvular affection
of the heart, and that he must not hurry to school if he started late,
or play running-about games. Above all, the mother was exhorted
not to give the boy any exhausting work to do in the house. All
this rather bored Jimmy. It was the baby who was being seen
to, and the baby who mattered. Jimmy's devotion to the baby was
a wonderful thing. It was he who made a mental note of the
orange box; and it was he, moreover, who procured the necessary
article from the gentleman at the corner shop.
The crib, thus obtained, was filled flock from an old mattress,
together with some assorted rags, and the baby escaped the vicis-
I 9 i2.] THE KING'S CRADLE 315
situdes of a night in the parental bed, where Jimmy lay curled up
like a little dog at the foot. In spite of the orange box, however,
and the substitution (more or less) of condensed milk for herrings,
pickles, and other luxuries suitable to adult persons, the baby
dwindled and shrank. The court where Jimmy and his mother
lived was not salubrious, and the intemperate habits of the latter
were not conducive to the well-being of her offspring. The orange
box could hardly be said to have produced the desired results.
Jimmy dragged the sorry little bag of bones about with him
everywhere. It was nearly a year old a wizen little old-man child,
in a dirty woollen night-cap, and unspeakable raiment and Jimmy
grieved in his little heart over its decreasing weight.
" Our baby used to be like yours," one of the children at school
said to him one day, " and they took 'er to the 'orspital and put
'er in a crib. There was beautiful toys all over it, and she got
quite fat, she did."
Jimmy listened to this cautiously, saying nothing. The hos-
pital people had once proposed to take him and put him in one of
those beautiful white beds, away from the baby, and the thought
had filled his heart with terror. But if the baby could only be put
in a crib somewhere somewhere where they only wanted babies,
not boys with valvular heart complaint, there might be great virtue
in a crib.
" We have a Crib in our church at Christmas," another child
broke in. "A beautiful one with an ox and sheep, and a black man,
and little cherubs, and lots o' things."
" Do they put babies in it ? " Jimmy asked.
" O' course they do ! " was the answer. " You naughty boy
not to know about Little Jesus ! "
" Where is your church ? " Jimmy inquired, meditatively, with
a calculating glance at the speaker.
" I'll take you to Catechism, if you like," the other volunteered.
" It's just acrost the old Cut."
" Could I take baby with me ? " Jimmy queried.
" Course yer could ! "
" Right," Jimmy said, in business-like tones, "I'm takin' some."
So it was that Jimmy attended Catechism, and sometimes the
children's Mass, at St. Joseph's Mission. Nobody objected to the
little Protestant boy's presence, and Jimmy contrived to pick up a
certain amount of Christian doctrine during the summer and autumn
months. It was a long way to take the baby, that was the one draw-
316 THE KING'S CRADLE [Dec.,
back. Jimmy's breath came heavily, and his feet swelled terribly,
after the expedition, for the baby, though so poor a specimen of
its kind, was a good weight for a child of seven, let alone the
valvular heart complaint.
" You said 'as 'ow you 'ad a Crib in your church at Christmas,"
Jimmy remarked one day, with a due show of indifference, to the
child who had introduced him to St. Joseph's. " That'll be coming
on soon, won't it ? "
His companion eyed him with some asperity.
" You don't belong to our church," he said, safeguarding the
privileges of those for whom the tea-meeting season was approach-
ing. " You'll have to be baptized first." To this Jimmy made no
response, but fell to considering.
" You'll see the Crib," the other went on, in tones of patronage,
noting Jimmy's thoughtful appearance. " We gets it ready on
Christmas Eve, and the Little Jesus comes and gets in in the middle
of the night just before Midnight Mass."
Jimmy deliberated.
That evening he sounded his mother. " May I 'ave 'Erbie
baptized? " he asked, with some abruptness.
" Well," the parent said, " I always did mean to 'ave you both
done, but your pore father was dead agen it."
" May I 'ave 'Erbie baptized now ? " he asked again, in his
patient way.
The fact that his own baptism had been neglected did not
seem at first to come home to him. If the baby could be chris-
tened and belong to the church that kept a crib, Jimmy would be
more than satisfied. The mother made no demur she had dropped
off into fitful slumber, peculiar to her normal condition, as a matter
of fact and Jimmy felt that, on the whole, things were arranging
themselves satisfactorily.
Occasionally the recipient of coppers from the lady next door,
for whom he ran errands, Jimmy, thanks to a careful husbanding
of these remittances (he had a hiding-place for them unknown to his
mother), by the time Christmas arrived had acquired what he con-
sidered a " tidy " sum. But by that time the baby had pined away
to a mere shadow. The orange box cradled a wailing and miser-
able little form, and Jimmy felt that the Crib, with its medicinal
properties, had become essential, and an orange box, as a substitute,
grievously inadequate.
By Christmas Eve, too, Jimmy's heart complaint had become
I 9 i2.] THE KING'S CRADLE 317
considerably more pronounced. It was with the utmost difficulty
that he dragged the baby as far as the mission church.
The church was open and dimly lighted. The priest, who had
been hearing confessions, had just come out of his box to stretch his
limbs, when Jimmy walked boldly up to him with the baby in his
arms. The little lad's face was glowing and eager. He had just
been inspecting the Crib in the south aisle, ready for the morrow.
He had peeped behind the curtain and seen it all surrounded with
bright lights, with little-winged cherubs suspended above it, and a
glorious big cow, and a " moke," bigger than any toys that he had
seen in the shop windows, for the Babe of Bethlehem to play with.
The Crib itself was unoccupied. The figure of the Christ-Child had
not yet been placed there. " He hasn't come yet," Jimmy had said
to himself. " I hope He won't be cross if He finds our baby there
instead. I dussay He won't mind." He crept across the church to
the Lady Altar and regarded the representation of the Holy Child
in His Mother's arms. " He looks quite healthy," Jimmy had
opined. 'E don't need a crib as badly as our baby do, and Ts
Mother looks a kind lady."
The priest surveyed Jimmy with kindly interest
" Well, little man, what can I do for you ? " he asked.
" Please," Jimmy asked, thrusting ten very sticky coppers into
his hand, " I want yer to baptize our baby ; and, please, is that
enough to pay for it ? "
The reverend Father looked at Jimmy, and at the money, and
smiled. Then he looked at the baby and the smile died away, and
his pleasant countenance became grave.
" Your baby looks very ill," he said. " You should have sent
for me. He's too ill to bring out on a night like this. But you
don't belong to us, do you, my child ? "
" I want the baby to belong to you," Jimmy said, " 'cos 'e's ill
and you've got a Crib."
The look on the Father's face grew more perplexed and con-
cerned as he saw how desperately ill the child was.
" Have you got a mother ? " he asked. " Does she want
the baby christened ? "
" She says as 'ow she don't mind," Jimmy replied, accurate in
substance.
" Very good," the priest answered, " I'll christen your baby
now."
He said it with hasty decision. " 'Erbie " lay like a wax doll in
318 THE KING'S CRADLE [Dec.,
Jimmy's arms, drawing his breath feebly. Beckoning to Jimmy he
led the way to the font, and, then and there, with the simple formula
used in cases of emergency, baptized Herbert.
Jimmy stood by gasping. His feeble little heart throbbing
painfully, and a deep purple flush on his thin little cheeks.
" Have you been christened ? " the priest asked of the little
sponsor.
" No," Jimmy said, hanging his head. Then, feeling it in-
cumbent on him to trot out some feature of interest, he added,
" but I suffers from valvular complaint of the 'eart."
The priest looked closely at Jimmy, and came to another hasty
decision. " Would you like to be baptized ? " he asked.
" It would cost too much," Jimmy said.
" It's given away free all God's gifts are free, little man.
What do you know about God? "
" 'E made me to know and love and serve 'Im, and to be 'appy
with 'Im in 'eaven," Jimmy answered glibly. He had picked up
odd bits at the Catechism.
" Excellent ! " the Father said. " However came your mother
to neglect you? Never mind Jimmy, is it? I'll baptize you now!"
And so it happened that Jimmy was baptized too all on a
sudden on Christmas Eve, with his heart bumping against his
ribs. He rather grudged the time it took, but it gave him a strange
sort of pleasure to feel that he belonged to this church where so
much attention was paid to babies usually thought so little of.
" And now," the priest said, after the second ceremony, " I'll
fetch a sister from the creche. Wait here a moment."
Jimmy watched the priest disappear. He had no idea what
a creche might be, but his opportunity seemed to have come. The
church was empty. He pulled the curtain back and looked at the
Crib. He remembered that the children had been taught last Sun-
day to say the following prayer : " Little Jesus, amiable and beau-
tiful, make my heart Thy cradle!" Being (so far as he knew)
neither a theologian nor a mystic, Jimmy was fairly vague as to the
meaning of this invocation; but he gathered from it that the Little
Jesus could be addressed, and invited to cradle Himself according
to His choice. " Little Jesus, amiable and beautiful," Jimmy prayed,
kneeling by the Crib and varied the petition according to an idea of
his own after which he carefully placed " 'Erbie " in the vacant
Crib, and let the curtain fall back into its place.
When the priest returned with Mother Ursula, the mother of
I 9 i2.] THE KING'S CRADLE 319
all sorry infancy, Jimmy and the baby were nowhere to be seen.
A feeble wail, however, reached them from the Crib, and " 'Erbie "
was discovered in the place prepared for the divine Child. But
Jimmy was nowhere to be seen. Due search was made for the
absconding catechumen, but in vain.
" I suppose he got tired of waiting, so he left the baby and
went," the Mother said. " He knew we should be going to the
Crib."
So Jimmy's baby was removed to the creche and placed in a
real crib, much grander and more comfortable than the one pre-
pared for the Babe of Bethlehem. " We may save the poor mite
yet," Mother Ursula said. " The boy is sure to turn up again,
sooner or later."
The Father shook his head. " The little lad was in a worse
way than the baby," he said. " Advanced heart disease, and drag-
ging that burden ! I wouldn't risk it, I baptized him as well, then
and there."
Jimmy was heard of duly, as the Mother had opined. The
next morning the little companion who had introduced him to the
mission brought a message to the priest, that the boy whom he
had brought to church wanted to see him, being " ill abed," and
having something " partic'lar " to tell him. A " lady " had spotted
him and sent him along, she herself being gone for the doctor.
The priest hastened without delay, Christmas morning though
it was, to Jimmy's home. He found the boy in bed, and breathing
painfully. His mother lay on the floor in a deep sleep, which was
not that of the just. The neighbor, who had accidentally looked
in, had not yet returned with the doctor. But what caught the
priest's eye was an orange box next to the bed an orange box
of which a cradle had been improvised, containing some unspeak-
ably dirty bed clothes, protruding from under a coverlet of pink
paper, and adorned with a number of garish Christmas-tree orna-
ments. Bright colored paper surrounded the miserable crib.
There were some tinsel leaves, and a small woolly donkey on a
green stand lay on its side in the middle of the bed. Jimmy lay with
his eyes shut he had evidently broken a blood vessel, and the
poor untended child was a sufficiently gruesome sight. He looked
up when he heard the Father's voice, and gasped out his question :
"'Ow's 'Erbie?"
The visitor told him of the baby's gorgeous surroundings
of the lap of luxury into which he had dropped. " He's in a beau-
320 THE KING'S CRADLE [Dec...
tiful crib," he explained, " as cosy as you please. All nice and snug
and beautiful, and toys all over the place! " It never occurred to
him that Jimmy was identifying this description with the Crib
in the church. " All the other babies will be crying out from
envy," he went on lightly.
A troubled look crept over the lad's face. " Your Baby was
all right," he whispered. " I didn't mean 'xactly to take His Crib
from Him, but He isn't ill like our baby, and I thought He wouldn't
mind for once. Your Baby I means wot comes into the world
every Christmas Day," he explained laboriously, for the priest was
looking mystified. " Our baby was gettin' so queer, and they said
as how it would cure him if he was put in a crib a real crib, not
jist an old box." His conscience was troubling him badly. He
glanced at the Father's face and took courage. " I thought," he
whispered, " if I got a few bits of toys and things and put 'em in
'Erbie's bed that it might do for your Baby, 'cos 'E comes where
you asks 'Im. So I spent the ten pence on them things " he turned
his head towards the cot " and that there woolly moke." He spoke,
with some pride, and surveyed the garnished box with obvious
satisfaction. " And," his tone was lowered to a yet fainter whis-
per, " He came all right. I seed Him there, in the middle of the
night. It was dark, but I seed Him a little Baby, sitting up there."
In still fainter tones, " He was smilin' and play in' with the little
moke. He went away after a bit, and He didn't take the moke.
'E left it lyin' there I stooded it at the end of the bed. D'ye
think He'll come again, Father? He was beautiful! I'd like to
see Him again." The dying boy's eyes shone. " I know He wasn't
cross 'cos He played with the little moke, but I'm sorry I took
'Is own Crib for 'Erbie. It ain't as good as 'Is, ours, but it ain't
bad I got it all for ten pence."
The priest glanced, through misty eyes, at the little bed.
" I've watched for Tm ever since, but He ain't come back,"
Jimmy added after a moment's silence.
" Has anyone else been to the cot ? " the Father asked.
" No," Jimmy said, " I wouldn't let 'em go near. I watched ! "
The weary eyes were still fixed on the crib.
Something gripped at the priest's heart. Did the child know
that the angels those who brought good tidings to the shepherds
were also guarding his crib, and others, perhaps more beautiful
still, standing about his own bed? For who is more beautiful than
the Angel of Death ?
1912.] COMPENSATION 321
The little thin voice started again : " You ain't cross about
it, Father? " And then it gave out.
The doctor's step sounded on the stair, but the experienced
priest knew that human aid had come too late.
There is a little cross set in the Catholic corner of a great
city cemetery, erected by the children of a poor Catholic mission
in memory of one who lies underneath. On it are the words:
" Little Jesus, amiable and beautiful, make my heart Thy Cradle."
As for " 'Erbie," he waxed fat and sturdy under the care of the
Sisters, by whom he was ultimately adopted. He is now grown
well-nigh into manhood, and occupies a position of trust at the
presbytery as confidential odd man. He is one of the few who has
access to the old rector's " holiest of holies," and knows that
amongst his valuables the Father preserves a certain little woolly
donkey on a bright green stand.
COMPENSATION.
BY HELEN HAINES.
SIGHTLESS they are not,
Who in their lucent dark,
Have seen Thy face :
Neither deaf are they,
Who in their throbbing silences,
Have heard Thee call.
Not lame whose grace
To walk beside Thee ;
Not dumb whose soundless lips
Do chaunt Thy praise.
VOL. xcvi. 21.
A NEW LIFE OF ST. FRANCIS.
BY VIRGINIA M. CRAWFORD.
HE life of Francis of Assisi,* like that of other su-
preme geniuses, whether of sanctity or of intellect,
suggests so many problems of absorbing interest, that
the literature concerning him can scarcely fail. Just
as the last word can never be said concerning the the-
ology of the Divina Commedia, or the wisdom of Shakespeare, or
the influence of St. Paul on the growth of the Christian Church,
so it has still to be written concerning St. Francis and his ideal of
poverty, or the part he played in the decline of feudalism, or the
inspiration he gave to the literature and art of mediaeval Europe.
Students are drawn irresistibly to these fascinating problems, and
having studied they must perforce write also. So it comes about
that while, on the one hand, lovers of the Saint affirm, sometimes
insistently, that with Celano and Bonaventure and the Fioretti in
our hands we need no gloss of modern mind, on the other hand biog-
raphy after biography is put upon the book market, and not only St.
Francis himself, but his writings, his spiritual sons, his very haunts,
are made, again and again, the subjects of an eager scrutiny.
The call for this perpetual overhauling of historic evidence is
all the more keen in the case of a man or woman of whom it has
become the fashion to declare that he belongs not to the Church,
but to humanity: not to the Church that nourished him and to
whom his life-long fealty was vowed, but to an outside world that
judges men and things by a different standard, that is apt to ignore
much that is indispensable to a true presentment of character, and to
draw conclusions based upon misconceptions none the less vital,
that they are frequently adopted in good faith. The controversies
then become more complicated, the dangers of misinterpretation
more acute, and the necessity for a frequent re-burnishing of the
mirror of historic truth more urgent.
It is no doubt to considerations such as these that we owe in
part the new life of St. Francis to which Father Cuthbert has devoted
many years of study. For to-day, as we know, the Franciscan cult
*Life of St. Francis of Assisi. By Father Cuthbert, O.S.F.C. New York:
Longmans, Green & Co. $3.50 net.
1912.] A NEW LIFE OF ST. FRANCIS 323
is pursued with even greater enthusiasm, and perhaps with a more
critical acumen, outside the Church than within, and in the last
twenty years, since the publication of Sabatier's epoch-making
volume, the world has been enriched by a veritable harvest of Fran-
ciscana, the outcome of much scholarly research by men filled with
a devout enthusiasm for their subject. Yet though invaluable ma-
terial has been brought to light and made accessible to the ordinary
reader by their means, the ultimate presentment of the Saint in the
fullness of his sanctity can surely only be achieved by a Catholic pen.
This has now been accomplished for us twice over by men working
far apart : by the Danish litterateur, J. Joergensen, whose own con-
version was the first fruits of his Franciscan devotion, and whose
Life has already been translated into German, French, and English,
and, in these last weeks, by Father Cuthbert, O.S.F.C., known to
us through many studies of Franciscan interest, which find their
culmination in this solid, scholarly work.
Admirably produced, and illustrated with views of Assisi and
the surrounding country, happily chosen so as to convey to the
reader some impression of the natural beauties amid which Francis'
days were spent, this new Life is primarily intended for the serious
student. Every fact is supported by references to original sources,
and matters of more elaborate controversy are dealt with in appen-
dices that are models of clearness and impartiality. The Capuchin
author assumes in his reader a general knowledge of the subject,
and the incidents in Francis' career are told, not merely as biograph-
ical facts, but in their relation to those wider events of the day
which confer on them their true significance. Indeed it is in this
that the charm of Father Cuthbert's narrative lies. It is not, as so
many biographies, a mere string of incidents stretching over a long
period of years, but rather a vision of life in nineteenth century
Italy, in which as in some Umbrian fresco Francis is posed
indeed in the foreground, but in a landscape of enchanting interest.
The book opens with a picture, drawn with a few vivid strokes,
of the unrest in Central Italy in the closing years of the twelfth
century, of the rival claims of Pope and Emperor, and of the feud
between Assisi and Perugia, culminating in the fight at Ponte S.
Giovanni, in which the twenty-year old son of Pietro Bernardone
chanced to be made a prisoner. It sets the future Saint straightway
in the romantic setting of war and adventure, in which his young
and chivalrous soul found its delight before it was drawn to a higher
allegiance. Very rightly, I think, Father Cuthbert emphasizes the
324 A NEW LIFE OF ST. FRANCIS [Dec.,
chivalrous idealism of Francis' nature, his passion for knight-
errantry, his familiarity with the songs and the music of the trou-
badours who had penetrated from Provence into Italy, for these
things were to color all his life. They exhibit the extravagancies
of his gay youth in a more harmless aspect than some of his biog-
raphers would have us accept. " Where others came quickly to
moral shipwreck, his temperament allowed him to assimilate only the
subtler and more refined sensuousness of the scenes, and not the
coarser elements " (p. 6). Later they flung a halo of romance over
the harsh realities of a life vowed to poverty, and they help to ex-
plain that marvelous gayety of soul which even on his deathbed
caused him to break out into those joyous songs, which, we are
told, shocked the narrow soul of Elias.
To the end of his days [writes Father Cuthbert] this dream
of romantic chivalry will remain with. Francis, and be the chief
secular influence in the shaping of his story. He will outgrow
his early crude ambitions of secular achievement and change
his ultimate purpose, and take to himself other weapons of
combat, and extend his vision of life: but to the last he will
always think of himself as a knight-errant, and the governing
law of his life will be the knightly code of fearless courage,
worshipful love, and gentle courtesy. To the end, too, he will
be a singer of song, and carry with him a poet's sensitive feeling
for the sunshine and shadows of life. Always he will feel a
knightly scorn for compromise and the by-ways of diplomacy;
he will be quick to obey the call of the quest, and will deem dis-
loyalty the blackest of sins (p. 12).
We are apt to think of Saints as though their conversion had
been necessarily a sudden thing, a road to Damascus final in its
effects, and we dwell insufficiently on the temptations and moments
of weakness and despondency that they share with other men,
though armed with infinitely greater powers of perseverance. It is
this intimately human aspect of Francis' life that Father Cuthbert
has treated in an altogether admirable manner. He shows us the
first soul-hunger of the captive at Perugia, and the months of
indecision and weakness that preceded the final breaking away from
the old life of pleasure, and that yet had brought the fastidious
young citizen to the heroic charity of kissing the leper. The
poignancy of these years of probation lay in the fact that whereas
many sinners and many Saints retire from the world, or at least
break with their families and friends when they turn to the higher
1912.] A NEW LIFE OF ST. FRANCIS 325
life, Francis was impelled to work out his sanctification in Assisi
itself, under the eyes of his old companions, beneath the ban of his
father's curse, and amid the jeers of the very children as he passed,
bare- footed and girt with a rope, begging from door to door.
Moreover he had the genius to set aside the accepted conventional
paths towards sanctity, and to carve out for himself an entirely new
and unauthorized route with the Lady Poverty as his bride. Such
a vocation, akin to that of the beggar in the street, required on its
human side not only a buoyant and generous courage, but a soaring
idealism, an exquisite gift of poetic imagination to save the noble
enterprise from being crushed beneath material hardship. It is
not every Saint in the calendar who could have intoned St. Francis'
hymn to Holy Joy.
One loves to read how those who make a whole-hearted sacrifice
of everything that life holds dear, do sometimes, even in this world,
gain rewards the hope of which can never have dimmed the per-
fection of their offering. Such a gift, wholly unsought, came to
Francis in the friendship of St. Clare, the strong, loyal woman
who never faltered in her allegiance to the ideal of poverty she had
embraced at his bidding. Francis inspired many renunciations, but
surely none so heroic as that of the eighteen-year old daughter of
the noble house of Scifi. For when Clare fled by night from her
father's house, when kneeling before the altar of the Portiuncula
she offered her hair to be shorn by Francis, and when, time after
time, she withstood the angry entreaties of her kinsmen to renounce
her folly and return home, it was by no means clear even to her
well-wishers, as it is to us, that she was following at all costs
God's appointed way. On the contrary, like Francis, she was tilting
against every religious and domestic convention of the day, and she
was throwing in her lot with one, beneath her in rank, whom many
in the town still regarded as a fool and a madman. In the result
no one understood St. Francis as St. Clare did; from her alone he
received complete and unquestioning sympathy in his highest as-
pirations, and when the brethren were still disputing as to the wis-
dom of the Rule that their founder had left them, San Damiano
remained " a constant witness to the pure Franciscan spirit." The
life of St. Francis had not been as redolent of beautiful fragrance
as it is, if the romance of his ideal friendship with Clare had been
unwritten. Round these two heroic souls there grew up one of the
great religious revivals of Christendom.
How beautiful the early beginnings of the community life were
326 A NEW LIFE OF ST. FRANCIS [Dec.,
that centred round the little Portiuncula chapel where Francis wel-
comed his " first brothers in the knightly order of poverty " is known
to every lover of the Franciscan legend. The perfume of its sim-
plicity and its spiritual fervor has been preserved for all time in the
pages of the Fioretti. In between the missionary journeys on which
the Friars met with such hardships and humiliations, there were
times of peace and prayer in the narrow huts of branches that were
built round the chapel, when the brethren learnt their rule of life
from Francis' own lips, and were trained in the wisdom of poverty.
There was no idleness in this primitive friary ; the days were spent
in prayer and manual labor and begging the daily bread ; the whole
life was based on mutual service and brotherly love, and Francis'
idea of authority was that of leadership in the harder paths of the
vocation, and of ceaseless solicitude for those in his charge. As
new members offered themselves, they were received straightway
into the circle on condition of first selling all they had and giving
to the poor. This was test enough of their vocation ! Never was
the example set by Christ to His disciples followed with a more
humble reverence. " To some it seemed as though the radiance of
Bethlehem and Nazareth had again broken through the clouds which
encompassed the world, and was flooding the plain below Assisi
with a clear and joy-giving light " (p. 118).
Unhappily this ideal state of life could not continue, and the
success of the Order became in a sense its own undoing. With
men of all sorts and conditions presenting themselves for admission
by the hundred, with the Friars touching life at many points
preaching, teaching, settling disputes, evangelizing the heathen,
nursing the sick, wandering over half Europe the old, sweet, prim-
itive ways had perforce to be abandoned, a more elaborate rule
had to be imposed, and the place to be occupied by the fraternity
within the organization of the Church had to be clearly defined.
This " new phase " in the development of the Order, marked by
the general Chapter of 1217, receives full and sympathetic treatment
from Father Cuthbert. It is one of the periods in which his read-
ing of events differs widely from that of M. Sabatier. The whole
question of the relations between Francis and the Holy See, in
which to a considerable extent Cardinal Ugolino was the inter-
mediary, offers a series of intricate considerations. M. Sabatier's
fundamental dislike and distrust of the Holy See color all his
pages. In his view it is Rome who, for her own sinister purposes,
cribs, cabins, and confines the pure genius of Francis within narrow
IQI2.] A NEW LIFE OF ST. FRANCIS 327
ecclesiastical bonds. In this perfidious task Cardinal Ugolino is
the arch-traitor, the inspirer of the men eager to tamper with the
Franciscan ideal. Viewed from such a standpoint the long friend-
ship between Francis and the Cardinal is indeed as M. Sabatier
admits inexplicable. Father Cuthbert's reading of the situation
greatly simplifies the problem. He frankly regrets the necessity
for the Cardinal's intervention in the affairs of the Order, but sees
clearly that the need for such intervention was there. He draws
a sympathetic portrait of Ugolino, the strong practical man of
affairs, with a tender spot in his heart for the mystical Umbrian
enthusiast, and he considers that in the difficult years that were to
follow, Ugolino, far from fomenting dissension, genuinely did his
best to reconcile the idealism of Francis with the practical needs of
the Church, and the demands of the dissident Friars. His diplo-
macy may not always have been of the straightest, but possibly
without his moderating counsels the rupture between the two parties
in the Order, torn asunder by the vexed question of poverty, might
have been complete even in the lifetime of the founder. That much,
at least, was spared to Francis. Yet when all is said the history of
the Order, from the revolt of the Vicars during Francis' absence
in the Holy Land, has in it an element of deep tragedy. One can
recall no sadder home-coming than that of Francis, ill, so weak that
he had to travel on an ass, learning on all sides of the disloyalty
of the men he had trusted, and reaching Bologna to find the
brethren, vow T ed to perpetual poverty, living in a spacious convent
which they claimed as their own. To Francis it was the betrayal
of all he held most dear. The election of Elias as Vicar, and later
the need for composing a new Rule, with the omission, at the
demand of the Ministers of the Order, of the Gospel admonition
to the brethren when traveling to carry nothing by the way, that
had been so notable a passage in the primitive Rule, were the out-
ward signs of the purgatory of the spirit through which Francis
passed in these years. His life's work had drifted into the hands
of others, many of his own sons intrigued against him, and his lofty,
chivalrous ideals were flouted as impracticable in the very Order
he had brought into being.
Yet we know that for himself Francis was able to preserve to
the end that spiritual freedom, that liberty of soul, in the service of
Christ in which he would have had his Friars find a sufficient rule
of life. Into the closing chapters, telling of Francis' retreat at
Greccio in the rugged Rieti valley, and of that mystical representa-
328 A NEW LIFE OF ST. FRANCIS [Dec.,
tion of the Nativity by which he was moved to celebrate the Christ-
mas festival, or of that still more awe-inspiring retreat on La Verna
from which he descended with hands and feet pierced with the
nails of the Cross, to the last moving death-scenes at Assisi and the
Portiuncula, Father Cuthbert has allowed no note of controversy
to penetrate. With the solemn approbation granted by Honorius
to the Rule of 1223 Francis' active life was closed. So far as he
could, he had secured for all who loved the vocation of poverty
the liberty to follow it with the supreme sanction of the Church.
For himself his remaining years were dedicated, as far as might be,
to prayerful seclusion :
His task was finished, and in his new freedom he turned all-
desiringly to the life hidden with Christ his Lord. From this
time the world of men will but little disturb the soul of Francis :
more and more he will be drawn into the embrace of the Be-
loved, and the voices of the earth will reach his spirit only
through that mystic life which is the borderland of eternity
(P-
They were years of ever-increasing pain and blindness and
infirmity of body, yet of undimmed joyousness of soul. Indeed
there returned to Francis at this time much of his old spirit of a
Jongleur de Dieu, with a conviction that the world was to be con-
quered by love and poetry and song. To it we owe the thrilling
Canticle of Brother Sun, composed in the convent garden of San
Damiano, " a song of the kinship of all God's creatures and of God's
Fatherhood of them all " (p. 355), a poem which is reckoned the
very fountain-head of Italian verse. It supplies the motif for these
last months, and the brethren would sing it to the Saint to soothe his
hours of suffering until the day when, with a great happiness in
his face, he stretched forth his hands to heaven and exclaimed,
" Welcome, Sister Death ! " Then in the fervor of his joy he
dictated to them yet another verse :
Praise be to thee, my Lord, for our sister, Bodily Death,
From whom no living man can flee;
Woe is to them who die in mortal sin.
But blessed they who shall find themselves in Thy most holy
will.
To them the second death shall do no ill.
Yet Sister Death tarried long, and the slow dying of the Saint
in public even " Brother " Giacoma was admitted the carting
1912.] A NEW LIFE OF ST. FRANCIS 329
about of his poor sick body, the alarms lest it should fall whether
alive or dead into the hands of others save his faithful Assisians,
shed a curious light on mediaeval ways. One traditional belief
we are asked to relinquish. St. Francis, it would seem, did not
die chanting the one hundred and forty-first Psalm as St. Bona-
venture relates. This incident took place, according to Celano,
several days before his death. It was to the Gospel according to
St. John that he was listening, lying habitless on the bare earth,
when the summons came. And the larks that he had loved all
his life filled the twilight with the melody of their song.
A chapter to which clients of St. Francis will turn with
interest is that dealing with the institution of the Third Order. The
author differs both from M. Sabatier and Pere Mandonnet, O.P., in
declining to believe that at the outset these informal disciples were
considered members of the fraternity in the same sense as the Friars
themselves. There surely was from the first a small band of brethren
bound by a rule, though of the simplest kind, and round them, in-
spired by the preaching and example of their founder, was a group
of devoted followers of Francis and of Clare, men and women living
indeed in their own homes, but bound to the Order by a sense of
spiritual kinship, and adopting its precepts in a greater or less
degree. In so far as they had a rule it was that eloquent " Letter
to all Christians " which Francis penned early in his apostolate,
inviting all to a more perfect Christian life. The actual Rule of
the Third Order, on the contrary, was in the main the work of
Cardinal Ugolino, and was largely based on that of the Humiliati
of Lombardy. It was part of the Cardinal's plan for harnessing
the spiritual forces energized by Francis to the service of the
Church, to form a definite organization into which the Franciscan
laity could be enrolled, and in consultation with the Saint he drew
up the original Rule. This document unhappily has disappeared,
and all that we now possess is the recently-discovered and much-
discussed Capestrano Rule of 1228, drawn up after Francis' death,
and after Cardinal Ugolino had become Pope. In it Father Cuth-
bert considers that the importance originally given to the distribu-
tion of superfluous wealth has been transferred to the prohibition
to take the feud oath. The reasons for such a change are fully
discussed in Appendix III. Such as we have it, the Rule, as the
author points out, is not an inspiring document; it is simply a
Rule for external conduct, and presents none of the glowing ideal-
ism of the early Franciscan days. The life of the Tertiaries, how-
330 A NEW LIFE OF ST. FRANCIS [Dec.,
ever, went far beyond it in simplicity of life and generosity to the
poor, and it was from the inspiration and example of Francis,
far more than from the letter of the Rule, that they derived the
spiritual vigor which for a time gave them so large a place in the
fortunes of the Order.
Father Cuthbert accepts the traditional account of the
institution of the Portiuncula Indulgence, and he follows
the learned Father Holzapfel in assuming that the silence
concerning it in all the original authorities was due to
the opposition it had encountered in many quarters. In Appendix
II. he summarizes very lucidly all the pros and cons of this great
controversy. That the Indulgence existed already in 1280 is un-
contested; how and when it came to be instituted would seem to be
one of those problems that can never be solved beyond dispute.
Perhaps the fact that the Holy See never revoked this Indulgence,
although it revoked other and similar ones, and that it survived the
bitter enmity of the powerful Friars of the Sagro Convento, anxious
to establish their convent as the Motherhouse of the Order in oppo-
sition to St. Mary of the Angels, are the strongest proofs we have
that the privilege must have rested on some unquestioned though
now unverifiable authenticity. And in our own day it is at least
worthy of note that two of the Saint's most distinguished biog-
raphers, first M. Sabatier and, within the present year, J. Joergensen,
should have publicly come round to a belief in a tradition which
both had vigorously combated. Nevertheless, when all is said that
ingenuity can suggest, the silence of Celano, of Bonaventure, and
of the other primitive legendists on a matter redounding so greatly
to Francis' honor, remains baffling in the extreme.
This latest life of a Saint who holds, even among Saints, so
unique a place in the affection of the modern world from the spirit
of which his own spirit lives in such sharp contrast, is a permanent
acquisition to our Franciscan literature. It possesses a mellowness
and a sanity of judgment that can never be acquired by hasty or
superficial work. Here and there a more careful revision might
have been given to the proofs, and more dates of years the month
is often given without it would have added to the clearness of
the narrative. These, however, are small blemishes easily remedied
in any future edition of a work which for the scholar possesses the
merit of very accurate documentation, and for the general reader
the literary charm that comes from an intimate and sympathetic
understanding of a character of singular beauty.
THE MAID OF SERAGHTOGA.
BY " OLIVER."
HEY called her Marguerite in Quebec and in France
where she was educated ; but her father, the admiral,
called her Priscilla after her mother and we
called her simply daughter. For she was truly a
daughter of the Etchemin, duly adopted, and had
been with us, and been taught our ways, when she was a little girl.
Nadoga knew her from her infancy, standing by when her mother
in dying gave her over to the whimsome man in the black gown;
and when having buried her mother there in the wilderness he
would have carried the infant all the way on that long trail from
Seraghtoga to the Saint Croix, Nadoga alone was suffered to share
the tender burden with him. It was no duty of a great chief to
carry a puling infant in the presence of his warriors ; but he had an
over-riding way with him when he gave an order, and Nadoga
had no daughter at home. She grew amongst us, and played with
our children, and in her innocence helped restrain the wildness of
her strange guardian, and no doubt saved other helpless children
from his wolfishness when the mad fit was upon him. Nadoga and
his wife, Nallowa, had the care of her; and, when death awaited
him, it was our chief who met the admiral and gave him back
his daughter; this duty done, our fearsome visitor followed death
to the graveyard.
" All this I have already narrated to you," said Peol, " in
the story of our experience with the strange being part man, part
beast whom they called the Wolf of Seraghtoga. He was of the
royal house of France, quite close to the king it was whispered
he was a brother. When he died as you know he left the young
girl his estates in France, and he gave her more, for he handed
her over to her father who had grieved for her as dead with her
mother. How it happened that Admiral Warren afterwards con-
sented to her being educated in France, practically brought up a
French maid, when feeling ran so high between the two countries,
is more than I can settle ; no doubt he hesitated at depriving her of
the great dowry which had been left her. Perhaps, too, the young
girl after due residence in her father's house did not find her new
332 THE MAID OF SERAGHTOGA [Dec.,
mother to her liking. The English of that day to the south of
us were not so kindly and gentle as the French not near so in-
dulgent as our people to their children: long- faced, unsmiling
race they were, and hard with their children. You cannot blame the
girl then if after some experience in France she disliked to live
on land with her stepmother, in the intervals of her visits to
America, but would much rather be on the sea with her father or
remain in her convent school back in France. Besides, her native
tongue might now well be said to be French when you do not
call it Etchemin; in the beginning she learned of English only the
broken parts he could teach her, so that her Yengee relatives mocked
her speech. But all the time, at home or abroad, she carried the
memories of Nadoga and Nallowa and our tribe in her heart, and
grieved that the wickedness of men kept us from seeing her for in
those days a price was set on the scalp of an Abenaki down by
Massachusetts Bay, so much for the scalp of a woman or child,
and double for the scalplock of an Etchemin warrior.
" So it came that she spent years in France in a convent at
school in preparation for her high destiny, and the French called her
the Etchemin Princess, and wondered after their gossipy fashion
whom she would marry and endow with her great wealth. So that,
were it not for the stipulation made by her father, she would have
forgotten her English blood. Once she visited us, on the eve of her
first departure for France; she came in her father's great warship,
the sight of which at first alarmed our runners and made confusion
in our settlement until Nadoga, and the chiefs who had seen the
ship before, quieted the general fear. She had besought her father,
before turning the prow of his ship to the great ocean, to take her
down amongst her own people of the Abenaki, where she had lived
so happily; to see her nurse Nallowa once more and the chiefs in
their feathers and the girls who had been her playmates. She
recalled him, too, who had loved her in his wild way, and ever
treated her with old-fashioned courtesy, and made her his daughter.
And so she came in love and in the constancy of her gratitude, and
our tribe received her in the same spirit, as a daughter whom they
would always welcome."
We were out in the Maine woods, Peol and I, on one of
the smaller and least accessible of the Sysladobsis lakes, in a hidden
corner of the hunting grounds of the 'Quoddies, known perhaps to
few even of the tribe. There Peol had, with much secrecy and a
morose silence, built his winter hunting camp, and thither he now
1912.] THE MAID OF SERAGHTOGA 333
had carried me not without great fatigue and effort on my part
that I might, between times of resting, witness his prowess in trap-
ping and slaying bears. He cozened me into making the tiresome
journey by his pictures of the beauty of the place, once we should
get there: the basin of water between the hills, the dry ridges
running the purest streams, and the freedom from visitors which
is in itself no mean attraction. The place was all he pictured
it, and more. His camp was new and freshly clean, warm likewise
as befitted October chills ; the lake lay at the small end of the tele-
scope down beneath the towering ridges; the flame of the maples,
the blood-red of the dogwoods, the yellows and saffrons of the
beeches, with ever and anon the dark green of the firs, were
mirrored and reflected in its untroubled depths.
The old Indian was cooking dinner now out under a great
beech, telling his story between whiles. A dried bearskin gave
me the luxury of a comfortable stretch on the ground while I
peered beyond the sun to the noonday stars, invisible at an earlier
season, and listened to his story. More than once I had speculated
on the subsequent history of this English child, so strangely adopted,
so closely connected by blood with the first people of the Old Bay
Colony. Would she be English or French or Etchemin? Would
the court of Louis of France recognize her claims when, perhaps,
they conflicted with others nearer home? Here she was, however,
back again in the flesh in Peol's story, and I welcomed her warmly.
" She departed in tears, as a young girl will " you must not
for a moment imagine that my old Indian knows or is consentient
to this untimely interruption (even while he was dipping water
from the spring he made effort to continue his story unbroken)
" for the admiral was anxious lest war should set in before his
mission to France was accomplished. Years passed, and war did
come again it was the custom of the times and Admiral Warren
did his duty in guarding the English shores and intercepting, when
he could, French communications. Peace came then again for a
wavering spell, but all knew that it was only the prelude to the
final struggle. The Great Father Onontio sent word through Que-
bec that he would welcome the chiefs of the Abenaki in France,
if they would come; and so Nadoga and other chiefs, with their
womankind, crossed the great ocean to France at the king's cost.
" What they saw during that visit they related in after years
at many a camp fire to the wonderment of their listeners; but two
incidents stood forth with especial prominence in their experience
334 THE MAID OF SERAGHTOGA [Dec.,
of that time, and these I will narrate to you as I heard them.
Everything was a novelty to them, and they a novelty to the French.
Little wonder then that the royal court should be crowded with
courtiers, great ladies, and eager sightseers on the day on which
they first stood before the king. Dressed in the finest of deer-
skin, painted and plumed, with hatchet and scalping knife, they
came into the royal presence, their women following them, dressed
also in the bright colors which we Indians like. A small man,
withered and of mean appearance, but dressed in velvet and bearing
one great medal on his breast, sat on a throne at the end of a long
room, the sides of which were lined with a moving throng of soldier-
men with swords and arquebuses; while close to the throne
women and men were banked, all standing, and the glint of women's
jewelry and the sheen of gold sword hilts and steel scabbards lighted
up the assembly like the shining of the sun through the leaves
of beech trees in summer.
" Nadoga used to tell how he had scarcely time to wonder why
the chief of such a mighty nation should himself be such an inconse-
quent man, when his eyes rested upon a fair- faced girl standing near
the throne. In color and tint of face she differed from the darker
skinned ladies around her as the blossoms of the cherry in spring-
time differ from the earliest colorings of the flowering maple. Her
yellow hair caught up in a crown above shone golden in the
sunlight, and her eyes were aglow with excitement. To him he
used to tell there was in all that vast audience no other person
but this stripling maid. Forgotten for the moment in the joy of
the sight of her were king and courtier, great ladies and guarding
soldiery; he saw but the girl, and headlong he strode towards
her. Before she herself could protest had she wanted to he had
her in his arms, as if she were the little girl of long ago and not
a woman grown. And then he handed her to Nallowa to fondle,
while the chiefs grew noisy when they recognized her.
" All this time the great company looked on in amazed silence,
and the officer who was charged with the duty of presenting the
chiefs to the king was at his wit's end to know how to get them
back in line to be presented. But Marguerite, with a woman's
presence of mind, leading Nadoga by one hand and Nallowa by
the other, led them gently onward to the foot of the throne, and with
a low obeisance and in a sweet voice presented them as His
Majesty's faithful children from across the water, noted for their
loyalty and their constant love of the French. The king gave
1912.] THE MAID OF SERAGHTOGA 335
gracious welcome to his guests, all the warmer and more gracious
because the presence of the girl recalled the tragedy of him who
was his brother, whom we had sheltered. And then Marguerite,
with great deference to the king's wishes, begged to be allowed to
entertain these her brothers and sisters of the Abenaki, for she
had been their guest and the object of their solicitude when she
was a helpless child. And the king, smiling, gave his consent, after
Nadoga in his blunt fashion had told him that, having found this
daughter of their tribe, they would not be separated from her. A
wave of excitement shook the large audience, and a sigh went
through it, for men and women had seen and heard things which
touched their hearts. Great ladies, in jewels and powder, kissed
the maid over and over, and shed tears after the manner of the
French, and laughed and called her their Princess of the Etchemins.
But our chiefs and women were rejoiced when it was all over, and
they had Marguerite to themselves.
" She lived in a palace, they found, within a great enclosure,
and spread of grass and trees, with water bubbling and shooting
in the air, and flowers such as never grew in the wild places of
their own woods lining the paths. She had a great service of people
about her, noisy and curious, whom Nadoga did not love. Some of
these were deputed to wait upon the chiefs and prepare their food,
but our people did not relish such dainty cooking, so they frightened
away the servitors with playful brandishment of tomahawk or
frowning glint of scalping knife. And then they did their own
cooking in the open and ate it at their ease by the fountains.
Nallowa, being privileged, lived in the great house with Marguerite,
and instinctively learned every secret of the maiden; but Nadoga
remained with the others, encamped in the open, having first as-
sured himself that he knew every trail of the place every stairway
and turn of the house.
" It did not take Nallowa long to discover that the maid was
troubled in mind, nervous and frightened at times, and distrustful
of some of those around her. The girl, though mistress in her own
home, was still in some indistinct way under the tutelage of certain
ancient dames, who were charged with her guidance, and whom
Nallowa came to dislike because of their silent whisperings. She
could not fathom at once the heart of the maid's distress, nor was
she in a hurry to ask, for it is a law with us to wait until secrets
are willingly told us.
" At length one day after an old man much belaced and with
336 THE MAW OF SERAGHTOGA [Dec.,
crossbars of gold on his tunic, but wide-kneed and shaky in his
walk had made a call on our young woman, kissing her hand
and fain wishing to hold it long in his as Nallowa did not fail to
note Marguerite after his departure, being greatly alarmed, took
her into her confidence. The old man, she said, was one of the
royal dukes relatives of the king and wished to marry her for
her great wealth which he did not wish to see go outside the royal
family; the king himself might be said to favor the match, although
he was in some way bound in honor not to interfere too openly
with her wishes. This was a stipulation which her father had
made, knowing that court intrigues do not respect much the private
wishes of young maids. With the same intent of safeguarding
her freedom of choice when she should come of age to choose a
husband, it was covenanted that in case she elected to marry a
French subject, her father's consent should be first obtained; while
if, on the other hand, she chose a husband outside of France, the
king should be notified and his consent secured. It was absolutely
agreed and covenanted that Marguerite should be free to leave
France and live in America among her own people when and as
often as she chose. The girl rejoiced now that her freedom was
thus a matter of state agreement with her father, although she had
her doubts whether in the trial she would find herself as free as it
was stipulated on paper. The king was growing feeble, his end
approaching, she feared that when he was gone the court might
not hold itself so strictly to the bond. There were already signs
which made her distrustful. Nallowa inferred that Marguerite
if left to her own choice, would not marry in France; in fact,
that the girl had already decided whom she would marry but this
too was a secret to be learned only when the time was ripe.
" Now, ever since the times of Guesca whom you know it
has been the law among the Abenaki that a daughter should be free
to choose her mate, without let or hindrance from her parents,
except a word of advice where it is considered good for her wel-
fare. Nallowa grew hot in her mind, therefore, when she learned
of the constraint which was likely to be put upon the maid, and in
view of the husband who was intended for her, a decrepit and
worthless figure of a man. She hastened to inform Nadoga and
the chiefs, and they all held a council together to decide what had
best be done. It was out of reason to expect that the admiral, her
father, could at that moment when war was again in the air, revisit
France, nor was it possible to get word to him ; but Nadoga, as head
1912.] THE MAID OF SERAGHTOGA 337
of the tribe of which the girl was a daughter by adoption, had a
certain right to interfere he would suffer no heartbreak to come
to her. So it was decided that the demand should be made by
himself and his companions, that the maid be allowed to return to
America with them, and that in case of refusal the chiefs should
bluntly announce that they would afford no help to the French in
the forthcoming war.
" It happened at this conjuncture that the military authorities
in France were planning to launch an overwhelming force of sol-
diers and Indian allies against the American colonies, and were in
consequence eager to retain the good will of the Abenaki, knowing
that the Micmacs and other tribes would follow our leadership.
Nadoga's request was therefore listened to more readily, and after
some demur granted: Marguerite could accompany her good
friends to America her presence with the tribe would be a guar-
antee of their loyalty and service. Preparation was at once made
for the voyage home; the same warship was allotted for the re-
turn trip ; and the king in a farewell audience to the girl kissed her,
and granted her the royal privilege of hoisting the white flag of the
lilies on her ship. Again Nallowa ventured the prediction that the
maid dwelt more in her mind on the hope of meeting her father on
the high seas than on the privileges of royalty.
" The word went out broadcast, of course, that the Princess of
the Etchemin was about to return to her tribe and people; and the
young gallants who paid her court professed to be heartbroken
by the news. Some wanted to accompany her, and sought enlist-
ment in the navy; others begged to be informed where they should
find her when the chances of war took them to Canada; others
wrote on paper smart bits of sentiment to the effect that the goddess
of the hair of gold should not leave them to a hopeless passion.
Marguerite, with much lightheartedness, read these sentimental
poesies to Nallowa and made her understand them but the old
woman believed it all foolishness little cones of whirlwind dust on
a windy day.
" There was one, however, who was not willing to let the
girl escape so easily; the royal duke of the bandy legs, and in this
he had the countenance of many an influential dame of the king's
household. He saw, or imagined he saw, great estates slipping
from his grasp, not to speak of a beautiful wife. He opposed
the project at first with all outward energy; but finding that the
diplomacy of the state made his opposition fruitless, he adopted
VOL. XCVI. 22.
338 THE MAID OF SERAGHTOGA [Dec.,
other means to secure his ends. If the girl could be held until our
people were safely out of France, it would be an easy task to recon-
cile the government to subsequent developments. The king was
old and verging on imbecility it would be easy to conceal the
facts from him.
" On the day before the time set for the departure, the chiefs
were entertained in council by the board of war, which conducted
the military affairs of the kingdom, and they were admitted to a
certain knowledge of the plans for the coming campaign. The
general who was to lead the king's forces " what you call him ?
" Montcalm ? Yes, Montcalm was there with the others. Nadoga
always liked him : he was a man much like the girl's father, open
of countenance; a man who hated chicanery and deceit, except
the laudable deceits of war. As they left the council chamber the
general accompanied them, and when they reached the street he
made a signal to them to gather closely around him. He spoke our
language sufficiently well to make himself understood without an
interpreter in fact, the official interpreter had not been admitted
to this critical interview, the general acting as such.
" 'The Princess of the Etchemin the English girl goes with
you?' he inquired, although he was well aware of the fact. Still
there was doubt in his voice, as if he wanted them to doubt with him.
'The princess has enemies who would not see her go,' he said
in a steady voice. 'My brother will take no sleep until the morn-
ing comes, and the maid stands safe with them on board of
ship. Tomahawk may be needed, but I pray my brothers not
to use the scalping knife.' More he said not, but turned and
left them.
" That night if any curious passerby could have looked over
the high enclosure which saved the grounds from the street, and if
he had the faculty which we cultivated of seeing in the dark, he
would have noted many forms lying in the grass or sheltered behind
trees; and if we imagine him closer in his approach, he would have
been able to distinguish that these were Indian warriors in their
war paint no pleasant sight and that they were alert to every
sound. In the huddle of shrubbery near the great gates, the young-
est of the band kept watch, for it was very properly understood
that from the front would the danger come, not from the rear where
they were known to sleep. Nadoga had said nothing to the mistress
of the house, fearing to alarm her, but to Nallowa he had given
strict command to keep the back entries open. There was no
1912.] THE MAID OF SERAGHTOGA 339
doubt that some of Marguerite's servants were in the conspiracy,
and bribed to admit the abducting party.
" The night passed tediously on its course ; the great clocks
clanged lazily the hours with many strokes, and had just begun
again with one single clap, when the faint call of a tree toad rose
on the night air. The chiefs were on their feet and then on the
ground again, which was the signal; noiselessly they trooped be-
hind Nadoga, who led them up the wide stairs and into the body
of the house. Already the tramp of feet could be heard ahead,
yells and a scuffle which they knew was Nallowa the crash of
wood as if doors were breaking, for the marauders, sure of their
prey, were at no pains to conceal their presence, and then to their
intense surprise came the cry of the maid not heard by them since
she was a child and played at war with their children, A moi, A moi,
les Abenaques! Coming from son or daughter in distress, it was
a cry which fired the blood of our warriors. With a whoop and a
headlong rush they threw themselves upon the rascals, and using
the flats of their hatchets they opened a way to where the girl
was struggling in the arms of a gigantic ruffian. He fell to the
lot of Nadoga, nor did the chief spare any strength in the blow he
gave. The slant of the axe struck the fellow on the temple, and
he went down with a sob, releasing the girl as he dropped. The
rescue was effected in less time than it takes to tell of it; for the
other marauders, pitched about and manhandled so unexpectedly,
and crazed with fear of these dread specters of the night as they
took our chiefs to be plunged headlong down the steps they had
so lately mounted in security, and fled howling into the night.
" Nallowa had been roughly used, but not enough to matter;
and Marguerite at first was slow to recover from the shock, but
smiled weakly when Nadoga assured her that they had but an-
swered to her call. Her women, now in greater terror of our
chiefs than they had been of the midnight invaders, put her to
bed, with many an invocation to her to save them from the
painted friends in the great hall. Nadoga had his men carry
the wounded man out, and leave him on the street for the nightwatch
to pick up.
" Perhaps it was never given to the idle gazers of the great
city before to behold chiefs on the warpath, in times of peace, and
in the home of their allies, but that day they saw such a sight ; for
Nadoga and his warriors, not yet assured against another attempt
to abduct the girl, went down to their ship in their loin cloths,
340 THE MAID OF SERAGHTOGA [Dec.,
the frown of battle on their brows, their hands significantly on
their scalping knives. A detail of soldiers accompanied the car-
riage in which Marguerite and her women were carried, but our
warriors surrounded it all the way. The old duke was on hand
to bid her good-bye; to the great surprise of our chiefs he showed
no sign of disappointment; still Nadoga refused his hand, laying,
as he did, his wife's injuries and the insult to the maid to his
charge. The crowds cheered as the vessel swung into the stream,
bands played, and guns were bandied back and forth.
" These were the two incidents which distinguished the visit
of our chiefs to the French court; they were glad to be on their way
home, and doubly glad to have the maid with them.
" Dinner, dinner," Peol cried with such suddenness and in-
congruity of occasion that I came near resenting what had other-
wise been welcome tidings. But dinner is always dinner, more es-
pecially when one has done his eight good miles since breakfast
to the farthest bear trap and back. Still I feared for the rest of
the story; for my old chief, when his stomach is full, may idly
refuse to continue, with a pretense of finishing it some other day.
In truth, why he has deigned to start a story at all amid the various
engrossing occupations of making a fire, slitting bacon, peeling
onions nay he did not let up even while he was drawing water
from the well all this is one of the small mysteries of his psy-
chology that only time will unravel. There is a purpose in his
madness, some undefined connection of lake or wood or trail or
even of bear hunting no less, which connects this spot and time with
the far-off events of the eighteenth century. My readers will have
to wait with some of my own patience for the development of
Peol's dramatic purpose. For the moment let them share in my
satisfaction that he is showing promising signs of continuing.
" Marguerite's one anxiety as the voyage lengthened was to
pick up with her father's fleet his own warship by great prefer-
ence," Peol resumed when we had both done justice to his cuisine.
Sitting on the ground, one knee drawn up for his arm to rest upon
it while his hand coddled his well-browned pipe, he smoked and
talked with amusing facility. " She had a watch set at the mast
head, and a money prize was offered to the first sailor who would
bring in authentic news. It was consequently unexpected of
Nadoga that he should be the first to sight the admiral's frigate
on the sky-line, and still more remarkable that his contention was
verified in the face of the French captain's denial. As the two
1912.] THE MAID OF SERAGHTOGA 341
ships continued to approach each other it was soon seen from the
French deck that the other was an English frigate and carried an
admiral's flag. At Marguerite's order the lilies of France were
now run up, for this was the signal agreed upon with her
father.
" After an exchange of courtesies, which our people at first
mistook for war, the ships rode side by side, as close as was con-
venient. The admiral, despite his daughter's presence in the French
frigate, sent his captain on board to represent him for it appeared
that he might not go himself, being an admiral and the Frenchman
only a lieutenant; and this our people found strange and amusing,
as must all the crotchets of the white man be. But he had the
French officers to dine with him, and when he learned that Nadoga
was on board with his chiefs he insisted on their being of the
company. Nadoga would have been willing to refuse for he
did not relish being slung in a rope downwards to a boat and then
upwards to the great ship, but Nallowa, now recovered of her
injuries, and having certain womanly conjectures to verify, clam-
ored to follow Marguerite. She had noted the eagerness of the
young English captain to meet the girl, and Marguerite's evident
pleasure in meeting him. She had seen enough to lead her to
believe that the maid's dislike for the old duke back in France was
not altogether due to his ill looks or stag-like gait.
" It was decided now that the young woman should remain in
her father's ship, which should convoy the Frenchman the rest of
the way to the Saint Croix. The French commander was inclined
to resent the idea, but the American discretely assured him that it
was the safety of Nadoga and his party which he had at heart; in
these perilous times no one could tell what danger might spring up.
Nallowa, still eager to follow developments, and finding the English
ship more roomy, refused to be slung back into the Frenchman,
so that Nadoga in turn was compelled to remain in the English
frigate. When the admiral learned the details of the midnight
attack in France, he called the old chief Priscilla's watch dog, and
shook a warning finger at his blushing assistant.
" Together the two frigates pursued their voyage, now losing
sight of each other for perhaps half a day, but always recovering
each other in the end; and together they ran into the Saint Croix
much to the amazement of our tribe on shore. To their astonish-
ment, also, Nadoga, who had left in a French ship, came home in an
English one but the puzzle was solved when they saw the maid.
342 THE MAID OF SERAGHTOGA [Dec.,
Admiral Warren sailed, with the girl, immediately for Boston;
while the Frenchman, having to land stores and ammunition for our
tribe, was some days with us before he left for Quebec.
" I have read the histories of the old French War at least
two of them, and these the best; I guided, when I was a younger
and better man than I am to-day, through the woods of Maine,
the writer of one of these histories a man verging on
blindness, but strong of purpose, and possessing strange
knowledge of Indians such as I never met and discussed the ques-
tion with him at our evening camp fire; yet he and the others
agree in laying the blame of that massacre of American prisoners
up there on Lake George to the Abenaki and their Micmac allies.
Unrestrained by the French soldiery, and under the eye of the
commanding general, they slaughtered unarmed and defenseless
men when these, trusting to the honor of the French, had sur-
rendered as prisoners of war and given up their arms. Even
women and children were put to the tomahawk that day, while
Montcalm made but feeble efforts to save them. Now I do not
deny that outwardly, and so far as surface facts go, there is some
truth in the charge, and so I admitted to Parkman sitting by the
fire on Squawpan Lake many years ago; but I did not explain to
him, as I am about to do to you, that the facts can wear another
face when they are narrated, infused with the underlying truth.
I will leave it to yourself to decide, when this story reaches its
end, whether our Abenaki were led by bloodthristy purpose when
they started the affray which resulted in the deaths of some pris-
oners; at the same time, too, you will be enabled to conclude that
Montcalm did not at the moment foresee consequences when men's
minds were excited and in a tumult.
" In pursuance of the plans discussed in France at that war
council of which I spoke, our chiefs quickly sent out runners among
the Micmacs, Malecites, and Penobscots our allies bidding them
prepare for the fight. Abundance of arms and ammunition had
been landed to supply the three tribes; so that expectation and
spirit mounted high everywhere in Indian hearts, and we awaited
only the word to concentrate on the Saint Lawrence. In fact,
some were premature in their haste on the war path, and gathered
at Montreal before the French general was ready for them. There
they caused uneasiness by their impatience, and their feuds with
the Algonquins. But in the end the expected reinforcements ar-
rived from France, the word went out to the tribes, and a thousand
I 9 i2.] THE MAID OF SERAGHTOGA 343
camp fires lighted the south shore of the river. The army started
in bateaux and canoes; first our warriors from the sea, then the
French soldiers with their cannon and supply boats, and in the rear
and on the flanks the Hurons and Algonquins. It was a glorious
show of strength.
" I will not live over again the long story of that victorious
campaign under a great soldier as it has been told in our wigwams
for more than a hundred years; nor will I dwell upon the first
events of it when Oswego was taken, but rather carry you forward
to that day when the fort on Lake George surrendered because
cowards within would no longer hold it, and a coward without
delayed to come to its rescue.
" The French soldiers lay in cordons around the place, their
great guns sending forth shot and shell into the fated enclosure
where the English colonists and soldiery held the walls. Women
and children were in there also ; they had gathered from every out-
lying village and hamlet down the Mohawk to the Hudson, because
war parties of Indian scouts had threatened them. They lived in
holes and caverns made in the ground, where they hoped to be safe
against the French fire. And the French were unsparing with their
fire; day and night the guns thundered back and forth; the French
had the advantage of big guns, but the English excelled with the
rifle. And daily the besiegers made advance, now ploughing great
holes in the battlements, again securing better positions for their
guns. The end was not far off. Our warriors had been employed
to occupy the woods between the fort and the direction from which
succor should come if the English commanding general had thought
of rescue, but when he hesitated and then turned his back upon
the beleaguered fort, our people drew in closer so as not to miss
the event when surrender should be made.
" And thus it came about that Nadoga did, for a second time,
meet and converse with the French general as he rode along the
line of tents where our warriors made their homes. Again he
seemed to court secrecy as on that day on the streets of Paris.
Nadoga met him as one chief meets another, and listened to his
words of commendation for the work our men had done.
" Suddenly, however, the general changed his tone. 'Have my
friends,' he asked, 'heard anything of late from the golden-haired
maid? Do they know where she rests, that she is in safety?' He
paused to await Nadoga's answer, but Nadoga was at a loss to
know what reply to make. War and its occupations had put the
344 THE MAID OF SERAGHTOGA [Dec.,
girl out of his mind doubtless his wife at home was thinking of
her. Was she in danger? for he sharply conjectured that this
great man would not lightly bring up the maid's name.
" 'Old men who love women and money/ Montcalm went on as if
communing only with Nadoga's ear, 'have long memories, and the
Court of France has long arms. All America has been searched by
hidden hands for this girl, to give her over to a royal duke ; French
spies and emissaries have penetrated even into the cities of Boston
and New York, and French gold has been poured out lavishly in
the search ; but without avail. Would you who love her best know
where fate or foolishness has driven her ? There' and he pointed
with his sword to the fort in the distance 'beneath our guns. And
in my camp, close to myself, are men who are paid and sworn to
bring her back to France. Her father did me a great favor when
the fortunes of war put me in his power at Louisbourg: I would
repay it to his daughter, but my hands are tied, for this is a matter
which affects the crown of France.'
" He rode on as one of his aides approached with some hurried
information, and left Nadoga to his thoughts. What these thoughts
were, and in what plans for Marguerite's safety when the looked-
for day of surrender should come they resulted, Nadoga made
plain to his chiefs in the council. In the meantime the Abenaki
drew together, and watched intently for the first signal of surrender.
Orders came to them to spread out into the woods at a distance,
and occupy their former advanced position; but Nadoga quietly
passed the word on to the Penobscots who shared with us the
common title of Abenaki and they went.
" At last the day came when the white flag went up, and the
English soldiers surrendered their position. There was delay, of
course, when terms were being discussed, and arms afterwards
given up; but in the end the long train of unarmed soldiers,
officers, and civilians with the women and children, soiled, be-
draggled, and tearful wound its way out from the fort. The
soldiers of France lined both sides of the approaches, fearing tumult
perhaps; and further out, where wider space was given and the
soldiery was fewer, a band of French officers held together and
conversed in excited whispers. These Nadoga watched with eager
eyes, and gathered his warriors around him, suffering no inter-
ference with their liberty to watch the pageant. The head of the
column of prisoners was well past, and civilians bulked out with
the women in the centre were following, with fright and uncer-
1912.] THE MAID OF SERAGHTOGA 345
tainty plainly showing in their faces, when at a signal which Nadoga
could not see given, the band of Frenchmen formed in wedge
shape and pushed roughly into the crowd. The frightened women
gave way before them, and a lane of space was opened to the
centre of the procession. There Nadoga caught a glimpse of a
familiar face that golden hair he could recognize if he were
dying and then he pushed in with his warriors at his heels.
There was confusion ahead, and women screeched, but above their
cries again sounded that call for help, A moi, a moi, les Abenaques!
This time our warriors answered it with knife and tomahawk,
determined once and for all to make those Frenchmen know that
no man could touch with temerity a daughter of their tribe. How
many of the French escaped that awful charge of our enraged men,
I cannot say; not many, I ween, for the knife followed the toma-
hawk, and French scalps hung at many a girdle after. But Nadoga
and the chiefs closed around the maid, and saved her from injury
and capture. Forcing their way out on the opposite side, perhaps
not gently where men or women stood in their path, the entire
band of Abenaki, at the word of their chiefs, closed in on their
encampment.
" Thus indeed was the slaughter of that day begun by our
people, but not with the intent of injuring an English head. That
the Micmacs, misled by our action, threw themselves on the ill-
fated prisoners until Montcalm succeeded in overcoming them was
a mistake which nobody foresaw. But the French themselves
suffered most in the deaths of many officers of position, who should
have done better than attack a helpless maid.
" Great clamor was made by the French soldiers against our
chiefs; but the whole affair was so blinded and obscured, so in-
comprehensible to all who had not the key to its purpose on one
side or the other, that it passed off as one of the inevitable mistakes
of war. Still the girl could not remain in our camps, although
her maid was rescued with her: Montcalm had been especially
charged to capture her; so that no time could be lost in carrying
her to safety. She would be secure only in one of two places,
either in her father's warship which was out of the question or
in the very heart of our tribe, and there only in some locality that
French spies could not discover. All this was foreseen, and the
evening had not drawn to night before Nadoga with a choice body
of warriors was on his way, carrying the girl in canoe, back to
her ancient home near the sea. The country was deserted along
346 THE MAID OF SERAGHTOGA [Dec.,
their route, the story of the fall of the forts and of French victories
having frightened the inhabitants away.
" Once again, on the Mohawk, Nadoga found himself with the
girl whom under such distress he had helped carry away. Here at
her father's deserted mansion they tarried long enough to allow
her to collect clothes and such other conveniences as she and her
maid might need; they took also a pair of her father's horses,
which they caught running at large, and used them as her mounts.
Thus with moderate comfort she was enabled to make the journey
eastward to the Saint Croix and the country of the Etchemins.
" The Abenaki had lost favor in the high places amongst the
French; the blame of the massacre of prisoners was set upon them;
the scalping of Frenchmen also was laid at their doors ; so that for
a period the tribe, being in disfavor, lay back in its own encamp-
ments and kept aloof from conflict. But the girl could not be
found amongst them when French emissaries from Quebec came
making quest of her; chiefs had disappeared, too, with entire
families, no one would or could tell where. A portion of the tribe
was lost lost to their own as much as to the French: they had
gone into a far country gone like shadows that disappear over
night.
" Afterwards when danger was past for Marguerite Quebec
being fallen and French power broken the old chiefs came back,
and with them the trains of their families; and Nallowa, growing
feeble, brought the girl with her, vowing that now she must marry
the American captain, and be a wife and mother. But the secret
of their hiding place was strictly guarded; it became in the years
a sort of mystery to the younger generation, because the command
was laid upon them by the elders that the man who made effort
to find it should be held accursed and untrue to his people, since
there was no knowing when again it would be necessary to seek
refuge in its covert, and it must not be made common ground.
" You must have noted that from the last lake we crossed in
coming here there was no outlet leading in the direction of this;
unbroken and high banks closed in around on all sides but that by
which we entered it; great masses of forest rose up and closed
the mind to the thought of this spot or its possibility: and yet it
lay here in its privacy awaiting us as it awaited Nadoga and his
party when, with the girl, they were lost to French pursuit."
And then I saw through Peol's purpose in telling me the
story unasked. We were back in the eighteenth century with
igi2.] THE MAID OF SERAGHTOGA 347
Nadoga and Nallows and the others, and the girl was with us,
the ripple of the sunlight in her hair, and the red leaf of a maple
perhaps on her bosom: because here in its unbroken continuity
stands the same primeval forest, doubly pictured to the eye in air
and water, as remote from the ways and knowledge of men now as
it was in that unchartered age of violence and rapine.
Peol told me no more about the girl, content it would appear
to place the drama of place rather than of persons at the close of his
story. With this limitation I, too, must be content, and my readers
like me. Still perhaps it is due to them to state that Marguerite
married the man of her choice, with the consent of the government
of France, but on condition that she renounce her heritage there,
and in lieu of it accept a large sum of French gold. This she did;
and Peol tells me that when the summer colonies of his tribe camp
on the seashore " down Saco way," it is on the grounds once
owned by this English daughter of theirs the Maid of Seraghtoga
that they make their temporary resting place.
But for me, who must give this tale a proper title, occurs
the difficulty which is due to Peel's diverse dramatic point of view
shall I emphasize the girl or the place? Shall I call it An
Etchemin Princess? or Where The Tribe Was Lost? or simply
entitle it A Story of Tribal Faith ?
THE WISE MEN.
BY E. M. D.
THREE Wise Men, three Wise Men,
For the stars had made them wise,
They saw the portent of the King
High in the winter skies
They saw the Star of Bethlehem,
When Christ was born, arise.
And the Wise Men rode out eastward,
And they questioned as they rode,
The Wise Men, the Wise Men,
As the Star before them glowed,
" Can Earth," they asked, " contain this King
Or compass His abode?
" Has Earth a throne of glory
That's high enough for Him
By whom the stars are numbered,
And the constellations dim?
What need hath He of vassals
Who rules the Cherubim?
" Can all the world His palace
And presence chamber span,
Who sets a world as a lanthorn
To guide the wandering man?
With scorn, forsooth, our incense
And gold His eye will scan ! "
But they found Him in a stable,
And a helpless Babe was He,
Encompassed by a swaddling band,
Laid on a maiden's knee !
And the Wise Men, the Wise Men,
Adored the mystery.
1912.] THE WISE MhN 349
" For man," they said, " must ever
Look upward to the sky,
For, O! the deep's dimension
Beyond His ken doth lie ;
And the unknown Deep is deeper
Than the heights are high.
" And so must human knowledge
Be bounded by the star,
But Love, and Faith, and lowliness
Dwell ever in a far
Profundity, more spacious
Than the heavens are.
" So in the depth eternal,
Unfathomed, He alone,
Who lies here in humility
Finds spaces for His throne;
So dwells the God Incarnate
In deeps unknown ! "
So the Wise Men, the Wise Men,
To the manger-crib drew nigh,
For, O! the heavens had made them wise
The Mystery to descry,
For Faith and Love are deeper
Than the stars are high !
THE POETRY OF CHRISTMAS.
BY KATHERINE BREGY.
Before I tell of Thee, God's Son,
And all the sweet salvation
That Thy birth brought to laboring men,
Make me Thy little child again.
Bid me put off the years, and be
Once more in meek humility
Thy little one and wondering-eyed.
Give me their faith who stood beside
The manger that Thy cradle was;
Vision of oxen and of ass
To see Thee curled on Mary's knee.
Yea, give me their humility.
*****
Ere I behold Thy mysteries
Force Thou my soul upon her knees!
Katharine Tynan Hinkson.
HILE all things were in quiet silence, and the night
in the midst of her course, Thy Almighty Word,
Lord, came down from heaven, from Thy royal
throne And the Word was made flesh and
dwelt amongst us. Like an epic flow the sentences
of the Breviary ; but the brief Gospel story is the crowning poem of
all the ages. There, out on the hillside, are the shepherds simple
men, yet honest and watchful, and ready to take God at His word ;
walking in their midst, one tall, golden angel bringing the tidings
of great joy. Then all at once, the blue-black heavens roll back,
the flood-gates are let down, and the high celestial multitude is
revealed, chanting its psalm of glory and of peace.
And why this piercing, dazzling vision of things hidden from
the beginning of the world? Because over there in the rocky
cave which served as stable the Desired of Nations is lying, a little,
helpless Babe! There was never a more dramatic scene in the
whole tale of humanity than that first Christmas night. Small
wonder that the mystic turns faint with rapture, while poet and
painter wax dizzy from sheer joy. Mary, so young and flower-
like, presses Him to her breast; Joseph and the quiet beasts hold
vigil; at last the shepherds are heard drawing nigh. Somewhere.
1912.] THE POETRY OF CHRIS1MAS 351
far across sea and desert, the faithful Magi are traveling on.
But Bethlehem sleeps profoundly, as if nothing at all had happened :
and all the while the angels and one star are watching overhead!
It was Francis of Assisi who put into our churches the Christ-
mas Manger the " Crib," as it is familiarly called : Francis
the Little Poor Man who was poet and lover and saint all in one.
Well, the lovers (thank God!) are always with us; and the poets
a little band; and the saints, perhaps who knows? Even if these
failed, there would still be the mothers and the little children.
So the Manger stays, a concrete symbol beautiful and humble and
oft-repeated of the poetry of Christmas.
The Nativity, Aubrey de Vere used to say, is one of the
few Christian mysteries which does not contain matter too stu-
pendous for poetry. It is so tender that it ceases to confound.
Unlike the Crucifixion or the Resurrection or even the Ascension,
it is, at least in its externals, most comfortingly human. Hence
was Coventry Patmore never weary of reiterating the great dictum
of the saints, that to meditate upon the Incarnation was the su-
preme and perfect wisdom.
For ah ! who can express
How full of bonds and simpleness
Is God;
How narrow is He,
And how the wide, waste field of possibility
Is only trod
Straight to His homestead in the human heart ;
Whose thoughts but live and move
Round Man; Who woos his will
To wedlock with His own, and does distil
To that drop's span
The attar of all rose-fields of all love !
It is no stranger, then, than the progress of seed and bud
and blossom, that very early there should have grown up a Christ-
mas poetry. In the primitive Madonna of the Catacombs, Christian
art found one of its first expressions : and if the Madonna and
Child have become (with one tragic exception!) the most popular
symbol of entire Christianity, are they not still more essentially
the symbol of Bethlehem? It was as Mysterium Ecclesiae, the
Mystery, that the gentle Ambrose sang of Christmas; and others
sang with him in those early and heroic centuries, turning with
352 THE POETRY OF CHRISTMAS [Dec.,
very imaginable joy to this peaceful theme, as from the sorrows
of Good Friday or the never-distant Dies Irae. Yet it was em-
phatically different, this older poetry of Christmas, from those
later lyrics which have made themselves the wonder and delight
of the centuries. It was a didactic, a definitive poetry. The sub-
ject was still fresh beautifully but not less perilously fresh;
and the Fathers took nothing for granted. They were preoc-
cupied with the eternal significance of the God-Birth among men,
with the mystery of this Christ Who was Ever Ancient and Ever
Young. And so there grew up a whole body of triumphal Christ-
mas hymns, of which Prudentius' great Nativity is one of the most
celebrated among the early examples, and Adeste Fidelis among the
later.
Already, one distinguishes an undernote rather of tenderness
than of triumph. The pathos of the divine paradox was beginning
to pierce men's hearts, albeit the glory still ruled their heads. More
and more, they dreamed and sang of Christmas for its own
sake; and ceasing to explain, they knelt down beside the Manger-
Throne just to marvel, to adore. This was to be the enduring
note of Christmas poetry, this personal and realistic note ; it struck,
in deepest truth, the passing of the hymn and the homily into the
poem. One of its earliest authentic expressions may be found in
the German Strabo, who died in his Swabian monastery about 849
A. D., and whose Lumen Indytum Refulget anticipates the flute-calls
of Crashaw and a hundred later lyrists :
God, the Maker of the heavens,
God, the Shaper of the earth,
Crown and glory of the angels
Comes, a Babe of human birth.
In His span the heavens are measured,
On His palm He holds the sun,
Yet in swathing bands enfolded,
Here He lies, a Little One.
Lo! the God Whose word almighty
Formed the ages, is at rest,
Fondled on the Virgin's bosom,
Nurtured on the Mother's breast.*
A century later, St. Benno, another Teuton, stood sponsor
*Translated by the Hon. D. J. Donahue in his Early Christian Hymns.
1912.] THE POETRY OF CHRISTMAS 353
for an exquisite Christmas song of close kin to Strabo's. And by
the fifteenth century we are hot upon an embarrassment of riches.
How popular and how prolific the strain had already proved may be
inferred from a touching little poem by John Mauburne, sometime
abbot of Livry. It is a colloquy between the pilgrim and the Christ
Child, very modern in all save its clinging to the Latin tongue :
Ah ! how humble is Thy birth
In the lowly manger,
Thou the Lord of heaven and earth,
Weeping as a stranger ;
If a King indeed art Thou,
Where is all Thy glory now ?
Where Thy halls of splendor?
Here is nought but poverty,
Barren need and penury,
Little Child so tender !
. .
" Hither hath a love sublime
Drawn me down so lowly,
Love of man whose greed and crime
Make the earth unholy,
I must suffer this disgrace
To uplift the human race
Out of woes distressing ;
I must suffer want and pain
To enrich your race, and gain
Everlasting blessing."*
Atavism, surely, is a commoner thing than we are wont to
admit; and the centuries jostle one another with delightful in-
souciance up and down the paths of modern song and of modern
life. Who can turn from the " divine familiarity " of Abbot
Mauburne, for instance, without thinking straightway upon Francis
Thompson's
Little Jesus, wast Thou shy
Once, and just so small as I?
And what did it feel like to be
Out of Heaven and just like me?
As for Crashaw's chronology, one knows not how to compute
it. Lineal descendant he truly was of the saintly Benno, with a
"Translated by the Hon. D. J. Donahue in his Early Christian Hymns.
VOL. XCVI. 23.
354 THE POETRY OF CHRISTMAS [Dec.,
family resemblance to the little group of early Flemish artists
who sang their love-songs upon canvas. There was more than a
dash of Italy in his make-up of Masaccio and the early Floren-
tines, passionately sensuous, passionately devout, not yet pass-
ionately sophisticated! and more than a draught of Spain. The
most improbable thing of all was that he should so gayly have
" led Poetry bound back to Heaven's gates " in the teeth of Crom-
well's army ! But such are the ironies or may one not better say,
the immortalities? of music. How Crashaw's lyrical shepherds
met " Love's noon in Nature's night " ought, for true appreciation,
to be read in toto; but since their hymn is a trifle long and not
entirely obvious, this fragment may be stolen :
" Poor World (said I) what will thou doe
To entertain this starry Stranger?
Is this the best thou canst bestow,
A cold, and not too cleanly, manger?
*******
" I saw the curl'd drops, soft and slow,
Come hovering o'er the place's head ;
Offering their whitest sheets of snow
To furnish the fair Infant's bed :
Forbear, said I; be not too bold,
Your fleece is white, but 'tis too cold.
" I saw the obsequious Seraphims
Their rosy fleece of fire bestow,
For well they now can spare their wing
Since Heav'n itself lyes here below.
Well done, said I : but are you sure
Your down so warm will passe for pure?
" No, no, your King's not yet to seeke
Where to repose his royall Head.
See, see, how soon his new-bloom'd Cheek
'Twixt mother's breasts is gone to bed.
Sweet choise, said we! No way but so
Not to ly cold, yet sleep in snow ! "
It is one of the sweetest Christmas hymns in existence, and it
illustrates perfectly the warm and fond familiarity which (even
in England) has been a distinguishing note of Catholic poetry.
It is not, for the most part, reverent : it is devout. For reverence
1912.] THE POETRY OF CHRISTMAS 355
implies something of " the dread and fear of kings ;" it is a chilly
and formal virtue, when all is said a virtue of the serf rather
than the son. But love takes for granted all the bright and mani-
fold surprises of God. It holds them close, and dreams and
laughs and makes them quite her own. Doubtless it is through the
much sacramentalism of Catholicity that her children in all climes
have acquired something of this intimacy a thing which the poets
have always loved, and the Philistines as invariably detested.
Coleridge caught the fine infection whenever he stepped into
the Virgin's precincts, and he has left us a little Nativity which
should not be forgotten. His Christmas Carol, on the contrary, is
a rather uninspired piece of writing, mainly because the carol was
so manifestly not his proper metier. And, then, he seems never to
have penetrated very felicitously into the heart of childhood. But
he felt, and transmitted well, the thrill of the Divine Humanness
when he mused of her, the Mary of Bethlehem
Blessed, blessed, for she lay
With such a babe in one blest bed,
Close as babes and mothers lie!
This self -same strain may be called the keynote of our count-
less Christmas lullabies; most of which hark back for inspiration
to the anonymous Latin Dormi, Fill, Dormi, and one of which is
universally known in the brooding beauty of Barnaby's music.
Within recent years much of the best of this " realistic "
Christmas poetry has been written by women. Mrs. Hinkson has
sung the strain sweetly and blithely Mrs. Browning sweetly and
sadly. No one, indeed, could quarrel with the tenderness of the
latter's Virgin Mary to the Child Jesus; although a Catholic
critic might well quarrel with certain speeches which follow natur-
ally enough from a denial of the Immaculate Conception. But
never so triste a Madonna as she who bends over her Jesus " of
aspect very sorrowful," her " child without the heart for play,"
whose little lips have never once curled in smiling kisses! Some-
where in space stretches the delicate and dangerous frontier be-
tween sentience sentiment and sentimentality. There are no
white lights of warning, no visible and conspicuous outposts. The
balance lies midway between head and heart. But to cross the
barrier is for art (perhaps, also, for life?) to pass from soundness
to morbidity.
356 THE POETRY OF CHRISTMAS [Dec.,
A braver music then, and a better than this colloquy of Mrs.
Browning's, rings in the Christmas carols of our own Louise
Imogen Guiney. Here is one of the fairest of them one of the
rarest of them, alike in its fancy and its pathos :
Still as blowing rose, sudden as a sword,
Maidenly the Maiden bare Jesu Christ the Lord ;
Yet for very lowlihood, such a Guest to greet,
Goeth in a little swoon while kissing of His feet.
Mary, drifted snow on the earthen floor,
Joseph, fallen wondrous weak now he would adore
(Oh, the surging might of love! Oh, the drowning bliss!)
Both are rapt to Heaven, and lose their human Heaven that is.
From the Newly Born trails a lonely cry.
With a mind to heed, the Ox turns a glowing eye;
In the empty byre the Ass thinks her heart to blame :
Up for comforting of God the beasts of burden came,
Softly to inquire, thrusting as for cheer
There between the tender hands, furry faces dear.
Blessing on the honest coats ! tawny coat and grey
Friended our Delight so well when warmth had strayed away.
*******
The Ox and the Ass,
Be you glad for them
Such a moment came to pass
In Bethlehem!
It is interesting to set over against this poetry of sentiment
and devotion, the Merry Christmas verses the ballads, glees and
carols for which England was one time famous. Here the ancient
pagan strain, the praise of yule-log and boar's head and foaming
ale, leaped to the fore, albeit duly baptized and chrismed. The
earlier carols, indeed the Norman- English songs, the " Welcom be
Thou, Hevene King " of Henry VI.'s reign, the " God rest you,
merry gentlemen," are emphatically pious of intention. But,
for the most part, these convivial songs were in high favor about
the time men had grown to take the spiritual Christmas very much
for granted. Everyone remembers the spirited opening of George
Wither's famous lines, first printed some six years after Shake-
speare's death, but likely sung before :
1912.] THE POETRY OF CHRISTMAS 357
So now is come our joyfulst feast,
Let every man be jolly,
Each room with ivy leaves is drest
And every post with holly.
******
Without the door let sorrow lye ;
And if for cold it hap to die,
We'll bury it in a Christmas pie
And evermore be merry!
After all, good cheer and good will may justly enough be
called a human corollary of the divine Nativity ; how justly is shown
by this gracious excerpt from Poor Robin's Almanac:
Now that the time is come wherein
Our Saviour Christ was born,
The larders full of beef and pork,
The garners fill'd with corn;
As God hath plenty to thee sent,
Take comfort of thy labours,
And let it never thee repent
To feast thy needy neighbours!
These carols of " Merry England " might very well claim a
paper all their own. Boisterous they were at moments, delicious at
other moments ; with something of the forest in them and more of
the kitchen. Poetically they were seldom to be taken au grand
serieux, but humanly they did and irresistibly do appeal to the
eternal boyhood of the world. And if we fancy them dead, let us
look to our modern " Christmas cards " before ringing the bell for
their mirthful passing. In these popular pasteboards, behold! the
carol survives most effectually. It prevails, even, over all the
higher poetry of Christmas !
Like the great feast itself, this poetry of Noel is a many-sided
thing : and it is well that here, as elsewhere, man should " fulfill
himself in many ways." We ourselves are witnessing a revival,
under new conditions, of the old religious drama. Only a
few years back the English censor banished from the London
theatre one of the most beautiful and most reverent of modern
Nativity plays, the Bethlehem of Laurence Housman. It was very
Catholic in thought and feeling; it was vivid and simple and poetic.
To be sure, the sublimity of the theme was imperfectly realized it
358 THE POETRY OF CHRISTMAS [Dec.,
was not even attempted. The shepherds talked provincial English
and the Magi recited Aves. This conscious naivete was the per-
vading charm of Bethlehem. In Mr. Housman's own words, here
was no attempt at a " naturalistic or realistic " version of the Na-
tivity, but an effort to concentrate into symbolic drama " all the
love and delight and wonder which have come to be associated
with Christmas."
This, the symbolic treatment, will be perhaps the final ex-
pression of Christmas poetry. It is not new (nothing seems ever
to be new!) : it is at least as old as the visions of the saints. Like
Raphael, it laughs at chronology. It is personal, but no longer
realistic. Father Southwell's celebrated lyric was of precisely this
type : how much of Bethlehem was there in The Burning Babe?
As I in hoary Winter's night stood shivering in the snow,
Surpris'd I was with sudden heat, which made my heart to glow ;
And lifting up a fearful eye to view what fire was near,
A pretty Babe, all burning bright, did in the air appear
et cetera.
Beside this ardent Elizabethan colloquy, one likes to place
the cool greenness of a modern Celtic Christ Child John Tod-
hunter's :
The Christ Child came to my bed one night,
He came in tempest and thunder ;
His presence woke me in sweet affright,
I trembled for joy and wonder;
He bore sedately His Christmas-tree,
It shone like a silver willow,
His grave child's eyes looked wistfully
As He laid a branch on my pillow.
And when He had left me alone, alone,
And all the house lay sleeping,
I planted it in a nook of my own,
And watered it with my weeping.
And there it strikes its roots in the earth.
And opens its leaves to heaven;
And when its blossoms have happy birth,
I shall know my sins forgiven.
This is the Christ Child, older than Bethlehem, younger than
to-morrow, who lives still in His Church and His World. Father
1912.] THE POETRY OF CHRISTMAS 359
Tabb had sight of Him, through his blindness in the southland a
wholly unique vision which he crystallized in verses of exquisite
charm and paradox :
A little Boy of heavenly birth,
But far from home to-day,
Comes down to find His Ball, the Earth,
Join in to get Him back His ball!
O comrades, let us one and all
Join in to get Him back His ball !
Even so far has the little Christ Child traveled, up and down
the songs of so many centuries. They are harmonies upon diverse
themes, but He is their unity. And this is the eternal Christmas
message the oft-repeated Incarnation: Love, Joy, Youth, reborn
every time the Christmas crescent swings like a silver cradle high
up in the December skies!
But see t the Virgin blest
Hath laid her Babe to rest,
Time is our tedious song should here have ending;
Heaifris youngest teemed star
Hath fix'd her polish' d car,
Her sleeping Lord with handmaid lamp attending;
And all about the courtly stable
Bright-harnessed Angels sit in order serviceable.*
' i
*John Milton : On the Morning of Christ's Nativity.
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE.
BY ADRIAN FEVEREL.
II.
THE CULT OF THE UNCHRISTIAN.
O the future historian of religious thought in the later
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Christian
Science will doubtless stand out in greater relief
than we at present view it. For he will see, with
that perspective which only time can give, how
largely it is now moulding the ideals and aspirations of " new "
religions. Like the errors that have from the beginning assailed
the Church, Christian Science is to-day working quietly and pa-
tiently to undermine the foundations of true Christianity.
The great force of Protestantism, that is to say, Protestantism
as our forefathers understood the word, is about spent. Hitherto,
Protestants have been, except in a few cases, believers in the Di-
vinity of Christ. But to-day, with scarcely an exception, ration-
alistic doctrines are expounded from the pulpits of Protestant
churches of all denominations. In this work of destruction Eddy-
ism has been from its inception a pioneer. Gnosticism, together
with Pelagianism, and other heresies that have afflicted Christ's
Church from Apostolic times, has been one of the leading tenets
of the sect. In " science " the hypostatic union has no place.
Jesus Christ, the God-Man ceases to be God and man, Christ
becomes "Truth;" to use Mrs. Eddy's own words, "The divine
manifestation of God, which comes to destroy incarnate error,"*
while Jesus becomes " the highest human corporeal concept of the
divine idea."f " Modern ideas of God," of which we hear and
read so much to-day in the books that echo the religious thought of
our own time, seem to have been latent in Mrs. Eddy's system long
ere volumes bearing such titles began to make their appearance.
And in this we can see how, unconsciously, perhaps, her sophistries
have been gradually absorbed in so-called " modern " religious
teachings. But these doctrines of Eddyism, while set forth quite
^Science and Health, p. 583. ^Ibid., p. 589.
I 9 i2.] CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 361
clearly in the authorized literature of the sect, are yet presented
in such an obscure and cloudy phraseology that those who still
cling to " orthodox Protestant views " rarely comprehend them
in all their fullness of disbelief. To the " advanced thinker,"
however, such doctrines make a strong appeal, since he finds in them
a solution of his problem, a religion in which dogma and its at-
tendant inconveniences, to the pseudo philosophic mind, have no
place. The " scientist," therefore, by interpreting the Bible
" scientifically," offers to the seeker of a " modern " religion, one
in which Divine Mysteries are not known, while the less modern
individual whom Science has " helped"" need not entirely discard
his beliefs to be a member of Mrs. Eddy's Church. Indeed Mrs.
Eddy goes even further than this, and shows how Jew and Gen-
tile may be united in her fold.* It is this tendency of Christian
Science which we propose to examine now; that is to say, the un-
christian character manifested in it.
In order, however, properly to examine Christian Science as
The Cult of the Unchristian, we must first understand how this
unchristian element enters its teachings. To ascertain this we must
first analyze its concept of God. And in this analysis we shall
find that Eddyism is not only unchristian, but blasphemous as well.
For while it denies the Divinity of Jesus, and while this denial is
certainly one of its gravest errors, still this error is built upon the
greater error of a blasphemous concept of God. And by blas-
phemous we mean identifying the creature and the Creator. Let
us quote a few passages from Science and Health, and see whether
or not Mrs. Eddy's concept of God teaches that Creator and creature
are merged in one.
Man in the likeness of his Maker reflects the central light
of being, the invisible God. As there is no corporeality in
the mirrored form, which is but a reflection, so man, like all
things else, belongs to God, and his life is in the divine Prin-
ciple above him, not in a mortal body.f
Because man is the reflection of his Maker, he is not subject
to birth, growth, maturity, decay. These mortal dreams are of
human origin, not divine.^
Man cannot be separated for an instant from God, if
man reflects God.
Eye hath not seen God nor His image and likeness. Neither
*Science and Health, p. 360. ilbid., p. 305.
%Ibid., p. 305. llbid., p. 306.
362 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE [Dec.,
God nor the perfect man can be discerned by the material
senses.*
Immortal man was and is God's image or idea, even the infi-
nite expression of infinite Mind, and immortal man is coex-
istent and coeternal with that Mind.f
God, without the image and likeness of Himself, would be a
nonentity, or Mind unexpressed.ij:
It would not be at all difficult to furnish a page or two more
of extracts similar in thought. Just what do they all mean? Su-
perficially considered, read without careful analysis, one might per-
haps interpret them as giving expression to a belief in the immor-
tality of the soul, or perhaps one might read into them a strange
manner of setting forth a belief in man as being made in God's
image and likeness.
Yet this is very far indeed from their true meaning. In
"science" individual souls do not exist ! There is no individual
soul belonging to each individual ego; soul is God. "Souls " are
beliefs in error. If we examine these quotations properly, we find
that Mrs. Eddy really identifies God and man. To analyze her own
analogy, man is God's reflection. She conceives man as being with-
out corporeal existence. The human body is nothingness, a form
of error. What of man's soul? Her own words on this subject
show her belief, or rather disbelief, in the soul as we understand the
term. Answering a question in the chapter entitled " Recapitula-
tion," " What are spirits and souls ? " she says : " To human belief
they are personalities constituted of mind and matter, life and death,
truth and error, good and evil The term souls or spirits is
as improper as the term gods. Soul or Spirit signifies Deity and
nothing else."||
Here she clearly identifies God and man. She denies the ex-
istence of the individual soul, she teaches that man is the reflection
of God, and, hence, is the same in appearance as God. Her figure,
to illustrate her thought, is rather difficult to understand. A re-
flection has, of course, no actual existence. And in this the " dis-
coverer and founder " of Christian Science seems to make man
nought but a shadow. Yet this is not really her idea, for she does
not seem to understand that the reflection is dependent entirely
upon the mirror and the person standing before it, she seems to see
only that the reflection moves and acts only as the person reflected
^Science and Health, p. 330. \Ibid., p. 336. %lbid., p. 303.
\Ibid., p. 335. \\Ibid., p. 466.
I 9 i2.] CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 363
moves and acts. Continuing her figure she assumes God as the
Person reflected, man as the reflection, Christian Science as the mir-
ror.* God, she reasons, is all good, hence the reflection is all good.
God is deathless, without beginning or end, hence man is deathless
and without beginning or end. In brief the creature and the Cre-
ator are one, precisely as the reflection and the person standing
before a mirror are one.f
If one should object to this, and charge Mrs. Eddy with incon-
sistency, since she asserts that her system is built upon the teachings
of the Bible, and show that this conception of God and man
is in direct contradiction to the account in Genesis, the " scientist "
would answer that " scientifically interpreted " the Mosaic account
corroborates Mrs. Eddy's doctrine in every particular. He argues
that in Genesis are two distinct accounts of Creation : the Elo-
histic and the Jehovistic.J The Elohistic is " scientific," because
God found all things to be good. The Jehovistic is the account
of error, the Adam dream, the origin of a belief of intelligence in
matter. 1 1 Adam was fashioned from the dust;fl the very word di-
vided into two syllables, Mrs. Eddy says, suggests the thought of
mortal mind in solution, something fluid, a dam or obstruction.**
Of course, such interpretations are manifestly absurd. The two
appellations by which God was known to the Jews are scattered
throughout the book of Genesis. Indeed, in Genesis v. I, it is Elo-
him who is named in connection with the generations of Adam.
Therefore we need waste no more space in refuting such erroneous
theories.
But it is in the last quotation above that we see most clearly
the absolutely blasphemous nature of Mrs. Eddy's concept of God.
" God, without the image and likeness of Himself, would be a non-
entity, or Mind unexpressed." This is tantamount to saying that
unless man exists, God cannot exist. To bring in again Mrs.
Eddy's figure of the mirror. Unless one gazes in the mirror,
unless one reflects one's self, one has no existence. In fine, then,
God would cease to exist without His reflection man, since
God and man are inseparable and eternally united. How Mrs.
Eddy can hold such a theory in the face of the Scriptural account of
Creation, even " scientifically interpreted," it is difficult to see.
It is almost superfluous to refute such doctrines. No one
of the inspired writers ever held such views, and Mrs. Eddy brings
*Science and Health, p. 300. Wbid., p. 258. %Ibid., p. 523.
llbid., p. 520. \\Ibid., p. 524. Hlbid., p. 579. **Ibid., p. 338.
364 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE [Dec.,
forward no texts to support her erroneous concepts. Indeed, in
her exegesis, The Key of the Scriptures, this inconsistency is passed
over in silence. Yet her whole system rests upon this idea of God.
Her system of healing, her doctrines of sin and marriage, her
teaching regarding Jesus, all derive their being from this pantheis-
tic concept. Perhaps it might be worth our while to examine
hastily the true teaching of the Bible regarding such a doctrine.
We find, in Numbers xxiii. 19 Moses speaking such words as these
to the children of Israel : " God is not a man, that He should
lie." Clearly here the great Lawgiver teaches that man is not
perfect, since he lies. God does not lie, hence man cannot be
God's reflection, since God cannot lie and man can. The life and
teachings of Our Blessed Savior also rebuke this doctrine of
Mrs. Eddy's. The teaching of St. John the Baptist, " Be baptized
and do penance," show clearly in what way Our Lord's forerunner
regarded man's relations with God. If man were but God's reflec-
tion, perfect and stainless, what need of penance? And if, in
this connection, the " Scientist " attempts to evade the plain mean-
ing of St. John's exhortation by explaining that, " scientifically
interpreted," this means simply " purify yourself of the illusion
of sin," he is shown to be at odds with the command .of Our
Savior to His Apostles. " Loose and bind, remit and ,retain."
Obviously, as we showed in the first paper, to retain an illusion
is impossible if the illusion does not exist, and if one is cognizant
of this fact.
Looking at Mrs. Eddy's concept of God from a rational
viewpoint, its absurdity becomes even more patent. For if the
creature be merely a reflection of the Creator, the creature is
manifestly deprived of free will. A reflection can in no way
indicate that its subject has life without the full and entire consent
of the subject. The reflection cannot move unless the subject
moves ; and, pushing the figure yet further, we see that the reflection
is without many of the attributes of its subject, for, assuming that
the subject of the reflection is a human being, the subject can speak,
see, taste, feel, and a hundred other actions are possible to it
which the reflection cannot even seem to perform. Therefore we
are fully justified in asserting that this doctrine of Eddyism not only
deprives man of free will, clearly violating a demonstrable fact of
existence, but it also denies him certain demonstrable powers,
which accompany possession of free will.
To what does such a definition of God and man tend? Con-
I 9 i2.] CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 365
sidered from a material standpoint the answer must be : to destruc-
tion. Universally accepted such an idea would make each man iden-
tical with God. In a very mild way, as compared with the teachings
of Eddyism, certain Roman philosophers held these blasphemous
concepts of God. Certain of the emperors were declared
of divine origin. To the decadence in religious thought, many
historians trace the corruption that so infested the empire, that it
eventually brought about its destruction. It is not at all difficult
to see that the logical outcome of a universal acceptance of Mrs.
Eddy's theory of God would lead to even worse results. It does
not answer at all to show that at present " scientists " are morally
decent. They are so because, as we showed in the first paper,
society, as at present constituted, compels them to be so, not to
mention their early environment. Change the society, change the
code of morals, teach that there is no sin, that man, being God's
reflection and likeness, is coecernal and coexistent with God, and
hence incapable of sin, in "short teach Christian Science as it really
is, and not as many of its adherents believe it to be, and the result
would be nothing short of chaos.
Spiritually considered, to what does this teaching of Eddyism
lead ? Briefly, God, as at present understood, would cease to exist.
The Trinity, being " suggestive of polytheism,"* would of course
no longer be worshipped. The Holy Ghost in " science " is Divine
Science,! therefore worship to the Paraclete would be also a thing
of the past. Jesus being merely " the highest human concept of
the divine idea,"$ divine honor would no longer be due His Sacred
Humanity.
That Eddyism is wholly unchristian in character will be readily
shown by examining a few quotations from the " precious volume."
And it is interesting to realize in this regard that in the beginning
Christian Science was known not by the deceptive name which it
now bears, but by such peculiar titles as " The Science of Man,"
" Moral Science," " Divine Metaphysics," etc. Mrs. Eddy was an
astute woman, and certainly she saw clearly that a system of re-
ligion embracing mental healing such as hers would make little
progress in a community largely inhabited by Protestants of the
puritanical school. It is noteworthy, too, that her earliest converts
were formerly spiritualists. Mrs. Eddy at all events grasped this
fact fully, and accordingly she coined the name under which her
pantheistic system now masquerades.
^Science and Health, p. 256. ilbid., p. 331. tlbid., p. 589.
See Christian Science and Life of Mrs. Eddy. By Georgine Milmine.
366 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE [Dec.,
To return to our examination of Christian Science as The Cult
of the Unchristian. Let us open the textbook a moment, and see
what its conception of Jesus Christ actually is. A very few cita-
tions suffice for our purpose.
The corporeal Jesus was human.*
Jesus : The highest human concept of the divine idea.f
The lonely precincts of the tomb gave Jesus a refuge from
His foes, a place in which to solve the great problem of being.
His three days work in the sepulchre set the seal of eternity on
time He met and mastered on the basis of Christian
Science the power of mind over matter, all the claims of medi-
cine, surgery, and hygiene4
In His final demonstration, called the ascension, He rose
above the physical knowledge of His disciples, and the material
senses saw Him no more.
These quotations taken quite at random show very clearly the
teaching of " Science " regarding Our Divine Redeemer. Once
separated from the verbal mist which hangs over all of Mrs. Eddy's
writings, we begin to see what she is really saying. Read in the
textbook, with a mass of hazy phrases, one sometimes fails ade-
quately to understand their real intent. For example, consider
the first quotation. " The corporeal Jesus was human." This
we all know and acknowledge. But we also believe that the cor-
poreal Jesus was Divine. This Mrs. Eddy denies entirely. She
does not at all deny that Jesus was born of a virgin. And it is
interesting to note in this regard that " the discoverer and founder "
of Christian Science considers Our Lady and her virginal delivery
precisely as she would consider any other woman who had " suf-
ficient science " to create a child through mental generation. Mary's
spiritual sense was illumined with divine science, or the Holy
Ghost. In other words, Our Lady caught a gleam of Eddyism, and
through this understanding she brought forth her child, putting
to silence the material order of generation, and demonstrating God
as the Father of men.|| To put it in plainer words, with a sufficient
knowledge of " science," any woman could become a virginal
mother. Just how Mrs. Eddy regards Jesus as human, when ac-
cording to her theories the corporeal form of mankind is erron-
eous,^ and at the same time a concept of the divine idea, it is
^Science and Health, p. 332, ^Ibid., p. 589. %Ibid., p. 44.
>id., p. 46. \\Ibid., p. 29. ^Ibid., p. 477.
I 9 i2.] CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 367
difficult to see. We must not, however, look for consistency in
Eddyism, that is a gem that does not adorn our author's " laborious
publications."*
It is in the third quotation that Mrs. Eddy lets us see what her
ideas upon this subject really are. For the second extract is largely
a repetition of the first. It is interesting to see, however, that as
the corporeal identity of man is a form of error, Jesus must, there-
fore, be also a form, highly attenuated, perhaps, of error. To
return to the citation we are now analyzing. Here she argues
that Jesus did not die. Within the tomb Our Savior solves the
great problem of being. Through this solution He later appears to
His disciples. God is omniscient. Jesus could not have been,
since He must seek a place of refuge from His foes to solve a prob-
lem. Just what this collection of verbal nonsense means it would be
almost impossible to determine. Was Jesus alive within the tomb ?
As in science, death is a meie belief, it would appear so. "His
three days work set the seal of eternity on time," a rather unique
proceeding to say no more, but let us pass that, and come to the
really interesting portion of the passage. " He met, and mastered,
on the basis of Christian Science, all claims of medicine, surgery,
and hygiene." In other words, Our Savior, instead of lying in the
sepulchre in the white sleep of death, while His Soul was in that
Limbo where He preached delivery to the captives, was busy
within the " lonely precincts of the tomb, meeting and mastering
claims of medicine, surgery, hygiene, life, and intelligence in
matter." Could absurdity go to greater lengths without detection?
To sum up, then, this passage in the only possible way of
reading it, it must mean simply this : Jesus did not know all things,
hence He was not God. He did not die upon the cross for our
sins. Indeed, why should He since sin is only an illusion? In-
stead, in the sepulchre He demonstrated to His own satisfaction that
medicine, surgery, and hygiene are but forms of error. Let us
remember in this connection, too, that at Mrs. Eddy's demise, Mrs.
Stetson promptly wrote an article on her coming resurrection, f and
when we consider that Mrs. Eddy wrote of Our Lord's work as
incomplete, and only completed in the " definite rule " contained
in Science and Health,% which she herself had, it is remarkable
to say no more, that Our Savior could solve the " great problem
of being " in three days, while Mrs. Eddy has from all accounts
^Science and Health, p. 464. ^The Independent, January, 1911.
^Retrospection and Introspection, p. 51.
368 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE [Dec.,
not yet completed her solution. But, perhaps, the " great problem
of being " is more complex than formerly. It is interesting also
to see that Mrs. Eddy elsewhere directly contradicts this citation
in these words, " Jesus of Nazareth was a divine and natural
Scientist. He was so before the material world saw him. He
Who antedated Abraham and gave the world a new date in the
Christian era was a Christian Scientist, who needed no discovery
of the Science of Being in order to rebuke the evidence of the
material senses with his spiritual senses"*
An examination of the fourth quotation shows that not only
does Mrs. Eddy deny the Divinity and Resurrection of Jesus, but
she also denies His Ascension, in the sense in which it is usually
understood. He did not rise bodily, He was not " carried up
into Heaven " as St. Luke tells us. He merely rose above the
material senses of His disciples, as " scientists " will rise some day
above the material senses of those poor mortal minds that cannot see
the " truth." Such an interpretation as this is, naturally, too entirely
unscriptural to merit refutation from the Biblical standpoint.
It is not at all to the purpose to refute these unchristian teach-
ings from the philosophic standpoint. That has been done too
often already, and, moreover, we are not concerned in proving
that Jesus was God, but rather in proving that Christian Science
does not regard Him as God. To do this we have shown, first, how
such a doctrine comes to be the logical outcome of the " scientist's "
concept of God. A concept that merges the creature and the
Creator in one. Obviously, in a system of religion whose basic
principle identifies God and man, there could be no place for the
God-man our Lord Jesus Christ. He had no mission, as His
mission has always been understood. There was no sin for Him to
expiate, for sin is nothing, and its only reality is the illusion of its
reality.f Christ's mission, therefore, was not one of expiation,
but of explanation. The Crucifixion merely demonstrated God's
goodness and affection for mankind. $ Our Savior's miracles were,
in reality, not miracles at all, but rather divinely natural occurrences
which seemed miraculous to those " mortal minds " which were so
steeped in error that they could not comprehend them. The Res-
urrection was not really a Resurrection at all. For man being
God's reflection cannot die, and therefore cannot rise again.
Jesus solved problems in the tomb, which was not a place of sepul-
*Science and Health, p. 33. ^Ibid., p. 472.
., pp. 24, 497. Ibid., pp. 591, 139, 144.
I 9 i2.] CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 369
ture for His dead body, but rather " a place of refuge from His
foes." He was not omniscient, therefore, and therefore He was
not God. How can Mrs. Eddy, however, explain the inconsistency
which enters her " scientific interpretation " here, when we object to
this, that Our Lady and St. Mary Magdalene came to the tomb with
spices to anoint the body? If in answer to this it be said that they
were still befogged in materialism, then it would be interesting to
know where the " illumination of the Holy Ghost " had vanished
that Mrs. Eddy tells us was vouchsafed to Our Lady at the An-
nunciation. The Ascension was merely a supersensual one, a
rising above material senses. So much for Christian Science as
The Cult of the Unchristian.
A little inquiry as to the logical outcome of such doctrines
may not be out of place in conclusion. Such religious tenets uni-
versally accepted would mean, it is easy to see, the annihilation of
Christianity. The Sacraments have no place in Eddyism, hence
they would cease as the means of God's grace bestowed upon
mankind. Baptism " in Science " is " a purification from
all error."* Communion is not the celebration of those
mysteries Our Redeemer ordained, but rather a " spiritual break-
fast."! In brief, then, these doctrines of Eddyism aim at nothing
less than the extinction of all that is truly Christian and Apostolic;
they strike at the very roots of Christianity, and in defining them
as unchristian we have not at all overstated their dangerous and
malicious character.
^Science and Health, p. 35. Mbid., p. 34.
[TO BE CONTINUED.]
VOL. XCVI. 24.
A CATHOLIC DEEP-SEA MISSION.
BY WILLIAM P. H. KITCHEN, PH.D.
HE average person who makes a journey across the
Atlantic, and to a still greater extent the one who
goes on a short holiday cruise, have not the slightest
conception of the dangers, privations, and hardships
of " those who go down to the sea in ships." The
ocean-going traveler is provided with a comfortable stateroom in a
large and well-equipped steamer; he has an army of especially
trained servants at his command; he can obtain the services of a
doctor if he is ill, and an excellent chef makes every meal a thing
of surprise and tempting daintiness. Now the wireless apparatus
keeps our voyager in continual relation with his home, in constant
touch with the news of the world. And last, but not least, at the
end of a week or ten days he finds himself on terra firma once more,
safely delivered from the lurking perils and unaccountable mis-
chances of the deep.
How different is the lot, how changed the circum-
stances of those who must follow the sea for a livelihood,
who must wrest or cajole from its treacherous waves the bread
whereby they live ! No sumptuously appointed steamer waits their
convenience, but a poor little bark of one hundred or one hundred
and fifty tons burden. Within this frail shelter a dozen or a score
of men have their home for months at a time, with just a few inches
of crazy planking between them and eternity. Their food is of
the coarsest and roughest, salt pork and salt beef not of the best
quality alternately; while the place of bread is largely taken by
a particularly hard biscuit, locally called " hard tack." This bis-
cuit, if preserved from the damp, will keep indefinitely, and, like
wine, grows mellow with age. When soaked overnight in cold
water, and boiled or fried in the morning with several slices of
fat pork, it makes a not unappetizing breakfast, which they call
" bruise," greatly esteemed by fishermen and others. In one tiny
" f o'scle " the whole crew have to live, eat, and sleep ; their ill-kept
berths, no bigger than coffins, arranged in tiers around a small
central space. The atmosphere of the " fo'scle " is absolutely inde-
1912.] A CATHOLIC DEEP-SEA MISSION 371
scribable a conglomerate of fish, oil, bilge water, and abortive
culinary efforts. At the best of times ventilation is poor, and in
bad weather is absolutely out of the question. When a man is
in good health it is true these manifold discomforts are scarcely
perceived by him, but consider the fate of an unfortunate creature
sick in such surroundings, unable to help himself, whose comrades
are kept too busy to give him any attentions, even supposing they
knew how. On land the most destitute will find assistance ; there is
no slum too vile, no hovel too abominable, for public and private
charity to find an entrance and administer relief. But on the sea
there are no institutions of philanthropy, and there it is every man
for himself.
The life itself of the deep-sea fisherman is desperately severe,
working as he must for interminable hours at a time, when the
fish is plentiful, with long stretches of dreary inactivity when bait
is wanting, or weather conditions are impossible. Every day a
little swarm of flat-bottomed boats called dories, containing each
two fishermen, set out from the parent bark. Each boat carries
a small keg of drinking water and some provisions, and after a long
day's work on the fishing grounds, the men do not complain if they
can return in the evening cold, wet, and famished to their vessel.
That dirty, foul-smelling schooner, where the sailors are packed
together like sardines in a can, is home to them, their only plank
of safety on the cruel, stormy ocean, the frail bridge still join-
ing them with their home in some Newfoundland village, or in dis-
tant France, or Portugal. For it often happens that the ten or
twelve dories that left the bark in the morning do not all return
at eventide. A sudden squall swooping down from out of a cloud-
less sky passed over the boats with bewildering rapidity, and in
passing took its toll. One or two little dories with their occupants
disappeared to be seen no more. A proud steamer plunging
haughtily through the fishing fleet submerged some cockle shell of
a boat with its occupants, and the steamer tore on unheedingly,
leaving human beings to their fate. Or the fog settled down on the
waters like a thick velvet pall, blotting out all horizons, deadening
all sounds, destroying all sense of direction. Then God help the
poor fisher folk who do not succeed in finding some ship quickly!
Frequently they drift about aimlessly for days and days to-
gether, until death comes as a merciful release to deliver them from
their sufferings. Sometimes after enduring incredible hardships,
after starving for fourteen and even twenty days, they are picked up
372 A CATHOLIC DEEP-SEA MISSION [Dec.,
hundreds of miles from land, and survive to tell the tale. Some
years ago two such fishermen were brought into St. John's, N. F.,
with frost-bitten and gangrened limbs, which had to be immediately
amputated. But their dreadful experience and the consequent
shock of the operation did not apparently shorten their lives, for
both survived to a green, old age.
Apart from the accidental hardships that make this
life so wearing, the every day routine tells terribly on
the constitution. And while there are old fishermen ro-
bust and hardy up to eighty and even ninety years of age, it must
be admitted that these are the rare exception nowadays, and by no
means the rule. The long hours of exposure, the wet, the cold, the
pitiless icy winds break down all but the strongest constitutions;
bronchial and pulmonary affections are common, and pneumonia
still more deadly cuts short many a youthful career. The coarse
salt food, the absence of fresh meat and vegetables, is a fruitful
source of eczema, scurvy, and other diseases of the skin and blood;
while the chafing of the oil clothes on the wrists, the handling and
hauling of wet and slimy lines, the continual irritation of the salt
water, cause a peculiarly painful sore called popularly " water-
whelps." And during the various operations of fishing, and work-
ing the boats and schooner, accidents often happen, so that broken
arms and legs are not rare.
Such are the difficulties that have to be contended
against by these who ply their perilous calling on the Banks
of Newfoundland. These are vast submarine plateaux, sit-
uated from thirty to one hundred miles from the island, and
thought by geologists to have formed at some remote period a por-
tion of Newfoundland. As certain as seed time and harvest time,
as the ebb and flow of the tides or the phases of the moon, occur
the great migrations of fish every year, when incalculable schools
of squid, capelin, herring, salmon, and cod dash themselves on the
coast of Newfoundland. " The Banks " are the favored haunts of
the codfish, which are particularly large and choice in these cold
waters, and every year thousands of fishermen, not only from New-
foundland itself, but from nearly all parts of the world, assemble
there from April till October to catch fish.
Treaty rights, dating back to the days when France
owned all North America, secure French fishers special
privileges off this part of the Newfoundland coast (hence
called the French Shore}, and as many as ten thousand
1912.] A CATHOLIC DEEP-SEA MISSION 373
Frenchmen, mostly from Brittany and Normandy, come annually
to ply their calling in our waters. The French Republic still owns
two tiny islets off the coast of Newfoundland, St. Pierre-Miquelon,
and every year a French cruiser visits Newfoundland to keep a
watchful eye on the interests of its subjects. For years and
years, in fact for centuries, these poor creatures were laboring
under the hard conditions I have tried to describe, with no one
to care for them, deprived of all spiritual and material aid, left
without news of their homes and families for six and eight months
at a time. Almost within sight and touch of a Christian land they
were yet as isolated, as uncared for, as " ungetatable," if I may
coin a word, as explorers of the forest primeval. Not so does
England treat its fishermen. There for many years various
" Missions to Deep Sea Fishermen " have been in operation, and
the expenses incurred by these bodies in their work amount to the
enormous sum of 48,000 or $240,000.00 yearly. Fas est et ab
hoste doceri.
Fired by these examples a certain Monsieur Bernard Bailly,
a retired naval officer, thought there ought to be in France a
similar organization for the help and uplifting of the French
fishermen, and in 1894 in conjunction with the Assumptionist
Fathers of Paris, he founded his Societe des (Euvres de Mers.
M. Bailly's idea was to station a hospital ship on the fishing
grounds, which would stay with the fleet during the whole season.
This ship was to carry a priest and a doctor, so that both the
spiritual and the material needs of the sailors might receive adequate
attention, and it was to give gratuitous assistance to all in need,
no matter what their creed or nationality. The ardent propagan-
dist left no stone unturned to arouse the enthusiasm and gener-
osity of his countrymen. The late Cardinal Richard, the then
Archbishop of Paris, took the Society under his patronage; several
notabilities of the naval, social, literary, and artistic world en-
rolled themselves under its banners, and by 1895 the Societe des
(Euvres de Mers was firmly founded and ready to begin its labors.
The keynote of the entire movement was philanthropy, and the
Society was to be maintained entirely by voluntary subscription.
Amongst its members five grades were established, according
to the donation of each. Benefactors are they who make very large
offerings, or render some particularly conspicuous service to the
Society. Founders are those who make a donation of at least
$100.00 (20), or who give an annual subscription of $20.00 (4).
374 A CATHOLIC DEEP-SEA MISSION [Dec.,
Principal Subscribers are those who give $20.00 (4) once for all,
or who give an annual subscription of $4.00 (16 s.). All whose
yearly aid is under $4.00 are classed as subscribers. And fin-
ally those who give but once, anything under $20.00 (4), are called
Donors. Thus the Cadre of the Society is sufficiently elastic
to admit all classes, and while large offerings are accepted gladly,
the widow's mite is not despised. From humble beginnings the
Society expanded with incredible rapidity, until to-day it has
branches in every important town in France, and its subscription list
runs into six figures. Amongst its most ardent champions and
workers are the wealthy Catholic ladies of France, who have always
been foremost in every charitable undertaking. Last year one
lady alone gave $50,000.00 (10,000) for the purchase and equip-
ment of a ship to attend exclusively to the fishers of Iceland,
where five thousand Frenchmen go every year. Up to that time
the Society had but one hospital ship, which thus had to visit both
Newfoundland and Iceland. This ship, leaving France in March,
used to sail first to Iceland and remain there until June. Thence
sailing to Newfoundland, she used to remain from June till October
in our waters.
Providence did not seem to favor the first philanthropic essays
of the CEuvres de Mers. After but a short time, before the pro-
moters could give proof of their prowess, their vessel was lost,
but they replaced it by another ; that was lost and they built another ;
the third was lost and they replaced it by two others. Certainly
no one can say but that the members of this Society are " sports-
men " in the best sense of the word, and in face of adverse fortune
they are " game " all the time. With two ships, which the gener-
osity of one lady made possible for them, they can divide their
forces and double their well-doing. One, the S. Frangois d'Assisi,
works entirely off the Terra Nova coasts, the other, Notre Dame
de la Mer, attends exclusively to Iceland. It would be impossible
to overestimate all the good done by these ships during the few
years of their operation. If they brought only one soul nearer
to his Maker, if they helped but one sheep to his Shepherd, that
alone would be worth while; but they have helped and comforted
hundreds, and, more important still, they have been a leaven of
virtue, of moral purity, of high ideal and endeavor placed amongst
those, who to some extent were the outcasts and pariahs of society.
And no matter how irreligious a man may be, no matter how
debased, no matter how cynical or skeptical of others' virtue,
1912.] A CATHOLIC DEEP-SEA MISSION 375
he cannot help being touched by self-sacrifice endured, by hardship
undergone, entirely for his personal benefit.
Just a few years ago nobody knew anything about the deep-sea
fishermen of Newfoundland, nobody cared; they toiled as long
as they could; they suffered without relief; they died and were
buried like pagans. Now they have all the helps the most up-to-
date cities pride themselves on. When they are sick they have
a hospital and doctor at hand; they have a priest to give them the
Sacraments when dying, and to pray over them when dead. And
what a consolation for their relatives to know that in case of sick-
ness or death their dear ones will not be neglected; that friendly
faces will be around them, and holy prayers said over" them in mo-
ments of suffering, or when they are breathing their last? If it is
a hard and a bitter thing to die in a foreign land at thousands
of miles from one's home, the horror of it is greatly diminished
when religion throws its mild radiance over the last moments,
and those are around the departing who see in every human being
a child of the same Father, a brother of Jesus Christ. But there
is no need to enlarge on sentimental considerations when the facts
speak for themselves. The following summary from 1897-1911
will give a better idea than words can of the activity of the hospital
ship during the few years of its existence.
Communications with fishing boats 12,274
Sick in hospital on board 1,163
Days in hospital on board !7>732
Rescued from shipwreck 342
Consultations at sea 5 2 55
Sailors brought to their homes 523
Gifts of medicines 2,310
Letters received and delivered ....363,566
This last item tells one of the minor but not the least valuable
services of the hospital ship, namely, to receive and transmit letters
to and from the sailors. The Post Office Department, which is
in charge of the Chaplain, is constantly growing, and this past
year (1912) some fifty thousand letters were carried by the
S. Francois d'Assise. As mentioned already, the CEuvres de Mers
is essentially a philanthropic association, and it helps all in need
without the slightest regard to creed or nationality. During the
year 1911 the hospital ships of the Society visited and assisted
over two hundred foreign ships belonging to the following nation-
alities :
376 A CATHOLIC DEEP-SEA MISSION [Dec.,
American 16
English 30
Portuguese 101
German 14
Dutch 42
* Canadian 16
Icelanders 6
Belgian 3
Several times the press of the United States has lavished warm
encomiums on this Society, and testified to the benefits conferred
by it on American citizens. The official bulletin of the CEuvres de
Mers gives quotations in this sense from the Boston Globe, the
Gloucester Daily Times, and the Evening Post of Worcester. In
1907 1'abbe P. Benoit, chaplain to the hospital ship, had an inter-
view with Mr. Roosevelt, during which the President was pleased
to say to him, " I thank you for the good you have done to our
American fishermen; I congratulate you upon it, and I wish you
every success with my fellow-citizens." Deep though the hostility
of the governing oligarchy in France is to religion, and to all things
savoring of religion, it could not but recognize that the Societe des
CEuvres de Mers is of the highest merit, and also of the greatest
importance to a thankless Republic a Republic which does not
think worth its while to take any interest in those citizens whose
calling, with its long absences from home, prevents them from cast-
ing their votes. So to keep the balance as it were between its own
interest and its religious antipathy, the French Government flings
contemptuously to the Society a pittance of $1,200.00 (240) a
year. Over and over again the Society has obtained gold medals
and honorable mentions at various marine and international ex-
hibitions, and in 1908 it was awarded a Prix de Vertu of 6,000
francs by the French Academy. However the Society lives and
thrives practically altogether by private subscriptions ; the very large
sum of money necessary for the upkeep of two ships and two sea-
men's homes being provided by the generosity of private donors.
With the growth of the Society came the desire to expand its
field of action and increase its utility. Its promoters soon saw that
the good effected by the hospital ship would be much increased by
the establishment of a Seaman's Home or Maison de Famille within
the sphere of their operations. At St. Pierre-Miquelon, they opened
their first home. To this little islet an immense number of French
fishermen come every year, and all the merchants (armateurs)
of Granville, S. Malo, Brest, and even Bordeaux, maintain branch
1912.] A CATHOLIC DEEP-SEA MISSION 377
houses (succursales) or agents there. There is unfortunately no
duty on spirits, little or no restriction on their sale, and, as might
be expected, drunkenness with many consequent accidents was
extremely rife.
But an immense change for the better has come since the
opening of the Maison de Famille. This sailors' club, in charge
of a chaplain, does everything to make its visitors comfortable,
and to guard them jealously from the insidious snare of drink.
Books, papers, and games are provided in abundance to amuse the
men's leisure; writing materials are given them free, and they can
have as much cocoa (and in case of cold eucalyptus tea) as they
desire, also gratis. The fishermen are not thankless for all that
has been done for them, nor blind to their interest. They have
bid an eternal good-bye to the cabaret with all its unsavory attrac-
tions, and are now ardent habitues of the Maison de Famille. And
many a Jacques, Pierre, Paul, and Jean-Baptiste, who were famous
topers long ago, are now model citizens, and ardent co-workers
with the chaplain in his crusade against intemperance and evil
living. Some years ago, before the establishment of the Maison de
Famille at St. Pierre, it was a common thing for drunken men to
fall into the harbor and be drowned. Since 1907 there has not
been a single accident of that kind, which alone is eloquent testi-
mony to the moral amelioration accomplished. The Societe des
(Euvres de Mers maintains another home at Fashrudsfjord (Ice-
land) for the seamen frequenting these waters.
A few months ago (August, 1912) the 5". Frangois d'Assise
touched at St. John's, N. F., and the writer, in common with his
fellow townsmen, was privileged to be shown through the ship, and
to have her mode of operations explained to him by the captain and
chaplain viva voce. It is a pretty vessel oi six hundred tons
burden, of the yacht pattern, steam-driven, but schooner rigged,
and carries three enormous masts.
On her yellow funnel a red cross shines out prominently, and
S. Francois d'Assise is painted in large black letters on her stern.
Her hospital contains fourteen beds of the most scrupulous cleanli-
ness. These beds are mounted on swinging pivots, so that they
may remain always horizontal, and the sick may not suffer from the
rolling and pitching of the steamer. Separated from the hospital
by wide folding doors is a tiny chapel where the Blessed Sacrament
is constantly kept, and the Chaplain says . Mass every morning.
On Sunday the doors are folded back, and hospital and chapel
378 A CATHOLIC DEEP-SEA MISSION [Dec.,
converted into one large apartment, where the crew in two divi-
sions, and several crews from neighboring vessels, may hear Mass.
The Chaplain says two Masses every Sunday Messe basse at
7.30 A. M., Messe chantie at 10 A. M., except on the very rare
occasions when the ship is in port, and then there is but one Mass
on board. At 4 P. M., on Sunday afternoon, the Chaplain recites
the Rosary, preaches a sermon, and gives Benediction, and he says
prayers for his little flock every night. In fact, the discipline of
the ship is that of a Petit Seminaire, and if the sailors are not
quite up to the mark, and thoroughly model men, it will certainly
not be the fault of Monsieur 1'abbe Lecrevieux the excellent Au-
monier. In the captain's room the statue of the gentle Saint of
Assisi occupies the place of honor, and pious pictures and edifying
souvenirs are on every side. The tiny consulting room and surgery
of the ship is a veritable curiosity. There the doctor writes his
prescriptions and performs his operations, and because fisher folk
as a general rule are not overburdened with good manners, certain
obvious laws of hygiene and politeness are written on the walls in
five languages, namely, French, Breton (Patois), English, German,
and Portuguese. The ship has also a disinfecting room where
beds and clothing are fumigated, and all noxious germs are put
hors du combat. The captain explained the varied excellencies
of his ship with the pride of a commander and the zeal of an en-
thusiast. On my asking how he managed to hold his own with
the Government, he shrugged his shoulders with inimitable Gallic
nonchalance. " We take no interest at all in the Government, Mon-
sieur," he replied. " We are interested only in doing good in
benefiting the classes most neglected by the Government, because
they are scarcely ever at home at election time. There are many
platform socialists in France who preach the uplifting of humanity;
'tis we are the real and true socialists mats des socialistes-chretiens,
vous entendez who are trying to uplift and succor the most neg-
lected " of our brethren." In his expressive eyes, sparkling and
vivacious, the flame of the zealot shone, and in his striking naval
uniform he looked a soldiery figure who carried his fifty odd years
lightly. The sun shone on his medals and decorations won in the
Far East, where in days of stress and danger he had upheld his
country's honor at the risk of his life, and I thought him a not
unworthy representative of that great nation, which, in spite of all
her faults, has continually fought for chivalrous ideals, and ever
sustained forlorn hopes.
MISTRAL AND HIS WORK.
BY CHARLES BAUSSAN.
NE St. John's Day of a year long past, Francois
Mistral stood in the midst of his fields to watch the
harvesters reaping the wheat with their sickles. A
crowd of gleaners followed the workers, eager to
gather the blades that escaped the rakes. Behind
them all, my father noticed a beautiful girl who kept in the back-
ground as if fearing to glean with the others. He approached her
saying :
" 'Where are you from, my child ? What is your name ?'
" The young girl replied : 'I am the daughter of Etienne Poul-
inet, the Mayor of Maillane/
" 'Is it possible,' said my father, 'that the daughter of Poul-
inet, the Mayor of Maillane, is a gleaner?'
" 'Ah, we are a big family,' she answered, 'six girls and two
boys, and although our father is comfortably off, when we ask him
for money to buy ornaments, he tells us : " If you want finery, my
little ones, earn it." And this is why I am come to glean.'
" Six months after this meeting, which reminds us of the pas-
toral romance of Ruth and Booz, the gallant farmer asked the
Mayor of Maillane for the hand of the beautiful Delaide, and I
am the son of this marriage."
The life and soul of Frederic Mistral are contained in this
charming picture of his father, passing through the ripened harvest,
master of all before him. The poet shows him to us as he walks
out in the warm, brilliant sunshine, making his way between the
rakes and sickles of the reapers, his heart overflowing with the tra-
ditions of his race, and his soul open to every influence of beauty.
Frederic Mistral walked in his father's footprints ; he wandered
slowly through his fields, he watched the gleaner who remained be-
hind the others, and he won Provence for his bride. She was
bronzed by the Midi sun, this gleaner, and she spoke a patois it is
said. As mistress of Mistral's life, the whole world bowed before
her, listened with enchantment to her singing voice, and proclaimed
her what she is: a true daughter of France, beautiful with the
charm of youth and of her ancient race.
380 MISTRAL AND HIS WORK [Dec.,
In working for his "little country," Mistral worked for the
whole of France. From his home in Maillane, he called into life
the Latin blood of the whole country. The skylark of Gaul makes
its nest in its own fields, but it is a bird of passage, and needs now
the keen northern winds, and again the caressing zephyrs of the
south. It is not in vain that France has a port in the East and the
Past, 'a port on the Western seas and the New World ; it is not
in vain that the Roman and Germanic races dug with their swords
the fields of the Celts. It is not in vain that in the exchequer of the
French provinces each coffer retains its own color clearly distinct
from that of its neighbors ; that in the alliance of the three elements,
here the Latin, there the Frankish, and elsewhere the Gallic blood
dominates the whole.
Two great rivers, the Latin and the Germanic, entered success-
fully the soul of French Literature, breaking down the floodgates of
East and South, and bringing to each, in turn, its share of alluvial
soil. The Celtic land drinks of both waters and assimilates them,
and of all this French thought is born. The equilibrium of this
thought was in danger of breaking; one of the two influences found
itself too long unbalanced. To rescue, to preserve, this equilibrium
was the work of Mistral, and it is in this, above all, that its value
passes beyond the boundaries of Provence and becomes of national
importance.
When in 1859, in one of his literary conferences, Lamartine
called the poem of Mireio a " bunch of wild grapes offered by a
peasant," romanticism was still in the ascendant. Victor Hugo
was the emperor of letters. Don Quixote still tilled at his wind-
mills and the horn still echoed in the distance, when a song rose
suddenly from the silent valley a voice of youth and vigor which
told simply, thrillingly, in the language of the country, the joys and
sorrows of the laborer, of the basket-maker, and of the beauty
of the soil and of rural life, and all France listened. It was
the answer of the Latin land to the winds of Germany. It was
the reaction, born of the soil itself, from an imported romanticism.
Mistral answered Hugo.
As opposed to the impetuous flights of imaginations, he showed
the disciplined march of the classic form before its titanic out-
bursts ; he displayed the victorious and enduring strength of meas-
ure and harmony.
Hugo had called the language into revolt. Mistral taught obe-
dience to law and, first of all, obedience to race. He recalled the
mother, the Latin tongue. He took in his arms the dying Provencal
I 9 i2.] MISTRAL AND HIS WORK 381
speech, and tenderly, patiently, and long he nursed it back to youth
and health.
Through long years this poet made himself Benedictine and
folklorest, reading the old Provengal legends, listening to the
speech of shepherds and boatmen. Bit by bit he put it together like
an old tapestry with its birds, its flowers, its people this tongue of
Aries and Avignon, of Bawe and of Martigues, a tongue full of
melody and color. How admirable is his Tresor du Filibrige,
the dictionary of a science at once profound and charming, where
the history of a word is accompanied by a legend or a song.
And listen to the story of Mireille. It is not long since Vincent
and Mireille fell passionately in love with each other Vincent the
son of Ambroise the tanner, and Mireille the daughter of Roman
the miller. Mireille refuses to listen to anyone else, but her father
is obdurate in rejecting Vincent. In her distress, the young girl
starts on a pilgrimage to the saints of Provence; she will implore
them to touch her father's heart. She crosses La Crau, La Camargue,
on the shore of the lake of Voccares, she has a sunstroke, and on
the threshold of the old church to which she has dragged herself,
in the midst of the despair of Vincent and of her parents who have
rejoined her, she dies, smiling, holding out her arms to another life.
Mistral had the right to say : " We are all the offshoots of
immortal Greece." His sonship declares itself in every characteris-
tic of his mind. Mireille and Calendau are of Theocritus and
Homer. But this Theocritus, this Homer, was born in France,
and he has the French fervor and the French smile. The national
spirit, indeed, the spirit of the populace, laughs deliciously in the
songs and stories that fill his lies d'Or.
Mistral is a peasant who has learned his humanities, but he is a
peasant still. He feels that he is the heir of Greece, but he does
not forget his other inheritance, nor his father; and if his poetry
is learned at times, his heroes are peasants, or fishermen, or boat-
men; he sings the song of the harvest, the gathering of the mulberry
leaves, the dividing of the cocoons, the tunny fishing, the fair of
Beaucaire, the rural life, the gesture of the laborer.
To regain antiquity, he had no need to go to Rome or Athens ;
it was enough for him to walk in his own fields. While he went
to Rome, to Athens, he yet found in his lands and under the sun
of Provence, among his harvesters and his gleaners, the light of the
harmonies chanted by the Greeks. This light and these harmonies
always remain.
382 MISTRAL AND HIS WORK [Dec.,
Mistral is, therefore, a poet of the people, and this in the
highest sense of the word. He raised the people to the level of his
thoughts. He raised them as the grandfather lifts his grandson to
his knees and tells him beautiful stories. The people understood
him and loved him. No man who, like Mistral, voices the aspira-
tions, the genius, of a race could fail to draw other intellects after
him. In 1854, with his comrade Roumanille, Mistral reorganized
his battalion of Filibrige. The little band increased rapidly; re-
cruits came not only from Provence, but from the whole of the Midi,
from the whole of France, and we even see an Irishman, Bonaparte
Wyse, come to enroll himself under the banner of the poet of the
sun.
The literary influence of Mistral has been very great, and
it will endure. More powerful than his learned critics, in spite
of all opposition, the penetrating sweetness of Mistral's poetry
has dethroned romanticism and reinvigorated French thought.
But his work has been far more than literary: it has a much
wider range and importance. It is not merely the return to classic
culture, but the return to the land, the fireside, to all holy tra-
ditions; it is the reaction of health against centralization, individual-
ism, and scepticism.
Mistral fought centralization, one of the maladies of which
the Old World is dying, through his whole life, not only by his
writings but by his actions. He drew the Provengal people around
him by his poetry, and made them realize its vital truth. He taught
them to look at the land, its plains, mountains, the work and the
souls of the laborers, its herdsmen, its sailors, its beauty of to-day
and its glory of yesterday. Provence lives. Provence is beautiful.
This is the refrain of Mistral's poems. The life of a people is
necessarily bound up with the moral life of its citizens.
The son of Francois Mistral sang and preached the love of
the hearthstone and the love of the land. Is he not himself the su-
perb culmination of a family of landowners devotedly attached to
the soil ? His ancestors were established in St. Remy of Provence
from the sixteenth century. His father, Francois Mistral, was es-
sentially the master, with patriarchal manners, calm and wise,
master of himself and of others.
The father was the will; the mother the heart. She was a
most fervent Christian. It was from her that the little Frederic
learned his prayers; he learned also legends and songs; and he
forgot nothing. He always treasured with respect and love the
I 9 i2.] MISTRAL AND HIS WORK 383
memory of the fireside. The laborers returning home at evening
to give an account of the day to their master Romon, are they
not the laborers and shepherds of Maitre Frangois Mistral?
In spite of the mirage of the Academy, Mistral never wished
to leave his house at Maillane. He was never weary of urging
the peasants to remain at home. He loved not only the fields and
the woods, the labors and the fetes of the land, but its usages and
its customs, and so that they, these pretty coiffes and ancient cus-
toms, might endure forever Mistral created his Museon Arlateu
where the ploughs talked to the silk aprons, and old furniture and
old tools, and the wheels of the old mills related their histories to
the yokes of oxen and the tridents of the drovers of Camargue.
Mistral could not have fought with such ardor for the family
and against individualism had he not possessed the soul of a genuine
traditionalist. His Provence would not have been the true Prov-
ence if he had forgotten the prayers he learned from his mother
while his father directed the laborers as to their toil for the coming
day. Mistral was so true and so great only because he was a
Christian. He kept the Faith simply and proudly. He was a
Christian in public as well as in private life. In 1870 he chanted
the penitential psalms, humbly confessing the sins of the country
and imploring mercy from on high.
Even when, in his works, he does not affirm his Catholic faith
in express terms, it revivifies his thoughts, giving them the brilliancy
and the force of truth. His faith was the joyous faith that death
could not appall, the especial gift of the Church of the Saints.
Saint Madeline and Saint Martha placed in the soul and on the
countenance of the dying Mireille, the radiance of opening Paradise,
and Mistral also had beyond the stars another country, another
Provence yet more glorious, with another sunlight than that of
Aries and Avignon. And there also, were his brothers, the saints
who never forget us, and who come to earth, at times, to talk
with the pure in heart. Like the old church, overlooking the sea,
like the carved doorway of Saint Trophimus, the grain and the
fields woke an echo in the believing soul of Mistral. He would
pause before the tiny insect, " the praying mante," who always
holds towards heaven two of its little feet, and an old legend tells
that to reward this attitude of continual prayer, God has given it
the power of pointing out the right path to the children who wander
off during harvest time.
In his Menwires et Recits, Mistral relates the death of his
384 MISTRAL AND HIS WORK [Dec.,
father. The master of Mas du Juge had received the last sacra-
ments with a living faith. He was surrounded by his weeping
family, he alone remained serene. Listen to his son : " 'Come, my
children,' he said, 'come, I am going, and I give thanks to God
for all that I owe Him, my long life, and my labor which He has
blessed.' Then, calling me, he said :
" 'Frederic, what is the weather ?'
" It rains, my father," I replied.
