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THE 



CATHOLIC WORLD, 



MONTHLY MAGAZINE 



OF 



General I^iterature and Science 



PUBLISHED BY THE PAUUST FATHERS. 



VOL. CV. 
APRIL, 1917, TO SEPTEMBER, 1917 



NEW YORK: 

THE OFFICE OF THE CATHOLIC WORLD 
120 West 6oth Street 

1917 

Digitized by 



Google 



CONTENTS. 



Aims and Methods in Social Insur- 
ance— /o/in O'Grady, Ph.D., . 7^3 

Alaska's Prospective Contribution 
to Our Meat Supply. — Clio 
Mamer, ..... 647 

"An Anthem of Earth," Francis 
Thompson's. — Florence Moyni- 
han, ..... 53 

Anomaly of Modern Education, 
Tht.— Joseph V. McKee, . .721 

Another Door for Alaska. — M. R. 
Ryan, $06 

Art of Controversy, The: Macau- 
lay, Huxley and Newman. — Cecil 
Chesterton, . . . .44^ 

Bells and Their Message. — R. Ban- 
croft Hughes, . . .652 

Brother Potamian. — Jamej , /. 
Walsh, M.D., Ph.D., Sf^; : . 33 

Catholic Founders of the* Wfttipnal 
Capital. — Margaret B.' Do-Ufning, 73^ 

Catholics at Oxford. — Father Cuth- 
bert, O.S.F.C., .... 807 

Church and the Russian Revolu- 
tion. The. — F. Aurelio Palmieri. 
O.S.A., .... iS3» 577 

Claudcl's Great Mystic Drama. — 
May Bateman, . • ,, ; • 3^1 

Coventry Patmore's " Unknown 
Eros." — Frederick Page, . .775 

Devotion to the Sacred Heart, The. 
— Bertrand L. Conway, C.S.P., . 794 

Donnelly, Eleanor— The Singer of 
Pure Religion. — Thomas M, 
Schwertner, O.P., S.T.L., . . 352 

Education. The Failure of Modern. 
-—Joseph V. McKee. A.M.. . i 

Eugenics and the Feeble-Minded. — 
Henry Somerville. . . • 209 

Faguet, £mile. — William P. H. 
Kitchin. Ph.D., ^ . „ • -343 

False Decretals, The.— Bertrand 
L. Conway, C.S^P., . . • 620 

Fascination of Trifles, The. — John 
La Farge. S.J., . . • .404 

For Love is of GoA.—Henriette 
EugMe Delamare, . .' . ' 

Francis Thompson's "An Anthem 
of Earth."— F/orence Moynihan, 53 

Funeral of Christ, The.— Barry 

Maguire, . \ „ • ,. * vir* ^^ 

Greek Schism and Benedict XV., 

The. — George Calavassy, -^ , • °4 
Herbert Spencer: A Fallen Idol. — 

James J. Walsh, M.D., Ph.D., 

ScD ^ .1. • ^^^ 

How Dryden Became a Catholic. — 
Brother Leo. F.S.C.. . ... 483 

International Peace, St. Augustine 
on.— Herbert F. Wright, Ph.D., 744 

Ireland Again. — Shane Leslie . 5^7^ 

Irish Catholic University Education 
of Today : The Conversion of a 
"Godless" College. — Michael Ma- 
her, SJ.. D.Litt 200 

Labor Standards, War Experience 
With.— Franfe O'Hara, Ph.D. . 300 

Limitations, A Theory oi.— Wil- 
liam J. Kerbv. Ph.D., . . 289 

Literacy Test, The. — T. J. Brennan, 
S.T.L 224 

Lodge and His " Rosalynde." — 
Katherine Brigy. . . 3»i 

^Measure for Measure — A Study. — 
Emily Hickey 90 

Merchant Marine, Our. — M. R. 

Ry^»' ' •,, .• c ' ^'^ 

Merchant of Venice. bome 

Thontrhts on. — EmiVv Hickey, . 229 
Mobilizing the Law of Supply and 

Demand.— Fro«fc O'Hara. Ph.D.. 673 



Modern Education, The Anomaly 
of.— Joseph V. McKee, A.M., . 721 

Moscow, The Reorganization of the 
Russian Church and the General 
Council of. — F. Aurelio Palmieri, 
O.S.A.. 786 

Nptional Capital. The Catholic 
Founders of the. — Margaret B. 
Downing, ..... 732 

National Conference of Catholic 
Charities. — Henry Somerville, . 587 

Notre Dame University : Its Dia- 
mond Jubilee. — John Talbot 
Smith. LL.D., . . . .186 

On Reading Virgil Again. — Joseph 
Francis Wickham, . . .238 

Organizing the Country for War. — 
Frank O'Hara, Ph.D.. . .517 — 

Our New Islands. — M. R. Ryan, 219 

Our Poets in the Streets.— HCe<7r(7^ 
Nauman Shuster. . 433 

Oxford, Catholics at. — Father Cuth- 
bert, O.S.F.C., . . . .807 

Patriotism, The Call to. — The 
Editor, 14s 

" Pearl of the House of Aragon." — 
Thomas B. Reilly, . . .637 

Problem of Resemblance in Por- 
traiture. The.- ^/6^r^ Besnard, 813 

Recent Events, 130.272,413,557.701,848 

Reorganization of the Russian 
Church and the General Council 
of Moscow. — F. Aurelio Palmieri, 
O.S.A., 786 

Rising Prices and the War Loan. — 
Frank O'Hara, Ph.D.. . .162 

Rivers and Harbors Bill, The. — M. 
R. Ryan, 816 

Roman Road. A. — C. Decker. . 383 

Russian Newman, The — Vladimir 
Solo*'iev. — Thomas J. Gerrard. 321 

Russian Revolution, The Church 
and the. — F. Aurelio Palmieri, 
O.S.A »53. 577 

Sacred Heart, A Precursor of the: 
Marie Granger. — Joseph H. Mc- 
Mahon. Ph.D 37^ 

Sacred Heart. The Devotion to the. 
— Bertrand L. Conway, C.S P.. . 794 

Singer of Pure Religion. The— 
Eleanor Donnelly. — Thomas M. 
Schwertner, OP.. S.T.L. . . 352 

Sixteenth Century Theologian on 
International Law, A. — Herbert 
Francis Wright, . 457 

Social Insurance, Aims and Meth- 
ods m.—John O'Gradv Ph.D.. . 763 

Socialism and the Servile State. — 
Hilaire Belloc ^4 

Soloviev, Vladimir — The Russian 
Newman. — Thomas J. Cerra^d . 32^ 

Some War Impressions of a Chap- 
lain. — Francis Avelinn. S.T.^.. . i73 

St. Augustine on Interrntional 
Peace. — Herbert F. Wright, 
Ph.D 744 

Stoddard, Psalmist of the South 
Seas.— FranctJ O'NciU. OP.. . S^i 

St Paul and His Co-Workers.— /.. 
E. BcUanti, SJ 77 

Theories of Comoensation. — Wil- 
liam J. Kcrby. Ph.D.. . . 4^9 

Wanted: A Tre^^v— \/ /?. Ryan. 337— 

War Experience With I abor Stand- 
ards.— Front O'Hara, Ph.D.. . 300 

War Loan, Rising Pnc<»s and the. 

—Frank O'Hara. Ph.D., . . 162 ^ 

With Our Readers. 

13S. j3i, 422, 568, 709, 856 



CONTENTS 



111 



Friends.— Esther W. Neill, . 

The Strategists. — Thomas 

ReUly, .... 



STORIES. 
754 



495 



The Priest.— //f/atVe Belloc, . . 598 

The Treasure of the Messias. — 
Joseph A. Murphy, DJ). . . 43 



An Archangel's Query. — Augustus 
David Malley. . 

An Old Masterpiece, — Charles Phil- 
lips 

Arraigners and Poets. — Emily 
Hie key, 

Bondage.— 5. M. M., 

Dawn in the City. — Pierre Loving, 

Gratitude. — Theodore Maynard, 

Killed. — Emily Mickey, 

Music. — Charles Phillips, 

"Noli Me Tangere."— (/. H. KUl- 
acky, SJ., 

Roses. — Joyce Kilmer, . 



POEMS. 

Salve 



33 

8l2 

381 
526 
761 
12 
753 
463 



53 

351 



Regina -Sterna. — J. Corson 
Miller 

The Cry. — Speer Strahan, 

The New Wine. — Caroline D. 
Swan, ..... 

The Soldier's Mother. — Charles 
Phillips, 

The Song Makers.— M. E. B^hler, 

The Wise Virgins. — Armel O'Con- 
nor, ...... 

To Jesus, from a Tired Heart. — M. 
T. R. Washburn, 

Winooski Falls. — Julian Johnstone, 



671 
172 

468 

228 
613 

631 

342 
237 



NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



A Book of Essays, . . . 269 

A Diversity of Creatures, . . 684 

A Flower for Each Day of the 

Month of June, . . .411 

A Lily of the Snow, .411 

Aloysius Ignatius Fiter, . 844 

A Manual of Modern Scholastic 

Philosophy, . . • . 251 

A Memorial of Andrew J. Ship- 
man, ..... 824 
American Literature in Spain, . 107 
American Prose, . . . .105 
An Altar Wreath. . .125 
An Evening in My Library Among 

the English Poets, . . .687 

An Unwilling Traveler, 686 

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young 

Man, 395 

A Student in Arms, . . 544 

A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf, 540 
A Thousand Years of Russian His- 
tory, ..... 682 
Aurora the Magnificent, . -555 
Beauty, A Study in Philosophy, . 123 
Belgium's Case, .... 694 
Bcnedictus Qui Venit, . . . 698 
Better Meals for Less Money, . 412 
Brazil, Today and Tomorrow, . 824 
Bums: How to Know Him 841 
Camillus de Lellis, . . . 269 
Canonical Elections, . . . 548 
Catholic Christianity, or the Rea- 
sonableness of Our Religion. . 258 
Catholic Schools: Why Build 

Them, . . . . .110 

Christian Science, . . . 269 

Christopher Columbus in Poetry, 

History and Art, . . . 832 

Cicero, . . . . . 400 

Creative Intelligence, . . . 393 

Criminal Sociology, . . . 548 

Dark Rosaleen, .... 259 
Development of Personality, . 406 

Devotion to the Holy Face, . . 845 

Enchantment, .... 686 

England in the Mediterranean, . 539 
Epictetus, ..... 692 
Eschatology, .... 688 

False Witness, .... 694 
Father Tim's Talks, . . .124 

Form and Content in the Christian 

Tradition, .... 260 

French Perspectives, . . .113 

From Dartsmouth to the Darda- 

nellcs, 697 

From the Deep Woods to Civiliza- 
tion, 1,7 



Getting Together, . . .843 

God and Man. .... 123 

God's Fairy Tales. . . .109 

God the Invisible King, . .832- 

Grail Fire, ..... 26^. 

Grapes of Wrath, . . .551 

Great Inspirers, . . . . 108: 

Hawaii — Past and Present. . . 266 

Heaven Open to Souls, . .115 

Helen, . . . .127 

Helen of Four Gates, . . . 837 

His Family, .... 540 

Historical Records and Studies, . 124 

History of the Franks, . 119 

History of the Prima Primaria So- 
dality of the Annunciation and 
SS. Peter and Paul, . 

History of the Sinn . Fein Move- 
ment and the Irish Rebellion of 
1916, ..... .^ 

How to Learn Easily, . 

How to Read, .... 

Idle Days in Patagonia, 

If Wishes Were Horses, 

Infant Baptism, .... 

The Spacious Times, 

In the Claws of the German Eagle, 

Intolerance in the Reign of EHza- 

' beth 

Jesus — ^Teacher, .... 

Jesus, the Christ, in the Light of 
Psychology, .... 

Journal of Small Things, 

Leaves of God, .... 

Le Strange Records, 

Letters of- a Traveling Salesman. . 

Life and Letters of Rev. Mother 
Teresa Dease, .... 

Life of Mademoiselle Lc Gras, . 

Life of St. Adamnan, . 

Life of St. Ignatius Loyola, 

Literature in the Making, 

Lydia of the Pines, 

I.yly's Euphues, 

^Iahomet, the Founder of Islam, 

Making the Most of Children, 

Manuale Ordinandorum, 

Martin Luther: The Story of His 
Life 

Matthew Arnold : How to Know 
Him 

Michael, ..... 

More Tales by Polish Authors, 

Mount Vernon, . . . . 127 T 

Multitude and SoIitud©jgitized by Vai^^wQ^^ 
My Beloved to Me, . . 410 O 

My Second Year of the War, . 538 



697 



549 
699 
121 
404 
268 
409 
126 
699 

546 
124 

245 
838 
847 
122 
127 

268 
847 
556 
847 
681 
268 
827 
399 
696 
556 

258 

830 
541 
553 



»v 



CONTENTS 



Names that Live in Catholic 
Hearts, ..... 

New England, .... 

Newman's Gentleman, . 

Only a Dog, .... 

Ordeal by Fire, .... 

Our First War With Mexico, 

Our Refuge, .... 

Phases of Early Christianity, 

Prison Reform, .... 

Pinocchio, ..... 

Poems of Charles Warren Stoddard, 

Porfirio Diaz, .... 

Poland's Case for Independence, 

Portraits of Women, . 

Representative American Plays, . 

Rings, ..... 

Russia in 1916, . 

Sardinia in Ancient Times, . 

Science and Learning in France, 

Sermons and Discourses, 

Sermons and Sermon Notes, 

Sermon Notes by the Late Monsig- 
nor Robert H. Benson, 

Sixty Years of the Theatre, . 

Some Experiences in Hungary, . 

Some Minor Poems of the Middle 
Ages, 

Some Russian Heroes, Saints and 
Sinners, ..... 

Songs of the Fields, 

Songs of Wedlock, 

Sonnets and Other Verses, . 

Spanish Exploration in the South- 
west, I 542-1 706, 

Sponsa Christi, .... 

St. Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, 

Stevenson : How to Know Him, . 

St. Paul the Hero, 

Stranded in Arcadia, . 

Stranger than Fiction, . . . 

Summula Philosophic Scholastics 

in Usum Adolescentium, . 
The American Ambassaor, . 

The Ancient Journey, . ' . 
The Angelus Series, 
The Art of Looking at Pictures, . 
The Best Short Stories of 1916, . 
The Bird Study Book, . 
The Call of the Republic, 
The Catholic Church from Within, 
The Celt a^d the World, . 
The Centenary of the Society of 
Mary, ..... 

The " Chronica Fratris Jordani a 
Giano," ..... 
The Communion Prayer Book, . 
The Cradle of Christianity, . 
The Days of Alcibiades, 
The Dead Musician and Other 
Poems, ..... 
The Definite Object, 
The Development of China, . 
The Eternal Feminine, 
The Fight for the Republic, . 
The Fragrant Note Book, 
The French Renascence, 
The Fullback, . • . 
The German Fury in Belgium, . 
The Golden Book of the Dutch 
Navigators, .... 

The Gospel According to St. Luke, 
The Grave of Dreams, and Other 
Verses, ..... 
The Guileless Saxon, . 
The Handling of Historical Ma- 
terial, ..... 
The History of Mother Seton's 
Daughters, .... 
The History of the Fabian Society, 
The Holy Hour in Gethsemane, . 



838 

693 
261 
126 
543 
543 
845 
120 

835 
127 
822 
265 
690 
540 
106 
125 
536 
830 
840 
688 
113 

828 
550 
683 

404 

834 
405 
108 
543 

111 
844 
689 
116 
551 
539 
128 

267 
842 
390 
129 
125 
257 
684 
836 
687 
823 

836 

842 
412 
124 
410 

534 
837 
400 
270 
409 
685 
24S 
128 
694 

112 
847 

401 
700 

825 

25s 
542 
555 



697 



The Ideal Catholic Readers, . 
The Influence of Horace on the 
Chief English Poets of the Nine- 
teenth Century, 

The Interdependence of Literature, 

The Joyful Years, 

The King of Ireland's Son, . 

The Life of the Caterpillar, . 

The Light in the Clearing, . 

The Madness of May, . 

The Maguires of Fermanagh, 

The Mass Every Day in the Year: 
The Roman Missal, . 

The Master's Word in the Epistles 
and Gospels, .... 

The Menace of Japan, . 

The Mexican War Diary of George 
B. McClellan 

The Middle Group of American 
Historians, .... 

The Middle Years, 

The Monks of Westminster, . 

The Necessity of Christ, 

The New Poetry, 

The One Hundred and Five Mar- 
tyrs of Tyburn, 

The Pacific Ocean in History, 

The Practical Book of Architec- 
ture, 

The Preacher of Cedar Mountain, 

The Prince of Peace, . 

The Princess of Let's Pretend, . 

The Progress of a Soul, 

The Prosecution of Jesus, 

The Provocation of France, . 

The Rest House, .... 

The Rise of Ledgar Dunstan, 

The Russians: An Appreciation, . 

The Sacraments, .... 

The Social Criticism of Literature, 

The Soldier's Spoken French, 

The Songs of Creel abeg. 

The Soul of Ulster, 

The Spell of Scotland, . 

The Spiritual Journal of Lucie 
Christine, .... 

The Story of the Acts of the Apos- 
tles, 

The Sulpicians in the United States, 

The Siunma Theologica of St. Tho- 
mas Aquinas, .... 

The Theory of Evolution, 

The Three Hours' Agony of Our 
Lord Jesus Christ, 

The Upbringing of Daughters, 

The Venerable Don Bosco, . 

The Vintage, .... 

The White People, 

The Will to Win, 

Texas in the Middle Eighteenth 
Century, . - . 

Thirtv-One Days with Our Blessed 
Lady, ..... 

Thomas Hardy, .... 

Thomas Maurice Mulry, 

Thorgils, ..... 403 



691 
411 

839 
254 
545 
554 
842 
843 

260 

686 
249 

407 

262 
535 
688 
845 
263 

555 
399 

836 
685 
129 
556 
390 
695 
696 
554 
402 
537 
688 
112 
847 
845 
826 
828 

543 

689 
120 

835 
394 

no 
833 
119 

843 
405 
410 

261 

270 
829 
833 



Insurance 



267 



Those Fitzenbergers, 
Training for a Life 

Agent, ..... 
Twenty Minutes of Reality, . 
Uncle Frank's Mary, . 
Undertow, ..... 
Verses, ..... 

Where the Protestant Episcopal 

Church Stands, 
With Sam Houston in Texas, 
Woman, ..... 

White Knights on Dartmoor, . 04/ j 

tional Amendment, . . . 552 



408 
408 
126 
554 
392 

552 
270 
397 
847 



APRIL 1917 



ywy^^i-^;*-"^ ' 1 



THE 




atholieu^pld 



The Failure of Modem Edacation Joseph V. McKcc, AIL i 

Gratitude " Theodore Maynard 12 

Socialism and the Servile State Hilaire Belloc 14 

An Archangers ftuery Augustus David M alley 32 

Brother Potamian James J. Walsh, MJ)., Ph.D., ScD. 33 

The Treasure of the Messias ^ Josef>h A. Murphy, D.D. 43 

"Noli He Tangere" f/. //. Killacky, SJ. 52 

Francis Thompson's "An Anthem of Earth'' Florence Moynihan 53 

The Funeral of ChriBt Barry Maguhe 59 

The Greek Schism and Benedict XV. George Calavassy 64 

St Paul and His Co-workers L. £. Bellanti, SJ. 77 

Measure for Measure — A Study Emily Jlickcy 90 

Vew Books 

, Becent Events 

Russia, Frafice, ^ermofiy, 
Progress of the War. 

With Our Beaders 
Prios— as cents; tS per Year 

TU OFFICE OF THE CATHOLIC WORLD, NEW YORK 

120-122 West eoth Street ^ , 

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E.MTERLD at new YORK POST-OFIICE AS SEC(»ND-CLASS MATTER 



A Book diat Should Be the Daily CompanioD 
ci Eveiy GithoEc 

/ 

In the Words of fhe Four Gospek 



Anraiiged by a Paulist Father 



It is of pocket size, numbers 300 pages, 
and has as frontispiece an engraved copy of 
Da Vinci's "Head of Chrisf 



Bound in Cloth, 50 eenta. PoatMge, 6 cents extrm 



The Paulist Press 120-122 West 60th St New York 

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THE 



CATHOLIC WORLD, 



Vol. CV. 



APRIL, 191 7. 



No. 625. 



THE FAILURE OF MODERN EDUCATION. 



BY JOSEPH V. MCKEE, A.M. 




ODA Y modem education does everything for the child 
except to educate him. City budgets are loaded down 
with million dollar items for education; wonderful 
buildings containing shops, foundries, gymnasia and 
swimming pools are built and maintained at great 
cost; speech clinics, eye and ear clinics, lunch kitchens, dental 
service, experimental stations and other innovations are established 
and kept in operation ; thousands of men and women are employed 
as teachers and supervisors; hundreds of specialists are assigned, 
at high salaries, to manage and improve the educational machine 
with all its multiple and intricate parts — in a word, everything 
humanly possible is done to provide the materials for educating. 
Yet when the product of this Gargantuan labor is placed imder 
the eyeglass of practical men, it is seen that the ponderous machine 
has turned out merely an ill-trained youth, a few steps removed 
from illiteracy ! " Mons laborat, nascitur riduculus mus," 

In New York City alone the cost of public education totals 
more than $42,000,000.00 annually. The buildings are erected in 
the most modern style with cooking-rooms, workshops and play- 
grounds. There are employed 18,155 women and 2,813 ^^^ ^s 
teachers and supervisors. The salaries for 191 7 will amount to 
$31 »4i 5*5^^47' Yet despite this enormous expenditure of $42,- 
000,000,00 per annum, plus the amount for buildings and equip- 



foL. cr.— I 



Th^ Missionary Society op St. Paul thb Apostlb 
m THi State op New York. 

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2 THE FAILURE OF MODERN EDUCATION [AprU, 

mcnt of former years, the return, in terms of education, is so small, 
so comparatively insignificant from a business viewpoint, as to 
stamp the whole investment one of the most colossal failures of 
modem times. 

It is not necessary to search far for evidence to show this 
failure. Take a representative class graduated from an elementary 
school. Give them a list of fifty ordinary words such as their, 
business, believe and others of like difficulty. You will find, as the 
writer has found in numerous tests, that invariably more than forty 
per cent of the class cannot spell correctly the commonly used 
words of everyday life. Yet the training of the elementary school 
represents eight years of the child's life. Make the tests on other 
grounds — in arithmetic. Ask the elementary school graduate a 
problem such as this: If three men can do a piece of work in 
five days, how long will it take two men to do the same piece of 
work? You will discover that the ordinary pupil finds it difficult 
to do such an example. Yet the elementary school has worked upon 
him for eight years, and after the application of all its intensive 
methods can obtain no better results than this! And the same in- 
efficiency exists in all other subjects in which we might reasonably 
expect flic elementary school graduate to be grounded. 

Nor is this evidence of meagre results to be found only in 
the products of the elementary system. Mr. Abraham Flexner, a 
member of the New York City Board of Education, in his mono- 
graph, A Modem School, states the case of high school graduates 
as follows : " Now in the examinations held by the College Entrance 
Board in 19 15, seventy-six and six-tenths per cent of the candidates 
failed to make a mark of sixty per cent in Cicero ; seventy-five per 
cent failed to make a mark of sixty per cent in the first six 
books of Virgil ; every line of which they had personally read and 
re-read ; sixty-nine and seven-tenths per cent of these examined in 
algebra from quadratics on failed to make as much as sixty per 
cent. Forty-two and four-tenths per cent failed to make sixty per 
cent in geometry. What would the record be if all who studied 
these subjects were thus examined by an impartial outside body? " 

Surely such a record of inefficiency is alarming. It must be 
"kept in mind, too, while considering these facts, that this training 
represents four years of intensive study; that these pupils represent 
the cream of the high school student body; that they have been 
taught by instructors supposedly specialists in their respective 
studies. 

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1917.] THE FAILURE OF MODERN EDUCATION 3 

Professor George Trumbull Ladd of Yale, writing on the fads 
and fancies of education, recently declared : " As to correct spelling, 
whether by eye or ear, the case is at present so hopeless that the 
high school or even the college graduate who can spell correctly is, 
to the reader of examination papers, a somewhat rare phenomenon." 
The same writer, in speaking of the Rhoades scholars from the 
United States at Oxford, said that he had received reports that 
"almost without exception they proved to have received in this 
country no thorough training in the very elements of the subjects 
in which they wished to specialize." 

This evidence, and other facts clearly patent to the observer 
of modem education, point to causes that lie deep and extend uni- 
versally. If the mental inefficiency, which marks the product of 
our present system of education, were confined to one locality, it 
might be laid to regional shortcomings, such as bad methods, mis- 
management or poor teaching. If this were so the evil would re- 
solve itself into a matter of some simplicity and be easy of correc- 
tion. But no person who is closely attentive to conditions as they 
exist in education can reasonably hold that such is the case. Our 
vast, ponderous and extremely expensive education is producing 
young men and yonng^ women, who, to use a strong term in a 
modified sense, are mental incompetents, and this inefficiency is not 
limited to place or system. It is an undeniable though disagreeable 
fact that the child today is turned out from the schools throughout 
the country untrained in discipline, overburdened with unnecessary 
and useless infonnation, and wholly unaccustomed to vigorous men- 
tal work. He will tell you of his " science " studies, and fail to 
do your simple sum in addition ; he will enumerate the hours spent 
in day modeling or farming or printing or foundry work, and write 
you a letter that is offensive in taste and ridiculous in inaccuracy; 
he will explain his work in studying French or German, and to 
your inquiry as to his reading, inform you of the latest Chaplin 
•* movie" or the " funny " series now running in the comic section of 
his favorite newspaper. These are facts — not fancies — ^and when 
lliey appear so consistently and so universally, the conclusion must 
follow that they are the results of causes deep-seated and in no 
way accidental. 

What are these causes? It is a comparatively easy thing to 
point out the effects, especially when they are so apparent. It is 
another and much more difficult problem to trace back the modus 
opirandi to which these results may be attributed. Many attempts 

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4 THE FAILURE OF MODERN EDUCATION [April, 

have been made to solve this problem, but their results have been 
in terms of heat rather than of light. A very definite stand 
in the matter has been taken recently by a group of prominent 
educators who wield great influence in shaping educational thought. 
This school, if such term might be used, holds that the influence 
of tradition is the underlying reason for the failure of our educa- 
tion to attain worth while results. It declares that tradition and 
not present needs is the dominant factor in shaping our curricula, 
and as such exerts too great an influence. Dr. Charles Eliot, in 
a paper published recently by the Rockefeller General Education 
Board, holds that tradition is the root of all the trouble in our 
secondary schools. He feels that many subjects are taught, not 
because they are needed, but because other ages have insisted upon 
them. A more aggressive advocate of this belief, that our educa- 
tion is wrong because based upon tradition, is Dr. Abraham Flexner, 

Taking up the point made by Dr. Eliot, Mr. Flexner goes much 
-oi^the-Rock&fetter^Edttcatiofi Boafd. 

farther and carries it to far-reaching conclusions. Tradition, he 
holds, is bad, and he would eliminate it entirely from his system 
of studies. He holds that our •children study useless subjects, be- 
cause an antiquated ideal of education calls for their inclusion in 
the course of study, and not because of any value they possess in 
preparing the child for everyday life. Taking only those " studies 
that serve real purposes," he builds up a curriculum, which he calls 
" A Modern School." All formal studies, such as Latin and Greek, 
or geometry, find no place in this new school. The basis of the 
new education, he places on four points, " science, industry, aesthet- 
ics and civics," with science " the central and dominating feature 
of the school." 

Mr. Flexner's paper contains much food for thought, and, is- 
sued as it is by the powerful General Education Board, will exert 
a strong influence in shaping modern education. In his estimate 
of the impotentiality of present educational processes he strikes 
the truth in showing their general weakness and inefficiency. In his 
attempt, however, to correct these evils, by rejecting all tradition 
as an educational factor, he commits many grave errors which 
cannot be discussed at length here. 

The proposals of these educators are ideal in purpose. They 
aim at the development of intellectual power. But a close analysis of 
their plans shows that this end cannot be adequately attained by the 
means they propose. In rejecting all aid from tradition, and 

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1917] THE FAILURE OF MODERN EDUCATION 5 

grounding their school on science, industry, aesthetics and civics, 
they court the danger of confusing thinking power and knowledge- 
power. Mere information is knowledge power; the ability to use 
it is thinking power. The aim of education is the development of 
that thinking power. But this aim is necessarily endangered when 
all purely formal studies are laid aside for those which at most con- 
sist of the collation and assimilation of facts, and not in the con- 
version of these facts into terms of original thought. For this 
reason any such plans must fail to remedy conditions. 

The very real defects in our present-day education cannot be 
cured by the mere substitution of " modem subjects " in our course 
of study. The quarrel is not with tradition. The real reason why 
our education is a failure is because its curriculum is based upon 
false principles of psychology — ^principles that are more readable 
than practicable. These ideals govern education today ; they are 
" modem " and under that guise universally accepted. But in the 
light of actual results they cannot be justified. Succinctly, the 
failure of our education may be ascribed to two underlying causes : 
First. The principle that interest alone should govern the choice 
of subject Second. The attempt to accomplish too much. 

There are many other cau3es contributing to exert a baneful 
influence in our present educational work, but these are the fotm- 
tain heads of most of our present troubles. 

The most sacred principle of modem educational psychology is 
that interest should determine the choice and study of a subject. 
According to this idea, if a subject does not appeal to the imagina- 
tion of the child, then that subject has no place in the class-room 
and must be eliminated from the curriculum. Therefore, courses 
of study have been planned, not on the theory that the child must 
Icam to overcome things tliat are difficult and thereby gain in men- 
tal and moral strength, but that he will do things because they in- 
terest him. Under the present plan of education, that seems to 
have as its ideal the creation of dabblers in the manual arts, real 
mental discipline has been removed by the elimination and curtail- 
ment of those subjects which exercise the child's mentality and 
provide intellectual development by drill and application. The 
more substantial subjects, such as spelling and arithmetic, have been 
robbed of their effectiveness by mere presentation under attractive 
guise, instead of by the less attractive but more effective 
way of constant repetition and drill. Subjects are merely placed 
before the child — the whole course of study being kaleidoscopic 

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6 THE FAILURE OF MODERN EDUCATION [April, 

in presentation, changing and shifting in new combinations and 
blendings in order to hold the interest of the child, now a mere 
observer and no longer a student. In a great number of our schools 
the children spend eighty minutes a day in sculpture, printing or 
carpentry and only fifty minutes a week in spelling. And, more- 
over, the child at eight or nine is allowed to choose the subject he 
desires to study. 

A very concrete example of this tendency to make education 
merely a matter of interest or choice is to be found in a recently 
published syllabus issued for the New York City high schools. 
According to this new recommendation the only required subjects 
for a four years' course in the secondary schools are English, music 
and physical training! The others are all at the whim of the boy 
of twelve, to be accepted or rejected as he pleases. Under this 
arrangement the students have it within their power to eliminate 
any subject from the school by refusing to take it as an elective. 
If there are no pupils, there will be no need of teachers. As a 
consequence the instructors in subjects, which require mental dis- 
cipline, such as Latin or mathematics, will be forced to offer at- 
tractions to win the approval of their whimsical masters. The 
whole educational system thus becomes a great bargain counter, 
and mental and moral training a joke. 

Now, it would be contrary to common sense to disclaim abso- 
lutely against the value and use of interest as an educational instru- 
ment. It is one of the strongest influences working toward per- 
fection in all lines of endeavor. We all do better in those subjects 
which we like and which hold our interest. But is it wise to make 
the boy's interest, the child's judgment, or the girl's imagination the 
measure of a subject's power to discipline mentally? Is it not 
true that many subjects at first glance seem to be difficult, and yet 
are truly interesting because of the mental exhilaration they give 
in return for hard work. Is it possible that a boy's muscles will be 
better developed by motoring rather than by walking? Yet this 
is what we are doing in education today. With the sole idea of 
developing our youth to sturdiness in mind and body, we start 
him on his journey, hoping that he will develop, under kindly in- 
struction, strength for the rough of life. Yet from the beginning of 
his trip we allow him to climb aboard a sight-seeing omnibus and per- 
mit him to name the journey and its length. At the end of the trip 
which brings him merely to the foothills of life, we call upon him 
to get down from his pleasant caravan and begin with unused 

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19171 THE FAILURE OF MODERN EDUCATION 7 

muscles the arduous climb. Is it fair, after all, that this should 
be so? 

Yet that is exactly what our education is doing ! As a conse- 
quence of this tendency to appeal to the child solely on the ground 
of his liking the work, we are eliminating from his course of study 
all subjects that tend to train his will, nourish his power of per- 
sistence and develop his determination to succeed against odds. 

He now leaves school, not having learned the real lesson of ed- 
ucation, the true secret of success — ^the value of hard work. Instead 
he is filled with vague ideas of the subject in which he has dabbled. 
If he has been trained at all it is, in most instances, merely in the 
use of the eye, the hand or the ear, with no training in the things 
that really count, the mind — ^and more important than all, the will. 
It is little wonder, then, that we find him sorely tried when he is 
called upon to do any prolonged thinking or acting that requires 
determination and perseverance. When he does learn this lesson, 
it is most times at the hand of bitter experience. And it is just 
for this reason — ^to obviate the payment of such a price — that 
education has been instituted. 

This fear to give the child real work in the essentials of read- 
ing, spelling and arithmetic, because such drilling may not prove 
interesting, is one of the ftmdamental defects of our present sys- 
tem. To it may be traced much of the slovenly work of the school 
graduate, who spells poorly and figures worse. When the realiza- 
tion comes that mere knowledge is not education, then will our 
education begin to stiow fruitful results. The first step to be taken 
is to insist upon the teaching and drill, to the greatest possible de- 
gree, of those elementary subjects which the child must know in 
order to begin his work in the world. Rather have the child's will 
bent early to obedience and his mind to hard work than allow him an 
unwise freedom that eventually weakens his will and intellect, and 
leaves him unwilling and incompetent to do intensive work. 

Life in its essence means struggle, and any education that 
would fit the child for life must contain some of the very elements 
oi life, in order to afford true discipline of mind and body. It must 
be firm, rigorous and substantial. Until these qualities are insisted 
upon, and as long as education is made a sight-seeing trip, instead 
of a period of vigorous training, education must and will continue 
to be a failure. *' A school or system of education," writes Dr. 
Thomas S, Baker in a timely article, " that does not place responsi- 
bility on the boys themselves, that attempts to present all the ma- 



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8 THB FAILURE OF MODERN EDUCATION (April, 

terials of instruction in such a way that little or no effort is re* 
quired on their part, is sure to produce spineless and incompetent 
men." 

Second. The second serious defect is the attempt of modem 
education to do too much. This is a serious evil that has crept into 
our system under the guise of good. Formerly the child in the 
elementary school was trained in few subjects. He had his speller, 
his reader, his arithmetic, and in the upper grades his history and 
geography. This, with the addition of a hygiene book, constituted 
the range of his subjects. The sense impressions he received were con- 
sequently within this comparatively simple range, and for that reason 
readily assimilated, and firmly retained. It requires no proof from 
psychology to support the statement that the child's mind is greatly 
limited, and can retain only up to a certain capacity. Now, while 
he can and does appreciate an extended variety of subjects, he 
cannot digest or retain them with any degree of accuracy or 
profit after their passing. For example, if a child can remember 
clearly five sense impressions with profit, and he is shown ten or 
fifteen in the same period of time, he gains not a knowledge of fif- 
teen, nor a clear concept of five, but a blurred impression, that 
is of no value, from all. He probably knows something in a con- 
fused way of each, and nothing accurately of any. It is as 
though a large spigot were turned on quickly upon a small glass — 
much water flows, but little is retained. 

Such is the evil of modern education — ^much education flows, 
but little is retained. In order to do much for the child, the edu- 
cators are overwhelming him with a multitude of subjects which 
leave imperfect and transient sense impressions. They are conscious 
of only how much they are giving the pupil, and not how much 
he is retaining accurately. That this is true can be readily seen 
from a cursory examination of the work the teacher is called upon 
to do every day of the school year. The following is a sample, 
taken at random from a practical teacher's plan book, of the 
daily programme in a New York City elementary school. It is the 
day's work for a 4A Qass, that is, for a group of children of 
about ten years of age. 

At the ringing of the bell at nine o'clock the class salutes the 
flag and a number of pupils recite some poems. From 9 :i 5 to 9 125 
the pupils correct their home work. The next forty-five minutes 
are devoted to mental and written arithmetic The children read 
numbers from i to 100,000 and review Roman numbers to L. They 



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1917] THE FAILURE OF MODERN EDUCATION 9 

then count by twos and threes around the room. Then they read 
dollar and cent signs and are drilled on quarts, pints and gallon 
measures. They take up the terms multiplicand, multiplier and 
product and study the simpler fractions. After this the children 
do some problems in long division and multiplication. 

At 10:10 spelling is taken up. There is a review of six words 
previously given besides the presentation of five new words. At 
10:30 spelling gives way to phonics, and the pupils study various 
word sounds. From 1 1 to 1 1 130 reading is taken up, followed by 
a language lesson in which the teacher reviews dates, and drills the 
children in verb formation, the plurals of nouns and the formation 
of sentences. At one o'clock there is practice in penmanship and 
various lines and curves are taught. At i :30 the pupils begin a 
drawing period during which they draw trees as they are at that 
season of the year. Drawing is followed by a twenty-eight minute 
session of geography, and the children now study the compass, coast 
line, oceans, islands and peninsulas. The next twenty minutes 
are given to supplementary reading. At three o'clock the classes 
are then dismissed. 

When one stops to analyze such a programme, he will be as- 
tounded at the vast amount of subject matter that it covers, and the 
complexity of sense impressions that its teaching necessitates. When 
he remembers that each class contains on an average over fifty 
pupils, he will readily understand how impossible it is for a teacher 
to ground any particular pupil in the work in which he may be 
deficient. It is a fact that teachers find it very difficult even to 
get through the programme on time, with no consideration at all 
of the weaker members of the class, who must follow as best they 
can or fall by the wayside. 

Besides, this is a sypnopsis of a comparatively simple pro- 
gramme especially when it is compared with those in force in the 
upper grades or in the Garyized schools where many more subjects 
such as German, science, wood-making and other manual tasks are 
taken up. As it is, the plan here given omits music and drawing — 
two subjects required by the present curriculum. 

It is clear that there is altogether too much prescribed in 
such a plan for one day's work. The matter covered on scheduled 
time is too intensive, too diversified to allow of its being thoroughly 
mastered by the child. He is swung along at express speed, and 
gets only a blurred impression of the subjects presented to him. 
The schedule must be maintained, at all costs, and as a consequence 



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10 THE FAILURE OF MODERN EDUCATION [April, 

the teacher has no time in which to give any real drill in the sub- 
jects which present some difficulty to the pupils. The matter pr«- 
scribed is merely presented to the child and then whirled away to 
give place to another subject. The pupil is sacrificed to a system 
in which speed and surface area are considered of greater value 
than less matter and more mastery. 

The thinking parent, who realizes the true needs of his child, 
finds it hard, under these conditions, to justify the present curric- 
ula demanded by modem education. He finds it difficult to sec 
why geometry or algebra is brought down from the high school, 
and given to the child who is not yet the master of addition, sub- 
traction and division. He is at a loss to understand why chemistry, 
physics, botany, zoology in their abstract terms are taught to the 
child who is* woefully weak in spelling and writing. He cannot 
see the good sense of giving the child a smattering of German or 
French when he does not know the elements of his own tongue. 

Yet these conditions actually exist. In order to " speed up " 
education, the modem educators have placed chemistry, biology, 
zoology, physics, geometry, algebra, German and French in the 
course of studies for elementary schools. But the more serious evil 
lies in this : That the introduction of these subjects crowds out the 
less attractive but more valuable ones, and allows no time for drill 
on the essential principles of practical fundamentals. The remedy 
here is clearly apparent. There should be no hesitancy to disre- 
gard and reject entirely those merely informative subjects, which 
the child can and does learn from other sources. The cure does not 
lie in the substitution or addition of subjects, but in the elimination 
of many. Let the course of study be simplified; give the child a 
short range of subjects and a thorough training in each division, 
so that he comes as near as possible to a mastery of the work as- 
signed to him. The value of this, namely, that the child has con- 
sciously perfected himself in a subject is immeasurable. Perfec- 
tion begets perfection ; by mastering one subject, the child is given 
a standard measure that shapes and determines his efforts in other 
problems. Having leamed to do one thing well, he acquires the 
habit of doing all things well. He obtains a greater ability also, 
for the memory, intellect and will, thus developed by rigorous 
training in one subject, becomes all the keener in the mastery of 
the others. The confidence that comes to the boy after such train- 
ing is an asset that is the very essence of success. Anyone who ob- 
jects to the simplification of our course of study, puts himself down 

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1917] THE FAILURE OF MODERN EDUCATION 11 

as one who is opposed to the principle that one thing well done 
is better than many ill done. 

It must be clear, from these considerations, that real sub- 
stantial changes are needed in our present system of education if 
it is to be freed from its " old man of the sea." These changes 
must go to the root of the trouble and be constructive in effect. 
They might be simply stated under two heads : First, let the train- 
ing in our schools be real, vigorous training, firm but kind, and 
exempt from all coddling and pampering of the child. In speaking 
on education and behavior, Professor James has said, " In the last 
analysis, it (education) consists in the organizing of resources 
in the human being, of powers of conduct which shall fit him to his 
social physical world." If this is the end of education then we 
must be careful to see that the means used to attain that end are 
proper and efficient. Life means conduct, and conduct to be sane 
and helpful can be attained only after vigorous discipline of mind 
and body. This must be the determinant in education, discipline 
and interest, rather than interest alone. Second, we must clear the 
courses of study of all subjects not absolutely essential to the 
training of the child. The child has only a limited amount of time 
and energy, and both should be used to further the acquisition of 
those traits of character, and to insure the development of those 
habits of mind and soul, which will enable the child to reach the 
highest efficiency in his proper sphere of life, and give him power 
by the mastery of a limited number of subjects to be equal and su- 
perior to the demands of his environment. 

If these recommendations of work, simplicity and continuity 
are insisted upon, the school graduate will go forth better equipped 
for life. He will probably be less informed than tlie present-day 
pupil, but he will be able to do more, because he will have the 
trained tools acquired by real discipline, and not the useless impedi- 
menta of mere information. His educational dress may not be 
so showy as that of the boy of today, but it will wear longer and 
pve better service. 

After all, homespun and not silks and satins, is the proper 
clothing for the child wlio must work for his daily bread. 



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GRATITUDE. 

BY THEODORE MAYNARD. 

How shall I answer God and stand, 
My naked life within my hand, 
To plead upon the Judgment Day? 
Seeing the glory in array 
Of cherubim and seraphim, 
What answer shall I give to Him? 

I was too dull of heart and sense 
To read His cryptic providence : 
The intricate and strange device 
Was hidden from my foolish eyes. 
My gratitude could not reach up 
To the sharing of His awful cup, 
The blinding light of mystery. 
And the painful pomp of sanctity. 

But since as a happy child I went 
With love and laughter and content 
Along the road of simple things. 
Making no idle questionings ; 
Since young and careless I did keep 
The cool and cloistered halls of sleep, 
And took my daily drink and food. 
Finding them very, very good — 
God may, perhaps, be pleased to see 
Such signs of sheer felicity. 

But if I somehow should be given 
An attic in His storied Heaven, 
I'm sure I should be far apart 
From Catherine of the wounded heart, 
Teresa of the flaming soul. 
And Bruno's sevenfold aureole; 
And be told, of course, Fm not to mix 
With the Bernards or the Dominies, 
Nor thrust my company upon 
St. Michael or the great St. John. 



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I 



1917.] GRATITUDE 13 

Yet God may grant it me to sit 
And sing (with little skill or wit) 
My intimate canticles of praise 
For all life's dear and gracious days; 
Though hardly a single syllable 
Of what St. Raphael has to tell, 
The triumphs of the cosmic wars, 
The raptures and the jewelled scars 
Of the high lords of martyrdom — 
Hardly a word of this will come 
To strike my understanding ear, 
Hardly a single word, I fear I 

But woe upon the Judgment Day 
H my heart gladdened not at May; 
Nor woke to hear with the waking birds 
The morning's sweet and winsome words ; 
Nor loved to see laburnums fling 
Their pennons to the winds of Spring; 
Nor watched among the expectant grass 
The Summer's painted pageant pass ; 
Nor thrilled with blithe beatitude 
Within a fiery Autumn wood; 
Or when each separate twig did lie 
Etched sharp upon the wintry sky. 
If out of all my sunny hours 
I brought no chaplet of their flowers; 
If I gave no kiss to His lovely feet 
When They shone as poppies in the wheat ; 
If no rose to me was a mystic rose. 
No Snow was whiter than the snows ; 
If in my baseness I let fall 
At once His cross and His carnival — 
Then I must talce my ungrateful head 
To where the lakes of Hell bum red. 



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SOCIALISM AND THE SERVILE STATE. 

BY HILAIRK BELLOC. 
I. 

WO marks attach to every great change in history. 
The first is obvious to all. It consists in an accumu- 
lation and convergence of forces that are clearly in- 
compatible with a still existing scheme of social ar- 
rangement. That scheme only continues to survive 
as a whole legal theory; parts of it, less menaced than others, 
outlast the rest for varying periods. But one by one each part 
so surviving collapses, as remaining patches of snow melt in spring, 
and at last the legal theory of the old state alone outlasts the dis- 
appearance of every reality upon which it formerly reposed. Thus 
the economic arrangement of European society was visibly doomed 
to change in the seventh and eighth centuries. The slave was less 
and less a mere slave and more and more a peasant. The independ- 
ent landowner more and more caught into a web of interdepend- 
ence upon greater men above him and towards lesser men below. 
The law presupposed and still attempted to work on the theory, 
once a reality, of a central government dealing only with freemen 
and their chattels. The social facts made that law with every 
passing generation vainer and yet more vain. Such is the first mark 
of a great moment of transition, and it is apparent to all. 

The second mark consists in this : That men meet the transi- 
tion through which their society is passing with varying degrees 
of creative determination. They do not plan the future securely, 
as a rule, and the extent to which they do so plan it differs to an 
indefinite extent : it runs from a complete negligence to a sharp and 
definite creed, productive of an equally definite re-arrangement. 

In proportion as the men of any particular time of transition 
seize the greatness of their moment and perceive both the dissolu- 
tion of an old arrangement and the opportunities which such a 
flux affords for a re-settlement, in that proportion are they likely 
to emerge from the change satisfied and well-poised for a long 
new era of well-ordered life. 

Now it is very clear that the social arrangements of what is 



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1917] SOCIALISM AND THE SERVILE STATE 15 

called " Industrial " Society are passing through a transition of 
this kind. 

It is as well, at the outset of our observations, to remark that 
Industrial Society, that is, society organized under centralized capi- 
tal in few hands, and depending for its physical energy upon a 
proletariat, is not universal — ^nor anything like universal. It is 
peculiar to certain portions only of the earth's surface, small por- 
tions, and countries which (in spite of current journalistic and 
financial illusions on the matter) are in no position to impose their 
will by arms upon the rest. 

But as far, for instance, as modern England is concerned. In- 
dustrial Society is universal, and modern England is a state to 
which all the diseases of Industrial Society, all its imminence of 
change, all the opportunities of it and all the perils of it exactly 
apply. Much the same is true of the United States of America. 

That an old scheme of things is breaking down in the indus- 
trial civilization of our time is plain to everyone. But the great- 
ness of the moment lies in its creative opportunity; the fatal line 
which future industrial developments will take, if we do not appre- 
ciate that greatness, is what most men do not observe. 

In every department of our lives the old machine is taking 
for granted a state of society which no longer exists : and that is 
always a legal feature accompanying change. Thus we punish such 
primitive forms of fraud, of monopoly, of political corruption as 
the seventeenth century knew; many of our major modern forms 
of these things go unpunished. . Again, we provide for breach of 
contract penalties which suppose two economically free contractors, 
each liable to confiscation to the advantage of the other if he breaks 
his contract. But the enormous industrial contract of our time 
has for one party to the bargain a group of millions who are not 
economically free, and who are, therefore, alive to no such sanc- 
tions. It is the same throughout the whole range of industrial ac- 
tivity in England or America today. 

A change, therefore, is actually upon us. We are, as is nearly 
always the case, achieving it in social practice before we deal with 
it in forms of law. But what we do not grasp is the magnitude 
of the business we are at. And because we do not grasp it we do 
not admit into this revolution of ours (for it is no less) the due 
element of conscious will without which no human affair, collec- 
tive or individual, can properly be brought to a human conclusion. 

As yet two schools alone — schools of minorities, and schools 



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i6 SOCIALISM AND THE SERVILE STATE [April, 

whose creeds are very imperfectly grasped by the mass of men — 
are attempting a definite reconstruction, a creation of the will in 
this great moment and opportunity of ours. 

The first of these schools is the Socialist School. The second 
has grown out of the Socialist School under the pressure of real 
things, but is by this time perfectly distinct and even contradictory 
to it It may be called the Servile School. A third issue, and one 
to which as yet no name attaches, is of even greater moment than 
the Socialist theory or the imperfect servile practice in new legis- 
lation. It may be called the Distributive or Associative State: that 
is, a State organized economically along the lines imperfectly 
achieved, but aimed at, by the Middle Ages. The ideal standing be- 
fore this issue from our economic anarchy is a State based upon a 
wide distribution of the means of production among a determin- 
ing number of the families that build up a State. Such a distribu- 
tion (it is maintained) is normal to the hinnan temper and to all 
we know of human conduct in the past. It is rendered stable by 
the cocq)erative instinct which a popular experience of property 
breeds, it is the only economic arrangement consonant with personal 
liberty, and it has behind it the weighty concrete argument of his- 
torical experience. It is an ideal to which I myself adhere. 

That such an economic arrangement can be developed out of 
the present economic anarchy will be the prime thesis of this 
article; secondly, it will also be its thesis that, should it be 
developed, it would permanently establish a secure basis for the 
economic well-being of the families that build up the State; thirdly, 
that if so excellent an issue is to be determined it must be deter- 
mined fww — for the greatness of our moment consists in this : that 
we have a very high opportunity, but an opportunity very limited in 
time. Let the moment pass, not the Socialist, but the Servile State 
is the only other and necessary consequence following upon our 
negligence. 

XL 

The Socialist contention is that economic circumstance is the 
master of social development, or at any rate the great conditioning 
factor of it : that the human will is impotent to change the major 
economic conditions of the moment; that they must be recognized 
as absolute before we attempt a reform; that we must pour into 
them, as into a sort of mold, whatever new society we desire to 



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1917.] SOCIALISM AND THE SERVILE STATE 17 

make; that we can change the stuff of economic society, as it were, 
but not its shape. Socialists see the means of production in few 
hands; they see the means of production getting into fewer hands 
still ; they see the mass of men proletarian — ^that is, dependent for 
life upon doles normally equivalent to mere subsistence, and of- 
fered to the majority in very small amounts and at very infrequent 
intervals, by the minority, out of the total produce of labor. 

All this they conceive as being unchangeable. It is economic 
fact and its own master. In its present form it is, of course, in- 
tolerable, for it means that the great mass of men have no cer- 
tainty for the morrow, and a large minority — ^an increasing one — 
has not only no certainty, but not even a sufficiency of mere sub- 
sistence. The result is the abomination of poverty we see around us. 

The Socialist, regarding the major lines of this as immutable 
and seeking to make life tolerable again, picks out what is, in his 
view, not immutable but subject to direct human enactment. " Let 
the means of production," he says, " be taken from the minority 
that now possesses them. Let their possession be vested in the State, 
and let the machinery of production be controlled by men elected 
as our politicians are elected today for public office. Then will the 
whole matter be solved. There will be no uncertainty, for the 
elected politicians who will control the machine of industry will 
have no competitive motive, and, being elected by the mass, will 
see to it that the mass has a sufficiency given it out of the total 
produce of labor. Given that, the control of the elected politicians 
by the masses could be sufficiently exact," says the Socialist, " and 
everything that man requires of his economic effort is fulfilled un- 
der this scheme. It would be possible (always supposing the poli- 
ticians to be in a sufficient dread of the public and that public to 
be just to minorities) to enrich the whole of life, to give leisure 
to every family, to remove every sort of insecurity, save such as 
cannot be detached from the duration of human life." 

In his contention that the machine, with its great body of per- 
manent officials and elected politicians to control them, would pro- 
vide a minimum and secure a minimum for a time, the Socialist 
is by every analog}^ of social history right. In every prison, school, 
workhouse, we can see for ourselves officials working such machines 
without too much self-seeking, and controlled by a system of checks 
from too much private advantage. 

In his contention that the means of production are in a very 
few hands, ^nd are tending, under our system of morals, to get into 
voti cv.— a 



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i8 SOCIALISM AND THE SERVILE STATE [April, 

fewer hands, the Socialist is again right; and nothing is more fu- 
tile or comic than the attempts men make to meet the Socialist con- 
tention by any denial of this, and by pictures of the present State 
which pretend it to have as a "backbone** something called the 
" public " — a mass of citizens, owning and contented and free. 

The Socialist is right in much of his protest against the or- 
ganization of present-day society, and in his contention that the 
new machine he advocates would eliminate those particular evils, 
and would (until it grew rusty) grind out sufficiency and security 
for all. 

But the scheme of the Socialist involves the negation of a 
certain human institution of no little importance; an institution 
upon which depends a whole host of things which men have found 
just as necessary as bread; an institution which they have never 
in any phase of their being foregone, save with the deliberate in- 
tention of doing something exceptional, opposed to their general 
nature, and singled out as a peculiar, difficult and anomalous feat. 
This is the institution of property. 

If you could get rid of the psychology peculiar to human 
lovers, then no doubt you could establish " free love " on the one 
hand, or " eugenics " on the other. If you could get rid of the 
human attachment men have to the human groups that made them 
what they are, then no doubt you could get rid of war. If you 
could get rid of the human necessity for eating and drinking, you 
could solve at a blow heaven knows how many of the troubles 
that affect humanity. And if you could get rid of the human in- 
stitution of property, of the human instinct from which it arose, 
and of the human purposes which it serves, then you would as 
a necessary consequence develop (whether in a primitive or a com- 
plex condition of industry matters not at all) the scheme of pro- 
duction which the Socialist advocates. For that scheme has all 
the advantages which can attach to production for the purpose of 
human consumption — rapidity, security, calculability, efficiency of 
control, universal knowledge of requirements, etc. — if a human 
community be indeed only a community organized for constmiing 
wealth. 

But this institution of property— even if, as some Socialists 
maintain, but a memory or survival— does exist. It attaches to 
land, to the means of production, to instruments, quite as much as 
to objects of consumption, and that for a reason which will be 
developed in the succeeding parts of this article, when it will be 



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1917] SOCIALISM AND THE SERVILE STATE 19 

attempted to be shown why this particular institution bears the 
strength it does, and how, standing against and thwarting the So- 
cialist effort, it canalises the results of that effort out of their 
original channel and diverts them towards what becomes, in prac- 
tice, less and less the Collectivist and more and more the Servile 
State. 

III. 

We shall see, as we go further in this inquiry, how the Socialist 
theory, in spite of the enonnous driving power behind it (which 
consists in its lucidity, combined with its motives of pity and jus- 
tice) b^ins, the moment it enters the field of practical results, 
to be diverted from its true object and to produce in actual life, 
not the G)llectivist, but the Servile State. 

When it appears in the human field of daily life its impetus is 
deflected by something human, and that something human is the 
institution of property. It is because property is all that it has 
been and must be as a human institution that the Collectivist, or 
Socialist, theory fails to establish a political result consonant to it- 
self. It is the strength of property in human life, the firmness of 
its roots in the human mind, which.does not permit any scheme to 
obtain a human realization unless it allows for that great human 
thing. 

Now what is this major human institute which so stands in the 
way of all schemes, perfect, sure for its exclusion, and which wrecks 
in particular the practical effort of the Socialist to reform our 
present intolerable system of production? It is essential to grasp 
what property is if we are to understand at all the nature of the 
problem before us, and the causes that lend to the present crisis in 
industrial civilization the opportunity which it presents. 

We must, of course, neglect the mere error which connects the 
idea of property with the privilege of the few. In so far as 
but a few of the freemen of a community own property, in so far 
the principle of property in that community is wounded. When (as 
is the case of modern England or America) very few indeed own 
and the mass is ignorant of this elementary factor in citizenship, 
then property as an institution in the State is sick or dying; and to 
talk of the " defence of property " under such circumstances when 
one really means " an apology for the exclusion of most citizens 
from citizenship " is to express a contradiction in terms. 



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20 SOCIALISM AND THE SERVILE STATE [April, 

But even though we neglect mere muddle-headed confusion 
over the word " property " with the present congestion of owner- 
ship in a few hands, and even though we confine our criticism to 
more intelligent opposition, we shall find that wherever property 
is denied or belittled in its human import, that denying or be- 
littling is due to a narrow lack of comprehension. 

Thus there is the typically sophistical view that property is 
"the extension of personality:" It is nothing of the kind, any 
more than boats are things with sails. Some forms, but only some 
forms, of property include this sense of an extension of person- 
ality. Only for some kinds of property need we profess affection 
or personal recognition or even personal acquaintance; and it is 
the daily experience of all sane men that when we suflFer a lesion in 
our sense of property (when, to put the matter plainly, we are 
robbed) our indignation at the injustice has not necessarily any- 
thing to do with our attachment to, or even comprehension of, the 
object of which we are tmjustly deprived. Nay, it need not be 
ian object at all; it need be but a right or even a future claim 
to establish. The sense of injustice, if we are tricked or forced 
out of it» is the same as the sense of injustice when we lose 
an object loved, though in the latter case additional emotion pro- 
ceeding from personal attachment arises. 

Property is not a sentiment only or necessarily attaching to 
things covered by or usual to our daily and personal habit. 
Neither is property, as others again pretend, most insufficiently, 
a mere power to consume, the loss of it a mere loss of power to 
consume, and our indignation at that loss mere disappointment of 
greed. 

This detestable crudity is common on the lips of those innu- 
merable unfortunates in England and America who have never 
known what property might bring, and on the lips of those con- 
temptible men who by some accident of cunning or worse have 
acquired powers of material enjoyment superior to the circum- 
stances of their birth. It is, again, the view of dependents, men 
bom to be dependent, for whom a fixed purchasing power, doled 
out at fixed intervals of time, is the sole economic aspect of life. 
That property includes this function of consumption is self- 
evident : that property is S)monymous with so small a thing can only 
be held by those who know nothing of the story of mankind or 
even of contemporary life. 

A man possessed of property which, by whatever economic ac- 



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1917] SOCIALISM AND THE SERVILE STATE 21 

cident, provides him with an independent supply is in a position 
morally select from a man not so possessed; nor will you find a 
society wherein property is well distributed, though the economic 
values constmiaUe in it be small, content to exchange its lot with 
a society in which the economic values consumable are far higher, 
but in which property has been allowed to lapse into few hands. 

On the contrary, rather than allow such a conversion from the 
propertied to the salaried condition, not only societies but indi- 
viduals have desperately fought, and, save on a few historic occa- 
sions of specific and definable disaster (such as that of the Eng- 
lish peasant in the siscteenth century), their fight has been success- 
ful because it was normal to man's breed. 

What, then, is this institution, and what is its full definition ? 
It is an institution concrete, organic, complex as is man: fitting 
him close like a garment, as does every other institution which 
man has developed in his social action to satisfy a general need — 
and that need was the need of the sub-unit within any society to 
react upon and to influence, to mold, and, under the freest cir- 
cumstances, actually to direct the ^powers of the whole. 

Thus the family, the hardest and clearest unit of all, was 
desperately determined to own; for, if it did not own, three mighty 
teachers — ^instinct, common sense, and experience — quickly taught 
it that it would find a master in whomsoever else should own — 
whether you might call that "someone else" the despot of the 
State, or the slave-driver, or the foreign tyrant. 

Thus, also, every corporation other than the family forming 
healthily and recognized sub-units within the State (as religious 
bodies in pagan or in Christian lands, and a hundred other forms 
of cooperative life) desired to own and insisted upon ownership. 

More curious still, and perhaps more instructive, is it to note 
that even the individual within any of these units must also claim 
ownership (whether tolerated or legally expressed makes no dif- 
ference) lest his life be unfree. In some small measure the young 
child against his parents, in a much larger measure the adolescent, 
always the mother and the wife, appear possessed of some such 
fence or ring defending them against the will of others. 

The attempt to distinguish between this craving for property 
in things consumable in enjoyment and things consumable in pro- 
duction is academic, not real; no man has ever felt it. If any- 
thing, the instinct which rightly couples ownership with freedom 
is stronger in the case of capital or land, of instruments and of the 



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22 SOCIALISM AND THE SERVILE STATE [April, 

soil, than in the case of things to be worn or eaten or contemplated, 
or in any way personally consumed. By the first we are defended 
in our honor, our virility, our courtesy, and our self-regard, that is, 
to existence worth having; the second to existence only. 

Property, then, has in every healthy society, and in all the his- 
toric time of which we have exact record, existed by the guarantee 
of what we call in private life our honor, in public our freedom. 
In States such as those of the miserable and cancered modem in- 
dustrial type the decay of property is at once apparent in that decay 
of that honor and of that freedom. The mass of citizens cease to 
be of influence upon the conduct of the State; the mass of men 
have learned to sell themselves. 

Those cooperative sanctities of guild and custom which ap- 
parently restrict property under simple and healthy conditions of 
communal life are, to the adequate student, its peculiar safeguards, 
and exist only in order to maintain the right to own and to see 
that that right shall be confirmed and continual experience spread 
throughout the commonwealth. 

It may be argued with great force that certain conditions in 
our particular diseased society forbid the immediate or even ulti- 
mate reestablishment of property, and that in despair of its re- 
establishment something inhuman indeed but less vile than what we 
have, must be attempted. With this very powerful contention, the 
contention of the physician who advises abnormal remedies to the 
sick man, we will deal later. 

Let it be permitted for the purpose of any general survey that 
this human institution of property has been and still is, even in 
decaying societies where it is most abused, of the very stuff of 
human morals. It is, at any rate, this obstacle of property, standing 
rooted in the centre of men's affairs, which has canalized and de- 
flected the Socialist effort of our time. That effort has had to 
reckon with property, has been compelled to capitulate to it, even 
in its most degraded and diseased form. As a consequence of that 
capitulation a society bitten with Collectivist theory produces today, 
not a Collectivist, but a Servile State in which the many shall be 
permanently subject to the few; the many forever dispossessed, 
the few forever their masters. 

That this Servile State is the master peril of our time, and 
also that it can be avoided if the greatness of our unique moment 
be seized, is the thesis of what follows. 



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1917.J SOCIALISM AND THE SERVILE STATE 23 



IV. 

Property is an institution essential to political freedom. Sev- 
eral property — ^that is, property owned by a free family or a group 
of such against the community — is coordinate with our conception 
of liberty. No class of freemen has long survived without it. 
No society ignorant of freemen severally possessed of instruments 
and of the soil, and so constituting the State, can be discovered in 
the long record of Europe. European societies may be imagined 
ignorant of freemen and several property in land and tools and 
stores. Historically none exist. 

At the basis of Collectivism (or Socialism — for, save as mean- 
ing Collectivism, the word " Socialism " is too vague to use) lies 
a negation of several property in instruments and in the soil. This 
negation is not the positive foundation of Socialism, but it is a 
necessary condition of Socialism. Postulate the several possession 
of land and goods as normal to our blood and you cannot — what- 
ever your feelings against the present state of society — accept the 
Socialist remedy. Conceive of such possession as accidental, as 
something which European men can learn to do without and yet 
remain themselves, and the Socialist remedy for our sufferings 
follows, as irresistibly in practice as is a mathematical demonstra- 
tion in theory. 

It might be imagined, then, that this institution and that 
theory would meet and clash : that Socialists in power or Socialism 
in action would necessarily be compelled to attack, deny, destroy 
the institution which was a direct negative of their fundamentals ; 
and so it would be if the Socialist held a creed or if Socialism could 
boast an instituting force. 

But it is not so. The most ardent adherents of Socialism still 
hold not a creed but a theory, and this theory breeds no instituting 
force. Property, therefore, proves itself the master wherever the 
straggle is joined. Property deflects the Socialist effort, changes its 
direction and its nature, molds it, as a solid form molds the fluid 
that meets it. Of property, its prime contradiction, Socialisnr 
in action takes the most particular and deferential heed. Socialist 
action, in practice, begins by bowing to and admitting property, and 
this attempted compromise between a thing and an idea, not only 
trreconcilable but flatly contradictory, results, of course, in the 
ruin of the idea. What emerges from the blend is not a Col- 



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24 SOCIALISM AND THE SERVILE STATE [April, 

lectivist Society nor the beginning of one, but the very definite 
origins of a society whose principle of existence will be the orderly 
and compulsory production by non-owners of surplus wealth sO' 
cially guaranteed to owners. 

This formula is at once inclusive and exclusive. It expresses 
all elements necessarily present in the new society which is in 
process of birth, it admits no elements not necessarily present. 
Thus the non-owners will probably be a large majority, the owners 
a small minority, in such a society; but the essentials of that so* 
ciety consist not in the proportion of owners to non-owners, but in 
the order and compulsion of the non-owning workers. 

Again, it would be loose to write "wealth" without the 
qualification " surplus." The non-owning workers, however harshly 
compelled, must live. 

Again, it is no definition of any possible State that wealth in 
it shall be thus produced by compulsion unless the compulsion be 
organized, that is, orderly; for order alone can pve that security 
without which compulsion would be inapplicable. 

Again, mere order without compulsion would lead neither to 
this novel society nor to any other. The exact tabulation, number- 
ing, etc., of the non-owning workers would be ineffectual to their 
regular and uninterrupted production were that production not 
ensured by penalties. Freemen non-owners will necessarily attempt 
to obtain for their labor the highest price; that is, they will con- 
tinually attempt to encroach upon that margin of surplus to enjoy 
which is the owner's whole economic purpose. Freemen non-own- 
ing are an anomaly. Their discontent, their lack of security, 
coupled with their power to bargain and their legal right to grant 
or withhold a labor of which they cannot accumulate and control 
the result nor enjoy the full fruit, necessarily make of an economic 
society over which the political freedom of the non-owner lingers, 
welter and an anarchy increasingly intolerable. 

Finally, the surplus wealth enjoyed by the owners in such a 
society is socially guaranteed ; did not the forces of society guar- 
antee its reception, it would never be received. It is not the 
sagacity, the physical strength, or the ability in any function of 
life which ensures to one man a part of what another has produced 
by his labor ; it is the law and the punishments enforceable by the 
law. 

For a society thus organized so as to repose upon the orderly 
and compulsory production of wealth by non-owners for the bene- 



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1?>I7.1 SOCIAUSM AND THE SERVILE STATE ^5 

fit of owners some name must be found, that we may recognize 
and discuss it. The name most accurately consonant with the genius 
of our language is The Servile State. 

The only two kinds of labor in another's interest known to 
man are the labor that is due in performance of a contract with 
that other of length neither unreasonable nor indefinite, and the 
labor which that other or someone acting for him compels the per- 
formance of without regard to the performer's will. 

To the first we attach in English the title of free labor : the 
second we call servile. That contract as much as compulsion must 
be enforceable by penalties is obvious, for the gulf lies not between 
penalties more or less severe, but between the motive of their im- 
position. You may punish a man with death for breach of a 
voluntary contract of labor and yet leave that labor free, with all 
the economic consequences attached to free labor. You may punish 
a man with nothing harsher than a severe diet for a refusal to work 
under compulsion, and yet, if he yield to such pressure, establish 
his labor as servile. 

Note that the word servile will never be used when, or if, the 
change comes upon us. It has ancient connotations which Euro- 
peans remember with distrust and bears an ill savor. Other words 
have already appeared. We have " the class with (say) eight hun- 
dred dollars a year," the "labor colony," "ccmipulsory arbi- 
tration." Behind all these, whatever name is used, the thing is 
slavery. 

So the Romans would not have a " king " — ^but they were not 
averse to an emperor at last. 



We have seen that the fundamental institution of property, 
with its profound roots in every part of our law, custom and tradi- 
tion, and its close grip on all our popular morals has and must de- 
flect any theoretical Socialist action in Europe; has and must 
canalize that theoretical action towards a direction quite different 
from its original intention; has and must produce a third thing 
utterly different from the Collectivist and even from the old pro- 
prietorial conceptions of the State. This novel thing which is upon 
us we have said was best described in English by the term The Ser- 
vile State. Two warnings essential to the discussion of this matter 
ire here properly to be introduced. 



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26 SOCIALISM AND THE SERVILE STATE [April, 

The first is that the word servile in this strict definition con- 
notes neither positive nor relative evil. The Servile State may be 
in any man's judgment a better or a worse thing than the anarchy 
called industrialism or the fixed equilibrium of a State of free 
owners. Its good or evil, its advisability or rejection are matters 
to be separately discussed. Our immediate business is only to sec 
it for what it is, and to appreciate that its beginnings are already 
upon us. 

The second is that the economic welter in which industrialism 
has struggled for two generations cannot, save by metaphor, be 
called " servile " — ^and metaphor is the ruin of clear thinking, or 
rather, an excuse for muddled thinking and for the substitution of 
emotion for intelligence — inexcusable in those departments of 
energy where definition is the object of the mind. 

You may say, if you wish, that the laborer is " virtually " com- 
pelled, is a " wage-slave " and so forth. But between the servile 
condition and the free there is a sharp boundary. You are on the 
one side when the courts will not enforce labor in the absence 
of a definite and limited contract, on the other when they will. 

This boundary our society is now on the act of crossing; but 
before proceeding to consider the consequences of such a step, 
whose opportunity lends so grave an import to our day, let us see 
how a conclusion so singularly different from the Socialist ideal 
has begun to arise and will undoubtedly expand in the future out 
of Socialist action. 

The Socialist ideal was (and is) that of a State in which the 
means of production should be held in trust for the community 
by its officers, put to use by the members of the community at 
work under the direction of such officers, and the produce dis- 
tributed according to any one of many schemes, indifferent to pure 
Socialism. That produce might be evenly shared, it might (more 
reasonably) be competitively shared according to the abilities in 
manual skill or directing power of the citizens employed. 

In this ideal the prime necessity was the absence of several 
ownership in the land and the instruments of production, but the 
consequences attached to such a society were the objects and mo- 
tives of its supporters. These were security, sufficiency for all, 
economy of production, the coordination of economic effort, etc. 
The motives which impelled a man towards Socialism were 
thus various. It was not a general scheme of life, a body whence 
a foison of development might organically spring; it could not 



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1917] SOCIALISM AND THE SERVILE STATE 27 

therefore inspire and live, as a city or a State, as Islam or the 
Catholic Church, have done. It was a system, and it satisfied 
in varying men very varying and sometimes morally opposite de- 
mands. Some, and some only, principally hated as unjust the ad- 
vantage which permitted the owner in our diseased society to ex- 
ploit the non-owner; others were much more nearly concerned 
with other things. 

One man was appalled by the lack of security in the modern 
world. He saw its proletariat permanently ridden by a nightmare 
and its very owners rich today and ruined tomorrow — with all the 
abominations of the heat which panic breeds. Socialism would 
remedy that. 

Another was appalled by the lack of sufficiency. He saw a 
human family huddled in one room and starved. It sickened him. 
Socialism would remedy that. 

Another was irritated by the lack of order. How fair was a 
great estate all so neat and well managed, with its great house in 
the architecture of St. Pancras station, its exact accounts, its 
graveled roads and its laurels, its model dairy, its well-managed 
farms! How infinitely better than the hugger-mugger of a 
peasantry ! Well, Socialism would turn his country into that — ^but 
" that " on still grander scale. 

Another had a violent appetite for numbers, calculations, ta- 
bles, etc. Socialism offered him an orgy. 

Now each of these men could satisfy his chief desire without 
insisting on the full claim which Socialism put forward. True, 
each set out with the full claim in his mind, and each, very visibly, 
expected it to be met at last, believing, before he came in touch 
with reality, that no obstacle to its realization existed save the 
imperfect comprehension of men. But when a very serious ob- 
stacle indeed was met by him at the very threshold of his adventure, 
he paused to ask whether that obstacle would, if he admitted its 
continued existence, compromised with it, forebore to destroy it, 
allow him in turn to satisfy his demand. That obstacle was the 
profoundly rooted human institution of property. 

" I cannot have Socialism as I have heard it preached and let 
property stand/* thinks he, "but, after all, the practical thing" 
(which means in such men's minds the thing they want) "is sta- 
tistics " (or sufficiency, or security, or order, or economy, or what 
not — according to his special feeling). 

He soon discovers that he can have his darling social result — 

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28 SOCIALISM AND THE SERVILE STATE [April, 

and yet leave property standing. The family can inhabit not one 
rcx)m but five — still owned by another man. The laborer can be 
guaranteed the regular, not the intermittent, use of the machine — 
which another man can yet consistently continue to own and to 
draw profit from. Order? The owner is delighted that tfic 
State should help him to establish it. Economy? Why, that ideal 
is his very own — it is the life of his industrial system. 

Each and all of these men find themselves satisfied by a system 
which leaves the owner still owning, still gathering his surplus 
values from the total value of produce of labor, but owning in a 
society which guarantees security and sufficiency to all, which has 
all in perfect order, all tabulated, analyzable, organized. 

The product of all such demands combined with the main- 
tenance of a restricted owning class is precisely the Servile State 
and none other. The combination of the principle of property with 
those other principles of exactitude, economy, sufficiency, security, 
etc., for the proletariat, imposed upon a social condition where 
ownership remains in the hands of a few, produces that new thing, 
a society where non-owners of the means of production produce 
in an orderly manner and under compulsion, values the surplus of 
which is socially guaranteed to th^ owners of the means of pra^ 
duction. Neither party to the alliance — the various types who 
thought themselves " Socialists," nor the owners of land and capi- 
tal—directed themselves towards such a goal. In company both 
arrive at it. 

VI. 

We said at the close of the last article that the reader, though 
intellectually convinced of the probability that our industrial (or 
capitalistic) societies would tend towards the Servile State, might 
still ask whether any particular example of its advent was before 
us. The examples are numerous : the Servile State has already be- 
gun. If its origins now apparent are unchecked in their growth, 
it will flower and will at last bear fruit and be perfect according 
to its kind, and slavery, the aboriginal institution from which we 
sprang, will be restored among us. 

I will ask my readers to consider three matters in this connec- 
tion. 

First, the root of all, the state of the public mind in England 
and America towards the capitalist and the proletarian; secondly. 



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1917] SOCIALISM AND THE SERVILE STATE 29 

the public acts to which that state of mind is already necessarily 
led; thirdly, the immediate proposals, the suggested laws, which 
are already half accepted and whose accomplishment as laws are 
imminent. (I shall take specific examples of such laws from Eng- 
lish experience, as with this I am naturally more familiar; but the 
reader can duplicate such examples in any contemporary legislation 
in his own country.) 

As to the first of these, the state of mind, which is the root 
of all. We note in the modern industrial state no conception of 
property save as the privilege of a few. 

Conversely all the efforts of those who desire to raise the 
majority of their fellowmen and to restore their dignity are directed 
not towards ownership, nor towards Collectivism, but towards the 
security and sufficiency of the proletariat remaining proletarian. In 
the concrete, " to raising wages and making employment r^[ular." 
Again, our industrial society recognizes large property as sa- 
cred : not property in itself at all. Its readiness to compensate for 
loss increases in potential with the amount of the loss. Great in- 
terests destroyed by some public act are always fully recouped and 
usually with a bonus added {e. g,, Irish land and land purchased for 
railways). Small interests are barely recouped. A million tiny in- 
terests are not repaid at all, as the street vendors, the little shops 
in " improved areas," the carters and carriers whom a railroad 
destroys, etc. Our whole legal system presupposes that the poor 
man will hardly use the law at all of his own initiative. 

Finally, you have upon the mental side of the thing, the 
religious, if I may so term it, aspect of wealth. By which I mean 
the habit of mind by which men in our industrial society are really 
thought to be in some way mystically superior to their fellowmen, 
if by any means they have acquired the l^al disposition of the 
means of production; respect is thus paid them in proportion to 
the interests which they have so acquired. A different tone is 
adopted towards these men by every public organ and even by the 
judiciary. The purchase by these men of administrative and legis- 
lative bodies is in many communities thought normal. 

But the state of mind in a society, though it is the root of 
all, is not a thing susceptible of positive proof. The acts neces- 
sarily following upon that state of mind are susceptible of positive 
proof. 

Consider three of these acts now apparent: the nature of 
modem public enterprise in the industrial states; the forms taken 

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30 SOCIALISM AND THE SERVILE STATE [April. 

by relief; the experiments in the formation of novel economic in- 
stitutions. 

Modem public enterprise boasts that it tends towards munic- 
ipal ownership and State ownership. It does nothing of the kind. 
It tends and now actually exercises not State and municipal owner- 
ship, but State and municipal profit gathering for capitalists! A 
town proposes to " own " its tramways. Desiring to " own " its 
tramways, what does it do? Does it confiscate them to its use? 
God forbid ! That would be Socialism. Does it put a tax upon the 
rich and with that tax gradually purchase the tramways? Good 
heavens, no! It borrows the tramways at so much per cent; in 
other words it guarantees the owners of the rails, the vehicles, etc., 
a fixed toll to be levied from the commonwealth free of their 
old risk and trouble. It solemnly consents to a tax upon the 
community and makes itself the gatherer of that tax. But the 
town does so (a critic may say) under a sinking fund, which will 
at last make it full owner. To this there are two replies : First, that 
the sinking fund simply means that much more than the toll they 
would ordinarily have got is yearly paid to the original owners, 
so that there is an exactly proportionate surplus available for 
reinvestment : iii other words, the system leaves the original owners 
and capitalism in general a little stronger than they and it were 
before. 

Secondly, that the rate of new borrowing for new experiments 
is carefully arranged to be very much more rapid than any chance 
of repayment can be. The few rich capitalists have found that they 
can trick the community by so simple a trick as " municipal enter- 
prise," back it for all it is worth — ^while it pays them — and now 
after some seventy years of such experiments. States and towns 
are far, far more strictly tied to the few owners of the means of 
production than they were at the beginning. It was intended that 
they should be so tied. 

With forms of relief it is the same thing. We tax the whole 
community to provide pensions. We are content to tax it to pro- 
vide security. But never by any chance do we provide property. 
No scheme to set up even the beginnings of an independent man- 
hood are so much as discussed. The thing would be thought 
grotesque. In all these schemes of relief which have come into 
actual being, there is not one that does not tend to make the re- 
lieved man more and more the plaything of officials, which offi- 
cials, note, are not, emphatically not, the officials of a State be- 



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X9I7.1 SOCIALISM AND THE SERVILE STATE 31 

ginning to be Collectivist, but are more and more the officials of a 
State owtied and run by the possessors of the means of production. 

With social experiments it is the same thing'. To create small 
freeholds with public money is something futile, reactionary, out of 
date, laughed out of court. We must make the small owner a 
tenant, not as silly bo)rs at the university are told, " of the State," 
or of the county, or of the towns, any more than Irish peasants 
of old were tenants of that absurb abstraction " the absentee land- 
lord." The new bodies on whom our experiments are tfiade are 
tenants of those to whom the community is mortgaged, just as the 
Irish tenants of old were, in economic reality, the tenants of Lon- 
don, Paris, or Frankfort moneylenders. 

There is no act of the new beginnings which makes for the 
creation of one farthing's worth of property in the mass of the 
proletariat, or which haa put an additional pound's or dollar's 
worth of property into public hands; and conversely there is not 
one which does not within its power make of the proletariat a thing 
to grind out toll, nor one which prevents that toll being increasingly 
paid to the increasingly few owners of the means of production. 

The third part of the argument must now be presented. If the 
mental attitude, the "taking for granted," of your modern In- * 
dustrial State points towards the Servile State; if its latest acts 
show examples of the actual beginnings of the Servile State, the 
new proposals immediately before us are still more clearly and 
universally of such a character. 

I will take as a typical example of such legislation (an example 
which, as I have said, can be duplicated in the legislation of any 
other industrialized country besides England) the more or less 
recent English Minority Report on the Poor Law. This report was 
drawn up by capitalists with the leave and approval of capitalists, 
received its backing in England in the country houses, and its chief 
provision openly recommends the compulsion to labor of such men 
as are not possessed of the means of production. This report was 
only just prevented by prompt discovery and denunciation from 
becoming Jaw* The constantly recurring insurance bills, of which 
the present mortally wounded English experhnent is but a type, 
take for granted the compulsory and organized taxing of the 
praletariat, a complete inquisition of the populace by local comit- 
tecs of the well-to-do ; the dependence of wage-earners upon capi- 
talist masters, who shall be responsible for all details of the lives 
of the populace and all measures for their financial coercion. 



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52 AN ARCHANGEL'S QUERY [April, 

Numerous bills, forerunners of any number more, with their 
provisions for compelling the proletariat to work at a wage fixed 
in spite of them, make their constant appearance in every legisla- 
tive body the world over, bills which recognize and act upon the 
conception of the State where those few who own shjall be guar- 
anteed in ownership, and those many who labor shall be compelled 
to labor. 

All are expressions of one spirit, all — whether of reforms 
proposed, of acts in being, or of mental states — ^all proceed from 
these two general conceptions combined: first, that the wealthy 
possessors of the means of production must be left secure, guar- 
anteed almost in proportion to their wealth; secondly, that the 
populace minister to them is best organized, tabulated, policed, con- 
trolled, and the great mass of the proletariat compelled to an ufv- 
failing and secure labor. 

That is the Servile State. 



AN ARCHANGEL'S QUERY. 

BY AUGUSTUS DAVID MALLEV. 

Aloft before the Gate I stand and gaze 

Upon the vast returning host of saved souls ; 

On those who now from frontier fight, 

From dark morass, at last come back to us. 

A fighting legion rare in truth were they. 

And not untried by sin, and temptings sore ; 

The weight of flesh, false sight. 

And heart impared by Adam's fall. 

I feel not what this strife of earth 

May mean: 

And God Himself hath wedded 

With this dust; 

Now home they come, these soldier souls, 

To take their seats. 

Midst heaven's patriarchs. 



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BROTHER POTAMIAN. 

BY JAMES J. WALSH, M.D., PH.D., SC.D. 

|HE twentieth century at its opening promised to be 
the era of electricity, and to show a magnificent de- 
velopment of electrical science, an expectation which 
has-been amply justified by the sequel. Just at this 
time the Latimer Clark Collection of works on elec- 
tricity was presented to the American Institute of Electrical Engi- 
neers. The gift was made by Professor Schuyler Skaats Wheeler, 
who said in the deed of gift : " My object in securing the collec- 
tion was to present the books to our Institute, and make it the 
custodian of the most complete electrical library in the world." 
There is no doubt that Dr. Wheeler accomplished his object. Mr. 
Latimer Clark of London had been engaged for many years in 
making a collection of books on electricity. Time, money and 
patient search had been as nothing in the quest for everything that 
pertained " to the historical or technical side of electrical science 
or the electrical arts," and his efforts had their reward in a unique 
collection of books. 

A library of this kind is immensely valuable, and indeed it is 
probable that no amount of money could duplicate Mr. Latimer 
Clark's collection. Such a library, however, to be available needs 
not only to be placed where it can be readily consulted under the 
freest possible conditions, but it requires absolutely an annotated 
catalogue to act as guide to those wishing to consult it. Dr. 
Wheeler, therefore, stipulated, as the conditions of his gift, that 
the library should be properly housed, and a complete catalogue be 
prepared at once in the name of the Institute, a bound copy of 
which was to be placed in the hands of each of its members. 

The question was to find a man who could do this properly. 
The compiler of such a catalogue must be well versed in the phy- 
sical sciences, and above all in the science of electricity. He must 
also know the history of science and particularly of electrical 
science. It is needless to say a great many scientists are entirely 
ignorant of the history of their own department of knowledge, else 
we would not hear so much of the Church's opposition to science. 
Besides this, a wide knowledge of modem and ancient languages 

VOL. cv.— 3 T 

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34 BROTHER POTAMIAN [April, 

was requisite since these books are written in all languages, and 
most of them prior to the nineteenth century in Latin^ that being 
the academic or universal language which formerly every scholar 
wrote and every scholar read. 

Where in America could a broad scholar of this calibre, literally 
an " Admirable Crichton ** of knowledge ancient and modern, lin- 
guistic and scientific be found, who would, moreover, be willing to 
give the time and take the pains necessary to the making of such 
a catalogue. It was typically the work of a recluse; exactly the 
sort of patient, scholarly work that the monks of the olden time 
did for the preservation of the classics in copying and collating 
manuscripts, or the Renaissance scholars in cataloguing the vari- 
ations of readings in manuscripts in their time. So it is not sur- 
prising that the Institute of Electrical Engineers had recourse 
to a " monk " of the modern time who bore the humble title of 
" Christian Brother." Brother Potamian of New York City, for 
years teacher of physics and electricity at Manhattan College, 
the Christian Brothers' famous old school, accepted the task, and 
accomplished it not only acceptably, but in a manner that greatly 
enhanced the value of the library. Scientific scholars everywhere 
welcomed his work as a fundamental contribution to the bibliog- 
raphy of science. In the preface to the Catalogue the managing 
editor said : 

It is difficult to find terms in which to express adequately 
the debt of gratitude that the members of the Institute owe to 
Brother Potamian for his devoted labor in their behalf as repre- 
sented by the descriptive and critical notes accompanying the 
title entries of the Catalogue. The work involved in the task 
extended over seven years, and was performed in a spirit akin 
to that which animated the scholarly writers of the early periods 
(the monks of the Middle Ages) who are so largely represented 
in the library, and who had no other incentive to their sus- 
tained labors than innate love of learning and the desire to 
share knowledge gained with others. Works of the ages when 
Latin was the language of learning have become sealed books 
to the modem scientific man, and Brother Potamian in pointing 
out in detail the contributions of other writers to the body of 
electrical and magnetical knowledge has not only done justice 
to the memory of men who were forces in their generation, 
but in so doing has also enabled the reader to appreciate as real 
personalities what otherwise might be to him mere names of 
the past devoid of present human interest. But delving into 

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I9I7-] BROTHER POTAMIAN 35 

famous old tomes and delectable examination of the rarities of 
electrical literature, were but incidents in the course of the 
work accomplishd by Brother Potamian. Months and years 
passed in the painstaking search for hidden gems, for matter 
of notable interest in every book in the collection, however 
slight might be the promise of reward for the labor bestowed. 
Naturally the result of a search of this kind, if reckoned in 
terms of volume, can be but slight in proportion to the time 
spent in carrying out the work. That in the present case a 
rich harvest of results have been garnered in, will appear from 
the brilliant introduction of Brother Potamian to the following 
pages which is in itself a contribution of the highest order to 
electrical literature, and one also that will cause revision of 
judgments on priority in various lines of electrical discovery. 

I 
Brother Potamian's introduction thus mentioned in the edi- 
torial preface is a monograph of thirty-five pages on the bibliog- 
raphy and literature of electrical science that is probably unex- 
celled as a compendium of information. Following a preliminary 
sketch of the career of Mr. Latimer Clark, of special interest be- 
cause Clark was a pioneer in the development of electric telegraphy 
and made a number of important original observations, comes a 
risumS of the more important works in the library. This con- 
stitutes in itself a very valuable history of the development of 
our knowledge of electricity. Brother Potamian dwells particularly 
on the fact that Mr. Clark discovered that " the force of a weak 
battery passes with equal rapidity along the line of a telegraph 
cable as that of a strong battery." He it was who " with a single 
Galvanic cell, consisting of a copper g^n cap, a strip of zinc and 
a few drops of acid, sent messages not only to Newfoundland from 
Valencia, but there and back, twice traversing the breadth of the 
Atlantic." 

In this introduction Brother Potamian corrects many false 
impressions as regards the history of electrical inventions. He 
traces, for instatice, the gradual growth of the idea of trans- 
mitting signals by electricity to a distance, and shows how step 
after step was made by the simplification of practical applications, 
from the time when Volta suggested the use of his electrophorus 
in 1777, through Soemmering's work at Munich in 1809. Ampere's 
in Paris in 1821, Henry's operative bell-signal telegraph in America 
in 1832, the needle telegraph of Gauss and Weber in 1833, and the 
Cooke Wheatstone apparatus of 1837. There was actually a 



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36 BROTHER POTAMIAN [April, 

telegraph line for public service operated in England between Pad- 
dington (London) and Drayton, some five years before the first line 
was opened between Washington and Baltimore in this country, 
though this fact is sometimes forgotten by over enthusiastic 
American writers on the subject. 

So, too, the telephone is shown to be a gradual development. 
As early as 1854, more than twenty years before Graham Bell 
began his experiments, Charles Bourseul of Paris claimed to be 
able to transmit the spoken word even to a long distance. " His 
apprehension of the fundamental principle of the telephone was 
clear and accurate, and his brief description of it very much the 
same as we give today." He said: "One person will have to 
speak to one of the plates while the other holds the second to his 
ear, this enabling the former to converse as if in private with his 
distant friend." 

A single paragraph of this introduction will show how packed 
it is with detailed, accurate information. In discussing the in- 
vention of the terms used in electricity and allied sciences Brother 
Potamian says (p 3S) : 

Verbal curiosities hastily gleaned from works in the Library 
would include the coinage of the term affinity by Albertus 
Magnus, barometer by Boyle, gas by van Helmont, magnetic 
inclination by Bond, electric circuit by Watson, electric potential 
by Green, galvanometer by Gumming, electromagnet by Stur- 
geon, and telephone by Wheatstone. The term electricity oc- 
curs for the first time in Sir Thomas Browne's Pseudodoxia 
Epidemica, 1646, page 51, and the plural noun electricities on 
page 79 ; magnetism occurs in Barlowe's Magnetical Advertise- 
ments, 1616; while 'HXcKTpopiaYvt)Ttqi.o?, electromagnetismos, 
is the astonishing title which Father Kircher gives to a chapter 
of his Magnes sive de Arte Magnetica, 1641, beginning on page 
640. 

The arrangement of the Catalogue proper is chronological. 
The first paragraph treats of the oldest book in the collection, 
a volume of the Encyclopedia written by Vincent of Beauvais, one 
of the three great encyclopedists of the thirteenth century. The 
Catalogue note is typical of Brother Potamian's work. It describes 
the book, its relation to other books by the same author, gives the 
bibliography of this particular volume, and cites various special 
passages which have a relation to the history of magnetism and 
electricity, and more or less distantly related scientific phenomena. 



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I917-J BROTHER POTAMIAN 37 

Vincentius, Bellovacensis (Vincent of Beauvais) (1190- 
1264), Speculum Naturale. One volume in two parts. Two 
columns to page, 66 lines to column. 367-327 i. Folio. Ar- 
gentorati. (The peculiar "R" printer (Adolph Rusch?)), 
Strasburg (1473). P^irt of a famous encyclopaedia of the 
Middle Ages ; other volumes of which were entitled : Speculum 
Morale, Speculum Historiale and Speculum Doctrinale. Book 
V. : Thunder, ch. 55 ; lightning, ch. 59 ; shooting stars, ch. 72 ; 
rainbow, ch. 74; Book ix. : the magnet in general, ch. 19; 
magnetic quotation from St. Augustine, ch. 20; uses of the 
magnet in medicine, ch. 21 ; a species of " adamant " (mag- 
net) useful in navigation for directive purposes (mariner's 
compass), ch. 40. As in the case of many early incunabula, no 
title page was printed. The date 1468 has also been assigned 
in the present edition. This monumental work was printed 
no less than ten times between 1468 (?) and 1497. (See No. 
1349, Bourgeat.) 

Following Vincent of Beauvais' work we find that of Sacro- 
bosco, John of Holy^vood, by some said to have been an Irish- 
man, who after being at Oxford was Professor of Mathematics 
at the University of Paris sometime in the thirteenth century. Then 
come a famous edition of Albertus Magnus, that of Venice 1494, 
copies of which are very rare; other volimies also by Albertus 
Magnus published at Vienna 1514 and Augsburg 15 19; volumes 
by Nicholas of Cusa the great Cardinal mathematician of the fif- 
teenth century; of Purbach the great Renaissance mathematician; 
of Marbodeus, the Archbishop of Rennes whose series of poems 
on precious stones contains one on the lodestone; and so on through 
the centuries. Although the Catalogue of an electrical library it 
contains bibliographic information concerning works on nearly 
every subject under the sun, and by most of the great authors of the 
past. Pliny, Aristotle, Jerome Cardan and Agricola, Petrus Perc- 
grinus, Ptolemaeus, Porta, Gilbert and Scaliger, Goclenius, Branca, 
Cabco and Galileo, Francis Bacon, Father Kircher, Descartes, and 
hosts of others are here represented. 

A brief risumi of some of the items will best instance the 
precious information brought out by Brother Potamian in the 
course of the Catalogue, Under Number 90, he calls attention to 
a series of poems, Prolusiones Academicce, written by Father Strada, 
a Jesuit priest, and published at Lyons in 1617, in which the antic- 
ipation of the magnetic telegraph is very striking. This telegraph 
consisted of two needles stroked by the same lodestone, and attached 



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38 BROTHER POTAMIAN [April, 

to two separate alphabetical dials situated at a distance from each 
other. In the priest poet's imagination, the two friends seated 
before these dials at a prearranged hour of the day communicated 
with each other by spelling out the words each on his own dial, the 
needle on the other always corresponding to the movements made 
on the primary dial. The note made by Brother Potamian on this 
subject refers to books published at various times, containing 
similar anticipation, all to be found in this Wheeler Library. One 
of these is Porta's book written by Joannes Baptista de la Porta 
on Natural Magic, and published at Naples in 1 589. 

An extremely interesting note is that on the Biblia Nature 
of the famous Dutch biologist, Swammerdam. This work, pub- 
lished long after its author's death, contains the record of a series 
of experiments on frogs' legs, in which Swammerdam obtained in 
1658 muscular contractions by contacts with silver and copper 
wires. This preceded Galvani's experiments by more than a cen- 
tury. The plates of this book are of such great interest that 
some of them have been reproduced in the Catalogue, 

Similar anticipations of very modem ideas in science are dis- 
covered and pointed out as occurring in many unlikely places. In 
Swedenborg's works, the founder of the religious sect of the 
Swedenborgians, are discussions, with diagrams and illustrations, 
on " the causes and mechanism of magnetic force, the law of dis- 
tance, magnetic declination, its causes and how its value may be 
calculated," and Brother Potamian shows that Swedenborg nearly 
two centuries age regarded light and heat as undulations in the 
ether of space. 

The illustrations of the Catalogue alone are of immense interest 
and value. Frontispieces of many of the great books have been 
copied, typical pages have been reproduced, portraits of distin- 
guished contributors to science given or characteristic illustrations 
of distinguished work. As many of these old illustrations were 
magnificent steel or copper plates, they reproduce very well, and the 
Catalogue is handsomely illustrated. In no single work that I 
know could one learn more about the history of science in con- 
densed form and the history of book-making down the centuries 
than in these two volumes of Brother Potamian's Catalogue. Sur- 
prises meet one in many places. Petrus Peregrinus' attempt at a 
perpetual motion engine, Musscnbroek's lines of force around a 
magnet, Swammerdam's frog prepared for experimentation are but 
a few of the wonders. 



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1917-1 BROTHER POT AM I AM 39 

Brother Potamian had enjoyed some magnificent opportunities 
for the accumulation of first-hand information in science. Born in 
County Cavan, Ireland, seventy years ago, he came to America when 
very young and went to St. Bridget's School, New York City. His 
talents attracted the attention of his pastor and of the Principal of 
the School, Rev. Brother Chronion. Aptitude for study, an in- 
clination to piety and a quiet, grave demeanor marked him out as 
one destined for a religious or sacerdotal career, and for a time it 
seemed as though he would be a priest. His predilection for teach- 
ing, however (everyone brought closely in contact with him soon 
recognized in him the born teacher), led him to become a Christian 
Brother. He perfected his education among the Brothers in Mon- 
treal and taught later in Quebec, so that French became almost 
as his native language. Opportunities were given him for the 
study of physics and chemistry as* well as geology and the higher 
mathematics. German and Spanish he picked up for (himself 
that he might read scientific books in these languages. 

After teaching in Quebec, Brother Potamian was sent to Eng- 
land to teach in St. Joseph's College, London. For more than 
twenty-five years he continued his educational work in the English 
capital, neglecting no opportunity afforded him by his position in 
this centre of educational and specially scientific work. By special 
scientific studies he qualified himself to pass his examinations at the 
University of London for the degrees of Bachelor, Master and 
Doctor of Science. This brought him in contact with leaders of 
English scientific thought. As Professor of Physics, then as Vice- 
President and, later. President of the college, he became widely 
known in English educational circles. 

He was brought into close relations with some of the leading 
scientists of England. Lord Kelvin and his brother, James Thomp- 
son, St, George Mnart, Huxley and Tyndall. He was w^ll and 
favorably knowTi by Cardinals Manning and Newman, so one may 
easily understand what a magnificent development he secured for 
himself while laboring so successfully for the advancement of his 
college. 

The college was soon well-known to Catholics throughout 
England, and in 1880 new buildings were carefully planned and 
erected at the cost of over half a million of dollars. It became one 
of the show schools of England, because Brother Potamian know- 
ing the great advance made by American inventions and improve- 
ments in such things, insisted upon importing all the school furni- 



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40 BROTHER POTAMIAN [Aprfl, 

turc and equipment from this side of the water. Educationally, 
also, the school attracted attention, as Brother Potamian's pupils 
went up year after year for the Oxford and Cambridge examina- 
tions with unusual success. No wonder he was selected as an edu- 
cational representative at International Exhibitions by the English 
government on four different occasions: Vienna in 1873, Phila- 
delphia in 1876, Paris in 1889, and Chicago in 1893. At the 
World's Fair in Chicago he was a member of the Jury of Awards. 

Under Brother Potamian's guidance St. Joseph's College was 
looked upon as a most desirable institution from which to graduate. 
Many leading Catholic, professional and business men of our gen- 
eration in London are proud to claim it as their Alma Mater, and 
to recall with pride and reverence the influence, spiritual as well as 
intellectual, which Brother Potamian had over them during the 
precious years of schooling there. 

In 1896, Brother Potamian was recalled to New York. A 
change in teaching methods at the Christian Brothers' Colleges 
was soon to be effected, and Brother Potamian proved to be just 
the man to organize the newer scientific curriculum which was to 
replace the classical undergraduate work of former years. The 
splendid Scientific and Engineering Course which exists at Man- 
hattan College, New York, today, and which has enabled it to rank 
with other scientific institutions, is largely due to the talent for 
organization, the imtiring energy, the generous zeal, the mature 
scholarship and broad educational experience of Brother Potamian. 

It is not surprising that other schools should have looked to 
him for help, and that Catholic educational institutions of many 
kinds should have benefited by his large-hearted enthusiasm for 
the intellectual life of Catholics and the highest interests of the 
Church. He was a frequent and very popular lecturer at the Catho- 
lic Summer School, Plattsburg, New York. His lectures were 
always eminently scientific, thoroughly up-to-date, containing often 
an immense amount of abstruse, mathematical and fundamental 
scientific principles, yet so given as to be clear and interesting even 
to those unfamiliar with scientific methods and scientific literature, 
and to stimulate to further inquiry. 

No wonder that academic distinctions came to him, and that 
prominent Catholic institutions of learning felt that they were 
honoring themselves in honoring him. Besides the degrees of 
Bachelor, Master and Doctor of Science from the University of 
London already noted. Brother Potamian was given the Doctorate 

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I917-] BROTHER POTAMIAN 41 

in Science by Fordham University, New York City, some ten years 
ago, and later the same degree by Villanova College of the Augus- 
tinian Fathers not far from Philadelphia, 

The passing of such a man is an immense loss to the Catholic 
scholarship of America, and an even greater one to the Society of 
Christian Brothers which he adorned by his virtue and scholarship. 
In the midst of scientific work, with academic honors thick upon 
him, in constant association with great scientists, he remained ever 
a humble, simple Christian Brother, whose religious duties were 
more to him than all else, a kindly, courteous, cultured Christian 
gentleman whom to know was to love and to associate with a 
liberal education in itself. 

His manifold duties as teacher and administrator in educa- 
tional work left him little leisure for writing, yet he was a con- 
tributor to the well-known scientific publication. Engineering, and 
his articles were watched for by many who recognized that he 
always had something to say, that he knew how to say it, and when 
he had said enough. A volume called Makers of Electricity was 
the outcome of his desire to confide to a more permanently popular 
form some of his immense store of information. 

In the history and bibliography of electricity practically nothing 
escaped the diligent reading and careful study of Brother Potamian. 
In this volimie. Makers of Electricity, in which I had the privilege 
of collaborating with him, he pointed out a number of historical 
details in the development of the science of electricity and magnet- 
ism which had either not been noted previously or were very little 
known. For instance, about the time Franklin was making his 
experiments which proved the identity of lightning with the almost 
toy -like manifestations of electricity with which men had been 
experimenting up to this time, a Bohemian priest was also engaged 
in similar experiments. His name is scarely known. Father Pro- 
copius Divisch (Prokop Diwisch) studied with the Jesuits at 
Zniam in Moravia, and then entered the Premonstratensian Order 
at Klosterbruck. For some years he taught philosophy and theology 
and then became parish priest of Prenditz, not far from A^sterlitz. 
He became interested in electricity and especially the Leyden Jar, 
because of its supposed therapeutic properties. He used the jar 
to cure his parishioners, and attracted much attention and not a 
little criticism. Physicians said he was interfering with their prac- 
tice, and clergymen that he was indulging in work unsuited to the 
doth. 



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42 BROTHER POTAMIAN [April, 

Nevertheless, his interest in the whole subject of electricity 
led him to erect a lightning conductor or " meteorological machine," 
as he called it, at Prenditz in June, 1754. This was a mast one 
hundred and thirty feet high, with a number of metallic points, over 
three hundred in all. In the midst of lightning storms curious plays 
of sparks on his machine could be seen. This so excited the sus- 
picion of the farmers of the neighborhood that attributing the very 
dry summer that year to Father Diwisch's ntachine, they gathered 
together and wrecked it. Not, however, before the good Premon- 
stratensian had demonstrated very clearly that the curative electrical 
sparks with which he had benefited his parishioners were essen- 
tially the same as the lightning bolts from heaven. 

Brother Potamian also drew attention to the fact that Colum- 
bus, the discoverer of America, was also the discoverer of the fact 
that the magnetic needle does not turn to the pole of the world but 
to the magnetic pole of the earth, which is very different from 
the Pole Star or from the North Pole of the earth. Columbus 
noticed on his first voyage, when he was about a month out from 
Palos, on the memorable night of September 13, 1492, that the 
compass needle of the Santa Maria pointed a little west of north 
instead of due north. Picture his anxiety when he found that 
even the compass supposed to be so true to the Pole, 

Though mountains rise between and oceans roll 

was abandoning him in the midst of the trackless ocean. On Sep- 
tember 17th the pilots reported, after having taken the sun's ampli- 
tude, that the variation of the needle had reached a whole point of 
the compass, the alarming amount of eleven degrees. 

Columbus discovered a point in the ocean where the magnetic 
north and the true north absolutely corresponded. This came to be 
known as the Columbian line, from which it was proposed to reckon 
longitude east and west, taking this for the prime meridan. 

Those familiar with the interesting data of Brother Potamian's 
Makers of Electricity will welcome a companion volume, Makers 
of Astronomy, which the Fordham University Press will probably 
bring out in the near future as a further memorial to his thoroughly 
accurate knowledge and broad scholarly interest in the history of 
science. 



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THE TREASURE OF THE MESSIAS. 

BY JOSEPH A. MURPHY, D.D.' 

HE messenger from Egypt stood patiently waiting 
while Joseph ran to communicate to his uncle the con- 
tents of the letter he had just received. It bore 
marvelous and welcome news to Joseph, for it was 
the command of his father ordering him to return 
to the land of Egypt, to his father's house. Slowly he spelled out 
the contents of the note to his uncle: 

" Come home, my son, for I am grown old and sick. You 
have learned the most excellent Law in Jerusalem and are now come 
to man's -estate. Leave, therefore, your uncle's house where you 
have been so tenderly nurtured since your mother's death. Bid them 
farewell, my son, and leave with my messenger when the caravan 
starts for Egypt." 

His uncle wept when he heard the news, but Joseph secretly 
rejoiced, for he had long been eager to rejoin his father. Yet he 
hated to leave Jerusalem, for he was a pious youth, well versed in 
the Law, and his boyish dream had ever been to serve Jehovah and 
the nation. The sight of his uncle's tears moved his heart to sor- 
row at the thought of parting from the only home he had ever 
known, yet he had long yearned to see his father, who through all 
the years of his boyhood had provided most generously for him. 
No money had ever been spared where the lad was concerned, and 
regularly the messengers from Egypt had brought him plentiful 
supply of gold and, what was better, affectionate letters written in 
the quaint, crabbed characters of his father's hand. He knew his 
father was a man of wealth and power in pagan Egypt. 

" Look well upon the holy Hill of Sion," wept the uncle, 
*' never more wiJl yoor eyes behold it. Never more will you take 
part in the sacrifices of the Temple, my son, my son. You go to 
live in the house of bondage of our forefathers. It will hold you 
in slavery as it has held your father, for never have my eyes 
beheld him since he left the land of God for the accursed land 
of Eg>'pt. I know I shall never see you again." 