" 'Good,' returned my father, 'if it rains it will be fine
weather for the sowing.' '
"La race fait la race," and when the last hour sounded for
the poet himself in his white house at Maillane, he could also
thank God and cast a backward look over his long life and his
good labor. He had kept and increased the domain of his an-
cestors. They had had fair weather, these " sowers " of Provence,
" sowers " of France also, for if Provence is not all of France,
France without Provence would not be wholly herself ; an essential
melody would be missing in the national harmony the classic song
which, thanks to Mistral, will never again be silent. It brought
life into a dead body, this double transfusion of blood the blood
of Faith and the blood of the people, the Christian soul and the love
of the land. The ancients did not invent the sun, nor the cadence
of the waves, nor the slow tread of the oxen, nor the gesture of
the sower or the oarsman. They simply looked at them, and it is
to be as classic as they to look upon these things as they have done,
only more closely and from a greater height. From a greater
height, for their gods are dead, and art has not wept for them ; our
Heaven is infinitely above their Grecian Olympus. By the light
of the sun, which has risen for us, we see infinitely more than they
could, the world, life, the soul, truth, beauty.
Mistral is of the true antiquity that endures forever. He read
nature from the original, not merely from a Greek or Latin trans-
lation. He gave back to France, rhythm, harmony, measure, equi-
librium of form and the soul that spoke within him. It was not
the dead soul of Greece but the living soul of Provence, the Prov-
ence of the Saints and of the Popes of Avignon, of the laborer and
the fisherman, the Christian soul and the soul of a peasant.
The marvelous harmony of his poetry, the incomparable music
of his song, at once sweet and powerful, and which reaches so far,
will be heard forever, rising far above the Rhone, like the clear
note of skylarks with the deep tone of the church bells.
THE BALKAN WAR.
HE expulsion from Europe of the Turks, which seems
upon the eve of accomplishment, the certainty at
all events of their ceasing to be any longer a military
power, and the recovery of freedom by the Christian
races in Macedonia, after so many centuries of the
most degrading oppression, are events of momentous importance.
The way in which it has been brought about is of equal significance.
That the Serbs and Bulgars living in Macedonia still re-
mained under Turkish rule, after the war between Russia and
Turkey which took place in 1878, is due chiefly to the action of
Great Britain. Russia was then her great enemy, and Great Britain
would not permit anything in the way of the aggrandizement of
that Power. The Treaty of San Stefano, concluded at the end
of the war, involved such an aggrandizement. Great Britain was
powerful enough, at the Congress of Berlin, to have that Treaty
set aside. A great part of Macedonia was restored to Turkey,
and in this way England became the cause, however unwittingly,
of the miseries which have followed.
The Treaty of Berlin, it is true, stipulated for certain reforms
in the condition of the subject races. None of these reforms have,
however, been carried out. Efforts, it is true, were made to alle-
viate the situation, but in a very half-hearted manner. Austria-
Hungary, and Russia especially, took the matter in hand; but it
was their own interests, not those of the oppressed Christians, that
they had chiefly in view. Austria, in particular, after she had been
expelled from the German Bund, looked for compensation to the
possession of Salonika, and of a road to it. In this she was en-
couraged by Germany. Russia had hoped to be the quasi-suzerain
of Bulgaria the State of which she had been the chief means of
delivering from the power of the Turk. Austria and Russia were
jealous of each other : yet they came to terms. The terms were such,
however, that the Christians were left to groan and to suffer. Cer-
tain steps, indeed, were taken which gave some relief : foreign officers
had been placed over a gendarmerie, and the appointment of a for-
eign judiciary was imminent. Then the Young Turk Revolution
took place. The promise of reform made by the Young Turks, the
new era of liberty which was expected, led the Powers to withdraw
VOL. xcvi. 25.
386 THE BALKAN WAR [Dec.,
all their officers, and to leave everything to the Turkish authorities,
trusting in their good will and sincerity. This trust was completely
misplaced : no reforms were made ; in fact, ancient privileges were
taken away. The state of the Christians became worse under
the New than under the Old Turk.
One of the worst features of the situation was that the Balkan
States were more at variance with one another than they were
with their common enemy the Turk. Greeks tried to exterminate
Bulgars, and Bulgars, Serbs and Greeks. The Miirzsteg pro-
gramme, made between Austria and Russia, encouraged this inter-
necine warfare, for it led the various races to anticipate, if another
settlement should take place, that each nationality would receive the
portion of territory of which it was at the time in actual possession.
But within the last few years a complete change has taken
place. The various races have become reconciled to one another.
This reconciliation and its effects have been manifest on the sur-
face. What was not manifest was that a Confederation had been
formed between the four States, Bulgaria, Servia, Montenegro, and
Greece. How and by whom this has been brought about is not
yet known. It is surmised, however, that it is to M. Venezelos,
who has done so much for his own country, Greece, that the chief
credit is due. King Ferdinand of Bulgaria has been a most effec-
tive instrument in bringing about a result which must be looked
upon as the advent of a new Power in the field of European politics.
When the war broke out, the attitude of the various Powers
concerned was approximately as follows: The nearest neighbor
is Austria-Hungary. And as near relations are sometimes the
worst enemies, so the Dual Monarchy has been the worst enemy
of one at least of these States. It is to her action, to a large
extent in view of her future territorial aggrandizement, that the
evils of Turkish misrule have lasted so long, although in this matter
Russia also must bear part of the blame. Servia has been the special
object of Austrian hostility. This arises from the fact that Ser-
vian aspirations, if realized, would lead, possibly, to a disintegration
of the Empire, inasmuch as the many Serbs now subject to the
Austrian yoke would naturally tend to union with a strong Servia,
if such should be formed. Moreover, as has been said, the enlarge-
ment of Servian territory would cut off Austria-Hungary from
that possession of Salonika which has been her ambition. The
weakness of Austria-Hungary, and her consequent powerlessness
for evil, arises from the fact that the greater part of the races
I 9 i2.] THE BALKAN WAR 387
which make up the Empire are Slavs. The Germans now con-
stitute a minority, though a large one. The Slavs, even the North-
ern Slavs, sympathize with the aspirations of their brethren, and
rejoice in their successes. The leader of the Czechs of Bohemia
has sent a message of congratulation to Servia. It would therefore
be difficult, much as the Germans in the Empire might wish it,
for Austria-Hungary to take active measures against Servia, al-
though before the war began, the most formal intimation was
given that no addition to Servian territory would be permitted.
Germany's interest in the question is far more remote than
that of Austria-Hungary, although her concern about Turkey has
increased since the time when Bismarck declared that he would not
sacrifice a single Pomeranian grenadier for the sake of a near
Eastern settlement. The Baghdad Railway has been a cause of
this increase of interest; in fact, during the days of Abdul Hamid,
and more recently during the regime of the Young Turks, Ger-
many has been the main support of Turkey. What, however, would
lead to German action, should such action be taken, would be the
Alliance with Austria-Hungary. If Austria were to come into the
field, it may be said without doubt, that Russia would give active
support to the Balkan States. Whether such action of Russia
would, under the terms of the Triple Alliance, lead to Germany's
actively supporting Austria, is not certainly known, but there is
good reason to think that it would form a casus foederis.
The people of Russia, as a matter of course, have felt the
greatest sympathy with the efforts of their brethren in blood, and
have, manifested that sympathy in the most unmistakable manner.
As to the government, it has not manifested its sympathies so
clearly. The ingratitude of Bulgaria for services rendered in
the past, or what is looked upon as ingratitude, has rendered it
somewhat cool. The Tzar, however, sent, as soon as possible, his
congratulations to the King of Servia for the victories of his army.
But should Austria intervene, there can be no manner of doubt that
Russia would offer resistance to any efforts to deprive the States
of the fruits of victory.
It is hard to form an opinion about the attitude of Italy. The
fact that just as the war was breaking out, she made peace with
Turkey, and in this way added immense strength to that Power in
the prosecution of the war with the States, made the latter look
upon Italy as a traitor to the cause of liberation. The fact, too,
that she is the ally of Austria, being a member of the Triple Al-
THE BALKAN WAR [Dec.,
liance, but also on special terms of friendship with Russia, with a
particular reference to the Balkan question, renders it impossible
to form a judgment. That the Queen of Italy is a daughter of
the King of Montenegro may count a little.
France is supposed to be the friend of all movements for the
extension of liberty and self-government at least this is what is
always being said. Not infrequently, however, when it is a ques-
tion of action, she has proved herself, to say the least, somewhat
slack. The fact is, material interests are supreme in the France
of the present day, and France is more concerned than any other
country in the support of Turkish credit. But although somewhat
divided in her counsels on this account, there is no reason to fear
that she will act against the best interests of the Balkan States,
although she joined with the other Powers in declaring before the
war broke out that no increase of territory would be allowed in
the event of their success.
Nor of Great Britain need there be any fear. In fact the
Premier has declared that she will not allow the battling States to
be deprived of the fruits of victory. Some hesitation, indeed, was
shown at the beginning: for Great Britain is by far the greatest
Mohammedan Power in the world. Of Mohammedans there are
more than ninety-six millions in British dominions in fact there
are more Mohammedans than Christians. The Turkish Empire
itself has some eighteen millions within its borders, while France has
nearly thirteen millions. In these days rulers must follow their
subjects and defer to them. And there were Englishmen who
leaned to the side of Turkey. Some have gone so far as to enlist
in her armies. But the bulk of the nation could not be so untrue
to itself as to lend its support to so loathsome a tyranny.
Singular to say, one of the Balkan States has stood aloof from
the struggle of the rest for freedom, and, indeed, has given ground
for fear that she may take active steps in the opposite direction.
Rumania's attitude is very doubtful. A year or two ago it was
rumored that she had formed an alliance with Turkey, in the event
of Bulgaria making war upon that Power. This was, however, de-
nied. Since the beginning of the war Rumania has done nothing
either one way or the other. The chief influence in that country
is a feeling of resentment against Russia on account of her treat-
ment by that Power after the last Turco-Russian War. This feel-
ing makes it probable that she would act in opposition to Russia
in the event of a war with Austria.
I 9 i2.] THE BALKAN WAR 389
The series of events which led up to the war, as well as
its progress, has formed a succession of surprises. When under
the guidance of M. Poincare, at once the Prime Minister and
Foreign Secretary of France, all the Great Powers, with the
exception of Italy, which was then at war with Turkey, had been
brought into sufficient accord to be able, through the hands of
'Austria and Russia, to present to Servia and Bulgaria an interdict
upon their making war, and a warning that even in the event
of success, they would not be permitted to increase their territories,
surprise was felt that the States in question were not in the least
dismayed, but went on their way as if nothing had happened.
When the Balkan States made demands upon Turkey for
reforms in Macedonia, which went much farther than the Great
Powers had ever even dreamed of that the nationalities in Mace-
donia should be made autonomous, should have Christian govern-
ors and elective assemblies, and that a council should be appointed
to guarantee the strict execution of these demands not only Tur-
key, but the Great Powers were filled with amazement. As the
war progressed, nearly every day brought forth fresh surprises.
What Russia with her vast resources and the help of Rumania
had taken some ten months to accomplish, a few small States, which
had long been the object of their commiseration and, at the
most, of their patronage, brought to a successful issue within a few
weeks. It is true that great things were expected of the Bul-
garian army, although not by any means so great as the event
has disclosed. But little hope, however, was entertained of the
Servian, for in the war with Bulgaria in 1885 her army had failed
almost ignominiously. Still less was expected of Greece. In her
war with Turkey in 1897, her army had made itself the laughing-
stock of the world. Yet both Servia and Greece have gone forward
from victory to victory. After more than five centuries Servia
has again come into possession of the former capital of the Servian
Empire. The attitude of Europe has undergone a complete change,
at least for the time being. " The Balkans for the Balkan States "
is now received as an axiom, and Turkey had to sue in vain, after
the battle of Lule Burgas, for the intervention of the Powers to
secure even an armistice.
That Europe was so ignorant of the real strength of these small
States is in itself a matter of surprise. It ought to have been
known, and, in fact, it is believed that it was known to the finan-
ciers, who are now to a large extent the arbiters of European
390 THE BALKAN WAR [Dec.,
destinies. It was, however, a matter of importance to them that
the real state of things should not be revealed, and they were able
to keep the facts out of the press by the control which they
have over a large part of it.
What has happened is another example of the fact that the
real forces, even of the present world, are for the most part hidden,
and unknown even to the best informed. A few years ago China
was considered almost all-powerful. The whole world stood in
dread. The German Emperor painted a picture of the Yellow
Peril. Great Britain paid tribute in respect of Burma rather than
incur her resentment. But within a few weeks Japan laid China
low, and revealed to the world the utter imbecility of the dreaded
Empire. A few years after the weakness of the Russian Empire
was revealed in its conflict with Japan. Now the same thing has
happened to the Turkish Empire. Are there any future revela-
tions ?
A noteworthy thing about the present war is that it was not
brought about by the governments, but was the spontaneous outcome
of the desire of the peoples. So strong was this desire that any
government would have been overturned which offered resistance
to this determination. In Bulgaria no one could be kept from
enlisting: old men of seventy years and boys of fourteen insisted
upon going to the front. Every other occupation was suspended.
From all quarters of the earth the various nationalities flocked
to the standard, abandoning their occupations and bringing offerings
of money in aid of the cause. How undying is the principle of
nationality; how impossible in the long run is the triumph of in-
justice, and the most cruel oppression; how great is the strength
imparted by free institutions are some of the lessons to be learned
from these recent events. For more than five centuries these na-
tionalities have been trodden under the feet of the Turks, and
yet they have preserved their national characteristics untouched and
unimpaired, and the few years of freedom which they have en-
joyed have enabled them to lay low the power of the oppressor.
The influence of religion has had its share both in the prepara-
tion and in the result. Catholics, it is true, have not had much to
do with it, for there are less than two hundred thousand in the
whole region. It was, however, the Catholic Malissori who were
waging war with Turkey even before Montenegro began, and so
credit is due to them according to the measure of their power. For
the rest, before and after every battle, religious services were held.
I 9 i2.] THE BALKAN WAR 391
King Ferdinand in his manifesto, at the beginning of the war, made
the human rights of the Christian subjects of the Turks the basis
of his appeal to arms, and for this he was chidden by the semi-pagan
civilization of the day. The success which has attended his efforts
has extorted the approbation for which the justice of his cause ap-
pealed in vain.
Even the immediate future, however, is not yet quite certain.
It is taken for granted that Turkey has been beaten, and that she
has ceased to be a military power in Europe. She is still, how-
ever, when these lines are being written, making a stand in
Tchatalja. Possibly she may be left in the possession of Con-
stantinople with a small strip of territory on this side of the Bos-
phorus and the Dardanelles. Another point still doubtful is what
attitude towards Servia will be taken by Austria-Hungary. As to
this to-day's news contradicts yesterday's. There are those who
hold that if Austria follows time-worn precedents, the course she
will adopt will be the one most injurious to her best interests. The
rest of Europe, as has been said, have seen it wise to let the Balkan
States settle with Turkey the future of the Balkans, and to postpone
at least the settlement of their own claims. The Balkan States have,
it is said on authority which claims to be worthy of respect, come to
a definite agreement, not merely for present cooperation, but for the
future arrangement of whatever conquests they will have made.
They began, indeed, with the declaration that they contemplated no
acquisition of territory. Events, however, have made adhesion to
that course out of the question. An instrument to accomplish any
purpose they may have formed has been created three victorious
armies which will enforce respect upon all possible adversaries,
especially such rois faineants as the Powers have proved them-
selves to be.
One desire, at least, is common to all that the settlement
to be made shall be final and complete. For generation after
generation the Balkan question has caused a state of chronic unrest
more or less acute. Such a settlement is so clearly for the best inter-
ests of all that it is to be hoped that Austria-Hungary and Russia
will be ready finally to sacrifice the ambitions which they have
cherished : the one for the possession of Salonika, the other for that
of Constantinople.
If it is asked what is the reason for the utter collapse of
the Turks, we hope it may be said without presumption that it is
because it has seemed good in the sight of the Almighty to put
392 THE BALKAN WAR [Dec.,
a term at last to that reign of cruelty and lust which has been the
characteristic of Turkish rule from the beginning, but never more
so than in our own times. Sir William M. Ramsay, the distin-
guished archaeologist, who for the last thirty years paid annual
visits to the dominions of the Sultan, asserts that no fewer than
a million men, women, and children were massacred or put to
death by the orders of Abdul Hamid. Nor did things change for
the better after his deposition. If, however, the immediate agency
is sought of the debacle, the first thing to which it is to be attributed
is the large number of raw troops in the ranks of the Turkish
army. There were indeed some veterans, and these fought with
all the old Turkish bravery, but large numbers had scarcely had
arms in their hands before they were called upon to use them
against the Bulgarians. Again, the Turk is always a bad manager,
and although there was food for the troops in abundance, it was
not where they could get at it. Moreover, recent events have under-
mined military discipline among the officers. The revolution was
due to their agency. This caused dissension, and lack of obe-
dience. Lastly, over-confidence in their own strength and con-
tempt of enemies, whom they were accustomed to look upon as
serfs, brought about that nemesis which often overtakes the foot-
steps of the proud and haughty.
Boohs*
THE GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE CATHOLIC
SCHOOL SYSTEM IN THE UNITED STATES. By Rev.
James A. Burns, C.S.C. New York: Benziger Brothers.
$1-75-
In a previous volume Dr. Burns treated the principles, origin,
and establishment of the Catholic School System in the United
States. In that study the history of the parish schools was brought
down to the early forties, when Archbishop Hughes was making
his famous fight for State support of Catholic schools. The pres-
ent volume takes up the work at that point, and brings it down to
the present time.
The period between 1840 and the Civil War was one of un-
precedented growth for the Church. This phenomenon is doubtless
to be ascribed, in the final analysis, to the vitality of the Church
itself, but much must be attributed to the immense tide of immi-
gration which set in during this time, as well as to the favorable
economic, social, and political conditions under which the majority
of immigrants found themselves.
This influx of Catholics threw a herculean burden on the
Church. Churches and schools had to be built, priests and teachers
supplied.
Burdened as priests and people were with their tasks of hewing
out new parishes, the work of Catholic education would have been
sadly neglected were it not for the heroic self-sacrifices of the
humble members of the teaching orders, men and women who gave
their services for a pittance in order that the Faith might live.
Almost one-half of the book is devoted to a description of the
founding and the transplanting of religious orders, and the es-
tablishment of schools in the various western States, yet so vast is
the field that we get only fleeting glimpses of heroic, saintly figures
as they hurry before us in a panoramic view.
The schools having been established, the next thing was to
bring order out of chaos, to organize the various parish units into a
system, to bring some degree of uniformity out of the diversity
which existed. To that end the various Councils of the Church,
Diocesan, Provincial, and Plenary, directed their attention, and the
394 NEW BOOKS [Dec.,
result is to-day a well-organized school system under competent
supervisory officials in each diocese. The various diocesan units
are kept in touch with each other, and with the trend of Catholic
educational thought, by means of the Catholic Educational Asso-
ciation, which is a national body.
The relation of Catholic schools to the State is treated at
length, the various attempts at settlement of the question by such
compromise plans as that at Faribault and at Poughkeepsie are
described, and the conflicting views of Catholic educators on the
question are considered.
The refusal of the State to allow the parish schools to partici-
pate in the division of the Common School funds throws the
burden of erecting and maintaining the parish school on the Catho-
lic people. Father Burns estimates that for the year 1909-10 the
amount spent for maintenance of the 1,237,251 pupils in the parish
schools was $9,898,008.00. Under the public school system he
estimates that the corresponding cost would be $30,511,010.00.
The efforts of the Church to make faith and patriotism walk
hand in hand are seen in her efforts on behalf of the immigrants of
the present day. German, Italian, Polish, Bohemian, Lithuanian,
and other schools are established, where the rising generation are
confirmed as children of Mother Church while they are becoming
citizens of the Republic.
Finally Father Burns considers some of the current movements
and problems of the day, such, for instance, as the Catholic High
School movement, why Catholic children attend the public schools,
and the Catholic Educational Association.
The book is well written. Its tone is scholarly and impartial;
its assertions are buttressed by facts and references to original
sources. At times, as was said before, one has a sense of being
hurried over the numerous details of a vast field, but the careful
student will find in the many footnotes guides to a more detailed
study of most of the topics.
The book itself is rather bulky, but the type is clear, the table
of contents well arranged, and the index excellent.
JOHN HUNGERFORD POLLEN, 1820-1902. By Anne Pollen.
St. Louis : B. Herder. $4.25.
An expression of gratitude is due to the " score or so of
friends " who, as the Introduction tells us, advised the publication
of this biography of one whose life has the double attraction of
I9i2.] NEW BOOKS 395
intrinsic beauty and the extrinsic interest attaching to it from no-
table associations. Born in London in 1820, John Hungerford
Pollen went up to Oxford when not quite eighteen, at a time when
Newman's influence was at its height. As might have been ex-
pected, he " fell under the spell," but he did not become quite so
thorough a " Newmaniac " as some of his contemporaries, and
the " going-out of '45 " left him an Anglican. But though he can
hardly be called a Newmanite, he was a Puseyite by intellectual
and spiritual sympathy, and by his connection with one of the most
striking of Anglican movements after Newman's departure.
This portion of the book will prove to many the most inter-
esting, in its vivid account of that wonderful St. Saviour's at
Leeds that was at once Pusey's consolation and his cross. The
passages depicting the work of the devoted clergy during the
cholera epidemic of 1849 are enough to convince the most skeptical
of the earnestness of these men and of many of their successors
in the Anglican Church, whose religion is not the mere " playing
at ceremonies " that Catholics seem sometimes to fancy. One re-
calls the words of Newman : " Children of the Movement ! Others
have scoffed at you, but I never ! Others may have made light of
your principles or your sincerity, but never I ! "
But the Gorham Decision opened Dr. Pollen's eyes, as it
opened the eyes of Manning and of so many others, and when he
learned that his friend T. W. Allies was about to enter the True
Fold, he was himself sufficiently far advanced on the road to say,
" I am sure my heart goes with him. Shall I ever be, like him,
in smooth waters ? " But for him was to intervene a period of
" deep distress and hesitation," before he was finally to see the
light. Dr. Pollen's reception, which took place at Rouen on Octo-
ber 20, 1852, is so graphically described by himself that we cannot
forbear a quotation:
At the appointed time, the good Archbishop appeared, dressed
for me in his mitre, and richest vestments; and accompanied
by two domestics; his metropolitan cross of gold, nine foot
high, was borne before him by a chorister, another carrying
a candle. I felt as if I was going to the scaffold; yet I longed
to start; I was ready to face axe and block, and to drop the
handkerchief myself. We started, I at the end of the short
procession; we walked through the vast and noble old Gothic
palace to the Chapel. There a faldstool and chair were set
for me below the sanctuary.
396 NEW BOOKS [Dec.,
The Archbishop, according to the Rouen ritual, asked me if
I remained firm to my intention. " Oui, Monseigneur." I
then, from a paper I had written for subsequent enrollment,
read aloud in French. " Je Jean ," and so on, and
the Creed of Pope Pius ; then I put my right hand on the Gos-
pels, and swore true obedience to the Roman See. Then I sat,
and he made me a short address, exceedingly good. I then was
baptized conditionally, in the shortest form, merely the words
and the water. I then retired to the sacristy, where I received
absolution. Meanwhile the mitre was taken off the Archbishop,
and the chasuble put on, and he said Mass. He took the Host
into his hands, and in very touching words, but simple, and to
the point, told me he was bringing me this great blessing, and
gave me the Holy Communion. Lastly, he gave me Confirma-
tion, a short ritual; we then left the chapel. I asked his bene-
diction in the usual way ; and he gave me the osculum pads on
both cheeks. Registers were then brought, my baptism and
process of abjuration were inserted and signed, and after some
delay we all sat down in the Salon to a dejeuner, to which the
Vicar-General had also been invited.
And so my great work was accomplished, and now I am
left to simple matter of fact. Every doubt is at rest, and I
have found that kind of calm which one needs repose and re-
flection to enjoy to the full.
A retreat at Rome decided in the negative the question of
priestly vocation, and having married he took up his residence in
Dublin as a lecturer on Art in the newly-founded Catholic Univer-
sity. From this period dates an intimacy with Newman that lasted
down to the Cardinal's death, and is reflected in much of their
correspondence. Returning to England he devoted himself to his
profession of artist, and was for a time Assistant Keeper of the
South Kensington (now the Victoria and Albert) Museum. Visits
to the Continent, to India, to Ireland (he was an ardent Home-
Ruler) fill up a narrative lighted throughout by a strong tender
faith. " He saw ever the eternal hills ; to his gayest scenes they
formed the background, and by their height he measured all things
else."
The story is well told, mostly through the media of diaries,
journals, letters, etc., and the volume contains illustrations of his
artistic work, some portraits and appendices. The excerpt from
the Lectures on the Basilicas is likely to arouse interest in a book
now little read and (we fear) out of print.
I 9 i2.] NEW BOOKS 397
EVERYBODY'S SAINT FRANCIS. By Maurice Francis Egan.
New York : The Century Co. $2.50 net.
Many Saints are honored and loved by men who do not see
that all Saints deserve reverence and affection. Some trait of
theirs, occasionally it may be that love of God which purified and
inspired them, but generally some quality whose real source is
overlooked, catches the fancy of the world, wins its admiration,
rouses its enthusiasm, and for a while makes it as sincere in praise
as any Catholic heart. The zeal and courage of St. Paul, the
tender love of St. John for Christ, the mysticism of St. Teresa,
the gentleness of St. Francis de Sales, the unselfishness, the
sacrifices, the heroism of others, have repeatedly laid hold on many
minds and hearts outside of those circles in which every Saint is
instinctively and warmly loved. Among them all there is none, save
the Apostle of the Gentiles, who is as widely known and as ardently
praised outside of the Church as the Poor Man of Assisi whom
Dr. Egan so aptly calls " Everybody's Saint Francis." This book is
not a formal biography of the Saint rather it is a character study
an analysis of his feelings, his aims, his motives set forth in
a simple way, with only those details of time and place that are
necessary to reveal him vividly as the author sees him. The book
is enriched with twenty illustrations by M. Boutet de Monvel.
INTRODUCTORY PHILOSOPHY. By Charles A. Dubray, S.M.,
Ph.D. New York : Longmans, Green & Co. $2.60 net.
A review of Dr. Dubray's Introductory Philosophy presented
by a non-Catholic foreign journal said that the volume bears the
imprimatur of the Cardinal Archbishop of New York, and is never-
theless a useful work. Cheap and time-worn as such a fling at
Catholic scholarship is, the epigram marks accurately two notice-
able characteristics of the manual; it is thoroughly orthodox and
equally scientific. Dr. Dubray's work presents the permanent results
of centuries of earnest thought, the abiding contributions of scholas-
tic speculation to the solution of the deepest problems of life.
Assimilated by personal reflection and tested by practical class-
room discussions, these conclusions have been enlarged by, and
harmonized with, the conclusions of modern scientific investigation.
Dr. Dubray begins by correlating philosophy with the student's
previous acquirements, taking for granted as little as possible.
His work is lucid in exposition; concise in statement; strongly
marked and orderly in sequence; suggestive rather than exhaustive
398 NEW BOOKS [Dec.,
in treatment. Its method is, however, not wholly traditional.
Orthodoxy is not considered, as is usually the case, immediately
after logic, but is parcelled out in the sections that treat of psy-
chology and cosmology. It would have been well if the author
had summarized at the end of the book the chief ontological ideas
and principles insisted upon in the preceding chapters.
Critics will disagree over the proportionate space devoted
to empirical psychology compared with that given to ethics. Others
may question the wisdom of not opening the course with logic.
If the teacher prefers to begin with logic, he may still use this
textbook, helping his students to revise their knowledge in the light
of the later psychological studies.
To present adequately even the fundamentals of an entire
philosophical course in six hundred pages, including therein a
history of philosophy and topics for papers or discussions, is no
easy task. Yet we think that Dr. Dubray has accomplished it.
His work is of unique importance, because it gives a synthetic view
of philosophy, a survey of the whole field from a definite standpoint,
and it will be immensely helpful to those whose college course,
as happens in many non-Catholic institutions, gave them only a
history of a portion of philosophy or a criticism of some particular
school or author.
To the general reader who wishes a brief but comprehensive
statement of Catholic philosophy; to the church student who wishes
a supplement for his Latin textbook; to the priest and graduate
student who have leisure and inclination for a review of this most
important mental discipline, as well as to its primary audience,
the teachers and students of our high schools and colleges, we
heartily recommend Dr. Dubray's volume. It is a credit both to
him and to the Catholic University of America.
THE SISTERS OF BON-SECOURS. Translated from the French.
New York: Benziger Brothers. $1.15.
The English-speaking friends and patients of the Sisters of
Bon-Secours will find in this " Abridged History of the Paris
Congregation " a biography and family history of much personal
interest, but the little book has, also, a wider mission as new and
consoling proof of the fruition of Eternal Love in the life of the
Church.
The Very Rev. Francis M. Wyndam, M.A., in his preface, calls
attention to the interesting fact that the Paris Congregation of
I 9 i2.] NEW BOOKS 399
Bon-Secours was not only the parent society of religious nurses,
but that it antedated by a full quarter of a century the magnifi-
cent work of Florence Nightingale, the acknowledged founder
of secular trained nursing. " To supernaturalize the mission of
the nurses of the sick by taking care of bodies to save souls," was
the noble resolve which brought together a little band of devoted
women in Paris in 1821. It required no little courage and inde-
pendence, at that time, to conceive and inaugurate such an innova-
tion as a religious community of women working and living largely
outside of convent walls.
The Crusader's battle cry : " God wills it," steeled their hearts
to trial and led them to victory. On January 24, 1824, they were
clothed in the religious habit by the highest ecclesiastical authority,
and their difficult mission began. The need of suffering bodies
opened to them doors in France long closed to religious in any garb,
and miracles of grace followed.
At the urgent request of the medical profession, His Eminence
Cardinal Gibbons invited them to Baltimore, and in the spring of
1 88 1 they came, again as pioneers in the neglected field of nursing.
THE PRINCIPLES OF MORAL SCIENCE. By Rev. Walter
McDonald, D.D. Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son. js. 6d.
The theological writings of Dr. McDonald always make agree-
able reading. He is a critical and independent thinker. It is rare
at the present time to find one who inquires into the foundation of
things, who is ready to question-mark many conclusions of the
greatest Catholic theologians, who dares even to cross swords even
with Aquinas himself. Such a one is the learned author of the
present volume, and, as a consequence, his work is always piquant
and often suggestive. He is ever ready, too, to accept the latest
conclusions of science, and to apply them to Catholic theology.
His method is stimulating, even if one, following his own example,
reserves the right of independent reflection with unfavorable results
for the author. In the present work his judgment, where it differs
from the ordinary teaching, seems to be generally unsound.
The author's professed purpose is to state the principles of
ethics that have been handed down by a tradition of many centuries
in the Catholic schools. Whether he really fulfills this aim may be
judged from a reference to some of his important statements.
Moral actions are understood by Dr. McDonald to be those capable
of being directed by intelligence, not, necessarily, by free-will as the
400 NEW BOOKS [Dec.,
common tradition teaches. Thus the writer's fundamental theory
concerning morality appears to be inaccurate. Is morality to be
predicated of the love of happiness, the quest of the highest good,
when known as such necessary acts of every human being? Yet
in these every human being is led by intelligence. But nobody is ac-
counted righteous or virtuous for doing what he cannot help doing.
Dr. McDonald says that moral acts are not to be judged as
complex wholes, made up of intention and external act. Yet in a
previous chapter he rightly speaks of matter and form in human
actions, and matter and form would seem to form a complex whole.
The fact is that men are inclined to judge acts as complex wholes,
or according to their constituent parts, as circumstances suggest.
The author denies the existence of purely penal laws, and has
to meet the argument on the other side, that in some rules in
religious houses it is expressly stated that they do not bind under
pain of sin. The explanation offered is that they do not bind under
pain of the sin of disobedience, though they bind directly under
pain of some kind of sin a too subtle interpretation which gives the
lie to the original statement in the rules. In penal laws there is
indeed a violation of order, but may it not be an order that is not
obligatory, like that of the higher counsels of religion.
Dr. McDonald criticizes unsoundly the conditions usually re-
quired for performing an action with two effects one good, the
other bad. He speaks of the intention as not to be considered in
this case, as if moralists, writing partially for the director of souls,
must not take into account the internal characteristics and re-
quirements of a human act. The condition that the act in its sub-
stance must be good is supposed to be a begging of the question.
But the question is entirely different, when, that is, the complex
human act in its motive and circumstances, not merely substance,
is good and lawful. It is useful surely to exclude at once from
consideration acts which in their substance alone, apart from any-
thing else, are bad, for example, lying. It is not necessary to con-
tinue questioning the conclusions of the author. Enough has been
said to show that his words must be accepted with considerable
reserve.
A DIXIE ROSE IN BLOOM. By Augusta Kortrecht. Philadel-
phia: J. B. Lippincott Co. $1.25 net.
The Dixie Rose a Southern girl of eighteen goes off to
a select school in Germany. The Rose is very impulsive much
I 9 i2.] NEW BOOKS 401
more so than one likes to think Southern girls are in reality.
Before long she quarrels with a haughty Russian girl. Result
a sprained ankle for the Russian and a bad case of pneumonia for
the American; then a clearing of the air. The Dixie Rose returns
to her native village, and with her return appears a love affair, that
gave one or two hints of its existence at an early stage of the story.
For a long time it swam along under water, with scarce a bubble
to show its progress, until it bobbed up at the very end, all the
stronger for its long submersion.
THE LAST FRONTIER. By E. Alexander Powell. New York:
Charles Scribner's Sons. $3.50 net.
The marvelous changes that are taking place in the political
structure of the world ought to be enough to free all of us from
ennui. It has often been an unanswerable query with us why many
will prefer the cheap, shallow, and fruitless novel of to-day to
those stimulating and informing books of travel and of conquest
that are equally accessible, and almost equally cheap. The story
of modern Africa vies in interest with any of Anderson's fairy
tales. Of that whole vast continent but two small portions are
now in the possession of the Blacks, and the last frontier blocking
modern civilization is Abyssinia. The author of The Last Frontier
tells us in rapid, easy fashion the story of the conquest of a con-
tinent. " Morocco, Algeria, Tripolitania, Equatoria, Rhodesia, the
Sahara, the Sudan, the Congo, the Rand, and the Zambezi
with your permission I will take you to them all, and you shall
see, as though with your eyes, those strange and far-off places
which mark the line of the last frontier where the white-hel-
meted pioneers are fighting the battle and solving the problem of
civilization." This is an enticing invitation, and the author is
a good talker, a versatile artist, an engaging companion. His
book is a useful, popular introduction to the history of modern
Africa. He is not a deep student, and many of the great problems
which lie beneath his story he never touches upon. Speaking of
the Italian advance in Tripoli, the author says : " Italian
convents and monasteries dot the Tripolitanian littoral, while
cowled and sandaled missionaries from the innumerable Italian
orders have carried the gospel of the propaganda of Italian annexa-
tion to the oppressed and poverty-stricken peasantry of the far
interior." But the long continued, important, and unselfish work
which the missionaries have done as pioneers of civilization in
VOL. xcvi. 26.
402 NEW BOOKS [Dec.,
Africa does not receive anything like its full measure of treatment.
The volume is wonderfully up-to-date, as is shown by the chapter
on Italy's seizure of Tripoli. " The cross of the house of Savoy
portends more good to Africa in general and to Tripolitania in par-
ticular than will ever the star and crescent." The book is pro-
fusely illustrated, and has a large and excellent map of Africa.
THE SCIENCE OF LOGIC. By Rev. P. Coffey, Ph.D. In two
volumes. New York: Longmans, Green & Co. $5.00.
A work in Logic is usually neither very interesting nor very
readable. We are accustomed to study such treatises as an un-
pleasant duty. The present work, however, is readable, interesting,
and illuminating. We are not bewildered by an excess of technical
language. Dr. Coffey follows the example of his master, St.
Thomas, and his style is simple and lucid. His treatment of the
scholastic method is broadminded and critical.
In the first volume too much space is given to the numerous
moods of the syllogism. It is easy to excuse the author. Such
a treatment has all the binding force of long-continued custom.
But Dr. Coffey says somewhere that it was the purpose of St.
Thomas to get rid of useless questions. What earthly use does it
serve in practical thinking to have an exhaustive knowledge of
the syllogism in its uninviting moods Baroco, Bocardo, Bramantip ?
These deserve to be called the barren virgins of philosophy. They
may serve at school as intellectual gymnastics, but, judging them
from their practical results, and from the fact that nobody in actual
life consciously or unconsciously employs his knowledge of them,
they are to be classed among the arid disquisitions which brought
discredit on scholastic philosophy. It is regrettable that the numer-
ous pages devoted to them were not given to a fuller treatment
of Newman's theory of the " illative sense."
The chapters dealing with Method, Science, Certitude, and
Cumulation of Probabilities are as interesting in Dr. Coffey's able
and clear treatment as the titles would lead us to expect. A few
illuminating criticisms, which could emanate only from a clear-
thinking mind, expose the hollowness of the empirical theories
underlying Mill's logic. He, also, casts another stone at that idol
of non-Catholic philosophers, Francis Bacon, showing that nobody
now uses his inductive methods in their original form. In oppo-
sition to him, Dr. Coffey rightly proposes for our admiration the
Catholic priest Roger Bacon.
I 9 i2.] NEW BOOKS 403
The main statement of this criticism is that Dr. Coffey has
produced a learned, well-digested, scholarly work. Indicating
great labor, wide reading, and a clear mind, it deserves to be a
standard work of reference for all students of philosophy, and to
be used as a textbook in colleges and universities. Among Catholic
productions of similar scope it will scarcely be found to have a
superior or even an equal.
THE UNKNOWN QUANTITY. By Henry Van Dyke. New
York: Chas. Scribner's Sons. $1.50.
Dr. Van Dyke has found the title for this, his latest book,
in " the sense of mystery and strangeness that runs through human
life," and in the preface he thus describes the contents:
" I am thinking of familiar and human things, quite na-
tural and inevitable, as it seems, which makes us feel that life
is threaded through and through by the unknown quantity. This
is the thread that I have followed from one to another of these
stories. They are as different as my lakes in the North Country;
some larger and some smaller ; some brighter and some darker ;
for that is the way life goes, and most of them end happily even
after sorrow; for that is what I think life means."
There are nineteen stories in this " book of romance and half-
told tales," all with their touch of sentiment, sometimes a bit
overdone, and all presented in the author's easy, graceful style.
One of them, " The Sad Shepherd," in many ways the best in the
book, is admirable in execution, big in promise, but woefully dis-
appointing in fulfillment. Artistically it collapses. The reader
is ready to welcome the All in All; everything earthly has been
found ultimately disappointing, but an impoverished humanitar-
ianism and a shallow symbolism give birth to bathos.
THE GREATER EVE, OR THE THRONE OF THE VIRGIN
MOTHER. By Rev. Joseph L. Stewart. New York: Ben-
ziger Brothers. 90 cents.
For the benefit of converts and non-Catholics the author has
endeavored, in these essays, to define and explain the important
part played by our Holy Mother, not alone in the great mysteries
of the Incarnation and the Redemption, but also her place in the
Catholic Church, and her unique power of intercession with her
Divine Son.
Father Stewart proves ( I ) " that a religion which does not
404 NEW BOOKS [Dec.,
recognize Mary is not that of Christ;" (2) " that the New Testa-
ment fulfills the old : Christ is the second Adam, Mary the second
Eve;" (3) "that the love of Mary is but another form of the
love of Jesus," and that, finally, " devotion to Mary is an integral
part of the Catholic Religion."
The essays are not controversial, but at the same time are
clear, unequivocal expositions of the teaching of the Church. Some
beautiful passages of Father Faber, himself a convert, are aptly
quoted. There are also several extracts from the works of St.
Jerome and St. Augustine, St. Bernard and St. Alphonsus, show-
ing the esteem in which the Mother of God was held by these great
Doctors of the Church.
We heartily recommend this book, not only to converts but
to those who are charged with their instruction.
CARDINAL BOURNE: A RECORD OF THE SAYINGS AND
DOINGS OF HIS EMINENCE FRANCIS THE ARCH-
BISHOP OF WESTMINSTER. Arranged by the author of
The Story of the Congress and Faith Found in London. New
York : Benziger Brothers. 90 cents net.
While still an Anglican, Newman declared that " a bishop's
lightest word ex cathedra is heavy," and even when not strictly
" ex cathedra " episcopal utterances derive from the speaker's ex-
alted position a peculiar and distinctive authority. Hence English-
speaking Catholics ought to welcome this little book which, in a
compass of fewer than one hundred and fifty pages, gives the
words, on a great variety of topics, of one not only a bishop, but a
Prince of the Church as well. The selection goes back to 1897,
when the present Cardinal-Archbishop succeeded to the diocese of
South wark, and the subjects range from Modernism to paying for
seats at the church door. The volume is neatly gotten up, and con-
tains interesting photographs; but American readers (presumably
not so well acquainted with the details of His Eminence's past
career) would probably have preferred a more definitely informing
biographical notice to the somewhat vague sketch that the com-
piler has furnished.
A FRENCH KINDERGARTEN OF TO-DAY. By Abbe Felix
Klein. Paris : Librarie Armand Colin. 3 frs. 50.
Any teacher who has labored through many a dry-as-dust
English textbook of pedagogy will welcome the Abbe Klein's ad-
vent into the educational field. The present essay on Kinder-
I 9 i2.] NEW BOOKS 405
garten work in France (Mon Filleul au Jar din D' En f ants Com-
ment il s'Instruit), although it tells us nothing new, summar-
izes in a book of perfect literary finish the principles that
should guide the modern teacher, and gives us many an instance
of effective class work.
The words of Fenelon quoted on page 118 give the keynote
to the volume : " The greatest mistake of the average educator
lies in always making study laborious and uncongenial, in perfect
contrast to the child's play We ought rather to make the
child's study a real pleasure, so that he may learn without forcing
or constraint." Modern pedagogy is not so modern after all if
we realize its true principles. Did not St. Augustine in his Confes-
sions (Book I., chap, xiv.), while speaking' of his own studies as a
child, say in words that ought to be inscribed over every school
to-day : " The free desire for knowledge is a greater incentive to
learning than fear."
The Abbe insists a great deal on Froebel's idea that " the
function of education is to develop the faculties by arousing volun-
tary activity. Action proceeding from inner impulse (selbstthat-
igkeit) is the one thing needful." This requires for successful
work special ability in the teacher. The false idea that any igno-
ramus could effectively teach little children has long been laughed
out of court.
The most interesting chapters of the book are those which dis-
cuss Reading, Froebel's Gifts and Busy- Work, and the Thought
Centre. (Chaps, viii.-x.) The literary man has not been lost in
the pedagogue, and altogether it is a most interesting volume.
We look forward with pleasure to the second treatise he promises
us on the same subject.
SAINT FRANCIS XAVIER. By Rev. Father A. Brou, S.J. Two
volumes. Paris: Beauchesne et Cie. 12 frs.
A new life of St. Francis Xavier was indispensable.
Father Brou's book is not a panegyric; as he himself tells us,
the eloquence, poetry, and rhetoric so often found in biographies
disfigure the heroes whose lives they attempt to sketch. The
author has very faithfully reproduced the Asiatic surroundings in
which the Saint toiled. He has consulted, besides the documents
already edited, the records of the process of Beatification, until now
unpublished, and thus the very witnesses of Xavier's extraordinary
actions again speak for themselves to the glory of his name.
406 NEW BOOKS [Dec.,
The book should particularly appeal to missionaries. The disap-
pointments and deceptions with which he met on all sides never
marred the greatness of this great Saint. He rose above all these
things, and his heroic virtues will ever be an inspiration to those
who labor in the Master's vineyard.
THE NEW RUBRICS GOVERNING THE RECITATION OF
THE DIVINE OFFICE.
The new manner of reciting the Divine Office becomes obliga-
tory on the first day of January of the coming year, and hence every
priest, and at least some few of the laity, will be interested in the
books that will explain the new use of the Psalter, the changes in the
rubrics, the feast days, e"tc., etc.
Of the books treating of this matter, and all written with
the laudable endeavor to make easy a mastery of the new Office,
we would mention, first, The New Psalter and Its Use, by Rev. Ed-
win Burton and Rev. Edward Myers. This is published by Long-
mans, Green & Co. of New York, and costs $1.20 net. The authors
judged that the new rubrics relating to the Office are, as published,
too succinct and too technical to be easily understood by busy priests.
Fathers Burton and Myers of Saint Edmund's College, Old Hall,
have carefully paraphrased the new laws point by point, giving a
careful explanation in every case, and showing what changes have
been made, why and with what effect. The volume is intelligently
arranged, and will undoubtedly be of great interest and service
to all who are affected by the laws in question.
Father Hetherington has written for the same purpose Notes
on the New Rubrics and the Use of the New Psalter (Benziger
Brothers. 60 cents net). In his historical introduction he covers
in brief space, and yet thoroughly, the principal points in the reform
of the Office. He then treats of the order of the Psalms in the
new Psalter, the changes in the Dominical Offices, the Ferial and
Festal Offices, the Mass, and the changes with regard to the Feast
and Office of All Souls. The little volume shows great care in the
manner of presentation, and easily makes clear the rules that govern
the new Office.
In this connection we wish to make note of the fact that
the houses of Herder of St. Louis; Benziger of New York, and
Pustet of New York have issued new Psalters, new breviaries,
and also the new arrangement of the Psalter in handy pages that
may be inserted in old breviaries.
I 9 i2.] NEW BOOKS 407
records given in The Flowing Road, by Caspar Whitney
J- ( Philadelphia : J. B. Lippincott Co. $3.00 net), of five different
trips through South America are full of interest and information.
The traveling, always arduous and occasionally dangerous, was
chiefly by boat and canoe along the great rivers, especially the
Orinoco with its chief tributaries, which were followed from mouth
to source. One journey began on the Rio Negro and ended on
the Orinoco. Mr. Whitney is an experienced and observant trav-
eler. His book teems with information about the physical fea-
tures of the country, and the various forms of life plant and
animal alike that are to be met in it. Moreover, he tells his story,
with all its wealth of detail, in an interesting way one that main-
tains its grip to- the very end.
A NEW and handy edition of the Catholic Bible has just been
** issued by the C. Wilderman Company of New York. We con-
gratulate the publishers on their zeal, for they have evidently gone to
great expense in producing the present volume. We also recom-
mend it to Catholics for a home book, and in every Catholic home
the Bible ought to be a familiar and well-read book. The present
edition has many illustrations and colored maps. It is of handy
size; the paper is good, and the type clear and legible. The pub-
lishers have made the price within the reach of all, for it may be
purchased in good cloth binding for one dollar. We hope their
labors will meet with encouraging success.
''PHIS new series of school readers, entitled Williams' Choice
* Literature, published by the American Book Co., provides a
complete course of supplementary reading for the first eight school
years. Each reader contains a variety of well-selected material
from the best authors. Care and good taste have been exercised
in making the selections, but we have in our own language such a
wealth of suitable material, both in prose and verse, for readers
of this kind, that we do not see why translations from other lan-
guages should be included. The illustrations are excellent, and the
make-up of the books first-class in every way. The prices range
from 25 cents for Book One to 50 cents for Book Seven.
WILD FLOWERS OF NEW YORK, by Chester A. Reed.
(New York: Lake Mohonk, Mohonk Salesrooms. 50 cents.)
In a little booklet of less than fifty pages, Mr. Reed contrives to
408 NEW BOOKS [Dec.,
recall all the main botanical facts needed by the average student
desirous of becoming familiar with the flora of New York State.
No important specimen has been omitted, and in the study of each
one, brevity and simplicity have been very happily combined with
thoroughness. More pretentious writers of more elaborate books
have often failed to attain the same degree of success as this
true lover of flowers in his modest volume. We would commend
especially the way in which the principles of plant reproduction
have been presented. The illustrations are numerous and well
chosen, but from an artistic point of view unfortunate.
T^ROM the Catholic Children's Crusade, which the late Cardinal
-*- Vaughan founded in order to interest children in the rescue
of waifs and strays, is taken the theme of a charming child-story,
The Little Cardinal, by Olive Katharine Parr. ( New York : Ben-
ziger Brothers. $1.25.) Little Uriel, the childish passion with
which he throws himself into the crusade, his pathetic ambition
to follow in the footsteps of the great Cardinal, and his final hero-
ism, make a story that goes straight to the heart.
A VALUABLE contribution to the literature of the Revolution
* is John Hancock, the Picturesque Patriot. (Boston: Little,
Brown & Co. $1.50 net.) It is the first formal biography of
Hancock, and is written by Professor Lorenzo Sears, the author of
American Literature, The History of Oratory, etc. The work is
detailed and very carefully done. It will serve excellently as a
reference textbook for students of that period.
AS CAESAR'S WIFE, by Margarita Spalding Gerry (New
jfU York: Harper Brothers. $1.30 net), is yet another story
of the eternal triangle, the man, his wife, and the tertium quid;
there is not even any novel variation of the sides or angles. The
author succeeded much better with her stories of a nurse's life
in the book called Heart and Chart.
A N EXPERIMENT IN HISTORY TEACHING, by Edward
* Rockliff, S.J. (New York: Longmans, Green & Co. $1.00. )
This little book displays remarkable ingenuity for imparting a
vivid interest to the dead bones of history. It contains specimen
colored charts, but the pupil is taught to construct his own. The
chart-plan can be adapted to any course of history, though as a
1912.] NEW BOOKS 409
matter of fact the examples of chart-making are taken from English
history, and very fortunate are the children who, by this method,
have, in the best sense of the term, " been educated " in the story
of past ages.
WE have recently received the following welcome additions
to Schirmer's octavo edition of liturgical music in con-
formity with the Motu Proprio: Ave Verum (15 cents), by Pietro
A. Yon, for three-part male chorus; O Salutaris Hostia (5 cents),
by Rheinberger, for unison chorus or solo; Tantum Ergo (10
cents), by G. J. S. White, for four-part chorus; a melodious
Recordare, Virgo Mater Dei, by Abel L. Gabert (10 cents), In-
structor in Ecclesiastical Music at the Catholic University of Amer-
ica. His Mass of the Immaculate Conception, first sung there in
1910 by two choirs, is attractive though difficult. (50 cents net.)
G. Schirmer, New York.
CERMON NOTES, by F. P. Hickey, O.S.B. (New York: Ben-
*** ziger Brothers. 90 cents net.) Busy priests, who wish to
present to their people the whole contents of Catholic belief and
practice in a systematic form will find help in Sermon Notes, by
F. P. Hickey, O.S.B. The present volume, treating of God as
Creator and Redeemer, is to be followed by two others, the whole
course covering three years. References for fuller development
of the topics are given.
r PHE brief monograph, Abbot Walling ford, by Abbot Gasquet
(St. Louis: B. Herder. 60 cents), is a scholarly and inter-
esting examination of the charges made against that prelate. It
is valuable as a convincing vindication of his memory, and also as a
striking proof of how even so competent and conscientious a his-
torian as Dr. Gairdner may disregard facts and blindly follow
prejudice.
''THOSE who are interested in the study of Franciscan origins
will be delighted with Father Paschal Robinson's historical
sketch of The Rule of Saint Clare. (Philadelphia: The Dolphin
Press. 10 cents.) The author, as everybody knows, is a fore-
most authority on all those questions. Moreover, he writes frankly
and interestingly. His work has been tastefully published in
pamphlet form.
410 NEW BOOKS [Dec.,
HTHE CATHOLIC CHURCH FROM WITHOUT (Chicago:
1 Catholic Church Extension Society. $5.00 per hundred) is
a methodically arranged and fairly extensive compilation from
Protestant authors in favor of Catholic doctrines and practices.
A NEW edition of St. Benedict's rule for monks, Sancti Bene-
^~*- dicti Regula Monachorum, by D. Cuthbert Buller ( St. Louis :
B. Herder. $1.10), gives us, in addition to the text of the rule,
a short treatise on its transmission, and a summary of St. Bene-
dict's teaching. The work is excellently and copiously indexed.
WILLIAM SEWELL has published through Gary & Co., Lon-
" don, a Mass of St. Francis de Sales for unison chorus (i s.
net).
LIVER DITSON has issued two easy and melodious Requiem
Masses, by J. T. Whelen and Father X. Schmid (50 cents
each).
T FISCHER & BROTHER offers Tozer's Catholic Church
J Hymnal in a pocket edition, containing melody and words
only (60 cents).
A N excellent Organ Accompaniment to the Cantate, by J. Sin-
" genberger, is published by Fr. Pustet & Co. ($3. 50 net.) In
addition to preludes, interludes, and accompaniments for the hymns,
the volume contains, in modern notation, six masses from the
Vatican Graduale. The make-up of the volume is attractive.
^foreign periodicals,
What Is A Conservative? Writing of Lord Hugh Cecil's book,
Conservatism, G. K. Chesterton says : " The work inevitably suffers
from one of the great mistakes of modern controversy : the duty of
writing round a word rather than round a thesis." Defining a con-
servative, he continues : " Suppose conservatism means the belief
that the chief parts of human doom and duty are eternal, and should
be protected or consecrated by permanent traditions, in that case
I am a conservative ; and so was Robespierre. But if conservatism
means a belief that the present arrangement of wealth and power
in England, or anything wildly resembling it, can possibly exist
for another twenty years without producing an ignominious bank-
ruptcy or a very righteous revolution; in that case I am not a
conservative." Again : " All thinking people will agree with Lord
Hugh Cecil's dictum that a moral change, that is an act of free will,
must precede the more automatic improvements by conditions and
laws. But when he speaks of modern industrial conditions simply
as competition due to man's instinctive self-interest, he goes a
great deal too fast. The capitalist system just now is not bad;
it is very bad; it is atrociously bad. The merchant princes, who
,are the most powerful class in our commonwealth, have knowingly
grown rich, and intend knowingly to grow richer, by reducing an
enormous majority of the king's subjects to economic helpless-
ness by the torture of hunger and the horror of prostitution." He
concludes : "It may seem strange to say of a book that its fault is
to be reasonable and lucid, but indeed this book is reasonable
about a situation that is now past all reason, and lucid about a
darkness that grows blacker about us every day." The Dublin
Review, October.
Labour War or Peace? By T. M. Kettle. Regarding the
Catholic Church's part in the solution of the current labor question,
the author says : " The sanctuary and the laboratory of the Church
is the individual conscience. Any attempt to formulate in the
name of the Church a rigorous and exclusive social programme,
and to insist that that alone is sound Catholic policy, must, of
its nature, be futile and even dangerous. It is indeed part of the
mission of the Church to safeguard the ethical truths which are
412 FOREIGN PERIODICALS [Dec.,
at the basis of all society; but when it comes to a discussion of
the technical processes of society, economic and political, every
man must effect his own synthesis of principle and technique, and
he must be free to follow the light of his own conscience and his
experience." The Dublin Review, October.
/,$ Darwinism Played Out? By R. E. Froude. " Darwinism
is not now, by any means, the burning question that it was some
fifty years ago. It seems even to be admitted in some quarters
and that with a touch of reluctance which is in itself eloquent
that the variations in type which arise in reproduction have in
some ways the air of an unfolding of a preconceived plan, or
perhaps the working out of some implanted tendency towards
beneficial development." The author makes the point that the
upholders of the traditional philosophic point of view and the Dar-
winites, the physicists, are not discussing quite the same question,
though there is a large area of common ground which they occupy.
He asserts that the difference in their attitudes towards the ques-
tion is a very important difference. Dublin Review, October.
American Politics From Abroad. Unsigned. The late Presi-
dential election interested the greater part of Europe, and France
in particular. The high tariff has been a disadvantage to Eu-
rope, and as this was a leading question in the late campaign, it
was hoped that it would be settled favorably to Europe by the
election of the Democratic candidate. The article then shows the
change in policies and questions from the Free Silver of 1896
to the Tariff Revision of 1912. The electoral vote is explained, like-
wise the Presidential Succession Act. The Pension Fund and the
frauds attached to it are dwelt upon at some length. The writer
contends that no election seems to be free from scandals. He cites
the charges brought by newspapers and magazines, and by the candi-
dates themselves concerning money paid by the corporations to the
National Committees of each political party; giving the sums
vouched for by individuals and corporations as paid by them into
the treasuries of the National Committees, especially of the Repub-
lican Party. The article concludes with a brief sketch of each of
the three candidates, a history of their political life, and a descrip-
tion of the recent conventions. Le Correspondant, October 25.
War. Unsigned. The situation in Turkey and Eastern Eu-
I 9 i2.] FOREIGN PERIODICALS 413
rope is not of recent origin. While the present affair seems to
date from the invasion of Tripoli by the Italians, nevertheless the
trouble dates back to 1870. The recent trouble between Italy and
Turkey has embroiled the whole of Europe in the affair, which
as it stands at present is rather complicated. The author explains
how each of the Powers stands, and the grievance which has forced
each of them to this position. Le Correspondant, October 25.
Similarity is Relation. By A. Deneffe, SJ. Unfortunately,
the term " Monism," which savors of Atheism, is commonly mis-
taken for the true " Henological Principle," that is, the reduction
of all diversity to an ultimate principle God. The principle may
be said to be this : "If two things bear some similarity, either
the one receives this oneness from the other or both from some
third thing." This principle has been wrongly applied in studies
on comparative religion, especially in the case of the claimed de-
pendence of the Jewish religion on the mythology of Babylon and
Assyria. Similarity is understood to mean dependence a view
which is fundamentally erroneous. The same is true of the evo-
lutionists, who use this principle to establish the simian origin of
man. All through the ages do we find the endeavor to reduce
all to one fundamental principle. Thales in ancient times; St.
Thomas in the Middle Ages ; P. Houtheim and P. Kleutgen in our
own day. Stimmen aus Maria-Laach, No. 4.
Pius IX., Leo XIII. , and Pius X., Their Instruction and Direc-
tion. By J. Bricout. The names which give the title to this study are
three great names in the history of the world and of the Church. It
has often been said that Leo XIII. did not continue the work of Pius
IX., and that his work was not continued by Pius X,, but, although
there has been a certain difference in their direction, depending
upon changes in the world at large, the perfect harmony in their
views, the identity of doctrine and uniformity of government, de-
serve our close attention. The series of articles, which is to
contain this matter, is introduced in this month's issue with an
exposition showing the conformity of opinion in regard to the
temporal power among the three Popes. Revue du Clerge Fran-
c.ais, October.
Honore Tournely. By P. Godet. Honore Tournely occu-
pies an important position among theologians of modern times.
4 i4 FOREIGN PERIODICALS [Dec.,
He was a man of inexhaustible energy of character in his devotion
to the Church, a learned theologian, an eloquent teacher, a fluent
writer, a powerful polemist. In a word, Tournely was in the
beginning of the eighteenth century the honor of the ancient Sor-
bonne, and the powerful defender of orthodoxy against Jansenism.
Revue du Clerge Frangais, October.
Moral Codes and Religion. By A. Lemonnyer, O.P. The
problem presented in this article is whether or not the moral code
of uncivilized peoples, if they have such a code, possesses a re-
ligious characte^. The situation 'has been summed up in the
thesis of Lubbock, which, in regard to inferior degrees of religious
evolution, declares religion and morality to be distinctly different
things; in more advanced stages of evolution they may contract
an alliance, not founded in their essence, but this again can be
broken. Very interesting examples from the practical experience
of scientists, who have made a special study of the subject among
the inhabitants of the Torres Strait Islands, go to show that the
moral laws of these primitive peoples possess a religious character.
The ethnologic thesis above referred to opposes these facts, and
the philosophic theory of an essential independence of morality
in regard to religion finds no support in these discoveries, which
have been confirmed in the results of most recent researches.
Revue du Clerge Frangais, November.
The Sistine Bible and its Publication. By Xavier Le Bachelet.
Monsignor P. M. Baumgarten a few years ago published a copy
of the Bull of Sixtus V., /Eternus ille celestium, concerning the
publication of a new edition of the Vulgate. At the end of the
Bull, and relative to its promulgation, was the attestation of the
Magister Cursorum. Testimony is now at hand which seems to
take away all decisive value from this attestation; in 1610 it was
pointed out that the Bull had never been registered in the apostolic
chancery, and therefore never officially promulgated. Modern re-
search bears out this opinion. The controversy about the promul-
gation involves Cardinal Bellarmine; it has been insinuated that
his attitude towards the new edition of the Vulgate was the cause
for the failure of the process of his beatification. On the contrary,
twenty-four out of twenty-six votes were given in his favor, and
the cause was delayed by Pope Benedict XIV., solely on account
of the troubled condition of the times. Etudes, October 5.
I 9 i2.] FOREIGN PERIODICALS 415
The Celibacy of Priests. By Henri Auffroy. In the very
beginning of Christianity many priests lived in absolute continence,
although there was no strict law binding them to such a life; the
first written law dates from about 300 A. D. Down through the
centuries since then various Popes and councils have legislated
on the subject. Celibacy is a more perfect state than marriage,
and the Church wishes that perfection for her priests. To justify
her position she has the teaching of Scripture, especially of St.
Paul, Catholic tradition, and the pronouncement of the Council of
Trent. As to perpetual continence being in opposition to human
nature and physically dangerous, some of the most competent
medical professors in Europe testify to the contrary. A last ob-
jection is that celibacy is immoral. If this were so, why would
the Church insist upon it for her clergy? The problem of eccle-
siastical celibacy, like all others, is solved in Christ our Savior.-*
Etudes, October 5 and 20.
The Eucharistic King. By Maurice Van Laer. The idea of
the Eucharistic Congress originated with a pious French layman,
who then suggested the idea to Monsignor Segur. The Congress
was held for the first time at Lille, France, in 1881. It was not
until 1908 that the event became world-wide, for in that year it
was held in London, two years later at Montreal, and this year
at Vienna. This article describes the beauty and grandeur of the
ceremonies at Vienna. Fifteen sections were held for the differ-
ent nationalities, French, English, Italian, Spanish, Belgian, Dutch,
Hungarian, Polish, Czech, Croatian, Slovenian, Armenian, Slav,
Ruthenian, and Roumanian, besides one for German-speaking
peoples. The aged Emperor was everywhere in attendance. He
arranged the date for the Congress, was its special protector, and
drew up all the plans for the processions. Le Correspondant,
October 10.
Textbooks in the Public Schools of Italy. The Italian public
schools resemble the French state schools. The textbooks are de-
cidedly anti-Catholic and sectarian, contain errors, scorn all that
Catholics hold sacred Christ, the Church, the Supreme Pontiff.
It is the duty of all who have charge of souls bishops, priests,
parents to counteract their evil influence, to introduce good text-
books in the schools, and force the teachers to withdraw the bad
ones. By united and decisive action truth shall prevail, and liberty
416 FOREIGN PERIODICALS [Dec.,
of conscience shall be preserved. La Civilta Cattolica, September
21.
The Religious Psychology of William James. In his book, The
Varieties of Religious Experiences, William James, quoting Our
Lord's words, " By its fruits you shall know the tree," studies re-
ligious phenomena as facts of conscience, and holds them as lawful
when they meet three necessary and sufficient conditions: First,
immediate illumination; second, conformity with reason; third,
capability of conferring moral strength. These ideas are not
altogether false, as they refute the medical materialism of the
new school which rejects all mystical phenomena, and attributes
them to degeneracy or nervous troubles. But William James is
unable to establish the psychological nature of religious tendencies,
and to give an adequate idea of religion and religious sentiments.
That would be, as he says, too vast a domain. Nevertheless a good
definition of religion and religious sentiment would throw light
on James' theories, which seem built on sandy ground. La Civilta
Cattolica, September 21.
The Tablet (October 19) : Italy closes an inglorious war with
an unhonored and a selfish peace. The European Powers lack
concerted action. They will permit the Balkan War, and after the
carnage will do what might have been done before. In Wales
the Anglicans and Non-Conformists are at odds. The Archbishop
of Canterbury urges peace, and declares Anglican continuity is
perfect except for details. But is it materially unimportant
whether or not the Mass is a true sacrifice or a blasphemous fable;
whether or not one rejects the Pope's authority or accepts it as part
of Christ's Gospel? If these are " details," what then is doctrine?
Belgium prospers under Catholic government. The good work
of the past has merited and received a trial for the future. Some
reforms are necessary, but the Socialistic solution is repudiated.
After many years of waiting the Poor Clares have obtained
a permanent home in Lutterworth.
(October 26) : The protest of The Tablet against those who
say Home Rule would mean persecution for Irish Protestants has
found many supporters. The Westminster Gazette aptly answers
the Times' attempt to discount the importance of the protest. Lord
Edmund rebukes those contending that any predominant Catholic
parliament must be a parliament of persecution. What a curious
I 9 i2.] FOREIGN PERIODICALS 417
thing is this : two bills are being thrust by the same government
through parliament at the same time, one to secularize ecclesiastical
property in Wales, the other to forbid a Catholic parliament to do
anything of the sort. Father McNabb in The Fulness of Time
explains the rosary. A measure for the disendowment and dis-
establishment of the Welsh Anglican Church finds a place on the
programme of practical politics. Centuries ago Catholic endow-
ments passed into the hands of the Anglican Establishment What
would happen if a future Irish parliament brought about the de-
plantation of Ulster? The writer shows clearly the attitude of
Catholics towards the Anglican Church.
(November 2) : Church possessions are sacred. If a state lays
violent hands on what has been given to God and His Church, it
is guilty of robbery. Many considerations illustrating the prin-
ciples confirming this attitude are found in history and experience.
However pre-Reformation historical evidence goes generally to
show that the Pope was not supreme lord of church temporalities,
but that the State exercised a very effective wardenship over the
same.
(November 9) : The Bishop of Lincoln dealing with the mar-
riage law, just issued in a letter to his clergy, recommends that per-
sons who, according to the teaching of the Anglican Church, are
living in incestuous union should be placed under discipline for
a year, and after that period be admitted to Holy Communion
without reproach. Canon Barry contributes a lengthy review of
Monsignor Benson's new book, Come Rack, Come Rope.
Church Quarterly Review (October) : John Spence Johnston
contributes an appreciation and extracts from the Civil War history
of W. P. Du Bose, President of Sewanee University in Tennesee.
He describes the cordial welcome given him there, where Southern
courtesy, English culture, and the best type of Anglican devotion
are said to reign amid idyllic surroundings. The Rev. E. F. Mor-
ison reviews the work of St. Basil the Great in the development of
Eastern monasticism. In statesmanlike wisdom and energy he
was the Benedict of the Oriental Church. He left, however, no
definite Rule. In his ideal the mystical element predominates, as-
ceticism being only a means; life in community is advocated as a
safeguard against selfishness. There is to be variety in the activity
of the monks, but strict unity in administration. Women, children,
even slaves are provided for. The monks are to teach, to care for
VOL. xcvi. 27.
418 FOREIGN PERIODICALS [Dec.,
the sick, and the poor. Celibacy, but not Manichaeism, is strongly
upheld. The Rev. F. C. Burney criticizes Dr. Robert Kennett's
arguments and conclusions as to the composition of the Book of
Isaiah. Dr. Kennett's theory is that the greater part of this book
in a product of the Maccabaean age (170-141 B. C.), and that the
Servant of the Lord described in chapter fifty-three is a personifi-
cation of the faithful worshippers of Yahwe, who resisted unto
death the attempt of Antiochus Epiphanes to Hellenize the Jewish
nation, and to stamp out the true religion. Special pleading and
circular arguments are said to characterize his work, difficulties
are passed over; large and unfounded assumptions are made.
The Bannister-Thompson Case and the Law of the Church.
The Dublin Review (October) : English Catholic Literature,
by Mr. Wilfrid Ward. The Editor takes up Cardinal Newman's
lectures on English Catholic Literature, and makes a few sugges-
tions as to what Catholic literature ought to be, using as a basis
the Cardinal's statements of what Catholic English Literature
ought not to be. Recent Light on Jerusalem Topography, by
Father Hugh Pope, O.P., treats exhaustively of some recent im-
portant archaeological discoveries made during excavations prose-
cuted in Jerusalem, which elucidate some vexed Scripture prob-
lems very satisfactorily. The texts in question are 2 Sam. v. 6-8;
i Paral. ix. 6-7; 2 Paral. xxxii. Reduced Christianity: Its Ad-
vocates and its Critics, being a study of Mr. Neville Figgis, Mrs.
Humphrey Ward, and Mr. Chesterton by the Editor. The
Entry Into the Dark Ages, apropos of the first volume of The
Cambridge Mediaeval History by Hilaire Belloc.
The Month (November) : Gaelic Ireland, by Charlotte Dease,
distinguishes a Gaelic Ireland from an Anglo Ireland. The author
shows that these divisions of the same country are as distinct
in customs, traditions, and modes of thought as either one is
distinct from England. Under the caption The Genesis of Titus
Dates' Plot, Mr. J. B. Williams considers the evidence upon which
Sir Roger L'Estrange attributed the Gates' plot to the plots of the
Protestant Dissenters. The article goes on to show, by numerous
quotations from contemporary documents, that those who have
ascribed the assertions of L'Estrange to pure prejudice have not
given his findings the careful attention they deserve. Mr. James
Britten, under the title A Recent Suggestion for Reunion, reviews
I 9 i2.] FOREIGN PERIODICALS 419
a recent book, The Open Sore of Christendom, by the Rev. W. J.
Sexton. The latter attempts to show the serious hindrance which
disunion places in the path of Christianity. After a brief con-
sideration of the conclusions of this book, Mr. Britten maintains
that since the Church of England possesses neither definiteness
of teaching nor union within its own borders, it cannot even con-
sider itself as a possible centre of reunion.
The Oxford and Cambridge Review (November) : George
Lowther discusses /. M. Synge and the Irish Revival. Sir Home
Gordon treats The Popularity of H. G. Wells and Arnold Bennett.
Hilaire Belloc gives the third of his articles on The Restoration
of Property in Capital. Temperance and Legislation is dis-
cussed by Arthur Page. Flavien Brenier continues his history of
Freemasonry in Turkey, and Katharine Tynan gives a story, Per
Istam Sanctam Unctionem.
The National (November) : W. R. Lawson criticizes the
Marconi contract now before the British Parliament as " a hope-
less tangle of mystery, ambiguity and confusion." That the
solid cooperation of the Triple Entente with Japan may do great
things for the economic improvement of Asia and the peace of
the world, in the next twenty years, is pointed out by William
Morton Fullerton in his article : The Triple Entente and the Pres-
ent Crisis. L. Cope Cornford again raises his guns against the
Home Rule Bill. "Home Rule is but the immediate cause of war. But
if the odds are too great; if the King sign the Home Rule Bill and
Ulster is cast out, out she will go; and with her will go thousands
in this country (England). The process will certainly be attended,
in Ireland at least, with bloodshed." The Sou! of the Navy,
by Trafalgar, dwells on the fact that " the strength of the Navy is
only created by the spirit of every individual member belonging
to it." Commander Curry, R. N., makes A Plea For the Mid-
Scotland Ship Canal a canal to be cut through the " waist of
Scotland, from the Firth of Forth to the Firth of Clyde." Such
a canal would cost twelve million pounds sterling.
Le Correspondant (October 10) : State Ownership Troubles,
l)y Fernand Engerand. This article is an historical account of
State ownership of railroads in France. A Christian Gentleman
and Warrior, by Vte. De Noailles. This article describes the last
420 FOREIGN PERIODICALS [Dec.,
military expedition of Marshall de Guebriant, Commander of the
German Army, in which he met his death. Wounded, he was
carried to Rottweil, where his leg was amputated. He called his
confessor, and died a most exemplary death, with the names of
Jesus and Mary upon his lips, November 24, 1643.
(October 25) : A Statesman, by Leon Delacroix, narrates the
political career of Auguste Burnaert, the great Belgian statesman,
who for the past fifty years has so nobly worked for the interests
of his country and the Catholic party. Etienne Lamy gives a
resume of a recent book by M. Louis Arnauld, entitled Our Friends
the Canadians. He describes the loss of Canada to France, the
religious question in Canada to-day, the language question, and a
comparison of the two peoples French and English.
'Annales de Philosophie Chretienne (October) : The Person-
ality of Maine de Biran and His Philosophic Activity, by Victor
Delbos. The author opens with a brief biography of de Biran,
and then discusses this eighteenth century French philosopher's
personality. He asserts that the philosophy of de Biran was no-
thing else than " a simple representation of his own nature," de-
rived from much introspection. In proof thereof he draws co-
piously from de Biran's Journal intime. He declares that the
philosopher never in his life " obtained the mastery of his condi-
tions or his faculties. The widely divergent objects of his activity,
his curiosity, and his affections could neither capture him entirely
nor even keep him for any length of time at the same level."-
The Mystic Doctrine of St. John of the Cross, by Dom L. Pas-
tourel, O.S.B., is intended to define the " ecstatic knowledge " of
that Saint. The author sums up thus : " St John of the Cross op-
poses religious immanence, which would identify the soul with
God or make it a mere mechanical instrument in His hands. But
St. John also shows the dangers of 'extrinsicism' whereby the
soul would never know or experience God's immediate direction.
To say that God cannot act directly and immediately upon the
soul would be to limit His power. St. John teaches that the action
of God is interior, and has as its essential condition the liberty
of man."
Revue Benedictine (October) : 'A Definitive Text of the Rule of
St. Benedict. Whilst recognizing the general value and importance
of Dom Butler's edition of the Rule of St. Benedict, the writer
I 9 i2.] FOREIGN PERIODICALS 421
of the article, D. G. Morin, has various suggestions to offer. He
would have the author reserve for another publication " many
accessories " that are pressed into the present edition. Consider-
ing his subject, its importance, and the size of the present work,
perhaps the writer has attempted too much. Few liturgists are
unacquainted with the name of Jacques de Panicle, more familiarly
Latinized as Pomelius, an antiphonary of the seventeenth century.
Whilst some scholars do not question his honesty and integrity,
others style him a forger, " an inventor of texts ;" hence in his
article, D. H. Peillou confines himself to those points on which
Pomelius seems to have been something of a puzzle to scholars.
Revue Pratique d'Apologetique (October 15) : Delporte re-
views briefly the method and the principles by which the religious
evolutionary school of Wellhausen, Kuenen, and Stade represent
the monotheism of the Israelites as a gradual development. He also
exposes clearly some of the illogical and contradictory results of
these principles.
Revue des Deux Mondes (October 15) : 'Around the Revolu-
tion of 1830. These extracts from the diary of Count Apponyi
give a comprehensive picture of the times and the insecure govern-
ment of Louis Philippe. The Progress of the Torpedo Boat,
by M. Blauchon, discusses very technically the history, many uses,
and kinds of the submarine.
IRecent Events.
"D EFERENCE has been made in the foregoing pages of this num-
** ber to the War in the Balkans. Little of importance has taken
place elsewhere in Europe. It would appear that the whole con-
tinent is so occupied with that driving out of the Turk, which has
been desired for many centuries, that little interest has been taken
in anything else. A few occurrences may however be noted.
The negotiations between France and Spain
France. for the settlement of their respective spheres
of action in Morocco, which have lasted so
long a time, and which, on several occasions, seemed on the point
of breaking down, have at last been brought to a satisfactory con-
clusion. An agreement was signed at the end of October by which
all differences have been adjusted, and, therefore, an end is put
to the many anxieties of which Morocco has been the occasion.
The details of the agreement, which are of a somewhat technical
character, need not trouble us here. The point of importance is
that a compromise has been reached which is satisfactory to both
countries, and which insures the continued existence of cordial
relations between the two Latin peoples. A great part of the credit
is due to the moderation and good sense of the Premier Senor
Canalejas, who has just lost his life at the hands of an assassin.
The agreement involves concessions on the part both of Spain and
France. A part of the zone given to Spain by the Treaty of 1904
has been relinquished. On the other hand, the French have with-
drawn all pretensions to interfere in the customs in the zone
retained by Spain. The status of Tangier is the one question
still left unsettled.
A new Ambassador to Great Britain has
Germany. been appointed to succeed the late Baron von
Marschall. He belongs to an old Silesian
family, and is looked upon as a man of moderate views, likely to
carry on the mission, entrusted to the late Ambassador, of im-
proving the relations between the two countries. He has written
a good deal on the subject, and while holding that there is real
I 9 i2.] RECENT EVENTS 423
antagonism of interests, and that sacrifices must be made by both,
yet thinks that a solution by force would not be in the interest
of either, and that a modus vivendi can be found.
A Conference has recently been held in London for the pro-
motion of this better understanding, attended by men of distinction,
in which the various points of difference were discussed, the rivalry
in commerce holding a prominent place. Every effort of this
kind has a good influence. In fact, it seems clear that there is
now a better prospect of averting a conflict than at one time could
have been anticipated.
The war with Turkey for the possession of
Italy. Tripoli has been brought to a successful
issue. Italy has been left in possession of
the spoils, having, however, the Arabs still to deal with. However
great her success has been, and however desirable is the destruction
or diminution of the power of Turkey, the war cannot be looked
upon as in any way justified. Italians, however, almost without ex-
ception were heart and soul in its favor, and it has brought about
a greater degree of union among them than any other event.
Surprise is felt in all leading monetary centres at the ease with which
Italy has been able to bear the additional burden. An exact cal-
culation of the cost of the war is not yet possible, but a good estimate
places the expense at about two hundred thousand dollars a day,
for a period of almost exactly twelve months, that is, some seventy-
three millions in all. The available balance in the Italian Treasury
on the eve of conclusion of peace amounted to something like
seventy-seven millions. So the expenses were amply covered. The
terms of the peace concluded with Turkey involve the payment
annually to Turkey of forty thousand dollars in lieu of the loss
to the Ottoman Treasury of the revenues of Tripoli. The right
to capitalize this and to receive a single payment amounting to
ten millions is reserved to Turkey. Should this right be exercised,
the total cost of the war, including repatriation and disband-
ment of the major part of the army now in Africa, may be put
at about ninety millions of dollars.
The elections for the Fourth Duma have
Russia. at last been completed. They have re-
sulted in an absolute majority for the Right,
the power of the Centre having been greatly curtailed; even its
424 RECENT EVENTS [Dec.,
leader, M. Guchkoff, having failed to secure a seat. Correspondents
on the spot think that the transposition which has thus taken place in
the position of the two Parties will forever discredit all hopes of re-
action. A striking feature of the election, and one greatly deplored,
is the part taken by the clergy. The Holy Synod did not scruple to
exert every possible influence to use them to obtain the result. The
Home Office shared in this attempt. The consequence is that the
prestige of the Russian Church has been disastrously undermined.
The Nationalists in many constituencies withdrew from the contest.
The illness of the heir to the throne has excited a great deal
of comment, as it was thought that it was brought about by revo-
lutionists. There seems, however, to be no foundation for these
suspicions.
The assassination of Senor Canalejas has
Spain. removed from the control of Spanish affairs
a statesman who, whatever may have been
his faults, has stood for some years in the way of the threatened
revolution. He has held together the factions of the Liberal Party,
and thus enabled it to remain in office, thereby preventing the acces-
sion to power of the Conservatives. This accession, many think,
would be the signal for which the revolutionaries are waiting to
make their long-threatened attempt. The motive of the assassin is
obscure, but some connection with the suppression of the recent
railway strike, and with a bill introduced into the Cortes for the
regulation of strikes, is thought to have influenced the miscreant.
With Our Readers.
IN the November Century Professor William Lyon Phelps, of Yale
University, under the heading of The Hungry Sheep, discusses
a problem that is growing more and more serious for Protestant
churches. " Why do not more men go regularly to church ? " Of
the Catholic Church Dr. Phelps writes : " The tremendous strength of
the Roman Catholic Church lies in its fidelity to principle, in its
religious vitality, and in its hatred of compromise. It should be an
object-lesson to all Protestant ministers."
******
THE sheep are hungry because, for the most part, ministers have not
" the vital Christian faith " that alone can satisfy their hunger.
He instances words of three clergymen in three different parts of the
country, gives their answers to questions about the inspiration of the
Bible, personal immortality, and the divinity of Christ; and then
adds, " The three clergymen had nothing to offer but wind. The hun-
gry sheep looked up and were not fed." Dr. Phelps, who is not a
Catholic, continues : " The Protestant clergy of to-day are sadly weak-
ened by a spirit of compromise. They are afraid to preach Chris-
tianity, partly because they do not believe in it, and partly because they
are afraid it won't 'draw.' No mistake is greater than the mistake
of the minister who conceives it to be his duty to preach politics from
the pulpit I remember the case of a prominent clergyman who,
during a whole Presidential campaign, preached Sunday after Sun-
day against one of the candidates, to a constantly diminishing audience.
On the night when the returns came in, the object of his attacks was ap-
parently successful, and he cried out in despair, 'What can be done
now?' He was effectively answered by one of the ungodly who hap-
pened to be present. 'I don't see that there is anything left for you
now, Doctor, except to preach the gospel.' "
******
IN this connection we wish to chronicle, without comment, some
changes to be made in the new edition of the Bible by the Baptist
Church. Hell is to be softened down to " underworld ;" and baptize
is to be replaced by " immerse." And in the change in the Com-
mandments it would seem that the sins of the fathers, according to
the new Baptist version, are to be visited only upon sons the daughters
will escape.
******
/CHANGES that will make the text clearer and more intelligible to
^ the modern mind are to be desired, so long as the sense remains
accurate and true. But the prevalent idea that the Bible is to be
brought down to the views of the champions of " Reduced Chris-
426 WITH OUR READERS [Dec.,
tianity," reminds us of the frank explanation of a Presbyterian min-
ister when asked how, if he believed in truth at all, he could accept
the change of faith on the part of the Presbyterian Church on the
matter of infant damnation. " Oh, well," he answered, " that was the
opinion of the Presbyterians of Calvin's time. They had their right
to their opinion, and we of this day have our right to ours." One
recalls the motion, made immediately after the adoption of that change,
by one who had been bitterly opposed to it. " I move," he cried out,
" that we make this retroactive."
INTELLIGENT leaders in the Protestant Churches are beginning
J- to see that loyalty to Christ and to Christ's definite teachings
are the first requisites for Christian health and progress. Compro-
mise is a sword that cuts both ways. The world of doubt and of sin
is not conquered by concessions to either. It was a definite dogmatic
religion that won the world to Christ, and that alone can hold it
faithful to Him. The two thousand Presbyterian churches, as was
stated at the recent Presbyterian Convention, without pastors, and
to take but one state the seventeen hundred abandoned churches in
Illinois, tell the result of that contraction in terms undogmatic Chris-
tianity and speak of the thousands upon thousands who are hungry
because they have not that which will satisfy their souls ; of conditions
that make explicable the hunger of the sheep and the bankruptcy of
Protestantism as a religious system at the present day.
growth and progress of the Church in this country must,
J- we suppose, of necessity be a cause of jealousy and fear to some
who neither understand nor like us. It is conceivable that many
simple people who have never had the opportunity of knowing what the
Church teaches and who, moreover, have had gross misrepresentations
of the Church and her teachings drilled into them from early child-
hood, should entertain and give voice to accusations absolutely false
and misleading. This we say is conceivable.
We had occasion only a few days ago to talk to a Protestant
woman who, while she admired the Saints, condemned the Church that
has given us the Saints. " I don't condemn the Church now," she added,
" I understand how Catholics venerate them now, and I venerate them
in just the same way. Only it required a trip abroad through Catho-
lic countries to enlighten me." The trip abroad, of course, was not
really necessary. The woman might easily have asked her Catholic
neighbor or attended a non-Catholic mission in a near-by Catholic
church. However, the foreign journey was a blessing. Because of
it she is a more intelligent woman to-day than she was a few months
ago. Nor must we blame her. Many, it seems, must go far abroad
1912.] WITH OUR READERS 427
to learn of the things that are within their arm's reach. Only lately
a purchaser came from a few blocks away to buy a half dozen
copies of THE CATHOLIC WORLD for November, 1912, because he
had heard from Dublin that it contained an interesting article.
Of the ignorance and misunderstanding of those without oppor-
tunity to know better, we cannot judge. But of the ignorance and
studied misrepresentation of those who have the opportunity and
do not use it; of those who know and pretend not to know, we feel
that no words of condemnation are too severe.
'THE CHRISTIAN HERALD of New York City is a paper of great
J- influence, and one that has an enviable record in many charitable
works. To its readers, and to the public in general, it preaches a
high ethical standard. It claims to stand for Christian principles
undefiled. Its Editor must know many Catholics at least he must
know something of the general history of our country with which
Catholic life and activity and sacrifice are inextricably bound up.
Now were he to take exception to or attack the teachings of the
Church it would not be surprising, for he is a Protestant, and to an
honest discussion no one will take exception. But when he deliber-
ately, week after week, in the pages of The Christian Herald calls
Catholics " Romanists," he is knowingly guilty of an ugly, malicious
falsehood. That we are Romanists in the good sense is our glory.
We recognize Pope Pius X., the Bishop of Rome, as the Vicar of
Christ upon earth, and the nature of our obedience may be read in
books very cheap and accessible to all. There is nothing esoteric
or secret or hidden about it.
To call us Romanists in the bad sense is on the part of the
Editor of The Christian Herald a flagrant insult to millions of his
fellow countrymen. For the sense in which he uses it is a ma-
lign sense. It embodies all the bitter bigotry of old Protestant days
when priests were hunted like wolves, when the faithful were an
outcast people, and Catholic religious anathema because they were
" traitors " to their country.
It means that the Catholics of this country are in some way
working for the temporal supremacy of the Papal power; that they
proclaim themselves patriots, but are secretly, in some inexplicable
way, trying to hand the country over to the domination of the Pope.
The idea is inconceivable to Catholics, but the use of the word
" Romanist " by The Christian Herald, and its talk of " Papal Plan,"
are on the same plane as that roorback that is going the round of
some of the more guillible Protestant papers of the country to the
effect that Father Chidwick, formerly Chaplain of the ill-fated Maine,
said lately at a banquet (a secret one we suppose) that the day was
428 WITH OUR READERS [Dec.,
not far distant when the Stars and Stripes would be torn from every
masthead and the Papal ensign would be put in its place.
The word " Romanist " is used by the Editor of The Christian
Herald to appeal to passion, and to deepen bigotry and misunder-
standing. Thousands of honest Christian souls who read his
well-chosen terms of " Romanist " and " Papal Plan " will
give faith to his words, and believe that he speaks honestly.
They know no better. He speaks dishonestly, and he knows it. He
smugly takes " the voice of the nation " as his voice, and heads his
column, " The Nation's Voice on Rome " and publishes under it
letters from misguided pastors and people who have long been
fed on just such husks of falsehoods as the caption and heading
contain. Is the use of such unchristian and unworthy methods
fruitless in the long run a sign of despair? Has such a minister
of the Gospel nothing to preach of the Gospel of the Savior of
mankind save that which misrepresents, twists, deceives, inflames, and
is a studied attempt to rouse brother against brother. To American
institutions there is danger, and grave danger to-day. No one denies
it. They are the traitors and betrayers of America and the inheritance
of our forefathers, who in the face of a common enemy will seek
to turn patriot against patriot and Christian against Christian.
FfiNELON.
(WRITTEN BY LIONEL JOHNSON IN 1895.)
IT seems at first sight strangely improbable that the son of an
Ayrshire Protestant baker should, early in the last century, become
the disciple and friend of contemporary Christendom's greatest Catho-
lic prelate ; but those were the relations between the Chevalier Andrew
Ramsay and Fenelon, Archbishop of Cambrai. Mystic recognizes
mystic, and the plebian man from the country of Burns found a fellow-
spirit in the holy aristocrat of Perigord, courtliest of saints, saintliest
of courtiers. Each lived to illustrate the saying of a later expert in
" the science of the saints," that "it is a very easy thing for a man to go
wrong in spiritual theology, and to stray into the shadow of con-
demned propositions." But Ramsay, though, indeed, as Hume calls
him, "an author of taste and imagination, who was surely no enemy
to Christianity," would scarce have survived but for his intimacy
with Fenelon, whose faith he embraced; whose doctrines he followed;
whose life he wrote. At best we should know him as one of the
innumerable obscurer Mystics, who testify to the soul's thirst in the
dry places of the world, but whose testimony is not memorable. Be-
coming Fenelon's convert, the captive of his sweetness and strength,
Ramsay passed into history. As Gibbon says of himself and Bossuet,
1912.] WITH OUR READERS 429
" he fell," if fall it was, " by a noble hand." For Fenelon is a figure of
irresistible charm, rich in grace and in the graces ; his presence adorns
the courts of kings and of their King, yet there is a cordial humility
and humanity in his carriage. He provokes distinguished writers
to phrases of distinction. Here is Michelet :
" Who can say by what enchantment he seized and ravished souls ? We
encounter it in the infinite charm of his correspondence, all mutilated as that is
no other correspondence has been more cruelly emended, expurgated, obscured
for a purpose. Well ! in those fragments, those scanty remains, the fascination
is still omnipotent. Apart from the nobility of style, the tone so vivid and
refined, revealing the gentleman beneath the apostle, there is something peculiar
to himself, a feminine delicacy, which in no way excludes strength, and, in the
very subtlety, I know not what penetrating tenderness."
Or take Pater:
" A veritable grand seigneur! His refined old age, the impress of genius
and honors even his disappointments concur with natural graces to make him
seem too distinguished (a fitter word fails me) for this world. Omnia vanitas!
he seems to say, yet with a profound resignation, which makes the things we
are most of us so fondly occupied with seem petty enough. Omnia vanitas!
Is that, indeed, the proper comment on our lives, coming, as it does in this
case, from one who might have made his own all that life has to bestow? Yet
he was never to be seen at court, and has lived here almost as an exile. Was our
'Great King Lewis' jealous of a true grand seigneur or grand monarque by
natural gift and the favor of heaven, that he could not endure his presence?"
After speaking of Napoleon, Lord Acton proceeds:
" In another sphere it is the vision of a higher world to be intimate with the
character of Fenelon, the cherished model of politicians, ecclesiastics, men of
letters, the witness against one century and precursor of another, the advocate
of the poor against oppression, of liberty in an age of arbitrary power, of
tolerance in an age of persecution, of the human virtues among men accustomed
to sacrifice them to authority, the man of whom one enemy says that his clever-
ness was enough to strike terror, and another, that genius poured in torrents
from his eyes."
That M. Huysmans' hero, the malleus sanctoru\n, the superior
artist in religion, Durtal, should find in a " Job mitre " but " une petite
Mystique, ni trap chaude, ni trap froide, un peu moins tiede que celle
de Sainte Terese," is no poor compliment to the essential excellence
of Monsignor de Cambrai, to his " sanctified commonsense." Into
the tangled and thorny questions of Molinism Quietism which made
Fenelon's later life a martyrdom and a triumph, we cannot here enter.
It had, perhaps, been well for him had he never met with Mme.
Guyon and her writings, never written the Maximes des Saints. It is
personally painful, even now, to watch Bossuet, " the eagle of Meaux,"
falling foul of Fenelon, "the dove of Cambrai." It is revolting to
think of the most delicate and mysterious things of faith exposed to
the impure handling of such men as the Great King and Harlay, the
infamous Archbishop of Paris, who died in the arms of his mistress.
430 WITH OUR READERS [Dec.,
Two true and witty sayings contain the gist of the notorious con-
troversy. " M. de Cambrai," said Mme. de Sevigne's daughter,
" pleads well the cause of God, but M. de Meaux still better that of
orthodoxy; he cannot fail to win the day at Rome." Said Pope
Innocent XII. : " Cambria has sinned through excess of love for God,
and Meaux through want of love to his neighbor." Technically,
verbally, Fenelon was wrong; he erred in expression, not in meaning.
We cannot agree with Dean Church, that " it was a poor quarrel and
a sign of degeneracy." It concerned the weightiest matters of spiritual
life. But we agree with him in condemning its accidents and circum-
stances, its atmosphere and environment of devotee courtiers, and
pietism a la grande dame, and social intrigues and jealousies. Mysti-
cism and its exact theology are not for loose and general discussion
upon the levels of society, but require retirement, solitude, patience.
Take any approved treatise of mystical theology, such as the thousand-
paged Institutiones Theologiae Mysticae of the Benedictine Schram;
then imagine Paris of Fenelon's day canvassing problems and specula-
tions, which even the most learned and experienced of theologians
touch but at their perpetual peril. Men and women, whose first effort
should have been to keep a few of the Ten Commandments, fell to
disputing whether love for God must be absolutely " disinterested ;"
whether they should " desire hell " if God desired it for them ; whether
anything short of self-annihilation to the will of God were permitted
to a Christian. Fine topics of talk among the frou-frou of skirts and
the flutter of fans ! When Fenelon's book was under examination at
Rome, Mme. de Maintenon, we are quaintly told, " did not think her-
self entitled to enter into an affair which was laid before the Holy See."
Mighty obliging and self-denying of the good lady! There was, per-
haps, not a score of persons in France capable of judging the questions
at issue, either by their scientific training in theology or by their ex-
perience of the spiritual life in its most profound reality. Such a man
as Jean Baptiste de Renty, who died shortly before Fenelon's birth,
and whose Holy Life ranks among the greatest of mystical biographies,
was the kind of man to whom these tremendous questions were matters
of personal knowledge ; but such a man is as rare as the aloe blossom.
It was Fenelon's lot to be cast among courtly offices, worldly affairs,
relations with the state; c'etait Louis XIV. He was not allowed the
pastoral seclusion of Francis de Sales; he stood prominently before
France a public man. Yet he never lost the bloom of sincerity
and gentleness, nor did his reserved strength ever kindle into passion;
lie won the hearts of the most unlikely persons. " He was cast,"
said Lord Peterborough, " in a particular mould, that was never
used for anybody else; he is a delicious creature! But I was forced
to get away from him as soon as I possibly could, for else he would
have made me pious." His very aspect was an enchantment. " // fallait
1912.] BOOKS RECEIVED 431
faire effort" said Saint-Simon, "pour ne pas le regarder." In con-
trast with too many prelates of his day, he was a very Dupanloup in
the discharge of diocesan duties and episcopal superintendence; and
he discharged at the same time a vast " apostolate of letter-writing,"
as the director of countless souls. Withal, he was a master in liter-
ature ; Telemaque is not yet a faded classic, and his dissertations upon
oratory and the ancients are full of a rich purity in style and thought.
He wrote the first important modern treatise upon the education of
women : he was at all points original, fearless, fine. " Unction " in
him was not that sickly-sweet sensibility and sentimentality which in
French religious writers is apt to usurp the name: it was a veritable
gift of love, eloquent and winning proprio motu, but never affectedly
or foolishly effusive. His Spiritual Letters abound in salutary severi-
ties in the spirit of St. Teresa, though without her inimitable humor
and homely terseness of speech. He is not languishing and rapturous,
but a very wise and simple Christian, who uses a gracious and graceful
style, and conveys piety with the pleasing politeness of good French.
He had not the magnificent Bossuet's thunder, that organ music rolling
over the deaths of princes and chanting the procession of the ages:
Fenelon is the Sophocles to Bossuet's ^Eschylus, the Spenser to his
Milton. The elegance of holiness was upon him, as well as the loftier
beauty; he was much of a George Herbert, though nobler fashioned
upon a greater plan. An essential candor shines about his memory;
it purifies and freshens his not very wholesome age in which single-
hearted men were rare. His world was aware of his eminence, his
solitary distinction ; he won to himself even such men as Marlborough.
" If I am sorry I have not taken Cambrai, it is not for the honor of
the conquest as to have had the pleasure of seeing so great a man."
BOOKS RECEIVED. f
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From the French. $1.75 net. Hospital Society Addresses. By Henry Se-
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432 BOOKS RECEIVED [Dec., 1912.
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THE
CATHOLIC WORLD.
VOL. XCVI.
JANUARY, 1913.
No. 574.
BERGSON'S PHILOSOPHY OF CHANGE.
BY THOMAS J. GERRARD.
E have been trying to understand the activities of the
time-spirit in various spheres of experience,* in
literature, in eugenics, in economics, in art. They
are seen to be summed up in the principle of man's
self-perfectibility. The chief characteristic of the
time-spirit is an exaggerated subjectivism and individualism. The
law of reason is set aside to make place for the predominant feel-
ing. Sensation becomes the norm of conduct. But even healthy
sensation is not of sufficient variety to provide man with constant
satisfaction. When sensation has been made the leading factor in a
man's life, then he soon has recourse to morbid sensation, for the
sane and healthy feelings soon become exhausted. Change becomes
the order of the day; nor is the question asked whether the change
be for better or for worse. Anything will do provided it be a
new sensation.
A new philosophy has been proposed to the world which
seeks to explain and to justify these aspirations of the time-spirit.
Its author is M. Henri Bergson, Professor of the College de France.
It is a revolt against the static aspect of things. It proclaims that
all is kinetics. Bergson himself calls it the philosophy of change.
Indeed its great success may be set down to this consistency with
itself, namely, that it provides a new sensation.
*See THE CATHOLIC WORLD, April, 1911; January, June, July, September,
October, December, 1912.
Copyright. 1912. THE MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF ST. PAUL THE APOSTLE
IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
VOL. xcvi. 28.
434 BERGSON'S PHILOSOPHY OF CHANGE [Jan.,
Let us not underestimate the importance of Bergson. He has
now the whole world for his audience. The small room in which
he lectures in Paris is always crowded, so crowded, in fact, that
many of his hearers sit through the lecture of the professor who
precedes Bergson in order to ensure a place. This year he gave a
course of lectures in London, but the great hall of University
College was unable to accommodate one-half of those who came
to hear him. He is announced to visit America shortly. Then
from October, 1913, to October, 1915, he will be Gifford Lecturer
in the University of Edinburgh.
He speaks always in French, and doubtless many of his hearers
do not understand his language, whilst many more are hopelessly
confused in the attempt to understand his philosophy. Neverthe-
less, although so many of his subtleties are hard to grasp, yet some
of his main thoughts do stand out, and are making an impression
on the people. It is with these that we shall concern ourselves.
The custom of Catholicism is to look at books in their objective
sense, that is, in the sense in which they are taken by the generality
of readers. Her interest is not in the mental dexterity of the
newest thinker, but in the salvation of the multitude who may be
affected by him. Bergson appeals primarily to philosophers, such
as Arthur James Balfour in England and William James in
America. But through a host of popular writers he is gradually
making his way to the people.
The chief works of Bergson are three. The first is Essai
sur les Donnees Immediates de la Conscience. This was written
during the years 1883 to 1887, and published in 1889. It has been
translated into English under the title of Time and Free Will.
In this work the author explains one of his most fundamental con-
cepts, namely, "duration" (la duree). To those who are accus-
tomed to think in scholastic terms, the discussion may be said to be,
as nearly as possible, a discussion between real and imaginary time.
Real time is the actual flowing duration; whereas imaginary time
is but the possible flowing duration. The imaginary time can be
spread out like a map. It can either represent the intrinsic flow
of real time or the extrinsic measurement of the same which we
derive from the movements of the sun, moon, and stars, or by
simply looking at our clocks.
In the Bergsonian method the reader is asked to put off all
conventions of abstract time, and to throw himself into reality.
He must feel the real concrete duration. Feeling this duration,
1913.] BERGSON'S PHILOSOPHY OF CHANGE 435
he looks at free-will before the act, not after it. Thus (so he is
told), although he cannot define free-will in abstract terms, yet
he can establish the fact of it by observation. The scholastic
reader, however, must be warned that Bergson does not mean the
same thing by free-will as is meant by previous philosophers and
plain men. He does not use a common coinage. He means only
certain great acts of choice whereby something new is created.
The second book is Matter and Memory (Matiere et Memoir e).
This was published in 1896. It is described as an essay on the
relationship between the body and the spirit. Here the author
frankly declares himself a dualist. How far he is true to his
description of himself we shall see later. The book affirms the
reality of spirit and the reality of matter, and by study of the
memory seeks to define the relationship between the two. It
professes to avoid the difficulties of realism on the one hand, and
of idealism on the other, by taking up a position midway between
them. " It is a mistake to reduce matter to the perception we have
of it, a mistake also to make of it a thing able to produce in us
perceptions, but in itself of another nature than they. Matter,
in our vfew, is an aggregate of 'images.' And by 'image' we mean
a certain existence which is more than that which the idealist calls
a representation, but less than that which a realist calls a thing
an existence placed half-way between the 'thing' and the 'repre-
sentation.' "*
There is indeed a close connection between a state of conscious-
ness and the brain, but so also is there between a coat and the nail
upon which it hangs. There is, in fact, no parallelism between the
psychical and the physiological processes. Memory is just the
intersection of. mind and matter, and particularly the memory
for words. The psychical state is immensely wider than the
cerebral state. The reader will notice in the last statement a prep-
aration for the proposition that reason is not the only faculty by
which knowledge is acquired.
These two volumes contain the ground-work upon which the
third is built up, Creative Evolution (L 'Evolution Creatrice). This,
by far the most important of Bergson's works, was published in
1907. Here the doctrine of man's self -perfectibility is carried to
its utmost possible limits. Existence, in the case of a conscious
being, means nothing less than an unending process of self-creation.
Nay, the whole universe is made up of one evolutionary flux,
*Matter and Memory, p. vii.
436 BERGSON'S PHILOSOPHY OF CHANGE [Jan.,
a self -creative process whose future is undetermined and unknown
by any outside intelligence, even though it be omniscient.
Before attempting to criticize the various features of this
philosophy, let us first make a general sketch of it, so that we may
see how the parts hang together.
The history of the evolution of life, it tells us, shows that
man's intelligence is but a department of general consciousness.
It is a special faculty devised by life for a particular purpose.
It is a kind of nucleus of a large nebula. It deals only with the
practical ordinary affairs of life. The real glimpse at reality, which
philosophy tries to get, is obtained not by the intelligence but by
intuition. The intelligence, since it is created by life for one
department of life, is consequently unable to see the whole of
life. Even scholasticism tells us that an extended body is the
connatural object of our understanding. That is why we get
headaches when we occupy ourselves with abstractions for a long
time without resting. Even M. BWgson has to keep using concrete
examples to illustrate his metaphysical subtleties, and so also shall
we have to use objects of familiar experience in order to show the
bearing of scholastic principles on the new method.
In order to get a real knowledge of life, we must bring to the
task not merely this specialized department which we call intellect,
but the whole field of consciousness. We must look within our-
selves, imagine ourselves in the middle of this field of consciousness,
and thus feel the vital process. It will evade us, for it is in constant
flux. But if we keep getting glimpse after glimpse of it intuitively,
we shall be able to obtain the material for a theory of life and
knowledge.
The intelligence can only take momentary snap-shots of the
things which are in motion. It makes an abstraction from the
movement at a given point. Thus physical science can never
comprehend reality, for it must of necessity be always behindhand.
It can only touch the phenomena of life, not life itself. As far
as physical science is concerned there is a corresponding re-action
to every action. In her eyes there can be no free creation what-
soever. All is mechanically balanced. But philosophy can do
what physical science cannot do: it can comprehend life. It
touches the all-important " now," which gathers up the whole of
the past and pushes forward into the future. Reality, therefore,
is not something static. It is the consciousness of living. It is
the intuition of life. It is, therefore, something entirely kinetic.
1913-] BERGSON'S PHILOSOPHY OF CHANGE 437
The intelligence breaks up this living process into states, strings
them on to an imaginary string, the string being an imaginary self.
Thus whilst the kinetic is the stuff which is real, the static is but an
instantaneous photograph of it. When we look upon these var-
ious states as spread out in the memory, then we get an idea of
imaginary Time. But when we look upon the present flux of
things as the one kinetic reality, then we get the idea of real Time.
Real time is the fluxus ipsius nunc, the flow of the " now " into
the " now." Bergson declares it to be a continual becoming, and
infers that if we try to fix it in our intelligences, we are landed
at once into a static conception of it. If we would perceive its
flowing nature we must feel it with our whole consciousness, for
it is the change which we feel that is the ultimate reality.
We gather all this from looking within ourselves and per-
ceiving the constant change. The question now arises whether
that vital process which we perceive within us cannot be predicated
of existence in general. The history of evolution shows that
forms have succeeded forms. Types and species have come into
being and have passed away, giving place to other types and species.
Evolution, in a word, is a record of continuous change. The whole
of life is one continuous movement like the movement of an in-
dividual man. It gathers up like a snowball all its past which
it carries with it. It thrusts itself forward into the future, which
it creates.
This is Bergson's opportunity to criticize, on the one hand,
the mechanical explanation of the evolutionary process, and, on
the other hand, the finalist explanation. Both, he says, are
weighted with the same fallacy, in that they assume that the
present is contained and predetermined in the past. Both mistake
imaginary time for real time. Both take intellectual symbols for
the reality instead of the active vital flux. There is nothing crea-
tive in either of them.
A further study of the history of evolution shows us two
diverse lines, one the line of intelligence which has man for its
ultimate stage of development, the other the line of instinct which
has its perfection in ants and bees. Where instinct flourishes
most intelligence flourishes least The nature of instinct insin-
uates to us the nature of that faculty of direct vision which we
call intuition. It is by this intuition that we are able to seize on to
reality, that flux, change, duration which is so evasive to the intel-
ligence.
438 BERGSON'S PHILOSOPHY OF CHANGE [Jan.,
Life is like a reservoir bursting forth into several streams.
It is always life, but sometimes it specializes in plant forms, some-
times in animal forms, sometimes in human forms. Circumstances
and opportunities modify the creative effort. In this way intel-
ligence came into existence. Life needed it for a special purpose
and so created it. The life which was identical with conscious-
ness underwent a kind of condensation forming a luminous centre.
The whole of life uses a part of itself for a special purpose. Here
is the most obscure part of Bergson's philosophy. Even his most
ardent disciples admit that he is far from clearly explaining him-
self. And obscure it must of necessity be, for, at least from our
point of view, he is trying to make the intellect get behind the
intellect. From his point of view he is trying to make intuition
see the formation of the intellect.
The same creative evolution is also made the criterion of
free-will. The question now is not, as formerly, liberty of choice
between two alternative courses, but rather whether, when we act,
we really create. Nay, we cannot pick out of our concrete actions
those which are free and those which are not. We are only free
when our action is that of our whole personality. When I have
expressed myself so thoroughly as to have created something new
in the world, then I have acted as a free man. Moreover, if the
will only does what the intellect declares it ought to have done, it
is not free. The mechanical nature of physical science precludes
indeterminism. Nor is the freedom here described confined to
men. It is a quality of the whole universe. Indeed it was the
whole of life (which is the whole of reality) that imparted our
freedom to us. All things share it in some degree.
Life as a whole, from the initial impulsion that thrust it into
the world, will appear as a wave which rises, and which is
opposed by the descending movement of matter. On the greater
part of its surface, at different heights, the current is con-
verted by matter into a vortex. At one point alone it passes
freely, dragging with it the obstacle which will weigh on its
progress but will not stop it. At this point is humanity; it
is our privileged situation. On the other hand, this rising
wave is consciousness and, like all consciousness, it includes
potentialities without number which interpenetrate, and to which
consequently neither the category of unity nor that of multi-
plicity is appropriate, made as they both are for inert matter.
The matter that it bears along with it, and in the interstices
1913.] BERGSON'S PHILOSOPHY OF CHANGE 439
of which it inserts itself, alone can divide it into distinct indi-
vidualities Finally consciousness is essentially free; it is
freedom itself; but it cannot pass through matter without
settling on it, without adapting itself to it.*
Lastly, the same necessity for free creation prevents even God
from knowing the future. God Himself, indeed, is subject to
the law of perpetual change. He is a kind of centre from which
worlds shoot out. He is not already perfect, but rather a con-
tinuity of shooting out. Reality consists of change, and if God
is real He must be forever changing.
Obviously the first concept that has to be dealt with in this
philosophy is that which declares that reality consists in flux
or change. If this philosophy be sound then we can say of nothing
that it " is." Things that seem to be solid and undergo no change
are but periods or cuts across the flowing. They are but snap-
shot views of reality, not reality itself. They belong to that
imaginary time which is a symbol of space, not to the real time
which is duration. A material thing endures without changing,
but a living thing endures by changing. Now, asks Bergson, is
the reality which is behind all appearances like a material thing
that does not change? Or is it a living thing which does change?
Then he answers that it must be the living stuff, namely, the ever-
flowing time (la duree).
As usual we have recourse to St. Thomas for the corrective
principle. The fallacy which Bergson makes through the whole
of his treatment of change is that he does not recognize what St.
Thomas calls the ratio entitatis. Even a thing which is in flux
is a whole. There was once a baby called Woodrow Wilson. It
grew and grew and grew until it became the President of the
United States. But it always remained the same person, namely,
Woodrow Wilson. The change from a gelatinous organism into
a mighty president never destroyed its identity.
The idea of being is one of the primary observations of human
experience. It is so simple and so clear to the understanding
that it is incapable of further explanation. One only explains the
more difficult by the more easy. But we cannot explain the one
thing " being " by something else, because every something else
is " being." When we say that a being is that which exists, it is
almost as if we said that a book is a book and a tree is a tree.
*Creative Evolution, pp. 284, 285.
440 BERGSON'S PHILOSOPHY OF CHANGE [Jan.,
What we say about " being " then is that its nature is obvious, we
see it, and we steadfastly refuse to have our intelligences muddled
by pretending that we do not see it. We start w r ith this first self-
evident truth: a being is that which exists.
But a being must be some sort of being. It must be a
penknife or a motor-car or an elephant or something of that
kind. It must have an essence. Now an essence is that by which
a thing is what it is. That by which an animal, for instance,
is an animal is sensation. Sensation, therefore, is the essence of
an animal. A horse has sensation, therefore a horse is an animal.
A man has sensation, therefore a man is an animal. He is a
higher kind of animal because of his reason, but nevertheless he
is an animal. He has the essence of an animal. A full-blown
being, therefore, is an essence which is actually in existence.
Now we are bound to say of an essence as such that it is un-
changeable and indivisible. So long as a thing is what it is, it
is what it is. A thing may change as to its integral or accidental
parts, but not as to its essential parts. If its essential parts change,
then the thing itself ceases to be, and something else begins to be.
For instance, a pig is always a pig. When it is young it is small
and thin. After twelve months of good feeding it becomes large
and fat. A great change has taken place in it, but it has not
changed into a baboon. In spite of all the feeding it remains a pig.
The essence has remained the same. The reality, namely, that
by which it is a pig, and by which it endures as a pig, is absolutely
static.
Further, the essence is indivisible. It is true that you can
have half of a carcass of a pig, but you cannot have a pig which
is half pig and half aeroplane. The essence is indivisible.
The reason given by Bergson for casting aside realism is that it
involves the conception of that imaginary time which is unreal.
Reality is a flow. What does not flow is not real.
Now, life [he says] is an evolution. We concentrate a period
of this evolution in a stable view which we call a form, and
when the change has become considerable enough to overcome
the fortunate inertia of our perception, we say that the body
has changed its form. But in reality the body is changing form
at every moment; or, rather, there is no form, since form
is immobile and the reality is movement. What is real is the
continual change of form: form is only a snap-shot view of
a transition. Therefore, here again, our perception manages
1913-] BERGSON'S PHILOSOPHY OF CHANGE 441
to solidify into discontinuous images the fluid continuity of the
real. When the successive images do not differ from each
other too much, we consider them all as the waxing and waning
of a single mean image, or as the deformation of this image
in different directions. And to this mean we really allude
when we speak of the essence of a thing, or of the thing itself.*
Incidentally, we may remark that the above description of real-
ism is not true of the moderate realism taught by St. Thomas. The
image, or shape, or form, or phenomenon, be it even the mean image,
shape, form or phenomenon, is not the essence of a thing accord-
ing to the doctrine of moderate realism. The essence is the abiding
indivisible reality which underlies the phenomenon. It is quite true
that we can only get at the thing in itself through its appearances.
But the distinction is vital. It is the distinction between the id quo
and the id quod. That which we see, taste, and handle is the thing,
but that through which we see, taste, and handle is its appearances.
We are not concerned to defend exaggerated realism against M.
Bergson. But, on the other hand, we claim that our moderate
realism provides for a permanent reality without being committed
to the absurdities which are created by making reality consist in
the eternal flux.
Keeping the doctrine of moderate realism in mind, we can go
on to show the right use of images. They show to us the reality
of space. This brings us to the converse of Bergson's radical
fallacy. In making reality consist in the flux of things, he thereby
thrusts out of his philosophy the concept of space. In exaggerating
the time element he practically annihilates the spatial element. He
puts forward motion, that is, change in time as the whole essence
of a material thing, ignoring its length, breadth, .and thickness,
which (apart from all else in it) are no less its essential factors,
even as change and permanency are. Let us grant that all bodies
are in a state of flux. Change, indeed, or liability to change, is
of the essence of all that is material. But it is not the only factor
in the essence. If it were, then we might truthfully say that all
bodies are the same length, for they all consist merely of this
flowing point which is " now." But no sane philosopher will
go so far behind his common sense as to question the facts of
common observation. Bodies are not all the same length.
There is a most luminous passage in St. Thomas which shows
the unique position of the moderate realist in being able to use
^Creative Evolution, p. 318.
442 BERGSON'S PHILOSOPHY OF CHANGE [Jan.,
the good elements of idealism and realism without being caught
in their fallacies. He is speaking of the intelligences of angels and
disembodied spirits, and incidentally he shows how the human
mind, working through the instrumentality of the brain, when once
it has grasped the idea of a thing, can think of the thing irre-
spective of space and time.
Nor again [he says] can distance in place hinder the knowl-
edge of a disembodied soul. Distance in place ordinarily affects
sense, not intellect, except incidentally, where intellect has to
gather its data from sense. For while there is a definite law of
distance according to which sensible objects affect sense, terms
of intellect, as they impress the intellect, are not in place, but
are separate from bodily matter Plainly too neither is
time mingled with the intellectual activity of such beings.
Terms of intellect are as independent of time as they
are of place. Time follows upon local motion, and measures
such things only ^as are in some manner placed, in space, and
therefore, the understanding of a separately subsisting intelli-
gence is above time. On the other hand, time is a condition of
our intellectual activity, since we receive knowledge from phan-
tasms that regard a fixed time. Hence to its judgments, affirma-
tive and negative, our intelligence always appends a fixed time,
except when it understands the essence of a thing. It under-
stands essence by abstracting terms of understanding from the
conditions of sensible things : hence in that operation it under-
stands irrespectively of time and other conditions of sensible
things.*
Here then is the precise difference between Aquinas and Berg-
son. Aquinas uses space as one of the data provided by sense
from which the intellect may abstract matter for thought; but
when once the intellect has got its idea it is able to transcend
space. Bergson, being absorbed by sense, is unable to transcend
space, and consequently for the purposes of philosophy he has no
alternative but to destroy it. The result is that we are shut off
from the external world. We can neither derive experience from
it nor enter into active communion with it. We are shut up
strictly within the limits of our own subjective feelings. There
being no internal norm by which to correct our eccentricities,
the method can lead to nothing but confusion, whether it be in
truth, goodness or beauty.
*Contra Gentiles, Lib. II., Cap. XCVI.
1913-] BERGSON-'S PHILOSOPHY OF CHANGE 443
We must not, however, be content with showing the unwork-
ableness of Bergson's conclusions. We must get at the fallacy
of his reasoning. This may be conveniently done, by examining
his criticism of Zeno's flying arrow. By this paradox the flying
arrow is motionless all the time of its flight. If it moves it occu-
pies a number of successive positions. But it cannot occupy two-
successive positions unless two moments are allowed it. At any
given moment, therefore, the arrow is at rest at a given point.
It is, therefore, motionless at each point in its course. It is motion-
less, therefore, all the time it is moving.
Bergson tries to escape the paradox by denying that the arrow
ever is at a certain point in the course.
Yes [he says] if we suppose that the arrow can ever be
in a point of its course. Yes again, if the arrow, which is
moving, ever coincides with a position which is motionless.
But the arrow never is in any point of its course. The most
that we can say is that it might be there, in this sense, that it
passes there and might stop there. It is true that if it did stop
there, it would be at rest there, and at this point it is no longer
movement that we should have to do with. The truth is that
if the arrow leaves the point A to fall down at the point B, its
movement AB is as simple, as indecomposable, in so far as
it is movement, as the tension of the bow that shoots it. As
the shrapnel, bursting before it falls to the ground, covers the
zone with an indivisible danger, so the arrow which goes from
A to B displays with a single stroke, although over a certain
extent of duration, its indivisible mobility. Suppose an elastic
stretched from A to B, could you divide its extension? The
course of the arrow is this very extension; it is equally simple
and equally undivided. It is a simple and unique bound. You-*
fix a point C, in the interval passed, and say that at a cer-
tain moment the arrow was in C. If it had been there it
would have stopped there, and you would no longer have had a
flight from A to B, but two flights, one from A to C and the
other from C to B, with an interval of rest. A single move-
ment is entirely, by the hypothesis, a movement between two
stops; if there are intermediate stops it is no longer a single
movement. At bottom, the illusion arises from this, that the
movement once effected, has laid along its course a motionless
trajectory on which we can count as many immobilities as
we will.
From this we conclude that the movement whilst being
444 BERGSON'S PHILOSOPHY OF CHANGE [Jan.,
effected, lays at each instant beneath it a position with which it
coincides. We do not see that the trajectory is created in one
stroke, although a certain time is required for it; and that
though we can divide at will the trajectory once created, we
cannot divide its creation, which is an act in progress and not
a thing. To suppose that a moving body is at a point of its
course is to cut the course in two by a snip of the scissors at
this point, and to substitute two trajectories for the single
trajectory which we were first considering. It is to distinguish
two successive acts where, by the hypothesis, there is only one.
In short, it is to attribute to the course itself of the arrow
everything that can be said of the interval that the arrow has
traversed, that is to say, to admit a priori the absurdity that
movement coincides with immobility.*
In this long and brilliant passage M. Bergson takes us into
a very old philosophical dispute. It has, indeed, been called the
mystery of philosophy. It were, however, a very poor consola-
tion if, in escaping the paradox of Zeno, we must needs plunge
into the absurdity of M. Bergson. Fortunately we have a dis-
tinction which rescues us from both. The question of motion
harks back to that of the continuum. Nor does it make any differ-
ence whatever to the question whether the continuum is in
motion or at a standstill. We could use equally well for
our example either a continuous downpour of rain or a
railway line. We agree wholly with M. Bergson that
a local motion, namely, the transit from one place to
another through a medium, is continuous and successive. Motion
must be either successive or permanent ; but it cannot be permanent
because then the beginning, the middle, and the end of the motion
would be all one; therefore, it must be successive. It is also
continuous. So far we agree.
But now comes the parting of the ways. The continuum,
even though it be a kinetic continuum, a continuum in motion,
such, for instance, as a flowing river, is not, as asserted by M.
Bergson, indecomposable. There is a sense in which it is decom-
posable. The distinction by which we explain this is that pro-
posed by Aristotle and adopted by St. Thomas the distinction
between actual parts and potential parts. The later scholastic
textbooks speak of these parts respectively as formal and entita-
tive. An actual or formal part is one that has both entity and
*Crettive Evolution, pp. 325-327.
1913-] BERGSON'S PHILOSOPHY OF CHANGE 445
limits. A potential or entitative part is that which has entity alone
but not limits; it is, however, capable of receiving limits. When
it receives them, either actually or by our imagination, then it
becomes an actual-or formal part.
Now we readily grant, as M. Bergson demands, that the
entitative parts of a continuum have only a potential existence.
That is to say, they could exist did we choose to draw the limits
around them. These limits, however, are not necessary for their
existence. If they were not there already we could not separate
them by drawing the lines of limitation. No one gives what he has
not got, so neither could a continuum give parts if it did not already
have them. If you want to separate the parts of a hare so as
to jug it, you must first catch your hare, together with all its parts.
Nay the very idea of a continuum is that it has parts and parts,
and parts, outside parts. Otherwise each part would be identical:
with each other part. " In a continuum," says Aristotle, " there
are not two halves actually but only potentially, because if they were
in act they would not make a continuum."* So also St. -Thomas :
" In the parts of a continuum two halves of one line T||'e poten-
tially double in that double line which is actually one', <f?
With this distinction we may proceed to disse'ct M. "~*Bergson's
treatment of the flight of the arrow. The flight, we grant, is one
undivided entity. Moreover this is true both of the moving arrow
and of the motionless trajectory which it lays along its course.
But the flight has potential parts, and each of which has an entity.
A thing does not lose its entity because it is in movement. Nor
are those potential parts any less real because their limite have not
been chalked out. Of every one of those parts, even though we
divide them to infinity, we can say, with unfailing judgment, that
they have existed. If I make a journey in a non-stop express-
from New York to Washington, and the train rushes through Eliza-
bethport, it is fooling both with ideas and with words to say that
the train has never been in Elizabethport. Even though the train
did not stop at the city boundaries, yet its passage through was as
real as if it did stop.
So, too, is it with the arrow. Its movement is continuous and
successive, but the parts of the movement have reality. Otherwise
the whole movement has no reality. So, too, is it with the Bursting
*L. 8. phys. c. 8, 263, a. 28.
t/n partibus continui duo dimidia unius lineae duplae sunt in potentia in ipsa:
linea dupla quae est una actu. In i, 7. Met., lect. 13.
446 BERGSON'S PHILOSOPHY OF CHANGE [Jan.,
shrapnel which is said to cover a zone with indivisible danger. If
the danger were indivisible it could not do any harm to a company
of men who occupied but a portion of the zone. It must destroy
a whole zone full or none at all. But we know this is not true.
Therefore the danger zone is divisible.
The comparison with the stretched elastic is a false analogy,
for it is comparing local motion with molecular motion. Let us
take the movement of each individual molecule of the elastic before
and after stretching, and we shall find that its minute local motion
is just as divisible and decomposable as that of the railway journey
from New York to Washington.
Again, when M. Bergson says, and keeps on saying, that by
the hypothesis the trajectory is created in one stroke, and that there
is one movement only, then we distinguish and keep on distinguish-
ing. One in act, we grant; one in potency, we deny.
When, however, he flourishes his ultimate reduction to absurd-
ity and charges us with admitting a priori, that movement coincides
with immobility, then we would remind him that we are there
approaching that philosophical mystery in the presence of which it
is unwise to be too dogmatic. Neither M. Bergson nor any other
philosopher has solved the problem of saying exactly where the
static meets the kinetic. We all know that according to theory the
bouncing ball never ceases bouncing, whilst the blatant experience
of our common sense tells us that it does cease bouncing. If we
believe that the ball is still when we see it, still we are not absurd
in doing so. Neither can we be held to be absurd for attributing
reality to the various potential parts which make up the one com-
plete movement of the arrow from A to B.
It is the exhibition of such paradoxes as the one just proposed
by M. Bergson which calls forth that undying optimism of the
schoolmen, confident of the reliability of common sense. It never
occurred to them to ask what was reality. They might distin-
guish between an ens reale and an ens rationis. But the ens existed
somewhere, either in the mind or out of it. Just as they never
doubted that things were normally what they appeared to be, so they
never doubted that the things which appeared to exist did exist.
And that is precisely the attitude which we take up now with respect
to the philosophy of change. We declare that we will not give up
the use of the verb " to be." Even M. Bergson cannot get on
without it. His pages bristle with it. To strike it out of our
vocabulary is to plunge ourselves into the gloomiest pessimism;
1913.] BERGSON'S PHILOSOPHY OF CHANGE 447
because if we cannot say of the things which we see and feel and
think about that they are, then we cannot be sure of any truth
whatever.
But, suggests the Bergsonian philosopher, the use of the verb
" to be " is but an artificial device for practical purposes. No, we
reply, that lands us into pure pragmatism, another of the gloomy
dungeons of the modern Hades. That is belied by the whole
of human psychology. If I cannot be sure in my own mind that
a certain statement is true, I cannot act as if it were true. And if,
whilst not being sure that ideas represent the things they are
supposed to represent, I go on acting as if they did represent them,
then my whole life is one huge grimace.
Bergson was keen enough to note the analogous fallacy in
Kant. Quite pertinently he said to him : " If we can know abso-
lutely nothing of the thing in itself, how do we know that there is
such a thing as a 'thing-in-itself ?' So we can thrust the same weapon
through the armor of Bergson. If we do know the thing in itself,
how can it be never itself? For if its very essence is in a state of
flux, always becoming something, then it is never itself. If Berg-
son's philosophy is right that the essences of things are ever chang-
ing, then Kant's philosophy is right that we know nothing of the
essences themselves. The two positions stand or fall together.
So, too, is it with the consequences. Kant fructified into the
pessimism of Schopenhauer and into the anarchy of Nietzsche.
Bergson must fructify into a still deeper pessimism and more
chaotic anarchy, because he promises so much more than Kant
and fulfills so much less. Kant did make some compensation
for his critique of pure reason by undoing it with his critique of
practical reason. Report says that M. Bergson has in preparation
a book on ethics. It is appalling to contemplate what may be the
result in conduct if the principles of the philosophy of change are
rigorously applied. History relates of another Frenchman who,
a hundred years previously, both anticipated and applied the philos-
ophy of change to the destiny of nations. When Napoleon wanted
an excuse for taking Holland, he said the Alps belonged to him;
but Holland had been washed down from the Alps; therefore
Holland belonged to him. He confused, with his tongue in his
cheek, the point of view of the geographer with the point of view
of the physicist.
Geography tells us that countries are known according to their
latitude and longitude on the earth's surface, whilst molecular
448 BERGSON'S PHILOSOPHY OF CHANGE [Jan.,
physics tells us that particles of mud are known independently of
their position on the earth's surface. If some Swiss mud has
been carried from the source to the mouth of the Rhine, it does
not follow that the essence of Switzerland has been changed into
the essence of Holland. Switzerland remains up there and Holland
down here, the philosophy of change notwithstanding.
In thus insisting on the value of the static element in nature,
we would not wish to appear to undervalue the kinetic element.
Nay, we claim that the kinetic element cannot have its full kinetic
value unless it is considered in its right relation to the static.
Bergson made a cardinal mistake in supposing that " being " and
" becoming " were mutually exclusive. They are not. " Being "
is a genus of which " becoming " is a species. Likewise " going,"
" desisting," " ceasing " are species of the same genus. When a
thing becomes, it is in a state of becoming. The kinetic and the
static elements of the process instead of being mutually exclusive
are mutually complementary. If a thing could not be in a state
of becoming, it could not become at all. Indeed the very reality
of the flux depends upon the ultimate reality of the static concept
that the flux is.
When the citizen of St. Louis crosses over to East St. Louis he
sees the mighty Mississippi flowing beneath him. The flux is there.
When he comes back next day all the water which he saw yesterday
is gone, and another great volume has taken its place. A change
has happened. But it is not the Amazon upon which he fixes his
gaze. Nor is it the mere bed of the Mississippi which has remained.
It is the Mississippi itself, the flowing continuum, the con-
tinuous flow of one and the same thing. Either the flux is or it
is not. If it is not it has no reality. But it has reality. There-
fore it is. This is our foundation. We will have our wits
about us. We will turn our faces about and look this way and
that, but all the time we shall sit tight on the one enduring reality,
namely, that which is.
How such a radical confusion of thought could arise as to
obscure this elementary dictate of common sense, we propose to
show in our next essay. It is due to the exaggerated subjectivism
which underestimates the use' of the intellect, and is known as
Bergson's intuitive method.
CANADA AND THE COLONIES: A LESSON FOR THE
" GUARDIANS OF LIBERTY."
BY EDWIN RYAN.
N old proverb has it that " we learn by making mis-
takes," and while that may not be a very pleasant
method, it is at times an extremely practical one,
in the case of nations no less than in that of individ-
uals. For the " average citizen " is more likely to be
impressed by an argument presented in this form than by a con-
sideration of the abstract right and wrong of a question. Show
him that a particular line of action that he is asked to pursue or
to approve has been tried by his forefathers, and that they lived
to regret it, and he will not take long to form his own conclusion.
There seems to be a need for applying that method just now, for
we have at the present day in this Republic a group of men who
have started a revival of that most stupid and most pernicious of
all blundering policies, bigotry. Under the name of " Guardians
of Liberty " these persons are bidding us hark back to the days
of Know-nothingism : they are trying to rekindle the ashes of old
prejudice, while professing to be animated by sentiments of purest
patriotism. Of course, such men can hardly be expected to learn
anything from experience there are none so blind as those who
will not see but it may happen that some well-meaning persons
will be led astray by these " patriots," and it is for the sake of such
that we would call attention to one instance in our history wherein
this sort of thing would seem to have been the cause of a serious
national loss which time has not yet repaired.
Glance at the map of North America, and notice the way in
which it is divided politically. It contains three large nations,
Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Now, as this last is a
country not connected with our own in language, race or past
history, her political separation is natural. But with Canada the
case is quite otherwise. Its people are largely of the same stock
as we are, most of them speak the same language, and their laws
are derived from the same source. And besides, their history is
closely linked with ours, for in the interval between the termination
VOL. xcvi. 29.
450 CANADA AND THE COLONIES [Jan.,
of the " Seven Years' War " and the outbreak of the American War
of Independence, both they and we were subjects of Great Britain.*
Moreover, when the colonies revolted they were not without sym-
pathizers across the Canadian border, and even some troops were
furnished and yet there was never any formal union, so that
while we broke away from England they remained British sub-
jects, and remain so to this day, the British flag flying over all the
land as far west as Alaska, and from the Great Lakes to the Arctic
Ocean. How is this? Is it because the American patriots made
no effort to enlist their cooperation in the struggle? On the con-
trary, our forefathers realized full well the advantage to be gained
by inducing their fellow-subjects of King George III. to make com-
mon cause with them, and they certainly tried hard enough to bring
it about. The reason why they failed, the reason why Canada held
aloof, the reason why Canada is to-day a separate nation, though
bound to us by many ties of blood and common interests, is mainly
bigotry. There was a little too much " Guardian-of-Liberty-ism "
in the American colonies, and it is that we must thank for the
loss of a great opportunity.
This is the story: When, by the Treaty of Paris in 1763, those
portions of the American Continent to the north of the Thirteen
Colonies still remaining to France were ceded to Great Britain,
the majority of the inhabitants was Catholic. Therefore, one of
the first problems to present itself was, What shall be done about
this people's religion? We know what England was doing about
religion elsewhere, and it would not have been so very surprising
had she attempted to introduce into Canada the methods pursued
within her own shores or in Ireland : the prohibition of Mass, the
hunting of priests, the forcible establishment of Protestant wor-
ship. And, as a matter of fact, there was at first some indication
that such a policy might be adopted, but the attitude of the people
of Quebec, aided by the disturbances that afterward led to the
American War, brought about a change. England was too wise
to allow her Protestantism, however thorough, to blind her to her
own interest. She was not going to go out of her way to stir up
trouble in a new colony. " The Province of Quebec is Catholic,
the Province of Quebec wishes to remain Catholic, therefore Cath-
olic shall it be," argued her rulers. " Let us demand of its in-
habitants nothing more than obedience to the British Crown, and
*Of course in the case of some portions of Canada British ownership goes
back further.
1913-] AND THE "GUARDIANS OF LIBERTY' 451
let us smooth the way by according to their religion the position
it enjoyed under the Government of Catholic France." Where-
upon a bill was introduced into Parliament not only granting the
Catholic freedom of worship, but even guaranteeing to their clergy
all those " dues and rights " to which they had been accustomed.
To be sure, there was opposition in England, both in Parliament
and outside, but good sense prevailed, and by a vote of fifty-six
to twenty in the House of Commons the bill was passed.
Of .course the Quebec Catholics were very much pleased by
this, and it went a long way towards securing their loyalty at a time
when that meant a great deal. But among their fellow-subjects to
the south were some who saw the matter in a different light.
Despite the examples of patriotism given by American Catholics,
despite the attitude toward the Church of some of the ablest of the
colonial statesmen, hatred of " popery " was far from dead. But
whatever bigotry there was would probably have been forgotten
just then, when union and harmony were so desirable, had there
not been those who saw fit not only to keep it alive, but actually
to parade it before the eyes of the world. No sooner did it become
known that Roman Catholicism in Quebec, instead of being penal-
ized, had actually received explicit protection from the government
of England, than there was an outburst of indignation. To be
sure, there was one point of view from which the Colonies might
(and did) take exception to the " Quebec Act," viz., that it gave
to Canada the territory now comprising Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
Michigan, Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota, to which some of
the Colonies laid claim. And had the objectors confined their
strictures to this point, one could hardly question the justice of
their complaint. But instead of that some went further, and saw
in the religious provisions themselves a serious "menace" to Colonial
interests, and expressed their fears in plain language.
Thus, a correspondent contributed to the Pennsylvania Packet
of October 31, 1774, a long letter, in the course of which he de-
clared " the revocation of the Edict of Nantz, and the Irish Mas-
sacre were acts of piety compared with the late Popish act of the
British Parliament," and that " we may live to see our churches
converted into mass houses, and our lands plundered of tythes
for the support of a Popish clergy. The Inquisition may erect her
standard in Pennsylvania, and the city of Philadelphia may yet
experience the carnage of St. Bartholomew's Day." And an earlier
correspondent, signing himself " Tribunus," had given vent to
452 CANADA AND THE COLONIES [Jan.,
similar sentiments. Now, had this been confined to newspapers no
great harm might have been done, and it would have been easier
to explain away later on as the peculiar views of narrow or excit-
able individuals. But unfortunately it did not stop there. The
First Continental Congress was then (1774) in session at Phila-
delphia, and among its members was John Jay, so notorious for his
bitterness towards the Church. And he had a large part in the
framing of the " Address to the People of Great Britain," which,
among other grievances, states the following :
We think the legislature of Great Britain is not authorized. . . .
to establish a religion fraught with sanguinary and impious
tenets The Dominion of Canada is to be so extended,
modelled and governed, as that by being disunited from us,
detached from our interests, by civil as well as religious preju-
dices, that by their numbers daily swelling with Catholic emi-
grants from Europe, and by their devotion to administration, so
friendly to their religion, they might become formidable to us,
and, on occasion, be fit instruments in the hands of power, to
reduce the ancient free Protestant Colonies to the same state
of slavery with themselves nor can we suppress our as-
tonishment that a British Parliament should ever consent to
establish in that country a religion that has deluged your island
in blood, and dispersed impiety, bigotry, persecution, murder,
and rebellion through every part of the world.
Further on the fear is expressed that the Colonies will be
reduced to slavery :
by the power of Great Britain and the aid of our Roman
Catholic neighbors.
This was followed by an Address to the Colonies of similar
tone:
An act was passed [sc. in the British Parliament] for changing
the government of Quebec, by which act the Roman Catholic
religion, instead of being tolerated, as stipulated by the treaty
of peace, is established The authors of this arbitrary ar-
rangement flatter themselves that the inhabitants, deprived of
liberty, and artfully provoked against those of another religion,
will be proper instruments for assisting in the oppression of
such as differ from them in modes of government* and faith.
*This phrase refers to the establishment of French law in Quebec.
1913-] AND THE "GUARDIANS OF LIBERTY' 453
The people of England will soon have an opportunity of
declaring their sentiments concerning our cause. In their piety,
generosity and good sense, we repose high confidence : and can-
not, upon a review of past events, be persuaded that they, the
defenders of true religion, and the assertors of the rights of
mankind, will take part against their affectionate Protestant
brethren in the Colonies in favor of our open and their own
secret* enemies; whose intrigues for several years past have
been wholly exercised in sapping the foundations of civil and
religious liberty.
But even this, unpleasant reading though it be for an American,
is not the sum total of this miserable business. For in the series
of Resolutions drawn up on September i/th of that year (1774),
we find the following :
That the late act of Parliament for establishing the Roman
Catholic religion and the French laws in that extensive country
now called Canada is dangerous in an extreme degree to the
Protestant religion and to the civil rights and liberties of all
America; and, therefore, as men and Protestant Christians,
we are indispensably obliged to take all proper measures for
our security.
And this " grievance " was repeated in the " Petition to the
King " of October, 1774:
In the last session of Parliament an act was passed for
establishing an absolute government and the Roman
Catholic religion throughout those vast regions that border on
the westerly and northerly boundaries of the free Protestant
English settlements.f
But it was not long before the Colonies came to repent of their
short-sighted policy in raising the religious question, and making
it one of the principal grounds of objection to British rule. As
the situation grew more serious, and it gradually became evident
that war was unavoidable, it dawned on the minds of the patriots
that they had made a mistake, since those very Canadians whose
religion had been such a bugbear might be converted into valuable
allies, and with that end in view they set to work on an " Address
*Italics in the original.
tSee Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789, vol. i. (Washington:
Government Printing Office.)
454 CANADA AND THE COLONIES [Jan.,
to the Inhabitants of Quebec," where that terrible religion, so
"dangerous to.... the civil rights and liberties of all America,"
" fraught with sanguinary and impious tenets," that had " deluged
(England) in blood and dispersed impiety, bigotry and persecution,
murder and rebellion, through every part of the world " was men-
tioned only to be promptly dismissed as constituting no bar to a
union. The contrast is so amazing that if, instead of possessing
the documents themselves, we had to rely on the testimony of others
as to their contents, we might suspect some error. But here are
the very words :
We are too well acquainted with the liberality of sentiment
distinguishing your nation, to imagine that difference of re-
ligion will prejudice you against a hearty amity with us. You
know that the transcendent nature of freedom elevates those
who unite in her cause, above all such low-minded infirmities ( !)
The Swiss Cantons furnish a memorable proof of this truth.
Their union is composed of Catholic and Protestant states,
living in the utmost concord and peace with one another, and
thereby enabled ever since they vindicated their freedom to defy
and defeat every tyrant that has invaded them.*
But the results of this appeal would seem not to have come up
to expectations, and so another and stronger effort was made. In
February, 1776, a commission, consisting of Benjamin Franklin,
Samuel Chase, Charles Carroll, and the Reverend John Carroll was
appointed to repair to Canada for the purpose of securing the
adherence of that country to the cause of independence.! After
a long and far from comfortable journey, the commission arrived
at Montreal, where at first there was some show of friendship.
But their hopes were soon shattered. The people of Quebec could
not see any very clear reason for renouncing their allegiance. The
British Government not only respected their civic rights, but a
thing they seem to have considered vastly more important secured
to them their religious rights as well, whereas the revolting Colonies
had said some pretty hard things about that same religion, and
were at that very time adopting constitutions whose religious pro-
visions compared very unfavorably with those England had made.
Consequently, when the enthusiasm had subsided, and they put
^Reported in the Pennsylvania Packet, November 14, 1774.
tThroughout the negotiations the Rev. Mr. Carroll confined his endeavors
to securing the neutrality of the Canadians, as he deemed the promotion of an
active military alliance incompatible with his priestly character.
1913-] AND THE "GUARDIANS OF LIBERTY'- 455
together the reference made to Catholicism in the " Address to the
Inhabitants of Quebec" and those in the "Address to the People
of Great Britain," they very naturally refused the invitation, call-
ing Congress " perfidious and double-faced," and praying God's
blessing on the English King and his government. In other words,
the mission of Congress to Canada resulted principally in stirring
up sentiments of loyalty to Great Britain! It was useless for the
Americans to point to evidences of respect and esteem for Cathol-
icism among the inhabitants of the revolting Colonies. One Jay
can drown out a dozen Washingtons, and the sting of past insult
had penetrated too deep to be removed by compliments and prom-
ises. The most that was effected was the obtaining of aid from
some individual Canadians, whose dislike of England was strong
enough to triumph over those considerations, and the securing o>f
the neutrality of others, but Canada, as a whole, held aloof, the
scheme fell through, the commission returned disappointed and
almost empty-handed, and American bigots were taught a lesson.
And now, with this narrative in mind, let us ask ourselves a
question: Suppose that the case was the other way, i. e., that the
bigotry had been on the side of England, and the tolerance and
common sense on the side of America, can there be any reasonable
doubt as to what the attitude of Catholic Canada would have been ?
Or suppose that the revolting colonies had shown even as much
breadth of view were it but from purely political motives as the
mother country showed, is it not likely that the reception accorded
their envoys would have been more cordial, and perhaps even led
to some sort of alliance? But, at any rate, whatever might have
happened, we know what did happen. And if to-day the English-
speaking peoples of this continent (north of Mexico) form two
nations instead of one, the situation is due to the existence among
our forefathers of exactly that spirit which the " Guardians of
Liberty " are trying to resuscitate to-day. We played with that
fire once, and got badly burned : shall we light it again ?
WHILE JANE ANNE WAS AWAY.
BY KATHARINE TYNAN.
T was a long time ago since Angela Ferguson, the
mother of the children at Fir Tree Hall, had left
them: an endless age it seemed to Betty and Fan
and Peter and little Pat though it could not have
been so long ago as grown-up people count time,
since Pat was only six years old, and she died when Pat was born.
Poor sweet woman ! The peasants round about Fir Tree Hall,
which was in a lonesome Ulster glen among the mountains, shook
their heads when they thought about her, and said sorrowfully that
she could not be happy in the place where she was gone to if she had
any idea of the desolation and ruin she had left behind. For
Richard Ferguson had taken to drinking after his wife's death,
had remained drunk, with a few intervals of miserable conscious-
ness, during the three years he lived after her: and ought to
have died, said many a one, before he married Jane Anne Cleaver,
a down Northern peasant and a Presbyterian, though she never
troubled church nor chapel; she had been one of his own servants.
The other servants vacated after the marriage. They were
not going to sit down under Jane Anne for a mistress, not
they. They all knew how she had got the poor master to marry
her by bringing him drink for his destruction, and then carry-
ing him off and keeping him fuddled till the Registrar at Quay-
side had tied the knot. Sure, said the people, wouldn't he be
punished for all his sins if he could only know the unhappiness
of the poor children he had left behind him for he was a fond
father as well as a fond husband, and it never would have happened
only for the drink.
Fir Tree Hall was a big rambling house, which would have
required a whole staff of servants to keep it in order. It had
been decaying, growing steadily shabbier year by year, but till
Richard Ferguson's second marriage it had kept its shabby dignity
and its troops of ragged retainers and pensioners of one kind or
another. Jane Anne had thought to do a great thing for herself
when she married the master. She had not done so well after
all. The place was heavily encumbered. There was very little
money, and there were the four children. Jane Anne in the early
days of her promotion had given herself airs, and made enemies of
1913-] WHILE JANE ANNE WAS AWAY 457
her own class. She had sent the pensioners paddling. Now, in her
widowhood, she was left alone. The gardens were overgrown,
the stable yard empty, the house going to rack and ruin, and Jane
Anne's temper was as bad as it was possible to imagine, especially
after she had gone over to Quayside by train and came back red in
the face, and with a dull glare in her eyes, which the children had
learned to dread.
It seemed nobody's business to see how Richard Ferguson's
children were dealt with. Fir Tree Hall is in a beautiful but
rather desolate and poverty stricken country, with very few gentry,
and tucked away at the back of God Speed, as the people said, and
the drive up to the house extends a full mile from the entrance
gates. Jane Anne had been very rude to the one or two good
people who had called. No one suspected that she was unkind to
the children. And, after all, who was going to take charge of
four helpless children? Richard Ferguson did not seem to have
a relative left in the world. His friends were dead or alienated
by his second marriage. When he had spoken just before his death,
his hand wet with the sweat of death on Peter's shoulder, he had
said: "Write Aunt Lucy 412 " His voice had died oft.
He had never finished the sentence.
Jane Anne through everything retained her grim Northern
preference for cleanliness about her, although not of her person.
The greater part of the big house might go to rack and ruin. The
part in which she lived must be clean. She closed up the big hand-
some rooms upstairs. They suffered less shut up than open. She
preferred to live in the kitchen, and since she had grown lazy of late,
and was tending to stoutness, the kitchen premises had to be kept
clean by someone else than she. There was no one to do the
scrubbing and the hearth-stoning, the whitening and polishing but
the children, with Jane Anne's eyes and tongue over them. There
seemed miles of these kitchen premises to the children, to say nothing
of the stone staircases. The children spent most of their lives
washing and scrubbing, that is to say Betty and Peter did, for the
others were too little to be of much use. Betty and Peter rose
in the dark of the winter mornings, dragging themselves
from their heavy sleep. The fire had to be made, the
kitchen tiles scrubbed over, everything clean and shining,
and the breakfast ready before Jane Anne came down
in her untidy dressing-gown. Whatever there was good in the way
of food she had. The children had what Jane Anne might have
flung to a dog, if she had kept anything so useless. Angela Fer-
458 WHILE JANE ANNE WAS AWAY [Jan.,.
guson's children should have been tall, handsome, well- formed,
but they were half -starved and on the way to be stunted, and
Betty and Peter were cruelly overworked, had not enough sleep,
and lay cold at night, besides were ill-clad by day. All four chil-
dren were cowed. Even Pat, who was naturally merry, had almost
forgotten how to laugh, except when he played with the little
Christ Child on the wall the picture of the Baby, framed in
holly, which Angela Ferguson had hung up for the children to
say their prayers before in the old days : Jane Anne had torn down
the other religious emblems. Perhaps it had not occurred to her
that this was anything but an ordinary Christmas Child, so it had
escaped.
Hitherto the children had not brought Jane Anne's direct
wrath upon them. They were too thoroughly cowed for that:
but one January morning little Pat, sitting at the table in the
kitchen peeling potatoes with his little chilly fingers, was suddenly
taken sick. And, seeing what his last meal had been composed of,
it was no wonder.
Jane Anne pounced on him, carried him struggling into the
back yard, and turned the pump water upon him, all the time shaking
and objurgating the terrified child till he was almost out of his
wits.
She had half -drowned him before Betty appeared on the scene.
Betty had been scrubbing a bedroom at the top of the house, and
had not known what was happening till Pat's cries reached her.
She hurled herself upon her stepmother like a little fury,
using what means of attack nature had given her her nails and
her feet she was wearing hob-nailed boots that it would have
broken her mother's heart to see. Unexpectedly Jane Anne fell
back before the onslaught. The boots had done great execution
on her shins. Betty rejoiced at the queer look of fear that came
into the woman's yellow face. Of course, she would have to
suffer for it later: they would all have to suffer for it but the
gratified hatred in the little heart was sweet for the moment. Poor
Betty, who was by nature the gentlest of children ! She had almost
forgotten the prayers her mother had taught her in the heavenly
time while that mother was still with them!
She had snatched Pat from the amazed Jane Anne before the
lady could recover herself, and carried him upstairs. She had torn
off his w r et clothes and put him into bed. Her cheeks were flaming
and her eyes shining. Presently she would break down into floods
of tears, but not yet.
1913-] WHILE JANE ANNE WAS AWAY 459
When she had got Pat into bed she looked about her. He
must have something over him besides the wretched thin single
blanket, which Jane Anne allowed, if he was to be made warm and
recover his half-drowning on this cold January day. She got
her own blanket : she and Fan slept together, as did Peter and Pat,
to save bed clothing. It was no good : the stuff was worn through.
Ah, she had an idea. She walked straight into Jane Anne's
room. Jane Anne might live in the kitchen, but she had one of
the best bedrooms in the house. There was a big gilt bed, with
curtains of scarlet damask. Jane Anne's cupidity would have been
excited if she could have known what the bed was worth. It was
heaped with fleecy blankets. Betty made two or three journeys
before she was satisfied, and small Pat was ceasing to shiver under
a mountain of blankets. While she was panting after her exer-
tions, Peter and Fan came stealing into the room. They always
crept about when Jane Anne was in the house, like a dog that is
afraid of a blow.
" Oh, Bet, what have you done? " Fan asked in a whisper.
" One of these days," said Peter in a thick voice, " I shall
take a knife and kill her. She'll want to do dreadful things to
you. But I won't let her. I shall kill her first. I'm a gentleman,
and a gentleman always defends ladies. I will not let her touch
my sister."
Poor Peter, in dirty corduroy trousers, worn to holes at the
knees where he knelt to scrub the stones, in an old coat of his
father's, with hob-nailed boots which carried a smell of the fowl-
run he had just been cleaning about them, was a very deplorable
looking gentleman. But Betty ran to him and took his head into
her arms. Peter looked terribly thin. His color w?.s unwholesome.
His eyes were sunken, and there were hollows behind his ears.
Feeling his sharp shoulder blades under her arms the little sister
looked up at the Christ Child with a sudden terror. She
might have burst into tears if she had not heard Jane Anne's
voice at that moment.
Jane Anne was calling her from the top of the kitchen stairs,
and her voice had a snarl in it. Betty closed the bedroom door
and walked down quietly. Despite her rags and her miserable
appearance she looked what she was, as she walked with her head
uplifted, the child of gentle folk.
" What do you want with me? " she asked of the virago, who
stood hiding something behind her back.
The woman blenched oddly. Then out came the stick, a stout
460 WHILE JANE ANNE WAS AWAY [Jan.,
blackthorn, which was capable of rendering Betty's little delicate
half-formed bones to pulp. She seized the child. Peter was upon
her in a moment, and dashed her against the wall. The woman
was oddly limp in his slight hold. Like most bullies she was a
coward, and the children's unresisting helplessness had whetted
her appetite for cruelty.
" If you touch my sister I will kill you," said Peter.
Jane Anne pushed him back after that pause of stupefaction,
and stood looking at him malevolently, holding the door of the
kitchen staircase half -open, so that she could shut it between her
and Peter in case of sudden attack.
" You'll go to a reformatory school," she said. " That's the
only place for you, you young murderer. As for you, Miss, you
may beg the country or go to the poorhouse. I am going to be
married again. It's time I had someone to defend me. Out the
two o' ye go this night. I'll thrash the devil out of the others
before they're on the road after ye."
Saying which she shut the kitchen-staircase door, bolted it
on the inside, and clattered down the stairs.
For a few minutes Peter and Betty stared at each other.
Then Betty burst into sobbing. Peter went and put an arm about
her, and tried to console her. They sat down on the stairs side
by side, holding each other's hands forlornly. While they sat
there they heard a welcome sound, the sound of the old pony's
feet on the gravel. Jane Anne was going over to Quayside. She
would be absent for the day.
There was a staircase window from which they could see, and
they were in time to see Jane Anne depart, whacking with a big
stick the old pony which had belonged to the children's mother,
and had been put out on the grass for the rest of his days in
Richard Ferguson's lifetime.
"Do you suppose she's gone for the police for me?" Peter
whispered in a sudden terror. " She said the reformatory"
Betty was not at all sure, but she protested loudly against
the possibility of such a thing, and Peter was satisfied, or in
part satisfied. Anyhow Jane Anne was gone out for the day, and
that was enough for immediate happiness.
" She said she was going to be married," said Betty. " It
must be that red-faced man you disliked so much, Peter, who
came to see her one day and gave you his horse to hold. She
said he was a gentleman who kept a public house in Quayside."
" If he was to come here," said Peter, " I'd as soon be out
1913-] WHILE JANE ANNE WAS AWAY 461
of it if it was to be a reformatory school. If only you were
all right, Betty, and the others, I shouldn't mind if I was dead."
" Oh, don't, Peter, darling. I couldn't live without you," said
Betty; and then remembering she had had no breakfast, "do let
us get something to eat." All this had happened before nine o'clock
in the morning. " She may have left us a pinch of tea and some
bread, and we'll make toast, and milk the goat, and have a feast.
Isn't it lovely that she has gone off for the day ! If only she hadn't
poor old Puck to ill-treat ! "
" I believe papa meant me to write to Aunt Lucy," said Peter,
" He looked so unhappy while he tried to remember : and then
he fell asleep. Let us go and look at Aunt Lucy's picture. I can
open a shutter so we can see. If she would only come I am sure
she would not let her ill-treat us, nor poor old Puck either."
They went into the shrouded drawing-room, where all the fur-
niture, wrapped up in sheets, stood in a ghostly gloom. With
a great effort they got down the big bar of the shutters and let
the light in. On either side of the fireplace hung two water-color
portraits: one of the children's mother, the other of her sister,
Aunt Lucy.
The children knew nothing at all of Aunt Lucy, and only
Betty, who was eleven, had a hazy memory of a beautiful, loving
young mother who used to teach her her prayers and talk about a
Mother in heaven, and kiss her as she brushed out her long hair.
Both faces were of a delicate oval. They had the ringlets, the
softly smiling lips, the swan-necks of the Books of Beauty period.
The brown eyes of the two sisters looked at the children with what
seemed a pitying tenderness. Only there was a difference. Aunt
Lucy's nose turned up a little: she smiled roguishly. There was
something more wilful in her expression than in her sister's, which
was somewhat sad, as though she had foreseen all the sad things
that were going to happen.
" I remember now," said Betty, " Aunt Lucy married someone
papa did not approve of. Mamma liked him, but papa thought
she let herself down. They went to America. I must have heard
someone talking about it."
Again she was aware of the pangs of hunger.
" Close the shutters, Peter," she said, " and let us go. I'm
so hungry. No one has had any breakfast. How quiet the chil-
dren are ! "
It was quite a considerable time before they could open the
hall door, which was bolted and barred. The door at the head of
462 WHILE JANE ANNE WAS AWAY [Jan.,
the kitchen stairs was locked, so there was no getting down that
way. They ran round the house to the kitchen door. That too
was locked and the key gone. The windows had been hasped inside.
Jane Anne had said to herself, with a wicked smile, as she drove off,
that there wouldn't be much fight in the children by the time she
returned.
Peter and Betty looked at each other in dismay. The worst
of it would be when Pat began to demand his food. Pat was too
young to be put off long with excuses, and even Jane Anne had
had to feed him after a fashion, because he cried so much if he
wasn't fed.
They must find something, and milk the goat, and perhaps
there might be an egg during the day. While they were discussing
ways and means Fan joined them.
" I saw her go off," said Fan. " Pat's awake and saying such
silly things. He says . the little Child, the one we say our
prayers to, came down off the wall and spoke to him, and told him
that we're going to have such splendid times. He's such a silly
child. He won't believe he only dreamt it. Oh, Betty, do you
think he didn't dream it ? "
Betty had hopes, but she was not sure. The poor children
had very hazy ideas about religion, though Betty tried to remember
the Our Father, and Hail Mary, and to make the children say
them after her every night. No one had troubled about their
prayers after their mother died, and since Jane Anne came to rule
their praying had to be done by stealth. But the children knew
that the picture of the Christ Child, which hung by Pat's cot, of
which he had made a playfellow during his babyhood, represented
Someone who was in heaven who had a lovely Mother, and she and
her Son were dreadfully sorry for unhappy children, and could do
anything they would for them.
" I wish He and She would send Aunt Lucy," said Betty, " and
take away Jane Anne."
" Oh, and Betty," said Fan, " hadn't you better put back Jane
Anne's blankets. She'll beat you if she finds out, and I can't
bear that. Pat is lovely and warm now, and so am I, for I lay
down beside him, and I'm sure the picture never stirred on the wall,
only Pat will keep talking about the Child and the lovely Lady who
was so kind.
Pat apparently was none the worse for his immersion. He
was lying still, talking to the picture on the wall when Betty went
I9i 3-] WHILE JANE ANNE WAS AWAY 463
upstairs, and he was quite, quite sure that the Child and His
Mother had promised them all something very good.
" It seems very likely," said poor Betty rather hopelessly.
She was afraid to tell Pat that there was nothing to eat. But she
suggested his staying in bed and Fan with him. They could play
a game. There were still games in the old nursery cupboard, and
books and toys, relics of the old lovely time when they had had
mamma. They would keep warm, and they would be less likely
to be hungry, as the game would distract them.
The goat's milk was divided into four portions. The small
children had one each, and Betty contrived that Peter should have
what remained. She was still feeling scared over the thinness
of Peter's shoulder blades. And his poor knees were sore where
they looked through his corduroys. Perhaps she could mend them.
There was that work-table of mother's; if she could only find a
needle in it not rusted. Betty's ideas of mending were very rudi-
mentary, but she thought she could manage to put something be-
tween Peter's poor knees and the stones he had to scrub.
Peter went out and collected a few pieces of coal and scraps
of wood. They found matches and kindling wood in Jane Anne's
bedroom, where there was a roaring fire every night ; and they made
a fire in Pat's bedroom, but it smoked because the chimney was
cold and refused to be anything but the ghost of a fire.
Perhaps Betty was too faint from want of food to feel keenly.
She sat mending Peter's trousers, while he was wrapped up luxur-
iously in one of Jane Anne's woolly blankets listening dreamily
to Pat. Pat was a child of imagination, and he pictured things
which Betty wondered he had ever heard of, while the hours passed
in a dream, and the dusk gathered down upon the house. She had
a swimming in her head and a trembling in her limbs. She could
hardly see to finish the cobbling of Peter's corduroys; and she felt
oddly faint after Peter had retired into a corner to put them on.
Suddenly there was the sound of wheels, of horses' feet.
Jane Anne had returned. Pat forgot his happy dream, and began
to whimper. Fan dived down under the bed clothes. Peter and
Betty stared at each other; and Betty had a memory of the refor-
matory for Peter, and of how she was to be turned out to beg,
leaving the little ones to be bullied by Jane Anne.
While they looked at each other, there was a tremendous
rat-tat at the hall door. Not Jane Anne. Jane Anne would never
have dreamt of knocking at the hall door. Was it the police?
The thought terrified the two elder children. The little ones had
464 WHILE JANE ANNE WAS AWAY [Jan.,
fallen silent. They thought nothing but that Jane Anne the tyrant
had come back. A hope that it might be a message from the
Christ Child awoke and died in Pat's little frightened heart.
Rat-tat-tat! You'd think the door would come down. Peter
started up, flinging back the mane of fair hair, which would have
been beautiful if it had been cared for. There was a look of
resolution on the poor thin face.
" I am going to open the door, Bet," he said, " even if it
is the police."
He started off down the stairs, Betty following him. It was
easy enough to open the door, for the bolts and chains had not been
put back, but a storm had sprung up, and the door came open with
a great bang as soon as they had shot back the lock.
There was a carriage out in the dark, on the neglected gravel-
sweep. The children hardly noticed it because of the little lady in
furs who stepped into the hall, a big, rosy man following her.
" Oh, dear," said the lady in a heart-broken voice, " this
cannot be my little Peter. And Betty is it Betty? Oh, if I had
only known. Why, John, it is worse than the people said. Oh,
my darlings, my poor darlings ! "
The lady seemed to be terribly agitated by the sight of them, and
the gentleman was looking at them oddly too ! Betty had a wild
idea that perhaps it was mamma, the voice was like mamma's, only
the people did not come back from the dead. A rainy streak of
sunshine came, in the Irish way, from the depths of the storm-
cloud and shone full in the lady's face and Betty knew.
" Oh, you are Aunt Lucy ! " she cried. " The Christ Child
has sent you. We have been so happy."
" I am Aunt Lucy, my darling. Oh, I wish I had known.
Did you ever see anything like it, John? " to the gentleman. " That
wretch has almost killed them. My dear sister's beautiful children."
" I should just carry them right off, my dear," said the gentle-
man very decisively, " and let the creature fight it out afterwards,
if she wants to. It won't be long till we get some flesh on their
bones. They want a wash and brush up and some feeding as badly
as any children I ever hope to see. Now, my dear, you will have
your desire. Four children all at once to take care of."
There was a shocked sound in his voice as he spoke, though
he pretended to speak lightly.
" They want some mothering, the poor lambs," said the lady
with an arm round Betty and one round Peter. " But where are
the others, my pet ? There are two more, aren't there ? "
1913-] WHILE JANE ANNE WAS AWAY 465
At this moment Betty suddenly slid, and would have fallen
in a limp heap if her aunt's arm had not held her up.
The next thing that Betty knew was that she was just coming
to, and that she was in a carriage with somebody's arms steadying
her, so that her head should not roll about. She was wrapped in
one of Jane Anne's big fleecy blankets, which had been mamma's.
On the other seat of the carriage sat the rosy-cheeked gentle-
man, with Pat on his knee, and Peter and Fan each side
of him. The last light from the sky was on the children's faces,
and they were looking bewildered and yet very happy.
" Oh, my darling, you gave us such a fright," said Aunt Lucy.
" We were taking you as fast as we could to a doctor. How do you
feel now ? "
" Oh, please," Betty answered, the children still kept the pretty
manners their mother had taught them, in spite of everything,
" it was only joy, Aunt Lucy, and hunger. I've had nothing to
eat to-day. Jane Anne locked up everything, and there was only
a little goat's milk for the others."
"And you went without, you poor precious lamb ! "
Betty felt as though she must have died and wakened up in
heaven to hear such words spoken to her, in such a lovely voice,
just like mother's. The happy tears flooded her eyes as she lay
back against her aunt's shoulder.
" Uncle John," said Fan how quickly the children had learnt
it " please could you take Puck, too ? Jane Anne twacked Puck
most fearfully."
" She means mother's old pony," said Betty, opening her eyes.
" Jane Anne is very cruel to poor Puck."
" Never mind, my pets," Aunt Lucy said soothingly. " I
daresay we shall be able to buy back Puck. That woman must
not have him to be cruel to. Don't think of her any more. You
are free from her forever. You are ours for the future, and
your Uncle John and I have no little children of our own, and are
so glad to have four dear children to be our own and to take
care of."
" Yes, and perhaps we may buy Fir Tree Hall back," said
Uncle John. " Your Aunt Lucy and I want to live at home in
Ireland. It is a beautiful old place, if it was only put in order."
'" Oh, do ! oh, do ! " cried Peter and Betty together, rejoicing
that Fir Tree Hall, which was as something that lived, was not to
be left out of the promised happiness.
VOL. XCVI. 30.
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE.
BY ADRIAN FEVEREL.
III.
THE CULT OF THE UNSCIENTIFIC.
O the average man, the most interesting phase of
Christian Science is Mrs. Eddy's method of healing
disease. In the popular mind Eddyism is always
identified with a number of people who do not believe
in sickness. It is this aspect of Christian Science
which we propose to examine in this paper, in order to appreciate
properly how dangerous such teaching is, particularly when fol-
lowed to its logical conclusion. We cannot ignore the progress
of Christian Science in recent years ; a skillful propaganda is being
carried on by its lecturers, and the press gives the movement a deal
of free advertising. It is owing primarily to this doctrine, this
belief that disease can be eradicated without medical or surgical
science, that its increase in membership has been so rapid. Without
this distinguishing tenet Christian Science as a religion would have
been very short-lived, indeed.
Therefore, if we are to examine Eddyism as The Cult of the
Unscientific, we must understand just what " scientists " really
believe regarding disease, and the means of curing it. Their belief
stated in a few words is this : there is no disease.* The seeming
reality of it, like the seeniing reality of sin, is but an illusion of
" mortal mind."f Destroy this illusion, this belief, and the disease
will vanish into the nothingness from whence it came.t If to this
theory, we object, on the ground that disease entails suffering,
and that one is acutely conscious of this suffering, the " scientist "
will answer ; suffering too is but an illusion ; the body which seems
to suffer is not real, the corporeal body has no real being. It,
like all other mortal things, is only a belief of " mortal mind."
The evidence of the corporeal senses is, therefore, a false evidence,
since it implies that there is life and intelligence in matter. || In
^Science and Health, pp. 108, 176, 188, 393, 395, 482.
id., pp. 365, 395, 480. Ibid., pp. 397, 477.
Mbid., pp. 391, 475.
\\Ibid., pp. 396, 590.
1913.] CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 467
reality, there is no life, truth, intelligence in matter. All is In-
finite Mind.* One has but to understand this fully, and the body
will utter no complaints.! Such, briefly, is the doctrine of disease
and the means of curing it which Christian Science teaches.
When we remember that Christian Scientists identify God and
man, it is not difficult to understand why they hold such peculiar
theories. God being all good, disease can be no part of Him.$
Man being God's reflection, must be like God all good, hence
disease can be no part of him.
These are, briefly considered, the basic ideas which underlie
the teachings of Eddyism on disease and its method of healing.
As theories these doctrines might be mildly interesting for those
who are seldom seriously sick, but carried out practically they
become dangerous in the extreme.
To any objections which may be urged against this mental
method of healing sickness, the " scientist " will insist, " We are
successful; we do heal the sick; come to our meetings and hear them
testify." 1 1 But he forgets that at the testimonial meetings only
the successes are heard, the failures are not spoken of. He forgets,
too, that science has also its successes. Medicine and surgery have
accomplished more marvelous cures than any wrought or even
claimed to have been wrought in Eddyism. These cures, the cures
of Materia Medica, the Eddyite does not consider as cures at all.
According to the inspired textbook of the sect, the man cured in
" science " is really cured, the man cured in surgery, or through
drugs and medicine, has only substituted a worse belief for the
former belief in sickness.fi Again, medical science readily admits
that it often fails; in Mrs. Eddy's " science " there can be no such
thing as failure, although the patient may expire whose life with
proper medical attention might have been prolonged.** We see
here how Mrs. Eddy's theories break down under severe analysis,
and how inconsistent they really are. But shallow minds fail to
comprehend this, and regard her absurdities seriously, not discern-
ing to what they tend when carried to their ultimate conclusion.
In theory they are perhaps mildly amusing, but in practice they are
positively dangerous.
The " scientist," however, is insistent that Eddyism is superior
^Science and Health, p. 468. Mbid., p. 14.
tlbid., pp. 467, 469, 477. llbid., p. 475.
II See " Fruitage," the eighteenth chapter of Science and Health.
^Science and Health, pp. 155, 344, 401, 408.
**Ibid., pp. 427, 428.
468 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE [Jan. r
to medical and surgical science in the treatment of disease, and cites
the cures once more in proof of his contention. Here, he urges,
is the present proof, that we heal as Jesus healed centuries ago.*
The cures of Our Blessed Lord, however, were authenticated and
witnessed by many; the cures of " science " are seldom, if ever, au-
thenticated, and when they are, we find them of such harmless
diseases that they are practically worthless as proofs of the efficacy
of Eddyism in curing disease. It was once humorously observed
that Christian Science was an excellent thing for anything one did
not have, and it would be hard to find a saying that so completely
sums up its remedial benefits. The testimonials, too, are a proof
of the humorist's witticism, for the bulk of them chronicle relief
from nervous troubles, and are mostly indited by women. True,
claims are very frequently made of marvelous recoveries; cases
are cited that had been given up by specialists, but the specialists
are never named, and when the diseases are scientifically examined
it is generally found that the complaint was of a more or less trivial
nature.
How do Christian Scientists cure sickness? Their textbook
asserts that they heal sickness through prayer.f Yet we must not
misconstrue the meaning of that beautiful word in this connection.
" Scientists " do not implore God to have mercy upon them and
heal their sickness. The prayer of the " scientist " is by no means
one of supplication, but rather one of affirmation.! Are you
sick? In the quiet of your room plead the allness of God, and
deny the existence of matter. Understand " that life is purely
spiritual, neither in nor of matter, and the body will utter no com-
plaints."|| "The prayer that heals the sick is an absolute under-
standing of God."fl And this understanding is the only proper
method of curing any of the ills that flesh is heir to. No one,
Mrs. Eddy plainly intimates, is ever benefited by drugs or the
doctor;** to heal, or rather to say that a drug can heal any form of
sickness, is merely to say that one form of error has taken the place
of another.ff Properly to heal disease, we must understand that
disease is nothing, and that God is all and man His reflection.
Then and only then will our ills depart.JJ
Lest her readers deem these theories impracticable " the dis-
coverer and founder " of Christian Science relates some of her
^Science and Health, p. 123. ^Ibid., pp. i, 12, 16.
pp. 2, 5, 7, 10, etc. llbid., p. 15. \\Ibid., p. 14.
p. i. **Ibid., pp. 169, 483
., PP. ioi, 483. Wbid., pp. 288, 337, 342.
1913-] CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 469
marvelous cures. If we could believe these marvelous happenings
which Mrs. Eddy chronicles, or if she could substantiate them, we
might be moved to consider her ideas seriously. But when her
statements are tested scientifically and her assertions examined, we
find grave reasons for doubting the veracity of them. An instance
of this was afforded in some correspondence that appeared in the
New York Sun in 1898. Her system of healing was being attacked
by some writers in the correspondence columns of that paper, and
Mrs. Eddy wrote a lengthy rejoinder. Her letter was filled with
fullsome praise of herself and many extravagant statements re-
garding her cures. Among other things, she asserted that she had
healed tuberculosis in its last stages, when the lungs had been
practically destroyed; and a malignant cancer, which had eaten
the flesh away so that the jugular vein was exposed, yielded to her
treatment at one sitting. Yet she never took any patients when
her religion began to be solidly established, and perhaps some critic
wondered why, and wrote the question that Mrs. Eddy answered
so vigorously in Miscellaneous Writings, " Has Mrs. Eddy lost
her power to heal ? " To which she replied, " Has the sun for-
gotten to shine, or the planets to revolve around it? "* Yet when
a doctor of Cincinnati challenged her to make good her assertions,
she remained mute.f
These theories of hers would not be at all dangerous were her
disciples allowed the exercise of common sense and proper hygienic
precautions in treating serious and contagious diseases, but Mrs.
Eddy condemns in the strongest terms the slightest concession to
matter, t Her followers must under no circumstances resort to
drugs in the treatment of disease. The doctor may be called only
when the law would be violated, and in such cases he must not pre-
scribe. In rare cases a surgeon may be called to administer a
hypodermic injection of morphia, but nothing further than that
is allowed in " orthodox " Christian Science.
If these theories were really successful they would be ad-
mirable in many ways. The doctor's bill has always been a deal of
a nuisance, and if Mrs. Eddy could supply in her " laborious pub-
lications " a satisfactory substitute for the family physician, the
world would be profoundly grateful. She asserts that " a thorough
perusal of the author's publication cures sickness : "|| " Every Man
*MiscelIaneous Writings, p. 54.
tSee New York Sun, December 16, 1898; January i, 1899.
^Science and Health, p. 389.
llbid., pp. 443, 456, 464. \\Ibid., p. 446.
470 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE [Jan.,
His Own Doctor " would really be a much more appropriate title
for the " precious volume " than Science and Health. Yet her fol-
lowers do not seem to be able to put her teachings into practice.
It is only the occasional " scientist " that does not regularly con-
sult a practitioner. Indeed, even practitioners often have " claims "
to handle which they cannot meet themselves, and which often
force them to seek " help " from older and more experienced
practitioners. So the man whose wife was sickly and whose
doctor's bills were large, need not rejoice unduly when his wife
informs him that she is going to " try Christian Science." For the
bills will come in just the same, though payable now to Somebody
C. S. or C. S. B., instead of Somebody M. D., as formerly.
Still this teaching of Eddy ism would not be regarded as dan-
gerous were it not for its narrowness and its failure to meet con-
ditions. It has done one good thing, perhaps, though it may be a
question whether it is directly responsible. Indirectly, certainly,
it has forced the attention of scientists to the really scientific ex-
amination of the influence which the mind can exercise over the
body. Mental therapeutics is now an established branch of scien-
tific study, and through its means nervous diseases are more readily
cured and are more agreeably treated than formerly. We are not,
however, concerned with studying the progress made in recent years
in the treatment of nervous diseases through mental suggestion.
Rather, we are concerned in examining an ignorant and unscien-
tific application of principles essentially scientific. In a limited
way we know that the mind can exert a favorable influence over
the body. " Faith in your doctor is half the battle," has become,
to say no more, a trite saying. Yet to argue that because the
mind can influence the body to the extent of health in some minor
nervous troubles, it can therefore cure broken limbs and malignant
cancers, is reasoning of a most puerile kind. The " scientist "
answers that the human mind does not enter his method of treat-
ment ; none the less in this he errs, since the human mind is the only
mind we are cognizant of. For the " scientist " to argue that the
human mind is non-existent is folly of the sheerest sort, a proposi-
tion and a theory which he cannot prove. In this we see the dan-
ger of this extremely narrow system, namely, its claim that all
disease is subject to it.
Everyone who follows the progress of science knows that
to-day, thanks to modern methods in handling certain diseases, the
rate of mortality is considerably decreased. We all know, too,
1913.] CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 47*
that certain diseases are contagious, and that the germs which carry
them are easily dispersed by persons entering the sick room of a per-
son afflicted with them; further we know such germs are highly
infectious. Scientific treatment of these contagious diseases has
reduced the number of their victims greatly, and in this work hy-
giene has been a most potent factor.
Now Mrs. Eddy denies entirely that any disease can be con-
tagious,* and, further, she proudly asserts that hygiene has no
part or place in her system of mental healing. f Scientists tell
us that the rate of infant mortality is considerably lessened by
proper hygienic conditions in the nursery. Daily baths for babies
are now considered a great help in keeping an infant healthy. Mrs.
Eddy tells us that to wash an infant daily is as sensible as taking
a fish out of water, and covering it with dirt that it may thrive the
better in its native element.! Such absurdities, one would think,
would convince intelligent people of the utter silliness of Mrs.
Eddy's ideas, yet it seems that many " scientists " regard such
nonsense as wonderfully clever reasoning. It does not answer
this objection to show that " scientists " are clean people, any
more than it answered our objection of their teaching on sin, to
show that they were decently behaved people. They are clean as
they are decent, not because of their " science," but in spite of it.
It is quite unnecessary to show from Mrs. Eddy's writings that
she really does hold these views that we have been examining.
Her opinions on these matters are well known; indeed they are
about the only ideas of her sect that are well known and properly
understood. It will suffice for us, therefore, to point out the
danger that lies in the actual practice of them. -It might, however,
before we proceed to this, be interesting to remember that her
system of healing is based upon the Bible, in her own estimation,
and is the same method of procedure that our Savior utilized in
healing the sick. This is such a novel interpretation of Our Lord's
miracles that it is almost amazing. It is not difficult to show its
utter absurdity. Christian Science has its failures. Our Lord did
not fail. Christian Science does not heal instantaneously; Christ
did. Mrs. Eddy assumes that the Apostles were " scientists," but
St. Paul contradicts this idea when he asks, " Have all gifts of
healing ?" Clearly implying that "gifts of healing" were spe-
cial favors of God bestowed upon certain holy men and women.
^Science and Health, pp. 153, 176, 390, 393.
Mbid., pp. 382, 484. tlbid., p. 413. i Cor. xii. 30.
472 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE [Jan.,
There is another inconsistent point in this doctrine of the
nothingness of disease which Mrs. Eddy so strongly insists on.
She argues that the evidence of the corporeal senses is false.*
Therefore if one is ill, and one's corporeal senses convey this in-
formation, the information is to be discredited, since the corporeal
senses chronicle beliefs of mind in matter. She seems not to
realize that when one is in health, the same corporeal senses convey
the information. Why should they be discredited in the one case
and credited in the other?
Let us examine these teachings a little further and see their
results when put into practice. Let us observe the " scientist's "
method of treating contagious diseases. We will imagine our-
selves in a home where there are children, and where the father
and mother are followers of Mrs. Eddy. Into this home the germs
of scarlet fever are carried by some of the children. One of them
contracts the disease. The child, who we are assuming has been
brought up " scientifically," will not at first make any complaints.
Gradually, however, the fever will gain upon this young " scientist,"
and he will have to take to his bed. The father and mother will
continue as though nothing unusual were the matter. They will
both treat their son, and if their treatment is unavailing, the prac-
titioner will be notified. If any of the elders imagine the disease to
be contagious they may have the house quarantined, but this seldom
happens, as it is vastly more " scientific " to treat a case without
diagnosis. The child will be treated as though he were in the
best of health. He will not be placed upon a diet. No one will
feel his pulse or take his temperature, and in the meantime while
he lies ill at home the father and mother will go about without
taking the slightest precautions. In the course of time, the child
will either get well or die. If he gets well, there will be grateful
testimony offered at the next Wednesday evening meeting; if he
dies, well, there may be testimony just the same, to show how grate-
ful the father and mother are to Mrs. Eddy for teaching them that
" in science " there is no death.f It may be thought that the
above is an impossible case, but this we will shortly see is not so.
Let us, however, pause a moment and consider the danger to
the community that exists in such a case as this imaginary one.
First of all, there are the other children in the family to be con-
sidered. Children are extremely susceptible to so highly contagious
a disease as scarlet fever. It would be very unusual if one or
^Science and Health, pp. 120, 274, 396, 489, 493. Mbid., p. 584.
1913.] CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 473
more of them did not also come down with it. Then there are
the children in the neighborhood to be taken into account. The
father and mother passing in and out carry with them the seeds of
a scarlet fever epidemic. Incidentally they may themselves be af-
flicted with their child's illness. From such a case as we have
considered in imagination, let us pass to some actual cases. The
following extracts from the daily papers show quite clearly how
serious a danger there is to the health of a closely populated section
in these teachings of Christian Science.
Coroner lies of Yonkers is investigating the death of thir-
teen-year-old Helen Esther Whipple, daughter of Manager
Clayton J. Whipple of the American Multigraph Company, of
59 Fanshawe Avenue in that city. The girl had died of scarlet
fever, and had no medical attention according to her own father,
who is a Christian Scientist. Dr. David John was called to the
house before the girl died, but it was only to make a diagnosis
and, as Mr. Whipple said, " to comply with the law."
This was a death that was in all probability preventable had a
physician been summoned. It had a somewhat ironical sequel,
considering the concluding words of the newspaper account. To
quote :
Mr. Whipple says that he called a doctor to his house for
the first time in many years on Saturday, and that all his three
children had heretofore recovered under Christian Science
treatment from all childhood complaints. The death of his
daughter has not shaken his faith in Christian Science.
The sequel is interesting as showing that the danger outlined in
the imaginary case above is not at all over-estimated.
Nine days after scarlet fever had killed his thirteen-year-old
daughter Helen, Clayton J. Whipple, Manager of the American
Multigraph Company, at 20 Vesey Street, died yesterday of the
same disease in his home at No. 59 Fanshawe Avenue, Yonkers.
Like his child he had been treated by a Christian Science prac-
titioner, not by a doctor.*
It is noteworthy in these two cases that the doctor was sum-
moned a few hours before the death of the daughter, " to comply
with the law." The law had, however, in great measure been
*New York World, July 16, 1912.
474 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE [Jan.,
violated, since no quarantine had been established in the house.
It is interesting to read that the other three children had always
had Christian Science treatment, and that a doctor had not been
summoned to the house " for many years." Of these childhood
complaints, some were probably of a contagious nature. The pos-
sibilities of an epidemic are not difficult to see.
This is not the only case we might cite in contention of our
opinion that Christian Science is a dangerous menace to the health
of the country. There was William B. Parham, who was found
dead in bed, with a copy of Science and Health lying open before
him. He had been suffering from tuberculosis, but refused to
submit to any medical attention. There was Ernest Carlmark,
who died of typhoid fever; he, too, refused any medical attention.
Yet, he had been a nurse in Bellevue Hospital, and was only forty
years of age. With proper attention he would probably have
recovered. Then the Mosbach case, a young girl who died of
diphtheria; no precautions had been taken to guard against the
contagion of the disease, and in consequence her brother also con-
tracted it. The Board of Health interfered after the girl's death,
however, and the little boy's life was saved. These incidents amply
bear out our contention that Eddyism is a dangerous thing to play
with.
The " scientist " may answer, as he does, to our contentions
that his system is immoral and unhygienic, " Look at us ! We are
decently behaved people, quite as clean as the average person, if not
cleaner, and quite as healthy." But this simply begs the question.
For we also can reply, " Look at us ! The bulk of us outside the
magic pale of 'science' are healthy people too." It is not, there-
fore, Christian Science that keeps them healthy, but rather the
lack of it. Just as the doctor does not keep us healthy, but rather
his absence indicates that we are without need of his services.
If the " scientist " insists that he was cured, however, of some
serious complaint, we will perhaps consider him seriously, but
whenever he informs us that he has been healed of malignant can-
cer or fractured skull or something of an equally grave nature, and
we really become interested and inquire particulars, lo! the par-
ticulars are seldom forthcoming, and when they are, they generally
show on investigation that the gravity of the ailment has been very
considerably magnified.
Yet, while we can in a great measure discount the " marvelous
cures," we cannot at all deny that Christian Science has helped
1913.] CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 475
many a nerve-racked man or woman, bordering upon nervous pros-
tration, back to a comparatively quiet existence. What then?
Are we to jump to the conclusion that because, in a limited way,
Mrs. Eddy's system of mental healing has benefited a few people,
it is therefore a sure cure for all the ills that flesh is heir to, and
a new divine revelation sent to the present age, as Mrs. Eddy
asserts. It is not necessary for us to answer such a question;
common sense at once prompts a reply in the negative. We could
show that some few individuals were benefited by the San Francisco-
earthquake; indeed, one woman who had been paralyzed a number
of years, in the excitement got up and walked to a place of safety.*
This does not warrant us, however, in recommending earthquakes
as a cure for paralysis.
Yet how are we to account for these minor cures of people in*
" Science ? " It will not do for us to dodge the issue by saying
they had nothing really the matter with them, and found it out.
The " scientist " will retort that Materia Medica was unable to find
out that there was nothing the matter with these people, and to
convince them of that fact as " science " had done. And while this
is a difficult question to answer absolutely, still I think the solution
lies in the hypnotic nature of Mrs. Eddy's method. It is true that
Mrs. Eddy entirely denies any similarity in nature between her
" science " and hypnotism.f Yet her mere " say so " does not alter
the fact at all. Despite her protests and her assertion that hypno-
tism ultimates in moral and physical death in both subject and prac-
titioner,! there is a great similarity. Christian Science might, I
think, be described as hypnotism with the manipulations discarded.
We must remember that many scientists are absolutely depend-
ent upon their practitioners. They seem unable to face the smallest
danger themselves. The examples cited from the press show how
entirely the minds of these unfortunates were in subjection to their
" healers." Anyone who has come into intimate contact with
Mrs. Eddy's followers knows how utterly they follow the advice
of their practitioners; they talk much of mesmerism and its evil
effects, while in reality they are themselves wholly under mesmeric
influence. They point proudly to their cures as evidence that their
system is practical. So does the hypnotist. Yet, the hypnotist
can often authenticate his cures and, moreover, they are almost
never so extravagantly impossible as those which are wrought ia
*See The Religio-Medical Masquerade. By C. H. Peabody.
^Science and Health, pp. 103, 106, 442, etc. $Ibid., p. 105.
476 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE [Jan.,
" science." We have already said that the cures of cases that might
really prove something were seldom authenticated, and it is idle
to repeat it again. There is, however, an element of doubt that
enters even the seemingly possible cures. And a multitude of ob-
jections can be raised, e. g., How are we to know that the " claim "
has been rightly diagnosed ? In the great majority of cases no one
with any real scientific knowledge sees the person healed in Eddy-
ism. We have only the word of the patient that he was really
suffering from some organic complaint, and the inconsistency of
the whole system is patent when we fully realize that no cure
wrought by " science " is really a cure at all, since eventually the
person healed contracts some ailment and goes the way of all flesh.
There is no death, says Mrs. Eddy. Death is but an illusion like
sin and sickness,* and yet the " scientist " has not yet come who
can make a demonstration over the grim visitor.
Here we must leave the subject, satisfied that we have shown
the danger that underlies these teachings of Eddy ism regarding
disease. We are satisfied, too, that it has been shown that Science
is inconsistent and in all cases a colossal failure, since its cures and
its adherents ultimately succumb to disease and death. We hope,
too, that once its really dangerous character is realized, those per-
sons who may think it mildly interesting as a religious novelty,
and who believe " that there is something in it," will once more
become rational, and understand that nonsense is not at all in
keeping with divine revelation.
^Science and Health, pp. 469, 584, etc.
[TO BE CONTINUED.]
SIR THOMAS MORE AND HIS TIME.
BY W. E. CAMPBELL.
VI.
ORE'S first wife died about 1511, and, according to
the witness of his confessor, he obtained a dispen-
sation and was married again " without any banns
asking " within a month of her death. This lady
was a widow and seven years More's senior ; she was
neither beautiful nor well-educated, but was an excellent housewife,
and a good mother to his four young children. Like many a
good wife, she seems to have been a little jealous of her husband's
bachelor friends, so at any rate Erasmus implies. But we should
remember in justice to her that Erasmus couldn't speak a word
of English, and during his stay at her house the conversations
between her husband and his guest must have been entirely in Latin,
a little trying to a naturally talkative lady.
Being now Under-Sheriff of London, and in the full tide of his
professional success, More seems to have acted as the Sheriff's
deputy in most of the important legal business, but he found
leisure enough to begin his life of Richard III., an excellent example
of straightforward and eloquent English style.* In 1514 a dis-
pute arose between the London merchants and the foreign traders
resident in the city. It was found necessary to send an embassy
to the Archduke Charles in Flanders, and More was asked to
represent the interests of his fellow citizens. This embassy left
England in May, 1515, and kept More abroad for more than
six months, very much against his will. He complains that his
allowance, though sufficient to feed him abroad, is insufficient for
the maintenance of his family at home, since, alas, he cannot per-
suade them to fast in his absence.
However, he seems to have made some very delightful ac-
quaintances.
In my legation, some things greatly delighted me [he writes
to Erasmus]. First, the living so long and continually with
*" The first example of good English language, pure and perspicuous, well-chosen
without vulgarisms and pedantry " Hallam. There is some doubt as to whether
More was the author of this work or only the translator from Cardinal Morton.
478 SIR THOMAS MORE AND HIS TIME [Jan.,
Tunstall,* a man who, while he is surpassed by none in culture,
nor in strictness of life, is also unequalled in sweetness of man-
ners. Next, I acquired the friendship of Busleyden,f who
received me with a magnificence proportionate to his great
riches, and a cordiality in keeping with the goodness of his
soul. He showed me his house so marvelously built and splen-
didly furnished, and so many antiquities in which you know my
curiosity and delight, and, above all, his library is so well
filled, and his mind more richly stocked than any library, so
that he fairly bewildered me. I hear that he is about to under-
take an embassy to our king.
But in my travels nothing was more to my wishes than my
intercourse with your host, Peter Aegidius of Antwerp,^ a man
so learned, witty, modest, and so true a friend, that I would
willingly purchase my intimacy with him at the cost of a great
part of my fortune.
It was on this journey that More conceived the idea of his
Utopia, and actually composed the second book ; the first book being
written on his return to England, in the following year, in such
time as he could steal from meat and sleep.
The first book of the Utopia, which, as I said, was written
after the second, introduces us to the hero of this idealistic romance.
Upon a certain day, when about to leave our Lady's church at
Antwerp, after hearing Mass, More chanced to espy his friend Peter
Giles in conversation with a stranger, " a man well stricken in age,
with a black sunburned face, a long beard, and a coat cast homely
about his shoulders, whom by his favor and apparel forthwith I
judged to be a mariner." More is introduced, and discovers the
stranger to be a certain Raphael Hythloday, a learned man and
greatly traveled, in fact he had joined himself to the company
of Amerigo Vespucci, and in the last of four voyages was left
behind, and came home later by another way.
Anxious to hear of his adventures, More then and there sits
down with his friends in a garden upon a bench covered with
green turf. When Hythloday had discoursed for some time upon
the manners, customs, laws, and ordinances which obtain in these
little-known countries, More points out how useful he could make
*Cuthbert Tunstall (1474-1559), Master of the Rolls, 1516; Dean of Salis-
bury, 1521; Bishop of London, 1522; Keeper of the Privy Seal, 1523; Bishop
of Durham, 1530.
tjerome Busleyden, native of Luxembourg, Canon, Ambassador to Julius II.,
Francis I., and Henry VIII. Died 1517.
$ Peter Aegidius or Giles, friend of Erasmus and More, to whom the latter
dedicates his Utopia.
1913-] SIR THOMAS MORE AND HIS TIME 479
himself by getting to some king's court, and freely giving there
the benefit of his experiences. But Hythloday replies to this pro-
posal that no one would listen to him, much less follow his advice.
He informs More that he has been in England, and speaks highly
of Cardinal Morton, who in Henry VII. 's time had treated him very
kindly. He then proceeds to discuss the chief social and political
evils which afflicted More's country at that time. This relation
occupies the whole of the first book, and forms a very vivid contrast
to the ideal state of things set over against it in the second.
A discussion arises, one day, at Cardinal Morton's house, as
to why thieves seem the more to abound as the laws against them
are the more rigorously enforced. Hythloday points, first of all,
to the very rigor of the law itself. " This punishment of thieves,"
he says, "passeth the limits of justice, and is also very hurtful to
the weal public Great and horrible punishments be appointed
for thieves, whereas much rather provision should be made, that
there were some means whereby they might get their living, so
that no man should be driven to this extreme necessity, first to
steal, and then to die."
He then enumerates the causes of that widespread poverty
which makes thieving a necessity. First, there is a great number
of gentlemen, " which cannot be content to live idle themselves,
like drones, of that which others have labored for: their tenants,
I mean, whom they poll and shave to the quick by raising their
rents. These gentlemen, I say, do not only live in idleness them-
selves, but also carry about with them at their tails a great flock
or train of idle and loitering serving-men, which never learned
any craft whereby to get their livings. ..." These being dismissed
at their masters' death, or for other reasons, are thrown upon
the world with no means of getting a livelihood.
Then we come to the enclosures. " Noblemen and gentle-
men, yea and certain abbots, holy men no doubt," not content
with their ordinary sources of income, leave no ground for tillage,
but inclose all into pastures, with the result that the village folk
are driven from their homes and occupations. " . . . . When they
have wandered abroad till that be spent, what can they else do
but steal, and then justly pardy be hanged."
A w r ord should be said in regard to " the noblemen and gentle-
men, yea, and certain abbots, holy men no doubt." The civil wars
which preceded the reign of Henry VII. wrought prosperity to
the towns, but great and silent havoc to the countryside. The older
nobility turned all their laborers into soldiers, and when the War of
480 SIR THOMAS MORE AND HIS TIME [Jan. r
the Roses was at an end, the older nobility were mostly exter-
minated, while their soldiers had little inclination for pastoral
occupations. A new order of men now got possession of the soil,
business people from the towns who looked to their own profit
rather than to the contentment of the villagers. A complaint is
made to Parliament in Henry VIII.'s time that " in consequence
of the occupation of the land by merchants, clothiers, and others "
housekeeping had decayed, and tillage had been turned into pas-
ture. " When every man was contented with one farm, there was
plenty of everything," say the petitioners. " Now in a town of
twenty or thirty dwellings the houses are decayed, the people gone,
the churches in ruins, and in many parishes nothing more than a
neatherd or a shepherd or a warner is to be seen."*
With regard to the monks, I need only quote one authority,
that of a modern scholar by no means prejudiced in their favor;
rather the contrary. After pointing out the reasons which might
induce the monks to convert their arable land into pasture, and to
inclose still more of the common lands for this purpose, he con-
cludes : " Under such conditions the figures of monastic tillage
become eloquent. In spite of the fact that pasture was twice as
valuable as arable land, that monasteries were in a large way of
business, and that they had particular reasons to reduce their arable
land, yet up to the last the monks tilled almost as much land as they
kept for grazing purposes."!
Hythloday then points to the remedy for all this thieving,
which is far better than capital punishment.
Surely my lord [quoth I], I think it is not right nor justice,
that the loss of money should cause the loss of a man's life. . . .
To be short, Moses' law, though it were ungentle and sharp,
as a law that was given to bondmen yet it punished theft
by the purse and not with death. And let us not think that
God in the new law of clemency and mercy, under which He
ruleth us with fatherly gentleness, as His dear children, hath
given us greater scope and license to the execution of cruelty,
one upon another.
Hythloday then develops the central thesis of his philosophy,
namely, the evil of private property.
Howbeit doubtless Master More [to speak truly as my mind
*State Papers, vol. i., 1509-1514.
^Oxford Studies in Social and Legal History, vol. i. ; English Monasteries
on the Eve of the Dissolution, by Alexander Savine, Professor of History in the
University of Moscow.
1913.] SIR THOMAS MORE AND HIS TIME 481
giveth me] where possessions be private, where money beareth
all the stroke, it is hard and almost impossible that there the
weal public may justly be governed and prosperously flourish.
For the wise man (Plato) did easily foresee this to be
the one and only way to the wealth of the commonalty, if
equality of all things should be brought in and stablished
Thus do I fully persuade myself, that no equal and just dis-
tribution of things can be made, nor that perfect wealth shall
ever be among men, unless this propriety be exiled and ban-
ished.
More, thereupon, directly denies this.
But I am of contrary opinion [quoth I], for methinketh that
men shall never there live wealthily, where all things be common.
For how can there be an abundance of goods, or of anything,
where every man withdraweth his hand from labor? Whom
the regard of his own gains driveth not to work, but the hope
that he hath other men's travails maketh him slothful.
In the second book we are introduced to Utopia itself, which
is plainly modeled on Plato's picture of Atlantis in the Critias;
there is also a suggestion of Britain as described by Tacitus in his
Agricola. It is, of course, a country of ideal perfection; and as
such provides a glaring and suggestive contrast to the actual state
of European affairs as set forth in the previous book. The scene
of it is laid in the romantic regions of the west which the voyages
and discoveries of Vespucci and Columbus had opened up to the
imagination of Western Europe, and the fact that some enthusiastic
readers quite seriously thought of fitting out an expedition to its
happy shores, sufficiently indicates the success with which More
conveyed the impression of its reality.
Utopia was a crescent shaped island about a hundred miles
across at its widest part, the sea running in between its two corners
and separating them by some nine miles. It contained fifty-four
cities, not crowded together, but spread about at minimum distances
of twenty-four miles. The inhabitants divide their attention be-
tween town and country, thinking it healthier that they should
reside and work now in one and now in the other. Their chief
city is Amaurote, which stands almost four square on the side
of a low hill, with two rivers at its feet. The streets are twenty
feet broad,* and flanked with handsome buildings, for the whole
city was magnificently planned by its first founder, King Utopus,
*A contrast to the streets of London, which were but ten or twelve.
VOL. XCVI. 31.
482 SIR THOMAS MORE AND HIS TIME [Jan.,
who paid special attention to the laying out of gardens, an excellent
tradition that has never been lost sight of.
The method of city government is described, together with the
sciences, crafts, and occupations of the inhabitants. Husbandry is
a science practiced by all, and in addition to this everyone, whether
noble or not, is compelled to learn a trade. No man is allowed to sit
idle unless age or illness excuses him. But, on the other hand, the
hours of labor are strictly limited to six, a plain reference to the
brutal conditions of Henry VIII. 's time when an act of 1496, which
had been repealed, was revived making it compulsory for every ar-
tificer and laborer to be at work from five in the morning until six or
seven in the evening from March to September. Six hours a day is
quite long enough to work, says the writer, if all take their share.
He then passes in review the various social customs ; the regu-
lation and distribution of population, the surplus being employed to
colonize waste ground. Their dress is very simple, and without un-
necessary display, and all things are so economically ordered that even
the humblest citizens have time for leisure and mental improvement.
The eldest, as I said, ruleth the family. The wives be
ministers to their husbands, the children to their parents
Every city is divided into four equal parts or quarters. In the
midst of every quarter there is a market place of all manner
of things. Thither the works of every family be brought into
certain houses. And every kind of thing is laid up several
in barns or storehouses. From hence the father of every
family or every householder fetcheth whatsoever he shall have
need of, and carrieth it away with him without money, without
exchange, without gage, pawn, or pledge.
There is also a meat market, but only bondmen are allowed
to kill the beasts necessary for food, since " they think clemency the
gentlest affection of our nature." Their meals are taken in com-
mon in large halls, one to every thirty families; the women of
each family superintend the cooking in turn, but all menial tasks
connected therewith are performed by slaves. The men sit on
one side of the table and the women opposite them, while all chil-
dren above five years of age either serve at the tables or stand by
in silence, eating only what is given them from the tables at the
discretion of their elders. There is a short reading at each meal,
followed by conversation, in which the young men are encouraged
to take part. At supper music is always provided. In the country
meals are taken at home.
1913.] SIR THOMAS MORE AND HIS TIME 483
Regulations follow as to travelers, who easily obtain permis-
sion for their journeys. " There be neither wine taverns, nor ale-
houses, nor stews, nor any occasion of vice or wickedness, no lurking
corners, no places of wicked counsel or unlawful assemblies." In
business they exchange superfluous for necessary goods, setting
little store by money, except in so far as necessary for intercourse
with other states. Gold, silver, and precious stones are held in
dishonor and of little worth. They eat and drink in earthen and
glass vessels, making only the commoner vessels of gold and silver
as also the chains, fetters and gyves wherein they tie their slaves.
Their children wear precious stones, but leave them off as soon as
they grow up, and " thus by all means possible they procure to
have gold and silver among them in reproach and infamy."
Their ethical beliefs appear to be a mixture of Epicureanism
and Platonism ; their summum bonum is pleasure that is rationally
defined and interpreted. They believe the soul to be immortal, and
by the bountiful goodness of God ordained to felicity. Good and
evil are rewarded in the after life. These truths they think to
rest on reasonable proof. They renounce the ascetic life, only going
so far as to defer an immediate and lesser pleasure for a greater.
They define virtue as life ordered according to nature, and
that we be hereunto ordained by God The most and wisest
part (of the Utopians) believe that there is a certain godly
power unknown, everlasting, incomprehensible, inexplicable, far
above the capacity and reach of man's wit, dispersed through-
out all the world, not in bigness, but in virtue and power.
Him they call the Father of all But after they heard us
speak of the name of Christ, of His doctrine, laws, miracles,
and of the no less wonderful constancy of so many martyrs,
whose blood willingly shed brought a great number of nations
throughout all parts of the world into their sect; you will not
believe with how glad minds they agreed unto the same : whether
it were by the secret inspiration of God, or else for that they
thought it nighest unto that opinion, which among them is
counted chiefest.
Some of their customs are obviously in direct contrast to cer-
tain practices of More's day. " They exclude and banish all at-
torneys, proctors, and sergeants at law; which craftily handle
matters, and subtly dispute of the laws. For they think it most
meet, that every man should plead his own matter, and tell the
same tale to the judge that he would tell to his man of law." They
have little belief in leagues and treaties a courageous hit at Euro-
484 SIR THOMAS MORE AND HIS TIME [Jan.,
pean diplomacy. " War or battle they do detest and abhor as a
thing very beastly." They are very gentle to their enemies, espe-
cially to those of the humbler sort, knowing " that they be driven
and enforced to war against their wills by the furious madness
of their princes and heads."
We must not forget, however, that this delightfully idealistic
picture of happiness rests on the sinister basis of slavery. Slave
labor is performed either by criminals condemned for some heinous
offence, or criminals condemned to death in other countries. A
lighter kind of bondage embraces the poorer foreigners, who choose
rather to be bondmen in Utopia, where food and comfort are
secure, than to be free elsewhere under the burden of hideous
toil and uncertainty of livelihood.
In More's own day the Utopia was regarded as a mirror of
the political and social evils of the time. Its popularity is shown
by the numerous editions and translations. It is clearly an appeal
to the social conscience of the age. If the Utopians by the mere
efforts of natural goodness could reach such a happy condition,
what a reproach to our own Christian nations, who with all the
helps of revelation and grace fall so far behind them. The whole
thing is a counsel of perfection, which should be used rather as a
stimulus than as a model of social polity.
The Utopia was never intended to be taken literally. More, as
we see from his own interpolated remarks, could never seriously
advocate a community of goods; he could never recommend an
elective monarchy nor counsel the marriage of priests. He might,
indeed, argue for a simpler code of laws, but he could hardly
plead that lawyers were unnecessary except by way of a joke.
But although the Utopian ideas were not meant to be carried out
quite literally, yet they might still serve to show how kings, though
not elective, were still responsible to God for the welfare of their
humbler subjects; though community of goods might be imprac-
ticable, yet the business of the state should involve the common
good and not merely the interests of the few; though property
could not be expropriated, yet it might be distributed much more
widely and much more productively; the law too might be sim-
plified and made as cheaply accessible to the poor as it was to the
wealthy; and the statute book might justly be disencumbered of
the obsolete and oppressive acts which had lately been revived and
bore so heavily on the less well-to-do.
Nor was the Utopia a plea for natural religion or even a justi-
fication of it. More had no Pelagian or semi-Pelagian illusions as
1913-] SIR THOMAS MORE AND HIS TIME 485
to the strength of unassisted human nature. He did not build his
hopes on the dreams of the natural man, because he knew it to be
but the dream of a sick sleeper not yet awakened to the full remem-
brance of his original weakness.
I am inclined to think that in the Utopia we have an ironic
picture of Ralph Hythloday as the natural man making a hoppity-
click journey to Nowhere in the sorry strength of his naturally
depleted powers. " I cannot agree," says More at the conclusion
of the second book, "to all the things that he (Hythloday) said,
being yet a man singularly learned, and also in all worldly matters
exactly and profoundly experienced, so must I needs confess and
grant that many things be in the Utopian weal public, which in
our cities I may rather wish for than hope after."
The whole argument of More's life was for the spiritual as
against the secular power, and yet what he saw around him was
the latter growing more and more beyond control, while the former
stood by and approved with courtly acquiescence. " While the
sovereign was absolute in theory," writes Mr. Brewer, " clergy,
judges, people strove to render the prerogative more absolute, both
in theory and practice. So long as Wolsey lived the Church formed
some barrier ; afterwards government was absolutely identi-
fied with the will of the sovereign."* This is what More foresaw,
this is what he denounced and resisted to the death, for the con-
sequences brought destruction to all spiritual authority whatever.
The ecclesiastics who surrounded the throne of Henry VII.
and Henry VIII., and sanctioned with their presence and
authority the acts of both these monarchs, invested royalty with
a spiritual influence in the minds of the people which could not
be disintegrated from it, or resumed, when the King changed
their religious principles, and dismissed their spiritual ministers
All events had prepared the way for the King's temporal
supremacy. Opposition to papal authority was familiar to men ;
but a spiritual supremacy, an ecclesiastical headship, as it sepa-
rated Henry VIII. from all his predecessors by an immeasur-
able interval, so was it without precedent and at variance with
all traditions*
After all, the Christian prince was the real menace, alike to Chris-
tianity and to all that involved the common welfare.
The Utopia was a social and not a religious tract, written by
a thoughtful and observant man in an altogether English-like man-
ner. Quiet, sedate, and serious, yet hovering perpetually between
*Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, vol. 1., Introduction, cvi., cclxxv.
486 SIR THOMAS MORE AND PUS TIME [Jan.,
jest and earnest, looking forward eagerly to a better future, yet
always clinging to the strength of the past; showing how Christian
kings failed in their duties, and how this failure produced the
abounding social miseries of the time. On the one side princes,
vainly ambitious for military glory, waging useless and extravagant
wars, given over to the futile pleasures of court and table, of tourna-
ment and chase, and all this involving enormous and growing
expenditure; on the other side, a miserably oppressed and neg-
lected people, whose only use was to supply money to meet the
royal expenditure. The Utopian remedies did but point to the
evils which suggested them:
The endless wars; the faithless leagues; the military ex-
penditure ; the money and time wasted upon instruments and
means of offence to the neglect of all social improvements;
unsettled habits ; trains of idle serving-men reenacting in the
streets the interminable brawls of Montagues and Capulets;
broken and disabled soldiers turning to theft and filling Alsatia
for lack of employment; labor disarranged; husbandry broken
up ; villages and hamlets depopulated to feed sheep ; agricultural
laborers turned adrift, but forbidden to stray and driven home
from tithing to tithing by the lash, to starve; no poorhouses,
no hospitals, though the sweating sickness raged through the
land, but the poor left to perish as paupers by the side of the
ditches, filling the air with fever and pestilence; houses never
swept or ventilated; choked with rotten thatch above and un-
changed rushes within; streets reeking with offal and filthy
puddles ; no adequate supply of water for cleanliness or health ;
penal laws stringently enforced, more stringently as the evils
grew greater; crime and punishment struggling for the upper
hand ; justice proud of its executions, and wondering that theft
multiplied faster than the gibbet.
Who shall say, after reading Mr. Brewer's succinct catalogue
of the social evils of More's time, that it is the dream of an ideal-
istic trifler? A careful reader will find each of these grievances
mentioned by name or contrast or implication in the Utopia; and
if he would learn still more of the faults and vices of royalty
which brought them about, let him read the Christian Prince of
Erasmus which reproves, or The Prince of Machiavelli which con-
dones them, both written about this time. The Utopia was, indeed,
" one of the boldest declarations of a political creed ever uttered
by an English statesman on the eve of his entry into a king's
service;" but what should we expect from Sir Thomas More?
THE CITY OF GOODWILL.
BY JEANIE DRAKE.
PART I.
[CHILDLIKE drowsiness, not unbecoming, still veiled
the dark eyes of young Mrs. Tredwith. She looked
indifferently at the snow falling outside on the park
trees; played with her grape fruit; crumbled her
breakfast toast, and compromised finally on a little
coffee. For even granted the possession of vigorous health, buoy-
ant alertness, and the habit of late hours, this winter's early
and strenuous rush of social functions could not fail to tell.
" Has Mr. Tredwith gone yet, Wilkins ? "
" Not yet, madam. He 'ad 'is breakfast, and is in the library
arranging papers." Wilkins was English, and would have said
" harranging," but that he was usually careful.
The master of the house here entered a typical young Ameri-
can of the wealthy working class ; his firm mouth and chin promising
enterprise and resolution; the keenness of his gaze only less evident
when he looked at his wife.
" Wilkins, this toast is quite cold," said she, with a trifle of
petulance. " Bring some fresh."
" Is my girl so tired this morning? " asked her husband.
" You would be tired, too, and savage, and bored to death,
if you had had to go on to four other affairs after you left me
at the opera house."
" I was savage enough as it was," he laughed, " for I do like
to hear a little of the music when the boxes including our own
will allow. Ours was among the worst. I don't wonder the
people hissed."
" One can do nothing with so many acquaintances coming
and going. Were you obliged to desert me ? "
" Obliged. These papers needed me. And now I must fly."
But she made his flight less abrupt, laying a soft, detaining
hand upon his sleeve, while she removed an imperceptible speck
of dust, selected and pinned a flower in his button-hole, and went
with him into the great hallway's arches and tapestries.
THE CITY OF GOODWILL [Jan.,
" I see so little, little, little of you these days," she whispered.
" Do you work too hard, or do I play too hard ? "
" My dear girl ! A member of half-a-dozen exclusive clubs,
organized expressly to keep all but triflers out, to be suspected
of working too hard ! The masses would laugh at your aspersion
upon a pampered minion of fortune."
" She raised a rather wistful face to his ; but at the moment
a liveried footman waited at the outer door, and the respectfully
officious Wilkins suddenly appeared with a forgotten cigarette case.
" Did you ever notice," she asked, " what staring eyes Wilkins
has?"
" I suspect him of being observant ; but correctly and im-
passively so. He might be worse. Do not forget we dine out
to-night."
When her husband had rolled away at full speed, she sighed
once or twice. Decidedly she was out of sorts this bright winter
morning, as she passed slowly up the broad stairway ; she brightened
again at the nursery door. She ' would have entered with
grateful eagerness, but the trained nurse beside the lace-covered
cot held up a warning finger.
" Hour of his nap, Mrs. Tredwith," she murmured, mechan-
ically. " Careful not to wake him. Has had his breakfast, pre-
pared and weighed, as usual, and seemed to take it with appetite.
It being a sunny morning, I have ordered the cart for noon; the
assistant nurse will go with us, and James can drive us for an
hour. Then lunch and another nap. The afternoon programme
you know."
The mother bent over the sleeping baby. Lightly breathing,
his curls scattered upon the pillow, he lay in childhood's attractive
grace. " He looks wonderfully well," she said. Something of
the other's formality reflected on her girlishness. " We are in-
debted to your care, Miss Davis."
" Not at all," automatically. " I have had considerable ex-
perience in my profession."
Leaving the room, Agatha Tredwith felt an unreasonable
resentment. " He used," she reflected, " when old Sarah and I
had him for the few days between diplomaed nurses to like
to go to sleep with a little rubber dog. I suppose it is thrown
away as unhygienic!" Then she reproached herself, knowing
well the child could never have thriven under such chance and
occasional supervision as incessant social distractions permitted.
1913.] THE CITY OF GOODWILL 489
The desk telephone in her boudoir summoned her at this
moment; and a thin, high-pitched voice at the other end reminded
her : " You are to call for me to lunch at Allard's, and then the
matinee and bridge party afterwards, and don't forget to-morrow.
We are expecting you and Fabian down at Timberton for the house
party."
This was from Muriel Joyce, Fabian's cousin, one of the
gayest of the younger matrons, whose pranks even the moderately
thoughtful sometimes disapproved.
" Oh, well," Agatha shrugged, hanging up the receiver, " she's
intelligent, at least, and not likely to offer us such imbecility as
a monkey dinner at Timberton. Fabian's something of a restraint
on her, too, so we may as well go."
Then she rang for her maid, and the deft French girl arranged
such toilet as might serve the varied exigencies of a restaurant
luncheon, theatre matinee, and afternoon bridge party.
At their bridge party, Agatha did not play, but in the luxur-
ious ante-room reserved for talkers the conversation irked her.
When it wandered from the treadmill round of their purely selfish
pleasures, it was, if not flavored with absolute scandal, apt tc be
mere petty gossip.
" I wish," she said, later, to her husband as they drove to
their dinner, " that we could just go on and on and on together !
It would be so much better than talking to people, forever, that one
doesn't care for, and w y ho don't care for one."
" Oh, come," indulgently, " they would be hard-hearted
monsters not to care for a particularly nice girl, who is rumpling
her pretty hair recklessly on my shoulder. If Rosine could, see
you spoiling a chef d'oeuvre!" But he laid his cheek softly
against the bronze waves and said more seriously : " If you had
time to read the papers, which you have not, or if you were in
the thick of it down town, you would have something to think
about."
" Tell me."
" Financial affairs are in threatening shape all over the coun-
try. Many houses have failed already, and several banks. The
best and strongest are using every effort to avert a general panic.
If it comes, we must all sit tight! But these are not things to
worry you with before dinner."
" They are, they are," protestingly, " and I wish I were a
man to help."
490 THE CITY OF GOODWILL [Jan. r
" So do I. We hold our own, believe me, though I do not
like Hexon's attitude in some matters."
" I have never liked Mr. Hexon's attitude in anything."
" Your father called that prejudice once," teasingly, " when
you preferred me to him," but she divined that under his light
tone lurked some anxiety.
" Shall you go on to the ball with me afterwards ? "
" My dear, I cannot. One of the stenographers comes up to
the house, and we will work most of the night."
" And I should so much rather be near you than an automaton
dancing at a ball."
And though she gave apparent pretty gracious attention to
her evening's partners, her thoughts were with him, busy else-
where, and full of care.
Next morning she had reserved for some shopping, but she
went listlessly about it. " I wish I might get baby another rubber
dog," she mused on the way, " but Miss Davis would throw it
away ! " At the stationer's she looked at some illuminated texts and
mottoes, but pushed them away impatiently. Then she took one
of them up again, and read it a second time.
" Close by the City of Goodwill,
A little house stood under a hill."
" Why it has no ending, and no signature, and not much
meaning. It's just a bit of childishness." But she took it away
with her on leaving.
They were to go down that afternoon to Timberton to the
Joyce house party, and she did not see her husband again until
they met at the train with others of the laughing, chattering guests.
In the midst of the uproarious hilarity at dinner, a telegram sum-
moned Mr. Tredwith to town.
" Give me five minutes to join you," insisted his wife.
Rosine can follow in the morning."
In less than the time asked, she was with him; fur coat and
hood over white satin and bare head.
" Ridiculous ! " the hostess was calling in the hall, in high
remonstrance. "Half-a-dozen of the men telegraphed for! And
now you, Agatha Tredwith ! It's a mean shame ! " But Agatha
was firm.
She saw no more of her husband that night, after their return
home, nor yet during the long hours of the day succeeding.
1913.] THE CITY OF GOODWILL 491
Late in the evening Fabian came in. The haggard lines
of exhaustion and disappointed endeavor in his face answered
her inquiring eyes. When he spoke it was to say : " In spite of all
we could do, dear, the house, so well founded by your father,
goes down in this terrible crisis. He would have grieved, but
would have liked to know that all liabilities will be paid."
" Then all is lost," she quoted, evenly, " but honor. That is
an asset we can build upon again, however."
" Yes," heavily. " But when I think of you and the child,
and of my criminal carelessness in being ignorant of Hexon's
gambling in stocks with the money of others ! It will take all I have
to replace this. I can, perhaps, save something of yours "
" Not one dollar," firmly, " not one, until all who trusted
you have been fully paid. My dear," with earnest feeling, " you
must not doubt my sympathy with you in the shock and ordeal
of loss. But for myself, personally, I am undisturbed, almost.
Perhaps I should not tell you, but I have even a curious feeling
of elation, as if I were beginning real life; as if a new and inter-
esting vocation were opening up before me. The modest com-
petence I have from my mother will probably not be needed for
the firm. There is the little homestead down in the country where
old Sarah and her grandson are in charge. We have youth, health,
your legal knowledge, and skill to hew a new path. Why, it is the
chance of my life to prove that a very spoiled and pampered and
incidentally bored person may become a real woman and comrade !
Who knows ! This may be a blessing in disguise ! "
PART II.
Fabian Tredwith had much on his hands in the days fol-
lowing; in careful scrutiny and rearrangement of affairs; in com-
plete relinquishment of the things that had formerly occupied him;
in stern severance of the slightest connection with the partner who
had so involved him; in establishing himself in an office for purely
the practice of law.
" Pity about Tredwith," said the street. " Gives up every-
thing, I hear, even his wife's fortune. One of the best this black
week has dragged down. He's better off without Hexon, who's not
in his class ; and with his talents he ought to get on his feet again."
Then in the pressure of the times they promptly forgot him.
While agents conducted the sale of their handsome Riverside
492 THE CITY OF GOODWILL [Jan.,
house and effects, with horses, equipages and motors, Agatha was,
for the most part, down in the country, preparing the somewhat
dilapidated homestead, in which her mother was born, for their
reception. A rambling place it was, with a wilderness of vines
and shrubbery waiting to be trained in summer; and great fire-
places to heat it in winter.
" It would have fretted your father sadly," deplored old Sarah,
" and you that spoiled when a child ! "
" Then," cheerfully, " it is high time I should reform. I
mean to love it down here. Your grandson will take charge of the
farm and grow vegetables and fruit for us. You are to teach
me housekeeping. And, Rosine, good girl, cried at thought of leav-
ing baby and me, and must stay and help us take care of him."
Sarah looked doubtful at the prospect of collaboration with a
"furriner;" but would have taken greater risks to have her old
master's child once more under the same roof.
" I am not, I hope, ungrateful for Miss Davis' care, Fabian,"
Agatha declared, " but baby is now to have a rubber elephant
sterilized, of course, if you insist! "
" I do," laughing. " It will keep you busy."
" And, oh, my dear, what joy, in moments of impulsiveness,
to be rid of Wilkins' stare! He seemed to embody society's dis-
approval of most things natural."
" He certainly disapproved of fallen fortunes," said Fabian,
briefly. " He and the other men resigned with startling prompti-
tude."
" They knew what bores they were," with an airy wave ;
" but that is the past. Behold the present ! What do you think
of it? " directing his gaze to the living room, newly arranged and
decorated in warm colors, where their most cherished possessions
were already enshrined by her taste and deft fingers.
" That I have the most wonderful wife in the world ! It is
more homelike than anything I have seen in a long while."
" Ah," triumphantly, " just wait until the carpenters and
painters finish, and I have a chance to do a little here and a little
there. And what a garden Sarah's Tim and I will make in the
springtime! A lawn in front with those grand old trees, and,
maybe, a terrace. We will have basket chairs and take tea out-
doors."
"It is snowing just now," he suggested, teasingly; but, to
hide his real feelings, turned aside, fingering the trifles on her
1913.] THE CITY OF GOODWILL 493
desk. " What is this ? " he asked, looking at the illuminated card
hanging above it:
" Close by the City of Goodwill,
A little house stood under a hill.' "
" Some child's rhyme? A little unfinished, isn't it? "
" Like us all," she answered, quickly. And then, with a cer-
tain wistf ulness : " That is to be the name of this house, when
it has had time to earn it."
The springtime saw the homestead renovated and made a
thing of comparative beauty. Its red roof and gables showed
high amid the groves, and commanded a noble view of the
river below and the little village nestling on its banks. The gar-
den, so long run wild, was at first dismaying; for Sarah's Tim,
she confessed, " know nought but wholesome greens." But with
his strong arm to command, books to consult, zeal to inspire, order
sprang from chaos, and the wilderness began to bloom, and pres-
ently to reward its workers with a riot of color and fragrance.
" How amazingly blessed and contenting life has become,"
Agatha reflected time and again. " It almost overwhelms me with
gratitude. I have not deserved it. My thanks should be expressed
in some way that was a little hard."
Less buoyantly, though sturdily, Fabian applied himself to his
law practice, but with results not soon profitable. In spite of
undoubted brilliance and rare knowledge of law, success was slow
to come. Glittering opportunities were offered him, but with pro-
hibitory taint. " I am not here to evade, but to interpret law,"
he needed to say often. Or even : " Your cause, sir, does not seem
just. I cannot undertake it." And it was whispered about that
" Tredwith was something of a crank."
After disheartening experience of the least favorable side of
human nature, he began to regard his home as a haven whence true
comradeship sent him forth strengthened once more. He said to
Agatha : " I know that I shall win out in the long run. But it is
uphill work; and I mind the waiting most for you, dearest the
change."
" Fabian ! Is it possible that you cannot see that I am happier
than I ever was? There were all sorts of qualities going to waste
in our former life which are now utilized. Nature meant me for
just such contenting activities as are now mine; and was frustrated
for a while by a dear, lavish father, followed by exactly such a
494 THE CITY OF GOODWILL [Jan.,
husband. It was time it should be stopped. We have no longer
a chef, it is true; but we have a competence, and if you enlarge
it in time to set baby on the road to the Supreme Bench "
As that infant was even then making his first adventurous trip
in the next room from Sarah's to Rosine's knee, this won the
desired smile.
" By the way, do you remember Rabin, one of our former
bookkeepers ? "
" Certainly. An elderly Frenchman, very polite."
" Yes. I had lost sight of him upon our dissolution. I heard
to-day that he collapsed soon afterward a weak heart, and has
been in the hospital ever since. Outside his skill in figures, he
was quite a child, and was drawn by Hexon into some rotten
ventures which took every dollar. I would go to see him to-
morrow, but there are certain deeds to prepare which require re-
search."
" I will go after the morning's affairs," answered Agatha gaily.
" I can take the late train down, lunch with you, and go to the
hospital afterward. It is quite an adventure for a rustic."
The next day's bright afternoon found her waiting on a
corner of the rushing city, a bunch of roses in her clasp, where she
was hailed from a passing auto by Mrs. Joyce's shrill tones : " What
are you doing in Babylon, Agatha? A trolley! You! Get in
and let me take you wherever, it is. Why have you not invited
me down to cards and cream? Or why have you not come up to
champagne and truffles ? Peter is thoroughly disgusted with Fabian
because he gave up his seat in the Exchange. Some of those
troublesome people heirs, or minors, or whatever they were
might very well have waited for their money, or gone without."
And so on until they reached the hospital.
Here, in the general ward, a silver-haired man, with a tired,
gentle face, opened his eyes at Agatha's greeting.
" Ah, Mrs. Tredwith, it truly is ! How amiable of you to
come here. And the lovely flowers ! For me ! " His gaze wan-
dered impartially between the roses and his radiant visitor.
They fell into talk soon, and her eyes were very pensive when
she left him. Meeting the house-surgeon, she asked : " Is M.
Rabin improving? "
" Well, I can hardly say so. No, he has gone down steadily
during his stay. Not any acute disorder, but a general failing
to recuperate an indifference to life which is often fatal. No help
I9I3-] THE CITY OF GOODWILL 495
on his part towards recovery. We do what we can, but " he
shook his head. " It is a pity he has no one belonging to him."
On the way home she kept revolving an idea : " The dear,
patient old man; my heart aches for him. Have we a right to be
so happy while some one else is dying of loneliness? Is not this
a way providentially pointed out for me to give thanks for a
blessed lot! But Fabian! And our happy, secluded evenings,
with everyone else shut out, while we have learned such close com-
panionship! But if my father had lived, would I not have felt his
presence a benediction in our home ! "
" Fabian," she said, that night, " I want to have M. Rabin
down here. The country air will do him good. Did you
know that he lost wife and child many years ago in a
railroad accident, and ever since coming to America, and being
employed by you, has made no intimates, but has given his leisure to
nature studies ? Now he is old, and ill, penniless, and with no one
to take an interest in him."
" Yes, it is sad. A little visit in country air may do him good."
" Dearest, I want him for more than a visit. It is a home he
needs. Let us ask him to share ours."
" Agatha ! " in utter consternation, " a stranger to break in
on the new family sacredness we have found so sweet! I will
gladly spare some little to pension him in comfort."
"That would not be the same thing. Oh, Fabian, I must,
indeed ! Do not prevent me ! " She felt so conscience-impelled
to save the kind, old man from slipping out of life from sheer
homesickness she was so earnest that her husband reluctantly
consented.
But when M. Rabin, dazed with what looked to him a " mir-
acle of heavenly kindness," was installed in a sunny room, and
grew strong enough to pace the terrace and find his way through
the forest walks and garden alleys, he proved to be of a rare
adaptability. Never present when Fabian and Agatha would be
alone together, his company at other times became an increasing
pleasure. Father Melton, pastor of the little church in the village,
called frequently to discuss other lands and manners. Rosine
expanded visibly in the pleasure of talking her native tongue to
" ce bon Monsieur," and baby was smilingly devoted to " Papa
Rabin."
" It is," said their gentle guest," as if a poor fish had been
caught by the cruel hook of ill- fortune and thrown upon the strand
496 THE CITY OF GOODWILL [Jan.,
to die. And then came a beautiful, kind fairy who raised it gently
and laid it back in the shining waters of life."
" He is something of a poet," smiled Fabian, when this was
repeated to him. " Odd, too, when he is an expert accountant."
" That was bad for his eyes ; but he writes a great deal now
that they are stronger. Sarah claims to have restored them with
her broths and jellies; and Rosine thinks it is her care, so they
are very jealous of each other. But baby wins easily; for he is
M. Rabin's chosen chum; trots all day long at his heels, and is
learning his letters out of Papa Rabin's big illustrated Fables of
La Fontaine. He knows lots of the animals from their pictures,
and told me yesterday which was the 'hittamus pottamus.' '
" He is a budding genius."
" Oh, well, I am his mother, I admit it. But I am by way
of becoming a naturalist, myself, under M. Rabin. It appears that
our garden and terrace, our groves and forest paths, are the uni-
verse, in little."
" And what branch have you chosen to study? "
" Oh, botany, entomology, anything which comes in our way
to observe. I am ashamed to scream any longer at beetles, or
wasps, or bees, he is so fond of them, and so tender. He knows
how to handle the butterflies so they are never hurt. And we
have transplanted a number of wild flowers."
" Well, it gives you a pretty bloom ; but do not get stung."
He probably connected this uninstructed interest in nature of the
former bookkeeper with the same " childlike simplicity " which led
him each morning so early to Mass. " Any profound scientific
knowledge," was his unformulated thought, " destroys those tra-
ditional observances." He was, on the whole, pleased that M.
Rabin should form a new interest for Agatha, which might divert
her attention from signs of care in himself. He had not thought
the business path upward would be so slow and hard. Not even
remembrance of previous capital and power, not even keen ambition
to reach that height again, should prick him into devious or pre-
carious paths; but he chafed in impatience and goaded himself
to overwork, and hid this from her all that he could."
" Where did you find time to study all this, M. Rabin ? "
Agatha asked, surprised anew at his minute and accurate knowledge
of tree and plant and living things.
" Oh, madame, every spare moment of a long life, beginning
at five years. My people were only poor farmers near Avignon,
1913-] THE CITY OF GOODWILL 497
too poor to get me books, but there was always the great school
of Nature, and, later, I had the laboratory of the open fields in all
weathers. It did not hurt a hardy peasant boy, and so I grew,
loving and studying each wayside plant and tiny creature of the
good God. You may be sure I preferred them to mathematics;
but when I was older and must earn my bread by teaching, it was
only that which would pay. So I perfected myself in figures,
and was professor at the college. But still I wandered in each
spare moment under the sky and noticed, and even wrote about
what I saw. Then I published my books about Bees and Butter-
flies, and the Minister of Education complimented me, and sent
a decoration. But that would not feed the wife and child. Then,
when they were taken, I lost heart, and came, with an acquaintance,
over here and drifted into your husband's employ, and still it was
a habit, you see every moment of leisure I went wandering and
studying in fields and park. And again I have, oh, bundles and
bundles of notes. But no longer are my spirit and my eyes for
compiling, though the study and the little creatures are as dear
as ever."
" But my eyes and spirit are quite young," Agatha suggested,
" if I might see and help? "
No judge, certainly, of the incomparable knowledge displayed
in these voluminous notes, she was amazed at the intimate and
delightful charm of the style. " Surely, this is unique in interest,"
she thought, again and again.
When the compilation was complete, she went up to town,
calling upon an eminent publisher, a friend of her father's, whose
firm made a specialty of scientific works. He gave her welcome,
glancing at the MS. she produced.
" By whom did you say, Mrs. Tredwith ? A Frenchman,
now living here? His name Rabin? Can it be possible that it
is the distinguished naturalist, who, his Paris publishers tell me,
has been lost sight of for so long? "
" Oh, I think not. This is a very plain, unassuming elderly
gentleman, a former bookkeeper, with, certainly, a love for Nature,
and, I think, a very charming style.
" Charming, yes, indeed ! A style of rare distinction, and
fine simplicity and poetic grace. We are familiar with it, being
proud of the fact that we undertook the translation, on this side,
of his first works."
" Then," somewhat bewildered, " you consent to publish this?"
VOL. xcvi. 32.
498 THE CITY OF GOODWILL [Jan.,
" Consent ! My dear Mrs. Tredwith, M. Rabin is the greatest
living authority on these subjects, and we have only now ceased
writing his publishers in France for more of his work because they
told us he could not be found. We think it a privilege to produce
this. You must know he has, until lately, been without apprecia-
tion, but his work has grown in fame, and all are now delighting
to do him honor. But we claim to have known from the first."
Agatha was a little disappointed to find M. Rabin so unmoved
when his publishers, to whom he was duly introduced, told him
that he had come into his own.
" It is somewhat late," he said to her afterwards. " The
fruit is offered when appetite and time to eat are less. For forty
years I yearned for leisure to devote to God's dear little creatures,
but must work for a bare living. Still, I am not ungrateful, for
study is sweet in itself when one loves the object. Do you know,
my dear, the happiest day I have seen since I left my country?
Not this one of flattering compliment. Oh, no. But it was when
a gentle, sweet-voiced, young lady appeared like a vision, and
offered to a lonely heart a home."
" If you think so," boldly, " then give her reward in living
to be a hundred, and telling many more wonder stories."
When the months passed and the first of a series appeared
which was to become greatly famous, her enthusiasm much ex-
ceeded his placid content. " It is only a little that each one can
do," he said, " in making God known through His marvels. But
each must do his best; and then, his time being come, pass on the
task to his successor, whom Providence appoints."
" Making God known," Fabian repeated. " What you learn
from these studies does not then unsettle faith? "
" Increases it a thousandfold, as all His revelations must."
" See now," the naturalist would say, " entomology is not to
everyone's taste. He who absorbs himself in the doings of these
tiny creatures, he seems foolish enough to the terrible utilitarian.
But what looks useless to-day becomes useful to-morrow. The
man of little faith must learn that each new fact ascertained lifts
humanity higher on another rung of the ladder leading to God."
" He makes me think of St. Francis," said Agatha, " with
his 'little brothers, the birds.' Did you know that, with certain pro-
visions for charity, he insists upon making our boy his heir?
He spoke to me concerning it, and I objected strongly. But
he urges that I am about his daughter's age; that in his thoughts
1913.] THE CITY OF GOODWILL 499
he puts me in her place, and so considers Bob his grandson. And
adds that we are his happiness; and, with God's out-door nature,
his all."
" I am in the way," said the father, musingly, " though ar-
duously and slowly, " to make reasonable provision for the boy's
future. Such wealth as might easily accrue from Professor Rabin's
works could, as we know, from our own past, lead to greedy
absorption in well say sheer worldliness and vanity."
It was snowing, and presently the old man and the little boy
coming in, could be heard in the next room. M. Rabin was telling
the story of a vagrant, starving cat, rescued and adopted by his
own little daughter long ago. The story ended happily; the child
asked : " But, Papa Rabin, now it is winter and snow, what will
we have to watch ? "
" Oh, we will put shelves outside our windows, and all the
little hungry birds, black and red and green and blue and yellow,
will come for crumbs. And I will tell you their names and their
stones."
" Unless you become as a little child," Agatha whispered
in the study. " And he is a poet and philosopher ! Fabian, do
you remember that is just five years since our sudden loss and
gain?"
" Yes," said the father, absently. " I think we will not take
that legacy. Work is best for our boy. We will talk over with
the Professor how he can best dispose of it to further his lifework.
But he must live many years yet to instruct the world and us."
" He is quite strong;" cheerfully, " he will -go with me to the
early Mass to-morrow, Sunday morning.
" And may I not go with you both ? "
" Ah, dearest, how glad I shall be ! " she answered in deep
gratitude ; then went on : " Fabian, remember, whatever worldly
success Bob may have some day; or if we ourselves grow rich
again, I have tasted here of real content, and will never return
to Vanity Fair from our happy City of Goodwill."
"LEAD, KINDLY LIGHT": ITS SOURCES AND ITS
MEANING.
BY JAMES MEARNS, M.A.
NOTE. We are indebted to the well-known authority, Mr. Orby Shipley, for
the opportunity to publish this remarkable and thorough study of Newman's famous
hymn, written by an Anglican minister, the Rev. James Mearns, M.A.
We may add that we believe the author to be mistaken in ascribing to Newman
an undue desire to lead the Tractarian Movement. Newman himself writes in the
Apologia : " For myself, I was not the person to take the lead of a party (the Trac-
tarian Movement) : I never was, from first to last, more than a leading author of a
school ; nor did I ever wish to be anything else Thus the Movement,
viewed with relation to myself, was but a floating opinion ; it was not a power.
It never would have been a power if it had remained in my hands I never
had the staidness or dignity necessary for a leader." Ch. ii., pp. 58-59. Ed. 1895.
[EDITOR C. W.]
EAD, KINDLY LIGHT " is part and parcel of New-
man's life, and of the Oxford Movement. It is im-
possible in this paper to do more than to attempt to
touch upon the following points :*
i. "Lead, Kindly Light" has been called the
one hymn of the English language. Properly speaking, it is not a
hymn at all. It is a purely personal burst of emotion, written
without the least idea of its ever being sung in church.f
2. The Oxford Movement really began at Rome. Its impetus
and direction were given by Cardinal Wiseman.
3. The poem had a Roman Catholic model. But at the time
he wrote it, Newman had no intention of entering the Catholic
Church; and nowadays the only churches where one can be
practically certain not to hear it sung are the Catholic churches. $
4. The chief reasons for its popularity are three: its own
beauty ; the fine tune by Dr. Dykes ; and the vagueness which allows
everyone, Christian, Jew, Turk, or heretic to read his own ideas
into it.
*The references indicate the pages, in support of the text, of the following
works :
A. : Newman's Apologia, ed. 1865.
L.: Newman's Letters, 1891, vol. i.
W. : Isaac Williams' Autobiography, 1892.
^Athenaum, August 16, 1890 (by Joseph Jacobs ; reprinted in his Essays and
Reviews, 1891).
%Notes and Queries, September 20, 1896, p. 233, has this letter by Mancuniensis :
" I have never been able to understand why 'Lead, Kindly Light' should be sung
by a congregation in church. I am sure such a thing has never been thought
of in any Catholic Church."
James Anthony Froude (Good Words, 1881, p. 163; Short Studies, 1883, p. 277)
1913.] "LEAD, KINDLY LIGHT": 501
5. The local color is taken from Newman's experiences in
Sicily, not from anything he saw on the day he wrote the poem.
6. The " Kindly light " is his own conscience.
7. The " Angel faces " are the faces of Angels, not the faces
of Newman's departed friends.
From a child* Newman took great delight in reading the Bible,
and to the last the phrases of the Authorized Version lingered in
his memory. The theological books he read before going to Oxford
were almost all of the Calvinisticf school. At the age of fifteen
he had a vivid conviction of the doctrine of Final Perseverance,
He says :
I received it at once,$ and believed that the inward con-
version of which I was conscious (and of which I still am
more certain than that I have hands and feet) would last into
the next life, and that I was elected to eternal glory
(It made) me rest in the thought of two, and two only absolute
and luminously self-evident beings, myself and my Creator.
The same autumn (1816) he read two books which powerfully
influenced him.|| Joseph Milner's Church History led his thoughts
to " religion of the primitive Christians," and he was greatly
attracted by the long extracts from St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, and
other Early Fathers. But he also read Newton On the Prophecies,
and became, he says,
firmly convinced that the Pope was the Antichrist predicted
by Daniel, St. Paul, and St. John. My imagination was stained
by the effects of this doctrine up to the year 1843.^"
He matriculated** at Trinity College, Oxford, on December
14, 1816. On April 12, 1822, he was elected Fellow of Oriel, and
always looked back to that day,ff in thankful remembrance, as the
day of a great mercy shown to him by God. His fellowship gave
him an assured position and a competency ; and, as he then said, he
did not wish for anything better or higher than " to live and die a
says : " 'Lead, Kindly Light' is the most popular hymn in the language. All of us,
Catholic, Protestant, or such as can see their way to no positive creed at all,
can here meet on common ground, and join in a common prayer."
"Mr. W. T. Stead, Hymns that Have Helped, 1896, under No. 37, writes thus:
" When the Parliament of Religions met at Chicago, the representatives of every
creed known to man found two things on which they were agreed. They could
all join in the Lord's Prayer, and they could all sing 'Lead, Kindly Light.' "
*A., i. ^A., 4. %A., 4. C/. A., 195- IA., 7.
HJoseph Milner, died 1797, sometime Vicar of North Ferriby; Church History,
in 5 vols., 1794-1809. Thomas Newton: Bishop of Bristol, 1761-1782; Dean of
St. Paul's, 1768: 3 vols., 1754-1758. **L., 27. tt-L., 73-
502 "LEAD, KINDLY LIGHT": [Jan.,
Fellow of Oriel." The senior Fellows found him painfully shy,*
and gave Dr. Whately a hint to try to draw him out, which Whately
did with a will and effectually.! " Whately," he says, " opened
my mind, and taught me to think and to use my reason." He also
taught him t " the existence of the Church as a substantive body
or corporation," and fixed in him " those anti-Erastian views of
Church polity which were one of the most prominent features of
the Tractarian Movement." Another Fellow of Oriel, the Rev.
William James, " about the year 1823," says Newman, " taught
me the doctrine of Apostolical Succession, in the course of a walk,
I think, round Christ Church Meadow."
From Dr. Hawkins, also a Fellow of Oriel, he learned the doc-
trine of Tradition, i. e., as he expressed it,|| that Scripture was
never intended to teach doctrine, but only to prove it; and that,
if we would learn doctrine, we must have recourse to the formular-
ies of the Church; for instance, to the catechism and to the
creeds.
In 1824,^" Newman had become a subscriber to the Bible
Society; but as the doctrine of Tradition more and more possessed
him,** he withdrew from the Society in i83O.f f Dr. Hawkins also
gave Newman a copy of Sumner'sJI Apostolical Preaching, by
which, says Newman, " I was led to give up my remaining Cal-
vinism, and to receive the doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration."
The other leading Fellow at Oriel in 1822 was John Keble; but
Newman was at first afraid of him,|||| and did not become at all
intimateflfl with him till Hurrell Froude brought them together
in 1828.
In 1824, Newman became curate of St. Clement's in Oxford,
where, he says,*** the prevailing opinion of him was that he was
a Methodist. In the same year he lost his father, and on October
6th made this entry in his diary :
Performed the last sad duties to my dear father. When
I die, shall I be followed to the grave by my children? My
mother said the other day she hoped to live to see me married ;
but I think I shall either die within college walls or as a mis-
sionary in a foreign land. No matter where, so that I die
in Christ.ftt
*L., 104. \A., ii. %A., 12. IA., 10. HA, 9.
IfL., 84. **A., 10. ttL., 228.
Jtjohn Bird Sumner, Bishop of Chester, 1828; Archbishop of Canterbury,
1848; Apostolical Preaching, 1815.
HA., g. \\\\L., 72. nA., 17, 18; W., 49. ***., 94. ftt., 91.
1913-] ITS SOURCES AND ITS MEANING 503
Newman oftens refers to this idea of becoming a missionary.*
He was for many years a member of the Church Missionary
Society,f and was secretary of the Oxford Brancht as late
as 1830. In his diary, under August 26, 1830, he says: "Frank
went for good. God guide us in His way." This was his
brother, Francis William, who went to Persia as a missionary,
but returned to Oxford on July 9, 1833.
In 1826, Newman was appointed public tutor at Oriel. || By
this time he had begun to study the Early Fathers^ on the one
hand, and on the other to study Hooker and the Caroline divines.
In 1827, came the election of a new Provost of Oriel. Newman,
still rather afraid of Keble,** and thinking Hawkins the better
business man,ft turned the scale in favor of Hawkins. This
election had very important results. It led first to Newman's ap-
pointment to succeed Hawkins$$ as Vicar of St. Mary's, Oxford;
and eventually led to a coll i son between Provost and Tutors.
Newman and Hurrell Froude both wished, being in orders, to exer-
cise a kind of pastoral relation towards their pupils. Hawkins
considered that, however well it might do in a seminary, this was not
suitable for the colleges of a University. The conflict of opinion
at length became so sharp that, in i83O,|||| Hawkins signified to
Newman, R. H. Froude, and Robert Isaac Wilberforce that he
would stop their supply of pupils. Thus, by the Long Vacation
of 1832,^ Newman's pupils had almost all taken their B. A. degree,
and the two or three that remained he gave over to the Provost.
He thus sums up the situation, writing in the third person :
On his return from abroad the Tract Movement began. Hu-
manly speaking, that movement never would have been had
he not been deprived of his tutorship; or had Keble, not
Hawkins, been Provost.***
By this time Newman had finished his book on the Arians,fft
and welcomed Hurrell Froude's invitation to go with him on a
cruise to the Mediterranean. On Sunday, December 2, 1832,1:$$
he preached a University sermon in St. Mary's on Wil fulness, the
sin of Saul ; and on the next day he left Oxford to join the Froudes.
Richard Hurrell Froude, brother of James Anthony Froude,
had been elected Fellow of Oriel in 1826, and soon became New-
man's inseparable friend. Of him Newman says:
*A., 7. 1W., 43-47- *., 223. L., 236-238. \\L., 147.
flL., 128, 145. **L., 154- ttW., 48. ttL., 147. L., 150, 159.
IIHL., 156. PL., 160. ***L., 160. ttM., 32. *., 281.
504 " LEAD, KINDLY LIGHT": [Jan.,
He professed openly his admiration of the Church of Rome,
and his hatred of the Reformers.* He felt scorn of the
maxim, " The Bible and the Bible only is the religion of Pro-
testants;" and he gloried in accepting Tradition as a main
instrument of religious teaching He had a deep devo-
tion to the Real Presence, in which he had a firm faith. He
was powerfully drawn to the Mediaeval Church, but not to the
Primitive He taught me to look with admiration towards
the Church of Rome,f and in the same degree to dislike the
Reformation. He fixed deep in me the idea of devotion to
the Blessed Virgin, and he led me gradually to believe in
the Real Presence.
Archdeacon Froude accompanied his son and Newman. They
left Falmouth on December 7, 1832, and on December nth were
abreast of Cape Finisterre, with (as Newman writes to his mother) |
lights visible from farmhouses on shore, which is, maybe, fifteen
miles off. They got to Gibraltar on December i6th, and spent
Christmas at Malta. On the return journey they called at Messina
and Palermo, in Sicily, and arrived at Naples on February 14, 1833.
They were at Rome from March 3d till Easter. The Froudes
then tried to persuade Newman to return with them to England ;
but he had been so enchanted with the glimpses of Sicily that he re-
solved to go there again, even if he went alone.
His Letters written home, and published in 1891, give long
accounts of the scenery, and of the incidents of the journey, even
describing various bouts of seasickness. But the most important
and significant incident is only casually mentioned. Writing to
his sister Jemima from Naples, on April n, 1833, Newman says:
I ought to tell you about the Miserere at Rome, my going
up St. Peter's, and the Easter illumination, our conversa-
tions with Dr. Wiseman and with M. Bunsen, my search for
the Church of St. Thomas of Canterbury, my pilgrimage to the
place of St. Paul's martyrdom, the catacombs, and all the
other sights which have stolen away half my heart, but I
forbear till we meet.||
In the Apologia, 1864, P- 98, he says little more:
It was at Rome, too, that we began the Lyra Apostolica
which appeared monthly in the British Magazine. The motto
shows the feeling of both Froude and myself at the time;
we borrowed from M. Bunsen a Homer, and Froude chose the
*A., 24. \A., 25. %L., 284. L., 383. \\L., 385.
1913-] ITS SOURCES AND ITS MEANING 505
words in which Achilles, on returning to the battle, says, " You
shall know the difference, now that I am back again."*
All he says about Wiseman is (1864, p. 97) :
Froude and I made two calls upon Monsignor (now Card-
inal) Wiseman at the Collegio Inglese,f shortly before we left
Romeij: When we took leave of Monsignor Wiseman, he
had courteously expressed a wish that we might make a second
visit to Rome ; I said, with great gravity, " We have a work
to do in England."
That remark did not close an interview in which they had
merely conversed amiably about the weather. In R. H. Froude's
Remains, published in 1838 (i. e., p. 306), we read, in a letter of
[April 13, 1833, what happened the names are here filled in:
The only thing I can put my hand on as an acquisition is
having formed an acquaintance with Monsignor (Wise-
man), the head of the (English) College at Rome, who has
enlightened (Newman) and me on the subject of our relations
to the Church of Rome. We got introduced to him to find out
whether they would take us in on any terms to which we
could twist our consciences [To this there is a footnote].
All this must not be taken literally, being a jesting way of
stating to a friend what was really the fact, viz., that he
and another availed themselves of the opportunity of meeting
a learned (Roman Catholic) to ascertain the ultimate
points at issue between the Churches, and we found to our
dismay that not one step could be gained without swallowing
the Council of Trent as a whole. We made our approaches
to the subject as delicately as we could. Our first notion was
that the terms of communion were within certain limits under
the control of the Pope, or that in case he could not dispense
solely, yet at any rate the acts of one Council might be rescinded
by another; indeed, that in Charles the First's time it had been
intended to negotiate a reconciliation on the terms on which
things stood before the Council of Trent. But we found to
our horror that the doctrine of the Infallibility of the Church
made the acts of each successive Council obligatory for ever,
that what had once been decided could never be meddled with
again ; in fact, that they were committed finally and irrevocably,
and could not advance one step to meet us, even though the
Church of England should again become what it was in Laud's
*A., 34- tA., 33-
tin 1865, Newman adds: "Once we heard him preach at a church in the
Corso," in Rome. 1864, p. 99; A., 34.
506 " LEAD, KINDLY LIGHT": [Jan.,
time, or indeed what it may have been up to the Council,
for Mon. (Wiseman) admitted that many things, e. g., the
doctrine of Mass, which were fixed then, had been indeter-
minate before. So much for the Council of Trent, for which
Christendom has to thank Luther and the Reformers. (New-
man) declares that ever since I heard this I have become a
staunch Protestant, which is a most base calumny on his part,
though I own it has altogether changed my notions of the
Roman Catholics, and made me wish for the total overthrow
of their system. I think that the only TOTCO*; now is the
" ancient Church of England," and as an explanation of what
one means, " Charles the First and the Nonjurors."
This was the result on Hurrell Froude's mind. Newman felt
very much the same. In an article on Home Thoughts Abroad,
written while he was at Rome, he says :*
I say nothing here of the intense hatred of us, and the
iron temper with which she resists all proposals of ever so little
concession. She multiplies her requisitions of belief upon us
in matters great and little, till we. are forced to dissent from
her, as robbing us of our Christian liberty ; and then she denies
the Sacraments, which are the means of future life, except
on the terms of our admitting all she chooses to impose
Happily for us, we had the Apostolical Succession within our
own country, and so could consecrate the bread and wine with-
out her Time softens not her resentment; a hard mother
she, with no relentings of parental affection or misgivings of
purpose, she is looking on, at this very time, with satisfaction
at the prospect of our Church's destruction.
Again, writing to his sister Jemima, on April 13, 1833, he
says :f
Oh, if that Rome were not Rome ! but I seem to see as clear
as day that a union with her is impossible. She is the cruel
Church asking of us impossibilities, excommunicating us for
disobedience, and now watching and exulting over our approach-
ing overthrow.
Even as late as 1837 he writes thus :$
If we are induced to believe the professions of Rome, and
make advances towards her as if a sister or a mother Church,
which in theory she is, we shall find too late that we are in
*L., 444. Sent to R. H. Froude, August 22, 1833, published in the British
Magazine, February, 1834, p. 131 (the same number in which "Lead, Kindly
Light" appeared).
\L., 385. ^Prophetical Office of the Church, 1837, p. 100.
1913-] ITS SOURCES AND ITS MEANING 507
the hands of a pitiless and unnatural relative, who will but
triumph in the arts which have inveigled us within her reach.
No; dismissing the dreams which the romance of early Church
history and the high theory of Catholicism will raise in the
guileless and inexperienced mind, let us be sure that she is
our enemy, and will do us a mischief if she can.
Wiseman, on his side, was much impressed by the interview.
" He was struck," says his biographer, Mr. Wilfrid Ward, " by
the truly Catholic temper of mind of the two men, and by their
utter sincerity." Writing in 1847, ne said: "From the day of
Newman and Froude's visit to me, never for an instant did I waver
in my conviction that a new era had commenced in England."*
This conviction led him to arrange his work so as to be able to
return to England, f and there watch the course of events. It was
his article in the Dublin Review for August, 1839, on Tracts for
the Times (it deals largely with St. Augustine and the Donatists)
that first seriously shook Newman's faith in the theory of a Via
Media. 4. But he did not begin to correspond with Newman till
1841, and then he says he did so, " Not as presuming upon the
passing acquaintance I made with you some years ago in Rome."
Thus, then, it was Wiseman who gave the Oxford Movement
its impetus and its direction. If he had tried to meet Froude and
Newman half-way, if he had tried to smooth away their difficulties,
it is not at all probable that they would have been willing to submit
to reordination. Indeed Wiseman does not seem to have been at all
anxious that they should do so just then. Even if Hurrell Froude
had returned to England with the determination 10 work out his
dreams of corporate reunion, he would have got no help from
John Keble or from Isaac Williams. There might have been an
Oxford Movement in the direction of corporate reunion; but the
time was certainly not ripe for it.
The blank non possumus attitude of Wiseman was to Froude
and Newman a cruel disappointment and a stinging rebuff. If
Rome had no kindlier greeting, it was useless to parley further.
They had a mission ; there was work for them in England. They
must not despair of their own Mother Church; they must return
and devote themselves to her regeneration. They must seek to re-
vive in her, as Newman says:
That primitive Christianity which was delivered for all time
*Wiseman's Life and Times, 1897, i., p. 117. t/4., 64.
%A., 116-117. Wiseman's Life and Times, i., p. 375.
508 "LEAD, KINDLY LIGHT": [Jan.,
by the early teachers of the Church, and which was registered
and attested in the Anglican formularies and by the Anglican
divines. That ancient religion had well-nigh faded away out
of the land and it must be restored. It would be in fact
a second Reformation; a better reformation, for it would be
a return, not to the sixteenth century, but to the seventeenth.*
Froude returned home full of energy at the prospect of doing
something for the Church. He said to Isaac Williams:
Isaac, we must make a row in the world Only con-
sider what the Peculiars (i. e., the Evangelicals) have done
with a few half truths to work upon! And with our prin-
ciples, if we set resolutely to work, we can do the same
Church principles, forced on people's notice, must work for
good. However, we must try; and Newman and I are deter-
mined to set to work as soon as he returns, and you must join
with us. We must have short tracts, and letters in the British
Magazine, and verses, and these you can do for us and get
people to preach sermons on the Apostolical Succession, and
the like. And let us come and see old Palmer (the Rev., after-
wards Sir, William Palmer, Bart., of Worcester College,
Oxford, author of the Origines Liturgies), and get him to do
something.f
So they stirred up Palmer and John Keble; and in June, 1833,
Froude, Keble, and Isaac Williams began to publish the Lyra
'Apostolica in the British Magazine. " This, indeed," says Isaac
Williams,! " Newman did not like, when he returned, for he wished
to have had throughout the management." John Keble preached
his Assize Sermon on National Apostacy on July 14, 1833, without
any consulation with Newman, and the famous meeting at Mr. H.
J. Rose's rectory at Hadleigh, in the end of July, 1833,!! which
was the formal start of the Tractarian Movement, was held with-
out Newman being present. If Newman had never returned from
Sicily, there would still have been a Tractarian Movement.
Newman had found Mr. Neate, another Fellow of Oriel, at
Rome,^ and had hoped to have him as companion in his expedition
to Sicily; but in the end Neate determined to go to Dresden.**
Newman would not change his plans ; drawn on, as he says, ft " by
a strange love of Sicily." At Naples, he engaged a man servant,!!
and on landing at Messina started off with him, taking two mules
*A., 43. *(W., 63. \W., 65. L., 414. || L., 432, 443.
V.L., 356. **L., 372. ttL., 383- ttL., 392. /-., 396.
1913-] ITS SOURCES AND ITS MEANING 509
and a muleteer, to explore a country then innocent of railways,
and in many parts innocent even of roads. He was delighted with
Taormina, and with the view of Etna. Of Taormina he says :
I never saw anything more enchanting than this spot. It
realized all one had read of in books about scenery a deep
valley, brawling streams, beautiful trees, the sea (heard) in
the distance I never knew that Nature could be so beau-
tiful; and to see that view was the nearest approach to seeing
Eden. O happy I! It was worth coming all the way, to
endure sadness, loneliness, dreariness, to see it.*
He found the ascent of Etna impracticable,! and contented
himself with going on to Catania. From Catania he went to Syra-
cuse in an open boat, $ on account of the wretched roads, and intended
to have returned to Catania by boat. The wind changing, they
landed at Augusta (Agosta) at eight in the morning on April 29th,
but were so much delayed, over quarantine and passports, that they
did not start on the way to Catania till three in the afternoon.
The season had been a very wet one,|| and the district they passed
through on the way to Catania was, and is, one of the most fever-
stricken in Sicily. The day was broiling hot;ff as the evening
drew on, the fever laden mists began to rise from the marshes. On
the journey they went over the moor, the fen, the crag, the torrent.
They first passed, he says,** over wild heath, then cornland, then
wood, then descended to the plain. They found that they had still
eighteen miles to go, ft three rivers to ford or ferry over, and
that the neighborhood of the second riveri$ was infested by rob-
bers. Whether a will-o'-the-wisp from the marshes misled them,
Newman does not say; but the guide lost his way just at the
most suspicious part of the journey. They had not even the
kindly light of the cottages, for by this time the brigands had evi-
dently concluded that no one worth robbing would run the risk of
malaria, and had retired to their beds. However, at last they
reached Catania between eleven and twelve o'clock at night. ||||
Next day, Newman felt the fever coming on,flfl but started to
cross the island by the side of Etna to Aderno, and then west to
get to Girgenti.*** At Leon forte, about the centre of the island, fff
he found he could go no further; and lay there three days, with
the fever increasing.$$$ He felt so ill that he gave his servant
*L., 397. t., 399. tL., 406. L., 406. HZ.., 405.
HZ.., 406. **L., 403. tt., 406. *$L., 403. /.., 406.
IIIIL., 4 o6. HUL., 403, 413. ***L., 414, 418. tttz.., 415. n%L., 407.
510 " LEAD, KINDLY LIGHT": [Jan.,
directions what to do in case of his death; but expressed to him
a confident conviction that he would not die,* adding that he
thought God had still work for him to do.f Then he took it into
his head that he was better and started afresh ;| but, after going
seven miles, he had to lie down exhausted in a roadside hut. A
doctor, who happened to pass by, felt his pulse, and relieved
him so far that he was able, on May 6th, || to get to Castrogio-
vanni, the ancient Enna. There he lay for many days between life
and death; but in the end he slowly recovered,^ while others in
the town, stricken with a similar fever, passed away. On the
twelfth day after the crisis, he started for Palermo. When he
got there, he says : " I could not read, nor write, nor talk, nor
think. I had no memory, and very little of the reasoning fac-
ulty."**
Later on, this illness appeared to him as a very important
crisis in his life,ff partly as a judgment on self-will, partly as
a sign of God's electing and directing grace. The latter idea is
clearly expressed in his story with a purpose, entitled Loss and
Gain (1848, p. 185), where, speaking of his hero, really speaking
of himself, he says :
He could not escape the destiny of being one of the elect
of God; he could not escape that destiny which the grace
of his Redeemer had stamped on his soul in baptism, which
his good angel had seen written there, and had done his zealous
part to keep inviolate and bright, which his own cooperation
with the influences of Heaven had confirmed and secured
he could not ultimately escape his destiny of becoming a
Catholic.
He wrote out, at intervals, from 1834 to 1840, a long and
dreamy and confused account of the illness, in which, for example,
he says:
I felt it was a punishment^ for my wilfulness in going to
Sicily by myself yet I felt and kept saying to myself,
" I have not sinned against light," and at one time I had a
most consoling, overpowering thought of God's electing love,
and seemed to feel I was His Next day the self -reproach-
ing feelings increased. I seemed to see more and more my
utter hollotwness I compared myself with Keble, and
felt that I was merely developing his, not my convictions
I believe myself at heart to be nearly hollow, i. e., with little
*.., 407. \L., 418. %L., 407. \L., 420. \\L., 420.
HL., 422-425. **L., 408. tt-t-v 412- ttL., 413. .., 416.
1913-] ITS SOURCES AND ITS MEANING 511
love, little self-denial I thought* I had been very self-
willed about the tutorship affair, and now I viewed my whole
course as one of presumption. It struck me that the 5th of May
was just at hand, which was a memorable day as being that on
which (what we called) my Ultimatum was sent in to the
Provost I recollected, too, that my last act on leaving
Oxford was to preach a University sermon against self-will
Yet still I said to myself, "I have not sinned against
light " I had a strange f eelingf on my mind that God meets
those who go on in His way, who remember Him in His way,
in the paths of the Lord; that I must put myself in His path,
His way, that I must do my part, and that He met those who
rejoice and worked righteousness (Isaiah Ixiv. 5, A. V.) and
remembered Him in His ways.
These were some of his thoughts at Leonforte in the first
stage of his illness; in the second stage, at Castrogiovanni, his
thoughts were very wandering, and hardly worth recording. At
last, on May 25th, he set out for Palermo. When he got up the
next morning, he says : " I sat some time by the bedside,! crying
bitterly, and all I could say was that I was sure God had some
work for me to do in England." He got to Palermo on May 27th,
and was nearly three weeks there, expecting to sail almost daily,
very homesick, and much disappointed at the delay. At last he got
off, on June I3th; but by delaying they had lost the favorable
wind.
The average passage, he had been told, was six days; but he
had been warned that calms of twelve or even twenty days were
common at that time of year.|| On June ist he had again begun
writing poems. By these, we find that on June I4th they were still
only " Off Monte Pellegrino," i. e., still in the Bay of Palermo,
three hundred miles from the Straits of Bonifacio. If he com-
posed a poem on June I5th, it has not been traced; on June i6th,
while still "At Sea," he composed "Lead, Kindly Light." On
the 1 7th they were off Sardinia, i. e., becalmed in the Straits of
Bonifacio (see his Verses, 1874, p. 154); were "At Sea" again
on June 22d, but did not cover the two hundred and forty miles
from Bonifacio to Marseilles till June 27th.
So far has been clear enough; now we pass into the region
of uncertainty.
In his Verses on Various Occasions, 1868, Newman marks
" Lead, Kindly Light " as written on June i6th. But where did he
*L., 417. t., 419. %L., 428. \L., 428. IIL., 410.
512 "LEAD, KINDLY LIGHT": [Jan.,
write it? He gives two accounts which cannot be reconciled. In
the first edition of the Apologia (1864, P- 99) he says :
At last I got off in an orange boat, bound for Marseilles.
We were becalmed a whole week in the Straits of Bonifacio.
Then it was that I wrote the lines, " Lead, Kindly Light,"
which have since become well-known.*
But in the 1873 edition (p. 35), and in later editions, he says:
At last I got off in an orange boat, bound for Marseilles.
Then it was that I wrote the lines, " Lead, Kindly Light,"
which have since become well-known. We were becalmed a
whole week in the Straits of Bonifacio. I was writing verses
the whole time of my passage.
Why did Newman make this change? He tells us in the
preface to the Apologia^ that he wrote that book with his memo-
randa and letters unsorted. But before he published his Verses
in 1868 he had looked up his memoranda, for all the poems there
are marked with the date and place of writing. " Lead, Kindly
Light " is dated " At Sea, June 16, 1833." The poem for the
next day is dated "Off Sardinia, June 17, 1833." That is, his
memoranda stated that on June i6th they were still in the open sea,
but had reached the Straits on June 1 7th. The ship, which was only
a small orange boat, is hardly likely to have done the three hundred
miles from Monte Pellegrino to Bonifacio by June i6th. And
yet, at least, as late as 1882, Newman spoke of writing the poem in
the Straits.
Mr. John Wilkinson (afterwards a Prebendary of Salisbury),
while making a sketching tour in France as a lad of seventeen,
met Newman in Paris in July, 1833; and his account would have
settled the question, if it had been recorded at the time. Un-
fortunately, he never wrote it out, and the final form in the
family tradition has evidently grown by repetition.
Newman, in 1833, had a strong prejudice against the French
nation, as imbued with the Revolutionary spirit t While nearing
Marseilles he wrote an apostrophe to France (Verses, 1868, p. 181,
headed " Apostacy," and dated " Off the French Coast, June 26,
)> which ends thus:
And so in silence I will now proclaim
Hate of thy present self, and scarce will sound thy name.
*A., 35 *(A., xx. tCf. L., 233.
1913-] ITS SOURCES AND ITS MEANING 513
In the 'Apologia (1864, p. 97) he says:
It was the success of the Liberal cause which fretted me
inwardly.* I became fierce against its instruments and its
manifestations. A French vessel was at Algiers; I would not
even look at the tricolor. On my return, though forced to
stop a day at Paris,f I kept indoors the whole time, and all
that I saw of that beautiful city was what I saw from the dili-
gence.
The reason why he stayed in Paris even for a day was because
the places in all the diligences for the northern ports were already
booked. Mr. J. B. Mozeley (writing to his brother Thomas on
July 12, 1833)1 savs that Newman would have had to stay longer
if a passenger booked to Dieppe had not vacated his place. New-
man thus crossed to Brighton, passed through London, and reached
his mother's house at Iffley on July 9, 1833; ms brother, Francis
William, returned there earlier in the same day.||
Feeling stranded in Paris, he seems to have welcomed the
sight of a young Englishman, and before parting gave Mr. Wilkin-
son a Plan de Paris, with the inscription " J. H. Newman, Paris,
1833." This Plan is now in the possession of the Rev. J. F. Wil-
kinson of Barley; who, in the course of a long correspondence in
1911, reported his father as saying that Newman
found himself, after a storm, becalmed and enveloped in a
thick and depressing fog in the Straits of Bonifacio. It was
in the night My father used to tell us how Newman
had read the poem to him, and how fervently he acknowledged
the Divine support in the mental and physical depression, almost
despair, into which he had sunk, being, in his great weakness,
so susceptible to the terrible clinging darkness of the fog,
which succeeded the storm.
Newman seems to have kept his own counsel after returning
home, and did not even show the poem to Isaac Williams, his
curate and his intimate friend. The publication of the Lyra Apos-
tolica poems had begun in the British Magazine for June, 1833,
and went on regularly from month to month ; but " Lead, Kindly
Light " did not appear there till February, 1834. Isaac Williams
states that he saw it there for the first time, and said to Newman :
" Whose poem is that ? John Keble's, is it not ? It is not
like you ; but, if it is yours, I will tell you when it was written.
*A., 33. t" Twenty-four hours," in 1865.
^Letters of the Rev. J. B. Mozeley, D.D., 1885, p. 31. L V 412. \\A., 35.
VOL. XCVI. 33.
514 "LEAD, KINDLY LIGHT": [Jan.,
It was when you were coming home ill." He answered, " You
are quite right. It was on board the vessel from Sicily, when
I was just recovering, and very weak." And this accounts for
a tone in that poem which is unlike Newman, more subdued and
touching. But yet, I have heard it noticed by Copeland ('. e.,
Rev. W. J. Copeland, sometime Newman's curate at Littlemore,
afterwards Rector of Farnham in Essex) that it ends unlike the
resignation of the Psalmist in Psalm xlii. (A. V.)*
Newman says, plainly enough, that he had not the least idea of
its ever being sung. If he had meant it to be sung, he might very
well have ended, as Copeland suggests, with some such thought as
this : " The morning light will show how wisely God has led me,
and what good cause I have to thank God and take courage."
In 1834, the title given to the poem is " Faith." In the col-
lected edition of the Lyra Apostolica, 1836, p. 28, it is headed
" Unto the Godly there ariseth up Light in the Darkness." In New-
man's Verses, 1853, p. 24, it is headed " Grace of Congruity."
These titles, it will be observed, all carry out the same idea. It is
the son, now repentant and going to meet the Father, resolved to
seek to deserve his Father's favor by working righteousness and
walking in his Father's ways. It is still a purely individual matter.
It is, as he says, in the Apologia:
In the intercourse between God and the soul, during a
season of recollection, of repentance, of good resolution, of
inquiry into vocation the soul was sola cum solo; there was
no cloud interposed between the creature and the Object of
his faith and love. The command practically enforced was,
" My son, give Me thy heart."f
After the publication of the Apologia, the poem seems to
have assumed a new importance in Newman's mind ; he momentarily
lost the sense of perspective; and in 1868 he entitled it, "The
Pillar of the Cloud." Looked at as a treatment of this theme, Mr.
W. T. Stead was quite justified in saying (Hymns that have
Helped, 1896, No. 38) that William Williams' (1717-1791) "Guide
Me, O Thou Great Jehovah " is worth a hundred " Lead, Kindly
Lights." Dr. E. A. Abbott, in his book on The Anglican Career
of Cardinal Newman (1892, i., p. 288), takes this title as the key-
note of his commentary on the poem. His analysis is certainly
ingenious; but it is hardly what Newman meant in 1833.
The writing of " Lead, Kindly Light " evidently clarified New-
*w., 58. iA., 196.
1913-] ITS SOURCES AND ITS MEANING 515
man's brain. The result is seen in that series of poems written
before he reached Marseilles, notably in the two splendid studies
after the style of the tragic Greek chorus ("Man is permitted
much," written "At Sea, June 25th," and "O Piteous Race,"
written " Off Marseilles Harbor, June 2/th ") which, with " Lead
Kindly Light " (this Mr. R. H. Hutton justly describes as " shining
with the softest and the whitest poetic lustre "), make up the trio
of what Mr. Hutton (Cardinal Newman, 1891, p. 43) regarded
as " his most exquisite poems." But the touching little poem en-
titled "Desolation" (written "Off Sardinia, June i8th") shows
that the clouds did not lift at once:
Oh, say not thou art left of God,
Because His tokens in the sky
Thou canst not read: this earth He trod
To teach thee He was ever nigh.
He sees, beneath the fig-tree green,
Nathaniel con His sacred lore;
Should'st thou thy chamber seek, unseen,
He enters through the unopened door.
And when thou liest, by slumber bound,
Outwearied in the Christian fight,
In glory, girt with Saints around,
He stands above thee through the night.
When friends to Emmaus bend their course,
He joins, although He holds their eyes ;
Or, should'st thou feel some fever's force,
He takes thy hand, He bids thee rise.
Or on a voyage, when calms prevail,
And prison thee upon the sea,
He walks the wave, He wings the sail,
The shore is gained, and thou art free.*
Let me now gather together other things which Newman him-
self said about the poem.
Writing in 1874 to E. H. Bickersteth, he says:f
I agree with you that these verses are not a hymn, nor
*L., 411 shows that at Lyons, on July ist, he could, in writing to his mother,
still say, " I am quite desolate. I am tempted to say, 'Lord, heal me, for my
bones are vexed.' "
^L^je of Ed-ward Henry Bickersteth, 1907, p. 199, dated from The Oratory,
June 20, 1874.
516 "LEAD, KINDLY LIGHT": [Jan.,
are they suitable for singing; and it is that which at once
surprises and gratifies me, and makes me thankful that, in
spite of their having no claim to be used as a hymn, they
have made their way into so many collections.
Lord Ronald Gower, in his Old Diaries, 1902 (p. 15), says
that, in 1882, he had received a letter from Queen Victoria, in
which she wrote:
This is a pilgrimage, a great struggle, and not our real home,
and we may say, in those beautiful lines:
So long Thy power hath led me, sure it still
Will lead me on,
O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till
The night is gone ;
And with the morn those angel faces smile
Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile.
Thinking it would please Cardinal Newman to know that the
Queen had quoted his beautiful lines, I took the opportunity
while at Trentham that autumn, to call upon him at
Edgbaston The most interesting subject he spoke about
referred to his hymn, " Lead, Kindly Light," which he said
he had composed on board ship during a calm between Sardinia
and Corsica. That hymn, he said, was not his feeling now.
" For, we Catholics," he said with a kind smile, " believe that
we have found the Light." He again alluded to his hymn
saying, that he did not consider himself a poet ; but " Faber is
one," he added.
Again: George Huntington (who in 1866 became Rector of
Tenby, where the Cardinal's youngest brother, Charles Robert
Newman lived up to 1884) says, in his Random Recollections
(1893, p. 246), that he once called on Newman at Edgbaston,
and " ventured to say :"
It must be a great pleasure to you to know that you have
written a hymn treasured wherever English-speaking Chris-
tians are to be found, and where are they not to be found?
He was silent for some moments, and then said with emotion:
" Yes, deeply thankful, and more than thankful." Then, after
another pause : " But, you see, it is not the hymn, but the
tune that has gained the popularity, the tune is Dykes," and
Dr. Dykes was a great master.
In 1879, Dr. Greenhill, who was Church- warden of St. Mary's,
1913-] ITS SOURCES AND ITS MEANING 517
Oxford, at the time when Newman resigned the living, wrote to ask
the meaning of the last two lines, mentioning Charles Marriott's
suggestion, that they might refer to " the more intimate communion
of infants with the unseen world of spirits, which was lost in
later years." Newman's answer was this (under Jan. 18, 1879) :
You flatter me by your question; but I think it was Keble
who, when asked it in his own case, answered that poets were
not bound to be critics, or to give a sense to what they had
written, and, though I am not, like him, a poet, at least I may
plead that I am not bound to remember my own meaning, what-
ever it was, at the end of almost fifty years. Anyhow, there
must be a statute of limitation for writers of verse, or it would
be quite a tyranny, if, in an art which is the expression not of
truth but of imagination and sentiment, one were obliged to
be ready for examination on the transient states of mind which
come upon one when homesick, or seasick, or in any other way
sensitive or excited.
Dr. Greenhill comments thus :
On this letter, so felicitously expressed, two remarks may
be made: (i) Dr. Newman does not say that he had for-
gotten his own meaning, but that he was not " bound to re-
member " it; and (2) he does not say that the meaning of
the words was plain enough to all but idiots, as he might easily
have done, if their obvious sense were the true or only one
the matter seems to rest thus, viz., that while almost every
person who reads these lines will apply them only to departed
friends, those few who, as an additional or alternative sense,
are inclined to adopt Charles Marriott's suggestion, are quite
justified in doing so.*
In Tennyson's Memoir by his Son,-] a conversation is reported
between Tennyson and his doctor. The doctor said :
I see Newman was asked as to his meaning of two lines
of " Lead, Kindly Light," and frankly acknowledged that he had
forgotten what he was driving at (Tennyson rejoined)
" I daresay Newman may have forgotten. It would be hard
indeed to remember the 'atmosphere' of each thought. When
young men ask me the interpretation of some of my early lines,
I sometimes forget, and can only answer with Goethe: 'You
probably know better than I do, being young.' "
*Academy, August 3, 1890, p. 174.
tAlfred Lord Tennyson: A Memoir by his Son, 1897, vol. ii., pp. 228, 229.
5 i8 "LEAD, KINDLY LIGHT": [Jan.,
Newman must indeed for the moment have forgotten his own
meaning when he chose the title " The Pillar of the Cloud;" and in
his Apologia, speaking of the materials he used for that book, he
says:
As to the volumes which I have published, they would in
many ways serve me, were I well up in them; but though I
took great pains in their composition, I have thought little
about them, when they were once out of my hands; and for
the most part the last time I read them has been when I re-
vised their last proof sheets.*
But, in the light of his other sayings, it is probable that
the real thought at the back of his mind was something like this:
" I am glad and thankful that people should find comfort and en-
couragement in my lines. Why disturb them by laying down one
hard and fast interpretation? Much better leave them free to
read in their own ideas."
When, in his last hours, Newman gave a final judgment upon
the poem, Mr. Wilfrid Meynell tells us it was this :f
On one of these days he asked some of the Fathers to come
in and play or sing to him Father Faber's hymn of " The
Eternal Years." When they had done so once, he made them
repeat it, and this several times. " Many people," he said,
speak well of my ' Lead, Kindly Light/ but this is far more
beautiful. Mine is of a soul in distress; this, of the Eternal
Light."
Turn now to the Catholic model.
This is a passage (pt. i., i, 62 ff.) in the poem of " Glorious
John " Dryden, the Catholic poet laureate, entitled The Hind and
the Panther, 1867. Newman, as both his Apologia (1865, P- 3 1 )
and his Prophetical Office (1837, p. 140) show, was well acquainted
with this poem, and may have taken a copy with him abroad. It is
in one of the volumes of the Aldine Dryden, issued in a pocket
size in 1832-33, published by William Pickering and edited by the
Rev. John Mitford, who was himself an Oriel man:
What weight of ancient witness can prevail,
If private reason hold the public scale?
But, gracious God, how well dost Thou provide
For erring judgments an unerring guide!
Thy throne is darkness in the abyss of light,
A blaze of glory that forbids the sight.
*A., xx. ^Cardinal Newman, by Wilfrid Meynell, 1907, p. 121.
1913-] ITS SOURCES AND ITS MEANING 519
Oh, teach me to believe Thee thus concealed,
And search no further than Thyself revealed;
But her alone for my director take
Whom Thou hast promised never to forsake!
My thoughtless youth was winged with vain desires;
My manhood, long misled by wandering fires,
Followed false lights; and when their glimpse was gone,
My pride struck out new sparkles of her own.
Such was I, such by nature still I am ;
Be Thine the glory, and be mine the shame !
Good life be now my task ; my doubts are done.
Here the guiding Light, the director, is the Infallible Holy
Catholic Church. That was Newman's belief also in 1882, when he
said, " We Catholics believe that we have found the Light." But, as
he said in 1882, it was not his feeling in the year 1833.
What then was the " Kindly Light " of Newman's poem?
Mr. Spurgeon, in his Commentary on the Psalms,* took the
" Kindly Light " to mean Holy Scripture. That might have passed
for Newman's meaning if he had written in 1822 ; by 1833 his views,
as we have seen, had changed.
Does Newman use "kindly" in its modern sense? Like the
term " garish " day, it is much more Elizabethan, or seventeenth
century, in tone. He seems to revert .to the meaning in Sidney's
tircadia, i. e., " inward, innate, implanted by nature." He means
therefore " Inward Light," and this Inward Light is his Conscience.
Here he -follows Bishop Sanderson, who says, for example :f
"Why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right?"
says our Savior. As if He had said: "You have an Inward
Light, which is a ray of that True Light which lighteth every
man that cometh into the world ; by the assistance of this Light
you will be able to discover the right way of your duty,
and to walk accordingly." (And again) : Every particular
man has a Conscience given him to be a God to him; which,
as Deputy of the Almighty, and a Preacher of His eternal law,
dictates what he ought to do, and to avoid.
And Newman himself in his Letter Addressed to his Grace the
Duke of Norfolk (1875, p. 55 ff.) says that Conscience is "the
Voice of God in the nature and heart of man; as distinct from the
voice of Revelation Conscience is the aboriginal Vicar of
*Treasury of David, vol. vi., 1882, p. 248, under Ps. cxix., 105.
^Lectures on Conscience and Human Law, edited by Bishop Christopher
Wordsworth of Lincoln, 1877, p. 95, and p. 30.
520 "LEAD, KINDLY LIGHT": [Jan.,
Christ." So in his sermon on St. Thomas, published in 1835,
he speaks of " the Invisible Guide who has a claim to be followed,"
and of " the Divine Voice within him." And in one of the poems
written between Bonifacio and Marseilles ("At Sea, June 25th")
he says:*
When I look back upon my former race,
Seasons I see, at which the Inward Ray
More brightly burned, or guided some new way ;
Truth, in its wealthier scene and nobler space
Given 'for my eye to range, and feet to trace.
And next I mark, 'twas trial did convey,
Or grief, or pain, or strange eventful day,
To my tormented soul such larger grace.
So now, whene'er, in journeying on, I feel
The shadow of the Providential Hand,
Deep breathless stirrings shoot across my breast,
Searching to know what He will now reveal,
What sin uncloak, what stricter rule command,
And girding me to work His full behest.
And what of the last two lines of the poem?