The youth mingled his tears with the tears of his aged uncle 
to whom he was fle\'oted. 



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44 THE TREASURE OF THE MESSIAS [April, 

" I will return, uncle, I promise you. I shall never permit trade 
to absorb my life. I have a good knowledge of the Law and know 
that the place of sacrifice is Jerusalem, and to Jerusalem I promise 
that I will return." He looked around to make sure that there were 
no listeners and his voice sank into a whisper. " You know the 
dream of my life, uncle. You know that the young men hope some 
day to rise against these haughty Romans who have deprived us of 
liberty, and that they hope to restore the kingdom of Israel, nay 
even to build a newer and most lasting kingdom whose boundaries 
will reach the ends of the earth. Jerusalem will be the queen city 
of the world. The Gentiles shall be our inheritance. 

" Is not the time of the Messias and the glorious kingdom near 
at hand? Will the prophecies be void? Are we not waiting pa- 
tiently for the day when the Messias will raise the standard of war, 
and we will drive the usurper of the throne of David into the sea? " 

The uncle started fearfully at these words of treason, as he 
did not know that the young men were talking thus boldly, and 
for the moment he was almost consoled at the thought of Joseph's 
leaving Jerusalem, for grave danger threatened those who played 
false to the Roman power. The old man was of the Sadduces, 
who cultivated the Roman authorities, though secretly they hated 
the Gentile conquerers as much as the Pharisaical Nationalists. 

" When that day comes, uncle, I shall return from the utter- 
most parts of the earth to Jerusalem, I promise you, and I be- 
lieve it is not far off. But the messenger meanwhile waits on us 
and I must give him my answer." He looked at the old man ap- 
pealingly. " What shall it be? " 

"There is only one answer. You know the Law, my son. 
Your father commands you, and there is nothing for you to do but 
to obey. Go back to him in the name of Jehovah, and with my 
blessing, for you have been as dear as a son to me. Give a good 
report of us to your father, that he may know how we have 
cherished you." 

The messenger who had squatted cross-legged on the floor dur- 
ing the prolonged colloquy between Joseph and his uncle, rose 
quickly to his feet as he saw Joseph approach, and bowing pro- 
foundly before his young master he awaited the answer. 

" My father has commanded me to return to him. I shall 
leave with the caravan. When do you purpose to return ? " 

" Whenever it pleases you, my lord. We but await your 
pleasure." 



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19171 THE TREASURE OF THE MESSIAS 45 

" In three days I shall be ready/' answered Joseph. 

He was anxious to start on the trip across the desert home- 
ward to Egypt, but there was one thing he must accomplish before he 
left Palestine. In the valley of the Jordan there had arisen a great 
Prophet. All Jerusalem was going out to hear him. The Jordan 
was only a few hours' distant. Might he not learn from this Prophet 
something about the coming of the Messias? Would that He might 
hasten! Would that He were here to relieve the people from the 
hated foreign yoke, and reestablish the kingdom of David. 

And so Joseph went down to Jericho and the Jordan Valley. 
The day was warm, but on the Mount of Zion a refreshing breeze 
was blowing. He crossed the Valley of Jehosophat, spitting on 
the groimd as he passed the tomb of Absalom, the rebellious son 
of David, and then toiled up the high Hill of Olives and over the 
road through Bethany. From there he began to descend. Down- 
ward, ever downward, he wound his way among the hills as he 
followed the road in its drop of nearly half a mile in the short 
distance between Jerusalem and Jericho. 

Although he was accustomed to the desolate hills of Palestine, 
he was stirred by the wild and lonely grandeur of the desert which 
he was traversing. The great hills, worn into fantastic shapes by 
the torrential rains, showed in their varied strata tints and hues of 
dull red, orange, blue and saffron, as if a rainbow had fallen from 
the sky, to be shattered into fragments on the stony hills below. 
The buzzards feeding on the carcass of a horse rose heavily in 
the air at his approach, and wheeling low returned to their car- 
rion prey when he had passed. The savage desolation of the 
scene was depressing, but he called to mind the great men of 
Israel who had passed over the very road he was traveling — 
the old highway from Jerusalem down to Jericho. He conjured up 
memories of King David who had fled over this road before the 
face of Absaiom, How he wished in his youthful heart that he 
might serve Israel like !iis hero, the minstrel of the court of Saul, 
the slayer of Goliath. 

As he neared Jericho he met many people on the road re- 
turning from the Jordan, and always he asked if the Prophet were 
still there, and always he received the same response, " He preaches 
penance and baptizes in the Jordan." 

Arriving at Jericho, tired but happy, he slept at the inn, and 
on the following day he attached himself to one of the numerous 
groups of people who went out into the wilderness to hear John 

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46 THE TREASURE OF THE MESSIAS [April, 

the Baptist, for he was the new Prophet in Israel. Hundreds had 
assembled to hear the thrilling sermon of John, the only word he 
had for his age, " Do penance for the Kingdom of Heaven is at 
hand." The sight of the ascetic figure of the Prophet, worn by 
long fasts and rigorous vigils, roughly clothed in a garment of 
camel's hair, touched the multitude. His voice, now denouncing, 
now pleading, his gestures, his rapt expression, his mysterious looks 
and words filled the assembled throng with awe. They tore their 
hair and beat their breasts with the unaffected vehemence of the 
East. Many John baptized that day and added to his disciples. 

Among them was Joseph. He had fallen under the spiritual 
sway of the preacher, whose mysterious words had penetrated his 
soul. His first thought was that this must be the Messias Himself. 
He ran to the feet of John, beseeching him to baptize and enroll 
him among the disciples. 

" Art thou He Whom we expect? *' he asked gazing full into 
the eyes of John, "or are we to look for another?" The burn- 
ing thought of his heart sprang naturally to his lips : " Art thou 
the Messias?" he queried eagerly. 

" I am not the Christ," confessed John gently. " I am the 
voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the 
Lord. He that shall come after me is preferred before me, the 
latchet of Whose shoe, I am not worthy to loose." 

Joseph was disappointed, yet consoled. This was not the 
Messias, but His forerunner. Was not the Kingdom close at hand ? 
Was He not to come soon? Was not this His herald? Surely this 
heaven-sent preacher, this man of God could not deceive, and was 
not he preaching, " The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Prepare 
ye the way of the Lord, make straight His paths; do penance." 

His heart leaped at the prospect. He saw again the people 
delivered by the Messias, as of old they had been freed by the 
heroic David and the Maccabees. Although loath to leave the in- 
spiring influence of John the Baptist, he turned to obey his father's 
will and set out for Egypt. At Alexandria he was met by another 
of his father's agents, a prosperous Hebrew trader, in whose com- 
pany he journeyed to Heliopolis, where his father had lived over 
a quarter of a century. Something very like fear gripped his 
heart as he neared the town of Heliopolis. What would his father 
think of him when he saw him? How receive him? Joseph had 
been a mere infant on the death of his mother, and he had been 
sent out of this pagan land to be brought up in the true faith in the 

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1917.] THE TREASURE OF THE MESSIAS 47 

household of his uncle. But his fear melted into pity at the sight 
of his father, when the old man, worn and feeble, tottered forth 
from the house to greet the son from whom he had been so long 
separated. But the hands which Joseph felt on his shoulders, and 
the eyes which looked earnestly into his were clear and keen. The 
father gazed earnestly a moment, and then embraced and kissed 
him. 

" My son, my son," he cried, and taking him by the hand he 
led him into the austerely furnished house. 

The father appeared to be overcome by his feelings, and said 
nothing until the servants had bathed the feet of Joseph, and put 
a new robe on him. Then the old man dismissed them abruptly. 
He hesitated a long time and his voice was filled with emotion as 
he began : 

" My son, the joy of my life, the apple of my eye — but no, 
I must not call you such — ^not yet — ^not yet. I have a heavy test 
for you." 

The look of yearning love with which he had been regarding 
his son remained in his eyes, but his face became stern. 

" Years I have been here, many years. I have toiled and I 
have labored, day in and day out. I have grown old and feeble 
amassing wealth." His voice sank to a whisper. " The God of 
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob has blessed me, and you are my son 
and heir. My wealth will be yours, and I am rich — very rich," he 
went on in a rapid whisper, " but it must never be yours, as it is 
not mine." His voice rose and he grasped his son by the arm. 
" It is not mine. Do you understand? It is not mine." He saw 
the mystified expression on the face of his son. 

" Ah, you do not understand I have not explained." 

The keen look of the trader faded away, and the stern lines 
of his countenance relaxed. He seemed another man. His face 
was illumined by the nobility of the ideal he had conceived, and 
which had become the ruling thought of his life. 

" The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof/' he began, 
" and so I have always called my wealth the treasure of the Messias. 
It is His, not mine, to be used for His purposes, not mine — not 
yours, do you understand?" he asked almost fiercely. "Will you 
surrender it?" 

" Willingly, father. It has also been the desire of my life to 
serve the Messias," answered Joseph earnestly. 

The old man did not appear to hear, but went on : " You saw 



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48 THE TREASURE OF THE MESSIAS [April, 

did you not as you entered the town the cursed Temple of the 
Sun-God? " The old man spat fiercely on the groimd. " Oh, the 
lewd abominations of the Gentiles! How I hate them I And 
these Egyptians who persecuted our fathers — " 

The young man interrupted eagerly this tirade of hate: " But 
they honored our father Joseph and made him second — " 

" Silence," commanded the father sternly. Then more gently, 
" Is it so they train the yoimg men in Jerusalem today — ^to interrupt 
their elders? But enough, I must explain. 

"You passed the Temple of the Sun-God," he began in a 
low voice which rapidly raised in his excitement. " Did you 
notice the shattered columns on the side? Did you see the great 
crack in the eastern wall? *An earthquake,' they say, 'caused it.' 
An earthquake! Oh, most excellent earthquake that shatters the 
abominations and crumbles the pride of the Gentiles to the dust. 
Oh, most excellent earthquake which proceedeth from the hand of 
GodI 

"For thus it happened, my son, as we Hebrews here know well. 
Out of our Land of Promise there came a man, a woman and a 
Child, flying before the face of cruel Herod. When that Child en- 
tered Egypt the earth shook, the temples of the Egyptians were 
shattered and their gods thrown prostrate to the earth. Do not 
tell, do not breathe it," he whispered fearfully looking arotmd. 
" The pagans would kill us, but it was the hand of Jehovah that 
shook the earth." 

" Where is the Child now? " asked Joseph, impressed by the 
story. 

The old man wrung his hands. " Alas, I know not. For two 
years the Child was here, and here I learned of Him, for all this 
happened before I came. One night the man and the woman and 
the Child returned as mysteriously as they had come. 'Out of 
Egypt have I called My Son,* said the Prophet of old." 

" Do you think then that the Child was the Messias? " queried 
Joseph eagerly. 

" It must have been the Messias Himself or His messenger. I 
began then to prepare for the day when the Messias would raise His 
standard. I have schemed arid labored. I have outwitted the na- 
tive Egyptians and grown rich at their expense." He chuckled 
mirthlessly while he rubbed his withered hands together. " I have 
followed the example of our fathers on the night of the Exodus, 
and spoiled the Egyptians. But not for myself," he whispered. 



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1917] THE TREASURE OF THE MESSIAS 49 

" not for myself. I am only the custodian of the treasure of the 
Messias." 

He rose to his feet, and grasping his son by the shoulders 
almost shouted : " And not for you, not for you ! You too must 
be the custodian of the treasure of the Messias. He will have need 
of gold. He will have great work to do. We are only His servants. 
Swear to me, my son," he pleaded, " swear that yoii too will be His 
servant and that you will use the gold to restore the kingdom of 
Israel and to vindicate the Law. Swear to me that you will 
use it against the Romans, against the world, when the Messias- 
King raises His standard. Swear on the Holy Law." He tottered 
across the room to a cupboard in the wall, and opening it he took 
down a beautiful parchment roll. 

The son hesitated a moment. Ringing in his ears he seemed 
to hear the words of John the Baptist, "Do penance, for the 
Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." Then on his inward vision 
there flashed the picture of the ascetic preacher. For an instant 
he contrasted him with his father, on whose face the lines of cun- 
ning and avarice were so plainly marked. " Do penance," was 
John's preparation for the Kingdom. " Amass wealth," his father's. 
But he dismissed the thought. After all John was only a holy 
man; his father — sl wise man. 

" Swear," pleaded the father. 

The son, deeply moved, placed his hand upon the most ex- 
cellent Law and swore : 

" The God of Abraham judge." 

The old man was deeply touched. His son had stood the 
test. His own lifework w^s over and he had passed on his mission 
to his son. The few remaining days of his life he spent in peace 
of mind, and when Joseph closed the tired eyes of his father, the 
old man had died in the comforting thought that his work would 
live after him. 

Joseph, engrossed as he became in the business of trading, 
for he was a middleman between the desert and the great port of 
Alexandria, nevertheless asked at every opportunity about the Mes- 
sias. He heard with grief of the death of John the Baptist, as the 
influence of the preacher had always remained living in his soul. 
Then he heard of the rise of a new Prophet in Israel. He heard 
of His marvelous preaching, of the crowds which followed Him, 
of the lame walking, the blind seeing, of devils cast out, and even 
of the dead raised to life. He learned that the Prophet was bom 

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50 THE TREASURE OF THE MESSIAS [April, 

of a Virgin in Bethlehem, that He was called a Nazaritc, that He 
was a Prince of the House of David. The more he heard, the more 
convinced Joseph became that at last the prophecies had been 
fulfilled and that God had visited His people. 

He began to prepare to carry out the will of his father, and 
sold his land and house, his horses and camels, and his vast stores 
of merchandise. He converted nearly all his possessions into gold 
and precious stones; he drove hard bargains; he haggled and de- 
layed, for he wished to augment as much as possible the treasure 
of the Mcssias. The Romans were strong and powerful and 
rich. The Imperial Eagle dominated the world. It would be a 
hard struggle to establish the new Kingdom, and so he schemed to 
amass as much treasure as he could. Finally he was ready, and 
journeying to Alexandria he set sail for Jaffa. 

The ship loaded with the last of his rich merchandise, which 
he expected to sell in Jerusalem, sailed bravely out of the port, 
only to run into a terrific storm. For two days the boat was tossed 
and battered by the sea, and finally was shattered on the reefs 
of Jaffa. Joseph was dragged out of the waves by some of the 
hardy fishermen of the coast, but nothing was left of the treasure 
of the Messias save the bag of gold at his waist. The merchan- 
dise and the precious stones went down -with the wreck. 

Worse still he learned at Jaffa that the Messias was in grave 
danger. Mounting a horse at once he overtook a caravan which 
was leaving for Jerusalem and rode on with it. Alas! it traveled 
at a snail's pace, and he had to pay an exorbitant price to the leader 
of the caravan for the privilege of protection from robbers. He paid 
it willingly. He was beginning to realize that money was not the 
most important thing in life. The Messias was in danger. 

When he arrived in Jerusalem by the Jaffa gate the city was 
in an uproar. He made his way quickly to his uncle's house, where 
he was received as a long-lost son, but the household was in dire 
distress. There he learned the dreadful tidings. The Prophet had 
been arrested the evening before, tried before Herod and Pilate, 
and sentenced to die that afternoon. 

Joseph rushed to the house of Pilate — ^the sorrowful Way of 
the Cross had already begun. Into the blazing heat of a noonday 
sun, tired and fasting, he rushed, crying out his very soul. The 
crowd assembled in the narrow street divined in some way that he 
was a friend of Christ. They pushed and jostled him, they tore 
his garments. Some cast stones at him. Once he stumbled and 



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1917] THE TREASURE OF THE MESSIAS 51 

fell, and the gold in his purse rolled on the pavement. The crowd 
eagerly grasped it. 

All unnoting the gold he picked himself up, befouled by the mud 
of the street, and hurried on — on. Women shrank from before him. 
" He is mad," they cried. Nearer and nearer he pushed through 
the crowd to the Messias. He had reached the Roman soldiery who 
blocked his way. " Dog of a Jew," cried one of the brutal soldiers, 
bringing the butt end of a spear heavily down on his head. With 
a groan Joseph sank unconscious to the ground. 

Some women pitying the friend of Christ carried him out of 
the way of the wild, bloodthirsty mob, and stanched the flow of 
blood from the wound in his head. When he recovered con- 
sciousness he sprang wildly to his feet. 

"Messias! Oh, they will crucify Him." 

Into the street he hurried. It was nearly three o'clock. He 
knew the place of Crucifixion, Golgotha, and stumbled blindly the 
short distance left. He would save Him. He would use his gold. 
Oh, but he could not save Him. He began to realize the dreadful 
truth. He was too late. The uselessness of his lifework appalled 
and unnerved him when he saw that the Messias was already cru- 
cified. He saw the blood-stained Body on the Cross, and even as 
he stood there, heard the words, " It is consummated." The Mes- 
sias-King was dead. 

With dazed eyes and fear-sick heart, he saw the rocks rent 
asunder, and great storm-clouds gather. The artillery of heaven 
thimdered and sheeted ghosts walked. People fled awestruck. 

" This was truly the Son of God," cried a nearby centurion. 
A great light began to dawn. " This was truly the Son of God." 

Joseph fell on his face, paralyzed with fear, and yet he felt 
a great burden lift from his heart. Surely He at Whose death all 
nature moved had not needed his petty help. " Do penance, the 
Kingdom of Heaven is at hand," rang in his ears. He saw now 
the profound truth, that Christ's Kingdom was not of this earth. 
In the light of the Cross he realized that his father, the :ivise man, 
had been wrong in his preparation for the Kingdom, and that John 
the Baptist, the holy man, had been right. The earthly treasure of 
the Messias, God had thrown away. God did not want earthly 
treasures to establish the Kingdom. He wanted the treasure of 
the heart and soul, of consecrated life and service. " Do penance." 

At the foot of the Cross, Joseph renewed his vow to serve the 
McssiaS'King- " Oh, my God," he cried, " I will begin anew. I 

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52 ''NOLI ME TANGERE" [April, 

will serve Thee, Messias, King of Heaven. Thy Kingdom is of 
the soul. Witness, oh, my father, I am faithful to my oath and 
my mission. The God of Abraham judge." 

In the little commimity of Christians in Jerusalem, so poor 
that Paul had to beg for them, lived Joseph, the once wealthy 
trader of Egypt. He was the poorest of them all, but the happiest 
in the service of God, devoting his life, as he had hoped even when 
a boy, in spreading the Kingdom of the Messias, and as he had 
vowed when a man, in accumulating the true Treasure of the 
Messias. 



<<NOLI ME TANGERE." 

BY U. H. KUXACKY, S.J, 



Mary, cling not, I pray! 
Cling not sol 
Thy Master will not go 
From thee away. 

Rabboni, as I trust the day, 

So do I set Thee free 

To go, if so Thou wilt. 

Away from me. 
But give me wings to follow where Thou art. 
My love will orphaned be without Thy Heart. 
How can I guided be without my star? 
I shall derided be with Thee afar. 

Yet, Master, though I cherish love. 

Behold, I yield to Thee, 

If but Thou be not long 

Away from me. 
For whereto shall I turn when Thou art gone ? 
With anxious love no more to wait the dawn ! 
Oh, let me cease to live! Not death I fear 
But life that naught can give without Thee near. 

Yea, Lord, though Thou did'st love me not, 

For yet one boon I pray: 

Let me go hence with Thee, 

If so I may! 

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FRANCIS THOMPSON'S "AN ANTHEM OF EARTH." 

BY FLORENCE MOYNIHAN. 

|ONE of the poems of Francis Thompson, with the 
exception of The Hound of Heaven, equals in 
spiritual significance the Anthem of Earth. Written 
in 1894 as an experiment in blank verse it has for us 
today an interest beyond that of its technique, though 
the latter, flawed indeed by halting lines of prose, is a remarkable 
tour de force. No doubt the metrical faults are due to the waning 
of his poetic powers, for he confesses himself in the poem : 

One poet with sick pinion, that still feels 
Breath through the Orient gateways closing fast, 
Fast closing t'ward the undelighted night. 

The poem, however, is valuable chiefly because of its content — its 
temperamental sensing of the enigma of life, its emotional evalu- 
ation of human experience. It registers the impressions caused 
by life as it beat on the sensitive pulses of the poet. It is a poetic 
autobiography in which are sounded the abysmal deeps of his 
personality. As such it is a revelation to us of the differing ethos 
of Thompson, which makes his work a thing apart in English 
literature. 

Francis Thompson was a poet with a strong aesthetic sense 
who made of beauty a key to religion. He had the rich sense- 
endowment of Keats, to whom color and odor and soimd were as 
the breath of his nostrils. Yet, unlike Keats, his sensuousness was 
disciplined by a Catholic asceticism. Regarding the things of 
sense as but the rubrics of the spirit, he came to view the outward 
shows of earth and sky as an epiphany of God's handiwork, to 
discern in the sights and sounds of nature the image and voice of 
God. As in nature so in human life the senses were for him 
sacramental signs of the spirit: a beautiful face was a glimpse of 
depths of soul un fathomed. Love was but the power to catch 
sight of this beauty of soul which shines through and actually 
molds the beauty of face and form. Finally his aestheticism be- 
comes mystic, and rising to compass the complex elements of life, 
expresses the ascetic v^lue of sorrow and suffering : 

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54 THOMPSON'S ''AN ANTHEM OF EARTH'' [April, 

Sadness is beauty's savor, and pain is 
The exceedingly keen edge of bliss. 

Through what stress of life-experience his facile poetry of the 
senses was chastened into a spiritual austerity we learn from the 
two poems — An Anthem of Earth and The Hound of Heaven, 
The former of these contains his conspectus of life, and forms the 
setting for the philosophy of the latter. Both record the process 
of the discipline through which final illumination was vouchsafed. 
The Anthem of Earth opens with a Miltonic address to earth 
marked by a cosmic sweep and impulse. Then the poet takes up his 
immediate theme of the relations of man to the universe. " In 
nescientness, in nescientness " man puts on the " fleshly lendings " 
of Mother Earth, all unwitting of the stem obligations with which 
he is thereby invested : 

Indeed this flesh, O Mother 

A beggar's gown, a client's badging 

We find, which from thy hands we simply took, 

Naught dreaming of the after penury, 

In nescientness. 

Next follows a period of irreflective joy in the boon of existence 
which has been granted to him : 

In a little joy, in a little joy 
We wear awhile thy sore insignia 
Nor know thy heel o' the neck. 

Here the poet becomes personal, and describes his own delight 
in nature as the glee of a child who revels in the beauty and 
wonder of the world. With his shaping faculty of imagination he 
can mold it to his fancy and color it with his varying thought: 

Then what wild Dionysia I, young Bacchanal 

Danced in thy lap ! 

I brake through thy doors of sunset 

Ran before the hooves of sunrise. 

Shook thy matron tresses down in fancies 

Wild and willful 

As a poet's hand could twine them. 

He can, like Shelley, summon to his bidding a whole " wassail of 
orgiac imageries *' — ^the presences who inform the world of nature, 
the changes of which he interprets in terms of their moods joyous 
or sad, willful or wistful. Then, too, he finds solace in the play of 

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igiy.] THOMPSON'S ''AN ANTHEM OF EARTH" 55 

human sympathy with his fellows, in the beauty and grace of 
women and children. Thus, as in The Hound of Heaven, he is 
beguiled not only by love of nature but by love of man. 

At length attaining the full stature of manhood, he grows 
conscious of the disabilities of mortality — its heritage of sin and 
woe, afid becomes undeceived " in a little thought, in a little 
thought." Now does nature no longer seem to him a kind foster- 
mother, but a siren inconstant and beguiling, reflecting the way- 
ward moods of her lover to his undoing:^ 

Hope not of Nature ; she nor gives nor teaches ; 

She suffers thee to«take 

But what thy own hand reaches, 

And can itself make sovereign for thine ache. 

Ah, hope not her to heal 

The ills she cannot feel 

Or dry with many-businessed hand the tear 

Which never yet was weak 

In her unfretted eyes, on her uncarked cheek. 

Man, too, the paragon of animals, has become for him the poor 
creature of Hamlet's brooding fantasy : pulvis et umbra. Here the 
blank verse rises nobly in Shakespearean accent to the height of its 
great argtmient : 

Ay, Mother! Mother! 

What is this Man, thy darling kissed and cuffed. 

Thou lustingly engender'st, 

To sweat, and make his brag, and rot. 

Crowned with all honor and all shamefulness? 

From nightly towers . 

He dogs the secret footsteps of the heavens. 

Sifts in his hands the stars, weighs them as gold-dust. 

And yet he is successive unto nothing 

But patrimony of a little mold 

And entail of four planks. Thou hast made his mouth 

Avid of all dominion and all mightiness, 

All sorrow, all delight, all topless grandeurs 

And dim transtellar things : even that it may. 

Filled in the ending with a puff of dust, 

Confess — " It is enough." 

His cult of nature and of man has failed to sustain him beneath 
the burdens of life. It has failed him because of nature's futility 
and indifference, and man's essential frailty. That bright nat- 

*C/. Of Nature: Laud and Plaint, ^-^ ^ 

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56 THOMPSON'S ''AN ANTHEM OF EARTH" [April, 

uralism, as he confesses poignantly in The Hound of Heaven, 
has broken down under the weary weight of earth " with heavy 
griefs so overplussed." 

Then ensues the stark period of disillusionment, during which, 
thrown back on the mere will to live, he stoically fronts life again, 
and sets himself to the daily round " in a little strength, in a little 
strength." The old joie de vivre is gone forever : 
Though I the Orient never more shall feel 
Break like the clash of cymbals, and my heart 
Clang through my shaken body like a gong ; 
Nor ever more with spurted feet shall tread 
r the winepresses of song; 

This imagery is beautifully expressive of the tingling sensibili- 
ties of one to whom color could transmit itself in terms of sound — 
who could hear the crimson blaring of the shawms of sunset, for 
whom 

the sun-smit buttercup clang bold 

A beaten gong of gold. 

Yet though he was never more to know the quickening of his 
artistic senses, his feeling of the pain and travail of creation is 
recompensed by the dawning in him of the faculty of vision. This 
it is which nerves him to endure patiently with wide eyes calm 
upon the whole of things. His dark mood is gradually resolved in 
the reconciling mysticism of a deepening insight into earth's 
" strange sanctities of pathos." His penetration of these mysteries 
required the sobering initiation of sorrowful experience: 

Not to the boy, altiiough his eyes be pure 
, As tiie prime snowdrop is, 

Not to such eyes, 

Uneuphrasied with tears, the hierarchical 

Vision lies unoccult, rank under rank 

Through all create down-wheeling, from the Throne 

Even to the bases of the pregnant ooze. 

This is the enchantment, this the exaltation. 

The all-compensating wonder. 

Giving to common things wild kindred 

With the gold-tesselate floors of Jove ; 

Linking such heights and such humilities 

Hand in hand in ordinal dances, 

That I do think my tread 

Stirring the blossoms in the meadow-grass, 

Flickers the unwithering stars. 



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1917} THOMPSON'S "AN ANTHEM OF EARTH" 57 

These lines mark the birth of that faculty of piercing in- 
sight which reaches its highest expression in The Mistress of 
Vision. They present his symbolism of nature conditioned by 
himian experience. The poet has begun to sense the secret affinities 
which imderlie phenomena apparently incongruous, to reconcile 
diversity in a transcendent unity. 

In the light of this illumination he spiritualizes the findings 
of modem science. Science, probing the mysteries of being, has 
lighted upon the law of order amid seeming chaos. It has dis- 
covered in death the occasion of renewed life. In asserting that 
the elements liberated at death are taken up again in other forms 
of life, it has repeated involuntarily the scholastic dictum : Corrup- 
Ho unius est generatio alterius. This theory that death is not 
really the end of life in the natural order is to Thompson a figure 
or analogy of the doctrine of immortality in the supernatural order. 
Thus, though seeking to destroy the supernatural, science minis- 
ters despite itself to his thought of immortality. For, explaining 
all things as influx and reflux, it declares death is but a stage in the 
process of being : " it counts the sepulchre the seminary of being, 
discovers life in putridity, vigor in decay, and finds admirable 
the manner of our corruption as of our health." To the eye of 
faith the facts of science point to a Supreme Designer behind the 
complex of things. Who out of broken arcs fashions a perfect 
round, out of bewildering discords educes an overruling harmony. 
So in human life Thompson comes to resolve evil in a higher syn- 
thesis of good, and to discern in pain and death a Divine recom- 
pense. Thus : " in a little sight, in a little sight," he has learned a 
new standard of values by which he finds in the shadows of the 
human lot but the " Shade of God's hand, outstretched caressingly." 

The rest of the poem is a reverie on death by which earth 
finally reclaims us. It is a descant couched in the language of 
Sir Thomas Browne, dashed by the ghoulish humor of Hamlet's 
soliloquy in the graveyard. Comedy jostles tragedy in the quick 
utterance of his Shakespearean imagination. As if with seer-like 
prophecy of a world-war, Thompson hears 

The world's knives bickering in their sheaths, 

to glut earth's thirst for blood, and muses grimly on the offices 
of the impartial worm which awaits all. Death is conjured up in 
a series of fantastic seventeenth-century images, culminating in 
that tremendous concept : 



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S8 THOMPSON'S "AN ANTHEM OF EARTH'' [April, 

Pontifical Death, that doth the crevasse bridge 
To the steep and trifid God. 

This, his final outlook on life, is truly supernatural, as his first pa- 
gan rapture was frankly Bacchic. Then, with dignity of pathos, 
the poem sings itself to a close on the note of quiet consummation 
wherein is peace : 

Now, mortal-sonlike, 
I thou hast suckled. Mother, I at last 
Shall sustenant be to thee. Here I untranimel, 
Here I pluck loose the body's cerementing. 
And break the tomb of life ; here I shake oflF 
The bur.o' the world, man's congregation shun, 
And to the antique order of the dead 
I take the tongueless vows ; my cell is set 
Here in thy bosom ; my little trouble is ended 
In a little peace. 

Thompson's poem inevitably suggests comparison with Words- 
worth's spiritual autobiography, Lines Composed Above Tintern 
Abbey, Both poems deal with the relations of man to nature 
and traverse similar stages of nature-experience — the period of 
the blood and the senses, the period of the imagination, the period 
of the soul. But the final reaction to the world was diflferent in 
the case of the two poets. Wordsworth maintained throughout 
that " Nature never did betray the heart that loves her," and wor- 
shipped her mainly for her own sake. His creed was at best a 
form of natural religion. Thompson on the other hand believed 
that nature, viewed apart from God, was a deceiving enchantress; 
but that, regarded aright in relation to God her Creatof, she reveals 
many signs of His handiwork. His creed is summed up in the 
memorable words of the essay on Nature's Immortality: " Ab- 
solute nature lives not in our life, nor yet is lifeless, but lives in 
the life of God ; and in so far and so far merely as man lives in 
that life, does he come into sympathy with nature and nature 
with him. She is God's daughter, and stretches her hand only to 
her Father's friends. Not Shelley, not Wordsworth himself, ever 
drew so close to the heart of nature as did the Seraph of Assisi 
who was close to the heart of God." In fine, Wordsworth was the 
poet of the return to nature, while Thompson aspired to be the 
poet of the return to God. 



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THE FUNERAL OF CHRIST. 

BY BARRY MAGUIRE. 

Note. — ^This article is of course a picture of what was before the outbreak 
of the present European war. [Ed. C. W.] 

FUNERAL is about the most natural thing in the 
world following a death. Yet it is remarkable that 
while our ceremonies of Holy Week are so wonder- 
fully dramatic in showing forth the sufferings and 
death of the Saviour there is, at least among English- 
speaking peoples and in the centres of what is called modem civi- 
lization, no public function to commemorate His Burial. The pro- 
cession to the Altar of Repose on Holy Thursday cannot be called 
a funeral, and though the empty Tabernacle on Good Friday sig- 
nifies the bereaved home it has no connection with the actual 
Burial. 

Before the Lutheran blight came over Europe, it was custom- 
ary to celebrate the feasts of the Church with much more pomp 
arid ceremony than at present. The people lived nearer to the 
heart of Catholic ceremonial. Church functions were part of the 
yearly routine of community life. Holidays were then Holy Days, 
because it was in the days before banks started to give them. In 
the European museums you will now see the little wooden asses on 
wheels which were used in the villages on Palm Sunday for Christ's 
entry into Jerusalem. You will see the huge crucifixes and artic- 
ulated wooden figures which were used for the celebration of the 
Three Hours Agony, when it was customary to break limbs in 
realistic fashion, take the body down from the Cross, as the con- 
gregation looked on, and bear it away to the grave. 

But there are lands in Europe where these old ceremonies 
linger still, so real, so much a part of the people's lives, so touch- 
ing and so blissful in the true sense. In Sicily and in parts of 
Spain, in the hill towns of Italy and Tyrol, in the mountain districts 
of Austria and Hungary, the custom still lingers of burying the 
dead Christ on Good Friday evening. I have seen one of these 
sacred funerals in Sicily and one at a little Tuscan village in Italy. 
The latter is the one that merits description. 

We said good-bye to the Eternal City and journeyed to spend 



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6d THE FUNERAL OF CHRIST [April, 

Holy Week in Dante's city by the Arno. The ceremonies would 
be simpler, more Italian, and we knew that in the hill towns many 
mediaeval customs still lingered, and many old ceremonies connected 
with Holy Week. The Funeral of Christ at Grassina was the one 
thing which a stranger in Florence should not miss. Grassina was 
within easy reach, so we determined to journey thither on Good 
Friday evening. 

We approached the manager of a livery stable and asked 
how we might arrange the Grassina journey for a party of six. A 
carriage and pair would bring us there, he said, wait and bring us 
back, all for a consideration of ten dollars. He laid special emphasis 
on the waiting, as if it were the hardest part of the task. We 
offered five dollars. Madonna Mia! what did the signore think. 
Did the signore not know of the hard times, how dear horses were, 
how dear food was, what it cost to keep harness and carriages in 
repair, and how many horses had to stand idle in the stable. At 
last we compromised on six dollars, and there was not one of us 
that did not have heart-searchings at the thought of having beaten 
him down so low ; for he gave us two spanking five-year-olds and a 
turnout fit for the noblest marquis in Italy. 

About six o'clock we were on our way, leaving the city by 
the eastern gate, beneath the shadow of San Miniato. Evening 
was closing fast. The dark cedars along the ridge from Settignano 
to Fiesole stood like a row of Misericordiae Brethren waiting for 
a funeral. There was a spirit of mourning everywhere, in the 
pathos of the dying day, in the scenery, in the quiet of the villages, 
in the dress and bearing of the people. 

As the high road led out between the hills we fell in with a 
long line of carriages and conveyances of all descriptions, form- 
ing a sort of procession that reminded one of the roads nearing a 
country church in Ireland on a Sunday morning. Hundreds of 
pedestrians trudged along, dodging every now and then horses and 
motor cars. Over all there was a strange calm. One felt it every- 
where. It was in the sombreness of the dark cedars, in the deep 
shadows thrown from the hills to the valley, and it was in our hearts, 
the Fimeral of Christ. 

What a sense of the dramatic it shows, and how very Italian 
it is, this leaving of the lighted streets and the palatial churches 
of the city to come out to assist at the Funeral of Christ in a little 
village, nestling among the hills. Nowhere on earth could a more 
fitting stage-setting be found for such a ceremonial. A quiet little 



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1917.] THE FUNERAL OF CHRIST 61 

stream meandering along between two vine clad and cedar crowned 
hills, a row of well-kept homes on its banks and a church at the 
furthermost point just where a spur of the southern hill runs down 
to the stream. That is Grassina. 

The main piazza of the little village is all life and bustle as 
we arrive. A fair is being held. High above the rumble of the 
incoming carriages, the clanging of street-car gongs and the blow- 
ing of motor horns, one can hear the shrill voice of the cheap jack 
and the banter of the shrewd contiulini. At fairs the world is the 
same all over. The thimble-rigger is here, and the wheel of for- 
time, the man with the golden sixpence, the magic penknife and 
the twopenny glass-cutter guaranteed to hack a way through the 
stoutest plate. For unsuspecting Americans in search of souvenirs 
and antiquities there are stalls where Tuscan pottery is sold, and 
genuine Etruscan brooches from Paris, and Panama hats from 
jLivomo and corals from the marble quarries of Carrara and 
Etruscan antiquities from Germany, guaranteed to be as old as the 
boyhood of Adam. The kerosene lanterns are spluttering and flar- 
ing. Thin cakes of unleavened bread flavored with aniseed are 
baked between great flat pincers, like those used in the making of Al- 
tar breads, and are eaten hot from the stove. 

Suddenly all is silent. It is a silence whose hush one 
can feel, more expressive than an avalanche of sound. The 
lamps are put out, the hucksters close down their stalls, the cheap 
jack crosses himself, and in the hush one can hear the strains of 
a weird chant come over the village housetops from the little 
church nestling yonder. The procession has commenced. 

It is better to leave the piazza and come to a point of vantage 
on the northern hillside, close to where the bridge crosses the little 
brook. We can now see the procession leave the church. It is to our 
left, at the other side of the stream and down about a quarter of a 
mile further, where the spur of the southern hill runs into the 
village. Up the hillside path the procession winds. A great snake 
of smoky orange light it is, throwing a weird glimmer on the white 
of the children and the armor of the Roman soldiers. A silver 
Paschal moon has come out in the east, and on the surrounding 
summits, in peasant farmyards and princely castles, thousands 
of lanterns are lit, as if to make footlights for the great drama. 
On and up the procession winds, and through the stillness we can 
hear heavy voices chanting in weird tones well-nigh as old 
as the Tuscan hills: 



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62 THE FUNERAL OF CHRIST [April, 

Lo, with gall His thirst He quenches 
Nails His tender flesh are rending. 
See, His side is opened now ! 
Whence, to cleanse the whole creation 
Streams of blood and water flow. 



God spared not His own Son hut delivered Him up for us, they 
sing, and the village band plays a soul-stirring accompaniment that 
is echoed from the hills. 

The head of the procession is now descending the hillside 
and is coming to the little bridge at our feet. A group of white- 
robed men come first. They are members of the Sanctuary Guild, 
wearing long albs that look curiously conventional beneath the 
rough faces and bushy hair; but, true to the Latin instinct, they 
throw themselves into their parts with an earnestness that seizes the 
onlookers and many who came merely to see are forced to kneel 
and pray. " I wonder do they mean it all ? " wistfully asks an Eng- 
lish Christian at my elbow. " Sshh ! " comes from the kneeling 
Tuscan throng, and my weary staggerer in the Faith kneels to 
pray. 

The Cross comes now, borne at the head of a group of boys 
dressed in red and carrying symbols of the Passion. On a silk 
cushion one little fellow with baby cheeks bears the Crown of 
Thorns, on a silver plate they bring the NailSy the Spear is carried 
by a larger boy, and the Sponge and Hammer are borne by little 
fellows with the most angelic faces in the world. There is some- 
thing caressing about the way a little fellow bears the Thongs of 
the Scourging, as if he saw the Sacred Blood of his Saviour on 
them, and weighed it in his hands as more precious than all the 
jewels of earth. Wonderfully earnest it all is; and everybody 
lives his part entirely unconscious of the onlookers. 

Following the instruments of the Passion two little fellows 
bear the symbols of the Blessed Eucharist, the abiding Memorial 
of this Tragedy. 

A group of Roman soldiers comes next. Truly martial they 
look in their mediaeval armor. The long, flowing cloaks are spread 
over the chargers, covering all blemish of bone or skin. The bob- 
bing plumes and the glitter of the coats of mail make a weird 
spectre in the flickering light. They are followed by the village 
choir and band, singing and playing the Benedictus, the Miserere 
and the Vexilla Regis, 



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19171 THE FUNERAL OF CHRlSt 63 

And now come the chief mourners. At the head of the group 
is the monsignor and his curates, wearing black copes and chant- 
ing the Miserere sotto voce. They are followed by the Miseri- 
cordiae Brethren, all in black, murmuring their Aves as the great 
brown beads slip through rough toil-marked hands. A group of 
torchbearers follow, and their flaring torches throw a dim flicker- 
ing light over the bier and the waxen figure that is laid on it. 

It is the form of the dead Christ. Shattered and helpless it 
looks, fashioned from the realistic Latin mind that does not find 
the details of Christ's agony repellent, and cannot understand the 
namby pamby sensibilities of the modern Christian neurotic. As 
the bier stops, every now and then, when the way is too thickly 
thronged, peasants move dose and reverently kiss the figure, and 
little children are raised up that they may press their lips on its 
sacred feet and wounded side. 

After the bier come the three Marys bearing ointment and 
spices. They are clad in white, with little bands of black crape on 
the sleeves. Hundreds of other little girls bear candles, and then 
come the weeping women of Jerusalem. They are the women of 
Grassina, robed in black and wearing lace mantillas on the head. In 
their midst is borne the figure of the Sorrowful Mother, wan and 
pallid in the moonlight, bearing a handkerchief in her upraised hand. 

Last of all, and in anticipation of Easter, comes a triumphal 
car of baby angels. They recognize their friends and relatives in 
the crowd as they pass. There are nods from Antoinetta to Gio- 
vanino. Marietta steals from the crowd and gives a roasted chest- 
nut to her little angel sister on the car. Angelina is palpably vain 
of her wings as she is passing the workshop where her father 
makes the great wheels of the Tuscan mule carts. 

The procession winds up the other hillside, and an hour passes 
before it returns to the village. Then it goes through the main 
street and winds up at the little church, where the figure is 
laid away until another Good Friday comes around. 

So, year after year, they show forth the burial of the Lord, 
these simple and sensible people of Grassina. The intellectuals 
who come from the great world-centres of culture may find it 
trumpery and superstitious. Indeed the author of A Wanderer in 
Florence has written of it so. And if the great world-centres had 
only learned from Grassina, if we had had more of Christ and less 
of Mars parading our streets, Europe would not be today in blood 
and tears. 



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THE GREEK SCHISM AND BENEDICT XV. 

BY GEORGE CALAVASSY. 

|T may seem strange at first sight, at this time of crisis 
in the world's history, to speak of the Greek Schism, 
and even to present it as a live issue, and to connect 
with it the name of our Holy Father, Pope Bene- 
dict XV. It will seem especially strange to those 
who do not realize what religious and social questions must be 
answered in the near future. This is precisely the time to con- 
sider certain problems, the solution of which is of the utmost im- 
portance in view of the great mission which awaits Christianity 
after this gigantic struggle of nations and peoples. Benedict XV., 
upon whose shoulders weighs the enormous burden of responsibility 
for the interests of the Church and Christianity, is more than 
anyone else preoccupied with these problems, among which the 
return to unity of the Greek Church with its more than one himdred 
millions of adherents, is of very great importance. 

For some time past there has been wide discussion about Chris- 
tian unity. As a result the Pope has at times been credited with 
intentions which have not received the slightest official confirma- 
tion. Although officially sent from Rome to preach in favor of a 
work which has for its precise object the conversion of the Schis- 
matic Greeks, the writer of this article is not, however, authorized 
to make the slightest official declaration concerning the union of 
the Churches. 

There is no question that the Pope ardently desires to draw 
all Churches to unity, a condition more than ever necessary in the 
interests of Christianity, and it is also quite possible that a com- 
mission of Cardinals and other persons, competent in the matter, 
will be instituted for the purpose of examining and carrying out all 
possible means for facilitating and hastening this union; but the 
effort seems to be directed chiefly towards the Schismatic Eastern 
Churches. As a matter of fact, we cannot see what method could 
be used in Protestant countries to obtain the desired result other 
than that which has hitherto been so advantageously followed, 
and which is accessible to all Protestants of good will. If occa- 
sionally experiments have been made here and there by the authori- 



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1917] THE GREEK SCHISM AND BENEDICT XV. 65 

ties, by way of testing the ground, the only result has been to 
confirm the CathoHc Church in the method of individual con- 
versions which she has hitherto followed, and which owing to the 
apostolic spirit, the great zeal and energy of Catholic missionaries, 
especially in America, continues to yield such results that we are 
justified in hoping that at no distant future all sincerely religious 
Protestants will have returned to the Faith of their fathers. 

Union between the Catholic Church and the Protestant appears 
a Utopian dream in the eyes of all who deeply ponder this ques- 
tion. First of all, the Protestant Churches have to agree among 
themselves, for now there are as many different doctrines as there 
are denominations (I ought rather to say, as many doctrines as 
there are churches, for frequently in the same denomination each 
pastor has his own private doctrine, and this on questions which 
are basic and of the first importance). What then constitutes the 
Protestant Church a body, or bodies, separate from the Catholic 
Church? Unquestionably it is not the difference of rite, discipline, 
language or race, as in the case of the separated Greek Church. 
What separates the Protestant Churches from the Catholic Church 
are basic dogmatic differences, on which the Catholic Church cannot, 
because she has not the right to do so, yield an iota ; consequently 
union can only take place through the full acceptance of the dog- 
matic teaching of the Catholic Church, and what then will remain 
of the Protestant Church? Nothing at all; that will be manifested 
en masse which is manifested daily in the conversion of individuals. 
The Protestant Church will identify itself with the Catholic Church 
without the slightest distinction, as there is no distinction between a 
converted Protestant and one who is a Catholic by birth. In other 
words, the union between the Catholic Church and the Protestant 
Churches means nothing else than the cowuersion to the Catholic 
Church of all the Protestants in a body. 

The case is not the same for the Greek Church. But before 
speaking of the Greek Church, it may not be out of place for us to 
note the difference between a heretic and a schismatic. A heretic 
is one who rejects one or more articles of the Catholic Faith, 
as, for example, the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Most Holy 
Sacrament, or the veneration of the Blessed Virgin and the Saints ; 
a schismatic is one who, without rejecting any article of the Catho- 
lic Faith, is unwilling to submit himself to the head of the Catholic 
Church, the representative of Jesus Christ, and who consequently 
ceases to be in communion with the other members of the Churchy 

VOL. CV. — 5 rk\r> 

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66 THE GREEK SCHISM AND BENEDICT XV, [April, 

It follows, therefore, that all heretics are also schismatics, but not 
all schismatics are necessarily heretics. It follows also that the 
Protestant Churches are historically not only schismatic but also 
heretical. To return now to the Greek Church. It has existed 
from the earliest ages as a distinct organization because of its rite, 
language and discipline, but it was not on this account either heret- 
ical or schismatical, because it had only one dogmatic teaching, 
only one Creed, which was that of the Church of Rome, and it 
was from this union with Rome and its Bishop that it drew its sap 
and life. 

To understand this more fully, imagine a beautiful house in the 
centre of which there is a large room. This room is surrounded 
by a number of smaller rooms, everyone of which communicates 
with it by a door, while all communicate with one another. Every 
room has its own construction, its style, its own furnishing, its 
special decoration, but is not thereby constituted a separate house, 
having the one foundation with the central chamber and the other 
rooms of the building. The different Eastern Churches, with their 
variety of rites and customs constitute integral, although distinct, 
parts of the Catholic Church because they have but a single foun- 
dation, a single dogmatic and moral doctrine ; in their variety they 
seem to adorn the Church, " The Queen stood on thy right hand, 
in gilded clothing; surrounded with variety" (Ps. xliv. lo), and 
they form a permanent proof of the catholicity of the Roman 
Church, in which only they are united. Who would presume to 
say that St. Basil, St. Gregory Nazienzen, St. Cyril, St. Athanasius, 
St. John Chrysostom, St. John Damasceift, and so many others 
were not Catholics because they belonged to the Greek Church, 
and because their rite, discipline, and liturgical language were not 
those of the Roman Church? On the contrary, they were the 
greatest defenders of the Church and the Catholic Faith against 
the heretics, and down to our own times they are the unshakable 
pillars which support the edifice of the Church against the assaults 
of error. 

It is impossible, of course, to cover here the history of the early 
Greek Church. Sufficient is it to say that controversies, misunder- 
standings, political jealousies and subsequently the superiority of 
Greek over Latin civilization, and the fact that since the time of 
Constantine the Great, Constantinople had become the capital of 
the empire, the difficulty of Rome's exercising control owing to dis- 
tance and the difficulties of communication, all went towards facili- 

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1917.] THE GREEK SCHISM AND BENEDICT XV. 67 

tating this unfortunate schism. Ambitious, self-seeking, hypocriti- 
cal men fanned these flames, and one stood out prominently as their 
leader. This man, Photius, was endowed with unusual intellectual 
ability, he was a distinguished scholar, canonist, theologian and poet. 
To gifts of mind he joined distinction of birth which enabled him to 
rank among the favorites of the imperial court and to fill most im- 
portant offices. But his craftiness and ambition got the upper hand 
of his good qualities. Hence when the opportunity presented itself, 
he did not hesitate to trample under foot both the canon laws and 
all respect for the rights of others. 

There was at that time on the patriarchal throne of Constan- 
tinople a saintly bishop named Ignatius. Following the example 
of his great and holy predecessors, who did not hesitate to reproach 
the emperors and the courtiers with their crimes and their scandals, 
Ignatius publicly refused Communion to the tutor of the Emperor 
Michael III., Caesar Bardas, who gave public scandal by taking 
to wife his son's widow. The Patriarch's act, which was worthy 
of a Catholic bishop, drew upon him the false accusation of con- 
spiring against the empire, and consequently he was deposed and 
sent into exile in 859. Photius was the intimate friend of Bardas, 
and through the latter's intrigues was appointed to the patriarchal 
throne to succeed Ignatius. Photius was only a layman, despite 
which fact he was made Patriarch within six days. Hence he 
was doubly guilty, first, of having usurped the throne of the legit- 
imate patriarch, and, secondly, for having passed through all or- 
ders leading to the episcopate within six days, against the rulings 
of canon law. The matter was, therefore, very serious, and could 
not but attract the attention and condemnation of the Bishop of 
Rome, the supreme head of the Church. It became necessary, 
therefore, to forestall Papal intervention, and, not having suc- 
ceeded in wresting an abdication from Ignatius, Photius wrote 
to Pope Nicholas I., announcing his election, but keeping silence 
about its uncanonical proceedings and pretending to have been 
forced in spite of himself to accept the election. Some time later 
several bishops met in synod, and at the command of the court 
pronounced Ignatius deposed, and then confirmed the election of 
Photius. 

The Pope having learned the whole truth deposed and ex- 
communicated Photius and reestablished Ignatius on his throne. 
Photius had either to submit or declare a revolt. His ambition 
urged him to the latter course, and being upheld in it by the 

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68 THE GREEK SCHISM AND BENEDICT XV. [April, 

emperor he assembled a synod in 867, before which he laid a num- 
ber of accusations against the Latin Church, thus changing the per- 
sonal question into a doctrinal and disciplinary controversy be- 
tween the two Churches. The synod accepted his accusations, ex- 
communicated the Pope, and declared all commimication with Rome 
broken off. 

So the schism was accomplished, but Photius was not to en- 
joy long the fruits of his disastrous intrigue. Less than a year 
later the Emperor Michael was put to death. His successor, Basil 
the Macedonian, deposed and exiled Photius and restored Ignatius 
to the throne. Ignatius immediately renewed the bonds between his 
Church and the Church of Rome. Two years later the eighth 
General Council assembled at Constantinople under the presidency 
of the legates of Pope Adrian II., confirmed the guilt and ex- 
communication of Photius, recognized Ignatius as the legitimate 
Patriarch of Constantinople and solemnly proclaimed the primacy 
of the Pope. 

Photius, however, succeeded once more in winning the favor 
of Basil, and at the death of Ignatius he was again placed on 
the patriarchal throne. Scarcely was he in power when he re- 
newed his attacks against the Papacy and the Church of Rome, but 
Leo VI., the Philosopher, the son and successor of Basil L, was 
deeply distrustful of Photius, his former master, and as soon as 
he was emperor he hastened to depose him. This time Photius 
died without being able to regain the throne for the third time. 
By the death of Photius, union was completely restored between 
Rome and Constantinople and lasted for a century and a half, but 
the bad seed sown by him was unfortunately destined to bear 
fruit. 

During the one hundred and fifty years of union which suc- 
ceeded the Photian schism, relations between Rome and Constanti- 
nople were not always very close. A certain antagonism in politi- 
cal and disciplinary matters ; reproaches sometimes uttered in rather 
sharp language on one side or the other; the coldness caused by 
the intervention of both sides in the conversion of the Bulgars; 
and other regrettable incidents kept alive among the Greeks the 
embers of revolt. Only a daring leader was needed to rekindle 
the conflagration. Such a leader was Michael Caerularius. 

Vastly inferior to Photius in mind and talents, Caerularius sur- 
passed him in pride, in daring and in brutal energy. Having been 
sentenced to prison for conspiring against the Emperor Michael IV., 

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1917.] THE GREEK SCHISM AND BENEDICT XV. 69 

he decided to enter a monastery. Two years later Constantine 
Monomachos ascended the throne. He had taken part with Caeru- 
larius in the conspiracy against Emperor Michael IV. A year later, 
when the patriarchal throne was vacant, the emperor elevated to 
it Michael Caerularius. 

As Patriarch he at once sought to be independent of all 
authority, and began a desperate war against the Pope and the 
Latin Church. By letters to bishops and all kinds of publications, 
he endeavored to convince them that it was necessary to break 
with a Church which dared to use unleavened bread in the cele- 
bration of the Holy Sacrifice and which imposed the Sabbath fast. 
Accusations and calumnies were succeeded by violent persecution 
of the Latin churches and faithful in Constantinople. 

When Pope Leo IX. was informed of these serious proceed- 
ings, he wrote at once to Michael Caerularius in a firm but moderate 
tone, reproaching him with his conduct towards the Latins in con- 
trast to the magnanimity and condescension of Rome towards the 
Greeks living in Italy and elsewhere. If this letter abated for a 
time the Patriarch's fury, probably for political reasons, it did 
not shake his resolution to attain his end. Hence the Pope was 
obliged to send three legates to Constantinople to deal with the 
matter at close range and, if necessary, to take more energetic 
measures. He confided to them two letters, one for the emperor 
and the other for the Patriarch. The emperor was won over to 
the side of peace, but nothing was of any avail as far as Caerularius 
was concerned. All the efforts of the emperor and the legates were 
in vain; nothing could overcome the obstinacy of the Patriarch, 
blinded by ambition and pride. He even redoubled his efforts to 
win over the bishops and patriarchs to the side of his rebellion 
by lies and incredible calumnies, and later refused to deal further 
with the legates. 

The latter, seeing that all their efforts were in vain, decided to 
use severity; therefore, in the year 1054 during a solemn service 
in St, Sofia, they declared the Patriarch and his adherents excom- 
municated, adding that this act implied no intention of condemning 
tlie Greek Church, whose faith retained its integrity. 

After the departure of the legates, which took place immedi- 
ately after the publication of the excommunication, the excom- 
municated Patriarch assembled some metropolitans in synod and 
issued a so-called synodal letter to all the bishops and patriarchs, 
in which h^ declared the legates responsible for the separation be- 



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70 THE GREEK SCHISM AND BENEDICT XV. [April, 

cause they had attacked and calumniated the Greek Church, and had 
placed the Patriarch under the necessity of excommunicating them 
together with all the Latins. 

Having rejected the supreme authority instituted by Jesus 
Christ in His Church, and having subjected to himself the other 
bishops and patriarchs of the East, Caerularius attempted to super- 
sede the emperors and impose his will on them in the government 
of the empire. At times he succeeded; but when he had set on 
foot a project to bring about the deposition of the Emperor Isaac 
Comnenus, as he had that of his predecessor, he was suddenly 
seized and sent into exile where he died. He had prepared well the 
ground for schism, and now it was able to put forth such roots 
that the efforts of ten centuries have not sufficed to destroy it. 

Unfortunate circumstances which followed the separation es- 
tablished still more firmly the foundations on which the authors 
and propagators of the schism built their house. Among the ac- 
cusations against the Catholic Church which they carefully pub- 
lished among the people, were some which not only bred distrust 
of Rome's intentions, but aroused hatred of her and kept that 
hatred alive. Thenceforth the faithful beheld in her only an enemy 
who wanted to destroy all that they held most sacred, their rite, 
their liturgical customs, their language and their nationality. This 
hatred and distrust of the Catholic Church which has been kept 
alive in the minds of the people by unremitting efforts on the part 
of the schismatic authorities, has been handed down from gen- 
eration to generation. Unhappily there have been Catholics who, 
through excessive zeal, have confirmed the Greeks in their erroneous 
opinions. Such undoubtedly was the effect which the Crusades pro- 
duced among the Greeks. The indescribable conduct of the Cru- 
saders towards the Greek people, the profanation of their churches 
and monasteries, the usurpation of the imperial throne, the tyranny 
exercised over the Greeks during the fifty-six years of Latin domi- 
nation, the intolerance of their rite and their religious customs, are 
circumstances which have furnished the friends of the schism with 
strong arguments to keep the Greeks fixed in their hostile attitude 
towards the Catholic Church. Unquestionably neither the Pope nor 
the Church had any part in these abuses, which they condemned 
and reproved, but the Greeks were not given to making distinctions. 
Their enemies were Latins; now, the head of the Latins was the 
Pope; therefore, it was he who wished to destroy their rite and 
their nation. 

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1917] - THE GREEK SCHISM AND BENEDICT XV. 71 

The conduct of some European missionaries has confirmed 
them in their false reasoning. Such missionaries, in their zeal to win 
the Greeks to imity, have forced all who, in good faith, wished to be 
converted, to renoimce their rite, in opposition to Rome's wish in the 
matter, explicitly expressed time and time again. They were thus 
able to secure individuals here and there to increase the groups of 
Latin Catholics formed in different places by the Venetians and 
Genoese, but to the detriment of the general cause of union, for 
in the eye of the Greeks these conversions were a proof that the 
Church of Rome despised their particular customs and was making 
every effort to do away with them. This state of things lasted imtil 
the last century — ^we may say, until the time of Leo XIIL — who, 
in order to curb the imprudent zeal of the Latin missionaries, pro- 
mulgated, in his famous letter, Orientalium dignitas, several laws 
against this system of Latinization among the Orientals. Among 
others, he declared that " any Latin missionary, whether of the secu- 
lar or of the regular clergy, who obliges or assists an Oriental to 
pass to the Latin Rite, will not only incur ipso facto the suspension 
of his priestly functions and the other penalties inflicted by the 
Constitution Demqndatam (of Benedict XIV.), but will further- 
more be deprived of and expelled from his post." 

Since the consiunmation of the schism under Caerularius, the 
Greek Church has remained completely separated from the Catholic 
Church. It is true that union was twice officially established, once 
at the Council of Lyons under the Emperor Michael Palaeologus in 
1274, and again at the Council of Florence under John Palaeologus 
in 1434, but these unions were only ephemeral, because they were 
inspired by political expediency, and at a time when the groimd 
had not been prepared for the continuance of the union. Never- 
theless, the decree of the Union, especially at the Council of Florence 
where the Greek Church was fully represented and where lengthy 
discussions had preceded the decree, demonstrated that there really 
existed no dogiiiatic differences between the two Churches, and that 
Ihe schism was only due to the spirit of independence of several 
patriarchs, and to the misunderstandings and prejudices engendered 
and nourished by a series of deplorable circumstances. 

If to the foregoing causes we add ignorance and poli- 
tics, we shall have sunuiied up the causes which sustain the Greek 
Schism even to our own day. Dogmatic questions, it is true, are 
still being agitated among the theologians, but they are questions 
to which the people are absolute strangers. If the heads of each 

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72 THE GREEK SCHISM AND BENEDICT XV. [April, 

nation were convinced that the existence of a national Church 
separated from Rome is not necessary for the realization of their 
national aspirations, or that in union with Rome they would find 
a stronger support, all theological differences would immediately 
disappear. 

The Greek Church of today with its one hundred and ten or 
more millions of adherents, is divided into several autocephalous 
and independent Churches, such as the Russian Church, the Church 
of the Kingdom of Greece, the Church of Cyprus, the Bulgarian, 
Rumanian, Servian and Montenegrin Churches, and the Patriarch- 
ates of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem. 
With the exception of the patriarchates, all the other national 
Churches are governed by a synod under the control of the govern- 
ment and independently of every other Church, so that every 
Church is so closely connected with the State that it serves as the 
most powerful instrument of the State for the preservation of na- 
tional traditions and the realization of its aspirations. Inasmuch 
as the aspirations of all these States, and consequently of all these 
national Churches, are extremely opposed to one another and 
continually in conflict with one another, it will be readily under- 
stood that it would be too much to expect the return to unity of 
the whole Greek Church in a body. Having no directive union 
among themselves, and having opposite interests by the very fact 
of their being national Churches, it is impossible that they should 
agree among themselves in order to reach a common conclusion. 

But may it not be hoped that everyone of these Churches will 
accept the union by itself? It is earnestly to be hoped for; and 
it is most probable that the example of one would cause the others 
to follow it. But the question is very complex, because it is mixed 
up with politics, as I said above, and it would be a difficult and 
delicate matter to analyze it at this time. Very much depends on 
the result of the War. Naturally the Catholic Church cannot look 
for a return to unity that shall have no motives other than political 
interests; in order to be permanent, the union must be sincere and 
founded on supernatural motives. Nevertheless, it is certain that 
His Holiness, Benedict XV., ardently desires to bring back all 
the Churches to unity, and very probably the commission of which 
I spoke at the beginning will be charged with studying what can 
be done toward this end. 

Meanwhile, since the conversion of the schismatics is chiefly 
the work of the grace of God, the Pope first of all invites the faithful 



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1917.] THE GREEK SCHISM AND BENEDICT XV. 73 

to solicit this grace by prayer. The Pope himself composed and 
published a few months ago the following prayer for the return 
of the Eastern Churches to Catholic unity: 

O Lord, Who hast united the different nations in the confession of 
Thy name, we pray Thee for the Christian peoples of the East. Mind- 
ful of the noble place which they have held in Thy Church, we beseech 
Thee to inspire in them the desire to take it again, in order to form 
one fold under the rule of one and the same Shepherd. Bring it about 
that they, together with us, may be filled with the teaching of their 
holy Doctors, who are also our Fathers in the Faith. Prevent any mis- 
happening which might alienate them still more from us. May the 
spirit of concord and love, which is a proof of Thy Presence among 
the faithful, hasten the day when our prayers and theirs may be united 
in order that every people and every tongue may recognize and glorify 
Our Lord, Jesus Christ, Thy Son. Amen. 



Moreover, His Holiness has decided to put in practice the method 
which long experience has shown to be most efficacious. This 
method is the development of the Catholic communities of the 
Greek Rite already existing, and the establishment of as many 
new ones as possible. 

We have already said that the chief reasons which keep the 
schismatic peoples still separated from the Catholic Church, are 
ignorance and prejudice in religious matters. Attachment to their 
particular rite, liturgical customs and language is so strong in all 
these Greek people that no consideration would induce them to 
renounce them. Now as a general thing they do not know the 
Catholic Church except through the presence of foreign mission- 
aries of the Latin Rite and through the Churches of the same rite. 
Hence in their eyes to become a Catholic means a renunciation of 
all that they hold most sacred, and therefore they do not so much 
as consider the question. It must be shown to them, therefore, that 
this view of the case is not true, and that in becoming Catholics they 
need make none of these changes. But in order to accomplish 
tliis it is absolutely necessary to provide native missionaries of the 
Greek Rite and to form Catholic communities of this rite. In this 
way only will it be possible to come in contact with the Greek peo- 
ple, and to destroy their prejudices, to dissipate their ignorance and 
give them catechetical instruction. It is true that in some of the 
countries of the Near East, the practice of the Greek Rite by 
Catholics is not permitted, precisely because it is so efficacious in 
bringing about conversions among the schismatics ; even at present. 

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74 THE GREEK SCHISM AND BENEDICT XV. [April, 

however, the work of the native Catholic clergy of the Greek Rite 
is tolerated in some few of these countries. 

This method was included in Leo XIII.'s plan for the con- 
version of the Greeks, but he did not have time to put it completely 
into practice. In the hope, however, of seeing some result before 
his death, he sent to Constantinople the French Assumptionist 
Fathers, with permission to use the Greek Rite and to form there 
a Greek Catholic community. The priests set forth, full of zeal 
and abnegation, but they were confronted by another obstacle, 
which must absolutely be taken into consideration, namely, national 
sensitiveness. Beneath the habit which these Fathers wore, and 
the Greek Rite which they practised, the Greeks recognized French 
missionaries, and, as they thought, disguised, which only confirmed 
them in their century-long suspicions. This showed the necessity 
of Greek priests for the Greeks, Bulgarian priests for the Bul- 
garians, and so forth. So a few years later a little community of 
Greek Catholic missionaries of the Greek Rite was formed at Con- 
stantinople in dependence upon Propaganda. Their work was im- 
mediately crowned with success to the great disappointment of the 
schismatic Patriarch, who bestirred himself to halt the conversions 
by means of excommunications and unworthy measures against the 
Greek Catholic missionaries, and against those who had recourse to 
them with the desire of becoming Catholics. Despite these per- 
secutions, the conversions continued to increase to such an extent 
that Rome considered it time to send this growing community its 
first bishop, and on the thirtieth of November, 191 1, Pope Pius X. 
appointed the Rt. Rev. Isaias Papadopoulos the first Catholic bishop 
of the Greek Rite at Constantinople since the time of Caerularius. 

It is to be hoped that Bishop Isaias Papadopoulos is destined 
to restore the succession of the great and holy Patriarchs of Con- 
stantinople, which will occur in the course of time if, in the mean- 
time, the schismatic Patriarch does not himself take the decisive 
step. 

Meanwhile, the result already obtained and the conversions 
which continue to the present time, have induced the Holy Father 
to take the first step at Constantinople itself, the very centre of the 
schism. It is quite natural that salvation should come from the 
very place where the schism originated. Benedict XV., therefore, 
wishes to develop this work as much as possible, at the same time 
studying other means from which further results may be hoped 
for. Thus Constantinople will become the centre for subsequent 



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1917.] THE GREEK SCHISM AND BENEDICT XV. 75 

work in other cities of the Ottoman Empire and in other coun- 
tries. 

In the interval, Bishop Papadopoulos is already in the eyes 
of the Greek people the representative of the Catholic Church, the 
one with whom they must range themselves if they wish to repu- 
diate the schismatic authorities. Hence he must have a cathedral 
worthy of the cause which he represents, a cathedral which will 
be in the eyes of the Greeks a palpable proof of the veneration in 
which the Catholic Church holds their magnificent rite and their 
sublime liturgy, which were instituted by the holy Fathers of the 
Church in the early ages. Hitherto Bishop Papadopoulos has had 
only a little chapel, long since inadequate for the converted faith- 
ful and for the number of schismatics who resort to it to behold 
with astonishment how their rite and liturgy are celebrated in 
their own tongue in a Catholic church, and, what to them is still 
more astonishing, by Greek priests of their own nationality. With 
what admiration they go thither to hear the explanation of the 
Gospel and divine truths, of which they hear so little in their own 
churches! Very often they go from the. chapel to the rectory in 
search of information, and even those who do not do so on the 
first occasion nevertheless leave the sacred edifice convinced of 
the falsity of the assertion made by their priests that, in order to 
be a Catholic, it is necessary to renounce all these things. 

Needless to say, the support which the Holy Father wishes 
to aflFord this most important work cannot consist solely in the 
building of a cathedral. He wishes to provide it with all the means 
necessary to its development and extension. Now, " the harvest 
is great but the laborers are few." Hence missionaries must be 
assured to it by the foundation of a seminary. A great many 
priests are necessary, not only for the task of individual conver- 
sions, but also in the event of the conversion of the Greeks in a 
body. The Greek faithful are ignorant in religious matters, be- 
cause as a general thing their priests are pitiably ignorant ; in the 
villages especially, the priests are merely peasants scarcely able 
to read and write. Hence there must be a large number of 
educated priests, capable of restoring the spirit of faith among both 
the clergy and the faithful, of familiarizing them with the chief 
mysteries of our holy religion, and of destroying their supersti- 
tions, the inevitable fruit of ignorance. Otherwise corporate union 
would be of short duration, for it would not be founded on con- 
viction. 



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;6 THE GREEK SCHISM AND BENEDICT XV. [April, 

But above all it is essential to provide for future generations 
by training up the young people in the Catholic faith and spirit, 
therefore schools must be provided for boys and girls. A Catholic 
mission or community without schools cannot long endure. 

Besides the mission in Constantinople four or five other mis- 
sions have already been established in other schismatical centres 
in Thrace. and Asia Minor, dependent upon Constantinople. All 
these missions lack the means of support. 

The work is therefore enormous, because it is a beginning and 
the difficulties are great, but if God's hour has struck, the obstacles 
will coimt as nothing. Our difficulties are far from being as great 
as those which the Apostles encountered when they undertook the 
evangelization of the Roman Empire and the whole world. The 
history of the Catholic Church is replete with facts which prove 
the continuous assistance of Jesus Christ, so that a Catholic must 
never be dismayed by the difficulties which confront Christ's 
Church. Still less can the head of the Church falter before the 
obstacles which he encounters in the accomplishment of the work 
which Jesus Christ has confided to him, of leading back to the 
fold all stray sheep that there may be '* but one Fold and one 
Shepherd." 



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ST. PAUL AND HIS CO-WORKERS. 

BY L. E. BELLANTI, SJ. 

lARELY is success an accident. This is true in both 
the worlds of spirit and of sense. Opportunities, in- 
deed, may come in the way of one that are denied 
to another, but that native power so lamely styled 
the secret of success adapts the data of cirgumstance 
to the proposed end when it does not wholly transcend them. So, 
too, in the case of St. Paul, some circumstances directly favored 
his work; others he turned and twisted into his service; over the 
rest he rode, ignoring rude falls, unbroken, triumphant. Not 
naturally, still less supernaturally, could Paul ever be the victim of 
circumstance. To my mind any estimate of the Apostle's success 
which ignored this acceptance and ready manipulation of human 
factors, would be as incomplete, as historically and psychologically 
misleading. After all the Saint is the man — elevated utterly above 
his natural best — ^but still supremely himself. 

The natural side, then, of Paul's genius is manifest in the 
skill and foresight with which he picks and chooses each human 
instrument, and takes every material ^condition into account for 
the furtherance of God's work. A prudent centralization guides and 
supports the first tottering footsteps of his infant foundations. As 
they grow in experience and self-reliance his support is gently 
withdrawn. Very tentatively and with infinite precaution he be- 
gins to delegate his powers to a few men whom he himself has 
formed, impressed and fired with a touch of his own spirit of 
flaming self-surrender. In all things practical, he develops and 
extends this precious business of soul-saving along the lines laid 
out for him by the physical and social conditions of that Empire 
on whose conquest he is bent. His movements are along the great 
highways, his strongholds the great cities — roughly rehearsed in 
ascending scale — Pisidian, Antioch, and the towns of Southern 
Galatia; Philippi, Thessalonica, Athens, Corinth, Ephesus, and 
Rome. Adapting Merivale's words ^ on the future of Christianity 
to the Apostle's outlook, we may say that " the active and growing 
strength of the Roman world was truly his — his the future of all 
civilized society." 

*Merivalc, Epochs of Early Church History, p. a. 



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78 ST. PAUL AND HIS CO-WORKERS [April, 

Characteristically he began by demanding a complete and 
whole-hearted recognition of his place in the Church. Not only 
did he claim the right to be believed when he spoke as God's mes- 
senger, but he insisted on his power to guide, govern and be 
in supreme control. This authority belongs to him as to the other 
Apostles by virtue of a divine commission — ^however unique in 
his case in the circumstances of its bestowal. There is to be no 
question of powers delegated by man; to him as to them such 
powers come straight from Our Lord. A strange note of solemnity 
rings through his words when he begins to speak of his mission. 
Though mostly he is the " menial servant " toiling in the service 
of his Master (Rom. i. i; i Cor. iv., i; ix. 17, etc.), he is also 
the Evangelist of good tidings whose footsteps are beautiful 
(Rom. X. 15; I Cor. iv. 9-13). Though the least of the Apostles 
and not worthy to be called an Apostle (i Cor. xv. 9; Rom. 
i. 14), oppressed at times even unto " weakness and fear and much 
trembling" (i Cor. ii. 3), as utterly futile as Teresa with her 
three ducats, yet like her he is rich with all the riches of God, and 
can exclaim " by the grace of God I am what I am '* ( i Cor. xv. 

10), " a herald, and an apostle a teacher of the Gentiles *' 

(i Tim. ii. 7). It is this fierce glow of divine life that devours 
him and drives him on. At one time he is obsessed by the thought 
of Rome, and exclaims, *' I needs must see Rome " (Acts xix. 21), 
at another time, *' Come overseas and help lis '* is the refrain ring- 
ing through his dreams (Acts xvi. 9). " Necessity," he cries out, 
** is laid upon me. Yea, woe is me if I preach not the Gospel " 
(i Cor. ix. 16). Paul then is an Ambassador of Christ, an Apostle 
in that highly-specialized sense of the term in which it is applied to 
"the Twelve" (Matt. x. i, 2; Luke vi. 13; John xx. 24, etc.), 
and connotes powers and privileges derived straight from Our Lord. 
In our own day we are familiar with the discipline which 
exacts a long period of preparation— often extending into genera- 
tions — ^before a native priesthood can be permanently established. 
We have heard of St. Francis Xavier's difficulties with his native 
missionaries in India, if not of more recent but strikingly similar 
disappointments over prospective candidates for a native priest- 
hood elsewhere. That the organization of Paul's nascent churches 
developed far more rapidly is, however, readily intelligible when we 
recall the lavish outpouring of divine grace in those early days, the 
prophetic knowledge, spiritual insight and miraculous powers of 
the Apostle, the charismatic gifts so copiously bestowed upon his 



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I9I7] ST. PAUL AND HIS CO-IVORKERS 79 

congregations, and— descending to the natural order — the lofty 
ethical attitude and genius for assimilating deep religious truths 
shown by his convert Jews and proselytes in Asia Minor, Greece 
and Rome. Almost at the outset of his missionary career we find 
Paul appointing " Presbyters " in the Churches of Southern Galatia, 
and this may be taken as evidence of his regular practice elsewhere. 
Their office was to minister to the converts, and to act as shepherds, 
teachers and overseers, governing, instructing, shielding their flocks 
from every extravagance in worship and error in belief. Often 
enough the college of priests is reenforced by deacons whose chief 
duties seem to lie in the domain of instruction, and in superin- 
tending and organizing the works of charity. These priests and 
deacons together make up the local ministry. They have been or- 
dained by the Apostle or his delegates, and everywhere act in strict 
dependence upon their instructions and guidance. The much- 
vaunted autonomy of these early churches is a latter-day hypothesis, 
for which hardly a shred of positive evidence can be adduced. Nor 
again, is there any tampering with the high moral standard placed 
before candidates for the ministry. A glance at the long list of 
requirements and personal qualifications as set forth in the Epistle 
to Timothy (i Tim. iii. 2-1 1) shows us that Paul imposed a really 
heart-searching test. His priests must be men of unsullied reputa- 
tion, only once married if at all, men of unruffled temper, discreet, 
sober, devoted, a standing example of all that should be, both in 
the management of themselves and of their households, intellectu- 
ally capable the while of distinguishing the false from the true, and 
strong to take action and stamp out the seeds of error. The same 
qualifications are more briefly summed up in the Epistle to Titus, 
but a further proviso is introduced about converts. That delegate 
is instructed to demand from his candidates personal holiness, active 
zeal, and the external qualities befitting their public position — ^also 
they should not be " recent converts." In this phrase, obviously 
enough, the epithet " recent " need not be pressed; where all had 
been but lately won over to the Church, we may well believe that a 
convert of four or five years* standing would have enjoyed a reputa- 
tion for maturity equivalent at least to that of an " old Catholic '' 
in the days of the Oxford Movement. 

Once the initial impetus had been communicated to his founda- 
tions and a local ministry established, Paul at once set out to open 
fresh fields, or to revisit and confirm his other congregations. 
Gradually, and perhaps quite indeliberately to begin with, he had 



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8o ST. PAUL AND HIS CO-WORKERS [April, 

gathered a number of followers about hfm, men actuated by lofty 
ideals and bound to his person by the ties of a beautiful natural 
affection. They were his personal staff — closely identified with 
himself in that communion and fellowship of the saints on earth 
which is so integral a part of Paul's radiating doctrine of our in- 
corporation with Christ — so he variously addresses them as his 
fellow-exiles, fellow-laborers, fellow-soldiers, fellow-slaves, fellow- 
prisoners, fellow-sufferers and yoke-fellows. They wrote at his 
dictation (Rom. xvi. 22), acted as his secretaries, letter-carriers,* 
and special envoys, and were his mainstay in the bewilderingly 
rapid development of the work of evangelization, instruction and 
government. Long intercourse with the Apostle had familiarized 
them with his ideals and his outlook ; they were possessed of that 
true sympathy which is bom of understanding; they knew and 
loved him in all his moods of exaltation and depression. He in 
turn knew how to elicit the best that was in them, and could place 
implicit reliance on their loyalty and devotion. His difference with 
John Mark in Pamphylia was happily only temporary ; when Demas 
— a unique case — departs for Thessalonica leaving him in the lurch, 
Paul's comment is brief to the verge of bitterness. Otherwise his 
intimate union with his apostolic followers rises superior to every 
test and trial. With their help he rules the immense and indefinable 
diocese of Asia Minor and the i^gean. Nowhere, however, do we 
find them settling down under his direction to the permanent rule 
of an individual church. Timothy's position of authority at Ephe- 
sus lacks this one note of permanency. Titus again is told to rejoin 
the Apostle on the arrival of a substitute — ^Tychicus maybe, or 
Artemas or perhaps both. Luke helps to build up the devoted 
church of Philippi during five or six years stay in that city, 
but henceforward his place is always by the side of the Apostle. 

The association of Barnabas and Silas with Paul belongs to 
an earlier period. Both of them seem to have worked on a footing 
of greater equality with Paul, though naturally enough his is ever 
the dominant personality. Of the status of such dear friends as 
Aquila, Philemon, Aristarchus, Urbanus, Epaphroditus, Clement, 
Epaphras, Andronicus and Junias, it is more difficult to speak. It 
is not unlikely that they were all or neariy all priests, sharing in the 
Apostle's activities, hopes and plans, though not permanently at- 
taching themselves to his person. Indeed as the years glide past, 

•Titus seems to have been the bearer of a drastically worded letter to the 
Corinthians (now lost), as also of the extant Second Epistle to the Corinthians 
(2 Cor. vii. 6-9; viii. 6, 17). 



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1917] ST. PAUL AND HIS CO-WORKERS 8i 

we find even his closest associates dropping away from him, and 
settling down in different places to what was perhaps more, definite 
and congenial work. Paul in his strong need for helpers felt these 
necessary partings very keenly, the more so that it was part of his 
lavishly affectionate nature to have no reserves with his friends but 
to give his all. Despite the long lapse of centttfies, how close to 
our own times rings his appealing cry to Timothy, pathetic in its 
human urgency — " Do your best to come to me soon. Demas in 

his love for the world has deserted me Crescens has gone to 

Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. There is no one but Luke 'with me. 

Erastus remained at Corinth and I left Trophimus unwell 

at Miletus. Do your utmost to come to me before winter" (2 
Tim. 4). 

We have spoken of a local as well as of a traveling ministry, 
whose activities radiate even as their powers flow from the person 
of the Apostle. Of the division into diocese and of the institution 
of a monarchical episcopate, there is no certain trace either in the 
Acts or in the Pauline Epistles. In this as in other matters the 
argument from silence — always a treacherous one — should not be 
pressed. Undoubtedly the evidence of the earliest second century 
writers — ^notably that of Ignatius the Martyr — ^between the years 
98-117 A. D. — ^points to an assured belief that the institution of a 
monarchical episcopate was the work of the Apostles. On the other 
hand, it is tolerably clear that as the bishops were to be the successors 
of the Apostles, there could be no question of their institution by 
Paul in the earliest stages of his churches' progress, or as long as he 
himself was able to foster their growth and direct their develop- 
ment. Suffice it, then, to say — for the question of the monarchical 
episcopate* is outside our present scope — ^that " the steps* in the 
organization of the local church would seem to have been the estab- 
lishment of a body of presbyters and deacons under the oversight 
of an Apostle and his staff, followed later by the apostolic appoint- 
ment over the presbyters, deacons and faithful of a monarchical 
bishop who worked under the general control of the Apostles, as 
long as such control was possible." 

To put man and woman on a footing of equality was and re- 
mains always part of the social teaching of the Gospel. " All dis- 
tinctions between. .... .male and female have vanished," says the 

'For a brief and Bcfaolarly treatment of the whole question of the Ministry 
in the ApostoUc Church, see the second appendix to the First Epistle to the Corin- 
thiina, by the Rev. A. Keogh, SJ. (Westminster Version, vol. iii., pt. 2. New York : 
Lcingmatia, Green k Co,), *Ibid., p. 72. 

?0U CV.— 6 



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82 ST. PAUL AND HIS CO-WORKERS [April, 

Apostle, " for in Christ you are all one" (Gal iii. 28). Qement 
of Alexandria, who so stanchly champions the high place of woman' 
in a Providence that enfolds both the worlds of nature and of 
grace, enlarges on their important role in the early days of Chris- 
tianity. He reminds us how all the Apostles after the manner of 
Our Lord availed themselves of the ministrations of holy women, 
whose ready access to the dwelling of others of their sex often 
insensibly opened the way to instruction and conversion. " Through 
women, the Lord's teaching insinuated itself without any reproach, 
even into the women's apartments."* 

Paul himself was unmarried and in his own person preferred 
to be independent, while fully admitting the liberty of others in 
this respect (i Cor. ix. 6-12), but he was only too happy to con- 
fide many of the corporal and spiritual works of charity to his 
tried female converts. Indeed, he took particular care to employ 
all that ardor of faith and charity, that piety and devotion which 
so fittingly crown the virtues of the sex. He even allowed them to 
consecrate their lives entirely to the Church's service, once their 
ripe age had been approved by an equal maturity of holiness. On 
theSe devoted virgins and widows — known later as the order of 
deaconesses — ^largely fell the task of visiting the sick and helping 
the poor; theirs too the privilege — so happily fulfilled by many 
of our sisterhoods at the present day — of instructing recent con- 
verts, preparing them for baptism and generally confirming them in 
the practice of their religion. Yet he did not hesitate to speak very 
plainly, when, as at Corinth, their zeal seemed to outrun all dis- 
cretion. He utterly disapproves of Christian women attempting 
to preach or teach in the churches, and he has not a little to say 
about the self-confidence of Corinthian ladies in claiming the right 
to appear unveiled at public worship (i Cor. xi. 1-16; xiv. 34-36). 
On another occasion (i Tim. ii. 11 ff.) his views are expressed 
even more forcibly. He simply will not hear of a woman acting 
as a teacher. She ought to be silent and find her salvation in the 
duties of motherhood and in the maintenance of faith, love and 
holiness. Obviously, all this presupposes serious encroachments on 
the part of women in the Church's worship; possibly, too, other 
and more unpleasant experiences may have been present to the 
Apostle's mind (i Tim. ii. 14; 2 Tim. iii. 6). 

It would, however, be unfair to dismiss this subject under the 
painful impression that the holy activities of women in the early 

•Sec especially: Padag: I. 4- •Strom. III., VI., 53. 



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191 71 ST. PAUL AND HIS CO-WORKERS 83 

Church had to be summarily cut down because of occasional indis- 
cretions. (As a fact, such an impression would be a perversion of 
history.) Paul was a ruler large-minded enough to dismiss any 
temptation — had such even presented itself to him — of tearing up 
both the cockle and the wheat. Taking the Acts to lend a setting 
to the Epistles, we find ourselves introduced there to Mary the 
mother of Mark, whose house is a meeting place for the Church at 
Jerusalem (Acts xii. 12) ; to Tabitha at Joppa (Acts ix. 36) ; to 
Lydia at Philippi — seemingly the first Pauline convert in Europe — 
(Acts xvi. 14), and to Damaris at Athens (Acts xvii. 34). We 
also hear of the four spiritually-gifted daughters of Philip at 
Qesarea (Acts xxi. 8), and of the important place taken by women, 
whether in opposition, as at Pisidian Antioch (Acts xiii. 5), or in 
the ranks of his devoted followers as at Thessalonica and Berea 
(Acts xvii. 4-12). 

It is not unprofitable to glean some fragments of information 
about the more notable of these holy women, if only to stress the 
fact, too often overlooked, of their prominence in the Apostolic 
Church. Foremost among these workers was the Roman dame 
Prisca or Priscilla, who with her Jewish husband Aquila was 
driven out of Rome by the decree of Claudius about 51 a. d. At 
Corinth this Christian couple met and befriended Paul, traveled 
with him later on to Ephesus, and at some unknown juncture were 
even instrumental in saving his life. They reappear in Rome about 
the year 57 a. d., for to Priscilla and Aquila Paul directed his 

warmest greeting " and to them not only I but all the Gentile 

Churches render thanks. Greet also the Church in their house " 
(Rom. xvi. 3 ff.)- ^^ ^his Epistle, as also in three other places, 
the name of Priscilla stands first. Plainly she was the leading 
figure of the pair, and a dominating personality in the best sense 
of the term. It is to her that St. John Chrysostom ascribes with 
every show of probability the conversion of Apollos, John the 
Baptist's disciple (Acts xvjii. 26). 

Now as Apollos was a Greek of standing and culture, and 
indeed was later on at Corinth put by some factious converts on a 
footing of equality with Cephas and Paul, the natural inference 
is that the woman who was capable of instructing him and leading 
him on to a knowledge of the truth must have been possessed of no 
small share of natural attainments. In this context it is interesting 
to note some further traces of this venerated Roman matron of- 
fered to us by De Rossi as a fruit of his investigations. This dis- 



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84 ST, PAUL AND HIS CO-WORKERS [April, 

tinguished archaeologist suggests reasons for connecting Prisca with 
the ancient titular church of that name on the Aventine and, far 
more plausibly, with the famous consular family of the Acilii Gla- 
briones, themselves converts to Christianity towards the end of 
the first century.'' From the very nature of things his arguments 
cannot be demonstrative, but they open out a stimulating and highly- 
colored vista of possibilities in those early days, and, quite inde- 
pendently of Paul's testimony, they establish some measure of 
probability for the return of Prisca and Aquila to Rome and for 
their permanent connection with the Church there. 

The Epistle to the Romans is rounded off by a long list of 
salutations from Paul to the notable members of that Church. 
One of the most significant things about this list is that for eighteen 
men who are mentioned, we have no less than fifteen women, all 
recipients of the Apostle's personal greetings. Such a long and 
distinguished roll of female workers is surely a striking proof of 
the religious activity and prominent position of women in church 
work at this time. First among these zealous missionaries is 
Phoebe, the bearer of the letter (Rom. xvi. i), who helps in the 
Church's work at Cenchreae — the port of Corinth — ^and has proved 
herself already of inestimable service to him and to many others. 
Her distinguished position is emphasized by a title (xpojTdcxtq) 
which combines the connotation of a legal representative and affluent 
patroness of that Church. For the rest of these devoted females 
his own words read in the light of what has already been said must 

suffice. " Give my greeting to Prisca Salute Mary who has 

work so hard among you Salute Tryphena and Tryphosa 

who are toiling in the Lord. Greet my dear friend Persis who has 

done great work in the Lord " and Rufus' mother — " a 

mother also to me " and " Julia too " and Nereus' 

" sister " and " all the Saints in their company All the 

Churches of Christ send you their greeting" (Rom. xvi. 1-16). 
This last phrase, following so closely in the list of affectionate per- 
sonal greetings — and in any case unique in the whole of the New 
Testament — is eloquent not only of the esteem and love felt by all 
the Jewish and Gentile congregations for the great Church at Rome, 
but also of Paul's own mindful affection for his fellow-laborers 
among whom these women held so high a place. 

Paul's great glory is rather in the firm foundations he laid 
than in the actual results achieved during his brief apostolate. As 

*Scc Dc Rossi: Bull: Arch. Christ. Sermon i, no. 5. pp. 45 ff., and Sermon 
4, no. 6, p. 129. 



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1917] ST. PAUL AND HIS CO-WORKERS 85 

in his Master's case indications of success and failure alternate in 
a life crowned inevitably by the consummation of the great sacri- 
fice. Yet considered in themselves these results form no unworthy 
introduction to the miraculous expansion of the Church in the first 
three centuries. Like the yeast that leavened the three measures 
of meal we see the Gospel permeating the three dimensions of the 
Roman world, and working its way (i) laterally, (2) vertically 
and (3) penetratingly through the vitiated substance of paganism. 
That is to say, its success is, generally speaking, unfettered by the 
physical factors of geography, or by the moral factors of social 
standing and intellectual outlook. The briefest and most incom- 
plete summary of the evidence at our disposal will make this clear. 

(i) Of Rome itself we know that within twenty years of 
Our Lord's Ascension, the disturbances arising there out of the 
cleavage between Jews and Christians led to the temporary banish- 
ment of both parties from the city.® Again, only six years later, 
we find Paul directing his longest and most elaborate epistle to that 
Church, which circumstances had hitherto prevented him from 
visiting in person though there can be no doubt of the influence he 
had already exercised on many of its members. Note, too, the 
superbly Pauline compliment to this Church's faith of which he 
speaks as "proclaimed throughout the whole world" — ^no vain 
compliment either in view of the imminent Neronian persecution 
(64 A. D.) when " an immense multitude "• sealed their faith with 
Aeir blood. The incidents preceding the riot in the course of the 
Pan-Athcnaic festival at Ephesus are equally instructive. There his 
hearers were roused to such a pitch of enthusiasm that they made a 
blazing holocaust of their books of magic — ^valued by the practical 
mind of Luke at fifty thousand pieces of silver (about £2,000) — 
"so mightily did the iLord's word grow and prevail" (Acts xix. 20). 

In the incredibly rapid expansion of the Pauline churches, 
Ej^esus and Rome stand as the fixed points or foci of an ellipse, 
elongated to cover the north of the Mediterranean basin from the 
Levant and Syria in the East, to Spain in the West. Particularly 
striking is the thronging multiplicity of these foundations between 
the two termini of Syrian Antioch and Corinth. Any one of Paul's 
indefatigable missionaries even before Paul's martsrrdom, could 
have traveled through Syria, Asia Minor and the -Slgean without 
being driven to seek hospitality outside the Christian community. 
Setting out from Syrian Antioch, two routes would be open to him. 

•Suet: Clatid: as. 'Tac. Ann. XV. 44. 



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86 ST, PAUL AND HIS CO-WORKERS [April, 

He might go down to Seleucia, take ship there for Cyprus, and 
after tasting the welcome of the Salaminians and Paphians pass 
overseas to the congregations of Attaia and Perge and thence into 
the interior; or he might prefer the overland route — ^as Paul did 
on his third missionary journey — and in his passage the mere men- 
tion of the Apostle's name would unlock the hearts of all " the 
Saints " to him at Tarsus, Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, Antioch, Colosse, 
Laodicea as also in the ^Egean cities of Miletus, Ephesus, Troas, 
Neapolis, Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, Cenchreae and 
Corinth. 

The evidence of startlingly ramifying activities on the part of 
Paul's fellow-workers in the pastoral Epistles, offers another and 
independent line of argument. In these letters we hear of Paul 
revisiting the Churches in the ^Egean, directing the work of Titus, 
Tychicus and Artemas in Crete, summoning Titus somewhat later 
to Nicopolis in Epirus — for subsequent work in Dalmatia — send- 
ing detailed instructions to Timothy at" Ephesus, messages to John 
Mark and to Carpus at Troas, and referring to Trophimus at Mile- 
tus, to Crescens in Galatia, or, more vaguely to Zenas and Apollos 
in the i^gean and to Phygellus and Hermogenes who have turned 
their backs on him somewhere in the province of Asia. Try to 
plot out some indications of this ubiquitous activity, and your map 
is at once covered by a maze of lines crossing and re-crossing, turn- 
ing and twisting, and tangling the heedless, flighty world in the 
great Fowler's net — for these lines really are as the cords of the 
Second Adam, the bands of His love. 

(2) When we pass on to inquire what was the social com- 
position of these amazingly multiplied Christian communities, spon- 
taneously Paul's words " not many wise not many mighty, 

not many noble " spring to our lips, yet though the poor are, and, 
thank God, ever have been the mainstay and the glory of the 
Church, Gibbon's verdict that "the new sect was almost entirely 
composed of the dregs of the populace of peasants and me- 
chanics, of boys and women, of beggars and slaves " is, as Gib- 
bon knew it to be, a miserable travesty of the truth. Paul himself 
is according to some believed to have taken his name from his dis- 
tinguished convert the proconsul Sergius Paulus. Dionysius the 
Areopagite of Athens, Crispus the chief ruler of the Synagogue at 
Corinth, Erastus the chamberlain of that city, Publius — " The First 
of the Island " of Malta — ^a title which has inscriptional authority 
and denotes the supreme Governor — ^these are all noble and highly 



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1917] ST. PAUL AND HIS CO-WORKERS 87 

placed converts. The list may be increased almost indefinitely if 
with these great ones of the earth we include persons of a recog- 
nized social position, such as the most excellent^® Theophilus — ^to 
whom Luke, himself a physician and an accomplished writer, dedi- 
cates his works — Stephanas whose household is such a solid com- 
fort to the Corinthian Church, Philemon of Colosse, Onesiphorus, 
Jason, Chloe, whose servants are found traveling about on their 
mistress' business, Phoebe of Cenchreae, Pomponia Graecina — the 
mystery of whose secluded life now seems to have come to light — 
and many others. 

Nor may we neglect such indications as the Acts occasionally 
afford. So we are told that in Thessalonica " not a few of the 
chief women" (Acts xi. 4), in Berea "of the Greek women of 
honorable estate and of men not a few" received the faith. If 
"abject poverty" (2 Cor. viii. 2) characterizes the churches of 
Macedonia, a generous liberality proportioned to their comparative 
affluence is expected from the community at Corinth. Paul's own 
insistent warnings against the peril of riches and the abuses of 
wealth are particularly instructive in this connection. While there- 
fore the majorty of converts to Christianity were drawn, as they 
always are, from the poorer classes, the scanty evidence accessible 
goes to show that elect souls from the more wealthy and leisured 
classes found their way into the Church in due proportion. 

(3) With the growth of the study of religious origins, it has 
become fashionable to stress the debt of Christianity to Greek 
religion, Asiatic cults, Alexandrine philosophy, and indeed to 
every conceivable element of pagan life.^^ Harnack's generaliza- 
tion^^ that " Christianity thoroughly sucked the marrow of the 
ancient world and assimilated it " is modesty itself when compared 
with the charges of plagiarism in gross and in detail laid at our 
door by those who like S. Reinach and J. M. Robertson look on the 
religions of mankind as all equally man-made. Yet, on our show- 
ing, from its earliest beginnings, the Catholic Church numbered 
among its adherents men of station and culture, who, it may be 
assumed, had proved in their own lives the bankruptcy of current 

"This title of "excellency" has a technical meaning. 

'^ Foitunately a reaction has at last set in against this misdirected form of 
erudition. As an instance of this, Dr. Sanday's felicitous estimate is worth quoting. 
" Their uncritical and agile imaginations," he said, speaking of some such scholars, 
** were responsible for constructions built on the principles made classic by Fluellen. 

'There is a river in Macedon, and there is also a river in Monmouth Tis 

so like as my fingers is to my fingers, and there is salmons in both.' " ( Presidential 
Address, Oxford Congress on Science of Religion, 1908). 

^Contemporary Review, August, 1886, p. 234. 

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88 ST. PAUL AND HIS CO-WORKERS [April, 

systems, and as time went on, it was their influence and that of 
their successors which prevailed. The Christian who could give 
his reasons for the faith that was in him did much to purify and 
elevate the stoicism or neoplatonism of the cultured pagans about 
him. He gave them far more of his own than he could ever have 
received of theirs. In fact, their philosophies had been tried by him 
and found wanting. 

That this interaction of false philosophies and the true 
faith was hot wholly a growth of later centuries is clear from 
the letters of Paul. Very plainly he expresses his contempt 
for the artificial systems of the Sophist and the Rhetorician. He 
insistently warns his converts against bringing the free Gospel of 
Christ into subjection to Judaizing prescriptions, as at Corinth, or 
conniving with superstition and magic as at Ephesus, or worst of 
all attempting to reconcile it with the false principles of Essenian 
and Gnostic philosophies as at Colosse. In each case the result 
would be the same^' — " a departure from the purity and simplicity 
of the Gospel, an exaltation of knowledge over piety and a straying 
into various paths of intellectual heresy " along the seductive ways 
of reconciliation and compromise. Again, as Dr. Orr proceeds to 
point out, the entire moral and dogmatic content of the Pauline 
Epistles " with their deep thought and close-knit reasoning and 
their views of truth reaching out into the eternities before and 
after," afford the most convincing proof of the character of the 
problem exercising the minds of his readers. We may rest content 
with these indications of the subtle energy with which Christianity 
was leavening the thoughts and ideals of the pagan world without 
entering into a discussion of such vexed questions as that of 
Seneca's approximations to approved Gospel sentiments, approxima- 
tions which became closest at a time when, if ever, it was least 
unlikely that he should have come into contact with the oral ex- 
position of Christian teaching. 

Despite the fact that the Apostle's work was not definitely 
restricted by any limitations of national sentiment, social condition 
or intellectual standpoint, every conversion was none the less a 
miracle of grace. We need only oppose the pictures of widespread 
and seemingly familiar vice drawn by the Apostle in his letters to 
the Romans and Corinthians (Rom. i. 23-32; i Cor. v. 9-1 1 ; vi. 
9-1 1, etc.) with that strict moral code which almost inevitably 
would compel Christians to live their lives apart if they would 

"Dr. Orr, Neglected Factors, etc., p. 173. 



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1917] ^7^. PAUL AND HIS CO-WORKERS 89 

escape contagion. The defilement of almost every observance of 
civil life by pagan practices, the identification of loyalty with 
Caesar-worship, most of all the wide currency of unmentionably 
gross calumnies about the holiest beliefs and practices of Chris- 
tianity must have been grievous obstacles to the good faith of num- 
berless pagans. Yet, like every great missionary, Paul foimd untold 
consolation in the fervor of his spiritual children. The occasional 
lapses that may be inferred from his continual warnings and fearful 
denunciations, throw into a clearer light the deep devotion to the 
person of Christ and the spirit of love and charity that animated 
his growing foundations. 

Above all, what strikes the reader of the Epistles, is the inti- 
mate personal relationship in which Paul stood towards his churches. 
True it is that with him rests the settling of all matters of disci- 
pline and the solution of their practical difficulties; he appoints 
their priests, commissions his delegates to visit them, gives full in- 
structions to these apostolic missionaries, and sees that they are 
carried out, in fact, keeps, nearly to the end of his days, every thread 
in his own hands, and clings to a centralization of government, 
surely disastrous in the case of any but the most versatile and 
catholic of saints. Yet, all the while, we feel that to almost every 
member of these churches, Paul, so brief in his visits, so long in 
his absences, is less the dominant personality than the devoted father 
and intimately dear friend. How he reveals himself and pours out 
his heart's affections, making them all sharers in his hopes, dis- 
appointments, joys, sorrows, temptations, and consolations! Of 
his personal triumphs he speaks with all the expansiveness of a 
schoolboy in the dear circle of home; he talks of his failures with 
that human craving for sympathy which is yet no negation of sanc- 
tity. Fearless of criticism, he holds himself up as an example. 
He tells the tale of his sufferings to engage their pity and win 
their love. 

There are no secrets, no moody reserves in Paul's nature. He 
reveals the most delicate recesses of his soul. He pours forth his 
all generously, lavishly, rushing even to the verge of spiritual bank- 
ruptcy in the fierce ardors of his love, eager, as he declares, to be 
anathema for the sake of his children. Father, mother, brother and 
friend in one, he is all things to all men. This human genius for 
affection, divinely alchemized, is the explanation of Paul's power, 
this, to hark back to a note struck at the beginning, the secret 
of his success. 



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MEASURE FOR MEASURE— A STUDV. 

BY EMILY HICKEY. 

O far as we know, Measure for Measure was not 
printed before it appeared in the volume of Shake- 
speare's collected plays, known as the First Folio, 
1623. There does not seem to be any external evi- 
dence for the date of its composition. Internal evi- 
dence, however, assigns it to the period of those great tragedies 
in which Shakespeare has dealt with some of the deepest of the 
questions of life; for in Measure for Measure we have that inten- 
sity of thought, that perfect characterization, as well as that fine 
condensation of expression, which belonged to the poet when he 
produced those tremendous works whose depths what plummet 
can sound? 

The play is classed with the comedies because the end is peace 
without death, and pardon without the blood-offering. It is not a 
tragedy because no blood is spilt and no life is spoiled; but it is, 
more than any other of the comedies, potentially a tragedy, holding, 
as it does, so much pain that Coleridge pronounced it the only 
really painful play that Shakespeare wrote. We have, it is true, 
a few jokes, jokes unenjoyable enough though probably used by 
the dramatist meaningly and with intention ; but we have no sun- 
shiny mirth such as lights up the smile of Beatrice or dances among 
the fresh leaves for the joy of the guileless hearts in the forest 
of Arden. The Duke is one 

Rather rejoicing to see another merry than merry at anything 
which professed to make him rejoice. 

Isabella fronts us serious as strong, with the sweet childish things 
of her life put away, and the look of one who would indeed take 
the Kingdom of Heaven by violence; there is no brightness in 
Angelo, the would-be stoic; and there is no real humor in Lucio, 
the " fantastic," when he " makes a mock at sin," no quip gaiety, 
no buoyant fun, no dear laughter of the heart. 

Perhaps it may be said that the background of circumstances 
is too dark; however that may be, -never did background show up 
its figures more clearly. Isabella is there in the serene grandeur of 
one who keeps well the baptismal vows ; the Duke veils under the 



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I9I7-] MEASURE FOR MEASURE— A STUDY 91 

cowl the brow that princely cares have troubled and yet, as it seems, 
hardly broadened; Mariana has eyes that have wept very bitter 
weeping, and the pathos of one cast in a mold far removed from 
the noble strength of Isabella's ; and we see Angelo, as we look on 
him at first, as one who deems that he has put a hook in the jaws 
of that leviathan, the flesh, and bridled it with a cord — a cord that 
by-and-by will snap. The subsidiary characters must be left alone 
in such a paper as this, but not without a word for the fine old 
Escalus with his kindly tolerance and his kindly appreciation of 
all that he believes Angelo to be in height and nobleness; and for 
the Provost so kindly and resourceful. 

The story in Measure for Measure differs in some important 
respects from that on which it is based. The Historie of Promos and 
Cassandra, Whetstone's rhymed dramatic version of one of Giraldo 
Cinthio's tales, a tale which, later on, Whetstone published a trans- 
lation of in his Heptanieron of Civill Discourses, The play is 
in ten acts and is dated 1578; the prose translation dates 1582. 
What is the meaning of the title Measure for Measure? 

An Angelo for Claudio, death for death. 

Haste still pays haste, and leisure answers leisure ; 

Like doth quit like, and Measure still for Measure, 

says Duke Vincentio. 

That Angelo does not die for a crime intended but not com- 
mitted does not contradict the abstract justice of Vincentio's saying, 
and if the play practically ends in amnesty, we are still made to 
feel that crime is crime, that sin is sin; that the desert of crime 
and of sin exists, however pardon remit its penalty. Is not Meas- 
ure for Measure between man and man an impossibility, because 
it is out of the question that any can form a judgment correct in 
all its bearings and absolutely true to fact, as to the degree of 
guilt in each criminal? 

In Measure for Measure, as in the earlier play by Whetstone, 
we have the bringing forward of the thought of the fitness of the 
instrument; the belief that, although justice is indeed abstract and 
impersonal, yet the character of the judge is of infinite importance 
and that there is a wrong done to the sense of humanity in the 
severe enforcement of a law by one who will not, or does not, 
obey it. In Promos and Cassandra we find, 

Justice ought in princes most to shew. 

Thus one abuse is cause of many abuse 
And therefore none in judges ought to be. 

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92 MEASURE FOR MEASURE— A STUDY [AprU, 

In Measure for Measure, 

He who the sword of heaven will bear 
Should be as holy as severe: 
Pattern in himself to know, 
Grace to stand, and virtue go : 
More nor less to others paying 
Than by self-offences weighing. 

Isabella, too, argues thus in her first interview with Angelo. 
So it is that in the All-Holy One justice is that supreme and flawless 
thing whereunto no earthly justice can ever attain. 

Shakespeare himself would believe rather in the power of 
high restraint in matters of sex relation, which comes from within, 
rather than in the extreme Puritanic rigor of external law, as 
terrible in its severity as the Judaical code itself. 

As in the great tragedies, the interest of this play does not 
depend on a love story. In these intense works of Shakespeare's 
maturity, he takes us into the thick of the conflict where the love 
songs are not dominant as in the old days of joyful spring. Now 
and then a note of them floats up, but it is overborne by the noise 
and clash. 

In Angelo we have no stage villain; no life-long hypocrite 
to whom there comes the great and final unmasking. A man so 
self-restrained that he could not even to himself confess that " his 
blood flowed" or that "his appetite (was) more to bread than 
stone;" a man rigidly jealous of the slightest breath of suspicion; 
standing " at a guard with envy ;" sensitive to the last extreme to 
public opinion, and really believing in himself as a good man, as a 
saint ! Such was Angelo the deputy. And a man, we may say, to 
,whom chastity meant the coldness of ice, not the glorious warmth 
of the white flame kindled at the fire of love — ^the fire of the charity 
of Christ; the chastity that glowed quenchless in Isabella's soul. 