By angel faces Newman means the faces of Angels; he does
not mean the faces of his departed friends. Why then did he not
say so to Dr. Greenhill ? His Lectures on the Prophetical Office of
the Church (1837, p. 17) show one reason :f
Should a man profess to regulate his conduct under
the notion that he is seen by invisible spectators, that he and
all Christians have upon them the eyes of Angels would
he not at first be thought to speak poetically, and so excused
and when he was understood to speak literally, would
not his views to a certainty be met with grave, cold, contempt-
uous, or impatient looks, as idle, strained, and unnatural?
Bishop Samuel Wilberforce, in reviewing the Lyra Apostolica
(British Critic, January, 1837, p. 178 ff.), complains of Newman's
verses as often marred by ellipses, or, as he expresses it, by
" the multiplication of abbreviations." Here what Newman la-
ments is not the loss of the angel faces, but the loss of the smile on
the angel faces. Expressed at length it would be :
^British Magazine, 1834 (November, p. 512), headed "Providences." Lyra
Apostolica, 1836, no. xxxii., p. 35, headed " Discipline." Verses, 1853, p. 28,
headed "Progress." Verses, 1868, p. 178, headed " Semita Justorum."
fC/. Parochial and Plain Sermons, 1835, no. xxix., St. Michael. " Surely it
is a great comfort to reflect that, wherever we go, we have those about us, who
are ministering to all the heirs of salvation, though we see them not."
1913.] ITS SOURCES AND ITS MEANING 521
And with the morn those angel faces (which watch over me
smile upon me with that) smile
Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile.
In a poem written at Iffley, on November 29th, 1832, he says:*
Erst my good Angel shrank to see
My thoughts and ways of ill;
And now he scarce dare gaze on me,
Scar-seamed and crippled still.
And in a later poem to his Guardian Angel he says :f
And when, ere boyhood yet was gone,
My rebel spirit fell,
Ah! thou didst see, and shudder too,
Yet bear each deed of Hell.
And then in turn, when judgments came,
And scared me back again,
Thy quick soft breath was near to soothe
And hallow every pain.
When one turns to his poems on the " Faithful Departed," we
find one written at Augusta, while he was waiting to start on the
eventful journey to Catania. Here he takes his picture from Taor-
mina; and not from what he saw at Augusta; and the imagery of
Paradise is taken from the view of Etna (Verses, 1874, p. 132;
Agosta, April 29, 1833).
Dear sainted Friends, I call not you
To share the joy serene
Which flows upon me from the view
Of crag and steep ravine.
Ye, on that loftier mountain old,
Safe lodged in Eden's cell
Whence run the rivers four, behold
This earth, as ere it fell.
Or, when ye think of those who stay
Still tried by the world's fight,
'Tis but in looking for the day
Which shall the lost unite.
^British Magazine, November 1833, p. 518. Lyra Apostolica, 1836, no. xii.,
p. 12, headed "Confession." Verses, 1853, p. 19, "The Scars of Sin." It begins
" My smile is bright."
^Verses. 1853, p. 12, headed "Guardian Angel." Verses, 1868, p. 291, headed
" Guardian Angel," and dated The Oratory, 1853.
522 " LEAD, KINDLY LIGHT" [Jan.,.
Ye rather, elder Spirits strong!
Who from the first have trod
This nether scene, man's race among,
The while ye live to God.
Ye hear, and ye can sympathize.
There the Angels are not the " sainted Friends," but the " elder'
Spirits." After his return, he wrote a companion poem at Oxford :*
They are at rest;
We may not stir the heaven of their repose
By rude invoking voice, or prayer addrest
In waywardness to those
Who in the mountain grots of Eden lie,
And hear the fourfold river as it murmurs by.
They hear it sweep
In distance down the dark and savage vale;
But they at rocky bed, or current deep,
Shall never more grow pale ;
They hear, and meekly muse, as fain to know
How long, untired, unspent, that giant stream shall flow.
And soothing sounds
Blend with the neighboring waters as they glide ;
Posted along the haunted garden's bounds
Angelic forms abide
Echoing, as words of watch, o'er lawn and grove,
The verses of that hymn which Seraphs chant above.
This is much finer; but the local color is still taken from'
Toarmina and from Etna. And the angelic forms are still the
Angels, spoken of now as those who watch round the Garden of
Eden to keep out intruders.
Let me, at last, sum up :
One thing is beyond question, viz., that " Lead, Kindly Light "
is a masterpiece of religious verse, and one of the very finest
short poems in the English language. It is quite unlike any of
Newman's earlier pieces; they are all more or less the carefully
elaborated work of a man of genius, who was essentially a writer
of prose. In this case, he was rapt out of himself. The poem
was the fruit of a deep depression, a cry of emotion wrung almost
involuntarily from his heart. His experience was that of the
^British Magazine, October, 1835, p. 413, no title. Lyra Apostolica, 1836, p. 61,
no. Hi., headed "Rest." Verses, 1853, p. 47, rewritten as "Enoch and Elias."
Verses, 1868, p. 201, rewritten as " Refrigerium," dated Oxford, 1835.
1913.] CHRIST'S CRADLE 523
Psalmist : " My heart was hot within me, and while I was thus
musing the fire kindled, and at the last I spake with my tongue."
The thoughts and experiences of his days and nights in Sicily, his
self-will, his willing self -surrender, his feeling that he is a son
going to meet his Father resolved to take up the mission his
Father has laid upon him, his hope that by God's help he will be
able to play the man, and after the struggle will once more be
consoled by the smile of his Guardian Angel all these have,
as it were, been fused in the furnace, and have come forth in
bright and perfect shape.
But it is a personal matter between the individual soul and
its Creator : it is the ego, not the devout soul voicing the thoughts
and the feelings of its fellows in prayer and praise.
CHRIST'S CRADLE.
BY EDWARD F. GARESCHE, S.J.
THE Maid hath laid her Babe to rest
O holy Babe! O Maiden blest!
Upon the cradle of her breast!
The purest couch in earth or sky,
Ah dearest bed, with veiled eye,
Upon His Mother's heart to lie!
It rocks Him soft, while every beat
A tale of love doth low repeat,
And heaveth now with sighs more sweet.
God lists the tender lullaby
Nor all the choirs of Heaven, nigh,
Dare with that song in sweetness vie!
AMONG THE ROSES OF MADEIRA.
BY JOSEPH FRANCIS WICKHAM.
HAD believed in childhood that fairyland was a long
journey away, somewhere off in that twilight coun-
try which lies just over the farthest hill, or myriads
of leagues distant, an isle of dreams in some en-
chanted sea. And then a pitiless somebody in-
formed me that fairyland was like the fairies nowhere. How
many years had I held for truth what my cravings and heart-
longings wished were not so. But a cycle of misbelief is not too
great a price for the fresh discovery that fairyland really is.
Others had found it before me, of course, and had sung its won-
ders, and I had found the music sweet. But no song is as cap-
tivating as the melody your own ears listen to ; no hour can be more
joyous than the one lived within the ocean-cinctured fairy world
itself. For you must go a-sailing to find this land of enchantment.
Embark in any ship that follows the ocean lane between New York
and Italy, any boat which will stop at Madeira, for to Madeira
must you take yourself to reach the home of sheer beauty, the island
Elysium. Madeira is a place you will remember all your life, and
when you have left it, and the months and years pass by, the fas-
cination and irresistible charm of the spot will hang like a spell
over you, and you will feel the call to go back. The far-off voice
will tremble in your ears, and if you have wisdom, if the busy world
will have left you a single vein of poetic fancy, you will heed the
welcome which comes a-whispering in the winds across the leagues
of blue sea and return to the island of the blest.
Nine days we had joyed in the delights of ocean life, when we
were informed that on the morrow we should reach Madeira. The
steamer's schedule had told us as much, and we were all glad
enough to enter our first haven, and see land again for the first
time since losing sight of the coast line of New Jersey. We had
heard that Madeira was a place of infinite delight, and we were
pleased that our steamship company had the discretion to make the
island a port of call. I suppose some of us had even read a little
of its history. We knew that the island belonged to a group
consisting of Madeira itself, Porto Santo, and the three uninhabited
Desertas, Chao, Bugio, and Deserta Grande; that all five were of
1913-] AMONG THE ROSES OF MADEIRA 525
volcanic origin; that the present population is about one hundred
and fifty thousand, most of whom live on Madeira, which is the
largest of the group, being thirty-seven miles long and fourteen
miles across. Someone may have informed us that Madeira had
been settled by the Portuguese in 1419, and that shortly afterward
the grape-vines which were to give it name and fame had been
transplanted from Crete. We knew, too, that the people had
several industries, producing, among other articles, embroidery,
laces, and inlaid laurel-wood. But one forgets those little details
in all their accuracy, and for the moment I was willing to give my-
self over, not to the study of the statistics of its economic condition,
nor to the consideration of the events of the island's history, but
to the all-sufficient charm of its present, the present of a cloudless
day in late June.
Madeira rises from the sea a high mountainous shoulder, clad
in a mantle of the deepest green one may behold. It does not
appear quite real as you view it from the steamer's deck ; it is more
like a massive painting thrust before your eyes, lowered suddenly
from the heavens, or pushed upward from the deep, and anchored
in place by the steady hand of an unseen Titan. But the island
is there, with its Pico Ruivo six thousand feet above the water,
and as the boat slackens its speed and steams slowly past the miles
of coastland, you have time a-plenty to examine at your leisure the
magic hills that have so lately been born for you. Far up on the
towering heights may be seen the dark-green woodlands, and lower
down the fields of sugar cane and the wheat fields, and the terraced
vineyards that yield the luscious grapes for the wines. White
against the eastern light the long lines of a convent stand forth, half-
way up the high mountain, while on the level places, beside the
shore for several miles, little villages cluster, the red roofs and
white walls of the houses giving a wonderfully pleasing effect from
the water. You see a deep ravine threading its way from the high-
lands to the sea, a great fissure in the uneven, undulating slopes.
Now and again a cottage nestles amid the large trees on the higher
plateaus, or a more pretentious quinta looks out over the sea from
a point of vantage, while close by a winding road zigzags
its way along the edge of a dizzy precipice. As you approach closer
to the harbor, broken lines of red roofs in greater numbers come
into view, and many more villas, and the towers of half-hidden
churches glistening in the sunlight against the dark background of
the hills. At last you pass Forte Ilheo and are in the bay, opposite
the city of Funchal, the capital of Madeira.
526 AMONG THE ROSES OF MADEIRA [Jan.,
Here in the beautiful harbor we anchored, coming to rest op-
posite the Portuguese warship which silently guarded the hillside
city. We had been expected for days at the little port, and now
the welcome was visibly assured in the shape of dozens of cockles
swiftly propelled over the bay by the sturdy arms of their expert
oarsmen. Some few were laden with native fruits, figs, straw-
berries, bananas, and pineapples, to vend to the strangers, but
most of them carried one or two boys, who fain would dive for
dimes or quarters tossed into the water by the steamer's passengers.
The boys were excellent swimmers, and displayed a pardonable
pride in their aquatic accomplishments. Whenever one of them
reappeared from beneath the water after the plunge, he would in-
variably exhibit the recovered coin as a proof that neither his
patron's munificence nor his own prowess had been in vain. It
was a simple act, but its eloquence was decidedly engaging.
From this genial pastime of parting with our money, we were
called by the advice that it was now possible to go aboard the tender
which would carry us to the shore. On land the first thing that
one observes are the lines of ox-carts drawn up to receive passengers.
But my ticket, bought on board the steamer, called for automobile
conveyance, and in this speedier but less picturesque vehicle I was
soon whirling through the broad praga, up the cobble-paved street,
along the Ribeira de Santa Luzia, round many a winding turn, to
the little railway station that stands at the foot of the funicular rail-
road leading to the Monte. The street from the quay to the prac.a
is a beautiful broad avenue, shaded by the wide-spreading fans of
the tall, graceful plane trees which guard it on either side. This
street, like all through which we drove, was very clean, and the
cottages which we passed were pretty and neat-looking. We met
many of the natives on the way, the dark-skinned men beaming
a welcome upon us from their shops, the quiet and gentle faces of the
women watching in mild interest the influx of American voyagers.
Now and then an English resident might be observed looking at us
from the sidewalk, for at all seasons of the year there are many
strangers from the northern climes in Funchal in search of the
health-giving tonic of the semi-tropical seas. The winters are ex-
ceedingly mild here, due mainly to the Canary branch of the Gulf
Stream.
A train was just departing when we reached the ticket-office,
and it was necessary to wait fifteen or twenty minutes before the
next train would slowly back down the incline. During that inter-
val I joined a party of my shipmates in the souvenir shop opposite
1913-] AMONG THE ROSES OF MADEIRA 527
the station. The delay, however, was brief enough, and we were
soon allowed to pass through the gates and climb aboard the
train. Slowly the pony engine pulled the car up the steep track, so
gradually that the little girls and boys who lived nearby could run
beside the train and toss through the open windows bouquets of
roses and camellias and rhododendrons, and many other flowers
bewildering in their infinite variety. In a short time the car looked
like a moving floral garden resplendent in the masses of flaming
reds and gorgeous yellows and the palest of opal blues. This bom-
bardment of flowers is a very charming custom, filled as it is with
the grace and beauty of poetic fancy. Past the little stations of
Livramento and Sant' Anna our journey led us, and from the car
windows on either side could be seen a profusion of color and
wealth of vegetation that left one well-nigh breathless in wonder-
ment. You could scarcely believe that you were actually looking at
a scene which had not been transplanted from Aladdin's Cathay.
Trees of Europe are there, the pine and the plane and the maple
and the oak, and mingled with them rise the tropical palms, cam-
phor-trees, yuccas, magnolias, bamboos, and many more beside.
One had time to feast one's eyes on the promenade of Santa Luzia,
which extends along the levada or water-channel of the same name.
Everywhere beyond the walls enclosing the railway tracks are to be
viewed the fields of sugar cane stretching in long, narrow acres;
and one could envy the rare imaginings that must be borne beneath
the sheltering of the trellised grape-vines, which blossomed in purple
and green in long lanes bordering the white and buff dwelling
houses beside the way. But by this time our juvenile guard of
honor had exhausted its badinage of compliment, and as one looked
back over the traveled way one could see the little bare legs scam-
pering down the stony path, each child hastening to cull more gar-
lands from its own fragrant garden. The next train up the hill
would incite a fresh war of the roses, and a soldier must always
be ready to give battle.
Just as we were beginning to grow accustomed to the richness
of the vegetation the train stopped at the Monte. One wondered
what more could delight one's confused senses. But up here on
the hilltop, two thousand feet above the shimmering waters of the
Atlantic, rises the little church of Nossa Senhora do Monte. A
choicer spot for our Lady's shrine could not well be imagined. After
leaving the train you walk for a quarter of a mile through an in-
viting grove to the terrace of the chapel. Many thousands of
528 AMONG THE ROSES OF MADEIRA [Jan.,
visitors have passed through these wooded walks every year for
the last quarter of a century, while their boats waited in the harbor
below; and I wondered how many of the throng of admirers
recalled the kind old sexton who showed me the church and took
me up to the belfry to see the bell that every day tolled out its
message of hope to the Catholic population of the city. Each sum-
mer the little church is the scene of a fine display of religious faith
during the nine days of the Novena. While this festival is in
progress one may see the people of the town coming from near
and far, all over this isle of loveliness, to pledge their fealty to the
God who created their garden of flowers and all the beauty of the
world. And when the service is over every morning, and the
men and women and children leave the portals of the church to re-
turn to their homes, the fairy lane they walk, leading through the
palms and the pines and the reddest of full-blown roses, cannot fail
to strengthen their faith that the heavenly paradise must be beau-
teous beyond mortal conception.
As I paused on the church terrace I could see the Bay of Fun-
chal in all its quiescent radiance; and on its waters many a tiny
boat longing softly to slip its moorings and sail the deeper seas;
and beyond the restful harbor the blue ocean stretching out toward
the Canaries and the shores of Africa. Gazing far out over the
illimitable desert of the sea, I knew that somewhere four hundred
miles to the southeast lay Morocco, and I liked to imagine its sandy
coast line swept by the hot breath of the Sahara; and behind me,
two hundred leagues, to the northeast, was the mother country of
Lusitania; and I almost, but not quite, forgot that three thousand
miles to the westward the ocean waves met the world that Portugal
had sought so fearlessly, and that I had left nine days before. In
those good old days when Portugal shared with Spain the glory of
discovery, Madeira was the first stopping-place for the Portuguese
and Spanish argosies on their way to the New World. Funchal
then was a centre of trade. The rugged island cliffs, like the
frowning walls of Quebec, formed a natural barrier against the
unfriendly salvos of an intrepid English or Dutch sea-dog, but the
Portuguese were wary, and built four mighty fortresses to com-
mand the seas. By day their huge breastworks were clearly out-
lined in the full gleam of the southern sun, and steeped in the soft
silence of a moonlit night they taught many a passing ship that
Portugal was watchful of her honor and jealous of her fighting
fame.
1913-] AMONG THE ROSES OF MADEIRA 529
As the soft voice of the long ago faintly chimes in your
imagination, you begin to dream of the missionaries who tarried
for an hour here in Funchal to say farewell to their brother priests
before the final journeying to the new lands in the western horizon.
And you think, too, of their comrades back from Peru and Brazil
and the Antilles, spent with months of weary voyaging ; and of the
tears of genuine joy that must have been shed as the green hills of
Madeira rose from the sea before their eyes, and the Bay of
Funchal offered their little boats the shelter of its untroubled waters.
Many a priest who had seen the strange shores of America must
now lie buried beneath the green terraces on Madeira's slopes, and
the silent dust of many a wearer of the purple keeps them faithful
company. For Leo X. made Funchal an episcopal see just four
centuries ago, and about twenty- five years later Clement VII. gave it
archiepiscopal dignity in order better to serve religion's cause in
Africa and Asia. For a brief decade or so Angra, Cabo Verde,
Goa, and Santo Thome were its suffragans, but Funchal was soon
after reduced to its former episcopal rank. Four hundred years
have rolled over the island since those early days of missionary
zeal, and to-day as the faithful priests of the Church of Our Lady
look out in the twilight hour over the unrippled waters of the bay,
they must often love to linger in memory over those who preached
and prayed before them in the centuries that have gone to rest.
It is a delightful place for day-dreaming up here amid the
evergreens and roses and fuchias. But down in the harbor the
side of my steamer was gleaming in the noonday light, and I remem-
bered that the day was wearing itself away while I was not yet
ready to descend the mountain. To the right of the church a
pathway takes one to a large hotel, where one may take luncheon
on the wide balconies. After this repast I followed the walk east-
ward to view the grandeur of one of the ravines that traverse the
length of the island. It is extremely interesting to note the in-
dustry with which the villagers have terraced the sides of the hills
through which the gorges run, leveling off long stretches of soil
for their wheat and maize and sugar cane. On my way back to
the main-traveled path I met a group of five or six small Portuguese
girls. Bright little maidens they were, with faces as sweet as the
roses they carried in their hands. The children seemed to believe
that I ought to have more flowers than I already displayed, so,
of course, I became a convert to their faith, and bought three of
their choicest roses. As a farewell tribute to my discerning taste
VOL. xcvi. 34.
530 AMONG THE ROSES OF MADEIRA [Jan.,
they formed a choral band, and, leading the way, sang what I
must believe was a pseen of praise until we reached the Caminho
do Monte, the toboggan slide down the mountain.
One may walk down the hill to the town, but the slide appealed
to me, and I soon found myself examining the toboggans. They are
graded in size, some being large enough to hold two or three, while
others are built for a single passenger. They consist of flat baskets
fitted on iron-covered runners, and are cushioned in such a way that
one does not feel any jar during the swift descent. Choosing one
of the newer-looking sledges, my companion and I were soon started
on the thrilling ride. Two men, one on each side of the toboggan,
held ropes attached to the car, and under their practiced guidance
we were piloted in safety over the slippery raceway. When we
were moving over the gentler declines of the pebble track the men
ran at full speed, while on the steeper sections of the road, they kept
the toboggan within the zone of safety by a backward pull on
the ropes. For fifteen minutes our ride continued, and we finally
stopped at the foot of the hill, within easy view of the wide square
of the Praga da Constituic,ao. Coasting over snow-clad hills is
not quite like the experience of shooting these terrestrial rapids, but
most of the joys of the winter sport are duplicated on the sledge
slide, save the tingling sensation of the snow dust in your face.
And perhaps the flowers overhanging the wall on either side of
the mile run compensated us for the absence of January and its
snows. For everywhere were rich blooms in red and white and
purple drooping over the garden walls, telling their story of the lux-
uriance of floral grandeur lying behind.
Our toboggan ride was over, and we were down in the lower
levels of the town again, a short distance away from the cathedral
church in the Largo da Se. In comparison with the magnificent
temples in the Italian cities, this church is not an impressive edifice.
Still there is a haunting beauty about it, and a simplicity of appeal
which preserves the atmosphere of distant days. It has a quiet
dignity all its own, a serenity unshaken by the rumbling of revolu-
tions or the tottering of proud dynasties. Kings or presidents
may rule in the splendid halls of Lisbon, but the humble cathedral
in Funchal, with many a hallowed memory clinging to its altars,
lives on in undismayed tranquility, continuing the mission that
changes not with the vicissitudes of men and things.
Opposite the cathedral, and on the other side of the spacious
praga, is the public park. Lack of time prevented me from visiting
1913.] AMONG THE ROSES OF MADEIRA 531
this, but I am sure that the vegetation and flowers in the Jardin
Municipal do not suffer when compared with the wealth I had
already seen. I had hoped, too, to make my pilgrimage to the
convent church of Santa Clara, as it is here that Zarco, the dis-
coverer of Madeira, lies buried, but this also I had to forego.
As I was leaving the cathedral, I heard the hoarse call of the
steamer's whistle coming over the water. This was the signal that
it was time for us to return to the wharf if we wished to sail to
Italy on the big liner which was waiting in the harbor. So we
hurried to the pier and stepped aboard the tender, to be carried back
to our homes on the ocean steamer. Everybody had purchased
some souvenir of Madeira. Some of my shipmates had invested
their money in laces and handkerchiefs, others had brought aboard
some of the delicious figs and luscious strawberries, and still others
had chosen to allow their recollections to cluster about some pretty
pieces of inlaid wood. There was an exchange of impressions
about the island we had left, and the universal opinion was the
individual one, that Madeira was the garden of the gods. When
we had disembarked in the morning we were pretty well acquainted,
but when we returned to the ship we returned as friends, a friend-
ship born of the love which we shared in common for the beautiful
city across the bay.
Once more the steamer's engines began to revolve, and as
we moved out from the harbor we felt that Madeira and the beauty
of its floral world were slowly slipping away from us. For hours
its green hills were clearly visible from the departing vessel, and as
the evening twilight began to creep over the grey ocean, our last
backward glances caught sight of the steeps of the mountain island.
It was with the lingering of first love that we said adios to the
flowery island in the sea. The night softly drew the curtain over
the vision of day, but stored away in memory's treasure trove lay
fresh and unshadowed the beauty of old Madeira. And as God's
starry roses blossomed forth in the sky and hung themselves in
wondrous festoons above us, we silently ploughed through the
white-capped seas toward the welcoming waters of the Mediter-
ranean. And as we looked out over the deep and watched the
myriad foam pearls dissolve in the magic of the June moonlight,
there was a touch of ill-concealed sadness about us all in the con-
sciousness that there lay behind us, somewhere in the infinitude of
the ocean's loving embrace, the little island of Madeira, the olden
gateway of the western world.
IRew Books.
THE HOME BOOK OF VERSE, AMERICAN AND ENGLISH.
Selected and arranged by Burton Egbert Stevenson. New
York: Henry Holt & Co. $7.50.
We envy the fine raptures of any poetry-loving youth whose
eyes first light upon these " realms of gold." We of an older
generation remember the delighted hours that sped in Bryant's
Library of Poetry and Song. A noble anthology as we recall
it; and in many a young heart did it awaken an undying love
of poetry. It made us marvel for a season that anyone should
be so dull as to read mere prose when the world was aglow
with entrancing poetry. Yet have we here a nobler anthology,
culled not only from familiar gardens, but from fresh fields and
pastures new, or by stray paths on olden hills of song: all the
joys of all the muses flowering in a single tome. Take it, boy or
girl, youth or maiden, and if you do not learn from it to love the
delights of poesy, know that you are fit for treason, stratagems,
and spoils. You are doomed to perpetual poring over newspapers,
to the playing of bridge, to the reading of Marie Corelli, or, if
possible, to some worse fate.
In a word we mean to say that Burton Egbert Stevenson
has given us a splendid collection of poetry and verse. He had
plenty of room to do it in; for this volume, which is not bulky,
thanks to the India rice paper, contains three thousand six hundred
pages of text s plus more than two hundred pages of indexes. As
the table of contents embraces sixty pages, evidently we can give
only a faint idea of the wealth spread before us. The work is
arranged topically, and may properly be called not an anthology,
but a collection of anthologies. There is enough for every taste,
the selections ranging from nursery rhymes to Milton and Keats,
from the immortal Solomon Grundy, who was born on Monday, to
the not more " immortal Bird," who
oft-times hath
Charmed magic casements, opening on the foam
Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.
Between these extremes is every variety of verse conveying
every variety of mood and feeling, of fancy and imagination, of
1913-] NEW BOOKS 533
thought and reflection. We believe there is no collection, in a
single volume, so comprehensive or so catholic. It includes
nearly all the best poetry as found in the Golden Treasury, The Ox-
ford Book of Verse, and The Flower of the Mind; not a little
from the Irish Anthologies; many famous longer poems, complete,
such as " The Ancient Mariner," " The Ballad of Reading
Gaol," "The Deserted Village," "The Rubaiyat," etc.; the best
vcrs de societe; patriotic poems; religious poems and hymns;
stray bits of popular newspaper verse; old favorites; and the
best of recent poetry, English, Irish, and American.
Nobody can be expected to consider the compiler happy in all
his selections or invariably just in his sense of proportion. We
think, for instance, that there is altogether too much love poetry
included about eight hundred pages. Even the strongest appetite
for the dews of paradise will rebel before it is fed with the seven
hundred and ninety-ninth spoonful ! Especially as there is so little
real variety. It is the same old, old story retold in a thousand
forms, with less expenditure of grey matter to the printed page
than anywhere else in the book. The valuable space occupied by
these sweet nothings might have been given to stirring ballads
and battle pieces, to nature poetry, to the poetry of religion
and reflection to something with ideas in it, to something fresh
and original. Think of omitting " The Happy Warrior " or " The
Barmecides " or " The Nameless One " of Mangan, or a hundred
others more worthy of note. Every reader, no doubt, could ad-
vise Mr. Stevenson; but none of us, probably, would choose so
wisely. He has taken little that is not worth reading with the
exception above noted; and our chief feeling towards him is one
of deep gratitude. All lovers of poetry, and its refining and ele-
vating influence, must rejoice that he has so admirably succeeded
in bringing together, often from distant and obscure corners in the
Vale of Poesy, so much of beauty in thought and sentiment.
HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE, FROM BEOWULF TO
SWINBURNE. By Andrew Lang, M.A. New York : Long-
mans, Green & Co. $1.75 net.
" This volume," writes Lang in his preface, " does not pretend
to be an encyclopaedia of our literature; or to include all the names
of authors and of their works. Selection has been necessary,
and in the fields of philosophy and theology but a few names appear.
The writer, indeed, would willingly have omitted not a few of the
534 NEW BOOKS [Jan.,
minor authors in pure literature, and devoted his space only to
the masters, but it was practically impossible to pass by these
lesser lights in silence. The author's object has been to arouse
a living interest, if it may be, in the books of the past, and to
induce the reader to turn to them for himself."
This is no ordinary pedantic, dry-as-dust manual made-in-
Germany, but a most interesting, critical, and suggestive volume
from beginning to end. All the qualities that have made so many
thousands of us love Andrew Lang for years are to be found
in this excellent history of English literature. We share his en-
thusiasm for Homer, Jeanne d'Arc, and the Jacobite cause; we
laugh at his acute yet kindly sense of humor; we are persuaded
despite ourselves to judge every poet and novelist by the standard
of "the great and good Sir Walter;" we are astonished at the
wide scope of his general information, and the clearness of his
vision; we admire him also for his honest hatred of John Knox
and the Puritan divines, " who were soon to put an end to 'Merry
England ;' " we forgive him for his occasional failures to under-
stand things Catholic, for there is no malice in his heart.
Lang had the faculty of painting a portrait with a few brilliant
strokes, so that it would remain forever in the memory.
He had, likewise, the wonderful gift of setting forth in bold
outlines the literary merits of novelist, essayist, and poet, and
though a bit strong at times in his likes and dislikes, he never an-
tagonizes his readers by over-dogmatism.
Where we are treated to such a feast of good things, it is
somewhat of a task for a reviewer to choose the best. His esti-
mates of Samuel Johnson, Carlyle, Milton, Dryden, Addison, and
Poe are of singular merit. At times he is the jester, poking good-
natured fun at Donne's annual rhapsodies, and the inaccuracies of
Coleridge's Jeanne d'Arc; he is often severe, denouncing Burnet's
improved insinuations against James II., and Phineas Fletcher's
bitter hatred of popery; he is generally fair, praising the Jesuit
missionaries for their heroic sufferings among the Iroquois, and
rejoicing in the fact that Cardinal Newman gave Kingsley his
quietus in a most strenuous fight. Occasionally, we are astonished
to meet with a little Scotch Protestant prejudice; as when he styles
St. Dunstan a medium, speaks of the wealth and licentiousness of the
mediaeval clergy without qualification, calls Bacon " Jesuitical,"
and asserts that " it had not been easy for Kingsley to understand
what Newman meant." We also are a bit surprised to find him
1913.] NEW BOOKS 535
ignoring, among the moderns, such writers as Coventry Patmore
and Francis Thompson.
We thank him, on the other hand, for his unsparing denuncia-
tion of the unreliability of Froude as an historian, and for his loyal
defense of his hero, Scott, against the mean aspersions of Macaulay.
His love for angling is very much in evidence, when he speaks of
Walton, Gay, Thompson, and Kingsley, and he chuckles over the
fact that Gay never condescended to use " either worm or the
natural fly."
He has the literary man's contempt for " the poor results
of modern science as regards human happiness," and the critic's
contempt for the cheap newspaper criticism of our modern penny-
a-liner. He has no patience with the English way of pronouncing
Greek, " which is certainly wrong," and he confidently assures
us that " our popular novels will doubtless astonish future genera-
tions."
" Readers, like poets and anglers, are born to be so," Mr.
Lang assures us. Still some who were not born under such a
fortunate star will undoubtedly be allured or compelled by this
bright, clever volume " to come into the Muse's Paradise."
There are a few misprints (pp. 452, 593), and the index is
exasperatingly incomplete. The brief notices at the end of the
volume also makes us feel that the author was cramped for space,
and was doing his utmost to fulfill an allotted contract of book
making. Still he most humbly warns us at the outset that he had
been guilty of sins of commission as well as omission. Now that
he has gone from us, we wonder who of all the English-speaking
world is competent to take his place.
THE HOLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH. By R. M. Johnston.
Boston: Houghton Miflflin Co. $1.50 net.
We opened this volume with the idea of reading a brief sketch
of the Church made by some more or less competent outsider; but
we were soon undeceived. This book is simply an ignorant, Inger-
sollian tirade against Christianity, and especially against the Catho-
lic Church, from its first to its last page. Were the attack con-
ducted in a scholarly fashion, or were its literary style beyond
reproach, we might gladly have entered the lists against an antag-
onist worthy of our steel; but the author is so utterly incompetent
both in philosophic viewpoint and in historical knowledge, that we
must needs do violence to ourselves merely to mention it. To
536 NEW BOOKS [Jan.,
stigmatize his book as it deserves would require the pen of
Swift.
With astounding ignorance, Mr. Johnston assures us that
" the history of the Christian Church as a whole has never been
written," and then with unbounded conceit he proceeds forsooth
" to set out the facts in the terms of dispassionate historical observa-
tion ! " The many false and outrageous statements in his inane
account of Christian origins makes a serious student marvel both
at the man's extreme impudence and the utter credulity of readers
who could possibly swallow such a mess without nausea.
Listen to a few of his utterances: There is nothing original
in Christianity; it borrows from Greece, India, and Persia; almost
all the incidents of Christ's life are typical myths; Christianity is
nothing else but the almost universal cult of a Redeemer-God
incorporated with the teachings of Unorthodox Hebraism ; the Gos-
pels are full of contradictions, distorted facts, and pure myths;
Jesus, a mere faith-healer, preached no dogmas, but a gospel of
a suffering humanity against the rich oppressor, etc., etc. Utterly
ignorant of the A B C of the science of comparative religions,
our author loves to startle us by oracularly declaring that the
Trinity is borrowed from Egypt, the Logos of St. John from Persia,
the cultus of the Virgin Mary from Venus of Cybele, the celibacy
of the priesthood from the priests of Isis, etc. He never makes the
slightest effort to produce evidence for his most arbitrary assertions.
The errors of his sketch of church history would fill about
twenty pages of this magazine. We are told a great many facts
that are not so, viz., as late as the fifth century Christians prayed
to the rising sun; Pope Innocent the First sanctioned pagan incan-
tations; Christianity adopted in its dogma of the veneration of the
saints the superstitions and myths of Paganism; the papal power
depended upon the forged decretals; in the year one thousand
there was a widespread conviction of Christ's second coming; the
mediaeval clergy manufactured countless relics for "pious profit;"
Rome's challenge to heresy set back the clock of intellectual freedom
for many years ; Pope Innocent III. diverted the Fourth Crusade
from Jerusalem to Constantinople; the Roman Curia had a sched-
uled list of prices for the forgiveness of sins ; the Dominican Tetzel
sold indulgences ; Lutheranism had a great vogue even in Italy ; the
Jesuits were spies, assassins, liars, and the champions of an austere
immorality, developing casuistry in order to declare black white
and white black; the Catholic Church has ever been the enemy of
1913-] NEW BOOKS 537
the press; Voltaire's Ecrassez I'lnfame was merely the indignant
protest of toleration against revolting barbarities, etc., etc.
We sincerely hope that by this time Harvard University is
heartily ashamed of the " valuable help " that Professor Toy gave
in the framing up of the first six chapters of the present volume.
At a Catholic University no student would be allowed to take
his degree if in his thesis he had been so inaccurate and so un-
scholarly. But at a Catholic School of to-day no one would dare
subscribe to Mr. Johnston's pragmatic thesis that " the word truth
is slowly but surely being relegated to the pigeon hole as a meaning-
less exorcism from the intellectual juggling bag of the Aristotel-
ians " (p. xviii.).
We stigmatize this entire volume as a tissue of the most out-
rageous errors and lies. It is worthy of the English Rationalistic
press, or of the pages of the lowest type of American anti-Catholic
balderdash.
RACE IMPROVEMENT OR EUGENICS. By La Reine Helen
Baker. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. $1.00 net.
When Mr. Chesterton was asked one day his opinion of
Eugenics, he answered more forcibly than elegantly : " It stinks."
We can picture him making the same comment on the present
volume of Miss Baker's, for it is frankly pagan from cover to
cover in its advocacy of the modern degenerate gospel of race
improvement.
The Eugenists ignore God and His revelation, and view the
race as one might consider the breeding of cattle on a Texas ranch.
They completely ignore the Christian idea of the dignity of human
nature; they insist on the absolute supremacy of the pagan state.
' The ideal of celibacy stands self -condemned," we are in-
formed by these new teachers. " Where successful it means race
suicide, and where unsuccessful it means hypocrisy and a thousand
other horrors." Miss Baker goes off in hysterics at the thought
of the millions of dollars wasted by the Catholic Church in the
endowing of monasteries and nunneries.
Marriage is no longer a sacrament of divine institution,
wherein each partner contracts for life certain duties as well as
rights ; it is merely a State-controlled affair, which aims at " breed-
ing the fittest from the fittest," in the bodily sense. Marriage
is not by any means to be confused with procreation. Every woman
has an absolute right to her own person, and it is her prerogative
538 NEW BOOKS [Jan.,
to refuse to bear children. Illegitimacy must not be abolished, for
it has justified itself historically by producing some of the earth's
chosen heroes !
Divorce is the best thing the modern world has popularized,
for marriage becomes attractive the more you increase the facilities
for un-making it. Let divorce be " cheap, easy, and free from
shameful scandal."
The delicacy that has surrounded the subject of sex in the past
has been due to " ignorance, bigotry, superstition, and persecu-
tion," but henceforth the advocates of Eugenics intend to draw
aside the veil. Boys and girls will be initiated early in all the
essential information of sex-life. They will be taught the best
methods of preparing for parenthood; they will be warned against
sexual immorality in the plainest terms, and instructed in all the
nastiness of sexual diseases.
The physician of the future is to be called upon rather than
the moral teacher, for "the nobler motives are proving inadequate !"
As the world is beginning to contain too many of the wrong sort
of people, race suicide is to be judiciously practiced, and the State
is to step in to order the sterilization of the unfit. Why should
criminals, the feeble minded, the diseased, hand down their taint to
succeeding generations? When the Eugenists are in full control
we are to have " the survival of the fittest with a vengeance."
This book is full of platitudinous nonsense, unbelief, and
immoral teaching. It proves that Miss Baker and her ilk have
not the slightest sense of humor. If we were to follow out her
principles, we might urge the State to prevent such degenerates
from handing down to future generations their pagan gospel.
But the Catholic Church is tolerant, and her children are taught
to be kindly to the absurd.
MIRIAM LUCAS. By Canon Sheehan. New York : Longmans,
Green & Co. $1.35 net.
In his new story, Miriam Lucas, the author of My New Curate
has taken a wider field than heretofore. His wide sympathy and
his wider understanding where his sympathy cannot be has
brought him success. He shows us again the Irish peasants, whom
he knows so well, with their simplicities and their superstitions,
and then he pictures the upper classes, with their bitter social
distinctions and religious differences. He takes us to Dublin with
Miriam, who begins to contribute a series of earnest and very
1913-] NEW BOOKS 539
fiery articles to a revolutionary newspaper. In her company and
that of an equally zealous young Trinity student, we become in-
volved in labor struggles of serious import. Violence and blood-
shed soon alter Miriam's theories, at least, to a certain extent, but
she remains active in the industrial work, and in following her
career we get a vivid and a complex picture of the labor troubles,
the land troubles, and the social troubles of Ireland. In the end
Miriam returns to the Catholic faith, in which she discovers herself
to have been really born, and by her happy marriage dissipates
the old curse hanging over her home. Miriam herself is a bit
stiff; we are interested more in her life than in her character.
But her lover is very human and likable, and the young en-
thusiast of Trinity College is drawn with a sympathy and pathos
that make him very appealing.
Miriam's brief experience in New York forms a section of
the story less likely to be enjoyed by American readers. The
city depicted by Canon Sheehan is not the New York that we
ourselves know. He makes an Avernus of it, perhaps necessary to
his plot, but scarcely true to reality.
BETWEEN TWO THIEVES. By Richard Dehan. New York :
Frederick A. Stokes Co. $1.40 net.
Between Two Thieves is a story of the Crimean War. The
" two thieves " are Louis Napoleon and a British Army Contractor ;
the one that is crucified is England. It is impossible to summarize
the story, or rather stories, that the book holds, for it is a vast pan-
orama of many scenes and many tales, and includes more characters
than a novel of Dickens. It is exceptionally long, having about
seven hundred closely printed pages. We may say that the heroine
is Florence Nightingale spoken of under the name of Ada Merling
and the hero Hector Dunoisse, a general in the army of Napoleon.
The lesson which the author evidently seeks to inculcate is
the abounding mercy of our Blessed Redeemer and surely all of
us would hasten the message to the ends of the earth, for it is
our only hope. It is good also to know that the great, eternal
truths, so often denied and scoffed at to-day, are brought boldly
forward. She has, in many ways, given us an exceptional piece of
work, yet its defects are as glaring as its merits, and its work-
manship is at times surprisingly crude and amateurish. She is
not only dramatic; she is melodramatic, and, what is worse still,
has been led by a love of the sensational, and in her slavish
540 NEW BOOKS [Jan.,
service of the latter has not hesitated to use, with shockingly bad
taste, things most sacred to the Christian heart.
This may sound harsh when one considers the astounding labor
spent upon the work, and the fact that the motives and intentions
of the author are of the best. She is a Catholic, and more than
once through the book are magnificent passages that testify to
the truth and necessity of the Catholic faith. We will quote one:
You may slough your skin of State-patronized, easy-going
Protestantism as easily as you can change your political con-
victions, and presently, with modern Buddhism, or Spiritualism,
or Platonism, Christian Science, Agnosticism, Mormonism, or
Hedonism, be covered and clad anew, but Catholicism pene-
trates the bones, and permeates the very marrow. You cannot
pluck that forth; it is rooted in the fibres of the soul.
Yet in spite of these great things, the defects of the book are
so glaring and so positive that we must emphatically condemn it.
The mercy of our Lord is wonderful even to the man who has
sinned seventy times seven. But in order to preach that mercy it
is not necessary to forego good taste and propriety. We all know
what sin is, and best of all they know it who have drunk most deep.
The present volume will be as pearls before swine. Life has its
dangers and temptations that are sufficient even when we do not
go out of our way to meet them. Not by dwelling upon the power
of iniquity, nor on the sensuality of the sinner before he became a
saint, will we be strengthened, but by constantly seeking to keep
sin away even in thought seeking to supply our own weakness
by His grace; seeking to stand lest we fall by these means only
will we be nobler and purer. To fight the fight in our own souls;
to be instant in helping others; to contend with anger and passion
against the flood of impurity which, under this guise or that, seeks
to engulf the world, is our first duty.
With much regret, for it has great qualities, we cannot but
think that practically, as the world stands, and as the world views
life, this book will be used as a champion of the coarse, the vulgar,
the indecent in life and literature.
RELIGION IN NEW NETHERLAND. By Frederick J. Zwierlein,
D.Sc.M.H. New York : Leo Kelly. $2.00 net.
It is with some misgivings that one opens a doctor's disserta-
tion, for while one is pretty sure of finding facts, the vital spark
that gives life and movement is often lacking. The work before
1913-] NEW BOOKS 541
us, in which Dr. Zwierlein traces the development of the religious
conditions in the province of New Netherland from 1623 to 1664,
is, however, one of the happy exceptions.
The author first gives as a background the political and re-
ligious conditions in Holland, after which he turns to New Nether-
land and develops the relations of the Church and State in that
province. He then considers the application of this general church
policy to the English settlers in the province, to the Lutherans, the
Quakers, the Jews, and the Catholics. He closes with a considera-
tion of the Indian mission, noting the part played by the Dutch and
by the Jesuits from Canada.
The Church and State were very closely related in New Nether-
land. The Reformed Church was, from the first, the established
Church, and, in fact, it was the only one which enjoyed the liberty
of public worship. Ministers and schoolmasters were appointed
and paid by the civil government, upon the approval of the Classis
of Amsterdam, the responsible ecclesiastical body for the province.
The Director General, as supreme magistrate, retained control of
the Colonial Church, but nevertheless he was not able to overawe
the sturdy Dutch ministers. Dominic Bogardus is on record as
having sent a letter to the redoubtable Wouter Van Twiller, in
which he is said to have described him as " a child of the devil, an
incarnate villain whose buckgoats are better than he."
Despite the dominance of the Reformed Church, liberty of
conscience was allowed, although dissenters were not allowed to
gather for worship, either privately or publicly, but all were al-
lowed to exercise their religion in their own homes. The only
sect under the ban was the Quakers, and even they were tolerated
after 1663. In that year Directors at Amsterdam, in passing on
the case of one John Browne, whom Stuyvesant had banished
from the colony, ruled that Stuyvesant might shut his eyes to the
presence of dissent in New Netherland.
The Dutch welcomed the English Presbyterians and Congrega-
tionalists from New England as belonging to the Reformed faith,
and allowed them full freedom of worship. Lutherans were urged
to attend the orthodox Church, and one of their ministers was
sent back to Holland for attempting to hold religious services, but
little strife resulted. Catholics and Jews were tolerated, but there
was much opposition to the latter on account, as Stuyvesant put
it, " of their customary usury and deceitful trading with the Chris-
tians."
542 NEW BOOKS [Jan.,
Indian missions were little favored by the West India Com-
pany's policy in New Netherland. Some of the patrons were solic-
itous for the conversion of the Indians, and even the Director Stuy-
vesant expressed himself as willing to carry out any measures that
might be suggested to this end, but little was done. It was left
to the Jesuits to plant the seeds of Christianity in central New
York. This seed was watered with the blood of martyrs, although
the Dutch, who were on friendly terms with the Iroquois, aided
in rescuing more than one of the devoted band from the savage
tormentors.
Dr. Zwierlein has produced a work of singular merit. He
is sure of his facts, he is impartial in tone, and his conclusions
are, for the most part, sound. It is to be regretted that he did not
consider briefly the religious colonial policy that held in New
France, in Massachusetts Bay, in Spanish America, in order to
throw a fuller light on the Dutch policy. In judging any period
of history, it is well to look at motives and events from the view-
point of the time. Perhaps if this had been done, " the spirit of
intolerance which existed latent in the Dutch province from its
foundation " would not appear in such sharp relief.
The book is well bound, the paper good, the type clear, the
footnotes excellent. The appendix contains a very valuable
" Chronicle of New Netherland," giving year by year the chief
events in the history of the province. There is, likewise, an
exceptionally full and well-arranged bibliography, as well as a good
index.
THE INHERITANCE. By Josephine Daskam Bacon. New York:
D. Appleton & Co. $1.30 net
In her new novel, The Inheritance, Josephine Daskam Bacon
takes us back about fifty years. Her hero, who tells his own story,
is a little English boy of mysterious parentage, who is adopted
into the family of an American doctor a lovable, big-hearted
doctor of the old school. He grows up happily enough with the
doctor's boys, but on reaching manhood determines to go to England
and make an attempt to claim his shadowed inheritance. The
failure and the follies of his visit are made very pathetic, and we
are glad when he returns home at last, to follow the profession and
succor the declining fortunes of his adopted father. In the pages
of this novel, readers will look in vain for the bright humor of
" The Memoirs of a Baby " and " The Biography of a Boy." They
I9I3-] NEW BOOKS 543
will find, however, a natural, human story, with well-drawn char-
acters, pleasant pictures of family life, and a plot whose occasional
improbabilities do not detract from its interest.
LOOKING ON JESUS: THE LAMB OF GOD. By Madame
Cecilia. New York: Benziger Brothers. $1.75.
As these meditations are to be used during the holy season
of Lent, they are based on the Gospel narrative of our Savior's
Passion. Commencing with the Baptism of Jesus, the considera-
tions set forth in a loving and practical manner the sufferings, both
mental and physical, endured by the world's Redeemer for the sal-
vation of the human race.
The author displays a minute and loving knowledge of the
life of our Lord and of the four Gospels. Many topographical
details and " side-lights " on Jewish customs are inserted, and in no
small way contribute to the interest of the work.
We hope that Madame Cecilia will fulfill her promise of
making this volume the first of "a series destined to cover the
circle of the Church's year."
THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT ROYAL. By Lillian Rea. New
York: Charles Scribner's Sons. $3.00 net.
If Lillian Rea ever read the list of authorities which she cites
at the end of her superficial and inaccurate account of Port Royal,
she gives no evidence whatever of that fact in the present volume.
No one should dare attempt a sketch of the Port Royalists
without a perfect grasp of the problems of grace which Jansenism
discussed so obstinately, and an accurate knowledge of the Jesuit
casuists which the author dismisses so cavalierly.
We are treated to a number of gossipy sketches of St. Cyran,
Arnauld, Nicole, Quesnel, and Pascal; we are amused at the trio
of worldly devotes, Princesse de Guemene, Marie de Gonzague, and
the Marquise de Sable; we hear a great deal of " The letter of the
law," of persecution, Jansenist miracles, and wicked Jesuit systems
of relaxed morality; but of any intelligent summary or apprecia-
tion of the teaching of Jansenism there is not the slightest evidence.
One would expect her, at least, to mention the five propositions
of the Augustinus that were condemned, for surely her readers will
never take the trouble to read about them elsewhere.
But, perhaps, she was fearful that they would not understand
them any better than she had done herself : " The Augustinus was
544 NEW BOOKS [Jan.,
in reality so obstruse," as she naively admits. Still she owed it
to her readers, who, otherwise, might stupidly go away with her
notion that " Jansenism was a pure renaissance of the spirit of the
early Fathers, and the ancient dogma and authority of Christian
tradition" (pp. 19, 20).
We would advise her to read carefully the articles on Jansenius,
Pascal, Quesnal, etc., in The Catholic Encyclopedia, and if she
would incorporate a good portion of these articles, her book might
interest the intelligent reader.
We will quote a few lines from Volume XI. on Pascal's
letters :
Without ever seriously altering his citations from the Casuists,
as he has sometimes been wrongfully accused of doing, he
arranges them somewhat disingenuously; he simplifies compli-
cated questions excessively, and in setting forth the solutions
of the Casuists sometimes lets his own bias interfere. But
the greatest reproach against him is, first, that he unjustly
blamed the " Society of Jesus," attacking it exclusively, and
attributing to it a desire to lower the Christian ideal and to
soften down the moral code in the interest of its policy: then,
that he discredited Casuistry itself by refusing to recognize
its legitimacy, or, in certain cases, its necessity, so that not only
the Jesuits, but religion itself suffered by this strife.
When Miss Rea questions " The utility of self-immolation in
the religious life " (p. 226), she pictures to herself the stern, rigor-
istic, and un-Catholic community of the Port Royalists, who knew
little of the joyous, peaceful life of the true religious.
The Catholic Church was very wise in stamping out such a
travesty of the religious life, just as she was perfectly justified in
condemning the heresy of the tricky anti-Catholic Jansenists.
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. By Rev. Charles F. McGinnis.
St. Louis: B. Herder. $1.50.
A right understanding of the Catholic doctrine of the Com-
munion of Saints will not only give great spiritual nourishment
to the individual soul, but will further enable the soul to see the
errors that lie at the beginnings of many modern theories of life
and of duty. The modern world is beset with materialism. Just
now, sickened with its constant diet of gross materialism, it is
listening to a new " prophet," Henri Bergson, who claims to refute
materialism; but he is only leading the world from the grosser to
1913-] NEW BOOKS 545
the more refined. His gospel is still ultimately material. God is
a necessity for man, and the human heart yearns still with unabated
hunger for redemption. Christ, the Son of God, our Messiah, is
absolutely necessary if we are to read life hopefully, and any system
that begins not with Christ, the Second Man, begins wrong, and
will go from bad to worse. The root evil of modern theories is,
to put it plainly, that man can save himself without Christ.
The Communion of Saints is the fruition of our Lord's
work and sacrifice. In its light alone is true human progress to be
found. It tells us that we are Christ's and Christ is God's. To
make a study of it; to know it intimately with all its results its
height and depth is one of the most profitable tasks to which a
Catholic could set himself.
Our gratitude, therefore, goes out to Dr. McGinnis for his
excellent and important work, The Communion of Saints. He has
spent many years on the task, consulted original sources, and, as a
result, presents a thorough and, as regards a popular book, a com-
prehensive work. The first part deals with Invocation and Inter-
cession, and the second with Veneration of the Saints. The space
of a review does not permit quotation nor extended praise of the
careful handling of different questions which we would otherwise
gladly give. The work should be widely recommended by priests;
and merits a large circulation. For non-Catholics who find the
Catholic doctrine of prayers to the Saints and for the dead an ob-
stacle, it will furnish an admirable and unanswerable defense.
THE EVE OF CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. Volume III. By
Monsignor Bernard Ward. New York: Longmans, Green
& Co. $3.75 net.
Monsignor Ward in his Dawn of the Catholic Revival (two
vols.), and his Eve of Catholic Emancipation (three vols.), has
given us a most interesting and valuable history of the Catholic
Church in England from 1781 to 1830. He has accomplished a
most difficult task in a manner that argues well for his accurate
scholarship, his perfect candor and his impartial judgment. Some
few critics assert that it would have been better to have left these
bitter controversies of the past buried in the archives of London,
Dublin, and Rome. Whatever would have been gained by such
a policy, it would be futile in the end. Deus non indiget mendacio
nostro; the evidence of human frailties which such records disclose
VOL. xcvi. 35.
54 6 NEW BOOKS [Jan.,
are necessary to warn us not to be guilty of the same mistakes.
Many of us have been all at sea when we tried to form a judgment
upon the various questions that are discussed so ably and so fully
in these five volumes. Now Monsignor Ward has furnished us
a guide that will enable us to steer safely in somewhat troubled
waters.
It is always sad to read of factions, dissensions, and quarrels,
but an accurate and impartial history of both sides is better than
the partisan statements that have bewildered us in the past. Much
of the present volume like its predecessors makes very unpleasant
reading. We are shocked to find bishops (like Milner) prohibited
by the Holy See from publishing attacks on their fellow bishops ; to
read charges against the Society of Jesus of trying by means not
praiseworthy to re-establish itself in England ; petty accusations sent
to Rome to prevent episcopal appointments; of the questioning
by their brethren of the orthodoxy of distinguished prelates; of
the Gallican spirit that prevailed among many laymen and clerics.
Frequently throughout the present volume we find some of
those short but clear-cut estimates of men which make Monsignor
Ward's work so valuable. Listen to his appreciation of Bishop
Milner :
His lot was cast in turbulent times when the need of a re-
doubtable champion to stand out in behalf of principles of
ecclesiastical discipline and policy which were in danger, was
of paramount importance; but his greatest admirers could not
but regret the rugged and intolerant language which seems to
have been inseparable from anything he wrote language often
ill-becoming the dignity of the episcopate We feel grate-
ful to him for the courage with which he fought against the
Cisalpine and worldly principles which were asserting them-
selves among the laity, and for the part which he took in helping
to defeat the Emancipation Bills of 1813 and 1821, clogged as
they were with objectionable restrictions. Nevertheless it is
impossible for us to shut our eyes to the fact that the price
paid was a high one; for it involved continual dissensions for
nearly twenty years among the bishops of England and Scot-
land, who but for Milner would have been a most united body,
and a state of acute tension for several years between the
English Vicars Apostolic and the venerable hierarchy of Ire-
land, not to mention the division of the whole Catholic body
into two parties, with consequent mutual ill-feelings and con-
J9 i3.] NEW BOOKS 547
tentions. Milner's orthodoxy has never been called in question ;
but his colleagues, who were combatting the same evils as he
was, by what they at least considered rightly or wrongly
to be more prudent methods, were no less orthodox a fact
which he seems to forget, or rather, which he frankly dis-
believed He had grievances against every one, from the
Holy Father downwards.
The present volume ends with the passing of the Emancipation
Bill. It was a braye and arduous fight, and was won by the Irish
despite the expressed opposition of the King and the leading English
statesmen. The English Catholics, on account of their small num-
bers, could only petition for emancipation, whereas the Irish, who
were four-fifths of the nation in Ireland, could demand it. As
our author states : " The truth was that the government having
refused to emancipate the Catholics, the Catholics began a move-
ment to emancipate themselves" (p. 166). O'Connell was the
soul of the movement, and his cleverness in founding the Catholic
Association to gather the needed funds, and his ability in uniting
the various factions which argued continually about the conditions,
did more than anything else to prove to men, like Sir Robert Peel,
that he was bound in honor to change sides, and favor so powerful
and unanimous a demand.
Although the relief granted by the bill centred on the right
to sit and vote in Parliament, it was by no means confined to
this. Moreover, while it was drawn out primarily with a view
to Ireland, it applied also to England and Scotland, in which
countries it conferred on Catholics the elective franchise,
which their brethren in Ireland had enjoyed since the year
1793 Catholics everywhere were allowed to hold all civil
and military offices (with a few specified exceptions) on like
conditions, and to belong to any corporation. The only civil
restrictions were that Catholics could not present to livings
in the Established Church, and that they were precluded
from holding the office of Regent, Lord Chancellor of Great
Britain, and Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and Lord Lieutenant
of Ireland.
There were a few restrictive clauses in the bill, viz., first,
the Catholic Bishops in Ireland were not to adopt the titles of the
ancient sees; second, Catholics were not to hold religious celebra-
tions outside their churches or private houses; and, third, all mem-
548 NEW BOOKS [Jan.,
bers of religious orders were obliged to register their names before
a clerk of the peace, and all incoming religious were henceforth to
be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and banished. There were
also other grievances that were not removed by the bill, viz., mar-
riages before Catholic priests continued to be invalid in law;
Catholic soldiers and sailors were still without legal rights to
exempt them from frequenting Protestant worship; and Catholic
property continued insecure, their charities being regarded as " su-
perstitious uses." As Monsignor Ward remarks, " it was, in fact,
from first to last a layman's bill; and whereas the laity can justly
date their emancipation from 1829 in ecclesiastical matters, what
ever freedom of worship there was dated from the act of 1791."
This volume contains some excellent portraits of Bishops Bram-
ston, Doyle, Baines, Weld, Gradwell, and Wiseman, and of laymen
like O'Connell, Canning, Peel, Andrews, Blount. There are also
a number of interesting letters and documents in the appendices.
EXPOSITION OF CATHOLIC MORALITY GRACE. Confer-
ences at Notre Dame of Paris. By E. Janvier. Paris: P.
Lethielleux. 4 frs.
This is the eighth volume of a series of conferences on Catho-
lic Morality which Canon Janvier has been giving every Lent
in the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris since 1903. The six con-
ferences are on Grace: its necessity, its nature, its efficacy, and its
effects. Each conference is preceded by a very carefully' detailed
summary, while the appendices furnish a list of the chief authors
consulted, and some forty pages of explanatory notes.
The conferences are followed by a paschal retreat of six
instructions, which discuss the life of grace from the viewpoint
of the Passion, the Holy Eucharist, the Sacraments, etc. While
the learned Canon has given us a most instructive and edifying
course of sermons, we feel that he suffers in comparison with his
illustrious predecessors. He has neither the cold, intellectual bril-
liancy of Monsignor d'Hulst, nor the fiery eloquence of Lacordaire.
Besides he has selected a most difficult theme.
The conferences are for the most part speculative in tone,
while the instructions are practical, in view of the men's Easter
Communion; still there is always that clever mixture of teaching
and exhorting which stamp the popular preacher.
1913.] NEW BOOKS 549
'THE ONE TOO MANY. By Mary Agnes Byrne. (Akron,
Ohio: The Saalfield Co. $1.00.) This entertaining little
story deals mainly with the disappearance of a child of four, who is
being half-cared for by the Milfing family, people in poor circum-
stances. An ingenuous little neighbor, whose sympathies have
been aroused, surreptitiously installs the orphan in the home of a
wealthy resident, who proves to be the child's grandmother.
The little one's mother, supposedly deceased, returns to her old
home after a long estrangement, to find her lost baby and a warm
welcome awaiting her. The home life of the families are inter-
estingly portrayed, and the book will be enjoyed by young readers.
T I NDER the unsuggestive title of Gone Before, Benziger Broth-
ers, New York, presents a volume of biographical sketches
of three young women Margaret Mary Ward, Alice de
Deze, and Agnes Westlake who belonged to the Helpers of the
Holy Souls Sisterhood. The light and fragrance of sanctity made
their lives a joy and blessing to those who knew them, and gives to
these simple records a unique, spiritual power. The most inter-
esting of these sketches and the most detailed, illustrating more
fully than the rest the ways of God with chosen souls and the
ways of such souls with God, is the account of Margaret Ward,
the eighth child of William George Ward of Oxford Movement
fame. It is a delightful as well as an inspiring story.
'THE ADVANCE OF WOMAN (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippin-
cott Co. $1.50 net) is the noble title of a cheerful little
fireside volume we have with us this month. Its chapters are
" Man as Ruler," " Man a Social Coward," " Woman as Man Has
Made Her," and " Evil Consequences of Degradation." In the
words of the poet, " enough said." The book, as farce, is excellent.
It is " funny without being vulgar." In one especially enlighten-
ing chapter it tells how the Church of the Middle Ages " cleared
its skirts of woman," and went on its evil, torturing career, leaving
her " outside its ministration." But it was her noble influence
that brought about the Reformation! We wish to add that The
'Advance of Woman is by Jane Johnstone Christie, and that (slightly
impolite, but obvious remark!) she does not appear to have ad-
vanced very far.
550 NEW BOOKS [Jan.,
'THE GOLDEN PRAYER BOOK, published by B. Herder of
* St. Louis (60 cents), is attractively presented. Its matter is
extensive and well-chosen. The same firm publishes Father Otten's
popular work, The Church of Christ, well-suited for inquiring non-
Catholics. The price is very reasonable, fifteen cents. Among
Herder's pamphlet publications are The W 'ay of the Cross (5 cents),
and a drama in four acts that will recommend itself to schools:
Crowns and Palms (25 cents). It is translated from the German
of Monsignor A. de Waal. The same house gives us two pamph-
lets of the Catholic Social Guild of England. One of them, The
Church and Eugenics, by the Rev. Thomas J. Gerrard, is of ex-
ceptional importance to-day, and should be read by Catholic parents.
Our readers will know its value. The second is of interest
also to students of social conditions The Housing Problem, by
Leslie A. Toke, although we have to meet problems somewhat
different in this country. The Very Rev. Canon Welsh has written
an instructive volume on The New Rubrics and Psalter (10 cents).
DATHER J. F. X. O'CONOR, S.J., well known for his excellent
volume, Reading and the Mind, With Something to Read, has
written a study of Francis Thompson's Hound of Heaven. Father
O'Conor gives a mystical application of the poem, and compares its
theme in brief with the exercises of St. Ignatius.
'THE Ave Maria Press of Notre Dame, Ind., publishes a timely
pamphlet by the Reverend James Goggin on Christian Science
and Catholic Teaching (10 cents).
'THE SENTINEL PRESS, New York, publishes a Short Treatise
* on Confession and Communion, with particular regard for
the laity (5 cents).
C. HEATH & CO. issue a full and careful compendium of rules
for correct writing, entitled: Handbook of Composition, by
Edwin C. Woolley.
^foreign penobfcals.
Edmund Burke: Religion and the Church. By W. F. P.
Stockley. Burke was a Christian philosopher as well as a con-
servative statesman. Personally and officially, he was dominated
by Christian views. He advocated public religious instruction.
" Atheism is the great political evil," he said. He held it absurd
to claim religious assent on mere human authority, and as for sub-
scription to Scripture as the rule of faith, he said it was " the most
astonishing idea I ever heard." Yet Burke, always fearful of in-
quiry into the basis of things, did not inquire into the real basis
of religious authority, and there seems to be no evidence that Dr.
Hussey of Maynooth ever received him, as was rumored, into the
Church. The Tablet, November 23.
Words Without Knowledge. One of the most characteristic
and disquieting features of our age is an incapacity for clear or
consistent thought, which is perhaps the inevitable accompaniment
of unfaith. It was in the Middle Ages, when faith was strongest,
that the processes of thought were defined with the most uncom-
promising exactitude. We have passed to an age of half-lights,
from the glory of life to the sadness of decline. We have lost sight
of the truth and begun to doubt even the possibility of its attainment.
The theory which denies the existence of truth, except as a fluc-
tuating concept, could have arisen only in the United States, the
acknowledged headquarters of the modern spirit. This uprooting
of the very foundations of thought inevitably results in a slovenly
habit of reasoning. Consequently in the last few decades we have
an unprecedented and increasing slovenliness in the use of words.
For example, those who have ceased to take practical account of
a personal Deity have endowed " progress," which in itself is
duller than a log, and more dead than a stone, with the personal
attributes of the God they deny. Matthew Arnold is a notorious
example. To Arnold " progress " was a power not ourselves mak-
ing for righteousness. Now what sort of a power can be thus
susceptible to moral bias, and yet should not be described as a
person, it is impossible to say. The reckless use of scientific
method has likewise caused an incredible amount of slovenliness in
552 FOREIGN PERIODICALS [Jan.,
style and language. The houses of " ologies " and " isms " are
guilty of many offences. The soul of a people is reflected in its
language. It is surely a fact of the most disquieting significance
that the present state of the English language should be one of literal
decomposition, that having forgotten to believe we are forgetting
even how to talk. The Oxford and Cambridge Review, December.
The Eastern War Question. By Andre Cheradame. This
article deals with the present Turco-Balkan war troubles. Only
two countries of Europe are at present able to interfere Russia and
Austria. If the Christians and orthodox people had been van-
quished by Turkey, it would have been necessary for Russia to
interfere, but this intervention is now impossible, owing to the
decided victory of the Balkan States, but it is possible and probable
that Russia will interfere if Roumania and Austria, either singly
or conjointly, try to rob the Balkan States of the fruit of their
military successes. Austria, on the other hand, is hindered from
interfering by its motley inhabitants. They may be divided into
Germans, Magyars, Semites, Latins, and Slavs. Each of these
groups may be sub-divided into numerous nations or tribes, num-
bering altogether fifty millions of people. Politically they are
divided into the Separatists and the Loyalists. The former favor
the neighboring states, but their ambitions would be satisfied with
the overthrow of Austria-Hungary. The Loyalists comprise about
forty millions of people : twenty-three millions of these are Slavs,
and are unanimous in their determination that the Austro-Hun-
garian army shall not interfere in the Eastern war, for in case of
a victory the fruits would go to the Balkan Slavs, to whom they
are opposed. Le Correspondant, November 10.
Catholic Immigrants in Paris. By Henri Couget. The Catholic
immigrant in Paris comes from every Province of France, and na-
turally when he arrives in the French capital he is greatly in need of
help religious, social, material, etc. Catholic associations, about
twenty in number, have been instituted for the benefit of the immi-
grant. Each of the associations represents certain parts of France,
so the immigrant finds there the same costumes, customs, songs,
dances, etc., characteristic of his native province. He will find
friends who are ever ready to help him. One of these associations
publishes a twenty-page booklet, which serves as a guide and direct-
ory in Paris, and which gives warning of the pit-falls which beset
1913.] FOREIGN PERIODICALS 553
the immigrant. Another means of helping the immigrant is that
of communication between the Cure of his native parish and the
Cure of the parish in Paris where the new Parisian is expected to
live. The latter notifies the Parisan Cure of the immigrant's ar-
rival. With both these plans working together, the immigration
problem in Paris is not so discouraging. Le Correspondant, No-
vember 25.
The Spanish Premier. By Salvador Canals. This article is
by a member of the Cortes. M. Canals deplores the assassination
of the Premier while condemning his political policies, which the
writer believes have paved the way for anarchy. M. Canalejas
was fifty-eight years of age, and a man of remarkable intellect,
and a powerful orator. He was elected to the Cortes in 1881, and
was Under- Secretary of State to the President of the Council.
Soon after this he became a member of the Liberal Party, being
one of their Ministers from 1888-1895. Up to 1899 he had no
special political characteristic among the Liberals, except his bril-
liant intellect and oratorical powers. From this time he was
very active in the ranks of the Liberal Party; succeeding Moret in
1910 as a member of the Cabinet. The remaining portion of the
article reviews his work as Premier. The writer feels that Canale-
jas' death at the hands of an anarchist will not be lost upon
his countrymen, and that they have a further warning in the
condition of their neighbor, Portugal. Le Correspondant, No-
vember 25.
A Great Career. By De Lanzac de Laborie. A further study
of the pontificate of Pope Benedict XIV. is gained from his per-
sonal correspondence with ^the French Cardinal Tencin. In the
pontificate, as well as in the lower ecclesiastical offices, he showed
remarkable zeal. Unfortunately he was apt to be too compromising
when dealing with royalty. He carefully governed the Papal States
and replenished the Papal Treasury. Under him came the Gal-
lican troubles which he strove to settle. His great encyclicals
will long be remembered for their clearness. On the whole he was
a sterling character, and the idol of his faithful subjects. Le Cor-
respondant, November 25.
Luther and a Catholic Historian. By H. Grisar, S.J. Luther
and his doctrines still live in the hearts and minds of his followers
in Germany as well as elsewhere. When Father Grisar, S.J., pub-
554 FOREIGN PERIODICALS [Jan.,
lished his historical work on Luther he met with great opposition on
the part of the Lutherans especially. Harnack and Kaweran pub-
licly asserted that it is impossible for a true follower of Luther
to recognize their leader in the character described in the pages of
Father Grisar's book. Harnack went so far as to say : a Catholic
is wholly incapable of properly writing a history of Martin Luther
and his times, for his prejudices carry him away from historical
truth. The Reverend author answers that he and others are greatly
misjudged ; that he has kept to bare historical facts, leaving dogma
out of the question; that the requisite of having a special feeling
of " awe " for the character described, is in no wise conformable
to good criticism. Stimmen aus Maria-Laach.
The Star of Bethlehem. By Father X. Kugler, S. J. Many and
varied are the explanations given concerning the real nature of the
" star " that led the Magi to the humble stable at Bethlehem. Some
have sought to give a reasonable account of it from the science
of astronomy, especially Kepler and Kritzinger, who put forward
the hypothesis that it was nothing other than a " conjunction of
Saturn and Jupiter." Others place the experience in the category
of " dreams," such as are mentioned in the Scriptures. The Magi,
astronomers by profession, saw in this constellation a most im-
portant message. The first theory falls, for the word " star "
signifies but a single planet, and not a conjunction of two planets;
the second lacks conclusiveness. As miracles marked the work of
Christ during His life, so was His birth heralded by the miraculous
Star of Bethlehem. Stimmen aus Maria-Laach.
Frederic Ozanam. By Michael Moncarey. The story of
Ozanam's life is brief and simple. By aptitude and early choice
he was a Christian apologist; his means of influence was the pro-
fessor's chair. Boldly Catholic, he never offended opponents, com-
manding their respect no less by the charity and unflinching courage
of his character than by the breadth of his views, the brilliance of
his presentation, the timeliness of his apologetic, the range and
accuracy of his reading. This article describes especially his prep-
aration for and success in the lectures given at the Sorbonne and
at the College Stanislas. Etudes, November 20.
Public Schools and Liberty of Teaching. Until the end of
the sixteenth century public instruction was in the hands of the
1913.] FOREIGN PERIODICALS 555
Church. Later the State, to the exclusion of the rights of the
Church, made attendance at State schools compulsory, and taxed
citizens for the support of such schools. The liberty of teaching
which the Church demands for her children, consists ( i ) in general
liberty to open and maintain private schools without restriction;
(2) that parents should be allowed the selection of the school for
their children; (3) that parents who send their children to other
than State schools should be free from taxation for the State
school; (4) that the schools, other than the State schools, have
equal rights with the latter to State support. To these demands
the adversaries of the Church take exception. The author shows
that it is not private or confessional schools that harm a nation,
but neutral schools. The author reviews the conditions of public
instruction in different countries. Liberty of teaching, he finds, is
more highly respected in the United States than in any other coun-
try. Many newspapers and leading non-Catholic organs, he says,
express themselves as in favor of equal distribution of State
grants for both private and public schools. La Civilta Cattolica,
October 19 and November 2 and 16.
The Oxford and Cambridge Review. Lord Roberts and Ger-
many, by the Rt. Hon. F. E. Smith, K.C., M.P. Style, by I.
Gregory Smith. Reform: V. The Power of the Crown, by
Hilaire Belloc. The Prospects of Catholicism in England, by
O. R. Vassall-Phillips.
The National Review (December) : An exposition of the
failure in discipline, in numbers, in energy, and equipment of the
famed Territorial Force is given through the medium of a speech
delivered by Field-Marshal, the Earl Roberts, to the Men of Kent
Association. Under the title Suffragette Factories, Miss Helen
Hamilton severly criticizes the system of education that brings to
the fore an " efficient citizen " instead of an ideal woman. The
Impressions of a Political Tramp, by M. O. Sale, is a record of
the author's impressions obtained during a holiday tramp through
Lancaster and Yorkshire, where he went dressed in the guise of
a seedy clerk. " It must have often occurred to thoughtful
readers that if, in Shadow-Land, authors of reputation could en-
counter those who write their lives, the subsequent proceedings
might have considerable controversial interest." With this preface
Austin Dobson describes an imaginary meeting between Henry
556 FOREIGN PERIODICALS [Jan.,
Fielding and his first biographer, Arthur Murphy. W. R. Law-
son continues his exposition of the Marconi Inquiry.
The Tablet (November 30) : Bernard Whelan develops Mr.
Belloc's statement on the relations of Catholicism and Culture. If
we examine the cultivated world, past and present, we shall discover
the humanizing influences of Catholicism everywhere at work.
'After the War, by Edwin De Lisle. The temporal sway of the
Caliph is passing. The ultimate disappearance of the Ottoman
Empire is certain. In theory its integrity and independence have
been the keynote of European policy; in practice all the Powers,
Germany excepted, have received a part of it. The victorious
Balkan confederacy will be satisfied with nothing short of the
Gladstone " bag and baggage policy." Dom Connolly continues
at length his reply to Dr. Fortescue's theory of a former Great
Intercession in the Mass after the consecration.
Irish Ecclesiastical Record (December) : Rev. Berthold Mul-
leady, O.D.C., attacks the positions of both Thomists and Molin-
ists in their famous controversy on the manner of God's knowledge.
He maintains thaf St. Thomas (whose views he claims to be ex-
pressing throughout) held that God can foresee free things as
well as necessary things in their causes; that both Thomists and
Molinists have an erroneous conception of the nature of the Divine
Will and in consequence they incorrectly apportion the Divine
Causality as between the Divine Will and Intellect; and that the
science which they attribute to God cannot be at all predicated
of Him, or, at least, that it is wholly insufficient.
Le Correspondant (November 10) : Gabriel Louis- Jaray de-
scribes Uskub, which is in the war zone of Eastern Europe. He
gives a description of the motley inhabitants, their peculiar customs,
the form of government, and the commercial importance of the
country. On Sunday, October 31, 1512, the beautiful Sistine
Chapel was exhibited by Pope Julius II. to seventeen Cardinals.
The work of decoration had been begun on May 10, 1508, by
Michelangelo, and was therefore awaited with great interest. The
entire history of the Old and New Testament and of the Church
herself are depicted as only this artist could do it. The article,
with its description of each painting and also of the architects,
painters, etc., interested in the work, is written by Alexandre Mas-
seron.
1913.] FOREIGN PERIODICALS 557
(November 25) : Personal Correspondence, by Henri Per-
reyve. This article is composed of the letters written by Henri
Perreyve to Charles Ozanam, the youngest brother of Frederic
Ozanam. Battleships, by L. Haffner. On November 7th the
battleship France of the dreadnought type was launched. A de-
tailed account of the new battleship is given, and the remainder
of the article gives an historical account of the growth of war
vessels among all nations interested in dreadnoughts. Art.
Ruskin's ideas on art and architecture are summarized by Adrienne
De Lens.
Revue du Clerge Frangais (December) : The First Repentance
of a Persecuting State, by Georges Goyau, is a page of history con-
taining an exposition of the struggle between Church and State in
the year 1879-80. The accession of Leo XIIL, the alliances in
the Baden Reichstag between Catholics and certain conservative
Protestants, the symptoms which Bismarck showed of a change
of attitude, and the increasing weariness of the struggle contributed
to establishing peace between Church and State. After having
given bad example to the world for thirty years, the government
of Baden finally taught Berlin a lesson by the law of March 5, 1880.
In a few months four hundred and sixteen priests assumed the
charge of souls.
Revue des Deux Monde (November 15) : " The Turkish-Bal-
kan war is not a religious war, but a conflict between two civiliza-
tions," says M. Rene Pinon in his article, The Congress of Berlin
to the Balkan Confederacy. In it we read the history of the many
unsuccessful attempts made by the European Powers to improve
the condition of the Christians under Turkish rule and the Forte's
many unfulfilled pledges. Another interesting point made by M.
Pinon is that the Young Turks proved their inability to reorganize
Turkey by not seeing the importance of gaining the good will of
the Christians by just legislation. The political intrigues and
" drames de boudoir" of Versailles, about the year 1780, are the
subjects of a very illuminating article, At the Setting of the Mon-
archy, by the Marquis de Segur. He very cleverly shows us the
curious and subtle mixture of kindness, weakness, and inability to
rule in the character of Louis XVI., and the pernicious influence
which Marie Antoinette exercised over her husband politically.
Dr. Grasset writes on the history, uses, and many advantages of
vaccination.
558 FOREIGN PERIODICALS [Jan.,
Revue Pratique d'Apologetique (November i) : 'A Refutation,
by Chan. Van Langendonck. The Neutral School has been de-
clared the only solution of the educational problem. The writer
of this article raises three objections to neutrality, viz., (i) per-
sonality of master; (2) collective personality of pupils, and (3)
the education and answers each of his own objections.
(November 15) : Catholic Congresses, by Paul Parsy. Within
the past few years the Bishops of the different dioceses of France
have been encouraging their people to hold Congresses to strengthen
the faith of Catholics. The outcome has been most creditable, as
the various works proposed at these Congresses are now in full
operation. Educational Troubles, by E. Bruneteau. This article
is an historical study of the beginnings and growth of the Neutral
School System of France, with a personal and historical account
of the prime movers.
La Civilta Cattolica (November 2) : Father Michineau, com-
menting on the first answer of the Biblical Commission, concerning
the authorship of the Gospels of St. Mark and St. Luke, says : " The
formal testimony of the Fathers of the Church, both Greek and
Latin, prove that their Gospels must be attributed to St. Mark, a
disciple and interpreter of St. Peter, and to St. Luke, physician,
coadjutor, and companion in travel to St. Paul. The Falsehoods
of Ernest Hackel gives a thorough study of the character, as well
as of the teachings, of Ernest Hseckel. Italian critics are very
much pleased with the last volume of the Catholic Encyclopedia,
which gives the history of Italian literature and art.
IRecent Events.
Parliamentary work has begun again in
France. France. The prospects are bright for a
session which is to be devoted to useful
measures. There are no signs of an immediate Ministerial crisis,
although on a small question the government has lately suffered
a defeat. The leading part taken by M. Poincare in the negotia-
tions between the Powers with reference to the Balkan situation,
as well before the war began as during its course, has secured for
France an eminent place in the councils of Europe. His efforts,
indeed, did not meet with complete success, although they contrib-
uted in no small degree to the maintenance of peace.
The Electoral Reform Bill is making its way through Parlia-
ment. Having passed the Chamber of Deputies, it has been re-
ferred by the Senate to a Special Commission. Here it has been
shorn of the provisions which established Proportional Representa-
tion. To this proposal M. Clemenceau is offering the most deter-
mined opposition. He is the author of a Manifesto which de-
nounces the plan as a design of the enemies of Republican institu-
tions, with the object of overthrowing them. The government, on
the other hand, have staked their existence on success in passing
the Bill in its substantial entirety. The decision of the Commis-
sion of the Senate is not looked upon as a decisive indication of the
mind of that body. The Senate is believed to be almost equally
divided for and against the measure. The Cabinet will resign if
it does not secure a majority of Republicans in favor of the Bill.
Among its enemies, M. Combes must be reckoned. He declares
proportional representation to be a new form of Boulangism, and
has urged the necessity of reconstituting the Radical block of 1903,
as a means of bringing about the fall of M. Poincare's government.
Although M. Combes is the leader of the Socialist- Radical Party,
he has failed to secure its unanimous support in opposition to this
Bill.
Among other measures to be brought before Parliament is a
Bill for the arrest of the spread of consumption. Certain amend-
ments are to be proposed to the Old Age Assistance Law of 1905.
The French government is not above making a profit out of the
vices of the people. On casinos and gambling resorts a tax is
levied according to their annual income. This tax is to be increased
in proportion to this income. When, in any case, this amounts to
$200,000 dollars a year the State will take half.
560 RECENT EVENTS [Jan.,
As has already been mentioned, the depopulation of France is
progressing at such a rate that the government has appointed
an extra-Parliamentary Commission to study all the national ques-
tions, social as well as fiscal, which bear upon the question, and
to seek to discover a remedy. Former attempts have been made,
but they are described as half-hearted; they had only resulted in
partial and ineffective measures. It is now seen to involve even
the existence of the nation, and it is expected that heavy expenditure
will be required for any remedy the State can adopt. The Com-
mission consists of more than one hundred members, and includes
many men of eminence, ex-Premiers, Senators, Deputies, and ex-
Governors, with the Minister of Finance as its President. An
elaborate scheme of investigation has been prepared.
The Grand Commission has been divided into five sub-com-
missions: (i) administrative and legal, to inquire into the mar-
riage laws, infanticide, and kindred evils; (2) military, to examine
the effect of the birth-rate on recruiting and army organization;
(3) social, to study infantile mortality, hygiene, intemperance, and
tuberculosis, together with questions of assistance to mothers and
of the proper education of the sexes; (4) financial, to decide how
best to encourage larger families, and how to help those which have
become too large for their parents' means. A fifth sub-commission
is to collate and examine the reports of the other four sub-com-
missions, and to draw up the final report. Of this M. Ribot is the
President.
The Commission has begun work. Its proceedings have been
opened by a speech of its President, the Minister of Finance. The
gravity of the situation may be judged from the facts which he
laid before the Commission. In 1910 the excess of births over
deaths in France was only 71,418, while in Germany it was 819,113;
in Austria-Hungary, 573,520; in Great Britain, 413,779, and in
Italy, 451,771. In the years 1906 and 1911 the number of deaths
had exceeded the number of births. While in other countries
there had been a diminution in the rate of increase, yet this diminu-
tion bore no comparison with that in France. If unchecked, the
Minister declared, it would lead to military and economic inferiority,
and to a weakening of the expansive power of France in the
world. There were in 1908, 1,350,000 unmarried men over thirty
years of age, and a somewhat larger number of unmarried women.
There were 1,804,710 families without children; 2,966,171 families
with only one child; 2,661,978 families with two children; 1,643,415
families with three children, and only 967,392 families with four
1913.] RECENT EVENTS 561
children. The total number of families with four children and
more was only 2,328,780.
The Minister dealt with the causes of this national decline.
Among these is the example set by the so-called upper classes, an
example which is now being followed by the masses. The division
of property established by the Civil Code of Napoleon is reckoned
as influential. The chief reason, however, does not seem to have
occurred to the Minister's mind, at least he does not mention it. The
loss of faith and trust in God as a Father in heaven, and of a
belief in a future life, is no doubt the main cause of practices which
have had such disastrous results, but which had for their object the
amelioration of the life in this world, that being the only thing
that counts with unbelievers. And so for the remedies proposed
by the Minister; they may be pallatives, but the revival of re-
ligious faith will alone afford the effective remedy: and that is
not within the power of the State.
Another evil with which France is afflicted is the propagation
among soldiers, by a League which is called the " Sou du Soldat," of
the duty to revolt and to desert from the ranks. It is said that there
are at present some seventy thousand deserters. This propaganda
has been going on for some time, and has revived lately. Nineteen
members of the League have just been sent to prison. The So-
cialists have been holding many meetings to express their horror
of war; with this, of course, no one can find fault, being, as it is,
a legitimate means to influence public opinion for a very desirable
end.
With other countries France remains on the best of relations.
For the first time, however, for many years, there has been, on
the part of leading journals, such as the Temps, somewhat severe
criticism of the other party to the Entente Cordiale Great Britain.
Sir Edward Grey was condemned for what was thought to be the
dilatoriness of his action in bringing pressure to bear on Turkey
before the war broke out. The criticisms passed on him excited
a certain degree of feeling in Great Britain. But there is no
reason to think that any alienation is indicated.
The Treaty with Spain regulating their mutual relations in
Morocco, which was signed some time ago, has now been pub-
lished. A year and a half has been spent in the negotiations.
The boundaries of the respective spheres have now been drawn,
and nothing remains to be done except to settle the terms of the
internationalization of Tangier. Both in the north of Morocco
VOL. xcvi. 36.
562 RECENT EVENTS [Jan.,
and in the South, Spain has lost a considerable slice of territory.
The religious privileges at present enjoyed by the Spanish clergy
in the parts conceded to France will cease to exist. The Spanish
missions will retain their property, but the Spanish offers no
objection to their being staffed by French missionaries. Any new
religious establishment that may be founded will be in French
hands. The question of the railway from Tangier to Fez is
settled by a Protocol annexed to the Treaty. That a settlement has
at length been made is, of course, in the highest degree satisfactory;
for on two occasions Europe was on the verge of war on account
of the conflict between France and Germany with reference to
Morocco. Although no serious fear of war between France and
Spain arose, yet for a time there was a certain degree of tension.
The good result is said to be largely due to the late Senor Canalejas.
Certain representations have been made by Germany as to her
rights, said to be affected by the new agreement. No doubt is felt,
however, that the question will be settled without any difficulty.
The Ministers of Prussia, as well as of the
Germany. Empire, affect to be independent of the Diet
and Reichstag respectively, but in practice
have to depend upon some group or groups of the manifold parties
of which their Parliaments are made up in order to pass into law the
bills introduced by them. Of late it is upon the support of the
Conservatives and of the Centre that they have relied. On two
points recently the Centre has refused to give the government its
wonted support. In 1908, by the Prussian Diet, a law was passed
expropriating Polish owners of land for the benefit of German
would-be purchasers. This proposal met with great opposition
at the time, and, although carried into law, has not until a short
time ago been put into force. A recent attempt to do this on
a small scale caused a rather stormy debate in the Diet. The Catholic
Centre Party criticized as bitterly as ever the high-handed pro-
ceedings of the government in its dealings with their Catholic
fellow-subjects.
The other ground of disagreement between the government
and the Centre is the policy adopted by the former towards the
Bavarian relaxation of the law passed in 1872 against certain
religious orders. Last year the Bavarian government issued a
Rescript interpreting this law in a more lenient sense. This Re-
script caused considerable political excitement, and its lawfulness
was referred to the Federal Council. This Council has given a
1913.] RECENT EVENTS 563
decision adverse to the Bavarian government. The leader in the
Reichstag of the Catholic Centre criticized the law of exclusion
as being a violation of freedom of conscience and of the rights of
the Catholics in the German Empire. They ought to be able, he main-
tained, to choose for themselves such priests as they wish for the ad-
ministration of the Sacraments. For this reason the Catholic leader
declared that his party had lost the confidence hitherto felt in the
Imperial Chancellor and in the Federal Council, that the require-
ments of Catholics would find just treatment at their hands.
He intimated that the support, hitherto given to the government,
might be withdrawn. It is possible that the Social Democrats
may ally themselves to the Catholic Centre, inasmuch as they dislike
the law of 1872 for somewhat similar reasons as a restriction of
freedom. Then instead of the Blue-Black combination supporting
the government, there would be a Red-Black combination in oppo-
sition to it. The Chancellor replied strongly, deprecating the
making of this question the corner-stone of the Centre's action.
The forty millions of Protestants in Germany had rights superior
to those of the twenty-four millions of Catholics. He would sup-
port them in their determination to protect themselves from an
activity which threatened to revive the religious hatred of the past.
The Chancellor showed himself very much in dread of the furor
Protestanticus which is so easily aroused in Germany. It is not
thought that the situation will develop rapidly, or that the Centre
Party will vote against the Estimates, or go into opposition on
national questions or foreign affairs.
The Emperor has many times given expression to his
desire to preserve the religious belief of his people. In a
speech at the unveiling of the memorial of Coligny, which has
recently been erected at Wilhelmshaven, he disclosed the reason
for this so frequent insistence. It would be better to say: a
reason, for it cannot be thought that he has no other. Citing the
example of his martyr-ancestor, who was true unto death for
loyalty's sake, the Emperor called upon each of his hearers
" to remain loyal, body and soul, to his king, and to remember that
he will do that only if he remains loyal to his Heavenly King."
The relations of Germany with foreign powers have under-
gone no material change. A statement has appeared that the Triple
Alliance has been renewed on precisely the same terms as before.
What foundation there is for this statement is not clear. With
reference to the Balkan War, Germany has taken no very con-
spicuous action. It has worked together with the other Powers
564 RECENT EVENTS [Jan.,
for the maintenance and the restoration of peace; and for the
localization of the conflict. The Chancellor gave a clear intima-
tion that in the event of her allies being attacked by a third party,
she would fight by their side, not in their interests only, but to
defend her own place in Europe and her safety as a nation. With
Great Britain there seems to be indubitable signs of something
like a rapprochement. The new Ambassador has lost no time in
manifesting his good will and his desire for complete harmony.
" Never," said he in a speech delivered at the Anniversary
Dinner of the Royal Society, " between England and Germany
have there been more intimate and more sincere relations than at
present." " Of all bonds that connect nations, none are stronger
than intellectual sympathy," and between Germany and England
these bonds were very close. These statements of the Ambassador
were confirmed in the Reichstag by the Foreign Secretary, Herr
von Kiderlen-Waechter.
By the death of the Prince Regent of Bavaria, Germany has
lost a ruler who was not only loved and venerated by his own
subjects, but honored by all Germans as one of the chief instru-
ments in the formation of the Empire, and of its most loyal
supporters since its formation. He has been taken away just at the
time that Bavaria is taking a more prominent part than ever before
in the Imperial concerns.
The chief event of purely internal interest
Austria-Hungary. in Austria-Hungary is the birth of an heir
to the throne in succession to the Heir-ap-
parent, the Archduke Francis Ferdinand. The latter having con-
tracted a morganatic marriage with Countess Chotek, now Duchess
of Hohenberg, made a declaration, which has the force of a statute,
that neither his wife, nor their issue, should ever be entitled to
claim succession to the throne. The heirship thereupon passed
to his brother, the Archduke Otto. Upon his death, his son, the
Archduke Charles Francis Joseph, became the next heir. It is to
him that a son has been born. He is the great-great-nephew of the
Emperor Francis Joseph.
All other questions have, of course, been overshadowed by the
deep interest that has been taken in the War of the Balkan States
with Turkey, and the consequent partition of the territory which
has been released from the bondage of so many centuries. In
this release Austria, in recent years, has had a share, inasmuch as
Bosnia and Herzegovina have been added to her own dominions.
1913.] RECENT EVENTS 565
The inhabitants of Macedonia, however, have had little reason to
be grateful. In fact, Austrian action has rather tended to the
perpetuation of their miserable condition. And now that, by its
own valor, Servia has secured the freedom of the Christians under
the Turkish yoke, Austria has threatened to step in to prevent
Servia from securing the reward due to her victory.
It must be admitted that Austria is placed in a very difficult
position. On the one hand, the majority of the various nation-
alities of which the Dual Monarchy consists (some seventeen in
number) are Slavs in race and sympathy, and in the event of a
war with Servia, their loyal support to Austrian efforts would be
more than doubtful. On the other hand, if Servia secures the
increase of territory, and the outlet to the Adriatic which she is
seeking, and to which she is entitled, there is every prospect that
she will become the rallying point for the aspirations of the Slavs
in every part of the Austro-Hungarian dominions, and in this way
lead to the dissolution of the Empire.
The German element in that Empire have held a dominant
position, although it is in the minority. The Slav element has
long chafed in the subordinate position to which it has been
relegated, and has desired an opportunity to reverse the situation.
Servia's aggrandizement may favor such an opportunity an oppor-
tunity likely to be all the more eagerly embraced, as the Slavs
supremely dislike the Germans. Hence for the Austrian govern-
ment there seems to be a choice of evils, and this has led to the hesita-
tion and vacillation that have of late been so marked. The enor-
mous expense that has been involved in the policy of activity since
the advent to power of the Count Aehrenthal is an additional
reason for hoping, or even expecting, that no attempt will be
made by force of arms to deprive the small neighbor, of whom
she is so jealous, of the road to the sea which is necessary for
her commerce.
The Third Session of the Portuguese Parlia-
Portugal. ment under the Republic began a short time
ago, and friends and enemies alike of the
new form of government are beginning to look for the fruits of
the change. Its friends have frankly to admit their disappointment.
So bad, indeed, is the state of affairs that every effort is made to
suppress the truth. Officials, of course, as is their wont, are
more than content at least so they say. Independent observers,
however, testify that the politics of Portugal are no sounder than
they were before the Revolution, while its material condition is
5 66 RECENT EVENTS [Jan.,
worse. The abuses which existed under the monarchy have not
been brought to an end. While it is true that these abuses were
many and deeply rooted, and that the efforts of the Royalists
since the establishment to overthrow the government have diverted
its attention from practical reforms, yet this forms no excuse for
the fact that no effort has been made. The leaders in the Repub-
lican groups have been acting in the same short-sighted way as
their predecessors, seeking merely their own selfish and personal
interests.
The thing which shows most clearly the utter want of the
remotest idea of a real love of liberty is the treatment accorded
to the Royalist prisoners. To quote a telegram from Lisbon,
" The majority of those still in prisons are lodged in inadequate
rooms wholly devoid of hygienic conditions. Seven prisoners are
kept in cells intended only for two. Section five of the prison of
Limoeiro holds thirty-seven prisoners, although designed only for
sixteen. In some of the rooms rain freely enters. Other of the
rooms have no windows, and the only light and air are from holes
in the roof. Other conspirators imprisoned in the Castle of Sao
longe are in as bad conditions, part of the living rooms being
underground. The delay in the trials is very great." Months
pass before the trial comes on. The defense offered by the govern-
ment for these and similar abuses is that the same things took place
under the monarchial regime, as if it was not for this very reason
that its overturn was rendered necessary.
In view of the failure, more or less complete, of the efforts
to secure a greater degree of self-government which have been made
recently in Persia, Turkey it is too soon to speak of China and
Portugal, the question arises whether it is not possible for peoples to
be so injured by the long-continued sway of absolutist methods as to
be incapable of rising to better things whether certain powers of
the mind of the normal man may not become atrophied by the
methods of oppression and repression that are the characteristics
of absolute rule. The triumphant success of the Servians, Bul-
garians, and Greeks seems, however, to give a conclusive proof
of the contrary. After a few years' enjoyment of the blessings
of freedom and self-government, they have proved themselves
more powerful than the so-called great Powers.
In managing the finances of the country the new Republican
authorities have proved themselves as incapable as in other respects.
Ever since the advent of the Republic the annual deficit has con-
tinually increased. The floating debt which stood at some eighty
1913.] RECENT EVENTS 567
millions of dollars when the Monarchy fell, now reaches nearly
one hundred millions. The remedies proposed by the Minister of
Finance, which include a large issue of paper money without an
increase of the metallic reserves, have been coldly received by
the Press and by members of Parliament. It is openly declared by
the President of the former Provisional government that there is no
competent financier to be found in the Ministry, that the public
moneys have been improperly handled, and that considerable sums
of money have been lost sight of and forgotten in a certain bank.
He suggests that on account of the proved incompetence of the
Portuguese financial Ministers, it might be well to import a skilled
Chancellor of the Exchequer from abroad.
Of the many recent attempts to introduce
Russia. constitutional government in States accus-
tomed to a more or less absolute regime,
that which has been made in Russia must be looked upon as the
most successful, although it is yet far from realizing the ideal of
genuine government by the people. The Fourth Duma has just
entered upon its work, with warm expressions of good will on the
part of the Tsar. Like the other Parliaments of the European
continent it is made up of groups, rather than of stable parties.
These groups may be divided into three main sections, the Right,
the Centre, and the Left. The final returns gave one hundred and
sixty-three members to the Right, one hundred and forty- four to
the Centre, and one hundred and twenty-five to the Left. The
Octobrist Centre has hitherto exercised, with varying degrees of
fortune, the greatest influence. In the new House it will have a
much more difficult task, and will be compelled to seek alliance
with the other groups as time and opportunity demand. The recent
elections were greatly influenced by clerical and bureaucratic inter-
ference. The gain of one hundred and twelve seats by the Right
in the provinces was achieved entirely by the vote of the parish
priests, who in many cases acted under orders. The city voters
were not so amenable to clerical influence. The first step taken
by the new Duma was to make a protest against these proceedings.
The Government has prepared a long list of urgent reform
measures, dealing with every department of the administration,
notably with the extension of the principle of local government.
Many important reform bills were left over by the previous Duma.
If these are proceeded with, the House will remove the dissatis-
568 RECENT EVENTS [Jan.,
faction which exists in all classes of the community on account of
the delay that has taken place in passing these measures into law.
The influence of Russia has grown greatly within the last three
or four years. Its army has been strengthened, and the financial
position is excellent. Consequently its weight in European affairs
has been felt. There is reason to think that to this fact is due the
non-interference of other Powers with the Balkan States, and espe-
cially with Servia. The Russian people have manifested their sym-
pathy with their Slav brethren in the clearest manner, by meetings,
subscriptions, and appeals to the government. The latter, even had
it wished, would not have been able to show itself indifferent.
The opportunity has been taken to secure the aggrandize-
ment of the Empire in another direction. Something like a fourth
part of the Chinese Empire has been brought within its dominating
influence. An agreement has been made with the Mongolian
Sovereign by which the Russian government undertakes to assist
Mongolia to maintain the autonomous regime she has established,
to support her right to have a national army, and to admit neither
the presence of Chinese troops on her soil, nor the colonization
by the Chinese of her territory. Rights and privileges are given
to Russian subjects. There is said to be, in addition to this pub-
lished agreement, a secret protocol, which gives to Russia the right
to supervise Mongolia's foreign relations, and to take any measures
which may be necessary to maintain the independence of Mongolia,
to extend Mongolian territory as far as the Great Wall of China,
and to obtain international recognition of Mongolia as a new
State. Should this be the case, an end has indeed been put to
the integrity of the Chinese Empire. Great indignation was caused
in China.
The Chinese Foreign Minister resigned, and public opinion
called upon the government to send troops into the district. This
it made a show of doing, but the latest news is that they have been
recalled. At the present moment China is powerless, and other
nations are occupied in various ways.
When this is being written, the Conference
The Balkan War. in London, with a view to settle the
many questions which have arisen, has just
begun its labors, an Armistice has been concluded between Turkey
and the States that were at war with her, with the exception of
Greece, and hopes exist that a general European war may be
1913-] RECENT EVENTS 569
averted. A full and complete account of the two months' war is
beyond the scope of this chronicle. A few notes, however, may
not be out of place.
The part that religion has taken is noteworthy. The war
began avowedly not for increase of territory, but to secure for
their fellow Christians in the Ottoman dominions the natural rights
to which every man is entitled. The blessing of heaven was in-
voked at every step; thanksgiving was offered for every success.
So marked was this feature that a cartoon appeared in a French
paper representing Bulgarians kneeling before entering upon a con-
flict to receive the blessing of a priest. Two generals of the French
army are witnesses of the scene. One of them says to the other,
" What should we get, if we allowed such a thing to be done in
France by soldiers under our command ? " The reply of the other
was, " The victory." When King Peter of Servia entered the old
capital of the Servian Empire, he paid a visit to the Catholic
Church in which a Te Deum was sung, and he was welcomed by the
priest as the deliverer of the country.
On the other hand, one of the causes of the defeat of the
Turks, and of the display of cowardice which was so often wit-
nessed, was the fact that old religious beliefs have been shaken
by the events of recent years. The Young Turks were imbued
with rationalistic notions, and in various ways had shown their
disregard of orthodox Turkish tenets. This contempt had spread
more or less widely through the ranks of the soldiers. Another
reason for their failure was the loss of discipline among the officers,
due to the habit they had formed of mixing in politics. The Com-
mittee of Union and Progress, to whom the revolution was due,
was largely made up of officers, or at least found its chief sup-
port among them. Political discussion had taken the place
of military discipline. Abdul Hamid's system had also a very bad
effect upon the army in the highest quarters. Never had a monarch
succeeded so well as he in getting into his own hands every detail
of power. He was jealous of everyone, and especially of any
officer who showed signs of superior ability. He took the greatest
pains to bar the way of such a one to power, in order that he might
have no rival. To this is attributed the failure of the generals.
We hope that yet another cause may be assigned : that the time has
passed when the cause of tyranny is able to find willing instruments
of its designs. " A bad thing," it is said, " never dies." Let us
hope this saying may for once be proved untrue.
570 RECENT EVENTS [Jan.,
Before the war began the Great Powers warned the Balkan
States that they would not be allowed to get, even in the unlikely
event of a victory over Turkey, any increase of territory. But
immediately after the startling succession of victories the Powers
withdrew from this position for nothing succeeds like success
and the Balkans for the Balkan States became an axiom. The
Powers, however, or at all events Austria-Hungary, wished to
give the benefit of this principle to that collection of tribes which
have dwelt in Macedonia, and which, after having been the main
support of Abdul Hamid, have taken no part in freeing the country
from the Turk; in fact, have in some cases fought on the side of
the oppressors. This was evidently unjust in itself, and especially
unjust to one of the States whose only way to expansion was
by the annexation of territory occupied by certain of these tribes.
If the claims of Servia are to be met it can only be by including
some of the Albanians within its new limits. Moreover, some of
these tribes are scarcely better than savages; living in a state of
constant warfare, tribe against tribe, almost man against man.
Another reason against the formation of an Albanian autonomous
state is the difficulty of finding a definite boundary. Albanian
tribes have existed; Albania, as a definite territory, never had
existence. The real reason of Austria-Hungary is only too clear.
Her desire is to hem Servia in, so that she may be kept in that
subordination, commercial and political, which suits the interests
of the Dual Monarchy. Servia, on the other hand, decidedly, and
perhaps somewhat too pugnaciously, claims not only the right of
annexing the territory called Old Servia upon which Albanian
tribes are living, but a port or ports on the Adriatic as necessary
for the development of her commerce. No claim is made for the
retention of all the territory which have been overrun by Servian
armies. But for what she looks upon as necessary, she has in-
timated her determination to sacrifice her last man. This is one
of the most difficult of the questions which the Conference QOW
sitting in London has to settle. The fate of the Turks is compara-
tively easy. But when it comes to adjust the mutual claims of the
Allies, unless a miracle has been wrought in the minds of age-long
opponents, a period of conflict and disagreement seems all but
impossible to avoid. Already at Salonika the Bulgarians and
Greeks have almost come to blows. The Conference in London
has a difficult task before it.
With Our Readers.
MANY self-constituted social reformers have, under the title of
sex hygiene, started a so-called crusade, the extent and pos-
sible results of which they do not seem to realize. The best that
may be said of their efforts is that they seem to believe that knowl-
edge is virtue.
With a boldness that bespeaks the folly of inexperienced youth
they talk publicly to children, even, at times, with the permission
of our public school authorities, about matters of sex which, whether
known or unknown, must ever retain an aureole of privacy if they are
to retain their sanctity. And unless they be holy to each and every
one of us, the race of man knows neither worth nor dignity. Many
of these ill-advised reformers father public exhibitions, and these are
aided by public government funds, whereto children of any and every
age are admitted, where temptation brazenly masquerades under statis-
tical charts and wax figures, and the prurient are freely fed with the
food they desire.
Of course, the so-called reformers will indignantly protest that
their purpose is just the contrary. But is the community going to allow
them to work untold harm simply because they have good intentions?
Many social " reformers " have a confirmed habit of looking at one
set of facts and blinding themselves to another. Their first premises
are always true and pitiably narrow. Their logic is unquestionable.
They have the method and the fanaticism of lunatics. " Purge society
of this evil," they cry, " at all costs." " But what if you create a
greater," asks the man of experience. " Purge it at all costs," is the
invariable answer. " Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do
and die," is their impatient and ill-advised cry.
********
T)ERHAPS some of these workers, who will not listen to the words
A of any Catholic authority, will listen to the words of one who is
far from being a Catholic or having sympathy with things Catholic.
We refer to M. L. L. Klotz, Minister of Finance, in the present French
Cabinet. In a recent address before the Commission appointed in
France to study the question of the decreasing birth rate in that
country, he reviewed the causes of such decrease. In the course of
his review he said : " The voluntary limitation in the birth rate is
encouraged and positively fostered by the active propaganda which
aims to make public certain immoral practices under the cover and
pretext of hygiene and the diffusion of scientific doctrines. The Com-
mission will consider what penal measures are to be taken to prevent
such a morbid and demoralizing propaganda."
572 WITH OUR READERS [Jan.,
WE strongly recommend on this matter the department called
" Survey of the Field " in the Catholic Educational Review for
December, 1912. In our October issue we spoke at some length of
how this difficult and delicate question ought to be handled.
********
ONE great fact we ought always to remember. Many of the present
generation are so impatient of tradition that they scorn their
fathers utterly. But the wisdom of the race is cumulative : traditional,
enduring. Our fathers and mothers did not neglect the problem.
What sanctity, purity, and virility we have, as a race, we owe to them.
We must protect and nourish innocence, as well as redeem from evil.
And surely the words of the French Minister of Finance are startlingly
true with regard to conditions in our own country. We need but
mention one.
The propaganda to cure vice has been carried on with such vic-
ious license that unprincipled, salacious writers, and equally unprin-
cipled publishers, furnish weekly and monthly in popular magazines,
at the price of fifteen cents, stories that stink of the filth of the
sewer and bristle with the cleverness and subtlety of Satan himself.
Our President-elect said not long since that the time had come for
every man to write his name down politically on either this side or
that. So widespread and well-financed is the war on public morality,
that every man must write himself down as for it or against it. This
is not the day for compromise and consideration. It is the day for
heated and incessant warfare.
GOD uses all the things of the universe to draw us to Himself. The
soul belongs to God. It is His immediate possession, and the
joy of joys will be our possession by Him, the entirety of which no
words can express or symbol symbolize. Of old the psalmist proclaimed
that the heavens declare the glory of God. The physical universe has
for us a meaning only in so far as it veils or interprets our personal
relations with Him. The stars in the quiet night, the sun in the clear
heavens, or its softer glory as day gives way to night, the sea in its
power or its peace, the rivers that may sing or warn as they go all
these are means by which the soul may be brought to think of God, Who
has so blessed the chorus of creation. So also with ourselves and our
fellows. The grace of God has made us lovers of one another and par-
takers of the Communion of Saints. Speaking only of earth, there is a
natural communion or companionship whereby we are often led by the
love, example, instruction of and devotion to another to reach out after
better things and to serve God more faithfully. In this, the blessed
shadow of the Communion that is heavenly and eternal, souls act upon
souls in natural human ways that work toward goodness. Many bear
witness to the life story that made them better men and women. Many
1913-] WITH OUR READERS 573
tell of the friendship that meant a turning point for them to what was
upright and noble. Everyone of us, even the most simple and the
most unknown, may play a part, we know not oftentimes how or
when, in elevating the standard of life for our fellows. Across our
path may come, by the favor of Providence, one who will give to
us, either in word or example, the bread of life; one who will give
to our hearts that sense of loyalty to all that is noble; that sense of
honor in the following of what is best, as to open for us a new life.
We may bind him to our souls with hoops of steel, and our debt
to him is eternal.
Yet it is equally true that to everyone who works with or loves
others, neither he nor the loved one is an end in himself. He is
satisfied to be the stepping-stone. Both he himself and all whom he
would ever help, would fall never to rise again were they to lose
themselves in admiration for each other, and forget that which alone
gives meaning to service and devotion. It must be the eternal care of
the creature, obvious as the truth may seem, not to make himself
God, nor to make another his God. It must be the eternal care of the
creature not to bring down God to the measure of the creature nor of
his love for a creature.
may sound like very self-evident truths, requiring no rep-
J- etition or emphasis. And yet there is a tendency in modern
literature that is working for just this sort of thing. Long ago, in
a most befitting way, St. Francis symbolized, after the manner of
the songs of chivalry, his love of poverty, and called it his love
of Lady Poverty. And great ones in a great and holy way have
symbolized as love for a woman their soul's love of God. Their
example, while always for our edification, is obviously not always
for our imitation, as is true of many things in many of the lives of
the saints. When we have their plentitude of grace we also may have
their inspiration.
Constantly to frame the soul's love of God under the figure of a
man's love for a woman even though the woman be non-existent
is not alone inexact; it is also dangerous. The use of such a figure
may be a type, an example. It should never be an interpretation.
To employ it too habitually in poems or novels, or, worse still, to
elevate it into something of a philosophy of life, is apt, unless there
be corresponding great safeguards and unusual discipline, to lead
the mind into chaos, and the soul into a bewildering symbolism that
loses the real meaning of the Incarnation. For the Incarnation, while
it elevates virtue, intensifies sin. It harmonizes matter and spirit:
the creature and the Creator. Yet the harmony is emphasized by
the remembrance of how greatly and eternally they may be separated.
\Ve cannot too familiarly bring the images of earth into our love and
574 WITH OUR READERS [Jan.,
service of God. Sense is more powerful in this world than spirit.
And more than once sense has led the spirit captive. The spirit that
thought it was above sense will, as the slave of its own pride, be made
its slave.
We must in that individual, inner life of principle be ultimately
independent of others. The world and our fellows are a means:
even our Lord in His humanity is the " Way." We may in the cul-
tivation of that life of the spirit and of prayer learn freedom from
images, and types, and illustrations. The soul hungering for God
hungers to be free from the images of earth. This is the liberty
wherewith Christ has made us free. This is the work of our Holy
Church, her message in the revealed Word, and the truth whereby
she would guide her children that we are Christ's and Christ is God's.
It is well to bear her guiding star with us as a standard of our
actions and our conduct.
ST. BERNARD has these wise lines : " Give me a man who, before all
things, loves God with all his being. . . .whose love for all things
whatsoever is regulated by his love for God; who despises the earth
and looks up to the heavens; who uses this world as not abusing it,
and knows how to distinguish by a certain inward faculty of soul
between things which are to be chosen and loved and those to be
merely used, so that things transitory are made use of as they pass
for temporary need, and as long as the need requires, while things
eternally enduring, are embraced with lasting joy: show me, I say,
a man such as this, and I will boldly pronounce him wise, since he
takes things for what they truly are, and is able with truth and
confidence to boast, 'He hath set in order charity in me.' "
And then St. Bernard continues in words which compel quotation :
" But where is such a one to be found : and when shall it be. thus
with him? This I ask weeping: how long shall we perceive this
fragrance without tasting it? how long look forward to our heavenly
home, without attaining it, sighing for it, while beholding it from
afar? O Truth, fatherland of exiled souls, and end of their exile!
I descry thee, but am unable to enter in: I am detained in the flesh,
I am defiled by my sins, I am not worthy to be admitted. O Wisdom,
whose powerful guidance extended from the beginning to the end of
things, establishing and controlling them, who disposest all with
admirable gentleness : ordering, blessing, and gladdening all affections,
direct our actions according as our temporal necessities require, and
dispose our affections as Thy Eternal Truth demands; so that each
of us may be able securely to glory in Thee, and say 'He has set in
order charity in me.' For Thou art the Power of God, and the Wis-
dom of God, Jesus Christ our Lord, the Bridegroom of the Church,
God above all, blessed forever. Amen."
1913.] BOOKS RECEIVED 575
Tales of the Mermaid Tavern, by Alfred Noyes, now running
J- in Blackwood's Magazine, show not only the gift of high poetry,
but also a healthy moral sense which it is refreshing nowadays to
find. To Christian truth must English poetry look for its reinvig-
oration. Thus the poet writes of the providential purposes of joy and
sorrow :
Silence and sound,
Darkness and light, mourning and mirth, no tale,
No painting, and no music, nay, no world,
If God should cut their fruitful marriage knot.
Mr. Noyes thus answers those who would deny the truth of
hell ; and those who would make this earth the " be-all and the end-all :"
A shallow sort to-day would fain deny
A hell, sirs, to this boundless universe.
To such I say " no hell, no Paradise."
Others would fain deny the topless towers
Of heaven, and make this earth a hell indeed.
To such I say, the unplumbed gulfs of grief
Are only theirs for whom the blissful chimes
Ring from those unseen heights.
The poet continues, championing the eternal meaning of our
human actions and the overruling harmony of God's law:
Every note distinct, round as a pearl,
And perfect in its place, a chime of law
Whose pure and boundless mere arithmetic
Climbs with my soul to God.
*******
The fairy tales
Are wiser than they know, sirs. All our woes
Lead on to those celestial marriage bells
The world's a-wooing ; and the pure City of God
Peals for the wedding of our joy and pain !
BOOKS RECEIVED.
BENZIGER BROTHERS, New York:
The Road Beyond the Town, and Other Little Verses. By Michael Earls, S.J.
$1.25. Up in Ardmuirland. By Rev. Michael Barrett, O.S.B. $1.25 net.
Spiritual Progress. From the French. 90 cents net. The Consolations of
Purgatory. By Rev. Father H. Faure, S.M. 90 cents net. The Westminster
Hymnal. Edited by Richard R. Terry, F.R.C.O. $1.25 net.
LONGMANS, GREEN & Co., New York :
In St. Dominic's Country. By C. M. Antony. $1.60 net. The Three Sisters
of Lord Russell of Killowen and Their Con-vent Life. By Rev. Matthew
Russell, S.J. $2.00 net. William George Ward and the Catholic Revival.
By Wilfrid Ward. $2.40 net. History of the Roman Breviary. By Monsig-
nor Pierre Batiffol, Litt.D. Translated by A. M. Y. Baylay, M.A. $3.00 net.
576 BOOKS RECEIVED [Jan., 1913.
AMERICAN BOOK Co., New York :
The Swallow Book. By Dr. Giuseppe Pitre. Translated by Ada W. Camehl.
35 cents. Hannah of Kentucky. By James Otis. 35 cents. Physical Labor-
atory Guide. By F. C. Reeve, E.E. 60 cents. Seth of Colorado. By James
Otis. 35 cents.
THE MACMILLAN Co., New York :
Socialism from the Christian Standpoint. By Father Bernard Vaughan, S.J.
$1.50 net.
ROBERT APPLETON Co., New York:
The Catholic Encyclopedia. Volume XV.
PRESENTATION CONVENT, New York :
What Dora Dreamt. By A Member of the Presentation Order. Musical Drama.
$1.00.
FREDERICK A. STOKES Co., New York :
Marriage and the Sex Problem. By Dr. F. W. Foerster.
HENRY HOLT & Co., New York :
The Home Book of Verse, American and English, 1580-1912. Selected by
Burton Egbert Stevenson. $7.50.
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, New York :
The Peace Movement of America. By Julius Moritzen. $3.00 net. Immigra-
tion and Labor. By Isaac A. Hourwich, Ph.D. $2.50 net.
THE SHAKESPEARE PRESS, New York :
The Nativity. By John Bunker.
JOSEPH F. WAGNER, New York :
Sermon Plans for All the Sundays of the Year. From the French of Abbe
H. Lesetre. $1.00 net. Lantern Slides and Lectures. Pamphlet. Pictorial
Church History for Use with the Stereopticon. Pamphlet. 40 cents net.
JOHN FOSTER CARR, New York :
Guide to the United States for the Jewish Emigrant. By John Foster Carr.
15 cents.
LEO KELLY, New York :
Religion in New Netherland. By J. Zwierlein, D.Sc.M.H. $2.00 net; $2.13
prepaid.
D. C. HEATH & Co., New York :
Handbook of Composition. By Edwin C. Woolley, Ph.D.
LITTLE, BROWN & Co., Boston :
Penal Philosophy. By Gabriel Tarde. Translated from the French by Rapelje
Howell, Esq. $5.00 net.
WHITCOMB & BARROWS, Boston :
The Making of a Trade School. By Mary Scherick Woolman. 50 cents net.
H. L. KILNER & Co., Philadelphia:
The Adventures of Four Young Americans. By Henriette E. Delamare. 6
cents. Nellie Kelly, or the Mother of Five. By Henriette E. Delamare.
60 cents. Amelie in France. By Maurice F. Egan. 70 cents.
J. B. LIPPINCOTT Co., Philadelphia :
Steamship Conquest of the Sea. By Frederick A. Talbot. $1.50 net.
B. HERDER, St Louis :
The Communion of Saints. By Rev. Chas. F. McGinnis, Ph.D. $1.50. Spir-
itual Exercises for the Purgative, Illuminative, and Unitive Ways. By J.
Michael of Coutances. $1.35. Crowns and Palms. From the German of
Monsignor A. de Waal. Pamphlet. 25 cents. The Church of Christ. By
Rev. B. J. Otten, S.J. 15 cents. The Holy Way of the Cross. Pamphlet.
5 cents.
M. A. DONOHUE & Co., Chicago :
Bi-sexual Man. By Buzzacott and Wymore. Memory and the Executive Mind.
By A. R. Robinson. $1.50 net.
CATHOLIC TRUTH SOCIETY, London :
Facts and Theories. By Sir Bertram C. A. Windle, LL.D. Twelve Catholic Men
of Science. By Sir Bertram C. A. Windle, LL.D. Catholicism and Socialism.
SANDS & Co., London :
The Tragedy of Fotheringay. By Hon. Mrs. Maxwell Scott. 3 s. 6 d.
PIERRE TEQUI, Paris :
Le Salut Assure par la Devotion a Marie. Le Reverend Pere A. De Ponlevoy
S.J. Par P. Alexandre de Gabriac. 4 frs. Au dela du Tombeau. Par R. P.
Ad. Hamon, S.J. 3 frs. La Bonte et les Affections Naturelles chez les Saints.
Par Marquis de Segur. 6frs. Jeunesse et Ideal. Par Abbe Henri Morice
2 frs. Saint Antoine de Padone. Par Mgr. Ant. Ricard. 3 frs. 50. Senti-
ment de Napoleon ler sur le Christianisme. Par Bathild Bouniol. Le Mystere
de la Tres Ste Trinite. Par R. P. Edouard Hugon. 3 frs. 50. Le Petit
Journal Des Saints ou Abrege de Leur Vie. Par Deux Missionnaires. i fr. 25.
La Verite aux Gens du Monde. Par Joseph Tissier. 3 frs. 50. Les Fonde-
ments de La Foi. Par R. P. Mario Laplana, S.J. Vers la Vie pleine.
Par Ad Goutay. 3 frs. 50. Allocutions pour les Jeunes Gens. Par Paul
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THE
CATHOLIC WORLD.
VOL. XCVL
FEBRUARY, 1913.
No. 575.
MINIMUM WAGE LEGISLATION.
BY JOHN A. RYAN, S.T.D.
HE proposal to establish a lowest legal limit of wages
has, even in the United States, got beyond the con-
fines of academic discussion. It has found a place
in the statutes of Massachusetts, been introduced
in the legislatures of two other States, been inserted
in the national platform of a great political party, been authorized
in the new constitution of Ohio, and it will be among the bills
discussed in the legislatures of several States this winter. Perhaps
the most conclusive evidence that it has become a live and general
question is to be found in the fact that it will be the topic of dis-
cussion at one session of the American Economic Association at its
annual meeting this month.
Obviously a legislative innovation of this sort ought not to be
seriously urged unless the need therefor is grave. Is this condition
verified in the matter of a legal minimum wage? Undoubtedly it
is. Whether we consider the industrial situation from the side of
the individual or from that of society, we cannot escape the con-
clusion that the State ought not to permit any considerable section
of its citizens to live below the level of efficient, normal, and
reasonable life. Yet we are to-day confronted with just such a con-
dition.
Every one of the investigations into the cost of living that
has been conducted in recent years justifies the assertion that the
lowest amount on which a man and wife and three children can
Copyright. 1913. THE MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF ST. PAUL THE APOSTLE
IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
VOL. xcvi. 37.
578 MINIMUM WAGE LEGISLATION [Feb.,
maintain physical, mental, and moral health, in any city of the
United States, is somewhere between seven hundred and fifty and
nine hundred dollars per year, and that a decent living for a woman
wage earner is somewhere between eight and ten dollars per
week.* Yet the most comprehensive, and at the same time specific
study of wage rates ever made in this country, showed that in
1904 about fifty-eight per cent of the adult males in the manufac-
turing industries were getting less than six hundred dollars an-
nually, while about one-half of the female workers failed to receive
more than six dollars a week.f
According to Professor Nearing of the University of Penn-
sylvania, who has published the latest and most complete estimates
of wages on the basis of all the available statistics, three-fourths
of the male adult workers get less than seven hundred and fifty
dollars yearly, and three-fifths of the adult females are paid
a weekly wage of less than eight dollars. This estimate makes no
allowance for idle time during the year, which Professor Nearing
places at twenty per cent.$ The Twelfth Biennial Report of the
Minnesota Labor Bureau shows that about three-quarters of the
male wage earners in the principal occupations of the State received
under seven hundred and fifty dollars per year, and that twenty-
five per cent of the female workers got less than six dollars per
week, and seventy-one per cent less than nine dollars per week.
If the remuneration of these underpaid multitudes could be
raised by other means to normal and decent levels within one or
two generations, the case for legislative intervention would not be
overwhelmingly strong. But all competent authorities know that
this is not merely improbable, but, humanly speaking, impossible.
In the general rise in wages which has taken place during the last
fifteen years, the pay of the unskilled, who comprise the greater
part of the underpaid workers, has not kept pace with that of the
men and women who possess skill.
In fact, the real wages of this submerged class have not risen at
all. Neither through organization, for the great majority cannot
become effectively organized; nor through the automatic action of
economic forces, for, as Walker long ago pointed out, these tend
to degrade further, rather than to uplift, the oppressed sections of
*See Chapin, The Standard of Living in Workingmen's Families; Streightoff,
The Industrial People of the United States, and Report of the Massachusetts Com-
mission on Minimum Wage Boards.
tSee Bulletin No. 93 of the Census Bureau of Manufactures.
\Wages in the United States.
1913-] MINIMUM WAGE LEGISLATION 579
the working people; nor through the benevolence of employers, for
they either cannot or will not achieve the desired end, can the
remuneration of the underpaid be made adequate to decent and
reasonable living. There remains, then, the single and sufficient
method of legislation.
The establishment of a minimum wage is quite as much a
proper function of the State as the safeguarding of life, limb, or
property. All these are goods which are of immediate necessity
for the individual, and which indirectly promote the social welfare.
To protect the health, morals, and mind of the citizen against
the injury resulting from an insufficient livelihood, is quite as
important, both individually and socially, as to protect his life
against the assassin, his body against the bully, or his money against
the thief.
When the State neglects any of these functions, it fails in its
primary duty of protecting natural rights, and promoting the com-
mon good. The notion, so common throughout America, that,
whatever else the State may do for the regulation of industry, it
may not touch the wage contract, has neither political, moral, nor
logical foundation. It is the last surviving remnant of the shallow
and discredited doctrine of laissez-faire. If the believers in this
notion were logical, they would condemn State regulation of child
labor; of the hours of labor of women and young persons; of
safety and sanitation in factories, and of workmen's compensation
for industrial injuries. All these legislative provisions are justified
because they are designed for the protection of classes that cannot
protect themselves against economic exploitation. Precisely the
same may be said of a minimum wage law.
The establishment of living wages by law has no other eco-
nomic consequences than those which attend upon their establish-
ment by a labor union, or by voluntary agreement among employers.
In all three cases a minimum is fixed below which no employer is
permitted to pay wages. If the enforcement of that minimum
by a labor union, or by a trade agreement conference, would not
inflict excessive hardship upon the less efficient workers, nor unduly
raise prices to the consumer, there is no reason why these evils
would follow when the minimum is maintained by law. The essen-
tial fact is the setting up of the minimum; the means through
which it is set up is of no importance whatever economically.
In view of this obtrusively obvious fact, it is somewhat difficult
to retain one's respect for the intelligence of those well-meaning
580 MINIMUM WAGE LEGISLATION [Feb.,
persons who would like to see all underpaid workers so effectively
organized as to command living wages, and yet, on economic
grounds, shrink from attaining the same end by legislation.
That there are certain economic difficulties confronting the
establishment of decent minimum wages, whether by law or other-
wise, no intelligent advocate of the proposal will deny. Neverthe-
less the obstacles are neither so serious nor so probable as they are
thought to be by opponents. If the enforced payment of universal
living wages would drive any employer or any industry out of
existence, the contingency should be welcomed; for it is more
desirable on every account that the masses of underpaid workers
should have the means of living like human beings than that certain
soulless trades should survive, or certain inefficient employers
continue to function as captains of industry.
Moreover, there is no sufficient reason to expect that these
results would happen to more than an insignificant fraction of
industries or of employers. The fear that slow and infirm workers
would be unable to find employment is likewise without any solid
foundation. Provision could be made in the law for the employ-
ment at less than the legal minimum of all those persons who were
not up to the average in speed or efficiency. Evasions of this article
could be prevented, as is done in the Victoria statute, by the proviso
that not more than a certain definite fraction, say, one-fifth, of the
employees in any establishment should be permitted to work for
less than the general minimum. In this way the relatively ineffi-
cient workers would be better provided for than they are at present
in occupations which maintain the union scale.
There is, however, one objection to a universal minimum wage,
which has in it some elements of validity. At least, it will stand
the test of examination. It consists in the possibility that the in-
creased wages would be followed by increased prices, and, therefore,
by diminished production and diminished employment. Neverthe-
less this contention has been unsuccessfully urged against every
legislative enactment which apparently tends to increase the cost of
production, such as eight-hour laws, child labor laws, industrial
safety laws, accident compensation laws, and every other legal
regulation which restricts in any way freedom of contract or free-
dom of industrial management. Since the objection has not been
permitted to prevail against these worthy and necessary measures,
it should not stand in the way of minimum wage legislation. To
be sure, if the wages of all the underpaid workers in America
1913-] MINIMUM WAGE LEGISLATION 581
were raised to decent and living levels by one sudden stroke of legal
enactment, the evil results that we are now discussing would prob-
ably be verified.
Such able and uncompromising advocates of the minimum
wage as Sidney and Beatrice Webb make this admission. Con-
sequently the advance in wages effected by the law should be grad-
ual and continuous, not quick and final. In this way the rise in
prices would be confined to the products of a very few industries ;
for the greater part of the increased wages would probably come
out of the increased efficiency of the workers, and the diminished
profits of monopolistic establishments and sweating establishments.
All authorities admit that better food, clothing, and housing for
submerged workers would enable them to turn out a larger product.
The Massachusetts Minimum Wage Commission found that
in one candy factory in that State twenty- four per cent of the girls
received less than four dollars a week, while in another only one
per cent fell below that wage ; that in a third establishment twenty-
two per cent were paid between six and eight dollars, while in a
fourth seventy-eight per cent were in that class of wage rates;
and that, if a minimum wage of six dollars per week were estab-
lished, Jones would be compelled to add ten dollars to his payroll
for every ten women employed, but the increased wage outlay by
Jenkins would be only three dollars. Undoubtedly Jones would
suffer a considerable reduction in profits. He might even be forced
out of business; but this would be a good thing, not only for his
exploited employees, but for the whole candy industry.
Even a considerable rise in prices would be a smaller evil than
the existence of large masses of underpaid human beings. If
people want goods they should pay a sufficient price for them to
provide living wages for the producers. If the higher prices caused
a lessened demand, and a smaller volume of employment in some
industries, the displaced workers could probably all find occupation
in those trades in which an increased product would be needed to
meet the increased purchasing power of those wage earners who had
formerly been underpaid.
To put this phase of the matter in a single sentence : a rise in
wages which, on the one hand, compelled the comfortable classes
to expend a larger proportion of their incomes for the products
of labor, and which, on the other hand, increased the efficiency of
the producers, could not possibly be detrimental to the laboring
population as a whole. Indeed, if the argument against a minimum
582 MINIMUM WAGE LEGISLATION [Feb.,
wage, based on the assumption of a consequent rise in prices, is valid,
it condemns every attempt to raise the remuneration of any group
of workers by any method whatever. It is not merely a counsel
of despair, but a resurrection of the crude and discarded wage
fund theory.
Finally, we come to the constitutional difficulty. Twenty years
ago those provisions of our State and Federal constitutions which
protect every person against deprivation of life, liberty, or property
without due process of law, would probably have been interpreted
by almost all our higher courts as fatal to minimum wage legisla-
tion. Since that date the situation has been greatly improved.
In the Oregon ten-hour case (Mueller vs. Oregon) the United States
Supreme Court decided that the liberty to work more than ten
hours a day in certain occupations could legally be taken away from
women wage earners in the interest of their health, morals, and
general welfare. The Supreme Court of Illinois rendered the same
decision in a similar case on substantially the same grounds
(Ritchie & Co. vs. Wayman). In several other States the courts
of final resort have made like pronouncements regarding ten-, nine-,
and eight-hour laws for women workers.
The reasoning employed in all these cases would compel these
courts to sustain the constitutionality of laws requiring that women
be paid minimum rates of wages. Counsel for the State would
merely be required to show that insufficient wages are detrimental
to the health, morals, and welfare of women employees, and there-
fore of the community; and this could be even more impressively de-
monstrated than in the matter of excessive hours of labor. It
could easily be proved that a woman's freedom to work for less
than living wages is a fit subject for restriction under the police
power.
Even if a minimum wage law should include not merely women
and children but adult males as well, there is some probability that
it would be sustained by the Supreme Court of the United States.
In the case of Holden vs. Hardy, the Court declared that employees
engaged in dangerous and unhealthful occupations, such as under-
ground mining, are not on an equality with their employers, but
are practically constrained to obey the rules laid down by the latter,
and that in such cases the legislature may interpose its authority on
behalf of the workers. Hence it sustained the law reducing the
hours of labor to eight per day. Similarly in the cases of Allgeyer
vs. Louisiana, Lochner vs. New York, and the Knoxville Iron Co.
1913-] MINIMUM WAGE LEGISLATION 583
vs. Harbison the same Court laid down the doctrine that police
power may be exercised not only on behalf of the general health,
welfare, safety, and morals, but in the interest of any particular
class of employees who are in a position of economic disadvantage
as compared with their employers. Surely this is the plight of
the great mass of underpaid men.
The latest and most sweeping pronouncement of the United
States Supreme Court on this question is found in its decision con-
cerning the case of Noble State Bank vs. Haskell. " It may be said
in a general way that the police power extends to all the great
public needs. It may be put forth in aid of what is sanctioned
by usage as held by the prevailing morality or strong and prepon-
derant opinion to be greatly and immediately necessary to the public
welfare." Under this interpretation a minimum wage law apply-
ing to men as well as women would probably be held constitutional,
once it had got through a State legislature; for it would then be
regarded as " greatly and immediately necessary to the public
welfare."
Not all the State courts of last resort would take such a broad
and enlightened view of the police power. In the case of Ives vs.
South Buffalo Railway Co., the New York Court of Appeals ex-
pressly repudiated that interpretation. In all the States thus af-
flicted, the obvious and fairly easy remedy is to amend the State
constitution. This has already been accomplished in Ohio through
the following provision : " Laws may be passed fixing and regu-
lating the hours of labor, establishing a minimum wage, and pro-
viding for the comfort, health, safety, and general welfare of all
employees; and no other provision of the constitution shall impair
or limit this power." It will be observed that this article applies to
male as well as female employees. A similar enabling act can be
got into the organic law of any State in which the subject is of
great practical importance, and in which public opinion has become
sufficiently aroused and enlightened to support corresponding stat-
utory legislation.
So much for the theoretical side of the situation. What is the
verdict of experience? Throughout the mediaeval period wages
were for the most part fixed by law, or by custom which had all
the force of law. The most notable example of formally legal
regulation is, of course, the long series of English Statutes of
Laborers from 1349 till the days of Elizabeth. In the early years
of the nineteenth century the weavers of Lancashire, and the more
584 MINIMUM WAGE LEGISLATION [Feb.,
efficient employers in that trade, petitioned Parliament to reinforce
the Elizabethan statute for the regulation of wages by the justices
of the peace, in order to raise the starvation levels of wages then
prevailing. Owing to the extraordinary influence of the political
economists, however, the British Parliament not only rejected the
petition, but formally repealed the statute. It followed the advice
of doctrinaires who condemned legal regulation, not merely of
wages, but of hours, age, sanitation, and safety.
So far as the present writer knows, the first modern enactment
of the minimum wage principle was made in one of the communes of
Belgium in 1887. It provided that the employees of firms doing
certain work by contract for the commune should be paid a mini-
mum wage, respectively, of thirty-five and twenty-five centimes per
hour. Since then the requirement that contractors on public work,
and the makers of supplies for public purposes, should pay certain
minimum rates of remuneration has been extended throughout the
entire kingdom. Herein we have a suggestion that is of value
for our own municipal, state, and national governments. If laws
may be, as they have been, passed requiring that the eight-hour
day be observed on work done by private contractors for the govern-
ment, it would seem that a minimum wage clause in all such con-
tracts ought to be feasible.
The first minimum wage law applying to purely private em-
ployments was enacted in the year 1896 in Victoria, Australia.
The method of determining the rates of remuneration was that of
boards, composed of employers and employees in equal numbers,
and a third group of members representing the public. Applying
at first to some half dozen trades, the law has been steadily extended,
until it now embraces the great majority of the industrial employees
in the State of Victoria. While sweating has not been entirely
abolished, the lowest levels of wages have been considerably raised,
industrial peace has been greatly promoted, and the scheme has given
more general satisfaction than any other measure of equal im-
portance ever enacted. Neither the cost of production nor the
price of products has advanced. Some of the most beneficial
effects of the law are not pecuniary at all, but intellectual and moral.
The wage boards have tended to cultivate a disposition
among employers to act more justly towards their employees
The workers' interest has been aroused, and they are
moved out of that apathy which prevented them from making
1913-] MINIMUM WAGE LEGISLATION 585
any attempt to better themselves. Their moral and intellectual
status is steadily improving. Initiative is fostered, hopes and
aspirations are aroused. The workers' whole outlook upon
life is changing as they gradually awake from the slough of
despondency and indifference induced by the depressing and
demoralizing influence of evil conditions and hopeless drudgery.
The power of the sweater is broken, and the worker has cast
off that fatalistic servitude and degradation which blighted
his whole existence.*
The success of the Victorian legislation has influenced the
neighboring States of New South Wales and South Australia to
enact similar measures within the last ten years.
At the beginning of the year 1910 minimum wage boards, or
trade boards, were established in four of the most depressed in-
dustries carried on by the female home workers of England. Par-
liament adopted this device as the only remedy that held out the
slightest promise of success. Writing in the American Economic
Review for March, 1912, Mr. E. F. Wise of Toynbee Hall, London,
says : " It would be safe to say that the measure of progress in
the two short years that have elapsed has exceeded the hopes of
the warmest supporters of the act, and there is every indication
that at last a weapon has been forged that will greatly diminish if it
does not destroy one of the worst evils of our industrial system."
At the very moment that this sentence was published, the British
Parliament was engaged in extending the minimum wage legisla-
tion to all the coal mines of the country. This was primarily to
bring to an end a disastrous strike which had defied all other
methods of settlement. The faith of the workers in the measure
was sufficiently indicated in the fact that they called off the strike
as soon as the law was enacted.
Within the last three or four years minimum wage projects
have been seriously entertained in the national legislatures of
France, Germany, and Austria. Like the first English legislation,
these proposals would apply only to certain classes of women
workers, and would operate by means of trade boards.
The first enactment of this sort in the United States is the
minimum wage boards act of the Massachusetts Legislature in 1912.
It applies only to women and minors, and the wages to be fixed
under it will have only moral not legal sanction. The names of
those employers who refuse to pay the rates of wages determined
*Sweated Labor and the Trade Boards Act, p. 44.
586 MINIMUM WAGE LEGISLATION [Feb.,
by a board must be published in four newspapers of the county in
which the establishments are located. While 'the law is in this
respect vitally defective, it does recognize the principle of a mini-
mum wage, and it may well become a powerful means of educating
public opinion to demand a genuinely compulsory statute.
Practically all the foregoing laws and projects of law provide
for the establishment of the minimum by the device of wage boards.
These are more democratic, more elastic, and more apt to win the
assent of employers than the more direct method of wage fixing
by the legislature or by a State commission. Far from being radical
or revolutionary, wage boards are moderate in conception, and
likely to move very gradually in their task of raising existing rates
of wages. Inasmuch as they represent the employer and the gen-
eral public as well as the employees, they could not easily be or do
otherwise. They are very much akin to boards of arbitration.
The direct method was embodied in the bill brought before the Wis-
consin Legislature in 1911, and is likewise exemplified in the bill
to be introduced into the Legislature of Oregon this winter. In
the former project the State industrial commission was authorized
to fix minimum rates of wages in all employments which were
paying wages, whether to males or females, insufficient to provide
" the necessary comforts of life." The Oregon bill would, if
enacted into law, operate at first even more directly; for it would
specifically fix the minimum wages of women at nine dollars and
seven dollars and eighty cents a week in counties containing, re-
spectively, more and less than one hundred thousand inhabitants.
While the direct method, as exemplified by either of these projects,
is simpler and more easily applied than the board method, it seems,
for the present at least, to be less likely to be successful.
The ideal arrangement would comprehend both methods: a
general minimum applying at once to all trades in the State, but so
low that it would prohibit only a few of the lowest actual rates
of wages; and boards in each trade which would raise the general
minimum whenever such action was justified by particular condi-
tions. Thus, the legislative minimum would give formal sanction
to the minimum wage principle, and also do away with the most
extreme forms of underpay, without, however, putting an unfair
burden upon any industry; the board's minimum would go beyond
this wherever possible, and accomplish it through a method that
gave all parties a voice in its decisions.
CELIA'S LOVER.
BY JOHN AYSCOUGH.
CHAPTER I.
VERYTHING at Earlsmere is traditional. And that,
to my mind, is its special and rare attraction. As
soon as you step out of the fly that has brought you
from Severton, half a dozen miles away, you feel
that you are enjoying life in the time of your grand-
mother, with the advantage of being able to drive back again, for
seven-and-sixpence, into the twentieth century whenever your busi-
ness or inclination may call you there.
The old inhabitants assure you that there have been lament-
able changes, but you really cannot believe in them.
There is a delightful sensation of fixity about the Earlsmere
folk : for one thing they are always to be found in the same houses.
That Lord Earlsmere should still inhabit Earls Thorpe, as
his noble progenitors did before him, is of course satisfactory,
but does not affect the imagination. Nor is it worthy of remark
that Sir Amos Dene should reside at Dene Abbey as all the Denes
have done for three hundred and forty years; though by the way
there are countries where the spectacle is not uncommon of family
seats occupied at present by alien invaders, of unfamiliar name and
bewildering wealthiness.
But at Earlsmere it is not the great folks alone who inhabit
traditional homes. Doctor Hart's father was Doctor Hart before
him, and lived where he does in the cosy white house with green
Venetians, opposite the church gates. And that former Doctor Hart
was son of old Mr. Daniel Hart, the apothecary, who moved into
that house after he had retired on a "modest competence."
(Almost everybody at Earlsmere enjoys a "modest compe-
tence," and that again is very comfortable.)
The Misses Spicers still keep school in The Firs, where their
aunts, the original Misses Spicers, had their establishment for young
ladies soon after Queen Victoria's accession. And, as we all know,
those primal Misses Spicers inherited the school from their mother,
who had purchased it (on becoming a widow) from the last surviv-
ing Miss Crabbe, under whose auspices she herself and all the neigh-
588 CELIA'S LOVER [Feb.,
borhood had received their education in the time of the Prince
Regent.
Lawyer Quill is the perennial rival of Lawyer Vellem, as his
father before him was the rival of old Attorney Vellem, the pres-
ent man's uncle: and Greenbank is still the abode of the Quills
as it was forty years ago, while Thorn Lodge is still the strong-
hold of the Vellem interest.
Nor is this pleasing fixity of habitation confined to our upper
classes. Where we now buy our tea and sugar, our grandpapas
and grandmammas also purchased theirs from the grandparents
of our purveyors. If we require a new smoothing iron, or a packet
of nails, we get them from Steele Brothers in High Street, where
the nails were probably purchased that held together the framework
of the triumphal arches on the occasion of the Waterloo celebra-
tions, and the rejoicings over The Peace. Our post office has been
in the Stampett family for four generations Andrew Stampett the
second having been cut off prematurely in the very flower of his
sixties and in its present house for more than thirty years, but we
still call it the new post office. The fact is, we were much offended
at its removal from Church Street, a change effected by Her
Majesty's Postmaster-General, in spite of vehement petitions on
a merely utilitarian pretext, the Market Square being, as he alleged,
more central than Church Street. The hollowness of this pretense
was very apparent to us, for (as Miss Granger observed) the
Market Place might be more exactly in the centre of the town,
but Church Street was quite as near the middle of the parish;
and it was hard, as she very justly remarked, if ladies who had
lived in Church Street all their lives were to be expected to shift
their residence for the sake of being near the new post office.
Miss Granger was the daughter of the late rector, and grand-
niece of the last rector but one, and was an authority on all local
topics, the unwritten laws that guided us being conserved by her
with special rigor of fidelity.
" For my part," said Miss Granger, " I shall be surprised if
any good comes of such changes. You may still dispatch letters
on a Tuesday, if you will, but for my part I shall be careful to
do no such thing."
Tuesday is our market day, and it is not Earlsmere etiquette
for our ladies to be seen in the Market Square on that day a
regulation founded on a tradition of a drunken drover having en-
deavored to salute the great grandaunt of Miss Granger's god-
mother, Lady Dene, on such an occasion.
1913.] CELIA'S LOVER 589
" In a case of necessity," said Miss Lavender, " I suppose
one would have to send an important letter by one's maid-servant;
and one would certainly prefer to see it in the box oneself."
" I am one of those," cried Miss Granger, " that would never
feel myself justified in exposing others to a risk I would shun
for myself."
I could not help commending Miss Granger in this, for the
" risk " in the case of her pretty maid was certainly quite as
worthy of consideration as in her own.
" As for the box," she continued, " it is very different from
the old one. It is made of iron, and the mouth goes up instead of
down : one never knows where one's letter goes to. In the old one
you could see it go down."
Miss Granger spoke gloomily, and it was felt that her sus-
picions were but too well founded. I do not think that the Post-
master-General has ever been regarded since as a very reliable
Minister in Earlsmere.
Miss Lavender lived in Paragon House, and with her resided
her sister, whom we all spoke of as " Miss Celia," but whether
correctly or no this story will unfold to you.
CHAPTER II.
Paragon House is the last in the town, at our end, of course,
and its garden is bounded by the park palings of Dene Abbey. The
house is rather large, and stands well apart from Doctor Hart's,
which is the nearest to it. It has a gateway of wrought-iron
facing its wide front door, and among the scrolls and dragon
heads of the design the Lavender crest a Cornish chough is
frequently apparent. The same crest is repeated in stone on the
gate-posts at each side, and the whole shield of arms is carved in
crumbling stone on the classic pediment. The house is of warm
red brick, mellowed by a hundred and fifty winters; but the
pilasters along the front one between each pair of windows and
the pediment are of gray stone.
This house was once the Dower House of the Lavenders of
Lavender Hill, four miles away on the Severton Road, and in
those days the Lavenders were big people: but a hundred years
ago Squire Lavender was a gambling, drinking, cock-fighting
spendthrift, and when he died which he deferred doing uncon-
scionably it was found that the estate was all at sixes and sevens,
590 CELIA'S LOVER [Feb.,
and most of it had to be sold. With what was left his widow and
her children retired to Paragon House, and there the Lavenders
had been ever since, growing no richer, and not much poorer.
And the Garbuts flourished wealthily at Lavender Hill; but
nobody forgot that it " was really the seat of the Lavenders."
In no other instance has any other estate in our neighborhood
changed hands within the last century. At the time of which I
write, Paragon House was inhabited by two ladies, sisters, who both
as has been said went commonly by the style and title of " Miss
Lavender."
There had been a brother, whose story, if you allow me, may
hereafter be told; but concerning whom it is enough to say here
that he had long been or supposed to be dead. At all events the
two sisters had for many years, ever since their mother's death, been
all alone in the world. Miss Lavender Grace, her sister called
her was by some years the elder, and was dark-eyed, and with a
great deal of soft, dark-brown hair; while Miss Celia was very
fair, with wide blue eyes, that had a beautiful but somewhat melan-
choly moistness, and she was much shorter than her sister. As a
girl she had been rather plump; but that was the case no longer.
Nor was she merry now, as everyone declared that she used to be in
her sunny days of youth.
Indeed, neither of the Misses Lavender were much given to
laughter, and in Earlsmere they were considered terribly silent.
But this silence and gentle sadness was generally forgiven them,
for we knew their history.
The late Mrs. Lavender had been sister to the Reverend
Rupert Granger, the Rector, and as her husband had left no brothers
or sisters of his own, the clergyman was appointed guardian to the
children. What came of that guardianship in the case of the lad
there is no occasion to detail here.
At the time of their mother's death, the elder Miss Lavender
was nearly thirty years of age; Miss Celia being about one-and-
twenty. Their uncle's guardianship was therefore become rather a
matter of interest and protection than of direction and regulation.
He was desirous that his nieces should look out for a tenant
for their house, which was indeed vastly too big for them, and
come to live at the Rectory. But this neither of them would hear
of. The elder Miss Lavender had a feeling for her uncle ever
since the affair of her brother that would have become repulsion
had she given way to it.
1913.] CELIA'S LOVER 591
CHAPTER III.
When Mrs. Lavender died, the Miss Granger whom we have
heard speaking on the subject of the new post office, was still a
young woman, and was still residing with her father at the Rectory.
She, too, had a brother, but he was seldom at home; he being a
" major in the army," as we used to say with almost superfluous
particularity, if one considers the comparative rarity of majors
in the navy.
This brother, however, came home one winter on furlough, and
with him there came a younger officer, one Captain Brand, whom we
all devoted to the hand of Miss Granger.
As it turned out, he discovered no admiration for that young
woman, but did specially betray a marked attraction for the younger
of her cousins, Miss Celia Lavender.
Whether Miss Granger had shared our ideas in reference to
this visitor or not I cannot say; but she certainly seemed little
pleased with his attentions to her kinswoman. And she took so
little pains to conceal her feelings that everybody noticed it; the
more rough spoken remarked that Miss Granger was jealous, but
most of us were content to shake our heads and commit ourselves
to no opinion about that.
But there seemed no doubt that Miss Granger had remonstrated
with her cousin for " gliding so easily into a flirtation with a
man who was a stranger to them all, of whom no one knew any-
thing, and whom Celia herself had not met five weeks before."
And it was equally certain that Miss Celia had not taken this re-
monstrance in good part, whereupon her cousin betook herself to
the Rector. Apparently the clergyman, when his attention had been
drawn to the matter, agreed with his daughter, for he spoke strongly
to his niece, and failing to produce much effect on her by his words
of wisdom, abruptly asked the young man his intentions.
Report now declared that Captain Brand had been a good deal
taken aback by this vigorous course on the part of the Rector;
that he had objected to being hurried, but had not denied having
serious intentions in regard to Miss Celia Lavender.
At all events an engagement between them was speedily an-
nounced, and all preparations for a wedding were put forward.
Of course the Rectory did not like to stand aloof, but it was
easy to see that the Rectory took no great delight out of the
marriage. The Rector, indeed, was not silent as to the necessity
of stricter inquiries into the antecedents of the bridegroom; but
592 CELIA'S LOVER [Feb.,
to all such suggestions Miss Lavender to whom they were gener-
ally made replied that Captain Brand was no friend of her sister's
finding: that she had met him at the Rectory, that he had been
introduced to her as her cousin's friend and her uncle's guest,
and it was now too late to draw back and declare that he was a
mere acquaintance. If Major Granger had any grounds for dis-
trusting him, why had the major brought him among them? If he
had none, why was he now seeking to belittle his friend?
Miss Lavender had never loved her uncle since the loss of
her brother, a loss which she laid, justly or unjustly, at that uncle's
door; and now Miss Celia went over to her side with a fuller com-
pleteness, and there were no close amities between the Rectory
and Paragon House.
Nevertheless the wedding was performed by the Rector, as-
sisted by the Reverend Matthew Primm, the Curate, and Miss
Granger was bridesmaid with the elder Miss Lavender.
That wedding was never forgotten in Earlsmere. Weddings
among the Church Street circles were not of frequent occurrence,
and Paragon House was, in a way, more distinguished even than
Church Street.
And Miss Celia was a lovely bride. I do not know myself
that wedding garments are invariably becoming, or that young
brides always look their best in them; but Miss Celia had never
looked so well in all her life as on that bright, sunny morning in
January when she walked with her bridal procession from the old
house, where she had passed all her life hitherto, to the old church
where she had prayed since childhood, and where so many of
those whose name she was about to relinquish lay in their quiet
sleep, waiting for the day when the Master should call to them
to stand again upon their feet clad in the fair raiment of the flesh.
It was the fashion of Earlsmere weddings to walk to church,
and a very pretty kindly fashion, as I think. None of our circle
lived far from the church, and we were accustomed to boast that
our village street was clean enough for you to eat your dinner
off. And by walking the wedding party gave the poorer throng
who also are much interested in weddings and funerals a far
better opportunity of enjoying the smart clothes and flowers than if
those who were adorned with them had been shut up in coaches.
Many were the blessings and good wishes rained upon Miss
Celia as she walked between the respectful lines of spectators
that bright winter's morning; and not always silent were the
admiring criticisms of the handsome bridegroom. The poor people
1913-] CELIA'S LOVER 593
love a pretty bride, and a bride is twice as interesting when you
remember her mother's wedding " as if it was yesterday."
And it was not forgotten that Miss Celia came of the " old
Lavenders of Lavender Hill," and that her grandmother and the
present Lord Earlsmere's grandmother had been first cousins.
Among our townsfolk there is nearly as much reverence for good
blood as among ourselves, and it was not felt to be any great
favor on the part of the present proprietors of Lavender Hill that
they had sent over their grand Scotch gardener with a whole
cartload of exotic plants to decorate the chancel for Miss Celia's
weddings. That was a very simple attention, and it would have been
more remarkable in its omission than it was in its fulfillment.
CHAPTER IV.
One little contretemps occurred that might have seriously
marred the cheerfulness of everybody, but fortunately it occurred a
minute or two too soon to have any unlucky result. A triumphal
arch had been erected over the churchyard gate into Church Street,
as was our custom on these occasions, and this one was rather
more than commonly magnificent. It had, in fact, been so loaded
with decorations as to have become rather top-heavy; and just as
Miss Celia, leaning on Major Granger's arm, was about to step
under it on to the red carpet that reached from the gate to the
church, a large portion of the upper part came crashing down.
There was quite a confusion of greenery, white paper pairs of
gloves, true-love knots, and three-fourths of the word " luck " lying
on the ground ; but Miss Celia had stepped back lightly, and had not
received so much as a scratch. No harm had been done to anyone,
and the delay necessary to remove what had fallen was not five
minutes.
It was declared afterwards that Miss Celia had grown very
pale, as if the slight occurrence had jarred upon her with some
foreboding of ill-omen. But brides are apt to look pale, and it
is certain that she laughed cheerily enough while the bystanders
were congratulating her on her escape.
" It would have been horrid," she said, " to have been married
in a broken nose."
Without any tears, though in a low voice, did the young
bride take God to witness how she plighted all her troth to the
VOL. xcvi. 38.
594 CELIA'S LOVER [Feb.,
man whom she loved, and with louder, more virile decision did
he declare his intention of endless fidelity to the girl whom he
had chosen.
Then the little gold fetter bound them together, and up over-
head the old bells rang out their clanging assent and gratulation.
" Ding-dong ! For he has ta ken her
To be ding-dong his wed ded wife "
" ded wife," came the resonant echo from the hollow tower
where the joy-bells swung. And bells, you know, cannot spell/
Then the registers w r ere signed and duly witnessed; the bride
was kissed; and, on her husband's arm this time, she passed down
the aisle between the familiar faces, some of which were wet
with tears. We mostly weep for happiness here below, as if
remembering how sorrow jostles all our joy, and how swiftly one
melts into the shadow of the other.
It is such a short walk from the church to Paragon House,
that the wedding party were seated at breakfast within twenty
minutes of the conclusion of the ceremony. The bridal cakes were
duly eaten, the wedding cake home-made by the old cook who had
made the bride's mother's was duly cut, and the bridal toasts
were drunk: then the bride withdrew to don her traveling gown,
and her sister bore her company, for it was the custom sixty years
ago at Earlsmere for the senior bridesmaid to accompany the newly-
wedded pair upon their honeymoon.
During that absence of the sisters it was remarked that the
bridegroom was not talkative, and it was said afterwards that
he had seemed much preoccupied by a letter that he had then
opened; some said he frowned, some that he bit his lip, others
averred that he had stamped impatiently; but all these statements
were made at a later period. At the moment it was only observed
that the " groom was eager to be off and have his wife more to
himself."
At last bride and bridesmaid did come down; there was much
kissing and handshaking, and the post chaise rolled away on the
road to Severton, which was to be all their journey for that day,
the rest of the party being left behind to that feeling of vague
melancholy that generally succeeds the excitement and elation of
the morning.
It is nearly seven miles to Severton, the roads are " deep "
and rutty, and the frost, following on a partial thaw of snow, had
IQI3-] CELIA'S LOVER 595
made them very nearly impassible. It therefore took the heavy,
old-fashioned post chaise, drawn by its heavy and old-fashioned
post horses, a very long time to get the bridal trio from Earlsmere
to the big seaport town. And the brief winter's day was done
and the frosty night fallen before the journey was ended.
The warmth and bright lights of the " Benbow's Head " were
very pleasant after the cramped sitting still for so long in the
chilly chaise, and they were all three healthily hungry. Dinner
was not very long off being ready, for they were themselves later
than had been expected, and the little party of three sat down to
it with a great deal of appetite and good humor. When it was
finished the young wife admitted fatigue, and consented to go and
rest, her husband going out for a stroll and a pipe upon the quays.
From that stroll he never returned. After an hour or so
had gone by the ladies began to expect him, though without any
nervousness, as it was by no means late. But at the end of two
hours the bride grew anxious, and a vague, unhappy disquiet fell on
her. The sisters sat over the fire and tried to turn the bridegroom's
absence into a jest, but ever with less and less success. They
had a shyness of making inquiries concerning his absence among
the inn folk, until it had grown so late that they were really
frightened.
But those inquiries led to nothing. He had been seen to
light his pipe on the steps of the hotel, and to start off leisurely
towards the docks and quays; but that was all the people of the
place could tell. It was a bitter cold night, and through its dragging
hours the two sisters sat waiting for one who never came. Some-
times Celia wept a little, but for the most part she sat in dull
apathy, gazing into the sulky, smouldering fire. She would not
go to bed ; and in the morning, through deep snow, they were taken
back to Earlsmere in the same coach and by the same driver that
had brought them yesterday.
The only word morning brought was that one of the 'ostlers
belonging to the inn had seen the gentleman talking to a woman
down by the quays, and had walked into a house with her. There
was also talk of a party of king's sailors having been ashore and
impressed a number of young fellows, but who had been taken or
what was their description, no one knew.
If the chill drive had seemed long yesterday, what did it appear
to-day ! Celia shivered as she gazed out on the dead, white world ;
under the pall of snow all her life lay frozen.
The sisters hardly spoke, and when they did at length reach
596 CELIA'S LOVER [Feb.,
their home the widowed bride went straight to her room. If she
could have felt thankfulness for anything then it would have been
that Paragon House stands at the Severton end of the village, so
that no other house would have to be passed before reaching it.
It had never seemed so cheerless; there was no fire in any
sitting-room, and the blinds were drawn down, as if a dead person
lay in one of the silent chambers.
CHAPTER V.
No news ever came of the bridegroom who had disappeared,
and the forsaken bride withered in the midst of her youth. Not
even to her sister would she ever speak of him ; from no one would
she receive any hint of condolence, any suspicion of sympathy. She
never in any most distant way alluded to her marriage. The old
servants called her " Miss Celia," as they had done all her life,
and she neither remarked nor appeared to notice it. What she
would have signed her name no one could tell, for she never wrote
anything. Nor did any letter ever come that might give her mar-
ried or her maiden name.
Some said her trouble had turned her brain, and so they ex-
cused her for never coming to church she set no foot in it from
the day she walked out of it on her husband's arm; but her sister
did not think she was mad.
" She is dazed. She is like someone who cannot awaken, that
is all."
Perhaps she was like the Princess in the Legend of the Briar
Rose; she would never waken till her lover came to rouse her from
her sleep.
She hardly ever read; I do not know that any of our young
women used to be great readers in those days. While daylight
lasted she would knit and sew socks and garments for the poor
folk, but she herself never took them to the poor. Her sister did
that. When the light failed she would sit staring into the fire,
and yet she was not sullen or selfish. She would talk to her
sister, and play with her at such games as two can play, only she
would go out to no parties, and her sister never suggested having
any there.
Everybody in Earlsmere knew Miss Celia's story, and its
shadow hung like a gray sad veil over Paragon House.
There was hardly any intercourse in those days between the
1913.] CELIA'S LOVER 597
Rectory and Paragon House. The major had gone away to India;
the Rector was angry that his prudent counsel had not been taken,
and Miss Granger had once tried to tell Celia what was now her
duty. The sisters never went to the Rectory, and it was very sel-
dom anyone from the Rectory came to them.
It is a trite saying that time is measured less by the mere
tearing of leaves from the calendar than by our own bitter or
sweet experiences ; and the story of Celia's marriage was not really
very old ere it had seemed to throw the pale shadow of age over
her. She was many years junior to her sister, and yet there
was more of youth's aroma still clinging round the elder woman.
Everyone at Earlsmere thought of " Miss Celia " as an old maid.
Only once during the years after her bereavement was Celia
left alone at Paragon House by her sister; and that was for very
few weeks. Their sole remaining relation, the widow of their
father's brother, living in a distant county, drew near her end,
and sent word that she would take it kindly if one of her nieces
would come and keep her company until the end, which she humbly
said would not be long.
Celia would have gone, but Miss Lavender would not suffer it
and set off, wrapped in furs and many cloaks, for it was again
winter, the hardest there had been since that in whose chill course
Miss Celia had been married.
People were not so much given to frequent letter writing in
those days of heavy postage, but a couple of epistles did come from
the elder Miss Lavender; rather stiff in style, as was natural
in one not much in the habit of correspondence, and very likely
not altogether free from the reproach of mistakes in spelling.
The latter of these was to announce their aunt's death, which
had taken place very quietly " early on the morning of New Year's
Day," and to inform Celia that what money remained in the late
Mrs. Lavender's power had been bequeathed to her two nieces.
The letter ended by an assurance that the writer would be
with her sister again (D. V.) "by the evening of Thursday."
Perhaps Celia had never risen from her bed since the day
of her wedding with anything so like cheerful anticipation as she
did on that Thursday morning. She had missed her sister, and
felt more solitary in her absence than she would have thought prob-
able ; and she had grown almost afraid of the emptiness of the big
old house.
There are always certain preparations to make against an
arrival in houses where arrivals are not frequent, even though the
598 CELIA'S LOVER [Feb.,
person expected be no stranger. And the making of these filled
the morning with pleasanter occupation than the poor numbed
heart had known for years.
As she went about her little pleasant tasks, a strange kind
of excitement might have been observed in her manner, had there
been anyone to watch her. She was conscious herself of it, and
it deepened into a peculiar suppressed elation.
At length the old housekeeper did, in fact, notice this; and
was inclined to shake her head. To her simple, superstitious mind
it was like the fabled singing of the swan before its death.
Celia could not rest ; all day she was up and down, filling vases,
that had long stood empty, with Christmas roses and crocuses,
seeing that the logs burned brightly on her sister's hearth, and
making little foolish trips to the door to see if any sign of the
chaise was to be seen along the road, long before any chaise could
be expected.
The day was very cold; and there was a hard bitter frost,
but it did not seem to freeze about that lonely heart of the desolate
maid-wife, as in other winters it had done. There was a thick
frosty haze, and the trees loomed large and ghostly out of the
mist; but their naked fingers did not appear to her to clutch and
snap at the leaden sky as was their wont. She could hardly
eat her solitary meal at one o'clock, and after it was again afoot
through the house, though there was really nothing left to do. For
the first time in years she really looked at the things that fell
within her view : the familiar, old-world rooms, the ancient furni-
ture, every bit of which had stood in the same position in the
same room ever since she had been a child; and the portraits of
her people that seemed to-day to look down upon her from their
frames with special kindliness.
" Old Janet," she said to the ancient woman that had been her
nurse in babyhood and was now the housekeeper ; " do you know
what I think? I think that God is going to let me die. I feel
as if the heavy weight was lifting up; as if all my sadness was
near its end. I think God is going to let me die, and have done
with all the sorrow of this foolish life of ours on earth."
" Nay, Miss ! " cried the old woman ; but she could but shake
her head. She, too, thought that this strange, rapturous excite-
ment was the forewarning of the end.
As the brief wintry afternoon closed in, the girl for still
I must so call her grew calmer, but not less full of cheerfulness.
She sat down by the fire in the warm snug parlor, and sat look-
1913.] CELIA'S LOVER 599
ing into it. The curtains were not yet drawn, and presently some
one looked in through the window, and watched her as she sat.
One has some sense of being so watched, I think, and she moved
half-uneasily in her seat.
" I will go and look along the road," she said, " and see if
the chaise lights are in sight."
She went out to the front, down the paved walk leading from
the door to the gate of wrought iron, and out into the road. She
looked towards Severton, but there were no coach lights to be seen,
nor sound of wheels to be heard. It was, in truth, too early
for her sister yet. She went back into the house, closing now the
big door that she had left open, and so back into the fire-lit parlor.
But as she entered a little exclamation broke from her; it was
neither fear, nor joy, nor surprise, but some sort of mixture of
them all. In the chair from which she had so lately risen sat a
gentleman, and as she moved towards him he rose to his full
height, and one saw that he was tall. Then for one thrilling
moment she stood still, they both silent: and then he called her
by her name.
The old portraits blinked down pleasantly in the flickering
light of the fire, as if they were well pleased to assist at such
a meeting; and they were very discreet witnesses, making neither
comments nor interruptions.
On the table w r ere set out the tea things against Miss Laven-
der's return, on the hob stood the bright bronze kettle, and this
began to sing comfortably to itself, though nobody paid it the
least attention.
" And when are you going to want to know all ? " asked
Captain Brand. " When are you going to demand explanations ? "
She laughed, low and happily, and told him, " When he
pleased."
So then he began this tale :
"A good many years ago there was a boy for, indeed, he
was no more who very much resembled me, and when he was
twenty I was just the same age. He was not a bad boy, but he was
very weak and, like many other people, very hot-headed. He fell
in love with a woman much older than himself, whom he thought
then very beautiful, but whom you, dear, would never have admired.
This woman was much lower in station than himself, and an adven-
turess. How he fell more and more in love I need not now tell;
but at last he offered to marry her, and she held him like a leech to
6oo CELIA'S LOVER [Feb.,
his offer, not, it must be admitted, that he had then any other
desire than to keep to it.
" Well, they were married, and the boy's dream lasted a few
weeks : then he found her out. She was drunken, and degraded,
and selfish as only a drunkard can be. Her coarseness was now
unbridled, and she sickened him to the very soul ; but still he tried to
be faithful to her. One day, however, he by chance discovered
that she had been already married to such another as herself
a convict at the time of her marriage with him. Then he left
her with a small provision the biggest he could make which
should have been enough to keep her in frugal comfort.
" Ten years after that discovery this boy, a man now and a
soldier, was brought by a brother officer to stay in a little country
town, where he met a dear and lovely maiden whom you have
often seen, nay, whom you may see now if you will stand up
and look there over the mantelpiece. And with her he fell in love ;
to her he was married. On their wedding day he met in the streets
of the great seaport and garrison town, which was the first stage
on their wedding trip, the woman whom he had once believed to be
his wife. She had heard of his engagement, and that he was now
married; and she told him she was in very truth his wife. That
her former husband had died in prison a day or two before she her-
self had married him. And she produced evidence of what she
asserted, having led him into a house for that purpose. Here she
was living disgracefully. In the very midst of their talk a press-
gang from a king's ship burst into the tavern, and with several
others he was carried aboard the ship. Convinced of the wretched
truth, he had made no effort to inform the girl whom he had wedded,
and who could not be his wife, of the truth. Anything she could
conjecture of his death would, he thought, be easier to bear. And
so he had kept silence. In many lands he had been, and seen many
peoples; but always one image only had lived within his eyes. At
last tidings came of that woman's death. He had then been long
free, and had hastened to verify them. It was certain that woman
was dead, and now he had come back to ask for the long-delayed
happiness of which he had so long dreamed."
" And, Hector," the girl whispered, " am I then your wife? "
" No, my dear," he answered, la-ughing, " but I hope you will
still consent to be. I hope you will make no difficulty about your
second marriage."
A sound of wheels came now upon the frosty air; the great
1913.] PENNIES 601
front gate creaked on its hinges, and old Janet ran in to announce
the arrival of Miss Lavender.
" Well, my patience ! " she cried, as she pulled up short at
the doorway of the parlor. But her voice was aglow with satis-
faction. " Lor' now, if it ain't the Captain, and he not a day older
than when he lost himself 1 "
" Come," said Celia, " let us go out and welcome my sister."
PENNIES.
BY JOYCE KILMER.
A FEW long-hoarded pennies in his hand
Behold him stand ;
A kilted Hedonist, perplexed and sad.
The joy that once he had,
The first delight of ownership is fled.
He bows his little head.
Ah cruel Time, to kill
That splendid thrill!
Then, in his tear-dimmed eyes,
He drops his treasured pennies on the ground,
They roll and bound
And scattered, rest
Now with what zest
He runs to find his errant wealth again!
So unto men
Doth God, depriving that He may bestow,
Fame, health and money go,
But that they may, new found, be newly sweet.
Yea, at His feet
Sit, waiting us, to their concealment bid,
All they, our lovers, whom His Love hath hid.
Lo, comfort blooms on pain, and peace on strife,
And again on loss.
What is the Key to Everlasting Life?
A blood-stained Cross.
New lights arise.
BERGSON'S PHILOSOPHY OF CHANGE.
HIS INTUITIVE METHOD.
BY THOMAS J. GERRARD.
HE two most prominent ideas in the philosophy of
Bergson are time and intuition. In our last essay
we dealt with his conception of time. We saw that
he placed the very stuff of reality in this real time
which is the flow of the " now," the everlasting be-
coming, the perpetual change. We saw that he cast out of the realm
of reality the concept of space. Space implied that bodies were
side by side, that is, discontinuous, whereas real reality was con-
tinuous, an indivisible flux. We argued that such analysis of
reality was fraught with metaphysical, physical, and moral ab-
surdities.
We suggested at the end of our argument that these absurdi-
ties were the outcome of a false method of philosophizing, namely,
Bergson's particular method of intuition. To substantiate that
suggestion is the purpose of this essay. Bergson claims that the
intellect is neither the supreme nor the only method of acquiring
knowledge. Certain knowledge of the highest and most trans-
cendental kind can only be obtained by a peculiar kind of intuition.
In order to find out the respective functions of intelligence
and intuition, we must first look at the history of their evolution.
Here, at the very threshold of the question, M. Bergson clashes
with all previous evolutionists. Hitherto we have been asked to
believe that from the primordial slime there was evolved first the
lower forms of life, such as the amoeba and the protocossus, then the
higher forms of the invertebrates; then the vertebrates with some
sort of a monkey as the highest but one, and finally man as a de-
scendant from a simian ancestor.
M. Bergson now says that this is all wrong. The three
orders of life, vegetative, instinctive, and rational, are not three
successive stages of one and the same line of development, but
rather three divergent directions of one life which split up as it
grew. We hear nothing of natural selection as the cause of the
different orders and species. It is the " original impetus " which
does everything. The inert matter which it has to overcome serves
1913.] BERGSON'S PHILOSOPHY OF CHANGE 603
to modify it. " The animate forms that first appeared were
therefore of extreme simplicity. They were probably tiny matters
of scarcely differentiated protoplasm, outwardly resembling the
amoeba observable to-day, but possessed of the tremendous internal
push that was to raise them even to the highest forms of life.
That in virtue of this push the first organisms sought to grow as
much as possible, seems likely. But organized matter has a limit
of expansion that is very quickly reached; beyond a certain point
it divides instead of growing."*
The aptitude of matter to divide was not, however, the chief
cause of the great divisions. The real causes were those which
life itself bore within its bosom. We can perceive this in our own
lives. We feel various incompatible tendencies all striving for
expression. We choose some and abandon others. So the great
initial life chooses and bifurcates. Of the many bifurcations most
have become blind alleys, but two or three have become highways,
one the highway of the plants, another the highway of brutes,
and another the highway of man. Only in the last one, which
leads through the vertebrates, has the passage been wide enough
to allow free movement to the full breath of life. The chief radical
difference between a vegetable and an animal is that the vegetable
manufactures its own food directly from mineral substances, whilst
the animal has to have the organic food ready made. These
phenomena imply that the vegetable may remain stationary, whilst
the animal must move about in search of food. Hence, argues
M. Bergson, " the same impetus that has led the animal to give
itself nerves and nerve centres must have ended, in the plant,
in the chlorophyllian function."!
Again, just as one great stream of life split up into plants
and animals, so the animal stream split up into the arthropods and
the vertebrates. In the line of the arthropods the insect was its
culmination, whilst in the line of the vertebrates the culmination was
man. Now it so happens that the most highly developed instinct
is found amongst the insects. Ants and bees, for instance, have
instinct much more wonderful than that of cats or foxes. Hence
M. Bergson infers that the evolution of the animal kingdom, with
the exception of certain retrogressions towards vegetative life, is
a bifurcation of ways, one leading to instinct, the other to intelli-
gence.
At this point we have to institute a comparison between in-
*Creative Evolution, p. 104. Mbid., p. 120.
604 BERGSON'S PHILOSOPHY OF CHANGE [Feb.,
stinct and intelligence. In the first place they both come under the
influence of the philosophy of change, inasmuch as they must be
described as tendencies and not things. Just as we see plant life
and animal life interpenetrating each other, so that there is no com-
plete severance between them, so also we see instinct and intelli-
gence interpenetrating each other. Neither lends itself to rigid
definition. Nevertheless that which is instinctive in instinct is
different from and opposite to that which is intelligent in intellect.
What does the difference and opposition consist in ?
First it may be noticed that the instruments which instinct uses
are much more perfect than those which intelligence uses, but they
have much less adaptability. Instinct is a faculty which uses
organized implements, whereas intelligence is a faculty which uses
unorganized implements. In proportion as man's implements be-
come organized, so much the less intelligence is required in the
use of them. Consider, for instance, the difference between the
thought required to make a pair of shoes by hand and that to make
a pair by machine. Instinct, therefore, is specialized. It uses a
special instrument for a special purpose. Intelligence, however, has
a much wider range. It may have clumsier tools to work with,
but it can adapt them to an indefinite variety of operations. Imagine
how many things a sailor can do with his pocket knife.
This difference of instruments calls forth a difference of
knowledge. If intelligence has but an unorganized instrument with
which to work, it must seek out ways and means of adapting the
instrument to different ends. Intelligence, therefore, is a knowl-
edge of the relations of things. It sees the connection between
subject and predicate. It makes inferences. Instinct, on the other
hand, being generally unable to observe the relations of things, has
a direct knowledge of the things themselves. It is a sympathy.
Its direction is quite the opposite of that of intelligence. It touches
life directly, whilst intelligence has only to do with inert matter.
.When bees are born they know their business immediately and di-
rectly. Their knowledge is perfect from the first, and independent
of experience. It is this power of direct insight into life which
makes instinct so much like intuition. And it is by observing the
operations of instinct that we are able to put ourselves in the way of
seeing things by intuition.
Before passing to the consideration of intuition itself, it will
be well to give some account of the function of the intellect,
for the sphere of the operations of the intellect is more familiar
1913-] BERGSON'S PHILOSOPHY OF CHANGE 605
to us, and therefore having written this off, we shall better be able
to discern the range of intuition.
The best illustration of what Bergson believes the intellect
to be like is the cinematograph. The intellect does not deal with
reality directly; does not touch that unceasing flow of time. It
only takes snapshot views of it, and does this so constantly and
readily that the snapshot views may be regarded as succeeding
each other on a long cinematographical film. The intellect is only
a part of the mind. It is to the mind what the eye is to the body.
The body formed the eye because it needed it. So, too, the mind
formed the intellect, because it wanted it for a special purpose.
This purpose is to establish relations. The operation of the in-
tellect is called forth by the needs of action.
The intellect aims, first of all, at constructing. For this pur-
pose it uses only inert matter, and if by any chance it uses or-
ganized matter it treats it as inert. The intellect can deal only
with the solid, for all else escapes it by reason of fluidity. Now
for the practical purposes of life we have to take snapshots of the
living flux; deal with them as having spatial quality; regard them
as provisionally final and as so many units. It is as if we had
actually taken a kodak picture of a man vaulting over a bar. We
know quite well that he does not remain in mid-air, but for the
practical purpose of showing our friends at home what we have
seen on the athletic field, we make this static photograph. Cur-
iously enough we are inclined to look upon the discontinuous
pictures of life, which our intellect makes, as the one reality. But
that is simply because such things fix our attention and rule our
action. " Of the discontinuous alone does the intellect form a clear
idea."*
So, too, is it with regard to the objects upon which we act.
We want to know whither a certain train is going, and whether it
will stop at our station. Its rate of progress is quite a secondary
matter. This shows that we fix our minds on the end or meaning
of the movement We like to have a design of it as a whole. It
is so much easier for us to plan our journey if we have a map as
well as a time table. The intellect, therefore, is not meant to put
itself into the midst of reality for the thrill of feeling the move-
ment of the train; not for pure philosophy and metaphysics, but
simply for the practical purposes of life, to show us how quickly
we can get to the city, make a fair pile of money, and come home
* Creative Evolution, p. 163.
606 BERGSON'S PHILOSOPHY OF CHANGE [Feb.,
and gaze during the calm evening upon clean vital becoming. The
intellect deals with the static and unchangeable simply because it
is made that way. " Of immobility alone does the intellect form
a clear idea"*
By manipulating unorganized, inert, discontinuous, and im-
mobile solids the intellect is able to fabricate things. Indeed this
is its chief characteristic, that it has an unlimited power of de-
composing according to any law, and of recomposing into any
system.
Then, too, it has learnt the use of words. These, too, are
mobile. They can be used first of one concrete thing, then of
another, and also of ideas. Through means of language the in-
telligence can penetrate the inwardness of its own work. Nay,
when it once sees that it can create ideas, there is no object con-
cerning which it does not wish to have an idea. Thus it seeks
to employ itself outside practical action. " There are things that
intelligence alone is able to seek, but which, by itself, it will never
find. These things instinct alone could find; but it will never
seek them."f Intellect tries, indeed, to embrace life and thought,
but it fails in its endeavor, because of its nature it seeks to have
things distinct and clear, that is discontinuous; and this it cannot
have because life is continuous. The " intelligible world " which
the intellect makes for itself resembles the world of solids, but it is
more diaphanous. The concepts are easier to deal with than
images of concrete things ; yet somehow they are not the perception
itself of things, but the representation of the act by which the
intellect is fixed on them. They are symbols not images.
Hence logic is purely symbolic, and triumphs most in that
science which deals with solid bodies, namely, geometry. When-
ever logic works outside this science, so liable is it to go wrong and
miss life that it needs to be constantly corrected by common sense.
So natural is it for intellect to look outside life, and fix itself
on inert matter, that it is sheerly an unnatural process for it to look
inward upon life and to think that continuous real mobility, that
creative evolution which is life. The chief negative character of
the intellect is its natural inability to comprehend life.
Seeing, then, that intellect gives us but a distorted view of
life, how shall we get a real direct vision of life? The nature
and the functioning of instinct suggest that it must be by something
analogous to this.
^Creative Evolution, p. 164. *(Ibid., p. 159.
1913.] BERGSON'S PHILOSOPHY OF CHANGE 607
Instinct is sympathy. If this sympathy could extend its
object and also reflect upon itself, it would give us the key
to vital operations just as intelligence, developed and dis-
ciplined, guides us into matter. For we cannot too often re-
peat it intelligence and instinct are turned in opposite direc-
tions, the former towards inert matter, the latter towards life.
Intelligence, by means of science, which is its work, will deliver
up to us more and more completely the secret of physical opera-
tions ; of life it brings us, and, moreover, only claims to bring us,
a translation in terms of inertia. It goes all round life, taking
from outside the greatest possible number of views of it, draw-
ing it into itself instead of entering into it. But it is to the
very inwardness of life that intuition leads us by intuition I
mean instinct that has become disinterested, self-conscious, ca-
pable of reflecting upon its object and of enlarging it in-
definitely.*
I will here make confession, and say that it took me some
considerable time to see what M. Bergson meant by this new
method of observing reality. I had been so accustomed to regard
the intelligence as the only faculty for acquiring real knowledge,
that I began to have a sinister foreboding that this new method of
knowing things might have something to do with the stomach.
" Consciousness of living is the intuition of life. It is reality."
I read these words over and over again, yet unable to fathom
their profundity. Then the light came to me in this wise: One
night as I was in the train coming from Maldon, a man whose
heart was glad with wine (or something else) turned to me and
said : " I am glad I am alive, sir, aren't you ? " I hesitated a
moment, and then I put my hand on his shoulder and said : " You
have got it." In a moment of exalted confusion he had seen
the central truth of the new philosophical method.
Consciousness of living is the intuition of life. It is a psy-
chological phenomenon which all philosophies have recognized, and
which every man may observe for himself. M. Bergson's alleged
discovery is not the fact itself, but the supposed enormous sig-
nificance of the fact. He asks us to make a wider use of this
faculty of gazing directly at life. Like the man in the Maldon
train, we are too liable to be content with the first glimpse of it,
to turn our backs upon it, and to seek our satisfaction in discursive
reasoning. We need to wake up and see in this intuitive vision the
*Creative Evolution, p. 186.
6o8 BERGSON'S PHILOSOPHY OF CHANGE [Feb.,
philosophical instrument par excellence. By this method we can
lay hold on reality itself. Kant thought that we could not touch
the thing in itself because space and imaginary time were in the
way. But Bergson having discarded space and the images of time,
and having made real time the one reality, is able to see it by direct
vision. Thus at last we have a real metaphysic, a knowledge of the
Ding-an-sich, moving about with no Erscheinung to veil it from
our view.
At first it might seem that this direct vision of life might
give us nothing more than the elementary idea of the eternal flow
of things. But that is because we have not yet made any serious
effort. What, however, gives us hope is an analogous process in
the world of aesthetics. The layman in art sees only the features
of the objects which strike his eye. But the artist sees the inten-
tion of life, the simple movement that runs through them, binds
them together, and gives them significance. " This intention is
just what the artist tries to regain, in placing himself back within
the object by a kind of sympathy, in breaking down by an effort
of intuition the barrier that space puts between him and his model."*
!A! sonata by Beethoven does not consist of vibrations, or melodies,
or chords, nor yet in the technique of the pianist who plays, but in
one undivided and indivisible whole which the composer saw at
one glance by intuition, and which the performers, if they are to
execute it properly, must see in like manner.
So also, it is suggested, must we try to see the problems of
life. The intuitions of art never get further than the individual,
but the intuitions of philosophy may conceivably get to universals
of very rich content. But let us not expect too much. Intuition
will never have so wide a range as science, nor yet will its knowl-
edge be so definite and clear. Why ? Because " intelligence re-
mains the luminous nucleus around which instinct, even enlarged
and purified into intuition, forms only a vague nebulosity." Let us
take particular note of this sentence, for it explains so very much
of the hazy thought of the day, and also why so many people
are turning to Catholicism for something intellectual, solid, and
fundamental.
Thus we have arrived at the conclusion which Bergson prom-
ised us in the beginning : Before we can have a theory of knowl-
edge, we must first have a theory of life. The theory of life was
that an initial impulse was thrust out from some centre, and that
* Creative Evolution, p. 186.
1913-] BERGSON'S PHILOSOPHY OF CHANGE 609
this impulse was identical with life, consciousness, time, and reality.
The life thus continually flowing bifurcated, forming itself into
special streams for special needs and special purposes.
In man the stream had two distinct functions to perform,
namely, to deal with the objective world and with the subjective
world. For these purposes it created respectively the faculties
of intelligence and intuition. From these two faculties taken to-
gether, as being elements of the one consciousness, we derive
our theory of knowledge. Intelligence needs the service of intui-
tion, whilst intuition needs the service of intelligence.
On the one hand, indeed, if intelligence is charged with matter,
and instinct with life, we must squeeze them both in order to
get the double essence from them ; metaphysics [he means knowl-
edge gained by intuition] is, therefore, dependent on theory of
knowledge. But, on the other hand, if consciousness has. thus
split up into intuition and intelligence, it is because of the need
it had to apply itself to matter at the same time as it had to
follow the stream of life. The double form of consciousness
is then due to the double form of the real, and theory of
knowledge must be dependent upon metaphysics. In fact, each
of these two lines of thought leads to the other; they form a
circle, and there can be no other centre to the circle but the
empirical study of evolution.*
We are deeply grateful to M. Bergson for this last word, for
it gives us the key to the criticism we are about to make of his
theory. In the formation of his theory he has depended very
largely on the biological science. We have followed with fasci-
nation his long disquisitions on the wonders of plant and animal life.
But the selective principle in the choice of his examples has
undoubtedly been the determination to demonstrate a continuous
evolution due to intrinsic impulse. Hence such a thoroughgoing
evolution as that of Herbert Spencer is cast aside, because it is not
continuous enough. His evolution was merely an intellectual re-
construction of evolution. " Such, however, is Spencer's illusion.
He takes reality in its present form; he breaks it to pieces; he
scatters it in fragments which he throws to the winds; then he
'integrates' these fragments and 'dissipates their movement.' Hav-
ing imitated the whole by a work of mosaic, he imagines he has
retraced the design of it, and made the genesis."f Spencer had
started off to remount and redescend the course of the universal
^Creative Evolution, p. 188. Wbid., p. 385.
VOL. XCVI. 39.
6io BERGSON'S PHILOSOPHY OF CHANGE [Feb.,
becoming, but no sooner had he started than he turned off short
and gave us a picture of mosaic dispensation, formal parts side by
side with formal parts, a picture whose veriest characteristic was
discontinuity.
Now it so happens that the biological science has, in these latter
days, given a very rude shock to all evolution which professes to be
continuous.
The discoveries of Gregor Johann Mendel have come as a
bolt from the blue. Their whole tendency is to show that what-
ever else may be said of evolution, it cannot be said to be continuous.
The example first used in experimentation by Mendel himself shall
serve to illustrate what we mean. This example is the ordinary
edible pea, Pisum sativum. Taking two varieties of this, the tall
and the dwarf, he cross-fertilized them. The first generation of
hybrids turned out to be all tall. Then these hybrids in turn were
sown, and the result was that both tall and dwarf plants grew up.
Moreover, these tall and dwarf grandchildren appeared in definite
proportion, three tall specimens for every one dwarf.
Mendel experimented on 1,064 plants, out of which 787 ap-
peared as tall and 277 as dwarfs, that is three to one approximately.
To the character which remained during the three generations,
namely, tall, Mendel gave the name of dominant, whilst to that
which disappeared or rather remained latent in the middle genera-
tion he gave the name of recessive.
From these experiments two laws are deduced. The first is
that when two races possessing two antagonistic peculiarities are
crossed, the hybrid exhibits only one, and as regards this character
the hybrid is indistinguishable from its parent. The second is that
in the formation of pollen or egg-cell, the two antagonistic peculiar-
ities are segregated, so that each ripe germ-cell carries either the one
or the other of these peculiarities, but not both. Thus the laws
positively exclude any intermediate conditions. Discontinuity,
therefore, is of their very essence. Further, what is true of in-
heritance is also true of variation. Professor Bateson, the apostle
of Mendelism in England, does speak of continuous and discon-
tinous variation. But of the continuous variations he says that
they are very slight, in fact almost insensible, differences of size,
color, etc., in a series of individuals having the same parent. But
these fluctuate about a given mean. They never shade off into
other forms. Thus where continuity does appear, it would seem
only to accentuate the fact of discontinuity. And when the dis-
1913-] BERGSON'S PHILOSOPHY OF CHANGE 611
continuity affects both inheritance and variation, there is a double
reason for doubting a continuous evolution.
We are quite aware that Mendel's laws are not universally
accepted in the scientific world. Nor have they, owing to the
complexity of interfering circumstances, been widely verified in
the qualities of the human species. But they have assumed an
importance so great in the scientific world, and have received such
marvelous confirmation by the experiments of De Vries, Bateson,
and Biffen, as to throw the gravest possible doubt on that theory
of life from which M. Bergson develops his theory of knowledge.
The chief note of Bergson is continuity, whereas the chief note of
Mendel is discontinuity. I have searched in vain through the
works of M. Bergson for some reference to the theory of Mendel.
What is made doubtful by a study of biology is made more
than doubtful by a study of psychology. With regard to this
theory of life, which M. Bergson takes as his foundation, we may
ask what does he mean by life ? He tells us : " Existence in time
is life." Once again he changes the current coinage. It is quite
true that we now speak of the life of a motor-car, and when a
medical practitioner is calculating whether motor-cars or horses are
the more economical, he considers their lives on the Bergsonian
principle of existence in time. Which will last the longer and
which will cost the less? But, according to the current use of
words and ideas, the life of a motor-car is but metaphorical life
when compared with the life of a horse. The chauffeur needs
no whip because the motor-car has no feelings and no conscious-
ness. Such a kind of life then can be no prerequisite for a theory
of knowledge. On the contrary there is required a theory of knowl-
edge before the motor-car can have any life at all, metaphorical or
otherwise. The construction of a motor-car is wholly the outcome
of mechanical science.
Next we must eliminate from the question the life of plants.
We may readily grant that there are borderland specimens of plants
showing signs of sensation. But taking the whole vast order of
the vegetable world, we have to say of it that it has no sensation
and no consciousness. An oak tree does not squeak or kick if
you stick pins into it. That stream of life, therefore, which is
purely vegetable has no exigency and tendency to concentrate for
itself a nucleus of intelligence. The vegetable life is no prerequisite
for a theory of knowledge.
The question is thus narrowed down to one of feeling and
612 BERGSON'S PHILOSOPHY OF CHANGE [Feb.,
intelligence. But here M. Bergson unfortunately uses words of
double or vague meaning. For instance, he uses the word " mind "
as including instinct and intelligence, whereas hitherto mind has
always been taken to exclude instinct or feeling. So also he speaks
of intuition as instinct that has become self-conscious and capable
of reflecting on its object, whereas at other times he speaks of it as
the power of direct vision.
Now a faculty cannot be sense and intelligence at the same
time, because these two faculties, whether we regard them as
things or as tendencies, are essentially distinct. Neither can a fac-
ulty act directly and reflexly at the same time. If, however, M.
Bergson means that intuition can act first directly and then reflexly,
then so far he is intelligible. We understand, but do not agree
with him.
As we have already remarked, the most ardent students of
M. Bergson complain of his obscurity concerning the borderland of
intelligence and intuition.
We must try, therefore, to disentangle the matter for him.
And the first step in this process of disentanglement will be to recog-
nize that there is an essential distinction between intellect and sense.
Imagination is sense, and instinct is sense, because both pertain
directly to an organic faculty. The intellect undoubtedly depends
upon sense for its material wherewith to think. Each thought
indeed is accompanied with an organic phantasm. Their mutual
interpenetration is subtle and complex. Accidentally they are
united, but essentially they are distinct. Instead of drawing out
long a priori proofs of this, we shall propose a simple experiment
by which every reader may test it for himself.
Let him first picture to himself in his imagination a square.
Then let him likewise form a pentagon. After that let him imagine
a hexagon. Now let him pass respectively to a regular polygon
of 3,751 sides and to one of 3,752 sides. As far as imagination goes
(i. e. } the faculty of sense), both of the polygons are identical.
They are as circles in his imagination. But his intelligence tells
him that they are as much different from each other as a square is
from a circle. Sense, therefore, even in its highest form, namely,
that of the imagination, is different in kind, and not merely in
degree, from intellect.
With this distinction we may examine M. Bergson's picture
of consciousness : " Intelligence is the luminous nucleus around
which instinct, even enlarged and purified into intuition, forms only
1913-] BERGSON'S PHILOSOPHY OF CHANGE 613
a vague nebulosity." That part of consciousness, therefore, which
is not intelligence is instinct or intuition. Instinct and intuition,
therefore, must be sensation. And this is what M. Bergson repeats
over and over again. We are to set our intelligence aside, because
that deals only with solids and the representations of reality, and
we are to put ourselves into the eternal flux and feel the reality of
it. That consciousness of living, therefore, which is the dawning
of a new philosophy, according to M. Bergson, has been rightly
named in the scholastic system as the sensus intimus, and rightly
defined as the faculty by which we recognize as our own the various
modifications of our senses.
This was the sense which had just functioned in the man in the
Maldon train. Then his intellect reflected upon it, and the reflec-
tion caused him the joy which he so ardently wished to share with
me. Moreover, this explanation of intuition as a feeling is the
one which has been generally taken by those who have tried to put
M. Bergson's doctrine to a practical application.
When asked for reasons for certain views, they reply that they
have arrived at their conclusions by another way than that of reason.
They have seen the truth intuitively. They feel that it must be
true, and therefore it is true. And this is just where the danger
of M. Bergson's doctrine comes in.
Naturally such an exaggeration of feeling would require a cor-
responding debasement of reason. This, therefore, shall be our
next point, to examine the various limits which have been set to
reason by M. Bergson.
Our first objection is to the statement that it is of the dis-
continuous alone that the intellect forms a clear idea. There is a
fallacy here which is due to the confusing of imagination with in-
telligence. When we try to imagine an object in motion, especially
if the motion be rapid, the phantasm appears to us as somewhat
blurred. The internal sense of the imagination is very similar to
the external sense of eyesight. The eye requires time to adjust
itself to rapid motion, and if this time is not allowed, the moving
object appears as fogged. If I tie a piece of wood to the end of
a string and whiz it round, the wood will appear as a circle.
The Futurist painters* made exactly the same fallacy when
they tried to express movement through means of paint on canvas.
Thus if they wanted to paint a man in the act of swimming they
painted two men and smudged one into the other. Pictorial repre-
sentation, whether on a photographic film or on a painter's canvas,
*See article in the Dublin Review, July, 1912.
614 BERGSON'S PHILOSOPHY OF CHANGE [Feb.,
or on the retinue of the eye, or on the substance of the brain,
requires time and space, requires to be discontinuous, if it is to be
clear. But not so with intellectual representation.
The intellect, whilst using time and space as its handmaids,
is able to transcend them. I can conceive of local motion even apart
from the object which is moving. I can conceive of life even apart
from the animal which lives. And this essential distinction can be
demonstrated by the experiment with the regular polygon already
described. The fallacy which is here committed by M. Bergson is
that known as the illicit transit from the ontological to the logical
order. He mixes up sensitive phantasy with intellectual thought.
So also is it with the statement, that of immobility alone does
the intellect form a clear idea. This statement is connected with
the previous one by the doctrine that motion is continuous and in-
divisible, a doctrine which we disproved in our first article. With-
out, however, referring to that doctrine or its refutation, we can
say directly that the intellect can get a clear idea of mobility. I can
compare, for instance, mobility with immobility, and I can recognize
precisely, distinctly, and clearly that there is as much difference
between them as there is between chalk and cheese. It is the
imagination that renders the immobile clearly and the mobile con-
fusedly. The intellect can have clear conceptions of both. Once
again, M. Bergson has been the victim of the illicit transit, mistak-
ing that which is spiritual for that which is material.
With what M. Bergson says of the intellect's unlimited power
of decomposing ideas according to any law and of recomposing
them into any system, we cordially agree. In our language we
call it division and composition. Here we come to the point
where intellect meets intuition.
We object to the statement that the chief negative character of
the intellect is its natural inability to comprehend life.
First, M. Bergson misrepresents the power of the intellect
when he says that its concepts are not the perception itself of things.
He wonders still farther from the truth when he says that these con-
cepts are something less than images, and are, in fact, merely sym-
bols. He falls into an error somewhat similar to that of Kant.
Kant said that the intellect could know nothing of the things in
themselves, but only of their appearances. Bergson says that in-
tuition alone sees the things in themselves. The intellect does not.
The intellect sees only symbols of the things, and symbols, more-
over, which are not images. That means that our intellectual
concepts have so little correspondence with the things they represent
1913.] BERGSON'S PHILOSOPHY OF CHANGE 615
that they are not even natural symbols of them, but merely conven-
tional symbols.
The refutation of this doctrine is the same as the refutation of
that of Kant. It is an appeal to common sense and to the universal
judgment of mankind. When I put my teeth into a rosy apple,
can I be quite sure that it really is an apple, and that it is not pos-
sibly a cricket ball, which is the conventional symbol for an apple ?
When I am talking to President-elect Wilson can I be quite sure
that it really is Mr. Wilson, and not possibly Mrs. Eddy, who may
be the conventional symbol for Mr. Wilson.
No, we decline to be moved from that mediaeval scholastic in-
tuition which is the common sense of all nations, always and every-
where, the semper, ubique et ab omnibus all taken together, namely,
that things are normally what they appear to be, and not merely
conventional symbols of the same.
Hence although we do not go so far as to say that the intellect
is naturally able to comprehend life, yet we do go so far as to say
that it is as naturally able to comprehend life as it is to comprehend
the solid objects of the external world or anything else at all. The
intellect does not comprehend things in the sense that it knows
everything that can possibly be known about them. But it does
comprehend them in the sense that it knows their essence, namely,
that by which they are what they are. And to this kind of com-
prehension life is no exception.
The intellect has no difficulty whatever in formulating its
definition of life the activity by which a being moves itself. And
when asked for further explanation it has no difficulty in saying that
the word " move " includes all forms of change or alteration, and
includes the energies of feeling, intelligence, and will, as well as
local motion; and that the word " activity " is understood as having
an immanent character as opposed to transient, that is, beginning
and ending as an internal principle.
All this belittling of intelligence, however, is but the natural
result of M. Bergson's theory of life. In trying to make intuition
a continuation of instinct he got on to the wrong line. Intuition
is a mental faculty, whereas he tried to make it a sensitive faculty.
He did not recognize that there are organic internal senses as well
as organic external senses. And being on the line of organic inter-
nal sense, he came to that operation of it by which it feels the
present state of the body, the flow of the now, and thereupon
called it intuition. Then, instead of regarding this organic sense
as ministrant to intellect, he dragged in the reflections which the
616 BERGSON'S PHILOSOPHY OF CHANGE [Feb.,
intellect made upon it, and called those reflections the reflections
of the intuitive faculty.
Bergson is quite clear on the point. " But it is to the very
inwardness of life that intuition leads us."* So far he has ob-
served the operation of the organic sense. Then he continues:
" By intuition I mean instinct that has become disinterested, self-
conscious, capable of reflecting upon its object and enlarging it
indefinitely.''! There he adds on to the sensation the reflective
function of the intelligence, but retains all under the same name of
intuition. He observes that the primary sensation has a natural
tendency to lend itself to the intellect to be reflected upon. But
he asks us to resist this natural tendency and drive on this so-called
intuition to explore the deeper experiences of life. Instead of
using his intelligence to abstract essences from life, man must
plunge into the stream and feel life.
Unfortunately there is one great obstacle to this method, and
that is the great fact of space. Therefore, according to Bergson,
space must be annihilated. Thus we have arrived at the conclusion
which we proposed at the end of our last article. The discarding
of space and the placing of reality in the flow of time was due to
this exaggerated subjectivism which substitutes feeling for intelli-
gence, and which under the false title of mental intuition sets up
sensation as the philosophical faculty.
But it may be asked : is it not true that artists have visions of
great conceptions? Is it not true that great politicians conceive
vast policies intuitively? Is it not true that great generals seize
upon great strategies instinctively? Is it not true that great Saints
and Doctors of the Church have a tremendous grasp of huge fields
of doctrine, and see many truths so swiftly that it can hardly be
ascribed to discursive reasoning? It is.
But the insight is not due to that organic sensation which
announces to us our subjective feelings at the present passing mo-
ment. Nor is it due to that stultification of the intellect which
confines its powers to the limits of space and imaginary time. Nor
yet again is it due to an aimless guessing at conclusions merely be-
cause we would like them to be true or feel them to be true. No
there is a sane doctrine of intuition and a sane doctrine of mental
instinct.
We propose to sketch this in our next essay, which will take
the form of a comparison between Bergson, Newman, and Aquinas.
^Creative Evolution, p. 186. Hbid., p. 186.
AT THE GATEWAY OF ITALY.
BY JOSEPH FRANCIS WICKHAM.
T is afternoon in the June time ; and over on the other
side of that mile of blue water is Italy. Slowly,
very slowly, the steamer is passing Posilipo; and so
softly it moves that you scarcely feel the gentle stir-
ring as you stand by the rail in silent watching.
Closer and closer you are nearing the haven, and a thousand voices
coming over the hill are bidding you welcome home. For no one
ever sails in through those summer seas but feels he is come to the
home of his hopes and longings and dreams.
For days the spell of Italy has little by little been creeping
out to you. Long before you sighted Isoia dei Cavoli you felt
the beguiling of the Tyrrhenian Sea. And when Cape Carbonara
is lost in the distance, and the blue begins to deepen in the sky,
and the waters of the ocean are all but tranquil, the enchantment
steadily strengthens. And at last as you enter the Bocca Grande,
with Ischia near enough to touch, and Capri over there in the offing,
and the tiny Procida beckoning you in, the charm is done.
There is Naples, rising in all her loveliness on the bay of un-
ruffled water that sweeps for thirty miles from Pozzuoli to far
Sorrento; a hillside city that follows the lines of the crescent bay,
with red-roofed houses rising tier upon tier, gleaming in cream
and brown, and churches with towers, and castles with turrets re-
splendent in the glow of the western sun. To the left, on the
garden slopes of Posilipo, is the flashing of white villas; on the
right is Vesuvius, the one shadow in all Campania. Little barks
are flitting about as butterflies in gay festa; singers are winning
your heart with the notes of " Santa Lucia ;" flower-boys are fresh-
ening the air with the scent of roses; and the hum of life, the
joyous life of the Old World, calls to you from over the water.
Verily you have reached the land of the soul's desiring.
One day in the long ago, before the muse of history had
emerged from the cloud of fable, a siren maid, Parthenope, slept in
unceasing slumber on the shores before you. She had sought death
618 AT THE GATEWAY OF ITALY [Feb.,
in the wave that ofttimes had mingled its foam with her soft voice.
Never a dream was hers that whither the ocean carried her should
be given her name, but so it was that those who found the maiden
would not let us forget. From Parthenope's strand to the Naples
of now is a long path to travel. Greek and Roman, Goth and
Norman and Spaniard, mingle in the film that gives you Naples'
history, and her twenty-five hundred years have watched many a
conqueror and many a captive pass over her hills.
Every nation in Europe has had its warriors at her gates.
Until conquered by the Romans in the fourth century before
Christ, Naples remained, in art, in letters, in atmosphere, a Gre-
cian city. When Rome crumbled before the downpouring of the
barbarians, Naples, too, felt the inroad of the mighty victors. In
the middle of the sixth century the city fell under Byzantine suprem-
acy, but soon after gained her liberty. For five centuries she
maintained her freedom, with all the lights and shadows of an iron
age falling upon her stage. But in 1 130 her independence dissolved
before the embattled hosts of Roger of Normandy. In 1194 the
Hohenstaufen secured the fair city as a marriage portion. Seventy
years later Charles of Anjou obtained the prize, but his line fell,
too, when in 1442 Alphonso of Aragon rode through the streets
at the head of a conquering army. For three hundred years Spain
had her viceroys living in the beautiful city. Hapsburg then won
the cast in 1713, and the Bourbon shortly after. -And even in days
more near there was still the constant shifting of the battle tide,
ever the restless surging of the waves of war.
Not all this motley throng of plumed knights and crested kings
cross your imagination in thickened confusion as you look upon the
brilliant Posilipo or the gigantic Vesuvius, or the amphitheatre of
hill-set houses that smile a welcome to you over the bay. But to-
morrow you will begin to see them, and you will see them the day
after, and for many a day to come. For history a-plenty has been
made along the busy Via Roma, and through the length and breadth
of the lanes that intersect it at every turn. Down by the Piazza
del Municipio, the Castel Nuovo, with six and one-half centuries
of time recorded on its chronicles, speaks to you of Charles of
Anjou, who built it and passed it on to a line of kingly followers.
But the pennons of Aragon were also to float from these battlements
when the time should be ripe for Angevin defeat. Frenchman and
Spaniard now fight their battles over again on the bronze gates of
the triumphal arch. To-day Italy's cavalry is quartered at the
1913-] AT THE GATEWAY OF ITALY 619
Castel, but when the world is hushed in the silence of the night
Anjou and Aragon are tilting for the title, and many a battle is
lost and won by the pale riders of a day that is gone to its setting.
As you walk away from the Castel Nuovo the thoughts of olden
tumults die, and you only remember that thirteenth of December in
the year 1294. On that day in the Sala di San Luigi took place an
event unparalleled in ecclesiastical history il gran rifiuto. Five
months before the Cardinals had climbed Monte Marone in the wil-
derness of the Abruzzi, and had acquainted a gentle old man with
the news that the conclave in session at Perugia had selected him
as the new Pope. Tearfully was the word received. Why had
they come to him, Pietro di Murone, was the bewildered appeal,
to him who knew nothing of affairs of State, and unworthy utterly
to be vicegerent of Christ on earth? They prevailed; and on the
twenty-ninth of August he was consecrated, taking the name of
Celestine the Fifth. But he was not happy. More and more as
the days went by was he convinced that he was not fitted for the re-
sponsibilities of the Papacy, that he was only working mischief to
the Church. Finally, his soul weary almost unto death, he resolved
to abdicate. The clergy and the people implored him to continue as
their Father, but in vain. And on that mid-December day he sum-
moned the Cardinals to the great hall of the Castel Nuovo, and
announced to them that he was to be their Pope no longer. Taking
off the triple tiara and the ring of the Fisherman and the white
cassock of lamb's wool, he resumed his poor habit, and hastened
away to the happiness of his cell in far Sulmona. The centuries
have woven many memories into the mellow tapestry of the Castel;
but the one of purest sheen is the memory of the kindly San Celes-
tino, who believed that he was not fitted to be the leader of Chris-
tianity, but that he should serve God in solitude and prayer, in
cloistered silence amid the hills.
If the Angevin dynasty appeals to your love of the past, you
will go some day to the old church of Santa Chiara. With splendid
facade and beautiful campanile, it is well worthy of the six centuries
of service that it has to its crediting. Founded by Robert the Wise,
it was the royal chapel. Many a worshipper of high degree has
the old edifice counted; it has sung the requiem over many a house
of kings fallen to dusty death. Up by the high altar is the monu-
ment of its founder, a princely figure, robed in the Franciscan habit,
resting in all the quiet dignity of marble life. Here among the
Gothic tombs of Anjou it is interesting to read the epitaphs that
620 AT THE GATEWAY OF ITALY [Feb.,
Petrarch and his fellows once wrote to tell the story of knightly
men and virtuous women.
Naples is indeed redolent of memories. Poetry breathes its
message to you from the tomb of Virgil; and the wayside grasses
whisper to you the tale of Arcady-land that they told to the gentle
Mantuan centuries and centuries ago. Posilipo has its memories of
Lucullus and his wondrous gardens; and treasures, too, proud
recollections of the days when Augustus came to its cooling breezes
wearing the sceptre of the world. Naples was vigorous in the
Middle Ages, and enjoyed her share in the pageant and pomp of
the Renaissance. For in those days the Tuscan artists and scholars
and poets came to the city on the bay and lingered long. Naples
displays her churches and castles, and shows what Giotto did, and
Simone Martini, and many an architect and sculptor. She points
out to you the place where Sannazaro used to watch the fishermen
to get inspiration for his idylls; Sannazaro, chosen by the Pope
as the poetical champion of Christendom. She tells you where
Petrarch prayed, where Tasso sang his song. For the poet of
Avignon had no uncertain connection with the southern city, as
history writes the incident. Robert the Wise was a child of the
early Renaissance, and was a scholar as well as a king. And one
day Petrarch came to the king and received from his hands a
diploma setting forth his qualifications for the laurel. When the
poet went to Rome for the crowning, he bore with him the parch-
ment signed by a royal hand. And Tasso, the flower of the Catho-
lic cinquecento, not infrequently tarried for a season in the city
of the siren. Here in the monastery of Monte Oliveto, while
wooing back the smiles of health after a severe illness, he wrote
part of the Gerusalemme. Here, also, interrupting for a time his
work on the great epic, he composed a poem in honor of the con-
gregation whose careful nursing was restoring him to better days.
A morning will come when you will wish to visit the convent
of San Domenico. Alphonso the First and all his court went there
six centuries ago, and were held spellbound by the gifted tongue
of a Dominican monk. For Thomas Aquinas came to Naples, too,
and gave her to wonder at his flashing intellect. The lecture hall
where once he taught still remains, but you will prefer to linger
in the humble cell of the Saint, where he used to kneel before his
crucifix, from which, as he declared, he had won all his wisdom.
You partake a little of his humility as you think of that greatest
genius of the schools kneeling before the figure of the Infinite
1913-] AT THE GATEWAY OF ITALY 621
Truth, and asking God in heaven that His lowly servant might
speak a portion of that Truth in no fashion unworthy, while the
multitude of students in eager assembly waited in the hall.
The great church of Naples -is the Cathedral of San Gennaro.
Begun in 1272 by order of Charles of Anjou, and completed in
1316, the Gothic edifice is one of the most imposing cathedrals
in south Italy. Its Chapel of San Gennaro is, perhaps, the richest
chapel in the world. Perfect in point of architecture, it is filled
with silver lamps, golden candelabra, purest of marble altars, and
chalices studded with diamonds and rubies, the gifts of princes
and peers from every nation on earth. It is commonly known as
the Cappella del Tesoro. But its chief wealth, surpassing any
gems of gold, is the vials of blood and the head of Saint Januarius.
Saint Januarius, the Bishop of Benevento, beheaded near the
Solfatara in the early fourth century, is the Patron Saint of the
city. And great is the devotion to him. It is in this chapel that
the liquefaction occurs in May and September, when the cathedral
is crowded to its very portals. When the wonder is manifested,
the voices of thousands join in a mighty Te Deum; the bells of
the city's churches ring forth their joyful acclaim; the booming
cannon echoes out over the waiting waters to carry the message
to the sailors on the ships; and the Neapolitan fears no more for
another year the frowning mountain of Vesuvius. Rejected by
men unwilling to accept the evidence of their eyes, the miracle
of the liquefaction has baffled scientists for ages. But it is pleasing
for the people of Naples to remember that Voltaire lost his skepti-
cism in its presence, and to count him as a valiant defender of
their faith.
Over in the Palazzo Reale, the palace with the statues of
eight Neapolitan rulers adorning its attractive front, blossoms a
memory which had its birth in the capital city on the Seine. Up
in the distressed city of Paris the revolutionists, maddened with
their new-found liberty, were seeking victims to sate their insane
fury. And a gentle queen one day rode through the city of sorrows
to lay down her life, a ransom to their thirst for blood, the most
pitiable martyr of the old regime. Down to sunny Naples the news
was borne. To-day they will show you at the Palazzo the chapel in
which Maria Carolina, the wife of Ferdinand the Fourth, knelt
in prayer for the soul of her sister, Marie Antoinette. Her five
daughters were beside her, and their mingled orisons rose to heaven,
and sincere and sorrowful petition at the throne of the King; a
622 AT THE GATEWAY OF ITALY [Feb.,
fervent asking that she who was never more queenly than in death
might rest in everlasting peace.
The sojourner in Naples will feel no affection for the giant
that castles in Vesuvius. Still more keenly will he cherish resent-
ment when he visits the Museo Nazionale and beholds the pitiful
relics of that old-time campaign of destruction. Mural paintings
and bronze statuettes and silver goblets plead the cause of the once
fair and laughing cities whose graves he will look upon in sadness
on some to-morrow. Along the corridors of this fine museum one
will also feel the thrill of early Greek art, the repose and beauty of
many a god and nymph; and will remember Roman glory in the
august assemblage of heroes that live in these marble halls.
This kind of joy Naples offers you; the keen delight of delv-
ing into the bypaths of her past and the lanes that ask you to follow
to the end. Your day wanderings open up vistas of thought through
which you never looked before; aisles of dream peopled not with the
conjured figures of your fancying, but with the ghosts of men and
women once ruddy in the flush of life. And at the close of many a
full day you go up to your balcony window overhanging the splen-
did Corso Vittorio Emanuele and live it all over again.
The golden sun has gone to sleep behind the restful hills of
Posilipo, the cool of the day has come, and the southern twilight
is just creeping over the world. The calm and serenity of un-
counted centuries are closing in on the gray-blue Mediterranean,
the beautiful sea that carries deep in its bosom memories of Han-
nibal and Augustus and Saint Paul. The rose-tints pale in the
west, and over lovely Sorrento the lamp of night is beginning to
glimmer. And with the rising of the moon you open your arms to
Naples as she has done to you, and beg her to take you as her own.
Expanding before you is the vast panorama of the wonderful
bay, aglow with the lanterns of a hundred ships. A great pale
sheet of silver it seems, bathed in the white radiance of the full-
orbed moon. The huge Vesuvius looms distinct in the distance,
a grim and gray spectre of the night. Below you in curving lines,
in harmony with the bowl of the bay, and rising in fairy tiers,
are the lights of the hillside city, twinkling and gleaming like thou-
sands of torches carred in elfin hands. It seems as if Naples has
attired herself in her loveliest robe to gladden you, but every night
she wears the same soft mantle and the same brilliant jewels to tell
the world that there is only one Naples.
The scene from this balcony window you will never forget.
1913.] AT THE GATEWAY OF ITALY 623
It is almost too much to endure, all this marvelous beauty, all this
exquisite perfection. Words fail you as you look out over the
satin shimmer of the water; with silence alone can you pay the
homage of your soul. And in silence you feel that you have
come a little closer to the heart throbs of the great king who sang the
psalms of praising in the holy city centuries and centuries ago.
Quite soon, as you are beginning to slip away into the magic courts
of the dream world, you hear the song of the passing troubadour,
the plaintive melody of O sole mio floating up to you from the
terrace below. It is the last touch of Italy for the night, the
gentlest bidding to slumber. So you close your eyes on the glory
of the fair earth and the moon-swept water, and seek the golden
palaces over sapphire seas of sleep.
In saddening contrast to the glad, care- free life in Naples
is the awful silence of the dead city that lies to the southeast. Under
the shadow of their conqueror, Vesuvius, the quietened walls of
Pompeii rest, a grave for the dead yesterday that once lived in
the throbbing pulsation of youth. Pompeii once sang her songs
in all the gayety of pagan joy, but now as you walk through her
streets, no strains of merriment rise on the winds from the bay,
all the songs are lost chords that perished with the fallen city. You
go out to Pompeii on the train from Naples, passing on the way
through a fair plain covered with grapevines, with here and there
a solitary flat-topped pine standing in soldierly guard. The road to
Pompeii is within a short distance of the sea, and at intervals
you catch sight of the blue water gently washing the sands on the
shore.
Half-way to your destination lies the city of Herculaneum, the
companion of the larger city in mutual sorrow. A little nearer,
perhaps, to the mountain of destruction in the long centuries ago,
it, too, was soon buried beneath the sea of lava. On your left, as
the train takes you toward Pompeii, rises the Vesuvian hill. You
have seen it from the steamer's deck on the bay, you have looked
upon it from your balcony window at night, and now there is noth-
ing novel in its closer presence. There it stands, a relentless, titanic,
elemental force of nature, holding within its breast memories of
war, of a day when its fiery breath withered the cities of the plain.
As it rests firm and steadfast on its broad base, holding its head
high and undismayed, it waits the hour when once more it will send
down its message that it is not dead nor sleeping.
A certain majesty it has in its sphinx-like silence, but not a
624 AT THE GATEWAY OF ITALY [Feb.,
lovely sight is Mount Vesuvius. Yet you cannot help thinking,
as you look upon it, that once its lofty summits were fair and
green, and its steep slopes covered with purple blossoms and white.
From its hilltops many a son of Pompeii had looked upon the
sea, and had little believed that one day the sweet and verdant
earth would change to a fiery volcano and destroy him and those
he loved. The smile of the hill was a lure to the unwary, the
music of its breezes a call to bitter death. The vineyards are now
in ashes beneath many a layer of lava; and the once-happy mountain
height is now the dull-gray, jagged mouth of an ever-active volcano.
When first you enter the gate of Pompeii you do not won-,
der, or feel in a strange land. Everything seems entirely normal,
quite as it should be. How else should a city look that had been
buried for eighteen hundred years? But as you penetrate the
interior and walk farther through the streets, you lose the sense of
time, and the centuries that have slowly drawn their curtain across
Pompeii's living day disappear and float away into the nothingness.
You are for the moment back in those days when Christ had been
dead about half a century, a victim to the cowardice of the great
Rome in whose dominions Pompeii was a proud city. The streets
are still here, and the houses, and the forum, and the baths, and
the great amphitheatre. They are all here, indeed, but desolate and
deserted. No chariot swings through the stone avenue with praetor
or sedile, no children make holiday along the Greek collonades, no
votary offers incense at the marble altars of Isis. Silence is queen
in the city, death is the only guest.
As you walk along the streets and visit the houses of former
magnificence or humbleness, it seems but yesterday or the day be-
fore since the city was teeming with the life of its thirty- thousand
inhabitants. Everything recalls the business of living. The wine
shop stands by the roadside, with the frames for the wine jars
still ready for use; a bakehouse with its brick oven seems to be
waiting the coming of its owner. The silent arenas are willing
to re-echo to the chorus of applauding voices; the empty streets
are looking for the return of their citizens. But they wait in vain.
The people will not return from their long absence-leave ; they will
never come back to the days they lived and loved in the little city
by the blue bay.
If you mount a staircase leading to the top of one of the
houses, it is possible for you to view the entire city. Dwelling after
dwelling, and street after street in bewildering network, stretch out
1913-] AT THE GATEWAY OF ITALY 625
before the eye, with the lines broken here and there by the large
spaces of a bath or a theatre or a forum. Surveying the old city
you wonder where the crowds were thickest on that fateful day
in the year 79, and you think of the panic that must have swept the
populace when they saw the destroyer coming; some hiding in fan-
cied security in underground chambers, others madly endeavoring
to reach the sea.
Pompeii never dreamed on that ill-omened morning that Vesu-
vius was in deadly earnest. There had been an earthquake several
years before, but she had forgotten it. She sang her songs, and
the flowers of youth and beauty blossomed, and the sun beamed
kindly down upon her; but the dark mountain, angry at her joy,
and hating her happiness, flung down upon her the fiery lava and
silenced her forever. It is a sorrowful story that Pliny relates, a
terrible page of history that Dion Cassius bids us read; and their
simplicity of language only intensifies the awfulness of that day
of dreadful doom.
There is a Street of Tombs in Pompeii, where the citizens used
to inter their dead. But there is small reason, it might seem, for so
naming it, when the entire city is a sepulchre, inclosing the dust
of an era that has passed away. Many a spirit must wander un-
seen through the pathways about the tombs, or hold sweet converse
along porticoes still clinging to old-time grandeur. Only they can
hear the soft splashing of the fountains that used to build and un-
build their rainbow castles in the impluvium, only they can enjoy
the grateful odor of the flowers that once blossomed in the lovely
courtyards. And perhaps some perfumed night, when the mil-
lion stars hold carnival in the sky and dance in glad delight about the
silver chair of the huntress, old Pompeii raises her head for an hour
and entertains the pale visitors with the smile she wore in the years
of her young gayety. Gentle music floats once more down the
marble columns, and men and maidens plight their loves amid the
murmuring of bubbling waters. But long before the dawning of
the east the ghosts troop back to the still places of the dark, and
the city once more falls back into her long sleep. Slumber and rest,
little city, the daytime melody and joy from Naples down the bay
will never disturb thee.
Not far from the Porta Marina is a museum, a miniature of the
great Museo of Naples. Plaster casts in pathetic realism, bits of
burnt cloth, loaves of blackened bread, and fragments of broken
pottery in their own unhappy language whisper their grief to you.
VOL. xcvi. 40.
626 AT THE GATEWAY OF ITALY [Feb.,
But you soon will have commingled long enough with the memories
that gather here, and will wish to turn down the long lane that leads
to the outer gate, and leave Pompeii behind, the symbol of far-off,
almost forgotten things, the lingering voice of a day that is dead.
Looking back toward the hot forum with the broken columns
and the ruined temples and the lizards running along the desolate
walls, if that destruction had not come, one feels what might have
been. There in the Strada Stabiana might be the gray, battle-
scarred Palazzo della Signoria with traditions of doges, wealthy
and powerful. Over the lesser buildings would be gleaming the
golden dome of the majestic cathedral, and close beside a tall cam-
panile in full flower. There would be a flower-booth near yonder
Casa del Citarista, with heaped-up masses of camellias and carna-
tions and white lilies drenching the air with their fragrance. At
the corner, amid playing children, a grizzled soldier might sit drows-
ing, lost in dreams of the long ago, when as a zouave he tried to
defend Papa Nono. From some hidden portico would come the
lilt of a madrigal attuned to the faint pulsing of an old guitar.
Over on the Vicolo di Mercuric would extend the long arcades
where the silversmiths would have their shops, and where you could
find the cameos and the tortoise shell and the most delicate of pink
corals. The white stucco houses would be climbing the slopes of
the mountain, and round about them would lie the built-up terraces
of vineyards and yellow corn. And on the summit would rise the
long monastery with its garden of orange trees, where the monks
would gather in the evening when vespers and compline had been
sung, and gaze over toward San Martino and the fellowship. But,
ah ! the difference of it all.
We have passed out through the gates of the Silent City.
Above it Vesuvius is towering, sullen, grisly, with no sign of re-
morse, but watching and waiting. And then we think of that
sister city, to the westward, beside her bay of sunlit blue, with never
a care to trouble and never a fear to chill, and right fervent is our
prayer that the good San Gennaro guard her eternally in surest
protection, that her sunshine never be darkened and her songs never
be stilled. For the joy of heart that Parthenope possesses in happy
heritage is too rare a gift, in a world of weariness, to pass away.
A GREAT CATHOLIC SCIENTIST.
PIERRE JOSEPH VAN BENEDEN (1809-1894).
BY SIR BERTRAM C. A. WINDLE, M.D., SC.D., LL.D., F.R.S., K.S.G.
|T sometimes happens that a father and his son become
highly distinguished in the same walk of life; so
highly distinguished and in studies so very similar
that it is difficult even for the expert to distinguish
the discoveries which have been made by the one
from those which are due to the other.
Such is the case with the two van Benedens, father and son,
Pierre Joseph, the elder, who is the subject of this paper, and
Edouard, his son, still happily with us, the very distinguished
Professor of Zoology at Liege, a man whose name and fame is in
the mouth of every zoologist. It was indeed as far back as 1877
that Ray Lankester said that one of the most important services
that the father had rendered to science was that of having perpet-
uated his name and his genius in the person of his illustrious son.
It is of the father that I am now to write, and, if I mention
the son, it is with the object of making it quite clear to those un-
acquainted with the facts that when they read, as they may even
in the public press, of such and such a discovery having been made
by van Beneden, they must remember that there are two van Bene-
dens.
Pierre Joseph van Beneden was born in Malines on the iQth
of December, 1809, and pursued his early studies at the college in
that archiepiscopal city. As far as is known, nothing special
marked this part of his career, nor was his next step in life one
which gave any special promise of future opportunities for dis-
tinction. He became an apprentice to a pharmacist, with the in-
tention of following that walk of life. Here, however, the choice
of a principal had everything to say in determining the young
chemist's future, for M. Stoffels, to whom he was apprenticed,
was by no means an ordinary chemist nor an ordinary man. A
Dutchman by extraction, he had inherited that ardor for collect-
ing curiosities of all kinds which infected so many of his country-
men during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. But beyond
628 A GREAT CATHOLIC SCIENTIST [Feb.,
all this he was a serious student of science. He corresponded with
many scientific men in different parts of Europe, and was the
centre of what was then a very active scientific society in Malines.
This was the master chosen by young van Beneden or by his parents,
and such a man was not likely to mistake the character of the pupil
who was placed in his charge.
A university course was not necessary for one desiring to
pursue the business of pharmacy, nor had van Beneden's parents
any intention of giving one to their son. Stoffels, however, induced
them to do so, and, in so doing, placed the young man's feet on
the first rung of the ladder of distinction on which he was to climb
so high. In later years van Beneden expressed publicly his great
indebtedness to Stoffels.
It was at this period of his life that van Beneden had actual
experience of war. The revolution broke out in 1830, and van
Beneden, like Stensen, another celebrated Catholic naturalist, took
arms in defense of his country. But the ruling passion was not to
be extinguished even by martial ardor, and van Beneden gives us
a characteristic picture of himself standing under the walls of
Antwerp, a city whose fortifications were afterwards to be asso-
ciated with some of his most striking and best-known discoveries,
with a cartridge in one hand and a fossil shell, which he had come
across in his march, in the other. Science won, and van Beneden
went to Louvain to follow a course of medicine.
This ancient seat of learning was founded by a Bull of Martin
V. in 1425, and continued in existence until 1797, when it was
suppressed. After an interval the Dutch government established
in 1815 a State institution, at which van Beneden was a student.
It was not long-lived as a State university, and in 1834, with the
sanction of Gregory XVI., the Bishops of Belgium decided to open
the university which is to-day well known, a university with
which van Beneden's long life was to be almost entirely associated.
But before settling down he was anxious to extend his ex-
perience, and went to Paris, which at that time was the scientific
centre of the world, in order to pursue advanced studies. During
this time he made a number of visits to the shores of the Channel,
and of the Mediterranean, for the purpose of collecting specimens,
forming then the taste for marine zoology which he was to pursue
later with such fruitful results. At this time, also, he gained the
reputation of being one of the most skillful dissectors of his day.
In the period after the Belgian revolution, as must naturally
1913-] A GREAT CATHOLIC SCIENTIST 629
have been the case, vast reconstructions of the country's insti-
tutions were in progress, and amongst other things the university
system was in the melting-pot. The government decided to found
two State Universities, one in Ghent, the other in Liege, and at
one or other of these van Beneden fully expected to be made
Professor of Zoology. But, while he was in Paris, other influences,
it would seem, were brought to bear upon those responsible for the
appointments, for when he hurriedly returned, at the advice of his
friends, from Paris, it was only to discover that both positions had
been filled. It may be added, incidentally, that neither occupant
made a tithe of the impression on the scientific world that was
made by the rejected candidate.
One can well understand what a blow this must have been
to the young man of science. University chairs are not things
which grow on every bush, and even the most ardent lover of
science must live by some means or another. If he has no private
income, as was the case with van Beneden, and no chair by which
he can live, he must needs turn his face away from science and
towards some other avocation by which it may be possible for
him to earn his daily bread. It must have seemed to van Beneden
that, with all his love for science and his remarkable aptitude for
pursuing purely scientific studies, he would have to turn away from
them and devote himself to medical practice.
But another door was to open for him. As we have seen,
whilst the State was engaged in founding two State Universities,
the Catholic hierarchy of Belgium had set themselves the task of
creating a free Catholic University in the ancient university city
of Louvain. The Rector of this new institution was Monsignor
Ram. This far-seeing principal at once named van Beneden to the
chair of Zoology, and thus established him in 1835 in a position
which he was destined to occupy for the remainder of his life.
Of Monsignor Ram no more will have to be said here; yet, be-
fore passing from him entirely, we wish to mention that the Univer-
sity of Louvain and the whole scientific world are indebted to him,
not merely for providing van Beneden with the opportunity of
which he made such splendid use, but also for finding a position
for an equally celebrated man, Theodor Schwann, who, among other
notable achievements, practically established the cell-theory in his
work, the Structure of Plants and Animals, translated into English
in 1847.
Cavillers will note that for some extraordinary reason the
630 A GREAT CATHOLIC SCIENTIST [Feb.,
Catholic organization, so far as Louvain was concerned, was not
engaged in what those cavillers believe to be its most cherished
occupation, namely, the stifling of science, at least at the time when
van Beneden and Schwann were appointed to chairs, nor, it may be
added, can it be accused of similar proceedings in the same uni-
versity when that institution was assisting Carnoy to make his
great researches on the cell.
But to return to van Beneden. As already mentioned, he was
destined to spend the remainder of his life in the university to
which he was first appointed, and, so far as the great world was
concerned, that life was spent without incidents more exciting
than those associated with some new and startling discovery, or the
attendance at some great gathering of men of science. In 1886
the jubilee of his professoriate was celebrated with great pomp
and rejoicing, and in 1894 (on the 8th of January) he died in
Louvain.
The scientific world had not stinted honors during his life-
time. He was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society
(one of the distinctions most coveted by men of science not
belonging to the British Empire) in 1875. Needless to say he
received numerous honorary degrees. He was a Foreign Member
of the Linnaean, Zoological and Geological Societies of London, and
of many other learned institutions. In his own country he was
not without honor, for he was President of the Royal Belgian
Academy in 1881, and was a Grand Officer of the Order of Leopold.
He left a considerable family behind him, the most distinguished
member of which, his son, Edouard, is, as has already been men-
tioned, Professor of Zoology in the University of Liege.
We may now turn to the consideration of his work and his
character. With regard to the former it may, at the outset, be re-
marked that it is most unusual for any man to secure eminence of
the highest kind in two distinct lines of observation. Readers of
O. W. Holmes' Poet at the Breakfast-Table will remember the fel-
low-guest who was known as " the Scarabee," who was not " quite
so ambitious " as to claim to be an entomologist, nor imagined that
he had a " right to so comprehensive a name " as that of Coleop-
terist. He is the type, even if he is the caricature, of the minutely
specialized scientific man of the present day, a widely different
person from the naturalist of former days, with a narrower horizon,
and one who is too often disposed " to think his little burgh the
world."
1913-] A GREAT CATHOLIC SCIENTIST 631
It was not so with van Beneden, as the following pages will
show. From his early studies on the seashore, and from his life-
long proximity to the coast at Ostend, it is not wonderful that
he should have been led to the study of marine zoology, and his
researches in that line of study must first be described. For years
it was his custom to spend his holidays at some seaside resort,
where he could devote himself to his favorite studies.
The shores of the Mediterranean at first particularly attracted
him, and those of Sicily especially, whose rich marine fauna and
clear waters were a constant source of joy to him. He used to
say that the waters at Cette were so clear that, whilst standing on
the quay, he could see the molluscs slowly making their way along
the bottom of the sea. In these researches van Beneden was a
real pioneer, and that in two directions. In the first place he in-
sisted upon studying his objects of investigation in a fresh con-
dition, and not, as most observers were then either obliged or con-
tent to do, after long exposure to the spirit which had been used
for their preservation. And, as a corollary to this, he was the
first to construct a marine biological laboratory, in which it was
possible to carry out observations leisurely and undisturbedly, ob-
servations which for obvious reasons it would be utterly impossible
to carry out on the creatures in their own native waters.
In order to achieve this purpose, van Beneden set up at Ostend
the first marine zoological laboratory, a foundation which has had
many successors in all countries. To his honor, be it said, he set
it up entirely at his own expense. The University of Louvain had
(I believe has) no subvention from the State. Its resources were
limited, and so, one may feel sure, were the incomes of its pro-
fessors, and at any rate it is clear that there was little money to be
spared for scientific research. Even at Louvain van Beneden's
equipment was of the smallest, as was indeed the case at that time
with most scientific departments at most universities, and no assist-
ance was forthcoming for his seaside laboratory.
Indeed there is one amusing incident of his life narrated which
shows how little sympathy or assistance he received from the State.
One day whilst searching along the shore, after a severe gale, for
the spoils cast up by the sea, he discovered a tortoise's shell covered
with all sorts of zoophytes. With this he was returning to his
laboratory in triumph, when a customs officer stopped him and took
possession of his trophy as jetsam belonging to the State.
The line of studies carried on in this laboratory and on the
632 A GREAT CATHOLIC SCIENTIST [Feb.,
seashore led van Beneden in 1845 to determine to publish a com-
plete account of the littoral fauna of Belgium, a work to which he
devoted an immense amount of time, and many hundreds of
pages of his voluminous writings. But it was not only to him-
self that his marine laboratory was of service. There were no
other such institutions then in existence, as there now are, and
men of science anxious to work out some point for themselves
had no place to which they could resort where they could be
sure to find the apparatus and reagents necessary for their study.
To many such van Beneden permitted the use of his private labor-
atory, provided, it may be remembered, at his own private expense.
Of those who availed themselves of the opportunities which he
extended may especially be mentioned Johannes Miiller, Max
Schultze, Quatrefages, Liebig, R. Greef, and Lacaze-Duthiers. In
later years, when his son Edouard was professor at Liege, the
laboratory was always available to his pupils for the carrying out
of their researches.
In connection with the visits of these men of science, an inter-
esting incident may be mentioned, in which that giant of biological
science, Johannes Miiller (also by the way a practical Catholic
man of science) was paying a visit to van Beneden. Calling on
van Beneden at Louvain, on his way to Ostend, Miiller remarked
that the two most important zoological points then requiring eluci-
dation were the character and position of two very puzzling
genera, whose names would convey no information to the general
reader, and may be omitted. What is of real importance is that
van Beneden was able to show to his confrere an article just pub-
lished clearing up the difficulty in the one case, and a series of ob-
servations, still unpublished, doing the same for the other; the
two great desiderata of science for the moment, according to Miiller,
thus being no longer desiderata but settled points.
Van Beneden was, as we have seen, like so many other scien-
tific men, educated for the profession of medicine; yet later he de-
voted himself to pure science. It was probably owing to this dual
attitude that he was led to write and publish his Medical Zoology.
Like many another enlightened man, van Beneden was alarmed lest
the education of the medical student should become too specialized,
and his horizon narrowed by too rigid a pursuance of purely pro-
fessional studies. He desired that he should have a competent
knowldge of the sciences, ancillary to medicine, and particularly of
what has since become known as " biology," and he wrote this book
1913.] 'A GREAT CATHOLIC SCIENTIST 633
of zoology with a special eye to the needs of the medical student and
the medical practitioner. This was in 1858, when the medical
profession, as a self-governing profession, was, in these islands in
which I write, only in the making. It was many years later that
biology became, as it now is, a compulsory study for all students
of medicine. The advance of science has rendered van Beneden's
Medical Zoology out of date, but his services in respect of medical
education ought never to be forgotten. This, however, is not the
only service which he rendered to medical studies.
In his researches on marine zoology, he had been led to make
numerous observations on the strange subject of parasitism. In-
deed one of the two observations, mentioned above, which had
converted desiderata of science into established facts, had dealt
with an instance of this kind which related to a group of parasi-
tic and, as is commonly the case, also incomplete cestoid worms,
which passed part of their career in bony fishes and part in sela-
chians.
His observations on the subject of parasitism, after having
originally appeared in various scientific publications, were event-
ually gathered together into one volume under the title of "Animal
Parasites and Messmates in the well-known International Scientific
Series, which began its career a great many years ago by the pub-
lication of Tyndall's Forms of Water, and is still continuing to
produce works on all kinds of scientific topics. Much has been
learnt since van Beneden's day as to the problems with which this
book deals. We now know much that was then unknown as to the
diseases which tiny parasites of all kinds, internal and external,
are capable of carrying or of causing. His book, like all books
on science after a certain period, must clearly become incomplete
and out of date, but it remains, and will always remain, one of
the classics, an imperishable monument of unsparing and illumi-
nating research on a subject which, from the point of view of
health, seems destined to become second to none in importance.
In his early youth we have seen van Beneden, in military uni-
form, pursuing his researches around the fortifications of Antwerp,
whilst at the same time ready to receive his enemy with far more
lethal weapons than the fossil which temporarily distracted his
attention. At a later date these same fortifications were to afford
him a further opportunity of extending his scientific knowledge
and fame. The question of completing and strengthening the
fortifications of this city having assumed great importance, and
634 A GREAT CATHOLIC SCIENTIST [Feb.,
the carrying of them out having been opposed by some, a strong
supporter of the project was found in van Beneden. It is prob-
able that it was his early military experience which taught him
the importance of the projected fortifications, but the insinuation
was made, perhaps more than half in kindly jest, that van Beneden
was really anxious for the fossils which would naturally be ex-
posed by the necessary excavations. Be that as it may, the fact
remains that immense numbers of fossil remains of cetaceans
were turned up in the course of the very extensive works, the
results of which are to be seen by all who visit that beautiful
and far-famed city, and that their discoveries did actually lead van
Beneden into a new and fertile field of research, in which he gained
still further laurels.
With characteristic completeness van Beneden not merely made
a study of the fossil remains which came under his observation
in the way I have mentioned, but he also set himself to study the
cetacea (which, it may be explained for the benefit of the non-
scientific reader, include the whales) as they exist at the present
day, as well as their predecessors in fossil periods. At the time
the subject was but little worked over, and the characters of these
creatures but little known. In collaboration with Paul Gervais, van
Beneden brought out between the years 1868-80 his Osteographie
des Cetaces vivants et fossiles, which is still and must long remain
the standard work on the subject in question.
It will be seen, then, that van Beneden acquired the highest
fame in three distinct lines of research. He was a pioneer in
marine zoology, and the acknowledged authority on marine fauna
whilst he lived. But he was no less an authority, if possible even
a greater authority, in the region of parasitology, and, as we have
just seen, in the region of the cetaceans.
It will also be remarked by scientific men, and should be im-
pressed on the non-scientific reader as a most significant fact, that his
triumphs were achieved in both the invertebrate and the vertebrate
branches of zoology, a really remarkable achievement but seldom
paralleled since science became, perhaps necessarily but certainly
in many ways most unfortunately, so minutely parcelled out into
tiny areas of specialization as is now the case. If we are to decide
in which of these realms van Beneden's greatest triumphs really lie,
the palm should I think be given to his researches in parasitology.
It was for these that he was awarded in 1858 the grand prix
des sciences physiques of the Institute of France, and it will be
1913.] A GREAT CATHOLIC SCIENTIST 635
probably by these that he will be longest remembered, except by
specialists who must continue to take note of his other original
memoirs as long as natural science is cultivated in this world.
From this sketch of van Beneden's scientific achievements we
must now turn for a short space to another side of his character.
The sympathetic writer of his memoir in the Proceedings of
the Royal Society, evidently the late Sir William Flower, Director
of the Natural History Museum at South Kensington, says of him
that " though he remained to the end a devoted son of the Church in
which he had been brought up, he always showed the widest tolera-
tion for the views of others," not an unusual characteristic, I
submit, of Catholic men of science. " He believed firmly in the
preconceived order of nature," says Dr. Kemna, his biographer,
to whose work I have to express my indebtedness for many of
the points mentioned in this paper ; " the expressions God, the Ail-
Powerful, the Creator, the Divine Artist " fall frequently from his
pen. The memoir of 1858 on the intestinal worms, which ob-
tained the grand prix of the Institute of France, bore, as its motto,
these words of a bishop, " The laws of nature are the constant appli-
cation of the eternal ideas of the Divine Wisdom for the preserva-
tion of the beings which It has created." In the discourse Sur
I'homme et la perpetuation des especes dans les rangs inferieurs
du regne animal, we read: "The breath of life, once breathed
upon the earth by the generosity of the Creator, is never
extinguished; it is a force impressed on the first couple whose
power renews itself without cessation. Life does not commence
with each new individual, it continues; it has only commenced
once for each species."
When Darwin's work first appeared, and the whole world,
scientific and non-scientific, was convulsed with this new and power-
ful re-statement of the theory of Trans formism, a theory which,
though of secular antiquity and discussed up to a point allowed by
Fathers of the Church, had dropped almost entirely out of con-
sideration until the issue of The Origin of Species, van Beneden
was at least at first inclined to differ with the views put forward.
Nor does it appear that he ever made any specific pronouncement
in favor of a transformistic theory, but what is clear is that, to some
extent at least, perhaps even to a large extent, he modified his
views as to the fixity of species, and claimed a direct descent for
various forms from the fossil forms which had preceded them.
As he wrote, so far as I am aware, no work directly express-
636 A GREAT CATHOLIC SCIENTIST [Feb.,
ing his opinions on these points, it must suffice to say that he
would appear, whilst not denying the theory of descent, to have
held the moderate view, now held by so many, that whilst Darwin's
factor of Natural Selection was a factor, it was insufficient to
account for the results which it purported to explain. He re-
garded the facts of nature from a Catholic standpoint, which, in-
deed, when properly understood, is also the standpoint of plain
common sense, and refused to believe that the picture of nature
around us, whether of to-day or of the remote past, is at all expli-
cable without the existence of a Divine Creator and Designer.
In the brief memoir, already quoted from, the late Sir William
Flower says that " any notice of van Beneden would be incomplete
without reference to his high character and remarkably courteous
and agreeable manners. He was gentle, modest, kind, and con-
siderate to others, and was much beloved by all who knew him
intimately, as the writer of this notice had many opportunities of
observing both in his own family circle at Louvain and on many
visits which he paid to England, during which he was always a
most welcome guest."
That he was beloved by his students is shown by the appre-
ciative notice of Dr. Kemna, and by the enthusiasm manifested
when he celebrated that very unusual occurrence in academic
institutions, the jubilee of his tenure of the same chair in the same
University.
THE WOOING OF GUESCA.
BY OLIVER.
OU have not yet given Guesca away in marriage,"
I reminded Peol one day when a mizzling, disheart-
ening rain kept us house-bound or rather tent-
bound. " She has already refused, to my certain
knowledge, several handsome offers. In fact, men
have died for love of her: her grandfather, old Nadoga, the sor-
cerer, for instance, in his anxiety to save her from the attentions
of the Huron chiefs; the Hurons themselves on their way to lay
siege to her heart; nay, the very Mengwe who attempted to kidnap
her went straight to their deaths in the attempt. There is some-
thing fateful about the girl. Still I trust she did not die an old
maid. A girl of her spirit could not have been without lovers,
and in the end must have fallen to the lot of some enterprising
chief or warrior who was he? Intrepid lover no doubt he was,
who would not brook refusal, and who was ready to use and
mayhap did use a club to gather in his bride."
Somehow those ancient Abenaki strike me as having been
not many removes from the cave-man in their methods of wife-
getting. I awaited Peol's reply with interest.
" Women are queer critters," he answered in his quaint ver-
nacular, shaking his head knowingly. " One never knows what to
expect of them; much like the water out there, easily moved in
the shallows, but harder to measure where it is deep. Guesca
was no ordinary maid, but one who wanted her own way in the
choice of a husband; and yet, in the end, she married a man
because she did not know what else to do with him."
Peol paused and looked hard at me; no doubt to see how
I would take this paradox.
" Married him to get rid of him, I suppose," I replied quickly.
" Girls are still said to do that sort of thing."
" He was hers by fair hunting," he continued, ignoring my
pertness, " and yet she did not go hunting for him. That he
happened to be the son of a chief in his own country helped
the matter some; still Guesca won her husband by chance; and
638 THE WOOING OF GUESCA [Feb.,
the manner of his winning made him ever afterwards a sorcerer,
when he would rather have been a warrior. He was not a cave-
man although she got him in a cave; nor yet a Quoddy nor a
Micmac nor a Malicete, but a Mengwe, and closely connected with
many of those whom she guided to the fateful chasm."
Again Peol regarded me with one of his inscrutable looks
a look of inquiry, if I interpreted aright as if he would take
in the full extent of my mystification. It was certainly puzzling.
She got him by hunting, and yet she did not hunt for him; she
took him then to husband because she could not put him to other
use; she captured him in circumstances which forced him ever
afterwards to be a stay-at-home, which was far from Guesca's
ambitions; she accepted him although he was not of her own tribe
nor of the tribes of the allies of her tribe surely here was a puzzle-
ment. Well might Peol prepare my mind with a descant on the
inconsistencies of woman.
The expression of his countenance now showed me that he
was gratified with my mystification. He dearly loved paradoxes
and surprises of this kind, for the dramatic instinct was strong
in him. In turn I was crafty enough to cultivate this whimsicality,
knowing that no better way could be followed if I wished to
secure a story heartily and willingly told. I made, therefore, every
show of bewilderment. In fact, the utmost I could advance was
that she took him prisoner in war for truly I could put
nothing that was dangerous or unusual beyond the prowess of
the girl.
" No ; she did not capture him in war," Peol stolidly replied,
" and he was not a prisoner brought in by the warriors, as you
might imagine. She caught him herself when she was not looking
for him; and he fainted at the sight of her "
" Hold on there, old man," I cried in exasperation. " You're
piling up the mysteries too fast. Let me get this thing right.
He fainted at the sight of her. I thought Guesca was a pre-
sentable girl ? "
" She was as straight as a stripling elm," Peol proudly an-
swered, raising himself up, his eyes sparkling, " and the brown of
her cheeks was the tint of young spruce buds in springtime."
Here his English failed him, or he felt its inadequacy to express
his meaning, so that he turned to his own speech. " Her eyes
browned and smiled like the water of a brook in its course, or
darkened into the depths of a silent pool, according to her humor;
1913.] THE WOOING OF GUESCA 639
her lips were more red than the berry of the rowan tree when the
frost first mellows it; her teeth were white and small; and the
tiptoe of her foot was like the spring of a young ash."
What more could he say? Peol always waxed enthusiastic
when he spoke of this ancient glory of his race. Quickly re-
verting to his whimsical desire to continue my puzzlement, he
added in English, " So it was not her ill looks which made him
faint he took her for a spirit or goddess."
" And well he might," I heartily admitted. " A goddess in
human form she must have been, and compact of all good qualities."
Peol at once relented. My unstinted praise of Guesca won
him from all further thought of befogging me. Seating him-
self beneath the shelter of the projecting fly, while he scanned
with unvarying vision the broad expanse of the lake at our doors,
he at once addressed himself to the tale of the girl's marriage.
Now and then he chuckled, doubtless at the thought of his ingenuity
in puzzling me.
Again I must be permitted to translate into serviceable English
his quaint and untutored dialect. It was at all times sufficiently
intelligible to me, when he used what he called a foreign tongue
although he did cruelly mistreat some of his pronouns; the How
and softness and abundance of flowery metaphor particularly ap-
pealed to me when he employed his own agglutinative speech. In
this case there was a certain directness and unsophistication of
thought, which somehow reminded me of our archaic English.
All this I will endeavor to the best of my ability to eschew; still if,
now and then, I suffer a fleeting glimpse of this trim naturalness
to show, itself, I pray that I may be forgiven.
"Guesca had many lovers, as you know," Peol began; "the
first of whom in a regular and official way was a great Micmac
chief from the mouth of the Ouigoudi, Cacagous by name. He
was well advanced in life when he came a- wooing amongst us; so
that our young men, who resented quietly his coming, predicted
that his courting would be directed rather to Guesca's parents
than to herself. And so it was, for he made a great show of his
escort and importance, and was profuse with his presents. He
labored, besides, under the disadvantage of having no less than
eight wives at home on the Ouigoudi. Nobody, therefore, was sur-
prised when Guesca dismissed him incontinently with the curt ad-
vice to go back to his wives; as for her, she had no desire to
be exhibited as a curiosity in a string of curiosities for old
640 THE WOOING OF GUESCA [Feb.,
Cacagous was wont to line up his wives and show them to every
stranger who visited him.
"The old chief, nothing daunted knowing, as he said, the
innumerable whims of womankind reconciled himself to his dis-
appointment by immediately marrying another girl.
" Next in point of importance, in this matter of Guesca's
wooers, was the suit made to her by a warrior and minor chief
of our tribe named Hidaha. He was actually a well favored man,
industrious, a great hunter, and which was of greater value and
recommendation to him he was a close friend of Malpooga's.
Guesca was civil to him always, and even allowed him to win a
game of checkers from her, which was a favorable omen for his
suit. But Hidaha had a brother, who was very much in love with
the girl, and yet could not get her to regard him at all favorably.
So Hidaha, wishing to oblige his brother, had undertaken to
make love to Guesca in his place, without her knowing, trusting
to succeed in getting her to elope with him, as was often the
custom, and then when it should be too late for her to back out,
he could acquaint her with his vicarious purpose in courting her,
and offer his brother in his stead. It was not a nice thing to
do, and I cannot blame Guesca for breaking the checkerboard on
his head, when through a hint from Malpooga she learned Hi-
daha's real intentions. But, then, that was before the great event
at the falls, when Guesca's mettle was not yet fully tried or known.
Afterwards, no one dared think of employing such a ruse in con-
nection with her. As it was, Hidaha fell into permanent disfavor
with the tribe.
" Things were in this condition, Guesca being still heart-whole,
when, after the battle at Saco under the great Micmac chief,
Membertou in which, if you will recollect, Malpooga rescued
his bride from the lodges of the Abenaki the young men of the
three allied tribes formed a league or society. They called it
Of The Strong Hearts, and decided to make a trip of exploration
and pleasure through the lands of the Abenaki and Pequods
who were now submissive after their supreme defeat to the great
lake on the edge of the hunting grounds of the Saranacs. The
Micmacs feared no men alive, now that the French had armed them
with powder and ball ; and while our tribe, together with the Mali-
cetes, were not so well dressed with arms, still the French had
-also supplied us with iron hatchets and scalping knives of sur-
passing sharpness. Some of our greater chiefs carried firearms
1913.] THE WOOING OF GUESCA 641
likewise. So that the young men who were members of this joint
confraternity of the Strong Hearts planned their excursion with-
out a worry as to the dangers of the route. This is why those
amongst them who had wives unencumbered, yet with children,
carried them along with them, together with sisters and other grown
young folk who might enjoy the trip. It was a holiday party,
young, healthy, and vigorous, with here and there an older chief
as a balance against the known rashness of youth.
" Guesca accompanied her brother Malpooga and his newly
wedded wife. It was in the days after the destruction of the
Mengwe, when the young people would entertain no project to
which Guesca did not give her assent : they claimed she was lucky.
" It is not to my purpose to dwell upon the events of this
foray into strange hunting grounds. I will deal only with those
incidents which were immediately connected with Guesca's mar-
riage for I might as well admit to you at once it was there she
found her husband, under circumstances most unusual and sur-
prising, as I will now relate.
" The party had reached the long lake since called Champlain
which borders the mountainous country of the Adirondacks.
Within that region of defiles and snowy cliffs there dwelt in those
days a tribe of people called by some the Andastes, because they
were said to worship a goddess or female spirit, to whom they
sacrificed all strangers or invaders who had the rashness to pene-
trate into their recesses ; by the Mohawks they were called Saranacs,
which name still clings to their hunting ground. The entire region
was, therefore, a land of mystery and danger, for which reason
it unaccountably appealed to the imaginations of the young warriors
of the Strong Hearts, especially to our allies the Micmacs. They
were quietly itching for an opportunity to try the efficacy of powder
and ball on those mysterious Andastes. Yet, by promise, they were
held from all outward aggression against peaceable tribes on their
route. Hence the presence among them of chiefs of years and
wisdom.
" They had now built a sort of temporary camp, such a one
as they could comfortably tarry in for an indefinite period in
summer, when the nights are warm. For the site of this encamp-
ment they chose a gently rolling declivity, between hills; these in
turn screened the position from distant view; while a noisy brook
ran past their doors and supplied them with water for domestic
use. The camp lay nearly a mile from the lake, on its western
VOL. xcvi. 41.
642 THE WOOING OF GUESCA [Feb.,
shore, with but a line of lower hills separating it from the adven-
turous land of the Saranacs.. The forest, bright and lively in the
summer sun, surrounded them on all sides, serving as a mask and
protection, especially against interruption from the lake. For, since
the tragedy of the falls although it was undeniably certain that
no survivor had escaped it was an act of discretion at least not to
court too openly reprisal from the Mengwe. As to the Andastes,
no one feared them.
" Having thus established a camp in a comforting position*
to the satisfaction of the older chiefs the Strong Hearts planned
an expedition into the alluring country of the Andastes. Two
hundred in number, they set out through the hills, having left an
adequate guard of warriors to watch the camp; moreover, as was
the custom, the party as it progressed left lookouts usually on
the hill tops behind it to give warning should danger suddenly arise
in the rear. Most of the older chiefs, with some stripling warriors,
remained to safeguard the women.
" Thus it happened that Guesca, having wearied of her sister's
perpetual praise of Malpooga, wandered alone away from the camp
one sunny afternoon. For the lack of other purpose on she fol-
lowed the babbling of the busy brook in the direction of its source.
For the moment she had not in mind the hazy legend of the origin
of the brook in a great pool and falls, somewhere within the shad-
ows of the pine-clad hills. Strange and no doubt exaggerated de-
scriptions were given of the wonderful cavern, into which the brook,
descending by leaps and jumps from the mountain, cast its waters,
which in their final descent spread out into a fleecy cloud of silvery
spray. The assurance that she was heading directly for this my-
sterious locality came to her now only after she had pursued her
journey for some time. Behind her the sights and sounds of life
in the encampment had long since died away; the inevitable brook
dazed and babbled still, inviting her onward; a resentful king-
fisher screamed at her in his metallic notes, and yet kept intrusively
within sight as he flew from point to point, from stub to stub, lead-
ing her no doubt away from the neighborhood of his young.
" Guesca took no thought of danger. Somewhere behind the
rampart of funereal pines, which screened the hills in front, the
invincible band of her friends, the Strong Hearts, were in pos-
session no doubt from his outlook on some tall tree a friendly
watchman had already sighted her, and wondered at her purpose.
Nor was she unarmed. In the single and particular instance of
1913.] THE WOOING OF GUESCA 643
the distribution of the precious firearms by the French she had
the extraordinary fortune of acquiring a neat rifle, light and easily
managed, with an accompanying gift of powder and lead. She had
practiced sufficiently with the untoward thing to lose all fear of it;
she knew the explosive quality of powder; and could load and
fire with readiness. She had her gun with her now, and in a
pretty bronzed horn duly ornamented, and coquettishly balanced
against her breast she carried her precious supply of powder.
'Altogether she felt reasonably sure of her own safety, even if
attacked by a wild beast.
" The reputation of the cavern towards which her steps were
tending now gradually supplanted more personal thoughts. In
some indistinct way she knew it to be associated with the singular
religious ritual of those mysterious folk who lived within this
secluded area ; it was she had sometime heard the favorite dwell-
ing place of the goddess or spirit whom they worshipped with such
inhuman ceremonies. There amid the thunder of falling waters,
this goddess was famed to dwell ; and there, if report spoke aright,
human victims were sacrificed. The courageous spirit of the girl
arose at the thought of penetrating to such a mystic recess; perhaps
she might be rewarded with a glimpse of the deity of the place.
And then, as she bent over a friendly pool in which her own smiling
face was reflected, she did not restrain the thought that comely and
trim must even the goddess of the dell be who could surpass her own
attractions. By this time she was carrying her beaded moccasins
in her hand, while, bare-footed, she stepped from rock to rock or
waded through the shallows. The day was already long past its
meridian, and the quiet of evening was settling down over the forest
scene. I
" The sudden bunching together of the young beeches and elms
which lined the brook making, for all the world, an opening like
a doorway across the stream brought her to a halt. Within she
could perceive that the shadows deepened and darkened ; the edging
trees interlocked overhead; stepping stones gave way to boulders,
slimed over with dripping mosses; quiet pools edged with golden
sands succeeded one another; while behind all was the noise of
falling water, and the darkness of semicircling pines, illuminated
by the penetrative shafts of the westerning sun.
"Now was the time to turn back; so whispered wise discre-
tion. But when did woman ever yet abide the whispers of dis-
cretion when her fancy or her curiosity urged her on? Guesca
644 THE WOOING OF GUESCA [Feb.,
pushed boldly into the shadows, content only to unlace her rifle
from her side where she carried it. Her moccasins she left hanging
upon a shrub should search be made for her they would direct
it. Then, gathering her dress about her, she wound around bould-
ers, splashed through pools, steadied herself by friendly trees, and
strove valiantly forward, unintimidated by the ghostly fashion
of the place. The stream, suddenly freed from the restraint of
boulders, ran clear and deep, dark and uninviting, in strange
contrast with the soft playful sand of either bank.
" The lure of this warm softness under foot led the girl
willingly to penetrate further into the shadows of the place and
then the trees, with their overhanging foliage of deep and dark-
ened green, were the same trees which she knew at home; where
they were she might well be ; she had known them from childhood,
and never to her hurt. A few turns more of the brook now
a little river and she came to the edge of a wide, dark pool,
from which the stream flowed, outletting itself with great vigor
of volume. On the side opposite to where she stood, the upholding
mountain let down a rushing cascade, which after a leap of several
feet struck the pool in its centre with a sound between the thud of
an inert body and the lively crash of water welcoming water.
To the left, in the background, the mountain receded enough
to allow the slanting rays of the declining sun to reach the pool,
through the soft greenery of pines, with a golden glare so pure
and ethereal that Guesca could see the motes playing in the sun-
beams. To complete the beauty of the scene, a pair of rainbows
concentric, but slowly merging into one spanned the splash of
the waters. Surely here was fitting habitation for the most exact-
ing goddess.
" The girl, still restless and curious, circled around the spread
of water until she stood where she could get a good view of the
darkened space behind the cascade. Here, instead of a smooth
wall of rock, which she expected to find, a wide opening presented
itself, not unlike a cave; a cleft or cavern evidently, but just how
deep or extensive she could not at first make out. Her venture-
some spirit at once forced her to investigate. Picking her steps
carefully across the tops of level boulders, she soon reached a smooth
platform of rock, which projected beyond the face of the wall and
led to the cavern. Following this narrow pathway, while the
water splashed overhead and outward a thin mist, the refinement
of the spray, alone reaching her she quickly found herself in a
1913-] THE WOOING OF GUESCA 645
good-sized room hollowed out of the face of the rock. In front
the falling water spread as it fell, forming an effective cover and
concealment. The sun's rays, glinting through the crystalline spray,
lighted up the interior. The floor and side walls were level and
even, as if made so by the hand of man; the rear wall alone
retained its natural roughness and inconsistency. At a distance
much higher than the girl could reach, it was broken by a pro-
jecting shelf which ran back into a secondary cleft in the rock.
Here appeared to be a smaller room overlooking the larger one
on the ground floor. Just what it was like the girl could not at
once tell, as the opening was ragged and irregular, but it did look
inviting and cool.
" Guesca had walked far in the hot sun; there was a sleepy
lull to the waters, even in their worried splashing; the cave was
cool, the day not yet spent: she would have ample time to rest
herself before retracing her way home. A short but vigorous
climb landed her within the upper gallery or cave; she was pleased
to discover that here she could stretch herself, while the uneven-
ness and bosses of the projecting shelf of rock would effectually
conceal her from below. Here she reclined at her ease, having
laid her gun carefully by her side. For a while she watched the
imperturbable waters as they fell, and thought of the cascades
and rapids of her own home rivers, and lived over again that awful
night when the Mengwe took her prisoner. Gradually being
young and healthy her head sank, and she fell asleep.
" How long she slept, she could never tell. She was awak-
ened by a sudden consciousness of the presence of others near
her, and by the acrid fumes of some burning matter. Luckily her
instincts taught her to be noiseless in her movements. She bent
over, under cover of the irregularities of the rock, and peered at
the scene below. It was sufficiently unusual to satisfy her taste
for adventure. Below, on the smooth floor of the cave, a
small fire blazed and burned, from which curling strings of blackish
smoke arose and spread the aroma of cherries a peculiarly pungent
odor which she at once recognized, because old Nadoga in some of
his incantations was wont to use it. It was particularly agreeable
to the spirits. Bending over the flame and feeding it with fresh
fuel, stood the strangest and queerest figure that Guesca, in all her
experience, had ever set eyes on. At first, in fact, she was only
dimly aware of the presence of this extraordinary personage, so rapt
and motionless, and withal so attenuated and ghostly was he. An
646 THE WOOING OF GUESCA [Feb.,
aged man he was again her experience told he was a priest or sor-
cerer engaged in some mystic rite. The burden of many years
had bent him almost double, and his long gray locks fell over
his neck and shoulders. On his head he carried a sacrificial cap
of birch bark, strengthened with bands of deerskin, and ending
in a narrow point much like the mouthpiece of a moose horn.
Here and there, on its surface, the yellow-brown cone flower
appeared, bending and titillating with every movement of his
head. From this striking headpiece the girl's attention was next
drawn to the scarcely less remarkable footgear in which this odd
figure stood. His feet were encased in shoes, not moccasins, long
boat-like things (for which Guesca never could find a name),
which projected far in front of him, and ended in turned-up toes,
narrowed like the bow of a canoe. The girl could not repress
a smile at the incongruity of this strange old man's appearance; it
was with difficulty that she restrained a laugh when he moved
about in his unwieldy shoes. Moreover, the strained posture he
was obliged to take in order to keep his feet out of the fire made
his attitudes at times truly laughable. He was an uncanny figure,
nevertheless ; and the girl could not but watch his actions with lively
interest. When the first start of surprise had passed off, she had
time to note that evening was slowly setting in; the water of the
falls had lost its quick, prismatic hues, and was slowly dead-
ening and darkening.
" She had begun to wonder whether she had not better make
her presence known to the extravagant yet harmless being below,
when two figures suddenly appeared in the doorway or entrance
of the cave. So far as dress went, one of these was the exact
reproduction of the old man; but he was many years younger, and
robust and active. The other was evidently a prisoner, for his
arms were bound behind his back, and his legs were tied together,
so that he had barely liberty to step a few inches at a time. He
was a young man, of fine figure, erect and haughty of bearing.
Despite his air of indifference, Guesca noted a certain involuntary
curiosity. His eyes wandered from the fire to the old man and
then to the walls and shadows of the cavern, as if he expected
more than this meager show of wonder. At least so she interpreted
his quick glances; and being a girl of many resources and of great
whimsicality, and judging on the spur of the moment that he was
casting about in vain for a sight of the famed goddess of the
grotto, she quickly rose upon her knees and as quickly sank again
1913-] THE WOOING OF GUESCA
into the shadows. She could see a wave of astonishment pass
over his countenance. Her purpose she ever afterwards held <
was to give him assurance of friendly help, but he did not so inter-
pret it. In the after years he always claimed that he resigned
himself then and there to the death that was intended for him,
content to be sacrificed as a victim to such a goddess. He was taken
aback so much by the sight of her, however, that he came to a
sudden stop, still gazing confusedly in her direction. The younger
sorcerer, mistaking his hesitation, pushed him roughly onward.
" The elder sorcerer now met them, and with hands that
trembled with age drew the prisoner close to the sacred fire.
They stationed him between them, his face to the falls a position
which cut him off from all further view of Guesca. To her the
three men now stood with their backs turned; in the intensity
of her interest she drew herself noiselessly forward on the rocky
shelf, until she could have lifted without effort the pointed cap
from the head of the taller of the sorcerers. They had no thought
of her presence; the victim alone knew of it, but vaguely as one
senses the presence of a spirit. She watched them, therefore, with-
out thought of discovery.
" From a sheath of green water flags the younger sorcerer
drew a long pointed knife of bone itself in shape and length not
unlike the pointed stalk of the blue flag and handed it to his
senior. The latter felt its edge to make sure of its condition; and
then, with an indifference that aroused all the ire of the watchful
girl, he began to rub, in a doddering way, the young man's back
and neck, evidently in the spots where the knife should enter.
" At the same time he began an address to the victim. The
girl readily understood the most of what he said. From this dis-
course she learned that the prisoner was a Mengwe; that he and
his father had been hunting in the forbidden territory of the Sar-
anacs ; that they had been discovered and overtaken ; and that in the
running fight which ensued the young man could have made his
escape had he been willing to desert his father ; that his filial devo-
tion carried him even farther than this, for, in order to save his
father, he had willingly consented to become a victim to be offered
to the goddess of the falls.
" All this the old sorcerer repeated in tones which the drone
of the water sometimes hid from Guesca's ears; but she heard
enough to decide her on a rescue. The old man continued, the
last portion of his address being evidently an invocation to the
648 THE WOOING OF GUESCA [Feb.,
goddess herself. 'Great goddess,' he said, 'who makest thy home
amid the noise of these gentle waters, and dost at times show thy-
self in the beauties of the rainbow, behold we offer to thee this
day this estimable victim, a gift in every way fitting thee. A good
son he hath been and dutiful, as thy children do generously testify;
willingly would we have preserved him for his valor and filial piety,
and adopted him into our sacred tribe, but he preferred to die
in his father's stead. He is thine, therefore, Sweet Goddess of
the Pool' here the old priest lifted the sacrificial knife. 'Accept
him and show thyself to '
" A sudden explosion, which filled the cave with noise and
the smell of gunpowder, and in the midst of the awful flame and
thunder the form of a young woman of great beauty flashed on
the bewildered senses of the sacrificing priests. It did more,
for it landed directly on the shoulders of the younger of the two,
throwing him to the ground with great violence. Moreover, with
clubbed rifle it sent the doddering old man into a heap in a far
corner of the room. The fire, scattered and distributed with such
violence, and being no respecter of sorcerers, accepted their sacred
headdresses as suitable food for consumption. The rumble of the
explosion seemed to penetrate the very bowels of the mountain, so
persistent was it to return again and again. No wonder, then, that
the intended victim was as astounded and terrified as were his would-
be executioners, and that like them he too lost consciousness. The
practical goddess, however, who had devised this distraction in his
favor having sacrificed her precious powder and horn for his
sake now shook him back to consciousness, and with her ready
knife removed the bonds which bound him. Then when, staring
and still stupefied, he was slow to recover his senses, she pointed
imperiously to the limp bodies of the sorcerers, and thence to the
falling waters and pool in front. Through his resentment against
them she quickly brought him to his senses. It required but the
action of a moment for him to throw the bodies into the whirpool ;
so that in a shorter time than it takes to tell it the place was cleared,
and they stood regarding each other at the edge of the cataract;
he knelt and taking her hand being yet uncertain that she was of
real flesh and blood he put it on his head, thus making himself
her man and slave thenceforth.
" She made no effort to recognize his act, but picking up the
battered remains of her pretty powder pouch, she led him out of
the cave. The sun had gone down, and the twilight was doubly
1913.] THE WOOING OF GUESCA 649
dark in the arched recesses along their path, but she led him un-
falteringly forward until the brighter light of the open country re-
ceived them, and the brook guided them to the encampment. Not
a word did either speak on the way; but when they were arrived
at the boundaries of the camp, Guesca turned suddenly and asked
him, 'What name did your mother call you by ?'
" 'Nikagahi, the faithful one,' he answered ; 'but what does it
henceforth matter what my mother called me? My father is
back there among the Saranacs, a prisoner. I shall never see her
again.'
" 'Waghinethe shall you henceforth be called,' she replied
'which means the Victim of the Goddess. Never again will the
spirit of the dell appear to her children of the Saranacs. Their
race is run. You will return to your mother, and your father will
return with you. This much I venture to prophesy, although I am
no prophet; no, not even a goddess nothing but a simple Etchemin
girl; but behind me are two hundred of the bravest warriors, who
for my sake and at my command will storm the deepest and farthest
recess of these bald mountains to rescue your father. This much
you have won this day by your filial piety. What more niay
come we will leave to fate.' '
I began to question in my own mind whether Peol was abso-
lutely correct in his estimate of Guesca's motives for marrying
this noble Iroquois.
" 'If you are not a goddess,' he persisted, 'you are my goddess,
whom I am now sworn to serve. Your people must henceforth
be my people ; I live by your sufferance.'
" Guesca, not caring to pursue the matter further, did not
reply, but led him forward into the light of the camp fires. She
turned him over to one of the older chiefs, having first given to
a small but attentive audience a brief account of her adven-
ture.
" Waghinethe " for so he was thenceforth known to us
"was not long in making acquaintances and friends; so that
when the dawn came he had found companions to accompany him
back to the chasm, where they expected to find at least one scalp
still unattached. No doubt the younger sorcerer must have es-
caped, as the dip into the pool would naturally restore him to con-
sciousness; but the older man at best so feeble could hardly
have recovered from the weight of Guesca's blow and the immediate
drowning. It was as they expected: the body of the aged priest
650 THE WOOING OF GUESCA [Feb.,
floated in the shallows, at the edge of the pool; the other, and
younger man, had escaped.
" The problem of getting quickly in touch with the main
body of the Strong Hearts, whom Guesca, in order to make
good her promise, was anxious to reach, was unexpectedly
solved by their return the next day. With them came Waghine-
the's father, whom they had not so much rescued as permitted to
join them. Some most unusual and untoward event had happened
among the Saranacs, which for the moment had paralyzed their
courage and watchfulness, thus leaving him practically unguarded.
So far as he could gather, the goddess whom they worshipped ap-
peared in a flame of fire and with unspeakable thunderings to
the two sorcerers, whose duty it was to offer his son, Nikagahi,
in sacrifice; the elder priest was killed in the very act of stabbing
the victim; while his companion, terrified by the glimpse he got
of the angry goddess as she descended, knew nothing until he found
himself gasping and smothering in the waters of the pool. As to
the victim, he had disappeared, having been carried away bodily
by her godship.
" What the older Iroquois thought or how he felt when he
learned of the rescue and safety of his son, one can well imagine.
He entered heartily into the latter's view of his obligations towards
Guesca, although he could not so easily reconcile himself to the
prospect of having his son desert his own tribe to go live by the
sea. It would be necessary, he insisted, to have the consent of
the boy's mother for, among the Iroquois, the women exercise
final authority. Guesca protested that she had no thought of hold-
ing him to a vow made in a moment of grateful excitement.
Waghinethe, however, protested his purpose to return and
accompany our party homeward to the sea; nor could an as-
sumed chill and coldness on Guesca's part turn him from his
purpose.
" Both he and his father to show their gratitude urged
the party to accompany them to their homes. In fact, so insistent
were they that only the counsels of the older men prevented the
Strong Hearts from accompanying them in a body. At a secret
council it was decided not to incur the risk; for through some slip
of the tongue the fate of the lost warriors of the Mengwe whom
Guesca had done away with might be revealed. Waghinethe was,
therefore, dismissed with the assurance that, while the party would
now return homeward, it would tarry by the way long enough to
1913.] THE WOOING OF GUESCA 651
give him time to overtake it. With this understanding, therefore,
he and his father departed.
" Again it looked as if to Guesca fell all adventure. Some
complained jokingly that she must be the favorite of Wahwouni,
since to her alone did he permit such exceptional experiences as had
recently happened to her. The sudden arrival of messengers from
the St. Croix, to warn them that the Abenaki and Pequods were
likely to attack them on their way homeward, gave promise, how-
ever, of adventure and fight for all. The party, therefore, threw
out scouts in front and rear, and marched with all the compactness
and caution possible. At night the women were guarded by rows
of warriors, many deep, no straggling was allowed, and the posts
of danger were occupied by the well-armed Micmacs. The runners,
remembering their instructions, were anxious to force the pace, and
get through the hostile territory as quickly as possible ; in fact, they
pleaded for silent night marches; but the Micmacs, whose boast
it ever was that they feared no warriors alive, refused to be
hurried. They were well armed, and rather courted a fight.
" One night when the entire party were encamped on the
Connecticut River, near where it is broken by a fall, the attack
was made. There must have been an undue sense of security in
the party, for the scouts had been called in or had come in of their
own notion, not having seen any signs of an enemy. In the middle
of the night, therefore, or in the small hours before daybreak, the
Pequods having crept up close to the sleeping encampment, opened
a sudden attack with a hideous yell. Our warriors, however, were
.not as unprepared as they seemed. Every man had gone to sleep
with his arms close by him. In a moment the Strong Hearts were
on their feet; a volley from the rifles of our allies restrained and
daunted the onset of the enemy until the warriors of the three tribes
could secure suitable positions for a favorable fight. Still the
enemy were in great numbers, and our people were burdened
with the defense of the women. The attack quickly developed
into a serious fight, in which the Pequods had the advantage of
being able to choose their own cover. Back and forth it raged,
the Strong Hearts compelled by their exigencies to fight in a circle
around the women. In the obscurity and darkness of the hour the
rifles of the Micmacs counted for little in repulsing the onset; they
fought, therefore, with clubbed muskets, or, throwing their guns
away altogether, they met the enemy with knife and tomahawk.
These being of iron, they soon made sad havoc among the Pequods ;
-652 THE WOOING OF GUESCA [Feb.,
but elsewhere the fight was not so successful. On the side where
the Malicetes had camped, the enemy being perhaps in greater
force in that direction forced an entrance through the line of
defense; so that some women were wounded or killed, without the
possibility of the victorious Micmacs being able to get round to the
succor of their allies. The Etchemin, too, had their hands full,
and were content to keep the enemy at bay. The position was,
therefore, critical, for if the Pequods once succeeded in making a
victorious entry through this weakest spot in our defense, they
could massacre our women while our men were kept occupied in
front.
" Only morning with its light, by which the riflemen might
use their guns with certainty of effect, could offset the advantage
already gained by the enemy. And morning was slow in coming.
At this moment, when the Micmac chiefs were about to make a
flank movement in order to relieve the awful pressure on our
rear, suddenly the war cry of the Mengwe sounded from that di-
rection. It came with the roar of many voices, and the effect was
instantaneous. The Pequods, to whom that awful cry had ever
been the knell of doom, took at once to flight; they threw away even
their arms in their haste to get away from the terrible presence
of the Iroquois. In the dim light they could be seen scattering and
bounding, followed by their relentless enemies. The Strong Hearts,
now fairly sobered by their recent danger and by the sight of their
wounded and dead, drew their lines closer, satisfied to leave the
pursuit to the Mengwe. Waghinethe had been recognized by many
as being one of the leaders of the Iroquois. Once more had Guesca
saved the tribes.
" Waghinethe it indeed was, together with a war party of his
people who accompanied him a part of the way on his journey to
the land of the sea. They had made forced marches in order to
catch up with our party, and happily arrived in time to be of supreme
help when it was most needed. The opportuneness and value of
the service he thus rendered no doubt had weight with the maid
Guesca. She received him with every sign of favor; she even
chided him when he still showed symptoms of regarding her as
more than human. His humility, for so promising a warrior, was
a subject of comment among our tribes, with whom women had
not the same standing as with the Iroquois. Guesca accepted it,
however, as her due; and I make no doubt his deferential attitude
towards her in the end influenced her choice of him for husband.
1913-] THE WOOING OF GUESCA 653
" In the meantime our tribes, having parted with the Iroquois
(who were on the warpath against the Saranacs, and soon con-
quered them), returned home, and, after final feasting, separated
to their respective homes. Waghinethe, of course, remained with
us, and was unremitting in his service of Guesca. We built him
a wigwam for his own use, in which he lived a bachelor life. He
was a great hunter, and hardly ever went out without bringing some-
thing home with him. He soon learned, too, how to spear salmon
and kill porpoises on the sea, and bring down gulls for their downy
plumage; in all of which accomplishments he had Malpooga for
teacher.
" But all the time he haunted the steps of Guesca, laid the
fruits of his hunting or fishing at her door, and in ways innumerable
showed his deep regard for her. Such assiduous attentions could
not fail of their purpose. It was noticed that Guesca began to meet
him oftener at the springs in early morning or in the evening;
she played checkers with him and let him win; she even trusted
him as watch and guard when she and other girls amused themselves
with the strictly private game of ball playing with rackets. When
finally, through a casual handling of the spirit-stone, it became evi-
dent that he was in some way favored of the spirits since Wah-
wouni in some obscure way showed him favor Guesca consented
to marry him. She enforced a condition, however, which one
would hardly have expected from a girl of her spirit: he should
never go out to war. He might indeed accompany a war party in
his character of soothsayer, but in actual bloodshed he should take
no part. The goddess who had rescued him was, unlike the god-
dess of the chasm, no lover of human blood ; her wishes he should
respect, or otherwise he might return to his Mengwe relatives.
She had had all the warring and sight of blood that she wanted
for one short life. Henceforth she would look for peace and time
to raise a family.
" Waghinethe was obliged to acquiesce in this condition ; so
that through the insistence of his wife, the favor of our tribal
spirits, and by reason of his extraordinary experience and renown
as a victim rescued from the spirit of the falls, he became a great
soothsayer and sorcerer greater even than old Nadoga had ever
been. Moreover, this gift of consulting the spirits followed his
descendants as was afterwards exemplified in the case of Madwe,
our sorcerer before Ticonderoga, whose assertion that the American
scout Rogers with his men were at the moment approaching the
654 THE WOOING OF GUESCA [Feb.,
French encampment on snowshoes, led the allied French and In-
dians to intercept and almost destroy that famous body of scouts.
" He was a descendant of Guesca and Waghinethe. In fact,"
Peol concluded in a casual voice, " I can myself call cousins with the
Iroquois, for in direct descent I am a son of this same Waghinethe
and Guesca, greatest of our women. But my devotion runs in a
different channel, as did Guesca's, for the priests came among us,
and she died a Christian. But Waghinethe remained a heathen,
and practiced his incantations, but was a good husband, and always
somewhat afraid of his wife."
The rain had ceased, and the sun shone warmly. From the
door of the tent my eyes wandered reminiscently over the lake and
spreading forest: here, close at hand, stood the giant pine, from
the branches of which, in its greening and youth, the panther
carried death to the first Christian maid of the Etchemin, Nant-
loola; here, along this curving shore, the demon Wahwouni pro-
nounced his cryptic oracles to an abject auditory; here, too, a valiant
race of aboriginal manhood made their rude homes in peace and in
such comfort as was given them; this scene but little changed, I
ween Guesca graced with her presence; and here her lineal. de-
scendant in every way worthy of her still lived to perpetuate
her memory, and recount the valiant deeds, the loves, and the sor-
rows of his ancestors.
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE.
thought.
BY ADRIAN FEVEREL.
IV.
THE CULT OF THE RIDICULOUS.