The Duke had become acquainted with an episode in the life 
of Angelo which reflected small credit upon him ; the episode re- 
lating to his betrothed wife, Mariana, whom he had thrown aside 
when her dowry was lost; and not only had he thrown her aside, 
but had made a shameful attack upon her reputation. This dis- 
covery seems to have awakened in the Duke's mind a distrust of 
Angelo on all points, a suspicion that his virtue was only seeming, 
and that power was indeed likely to change his purpose. But I 
think that if Angelo had never seen Isabella he would have gone 



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19171 MEASURE FOR MEASURE— A STUDY 93 

on living an austere and outwardly blameless life, blameless in the 
respect of chastity, and to the end have been able to say, with the 
pride of the unf alien : 

Tis one thing to be tempted, 

Another thing to fall. 

He did fall, and what a fall it was! When we remember 
that beside the wrong to Isabella, Angelo not only threatened to 
have her brother tortured if she did not yield to him, but actually 
ordered Qaudio's execution and believed that his evil will had 
been done, it seems difficult to think of him as bringing forth fruits 
worthy of penance; but if we look closely into Angelo's character, 
shall we not see that the fact of his conversion having been forced 
upon him by outward circumstances does not imply that the anguish 
for lost purity must necessarily have been lacking in him? He is 
a proud man, with an enormous reverence for purity, and for 
himself whom he takes to be in a manner its impersonation. The 
discovery of his weakness is such a shock to him that henceforth 
he is reckless utterly : it seems as if, with the loss of self-respect 
there has come the loss of all will to struggle, so that he no longer 
tries to overcome, but only to conceal. When he finds that con- 
cealment is not now possible that the Duke, like Power Divine, 
" has looked upon his passes," he prays that " no longer session 
may be held upon (his) shame," but that, without a trial, he may 
be condemned upon his own confession. 

I cannot help thinking that to Angelo's mind the fact of dis- 
covery brought a great relief: henceforth no more concealment, 
no hiding of shame except in the bosom of death. He had not 
been ambitious of place: richly gifted as he was, he had shrunk 
from the unlimited power with which the Duke intended to invest 
him. 

Now, good my lord, 

Let there be some more test made of my metal 

Before so noble and so great an image 

Be stampt upon it. 

Nor was Angelo a self-deceiver : he saw wrong as wrong and 
made no attempt to veil it from his eyes. Was it 

In over- justice and in self -displeasure 

For self-offence, more than for good offended 

that Angelo, "self-rigorous," chose death as due? Partly, per- 
haps, but altogether, I think not. 



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94 MEASURE FOR MEASURE— A STUDY [April, 

In Macbeth, Shakespeare has given us the history of the ruin 
of a soul; and in George Eliot's Romola.vit have the terrible por- 
trayal of gradual deterioration into utter spoiling, in the story 
of Tito. We could wish that more often we might receive from our 
greatest writers the story of souls drawn upward from the death 
of self into the high places of life with the Holy One; the Paradise 
Regained, for the individual as well as for the race. Shakespeare 
believed in conversion; it is treated in various of his plays; and 
most clearly and strongly he strikes in Angelo's story the key-note 

of sublime melody of repentance and pardon — Credo in re- 

missionem peccatorum. 

Coleridge thinks that by the Duke's pardon of Angelo and 
his marriage with Mariana, " the strong, indignant sense of justice 
is baffled." What other ending could have entirely satisfied tliis 
sense of justice? Would it have been justice to make Angelo suffer 
death for a crime of which, though morally, he had yet not been 
actually guilty? It must also be remembered that, as the lives of 
Angelo and Mariana were bound together, justice to her demanded 
pardon for him. 

WitH respect to Mariana, have not the ideas of most of us 
been influenced by Tennyson's Mariana in the Moated Grange, 
where we have a forlorn woman moaning all day long, surrounded 
by a general abomination of desolation? Is this Shakespeare's 
Mariana? 

" I have heard of the lady, and good words went with her name," 
says Isabella, speaking of Mariana. Isabella knew nothing of 
Mariana's story : she had heard of her, but not of the pain in her 
life which sometimes broke out into a cry; but ** good words" 
means something more than words of compassion. The expres- 
sion would seem to imply that Mariana's life was not one of mere 
perpetual making moan; not even one of only passive endurance; 
but something more than this; fuller, richer, truer. How beautiful 
is her constancy ! How faithful and clinging is the nature which, 
despite lover's falsehood, despite Angelo's endeavor to soil her 
reputation, could, after long years retain strong and deep as ever 
the love of her life. 

This fore-named maid hath yet in her the continuance of her 
first affection ; hjs unjust unkindness, that in all reason should 
have quenched her love, hath, like an impediment in the cur- 
rent, made it more violent and unruly. 

We have to forgive in Mariana the vein of sentimentalism that 



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1917.1 MEASURE FOk MEASURE— A STUDY 95 

vexes us to see, in the face of the great and loyal love that it is 
well to know. We see this most in the apology which she makes for 
the music that she has been hearing before the Duke comes into 
her room. 

I cry you mercy, sir, and well could wish 

You had not found me here so musical: 

Let me excuse me, and believe me so, — 

My mirth it much displeased, but pleased my woe. 

The strongest expression of this sentimentalism is the plea 
which Mariana puts forward for Angelo's excuse. 

They say the best men are moulded out of faults, 
And, for the most, become much more the better 
For being a little bad ; so may my husband ! 

It is the wrong application of the truth so glorious in its 
consolation, that the pardoned penitent may use even his past for 
the attainment of great things in the life of God's forgiveness ; the 
mysterious bringing of good out of evil, which St. Augustine and 
many another have known. 

It is well to contrast the pseudo-charity of Mariana's plea 
with the simple truth and justice with which Isabella urges that 
it would indeed be wrong to punish an intention as severely as an 
act; and expresses her partial belief that a due sincerity had gov- 
erned Angelo's deeds until the time at which he had seen her. 

At first sight it appears strange that the Duke should so clearly 
place the free-nuptial relation between Claudia and Juliet and that 
which he himself plans to bring about between Angelo and Mariana 
on such an entirely different level. To Juliet the Duke in his 
friar's disguise speaks of her and Claudio's " most offenceful act," 
and ascertains by close questioning that her repentance is on true 
groimds, she realizing the sin as sin — sl heavier sin than Qaudio's, 
he says, because the sin " was mutually committed." On the other 
hand the pseudo-friar says to Mariana, 

Nor, gentle daughter, fear you not at all : 

He (Angelo) is your husband on a pre-contract: 

To bring you thus together, is no sin ; 

So also Isabella, who detests the sin of Claudio, consents at 
once to play her part in bringing Angelo and Mariana together. 

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96 MEASURE FOR MEASURE— A STUDY [April, 

Now that Shakespeare could and did realize the enormous im- 
portance of pre-nuptial purity in those pledged to consimimate their 
love in holy marriage we have strong evidence in Prosperous warn- 
ing to Ferdinand (Tempest iv. i ) and the young man's eager as- 
severation of his power of perfect continence, and his firm resolve 
thereto. But why, may we ask, was Juliet considered so deeply to 
blame ; Juliet, of whom her lover, condemned to death, said. 

She is fast my wife. 

Save that we do the denunciation lack 

Of outward order. 

" Upon ja true contract," he had induced her to act as though their 
union had been sanctioned by the Church. While to Mariana, the 
Duke denies the possibiity of there being any sin in the bringing 
of her and Angelo together. 

Have we here a distinction made between " a true contract " 
and a betrothal,^ and can it have been that, in the building, in Eliza- 
bethan days, of " the City of Confusion " it may have been pos- 
sible for our poet to suppose that a formal betrothal would sanc- 
tion the relation which, as all Catholics know, is only sanctioned 
and blessed in the sanction and blessing of the Church ? 

At any rate we have to take it for granted that both the Duke 
and the spotless Isabella believed in the absolute rightness of the 
action in which they were engaged. This is most important to real- 
ize, as otherwise the purity of Isabella would indeed be flawed, and 
our lady of the soul of whiteness must droop her eyes beneath the 
shadow of the doing of an evil thing, with however good an intent. 
It is one of the things in oyr great poet's work that make it dif- 
ficult to believe him a holder of the Faith of his fathers in its 
entirety, at least during most of his lifetime. We look upon 
Shakespeare as largely sympathetic toward Catholicism, just as he 
is unsympathetic toward Puritanism. There are many proofs of 
this. 

In the play before us we have the Catholic teaching of true 
penance in the scene between the Duke- friar and Juliet ; also the wis- 
dom that treats scrupulosity as a poor, unwholesome doubting of 
the generosity of God, in 

Our doubts are traitors 
And make us lose the good we oft might win, 
By fearing to attempt. 

*Scc Catholic Bncyciopadia, under "Betrothal." 



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1917.] MEASURE FOR MEASURE— A STUDY 97 

We also have the high ideal of the life of Religion. To Lucio, 
the " fantastic," Isabella is not merely a woman of high virtue 
as well as of high power, but, as a maiden who would dedicate 
herself to special service in Religion, she is to him 

A thing enskied, ensainted, 
By (her) renouncement an immortal spirit. 

Again, in Isabella's own words we have the promise to Angclo, 
if mercy be granted to Claudio, of 

true prayers 
That shall be up at heaven and enter there 
Ere sunrise, prayers from preserved souls. 
From fasting maids whose minds are dedicate 
To nothing temporal. 

But here and there we find a rock in the way of our proving 
more than sympathy however great; and in this play the rock 
stands up black and strong. The treatment of betrothal as an equiv- 
alent to marriage is not the only thing un-Catholic in the play. 
We have the Duke's extraordinary behavior as a pseudo- friar; and 
we have the utterly pagan view of death in him as well as in 
Qaudio to whom he offers, in view of his approaching death, a 
consolation of a merely philosophical kind; a consolation quite 
non-Christian, and strange as coming from the lips of a religious 
who visits a criminal on the eve of his expected execution. The 
vanity of this consolation, notwithstanding Claudio's apparent ac- 
ceptance of it, we are speedily allowed to see in the terrible words 
which rush out from the condemned man's lips: 

Ay, but to die, and go we know not where ; 
To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot; 
This sensible warm motion to become 
A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit 
To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside 
In thrilling region of thick-ribbed ice; 
To be imprisoned in the viewless winds. 
And blown with restless violence round about 
The pendent world ; or to be worse than worst 
Of these that lawless and incertain thought 
Imagine howling: — 'tis too horrible! 

VOL. CV.-7 

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98 MEASURE FOR MEASURE— A STUDY [April, 

Yes " 'tis too horrible." This is not the purgatory that King 
Hamlet comes forth from. It is the terror of the uncertain, with 
a dreadful certainty behind it, a blackness unlighted by the torch 
of hope or the steady flame of the lamp of faith. Yet Handet 
and Measure for Measure appear to belong to about the same 
period. 

The Duke is a student, and even if he studies chiefly from the 
personal point of view we have to grant his interest in the science 
of government, although it seems that a great ruler he could never 
be. He does not love the demonstrations of popular regard for him ; 
but this does not arise from any want of kindly sympathy. He 
says, " I love the people ! *' He knows the danger of popularity 
and does not court it, but seeks to deserve love by wise and just 
government. He seems to me to lack sinew and its strength; he 
has none of " the robust self-confidence natural to the reformer/' 
nor, indeed, does there seem to be much robustness of any kind 
about him. He likes best the indirect and secret way of proceed- 
ing, and is pleased to shelter himself under another's name and 
personality. 

He has watched with sorrow the growth of laxity among 
his subjects, for which he blames himself, in that, for nineteen years, 
he had let sleep the " strict statutes and most biting laws," 
which, had he willed, he could have put into execution. He leaves 
it to Angelo to "strike home," in the ambush of (his) name; 
though he recommends him to be merciful: 

Mortality (humanity) and mercy in Vienna 
Live in thy tongue and heart. 

He believes that it would be tyranny in himself to revive the ob- 
solescent laws: 

Sith 'twas my fault to give the people scope, 
'Twould be my tyranny to strike and gall them 
For what I bid them do : for we bid this be done. 
When evil deeds have their permissive pass. 
And not the punishment. . 

He has more reasons than this, as he tells Friar Thomas, but 
he alleges an important one in the test and trial of Angelo, the 
precisian. His own nature he says will never thus be " in the fight 
to do in slander." 



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1917.I MEASURE FOR MEASURE— A STUDY 99 

The Duke's sensitiveness to public opinion is shown here, a 
sensitiveness which goes with him all through, and leads him to 
show special severity to Lucio who has spoken ill of him, for 
he alleges that slandering a prince deserves that whipping, pressing 
to death, and hanging, to which Lucio declares his punishment 
equivalent. 

Both Hamlet and Othello show, in their last moments, this 
horror of being misrepresented. " Speak of me as I am ! " says 
Othello, " nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice," and 
when Horatio would fain end his life with his beloved friend, 
Hamlet begs him to live that he may let all know the truth respect- 
ing him. Duke Vincentio is wonderfully fond of manoeuvring: 
" the old fantastical Duke of dark comers," Lucio calls him, and 
this is true on the spiritual side, if false on the other. The stratagem 
with regard to Mariana was surely unworthy of a ruler, who could 
have prevented wrong by simply declaring himself; even if, ac- 
cording to a certain code which he enjoyed obeying, it had been 
allowable to one who wished to expose the guilty and save the 
innocent. As I have said, he enjoyed the stratagem, reveling in 
the pleasure of opposing craft to vice and making the carp of 
falsehood take the bait of truth ! Even if we could allow the wis- 
dom of Vincentio's stratagem, what possible advantage could we 
find in the lies which he told to Isabella about Claudio's death? 
They appear to have been useless as well as cruel, for the pleasure 
of an unshared secret and the triumph of a surprise were surely 
ill purchased at the expense of the agony which Isabella must have 
suffered. 

From Escalus we learn that Vincentio was a gentleman of all 
temperance, but it is from his own lips that we have the most praise- 
ful descriptions of the Duke as "a scholar, a statesman, and a 
soldier, of whom there was no question but he was wise." 

What beautiful sayings are put into the Duke's mouth ! How 
full of wisdom are his words : 

Thyself and thy belongings 
Are not thine own so proper, as to waste 
Thyself upon thy virtues, they on thee. 
Heaven doth with us as we with torches do, 
Not light them for themselves ; for if our virtues 
Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike 
As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touch'd 
But to fine issues I 



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100 MEASURE FOR MEASURE— A STUDY [April, 

It is the parable of the talents in its highest application. What 
music is in his words in that exquisite line. 

Look, the unfolding star calls up the shepherd, 

and what a picture comes before our eyes as we see the shepherd 
rise from his sleep, at the call of the star that bids him loose his 
sheep from their fold to the freedom of the pasture. 

Has Shakespeare given us any woman in whom power and 
will more fully tend to the highest life than in lobelia? Her 
" cheek-rises " proclaim the health of her body and typify the health 
of her soul. Shakespeare's maturity has given us this woman: 
she is the fruit of his ripe experience and the fineness of his knowl- 
edge. Postulant of a great and strict Order, that of St. Qare, on 
the eve of her intended renunciation of the world, she is placed by 
the will of her liege in possession of some of its most highly prized 
gifts, and hers will be the true possession at whose heart there 
lies the willingness to renounce. A great responsibility will be laid 
on her, the Ruler's wife; and her finely touched spirit will go out 
in fine issues of example and governance. It is clear from what 
Qaudio says, that Isabella was a postulant, not a novice: 

This day my sister should the cloister enter 
And there receive her approbation. 

She has retired from the world, not because of disappointment 
or disgust, but from free choice. She offers herself to be tested, 
but her vocation is to be otherwhere. In her first utterance in which 
she desires a still stricter restraint for her Order, we recognize 
that she is one who having gifts to give would fain give them 
fully, keeping nothing back. We may contrast her strictness with 
that of Angelo. 

There is no sickliness about Isabella. She is strong, intellect- 
ually as well as morally, and modest as our greatest are. The 
exquisiteness of her nature is seen by all with whom she comes into 
contact; her purity has the perfume of the violet, and the glory 
and dignity of the sanctuary, as Angelo knows (II. 2) ; he, who 
" corrupts with virtuous season " of the violet, and desires even 
*' to raze the sanctuary, and pitch (his) evils there." 
: Isabella's heart is large and loving; her intellect clear; her 



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1917] MEASURE FOR MEASURE— A STUDY loi 

speech to the point; austere to herself, she is gentle to others; 
justly merciless to the triumphant sinner, she can bend her knee 
to sue for his pardon when he stands abased and covered with 
shame. How pitiful and tender she is we can see by her words 
on hearing of Claudio's imprisonment and its cause. " Oh, let him 
marry her!" she exclaims, her thought leaping to the possible 
reparation for the fault, abhorrence of which, as we know, she 
does most keenly feel. 

The daughter of an heroic father, Isabella is the heir of his 
nobility. She and Claudio are orphans; theirs is the memory of 
the father to whom Isabella's thought turns in proud love when 
Claudio at first proclaims that he gladly chooses death before his 
sister's dishonor: 

There spake my brother I there my father's grave 
Did utter forth a voice! 

And again in the horror and bitterness of her disappointment 
when her poor weak brother swerves from high honor and virtue, 
and would even have her make the sacrifice, the thought of him 
of whom his son was unworthy makes her exclaim : 

Such a warped slip of wilderness 
Ne'er issued from his blood. 

Deeply modest, as well as by nature probably sharing the 
timidity of Qaudio, her self-distrust would have interfered with 
the promptness of action in imploring the Deputy's mercy for her 
brother, had not Lucio urged her on; Lucio who loved Claudio 
and venerated Isabella, and in that love and that veneration shows 
a side of his character far different from that which he exhibits 
to the masquerading Duke. It is curious indeed to note the dif- 
ference of the effect which Isabella produces on Angelo and that 
which she produces on Lucio; contact with her bringing out the 
best side of the libertine and the worst side of the moralist. 

Isabella is, I think, naturally passionate and demonstrative, 
though possessing large power of self-control. Loving her brother 
dearly, in her interview with him she rather seeks to nerve him into 
strength and courage, than to offer him sympathy and consolation ; 
when he shows his fatal cowardice, her strong spirit's sorrow 
breaks forth in sharp reproach; so when she hears of Angelo's 



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IQ2 MEASURE FOR MEASURE— A STUDY [April, 

treachery : " Oh, I will to him and pluck out his eyes." But in 
tenderness she pleads for her brother, and she can ask for the 
pardon of him who, she believes, would have deprived Qaudio of 
his life. 

In Isabella passion readily becomes action. Claudio's words 
about her, " and well can play with reason and discourse," prepare 
us perhaps to find happy turns of speech as well as force of argu- 
ment in her interviews with Angelo; but the intensity of the situa- 
tion precludes this, and all through there is a certain strong and 
grave dignity in her speech. When she prays that it may be her 
brother's fault that shall die, not he himself, Isabella gives the 
essence of all law, the object of all punishment: to slay the offence 
and leave the offender perfect. 

When she finds from Angelo's own admission that he could, 
if he would, modify the law, she is no longer a timid suppliant, 
but one urging a suit with a power and a trenchancy by which 
Angelo is touched to the quick. Like Portia, Isabella appeals from 
the earthly to the heavenly : 

Why, all the souls that were were forfeit once ; 
And He that might the vantage best have took 
Found out the remedy. How would you be 
If He, which is the top of judgment, should 
But judge you as you are? Oh, think on that ; 
And mercy then will breathe within your lips, 
Like man new made. 

At the second interview, when Angelo asks Isabella how she 
would act imder certain supposed circumstances, she at once replies 
that she would choose for her brother death before dishonor: 

Angelo: — ^Were not you, then, as cruel as the sentence 

That you have slander'd so? 
Isabella: — Ignominy in ransom and free pardon 

Are of two houses: lawful mercy 

Is nothing kin to foul redemption. 

With positive untruth as well as disrespect towards her, An- 
gelo says: 

You seem'd of late to make the law a tyrant ; 
And rather proved the sliding of your brother 
A merriment than a vice. 



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19171 MEASURE FOR MEASURE— A STUDY 103 

How could such a meaning be twisted out of her words? 

Who is it that hath died for this offence? 
There's many have committed it. 

But Isabella does not pause to justify herself; she is too full 
of her cause to care for a personal wrong. 

pardon me, my lord; it oft falls out 

To have what we would have, we speak not what we mean : 

1 something do excuse the thing I hate. 
For his advantage that I dearly love. 

Isabella is entirely free from preachiness: she does not lecture 
the Deputy, but breaks out in just indignation at his hypocrisy, 
and threatens to expose his falsehood to the world. 

The temptation placed before Isabella is no ordinary one: she 
is tempted through that which is uppermost in the noble woman — 
the passion for sacrifice. There is something that has the likeness 
of splendor in the thought of periling the soul itself — that for 
which the whole world were too small a price — for the sake of 
another; something that assumes the 'likeness of glory in the 
thought of giving one's best and most precious things, of pouring 
out the soul's life like water, for another's need. But Isabella knew 
that none can redeem his brother by giving what is not his to give; 
and that none must dare, for the sake of saving from pain or 
shame or death, force from his brother to the loss of his soul's 
freedom and place him in 

perpetual durance, a restraint. 
Though all the world's vastidity (he) had. 
To a determined scope. 

Did she not know full well that pain, wrongfully taken, is no 
true sacrifice, and that a wrong cannot be right because one is 
selfless in doing it? 

Better it were a brother died at once. 
Than that a sister, by redeeming him. 
Should die for ever. 

Here is her assertion by clear implication, that chastity is a 
high virtue as unchastity a deadly sin. This woman who would 



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I04 MEASURE FOR MEASURE— A STUDY [April, 

not stoop to wrong, even to save another from death, would yet 
dare the imputation of wrong ! 

Whatever we believe as to the morality or immorality of pious 
frauds, they seem to have been considered in Shakespeare's day 
undoubtedly justifiable, and to Shakespeare's Isabella the Duke's 
trick did not appear morally wrong, much as she naturally disliked 
rotmdabout ways. 

To speak so indirectly I am loth ; 
I would say the truth. 

All through Isabella is selfless; all through she has kept the 
whiteness of her chrisom unspotted. Rejecting the sacrifice that 
would have been not waste only but injury to others as to herself, 
and yet impelled to consent, for others' sake, to appear what " in 
the truth of (her) spirit" she could never be, she is one who, 
weighed in the balance, has not been found wanting; who, tempted 
and tried, has not failed nor even swerved. 

Great and good, she would walk in the beauty of helpfulness 
by the Duke's side as he trod the ruler's path; " for (her) lovely 
sake " much would be done by him that he could not have done 
had he never known her; taught by her, he would understand 
how the hymn of chastity makes high harmony with the psalms 
of mercy and of justice. 

Underneath her garb of costly beauty and splendid state, the 
heart of Isabella would beat unchanged; the atmosphere of the 
enskied and ensainted would still be hers; her court would know 
in its Duchess the beauty of holiness. Never would Isabella forget 
the burden of a world where carelessness and deathful sloth and 
ignoble ease could neglect or veil the presence of evil ; that burden 
which she had sought to bear as a votarist of St. Clare. She 
who had desired a greater strictness, a more stringent rule of life 
than even in such an Order, would, in the court as in the cloister, 
walk in the service that is perfect freedom. Hers would be the 
spirit of that lady who wore the cilice beneath her gorgeous robes ; 
and hers, too, the sanctity of the silence of Vanna.* 

'This young wife of Jacopo Benedetti, who after her death, which had revealed 
the penance she had done for his sins, was known as Jacopone da Todi, the fool for 
Christ's sake. 



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flew Books. 

AMERICAN PROSE. Selected and Edited by Walter C. Bron- 

son. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. $1.50 net. 

Dr. Bronson, Professor of English Literature in Brown 
University, has edited as a companion volume to his American 
Poems these selections from the American prose of the seventeenth 
and eighteenth centuries. The authors quoted number thirty-seven, 
the selections just one hundred, the period covered runs from 1607 
to 1865, i^ota Captain John Smith to Abraham Lincoln. Choosing 
only the greater names of the nineteenth century, and stopping with 
the end of the Civil War, the editor has been enabled to give a 
wider range of reading, and, in many cases, to reproduce complete 
works. 

A nation's literary life usually parallels its growth; in its 
childhood, the nation creates and believes in its fairy tales, its 
myths of gods and heroes, as the human child lives in a world 
of make-believe. But American literature has no such past, no 
golden age of dreams ; the first settlers were of a nation full grown, 
colonizing abroad from what they sincerely believed was a call 
from God, the most compelling of all motives, to found a new 
society upon righteousness and truth. What such men wrote was 
either the necessary record or report, or the occasional polemic; 
pure literature could hardly be expected. 

Dr. Bronson's selections from the earlier writers come, then, 
under one or other of these heads. It is impossible to draw a line 
of absolute demarcation between the theological and the historical 
element, since to the Puritan governor his colony was something of 
a theocracy; the mainly historical, such as records of daily life, 
diaries, reports to the promoters of the colonies, is exemplified 
by Captain John Smith, Bradford, Winthrop, John Mason and 
Sewall, while theology is represented by Roger ^^^liams, the 
Mathers, and Jonathan Edwards. 

With the opening of the Revolutionary period, there is a 
change, both in the spirit and in the form of literary effort; theol- 
ogy yields to politics; orators and statesmen, voicing the ideals of 
their party, come to the fore, and pure letters may be said to have 
originated on this side of the Atlantic with Franklin. Dr. Bron- 
son devotes thirty pages to Franklin, though he does not mention 



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io6 NEIV BOOKS [April, 

the Almanac, and quotes also from Patrick Henry, Paine, Jefferson, 
Washington and Hamilton. 

Washington Irving introduces the nineteenth century, and, 
with Emerson, Thoreau, Holmes and Lowell, represents the essay- 
ists, as do Poe and Hawthorne the short story writers, and Calhoun, 
Webster and Lincoln the orators. The selections are annotated, 
though meagrely by design; beginning with Irving, the editor's 
notes are supplemented by contemporary criticism from the maga- 
zines of the day; there is a copious and well-selected bibliography. 
The teacher of American literature will go far to find a handbook 
to surpass this in practical working value. 

REPRESENTATIVE AMERICAN PLAYS. Edited with Introduc- 
tions and Notes by Arthur Hobson Quinn. New York : The 
Century Co. $2.75 net. 

It is seldom that a volume comes at so timely an hour, or so 
perfectly fulfills its object, as the present collection edited by Dr. 
Quinn of the University of Pennsylvania. All over the country, 
colleges, clubs and stage societies are attempting to dedicate the 
present year to a special study of American drama. But as many 
important plays were either unprinted or scarcely accessible to 
readers, and as no satisfactory history of our native theatre had 
yet been produced, the movement promised to be a difficult one for 
all concerned. Then, at precisely the "psychological moment," 
came Dr. Quinn's admirably chosen selection of twenty-five dramas 
— " the first attempt," as he describes it, " to include in one volume 
a collection of plays which illustrate the development of our native 
drama from its beginnings to the present day." 

Opening with the first American tragedy, The Prince of Par- 
thia (1767), and the first American comedy, The Contrast (1787), 
and including works of such early playwrights as William Dunlap, 
James Nelson Barker, Nathaniel Parker Willis and George Henry 
Boker, the collection includes Rip Van Winkle, Hazel Kirke, The 
Octoroon, Bronson Howard's Shenandoah, Gillette's Secret Service, 
and even Madame Butterfly — here first published in dramatic form. 
From obvious necessity the plays are of very varying merit, but 
each one has been chosen for some significant bearing upon the 
development of American drama. As illustrations of contemporary 
tendencies in the theatre, the book includes plays by Clyde Fitch, 
Langdon Mitchell, Augustus Thomas, William Vaughn Moody, 
Percy Mackaye, Edward Sheldon and Rachel Crothers — ^altogether 



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1917] NEIV BOOKS 107 

a remarkably rich list when the difficulties of copyright are con- 
sidered. 

Dr. Quinn's volume is one of the notable publications of the 
present year in America. Students and play-lovers generally will 
find it a highly useful, even an invaluable, addition to our dramatic 
literature. 

AMERICAN LITERATURE IN SPAIN. By John de Lancey Fer- 
guson, Ph.D. New York: Columbia University Press. $1.50 
net 

Dr. Ferguson says that this study lays no claim to being the 
last word on this subject; it is the first word only in a hitherto 
unworked field. American literature has exerted little appreciable 
effect on the writers of Spain, where it has penetrated in a round- 
about way, through the South American republics, chiefly by the 
intermediary of French translations. Among general readers in 
Spain, American literature is comparatively unknown and, all in 
all, must be considered as an exotic. 

The writers discussed in Dr. Ferguson's book are Washington 
Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Haw- 
thorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Prescott, Ralph Waldo 
Emerson and Walt Whitman. These authors are best known to 
Spanish critics. Irving is one of the earliest Americans to be trans- 
lated into Spanish, and the only one who has had any extended 
personal relations with the Peninsula, where he served as American 
Minister. That the Spaniards admire him is evident from their 
references to him, but "it is such admiration as we accord to 
some well-known classic which we never think of reading." This is 
strange when we remember how many readers of the English- 
speaking race owe what knowledge they have of Spain to Irving's 
'Alhamhra and Conquest of Grcmada. Prescott, too, in spite of his 
classic studies of Spanish literature, remains more respected than 
read. 

Longfellow is the only American poet in whom the Spaniards 
have shown an enduring interest for " they r^fard Poe primarily 
as the writer of strange tales, and Whitman's vogue is still too 
recent to be estimated poetry." There is a great Spanish critic, 
Victor Capalleja, who has contributed an extended analysis of 
Longfellow's Evangeline and Tales of a Wayside Inn. Speaking 
of the works immediately preceding the poet's death, the critic 
concludes: "Longfellow therefore died in the shadow of the 



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io8 NEIV BOOKS [April, 

cross, crowning his ode Excelsior, the City of the Christian Soul, 
with the Biblical poems, which glorify all the grandeurs of the 
Catholic religion." No other Protestant American poet has had a 
keener appreciation of the " vast pyramid of light and truth," which 
is Catholicism. The purpose of this painstaking study is not to 
draw general conclusions, but to present facts as the author has 
found them, opening the field for future investigations. 

SONGS OF WEDLOCK. By T. A. Daly. Philadelphia: David 

McKay. $i.oo net. 

A new volume from the pen of " Tom " Daly has become to 
an increasing number of readers one of the real delights of the 
publishing season. And it is safe to say that these will find no 
disappointment in the present volume — in spite of its omission of 
all such superlatively pleasant Italian and Irish " dialect pieces " 
as won quick popularity for Canzoni and Madrigali. The Songs of 
Wedlock show Mr. Daly at his lyric best in many respects, par- 
ticularly in the memorable and poignant prize-poem called To a 
Thrush. These songs are, for the most part, exactly what their 
title states. They count often with Patmorean intimacy but with- 
out Patmorean mysticism, the daily conjugal routine of things " too 
simple and too sweet for words :" the day's work, the night's return, 
the quiet hour by the lamp-lit table, joys and trials shared, the 
full and final comradeship of nuptial love. It is a serene, domestic 
singing in the main, yet stirred by sudden tremors as in Her Music, 
or the fine, pure aspiration of Sanctum — z, singing which will find 
warm welcome in many a " home-keeping heart." 

GREAT IHSPIRERS. By Rev. J. A. Zahm, C.S.C. New York: 

D. Appleton & Co. $1.50 net. 

In the proem to this his latest work, the author of Woman in 
Science makes a magnanimous appeal for wider recognition of the 
fact that from the earliest times some of the greatest achievements 
of men have been the outcome of feminine inspiration and influence, 
attaining full fruition only through women's sympathy and encour- 
agement, even, sometimes, their active coc^ration. The author 
feels that though there is individual acknowledgment of this most 
valuable collaborative quality, yet general realization is lacking; 
and he tells us that in writing this book his hope was that it " might 
prove an incentive to someone to undertake a comprehensive work 
on a number of the most noted of the fair inspirers of men of 



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1917] NEW BOOKS 109 

letters." The present work deals with only two of the men thus 
inspired, but these are of the greatest — St. Jerome and Dante. In 
the book already referred to he gives an account of the relations 
between the saint and the holy women, Paula and her daughter, 
Eustochium, by whose urgent persuasions and devoted aid the Vul- 
gate was given to the world; but the singular and beautiful story 
is here re-told more elaborately, and with great fascination of 
manner. 

The more generally familiar story of Dante's love for Beatrice 
Portinari is told with no less charm and animation. Dr. Zahm de- 
molishes the claims of those critics who have tried to show that 
Beatrice was a symbolic figure, and demonstrates convincingly that 
she was a real woman who was privileged to win the heart and 
elevate the soul of the great poet, and to live imperishably in the 
incomparable memorials of his love, the Divina Commedia and the 
Vita Nuova. 

The book is very interesting, and makes one hope that the 
almost untouched field indicated by the author may soon be made 
productive by hands as skillful as his own. 

GOD'S FAIRY TALES. By Enid M. Dinnis. St. Louis: B. 

Herder. $1.10 net. 

The sub-title, " Stories of the Supernatural in Every Day 
Life," given to this collection of twelve short stories that appeared 
from time to time in Catholic magazines, furnishes the keynote to 
them all. They are written in most attractive form with old Eng- 
lish priories and manor houses for background ; well-disposed An- 
glicans and kindly monks tell with childlike directness their remark- 
able personal experiences, and make no attempt to explain how sudi 
things happened any more than do fairy tales : and therein lies the 
charm. 

Typical is the story of Brother Giles, a simple-minded old 
monk, and a veritable thorn in the flesh of his new up-to-date 
Prior, who going in for simplicity with a capital S, swept away at 
Christmas-time what he considered the tawdry decorations of the 
crib and the Noah's Ark animals, and substituted a cold, chaste 
work of art in their place. But the old Brother, broken-hearted by 
these innovations, was allowed to build a grotto in the orchard to 
house the precious treasures that were not wanted in the chapel. 
He found to his dismay that the Divine Infant was missing from 
the crib. After searching everywhere he appealed to St. Anthony, 



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no NEW BOOKS [April, 

who offered him the Guest Who stood upon his book, to fill the 
vacant place in the manger. Many wonderful things happened in 
consequence, among them a notable conversion and the enlighten- 
ment of the Prior. 

With never a discordant note from cover to cover this book 
will be attractive to all classes of readers, and it will make an ideal 
gift for a young convert or one thinking of entering the Church. 

CATHOLIC SCHOOLS: WHY BXnLD THEM? By Right Rev. 
Thomas Shahan, D.D. St. Louis : Central Bureau of the Cen- 
tral Verein. 

This article, which appeared originally in the New York Sun 
last August, and is now reprinted as a free leaflet, makes one wish 
that it were reasonable to hope it might be widely read by non- 
Catholics; for the case for Catholic education could scarcely be 
stated more effectively, and the claims are based upon just such 
needs as the average man recognizes. Bishop Shahan fully com- 
prehends the utter joylessness of the world at present, the increas- 
ing stress and sadness of life; and he sets forth the Catholic school 
as the enemy of pessimism, inculcating into the child the knowledge 
that he is God's beloved creature, interpreting the world to him in 
terms of His goodness and holiness, and thus providing him, as he 
grows to maturity, with a firmly rooted conviction of " an over- 
shadowing wisdom on high whose purview nothing escapes, and of 
an unfathomable love whose attraction is well-nigh irresistible." 
He arraigns the futility of moral instruction without the accom- 
paniment of religious education, and the dangerous folly of expec- 
tations of sustained public moral sense without religious guidance, 
quoting the memorable words from Washington's Farewell Ad- 
dress : " reason and experience both forbid us to expect that 

national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle." 

THE THREE HOURS' AGONY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 

By Rev. Peter Guilday. New York : Longmans, Green & Co. 

75 cents net. 

Dr. Guilday in his preface says : " No other series of sermons 
could be of a more intimate and personal character than those given 
during this impressive service of the Three Hours' Agony. Cor ad 
cor loquitur, and the century-long traditions of the occasion itself 
open the heart wider than ever before. At no other moment does 
the sense of sin seem so intense ; the fear of it so tangible, and the 



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1917] NEIV BOOKS HI 

personal realization of the meaning of Calvar/s tragedy readies 
a depth seldom touched before or after Good Friday itself." 

The many friends of Dr. Guilday will welcome these devout 
and intimate sermons in book form. They picture most vividly the 
scenes of that first Good Friday, and teach most winningly the les- 
sons of forgiveness, mercy, devotion to the Blessed Virgin, Jesus' 
abandonment, thirst, sacrifice and death. Devotion to the Passion 
of our Saviour has always been a characteristic of God's saints, and 
every book which helps to foster it should be made a manual of 
prayers by the people of God. 

SPANISH EXPLORATION IN THE SOUTHWEST, 1542-1706. 

Edited by Herbert E. Bolton, Ph.D. New York: Charles 

Scribner's Sons. $3.00 net. 

This volume, as Dr. Bolton tells us in his preface, is logically 
the successor in the series of Original Narratives to the one edited 
by Hodge and Lewis under the title of Spanish Explorers in the 
Southern United States, 1528-1543. Only one-third of the docu- 
ments have been hitherto published in English; about one-third 
have been published in Spanish only ; while nearly one-third have 
never been published hitherto in any language. 

The early exploration of California is described by the Portu- 
guese mariner, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, who in 1542 explored our 
Western coast from Puerto de Navidad to the Rogue River, Ore- 
gon; by Sebastian Vizcaino, who in 1603 explored the California 
coast, discovering the Bay of Monterey; by Fray de la Ascension, 
a Carmelite, who accompanied Vizcaino on his expedition. The 
other documents deal with the Rodriguez, the Espejo and the 
Onate expeditions in New Mexico, the Bosque-Larios, the Mendoza- 
Lopez and the de Leon-Massenet expeditions in Texas, and the 
explorations of the Jesuit Father Kino (Kiihn) and his companions 
in Arizona. 

The documents are well translated, and accompanied by schol- 
arly introductions by the editor, who describes their contents and 
spedal value, mentions the translations hitherto published, and re- 
fers the student to other books and manuscripts relating to the ex- 
ploration of the Southwest. 

The volume is interesting not only for its first-hand accounts 
of the daring and determination of these hardy Spanish conquisa- 
tadores, but for the insight it affords into the zeal of the early 
Spanish missionaries for the conversion of the Indians. In almost 



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112 NEW BOOKS [April, 

every case the Indians were treated with the greatest kindness by the 
Spaniards, and the work of evangelizing them was indeed blessed. 
Father Kino alone in twenty-one years baptized more than thirty 
thousand. 

THE GOLDEN BOOK OF THE DUTCH NAVIGATORS. By 

Hendrik Willem van Loon. New York: The Century Co. 

$2.50 net. 

Dr. van Loon, of the Department of European History at Cor- 
nell University, has written a most graphic account of the Dutch 
navigators of the sixteenth century. Most of them on their return 
wrote about their travels, and their itineraries served as practical 
handbooks of navigation to the Dutch traders who followed them 
on the road to the East. Many of these old records which are 
today inaccessible have been translated by Dr. van Loon and con- 
densed for the benefit of the general reader. 

He describes van Linschoten's trip to India in 1583, the 
polar expeditions of Barendez and Heemskerk in search of the 
Northeast Passage, the unsuccessful voyage to India of de Hout- 
man in 1595 and the successful trip of van Neck in 1598, the cir- 
cumnavigation of the globe by van Noort in 1597, the discovery 
of Strait le Maire by le Maire in 1616, and of Tasmania by Tas- 
man in 1642. 

These navigators were indeed a daring and adventurous body 
of men, but the author passes over in silence their religious bigotry 
and intolerance which intensified their hatred of the Spaniards and 
the Portuguese. 

THE SOCIAL CRITICISM OF LITERATURE. By Gertrude 
Buck, Ph.D. New Haven : Yale University Press. $1.00 net. 
The writer of this suggestive little essay tells us that her vol- 
ume is concerned solely with the explicit theory of social criticism, 
and with the development of the conception of literature underlying 
it. Deductive criticism based its judgments on traditional authority 
and arbitrary personal taste; historic or scientific criticism insisted 
on the study of literary origins and developments; impressionist 
criticism demanded that the reader's viewpoint be dominant; while 
aesthetic criticism analyzed the reader's reaction according to mod- 
em scientific methods. 

This new theory of social criticism asks us to do away with 
the arbitrary standards and the infallible utterances of a select 



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1917.I NEIV BOOKS 113 

coterie. Our author writes : " That the critic should reach a 'right' 
conclusion, so-called, about a particular piece of literature is then no 
such weighty matter as previous criticism would have us believe. 
Social criticism would insist only that he should honestly reach such 
a conclusion as he can reach, and then make each conclusion a step- 
ping-stone to some further judgment, either of this book or an- 
other. Value thus adheres, not in the judgment itself, but in the 
whole process of arriving at it and proceeding from it — that is, in 
the vital and continuous contact with literature which makes it litera- 
ture indeed." 

In a word social criticism commands the critic to hold his 
conclusions as essentially tentative and personal. He must stead- 
fastly refuse to impose them on other readers, and give no sanction 
to their use by any reader as a substitute for his own critical 
activities. 

SERMONS AND SERMON NOTES. By Rev. B. W. Maturin. 

Edited by Wilfrid Ward. New York: Longmans, Green & 

Co. $2.00 net. 

Of the eleven complete sermons in the present volume, five 
were preached by Father Maturin as an Anglican, five were re- 
ported privately for his friends in 1904, and one on the clothing 
of a nun was printed for private circulation. The Sermon Notes 
were selected by Wilfrid Ward from the mass of notes left in 
Father Maturin's handwriting. They were usually three or four 
versions of what he intended to say on the same subject, and their 
unfinished character prove how much he depended on the inspiration 
of the moment. 

Everything that Father Maturin wrote proved him to be " a 
man of missionary zeal, in whom the fire of spiritual genius and 
penetrating psychological insight were combined to a rare degree." 
This volume is no exception. The best sermons in it to our mind 
are The Mystery of Suffering and The Call of God. 

Mrs. Ward, in a prefatory note, regrets the fact that her 
husband spent some of his last hours editing this volume instead 
of using them for original work, but she adds sweetly, " I think 
to himself the task was all spiritual gain." 

FRENCH PERSPECTIVES. By Elizabeth Shepley Sergeant. 
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. $1.25 net. 
This is a brilliant book of essays, consisting of intimate sketches 

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114 NEW BOOKS tApril, 

of French life, and is decidedly out of the commonplace. Miss 
Sergeant's profound knowledge of the French people is very dif- 
ferent from the superficial view of many a writer who spends a 
few weeks in Paris, and then proceeds to write a book on France. 
French Perspectives contains charming sketches of people whom 
the author has known — drawn from the working classes, the bour- 
geois and literary sets of modem France. There is the bookseller, 
quaint, old Achille, a survivor " of the day^ when books were sold 
like works of art instead of shoes and neckties ; " there is the 
peasant poet, the idol of his native village, and little Marie Con- 
stance " who thinks in straw ;" we come to know Mme. Ravignac, 
the clever housewife who wonders at the pretty American girls 
" to whom the world is a picnic." Miss Sergeant pays a high tribute 
to the substantial worth of the French workingwomen, those pas- 
sionate lovers of their trades, who, contented with their humble 
lot, bend over the one small, patient task in which they have 
learned perfection. 

There is a delightful chapter in which Miss Sergeant describes 
a lunch party at which she and Mother Superior Justinienne were 
the honored guests of M. le Cure in his little village on the sun- 
burnt plains of Aries. " The very memory of it, rejoicing as the 
Provencal sun, brings the glow of the spontaneous human kindness 
of the Midi into my heart." 

A Modem Ccenobium relates the author's visit to a former 
abbey, which now serves as a ''foyer international*' to a group 
of modern " intellectuals " who meet there during the summer to 
discuss problems of the day. We are introduced, among others, 
to Sabatier and to the Modernist professor, M. Loisy. Miss Ser- 
geant is by no means a Catholic; and yet in speaking of the de- 
parture of the most rationalistic of all the guests, she says, " Was 
he nearer a vision of 'truth' than the earnest Cenobite of the twelfth 
century? After all, he too — in spite of all that the intervening 
years had added to human knowledge — ^yes, he too, for all his 
learning and his skepticism, had to admit in leaving Pontigny, the 
eternal verity which Pascal has stated once for all, 'Le cceur a des 
raisons que la raison ne cgnnait point/ " 

THE BOOK OF THE POPES. To the Pontificate of Gregory I. 
Translated with an Introduction by Louise Ropes Loomis, 
Ph.D. New York: Columbia University Press. $i.oo. 
Scholars have always regarded the Liber Pontificalis as one 

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I9I7-] NEW BOOKS 115 

of the most important documents we possess for the study of early 
Church history. It furnishes us with a complete list of the Popes, 
the events of their pontificates, the decrees for the organiza- 
tion of the government of the Churdi, brief accounts of the perse- 
cutions and the deaths of the martyrs, records of churches built 
and the various gifts bestowed upon them by princes and prelates, 
lists of episcopal ordinations, evidence for the relation of Byzantine 
art to Roman in the early Christian period, and the like. 

This is the first translation published in English. Dr. Loomis 
has accomplished an arduous task with conspicuous ability, and her 
copious notes are for the most part accurate and non-controversial. 
In a brief introduction she discusses the various problems con- 
nected with this most precious document, and honestly acknowledges 
her debt to Monsignor Duchesne, the best editor of the Book of the 
Popes. She writes : " Without the guidance of Duchesne I should 
often have been at a loss how to elucidate the text, my own notes 
being in many cases scarcely more than abridgments and para- 
phrases of his." 

HEAVEN OPEN TO SOULS. By Henry Churchill Semple, S.J. 

New York : Benziger Brothers. $2.00. 

Father Semple's thesis is expressed in the sub-title to his book 
— " Love for God above all things and perfect contrition easy and 
common in souls resolved to avoid mortal sin." He proves it hand- 
somely from Scripture, from the Doctors of the Church of all ages, 
from the decrees of Councils, from moral theologians and from 
utterances of the Holy See, assembled with what must clearly have 
been unremitting labor during many years of continuous research. 
And the result of his labor is a book of nearly six hundred pages, 
every one of which bears evident trace of the author's enthusiastic 
faith in his doctrine, and the delight with which he has pursued 
•what was on his part surely a labor, however long and arduous, 
of love. 

It is not to be denied that most of us who are now in middle 
age, and who were taught our Catechism and prepared for the Sac- 
raments by the good priests of forty and fifty years ago, were 
brought up on a somewhat rigoristic doctrine with regard to these 
matters. In Chapter VI., Father Semple discusses the reason for 
this, and demonstrates the Jansenistic origin of this point of view. 
And because of this fact his book is of great interest and very 
comforting. The children of today, thanks to the " Pope of the 

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ii6 NEW BOOKS - [April, 

Blessed Sacrament," are less in need of Father Semple's proof 
than we are, although they too may find immense profit and pleasure 
in it by reason of the rich store of gleanings from many fields that 
in the ordinary routine of reading might never be in their way. 
It is emphatically a book for the laity, notwithstanding the fact 
that most of the matter was assembled for use in the theological 
conferences of the New York Archdiocese under the moderatorship 
of the author. The language is utterly untechnical, and the subject 
matter gains rather than loses by the leisurely method of treatment 
— frequently interrupted by anecdote and digression — ^which Father 
Semple has adopted. It is a book to be read through and then 
read in, and thus treated it will be found as interesting and stimu- 
lating a piece of spiritual reading as anyone may desire. It is one 
of those books that one likes to keep on one's desk against the 
happy half-hour of leisure time at the end of a day's work. Let 
us hope that the next edition will have an index, at least of citations 
and names. 

STEVENSON: HOW TO KNOW HIM. By Richard Ashley Rice. 

Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Co. $1.25 net. 

To many a reader, an introduction to Stevenson might seem 
as needless as a guidepost on the familiar way to the home of a 
friend. Who does not know brave, genial R. L. S.? Who that 
has any acquaintance with what Charles Lamb would ungrudgingly 
consider books, has not formed a close intimacy with an author as 
blithe and as sociable as Lamb himself? Stevenson's yearning cry 
at the age of twenty-two: " O du lieber Gott, friends! " has been 
bounteously answered. Fast . friends thronged to his winsome 
personality in life, and hosts of posthumous but no less cordial 
friends have found and loved the man in his works. The children 
of the Catholic Church, in particular, have given him a warm place 
beside the glowing hearth of their affections. They will be slow 
to forget the generous knight who so promptly flayed the Rev. Mr. 
Hyde for his aspersions in the humble Damien. 

Yet this very fondness for an amiable and dauntless soul may 
be just what blinds us to the higher qualities of the author quite as 
much as to his shortcomings. Charmed by the manner, we may 
overlook the man. The new book will be of help to us here. It 
undertakes to make Stevenson real. Of course it pictures the de- 
lectable vagabond very much as we have known him already: 
whimsical, buoyant, egotistic. But beneath the quixotic oddities, , 

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1917] NEW BOOKS 117 

beneath the candid self-complacency resembling the unabashed con- 
ceit of a starched and beribboned child of six, is revealed a set of 
principles, a philosophy of life, an attitude towards mankind, that 
tells of courage, truth and breadth of sympathy. When we yield 
to a deep and deliberate regard for that heroic spirit that flamed 
so brightly from so little oil in so fragile a lamp, then we begin 
to know Stevenson well, to know him as he deserves to be known. 

The book we are discussing brings us little strictly new ; hardly 
an}rthing in fact that was not said before by Sir Sidney Colvin or by 
Mrs. Stevenson. But it insists on much that we should keep in 
mind, and it puts together many things that should not be viewed 
asunder. It is a close but easy inquiry into the nature of the mas- 
ter's genius. It offers an analysis of his literary character. It 
searches out the principle that gives unity and energy to his efforts. 
This force it finds to be the bed-ridden writer's strong conviction 
that "life is living," nay more, that "living counts rather than 
life." 

Professor Rice has done his work decidedly well. His care- 
ful and thoughtful study enlarges our vision and deepens our feel- 
ing of Stevenson's real power. Best of all, it heightens our esteem 
for his sanguine, loyal nature; for, as the great heart said him- 
self, " to love a character is the only heroic way of understanding 
it." Perhaps, however, we encounter too often a kind of misplaced 
brilliancy of treatment. More than once a detached cleverness ob- 
trudes itself with something of an air, overshadowing the more 
solid elements of the work. We might wish too that the critic 
had gathered into one chapter all his keen observations on the 
literary methods of this most accomplished man of letters. Steven- 
son's style, rapid and limpid as a mountain stream, deft as a 
conjurer in its management of words, is peculiarly fitted to modem 
needs; and his "sedulous ape" theory of learning to write, cor- 
rectly understood, that is, the theory of " a book to read in and 
a book to write in," is without exception the most practical scheme 
for mastering the art of expressing thought in language. 

FROM THE DEEP WOODS TO CIVILIZATION. By Charles A. 

Eastman. Boston : Little, Brown & Co. $2.00 net. 

In these Chapters in the Autobiography of an Indian, as 
the sub-title has it, there is much that is exceedingly interesting, but 
an interest that is, for the great part, of a painful kind. We have 
here the principal incidents in Dr. Eastman's career from the age 

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of fifteen, when the young Sioux began his education, until the 
present. The preface, written by Mrs. Eastman, tells us that for 
. eighteen years his quest was " for the attainment of the modem 
ideal of Christian culture," followed by twenty-five years of testing 
that ideal in various fields of endeavor. Unhappily, the account 
of his unusual and significant experiences is, in the main, a record 
of disappointment and disillusion. The discrepancy between the 
preaching and the practice of Christianity thrust itself upon a mind 
fresh to receive impressions. That the deepest of these should be 
scars of dishonor and failure to measure up to the professed 
standard does not surprise us, as we read of the author's inter- 
course with some of the Indian agents and of his attempts to get 
wrongs righted by the Government. This portion of the book 
revives disquieting memories in those who are acquainted with 
that particularly humiliating phase of our political history. Never- 
theless, Dr. Eastman's effort was at all times for a better under- 
standing between the red man and the white, stanchly defending 
his own people from calumny, insisting upon their native virtues 
and the merits of their religion, and declaring that their demorali- 
zation was attributable to the influence and temptations of the 
whites; at the same time, he proclaimed to the Indian the beauty 
of Christian ideals, despite their betrayal by numbers of those who 
profess them. Instances of individual sincerity and piety held his 
allegiance. *' Had I not known some such, I should long ago have 
gone back to the woods." 

The tone throughout is dignified and restrained, but conveys 
clearly the keenness and bitterness of the author's sense of baffled 
hopes and expectations. The closing chapter, The Soul of the 
White Man, is specially enlightening and salutary reading. Dr. 
Eastman gives free expression to his thoughts upon Christianity 
and the civilization that claims to be its product, and states his 
own unenthusiastic attitude. " When I let go of my simple, in- 
stinctive religion, I hoped to gain something far loftier as well 
as more satisfying to the reason. Alas ! it is also more confusing 
and contradictory." He advocates civilization among his own peo- 
ple, however, partly "because there is no chance of our former 
simple life any more; and, secondly, because I realize that the white 
man's religion is not responsible for his mistakes." And he adds : 
" I am an Indian; and while I have learned much from civilization, 
for which I am grateful, I have never lost my Indian sense of right 
and justice." It is the condition of mind indicated in the preface, 

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where Mrs. Eastman says that the quarter of a century of testing 
ended in a " partial reaction in favor of the earlier, the simpler, 
perhaps the more spiritual philosophy." It is only rational to take 
into account the share contributed toward this result by tradition, 
race loyalty, personality and temperament; but these considera- 
tions do not materially lessen the import of the book as a docu- 
ment wherein cause and effect are shown to operate with a fate- 
ful precision that should quicken a sense of grave responsibility in 
every Christian reader. 

THE VENERABLE DON BOSCO. By M. S. Pine. Philadelphia: 

The Salesian Press. 75 cents. 

When the aged and saintly parish priest of Murialdo, Italy, 
questioned John Bosco, a boy of eleven, about his vocation to the 
priesthood, the child answered : " I think if I knew enough myself 
I should like to instruct poor neglected children and preserve them 
from wickedness." That utterance was prophetic, for John Bosco 
became the greatest apostle of youth in the nineteenth century. 
He founded the Salesian Fathers, now forty-five hundred in num- 
ber, to look after abandoned boys, and the Salesian Sisters to ac- 
complish the same work among girls. His schools and refuges 
spread rapidly all over the Continent, and thence to England and 
America. At Don Bosco's death in 1888 two hundred and fifty 
schools had been founded, in which a hundred and thirty thousand 
children were being cared for and educated. We are grateful to 
the nun of the Visitation Convent, Georgetown, for her most in- 
teresting account of Don Bosco's apostolate among the young, and 
the clear-cut portrait she gives us of this saintly man of God. 
She also tells us of his love for the foreign missions. In 1875 
he sent ten missionaries to Buenos Ayres, and they and their suc- 
cessors did magnificent work in winning to Christ thousands of 
the barbarous savages from Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. The 
Salesian missionaries in Central and South America today number 
fourteen hundred. 

HISTORY OF THE FRANKS. By Gr^ory of Tours. Translated 
with notes by Ernest Brehaut, Ph.D. New York : Columbia 
University . Press. 

The History of the Franks, by St. Gregory of Tours, is the 
most valuable treatise we possess on the beginnings of the Frankish 
monarchy. We would prefer to have had the complete text, but t 

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120 NEfV BOOKS [April, 

the translator dreaded the cost of publication, and felt that the 
scholar could easily have recourse to the original text. The omitted 
chapters are summarized, and whenever they contain any items of 
special interest sections of them have been quoted in the summary. 
The notes are few and of little value, and the introduction 
serves no other purpose than to air the translator's a priori views 
against the supernatural in general and the " superstition " of St. 
Gregory and of the Catholic Church in particular. If at some 
future date Dr. Brehaut were to have the happy inspiration of 
rewriting his prejudiced and unscholarly introduction, we would 
advise him to read beforehand the Abbe Leclerq's fair and objective 
estimate of St. Gregory's work as bishop, and his work as an 
historian in the seventh volume of The Catholic Encyclopedia. 

THE SULPICIANS IN THE UNITED STATES. By Charles G. 

Herbermann, LL.D. New York: The Encyclopedia Press. 

In his preface Cardinal Gibbons writes : " I feel I am voicing 
the sentiments of the thousands of priests in this country who have 
been trained by the Sulpicians when I affirm that the coming of 
Father Nagot and his companions to found the first seminary in 
the United States was a signal blessing of God to our Church." 

In these vivid pages Dr. Herbermann describes the wonderful 
work accomplished by the Sulpicians in educating the American 
clergy from the days of Archbishop Carroll, and their arduous 
labors as missionary priests and bishops in the pioneer days of the 
American Church. He tells us of the founding, development and 
history of St. Mary's Seminary and St. Mary's Collie, Baltimore, 
and of St. Charles' College, Ellicott City; he gives short, interesting 
biographies of Sulpician Bishops, Flaget, David, Dubourg, Mare- 
chal, Dubois, Brute, Eccleston and others; he brings out in bold 
relief the simplicity, zeal and priestly character of the sons of 
Father Olier, who for over one hundred years have devoted them- 
selves untiringly to the development of the Church in these United 
States. 

PHASES OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY. By J. Estiin Carpenter. 

New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. $2.00. 

The American Lectures on the History of Religions have been 
given in the chief cities of the United States since 1894 under the 
auspices of the American Committee for Lectures on the History 
of Religions. Some of the volumes already printed are Buddhism.^l^ 

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1917] NEIV BOOKS 121 

by Rhys-Davids ; Jewish Religious Life After the Exile, by Cheyne; 
Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, by Steindorff, and Religions of 
Primitive Peoples, by Brinton, 

The lecturer for 1915 was the Unitarian, Dr. Carpenter, Prin- 
cipal Emeritus of Manchester College, Oxford. His theme is salva- 
tion, and the growth of Christian doctrine and the rise of Christian 
institutions in relation to it. The period covered by the present 
volume extends from lOO to 250 a. d. The lectures are written 
throughout from the liberal Protestant standpoint, and are calculated 
to do harm to the unwary student who accepts blindly the words 
of the teacher. Dr. Carpenter rationalizes everything in the Chris- 
tian Gospel, and has no room for the supernatural or the miracu- 
lous. To his mind Christianity is not "a system of doctrine ulti- 
mately embodied in creeds, nor a scheme of ecclesiastical govern- 
ment under the control of a Church," but a life of the sons of God. 
Of course, the Divinity of Christ and of His Church are denied, 
and with them sacerdotalism, sacramentalism, and Biblical inspira- 
tion. The writer is utterly unacquainted with the writings of 
Catholic scholars on this period of Church history. 

HOW TO READ. By J. B. Kerfoot. Boston: Houghton Mifflin 

Co. $1.25 net. 

Mr. Kerfoot's pleasant little book might be called a study in 
applied psychology. Not that the format reminds one in the least 
of a volume of philosophy. Far less could the diction by any 
stretch of the imagination be called philosophical. Mr. Kerfoot is 
the literary critic of Life, and he has brought into his essay that 
journal's distinctive tone: the brilliant and piquant passing into 
the flippant, and occasionaly degenerating into the slangy. But 
the principles for which he argues are old friends of psydiology, 
applied to reading; the laws of attention, reflex or voluntary, 
the association of images, unconscious mental reactions, the gener- 
alization of ideas under the influence of habit, temperament, en- 
vironment or state in life, they are all here, though often in 
disguise. 

The purpose of the book is to help its readers to a more intel- 
ligent employment of reading for their own individual ends, no 
matter what they may be. It considers how, why and what to 
read. It seeks to direct our many-sided minds — Mr. Kerfoot com- 
pares them to the centipede which has one hundred feet upon 
which to shift — ^to an intelligent choice; it insists on the neces- 



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122 NEW BOOKS [April, 

sity of discrimination, upon the various processes of assimilation 
and rejection, as the amceba assimilates or rejects what is good 
for it or what is injurious out of the microscopic particles of food 
which compose its " cosmos " — that same amceba which, according 
to Mr. Kerf oot's biology, is " one of our poorest relations and our 
most distant cousin." The author is not always happy in his 
choice of chapter headings ; some are pointless, one in questionable 
taste. " Muckraking the Dictionary " only means, after all, that 
ideas differ in connotation according to their context. 

It must be confessed that Mr. Kerf oot's method of handling 
the subject leaves the impression that the reader is being written 
down to; so to speak. He reminds one of the sleight-of-hand 
artist who, by involved movements and rapid passes, distracts at- 
tention from the essential simplicity of his l^erdemain, and who, 
after bewildering his audience by his mystic magic, kindly consents 
to repeat each trick step by step, explains each move, and shows 
how easy it all is when you know how. The principles upon 
which Mr. Kerfoot dwells are by no means new in themselves, but 
they may well be new to many. The author's method is certainly 
novel, and all things considered, it may readily be granted that 
How to Read merits the adjective applied to it in the publishers' 
prospectus, that it is " stimulating." 

LE STRANGE RECORDS. By Hamon le Strange. New York: 

Longmans, Green & Co. $7.00 net. 

Students of English mediaeval history will read with interest 
the annals of the le Strange family of Norfolk and the Welsh 
marshes, together with the houses of Knockin and Blackmere. While 
none of the family were remarkable either as great statesmen or 
great soldiers, the record of their lives affords the reader an ex- 
cellent insight into the undercurrent of events whidi shaped the 
history of the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The 
writer pictures them as a typical Marcher family, following, as a 
rule, the general movements which led the Marcher lords to take 
a decided, if sometimes not quite a consistent, line in the great 
problems of mediaeval politics. They were a fierce, brave, energetic 
and turbulent race, keen in pushing their own interests, ever suc- 
cessful in building up the fortunes of their house, and not over 
scrupulous in adhering to the strict requirements of the law. Their 
personal piety was manifested in the repeated gifts each genera- 
tion of the family made to its favorite abbey of Houghmond. 



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I9I7-] NEIV BOOKS 123 

The work is solidly documented, being based entirely on 
the Rolls and Charters still extant at the Public Record Office 
of the British Museum and Houstanton Hall. 

BEAUTY, A STUDY IN PHILOSOPHY. By Rev. Aloysius 

Rother, S J. St. Louis : B. Herder. 50 cents. 

This is a mere epitome of a complex philosophic inquiry, done 
in a manner thoroughly and emphatically scholastic. It is our Latin 
textbook of collie days done into English. The leading thoughts 
are cast into the form of theses, a method of proof is outlined, vari- 
ous proofs are set forth and confirmed, difficulties are stated, false 
views enunciated and contradicted, corollaries deduced. Each of 
the phases of the problem is so handled. Not only is the method 
of handling the inquiry exactly like our manual, but the manner also 
is the same. Qear-cut, it is true, are the definitions and statements, 
but they are devoid of all other graces save clearness. The ex- 
amples cited are the stock-in-trade variety, displayed in no at- 
tractive dress. The information is parceled out chip by chip. 
The bone is there but the flesh and life are not. It is not presented 
as a living thing; it is rather the skeleton, a curio in the cabinet, the 
parts analyzed and labeled and in order before us, but lacking its 
native glory. In fact, the book is too tiresome to read and too trite 
to study. 

In the presentation of this subject either the essay form should 
be employed, the reader addressed according to his own habit of 
thought, and the atmosphere of the classroom be abandoned; or 
else it should be simply a companion and supplementary volume to 
a student's textbook of philosophy. 

GOD AND MAN. Lectures on Dogmatic Theology. From the 
French of the Rev. L. Labauche, S.S. Volume II. New 
York: P. J. Kenedy & Sons. $1.50. 
Of late years a number of excellent textbooks of dogmatic 
theology have been published in English for the educated Catholic 
layman. Sheeben's Dogmatik, Dr. Pohle's series of textbooks, and 
Hunter's Outlines of Dogmatic Theology have done excellent serv- 
ice for the cause of Catholic truth. To this list we must now add 
the lectures of the well-known Sulpician, Father Labauche, whose 
volume on Man has just been published. The author follows the 
general lines of the Latin textbooks used in our seminaries, stating 
his thesis, proving it from reason, the Bible and tradition, and an- 



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124 NEW BOOKS [April, 

swering briefly the chief objections of rationalists and Protestants. 
The present volume treats of the state of original innocence, orig- 
inal sin, grace, and man and his future state. The translation is 
excellent. 

JESUS— TEACHEIL By Frank Webster Smith, Ph.D. New 

York : Sturgis & Walton. 50 cents net. 

This is a poor and inadequate attempt to prove that Our Lord 
was the most perfect Teacher the world ever knew. The writer 
seems to have no grasp of the Divinity of Christ, although he speaks 
vaguely of "the spiritual union of the Great Teacher and God 
which is emphasized in the Gospels." 

He sums up our Saviour's personal qualities as teacher under 
the headings of devotion, persistence, fearlessness and earnestness. 
He tells us that His principles of method were definiteness of aim, 
appreciation of the law of apperception, language power, individual 
appeal, and the intimate and sympathetic contact with His pupils. 

THE CRADLE OF CHRISTIANITY. By S. P. T. Prideoux. New 

York: E. P. Dutton & Co. $1.50 net. 

In brief, popular fashion Mr. Prideoux gives the young 
student an idea of the conditions of life in Palestine in the time 
of Our Lord. He describes the Roman influence and occupation, 
the Messianic hope, the Jews of the Diaspora, the current apoc- 
alyptic ideas, the Jewish sects and parties. 

He makes the mistake of calling the deutero-canonical books 
apocrypha, and falsely accuses the New Testament writers of bor- 
rowing from the Jewish non-inspired writings of their time. 

FATHER TIM'S TALKS. By Rev. C. D. McEnniry, C.SS.R. 

Volume II. St. Louis: B. Herder. 75 cents net. 

Father McEnniry has published a second volume of his delight- 
ful talks of Father Tim. In a kindly manner he instructs his 
readers in Catholic doctrine and practice, while at the same time 
interesting them in the story he tells. The present volume speaks 
of faith, sin, hell, the mercy of God, the use of holy water, the 
confessional, and devotion to the Blessed Virgin. 

HISTORICAL RECORDS AND STUDIES. Volume X. New 
York: The United States Catholic Historical Society. 
The latest number of Historical Records and Studies opens 



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1917] NEIV BOOKS 125 

with a brief sketch of the late Dr. Herbermann by Peter Condon. 
For eighteen years he was the President of the Catholic Historical 
Society, and its most indefatigable and most scholarly worker. 
Other articles of moment are the biographies of Edward M. Wing- 
field by Edward J. McGuire, and of the publisher John Doyle by 
Thomas F. Meehan. Dr. Herbermann contributed two sketches of 
Father Hyppolite de Luynes and Father Andrew F. Monroe. 

AK ALTAR WREATH. By Rev. Joseph G. Daley. Boston: Tho- 
mas J. Flynn. $1.25 net. 

Father Daley of the Springfield Diocese has written an excel- 
lent volume of timely, instructive and suggestive sermons. They 
treat of moral, doctrinal and liturgical subjects, together with a 
number of panegyrics on the saints. We recommend this volume 
highly to the priest on the Ipokout for good sermon material. 

THE ART OF LOOKING AT PICTURES. By Carl H. P. Thurs- 
ton. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. $1.50 net. 
As the author himself tells us this is a book, "not for the 
connoisseur or the initiated, but for the neophyte without the gates." 
It tells not merely what to look for in the work of a painter, but 
where to look and how. It is meant not only to be read, but to be 
applied, sentence by sentence, to pictures and prints. 

The names of one hundred and twenty artists are arranged 
in alphabetical order, their peculiar beauties pointed out, examples 
of their best work mentioned, a brief biography added, and quota- 
tions from art critics cited, 'f he book ends with an excellent bibli- 
ography, a good index, and an important chronological chart. 

RINGS. By George Frederick Kunz. Philadelphia : J. B. Lippin- 

cott Co. $6.00. 

This most recent work of Dr. Kunz takes its place by the 
side of his earlier writings. The Curious Lore of Precious Stones 
and The Magic of Jewels and Charms, Once again the author 
exhibits his faculty for exhaustive research in this study of finger 
rings, tracing their origin and usages from the most remote 
periods, in every part of the world. Romantic interest abounds, 
for not only are the rings that figure in religious and secular history 
mentioned, and the stories associated with them told, but the legends 
and traditions connected with magic and talismanic rings are also 
given, as well as many tales of rings of healing. It is a mass 



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126 NEIV BOOKS [April, 

of interesting material and, like his companion volumes, is pro- 
fusely and beautifully illustrated. 

UNCLE FRANK'S MARY. By " Clementia," Sister of Mercy. 

Chicago: M. A. Donohue & Co. $1.35. 

This is the first of a promised series, to be known as The 
Mary Selwyn Books. The heroine is introduced to us at the 
age of ten, and she is a sufficiently lovable little person to rouse 
a desire in the reader to follow her fortunes further. Though 
nothing of a prig, she is intensely devout. The story deals with 
her devotion to Our Lady, and the plenteous reward given to her 
steadfast faith, at Lourdes. The tale has plenty of incident and 
variety, and considerable information is imparted in an agreeable 
form. The book would be more enjoyable were there less dialect 
used, especially in the recording of the talk of very young children, 
of which there is so much as, at times, to make the reading la- 
borious. 

IN SPACIOUS TIMES. By Justin Huntley McCarthy. New York : 

John Lane Co. $1.35 net. 

Mr. McCarthy's latest historical novel deals with the England 
of Elizabeth. Its hero is an English sea captain, trained under 
Drake, who boldly abducts the girl of his choice in defiance of all 
the laws of the realm. With his immense fortune he buys great 
estates and lordly castles; with his doughty sword he comes out 
victor in many a duel; with his undaunted will he makes a fair 
lady of the Court love him despite herself. It is a clean, stirring, 
well-told romance, interesting from first page to last. 

ONLY A DOG. By Bertha Whitridge Smith. New York: E. P. 

Button & Co. $1.50. 

This is the story of a dog who is driven from his peaceful 
home in Flanders during the first furious onslaught of the German 
invaders. After wandering for a long time, he suddenly finds 
himself standing all alone, out in the deadly No Man's Land. He 
is wounded by a German bullet, but during the night is rescued 
by Private Rice, who, at the risk of his own life, crawls out to the 
wounded dog and brings him in behind the lines. "Army," as the 
dog is then called, devotes the rest of his life to his new master, 
and is a shining example of faithfulness. The book is a strong 
appeal for kindness to animals. 



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1917-1 ffEW BOOKS 127 

HELEN. By Arthur Sherburne Hardy. Boston: Houghton Mif- 
flin Co. $1.35 net. 

This is a charming story of the wooing of an American girl 
by two men, one an American the other a Frenchmen. 

Its chief merit lies in the writer's portrayal of modem life 
in Paris, and his delightful clear-cut sketches of American globe 
trotters, Russian princesses, French diplomats, and the winsome 
Helen and her whole-souled brother. The French suitor dies most 
opportunely of typhoid in Cairo, and the faithful American wins 
his love at last 

LETTERS OF A TRAVELING SALESMAN. By C. Jacobsen. 

Manchester, N. H. : The Magnificat Press. 75 cents net. 

These letters appeared some time ago in the pages of The Mag- 
nificat, The writer can certainly talk with effect, for he jokingly 
boasts of being able to sell a fan to a man frozen to the North 
Pole. He censures his fellow-travelers in a kindly way for their 
irreligion, immorality and gambling, and incidentally tells us of his 
love for the Blessed Sacrament, the saints, the Blessed Virgin, the 
poor, children and the aged. His pages are, however, marked at 
times by too free a use of slang. 

MOUNT VERNON. By Paul Wilstach. Garden City, N. Y.: 

Doubleday, Page & Co. 

The history of Mount Vernon gives us a good idea of the 
life of the Virginia planter in the closing days of the eighteenth 
century. We see Washington in his home life, and all its 
numerous activities; we hear hmi discussing public affairs with 
the Virginia burgesses and with the men who later on founded the 
United States. It is hard to understand why neither Virginia nor 
the United States offered to buy Mount Vernon when Bushrod 
Washington put it up for sale. That it is now a national shrine 
is due not to a grateful government, but to the Mount Vernon 
Ladies' Association of the Union. 

PINOCCHIO. By " C CpUodi." Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott 

Co. $1.25 net. 

Pinnochio, that classic of the nursery in half the world, was 
originally composed as a puppet-play by Signor Lorenzini, a native 
of the town of CoUodi in Italy, who died in 1890. It appears now 
in handsome form, as one of the series of Stories All Children Love, 



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128 NEIV BOOKS [April, 

and should prove a popular gift for the little people. Pinnochio, 
as everybody knows, was nothing but a piece of wood until the 
great day when Geppeto, the beggar, carved him into living form; 
and then he danced away into a life of strange adventures both 
sad and joyful that cannot easily be matched in all the records 
of fairyland. How he was tricked, and then later almost assassin- 
ated by the wicked cat and fox, and how he was hung without 
being greatly hurt, and how he finally got turned into a long-eared 
donkey, is so amazing a tale that but for Signor CoUodi one could 
hardly credit it all. His long series of thrilling adventures as a 
donkey are no less surprising — ^but here they are in this book all 
duly set down and attested by the author. It would be a curious 
little boy or girl who would not be interested in the story, and the 
last page is the only one which will be slowly turned. 

STRANGER THAN FICTION. By Paul J. J. Bent. Boston: 

Matthew F. Sheehan Co. $i.io. 

Father Bent gives us under this title Stranger than Fiction 
twelve short stories based upon personal observation, and drawn 
with great vividness from every phase of life. The stories are 
bright and sparkling, and give life in miniature, showing that the 
author is a penetrating observer of people and their ways. But 
the most attractive characteristic of all the tales is the odor of 
religion that each brings to the reader. They are simple as holiness 
itself and as refreshing, especially after the flood of material- 
istic novels so much the vogue today. 

THE FULLBACK. By Lawrence Perry. New York: Charles 

Scribner's Sons. $1.25 net. 

There is not a dull page, not even a dull line, in the story that 
has come as the first of a series by Mr. Lawrence Perry, who, by 
the way, keeps the readers of The Evening Post informed on 
athletic matters. There will be no desire to " skip the descriptions " 
in any of the Fair Play Series, if the other volumes are as interest- 
ing as the first. Tom Kerry is fit to be a real boy's hero, and 
though he is a human hero, with some little tendency to suffer from 
the weakness which attacks all boys who become indispensable to 
a football team, or a baseball nine, he saves himself in time; and 
fortune favors him to a degree that will satisfy even the youngest 
reader. Think of coming back at the critical stage of the game, 
after having gone away to sulk^ and getting into a suit for the 



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1917] NEW BOOKS 129 

express purpose of pulling the game out of the fire. And think of 
going up to the last four minutes, several points to the bad, and 
then lining up almost at one's own goal for a last desperate stand, 
and then being wizard enough to diagnose a crafty trick of the 
other quarterback, and intercepting a forward pass, and tearing 
through the whole field down to the other goal and planting the 
ball where it ought to go, right under the cross-bars. Such a cli- 
max is grand enough for any book, isn't it? 

117 E wish to call the special attention of our readers to a series 
^^ of volumes, entitled The Angelus Series, particularly suitable 
for short reading, both because of their intrinsic merit and their 
size and appearance. They may be easily carried about, the type 
is of good size, the binding durable. Of the recent ones that 
have come to us, is a treatise On Good Will translated from the 
French of the Redemptorist, Father Schrijvers. Good will, he 
writes, is preeminently necessary. Cultivating such a disposition 
towards God in all things and in all duties, we may safely leave our 
growth in spiritual betterment to His mercy and His wisdom. It 
follows closely the lines of Father Caussade's Abandonment. A 
happy little volume is A Year of Cheer — short quotations that pro- 
test against melancholy, and seek to drive away the gray by the 
golden. It is not from the pen, but from the discerning hand, of 
Scannel O'Neill. Another gives us in tabloid form the practical 
wisdom of Katharine Tynan. Another volume, which gives us the 
rigorous and simple spirituality of the early English writers, is 
Contemplations of the Dread and Love of God. It is by a writer of 
the time of Richard Rolle, and is edited from a manuscript of the 
late fourteenth or early fifteenth century. The old manuscript has 
still a very rare charm. The price of these volumes is fifty cents 
each. 

PATHER GOODIER'S work is well known to our readers. We 
^ take pleasure in recommending very highly a short book of 
meditations, which he has just puWished, through Benziger Broth- 
ers, New York City. The book is entitled The Prince of Peace, 
and furnishes very thoughtful and inspiring meditations on subjects 
that have the advantage of being rather unusual in their treatment 
and application. Catholics will find the volume a very useful book 
of devotion. 



VOL. cv.— 9 

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IRecent Bvents* 

The Editor of The Catholic World wishes to state that none 
of the contributed articles or departments, signed or unsigned, of 
the magazine, with the exception of " With Our Readers," voices 
the editorial opinion of the magazine. And no article or depart- 
ment voices officially the opinion of the Paulist Community. 

The internal situation in Russia is still a 

Russia. source of no little anxiety. Prince N. D. 

Golitzin is still the Prime Minister, but 

shortly after his appointment three members of the Cabinet were 

given leave of absence. Of these one was the recently appointed 

Minister for Foreign Affairs. 

The sense of uncertainty and instability resulting from the fre- 
quent changes has been accentuated by the causes to which they are 
attributed — ^the activity, that is to say, of a small but influential 
and energetic group of pro-Germans. These have set themselves 
to oppose the sentiments and convictions of the country and are 
actuated by the fear of losing the power which they have for so 
long possessed and which they have exercised to its detriment. The 
opposition which has been made to the realization of the Tsar's 
grant of a constitution in 1905 springs from this group, an oppo- 
sition which has been intensified by the war against Germany, 
success in which would be the deathknell of all their hopes. 

The instability of the Cabinet is in contrast with the determina- 
tion of the people to push the war to a successful issue ; frequent min- 
isterial changes are not reassuring. For twenty months the average 
life of the Ministers of Justice and Agriculture has been four and 
a half months, and of the Minister of the Interior three months. 
There have been no fewer than six changes in the holder of the 
latter portfolio. In a country, the government of which was really 
popular and in which the Ministers were responsible to the parlia- 
ment, changes of this kind would indicate division of counsel among 
the representatives of the people. But in Russia this degree of self- 
government has not yet been secured. All the Ministers are re- 
sponsible solely to the Tsar. He uses them as instruments when he 
chooses. If his will and policy are unchanged, it matters little who 
are these instruments. So far as the war is concerned abundant 



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iQi;.] RECENT EVENTS 131 

evidence has been given of the Tsar's full determination to be loyal 
to his Allies. The will, however, of a single man is a slender thread 
upon which to rest, especially when so many evidences are given 
of vacillation as those indicated by these ministerial changes. 
The stupendous difficulties by which the Tsar is confronted add to 
the anxieties of the situation. Paradoxical as it may seem, Russia 
has been for nearly a year suffering from famine in the midst 
of plenty. In Petrograd people, rich and poor alike, have had to 
wait for ten and twelve hours to secure small allowances of bread, 
meat and vegetables. Yet there is sufficient food in the country 
to feed the entire population for two years. In fact there is more 
food since the war began than before, as exportation has almost 
ceased on account of the closing of the Bosphorus. The want that 
exists is due to the lack of means of transportation. Those that 
exist are devoted to the feeding of the troops in the long line that 
stretches from Riga to the Black Sea, and on the other side 
through Armenia and far into Persia. The consequence is that the 
civil population has not only to supply the wants of the army, but 
is itself left without the transport facilities necessary for its own 
wants. Attempts without end have been made to regulate the 
railway service, maximum and minimum prices have been fixed, yet 
the record is one of failure. It is another instance of the inadequacy 
and inefficiency of autocratic methods, when put to a serious test. 
The organization and coordination which are essential if Russia is 
to cope successfully with the food problem have not yet been se- 
cured. It is on this account that the absence of a strong, capable 
and united Ministry is so much to be deplored. The difficulty of 
the ta^ may be the explanation of these changes. 

While there is plenty of food in Russia, and all that is wanting 
is some way of distributing it, military operations have been ham- 
pered by the lack of munitions. At the beginning of the war there 
was no reserve of shells, there being only two or three factories 
to produce them. So few were the rifles that the men in reserve 
had to wait for the men at the front to be killed, in order to get 
arms. A new industrial organization has since been started. This 
it was that rendered possible the victories won last summer by Gen. 
Brusiloff. Roads and railways also have been constructed on a 
fairly large scale. The results have been so satisfactory that the 
military experts of the country are quite confident of driving back, 
at least oflf Russian soil, the invaders' armies. The very successes 
of the Germans have been one of the chief means of infusing into 



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132 RECENT EVENTS [April, 

the mass of the Russian people the determination to free the land 
from the invader. The moment the German put his foot upon 
Russian soil the national feeling became thoroughly aroused. 

The appointment of M. Sazonoff to be the successor of Count 
Beuckendorff as Ambassador to Great Britain gave renewed as- 
surance, if any were needed, of Russia's loyalty to the Entente. 
M. Sazonoff had been, as Foreign Minister, a chief instrument in 
bringing about that understanding between Great Britain, France 
and Russia which had been entered into some years before the War. 
His resignation, or supersession, had come as a shock to the Allied 
Powers and has never been fully explained. His being appointed 
to London goes a long way to restoring the fullness of the confi- 
dence which had existed while he was the Russian Foreign Minister. 
His predecessor in London, who died at his post, was, strange to 
say, a Catholic, and has been buried in the same crypt of West- 
minster Cathedral in which lie the bodies of Cardinals Wiseman and 
Vaughan. His death was looked upon as a great loss to the Allied 
cause, of which he had been at once a warm and a skillful supporter. 
M. Sazonoff's appointment has gone a long way to remove the 
disappointment caused by Count Beuckendorff's death. The further 
to confirm the complete union between Russia and her Western 
Allies, there has taken place at Petrograd a series of Conferences 
between special missions from France, Italy and Great Britain. 
Among the envoys from Great Britain was a member of the War 
Cabinet, Lord Milner, a thing which showed the extreme importance 
attached to the mission. One of the objects of these Conferences 
was to bring about a greater unity of action in the various fields of 
warfare — ^to make one war out of the five or six which have so 
far been carried on with too little regard for one another. One 
result may be seen in the cooperation which has been brought about 
between the British on the Tigris and the Russians in Persia, by 
means of which a bar has been placed to the German Far-Eastern 
plans. 

Great though Russia's difficulties may be they are chiefly in- 
ternal, and although these internal difficulties may influence the 
conduct even perhaps the result of the war, there is good reason 
for thinking that they will be overcome. Two parties stand face 
to face, one in favor of responsible government, the other bitterly 
opposed to it, and so bitter too is this opposition that there are those 
who would prefer to lose the war rather than to win it, if the price 
of winning were the establishment of anything like government by 



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1917] RECENT EVENTS - 133 

the people. Not only the Duma but the Council of the Empire, which 
is a kind of Upper House, or House of Lords, has lately declared 
in favor of a responsible Ministry. The response given by the 
Tsar to this declaration is an unmitigated negative — at least for the 
time being. Hence all the Ministers of the Cabinet who have re- 
cently been appointed are of the reactionary t3rpe. So far as their 
influence goes it will be with the object of thwarting the constitu- 
tional movement. Determination to carry on the war is professed 
and is undoubtedly real, but the effects of their policy will be in the 
future as they have been in the past, somewhat detrimental to real 
success. No support, for example, was given to the new policy 
towards Poland proclaimed by the Archduke Nicholas at the be- 
ginning of the war; on the contrary, determined opposition was 
offered to it; while in Galicia for the brief period during which 
it was in Russia's possession, the population was alienated by an 
attempt to Russianize the province. The Ruthene Catholics were 
under penalties forced to conform to the Orthodox Church. The 
treatment of the Archbishop of Lemberg is an illustration of the 
spirit by which the reactionary party is animated. 

The repeated postponements of the meetings of the Duma 
show the distrust which is entertained of the people's representa- 
tives. The Duma, on the other hand, is determined to maintain 
the rights which have been conferred upon it by the Constitution of 
1905, and to press for an extension of those rights. To postpone 
to the end of the war the demand for a wider grant of power 
would seem to be the wiser course, were it not for the manifestation 
which has been made of the inefficiency of the bureaucrats. The 
Dtmia's claim, therefore, is that its demands so far from being a 
hindrance to success are necessary for that success. This claim is, 
however, not listened to; is in fact scouted. This is the main 
cause of the present internal unrest. 

Since the above was written a complete Revolution has taken 
place in Russia. At first it seemed likely that the advocates of re- 
sponsible government would have patience for the sake of an undis- 
turbed prosecution of the war, and not resort to violence however 
great might be the provocation. But when the reactionary Ministry 
proceeded to dissolve the Duma the cup was filled to overflowing. 
A Committee of the Dimia took into its hands the task of defending 
the nation, and of liberating it from its incompetent, if not, treach- 
erous rulers. The army as a whole was for once in the history of 
Russia on the side of the people; indeed as it is now constituted, 



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134 • RECENT EVENTS [April, 

it is made up of the people. The small resistance that a part of 
it offered was soon overcome. The Tsar was more willing to be 
broken than to bend to the will of the nation's representatives, and 
for himself and his son, abdicated in favor of his brother, the 
Grand Duke Michael. The latter at first accepted the position of 
Regent until such time as a Constitutional Assembly shall be elected, 
but has since resigned. The Constitutional Assembly will be chosen 
by universal suffrage, and by it will be determined the future form 
of government. In the meantime Russia will be controlled by the 
Committee which brought about the crisis, and which constitutes 
the Provisional Government. It is to be hoped that moderate 
counsels will prevail. Extremes provoke extremes. The deliverance 
of the millions of Russians from autocratic government is a task 
not to be accomplished in a day if it is to prove permanent. 

How far treachery is responsible for the want of success, and 
whether it has tainted the imperial family is not clear. No sign 
of it appears in the Tsar's message of abdication. The cause of 
failure is more likely to be found in the self-seeking which is char- 
acteristic of rulers and their subordinates. The people, they think, 
is made for them, not they for the people. Now, however, that the 
obstacles have been removed, the war will be prosecuted with re- 
newed vigor. Virtually all of the military commanders have given 
in their adhesion to the new regime. All military and industrial 
resources are to be mobilized. The friction brought about by 
incompetence and treachery has disappeared. Even the Established 
Church which has so often been the stronghold of oppression has 
fallen into line. The army is for the time being under the com- 
mand of the Grand Duke Nicholas. Whether it is wise to retain 
him in a position of such supreme importance would appear to be 
doubtful. 

The Austro-German kingdom of Poland, established by a mil- 
itary decree, lacks all validity in the eyes of the world, having been 
made in violation of the recognized principles of international law. 
For this reason the Western Powers as well as Russia have declared 
its nullity. France, Italy and Great Britain have gone further, and 
have given in their adhesion to the union of the dismembered 
kingdom promised by the Grand Duke Nicholas on the fifteenth of 
August, 1914, a promise which has quite recently been ratified by 
the Tsar. This restoration of unity and autonomy, the Western 
Powers declare, constitutes a prime factor in the future balance 
of Europe, and they have bound themselves that it shall be fully car- 



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1917.I RECENT EVENTS 135 

ried into effect. Our President has declared Poland's claim to inde- 
pendence to be one of the rights which must be respected. No 
reliable information is obtainable as to the reception which the 
Austro-German proclamation has met with in the part of Poland 
occupied by their forces; nor is it likely that any free expression of 
opinion would be allowed. It is inconceivable that it should be 
accepted by the Poles, as a body, for this would be equivalent to 
the renunciation of Polish unity, and to acquiescence in the per- 
petuation of the dismemberment of the ancient kingdom. 

The news has just arrived of the deliv- 
France. erance of from four hundred to six hun- 

dred square miles of French territory. 
On a front of nearly seventy miles extending from the Arras 
sector to the Oise river the Germans have withdrawn, almost elim- 
inating the Arras and Noyon salients. The French and British 
troops are in close pursuit, occupying mile after mile of open 
ground, the British having advanced ten miles and the French 
twelve. In one day seventy villages and towns were restored to 
freedom, Bapaume, Peronne, Roye and Noyon have fallen. The 
German soldiers as they retired burned villages after having looted 
them. As yet there is no sign of making a stand, nor is it known 
with what object the retirement has been made. Some hope 
that it may prove a rout. It is more probable, however, that the 
step has been taken in order to take up a shorter line, one 
that can be defended by a smaller number of troops. Possibly a 
grand drive may be made for Calais by the overplus of troops that 
have been obtained by the present withdrawal. In any case the 
Allies are prepared. 

In other respects events in France have not been so pleasing. 
The French Chamber, at the beginning of the War, gave to the 
Ministry untrammeled control of affairs. But as thne went on the 
jealousy of the Government grew greater, and the members of the 
Senate and House of Deputies began to assert what they looked 
upon their right to control. Committees were appointed to super- 
vise everything, even military operations. These Committees sum- 
moned Cabinet Ministers and other executive officers to render an 
account of their proceedings. M. Briand especially was subjected 
to this harassing procedure ; he had many adversaries, among whom 
was M. Qemenceau. In the end the opposition became unbearable ; 
M. Briand resigned and his Cabinet. This resignation had been 



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136 ' RECENT EVENTS [April, 

preceded by that of the War Minister, General Lyautey, who had 
been brought from Morocco on account of his great success in the 
administration of that country. He found it impossible to adapt 
himself to the parliamentary methods which have recently been 
adopted. A new Ministry is being formed, but it is found 
difficult to find a man willing to undertake the task. M. Deschanels 
having refused, M. Ribot is considering the matter. It seems that 
it is not merely under autocratic rule that the holders of power 
are sources of trouble. 

No reasonable doubt can be felt about the 
Germany. serious want of food supplies in Germany. 

Cumulative evidence makes it certain that 
while there is no actual starvation, or but little, the civil population 
is suffering acutely, especially the poor. This was the reason which 
led the Chancellor to make the peace proposals which were so 
promptly, and in German eyes so "shamefully," rejected by the 
Allies. It is for the same reason that the campaign of ruthless 
submarine warfare has been adopted, or rather intensified, as the 
only means left of conquering the chief enemy — Great Britain — 
hopes of a decisive military victory having been abandoned or 
postponed. The British take a serious view of the German 
effort, and are preparing to meet it with, according to the 
latest accounts, a large measure of success. In other countries 
German threats are widely looked upon as bluff, and as meant rather 
to frighten neutrals than with any expectation of success in starving 
Great Britain. That in inspiring fear among neutrals Germany 
has largely succeeded must be admitted, so far as the States on 
the continent of Europe are concerned. Our own country and 
now China, the two largest Republics, have risen to the occasion, 
and have manifested their determination not to yield to the domina- 
tion of a State which is aiming at world supremacy. 

While German officialdom loudly declares that there exists 
the most perfect harmony and unity within the Empire, there is 
good reason to look upon this claim, as to say the least, greatly 
exaggerated. The agrarians, according to their wont, have been 
profiting by the necessities of the country. Prussia has been trying 
to deprive Bavaria of her larger measure of food supplies, while 
the latter has not been receiving with any great degree of cordiality 
the large number of Prussians whom these food supplies brought 
into her cities. A pamphlet is being widely circulated in Germany, 
especially in Bavaria, which calls for the substitution of the Ba- 



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1917.1 RECENT EVENTS 137 

varian royal house for that of the Hohenzollerns, as the latter has 
been the cause of the evils which have befallen the Empire. As 
victory is, in the opinion of the writer, impossible, this change is 
necessary in order to mitigate the conditions of peace, for the 
Wittelsbach House would be a guarantee of its maintenance. A 
Swiss Socialist paper asserts that this pamphlet is the utterance of 
a movement which is widely spread throughout South Germany. 
The fall of the Tsar cannot but further the movement for the 
liberation of Germany. The new submarine campaign has caused 
a split in the ranks of the Prussian Socialists. On the other hand, 
the endorsement by the Chancellor of this campaign, to which for 
a long time he was opposed, has brought to an end the opposition 
against him of its first advocates, von Tirpitz and Count Reventlow. 
The Chancellor, however, is not the real ruler of Germany, 
nor even the Kaiser. Von Hindenburg has complete control of 
both the naval and military forces, with the power of demanding the 
cooperation of the civil authorities. This power he exercises 
through the Auxiliary Service Law, which places every civilian 
at the disposal of the army. Voluntary offering of service, indeed, 
is desired, but the law gives the power of compulsion, should 
voluntary service fail. 

Reference has been made to the German 
Progress of the War. withdrawal in France. Everywhere else 

the lines remain almost unchanged. No 
progress has been made by the Germans in Rumania, and in the 
Macedonian district there is scarcely any change. In Turkey, how- 
ever, the goal of German ambition, Bagdad, is now in the hands of 
the British. In fact, British forces are now a long way further 
north on the way to meet the Russian army which is driving the 
Turks back from Persia. A few days may see the junction of the 
two forces. This would draw a line, offering a sure bar to the 
Far Eastern object of German ambitions. In another part of the 
Turkish dominions the Turks have been driven back, the British 
expedition from Egypt having reached Hebron, from which it is 
within measurable distance of Armageddon, the place where the 
dragon is to gather together the kings of the earth to battle in the 
great day. Here it may be mentioned that out of the Turkish 
Empire, since the beginning of the war, two new sovereigns have 
arisen, the Sultan of Egypt and the King of the Hedjas. The 
latter was the Sheriff of Mecca, and is now maintaining his inde- 
pendence of the Turk. r^^^^i^ 

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AS the editor is sending to press the last of this issue of The 
Catholic World, it seems a certainty that our country will very 
shortly be at war with Germany. Even as we write this, Germany 
has already begun war upon us. The terrible scourge of war, with all 
its possible horror and suffering, of men killed and wounded, of homes 
made desolate, of broken-hearted mothers and children, is welcome 
to none. But one truth is already written large and plain upon the 
pages of history — our country did not desire war, our country did 
everything consistent with national life and honor to avoid it, and if 
war comes, Germany will stand guilty before the judgment of men 
and the judgment of God not only for its beginnings, but for all the 
murder, the suffering and the bitterness that will follow upon its 
prosecution. War has been literally forced upon our country, and 
she is compelled to take up arms for her own honor and for justice 
among men. Our prayers to the last were that our coimtry might 
be saved the horrors of war; if she now must fight, we know that she 
fights in the cause of justice and of peace. 



MANY minds, in the present earnest searching of hearts which 
world events have made necessary, bear testimony not only to 
the vital need of definite truth concerning the eternal questions that 
press the soul of man, but also to the utter inadequacy of the re- 
Ijgious thought and teaching outside the Catholic Church to meet that 
demand. For beyond the light of her protection and her guidance 
there are bodies that call themselves Churches, but that have really 
no valid claim to the title. Any and every Church must be not simply 
a material collection of individuals, more or less sympathetic in their 
religious beliefs, but an organic whole, vitalized and imified by one 
truth which all accept, not because it appeals to each one personally, 
but because it comes from an authority higher than all, and to which 
all must subject their intellects. The life of a Church is something 
greater than its members, taken one by one, or taken collectively. 
This corporate life no one individual could achieve, because of the 
simple fact that it is a corporate life; and for the same reason, a 
power, which is above all the individuals, which is supreme and 
acknowledged to be supreme, must be the source of unity and of 

life. 

♦ « ♦ ♦ 

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1917] WITH OUR READERS 139 

THIS basic and fundamental principle was thrown to the winds cen- 
turies ago by the Protestant world. And since that day the winds 
have played havoc with the Christian truths of which it was the only 
permanent safeguard. Some religious bodies have saved certain defi- 
nite Christian truths, but the preservation has been due to no organic 
principle of life, no recognized preserving power within the particular 
Churdi itself. It has been due to fortunate choice of private judg- 
ment and selection, as a result of parental training, reverence for the 
past, experimental knowledge, because in these truths the soul finds 
help, and hope and consolation. Not one of these religious bodies, 
when appealed to, can or will in any corporate sense give a final 
pronouncement on any definite Christian truth. Indeed they recognize 
within themselves no such authority. Their life can never rise above 
the private, personal opinion of the individual, because professedly 
that is the foundation upon which they are organized. It matters not 
whether they teach that this private judgment is reenforced by the 
assistance of the Holy Spirit or not; eventually the witness both to 
the assistance of the Holy Spirit and to the truth accepted is the 
private judgment of the individual. 

♦ ' ♦ ♦ * 

THE inefficiency and even the inconsistency of this attitude are 
gradually breaking with greater clearness upon the minds of men. 
A most liberal thinker, for example, like H. G. Wells, writes this 
striking passage in his latest volume, Italy, France and Britain at 
War, " That talk was only one of a number of talks about religion that 
I have had with hard and practical men who want to get the world 
straighter than it is, and who perceive that they must h^ve a leadership 
and reference outside themselves." Because of this desire for "a 
reference outside themselves," Mr. Wells "asserts confidenfly that 
there is a real deep religious movement afoot in the world." This is 
an extraordinary statement, coming as it does from the author of 
First and Last Things. 

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ 

THE chaotic condition of religious thought in the non-Catholic world 
must be considered when we weigh its worth or measure its ten- 
dencies. For three centimes men have been thinking in terms of 
compromise. Clearness of vision has been obscured; the primary 
moral obligation to follow truth at all cost has been shirked; the 
mental processes have been wounded, and can do at best but a halting 
and an imperfect work. The first principles of correct thinking are 
only half-recognized or altogether abandoned. Faith, for example, is 
spoken of as a thing entirely apart from the intellect. Thus it is 
divorced from the true, intelligent life of man. And his life is noth- 
ing, if it is not intelligent. As a consequence we see a great portion 

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140 WITH OUR READERS [April, 

of the world of thought deceived by manifest inconsistencies, denying 
on one page what it has asserted on the preceding, and apparently 
unconscious where its assertions or its denials ought logically to lead it. 

* * ♦ * 

THERE are, for example. Churches some of whose members claim to 
be Catholic, but who acknowledge no Catholic authority; yet others, 
official and lay members of the same Church, loudly proclaim they are 
not Catholic, never have been, and wish never to be. Some members of 
the same Church will claim a real priesthood : others will just as strenu- 
ously deny it; some will assert that divorce is anti-Christian: others 
that it is not so. Conventions will be held that are a public witness to 
impossibility of agreement. Other Churches base their very existence 
on the Bible, yet historically they have not preserved the Bible ; they 
admit no authority which may state without question what is the Bible, 
or define its often seemingly contradictory teaching. They will assert 
the leadership of Christ, yet never teach Who Christ really is. They 
will loudly champion a necessary loyalty to Christ, yet never explicitly 
define the practical conduct of life wherein that loyalty consists. They 
will preach of dependence upon Christ, yet speak in utterly humani- 
tarian terms, denying the necessity of grace and the actual help of 
Christ. They will speak with respect of the Bible, yet abet a higher 
criticism that tears it to pieces. They will speak of God, the Creator,- 
yet declare an evolutionary process that means God is not our Creator. 
They will champion Him as the Ruler of the world, yet in their moral 
teaching they will assert that man is the ruler; that in questions of 
birth control, for example, economic necessity, the demand for a 
healthier race has taken the prerogative out of the hands of God 
and placed it in those of man. They will speak reverently of God 
as the Infinite Being, yet attribute to Him certain experiences that 
rob Him of His Infinite Attributes. Thus the Rev. Samuel McComb, 
D.D., of the Emmanuel Church, of Boston, in his recent book. The 
New Life, welcomes the philosophy of Henri Bergscwi, and states that 
" we must believe that for even God Himself there are always dra- 
matic surprises in the history of the world." 

* * * * 

IN the world that knows only this picture of what might be termed 
a self-contradictory Christianity, it is no wonder that books are 
being written which pronounce Christianity a failure ; or say that, if 
Christianity is to save the world, it must be a different Christianity 

from that of the past or the present. 

* ♦ ♦ ♦ 

BUT the overmastering tendency of these modern writers to preach 
empty generalities and to escape the concrete obligations of truth, 
is only adding chaos to confusion. What the soul of man asks 



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I9I7] WITH OUR READERS 141 

for is the definite truth from God Himself, which will be for him 
a definite philosophy of life, a practical standard which will govern 
his everyday life and direct him in his everyday conduct and affairs. 

The family is for him a definite thing, which he knows and 
loves. Home calls up within his heart definite duties and a defined 
aflfection. Home binds him to his country and gives substance and 
meaning to patriotism. Without country, patriotism is impossible. 
Without a Church, which is the City of God on earth, as definite 
and concrete and visible as any earthly city or country, religion is 
impossible. 

Those who endeavor to make things otherwise are only fighting 
against God and against human nature; they are destroying the 
best possible growth into larger interests, broader service and wider 
charity of the spiritual and intellectual powers of men. The injury 
done by writers of the Wells type to their impressionable readers, 
is the injury done by the spinner of idle dreams in the mind of a 
schoolboy. They lead him to believe he will one day be a hero; 
they draw him away from the performance of those tasks which 
alone make a hero. 

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ 

CHRISTIANITY was tried, and did de facto convert and trans- 
form the world. Christianity did unite Europe, when it was torn 
by wars even greater than the present. Christianity did bring civi- 
li^tion to the world and peace to the nations of the earth. 

And it must be remembered, even by those who would deny 
these things, and who in turn claim to seek the things of truth 
and of peace, that, this Christianity, the Catholic Church, did preach 
and secure a hearing for the most effective and most enduring motives 
that ever appealed to, or directed the souls of men. To the conduct 
of men it brought the direct, immediate sanctions of God and of His 
Divine Son Who spoke through His living Church. Now whether men 
agree with that Church or not, it is impossible to think of weightier 
motives ever being brought to bear upon the conduct of men. All that 
modems can put forward, in the way of fidelity to one's best, social 
service, the cause of humanity, etc., were included in these, and what 
was infinitely more — direct responsibility of the individual for all his 
acts, in all his relations to his fellows, to God Himself. 

As Cardinal Newman wrote : " Catholicism has its First Prin- 
ciples, overthrow them, if you can; endure them, if you cannot. It 
is not enough to call them effete because they are old, or antiquated 
because they are ancient. It is not enough to look into our churches, 
and cry, *It is all a form, because divine favor cannot depend on ex- 
ternal observances' or, *it is all a bondage, because there is no such 
thing as sin ;' or, 'a blasphemy, because the Supreme Being cannot be 

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142 WITH OUR READERS [AprU, . 

present in ceremonies;' or, 'a memory, because prayer cannot 
move him;' or, 'a tyranny, because vows are unnatural;' or 
'hypocrisy, because no rational man can credit it at all.' I say 
here is endless assumption, tmmitigated hypothesis, reckless assertion ; 
prove your 'because,' 'because,' 'because ;' prove your First Principles, 
and if you cannot, learn philosophic moderation. Why may not my 
First Principles contest the prize with yours? They have been Icmger 
in the world ; they have lasted, they have done harder work, they have 
seen rougher service. You sit in your easy chairs, you dogmBtizt in 
your lecture rooms, you wield your pens; it all looks well on paper; 
you write exceedingly well; there never was an age in which there 
was better writing; logical, nervous, eloquent and pure — go and carry 
it all out in the world. Take your First Principles, of which you are 
so proud, into the crowded streets of our cities, into the formidable 
classes, which make up the bulk of our population ; try to work so- 
ciety by them. You think you can; I say you cannot — ^at least you 
have not as yet; it is yet to be seen if you can. 'Let not him that 
putteth on his armor boast as he who taketh it oflF.' Do not take it 
for granted that that is certain which is waiting the test of reason 
and experiment. Be modest until you are victorious. My principles, 
which I believe to be eternal, have at least lasted eighteen hundred 
years ; let yours live as many months. That man can sin, that he has 
duties, that the Divine Being hears prayer, that He gives His favors 
through visible ordinances, that He is really present in the midst of 
them, these principles have been the life of nations ; they have shown 
they could be carried out; let any single nation carry out yours, and 
you will have better claim to speak contemptuously of Catholic rites, 
of Catholic devotions, of Catholic belief." 



THE modern world needs to return home, and home is a place of def- 
inite shelter, of comfort, of security. They who would take off the 
roof and raze the walls leave us nothing but barrenness and loneliness 
and th^ vast waste. " I believe," Chesterton said lately, " that when 
we break out, we break up: that mere expansion is an aiming at mere 
dissolution, that it is the voice of chaos and old night calling con- 
tinually for the unsaying of the word that made us and for the un- 
creation of the world." 



ENGLAND, through her present Prime Minister, has announced 
that she will not keep faith with Ireland. The Home Rule Bill 
now on the statute books is dead. Lloyd George declared that the 
present Parliament " considers it impossible to impose by force on any 
section of Ireland a form of government which has not their consent" 



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19171 600KS RECEIVED 143 

G>ining from such a source there are few sentences in the history 
of governments more hypocritical. England has not hesitated for 
centuries to impose with all the physical force and power at her com- 
mand a form of government to which the vast majority of Ireland, 
all Ireland one might truly say, never gave its consent. The greater 
part of Ireland is today subjected to a form and a method of govern- 
ment against which it is making the most forcible protest that can be 
uttered, short of the resort to arms. Moreover, the law of England 
itself now directs that Home Rule should be granted to Ireland ; but 
the law is repudiated and justice is denied by a nation that officially 
claims to be fighting for the rights and national existence of smaller 
nations, and the government of which is false to its own obligations and 
truckles to a small, lawless minority. The purpose of the Prime 
Minister's speech was to give the impression that the whole fault lay 
with Ireland herself, and that if Ireland would come to an agreement 
tbt English Government would grant what she wished. But no one 
with even a slight knowledge of recent history will be misled in this 
way. Ireland is a nation, and as such demands self-govenmient. To 
say that national life and development must be sacrificed because of 
the opposition of a small minority will deceive no one. 