UR examination of Christian Science in preceding
articles, wherein we have shown it to be immoral,
unchristian, and unscientific, may be extended a bit
further to prove that from a philosophical point of
view it is an inconsistent and ridiculous system of
We propose, therefore, in this concluding article, to
analyze briefly Mrs. Eddy's concept of matter.
For it is primarily in her teaching of the nothingness of
matter, that the nonsensical element of her system becomes most
evident. The average man understands by the word " matter "
that which exists outside of oneself, and which is visible and tan-
gible, and occupies space; in short, something which we recognize
through the medium of our senses.
According to Mrs. Eddy, however, it has quite another mean-
ing. Her own definition of it is the following:
Matter : Mythology, mortality, another name for mortal mind
illusion; intelligence, substance, and life in non-intelligence and
mortality sensation in the sensationless that which
mortal mind sees, feels, hears, smells, tastes only in belief.*
We may sum up Mrs. Eddy's idea of matter in these words :
Matter is an unreality, f
Such a theory is ridiculous on its very face, for it ultimately
results in this : The material universe and all it contains is without
reality, and is merely a belief of mortal mind. Everything of which
we have cognizance through our corporeal senses is an unreality.
It is no wonder, then, that Christian Science abounds in inconsist-
encies.
We have already seen how, according to its teachings, man is
merely the reflection of God. Now we see how all things, even man
himself, are unreal in Mrs. Eddy's scheme of creation. The
*Science and Health, p. 591. "\Ibid., pp. 285, 335, 467, etc.
656 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE [Feb.,
" Scientist " does not really understand to what absurd lengths
such premises may logically be carried, and what conclusions may
be drawn from them. Mrs. Eddy might endeavor to support her
position, with the " scientific statement of being,"* namely, " There
is no life, truth, intelligence or substance in matter. All is infinite
mind and its infinite manifestation. Spirit is the real and eternal,
matter is the unreal and temporal."!
In this statement she argues that man is in no way material,
that all creation is spiritual. Yet again and again throughout her
book we meet with statements that flatly contradict this.
To illustrate the practical conclusions of her teaching that man
is in no way material, let us apply them to our every day actions.
Accepting her premises, we would at once see that we never really
eat, sleep, engage in business, marry, beget children, fall sick, or die.
Indeed Mrs. Eddy plainly tells us that " God rests in action."!
Hence man's body is never tired. It needs no sleep. Why ? The
body is material, and things material are merely beliefs of mortal
mind, and mortal mind is no thing. || In this connection, the fol-
lowing passage from the " precious volume " is interesting in show-
ing to what absurdities this doctrine of the nothingness of matter is
carried in " Science."
You say " Toil fatigues me." But what is this me ? Is
it muscle or mind? Without mind could the muscles be
tired? Matter is non-intelligent. Mortal mind does the false
talking, and that which affirms weariness, first made that weari-
ness.
You do not say that a wheel is fatigued; and yet the body
is just as material as the wheel.fl
Here we get a glimpse of what masquerades as reasoning.
The parallel which Mrs. Eddy draws is not really a parallel at all,
for the wheel is not endowed with life, while the body is. But
further comment as to the practical application of Mrs. Eddy's
ideas regarding the nothingness of matter, after such a self-evident
absurdity, is needless.
Consider, too, how in this examination of Mrs. Eddy's teach-
ing regarding matter, we find another inconsistency of her method
of healing material ills.
We are told that there is nothing material in man. " Spirit
* Science and Health, p. 468. ilbid., p. 468. %Ibid., p. 519.
Ibid., pp. 190, 475, 477, etc. \\Ibid., p. 591. $Ibid., p. 217.
1913-] CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 657
is God, and man is His image and likeness, therefore man is not
material, he is spiritual."* If this be true, why should the " Scien-
tist " endeavor to cure what seems disease ? There is no death in
" Science," and though one seem to die, yet we have the word
of Mrs. Eddy for it, that death, like disease, is but an illusion.f
No practitioner endeavors to demonstrate over death. Why not,
since death is quite as much an illusion as sickness ?
To examine yet another phase of the ridiculous that enters
into Christian Science through this teaching of material nothingness,
let us see how Mrs. Eddy's doctrine of the " sensationlessness " of
matter works out practically. We seem to suffer pain. Yet, in
reality, according to Christian Science, we cannot suffer pain. To
illustrate this let us take an example of our author's reasoning
on the subject
You say a boil is painful; but that is impossible, for matter
without mind is not painful. The boil simply manifests, through
inflammation and swelling, a belief in pain, and this belief is
called a boil. Now administer mentally to your patient a high
attenuation of truth, and it will soon cure the boil.J
We will consider another ridiculous result of the doctrine of the
unreality of matter. If the body is unreal, a mere belief of mortal
mind, then the clothes in which we garb it are also unreal; the
money paid for them is unreal ; and the tailor who cut them is also
unreal. In like manner we might show that the butcher, the baker
and candlestick-maker are " nothings " mere beliefs of mortal
mind.
To follow up the matter, we will imagine ourselves beneath the
spreading chestnut tree idly watching the smith, " with large and
sinewy hands," the muscles of whose " brawny arms are strong as
iron bands." Standing there and watching the play of muscle as
the hammer strikes the anvil we might, did we not know that it
was " unscientific " to hold such thoughts, come to the conclusion
that exercise develops the muscles. But in " Science " we know
better.
Because the muscles of the blacksmith's arm are strongly de-
veloped, it does not follow that exercise has produced this
result or that a less used arm must be weak. If matter were
the cause of action, and if muscles, without volition of mortal
mind could lift the hammer and strike the anvil, it might be
*Science and Health, p. 468. ^Ibid., p. 473, 584, etc. tlbid., p. 153.
VOL. XCVi. 42.
658 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE [Feb.,
thought true that hammering would enlarge the muscles. The
trip-hammer is not increased in size by the exercise. Why not,
since muscles are as material as wood and iron? Because
nobody believes that mind is producing such a result on the
hammer.*
To put the above to a practical conclusion if we believe that
exercising the trip-hammer would increase its size, as we believe
that exercise increases the muscles of the arm, then indeed the
hammer would increase and become, perhaps, in some measure,
like Thor's mighty hammer, one of prodigious strength.
Now for one more example. Let us take Mrs. Eddy herself.
Who was Mrs. Eddy? The answer is obvious ; especially if we may
imagine ourselves making such an inquiry of one of her followers.
" The discoverer and founder of Christian Science, our beloved
leader, and the author of our inspired textbook," he would answer.
But examined in the light of her own teachings, Mrs. Eddy passes
entirely out of existence; for Mrs. Eddy always speaks of man as
a reflection of Divine Mind. Mrs. Eddy was herself, therefore,
a reflection of Divine Mind.f Yet a reflection, as we have already
pointed out, is not a reality, and hence we may conclude that Mrs.
Eddy is non-existent because the reflection is non-existent.
By another of her teachings we will again show that Mrs.
Eddy never really existed. We have seen that Mrs. Eddy regards
the testimony of the corporeal senses as false.J Yet it was only
through our corporeal senses that we ever were able to recognize
her. If her contention be true, then the only evidence we have
ever had of the existence of " the discoverer and founder " of
Christian Science is false, and logically we must deny that such a
person existed. For not only were we never able to recognize
Mrs. Eddy save through the medium of our corporeal senses, and
their testimony is false, but we never saw her save in her material
body, and that body, as we have seen time and again, is, in Mrs.
Eddy's own teachings, " unreal. " To quote her own words upon
the subject.
Divine Science shows it to be impossible that a material body,
though interwoven with matter's highest stratum, misnamed
mind, should be man the genuine and perfect man, the immortal
idea of being, indestructible and eternal.||
* Science and Health, p. 190. Hbid., p. 478, etc.
tlbid., pp. 248, 488, 489, etc. Ibid., pp. 190, 477, etc. \\Ibid., p. 477.
1913-] CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 659
This citation shows quite lucidly that we could never have
seen Mrs. Eddy, since we never saw aught save her " material body."
We might think, or her followers may think, that they knew
Mrs. Eddy, albeit dimly, through the medium of her writings.
But, when we come to analyze this belief and try to make it har-
monize with the theory that matter is unreal, we find ourselves
again forced to the conclusion that there can be not only no Mrs.
Eddy, but no writings of hers either. The books which we think
she wrote and copyrighted cannot possibly exist, since, according
to " Science," we know them only through the corporeal senses.
This evidence is false; we must reject it. Again she wrote with
her hand and an instrument; or she spoke with her lips, and in
some material way her words were recorded; but the material
body and all portions of it and all matter are "unreal," non-existent :
therefore the writing must of necessity be unreal also. In fact, the
book Science and Health is no book at all, since its elements are
purely material. The paper, the printer's ink, the binding, all
these have no real existence; hence the weight, the tangibility of
the volume, the volume itself, are only seeming realities, the evidence
of those false corporeal senses which we must dismiss at once as
untrustworthy.
In this connection it is interesting to see how the " Scientist "
might refute those critics who complain of the high prices which
Mrs. Eddy's writings bring. Money is, of course, a mere belief,
just as the lack of it is merely a belief, and since the books are
mere beliefs also, it would not be at all difficult to show that to
give something unreal, and to receive something unreal for it, is,
after all, only a fair exchange.
So, we cannot understand or explain Mrs. Eddy save as a
nonentity, if we endeavor to prove her existence in, the light of her
own teachings.
After reviewing this long list of inconsistencies and indirect
contradictions, the reader may well ask how any person gifted
with the faculty of reasoning can possibly profess himself a con-
sistent follower of Mrs. Eddy.
We have already said that perhaps the sense of credulity,
which seems to lie latent in mankind, the sense of superstition, as
we ventured to call it, might in a large measure account for this
seeming paradox.
Large numbers of the members of Mrs. Eddy's church have
probably experienced some apparent benefit from her system of
660 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE [Feb.,
mental healing. When they first began to take an interest in her
theories they were, perhaps, suffering from some ailment of the
flesh. In the majority of cases these ailments have been healed,
or at least the patient has been helped by the practitioner. Any
beginner who experiences such help will naturally look upon it as
remarkable. His enthusiasm will be aroused. He will be inter-
ested. Soon he begins to talk " scientifically." He no longer says,
" I am sick," but " I am not sick, this error is unreal." Gradually
he finds that what seemed at first to him so obviously absurd
becomes now most logical and practical. He reads Science and
Health now with zest, and flatters himself that he is making great
progress; but in reality the real meaning of the " precious volume "
eludes him. He fails to see how plainly ridiculous are the extracts
which we have quoted, for his uncritical sense of credulity has
been stimulated by the apparent benefit he received. He forgets
to reason, and accepts what his practitioner tells him with meek
docility. In this connection we must not forget to allow for the
hypnotic element in Christian Science. Let us recall the tragic fate
of those unfortunate fanatics who died under Christian Science
treatment, when proper medical attention would, in all probability,
have saved their lives. The minds of these poor victims were
completely controlled by this system of mental healing. They
would not allow a physician even to enter the house. Those who
have known by actual experience the servile regard that
the average " Scientist " has for his or her practitioner, need no
further proof of how widely this hypnotic element figures in Chris-
tian Science healing.
Either the intelligent members of Christian Science churches
do not realize the self-evident absurdities of the system, or they are
so completely lost in the vain superstition of Mrs. Eddy's doctrines
that their reason lies dormant, and their credulity easily permits
them to think that black may be white and white black.
SHAKESPEARE'S MAN OF ACTION.
BY EMILY HICKEY.
HREE historical plays of Shakespeare's, the two parts
of Henry IV. and Henry V., have a connection, each
one with the other two, which is not merely histori-
cal. A great dramatist, by whom historical per-
sonages are set upon the stage, does not only show us
the sequence of the events in which they have played their part,
but brings them before us as men who have had to do with the
shaping of those events; and, going deeper still, shows us the
springs of their actions. He lets us see that, just as history is not
chronicle, so an historical play is not a pageant glorious or solemn
or terrible, but the presentation of the characters who have made
history; the presentation of them as men who, in any position,
must have been large factors in the making of environment, as well
as figures of importance in their world. He shows them as men
who, placed in the forefront by birth or achievement, or by the
forcing upon them of honor unsought, stand out before our eyes
to be known, to be for example, for warning, for delight, for thank-
fulness, for wonder; men, all of whom, had they been in an
ordinary position, and lived lives gallant or mean in the sight of
their comrades only, might have been absolutely unknown after
the passing of one or two generations.
Let us try to trace something of the spiritual connection of
the plays I have named, with special reference to the making of
a kingly and gallant gentleman, in the person of King Henry the
Fifth.
It has been thought that this king is the ideal Man of Action
in Shakespeare's mind : however that be, he comes before us as a
man of action, one who faces the facts of life, and meets them in
the strength of an honest, singlehearted manhood, upheld and
confirmed by a fine trust in God; a man who uses all experience
to bear on the conduct of life public and private ; a man whose youth
is tainted by folly, and whose maturity can use all for the attain-
ment of a fuller knowledge and a larger wisdom.
It has been pointed out by Professor Dowden that out of
662 SHAKESPEARE'S MAN OF ACTION [Feb.,
the six* portraits of English kings which Shakespeare has drawn
for us, three represented are studies of weakness and three of
strength.
John is weak in wickedness, and Richard II. is weak in his
absolute lack of the faculty of looking straight at facts and sen-
timentalizing over " situations ;" weakly wicked, also, in seizing
on Bolingbroke's inheritance. Henry VI., with all his piety, is
as unfit to wear a crown as even the wicked John. He does not
understand the responsibilities that are upon him; he seeks to keep
his garments white by withdrawing from the struggle, which,
as a religious, he could have left behind; but which, as a king,
he was bound to face. He mistakes innocuousness for innocence,
and passivity for endurance. His is not the glorious peace lying
deep at the heart of things, however troubled their surface may be;
but the mere quietness, the quietness which, as Cardinal Newman,
aptly quoted by Professor Dowden in this connection, says is a
grace, not in itself, but only when it is grafted on the stem of faith,
zeal, self-abasement, and diligence.
The other three kings are studies of strength, Richard III.,
Henry IV., and Henry V. Strength is an absolute good, and
wickedness is absolutely bad: but strength in wickedness is weak-
ness. Strength wrongly used becomes weakness. As Milton
says, " All wickedness is weakness." The Satan who says, " Evil,
be thou my good," and sets his magnificent intellect to devise
schemes for the hopeless rule of God's transcendent work, is
infinitely weaker than the Redeemer in His agony, from Whose
brow the drops of anguish fall blood-stained, and to Whom in the
darkness of that hour the Angel of the Passion comes and ministers ;
because wrath and destruction are for ever, by their very nature,
less than mercy and redemption. The Creator and Preserver is
also the Destroyer; but He is the destroyer of what destroys, not
of what creates and preserves.
The strength of Richard II. then really is weakness; the
strength of Henry IV. is marred by the mixture of craft, and the
strength of Henry V. is that of plain heroic magnitude, thoroughly
sound and substantial, founded on the eternal verities.
We have to find in the career of Henry V. the working out of
the punishment of the wrongful seizure of the banished Boling-
*Henry VIII. is not included. And, to be strictly accurate, neither should
Henry VI. be counted in ; as the plays in which these kings appear, are not
entirely Shakespeare's work.
1913-] SHAKESPEARE'S MAN OF ACTION 663
broke's goods by Richard II.; and of the punishment of the pun-
isher, Bolingbroke; and of the atonement offered by Henry V. and
his son.
The play of Richard II. closes with Henry Bolingbroke as
king, announcing his purpose to make a voyage to the Holy Land,
to wash Richard's blood from off his guilty hand: and the First
Part of Henry IV. opens with the declaration that this purpose,
whose execution has been delayed for three years, is now about
to take form.
In Richard II. we have the punishment that comes upon wrong
and injustice. Richard had wrongly taken what rightly belonged
to Bolingbroke, and he had lived to prove the truth of York's
warning.
If you do wrongfully seize Hereford's goods,
********
You pluck a thousand dangers on your head,
You lose a thousand well-disposed hearts,
And prick my tender patience to those thoughts
Which honor and allegiance cannot think.
Richard, persisting in his course, had inevitably plucked a
thousand dangers on his head, and, indeed, lost all. But the
avenger of injustice ought to be strictly just; the rightful punisher
of wrong-doing should be a right-doer. If the chastiser be so
swayed by passion and self-interest that he seems to be but an
instrument of chastisement, he must remember the fate of a mere
instrument to be thrown aside when no longer needed, or to be
broken and destroyed. But as no man can so lose his individuality
as to become nothing but an instrument; as God will never wrong
one human soul by using it only to be the means of chastising
another; as each man, beside his life in our common humanity,
lives in himself and on his own responsibility, it was necessary
that we should see the punishment of the punisher who had pun-
ished for his own ends, and not for the ends of right and truth.
So in the first scene of Henry IV., Part I., we find how uneasy a seat
Bolingbroke has found the throne. He has had no peace from
troubles and fears ever since he had taken the sceptre from Richard's
hand. Retribution has come upon Henry. The " heavy weight "
given from off Richard's head has pressed hard upon his own.
The deposed king had said that with his own tears he had washed
away his balm; with his own breath released all duty's rites,
664 SHAKESPEARE'S MAN OF ACTION [Feb.,
foresworn all pomp and majesty, foregone his manors, rents, reve-
nues, and denied his acts, decrees, and statutes. He had said,
God pardon all oaths that are broke to me.
God keep all vows unbroke that swear to thee.
Make me, that nothing have, with nothing grieved,
And thou with all pleased that hast all achieved.
Long mays't thou live, in Richard's seat to sit,
And soon lie Richard in an earthy pit.
God save King Harry, unking'd Richard says,
And send him many years of sunshine days.
But the forgiveness of the wronged, even the very assent of the
wronged, can never make wrong right. Henry is shaken and wan
with care, and only now after three years has frighted peace
time for a moment to pant. But, at last, he thinks, a time of quiet
is at hand; a time, therefore, for the fulfillment of his purpose
to go on crusade. Now, at last, he will have the opportunity of
leading an army to chase the pagans from the holy fields, over
whose acres walked those blessed Feet nailed so long ago to the
bitter cross for our advantage.
A council has just been held to decide as to the best means
of granting aid for this expedition, and Henry asks the Earl of
Westmoreland what has been decreed. The business of arranging
for the expedition to the Holy Land had been broken off by the
tidings that Mortimer had been taken captive by Glendower, with
the loss of a thousand men, and that Harry Percy was engaged in
uncertain conflict at Holmedon with the Scot, Douglas. Sir Walter
Blunt, however, has arrived, all travel-stained, from Holmedon,
bringing welcome tidings of the discomfiture of the Scots, and
the captivity of the chief among them. Hotspur has been entirely
victorious, and his bravery is strongly commended by the king.
But there is a drawback: Hotspur has refused to surrender his
prisoners to the king, with the exception of the Earl of Fife, the
eldest son of the vanquished Douglas. Hotspur had indeed a right
to keep these prisoners, except the Earl of Fife, whom, being a
prince of the blood royal (he was nephew to King Robert II.),
Henry might in justice claim. Hotspur is sent for to answer for
his conduct in this matter to the king, and the " holy purpose to
Jerusalem " is to be for the time neglected. This is but the
prelude to the great rebellion so soon to break out. The king has
1913-] SHAKESPEARE'S MAN OF ACTION 665
a deep cause for grief in the wildness of his son, whom he sorrow-
fully contrasts with the son of the Earl of Northumberland, " the
theme of honor's tongue." Riot and dishonor he sees stain the
brow of his young Harry, and he wishes that it could be proved
that when the children lay in their cradle-clothes some night-trip-
ping fairy had exchanged them, " and called mine Percy, his Plan-
tagenet."
The next scene introduces us to the Prince of Wales and his
comrades, the dissolute band, of whom the most prominent in every
way is Sir John Falstaff.
In the play of Richard II. , Henry says of his son:
As dissolute as desperate; yet, through both,
I see some sparks of better hope, which elder years
May happily bring forth.
This better hope remains with the king; to pass, one day, into
fulfillment.
The old story of the sudden conversion of Henry V., from
a wild and reckless youth, a haunter of evil places and a com-
panion of evil associates, has been modified by Shakespeare itra
special way. According to him, Henry kept before himself a
steady purpose of casting the slough of the life he was choosing
to lead, and of using that same old life, with its experience and
its knowledge of various kinds of men, by and by to enlarge and
enrich the higher life which it was his purpose to lead, with greater
human sympathy and a wider understanding than one confined
to the sphere of court and nobility would have been likely to gain.
A risky experiment, in truth. But it is difficult to feel that the
old tavern life was altogether on the lines of mere experiment.
Surely the sense of fun, the breaking of bonds that fretted, the
feeling of liberty, however poor a thing that liberty might be,
must have had something to do with it. And with these things
went the enjoyment of such a companion as that extraordinarily
amusing Falstaff, that strange creature who is on a plane where
morality there is none: Falstaff, not only witty, but the cause
that wit is in other men. He has forgotten, he says, what the
inside of a church is like; he is a coward and a bully; he is
loaded with superfluous flesh; he has age without dignity, and the
vices that beset youth without the radiancy and beauty of youth
itself. Yet it is in him to exercise an extraordinary fascination
666 SHAKESPEARE'S MAN OF ACTION [Feb.,
over people with whom he comes in contact; a fascination which
it is impossible to analyze and difficult not to feel. Of what we call
" heart," does he possess even an infinitesimal share ? It might be
supposed that he loves Harry Tudor; he says he does. But
with what manner of love? It is true that, after his disappoint-
ment and banishment, it is said of him, " the king has killed his
heart." But does it seem possible to believe that wounded affection,
much less love, had a place in that killing of his heart? And
who says it of him? The Hostess who, despite of his having
cheated her and abused her, clings to him with a pertinacious
affection, which bears witness to the fact that it is not always
the givers of love who are the receivers of it most in full. The
Hostess herself has found it impossible to get from him the money
which he owed her; she is driven, after long forbearance, to bring
what she calls an " exion " against him. A hundred mark, as
she says, is a loss which it " is a long one for a poor like woman
to bear." " I have borne, and borne, and borne, and have been
fubbed off, and fubbed off, from this day to that day, that it is
a shame to be thought on." Yet Falstaff can manage not only to
appease her, but also to borrow ten pounds of her, which he shall
have, she says, though she should pawn her gown. And she can
say to him, as he goes forth, " Well, fare thee well ; I have known
thee these twenty-nine years, come pescod time ; but an honester and
truer-hearted man well, fare thee well."
As to Falstaff's lies, it is impossible to take them seriously.
What might appear the grossest falsehoods are often really the
outcome of an exhaustless wit. Take, for instance, the scene
where he describes his " peppering " of the rogues in buckram
suits. Poins has devised a plot, into which Harry enters, which
is to show up the cowardice of Falstaff, Gadshill, Bardolph, and
Peto. Certain travelers are to be robbed by these men, and the
Prince and Poins are to rob the robbers. This is done, and the
coward four run from the two, leaving their booty behind. Later
on the story is related at the tavern how they had set upon at least
sixteen men and bound them, and how six or seven had come to
their rescue, and unbound them. Falstaff goes on with the story.
" I have peppered two of them ; two, I am sure, I have paid ;
two rogues in buckram suits Thou knowest my old ward :
here I lay, and thus I bore my point. Four rogues in buckram
let drive at me "
Prince Henry. What, four? thou saidst but two even now.
1913-] SHAKESPEARE'S MAN OF ACTION 667
Poins. Ay, ay, he said four.
Falstaff. These four came all afront, and mainly thrust at
me. I made no more ado, but took all their seven points in my
target, thus.
Prince Henry. Seven? why there were but four, even now.
Falstaff. In buckram?
Poins. Ay, four, in buckram suits.
Falstaff. Seven, by these hilts, or I am a villain else.
Prince Henry. Prythee, let him alone; we shall have more
anon.
* * * *
Falstaff. These nine in buckram, that I told thee of
Prince Henry. So, two more already.
Falstaff. Their points being broken Began to give me
ground; but I followed me close, came in foot and hand; and with
a thought seven of the eleven I paid.
Do we not feel that Falstaff is lying in this ridiculous way,
perfectly knowing what he is about? He is much too clever not
to remember the numbers he has given. The lies he tells are too
" gross and palpable " to be falsehoods. A lie is an intention to
deceive, and Falstaff has no intention of deceiving anyone as to
the number of his rogues in the buckram suits, nor is anyone
deceived by him. Take his reply to the Prince, when he is asked
for his reason. " What, upon compulsion ? No, were I at the
strappado, or all the racks in the world, I would not tell you on
compulsion. Give you a reason on compulsion! If reasons were
as plenty as blackberries, I would give no man a reason upon com-
pulsion ! "
And when the Prince has told him the " plain tale," and asked
him what trick, what device, what starting-hole he can now find
to hide him from this open and apparent shame when Poins
chimes in with, " Come, let's hear, Jack, what trick hast thou now ?"
does Falstaff for a moment think that he can deceive them by telling
them how he knew them all the time, but would not kill the heir
apparent? Not he.
It must have been a struggle for Harry to shake off this
man entirely; this fascinating personification of the lust of the
flesh. Such a man as he would easily spoil a nature proof against
coarser temptations, casting, as he does, a glamor over all things
till there seems to be no absolute right or wrong, and the world
appears as an oyster for every man to open as he will. But as
668 SHAKESPEARE'S MAN OF ACTION [Feb.,
there is eternal separation between right and wrong, so there must
be separation between those that choose the right and those that
choose the wrong: and so the king sends away Falstaff, not, as
we feel, without regret : for we remember Henry's words, spoken
when he believed in his death, " I better could have spared a
better man."
Old associates are not broken off without a pang. It would
be a cold and incomplete man who could separate himself, from
one bound to him by any tie, without feeling it; and Henry is
too much of the man to forget, though he will never repent. The
society of a man like Falstaff must needs one day have palled
upon one who, like Henry, could at will throw aside his folly and
face the realities of life. When Falstaff, as Shrewsbury, lets
Henry take for his pistol a bottle of sack which he had carried
in the pistol-case, Henry has neither time nor mind to joke with him,
but throws the bottle at him, with the words, " What, is it a time to
jest and dally now ? " Falstaff had no sense of the in-season and
out-o f -season ; he never was in earnest, and Henry was capable
of earnestness very intense. There was no room for Falstaff
among the realities and earnestnesses of Henry's true life. The
king provides for him and his other companions of the days for
ever gone by. They are banished, as Prince John says, " till their
conversations appear more wise and madesat to the world." A'
long look ahead, indeed. Falstaff succumbs to an illness, the end
of which is probably accelerated by his disappointment. The
account of his death is in the never-to-be forgotten words of the
Hostess, which are to be found at the beginning of the play of
Henry the Fifth. There is a conversation between Prince Harry
and Poins (King Henry IV., Second Part, Act II., Scene II.)
which lets us see how the Prince is conscious that this life of
freedom is also that of bondage ; for he dare not let his real feeling
of deep grief at his father's illness be seen in the presence of those
who would think him " a most princely hypocrite," should he weep,
as a son might weep whose heart " bleeds inwardly " that his
" father is so sick."
The relation between Harry Tudor and his father is one into
which there enters much tenderness, and much belief of the one
in the other, although there is a reserve which leads people to fancy
that there is no great affection between them. But though the king
loves Harry, he does not understand him altogether. He knows
that his nature is a fine one, for he says, " Most subject is the
1913-] SHAKESPEARE'S MAN OF ACTION 669
fattest soil to weeds." But he discloses to Warwick what he would
not have told to his son John, concerning his dread of the unguided
days and rotten times which are to follow on his own death:
and it is Warwick who gives him the comfort of the expression
of his belief that the Prince is but studying his companions, and
that, by and by, he will cast them off and turn past evils to ad-
vantages. For, thank God, each of us may use his old unhappy
past as a ladder by which to climb to better things.
Harry really loves his father and reverences him. This, of
course, is notable in the famous crown scene; but to me his feeling
for the king is shown less in the long speech he makes on that
occasion, than in the delightful fact that he breaks FalstafFs
head " for liking the king, his father, to a singing man of Windsor."
Harry's good humor and power of endurance, as well as
power of being amused, come partly out of his enviable perfection
of physical health. " It is much," says Falstaff, " that a lie with
a slight oath and a jest with a sad brow will do with a fellow that
never had the ache in his shoulders. Oh, you shall see him laugh
till his face be like a wet doublet ill laid up." In this capacity for
laughter he contrasts with his brother, Prince John of Lancaster,
" this same sober-blooded boy." Harry is full of generous appre-
ciation of what is fine in others. See what he says to Hotspur's
uncle of that same Harry Percy, whom the king had once said
he wished had been his son instead of his own.
Tell your nephew
The Prince of Wales doth join with all the world
In praise of Henry Percy; by my hopes,
This present enterprise set off his head.
(Hotspur's rebellion.)
I do not think a braver gentlemen,
More active-valiant, or more valiant-young,
More daring or more bold, is now alive
To grace this latter age with noble deeds.
And when Hotspur falls by the prince's sword, he says:
This earth that bears thee dead
Bears not alive so stout a gentleman.
Adieu, and take thy praise with thee to heaven.
670 SHAKESPEARE'S MAN OF ACTION [Feb.,
See, too, what he' says to Prince John, after the battle of
Shrewsbury.
By heaven, thou hast deceived me, Lancaster;
I did not think thee lord of such a spirit:
Before, I loved thee as a brother, John ;
But now I do respect thee as my soul.
The conduct of Harry himself in this same war with the rebels
has washed away many a stain. How gallantly he is mounted.
I saw young Harry with his beaver on,
His cuisses on his thighs, gallantly armed,
Rise from the ground like feather'd Mercury,
And vaulted with such ease into his seat,
As if an angel dropp'd down from the clouds,
To turn and win a fiery Pegasus,
And witch the world with noble horsemanship.
He covets honor then, as he always is to covet it; and he
gains it in full. He brings a " fair rescue " to his father, who
has been nearly overpowered by Douglas in the fight, and saves
his life. He shows high courtesy to his brother John by giving
him the honor of sending him to Douglas, who has been taken
prisoner, to " deliver him up to his pleasure, ransomless and free."
When Henry the Fifth succeeds to the throne he has to decide
whether the war he thinks of undertaking is a war lawful and
just. He charges the Archbishop of Canterbury fully and re-
ligiously to unfold why the Salique law should or should not bar
him in his claim.
He will have no glozing; all must be straight and true.
And God forbid, my dear and faithful lord,
That you should fashion, wrest or bow your reading,
Or nicely charge your understanding soul
With opening titles miscreate, whose right
Suits not in native colors with the truth.
********
May I, with right and conscience, make this claim?
And assured that he may, he makes up his mind at once;
he will regain the lost heritage which he believes to be his by
right. There is no room in a nature so direct, so sane as his, for
1913-] SHAKESPEARE'S MAN OF ACTION 671
anything like scrupulosity : he will look well, then leap, and, what-
ever comes, never give way to regrets and wishes that he had chosen
another course of action. His anger at the Dauphin's present of
tennis-balls, in jibing allusion to his old days of pleasure-seeking,
partly justifies his father's description of him to Thomas of Clarence
as flint, being incensed, though gracious if observed.
The scene at Southampton, where he rebukes the traitors who,
while believing the king to be ignorant of their treasonous plot
against his life, have tried to divert his mercy from a poor wretch
who has, while drunken railed against him, is a great one. It is
great, not only dramatically, but as a further revelation of a
great nature, a nature to which treachery is a thing absolutely
intolerable, while unpremeditated wrong is a thing to be met with
mercy. He is deeply wounded by Scroop's conduct, in especial
his own familiar friend, who has been on terms of high intimacy
with him, and whom he has so dearly loved, and so entirely trusted :
but even in his wrath he is not merely the injured man, not at all
the avenger of a private wrong, but the kingly righteous judge.
For ever and ever the sin of Iscariot brand is the deepest and the
loathliest.
How finely Henry shows as captain and commander! It has
gone hard with the English invaders; they are famine-stricken
and worn and weary. The enemy gambles for them, on this eve
of Agincourt, in confidence of the next day's victory. But their
king goes through the ranks, and talks to his soldiers : he can tell
them of their duty and their responsibility, each for his own soul,
which they would fain lay upon their king; he can even indulge
his old love of a jest by accepting Will Bates' gage. And, then
as he stands alone, he can think with awe of his great place, and its
great responsibilities and all the difficulty, pain, and trouble which
those responsibilities involve ; think of them in courageous piety and
strong manliness. He does not forget that his inheritance has come
to him stained by those indirect and crooked ways to which his
father has confessed. Here is his prayer:
God of battles, steel my soldiers' hearts.
Possess them not with fear ! Take from them now
The sense of reckoning, if the opposed numbers
Pluck their hearts from them. Not to-day, O Lord,
Oh, not to-day, think not upon the fault
My father made in compassing the crown !
1 Richard's body have interred new;
672 SHAKESPEARE'S MAN OF ACTION [Feb.,
And on it have bestow'd more contrite tears
Than from it issued forced drops of blood,
Five hundred poor I have in yearly pay,
Who twice a day their wither'd hands hold up
Toward heaven, to pardon blood ; and I have built
Two chantries, where the sad and solemn priests
Sing still for Richard's soul. More will I do;
Though all that I can do is nothing worth,
Since that my penitence conies after all,
Imploring pardon.
He knows well that his father has sinned in compassing the
crown; and he knows, too, that he, as the son of a usurper, has
the shadow upon him of his father's sin, and that he must take his
share in the atonement offered to God. He knows well that God
is the accepter of penitence, and the lifter up of the suer of pardon.
And surely Henry must also know that out of the wrong God can
evolve good, and bring to pass great and glorious things. He is in
the battle in his own soldier-kingly presence; not his to allow his
followers to personate him by appearing in accoutrements exactly
like his, as had been done when his father was in the field against
the rebels. He takes his share; he will not fare better than his
men. When the victory is won, he can ascribe it simply to Almighty
help.
Take it, O God,
For it is none but Thine,
and the Te Deum strains go up with those of Non Nobis, Domine.
He will have no boasting. When he comes home in triumph, he
forbids the bearing before him through London of his bruised
helmet and his bended sword. " Being free from vainness and
self-glorious pride." He has always been a foe to braggardry,
for he knows it as a thing contemptible and all unworthy.
As plain soldier Henry woos the French princess, and England
and France are for the time being united in a union believed to be
right and natural. Men's minds have had to change, and their
eyes have had to learn to see that this was not the comely and
beautiful union of hearts for nation and nation; but to Henry
it was the union to be desired and accomplished.
So we leave the great Englishman who, on Shakespeare's
stage, has won our love, our admiration, and our reverence as the
Man of Action.
IFlew Books.
THEODICY: ESSAYS ON DIVINE PROVIDENCE. By An-
tonio Rosmini Serbati. Translated from the Milan Edition
of 1845. In Three Volumes. New York: Longmans, Green
& Co. $7.00 net
Theodicy to Rosmini's mind very properly signifies an ex-
planation and defense of the justice of God in His mysterious
providence. It is, perhaps, part of that great providence that
a work of this kind should appear at this time in English. It
will supply an efficient antidote to agnosticism, a product of English
soil, and a disease of this age. In this generation, when the
name of God is avoided in scientific quarters, it is refreshing to
find a great publisher giving a wider field to this religious master-
piece of a great mind.
Rosmini candidly makes an admission of the mysteriousness,
the darkness of God's providence, in a vast multitude of respects.
Like the great Augustine, he is willing to say, as a last word on
the subject, that the best science of God is the confession of our
comparative nescience. But such a recognition gives us the grand
idea of God as a dark and unfathomable abyss of wisdom and
greatness. Such a thought, also, helps to silence the puny objectors
to God's providence, those who presume with mysterious audacity
to measure themselves with the Infinite. Having made, in regard
to many things, the grand admission I do not know Rosmini
proceeds to lift the veil from very many other things that are
mysteries to lesser minds. He shows the uses of evil, even the
moral evil of the world. Without evil there would be no grand
fortitude; there would be no hero. Horace dreamed of the just
and brave man who could look, unmoved, on the greatest evil,
the absolute ruin of his frail body and all temporal things. With
the martyr, Lawrence, the pagan dream became a Christian reality.
To explain the designs of God and His non-interference with
evil in particular cases, Rosmini introduces from his observation
of nature the great law of the least means with its many subordinate
laws, as the law of celerity; the law of excluded superfluity; the law
of excluded equality; the law of variety; the law of germ; the
law of gradation. If God were to be constantly interfering with
natural law to avoid particular evils, He would not be using the
VOL. xcvi. 43.
674 NEW BOOKS [Feb.,
law of the least means for attaining an end, which is the law of
wisdom. To expect Him to act in this manner would be to expect
the impossible, to expect Him to act foolishly.
The reader may not take all the statements of Rosmini with-
out question. Unfortunately he comes to us with a name that is
somewhat suspect. He paid the customary tribute to human fal-
libility. There are spots even in the bright sun of Rosmini's genius.
We need not blindly accept his statement that we can have in this
life no positive knowledge of God. There is also a slight trace of
his false theory of the origin of ideas. But the present work con-
tains only a faint vestige of error in subordinate connections.
Our main purpose was to select some gold nuggets of truth from the
mine of erudition of a genius. We have done so with the hope
that the reader will go to the book itself for very many more.
TWELVE CATHOLIC MEN OF SCIENCE. Edited by Sir Ber-
tram Windle, LL.D. London : Catholic Truth Society, i s.
net.
This is a collection of short biographies of men who may be
taken as concrete refutations of the charge that the Church is
opposed to science. It is a good idea excellently realized. The
editor himself contributes two of the essays, and among the other
contributors are Father Gerard and Dr. Walsh.
FACTS AND THEORIES. By Sir Bertram Windle, LL.D. Lon-
don : Catholic Truth Society, i s net.
Readers of THE CATHOLIC WORLD need no introduction to
the author of this little book, nor to some of the matter contained
in it. It constitutes an able defense of the Catholic position against
the attacks of a certain school of biologists, and incidentally bears
witness to the curious fact that some of the theories which the
multitude takes as first principles of science have long since been
abandoned by scientists.
SOCIALISM FROM THE CHRISTIAN STANDPOINT. By
Father Bernard Vaughan, S.J. New York: The Macmillan
Co. $1.50.
Six of these conferences were delivered in St. Patrick's Cathe-
dral during the Lent of 1912. The other four were combined with
the Lenten addresses to make the presentation of the subject more
1913.] NEW BOOKS 675
nearly complete. For the general reader, at any rate, this book is
the most satisfactory that has yet been produced on this subject.
It is especially commendable for its moderation and its winning
tone. Very few assertions are made which are not susceptible of
proof, and there is not a single rancorous statement in all its pages.
The topics selected for treatment are those which are usually
discussed in works on Christianity and Socialism, namely, the
relation of Socialism to the State, the individual, the family, re-
ligion, and private property.
In taking up such a discussion the experienced reader natur-
ally seeks first the chapters on " Socialism and Religion," and " So-
cialism and Property." Precisely in his treatment of these topics
the author's method appears at its best. In his discussion of the
former he makes it quite clear that, when he declares Socialism to
be opposed to religion, he is speaking of Socialism as a concrete,
present-day movement, not as a future economic organization.
With the field thus delimited, he has no difficulty in proving his
point.
In the chapter on " Socialism and the Rights of Ownership,"
he contends that private property in capital is a right, not for some
intrinsic, esoteric reason, but on the very practical ground that it is
necessary for human welfare.
Man has been set upon this earth in order to develop his ma-
terial, intellectual, and spiritual capacities. With the duty of
developing them goes the right of developing them. Now the
Catholic Church maintains, and has ever maintained, that the
possession of property (including capital) is a normal condi-
tion of this development. Man not only has a deep-rooted and
natural desire to own property, but, as a rule, and speaking
generally, if he is to develop according to the designs of God,
he must own property.
The arguments advanced in support of the last sentence
are as persuasive as any that can be had in a matter that is not
susceptible of anything like mathematical proof.
Throughout the volume are many admissions that the present
system is greatly in need of reformation, and many expressions of
sympathy with the oppressed toilers. If the author condemns
Socialism, he takes pains to show that he does not do so as a
" retainer of plutocracy." In the last chapter or conference, he
submits a series of necessary and far-reaching reforms. While they
676 NEW BOOKS [Feb.,
are not complete, they are much more nearly so than most of the
attempts in this direction found in works of this kind.
One serious defect of the book is the great number of citations
which are not accompanied by exact references to author, work,
or page. There was a reason for this in the conditions in which
the book was prepared for the printer, but that does not make the
want of references less aggravating to the reader. In the next
edition, which ought to be called for soon, this situation should be
thoroughly corrected.
CONSUMERS AND WAGE EARNERS. The Ethics of Buying,
Cheap. By J. Elliot Ross, Ph.D. New York: The Devin-
Adair Company.
The consumer has it in his power to abolish all the injustice
and inhumanity of modern industry. Let him refuse to buy from
those concerns which treat their employees unfairly, whether in the
matter of age, hours, sanitation, safety, or wages, and let him
patronize only those establishments which accord to their work
people the best conditions of employment. As a consequence, the
trend of competition will be steadily and inevitably toward higher,
instead of lower, standards of labor and of living. In such a com-
petitive struggle only the most humane employers will survive.
On the new plane of competition established by the consumer, they
will survive because they will be the fittest.
Such is the hypothetical aspect of the industrial situation.
Potentially, at least, the consumer occupies the dominating position.
Is he morally obliged to convert this potency into reality? This is
the question which Dr. Ross endeavors to answer.
His main thesis is that laborers have a right to a fair day's
wage for a fair day's work, and that the obligation corresponding
to this right, if not discharged by the employer, falls upon the
consuming class. Consumers are obliged to pay a just price
for their commodities, and a just price includes a living wage
for labor. This general principle is fully proved in the second
chapter of the book as a general principle.
An obligation of this sort, however, is obviously conditioned
upon the ability of the consumer to fulfill it without a dispropor-
tionally grave inconvenience. In the first place, the consumer
must be aware that the laborer who has had something to do with
the production of a given article, say, a pair of shoes, has not
received fair wages, and, in the second place, he must know where
1913-] NEW BOOKS 677
to find the article which has been produced in fair conditions.
These circumstances and considerations make all the difference
in the world practically. As Dr. Ross points out, they are so
serious that, even with the best intentions, the individual consumer
can do very little toward bettering the condition of the oppressed
producer.
The great desideratum is organization in order to obtain pre-
cise information and to secure concerted effort ; but the organization
of consumers is perhaps more difficult than the organization of
any other class. The National Consumers' League has been in
existence for more than twenty years, yet it has succeeded in im-
proving conditions in only a few establishments, mainly in New
York City. Nevertheless, the problem of organization is not un-
reasonably difficult. As compared with other methods of reform
and the results within reach, the organization of consumers is
decidedly worth while. It cannot be neglected in any compre-
hensive scheme for the reformation of industrial conditions.
The economic and ethical considerations upon which the fore-
going statements are based, find ample, though necessarily brief,
discussion in Dr. Ross' book. He has answered adequately and
convincingly the question so often asked to-day about the responsi-
bility of the consumer for the inhumane treatment of the producer.
His calm temper and scientific method provoke the wish that this
his first effort in the field of industrial justice may be followed by
many others. They are badly needed.
SERMONS AND ADDRESSES OF HIS EMINENCE WILLIAM
CARDINAL O'CONNELL, ARCHBISHOP OF BOSTON.
Cambridge: Riverside Press. Three Volumes.
We have read with great interest the three volumes of Cardinal
O'Connell's Sermons and 'Addresses. Each volume is better than
its predecessor, the Cardinal, like the steward of the marriage
feast, reserving the best wine for the last.
The final volume contains many masterpieces of eloquence,
for example, the sermons preached on the occasion of the Boston
Centennial, the Eucharistic Congress of Montreal, the death of
Archbishop Williams, and the Address on The Church's Stand
read at the meeting of the Woman's Alliance.
As a very good critic has pointed out, " what is peculiarly
attractive (in these sermons) is that it is not merely a matter of
music and color such as other word-artists might employ to delight
678 NEW BOOKS [Feb.,
the imagination. The spontaneous exuberance and beauty of
language is merely a vehicle for conveying to the mind and heart
strong and solid dogmatic instruction and exhortations."
There are many good passages worthy of quotation:
The luxuries of religion we may well dispense with. Too
often they have brought only harm to the Church, and have
been the enemies within the gates. Magnificent buildings,
splendid ceremonials, superb appurtenances are all good in their
place, for the worship of Christ can never be too adequately
expressed even by all that the noblest endeavor and most bril-
liant genius of man may bring to its expression; but if these
things are to breed a selfish content and rob the Catholics of
any generation of that primitive apostolic zeal which inflamed
the breasts of their first teachers, then it is far better to dis-
pense with these external embellishments, and in poverty and
hardship cultivate the gift which made the first promulgators
of the Faith of Christ the conquerors of the world.
The Church recognizes and takes occasion to hold up for
the imitation of other peoples the noble spirit of the United
States. She finds here the rarest of combinations, liberty with-
out license, and authority without despotism. She finds here,
with many dangers, great natural virtues, a conspicuous love of
justice and fairness, a sympathy quick to be touched by suf-
fering anywhere, and a generosity in the relief of distress
unequalled by any other people in the world. She finds a
people of wonderful ingenuity, versatility, and practical sense,
with marvelous and daring schemes of material conquest, and a
spirit equal to their accomplishment. And more than that,
she finds a people who, despite their growing indifference to
organized forms of worship, are still at heart religious, and
honestly devoted to the betterment of mankind.
In addressing the Knights of Columbus, the Cardinal says:
The Church could never bless a society formed for selfish
aims. Were mere social enjoyment, worldly pleasure, material
gain, political ambition, or any other selfish aim the object of
this society its name would have no meaning It is because
we know and realize that your aims are ideal, not material,
that you desire to assist in the great work which the Church
is doing among mankind, that you have her recognition
Already you have done much. The very act of bringing to-
gether into a common fraternity thousands of young men is
an accomplishment which demands recognition It (the
1913.] NEW BOOKS 679
gift to the Catholic University) was the first great unselfish
act of your body corporate, and the spark of noble charity
quickened a higher life among all the members.
Oh! priests of New England, seeking no reward but God's
blessing, wanting no recompense but heaven's approval, what
wonders, unknown but to God and you, your enlightened priestly
zeal, your high and strong courage, your true love of New
England's peace and happiness have accomplished. What les-
sons of all that ennobles life your lips have spoken ! What deeds
of sweet charity your hands have wrought! What messages
of peace your weary feet have carried! The child of the
immigrant is called to fill the place which the Puritan has left.
He must learn to fill it worthily and well. From the story
of his father's struggle he must take to heart two salutary
lessons to keep his faith -undimmed and his charity unquenched.
The charity of the Puritan was for his own only; the charity
of the Catholic must be for all. The Puritan failed because
he planned only for himself. The Catholic must broaden his
love to embrace all as Christ did. He will not fail.
Speaking on the problem of modern education he says:
There is such an attempt at futile general culture that solid
training is being overlooked, with the result that instead of
a compact, well-constituted organism of knowledge, moral as
well as mental, there is a spreading out of a thin veneer over so
large a surface that it takes but a short time and little wear
to penetrate through the thickest part of it. It is principles,
principles, principles, the foundation stones of life, which are
needed to-day.
AMERICANS AND OTHERS. By Agnes Repplier. Boston:
Houghton Miflflin Co. $1.10 net.
Some time ago Miss Agnes Repplier dared to tell us that " art
is never didactic," which pronouncement came as a shock to the
problem novelists and the problem dramatists, both domestic and
made in Germany.
Theories about futurism, theories about eugenics, theories about
graft, theories about hygiene, are occupying the minds of our
writers to a really terrifying extent. " Scarers in print " tell us
what to eat, whom to marry, whom to vote for, which books of
the Bible to reject, and what reply to make to the next tramp at
our back door.
But " art is never didactic," says Miss Repplier. How sooth-
ing, how holy ! And with a sweet consistency she never sins against
680 NEW BOOKS [Feb.,
her belief by mounting into the literary pulpit. She is strangely
silent about the (of course!) quite novel notions of the futurists,
the evils of graft leave her still smiling, and, as for eugenics, she
seems content to let future generations worry along somehow, as
well she may be, having given so much pleasure to this one.
Her new volume, under the title 'Americans and Others, gives
us her usual collection of leisurely and graceful essays, ranging
in subject from " Goodness and Gayety " and " The Condescension
of Borrowers" to (the feline favorite again!) "The Grocer's
Cat." A thoroughly delightful paper is entitled " The Customary
Correspondent." In the course of it we are told of the begging
letters received by the unfortunate famous, of the " young English-
woman who wrote to Tennyson, requesting some verses which she
might read as her own at a picnic," and of the " very imperative
person who wrote to Dickens for a donkey, and who said he would
call for it the next day, as though Dickens kept a herd of don-
keys in Tavistock Square, and could always spare one for an
emergency."
" The Girl Graduate " is particularly refreshing. It says the
sane and sensible things that somehow do not get said, and which
throws the poor college girl a word of sympathy for the mesh
of statistics that seem to engulf her, " statistics dealing exhaustively
with her honors, her illnesses, her somewhat nebulous achievements,
and the size of her infant families."
The essay on " The Mission of Humor " is so clever that it
.alone is worth the price of admission. And the volume is full of
the witty, pointed sayings with which Miss Repplier has really
spoiled us. Thus, for example, in praise of indifference : " If we
had no spiritual asbestos to protect our souls, we should be con-
sumed to no purpose by every wanton flame." Or this other, in
comment on a graceful little sentiment of Sterne's : " It has all
the freshness of a principle never fagged out by practice."
FAUSTULA. By John Ayscough. New York: Benziger Broth-
ers. $1.35 net.
" No writer," says our author in his preface, " can guess
beforehand whether his work will be approved or no; nor, while
he is writing, does he ever try to guess. He is taken up with the
new children he is begetting between brain and pen, and has no
room in his mind for conjecture as to how others may like or
dislike them."
1913.] NEW BOOKS 681
There is no doubt whatever in our minds that this work
will meet the hearty approval of " those who know" We are
sure that all his readers' hearts will go out lovingly to Faustula,
who appeals to them so winningly across the centuries, " with
her lonely cry for pity and sympathy." We are a little doubtful,
however, whether they will love her as well as Consuelo or Marotz.
Monsignor Bickerstaffe-Drew has ventured forth into a new
field. He writes of Rome in the fourth century, when Christianity
had become dominant after the victory of Constantine. The volume
ends with the futile attempt of Julian the Apostate to make the
dead ashes of paganism live again.
Although the writer actually falls short of his great prede-
cessors Newman and Wiseman, in picturing the days of early
Christianity, he manages to give us a series of beautiful portraits
and scenes that will linger long in the memory. We are shown
the effects of " the poisoned air of heathenism " on the pleasure-
loving Faustulus, the cold-hearted Sabina, the selfishly corrupt
Tatius, the murderous f reedman Maltro, and the hypocritical Vestal
Virgins; and in vivid contrast is set forth the supernatural beauty
of the Christian character in the dignified Acilia, the devout Melania,
the pure Domitilla, and the noble Fabian.
Faustula has been neglected by her father from the very be-
ginning. As a very young child she is brought up among slaves
on the Sabine farm of her unloving aunt. She comes in contact
with Christianity for the first time while visiting the family of
the widow Melania, who lives on a neighboring estate. Her father
marries a second time, and, anxious to please his wife, heartlessly
gets rid of his daughter by making her a Vestal Virgin.
Faustula, after ten years novitiate in the hypocrisy of a dry
and empty paganism, and after ten years of longing for a " god
not only not worse than men, but greater than any man," learns the
true story of Christ from the lips of a Christian soldier, Fabian,
the playmate of her youth. She is accused by a spy to the Virgo
Vestalis Maxima of being untrue to her vow, and is condemned,
according to the old pagan law, to be buried alive. The scene
in the Coliseum when Fabian's brother is martyred, and Faustula
declares herself a Christian, is one of the most dramatic scenes
of the book. The story of her entombment, with her miraculous
Holy Communion, is rendered less effective by the rather common-
place rescue by her lover.
Two other particularly good scenes are Melania's nursing of
682 NEW BOOKS [Feb.,
the slave Clodia at the cost of her own life, and the murder of
Faustulus on "his first errand of charity."
Faustula herself is a bit precocious for a child of so tender
an age, but her peculiar upbringing might easily account for her
being wiser than her years. One feels at times that, whereas the
achseological setting is perfect, the characters speak frequently like
men and women of the twentieth century. But the author might
easily answer this by saying that much of the world outside the
Church to-day is frankly pagan.
MAY IVERSON TACKLES LIFE. By Elizabeth Jordan. New
York: Harper & Brothers. $1.25 net.
The deliciously humorous stories in which Elizabeth Jordan,
the editor of Harper's Bazaar, holds up the mirror to the school-girl
heart, to borrow a phrase dear to Miss Iverson herself, have been
amusing us for several years past.
The volume into which the earlier ones were collected called
itself May Iverson: Her Book; now the more recent ones appear
under the satisfactory title, May Iverson Tackles Life. May
wrestles again, or rather still wrestles, with " the grim and terrible
problem of what life really means." With her, as of yore, are
Mabel Blossom, the giggler and mischief plotter; Maudie Joyce,
the spiritual, who, however, has " golden instants when she forgets
about her soul ;" Mabel Muriel Murphy, who is still ambitious to be
a lady, like Sister Edna, and who " has terrible struggles with
conscience and remorse but she never really misses anything;"
and Kittie James, now too fat to look soulful, and " not intellectual,
alas ! like the rest of us."
May's literary ambition endures, and she narrates the achieve-
ments of her " set " in a style that Addison might envy. Some-
times she can almost feel the angels guiding her pen, she informs
us, " and beautiful flowers of thought fall on the snowy pages
before me, and I write so fast my hand gets covered with ink
up to the wrist, and I have a dreadful time afterwards with pumice-
stone." And sometimes she even wins from her adored teacher
and critic, Sister Irmingarde, the verdict that several of her efforts
" hold striking examples of what to do and what to avoid in fiction."
Her vocabulary and her philosophy are indeed joys forever, whether
she is telling us of the beauty culture which she initiated, and the
tempers and friendships it wrecked, or of the Grouchometer Club
and its sad fate, or of the suffrage issue that " split the convent
1913-] NEW BOOKS 683
like West Point when the Civil War broke out," or of the noble
anti-fat method by which she removed twenty of Kitty James'
superfluous pounds.
It is very safe to say that May Iverson will delight all her
readers. To Miss Jordan's Tales of the Cloister an unqualified
approval certainly cannot be given, but these stories offend nowhere.
The picture of life at Saint Catharine's is charming; Miss Jordan
does not sacrifice sweetness to humor, and sandwiches pathos in
with her cleverness. The figure of Sister Irmingarde is of a real
and unusual beauty, and is revealed to us very skillfully, rather
by May's indirect, unconscious touches than by her open adoration.
Our only regret connected with the book is the author's state-
ment that this is positively May's last appearance. Let us hope
she will experience a change of heart, for we should gladly wel-
come May for as many " last appearances " as Mr. Crummies
himself could recommend.
THE KISS, AND OTHER STORIES. By Anton Tchekhoff.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. $1.50 net.
Tolstoi is a great name, and Turgenieff is a great name, but it
does not follow that we must build temples to every subject of
the Tsar whose name begins with T.
As for Tchekhoff the much-vaunted, Tchekhoff the new " dis-
covery " that bade fair to rival Peruna and the Klondike, Tchekhoff
of the literary green carnations, alas for our hopes ! We have him
here in a book of short stories that are decadent without even a
morbid interest, cheaply pessimistic, without even sincerity, and
frankly futile without even a literary beauty to urge the dear old
" art for art's sake " excuse. They try hard to be " fleurs du
mal," but turn out poor, struggling weeds after all.
A clumsy artillery captain is kissed anonymously in a dark
room, a little boy eats oysters, a wife lies to her husband, an
unkissed gentleman of twenty-nine years runs away from a leap-
year proposal and this is dished up to us on a Russian menu
as the food our system craves! Why should we take the trouble
to import worthless stories with the " made in Russia " label,
when our domestic supply never fails?
REMINISCENCES OF A DIPLOMATIST'S WIFE. By Mrs.
Hugh Fraser. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. $3.00 net.
That pleasant volume by Mrs. Hugh Fraser called A Diplo-
684 NEW BOOKS [Feb.,
matist's Wife in Many Lands had an unusually large circle of
readers, all of whom will be interested in its present successor,
which appears under the title, Reminiscences of a Diplomatist's
Wife. In it we find the same witty and informal style, the same
vivid pictures of persons and places, with never a hint of the
repetitions that often mar such writings.
In addition to the expected glimpses of the writer's brother,
the late Marion Crawford, we meet Mr. Henry James, and are
delighted to learn of his " exquisite urbanity, unerring judgment,
and amazing humility." The last five chapters of the book take
us to South America, and are perhaps the most interesting of all.
The story of Liberalism in Chile, of the outrages which it promptly
instituted, and of the part the women took in checking it, ought,
for non-Catholic readers, to throw some light upon similar struggles
in France and Portugal.
VOLONT6 ET LIBERTY. Par Wincenty Lutoslawski. Paris:
Librairie Felix Alcan. 7 frs. 50.
Professor W. Lutoslawski, already well known to the phil-
osophical world by his Origin and Growth of Plato's Logic (Lon-
don, 1897), has recently published a work in French entitled
Volonte et Liberte. The work shows throughout the dominant traits
of the author's character, who may be truly termed a religious
philosopher. He prides himself on being a reconverted Catholic,
and in this book he attempts to put forward some of the main
elements of his Polish philosophy in harmony with the faith that
he professes. He treats the problems of will and liberty with the
originality of genius. Though adopting much from Leibnitz, he
rises far above the determinism of the great Franco-German phil-
osopher.
One of the most interesting features of Professor Lutos-
lawski's work is his theory of training the will. The principle
on which it is based is expressed by the law that every effort fol-
lowed by success increases the force of the will; and inversely
every effort that fails, decreases will power. As a corollary from
this law, it follows that when we attempt to strengthen the will by
training, we must not commence with tasks whose successful issue is
at all in doubt. One must make a start with things that can certainly
be accomplished, and increase the difficulty of the task by slow de-
grees. All rapid advance is illusory and transitory. Progress by
slow degrees is alone real and permanent. The tasks that lie within
1913.] NEW BOOKS 685
the power of all are simple muscular exercises, among which
respiration seems to offer special advantages for voluntary control.
Professor Lutoslawski recommends a series of exercises for slow-
ing respiration, and is of the opinion that such exercises will not
only tend to strengthen the will, but also have an indirect influence
over what he terms the negative emotions, such as anger, fear,
hatred. Such emotions, he says, are incompatible with a marked
slowing of respiration, and can be controlled by voluntary slow
breathing. Another muscular exercise which is easily controlled
is that of one's handwriting. A little constant and systematic
practice will make a tremendous improvement in an illegible hand.
This lesson learned, confidence in one's ability to improve is es-
tablished.
The will is not only perfected by muscular exercise, but also
by intellectual training. This intellectual training constitutes Pro-
fessor Lutoslawski's system of pedagogy. Being aimed primarily
at the development of the will, its central point is the pupil's inde-
pendence of his master. The system, says the author, is actually
in vogue in Poland, where, owing to the oppression of Russia, it
accidentally became possible to realize what in reality is the ideal
system of education. If the Polish child is to learn his own lan-
guage and the history of his own people, he must do so secretly,
and his master imparts instruction at his peril. As a result the
student cannot always have the assistance of the master, he must
work independently, being tided over his difficulties from time to
time by the instructor. Students are not graded into classes, but
work for themselves slowly or rapidly, according to their ability.
Concentration upon a few subjects takes the place of the dissipation
of attention over the multitudinous branches of the common school.
Such conditions make for the highest intellectual efficiency, the
most complete independence of the mind and, therefore, for the
power and freedom of the will.
The perfect training of the will, however, is to be sought in
the communion of the soul with God. This is accomplished by
prayer. The author deprecates the fact that prayer is now ban-
ished from the schools of France, and maintains that it should
constitute a part of one's training from infancy to old age.
MODERN PROGRESS AND HISTORY. By James J. Walsh,
M.D. New York: Fordham University Press. $2.00 net.
Those acquainted with Dr. Walsh's previous writings will
686 NEW BOOKS [Feb.,
recognize here the qualities that have won him so many readers.
He is on familiar ground, as the book deals largely with topics
connected with the history of medicine, and the lesson is the one
he likes to insist on, that even in such things as surgery and medicine
the new is sometimes not new after all. The volume is erudite,
interesting, and at times amusing.
IMMIGRATION AND LABOR. The Economic Aspects of Euro-
pean Immigration to the United States. By Isaac A. Hour-
wich, Ph.D. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. $2.50 net.
The object of this bulky volume is to refute the finding of
the Immigration Commission in 1910, that European Immigration
should be restricted in the interest of the American laboring class.
In the pursuit of this object the author deals at considerable
length with all the important arguments and phrases of the Report
of the Commission. Among the leading points which he seeks to
establish in opposition to the contentions of the Commission are
the following : Recent immigration has not increased unemploy-
ment; nor displaced native Americans in industry; nor provoked
an increase of race suicide ; nor set up inferior standards of living ;
nor underbid the native workers; nor prevented the reduction of
the work day; nor hindered labor organization; nor given us our
present labor problem.
These and several other conclusions, at which the author ar-
rives as the result of long and painstaking discussion, are contrary
to the views not only of the Immigration Commission, but of per-
haps most students of the subjects, to say nothing of the labor
unions and the ordinary observer.
With regard to most of his contentions, the verdict of the
critical reader will be that they have not been proved. He is un-
doubtedly right about the lack of causal relation between immigra-
tion and race suicide, and his criticisms show in general that many
of the supposed evil results of abundant immigration have been
considerably exaggerated.
Concerning the main contention of the Commission, that im-
migration has kept the unskilled labor market overstocked, and so
kept down wages and increased unemployment, his attempted refu-
tation must be set down as a failure. To assume that because
unemployment varies with the seasons, it has not, therefore, been in-
creased by immigration, is a strange misconception of the point at
issue. Of course, there would be unemployment even if all immigra-
1913.] NEW BOOKS 687
tion were prohibited ; but it would be much smaller in volume and in
intensity. The argument that if immigration were less in volume,
the supply of unskilled labor would be too small, and some of the
skilled workers would be obliged to find employment at common
labor, overlooks the fact that at present the proportion of unskilled
men in the industries is much too high. Hence the universal cry
for industrial education, both for the proper equipment of the
industries, and in order to reduce the proportion of the unskilled.
To be sure, there is " a fixed proportion of skilled to unskilled
laborers" (p. 35), but it is a pure assumption, and one that is
contradicted by all the facts, to say that the ideal proportion exists
at present. The logic of the author's argument on this point is
that any rise in wages would be bad for the laboring population,
owing to the assumed consequent rise in prices. This is a verit-
able counsel of despair.
Despite its inconclusiveness on the main thesis, the book con-
tains an abundance of valuable material and critical observations.
It ought to do good service as a corrective of the exaggerations
committed by the advocates of restriction.
HOMILETIC AND CATECHETIC STUDIES. By Canon A. Mey-
enberg. Translated by the Very Rev. Ferdinand Brossart.
New York: Frederick Pustet & Co. $3.50 net.
A splendid addition to our sermonic literature one that largely
fills our gravest need in that field is Father Brossart's translation
of Dr. Meyenberg's Homiletic and Catechetic Studies. The value
of this work is attested by the translator, who took on himself the
arduous task of putting it into English only because he was con-
vinced that it is unsurpassed in usefulness, and by the fact that
in a very short while it has gone through seven editions in the
original German, which abounds in such aids to sacred eloquence.
The book is not meant for those who want labor-saving devices,
nor will it yield much help in that direction. It calls insistently for
a generous expenditure of time and labor, if its lessons are to be
duly learned, and its suggestions fruitfully carried out. Instead
of dispensing one from study and from the careful personal prep-
aration of sermons, it makes one feel keenly that one's best efforts
are imperatively demanded in the holy work of preaching the
Gospel, both because one's preaching has so much to do with the
salvation of men, and because the message to be proclaimed is so
sacred.
688 NEW BOOKS [Feb.,
The volume is not a collection of ready-made sermons, homi-
lies, and instructions, which need but slight alterations to fit them
for use anywhere and everywhere. Neither is it a bundle of
outlines and plans. It is a thorough, scholarly, scientific treatise
on sacred oratory. The first, and by far the largest part of the
work, is divided into seven books, which take up in turn the fol-
lowing subjects; the essence and foundation; the supreme laws;
the sources ; the means ; the matter ; the different kinds ; the exterior
form and forms of sacred eloquence. In the second part, which
deals with the instruction of children, besides general hints about
the duty of catechizing, the spirit in which the work should be done,
and the method to be followed, there are chapters which treat in
detail the ways and means that should be employed to lead chil-
dren, of different ages and different degrees of mental development,
to a knowledge of religious truth.
One may learn from this work not only what ought to be done,
and why, but how the theories advanced may be put into practice.
There are serviceable hints and suggestions everywhere. Points of
view and themes are proposed and partly developed, the author
going with his reader just far enough to prove that the roads he
recommends are well worth traveling, and will lead to rich fields.
At first sight the book may seem heavy, and little likely to prove
profitable. One's maturer judgment, however, will be a deep
conviction that the preacher who studies it carefully, and acts
on it faithfully, will soon make himself a " workman that needeth
not to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth."
SERMON PLANS. By Abbe H. Lesetre. New York: Joseph
F.Wagner. $i.oonet
Though they are brief, averaging a trifle less than two pages
each, these plans from the pen of a French priest, who has been
zealously at work for over thirty years, will prove helpful in many
ways to priests who have little time to gather their thoughts and set
them in order, and to those who, for other reasons, stand in need of
suggestion as to topics, and as to the main outlines of their treat-
ment.
POLEMIC CHAT. By Edmund M. Dunne, Bishop of Peoria.
St. Louis: B. Herder. Cloth, 50 cents; paper, 25 cents.
This little book, largely a reprint of articles which appeared
in the Peoria Cathedral Calendar, is frankly polemic, and aims
1913.] NEW BOOKS 689
avowedly at " the refutation of a few popular fallacies regarding
religious truth." Its scope is really much wider than that, for it
sets forth the doctrine and views of the Church concerning many
matters about which most people outside of the Church, and not
a few within, are not well informed. The dialogue form in which
it is written affords excellent opportunity for a concise presentation
of difficulties and objections, and an equally concise, direct, pointed
rejoinder. There are no wasted words, no devious approaches
towards the truth, no timid, half-hearted, apologetic attacks on
error. The author's aim is excellent, and his blows are given with
a hearty good will. Some might think his plain speaking injudi-
cious; no earnest, straightforward lover of the truth not even
an enemy will be annoyed or hurt by it, even though some of his
own theories and half-formed judgments be the object of attack.
For all the sharp criticism of error is accompanied by love for
what is right, and true, and good, and by kindliness towards those
who are in error.
MY HEAVEN IN DEVON. A Volume of Eucharistic Verse.
By Olive Katharine Parr. New York: Benziger Brothers.
45 cents.
It is rare even among volumes of devotional praise; even
among mediaeval songs of passionately fervid praise to find a
more absorbing mystical love of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament
than permeates this little book. It contains, in thirty-three short
poems, " a record of the restoration of Eucharistic worship in the
pre-Reformation parish of St. Pancras," in the moors of Devon.
The verses are largely reminiscent or " occasional," and are of
unequal literary beauty; but for their absorption in a single divine
theme, for their manifestly faithful expression of the author's self-
consecration, they are deeply impressive. Many a devout soul
should find in them comfort and pleasure and peace.
GINEVRA. A Play of Mediaeval Florence. By Edward Doyle.
New York: Doyle & Co. $1.00 net.
From the hand of Edward Doyle, whose Haunted Temple
showed anew (if the lesson needed showing) how far into life
might look eyes which the world deemed sightless, comes now a
tragedy of old Florence. Ginevra tells in simple but poetic phrase
a highly dramatic story: a story of family feud and forced mar-
riage, of premature burial, and finally of the curious denouement
VOL. xcvi. 44.
690 NEW BOOKS [Feb.,
brought about by the plague of 1400. To the " crimson cross "
(that awesome astronomical phenomenon which flamed across the
heavens of that sad year) the drama owes some passages of beau-
tiful inspiration; and Mr. Doyle has introduced among the men
and women of his play one jester, who both for his wisdom and
his folly is well worth the knowing.
PHCEBE, ERNEST, AND CUPID. By Inez Haynes Gillmore.
New York: Henry Holt & Co. $1.35 net.
Inez Haynes Gillmore, who in Phoebe and Ernest described
so cleverly the American girl and boy of high school age, pub-
lishes a new book called Phoebe, Ernest, and Cupid, in which she
lets them grow up and be carried safely into matrimony. Their
adventures and their point of view are those of our average young
people, and make very pleasant reading.
CARDINAL MERCIER'S RETREAT TO HIS PRIESTS. Trans-
lated by J. M. O'Kavanagh, with a foreword by Cardinal
Gibbons. St. Louis: B. Herder. $1.50.
The well-known learning, zeal, and sterling virtue of the
Cardinal Archbishop of Mechlin are a sufficient guarantee that he
gave his priests an earnest, helpful retreat, and that they went back
to their work more keenly alive than before to the sublime dignity
of their calling. The published retreat will do a like good work
for those who will read it attentively and with zeal for self -im-
provement. An appendix contains in Latin and English the letter
our Holy Father addressed to the clergy on the occasion of the
golden sacerdotal jubilee of Cardinal Mercier.
THE ROMANTIC STORY OF THE PURITAN FATHERS. By
Albert C. Addison. Boston: L. C. Page & Co. $2.50 net.
The extensive and vital part played by the Puritans in the
history of England, and in the development of our own country,
gives to everything connected with them an enduring interest, and
in most instances a real value, however remote and slight a bearing
it may have had on their activities or their fortunes. This new
book about them is, therefore, sure of a welcome, even though it
is an enthusiastic eulogy rather than a critical study. It describes
the birthplace of the sect, portrays the most influential of its early
leaders, sketches the conditions in which it grew strong, and nar-
rates the details of its establishment in the new world. Those
1913-] NEW BOOKS 691
who do not share the author's warm admiration of the Puritan
character, but look on it as decidedly defective and warped, will,
for all that, find this an interesting book.
FAITH AND SUGGESTION. By Edwin Lancelot Ash. Phila-
delphia: Peter Reilly. $1.25 net.
This rather tiresome volume discusses the apparently miracu-
lous recovery of an hysterical consumptive girl, Dorothy Kerin,
who saw a number of wondrous visions of shining angels, beau-
tiful lights, and a beautiful woman.
The author has really no sense of humor, or he would not
dare compare the inane dreaming of this commonplace young wo-
man with the vision of St. Paul on the road to Damascus, or the
heavenly voices of Blessed Joan of Arc. The whole book seems
a case of much ado about nothing. We fail to see anything mi-
raculous or supernatural in the case from start to finish, and wonder
why any man in his sober senses could give it a second thought.
Why it should have attracted any attention whatever is simply
beyond our comprehension. We may be unduly suspicious, but
we thought we saw the reason of this plain piece of humbuggery
in the message of the " Beautiful Lady who carried the beautiful
annunciation lily in her right hand." For with wondrous unction
she whispers gently to the neurotic Dorothy : " The Lord has
brought you back to use you for a great and privileged work.
Many sick will ye heal in your prayer and faith." Perhaps she
will be exploited later as a money-getting faith-healer, and bring
quite an income to her exploiter.
Mr. Ash assures us in his preface that " his book seeks to
prove nothing." He has succeeded admirably in his endeavor.
If the proofs of the unseen world of spirit depended merely on
the so-called facts adduced in this celebrated case, we would not
marvel a bit at the unbeliever's skepticism. The author's citations
from men like Oliver Lodge, William James, Henri Bergson, and
others show his absolute ignorance of a definite Christian phil-
osophy.
BELGIUM, THE LAND OF ART. By William Elliot Griffis.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. $1.25 net.
" This little book," writes the author in his preface, " is in-
tended to give pleasure to the reader at home, and to the traveler
the means of enjoying what he sees By pen and in print,
692 NEW BOOKS [Feb.,
on canvas, in mural decoration, in sculpture, in monuments of
bronze and marble, in fireplaces and in wood-carving, the story
(of Belgium) may be read as in an illuminated missal."
Our author naturally reads his missal through colored Prot-
estant glasses, and although he honestly endeavors to be fair, his
ignorance of things Catholic breaks out frequently. Like most
of his confreres in the Protestant ministry, his knowledge of the
past is inaccurate, and his orthodoxy vague. It is rather strange to
find a Christian holding a brief for the unbelieving, anarchist
Ferrer, as if " ordered freedom of conscience " was identical with
contempt and denial of the gospel of Christ. Of course, we hear
of the Reformation " certainly meaning purity of morals " despite
the witness of Luther himself; we are solemnly informed that
Protestantism is in reality the primitive gospel; we are mildly
amused at his extravagant praises of the Belgic Confession of
Faith, and the wonderful doings of his over-praised Walloons;
and we rather expect the old calumnies about the horrors of the
mediaeval era with its bigotry, fanaticism, and intolerance,
and accommodating confessors; the pretences of priests and
dogmas, the saintly mediators supposed to be necessary between
God and man, etc., etc.
Our smile becomes a hearty laugh when we read that " port
wine helped greatly the cause of American Independence." Such a
statement shows the breadth of view which the Reformation
frequently breeds in its sons. While praising the Liberals in
Belgium, there is not the slightest praise given to the wonders
wrought by the Catholic party, who, after being in office nearly
thirty years, won a tremendous victory this year despite the coali-
tion of Socialists and Liberals. The Belgians are the most pros-
perous people on the face of the earth, and they know their present
status is due to a Catholic ministry. The appeal to bigotry and re-
ligious hatred made by the Liberals at the last election fell on
deaf ears. You cannot fool the people all the time.
The title of the book is misleading. If one opens it to find
a real grasp of Belgium's title to the " Land of Art " by one who
has a right to speak, he will be very much disappointed. If he
wants a rather meager and imperfect guide book, with some facts
intermingled with a good deal of inaccurate statements, he will
be perfectly content. This book is another proof that Catholic
things can be appreciated at their full value only by those who
know them at first hand.
1913-] NEW BOOKS 693
FROM DANTE TO VERLAINE. By Jules Pacheu. Paris: A.
Tralin. 3 frs. 50.
This is a new edition of Father Pacheu's book which was
first published in 1897. He is well known to French readers from
his many studies on mysticism, viz. : An Introduction to the Psy-
chology of the Mystics; Contemporary Religious Unrest; The
Poem of Conscience Dante and the Mystics; Mystic Experience
and Sub-Conscious Activity, etc. In the present work he gives
us a history of Dante studies in France from the beginning, com-
pares Bunyan and Spencer to the Florentine poet, and writes rather
favorable notices of Verlaine and Huysmans. It is a good
piece of literary criticism, although like every book made up of
magazine articles, it lacks unity, and contains monographs of very
unequal value.
STEAMSHIP CONQUEST OF THE SEA. Illustrated. By Fred-
erick A. Talbot. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co. $1.50
net.
One branch of the tremendous material development of recent
years is graphically and convincingly set forth in this profusely
illustrated volume which deals with the modern steamship. Every-
thing connected with the subject the planning, construction, equip-
ment, ornamentation, launching, provisioning, management, and
protection of the great liners, the routes they follow, the dangers
they run, the records they have made, the care taken to chart the
sea and keep the ocean clear of dangerous wreckage, together with
other kindred matters has been gone into thoroughly. A great
amount of varied information is given to the reader, not in a
technical, dry way, but plainly and entertainingly, with many anec-
dotes and excellent illustrations, that make this story of modern
progress a delightful bit of instructive reading.
TF the Isle of Wight has been called the " Garden of England,"
* the Isle of Thanet may well be called its gate, for life and death,
war and peace, joy and sorrow, have often entered thereby. One
of its chief glories in the days of faith was the Saint whose life
we are considering. In the Story of Saint Mildred of Thanet,
by M. Sawyer (New York: Benziger Brothers), we are intro-
duced to this gentle Saint, whose name signifies " peaceful will "
or fount of peace. Yet her peace was attained by stern combat
for chastity with the rough, half -barbarian element of those days.
694 NEW BOOKS [Feb.,
Quaint and beautiful is the tale which brings the royal nuns of
those early days before us; their enemies bold and cruel; ours more
insidious ; yet there is comfort in the thought that the same virtues
were defended, as the same laurels await those who combat for
faith and purity. Her history gives an excellent picture of con-
ventual life in Saxon England, as well as the darker side of
untamed natures.
SUGAR CAMP AND AFTER, by Rev. H. S. Spalding,
-*- SJ. (New York: Benziger Brothers. 85 cents), is the new-
est of the author's popular stories for boys. It is a good, healthy
story, with plenty of action, and a sturdy little hero who will surely
appeal to readers of his own age.
'THE DRAMATIC FESTIVAL, by A. T. Craig (New York:
G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1.25 net), is a study of the lyrical
method as a factor in elementary education, with some plays for
class use. Its aim is the cultivation of the imagination by " Folk
Stories, Dances, Songs, Games, and the Drama." A plea is made
that time be devoted to these matters, and that the long-suffering
and overcrowded school curriculum is to furnish it. Possibly
when their recreations, games, and pleasures have all been brought
under the directing, organizing and supervising power of the
" grown-ups," there will be nothing left for the children of the
future but to take refuge in games of learning the much neglected
" three R's."
'"THE GOLDEN LADDER is the first of the "Golden Rule
-* Series ;" these consist of fairy stories, fables, and easy poems
gathered from various sources, " embodying a graded system of
moral instruction." A Path, A Door, A Key, 'A Word, and A Deed
Book are to follow, and all are " golden." A professor, a dean,
and a school superintendent are the authors, and the series is the
publication of Macmillan Company. The Golden Ladder is neatly
and prettily bound. (Price, 40 cents net. )
meditations published under the title of The Litany of the
* Sacred Heart, by Joseph McDonnell, SJ. (New York: Ben-
ziger Brothers. 90 cents), first appeared in The Irish Messenger
of the Sacred Heart. The commentaries explain the titles, and are
suitable for instruction; the meditations seem more for individual
1913-] NEW BOOKS 695
use, and lead the heart to taste and see the sweetness hid in the
loving Heart of Christ for those of His servants who humbly
approach the fountains of the Savior.
t)Y telling of the origin and aims of the " Children of Mary," in
*~* The Story of the Sodality of Our Lady (New York: Ben-
ziger Brothers. 30 cents net), Father Edmund Lesler, S.J., would
increase our zeal to emulate the lives of the many who have gladly
enrolled themselves as Sodalists. The Little Office of the Immac-
ulate Conception and the Ritual for Reception are added.
'THE WAIF OF RAINBOW COURT, by Mary F. Nixon-Roulet
(St. Louis: B. Herder. 60 cents), is a story of a poor little
waif, whose sweet nature led her to look upon the bright side of
her life, and who, forgetting her own woes, neglected no oppor-
tunity of helping those who came in contact with her.
~\T7E have received from the American Book Company four of its
* ' new publications. The Training of Children, by John Wirt
Dinsmore ($1.00), is a refreshingly sane book on the training of
children. The author lays down the principle that the child is a
physical, mental, and spiritual unity, and, therefore, that the culti-
vation of the entire child is essential to any perfect training.
He advocates the use of whatever is good in new theories. His
counsels are firm, gentle, and farseeing. He rates very highly
the responsibilities of the teacher, and justly insists that she herself
should be an example of the characteristics she seeks to inculcate.
A book so practical and earnest as is this one, cannot fail to help
any young teacher who has at heart the real good of the youthful
charges. No one need look in it for hazy discussions on psychology,
heredity, etc., such as are the fashion in most books on pedagogy
nowadays. The author has something to say, and says it, to the
point, simply and straightforwardly.
Plane and Solid Geometry, by C. A. Hart (each book 80 cents;
together, $1.25), allows the pupil to take nothing for granted,
but requires him to prove each step. As an aid to this task the
figures in Book I. set an excellent model of clearness. Altogether,
we think, the book well establishes the claim made for it, that it
is " the combined product of experience, class-room test, and
abundant criticism." It is surely up-to-date, since it contains
a problem on the foundation of the Woolworth Building.
696 NEW BOOKS [Feb.,
English Grammar, by Lillian Kimball (60 cents), is another
addition to the endless texts on English grammar. It claims, how-
ever, " to simplify and rob " that study of all unnecessary and minor
" technicalities."
Fifty Famous People, by James Baldwin (35 cents), is a sup-
plementary reader consisting of short and not very well-chosen
stories. Save that many of them concern royalist worthies, one
might suspect the book of being a translation of some modern
French school text, so completely is God excluded from its contents.
Even Csedmon and his wonderful song of Creation is discussed,
but no mention is made of the Creator!
HTHE EUCHARIST AND CHRISTIAN PERFECTION (New
-*- York: The Sentinel Press. 50 cents) is the fourth and last
of the series of collected works of the Venerable Pere Eymard's
works. The volume before us contains three retreats preached
respectively to the Brothers of St. Vincent de Paul, to his own
religious, and to the Servants of the Most Blessed Sacrament
(nuns). It need not be said that he makes the Holy Eucharist
the means, the end, the whole spirit of these retreats, and continually
reminds his spiritual children of their dedication, their glory, their
riches in the possession of Jesus Christ under the Sacramental Veil.
T^ROM the American Press comes a reprint (with additional
matter) of Father Husslein's articles on Socialism, under the
title of The Church and Social Problems. The writer first shows,
in the words of its own advocates, what Socialism is, and then
contrasts with it the social teaching of Christianity. Grouped
in a book one feels the chapters are more telling than in the pages
of a periodical. For one thing they make perfectly clear that
there can no more be concord between the Church and Socialism
than between Christ and Belial. Price, $1.00.
DENZIGER BROTHERS publish a handy volume, entitled
*-* Spiritual Progress (90 cents net), which treats of the progres-
sive Use of Confession and of Lukewarmness. The volume con-
siders the matters quite thoroughly, but we take exception to one
of its recommendations. Spiritual progress is not greatly to be
helped by keeping a table of our advance or of our falls. The
volume is tastefully presented. The same house publishes also in
handy form an excellent volume that will give much instruction,
1913.] NEW BOOKS 697
and also much comfort to souls. It is entitled The Consolations
of Purgatory, from the French of Father Faure, S.M. The trans-
lation by W. Humphrey Page is well done.
TN Charles Louis Philippe, by Andre Gide, we have a favorable
-^ appreciation of the author whose name gives title to the volume,
Another French work from the same house of Eugene Figuiere et
Cie (Paris), by Paul Vulliaud, gives a sketchy, superficial account
of the Renaissance in Italy in the fifteenth century.
A MONG French publications, which will be of interest to those of
** our readers who are acquainted with French, are two volumes
from the press of P. Lethielleux of Paris entitled: The Elements
of Dogmatic Theology. Pierre Tequi of Paris publish a Life of St.
'Anthony of Padua by Monsignor Ricard ; a work entitled : Vocation
by the Redemptorist Father Coppin, which treats of marriage, the
priesthood, and the religious life, and a useful work on the prin-
ciples of Contemplation by Father Lamballe. Gabriel Beauchesne
of Paris issues a critical refutation of modern champions of Monism
in France. The work is from the pen of J. B. Saulze.
~\T7E are requested to announce that the publications of Tequi of
Paris may be obtained from Benziger Brothers, 36 Barclay
Street, New York City.
foreign periobfcals*
Father Gerard, SJ. This article is a tribute to the late Father
Gerard by a former Stonyhurst boy. Father Gerard was born
at Edinburgh in 1840 of a most distinguished family. In 1850
two years after the conversion of his parents he entered Stonyhurst
College, and six years later entered the Society of Jesus. He
returned to Stonyhurst in 1879 as a priest, and there did the chief
part of his teaching work.
He was a skillful organizer, and to his efforts were due a boy's
debating society and the revival of the college magazine. He
found time in his busy teaching days to produce a Latin grammar,
a " course of religious instruction," and was greatly interested in
dramatics. He wrote the centenary of his beloved Alma Mater,
and in 1893 was made Chief of the Staff of The Month.
In 1897 he was elected Provincial, and under his wise guidance
a hall for Jesuit scholastics was opened at Oxford. Father Gerard
was a success at anything he undertook. His scholarly reply to
Haeckel, The Old Riddle and the Newest Answer, has gone through
several editions, and been translated into several languages. The
Tablet, December 21.
The Practice of Holy Communion. By Bishop Hedley, O.S.B.,
of Newport. Exhorting the faithful to more frequent reception of
the Holy Sacrament of the Altar, the Bishop traces the history
of the Blessed Sacrament from early times to this day, showing
the four aspects under which the Sacrament has at different times
been viewed; as a pledge and symbol of unity in apostolic times, as
a source of strength in trial and temptation in the ages of persecu-
tion, as an object of formal adoration and reverence in the centuries
following, as the source of all grace and charity from the thirteenth
century onward.
After amplifying briefly the first three aspects, he shows how
St. Thomas Aquinas, treating of the operations of divine grace,
stimulated men to study the capacity of their own souls. Jesus,
the life of the soul, was then more keenly appreciated in the Great
Sacrament of His Love.
1913-] FOREIGN PERIODICALS 699
The Catechism of the Council of Trent, following St. Augus-
tine, counsels daily Communion, as do the Saints and Popes of
the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Jansenism, with its false reverence ("the true reverence was
always an essential feature of the Church's life"), "would build
up barriers around the Holy Table to keep off the flock whose very
life depended upon the food thereon."
The authoritative teaching of Pope Pius X. on frequent and
daily Communion follows. The treatment is divided into the dis-
positions necessary, the reverence due, and sensible devotion. Spe-
cial emphasis is placed on the Holy Father's teaching that the
principal end of this Sacrament is " that the faithful may derive
strength to resist " temptations, to cleanse themselves of faults,
and to avoid sin. This was Christ's purpose on earth; this is also
His purpose in this Sacrament. The Tablet, December 28.
The Catholic Church in 1912. By Rev. James MacCaffrey.
In Italy the situation of the Catholics is unfortunate. They
lack unity, capable leaders, a generally accepted programme, and
capable newspapers to voice their views. In France the educational
outlook, from a Catholic standpoint, is improving because of the
popular support of the free schools and the dangerous views ex-
pressed by the much-praised governmental Teachers' Association;
in political elections in the Catholic Congress of Tours, and
in the building and filling of many new churches around Paris,
there is evidence of a religious re-birth.
French and Italian newspapers have tried to make difficulties
by opposing the entrance of German laborers in any but purely
Catholic organizations. The Holy Father has expressed his views
on the matter, but the end of the dispute is not yet.
In Vienna the marvelous success of the Eucharistic Congress
proves the vitality of the Faith as well as the unselfish zeal and
organizing capacity of the leaders. The Belgian elections, con-
trary to the fears of many, have strengthened the Catholic Party
both in the Chamber of Deputies and in the Senate. In Holland,
for the first time, a Catholic has been elected President of the
Senate ; great activity for foreign missions and a religious teaching
and atmosphere in primary schools are to be commended. In
Spain and Portugal the outlook remains dark.
In America the value of organization on questions of educa-
tion, labor, foreign missions, charity, opposition to Socialism, and
700 FOREIGN PERIODICALS [Feb.,
the publication of the Catholic Encyclopedia has been realized, and
has done much good.
In England the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury failed to
make a bold stand for the independence of his Church in the
Banister vs. Thompson marriage case; but the Catholics, especially
in educational matters, have exhibited wonderful activity and or-
ganization. They have forced the Radical and Socialist parties
to abandon the annual resolution at the Congress of Trade Unions
in favor of secular education. They endeavor to educate not only
their own followers, but the public in general as to the aim and
policy of the Catholic Church. They have a definite programme on
all public questions in which their interests are concerned. They
have schools for the higher education of priests at Oxford and
Cambridge, which also keep the lay students in touch with Catholic
principles.
In Ireland the Home Rule Bill is the principal subject of dis-
cussion, but it should not exclude attention to the efforts of the
Home Rule Chief Secretary to introduce reforms in secondary
education and university scholarships, which would create difficul-
ties for the proposed Irish Legislature. He is trying to override the
express wishes of many of the Irish County Councils, and is not
consulting those whose interests are principally concerned. Irish
Ecclesiastical Record, January.
Can the Blame be Laid on the Temporal Power? By J. Bricout.
Defenders of the temporal power of the Popes are often met with
the objection that this power for some forty or fifty years back has
been very dangerous for France. The defeat in 1870, the grow-
ing unpopularity of the Church after the war, and the final separa-
tion of the Church from the State, are held as effects of the tem-
poral power. A careful examination of each of these points,
especially in regard to their causes, clearly shows, however, that
the temporal power cannot justly be held responsible either for the
defeat in 1870, or for the separation law of 1905, or even for the
establishment of the Third Republic. As a consequence, the French
Catholics cannot be said to have been faithless to the sacred interests
of their country by following, in this regard, the directions of
Pius IX., Leo XIII., and Pius X. Revue du Clerge Frangais,
December.
The Tablet (December 21) : Prince Ludwig, the new Regent
1913.] FOREIGN PERIODICALS 701
of Bavaria, comes to the throne welcomed by the spokesmen of
all the political parties of his realm, not excepting the Socialists.
He gives promise of a strong determined character, as was shown
in his message to the Kaiser. He is an earnest and practical
Catholic, and his private life is exemplary. The English public
are now awakening to the fact that there is in England one class
immune from penalties of law. The Trade Unions by the Trades
Dispute Act of 1906 can blacklist, libel, or boycott an employer
with impunity. This has been decided by Parliament. Until a
few weeks ago it was thought that this position of privilege could
be claimed only when the wrong complained of was committed
in the direct furtherance of a trade dispute. This illusion has been
dispelled by the decision handed down in favor of the Trade Unions
in the case of Vacher and Sons vs. London Society of Compositors.
(December 28) : The writer of Literary Notes, after comment-
ing on the critical introductions to the reprinted classics in the Every-
man's Library series, after calling attention to Mr. Chesterton's val-
uable appreciation of Matthew Arnold, the critical preface to Cardi-
nal Newman's Apologia by Mr. Charles Sorolea is analyzed at length,
and the failure of Mr. Sorolea to appreciate Cardinal Newman
or his celebrated book because of the critics' faulty viewpoint is
shown. Mr. Sorolea's appreciation of Charles Kingsley and his
views is also called in question. The Stations and Great Basilicas
at Rome, a translation of the paper of Abbot Cabrol of Farnborough,
explaining these stations, the liturgical worship connected therewith,
and their different classes, is begun.
The National Review (January) : The United States and
'Anglo-German Rivalry, by Washington, is an appeal to the United
States to increase its military and naval strength in order to be
prepared if war breaks out between England and Germany. The
writer infers that our welfare will demand our antagonism to Ger-
many, and urges that we should be far more active than we are in
the affairs of Europe. Ad Memoriam is a sketch of the late
Senator Jones of Nevada. A. Maurice Low writes on American
affairs.
The Month (January) : The article entitled Father John
Gerard is the life story of the famous English Jesuit of that name
who recently passed away. He was for many years editor of
The Month, a prominent lecturer, an active member of the com-
702 FOREIGN PERIODICALS [Feb.,
mittee of the C. T. S., and author of books on the Gunpowder Plot,
Unnatural History, and The Old Riddle and the Newest Answer.
The New Breviary is treated by Rev. Herbert Thurston.
The Dago's Poet, by Alice Dease, is a highly favorable appreciation
of the writings of Mr. T. A. Daly, together with various quotations
from his writings. Under the caption Convent Inspection, Mr.
James Britten addresses an open letter to Miss M. E. Spaull, Sec-
retary of " The League of Freedom for the Inspection of Convents."
After discussing the lines on which this new organization is to be
developed, the author gives a brief history of the dishonest methods
and inevitable failure of former pseudo-convent reformers.
The Irish Ecclesiastical Record (January) : W. H. Grattan
Flood traces the history of the only Cluniac Priory in Ireland, that
of SS. Peter and Paul in Athlone, founded by Turlough O' Conor
in 1150. Professor J. M. O'Sullivan describes the natural ad-
vantages as regards commerce and defense which Constantinople
possesses; the antagonism which arose between New and Old
Rome; the influence upon modern politics of the fact that the Sla-
vonic peoples received their Christianity from Constantinople; the
rise and final victory of Mohammedanism.
Le Correspondant (December 10) : Commandant Davin writes
on the enmity that exists between Austria and Italy. Each seeks
to be mistress of the Adriatic. The breach has been greatly
widened, owing to the different attitudes of each of these Powers
towards the Turco-Albanian troubles. Furthermore, Austria has
ever withstood the demands of her Italian subjects for the establish-
ment of an Italian College, although allowing this privilege to almost
all of her other motley inhabitants. L. Delavand gives a charac-
ter study of Roald Amundsen, the Norwegian Antarctic explorer,
together with an historical account of his early life, the preparations
for his Polar expedition, and a chronological account of his trip.
(December '25) : An unsigned article treats of the compli-
cated electoral system of Russia, which is not very clearly under-
stood even by the Russian people themselves. A description is
given of the recent electoral campaign and the results of it, show-
ing the make-up of the new Douma. The recent death of the
Prince Regent of Bavaria has again aroused interest in this German
State. M. Andre in his article deals with the private and public
1913.] FOREIGN PERIODICALS 703
life of some of the most prominent members of the House of
Wittelsbachs Maximilian Joseph, Louis I., Maximilian II., and
Louis II.
Etudes (December 5) : Father Prat, S.J., discusses The Synop-
tic Question. His purpose is to indicate briefly the actual state
of the controversy, to expose fairly the arguments for and against,
to distinguish facts from hypotheses, certain conclusions from
probable opinions. That SS. Mark and Luke are the authors of
the Gospels bearing their names is borne out by the testimony of
the Fathers and of the ancient heretics, the versions of the New
Testament, and the early manuscripts almost without exception,
together with the internal criticism of the Books themselves.
We have an additional argument in the fact that the Gospels
were not signed by their authors; is it conceivable that the early
Christians, without the very best authority, would have assigned
these precious writings to comparatively insignificant men, and not
rather to the more famous apostles? The Biblical commission
declares the canonicity and authenticity of the last twelve verses
of St. Mark, the narrative of the Holy Infancy and the incident of
the Bloody Sweat in St. Luke. The objections brought against
these passages by some critics are not solid or decisive. The
'Avignon Popes, by Augustin Noyon. The general sentiment of
history is that the Avignon period was the source of the greatest
evils to the Church, and in the last analysis was the primary cause
of the Great Schism. Is this opinion tenable now that the Vatican
archives have been thrown open to scholars? M. Mollat, in his
recent book Les Popes d' Avignon, sets about to answer this ques-
tion. He shows that all the Avignon Popes were personally good
priests, despite the accusations of such writers as Villani; Pope
John XXII. has especially been misrepresented. In view of the
lack of documents, M. Mollat does not dare give any decided answer
to the complicated questions which arise concerning the suppression
of the Templars. M. Mollat does not flatter the Avignon Popes;
he tells their faults and their weaknesses, but he treats them with
sympathetic justice.
(December 20) : Joseph de Tonquedec contributes some pages
from his forthcoming critique of Blondel's philosophy. Blondel
teaches that observation, apprehension, judgment are powerless to
put one in touch with reality ; this can only be realized by personal
experience. Vladimir Soloviev, " the Newman of Russia," after
704 FOREIGN PERIODICALS [Feb.,
once joyfully proclaiming his conversion, maintained a silence which
puzzled many. Michel d'Herbigny discusses the reasons which
justified this course. Father Jacques Fabre contributes notes
regarding his travels as army chaplain in Morocco last year. He
says the finest sight he saw was the humble and cheerful self-
sacrifice, and even the religious spirit, of the French soldiers.
Etudes Franciscaines (January) : M. F. Richard, in the Revue
Thomiste (July- August, 1912), had argued that not only was Tho-
mism the only safe basis and method for attacking the modernist
position, but also that Scotism, by its emphasis on the primacy
of the will and of action, is anti-intellectualist, and, therefore, allied
with pragmatism and modernism. Father Raymond replies that
such a view shows a total misunderstanding of the Scotus' views,
and that his opponents arguments are mere word- juggling.
Father Hugues contributes a long and eulogistic summary of L.
Cl. Fillion's study on The Stages of Rationalism in its Attacks on
the Gospels and on the Life of Our Savior.
Revue Thomiste (November-December) : The Life of the
Church, by Father Cathola, O.P. The aim of this article is a study
of the Church's nature and divine organization. The method of the
inquiry is synthetical rather than analytical, the author judging
such a method better suited for convincing men of the divine beauty
of the work of Christ. The Church as an organism has its soul
or vital principle. This is the Holy Ghost Himself, Who possesses
the characteristics of unity, immanence, and finality necessary for
every vital principle. Scriptural, patristic, and liturgical proofs of
this are given. The Present Necessity of a Deeper Study of
Theology, by Father Hedde, O.P. Considering the spirit of the
age in which we live, the author of the present article is convinced of
the necessity of a more profound study of Sacred Theology, a
study which, while paying due respect to tradition, will nevertheless
be progressive and scientific. Not that there are new truths to be
discovered, but that old ones may be better comprehended and
more exactly expressed ; not that there are new dogmas to be added
to the ancient ones, but that the ancient ones may be more fully
understood. The failure of certain defenders of theology, in their
fight against modernism, is due not to their lack of vigor, of
courage, of perseverance, but to the fact that they appear to be
inferior to their advancement in logic, in their sense of criticism,
1913-] FOREIGN PERIODICALS 705
and in their rendition. They give the impression of being the
heroic but despairing defenders of a retreating army instead of ;
acting on the offensive. They rest content with general principles
which they do not clearly understand which resolve everything and
solve nothing. True defenders hold to tradition, but to do this
they must know the tradition. There alone is progress. Yet we
must struggle, for, as Lacordaire says, " Truth reigns over minds
only on condition of always conquering them."
Revue des Deux Mondes ( December 15): In some very orig-
inal and amusing conversations called Between Two Hemispheres,
Mr. Ferreo discusses his ideas and those of some of his clever fel-
low travelers on art, beauty, and other kindred subjects. New;
York, in one of these details, is tersely summed up as being the
" intestine " of America. The correspondence of Albert Sorel
during the years 1870-1871 is very pleasant reading, not only
because of its style, but also for the very sane opinions which the
writer held on the French position during the Franco-Prussian War.
The Marquis de Segur cpntributes his work, Au Couchant de
la Manarchie, by an article on the downfall of Necker.
VOL. XCVI. 45.
IRecent Events.
The new year found France on the eve of the
France. election of a new President. By the last
Constitution, the head of the Republic is
elected for seven years by the two Houses of Legislature (Senate
and Deputies) sitting in joint session as the National Assembly.
'All French citizens are eligible for the office, except members of
any family which has ever reigned in France. The election this
year was held on the I7th of the month just expired. The question
of a successor of M. Fallieres became a matter of general dis-
cussion during the last month of the year. A second term is not
the custom in France. M. Fallieres has performed the duties
of his office to the general satisfaction of the country.
The discussion as to his successor has shown that there
is to be found at least one man who, while in thorough
sympathy with the Republic, is unwilling to take the highest place.
To M. Leon Bourgeois, the Minister of Labor and Social Providence
in the present Cabinet, a nomination was offered, not once or twice
only, but a third time, by a number of supporters sufficient to
secure his election. M. Bourgeois persisted in declining, because
the state of his health would not permit the fulfillment of its duties.
The doctors had forbidden him to live in the light. On any day,
he was assured, he was liable to the stroke of fate. The death
of a President would be a source of grave inconvenience to the
country. As M. Bourgeois was inexorable, the field was clear
for other candidates 1 !. Of these the most prominent was one
who had been taking the leading part in the nomination of M.
Bourgeois, the present Premier, M. Raymond Poincare.
The contest has resulted in the election of M. Poincare. Sat-
isfaction may be felt with the result, for, although the new President
is a thorough Republican, and would only accept support from
Republicans, he represents the more moderate elements in the
party. This may be seen from the fact that M. Combes was a
most vehement opponent of his election. M. Poincare has taken
a very prominent part in the conferences of the Powers with
reference to the Balkan War, and to him the maintenance of peace
is laregly due. He is a young man to be elected to such an office,
1913.] RECENT EVENTS 707
being only fifty-two years of age. He is credited with the inten-
tion of asserting certain powers of the President, which during the
last terms have been left dormant. An attempt of this kind may be
a cause of trouble.
The result will, of course, affect the position of the present
Cabinet, but not in the same way that it would in this country.
For the French Ministers are responsible, as in England, to Par-
liament, not to the President, and he has to accept a Cabinet which
possesses the confidence of that body.
Of all the countries in Europe, the people of France have
been the most outspoken in their sympathy with the Balkan States
in their struggle with the Turk, and have rejoiced most heartily in
their success in the attainment of the long-desired expulsion of
this barbarous Power from Europe. The Lord Mayor of London
boasted that the Conferences could be held in London because the
people of England had shown complete impartiality between the
combatants. No such shameful boast could have been made by any
Frenchman in authority. For it is a disgrace to be impartial when
there is a conflict between right and wrong. There is reason to
think that the people of Italy were also warmly in favor of the
Balkan Allies, but its government is so closely tied up with the
Austrian that counsels were more divided than in France.
Germany has been very unfortunate in the
Germany. loss of such leading statesmen as it at present
possesses. In September last the Baron
Marschall von Bieberstein died a few weeks after his appointment as
Ambassador to Great Britain, where, as was thought by some, he
had been specially sent to bring about an improvement of the
relations between the two countries.
At the close of the year, Herr von Kiderlen-Wsechter died
suddenly. He was the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs,
and during his term of office a marked improvement had taken
place in these relations. When he was first appointed considerable
apprehension was felt. He was called the Little Bismarck, in
whose school he had been bred. He took, it is said, the principal
part in the aggressive action last year with reference to Morocco.
Experience had, however, softened his character, and his death
is considered a loss by those most anxious for the preservation of
peace. It must, however, be borne in mind that it is the German
70S RECENT EVENTS [Feb.,
Emperor who is the inspirer of the policy of Germany; the Min-
isters are little more than his instruments. It is not probable,
therefore, that the policy recently made so clear will be changed.
With reference to the Balkan War, Germany does not seem to
have taken any very prominent part, but has been willing to act
as the second of her ally, Austria-Hungary. Nor are there any
very clear indications as to the side which was taken by the Ger-
man people. The truth is that for some time the dominating
influence in Germany has been the progress and advancement of
commerce and industry, and interests other than materialistic
scarcely affect either her government or her people.
The Dual Monarchy is paying dear for the
Austria-Hungary, spirited policy which in recent years it has
seen fit to adopt. Before the advent of
Count Aehrenthal, Austria-Hungary was looked upon as a Conserv-
ative influence a mainstay of the peace of Europe. Its well-being
and the continuance of its existence, although looked upon as doubt-
ful, were strongly desired. At the present time the disappear-
ance of this monarchy of shreds and patches would not be re-
gretted by many of its former friends, for it has become a source of
disturbance. By the way in which it effected the annexation of
Bosnia and Herzegovina, it brought Europe to the verge of war, and
undermined that confidence in treaties which forms the basis of
mutual international relations. Its conduct since the breaking out
of the Balkan War has been the cause of the anxiety which has
been so keenly felt lest the whole of Europe should be involved, and
this for the pettiest motives of self-interest. The fear that a
little State like Servia should find an outlet in the Adriatic led
Austria to arm herself to the teeth. But the price has been high.
The exact amount spent is not known: estimates make it range
from one hundred millions at the least to two hundred millions
of dollars. Trade, moreover, has been totally paralyzed; for sev-
eral weeks the country has been in a state bordering on panic;
deposits have been withdrawn from the banks; the stocking has
taken their place.
Nearly one hundred millions are said to have been withdrawn
from circulation. Banks, consequently, are unable to place money
at the disposal of productive industries. If those who have been
the cause of the trouble were themselves likely to bear the burdens,
1913-] RECENT EVENTS 709
there would be little cause for complaint, but it is the people who
will have to surfer. The taxation, already immense, will have to be
increased, as the supposed emergency has " justified " the expendi-
ture without recourse to Parliament.
The present Foreign Minister is a man very different in char-
acter from Count Aehrenthal. It is due largely to his moderation
and uprightness that worse evils have not befallen the country.
But he is in the thralls of a vicious system. Under Count Aehren-
thal the Foreign Office, of which he was the head, was the means
of the dissemination of a series of fraudulent documents which
led to the scandalous trial at Agram. Since the outbreak of the
war in the Balkans, an analogous procedure has been adopted.
It was alleged by or with the connivance of the Press Bureau of the
Foreign Office, that the Consul of the Dual Monarchy at Prisrend,
named Prochaska, had been imprisoned by the Servians and ill-
treated in indescribable ways ; these assertions were circulated after
it had been ascertained that they were made without any foundation
in order to excite public opinion, and to justify the " precautions "
that were being taken.
These proceedings of the government have led the independent
press of Austria itself to express fears lest the international
position of Austria should be shaken. " The Prochaska case and
its issue are equivalent to a lost battle for the Austrian State."
In Germany the condemnation of the handling of the case has
been almost unanimous, while in France Austrian policy, as a
whole, has met with very severe criticisms. The effects of this con-
demnation are being felt even in the world of finance. Austria
is finding it very difficult to place the bonds which the Treasury
has emitted, while Hungary has had to pay seven per cent for a
loan which a British Colony could issue at four.
The rumor, to which reference was made last month, that the
Triple Alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy had
been renewed has proved to be well founded. As this renewal
took place something like eighteen months before the term for its
expiration, and in the midst of all the turmoil of the Balkan War,
a certain degree of skepticism was justified. The renewal has been
made, it is said, on precisely the same terms as before. Anticipa-
tions had been formed that its scope would be widened to include
the naval control of the Mediterranean, in view of the fleets which
are being built by Austria and Germany. This does not seem to have
been done. The term for which the Alliance is to last, according
;io RECENT EVENTS [Feb.,
to some account, is twelve years, according to others seven. Its
renewal is taken as a sign that the balance of power is to remain
in the long-existent equilibrium.
After the meeting of the German Emperor with the Tsar at
Port Baltic, an official communique was issued that there had been
no question of producing " alterations of any kind in the grouping
of the European Powers, the value of which for the maintenance
of equilibrium and peace has already been proved." This grouping
the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente has now become a
fundamental part of the order of things in Europe. Its chief ad-
vantage is that in most of the questions that arise, isolated action
is prevented by the necessity of consultation with the other members
of the groups to which each of these Powers belong. This neces-
sity prevents precipitate action, and renders the maintenance of
peace more likely. The renewal has, therefore, given general
satisfaction.
Although full reliance cannot be placed in the statement that
the questions at issue between Austria-Hungary and Albania and
Servia have been settled, there is reason to think that such is the
case. The general principles were discussed at the Conference
of Ambassadors held in London. The Albanians are to have
autonomy, under the suzerainty of Turkey; Servia is to have a com-
mercial port on the Adriatic, with special safeguards, both of itself
and of the road to it. The relations of Austria with foreign
powers remain, therefore, unchanged, a war with Russia having
for the second time been averted. Russia was united as one man
in support of the Slavs in the Balkans. The government of the
Tsar deserves great credit for the control which it exercised over
its people.
Ever since 1905 every government that has taken office in
Hungary has included universal suffrage in its programme, but
tinder one pretext or another has failed to fulfill its pledge. On the
last day of the old year the Premier introduced into the Lower
House of the Hungarian Parliament a Bill which looks like a patent
evasion of the reforms so long demanded. The franchise is to be
given to men with secondary school education depositing certificates
at the age of twenty- four, and to all the rest at thirty. Industrial
workmen must show that they have been in permanent employment
for two years, and agricultural laborers for five years. Illiterates
receive the franchise only when they pay something like eight
dollars in taxes or own seventeen acres. Polling is by secret ballot
1913.] RECENT EVENTS 711
in towns, and by open ballot in agricultural districts. Eight hun-
dred and fifty thousand will be added to the number of voters if it
should pass an increase of seventy-five per cent of the present
number.
The year 1912 has been a great year for
Italy. Italy. The success of the attempt to seize
upon Tripoli, unjust though it was, has made
her a great Power, as the world counts greatness. It has caused
the nation to realize better than ever before its unity and strength.
Material prosperity has never been so great. Emigration has been
checked. The finances of the country have never been so stable.
They have borne the strain of the war in a manner that has surprised
the whole world. So great is the prosperity that the Socialists
have ceased to agitate. The subversive parties of the State the
Radicals of the Extreme Left, the Republicans and the Socialists
have received a severe setback. The Crown is exceedingly popular,
and a report has appeared, although this is doubtless malicious, that
the King thinks of proclaiming himself Emperor of Rome.
The chief, purely internal, event of the year has been the pass-
ing of an Electoral Reform Bill which extends the franchise from
three millions to nearly eight millions of electors. It provides also
for changes in the electoral procedure and in the payment of
Deputies.
The renewal of the Triple Alliance keeps Italy in the same
relation to Germany and to Austria-Hungary as have so long
subsisted. There is, however, some obscurity as to the character
of the friendship between two members of the Alliance Austria
and Italy. A party in Austria is ardently in favor of a war with
Italy. This party was held in check by the late Count Aehrenthal,
who forced the resignation of a general high in office in the army,
because he was a strong advocate of such a war. No sooner was
the Triple Alliance renewed than this general was re-appointed.
Great perplexity is felt in both countries as to the meaning of
this step.
At the time these lines are being written
The Balkan War. the peace negotiations which have been
carried on in London for the past four
weeks are at a standstill, and no one knows what will be the out-
712 RECENT EVENTS [Feb.,
come. It is understood that the Great Powers have taken steps
to mediate between the combatants. Turkey, at the beginning, re-
fused to recognize her defeat, and demanded that Adrianople should
remain Turkish; that Macedonia should be an autonomous prin-
cipality, with its capital Salonika under the suzerainty of the Porte;
that Albania should be a self-governing Province, administered by
a Prince of the Ottoman Imperial House; that the future of Crete
should be left to the discussion of the Powers; and that the yEgean
Islands should he retained by Turkey. These demands were im-
mediately rejected by the delegates of the Balkan States, who
required the surrender of Adrianople and the drawing of such a
boundary of the territory left to Turkey in Europe as to leave her
only a very small district. The uiEgean Islands were to be sur-
rendered, with certain exceptions to be specified by the Powers;
Albania was to be ceded, its future to be decided by the Powers.
All kinds of modifications of these original terms have been dis-
cussed ; but no settlement has been reached, and it is quite possible
that this war may be renewed.
It has been left to Rumania to give to the world one of the
most amazing exhibitions of national selfishness on record. She
is requiring of Bulgaria, who has sacrificed her blood and treasure
in fighting the common enemy, the surrender of a large portion of
the latter's territory as the price for having done nothing for the
common cause, and is threatening to enforce her demand by making
war on its champion. It is a proceeding worse than that of a
brigand who charges a ransom for giving a man the liberty he
has taken from him.
The state of Persia shows no sign of im-
Persia. provement, and if that is true of nations
which is said to be true of individuals, that
not to make progress is to go backward little hope can be enter-
tained for the future. Its ruler is a child fifteen years of age.
The Regent appointed to govern in his place has left the country,
and has taken up his abode in Europe. It is not known whether or
no he intends ever to return. The ex- Shah has pledged his word
never again to come back, but that word is worth as little now
as it was when he ruled. In fact one of the anxieties of those
interested in Persia is the dread that he is making efforts to regain
the power, for he is not without supporters, and there are many
1913.3 RECENT EVENTS 713
who despair of any amelioration under the existing form of govern-
ment.
The Mejliss, as the Persian legislature is called, has been
in abeyance for more than a year. Rumors have been circulated,
from time to time, that new elections are to be held, but none
have yet taken place. A Cabinet is in existence, but in such a state
of things naturally cannot do much to save the country. It has no
power to change the Constitution, or even to appoint a Regent.
The consequence is that the various independent tribes, of which
the population mainly consists, have thrown off the authority of
the central government. The disorganization has gone still further,
for the members of many tribes have cast off the control of their
own chiefs, and have organized into lawless bands of robbers and
bandits. This is especially the case in the south, in which part
commerce is almost at a standstill. Within the last few weeks
a British Captain was shot by the assailants of a caravan.
Every excuse is being given to the Powers interested in
trade to interfere in Persian affairs, or even, were they so disposed,
to divide the country between themselves. In fact, in the north in
several places there have been for some time considerable Russian
forces, while in the south Great Britain has a few soldiers to guard
the Consulates. But both Powers disclaim the intention of taking
this course. The conferences which took place last September
between the Foreign Ministers of Russia and Great Britain re-
sulted, it is said, in the complete agreement of the two Powers
as to the necessity of strengthening the Persian government and
assisting it to maintain order. No detailed programme, however,
has been published, and the attention of both Great Britain and
Russia has since been absorbed in the questions that have arisen
from the Balkan War. The project of a Trans-Persian Railway to
connect the Russian with the Indian System of Railways, the exact
plans for which are being considered by a comite d'etudes, com-
posed of British, French, and Russian members, has been severely
criticized by Lord Curzon, formerly a Viceroy of India, on the
ground that its construction would involve great danger to the
safety of India from invasion. Great Britain and Russia are at
present friends, but will that always be the case? The common
danger apprehended from Germany, and perhaps as important
a consideration the recent development of trade between the two
countries, are strong bonds of united action for the time being;
but like every thing human by no means immutable.
;i4 RECENT EVENTS [Feb.,
Accounts differ greatly as to the present
China. actual state of China under the Republic.
Anticipations as to its future are, of course,
still more divergent. Were all the public men of China as self-
sacrificing as was Dr. Sun Yat-sen, who gave such a signal example
of patriotic devotion to lofty ideals by resigning the Presidentship
to which he had been elected in order to make sure the general
recognition of Yuan Shih-kai, the hopes of the future would be
greater. Yuan Shih-kai maintains his position as Provisional
President with a Coalition Ministry drawn from the former Nan-
king and Peking Administrations. This Ministry has, however,
undergone several modifications, the reasons for which are somewhat
obscure. The term of office of the Provisional President lasts till
a National Convention meets. This body is to consist of the
Senate and House of Representatives sitting together. Laws for
the election of both Houses were promulgated in September, and
the final elections to the Lower House were to have taken place on
the tenth of last month.
So far there has been scarcely even a semblance of constitu-
tional rule. Yuan Shih-kai has been the government. He is not
without enemies, and has not been able to exert any authority over
the Provinces. The desire for greater independence on the part
of these Provinces was, indeed, a mainspring of the revolution.
They are not likely easily to give up to a President what they refused
to an Emperor. Whether Yuan Shih-kai will be elected permanent
President of the Republic by the National Committee is, of course,
still quite uncertain. The support of Dr. Sun Yat-sen is much in
his favor. So far none of the Powers have recognized the new
Republic. As in the case of the Portuguese Republic, they are
doubtless waiting for its definite constitution.
The question of money has been the chief obstacle to complete
success of the new regime. A large sum is required, and the
bankers of six Powers have combined not to lend except under
certain conditions. They look upon every Chinese government,
whether Central or Provincial, as unworthy of trust, and for this
they have good reason, based upon experience of the past. The
conditions which the group of the six Powers demanded the Chinese
government looked upon as humiliating.
It is now stated that a loan is to be made, although for a
much smaller sum than was at first sought. The fact that the
government has promulgated an order to create an Audit Bureau
1913-] RECENT EVENTS 715
charged with the auditing of the revenues of the Central and
Provincial Governments, and that the services of an expert foreigner
are to be enlisted, has doubtless facilitated the negotiations of this
loan, and has led to a modification of the conditions which had
proved so unacceptable to China, although some measure of control
of the expenditure is secured. Steps also have been taken to effect
a reform of the currency a long-standing evil. For this purpose
a foreign adviser has been chosen, a gentleman from Holland.
In a very important matter the Republic has shown itself far
less efficient than the deposed Emperor. The latter was able by an
Edict to suppress the growth of opium. This was done, so effec-
tually that a Treaty was made with Great Britain to bring the trade
to an end within a time shorter than that at first stipulated.
Since the establishment of the Republic some of the Provinces have
acted in violation of the Treaty obligations, and the Central Govern-
ment has been unable to bring them to a sense of their duty. Hence
complications are likely to arise with Great Britain, and a possible
reversion to the evils of the opium trade may be the result, for
it is understood that Great Britain contemplates terminating the
Opium Agreement of 1911 unless its conditions are observed.
The Treaty made last October by the Mongolian authorities
with Russia practically excludes the Chinese not merely from the
administration of that country, but even from the settlement of the
Chinese within its boundaries. On the other hand, to the Russians
there are granted a large number of special privileges, the effect of
which is to make Mongolia as free to Russian industry and com-
merce as is Siberia itself.
Action has been taken by Great Britain in restriction of rights
claimed by China over Tibet. In this case China has recently
made efforts to exert actual sovereignty over a country of which
she is only the suzerain, and which has hitherto possessed a large
measure of autonomy. This was done in violation of a Con-
vention made in 1906. Great Britain has informed China that
while fully recognizing her suzerainty, she cannot suffer her to
assert sovereignty over a country which has the right to make
treaties in its own name.
Japan has just been passing through a
Japan. Cabinet crisis of which it has been some-
what difficult to find a solution. The coun-
try stands greatly in need of financial retrenchment. Taxa-
716 RECENT EVENTS [Feb.,
tion has been on a war footing. The burden of taxation
is said to be double that of France. Prices, too, as in the rest of the
world, have been steadily rising. Retrenchment, therefore, was
considered necessary, but the proposals of the Premier stood in
the way of that increase in the army in Korea which was demanded
by the War Minister. The latter accordingly resigned, and as no
other War Minister could be found, this led to the resignation of the
Cabinet. Great difficulty was experienced in finding a Premier
capable at once of relieving the burden of taxation, and of satisfying
the demands of the army. The choice at last fell upon Prince
Katsura, who only a few months ago had announced his final
retirement from public life. It is probable that he acted in obe-
dience to the Emperor's command; for, although Japan has a con-
stitution, the Emperor still possesses a large degree of authority.
This is shown by the fact that he issued an edict by which he
ordered an admiral who had refused the Ministry of Marine in the
new Cabinet to take that office an order which was promptly
obeyed. The new Cabinet has a difficult work to do, at once to
satisfy the army and to effect economics. Its prospects are not
very bright.
The conduct of the Japanese administration of Korea has
been severely criticized. Over one hundred Koreans, most of whom
were Christians, were sentenced in September for a conspiracy to
murder Count Terauchi, the Governor-General. The evidence
which led to this conviction, it is alleged, had been secured by the
use of torture, and in various respects the police and judicial
methods made use of at the trial are said not to have reached the
standard of a right administration of justice.
WE take pleasure in putting before our readers the work of the
American Eunomic League, of which Mr. Richard Dana
Skinner is President. The headquarters of the League are at Cam-
bridge, Massachusetts. Its work is of the kind that is sorely needed
in the matter of social reform to-day. The League is an association
of Catholic university and college graduates, and its aim is not only
to spread abroad correct eunomic principles, but also to stimulate a
keen and active interest among the Catholic laymen of the country in
the vital and pressing social questions of the day.
THE League plans to have local chapters throughout the country and
a national headquarters. Part of its programme is to propose
subjects for debate and general discussion; to report arguments and
results, and thus in time to train a number of capable speakers.
Furthermore, it plans the publication and distribution of pamphlets
dealing with the most important social and economic questions, and
written by the best Catholic authorities.
Such a work ought to receive the encouragement and support of
every zealous Catholic.
The following appeal has been sent out by the League :
What do you consider the greatest menace to the State?
To this question would you not reply, at first, " The instigators of revolu-
tion?"
But, after reflection, would you not see a factor still greater, far more basic,
namely, that which makes revolutionary agitation possible?
If all parts of society were properly ordered, the revolutionary would be
laughed to scorn ; yet your experience constantly shows that he is one of the most
seriously accepted persons of the day. He is feared only because he has power.
The truly important question is, where does he secure that power?
His stronghold lies in the blind financial greed which sucks the life blood
from the heart of our nation, in the gross materialism and immorality practiced
by the Scribes and Pharisees of our day, and ill concealed under the cloak of
a false and hypocritical Christianity, with which they would deceive those
about them. Among a large proportion of our citizens religion is desirable
only so long as it is convenient, and respectable only in so far as it is fashionable 1
It is time to awake! The true spirit of Christ still lingers here and there;
the Catholic Church is at once its chief promoter and protector. It is time to
infuse this spirit into the practical social and economic life of the nation! No
mere "system" of human and fallible laws can supplant eternal justice. Unless
human law is based on Divine law, it becomes futile ; social order and equilibrium
718 WITH OUR READERS [Feb.,
must be brought into being, not by an artificial system, but by the saving grace
of true Christian love!
The Eunomic movement, as its name implies, has two great objects. First,
the awakening of a strong public conscience by spreading abroad the great social
and economic principles of Christian Democracy long maintained by the Church,
and particularly emphasized by the late Pope, Leo XIII. Secondly, the attain-
ment of social order by a systematic endeavor to secure the enactment and
enforcement of humane laws based on the true understanding of Divine
justice.
Do you not see about you hundreds of crying abuses, the weight of which
has dragged us into the mire? Do you not realize that half of these abuses
could have no foothold if the strength of public opinion were directed against
them? Do you not see that it is only the callousness, the deadly apathy which
has blunted a large part of the public conscience, that allows these abuses
to continue unchecked, that unconsciously fosters the spirit of revolution at
its breast?
It is truly revolution that is needed, a revolution in the minds and hearts of
men ! , That is the revolution which the teachings of Christ wrought in the
hideous corruption of Imperial Rome, centuries ago. That is the revolution
which the same teachings, the same Divine principles of social order, must
work to-day, amidst a corruption in many ways scarcely less hideous !
This is the true revolution for which the Eunomic movement is striving, the
revolution which shall raise men's hearts once more to God, which shall supplant
with justice, commercial integrity and civic righteousness the religious indiffer-
ence, the dishonesty and corruption of the disordered life surging about us!
POME few weeks ago His Eminence John Cardinal Farley, in a
O lengthy and timely commentary on the Minority Report of the
British Divorce Commission, showed how the widespread evil of
divorce throughout our country has made us in this respect the laughing
stock of the civilized world. In connection with what His Eminence
then stated, the following figures, given by the Rev. Mr. Moody at a
meeting of the New York State Marriage and Divorce Commission,
are instructive.
" The Pacific Coast has been the greatest divorce centre not only
of this country, but of the entire world, and in that belt of Washington,
Oregon, and California the divorce centre has been San Francisco.
In the year 1912 alone there were granted in this country over 100,000
divorces. More than 70,000 children, mostly under the age of ten
years, were deprived of one or both parents by divorce. In the last
forty years 3,700,000 adults were separated by divorce in the country,
and more than 5,000,000 persons were affected by these cases.
" The bulk of these cases in that period have been in the Middle
Western States, nine of which provided 632,000 divorces, or practically
half of all the divorces in the country. Illinois alone provided 120,000
divorces, and for this reason we have deemed it wise to make the
beginning of our movement in that State, where we now have a com-
1913-] WITH OUR READERS 719
mission on marriage and divorce striving to bring about reform of
the marriage and divorce laws and work for countrywide uniformity
thereof. Pennsylvania had 55,760 divorces, the State of California
50,000, and that of New York 44,450.
" New York State, however, sent 18,169 * i ts couples into other
States to procure divorces, and probably 10,000 more persons who
obtained divorces without leaving records of their place of marriage.
Thus New York's total is probably 80,000 divorces. These migratory
divorces, cases sent from the State into another, constitute sixty-six
per cent of the divorces in Connecticut, fifty per cent of those in New
York, and forty-two per cent of those in New Jersey. Most of these
were procured elsewhere than in the State where the parties lived,
in order to defeat the ends of real justice where there was no clear
case justifying divorce.
" In twenty years 170,000 cases out of the total of 900,000 divorces
were brought on with change of residence migratory divorces. From
twenty-five to fifty per cent of the children in our reform schools
have been found to have got there because of the separation of their
parents.
" In this country there is a pressing necessity of legislation re-
quiring every State to see to it that both the parties in every divorce
suit are represented. At present ninety per cent of the cases go by
default, with only one party represented. In Reno, for example,
divorces are granted on the utterly uncorroborated testimony .of one
party to the suit." ;/
f J
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BENZIGER BROTHERS, New York:
Meditations for the Use of Seminarians and Priests. Volume III. By Very
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$i oo net. Saints and Places. By John Ayscough. $1.50 net. The Holy
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Hugh Benson. $1.35 net.
THE AMERICA PRESS, New York:
The Names of God. By the yen. Leonard Lessms, S.J. Translated by T. J.
Campbell, S.J. $1.08 postpaid.
APOSTLESHIP OF PRAYER, New York:
Your Neighbor and You. By Rev. Edward F. Garesche, S.J. 50 cents.
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Walking with God; Working for God. From the writings of St. Alphonsus
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FRANK D. BEATTYS & Co., New York :
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D. C. HEATH & Co., New York :
Italian Short Stories. Selected and Edited by E. R. Wilkins, Ph.D., and R.
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THE BUFFALO CATHOLIC PUBLICATION Co., Buffalo :
Lances Hurled at the Sun. By Rev. James H. Cotter, LL.D. $1.00.
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN Co., Boston :
Vocations for Girls. By Mary A. Laselle and Katherine Wiley. 85 cents net.
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A Guidebook to Colorado. By Eugene Parsons. $1.50.
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Orders. By Rev. Louis Bacuez, S.S. $1.25. Polemic Chat. By Edmund
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R. & T. WASHBOURNE, LTD., London :
Lourdes and the Holy Eucharist. By Rev. Paul Aucler, S.J. Pamphlet, i penny.
AUSTRALIAN CATHOLIC TRUTH SOCIETY, Melbourne :
Purification After Death. By Rev. M. J. Watson, S.J. A Lost Holiday, and
Other Stories. By Miriam Agatha. (N. S. W.) The Melancholy Heart.
By F. W. Faber, D.D. How the Angel Became Happy. By Canon Sheehan,
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THE
CATHOLIC WORLD,
VOL. XCVI. MARCH, 1913. No. 576.
THE POETRY AND PROSE OF LIONEL JOHNSON.
BY ELBRIDGE COLBY.
HERE were two chief inspirations to the poetry of
Lionel Johnson, the Catholic Faith and Ireland.
Whatever others may be attributed to him whether
reminiscences of Oxford, affection for Winchester,
devotion to the classics, reverence for nature, mem-
ories of Cornwall and Wales, or cherishment of his friendships
they are merely incidental and subordinate to the two larger in-
terests. They are confined to illustration, to amplification, to sup-
port of one of the main theses. The poems which discuss sub-
jects purely ideal may be limited in material to one of the minor
fields ; but the coloring is always Catholic or Irish. Lionel Johnson
received impressions and emitted expressions in a certain poetic
mood. In some poems this poetic mood is evident only as deter-
mining the point of view; in others it is the sole motif of the piece.
It has emanated from his love for Catholicism and for Ireland;
and naturally, therefore, his poetry would deal to a large extent
with ideals and ideas of a Catholic and of an Irish character.
Before we speak of Lionel Johnson as a poet of the Celtic
Renaissance, it is necessary that we should examine this " move-
ment " and learn whereof it consists. I have avoided the well-nigh
accepted title "Irish Revival," because I consider it a misnomer.
The writers who compose the school of Mr. Yeats are in no sense
the lineal literary descendants of the early Irish poets or of the
Copyright. 1913. THE MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF ST. PAUL THE APOSTLE
IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
VOL. XCVI. 46.
722 POETRY AND PROSE OF LIONEL JOHNSON [Mar.,
daring, patriotic, mid-century singers of Irish legends, and of
Irish heroism Davis, Mangan, Callanan, and Walsh. The true
Irishman, Mr. G. B. Shaw to the contrary notwithstanding, is a
very simple character with a strong faith; his character is to a
certain extent represented in the work of the writers of '48, and
in the works of Griffin, Lever, Lover, and the Banims. A real
" Irish Revival " would not have failed to take the Irish themselves
into account. I have adopted the words " Celtic Renaissance "
as better suited to the work of the school of Mr. Yeats for two
reasons : it is essentially Celtic rather than Irish, not limiting itself
to the narrower field of Ireland; it is analogous to the "Renais-
sance " period in European literature, of which John Addington
Symonds has treated, in that it is not so much an attempt to re-
construct a by-gone past as to draw upon that past for the unusual,
the fantastic, and the weird bits of illustrative material.
Furthermore, this Celtic Renaissance is very much outside
the trend of Irish, and within the trend of English, literature.
Wordsworth crystallized the idea that the object of all poetry was
truth ; Poe affirmed that poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty ;
and Keats declared that " beauty is truth, truth beauty." Thus
began the nineteenth century worship of beauty, which resulted in
the revival of buried centuries, and which produced in turn the
poetry of Keats, Tennyson, Morris, Rossetti, and Swinburne, and
of Pater, Patmore, and Francis Thompson. Then, early in the
nineties, it occurred to some that instead of going back to "the
glory that was Greece and the grandeur that was Rome," instead of
seeking materials in the mediaeval romances and legends, instead
of delighting in the gallant sights of Italian tournaments, these
writers might find for their inspiration new material in the dim
forgotten mists of the Celtic twilight before the dawn of history
in the British Isles. Thus the Celtic Renaissance is a part of the
English aesthetic movement. We may add that it is essentially
pagan; and that it is essentially a movement of defeat, a material
and a spiritual renunciation.
For a confirmation of the statement that it is essentially
pagan, we have only to turn and think of the beautiful and cold
grandeur of Pater, and the imitated ferocity of W. E. Henley's
Song of the Sword, and connect them in our mind with the heart-
less brutality of Fiona MacLeod. In Marcath* we get the wild,
terrible beauty of the fighting life of other days.
*Fiona MacLeod: Mircath in The Washer of the Ford and Other Tales, p. 293.
1913-] POETRY AND PROSE OF LIONEL JOHNSON 723
Olaf the Red went into the sea, red indeed, for the
blood streamed from head and shoulders and fell about him as
a scarlet robe When Haco the Laugher saw the islanders
coming out of the West in their birlinns, he called to his
vikings, " Now of a truth we shall hear the Song of the Sword ! "
No man knew aught of the last moments ere the bir-
linns bore down upon the viking's galley. Crash and roar
and scream, and a wild surging; the slashing of swords, the
whistle of arrows, the fierce hiss of whirled spears, the rend-
ing crash of battle-axe and the splintering of the javelins ; wild
cries, oaths, screams, shouts of victors, and yells of the dying;
shrill taunts from the spillers of life, and savage choking cries
from those drowning in the bloody yeast that bubbled and
foamed in the maelstrom where the warboats swung and reeled
this way and that; and over all the loud death-music of Haco
the Laugher Never had the sword sung a sweeter song.
Also, the writings of Mr. Yeats and of John M. Synge do not
obtain the deep spirituality of the Irish faith. They deal with
superstitions, with dreams, with fantastic ideality rather than with
the great fervent forces which stir humanity. Mr. Yeats, who
undoubtedly stands at the head of this " Irish School," has many
things in common with Arthur Symons, decadent of decadents,
worshipper of the vaguest of all vague symbols of beauty. His
mood is the same as that of Symons, but his subject is different.
He deals with the tragedies of Celtic myth and legend instead of
London music-halls and bought kisses. So, Mr. Yeats has, in an
un-Irish fashion, joined himself to the morbid devotees of a beauty
that does not, and cannot, exist. Through all his work there is
the muffled beat of a despondent heart, the feeling of helpless
regret, the note of defeat, the vague and vain longing for " old
forgotten far-off things."
Into the midst of this came Lionel Johnson, fresh from the
classic severity of a Paterian-Oxford influence, and the positive
convictions which had led him along the road to Rome. He was
of the Celtic Renaissance and yet not of it. Although he came
from a family which had participated in the persecutions and atroci-
ties of 1798, he developed a love for Ireland. He saw the legacy
of past years oppressing Ireland, and felt the tragedy of defeat.
But, just as in the dark and troublous hours of the Middle Ages
sincere Christians abandoned material things and consecrated them-
selves to God, Lionel Johnson stepped out of the line of retreat
724 POETRY AND PROSE OF LIONEL JOHNSON [Mar.,
which was marching backward to contemplate the dim disasters
of long ago, and consecrated himself to spiritual happiness and to
thoughts of ultimate perfection, ultimate conquest, ultimate realiza-
tion. Ireland had lost the material, and other poets had, therefore,
assumed the loss of the spiritual as well. But, with Lionel Johnson
it was different. Witness his sentiments in the lines on the statue
of Charles I. : sentiments which seem to characterize himself :
Although his whole heart yearn
In passionate tragedy:
Never was face so stern
With sweet austerity.
Our wearier spirit faints,
Vexed in the world's employ:
His soul was of the saints;
And art to him was joy.
The eternal stability of his faith was derived from the divine
authority on which he based his hopefulness. Therein is the ele-
ment of distinction between Lionel Johnson and the other English
poets whose work has contributed to this Celtic Renaissance
hopefulness. His verse treats of the ideals of man symbolically,
rather than the transitory things of the world, as theirs does;
but his spirit faces forward.
Quotations from three well-known poems will illustrate his
attitude. The first deals with the legend of Sertorius, the Roman
leader in Spain, who turned in the hour of defeat and sought to
sail westward to the mystical mythical Hesperian Isles, where there
is ever peace and hope, and who, for his dreams, was treacher-
ously slain by mutineers. It illustrates the persistently hopeful
thoughts of the things that are to be.
No trader thou, to northern isles,
Whom mischief-making gold beguiles
To sunless and unkindly coasts :
What spirit pilots thee thus far
From the tempestuous tides of war,
Beyond the surging of the hosts ?
Dreams! for they slew thee: Dreams! they lured
Thee down to death and doom assured:
1913-] POETRY AND PROSE OF LIONEL JOHNSON 725
And we were proud to fall with thee.
Now, shadows of the men we were,
Westward indeed we voyage here,
Unto the end of all the sea.
"And we were proud to fall with thee" Thus does Lionel
Johnson think that whatever may happen to the body, the soul that
stands firm will conquer. With the slight note of sadness at the
crushing of the Irish spirit, he mingled a feeling of triumphant
gladness; with his passionate love he mingled a chaste aloofness *
all of which is demonstrated by reference to lines in the ode on
Ireland.
Thy sorrow, and the sorrow of the sea,
Are sisters; the sad winds are of thy race:
The heart of melancholy beats in thee,
And the lamenting spirit haunts thy face,
Mournful and mighty Mother! who art kin
To the ancient earth's first woe,
When holy Angels wept, beholding sin.
For not in penance do thy true tears flow,
Not thine the long transgression: at thy name,
We sorrow not with shame,
But proudly; for thy soul is white as snow.
And of the loyal hearts overseas he says :
Far off, they yet can consecrate their days
To thee, and on the swift winds westward blown,
Send thee the homage of their hearts.
The essential difference between the material and spiritual
despondency which we know to be characteristic of the Celtic
Renaissance, and the material defeat and spiritual triumph of
Lionel Johnson, is perhaps best shown by the apostrophe to the
sun in the lines to Gwynedd.
From dawn of day,
We watch the trailing shadows of the waste,
The waste moors, or the ever-mourning sea :
What, though in speedy splendor thou hast raced
Over the heather or wild wave, a ray
Of traveling glory and swift bloom ? Still thou
Inhabitest the mighty morning's brow;
And hast thy flaming and celestial way,
Afar from our sad beauties, in thine haste.
726 POETRY AND PROSE OF LIONEL JOHNSON [Mar.,
The chief characteristic of the poems on Ireland are this lofty
idealism and the refusal to accept a mood of defeat, this secure
confidence in a " flaming and celestial way afar from our sad
beauties." Lionel Johnson, together with several lesser poem-
writers such as Mr. Seumas MacManus and " Ethna Carberry,"
should have the best claim to distinction in a true " Irish Revival."
No tear-stained Celtic Renaissance this, but a courageous and hope-
ful advance toward better days, a movement founded on a pas-
sionate and practical love of Ireland, a march of Christians with
strong loves and strong hates, with great hopes and great fears.
They are minstrels to incite advancing warriors; they are bards
to stir the fighters to battle ; they are songsters to rouse the mircath
in the hearts of the soldiers. For the benefit of those who have
falsely had the idea that Lionel Johnson's mood was that of a
recluse, a calm cloistral composer, austere, somber, and sad, I will
quote a single stanza from Ways of War, an imagined picture of
future assemblings, future fights, and future victories.
A dream ! a dream ! an ancient dream !
Yet, ere peace come to Inisfail,
Some weapons on some field must gleam,
Some burning glory fire the Gael !
There is no doubt of the definiteness and the action implied in
those lines !
Where Mr. Yeats contributes to Irish or English literature
merely a vague and indefinable yearning and a haunting melancholy,
this Catholic poet contributes true enthusiasm. The Celtic char-
acteristic of intense individuality and remoteness is lacking in
the work of Mr. Yeats who has peddled to the world an unnatural
sadness; but Lionel Johnson utilized contemplation and solitude to
express high inspirations for men and high aspirations for man.
In his thoughts of Ireland there is the mark of firm decision backed
by careful thought. His mood is one to elevate, not to depress.
He stood on embattled ground, facing forward.
We have discussed the inspiration of Ireland the influence
of Ireland upon him and his interest in Irish affairs.
The other inspiration of Lionel Johnson was the Catholic Faith,
and there were many phases to his love for the Church. Mr. Yeats
once said that Johnson had
1913-] POETRY AND PROSE OF LIONEL JOHNSON 727
made a world full of altar lights and golden vestures, and
murmured Latin and incense clouds and autumn winds and dry
leaves, where one wanders, remembering martyrdoms and cour-
tesies that the world has forgotten. His ecstasy is the ecstasy
of combat, not of submission to the Divine Will ; and even when
he remembers that " the old saints prevail," he sees " the one
ancient priest" who alone offers the sacrifice, and remembers
the loneliness of the saints. Had he not this ecstasy of
combat he would be the poet of those peaceful and happy souls
who, in the symbolism of a living Irish visionary, are compelled
to inhabit when they die a shadowy Island of Paradise in
the West.
Thus, the head of the " Irish School " has selected for comment
one of the few poems that are not composed of distilled courage.
The one indicated, The Church of a Dream, is the nearest in poetic
mood to the Yeatsian haunting music of sweet sorrow, and to the
Yeatsian human helplessness and inevitable fatalism when
The host is riding from Knock-na-rea,
c
the host whose cry is,
And if any gaze on our rushing band
We come between him and the hope of his heart,
We come between him and the deed of his hand.
This idea on which Mr. Yeats has dwelt is the very point
of departure for Lionel Johnson from the spirit of the Celtic
Renaissance. Instead of " the sadness of all beauty at the heart "
and the " song of sorrow," we have the trumpet peal rung out by
the champion of a vigorous cause. There is something real and
tangible about the faith of a man who could write such stanzas
as these from Te Martyrum Candidates:
Ah, see the fair chivalry come, the companions of Christ!
White Horsemen, who ride on white horses, the Knights of God!
They, for their Lord and their Lover Who sacrificed
All, save the sweetness of treading, where He first trod !
These through the darkness of death, the dominion of night,
Swept, and they woke in white places at morning-tide :
They saw with their eyes, and sang for joy of the sight,
They saw with their eyes the Eyes of the Crucified.
728 POETRY AND PROSE OF LIONEL JOHNSON [Mar.,
Now, whithersoever He goeth, with Him they go :
White Horsemen, who ride on white horses, oh fair to see !
They ride, where the Rivers of Paradise flash and flow,
White Horsemen, with Christ their Captain: for ever He!
This " ecstasy of combat " is seen with more subtlety, and
more from the point of view of the individual, in the lines to
The Dark F Angel:
I fight thee, in the Holy Name!
Yet, what thou dost, is what God saith:
Tempter! should I escape thy flame,
Thou wilt have helped my soul from Death.
* * * * *
Dark Angel, with thine aching lust !
Of two defeats, of two despairs:
Less dread, a change to drifting dust,
Than thine eternity of cares.
Do what thou wilt, thou shalt not so,
Dark Angel ! triumph over me :
Lonely, unto the Lone I go;
Divine, to the Divinity.
In the " shadowy depth " and the " mourning gloom," he
played the part of a mystic priest who made his home with " the
rich and sounding voices of the air, interpreters and prophets of
despair." As Julian at Eleusis from the darkness of the holy place
had learned the secrets divine, so he in his literary kinship to
Pater had cultivated the classic writers of other days, and culled
the secret wisdom of their wisest minds. From Plato he mined
"truth of fine gold," and from the other great men of the past he
learned whatever they had to teach. In much the same manner as
Arnold he considered the works of the ancients as touchstones
as past hopes, past knowledge, past accomplishments from which
we should progress. And what was there to be found, he reasoned,
comparable to Catholicism in venerable richness, in greatness and
eternity of strength, and in security for the future?
With extreme care, Lionel Johnson played the role of prophet,
and, when his vision- was complete, " sang for joy of the sight."
He always loved the contemplative and the mystical; and we can
easily imagine to ourselves the splendor of his emotions after a high
1913-] POETRY AND PROSE OF LIONEL JOHNSON 729
session of lofty inspiration. The sensations must have seemed to
his heart and to his soul somewhat similar to those at Eleusis:
Then on their eyes fast sealed, their dreading ears,
Thunder with flame broke through the sanctuary:
And through the thunder, voices ; through the flame,
Visions: and in the vision and the voice,
God's light, and the whole melody of God.
Lionel Johnson was a mystic, but essentially a Christian mys-
tic; his thoughts were of the exaltation of the soul, not of the mind
or of the senses. In The Darkness he has shown us the inner life
of a solitary given to whole-hearted devotion, and in Our Lady
of the Snows he has depicted the beauty and the righteousness of
the ascetic life. He will ever be considered a worthy advocate of
monasticism. His ardent love for St. Francis of Assisi was one
of the characteristics of his mystical, sacred mind. The attitude
expressed in the poem to the Assisian, and in the poem called The
Precept of Silence, is not unlike the early mediaeval attitude. The
Christians of those days had high ideals, for which they were
willing to fight and die. Of what they liked they could not have
too much: of what they hated they could not have too little.
Classic stoicism rapidly lost favor, and people plunged into
the mood of their religion in absolute abandonment and ecstatic
exaltation. Our poet sang :
Thy love loved all things, thy love knew no stay
But drew the very wild beasts around thy knee.
Oh, lover of the least and the lowest! pray,
St. Francis, to the Son of Man, for me;
and in The Precept of Silence he said:
I know you : solitary griefs,
Desolate passions, aching hours 1
I know you: tremulous beliefs,
Agonized hopes, and asfcen flowers.
So Lionel Johnson's poetic mood, for all his classicism aroused
by Pater, was the product of a mind essentially mediaeval. His
sympathies were with the Church, and especially with the early
Church of Britain. His mood was that of some superb bard sing-
730 POETRY AND PROSE OF LIONEL JOHNSON [Mar.,
ing worthily to inspire the Christian chivalry of Arthur, singing
for the knights who
swore
To break the heathen and uphold the Christ,
To ride abroad redressing human wrongs,
To speak no slander, no nor listen to it,
To lead sweetest lives in purest chastity.*
Comparing him with the other eminent English Catholic
poets of his time, we find him utterly unique. He brought more
exquisite culture to his Catholic inspiration than did Coventry
Patmore; and yet his poetry seems less learned, less detailed, less
dogmatic, less prejudiced. It is not possible to say that Lionel
Johnson was more rich or covered a more extensive field than
Francis Thompson ; but it is possible to say that he depicted general
sensations and symbolic sentiments with more humanity and sim-
plicity, with more passion and less emotion. The early years of
the nineteenth century had shown many poets with a belief in the
infinite perfectibility of the human soul. The progress in science
soon made this wild groping seem ridiculous, and then the poets
became despondent and sought perfection in the past, " reviving
buried centuries." Lionel Johnson and these other Catholic poets
took then the station of the music-makers who stood beside the
men of old, and so shall stand forever ; and they taught that, amid a
maze of doubt, the only spiritual certainty lay in the Catholic Faith.
They sang victory amid defeat; and Lionel Johnson seems the
most fervent, the most simple, the most sincere.
As for Lionel Johnson's technique as a poet, as for his ability
as a handler of the tools of versification, little need be said. His
beauty was a thoughtful beauty and his artistry was conscious.
Most of his poems were short, but not so Herrick-like, not so care-
fully cut and polished as those of Father Tabb. They present
a single thought well enriched and finely developed ; and their length
seems to be necessary to the depth and dignity of the subject.
Johnson's poetry obtains a rare musical quality. The rhythm is
usually sustained throughout flawless. Magic is inimitable for
music; and Te Martyrum Candidatus sweeps along in a manner
appropriate to the challenging, charging, conquering " companions
of Christ." A re-reading of any of the passages already cited
will show the characteristic of his versification without further
*Alfred Tennyson, Idylls of the King.
1913-] POETRY AND PROSE OF LIONEL JOHNSON 731
quotation. The poems are thoughtful, and there is no " lyric cry."
There is, however, an elevating sweep and mount in the mere suc-
cession of words. If we wished to pause for a moment to agree
with the French Symbolists that the sound-sense, the feeling of
colors in the sound of the words, conveyed an impression of
beauty irrespective of the meaning of the words, we could scarcely
find a better example than the rhythm of Lionel Johnson. The
very movement of the line gives the sensation of elevating, of
ennobling, of aspiring, in a measure equalled only by the expressed
thought of the line. In Christmas, we have a real song:
Sing Bethlehem! Sing Bethlehem!
You daughters of Jerusalem!
Keep sorrow for Gethsemani,
And mourning for Mount Calvary!
Why are your lids and lashes wet ?
Here is no darkling Olivet.
Sing Bethlehem! Sing Bethlehem!
You daughters of Jerusalem!
Then in the wonderfully simple piece To Morfydd we see what
he can do with a refrain, varying the word and syllable sounds in
the body of each stanza so as to give a carefully studied, a clearly
premeditated, effect.
With Nature directly Lionel Johnson deals but little. In
Gwynedd (passage quoted above), in Cadgwith, and in A Cornish
Night he looks at the external world in a subjective manner some-
thing akin to that of Wordsworth. But here there is nothing
of the vague, indefinite, shifting pantheism of Wordsworth nor
is there any of the fatal and powerful pantheism of Mr. George
Russell ending in poetic, though utter, resignation. Lionel Johnson
sees all the wonderful phenomena of Nature, all the magnificent
cliffs, all the superb marine views, all the beautiful Welsh and
Cornish vignettes as revelations of the gracious and omnipotent
God. He can, when less inclined to subjectivity, give the whole
picture with a deft word or so :
While on rich fernbanks fair
The sunlights flash and dance.
But Lionel Johnson is best when he deals with some such subject
732 POETRY AND PROSE OF LIONEL JOHNSON [Mar.,
as the statue of Charles I., or Sertorius, or the Companions of
Christ when he can give his imagination the freedom it requires,
and when his genius can escape into the light of divine inspiration.
Vernon Lee has noticed " the difference between the love of
our Elizabethans for the minuter details of the country, the flowers
by the stream, the birds in the bushes, the ferrets, frogs, lizards, and
smaller creatures; and the pleasure of our own contemporaries
in the larger, more shifting, and perplexing forms and colors of
cloud, sunlight, earth, and rock;"* and I cannot but remark the
modern breadth and strength in the spirit of Lionel Johnson. What
Vernon Lee has said of the actual material facts of Nature as seen
in the other poets, applies to the spirit of Lionel Johnson. He deals
with the larger aspirations of the heart, the nobler feelings of man,
the greater influences of God.
It has been stated above that the inspirations of Lionel John-
son were the Catholic Church and Ireland. The two naturally
fused. It must be evident to all who read his poems nay, even
to all who read this paper that these were no separate inspirations.
The two were one. The Irish heart is a simple one, and in doubt
and defeat it needs a strong support. The Irish faith is deep and
certain. So the Irish poet who, moved by the political decline of
his nation, dares to lay aside the material things and seek spiritual
exaltation, finds it in Catholicism. Thus, Ireland to-day is coming
to realize that the Irish, as a nation and as individuals, must dis-
cover their future support in the strength of the Catholic Faith.
Then shall there be ecstasy, and not bitterness, of combat. Lionel
Johnson will be of that band of minstrels who raise songs in
expectation of future glory. Louise Imogen Guiney wrote in 1902,
" Lionel Johnson, after all, and in spite of all, dared to be happy."
May the present writer offer a further contribution as from over-
seas, a characterization which shall include this other, and
also amplify it: Lionel Johnson, amid the confusion and
perplexity of the world, dared to be hopeful, and his happiness
was in his hope the Church.
*Euphorion, p. 117.
THE RED ASCENT.
BY ESTHER W. NEILL.
CHAPTER I.
HE long seminary dining hall was a cheerless place,
its bleak walls, ridged by the annual trail of the
whitewash brush, and decorated at measured inter-
vals by pictures of staring Saints resplendant in
robes of gold and vermillion.
Once the young seminarians had risen in artistic revolt, and re-
quested that these impossible portraits be removed, and one of the
students, who had studied art in Paris, had even gone so far as to
call them " sacrilegious effigies," but the gentle lay brother in charge
of the dining room had convinced them that their demand was un-
reasonable and uncharitable; the old priest who had painted them
in the fervent days of his novitiate was still alive and a frequent
visitor at the seminary.
" But he is very feeble, and when he is gone," added the brother
pointing heavenwards, " ah, then "
The delegation smiled, the humorist of the class laughed out-
right.
" Brother Boniface," he said, " you propose murderous meth-
ods, but since you suggest them I am sure they are orthodox. If
it is kinder to kill a man than to convince him he's no artist, tell
us the name of the perpetrator of these monstrosities, so that we
may pray for his early demise."
The fat German brother held up his pudgy hands in mute sup-
plication. Polysyllables always confused him. He was stolid and
literal, and he regarded these gay assaults of the students as a
positive penance to be endured for the development of his immortal
soul.
To-day as he set the table for dinner, he looked up at the gilt-
framed pictures with something akin to rapture in his chromo-
loving eyes, and he wondered why the young Americans found them
objectionable.
Fifty young men sat at the two long narrow tables, eating with
734
THE RED ASCENT [Mar.,
healthy relish the coarse but abundant fare served in thick white
dishes, and passed quickly from hand to hand. The meal was
partaken of in silence. Seated in a black wooden pulpit at one end
of the room, an old priest read aloud from a spiritual book. His
voice was monotonous and tired, and fell away at times, so that the
more conscientious students, attentive to his reading, had to strain
their ears to hear him. Richard Matterson had not been listening.
He was busy with his own thoughts, and they were troubled ones ;
he was leaving the seminary to-day or to-morrow he had not
decided the hour. He was leaving against his will. He was
putting every inclination of his own aside, and he was too young,
too untried, to make the sacrifice without some inward rebel-
lion.
Dinner was nearly over, the simple dessert was being portioned
out, the old priest's voice seemed to recover itself like a runner's
breath, gaining new impetus when he sees the relieving goal the
words seemed to penetrate even Richard's deep absorption.
" In ancient days the cliffs outside of Jerusalem were the battle
ground for many warring chieftans. They have witnessed so much
bloodshed that they have been rightly called the 'Red Ascent.'
But cannot the path of every man, who struggles to attain the
heights of idealism, be likened to that bloody road? "
The reading stopped abruptly, the heavy chairs were pushed
back noisily from the table, the students rose, and murmuring a
short thanksgiving, they filed out of the dining room.
Richard leaned over and whispered to the man in front of him :
" It's the descent for me the black descent."
The man half-turned and clasped Richard's hand in silent
sympathy that meant more than he could express in words. He
was a young fellow, short and chubby, and not very intelligent.
He had idolized Richard, partly on account of the older man's
towering size and intellectual brilliancy, and partly because Richard
had good humoredly " coached " him ever since he had come to the
seminary.
As they passed into the little entry that led from the dining
room into the garden, a visitor, fresh from the world outside, cried :
" Dick Dick Matterson, since when did you begin to adorn the
tail end of a procession ? "
The troubled look left Richard's face. " Jeff Jeff Wilcox,"
he exclaimed, holding out both hands. " From what corner of the
world did you drop ? "
1913-] THE RED ASCENT 735
Jefferson Wilcox beamed his satisfaction at the cordiality of
this greeting. " Come out into the garden. I want to hear the
news right from the beginning. Come down to the lily pond
your hermit's retreat. Give me the facts. I'm bursting with ad-
vice." He linked his arm in Richard's.
As they passed through the open door that cut a golden patch of
sunlight in the plastered wall, the chubby little student looked half
enviously after them, wondering if he would ever have the courage
or the confidence thus to approach the sanctity of Richard Matter-
son's sorrow.
The lily pond was the most retired spot in all the beautiful acres
that surrounded the gray stone seminary. It was early spring,
and the lily leaves lay brown and sleeping on the placid water, but
the grounds around the lake were yellow with crocuses and jonquils.
Jefferson gave a long low whistle of surprise when he saw the
profusion of flowers : " We fellows who live shut up in sky-
scrapers, don't even know when the spring time comes. Now a
crocus is infinitely to be preferred to a calendar. Think I'll plant
a window box on my fire escape." He seated himself on the trunk
of a crooked willow that sprawled its branches across the 'lake.
" Now let's come down to business," he said, " I've traveled a hun-
dred miles to talk to you; cut out a bank director's meeting, and
left a client swearing in my office, and I only have three," he grinned
broadly. " I want to prove to you that I'm ready to stand by you
in any emergency. I've got my car at the lodge gate, so if you've
made up your mind to leave, I'm ready to take you to the nearest
railroad, but ever since our college days you have been so dead set
on entering the priesthood that I'm going to butt in and ask you
why you've changed your mind ? "
Richard sank down upon the ground by his friend's side ob-
livious to the dampness, a look of unutterable weariness in his eyes.
" I haven't changed it," he answered.
" They are not asking you to leave ? "
" No."
''' Then for the Lord's sake why do you go ? "
Richard sat silent for a moment, apparently intent upon count-
ing the many buttons on his cassock. " Remember that game we
used to play when we were kids?" he said irrelevantly, "naming
the buttons on our clothes rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief,
doctor, lawyer, Indian chief? I've found myself doing that
lately. Can you imagine any thing more asinine? Been strug-
736 THE RED ASCENT [Mar.,
gling to keep myself from getting too desperate over my prospects.
It always comes out 'rich man/ and sometimes I confess to you I'm
superstitious enough to believe there's some truth in such an
idiotic amusement"
Jefferson Wilcox turned his keen eyes upon his friend. " Then
it's money," he said.
Richard laughed mirthlessly. " It's no money," he answered.
The visitor from his vantage place on the tree trunk. bent so-
licitously over the young seminarian. " Dick," he began, and his
tone craved patience and understanding, "I'm embarrassed. You
know I'm no diplomat; I never could talk around corners. You
always were as proud as the devil, and I don't suppose two years
in the seminary have cured you of your besetting sin." He smiled
as if to foregather his courage, and then went on : " When a crabbed
old uncle, with miserly instincts, dies intestate, and a nephew he
has never seen inherits his sheckles well it's bad for the nephew.
You know I've got more than I know what to do with. I'd have
more stamina, more ambition, more energy if you would relieve
me of a little. You can make it up to me later on saving my
soul from eternal perdition. Isn't educating young men for the
priesthood a privilege for us plutocrats ? "
"You don't understand, Jeff," said Richard. "I'll have to
begin from the beginning. My family needs me I have to go
home."
" But it's money you need, Dick."
" It's everything," said Richard, and his face looked pinched
like a man who has suffered physical privation. " My mother is
dead, my father is an old man he had some money in a bank that
failed. I knew that they had to economize lately, but I did not
realize what straits they were in until a week ago when I got this
letter. It is from my sister. Read it, and then I think you will
understand." From the inside pocket of his cassock he brought
a crumpled envelope and handed it to his friend. " I trust you
will not think me disloyal in letting you read it," he said.
"Disloyal?"
" Disloyal to my family."
Jefferson put the unopened letter down on the moss-grown log
beside him.
" I had no business butting in at all," he said. " I'm going
t ask you to forgive me, but somehow well, to tell the truth,
I was disappointed when I heard you were leaving. I know you
1913.] THE RED ASCENT 737
are free to go; you're not bound in any way. It will be two years
before you are ordained."
" Four," corrected Richard.
" Well two or four, I'm never very accurate as to facts or
figures. A year or two doesn't alter the situation if you've made
up your mind to go; I know a lot of fellows do get out before
ordination. It's all right, but somehow I can't help feeling sorry.
You see, I've sort of hung on to your ideals and your spirituality,
and all your highfaluting notions of reforming the world, until
it seems to me I've sort of fallen into the habit of judging things
by your standards, and so when I heard you were leaving well
I wanted to make sure that you had a good excuse."
He looked half shamefaced as he made this confession; he was
not accustomed to talking about himself, and when he had finished
he gazed off into the distance, realizing that his cheeks were crim-
son. His complexion was as fair as a girl's. He ran his fingers
through his yellow hair until it stood upright, a trick he had
acquired in boyhood when he was embarrassed or perplexed.
" Then I'll read you the excuse," said Richard quietly. " My
sister's letter is not very coherent ; it begins :
DEAR DICK :
Everything here has gone literally to the dogs. The dogs
are flourishing a litter of puppies two months ago perfect
beauties! We might sell them, but I haven't the heart to part
with a single one, or we may have to eat them if we reach a
further state of starvation. The sugar barrel and the flour
bin are nearly empty; I can get no one to plant a kitchen
garden this year for I have no money to pay for labor. You
will have to give up this absurd idea of being a priest, and come
home to help. You can't expect us to sympathize with a re-
ligion we know nothing about. I never liked preachers any-
how, they seem so wishy washy dehumanized or fanatical.
Father is drinking again. Most of the servants have left. All
day long I've been furious with Lincoln for emancipating them.
I know the war is a long way back, but I'm sorry to-day that
I'm not my own grandmother with her slaves to command.
I can't run a farm alone; I don't know how. It's a great dis-
advantage to possess the bluest blood in the South and no money
to keep up traditions. If I had been a boy I would have been
a jockey I adore horses, I hate dish washing.
Your loving
BETTY.
VOL. xcvi. 47.
738 THE RED ASCENT [Mar.,
Jefferson turned his boyish blue eyes upon his friend. They
showed vast comprehension and sympathy. " Jove ! I'd like to meet
her," was all that he said.
" Poor little Bet," murmured Richard, " I suppose I have been
selfish without knowing it. Of course there's always been need of
a certain economy at home. I had to work my way through college
tutoring, you remember? But there's always been plenty of niggers
around for harvest hands, and our table was always fit for a king,
now "
Jefferson held out his hand appealingly, " Won't you let me
help ? " he said.
" No," Richard interrupted him, and his tone showed irritation.
" You know I can't let you support my family for years to come.
The responsibility is mine, and the sooner I shoulder it the better,
and yet I'm a little afraid of myself."
" Afraid ; what do you mean ? "
" Well you know I'm not a saint, I'm only a man with one idea.
I believe if I turn farmer it will be to the exclusion of everything
else, books, prayers, all the idealistic things of life. I'll think and
dream, and talk fodder and cows and crops."
" Well there are worse things," said Jefferson philosophi-
cally.
Richard smiled faintly. " Then the sooner I get out of here the
better. I'll leave this afternoon if you will take me to the station.
I believe I have some clothes somewhere. I won't keep you long
if you will wait."
' Yes, I'll wait, but I'd like to ask one last favor. If you hope
to get into the clothes you wore when you came here two years ago,
you are very much mistaken. You've gained twenty pounds.
Don't break in upon your family looking as seedy as a tin-pan
peddler. I've got a trunk on the back of my car. Been touring the
country, and forgot to take it off. Here's the key; I'll lend you
a suit. I'll get it when I come down to visit you."
" Well, give me the key," said Richard resignedly. " If I'm
going to town with you I suppose I'll have to spruce up. I don't
want to look like an escaped monk. Remember when we were at
college and only had one dress suit between us? Remember the
night you went to the students' ball? You were to dance until
twelve, because I didn't know how, and then you promised to
return so that I could put on the clothes in time for the refresh-
ments "
1913.] THE RED ASCENT 739
" And I never came."
" Do you remember the excuse you gave ? You never were
a ready liar."
Jefferson grinned. " I've forgotten the details," he said, " but
I remember the night. I was head over heels in love with little
Lilybelle Lee euphemistic title. Remember that girl? She was
years older than I was, and I adored her. Didn't even come to my
senses when I saw streaks of rouge on her pocket handkerchief
the night we got caught out in the rain. Used to write odes to
the roses in her cheeks and the blackness of her eyes, when any
chump would have known they were chuck full of belladonna.
Didn't wake up until dad wrote me to go ahead and propose to her,
that he had had the same symptoms for the same lady twenty
years ago."
" That's an old joke," said Richard with a wan smile.
" Maybe," agreed Jeff reflectively, "but it has curative prop-
erties. You never did play the fool, Dick. Girls never seemed to
enter into your ken "
" I didn't have time."
" Time ! It wasn't that, it was lack of inclination. You
wouldn't know how to talk to a girl if you met one. Frivolity
never was your long suit. Never could explain or understand why
you and I should be so chummy."
Richard threw his arm affectionately around his friend.
" Give me that key. Got a red necktie ? Always did have a pref-
ence for red. Believe me, giving up neckties was the only real
sacrifice I made when I came here."
Jeff patted the long white hand that was artfully pulling his
own necktie out of place. " I'm glad to hear it," he said. " Since
you're immune from other normal notions, a little weakness like
a red necktie seems to bring us closer together, and I'll believe
anything of anybody since that old anchorite, that used to teach
us philosophy, told me that he had great difficulty in giving up em-
broidered waistcoats that seem to have been the vogue in Paris
a hundred years ago. I don't know anything about vocations or
calls or the high paths of spirituality; I had depended on you as
a sort of aeroplane to boost me when I had fallen too deep in the
mire; now go put on that suit and come on."
" Wouldn't you like to wait in the library ? "
" No, I'd rather wait here ; I want to get my bearings. Some-
how I can't imagine you out of this altruistic world scrambling for
74 o THE RED ASCENT [Mar.,
a living, but I suppose if you put your colossal mind to work on
a farm, something will have to drop."
Richard stood up, his arms outstretched. His shadow fell
across the brilliant crocus beds. " I can dig," and Jefferson noted
the tragedy in his eyes. "You'll admit that I'm strong enough
to dig."
CHAPTER II.
The next day, late in the afternoon, Richard arrived at his
own home station. There was no one to meet him. The old
freight agent, who ambled leisurely out of the baggage room every
time a train rattled by, stared curiously at the impressive looking
stranger, and then said with a toothless smile :
" Reckon you got off at the wrong station."
" Hope not," answered Richard humorously. " But it seems
to be a habit of mine. Ought to have arrived a year or two ago.
Your Southern trains are slow."
The old man relieved his puzzled state of mind by sending
a carefully aimed spray of tobacco juice arching towards an empty
crate. " The country is growing, sir," he said, " but this ain't no
place for drummers. Money is tight and scarce. There ain't
been no real prosperity here since Abe Lincoln freed the niggers.
Dagoes and Swedes and such ain't coming here to work when New
York's opening its arms of sin and greed right there at the boat
dock."
" I haven't even the distinction of being a drummer," said
Richard, " I'm just a down-and-out coming home."
" Home ! " the old man's sparse chin whiskers and sharp nose
nearly met as he squinted his dull eyes to discover a resemblance.
' You ain't Dick Matterson who's studying to be a preacher? "
'' You seemed to have guessed it," said Richard carelessly.
" All except the preacher part. I've had to give that up to come
home and run the farm."
The old man cackled a laugh. " Lord ! I knowed that preach-
ing was only a passing notion. The Mattersons ain't that kind.
I've known 'em root and branch for over fifty years. I was in
your pa's regiment one of the first to enlist. I tell you he was
a fighter, and he could swear harder than any man in the regiment.
Swear black and blue with the bullets whizzing around him like
1913.] THE RED ASCENT 741
hail. Don't believe he would know how to pray even at the
judgment seat. When they picked him up at Gettysburg, with his
leg shot in two, he was still a-swearing. But I reckon he didn't
mean no disrespect to the Almighty. Your pa is a great man, and
we young fellows in them days would have followed him into hell
fire, I reckon. We were in some mighty tight places; caught
in a ridge of rocks one day with a skirmish line of Yanks on either
side. I don't want no hotter place than that, but the Colonel was
as cool as you please. Lit his old corn-cob pipe even gentlemen
smoked them in those days didn't have nothing else, and he climbed
up on that there ridge and signalled for help down the valley.
Yanks thought there was a whole army behind the hill and they lit
out. Signalling down the valley was a hoax; Colonel knowed
there wa'n't another regiment of Confeds nearer than twenty-five
miles."
" I've heard of the signalling," said Richard quietly.
" Reckon you have," said the ragged old soldier. " Reckon
everybody has heard of it. Your pa is a great man. Used to call
him the 'Fighting Bantam' in them days, cause he was undersized,
and all the other Mattersons have been tall men like you. Reckon
you favor your grandfather; he stood six feet three in his socks;
he was a Mexican War veteran fighting runs in the blood. Your
pa sure was a great soldier, a great man."
"Thanks," said Richard genially, holding out his hand. "Every
son likes to hear his father praised. Come and see us. The
Colonel will be glad to have you, I know."
" Well I ain't sure of that," said the old man reflectively, wip-
ing his mouth on his coat sleeve. " I ain't nothing but poor white,
and I know my place. Mustering out a regiment is one thing, and
parlor visitors is another."
Richard smiled. He had held so many heated debates on the
equality of man, the absurdity of social distinctions in a democracy,
and he had been leading the academic life so long, that he had almost
forgotten the old South's taut lines of aristocracy.
" Nonsense," he said aloud, patting the old man on the back,
" you are both two old soldiers ; that's reason enough to get to-
gether. I thought my sister would drive over to meet me. I sent
a telegram."
" I reckon you did," agreed the old fellow reminiscently.
" So that was your telegram. I reckon you can find it lying on
the desk in the office. The operator had a spell of cramps and
742
THE RED ASCENT [Mar.,
had to go home. He said the telegram wa'n't important, no wed-
dings, nor deaths, and he never did believe in people telegraphing
about nothing."
Richard laughed. " Well, it's good for a man to realize his
own nothingness. I forgot I lived in a country where they send
telegrams by mail. I'll leave my grip here until to-morrow. It's
a little too heavy for a four-mile tramp. Good-bye to you."
The old man straightened up and gave the military salute.
" Tell the Colonel that you seen Jeb Jackson," he said.
Some of Richard's natural buoyancy returned to him as he
strode along the moist, brown roadway. The first poignant sense
of disappointment had passed. Since he had to break away from
the life that most attracted him, he would not play the coward,
the shirker, the grumbler. His duty seemed so clearly outlined
that it did not offer even the privilege of choice.
The air was fresh and full of the delicious earthy odors of
early spring* Richard wondered a little at his own unexpected
sense of elation. By nature introspective, the past two years had
added to his habit of self-examination. He had experienced so
many moods since the receipt of his sister's letter, but this was his
nearest approach to any thing like contentment. It had been hard
to be called from the congenial atmosphere of study, from the
preparation for his life work, a life planned for the service of
others. His own bodily necessities had seemed too slight to need
consideration. Ever since the thoughtful days of his boyhood he
had dreamt of going out in the world as a warrior, at first as an
armored knight of romance battling for weak children and beggars
by the dusty high-road, or fighting his way across slippery moats to
rescue sickly maidens from cold castle towers. Then, out of the
haze of these mediaeval ambitions, had come a definite desire to
grapple with the more subtle powers in his own complex civilization ;
to denounce greed, to defend the poor from their own ignorance,
to demand justice for labor, to study preventive measures that
would relieve the multitudinous forms of suffering, while all the
time he would struggle to infuse a sense of the supernatural into
the material mass, arming men against despair with the strength
and knowledge of their own immortality.
But the great dream was ended. He must go down into the
competitive world, and plan like a million other men for the
immediate needs of himself and his family.
There had been some satisfaction in his departure from the
1913.] THE RED ASCENT 743
seminary that helped to offset the tragedy of that leave taking. His
teachers had expressed such genuine regret; the students had
crowded around him full of sorrowing sympathy; Jeff Wilcox's
loyalty had cheered him, and the old freight agent had contributed,
all unconsciously, to lessen the darkness of his homecoming.
For between Richard and his father there had never been any
real companionship or affection. The Colonel's spirit was martial,
and, since that dismal day at Appomattox, finding no legitimate
outlet it had exploited itself in acts of small tyranny in the house-
hold. The loss of his leg at Gettysburg had given him all the
selfish privileges of an invalid. He did not care to read; he had
always considered manual labor degrading. He loved horses and
dogs and the excitement of riding to hounds^ the fact that he had
an artificial leg had never deterred him from reckless feats of
horsemanship.
Richard did not resemble his father in any way, for he had
inherited much of his mother's gentleness ; he grew to be a bookish,
dreamy boy, and the indolent Colonel, disapproving of such develop-
ment, soon fell into the habit of ignoring him. But twice they had
come to open warfare the first time when Richard was only ten
years old. The boy had held out protecting arms to a little fox that
was nearly spent with running, and had hidden it in the hay loft
while the eager red mouthed hounds sniffed around the barnyard
fence, and the merry hunters came riding from the woods to
question him.
It had required courage to stand his ground and confess to
them what he had done ; then, forgetting himself, he had pleaded so
hard for the life of the little animal that one of the young ladies
of the party added her entreaties to his, and because she was the
belle and beauty of the county, not one man ventured an objection,
and she led them all laughing away, promising them roast turkey
and dumplings if they would all return and dine with her.
When the Colonel heard of the episode his face turned an apo-
plectic purple that a son of his should interfere with the gentle-
manly sport of his friends and neighbors was an unforgivable of-
fence. He stormed and swore at the trembling boy, and struck him
so hard with his clenched fist that Richard bore the bruise for
days. In the after years Richard tried to forget that blow and
could not.
The next difficulty between them did not occur until some time
later. The Colonel was going duck shooting, and, in a rare mood
744
THE RED ASCENT -[Mar.,
of paternal interest, had decided to take Richard with him.
Richard had been trained by his mother to an attitude of respectful
obedience, so he made no objection to his father's suggestion.
Even when the Colonel ordered him to wade out into the shal-
low river to pick up a wounded bird that had fallen and floated
a little beyond their reach, he turned up his trousers and went
without complaint, though the water at the edges showed films of ice.
The Colonel had made a fire on the shore, and while he busied
himself whittling sticks to a point preparatory to roasting the duck,
camp fashion, he told Richard to dress the bird, and they would
have it for breakfast.
The boy glanced appealingly at the Colonel and then at his
own blood-stained hands, and then, without warning, he fainted
at his father's feet.
The Colonel looked down upon him without compassion. That
the son of an intrepid soldier should faint at the sight of blood was
not to be regarded as an idiosyncrasy, but as a grievous fault in
character. When the boy slowly regained consciousness, the
Colonel proceeded to discipline him by sending him home in dis-
grace without his breakfast. The injustice of the punishment left
an indelible mark upon the sensitive boy's mind.
Betty was more like her father. She had been left motherless
when she was very young, and the Colonel's personality had im-
pressed itself upon her. She had had few educational advantages.
For a short time she had been taught by an assortment of frivolous
governesses, who were seeking matrimonial opportunities in the
village. Later she spent one or two years at a " Polite Institute
for Young Females," where the curriculum consisted chiefly of
piano practice and embroidering floral pillow tops. Both accom-
plishments Betty had abhorred, so one night, without asking leave
of absence, she returned to her father. Her conduct was considered
so reprehensible that she was promptly expelled. Since the Colonel
had no thought of forcing her to return, the expulsion was alto-
gether supererogatory. This experience had brought her education
to an abrupt conclusion.
As Richard reached the long poplar-shaded avenue that led
to the old Matterson mansion, he stopped for a moment, shocked
by the desolate appearance of his home. A tree, rotten at the heart,
had fallen across the driveway, and no one seemed to have had the
energy to remove it. One of the white pillars of the portico was
propped up with a rough wooden beam, shutters sagged from their
1913.] THE RED ASCENT 745
hinges, the windowpanes in the west wing were broken out, and
part of the chimney had fallen, scattering the shingles of the roof.
" God help us," said Richard, striding on more quickly. He
had not before fully realized the real poverty of his family. Now
that he saw, every personal regret for his own future was laid aside ;
his one desire was to plunge in and remedy this pitiful situation.
He had been home but seldom during the past eight years, for
he had been very late in entering college, and his whole course had
been a struggle to pay his way through. His father had told him
frankly that he could give him no assistance. At the time this had
seemed a hardship, for the Colonel had inherited a small competence
after the war that enabled him to live with some show of feudal
grandeur; he had servants, horses, a well-tilled farm, and ready
money in the bank, but he was not willing to sacrifice any of his
luxuries to aid or abet the impractical " bookishness " of his son.
A few years later when Richard wrote and announced that his his-
torical studies had led him to become a Catholic, the Colonel
was more than ever bewildered. A religious son was worse than
a studious one, and both were incomprehensible. The Colonel had
only the vaguest ideas of supernatural truths. He was a gentleman
a gentleman could not lie, nor steal, nor turn traitor to his friends
a gentleman never did anything dishonorable; he preserved his
honor at all costs, at pistol point or sword's end if need be. The
Mattersons had been wise statesmen, great soldiers, hospitable
neighbors. He lived consistently up to this creed, leaving, he said,
the praying to the women and the rest to God Almighty.
Without any monetary help from home, even Richard's vaca-
tions had been busy ones. He possessed a patient genius for teach-
ing, and a certain captivating charm for his fellow-students, so that
he was always in demand as a tutor. Several times he had gone to
Europe with backward boys, who had to be " coached " all summer
while they toured the continent with their strenuous families. So
that Richard's visits home had been few and far between, and then
he had come and gone half doubtful of his welcome. Now he
blamed himself remorselessly for his neglect of his family, toler-
antly forgetful of the Colonel's disregard of him. The old freight
agent had done much to help him to this contrite mood, and the
fact that he was needed, in a home where he had hitherto seemed
superfluous, added to the joy that all unselfish souls experience
when they enter a wide field of usefulness, and realize that their
presence is essential.
746 THE RED ASCENT [Mar.,
As he neared the house four setter dogs ran out barking at his
heels, and Betty followed, shading her eyes from the sunset glare
that she might better see the approaching stranger.
She was a slight figure standing against the dark of the door-
way; her small feet in thick tan shoes that buckled high above her
ankles;. her mud-stained corduroy skirt grazing their tops; she wore
a middy blouse open at the throat, and an old gray sweater was
flung about her shoulders, the sleeves tied around her neck to
keep it from slipping off; her curling black hair was caught in a
loose knot. It would have been hard to tell whether she was child
or woman. Richard tried to remember her age. He had always
made a point of sending her some small memento on her birthday.
She had been twenty-two last March. He hurried up the three
steps that led to the wide brick portico, and lifting her in his arms
he kissed her.
She did not recognize him and cried out, " Stop stop let me
go. The Colonel will shoot you for this ! "
" You little spitfire," he laughed, " don't you know your own
brother, Betty. Betty, didn't you tell me to come home to you ? "
She flung her arms about him, crying half hysterically. " You
frightened me to death, Dick. Why didn't you telegraph that you
were coming? "
" I did."
" But we didn't get it."
"They didn't consider it worth delivering."
" Jeb Jackson is an old fool," said Betty, stamping her foot.
" He's always poking his long nose into other people's business,
and deciding what is best for them. He's the biggest gossip in the
village."
" Why men don't gossip, Betty," said Richard, his eyes twink-
ling.
"They love it," she said with great finality. "They won't
acknowledge it, but they always encourage it. Now if you had only
sent us word you were coming, I would have come to meet you.
You don't look at all like I thought you would look."
" How is that ? I can't have changed so much in two years."
"But you have," insisted Betty, holding him out at arm's
length. " The year you left college you had a half-grown Vandyke.
Now well you must have shaved on the train, your face is as
smooth as mine."
" Oh, no, not as smooth as yours, Betty dear."
1913.] THE RED ASCENT 747
" And you look you look quite human, not like a preacher
at all."
" But I'm not a preacher, Betty."
" Well, I'm glad you're not," she said. " It's almost worth the
financial failure to have you come back home."
He regarded her tenderly. " I did not know you cared."
" But I do care. I need a brother dreadfully to take me to
parties and dances and things. You really are very good looking.
I'm quite proud of you; I'm sure the other girls will be crazy about
you.".
" Work will save me from that calamity," he smiled.
She did not heed his interruption. " The Colonel has been so
cross lately that I almost felt like flying to a monastery myself.
Everything has gone to pieces. Look at the house. We had a
storm here two months ago that nearly blew us all away. The wind
banged the shutters to and fro until nearly every windowpane was
broken. Look at the chimney! I thought the whole house had
fallen down. I don't see how we are going to patch things together
at all."
" Patching is puzzling work, but I like puzzles."
" I remember," she laughed, showing two rows of even white
teeth, " how you used to pore over the puzzles in the newspapers
when you were a boy."
" And now we will work it out together," he said, laying his
hand upon her shoulder.
She shook her head ominously. " I'm not very dependable,"
she said.
" Oh, yes, you are. Come, take me to the Colonel, or per-
haps you had better announce my arrival. It seems a little dan-
gerous to take this war-like family by surprise."
[TO BE CONTINUED.]
BERGSON, NEWMAN, AND AQUINAS.
BY THOMAS J. GERRARD.
HERE can be no doubt that M. Bergson has hit upon
certain facts of experience which are of enormous
importance in the formation of a philosophy.
Amongst these may be cited the fact of our last and
ultimate phase of consciousness, that which we ex-
perience at the living present moment; the fact of the interpene-
tration of feelings with feelings, of ideas with ideas, of feelings
with ideas; the fact of the organic connection between thought
and the other activities of life.
Because these facts are so important we shall not be content
with merely criticizing his interpretation of them, but we shall
offer, step by step, an interpretation of our own. The merely
destructive critic is of some use, but not much. If we pull down
we ought also to build up. Our architects for the present plan are
Newman and Aquinas.
First there comes intuition, strictly so-called. That is an
operation of the mind, not of an organic sense. It is defined
as an act by which the intellect perceives a truth immediately
evident. For instance, it is immediately evident to me that I
am not you and you are not I. To bring any intermediate evidence
to prove it would be to act as a fool. The truth is self-evident.
Being certain of my own identity, I can pass out of myself and
consider a number of other truths in the outside world also self-
evident. For instance, " The whole is greater than its part."
And again : " Good must be done and evil avoided." Concern-
ing intuitions of this kind there is no practical difficulty.
But as we get deeper and deeper into the processes of thought,
we find that there are truths which, while self-evident to some
minds, require discursive reasoning for others. Minds made the
more capable by nature or by culture can see complex truths more
readily than minds not so capable. God, having a perfect all-
comprehensive mind, sees everything at one intuitive glance, per
unam speciem.
The question before us is this : Has man a faculty by which
he can see complex truths at a glance? Can he arrive at truths
1913-] BERGSON, NEWMAN, AND AQUINAS 749
not generally self-evident without passing through the process of
discursive reasoning? Can he come to a sublime concept by any
faculty such as instinct or intuition and apart from the faculty of
reason ?
Here there is need of several distinctions. Our first distinction
shall be that of the word " instinct." By instinct, considered as a
function of organic sense, man cannot arrive at even the simplest
abstract truths. Much less, therefore, can he arrive at the more
complex truths by instinct.
Instinct considered as an organic faculty can only touch single
concrete objects. It is by its very nature utterly incapable of
making the slightest reflection. It is common to both brutes and
men, but brutes possess it in a much more perfect degree than men.
Cardinal Newman has a very pregnant paragraph, in which
he shows that the principle of the objectivity of thought (I not you
and you not I), the first of our first principles, is founded on the
animal instinct, yet is essentially distinct from it. He says :
Next, as to the proposition that there are things existing
external to ourselves, this I do consider a first principle,, and
one of universal reception. It is founded on an instinct; I so
call it, because the brute creation possesses it. This instinct is
directed towards individual phenomena, one by one, and has
nothing of the character of a generalization ; and, 'since it exists
in brutes, the gift of reason is not a condition of its existence,
and it may justly be considered an instinct in man also. What
the human mind does is what the brutes cannot do, viz., to draw
from our ever recurring experiences of its testimony in par-
ticulars a general proposition, and, because this instinct or
intuition acts whenever the phenomena of sense present them-
selves, to lay down in broad terms, by an inductive process,
the great aphorism, that there is an external world, and that all
the phenomena of sense proceed from it. This general proposi-
tion, to which we go on to assent, goes (extensive, though not
intensive) far beyond our experience, illimitable as that experi-
ence may be, and represents a notion.*
Here Newman sheds light which reveals to us at once the
confusion of Bergson's thought. For Newman shows exactly where
instinct ends and where intellect begins. Instinct provides in-
tellect with material to work upon. Instinct is not, as Bergson
says, disinterested, self-conscious, capable of reflecting upon its
^Grammar of Assent, pp. 61-62.
750 BERGSON, NEWMAN, AND AQUINAS [Mar.,
object and enlarging it indefinitely. On the contrary, instinct
presents sensible images from which intellect makes abstractions.
Bergson's great mistake was in making intellect and instinct
act in opposite directions, and in giving them entirely different
fields of action. They act in the same direction, but each in a
different manner. They both have the same things for their
objects, but under different aspects. Sense has for its object the
appearances of a thing, whilst intellect has for its object the thing
itself, and not the appearance of it.
We will inevitably land in confusion if we do not rid our-
selves of the notion that instinct and intellect act at variance, and
in opposition to each other. While each has its distinct sphere,
both act in harmony with each other, instinct spontaneously min-
istering to intellect.
St. Thomas is perhaps more generous than Newman in ad-
mitting similarities between animal instinct and human intelligence.
He goes so far as to use the word " intellect " for some of the
higher operations of animal instinct. But he is careful to qualify
the word by calling it " passive " (intellectus passivus), and by
insisting on its singular, sensitive, organic nature. He also calls
it the vis cogitativa. He shows that this is not the differentiating
faculty between brutes and man, but that man has a real intellect,
the intellectus possibilis, so called because of its unlimited power
to think all possible ideas. St. Thomas says:
An incident of the sensitive part cannot constitute a being in
a higher kind of life than that of the sensitive part, as an incident
of the vegetative soul does not place a being in a higher kind
of life than the vegetative life. But it is certain that phantasy
and the faculties consequent thereon, as memory and the like,
are incidents of the sensitive part. Therefore, by the aforesaid
faculties, or by any one of them, an animal cannot be placed in
any higher rank of life than that which goes with the sentient
soul. But man is in a higher rank of life than that. Therefore
the man does not live the life that is proper to him by virtue
of the aforesaid " cogitative faculty " or " passive intellect."*
And again:
Sense is found in all animals, but animals other than man
have no intellect: which is proved by this, that they do not
work like intellectual agents, in diverse and opposite ways, but
*Contra Gentes, Lib. II., Cap. LX.
1913.] BERGSON, NEWMAN, AND AQUINAS 751
just as nature moves them to fixed and uniform specific activities,
as every swallow builds its nest in the same way No sense
has reflex knowledge of itself and its own activity: the sight
does not see itself nor see that it sees. But intellect is cognizant
of itself, and knows that it understands.*
This essential distinction between sense and intellect obliges
us to recognize that a man can no more think with his instinct
than he can with his big toe. The right functioning of instinct is
a necessary condition of clear thinking, just as is the right func-
tioning of blood circulation at our lower extremities. We cannot
study metaphysics if we are distracted with gout. But no amount
of vegetative operation or keen instinct can see reflexive truth.
Having made quite clear the distinction between instinct and
intelligence, properly so-called, we may pass on to consider those
higher acts of the mind in which the mind seems to act just as
instinct does, and in which it seems to go directly to its object,
complex though it be, without appearing to pass through the inter-
mediate stages of discursive reasoning.
First, however, let us admit that the operations of some
particular minds would seem to give a handle to that part of
Bergson's philosophy which limits the operations of intellect to
space, and to explicit processes analogous to the cinematograph.
There are people with what we call rigid minds and wooden
dispositions. St. Thomas the Apostle was one. My distinguished
friend, Dr. Adrian Fortescue, is another. As he passes from
the major to the minor of an argument, you can almost hear the
click, and when he passes from the minor to the conclusion, the
click becomes a snap. He is perfectly at home with such a theme
as the Orthodox Eastern Church, because that Church has been
petrified for nearly nine centuries. But if he writes a book on such
a vital thing as the Roman Liturgy, it is only to chronicle what
has been said about it by others.
Of course, the angelic Doctor had taken stock of this sort
of mind, for doubtless there were such amongst the savants of
Paris in his day even as in Bergson's. He says :
There are some who do not accept that which is said to them
unless it be said in a mathematical way. And this happens on
account of the custom of those who have been brought up on
mathematics, for custom is a second nature. This also can
*Contra Gentes, Lib. II., Cap. LXVI.
752 BERGSON, NEWMAN, AND AQUINAS [Mar.,
happen to some people on account of their indisposition, to
those, namely, who have a strong imagination and a not very
elevated understanding.
Nor is this quoted as in any way disparaging to the class. They
have their fitting place in the general scheme of things. They
make the bricks of which the builder constructs the edifice.
Wherefore, since these things are so, we may proceed with
our construction. We may observe next that there is a principle
in the philosophy of St. Thomas which does account for that
interpenetration of the faculties of which M. Bergson makes so
much. This is known as the principle of dichotomy.
It asserts that man is a composite being of two principles,
and of two only, namely, body and soul. There are not two souls
or two forms. It is the same soul in man which thinks, wills, feels,
vegetates, and actuates the primary matter. If, therefore, all these
operations are but the activities of one and the same spiritual sub-
stance, namely, the soul, they must work in mutual harmony. They
must have something more than an artificial communication with
each other. They must have an organic connection with each other.
But at the same time each one must perform the work which it was
made to perform, each one must act according to its own nature.
The will must not be expected to circulate the blood, neither must
the sensitive faculty be expected to do the thinking. Each must
do its own proper work. To emphasize this important point we
print the formula in capitals : SECUNDUM NATURAM PRO-
PRIAM (according to its proper nature): that by keeping this
phrase prominently before us we may secure our reasoning process
from degenerating into Bergsonian confusion.
Bergson professed to bring in the whole man as the total
principle which searched for truth, but by confusing mind and
sense, and by casting out the spatial relationship, his whole man
became the whole man minus intelligence, while our whole man
retains all his faculties. They act organically. Neither sensa-
tion nor volition usurps the office of intelligence. All the functions
and faculties act in harmony with each other, but each according
to its own nature, secundum naturam propriam.
St. Thomas thus describes the interaction of the various
powers :
According to the order of nature, on account of the com-
bination of the forces of the soul in one essence, and of the
1913-] BERGSON, NEWMAN, AND AQUINAS 753
soul and body in one composite being, the superior forces, and
also the body, influence each other, and hence it is from the
soul's apprehension that the body is transmuted and like-
wise conversely the transmutation of the body re-acts upon the
soul. Similarly the higher powers act upon the lower powers,
as when passion in the sensual appetite follows upon an intense
movement of the will, or when close study restrains and hinders
the animal powers from their acts; and conversely when the
lower powers act upon the higher powers, and from the vehe-
mence of the passions in the sensual appetite the reason is
darkened.*
Owing to this basic and organic connection between the facul-
ties and functions, the mind is able to make rapid and spontaneous
acts, which, in the concrete, we find difficult to analyze. It makes
quick and spontaneous abstractions. Then in the same quick way
it can pass from one concrete truth to another without having any
explicit attention fixed on the intermediate universal term by which
it does so. Thus I can say : " John Smith is a man, therefore
he can make mistakes." " John Smith is a man," that is pne
concrete truth. " He can make mistakes," that is another con-
crete truth. The universal middle term by which I pass from one
to the other is : " It is human to err." This middle term is not
expressed, but it is implied.
Afterwards, when we are talking about our quick mental
processes, we can see that the intellect has not gone out of its
province, nor has it drawn any other faculties into its province.
Why? Because each faculty and function has acted according to
its own nature.
Further, when the intellect has had much practice in thinking,
it forms intellectual habits. By these habits it can pass more
rapidly still from one truth to another. Nay, it can even sum-
marize long intellectual processes. Hence we have a recognized
form of syllogism, called the enthymeme, in which a premise is
left out, because it can be perceived implicitly. This is why the
writings of great thinkers are so frequently difficult to understand.
A well-trained mind is able to suppress, or rather to imply, much
intermediate reasoning which a less trained mind would have to
render explicitly.
Now for this quick process of thought three kinds of mental
habits are needed. First there is required the habit of common
*Quest. disp. de Veritat. qu. 26, a. 10.
VOL. XCVI. 48.
754 BERGSON, NEWMAN, AND AQUINAS [Mar.,
sense. That is the faculty of seeing those truths easily which the
average mind sees easily. In other words, a man must not be a
stupid. He must have the ordinary capacity for seeing such truths
as " twice two are four," and that " parallel lines will never meet."
This mental habit is called understanding.
Then there is required the habit of combining these first
principles. By constant practice a man can acquire a facility
in combining simple ideas, dividing complex ideas, and re-com-
bining the elements of certain complex truths to make up certain
other complex truths. When this facility has been acquired the
man passes easily from the known to the unknown. Eventually
many of his conclusions, which previously needed to be worked
out laboriously, become to him self-evident. The habit by which
he does this is called the habit of science.
Hence a physical scientist can see at a glance that water is a
combination of oxygen and hydrogen. A moral scientist can see
at a glance that marriage is the foundation of society. Thus a
proposition which needs discursive reasoning for the average mind
may be intuitive for a mind skilled in that particular science or
branch of knowledge.
Thirdly, there is a mental habit which enables a man to handle
the principles and conclusions of a science easily. This is a further
extension of the power of composition and division; the power to
study the various sciences, to trace them back to their ultimate
sources, and to ordain them to man's highest happiness and well-
being, that is called the habit of wisdom. This faculty, too, like
those of science and understanding, can be so trained as to act
rapidly, easily, and spontaneously. And when it can do this per-
fectly, then its operation is of the nature of an intuition.
In the whole of the above process, from the simplest dic-
tates of common sense up to the highest acts of expert wisdom,
one thing is abundantly clear, namely, that the operation of the in-
tellect is never a blind operation. It is one of vision from beginning
to end, a vision of evidence.
First there is the vision of first principles, the sight of those
primary truths which we liken to the vision of the bodily eye.
" It is plain as a pike-staff," we say. Then there is the vision of
science, a vision of inferences based upon experiment. Finally
there is the vision of wisdom, that grasp of a large situation which
appears in its highest perfection in men of genius, in great generals,
great statesmen, great poets, great artists. Thus by a synthesis,
1913-] BERGSON, NEWMAN, AND AQUINAS 755
based upon the Aristotelian theory of habits, does St. Thomas build
up his theory of intellectual vision.
By a different method Cardinal Newman arrives at almost
the same conclusion. His method is the analytic and comparative.
He takes the phenomena of assent in different spheres of inquiry,
he observes that men actually arrive at certitude in law, in politics,
in war, etc., and argues that they can arrive at certitude in the
same way as regards speculative and religious truth.
Just as St. Thomas uses the term " passive intellect " to
describe something which is merely organic sense, so Newman
uses the word " sense " to describe something which is strictly
intellectual.
That spontaneous act by which a man sums up all available
evidence and assents to a conclusion which is the result of it,
Newman calls an operation of the illative sense. It is exactly
the same operation which St. Thomas calls an act of wisdom,
except that whereas St. Thomas extends its range to both prac-
tical and speculative truth, Newman limits it to speculative truth
alone.
That Newman and Aquinas, approaching the question from
such opposite points of view, should be in such perfect
harmony with each other is explained by the fact that
they both possessed the same identical key. This was the
Greek word phronesis that final judgment which is so sponta-
neous, natural, and quick that it may be likened to the spontaneity
and quickness of instinct, and may be called, in its perfection,
the power of intuition. And the Greek word which represents its
foundation may be taken for an everlasting sign that the opera-
tion is strictly intellectual, and not a re-action of the organic
sense.
Says St. Thomas:
The power of intellect first of all apprehends something, and
this act is called " understanding ;" secondly, however, it takes
that which it apprehends, and orders it towards knowing or
doing something else, and this is called " intention ;" whilst,
however, it is engaged in the inquiry of that which it intends,
it is called " excogitation ;" but when it examines that which
it has thought out with other certain truths, it is said to know
or to be wise. And this is the function of phronesis, or sapientia;
for it is the function of wisdom to judge.*
*Summa, p. I., qu. 79, a. 10, ad 3111.
756 BERGSON, NEWMAN, AND AQUINAS [Mar.,
Newman writes :
This power of judging and concluding, when in its perfection,
I call the Illative Sense, and I shall best illustrate it by referring
to parallel faculties, which we commonly recognize without dif-
ficulty As regards moral duty, the subject is fully con-
sidered in the well-known ethical treatises of Aristotle. He calls
the faculty which guides the mind in matters of conduct by
the name of phronesis, or judgment. This is the directing, con-
trolling, and determining principle in such matters, personal and
social. What it is to be virtuous; how we are to gain the just
idea and standard of virtue; how we are to approximate in
practice to our own standard, what is right and wrong in a
particular case, for the answers in fullness and accuracy to
these and similar questions the philosopher refers us to no code
of laws, to no moral treatise, because no science of life, applicable
to the case of an individual has been or can be written. Such
is Aristotle's doctrine, and it is undoubtedly true. An ethical
system may supply laws, general rules, guiding principles, a
number of examples, suggestions, landmarks, limitations, cau-
tions, distinctions, solutions of critical or anxious difficulties;
but who is to apply them to a particular case? whither can we
go, except to the living intellect, our own, or another's ?*
These quotations have an additional value when we remember
that Newman did not know the works of Aquinas. From the
beginning to the end of Newman's works there is no mention
of St. Thomas. I am also of the opinion that Newman had not
read Aristotle's Metaphysics, else why should he draw his par-
allel from the Nicomachean Ethics, when the idea he wanted was
there to his hand in the Metaphysics and already applied to his
purpose. It was a happy fault on his part, if fault it was, for it
shows us at once the independence and the harmony of the three
great minds, Newman, Aquinas, and Aristotle.
It is to St. Thomas rather that we must look for the more
complete synthesis. He has one phronesis overruling the totality
of man's life, whereas Newman asks for a phronesis for each
faculty. Once again we find St. Thomas absolutely abreast of
modern times.
We may now examine the difference between the doctrine
of Bergson and that of Newman and Aquinas. The higher intui-
tion of Bergson is purely organic and sensitive, unintellectual, act-
ing only in response to its proper object. The higher intuition
*Grammar of Assent, pp. 353 and 354.
1913-] BERGSON, NEWMAN, AND AQUINAS 757
and instinct of Newman and Aquinas is strictly intellectual, but
nevertheless spontaneous, quick and easy, when in its perfection,
and only called sense or instinct by reason of a certain analogy
which it bears to them.
He, therefore, who uses the intuitive method of Newman and
Aquinas must use his intellect to the utmost of its capacity. All
its discursive reasoning is gathered up in the form of habit, and
is summarized for the service of that last ultimate judgment
which comes as an intuition. Thus the intuition, instead of being
a blind piece of guess-work, is the total result of the whole of the
man's thought. It is an illation characterized by the highest wis-
dom.
On the contrary, in the Bergsonian method, the seeker after
truth begins by maiming his intellect. He is like a man who would
dig a hole, and begins by smashing his spade. Intuition and in-
tellect are declared to work in opposite directions, the one aiming
at life, the other at inert matter. Intuition, according to Bergson,
is not a special perfection of the intelligence, but a special perfec-
tion of animal instinct.
The doctrine of Newman and Aquinas has all the advantages
which Bergson is striving for, but which he fails to obtain. Both
Newman and Aquinas are fully in touch with life. Aquinas begins
with the living ego. Then from the ego he communicates with the
outside world and receives impressions. These impressions modify
the ego, and become the material upon which the mind works.
Hence the axiom found throughout the whole system of St.
Thomas, that nothing is in the intellect except what has previously
been in the senses.
Then, when the mind has obtained the material with which to
work, there goes on a constant kinetic process. Thought is as
much a present necessity for the mind as air is for the lungs.
Hence the composition and division of ideas goes on in one con-
stant flow. First principles are worked up into knowledge and
knowledge into wisdom. Wisdom being that vital mobile faculty
of the mind by which it peers into truth and forms its explications
and applications. St. Thomas, however, takes this so much for
granted that it seems hardly worth while for him to emphasize it.
Newman, on the contrary, is never tired of insisting on the
need of associating thought with life, or rather of looking upon
thought as a form of life. Whilst ever insisting on the intellectual
nature of the illative sense, he deprecates too much introspection
758 BERGSON, NEWMAN, AND AQUINAS [Mar.,
and self-analysis. " Introspection of our intellectual operations
is not the best means of preserving us from intellectual hesitations.
To meddle with the springs of thought and action is really to
weaken them."*
Hence it is well to let the mind act naturally, not to force
one element towards the abstract flow of life and another to the
solids of the outside world; not to confine reflection to subjective
experience derived from subjective experience, but to use a sub-
jective experience which is constantly refreshed from the objec-
tive world.
Instinctively, even though unconsciously, we are ever institu-
ting comparisons between the manifold phenomena of the exter-
nal world as we meet them, criticizing, referring to a standard,
collecting, analyzing them. . .We apprehend spontaneously, even
before we set about apprehending, that man is like man, yet
unlike; and unlike a horse, a tree, a mountain or a monument,
yet in some, though not the same respects, like each of them.
And in consequence, as I have said, we are ever grouping and
discriminating, measuring and sounding, framing cross classes
and cross divisions, and thereby rising from particulars to
generals, that is from images to notions.f
Thus Newman is in complete harmony with the scholastics.
Bearing this fundamental harmony in mind we can go the whole
way with him when he shows us his method as a vital process.
We know now what he means when he says : " Logic makes but a
sorry rhetoric with the multitude ; first shoot round corners, and you
may not despair of converting by a syllogism."!
And again : " It is the mind that reasons or assents, not a
diagram on paper." The mind acts according to its own nature,
that is, it normally keeps the laws of the syllogism, even though,
through rapidity of action, it does not reflect on them. " It is to
the living mind that we must look for the means of using correctly
principles of whatever kind, facts or doctrines, experiences or
testimonies, true or probable, and of discerning what conclusion
from these is necessary, suitable, or expedient, when they are taken
for granted; and this, either by means of a natural gift, or from
mental formation and practice, and a long familiarity with those
various starting points." ||
St. Thomas crowns his doctrine by showing how it is directed
^Grammar of Assent, pp. 216 and 217. ilbid., p. 30.
tlbid., p. 94. Ibid., p. 180. \\Ibid., p. 360.
1913.] BERGSON, NEWMAN, AND AQUINAS 759
to man's eternal interests through the special gifts of the Holy
Spirit. In the natural order man orders his life aright by making
a fair equipoise between external evidence and subjective appre-
ciation of the same. He does not shut himself up within himself,
depending entirely on his own power of self -perfectibility. He
acknowledges that he is a social animal, and depends very largely
for his due perfection on the experience and influence of his follow
beings.
But if self -perfectibility is a crude fallacy in the natural order,
much more so is it in the supernatural order where man is destined
to a life so much beyond his natural powers. Wherefore St.
Thomas works into his system the revealed truth concerning the
gifts of the Holy Spirit. Corresponding with the three habits of
mind by which man passes from first principles to highest intuition,
there are the three divine gifts of understanding, knowledge, and
wisdom (intellectus, scientia, sapientia) .
Thus, therefore, concerning the truths which are proposed
to be believed on faith, two things are required on our part.
First, they must be penetrated and grasped by the intellect;
and this pertains to the gift of understanding. Secondly, it
is necessary that man should have a right judgment concerning
these truths, that he should value his power of clinging to them
and of shrinking from their denial. Such judgment concerning
divine things pertains to the gift of wisdom, whilst such judg-
ment concerning created things pertains to the gift of knowl-
edge.*
Thus the highest operations of the intellect become controlled
and guided by the Holy Spirit. These gifts have their root in
charity. Hence the greater one's charity is, so much the keener
will his insight be into supernatural truths.
Now we can discern which is the better method for a sane
creative evolution, the method of Bergson or the method of New-
man and Aquinas.
Look first at the creations of science. Have they been ac-
complished by turning away from the intellect and the outside
world, and by forcing intuition to bear on the flow of the " now? "
Columbus sees wood floating on the water and discovers America.
Stephenson sees the kettle boiling and discovers the steam engine.
Farman observes a bird flying and makes an aeroplane. Archi-
*Summa, 23. 2x qu. 8, a. 6 corp.
760 BERGSON, NEWMAN, AND AQUINAS [Mar.,
medes jumps into his bath, turns out the water, and discovers the
law of specific gravity. Is the reason evident?
Now we clap
Our hands and cry "Eureka."
Every discovery of any value to mankind has been the result
of an illation of the intellect based upon sensible experience. Some-
times the experience has been a short and simple one, but sometimes
it is a long series of patient experiments. Marconi required long
trial and continued inference to discover wireless telegraphy. So
also did Madame Curie for the discovery of radium. And so,
too, Mendel for the discovery of his laws of inheritance.
But, it may be argued, these are instances of physical science
merely. What about the real creations of art? Surely the great-
est creations of painting have been inspired by a Mother and a
Child. The most sublime works of sculpture have for their fact
value a woman or a man. So, too, in music, the very nature of
which might seem to exclude images. Beethoven, in the depths
of despair over his manuscript, hears a knock at the door: he
waits and hears another, and these two knocks provide the theme
for one of his superb symphonies. Bach takes the letters of his
name, changes the H into G sharp, and writes one of his classical
fugues. Palestrina adopts a simple melody from the plain chant,
and upon that builds up the music of a Mass. All of which points
to the universal axiom that genius is but an infinite capacity for
taking pains.
But pains are just the things which the disciples of Bergson
will not take. It is so much easier to say : " I believe in so and
so, not because I can give any reason for it, but because I see it
intuitively. If the rest of the world fails to see it, that is only
because the rest of the world has not cultivated the higher sensi-
tiveness."
Hence it is that in the world of art we have those soi-disant
creators, the Futurists and Post-impressionists. Having thrust
intellect aside, having destroyed all spatial values, and having
projected their feeling into the flux of life, they have produced
exactly that which one would expect them to produce, galleries
of daubs and smudges.
Suppose a man imagines himself a superman, beyond good
and evil, and enunciates principles for which he has no reasonable
1913-] BERGSON, NEWMAN, AND AQUINAS 761
justification principles which he sees only by intuition how are
we to deal with him ?
Many have done this; and chief amongst them is Friedrich
Nietzsche. Nietzsche called himself the " creator of new values ;"
and his philosophy is the " transvaluation of all values." He
retires to the upper regions of the Zugadina, and shuts himself up
within himself. Gradually his intuitions begin to enlarge.
" Christ," he says, " is the first prophet of transvaluation, whereas,
I, Nietzsche, am the second prophet continuing the work of Christ.
I have fulfilled Christ's work by destroying it." And so Nietzsche
feels happy, free, light. He sees himself soaring to an infinite
height above man; and believes his creative thought can do every-
thing. " I am not a man ; I am dynamite." In two years the
earth will be in convulsive throes. But before this comes to pass
his friends take pity upon him and place him under lock and key.
Perhaps the most obnoxious fruit of the Bergsonian philos-
ophy is the work of M. Georges Sorel, the apostle of the general
strike. From his quiet little home at Boulogne he sends forth
effusions calculated to put whole nations into throes. His doctrines
are only just beginning to make their way into England' and
America, though for some time they have influenced France, Italy,
Spain, and Switzerland.
The general strike, or rather the threat of a general strike, is
the weapon with which he is to renovate society. But this is not to
be brought about by intellectual organization, nor yet is it to be
justified by a reasoned statement as to what will happen afterwards.
Sorel pours contempt on such a scientific socialist as the English
organizer, Mr. Sidney Webb. His figures and statistics are indi-
gestible; they require much time and trouble to assimilate.
Patience is not a characteristic virtue of the school of Bergson.
Therefore Sorel seizes upon this intuitive method as an easy way of
escaping the intellectual and moral difficulties which the concept of
the general strike involves. Intuition, he says, is more than knowl-
edge. If looking inward upon life, you see the general strike
to be good or necessary, then intellectual analysis of the results
becomes unnecessary. " Man has only genius in the measure that
he does not reflect." The privilege of our personality is to impose
itself on the future, and to cut into it without ceasing. Hence our
intelligence cannot possibly anticipate what is going to happen.
Such ideas were readily taken up by the French syndicalists.
Here was a ready-made apology for unchecked liberty to combine,
762 BERGSON, NEWMAN, AND AQUINAS [Mar.,
and for a self-determined government heedless of all outward au-
thority.
Indeed, Sorel goes farther and distrusts socialist members of
parliament and labor representation. He prefers the creative evolu-
tionary methods of street demonstrations, strikes, boycotting, and
sabotage. For to-day the Marxian doctrine of a materialistic con-
ception of history is abandoned in favor of the creative evolution
of Bergson.
When Sorel is asked what he will have if he rejects both
intellectualism and materialism, he replies that he will depend on
creative evolution. The people must revert to primitive states so
as to get into instinctive and poetic moods. Bergson, he tells us,
has done away with the rationalists, whilst any organized plan
for the future is but the idol of politicians.
Is not the general strike an undivided whole? How can it be
possible to mark out the various parts of such a catastrophe as the
transition from Capitalism to Socialism? Is it not a vital indi-
visible flowing continuum?
This last instance may serve as a lesson to those members of
the orthodox camp, and there are many of them, who think that
metaphysics has no connection with the practical life of the multi-
tude. The filtering down is usually a process so intricate and so
long that it is not easily observable. But here the passage is quick,
requiring the minds of only two men to form a disastrous specula-
tion to realize it.
Bergson upsets the concepts of "being" and "becoming;"
then Sorel upsets railway-carriages and tram-cars. Bergson says :
" Keep your intelligence for the hum-drum things of every-day life,
but use your intuition to evolve new creations." Sorel replies:
" Yes, sire, I am doing it, and the Happy Land is coming."
Ah, but the essential condition of a happy and prosperous
community is stability, whereas the essential characteristic of Berg-
sonian philosophy is instability or change. Therefore, not by this
method can the Happy Kingdom come. A stable society can only
be assured when wealth is divided amongst the majority of the
citizens. But that is just what Syndicalism aims at frustrating.
Syndicalism, with true instinct, follows the philosophy which
prescribes everlasting change, not only accidental change, but change
of essence, change of the thing in itself. Sorel may well say that his
Happy Land is coming. Perhaps it is. But it is coming in such a
way that it will be always coming it never can and never will arrive.
THE LAND WHERE DREAMS COME TRUE.
BY JOSEPH FRANCIS WICKHAM.
HE moon hangs high in full-blown splendor over the
quiet waters of the Bay of Salerno; and the moon
beams its welcome to me as I stand near a pillar of
the pergola of the old Cappuccini monastery.
Half-way up to heaven I sleep to-night in the hotel-
convento that clings to the side of the mountain, and over the
balcony I am watching the wondrous beauty of the moon-hour.
For this is Amalfi town, the sweetest spot on the Riviera from
Salerno to Punta di Campanella.
Soft and low the gentle night breeze is blowing, and there is
a whispering through the ivy on the long row of columns yonder,
and the scent of roses on the lattices sweetens the air. Crimson
geraniums are flowering all around me, and the blooms of amaryllis
and marjoram weave their garlands at my feet. Down that 'Shel-
tered collonade orange blossoms are glowing in the radiance of the
night, and the globes of ripened fruit are hanging like dull-burn-
ing lanterns in the shadows of the green leaves. Out in the glorious
bay a white sail of a fisherman glides by, and over there, miles
away on the darker waters, a tiny shallop sleeps in solitude on the
breast of the mothering sea. And down the hill below the monas-
tery the little town is putting out her lights and going to bed.
A hundred houses cluster upon the hillside, one above another, clam-
bering for a foothold on the steep slopes, and from among them,
a silent sentinel, rises the campanile of the cathedral.
The night throws its witchery about you up here in the old
monastery, and you feel no wish to break away from the fascina-
tion of it all. Down on the sands on the shore the filmy ripples are
sparkling as they gently sift their foamy diamonds in the magic
of the streaming stars. Once in a while a faint melody is carried
to you from the bay, the joyous song of the fisher lad in the happy
toiling of the deep. Looking down beyond the jagged lines of red
roofs, beyond the campanile, beyond the inns of the town, you
catch sight of the broad road, white and clear for a little way,
but soon lost in darkest shadow. That is the path we followed
all the warm afternoon on our way to this lodging for the night.
764 THE LAND WHERE DREAMS COME TRUE [Mar.,
And back over that long road my thoughts now take me, while
I stand among the columns of the old convento.
Fair is the high road that stretches along the bay from Salerno
to Amalfi; the fairest of any land on earth, so travelers say, and
fair in very truth I found it. That afternoon we had passed
through Pompeii, and had pitied that poor city with her broken
columns and her empty urns and her warped roadways. The
sun had been beating down in relentless intensity, lava dust had
mingled with every breath of air, and so it was good to behold the
sea again at Vietri; the ancient sea, pale blue like a great opal
lying at our feet.
The drive to Amalfi lay before us, ten miles of sheerest beauty
and grandeur and undying charm, following the coast line to the
end. Nearly all the way the road is hewn out of the towering
cliffs, sometimes ascending in long inclines until it carries you
hundreds of feet above the sea. It is a gladsome experience this,
with the azure gulf below you, and the dizzy summits above point-
ing their green-clad pinnacles to the sky. At frequent intervals
the shore curves inward, and the roadway following the fanciful
windings presents new pictures at every turn. You round an en-
croachment of the bay, and across the now intervening waters you
behold in fullest vision, with all its idyllic charm, a town you have
seen but imperfectly before.
At Vietri you can look over upon Salerno, the little city by the
water's edge, resting at the foot of fairy cascades of mountain
ranges. And as you roll along with unbroken view of its red
roofs and ivory walls glittering in the afternoon light, you remem-
ber that over there sleeps Gregory the Seventh, the great Hilde-
brand, who loved justice and hated iniquity, and so died in exile.
Many another diminutive city offers you from time to time its
enchantment of memories of gallant men and good. You pass also
through several hamlets on the high road to Amalfi, homes of
fishermen who love the sea ; happy villages nestling in rocky glens,
each with its own mark of distinctive personality, but everyone
with its little beach of gray sand, and many a cream and crimson
house to brighten the landscape. You will see rising up amid the
olive trees above your magnificent drive the graceful outlines of
a large villa looking out in placid joy on the clear water. And
the air you breathe, as you behold the lofty hills on your right smil-
ing upon the blue water, is filled with the fragrance of myrtle and
cistus and gay coronilla.
1913.] THE LAND WHERE DREAMS COME' TRUE 765
On those heights, and not rarely on the foothills below you,
orange trees in uncounted numbers bear their golden fruit, some-
times at some little distance from the road, sometimes hanging their
rich yellow ornaments temptingly within reach of your fingers.
Like Yuletide trees they look, these sunlit orange groves, with
their full-colored toys fastened here and there in the unstudied
harmony of nature. And lemon trees, too, are on the descending
hillsides to your left, long rows of them, their paler fruit so many
candles in the shade beneath their branches. When the breeze
comes over the mountain tops or gently blows in from the sea, it
seems as if all the blooms of a thousand summers have mingled
their sweetness together to greet you in a perfume of delight.
But onward stretches the road. You can see vine-covered ter-
races hundreds of feet above you, where a loving toil has stolen a
level plot from a precipitous hill, and down on a rocky islet the
gaunt towers of a roofless castle watching in dreams of five hun-
dred years. You have leisure to see visions on this long drive,
and you will allow your mind to wander to earlier days when
Amalfi, the town at your journey's end, was a powerful city
republic, and sent her ships to all the ports of the traveled seas.
It was such a backward drifting our thoughts were taking,
when our reveries were sweetly broken by the chiming of a bell
in a nearby church, telling the Angelus hour. The pealing hung
tremulous on the summer air and glided softly into our souls,
graciously blending with the sea and the sky and the voice of the
fragrant earth. And after a little the sun no longer shone upon
the sea; the long shadows had reached across the waters, and the
day was done.
Down in the bay a fisherman was furling his white sail and
tacking landward. But another little boat was putting out from the
shore, and would remain all night to fulfill the everlasting persever-
ance of the toilers of the sea.
The half-light had come suddenly. Along the way the red
lamps were beginning to glimmer in the little shrines of our Lady
that are set into the house-walls ; and the Madonna, amid the blos-
soms that some knightly hand had placed at her feet, was smiling
down kindly upon those w r ho went by. More than once we passed
under green- festooned arches, with floating streamers attached, of
blue and crimson. For the morrow was to be a day of days
SS. Pietro e Paolo and all the land would be in festa.
During the afternoon we had observed the pale figure of the
766 THE LAND WHERE DREAMS COME TRUE [Mar.,
moon resting against the blue, and now when night was come it
burst out in all the splendor of its summer glory. Never since time
began, I think, was the moon lovelier than on this June night.
Full in our faces it was beaming, and then it was on our left keeping
pace with our chariot wheels, while less often the light came over
our shoulders and cast strange, fantastic shadows on the smooth
roadway in front. And all the time it mirrored itself upon the Bay
of Salerno, throwing a long full ribbon of fire across the quivering
water. A painter might have deftly drawn his brush across the
bay, so steadily did that stream of color remain trembling upon the
surface of the sea. Once a little sailboat crossed from the shad-
owed zone through the lane of light. For a moment it was sil-
houetted in brilliant lines, but the passage was soon over, and it
receded into the dimness of the distance.
About eight o'clock we jingled through the towns of Majori
and Minori. The lights were aglow in the little cities, and the day's
work over, the people were enjoying the cool of the evening. But
at one open door we could see an old, wrinkled cobbler stealing
an hour from the night in hammering the final pegs in a few pairs
of stout boots which lay in a little heap by his feet, while his happy-
faced daughter held an interested bambino. For the cottage doors
were open to the night and the moon and the soft crooning of the
sea, and we caught glimpses of many a Rembrandt grouping as we
drove past. From out an ivy-bordered window down the pathway
were wafted in feminine voice the strains of " 'A Frangesa," and
farther on, born of the heart of a violin, the dulcet notes of " Tacea
la notte placida " from Verdi's opera were wooing the listening
night. At Atrani the boats were all drawn up on the beach, and
close beside them the fishermen were smoking their pipes.
We rounded the point just beyond Atrani, and we were home
at last. There in a ravine between the hills lay Amalfi, wrapped
in moonlight and shadow, with countless houses huddled in pic-
turesque alignment on the sea sands, and the others clinging like
swallows' nests to the bold cliffs. The long beach glistened greet-
ingly on our left as we passed the cathedral, and the lights dotting
the hillside cottages beamed a welcome to the sheltering hospitality
of the city. And high over them all, two hundred and fifty feet
above the silvered water's edge, stretched the long porticoes of the
Cappuccini convent.
This was the drive to Amalfi, and this was Amalfi by night.
And when you have trudged up those multitudinous steps of the
1913-] THE LAND WHERE DREAMS COME TRUE 767
winding vaulted staircase after the long, happy ride, you will wish
to linger an hour about the pensive pergolas, or in subdued emotion
watch from your casement window the exquisite radiance of the
moon flooding the hill, and the low beach and the peaceful deep
of the surgeless sea.
But in your contemplation of all this beauty, you cannot
help thinking of the other Amalfi that lies in unceasing slumber, the
Amalfi you were wondering about back on the road in the afternoon
before the church bells began to peal, the old Amalfi that offers you
this little city as a flowery token of her ancient grandeur. Amalfi
of to-day is a tiny city of five thousand people, who live in quiet
seclusion by the sea, who fish in the bay, and carry on a small fruit
trade for their livelihood.
But the ocean that breaks in on the shore can tell the story of
the old Amalfi, the stout principality that held the naval sway of the
Mediterranean and lorded it in commerce over Pisa and Genoa.
From the ninth to the twelfth century Amalfi held her head high
in supremacy, and her maritime laws governed Mediterranean
waters. Colonies she had in Asia and Africa, and rich tribute
they lent her. Many a foe her galleys defeated, countless times
her rocky glen echoed the shouts of victory from the battle storm
beyond the harbor. They had a doge in Amalfi, and palaces of
senators, and council halls, and many a noble building fit for civic
lordship. More than once her streets rang with the hymns of
Crusaders as they marched down to take ship for the rescue of the
Holy Sepulchre. Hospitals there were in far Jerusalem that flung
the banner of Amalfi; the splendid order of the Knights of Saint
John was born of her creation. And the culture of Athens and
of Rome and of the early Christian centuries never ceased to
bloom under the cherishing protection of a goodly fellowship of
quiet scholars.
Alas, poor Amalfi ! You now nestle there amid the hills hang-
ing over the little cove, a picturesque scene for the artist's brush,
a theme for the poet's rhyme. Can your fishing boats feel the
flush of victory; does Pisa respect your senate decrees? Your
palaces are gone, your fleets are scattered, your greatness is only a
memory. Where are those flowers of yester-year; where is the
glory that was Amalfi? Where is the symbol that tells the story
of fifty thousand free burghers?
Pisa finally destroyed her naval supremacy, but to find the
humbled city we must look beneath the sea. For there does most of
7 68 THE LAND WHERE DREAMS COME TRUE [Mar.,
her territory now lie, sunk by an earthquake in 1343. Somewhere
under the shifting sands of the ocean floor lie docks and arsenals
and forts. Houses that men lived in are now buried in a grave of
sea-swept pebbles. The long beach that connected Amalfi with
Atrani has not been seen for well-nigh six centuries, and now a
jutting mountain cliff divides the friendship of the two cities.
Thus did her glory wither ; the strategy of man and the might of
nature were too much for the proud republic. Saddened and
crushed, her youth-time gone, she now joined the ranks of the
things that have been. But the sunny memories of the great com-
monwealth still live in the tiny city; she does not forget 'the ambi-
tions she once achieved, as she rests there serenely against the hills.
The morrow morning we were awakened by the call of the
campanile bells. Looking down from the window of my cell, I
could see the people gathering, twos and threes and half dozens, and
slowly walking toward the Piazza di Si Sant' Andrea. But for my
orisons I went not down to the cathedral. This morning a priest
from the far country was saying Mass in the chapel of the monas-
tery. So thither I went, and somehow I felt nearer to God than
ever before in all my years.
Down the long staircase, white in the morning light, you make
your way to the level roadway, and here you retrace your path of
last night for a few hundred yards to visit the cathedral. The
bell-tower, standing beside, is a striking sight in the daytime, the
green and yellow tile work glittering strangely as the sunlight falls
upon it. The cathedral itself, Lombard-Norman in architecture,
has a fine setting on its high-built terrace above the piazza, and is
one of the few reminders of Amalfi's former splendor. For almost
nine centuries have the beautiful bronze doors swung across the
portals. Wrought in Constantinople, they bear witness to the olden
intercourse with the Byzantine city on the Bosphorus. Down in
the crypt of the church repose the bones of Saint Andrew, brought
here in the thirteenth century, the revered relics of the Saint who
lends his name to the honor of the old minster.
It is a good twenty miles from Amalfi to Sorrento over the
road that begins back at Salerno. Like the leagues behind, this
stretch, too, is ofttimes hewn through the rock along the cliffs, and
it skirts the sea for half the way. Sometimes it is carried over
ravines by viaducts high above the sea level, affording you beautiful
views of pleasant waters tumbling over large boulders, and of
pretty cascades dropping their white- foamed burdens into the cool
1913-] THE LAND WHERE DREAMS COME TRUE 769
shadows of some deep pool. The coast is a succession of little
coves and bays, where the ocean has crept up and found a nesting
place and felt at home. Forever the sea is all-loveliness, wide,
unlimited expanses of water, dissolving in imperceptible gradation
of color from dark turquoise to the palest sapphire, with a rich
emerald tint where the waters lap a steep rocky crag. For miles
and miles you can watch it in the clear sun, until far, far away
it merges with the unclouded heaven out on the Mediterranean
horizon.
Between Amalfi and Sorrento there is no fairer sight than the
lovely village of Positano. Set high on a rounded hillside, amid tall
trees and moss-grown precipices and blossoming shrubs, it looks
forth upon the Salernian bay. Exquisitely dainty it must appear
at night to one approaching by sea from Sorrento, when the lights
from the southern windows twinkle and beam like fireflies gathered
in full assemblage. But no less an idyl was it in the June noontide
when we looked down upon the little city from the veranda of our
hotel. A fantasy in brown and pink and white it was, trembling
on the steep slope. Half-way down the valley the graceful lines
of a campanile rose heavenward. On the shore an old watch
tower told the ancient fear of corsairs from the Levant. Those
were the days when Positano enjoyed the friendship of Amalfi's
fleet. When the bell in the tower tolled out its message of warn-
ing, and the signal was relayed through many a dreaded pealing
along the coast, the good ships that lingered ten miles up the bay
spread their white wings and bore down on the despoilers of the
little city. And they fought the fight to victory, and ended the
plunder cruise. Many a watch tower shows its ruins on the rugged
cliffs from Salerno to Positano, but the bells are silent as a tide-
less sea.
Positano is the last of the cities on the water, for the road now
bears landward across the peninsula toward Sorrento ten miles
away. The shimmering Bay of Salerno we now left behind us,
the waters of enchantment, with the Odyssean islands of sirenic
lure dimly visible out in the shining distance. For some time the
road ascends the verdant hills and then drops downward toward
Meta, where near the church of Santa Maria del Lauro, Amalfi's
wondrous road links its sinuous length to the Cornice drive from
Castellammare. Over the ravine by the Ponte Maggiore we con-
tinued past several small towns that were watching the long after-
noon wear itself away.
VOL. xcvi. 49.
770 THE LAND WHERE DREAMS COME TRUE [Mar.,
Sorrento was close by now, and we were approaching it
through streets walled high on either side, and swooning with the
intoxication of billowy blossoms from many fair gardens beyond.
At one sunny corner hung overladen bushes of pink roses, swaying
when the breeze stirred, and dropping their perfumed petals on the
roadside; and the blithe scent of acacia mingled with the fragrance
of rosemary, and filled the afternoon heavy with summer. Along
happy ways like this we drove, our senses lulled by the flowery odor,
until we reached the courtyard of the Tramontane.
It was the sunset hour, that kindly time when day is becoming
a memory and falling into the chronicles of departed joys, when
evening is beginning to open her fairy doors. Sunsets are beauteous
always and everywhere, but I doubt if earth will give you a more
wonderful effect than at Sorrento. Our windows faced the west,
with balconies hanging almost two hundred feet over the Vesuvian
bay. Away across the clear waters, leagues distant in the western
seas, rested the sun, a huge disk of virgin gold hanging in all the
glory of centuries of sunsets commingling in supreme friendship.
When the world was young, yEneas saw that Mediterranean sun,
and the lotus eaters, and the faithless Helen on the topless towers of
Ilium ; and in all the years after every dweller by the sea has watched
the day-star sink into the water with all its golden splendor dis-
solving in the lonely places of the deep. The sun gradually lowered
itself once more, leaving behind a trail of glory over which angels'
wings might float, or the voices of the unseen stars might travel in
trembling melody. The purple of the hillside vines dyed the pillars
of cloud, and all the roses of old Paestum were strewn over the
aerial mountains in rich pink and yellow and red ; and the sky was
aflame with color from Naples to the edge of the world.
But the twilight gathers none too slowly in Sorrento, and the
little waves that you may have seen a while ago bubbling in beads of
gold and pearl and coral have lost their lustre.
And now, perhaps, you will wander out beneath the palm trees
and try to believe, as some others do, that Ulysses really did found
Sorrento, and erected that temple of Minerva which to-day lies in
ruins with its sister fanes of Venus and Ceres. Nobody knows, but
of this you are sure, that in nearer antiquity, probably some time
after Sorrento became Rome's ally three centuries before the Chris-
tian era, the city was a favorite dwelling-place of Roman wealth
and fashion, a boon spot to escape the heat of the palaces near the
Tiber. And it is a matter of history, too, that Hannibal captured
1913-] THE LAND WHERE DREAMS COME TRUE 771
Sorrento in the second conflict between Rome and the Phoenician
rival on the African shores.
You know also that when Rome was imperial, and peace and
Augustus were supreme, a colony was sent out to make a home in
this gracious clime ; and that not long after, before the first century
had closed, the message of Christianity was preached, and the people
exhorted to abandon false gods and shrines unholy. Very strong
the town grew in the passing of time, and valiant her defenders.
In the seventh century Rudolfo, the Duke of Benevento, laid siege
to her walls, but to no purpose. And so Sorrento lived on, now a
Byzantine dependency, but with much of self-government and free-
dom of action. In her annals is recorded a naval victory over
Amalfi near the end of the ninth century. One hundred and fifty
years followed before the city tasted the humiliation of defeat
at the hands of the Duke of Salerno, a prelude to her bowing with
her conqueror to Norman dominion in the near by and by. Of
the achievements of her later life little is known, for when Pialy
Pasha led his Turkish pirates into Sorrento in 1588 to plunder
and burn, her archives did not escape the torch of the ruthless
victors.
No one who has not visited the city can imagine the charm of
the night at Sorrento. Perhaps the keenest interest centres about
the large hotels where the tarantella is danced, and the melody of
southern song fills the air with joy and gladness. A beautiful
picture the Tramontano presents. There is a spacious courtyard
in front, enclosed on three sides by the verandas of the inn, and
shut in on the other side by luxuriant bushes of roses and tall
palm trees. Hundreds of glowing lamps make the courtyard bright
as day; and on this illuminated square the singers and dancers are
ranged, decked in the gay dress that once made Italy even more
colorful than it is to-day.
From the verandas and the high balconies above, the faces of
men and women from over the wide ocean are smiling in happiness
as they watch the dance pass through its volutions. And with the
air all a-tremble in currents of melodious wafting, the facile har-
mony of Italian song glides refreshingly into your soul. The
singers and dancers themselves seem altogether tireless, and their
black eyes snap and sparkle in delicious sympathy as the full chorus
rings out clear and tuneful into the charming Sorrentine night.
And in your watching across the court, if your eyes wander beyond
the dancers and the lamps and the fringe of delighted gazers, your
772 THE LAND WHERE DREAMS COME TRUE [Mar.,
imagination may play you pretty illusions, and you may just once
fancy the sweet singer of the swan-song of the Renaissance stand-
ing in a fragrant corner of the garden. For well may Tasso be
pardoned for wishing to return to his birthplace to look for a brief
moment upon all this life and color and whole-souled gayety.
Sorrento is, in very truth, a place for ghosts to tread in silence,
and a place for mortal hearts to dream old dreams and love old loves,
and call to mind the old gentleness and kindly deeds of well-cher-
ished friends. It is a bower where one may wisely linger, and for-
get the tiny worries and the great, and heal the old-time wounds
of care, and in the blithe fountains of perennial gladness renew
the loving freshness of youth. Among the odors of full-petaled
lemon flowers Sorrento asks you to cull the sweetness of to-day, or
by her shattered pagan temples to remember her long-ago child-
hood. She asks you to visit the villa Browning loved, or look
where Crawford wove his hundred romances of every land. In
trustful pleading she bids you watch the moon in full-orbed splen-
dor overflow the summer world, or listen to the little waves kissing
the yellow sands of the Marina, or look for morning suns to rise
above the brim of emerald tree tops and work aureate patines on
the good brown earth. She invites you, too, to climb the lofty
hills that look down upon the piazza, and from the Deserto-Con-
vento survey her two bays meeting beyond Punta di Campanella
or view the jewel isle of Capri basking in the over-blue seas.
Sorrento is a ballade of roses, but no Villon could tune his
soul to anything so perfect. It is the final word in all the beauty
of the sunlit southland, the softest and tenderest rhythm in all
Italy's book of song. A long time ago, before the world had lost
its youth and the gardens of paradise had been shorn of their
verdure, there were rivals to this city looking upon the bay, but now
there is but one spot of loveliness increasing, never another such
without the white walls of heaven.
If Spenser is the poet's own poet, Sorrento is nothing if not
the poet's own home. You will feel the enchantment of Como's
hills and the gentle spell of Fiesole, but you leave your heart in
bella Sorrento, a hostage to happiness, and expect one day when
next you fare forth under the wander thrall to go back and join
it in affectionate surrender.
It was a fair Sunday morning that we departed after attend-
ing Mass in the chapel of the inn. A lift took us down to the little
wharf, and a rowboat carried us over the water to where the
1913-] ETERNAL SEQUENCE 773
steamer for Naples stood by, waiting its complement of passengers.
Standing on the deck we gazed back at the high-flung cliffs, with
their clustering inns in thick bordering confusion, where Roman
villas once looked out to sea ; at the Marina where the little children
with dark, lucent eyes were waving their tiny hands in sweet fare-
well ; at the friendly mountains in the distance with the thinnest of
blue veils on their summits. And as the waters lengthened between
us and Sorrento, gentle Sorrento, smiling in peace and joy and
blushing loveliness, we remembered the precious roses swaying in
the tranquil gardens, and the winds blowing over the orange blos-
soms, and all the songs the dear city had sung to us out of the
warmth and riches of her heart. And the plaintive melodies
chanted by the Neapolitan singers, as we sailed over the bay, re-
echoed the soft murmuring her receding beauty was whispering
in our grateful souls.
ETERNAL SEQUENCE.
BY CAROLINE D. SWAN.
A FOAM-LIT chain of emerald surges flies
Adown the sands, persistent as the flight
Of days and hours. Like these, its tidal might
In varied moods and shining color hies
On, ever on! With fascinated eyes
We watch its chase eternal in the light
Of blazing suns, in broad moon-glories white
Or tempest-blackened beneath leaden skies.
O days and hours! E'en thus we watch you run
Along Earth's beach from early morn till dark
Then, on again, undeviating still,
To wondrous shores of strange new life begun,
Of moonlit flowers unfading, like its spark,
And Resurrection's vast eternal thrill.
THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF ALCOHOL.
BY FRANK o'HARA, PH.D.
HE world is too much with us," the poet sings. " Late
and soon, getting and spending, we lay waste our
powers. Little we see in nature that is ours; we
have given our hearts away." In plain prose the
poet means that we go to so much trouble heaping
up the material things which serve us for food and drink and
clothing and shelter and ornament, and then spend so much time
in the enjoyment of these things, that we are compelled to neglect
the intellectual and spiritual and aesthetic sides of our natures.
Do we as a nation live too well in a material sense for our highest
good? Ought we, as a nation, cultivate plainer living and higher
thinking? Finally, is there any reason for the expectation that
plainer living will be accompanied by higher thinking? These
are all questions of vital importance, but they lie outside the field
of this investigation.
The interest of the economist in the poet's dictum is essentially
this: accepting the present standard of living as approximately a
correct one, do we attain to that standard in a reasonably economical
way, or do we lay waste our powers in getting and spending?
There can be no doubt that we do not economize in our getting and
spending. We do not get what we get in such a way as to require
a minimum of effort, and we do not spend what we spend in such
a way as to give us a maximum of satisfaction. In other words,
our production of wealth is wasteful. By better planning, we
could shorten our working day without lessening the product of
our work. Our consumption of wealth is wasteful. By wiser
expenditures there is room for a very considerable increase in
satisfactions of wants to be obtained from the present supply of
wealth.
It is the purpose of this paper to call attention to a single
phase of this broad problem of economy, and to show the relation
between alcohol and the waste involved in our getting and spend-
ing; in a word, to call attention to the political economy of alcohol.
Now, the political economy of alcohol is not the chemistry of
1913.] THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF ALCOHOL 775
alcohol, and it is not the physiology of alcohol, and it is not the
ethics of alcohol.
Alcohol when mixed with water is freely oxidized. This fact
is of some interest to the chemist, but it concerns the economist only
indirectly; it concerns him only in so far as it affects man's wealth
relations. There are persons who assert that in extremely small
doses alcohol may act as a food for man. This alleged fact claims
the attention of the physiologist. If men, as a matter of fact, seldom
partake of alcohol in these minute quantities, this particular fact
has little relation to the problems of wealth, and can not make
demand upon the economist's time. If the effect of the free use
of alcohol is to blunt the moral sense of the user, that is a problem
mainly for the moralist, and some economists hold that it is of
interest to them only in so far as effects are produced in the fields
of the production and of the distribution and of the consumption
of wealth. But if the individual drinker, or a nation of drinkers,
finds that it requires more effort to make a living, or that the
living made is less satisfying because of the use of alcohol, that is
primarily a problem of political economy.
Let us examine the relation of alcohol to the business of get-
ting a living. In order that we may live, goods must be produced.
In our present organization of industry they must be divided among
those who are to consume them, and finally they must be consumed.
Now, alcohol is related closely to each of these three sets of activi-
ties to the production of wealth, to the distribution of wealth,
and to the consumption of wealth.
First, let us consider the part which alcohol plays in the pro-
duction of wealth. The relation of alcohol to the production of
wealth is a twofold one. In the first place, alcohol itself a product
of industry requires in its production the expenditure of labor
power and capital power and land power and business management.
Thus the production of alcohol represents effort that might be em-
ployed in other directions. Instead of employing land and labor
and capital and business management to manufacture beer and
whiskey and wine, an equivalent amount of land and labor and
capital and enterprise might be employed in producing bread and
beef and clothing and houses.
In the second place, it may be shown that the use of alcohol
renders the workers less efficient producers than they would be
without its use. There is a shortage, then, in the production of
the necessaries of life because, on the one hand, the production
;;6 THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF ALCOHOL [Mar.,
of the necessaries has had to give place to the production of the
not-necessaries, and, on the other hand, because the producers have
been made inefficient or entirely unproductive through the use of
some of these not-necessaries. Lest any reader might think that
although alcohol has disastrous effects upon a few individuals, it is
of little consequence in the economy of the nation as a whole, a few
figures to show the extent to which it is used may not be out of place.
I.
Distilled spirits, wines, and malt liquors consumed in the
United States in ipn.
Gals, per capita.
Distilled spirits 138,585,989 proof gals. 1.46
Wines 63,859,232 gals. .67
Malt liquors 1,966,911,744 gals. 20.66
Total 2,169,356,695 gals. 22.79
II.
Consumption per capita.
Distilled spirits Wines Malt liquors All liquors and
Year. proof gallons. gallons. gallons. wines gallons.
1850 2.24 0.27 1.58 4.08
1860 2.86 0.34 3.22 6.43
1870 2.07 0.32 5.31 7.70
1880 1.39 0.47 6.93 8.79
1890 1.34 0.48 11.38 13.21
1900 1.28 0.39 16.09 17.76
1910 1.42 0.65 19.79 21.86
1911 1.46 0.67 20.66 22.79
III.
Some comparative costs and values.
Percentages.
Alcoholic drinks, 1911 $1,833,643,525.00
Public revenue from liquor business 300,000,000.00
Net $1,533,643,525.00 100
United States debt 1,346,848,636.66 87
Value of all cattle in United States 1,484,889,647.00 96
Value of all swine in United States 398,002,878.00 25
Value of products of all wholesale slaugh-
tering and meat packing establishments, 1,370,568,000.00 89
Annual value of products of all flour and
grist mills in United States 883,584,000.00 57
Panama Canal when completed 375,000,000.00 24
The thirty-seven battleships of the United
States Navy 204,329,000.00 13
I9I3-] THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF ALCOHOL 777
As is shown in the first table, during the last fiscal year the
American people drank a total of more than two billion gallons of
alcoholic beverages, or nearly twenty-three gallons for every man,
woman, and child in the United States. The second table, giving
the per capita drink consumption for each decennial year since
1850, shows that that consumption has increased more rapidly
than our population. In recent years this increase has taken place
in the consumption of the more deadly distilled spirits, as well as in
the less deadly wines and malt liquors. The third table compares
the cost of alcoholic liquors with other large values. Representing
the net drink cost at 100, the last column shows the percentages
of this amount represented by the other values in the table. For
example, we could construct a Panama Canal every three months
with the money wasted upon alcoholic drink.
This illustrates well the planlessness of our production. We
waste all this effort in producing alcohol, and pour it into our
mouths to steal away our brains, and at the same time there are
thousands and thousands of little children dying for the want of
food and adequate shelter. It is almost incredible; but we are
blunted to the situation, and have accepted it as a matter of course.
True, it is not an easy thing to prevent the manufacture of alcohol
and other similar luxuries, until starvation shall have been abolished
from this cultured and Christian nation. Perhaps it is not even
a possible thing. But certainly our system of producing and dis-
tributing wealth is not a rational one if we allow human beings
to starve and freeze through no fault of their own, while we employ
a force which might have been devoted towards making these priva-
tions unnecessary, in producing things which are on the whole
decidedly harmful.
We suffer loss through the production of alcohol not only in
that we use in its production forces which might better be spent
in the production of other things, but also in that the use of alcohol
lowers the efficiency of our producers. There was a time when it
was believed that the production of wealth was stimulated through
the use of intoxicating drinks. In an earlier day it was customary
on farms to distribute liquor to the field hands in harvest time,
in order to increase their daily amount of work. There was a
general prejudice in favor of the custom, and it was believed that
better results could be secured by conforming to it. It is not so
long ago since it was usual for traveling salesmen to indulge freely,
and to treat their customers freely with intoxicants in order to
778 THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF ALCOHOL [Mar.,
increase their sales. Both practices have largely died out, primarily
because people have come to realize that the earlier methods were
not profitable. Farmers have ceased to furnish their hired men
with liquor; not purely on moral grounds. If it were generally
believed to-day that harvest hands would produce more economically
when provided with alcohol, the farmer would not be able to resist
the temptation to supply the drug. He does not do so because the
workman produces better results without it.
With competition as keen and methods as unscrupulous as
they often are in the business world of to-day, it is not purely
on moral grounds that traveling men are discontinuing their former
methods of treating, and have begun to be a sober class of men,
but because it has been found more profitable to do so. The
non-drinker can be depended upon to do a higher class of work
than the man who is in a semi-intoxicated condition during working
hours, or than the man who drinks moderately, and confines his
drinking to the time when he is off duty.
A few years ago, the Federal Bureau of Labor undertook an
investigation to find out the attitude of employers towards the use
of intoxicating liquors by employees. Employers were asked if,
in employing new men, they were accustomed to give consideration
to the use of intoxicating liquors. Out of nearly seven thousand
employers answering this inquiry, more than one-half reported
that they required in certain occupations, and under certain circum-
stances, that employees should not use intoxicating liquors. Many
different reasons were given by the employers for the requirement,
of which the most frequently recurring were, " Because of respon-
sibility of position, and to make good example for other employees,"
and " to guard against accidents." Other reasons were, " To guard
against inefficiency and poor work," and " to guard against irreg-
ularity in time, and because of unreliability of drinking men."
In recent years the tendency on the part of employers to
discourage the use of alcohol by their employees has been growing
rapidly. In the daily papers we frequently come upon such news
items as the following : " New York, July 2pth. As a result of
an investigation conducted by the management of the Delaware,
Lackawanna, and Western Railroad following the recent disastrous
wreck at Corning, New York, an order was issued to-day to the
employees of the transportation service forbidding the use of intoxi-
cants, either while on or off duty." The following advertisement
recently published in the want columns of a Minneapolis paper, fur-
1913-] THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF ALCOHOL 779
nishes an extreme and a slightly humorous illustration of the point :
" Bartender wanted. Must be sober. No boozer need apply."
This testimony goes to show that the interests of production
suffer through the use of alcohol by the producers. We must,
therefore, charge up against alcohol not only the effort which is
actually put into the production of intoxicating liquors, but also
the loss in production which is sustained through the fact that the
laborers who have drunk these millions of dollars worth of alcohol
now produce less efficiently than they would have produced if they
had been total abstainers. Where the intoxicated workman puts
his hand in a planer and loses an arm, or falls from a train and has
his legs cut off by the car wheels, or kills himself by falling from
a scaffold, we must debit the account of alcohol with the fact that
such men have not succeeded in producing during the course of their
lives the normal amount of wealth. Then again, where men have
been unable to do as full a day's work as they might have done
had they not been addicted to strong drink, we may charge up the
difference in their productivity to alcohol. Where the lives of
workers have been shortened, or where men have been incapacitated
for work at a comparatively early age through the use of liquor,
the loss in production should be charged to alcohol. Where families
have been broken up through the use of liquor, and where children
have been brought up under conditions which have made them less
than normally productive citizens, the loss in production can fairly
be ascribed to liquor. Where men and women are confined in
jails and in insane asylums because of their addiction to strong
drink, the lack of their productivity is justly placed to the account
of alcohol.
When we consider all of these matters together, when we think
of all the bread and all the beef and all the clothing and all the
houses which could be produced if all the energies which are now
devoted to the production of alcoholic drinks were devoted to the
production of bread and beef and clothing and houses, and all that
could be produced if the world's workers had not been rendered
inefficient or had not been destroyed through the use of strong
drink, we cannot fail to see how large and how sinister alcohol
looms in the problem of the production of wealth.
We have now arrived at the second stage of our investigation
the study of the place of liquor in the distribution of wealth. The
distribution of wealth is concerned with the manner in which the
wealth which has been produced is finally shared among those who
780 THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF ALCOHOL [Mar.,
are to consume it. The traditional shares recognized by the econo-
mist are wages and profits and rent and interest. Wages and profits
go to the laborers and to the enterprisers as a reward for the
exertion of their efforts. Interest and rent go to the capitalists
and to the land owners in exchange for the use of their property.
Of course land owners are sometimes laborers, and receive wages as
well as rent, and capitalists are often enterprisers receiving profits
as well as interest ; and so it is impossible to divide people into four
distinct classes, accordingly as their incomes are derived from one
or another of these four shares. It will, however, be readily
admitted that in a rough way, and for practical purposes, society
may be divided into two classes on the basis of the receipt of income
from the possession of property, or from sources other than the
possession of property.
Taking the two extremes of the scale, it may be said that the
rich derive their incomes from the possession of property, and that
the poor derive their incomes from other sources, of which the most
important is wages. Moreover, the children of the rich inherit
property accumulated through the means of property, while the
children of the poor inherit poverty and live for the most part from
wages. Thus the unequal distribution of wealth tends to perpet-
uate itself ; " for he that hath to him shall be given and he shall
abound; but he that hath not from him shall be taken away that
also which he hath."
Now any man with a little ability and industry can succeed in
getting possession of income-bearing property, and thus starting
himself on the road to wealth, or at least away from the road to
poverty; but other things being equal, the chances are that in most
lines of endeavor the ability and industry of the man who uses
liquor to excess will be less than the ability and industry of the
non-user of alcohol. Thus the alcohol user is handicapped in
the start for a fortune. " Late and soon, getting and spending
we lay waste our powers," the poet says. Perhaps the greatest
handicap to the alcohol user is on the side of spending.
Our friend Micawber is authority for the statement that a man
with an income of twenty pounds a year will ultimately reach
poverty if he spends six pence a year more than twenty pounds, and
opulence if he spends six pence a year less. Other things equal,
the man who uses alcohol to excess is likely to be the man who lives
in the present rather than in the future; who will wish to consume
his income now rather than to convert the penny in the pound into
1913-] THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF ALCOHOL 781
income-bearing property. If he has property, he is likely to mort-
gage it in order to increase his spending money. In the language
of the economists, he has a high rate of preference for present
over future income. It is most probable that such a man, unless
fate is especially kind to him, will ultimately lose his property and
become dependent on his labor alone for his support. Alcohol,
then, it would seem, tends to further accentuate the existing unequal
distribution of wealth.
Moreover, the effects of the drink habit upon the distribution
of wealth are cumulative and permanent. Sins of the fathers are
visited upon the children through many generations in the industrial
world. The man who uses alcohol to excess, and who lowers his
own economic position in society thereby, also places his children
at a disadvantage in the struggle for a livelihood. As a general
thing they do not inherit the property that they otherwise would
inherit. They must depend to a greater extent than would other-
wise be necessary on their labor power for their support. Then, too,
as a rule they will not receive so good an education as they would
receive if their father were not a drinker. They are thus doubly
handicapped in the race of life because of the meagerness of their
education, and because of their lack of income-bearing property.
They start out at the bottom of the industrial ladder, and they must
content themselves with the meaner positions and the smaller in-
comes.
Occasionally one emerges from this class, and we are asked to
consider the possibilities for self-improvement that exist in it, but
as a rule there is little hope. The children remain in the relative
positions in which they were left by their father, and if they fall
victims to the temptations to drink which are likely to surround
them, the chances are that their children in turn will sink to a still
lower level in the industrial world than they had themselves known.
Thus, alcohol tends to produce an unequal distribution of wealth
because it tends to increase the number of the inefficient and un-
skilled, and to decrease the number of those qualified to take the
positions requiring special training and responsibility ; and because it
tends to divide society into a property-holding class and a property-
less class. If alcohol were not used there would be a better
balanced relation of supply and demand in the skilled and in the
unskilled labor markets. If alcohol were not used there would be
fewer persons dependent solely upon their labor for their income.
Thus far, in discussing the relation of alcohol to the distribu-
782 THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF ALCOHOL [Mar.,
tion of wealth, we have assumed that the user of alcohol is a
producer of wealth. Unfortunately, this supposition is not always
borne out by the facts. The use of intoxicating liquors may have
the effect of rendering the worker less efficient and thus reducing
his income, but the reduced income may still be sufficient to support
the worker and those dependent upon him, although it reduces
his standard of living. The circumstances, however, are not always
so fortunate. Sometimes the user of liquor and his dependents
are compelled to rely partly or wholly upon charity for their
support. Sometimes they fall into the vicious and criminal classes
which prey upon society. In either case the tendency is away from
the ideal situation where every man shall be independent and self-
supporting and self-respecting.
It is a difficult matter to tell to what extent poverty and pau-
perism are the results of the drink habit, and perhaps it is more
difficult to tell to what extent vice and crime are its results. Var-
ious statistical estimates have been made along these lines, but
there is not any great degree of unanimity in the findings. Probably
the most impartial and reliable authority is the Committee of Fifty,
which undertook a comprehensive investigation of the liquor prob-
lem a few years ago, and whose report is generally credited with
fairness by social workers. The sub-committee of the Committee
of Fifty, reporting on that particular phase of the matter, states:
Of the poverty which comes under the view of the charity
organization societies, about twenty-five per cent can be traced
directly or indirectly to liquor eighteen per cent of the persons
studied having brought on their poverty through the personal
use of liquor, and nine per cent attributing it to the intem-
perance of parents or others. (The general percentage is less
than the sum of the partial percentages, because in some cases
liquor acted both as a direct and as an indirect cause.) Of
the poverty found in almshouses, thirty-seven per cent can be
traced to liquor, and of this, again, thirty-three per cent is due
to the personal habits of the inmates and eight per cent to the
intemperance of others. In the case of the destitution of chil-
dren, not less than forty-five per cent was found to be due to
the liquor habits either of parents, guardians, or others.
While no one doubts that much crime is due to the use of
liquor, it will readily be seen that it is more difficult to obtain reliable
statistics concerning the exact extent to which liquor functions
as a cause of crime than is the case with poverty. The report of
1913-] THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF ALCOHOL 783
the Committee of Fifty covers the cases of more than thirteen
thousand convicts in seventeen prisons and reformatories scattered
throughout twelve States. The figures do not include ordinary
jails, and therefore do not take account of persons convicted for
mere misdemeanors, drunkenness, or violation of the liquor laws.
Of the total number of cases thus investigated, it appeared
that intemperance figures as one of the causes of crime in nearly
fifty per cent. It was, however, a first cause in only thirty-
one per cent. While, therefore, intemperance appears to con-
tribute to crime in nearly half the cases investigated by us, a
result which is strikingly confirmed by the investigation of the
Massachusetts Bureau of Labor Statistics for that State, it was
almost always only one of the several causes, and appeared as
a leading cause in less than one-third and as a sole cause in but
sixteen per cent. The difference in the importance of liquor as a
cause of crimes against property, and of crimes against the per-
son, is surprisingly small. It is, as should be expected, somewhat
more prominent in crimes against the person, fifty-one and one-
half per cent of such crimes being attributable to liquor, either on
the part of the criminal or of others; but even in the case of
crimes against property the percentage is forty-nine and one-
half.
These percentages of crime and poverty due to alcohol are cer-
tainly sufficiently large to compel our attention in a study of dis-
tribution.
The third division of our subject relates to the consumption of
wealth. Consumption, in political economy, means the utilization
of goods in the satisfaction of human wants. Consumption, the
satisfaction of wants, is the end of economic activity. It is to
this end that men labor and save. Now, there have been economists
who have held that the great principle of consumption is to satisfy
as many and as intense wants as possible, not any other character-
istics of wants being taken account of than their number and
intensity. The present writer has never been able to accept this
view of the scope of political economy, but has always believed that
the economist is an ethicist, and that in his computation of the
satisfactions of wants he has a right to consider moral values.
However, let us for the moment waive this point and accept a purely
utilitarian view of the matter. Let our main consideration be the
satisfaction of wants, and let us ask no questions as to whether
the wants be for food or lodging or intoxicating drinks or de-
moralizing pictures.
784 THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF ALCOHOL [Mar.,
Accepting this purely utilitarian, pleasure-pain philosophy of
wealth-consumption, let us ask how the drinker of intoxicating
liquors measures up to this philosophy in the expenditure of his
income. Does the person who drinks to excess really spend his
income so as to get the highest degree of satisfaction of wants from
it to experience the greatest pleasure and the least pain? Clearly
not. The economists are indebted to the psychologists for the law
of diminishing utility which says, " The intensity of our desire
for additional units of any commodity decreases as we consume
successive portions." Thus, the hungry boy receives less satisfac-
tion from the consumption of his third dish of ice cream than he re-
ceived from the second, and if additional dishes of ice cream were
given to him he would finally come to a stage in his estimation of
values where he would prefer a piece of bread and butter to an
additional dish of ice cream.
Applying the same principle to the drinker, we find that as he
approaches the point of satiety in the consumption of intoxicants,
it becomes a matter of indifference to him whether he spends his
next ten cents on alcohol or on a catechism for his children, or on
a ticket for a moving picture show. At this point in his consump-
tion, the subjective value of the drink of liquor, of the catechism
and of the ticket, will be approximately the same. The chances
are, however, that on the morning after he will experience a change
in his estimates of the relative values of the expenditures of the
night before. He may feel, the next morning, that it would have
been wiser to have spent the last twenty cents, which actually went
for drink the night before, in the direction of the catechism and
the moving picture show.
Clearly then, from a purely utilitarian standpoint, the drinker
of intoxicating liquor very often does not secure the best results
from his expenditures. For no one will contend that the drinker's
judgment of what was for his good was better on the night before
than it was on the morning after. But even from the standpoint
of the night before, the excessive drinker does not spend his money
to the best advantage ; for his expenditure is governed by habit and
custom, and is not a free exercise of his best judgment, such as it
is at the time. The point is illustrated by a cartoon which appeared
some time ago in a Munich paper. Two students were sitting at
a table in a restaurant. One was drinking, the other was not.
The one who was drinking asked the other, " Why are you not
drinking?" The other answered, "Because I am not thirsty;
1913.] THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF ALCOHOL 785
I drink only when I am thirsty." " That is just like a pig,"
answered the drinker in disgust.
The drinking man does much of his drinking, not on account of
any feeling of thirst, but purely from habit or because of the custom
of treating, which compels him to prove that he is not a pig, which
drinks only when it is thirsty, but that he is a gentleman and a
Christian, who drinks in order to spend as much money as any of
his fellows. If it is true that men drink from these motives,
and are not like the pig which drinks only when it is thirsty, then
it is true that the consumers of intoxicating liquors do not spend
their incomes in such a way as to get the best results, as viewed
from the pleasure-pain standpoint. But the utilitarian principle
prescribes not the greatest possible good for a particular individual,
but rather the greatest good of the greatest number. But is alcohol
actually used in such a way as to give the greatest satisfaction to
the greatest number? The question answers itself. We all know
too many shocking and horrible examples to think so.
Here is a little story from real life. It is a comparatively
mild one, and devoid of the usual harrowing details.
The father of the family in question is an engineer who earns
about seventy-five or eighty dollars a month when he works. He
drinks steadily, however, and finds it impossible to hold a position
for any length of time. He lives with his wife and daughter.
He has three married sons, drinkers like himself, who contribute
nothing to the support of their parents and sister. When out
of work these sons and their wives live with their parents.
The daughter adds eight dollars a week to the family
income by working in a department store. She might have been
earning a little higher wages if her education had not been cut
short at the sixth grade. The mother and daughter are refined
people and good Catholics. The daughter is good looking and of
much charm of manner. Three or four years ago she met a college
student at a church gathering, and in the course of time the two
developed a considerable affection for each other. She invited
him to dinner one day when, unluckily, the family skeleton was
stalking around the house. It was too much for the young man,
and there the romance ended.
A couple of years ago, the father was coming home one night,
on the street car, drunk, and in getting off the car he fell to the
ground and was unable to rise. A crowd gathered, and a policeman
came to the scene and sent in a call for the patrol wagon. The
VOL. XCVI. 5O.
786 THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF ALCOHOL [Mar.,
daughter had been at church that evening, and as she came near
her home and saw the crowd gathered around, she was moved by
the usual curiosity, and wished to see what was going on. She
was startled to find that her drunken father was the cause of the
commotion, and that he was about to be taken to the police station.
She pleaded with the policeman to let her take her father home, but
to no avail. The officer insisted that since he had rung up the
patrol wagon, he would have to keep the man until the wagon
arrived; otherwise, it would go against his record at headquarters.
She renewed her entreaties, and as a compromise he suggested
that she might try to influence the officer in charge of the wagon
when he came. And so, this high-strung, fme-natured girl waited,
and furnished a target for the remarks of the crowd, until the
wagon arrived. Then she had to go all through the process of ex-
postulation again with the other officer, and finally she was allowed
to take her drunken father home.
A few months ago the father had been drinking and got into a
quarrel with a boy who worked in the same shop, and struck him
with an iron bar. Thereupon the employer discharged the engineer,
and ever since that time the family has been living upon the eight"
dollars a week earned by the department store girl. The furniture
has been gradually disappearing from the home, and now the vital
problem is : how long will the landlord allow the family to occupy
the house before he ejects them for the non-payment of rent?
Sticking to the strictly utilitarian, pleasure-pain view of polit-
ical economy, who will dare to say that on that particular evening
when the father fell from the street car, his pleasure, the satisfac-
tion of his wants through the use of alcohol, was not more than
outweighed by the pain, the sense of dissatisfaction and discomfort
on the part of the daughter? And who will dare to say that the
satisfaction of this family, as a whole, in the course of a year, or in
the course of a decade, is as great as it would be if no liquor had been
consumed by any of its members ?
Nor is this an extreme case of the suffering entailed upon the
family of the heavy drinker. Rather it is a typical case. Here
is a girl with sensibilities as keen, perhaps, as those of any of
her more fortunate neighbors. She has as good a right to respect
and love and the good things of life as anyone has, and yet they
are denied her through no fault of her own ; and the shame of it all
is that the case is not an extreme one, but, rather, is typical of the
life of the heavy drinker's family. If it departs from the typical
1913-] THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF ALCOHOL 787
at all, it is rather exceptional in that the girl has been able to hold
the family together through these years. And yet there are people
who will complain loudly when any suggestion is made which leads
towards the placing of restrictions upon the liberty of the individual
to consult his own judgment in the matter of what and how much he
shall drink, forgetting that it is not the individual that is the unit
in society but the family, and that on any rational principle of
satisfaction of wants, pleasure and pain should be distributed
throughout the family instead of the pleasure being apportioned
to one member and the pain to the others.
In view of all these considerations, political economy has this to
say about alcohol as it is actually used as a beverage :
I. Its use is prejudicial to the economical production of wealth.
II. Its use is inconsistent with a wholesome and wise dis-
tribution of wealth.
III. It tends to promote an irrational consumption of wealth.
Political economy, therefore, will have none of it.
Where, then, shall alcohol look for a defender ? Surely not to
physiology, not to psychology, not to ethics. The natural defend-
ers of the liquor traffic are avarice and others of the lower vices.
But these, alone and unaided, could not withstand the attack which
is being made upon the drink evil by the forces of light.
Who, then, are the allies of the powers of darkness in this
matter ?
First among them are those who do not know of the destruction
wrought by alcohol. These persons use alcohol little or not at all
themselves, and possibly belong to those nationalities whose habits
of drinking are more temperate than ours.
Then, there are those who know of the harm which alcohol
does, but who cannot make up their minds to enlist in the fight for
better things. Of these some honestly fear for the cause of the
liberty of the individual (forgetting the cause of the liberty of the
individual's wife and children).
Some are unwilling to sacrifice their own thirsts for the general
welfare.
Some are under obligations to persons who make money out
of the drink traffic.
Some are just plain, ordinary, everyday cowards who dare not
even think what is unpopular. I like to believe that these last will
one day be bold and mighty champions of righteousness. And they
will be if righteousness ever becomes fashionable.
A ROYAL MAUNDY.
BY E. M. DINNIS.
OMEONE has remarked that a holiday spent at Had-
lands Old Manor is as efficacious as an annual Re-
treat. Certain it is that no guest ever left Hadlands
without feeling a better Catholic than before he went.
Many a statuesque opinion has become a living faith,
warmed into being on the hearth-place of the old panelled library
at the Manor; for not only are the associations of the place, with its
chapel in the rafters, its relics of martyred priests, and its hiding-
hole, stimulating in themselves, but the present owner of the Old
Manor has inherited a gift for which the family seems always to
have been remarkable, viz., that of telling a tale. It was an eight-
eenth century Brayne who collected authentic accounts of the doings
of his forebears during the later days of Elizabeth, when the
political fears of the populace made an " armed ruffian " of the
gentle dreamer who served the altar of his fathers. These he set
down, together with stories of his own day, also a day of perse-
cution and vicissitude for the faithful. There was likewise a John
Brayne of the seventeenth century, who kept a careful diary of
certain strange things, that the king's pursuivant would have
given much to learn, in a cipher, the key to which was only
known to his adopted son Francis, of the Friars Observant,
and to his wife Gertrude, whose incredibly ready wits had extri-
cated her husband from many a tight corner, since discretion was
not a salient quality in the John Brayne of that period.
The John Brayne of to-day a sturdy, open-hearted Lanca-
shire gentleman resembles in many ways his ancestor; among
others, as I have said, in his possession of the faculty of telling a
story. He has at his finger-tips, so to speak, all the brave old
tales preserved by his predecessors, and these it is his custom to
translate into the language of the " yarn," and recount for the
delectation of his guests after supper, when they gather round
the fire in the long, low library.
Hadlands Old Manor is an isolated, incongruous survival from
the old days when Lancashire sheltered the ancient faith in its
lonely, hill-guarded valleys. It stands, a long, many-gabled, tim-
1913-] A ROYAL MAUNDY 789
bered homestead of the early Tudor period, hardly beyond the out-
skirts of a grimy, be-chimneyed, and exceedingly prosperous town,
which having absorbed the forfeited Hadlands acres, now, with a
certain irony, bears the name of the old family who suffered the loss
of a corner of a shire through their adherence to the faith of old
England. The same sturdy spirit which made unconscious martyrs
of the sixteenth and seventeeth century Braynes, displayed itself in
the nineteenth century when a Brayne of Hadlands, to save the
family fortunes, bravely turned to commerce, and took as gallantly
to trade as his predecessors had taken to the road in the wake of
the traveling priest. John Brayne worked well, built up a business
in the smokey town bearing his name, and succeeded as he deserved
to do, so that at the present time the owner of Hadlands Old
Manor is a very fairly prosperous merchant of passing gentle birth,
who spends his days in a counting-house, and his leisure time in
antiquarian research, and in the telling of stories, in which his very
fine imagination is kept well in check by the serious historian's
love of accuracy.
To anyone like myself, whose privilege it is to spend every
Christmas at Hadlands, John Brayne's stories have grown familiar.
They include all kinds, comedy as well as thrills; and not a few
tender little love stories. " Psychic " people like to hear the story
of the ghostly light in the turret, but my old friend John Brayne
is chary of the occult as a rule. I was, therefore, all the more
surprised when one evening last Easter, when Hadlands contained
its usual house-party, he not only produced a story which I had
never heard before, but one which raised the question of the super-
natural in a manner that the shy Englishman is usually careful to
avoid, be he Protestant or Catholic.
It came about like this. We were gathered round the library
fire, the ladies, the men, and the children. The latter, tired of their
romps and rioting in the hall, had insinuated themselves into
available laps, or perched their small bodies on the arm of the
easy chair occupied by the grown-up of their predilection. Others
were curled up, dog fashion, on the hearthrug. Some of us were
discussing dreams, and those experiences which are half -dreams,
half-visions ; and someone was maintaining that for all these there
was a natural explanation to be traced in the mental impressions re-
ceived previously by the brain, although such might have been
acquired subconsciously, or at a great distance of time back, as
opposed to any occult theory. We appealed to our host.
790 A ROYAL MAUNDY [Mar.,
" I think I believe in something between the two," he said.
" I think a dream, or vision, may have both a natural and a super-
natural meaning such may be accounted for satisfactorily by pre-
vious impressions, and yet possess, concurrently with the material
explanation, an analogous interpretation, equally striking, and
quite as difficult to dispose of."
"Story, story!"
One of the party, a Brayne of the second generation, a student
from Maynooth, tapped on the table with the bowl of his pipe.
" Suppose you illustrate what you mean, Uncle? " he suggested.
"I know there's something up your sleeve."
I wondered. I had never heard John Brayne tell a story
bearing on this point.
Our host sat silent, looking at us thoughtfully. He let his
thoughts run on, as was his wont, and then spoke to the conclusion
arrived at in his mind.
" It will do for the children," he said. " It is all about a small
boy." He was looking, however, at the originator of the material-
istic argument, a young fellow whom he had rescued from a lonely
Easter in Cottonopolis. John Brayne was fond of this young man,
a former employee of his, nobody exactly knew why. He was
not a Catholic, but sympathetically inclined, and sufficiently con-
genial to his present surroundings.
The children were delighted.
" What is the story called ? " their leading spirit inquired.
" In the old cipher MS. it is headed, 'Concerning the strange
evidence given to Mr. Whitbourne, Magistrate, by a child called
Francis, touching the alleged visit of a priest at night time,' '
John Brayne said. " I've never told this story before."
I noticed that he didn't call it a yawn.
Mrs. John Brayne gave a swift glance at her husband before
applying herself to her knitting. One of the children, a very small
schoolboy who had accomplished his first term at Hodder, placed
himself, with very definite intention, in the lap of his mother,
young Mrs. Jack. The young man from Cottonopolis threw the
remaining half of his cigarette into the fire.
" It's quite a seasonable story," our host remarked. " It's all
about something that happened on a Maundy Thursday, in the days
when the very old folk could almost remember the ceremony of
the washing of the feet of beggars at the monasteries and churches.
" You have noticed, any of you who have taken the short cut to
1913.] A ROYAL MAUNDY 79*
the works, two old ruined cottages now used as sheds. Old in-
habitants can remember the time when these stood by themselves on
the edge of a stretch of moorland, known as the Burnfield. The
cottages are at least four hundred years old, so I am disposed to
identify them with 'two lonely cottages' mentioned in the MS. of
my namesake, John Brayne. These cottages, the MS. says, were
occupied in the year 16 , the one by an elderly couple, and the
other by a vagrant fellow, who had lately lost his wife, and his
small son, Francis John Brayne very seldom bothers to give names
in his diary, but he puts it on record that this small boy was called
Francis. On the Maundy Thursday of 16 special ill-luck seemed
to have descended on the inmates of the cottages on the Burnfield.
" In the one the old lady lay slowly dying, and sighing for
spiritual consolations, for she was a good, devout Catholic. The
old gentleman, her husband, had been up to the Manor with a
message, for there was a rumor abroad among the faithful that
a traveling priest had stopped at the Manor the night before,
and might yet be there. The inmate of the other cottage was in
even a worse plight. The father of the small boy Francis, as-
sailed by one of the attacks of vagrancy to which he had been
addicted since his wife's death, had left the boy to shift for himself
and gone off, nobody knew where. Francis had become used to
this conduct on the part of his parent, and as a rule he managed to
get on passably well, but a really terrible misfortune had befallen
him. I must tell you that it appears that Francis had recently
come into possession of a pair of leather shoon. The record doesn't
tell us how he came by them, but you can take it from me that
he didn't steal them. Now a small boy who has gone barefooted
all his life, a matter of nine or ten years, will fancy himself mightily
in a pair of leather shoon. Moreover, Francis was a fervent
admirer of Master John Brayne. It must be a wonderfully fine
thing to be beautifully dressed like Master John, and the leather
shoon were exactly the same pattern as those worn by the squire's
magnificent son. Francis wore his footgear assiduously, manfully
ignoring the fact that there was a long nail sticking up in the sole
of one shoe.
" The nail was inconvenient, but Francis was a philosopher,
and he realized that wearing shoon for the first time must neces-
sarily be an uncomfortable business. He stuck to his shoon, and
his shoon, alas ! stuck to him ; and every day the result became worse.
By the time that the young popinjay had realized that the shoon
792 A ROYAL MAUNDY [Mar.,
must be relinquished, and the point of similarity between himself
and Master John Brayne abandoned and a back-to-nature course
adopted, a particularly sore place had established itself in the sole
of his left foot. The leather had been dyed, presumably, with a
poisonous dye, and the boy had become what would be now called
an advanced case of septic poisoning.
" The child lay on his little straw bed in the living room on
this the evening of Maundy Thursday. Of course, no one remem-
bered that it was Maundy Thursday. The parish church had been
shut all day. Francis' mother had been a Catholic she may have
told him something about the washing of feet, and the Maundy
alms. The father was a person of no convictions, and as capable
as" anyone else of adding to his income by informing on a popish
priest. That such, by the way, were to be found at certain times
and seasons in the Old Manor was a fact more than suspected, but
inasmuch as young Master John was given to bringing all sorts and
conditions of acquaintances to enjoy the hospitality of his father's
roof poets who wished to live by their lyres, quack physicians
who had outraged the medical faculty with their strange doctrines as
to the virtue of fresh air; young lordlings who had married the
beggar maid, and so beggared themselves a light interpretation
could be put on even the presence of a popish priest at the Old
Manor. Master John Brayne, like many young fellows nowadays,
had a special and peculiar devotion to the under-dog; but apart
from that he was a staunch Catholic, like his father, old Sir Hum-
phrey, and possessed, also, a peculiar devotion to Holy Church
and to our Blessed Lady, and, I may add, to Mistress Gertrude
Haile, a maiden 'most religious and intelligent, and merry withal'
says one record, not John's his terms are those of the devout
lover but I must get back to my small boy.
" He lay all alone. The aged dame who attended on the sick
lady at the next cottage had given him a look in on her way thither,
as was her wont. She had made him a bowl of gruel, stacked up
a nice fire on the hearth, and placed a drink of water within his
reach, and so left him. The gruel Francis had found himself un-
able to swallow; there was a stiff feeling all over his face; he had
been bad for eight days now, but the water he had taken eagerly.
He was not hungry, but very thirsty, and very, very hot."
" He'd got the fever," a boy on the hearthrug opined. He had
found a mild attack of scarlatina during term time not without its
compensations.
1913-] A ROYAL MAUNDY 793
" He had got something," the narrator said. " He was tossing
on his bed and calling out for his mother."
The " Hodder brat " took yet firmer root in his special lap,
and slipped an arm round the neck of Mrs. Jack. He was thinking
of an attack of toothache, and the total inadequacy of the kind
and sympathetic matron on that occasion.
" Then there suddenly came a gentle knock at the door.
Francis did not bother to answer. The hole in his foot hurt him
too much for unnecessary speech. In a moment or two the latch
was cautiously lifted and two men entered, clad in dark cloaks.
One of these the invalid vaguely recognized as Master John Brayne.
In an ordinary way such a thing as a visit from Master John,
the hero of his devotion, would have been marvelously exciting,
but the pain in his foot was too absorbing for anything else to
claim attention. As for the other visitor, he was so queer-looking
an object that he might have been taken for an image conjured up
by a fevered brain. He was an old man, with a curious little
withered face, the mouth rather on one side, and a scar across the
cheek on the side where there was most mouth. The eye on that
same side had entirely disappeared. Master John Brayne's com-
panion was not a personable gentleman. He stood looking round
him, with one hand thrust inside his bosom, and moving his lips
as though he were speaking to himself. Master John carried a
lantern, and was muffled up to the eyes. He also gave a hasty
glance round, and drew in a quick breath.
" 'We've come to the wrong cottage/ he whispered. 'We must
get out of this the lad's father may be about !' Francis took small
notice of this. The hole in his foot seemed to suck all his con-
scious being into itself. The other foot ached and throbbed from
sympathy, as also did the palms of his hands. Master John was
making for the door again, but the other lingered, looking at the
boy. Going up to the bed he said, 'My child, you are in pain.
Have you no one to look after you?'
" 'Have a care !' Master John whispered. 'Don't let him
see you!'
" 'Goody's been/ Francis answered. 'She's gone on to nurse
Granny Mace, over yon.'
" The two visitors exchanged glances. Master John stepped
forward and questioned the sick lad. 'How long will Goody be,
do you think ?' he asked, 'before she comes back ?'
" 'She doesn't come back, she goes home/ the boy moaned
794 A ROYAL MAUNDY [Mar.,
wearily. Master John turned to his companion. 'You must wait
here,' he said, in an undertone, while I go and find out if she's still
there. I'll return for you if all's clear, but don't let the boy get
sight of you, Father, he may inform.'
" Nevertheless, when Master John Brayne had disappeared,
leaving the lantern on the table, the stranger turned again to Francis.
He went up to the child and took hold of his hand, and regarded him
steadily with his one and only eye.
" 'Little one,' he said, 'you are in grievous pain, what is it that
ails you?'
" Francis looked up at the queer face. 'I've hurt my foot.
Oh, I have hurt my foot!' he sobbed, wailing out the pent-up tale
of his woe, for Goody had taken the injured foot pretty well as a
matter of course. If those whom the Almighty (the 'Good God' had
become the 'Almighty' in these new times) intended to go barefoot
chose to wear shoon they must expect something of the kind.
" Very gently the old man examined the wounded foot. Then
he set it down and sat looking at it, with his hands clasped over
his bosom, as though he felt a kindred pain there. Then he
examined the wound again, and his misplaced mouth screwed itself
up into the corner of his seared cheek. The foot itself was be-
grimed with the dirt of many weeks. Bandage there was none,
except an unspeakable piece of colored cloth, which the stranger
removed and placed on the fire. There he noted a caldron con-
taining some water, and a fair-sized basin.
" 'My child/ he said, 'can you sit up for a moment? I must
bathe that foot.' He moved the caldron on to the fire, and rinsed
out the basin. Then he appeared to bethink himself, and an idea
seemed to strike him. His action became really curious. He
threw back his cloak and displayed a fine suit of red velvet with
white cambric ruffles. Then he worked his mouth into what was
evidently meant to be a smile.
" 'Methinks,' he remarked, apparently to himself, 'that it was
to some good purpose, after all, that they turned a son of St.
Francis into an old popinjay!' He had taken out a clasp knife,
and was busily engaged in ripping the white cambric from his dress,
nay more, he was tearing large pieces of linen from his underwear.
The boy caught the sound of his name, and was aroused for a
moment to a languid interest in what was going on. He fixed his
dim eyes on the odd little figure bending over, both hands busily
employed in the work of destruction. A little white silk bag with
1913.] A ROYAL MAUNDY 795
yellow tassels, which was suspended from his neck by a cord, had
escaped from his bosom and was swinging gently backwards and
forwards in front of him. Francis watched it until, to his poor,
blurred mind, the yellow tassels seemed to be made of pure, shining
gold, and the faded silk to shimmer like a patch of white light. For
a moment the child forgot his pain and sat up on the pallet.
" 'Bravely done !' the visitor said. He set the basin, now filled
with warm water, at the lad's feet, and girded himself with a cloth
that lay near at hand. Then he knelt down and very tenderly
placed the boy's wounded foot into the water. He laved the wound
gently, with the skill fulness of a practiced hand. In some vague
way Francis felt that he was in professional hands. Very grave
and puckered did the ugly old face get as its owner realized the
nature of the symptoms which made themselves apparent. The
strange man must certainly be a surgeon. Yet why should a sur-
geon trouble to wash not only the wounded foot but the other as
well? For that was what the stranger proceeded to do. And
then he did a thing that surely a surgeon never did! Taking the
two hard, brown little feet, he gathered them in his hands, and rais-
ing them to his lips kissed them first the sound foot, and then the
very terrible wounded one !
" Francis sat up straight. Suddenly he felt better oh, ever
so much better! The pain had gone, and there came a feeling of
exhilaration attendant on the exquisite relief. He opened his eyes
wide, and surveyed the kneeling figure before him with interest.