BOOKS RECEIVED. 



Longmans, Grbbn & Co., New York: 

Life of the Venerable Louise de Marilh^. By Lady Lovat. $3.50 net. The t 
Ancient Journey, By A. M. ShoU. $1.00 net. Some Minor Poems of the 
Middle Ages. By M. G. Segar. $1.00 net. More Tales by Polish Authors, 
Translated by E. C. M. Benecke and M. Busch. $1.50 net. England in the 
Mediterranean. By J. S. Corbett. Two volumes. $5.00 net. The Days of 
Alkibiades. By C. E. Robinson, B.A. $1.50 net. Thomas Hardy. By H. C. 
Dtiffin, M.A. $1.75 net. 
Th£ Macmillan Co., New York: 

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THE CALL TO PATRIOTISM. 



BY THE EDITOR. 




|HE natural law enjoins us to love devotedly, and to 
defend the country in which we had birth, and 
in which we were brought up, so that every good 
citizen hesitates nqt to face death for his native 
land.** 

These words, written by the late Sovereign Pontiff, Leo XIIL, 
express the convictions and the feelings of every Catholic, and 
will be his inspiration in thought, and word and deed, now that 
our country is at war with the German Government. 

During the past three years there have been inevitably strong 
differences of opinion with regard to our attitude towards the 
German Government. These differences and divisions are now no 
more — ^they are of the past Our country is at war with Ger- 
many. If we would not hesitate to face death in our country's de- 
fence we will not hesitate to do the lesser thing, to give generously 
of our time, our thought, our possessions, our resources of every 
possible kind. 

Not only has the decision of our Government done away with 
all difference, so that we stand a united people, determined to 
push this war to a successful issue with all our power, but the long 
months of patient waiting have shown more and more clearly, and 
now with a clearness that admits of no question, that we have set 
out on a war that is eminently just 



Copyricfat. 1917- Thb Missionaky SoaiTY of St. Paul thb Apostlb 
iw THB Statb of Nbw Yobx. 



VOL. CV.— 10 



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146 THE CALL TO PATRIOTISM [May, 

Otir country has from the beginning stood for a principle 
which is essentially one with our national ]ti,fe. It wotdd be 
impossible to review here the long series of notes exchanged be- 
tween our Government and Germany on the submarine controversy. 
They cover a space of two years, banning with President Wil- 
son's note of protest against the German Admiralty's proc- 
lamation of February 4, 191 5, and ending in the breaking off of 
diplomatic relations with Germany by the United States on Feb- 
ruary 3, 191 7. Patiently by argument, by lengthy exposition, 
by threat did President Wilson endeavor to lead Germany to agree 
to carry on her submarine warfare with due regard for human rights 
and the rights of neutrals. 

A careful reading of the notes will show that President Wilson 
stood from the very beginning for a great moral principle — ^the 
rights of all humanity, and what was inextricably bound up with 
them, the rights of America and American citizens. He refused to 
desert the defence of the former when offered security with regard 
to the latter. Wisely he saw that both were necessarily inter- 
woven. "The wrongs against which we now array ourselves," 
he could say to Congress, " are no common wrongs; they cut to the 
very roots of human life." We have stood and we stand now, 
when war has been forced upon us, for the elementary rights of 
humanity as well as for the rights of our country as a sovereign 
state. 

Surely no nation should hastily draw the sword. It can never 
be said that we acted impetuously, that we left unused any means 
consistent with our national honor and national life before we 
declared war. We have drawn the sword only as a last resort, 
only in answer to the question, which had to be answered categori- 
cally, whether as an independent nation we would live or die. And 
in drawing it to defend our rights and to insist that they must 
prevail, we are in the best sense of the word standing true to the 
traditions of our forefathers, and to that particular mission which 
we as Americans possess — ^the mission of independent national life 
for ourselves, and sympathy at least for all others in their like 
aspirations. 

We have done again what our forefathers did against the 
English Government — declared war that our independence might 
be assured and might prevail. As His Eminence, John Cardinal 
Farley, Archbishop of New York, declared on April 8th : 

" I believe that our country in the order of Divine Providence 

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I9I7.1 THE CALL TO PATRIOTISM 147 

has a special mission to fulfill among the nations. I believe that 
it has been called to a destiny exalted and distinctively its own. My 
belief in that mission and that destiny comes to me as I read, as I 

must read, our country's origin and our country's history I 

sense the spirit that inspired its immortal Declaration of Freedom 
from the bonds of a tyranny that would alienate and fetter the 
American manhood developing on its shores. I discern the signs 
of a Superintending Agency that marked the trying vicissitudes 
of the mighty struggle that ensued, and the glorious triumph of 
liberty that was won." 

The German Government has denied that liberty, and has 
defied our rights; has stmk our ships without warning; has killed 
our citizens and has refused to stop doing so. To quote the Presi- 
dent's address to the joint session of Congress, on April 2d : " The 
new policy of the Imperial German Government has swept every re- 
striction aside. Vessels of every kind, whatever their flag, their 
character, their cargo, their destination, their Errand, have been 
ruthlessly sent to the bottom without warning and without thought 
of help or mercy for those on board, the vessels of friendly 
neutrals along with those of belligerents. Even hospital ships 
and ships carrying relief to the sorely bereaved and stricken people 
of Belgium, though the latter were provided with safe conduct 
through the proscribed areas by the German Government itself, 
and were distinguished by unmistakable marks of identity, have 
been sunk with the same reckless lack of compassion or of prin- 
ciple. 

" I was for a little while unable to believe that such things 
would in fact be done by any Government that had hitherto sub- 
scribed to humane practices of civilized nations. International law 
had its origin in the attempt to set up some law which would be 
respected and observ^ed upon the seas, where no nation has right 
of dominion and where lay the free highways of the world. By 
painful stage after stage has that law been built up, with meagre 
enough results, indeed, after all was accomplished that could be 
accomplished, but always with a clear view, at least, of what the 
heart and conscience of mankind demanded. 

" This minimum of right the German Government has swept 
aside, under the pl^ of retaliation and necessity and because it had 
no weapons which it could use at sea except these, which it is 
impossible to employ, as it is employing them, without throwing 
to the wind all scruples of humanity or of respect for the under- 



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148 THE CALL TO PATRIOTISM [May, 

standings that were supposed to underlie the intercourse of the 
world. 

'' I am not now thinking of the loss of property involved, im- 
mense and serious as that is, but only of the wanton and whole- 
sale destruction of the lives of noncombatants, men, women, and 
children, engaged in pursuits which have always, even in the darkest 
periods of modem history, been deemed innocent and legitimate. 
Property can be paid for; the lives of peaceful and innocent peo- 
ple cannot be. The present German submarine warfare against 
commerce is a warfare against mankind. 

'' It is a war against all nations. American ships have been 
sunk, American lives taken, in ways which it has stirred us very 
deeply to learn of, but the ships and people of other neutral and 
friendly nations have been sunk and overwhelmed in the waters 
in the same way. There has been no discrimination. 

'' The challenge is to all mankind. Each nation must decide 
for itself how it will meet it. The choice we make for ourselves 
must be made with a moderation of counsel and a temperateness 
of judgment befitting our character and our motives as a nation. 
We must put excited feeling away. Our motive will not be re- 
venge or the victorious assertion of the physical might of the 
nation, but only the vindication of right, of human right, of 
which we are only a single champion." 

On Good Friday, April 6th, the House of Representatives 
passed the following joint resolution which had been adopted by 
the Senate on the previous day: 

Wherios, The Imperial German Gorerament has committed repeated 
acts of war against the Govermnent and the people of the United States 
of America; therefore, be it 

Resolved, By the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
States of America in Congress assembled, that the state of war between 
the United States and the Imperial German Government, which has 
thus been thrust upon the United States, is hereby formally declared; 
and 

That the President be, and he is herd)y, authorized and directed to 
employ the entire naval and military forces of the United States, and the 
resources of the Government, to carry on war against the Imperial 
German Government; and to bring the conflict to* a successful ter- 
mination all the resources of the country are hereby i^edged by the 
Congress of the United States. 

This resolution was signed on the afternoon of April 6th 
by President Wilson. 

In this momentous crisis there is no doubt of the loyal and 



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19171 THE CALL TO PATRIOTISM 149 

whole-souled response of our Catholic citizens. They will be found 
energetically loyal in written and spoken word; in active service 
as officers and as privates in the army and navy; as chaplains, 
ministering to the spiritual needs of our soldiers and writing a 
record, if need be, of heroism equal to that of the Catholic chap- 
lains abroad. Catholic Sisters will again give their services both 
in the city and on the battlefield; Catholic women will in large 
numbers volunteer as nurses, and others in less professional ways 
will give of their time and money. The Catholic youth of our coun- 
try from college and office and workshop will hasten to respond to 
the call and willingly face death if necessary for their native land. 

Our Catholic leaders have spoken. His Eminence James Car- 
dinal Gibbons of Baltimore in a public interview said : 

" The hands of the Chief Executive must be upheld. Above 
all else, we must be loyal to our country, and our loyalty must 
be manifested in deeds, not in words only. 

"There should be no hesitancy on the part of able-bodied 
men in answering the call that has gone forth to man the ships 
that must protect our shores. I hope Catholic young men will step 
up and take their places in the front ranks. They should obey 
whatever our Congress decides is for the good of the country. 

"I shall pray for peace as fervently as for the success of 
the arms of the United States. I deplore the slaying of men as 
much as anyone, but our country needs us, and we must not 
hesitate to give our best efforts. I earnestly hope that peaee will 
come again in the world soon, certainly not later than next 
Christmas." ' ^ \ ' 

We have already quoted Cardinal Farley's statement of April 
8th. Even in the critical month before war was declared His 
Eminence, the Archbishop of New York, expressed publicly his 
conviction "that the whole country would be with the President 
in the measures that must be taken to meet the issues." In his 
recent pastoral letter to the Archdiocese Cardinal Farley says: 

" Our country had to take up the arms that were forced into her 
hands — ^had no choice but to grasp and wield the weapon wherewith 
to defend her honor, to vindicate the right and the justice of her 
cause and to insure a triumph that will be the victory of civilization 
and humanity 

" Our President having spoken and our national representatives 
having spoken, the response to the voice of the authority they 
embody will be that we will rally around our flag with the completest 



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ISO THE CALL TO PATRIOTISM [May, 

fullness of devotion, and with loyalest hearts and sturdiest arms 
place all that we have and all that we are at our country's service. 

" We will not shrink, then, from any sacrifice in her behalf. 
We will render to her what our Catholic faith and our Catholic 
teaching sanctions, nay, sanctifies. No demand on our American 
manhood or American citizenship will go unanswered, or fail to 
find us true Americans, true children of our Church, that never was 
found wanting in any crisis of American history." 

And His Eminence William Cardinal O'Connell, the Arch- 
bishop of Boston, declared : 

"There is but one sentiment permissible today — ^that senti- 
ment is absolute unity. Our country is at war — our nation there- 
fore needs us all, every man, woman and child of us, to strengthen 
her, to hearten her and to stand faithfully by her until her hour of 
trial has passed and her hour- of glorious triumph shall arrive. 

" So up from our knees; our souls have gatfiered strength of 
sacrifice from the sight of Calvary. God and our nation; let 
us lift up that cry to heaven." 

We might, of course, quote from other members of our 
Hierarchy, from prominent lay Catholics and from the Catholic 
press, but space does not permit. 

To those of us of German descent or German birth, the out- 
come is not without its great sacrifice. But there can be no ques- * 
tion of the thorough loyalty of the citizens of German blood now 
that our country has made her decision. Mr. Bernard Ridder wrote 
in the Staats-Zeitung of April 3d : " The President need have no 
concern as to the loyalty of Americans of German ancestry. That 
question has been answered definitely and finally. The country 
has recognized, and will continue to recognize, that fact. I trust, 
however, that in the days of trial and bitterness to come it will 
be understood in a spirit of sympathetic appreciation." And it is 
worth while to reprint here an extract from an editorial which 
appeared in the April 7th issue of The Guardian, the Catholic 
journal of Little Rock, Arkansas: 

"When this editorial will appear in print the Congress of 
the United States will be in session, and developments of grave 
significance in our foreign relations may follow quickly. We are 
confronted with the possibility, nay the probability, of a declara- 
tion of war against Germany. Now as long as the question is 
pending, as long as the deliberation is in progress as to what shall 
be the best course to pursue by our Government, each citizen is 

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19171 THE CALL TO PATRIOTISM 151 

at liberty to exert his influence in that direction which he con- 
siders most conducive to the welfare of the United Sates. But 
after the declaration of war has become an accomplished fact, after 
our people has committed itself through its legitimate representa- 
tives to a certain course of action, it will be the duty of all citi- 
zens, of whatever extraction, to take a decided and unhesitating 
stand on the side of the Government 

" Now this eventuality, while it will entail huge sacrifices 
on the whole population of the United States, will involve special 
hardships for its citizens of German extraction. It is hard duty 
to take up arms against one's own blood, and this is what our 

fellow-citizens of German descent may be asked to do That 

they will give absolutely no countenance to possible German spies 
we feel certain. We have the utmost confidence in their loyalty. 
And should a fanatic here or there forget himself, he would merit 
the execration not only of all loyal citizens, but especially of all 
loyal Germans who woulcl be the first to suffer from such con- 
duct And we venture the prophecy that any nefarious plots by 
German spies in this country would at once send a large contingent 
of naturalized Germans to the colors. They want no such thing 
and would not stand for it. 

"But even apart from such a contingency — which we hope 
may never materialize — it would be desirable and conducive to the 
peace of the community if an appeal for recruits found a fair 
response among young Americans of German descent " 

And this is in line with the President's own words: 

"It will be all the easier for us to conduct ourselves as 
belligerents in- a high spirit of right and fairness because we act 
without animus, not with enmity toward a people or with the desire 
to bring any injury or disadvantage upon them, but only in armed 
opposition to an irresponsible Government which has thrown aside 
all considerations of humanity and of right and is running amuck. 

" We are, let me say again, the sincere friends of the German 
people, and shall desire nothing so much as the early reestablish- 
ment of intimate relations of mutual advantage between us, how- 
ever hard it may be for them for the time being to believe that 
this is spoken from our hearts. We have borne with their present 
Government through all those bitter months because of that friend- 
ship, exercising a patience and forbearance which would otherwise 
have been impossible. 

"We shall happily still have an opportunity to prove that 

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152 THE CALL TO PATRIOTISM [May, 

friendship in our daily attitude and actions toward the millions of 
men and women of German birth and native sympathy who live 
among us and share our life, and we shall be proud to prove it 
toward all who are in fact loyal to their neighbors and to the 
Government in the hour of test. They are most of them as true 
and loyal Americans as if they had never known any other fealty 
or allegiance. They will be prompt to stand with us in rebuking 
and restraining the few who may be of a different mind and 
purpose/* 

We enter, therefore, upon the war with this highest, this only 
source of true consolation that " our cause it is just." We seek 
nothing selfish, we seek to deprive no person or nation of any right 
or of any possession. " We desire no conquest, no dominion. We 
seek no indemnities for ourselves, no material compensation for the 
sacrifices we shall freely make. We are but one of the champions of 
the rights of mankind. We shall be satisfied when those rights 
have been made as secure as the faith and freedom of nations can 
make them. Just' because we fight without rancor and without selfish 
object, seeking nothing for ourselves but what we shall wish to 
share with all free peoples, we shall, I feel confident, conduct our 
operations as belligerents without passion, and ourselves observe 
with proud ptmctilio the principles of right and of fair play we 
profess to be fighting for." 

The hour for our country is solemn, even tragic. What the 
future will ask of us we know not. The hearts of all will be 
constant in prayer that God may direct the councils of our 
rulers; that He may crown our efforts with victory; that He may 
watch over our soldiers and sailors and comfort all of whom great 
sacrifice will be asked. Never without prayer will that high mis- 
sion of our country be accomplished. As we ponder it more 
deeply we realize how essential to democracy, wherein so much 
depends upon personal worth and character, is personal integrity 
and personal uprightness. These things never yet have been, never 
will be attained by any people save through the true Faith of our 
Lord Jesus Christ. Let our prayer be that the entry of our 
co.untry into war may sober the hearts and turn the minds of her 
children not only to the high mission to which she has set her- 
self, but to the eternal truths of God, which alone will insure 
its fulfillment 



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m^ 



THE CHURCH AWD THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTIOW. 

BY F. AURELIO PALMIERI, O.S.A. 
I. 

The Twilight of the Most Holy Synod. 

OVUS rerum nascitur ordo," may Russians repeat 
with the Latin poet. A revolution in Russia, 
as a natural consequence of the misdeeds and abuses 
of the Russian bureaucracy, and of national suffer- 
ing vastly increased during the war, was easily fore- 
cast. Nobody, however, would have imagined that in a few days 
the revolution would have entirely overthrown the powers of dark- 
ness, which so vitally dominated the great empire. A revolution in 
Russia means the opening of a new era of freedom, freedom not 
only for Russian political life, as well as for the national and 
cultural development of the numerous races composing the huge 
organism of the Russian state, but freedom for the Church, free- 
dom for sixty thousand members of the Orthodox clergy, free- 
dom for almost ninety millions of Orthodox Russians, aod millions 
of Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Mohammedans. For even the 
Russian Orthodox Church, the dominating and official Church, was 
more enslaved by the despotic rigime of the Tsardom than the 
other Christian and non-Christian religions. Catholics could be 
persecuted, but their patience, their heroism, their freedom in con- 
demning the arbitrary excesses of the persecutors, place them on a 
higher moral standard than the vilified Orthodox clergy, who under 
the protection of a police government felt themselves deprived of 
the most sacred liberties, and doomed to apostolic inertia. 

As Christians and Catholics we cannot refrain from greeting 
with a feeling of sincere joy the sudden evolution of the Russian 
empire, and the breaking off of the shackles of the Russian Church. 
The Catholic Church has struggled throughout centuries for her 
religious independence, and against the encroachments of the 
civil power. The secret of the victories, of the powerful influence 
of Christianity, or better, of the Catholic Church, lies in its in- 
dependent apostleship; and consequently the emancipation of those 

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IS4 THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION [May, 

Churches,' which keep faithfully the greater part of the divine 
Revelation, and of the ecclesiastical traditions, must mean a rap- 
prochement to Catholicism, a coming back to the true Catholic 
principles, a revival of their religious energies, a clearer and fuller 
comprehension of Christian truth. A political reconstruction of 
Russia will be followed, no doubt, by a rebuilding of the Russian 
Church on more ecclesiastical foundations, and probably by a re- 
shaping of its course towards those ideals which are being realized 
in the Christian world by the Catholic Church alone. 

The first result of the Russian revolution will be the disap- 
pearance of the obsolete and a^hyxiating institution called the 
" Holy Synod." It has been said very often by European writers 
that the Russian Church was in a state of slavery, of servility, to- 
wards the civil power; that she was a tool in the hands of a cor- 
rupt bureaucracy; that she was a department of the Russian police. 
Russian Orthodox writers have tried to answer those accusations, to 
free their national Church from those stains. The attempts of these 
venal apologists have always ended in failure. The Russian Church 
was tyrannized over by a handful of laymen who subjected the Rus- 
sian hierarchy to their own caprices, and who interfered even with 
the official teachings of the Russian Church. Whatever may be 
said, the supreme authority, as a matter of fact, of the Russian 
Church was the Chief Procurator of the Holy Synod, called by Peter 
the Great " the eye of the Tsar." Peter the Great applied to the 
Church of Russia the military rigime. The first Chief Procurator 
was Colonel Ivan Vasil'evich Boltin. 

One cannot read without a feeling of deep sorrow the history 
of the synodal tyranny, written by a professor of the Ecclesiastical 
Academy of Kazan, Th. V. Blagovidov, and inserted in the official 
organ of the same Academy, The Orthodox Speaker. Because of 
the publication of his work, The Chief Procurators of the Most 
Holy Synod during the Eighteenth and the First Half of the 
Nineteenth Century (Kazan, 1899), Professor Blagovidov was 
expelled from the Academy, but the stanchest defenders of the 
synodal rSgime could not deny the facts related by the historian in 
his well-documented book. The history of the Russian Church for 
nearly two centuries has been one of moral abasement, of spiritual 
paralysis, of the atrophy of apostolic life, of shameful servility to 
degraded and sometimes atheistic rulers. 

It is time, indeed, for the Russian Church to avow that the 
rigime of the most Holy Synod has entirely ^rippled^her ener^gj^^j^ 



1917.I THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 155 

and stopped her apostolic life. There is no truth in the assertion 
that the Chief Procurators limited their function to referring to 
the Tsar matters dealt with in the sessions of the Synod. We 
are not far from the truth when we say that they r^[ulated even 
the slightest details of the life of the Russian Orthodox Church. At 
times they interfered even in doctrinal and liturgical matters. A 
striking example of this is afforded by Ivan Ivanovich Melissino, 
upon whom Catherine IL bestowed the highest dignity of the eccle- 
siastical bureaucracy. 

In 1767, Melissino called the attention of the members of the 
Holy Synod to a memorandum, in which he championed the fol- 
lowing reforms : 

1. The reduction of the number of days of fasting in the 
Orthodox Church. 

2. The correction of the ecclesiastical canons. 

3. The adoption of measures calculated to rescue the faithful 
from superstitious worship of miraculous images and relics. 

4. The suppression of the old practice of carrying the sacred 
images to the houses of the faithful and also the suppression 
of many holydays, of long ceremonies, of long prayers and 
liturgical offices. 

5. The confiscation of the property of monasteries, and its 
employment for the purpose of* building up schools to train 
learned priests and preachers. 

6. The introduction of marriage even for bishops who, ac- 
cording to the rules of the Orthodox Churches, should be 
celibates and should be chosen from the Monastic Orders. 

7. The abolition of the ecclesiastical habit. 

8. The total abolition of prayers for the dead, on the ground 
that such prayers have no effect upon the future life of de- 
parted souls, and profit only the clergy. 

9. The increase of causes for divorce, on the pretext that the 
ancient Church recognized as valid marriages between Chris- 
tians and pagans, and that the Ecumenical Councils had not 
fixed the number of marriages allowed to every Christian. 

It is easy to conceive the hardships of the Russian hierarchy 
under the rule of those Chief Procurators who arrogated to them- 
selves the right of changing the liturgy and beliefs of the Russian 
Church. This, however, was nothing in comparison with the pre- 
tensions of other Chief Procurators who, imbued with the spirit 
and the rationalistic philosophy of the French encyclopedists, hated 
Christianity and openly professed atheism. Such was the ca^ic 



IS6 THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION [May, 

with Pctrovich Chebychev (i 768-1 774) who, according to 
Blagovidov, did not hesitate to boast of his atheistic convictions 
before the clerical members of the Most Holy Synod. " We curse 
Chebychev," wrote Paul, Bishop of Yaroslav, in his memoirs. 
Cursing, however, did not help the Russian hierarchy, which had 
no alternative but to bear patiently the Chief Procurator's abusive 
language and violent treatment of it. And if Chebychev was 
obliged to resign office, his disgrace was not due to his harshness 
towards the terrorized members of the S)mod, but rather to his 
plundering and waste of the income of the Russian Church. 

On October 21, 1803, Tsar Alexander II. called Prince Alex- 
ander Nikolaevich Gk)litsyn to the place of Chief Procurator. Prince 
Golitsyn was an atheist. As he writes in his memoirs, he was 
highly surprised when Alexander offered him the position of 
authority over the Holy Synod. " What a strange Procurator I 
should be," he answered the Tsar, " since I do not believe any- 
thing I would be in a very false position towards you, to- 
wards the public, towards the institution I am called to govern."^ 
The protestations of Gk)litsyn made no impression upon the mind 
of the Emperor, He was appointed as Chief Procurator, not- 
withstanding his immoral character and irreligious views. 

Another Chief Procurator, whom Nicholas I. (1825-1855) 
charged " to bring the members of the Holy Synod to reason " 
(vrasumit tchlenam Synoda) was Stephen Dimitrevich Nechaev 
(1833- 1 836). He was a despotic tyrant who took pleasure in 
humiliating and limiting the hierarchy. The members of the 
Holy Synod who seemed dissatisfied with his despotism were 
expelled from Petrograd. The most prominent figure of the Rus- 
sian hierarchy, Ambrosy Podobiedov, Metropolitan of Petrograd, 
was confined to the humble See of Pensa, and placed under the 
supervision of the civil governor of the town. In each diocese, 
Nechaev organized a special body of police to discover and reveal 
the misconduct of the bishops. His arrogance went so far that 
in their meetings the members of the Synod dared not discuss 
ecclesiastical affairs. When they protested against his despotism, 
he answered in harsh and scurrilous language and called them 
" abbey-lubbers not worth hanging." 

The darkest pages in the history of the Holy Synod have been 
written by Constantin Petrovich Pobiedonostsev, who during twenty- 
five years (1880- 1905) exerted a genuine dictatorship over the 

»Ra28kaiy Kniaiia A. N. Golitiyiia. Russkaia starina, 1884. y^i^be^/'^^KjQiQ 



1917] THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 157 

Russian Church. He is considered as the embodiment of those 
evil principles which led to the enslavement of the Russian clergy 
to the civil power. Even ecclesiastical writers accuse him of hav- 
ing "poisoned the blood in the veins of the Russian Church," 
maiming its social life, and causing the disintegration of the em- 
pire's political unity. He degraded the Russian episcopate 
by eliminating the most talented and energetic members of the 
Russian clergy, and by giving the hig^ places in the hierarchy to 
fanatical and ignorant monks. Even the official organ of the Holy 
Synod, during a short period of freedom of the press in Russia, 
declared that Pobiedonostsev shamed the Russian Church by his 
atrocious persecution of the United Ruthenians, many of whom paid 
with their blood or with life-long martyrdom in Siberia for their 
devotion to the Catholic Church. 

After the humiliating fall of Pobiedonostsev, the Holy Synod 
was ruled by some Chief Procurators who sold episcopal sees for 
the sum of one thousand roubles, and by others who were pro- 
moted from being directors of insane asylums to the supreme 
management of ecclesiastical affairs. 

To the honor of the Russian hierarchy, it must be said 
that numerous bishops, either publicly or privately, deplored the 
sorrowful situation of the Russian Church and the bureaucratic 
yoke of the Holy S)mod. The Russian Church has numbered 
among its prelates a few men who have defended the rights of 
ecclesiastical independence against the encroachments of the civil 
powers, such as Philip, Metropolitan of Moscow, and Patriarch 
Nikon and Arsenii Matsieevich. Other bishops tolerated patiently 
the enslavement of their own Church, but at times they openly 
spoke the truth and courageously pointed out the running sores 
of their ecclesiastical body. It was in 1905 that the Bogoslovsky 
Viestnik, the official organ of the Theological Academy of Moscow, 
published a memorandum of Nicodem, Bishop of Yenisei, who was 
removed from his sec in 1870, and died in 1874. In that document 
are to be found such statements as the following: " The Chief Pro- 
curators enslaved the Church to the despotism of the Tsars, checked 
the spirit of freedom, violated the secrecy of the synodal decisions. 
Under their sceptre the Synod became a common dwelling house, 
wide open of access. Bishops were tortured till they bowed down 
before the Procurators in full and himible submission to their 
will.'' " I deeply regret," he writes, " the spoliation of the Russian, 
Church achieved by the civil power, and its exploitation for httm^l^^ 



158 THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION [May, 

purposes. The supremacy of the State over the Church does not 
accord with the nature of religious liberty, with the teaching of the 
Apostles and the testimonies of the sacred traditions." Another 
Bishop, Agathangel Solov'ev, of Volhynia, who died in 1876, in 
a scheme of Church reforms, wrote: "The high ecclesiastical 
bureaucracy killed the living soul of the Church, made of it a 
civil institution endowed with the outward forms of life, but de- 
void of divine vitality. The Russian Church is a dying body, 
stirred by the spasmodic convulsions of death.*' Feofan of Tambov, 
who died in 1894, and is venerated in Russia as a model of ascetic 
life, wrote : " The police rSgime of the Chief Procurators harasses 
the Russian Church, and benumbs the members of its body, ex- 
tinguishing their vital energies. No wonder, then, if it hinders its 
pastors in their task of pouring light and warmth upon their flock." 

Even under the iron rule of Constantin Pobiedonostsev, Rus- 
sian bishops uttered words of protest against the bureaucratic 
rigime of the Holy Synod. In a collection of reports made by 
the Russian episcopate on the Reform of the Russian Church (pri- 
vately printed by the Holy Synod in 1906), Demetrius, Bishop of 
Balta, expressed himself in these words: "The ecclesiastical re- 
form contemplated by Peter the Great was carried out by a man 
of doubtful reputation and more doubtful orthodoxy — ^the 'prot- 
estantizing' Feofan Prokopovich. The Spiritual R^[ulation of 
Peter the Great is, in many points, not at all in keeping with the 
definitions and the spirit of the Councils, either ecumenical or par- 
ticular. But our best prelates, for reasons of ecclesiastical policy 
and in order to avoid greater injiuy to the Church, submitted 
to the behest of the civil power and assented to the new organiza- 
tion of the Church." 

Bishop Kirion, of Orel, a learned Georgian prelate, whom 
Constantin Pobiedonostsev and his successors transferred from 
diocese to diocese, declares in his report that the reconstruction of 
the Russian Church on the lines traced by Peter the Great, was a 
great injury to Russian Christianity. " It must be affirmed," he 
says, " on both canonical and dogmatic grounds, that the Church 
is not to be regarded as an instrument of political ambition. A 
constitutional government must break the fetters of the Russian 
Church. The task of holding Christian souls firmly to their faith, 
and of exerting a beneficial sway upon all the manifestations of 
the life of mankind can be fulfilled only by a Church freed of the 
tutelage of the state." D,iti.edbvGoOgle 



19171 THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 159 

No less strong are the protestations of Anthony, -a former 
Bishop of Volhynia, and at present Archbishop of Kharkov. How 
great is the weight and significance of Bishop Anthony's words 
may be gathered from the fact that this prelate has always been 
a stanch defender of the autocratic rigime of Russia, and a warm 
friend of Pobiedonostsev. He writes: "A layman, the Chief 
Procurator, is invested with an authority which Russian Patriarchs 
never possessed. If in the sessions of the Holy Synod the views 
of the Chief Procurator are not in harmony with those of the 
bishops of the S)mod, the report of the debates is dropped. The 
appointment of the metropolitans and the members of the Synod, 
the translation of bishops from one diocese to another, and many 
other practical decisions in ecclesiastical matters rest with the Chief 
Procurator, who is indeed the sole rtder of the Russian Church. 
This ruler's authority over the Church extends much farther than 
that of the Patriarchs, limited as they are by the higher authority 
of a Cotmcil, and he is but a simple layman (prostoi mirianin)," 

These and other quotations which we might adduce show 
clearly that even among bishops and priests, victims of lonig- 
continued oppression, there are defenders of ecclesiastical liberty, 
who would strike off their fetters, raise up their eyes to a brighter 
light, extirpate, so to speak, the passing weeds and stunted shrubs 
which encumber the pathway of future regeneration. And 
these bishops and priests love their old Church, even if she is, as 
Monsignor Evdokim, at present Russian archbishop in the United 
States, remarks, " a corpse decorated with golden insignia and trim- 
mings;" they are eager for her liberation from the tyranny that has 
weighed upon her for centuries. They are fijmly convinced of the 
historical truth of a statement of Kirieevsky, the first leader and 
expounder of Slavophile theories : " Russia possesses in the simple 
faith of her people the very element which has been found wanting 
in the West, and the intelligent consciousness of her leaders must 
be directed towards a development of the fundamental religious 
ideas round which all the moral and juridical conceptions of the 
nation are centred." 

Our quotations show clearly that the best representatives of 
the Russian Church were conscious of a constitutional defect in 
the body of their own Church. Now, it seems, that a new era 
is beginning in Russia, and that the spirit of freedom and democ- 
racy will infuse a new breath of life into Russian political and 
religious institutions. We say, "it seems," for ^eg.^mj|t ^y^{g 



i6o THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION [May, 

sig^t of the fact that the Russian soul, according to the great 
philosopher Bcrdiaev, is essentially anarchical. The forces of dark- 
ness (so-called by Tolstoy) are still alive, and the revolution for 
freedom may be at once checked by a counter-revolution of tyranny. 
In any case, at the moment of writing, Russia is enjoying the 
fullness of liberty and, in a few days, she has done a greater work 
for the emancipation of her children than she did during long 
centuries. 

Even the Russian Church shares in the new life of a free 
Russia. The stronghold of Russian autocracy, the Most Holy 
Synod, is crumbling, and the Russian Church is facing vital prob- 
lems which concern her future existence, and the establishment of 
a new order of things. Probably the Russian episcopate will vin- 
dicate its independence of the lay bureaucracy of the Synod; 
probably the Chief Procurator will be replaced by a Minister of 
Public Worship. Yet, the Russian Church will not recover her 
independence. She cannot escape the fate of all the Churches which 
have recoiled from the centre of ecclesiastical tmity. Even though 
free of the tyranny of the Chief Procurators, the Russian Church 
will become an acephalous body, and such a body is not able to 
direct its movements and energies. An institution, which lives 
among nien, which claims the right to exercise a high mission 
among men, cannot be devoid of a supreme head, of a visible 
Tuler. Even democratic powers theoretically and practically ac- 
knowledge the necessity of a president, of a supreme representative 
of authority. The Russian Church declares that she has a su- 
preme head, our Lord Jesus Christ. But if the Church is a 
visible society, if this society is perfect, she cannot be left by her 
divine Founder without the element essential to her cohesion and 
preservation, without a visible embodiment of His authority, with- 
out a visible ruler. During her earthly life, the Church of Christ 
cannot survive without taking account of the inherent char- 
acteristics of human relations. Even while Himself on earth, 
Jesus Christ organized His first Apostles, Jesus Christ estab- 
lished a hierarchy; and a hierarchy cannot be acephalous. 
To use a characteristic expression of Basile Rosanov, the most 
talented of religious and philosophical writers in Russia, " every- 
where and always,. Christianity has been pyramidal — ^it always has 
clung to one head, and not to nutny. In Kaluga this head ministered 
unto a small flock, in Moscow a larger one, in Constantinople one 
still larger. But only in Rome was the head of the Church sue- t 

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1917] THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION i6i 

cessf ul, there where Peter was caught up unto God, and conquered 
the Coliseum, and dethroned the Caesars, and established the King- 
dom which is not of this world." 

The fact that the Russian Church has no head — ^neither lay 
nor ecclesiastical — can only signify the twilight of the Holy Synod. 
Every bishop will be a little pope in his own diocese. An anarchical 
regime threatens the Russian Church. There is, no doubt, a hand- 
ful of idealists who dream of a resurrection of the Russian Pa- 
triarchate. For reasons, which I may explain another time, this 
reconstruction of an obsolete institution would not solve the problem 
of religious liberty in Russia. Perhaps it would be more useful 
to the future leaders of a revived Russian Church to call to their 
mind the following words of Vladimir Solovev : 

Throughout the Christian world only the Bishops of Rome 
have claimed for their own see supremacy over the whole. 
Church. The rivals of Rome, even when opposing the claims 
of Papacy, dared not demand for themselves the same preroga- 
tives. There is, then, in the Church of Christ, an historical 
centre of religious unity, a centre which has never existed, 
either in Jerusalem, or Constantinople, or Moscow. He who 
disowns that centre of unity is logically forced to admit that 
either the Church is headless in her earthly life, or that her 
supreme government must rest in the civil power. In the first 
case, we would infer that Jesus Christ believed religious an- 
archy to be the best means of perpetuating His work amongst 
men; in the second, the Church would no longer be the uni- 
versal society of the faithful, but a political tool, a department 
of a civil bureaucracy, suffering all the changes and vicissitudes 
of htmian policy and of human tmcertainty. A single man, a 
man assisted and directed by God, is the granite foundation 
of the Church, and it is through that man that the Church states 
and formulates her authentic beliefs.* ' 

*La Russie et Viglue universelU, Paris. 1889* PP. 93-95* 



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RISING PRICES AND THE WAR LOAN. 

BY FRANK O^HARA^ PH.D. 

URS President Wilson addressed Congress on the 
opening day of the present session he gave some in- 
teresting advice on methods of financing the war. 
The costs of the war ought to be borne, he thought, 
by taxing the present generation. It is the duty of 
the Government, he urged, " to protect our people, so far as we 
may, against the very serious hardships and evils which would be 
likely to arise out of the inflation which would be produced by 
vast loans." This principle, that war should be supported out of 
taxation, has the sanction of text-writers and theorists generally, 
although European publicists feel that it is subject to important 
qualifications in practice. But the reason which the President 
gives for adopting the principle of immediate taxation is not the 
reason which is usually given. In fact it is a reason which would 
not probably have occurred to him if the nation had not already 
been suffering from the evil which he hopes to keep within bounds, 
namely, the evil of rising prices due to monetary inflation. 

There is abundant testimony that we have for some time been 
experiencing a condition of rising prices. It is a matter of common 
knowledge and a subject of general conversation. The newspapers 
have been full of it. It has furnished inspiration alike to the car- 
toonist and to the paragrapher. Legislatures, too, have recorded 
their convictions by appropriating money to be used in making a 
study of the causes of the rise in prices and the remedies suited 
to the occasion. 

Almost as widespread as the view that prices are rising is the 
conviction that rising prices are an evil. If the level of prices 
would only remain constant, we feel that we would be much better 
off than we are at present. This does not, of course, mean that we 
want all prices to remain stationary. The fluctuation in the prices 
of individual commodities serves a useful purpose. It warns us 
of the shortage or the oversupply of the several commodities. We 
are entirely willing that some prices should go up if a correspond- 
ing number of other prices in which we are interested come down. 
But we do not wish the general level of prices to rise. r^^^^T^ 

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1917.] RISING PRICES AND THE WAR LOAN 163 

There are a great many persona who, influenced by this 
general hostility to rising prices, cherish the illusion that a period 
of falling prices would be a time of comparative bliss. When such 
persons are informed that the present era of rising prices dates 
back only to 1896, and that from 1873 to 1896 prices were con- 
stantly falling they are likely, if they have short memories, to 
conclude that the golden age of which the poets have sung came 
to an end only twenty years ago. If rising prices are an evil, they 
argue, falling prices must be a good. 

But the period immediately preceding the year 1896 was not 
the golden age. The conditions of life at that time were not 
exactly idyllic. Indeed, it was in 1896 that Mr. Bryan electrified 
the American nation by declaring in behalf of those who wished 
to see prices rise, and in defiance of those who would continue 
things as they were, that his opponents should not press down upon 
the brow of labor their crown of thorns, that they should not 
crucify mankind upon a cross of gold. No orator has yet achieved 
fame by declaring that our present-day rising prices are crucifying 
mankind on a cross of gold, although we have much more gold 
out of which to make the cross than we had in 1896. 

It was not Mr. Byran alone who believed in 1896 that economic 
conditions had arrived at a serious pass. Both of the great po- 
litical parties of the country had come to the same conclusion. The 
Democratic Party had been in control of the Government for three 
years, but the Republican Party did not feel constrained to say 
to the Democratic Party that it deserved the congratulations of 
the country for its success in keeping prices on the down grade. 
Not at all. On the contrary, the Republican Party in its platform 
of 1896 said, " The full and tmrestricted Democratic control of the 
government has been a record of unparalleled incapacity, dis- 
honor and disaster In the broad effect of its policy it has 

precipitated panic, blighted industry and trade wiA prolonged 
depression, closed factories, reduced work and wages, halted en- 
terprise, and crippled American production." 

The Democrats in 1896 were no fonder of falling prices than 
the Republicans proved themselves to be. In their platform of that 
year they hark back to the " crime of '73 " and lay the blame for the 
ills of their own day at the door of the Republican Party. " The 
act of 1873," the Democratic platform read, " demonetizing silver 
without the knowledge or approval of the American people, has re- 
sulted in the appreciation of gold and a corresponding fall in 

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i64 RISING PRICES AND THE WAR LOAN [May, 

prices of commodities produced by the people." The two parties 
were convinced in 1896 of two things: first, prices were going 
down, and, second, a fall in prices is undesirable. 

But after 1896 a change took place. Prices which had been 
falling now began to rise. This was taken as a sign of returning 
prosperity. But soon we had too much prosperity. By 191 2 prices 
had become so high that the two great political parties once more 
felt called upon to place the responsibility. The Democratic Party 
in 191 2 had no doubt that the Republican Party was the evil in- 
fluence that was causing prices to rise. This is brought out clearly 
in the Democratic platform. " The high, cost of living," that docu- 
ment reads, " is a serious problem in every American home. We 
charge that excessive prices result in a large measure from the 
high tariff laws enacted and maintained by the Republican Party, 
and from trusts and commercial conspiracies fostered and en- 
couraged by such laws, and we assert that no substantial relief can 
be secured for the people until import duties on the necesisaries of 
life are materially reduced and these criminal conspiracies broken 
up. 

The Republican Party was equally convinced in 191 2 that the 
rising cost of living was something to be deprecated, but it dis- 
claimed responsibility for it. In its platform of that year we 
read, " The steadily increasing cost of living has become a matter 
not only of national but of world-wide concern. The fact that it is 
not due to the protective tariff system is evidenced by the similar 
conditions in coimtries which have a tariff policy different from 
our own, as well as by the fact that the cost of living has increased 
while rates of duty have remained stationary. The Republican 
Party will support a prompt scientific inquiry into the causes which 
are operative both in the United States and elsewhere to increase 
the cost of living." In other words, in 1896 each party tried to 
fasten the blame for falling prices upon the other party; and in 
19 1 2 neither party was willing to accept the responsibility for 
rising prices. From this we may reasonably conclude that the 
people of the United States are satisfied neither with falling prices 
nor with rising prices. 

There is of course a tendency on the part of those who do 
not feel the pinch of rising prices to be humorous, and to say that 
it is not the high cost of living so much as the cost of high 
living that is the real source of complaint. They mean by this 
that people live higher than they did a few years ag^j- j^jUj^j^ ^fi^gle 



1917.I RISING PRICES AND THE WAR LOAN 165 

ards of living are rising; that we spend more money, but that 
we also purchase more enjoyments with the money. The humorous 
turn of the phrise, however, makes much less of an appeal to that 
large class of persons with relatively fixed incomes who find that 
year after year the things that they can buy with their incomes 
are steadily contracting rather than expanding. Persons of this 
latter class have a feeling of fellowship with the Scotsman who 
gave up the use of tobacco. " When I smoke my own tobacco," 
said Sandy, " I feel that I am downright extravagant. And when I 
smoke someone else's tobacco I push it down so tight into my pipe 
that it won't draw. So, either way, I don't get any pleasure out 
of smoking." 

The problem of rising prices is really two problems. The first 
and more important of the two problems is that of the rise in the 
general level of prices, irrespective of the ups and downs in th^ 
prices of individual commodities. This was the problem which 
President Wilson had in mind when he spoke of the " very serious 
hardships and evils which would be likdy to arise out of the in- 
flation which would be produced by vast loans." Essentially this 
is a monetary problem. The second problem has to do with the 
ups and downs in the prices of individual commodities. It is es- 
sentially a question of changes in the relative demand for and sup- 
ply of the various commodities. These variations in supply and 
demand are due to a thousand influences. Although the first 
problem is the fundamental problem, it is the second problem which 
constantly arrests our attention, and which misleads us in our 
consideration of the essential inwardness of the question of rising 
prices. 

Let us examine these two problems in the inverse order of 
their importance. Why are there ups and downs in the prices of 
individual commodities? The answer is that the prices of some 
articles rise as compared with the prices of other articles, because 
of an increase in the demand for or a falling off in the supply 
of the first-mentioned articles relatively to the demand for and 
supply of other articles. During the past winter there was a short- 
age in the supply of freight cars to transport potatoes from Maine 
to New York City. The result was a shortage of potatoes and 
a rise in the price of potatoes in New York. As soon as cars 
could be secured to transport the potatoes in sufficient quantities 
the New York price fell until it practically coincided with the 
Maine price. In some parts of the country there has been a^lc 



i66 RISING PRICES AND THE WAR LOAN [May, 

insufficiency of freight cars to carry coal and flour and other 
necessaries. When the supply of these things fell off their prices 
went up. The relation of cause and effect is sufficiently established 
here by the fact that where there has been an improvement in trans- 
portation facilities in these cases, there has been a tendency for 
prices to decline. 

In recent months the price of wheat has been going up in a 
spectacular way. A number of causes have been at work to 
produce this effect. Perhaps the most important of these causes 
was the shortness of the 1916 wheat crop. In the preceding year, 
1915, we had a wheat crop of a billion bushels in this country, 
an abnormally large crop. This unusually large supply kept the 
price down in spite of an tmusual demand. The 1916 wheat 
crop was only about two-thirds the size of that of the preceding 
year. It was a relative failure. The price naturally went up. In 
so far as this was the cause of the high price of wheat the remedy 
is, of course, to produce more wheat. This, however, has not 
been the usual method advocated during the past months for keep- 
ing down the price of wheat. The popular plan has been to get 
Congress to forbid the exportation of wheat to Europe. This 
would decrease the demand and so lower the price, it was claimed. 
This, however, is merely a modem variant of the age-old plan of 
killing the goose that laid the golden egg. When the farmer strikes 
a bad year, instead of encouraging him we propose to discourage 
him. We tell him that since nature has been unkind to him, we 
shall punish him further by destroying a part of his market At 
the same time we lend our sympathy to the city dweller who is 
striving for higher wages and an eight-hour day. Will such a 
policy tend to drive labor from the city to the farm or from the 
farm to the city? Will it tend to increase the production of wheat 
or to decrease it? To ask these questions is to answer them. 
Penalizing the farmer will give us less wheat in the long run rather - 
than more wheat 

A great deal of nonsense has been written and spoken against 
the tgg trust, because some forward-looking and profit-seeking 
men placed eggs in cold storage last summer and kept them until 
winter. The price of eggs was higher in the winter than in the 
summer, because the supply in the winter was smaller relatively 
to the demand than in summer. If the egg kings had been im- 
prisoned and their eggs confiscated last winter, it might have re- 
sulted in a temporary reduction in the price of eggSo,|ffiftc^|y^tiR)gIe 



1917.I RISING PRICES AND THE WAR LOAN 167 

have made the situation all the worse for next winter. No one 
would store eggs next summer with a prospect of similar punish- 
ment ahead of him; and the result would be that we should find 
ourselves with a greatly diminished tgg supply next winter. This 
would of course tend to raise the price. 

In general we may say that anything which tends to increase 
the supply of a thing as compared with its demand and with the 
supply and demand of other things, will tend to lower its price. 
The problem, then, of keeping down the prices of certain articles, 
as compared with the iwices of other articles, is the problem of in- 
creasing the sujq)ly of, or of decreasing the demand for, these 
certain articles. 

Let us return now to the more important problem, that of the 
rise in the general level of prices. We have already said that this 
is a monetary problem. It is a monetary problem as distinguished 
from a problem of supply and demand of individual commodities. 
In a sense one might say that all questions of prices are monetary 
questions; but this is a monetary question in a peculiar sense. 

As every schoolboy knows, value depends upon supply and 
demand. The value of money, whether it is gold money or paper 
money, depends upon the supply of it and the demand for it. 
The prices of things are the values of things expressed in terms 
of money. As the value of money goes up, the prices of other 
things go down. As the value of money goes down, the prices 
of other things go up. In recent years the supply of money has 
been increased more rapidly than the demand for money. There- 
fore the value of money has been going down. And so prices have 
risen; there has been a rise in the general level of prices. 

The marked increase in the world's supply of gold began about 
1896. New methods of production of gold had recently been in- 
troduced which permitted of the securing of the gold from the 
ore at a reduced cost. The result of the improved methods was 
a tremendous increase in the gold output. Prices began to rise ever 
since, with only temporary setbacks. But with the outbreak of 
the European War we began to get not only our normal share of 
the world's production of gold, but an abnormal share. Europe 
needed our goods, our food supply and our munitions, but Europe 
had not time to produce things to exchange for our goods. Europe 
was too busy with her own affairs. And so Europe has been 
paying us in gold instead of in goods such as she sends us in normal 



tunes. 



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i68 RISING PRICES AND THE WAR LOAN [May, 

A year before the outbreak of the War in Europe, the gold 
money supply of the United States amounted to one billion nine 
hundred million dollars. At the present time the gold money sup- 
ply of the United States amounts to more than two billion nine 
hundred million dollars. There has been an increase in less than 
four years of a billion dollars in gold, or an increase of about fifty- 
three per cent in the total gold money supply of the United 
States. Between July i, 191 4, and March i, 191 7, the total money 
in circulation in the United States was increased thirty-four per 
cent. The circulation per capita increased from $34.53 July i, 
1914, to $44.26 March i, 191 7. In other words the amount of 
money in the United States has been increasing more rapidly 
than the demand for money. Consequently, the value of money 
has been going down, and the general level of prices has been 
rising. 

Prices have gone up not alone because there has been an in- 
crease in the amount of actual money in the country, but also be- 
cause there has been an increase in the amount of substitutes for 
money, such as bank deposits subject to check. A bank deposit 
which is used to make payments with by means of checks drawn 
against it does the work of money, inasmuch as debts are paid by 
writing checks as well as by the handing over of actual money. 
The greater the amount of checking against bank accounts the less 
will be the need for money. Or, stated in another way, the use of 
the checking system constitutes virtually an addition to the money 
supply of the country. The year before the War broke out Con- 
gress passed a law known as the Federal Reserve Act, which or- 
ganized the banks of the country into a single system, and which 
made it possible for any bank in the system to do a larger amount 
of lending, and thus to create a larger amount of bank deposits, 
on a given reserve of actual currency than was possible before the 
passage of the act. The Federal Reserve Act, by permitting the 
further inflation of credits through diminishing the amount of cash 
reserve required by the banks, has thus tended to further accelerate 
the already rapidly rising cost of living. 

The problem of rising prices is, as we have seen, in the main 
a problem of too much money. It is a problem of monetary in- 
flation. The solution of the problem is accordingly the finding of the 
remedy for inflation. Several remedies have been proposed. Be- 
fore our own entrance into the War it was proposed, for instance, 
that we discontinue the sending of mimitions and food supplies 

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1917.] RISING PRICES AND THE WAR LOAN 169 

to Europe. Those who were responsible for this suggestion had 
for the most part a political purpose in mind. But the proposal 
was also put forward on monetary grounds. It was argued that 
since our increasing gold supply was due to our excessive favorable 
balance of trade, we could cut down that balance and relieve our- 
selves of the evils of gold importation by practically discontinuing 
our commerce with Europe. This, however, was a heroic remedy 
which few were willing to see adopted. 

Another proposed remedy which had many supporters before 
we became belligerents, and which is likely to be adopted in a 
considerable measure, is that we lend money freely to the Allies, 
thus establishing huge credits for them in this country and making 
it unnecessary for them to send us a balance in gold. This plan, 
also, was intertwined with political considerations, and could not be 
imdertaken on a sufficiently large scale in the past to give much 
relief. With our entry into the War it becomes feasible, and its 
adoption will doubtless offset much of the tendency to inflation 
arising out of our trade with Europe. It will hardly be flexible 
enough, however, entirely to overcome inflation due to this cause, 
and it will not meet the situation with which we are shortly to be 
confronted growing out of the financing of our own war. 

A remedy for the evils of rising and falling price levels, which 
has long challenged the attention of economists, is the device 
known as the multiple standard of value. The proposal is made 
that the Government keep accurate records of the prices of a great 
variety of representative goods in many different parts of the coun- 
try from week to week, as indeed it does at the present time, and 
that these prices be brought together in such a way as to make 
it a simple matter to calculate the amount of money today which is 
equivalent in value to (say) a hundred dollars a year ago. Thus, 
if money is depreciating at the rate of five per cent a year, an 
amount of representative goods of various kinds which was worth 
a hundred dollars last year will be found by the Government statis- 
ticians to be worth ninety-five dollars this year. Borrowers and 
lenders, employers and employees, and sellers and buyers will have 
in this device a means of overcoming variations in price levels 
through the necessary readjustments. Thus, the man who bor- 
rowed a hundred dollars last year, agreeing to pay back an equiva- 
lent value plus six dollars interest this year, will pay under this 
plan, if money has depreciated five per cent in the meantime, not 
a hundred dollars and six dollars, but rather six dollars plus the 

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I70 RISING PRICES AND THE WAR LOAN [May, 

amount of money which it takes this year to buy the representative 
goods which a hundred dollars would buy last year. Since it would 
take approximately a hundred and five dollars to buy the goods 
that a hundred dollars would buy last year if money is depreciating 
at the rate of five per cent a year, the borrower would pay back 
approximately a hundred and eleven dollars this year,- including 
principal and interest, in return for the hundred dollars which he 
borrowed last year. Similarly, wage readjustments would be made 
so that wages would advance to keep pace with advancing prices 
due to the depreciation of money. 

The machinery for working the multiple standard plan is some- 
what complicated, and not readily understandable by the majority of 
those who would be expected to use it This would undoubtedly 
prove an obstacle to the adoption of the plan in spite of the fact 
that the plan itself would be entirely feasible if adopted. 

A v^ariation of the multiple standard plan for doing away with 
changes in price levels is the plan known as the compensated dol- 
lar. At the present time the gold dollar contains 23.22 grains of 
pure gold. The value of the dollar is the same as the value of 
23.22 grains of gold. The dollar from year to year contains the 
same amount of gold, but it is of a constantly varying value due 
to the variations in the market value of gold. The compensated dol- 
lar plan proposes to leave the present system of gold coins in actual 
circulation, but to introduce into our monetary system an ideal 
gold dollar for purposes of reckoning value. The ideal gold dollar 
is not to be coined, but accounts are to be kept in terms of it In 
a very rough way there is an analogy between this system and the 
British monetary system. The English money of account is the 
pound sterling. But the pound sterling is not in actual circulation, 
although values are reckoned in terms of it. The real money in 
circulation which corresponds to the pound is a gold coin called 
the sovereign. The English sovereign is worth a pound sterling. 

Similarly, we should have the real dollar or five dollars or ten 
dollars in gold in actual circulation, and alongside it the ideal gold 
dollar, the gold dollar of account in which we reckoned our debts 
but which we never coined. The real gold dollar would continue 
to have the same amount of gold in it that it has at present. The 
ideal gold dollar would correspond to a varying amount of gold 
depending on the vjalue of the gold bullion. If the value of gold 
bullion in the market went down one per cent (as measured by an 
increase in the price level of practically one per cent), the Govem- 

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1917.I RISING PRICES AND THE WAR LOAN 171 

mcnt would add one per cent to the quantity of gold which corre- 
sponded to the ideal gold dollar. Thus, if you had a paper dollar 
which called for one gold dollar, you could present it at the 
Treasury and get not 23.22 grains of gold simply (the amount 
contained in the real gold dollar) but one per cent more than 23.22 
grains of gold, which would be the value of the ideal gold dollar. 
The Government would redeem all of its paper promises to pay in 
gold bullion at the rate of one dollar in paper, for the amount of 
gold bullion which at the time of redemption was declared to be con- 
tained in the ideal or official gold dollar. 

The real gold coins would circulate as at present, but their 
value would no longer fluctuate as it does at present Their value 
would be the same as the value of the ideal dollar, because the 
Government would redeem real gold coins at the same rate that it 
would redeem its paper money, namely, at as many grains of gold 
bullion to the dollar as there were grains of gold bullion to the 
ideal dollar at the time of redemption according to official declara- 
tion. The problem of keeping the real gold dollars at the same 
value as the official or ideal gold dollars, would be exactly of the 
same nature as our present problem of keeping silver dollars at the 
same value as gold dollars. The material out of which a silver dol- 
lar is made is worth at present in the neighborhood of fifty cents, 
but by limiting the coinage of silver dollars, and by making them 
legal tender and permitting them to pay debts just like gold coins, 
their value is kept at a par with gold. In a similar manner, by re- 
stricting the coinage of real gold dollars and continuing their legal 
tender qualities and redeeming them at par with ideal or official 
gold dollars, their value would remain the same as that of the 
official gold dollars. 

What good would come from introducing a new dollar of 
account, the value ot which did not fluctuate, into our money system ? 
The good would be this : we should never again experience a period 
of rising price levels such as we have been having since 1896; we 
should never again experience a period of falling price levels such as 
we had from 1873 to 1896; the wage earner would not be under the 
necessity of continually striking to keep his money wages up to the 
point where they will buy the increasingly higher priced food and 
clothing and shelter with which he is confronted in periods of 
rising prices; he would not be in the same constant terror of being 
discharged that confronts him in periods of falling prices; the 
business man would find that all times were fairly good times, in- 



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172 THE CRY [May, 

stead of finding despair succeed optimism as business depression 
succeeds business expansion ; the widow with an income of a thou- 
sand dollars from bonds which her husband left her would know 
that it was an income of neither two thousand dollars nor of five 
hundred dollars, and she could plan accordingly. With the com- 
pensated dollar plan in operation there would still be fluctuations 
in individual prices. When there was a shortage in the wheat 
crop, the price of wheat would go up to warn us that we should put' 
greater effort into the production of wheat; just as the feeling of 
pain warns us that we must withdraw our hand from the hot stove. 
But at present when all prices are going up at the same time we 
are constantly going from the frying pan into the fire and back 
again. A constant level of prices such as a money unit of unvarying 
value would give us, would furnish us a blessed relief from our 

frying-pan-fire existence. It would " protect our i)eople 

against the very serious hardships and evils which would be likely 
to arise out of the inflation which would be produced by vast loans." 



THE CRY. 

BY SPEER STRAHAN. 

Within my heart's immortal house 
A Dove broods the day long — 

Paraclete of singing vows 
And Pentecostal song! 

For God hath built within my breast. 
Far from His gates of gold, 

Like a bird of spring, a ghostly nest 
Where He His wings may fold. 

And when the fields of evening skies 
Are silvered as with sheep. 

The Spirit to the Father cries 
And Deep doth answer Deep. 



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SOME WAR IMPRESSIONS OF A CHAPLAIN. 

BY FRANCIS AVELING, S.T.D. 

HILE the daily press, the world over, was chronicling 
the doings of the opposed armies in France last year, 
and people in comfortable homes were reading, over 
their breakfast cups, of the valiant deeds of the 
British, or the French; individual infantrymen in 
trenches and dugouts; individual gunners in pits, or am- 
munition parks, or wagon lines; individual sappers or miners; 
individual drivers of supply cars or ambulances, individual 
doctors and R. A. M. C. orderlies; individual airmen and 
chaplains at the front, were actually waging war, or prose- 
cuting one or other of those thousand and one avocations 
which war entails, to the best of their ability, and with little, if 
any, thought of this almost world-conflict as a whole. People 
in neutral countries, people at home, people even at the great 
bases of the armies in France, day by day eagerly read the com- 
muniques from the various headquarters of the "Great War." 
There is an advance here, a retreat there. The British are gaining 
on the Somme front. The French are making history — ^glorious 
history — ^at Verdun. The Russian wave is ebbing or flowing. 
Rumania is putting up the valorous defence of its hearth and 
home. Greece is still playing a deep and crafty game against 
time — ^and with its weather eye cocked — not in the interest of the 
Allies. Such things you read in the morning papers. Such 
are the news items of the day. Such is war seen from afar: 
bombardments on an enormous and unprecedented scale, 
sweeping movements of troops, strategic or tactical successes 
and failures, hundreds of thousands of souls passing through the 
furnace of a drawn-out battle for a few hundred yards of ground 
and a few shattered forts, losses or gains upon broad fronts, diplo- 
matic juggling and political backwash of the war at home and 
abroad. Whole nations are involved. Companies and bat- 
talions and brigades are submerged and lost in the larger thoughts 
of army corps and of whole armies, so vast as to be almost unthink- 
able and quite tmimaginable. In the bases it is not quite the same 
perspective that is seen; but still the outlook is general, rather 

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174 SOME WAR IMPRESSIONS OF A CHAPLAIN [May, 

than particular. The bases are the points of suK)ly, of men, 
munitions, food. Through them the drafts, the shells, the Ma- 
conochie tins, pass on and up to the front Through them, too, the 
wounded are passed back. Great hospitals are located here, to 
which the wounded — collected from the battlefield or regimental 
aid-post, from the field ambulance and the casualty clearing sta- 
tions — are brought down by train en route for England. At the 
bases — in the great hospitals — ^the war, as actual fighting, is still 
seen from afar, and as a whole, to a certain extent But the 
medical officers, the chaplains, the sisters, know where actions have 
been recently fought, what units have been engaged, how the 
fortune of war has gone from the patients who are brought 
by the convoys to their wards. " The — ^th Regiment has suf- 
fered heavily." "The — ^th Battalion of has made a 

successful raid." " The Boche has given way and is retreating on 
the Ancre." However, these are still generalities in a sense, and 
apart from some special interest — which those at home might, and 
do, indeed, have for a given individual soldier fighting at the 
front — ^there is nothing much in the base hospitals to be learnt 
other than that large or small bodies of men, at such or such a 
point on the front, have been recently engaged in a successful or 
an unsuccessful enterprise against the foe. Otherwise is it al- 
together with the troops on the battlefield, or in the trenches. Here 
the colonel has his battalion to consider, the captain his company, 
the lieutenant his platoon — ^totalling so many human lives in 
each instance. He has to ** make good." But he has also, as far 
as lies in his power, to protect and save those lives. His preoccu- 
pations are complex — ^winning the war, as far as his responsibility 
runs, and sparing the men intrusted to his command. The con- 
flict in his mind, if any, is one of judgments. And the sector of 
the war with which he is personally concerned — ^the so many yards 
of trenches, as things stand — is a limited one. His business — 
and it is a concentrated sort of business in point of fact — ^is with 
so many men, so many human lives, and so many yards of front. 
He has had his orders from a higher authority, which has 
coordinated his action with that of others. Their success depends 
partially upon him, as his upon them. His task is obey and to obey 
with judgment— defending the line, niaking hijs objective, and 
sparing his men. Turn now to the individual man who is fighting 
in the war. He may have large and breakfast table views; the 
chances are one in a hundred he has no such thing. He knows 



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1917.1 SOME WAR IMPRESSIONS OF A CHAPLAIN 175 

little, if anything, of the plans of the higher command. For him 
the war is the village, or the wood, or the section of trench occu- 
pied by his company. His captain is something more overwhelm- 
ing than the commander-in-chief; his sergeant-major claims his 
whole allegiance; and he does what he is told, and does it 
cheerfully, as well as he can. Only, his outlook is no longer 
" the " war, nor the Flanders-French line, nor the corps, nor the 
divisional, nor even the brigade front. It is something far more 
restricted and limited. His preoccupation is individual. He is 
a man whose duty it is to uphold the honor of his country, who 
is pledged to what he believes to be a righteous cause, against the 
whole horde of enemy forces. But his outlook is narrowed down. 
His little sector of the trenches is his world. A few hundred 
yards on this side or on that and he is upon alien and more or 
less iminteresting ground for him. A score or so of yards ahead 
in " No Man's Land " are the grim mine craters, and, beyond 
again, the trenches of the enemy upon which he looks with 
determined and covetous eyes. Behind stretches the netwoiic of 
communications through which run the main avenues that lead to 
where in normal times he lives, to all that he holds on earth most 
dear. But even this last does not extend the horizon of his im- 
mediate vision overmuch. For it all enters into its place in his 
present environment. This might be and, indeed is, true at any 
time or in any place. A man's world is, in a very real sense, him- 
self. Nowhere is it so true as here and now, under fire in the 
trenches. The things that really matter here are the things a man 
sees with his own eyes and hears with his own ears — things which 
he observes for himself or are told him by his pals. The trench 
work is monotonous, a round of repetitions from day to day, and 
from week to week; but it is so intense and full that its monotony 
never palls. Besides, at any moment, it may abruptly change to 
work of quite another sort. The " rest " back in the billets is more 
varied in its character; but it is filled up by hard work and much 
exercise. The days fly swiftly by and the weeks lengthen into 
months. At no period of his existence has' the soldier ever lived 
his life so fully or so intensely as he lives it at the front. Most, 
if not all, his values have undergone a subtle shifting. He lives 
in the present; but that present includes the future as well as the 
past, all brought into the Now and Here of his being. 

And this is true, within certain limits, for all alike, both 
officers and men; and, not in any sense the least, for chaplains. 

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176 SOME WAR IMPRESSIONS OP A CHAPLAIN [May, 

The circumstances in which they find themselves placed are new 
and tmusual for professed men of peace, and though they are not 
belligerents and carry no arms, even for self-defence, they, no 
less than anyone else, go forward, carrying their lives in their 
hands. There are in the wonderful British army — that spon- 
taneous marvel of the Empire's patriotism and devotion to duty — 
officers and men from every sort of peaceful walk in life. In the 
infantry battalion to which the present writer was lately attached, 
among the officers alone (officers in courage, ability, and military 
skill no whit behind the best, as the successes of the battalion in 
many actions and in the distinguished honors that it has gained 
prove), there were numbered a barrister, two stockbrokers, a 
planter, a Rhodes scholar, a schoolmaster, several undergraduates 
of Oxford and Cambridge, and a sprinkling of public school boys. 
The quartermaster-sergeant was a Bachelor of Arts; and a 
clergyman was in the ranks. Before the war, the medical officer 
was a general practitioner in a rural district of England. Such 
men as these are also men of peace in every sense of the word. 
But they have, in the hour of England's need, become men of war; 
and the chaplain has left his altar and his pulpit, his study or his 
lecture hall, to join them, to minister to them spiritually, and to 
do whatever he can find to do for them, for whom nothing done 
could possibly be too much. He, with the rest, has found his 
horizon, narrowed as he apprv^ached the front. From the frenzied 
excitement at the outbreak of the War, when he read every edi- 
tion of the papers, and possibly spent most of his spare time pacing 
the pavements of Whitehall; from the time when he held large 
"views" upon the situation as a whole; from the time when, 
being a civilian, he was in a perpetual state of agitation; to the 
moment when, having " joined up " he took charge of his boys in 
training camps, and later on proceeded overseas with them and, by 
degrees, on up to the actual front line, his perspective of the war 
altered until, at last, there remained hardly any perspective at all, 
but a crude presentation of bare outlines, sketched in, as it were, 
upon a single plane surface. 

Any account of actual experiences, it seems to me, must be in- 
terpreted in the light of this phenomenon. Historians who write 
of campaigns, correspondents who send accounts of actions to the 
press, write mostly at second-hand, touching up their accounts 
here and there with local color personally acquired, with facts 
personally observed, with feelings personally experienced. First- 
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1917.] SOME WAR IMPRESSIONS OF A CHAPLAIN 177 

hand accotmts of any action or experience are as limited as the in- 
terest of the observer and the scope of his bodily movements. 

It is with no apology, therefore, that I attempt to put before 
the readers of The Cathouc World three mild " experiences " 
of the War lived through in 1915-16. What I have said has 
made it abtmdantly clear that I shall vsrrite of things local and 
circumscribed. Indeed they will even appear tame and colorless 
in comparison with the articles of the war correspondents, which 
have whetted the public appetite to a craving for highly seasoned 
and sensational flavoring. Nevertheless, I venture to think they 
form a part, and even a necessary part, of the mise en seine of 
the European War; just as a description of the placid and pastoral 
hills and valleys and meadows and ponds of the Somme district, 
with their wonderful coloring and light effects, is no xmnecessary 
adjunct to a complete understanding of what is known as " the 
Battle of the Somme." Even the aged peasant guiding his clumsy 
plough upon the sky line across yonder field, almost within rifle 
shot of the German trenches, is a help towards the realization of 
the War. 

I. 

Fricourt Cemetery. 

I had come to within some three or four kilometres of the 
front line trenches. Proceeding across seas with the battalion to 
which I was attached, we had disembarked in France and entrained, 
after twenty-foiu- hoiu-s at the base — 2 a. m. to 2 a. m. — for a 
destination tmknown. Shortly after our arrival, I received an 
order to join the Field Ambulance doing duty with our brigade; 
and, with it, I moved on up to its headquarters. I remained with 
it — moving now and then as it moved — ^about a month ; and then 
proceeded forward to one of its advanced dressing stations. In 
the meantime my battalion had been niu^ed into the trenches, and 
was in action. There is a wonderful comradeship engendered by 
war— even in the initial stages of camp training at home; but this 
bears no comparison to the comradeship welded by hardships and 
dangers commonly shared. Every one of my own Catholic men 
in the brigade, and every one of the officers, especially those of 
the battalion to which I was attached, whom I naturally had learned 
to know best, was by now my very good personal friend. Though 
I found no less comradeship in the Field Ambulance during the 
time I was with it, I longed to see my older friends again. I well 

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178 SOME WAR IMPRESSIONS OF A CHAPLAIN [May, 

remember my meeting them again for the first time. I had, with 

my Ijatman, got up as far as . My first question put to 

the O. C, Advanced Dressing Station was this, " Where 

are the ?" "Oh, we're looking after them, 

padre," he made answer, "they're in quite near here, in D.2." 
" Can I get up to see them? " " Surely, they're only a couple of 
kilometres from this village." I said no more; but found a billet, 
kindly secured for me by the staff captain, and had my things (thirty- 
five pounds regular kit, with a little over) moved in. Then I wan- 
dered back to the Advanced Dressing Station and had dinner, or 
supper, more likely — ^but any meal is what one chooses to call it 
It was about 7 p. m. The O. C. was a kindly man — ^young, ca- 
pable and efficient. We ate. After the meal he said, " Padre, 

I see you are dying to get up to the . Fve 

an ambulance going in that direction this evening at 8:30; and 
rU go up myself and take you with me, if you like." If I liked! 
We went. The night, fortunately, was dark. The motor am- 
bulance ran smoothly, slowly through the main street of the 
straggling village and on out into the uncultivated country beyond. 
Then it put on speed and raced along a very bumpy road, avoiding 
shell holes, so I was told, when it swerved suddenly from one side 
to the other. At length it pulled up. "We can go no further 
with the car," said my guide. "We must walk the rest of the 
way. It's no distance at all." So we descended and walked. It 
wasn't far; but the queer whine of spent rifle bullets and their 
sharp impact, when they hit anything — ^tree, wall, or chalk forma- 
tion — worried one. There is no other excuse, save that it was the 
first time; but I confess I ducked when I heard the "pin-n-n-g." 
And I have not yet got over the first impression. Though I 
know that the bullet had passed by the time I heard it singing 
through space, the instinctive movement for protection is made 
none the less to this day. We had to negotiate a hundred yards 
or so of road, ankle deep in mud. " Keep to the left here " advised 
my guide. " There is a Boche machine gun trained on the right- 
hand side of the road." We kept to the left. We passed under 
a light railway bridge, chipped and scarred, as I afterwards saw 
in the daylight, by machine gun bullets, and took a sharp turn to 
the right, following a sort of natural ravine, or dry water-course, 
at one point in which there was a most pestilential smell. " The 
Battle of Fricourt was fought round about here," remarked my 
mentor. Ultimately we reached the headquarters, of the battalion. ^ 

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1917.] SOME WAR IMPRESSIONS OF A CHAPLAIN 179 

What pleasure when I passed the sentries and reached the head- 
quarters of my old battalion, situated in dug-outs on the reverse 
slope of a little hill! What a greeting was given to me! If there 
had been any danger run in coming up to make this informal 
evening call, it was more than repaid by the large-hearted welcome 
of the H. Q. Staff — ^not one of whom, be it noted, was a Catholic. 
They made one feel not only that one was at home there in 
every sense of the word, but that it was their own padre who had 
thus "blown in" to visit them. Of course the Catholic 
chaplain is really posted to a brigade, and not to a single bat- 
talion, but as he is attached to the latter, it often claims him 
as peculiarly its own; and as a general rule its officers make 
him feel that he is a very intimate member of a select little 
family, from whom they expect much affection and devotion, and 
for whom they are ready to do almost anything. But this last is 
true pretty much of all the officers in the brigade. It is this 
spirit of true comradeship which makes the chaplain's work among 
his men much easier to do, and helps and inspires the priest him- 
self in doing his work. Personally, I never had anything but the 
greatest consideration and kindness shown to me by all the officers 
with whom I had to deal; and in the formation to which I was 
posted — a southeast of England one — one could count the Catholic 
officers almost on the fingers of one hand. Many of them in all 
probability had never met a Catholic priest or been in any way inti- 
mate with one before the War. It is not difficult to appreciate the 
amount of prejudice that has been, and is being dissipated by 
such a state of things as this, repeated again and again throughout 
the whole British army, and in all the circumstances of the in- 
timate and actual and limited interest of life at the front which I 
have endeavored to portray. I think I am not alone among the 
Catholic priests with the British Expeditionary Force — ^priests 
from England, Ireland, Scotland, Canada, Australia and New 
Zealand — in being able to say that some of the warmest and 
stanchest friendships we have ever made have been with non- 
Catholic officers and men — friendships formed in the throes of 
war and cemented by the common dangers of the front line. It 
is a small thing, perhaps, and a very personal one ; but my evening 
visit in August, 1915, to the trenches in front of Fricourt Ceme- 
tery will always be one of the memories that I shall carry through 
my life, and not least because of the real affection and regard which 
I found awaiting me there. 



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i8o SOME WAR IMPRESSIONS OF A CHAPLAIN [May, 

11. 



At 



It was growing dusk; and we had been marching for a 
long time. We were halted for the dock-hour halt just below the 
crest of a hill, on the reverse side of which lay a biggish village — 
or small town — ^through which we had to pass on our way to a new 
trench sector. There was a fine view in the dear afterglow over 
the rolling downs and valleys back along the road we had come, 
up which light evening mists began to rise. Innumerable spirals 
of cigarette smoke rose from the right-hand side of the road, where 
the men had fallen out. They were making the most of their ten 
minutes; for smoking is not allowed on the march. Officers in 
little groups were speaking together on the left, and the grooms 
held the horses of the mounted officers, which cropped the grass 
pladdly by the side of the road. 

Ten minutes up, the whistles blew and the men, shouldering the 
heavy packs which they had for the brief interval thrown off, fell 
in. The officers got astride their horses ; and the battalion moved 
in a sinuous line up and over the crest, and on through the town. 
There is something inspiring and thrilling in watching a thousand 
soldiers on the move ; in riding in their rear and seeing the steady, 
resistless advance, in perfect order, of so many men, resolute, silent, 
determined, as they pass on towards the unknown, to give battle 
to the enemy. On through the stone-flagged streets of the little 
town they marched, the soldiers billeted there lining the pavements 
and crowding in the Place to see them go by— doubtless, also, 
to pass judgment, as soldiers do, on the order, equipment, and 
appearance of a battalion other than their own. There is much 
friendly jealousy and rivalry between the regiments, and even be- 
tween the various battalions of the same regiment; all of which 
makes, no doubt, for smartness and efficiency. Arrived at the far 
side of the town, an order came through from the head of the 
column — "Halt!" We halted in a narrow, cobbled street, more 
than crowded with motor lorries, ambulances, horsemen, and sol- 
diers coming and going everywhere. There was barely room for 
the big lorries to pass; and motor-bicycle orderlies were dodging 
in and out among the congested traffic at every moment. Then — 
"Fall out!" "Fall in!" "By the right, quick march!" 
" Halt I " — ^at intervals of a few minutes. Something seemed to 
be wrong. What could it be? Word came back that the road 

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1917] SOME WAR IMPRESSIONS OF A CHAPLAIN i8i 

was being shelled ahead of us. We were to wait until the shelling 
stopped and then go forward in artillery formation. The block 
in the street became more dense; the language sometimes sulphur- 
ous. At last the tension slackened. We were on the move again ; 
and left the town behind us, as we stepped out in the gathering 
darkness, with little sound but the dull beat of many feet upon 
the road. The battalion split up into companies; the companies 
into platoons. The trail lengthened, with intervals between the 
groups of marching men. On, on, on. It was not far really, 
but new groxmd, and in the darkness, seems longer than it actually 

is. At last we reached and passed the danger spot which had 

caused the halt. We bore to the left, keeping the Somme on our* 
right, and following its sinuosities. Here we formed again into 
normal marching order. It was now so dark that we could only 
make out the general conformation of the hills, the trees by the 
roadside, and vehicles close at hand, coming towards us on the 
left-hand side of the road. Star shells were beginning to rise 
and fall now to right and left of us ahead, each lighting up for a 
few moments a distant hill or a ruined house or clump of trees, 
which stood out, clear-cut in profile, against the darkness. A 
muffled order came; and once more we halted and fell out. There 
was hardly a sound to be heard,. except the rustle of leaves in the 
trees bordering the road, a subdued murmur from the men, now 
and then the nervous pawing of a horse, and — ^very occasionally — 
the whip-like crack of a rifle. The river was at our feet, close by 
the road, rippled by a light breeze, catching the reflection of the 
star shells, and, perhaps, for a moment reflecting the silhouettes 
which they painted. There were no cigarettes on this halt, no lights, 
no loud sounds. The men talked in whispers. By daylight, here, 
the Germans overlooked the spot where we sat, under the trees 
by the river. It was a weird, a curious experience. The great 
vault of night overhead, the mists coming up from the river, the 
star shells, the inarticulate feeling of present multitudes, the knowl- 
edge of intimate danger and absolute helplessness if an enemy shell 
should happen to find this mark. And there we waited for the mo- 
ment to take the place of outgoing troops, seeing much in the fitful 
light of " star lights," thinking in a dumb, inarticulate sort of way, 
of problems that plumb the very abyss of human thought, and touch 
the Infinite through their sheer human interest. Is it blind fate, or 
an infinitely wise Providence, which orders the affairs of this world 
of huntan strivings, hopes and aspirations? War, I think, has 

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i82 SOME WAR IMPRESSIONS OF A CHAPLAIN [May, 

pointed the answer to such a question. The answer, like the 
question, is dumb and inarticulate, too; in the heart rather than 
of the head; emotional, perhaps, rather than strictly logical. I 
am not now speaking of Catholics, for whom feelings such as 
these find definite articulation in the clear-cut doctrines of their 
faith, but of the great majority of the soldiers, I believe, in our 
new armies. The War — ^and especially what 1 may call the mono- 
chrome moments of the War, such as that spent by the 



just beyond has brought home to the men a lesson. 

Though their language is not choice; though their doings will not 
always square with the right solution of a case of casuistry, the 
British soldier, I believe, has reached and realized some living 
notion of the truth of the Fatherhood of God, some vital idea 
of the Brotherhood of Man, some very real glimpse of the mean- 
ing of sacrifice, and of vicarious sacrifice, some solid grasp of a 
" beyond," which depends, in a large measure, upon his personal 
effort and uprightness. Surely that is something gained. Faith 
mj^y be — and is — ?l gift of God; but, I believe, the natural foun- 
dations of that faith are being laid in the odd moments of reflection 
which are interposed between the comparative safety of camps 
at home, or on the lines of communication, and the personal 
struggle for life of the front line and the battlefield. I may be 
wrong. I think I am right. In the furnace of this affliction I 
believe character will be formed, on real and not artificial grounds ; 
on which character truth may be engrafted — ^truth revealed and su- 
pernatural — ^to bear fruit a hundred and a thousand fold, to the 
glory of God and to the salvation of innumerable souls. 

III. 

Vaux Wood. 

As I write I have before me some dried violets. They were 
gathered in Vaux Wood in May, 191 6. My readers will, in all 
probability, recognize the name of the place. Vaux is the tiniest 
possible of villages on a loop of the River Somme, near to Frise. 
Behind it cliffs rise sharply to the wood. In front of it glides 
the river, spanned by a causeway. The tongue of land in the 
loop of the river was disputed territory a year ago. English pa- 
trols and Germans fought for mastery at Knowles' Point — the far 
head of the causeway. The British were always successful. The t 

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1917] SOME WAR IMPRESSIONS OF A CHAPLAIN 183 

first Germans I buried in this war — Catholics, too — were killed 
at Knowles' Point, and now lie, awaiting the Resurrection, in a 
consecrated garden behind a cottage in Vaux. May God assoil 
them! There were no trenches, properly so-called, behind the 
village. No trenches were necessary. A height of ground 
commanded the intervening space between the English troops and 
the enemy; and that space consisted of river, marshes and ponds. 
All this is now ancient history, or I should not write it. Today 
the British line is miles beyond Vaux. I was living, at the time 

of which I write, in dug-outs. The village, , had become too 

hot for me; and I had obtained permission to go to the headquarters 
of my battalion to live. True, I had to walk back through some 
miles of communication trenches to say Mass. But even that 
was better than that nerve-racking and irregular bombardment 
of the village. Headquarter dug-outs were, as is usual when pos- 
sible, on the reverse slope of a hill. The valley in which they 
were located fell away gently down to the Somme River. There 
was little or no exercise to be had except up or down this valley, 
or through what communication trenches existed to other battalions 
of the brigade. And exercise, where possible, is imperative. My 
exercise, with that of my good friend the medical officer, when 
the work of both was finished, consisted in a ramble down the 
valley to the river, looking in at some gun pits, cunningly concealed, 
on the way, and chatting with the gunners. We had improvised 
some fishing tackle; and, under gun fire and anti-aero shell 
bursts, fished for pike in the Somme at Eclusier. We managed to 
catch them too — a great delicacy for H. Q. Mess. Stuffed with 
bread cfumbs, sage, found in the village garden, and onions they 
are good eating. Served in any way — as, for instance, fried 
steaks — they vary monotony. I had visited Vaux Wood the day 
before with the medical officer. It was not the first time. The 
first time had racked my nerves — ^that was when I had passed 
through it to bury the Germans in the quiet Jardin Potager at 
Vaux. But yesterday I had gathered my violets. Violets, prim- 
roses, and other spring flowers glowed in the wood. It was in 
every way a scene of peace, of pastoral beauty, save when my 
friend the medical officer bade me look out, through a skimpy 
screen of hazel twigs, upon the German lines below. We could 
see, from the height upon which we* stood the village of Clery, 
on the same bank, but separated from us by two stretches of the 
river as it flowed around in its great curving he^dj^^ Ans^^^alg 



i84 SOME WAR IMPRESSIONS OF A CHAPLAIN [May, 

there, in the distance, we marked from time to time great plume- 
like masses of smoke rise and float away in the clear air as our 
shells burst over the German line; and we heard the irregular 
crackle of rifle fire as German sentries or snipers fired across at 
us. Today I was making my way from Eclusier back up the 
valley alone. I had stopped to talk to some men standing in the 
sun in front of a dug-out on the way. The day was an absolutely 
perfect one — clear blue sky with little white clouds sailing across 
it The birds were singing in the joy of spring. There was 
hardly a sign or sound of war: no more than an occasional 
muffled explosion, the droning of aeroplanes now and then coming 
nearer or retreating, with the sharp accosting of the anti-aero guns 
whenever they ventured toward forbidden ground; sometimes 
the prolonged rattle of a machine gun afar off; but taken all 
together, it was an afternoon of comparative peace and quiet 
beauty. The brooding spirit of the day must have taken possession 
of my mind, for I was enjoying one of those rare moments at 
the^ front when war lies altogether in the background of con- 
sciousness, unobtrusive and quiescent, while thoughts of other and 
more pleasant things unroll their sequences undisturbed. I re- 
member noticing in a passive sort of way the grace and beauty of 
a taube which was manoeuvring over towards Vaux Wood in front 
of me on my right. It swam through the air gently, like a living 
thing. That it was seen by our gunners was evident from the fact 
that twin shell bursts, like tiny living cloudlets, marked its wake, 
and heralded its course. But it was too far away as yet for me 
to hear the hivelike drone of the fragments of the aerial shells 
falling to the earth. It all fitted into the picture and my mood. 
It was all beautiful, and peaceful, and just as it should be. Half 
day-dreaming thus, I had reached a bend in the valley, fairly close 
to and under the wood; when I noticed, quite suddenly, that the 
taube was no longer over it. Then a long-drawn sigh shivered 
through the air, and crash — ^ huge shell burst up above me in 
the wood. Crash 1 Crash 1 Schrumpl Another, and another, and 
another! I saw the dense volumes of smoke go up, and took in 
the fact that one or two trees had fallen. At first I stood quite 
still. I didn't know quite what to do: and my brain refused for 
the instant to adjust itself to the new " set." Then I acted — and 
did, of course, just the wrong thing. I was already under as 
good cover as I could ^t — ^barring a really shell-proof dug-out. 
I left the lee side of the hill and walked smartly oyt tjfr^^^^Q|g 



1917] SOME WAR IMPRESSIONS OF A CHAPLAIN 185 

away across to the far side of the valley. Then I realized what a 
fool I had been, and b^;an making my way back. All the time a 
perfect deluge of shells was bursting in the wood. One would have 
said that it was quite impossible for any living thing in it to remain 
alive; or, indeed, for any tree to remain standing. It did not last 
very long — at the outside, perhaps fifteen or twenty minutes. While 
it did last it was terrific. And quite as suddenly as it had begun 
it stopped. By this time I was back again on the other side 
of the valley, and near the dug-out where I had spoken to the 
men some few minutes before. One only shell, and that, judging 
by the sotmd, a small whizz-bang, punctuated the ensuing silence. 
It did not burst in the wood. It exploded in the village of Vaux 
below it and on the other side of the hill. And that one shell 
alone, of the whole deluge, did any material damage. I sup- 
pose there must have been a company or a company and a half 
in the little wood during the bombardment. Not a soul was 
wounded, though many trees fell. One officer who happened to 
be visiting our sector was slightly grazed by a bit of that last 
one shell and one man, who, as soon as he thought the bombard- 
ment was over had come out of the shelter which he had taken, 
was killed. 

Of course I did not know these facts at the time; and hurried 
back to the regimental aid-post as fast as I could go, to learn 
them when I reached headquarters. The dead man, a much re- 
spected N. C. O., was not a Catholic. Later, I saw some of my 
boys who had been in the wood when it was " strafed." " Well," 
I asked one of them, " what were you thinking at the time? " I 
know my own thoughts; but those I keep to myself. " Father," 
he answered, " I was thinking at the time that it was like hell. But 
I felt, somehow, that Our Lady would see us through; so I just 
gripped my rifle with my one hand, and said my beads with the 
other." And with that really beautiful statement and profession 
of faith to finish it, any other end to the present paper would be 
superfluous and banal. 



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NOTRE DAME UNIVERSITY: ITS DIAMOND JUBILEE. 

BY JOHN TALBOT SMITH, LL.D. 

|N the year' 1842 the religious community commonly 
known as the Society of the Holy Cross began its 
educational career in America on the site now occu- 
pied by the famous University of Notre Dame. The 
Holy Cross community was one of the innumerable 
clerical associations which sprang up in France between 1800 and 
1835 to repair with all speed the ravages of the Revolution of 1789. 
Having helped to restore to France its religion and its Christian 
habits, many of these associations vanished, while others continued 
to thrive. Among the latter was the Holy Cross Society, which 
was able in 1841 to send one priest and six brothers to the diocese 
of Vincennes, Indiana, upon the urgent invitation of the Bishop, 
Monsignor de la Hailandiere. In the possession of the bishop was 
a tract of land in northern Indiana, bequeathed to him by Rev. 
Stephen Badin, said to have been the first priest ordained in the 
United States. This land the bishop deeded over to the Holy Cross 
Society on condition that within two years the Society should 
build thereon a novitiate and college, and should assume the spirit- 
ual care of the Catholics, both white and Indian, in the district. 
The offer was accepted and in the auttmin of 1842, Re\'. Edward 
Sorin and Brothers Vincent, Joachim, Gatien, Anselm, Francis 
Xavier and Lawrence located themselves in the log cabin on the 
premises, and b^fan the great work whose diamond jubilee will be 
celebrated nobly and splendidly next month. 

No better understanding of that work can be got than from 
contrasting pictures of the place then and today. Indiana in 1842 
was part wilderness and part prairie, and the region about Notre 
Dame was still the uncleared forest. The country is rather flat in 
the immediate vicinity, but as it rolls on towards the rivers and 
Lake Michigan, gentle hill and fruitful valley diversify the scene. 
Few were the settlers at this date and even the Indians were few; 
but the westward-rushing tide of immigration had begun with its 
promise of a golden future. The only building on the grounds was 
a log cabin. The unbroken forest stretched away for miles. A 
lovely lake relieved its monotony, and its waters found an outlet 

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1917.] NOTRE DAME UNIVERSITY: ITS JUBILEE 187 

into the river St. Joseph about a mile away, at this point a rough 
and swift stream which empties into Lake Michigan. A little to the 
south was a small village known as South Bend. Chicago was an 
obscure city eighty-six miles to the west. The community passed 
a severe winter in the log cabin, frozen in and unable to do much 
more than examine their new possession and draw plans and dream 
dreams for the future. That was Notre Dame in 1842, the pri- 
meval wilderness at the feet of the pioneers. 

Today the visitor rides up from the prosperous city of South 
Bend through handsome streets and through cultivated fields. If 
it is his first visit he is quite unprepared for the surprises which 
await him. At various points in the trip he has caught glimpses of 
a golden dome which dominates the horizon. It seems out of place 
as well as unexpected in that simple agricultural country, being a 
spectacle which Americans associate with rich cities, not with rural 
landscapes. Nevertheless its emphasis becomes more intense as the 
visitor advances. If he travels along the west road from the town, 
groups of buildings under the dome come into view, and the spire 
of a church, and then more buildings, which detach themselves by 
degrees from the group around the majestic dome and take their 
proper perspective. Instead of being huddled around the main 
building, they are scattered over considerable territory, with twin 
lakes between. Far to the left, on the banks of the river St. Joseph, 
rises another stately group of buildings, the girls' collie in charge 
of the Sisters of the Holy Cross. The visitor staring is reminded 
of other scenes by this unexpected array of edifices. The flat land- 
scape with dim woods in the rising background; the glimmer of 
waters; the gilded dome, the church spire, the towering roofs amid 
the trees, and the unbroken silence, except for the sweet bells which 
tell the passing hour! What other picture does this recall? Why, 
the peaceful university towns of old Catholic England, before learn- 
ing drank the poison of heresy and unbelief to the destruction of 
what little peace the world enjoyed. 

Swinging into the main road leading to the quadrangle the 
visitor begins to understand that he is not visiting an institution 
merely but a town. To his right is the post-office, to his left a 
porter's lodge. Far up a shaded avenue is the building which carries 
the gilded dome. Right before him is a statue of Rev. Edward 
Sorin m his prime, the founder of the University. To the right 
again are three stately buildings, a science hall and a chemistry 
hall; in the background a little observatory; at the north end the 

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i88 NOTRE DAME UNIVERSITY: ITS JUBILEE [May, 

assembly hall, built in the form of a theatre. To the left, facing 
these three are Walsh and Sorin Halls, two dormitories; at the 
end of the quadrangle stands the church, an immense structure 
which would serve as a cathedral for an important diocese. The 
main building is cruciform, lofty and imposing; two corridors 
traverse it at right angles, and from their intersection rises the 
dome. A look from the upper galleries excites still further aston- 
ishment. At the back of the main structure are various buildings, 
St. Edward's school for the minims, the natatorium, the infirmary 
and guest house, the offices and latmdry and bakery and printing 
shop, the freight house with a railroad running out a mile to the 
main line, a second grouf) of offices, and the gymnasium, handball 
alley and indoor track under one immense roof, with the athletic 
field and grandstand in the distance, and six other baseball fields 
near by. The novitiate is visible beyond the lake. To the left the 
presbytery, the seminary, the community house and the brothers' 
scholasticate are scattered; to the south are the workshops and 
bams; close to the church is Corby Hall, a dormitory; just across 
from it is the old collie, the first durable building erected by the 
pioneers; next to that stands a replica of the old log chapel which 
served the predecessors of Father Sorin; farther south on the 
main road is another dormitory, St. Joseph's; and in the great 
space around which these lesser buildings are grouped is the new 
library, just erected, with capacity for a million volumes, modern 
in all its appointments. 

The territory occupied by the institution is about two miles 
square, as flat as a floor, except where the twin lakes sparkle in the 
light. With one thousand three hundred students living on the 
grounds, and a population of at least one thousand six hundred all 
told, with machinery running as smoothly as if Edison had invented 
and directed it, one can faintly estimate the immense labor which 
fashioned from the wilderness of 1842 the modem University of 
Notre Dame. Wonder grows when the visitor at his leisure studies 
and observes the daily and monthly routine. The territory is so 
immense that a country village could hardly be quieter, for noise 
seems to dissipate quickly in the great spaces between and around 
the buildings. Twelve hundred boys can make noise enough for 
any town, but here there is no noise. There must be a tradition 
of gentlemanliness in the university town, since no matter what 
the gathering may be order seems its strongest feature. The bells 
ring the boys out of bed at six in the moming, and far oflF may be ^ 

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1917] NOTRE DAME UNIVERSITY: ITS JUBILEE 189 

heard a dull roar in the dormitories, which presently subsides. 
Around seven the dining-halls begin to fill. From an elevation one 
can see the lads sauntering along from the various dormitories, or 
meet them in the corridors chatting as they meander into the dining- 
rooms, without hurry or horseplay or undue delay. They stand at 
the tables until all are in, repeat the prayers, and fall to in easy- 
going fashion, talking more than they masticate, all pretty much as 
well-bred people do in a hotel. They leave at the end of a meal 
in the same easy fashion. If a student is not finished when the 
others rise, he lingers until he is satisfied. 

Perhaps it is a gala day on the athletic field. The hosts gather 
in the same easy fashion. The grandstand is crowded, the bleachers 
are filled, standing room is occupied, feeling is intense and finds 
expression in scattered gibes and sneers, varied with loud recom- 
mendations to the field, with applause and with cheers; but no 
rowdyism, not even horseplay, a well-bred way of doing even the 
mdst enthusiastic things without the offensive, which surprises the 
experienced man of the world. The day ends and the night comes 
on. The lights begin to shine in the great buildings, faint snatches 
of conversation echo from the windows, occasionally the tinkle 
of a mandolin tickles the ear, or a chesty laugh whose music warms 
the heart, and that is all. At a certain hour the lights vanish and 
the imiversity colony for the most part is asleep. Perhaps it is a 
Sunday morning or a day of religious festival, which may mean a 
procession from the main building through the quadrangle to the 
church. Then the wise visitor mounts to the available spot under 
the dome, and with his eyes on the whole plantation dreams of the 
ancient, far-off Catholic days, when all the world was young and 
believing. He sees the novices leave their home beyond the upper 
lake and the brothers of the scholasticate leave theirs on the lower 
lake, and the seminarians theirs between the two lakes, and wander 
comfortably through the leafy lanes to the church; he sees th^ 
thousand students drift out of their dormitories and into the big 
buildings; then come the people from the town, a few; and at the 
right moment the procession, all color, streams out of the main 
building and marches slowly around the verdure-bordered walks of 
the quadrangle up to the grand entrance. And all the time the 
strange bell in the church tower is booming, the strangest bell in 
America, because close at hand it seems to be the nmibling of an 
immense but smothered gong, yet its reverberations are heard miles 
away along the flat reaches of that country. 

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190 NOTRE DAME UNIVERSITY: ITS JUBILEE [May, 

The scene in the church itself is almost beyond description. It 
is both immense and beautiful, Gothic, ornamented in the method 
and taste of a hundred years ago, cruciform, prevailing colors blue 
and gold and yellow, an altar in brass, double-faced, skeleton, so 
that on either side you can see the other, and great spaces above 
and aroimd so that the sense of vastness and dignity quite over- 
powers you. The boys pour in at every door, the choir climbs into 
the loft, the chancel choir fills the chapel in the apse, the organ sets 
the great structure breathing with melody, and then the procession 
enters and the Mass begins. There is no delay, no drawling in 
chant or sermon or ritual, no undue haste; but the movement is 
smoothly brisk, and the moment the ceremony is over all is ended, 
the group in the sanctuary vanish into the sacristy, the congregation • 
rises on the moment, and in less than two minutes the edifice is 
left to the echoes, the incense, and the lonely sacristan. But what 
a sense of power, of majestic religion, of human faith, of solemn 
and beautiful ritual, and above all of youth's swiftness and flexi- 
bility. The visitor never tires of this impressive spectacle at Notre 
Dame. 

It illustrates the temper and method of the establishment. 
Everywhere one finds the effort to attain to the best. The stately 
buildings so lavishly scattered over the territory upon examination 
show two things openly : the dream of the builders and the neces- 
sity for more buildings. Large as they are they do not accommo- 
date the ideas that struggle for expression in this University. The 
main building, for example, holds the library, the museum of Catholic 
historical materials, two dormitories, two study-halls, class-rocnns, 
two dining-rooms, the offices, and so forth. The walls of its cor- 
ridors carry the frescoes of Gregori, worthy of a state capitol, and 
the portraits in oil of a thousand bishops and other eminent people. 
Each department finds itself cramped for space, and cries out for 
its own building in which it may develop. Probably the only parts 
of the institution which are not taxed in this way are the athletic 
field and the indoor track, for space is more plentiful than money 
in Notre Dame. In almost every detail the outward expression of 
the ideas of the founders and administrators is nearly as perfect as 
the nature of things will permit. The beauty of the locality, the 
dignity of the buildings, the easy politeness of the students in every 
circumstance, the good order on the most tempting occasions, the 
smoothness of the entire machinery of administration, the easy, 
natural movement of the social life, without noise, or parade, or t 

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1917.] NOTRE DAME UNIVERSITY: ITS lUBILEE 191 

effort, are so evident and so impressive that the experienced know 
well what tremendous labor and power must be steadily if quietly 
exerted by the institution. 

The founders of Notre Dame were exceptional men, and their 
successors have earned even a greater reputation. Father Sorin 
brought with him the French educational, community and religious 
traditions of the eighteenth century, more or less modified by the 
disasters of the Voltairean cataclysm and the Napoleonic revolution. 
His problems were chiefly the organization of the community and 
the establishment of a good college on well-known lines. He had 
the lofty imagination of the French temperament, which gave his 
plans a fine scope for the future. He drew all sorts and conditions 
of men to his work. In fact the mere story of the members of his 
community through the second half of the last century would be 
more charming than the finest fiction. His plan called for a com- 
munity of priests, brothers and sisters, and he made a tremendous 
effort to carry it out. It failed in regard to the community of the 
sisters, because they elected to become independent and to go their 
own way, while still aiding the work of the community, as far as 
they could. It was successful in other respects, and the Holy Cross 
community is now composed of priests and brothers, the latter 
divided into teaching and laboring brothers. Besides the Notre 
Dame institution the community directs colleges in different States, 
administers parishes, and gives missions; so that there is no lack 
of opportunity for the active members in various fields of effort. 
Father Sorin's second problem was the establishment of the college 
on familiar lines. Up to the close of the last century no great 
difficulty was found by teaching communities in following the old 
French methods of teaching and discipline. After that date the 
American temperament, and above all the American conditions, not 
finding the old methods and customs agreeable, the problem arose 
to suit the new conditions. 

The resistance of the authorities to change was resolute. In 
the Province of Quebec it has even been successful, and in scattered 
institutions in the United States. But no institution, however 
powerful, could wholly resist the. demands of its patrons under the 
circumstances which hegaLii to prevail. The American people had 
accustomed themselves to such systems as prevail in Yale and Har- 
vard, where the boy is practically without guardianship and without 
the protection necessary to his youth and inexperience. The lesser 
schools frequently adopted the same system, while doing something 

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192 NOTRE DAME UNIVERSITY: ITS JUBILEE [May, 

to guard the morals of the student. The Catholic colleges and 
boarding-schools found themselves facing a cruel alternative : either 
to adopt a compromise system, or to remain in the old shell of the 
eighteenth century. That meant stagnation and no development. 
Notre Dame adopted compromise, along with the leading colleges 
of the time. It was not always called compromise, nor always 
acknowledged. It was said that the ix)ys of the present day, being 
less turbulent, more refined, better trained at home, required less 
watching. Nevertheless it was a change along American lines. Be- 
cause of its share in it, Notre Dame was the object of widespread 
observation; but, as a matter of fact, the change was absolutely 
necessary for continued and progressive life. 

Father Sorin possessed in a marked degree the flexibility and 
mentality of his race, and he found no difficulty therefore in grasp- 
ing the American situation. He became an American of the 
Americans, and preached Americanization to his community. As 
far back as 1870 he instituted a special scientific course, a remark- 
able departure from the traditional course. Not only was there no 
opposition to this development, but on the contrary such enthusi- 
astic encouragement that it has continued successfully up to the 
present moment. 

Students poured in under the new conditions, and its fame 
began to increase in the Middle West. The fact that without a cent 
of endowment the community could erect its numerous buildings 
and rise above the disaster of two fires, shows how the institution 
appealed to students as the community appealed to recruits. It 
had become a university tmder the pleasant American fashion of 
getting a charter from a good-natured legislature. The difference 
between Notre Dame and others was that it set out at once to 
become a real imiversity. It had been a French classical school, as 
were all Catholic colleges in the last century in this country and 
Canada. By degrees it became something higher and better. Edu- 
cators know what the change entailed in labor and thought and 
money. The old French classical school was dominated by one 
aim, to provide priests for the missions ruined by the modern Revo- 
lution; Latin was its chief study, literature its chief diversion, 
mathematics, history and oratory its ornamentation. The American 
educators turned the whole system into scrap iron, not by direct 
attack, but by example. There was opposition to change, but men 
smile today at that opposition, which died while being formulated. 
The Americans had that human failing upon which the world is t 

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1917.] NOTRE DAME UNIVERSITY: ITS JUBILEE 193 

rtin and often mismanaged: they wanted to be like other people. 
So the system of education changed into the generous creature 
which it is today, too generous perhaps, but erring on the right side. 
The laity were looked after as well as the clerics. Notre Dame 
was among the first in the field with a curriculum to suit modem 
taste, if not modern fancy. 

The new discipline and the modem flexibility won the boy and 
the parent together. The story went abroad that a fellow could be 
trasted with a room all his own; that he could get out of bounds 
and disport in the town without a guardian at his heels ; that even 
a night frolic was not a mortal sin, that a dance was sometimes 
permissible, that seniors and juniors could give a ball to which 
their girl friends might be invited; along with other wonders, 
which read like the romance of a boy at West Point. The increas- 
ing crowd of students enabled the University to add to its depart- 
ments. In due time it became fairly easy to add the department of 
law, because Chicago was near by, and South Bend b^;an to de- 
velop lawyers of good professorial fibre. It was chiefly a question 
of money, to pay decent salaries to capable professors. Phar- 
macy was also an easy subject to provide for. Six courses in 
engineering offered innumerable difliculties, but they were finally 
overcome. Architecture did not offer insuperable difficulties and 
was introduced into the curriculum. Journalism at the beginning 
of the century had the appearance of a genuine profession, which 
was intensified by Joseph Pulitzer's endowment of a school of 
journalism at Columbia University. Notre Dame, with the aid of 
Mr. Max Pam of Chicago, founded a Catholic school of joumalism, 
which has earned success by the adoption of a simple method : the 
students follow the arts course and take a special training in their 
profession. The extent of territory owned by the community has 
made practicable the establishment of a course in agriculture, which 
is about to be opened up; and the erection of the new library also 
has enabled the University to introduce a course in the manage- 
ment of libraries, a new science and a new profession, of immense 
importance in modem times. 

The formation of a university faculty became in this develop- 
ment the great problem, which was solved with the same good luck 
as all the others. The priests, the brothers, and the lay professions 
were called upon to provide professors. The community itsdf 
might have been strong enough in time to fill the demands of Notre 
Dame, but it would have been at the expense of their other good j 

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194 NOTRE DAME UNIVERSITY: ITS JUBILEE [May, 

works, parishes, missions, schools, colleges elsewhere, which they 
had undertaken and were pledged to maintain. The laity were, 
therefore, called upon for their aid, which naturally was a more 
costly affair, since lay professors must be paid good* salaries. The 
plan succeeded, and the University today owns a competent faculty 
of young and energetic teachers, probably the most enthusiastic 
university faculty in the country, as it is surely the least conven- 
tional. Some of its members earned national fame, men like the 
late Judge Howard of Indiana, Col. Hoynes, the dean of the law 
school, Maurice Francis Egan, our Minister to Denmark, the late 
Charles Warren Stoddard, Dr. Austin O'Malley of Philadelphia, 
Dr. Albert Zahm, Dr. Charles P. Neill and others. Among these 
others Professor Stace was a graceful poet and delicate humorist, 
most versatile, an authority in history, letters, science and mathe- 
matics, without a trace of the shallowness of the average versatile 
writer, and the author of Vapid Vaporings, a volume which made 
the world laugh in his day ; Professor Lyons, a man of marvelous 
heart, the best loved lay professor of his time, and the author of 
a most popular book on elocution; Professor Edwards, the li- 
brarian, the creator of the Bishops' Memorial Hall and the Catholic 
archives, leaving behind him the largest visible monument of his 
lifelong labors; and Professor McCue, still presiding over the de- 
partment of Civil Engineering, which he created thirty-five years 
ago. All these men received so little money as almost to have 
practised the vow of poverty, and displayed a devotion to the 
University unsurpassed even by the religious themselves. It would 
take an article in itself to describe the work of the army chaplains 
whom Notre Dame sent into the field during the Civil War; suffice 
it to say that for many years past Notre Dame has had a G. A. R. 
Post, composed solely of priests, brothers and professors of the in- 
stitution, a remarkable sign and expression of their patriotism. 

The splendid effort made to form this faculty attracted 
to the commtmity a number of young men, for whom an institu- 
tion was founded on the grounds of the Catholic University in 
Washington, from which after the usual studies they take their 
degrees. Others were sent to study in Rome and elsewhere in Eu- 
rope. It is likely that henceforth the University will never lack for 
capable professors. Unless its development should pass ordinary 
bounds, as it promises to do. 

The attendance increases faster than the dormitories, for which 
new factors are responsible, besides the rising fame and successful 

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1917.I NOTRE DAME UNIVERSITY: ITS JUBILEE 195 

methods of Notre Dame. The question of college athletics was 
one, the question of military training for boys was another. The 
discussion over the first is not yet ended. Opinions are innumerable 
and tmsatisfactory. One fact is prominent: the American boy 
wants his athletics at school in just the fashion he is enjoying them 
now. He must have a good baseball team, a splendid football team, 
and for lighter mood a sprightly basketball team. These must in 
turn demand his loyalty, admiration, affection, enthusiasm to the 
exploding point. When he becomes a staid merchant or a member 
of the university faculty, he insists on the same pabulum as a 
" rooter " for his college. Maybe it is a kind of insanity, but one 
is inclined to think it the prehide to something worth while. While 
it is not an argument for the tnens sana in corpore saw, it reaches 
the popular heart more quickly and universally than one thousand 
arguments. Not a doubt in observing minds that the industrial 
slavery of the time is bent on increasing its demands upon the 
helpless workers, until every minute that labor can spare, and every 
ounce of effort it is able to make, will be demanded and exacted 
by the money-mad leaders of men. This overpowering demand of 
the students for athletics may be the antidote to such savagery. 
Notre Dame adopted athletics after the usual struggle, and found a 
way to harmonize the physical with the intellectual. Financially the 
result has been good and worth while. The fame of the Notre 
Dame athletes has surmotmted even bigotry, and the hearts of the 
graduates are warm towards Alma Mater for a splendid and profit- 
able adoption of their favorite. 

The introduction of military training found its chief opponents 
in the students. Training was too much like work. Playing games 
in the athletic field was fun ; standing at attention, drilling, dressing, 
under military severity, were labor and pain; particularly with no 
girls to look on and admire 1 Yet military training had become 
inevitable. The world is no better today than under Napoleon. 
It is said to be much worse. A rich country like ours, not merely 
unable to defend itself against the modem wolves of war, but 
without any idea of the need, is as much a prey of powerful States 
as innocence alone with vice. The Federal Government has politely 
but strongly requested all educational institutions to accustom the 
students to the idea of defence and to the charm of military play. 
Athletics against the money power, and military sports against the 
lust of conquest! What can«surpass the ccmibination? So the 
undergraduates are drilling on the pleasant plains of Notre Dame I t 

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196 NOTRB DAME UNIVERSITY: ITS JUBILEE [May, 

Naturally after this description one will ask two main ques- 
tions: how has it all turned out, and who did it? It has turned 
out so delightfully and so fruitfully that one wonders whether 
to admire more the method or the result The Holy Cross Comr 
munity cannot ntunber more than five hundred members in this 
country, yet it has produced in the University of Notre Dame the 
most delightful educational institution in the land. Its location 
is beautiful and spacious, its buildings are immense and impressive, 
it houses sixteen hundred people as quietly and tenderly as the 
best hotel in the world, it keeps them occupied, trains them, guards 
them, cares for them with immense skill, and it provides a social 
life so charming that one never tires of it. Its only fault is its 
vastness. It provides a noble training-home for the American boy, 
that restless, imaginative, nervous, impudent creature who imagines 
the world an inexhaustible joy, which he must exhaust if possible; 
it gives him something of the freedom and glory he longs for, and 
directs his wavering gaze to the better life of glory. It has formed 
a group of teachers whom it is joy as well as honor to know, not only 
for their learning but for themselves. It has solved pressing prob- 
lems, such as have been mentioned here, with a maximum of success 
and a minimtmi of waste and friction. It deserves the study of the 
genuine educator, no matter what pedestal he stands on. It 
should be a special inspiration to Catholic educators of any degree, 
for its success will hearten the weakest and speed the strongest I 
have seen everything educational in America from the best to 
the worst, and Notre Dame with all its faults, failures and limita- 
tions stands alone in its class. 

Who accomplished this ddicate, effective, splendid work? A 
group of men with Father Edward Sorin at their head. He was 
nicknamed affectionately and comprehensivdy Richelieu! by his 
friends and associates, and the kindly title gives one the measure 
of a remarkable man. The grand maimer, the silent tongue, the 
kindly endorsement of every service, no matter how simple and 
cheap, the wide view of life, the tremendous faith, the tirdess 
energy, the deep sympathy with men — Father Sorin had them all. 
He planned, or directed, or approved, or opposed. He was defeated 
at times, frustrated at other times, made the usual miscalculations, 
the usual blunders, but in the general scheme won out in his plans. 
He gathered about him a group of priests and brothers of whom 
only the cotnmvnity members know /mything, since that generation 
has passed away; but their memory breathes in the spirit of the 

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1917.I NOTRE DAME UNIVERSITY: ITS JUBILEE 197 

University, and their bones lie in the shadow of the institution. 
It was the last desire of the majestic Brownson to have his bones 
repose with theirs. What finer comment on their character and 
their achievement could be made. So Brownson's ashes lie under 
the floor of the community chapel, where priest and brother and 
student meet for prayer all the days of the year. How lovely a 
resting-place for that great and heroic body and brain ! 

Father Sorin's aids were men of different nationalities, French, 
German, Irish, Polish and American, and they served him with 
equal zeal. The community today speaks with respect of the ef- 
ficiency and devotion of Father Granger, who carried the spir- 
itual administration on his shoulders; of Father Corby who 
won other fame as a chaplain in the army and whose statue in 
bronze faces the hall named after him; of Father Colovin, a 
notable preacher in his day; of Father Dillon, who filled many 
important offices; of Father Scheier, Father Kirsch, Father Fitte 
and Father Stoeffel, eminent professors; of Brothers Edward, 
Celestine and Marcellinus ; of Father Regan, for twenty-five years 
Prefect of discipline, a great figure in the history of Notre Dame; 
of Father James Bums, who helped greatly in developing the 
modem attitude towards school work; and above all of Father 
T. E. Walsh, the beloved and efficient rector of the institu- 
tion when the more radical changes already mentioned, the trans- 
formation of Notre Dame in fact, were in the making. His career 
was not long, and its close left, in the hearts of his associates and 
in the progress of the institution, the void not easily filled. The 
impression which one gets of these men from the people who knew 
them in their prime is a combination of their strength and natural 
vivacity. They were characteristic men, blessed with an originality 
which had more freedom of expression than similar qualities in our 
more conventional day. Father Walsh seems to have been the 
incarnation of his time, his community, his institution and its hopes 
and dreams, so did he fill the need, the eye, and the hearts of his 
brethren and dependents. 

The generation which succeeded him displayed fine qualities. 
Rev. John Zahm became the leading spirit in the community as 
professor in the University and provincial of the congregation. He 
was a scientist of repute and an educator of merit, occasionally 
shocking the torpidity of the faithful In his books and lectures 
with speculations which then looked like rash inventions, but which 
are popular today with the schools. He gave the great impulse 

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198 NOTRE DAME UNIVERSITY: ITS JUBILEE [May, 

to the work of forming a faculty, had the young men trained in 
different universities, and founded the house of studies in Wash- 
ington for members of the community. His literary tastes helped 
the development of writers among the students, and secured for 
the faculty members eminent in the literary world. Upon his re- 
tirement from direct administration he devoted himself to author- 
ship, and has become a notable figure in the literary circle by his 
fascinating books on South America and woman's influence in edu- 
cation. Rev. Andrew Morrissey succeeded him, a man of engaging 
personality, eloquent in speech and strong in administration, who 
as rector and as provincial continued the work of building up the 
community and the University, and still directs his splendid ener- 
gies to the same goal. They were particularly well seconded in 
their labors by Rev. James French, at present head of the mission- 
ary band, who in various capacities provided the administration with 
counsel perhaps keener and more dispassionate than either the scien- 
tist or the orator usually possesses. 

These three men were for long the executives and spokesmen 
for the community and the University faculty, which directed, or 
restrained, or inspired their labors. Eminent priests and eminent 
brothers in the council of the community had their share, often 
very important, in the external government. The most notable of 
these are the men who manage the well-known publication. The 
Ave Maria, which has served the Catholic body so faithfully for 
a half century and more. Founded by Father Sorin and edited 
most of the half century by Rev. Daniel E. Hudson, this publication 
has earned a high place by its steady devotion to the best in life, by 
its encouragement of Catholic writers, and by its refusal to cater 
to popular fancy or to lower its ideals. It is an educator not an 
entertainer, as so many magazines have become. It holds to the 
old method, which guided all our publications thirty years ago. 
Since then the publishing world has adopted the insanities of Wall 
Street, and has made its business as much a gamble as stocks or 
race horses. The Ave Maria has gathered about it a band of work- 
ers at home, and of contributors and readers abroad, who are an 
honor to the Catholic body; and its gracious influence carries the 
spirit of Notre Dame far among the English-speaking peoples. 

The. present administration and faculty of Notre Dame em- 
braces about sixty professors, priests, brothers and laymen, at 
whose head is the rector. Rev. John Cavanaugh. The institution 
has now reached that point where its capacity in every direction is ^ 

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1917.] NOTRE DAME UNIVERSITY: ITS JUBILEE 199 

being drained to the last ounce. Its entire space is filled with 
students, professors and paraphernalia, and each department is 
crying for more room and more help. New dormitories are needed, 
new apparatus, new buildings. All the dreams of Father Sorin 
and his associates have come true. Perhaps the finest achieve- 
ment of Notre Dame, beyond its physical growth, its popularity, 
its solution of problems, its peculiar distinction, and its local beauty, 
is the formation of the present faculty. For enthusiasm and work, 
for youth and devotion, they can hardly be surpassed. They are 
taking to authorship, a work which Catholic professors in America 
have as carefully avoided as their European brethren have boldly 
cultivated. A European professor who does not write a book or 
two is not highly considered ; the Catholic American professor who 
does write a book is so rare that he gets little honor from it. The 
rectorship of Notre Dame is nobly filled by a worthy successor of 
the notable rectors of other days. Father Cavanaugh reflects the 
genial spirit of Notre Dame in his personality and method, and 
carries the heavy responsibility with dignity and spirit. He will 
preside at the celebration of the coming diamond jubilee, and wel- 
come a thousand distinguished guests. He will give them the story 
of Notre Dame, and dwell upon its plans and its hopes for the 
future. The plans are made and ready for inspection: another 
thousand students, more dormitories, more professors, a new equip- 
ment, a new method of caring for the students still more effectively 
than before, and above all the preservation of that fine spirit which 
pervades and perfumes and illtunines the place; the inheritance of 
ancient days, the priceless thing long ago held by the schools of 
Columba or Bede or Anselm, and now the iridescent glory of 
Notre Dame. 



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THE CONVERSION OF A ''GODLESS'' COLLEGE: IRISH 
CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY EDUCATION TODAY. 

BY MICHAEL MAHER, S.J., D.LITT. 

N Sunday, November 5th, of last year, there occurred 
at Cork an event of much historical significance in the 
religious and educational history of Ireland. It was 
the opening of the new University College Chapel, 
dedicated in honor of St Finn Barr, the Patron 
Saint of Cork, and founder of the celebrated monastery and school 
which flourished on the same spot from the seventh to the tenth 
century. To any thoughtful mind, which recalls the long and bitter 
struggle of the Irish nation for its liberty and educational rights, 
this incident, so seemingly small amid war and political troubles, 
is of profound import. It is the crowning act in the transition or 
conversion of the " godless ** Queen's College, banned by the eccle- 
siastical authorities for two generations, into an institution of uni- 
versity rank, enjoying the full approbation of the Catholic Church. 
The college, which for nearly sixty years was under censure and 
disapproval, on account of its secularistic constitution and character, 
is now governed by a board which includes the Archbishop of 
Cashel, the Bishop of Cork and three other priests, four-fifths of 
the remaining members being Catholic laymen. Its President, Sir 
Bertram C. A. Windle, a considerable majority of the professors, 
and some ninety per cent of its students, are Catholics. Finally, by 
the mtmificent liberality of the late Miss Honan, it is now equipped 
with a generously endowed Catholic hostel, to which the new chapel 
is attached. There is a Royal Charter, signed by His Majesty, King 
George V., defining the conditions of the trust, and requiring the 
chaplain of the hostel to celebrate Mass in the chapel every morning 
during terms — we believe the first ordinance of the kind since the 
Protestant Reformation. The chapel itself, to the consideration of 
which we shall return later, will probably rank for generations to 
come as one of the most perfect specimens of revived Celtic art and 
architecture in the country, altogether it is a very happy and ex- 
pressive symbol of the final triumph of the old Faith in a long, 
dark and dreary struggle. 

The main features of that struggle are well known. During 

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1917.I IRISH CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY EDUCATION 201 

two centuries the most ingenious and cruel penal laws were em- 
ployed to exclude from even the most elementary education the 
Catholic people of Ireland, who then formed nine-tenths of her 
population. The story of that period has been crystallized in the 
immortal stanza: 

Still crouching 'neath the sheltering hedge, 

Or stretched on mountain fern, 
The teacher and his pupil met 

Feloniously to learn. 

However, by the close of the eighteenth century, it was realized 
that the weapon of direct persecution had hopelessly failed. It was 
found to be impossible to extinguish the Irish Papist schoolmaster, 
even by making a criminal of him, and equally futile to attempt the 
perversion of the nation by bribing it with richly endowed prosely- 
tizing schools. As the nineteenth century advanced it became also 
increasingly evident to the Government that education was no 
longer a luxury to be enjoyed solely by the better-off classes, but a 
necessity for the continued life and well-being of the State. With 
the victory of Emancipation, won in 1829 by O'Connell and the 
millions behind him, the Catholics 'of Ireland ceased to be helots. 
They acquired the status and l^fal rights of free citizens of the 
British Empir^; but it still needed a long campaign to make these 
rights operative in many departments of life. 

In education the first concession wrung from the British Gov- 
ernment was the system of national primary education. Though 
in principle it was unsatisfactory, and in administration most un- 
just towards Catholic claims yet by degrees, through continuous 
fighting, amendments were worked into the original scheme, until 
though still containing serious defects, it has gradually become a 
tolerable system. 

Over three-quarters of the nineteenth century had elapsed 
before the Government did an)rthing whatsoever for Catholic sec- 
ondary education. Whilst the wealthy Protestant minority, en- 
riched originally through the confiscation of Catholic property, 
were in possession of a number of schools, also endowed out of the 
proceeds of Catholic spoliation, Catholic secondary education was 
left entirely to private effort, unassisted by any kind of State 
encouragement At length, in 1878, an Act of Parliament was 
passed introducing a scheme of intermediate education, and allot- 
ting a sum at first of one hundred thousand dollars a year, raised ^ 

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^2 IRISH CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY EDVCATIOM [May, 

subsequently to over double that amount, in aid of secondary 
schools both Catholic and Protestant alike. 

The need of university education acceptable to Catholics re- 
mained still imsatisfied; indeed it became -more acute in proportion 
as Catholic secondary schools and colleges improved. There existed 
since the reign of Elizabeth, Trinity College, or the University of 
Dublin, a thoroughly Protestant institution, which during a large 
part of the nineteenth century maintained religious tests designed 
to exclude Catholics. Even after these were removed the anti- 
Catholic spirit and atmosphere of the place remained as effective a 
barrier. This had been recognized and admitted by the British 
Govenunent as early as 1845. I^^ that year they made their first 
move towards meeting the Catholic claims for higher education by 
the establishment of three Queen's Colleges, designed to constitute 
the Queen's University. They were located in Cork, Galway and 
Belfast — ^this last to meet Presbyterian needs. They were admir- 
ably built, well-equipped and endowed with about sixty thousand 
dollars a year apiece. 

But with the blundering which has maiiced almost invariably 
even the well-intentioned measures of the British Government in 
Ireland, the new institutions w^re founded on secularist principles, 
and staffed and launched in a manner that made their rejection by 
the Catholic Hierarchy inevitable. The outcome was that the eccle- 
siastical disapproval was, if anything, more acute in regard to 
them than to the formally Protestant University of Dublin. They 
were dubbed from the start the " godless " colleges, and as the cen- 
tury progressed their failure to meet the Catholic need of university 
education became only more and more evident. Thus down to 1880, 
the only university in Great Britain or Ireland capable of giving 
degrees recognized by the State, open to Catholics and free from 
episcopal censure, was the University of London — ^then merely an 
examining body. 

The bishops had made the attempt to found a Catholic uni- 
versity in Dublin, presided over by Newman in 1854. But the 
absence of State recognition and legally valid degrees, as well as 
financial difficulties, doomed it to failure from the first. However, 
the effort and the sacrifices were not altogether vain, as it strength- 
ened the force of the Catholic protest, and in addition left the 
nucleus of the future University College of Dublin in the form of 
tl\e school in Stephen's Green. The next step was taken in 1879 
by the Government establishing the Roy^l University, modded , 

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1917] IRISH CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY EDUCATION 203 

largely on the London University, that is an examining and degree- 
giving body, but provided with twenty- four professors. These were 
bound to lecture at some existing institutions preparing students for 
degrees in the Royal University. Half of these were Catholics and 
were allotted to the school in St Stephen's Green surviving from 
the Catholic University, which was then placed by the Irish Hier- 
archy under the management of the Jesuit Fathers, and called Uni- 
versity College. 

The result was that this institution, though heavily handi- 
capped by want of. equipment and insufficient endowment, speedily 
outdistanced the three Queen's Colleges and all other rivals in the 
quantity and quality of the degrees and distinctions won by its 
students in the Royal University examinations. This continued 
demonstration year after year of the flagrant injustice under which 
conscientious Catholics suffered, finally compelled the Government 
to make a real effort to meet the Catholic grievance, and led to the 
establishment in 1908 of the present National University. 

The new institution absorbed the Examining Body, which con- 
stituted the Royal University, reformed and took over the two 
Queen's Colleges in Cork and Galway, and added a new college to 
be established in Dublin. These three colleges, henceforth styled 
the University Colleges of Dublin, Cork and Galway, constitute the 
National University. It is thus a Federal University. At the same 
time the Queen's College of Belfast was erected into a separate 
University to satisfy the Presbyterians and Protestants of Ulster. 

In theory both new Universities were to be undenominational, 
but unlike their procedure on former occasions, the Government 
now took care that the management and staff of the National Uni- 
versity and of the three colleges which were to form it, should be 
constituted in such a way as to secure the confidence of the Catho- 
lics. On the first senate of the University, which was nominated by 
the Government, if my memory is correct, twenty-three out of 
twenty-eight members were Catholics, including two Archbishops 
and three priests. In future the senate will be elected, but as the 
electors will be overwhelmingly Catholic, its Catholic character 
is safe. It has, in fact, at its first free election, chosen Archbishop 
Walsh as Chancellor of the University. The Governing Board of 
the new University College in Dublin was constructed on the same 
lines, containing twenty-seven Catholics and three Protestants. The 
great majority of the professors, including all thp professors of 
philosophy, are also Catholics. Of the students in attendance, who 

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204 IRISH CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY EDUCATION [May, 

number nearly a thousand, about ninety-six per cent are Catholics. 
The State endowment allotted to this Dublin College is about one 
hundred and sixty thousand dollars, which with the students' fees 
makes a total revenue of about two hundred thousand dollars a year. 
Six hundred thousand dollars were allotted for the building of the 
new Dublin College, which is still in process of construction. The 
management of the Cork and Galway Colleges was transformed in 
the same direction, and as they are located in more purely Catholic 
districts, this Catholic character should tend in the future to become, 
if anything, even more marked. 

As, however, the new University was by statute undenomina- 
tional, no public moneys could be allotted for a theological faculty, 
or to provide a chapel, or any form of religious instruction or wor- 
ship. At the same time the constitution of the University and 
the three constituent Colleges is quite consistent with the acceptance 
of provisions for such matters from private sources. And expe- 
rience already goes to show that a satisfactory institution for higher 
education being once secured to Catholics, the old charitable instinct 
of the Pious Founder, which established and supported so large a 
part of the educational machinery of the Middle Ages, will, as 
times goes on, provide liberally for the religious needs and the 
specifically Catholic teaching of the University. For, provision 
for the religious side of higher education has always been deemed 
one of the worthiest and most fruitful fields for Catholic charity 
and zeal. 

In connection with the Dublin College a legacy of a consider- 
able amount, left by a Dublin merchant to the Jesuit Fathers, was 
devoted to the building of a hostel, capable of lodging some sixty 
Catholic students; and in 1912 steps were taken by the Hierarchy 
towards the establishment of a lectureship in theology, Father 
Peter Finlay, S.J., being appointed to the office. These are, it is 
true, merely small beginnings, but as the College is only eight years 
old, and only part of its own building yet erected, we may hope 
that gradually, as in the history of the great mediaeval universities, 
there will come into existence a well-equipped and well-endowed 
faculty of theology, worthy of the city^ of Dublin and of the Na- 
tional University of Ireland. 

In Cork the munificent bequest of the late Miss Honan, to 
part of which the recently-opened college chapel there is due, proves 
still more clearly that private Catholic beneficence will in time pro- 
vide generously for the religious interests of the University. Al- 

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1917.] IRJSH CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY EDUCATION 205 

though naturally the State endowment there is considerably smaller, 
Cork possessed the advantage over Dublin, that it had already in 
existence the fine set of buildings of the Queen's College with tfieir 
large and handsome grounds. Even the edifice of a hostel was 
already available there, having been erected formerly for Protestant 
students. These latter had become too few to occupy it, and ac- 
cordingly it was secured at a very moderate price, first by the Fran- 
ciscans and subsequently from Uiem by the Honan trustees. 

The Cork College also enjoyed singular good fortune in pos- 
sessing at this period as its President, Sir Bertram C. A. Windle, 
with whose able and brilliant writing in defence of religion the 
readers of The Cathouc World are familiar; a man of great 
energy, of exceptional administrative talent, of distinguished scien- 
tific attainments and an earnest Catholic, he was peculiarly qualified 
to direct the College in the transition from the old status to the 
new. Though bom of Protestant parents, he inherited strong Irish 
sympathies on his mother's side. Educated in part at Kingstown 
school, in part at Ripton, he passed through an extremely brilliant 
university course in Trinity College, Dublin, taking the degrees of 
M.A., M.D., and D.Sc. with the highest honors. Subsequently, he 
held the chair of Anatomy and Anthropology and became dean of 
the faculty at the University of Birmingham; and whilst there he 
gained the coveted distinction of F.R.S. Meantime the funda- 
mental philosophical and theological problems of religion had been 
exerting an ever-increasing pressure on his mind, and by 1883 he 
had come to the conclusion that the only adequate solution for 
them was to be found in the Catholic Faith, and in that year he was 
received into the Church. From that time he has been constantly 
working for the advance of Catholic educational interests. 

In 1904 the Presidency of Cork Queen's Coll^;e was offered 
to Professor Windle, and in view of the approaching changes to 
meet the Catholic claims he accepted. He was made a member 
of the Government Commission appointed to draft the statutes of 
the new University, and was thus intimately instrumental in carry- 
ing out the conversion of the old " godless " Queen's College to its 
present status. In this reformed condition, as we observed at the 
beginning, the College contains on its governing board the Arch- 
bishop of Cashel, the Bishop of Cork and three other priests, whilst 
eight out of ten of the remaining members are Catholic laymen. 
During Sir Bertram Windle's presidency the material equipment of 
the CoVLtgp has also been much improved, and it now possesses nine , 

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2o6 IRISH CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY EDUCATION [May, 

admirably furnished laboratories devoted to the various branches 
of science, three of these having been recently built, or reconstructed, 
out of funds supplied by the State, or by private benefactions. 

Chief among the benefactors so far have been the Honan 
family, wealthy people of the city of Cork. Already three valuable 
scholarships and one of the new laboratories had been provided by 
this family. But further, at her death some years ago the late 
Miss Isabella Honan bequeathed a large sum of money to be de- 
voted to the interests of Catholic education in Cork, leaving to her 
friend and executor, Sir John O'Connell, LL.D., the decision of 
the best method of expending the money. After conference with 
Sir Bertram Windle, he decided that he could not carry out the 
intentions of the pious donor more usefully than by allotting the 
main part of the legacy to the foundation and endowment of a 
hostel for Catholic students, and applying the remainder, about 
fifty thousand dollars, to the erection of a chapel that would, even 
in its material structure, worthily represent the interests of religion 
alongside the handsome set of buildings devoted to art and science 
in the College grounds. And this object has now been admirably 
achieved. 

Sir John O'Connell is a man of a highly cultivated taste, with 
an enthusiastic love for Irish history, literature and art. He re- 
solved that the chapel should be in every way worthy of the purpose 
for which it was intended, but also should be characteristically Irish 
in every detail. " It was obvious," he tells us, in the excellent little 
work which describes the chapel and narrates the story of its con- 
struction, " that for a chapel which was to be set up almost on the 
very spot where St Finn Barr had marked off his caseal and had 
set up his monastery and school — for a chapel, moreover, in which 
the Catholic youth of Munster would day after day for generations 
to come assemble for prayer and praise, there could be only one 
style of building possible, that which should remind them in its 
form and in its decoration of that precious heritage which had been 
handed down to them from and bound them to the past. Such an 
ideal could only find its material expression in the Hibemo-Roman- 
esque chapel, such as our forefathers built all over Ireland in and 
about the eleventh century."^ 

And the architect, J. McMullen, has been singularly successful 
in producing a masterpiece in this Celtic style. Moreover, every 
detail of the structure, of its decoration and even of its furniture, 
^Tht Honan Host§l Chap§L By Sic J. O'Connell. p. 2t. 

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I9I7-1 IRISH CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY EDUCATION 207 

down to the beautiful binding of the missals, the illumination of 
the altar cards, and the embroidery of the vestments, have all been 
planned with most loving and ingenious solicitude in relation to 
the central governing idea of the edifice. The history of the grand 
epoch of the Irish Church is painted in the beautiful stained glass 
windows, which contain the most celebrated Irish saints and tell 
their lives; whilst the golden age of Irish art is reproduced in the 
fabric and its adornment. And every bit of the work has been 
designed by living Irish artists and executed by Irish craftsmen. 
Thus after the long and bitter struggles of Catholic Ireland for 
higher education the Honan chapel worthily symbolizes and crowns 
the triumphs of the Faith which Finn Barr taught on that very 
spot thirteen centuries ago. 

And that triumph has a very real practical value. It is true 
that the new University, being in theory undenominational, does 
not satisfy the full just claims of a Catholic nation. Still in view 
of the difficulties surrounding the question a better solution was 
not easy to find, and certainly the gain to the Catholic youth of 
Ireland is evident. Whereas, a generation ago Irish Catholics were 
debarred from higher education by the influences hostile to their 
religion which dominated every university institution in the country, 
and compelled ecclesiastical superiors to declare them dangerous to 
faith, today there is open to Catholic students the National Uni- 
versity with its three Colleges, having a State endowment of 
three hundred thousand dollars a year, and including on the govern- 
ing body of each College the Archbishop of the Province and the 
Bishop of the city in which the College stands. A large and in- 
creasing majority of the professors are Catholics, and of nearly 
sixteen hundred students attending the courses probably over four- 
teen hundred are of the same Faith. 

Moreover, the education given by the University, which reaches 
the highest standard in the various faculties, arts, science, law, 
medicine, engineering and commerce, is extremely cheap— a very 
important matter in a country like Ireland which is not rich. The fee 
for board and residence in the Honan hostel in Cork for the scholas- 
tic year is only one hundred and sixty dollars. The fees for the lec- 
tures and laboratories would add from fifty to eighty dollars more, so 
that the expenses of an economic student need not much exceed 
fifty pounds or two hundred and fifty dollars. In Galway living 
is even cheaper, though in Dublin it is somewhat dearer. Further, 
an important feature is the large number of scholarships offered 



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^ IRtSti CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY EDUCATION [May, 

for comp^tion by the University and the County Councils, sub- 
stantially covering the whole cost of a student's university course. 
Accordingly, considering what Catholic Irishmen, heavily handi- 
capped as they were, achieved by their brains in the past, we 
may reasonably entertain good hopes of their success in the future. 

And as the popular memory in a democratic age is not very 
enduring, it may not be out of place at the present time to recall 
the fact that Mr. A. Birrell was the statesman who accomplished 
this solution of the Irish university question. Mr. Gladstone, the 
greatest liberal Prime Minister of the nineteenth century, at the 
zenith of his power, tried his hand and wrecked his Government 
on it in vain. Mr. Balfour, as leader of the conservative party, 
again and again publicly confessed the reality of this Irish Catholic 
grievance, and fostered hopes that he would remove the injustice, 
but whenever it came to the point of practical action he timidly 
shrank back. Finally, it was Mr. Birrell, to whose alleged timidity 
and weakness of govermnent the catastrophe of last Easter week 
in Dublin was ascribed by his opponents, who had the courage to 
face the opposition not only of the Orange faction, but of his 
own non-Conformist supporters, and the energy and skill success- 
fully to carry through this valuable installment of justice to Ireland. 

The State has now very tolerably furnished the new University 
in regard to secular science, and launched it on lines acceptable 
to the Catholic Church. There remains open, however, to the 
munificent charity and patriotism of wealthy Irish Catholics, who 
love their country and their Faith, a fertile field for their zeal and 
generosity during the years to come, providing a liberal and abun- 
dant equipment for the specifically Catholic interests and religious 
functions of the new National University of Ireland. 



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EUGENICS AND THE FEEBLE-MINDED. 

BY HENRY SOMERVILLE. 

[DECISION given in the Supreme Court of New York 
last July by Mr. Justice GoflF against the Binet test 
of mental deficiency, is a blow struck against one of 
the most detestable tyrannies with which we are 
threatened in the name of modem sociology. In the 
particular case which Mr. Justice Goff pronounced upon, an applica- 
tion was made by the authorities of a home of refuge to have a 
young woman committed to a custodial institution for the feeble- 
minded. As proof that the young woman was feeble-minded, the 
authorities of the refuge home relied upon what is known as the 
Binet test of mental deficiency. The judge refused to accept this 
test as sufficiently reliable. "All criteria of mental capacity are 
artificial," he declared, " and the deductions therefrom necessarily 
lack verity and must be to a great extent founded on conjecture." 
The young woman was twenty-one years old, but the Binet exam- 
iners pronounced her " mental age " to be nine years, meaning that 
she had the mental capacity found in a normal child nine years old. 
The judge refused to accept this grading, saying : " Standardizing 
the mind is as futile as standardizing electricity, and the votaries 
of science or pseudo-science are in their enthusiasm apt to confound 
theory with fact, and to reach conclusions that will accord with 
their prepossessions. The law, however, is made by men to apply 
to the human concrete, and while it welcomes and avails of the 
knowledge of science, it holds fast to proven fact" 

The criticism of the judge touches the weak spot, not only in 
the eugenist treatment of the feeble-minded, but the " scientific " 
procedure of a great deal of current philanthropy. The " laws " of 
sociology are merely generalizations; they are essentially abstrac- 
tions, but if they are to be applied to individuals at all, they must 
be applied to the concrete, and in this they are radically unsafe. 
" Probability is the foundation of eugenics," said Galton, the 
founder of eugenics in its modem scientific form. But probability 
is not enough as a basis for action when the life or liberty of an 
individual is to be taken away. We may consider, as an instance, 
Galton's famous " Law of Ancestral Inheritance." This law was an 

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510 EUGENICS AND THE FEEBLE-MINDED [May, 

attempt to state the proportionate contributions of ancestors of 
different generations to the sum total of characters in an individual. 
Thus Galton calculated that one-half of the inherited characters in 
an individual came direct from his parents, one-quarter from the 
grandparents, one-eighth from the great-grandparents, and so on in 
a series adding up to unity. But, according to the Galtonians, 
this is only a statistical, not a physiological law. The individual 
receives, on the average, one-half of his inherited qualities from 
his parents, one-quarter from his grandparents, and so on ; but of 
no particular individual can it be said that the law is true. This 
distinction between a statistical and a physiological law makes all 
the difference between a law that can be acted on in concrete cases 
and a law that cannot; yet it is a distinction constantly forgotten 
by sociologists who lay down policies based upon generalizations 
drawn from case-records. 

The question of the treatment of the feeble-minded is most im- 
portant in itself, and it is exceptionally instructive as an illustration 
of the fashionable " scientific " treatment of social questions. 
There has been much talk of eugenics amongst Catholics, but we 
have been prone to fix our attention on its more impossible and 
absurd claims, and we have felt satisfied in laughing it out of court 
therefor. There is no danger that the human race will put itself 
under the government of genetists in all matters pertaining to 
marriage and parenthood. There is little chance that what is called 
" positive eugenics " will ever have any wide application ; but there 
is a real and even immediate danger from "negative eugenics." 
Positive eugenics means measures for promoting parenthood 
amongst the " fit " classes of society; negative eugenics means the 
prevention of parenthood amongst the " unfit." The reason why 
positive eugenics has less chance of favorable acceptance than the 
negative kind is that the fit classes are strong, and can resist the 
application of eugenist measures to them ; whilst the " unfit " are 
the weak and defenceless upon whom experiments can be safely 
practised in the sacred name of race regeneration. 

It is with regard to the mentally deficient, the feeble-minded, 
that there is most danger of an anti-Christian and inhuman policy 
being adopted by law. The policy now widely advocated by secular 
scientific philanthropy is the sterilization of the feeble-minded. In 
advocacy of the policy, it is asserted that a great part of crime, 
immorality, drunkenness, truancy, and everything else that is bad 
is due to mental defect. It is also asserted, and this^is the ^^^alg 



1917-1 EUGENICS AND THE FEEBLE-MINDED in 

the matter, that mental defect is in most cases definitely inherited. 
The usual estimate put forward by the advocates of sterilization is 
that eighty per cent of all cases of feeble-mindedness is due to 
heredity. Therefore it is argued that if the feeble-minded are pre- 
vented from becoming parents the proportion of feeble-mindedness 
in the next generation will be reduced by about four-fifths, and the 
consequent reduction in crime, prostitution, alcoholism, etc., it is 
calculated, will be anything from fifty to ninety per cent. 

It is on the strength of improved and most doubtful theories 
that therace regenerators propose to deprive of the rights of liberty 
and marriage those whom they are pleased to label as feeble-minded. 
It is not always proposed to sterilize the feeble-minded by surgical 
means, but segregation, or "permanent custodial care," meaning 
life imprisonment, is put forward looking to the same end. In all 
the scientific discussions of the " treatment of the unfit " the rights 
of the poor people themselves are left out of account. The one test 
of right policy is " the good of the community," which often means 
merely the saving of public money. 

Before bringing Catholic ethical principles to bear upon these 
proposals, let us examine them purely in the light of science and 
logic. Let us see what assumptions are involved in the advocacy of 
the segregation, to say nothing of surgical sterilization, of the 
feeble-minded. In the first place, we have to settle upon a definition 
of feeble-mindedness. Mental ability exists in all grades from the 
highest to the lowest. Where are we to fix the line between the 
normal and the defective? After we have got a definition we still 
want a test of feeble-mindedness. When we have agreed as to the 
grade of mentality below which a person is to be ranked as defective, 
we have still to ascertain to which grade a particular person belongs. 
This distinction between the definition of feeble-mindedness and the 
test of the same, must be clearly recognized. When we are agreed 
upon our definition and our test we have still. another task before 
us, we have to find out whether a particular case of defect is 
inherited or acquired. It is admitted that there are a thousand and 
one causes, operating both before and after birth, which may result 
in mental defect, and mental defect so caused will not be inherited 
and therefore is not transmissible. And when the defect is not 
hereditary there is no call for segregation designed to prevent par- 
entage. We might go on and specify other difficulties facing the 
eugenist before he can, even on his own principles, give the evidence 
required to justify the condemnation of any particular human beine ^ 



212 EUGENICS AND THE FEEBLE-MINDED [May, 

to segregation. But sufficient for the day are these three points, 
the definition, the test, and the determination of the hereditary or 
acquired character of feeble-mindedness. 

As for the definition of feeble-mindedness, the one given by the 
Royal CoU^^ of Physicians, adopted by the British Parliament, 
and accepted generally by scientific men, is as follows : "A feeble- 
minded person is one who is capable of earning his living under 
favorable circumstances, but is incapable from mental defect arising 
from birth or from an early age (a) of competing on equal terms 
with his normal fellows, or (b) of managing his aflfairs with ordin- 
ary prudence," 

Another definition is given by Dr. H. H. Goddard in his book 
Feeble-Mindedness; Its Causes or Consequences:^ "A state of 
mental defect existing from birth or from an early age and due to 
incomplete or abnormal development, in consequence of which the 
person affected is incapable of performing his duties as a member 
of society in the position of life to which he is born." 
* Dr. Goddard is the most prominent American authority on the 
subject of feeble-mindedness. His views may fairly be taken as 
representative of the scientific school which is dominant today. It 
will be noted that Dr. Goddard's definition makes feeble-mindedness 
relative to social position. A person with sufficient money to live 
without working for his bread and butter would not be feeble- 
minded, whilst a poorer person of exactly the same grade of intel- 
ligence would be feeble-minded merely because his livelihood de- 
pended on his own efforts. We may, however, ignore Dr. God- 
dard's supplementary definition and confine our attention to that 
of the Royal College of Physicians. It is obvious that a feeble- 
minded person may be well above the rank of an idiot or imbecile. 
The definition would brand as feeble-minded Francis Thompson, 
who used absent-mindedly to throw money orders into the fire when 
he was penniless and starving. Many men of genius have been 
unable to manage their affairs with ordinary prudence, and there- 
fore they ought, according to the definition, be classified as feeble- 
minded, and according to the eugenists they ought to have been 
segregated and sterilized. If the definition be amended to make an 
exception for men of genius it still remains formidable. For it 
makes the test of feeble-mindedness the capacity to compete on 
equal terms with the normal-minded. Now, as already said, mental 
ability exists in all grades from the lowest to the highest, from the 



*New York: The MactniUan Co. 1914* 

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I9I7-1 EUGENICS AND THE FEEBLE-MINDED 213 

imbecile to the genius. To mark oflf a certain grade of ability and 
say that all above it are normal, and all below it are defective, is a 
perfectly arbitrary proceeding. Or if not arbitrary it is to make 
feeble-mindedness relative to environment. This is what Dr. God- 
dard, M. Binet, and others of their school actually do. Says Dr. 
Goddard: 

Strictly speaking, a feeble-minded person is not one who 
lacks intelligence, but one who lacks a particular degree of 
intelligence. The leyel is not fixed arbitrarily but by the social 

necessity Intelligence is thus relative The degree of 

intelligence that marks the line between the feeble-minded per- 
son and the normal has been defined as that degree below which 
the possessor cannot manage his affairs with ordinary prudence. 
Now it is the environment which determines how he must man- 
age himself and what affairs it is necessary for him to control. 
In consequence of this it happens that a man may be intelligent 
in one environment and unintelligent in another. It is this 
point which Binet has illustrated by saying that a French peas- 
ant may be normal in a rural community but feeble-minded in 
Paris. The peasant life is simple, the environment requires 
little adjustment. In Paris all is different, all is complicated 
and requires the highest functioning of certain mental powers 
in order to enable one to adapt oneself.* 

It is important to understand who are meant by the feeble- 
minded; otherwise we cannot appreciate the gravity of the pro- 
posals to deprive these persons of fundamental human rights. Ac- 
cording to the definition, the more society " progresses '* the more 
complex life becomes, the higher will be the standard of intelligence 
required to be considered normal, and the greater will be the propor- 
tion of feeble-minded to segregate or sterilize. Apparently the 
standard of normality now set is the capacity to earn a living. But 
what is a living? A living may mean nothing more than physical 
subsistence, but there is no reason why the capacity to earn a living 
of a very high standard should not be required, so that none but 
the supermen will be considered normal. 

The eugenists have some difficulty in putting their programme 
into effect because of the difficulty of finding a satisfactory test of 
feeble-mindedness. The test is not the same thing as the definition. 
We may say that all below a certain grade of mentality are feeble- 
minded, but we have to ascertain by a test what is the grade of a 

'FeebU'Mindedness ; lis Causes or Consequences, p. $73- ^ t 

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214 EUGENICS AND THE FEEBLE-MINDED [May, 

particular person. Many tests have been devised and the one that 
received the greatest vogue was that of the French psychologist, 
Alfred Binet, who in collaboration with Dr. Thomas Simon worked 
out a " measuring scale for intelligence." A series of tests, adapted 
to children of different ages, in the form of questions for answer, 
sentences and rows of figures to be repeated, pictures for descrip- 
tion, etc., comprises the scale. The Binet test was adopted and 
approved widely in the United States. It was praised with the 
greatest enthusiasm by such an authority as Dr. Goddard; but it 
is now becoming discredited even among its former advocates. Last 
year there was an inquiry into feeble-mindedness in Qeveland, 
Ohio, conducted by Professor Mitchel of the University of Penn- 
sylvania. The Binet test was applied, and it showed that there were 
sixteen hundred feeble-minded children in the schools of the city. 
This was distressing, but later the test was applied to the principals 
of the schools, and six of them failed to pass 1 The teachers failed 
to pass tests upon which children had been pronounced feeble- 
minded. The Cleveland School Board did not pronounce the 
teachers feeble-minded, but it pronounced the Binet test a failure. 
In other cities, some of the most successful professional and com- 
mercial men have failed to pass the test. No wonder Judge Goff 
rejected as untrustworthy the Binet criteria of mental ability. 

The next stumbling-block for the eugenist is the difficulty of 
ascertaining whether feeble-mindedness in a particular person is 
hereditary or acquired. If it is acquired it is not of eugenic interest 
at all, for it will not be transmitted to offspring, and there is no 
reason for refusing the right of marriage to a person whose defect 
is not hereditary. There is only one way of judging whether a 
particular case of feeble-mindedness is hereditaty, and that is by 
finding out whether there are, or have been, other cases of defect 
in the family. If a parent of a feeble-minded child is defective, or 
a brother or a sister, or one or two more distant relations as uncles 
or grandmothers, are defective, the case is assumed to be one of 
hereditary defect. But obviously this assumption lacks certainty. 
The feeble-mindedness of a child of sub-normal parents may be 
acquired, and not inherited. The children of normal parents are 
exposed, both before and after birth, to accidents that cause feeble- 
mindedness; and the children of defective parents are still more 
exposed to the dangers that come from neglect and incompetence, 
and they are more likely than others to acquire defects. It is ad- 
mitted that defective parents often have normal chij<iren^ b^^^l^^^Qlc 



1917] EUGENICS AND THE FEEBLE-MINDED 215 

also admitted that there are innumerable causes of mental defect, 
other than heredity. We must demur, therefore, to the assumption 
that feeble-mindedness in the child of a feeble-minded parent is 
always inherited and transmissible. 

A still greater objection to the easy assumption of heredity lies 
in the fact that there is often no real evidence of the mental condi- 
tion of the family. The conclusions of Dr. Goddard on the propor- 
tion of feeble-mindedness due to heredity are based upon data that 
is untrustworthy. The brothers, sisters, parents, uncles, aunts, 
grandparents, great-grandparents, and other relatives of the feeble- 
minded children at the institution* with which Dr. Goddard is con- 
nected, have not had their mentality tested by the Binet scale or 
any other scientific means in the majority of cases. The evidence 
of the family physicians was rejected by Dr. Goddard as unreliable 
because of "lack of frankness." Upon what evidence did Dr. 
Goddard depend? He sent out a young lady called a "field worker" 
to interview all the accessible relatives of a feeble-minded child. 
The field worker was instructed to direct the conversation in these 
interviews along special lines, so as to bring out facts in regard to 
any member of the family who might be insane, feeble-minded, alco- 
holic, dependent on charity, or in any other abnormal condition. 
The field worker had to determine by this method the mentality 
of the persons she saw, and also of many persons she did not see. 
It is not surprising to learn from Dr. Goddard that in some cases 
this determination was not easy. But he assures us that it is a mis- 
take to think that it is not possible to determine the mentality of 
persons three or four generations back. Dr. Goddard says : 

The idea that it is impossible to determine the mentality of 
persons three or four generations back is partly an ill-con- 
sidered one, and partly the result of erroneous logic. One says, 
"I don't know my own grandparents, and as for my great- 
grandparents I do not even know their names." And the 
implied argument is, " if a person as intelligent as I am does 
not know his grandparents how can these ignorant defectives 
know theirs?" The argument is fallacious throughout. To 
begin with, family ties are often much closer with these defec- 
tives than with more intelligent people who are often too busy 
to keep up these relationships; the defectives are more apt to 
remain for generations in the same conmiunity, while the in- 
telligent migrate and so leave their ancestors Again, the 

'The Training School for Feeble-Minded Boys and Girls of Vinelan4,i|^fg»i^QlC 



2i6 EUGENICS AND THE FEEBLE-MINDED [May, 

fact that I do not know my ancestors does not prove that no 

one living knows them Further, three generations back is 

l^sy, and six is not impossible Physicians conclude on 

evidence infinitely weaker than Napoleon, Julius Caesar and St. 
Paul were epileptic* 

The person who will accept evidence of the kind that satisfies 
Dr. Goddard, is an enthusiast with whom there can be no argu- 
ment. If it is admittedly often difficult to a professional 
alienist to determine the mentality of a person under his direct 
observation, how can any safe conclusions be based on the second- 
hand or sixth-hand impressions of a field worker interview- 
ing ignorant and often unintelligent persons about other persons 
whom neither the interviewer nor the interviewed has ever seen? 
If the eugenist theories of heredity and feeble-mindedness were put 
forward only speculatively, they would be interesting and they might 
be hannless. But they are put forward in support of a practical 
policy, namely, the sterilization of the feeble-minded. Sometimes it 
is proposed to sterilize by such means as vasectomy ; sometimes by 
lifelong segregation of the sexes. The question that is at issue is 
one of human rights. We need not discuss surgical sterilization, for 
there will be no argument about that among Catholics. But segre- 
gation is another matter. It cannot be denied that a person afflicted 
with mental defect in a certain degree may, in his own interests 
and for the good of the community, be lawfully restrained from 
marriage. A hopeless lunatic, incapable of an elementary under- 
standing of the nature of marriage, is incapable of marriage, and 
therefore has no right to marriage. To deny marriage to such a 
man is not to deprive him of his natural right, for the natural 
conditions that make the right do not exist in his case. By the 
same reasoning it may be lawful to deny the right of marriage to 
the lowest grades of the feeble-minded. What degree of mental 
defect is sufficient to justify a prohibition of marriage is a question 
that must be specifically determined. But it is safe to say that the 
current proposals for sterilization or segregation of the feeble- 
minded are utterly at variance with Catholic ethical teaching on 
individual rights. The Catholic position is, of course, that first 
consideration must be given to the natural rights of the individual. 
The sacredness of the individual does not depend upon his economic 
value to society, and the individual does not cease to have human 

^Feehle-Mindedness; Us Causes or Consequences.W^^'^^^^^'^^^^^ 



1917] EUGENICS AND THE FEEBLE-MINDED 217 

rights because he suffers from mental or physical defects. Among 
the most fundamental of human rights is the right to marriage, 
and this carries with it, in the Catholic if not in the eugenist view, 
the right to parenthood. The State can never deprive an innocent 
man or woman of this right. It is true that mental or physical 
defect may exist in such a degree as to make a person incapable 
of the right, but if the State is going to restrain persons from mar- 
riage it is bound to take the greatest care that the restraint does 
not apply to persons who ought not to be subjected to such a dis- 
ability. For this reason it is necessary to examine rigorously the 
definition, the test, and the modes of ascertaining the hereditary 
character of feeble-mindedness. Whatever eugenists may think, 
public opinion in this country is not yet inhuman enough to con- 
sent to the segregation of all those who are feeble-minded, accord- 
ing to the definition of the Royal College of Physicians. Moreover, 
it is comforting to know that segregation of all the feeble-minded 
is impossible because the cost would be prohibitive. Dr. Goddard 
estimates that there are between three* and four hundred thousand 
feeble-minded persons in the United States. No test of feeble- 
mindedness yet discovered is sufficiently reliable to justify us in 
condemning children to lifelong segregation, and there is still less 
reason for pretending to be able to determine in concrete cases 
whether or not the defect is hereditary, and therefore transmissible. 
If it is not transmissible the whole eugenic case for sterilization 
is gone. 

" We hold these truths to be self-evident," said the framers of 
the American Declaration of Independence: "that all men are 
created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain 
inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty,, and the pursuit 
of happiness." The eugenists, with their division of humanity into 
the " fit " and " imfit *' deny the fundamental principle of the 
American Constitution. They take it upon themselves to say who 
shall have life and liberty, who shall marry and have children, and 
who shall be denied these human rights, who shall be treated as 
belonging to stocks that society must exterminate. There is a cer- 
tain amount of political support behind the proposal to sterilize the 
feeble-minded which makes it immediately dangerous ; but the same 
scientific arguments in favor of this treatment of the feeble-minded 
are applied by the eugenist theorists, with equal logic, to the deaf, 
the epileptic, and other classes of the afflicted whose unfitness is 
alleged to be hereditary. 

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2i8 EUGENICS AND THE FEEBLE-MINDED [May, 

The eugenist programme is unscientific because its application 
depends mainly not upon certain knowledge but upon guesswork; 
it is impolitic because it could not be carried out completely, but 
only partially, in a manner that would cause a maximum of hard- 
ship to individuals and a minimum of benefit to the State; and 
it is imethical because it sets up a purely animal standard of " fit- 
ness" and it violates individual rights. It makes society not a 
brotherhood for mutual help, but a selfish combine in which the 
strong get rid of the weak as an encumbrance. No society that acts 
on such a principle of egotism can have a healthy life, for to fol- 
low such a programme would be to outrage the very nature of man. 
The theories which assume " unfit " stocks in humanity ignore the 
great, though incalculable natural powers of the free human will, 
as well as the regenerative efficacy of Divine Grace. 

No one will question the gravity of the social problem of 
f eeble-mindedness and the need for some solution. No one will say 
that because mind-measuring tests are futile, it is never possible 
to determine feeble-mindedness. It would be foolish to deny that 
there are many persons so feeble-minded as to need institutional 
care, and for whom voluntary celibacy is better than marriage. But 
those who are careful of human rights will resist the agitation for 
the compulsory segregation and sterilization of alleged feeble- 
minded persons oh the eugenist ground that otherwise such persons 
might get married, and then they might have children who might be 
feeble-minded and who might therefore become a burden on the 
community. That kind of outrage on human rights in the name of 
social benefit is what Christianity has fought against since the days 
of pagan Rome. 



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OUR NEW ISLANDS. 

BY M. R. RYAN. 

I WAR was responsible for the initial negotiations be- 
tween our Government and Denmark in the purchase 
of the Danish Islands in the Caribbean. Today in- 
dications point to the present great conflict as having 
been instrumental in aiding us at length to acquire 
them. And we have bought them solely with the thought of a 
possible future war before us! 

St. Thomas, St. John, St. Croix are three small islands, yet in 
the world of diplomacy they have loomed in gigantic proportions, 
and have made for grave international discussions. 

During the Civil War some of our naval officers complained 
of the lack of a station in the Antilles. Without a base there for 
supplies, coaling, repairs and the like, the service found itself badly 
handicapped in its task of dealing with carriers of contraband and 
blockade-runners. 

Now, the complaints and recommendations of navy men fre- 
quently receive but the most casual governmental attention. As Mr. 
Miller, of Delaware, observed in the House last year while speak- 
ing on the Naval Appropriation Bill : " Nobody hires experts in 
business and then ignores their advice in the manner in which Con- 
gress treats the advice of our naval experts. We often hear the 
remark that the mere fact of a naval board of officers advising 
something is a good reason why it should be turned down." 

Fortunately, the official representations regarding a naval 
station in the Caribbean received no such summary treatment dur- 
ing the Lincoln administration. In January, 1865, Lincoln directed 
Seward to approach General Raasloff, the Danish Minister at Wash- 
ington, with an offer to buy the Danish Islands. The eminent 
Secretary met with no success in this mission. But determined to 
carry the plan to completion, he finally insisted that Raasloff present 
the offer to the Danish Government. Through his very persistence, 
however, he made an enemy of the General ; and after an unfavor- 
able report from the latter, Denmark rejected the offer. 

Seward was an exponent of the " try, try again " theory. The 
month of December, 1865, saw a new ministry in Copenhagen — ^a 
ministry friendly towards the Secretary's wishes. Seward, there- 
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220 OUR NEW ISLANDS [May, 

fore, reopened the purchase proposition; and presently he was 
apprised that the Danish Government was willing to begin negotia- 
tions. Having personally estimated the worth of the islands, he of- 
fered five millions in gold for the three. It was a good price, and 
Denmark at that time needed gold for home defences. Xet sud- 
denly she balked at selling. Prussia and France had stepped into 
the scene ! To Prussia and Austria, in 1864, Denmark, after a brief 
war, ceded the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, Prussia taking 
the former and Austria the latter. In less than two years, however, 
Prussia was at swords' points with her old ally, and delayed not 
in moving her troops into Holstein. Denmark, fearful that any 
disposal of the islands at that time might displease the all-powerful 
Prussia, concluded to wait until Austria and Prussia had adjusted 
their difficulties before acting on the sale. She hoped that with 
Prussia in an amicable mood, the transfer might be managed in 
a fashion acceptable to all the coimtries concerned. 

As for France — scarcely had our Government b^^ to deal 
with Denmark, when the empire put in a claim for the island 
of St. Croix, on the grounds that Denmark was breaking the pur- 
chase agreement she had entered into with the Knights of Malta, 
from whom she had bought it in 1733. The agreement was that 
Denmark would never alienate it unless France consented. Of 
course, France stood in a glass house, as it were. In the instance 
of Louisiana, had she not made a like promise to Spain and later 
disregarded it when she signed the territory over to us? Never- 
theless, indifferent to consequences, she threw the stone, and pointed 
out that Denmark must either retain St. Croix or surrender it to 
her. Little Denmark could no more afford to offend Louis Napo- 
leon than Bismarck. So the sale episode was practically at an end. 

Again in the spring of 1867, Denmark, on her own initiative, 
advised our State Department that she was ready to dispose of St 
John and St. Thomas for ten millions, and of St. Croix (providing 
France would interpose no objection) for five millions. Denmark 
added, however, this stipulation : that the proposed sale must prove 
satisfactory both to the Danish Parliament and the people of the Is- 
lands. Seward, in reply offered one-half the designated sum, but he 
strenuously opposed a vote of the islanders on the question, for he 
desired that Congress, in the event of the acquisition of the Islands, 
be free to fix their status without any interference from the dwellers 
thereon. He held that if the wishes of the latter were recognized 
before the sale, they must necessarily be recognized after, should 

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1917I OUR NEW ISLANDS 221 

statehood be demanded, for example. Denmark, however, stood 
firm with regard to this stipulation. However, she lowered her 
sale price to $3,750,000 for each island. 

Seward could do no better. In the fall of that same year 
a treaty was drawn up, by which we were to purchase St. Thomas 
and St. John, St. Croix was not included, for the simple reason 
that our Government realized that Louis Napoleon would not agree 
to the transfer. As to the island plebiscite, Seward, in private, 
consented to its being taken, though he permitted no reference to it 
to be made in the treaty. 

This treaty was ratified by the Danish Parliament. The island 
vote was taken, and it was favorable to the United States. But our 
own Senate proceeded to ignore it. The anti-expansionist won the 
day. Moreover, Sumner, the Chairman of the Senate's Foreign 
Relations Committee, and some other leaders, had put themselves 
in opposition to President Johnson and Secretary of State Seward, 
and as a result the treaty was pigeonholed. 

As a consequence of the Senate's attitude, this country was 
then in an extremely unenviable position from a diplomatic point 
of view. We were standing for this principle : no foreign Power 
could transfer its possessions in or about this continent to another 
foreign Power; should a Power be desirous of ridding itself of any 
such possessions, it must either declare them independent or turn 
them over to us, the natural inference being that we would be glad 
to secure them and to pay a reasonable price for the privilege. Yet 
in this case, the Senate said in effect to the Danish Parliament: 
"Gentlemen, we will not buy; neither may you sell. Object at 
your peril ! " 

Luckily for us, Denmark did not press the point. She allowed 
the perturbed Seward an extension of time for ratification of the 
treaty; to Fish, the next Secretary of State, she gave another such 
extension. But finally, the treaty lapsed. 

In 1892, Denmark intimated to the American Minister to 
Copenhagen that the Islands in the Antilles were again for sale. 
Now, the President of the moment, Harrison, was indeed anxious 
to annex the group. His successor, Qeveland, had, however, been 
already elected; and Qeveland's sentiments did not at all incline 
towards the purchase. So, since no negotiations could be com- 
pleted before the incoming executive's inauguration, Harrison was 
obliged to decline to consider the matter. 

But the upkeep of the islands had become exceedingly expen- 

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2ii OVR Nnw ISLANDS [May, 

sive for Denmark, and in 1896 she again proposed their sale to 
the Qeveland Cabinet. The United States Government declined, 
however, to entertain it. 

In 1901, the question of sale again came before the Secretary of 
State, John Hay. Hay favored the purchase, and in January, 1902, 
an agreement was reached with Denmark whereby we were to pur- 
chase the three Islands (France having withdrawn her claim to St. 
Croix) for five million dollars. The Danish Government was satis- 
fied to accept a lesser price than it had first demanded, because 
the Islands had depreciated in value through business competition, 
and were accounted worthless to the distant mother country. 

Our Senate confirmed the treaty the following February, and 
the Lower House of the Danish Parliament did likewise. Its 
Upper House, however, defeated it. This was the period when 
the understanding was that Germany was planning to become a 
power in the "American Mediterranean." Our presence there, 
would, obviously, have caused complications. So intense was 
Germany's disapproval of the treaty, therefore, that a sufficient 
ntmiber of the Danish Upper House, out of friendliness for her, 
succeeded in killing it. 

But, last year, interest in the treaty question was once more 
revived. And finally, as in 1902, a treaty was ratified by the 
United States Senate and the Lower House of the Danish Par- 
liament. Also, as in 1902, the Upper House rejected it. How- 
ever, this rejection did not invalidate the treaty, and M. Zahle, 
Denmark's Premier, determined to force it through to ratification. 

Before it was presented to Parliament, he announced that he 
would resign should it fail of carriage. So, upon the Upper House 
rejecting it, he threatened to resign his portfolio at once, thus 
dissolve Parliament, and compel an election, in which the sale of 
the Islands would be the principal issue. Undoubtedly such a course 
on the part of M. Zahle would have precipitated a crisis in the 
kingdom. For to this issue another probably would have been 
coupled — that of Danish neutrality. That the people of Denmark, 
as a whole, are not pining to do battle with the mighty armies of 
the adjoining empire, goes without saying. Yet, within the king- 
dom there is present an element, so incensed against Germany, so 
reckless of disaster and displeased with the Government's foreign 
policy, that would not hesitate so to arouse the country during a 
national election that peace would be no longer possible. 

Public sentiment, then, was effective in persuading M. Zahle 

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1917] OUR NEW ISLANDS 223 

to retain his high office. But it was necessary for the Conservative 
Party and the Left which had opposed M. Zahle, to agree upon 
a compromise. By mutual arrangement, committees of fifteen from 
both the Upper and Lower Houses considered the proposed sale 
and all its details, and speedily reported favorably upon it. The 
issue was then presented to the country in the form of a referen- 
dum, the vote resulting in a victory for the Premier; and in 
January, 191 7, the disposal of the Islands was effected. 

So today the Stars and Stripes are floating over St. Thomas, 
St. John and St. Croix. The population of all three Islands, ac- 
cording to the census of 1901, is thirty-one thousand. We have 
paid twenty-five millions for the group; five times as much as 
Seward first offered. In this connection it is interesting to note 
that we gave for Alaska less than two cents an acre, for the Canal 
Zone about thirty-six dollars an acre, and for the Danish West 
Indies two hundred and ninety-five dollars an acre. 

Are the Islands worth it? Our navy officers believe they are. 
For in case of war this tiny group would hold the strategical key 
to South America. Its harbors would prove invaluable for stations 
for our men-of-war. Coral Bay in St. John has the reputation of 
being hurricane-proof. And Charlotte Amalia, on St. Thomas, 
might easily be fortified into a second Gibraltar, according to naval 
experts. From an agricultural standpoint alone, the Islands are 
of considerable value. St. Croix produces fine crops of sugar 
cane, and the best bay oil of the West Indies is shipped from St. 
John. Probably with the introduction of American capital the out- 
put of the entire group will be materially increased. 

The Islands are tropical, fragrant, and colorful. Travelers 
aver that Charlotte Amalia, with its purple and red-roofed houses 
climbing the hills and its turquoise bay, is one of the most pic- 
turesque spots in the Antilles. Twenty-five millions is a vast sum 
of money. Yet if it has secured for us both a magnificent naval 
base and the beautiful St. Croix, surely we may flatter ourselves 
that we have made an excellent bargain. To the islanders them- 
selves the United States Government gave the privilege of re- 
naming the Islands after they were purchased by our country. It is 
gratifying to know that they have chosen to call them " The Virgin 
Islands " — ^the title first given to them by Columbus on his second 
voyage to America in 1494, and originally bestowed on the Islands 
in honor of St. Ursula and her companions. 



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THE LITERACY TEST. 

BY T. J. BRENNAN, S.T.L. 

"I cannot rid myself of the conviction that the literacy test constitutes a 
radical change in the policy of the nation which is not justified in principle. 
It is not a test of character, of quality, or of personal fitness, but would operate 
in most cases merely as a penalty for lack of opportunity in the country from 
which the alien seeking admission came." — President Wilson. 

HE words quoted are from President Wilson's com- 
ments when vetoing the Immigration Bill recently 
j)assed over his head. They suggest to us the ques- 
tion of illiteracy in its influence on social and moral 
life. It is a very big question, and we can give ex- 
pression to only a few of the thoughts to which it gives rise. 

We might, first of all, ask why did Congress bar the illiterates? 
Was it because it considered illiteracy as incapacitating them for the 
full discharge of the duties of an American citizen? Or did it 
consider that illiteracy connotes moral depravity and social back- 
wardness? Or did it judge that an exodus of these unfortunates 
would create for us a problem of dangerous potentialities? Not 
having seen the report of the debate on the question we cannot tell ; 
but we can consider for ourselves some aspects of the question. 

And first of all we may say that the illiterates, just like the 
literates, are neither all good, nor all bad. They range over the 
whole moral scale; there are good and bad and passable. Anyone 
who would condemn the illiterates as universally bad, is either igno- 
rant or bigoted. Anyone who would laud them as universally 
guileless and innocent of human weakness, is altogether benighted 
as to broad facts of human nature and human sinfulness. To be 
conceived without sin and to live untouched by moral stain is 
claimed for only one human being, and that claim is made by a 
society which is divinely guided in its dogmatic statements. The 
same society has condemned both the idea of universal depravity, 
and the idea that we can avoid all sin without special divine 
assistance. Hence, all sweeping assertions either about the good- 
ness or badness of illiterates are based neither on theology nor on 
common sense. 

The same may be said as regards education. For literacy 
and education are no more convertible terms than illiteracy and 



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1917I THE LITERACY TEST 225 

ignorance. There are millions absolutely illiterate; there are no 
rational beings absolutely ignorant. Indeed if you travel through 
districts or countries where illiteracy prevails, you will be sur- 
prised at the skill and ingenuity with which these illiterates manage 
to support life, and raise large families by the intensive use of 
their hands and thedr small gardens. Necessity has been for 
generations their school and their schoolmaster. It has taught them 
to limit their wants, and to provide against cold and hunger and 
nakedness. It has given them secrets about soil and crops and rai- 
ment which we seek in vain in the curriculum of our agricultural 
colleges or social science classes. Education is after all only an 
equipping of individuals to make the most of environment; and I 
think you will find that in this respect illiterates are as well 
equipped as the annual output of our colleges or universities. We 
often hear, of course, of the starving peasantry of such or such a 
country, we very seldom hear of the starving college students of 
our own; the reason being that the aforesaid peasantry are all con- 
gregated together and are afflicted at the same time; whereas the 
starving college men are dispersed throughout the whole country, 
and are afflicted all the time. If you take any country where il- 
literacy abounds and compare it with a country where everyone 
can "read and write," I think you will find that there are as 
many hungry in the one as in the other. Education indeed in- 
creases our efficiency ; but at the same time it increases our wants, 
makes necessities of luxuries, and gives us a distaste for and dis- 
satisfaction with the simple things that were once considered a 
sufficiency. Illiteracy shuts us oflf from the world of thought and 
activity for which reading and writing are prerequisite ; but, by way 
of compensation, it considerably lessens the number of bills and 
collectors at the end of the month. Literacy has of course its 
advantages; but advantages always have to be paid for in cash; 
and, too, after the collector is asked to call again, to find, when he 
does call, that his debtor has moved and left no address. 

You may say, then, that all this merely proves that an illiterate 
population may be, comparatively speaking, as well off at home 
as a population that is literate; but that when they leave their 
environment and come into a country like the United States, they 
create a twofold problem, one for themselves and another for us : 
they cannot keep up with the procession, and the procession itself 
is encumbered by their presence. Let us consider this twofold 
problem for a moment 



VOL. cv.— 15 ^ 

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226 THE LITERACY TEST ^ [May, 

And first, the problem of the illiterates. But is it really about 
that we are worrying? And if so, why should we worry? Have 
not the illiterates sense enough to solve the question for them- 
selves ? And the very fact that they are coming and have come is 
a proof that there is no such problem, or that they have already 
solved it. After all this coming of the illiterates is not something 
sudden and unpremeditated. They have been coming from the very 
beginning. They have formed a portion, though a gradually les- 
sening portion, of every nationality that has peopled our country. 
They must have done well, and reported favorably, otherwise the 
supply would have gradually dwindled down to the vanishing point. 
Men do not continue for centuries to follow a beaten track unless 
the track leads to something better than they leave behind. They 
must have found that notwithstanding our school and college- 
trained population, there is room for those who have known neither 
school nor college. They must have discovered that there is a big 
demand for unskilled labor and imtrained minds — if these illiterates 
can be so described. And if we find them pouring in through all 
our ports, we may safely conclude that they are rushing neither 
to early graves nor to social annihilation; but that their flight, like 
the flight of the birds, is guided by a safe if vague instinct. From 
the point of view of the illiterates, therefore, we need not worry. 

However, the other question comes: are these illiterates a 
problem for us? Are we taking into our system an element that 
we can neither eschew nor assimilate? This question demands an 
answer. 

And first of all we may say that we have been assimilating 
them from the very beginning; and the farther back you go the 
more we did it. For, illiteracy was far more common among the 
European nations formerly than now. A large percentage of 
the early immigrants knew very little about the three R's. We 
took them as they came, asking no questions about literary attain- 
ments; nor do we find in reading over the history of the country 
that there was ever any difficulty arising from illiterates. They 
all seemed to find work and to make a living; and when it came 
to a question of fighting they lacked neither the will nor the power 
to use the rifle as cheerfully and intelligently as they used the 
shovel or the pickaxe. You will search in vain through the records 
of our county coroners for a verdict of "death from illiteracy; " 
and I have never seen a report from any general of the War of 
Independence or of the Civil War saying that he was defeated 



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1917-1 THE LITERACY TEST 227 

• 

because his soldiers could not read or write. One thing seems 
certain, namely, that this scare about illiterates is something new 
and has no justification in the history of the country. 

Nay, rather, it is based on a false idea of the value of uni- 
versal education. For universal education is quite a new thing; 
and like many new things it seems to its devotees to be an absolute 
necessity. Whereas, the truth is that the more widespread is educa- 
tion, the less commercially valuable it becomes. It ceases to be 
an asset, and becomes merely a condition. If you had only a few 
million in the country who could read and write, then reading and 
writing woixld become a good investment; but when the number 
of such runs up to eighty or ninety millions they need other ac- 
complishments ere they can succeed. 

Furthermore it is a well-known fact that education gives men 
an aversion for any kind of work where education is not required. 
Education is usually acquired for commercial reasons, and we hate 
to think that all our years in school are to be thrown away for 
nothing. Hence there is a scarcity of hands for farm work and 
manual labor; and a superfluity of applicants for clerical positions. 
It is much easier to get a stenographer than a day laborer; and 
forty dollars a month in an office is a far more effective bait for 
a graduate from school or college than two and a half a day with 
the obligation of using a spade or a hoe. 

And here precisely is the value of the immigrant illiterates. 
We need them and need millions of them for the gardens and 
the farms; and for the railway tracks, and the city sewers. We 
cannot run a country by fountain pens and typewriters and tables 
of logarithms. We need such things indeed; but we need also 
bone and sinew and muscle; and unless we had the bone and sinew 
and muscle of these foreign illiterates to draw from, we would soon 
have very little for the fountain pens and typewriters to do. We 
have in this country no landed peasantry; for each generation of 
peasants becomes the parents not of other peasants, but of lawyers 
and doctors and trained nurses; and unless the supply of peasants 
is kept up from abroad, our gardens will soon be weed patches, 
and our sewers choked with dirt. 

Of course our illiterates are a problem, there is no denying 
the fact. However, there is this consolation — ^that they are them- 
selves as willing to help in its solution as we are. And even if 
the experiment is a little costly, yet we ought to be broad and 
philantiiropic enough to stand the cost. We have been blest in 

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328 THE SOLDIER'S MOTHER [May, 

many ways, and instead of sending the multitude away hungry we 
should say with the Master, " whence shall we buy bread that these 
may eat." We have boasted much of our broad humanity, of our 
welcome for the persecuted, of our land of opportunity. But is 
there much himianity in judging a man by his ability to read and 
write? Is not illiteracy the greatest of all persecutions? Is it 
fair to deny an opportunity to a man because of something he never 
had an opportunity to acquire? Indeed if this present bar had been 
set up fifty or a hundred years ago, there are many of those rep- 
resentatives and senators who voted " yes " who would now be in 
European war trenches or concentration camps; for their fathers 
or grandfathers could not pass the test now raised by their offspring. 
The Immigration Bill is un-American, and has been so designated 
by no less an authority than the President of the United States. 



THE SOLDIER'S MOTHER. 

(From a letter from the trenches.) 

BY CHARLES PHILLIPS. 

Sometimes there come strange moments, spirit-rife. 

Filled with swift light, till all the embattled air 
Seems fanned by wings of angels dazzling-fair; 

And sudden sounds break o'er the deafening strife 

Of gun and shell, as if a golden fife 
Played on the wind far echoings of prayer 
And song commingled. . . . , .and I smilel I dare 

Death and its darkness, or the worst of life! — 

Death and its darkness in the trench's mud, 
Or life, a limbless tottering to the grave: 

No matter I Still I smile, through tears and blood! 
For to mine ear, sweetly to heal and save. 

That music sounds across the singing sea— 

My mother's voice, saying her Rosary! 



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SOME THOUGHTS ON THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 

BY EMILY HICKEY. 

|HY is the play named after Antonio rather than after 
Shylock? The first entry at the Stationers' describes 
it as '' The Merchant of Venice, or otherwise called 
The Jew of Venice." Shylock is undoubtedly a more 
important character than Antonio, and on first sight 
it would seem as if the second of the titles given were indeed the 
right one. But, looking more closely, we see that, as Mr. Hudson 
long ago pointed out, the individual importance of the Jew must 
come below the dramatic importance of the merchant. " Antonio 
is the centre and mainspring of the action : without him, Shylock, 
however great in himself, had no business there. And the laws 
of dramatic combination, not any accident of individual promi- 
nence, are clearly what ought to govern in the naming of the play." 
Antonio of Venice, a man rich in the gifts of nature and of 
fortune, meets us in the first scene. He is young, lovable, wealthy 
in the world's riches and the possessor of one of those supreme 
friendships that have been celebrated alike in history sacred and 
profane. He is introduced to us oppressed with a strange sadness, 
whose source and meaning he cannot tell. That there is, indeed, a 
meaning in the melancholy that has fallen upon him we are soon 
to learn. When a life is very full of happiness, it is notable that 
he whose life it is, sometimes almost trembles with a vague feeling 
that he has no right to so much and cannot go on possessing it. 
So much comfort, so much happiness cannot last, as it would seem. 
We have this very clearly expressed in Othello's words when he 
meets his wife : 

If it were now to die, 
'Twere now to be most happy ; for, I fear, 
My soul hath her content so absolute 
That not another comfort like to this 
Succeeds in unknown fate. 

This feeling, as U is well known, is prominent in Gredc litera- 
ture. Antonio had not been brought into Othello's regions of 
ecstatic joy, but he had enough of the good things of life to make 

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^30 THOUGHTS ON THE MERCHANT OF VENICE [May, 

him feel that the shadow of coming grief might even now be steal- 
ing forward. 

Antonio's dearest friend, his kinsman, Bassanio, has been 
extravagant with his worldly goods. He has "disabled (his) 
estate by something showing a more swelling port than (his) faint 
means would grant continuance;" and this hinders him in the quest 
of the golden fleece — ^the lovely lady, " richly left, fair, and, fairer 
than that word, of wondrous virtues.^ 

This lady, this Portia, is "nothing undervalued" to Cato's 
daughter, Brutus' Portia, that Portia of whom Shakespeare later 
on drew a fadeless portrait. Here is that admiration for Rome and 
the qualities of ideal Romanhood which was to give us some of 
the poet's great work not long hence. So, in describing Antonio, 
Bassanio says he is 

The best-condition'd and unwearied spirit 
In doing courtesies; and one in whom 
The ancient Roman honor more appears 
Than any that draws breath in Italy. 

Bassanio asks Antonio with the frankness of that equal love 
which can take, without pride to hold it back, as boimdlessly as it 
would give, to help him as he has done before. Without such help 
he cannot either pay his debts or go to Belmont. Antonio's for- 
tunes being at sea, he cannot furnish his friend with the money he 
needs, but Bassanio and he go forth to inquire where money is to 
be had, and to obtain it on Antonio's credit. Three thousand ducats 
are borrowed from a rich Jew, Shylock, who refuses all security 
except the sealing of a " merry bond," by which his creditor agrees 
to forfeit a pound of flesh in the (tmlikely as it seems) case of his 
being unable to pay. The bond is sealed and the ducats delivered. 

In the meantime we have come to know the woman whom 
Bassanio loves. Beautiful, witty and talented, she is bound by the 
will of her father to marry no one who does not obtain her after 
the manner of his will. The terms of that will are strange enough — 
the happiness of a life, of two lives indeed, is to depend on the 
right choice of one among three caskets. 

Portia will never break her father's will. Suitors depart who 
will not face such conditions as have been imposed ; for the failure to 
choose aright imposes the obligation of a perpetual celibacy. A cruel 
condition, a^ it seems, and one not lightly to be risked in its accept- 

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1917.] THOUGHTS ON THE MERCHANT OF VENICE 231 

ance. As we see from her humorous description of those who have 
gone away, not one of them has touched the heart of Portia. She 
" dotes on the very absence " of each and all. Yet there is " a 
Venetian, a scholar and a soldier," upon whose absence Portia does 
not dote. Nerissa calls him of all the men her eyes have locrfced 
upon the best deserving a fair lady. Portia with simple dignity 
replies, " I remember him well, and I remember him worthy of thy 
praise." 

The conditions of her father's will do press upon the daughter 
so loyal in observing them. It is hard that she may neither choose 
whom she will, nor refuse whom she dislikes. So is *' the will of 
a living daughter curbed by the will of a dead father." 

There is a deep spiritual truth in these words. It is not right 
that the dead should rule the living. It cannot be well that such 
promises should be exacted as have often, in tmreason or supposed 
reason, been exacted from the living by the lips of the dying when 
refusal was hard indeed. The heritage of a man is the possession 
of his own soul. He must think out and act out his own life, and 
to do this he must be free. Yet it is a law of our existence that 
each man is, whether he will or no, to an incalculable extent in the 
power of those who have gone before him, and this even whether 
they have willed it or no. Our hands are day by day forging what 
may be for others golden chains to bind them to the feet of God, 
or fetters to hold them back in their struggles after Him. The will 
of the living is curbed by the will of the dead. Well is it then if 
it can be said of such dead, " Your father was ever virtuous, and 
holy men have good inspirations at their death." This judgment 
of Nerissa is a very important one, and helps largely to imder stand 
the will. Portia's father was a judge of character. He believed 
that only a man who was strong enough to put away external 
delight and dare to accept plain and dull fact would choose rightly, 
even as only such a one could " rightly love." He knew the danger 
to which her great riches would expose his daughter; he wished if 
possible to guard her from this. In one sense it was right for 
the suitor to expect to find Portia's portrait in the golden coffer, 
as a lovely body ought to enshrine a lovely soul, and a lovely soul 
should be enshrined in a lovely body. But in all ages men have 
felt and have told their fellowmen that the way to the best and 
fairest is through strife and pain; that to choose true delight 
means to be willing to suffer, means that a man " must give and 
hazard all he hath." This is the Via Cruets. So, in the plain lead. 

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232 THOUGHTS ON THE MERCHANT OF VENICE [May, 

in that which has no external beauty, the turning to which means 
the renouncing of all beside, the sacrificial life itself, lies the treas- 
ure that shall make a man rich forever and ever. 

There is doubtless a difference between what any great poet 
says and what he suggests, and there is often a danger of taking 
our own thoughts for his. But there cannot, one would think, be 
a doubt that Shakespeare intended us to look beyond the story 
into its meaning, for he dwells largely on that meaning, and the 
very improbability of the story itself would furnish us a groimd 
for believing that it was used for its meaning's sake. 

We notice the characters of the men who choose wrongly. 
Morocco is less of a thinker than Arragon. He is sure that he 
deserves the lady. His birth, fortunes, graces, qualities of breeding, 
all these, he thinks, are equal to hers. But he must go farther than 
the silver. " What many men desire " must be the lady. Men come 
from the comers of the eajth to kiss this shrine. The desire of 
the many is more than the deserving of the one. The gem of the 
world must be set in gold — and so he loses his hope forever. 

Arragon is proud of intellectual superiority: he speaks con- 
temptuously of the fool multitude who choose by show. He will 
not choose " what many men desire," not because he has attained 
to the seeing of that to whose seeing niany are called, but. few 
chosen, Init because he will not " jump with common spirits and 
rank him with the barbarous multitudes." He is the centre of his 
own thought, and his choice is governed not by love but pride. 

Bassanio chooses the " meagre lead," whose " paleness moves 
(him) more than eloquence." He chooses that which "rather 
threatens than promises aught," and his great joy comes to him. 
The proof that he is the true man who will give up all for the right 
comes instantly, as the duty of friendship calls hhn frcmi his love, 
and as with instant obedience he arises and departs. He has 
scarcely found himself under the sun of his great happiness when 
the cloud comes over it. The friend who has so loved and trusted 
him, the friend who has seen beneath the gay and careless exterior 
with its apparent ignoring of the greater things of life, to the 
noble nature underneath, this friend is in the power of one who 
claims the deadly forfeiture of the bond sealed so short a time ago, 
as it were " in a merry spirit." At once Portia claims her privilege : 
she has from fortune the thing to give, as she has from nature the 
love of giving. What are three thousand ducats? 



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ipi;.] THOUGHTS ON THE MERCHANT OF VENICE 233 

Pay him six thousand, and deface the bond ; 
Double six thousand, and then treble that, 
Before a friend of this description 
Shall lose a hair through Bassanio's fault. 

The fine open-handedness of the new-tnade wife as she will 
be just before she sends her husband forth is of no avail. The 
passion of revenge stands supreme over the passion of avarice, and 
nothing will content the creditor but his debtor's death. 

The story of the poimd of flesh is found both in the East and 
the West. How old it is we do not know. The bloody-minded 
creditor and his debtor stand out through at least hundreds of 
years. It is found in East African folklore, where we have the 
full story, with the wife's expedient to save her husband's life: 
this is given in a Swahili M. S. lately translated into English, 
which is said to have been obtained from an old Indian document.^ 

It was easy enough to fix upon the Jew the character of the 
cruel creditor, and to the audience of Shakespeare's day there was 
nothing improbable in the accepted version of the story of this 
horribly planned revenge. Tales of Jewish cruelty to Christians 
had for long been easily believed,^ so great was the hatred of the 
Christian to Jew, so bitter the feeling against* his race. To under- 
stand the beginning of this we have to remember that by the eyes 
of Christendom the Jews have been seen as the slayers of the Holy 
and Just One, God the Redeemer, Who had come of their own 
race royal. This central cause had no doubt often been obscured, 
and people had hated and despised the Jews from generation to 
generation, and taken heavy and deadly toll of them. It is too large 
a subject to do more here than touch upon, but we must try to 
understand the popular feeling of Shakespeare's day. 

In Shylock we have the making of that element which so 
nearly turns the play into a tragedy, as in Portia we have that 
which hinders this and gives us light and joy. What a wonderful 
portrait we have of the usurer Jew : here is the blending of strength 
and meanness, of the pathetic, the terrible and the contemptible. 
Think of him, the son of a nation that had borne the proud title 
of the Chosen of God; the nation that had set its foot on the necks 
of kings and dyed its garments crimson in their blood ; the nation 
that had worshipped an unseen and only God when its neighbors 

*See S. L. H.'s paper in the Daily News (London), July 28, 1^*5. t 

•See, for instance, Chaucer's Prioresses T^lpized by vjOOQIC 



234 THOUGHTS ON THE MERCHANT OP VENICE [May, 

were worshipping what were often personifications of cruelty and 
lust ; a nation whose prophets and seers had caught from the lips 
of God what should be set down in the rhythmic glory that cannot 
die off, words strong as the rushing hail to sweep away the refuges 
of lies, words sweeter than honey and the honeycomb for comfort 
and refreshing. Yes, a nation whose old honor and ancient glory 
live forever in the hearts of Christendom. Think of Shylock also 
as the son of a nation that had called down upon itself and its 
children the Blood of Incarnate God ; a nation thrust from its own 
land ; a nation apart from all, the very type ol a separatist people, 
refused a refuge in other lands; mocked, reviled, down-trodden, all 
the channels closed by which a nation may send its wealth, intel- 
lectual and spiritual, into the great sea of human progress; reduced 
to live by that which its early law had forbidden; tortured and 
deprived of its hard-earned pelf, slandered and tormented. Think 
of a race to which the passion of patriotism could be as naught, 
seeing it had no coimtry for it to be poured out upon. Think of 
the gifts of eloquence and practical wisdom, of feeling and of 
power, spumed back by the feet of nations who would have none 
of them. Think of the wall of separation which the Jews had 
reared between themselves and other nations, flung back upon 
themselves until they were bruised and crushed beneath it. Think 
how short a time it is since the England who banished them has 
given them their civil rights and bidden her children treat them 
as equals. Then wonder how Shylock's nature could have escaped 
its awful stain. Even the gentle Antonio, the man so full of cour- 
tesy and sweetness to his own people, so ready to help, so generous 
in giving, even this man could spit on Shylock and call him dog. 
He could allow his right and natural indignation at the grinding of 
the Jew's creditors, the hard grinding, to take this brutal form, 
and say that he was as like as not to do it again. 

Shylock has the love of his race, and the reverence for it is 
shown in his " he hates our sacred nation :'* but he hates Antonio ' 
not only on the ground of his hatred of the Jews, but because he 
lends out money gratis and interferes with his trade of usurer. 
Were he removed, much money might be made. He rises into sub- 
limity when he pleads the humanity common to Jew and Christian, 
but draws from it the lesson of the revenge which he says is also 
common to both. He will, he says, buy and sell with the Christian, 
talk and walk with him, but not eat with him, drink with him or 
pray with him : yet strangely enough he will accept an invitation t 

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1917.] THOUGHTS ON THE MERCHANT OF VENICE 235 

to Bassanio's house " in hate, to feed upon the prodigal Oiristian." 
He can be tortured at hearing of the loss of his ring, not because 
of its value, but because his Leah had given it to him when he was 
a bachelor; and he can bewail the loss of his ducats more, as it 
would seem, than the loss of his daughter and her marriage with a 
Christian. 

The ferocious tenacity with which he clings to his purpose of 
claiming Antonio's life for his forfeited bond is met by Portia 
with the strongest plea, the prayer that he will show mercy, pleaded 
for in the exquisite sweetness of the words that tell of the mercy 
that " droppeth as the gentle dew from heaven," the mercy that, 
twice blest, blesseth him that gives and him that takes. 

Nothing of this will avail ; the passion of avarice is overridden 
by the wild lust of revenge, and the offer of ten times the value of 
the bond is refused alike with the prayer for mercy. 

After a time of the extremest tension, after the tragic gloom 
and horror, that the passion of revenge has wrought, the light 
comes in. A woman's hand flings aside the cloud-curtain; a 
woman's hand banishes the darkness. 

The character of Portia is the most beautiful that, up to this 
time, Shakespeare has drawn. In her is the union of sweetness 
and strength, of self -trust and modesty, of wit and wisdom, of 
intellectual power and womanly reverence. 

Bassanio's superior, she is utterly unconscious of being so, 
and with womanliest sweetness acknowledges his lordship and 
kingship. She has " a noble and a true conceit of God-like amity." 
She recognizes that the formation of a new tie, though it be the 
very closest of all ties, must not loosen for Bassanio the sacredness 
of the tie between him and his kinsman-friend. She obeys the law 
of right without studying to obey it. She stands a test stem indeed 
when, unknown as herself, she hears her husband say that loving 
his wife as dearly as life itself he would lose her, as well as his own 
life, and sacrifice all to deliver his friend. She can bear the test, 
even notice the words jestingly; she is the true gold that for the 
test will only shine the brighter. 

It is to the love of Lorenzo and Jessica, episodical to the main 
action, that we owe those exquisite bits of lyric sweetness beginning 
" how sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank ! " After the heat 
and high-stringing of the trial they come like dew to the spirit, and 
make it cool and apt for its everyday life again. 

" I^Qok bow the floor of h^ven is thick inlaid with patines oXt^ 

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236 THOUGHTS ON THE MERCHANT OF VENICE [May, 

bright gold." Is it a fancy to suppose that the imagery by which 
a star becomes the Eucharistic paten might come with double force 
and beauty from the lips of one whose love had just been admitted 
into the Christian covenant? 

After the quiet and the sweetness (Portia is " drawn " home 
with music), we have the pretty fun of the ring-scene. It is like 
listening to the babble of a brook over pebbles. We feel that it is 
well for those who, drawn home with music, can laugh laughter 
that is all sweet and gay. The souls that are the quickest to feel 
life's sorrows may be the aptest to drink of its joy. They are the 
greatest who can buffet the waves that woixld overwhelm the 
drowning one and save him from their terror, and anon, when the 
time of rest has come and the spring woods call with tender voices 
of delight, and the children and the child-hearted are at play, stoop 
to the stream and drink of water from the leaf that is curved 
into a fairy cup. 



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WINOOSKI FALLS. 

BY JULIAN JOHNSTONE. 

MY silver shining river, . 

1 could dwell by thee forever, 
Where the sunbeams in the water 

Gleam like golden minnows all : 
And my red canoe a-quiver 
Feared upon the rock to shiver, 
Where the golden wall of water 

And the golden thunders fall I 

Like a rose on music floating, 
O the time that I went boatii^ 
On thy waters, turned by magic 

Into lucent, liquid pearl ; 
And the throstle sweetly throating 
Angel music he was quoting 
Made the roaring river listen. 

And the waves f oi^t to whirl I 

Ah, my beautiful blue river, 
Shall mine eyes behold thee never? 
Never watch the diamonds dropping 

From the silver flashing oar? 
Shall I never hear the quiver 
Of the mandolin forever 
Or the mellow sound of singing 

All along the sylvan shore? 

O the wings of Heaven hover. 
With their purple plumage over 
Waters like to waves of music 

Falling down the deep below : 
And the sunlight, like a lover, 
Fondly walks the fields of clover. 
By the silver running river. 

Where the foambells float and flowl 



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ON READING VIRGIL AGAIN. 

BY JOSEPH FRANCIS WICKHAM. 

T was many and many a year ago that the beloved 
Andrew Lang penned the facile epistle to that prince 
of letter- writers, Q. Horatius Flaccus. It was a 
delightful thing, as all of us who have an affection 
for Horace — and for Lang — remember. Read it 
again tomorrow; not in that lovely manana-land of Hispanic 
dreaming, but in the real tomorrow, before the sun is twenty-four 
hours older than it now admits. You will not, if you are wiser than 
you sometimes are, let the tomorrow glide into that last syllable 
over which Macbeth breathes in so morbid a sighing. For by then 
you will have joined Horace's paradise and Lang's, without, per- 
haps, knowing the secret key to their hearts. And that would be 
a calamity akin, say, to meeting a certain Tennysonian lady with- 
out the repose which stamps the caste of Vere de Vere. 

So much for the writer's advice, certainly unsought and un- 
warranted, and probably just as assuredly tmhonored. But giving 
advice is so burdenless a charity that one cannot refrain, especially 
when one is very sincere, and very earnest, and very loving of 
one's friends' well-being. If you read again this two thousand word 
letter to the dead lover of Italy, you will enjoy it as you once did, 
you will taste the sweetness of an old-world gladness, and breathe 
anew the fresh, fair atmosphere that is so redolent of a classic, 
cultured age. For Lang, no one will deny, embodies the spirit of 
Greece and Rome, no less than of Britain; as few of his generation 
do. He had a genuine love for Horace, as the epistle amply shows ; 
and you will note as well, as you did years ago, that another poet 
trembles on the author's lips, and with a not undefined affection. 
Virgil is there, too. He wrote no letter to the famous contemporary 
and friend of Horace; with no sweet melody of words did he 
evoke from sleep the singer of Rome's birth and the laureate of 
her fame. But the letter to Horace tells us of Lang's intimate 
acquaintance with the great Augustan, and of his reverence for 
him. He knew the boy who had lived amid the bucolic joys 
of his father's cornfields and bee-hives near Mantua; he knew 
the youth who had come to Rome to sit at the feet of the masters t 

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1917.1 ON READING VIRGIL AGAIN 239 

of oratory and philosophy; he knew the man had seen quite face 
to face the vision of a great dreamer, who had woven with a steady 
hand and a sure skill the fabric that clothes the major prophet. 
And if he did not chose to indite an idylic missive to the long 
departed worthy, it was not because he did not often gaze out 
with him in spirit over the blue waters of the bay of Naples, or 
in sweet converse with him woo the gladness of the lovely hills 
of Campania, or enjoy the hospitality of his house on the fashion- 
able Esquiline in the great city of the world. And so let us be 
satisfied with the letter to Horace. 

Do you ever read Virgil now? Yes, now; for you surely 
read him once upon a time, about the time, perhaps, when the 
scholarly Scot was penning the letter to Horace, unsphering the 
spirit of " the wise and kindly heathen " that was so dear to him. 
You read him on sunny autimin afternoons, when the wander-spirit 
was very craving, and the slanting sun was beckoning to the red- 
tinted woodlands. You read him on cold, moonlit nights, when the 
frozen lake was waiting for the song of your skates; yes, you 
read him then in an ill-feigned peace, while your elders talked of 
shoes and ships and sealing-wax, and of other subjects so woven 
into the enthusiasms of a certain walrus and carpenter. You read 
him on delicious, intimate spring days, when the trout were running 
in the mountain brooks, and the pleasant fields were touched with 
the fresh green of May-time, and the fragrant woods were alive 
with a thousand suggestions for your fancy. But you were faith- 
ful to your ideal — ^very often; adverbs have their uses, as gram- 
marians agree. 

And that was long ago, or was it one of those closer yester 
years, five or six or ten cycles back? Perhaps it matters not; we 
have a habit of accommodating our memories to our years. There is 
much relatively in our mental workings, as one of Professor James' 
students once informed his teacher. 

But do you ever read the Augustan poet now? Now, when 
you are^grown out of academic days, when you are immersed in a 
perpetual surf of work and worry. You are a lawyer, and you are 
endeavoring to make the truth prevail against the coordinated efforts 
of a multitude of gentlemen who seem to be the cousins of the father 
of lies; you are a physician, battling against the germs of unnum- 
bered thousands of years, an immense throng of untutored ani- 
malcula warring on the human kind; you are a business man, 
striving to defeat the law of diminishing returns by a score of well- 
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240 ON READING VIRGIL AGAIN [^ay, 

conceived coups de maitre; you are a teacher, believing, more or 
less sincerely, that all the ideal republics from Plato's conception 
to Brook Farm will become real when the youthful generation 
grows up; you are a priest, sacrificing the joy and glow of human 
ambitions to further God's desire that men should follow Him. 
It is incontrovertibly a workaday world, a busy place of business. 
And Virgil seems very far away, perhaps where he ought to be, 
in a semi-fabulous tomb in a wholly unmythical Naples, dead and 
buried long ago, singing now his endless songs in sweet Elysian 
fields. 

Come, confess that you do not indulge in Virgilian ordinaire 
very often. Well, will you open the book with me now, and help 
me keep my vigils ? On the first fly-leaf you gaze upon your own 
name, somewhat faded, or blacker, indeed, than when you wrote it ; 
the quality of the ink governs all that. You turn a blank, seared 
leaf, and then you read this, or something like this : " The -^neid 
of Virgil, with English Notes, Critical and Explanatory, a Metrical 
Qavis, and an Historical, Geographical, and Mythological Index, 
by Charles Anthon, LL.D., Jay Professor of the Greek and Latin 
Languages in Columbia College, New York." How meangingless, 
it may be, the legend was to you in the long ago. What an ungrate- 
ful regard you presented to the clavis. Professor Anthon, forsooth ! 
What meant his scholarly name to you? Nothing; he was simply 
another of those gentlemen whose aim seemed to be to make life 
hard for you. They were all in the game, all in the conspiracy 
against your well-being, professors at Columbia, professors nearer, 
even the book company that published the work in 1843, ^ind after. 
You have more respect now for the professor whose name is a 
treasured memory; let us hope you have for the supreme Latin 
poet he loved so well and tried to make you admire. 

Pray do not skip the preface; prefaces of books are sometimes 
all the reviewers read, so some of them say in their mellower moods, 
when their managing editors are absent, or mellower still. And 
surely you are reviewing now. Read the biography of Virgil now 
or later; later is better, perhaps, if you feel in fettle for the lingua 
Latina today. And so, if obedience be the courtesy due to sug- 
gestion, on to the Liber primus, 

Arfna virumque cano. "Are the words really there, immured 
these years within the unturned pages, or are they merely a remis- 
cence of a long ago, spurious Virgil you used to know, a vision 
unreal as the thane of Cawdor's dagger? No; hegCg-^thiyy^^^ii^Qlg 



1917.] ON READING VIRGIL AGAIN 241 

all their Roman majesty and beauty, marshaling* you onward with 
a m^c sway. Read them once again, and their fellows, six lines 
in 2 breath. Qose your eyes and say them. Surely you can, if 
you are amator amandorum. Beseech the Muse, the vocative muse, 
for four verses, as you did in those years ago. Does it seem easy 
now, or the puzzling jumble of Latin syntax that once clouded your 
intellect and made you blaspheme the queen of the gods for con>- 
pelling you to attempt the task she knew was beyond your powers? 
Could such personal, passionate hatred find hearth and home in a 
celestial mind? You 'found out once upon a time that it could. 

But now, let us hope, time has changed all that. Reading 
Virgil is a labor of love, if you read him at all. And the verses 
you once scanned and labored through unlovingly you now scan 
with a smiling eye, remembering those old, unhappy, far-off days 
when the shipwreck of iEneas was fully as annoying to you as it 
could have been to the son of Anchises. But you are in Carthage 
ere you are aware, in close communion with the silent throng at 
Dido's court, who listen to the Trojan hero telling his tale of 
Troy divine. 

Wretched Sinon — why did he tempt the men of Ilios to wel- 
come the fateful horse against the counsels of Laocoon? Timeo 
Danaios et eos dona ferentes, urged the Trojan seer, but the gods 
would have their Olympian laughter, and the towers and battlements 
of the queen city were doomed. As you see those Argive heroes 
tumbling out of the cavernous steed, you feel that the hand of fate 
is writing another chapter's end. 

Troy is btiming. There are few passages in all literature that 
surpass the narrative of the last agony of the Asian city. Troy 
sleeps; Troy wakes; Troy dies. This is the message that you 
gather from the brilliant drama. What avails Hector now ? The 
city's star has set, and carnage and pillage run riot where noble 
maidens once sang pseans to friendly gods. How the flames leap 
high and higher, how the turrets topple in clamorous crash, how 
palace after palace dissolves into the ashes and dust of a smoking 
pyre. There is the unheeded Cassandra, dragged from the fane of 
Pallas; by a gleam of fire through the murky gloom is revealed 
the fell brow of Ajax; there is Priam, with the life-blood ebbing 
from his side; there is the face of her who launched the thousand 
ships, the beautiful, traitorous Helen. Breathless you read it all 
through, this olden tale of an olden city by the sea, a town that was 
and is not 



VOL. cv.— 16 ^ ^ ^ 

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242 ON READING VIRGIL AGAIN [May, 

Wai you sail with iEneas from smouldering Troy, and thread 
the pathway of his joumeyings until you come to Juno's darling 
Carthage? Of course, for you are indeed there now, letting him 
tell the story, while you listen like a three years* child. Tragedy 
you have heard, tragedy the queen has caught from the lips of the 
wanderer. But for her awaits a tragedy of greater import than 
the fall of Troy. During the days of her hospitality to iEneas she 
has learned to love her guest; and she believes that his love for 
her will endure. But the gods that govern the plans of the Trojan 
exile are minded otherwise, and he tells the 'queen of Carthage he 
must go. What a wondrous picture is that which Virgil gives us 
on that fateful mom of her lover's sailing! The dawn has just 
come up, and the palace walls of Carthage are beginning to glow 
in the pale-rose colors of the east. The heart-sick, sleepless queen 
gazes out of her turret window to greet the new-come day. She is 
in a desperate mood, her joyless heart aching with a vain desire 
for the thing it has won and lost. The golden sun, the glorious 
daily gifting of the gods, brings her no gladness, but is only light- 
ing a ruthless world. But no, it does more. For even in its faint, 
primal gleaming over the far horizon it discloses the white sails of 
her faithful-faithless lover driving before the wind, as he flees the 
land of Dido, in search once more for a heaven of repose and a 
home for his household gods. Rise in thy hate, rave in thy state- 
lihood, oh conquered queen; scourge Rome in thy prophecies, 
presage Hannibal in thy frenzy, and die at the last, queen-like in the 
p)rr^ of thine own piling! Virgil is here the supreme poet of the 
Augustan age, a master that may gaze full-face into the eyes of 
the literary masters of the world. 

Troy is left in ashes; Dido is left to die; and you sail in 
fancy's ship over the trackless seas that sweep the tireless Trojan 
toward his goal. But it is worth while to stop with him and watch 
the games in memory of his sire. Is it not gladsome now to be 
present at that boat race? Oxford never vanquished her great 
rival in a more soul-stirring contest than the struggle which Qoan- 
thus won. But then, the divine Portunus does not live in British 
inland waters to lend his helping hand. A foot race now is yours 
and the great boxing match, a classical classic of the gauntlet thong. 
You wonder how Dares and Entellus would succeed in the arenas 
of today, and how the modem art would fare before the strength 
of a dinmier age. But you return from the vision, for still the 
Virgilian games continue; and then they end, like every game, t 

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1917.] ON READING VIRGIL AGAIN 243 

and candle. And you are perhaps a little glad when i^neas finally 
sets sail again, leaving behind on the Sicilian shore those that 
have wearied of the quest, and who would find here a local habi- 
tation and a name. Poor, sleepy Palinurus, why did he not elect 
to take an additional siesta? 

Wide awake is the Sybil of Cumae, and if by this time in your 
Virgilian holiday or night you droop for the weariness of the 
flesh, the priestess of Apollo will help you defer the tragedy of 
sleep. It may be that you will wish to follow iEneas, or to pre- 
cede him, piper-like, into the depths of the lower world. Facilis 
descensus Averni est; but to return — ^this is the laborious task. 
Still, if you are one of those souls elect, as iEneas was, or Dante, 
you may wish for this visit to hell and heaven, to Tartarus and 
the Elysian fields. You made the journey as a child, and surely 
the poet tells us that the child is father of the man. But whether 
you go, or whether you wait without for the goddess-bom, you 
will be interested in that glowing prophecy which Anchises makes 
to his son of the rise of imperial Rome. Mneas certainly is, and 
again furls his sails in the blowing breeze, ever bent toward home. 
Perhaps in your youth-time you read but six books of the 
JEneid, and then fared forth boldly into the delights of the Ec- 
logues. If you did, your companions in Virgilian lore have been 
many. In these later years you may be tempted to delve into the 
mysteries of the full twelve cantos of Mneas' venturings. It may 
be too cruel to invite you to read the latter half in the beauteous 
Latin of the Augustan age ; but a good translation will detain you 
only an hoiu* or two— Conington you will like. He will carry 
you safely to the end, where the last combat is waged, and ^neas 
by his triimiph over the unfortunate Tumus wins the princess of 
Latium. 

Long ago, in our school days, we did not know very much about 
epic poems; the word epic conveyed a meaning not altogether clear. 
Perhaps we had never heard of Ariosto, or Tasso, or Spenser; as- 
suredly we had never read a line of Beowulf, or the Lusiad, or the 
Kcdevala. And so we were not troubled with the nice balancing of 
one work against another in the eternal weighing of literary gold. 
Enough it was for us to know that only Homer surpassed Virgil in 
the epic manner; perhaps that is enough for most of us now. Let 
us ungrudgingly aUow Homer, in his single self, or in his corporate 
multiplicity, to bear the palm alone. And in doing this, we di- 
minish in no wise the Latin poet's glory. Virgil wrote a poem ^ 

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244 ON READING VIRGIL AGAIN [May, 

of technical perfection; the Latin hexameter in his hands touched 
the highest reaches of art; he was the master builder of tfie great 
line. No less an artist was he in style and mood. In portions of 
his narrative passages there is a dramatic quality that is, perhaps, 
unexcelled in all literature, or at all events unrivaled in the let- 
ters of Rome. In and out the measures of the masterpiece floats 
a music comparable in grace and charm to the melody of Verdi 
or Mozart Throughout the long tale of arms and the man there 
dwells a pathos unsurpassable, a threnody of tears sounding as a 
far-off accompaniment to the majesty of broken things. " These 
are the tears of things " he sings, in what Mr. Mackail calls the 
most famous of his single lines! Perhaps tfiis is the keynote of 
the whole poem, these lacrinue rerum, as it has been the keynote 
of many of the great tumultuous changes in the fate of mankind 
since the foundation of the world. 

And so you have read Virgil again. You have found a new 
tale and an old story, a blending of the wisdom of now with the 
memory of the wonderment of boyhood. You have lost something: 
3rou have lost that feeling of mystery, that sense of docile reverence 
that used to be yoiu"s not long ago when you looked upon your 
unopened volume, that wistful longfing which often came to you of 
reading the ancient lines when the time would serve. But you have 
gained more, immeasurably more. The old vague sense of mystery 
bom of ignorance or forgetf ulness, has given way to a feeling of 
wonder for the gift of the divine fire in the singer of song; an 
enlightened, unjaded wonder for the prophet and poet, a genuine, 
sincere longing to approach a little closer to the pietas of the 
goddess-bom, and to realize in a personal way the keen sense of 
duty that led him, in the face of Juno's ^ite, to the shores that 
he sought as home. Place Virgil back on the shelf, next to Homer, 
if you will, or Dante, or Shakespeare, or Calderon, or Goethe. He 
will live in friendly converse with them all, and when you glance 
at him again he will speak to you. For the Latin tongue is never 
dead. 



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Hew Boohs. 

JESUS, THE CHRIST, IN THE LIGHT OF PSTCH0L06T. 

By G. Stanley Hall, Ph.D. Two volumes. Garden City, N. 

Y: Doubleday, Page & Co. $7.50 net. 

There are many reasons why this work must receive notice 
here. Dr. Stanley Hall, its author, is in many respects one of the 
most eminent academic men of our country. He is well known as 
the President of Qark University; he is famous, at home and 
abroad, for his studies in psychology, which have shown originality 
and daring; as a pedagogue, he, more than anyone else probably, 
is a prophet and an oracle to many hundreds of American teachers. 
He is, in fact, one of the lights of the non-Catholic* American world. 
He has been particularly friendly to Catholics, and by his very 
courteous and high-bred manner, by his sympathetic tmderstanding 
of much in the Church, by his absence of rancor against Catholi- 
cism, and by his broad culture and reading, he has won the friend- 
ship of many Catholics. 

Dr. Hall considers the present work as tfie constmimation of 
his life of study. Based upon his study of adolescence, it has itself 
been twenty years abuilding. It seems to him a labor of piety and 
religion, the full flowering of the old Puritan religion in which he 
was reared. In it " senescent insights " — Dr. Hall is seventy-two— 
" and adolescent sentiments meet and reinforce each other." This 
work of piety is also, he believes, a work of pioneering. He ex- 
pects many to folk>w in his wake, and considering the vogue he 
enjoys and the mental character and outlook of very many in the 
non-Cadiolic university world, we do not doubt Stanley Hall will 
have many followers. Therefore, we judge it right to state, in 
plain language — for Dr. Hall is very often not plain— our under- 
standing of the meaning of this book. 