After a time he spoke, rather shyly :
" 'It was my shoon,' he began to explain, in tones of intimacy.
'They were the first shoon I'd ever had, and I wore them after they
hurt me 'cause they were so fine like Master John's and a big
nail ran into my foot.'
" The surgeon made no reply. He was probably absorbed
in his task of binding up the foot. He declared later that he had
no recollection of hearing the boy speak. He may have been en-
gaged in prayer, for the patient was in a parlous bad way, if the
symptoms visible there went for anything. As a matter of fact,
I know that he was.
" But Francis was quite happy. He continued to gaze admir-
ingly, and with ever-increasing interest. By the time the bandage
was adjusted he had dropped off to sleep where he sat.
" The old man laid him down on the bed, and when John
returned with the news that the coast was clear, Goody having been
796 A ROYAL MAUNDY [Mar.,
seen to depart on her way, he found the other bending over the
boy's sleeping form. The old man raised himself up, drew the little
silk bag from his bosom, and made the sign of the Cross with it
over the sleeping boy, Master John dropping on to his knees.
Then they departed.
" Early next morning Francis was aroused from his deep,
refreshing sleep by the return of his errant parent. The latter,
having heard the boy's story of how he had hurt his foot, and how
Master John Brayne had brought a surgeon and doctored him the
night before, became vaguely remorseful for his neglect of the
child. He had brought some money back with him I won't vouch
for how he came by it ! and he now proposed to make amends to
his offspring by providing an orgy to celebrate his homecoming.
With this intention he set out for the village, where the desired
luxuries were to be obtained. When he reached it all the place
was in a hubbub, and for a very sufficient reason. Mr. Whitbourne,
the Protestant squire of Whitbourne, had arrived at the King's
Head, in his magisterial capacity, with a commission to discover the
whereabouts of one Father Giles, a popish priest of the Franciscan
Order. There being a rumor abroad that Master John Brayne had
brought a stranger to the Manor a day or two previously, it was
Mr. Whitbourne's painful duty to investigate the circumstance,
and ascertain whether this guest was the recusant in question.
" Interviewed, Mr. John Brayne had deigned to inform the
magistrate that he had lately entertained a Mr. Jameson, a
gentleman skilled in surgery, from London. Further details he
declined to give, inviting poor Mr. Whitbourne to produce his
warrant and institute a search, if he so willed. But Mr. Whit-
bourne was a well-mannered gentleman as well as a conscientious
Puritan, and he shrank from this step until absolute necessity
demanded it. He hoped first, if possible, to gain some evidence
from someone who might have seen, and so could describe the
suspected stranger. This should not be difficult, for the Franciscan
was a man whose personal peculiarities admitted of no disguise.
One-eyed, and scarred with the marks of an encounter with the
king's officers in the old days when he had acted as doorkeeper at
a secret massing place, the Observant who was wanted for the
highest of High Treason Mr. Titus Oates had made his misde-
meanors as clear as noonday was a marked man in every sense.
Unluckily, however, no one appeared to have caught a glimpse
of Master John's friend, so the courteously-inclined magistrate sat
1913.] A ROYAL MAUNDY 797
on the horns of a dilemma in the inn parlor, deliberating as to
whether he should put his search warrant into execution without
further delay, when Francis' father, with his story of how his small
son had been visited by Master John Brayne and a stranger, ap-
peared opportunely on the scene. Here at last was the required
witness. The prodigal father was taken in all haste to the magis-
trate, but Francis, it seems, had omitted to give a description of
the personal appearance of the strange visitor in his narrative of
what had occurred.
" 'We will visit your son and take his evidence,' the magistrate
said, when the father, somewhat alarmed, pleaded that the child
was lame on one foot, and unable to get out of doors. So it was
that Francis was destined to find himself waited upon for a second
time in twenty-four hours by visitors of distinction.
" They set out for the cottage Mr. Whitbourne, his two
henchmen, and the father of the sick boy. On the way thither they
chanced to meet young John Brayne. Very suavely the magistrate
suggested that Master John Brayne should accompany them and
hear the child give his evidence. Master John made no demur.
He smiled cheerfully, and displayed all due willingness to hear
Mr. Jameson's personal appearance expounded. Master John had
himself well in hand marvelously so for one so young, for he was
barely one-and-twenty at the time. No sign of perturbation escaped
him, but nevertheless there was a terrible cold feeling turning his
heart numb, for after all life is sweet to a lad, and so is liberty,
and conviction in this case meant loss of the former in all prob-
ability, certainly of the latter. And there was Mistress Gertrude!
Mistress Gertrude was at present a guest at the Manor. She had
been invited over for a special occasion not a dance to form
one of a 'house-party' of a kind often met with in the Lancashire
mansions in those days when she set store by the things that matter
before she learned to grow chimneys."
The young man from Cottonopolis surveyed the old mer-
chant who interpolated this comment half apologetically. " There
is grit as well as grime in Lancashire, though, nowadays," he as-
serted sturdily ; and most of us recognized the point, and the young
man from Cottonopolis went up one.
" Well," our host went on, " as they passed by the great gates
of the Manor, Mistress Gertrude happened to be walking in the
drive. Coming forward, she greeted Mr. Whitbourne with all
cordiality.
798 A ROYAL MAUNDY [Mar.,
" 'Gertrude/ said young John, 'these gentlemen have a fancy
to discover certain things about our friend, Mr. Jameson, so we
are off and away to the cottage at Burnfield to question the little
lad to whom he showed charity last night.'
" Mistress Gertrude looked slightly puzzled at first. Then
she looked from the magistrate at John, and she smiled. There was
a distinct twinkle in her eye ! You all know the portrait of Dame
Gertrude Brayne in the gallery how the left eye distinctly twinkles,
although she is depicted in the act of telling her beads. They say
that her father, a very pious Catholic gentleman, objected to the
twinkle, and directed the artist to remove it, but the artist 'sat tight'
and vowed that the twinkle was nothing but the soul of Dame
Gertrude peeping out a great big soul it was, too! And he got
his way, for Sir John backed him up.
" 'I will come with you, if I may/ she said. 'I am anxious
to see how the poor child is doing. Mr. Jameson feared that he
was in a bad way.'
" The magistrate listened with rather a grim smile. These
papists had learned to be mighty fine actors all except the little
friar on whose track they were, whose artlessness had brought him
within arm's length of the gallows but Mr. Whitbourne was a
difficult man to deceive.
" They proceeded to the cottage, the six of them, a curious cor-
tege. Gertrude chatted pleasantly to the magistrate; Master John
retained an air of offended dignity. The magistrate admired them
both. Francis had fallen asleep again when they got there, mak-
ing up the arrears of a pain-haunted week. He woke up and re-
garded the magistrate and his retinue with an interest very different
from the languid manner of yesterday. Mr. Whitbourne sat him-
self down by the boy's side and enwreathed his shrewd face in an
ingratiating smile.
' 'Of course/ he observed blandly, 'the gentleman who came
last night told you not to say anything about him to me I know
that/ Francis gave a puzzled look at the intruder.
' 'He didn't say anything about you/ he said. Then with
intense interest 'Is he a friend of yours? Is he coming again?
Oh, I hope he is !' He put the question, greedy for an answer.
" The magistrate scrutinized the little eager face. He turned
to his man, who stood at his elbow. Master John and Mistress
Gertrude stood, side by side, near the bed, the boy's father just
inside the door.
1913-] A ROYAL MAUNDY 799
" 'The lad is honest/ he said, in an undertone ; 'he is speaking
the truth. We shall learn all we want.' Nevertheless he put his
next question with all due subtlety.
" 'He was quite a young man, was he not ?' he remarked, still
smiling.
" 'No-o,' Francis said, 'he wasn't young.' Gertrude moved
perhaps a quarter of an inch nearer to John. There was a dead
silence as the boy sought for words to express himself.
" 'He was not young,' he said, 'but he hadn't got old ; he he
was beautiful!'
" 'What was he like to look at ?' the magistrate asked, in
slightly less unctuous tones.
" The boy thought. He labored to find expression. 'He had
beautiful eyes,' he said at last, 'and he smiled at me, and his eyes
were all soft and shining.'
" 'But he only had one eye !' the questioner gently reminded
the speaker.
" Francis laughed. He sat up and stretched out his arms
in his eagerness. 'Why, no ;' he said, 'he had lovely big, soft eyes ;
and when I told him that I had worn my shoon when they hurt
because they were so fine, like Master John's, his eyes got all soft
and smiling-like, and he told me that he had once had a nail in
his foot, bigger than mine, and it hurt, too. Oh, he was beautiful !'
" The magistrate looked across at Master John. He still pre-
served his air of offended dignity, somewhat accentuated. He
looked extremely severe. He then looked at Mistress Gertrude.
She had flushed up and was smiling, and there was a distinct
'twinkle' in her left eye. Mr. Whitbourne arrived at the conclu-
sion that Mistress Gertrude Haile was intensely enjoying his dis-
comfiture. He made the best of the situation; indeed, being a
kind-hearted man, he was genuinely glad that it had turned out so.
He rose from his seat and crossed over to young John. 'I am
satisfied, sir,' he said, 'that your guest is not the man for whom I
am seeking.'
" When he and his men had taken their departure, the boy's
father also making himself scarce for fear of what he might get
from Master John for his indiscretion, John and Gertrude stood
gazing at one another. Searchingly the lady's eyes sought her
lover's. Perplexity was all that she could read there. John turned
to the boy. What had he been dreaming of? There was no sign
of lightheadedness about him. The fever was completely gone.
8oo A ROYAL MAUNDY [Mar.,
" 'May I see your foot?' Mistress Gertrude asked of the child.
" 'Nay, be careful/ John whispered. ' Tis in a direful bad
way. 'Twill turn you ill, sweetheart'
" But Gertrude had already unwrapped the bandage. The foot
lay exposed. A perfectly healthy place, which had already begun
to heal, was what they both saw.
" John uttered an exclamation. Gertrude was regarding him
earnestly. She said nothing, but her eager face asked questions of
his inmost understanding. So far he was unresponsive.
" Then Francis spoke : 'I know who he was like the surgeon'
he said. 'He was like Jesu Christ.'
" Mistress Gertrude Haile fixed her bright eyes on him and
nodded, as one who had heard what she expected. She leaned for-
ward and kissed the boy, very tenderly and very reverently. Then
she crossed over to John, who stood gazing at her in dumb amaze-
ment. She laid her little hands on his big shoulders and looked
up into his face. 'I guessed at once,' she whispered, 'have you
forgotten that he was carrying the Blessed Sacrament?'
" There my story ends," our host said. There was silence for
some moments. Then one of the children, after the manner of
children, asked:
" What became of Francis ? "
" He became the Venerable Francis Brayne ( for Master John
adopted him), Franciscan priest, martyred at Tyburn. And Father
Giles? Poor Father Giles was smuggled out of the country, and
sent to a monastery in Belgium. He was too ugly to disguise,
you see besides he had no notion of acting. He died a saint,
though, if not a martyr, and his prayers wrought many wonders
even when he was here. You must not forget to ask him to help
you, young Frank, when you come to think about your vocation,
for he is a very mighty man of prayer."
POINTS OF VIEW.
BY VINCENT MCNABB, O.P.
AWRENCE SHIPLEY had been a school-fellow of
mine in the old days at St. Malachy's. He had
been captain of our cricket eleven and our swiftest
forward on the football field. Moreover, every
small boy who got into trouble with a big bully in-
stinctively claimed right of sanctuary with Lawrence; nor, as far
as I know, was that sanctuary ever violently invaded.
He was as keen at his books as at his games; winning equal
prizes in the schools and fields. Indeed, something of the sport-
ing instinct of his mind helped him in his studies. To master
a language or solve a mathematical problem demanded not the
same but a kindred set of enthusiastic emotions, which made him
a hero in the playing field.
No one was so intimate with him as I, who shared nearly all
his thoughts and dreams. A year or two his younger, I had just
sufficient boyish worship of him to put him at his ease in un-
veiling his dreams, and just sufficient boyish jealously to take a
dreadful joy in finding out what new fields of adventure he was
minded to win.
I remember to have heard one of his last and most character-
istic phrases a week before breaking up. He was bidding fare-
well to me and to the school, now so beloved in the remembrance
of our boyish, romantic love. With his eyes sparkling like a hunts-
man's in full view he said, " Who knows what I may be when next
we meet, old boy? Commander-in-Chief, or Prime Minister per-
haps! I mean to play a forward game. Mens sana in corpore
sano, I take for my motto; and translate 'The head clear and the
body fit.' Your broken-down folk don't live, as I hope to live,
by leaps and bounds. They die by inches."
* * * *
Some twenty years after, a little pencilled scrawl in the old
familiar handwriting brought me to the room where Sir Lawrence
Shipley, of His Majesty's Colonial Service, lay dying by inches.
His eyes were older and, at first, duller than I had ever
known in our school days. Sickness had quenched most of their
VOL. xcvi. 51.
802 POINTS OF VIEW [Mar.,
fires. Yet from time to time the embers would yield to some
passing emotion and flame up, as I had so often seen them flame
before.
Into the sanctities and intimacies of our hour of talk I may
not take the casual reader. One phrase alone, with its accompany-
ing remarks, is the motive of what follows from my pen.
A loathsome and hideous blood poisoning had made him almost
a second Job. From the crown of his head to the sole of his foot
there was hardly a sound spot. I remembered the words of Job's
comforter, "Curse God; and die." The despairing phrase would
have soiled my lips if the dull eyes had not suddenly glowed in
their death embers, as if to stifle my curse with a blessing.
I could hardly trace a dulling of the new-born light in his
eyes as he said, " Mens sana in cor pore sano. A clear head and a
body fit! You may remember my motto. But I hope I am still
playing a forward game."
It came as a shock to me that he could almost jest with death.
I said bitterly, though the bitterness was not towards him, " I lay
a wager your mind is always clear as clear as when you won the
school scholarship even when your body is a network of pain.
You are a clear mind in a stricken body. But that only trebles
your pain."
He smiled feebly, as he said with an effort towards mild
sarcasm, " Wrong again ! Even my head swims. Indeed it some-
times swims out of my depth. I have to wait patiently on the
bank till it bobs up serenely."
Then, recollecting that every deathbed of a great soul is,
in St. Augustine's phrase, not so much a bed of suffering as a chair
of teaching, I began the faithful enterprise of asking questions.
I said playfully, " How can dull brains, duller eyes, and almost
lifeless limbs play a game? "
My question seemed to stimulate him, as clever swift bowling
used to make him take a new grip of his cricket bat. He answered,
with a suspicion of scorn, " Our schoolboy games were child's
play. Even the games I played when I was climbing the Colonial
ladder on the Indian frontier, and carrying my life in my hands,
were but quiet training for this "
" This game of death ! " I interrupted.
"Battle of life," he retorted gamely; and then went on.
" Our school games were begun and ended in an afternoon, or a
day. When they were over, we gave our wearied bodies food
1913-] POINTS OF VIEW 803
and delightful rest. Now the game goes on night and day. If
rest comes, I never know when it is coming or when it will go.
" My opponent keeps no rules. He fouls unmercifully. He
does not mind hitting below the belt. He seems to take a particular
joy in putting me down; when I am down, kicking me. He ties
my hands behind my back, and then gives me stunning blows on
the head. He blinds me, and ties me and passes me over hedges.
He guides me and leads me whither I would."
" What do you expect to do with such a beast ? " I gasped.
" Why, win ! What else is there to do ? This is merely the
hardest game I ever played. To win will be the most coveted
victory. If I win this cup, I win it outright. It is mine for ever."
I felt he was bent on winning. Yet the old man was so strong
in me, or perhaps the strain of jealousy I had ever borne towards
him was so irrepressible, that I blurted out:
" But there is not a part of your body that has not its point
of pain ! "
I rather fancied this last phrase. I felt almost childishly
pleased when it seemed to reach its mark; though my past jousts
with him left me wisely expectant. He repeated the phrase slowly,
as if carefully playing a ball that broke.
" Points of pain ! Well suppose I grant that meek brother
body has a thousand points of pain. Yet mounted on the shoulders
of brother body I see things otherwise than you. To me this
sickness, which is unto death, has brought me ten thousand points
of view ! "
" Points of view," I murmured feebly to myself. He gave
me almost word for word in the tragic deathbed game of phrase
making. I had to own he had the better of the set.
" But is not suffering a cloud ? Is not such suffering as yours
an eclipse? Is it not shadow and even darkness? How then
can you state it in terms of light? "
He replied emphatically, " From a sick bed every man can see."
" Yes, see his nurse; a row of medicine bottles, and the brick
walls of the opposite side of the street." This seemed to me, even
at the time, not an answer but a retort. I was not altogether sur-
prised when he retorted in turn :
" When Death lays every man on his back, the man so stricken
must perforce look up to the stars, the sun, and the eternal hills.
There is little else to soothe his eyes. Hitherto he has seldom lain
for long on his back, as artists lie to study the painted roof of a
804 POINTS OF VIEW [Mar.,
church, or to watch the clouds. Now that sickness gives a man
no other posture, he must in self-defense discover the stars. Like
me he must awake one day to a new point of view, even if it is
a point of pain."
He was looking up as he spoke from " the master's chair;" and
I was looking down at the sun shining in his eyes. I felt with
joy that he was still winning easily from me every set. To tell
the truth, I was nothing loath that victory should be flowing as
it did.
He shut his eyes ; I know not whether through pain or vision.
Then he broke into a reverie which, in words that add insult to
his vision, I will here record.
" Yes, pain is a new point of view. Perhaps as things stand,
it is the main point of view. The Crucified one day said that
when He, Who had won hardly a handful of men, should be on
His bed of pain, He would draw all things to Himself. Pain is
not the heart, but is at the heart of the world. From that centre
all things are seen, and seen in their setting; and to it all things
return as a tossed stone to earth.
" Men have said that knowledge is power. I have learned
from sorrow that while time runs knowledge is pain. The leaf
sickens and dies. Yet it does not sorrow, for it knows not that
it is dying. The pebble is burnt Jn the kiln. Yet it passes away
without the cloud of pain, for it is unconscious of its passing away.
But every shadow and footprint of oncoming death rings within
us the knell of pain. All pain is thus the pain of death, as all bells
summon mankind to prayer.
" How often in the very trough and deep of pain have I dwelt
on Pascal's noble thought, 'Were the whole world to crush man,
man would be nobler than that which slays him; because he would
know that he is being slain.' But at what a price do we buy this
supremacy over beings that lack knowledge. One who lay like
me on a bed of suffering spoke of being 'delivered into the hands
of thought.' There is scarcely any emotion, and certainly no pain,
stirring on the surface or in the depths of my being that I do not
know. I have counted every throb of a protesting nerve. I have
felt the white-hot dagger of pain stab its way relentlessly almost to
my bones. I have counted every turn of the vise that has fastened
my brow in a narrowing pressing ring of agony. I have pitied
my shuddering, moaning self as if my body was a hound that some
heartless wretch was torturing. I have watched my conscious self
1913-] POINTS OF VIEW 805
under the sharp dagger-stabs of pain gradually draw near and fall
over the brink of unconsciousness. I have wakened up from pain-
filmed, yea, agony-haunted, dreams to the realities of a body throb-
bing and quivering with the shafts of disease.
" Yet have I seen of late that the bed of pain is the Mount
of Vision. No experience of life has taught me so much as this
experience of a body manacled with pain. Never have I been set
down at such a point of view. Laying here on my back I have
ceased to see the earth; or I have seen it only as a lesser brother
of the stars and sun. It is too little to say I have seen the
sun; or even that I have seen God. I have handled the Mystery
of life. I have felt God's power and wisdom, and the sweetness
of His mercies, almost as undeniably as you now feel the rays of
the noon-day sun, or as I felt this morning the agonies of an
empoisoned body.
" How human are men, I often say : men who daily praise
God most, not in the daily alms of sun and stars, but in the daily
meal. It is not a sacrilege; for the daily bread which God gives
is a daily morsel thrown to lull the clamorous wolves of death.
I, too, have thanked God a hundred times for the tender mercies
of those His lifeless creatures that have lulled my pain and cur-
tained my mind even in a dream-tortured sleep.
" I have thanked God, too, that now at length I have the
meaning of the Apocalyptic word : 'He measured the wall thereof,
an hundred and forty-four cubits, the measure of a man which is
of an angel.' I now see that it is akin to the noble hymn on the
cross.
Sacli pependit pretium
Statera -facia.
Stretched on the earth in the Garden of Agony, He measured
the world; dying on the cross on the Hill of Death, He weighed
the world ; measured and weighed it, and found it wanting.
" Only when the Angel of Death lays man on his back, has
man the measure and weight of the world. Artists tell us that the
low light makes the color. The eye of the dying is now for the
first time level, with the world, into which we shall so soon be
gathered, child-dust to mother-dust.
" In the old days of chivalry they made the king's forearm or
ell the measure of all measures. We, the stricken of Christ, know
that of all things that pass and joy passes us swiftly as sorrow,
fame swifter than disgrace the measure is the King's nailed and
806 POINTS OF VIEW [Mar.,
outstretched arm. And thus I who have coveted, like the men
of Athens, ever to hear something new, have been granted sor-
row's supreme point of view; where from I look upon the occupa-
tions of men, which are but games grown old, through the eyes
of Christ.
" Sometimes, too, praised be His name ! there comes to me,
by His courteous kindness in the very fire of pain, an ecstasy of
suffering. He draws near me and walks with me in the Baby-
lonian furnace. I dare not ask of Him to sip the Cup of suffering
lest, alas! my presumption should go before and prepare a fall.
Yet when He sends His trusty angel of pain to seal upon me the
'marks of the Lord Jesus in my body,' I, too, like St. Paul, have
been lifted up into a heaven, and there in the company of the
Crucified have heard things which could not well be uttered or
even understood, except through pain. A fragment of song has
at these times throbbed through my fevered body.
Poets vent their soul in verse;
Saints in pain.
In that strange ecstasy of joy welling from the heart of
sorrow and knowledge born of weakness, I have known that not
Thabor but Golgotha is the supreme Mount of Vision, and that
even Thabor's joys are only for those who will give ear to the
Crucified speaking of His cross.
" I know, now, as I never knew before, that earth has not
anything to show more fair than the fairest of the sons of men
stretched out like ivory on His ebon couch of death; nor can eyes
once seared and sealed by the vision of pain welcome a fairer
sight until they open new-born in the Vision of Paradise."
* * * *
It may have been the mere fire of his old self overcoming his
stricken body, or it may have been God's gracious visit to His
enkindled soul, that silenced his last words to a whisper, and ringed
his shut eyes with a shadow of death.
I muttered, " Well done ! " He had heard me call it out to
him a hundred times on the playing fields. Perhaps he heard it
now. At any rate it was all my stunned soul could find at hand to
say. Then running quickly from his bedside I summoned the
Sister, whom he called his " Angel of Life," and went out from the
shadows of his room into the sun, as one passes from day into
the night.
TERTIARY MAN IN ARGENTINA.
BY JABEZ B. GOUGH.
T is a regrettable circumstance, not only for the sake
of science itself, but on the grounds of sane thinking
as well, that so many scientific men are lacking in
mental rectitude. Not only is their logical sense
woefully in abeyance or undeveloped; their ethical
standards of thought are still more disordered. This mental in-
competence results, therefore, in the employment of careless and
slipshod methods, and these in turn discredit real science. There
is in consequence abroad in the minds of thinking and discerning
men a well-grounded prejudice against the deliverances of science
in those fields where she cannot yet claim exactness. They distrust
the premises, and rightly thereafter discredit the conclusions.
Against science, as the handmaid of revelation, there should be
otherwise no prejudice. Science is truth in the natural order.
It seeks to unravel mysteries which hitherto have eluded the notice
or the knowledge of our race. The true scientist must, therefore,
bring to this study of the obscure and hidden things of Nature an
open and impartial mind without preconceptions, except such as he
can easily lay aside ; he must follow sane and conservative methods ;
he must resolutely distinguish between proved facts and experi-
mental theories ; and in delivering his final conclusions to the world,
he must bear in mind the ethical responsibilities which they carry
with them when they trench on the supreme relation of man to his
Creator.
To seek, then, to postulate for a mere workable hypothesis the
value or stringency of an established law ; to bolster it up with facts
that are not facts, to advance the unproven and call it proved ; to ac-
commodate the facts to the theory, and not judge the theory by the
facts ; to be remiss in the logic of sequence and deduction ; to deliver
cathedratic decisions in matters which lie beyond one's random, or
to the discussion of which one cannot bring a long and zealous train-
ing, and, finally, to be wanting the sense of personal responsibility
for the accuracy of one's conclusions: these are all sins against
true science, and must discredit the scientist who is guilty of them.
Most particularly in the matter of anthropogeny to which we
8o8 TERTIARY MAN IN ARGENTINA [Mar.,
especially address ourselves in this article should the scientist
guard his rectitude of view and his strict exactitude of proof. On
account of the difficulties and drawbacks that accompany this study,
the facility of error and deception, he must be exacting in his tests
and investigations in its higher and more difficult stages.
In the consideration of fossil types skeletal remains for
instance, he must make full allowance for the possibility of rever-
sion, degeneration, accidental variation in individuals, or some other
such semi-pathological occurrence; not to speak of strictly indis-
putable stratigraphical evidence, some degree of fossilization, and
marked serial somatological distinctions in the osseous structure.
An eminently illuminating instance of how science can be dis-
credited at the hands of her votaries, and her just conclusions in
other fields flouted and decried, has just reached us from South Am-
erica. There can be no question of the facts, for they come to us on
no less an authority than the United States Government, through its
scientific department than which there is not in the New World a
more authoritative source. The Smithsonian Institution at Wash-
ington, one of the working departments of which is the Bureau
of American Ethnology, in its last Bulletin supplies us with the
facts. They make interesting reading; not only because they dis-
cover to us the dishonesty of method and conclusion employed by
many scientists to prove the simian origin of man, but also because
they afford us opportunity to follow the true scientist in his pro-
cesses of deduction. Without further ado, then, we will take up
the story.
Of recent years reports of the finding of skeletal and in-
dustrial remains of geologically ancient man in Brazil and Argen-
tina have been coming thick and fast from South America. What
between the finds of this- class in the Lagoa Santa caves of Brazil,
an"d the much more numerous finds of human bones and cultural
objects in Argentina, South American scientists and anthropolo-
gists fairly revelled in an overabundance of material, at first glance
fitted to their theories. They read into those relics not only a
hoary and incredible antiquity for man, but they saw in them his
precursor and progenitor; nay, they went farther after the man-
ner of the Latins and gave him, not an inheritance from the
anthropoids, but a descent far more deeply specialized in the direc-
tion of bestialization. Incidentally they renewed the fabled story
of Atlantis, and proved to their own satisfaction that in the eons
long past, " before time was," the ridges of that lost world con-
1913.] TERTIARY MAN IN ARGENTINA
nected South America with Europe and "the islands of the sea;"
so that Homo sapiens, taking his origin and descent from the most
primitive anthropoidal forms in South America, gradually spread
to and over the other continents. It was at least a patriotic view
on their part.
It would be scarcely just to all the scientific men of Brazil
and Argentina to say that they each individually endorsed these
interpretations of the evidence at hand. There is considerable
variance of opinion in the determinations of the geologic age of
the Argentina finds particularly; but in the attribution of skeletal
remains to the anthropoidal precursor of man, there is little to
distinguish the extreme school of Ameghino from the more con-
servative following of Lehmann-Nitsche. One, for example,
identifies a fossil femur as a portion of a very ancient forerunner
of man, which he names the Tetraprothomo argentinus; while the
other attributes the same femur to " a Tertiary primate, the Homo
neogaus " or man-of-the-New World. " You takes your choice."
Professor Florentino Ameghino, as we have said, is the
most advanced and enthusiastic upholder of the antiquity of man on
our southern continent. He is, however, more of a geologist than
a paleontologist or anthropologist; still this fact does not prevent
him from passing the most decisive and far-reaching judgments on
fossil remains. On the basis of certain human specimens and of
certain " industrial vestiges " coupled with the presence in South
America of certain small fossil monkeys he has elaborated a
scheme of man's evolution which far transcends anything Hseckel
ever imagined.
According to his interpretation of the evidence, Homo sapiens
or man-of-the-present day is, together with Homo primigenius,
a sub-species (only a little more recent) in descent from a common
ancestor, Homo pampaus; Homo pampaus is, in turn, the offspring
of simple homo man as he emerged from the simian state, and
from him comes also Homo ater, or the black man, without inter-
mediate assistance; homo came direct from prothomo, and the latter
from Homo platensis, and he in turn from tripothomo; from trip-
othomo has arisen by some slant of descent pithecantropus. There
appears to be a break in the connection here perhaps to agree
with his denial of man's simian origin for the Tetraprothomo ar-
gentinus (the Homo neogcuus of Lehmann-Nitsche) has for de-
scendants only the pseudhomines (Homo simius, and Pseudhomo
heidelbergensis). Below him are Hominidce primitivi, from
810 TERTIARY MAN IN ARGENTINA [Mar.,
which come our anthropomorphida anthropoid apes. Below all,
and at the very foot of this family tree its roots and underground
stems are the homunculid, consisting of the anthropops, homun-
culus, pitheculites, and clenialites.
We abstain from passing special remark on this elaborate
scheme of man's forbears in the lower world of animal life. The
cold disproofs of true science, as applied to it by the scientists
of the Bureau of Ethnology, will fully wipe it out.
The Bureau of American Ethnology had for years been oc-
cupied with the subject of man's antiquity in North America.
For eight years, between 1899 an< ^ Z 97> its specialists had studied
the various skeletal remains which were suggested or attributed to
ancient man in this region, and had amply demonstrated the fact
that " no specimen had come to light in the northern continent,
which, from the standpoint of physical anthropology, represented
other than a relatively modern man."
When then this landslip of prehistoric fossils, with the ac-
companying exultant interpretations, fell upon the world, scientific
interest was at once excited. Occuring as it did in the southern
continent, northern anthropologists, with the disappointments of
their own failures fresh upon them, looked longingly to the South-
ern Hemisphere. Somehow the reports dealing with the finds of
human remains up to 1907 were singularly incomplete and un-
satisfactory. Owing to the distance of the fields, it was impossible
to form a definite opinion as to the merit of the finds. Interest
reached its culmination when " the apparently epoch-making dis-
coveries " of the Tertaprothomo (1907), Diprothomo (1909), and
Homo pampaus (1909) were given to the world by Professor
Ameghino.
The American Bureau of Ethnology decided to send at once
two of its best men to conduct an impartial investigation into the
value of the finds. And because it would be a question, the solution
of which would depend almost as much on the geological evidence
as on the anthropological or biological, an expert geologist was de-
puted to accompany Doctor Ales Hrdlicka. The selection for this
service fell on Mr. Bailey Willis, of the United States Geological
Survey; Mr. Willis was the department's expert geologist in loess
and related formations in North America and in China. In the
determination of the age of the pampaean terrane, especially, his
experience in the vast loess deposits of China would be invaluable.
It is not necessary to comment on Doctor Hrdlicka's abilities as a
1913.] TERTIARY MAN IN ARGENTINA 811
paleontologist and anthropologist. From the Isthmus of Panama
to North Dakota he had for years carried out the research work
of the Bureau in this important matter; his studies of the skeletal
remains of North America had been long and thorough; and his
final judgment as to the geologic age of man on this continent had
been decisive as it still is.
To the ordinary layman it would appear that the Smithsonian
Institution in sending two such scientists men of recognized ability
and of tried experience to investigate the true nature of the South
American evidence of man's geologic age, it had fully provided for
an adequate solution of the question; but the Institution itself did
not so judge. In the determination of the age of the various beds
from which the shells, brought home by the Hrdlicka- Willis expe-
dition to Argentina, were taken, Mr. William H. Dall, geologist and
paleontologist of the United States Geological Survey, was em-
ployed; while the petrographic examination of the rock specimens
loess, Tierra cocida, and scoria collected in situ by the same
expedition was turned over to the Geophysical Laboratory of the
Carnegie Institution of Washington for an exhaustive investigation
of their physical character and conditions of origin. It will be
readily admitted, therefore, that the Smithsonian Institution em-
ployed its most competent scientists to do this work, and spared no
pains to secure reliable results.
It can also be taken for granted that no prejudice or precon-
ceived opinion marred the investigations of the two scientists, to
whom especially a final judgment was looked for concerning the
age of those South American fossils. On account of defective re-
ports, skepticism concerning certain details or finds was of course at
the outset unavoidable ; work on the ground would lead to more def-
inite conclusions.
The conditions essential to correct judgments regarding prob-
lems involved in an investigation of this kind are so simple as to be
self-evident. Human remains, cultural or skeletal, of uncertain
geologic antiquity, must be judged of only from their association
with geologic deposits, the age of which is well-determined, and
with the remains of other organic forms, the place of which in time
and the evolutionary series is known. Osseous specimens are read
according to their morphologic characteristics, and to the organic
and inorganic alterations of the bones. Geologically, consideration
of the antiquity of human remains involves not only unquestionable
stratigraphic identification of the matrix in which they were dis-
812 TERTIARY MAN IN ARGENTINA [Mar.,
covered, but preeminently the possibility of intrusive introduction
subsequent to the formation of it. It should be shown conclusively
that the specimen or specimens were found in geologically ancient
deposits, whose age is further confirmed by the presence of paleon-
tologic remains ; bones should present evidence of f ossilization, that
is, of organic as well as inorganic alterations; they should also
very necessarily show morphological characteristics referable to
an earlier type. Moreover, it is necessary to prove in every case,
by unexceptional evidence, that the human remains were not intro-
duced, either purposely or accidentally, at later times into the forma-
tion in which they have been discovered.
On the morphologic side there is the difficult problem of dis-
criminating between the evolutionary characteristic of a certain
period and those characteristics which are due to reversion of type,
to degeneration in the individual, accidental variations, or semi-
pathological variations in general. Moreover, it is no unimportant
task a task hedged round indeed with many difficulties to deter-
mine with precision the physical and chemical changes which such
osseous remains have undergone, and evaluate their chronologic
significance.
It is only by the observance of such conditions and criteria
that anything approaching to a correct scientific judgment of the age
of a find relating to early man can be arrived at. To accept any
specimen as representative of geologic man on evidence less than
the sum total of these criteria would be to build on a foundation of
sand. Which was what the South American scientists did.
With the results of the geological investigations of Mr. Bailey
Willis we are not interested, except so far as he was able to give a
decided opinion regarding the paleontology of the terrane in which
the skeletal and cultural evidence was found. The superficial for-
mations of the pampas and the coast, he says, are of very recent
origin it is in them that human remains have been found. More-
over, were the remains as old as the deposits they would be geolog-
ically recent, but they are younger. Whence he concludes, in agree-
ment with his colleague, that "geologically ancient man has not
yet been found in Argentina."
In like manner, Mr. William H. Ball, of the United States
Geological Survey, reports on the shells from Argentina, that they
are all of recent species, that is, species still having living representa-
tives. The petrographic study of the rocks and scoriae, made by
the Carnegie Geophysical Laboratory, only confirms the same deduc-
1913-] TERTIARY MAN IN ARGENTINA 813
tion from the evidence, viz., the comparatively recent origin of the
specimens; while a petromicroscopic examination of the bones
of " fossil " man, brought by Doctor Hrdlicka from Argentina, only
confirms the doctor's conclusions.
Having given the conclusions and judgments of the subsidiary
sciences in this matter of early man in South America, we have
cleared our terrane, and can now leave the field to Doctor Hrdlicka's
investigations of 'the various finds, human and industrious, upon
which such an elaborate and alarming scheme of the evolution of
man from certain bestial forms was founded. We will be as
concise as we possibly can.
It is due to our readers to state, in advance, that in this article
we do not purpose discussing skeletal and other remains found
in Brazil. The caves of Lagoa Santa, to which we have already
alluded, supplied a great wealth of fossil treasure to the eager
scientists of the country, enabling them as well as some foreigners
to allot an antiquity of thirty centuries or more to those remains.
From them Lund, a Danish explorer, infers that the present popu-
lation of Brazil antedates history; while Lutken, Quatrefages, and
others assign them a contemporaneity with the extinct mammals
of the Quaternary period. Our Doctor Hrdlicka, however, icono-
clastically disposes of all these theories.
It seems quite evident [he says] that the human remains
from the Lagoa Santa caves can not be accepted, without fur-
ther and more conclusive proofs, as belonging to a race which
lived contemporaneously with the extinct species of animals
found in the same caves ; and there is no reliable foundation
in the remainder of the data relating to the specimens on which
such geologic antiquity could be based.
Leaving aside as rationally negligible the " vestiges " on which
Professor Ameghino bases his foundation scheme of the presence
in South America of the Homunculidce, or small humanoid apes,
we will at once take up the story of the two bones upon which the
same authority builds his new, complex, zoo-anthropologic classi-
fication. In the presence of these two scanty remnants of human
and animal life, Doctor Ameghino gives his imagination the fullest
liberty, so that we are not astonished to find him setting aside, as
henceforth useless, the accepted theories of man's direct simian
descent. He puts this geological man in a class by himself,
and calls him Tetraprothomo argentinns. Nor is he alone in his
814 TERTIARY MAN IN ARGENTINA [Mar.,
enthusiasm. R. Lehmann-Nitsche, leader of the opposing opinions,
goes somewhat farther in one direction ; for while he styles this find
Homo neogaus the man-of-the-New World he agrees with Pro-
fessor Ihering, of Sao Paulo, that during the Tertiary there existed
a continent connecting eastern Asia with Central America. He
differs, however, with Ameghino in making the Miocene fauna and
man's precursors emigrate from Asia to Central America; Ameg-
hino, more patriotically, makes South America the scene of man's
earliest existence.
The bones in question turn out to be the femur, or thigh bone,
of a cat, and the atlas, or collar bone of a recent Indian. After a
sustained and critical examination of the human atlas, in which it is
viewed from every possible and reasonable standpoint, and a com-
parison made between it and the atlases of monkeys, gorillas, and
northern Indians, Dr. Hrdlicka concludes that
There can not be a shade of question as to the human pro-
venience of the atlas, while the possibility of its belonging to
an earlier species of man is opposed by the fact that such
a species is otherwise still a mere hypothesis, that there is
nothing on hand on which to base the new species except a single
imperfect bone of secondary anthropologic importance and of
wide individual variation; that all of the peculiarities of this
bone fall well within the range of such variation in modern
human atlases, and that none of its features are more primitive
than those of the atlases of Indians of comparatively recent
times.
Basing his opinion on the structural characteristics of this
Monte Hermoso atlas, he infers that " it is a bone from a short,
but by no means dwarf, and probably thickset, relatively modern,
man."
He next proceeds to examine, morphologically and compara-
tively, the tetraprothomo femur, which is also a find from Monte
Hermoso. He finds it to be a left adult thigh bone, with the upper
end missing; black and shiny through fossilization and fully petri-
fied. He illustrates by photographs its similarity with the thigh
bones of the ocelot, Fells onca, canis mexicanus, and striped hyena;
its dissimilarity from the femora of the gibbon ape, orang, chim-
panzee, gorilla, and man. Finally, after an exhaustive study of the
bone, he concludes that the Monte Hermoso femur " can not be
other than that of a carnivore, and that, on the whole, it approxi-
1913-] TERTIARY MAN IN ARGENTINA 815
mates more closely the femur of the fossil, as well as of the modern
Felida, than it does any other bone." In this conclusion he is sup-
ported by the subsequent judgment of Mr. J. W. Gidley, custodian
of fossil mammals, United States National Museum, to whom a
cast of the bone was submitted.
Thus we see that the identification of this Indian atlas as be-
longing to another species of man rests on the unwarranted assump-
tion of its antiquity, and of the existence of such a species of man.
As to the femur, it must be relegated to some ancient branch of
the cat family. And thus perishes the short-lived scientific
existence of Tetraprothomo argentinus, or if you prefer it
Homo neogceus.
The serial distance between this imaginary Tetraprothomo
and Homo himself is, from the evolutionary and morphologic point,
so considerable that Ameghino was compelled to presuppose the
existence of three intermediate genera: Prothomo, Diprothomo,
and Tripothomo. Moreover, he was obliged to evolve the charac-
teristics of these extinct precursors of man from his own inner
consciousness. This is especially true of the earliest of them in the
series, Tripothomo; it is distinctly a mental creation.
For Diprothomo platensis, although a great deal had to be done
by calculation, still there was some slightly justifying grounds to
work upon. There was a bit of a skull taken from the harbor
of Buenos Ayres. As human skulls go, it was not much of a skull.
It was called Platensis, because it came from the River Platte.
This calotte, or fragment, of a human skull was taken from the
oozy bed of the river when the workmen were excavating a rudder-
pit for the dry dock at Buenos Ayres. In geological age, according
to Ameghino, it was a remnant from the Lower Pliocene, and was
carried by a second or premediate precursor of man as part of his
brainpan. In point of conformation Ameghino makes it surpass
the famous Neanderthal cranium, so low is the skull-vault; the
glabella, or bony projection downwards between the eye sockets,
in unhumanly prominent; while an unusual depression above and
behind the glabella over the supraorbital arches would afford
the conception that the face was carried, not vertically as in man,
but with a decided horizontal cast.
It is not necessary to enter into a minute relation of Ameg-
hino's views and description of this skull remnant. We are more
interested in Doctor Hrdlicka's determination of it. Ameghino's
description of it has miscarried from the outset, he says, because
816 TERTIARY MAN IN ARGENTINA [Mar.,
of a mistaken orientation of it. The fragment had been viewed
in a wrong position. There are two recognized and standard skull
positions in anthropology, but it had not been considered in the
indispensable approximation to either. The sagittal line had in
consequence been given a slope backward, and thus the specimen
was made to look extraordinary and primitive, not to say unhuman.
Orienting it then side by side with a modern Indian cranium of
known provenience, which had the same nasion-bregma diameter
and a closely related form, he made a thorough study of the frag-
ment. It is not necessary to follow him through all the techni-
calities of this investigation. Suffice it to say that he found the
facial angle to be precisely the same as in a Piegan skull in fact,
practically the same as in the average Indian; and that the nasal
notch, or opening, which Ameghino diverted upwards, occupied in
life the position it would occupy in a naturally-poised head. So far
from diverging from the facial characteristics, even of the white
man, Homo platensis might at any time be identified with modern
man.
The Buenos Ayres skull fragment [says the doctor] fails
utterly to reveal any evidence which would justify its classifica-
tion as a representative of a species of ancient Primates, pre-
mediate forerunners of the human being, the Diprothomo.
Every feature shows it to be a portion of the skull of man him-
self ; it bears no evidence even of having belonged to an early
or physically primitive man, but to a well-developed and phys-
ically modern-like individual.
To banish completely Ameghino's Diprothomo from the pur-
view of science, Mr. Bailey Willis, after an examination of the
character of the river bank, finds that he can give no weight to the
belief that " the unknown workman who found the skull, and gave it
to the foreman, really dug it out of undisturbed ancient Pampaean."
In this congenial work of destroying man's animal predecessors,
it will be seen that unlike Doctor Hrdlicka we are working from
the depths upwards from the Eocene up to the Recent Quaternary.
Having then disposed of the immediate precursor of man, we now
come to man himself not indeed to Quaternary or recent man
man of to-day but to a primitive being who differs from actual
man either because he lacked a chin or because he moved with his
gaze upon the ground. South American anthropologists call them
Homo pampaus, and subdistinguish him as Homo sinemento or
Homo caputinclinatus. He is still a Tertiary man.
1913.] TERTIARY MAN IN ARGENTINA 817
Homo pampaus is, according to its sponsor, Professor Ameg-
hino, " the most ancient representative of the genus Homo (possibly
a species of Prothomo), of which we now possess the skull, and it
preserves many of the characteristics of the Diprothomo." He
bases his characterizations on an imperfect cranium, known as
the skull of Miramar, or La Tigra, found accidentally in 1888, and
on three other skulls subsequently unearthed. He describes all
four as presenting the same characteristics : excessively sloping
forehead, which is not the result of artificial deformation; the ros-
trum beak, or nose bones much prolonged forward beyond the
alveolar border; orthognatic denture, that is, teeth perpendicular,
not projecting; dolichocephalic, with excessively narrow foreheads,
bulging eyes, and other characteristics. In consequence, " Judging
from the paleontologic standpoint, Homo pampaus is a species
very different from Homo sapiens; it differs much more from the
latter than the Homo primigenius. It is even possible," he con-
cludes, " that when better known, the Homo pampceus will result
to be a veritable Prothomo"
The foregoing summary is not even a bird's-eye view of the
abundant literature with which Professor Ameghino sustains his
thesis concerning Homo pampaus; it is the merest quintessence of
conclusion. Similarly we are not at liberty to give the exhaustive
investigation conducted by Doctor Hrdlicka into the anthropologic,
or by Mr. Willis into the geologic, value of Ameghino's conclusions.
The northern scientists are in strictest accord in their judgment
of these remains. We will let the anthropologist speak for both:
If any Homo pampaus ever existed [says Dr. Hrdlicka], it
is safe to say that his remains have not yet been produced.
The case fails utterly thus far from the standpoint of geology,
as well as that of anthropology. If the facts are carefully
reviewed, it will be seen that geologically no substantial evidence
has been brought forward favoring any great antiquity of the
several lots of human bones assumed to represent this human
species. And as to archaeology and somatology, they both
demonstrate that the specimens ascribed to Homo pampaus, the
" earliest human representative if not even a predecessor of
man " are fraught with no such possibilities, but that they
point in no uncertain manner to the common American Indian.
In view of all the facts, Homo pampaus must be regarded as
merely a theory, without, so far as shown, any substantiation.
Between Homo pampaus and the Neanderthal man Homo
VOL. xcvi. 52.
8i8 TERTIARY MAN IN ARGENTINA [Mar.,
primigenius there was room for a phylogenetic intermediary, and
Ameghino proceeds at once to fill the gap. In fact, he doubly
fills it, since he inserts therein two most interesting and almost
perfect types of prehistoric man Homo sinemento (man chinless),
and Homo caputinclinatus (man of the bowed head). The skel-
etal remains of Homo sinemento represent, according to Ameghino,
a race of very small people, almost pigmies; a slender people, not
very robust; dolichocephalic; rostrum prognathic or projecting, this
projection being due principally to the prognathism of the jaws.
The most surprising characteristic, however, was the union of a
lower jaw (in which the teeth did not project outwards, but were
ornathic or perpendicular), and an absolute lack of chin.
The human skeleton from which Ameghino deduces the species
of man whom he designates as caputinclinatus consists of a skull,
of which the lower jaw and the facial parts are missing, and of
various long bones, ribs, vertebrae, etc. Just one imperfect skull,
yet this is all the evidence our Southern scientist needs in order to
create a new race of human beings. He orients the head during life
as having been carried with skull sloping directly downward. " It
is for this reason," he says, " that I designate the species, now
completely extinct, by the name of Homo caputinclinatus"
Again, both geologist and anthropologist occupied themselves
sedulously with the question of Homo sinemento. Their reports
are illuminative, not only regarding the denuded flat, or " playa,"
from which the remains were taken, the presence of comparatively
recent arti-facts in the cavity, and especially of pigment stones
(proofs of a belief in immortality), but most especially concerning
the anthropologic significance of the bones themselves. Two skele-
tons had been unearthed. The first, consisting particularly of a
skull and a number of more or less eroded bones, was the skeleton
of a middle-aged female. The examination of this skull showed
plainly an average, moderate-sized Indian cranium, not one feature
points to anything more primitive. The entire specimen shows
nothing whatever " bestial," or that could not be found in a modern
female Indian skull, particularly in a woman of small stature.
The second specimen, on which the species Homo sinemento is
founded, is a small female skull, probably very slightly deformed
by artificial pressure after the Aymara fashion. It has been re-
paired from pieces and partially restored, but the face has been made
too high in the reconstruction. There is, pace Ameghino, a moder-
ate chin prominence. This skull is, so far as it can be seen in its
1913.] TERTIARY MAN IN ARGENTINA 819
present state of preservation, entirely Indian-like, and there is
not even a remote possibility that it is ancient.
We have already seen that Professor Ameghino based his new
species of man, Homo caputinclinatus, on a single skeleton. It is
the skeleton of a child, probably not twelve years of age. The
skull would be small for an adult, but not so for a child. The
deformation of the vault is due to artificial pressure, and this
shaping has been mistaken for natural characteristics, and made the
basis of a new species of man. The remains consist of a few or-
dinary, immature bones, which show little if any fossilization, and,
it is safe to say, would not be recognized as exceptional if placed
with a series of similar remains from, for instance, the graves
of Bolivian Indians. Such is the conclusion of Doctor Hrdlicka.
Mr. Willis adds his testimony, too, after a careful examination of
the ground from which the remains were taken. " There is noth-
ing," he says, " in the topographic or geologic relations, nor in
the situation in which the bones were found, to indicate that the
skeleton is of any antiquity."
But why follow this ruthless pair of scientists further? The
whole edifice, so magniloquently announced, but so imperfectly
builded by South Americans, has fallen in upon itself under the
touch of their hands. The pampas have lost their antiquity, the
lost Atlantis is still a fable, man himself has been shorn of his
short-lived preeminence of years if not of origin. Those de-
lightful fictions, The-Man-Without-The-Chin and The-Man-of-
Downcast-Aspect, have dissolved in thin air. No longer will they
point their ghostly fingers at us, and bid us recognize them as our
ancestors. We are quit of the whole animal crew, thanks to sane
science and honest scientists. The New World can no longer with
impunity be cited to bear witness to man's theroid origin.
For this specially gratifying result some of us at least can
afford to be grateful to the American Bureau of Ethnology. We
can hardly bear gratitude in our hearts, however, towards mistaken
or dishonest scientists. Their name is legion, and they overrun
the scientific world at the present time. There is no limit to their
impertinence, as there can be no bounds set to their infallibility.
There is now a bare possibility that the set-back which their con-
geners in South America have received at the hands of our palmary
scientific institution may restrain their precocity. Still the fool-
killer may be abroad every day, and yet daily there are fools to kill.
IRew Boohs.
MARRIAGE AND THE SEX PROBLEM. By Dr. F. W. Foerster,
Special Lecturer in Ethics and Psychology at the University
of Zurich. Translated by Meyrick Booth, B.Sc., Ph.D. New
York: Frederick A. Stokes Co.
Those who are familiar with Orthodoxy will remember that
Chesterton fancies " an English yachtsman who miscalculated his
course and discovered England, under the impression that it was a
new island in the South Seas :" and then, in his whimsical way, ex-
plains, " I am that man in the yacht. I discovered England." ....
He recounts his " elephantine adventures in pursuit of the Briars.
I tried to be in advance of the age, and I found that I was
eighteen hundred years behind it I have kept my truths,
but I have discovered not that they were not truths, but that they
were not mine."
In very much the same way, the author of this volume has
discovered Christianity. He was brought up (his translator ex-
plains) in an entirely un-religious atmosphere, and educated in
unbelief. He made a special study of social questions; under-
took a first-hand investigation of social conditions in Germany,
England, and America ; embraced Socialism ; abandoned it as " de-
ficient in moral and spiritual insight," and finally has become con-
vinced that " the Christian religion is the sole foundation for both
social and individual life." This book, as well as his others, Jugend-
lehre, Autorit'dt und Freiheit, is an uncompromising thesis in defense
of the ancient Christian sex-morality.
In view of the modern taste for novelties in the ethics of sex
(as witnessed by the great vogue of such moral anarchists as Ber-
nard Shaw and Ellen Key), it might be imagined that Foerster 's
influence would collapse as soon as the moderns found him working
his way back to a philosophy of conduct that they have imagined
obsolete. But not so. His works have had already an enormous
sale. As many as ten thousand copies of Autorit'dt und Freiheit
were sold within eight days of its appearance. Scores of editions
are being run through the presses in quick succession, and we have
information that Dr. Foerster's lectures in the University of Zurich
have become, perhaps, the most largely attended of all in Europe.
It is especially significant that the author has won his way to
the Christian philosophy by means of insistence upon a study of the
concrete facts of life. He scorns " the barren modern book philos-
1913-] NEW BOOKS 821
ophy," and maintains that " the superiority of serious Christian
scholars lies in the fact that through Christ their thought is " kept
in constant touch with reality." His criticism of the ultra-modern
advocates of a more elastic sex morality is not that they interfere
with old theories, but that they do not know facts. Of course,
he does not advocate that a man should study sex problems by
" passing through all sorts of filth." " Shakespeare needed not to
be a murderer to create Macbeth." But he does insist that we who
would philosophize upon matters of morals must first study human
nature at close range, and neither neglect nor obscure the Briars'
facts that may be learned by investigation. " The modern expo-
nents of a 'new morality,' " he says, " Ellen Key, for example, are
all, unfortunately, suffering from a dangerous lack of knowledge
of human nature, a pure, complete indifference to what the vast
majority of people would make of 'individual freedom' in sexual
matters" (p. 38). This is decidedly refreshing. We Christians
have been too long suffering under the accusation that ours is an
a priori philosophy. It must be startling to the moderns to be
proven theorizers.
Another particularly important thesis of the present book is
the necessity of a norm of thought and of investigation. Sub-
jectivism receives some telling blows in the opening chapter on
"Anarchy or Authority." Indeed, this chapter is of extremest value
as an introduction, not only to the question of the ethics of sex,
but of every moral and philosophical problem.
We could wish for more space in which to give in detail some
of Dr. Foerster's arguments, but, lacking that, we have thought
it well to refer to his work in general terms, confident that the
readers of this notice will become readers of the book. They will
find therein an always interesting, forceful, straightforward, and yet
reverent "discussion of almost all topics connected with the ethics
of the sex relation " Motherhood and Marriage," " The Artificial
Restriction of the Family," " Sex and Health," " Religion and
Sex." Amongst these and other matters of vital, present interest
is a very sane and satisfactory discussion of the expediency of
teaching sex hygiene, in a chapter on " The Protective Value of a
Sense of Shame."
A HISTORY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE. By William B.
Cairns, Ph.D. New York : Oxford University Press.
To Dr. Cairns, of the University of Wisconsin, we are indebted
822 NEW BOOKS [Mar.,
for a very fair and painstaking history of English literature in
America. It begins with the amazing Captain John Smith, and
closes with William Vaughan Moody. Tentative such a work
must needs be ; but between the Scylla of a loyally uncritical praise
and the Chary bdis of a cosmic and casual contempt, the present
author has steered with even hand. His sketch of the early Co-
lonial writings is not merely interesting, it is candid. It fosters
no illusions anent the popular myth of Puritan perfection ; and it
points out very clearly that the once-famous philosophy of Franklin
fostered " only the prudential virtues."
Dr. Cairns has undertaken his work with few prepossessions.
He is tolerant, though by no means enthusiastic, over Walt Whit-
man; he realizes that Hawthorne, in spite of his mystical insight
and fine creativeness, was but a " provincial visitor " in many of his
comments upon the Old World; and he finds Julia Ward Howe's
celebrated Hymn (as not a few others must have found it!) " in-
tense but not very intelligible."
This vein of philosophic detachment dominates the criticism
of the entire book. Its tone, notwithstanding a certain multiplicity
of personal detail, is emphatically judicial. Indeed, as we approach
modern writers, we find this fairness coupled with even less finality.
As in the survey of Edgar Poe's work, there is an increasing ten-
dency to push the burden of any conclusive judgment upon other
shoulders.
It is regrettable, yet perhaps unavoidable, that such meager
space should have been meted out to contemporary writers. How-
ells and Henry James and Mrs. Wharton have done great things
in making American fiction a force among English-speaking peoples :
in Robert Herrick's work is a serious attempt to interpret the life
of America to-day; and we would gladly dispense with pages of
the alleged " poets " of the Central period for a more adequate
consideration of for instance Bliss Carman, Louise Imogen
Guiney, Florence Earle Coates, and that priestly king of the
" Minors," Father Tabb.
A MONTESSORI MOTHER. By Dorothy Canfield Fisher. New
York: Henry Holt & Co. $1.25 net.
Mrs. Fisher is an ardent admirer of Dr. Maria Montessori.
She has written the present volume to initiate American mothers
into all the mysteries of the Montessori method and apparatus.
The book is more popular than scientific. The author herself
1913.] NEW BOOKS 823
calls it " a volume of impressions," and says in her preface that
she "lays no claim to erudition." She is "neither biologist,
philosopher nor professional pedagogue."
The chief idea of the Montessori method is that of self-
education. Mrs. Fisher insists on this in page after page.
The first thing that Dr. Montessori requires of a directress
in her school is a complete avoidance of the centre of the stage
a self-annihilation She is to keep herself absolutely in the
background In the kindergarten the teacher teaches, in
the Casa dei Bambini the child learns As much personal
liberty as possible must be granted to children A child
must never be forced or coaxed to use any part of the apparatus
The prerequisite of all education is the interest of the
student, etc.
We do not find all this so wonderfully new. We have always
thought that Froebel, who seems so antiquated to our up-to-date
American mother, held many years ago the principles of the free-
dom of the child and the passivity of the teacher. He was wrong,
of course, in thinking that the series of gifts and occupations
which he invented were the only true means of child training.
The same may be said of the Montessori apparatus. While Dr.
Montessori, because of her wonderful personality, may have worked
wonders with her lacing frames, her color boxes and her insets, it
does not follow that in theory she has spoken the last word on
the proper method of teaching children. Even if her method
produce excellent results among very young Italian children grouped
together in small classes, it does not prove that it will work
miracles in the schools of the United States. Indeed we are
very scary of a system which seems to make so little of the
personality of the teacher and so little of class discipline. Any
man who thinks at all on the subject can see that there are two
distinct types of teachers. One dominant mind may so influence
the children as to make them mere copies of himself, while another
will cleverly discover the latent powers of the children, and develop
them by systematic training.
In the December number of the Parents' Review, Miss Char-
lotte Mason has this to say on the Montessori method :
The Montessori method is one effort among many made in
the interests of scientific pedagogy. What we are saying is
practically : " Develop his senses, and a child is educated ;
train hand and eye, and he can earn his living; what more do
824 NEW BOOKS [Mar.,
you want ? " A child so trained is not on a level with the Red
Indian of our childhood; his senses are by no means so acute,
and the Red Indian grew up with song and dance, tale and
legend, and early developed a philosophy, even a religion. The
Montessori child has no such chances; he sharpens a single
sense, to be sure, at the expense of another and higher sense,
but there is no gradual painting in of a background to his life ;
no fairies play about him; no heroes stir his soul; God and
good Angels form no part of his thought; the child and the
person he will become are a scientific product, the result of much
touching and some hearing and seeing; for what has science to
do with those intangible, hardly imaginable entities called ideas ?
No, let him take hold of life, match form with form, color with
color ; but song and picture, hymn and story, are for the educa-
tional scrap heap.
NEW IRELAND. By Dionne Desmond. Boston : Angel Guard-
ian Press. $1.00.
There is little to recommend this book, save perhaps the good
intentions of the writer. The story itself is uninteresting. Eileen,
a prosy, tiresome heroine, has wonderful visions of a new Irish
republic, which she makes a reality through her own labors, ably
seconded by a devoted lover and a New York Tammany leader.
The author's style is that of a school girl of fifteen making
her first bow to the public, and the book itself is commonplace
in the extreme. And the printers have done nothing to save the
situation.
SAINTS AND PLACES. By John Ayscough. New York: Ben-
ziger Brothers. $1.50 net.
Monsignor Bickerstaffe-Drew has given us an interesting series
of Italian travelogues, written, we venture to say, for the intelligent
and cultured pilgrim, as distinct from the vulgar tourist, " in every
sense common, who does his sightseeing in a disconcerting suc-
cession of saltatory glimpses."
Frequently too frequently our author forgets himself and
writes with the prosiness of the greatly-to-be-despised Baedeker.
But perhaps in these cases he deigned to speak out of the mere good-
ness of his heart to the ever-increasing horde of uncultured world-
wanderers.
Seldom too seldom the dry-as-dust guide book piling-up-
of-facts is relieved by the beautiful word painting of the novelist
1913.] NEW BOOKS 825
we admire, as in the author's dreamings at the ruins of Paestum
or in his all too brief glimpses of Sicily.
The book is beautifully illustrated. We would, however, call
the attention of the publishers to a number of misprints, and the
general lack of uniformity in the number of lines on the page. In
our copy sixteen pages were missing.
A SYNCHRONIC CHART AND STATISTICAL TABLES OF
UNITED STATES HISTORY. By George E. Croscup.
With a Chronological Text by Ernest D. Lewis. New York :
Windsor Publishing Co. $1.50.
It has been said that a map and a chronological table are the
two eyes of the student of history. This work includes a table
which combines the two in such a way that, with it spread before
him, the student has a clear view of the main outlines of the
history of the States from the first discoveries to the year 1912.
Taking, for example, the State of Tennessee, by means of a most in-
genious color scheme, the table shows at a glance that it was the
sixteenth State to be fully organized; that in 1796 it was formed
as a separate State from territory claimed by North Carolina, and
how and when its history merged into that of North Carolina, as
North Carolina's did into that of the Colony of Virginia. The
date and duration of its secession period are also graphically shown,
and all as related to similar facts in the history of the other States.
This chart forms the most distinctive and useful feature
of the work. There are, however, a large number of other charts,
illustrations, and maps, as well as text giving the leading events
of United States history and of national development. Among
them a chart which, by the same graphic method, shows the rise
and fall of the various political parties.
THE APPEARANCE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY AT
THE GROTTO OF LOURDES. By J. B. Estrade. Trans-
lated from the French by J. H. Girdlestone. London, Eng-
land : Art and Book Co. 50 cents.
Every one interested in the miracles wrought at Lourdes has
read the touching account of our Lady's appearances to Berna-
dette, which M. Estrade gave to the world some fourteen years
ago. We are glad to see this excellent little volume in an English
dress.
The book is chiefly valuable from the fact that the author,
826 NEW BOOKS [Mar.,
a tax-collector at Lourdes in 1858, had himself seen Bernadette
in ecstasy, and had conversed with her frequently at the time.
He took notes from day to day of the events as they occurred, and
verified by the most minute inquiries all the facts in the case.
He sets forth in the simplest language the details of the eighteen
appearances, the opposition of the civil authorities, the careful
investigations of the Abbe Peyramale and the Bishop of Tarbes,
the opposition of the anti-clerical press, etc. He paints a perfect
portrait of the poor and ignorant peasant girl Bernadette, whose
short life was remarkable for simplicity, truthfulness, patience
under suffering, and absolute disinterestedness. We trust that
some of the sneering readers of Zola's Lourdes will have the grace
to read this simple but convincing history of the most famous shrine
of our Lady.
THE GOSPEL AND HUMAN NEEDS. By John Neville Figgis.
New York : Longmans, Green & Co.
We read with interest this new edition of Mr. Figgis' lectures
on The Gospel and Human Needs. They are written against
those who would " reduce Christianity to a religion purely rational
and non-mysterious ; and always appeal to the rational under-
standing to set aside those elements in the faith which run counter
to current prejudices."
His first lecture maintains the necessity of a miraculous reve-
lation. The unbelieving modernists of our day deny it, not on any
evidence they can produce, but because " they are dominated by
sonorous commonplaces about irrevocable law and iron uniformity."
They forget that "miracles are but the expression of God's freedom;
the truth that He is above and not merely within the order of nature.
Disbelief in their reality leads on to pantheism. This natural-
istic philosophy does not accord with the facts of life, for it does
not take into account the " freedom of the will." " The idea of the
miraculous and its content in the revelation of Jesus Christ can alone
save us from confusing God with the creation which is His Will."
The second lecture is directed against that unbelieving spirit
which would " strip the Christian faith of every wonder and
mystery; which would reject the strange birth as materialistic,
the physical resurrection as unscientific, sacramental grace as mag-
ical, and make our Lord's deity disappear in a cloud of phrases.
It is not to culture, as such, that the Gospel ever can or ever
does address itself, but to the common heart of common men and
1913-] NEW BOOKS 827
women, on fire with life and love, torn with struggle and loss and
sin, and appalled by death."
With this in mind, Mr. Figgis gives us not arguments de-
manded by the dilettante modernist, but the simple argument of
the man in the street. " He (the plain man) feels that in all
things there is mystery, and that what is the constant factor of his
inner being is somehow part of the stuff of the universe
He knows that, though you may explain the world, he remains
inexplicable to himself. He feels that there must be reality in
that love and joy and willing resolve, which are the deepest and most
real things in his life."
The third lecture on The Historic Christ shows clearly that
you cannot expect men to follow out the teaching of Christ, if
you rob them of the dogma of His Divinity and the fact of His
Resurrection. " Convince them in regard to the story of Jesus
that it is not true, but only a symbol of the religious aspiration of
ages, and men will repudiate either in scorn or in sorrow the claims
of the Church to be the home of the soul."
The fourth lecture on sin and forgiveness is most suggestive.
" It is vain and even silly," he tells us, " to expect to convince men
of the need of a Savior who are as yet untroubled by conscience."
The man of the new dogmatism knows nothing of the Christian
concept of sin. " It is a survival from the animal stage gradually
and inevitably working itself out; or it is a morbid illusion based
on a fallacious belief in freedom and fostered by priests; or it
carries its own forgiveness, provided we eschew a mawkish peni-
tence and stand upright before God; or it is essentially unpardon-
able, and all talk of atonement is moonshine." Again Mr. Figgis
appeals to the man in the street, and shows how he, unspoiled by
modern subjectivism, believes most firmly in the reality of sin, and
cries out most fervently for forgiveness.
Frequently Mr. Figgis asserts that true religion is built upon
" life " and not upon " reason," and he is constantly referring
us to the proof adduced from " religious experience." But unlike
modern pragmatists, whose final goal is an empty subjectivism,
our author makes it clear that he is merely dealing with those
various dispositions of the will which help one to believe. We
know that fanaticism, superstition, and many a false cult have
been founded on the shaky basis of religious experience, but every
Catholic must assert the reality of such experience. He has simply
to read the lives of the Saints.
828 NEW BOOKS [Mar.,
There are many things in this volume which a Catholic cannot
accept, although he may be in perfect agreement with the general
trend of the argument. What a great pity it is that Mr. Figgis
fails to realize his great disadvantage in his fight against the new
theology. The Broad Churchmen of his national Church will con-
tinue to defend their reduced Christianity on the Protestant prin-
ciple of private judgment. Only in the Church of St. Peter's
See is there an infallible objective witness to the fact of Divine
Revelation, to the existence of mysteries in the supernatural order,
and to the Divinity of Jesus Christ.
OUR REASONABLE SERVICE. By Vincent J. McNabb, O.P.
New York: Benziger Brothers. $1.10 net.
Father McNabb, in these very suggestive essays, endeavors
to treat some of the deep things of God in a language the age
will understand. In words that remind one forcibly of Father
Hecker, he writes : " The duty of every earnest Catholic apostle
who would Catholicize the modern mind must be to grasp its
meaning. He must understand it before he can convert it. He
must learn the language before he can translate his religious ideas
into it. He must doggedly set about the task of accepting the pecu-
liar and often barbarous terminology of the men he would in-
fluence."
Father McNabb has succeeded admirably in entering into the
viewpoint of his opponents, and yet there has never been the slightest
danger of our " taking him for a Kantian, because he did his best to
understand Kant." Some have criticized his paper on Resurrection
and Faith. In it he asserts that St. Thomas, with characteristic
accuracy, rests faith itself in the Divinity of Jesus Christ, and
he argues against the view that the Resurrection is the founda-
tion or the main foundation thereof. He styles this common
thesis of our theological manuals a modern development, unknown
to the great masters like St. Thomas, Suarez, Bellarmine, and
Petavius. He disagrees with those who hold that the Resurrection
is both an object of Faith and a means of Faith. According to his
reading of St. Thomas it is only an object of Faith. Perhaps the
most thoughtful study of all is that entitled Logic and Faith.
As usual he traces back to St. Thomas all that is essentially correct
in the viewpoint of three modern philosophers who have discussed
the noetic problem of faith Kant, Newman, and Lotze.
He writes :
1913-] NEW BOOKS 829
What Kant and Newman and Lotze had succeeded in dis-
covering, St. Thomas had already analyzed from his own
scholastic standpoint as early as the thirteenth century. With
sureness of vision he had seen that the act of belief was not
a mere intellectual act, but included an emotional or volitional
element. He had been led to this point of view by St. Paul's
doctrine that " faith without love is dead," and by the Master's
mysterious blessing upon " the clean of heart, for they shall
see God." Nor should there be any doubt that this is the solu-
tion of the difficulty. A thinking mind must come at length to
recognize that truth is not a matter of one department of the
understanding, nor even of the intellect in its totality. Every
afferent faculty is an avenue of truth.
We would also call a special attention to the comparative
study of Newman and Spencer.
Spencer was self-taught. Newman had the stamp of a uni-
versity education. Each bore through life the effects of his
earliest environment Spencer's First Principles is as or-
derly and as clear as a book of Euclid; which means that to
thinking minds it is as unpersuasive as a nursery tale
Spencer could hardly help being clear Newman could
hardly fail to be obscure. The simplest and the most truthful
man of his day, he impressed men of the type of Kingsley
with a sense of duplicity, and even of untruth. To him every-
thing opened up a vista. There was no Law of Nature; but
countless and indefinitely intersecting laws in nature. Clear
general statements he shunned. He had little faith in mere
words Spencer was a master word-builder. The fine
scorn that Newman heaps on notional ideas, and still more on
notional terms, had lessons for Spencer had he been capable of
being taught.
THE WOMAN HATER. By J. A. H. Cameron. New York:
The Christian Press Association Publishing Co. $1.25 net.
Captain Roderick, the Woman Hater, is always proving his
hatred of the fair sex by overwhelming them with kindness, though
he himself remains heart-free to the end. He helps the needy ones
with money without revealing his identity, and successfully con-
trives to secure to the love-sick their longed-for partners.
The Captain is a philosopher with an inexhaustible fund of
humor. He is interesting from start to finish, and no matter
what his topic of conversation may be with Bill Bones of The
830 NEW BOOKS [Mar.,
New York Thunderer, he ever manages to hit the nail straight
on the head.
In his homely way, he denounces modern fads in education
and modern styles in hats; he scorns the hypocritical prohibitionist
and the upstart social climber; he laughs out of court the empty-
headed English aristocrat and the dishonest, scheming politician.
He tells most eloquently what kind of a girl a young man ought
to marry, and warns us never to leave the old friends for the new.
We were pleased when the old smuggler got his cargo of spirits
from St. Pierre safely into the port of Halifax, and a thrill went
through us when he landed his first salmon in the Poodley-Poodley-
Poo pool. Altogether it is a good book for the blues.
SPIRITUAL EXERCISES FOR THE PURGATIVE, ILLUMI-
NATIVE, AND UNITIVE WAYS. By J. Michael of Cou-
tances, Forty-fifth General of the Carthusian Order, A. D.
1597. Translated by Rev. Kenelm Digby Best, Priest of the
Oratory. St. Louis: B. Herder. $1.35.
At the very time when an iniquitous English Queen was
torturing and beheading large numbers of Carthusian Friars, her
loyal subjects, their General was engaged upon a work which,
one day translated, should be welcomed as a treasure of spiritual
riches by Religious Communities in England and in English-speak-
ing countries. None but a saint could have written these Spiritual
Exercises, which are impregnated throughout with the utmost humil-
ity and self-contempt joined to the most ardent love.
An indication of the value of the work may be gathered
from the fact that Father Baker, author of Sancta Sophia, speaks
highly of it and recommends it for the use of Religious.
As all great minds think alike, it is not surprising to find
similarities of thought and expression in the works of holy men.
In the exercises of Michael of Coutances, one is constantly reminded
of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. Nor is this surprising,
since both authors aim at union with God through the purgative
and illuminative states of the soul. In the book before us, there
is an almost infinite variety of affections and prayers, which should
prove of inestimable benefit to the soul when troubled by dryness
or desolation. Ten meditations, suitable to a soul already in the
Unitive Way, are given in Latin. Doubtless, the learned translator
intends these for the favored few, as he states in his preface:
" those likely to reach it (the Unitive Way) will probably prefer
1913-] NEW BOOKS 831
it in the Latin." But even without these ten meditations, the
book is a vast repertoire of prayers and meditations, and as such
should find a place in the libraries of Religious Communities.
IN ST. DOMINIC'S COUNTRY. By C. M. Antony. New York :
Longmans, Green & Co. $1.60 net.
This is a loving attempt, on the part of the author, to stir
up devotion to the great St. Dominic by a description of his sojourn
in France from 1205-1219; of the various places he visited, and
of his apostolic labors during that period, when he combated so
zealously and so successfully the various heresies with which the
Spirit of Evil inspired the victims of his diabolical suggestions.
This book will be cordially received by all true clients of St.
Dominic. The scenes of the Saint's labors and miracles are vividly
described, and the beautiful pictures with which the book is lavishly
adorned increase the reader's interest. The author has spared no
pains to make the work accurate historically and geographically,
and in an appendix there is an interesting account of the Catharist
heresy.
<
THE BLESSED EUCHARIST: BELIEF OF THE EARLY ENG-
LISH CHURCH. By the Most Rev. T. J. Carr, D.D., Arch-
bishop of Melbourne. Melbourne: The Australian Catholic
Truth Society, i penny.
The gratuitous assertion of a Melbourne . lecturer, "that the
doctrine of the Real Presence did not gain a firm footing in
England till the ninth or tenth century " a statement in which
he afterwards included the whole of Europe, until the Norman
Conquest, A. D. 1066 drew forth no less a champion of England's
ancient faith than the Archbishop of Melbourne. One is grateful
to the blunderer for having been the occasion of so adequate a
reply. As becomes the Shepherd of his flock, a watchman on the
towers of Israel, His Grace, promptly, gave two lectures, in which,
with masterly precision, he marshalls his cloud of witnesses,
including St. Jerome and St. John Chrysostom, Gildas the Wise,
Venerable Bede, and on to the days of King Athelstan, 938, and
of Odo, Archbishop of Canterbury, 943. Even to a well-instructed
Catholic, the array of documentary proof is surprising. A facsimile
of a page from the Stowe Missal (Anglo-Saxon days) and of
the Roman Missal, as used to-day by every priest, proves conclu-
sively the identity of belief. The page is part of the Canon of
832 NEW BOOKS [Mar.,
the Mass, and the Encyclopedia Britannica assigns it to the sixth
century.
A HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES FOR GRAMMAR
SCHOOLS. By Messrs. Thwaites and Kendall. Boston:
Houghton, Mifflin Co. $1.00 net.
This book claims to be, and is, a teacher's book. The authors
have exercised discrimination and sympathy in the selection of
events and incidents for presentation to children of grammar
school age. We use the word " sympathy " advisedly, for many
compilers of school histories seem to forget the limitations of youth-
ful capacities ; hence the history lesson becomes a running translation
into simpler language.
The reviews are frequent and useful, also the questions and
suggestions at the end of each period are valuable aids to the
teacher. The subjects for composition are much too prominent,
but, of course, the use of all is not obligatory.
The treaties with foreign countries are made very clear to the
minds of the pupils. The maps are not overcrowded, and, there-
fore, are explanatory and to the point, but the illustrations are
not so good or clear. The weight of the book is something of a
drawback, which is a pity, for its contents are so well adapted
to those for whom it is designed.
THE HISTORY OF THE ROMAN BREVIARY. By Monsignor
Pierre Batiffol. Translated by Atwell M. Y. Baylay. From
the third French edition. New York: Longmans, Green &
Co. $3.00 net.
Monsignor Batiffol's excellent critical history of the Roman
Breviary has already been reviewed in the pages of THE CATHOLIC
WORLD. It sketches accurately the development of the canonical
hours from the beginning to our own times. Many of the changes
suggested by Monsignor Batiffol have been followed out by Pius
X. in his latest reform, and perhaps the next few years may see an-
other suggestion realized, when the old hymnology will resume
its due place of honor.
On many points he has modified his original assertions of
twenty years ago, although, as he says himself : " the main lines
of my book have been adhered to, the fundamental theses have
been strengthened, their documentary justification has been veri-
fied and enriched. I admire," he adds, with that touch of sar-
1913-] NEW BOOKS 833
casm which has made him quite a few enemies, " the authors who
have no need to correct their statements, and never write anything
that is not absolutely final. For us historians, there are always
the details to verify, and of these details there are no end."
The translation is admirably done, and well merits the praise
bestowed upon it by the author himself. The translator neatly
returns the compliment by declaring and all will agree with him
" that of all the histories of the Breviary, Monsignor Batiffol's
is the best. And in this edition he has very materially improved it."
A supplementary chapter has been added on the new legislation
of the present Pontiff, and the conclusion of the French edition
has been omitted. We need hardly say that the publishers have
given us a perfect piece of bookmaking. We would advise all
priests to read, in connection with this scholarly volume, Rev.
Edward Burton's The New Psalter and Its Use, a work on the
rubrics of the Breviary published by the same firm.
HISTORY OF THE ROYAL FAMILY OF ENGLAND. By Fred.
G. Bagshawe. Vols. I. and II. St. Louis: B. Herder.
$6.00.
Mr. Bagshawe tells us in his preface that he has no inten-
tion of writing a complete history of the English royal family.
" What I propose to do," he says, " is to give a short account of
what I may call the private, as opposed to the public, history of
the several- kings and queens, of their children, and of such of
their immediate descendants or relatives as have played any part
in English history, or have lived in England."
He further on disclaims " once and for all any pretense to
originality or antiquarian research," and declares that any reader
of ordinary industry might learn the details he records from " well-
known and tolerably accessible works." But we feel confident
that not one man in a million would ever dare attempt the arduous
task of tracing out so carefully the family connections, legitimate
and illegitimate, of all the rulers of England from the Norman con-
quest to the days of Queen Victoria.
There are a great number of brief but accurately drawn
character sketches throughout these two interesting volumes.
Mr. Bagshawe makes no attempt to furnish a complete bibli-
ography of the works he has consulted, or to give us the authorities
for some of his extraordinary statements. Still he refers us to more
than fifty volumes on particular personages, and he is fond of calling
VOL. xcvi. 53.
834 NEW BOOKS [Mar.,
to task writers like Miss Strickland and Froude. He frequently
quotes the historical plays of Shakespeare, and the historical novels
of Scott, Thackeray, Lytton, and Miss Yonge, at times agreeing
with their delineations of character, but more often correcting,
what he terms, their mistakes and inaccuracies.
Mr. Bagshawe is most untrustworthy, when he discusses the
divorces in the so-called Royal Caste. He says over and over
again that though
the Catholic Church has at no time recognized the possibility
of divorcing two persons once lawfully married, it must be
admitted that in the Middle Ages, when a marriage between two
persons of sufficient rank was found to be inconvenient, it was
remarkably easy to obtain a declaration that the parties had
never been lawfully married, and thus practically to obtain all
the advantages of a divorce As a matter of fact, nearly all
those who may be called of the Royal Caste were related one
to the other within the prohibited degree, and it seems to have
been no one's business to see that, when two persons, however
illustrious, were married, proper inquiries as to their relation-
ship were made, or proper dispensation granted.
Moreover, without the slightest historical warrant, he asserts
that Pope Clement VII. would have gladly granted a divorce to
Henry VIII. if Queen Catherine had only consented.
The author's style is rather careless and slovenly; he fre-
quently repeats phrases, and seems at a loss how to connect his
sentences.
The most valuable part of the work is the list of twenty-
six genealogical tables, enabling us at a glance to trace the relation-
ship of the more than seven hundred names which are mentioned
in the two volumes.
HOSPITAL SOCIETY ADDRESSES. By Henry Sebastian Boro-
den. New York: Benziger Brothers. 70 cents net.
This work contains forty addresses, which were delivered
at various times, to the London Hospital Visiting Society, composed
of two classes, the visitors and the assistants, the former who look
after the patients in the ward, the latter who see them on their
return home. Naturally, such a Society would have as the majority
of its members lay persons imbued with a tender charity, and gifted
with sincere sympathy for the sick and suffering.
1913.] NEW BOOKS 835
The preacher, Father H. S. Bowden, of the London Oratory,
strives to train his audience to the just perception and continual
practice of those virtues which will be most appreciated by the
sick and suffering, and will make their charitable visits a source
of consolation to the visited, and a mine of spiritual riches to the
visitor.
But the chief merit of the book is that it may be used as
spiritual reading by any devout Catholic, as it is by no means
restricted in its scope, but touches upon such subjects as : Prepara-
tion for Death; Prudence; Faith; Purity of Intention; Devotion
to Our Lady; Considerations upon the Passion of Our Lord.
Each of the forty chapters is complete in itself, and thus the pious
reader may, with the utmost facility, suit the varying moods which
often, without any apparent reason, take possession of the soul.
PENAL PHILOSOPHY. By Gabriel Tarde. Translated from
the French by Rapelje Howell, Esq. Boston: Little, Brown
& Co. $5.00 net
Professor Gabriel Tarde's book on Penal Philosophy is the
fifth volume in the Modern Criminal Science Series, which is being
translated and published under the auspices of the American In-
stitute of Criminal Law and Criminology. The author was a
magistrate for many years, and later a professor of his subject
at the College of France. The capable work done by Dr. Tarde
in his earlier volumes on the Underground Criminal and Compara-
tive Criminology make it certain that his treatment of the subject
in the present work will be thorough, practical, and detailed. R. H.
Gault, Editor of The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology,
writes an introduction to the English version. The following ex-
tract from it will, perhaps, be the best presentation of this book to
American readers.
Throughout the present work, Professor Tarde maintains a
sufficient balance between conservatism and progressivism to
commend him to those who believe, as the present writer does,
that in criminology (including penology) we are in our genera-
tion trying many experiments: that in many respects we are
wiser than our fathers; that in many other respects we do not
yet know how much, if at all, wiser we may be than they. The
event of experimentation will prove.
There is probably no other volume published in recent years that
836 NEW BOOKS [Mar.,
will serve to show how unsettled are the views of students of the
various sciences relating to the criminal and his treatment.
Yet there is an immense amount of information in the volume,
and the author has done much to upset all of Lombroso's theories.
He has particularly emphasized the fact that the criminal type
has no existence. Now that many photographs of criminals have
been made, they are found " to resemble ordinary photographic
albums of one's friends." The head of a rogue, as Topinard said,
" resembles, as a rule, the head of an honest man." The supposed
atavistic reversion of the criminal, by which he approaches the sim-
ian type, is contradicted by further research and deeper knowledge.
As Professor Tarde remarks, "this simian type has served else-
where as an envelope for remarkable personages of a high degree of
morality. Robert Bruce, the liberator of Scotland, had, as we
know, a skull formed like that of the man of Neanderthal, who was
the most monkey-like of prehistoric men."
Everywhere the cock-sure theories regarding social and moral
sciences, now known to have been built on insecure foundations,
are now giving way to real scientific hesitancy, and a readiness to
say " we do not know."
THE TRAGEDY OF FOTHERINGAY. Founded on the Journal
of D. Burgoing, Physician to Mary Queen of Scots, and on
unpublished MS. documents. By the Hon. Mrs. Maxwell-
Scott. London: Sands & Co. $1.00.
Whatever judgment one may have about the conduct of Mary,
Queen of Scots, while actively at the head of her turbulent state,
one cannot but admire her royal behavior during her long imprison-
ment in England. The story of those hard years is faithfully and
sympathetically told by Mrs. Maxwell- Scott, a third impression of
whose book on the subject has recently appeared.
YOUR NEIGHBOR AND YOU. By Rev. Edward F. Garesche,
S.J. New York: Apostleship of Prayer. 50 cents.
The chapters of this book have already appeared in various
periodicals, chiefly in the Messenger of the Sacred Heart. They
were written to point out the common, simple, easy ways in which
we may make our lives a source of comfort, joy, encouragement, and
blessedness to those around us. No one who reads this book
attentively will be able to say that he does not know how to help
1913.] NEW BOOKS 837
and sustain others. If he fail subsequently, he will have to con-
fess that it was through thoughtlessness, or through a temporary
unwillingness to love his neighbor as himself. What a blessing
it would be to the world if this little book were scattered broad-
cast in Catholic homes and carefully read.
LA LOT T LA FOI 6TUDE SUR ST. PAUL ET LES JUDA-
ISANTS. Par A. de Boysson. Paris : Bloud et Cie. 75 cents.
" St. Paul frequently treats in his Epistles the doctrine of
the vocation of the Gentiles to the faith of Christ. That was
his gospel, the good news Jesus commanded him to preach. To
understand his teaching, we must know the circumstances under
which he wrote, the adversaries he had to combat, and the errors
he had to refute. Such is the purpose of the present volume."
An introductory chapter discusses the dates of the New Testa-
ment writings which deal with the Judaizers, viz. : the Epistle to
the Galatians, the Pastoral Epistle, Hebrews, and St. James. The
book itself consists of two parts: 1st, a critical and historical
study of the various controversies with the Judaizing party from
the time of St. Stephen's martyrdom until the third century; and,
2d, a dissertation on the theology of St. Paul in regard to Justifi-
cation, the Redemption, Merit, Good Works, the Law, and Faith.
While avoiding for the most part controversy, the author
refutes the false hypotheses of the Tubingen school of critics. A
brief bibliography concludes this most scholarly contribution to the
study of Christian origins.
'THE ADVENTURES OF FOUR YOUNG AMERICANS,
by Henriette Eugenie Delamare. (Philadelphia: H. L. Kil-
ner & Co. 60 cents.) Home life of four young Americans, their
departure for Europe; their experiences while traveling through
London, Switzerland, and France; their arrival in Rome, where
they visit the catacombs this is the theme of Mrs. Delamare's
latest book, which is thoroughly Catholic, and highly to be recom-
mended for juveniles.
AMELIE IN FRANCE, by Maurice F. Egan. (Philadelphia:
^~V H. L. Kilner & Co. 70 cents.) This pleasing story re-
counts the adventures of some boys and girls who were shipwrecked
on their way to Europe, and cast on an island inhabited only by
an old sailor. Entirely thrown on their own resources, the young-
838 NEW BOOKS [Mar.,
sters learn many useful lessons, and by fidelity to the teachings of
our Holy Religion succeed in making three conversions. They
are finally picked up by a passing steamer, and all ends well.
The characters are well portrayed, the boys and girls act natur-
ally, and impress the reader with the idea that they are real person-
ages. This is a book which should find its way into every Catholic
juvenile library.
'TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. One of a series called The Tudor
Shakespeare. (New York: The Macmillan Co.) Com-
pleted the series will consist of forty volumes, 35 cents each, of
which the present is the tenth issued. The volume is of handy
size, neatly bound, half-gilt, and well printed. A' few explanatory
notes and a glossary are appended.
A BOOK OF THE LOVE OF MARY. Compiled and Edited
^*- by Freda M. Groves (St. Louis: B. Herder. 75 cents),
tells how the thought and love of our Blessed Mother penetrated
the hearts and lives of her children, when England was Mary's
dower. This book, with its pictures of the glories of days gone by,
should animate all who love Mary to pray that yet again England
may return to the Faith and become once more " Our Lady's
Dower." The volume is a companion to The Book of the Love
of Jesus, which appeared some years ago. His Grace of West-
minster has written the Preface.
GP. PUTNAM'S SONS have issued The Second Book of Kings,
. edited by T. S. Hennessy, which is a part of their publica-
tion entitled The Smaller Cambridge for Schools. The editing has
been carefully done, and the notes are exclusively historical, literary,
and geographical. The treatment is reverent, and the authorities
quoted conservative. Although the Vulgate is named as one of the
texts consulted, we have not been able to find one reference thereto.
'THE HOUSE AND TABLE OF GOD, by the Rev. W. Roche,
-*- SJ. (New York: Longmans, Green & Co.), is a book for
children, one that welcomes them to the banquet of the King, and
guides their earliest thoughts from the things that are seen and
known to the things that are unseen. It leads the youthful mind
from nature to nature's God ; from the abundant provision for our
earthly life to the marvels of grace provided for God's children
1913.] NEW BOOKS 839
at His Table of the Holy Eucharist. The charming simplicity
with which these lessons are unfolded betoken a deep insight and
sympathy for the lambs of the Good Shepherd.
A SLIM volume of Sonnets and Songs graceful in form and
mainly religious in theme comes to us from the pen of John
Rothensteiner. It is published by B. Herder, St. Louis, at 50 cents,
MANUEL PRATIQUE DE LA DEVOTION AU SACRfi
CCEUR DE JSUS. Par 1' Abbe Vaudepitte. (25 cents.) The
twelve promises of the Sacred Heart are the subjects of as many
meditations, with devotions for the First Fridays, for Holy Mass,
and for the reception of the Sacraments. The book is published
by Pierre Tequi, Paris.
"\I7E have received from the publishing house of the Razon y Fe
' ' a pamphlet entitled: De Vasectomia Duplici necnon de Mar-
trimonio Mulieris Excises, by R. P. Ferreres, S.J., summarizing
his views and criticisms of Dr. O'Malley's position as to the licitness
of this operation. The same house has sent us a study on the
sovereignty of the people in Spain by R. P. Jose March, SJ.
jforefgn jperiobicals*
The Origins of the Hail Mary. By Rev. Herbert Thurston.
The history of the Angelic Salutation in the Eastern Church has
never been adequately studied; the prayer is substantially found
written in Greek on a potsherd of about 600 A. D., but it is not
certain whether this was some antiphon in liturgical use or a form-
ula of private devotion. In the West it first appears in the Antv-
phonary traditionally ascribed to St. Gregory the Great. It be-
came a popular formula in the wake of the Hours or Little Office
of Our Lady. Before the latter part of the twelfth century the
combination of the words of St. Gabriel with those of St. Elizabeth,
the practice of addressing a long series of salutations to our Lady's
image or altar, and the preference shown for the exact number of
the Psalms of David, had all become features of general devotion.
The Month, February.
Disrceli. By Wilfrid Ward. The second volume of Mr.
Monypenny's classical biography of Disraeli gives us an invaluable
picture of the great Prime Minister, and an insight into those char-
acteristics which made him, once despised as a charlatan, a dandy,
and a Jew, one of the most striking and successful men of his
age. Was he sincere? Yes, and no. He was consistent and sin-
cerely devoted to his own advancement. His success was due,
before all things, to an avowed and unconquerable ambition. There
was strength in his convictions, but no great depth of principle,
with its consequent scrupulousness. He really felt a personal
admiration for Peel, but he had at least enough contrary convic-
tions to criticize Peel's triple apostasy on Emancipation, Parlia-
mentary Reform, and Free Trade, and so to take the practical
leadership of the party effectively. He had an Oriental love
of splendor, but only as a visible symbol of success and a stimulus
to further effort. His literary gifts gave him great facility of
expression and of mental activity, but were entirely free from
any sensitiveness to the opinion others held of him. Dublin Re-
view, January.
The Irish National Theatre. By Charles Bewley. The dis-
appointment caused by the present state of the Abbey Theatre
1913-] FOREIGN PERIODICALS 841
is due to the fact that Mr. Yeats and Mr. Synge started on their
careers as Irish dramatists, with ideals born of the literary coteries
of London and Paris; ideals of uncontrollable passion and brute
force. They forgot, or could not see, that the most important ele-
ment in Irish life, as in its history, is the religious element; attempt-
ing to reduce this to superstition and neo-paganism, they have fallen
into ludicrous and glaring error. Besides, their retort that they
are presenting only abnormal characters fails, because they take
abnormal types and present them as normal. Dublin Review, Jan-
uary.
The Mental Deficiency Bill. By Thomas J. Gerrard. This
bill, which purports to make further and better provision with re-
spect to feeble-minded and other mentally defective persons, is
really a Eugenist measure for the elimination of certain classes
considered worthless to the State. Its good points are: it gives
the education authorities, who know these children best, the office
of registering and classifying these cases; it provides government
support for the feeble-minded, instead of relying on voluntary
contributions ; it provides against immoral abuses practiced on girls
and women who have been certified to be feeble-minded. But it
does not give a suitable definition of what a feeble-minded person
is; it provides for life-long segregation, and absolutely forbids
marriage; it applies only to the poor; it contains a loosely- worded
clause which might be construed so as to allow the questionable
practice of sterilization; it is based only on natural principles, and
makes no provision for the religion of those whom it proposes to
segregate. The Committee will bring in an amended bill next ses-
sion, containing verbal changes, but substantially laboring under
the above defects. Dublin Review, January.
The Revolution in Cuba. By W. M. Kennedy. The writer,
judging only from personal experience and observation, considers
that the Church, by upholding explicitly or implicitly the power of
Spain, has completely lost her hold on the hearts of Cuban patriots ;
with her have decayed the secondary schools. Corruption reigns
everywhere. The revolution of last year, which most people
thought would be but the usual flash in the pan, turned out to be
a real civic strife, and national unity is gone. Sometime Cuba
must for her own salvation become American. Dublin Review,
January.
842 FOREIGN PERIODICALS [Mar.,
German Charity Congresses. By Louis Riviere. Profiting
by the unity of the Protestant charity workers of Germany, the
Catholics decided to merge their many societies into a national
unit. This was done at a Congress held for the purpose on Novem-
ber 9, 1897, at Cologne. For fifteen years they have been doing
a more united work. There are now six diocesan Unions centraliz-
ing the different societies in each diocese. Each year the National
Catholic Federation hold what are termed " Charitable Weeks,"
and at these Congresses are discussed the various ways of alle-
viating the sufferings of the poor. The past year the Congress
was held at Metz, and an effort was made to continue the great
work of the past.
Twenty-five reports were made at the Congress, which was
divided into French-speaking and German-speaking sections. The
rest of the article is devoted to a resume of work done at this
Congress. Le Correspondant, January 25.
The Synoptic Question, by Father Ferdinand Prat, S.J., treats
of the date and character of the Gospels according to St. Mark
and St. Luke. The order of succession of the Gospels was settled
in the third century. While papyrus was in common use, i. e.,
until the end of the third century, our four Gospels were written on
four separate rolls, and there was no need to assign an order
to them. When the books were finally arranged in order, it was
done chronologically in the great majority of manuscripts.
That the order is chronological seems the only reasonable
explanation why St. John's Gospel should be placed last, while St.
Mark's is given second place. St. Irenaeus' testimony on this
point is most important. As to the date of the Gospels, tradition
is not precise. Nowadays practically all critics admit that the
Synoptics were written several years before the fall of Jerusalem,
a return to the traditional belief prophesied by Harnack. The
internal character of the Synoptics agrees with that given them by
tradition. .St. Jerome said, a propos of the Epistle to the Hebrews :
" It is of little importance who wrote it, since it is read as Scripture
in the universal Church." Nevertheless, questions of authenticity,
date, etc., cannot be indifferent to anyone interested in the origin
of Christianity. Etudes, January 5.
The Little Sisters of the Sick. By Joseph Thermes. Pere
Serres, called in his lifetime " Le Bon Pere," was touched with pity
1913-] FOREIGN PERIODICALS 843
for the sufferings of the poor peasants in sickness. He asked
Marguerite-Marie Lachaud to visit them; he supplied food and
medicine. This was in 1859. Five years later five young ladies,
including Mile. Lachaud, bound themselves to this work, and took
the religious vows for a year. This was the beginning of the Con-
gregation of the Little Sisters of the Sick. Other communities,
organized for the same purpose, came into existence in other parts
of France within the next decade. In the recent expulsion of the
Religious Orders from France, the Little Sisters were not molested.
Etudes, January 5.
Christian Heroes. By Adhemar d'Ales. The heroes of
Christianity have no equal in history, either in the height of the
ideal followed, in the generosity of effort expended, or in the simple
grandeur of a virtue which always found its joy and recompense
in the gift of oneself to God.
We are indebted to the Acta Sanctorum of the Bollandists for
most of our knowledge of the early heroes. About the tombs of
the martyrs a local cultus usually developed. The Western Church,
full of respect for the inviolability of the tombs, and the integrity of
the bodies of the saints, abstained from touching their remains; in
the East it is customary to open the tombs and distribute the relics.
In the fourth century the finding of numbers of bodies of saints
gave a new impetus to the veneration of relics. Etudes, January 20.
The Tablet (January 25) : President Poincare: Hope for
prosperity and real liberty in France is seen in the election of M.
Poincare to the presidency, despite the great opposition of Radicals
and Socialists. While the new President cannot be convicted of
bias towards the Catholics, still, judging by his recent utterances,
the position of Catholics will be improved. The Address of His
Eminence Cardinal Bourne at Birmingham: Considering the ex-
pansion of the English-speaking races and the part of Protestantism
therein, the Cardinal first showed that Reformation was not the
cause of this growth of population, but that it was instrumental
in preventing the enormous good that this growth should have been
to the world at large. Chaos in the Commons: The greatest
Reform Bill of modern times is to enfranchise certainly three mil-
lion men and perhaps thirteen million women; it abolishes the
nine seats now given to the Universities; does away with plural
voting, and allows no representation to property. It reduces the
844 FOREIGN PERIODICALS [Mar.,
electorate of the city of London, the commercial and financial centre
of the Empire, from 31,000 to 3,000. The bill as a whole will
have the entire force of the Union Party against it. The Cabinet
is Divided: Mr. Asquith is opposed to Woman Suffrage, but his con-
victions are not strong enough to make him resign if it is granted.
(February i) : The cause of Woman Suffrage lies now in
ruins. In the bill proposed, the Speaker decided that the adoption
of any one of the amendments giving votes to women would so
transform the purpose of the Franchise Bill as to constitute it in
effect a new bill. It had, therefore, to be withdrawn. The Prime
Minister offers facilities for free votes on a new bill, but it is not
certain that such a measure can be properly forced through under
the operation of the Parliament Act. The greatest harm to the
cause, however, is now being done by the advocates of violence.
Shane Leslie describes the realism, the mysticism, the sorrow, the
religious consecration of the paintings of El Greco, the Spanish
artist, and especially his " Burial of Count Orgaz " in the church
of St. Tome in Toledo. Quaint Reminiscences of London
Churches is a resume of anecdotes by James Pellor Malcolm, F.S.A.,
published in 1803. Sir Roger Casement, in the Manchester
Guardian, pays a high tribute to the work of the Jesuits in Para-
guay, and uses it for a ground of hope in the Franciscan mission
just established for a similar purpose in the Putmayo. A new
college is to be inaugurated at Frascati, near Rome, under the
Salesian Fathers. The money has been wholly provided by the
Pope. The first pupils will be youths orphaned by the earthquakes
of 1905 and 1908. The care exercised by the Holy See in
securing Welsh-speaking bishops and clergy in mediaeval Wales,
has been brought out during a controversy on the use of the
national language in modern Welsh missionary work and religious
services. The Roman correspondent notes the serious rumors
of the approaching confiscation of Church property, the condemna-
tion of newspapers published by the Unione Editrice Roniana, and
the programme of the Catholic Popular Union.
The British Review (February) : The Conferences of St.
James gives surmises on the outcome of the late Peace Conference.
Recent events have given the answer.- Francis McCullogh, the
noted correspondent, writes as A Prisoner of the Bulgars.
Father Keating, S.J., treats of the ethics of resistance to law.
Hilaire Belloc discussed English Fiscal Reform. J. Godfrey
1913-] FOREIGN PERIODICALS 845
Raupert presents some private letters to throw light on the mystery
of evil. More Medieval Byways, by L. F. Satzmann, proves
that human nature is always about the same. Vox Populi says
our present trouble is that there is no audible " vox populi."
The National Review (February) : The Unionist Party and
Preference is discussed by Austen Chamberlain. Sir William
Rubimond, in A Great Artist and His Little Critics, gives an ap-
preciation of Alma-Tadema. Portugal under the Republic is
described by Aubrey F. G. Bell. The writer asks the question,
" O democracy, whither are you leading us ? " !< To lawlessness
and anarchy," seems to be the present answer for Portugal ; unless,
indeed, the more moderate men, represented by Senhor Antonia
Jose d'Almeida and the Evolutionist Party, can be induced to come
forward from their retirement and make it clear that they, and not
the clumsy imitators of French Jacobinism, are in a majority. But
so long as the Republic remains, as it were, a Lisbon monopoly, has
not the real control of affairs, and is unable to prevent persecutions
and outrages of which it most certainly disapproves, there is no
hope that either Portugal or the Republic will prosper. A Balkan
correspondent, Frank Fox, gives extracts from his diary. We add
one of them : " It is a curious fact that in all Bulgaria I have
met but one man who was young enough and well enough to fight,
and who had not enlisted. He had become an American subject,
I believe, and so could not be compelled to serve. In America he
had learned to be an 'International Socialist/ and so he did not
volunteer. I believe he was unique. He should be engaged to
lecture by British Radical Societies. With half the population
of London, Bulgaria has put 350,000 trained men under arms.
But there was in the nation one good Socialist who knew that war
was an evil thing, and that it was better to sit down meekly under
tyranny, and give up your women folk to violation, than to take
up arms."
The Month (February) : The January number contained an
article on Father Gerard, late editor of The Month. It presented
the main facts in his life, and gave a general estimate of his char-
acter. The current issue, under the caption Some Further Notes
on our Late Editor, gives a fuller and more intimate appreciation
of his character and achievements. Rev. J. H. Pollen tells of
his Research at Simancas, near Valladolid, into the documents re-
846 FOREIGN PERIODICALS [Mar.,
garding the doings of the ambassadors of King James I. of England
to counteract the negotiations of the ultra-Spanish party for a
Spanish succession. Are Divine Laws a Social Necessity? by
the Rev. Sidney F. Smith, reviews the report of the recent English
Divorce Commission, which maintained that its findings warranted
them in affirming that unless some scheme of divorce be conceded
to the weakness of human nature, worse evils are sure to follow.
Father Smith attacks this contention, and shows that in the Catholic
portions of the country where divorces are fewest, the moral tone
is by no means inferior.
The Church Quarterly Review (January) : Rev. J. S. Pringle
discusses the assertions " that Christianity was brought to Japan
in the seventh and following centuries, and has been substantially
preserved there ever since. The article on The Royal Commis-
sion on Divorce gives an analysis of the reports, minutes, etc., of
the Commission, as presented to both Houses of Parliament. The
writer investigates the evidence which favors certain proposals
for altering the law of divorce in England; and who shows that
the grounds for extending divorce are really impossible, as well
as inhuman. Its Rise and Course, by Rev. Herbert Kelly, S.S.M.,
is an historical sketch which endeavors " to explain the nature,
at least, of scholastic thought; to show what it could do and what
it was trying to do; what were its powers and its limitations."
Only the " broad general characters " and the work of Abelard,
St. Anselm, St. Bernard, and St. Thomas are here dealt with,
usually in terms of praise. Edwin Holthouse describes the in-
debtedness of Dante to the book of Ecclesiasticus.
The Irish Ecclesiastical Record (February) : The O'Keeffe
Cases, by the Archbishop of Dublin, describes actions for libel
brought by the Rev. Robert O'Keeffe, of Callan, County Kilkenny,
in the years 1869-1875, and gives an illustration of the working
of the law of England in relation to matters of Catholic ecclesias-
tical discipline. The Economics of Nationalism, by T. M. Kettle,
M.A., notes the rise of the National Economists in the nineteenth
century, and describes the effect of the national and organic point
of view, as against the individualistic, in regard to Free Trade,
cattle jobbing, and railways. Past and Present, by Rev. P. M.
MacSweeney, deals with a work entitled Cardinal Manning and
Other Essays, by Mr. John Bodley, a close friend of Manning.
1913-] FOREIGN PERIODICALS 847
The first essay will correct in part at least the distorted impression
left by Purcell's Life. Mr. Bodley in his second lecture, Decay of
Idealism in France, strives to prove that the International Socialism
of Marx, Catholicism, and the progress of mechanical invention will
ultimately sweep away national characteristics. Father MacSwee-
ney rebuts these sweeping, pessimistic, and illogical views. In his
third lecture on The Institute of France, Mr. Bodley, as a corre-
sponding member of the Institute, gives a lucid account of its origin
and growth.
Dublin Review (January) : Mrs. Hamilton King treats The
Religion of Mazzini, but the Editor takes pains to say that he ac-
cepted the article without endorsing all of Mrs. King's views.
Mazzini was opposed to the temporal power, and asserted it was
the great obstacle to a united Italy, but Mrs. King says that religion
was the very breath of Mazzini's life, and that many in Italy now
calling themselves his followers are acting with an animosity to-
wards Christianity and the Church which was far from his own
thought. Under the heading The Teresa of Canada, Mrs. Max-
well-Scott reviews the life of Mother Mary of the Incarnation, an
Ursuline nun who came to Quebec in 1639; was a friend of the
famous Jesuits Jogues and Lallemant, and did a wonderful work
among the Indians. Mrs. Warre Cornish contributes a study of
Digby Dolben, the poet whose death by drowning in 1867 P re ~
vented his being received into the Catholic Church. The recent
Memoir by Mr. Robert Bridges, with its fifty poems, gives evi-
dence that his poetical ability was unusual and distinctively Catholic.
Le Correspondant (January 10) : An article entitled Frederick
Ozanam, by Eugene Duthroit, reviews the life of Ozanam, and then
takes up the study of the great cause which he made the one ab-
sorbing thought of his life. E. de Geoff roy deals with the
methods of modern warfare, dreadnoughts, submarines, mines, can-
nons, etc. Frangois De Witt-Guizot writes of the new law by
which France takes under government control the investigation
of the management of public contributions made to private bene-
factions, such as orphanages, hospitals, etc. This law seems to be
closely allied to those others of religious discrimination which have
preceded it.
Annales de Philosophie Chretienne (January) : J. Vialatoux
848 FOREIGN PERIODICALS [Mar.,
argues that M. Durkheim, the head of the Positivist sociologists,
has in his recent article, entitled Judgments of Value and Judgments
of Reality, abandoned his wholly materialistic attitude, and smug-
gled in some idealistic teachings. He now admits that experience
postulates something outside of itself something that experiences.
There must be a unity of thought and a spiritual centre of thought
that synthesizes and regulates experience. Bernarde de Sailly
continues his vehement attack on the apologetics of P. Gardeil and
P. de Poulpiquet, charging them with misunderstanding the system
of Blondel. The articles by P. de Tonquedec, reviewed in the
magazine section, are also declared to be a total misapprehension
of Blondel's thought.
Etudes Franciscaines (February) : P. Raymond continues his
defense of Scotism against the charge of Modernism. P. Ubald
answers in the affirmative the question whether P. Rene of Modena,
a Capuchin converted from Judaism, had really been a rabbi.
P. Cuthbert gives a detailed analysis of the Regula Prima of the
Franciscan Order, showing the additions made between 1209,
when the really primitive rule was orally approved by Innocent III.,
and 1221, the date of the more complete and legislative as well a,s
Scriptural and poetical document.
Revue des Deux Mondes (January 13) : In his analysis of
Le Chanson de Roland, M. Bredier proves successfully that the
famous epic is not a collection of ancient songs and legends. He
holds, on the contrary, that in its literary construction we find in-
disputable evidence that it is the work of one man, although its story
existed long before the official date of the poem. Emile Faguet
discusses, in his usual charming style, symbolism as represented in
France by the young poets of about 1885. The most distinguished
exponent of this school is Maeterlinck.
The statement made last month that M.
France. Poincare was a Republican of so strong a
type that he would not even receive the
support of Monarchists if it were offered, was made upon the sup-
position that he would be consistent to the declarations which he
made when he formed his ministry. It seems, however, that as
a candidate for the Presidency he did not feel himself bound by
the same conditions as he accepted when forming a government.
In fact, not only did he accept the support of the Royalists and
Bonapartists, but he could not have been elected had these parties
voted for his opponent. This is not said as throwing blame upon
him. For a President is in a somewhat different position from the
head of a ministry, since the latter has to secure legislation and
manage the everyday affairs of administration. The fact that the
Monarchists voted for the one to whom they looked as likely to serve
the best interests of the country, and did not act along with the
extremists of the Left, may be considered as an indication that a
better spirit animates them than was the case in the early days
of the Republic. They then not infrequently threw in their lot
with those whose main object was to throw the country into con-
fusion.
M. Poincare's election was a great defeat of the party which
is animated by bitter hostility to religion, and which has been chiefly
responsible for the attacks that have been made upon the Church.
It is the strongest single party of the many into which the French
Parliament is divided. M. Combes is its leader, and he, with a
number of the prominent men in the party, tried by every means
to prevent M. Poincare from becoming President, going so far even
as to make a personal appeal to him to withdraw. To this appeal
he refused to listen.
It is to the credit of M. Poincare that he would not yield
to the wishes of the Radical-Socialists, and to that of France, that
it refused to elect a President from among the members of that
party. Strength is considered his special characteristic. Not long
ago this would have been a bar to his election, for the Republic
was weaker then than it is now, and a strong man might, it was
feared, become a dictator. To-day the Republic has ceased to
dread the phantom of dictatorship. M. Poincare is a native of
VOL. XCVI. 54.
850 RECENT EVENTS [Mar.,
Lorraine, a province the patriotism of whose children is even keener
than that of the rest of France, it having suffered mutilation as
the result of the war of 1870. He has always refused to serve
sect or party. But when a crisis came, in consequence of the some-
what scandalous proceedings which brought about the fall of the
ministry of M. Caillaux, he was able to form a government which
embraced in its ranks the ablest of the men now taking part in
public affairs. Owing to the confidence felt in the integrity of
his character, his Cabinet, although most heterogeneous on account
of the various parties from which its members were drawn, proved
itself the strongest that has been formed since what is called the
Great Ministry of Gambetta.
It is not only in the sphere of politics that M. Poincare has
attained distinction. He is one of the Forty Immortals of which
the French Academy consists. He is also an author, having written
three volumes, in one of which he sings the praises of Joan of Arc,
who was also a native of Lorraine. His views on politics, as
found in one of these works, may be cited here : " The founda-
tion of all politics is ethical. Politics are founded on the belief in
goodness, in justice, in the love of truth, in the respect for human
conscience, in the destinies of our country. Politics, which are
worthy of the name, cannot live from day to day on empirical
measures and contradictory expedients With the party of
agitation, of violence, of disorder, no political understanding is
possible. A government which would seek it would abdicate its
authority, and would itself defy the law. A government which
would submit to it, or which would not repudiate it, would be
swept away by its own hypocritical and equivocal policy."
Being a man of so strong a personality, while there is no reason
to fear his aiming at a dictatorship, it is looked upon as possible
that he may not consent to act as a mere figurehead as former
Presidents have done. The Constitution of the Republic gives to
the President executive powers almost as extensive as those pos-
sessed by our own. Hitherto they have not been exercised, and it
is to be hoped, for the sake of peace, that M. Poincare will not
attempt any mere innovation. But in case of its being necessary,
for the well-being of the country, the existence of these powers, and
the knowledge that the President is a strong enough man to use
them, will give additional security.
M. Poincare's election rendered it necessary to form a new
Cabinet. This was entrusted to M. Briand, who had been the
1913-] RECENT EVENTS 851
Minister of Justice in the former Cabinet. It will be remembered
that he resigned the Premiership about two years ago, because he
could not rally to his support a sufficient number of Republicans.
This was because he had declared that the days of political warfare
between French citizens were over; that every Frenchman, even
though he were a Catholic, was entitled to justice. M. Combes
and the Radicals would not accept such a proposition. Now that
M. Briand has returned to power again, he found little difficulty in
securing co-adjutors. It is remarked, however, that there are very
few men of marked distinction in the new Cabinet, and that the
most conspicuous of his colleagues in the ministry of M. Poincare,
such as M. Delcasse and M. Bourgeois, have retired. It is not con-
sidered, however, that it is from any desire to combat M. Briand
that they have so acted.
The programme of M. Briand's ministry includes the con-
cession to trade unions, and other associations of the working
classes, of the right to act in a corporate capacity for the purpose
of industrial cooperation, and for the acquisition of property.
Strange to say, the Revolution of 1789 placed severe restrictions
on the right of workingmen to form associations for their mutual
benefit, and it is only recently that those restrictions are being
relaxed. The government, in pursuance of this policy of relaxation,
intends to submit to Parliament a group of legislative proposals
which will form, as it were, " the Charter of the General Organiza-
tion of Labor." Another promise is the long-deferred measure
for regulating the status of officials and employees in the govern-
ment service. An Amnesty Bill, the Income-Tax Bill, now before
the Senate, and the Electoral Reform Bill form part of the pro-
gramme. The " Ecole Laique " (the secular school) is declared
to be one of the living forces of the Republic, the abandonment of
which would be equivalent to the repudiation of the Republic itself.
Fidelity to alliances and friendships will remain an unalterable
principle of the foreign policy of the government, a declaration
which indicates its intention of holding fast to the Russian alliance
and to the entente with Great Britain.
This programme was somewhat coldly received when it was
laid before the Chamber, the Socialist-Radicals and the Social-
ists frequently interrupting M. Briand while making his speech.
When, however, the question of confidence came to the vote, the
Ministerialist majority was three hundred and twenty-four to
seventy-seven. A conflict, however, has already arisen on the
852 RECENT EVENTS [Mar.,
Electoral Reform Bill between the Government and the Radical-
Socialists. M. Briand stands firm in support of the bill as it passed
the Chamber.
Prince Napoleon took the opportunity afforded by the Presi-
dential election to issue a manifesto. He expressed dissatisfac-
tion with the existing constitution, because it did not give free
scope for the expression of the people's will. The election of the
President ought to be by a plebiscite, not by the Senate and Cham-
ber, for these bodies were a mere oligarchy. " The name of Napo-
leon," he proclaims, " means the organization of the Democracy,
political, religious, and social pacification, and the fusion of all
parties for the highest good of the nation." He deplores what he
looks upon as the present state of confusion in French public life,
and the personal rivalries which run the risk of diminishing the
strength of the country confronted by an armed Europe. If all
patriots would agree to renew the Napoleonic tradition, to unite
authority with democracy, and to establish upon that twofold
basis a government of concord and of action, the prospects of the
future, in the Prince's opinion, would be brighter. This opinion,
however, is not shared by many of the French people. The memory
of the Imperial regime is too vivid.
The Ambassador to the Quirinal, Herr von
Germany. lagow, has been appointed to succeed the
late Herr von Kiderlen-Wsechter as For-
eign Secretary. He is said to have accepted the post with no little
reluctance, not only because of his attachment to his surroundings
in Rome, but also because the new position which he is called upon
to fill is one of considerable difficulty. The German Emperor
is in reality his own Foreign Secretary, and leaves nothing in the
way-of initiative to the nominal holder of the office. The Chan-
cellor of the Empire, too, has the right to be consulted. He is in
fact technically responsible, and not infrequently takes the reins
into his own hands.
Armaments and ever-increasing armaments are the order of
the day. What was looked upon as the final settlement of the
strength of the army was made two years ago, but it is now an-
nounced that a further increase is rendered necessary by the dan-
gerous position in which the Empire is found to be. No less a
sum than twenty-five millions is asked for. As a consequence the
Minister of Finance is engaged in the search for a new tax, and
1913-] RECENT EVENTS 853
the Conservatives are becoming apprehensive that their property,
on this occasion, will not succeed in escaping its share of the bur-
den. The Imperial taxes and local rates are becoming intolerable.
On the other hand, it must be stated that the past year has been
exceedingly prosperous ; so much so that hopes are entertained that
Germany will soon become economically and financially independent
of foreign countries, and be able to stand upon her own feet.
It is this desire, shared by so many Germans, that renders the
prospect of peace being maintained more hopeful; for the economic
life of the country, to use the words of the Prussian Minister of
Commerce, rests on the shoulders of peace.
The Reichstag has recently exercised for the first time the
right of passing a vote of censure upon the government. Last
May a new standing order was made allowing a debate upon an
interpellation, to be followed by a division expressing agreement
or disagreement with the policy of the government. The Poles, in
accordance with this new procedure, proposed a motion that " the
permission of the Imperial Chancellor for the expropriation of
Polish landowners for the purposes of the Prussian settlement
Commission is at variance with the judgment of the Reichstag."
This motion, after two days' debate, was carried by two hundred
and thirteen votes to ninety-seven. In its favor, the Centre, that
is, the Catholic Party, united with the Social Democrats in support
of the Poles; the opponents were the Conservatives and the Na-
tional Liberals, while the Radicals abstained from voting. In the
course of the debate expropriation was condemned on the ground
that it would make Poland the Ireland of Germany, and the govern-
ment was said to be making the same mistake as that made by the
Young Turks in their attempt to Ottomanize the various races in
Turkey.
The fact that the Centre voted on this occasion against the
government is looked upon as a sort of challenge, and as a warning
that further rebuffs may be in store. The immediate future will
furnish a number of opportunities. Over the new army bill there
will be a parliamentary struggle, as well as over the new taxation
which this bill will necessitate.
The remembrance of the Kopenick incident, which caused so
much amusement a few years ago, has been revived by a similar
proceeding on a much larger scale. The whole of the garrison
of Strassburg, some twenty thousand troops, were called out by a
notice, purporting to come from the Emperor, that he would inspect
854 RECENT EVENTS [Mar.,
the soldiers within a few hours after the receipt of the notice.
The Emperor, in fact, was one thousand miles distant. The Em-
peror is said to have recommended to the general in command a
more diligent perusal of the newspapers.
So great has been the improvement of late of the relations
between Great Britain and Germany that those well able to judge
declare that a year ago such a thing would have been judged im-
possible. It is rumored, indeed, that an agreement has been made
between the two countries determining a definite proportion of
ships which each Power is to build.
A remarkable change has, within the last
Spain. few weeks, been effected, or at least initiated,
in the methods of Spanish parliamentary
rule. The normal course of political action for many
years past, and one formally adopted by the leaders of the
two chief parties, the Liberal and Conservative, was for each
party to remain in office for a definite period, somewhere about
three years, and then to give place to its opponent. This arrange-
ment did not conduce to progress, but it preserved the amenities
of political life, and sprang rather from the natural courtesy of the
Spaniard, than from that pursuit of the spoils of office which was,
and still is, the characteristic of the system as practiced in Portugal.
The ill-omened execution of Seiior Ferrer led to its abandonment,
the Conservatives having been so exasperated by the Liberals joining
hands with Republicans and Socialists in condemnation of that
measure.
The ministry of the late Sefior Moret, which succeeded that
of Sefior Maura, accepted the support of Republicans, and on this
account was, after a short time, somewhat unceremoniously dis-
missed from office by the King. Sefior Canalejas, who was there-
upon made Premier, although a Radical, seems to have reverted
to the old methods. On his death, his successor, also a Radical,
received the support of the Conservatives for a time, owing to
the exigencies of the situation. But when it became necessary
to constitute a definite ministry, and it was expected that the Con-
servative leader, Sefior Maura, would, in due rotation, have been
sent for, to the surprise of all, the King entrusted its formation,
without even consulting the Conservatives, to Count Romanones,
the Liberal successor of Sefior Canalejas. His Majesty's reason
for thus departing from long-established usage was that he thought
1913-] RECENT EVENTS 855
it was the wish of the country, and that it was more likely that
the Liberals would be able to do the work of which there was need.
Thereupon the leader of the Conservatives, with more than
fifty of his followers, resigned their places in Parliament as a
protest against the King's action, thus threatening the complete
dissolution of the Conservative Party, to the great joy of the
Republicans. The Liberals, however, viewed the situation with
ill-concealed anxiety. The car of the Spanish monarchy, they felt,
was two- wheeled ; should one wheel collapse the other would become
useless. The dangerous consequences to the country which seemed
so probable, led Senor Maura, at the earnest request of his followers,
to reconsider his decision, and in the end he withdrew his resigna-
tion.
The revival, however, of the old arrangement of the rotation
of the two parties is in all likelihood given up, and war to the knife
between the two parties is anticipated. This is the more probable,
as the King has taken a still more unusual step. He has gone so
far as to call into consultation the leader of the Republican Party.
If there were a party of Monarchists in this country, few would
expect our President officially to recognize their leader. Indeed
it is more than likely he would be sent to prison. But this is
what King Alfonso has done. What led him to take such a step
is not quite clear. Perhaps the public sympathy shown by the
Republicans for his action in the formation of the new ministry
may have influenced him. For one of its leaders declared
at a great meeting that Republican parties had no reason
for existence in England or Italy, and that if Spain should enjoy
the blessings of the English or the Savoy monarchy he would not
be a dissenter as regards forms of government. He went on to say
that the actual regime in Spain, as maintained both by Liberals and
Conservatives, necessitated a conflict, on account of the want of
justice, and of the favoritism which existed in matters of adminis-
tration. A few days after this declaration the King's summons
came to the leader of the Republican Party. The Ministry now in
power assumed responsibility for his Majesty's initiative.
The official explanation given for this tremendous innovation
was the desire of the King to be informed of the work of the
Institute of Social Reform, of which Senor Ascarate is the Presi-
dent. Whatever may have been the King's reason, the visit of
the Republican leader caused an immense sensation, and is looked
upon as marking an important point in the political history of
856 RECENT EVENTS [Mar.,
Spain. At the least, it is considered a flattering tribute paid by
Royalty to modern methods of education and social reform. But
it may involve still greater political potentialities, as it is a definite
admission of Republican cooperation in the sphere of government;
a full recognition of the fact that the being a Republican does not
any longer involve exclusion from the councils of the nation.
It is also a strong rebuff to the leader of the Conservatives, Senor
Maura, who had just before denounced cooperation with Repub-
licans as " undermining authority and occasioning enormous sacri-
fices to the nation." It marks a great advance in the mind of the
King since he drove from office Senor Moret for having accepted
that cooperation.
The Spanish Press in general applauds the policy of thus
opening the door to all parties. His Majesty, a leading organ
says, has thereby indicated the road to peace and the restoration
of Spain. As the Republican Party includes among its members
men distinguished as jurists and students of political and social
questions, and of moderate views, the course which the King has
taken may result in avoiding the revolution which has so long been
threatening. A peaceful solution and remedy for existent evils
may have been found.
By the death of Senor Moret, which took place a few weeks
ago, the Liberals have lost a prominent but not very judicious
supporter of their cause. His career was a long one, for he entered
the Cortes in 1864, and held office so long ago as 1870. His success,
however, was by no means conspicuous. It may have been that he
was too honest, for he had a tendency to think aloud, which tended
to lead him to blurt out damaging truths.
Catholics in Spain have to suffer, as is sometimes the case
with Catholics in other parts of the world, from the utterances
and proceedings of extremists that exist in every large body of
men. Such an extremist in Spain went about preaching that no
Catholic could conscientiously belong to the Liberal-Conservative
Party. Fortunately, in this case, a way was found to put an end
to this perverse exaggeration. For when it was brought to the
notice of the Holy Father, the attention of the ecclesiastic in ques-
tion was called to various documents issued by the Vatican which
he had either overlooked or ignored documents declaring in effect
that every Catholic in Spain has a right to his own political opinions,
and that those are not to be used against him in his religious life.
What is called in Spain the " Padlock Bill " has been pro-
1913- ] RECENT EVENTS 857
longed for a further period of two years. This bill was passed
to prohibit the establishment of religious communities until an
Association Law should be passed definitely regulating their status.
As this has not yet been done, the period is prolonged. Negotia-
tions with the Holy Father are being resumed.
An unpleasant incident has recently taken place on account of
a Protestant soldier in the Spanish army having refused to kneel
during Mass. This has led to the issue of a Royal Order from
the Ministry of War, by which non-Catholic soldiers are in future
to be excused from attendance at Mass on Sundays and Feast
Days, although they must still be present at religious ceremonies
which the troops have to attend under arms.
Perfect harmony between France and Spain has been secured
by the Spanish Parliament's acceptance of the Treaty with refer-
ence to Morocco, which had been concluded by Senor Canalejas
before his death. As sometimes happens, it is only after the event
that it has become known how near to a rupture they came in the
course of the negotiations. It is said to be due to the intervention
of Great Britain that this was avoided. Considerable doubt, how-
ever, is felt by many in Spain as to whether it will be to the advan-
tage of the country to avail herself of the privileges conferred by
the Treaty, inasmuch as these would involve considerable expendi-
ture.
In Portugal the state of affairs is so bad
Portugal. that almost anything may be looked for
except real improvement. At the beginning
of the year there was a long-protracted crisis, resulting in the most
undesirable of settlements. The Premier for the preceding six
months, Dr. Duarte Leite, a man of independent means, moderate
views, and a certain dignity of character, and, therefore, more
respected than the professional politicians, who are the curse of
the country, got tired of the struggle with their malign influence,
and refused to remain in office any longer, although the strongest
efforts were made to induce him to alter his decision.
The Republican Party in the Chamber is now divided into
three sections, the two extremes of which are so opposed
to each other that no cooperation was possible. The Conservative
Party is in favor of granting an amnesty to the Royalist prisoners,
and to the Clergy who have refused to accept the Law of Separation.
It is also in favor of the amendment of that Law. The Ultra-
858 RECENT EVENTS [Mar.,
Radical Party, of which Senhor Affonso Costa is the leader, the
violent methods of which had led to the resignation of Dr. Leite,
would consent to none of these proposals. The President of the
Republic having done his best to prevent the resignation of Dr.
Leite, entrusted the formation of a ministry to Senhor Antonio de
Almeida, the leader of the Evolutionists this being the name of the
party which holds Conservative views. His efforts, however, to
form a government proved futile, and the President was then
obliged to call upon the extremist Dr. Costa, the author of the Law
for the Separation of Church and State.
Dr. Costa's Party forms nearly half of the Lower House, and
having succeeded in obtaining the support of the Independents and
Unionists, he was able to form a Ministry. This means that the
Law of Separation is to be rigorously enforced; that there is to be
no amnesty for the Monarchist political prisoners, and no pardon
for the bishops and priests who have been expelled from their dis-
tricts. A bill, however, has been introduced to expedite the trial
of the Royalist prisoners, some of whom have been in prison for
more than one year. The treatment of these prisoners has been so
cruel as to excite indignation throughout the whole of Europe. Even
the President of the Republic had to make an appeal on their behalf.
Liberty, as she is understood in Portugal, is a strange thing.
Press telegrams, in order not to be mutilated by the Censor, have to
be sent by letter to Spain. By a decree of the government, the Pope's
message to the clergy has been declared to be an attack on the
State, and its distribution prohibited, and all copies are ordered
to be confiscated. The real power in Portugal seems to be in the
hands of a secret society of Carbonarios. As is so often the case,
bad government has driven many to seek refuge in underground
methods, and thereby given scope to the worst elements of the na-
tion. The ramifications of the Carbonarios in Portugal extends far
and wide. By delation and espionage it has terrorized the moderate
elements of the community. It is thought that the Radicals now in
power are dominated by fear of the action of this society rather
than by the conviction that the course it has adopted is for the
best interests of the country. So great is the dread in which it
is held that no one dares express his opinion. Fear of outrage
has driven many into exile.
The rural districts of the country have suffered so much
from unjust taxation that the population is emigrating in large
numbers. This evil is so great, resulting as it has done
1913-] RECENT EVENTS 859
in large districts being left uncultivated, that every effort
is being made to prevent people from leaving the country.
Being unable to escape by the ports, large numbers are passing over
the frontier into Spain. Representations have recently been made
to the Spanish government on this subject, calling upon it to carry
out the agreement to suppress the secret emigration of the Portu-
guese people. Bad, indeed, must be the government, when its
people are thus seeking to leave so beautiful a country as Portugal.
The hopes that, through the collective action
The Balkan War. of the Powers which was brought to bear
upon Turkey, the war would not be resumed
were dashed to the ground by the Revolution effected by Enver
Bey and his following of Young Turks. Kiamil Pasha had ac-
cepted, with slight reserves, the advice that Adrianople should be
surrendered, and the ^Egean Islands placed at the disposal of the
Powers until a permanent settlement could be made. By this con-
cession the Young Turks declared that Kiamil and his ministry
had proved themselves traitors to the Empire, and that, therefore,
they were no longer fit to hold power. By a coup d'etat, which had
rather the appearance of a brawl in a saloon than of a measure of
State, the ministry of the elder statesmen of Turkey was sup-
planted by one made up of Young Turks. Within a few days the
war was resumed, the Allied Balkan States being unwilling to nego-
tiate with a country so disorganized as no longer to have a trust-
worthy mouthpiece. Both parties seem to have taken measures
so effective to exclude the presence of newspaper correspondents,
that the intelligence which has come to hand is of the most meager
description. It seems fairly certain, however, that the Bulgarians
have been successful in their attack in the neighborhood of Gallipoli,
while Enver Bey has been frustrated in his plan for outflanking
the Bulgarians. On the other hand, Scutari, Yanina, and Adria-
nople are still holding out, to say nothing of Constantinople itself.
It will be a long time, even if peace were to be made at once,
before the numerous questions connected with the Balkan States
and Turkey will be satisfactorily settled. The Powers affected
a deep concern for the well-being of Turkey in Asia. They urged
that if the war were continued even these possessions might be
endangered. Already rumors are being heard of the aspirations of
France to an increase of influence in Syria, while Germany is
anxious about the railway to Baghdad, which has been so long
86o RECENT EVENTS [Mar.,
under construction under her auspices. Russia, of course, is Tur-
key's neighbor, and is always interested in borderlands of her Em-
pire. The Kurds and the Arabs are showing signs of insubordina-
tion, while the Amir of Afghanistan has for sometime beeen mani-
festing a desire to supplant the Sultan as Khali f. Considerations of
this kind influenced the former government to accept the terms of
the Allies: and it is thought that upon further consideration the
Young Turks will appreciate their force, and will be glad to accept
the terms which they at first repudiated.
The one question which seems to be settled, and even this is
by no means certain, is that there is to be an Albania with a defined
boundary. What that boundary is to be is still under discussion.
As to Bulgaria and Greece, there have been ugly signs of disagree-
ment, as was shown upon their joint entry into Salonika. Between
Rumania and Bulgaria the differences are acute, and it is not certain
that they will be brought to a peaceful settlement. Austria-Hun-
gary and Russia have still their armies upon almost a war footing,
but there are signs that the tension has been somewhat relieved.
How close is the union between the Great Powers in their views
upon the ultimate settlement of the many questions in which they
are interested, no wise man would venture to give a definite opinion.
The most that can be said is that there is still reason to hope that
the threatened war between the Great Powers will be averted.
The greatest ground of uncertainty is the fact that there are
strong financial interests backing Turkey for fear of the loss to
themselves that would be entailed by its collapse. The Jewish press
of Vienna and Berlin has been engaged in endeavoring to bring
about a breach between the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente.
It is even said that funds had been found for the recent revolution
by banking houses in Germany and Austria, and that this it was that
made the Young Turks hopeful of success. There are scarcely any
limits to be placed to the baseness engendered by financial greed.
With Our Readers.
MANY letters of appreciation concerning the papers by Lionel
Johnson, which we were able to publish in " With Our Readers,"
have come to us. The revival of interest in the poet has led us to
publish in this number of THE CATHOLIC WORLD the paper by Mr.
Elbridge Colby, which will be followed by an appreciation of Johnson's
prose work in the April CATHOLIC WORLD.
It is worth while, we think, to give here a brief sketch of the
poet's life:
Lionel Johnson was born at Broadstairs, Kent, in March, 1867,
the younger son of Captain Johnson. He was educated at Winchester
and at New College, Oxford. After his graduation with honors from
Oxford, where he had formed a close friendship with Walter Pater,
he removed to London and lived from 1891-1901 at Clifford's Inn, E. C.
He was received into the Church on St. Alban's Day, 1891. During
the year 1901 he was taken seriously ill and prevented from working.
He recovered slightly late in September, 1902. On the evening of
the 29th he went out for a walk ; next morning he was found in Fleet
Street with a fractured skull; he was carried to St. Bartholomew's
Hospital, where he died early in the morning of October 4th.
IT is some little comfort to know that the people and legislators of
the State of Nevada are no longer able to bear the shame of
Reno and its lax divorce law. Reno, for ten years past, has been the
premier divorce colony of the United States. All that was necessary
to break the matrimonial bond was a residence of six months. This
farce was even defended by some as a necessary cure for matri-
monial ills. Of course, it was nothing but legally sanctioned immorality
and licentiousness. The time has been extended to one year, which is
not a long step in favor of public decency, but it is something, and
better still it is another evidence of the nation-wide protest, which
is now growing stronger and stronger, against the evil of divorce.
It is instructive to note that in Reno during the last two years
1,281 suits for divorce had been filed, and Reno has a population of
only 12,000. It is estimated that there are now 600 divorce seekers
in the city.
IN the April number of THE CATHOLIC WORLD we will publish,
a propos of this question of divorce, an important paper on the
reports of the English Royal Commission on Divorce by the Reverend
William H. Kent, O.S.C. In the same paper the author will treat
862 WITH OUR READERS [Mar.,
questions of the Church and divorce in the Middle Ages. The teaching
and rulings of the Church in this very matter are constantly mis-
represented, and we have had occasion in this number of THE CATHO-
LIC WORLD, when reviewing the History of the Royal Family of Eng-
land, by Fred. G. Bagshawe, to call attention to just such errors of
ignorance and misunderstanding.
O ISTER TERESA of the Child Jesus, known as " The Little Flower
O of Jesus," is a familiar name to many of our readers. It is but
seventeen years ago that she died, a Carmelite nun, at the age of
twenty-four. But as early as 1910 the Process of her Beatification
was begun. The first step in this process ended in December, 1911.
The tribunal had held one hundred and nine sessions, and had heard
the testimony of expert medical authorities and the depositions of
forty-five witnesses. The general rule, which requires that documents
of this nature should be left unopened for ten years, was lifted, and
it is very probable that in a short while this servant of God will be
declared Venerable.
The autobiography of Sister Teresa has been a very popular
book in her own language French. It has been translated into almost
every European language, including Dutch, Polish, and Russian, and
is now being translated into Chinese, Japanese, and Armenian. It is
a simple, straightforward story of spiritual growth that will be helpful
to all, no matter what one's state or manner of life. This autobi-
ography has been republished in a cheaper edition by the Discalced
Carmelites, 1236 North Rampart Street, New Orleans, Louisiana. The
price is twenty cents, postpaid. The same Monastery has published
the Shower of Roses, in cheap edition (30 cents, postpaid). The re-
ceipts from both publications will be devoted to the expenses of the
Cause of Beatification.
THE Methodist journal, The Christian Advocate, sends out an
early battle cry to its partisan followers. " Keep Your Eye on
Washington," is the bold face caption to one of its latest editorials.
Look out for the machinations of Rome. The Catholics are again
about to undermine the government. The first step is the appointment
f Joseph P. Tumulty as private secretary to Mr. Wilson. The
Advocate does " not intimate that Mr. Tumulty would ever conscien-
tiously engage in dishonorable conduct," but " his education was en-
tirely secured in the schools of the one sect which assiduously and
adroitly cultivates its interests through political channels." Mr. Tu-
multy, therefore, in spite of every self-determination to the contrary,
compelled necessarily, so to speak, by his training in adroitness, may
1913.] BOOKS RECEIVED 863
propose to the President " a trifling and apparently impromptu sug-
gestion, a vague and indeterminate hint, a cautious and apologetic
query, that may have far-reaching results."
A faithful Catholic cannot be a loyal citizen and an open-minded
patriot. Long training from infancy up has saturated him with the
notion that he must further, at all costs, the welfare of the Roman
Church. At least, we are so informed by the truly Christian Advo-
cate. " Very delicate questions are constantly arising at the capitol
on account of the never-ending efforts of the Roman Church to secure
such official recognition or favor as shall give distinction to the
hierarchy in the eyes of the American public." A faithful Catholic
belongs to " an institution which is primarily political, and which has
indoctrinated its constituents with the notion that its political activities
are inherently religious." That he must scheme, and plot; that he
must make the welfare of his country subservient to the welfare of
the Catholic body ; that he must push forward the "interests" of Rome
at all costs, is beyond question, according to the open-minded Christian
Advocate. " If the man who, of all his advisers, is nearest the Presi-
dent day and night, happens to be an ardent Romanist, it lies within
the possibilities of the case, and we say nothing stronger than this,
that the atmosphere which he creates will tend to Rome's advantage
in matters involving the interests of all the people regardless of relig-
ious faiths."
The Christian Advocate, therefore, gives notice that with regard
to the new administration and all affairs into which Catholic interests
enter, or all appointments of Catholics to office, it will know neither
honesty nor fair-dealing nor justice.
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864 BOOKS RECEIVED [Mar., 1913.
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mann, LL.D.
THE MACMILLAN Co., New York:
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THE SENTINEL PRESS, New York:
Month of St. Joseph. From the writings of Ven. P. J. Eymard. 35 cents.
CHRISTIAN PRESS ASSOCIATION, New York:
The Temples of the Eternal, or the Symbolism of Churches. By Rev. James
L. Meagher. $1.00.
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Mishnah ; a Digest of the Basic Principles of the Early Jewish Jurisprudence.
Translated and annotated by H. E. Goldin, LL.D. $1.50.
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