Dr. Hall starts from the idea that " the old objective God " 
is dead. God did not make man, but on the contrary, man, the 
folksoul, Mansoul, through its aspiration and needs created God. 
So thought Feuerbach, and Dr. Hall agrees. There is, therefore, 
no religion coming from without, but all comes from within; be- 
liefs, dogmas, fears, hopes, rites and institutions of religion are 
all products of human evolution. The modem mind cannot believe ^ 

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246 NEIV BOOKS [May, 

in miracle or revelation. It can see the usefulness, the inevitable- 
ness of such beliefs in the past; it can take a sympathetic view of 
those who, through heredity or environment, still ding to super- 
natural religion; it can appreciate both the beauty and the prag- 
matic value of the old religion, but that old religion itself is as 
doomed as the cult of Osiris, or rather, it will live in a higher and 
purer form. It must be interpreted by the new psychology. 

What then can Christ mean to a psychology starting from 
such principles? But before this question can be answered, there 
is the previous question, what do we know about Christ? The 
critics have shown, Dr. Hall thinks, that the Christ of St Paul 
and of the fourth Evangelist is the creation of those great geniuses, 
aided by the Christian folksoul; but what of the Christ of the 
synoptic Evangelists? After the work of the textual and higher 
critics is done, little certainty remains. The fact is that though 
Dr. Hall " believes in the historic Jesus," he declares His existence 
is really doubtful, and he has the highest appreciation for the work 
of Smith of Tulane, who believes the Founder of Christianity is a 
myth. 

Dr. Hall's study of the folksoul, of its conscious and particu- 
larly of its unconscious life, has led him to the view that it has 
itself imagined most of the traditional features of Christ. And if 
this be true, if Christ never existed or if we know nothing of the 
historic Jesus, is religion thereby injured? Far from it. Indeed, 
though orthodox people cannot see it, Christianity is thereby puri- 
fied and spiritualized and strengthened. Dr. Hall himself assures 
us — and he is the world's leading expert on adolescence — ^that the 
discovery by his pupils of the new Christ, the Christ that never 
existed, and of the new God, whom the race soul and the seminary 
of pedagogy are even now creating, is immeasurably more real and 
helpful to these young men than the Christ and the God of their 
childhood. If, then, the real Christ must vanish, let not your hearts 
be troubled. Be a true psychologist and you will be the best Christ- 
ologist. Recover the energy and imaginativeness of the world's 
youth, "when the soul let itself go with abandon and with no 
regard to the awful repression imposed by the ideals of consist- 
ency." Original spontaneity must again come into the world; and 
as every artist imagines his own Christ, so let Christianity hence- 
forth, acquiring " a new infusion of blood from the forces of mod- 
em paganism and secularism," limn the ideal image of the new 
Christ. j<^ 1 

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1917] NEW BOOKS 247 

If, then, we know nothing, or next to nothing, with certainty 
about Christ, psychology has to deal not so much with the mind of 
Christ as with the great geniuses and mystics and the f olksoul that 
created Him. Its chief problem is to explain how the image af 
Jesus, under the touch of the Mansoul, took shape and coloring on 
the world's canvas. So all things human, and even the ways of 
our humble arboreal ancestors, are laid under contribution to ex- 
plain just why the Mansoul must have created the Jesus of the early 
Church. The Fathers of the Church, who drew up those rigid 
formulas so derided by skeptics, are dealt with very tenderly by Dr. 
Hall. They acted more wisely than they knew ; and the truth about 
Jesus, which has been rediscovered in our day, could not have been 
preserved in any other formulas. 

But what, after all, about the real Jesus? We are dumb- 
founded, after reading the first volume, to discover how much Dr. 
Hall knows about Him. His knowledge is astonishingly minute 
and usually quite unhesitating. What historical principles guide 
him we are utterly at a loss even to conjecture; but one thing we 
have no doubt about, though it is a painful thing to put before our 
readers, is that it is very evidently the firm conviction of Dr. Hall 
that if Jesus ever existed, He was, though a great and beautiful 
soul and the ideal of youth, yet the most deluded of beings. This 
does not shock Dr. Hall, because he believes the line of demarcation 
between sanity and insanity is very hard to discover. 

After all this, the reader may be surprised to learn that, in 
Dr. Hall's own opinion, he deserves to be considered an orthodox 
Christian, because Christ represents to him all that is highest and 
best He even calls Him " Our Lord." A vein of pietism runs 
through the book. Truly the race soul dies hard, and the need of 
religion must be ineradicable when it makes a complete atheist 
pietize like his great-grandmother. This is the most valuable thing 
we have learned from this particular product of the new psychol- 
ogy; but incidentally the book, which is, to our mind, chiefly a 
crazy-quilt of the wild dreams of German university professors, un- 
intentionally throws " the light of psychology " on the men who 
made the Great War. The majority of them look on Jesus as mad. 
To read a collection of their opinions on any point in this work 
is like visiting a madhouse. The present reviewer has read very 
many agnostic and atheistic works, but this is of them all absolutely 
the most hideous, the most pitiable, and the most devoid of reason 
and judgment. No intelligent friend of Stanley Hall but will 



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248 NEIV BOOKS [May, 

regret that he lived to write it ; yet because it bears his name it will 
be lauded probably by many superficial reviewers who will not read 
twenty pages of it. 

THE PREHCH REHASCEHCE. By Charles Sarolea. New York: 

James Pott & Co. $2.00 net 

The exact thesis which this book is designed to prove is diffi- 
cult to fathcMn. The title is, of itself, misleading, though the 
introduction explains the sense in which it is used. In something 
of the grand manner, the author there declaims against the tradi- 
tional view that France is a decadent nation, and, after matching 
Sedan with Valmy, calls upon the battlefields of the Mame to 
witness that, for a decadent nation, France can still offer stiff 
opposition to an enemy. So far, so good. But, with never a hint 
as to what is coming, the introduction ends with an elaborate apos- 
trophe, the extremely florid style of which is scarcely atoned for 
by its obvious sincerity; and then there follows a series of essays 
on prominent Frenchmen, from Montaigne to Maeterlinck and Poin- 
care. Now, even the most rabid " Gallo[Aobe," to quote Dr. Saro- 
lea's own epithet, would scarcely place the beginning of France's 
supposed decadence as far back as the sixteenth century, in the 
days of that horrible ogre, Charles IX., who, as we read on 
page 38, directed and enjoyed in the Louvre from a window the 
holy and wholesale murder of his miscreant subjects. But, unless 
French decadence reaches far back into history, what part do 
Montaigne and Pascal, not to speak of Madame de Maintenon or 
Rousseau, play in her renascence? Or, to put the question in a 
slightly different form, unless the French spirit was decadent, not 
to say dead, why speak of a revival, a rebirth? This is a real, not 
an historical question; there may be an explanation, a reconcilia- 
tion, but this essay does nothing to establish one. 

It would be too much, and doubtless unjust, to say that Dr. 
Sarolea was designedly anti-Catholic, but over more than one pas- 
sage lies the trail of the serpent. Thus, in a comparison between 
Pascal and Newman, he speaks of Newman's " conversion," thus, 
within quotation marks. Newman is also for him the " professional 
churchman with the narrow outlooks of his class." Again, in a 
chapter on the recent condemnation of Maeterlinck's works, we read 
that the ways of the Roman Curia " are not our ways, nor the 
Catholic ways," and hence that " spiritual liberty and clerical gov- 
ernment are still contradictory terms." All things considered, there 

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X9I7.1 NEtV BOOKS 249 

are many things which can be purchased for the price, more worth 
while than a copy of the French Renascence. 

THE MEKACE OP JAPAH. By Frederick McCormick. Boston: 

Little, Brown & Co. $2.00 net. 

Before President Roosevelt brought Japan and Russia to- 
gether at Portsmouth to make the treaty which concluded the Rus- 
sian-Japanese War, we enjoyed the confidence and friendship of 
three important nations in East Asia, namely, Japan, Russia and 
China, according to Mr. McCormick. Japan was our friend not 
only because of the contributions which we had made towards her 
modernization, but also because we had contributed half of the 
foreign loans with which she overcame Russia. Japan's hostility 
to us dates from the Treaty of Portsmouth. President Roosevelt 
used his influence to secure a settlement between Japan and Russia 
upon the only basis upon which a settlement was possible, i. e., the 
forgoing by Japan of a claim for indemnity. Peace was made, but 
Baron Komura felt that we had betrayed him and the interests 
which he represented. 

While the treaty of peace was being signed at Portsmouth, 
Edward H. Harriman was being received in audience by the Em- 
peror of Japan, and within five days thereafter Mr. Harriman was 
in possession of a signed memorandum of agreement for the lease 
and operation of the Russian Railway in Southern Manchuria which 
had been acquired by Japan in the war. Mr. Harriman had visions 
of making this railway a part of a railway-steamship girdle around 
the earth. Upon Komiu^a's return to Japan from Portsmouth he 
set forces at work to nullify the agreement between Harriman and 
the Japanese Government. "Komura was the first Asiatic of 
power in the Pacific to distrust the motives of Americans and of 
American policy there.'* 

Komura's new policy demanded that Japan expand on the con- 
tinent, and to establish a political basis for expansion Japan had 
need of die rights to the Manchurian railway which she had re- 
ceived from Russia. She could not afford to part with these rights 
to Harriman. Russia tried to sell her own remaining railway rights 
in Manchuria for the purpose of establishing a neutral barrier be- 
tween herself and Japan, but events so shaped themselves that she 
was unable to secure a buyer. In the meantime Japan laid siege to 
the affections of Russia, and in the course of four or five years of 
effort succeeded in winning them, or at least winning them to the t 

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250 NEIV BOOKS [May, 

extent necessary to put Russia in the position of pulling Japan's 
chestnuts out of the fire. Japan and Russia both had now " special 
interests" in China in connection with their railway rights, and 
these " special interests " were in conflict with the " open door " 
policy to which the United States was committed. Japan succeeded 
in engineering a diplomatic situation in which Russia was com- 
pelled to establish her own interests, and incidentally the interests 
of jBpsoi, against the United States. This left us one friend, 
China, in East Asia instead of three. 

Japan had in a very few years learned the lessons of European 
secret diplomacy so well that she soon isolated us, uniting the 
interests of England, France and Russia, and to a certain extent 
Germany, with her own interests against our policy of the " open 
door." Secretary Root had concentrated his attention on South 
America to the n^lect of East Asia, and during his administra- 
tion of affairs of State our star suffered a partial eclipse in the Far 
East President Taft and Secretary Knox exerted much effort to- 
wards regaining the lost ground in East Asia, and were achieving 
a fair measure of success when Mr. Bryan came upon the scene. 
Mr. Byvsn lock the high ground that securing first the moral and 
religious welfare of the Chinese people was the best basis for trade 
and commerce, and that we ought not to combine with the other 
powers in lending money to China and enforcing its repayment. 
The further policy of " scuttle " in the Philippines by which we 
were in a few years to cut those islands adrift, would only have 
put off our conflict with Japan temporarily if " scuttle " had been 
adopted, according to Mr. McCormick. 

We did not have a war with Japan in ten years as Harri- 
man thought. By surrender at every point of contact in the 
Pacific, except in California, and by the World War, we were 
brought to avoid it. Japan eliminated us for the present be- 
cause she a>uld Whether the United States keeps out 

of East Asia or not, Japan and the United States will not get 
along. The only way for the United States to get along is to 
face Japan as forcibly, if not as defiantly, as Japan faces 

them. . The United States cannot keep on writing treaties 

in the Pacific and seeing them broken Japan's policies 

are such, both political — in her foreign relations and domes- 
tic — in her ethical teachings and education of her people to 
their peculiar blind patriotic duties to the sovereign, that we 
could not but be obliged to inculcate among coming and present 
Americans the principle of war with Japan. 

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1917] NEW BOOKS 251 

Mr. McCormicky although at times unjustifiably violent in his 
rhetoric, has without any doubt made out a clear case against 
Japanese diplomacy and our own inaction. But our entering the 
European War will probably help to restore to us the rights which 
we have been abandoning in East Asia. Early in the war Japan 
not only todc from Germany her settlement of Kiao Chau and trans- 
ferred it to herself, but also, when no one was looking, she com- 
pelled China to make important concessions to her in violation of 
our treaty rights. As a belligerent we shall insist upon* having 
these matters looked into when peace comes, and if our army is 
sufficiently large we shall be listened to with respect while we plead 
our own cause and the cause of China. 

A MANUAL OF MODERN SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. By 

Cardinal Mercier. Vol. I. St. Louis : B. Herder. $3.50 net 
We have special reasons for welcoming this English version 
of the Traits elSmentaire de Philosophie just at the present time. 
It comes from the first of our Catholic Universities in Europe, and 
mainly from the graceful pen of Cardinal Mercier, the founder of 
the Institut Supirieur de PhUosophie de Louuain. The Catholic 
traditions clinging to this Athens of Belgitmi, and the heroic bearing 
of her present Primate in the crisis which has overtaken his coun- 
try and his school, have served to fix the admiring gaze of the 
thinking world upon this Catholic prelate and people. Are not many 
asking: "What can be the philosophy of life which nerves men 
to make such a stand for law and right against that brute force 
which considers all mpral obligations as 'a scrap of paper?' " Here 
we have an answer in intelligible form. Here we have a presenta- 
tion of those underlying principles which have given us lofty and 
heroic men in all Christian ages. Not a few thinking men, shrinking 
with horror from the frightful carnage and wanton destruction 
that mark the path of the World War, and realizing that such havoc 
is the logical outcome of the godless philosophy of the age — ^mater- 
ialism driven to its legitimate consequences — cry from their hearts : 
" Back to Christian principles and to the philosophy in which they 
are imbedded! Enough of the ethics of blood and iron!" 

The bulk of this ample volimie must not mislead us as to 
its precise scope and purpose. It is, in fact, an English version of 
the Louvain Traiti SlSmentoAre de PhUosophie, which is merely an 
abridgment of the more comprehensive Cours de Philosophie, the 
joint work of several professors of the Philosophical Institute of 



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252 NEW BOOKS [May, 

that ill-fated city. Since it was designed as an introduction to the 
more advanced course, and mainly for the use of clerical students . 
in Catholic seminaries, we must not look here for the last word in 
I^ilosophical investigation. Those who are seeking such advanced 
treatment of philosophical questions would do well to consult the 
more extensive work. 

The method followed in this manual is a departure from the 
traditional lines. We, of the old school, were taught our logic 
first, for the accepted reason that logic was a fitting introduction 
to the field of philosophy. We were taught to tfiink correctly be- 
fore undertaking to discuss the subtleties of metaphysics; and the 
justification of our logical processes was that, as a matter of fact, 
all men of right mind have so done their thinking. Difficulties were 
answered in a practical way — solvitur atnbalando. But here our 
authors prefer another order. First comes cosmology. We are 
made to study the world about us and learn what can be known 
of its nature and ultimate constituents, for from this source comes 
all our knowledge. The problem is confessedly not an easy one to 
solve. In fact it has ever been the most unsatisfactory part of 
philosophy, when considered in the light of strict scientific data. 
Thus the present treatise, which is a rendering of the third edition, 
191 1, was up to date at the time of its publication; but at present 
it is found to be significantly silent on such a palpitating question, 
as the part played by radio-activity in the make-up of matter. The 
author. Dr. Nys, is said to have in readiness for the press a revision 
of his subject, taking into account the latest findings of physics; 
but it is not at all improbable that, by the time his new volume sees 
the light, further advances in the physical sciences shall have rele- 
gated his work to the scrap-pile of discarded theories. Still, we 
must not be discouraged. Scholastic philosophy is built upon the 
data of experience, and, in the gross and scope of our sense knowl- 
edge, we are sufficiently sure of facts to arrive at safe and sane 
conclusions ; for scholastic philosophy is the rationale of common 
sense. 

The second treatise has to do with psychology, and it is a 
contribution from Cardinal Mercier himself. He was accounted, 
in the days of his professorial career, no mean authority among 
experimental psychologists, and the ease with which he h&ndles his 
subject shows how familiar he is with the tests and technicalities of 
the laboratory. Starting from its data as premises, he shows clearly 
and succinctly the functions and nature of life, more especially of , 

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19171 NEW BOOKS 253 

life in its highest manifestations in man — in his senses, memory, 
intellect and will. The basis of his argument seems to be sufficiently 
broad and incontrovertible. Yet, here again, the reader who is 
familiar with the output of experimental psychology to date, can- 
not but note the absence of reference in these pages to certain 
findings of ^)ecialists which have been brought into prominence 
since our professor laid aside his scalpel to take up the crosier. 
This remark implies no unfavorable reflection upon his work as he 
gave it to the public; it only goes to show how difficult it is to keep 
pace with modem science. Whilst it were desirable to have the 
scientific setting brought up to date, the omissions detract but little 
from the real value of the work, for the author points out clearly 
the line of argument to be followed in establishing the accepted 
teaching of Christian philosophy regarding the human soul — its 
origin, nature and destiny — ^and there is none of the later results 
of psychological experiment which cannot be made to tell, in a like 
satisfactory way, in favor of our author's position. 

In the third treatise, the same author deals in his usual masterly 
way with the problems which have of late years arisen touching the 
value of our knowledge. The very name of this branch of philos- 
ophy — epistemology and criteriology — ^were hardly known in the 
last century. Now, they loom large and call up a previous question 
which is asked by the leaders of certain schools of thought, viz., 
can we attain to any real knowledge at all? If so, how? And 
what is its exact value? This treatise is a fair ccmipendium of the 
illustrious author's really original and valuable aid to the solution 
of the problem. But as it is a fundamental problem, the seeker 
after thorough information should consult the author's more ex- 
tensive work. 

The fourth and final treatise of this goodly volume has to do 
with general metaphysics or ontology. The word itself has an 
unpleasant sound in current literature, philosophical or other. Not 
a little banal jesting is indulged in at its expense; but unjustly and 
ignorantly. The truth is that it is impossible for anyone to write 
or speak coherently on any subject without some theory, explicit or 
implicit, as to the ultimate nature of being — ^and that is just what 
ontology or general metaphysics imdertakes to formulate. Of 
course the problem cannot be discussed without raising very ab- 
struse and subtle questions, v. g., in its last analysis, what is being? 
What is substance? What is accident? What the relation between 
them? What is to be understood by cause? Its relation to effect? 

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And just because these questions, to be answered satisfactorily, 
require close attention and deep thinking, the unthinking rabble 
will have none of it. All the same, it is a problem which is ever 
with us and will not down. Here we have its various aspects pre- 
sented and discussed in a most lucid and satisfactory manner, ac- 
cording to the principles of scholastic philosophy — '^ the philosophia 
perennis, the old and new philosophy of the Christian schools/' 

Some critics have objected to the intrusion of such theological 
discussions as the separability of accidents from substance in the 
Holy Eucharist (p. 487), and the relation of faith to reason (p. 
400). But, considering that the manual was primarily intended 
for seminarians preparing for the study of theology, for whom 
these are living questions, we do not consider the point as well taken. 
And, besides, do not others who open a textbook of Catholic phil- 
osophy naturally expect some light to be thrown on the borderland 
of the sister sciences? Even well informed non-Catholics, who 
take the trouble to con its pages, would be disappointed not to find 
at least a passing reference to points of controversy between be- 
lievers and imbelievers, and even between the different schools 
within the Fold. 

The translation has, on the whole, been well done. There are 
to be found, indeed, some awkward attempts at rendering the tech- 
nical Latin terms in the vernacular, but no more than would be 
naturally expected. Corresponding English terms do not exist, and 
therefore they must be coined. Inept as they may be at times, 
they compare favorably with much of the jargon that passes muster 
as the consecrated technicalities of modem science. 

We shall look forward with not a little impatience and eager- 
ness for the appearance of the companion volume of this very timely 
presentation of Catholic philosophy, which the publishers, we are 
told, have already in press. 

THE KING OF IRELAND'S SOW. By Padraic Colum. New 

York: Henry Holt & Co. $2.00 net. 

The King of Ireland's Son is a folk-romance after the f ashicMi 
started years ago by Yeats, and belonging to that new school of 
Irish letters which has, by this time, achieved sufficient dignity and 
distinction to be considered a real movement in literature. The il- 
lustrations in color and the many black and white sketches by 
Willy Pogany do a real service to the text. The stories concern 
the adventures of the King of Ireland's son and his fidiis 'Achates, 1 

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1917] NEW BOOKS 255 

the youth Flann, and their respective wooings of Fedekna, the 
Enchanter's daughter, and Morag, the byre-roaid. The method 
follows somewhat the Arabian Nights, with story leading on to 
story, and episode intertwined with episode, the unity of the whole 
secured by the groupings around the leading characters. Symbol- 
ism is so much in the air nowadays that we may be tempted to 
read an allegory where none was meant. It may be that Mr. 
Columns sole intention was to retell some old Gaelic l^ends, in a 
somewhat modem fashion, for their own inherent interest; or he 
may have wished to teach a heedless world a maxim it is prone 
to forget, that truth is might and must prevail, or, as Father Faber 
put it long ago: 

For right is right, as God is God, 

And right the day must win. 

But, be the purpose what it may, The King of Ireland's Son 
is well worth while. 

THE HISTORY OF MOTHER SETON'S DAUGHTERS. By 

Sister Mary Agnes McCann. Two volumes. New York : 

Longmans, Green & Co. $5.00 net 

It is rather odd that, when an American refers to a " Sister 
of Charity," one must consider the geographical location of the 
speaker before understanding to just which religious congregation 
of women reference has been made. To the man from Chicago 
or the Middle West, " Sister of Charity " means one congregation; 
to the San Franciscan another entirely distinct, while in New York, 
Maryland, New Jersey or certain parts of Ohio it means distinct 
independent branches of a third congregation itself distinct from 
the first two. And only in Maryland will " Sister of Charity " 
mean ^hat it means in continental Europe. From the title of Sister 
Mary Agnes* very interesting and important publication, a general 
history of the several branches of the American Sisters of Oiarity, 
at present distinct, but all tracing their origin to Mother Seton, 
might not unnaturally be expected. These two large and handsome 
octavo volumes, however — ^and let it be said in passing that they are 
a credit to the publishers — concern themselves directly with the 
history of the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati, Ohio, though the 
fortunes of all of Mother Seton's foundations and enterprises are 
followed to some extent, and much of the Church history of the 
early nineteenth century is incorporated. Dr. Guilday, of the 
Catholic University, has written an introduction, which is followed^ 

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2S6 NEW BOOKS [May, 

by a bibliography, rather startling in its ccmiprchensivcness, includ- 
ing many manuscript sources as well as books and periodicals. 
Each volume has its own index, though there would have been an 
advantage in having but one general index appended to the second 
volume. The books are especially well printed and bound, and 
contain a large number of excellent illustraticMis in photogravure. 

Not quite half of the first volimie, or about one hundred and 
fifty pages, is devoted to the life and labors of Mother Seton, to 
the foundation of her community, and to its activities down to the 
opening of the Cincinnati house in 1829. The history of the order 
and of the Cincinnati community is then carried on simultaneously 
as far as 1851, the date of affiliation with the Daughters of Char- 
ity of St. Vincent de Paul. Mother Seton had arranged in 1810 
to have sisters come from the mother house at Paris to affiliate 
her young community, but Napoleon had refused them passage. 
She had received, however, through Bishop Flaget, on his return 
from a trip to Europe, the rules of the Daughters, which, modified 
to meet local conditions, had been put into practice. Sister Mary 
Agnes claims, in more than one passage, that union with the 
French order was contrary to Mother Seton's wishes. It is true 
that the original letters to which appeal is made do certainly lend 
color to that opinion, but it would seem that they are open to a 
reading of which Sister Mary Agnes does not take account, that 
the difficulties connected with her own peculiar circumstances 
caused Mother Seton to hesitate, and not tfiat she desired her com- 
munity to remain independent. At any rate, tfiirty years after the 
founder's death, such affiliation was effected by the mother house 
at Emmitsburg and its foundations, the houses at New York and 
Cincinnati becoming separate communities under their respective 
Archbishops. The last few chapters carry on the history of the 
Cincinnati community down to 1870, and a further volume is 
promised to bring it down to date. 

Dr. Guilday says in his introduction: "These volumes are 
an excellent example of that type of historical work for which the 
United States has been waiting for a long time; it will only be by 
having recourse to original documents and by their intelligent inter- 
pretation that we can hope to reach a truer knowledge of the history 
of the Church in former days." It is only just to add what Dr. 
Guilday naturally could not say himself, that they are an excellent 
example of the work being done under his direction in the seminary 
of American Church history at the Catholic University. Making ^ 

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19171 NEW BOOKS 257 

due allowance for her natural enthusiasm for her own community, 
and discounting the prejudice she shows on the question of af- 
filiation, Sister Mary Agnes must be given credit for a thorough and 
objective handling of important historical evidence, sought out^ at 
original sources. And, while her delvings into old magazines and 
newspapers brought up a general collection of odds and ends, 
reports of various kinds, accounts of retreats and missions, editorial 
comment upon religious events of the day, lists and summaries of 
all kinds and of all degrees of value, which, though not just ad 
rem, she has incorporated, still, these are not the least interesting 
pages, and, to paraphrase the old Latin poet, the author probably 
proceeded on the principle that, being a Catholic, nothing of Catho- 
lic interest could be a matter of indifference to her or her readers. 

THE BEST SHORT STORIES OF 1916. Edited by Edward J. 

O'Brien. Boston: Small, Maynard & Co. $1.50 net. 

No two men would agree in their choice of the twenty best 
short stories published in the American magazines last year, but all 
would agree in rating high from the viewpoint of substance and form 
the stories selected by Mr. O'Brien out of the two thousand five hun- 
dred candidates looking for admission into his yearly anthology. 

The favorite authors this year are Gertrude Atherton, Barry 
Benefield, Frederick Booth, Dana Burnet, Francis Buzzell, Irvin 
S. Cobb, Theodore Dreiser, Armistead C. Gordon, Frederick S. 
Greene, Richard M. Hallet, Fanny Hurst, Mary Lemer, Jeanette 
Marks, Walter J. Muilenburg, Albert Du V. Pentz, Benjamin Ros- 
enblatt, Elsie Singmaster, Gordon A. Smith, Wilbur D. Steele, and 
Alice L. Tildesley. 

In his introduction he writes : " During the past few years 
a new spirit in fiction has been making itself felt and spreading 
itself in many directions throughout the continent. It has been 
felt in poetry much earlier, but in fiction it is still young, and 
requires much fostering from the hands of our native writers. 
Our artists are beginning to think of life wholly in terms of the 
individual, and to substitute the warmth of the individual in place 
of the generalized and sentimentalized types to which our Amer- 
ican public has been so whole-heartedly accustomed." 

The year book section of the volume includes a roll of honor 
for 1 916, volumes of short stories published, magazine averages 
for the year, and an alphabetical list of all the short stories pub- 
lished in sixty-nine American magazines and »^«wsgajj)erpgy^^^^Q|g 

VOL. CV.— 17 ^ 



258 NEW BOOKS [May, 

CATHOLIC CHRISTIANITY, OR THE REASONABLENESS OP 

OUR RELIGION. By Rev. O. R. Vassall-PhiUips, C.SS.R. 

New York: Benziger Brothers. $1.50. 

In his preface Father Vassall-Phillips writes : " My chief 
purpose in printing this book is to help those who find faith difficult, 
and consequently may feel the need of such help, but have no leisure 
and perhaps no inclination for the reading of long works. It is 
intended for busy, but intelligent men and women." 

Part I., "Is the Christian Religion True?'' discusses the 
appeal of Christianity to reason, the proofs for the existence of God, 
the idea of faith, the arguments from prophecy and miracles, the 
proof from experience and the evidence of the Catholic Church. 
Part XL, " Is Catholicism True? " treats of the Rule of Faith, the 
Word of God, Development, and the Unity, Catholicity and Apos- 
tolicity of the Church. Part III., " What Does Catholic Christian- 
ity Give ? " explains the sacramental system in general, the Seven 
Sacraments and the Communion of Saints. 

There is nothing new in the arrangement of the subject matter 
or the marshaling of the arguments for the Church and her teach- 
ing, but the simple persuasiveness of the writer, his kindly tone, and 
the utter absence of the controversial spirit makes his book an ex- 
cellent treatise to put in the hands of the earnest inquirer after 
the truth. 

MARTIN LUTHER: THE STORY OF HIS LIFE. By Elsie Sing- 
master. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. $i.oo. 
This little book by the author of When Sarah Went to School 
and its equally important companion volume. When Sarah Saved the 
Day, is a startling performance. It was compiled from writers like 
Jacobs, Smith and Bohmer, in order that it might serve "as an intro- 
duction to the larger, richer and more scholarly records of a great 
life which abound and to the noble writings of the Reformer him- 
self." For concentrated falsehood it is easily the peer of the old- 
time Lutheran publications. The author no doubt is sincere in her 
attitude, but she has failed to read her sources, especially Preserved 
Smith, with an open mind. The progress which has been made 
the past half-century in our knowledge of Luther's life and labors 
is either unknown to the author, or has not been used because it 
would not suit her purpose. He would be a bold man nowadays 
who would attempt to write a biography of Luther along the old- 
fashioned lines. The book would be dangerous if it were not sq^T^ 

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1917.I NEIV BOOKS 259 

palpably ignorant of the fundamental factors of mediaeval history 
and of the Reformation itself. Only ignorance would excuse the 
writer who utters this historical blasphemy : " Martin Luther, next 
to the Divine Founder of the Church and His Apostles, has done 
most to dignify and ennoble mankind." 

The work follows the conventional divisions of the antiquated 
biographies written prior to 1883 — ^the classic date from which 
Martin Luther's legendary fame begins to decline; and it echoes 
their conclusions and prejudices with a fidelity which gives the 
book a charm of its own, somewhat like the little children one 
meets at times who unconsciously imitate the old people in voice 
and manner. This smug imitation runs all through the author's 
pages. " Independent and freedom-loving, insisting upon the right 
of private judgment, the Germans who had never united into a real 
nation, and still less allowed themselves to come entirely under 
the domination of the See of Rome, which controlled and shaped 
the course of the Christian Church and had made its bishop Pope." 
It is the horror of this freedom-loving people for the corruption 
of Rome which led them to buy so generously the indulgences of 
the Holy See; for these indulgences "not only covered the sins 

of the past, but those of the future Contrition ceased in the 

minds of many men to be a part of the process by which one 
secured forgiveness; all that was required was the appointed sum 
of money." Poor ignorant laity! Uncorrected by an ignorant 
priesthood ! " The Bible was a sealed book to them." Luther was 
a liberator like Lincoln. It is curious how often the author sees 
likenesses between that Christian gentleman whose life was as 
honest as the sunlight and Luther the trimmer. It is a mistake 
to give the book this much space, and we hope it is not a harbinger 
of the class of books the American public is to be furnished for 
the fourth centenary of Luther's apostasy. 

DARK ROSALEEN. By M. E. Francis. New York: P. J. Ken- 
edy & Sons. $1.35. 

Mrs. Francis Blundell has written a most dramatic story of 
contemporary Irish life. The theme is a mixed marriage between 
a simple, pure Catholic peasant girl and a hard-hearted bigoted 
Orangeman of Belfast. Like many of his fellows in real life, he 
makes all the required promises beforehand, only to break them 
once the marriage bells have rung. The tragedy of this unhappy 
home is brought vividly before our eyes without g^^zel^Sy^^CiQle 



26o NEIV BOOKS [May, 

the preaching note. The homes of the devout people of Galway, 
the intense love of the Irish for their priests, the bitter intolerance 
of the North of Ireland Protestant, the beauties of land and sea 
and sky — all are portrayed with the most intense realism and liter- 
ary charm. The author has not written a thesis novel, but a touch- 
ing tale of what she feels and loves. 

THE MASS EVERY DAY IN THE YEAR: THE ROMAN MIS- 
SAL. Translated and Arranged by Edward A. Pace, D,D., 
and John J. Wynne, S.J. New York: The Home Press. 
This new arrangement of the Missal contains all that is 
necessary for intelligent following of the Mass, while this is made 
easier by the exclusion of whatever is not requisite for the laity. 
Only the admirable English of the translation is given; the Latin 
is entirely omitted, as also are the various supplements containing 
matter not applicable to this country. The hymns, canticles and 
sequences are, of course, retained, with the principal devotions. 
The book is clearly printed, and has the agreeable flexible binding; 
and the omission of the unessentials makes it of convenient size 
It might be wished that space had been given to include the 
calendar; and it is certainly to be regretted that stricter revision 
was not given before the final printing. Typographical errors, 
of which there are a few, we have grown accustomed to in this age 
when accuracy is the exception; but the mistake on page 490 
whereby the Second Prophecy is made to read : " And the waters 
prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty years," is of a 
different kind, and less easily accountable. 

FORM AND CONTENT IN THE CHRISTIAN TRADITION. A 

Friendly Discussion between W. Sanday, D.D., and M. T. Wil- 
liams, M. A. New York : Longmans, Green & Co. $2.00 net. 
Dr. Sanday, the Lady Margaret Professor of Oxford, 
defends in the present volume the right of modernism to exist 
in the Church of England; while his opponent, Mr. M. T. 
Williams, Chaplain- fellow of Exeter College, upholds the claims 
of orthodoxy. 

The present discussion arose out of an article contributed by 
Dr. Sanday to The Modern Churchman for June, 1915, On Con- 
tinuity of Thought and Relativity of Expression. He sets aside 
dogmatically the objective teaching of the creeds with regard to 
the Virgin birth of Christ, His corporal resurrection. His ascension, 

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1917.] NEIV BOOKS 261 

and His descent into hell, while he calls his out-and-out rationalism 
a " redrafting *' or a " reinterpreting " of the creed. 

Mr. Williams points out clearly the non-Christian character 
of Dr. Sanday's a priori denial of the miraculous, his false view of 
the nature of veracity, and his clear-cut rejection of the divine 
teachings of the Christian Church. Mr. Williams has the better 
of the argument throughout, although occasionally he makes ad- 
missions which nullify his thesis. It is impossible, however, for an 
Anglican to defend the infallibility of a Church which rests solely 
on the insecure foundation of private judgment or opinion. We 
can pardon him his fling at ultramontanism and the Inquisition 
in view of his strong though courteous indictment of modernism 
or rationalism in the Church of England of our day. 

NEWMAN'S GENTLEMAN. By Rev. Charles L. O'Donnell, 
C.S.C. New York: Longmans, Green & Co. 35 cents. 
Cardinal . Newman describes the gentleman in The Idea of a 
University, Discourse VIII., Knowledge Viewed in Relation to 
Religion (pages 179-21 1). Father O'Donnell calls attention to the 
fact that many writers not only fail to grasp the Cardinal's real 
idea of a gentleman, but often express the opposite of what he 
meant to convey. To prove this the editor of this volume publishes 
for students the entire text of Cardinal Newman's Discourse, and 
illustrates it with excellent notes and commentary. 

I 

TEXAS IN THE MIDDLE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. Studies 

in Spanish Colonial History and Administration. By Herbert 

E. Bolton, Ph.D. Bericeley, CaL: University of California 

Press. $3.25. 

This is another volume of the series of valuable historical 
publications issued by the University of California Press; it is 
a collection of special studies, rather than a history, aiming to 
throw light upon a neglected period in the history of one of the 
most important of Spain's northern provinces. In the middle eight- 
eenth century, Texas occupied a significant position on the north- 
eastern frontier of new Spain; down to 1762 it was the buffer 
province between France and Spain in their contest for empire on 
this Continent. The studies include such topics as " The Reorgan- 
ization of the Lower Gulf Coast," " Spanish Activities on the 
Lower Trinity River (1746-1771)," and " The Removal from and 
the Reoccupation of Eastern Texas (i 773-1 779)-" J|^I^^Mjgle 



262 NEIV BOOKS [May, 

tcresting is a detailed account of the San Xavicr Missions, a little 
known chapter in the history of the labors of the Franciscan Fath- 
ers among the Indians northeast of the Rio Grande, in the dawn of 
history in Central Texas. A few traces of these San Xavier Mis- 
sions still remain, yet so little has been known of this seat of 
Franciscan missionary activity, that but for an obscure reference 
in Bancroft, they have been entirely overlooked by American his- 
torians. 

The studies are preceded by a general sketch of the history of 
Texas during the half century within which they fall. The material 
presented is based ahnost exclusively upon manuscript sources, 
chiefly from the archives of Mexico, Spain and Texas, for the 
most part hitherto unknown and unused. Dr. Bolton says that it 
took him thirteen years to gather the sources of his work : " My 
quest has been as romantic as the search for the Golden Fleece. 
I have burrowed in the dust of the archives of Church and State 
in Mexico City, in a dozen Mexican State capitals — ^the distance 
traveled in my pursuit of documents would carry me around the 
globe. I have lived with the padres in ruinous old monasteries, in 
out-of-the-way villages in the mountains of Mexico. I count among 
the treasures of my personal archives the letters of introduction 
from ambassadors, secretaries of state and governors; cardinals, 
archbishops, bishops, friars and parish priests, who have smoothed 
my way." 

THE MIDDLE GROUP OF AMERICAN HISTORIANS. By John 
Spenser Bassett, Ph.D., LL.D. New York: The Macmillan 
Co. $2.00. 

Although more people in the United States write history than 
ever before, yet in proportion to the population far less history 
is read today than in the last generation. The great historians of 
the past, Bancroft, Prescott, Irving, Motley and Sparks, were not 
only widely read, but they were able to make a good living out of 
their professions, an unbelievable fact frankly impossible in this 
novel reading age. The so-called " middle period " of American 
history may be said to have two beginnings — first, after the Ameri- 
can Revolution, when with the achievement of independence, history 
writing took on a new character, and secondly about 1826, when 
Jared Sparks' widely heralded researches marked the beginning 
of a group of first-class historians. The end of the period comes 
some years after the Civil War, when the scientific spirit^ secured,. 

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1017.] ^£W BOOKS 263 

domination over the patriotic school that had ruled for several dec- 
ades. The historians of whose work criticisms are given in this 
volume are Sparks, Bancroft, the two literary historians; Pres- 
cott and Motley, and lastly Peter Force the Compiler. 

Perhaps with the advent of criticism, less attention is paid 
to making history interesting; why the readers of history are so 
few today, and how the problem can be remedied, the author does 
not attempt to answer. 

GRAIL FIRE. By Zephine Humphrey. New York: E. P. But- 
ton & Co. $1.50 net. 

Francis Merwin is the son of an agnostic professor and his 
narrow and bigoted Congregationalist wife. He falls in love with 
Eleanor Ramsey, and the two together start on the search for 
truth and beauty, or, as the author puts it, " on the search for the 
Holy Grail." The Catholic Church with its Mass seems to win 
these sentimentalists for a time, but they are repelled by the 
Church's stuffy smells, her superstition, her dogmatism, her lack 
of progress and the uninteresting, unconvincing argimients of her 
stupid and tactless clergy. The Episcopalian Church finally wins 
them, chiefly on account of its non-insistence upon such dogmas as 
the Virgin birth and the apostolic succession, together with the 
Protestant strain in its pseudo-Catholicism. " I don't mind telling 
you (you ought to be able to stand it)," says the Episcopal min- 
ister, " Father " Hartley, " that the cause of Christianity would not 
be lost if the historians proved definitely that Jesus of Nazareth 
never existed." 

The author must be totally devoid of all sense of humor, for 
her description of Father Merwin's first Mass with his sweetheart 
acolyte, and his motley congregation of Jews, Italians and Irish 
is ludicrous in the extreme. 

THE NEW POETRY. An Anthology. Edited by Harriet Monroe 
and Alice Corbin Henderson. New York : The Macmillan Co. 
$1.75 net. 

The introduction to this volume begins with the proposition 
that, during the last few years, there has been a remarkable renas- 
cence of poetry both in America and in England, and an equally 
remarkable revival of public interest in the art. That poetry has 
been reborn — for that, after all, is what renascence means — might 
well be questioned, for poetry can never die; but ^^aj tlie^tt^jg^gj^ 



264 NEW BOOKS [May, 

of the reading public has turned in a very mariced fashion to poetry 
is beyond cavil. The editors have here collected in convenient 
form representative selections from about one hundred of those 
who are today creating what, for want of a better term, is called 
the " new " poetry, imperfectly descriptive, but difficult to replace 
by any form of words more exact. Miss Monroe has written an 
introduction, and a bibliography completes the volume. 

Within four hundred pages are gathered many treasures for 
which the devout reader would travel far and pay much if he 
sought them all in their original editions. Here, for instance, are 
selections from Sir Rabindranath Tagore's Gitanjali, for which he 
was awarded the Nobel prize. Here is Amy Lowell's Patterns, 
which Mr. Braithwaite pronounced the most distinctive poem of 
191 5. We must revere Mr. Braithwaite's authority even when we 
differ with his decisions. Here are five selections from Rupert 
Brooke's sonnet-sequence, Nineteetp-Fourteen, including the famous, 
" If I should die, think only this of me." Here may be found John 
Masefield, Thomas Hardy and Ford Maddox Hueffer, who rarely 
keep company, as they do within these covers, with Edgar Lee 
Masters, Carl Sandburg or Vachel Lindsay. Nor does Alice Mey- 
nell seem at home with, say, Alice Corbin, or Joyce Kilmer with 
Alfred Kreymborg. The " new " poetry, it seems, like misery, 
makes strange bedfellows. 

Miss Monroe's introduction undertakes to answer the questions, 
what is the new poetry, and in what does it differ from the old? 
It is rather a large problem, nor can we admit that Miss Monroe's 
essay, though an excellent example of the multum in parvo, solves 
it. The difference cannot lie in mere details of form, she says, for 
much of the poetry iafused with the new spirit conforms to the 
measures and rhyme-schemes of the old. Nor is it merely in dic- 
tion, nor in those devices of rhetoric in which Miss Monroe thinks 
the Victorian, speaking by and large, sinned by excess. The new 
poetry would seem to be intensive, concrete, objective; concrete 
above all, presenting a concrete environment or a concrete object, 
whether these be beautiful or ugly, establishing a direct relation 
between the reader and life as it is, and not as it might be, or as 
we would like it to be. 

The vehicle which most of the new poets use is vers litre, 
or the unmetrical line, unmetrical, that is, in the sense that there is 
no regular recurrence of accented and unaccented syllables. Now, 
though this is revolutionary, according to all tJ^^tiz^My^S^^ie 



1917] NEW BOOKS 265 

standard definitions of poetry, Miss Monroe thinks the poets of 
today have as much right to branch out for themselves in this 
respect as had the pioneers of romanticism to discard the iambic 
pentameter of the Classicists; once more, in the cycle of time, it 
is genius showing itself incapable of being restrained by the fetters 
of artificial convention. A specious argument, tiepending for va- 
lidity oa the supposition that these " new '' poets surpass their pred- 
ecessors in the same proportion that the Romanticists — Shelley, 
Keats, Byron, whom you will — surpassed the Augustans. 

Were it not that rhetorical devices seem to be under a ban, 
one might be tempted to say that what is new in this volume is 
not poetry, and that the poetry is not new. Music J Have Heard, 
by Conrad Aiken, the first selection, Rupert Brooke's sonnets, Ag- 
nes Lee's Motherhood, Miss Monroe's own exquisite Lullaby, to 
mention at random only a few from a great many of equal merit, 
are certainly poetry of a high order, though by no means " new " 
in details of form, in diction, or even in the relation they establish 
between the reader and life as it is. On the other hand, Carl 
Sandburg's Chicago, Vachel Lindsay's The Congo, Amy Lowell's 
Red Slippers, even, be it whispered, Miss Monroe's The Hotel, are 
" new " enough in all conscience, but are they poetry ? For the 
kind of people that like this sort of thing, this is just the sort of 
thing that kind of people like ; but the suspicion will not down that, 
even supposing Whitman's mantle has fallen upon these, his dis- 
ciples, it hangs more than a trifle awry. 

PORFIRIO DIAZ. By David Hannay. New York: Henry Holt 

& Co. $2.00. 

This volimie is written to form one of the series of Makers 
of the Nineteenth Century, edited by David Hannay. This is an 
authentic, if not very interesting, biography of the " Grand Old 
Man " of Mexico who kept that country out of chaos for nearly 
forty years by the force of his personality. His career is traced 
from the very beginning, when as the son of poor and illiterate 
parents, he began as a poor law student to make his way in a 
Mexico given up to military violence. The French intervention, the 
tragic career of Maximilian and the part played by Diaz in those 
dramatic days follow, after which swift moving events bring him 
to the head of affairs. The last chapter describes the Madero re- 
volt and the causes that led to the overthrow of Diaz. 

Mr. Hanna/s final verdict on Diaz's work is probably a true 

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266 NEW BOOKS [May, 

one. In his efficient administration he just stopped short of being 
a great reformer, for he built up nothing that could last That he 
won and held the Presidency for so long was a great feat. " But," 
asks the author, " was it to be only the feat of the resolute skipper 
who, pistol in hand, cows a mutinous crew and keeps it to its 
duty, or the achievement of a statesman who develops institutions 
and makes a lasting government?" Mr. Hannay thinks he was the 
former, and that while he produced the outward forms of pros^ 
perity by his encouragement of foreign capital in Mexico and his 
excellent police order, he neglected "those inward and spiritual 
things which alone make the health of a nation." In a country 
fitted only for government by a strong monarchy or a capable 
aristocracy, and which had neither, to Diaz was given a task too 
great for a mere man. The author thinks that as no sanguinary 
anarchy has ever had a long existence next to a strong political 
government, the day will surely come " when the huge and grow- 
ing mass of power on its northern border will spread over it — by 
what movements we do not know, but as surely as water flows from 
a higher to a lower level." 

The style of the book seems more suited to a detailed history 
than to a biography. It is somewhat tedious and involved; the 
subject with its fascinating material, could have been made more 
interesting reading by one whose writing had more of the true 
charm of a real biographer. 

HAWAII— PAST AND PRESENT. By William R. Castle, Jr. 

New York: Dodd, Mead & Co, $1.50 net. 

This is a valuable book that purports to do a great deal and 
accomplishes it. It aims to give those in the United States a 
comprehensive account of the conditions — apolitical, commercial 
and social — in the youngest of American territories, and to fill 
a much-needed place as a Baedeker of Hawaii. The book falls 
naturally into two divisions, the first part explanatory, the second, 
descriptive. There is a very interesting account of the history of 
Hawaii up to its annexation by this country in 1898, and the 
causes that led to its annexation. The Hawaiian people aire a 
rapidly disappearing race, lovable in spite of their weakness and 
follies. They are intelligent, affectionate as children, and easily led. 
The author feels, that in spite of the cosmopolitan character of 
people living in Hawaii, the country with all its superficially un- 
Americian traits, rests on a thoroughly American foundation. It is ^ 

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1917.I NEW BOOKS 267 

essentially a distant centre of American civilization. English is 
the official language and American enterprise has built up the 
country, and the essential ideals of America have been absorbed 
by the people. 

There are separate chapters devoted to descriptions of the 
different islands; Mr. Castle is particularly fitted to describe con- 
ditions not only because of his long residence, but also since he is 
a descendant of one of the first white families who settled in 
Hawaii. The book is illustrated with many photographs of 
Hawaiian scenes. 

SUMMULA PHILOSOPHIC SCHOLASTICS IN USUM ADO- 
LESCENTIUM. By J. S. Hickey, O.Cist. Volume XL Cos- 
mok>gia et Psycologia Ed. quarta, Recognita et Audacta. Dub- 
lin: Gill & Co. 

The appearance of the fourth edition of this textbook is prac- 
tical evidence that its excellence has been widely recognized. So 
much has been said in its praise that, now, there is scarcely an)rthing 
left for a review notice but repetition. Strictly Thomistic, its plan 
and arrangement correspond in their general lines with Liberatore 
and Zigliara; while the treatment of topics is more ample than is 
to be found in the former, and less based on axioms than that of 
the latter. 

Its own unique characteristic is the introduction of copious 
extracts from English works or English translations by men of 
note. These notes, frequently from hostile sources, are always 
to the point, and seem to restate the question at issue in a way 
to strike the pupil's mind more forcibly than does the statement or 
argument of the Latin text. If two students, ceteris paribus, were 
to take up, respectively, one, this textbook and the other any of 
the older, exclusively Latin ones, we should venture to say that, 
unless the professor in charge of the student with the Latin one 
were unusually generous in his amplifications, the man with this 
Summula would be far ahead of the other in regard to his grasp 
on the relations of St. Thomas' philosophy to modem thought. 

THOSE FITZENBERGERS. By Helen R: Martin. New York: 

Garden City: Doubleday, Page & Co. $1.35 net. 

Like most of Mrs. Martin's novels this story centres around 

the Pennsylvania Dutch families she portrays so well. The heroine, 

Liddy, is an attractive girl who, despite her sordid surroundings 

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268 NEIV BOOKS [May, 

and the mystery of her family's past, succeeds in becoming a novel- 
ist of first rank. We hardly blame the Pennsylvania Dutch for 
their dislike of Mrs. Martin, for she pictures them as stupid, mean, 
unforgiving and immoral. The hero is a contemptible character, 
ashamed of his folks and surroundings. He plays fast and loose 
with two girls, and is justly punished by losing both of them at 
the end. 

The humor of the story is irresistible, whether we read of 
the new minister's parish calls, his wife's crusade for women's 
suffrage, or the hero's crude attempts to play the gentleman. 

LYDIA OF THE PINES. By Honorc Willsie. New York: Fred- 
erick A. Stokes Co. $1.40 net 

This entertaining story pictures a little town in the North 
Mississippi Valley not very far from an Indian reservation. The 
background of the picture is the injustice of the United States in 
robbing the Indians of their lands and liberty. Lydia, the heroine, 
is a poor, motherless girl without religion, who manages somehow 
to keep her faith in human nature despite the evidence of dis- 
honesty and graft in all whom she holds dear. It is a clean, well- 
told story. 

LIFE AND LETTERS OF REV. MOTHER TERESA DEASE. 

By a Member of the Community. St Louis: B. Herder. 

$1.50. 

This volume is a well-written biography of the Foundress and 
Superior General of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 
America. It gives the reader a good insight into the spirit of the 
Sisters of Loreto, sets forth in sharp outlines the holiness and 
zeal of their beloved foundress, and describes the history of the 
Institute in America, its many foundations, trials and ultimate 
successes. 

IF WISHES WERE HORSES. By Countess Barcynska. New 

York: E. P. Dutton & Co. $1.50 net. 

Martin LefBey, the hero of this tale, is one of the most despic- 
able characters in modem fiction. He is selfish, conceited, dis- 
honest, avaricious and immoral. By selling himself body and soul 
to the money interests he manages to secure a seat in Parliament, 
but though he stoops to every indignity he never succeeds in amass- 



1917] NEIV BOOKS 269 

His wife is a sweet, unselfish character who idolizes him, and 
is in great measure responsible for his political success. How 
she could live with him so many years and not realize his utter 
selfishness and hard-heartedness is beyond us. But true love is 
always blind. Aunt Polly, who from the beginning estimates Mar- 
tin at his true worth, is most attractive, charitable, kindly and out- 
spoken. She plays fairy godmother to Martin's children, Edgar and 
Dorothy, and sets them up in life in very spite of their unnatural 
father. 

All the characters in this novel are well drawn and lifelike. 

A BOOK OF ESSAYS. By Robert Hugh Benson. St. Louis: B. 

Herder. 70 cents net. 

The friends of the late Father Benson will be glad to have 
these essays in permanent form. They include the following : In- 
fallibility and Tradition, The Death-Beds of " Bloody Mary " and 
" Good Queen Bess," Christian Science, Spiritualisfn, Catholicism, 
Catholicism and the Futnrem and The Conversion of England. 

Father Ross of the London Oratory writes the introduction, 
and gives a brief biography of Father Benson, the man and the 
writer. 

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. By Rev. Cyril Buotich, O.F.M., St. 

Boniface Church, San Francisco, Cal. 15 cents. 

These nine lectures on Christian Science were delivered in St. 
Boniface's Church, San Francisco, by the Franciscan, Father Buo- 
tich, under the auspices of the Pious Union of St. Anthony. They 
set forth clearly the errors of this superstitious pagan cult, and 
prove to evidence that it is neither scientific or Christian. 

'\ 
CAMILLUS DE LELLIS. By a Sister of Mercy. New York: 

Benziger Brothers. $1.00 net. 

A Sister of Mercy has written an interesting biography of the 
vagabond soldier and gambler 'who, with God's grace, became the 
founder of the Fathers of a Good Death, and the patron saint of 
the sick and dying. His life for forty-six years was one of un- 
interrupted suffering. Still he never allowed anyone to wait upon 
him, and when scarcely able to stand would crawl out of his bed 
to visit the sick. He established many houses in various cities of 
Italy, and was renowned for the gift of miracles and prophecy. 
He was canonized in 1746 by Benedict XIV. 



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27# NEW BOOKS [May, 

THIRTY-ONE DAYS WITH OUR BLESSED LADY. By Mar- 
garet M. Kennedy. New York : Benziger Brothers. $i.oo net 
Catholic children who read the author's Tlte Holy Child Seen 

by His Saints, will welcome this new life of our Blessed Lady. 

It explains in simple language the Scriptural references to the 

Blessed Virgin, the Church's feasts in her honor, her shrines 

throughout the world, and the devotions to her name. 

WITH SAM HOUSTON IN TEXAS. By Edwin L. Sabin. Phila- 
delphia: J. B. Lippincott Co. $1.25 net. 
There is no doubt of Mr. Sabin's ability to write the kind of 
book that will satisfy both boyish love of adventure and boyish 
craving for knowledge. He thinks of maps and diagrams and all 
the little details which boys love to find out and feel ag- 
grieved to miss. This story of the meteoric Sam Houston who 
played so important and so picturesque a part in the establishment 
of Texan independence displays new proof of the author's ability 
to provide boy readers with accurate historical information in very 
agreeable form. Santa Anna, Jim Bowie, the Lone Star flag, the 
critical battle of San Jacinto— these are among the topics that re- 
ceive generous treatment in the tale before us. 

THE ETERNAL FEMININE. . By Mary Shipman Andrews. New 

York: Charles Scribner's Sons. $1.35 net. 

The Eternal Feminine is a collection of short stories linked 
together by their common portraiture of the weakness, the whims, 
and the greatness of the feminine nature, as seen in the life of 
modern society. Many of the stories, especially Her Fling and 
The Eternal Feminine, are clever and amusing and make delightful 
reading. Two of the tales are more sombre, and give glhnpses 
into the tragic depths of life. Cods of Fire is an excellent por- 
trayal of the attitude of the Suffragist Party in England towards 
the Great War as seen in the story of the ardent Aileen O'Hara. 
The latter part of this collection is less interesting. 

FOREIGN AND PAMPHLET PUBLICATIONS. 

Introduction a VEtude du Merveilleux et du Miracle, by the AbW Joseph 
dc Tonquedcc, S.J. (Paris: Gabrid Beauchesne. 5/r.) This is a detailed 
and scholarly treatise on miracles, their possibility, nature, and history. The 
various chapters treat of naturalism, determinism, the philosophy of con- 
tinuity (Bergson, Le Roy and Blondel), the natural and supernatural ex- 
planation of miracles, and a critical appreciation of the miracles of ancient 
and modem timet. 

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19171 NEIV BOOKS 271 

The Providence of God and our attitude towards Him in the face of 
suffering are treated in a small pamphlet, entitled En Face De La Douleur, 
by Antonin Eymieu, SJ.,.and published by Gabriel Beauchesne. 

The same house issues a pamphlet, entitled Pensies Chritiennes sur La 
Guerre, by Jules Lebreton, which treats of country and Church, our earthly 
home, and the universal city of souls. 

Father Mainage publishes, through Beauchesne, a study of apostasy. He 
writes of its causes, of some of the leading apostates, and how these same 
men bear testimony to the truth of Catholic Faith. 

From the same publishing house comes a volume of consoling thoughts 
and helpful lessons, drawn from the present war, entitled Dieu attend, by 
Monsignor Gouraud, Bishop of Vannes. Also a volume, entitled Dieu La 
Legon des faits, by Auguste Drive, which is a very practical answer to the 
objections of atheists and skeptics. 

A very important publication of the same house is Les Fondements de 
la Doctrine Catholique, by Rev. Louis Prunel, which treats of the foundations 
of Catholic doctrine. The present volume considers particularly proofs for 
the belief in God. The introduction is by Monsignor Baudrillart 

Of the Pages Actuelles, published by Bloud & Gay, Paris, we have received 
the following : Les Lemons du Livre Jaune, by Henri Welschinger ; Les Procidis 
de Guerre des Allemands en Belgique, by Henri Davignon; Le Service de 
Santi pendant la Guerre, by Joseph Reinach; La Chimie meurtriire des Alle- 
mands, by Francis Marre ; La Paix Religieuse, by Henri Joly ; Les Revendica- 
tions Territoriales de la Belgique, by Maurice des Ombiaux; La Definse de 
L'Esprit Francois, by Rene Doumic ; La Reprisentation nationale au Lendemain 
de la Paix, Les Mitrailleuses, by Francis Marre; France et Belgique, by 
Maurice des Ombiaux, and Les Armes diloyales des Allemands, by Francis 
Marre. 

The same house has sent us a well-documented volume, entitled Le Sup- 
plice de Louvain. 

From the same publishers we have received the following numbers of a 
new series, entitled, L'Hommage Francais; UEffort de L'Inde et de L'Union 
Sud'Africaine, by Joseph Chailley; UEffort Colonial Francais, by A. Lebrun; 
UEffort de UAfrique du Nord, by Augustin Bernard; UEffort Canadien, by 
Gaston Deschamps, and UEffort Britannique, by Andre Lebon. 

Why the French wage war is discussed by Monsignor Baudrillart in a 
pamphlet, published by La Revue Hebdomadaire, and entitled Notre Pro- 
Pagande, 

The Comit€ de Publication sends us a small volume, entitled Lettres h 
Tous Les Francais, 

The Good Press, Paris, have issued a well illustrated volume, telling the ex- 
periences of a Catholic Chaplain on the Lorraine front. 

Burrup, Matheison & Sprague of London have issued in pamphlet form 
the Pastoral Letter of His Eminence, Cardinal Mercier, of October, 1916. 

The Last Phase in Belgium is a statement made by Viscount Bryce on 
the Belgian deportations. It is published by W. Speaight & Sons of London. 

Poland for the Poles treats of the resurrections of Poland, and is pub- 
lished by Allen & Unwin of London. 

For those interested in the remarkable growth and development of the 
Church in Australia, Manly, the Year Book of St. Patrick's College, Sydney, 
Australia, will be of special interest. 



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IRecent Events. 

Of recent events by far the most important 
Our Country at War. is the entrance, so long deferred, of this 

country into the World War. At the be- 
ginning there were clear-sighted men who saw, and some even 
said, that a clash was inevitable between the representatives of ideas 
of government so totally opposed as are those of an absolute autoc- 
racy and of government by the people for the people. Every 
effort was made by the supporters of self-government to avoid a 
collision. So far, in fact, were these endeavors carried that there 
were not a few who were beginning to despair of their country, and 
to look upon the present generation of American citizens as un- 
worthy sons of their fathers. So blind, however, was the German 
Government that it took every possible step to render the collision 
inevitable, and to make even the least worthy of the citizens of 
this country see and feel that a conflict was inevitable. Those 
whom the invasion of Belgium and the outrages inflicted on its 
inhabitants failed to move; those whom even the Lusitania mas- 
sacre did not stir to action, when summoned by the Kaiser to keep 
off the ocean, and to limit their commerce by regulations made in 
Berlin, saw that the limits of forbearance had been reached, and 
that if they gave in their submission to decrees of such a character 
the days of freedom were numbered. The yoke which Prussia had 
been so long preparing was already being put upon the neck of the 
American Republic, even before there was an assurance of victory 
in the war. "There is one choice we cannot make, we are in- 
capable of making; we will not choose the path of submission 
and suffer the most sacred rights of our nation and our people to 
be ignored or violated." Such was the answer which the blindness 
of the would-be rulers of the modem world forced from a President 
whose tolerance of wrongs seemed to be inexhaustible. 

Although German interference with commerce was the occa- 
sion of active resistance on the part of this country, bringing home, 
as it did to everyone, the necessity either of such resistance or of 
abject submission to foreign domination, yet the war will be 
waged for even nobler objects. To use the President's words: 
" Our object is to vindicate the principles of peace and justice in 

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1917.I RECENT EVENTS 273 

the life of the world as against selfish and autocratic power, and to 
set up among the really free and self-governed peoples such a 
concert of purpose and of action as will henceforth insure the 
observance of those principles." German success would have 
involved submission not to law and order, but to a group of 
ambitious men working in secret for ends of their own, making 
use of any and every means to attain their ends without consultation 
with the people through whose efforts and sufferings those ends 
are to be obtained. The methods adopted by such a group of con- 
spirators against the well-being of the world are in keeping with the 
ends for which they were adopted; that is to say, by a course of 
intrigue through spies in neighbor States with a view to their con- 
quest. Methods and ends of this kind are suitable only to auto- 
cratic governments working in the dark. To democratic govern- 
ments such methods are abhorrent ; in fact incompatible with their 
existence. 

The President, therefore, calls upon the American people to 
accept the gauge of battle. " We are accepting this challenge of 
hostile purpose because we know that in such a government, fol- 
lowing such methods, we can never have a friend, and that in the 
presence of its organized power, always lying in wait to accomplish 
we know not what purpose, there can be no assured security for 

the democratic governments of the world With this natural 

foe to liberty [we] shall if necessary spend the whole force of the 
nation to check and nullify its pretensions and its power. We are 

glad to fight thus for the ultimate peace of the world, and 

for the liberation of its people, the German people included, for 
the rights of nations, great and small, and the privilege of men 
everywhere to choose their way of life and of obedience. The 
world must be made safe for democracy We desire no in- 
demnities for ourselves, no material compensation for the sacri- 
fices we shall freely make. We are but one of the champions of 
the ri^ts of mankind. We shall be satisfied when these rights 
have been made as secure as the faith and the freedom of nations 
can make them." 

Securus judical orbis terrarum. The judgment passed upon 
the enemy by the President and ratified by the representatives 
of the American people has been anticipated by most of the 
neutral States of the world, and ratified by practically all the 
rest. Of European neutral countries Spain is the most important; 
she has been going through a similar experience to that of this 

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274 RECENT EVENTS [May, 

country. Some eighty thousand Germans have found a home there, 
and have been abusing this privilege by giving active support to 
German interests. A large portion of the press has been taken 
into their pay; while repeated attempts have been made to intimi- 
date the Government. To make sure of his position the Premier 
some little time ago offered his resignation, a resignation which 
was not accepted. His judgment of the submarine campaign in- 
augurated by Germany on the first of February coincides with that 
of our President. Germany's action he declares to be contrary to 
the principle observed by all nations, even in the moments of the 
most extreme violence. The reasons advanced by the German 
Government are declared not to be sufficient to dispense with the 
fulfillment of the obligations of international maritime law. For 
this reason the Spanish Government presented its tranquil but 
firm protest to that of Germany. It made the necessary reserva- 
tion of its claims for compensation for the injuries which might be 
inflicted. Want of power made it impossible for Spain to act as 
our country has done. Recent telegrams, however, seem to indi- 
cate a possibility of a more energetic policy, due to the exaspera- 
tion which is spreading on account of repeated injuries. 

Denmark, Sweden and Norway united in a common protest 
against German methods. In an identical note they affirm that no 
belligerent has the right to prohibit peaceful navigation through 
zones, the limits of which are very distant from the enemy coasts. 
A neutral ship cannot be captured if it is not making any attempt 
to violate the blockade. In the event of its being captured it must 
be brought before a Prize Court. The unlawfulness of German 
methods is increased by the fact that they are to be carried out by 
submarines. A formal protest is, therefore, made against the 
methods adopted by Germany, as well as full reservation of all 
losses caused by the violation of neutral rights. Even Sweden, 
where there is an influential party with German sympathies, was 
unanimous in its condemnation of the new method of sea warfare. 
The feeling of Holland was still more bitter, as its effect upon 
that country was more immediate. No note of protest, however, 
seems to have been sent, its uselessness apparently having been 
already recognized in view of the many attempts already made to 
obtain redress in other cases of injury. Moreover, a German army 
is encamped at the gates of Holland. Switzerland, in a note sent 
to the Imperial Government, bluntly declared that that Government 
could not but recognize that the measures announced by it con- t 

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1917.I RECENT EVENTS 275 

stitutcd a grave infringement of the right of peaceful trade which, 
in conformity with the principles of international law, appertained 
to Switzerland as a neutral State. Even Greece could not refrain 
from protesting, as did several of the South American Republics, 
while China not only protested against the violation of the sacred 
rights of neutrals, but after some hesitation proceeded to break 
off relations with the German Empire. Whether war will be de- 
clared is at present still doubtful. 

Following upon this country's declaration of a state of war, 
the world-wide condemnation has become even more emphatic 
Cuba at once ranged herself on the side of this country and declared 
war upon Germany. This was done not merely in protection of 
her rights as a neutral, but in recognition of the services which 
the United States had rendered to. her in the acquisition of her 
own freedom. Panama has taken the same course as Cuba and 
for the same reasons. Brazil has severed relations with Germany, 
and has seized the shipping which had taken refuge in her harbors. 
In taking this step no little risk of civil war is confronted, for in 
no country have the Germans penetrated so successfully. Three of 
Brazil's provinces are mainly German, there being something like 
two millions of them, with German schools, German ministers and 
the exclusive use of the German language. Guatemala, Bolivia 
and Costa Rica are to be added to the list of Germany's enemies, 
while Argentina has given a formal endorsement of President 
Wilson's address to Congress. Even Haiti has rallied to the sup- 
port of international right. A few more States are to be heard 
from, none of which are of any importance, except Chile, Peru, 
and Siam. Mexico's President, General Carranza, is said to ap- 
prove of Germany's methods, but has announced the intention of 
observing strict neutrality. 

Calm confidence in the justice of its cause and in its ability 
to secure a successful issue is the characteristic of this country. 
Unity is growing. While in the Senate an insignificant minority 
voted against the declaration of a state of war; in the House 
fifty were opposed to it. Against the seven billion dollar loan, 
however, there was not a dissenting vote. Earnest opponents of the 
war declaration, such as Mr. Claude Kitchin, are now warm sup- 
porters of the war. Ex-Presidents Taft and Roosevelt are at one 
with the President, whom hitherto the latter has so severely crit- 
icized. Mr. Roosevelt is eager to raise a force of Americans 
to fight in France, side by side with the French and British, and t 

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276 RECENT EVENTS [May, 

with the fifty thousand Americans who are already fighting for 
the common cause. Mr. Bryan has offered himself for service as 
a private. Republicans like Mr. Root deprecate all criticism of the 
Democratic government, and promise full support. 

Of course perfect unanimity cannot be reached among one 
hundred million of people. This country has its due share of the 
uninformed and ignorant, of the selfish and of shirkers, perhaps 
even of secret traitors, at least among foreign nationalities. But 
the great body of the people is at one in its love of liberty, and 
when the necessity is seen will make every sacrifice for its preserva- 
tion and even for its extension. There are times of crisis when a 
price must be paid for the realization of every ideal. The present 
time is one in which the realization of our country's ideal involves 
the payment of this price. Such payment few Americans will 
hesitate to make. With the Allies, Great Britain, France, Italy 
and Russia there will be close cooperation. Conferences of the 
Allies have been held in Paris, Rome and Petrograd. The next 
is to be held in Washington, where it will be determined how close 
a union will be formed with the nations now in conflict with Ger- 
many, and to American officials will be communicated the knowl- 
edge of war methods which has been gained in Europe. It seems 
to be already settled that this country will not be content with 
remaining upon the defensive, nor yet with furnishing the Allies 
with foodstuffs and munitions. 

While the army is united and undatmted 
France. political rivalry has revived. Personal dis- 

like of M. Briand has for a long time ex- 
isted, called forth perhaps by a certain degree of arbitrariness on 
his part. The claim made by him for power to legislate by decree 
was totally opposed to the desire of a large party in the House of 
Deputies to supervise even military operations. The French Cham- 
ber is very jealous of any encroachment upon its powers. This 
it was that led to the resignation of General Lyautey as Minister of 
War. His tenure of this ministry was very brief, for he found 
it impossible to accommodate himself to the compromises ren- 
dered necessary by the demands of the politicians. As Governor of 
Morocco he had long been accustomed to have his own way and 
could not yield obedience to the civil authorities; he was even 
unwilling, and gave public expression to his unwillingness, for his 
plans to be discussed in a secret sitting. The Chamber treated this i^ 

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I9I7-1 RECENT EVENTS 277 

as an insult. General Lyautey looked upon the criticism of the 
Chamber as incompatible with his being able to serve the best 
interests of the country, and therefore gave in his resignation. 
Hostility to M. Briand was an element in the affair. Thereupon 
M. Briand decided himself to resign along with his whole Cabinet 
He had been in office from the beginning of the war in the Cabinet 
of M. Viviani. In October, 1915, he himself became Premier as 
well as Minister of Foreign Affairs. With but little difficulty a 
new Cabinet was formed by M. Ribot, who had been Minister of 
Finance in M. Briand's Cabinet That the new Cabinet has not 
been formed in any spirit of opposition to M. Briand is shown 
by the fact that he was pressed to remain as Foreign Minister. 
As he could not see his way to accept, M. Ribot has become both 
Premier and Foreign Minister. The best-known members of the 
new Cabinet are M. Viviani, M. Painleve (who becomes Minister 
of War), Admiral Lacase and M. Thomas. The Ministry is 
slightly more Radical than its predecessor, but little new blood has 
been infused by the change, since of fifteen Ministers five were in 
M. Briand's last Cabinet, and only four have not held office with 
him since the beginning of the war. The new Premier is seventy- 
five years of age, and is looked upon as the Grand Old Man of 
France. 

The prosecution of the War was not involved in any way in 
the crisis. The fundamental idea of the new Ministry is the same as 
that of its predecessors, namely, to win the War, and not to end 
it until the provinces torn from France in the past had been re- 
covered, and a durable peace prepared based on respect for the 
rights and freedom of peoples. No government, in fact, could 
exist in France which had not victory as its watchword. 

With reference to the controversies which have arisen as to 
Parliamentary control of the army, M. Ribot, in his declaration 
of policy, said that the question of the High Command had been 
settled in the most simple manner. The Cabinet was intrusted, sub- 
ject to the control of the Chamber, with the political direction, and 
was master of all that concerned the organization and upkeep of 
the army. When the Government had chosen the chief to lead 
the troops to victory it gave to him complete freedom in regard 
to the strategic conception, preparation and direction of operations. 
After, before and through all these changes France remains un- 
shaken, unseduced, unterrified. The righteousness of her cause, 
the memories of her past, the fair hopes of the future render her 

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278 RECENT EVENTS [May, 

resolves unchangeable. These hopes have been brightened by the 
enforced retreat of the enemy from the soil which he has so long 
polluted, and by many indications that his strength is weakening. 
The advent of this country is hailed with delight. At the same 
time undue confidence of an immediate victory is not felt, for the 
fact that the foe is still strong is fully recognized. No illusions are 
cherished on this point. 

What the President calls the wonderful and 
Russia. heartening things that have been happening 

in Russia, by means of which the autocracy 
which had so long oppressed the people was deposed, and Russia 
added to the list of democratic nations, made it easier for this coun- 
try to enter into cooperation with the other Allies. Under different 
forms of government Great Britain, France and Italy, as well as 
Portugal, which is taking a small, yet active part in the war, are 
all of them free peoples. An alliance, although enforced by the 
necessities of the case, with so despotic a Government as that of 
Russia was felt to be a drawback by those whose main interest in 
the War was that it was a conflict between despotism and freedom. 
For these the Revolution in Russia has removed the only ground 
for hesitation, as it brought about a complete union of ideals be- 
tween all the Allies. Whether so sudden a change would be per- 
manent became a source of anxiety. Various rumors have been 
afloat that the moderate government which has been set up was 
endangered by two opposed sets of enemies, reactionaries on the 
one hand and extremists on the other. From the reactionaries 
the dangers were not great. For many years their influence had 
been waning. In the sixties of the last century reforms had been 
introduced which if fully developed would have saved the country 
from the maleficent influence of the long established bureaucracy. 
These reforms were the abolition of slavery and the institution of 
the Zemtvoes, provincial councils for the management of local af- 
fairs. Alexander III. did everything in his power to nullify these 
measures, but was unable to restore the previous state of things. 
In 1905 the dammed-up torrent burst forth and the Tsar was forced 
to give something like a constitution. Within something like ten 
years the Russians under its influence have become a new people, 
with its back turned irrevocably upon the old ideas. The utter 
failure of the bureaucracy in the management of the present War 
has hastened the transformation, and has sealed its own fate. It 
proved its inadequacy to cope with the pressing problems which had , 

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1917] RECENT EVENTS 279 

arisen. The last stronghold to surrender was the Nobles* Congress. 
A short time before the Revolution, which took things out of the 
hands of the incompetent, this Congress endorsed the resolutions 
which had been passed by both Houses of Parliament, which de- 
manded the formation of a strong united Ministry enjoying the 
confidence of the people. 

The army placed itself at the service of the Duma, and it was 
by its instrumentality that the Revolution was effected. No small 
share, however, was taken by an association of workingmen and 
of soldier deputies. Unfortunately this Association after the Revo- 
lution had been effected has assumed the character of .a separate 
government, and stands out as a rival of the Provisional Govern- 
ment established by the Duma. The Workmen's Council aims at 
dictating both internal and foreign policy. It is this body that has 
treated with the German Socialist Deputies, who came in quest of a 
separate peace. Civil war appeared imminent, for the Petrograd 
Coimcil seemed on the point of yielding to the wishes of their Ger- 
man colleagues. The army and the nation however, united in 
their determination to prosecute the War. The Petrograd extrem- 
ists were defeated at a National Congress which has just been held 
by an overwhelming majority made up of Deputies from the various 
cities of Russia. For the moment the danger of a separate peace 
has been avoided. The existence, however, of such bodies as these 
Councils aiming at a quasi-independence and arrogating to them- 
selves such powers, renders the stability of the present Government 
somewhat precarious, and makes the friends of the new rigitne 
anxious. The discipline of the soldiers fighting with the 
enemy has been imperiled. The arrest of General Kuropatkin, 
Governor-General of Turkestan, by the Council of Soldier Dele- 
gates, news of which has just arrived, forms an illustration of the 
dangers of the situation. By a formal declaration of a Congress 
just held at Petrograd, the Council of Workmen's and Soldiers' 
Delegates calls upon the revolutionary democracy of Russia to 
maintain its control of the Provisional Government. This means 
that it intends to govern and not to be governed. Substantial unity 
continues to exist, as to the conduct of the war. The entire army, 
officers, and men alike, notwithstanding the political changes and 
the threatened failure of discipline consequent upon them is for 
the continuation of the War to a victorious end. The disorganiza- 
tion formerly threatened has been remedied. Full cooperation be- 
tween front and rear has been established. 

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28o RECENT EVENTS [May, 

Evidence grows that the Dual Monarchy is 
Austria-Hungary. struggling to free itself from the domina- 
tion of Prussia which has proved so disas- 
trous. The appointment of a Slav Premier and Foreign Minister 
was a step in this direction. The more recent resignations of pro- 
Germans in the Cabinet, as well as that of Count Tisza (if true) as 
Premier of Hungary, are still clearer indications. The recently-made 
separate offer of peace to Russia points in the same direction. Aus- 
tria's losses have been stupendous, because the mass of her Slav pop- 
ulation was driven into war for Germany to which they were op- 
posed. The impressed soldiers surrendered to the enemy by tens of 
thousands, until Germany was forced to take complete control. So 
far has this control gone that it is said that every eight soldiers in the 
Austrian army is under the command of a German. That a young 
Emperor could not brook such a domination is nothing to wonder 
at. The food shortage and the approach of bankruptcy made the 
people still more war weary and depressed. Then came the Russian 
Revolution, which served both as a warning to the Emperor and an 
example to his subjects. The entry of the United States put an end 
to all hopes of an early peace. The declaration of the Russian 
Provisional Government that it did not seek for conquest, and that 
it would conclude peace only on the basis of the right of nations 
to decide their own destiny for themselves, was responded to by 
an Austrian semi-official declaration that it was ready to discuss 
practical proposals. This self-assertion of Austria of a right to 
speak for herself caused amazement and even consternation in 
Berlin, where Austria is looked upon as a vassal and not a very 
profitable one at that. Hurried conferences took place which even- 
tuated in the announcement that the Austrian statement had been 
issued with the knowledge of the Kaiser. Austrian eagerness to 
respond to the Russian declaration, while it shows how keen was 
her desire for peace, does no credit to her discernment. For the 
Russian declaration is at one with the answer given to Mr. Wilson 
by the Allies, that nationalities have a right to choose their own 
destinies. This would be the deathknell of the Dual Monarchy, 
made up, as it is, of more than a dozen different races. 



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With Our Readers. 

AT the time of the meeting of the Protestant Pan-American Con- 
gress at Panama, we pointed out the great harm done to our 
country by the misrepresentation, and the falsehoods — ^to use no 
stronger word — expressed and widely circulated by that Congress 
against the Republics of South America. Because these Republics 
are Catholic no emphasis was neglected in describing how ignorant, 
"mediaeval," inunoral — ^and even uncivilized — ^was the condition in 
which most of their people lived. The unscrupulous assertions of the 
Congress fortunately had little weight; but that was not due to any 
lack of effort and eloquence and publicity on the part of the defamers. 
Their bigotry cared as little for truth as it did for patriotism. They 
were willing to deprive our country of the support and friendship of 
these Southern Republics, just as their forefathers robbed us of the 
support of Canada in Revolutionary times. 

Recent events have taught the American people how disastrous the 
nefarious work of these bigots may be. Certainly today when the 
President has appealed for the support of these same Republics, and 
when Brazil and Argentina have both broken with Germany and 
seconded the President's stand in the cause of democracy, no such 
Congress as that of Panama could be held or, if it were held, such 
defamers of these Republics as boldly voiced their bigotry two years 
ago would be silenced by the hisses of the nation. 

4i 4i ♦ ♦ 

A LETTER from the Rector of the Cathedral of Tucuman, Ar- 
gentine Republic was recently published in The Queen's Work, 
This letter dealt with the religious condition of the country and the 
social works organized and conducted by Catholics. Religious activity 
in Argentina is, it states, both progressive and fruitful. In the larger 
cities sodalities of both men and women are so solidly established 
that the person who does not belong to one of them is regarded as 
an exception. Catholic organizations are almost innumerable, and all 
support works of charity and benevolence, hospitals, orphanages, col- 
leges, homes for the aged, institutes for the poor, rural banks, mutual 
aid societies, hcmies for religious retreats, associations for teaching 
Christian doctrine, etc., etc. Two associations of and for laboring 
men: the " Workingmen's Centres" and the "Social League of 
Argentina " are both widely established throughout the Republic. The 
Conferences of St Vincent de Paul are in a flourishing condition and 
have a large enrollment. As for the Catholic press, this letter states 
that it has not yet attained the power and social influence that rightly 
belong to it. The causes it assigns are: digitized by VjU^^giC 



^2 WITH OVR READERS [May, 

" I. Lack of capital for launching great papers; 2. The difficulty 
of competing on equal terms, considering the industrialism of the 
modern press, which, among us, aims at the promotion of conunerce 
and trade more than at the imparting of sound views. Then, too, 
we must take into account that we would have to compete with those 
two colossi of the newspaper world. La Nacian and La Prensa — ^which 
are not surpassed in this country, nor, indeed, in any nation of Europe. 
We have but five or six Cathdic dailies of importance. Catholic re- 
views, however, and less important organs of religious propaganda 
are numerous. 

" Instruction in the official schools is non-sectarian, though the 
teaching of religion is allowed after school hours. Private schools 
maintained by the Catholics greatly preponderate, in nearly all the 
important capitals of the country, over the state schools. All people 
of means send their sons by preference to the Catholic schools, which 
generally keep their classes well filled." 



AS for the morality of the people, the true Argentine is marked 
by an earnestness of religious faith, a characteristic that beccmies 
all the more evident as we move out from the great cities, transformed 
by their cosmopolitanism. This spirit of earnest faith is a great 
mainstay of morality in the individual, the family, and society. 

"The Argentine can point to his hcmie with pride as a lofty 
example of Christian honor and virtue. Among the higher classes of 
society, an illegitimate child is practically unknown; it would be a 
scandal. Among the poorer people in the suburbs of the great cities 
and in the slums there is, no doubt, scmiething to correct and im- 
prove; but our morality is very far from fearing comparison with 
that of corresponding classes in other large cities of the world. 

" Among the inhabitants of the vast prairie lands and mountains 
remote from civilization, such people as distance permits to secure 
the ministry of a priest avail themselves of it gladly; and they all 
seek marriage within the Church. Systematized immorality and im- 
piety in speech and way of life are things that are unknown save in 
those centres and among those people who have suffered the deleterious 
influence of that immigration of the nations which, without any re- 
straint of law, pours into the entire continent. And in this often un- 
desirable immigration, the worst element is always made up of the 
enemies of Catholicism." 

♦ ♦ ♦ 41 

A ND the letter thus answers another of the calumnies of the Prot- 
-«r\ estant Panama Congress: 

" The accusation that in South America a great prop<grt^on^ &^\ftt)05lc 



1917] ff^ITH OUR READERS 283 

Catholic women have lost their honor is an offence as gratuitous as it 
is unjust. We have already spoken of the moral standing of our 
homes. The Catholic conscience which forms them is a crucible 
of society which does not tolerate that lightness of moral principle 
so common, and even sanctioned by law, in non-Catholic communities. 
'' To such an extent is our faith looked upon as the guarantee of 
our social morality that many men of all religious professions and 
of high standing in social and economic life seek their spouses among 
the ladies of Argentina, and thus form Catholic homes — ^a proof to 
demonstration that the Protestants and anti-Catholics resident in 
Argentina, many of^them men of the highest standing, do not believe 
that in marrying Argentines they ally themselves with degraded and 
immoral women, and thus the statement made in the Protestant Con- 
gress of Panama is an infamous falsehood." 

♦ 41 ♦ 4( 

TO the work of education Argentina devotes more than a third of 
her total revenues, an expenditure that but few nations equal. 
That there are some uneducated people in Argentina is due not to a 
lack of appreciation of the benefits of education on the part of the 
people, nor to the neglect of the ecclesiastical authorities, but simply 
because the problem itself is too vast. "Resources are not limitless, 
and the sparse settling of many districts obliges the State to multiply 
schools in far-outlying regions without important civil centres and in 
immense tracts of mountainous country, where people live almost as 
solitaries, and where there is nothing to compensate for the sacrifices 
made, since often a scant thirty pupils can be collected for three 
leagues around." 

m * * * 

THE Catholic faith in Argentina, far from being an agent of national 
retrogression and decadence, is bound up not only with the moral 
excellence of the country, but also with its political liberty and en- 
lightenment. The first universities were the work of "the Church; 
hers all the schools before the declaration of the Republic; hers, ex- 
clusively hers, the work of evangelizing the native tribes ; hers was the 
influence, gradual yet ever-advancing, that made our people moral, just 
as she had long before evangelized Europe after tiie invasion of the 
barbarians, who laid aside their native uncouthness and savagery be- 
fore the refining influence of her education and the purity of her 
moral standards. And yet, this very uncouthness and savagery of the 
barbarians that overwhelmed early Europe, certain novelists, shrewd 
impostors whose cry has been taken up by the Protestants, have es- 
sayed to attribute to the Catholic Church; as though she were to 
blame if the earth brings forth savage and brutal men, full of passion 
and vice, against whom the powers of ^rth strikcj^j^Jy^ ^^^^f&h^i^ 



284 IVITH OUR READERS [May, 

pieces, till the intruder bows before the divine power exercised by 
Catholicism through all the centuries of her history." 

4t ♦ ♦ ♦ 

"T^HE retailers of information on the moral and religious side of 
1 South America," says this well-written defence, " either defame 
us without knowing us or calumniate us with a baseness that argues 
ill for their own standards of morality and contrasts strikingly with 
our generosity, which asks no man his religious affiliations before of- 
fering him hospitality with the courtesy proper to our race and with 
the sincerity bom of our religious faith " 



SOME of the " intellectuals " who think it proper to praise George 
Bernard Shaw and )rield him a high place as a thinker, will, per- 
haps, revise their judgment and put him in a much lower niche, after 
reading this estimate of him by H. G. Wells : " I have praised," says 
Wells, " his fine English prose and all that can be praised of his plays. 
I admire one of his novels and all of his blank verse. But I have 
a poor opinion of his thoughts and his ways of thinking. I think 
he is a loose, garrulous, infectious, and very confusing mental activity; 
and when the chance comes my way I do what I can to check or 
stop his influence. So far as contributing to the mentality of the com- 
munity goes, I do not think that he is now any good at all." 



IT is important and gratifying to note that the Thirty-Fourth General 
Convention of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae which met this 
year at Washington, D. C, held one of its Conference Days at Trinity 
College of that city. This Association includes both Catholic and 
non-Catholic women colleges of the United States. The membership 
is predominantly non-Catholic. The questions discussed at such con- 
ferences are of great importance to the whole educational world ; the 
interests which such an Association controls are far-reaching. Space 
does not permit us to treat the discussions at length, but it is surely 
an encouraging sign that Trinity College has thus opened up a new 
avenue of opportunity for helpfulness to Catholic students, for pro- 
mulgating the Catholic view on topics of public interest and for extend- 
ing Catholic influence to still wider fields. 



THE Trinity College Record will be proud of its " record " of ten 
years' publication. The April issue is its anniversary number. 
Since its beginning, the subjects treated, the skill with which they 
have been handled and presented, for we speak of both the prose 
and the poetry, bear testimony to the ability, the talent and the food ^q]^ 

igi ize y ^ 



1917.] ^ITH OUR READERS 285 

taste of its editors and of the whole student body of Trinity College. 
To support a magazine such as this, speaks well for the abiding loyalty 
of both students and alumnse. 

The present issue is particularly timely with regard to "current 
events.*' America at war was foreseen, and the patriotic note is 
strong. Mary McKenna, '07, in a poetic reminiscence of ten years, 
hopes that the horrid dream which no one had dreamt and yet which 
came true would never include us, yet : 

If it should reach its hatred out to us, 
Its cold despairing fingers clutch our hearts, 
And touch the things that we have loved and known, 
We have the power which of old we had 
To face it bravely and to breast its force — 
To look beyond it and to see the light — 
To rear a new dream « 
Ere the old is shattered. 
We have the gift— 
And God Who gave the gift 
Will lend the strength. 
41 41 41 41 

AND as an editor of some experience considers such a publication as 
the Trinity Record, and other numerous Catholic college publica- 
tions showing ability and interest in the things of the mind, he wonders, 
and he asks, what becomes of all this promising talent in the world 
of post-college years, in the world of Catholic literature? Some there 
are who fulfill the promise, and attain. But they are comparatively 
few. The low estate of Catholic letters as far as popular interest or 
paucity of writers is concerned, seems to argue that the last day of 
college signals the twilight rather than the morning of intellectual ap- 
plication, and that much of the fruit dies ere it is bom. 



CATHOLIC CHAPLAINS FOR THE ARMY. 

To THE Editor of the Catholic World: 

The entrance of our country into war against the German Govern- 
ment has naturally set to work every agency of our Federal Govern- 
ment to the building up of effective land and naval forces. How far 
those forces will be augmented it is, of course, too early to say, but 
that a large Army will be recruited, either by the volunteer system or 
that of conscription, is certain. 

It is now planned to increase the Army to twelve hundred thou- 
sand men. Chaplains for service in this Army will be required on 
the basis of one chaplain for each twelve hundred men. To the 
Catholic Church has been allotted forty per cent of the chaplains — 
an allottment based on the religious census of the country.. This :> 

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286 WITH OUR READERS [May, 

means that within the next few months four hundred priests will 
be required to serve as chaplains in our new Army. 

It is not too soon to take effective measures that the required 
number will be ready when called for by our Government. The sol- 
diers of the new Army will be chosen from every section of the 
country. Whether the volunteer system or conscription is adopted, 
thousands of our Catholic young men will be enrolled. They will be 
at a formative and critical period of their lives, their ages ranging 
from nineteen to twenty-four years. The need for spiritual guidance 
and immediate supervision that they may avoid the serious tempta- 
tions that will beset t\iem, is beyond all question. We all stand in 
need of such ministrations in the normal, civil walks of life: how 
much more they who are young, who are vigorous in active physical 
life, who are suddenly taken away from the blessed influence of h<mie 
and of private life and thrown among new and strange associates, 
many of whom have little or no religious training? Their life with 
its hours of idleness, of reaction demands the presence of a spiritual 
friend and guide as the Catholic priest always is. We have not 
spoken of the supreme need of the grace of the sacraments and of 
Holy Mass, because there is no need to dwell upon that. 

The situation, therefore, demands that every diocese of the coun- 
try — for the new soldiers will be taken from every diocese — con- 
tribute its share of capable priests, fitted for this immense and ar- 
duous work. It will be all but disastrous if preparation to meet the 
demand is left to the last moment. When, about a year ago, a 
large number of our militia troops were sent to the Mexican border, 
thousands of our Catholic soldiers had to go there without a priest 
to provide for their spiritual needs. Many of the bishops, with their 
accustomed zeal, when they found that the law did not provide for 
unofficial chaplains, sent priests to the border and maintained them 
there at their (the bishops') own expense. But the same priests were 
seriously handicapped in their freedom of administration by having 
no dficial standing in the army itself. 

The Government had made no provision for such chaplains, and 
consequently they wer^ not entitled to pay, rations, sleeping quarters, 
transportation or any other allowance. This would not have been the 
case if Catholic chaplains had previously secured a proportionate 
representation in the Chaplain corps of the National Guard. Such 
conditions should not be permitted to exist again. The supervision of 
Catholic chaplains for our army is in the hands and under the care 
of the Rev. J. Lewis O'Hem, C.S.P., of St. Paul's College, Brook- 
land, D. C. 

Under the new system of Universal Military Training, every 
youth of the country will be required to give a certain amount of t 

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1917.] ^ITH OUR READERS ^7 

time each week to drill. All schools will have military conductors 
and equipment, furnished by the State or National Government. All 
of our Catholic schools will share in these privileges, and consequently 
they will be on an equal footing with all other schools with regard 
to instructors and equipment, and also in the opportunities they can 
furnish their students to fit themselves as future officers in our Army. 

To those of our Catholic college youth who have already had 
more or less of military training, a special opportunity is presented 
at the present moment when the new Army is in its earliest stages of 
formation. 

The present small Army must be greatly expanded. The regu- 
lar channels for furnishing trained officers are too small to meet the 
present demand. Consequently, the Government has been compelled 
to go out on the highways and byways. Emergency Boards of Regular 
Army officers have been appointed to examine for a possible com- 
mission all young men who have had some military training. These 
Boards sit at many centres in the United States, and all young men 
are free to come before them for physical and mental examination. 

Our Catholic young men who have seen service at the Platts- 
burgh Camp, or received military training at Catholic school or col-^ 
lege, as many of them have, will easily meet the requirements. The 
names of those who pass this examination successfully are entered on 
a special list, and in the order of marks obtained will receive com- 
missions in the new Army as soon as it is formed. Such a commis- 
sion will not only furnish an honorable career for the young man, 
but after the war is over, since our Army will be kept up to a high 
numerical standard and military training of some sort, be made com- 
pulsory, he may continue that career, as there will be a greater and 
greater demand for his services. 

Young men from all the colleges throughout the United States 
are now making use of this opportunity by which they will become 
commissioned officers in the United States Army. The Adjutant 
General of the Army, Washington, D. C, will, upon request, fur- 
nish all necessary information, and instruct the inquirer as to which 
examination board will be most convenient for him. Every officer 
commissioned in this manner will receive the same rank, pay and al- 
lowances as an officer who has been graduated from West Point. 

I remain, very sincerely yours, 

George J. Waring, 

Chaplain, nth Cavalry, U. S, A. 



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To Jesus, from a Tired Heart il/. T. R. Washburn 342 

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Eleanor Donnelly— The Singer of Pure 

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Vol. CV. 



JUNE, 191 7. 



No. 627, 



A THEORY OP LIMITATIONS. 



BY WILLIAM -J. KERBY, PH.D. 




EW among us understand the role of our limitations 
in all the relations of life. Few among us realize 
that these limitations indicate the negative Will of 
God in our regard, and suggest thereby the positive 
Divine Will which is our supreme law. There is a 
touch of dramatic awe in the thought that our limitations are our 
strong mountain of defence in the sight of God. Men may not see 
them, or may misunderstand them; not seldom, therefore, do they 
judge us unfairly. We ourselves often overlook our own limita- 
tions and govern life by mistaken fancy. But God sees all limita- 
tions and deals with us in view of them. No divine judgment 
against us is ever recorded beyond the point where our powers end. 
Everything that God asks of us is found without shadow of excep- 
tion within the limits of our capacity. All laws both human and 
divine cease to compel us where our limitations enter. These mark 
the point, therefore, where all duties cease, where all sanctions be- 
come inoperative, where all opportunities lose their appeal. Re- 
sponsibility to God or to man comes with knowledge and power, 
but it cannot extend beyond them. No one is held to the impossible. 
Within the limits of what is possible we find our sanctity or our 
doom. Our limitations are exemptions from responsibility as- 
sured to us by God. 

The dignity of life is in our obligations. Protection against 

Copyright. 191 7. The Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle 



IN THE State of New York. 



VOL. cv.— 19 



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290 A THEORY OF LIMITATIONS [June, 

invasion of whatsoever kind is provided for by our rights. The 
limitations to which we are subjected in the constitution of nature 
and in the processes of life protect us against every demand that is 
beyond our strength, and chart the limits of our responsibility 
before God and man. If life w^re sinjpl^ and tiie Will of God 
were easily learned, JcriQwledge of our limitations might not be so 
important in our guidance. But life, is highly complex. The Will 
of God is frequently vague even in respect of the supreme decisions 
of life. Men judge us arbitrarily. They judge us by standards 
which they adopt without reflection, and they fail to make allowance 
for their own ignorance or narrowness. Their failure to under- 
stand our limitations and to respect them leads many into grave 
injustice when they judge us. We are forever in the turmoil of 
conflicting loyalties and confused desire. Hence, it is a soiu'ce 
of greatest comfort to understand our limitations and feel assured 
that God at least, if not men, takes them fully into account in im- 
posing duties upon us and in judging us. God does not ask us to 
do what we are unable to do. He takes into account with tender- 
ness and unfailing wisdom our every limitation, not only when 
imposing obligations but also when offering grace. What is more 
touching throughout the pages of the Gospel than the tenderness 
of Christ shown in the discourse of the Last Supper when He said : 
" I have yet many things to say to you but you cannot bear them 
now." 

The theologian who interprets the natural or revealed moral 
law finds surest guidance in the known limitations of human nature. 
He undertakes his task guided by the assumption that God does not 
ask the impossible. In all expositions of moral law the theologian 
must take account of knowledge and of capacity and of the lack 
of these, not only as found in the race, but also as found in each 
man and woman and child. All theories of obligation, all practical 
definitions of duty must take into account our knowledge of the 
law and our power to obey it. 

Political science, jurisprudence, law-making are true in prin- 
ciple and safe in direction only in so far as they take into account 
the limitations of man. The science of government exposes a 
theory of human nature, a judgment of its limitations and powers. 
Laws are necessary because of our limitations. Government is 
necessary because of our limitations. The philosophic anarchist 
who believes that human character can be made sufficiently perfect 
to maintain social order without coercion is led into that position 

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1917] A THEORY OP LIMITATIONS 291 

because of his view of the powers of human nature. We who 
cannot accept that theory are influenced by our understanding of 
its limitations. Social institutions are as they are because of the 
waywardness and selfishness of our desires. In proportion as the 
will of man is weak and social vision is clouded, self-consciousness 
and waywardness threaten order. Coercive institutions are intro- 
duced, therefore, in order to protect humanity against its own lim- 
itations. When Hood said that his theory of government was " an 
angel from heaven and a despotism," he uttered two judgments of 
the Ihnitations of human nature. He insinuated that power is 
dangerous, and that only an angel can exercise it with entire safetj . 
He implied also that the limitations of humanity are so marked 
that only a despotism can insure effective government. When Ed- 
mund Burke said that " power gradually extirpates from the mind 
every humane and gentle virtue," he too expressed a theory of the 
limitations of human nature when power is intrusted to it. This 
estimate of the behavior of human nature when exercising great 
power is central in all political science. When we argue most 
effectively against the enthusiasm of social reform or the attractive 
ideals of socialism, the basic analytical argument upon which we 
rely is drawn from the limitations of human nature as history sets 
them forth.* ' 

Popular leaders, teachers, parents, clergymen are wise or un- 
wise just as they understand the powers and limitations of those 
whom they attempt to form or direct. Here we find the danger of 
idealism and of theory. The mind can formulate theories that 
satisfy every demand of logic and appeal to everything wholesome 
in the human heart. But when too much insistence is placed upon 
ideals, system, abstract principle, and there is insufficient knowledge 
of the clinging limitations of heart and head found in every human 
being, leadership is made ineffective, and gravest harm results. 
Hence, the practical wisdom of Leo XIH. who reminded us in his 
great Encyclical on the " Condition of Labor " that howsoever we 
strive for social reform, we must take into account the limitations 
of human nature. 

There are many kinds of limitation. Some are inherent in 
human nature. No one escapes them. Some of them are inherent 
in the constitution of the individual and are peculiar to him. Nature 
may deny to one or another of us, but it will not deny to all of us, 

*Thc interesting little work of fimile Faguct, Le Culte de incompetence at- 
tempts with much ingenuity to show that men of marked limitatiotns corns to 
power in a Democracy. ^ ^^^ j 

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292 A THEORY OF LIMITATIONS [June, 

ability to sing, to debate, to think clearly, to learn easily or remem- 
ber well. Some limitations may be overcome by personal effort or 
by teachers. Many are derived from temperament, lack of imag- 
ination, or lack of sympathy, and are scarcely to be mastered at all. 
A man who lacks the fine feeling which is the flower of culture, 
can have none of the social vision which fits us for the highest 
form of life. Limitations may result from poor health or from 
lack of experience. Mistakes of teachers, lack of opportunity in 
early life, associations which hurt the very fibre of the soul will 
not fail to leave a harvest of limitations in a life that has been af- 
fected by them. Indecision, faulty methods in mental action, im- 
pulsiveness, are sometimes the result, sometimes the cause of limita- 
tions. In either case they are a permanent handicap in life. 

Frequently our limitations spring from environment rather 
than from ourselves. Races have peculiar Ihnitations which arc 
shared in varying degrees by their individual members. A Russian 
might understand where an American would be dull. Men who 
have risen to great power would have remained forever unknown 
had conditions not favored them. Fortune may anchor a man in 
a social circle or place upon him exacting duties which deny him 
all liberty to tread the pathway to eminence and force. When we 
speak of men who are ahead of their time or behind their time, 
we have in mind ordinarily limitations or powers due to circum- 
stance alone. Men differ greatly by their capacity to be helped by 
their civilization. Perhaps the genius is merely one whose courage, 
imagination and powers of assimilation enable him to be energized 
to a maximum degree by his civilization. Its thought inspires him. 
Its inventions arouse him. Its institutions yield their secrets to his 
lightest touch. The deeper currents that draw the world along 
throw their secrets at his feet as they pass. There is a touch of 
grandeur in the egotism of Ferdinand Lasalle, who said on one occa- 
sion, " In every line that I write I am armed with all the learning 
of the centuries." Men and their limitations might be described 
in the terms of their capacity to be helped by their civilization. 

We may distinguish between limitations for which we are in 
no way accountable, and those whose origin is traced to our own 
fault. Much of the moral incapacity which chains a man to today's 
sin or indifference is but the penalty of treason to grace and to 
personal ideals in an earlier day. Ruskin tells us that " every duty 
that we omit obscures some truth that we should have known." 
This entails as a penalty thereafter, clouded spiritual vision, unless 

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1917.] A THEORY OF LIMITATIONS 293 

the miracle of repentance brings to us renewed insight and further 
grace. Men live their future now. They determine by today's 
behavior and aspiration the strength or weakness that will to- 
morrow honor or shame them. 

What has been said refers to real limitations, that is, those 
which are in and of us in a physical, intellectual or moral sense. 
There are in addition, however, imputed limitations, those attrib- 
uted to us gratuitously by persons who judge us with unfairness. 
Real limitations modify character. Imputed limitations affect repu- 
tation. Such is our susceptibility to the estimate placed upon us 
by others that hnputed limitations often become real. They can 
so impress one as to catise discouragement and lead to practical 
despair, which paralyzes impulse and smothers belief in self. Cur- 
iosity, surmise, affectionate exaggeration, sarcasm, dislike, ignor- 
ance, malice play havoc in leading friends to impute indiscriminate 
power to us, and in causing enemies to give us credit for far- 
reaching limitations. In a ccwnpetitive civilization like ours the 
tendency to see the limitations of others is fundamental. It is 
striking that we have such a word as fault-finding but no word like 
virtue-finding. Lecky says that most of the uncharitable judg- 
ments in the world are due to limited imagination. Lowell observes 
that the world always judges a man by his little faults rather than 
by his great virtues. Hawthorne believes that the high interests 
of the world require that the limitations of our great men be 
hidden from us. We expect everything noble from a man of 
exalted reputation. A fault in him shocks us. We expect noth- 
ing from a man of evil reputation. A single kind action per- 
formed by him edifies us. The same action done by the former 
attracts no notice whatsoever. Hence, the paradox that a good 
man shocks us easily and a bad man edifies us as easily. In other 
words, our standards of judgment determine the limitations that 
we will find in others. We are defenceless against those who wish 
to judge us and do it, as they please. As George Eliot says, " There 
is no guarding against interpretation." 

Everything depends on the standard by which we judge men. 
If we view them in the light of unattainable perfection, we shall 
reach only disparaging judgments. This is the process which 
makes the Socialist so pessimistic concerning human nature under 
our actual institutions. If we judge hiunanity as we know it in 
the light of an assumed perfect social state as the Socialist has 
been inclined to do, everything seems wrong. If we judge men 

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294 A THEORY OF LIMITATIONS [June, 

by small standards of achievement or character, their limitations 
will apparently vanish because of the ease with which they satisfy 
our demands. The conservative docs this, and he finds it easy 
to be satisfied with the civilization that he knows. A convenient 
illustration of the former practice is found in the methods of some 
book reviewers. They will tell us, for instance, that an author 
under discussion lacks the grace of Addison, or the moral vision 
of Ruskin, or the vivid imagery of Dante Gabriel Rosetti, or the 
powerful phrasing of Swinburne. The description i^ confined 
to a statement of alleged Ihnitations. There may be no reason 
in the world why the author in question should possess a single 
one of these traits. If he has done well a certain piece of work 
that is worth doing, he should be described in the terms of his 
achievement and not in gratuitous negatives which imply nothing 
but limitations. 

How then arc we to judge a man? How are we to take care 
lest wc impute limitations unfairly to him? 

It is fair to judge a man by what he has achieved. " To have 
been noble once is reason to be noble forever." It is permitted 
to judge a man by his opportunities if he had the power to take 
advantage of them. It is fair to judge a man by his deliberate 
ambitions and to declare his limitations in respect of them. It is 
not fair to judge a man by standards that are beyond him. It is 
not fair to judge others regardless of their Ihnitations. A man has 
a right to his limitations, a right to be judged in the light of them. 
God judges us in this manner. We may imitate our Divine Master 
without loss of dignity or sacrifice of justice. Undoubtedly one 
of the functions of the Eighth Commandment is to prevent us from 
imputing to men limitations which have no existence in fact. 

Ordinarily it is fair to judge a man by a position which he 
occupies. One may presume that when a man accepts a responsi- 
bility he has the ability to meet it. Reasonable demands on an 
office are reasonable demands on him who fills it. Everyone has 
critics. Everyone who occupies a position of trust or honor has 
many critics. Now critics have their limitations as well as the 
criticized. If they speak ignorantly, if they are unable to estimate 
the facts in a situation, their fault may be far greater than any 
to which they attempt to call attention. There is a wide range 
of efficiency in filling an office. Very often men and women are 
forced into office for which they have neither liking nor fitness. 
They are invited not because of ability or because of personal 

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1917] A THEORY OF LIMITATIONS 295 

merit and dignity primarily. It may be that they are selected be- 
cause of a desire to confer distinction upon an interest which they 
represent. In this life one may be a symbol as well as a personality. 
I have frequently heard men and women of this type denounced 
as " four flushers/' when as a matter of fact a spirit of greatest 
self-sacrifice kept them in positions for which they had neither 
fitness nor inclination. God sees the life of each of us a spiritual 
unity. We see all lives merely in detached parts. Much that we 
describe as limitation in others is very often a source of honor 
to the individual in the mind of God. We fmd here a natural 
social sanction for the comforting virtue of charity, the hand- 
maiden of justice and truth. Perhaps God exalted this virtue 
into its historical eminence just because of the inherent tendency 
in us to surrender to our limitations of blindness, ignorance and 
malice in finding and declaring real or alleged limitations in the 
lives of others. 

It is customary for men to declare their own limitations 
indiscriminately. Men do not as a rule bear witness against them- 
selves. We are on the defensive in social life. Hence we do not 
make known our limitaticms without sufficient reason. We acquire 
the habit of protective reticence and it becomes a second nature. 
The deepest impulse of defence is to display power and to hide 
weakness. Hence, we are silent concerning our limitations. It is 
far wiser to have our silence misinterpreted than to have our state- 
ments misimderstood. If we declare our own limitations, our 
friends say that we are too modest, and our enemies maintain that 
we have not told half the truth. Only those who are admittedly 
powerful can aflFord to make known their shortcomings. A strong 
institution like a strong individual will tell us what it cannot do. A 
weak institution like a weak individual will tell us what it can 
do. Excq>tions may be noted but the tendency is manifest. The 
dear blundering world resents limitations in its heroes. Great- 
ness in any line is taken to mean greatness in all lines, particularly 
in the political worid. To find limitations in a nation's heroes while 
its incense fills the air involves reflection on the nation's judgment. 
Nations resent this. Men in exalted station make no admissions 
and ordinarily imdertake no self-defence. The nation instinctively 
asks that they be remote, solitary, supreme. When a leader ad- 
mits that he was mistaken in one view he suggests that he may be 
mistaken in any view. Thereby is destroyed the finality which 
the people instinctively demand. 



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296 A THEORY OF LIMITATIONS [June, 

The spirit and power of democracy result from an impulsive 
belief in the dignity and wisdom of man. Hence, himible recogni- 
tion of weakness and ignorance takes second place, if indeed it have 
any place at all. Conservatives derive their conservatism from a 
recognition of the limitations of human nature. Radicals find 
their inspiration in overlooking these limitations, and in insisting 
on the undeveloped moral and social resources of humanity. Self- 
confidence, self-valU|ation, indiscriminate ambition thrive in a 
democracy. In proportion as government is centralized and irre- 
sponsible, it declares the political limitations of its subjects. In 
proportion as it is decentralized and responsiUe, it declares the 
danger of power and the political sagacity of the masses. Hu- 
manity loves the imputation of power and resents that of weak- 
ness. Does not the " natural " man rebel against a religion that 
preaches sinfulness, acknowledgment of guilt, repentance, self- 
denial, humility and obedience? This is perhaps the human ex- 
planation of the unending conflict between Christ and the 
world. 

Nations which committed themselves to hereditary kings sub- 
jected themselves in advance to all the limitations of the future 
king. The mistakes of political authority, the breakdown of char- 
acter when exercising supreme power, gave democracy its oppor- 
tunity and trained the masses to distrust their rulers. Power tends 
toward expansion, ultimately toward tyranny, and it seeks to impose 
a code which sanctions all enlargements. The division of govern- 
mental powers invented by democracy was resorted to in view 
of the limitations of human nature when in possession and exercise 
of power. When the executive, judicial and legislative powers 
are separated in government, power watches power. Power curbs 
power. Each of the three is kept within its constitutional limits 
by the others. Here again we find political science drawing its 
axioms from the limitations of human nature. 

Our consciousness of limitation depends largely upon associa- 
tion. If we deal with those who are less able than ourselves we 
become conscious of power and we forget limitations. If we are 
thrown into contact with those who are more powerful than our- 
selves, we develop, if right-minded, a consciousness of limitation 
which makes us humble, timid and docile. Sometimes this process 
goes so far as to make us, in Mallock's phrase, " self -deprecatory 
egotists." Ruskin tells us that it is our chief business in life to 
discover our inferiors and command them, to seek out our superiors 

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1917-1 A THEORY OF LIMITATIONS 2^7 

and obey them. Centuries earlier St. Augustine gave expression 
to the same thought. Contact with tasks is like that with persons. 
If we are called upon only to do easy things we become aggressive, 
self-confident and apparently powerful. If, however, we engage in 
tasks which challenge our powers to the utmost, we readily discover 
our limitations, and look with admiration upon those who are equal 
to tasks that stagger us. 

The first condition of intelligent living and effective action 
is to know what one is and what one can do. This implies, of course, 
that account be taken not alone of one's personal power but, as 
well, of circumstances which condition action. We may under- 
rate or over-rate our powers. We may be keen or dull in judging 
the force of circumstances. Foresight may be mistaken or it may 
be accurate. Ability to evaluate accurately all of the factors af- 
fecting a course of action is one of the highest forms of intel- 
ligence. It is sometimes described as common senise. If we 
measure ourselves by this standard, they are few who will escape 
confession of many limitations. 

The second condition of intelligent and effective action is 
that one know what one is not and what one cannot do. While 
this statement is theoretically true, it is practically dangerous. 
Knowledge of limitations is discouraging. We are stimulated by 
our illusions. Belief that a thing is possible tends to make it so. 
A child's character will scarcely survive an atmosphere in which 
it is constantly reminded of its limitations. We inspire the 
young, rouse their energies, mold their temperament by making 
them believe that they can do things, and by passing over in dis- 
creet silence the limitations that nature may have laid upon them. 
Actual knowledge of some limitations may be useful to anyone. 
Actual knowledge of all limitations is useful probably to no one. 
Realization of all limitations would result in the breakdown of 
character. To have measured the reach of ability, to have sur- 
veyed the boundary of hope, to have exhausted the allurement of 
self-confidence would kill enthusiasm, rob life of its charm, make 
self commonplace and heroism a memory. So long as we reserve 
some field of endeavor against acknowledgment of limitations-jve 
still retain a source of inspiration and power. We should know 
our limitations. We should not know them. Where is the path • 
to wisdom? The answer challenges the nation's educational forces, 
its common sense, its cultural ideals. I state the problem but 
have no answer for it r^^^^T^ 

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298 A THEORY OF LIMITATIONS [June, 

If we go over from the turmoil of the world to the quiet of 
the spirit and observe humanity as it stands in the Presence of 
God, we find that here confession of limitations is an unmistakable 
grace. Thankfully indeed do we realize that we are not on the 
defensive against God. In dealing with Him we need adopt no 
" protective reticence." He is our understanding Friend. Because 
he understands all He forgives much. We find Him most readily 
through the gateway of our limitations. While the mind attempts 
to describe God in words, the heart best understands Him through 
feeling, spiritual instinct and experience. Rightly indeed have the 
theologians told us that God transcends all language, and that we 
must be humble and content in describing Him in words which in- 
dicate absence of limitation. The infinity which we identify with 
God indicates that we cannot find in the Divine Majesty any of 
the limitations of which we have experience or knowledge in the 
world. God is supreme, everlasting, omnipotent. Of what can 
we be conscious in His Presence except nothingness, weakness, 
timidity, awe? The literature, terminology and advised attitudes 
of spiritual life remind us unceasingly of our moral and spiritual 
limitations. They who take an easy attitude toward God, who find 
no profit and no spiritual vision in dwelling on their own limita- 
tions have not been students in the school of saints. These, our 
masters in the spiritual life, were constantly affected by conscious- 
ness of limitations, and they felt completely dependent on the en- 
folding mercy of God. 

The self -depreciation found in the highest spiritual circles is 
not a make-believe attitude adopted for a purpose. It is primarily 
an understanding of what we are and of our merit and destiny in 
the plans of God. The spiritual life rests on truth. Humility is 
truth. When may we say that any disparaging self-estimate in the 
sight of God departs from truth? We misunderstand the saints 
in proportion as we are unlike them. It is well to imitate them 
and to find guidance toward God through the limitations which 
halt our steps and make our way so often weary. The Pub- 
lican knew his limitations but the Pharisee did not. Christ gave 
us in that parable a lesson which has its own wisdom for each 
of us. 

Newman caught the deeper truth of our relations to God 
when he described the soul of Gerontius approaching Him under 
the guidance of an angel. Once the soul caught the Divine Vision 
it turned in self-abasement and said to the angel : ^ t 

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1917] A THEORY OF LIMITATIONS 299 

Take me away and in the lowest deep 

There let me be 

And there in hope the long night watches keep 

Told out for me. 

The man who glorifies God, loves his neighbor and saves his 
soul, fUls an exalted place in the plans of God. How shall we 
define limitations in him when he fulfills every noble purpose in 
life? The faith by which we take hold of God and control thought 
and action does not depend on talent, prestige or training. The 
power to love God is grander than ability to analyze the concept 
of infinity. Trustful acceptance of the mysteries that encompass 
life is nobler than skeptical indifference to them. Much of our 
knowledge seeking is not truth seeking. That our limitations have 
a definite spiritual mission in each life no less than a social mis- 
sion, is beyond question. That the consciousness of those limita- 
tions is a key to the understanding of the benevolent Providence of 
God is also beyond question. Revelation in the person of Christ 
and in His teaching and the power conveyed to us through 
the Sacraments, are as they are because adapted to our limitations. 
Christ completes us. Each of us is inadequate to his destiny with- 
out Christ, but fully adequate to it through Him. Much as we 
vary in health and strength, in mind and body, in social prestige 
and the goods of fortune, these do not classify us in the sight of 
God. We are classified and judged by our powers and defended 
by merit and limitations. The power to love and to serve Him, 
the impulse to worship and petition, the spiritual instinct that 
gives us vision are distributed among us according to ways known 
to God but hidden from us. Were we wiser and holier than we 
are, the consciousness of our powers might lead us surely to Him 
Who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Constituted as we are, 
we find Him because we need Him. Our limitations urge us and 
permit no rest until we find Him. 



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WAR EXPERIENCE WITH LABOR STANDARDS. 



BY FRANK O HARA, PH.D. 




ISTINGUISHED Commissioners have come to us 
from Europe to discuss war problems. They are 
bringing for our use the ripe fruits of their ex- 
perience gleaned from a field plentifully enriched 
both by feats of genial enterprise and by glaring 
blunders. They beg us to appropriate to ourselves what they have 
learned by their failures as well as by their successes, to the end 
that we may be relatively prepared for the serious business which 
we have in hand. Europe can tell us much of improved and 
modernized methods of destruction; but hardly less important to 
us is what she can tell us of methods of conserving life and health. 
" Physiology is not bounded by geography," as an eminent lawyer 
recently explained to the Supreme Court of the United States; 
and the human machine must be safeguarded in America, if it is 
to give efficient service, just as it must be safeguarded in Europe. 
As early as last August Congress established a Council of 
National Defence, consisting of six members of the Cabinet, " for 
the coordination of industries and resources for the national se- 
curity and welfare." Through the organization of an advisory 
commission and of various sub-committees, a considerable start 
has already been made towards an effective mobilization of the 
country's resources. Other organizations, too, have been search- 
ing out ways in which our great variety of talent may be usefully 
employed. At this early stage in the process of coordinating our 
activities there is naturally a great deal of confusion. Plans are 
proposed and measures advocated in our hurried enthusiasm which 
demand careful scrutiny if we are to avoid the more serious of 
the mistakes which our European allies have had to meet and over- 
come. 

There is a story told of a society which has been organized 
in New York City as a sort of combination nursery and labor 
exchange, which undertakes to send mothers in groups of thousands 
to distant cities to work in munitions plants while the society en- 
gages nurses to care for the infant children left behind in the 

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1917] tf^AR EXPERIENCE WITH LABOR STANDARDS 301 

metropolis. Those responsible for the society are well-meaning 
persons, but they illustrate a kind of hysteria that must be guarded 
against. The patriotic impulse behind the movement is excellent, 
but the movement itself is lacking in sanity. 

There are a great many other proposed war emergency plans 
which are more difficult to evaluate, but some of which are more 
fraught with danger than the plan of the labor exchange nursery 
just mentioned. At the present writing the New York legislature 
is considering the breaking down of standards of hours protecting 
women workers in that State. The plea of course is the need of 
increasing the industrial output. Already the New York State 
Industrial Commission has exempted a CQmpany engaged in the 
manufacture of the parts of aeroplanes from the weekly day of 
rest law. A bill has been introduced in the legislature which seeks 
to make such exemptions general where the manufacture of war 
materials is involved. The State of Connecticut had a law which 
prevented women from working in factories at night, but as a 
result of the development of the munitions industries in that State 
women are now regularly employed in factories ten hours at night 
in Connecticut. 

A proposal, the consequences ^of which it is very difficult to 
estimate in advance, is contained in a resolution passed by the 
Council of National Defence requesting the legislatures of the 
various States to " delegate to the Governors of their respective 
States the power to suspend or modify restrictions contained in 
their labor laws when such suspension or modification shall be 
requested by the Council of National Defence." In defence of this 
proposal it may be urged that the Council has the assistance and 
guidance of a broad-minded advisory body which would not wan- 
tonly reduce labor standards. On the other hand, much doubt is 
expressed as to the wisdom of lowering any of the standards that 
have yet been set up. 

Early in the war the European nations were led to modify 
much of their legislation protecting the working population. 
Women were taking the places of men in the factories, and were 
expected to conform as nearly as possible to the conditions under 
which men worked. Trade unions surrendered for the period of 
the war many of the privileges which they had previously gained. 
The governments granted many exemptions from the operation of 
the factory laws regulating hours of work and working conditions. 
It was felt that all other considerations must give way before the 

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302 WAR EXPERIENCE WITH LABOR STANDARDS [June, 

supreme need of producing the munitions of war. But soon doubts 
began to arise. Many persons thought that the breach in the wel- 
fare standards had been permitted to go further than the best in- 
terests of efficient production warranted. It was recognized that 
the abnormal working conditions were bearing down hardly on the 
workers. But that was accepted as one of the natural accompani- 
ments of war. Questions began to be raised, not so much by 
humanitarians as by efficiency experts. Was the output actually 
being increased by these methods which were wearing out the men 
and women and children in the factories of Europe ? In Great Brit- 
ain it was decided to investigate for the purpose of getting at the 
truth of the matter. The Home Office, the British Association for 
the Advancement of Sciemce, the Munitions Ministry and other 
agencies undertook to find out the facts. The reports already pub- 
lished in Great Britain are sufficiently comprehensive to show that 
the European nations made many mistakes in letting down their 
labor standards, just as we are likely to make many mistakes in 
letting down our standards if we refuse to profit by European 
experience. 

A principal mistake which all of the European belligerents 
made was that they did not look far enough ahead. They thought 
that the war would be finished in a year or two. They threw their 
human resources into the struggle without stint and without looking 
to the future. The women and children were thrown into indus- 
try to bear the first shock of the war. One might almost speak 
of them as industry's first line of defence. And now a large and 
growing scientific literature in England gives testimony to the 
regret that more thought was not given in the early days of the 
war to the conserving of the strength and health and general wel- 
fare of the women and children. 

The runner in the marathon race does not start out with the 
speed of the man who has only a hundred yards to go. But Great 
Britain and the other belligerents have tried to start out at top 
speed and to maintain that speed throughout the long race. In 
the first place there was the question of working seven days in the 
week. It was thought that men, and to a considerable extent 
women and children too, could turn out a greater industrial product 
in seven days than they could in six. The one day's rest in seven 
was looked upon as a moral right of the worker in the normal times 
of peace, but it was believed to be a wasteful use of time when 
the nation was straining every energy to produce the sinews of war, 

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I9I7] ff^^R EXPERIENCE WITH LABOR STANDARDS 303 

And so the factory laws, which represented the results of a hun- 
dred years of humanitarian effort to improve working conditions, 
were relaxed, and the trade union agreements were modified to 
allow of a seven days' week. 

But all work and no play makes Jack too dull a boy to manu- 
facture war munitions effectively. Although extra pay was given 
for Sunday work it did not result in increased output. Workers 
would unconsciously slacken their working pace through the week 
to save themselves for the continuous and monotonous grind of 
going to work every day. There was even a noticeable falling off 
in the attendance at work through the week in order that the 
workers might be present Sunday to get the extra pay. After a 
time employers came to see that Sunday work was wasteful. It 
did not pay. Some of them spoke of it as a system which pro- 
duced six days' output in seven days' time on eight days' pay. 
Many of them have given up the seven days' week, and the ten- 
dency to discontinue Sunday labor is growing. 

The Health of Munitions Workers' Committee, organized by 
the Munitions Ministry, made a study of Sunday labor, and they 
too came to the conclusion that it does not pay. In studying the 
problem their interest was not, they explain, in the people who 
perform the labor but in the labor performed. Their ideal of 
production is a maximum output maintained over a long period 
of time. In their report they say : " The evidence before the Com- 
mittee has led them strongly to hold that if the maximum out- 
put is to be secured and maintained for any length of time, a 
weekly period of rest must be allowed. Except for quite short 
periods, continuous work, in their view, is a profound mistake 
and does not pay — output is not increased. On economic and social 
grounds alike this weekly period of rest is best provided on Sun- 
day, and the Committee are strongly of opinion that Sunday 
work should be confined: (a) To sudden emergencies, including 
the occasional making up of arrears in particular sections; and 
(b) To repairs, tending furnaces, etc. (the men so employed being 
given a corresponding period of rest during some other part of the 
week). 

" Should the early stoppage of all Sunday work be considered 
for any reason difficult, if not impossible, to bring about, the Com- 
mittee trust that it will at least be practicable to lay down the 
principle, that Sunday labor is a serious evil, which should be 
steadily and systematically discouraged and restricted." 

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304 WAR EXPERIENCE WITH LABOR STANDARDS [June, 

We have not the same wealth of reports of investigations into 
the productivity of Sunday labor in other countries of Europe, 
but there are indications of a general recognition that six days 
should constitute a working week. Thus the Austrian Minister 
of Commerce ordered that pre-war regulations be reestablished 
" in so far as those Acts and Orders regulate Sunday and holiday 
rest in commercial undertakings." And a French official reports 
as follows : " Some surprise has been expressed that in a number 
of establishments Sunday is a day of rest, and no night work is 
performed. Experience has prescribed certain regulations if the 
strength of workers is to be safeguarded, not only in view of a 
prolonged struggle, but as well for the economic needs of the coun- 
try after the war." France, threatened with being " bled white " 
by the war, cannot aflford to throw away her human resources 
needlessly. 

There is need to limit the length of the working week for men, 
but the need is much greater in the case of women. Women have 
not, indeed, been employed on Sunday, in England to the same 
extent that men have, but they have been employed too many hours 
a week to give the best results in output, to say nothing of the 
breaking down of their vitality. The number of hours that a 
woman should work in order to produce the maximum result de- 
pends, of course, upon the character of the work, as well as upon 
the strength and endurance of the woman. In a study made on 
a number of women workers who were engaged at moderately 
heavy labor, the Health of Munitions Workers' Committee found 
that it would be economical to reduce considerably the number of 
hours that were being worked. In this particular group of women, 
engaged in turning aluminum fuse bodies : " The operatives were 
standing all day at capstan lathes, and had to subject each fuse 
body to seven successive boring and cutting operations. These 
operations required close attention throughout and some delicacy 
of manipulation, so that no relaxation of effort was permissible 

during the actual turning For many months previous to this 

period the hours of labor had usually been seventy-seven and one- 
fourth per week, except that in the second week of each month 
there was no Sunday labor, or the hours were reduced to sixty-nine 

and one- fourth per week From February 27th onwards the 

hours of labor were sixty-six and one-half per week (or fifty-eight 
and one-half in the second week of each month, when there was 
no Sunday labor), and we see that during a peiip^ of eight w^s 

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1917.] ^AR EXPERIENCE WITH LABOR STANDARDS 305 

the hourly output now averaged twenty-three per cent more than 
in the pre-Christmas period." The highest hourly output was of 
course not the thing desired from the point of view of the Muni- 
tions Ministry, but the highest total output over a long period. 
After comparing the records of this group of women under dif- 
ferent conditions of hours, the committee concludes : " It is proba- 
ble that the sixty hours worked per week were still too many to 
give the best total output, but at least they justify the statement 
that in order to attain a ntaximum output women engaged in 
moderately heoT/y manual labor should not work for more than sixty 
hours per week. Observations adduced below suggest that an 
equally good total output could be maintained if the actual working 
hours were reduced to fifty-six or less per week." (The italics are 
in the original.) 

The explanation of the fact that these women did as much 
work in a fifty-six or a sixty-hour week as in a seventy-seven-hour 
week, is not to be found in any resentment towards long hours. 
The conditions of labor were favorable. The work was performed 
in large and recently-built munitions works. All of the workers 
were on piece work, their weekly pay depending upon the num- 
ber of pieces turned out. The rate of wages was high, and there 
were no trades union restrictions on output. " There was every 
possible stimulus for them to exert their maximum powers of 
production." The explanation of the greater product in the shorter 
week is that they became tired in the longer week. They not only 
became tired, but they had no time to rest up or insufficient time to 
rest up before beginning a new week. 

In the case of women engaged in light labor, it was equally 
found that a moderately long week was more productive than an 
excessively long week. In a factory where the women were en- 
gaged in " milling a screw thread on the fuse body," the operation 
"necessitated their standing at semi-automatic machines, where 
they removed one fuse body and inserted another every minute 
or so. The requisite muscular eflfort was moderate and simple 
in character, and took up only about one-fifth of the total time 
required for the operation. For the remaining four-fifths of the 
time the operative had nothing whatever to do, and so the call upon 
her attention and her muscles was very much less than that ex- 
perienced by the operatives previously described." For some 
weeks these women had been working sixty-seven and four-tenths 
hours per week, but it was found that the output was increased 

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3o6 IVAR EXPERIENCE WITH LABOR STANDARDS [June, 

by a reduction in the hours of work. In the light of the evidence 
the Committee concluded that probably the best number of hours 
in this class of labor was sixty-two a week. 

Mr. Rowntree, the Director of the Welfare Department in the 
Ministry of Munitions, in a statement published last June, ex- 
pressed the opinion that even a sixty-hour week was too long to 
give the best results. Making due allowance for the severity of the 
labor, the home conditions of the workers, the transit facilities 
to and from work, and the atmospheric conditions in the factories 
as well as the wages paid, he thought that a forty-eight hour week 
would give the best satisfaction. Generally speaking, he would say 
that " the employer is wise who works his women and girls for 
eight and one-half hours per day from Monday to Friday, and for 
five hours on Saturday. I question whether it ever pays to keep 
on working girls for more than fifty-four hours a week. As for 
the sixty-hour week, it is most unsatisfactory." 

Again, the experience of France is similar to that of Eng- 
land. In the early days of August, 1914, circulars were issued 
by the French Minister of Labor authorizing the labor inspectors 
to grant wide tolerance in the application of laws relative to the 
employment of women, for the purpose of promoting the manu- 
facture of war materials. Under these instructions permits were 
issued to industrial establishments especially suspending the regu- 
lations concerning night work. These permits were made use of 
especially in munitions factories, and the results were so unsatis- 
factory that the Under Secretary of State said : " The experience 
of war times has demonstrated the technical, economical, phy- 
siological necessity of the labor laws enacted in time of peace. 
Under such conditions we find a better grade of manufacture and 
more intense production." 

The physiological necessity of rest periods for the workers 
has been the subject of intensive study in England since the out- 
break of the war. Professor Kent, in a report to the British Home 
Office on an investigation of industrial fatigue by physiological 
methods, informs us that the condition of fatigue after moderate 
worH is a natural physiological state. Without due exercise of 
its functions the body as a whole would suffer. Normally a period 
of labor is followed by a period of repose, and the tissue of the 
body, altered and to some extent broken down as a result of the 
labor, are built up and restored during the subsequent period of 
rest. But when the breaking down is exaggerated, and the P^^x^ss t 

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191?.] fVAR EXPERIENCE WITH LABOR STANDARDS 307 

of repair fails to keq) pace with the process of destruction, fatigue 
of ati injurious grade supervenes. This condition may be brought 
about not only through an excessively active, or an excessively 
prolonged, period of breaking down, but also by a too brief, or not 
sufficiently active, period of building up. All of these causes are 
probably concerned in the exhaustion of the working population 
known as industrial fatigue. Arduous work may lead to an ex- 
cessively active breaking down of the tissues, while long hours 
may lead to imdue prolongation of this period of breaking down. 
On the other hand, periods of rest may be inadequate in duration, 
and the process of repair may be slowed owing to insufficient or 
unsuitable food Moreover, the abnormal condition of the tissues 
is probably still further affected prejudicially by the presence in 
the tissue juices of poisonous substances which are produced in 
excessive quantity under the abnormal condition and imperfectly 
excreted by the overworked tissues. And a writer in the British 
Medical Journal for July, 1915, says: "The danger of impelling 
the best of the workmen who remain to average ten hours a day 

for seven days a week is obvious Physiological need for 

rest forbids the utilization of overtime to any advantage. The 
tired worker must go slow, impelled by nature's call. The Sunday 
holiday is physiologically right; it is fotmd to pay in reckoning 
the output of work. The man who is overdriven and nervously 
exhausted finally breaks down, and takes weeks to recover. Over- 
time spent in factories badly ventilated and artificially lighted is, 
we believe, one of the most fruitful sources of phthisis." 

While the recent literature on the subject laments the serious 
economic mistake that was made in withdrawing to such a great 
extent the protection of the Factory Acts from the women workers 
of England, the general view adopted by those who write of the 
conditions of children is that nothing short of a crime has been 
committed against them. One is constantly reminded of the un- 
speakable factory conditions of early nineteenth century England. 

Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers, 

Ere the sorrow comes with years? 
They look up with their pale and sunken faces ; 

And their looks are sad to see. 

Hardly less pathetic than Mrs. Browning's The Cry of the Children 
is the statement of the Principal Lady Inspector in the Annual 
Report for 191 5 of the Chief Inspector of Factories: "Miss 

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3o8 IVAR EXPERIENCE WITH LABOR STANDARDS [June, 

Constance Smith has been impressed by the marked difference in 
outward effect produced by night employment on adult and ' 
adolescent workers. 'Very young girls show abnost immediately, 
in my experience, symptoms of lassitude, exhaustion and impaired 
vitality under the influence of employment at night.' " And one of 
the Medical Investigators employed by the Health of Munitions 
Workers' Committee reports : " Of the boys it may be said for the 
most part that they are so spiritless, so dull, so dead in look, so 
woe-begone and attacked with weariness to a dulling of their 
spirits as to compel attention." 

The Munitions Committee adopted as their own the view put 
forward by a witness who testified before them that : " Boys be- 
tween sixteen and eighteen were quite different from boys under 
sixteen, they were must stronger. Boys under sixteen, on the other 
hand, were probably more delicate than girls of the same age, and 
more likely to break themselves up. The essential safeguards 
were the reduction of hours and welfare work. Apart from the 
strain on the health involved, long hours had disastrous effects 
on the character of boys. They also might make an adequate 
amount of sleep difficult and, perhaps more important, they pre- 
vented adequate facilities for recreation. Such facilities were of 
primary importance both for the physical and moral welfare of 
the boys. This latter danger was accentuated by the monotonous 
character of their work which afforded no intellectual interest. 
In the absence of healthy recreation, the boys' minds and conversa- 
tion were likely to become unhealthy and to lead to a general 
deterioration in character. Eight hours of sleep were essential, 
nine hours would do better. Unfortunately many boys got only 
six or seven hours." 

And the Committee Report concludes : " The hours prescribed 
by the [pre-war] Factory Act are to be regarded as the maximum 
ordinarily justifiable, and even exceed materially what many ex- 
perienced employers regard as the longest period for which boys 
and girls can be usefully employed from the point of view of either 
health or output. Any extension of these hours must therefore 
be critically examined with a view to their discontinuance on the 
first opportunity." 

Mr. Cecil Leeson, Secretary of the Howard Association, in 
his recently published book, The Child and the War, adds his 
testimony to the effect that " if the lads were learning anything 
useful the situation, though still undesirable, would be not quite t 

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1917.I f^AR EXPERIENCE WITH LABOR STANDARDS 309 

so bad; but they are not learning anything useful. Most of the 
factory work they do is 'blind alley' work, fitting them for nothing 
afterwards; and, to do it, lads are sacrificing physique, efficiency, 
and, in very many cases, character." 

It was not alone in the factories but in agriculture as well 
' that the war has been permitted to drain excessively the vitality of 
the children. The looking after the exemptions from the usual 
school requirements has been in the hands of the local authorities, 
and although in many places the children continued to be pro- 
tected there has been, on the whole, a too considerable exodus 
of children from the schools to fiarm work. The Chief Medical 
Officer of the Board of Education discusses the matter in his 
Annual Report of 191 5 : " The Board have already expressed their 
concern to Local Education Authorities at the large number of 
exemptions which have been granted for agricultural employment, 
and have stated that in their view in some areas they have been 
granted too freely and without sufficiently careful ascertainment 
that the conditions of exemption prescribed by the government, as 
indicated in the Board's circular letter of March 12, 1915, to 
Local Education Authorities, Avere fulfilled." The Board of Agri- 
culture expressed the opinion that if the women of the country 
districts and of England generally took the part they might take 
in agriculture, it would be quite unnecessary to sacrifice the chil- 
dren under twelve. 

The reports of the deleterious influences of war conditions 
on the character of the young are borne out by the statistics of 
crime. According to a circular issued by the Home Office, in- 
quiries that were made by the police of seventeen of the largest 
towns, comparing the three months, December, 1914, to Feb- 
ruary, 1915, with the three months, December, 1915, to February, 
19 16, the total number of children and young persons charged with 
punishable offences has grown from two thousand six hundred and 
eighty-six to three thousand five hundred and ninety-six (an in- 
crease of thirty-four per cent), and the increase has been ex- 
perienced in practically all of the towns consulted. According to 
an investigation made by the Howard Association, the offences of 
youthful persons increased fifty-six per cent in Manchester from 
1914 to 1915, forty-seven per cent in Edinburgh, and thirty-two 
per cent in Liverpool. 

Various attempts have been made to explain this sudden in- 
crease in juvenile crime. The character of the British youth is 

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310 WAR EXPERIENCE WITH LABOR STANDARDS [June, 

being broken down under the strain of hard work and no re- 
laxation. Families are broken up, and parental control has dis- 
appeared on account of the continued absence of the father in the 
workshop or in the army. The children are earning wages and 
they no longer listen to the advice of their parents. The streets 
are dark and there is a shortage of policemen, and so conditions 
are favorable for the commission of crime. The imitative instinct 
leads the children to play at war, and the fruit vendor's care is a 
military train, which, under the rules of war, is subject to spolia- 
tion. So many things are right in times of war that are wrong 
in times of peace that the child's sense of morality becomes un- 
settled. These and other reasons are given for the increase in 
the volume of juvenile crime in England since the outbreak of 
the war, and probably they are all contributory causes. 

A similar increase in crime on the part of the youth of Ger- 
many has been noted since the beginning of the war. In 191 5 
there were twice as many crimes committed by children in Berlin 
as in 19 14. During the first three months of 191 5 there were as 
many crimes committed by children in Munich as there were in the 
twelve months of 1914. In Frankfort there was a decrease in the 
number of lesser offences in 191 5 as compared with 1914, but 
there was an increase of forty per cent in serious crime. Although 
some effort has been made to associate this increase in juvenile 
crime in Germany with the philosophy of hate about which so 
much was said in the early months of the war, the probability is 
that the causes of the increase really did not differ essentially from 
those operating in England. 

Yes, our European Allies have much to tell us of improved 
guns, and aeroplanes and destroyers. And to this message we shall 
listen eagerly. We are a practical people, and when we have decided 
to do our best, no implements but the best are good enough for our 
use. We shall fit ourselves out with the most highly perfected arms 
that human ingenuity can devise. 

But in many respects we are a wasteful people. We have been 
wasteful of our natural resources, and in certain respects we have 
been wasteful of our human resources. But now when the crisis 
has come which is to put our supreme efforts to the test, we must 
economize our resources, and, as one phase of economizing our 
resources, we must, in the light of the experience of our Allies, 
stand firmly against the temptation which will confront us to 
break down our labor standards. 

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LODGE AKD HIS "ROSALYNDE/' 




(A SHAKESPEAREAN PRECURSOR.) 
BY KATHERINE BR£gY. 

HAKESPEARE'S happiest comedy!" cried Andrew 
Lang of As You Like It, proceeding after his grace- 
ful wont to sum up the reasons which he, and the 
rest of us, had found for rejoicing in the idyl of 
Arden. Now chief among these reasons was the 
" heavenly Rosalind : " and second was the irrepressible Touch- 
stone. And although the clown may in sooth have sprung full- 
motlied from the brain of Shakespeare, the lady had most indubi- 
taWc forebears. She had a human and literary father in the per- 
son of Thomas Lodge. She had even a literary and almost human 
mother, whose name was Rosalynde, and whose story was singu- 
larly like her own. 

It is one thing to record that the immediate source of Romeo 
and Jtdiei was that unpleasant, anti-papistical tale, The Tragical 
History of Romeus and Juliet. It is, Deo gratias, quite another 
to say that the precursor of As You Like It was Lodge's gentle 
Rosalynde — and that Lodge's romance derived in turn, but slightly, 
from the Chaucerian Tale of Gamelyn.. For even in its sources 
was As You Like It happy ! 

Some few of Shakespeare's sources were unlovely or un- 
worthy, and for good results needed to be quite transmuted and 
transfigured by his sympathetic genius. But Thomas Lodge was 
the sort of man one would choose to pass on " secrets deeper than 
his own " to the Master Singer. He was, in the first place, a gen- 
tleman, and in the second place a scholar, and in the third place 
an adventurer. His " little span " was curiously coeval with the 
comings and goings of kings' children : for Thomas Lodge seems to 
have been born in 1558, the last year of Mary Tudor's reign 
and the first of Elizabeth's; while he died in that 1625 which 
saw the passing of James I. and the advent of unhappy Charles. 
What a slice out of the history of England — what food indeed for 
the preacher's homily ! 

The maker of Rosalynde was bom in London town, the son oil ^ 

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312 LODGE AND HIS "ROSALYNDE" [June, 

Sir Thomas Lodge, sometime its Lord Mayor. The boy would 
seem to have inherited no discomfiting convictions upon Church or 
State, for he studied quietly and proceeded in the approved manner 
to Trinity College about 1573 — quite as though neither he nor 
Oxford itself had recently been robbed of the incalculable heritage 
of Catholic Faith! Returning later to London, he began the 
study of law .at Lincoln's Inn ; but there the friendship of Robert 
Greene and Daniel and Bamabe Rich and Drayton and Lyly lured 
Thomas toward the bright path of poetry and drama instead. 
For this defection he was subsequently cut off in his father's 
will. But the mother was more art-loving— or perhaps it was simply 
more son-loving! — ^and when she died in 1579, the youth wrote an 
affectionate epitaph, unfortunately now lost. In view of the 
later Shakespearean affiliations, it is a charming touch that Lodge's 
first professional literary work should have been a Defense of 
Stage Plays, published in 1580 as a reply to Gosson's School of 
Abuse, It has been claimed also, but not proved, that Thomas 
was himself an actor for awhile- At least, there was a somewhat 
heavy tragedy called The Wounds of Civil War to his credit 
(or the contrary), and he undoubtedly collaborated with Greene 
in the satiric Looking Glass for London and England, He has 
been accused of various other dramas, but was probably not guilty, 
although his restless youth was full of experiments. He is said 
then for awhile to have " exchanged bookes for armes ; " and it 
is certain that about 1588 he sailed to Terceras and the Canary 
Islands with one Captain Clarke.* For upon this memorable voy- 
age, as he himself tells us, he composed the prettjy Iromantic 
idyl of Rosalynde: and being an Elizabethan and something of a 
Euphuist, he made apology lest his neally smooth and elaborate 
story be found " rough, as hatched in the storms of the ocean, and 
feathered in the surges of many perilous seas." 

After Lodge's return to London he published in 1589 a volume 
of poems under the modest title, ScUIcbs Metmnorphosis: Enter- 
laced ivith the unfortunate love of Glaacus, Whereunto is annexed 
the delectable discourse of the discontented Satyr; with sundrie 
other most absolute Poefns and Sonnets, Then he ventured forth 
again upon the seas, this time to South America, visiting Brazil 
and amongst other places the famous Jesuit Library at Santos. 
Whether this was an event or merely an episode, who shall say? 
For conversions — reversions — were scarcely fashionable in Eliza- 

^For many interesting biographical details, see "Thomas Lodge:" Dictionary t 
of National Biography, Digitized by Vj^OQIC 



1917] LODGE AND HIS " ROSALYNDE " 313 

beth's reign: yet by 1596 Thomas Lodge was publicly known as 
a Catholic. He still wrote: lyrics, in which he had the radiant 
Elizabethan facility, satires attacking the abuses of the time, and 
probably one pious tract, Prosopopoeia, containing the tears of — 
Marie, the Mother of God. But for awhile after his change of re- 
ligion became known, it was necessary for him to flee England. 
So, with characteristic activity, he proceeded to study medicine at 
Avignon, whence he was graduated as a physician in 1600. 

Then the old beloved, treacherous London called again, and 
Lodge returned to practice medicine — ^also, incidentally, to trans- 
late Josephus and Seneca! He was active during the plague of 
1603, and wrote a treatise on the dread disease which he dedicated 
to the Lord Mayor. Then religious troubles drove him again from 
England. He returned later, and is said to have ministered pro- 
fessionally chiefly to the recusant Catholics — which perhaps ex- 
plains why his finances fell so low during these final years. At 
all events, the good doctor asked permission to travel overseas 
once again to collect debts due him; and he seems subsequently to 
have been both sued and for awhile imprisoned for debts of his own. 
It was indeed troublous sailing for Thomas Lodge before the Ulti- 
mate Port loomed in sight, but he held to the mast with a high 
heart. Then at last, in 1625, and in his own home on Old Fish 
Street in the parish of St. Mary Magdalen, the grandfather of 
Shakespeare's Rosalind died : a scholar, a poet, a man whose worst 
fault was that, in the words of one contemporary, he liked to have 
" an oar in every paper boat." He had never feared the great ad- 
venture of Life, nw the great adventure of Death — nor Faith, 
the greatest adventure of them all. 

Rosalynde,Euphues' Golden Legacy, wsls published in 1590, the 
same year as Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia, with which it has much in 
common. Both books were of the novelli type; picturesque, pe- 
dantic and leisurely romances, with which various scholarly 
dreamers strove to soothe the strenuous matter of Elizabethan liv- 
ing. They were literary and emotional narcotics. JThey were 
also delightsome exercises for men who had freshly discovered the 
greatness of English speech and of the life about them. The very 
sub-title of Rosalynde proclaims its desired affinity with the pioneer 
of all the novelli in England, John Lyly's celebrated Euphues: and 
stilted as Lodge's work sometimes is, it yet moves to freer measures 
than its original. It is a gracious, poetic and rather sophisticated 
idyl of love, the Court, the forest — and then more love. It tells 

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314 LODGE AND HIS " ROSALYNDE'* [June, 

first how old Sir John of Bordeaux dies, leaving a " golden leg- 
acy" of good (but soon forgotten) counsel — ^and three sons to 
work out their destinies. Saladyne, the eldest, promptly takes pos- 
session of the estates; while his second brother, Femandyne, 
dreams of studious Aristotle; and the youngest (and favorite) son, 
Rosader, is reduced to the state of a mere serf or foot-boy. One 
day, while walking in the garden, the youth awakens to the fact 
that " those good parts that God hath bestowed upon me, the envy 
of my brother doth smother in obsciwity." He accuses Saladyne 
of the wrong, and being threatened with bonds he even attacks 
his brother's retainers with a garden-rake. Eventually Rosader, 
being of a " mild and courteous nature," is appeased by Salad)me's 
fair promises. Shortly after, the wily elder brother persuades him 
to enter a wrestling-match at the court of King Torismond — ^hav- 
ing meanwhile suborned the Norman champion to kill Rosader in 
the conflict. 

Rosader delightedly travels to court : he watches the doughty 
Norman butchering all contestants — quite in the manner of Shakes- 
peare's Charles — and he catches sight of the king's fair daughter 
Alinda together with h^r fairer cousin Rosalynde, daughter to 
the banished king Gerismond. " Upon her cheeks," Lodge tells 
us, " there seemed a battle between the Graces, who should bestow 
most favors to make her excellent. Her eyes were like those lamps 
that make the wealthy covert of the heavens more gorgeous, 
sparkling favor and disdain, courteous and yet coy, as if in them 
Venus had placed all her amorets, and Diana all her chastity," 

Rosader first spies Rosalynde as he enters the list, and his 
eye is so " inveigled " that he stands distraught and has to be 
roused from his dream by a shake from the Norman. Thereupon 
he attacks the champion with great " fury of countenance " — ^and 
apparently much good muscle. And although Lodge's Rosalynde 
does not, like Shakespeare's, try to dissuade the young wrestler 
from entering the conflict, she does send him " such an amorous 
look as might have made the most coward desperate." Later on, 
when he has victoriously thrown the Norman, she sends him by a 
page a jewel from her own neck : and Rosader, having, apparently, 
already fallen into the poetic habit, retires into a tent and com- 
poses a " sonnet " in her praise. Then, with the laurel wreath upon 
his head and a company of boon companions at his heels, he sets 
out for his tempestuous home. 

Now Lodge's Rosalynde, we are told, " accounted love a toy. 



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1917.] LODGE AND HIS '' ROSALYNDE" 315 

and fancy a momentary passion, that as it was taken in with a gaze 
might be shaken off with a wink, and therefore feared not to dally 
in the flame." But scarcely had Rosader left the court when she 
discovered — like many another would-be salamander! — ^the might 
of her misprised god. She began to fall into the uncomfortable 
habit of dreaming about the virtues and perfections of her swain — 
" the comeliness of his person, the honor of his parents ! " — ^as she 
sat solitary. Moreover, whole acres of worldly-wise counsel con- 
cerning the sort of mate she ought to choose in view of her fallen 
fortunes, proved utterly barren! Then, "smiling to herself," and 
taking up her lute, she broke into a lyric as sweet as a May morn- 
ing, perhaps the most blossomy of all that Lodge has given us. 

Scarcely has Rosalynde finished the madrigal when she finds 
herself rudely confronted by her uncle, Torismond. Whether 
that little affair with Rosader has been observed one knows not, but 
the usurping king suddenly begins to tremble at the power of his 
niece's beauty, fearing lest one of the courtiers aspire to marriage 
and thus claim the crown in Rosalynde's name. So he comes now 
" with a stem countenance full of wrath," and orders her out of his 
court by nightfall. The little princess, utterly dismayed, defends 
herself boldly, yet " in reverent terms." But Torismond is the 
true forebear of Shakespeare's Frederick, a domestic as well as 
a political tyrant. 

Then comes a touch so exquisite that Shakespeare adopted it 
wholly in spirit, if not in letter. It is the defence of Rosalynde 
by her cousin Alinda who, in Lodge's simple but perfect jrfirase, 
" loved her more than herself." The result is the one with which 
the comedy has familiarized us — ^both princesses are banished to- 
gether. And although Rosalynde weeps, Alinda smiles. Sooth to 
say, there is an undertone of deep humanity in all this: for who 
can fancy life with the impossible king being at all bearable after 
Rosalynde's departure? Alinda is the first to see that (as her 
successor says) the way before them leads "to liberty and not 
to banishment," so she comforts Rosalynde with a high heart and 
many sage words and a little spice of laughter. The Celia of 
As You Like It is always trembling upon the verge of enormous 
wisdom. She is no mere shadow or foil to Rosalind, but quite her 
match in wit and resource. This, one can but think, is directly 
due to Lodge, who was very partial to his princess Alinda, giving 
her many of the best lines in his romance — and frequently setting 
her up as an oracle, with copious Latin quotations tripping upon 

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3i6 LODGE AND HIS " ROSALYNDE'* [June, 

her tongue. For be it remembered that Thomas Lodge was close 
enough to the Renaissance to admire oracular ladies, and to adore 
the " serene classics." 

Gathering up, then, their jewels and a few necessaries, and 
disguised the one as a page the other as a simple village maid, 
Rosalynde and Alinda — or as they now called themselves, Gany- 
mede and Aliena — ^travel past the vineyards toward the great forest 
of Arden (Ardennes). Here they find the trees engraved with 
most unlooked-for " sonnets " and " eclogues," the work of a cer- 
tain " perplexed shepherd " Montanus, bemoaning his love for the 
scornful Phoebe. Then does Ganjrmede, wounded perhaps into 
assumed levity, begin his celebrated diatribe upon womanhood. 
" You may see what mad cattle you women be," he (she) cries to 
Aliena, " whose hearts sometimes are made of adamant that will 
touch with no impression, and sometimes of wax that is fit for 
every form " 

" And I pray you," quoth the other princess, " if your robes 
were oflf, what mettle are you made of that you are so satirical 
against women? Is it not a foul bird that defiles its own nest? 
Beware, Ganymede, that Rosader hear you not, if he do, perchance 
you will make him leap so far from love that he will anger every 
vein in your heart." 

" I speak now," says Ganymede, " as I am Aliena's page, not 
as I am Gerismond's. daughter; for put me but into a petticoat, 
and I will stand in defiance to the uttermost that women are 
courteous, constant, virtuous and what not ! " 

Meanwhile Rosader has been suffering woes of his own, and 
in final desperation at his brother's ill-treatment he leaves home in 
company with his faithful English servant, Adam Spencer. They 
wander into the forest (of course! for "journeys end in lovers* 
meeting, every wise man's son doth know! ") and Rosader, Tiaving 
still " the lively image of Rosalynde " painted upon his memory, 
contracts the habit of carving his own verses upon the unprotesting 
trees. Then, upon a day, the inevitable happens — he comes sud- 
denly upon Aliena and her lovely page, turned shepherds in this 
vie sauvage, as they seek shelter from the sun beneath the great 
trees of Arden. It is a charming scene, almost in the true spirit 
of As You Like It, save for Touchstone's absence: for Aliena 
asks gently " leading " questions, and Ganymede falls to chaffing 
Rosader, even reminding him that " faint heart never won fair 
lady." And the youth, being challenged to describe his mistress' 



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1917] LODGE AND HIS '' ROSALYNDE" ziy 

excellences, replies in one of those superlative bursts of song which 
are the wonder and wild delight of this sometimes monotonous 
" historic." Here are some of the most colorful stanzas of Ro- 
salynde's Description: 

Like to the clear in highest sphere 
Where all imperial glory shines, 
Of selfsame color is hef hair. 
Whether unfolded or in twines: 
Heigh ho, fair Rosalynde. 

Her eyes are sapphires set in snow, 
Refining heaven by every wink : 
The gods dp fear when as they glow. 
And I do tremble when I think : 
Heigh ho, would she were mine. 

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ 

Her lips are like two budded roses 
Whom ranks of lilies neighbor nigh, 
Within which bounds she balm encloses, 
Apt to entice a deity : 
Heigh ho, fair Rosalynde. 

* ♦ * ♦ ♦ 

Then muse not, nymphs, though I bemoan 
The absence of fair Rosalynde, 
Since for her fair there is fairer none, 
Nor for her virtues so divine; 
Heigh ho, fair Rosalynde. 
Heigh ho, my heart, would God that she were mine I 

This, obviously, is much finer than any of the verses Shakes- 
peare attributes to Orlando. In fact, Orlando's verses are inno- 
cently farcical — just as the verses of most well-loving but un- 
literary lovers are to this day : whereas Lodge gives Rosader the 
verses of a poet, and even Montanus the verses of a poetaster. 
But if Rosader's poetry is better than Orlando's, his conversation 
is not so good. In the first place, it is intolerably long: but 
it serves to occupy Ganymede — who promptly oflfers to personate 
Rosalynde for the lover's consolation! — ^through many pages of 
pleasant banter, between the feeding of their flocks and the ups 
and downs of the Phoebe plot. 

For Phoebe is an important person in Lodge's romance. She 
is a queen of Arcady, a woodland belle and heiress, who takes the 
devotion of Montanus as a right and would have the love of Gany- 



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3i8 LODGE AND HIS '' ROSALYNDE" [June, 

mede as a right also. Failing in this, the proud, pretty creature 
falls ill almost to death : " for as fire suppressed grows to the 
greater flame, and the current stopped to the more violent stream, 
so love smothered wrings the heart with the deeper passions." In 
this extremity she writes that humble confession of her love for 
Ganymede which Montanus himself bears to the page, becoming, 
as Lodge says, " a willing messenger of his own martyrdom." For, 
unlike Shakespeare's Silvius, Montanus sees " day at a little hole," 
and understands only too well Phoebe's sudden passion for Aliena's 
fair attendant. 

It must be admitted that Thomas Lodge, being tied down to no 
dramatic unities, takes time to make Aliena's own romance far more 
credible than it appears in As You Like It. To be sure, she falls 
in love with the same man — under another name. For Saladyne, 
being himself banished by Torismond, and duly repenting his evil 
treatment of Rosader, wanders like everyone else to Arden. And 
falling asleep, he is discovered by his younger brother just as a 
hungry lion is about to spring upon him. Rosader, after wrestling 
with Orlando's own temptation, saves him, and so the two are re- 
conciled. And when, a few days later, some forest ruffians fall 
upon Ganymede and Aliena, desiring to steal away the fair shep- 
herdess, it is Saladyne and not Rosader who rescues her from their 
hands. Naturally enough, an intimacy springs up between them, 
and the little partie carrie partakes many a pleasant discourse; 
until upon a day Princess Alinda discovers that in escaping the 
robbers she has fallen captive to Saladyne. Nor does she fight 
her overthrow very whole-heartedly. " Women must love, or they 
must cease to live," she muses complacently, " and therefore did 
nature frame them fair, that they might be subject to fancy." 
So, since " where love leads delay is loathsome," there is noth- 
ing for it but to set the following Sunday for .their nuptials. 

" Truth ! " now cries Ganymede with innocent guile, " but 
a happy day should that be, if Rosader that day might be married 
to Rosalynde ! " Man-like, poor Rosader is not greatly stirred 
by any such improbable hypothesis ; and he almost resents the jest 
when Ganymede cheerfully promises to produce his ladylove, 
through a friend " deeply experienced in necromancy and magic," 
when the wedding feast is laid. 

It is on this joyous occasion that the exiled king, Geris- 
mond, first meets Ganymede — ^and " fetched a deep sigh " at the 
resemblance to his lost daughter. The denouement is then worked 



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1917] LODGE AND HIS " ROSALYNDE" 319 

out as Shakespeare later follows it: Gerismond swearing te give 
Rosader his daughter, if she can be found — and Phoebe agreeing 
tQ wed Montanus, if she can be cured of her love for the page. 
Then Rosalynde, having discreetly retired for awhile, enters clothed 
in green, " with a kirtle of rich sendal, so quaint that she seemed 
Diana triumphing in the forest; upon her head she wore a chap- 
let of roses, which gave her such a grace that she looked like Flora 
perked in the pride of all her flowers." And while there is re- 
joicing on all sides — and poor selfish Saladyne is cured of his 
sudden "melancholy" by discovering that his bride also is a 
princess ! — old Corydon the shepherd ccmies " skipping in," most 
marveloudy appareled, to tell them that the priest is at church and 
tarries for their coming. 

But Lodge's romance does not close with wedding bells. 
Scarcely has the marriage feast begun when Rosader's second 
brother, Femandyne, comes upon the scene, announcing that the 
twelve peers of France wait outside the forest, determined at last 
to fight Torismond and restore Gerismond to his throne. Tten 
the cry of Saint Denis! rings through Arden, and there is much 
buckling-on of armor as the men rush oflF, one and all, to battle. 
And the three little " war brides," Rosalynde, AHnda and Phoebe, 
are left to console one another, until the good news of Gerismond's 
victory calls them all up to Paris for the thirty days merry-making 
which ends the tale. 

It must by this time be evident to all readers of Rosalynde 
that As You Like It w,as nothing more or less than a dramatized 
novel. And out of this most problematical of all literary feats, 
Shakespeare made his " happiest comedy ! " Just what did he do 
in recasting the Arden romance? First of all, he eliminated much 
superfluous and inharmonious matter. Then he quickened the 
tempo of the whole work. Last of all, he created the immortal 
Touchstone, the melancholy Jaques, and — lest the story seem still 
too remotely artificial — the refreshing earth-earthiness of Audrey. 

The "speeding up" process is very noticeable in the open- 
ing of As You Like It, where instead of Lodge's long account of 
old Sir Roland's death, Shakespeare plunges at once into the real 
action of the play in a highly spirited scene between Orlando and 
Oliver. The first entrance of Rosalind and Celia is, one must 
confess, rather sedately reminiscent of Euphues' Golden Legacy. 
They converse (it is not talking) with a certain rhetorical balance 
and studied wit until the entrance of Touchstone. With his " Mis- 



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320 LODGE AND HIS "ROSALYNDE" [June, 

tress, you must come away to your father ! " humanity comes trip- 
ping upon the scene. 

And ahnost immediately one is aware of a certain sporting 
spirit in Rosalind. Through all her banter about those who " dote 
upon rib-breaking," one knows that she wants to see the wrestling- 
match. If she lived today she would drive a high-power motor-car 
and doubtless make experiments in aviation! She would also fall 
in love, willfully and strongly and sweetly — and when the larger 
issues called, she would be found blithely faithful. Shakespeare 
makes it very clear to us that Rosalind enjoys her boy's mas- 
querade, as neither Viola nor Imogen enjoys it. She even enjoys 
making Orlando's life a little miserable by her teasing — ^until 
the moment when she discovers that her own life is made miserable 
by his innocent delays and broken trysts. Then comes the human, 
feminine breakdown : not pages of self-questioning and sage argu- 
ing as with Lodge's earlier heroine; not even a sudden burst of 
lyric beauty — ^just the swift confession, half sob and half jest, 
to Celia — 

coz, coz, coz, my pretty little coz, that 
thou didst know how many fathom deep 

1 am in love I 

The crystalline serenity of Arden is Shakespeare's own, for 
Lodge's retreat is prey to highwaymen and even to war — but the 
blessed William will not have even a "clock in the forest." It 
is curious how, with seemingly contradictory method, he both 
humanizes and idealizes : making a man, albeit a young one, out 
of Orlando — and a philosopher, albeit not too old a one, out 
of his banished Duke. What he has made of his wise fool, Touch- 
stone, and his foolish sage, Jaques, all the world knows. In 
brief, he took the gentle, high-bred, rambling romance of good 
Thomas Lodge — z, literary narcotic we called it, in reverence and 
not in scorn — ^and out of it he made a play! That tells the whole 
story : that explains the variety, the sin^lifying, all the accentuation 
of light and shade. It explains his dashing but still " heavenly " 
Rosalind; bis boorish Audrey and William; Amiens' monopoly 
of the lyrics; even that perfect, final note of Jaques' bored de- 
parture from the sunny love feast of Arden. Yes, it explains all — 
in so far as any great work of art may be explained. For it is 
as Rabindranath Tagore has sung with subtle sweetness : He who 
can open the bud does it so simply! But the rose-tree was planted 
first by Thomas Lodge. 

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VLADIMIR SOLOVIEV— THE RUSSIAN NEWMAN. 

BY THE LATE THOMAS J. GERRARD. 

NE of the fortunes of war has been the revelation to 
Western eyes of a Russian mystic. It is Vladimir 
Soloviev. He is not only the foremost spiritual phil- 
osopher of Russia, but he is also one of the most dis- 
guished types of the modem mind. Towards the 
end of his life he happened to write a book against Tolstoy, com- 
bating that writer's doctrine of the non-resistance of evil. The 
book has lately received two translations into English, as a state- 
ment of the philosophy of war from the Russian point of view. 

The subject of war, however, holds but a secondary place in 
the book, and indeed a very secondary place in the life of Soloviev. 
His great lifework was an exposition and propaganda of the claims 
of the Universal Church. He was a convert from Orthodoxy to 
Catholicism, and the one ruling passion of his life was to famil- 
iarize Russia with the idea of a Universal Church, monarchical 
in its constitution. This is the chief reason for calling him the 
Russian Newman. There were other striking similarities be- 
tween the two men, although their divergencies were even more 
striking and more numerous. 

Soloviev, like Newman, was very lonely in his soul. He 
worked always from within — the voice of conscience was his all- 
impelling guide and force. His method was the personal one. 
He conceived in his own peculiar way a philosophy of the whole 
man, which was neither intellectualist, voluntarist, nor sentimen- 
talist. With the watchword of " integralism," he stood for the due 
equipoise of all the faculties of man in the search for truth. He 
worked out for himself a method remarkably analogous to New- 
man's doctrine of the Illative Sense, but with this important dif- 
ference, that he always preserved a profound respect for the use 
and the value of the syllogism. 

Yet, if on the one hand, he was personal and subjective, it 
was always with a sane appreciation of the value of objective 
evidence. Like Newman again, he took a special delight in the 
study of Holy Scripture and the Fathers, of Church history and 
the development of religion. Like Newman, too, he had an ardent 
love for his own country. He thought of Catholicism for Russia, 

VOL. CV.-^I ^,g.^.^^^ ^y V3^^gle 



322 THE RUSSIAN NEWMAN [June, 

and believed that if only Russia were Catholic it would mean the 
religious transformation of the whole world. 

Unlike Newman, Soloviev never became a priest. Both before 
and after his conversion he preferred to work as a layman. Never- 
theless, he deemed that he could best follow his calling by remain- 
ing a celibate. Once, at the age of eighteen, he did think of mar- 
riage, but by the time he had arrived at the age of twenty, he 
had fully resolved to lead a single life. 

Soloviev was bom on the sixteenth of January, 1853, the son 
of the Russian historian. Serge Mikhailovitch Soloviev. His grand- 
father was a priest of the Orthodox Church, whilst on his mother's 
side he was related to the philosopher, SkovOrod. Thus all the 
influences of his childhood tended to imbue him with the spirit of 
the Slav. He grew up a Slav of the Slavs. What he wrote of his 
father in later years was a summary of the influences which bore 
on his owft early life: "With a most passionate love he loved 
orthodoxy, science, and the Russian fatherland." 

The son, however, did not remain long under the supervision 
of his parents. In 1864, at the age of eleven, he passed into the 
gymnasium at Moscow. At once, even in these boyish years, he 
began to show himself alive to the thought of the West. It was 
something other than what he had been accustomed to in his 
parental home. He read Strauss' Leben Jesu, and Renan's Vie de 
Jisas, But the book that most captivated him was Biichner's Force 
and Matter, It had just been censured, and was consequently in the 
hands of many of the older students. And consequently, also, it 
had to be in the hands of this boy philosopher. He read each 
book in its original language, and persuaded himself that he was 
solving a great question. So at the age of fourteen he came to 
the conclusion that he could never more take part in any religious 
act. According to his judgment the Christian faith could not 
withstand the discoveries of science. The spiritual world was an 
illusion. 

Such ill-digested food, however, could never agree with him. 
Both his mind and his feelings were dissatisfied with his immature 
conclusion. In later years he wrote of this time: "At the age of 
thirteen or fourteen, when I was a zealous materialist my great 
problem was this : How can any sensible people remain Christians ? 
And I could only explain the strange fact by supposing either 
hypocrisy or a peculiar kind of madness. This was silly enough 
for a boy " 

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1917] THE RUSSIAN NEWMAN 323 

It was his father who saved him. He tocJc him seriously and 
impressed upon him the importance of the problem of life. Young 
Soloviev continued to treat his problem seriously, and for three 
years remained absorbed in the obscurities of matter and evil. 
His very sincerity served him well and kept him straight morally. 
Where his fellow-students carried the subversive doctrines to a 
practical conclusion, Soloviev kept true to his saner instincts. In 
fact it was through one of his rationalist authors that he found his 
conversion, the one being none other than Spinoza. Through the 
study of that writer he gradually reached a conviction of the reality 
of the spirit world, and of the necessary existence of God. 

Of course, there was in Spinoza the danger of the other ex- 
treme. The reaction from materialism might easily, under such a 
leader, have led him into an equally crude spiritualism. But Solo- 
viev saw further than his master. His own personal method of 
philosophizing made him see that God must be both personal and 
transcendent. On leaving the gymnasium he had decided to be a 
philosopher by profession, but not for the sake of a living, nor yet 
for the sake of philosophy. He had a particular detestation of the 
principle of art for art's sake. All these things were for the sake 
of love — love of God and love of souls. Hence he could have no 
use for the impersonal God of Spinoza. Thus did his personal 
method carry him over the stumbling-block of pantheism. Having 
cleared his own mind, he next sought to bring his conviction to 
bear on his country. But he found himself opposed both on the 
right and on the left. His countrymen were divided into two 
camps, those who stood for the introduction of liberal thought from 
the West, and those who stood for the national traditions. To 
these parties were given the names respectively of Occidentalists 
and Slavojrfiiles. 

The Occidentalists, enamored of the catchwords " liberty " and 
" evolution," were ready for every kind of revolution. Existing 
institutions no longer commanded their respect. They wanted no 
more Tsar, nor yet any more Orthodox Church. They could even 
do without any form of Christianity whatsoever. If they were to 
have any religion at all, they preferred the positivism of Auguste 
Comte. 

The Slavophiles, on the other hand, were guided by two simj^e - 
and almost identical principles, namely, to have nothing to do with 
the West, and never to depart from the customs of the East. This 
double principle, of course, included the further one that Orthodoxy 

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324 THE RUSSIAN NEWMAN [June, 

was to remain the religion of Russia and that every resistance 
must be offered to the Roman Catholic Church. The offices both in 
the State and in the Church were naturally filled with Slavophiles, 
whilst the universities aflForded opportunities for the Occidentalists. 
Both parties, however, were united in their hostility to Rome. 

Such was the general trend of thought when Soloviev entered 
upon his career as a professor of philosophy. He set for himself 
the task of reconciling the opposing camps. He would show that 
liberty and authority were not mutually exclusive, but that an 
equipoise could be established between them. This equipoise was 
also to be attained between faith and science — one could be learned 
without giving up the faith. It was also to be attained between 
the Church and the fatherland — one could belong to a Universal 
Church and at the same time be loyal to one's country. Soloviev 
was thus above all parties, and, consequently, won from them 
varying measures of approval and opposition. The opposition, 
especially in the forms of the rigors of censorship, was so insistent 
throughout his short life that it was not until after his death that 
his influence began to produce evident effects. 

The ground wherein he proposed to sow his seed had been 
prepared by two other philosophers to whom he also was much 
indebted. The sterility of Russian thought had been mercilessly 
exposed by Pierre Tchadaiev. The evils, economic and political, 
with which Russia was afflicted had been laid bare by Leo Tolstoy. 
But neither Tolstoy nor Tchadaiev provided a remedy. Their 
work had to be perfected by Soloviev. 

Before he had reached the age of twenty he had come back to 
the Christian faith. The concluding years of his student life at 
the University of Moscow were marked by a wide variety of inter- 
ests — he followed the courses of history and philology, physical 
science and mathematics, and also a course of theology at the 
ecclesiastical academy. 

At length the time came 'for his final examination which took 
place at Petrograd on November 24, 1874. His first thesis, which 
was formulated against the positivists, was entitled: A Criticism 
of Western Philosophy. It treated of the double evolution of 
thought, idealism from Descartes to Hegel, and empiricism from 
Bacon to Mill. Both lines of thought, he maintained, ended in a 
positivism which was at once atheist, egoist, pessimist, and revolu- 
tionary. His act made a sensation. His hearers were captivated 
and immediately began to take sides for or against hhn. 

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1917.] THE RUSSIAN NEWMAN 325 

In spite of his many adversaries he was nominated to a minor 
professorship at the University of Moscow. Thus at the age of 
twenty-one he began his career as a teacher. The opening words 
of his first lecture were characteristic : " In every sphere of his 
activity, and before all else, man dreams of liberty." It was a 
bold word in the Russia of those days, for it implied the curtailment 
of many a governmental activity. His development of the theme 
was, however, still bolder. The necessities of existence imposed 
on man three kinds of societies, an economic society for the utiliza- 
tion of the material world, a political society for the ordering of 
relations between man and man, and a religious society for the due 
subordination of man to God. Thus there is established a free 
theocracy. By this term Soloviev meant a knowledge of the divine 
prerogatives, a consequent love of them, and a free acceptance of 
them which alone could bring real liberty. 

Russia, however, was not yet ripe for such advanced thought. 
The young professor's success was brilliant, but it led to jealousy 
and intrigues against him. After three months of teaching he was 
removed from his chair. He was not yet bad enough for Siberia. 
So he was silenced by being sent upon a scientific mission to London 
and Paris. 

The ostensible purpose of this journey was the study of spirit- 
ism and cabalism. In London, however, he occupied himself much 
with Anglicanism and the question of reunion with the Orthodox 
Church. From London he went to France and Italy, making his 
way to Egypt to study the beliefs of the Arabs. In the train he 
had his first experience of Catholic clergy — ^two hundred and fifty 
of them on their way to Rome. " Fine fellows," he called them, 
"and not one of them looked like a Jesuit." On his return he 
spent a month in Italy and a fortnight in Paris. It was in Paris 
that he first conceived the idea of a book on the Principle of 
Universal Religion, an idea which fructified eventually in his chief 
work: Rtissia and the Universal Church. In Paris, too, he met 
Renan, who made no better in^ression on him than that of " a 
vulgar boaster." 

By the beginning of 1877 the agitation against him had calmed 
down, so that he was allowed to return to Moscow. But almost 
immediately there was trouble. He was not minded to suppress the 
truth which was so dear to his heart, nor were his enemies minded 
to allow him to express it. A conference which he called The 
Three Forces was the occasion of his fiuther persecution. His t 

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326 THE RUSSIAN NEWMAN [June, 

thesis was that mankind was influenced by three forces, a ten- 
dency towards social unity, a tendency towards individualism, 
and a higher tendency to re^)ect God in other individuals and in 
their societies. The first tendency had been exaggerated by the 
Mussulman, with the result that he had become stagnated. The 
second had been exaggerated by the peoples of the West, with the 
result that their energies had become isolated almost to vanishing 
point. The third tendency remained as something to be realized 
by the Slav of the East. Then would Russia live and be the 
leavening influence of the world. 

Such a thesis, however, was pleasing to neither party. To the 
Slavophiles it was not exclusive enough. To the Occidentalists it 
was not revolutionary enough. Both parties, therefore, combined 
to have silence imposed on Soloviev and to have him sent into 
retirement. 

By the intervention of friends an honorable retirement was 
fotmd for him. He was appointed to a position on the Council of 
Education at Petrograd. The appointment was generally considered 
as a sort of reparation, but nevertheless it kept Soloviev directly 
under the control of the authorities and effectively hindered his 
liberty of speech. 

Shortly afterwards he was nominated to a minor professor- 
ship in the Petrograd University, but his career there was even 
shorter than at Moscow. His thought was developing rapidly, 
and had now taken a direction leading straight towards Catholicism. 

The embodiment of his thought took the shape of twelve 
Lectures on Theandrism. " Theandrism '* was the companion 
word to his "Theocracy.'* By theocracy he meant a full and 
free adcnowledgment of the rights and authority of God. Such 
an acknowledgment made us recognize God in His creatures, 
and led us to love our neighbors as ourselves. But all these traces 
of God in man were but sketches of the great divine appearance, 
when the Word was made flesh in the womb of a Virgin. Thus 
did the figurative theandrisms give way to the real theandrism, 
God made man in history. The purpose of this theandrism was 
that all men might become united to God. We are all called to be 
partakers of the divine nature. Thus there is now a imiversal 
theandrism which is made up of the united multitude of participated 
theandrisms. 

A savor of pantheism, perhaps, some will say. Soloviev, how- 
ever, took pains to guard against this by declaring that the Man- 
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1917] THE RUSSIAN NEWMAN ^27 

God was one unique Person. Jesus Christ alone was the Word 
eternally begotten. And from Him as from the Father the Holy 
Ghost eternally proceeds. For a universal theandrism every man 
must be incorporated into Christ. Every earthly activity must be 
subordinated to this end. The purpose of all societies, civil and 
economic, is to serve the Kingdom of God, the Church, the Uni- 
versal Church, the Catholic Church. 

From the above it is evident that from his early manhood 
Soloviev was fully convinced of the doctrine of the filioque. Living 
in the theological atmosphere which he did, this alone must have 
been a tremendous help to him in adjusting his ideas on the Uni- 
versal Church. As yet his concept of the Church was wanting in 
definition, and indeed some of its lines were very crooked in com- 
parison with the objective reality. Nevertheless he hoped to see a 
Universal Church some day realized by an agreement between the 
East and the West, and to bring about this union became the 
ruling passion of his life. 

One would have thought that the formulation of his ideas 
would have been met with great favor by the various authorities 
who were watching him. For he maintained that the Eastern 
Church represented a divine foundation, whilst the Western repre- 
sented only htrman weakness; and it was the union of these two 
elements which would produce a spiritualized humanity, a Universal 
Church. But the proposal pleased no one. Conservatives and 
liberals conspired together for the removal of Soloviev from the 
Petrograd University. And within four months, namely in March, 
1 88 1, his career as a professor was brought to a close, and this time 
forever. 

In deference, however, to the Russian authorities, we ought to 
say that it was not merely his abstract views on a Universal Church 
which caused him to be removed. These views fructified into 
certain practical conclusions of which the Russian State was bound 
to take notice. For instance, Soloviev protested against the fre- 
quent executions in Russia, and invited the new Tsar to give 
Christian example. He asked him, for instance, not to execute 
regicides, but to give them a chance of moral enlightenment and 
conversion. But Russia was not ready for such developments of 
the City of God. 

Thenceforward to the end of his life Soloviev was refused all 
public utterance, except by way of writing which could be con- 
trolled by the censor. A few months before his death the Univer- , 

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328 THE RUSSIAN NEWMAN [June, 

sity of Warsaw obtained permission to oflfer him a chair. The in- 
cident was useful as an indication of the growing tolerance of the 
Russian State, but it came too late to be of any service to Soloviev 
as a lecturer. Henceforward his life was that of a writer. 

But even as a writer the censorship held him within what he 
believed too limited a sphere. He persevered as long as he could 
in his native tongue. But the annoyances became so frequent that 
he at length sought an outlet for his work in a foreign language. 
His first article outside Russia appeared in a Croatian journal, 
Katolik List, under the title Eastern Church or Orthodox Church. 
In all his evasions of the law, however, he remained loyal to the 
Tsar and to Russia. When he was charged with want of patriotism 
he replied that his patriotism was of a much better kind than was 
commonly supposed; for his love for Russia was not a blind love, 
blinding him to her faults, but a love which enabled him to love 
her in spite of her faults. Whilst loving her he condemned her 
acts of injustice. He longed for a greater and more beautiful 
Russia, less dominating and less violent. He wished for a Russia 
better ordered, more moral and more Christian — ^more truly worthy 
to be called Holy Russia. He hoped for a Russia influential less 
by its arms than by its faith and charity. He wanted a Russia 
that would develop the mystic body of Christ and that would 
glorify the only and holy Church of Jesus Christ. 

In the past the hindrance to all religious progress had been the 
schism between the East and the West. Here then was his problem 
of the future. How could there be an Orthodoxy truly Slavophile, 
yet obedient to the command to teach all nations? To solve this 
question, Soloviev gave hhnself up to a systematic study of theol- 
ogy, at the same time keeping his philosophy in living contact with 
the question. Indeed it is remarkable how he made nearly every 
question he touched lead up to the theme of the Universal Church. 

As a philosopher his thought divided naturally into two 
streams, the mental and the moral science. His treatise, The Phil- 
osophical Principles of An Integral Science, laid down the basis 
of his metaphysics. He maintained that nearly all contemporaneous 
philosophy treated the intellectual life with too much isolation. 
It had been rudely divorced from the life of man as a whole. Such 
a method, whether by way of Hegelianism, or of empiricism, would 
be sure to lead to skepticism. Moreover, such a method missed the 
supreme question of philosophy, namely: Whither does this life 

l«ad? n- \ 

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1917] THE RUSSIAN NEWMAN 329 

Therefore, Soloviev replied with his integralism or whole-man 
philosophy. In addition to the intelligence seeking the true, the 
full appropriation of reality involves a disposition of the will seek- 
ing the Good, and a quickened sensibility seeking the Beautiful. 
Thus was this integral philosophy in full communication with 
physical science on the one hand and speculative thought on the 
other. With such experience it could turn human reflection to- 
wards superhtrman realities. It could mount up beyond human 
life, beyond cosmic life until it reached the absolute Essence- 
Existence. As a moralist, Soloviev summed up his teaching in a 
work entitled: The Justification of the Good. His aim was to 
show his readers the real meaning of life. He proposed to them 
three questions: Has life got a reason for its existence? Must 
one seek for the meaning of life in the moral order? . Does the 
higher flight into that which is spiritual require, permit, or exact 
a sacrifice of that which would be excess in physiological ten- 
dencies? 

We have said that Soloviev was one of the foremost examples 
of the modem mind. This is especially evident in his great work 
on morals. He not only showed the clearest grasp of the present 
situation, but also, like the English Newman, he showed a keen 
anticipation of the future. 

First, he dealt with the pessimists who abandoned their 
lives to caprice, and who, when further satisfaction was not to be 
had, committed suicide. Even they bore witness to a higher mean- 
ing of life. They felt it and saw it, but they were too lazy to 
make the eflfort to reach it. 

Then came the aesthetes of every kind. To them life had a 
meaning because it was a great force, because it had a grandeur 
and a beauty. Morality did not enter into such concepts. The 
moral life was inconvenient and uncomfortable. Beauty, however, 
was fascinating, and the grandeur of life exalted and quickened us. 
It was the doctrine of the strong man set up by Nietzsche : " Slaves 
can adore a God Who makes Himself man and humbles Himself. 
But the strong adore only their own ascent to the superman, the 
endless progression of human beauty, human grandeur and human 
power." 

But, replied Soloviev, that endless progression ends in a corpse. 
Instead of beauty you have putrefaction. The inexorable fact of 
death reduces the body's beauty and grandeur and power to noth- 
ing. Christianity on the contrary is not founded upon death. 



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330 THE RUSSIAN NEWMAN [June, 

but upon the First-born from the dead, and real beauty, grandeur, 
and power could only be found in the Absolute Good. 

Such is the general trend of the work, the final aim being 
"the perfect organization of an integral humanity." And such 
organization postulated a Universal Church. Thus the philosopher 
has all unconsciously transformed himself into a theologian. Yet 
not unconsciously, for he is careful to notice that the superhuman 
is not acquired by natural science, having need of a special com- 
munication. " This communication, willed by God, opens to our 
thought a new sphere of studies and contemplations : the intimate 
deeps of divinity become accessible to theology and the mystical 
life." Henceforward, therefore, theology was to claim a larger . 
share of his attention. And he needed it. He was so extremely 
nationalist, so thoroughly imbued with Slavophile ideas, that he 
thought the Christian restoration of the world was reserved for 
Russia and the Orthodox Church. The Western Church had dwelt 
too much on the material element of the Incarnation, propagating 
the faith by force, and thinking more of ecclesiastical domination 
than the love of Christ. And as for the Reformation, although it 
fought against these abuses, yet it was itself poisoned with Western 
individualism, and shrunk into sheer rationalism. Soloviev, in a 
word, had just that view of " Romanism " which was traditional 
and current in the East. 

Nevertheless he resolved to face an independent inquiry into 
the value of the Roman Catholic claims. He gave himself up to 
the volumes of Mansi and Migne. The councils and the fathers 
were the sources whence he sought the truth. He made a Russian 
translation of the Didache, claiming, in his introduction, that it 
showed how Providence was always allied to a perpetual hierarchy 
and the dogma of the sacraments. The due developments of these 
doctrines, therefore, were not novelties invented by the Catholic 
Church, as the Orthodox Church asserted. 

Once again the enemies of Soloviev were roused. He went 
forward, however, and even ventured to censure the spiritual power 
in Russia. He blamed the Holy Synod for the sin of inaction. At 
the same time he delivered a counter-blast against the Roman 
Catholic Church. In the West, he said, the Papacy had set up 
the Pope in place of Christ, and Protestantism had hunted out 
Christ. Orthodox Russia alone, up to the eighteenth century, had 
respected the liberty of souls. The separation of the East from the 
West ought never to have taken place. The evil wrought by 

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1917] THE RUSSIAN NEWMAN 331 

Constantinople should be repaired by Russia. Having grown up 
and become conscious of herself, Russia should no longer continue 
the historic sin of Constantinople. Rome was thoroughly Christian 
because she was universal. Let us not exaggerate her faults. 

Then he issued his important work : The Great Conflict and 
Ckristian Politics. The conflict, of course, was that between the 
East and the West. It was not essentially a religious conflict, 
but one of radical tendencies. The East was contemplative, and 
in this guise yielded itself to every form of inactivity. The West 
was active, and in this guise yielded itself to the merely human. 
The Incarnation restrained the two tendencies. Nevertheless they 
were the real cause of the schism of 1054: the filioque was but 
the pretext. Pride and ambition, he maintained, had caused the 
Popes to restore the old caesarism. That was not the authority with 
which the Church of Christ should be ruled. " The word caput 
ecclesiw*' he wrote, " cannot be applied to all the Popes ; only 
those have merited it in whom Christian humanity has been able 
to recognize the Eternal Pontiff." The book caused a big sensa- 
tion. Its piu'pose was immediately turned into a political direction. 
Soloviev was charged with agitating on behalf of Poland ! 

A refutation of ^ the work was attempted by the Archpriest 
A. M. Ivantzov-Platanov. Soloviev replied with nine leading 
questions. These were intended rather for the whole Russian 
hierarchy. But they reached much further. They traveled as far 
as Rome and were made the subject of a conference by Cardinal 
Mazzella. 

There was now an active communication set up between 
Soloviev and certain representative Catholics. Soloviev wrote 
to Bishop Strossmayer of Bosnia and Sirmium, asking for an in- 
terview either at Agram or Djakovo. The Russian police, how- 
ever, were on the watch. They interrupted his plans, and for six 
months prevented him from leaving the country. But on the 
twenty-ninth of June, 1886, he managed to arrive at Vienna, and 
from there wrote immediately to Bishop Strossmayer. The Bishop 
welcomed him as his guest at Djakovo, where he remained for two 
months. Both host and guest were enthusiastically Slavophile, a 
circinnstance which enabled them to come near together in their 
discussions on the cause of reunion. 

Yet with all his good intentions towards Rome, Soloviev as- 
serted his constancy towards Russia and the Church of Russia. 
Writing to Bishop Strossmayer on his way home, he enclosed a 

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332 THE RUSSIAN NEWMAN [June, 

memorandum in which he declared that after the reunion "the 
superior position which always belonged to the Eastern Church, and 
which now in Russia belonged to the Orthodox Emperor, should 
remain intact." 

This memorandimi marked a new direction for Soloviev. He 
understood that henceforward his mission in life was, at the cost 
of every personal sacrifice, to work for an agreement between 
Russia and the Catholic Church. He would show by his example 
that a Slav could and ought, whilst remaining a Slav, widen his 
heart and soul towards Catholic faith and zeal, and prove that 
Roman Catholicism completed, crowned, and unified all that was 
legitimate in the traditional orthodoxy of the East. 

For the realization of this idea he planned a large work in 
three volumes, to which he gave the title of The History and Fu^ 
ture of Theocracy. But only one volttme saw the light. The 
censor refused permission to print. Soloviev ag^in had recourse 
to a foreign publisher. After having made certain excisions in 
the hope that the book might be admitted to Russia, he issued it 
at Agram. But the compromise was ineffective: the book was 
prohibited. Soloviev now felt that it was waste of time to write 
any further in Russian for the Russians. ' He must try a more 
roundabout way. So he began a new work in French, one which 
proved to be, his greatest and most effectual: Russia and the Uni- 
versal Church. 

The fundamental thesis of this, which embodied his one aim 
in life, might be stated as follows : " The Universal Church is 
founded on the truth affirmed, by our faith. Since truth is one, 
the true faith must also be one. And since the unity of faith 
does not reside really and directly in the whole body of the faith- 
ful, it must be sought in the lawful authority residing in one 
head — ^authority having the guarantee of divine assistance — ^and 
thus received with love and confidence by all the faithful."^ And 
the first step in the explication of the thesis was "to establish a 
moral and intellectual bond between the religious conscience of 
Russia and the truth of the Universal Church.'* His hope lay in 
the simple Russian people. He drew a big distinction between the 
intellectuals and officials on the one hand and the multitude on the 
other. The latter, he maintained, were really Catholic in their 
faith and piety. It was the official theologians who were so anti- 
Catholic. 

*La Russie et VEglise universelle, Paris, 1889, p. 93. 

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1917] THE RUSSIAN NEWMAN 333 

A work of less importance, though perhaps of more topical 
interest at the present moment, is the one which has lately been 
offered to the English-speaking public. Its correct title is: War, 
Progress and the End of History: Three Discussions. Two Eng- 
lish translations have appeared diu'ing the past year, one issued by 
the University of London Press under the aforesaid title, the other 
issued by Constable under the title: War and Christianity from 
the Russian point of view: Three Conversations. 

The book was written as an antidote to Tolstoy. The ques- 
tion of militarism was exercising people's minds. Tolstoy had been 
writing against war, and with such effect that men were resenting 
conscription. Officers even were known to have been ashamed 
of the army and to have gii^en up their profession in consequence. 
Tolstoy had in fact created an impression that war had no moral 
defence. 

Soloviev came forward as the champion of his country's cause. 
He was quite as good a Slav as Tolstoy — ^and a much better dis- 
putant. Tolstoy had preached from the text : " Resist not him 
that is evil, but whosoever smiteth thee on the right cheek, turn 
to him the other also." From that he had inferred that the use 
of physical force in the settlement of disputes showed a desire to 
do evil and therefore was wrong. 

The logical outcome of such teaching required the abrogation 
of all military and police arrangements. Soloviev saw in this 
nothing but the downfall of European civilization, and its replace- 
ment by a Pan-Mongolism. So he asks : " Can reason and con- 
science count up to three? " If so, then they must see how wrong 
it is for number one to stand by whilst number two persecutes 
the innocent number three. 

This argument he embodies in an imaginary conversation 
which takes place between five Russians in a garden on the shores 
of the Mediterranean. An old general, a politician, a young prince, 
a lady of middle age, and Mr. Z. make up the company. The 
prince is obviously meant for Tolstoy, and Mr. Z. for Soloviev him- 
self. The general, who is the chief speaker in the first conversa- 
tion, tells the story of one of his exploits in the Russo-Turkish 
War. A large party of Bashi-Bazouks had sacked an Armenian 
village, committing unspeakable atrocities. " I could not mention," 
says the general, " all the details. One picture is clear in my eyes 
at this moment — a woman lying on her back on the ground, her 
neck and shoulders tied to the cart-wheel in such a way that she 

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334 THE RUSSIAN NEWMAN [June, 

could not turn her head, and she lay there neither burnt nor broken, 
but with a ghastly twisted expression on her face — she had evi- 
dently died from terror. In front of her was a high pole stuck 
into the ground, and a naked baby was tied to it — ^probably her 
own son — ^all black with fire and its eyes protruding." 

With Cossacks and artillery he set out in pursuit and overtook 
them. First one Cossack and then another rolled over, until at 
length the eldest centurion came to him and asked : " Order us to 
attack, Excellency! Otherwise anathema will fall upon us before 
we get the artillery into position." " Be patient, darlings," he 
replies, " just for a little. I know you can scatter them, but what 
sweetness is there in that? God orders me to make an end of 
them, not to scatter them." 

And he did make an end of them. " God blessed all my six 
cannon. It was the one occasion in my life when I experienced a 
complete moral satisfaction. My act remains till now, and will of 
course remain forever, my purest memory. Well, and that one 
good act of mine was a murder, and not by any means a small 
murder, for in a quarter of an hour I killed considerably more 

than a thousand men Certainly I did not kill with my hands, 

with these sinful hands, but with the aid of six pure, sinless, steel 
cannon, with the most virtuous and beneficial shrapnel." 

Of course, he is speaking ironically when he calls it murder, 
using the terminology of the pacificists. But in this way he deals 
blow after blow against the Tolstoy position. 

The curious thing is that the question of the military power 
of Russia brought Soloviev once again to the question of Rome. 
The concluding pages of the Three Discussions are an allegory of 
the end of history. Through the centuries the union of Rome 
and Russia has not been accomplished, but now at the end of time 
it is clamoring for consummation. 

Soloviev used the political situation of the time to symbolize 
the spiritual. Japan was made to represent the kingdom of Anti- 
christ, whilst Russia represented the Kingdom of Christ. With 
remaricable foresight Soloviev prophesied the defeat of Russia by 
Japkn, the realization of which event gave point to his visions of 
the future Church, and made him a prophet accepted in his own 
country. There was an Antichrist and an anti-Pope, and Tolstoy 
himself was pictured as one of the forerunners of Antichrist. 
These drew the multitudes after them and victory seemed to be on 
their side. 



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I9I7-] THE RUSSIAN NEWMAN 335 

Only a few Christians remained faithful to the true Christ, 
the Catholics led by Pope Peter IL, the Orthodox by the venerable 
John, and the Protestants by one Professor Ernest Pauli. The 
company, all told, numbered twelve. They assembled together " in 
the darkness of the night on a high and lonely place," on the barren 
hills near Jericho, and then and there was the union of the Churches 
accomplished. 

Soloviev, therefore, was keenly conscious of the many obstacles 
which were in the way of the object for which he labored, and of 
the time it must take before it could be realized. He seemed 
to know that his own end was not far distant, for he leaves his 
allegory unfinished — the writer, he said, wished to write more 
when he got better. But he did not get well, and the end of the 
tale was buried with him in the Danilof monastery. Soloviev, as 
a matter of fact, died suddenly a few weeks later at the age of 
forty-seven on a journey to see his mother. 

But what about his own conversion? Long, long ago he had 
sung his " Lead, Kindly Light :" 

Beneath the morning mists I went with trembling footsteps 
towards the enchanted land — shores full of mystery. The 
crimson of the dawn put out the stars ; my dreams still hovered 
round me, and my soul, still wrapped in them, prayed to the 
Unknown God. 

In the white freshness of the day I walk, always alone, 
through an undiscovered country. The mists disperse. Mine 
eyes see clear ahead — how steep the mountain path is, and how 
far away everything still seems — everything that I have 
dreamed ! 

Until nightfall will I go; marching with unwearied stride to 
the long-desired shore, where, under the light of the early 
stars and in the blaze of triumphal fires, glows on the mountain 
top the temple that was promised me — the home that shall be 
mine. 

But did the mist clear away, and did the temple of the Church 
reveal itself to his vision? During the later years of his life and 
for some years after his death certain doubts have prevailed con- 
cerning this. Nor have reasons for the doubts been wanting. 
First there was some necessity for keeping the matter secret. Solo- 
viev had been warned that if he left Paris to enter Russia he 
would surely be arrested and deported. Orders had actually been 
given for his internment in a monastery in Archangel. Hence 
there was need of a prudent silence. Then after his death his rela- 

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336 THE RUSSIAN NEWMAN [June, 

tions who remained Orthodox were at pains to show that he had 
never become Catholic. 

At length, however, the full truth came out. On the eighteenth 
of February, 1896, he was received into the Catholic Church by a 
convert priest, M. Nicolas Tolstoy. The event took place in the 
chapel of Notre Dame de Lourdes at Moscow in the presjence of 
the members of M. Tolstoy's family and of several eminent people 
of Petrograd and Moscow. The priest was arrested next day, but 
managed to evade prosecution, and a few days later was in Rome 
to report the conversion to Pope Leo XIII. 

Soloviev had ever stood for the privileges of the Eastern 
rites, and now he made it quite clear that in joining the Catholic 
Church, he was not joining the Latin rite. He, therefore, made a 
profession of faith which he had fixed upon long before the time 
came to make it : 

As a member of the real and venerable Orthodox Eastern or 
Greek-Russian Church which speaks neither by an anti- 
canonical synod nor by the servants of the secular power 

I acknowledge as supreme judge in matters of religion the 

Apostle Peter who lives in his successors, and has not heard in 
vain the words of the Saviour: Thou art Peter and upon this 
rock I will build My Church— confirm thy brethren — feed My 
sheep, feed My lambs. 

On his deathbed, however, he could not obtain the services of 
either a priest of the Uniat rite or of the Latin rite. So he availed 
himself of the services of the village cure who happened to be 
of the Orthodox rite. This he was quite entitled to do, for every 
validly ordained priest has jurisdiction at the hour of death. One 
thing, however, is quite certain, namely, that when Soloviev for 
the last time confessed his sins, he retracted none of his theological 
judgments. He died in full communion with Rome. 

After his death the Russian authorities removed the ban from 
his works, and now the voice of the apostle of the Universal 
Church, although silent, begins to speak, and the sound thereof 
becomes ever more and more audible. Just as in the West we have 
Newman societies, so in the East there are Soloviev societies, 
formed for the study and propagation of his ideals. And if in 
the past the Russian Government has shown so much opposition 
to a pioneer of Catholicism, and now tolerates him and gives him 
freedom, let us take hope for the future. Big institutions always 
move slowly, and Russia is a very big institution. 



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WANTED: A TREATY. 



BY M. R. RYAN. 




URING the administration of Andrew Jackson — in 
1832, to be exact — ^ treaty was negotiated between 
the United States and Russia. James Buchanan, 
then United States Minister to Russia, acted for our 
Government in the matter; Count Nesselrode repre- 
sented the autocratic Nicholas I. Ratifications having been ex- 
changed, the treaty went into effect on May 11, 1833, 

This treaty was a compact of commerce and navigation, and 
the following was one of its clauses : " There shall be between the 
territories of the high contracting parties a reciprocal liberty of 
commerce and navigation. The inhabitants of their respective 
States shall mutually have liberty to enter the ports, places and 
rivers of the territories of each party wherever foreign commerce 
is permitted. They shall be at liberty to sojourn and reside in all 
parts whatsoever of said territories in order to attend to their af- 
fairs, and they shall enjoy, to that effect, the same security and 
protection as natives of the country wherein they reside on con- 
dition to their submitting to the laws and ordinances there pre- 
vailing, and particularly to the regulation in force concerning com- 
merce." 

The terms of the treaty are surely clear enough to prevent 
misunderstanding. They were accepted unquestionably: this 
country fulfilled its part of the bargain, and in the realm of 
the Tsars anyone of our citizens, armed with a passport, was (at 
least, from a diplomatic point of view) persona grata. Commer- 
cial relations, for about thirty-five years, bore the mark of pleasant- 
ness. But later on the Russian attitude regarding the treaty suf- 
fered a change. In the course of years it became apparent that 
Jews, Roman Catholic priests and Protestant missionaries, citi- 
zens of the United States though they were, were being deprived 
of their treaty rights. With a colossal indifference to the stipula- 
tion that "the inhabitants of their respective States shall mutually 
have liberty to enter the ports, places and rivers of the territories 
of each party," the Empire repeatedly refused to recognize pass- 
ports issued by our State Department. In the meanwhile, Russians 
VOL. cv.— 22 ^^ , 

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338 WANTED: A TREATY [June, 

continued to enjoy such trade privileges as were numbered in the 
treaty. 

Now, we of the United States are a mild and patient people. 
So, for close on to forty years we stifled fairly well our resent- 
ment over the Russian behavior in the treaty matter. However, 
we undertook to point out to the Empire, through our Secretaries 
of State, the error of its ways. 

It was in 1880 that Blaine directed a serious protest on existing 
conditions to the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs. An attache 
of our legation at St. Petersburg (now Petrograd), who presented 
the protest reported later to his chief that the Minister maintained 
" that the words '* (of the treaty) " 'on condition to their submitting ^ 
to the laws and ordinances there prevailing' were controlling, and 
subjected American Jews to the treatment of native Jews." It should 
be said here that Russian law forbade residence in St. Petersburg 
and some other cities to native Jews, save in specified cases. That 
the Minister's contention was not sound, is, of course, evident. 
On the one hand, he seemingly accepted the treaty stipulation for 
" liberty to enter the ports, places and rivers of the territories of 
each party; on the other hand, he denied, to all intents and pur- 
poses, the right of residence in, say St. Petersburg, to an American 
Jew because of the laws " there prevailing " in reference to na- 
tive Jews. Yet St. Petersburg was assuredly one of the " places " 
of Russian territory. As an alternative to enforcing these laws, 
Russian diplomats held that they were authorized to exclude 
American Jews from the Empire. But, " how," queried Dr. Schur- 
man of Cornell, " can these rights " (to enter) " be secured if a large 
portion of the American public, solely on the grounds of religious 
faith, are not permitted to enter the country? " 

However, in this particular instance a promise was made that 
a newly-appointed commission would consider the question ; and so 
the matter rested. But presently it became necessary for the State 
Department to register another complaint, since the findings (if 
any) of the commission failed to remedy the situation. Strange 
things — those Russian commissions ! There was one — the Durnova 
— which, report had it, was dealing with the treaty matter in 1910; 
upon investigation the fact was established that the commission of 
that name had gone out of existence some years before! 

In 1907, a new aspect was put on the problem. Passports 
about to be issued at that time were accompanied by a printed 
circular signed by Elihu Root, Secretary of State, which read in 

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1917] WANTED: A TREATY 339 

part : " Jews, whether they were formerly Russian subjects or 
not, are not admitted to Russia unless they obtain special permis- 
sion in advance from the Russian Government, and this department 
will not issue passports to former Russian subjects or to Jews who 
intend going to Russian territory, unless it has assurance that the 
Russian Government will consent to their admission." Qearly, 
our Government was here applying an unconstitutional religious 
test. Upon remonstrance the circular was withdrawn. 

There is an old and inelegant verse that runs something like 
this : '* 'Tis all very well to dissemble your love, but please do 
not throw me downstairs!" Probably this illustrates somewhat 
the sentiment of Americans in 191 1 when definite action was taken 
to abrogate the treaty. Allowances had been made for Russia's 
initial breaches of contract; but the proverbial American good na- 
ture could not but disappear under constant provocation. The 
denial of permission to Bishop Hoban of Scranton to enter Russia 
for a two days' visit; the persistent attempts of Russia to extra- 
dite Pouren and* Rudowitz for political crimes ; the continued in- 
terrogating of citizens of this country as to their religion when 
they made applications to a Russian consul for vises to their pass- 
ports, and the refusal of a vise in the event of a citizen being of 
Jewish persuasion; the arrest in Russia of John Ginzburg, a 
naturalized citizen, on the charge that he had evaded military serv- 
ice (he had quitted Russia when he was less than fifteen years 
old!) — ^these and other cases served to rouse the country to a 
decidedly unfriendly state of mind towards Russia. 

Twelve States passed resolutions requesting an abrogation 
of the treaty. Resolutions to the same effect were introduced in 
the House of Representatives. The press did its " bit " in further- 
ing American interests. 

Russia perforce had to take notice of the stir created over 
the question. And, therefore, in the summer of 191 1 the State 
Department received semi-official information that Russia would 
deal more liberally in the future with Jewish travelers from the 
United States, and that a bill removing the restrictions with re- 
gard to the visaing of passports of all foreign Jews visiting the 
Empire had been prepared for submission to the Duma. But — 
cheering addenda! — we were apprised that the Duma was very 
much occupied with a programme of internal reform l^slation and 
that international affairs would have to wait. 

This seemed to satisfy the authorities at Washington, in 

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340 WANTED: A TREATY [June, 

spite of the fact that it was well known that the Tsar and his 
Council of Ministers did not need to refer to the Duma in settling 
matters pertaining to the Jews. The public, however, was less 
trusting. Was not the Russian Government merely endeavoring 
for yet another time to pacify our lawmakers, out of fear that the 
resolutions before Congress should be carried, thus endangering 
commercial relations? 

The question was widely discussed. Mr. Roosevelt, in com- 
menting upon it editorially in an issue of The Outlook, declared 
that we could no longer submit to Russia's mode of interpreting 
the treaty. This he advocated, however: that we take the case 
to the Hague Court of Arbitration. If the Court should find that 
the Russian contentions, viz., that the treaty being a commercial 
one could apply only to those going to Russia for commercial 
purposes, or that Americans of Jewish faith could not be entitled 
under said treaty to any privileges that Russian Jews were not 
entitled to, were tenable, then the United States could abrogate 
the treaty on the grounds that it should never have entered into 
it. Or, should the decision be in our favor, Russia, in her turn, 
could either abrogate, or withdraw with no embarrassment to her- 
self from the attitude she had held. 

Sentiment was opposed to any such delay, however. On De- 
cember 6, 191 1, a gigantic mass meeting was held in New York 
City, the present Secretary of the Treasury, William McAdoo, 
presiding. At that meeting resolutions were adopted calling upon 
Congress to abrogate the treaty. The appeal was speedily effective, 
and the House of Representatives, on December 14th, passed the 
Sulzer Resolution which read in part : " The Government in Russia 
had violated the treaty " by " refusing to honor American pass- 
ports duly issued to American citizens on account of race or 
religion." 

The Russian Government was of course cognizant of the wide- 
spread feeling in this country through detailed reports and con- 
tinued agitation in our press. Officially, however, that Govern- 
ment received no harsher word announcing the canceling of the 
treaty by us than the courteous message of our President informing 
it that since the treaty was old, it was held by us to be no longer 
adequate for the political and material needs of both countries. 
The President added the earnest hope that a modem treaty would 
soon be negotiated between thf United States and Russia. 

That hope has so far failed of realization. In spite of the 

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1917] WANTED: A TREATY 341 

kindly worded message of abrogation, the Russian Government was 
keenly sensitive to the rebuff dealt her by this country. This did 
not aid, naturally, in the development of amity towards us. 

One of the paramount problems confronting this country today 
is the negotiating of a commercial treaty with the new Republic. 
Russia is a land of a hundred and seventy millions of people. 
Patently, it is a nation of tremendous possibilities for trade rela- 
tions. War has awakened Russia to a knowledge of herself and 
her economic advantages. Peace will galvanize her to action, and 
to a progress unlike anything she has hitherto conceived. And 
in her new role she will have need of commodities that she will 
be unable to manufacture for herself. Here then is an opportunity 
for the United States to build up a vast trade. 

Several months ago, our Government bent its earnest energies 
to securing a satisfactory treaty with the Empire. But those in 
power in the Russia-that-was, still rankling over our conduct in 
191 1, were in a position to settle up old scores with us. The 
Empire frankly declined to enter into any treaty-making, for the 
reason that the conditions in regard to passports which were in- 
corporated in the treaty of 1832, and which we would insist in 
incorporating in a new treaty, were objectionable still. She stated 
■also that even if she agreed to enter upon a new treaty, with us, she 
would first demand that we agree to exclude from the United States 
certain of her subjects, i. c, Russian Mongolians. 

The consideration of a new treaty with Russia must include, 
therefore, a discussion and a settlement, at least in part, of the Far 
East question. Japan is well aware of this. With the late Govern- 
ment at Petrograd Japan stood in peculiarly friendly relations. 
Japan seeks an outlet in Russia for her trade. In Manchuria she 
w^ working hand in glove with the Tsar's representatives in 
building those great arteries of trade, the railroads. In order to 
advance her cause, Japan's diplomats did not hesitate to emphasize 
the obstacles and the disadvantages to Russia of commercial friend- 
ship on her part with us. Competition is not the spice of life to 
the Japanese, and we as friends of Russia would be competitors 
with them in Russia. To prevent Russia from entering into any 
treaty with us, Japan therefore kept alive, with all the emphasis 
in her power, the Mongolian issue. And as a consequence a mag- 
nificent trade prize was slipping from our hands. How was it 
possible for us to retain it? 

Then dawned the March days of revolution. " The progress of 

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342 TO JESUS, FROM A TIRED HEART [June, 

Russia thus far," stated Andrew D. White, our Ambassador to St. 
Petersburg in 1893, " has been mainly by a series of reactions. 
These have sometimes come with surprising suddenness." The 
words might easily have been written in this spring of 191 7. A 
reaction of *' surprising suddenness " has assuredly taken place. 
Russian autocracy is at an end. 

With its passing, our trade difficulties also will very probably 
disappear. With the new form of government in Russia has ar- 
rived the emancipation of the native Jews. American Jews, there- 
fore, are now free to visit Russia at will. One stumbling-block in 
our path treaty-ward is thus removed. Doubtless any remaining 
impediments may be eliminated through the channels of diplomacy. 
That, at any rate, is the hope of the commercial portion of the 
United States. 

As a nation, we now stand at the head of the creditor class. 
Russia, the Republic, must have money, machinery, railroads. All 
these we can furnish her. But first we must provide ourselves with 
a treaty that will protect us in such commercial relations as we 
may agree to enter into. May that treaty soon be negotiated ! 



TO JESUS, FROM A TIRED HEART. 

BY MABEL THACHER ROSEMARY WASHBURN. 

O PITEOUS Lord, be gentle unto me. 

So weak and useless, plaything of the tide, 

Swayed by a dream of Self and so beset 

By shallow selfrabsorption that my soul — 

The silver vase Thou madest to hold Thee — 

Is worn and bent, and scarce will hold the least 

Of that divinest Grace which Thou dost pour 

So freely, with the largesse of a king. 

In every Cup Thy Hands have fashioned. 

Ah, fill this Cup that I have made so frail 

With That Which givest Life abundantly. 

Thy Self, Thy Precious Blood, Which Thou hast bade 

Thy weary pilgrims drink and thirst no more. 

O piteous Lord, be gentle imto me! 



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tVLILE FAGUET. 



BY WILLIAM P. H. KITCHIN, PH.D. 




ROFESSOR SAINTSBURY in his monumental His- 
tory of Criticism ^ speaks of Faguet as one " whom, 
though I differ with him not seldom, I desire to 
take the opportunity here of saluting with all pos- 
sible respect as an admirable critic, and to whom I 
could almost pay the doubtful compliment of wishing that he 
were dead in order that I might discuss him more fully.'* The 
master has passed away now, and it seems well worth while to 
pass in review the work of this notable man of letters, and to give 
Catholic readers some knowledge of a Knight of the Pen, who 
fought consistently for Christian ideals and who died as a humble 
and fervent child of the Church. A partial catalogue of his works 
is before me as I write, wherein no less than sixty volumes are 
mentioned; and it is calculated that the material for a hundred 
volumes more lies scattered in all classes of reviews and periodicals 
from the Olympian Revue des deux Mondes to the exceedingly 
popular and commonplace Je sais tout. Faguet's knowledge, talent 
and fecundity were unfailing; while his goodness of heart 
prompted him to give unquestioningly to all who sought his col- 
laboration. Nearly all his books obtained a very large sale; many 
of them, though entirely academic in subject and erudite in treat- 
ment, enjoyed a veritable succis de scandale. Thus his Dix- 
neuvieme Siicle ran to forty-eight editions; his Dtx-septiifne and 
DiX'huitiitne to forty-six and forty-three respectively. Of course 
he did not always soar to such giddy heights; his Seiziime Siicle 
carried off no more than twenty-five editions; his Politiques et 
Moralistes du Dix-neuviime Siicle had to be content with a beg- 
garly twelve — triumphs, which however notable in themselves, seem 
tame and modest compared with the preceding. This extraordinary 
vogue is all the more remarkable, and throws into bolder relief 
the solid merit of the man, when one remembers that he battled 
uncompromisingly for noble ideals in literature, for honor in pub- 
lic and purity in private life; that realism, futurism, exoticism. 



*Vol. iii., p. 339. 



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344 SMILE FAGUET [June, 

art for art's sake, and all similar sickening cants and shibboleths 
found in him a relentless foe. 

fimile Faguet was bom at Roche-sur-Yon in 1847, where his 
father Victor Faguet was a distinguished professor of literature. 
The father's ambition was that his son should become professor 
at the Sorbonne, and finally reach the Academy. With this end 
in view Faguet pire at the price of many an economy and many 
a self-denial, sent his son to Paris to the £cole Normale in 1867. 
But Faguet fils did not, it seems, correspond to his graces; in 
fact he was a real " bad boy," so much so that he was very soon ex- 
pelled for insubordination. His father was indignant at the dis- 
grace, and also at the career imperiled if not permanently marred, 
and determined to reduce the rebel. He therefore forced on him 
a post of humble drudgery as maitre auxiliaire at the Lycee of 
Dijon, where he now taught literature himself; he thus had the 
recalcitrant under his own eye, and could see that he walked the 
strait and narrow path. The sinner had fallen merely through 
the high spirits and effervescence natural to youth; he soon re- 
pented and made amends under the wise and firm guidance of 
his father, applied himself seriously to study and passed his aggri- 
gation (which corresponds to our M. A.) in 1874. For eight 
or ten years he taught in the provinces at Clermont, Moulins, 
Poitiers, Bordeaux. These were years of severe training when 
he was amassing the erudition that astounded his contemporaries 
later, and when he was working on the thesis* which won for 
him a brilliant Doctorship of Literature in 1883. His ambition 
was now to obtain the Chair of French Literature about to be 
founded at Bordeaux University, but the fates were against him 
and sent him to an obscure Lycee in Paris, where unknown to him 
fame awaited him. He seemed as yet a long way from the Sor- 
bonne and still further from the Academy, but, if men were un- 
kind or contemptuous, the stars in their courses were fighting for 
him. A colleague happened to introduce him to a Paris publisher, 
who wanted some literary introductions written for a series of 
schoolbooks he was planning. Faguet was glad to undertake the 
task, and his essays were so fresh and novel in their treatment 
of well-worn themes that they created quite a furore. The author 
encouraged and flattered by success, expanded his work into Etudes 
litteraires sur le dix-septiime et le dix-neuviime siicles. 

It was but natural he should undertake a similar task for the 

*La Trag^die fran^aise au XVL Siicle (1550-1600). ^ t 

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19171 ^MILE FAGUET 345 

eighteenth century, and by his manner of executing it he leaped at 
once into fame and notoriety. In these days Voltaire was wor- 
shipped by many Frenchmen literally with a cult, which to a 
foreigner seems nothing short of fantastic, but to them was the im- 
perative dictate of right reason, good sense and patriotic duty. 
Faguet demolished that cult forevermore; he cast down the sorry 
Patriarch of Femey from his usurped pedestal; he showed piices 
en main by the most searching and unanswerable criticism that 
Voltaire was a quack, a shallow and superficial man without either 
the ability or the knowledge to solve the deep questions of phil- 
osophy and religion which he wrote about so glibly. The core of 
his indictment on Voltaire is contained in the following trenchant 
words : " A giddy and light-minded man, who understands neither 
great questions, nor great doctrines, nor great men; who knows 
absolutely nothing of antiquity, the Middle Ages or Christianity; 
who is completely ignorant of religion, of modem politics, of 
modem science; who knows nothing whatsoever of Pascal, 
Montesquieu, Buffon or Rousseau, and whose one great man is 
John Locke, may be a lively and amusing shower of sparks, but is 
not a great torch on the path of humanity." This condemnation, 
so searching and so severe, excited the utmost fury among the 
Unvversitaires, and occasioned exceedingly bitter controversies. Fa- 
guet was spoken of in terms that would not have been out of 
place were he the vilest criminal, and the government was sum- 
moned to dismiss the audacious professor, who had dared on 
literary and historical grounds to tell the simple unvamished truth 
of the Sovereign Pontiff of Impiety. But the iconoclast faced the 
storm without flinching; he undertook new campaigns in the same 
cause ; recmits flocked to his standard, and, so far from depriving 
him of his humble post, the government promoted him to the 
Sorbonne in 1893 and a few years later he was received among 
the Immortals. His good father's ambitions and sacrifices had at 
last received their reward. 

Throughout the long years that Faguet practised the art of 
criticism his principles never varied. He asks himself invariably, 
is the work submitted to judgment conformable to reason, to com- 
mon sense, to taste and decency? If not, no reputation on the 
part of the author, no furious chauvinism on the part of the 
public will extort the slightest sign of approval from him. Hence 
his sarcastic condemnation of Loti, who is often only a pretentious 
exotic; of Zola who "has dragged man down to the brutes, or 

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346 fi^MILE FAGUET [June, 

rather one ought say beneath the brutes ; " of Balzac and his dis- 
ciples who literally revel in muck-raking. His verdict on these 
last is worth transcription : " A whole literature has sprung from 
this [tendency], to which Weiss has given a name that iwill 
cling, 'the literature of bestiality.' Many have seen but that in 
Balzac, and have copied nothing else. He is responsible for 
the easy but contemptible boldness of all those novelists, who have 
affected to believe that realism lay in the study of villainous or , 
shameful singularities, while the truth is the direct opposite; these 
writers under pretext of sincerity have only exhibited loathsome 
abominations, and to my deep regret they have succeeded in mak- 
ing the word realism synonymous with pornography." • 

Writing on December 31, 1902, in half-serious and half- 
joking strain, Faguet examining his conscience asks himself what 
has he done with the well-nigh three score years Providence has 
given him. He replies: "If not for eleven lustres, certainly for 
eight olympiads I have done nothing but exercise the profession 

of critic and I ask myself if I have spent my life well. I 

am not at all certain of it." But he was too self-depreciatory. 
His criticism was truly a moral force which made for righteous- 
ness ; into it no personal jealousy or spite intruded ; ^he conducted 
it on scientific principles, and placed it at the service of the noblest 
ideals. 

Faguet flattered himself he was a good literary pen-painter; 
nor was he mistaken. He possessed the faculty of singling out 
the chief characteristics of a personage and of expressing them 
in a brief and pregnant formula, whose piquancy is often heightened 
by its tone of paradox. Thus he classifies Voltaire as " a jumble 
of clear ideas; " Joseph de Maistre, " a pretorian of the Vatican; " 
Michelet, " a kind of mystic Voltaire; '* the philosophy of Wagner, 
"a philosophy of a choir-conductor." In this connection it is 
tempting for an English writer to put him in comparison with 
Carlyle. The latter practised pen-portraiture on a large scale; but 
as a general rule his judgments on his contemporaries astound by 
their injustice, and repel by their arrogant tone of jealous be- 
littlement. To the Sage of Chelsea, Herbert Spencer was " an im- 
measurable ass;" Cardinal Newman "hadn't as much brains as 
a moderate-sized rabbit; " Charles Lamb — " a more pitiful, rickety, 
gasping, staggering, stammering Tomfool I do not know." The 
Frenchman is above such vulgarity, nor does his clearness suffer 

* Dix-neux/iime Siicle, p. 362. 

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1917.] 6MILE FAGUET 347 

thereby. He judges dispassionately, according to the rules of his 
art, and in voicing even his severest condemnations he never for- 
gets that the critic is still bound to be a gentleman. 

But let us examine one or two of his full-length portraits 
to get a better idea of his procedure and methods. The most 
curious one and the most significant also is the portrait of himself 
contributed to the great Histoire de la langue et de la littirature 
frangcUse of M. Petit de JuUeville. With the serenist and most 
impersonal detachment Faguet the writer submits to the appraising 
balance of Faguet the critic, and his strength and weakness are 
duly and loyally tabulated: " M. Faguet was especially and still is 
a university critic. Very classical and considered by many of a 
somewhat exclusive, not to say narrow, taste, he has published on 
the four great literary centuries of France four large and perfectly 
impartial volumes, wherein he seeks to show that the sixteenth 
century has been too highly esteemed in literature and the eighteenth 
in philosophy, and that the only really golden period in French 
letters is the seventeenth and the first fifty years of the nineteenth. 
He is generally admitted to have considerable facility in analyzing 
the dominant ideas and tendencies of an author, and in expounding 
them afterwards with vigor and clearness. If the products of 
such analysis are not portraits, they are at least skeletons fully 
'prepared,' fully adjusted and with the bones all in position. With 
the exception of picturesqueness he is evidently in this the pupil 
of Taine, who had already noticed the point ^himself. What 
he abstains from doing — ^probably because he lacks the power — is 
to coordinate particulars into one whole, to bring into prominence 
the special temper of each century, to follow up the undulating lines 
of filiations and influences, in one word the art of general ideas 
in literature, and the 'spirit of the law' in letters. He pretends 
not to believe in it, and as generally so too in his case, skepticism 
is doubtless but an impertinent admission of inability." 

See how he proceeds always by psychological touches, and 
how deft and unerring they are ; see, too, how he recognized him- 
self the want of depth and color in his canvasses. He can lay 
bare a writer's style for you and disclose his mental processes; he 
can also give a faint and shadowy portrait of the fnan, but it is 
only a pastel; the vivid, lurid, trumpeting (if I may be permitted 
such a term) conglomerations of color so common in Carlyle are 
not to be found in Faguet. 

Let us suppose that the former had been led to give a sketch 

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348 6MILE FAGUET [June, 

of Gambetta. We should certainly have had an unforgetable pic- 
ture. The man's appearance, attitude, carriage, the tones of his 
voice, the very light of his eye would be limned in words now 
biting and scornful, now melting in a half-cynical, half-humorous 
pathos; and in conclusion he would impale on the demagogue some 
grotesque and outrageous epithet full of insolence, but largely mixed 
with truth like the nicknames, of a saucy schoolboy, as he did to 
" carrion Heath," " goose Gobel " and a dozen others. Now let us 
turn to Faguet's portrait of Gambetta, wherein he speaks not of 
the man — ^who after all gave a soul to his eloquence^ — but only of the 
eloquence itself as a literary document: " [In his speeches] con- 
tinued and sustained pomp; a luxury of amplification; heaping 
synonyms; perpetual periods; declamation and bombast in the 
phrases which are never finished but expand more and more ; every 
sentence broken with parentheses, which collide with it so to speak 
head-on, and which it bears away as the bull does the banderillas ; 
huge avalanches of enormous abstract nouns in unlimited number, 
each dragging in its fall a company of abstract adjectives as long 
as itself; the whole, one must admit, instinct with a certain fire, 
readiness and movement, and carried off successfully by these. 
Such is the outward appearance of most of Gambetta's discourses. 
And it is undeniable that in the most of them there is nothing 
but this outward appearance."* 

The beauty of an original always evaporates in translation, 
and I am quite willing to admit that my rendering does not do 
justice to the original ; but still after making the amplest allowances 
I cannot help feeling that the Scotchman is the greater painter; his 
palette embraces a wider scheme of colors, his brush has a touch 
of gorgeousness which the other's lacks; he (in this particular) 
is a Titian or a Raphael while the Frenchman is a Botticelli or a 
Carlo Dolce. 

This eloquent professor, this keen and erudite critic, un- 
doubtedly one of the most learned men of the day, though in 
private life the meekest and most retiring of men, was an absolutely 
fearless champion when principles were set stake. In such cases 
he never hesitated to publish his opinion and back it with the most 
forceful arguments. That his ideas were unpopular, were viewed 
askance by the public or the authorities, never gave him a moment's 
anxiety. To him his profession of writer was a high and a sacred 
calling, which he was bound to use for the benefit of his fellow- 

*Propos littiraires, iv., p. 339. 

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1917] £MILE FAGUET 349 

men; and any remissness on the point was a criminal dereliction 
of duty. " The man of letters also hears a voice, which is not 

without austerity. It tells him this: Talent is a dignity, and 

the meaning of that is as follows: As the power to write, but 
especially to write with purity, eloquence, vigor and talent gives 

you a terrifying superiority over the immense majority of 

men, and enables you to act on men's minds as the great majority 
can not, so talent is a nobility; it is more than a nobility, it is an 
aristocracy, more than most aristocracies it is a power, of which 
you are unworthy, you are the dishonest possessor, when you do 
not use it in the service of truth, justice and virtue. A man of 
letters who would write only for pleasure would be a king who 

would employ his power only to amuse hmiself# Be useful. 

I should tolerate a king only on condition of his being the servant 
of all. I tolerate aristocracies on condition that they make them- 
selves one with the people by their devotion to the common good. 
I approve those rich in intellectual gifts on condition they make 
themselves pauperes spiritu, by which I mean that in intention and 
by the use they make of their faculties they should put themselves 
on a level with ordinary mortals. Such is the ideal of a man of 
letters."* 

It is our glorious Faith and that alone which begets such 
ideals in the minds of her children, and it is she above all who gives 
the courage and abnegation required to realize them. I should 
like in this connection to quote an interesting paragraph of Faguet's 
on the Church viewed as a society. It is taken from one of his 
numerous studies of the political and social problems peculiar to 
French life, which as a rule have little or no interest for us : " The 
best hereditary system which I know in the course of history is 
the Catholic Church. This society solved the problem of enjoying 
all the benefits of the hereditary principle while avoiding all its 
defects. It assured its continuance by the system of adoption after 
the example of the Roman emperors of the best period; and so 
multiplied the life-giving and imperishable qualities to counteract 
the weaknesses of the race. It was, and still is, the best of 
aristocracies and democracies. A democracy it is in this sense, 
that it guides all whom it takes to itself — and this guidance ex- 
tends even to those of the lowest rank whom at any moment it may 
raise to the highest. It is an aristocracy because to t{ie children 
of its adoption, that is to all its children, it gives an inheritance, 

■i?# la profession, p. yz. 

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ELEANOR DONNELLY— THE SINGER OF PURE RELIGION. 

BY THOMAS M. SCHWERTNER, O.P., S.T.L. 

|HERE was just one thing about her going that we, 
who knew her intimately and well, are certain she 
would not have approved — and that was the honor 
which was paid her in the Cathedral of SS. Peter 
and Paul, Philadelphia, on Friday morning. May 
4th, when Archbishop Prendergast, in the presence of Bishop Mc- 
Devitt of Harrisburg and scores of priests and religious, gave the 
final absolution over her poor wasted body. Not that she would 
have spumed the prayers which the big-hearted Mother Church 
offers up for " those who have gone before," nor the tribute of 
loving remembrance and affectionate regard of countless friends, 
but she never sought honor in life nor in death. The rest 
was entirely after her own heart's desire. Death came to her on 
April 30th, when the Church was celebrating the feast of St. Cath- 
erine of Siena, whose name she had taken upon entering the Third 
Order of St. Dominic. The May month was just stealing over 
the hills, and Mary's month had always been for her a season of 
extraordinary rejoicing and a time of most prolific literary labor. 
She died among the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, 
whom she dearly loved, and whose example of virtue she emulated, 
for did they not honor in a special way that attribute of Our Lady 
which appealed most puissantly tcTher heart and inspired her pen 
most nobly ? They wrapped her in the Dominican habit she always 
prized, and which — quite unconsciously to herself — ^was to her 
friends the symbol of her life and literary mission. Eleanor C. 
Donnelly was fittingly laid to rest with the accompaniment and 
consecration of those small rites which may seem insignificant to 
the dull world, but to the understanding are dripping with meaning. 

Within the sound, the magic spell 
Of Blessed Independence Bell, 
And Continental echoes sweet. 

Eleanor C. Donnelly was bom September 6, 1838, being the 
sixth child to come to the home of Dr. Philip Carrol Donnelly and 
Catherine Gavin, whom he had made his wife. Reared and edu- 

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19171 ELEANOR DONNELLY 353 

cated carefully at home by a mother whose intellectual gifts were 
surpassed only by her Irish faith and piety, the little child soon 
showed signs of extraordinary talent. With mingled astonishment 
and delight this good mother watched the unfolding of a mind that 
was to remain alert to the last. It was soon noticed that Eleanor 
had a special affection for her elder brother Ignatius, who attracted 
her no doubt by the keenness of his intellect and his broad, under- 
standing sympathy. She herself, speaking of her childhood, relates 
how she used to go to her brother's study " to be trained in the 
occult mysteries of metre. What can a child of eight or ten know 
of prosody or poetic feet? Yet I have a distinct remembrance of 
standing — a tiny girl — by Ignatius' writing table, and of being 
shown by him with great kindness and patience how to reckon on 
my fingers the correct number of syllables in a given line." 

This same brother was, later on, to win national recog- 
nition not only as a lawyer and Lieutenant-Governor of the State 
of Minnesota, but also as author of such gripping novels as 
Casar's Column (one of the first apocalyptic novels in our language, 
which now boasts Benson and Shaw), Ragnarok, Doctor Huguet 
and The Great Cryptogram, which enkindled the famous Bacon- 
Shakespeare controversy. Under his care it is small wonder that 
the child's verses soon began to appear in the poet's comer of a 
local juvenile paper. At the age of nine, when most girls are hug- 
ging their dolls, she wrote A Little Girl's Hymn to the Blessed 
Virgin, which may aptly be taken as the irrevocable consecration 
of her pen. 

Some years later appeared a more pretentious poem, entitled 
A Child of Care. To the last she kept the notebook to which as 
a mere child, in a lumbering script, she committed the thoughts 
that passed through her mind. When barely nine years of age she 
carried off the first prize in a competitive contest of more than two 
hundred pupils. Probably the decision was given in her favor over 
her sister Eliza, who was some years her senior. 

From Eliza she also received much help and inspiration. Her 
other sisters, Sarah and Philippa, whilst masters of the English 
language, excelled rather in prose translations, especially of ser- 
mons and hagiographical works from the German and French. 
Sarah, whom the sisters always referred to as " the theologian," 
had a penchant for translating sermon books, probably faring the 
opinion of M. Leroy-Beaulieu as to the inferiority of American ora- 
torical productions. Perhaps, too, she was led to this unusual work 

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354 ELEANOR DONNELLY [Juno, 

by the lack of command of the English language among the foreign- 
born priests and bishops who made the Donnelly home their rendez- 
vous — ^not always solely because of the generous hospitality there 
dispensed, but also because of the medical assistance which the 
father of the family — a, prominent physician. with a lucrative prac- 
tice — was glad to dispense. I can well recall how Eleanor referred 
with pleasure to the willing ministrations which she was privileged 
to extend for a period of two years to a missionary bishop whose 
feet, " carrying the tidings of grace," had become a source of the 
most acute suffering from exposure to the elements. 

Everyone coveted the honor of being received into that home. 
It was, in its own way, the closest approach to America to that 
distinctively French social institution known as a salon, where 
men and women of intellect gather for the exchange of brilliant 
conversation and literary and religious discussion. The Donnelly 
soiries, by no means unlike those of Madame de Stael and 
Madame Swetchine in Paris, took place regularly once a week for 
a period of years. All Catholic writers of note living in Philadel- 
phia, or visiting there, were welcomed with true hospitality. Those, 
too, who had just set trembling foot for a rash moment upon the 
slopes of Parnassus, were made to fed as much at home as men 
whose contributions were being eagerly sought by the publishers 
of the day. Indeed, it was mainly for the promotion of a healthy 
Catholic literary taste and rivalry that these informal gatherings 
were continued. Aside from the feast of thought and the sparkle 
of conversation, there were the rich art treasures of the cultured 
host to be- enjoyed. The music of the sisters, both vocal and in- 
strtunental, was also well worth hearing, especially when Sarah, the 
eldest daughter, presided at the organ. For many years this quar- 
tette was eagerly sought after by the musical experts of Phila- 
delphia. In several city churches it was a drawing card, and 
thousands of dollars for various diocesan charities were raised 
through their entertainments and recitals. 

To the end Eleanor retained the keenest interest in music, 
and it was a joy to hear her pass a critically competent judgment on 
much of the modem music of Debussy, Mullarme, Cesar Franck, 
Chausson and Vincent d'Indy. While she was not familiar with 
the German composers — aside of course from the dominating 
figures — she could well appraise the vehement platitudinism of 
Mahler and the stodgy literalness of Reger and contemporary imi- 
tators. 

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1917.] ELEANOR DONNELLY 355 

As a very young woman Eleanor fell under the influence of 
Father Sorin, C.S.C., first editor of The Ave Maria, who had the 
largeness of vision to recognize her powers and to value the 
possibilities of her influence. If The Ave Maria is worth reading 
from its very first issue, it is due no doubt to the fact that during 
a long period of years the artistic touch of Eleanor Donnelly is 
visible in every department. Largely through personal influence she 
enlisted as contributors men and women of acknowledged achieve- 
ment in the field of Catholic literature. With Father Sestini, S J., 
she labored for The Messenger of the Sacred Heart, and with 
Father Wirth, O.S.B., for Nova et Vetera, a homiletic magazine 
for the clergy. She was for a time chief editor of the magazine, 
Our Lady of Good Counsel, conducted by the Augustinian Fathers. 
In The Catholic Standard and Times, a Catholic weekly of Phila- 
delphia with which she was connected for some time as associate 
editor, much of her work appeared, even as late as a month before 
her death. 

From her youth Miss Donnelly had hoped to be able to enter 
some religious order. It was the one ambition of her heart, and 
her failure to realize it was the one disappointment which never lost 
its poignancy. When it became evident to Eleanor that the world 
was to be her theatre, she determined to play a role that would do 
the greatest good to the largest number. Of her mission as a writer 
of children's stories she has this to say : " I have felt impelled to 
this work because I love their precious souls; because I am con- 
vinced that a good story-book is for them the next best thing to 

the Catechism As bread is the food of the child's body, as 

the Blessed Eucharist is the food of the child's soul, so a good book 
is the genuine need of a child's mind. If its mind be improperly 
nourished, its imagination improperly directed, the corruption of 
both soul and body speedily follows, and the Bread of Life in the 
end is either rejected with loathing or received with perilous 
apathy." 

With Pere Lacordaire, she might justly have said that she 
was crucified to her pen. The number of articles that came from 
it is almost astounding — ^biography, religious essays and novels, 
short stories — in all, almost fifty goodly-sized volumes. And this 
number could be notably increased were the fugitive poems and 
articles of one kind or another, which appeared in almost every 
Catholic magazine, gathered together in permanent form, as they 
eminently deserve to be. Like Cardinal Newman, she seemed t« 



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3S6 ELEANOR DONNELLY [June, 

think best with a pen or a pencil in her hand. Her active mind, re- 
tentive memory and fluent gift made her the chosen poet laureate of 
anniversaries, dedications, and jubilees. Archbishop Ryan of Phila- 
delphia, who greatly esteemed her, calling her " the Adelaide 
Procter of America," requested her to write the ode for the cele- 
bration of the centenary of the archdiocese. By her ode on the 
occasion of the Jubilee of Pope Leo XIII., she elicited from him 
a much treasured word of appreciation, and the Apostolic Bene- 
diction. Pope Pius X. also took cognizance of her great work in 
the cause of Catholic literature, and sent her his special blessing. 

In 1893 she read her poem. The Catholic Wife and Mother, 
before the World's Congress of Representative Women in Chicago. 
This canticle of the sanctities of holy love won the highest en- 
comiums. Rarely did Coventry Patmore succeed in painting in more 
beautiful tints the authentic picture of an ideal Christian home. 
Another ode. The Drama Spirittudized, was read on request, No- 
vember 26, 1895, before the convention in the AVomen's Building 
of the Cotton States' International Exposition at Atlanta, Ga. In 
September, 1893, she read a deeply searching and comprehensive 
paper on Woman's Work in Literature before the Catholic Colum- 
bian Congress. Men turned instinctively to her in solemn hours 
for an interpretation of the sentiments which they felt, or should 
feel, for she seemed to possess an almost uncanny ability— or in- 
tuition — in giving poetic utterance to the spirit of each significant 
moment. 

Scarcely any of her friends suffered losses or enjoyed suc- 
cesses which she did not commemorate in verse. These purely per- 
sonal poems dedicated to friends are almost countless in nimiber, 
and amongst them we find some of her best and most soulful pro- 
ductions. This was but natural, for she lived for her friends, as 
those who were fortunate enough to be of their number well know. 
Her correspondence was enormous; in it she sought to give and 
receive enlightenment and inspiration. For her friends and her 
friends' friends she counted no labor fatiguing. She was as ready 
to read over a manuscript, to polish or refurbish a poem, or pass 
judgment on an essay as she was to do her own work in hand. 
Indeed, to her judicious criticism and wise guidance many young 
writers owe their eventual success. At least a dozen Catholic 
writers living today, besides many Protestants and especially 
Quakers, would gladly acknowledge their debt to her for the 
eminence they subsequently attained. In this way she sought to 



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1917.I ELEANOR DONNELLY 357 

enlarge the apostolate of the pen, and as she said, '^ to perpetuate 
my own work when I am gone." 

It IS remarkable that aside from all this she found it possible 
to produce so much original work. And more remarkable still 
that her prodigious fecundity did not in any way militate against 
its general excellence. One seeks in vain for literary carelessness 
in her work. She knew the shades, delicate nuances of words and 
always used the right one. Indeed, I know of no other writer who 
excels her in this regard, in our generation, unless it be Oscar 
Wilde. Her verse was supremely spontaneous — sometimes too 
much so. One feels this on the very first reading of her poems. 
She did not believe that art consists in being cr)rptic. Her thoughts 
were clear, her command of language matchless. When some 
thought clamored for expression, she would sit down quietly for 
a brief space, sometimes beating time with her small hands or 
feet. Then her face would suddenly light up, and she would rush 
for desk or table — it mattered not where — ^to put her thoughts on 
paper. The note of naturalness in her poems is unique; the harp 
of her muse was attuned to the wind of every inspiration that 
blew, and her song was easy, fresh and free. She sang because 
she could not help it. She confessed more than once that she 
foimd little pleasure in writing prose, a fact evidenced by a certain 
constraint in her prose work. By it alone she certainly would 
never have attained popularity^ nor a permanent place in Catholic 
literature. Not, indeed, that her prose was plodding or lumber- 
ing, but it lacks the ease of expression, the surety of touch, the 
fire of spontaneity that mark her verse. In the latter native grace 
and picturesqueness lie like a holy unction on every line. Perhaps 
Lowell alone, of American writers, is less fettered by metrical 
shackles. She was a great admirer of Lanier, and whilst probably 
profiting little from his carefully elaborated system of poetical con- 
struction as far as the composition of her poems was concerned, 
she no doubt learned from him to adapt metre to thought in a 
sort of photographic way. This is especially evident in her songs 
to Our Blessed Lady. They are surcharged to the bursting point 
with virginal love and adoring faith, yet not even Faber could 
outdo her in the dignified expression of the dominating emotion. 
Many of her poems are so rollicking in their metre, so quick in 
their action and thought, so easy of comprehension that one might 
aUnost call them ballads. There is little doubt that, had she chosen, 
she could easily have achieved everlasting fame as a ballad writer. 



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358 ELEANOR DONNELLY [June, 

After all, was not the blood of the old Irish bards in her veins, and 
did she not see in them the most representative singers of her people? 

This gift of " fleet- footedness ** in the thought, action and 
metre of her verse is best seen in the narrative poems, her work 
of predilection. Here was a nUHer preeminently her own. With 
amazing fidelity she sketched in a few lines or stanzas the neces- 
sary historic background, lighting it with the atmosphere of the 
time and place. Especially felicitous are her pictures of mediaeval 
times. We see the flash of arms and plumes and hear the blare 
of trumpets and the admirable mediaeval monastery, with its 
own indefinable and individual monastic ethos, becomes for us a 
living reality. She never visited Europe, but without any visual 
help, her historical accuracy and spiritual vision made the places 
she had never seen live again as in the ages of Faith. Her characters 
too are as natural and unaffected as if she had known them in 
the flesh. They speak the language, they live the life of their day. 
The narrative poems, long and short, especially the Rhyme of the 
Friar Stephen, may be counted as the finest flowering of her genius, 
which is a true compliment to her literary deftness and artistry, 
since of all poems these are the most difficult to write. She holds 
by no means last place in the legion of narrative poets for stirring 
interest and sustaining enthusia^n. The Vision of the Monk 
Gabriel and an tmpublished poem which she kept especially to read 
on rare occasions to her most trusted friends, The Little Leper 
Virgin, are perhaps of her very best. 

Even if good thoughts, like sunshine, are common property, 
it is only due to note that Longfellow was greatly inspired by 
Miss Donnelly's Vision of the Monk Gabriel in writing The Legend 
Beautiful, More than one wide reader of poetry, like Dr. R. Shel- 
ton Mackenzie, of Philadelphia, has noted a striking similarity 
between the two poems, though some forget that the Catholic 
writer's poem antedates by eight years that of Longfellow. In a 
letter on the subject. Miss Donnelly herself says: 

In reply to your queries anent my Vision of the Monk 
Gabriel, I am happy to state that I wrote the poem eight years 
before Mr. Longfellow published The Legend Beautiful. I 
cannot recall where I first met the theme— could it have been 
in Rodriguez's Christian Perfection? That was a darling book 
of mine, read and re-read with ever-increasing interest. From 
it I drew my legend of the Two Guests of the Abbot Paphnu- 
cius, I published my Vision of the Monk Gabriel in The Conti- 

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19171 ELEANOR DONNELLY 359 

nental Monthly, then published in New York by Charles Leland 
(Hans Breitmann). It was a secular magazine, and could, 
therefore, have been seen by Mr. Longfellow more easily than 
if it had been a Catholic periodical. Indeed, I have learned 
from a personal friend that a priest (temporarily resident in 
Boston) once told him that when some<Mie spoke to Mr. Long- 
fellow of the similarity between my Vision and his Legend, he 
admitted that he might have seen my poem and retamed some 
impression of it. The priest further added that the great poet 
said that he " bought anything that he could get of Miss Don- 
nelly's writings." As you will note in comparing the two 
poems, Mr. Longfellow reproduces, textlike, in his opening 
lines, almost word for word the closing lines of my Vision. 
His very use of the word "vision" is of itself significant — 
that word, as you know, having a mystical force with Catholics 
unknown to those outside the Faith. It was, in fact, my own 
characterization of what the Friar saw, and Mr. Longfellow's 
capitalization of the word would seem to furnish a clue to its 
origin. Again, there is a sort of argument — an antithesis in 
the Legend, in Mr. Longfellow's description of Our Lord's 
personality — ^as though he contrasted his version of the story 

with mine I would only add that I was a young writer, 

comparatively unknown outside Catholic circles when I first 
published my Vision, and therefore had no courage to question 
the great singer of Boston as to the origin of the curious simi- 
larity between his poem and mine. 

Tennyson himself leaned heavily upon one of Miss Donnelly's 
poems in his Enoch Arden. Its publication preceded that of the 
great Laureate's by some years. I distinctly recall how she men- 
tioned the point that Tennyson, who worked very slowly — ^smoking, 
as he said, sixteen cigars over every line — ^produced Enoch Arden 
with a celerity that astonished even his friends. These two in- 
stances only go to prove that the greatest singers of the last years 
have paid our Catholic poet the delicate compliment — in the sense 
of Mark Twain— of more than mere imitation. Indeed, she has 
suffered as no other Catholic poet of America at the hands of the 
plagiarist and literary highwayman. But with her usual sweetness 
and gentleness, she never referred to the subject in private con- 
versation, unless actually pressed by friends who were much 
wrought up by the injustice done her. Invariably she excused such 
actions with the " exegesis of Christian charity," one of the most 
lovable traits of her character. 

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36o ELEANOR DONNELLY [June, 

It is difficult to estimate in a short paper the poetical output 
of Eleanor Donnelly; it is too large and varied. She has more 
virility than Adelaide Procter, with whom she is often compared, 
lacking her surfeit of honeyed sweetness. She rivals Longfellow 
in tenderness and ease of expression; while for word painting it 
is easy to see that she sat long at the feet of Wordsworth. In 
many of her religious poems — which might easily be called sacred 
hymns — she is closely akin to Father Faber, although always 
repressed in expression, never losing thought or sentiment in a 
delirium of words, however beautiful or aptly chosen. Had she 
sung of secular themes she would be known as one of the leading 
singers of our generation. But just because she sought to teach 
the English language to talk in Catholic accents, she must be con- 
tent to be known to those only who chose their poetry regardless 
of the passing judgments of the hour. 

Of her most recent work, none deserves higher praise than the 
metrical translation of some of the Psalms published in The Ameri- 
can Ecclesiastical Review, to the great delight and profit of its 
clerical readers. In this, by no means an easy task. Miss Donnelly 
follows close in the wake of such translators as George Buchanan, 
Arthur Johnston, Luke Milboume and Benthal, and far excels Arch- 
bishop Bagshawe and Helen Hielscher. She succeeds admirably in 
rendering the sense of the original, and the rhythm, so pronouncd 
in Hebrew verse, in an English correct, dignified and graceful. 
This was the fitting climax to her literary labors — one, indeed, 
which her himiility would never have dared to undertake on her 
own initiative. 

All in all there has not been a lovelier career in American 
Catholic literature, one more prolific, helpful and inspiriting, than 
that of The Poet of the Pure Soul, as Eleanor Donndly was often 
called. She has enriched our religious literature abundantly. It 
would be rash to place her amongst the so-called great writers of 
our language, but we may safely acclaim her a poet whose ideals 
in life and song are lofty enough to dazzle the eyes of a critically 
appreciative world. Her work won approval in her own lifetime, 
and it is certain that the years to come will not diminish her repu- 
tation. She wrought nobly and well with the great talents she had 
received, and men will long hold her name in benediction as a 
religious poet whose sound, sweet influence has gone far to coun- 
teract the false, strident mysticism of the day. 



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CLAUDEL'S GREAT MYSTIC DRAMA. 

(LE REPOS DU SEPTI£ME JOUR.) 
BY MAY BATEMAN. 

\E Repos du Septiime Jour is no ordinary drama. No 
drama of Paul Qaudel's is ordinary, for each has 
its distinctive psychological and supernatural inter- 
est; giving intimate and illuminating studies either 
of the growth and development or the dwarfing and 
atrophy of the human soul. Then too like iEschylus, Qaudel con- 
cerns himself with ultimate jwoblems; what is life given for? why 
death and pain should be; what man is in relation to God; what 
God may mean to man. Le Repos du Septiime Jour stands out 
even amongst Claudel's work for two main reasons. First, because 
it is an Eastern play, charged with the mystery of the Old World 
whose ancient documents date back to twenty- four centuries b. c. ; 
second, because serious as are all the issues which Claudel sheds 
light on in his work, he sheds light here upon the most solemn prob- 
lem of all — Eternal Punishment; a subject upon which naturally we 
are not prone to meditate. For the twentieth century was — ^until 
lately — an age of compromise and luxury; its materialism was 
spreading in every coimtry when war with its elemental ravage 
hurled itself upon us, and plunging us into horror and grief, re- 
vealed, once and for all, the actual worthlessness of those false gods 
of ease to whom we had reared our temples. The majority of 
us shirk the facing of unpleasant facts, such as sin and its 
consequence; which is one of the main reasons why Christian 
Science and other similar tenets have any hold at all upon the 
imagination. Their amiable doctrines soothe and console the mind 
of man, naturally self -complaisant and ready to be lured by any 
vision of himself, in apotheosis. Easy to become each his own 
builder if we are only asked to raise an altar to ourselves! 

Qaudel's aim is to voice Truth at any cost, and in Le Repos 
du Septihne Jour he touches its depths and heights. He has a 
prevailing purpose. Never was a writer who understood more 
clearly the solemn vocation of the writer, nor dedicated himself 
to God in his work with more passionate devotion. God gave t 

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362 CLAUDEUS GREAT MYSTIC DRAMA [June, 

him his art, and to God he must justify God's gift. " O Thou, 
Who hast given me this moment of Light, use me! "^ "Today 

I ask only that I may know God in His fixity, and acquire 

Truth through concentration."^ " My first duty is to God, and 
to fulfill the task He has given me of re-uniting all in Him."* 
Le Repos is a dr^ma of sombre mystery in parts, austere and 
reverent, and preparing us stage by stage, by flashes of crystal 
light for ultimate holy illumination. And this in spite of bring- 
ing us at moments into the very presences of dark powers and 
potentialities — because it reveals, with unshaken confidence, the 
great truth which the best of God's children are liable to forget 
in a time of national loss and disaster — ^how the plan of God, which 
is splendidly unchangeable and cannot err, will never be over- 
thrown no matter what tremendous forces Lucifer and his fallen 
angels may use in their continual efforts to divert it. 

Critics have left the play of Le Repos du Septiime Jour in a 
strange isolation. Duhamel, usually the most sympathetic of Clau- 
del's readers, tells of its lyrisme pricon^u, but says little of its 
range. Pierre Chavannes, writing in the New Statesman, seems to 
have come under the spell of its magnetism — ^he appreciates its pic- 
torial and vivid aspect, comparing it with Dante's Inferno, but fails 
to see its noblest significance. J. Middleton Mtury, in a scholarly 
sketch of Claudel's work in the current number of The Quarterly 
Review, does not allude to it. While— ^most curious fact of all — 
a writer of some distinction in another leading monthly literary 
review, disposes of the greatest religious play in contemporary 
literature in exactly twenty words, and those inaccurate, as fol- 
lows : In Le Repos du Septiime Jour we are told of a visit made 
by some Chinese to the lower regions." 

Gaudel wrote the drama when he was twenty-seven years 
old. The pla)rs belonging to this period, first published in L'Arbre, 
were afterwards collected in the only four volumes of the Theatre 
which have yet appeared. It is significant that this one is re- 
printed sans modification. The other plays, with the exception 
of L'Echange, are given in two versions, an original and a later 
one, in which La Jeune Fille Violaine is actually the first version 
of VAnnonce faite d Marie, Claudel's most successful play. 

Le Repos has a quality all its own ; it is more like an evocation 
than a transcription. A mysterious quality, which must be left as 
it is, spontaneous, indefinable, or it would fail in power. It seems 



^L'Esprii gt VBau, *La Maison Fermie, 

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1917] CLAUDEUS GREAT MYSTIC DRAMA 3^3 

actually to draw out in the reader undreamed faculties of appre-^ 
hcnsion ; he is in the action of the play rather than merely watch- 
ing it as a spectator. He sees with the mind of the writer, which 
means that his inner eye is conscious not only of the printed words 
upon a page, but the words which never will be written there — ^the 
" writing on the wall " of the temple. 

The play came into being at one of the most poignant periods 
of Claudel's exile from his own country, partly at Shanghai, partly 
at Fou-chow, places in which it was his lot to live awhile in the 
course of his work in the French Consular Service. Thrust into 
conditions amazingly other than any he had known, there had 
surged upon him the full overwhelming flood of interior darkness. 
The reader has only to turn to the Vers d'ExU, to trace the course 
of this assault on hope and faith in loneliness. There are some 
of us who have to take arms against Satan and all his angels be^ 
fore we can find God. Qaudel, surely, had been through his hour 
of torment before he wrote the play of Le Repos. 

In its firm treatment, in its growing force, in its inexorability, 
it reveals traces of Greek classic influence, so many of whose 
canons still rule art that is pure. Yet the stamp is Eastern, and 
Eastern throughout the panorama which moves before us, or rather 
which we move amidst — in the first and second acts, whilst purely 
Catholic is its lesson and teaching, diffusing the whole play with 
lofty mysticism. 

Le Repos makes deeper demands, in some directions, upon the 
reader's own powers of response than do Qaudel's other plays. 
The outward conditions in which each act takes place are disclosed 
in the fewest words of any of his dramas. Yet the scene in each 
case is perfectly clear. Mencius, one of Confucius' most famous 
disciples, said, when interpreting the poems of his country : " We 
must try with our thoughts to meet the scope of a sentence and then 
we shall apprehend it." We literally " lose ourselves," as the phrase 
goes, in this play. Swept out of ourselves by a power greater 
than ourselves, we are poignantly aware of color, of texture, of 
transformation, in spite of singularly bare instructions. In two in- 
stances, the change of scene and flight of time are denoted only 
by a short line separating two paragraphs .* 

'This particular symbolism reminds the least experienced sinologist of the con- 
struction of one of the Sacred Books of the East. Fuh-hsi, founder of the Chinese 
nation, some thirty-four centuries before Christ, as is generally believed, is thought 
to have made the original eight trigrams which were afterwards increased by 
sixty-four hexagrams. The Book of Yi, a series of metaphysical and F®^ii"tnTp 



364 CLAUDEUS GREAT MYSTIC DRAMA [June, 

The play, itself a force, deals with tremendous forces; at 
times the quivering winds of the powers of darkness themselves 
seem near. For there are three terrific pages in the drama which 
deal with necromancy, that actual diabolic power which, in its 
most subtle form, has lately again been let loose upon the world. 
The attempt to re-call the dead to earth by any means that we 
may ask them questions, is making havoc of a thousand broken- 
hearted men and women today, who do not realize from whence 
it emanates: f esprit immonde, seeking continually to betray the 
soul of man. 

Infamous and forbidden acts! 

What has become of our respect? — our piety? And how should men 
like these capture human hearts and torture them? 

By enchantment the spectre of Hoang-Ti is summoned in Le Repos, 
evoked in the presence of the wise and great Emperor who hesi- 
tates up to the last to resort to such means, yet gives way finally 
to the will of his people. He prepares for the ordeal, as do those 
about him, with prayer. The spirit that appears gives an answer, 
true, but it is no intelligible answer — let one trace the analogy to the 
present time! And the Emperor knowing that unholy rites can 
never be made holy, no matter with what reverence or dignity or 
solemnity they may be accompanied, takes other means, and de- 
pending upon faith and prayer and penitence alone achieves his 
end. 

The play of Le Repos du Septiime Jour has traces of three 
distinct elements: Eastern texture; Greek influence. Catholic mys- 
ticism. Claudel is a deep thinker, who goes profoundly into any 
subject to which he applies his great intellectual powers. His 
work shows that the teachings of Confucius the moralist, of Lao-zze 
the metaphysician, of Buddha the remote, are no more comparable 
with the warm and glowing faith of Christianity than is a tesselated 
pavement giving upon an empty temple, to the rough and narrow 
way of the Cross which leads upon the Beatific Vision. 

The great Emperor of the Chinese people, "warned by the 
lip-less breath of dreams," withdrew for a long period to the remote 
solitudes of his empire, after fulfilling the sacred rites, far from 

terances, antique documents dating back further than the Kau dynasty, was formed 
of trigrams and hexagrams, which were interpreted by King Wau and his son, 
who made the symbols intelligible to the initiate by putting them in words. 
From a group of linear figures whole sentences were thus built up. ^T^ 

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1917] CLAUDEUS GREAT MYSTIC DRAMA 365 

the foot of man, to learn in isolation the things of the spirit. The 
bare ground at the foot of an antique sepulchre, besides a statue 
so old that even tradition was dumb before it, became his resting- 
place. There he built a temple, near the worn memberless effigy, 
which in spite of being defaced by storm and tempest was dominant 
and regal still. 

One day there appeared envoys from his capital; men whom 
the Emperor, with vision purged by prayer, felt fear pursue. They 
told how the kingdom of the living was invaded by its sister king- 
dom of the dead, whose inmates came in wrath and envy. No of- 
ferings appeased them; lawless, in hordes, they multiplied as 
panic spread. In the villages men hung their offerings of wine, 
of rice, of beans; garments were put for them and paper-money. 
Defying flame, the intruders swarmed in comers of the house 
like rats; when food was cooked and the smell of fat rose from 
the cooking-pans, they assembled, gnashing their teeth, a herd 
of phantom and unbidden guests. Men working in the fields, aware 
of them, feeling the touch of death on their once warm skin, turned 
their heads fearfully in this direction and in that, wondering where 

was escape At night, they wandered, homeless, and on old 

battlefields massed in l^ons; half revealed like shaping vapor 
showing against the sunset sky. Children, seeing them, fell in con- 
vulsions, or died; the laborer could work no longer, and the days 
of love were dark. The people had sought in all directions for 
relief from the burden, but found none. Rather, the invasion 

grew The ancient documents were enigmas to them; in 

despair they appealed to magicians and to Buddhist priests. But 
the first raised another horde of demons, and the Buddhist priests, 
preaching re-incarnation, saying that all who died would live again, 
again to die, struck further terror into the hearts of people who 
shrank hour upon hour from the proximity of the dead 

But the Emperor, firm in faith, knew that without " permission 
from the blue and open heaven " the dead would never have been 
able to intrude upon the living at all. Therefore, there was pur- 
pose in this assault. Something was to be taught by it ; they had 

violated some law and the wrong must be righted Even his 

own palace had not escaped the visitation. It was because " breath 
without heat " had pointed the way to this hermitage that he had 
come here as an anchorite, stripping off his kingly robes, and dug 
a great pit in the earth, leaning over which he could call to the 
unseen Emperor of the dead. For though " the voice of man is 

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366 CLAVDEUS GREAT MYSTIC DRAMA [June, 

weaker than the voice of the wild beasts, it lifts to the sky and 
pierces through the envelope of earth." 
He pleads: 

Hear me, O Kingl Reveal the cause; disclose 

The remedy ; how have we sinned ? Spaire some of my people ! 

Let me, the Emperor, atone for all, and die 

Let me perish, with my race, and the dynasty itself be rooted out 



The envoys wait but no answer comes. All call together, but 
still there is no reply. Can the Emperor of the Dead be sleeping? 
Other arts must be employed, plead the Chief Prince and high 
officials. And here — ^at hand — is one versed in enchantment; a 
sorcerer come from the Desert-Land-of-the-Mountains itself, where 
unicorns neigh and demons have their will. There, by his incanta- 
tions, he had learned how to compel them ; " when he calls they 

come like dogs '* From their secret lairs he could draw and 

snare them in his magic circle. If he were allowed to speak to 
them now they would obey, he would be acting but as a humble 

instrument of the imperial will 

* But the Emperor's white soul contracts with horror at the 

thought. Black arts are forbidden by the law No good can 

come from such hideous practices. Yet as the ambassadors urge, 

one cannot speak to barbarians without an interpreter The 

thing that had come upon the nation was unholy; surely any 

means might be resorted to, to rid men of unclean obsession? 

After a long struggle the Emperor, against his will, gives way 

Darkness falls. The sorcerer sets about his preparations. The 
magic square is made to the accompaniment of low mutterings; 
incense is burned. Red candles thrust into the ground give the only 
light. The magician strikes a disk of bronze ; the clang reverber- 
ates and is thrown back from the far mountains. He recites his 
spells. Strangling a black hen he spills its blood with rice upon the 

square. His body writhes and twists ; froth forms upon his lips 

A jet of smoke spirts from the ground; in frenzy he makes his 
final adjurations, and falls in convulsions as with a sound like 
thunder the earth rumbles and breaks and opens out, and a great 
column of smoke and flame rises, to die down leaving the armed 
spectre of the Ancient Emperor Hoang-Ti visible. In an agony 
of fear, the officials fall prostrate; but the Emperor, upheld by 
faith, faces the apparition. The dead are diluting the earth's t 

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1917] CLAUDEUS GREAT MYSTIC DRAMA 367 

possession with the living. What rites, what acts of purification 
are needed to appease the unbidden guests and drive them back to 
their own domain? 

The answer comes, unintelligible. " Who eats must die. Pay 

your dues We are hungry and thirsty Leave the earth 

untilled ; you must take nothing from it." 

But man without bread must die The earth gives him 

his sustenance. Bewildered, the Emperor knows that the spectre's 
answer is no answer at alk Only by the permission of the high 
heaven has Hoang-Ti been allowed to appear. Let him explain, 
then, what is to be done. 

In anger Hoang-Ti disappears; he will add nothing to what 
he has already said. And the Emperor bids his people rise. En- 
chantment has broken down. But a last hope remains. He — ^the 
Emperor — trusting in the strength of faith alone, will knock at 
the Door of Darkness and, obtaining entrance, learn from the lips 
of the Lord of the Dead himself the way of expiation. 

Without the magic square, without the spilled blood of the hen, 
Despising the magic veil, I will ask in hell what hell has against 

us 

The remedy that enchantment cannot reveal. I myself will seek, 

putting to the proof the good-will of heaven. For has not 
his aim been to guide his people like a father, in justice, strength 
and wisdom? 

Open O earth, and let me through 

Spare my people; and if one must die 

Let me and me only pay the penalty 

Open O earth, for as a willing sacrifice I come. 

He leaves his young son to the guardianship of the Chief 
Prince, who is also to see to the nation's safety. He will take 
nothing with him on his journey to the unknown except the ancient 
imperial staflF with which the destiny of the state is bound. Proph- 
ecy has declared that after the life of the dynasty has been threat- 
ened by revolution, and peace finally comes after strife, it will 
break into branches as apparently lifeless trees will at the approach 
of spring. And "the great powers of heaven, drawn to it like 
birds, will watch the miracle." 

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368 CLAUDEUS GREAT MYSTIC DRAMA [June, 

Open earth, to admit me! 

Open your heart to me as you do to heaven when it sends you its 

rain 

I command you, by heaven, if it be heaven's will 

To let me in 

The earth trembles and opens. Kneeling, he prays : 

I thank thee, heaven, for answering my prayer 

And if it be your will that I die, — or if again it be your will that 

I bring back the truth, that also will be well. 

Take me, O earth, for willingly I come. 

He flings himself into the abyss and the earth closes upon 
him. 

Follows, complete obscurity, and the unknown Here, 

in their own stronghold the children of the devil collect to make 
assault upon assault, now from this angle and now that, upon the 
lofty soul that daringly has come, alone with faith, to meet them. 

Sooner or later, it must be overthrown Loneliness and fear 

launch upon the Emperor at the first attack. He knows that the 
interminable black space is thronged ; that, seething here and there, 
are 

Words 

Rapid, not htunan words, 

Formed without lips, soundless and meaningless. 

Like utterances made by spirits in a dream 



Time is no more, yet endless; he is " drenched in darkness " 

His mother comes to tempt him, a shapeless thing but an entity. 

I scent you out 

Like a blind bitch nosing her litter 

I have no eyes to see 1 

I am here and not here, I am lost forever 

Lost, and bewildered hung in the lower heaven. 

In the night of illtunination, in the blackness of light 

In nothingness which has no walls, I seek and stray 

There is no light here nor time nor time, my soni 

No time, no end, no space 

She has done no wrong, she pleads, to merit punishment like 
this But the Emperor, groping for truth, is faithful still to 

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1917-1 CLAUDELS GREAT MYSTIC DRAMA 369 

faith even with his heart torn, and sense of justice shaken. It is 
the hour when the soul, no longer able to pray, rests for security 
on former prayers. 

My spirit shall not falter; 

In the grave itself I will affirm my faith ; in the outer darimess, — 

In night, in nothingness 

And I swear that in heaven as earth, and in the darkness of the 

lesser pit. 
Justice unalterable is with Eternity. 

Perfect in equity it weighs and balances 

You who are here O Mother, have received your due deserts 

The mother tempts him anew; she describes more horrors. The 
stone Beasts which the Emperor's people worship are to be found 
here, and Buddha smiles among them. Their maws are empty like 
sepulchres " where death itself is dead." They stray in hell, like 
wild dogs, seeking prey. 

And now there appears before htm the very sexton of the 
soul, the demon, Satan's messenger himself. At sight of him a 
latent sense of sin springs in the Emperor's soul. For his presence 
wakes unsuspected echoes of cruelty, murder, sensuality, covetous- 
ness, blasphemy. The balance falters, swings wide, then back again, 
true to the old remembered faith, 

Flesh is weak and treacherously betrays the dormant faculties 

But man upheld will never fall. Not easily will you shake the key- 
stone of my faith. 

You have no rights in me! 

By my own will I came here. 

By heaven's permission, and the authority of justice 

Lepicier, in his inimitable Unseen World, says that " whilst 

the demons are ever busy executing Lucifer's orders 

and dragging the souls of men to perdition, they are, too, by an 
unfathomable disposition of Divine wisdom, executing God's plan 
of purifying the good " (although unconsciously, because they have 
no access to it). The demon, by his very assault upon the kingly 
faith, strengthens it. He describes sin rightly, but subtly tries 
to indicate that there is no door of escape from it. Man, prone 
to it, gives way to its sweet novelty ; this is the first d^free. The 
habit of sinning forms; he sins in the second degree through in- 

VOL. CV.— 24 Digitized by VjU^^QIC 



.«* CLAIDELS GREAT MYSTIC DRAMA [Jmc, 

CfKs cardi, to adont nc! 

Cl«y«l«ittomcasjwdoto hea^ when k scads you its 



I coamand too, bj hcarai, if it be heaven's wiB. 
To let me in 






The earth tmnblcs and opens. Kneeling, he prays: 

I thank thee, heaven, for answerii^ my prayer 

And if it be your win that I die,— or if again it be your wJB th 

I bring back the tnith, that also win be wdL 

Take me, O earth, for wiUingly I come. 

He flings himself into the abj-ss and the earth doses ti 
him. 

FoUows, conqJete obscurity, and the miknown T 

in their own stronghold the children of the devil ccrflcct to - 
assault upon assault, now from this angle and now that, upc 
lofty soul that daringly has ccraie, alone with faith, to meet 

Sooner or later, it must be overthrown Londiness an 

launch upon the Emperor at the first attack. He knows t' 
interminable black ^ce is thronged; that, seething here an* 
are 

Words 

Rapid, not human words. 

Formed without lips, soundless and meaning^ 

Like utterances made by spirits in a dream 

Time is no more, yet endless; he is *' drenched in darkne 
His mother comes to tempt him, a shapdess thing bat ai 

I scent you out 

Like a blind bitch nosing her litter 

I have no eyes to seel 

I am here and not here, I am k)st forever 

Lost, and bewildered hung in the lower bea^ 

In the night of iUmninatioo, in the W^f^^ ^'' 
In nothingness whidi has no walls, I sedc and OTy- 

There is no light here nor time n^r 

No time, no end, no space 

She has done no wrong, she P^^f *lT^ ^ 
.,., .But the Emperor, gropin? /or tnrth. B ^ 

""* Digitized by COOgle 




9r' 



tf^^ */»// nor f,t„, 



" '^VSTIC DRAMA* 



373 






t saj 



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V'-* 



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//. 



'//. 



»n!id, I ask for- 
' 'm; theirs 

>f 

If 

at 

had 

alace 

nasty 

rstthe 

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lent staff 

.ross, ful- 



], bearing the 



ation. . . . 
ther side. 



f grief! 
accept your sorrow. 

what we have within 

ifness, 

wandering feet 



my people, I will issue my 

ihy face! 

ly son? Look then! 

)ws a face glassy and swollen 
; the eyes are bleeding holes. 

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370 CLAUDEUS GREAT MYSTIC DRAMA [June, 

cHnation. When, in the third degree, he sins for very love of sin, 
he has little to learn from the spawn of the devil. 

They know his individual temptations and can trade on them. 
For their substance is as the substance of the angels of light. They 
have knowledge of the secrets of nature. They can move where 
they will, for they also are angels although fallen. 

I too — I greatly dared! 

In the sight of God Himself I committed infamy! 

The first man was made initiate in sin by us 

He died, and fnrni his death, millions and mjrriads were born. 

What chance of atonement then for man? — ^thus dogged by sin at 
every step ? Something has been stolen from God. What equality 
is there between God and man? How can man pay God His dues? 
Does a slave obtain pardon for the crime a free man has committed ? 
But the Emperor, trained in the logic of his time, remembers 
that through suffering man learns to correct his mistakes. Is not 
that the answer to the problem? for suffering indeed is here. By 

accepting suffering, he too will learn The demon grimly 

draws him into the place of fire. 

Fire without flame or smoke 

Fire hotter than the breath of the furnace, stronger than the August 

sun, when in mid-heaven 
It strikes the sea with its thunderbolts and draws earth to it in a 

strangling embrace. 

Fire explains all. What other analogy is so complete? For 
the action of fire is the same in every instance; it separates; it 
assimilates. It takes and it devours, itself maintained by what it 
feeds upon — ^flesh, bone, fat, blood and tears. In a divine paradox, 
the very particles which it destroys are those which give out heat 
.and light. When it comes upon anjrthing it cannot destroy, like 
iron, it makes it flexible and soft. And what it cannot soften it 
bums up It has a triple life. 

This self-same fire which sustains life in you 
May be the glory of the saints in heaven, 
Jorment and agony of souls in hell. 

To the Emperor's people had been given the fruits of the earth 

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1917] CLAUDEUS GREAT MYSTIC DRAMA 37i 

to enjoy. They had used them to their own ends; they thought 
only of themselves, wherefore punishment. The earth shall have 
back its own. For sin brings punishment in its exercise. Who so 
poor as the miser? Who suffers deeper humiliation than the en- 
vious? In the depths of hell — 

Misers strangle; 

With their throats seized as if by quinsy, nails driven deep into their 

pahns, teeth clenched, 
They twist in torment, unable to expel the €gg of gold which throttles 

them 

The idle sleep in an eternal nightmare and can never wake 

The proud man, driven into the earth like a stake, is left alone; 

blindness and endless solitude are his part 

Is there, then, no possible expiation for sin? The Emperor's 
soul for the moment is in jeopardy. And despair, seeing at last a 

way of entry, draws near If this is the end of all, if there 

is no escape, no chance of reparation, how much better the lot of 
rats and flies, dissolving into untormented nothingness! 

The demon reminds him that there is still Satan to face 

Once more the broken Emperor summons his retreating forces of 
loyalty and confidence in heaven. His mission was voluntary ; no 
matter what it brings, he is ready to face it. For his motive is 

pure; he desires truth When he returns to his people, if 

he be indeed allowed to return, he will be able to tell them that, 
though he bring them only the unpalatable bread of bitterness, 
he himself was the first to eat it. And the reader seeing tired faith 
thus compelled to make its stand against the worst assault of all, 
will be reminded of his own parched hours when prayer was mean- 
ingless and his cry for water clanged against the outer walls of a 
brass heaven ; when only the will to hold on, made firm by practice, 
still endured to drive his sore spirit towards the unseen healing 
spring of refreshment 

The Messenger of Evil has done its worst, and failed. It 

shrinks away And the Emperor, alone in his blindness, prays : 

" Lord I am Thy means of communication with the people; 

grant that I may not lie! Let me understand and see! 

For now I have touched the deeps of blasphemy and nothingness." 

To the inner vision of the soul a sense of security, of peace, 
of holiness, slowly penetrates. The Emperor's being is illuminated 
by sanctity, by joy unspeakable. The Angel of the Empire has t 

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372 CLAUDEUS GREAT MYSTIC DRAMA [June. 

been sent to him by God. Because he has sought truth humbly, 
because he has been faithful, he is to know the truth. Under God's 
plan injustice is repaired; suffering and crime accord in perfect 
balance. In hell there is not one innocent But to men is given a 
choice. " The indestructible part in each of us " that the Emperor 
craves to be saved, can be saved. Man takes nourishment from the 
earth and in time retiuns to the earth, but the earth cannot hold 
him tmless he has chosen it by his own actions for his abiding place, 
like the Emperor's people. They have transgressed the law. But 
God will give them the opportunity to atone. For six days man 
may labor and take from the earth what he will. But on the seventh 
day he is to raise his hands and heart to heaven. Man has proved 
himself unworthy through ingratitude for the earth which God has 
given; that is why earth exercises its claims upon those who de- 
liberately have shown themselves to be earth's children. 

Fix on your walls this proclamation; publish it in the tribunals; 
Six days may my people work and labor ; 
The field-laborer may drive his ox and the boatman sail his junk ; the 

artisan weave, saw, grind flour, mix oil ; 
But the seventh day he must wash his hands and his face, and put on 
a new garment, 

strengthening his inner man by quiet and recollection and thanks- 
giving. 

God gives man all, and until they give Him back their wills, 
there can be no real restitution of His ceaseless gifts. And when 
they understand this and try humbly and gratefully to serve Him, 
" justice, order, security and peace will exist between heaven and 
earth, permanent and enduring, like the tender exchange of those 
who love " 

Away in the capital, over all the Emperor's vast possessions, 
ruin meantime has settled like a flight of locusts. The army is 
become a rebel army; one town alone stays loyal to the imperial 
sway. The Chief Prince, the heir, the Great Examiner, and Prime 
Minister and a few others remain in the palace, knowing that their 
days were numbered. 

They have suffered change of heart. In the hour of anguish 
they too know at last that unconsciously in the past they must have 
sinned. Atid the young Prince, the Emperor's son, child of his 
great father's spirit, takes the burden on himself. " O my race, 

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1917] CLAVDEUS GREAT MYSTIC DRAMA 373 

forgive me. My people, prostrate upon the ground, I ask for- 
giveness." But his followers abase themselves before him; theirs 
the sin, not his. 

With death approaching, from every direction in the shape of 
the maddened population, the yoxmg Prince prays: "Father! If 
you are living still, hear us ! Come to us in our need ! " Lest at 
some unexpected hour the Emperor may return, his son has had 
the royal robes laid out for him in an isolated part of the palace 
where nobody lives, the sanctuary where the tablet of the dynasty 
is kept, with a mask of gold tissue to veil the face which at first the 
Emperor might not wish to show them. 

The door opens to disclose the beloved form, wrapped in the 
robes, and wearing the mask. In his hand he holds the ancient staff 
of empire, branching out now into the form of a great Cross, ful- 
filling the prophecy. 

I stand 

On the threshold between death and life ; upright I stand, bearing the 

sign of the Cross. 

I know the cause of evil and that death has its explanation 

Hearken to the words of him who comes from the other side 

Solemnly I proclaim that Justice is just. 

Exact, like a weight; unerring, like a balance! 

Behold me, standing with the Cross in my hands ! 

All: Hail holy symbol! 

The Emperor: Hail symbol of joy! hail, symbol of grief! 

Only he who knows what your joy is, can ever accept your sorrow. 

Beyond life is revelation; 

Suffering which is beyond life, the revelation of what we have within 

us without knowing it. 

O thou who livest in blindness and deafness, 

From my throne I hear the echo of thy wandering feet 

But I come with purification and healing rites 

Tomorrow, when day dawns. 

Raising the Cross, I will disperse the rebels. 

And at the setting of the sun, re-uniting my people, I will issue my 

proclamation 

His Son: And now O father, show us thy face! 

The Emperor: Would you see it, O my son? Look then! 

He takes oflf the mask and shows a face glassy and swollen 
with leprosy. The nose has gone; the eyes are bleeding holes. 
Only the mouth remains intact ^3,^.,^^, .^ v^^wgle 




MARIE GRANGER, A PRECURSOR OF THE SACRED HEART. 

BY JOSEPH H. MCMAHON, PH.D. 

|OTORING in those other days along the wonderful 
military rpads of France that have in a way proved 
its salvation, one could leave Paris by Route Nation- 
ale No. 7, and proceeding southward and slightly 
•to the east, passing through the enchanting forest 
of Fontainebleau come through a picturesque undulating country to 
Montargis, one hundred and four kilometres from the capital, 
seventy-one kilometres due east from fascinating Orleans with its 
majestic Cathedral, and fifty-one kilometres west of sleepy, beau- 
tiful Sens, dreaming under the shadow of its queen-like fane. 
Hurrying in either direction, lured by such visions of splendor, the 
ordinary tourist has only a passing glance to bestow on this pretty 
little city of about thirteen thousand inhabitants situated on the 
river Loing at its junction with the tiny Vernisson. If he inter- 
rupt his rapid flight he will be rewarded by his visit to La Madeleine 
dating from the twelfth century, rebuilt after the terrible fire of 
1525 and restored in the last century; and will gaze with interest 
on " Le Chien de Montargis," a bronze group that recalls the 
faithful dog who tracked his master's murderer and slew him; 
will doubtless be gratified to learn that Mirabeau, the great orator 
of the Revolution, whose statue stands in the place named after 
him, was born in the suburbs ; will look with amazement at the ruins 
of what was one of the largest castles of old fourteenth century 
France, a royal residence down to the time of Napoleon — and will 
speed onward refreshed indeed but eager for greater sights. Yet 
here, in those centuries that are growing more and more dim as the 
rush of stupendous present events crowds out the past, there stood 
a famous Abbey of Benedictine Nuns. It was founded in 1630 
by Marie Granger, mistress of novices at Montmartre under the 
crosier of Marie de Beauvillier, the mystic whose incomparable 
physical beauty led noblemen to endeavor to win her from her 
cloistered life, and brought the widowed Queen of Henry III. 
to gaze upon her charming face, while her sanctity and solid learn- 
ing made a classic of her Exercise Dhnne or Practice of Confornvity 
of Our Will to That of God, When we know that her greatest 

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1917] A PRECURSOR OF THE SACRED HEART 377 

work in life was the reform of the noble Abbey of Montmartre 
which b^an in 1600, and that in 1631 she was expounding the 
hig^ mystician of this book, not to one or other of her nuns, but 
to the general assembly, we are prepared for the details of Marie 
Granger's life at Montargis, where she ruled from 1630-1636. 

Forgotten today by all save the student of the religious life 
of France, her renown was such that her contemporaries reverenced 
her as a great saint, and at her death her relics were applied to 
drive evil spirits from those possessed. Of her there i? no trace 
in Montargis. But here in this placid village of lovely France, 
one thrills with ecstatic joy to remember that, as Margaret Mary 
at Paray-le-Monial decades later, this chosen soul was favored with 
the apparitions of the Sacred Heart. One of the joys of travel 
is the experience of what I may term the thrill of religion, dis- 
tinct and different from any other. It springs from physical con- 
tact with things or places. It is the throb one experiences while 
gazing at or touching the rock of Massabielle, sanctified by the 
gracious presence of Our Lady. It is the tremor felt whilst 
kneeling before the grille in the tiny chapel of the Visitation 
Convent at Paray, and recalling that beyond that grille there once 
stood the Savioiu- of the world; that here at the noisitier in the 
garden He also stood. It is felt in the pulsing heartbeats that 
come as one kneels beside the body of a saint preserving through 
centuries the flexibility of life. It comes as it did to the writer, 
when celebrating Mass in a side chapel in the great dimness of the 
austere Cathedral at Bayonne, to look suddenly at the ornate reli- 
quary over the altar cross, and reading the names of the saints whose 
bones are there, to realize that they lived and gave their life blood 
on this very ground. Such is the thrill one experiences in Mon- 
targis, placid and pretty today, but one of the places in the world 
hallowed by the personal apparition of the Lord Christ. 

But first a word as to the favorite of the Master. She was, 
we are told, a feeble woman, constantly suffering, tormented by 
terrible diseases, and, like so many other mystics, an object of fear 
to many, sometimes of contempt and often the recipient of cruel 
treatment. She was reputed to suffer from " the falling sickness," 
and consequently was shunned by all who dreaded contagion. Suf- 
fering keenly from the mortification of such treatment to which 
she was alive, she nevertheless rejoiced in her abandonment, for so 
she honored the cruel dereliction of her Spouse, treated as a leper 
by His Father. With Him she could lament the aloofness of her 

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378 A PRECURSOR OF THE SACRED HEART [June, 

friends. Without a murmur she bore this opprobrium, knowing 
that a sinner was in truth a spiritual epileptic During her adminis- 
tration she was forced to bear continual contradictions. Her ex- 
traordinary graces were denounced. Those who revered her sanc- 
tity were told she was only a deluded woman. Q>nvinced of her 
own nothingness she sided with her enemies, and to her own ex- 
quisite anguish believed that it might be true that her illtmiinations 
were mere illusions. " I am tormented by blasphemies," she con- 
fides to a friend in a letter found among her few remains. " I hear 
them crying into the ear of my soul that I am a fool and deluded 
in running after a God Who flies from me, in seeking a Lover 
Who is loveless for me."^ 

Sometimes during the night she threw herself on the ground 
unable to endure the bed, and making use of the words of the 
Most AflSicted of men would cry out : ** O that He Who has begun 
to crush me would finish the task; let Him not q>are me in my 
sorrow; may I never contradict the words of the Holy One: it is 
time, my God, for sin to be no more." Her philosophy of resig- 
nation is surely an illuminating commentary on the famous 
anathema of St. Paul. " If, however. You have sworn my ruin 
I accept that sentence, in submission to Yoiu- divine ruling. But 
at least grant me this favor that I bring not sin with me. Stain, 
not pain, is the imbearable thing to me. Hell fire would be sweet 
to me provided I bum there as a victim blameless in Your eyes." 
Chosen, indeed, must have been the soul capable of such eloquence 
as this. Loaded with visible graces that overwhelmed her with a 
sense of her own nothingness, she excited in those aroimd her the 
inevitable coimtercurrents of devotion or jealousy. 

When she could not resist the all-powerful attraction of the 
Spirit of God, her chronicler relates, and when her transports be- 
came apparent, she grew extremely embarrassed. In order to con- 
ceal the divine operation in her she wished people to think that 
she had fainted. She induced her friends to run to her with a 
glass of wine when an ecstasy would come upon her in the parlor, 
pretending that she had swooned. So much did she endeavor to 
hide what might make her glorious in the eyes of beholders, that 
in order to prevent herself from being rapt in ecstasy she would 
with her finger nails tear her arms until they were covered with 

^Quoted in vol. iL of Les Bloges de la Mkre de Blemur, This interesting and 
valuable work hat been used practicallj for the first time bj Henri Bremond in his 
important Histoire Liitiraire du Sentiment religieux en France, tome ii, from which 
the facts concerning Marie Granger are taken. 

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1917] A PRECURSOR OF THE SACRED HEART 379 

blood. " She indeed wished to feel the pricking of the thorns that 
crowned her Master, but she did not want them to be only the 
semblance of a crown. The shadow of glory sufficed to fill her 
with fear." 

Among all true mystics the desire to hide their divine secret 
is characteristic. It is a modesty as real and as delicate 
as that of the flesh. Moreover, they shrink from notice not only 
through himiility but from fear of deception. Hence instinctively 
they shudder at any publicity or any attention from the world 
which even when it pretends not to believe is everlastingly curious 
about the supernatural. To be continually exposed to that curiosity 
was one of the exquisite penalties of Marie Granger's delicacy of 
soul. So ardent was her love of God that her heart of flesh actually 
dilated, and unable to withstand its pressure forced two of her 
ribs out of place, raising them about two inches. Ever afterwards 
the movements of her love could be detected by their motion. Her 
director, Pere Rabasse, a Recollet, a priest of unusual holiness, 
entertained among many others the Queen Mother with the recital 
of this marvel. Her Highness, it seemed, had known Marie Granger 
at Montmartre. Passing through Montargis she stopped to visit 
her. Discoursing with Pere Rabasse on the spiritual life in presence 
of the abbess, the latter was thrown into a deep ecstasy, an op- 
portimity that the good Father seized to descant upon the extra- 
ordinary favors of which the holy nun had been the recipient. The 
Queen's curiosity having been aroused, she desired to feel the 
displaced ribs, but was prevented from so Aoing by reason of the 
thickness of the nim's hsibit When the abbess regained her normal 
state, utterly imconscious of what had happened, she continued the 
entertainment of Her Majesty. A curious sidelight on the influence 
at work in religion is afforded by this interview. The Queen 
Mother promised her protection to the religious of Montarps. 
When later the Abbess of Montmartre wished to withdraw from 
Montargis the subjects she had loaned for the foundation, the lady 
of Montargis solicited the royal influence which was graciously 
exerted in her behalf, and so Madame of Montargis retained the 
religious. How troubled Marie Granger would have been had she 
known of the indiscretion of the holy Recollet and the curiosity 
of Her Highness, may be gleaned from the fact that whilst she 
was an inmate of Montmartre, the cave of St. Denis was the place 
in which she hid herself and where she enjoyed ravishing ecstasies. 
She spent hours there, and would have remained for whole nights 



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38o A PRECURSOR OF THE SACRED HEART [June, 

did not some of the nuns who were in her confidence seek her 
out and bring her to herself. When she had obtained from God 
the favor that her raptures should not be visible to those around 
her, she was visited nightly by Our Lord, and while the world slept 
in silence He discoursed to her. What she saw and heard in 
these visions is not clearly known. Occasionally on seeing an image 
of some saint or of Our Lord Himself, she would lament the fact 
that the artist could not more fittingly have reproduced his subject 

But outside the periods of rapture her life was one of great, 
cruel, ofttimes horrible suffering. Her drinking cup was for a time a 
human skull. Sometimes in an agcMiy of thirst she contented her- 
self by gazing at without drinking the water that could have 
quenched it. Ill and not daring to eat cooling fruits, she would 
gaze at the luscious food, longing for it but refusing it in order to 
offer the privation to the Lord. Scrupulous herself to such a de- 
gree that she would not permit herself the enjoyment of the deli- 
cate scent of a flower, she was similarly stem with others. In 
her death agony she had the supreme desolation of being served 
by two priests who did not comprehend the exaltation of her 
piety, and so she died without any himian consolation, in utter 
abandonment, honoring thus the dying Son of God. 

It is hard to realize that these things happened in Montarg^s, 
that this great mystic dwelt in the pleasant little town amid the 
broad fields of Loiret, from which radiates so many of the broad 
smooth motor roads that lead to the enchantment of Lcwraine. 
And so our thrill is the greater as we learn that here in 1630, 
nearly a generation before Margaret Mary Alacoque was bom, 
our Divine Saviour appeared to Marie Granger holding a cross in 
His hand, and showing her His heart pierced with three nails and 
surmounted with a crown of thorns. From this heart oozed drops 
of blood. " My daughter," said Oiu- Lord to her, *' I give you 
this escutcheon and I wish you never to assinne another. By the 
cross you will triumph." With great thankfulness the servant of 
God accepted it. She carved it on a seal which to this day, so wrote 
Mere de Blemur in 1679, " we religious of Montarg^s use." Forty- 
three years later to Margaret Mary at Paray-le-Monial came the 
commission that was to spread throughout the world devotion to 
the Sacred Heart like the spark leaping through the stubble. But 
it is thrilling to think that here, as elsewhere, in favored France, 
at about the same time the Sacred Heart was preparing the way, 
for the spread of that devotion that has rekindled the flame of 



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1917.] ARRAIGNERS AND POETS 381 

charity, as on Easter Day appearing now to one, now to another, 
to Simon and to the disciples on the way to Emmaus, He paved 
the way for the first public apparition to the nascent Church 
gathered in the Cenacle. Guidebooks and motorists think only 
of the pretty town beautifully situated, of its venerable and beau- 
tiful church and its striking bronze, but the grateful heart recalls 
the presence of this woman of great holiness, high in the favor 
of God, who was chosen with Mechtilde and Gertrude to be one 
of those who would pave the way for the knowledge and love of 
the Sacred Heart when the commission would be pven to the 
humble Visitandine to send Its pleadings broadcast through the 
world. 



ARRAIGNERS AND POETS. 

BY EMILY HICKEY. 

Cease from your song, for of what availedi your strain? 

What has the sound of your singing to do with our pain ? 

Vain is it, vain, in the face of our woe and our want, 

Passion for beauty and joy ye aire prideful to vaunt. 

What is your music trilled out to the heart of man's need ? 

What is the word for who perish for lack of the deed ? 

Ever the wants elemental, the body's demands: 

More than the song from your lips were the bread from your hands. 

Stilled be your voice till the time that our woe is at rest : 

Cease from your swig: give us bread and be evermore blest. 

Poets: 
Would ye be judges for us, all forgetting Who said, 
'T is by God's words that man livedi, not only by bread ? 
Ay, and we tell you He speaketh in many a way. 
He of the manifold voice; in the night, in the day, 
Droppeth the dew of His speech* or its torrents are heard: 
Thunders proclaim Him: proclaims Him the note of a bird. 
Voice of Him sounding for aye through eternity's year — 
He that hath ears, as He saith, let him hear, let him hear. 

Arraigners: 
Poets, the vain and the prideful, how is it ye dare 
Song of a man with the voice of his God to compare? 



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382 ARRAIGNERS AND POETS [June, 

1 

Word of a man with the word of his Lord to cocnpaa^? ' j 

Now let your brows be abased and the lips of you dumb: I. 

Answer us here, as die hour of your judgment were come. » 

When the armies of God went forth, ' '^ 

East, west, south, north. 
And the earth's broad bosom beat 

To their manching feet; 
What did ye then, O ye 
Of the melody? 
Poets: 
We sang our songs of vigor and courage untold ; 
And we piped, as though indeed, we should never grow old. 
And we doubled the strength of the strong and the heart of the bold. 

Arraigners: 
When the mourning people marched in solemn tread 

To bury their dead, 
What did ye in face of a grief so vast and strong 

That words were a wrcMig? 

Poets: 
We sang till the dry, hard eyes of the stricken men 

Took moisture again ; 
And the rain of their tears had the sweetness of Whitsun showers 

On thirsting flowers. 

Arraigners: 
When the people hungry and naked in madness rose 
To strike at the hearts alike of friends and of foes. 
Now tell us, what of your songs? Could music avail 
To blind the levin, make dumb the thunder's bale? 

Poets: 
We sang of justice and truth and die quenching of hate; 
And men looked out and saw where the need was great; 
They lifted the trampled right, and they flung aside 
The cold and the callous mind and the stiffnecked pride: 
And they went with eager feet to right the wrongs : 
And they wrestled for truA and won, who had heaird our scmgs. 

And we sang, sang on, unwitting of listeners there: 
We sang, for we needs must sing, and without a care 
For who should arraign us or praise, the just or unjust : 
We sang our songs unbidden because we must: 
We sing our songs unbidden, because we must. 



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A ROMAN ROAD. 

BY C. DECKER. 

"And word took word as hand takes hand« 
I could hear at last and understand." 

ORN in the Anglican Church I was never able to 
regard it 3^s the Church nor even as a Church with 
any power to teach. I admired it as an artistic senti- 
ment. I delighted to wander in the hoary old cathe- 
drals in England, for they held a magic and a wonder 
as if they possessed a beautiful soul of their own that was as aloof 
as starlight from much that was banal and prosy in life. I loved 
to enter one of these old cathedrals or churches on a summer 
evening that was mellowed by time, and the sheen from great rose 
windows that transmitted the dying rays of the sim into a softened 
glory. 

The elegance, the distinction of the service and the echoing 
music of stately hymns filled me with delicious satisfactions. But 
it was not religion, for it stirred within a sense of discrimination 
for the niceties of solemn sounds, of tints and colors and '' atmos- 
phere " nowhere possible except in a church. 

Intellectual curiosity had taken me from Protestantism into 
rationalism. I devoured Darwin, Huxley, Spencer. I remember 
Huxley's tilt with Gladstone. Gladstone had just published his 
Impregnable Rock of Holy Scripture. Huxley attacked and, as it 
seemed to me, left it in fragments. It was an imequal fight, Glad- 
stone the " old fashioned " and strictly orthodox, Huxley the mod- 
em armed with learning, a master of prose and incisive logic 
wrought havoc with the bygone methods of Gladstone. Their points 
of view were, of course, so diverse that there could be no possible 
agreement between them. There is a glitter in the Huxley type of 
philosopher. Rationalists use a large orchestra and are capable of 
very noisy demonstrations. They make it appear as if they alone 
possessed a knowledge of life and its phenomena, and understood 
it far more clearly and thoroughly than those who hold to the 
orthodox religious persuasions. And they flattered one's personal 
sense of intellectud ability, so that a feeling of pride arises at 

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384 A ROMAN ROAD [June, 

having thumbed one's Spencer, or Darwin. They have a rather 
subtle way in appealing to what they call " the TruUi.** 

I continued to read " isms " and schisms; for I was in search 
of what those philosophers termed " the Truth." But there was 
one " ism " I never did read nor dreamed of reading, and that was 
Catholicism. I had never met anyone who had seriously taken 
up the study of Catholicism. The few people I did loiow who 
were Catholics were hardly more than casual acquaintances. 

Moreover, I had no idea at that time that Catholicism possessed 
any books worthy of the name; its literature was more unknown 
to me than the mountains of the moon. What I did know of the 
Catholic Church was that it was below par. History, fiction, essays 
of various kinds, had they not declared it unto me seventy times 
seventy times? And had not Voltaire riddled the Jesuits with his 
lancet pen? Indeed, a thousand voices told me that Catholician 
was tottering if not actually ready for its last burial. Common 
sense repeated the formula correctly like a Greek chorus. 

After many years in the camp of' agnosticism there came a 
violent change which, if it did not at first lead towards the high- 
way for the straight road that led to Rome, it was essentially a step 
in that direction. Of the possibility of that direction no thought 
entered my mind. 

I was suddenly taken seriously ill in a small town in the west 
of Texas. It was in the fall. Day after day the sun burnt like 
fire, but a still greater fire had crept into my veins, for the furnace 
of a fever had me in thrall. A friend seeing the gravity of my 
condition told me he would take me to a Catholic hospital in Dallas. 
I remember I was vaguely surprised, but felt too ill to be interested. 
If I had been told that I was heading for the path that leads to 
Rome, I should have felt that there was a lunatic at large indulging 
in foolish jabber. I would have struck me as being too childish to 
answer. I was taken to the Catholic hospital by my friend who 
was a non-Catholic. 

After the crisis of the fever had passed and my mind was in a 
condition of more or less normal perceptiveness, I realized with 
deep interest that I was in an extraordinary environment. The 
white cornettes of the Sisters of Charity, the number of priests, 
the streams of sick of all creeds and no creeds, kept my curiosity 
keen and glowing. Sometimes I would hear simple, haunting music 
from the chapel. Sometimes a priest would enter my room and 
pass the time of day. But I was afraid of those white cornettes; 



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1917] A ROMAN ROAD 385 

they seemed severe as well as picturesque. One day, daring greatly, 
I made a jocular remark to the Sister in attendance. Her laugh 
broke the ice and pleased me. She inquired if I had said my prayers. 
Prayers? That ritual had long since departed. 

So here was I thrust into the midst of some expert servers 
of the Lord, face to face with religious and priests, and face to 
face with much of their daily life and conversation. It was ar- 
resting. I was now striving to find an agreement with the hun- 
dreds of things I had read in history, in sly articles and remarks 
heard here and there or anywhere in connection with the Catholic 
Church. I aimed and I strove, and I strove and I aimed, but I* 
could not make the fiction go into the facts that I was experiencing. 

It did not take me long to realize that the Catholic of Prot- 
estant fiction is mainly a stupid caricature. I was now obtaining 
some knowledge of the Church and its adherents at first hand. 
It was evidence that was coming to me through the use of my 
own eyes and ears. The novelty teased my curiosity, it was so 
unexpected and undreamed of. So to speak, I was indirectly exam- 
ining witnesses, asking them questions, watching their religious 
manners, trying to feel the atmosphere of their minds. 

A Sister staggered me when she said that she was not working 
for money but " for the love of God." The work of the Sisters 
was hard and exacting, yet it was done gladly not for monetary 
standards, not for the applause of the world, but for the meaning 
behind that curious phrase " the love of God." How could they 
extract energy from it to take them through their day's work? 
How could they sacrifice so much in the world that was attractive 
and delightful and by doing so gain happiness and satisfaction? 
That was an enigma, indeed. What was the secret? I thought. 
What system of philosophy could have the power to spiu- men and 
women to such idealism? I made a firm resolution that when I was 
restored to health I would attempt to ferret out the secret, to 
penetrate, if possible, to the very core of the problem. It was solely 
and simply an intellectual problem: I was eager to know the 
"why "and the "how "of it. 

During the weeks prejudice was slowly dying. Priests and 
religious were no longer viewed with the acute distortions bom 
and bred in the bone in times of yore. I made a notable stride; I 
was convinced that priests and religious and the laity of the 
Church were perfectly sincere, that to suspect them of make-believe 
was the way of ignorance or the folly of the fool. Moreover, I now 

TOL. c?.— 25 ^ J 

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386 A ROMAN ROAD [June, 

possessed enough data from personal contact with Catholics which 
was invaluable when Mr. Hearsay and Mr. I-Told-You-So spoke 
up from their comers. For three months I had sojourned in this 
Catholic hospital. It was a great experience and I commend it 
heartily to everyone. A few weeks in a Catholic hospital would be 
productive of dynamic physical and spiritual blessings. 

When I was in a condition for travel I sailed for England. 
One of the first things I did on arrival was to search for a Catholic 
bookstore and lay in a supply of Catholic literature, in which were 
some exceedingly able pamphlets of the Catholic Truth Society 
of London. The literature also gave me no slight surprise. I 
discovered the question of authority in religion discussed in such 
a manner, made so lucid and cloudless and straightforward, that 
it was unanswerable if the premises of Christianity were accepted. 
The masterly way in which the arguments were handled gave me 
keen pleasure, and wetted my appetite to sail across the new seas 
of thought opened up by this Catholic literature. 

One morning, for no other reason than curiosity, I scanned the 
religious colimms of a daily paper, to have my attention riveted 
by an annoimcement of a Solemn High Mass at a Jesuit Church on 
the approaching Sunday. I decided to go and forthwith purchased 
a Catholic prayer book. There was life, fervor, intensity between 
its pages in sharp contrast with the stately diction and polished 
periods of the Book of Common Prayer. The word "Jesuit" 
was the one that had held my attention in the announcement. 

I found the church in a squalor of mean streets, a large Gothic 
building with a certain amount of effective beauty in the interior. 
The congregation was enormous and edifying, the music good. 
But I must here confess that I was frankly disappointed on seeing 
my first Jesuit. He was very mild-mannered and his sermon 
was colorless. I had expected to be thrilled, to listen to subtle 
verbiage and artifice. Judged by his type in Protestant fiction 
he was an utter and dismal failure. I b^^n to suspect the extremely 
Low Church imagination of copious fooling. 

I came out of the church thinking that all the facts I had so 
far encountered did not even crudely agree with ideas I had held 
and considered to be trustworthy facts. I sampled other churches, 
especially a Benedictine and one attached to a Redemptorist monas- 
tery; the latter was a little Gothic jewel. 

In the meantime I was studying hard, poring over everything 
I could find for and against the Church. Strangely enough about 

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1917] A ROMAN ROAD 387 

this time I began to say my prayers, Protestant ones. I say 
"strangely enough," because I was unable to explain to myself 
how I came to believe in their validity except by a peculiar force 
of interior impulse. That reason may sound worthless and uncon- 
vincing. To analyze a spiritual process is not always simple. And 
I experienced a certain relish and refreshment after saying my 
prayers. Yet not for a single moment did I imagine that I had 
taken a step on the road to Rome. In my reading, of course, I met 
the Catholic view of the Reformation. Prejudices came to instant 
attention and I felt the Protestant in my blood; but I determined 
to step aside from the bias as far as possible, so that I might be 
enabled to obtain an objective view of the Reformation. It was 
one of the most difficult of tasks. Let an Anglican, especially of 
the Low section of that Chtu'ch, attempt to step outside the mental 
atmosphere, a subtle compound which he has breathed for years, 
the strength of which is revealed only when an endeavor is made 
to leave it behind, and he will realize the tremendous influence that 
faces him. The would-be historian and petty scribe have care- 
fully laid all the mud and mire to trap and disgust those who pry 
into the claims of the Catholic Church. 

To delve and botanize among the garbage and refuse of any 
nation, institution, in civics or politics, appeals to the muckraker 
and those who gloat over evil odors. But what of it? Nothing 
of it, for it is not a sign of the broad and penetrating vision of a 
just historian; nor is it the truth about life in general. It is all 
so obviously one-sided, so unfair and urgent to prove its own case 
and so thoroughly unhistorical that its method carries its own 
defeat. The mummer historian lacks the sanities and circumspec- 
tions, methods and abilities for weighing and testing evidence by 
which he can attain honest conclusions. 

The result of my study of the Catholic side of the Reforma- 
tion convinced me that it was the true side. In history where there 
are points of fire there will be wide divergencies of opinions, for 
there is no perfect system of logic that can be expected to leaven 
human psychology. Men and nations differ in their definitions of 
national and personal virtues. 

Reaching the Catholic view of the Reformation warmed my 
sympathy; but as yet I had failed to penetrate the secret of the 
mjrstery why priests and religious work " for the love of God." 
So I read the harder and plimged more deeply into bodes of con- 
troversy, and I continued to go to Mass, delighting in the ritual 



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388 A ROMAN ROAD [June, 

and fine gravity of the Latin phraseology. They call Latin a dead 
language; for me it was glowing with life and beauty. 

Then I made a sentimental journey to London to visit the 
new Catholic Cathedral at Westminster. That visit made a deep 
spiritual impression. Yet I came out of the cathedral with the 
marvel of the service at which I had assisted, full upon me, saying 
to myself that I had no intention of becoming a Catholic. A few 
weeks later I attended a Benedictine church for Benediction. It 
was midsummer. Light of soft gold from a dying sunset was 
drifting in through an open window at the rear of the church 
on the bronze door of the tabernacle, as the incense was climbing 
and the flames of the long candles ministered their fire. As a 
flash of light, with incredible celerity, my whole being seemed 
moved by an extraneous force infinitely gentle yet infinitely potent. 
With it, strong, clear and glorious as a June dawn Faith entered my 
soul. I bowed my head overwhelmed and said : " I believe in the 
Catholic Church!" But scarcely had the words taken form in 
my mind when I gritted my teeth and told myself grimly that I 
would not become a Catholic. Why should I? I asked myself. 

As I rose from my seat at the close of the service and took 
a last glance at the long candles, the voice of conscience spoke like 
a judge from a judgment seat and it made me fearful : " You have 
always prided yourself upon following Truth; you have always 
striven after intellectual honesty, now is the time to prove it, now, 
not next year but now." The words touched me to the quick. I 
had always entertained a deep respect for intellectual honesty and 
valued it as a jewel of great price. If I now failed to follow the 
light, then nevermore would I be able to pride myself on having been 
intellectually honorable at all costs. I should lose my intellectual 
self-respect, and in this case my intellectual self-respect was wrapped 
up in my moral self-respect; they could not be separated. With a 
kind of irritation I argued with myself and sought for something 
like clear excuses, excuses with quality that would wear and endure 
and not react with conscience later on, and make me feel the searing 
brand of the coward. I swung to and fro in a drift of thought, 
clutching here and there at ideas that seemed for a moment vivid 
and strong enough in philosophic formula to soothe my conscience. 
But intellectual pride won and I resolved to enter the Church. 

I knew no Catholic friends. Alone with this resolve burning 
like a fire within, I returned to America and made straight for 
the hospital of the Sisters of Charity in Texas. I spent a haiq)y 

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1917] A ROMAN ROAD 389 

week inside its walls. There were a number of points to be cleared 
up; Protestant debris and minor questions of history to be cut 
through and cast aside. From the chaplain of the hospital, one of 
the most learned and kindly of men, I procured the books I needed. 
I could not take things for granted. My intellect had to be satis- 
fied ; it must see each step and not rush blindly over difficulties which 
faced it. Conviction of both heart and head were imperative. 

During the week from early mom until late at night I sat 
and studied, taking copious notes. Three months later I was 
received into the Church in the little chapel of the hospital. The 
straight road had been vouchsafed me, and in marching order I 
had strode on and reached Rome. I felt exalted, and I exulted. 

I doubt if any amount of reading from Catholic sources would 
have resulted in my entering the Church. What, it seems to me, 
was a vital necessity was an actual and somewhat prolonged contact 
with facts by freely meeting with and mingling with priests and 
religious. First-hand contact was absolutely essential, because 
first-hand knowledge was absolutely essential. Theories, general- 
izations and a strange, vast medley of ideas that were inhibitory 
and mostly academic, had to be tested and compared with things 
seen and heard in a Catholic atmosphere of sufficient ^aciousness 
before Faith cOuld obtain a possible chance to become operative. 
The non-Catholic is unable to see the road to Rome as an objective 
vision because of the enormous distortions of the subjective vision. 
Nor will learning alone enable him to discover the treasure of 
Faith. Nor can it be passed on by the saying of many words. 
Definitions are no more than reliable sign posts. They can, of 
course, take you a goodly distance on the road to Rome, but they 
cannot carry you all the way without the substance of faith. 

With a new and stronger focus in his possession, a convert 
soon realizes the narrowness and often pettifogging business of his 
previous creed. There is a romance in Catholicism that acts as 
a tremendous impetus to his imagination and expands his sense 
of human kinship. Charity grows deeper, brotherly love and kind- 
liness richer and more gentle. He sees Catholicism stretch across 
the world like a vast benediction, understanding poor faulty human 
nature and working upon its crudeness and its frailty through the 
electrifying power of the sacraments. He feels no narrowing nor 
stiffening of the intellect or emotions by the formula of routine ; for 
sustained and lifted to the finer air by the wonder of grace, life 
becomes more sane, more wholesome and more beautiful. 

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flew Books^ 

THE PROGRESS OF A SOUL. By Kate Ursula Brock. New 
York: Benziger Brothers. $i.oo. 

THE ANCIENT JOURNEY. By A. M. Sholl. New York: Long- 

mans, Green & Co. $i.oo net. 

The notable increase in the number of conversions during the 
last year gives special timeliness to these two books, written by 
converts, one English, one American. The content of The Progress 
of a Soul is formed of letters ostensibly edited by Miss Brock, who 
has substituted the name of " Louise Dunbar " for that of the 
real author. The letters are mainly in the nature of replies to re- 
monstrances and questions addressed to Miss Dunbar upon her 
conversion; from them we learn that the author was brought up 
in the Church of England, but lapsed into agnosticism; when she 
emerged from this, it was to enter the Catholic Church. Naturally, 
the opening letters are to a correspondent who represents agnosti- 
cism; later, she writes to Anglicans, to a Wesle)ran who subse- 
quently becomes a Catholic, and to several Catholic friends, of 
whom one is in danger of apostasy from not only the Church, but 
Christianity. 

The letters are such only in form; they are in reality short 
treatises upon points of difference in doctrine and worship; each 
deals directly with the subject in hand, without digressions; is- 
sues are squarely met, and the Catholic position defined and upheld 
clearly and forcibly, but without rancor, although in remarking the 
weakness and inconsistencies of the Anglican commimion there is 
a crispness of tone that indicates a touch of impatience with what 
has misguided her. The keynote of the book is not controversy, 
far less bitterness, but an exposition of the deliberate, reasoned 
progress by which she attained the Faith, and an eager witness to 
the joy that is hers since she " came home at last." 

The Ancient Journey is of wider scope and upon a different 
plan. The title means the Journey to God ; the intention is to show 
that the Catholic Church, and she alone, makes full provision for 
the traveler, and to point the straying pilgrim to guideposts that will 
direct him " through the wicket-gate to the king's highway," as is 

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1917] NEW BOOKS 391 

said in the preface by Father McSorley. Miss Shell does not 
address her message to any special denomination or school of 
thought; it is for all who might be journeying along the royal 
road were it not hidden from them by prejudice and misconcep- 
tion. With most persuasive convincingness she sets forth the beau- 
ties of the " City set upon a hill " and the glorious privileges of 
the citizens ; and in presenting these freed from the warped ideas 
of non-Catholics, necessarily a searching light is cast upon Prot- 
estantism that gives it a changed aspect. Enumeration of the 
riches and bounties of Rome shows up the contrasting meagreness 
of Protestantism's response to the longings and vital needs of 
humanity ; the dreary collapse of the system under the test of au- 
thority; its continual and apparently limitless disintegration into 
sects and societies, and its large responsibility for the flood of 
faritastic, undisciplined thought that has swept the modem world 
into confusion. 

Miss ShoU expounds profoimd spiritual truths in language 
that is wholly strange to the non-Catholic, yet she is almost invari- 
ably clear. When, in speaking of the Blessed Sacrament, she says : 
" The transcendent Symbol is so magnificent that it is little wonder 
it has, by all Protestants, been misunderstood," it would have been 
well to explain precisely in what sense she uses an expression that 
seems to contradict her preceding statement of the Faith concern- 
ing that which she has rightly called " the very crux of difference 
between Catholicism and Protestantism;" but such obscurities are 
rare, and the absence of constraint, as though writing down to her 
uninitiated readers, gives a. spontaneity that cannot fail to attract. 
Another and yet more powerful factor is the book's impersonal 
tone. Though every line pulsates with the author's rapturous hap- 
piness in the possession of the treasure she has found, she never 
speaks in the first person, nor does she record any of those intimate 
experiences that are apt to leave the wistful reader with a sense 
of being more than ever excluded, as temperamentally incapable of 

sharing such sensations. Miss ShoU says: " not emotion but 

inexorable logic draws the majority of open-minded Christians to 
their true home." Whether or not this may be accepted unre- 
servedly, it is certainly true that there are conversions effected solely 
in response to the call of duty, as reason has revealed it; and it 
may be confidently asserted that there would be many more except 
for the widespread delusion that the Church exacts a conscious 
tribute of emotional agitation. The convert of this class especially 

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392 NEfV BOOKS [June, 

could have no more useful guide than this little volume, for the 
author accompanies him, with sympathetic, practical instruction 
and advice, through the early steps of his reception; and in the 
last three chapters he will find exquisite expression of spiritual 
insight whence he will draw reassurance that his conversion is 
no bleak adventure into a foreign land, but the wanderer's dis- 
covery of the home that has always awaited his coming; his 
entrance into his Father's house. 

VERSES. By Hilaire Belloc. With an Introduction by Joyce 
Kilmer.. New York: Laurence T. Gomme. $1.25 net. 
"Hilaire Belloc," contends Mr. Kilmer in his brilliant and some- 
what challenging introduction to the present volimie, " is a poet 
who happens to be known chiefly for his prose :" furthermore, " one 
sign that he is naturally a poet is that he is never deliberately a 
poet." This is a highly interesting contention, whether one accepts 
it without reservation or with it. And in the present in- 
stance it is reenforced by the best and simplest of all methods: 
namely, by a well-chosen selection of the poems themselves. Nor 
is there any denying the refreshing vigor, the enormous individ- 
uality, the musical sweep and the robust sincerity of Mr. Belloc's 
poems. They seem ahnost to belong to a younger, blyther world 
than our own. 

Sometimes, to be sure, they are not poems at all: they are 
deliciously contrived nonsense verses. And sometimes they seem to 
be nonsense verses when they are poems with a deal of philosophy 
to boot. For Mr. Belloc is as paradoxical as Mr. Chesterton : he is 
even — with a difference! — as paradoxical as Mr. Shaw. In Mr. 

Kibner's words, he is " a poet a Frenchman, an Englishman, 

an Oxford man, a Roman Catholic, a country gentleman, a soldier, . 
a democrat, and a practical journalist. He is always all these 
things." And the sum total of these things is a magnificent free 
lance of vitality. He sings when he feels too strongly or too 
swiftly for speech. Sometimes he sings of children, sometimes of 
good wine, sometimes of wanderers, sometimes of little children, 
and sometimes — ** with the eyes of a boy and the heart of a ranger " 
—of the " Balliol Men Still in Africa." But it is probably when 
he turns ballad-monger and sings of the good God that he is most 
of all a poet. For Mr. Belloc's Noel is a rarely lovely Christmas 
carol. And the exquisite devout naivete of Courtesy, or The Birds 
or Our Lord and Our Lady should be known to all lovers of 

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1917] NEW BOOKS 393 

Catholic poetry. And The Leader should be known to all lovers 
of all poetry, for the inspiration of the stars and the hilltops 
is in it. 

Altogether, Hilaire Belloc's verses are a distinct discovery: 
more than that, they are a distinct — ^and various— delight 

CREATIVE INTELLIGENCE. Essays in the Pragmatic Attitude. 

By John Dewey and Others. New York : Henry Holt & Co. 

$2.00 net. 

Creative Intelligence is a promising and, in the present instance, 
a grandiose title. The work consists of eight essays, of which the 
first, by Dr. Dewey, sounds the ke)mote. While the introduction of 
" pragmatic " into the title suggests that pragmatism in some of its 
aspects is the subject of discussion, one does not read very much 
before it becomes clear that it is a far cry from M. Bergson to 
Dr. Dewey. 

Philosophy, such is the Doctor's thesis, has become, or always 
was, barren. One of the chief causes of this misfortune has been 
that philosophers have too much conf oimded experience and knowl- 
edge. " In the orthodox view experience is regarded primarily as 
a knowledge-affair. But to eyes not looking through ancient spec- 
tacles it assuredly appears as an affair of the intercourse of a living 
being with its physical and social environment." Registration of 
what has taken place, reference to precedent, is believed to be the 
essence of experience." As a result of this view of experience, 
philosophy has lost hold on life. The true view of experience is 
that "anticipation is more primary than recollection; projection 
than summoning of the past; the prospective than the retrospec- 
tive." 

K registration of the past is not experience, then, we ask, 
what is experience? Dr. Dewey's answer, if we make out his 
meaning, is " projection." Projection of what? There is nothing 
to project but the knowledge gained from experience, and from 
reflection upon it. In fact through over sixty deadly pages the 
Doctor labors to elucidate some ideas that might be expressed to 
greater advantage in more modest compass. A child is stvmg by a 
nettle: this is experience. He feels the effect and recognizes the 
cause: this is experimental knowledge. He applies this knowledge, 
and the next time he is exposed to. come in contact with nettles, 
he covers his hands ; this is " projection," or "creative intelligence." 
This apologue conveys the gist of many of Dr. Dewey's pages 

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394 NEfV BOOKS [June, 

leading up to his main idea which is that "philosophy recovers 
when it ceases to be a device for dealing with the problems of phil- 
osophers and becomes a method, cultivated by philosophers, for 
dealing with the problems of men." One recalls Macaulay in his 
sneer at metaphysics, remarking that Thomas Aquinas would not 
descend from the making of syllogisms to the making of gim- 
powder. But Macaulay did not confound philosophy with " creative 
intelligence," and would probably hesitate today to rank the progress 
of creative intelligence in the manufacture of gunpowder an im- 
mixed blessing for the race. 

Philosophy in America, the Doctor believes, " will be lost un- 
less it can somehow bring to consciousness America's own needs and 
its own implicit principle of successful action." The great funda- 
mental questions of How, Why, Whence, and Whither, have always 
been and always will remain the field of philosophy, and the true 
solution of them, whatever it is, is the same for Americans as for 
everybody else. 

THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION. With Special Reference to the 

Evidence upon which it is founded. By William B. Scott. 

New York: The Macmillan Co. $i.oo. 

Some restriction of this title would have been required in order 
that it might exactly describe the contents of this book. The author 
does not deal with the evolution theory as a whole, offering a 
solution of the origin and end of all things; nor does he introduce 
the special question of the origin of the human race. His aim is 
to present the evidence for the evolutionary theory with r^fard to 
the multiplication of plants and lower animals. 

The treatment is popular. After a preliminary lecture pre- 
senting the present state of the question, he resumes, in five suc- 
cessive lectures, the evidence for the theory from classification, 
domestication and comparative anatomy; embryology and blood 
tests; palaeontology; geographical distribution; and experiment. In 
his presentation of the question he warns against a very common 
error which is to assimie that to reject Darwinism is equivalent 
to the rejection of the evolution theory. Very fairly, too, though 
he holds this theory himself, he quotes the opinions of some eminent 
scientists who reject it entirely, or who profoundly disagree among 
themselves as to the modes and factors in the process. 

The evidence for his thesis is presented honestly without 
forcing facts or ignoring flaws. 



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1917] NEW BOOKS 395 

The conclusion states: " Admitting fully all that has been said 
we must yet beware of erecting evolution into a sacred dogma 

which no one shall dare to criticize or doubt While I believe 

that the evolutionary conception of nature is one of our permanent 
possessions and that it will in the future continue to direct and 
condition all lines of intellectual inquiry and advance, I can under- 
stand that half a century hence the question may possibly have 
assimied a very different aspect." 

A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAW. By James 
Joyce. New York: B. W. Huebsch. $1.50 net. 
This story of a young Irishman's loss of faith, is the picture 
of the inside of one abnormally self-centred mind. After enthu- 
siastic reviews have prepared the reader to find here some signif- 
icant account of modem Catholic Ireland, it is disappointing to 
open to a chronicle, not of representative experiences and serious 
opinions, but of the impulses and sensations of a kind of genius 
with whom — ^perhaps fortunately — ^the typical has nothing to do. 
Persons and objects stand out vividly enough, as chance brings 
them into the intense, narrow focus of the hero's vision: the shift- 
less father, the squalid home which so oppresses the boy's sensitive 
spirit, the priest who punishes him unjustly at school, the Jesuit 
reti"eat. But these are only separate spots picked out in the dark- 
ness. They make no coherent whole. Their ftmction is not to 
t3rpify but to impinge; they illustrate the hero's capacity for keen 
sensation, and they furnish occasions for the unloosing of the 
tendencies which urge him so strongly from within; and that is all. 
In method as well as material, the only aim seems to be to depict 
Stephen Dedalus with no reservations. Indeed, the book is almost 
a literary curiosity in its cutting of transitions, the deliberate lade 
of reserve which forces upon the reader an appalling intimacy, the 
formlessness which concentrates attention upon the central per- 
sonality. The method, be it said at once, is successful. The book 
has an irresistible effect of sharp, first-hand reality. But as a treat- 
ment of Irish politics, society or religion, it is n^ligiUe. 

However, one cannot doubt that it is an authentic account of 
spiritual disaster. It remains to trace the causes which led Stephen 
Dedalus to abandon Catholicism, and to deal with them as fairly as 
possible. We first see him, a rather winning little chap, at the 
Jesuit school at Qongowes, already marked by a great impressi- 
bility and a strong, instinctive response to beauty. The family 

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396 NEfV BOOKS [June, 

fortunes begin to decline. The dirt and mean ugliness of poverty 
repel Stephen, with his fierce desire for seemliness and his inar- 
ticulate sense of a special destiny. He makes a futile effort to stem 
the tide himself. Then his nature, always quick to feel and resist 
demands, hardens defensively against his whole environment An 
unboyish cynicism develops. He shrugs at the puzzle of life — 
the conflicting voices of many duties and ideals — which he already 
marks. His intense, solitary soul lives more and more for itself. 
He falls into grave sin, deliberately repeated until a retreat given 
at the school frightens him into a perception of his danger. Re- 
pentance and confession usher in a peHod of extreme and undirected 
austerity. A second reaction — ^not normal but again excessive — 
comes with the suggestion of the school director that Stephen may 
have a religious vocation. Though it is but the echo of his own 
musings, on the lips of another it becomes a threat to his liberty. 
Instantly his whole soul is in arms. Piety slips from him like a 
garment G>ldly and self-consciously he faces the conviction, not 
only that he will never be a priest, but that " he was destined to 
learn his own wisdom apart from others or to learn the wisdom of 
others himself, wandering among the snares of the world. The 
snares of the world were its ways of sin. He would fall. He had 
not yet fallen, but he would fall, silently, in an instant. Not to fall 
was too hard, too hard." He has a sudden intuition of genius. 
In a kind of exaltation, he resolves to be a great creator, to pro- 
duce " a living thing, new and soaring and beautiful, impalpable, 
imperishable." The voices of religion and duty die away. This, he 
feels, is the meaning of life at last. 

The temptation itself is understandable. He has come to the 
place, described so well in Initiation, where life has just beckoned 
and all inherited allegiances wear thin. The world is full of youth 
and power. There seems no place in it for the restraints and 
unarthly wisdom of the Cross. And, in Stephen's case, there is his 
genius besides, clamorous, masterful, urging its claims upon him. 
The ciu4ous thing is his unbalanced response to temptation. Normal 
minds— even young minds — ^are held by more than imagination; 
often a deeper loyalty, working imconsciously, keeps their faith 
safe imtil experience has shown how profoundly it is suited to all 
the demands of life. Throughout his crisis, the hero of Initiation 
remains a Catholic. Stephen Dedalus does not, and there is hardly 
a hint of hesitation in his choice. The occasion is a quarrel with 
his mother because he will not make his Easter duty. In his last 

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conversation with a classmate in the university at Dublin, he is 
clear enough as to motive and purpose. He neither believes nor 
disbelieves in the Eucharist; asked if his doubts are too strong to 
be overcome, he replies, " I do not wish to overcome them." He 
recognizes that it may be a mistake luting throughout eternity; 
he will risk it, however. Nor is he the usual young rebel, casting 
aside dogma and filling up the void with vague, sentimental ideals. 
He consistently throws aside the ordinary substitutes for religion, 
as he has thrown aside religion itself. He leaves his family — ^the 
mother who has borne much trouble, the sisters and brothers who 
have been denied everything that he, the eldest, might have his 
chance — ^puts by Protestantism with the statement that he has lost 
his faith but not his self-respect, turns his back upon his country's 
cause with bitter contempt, passes by even internationalism, that 
last bond of the emancipated. And so he starts on his quest for 
life and beauty with no hampering baggage of ideals. 

The story is told with a power and, for the most part, a detach- 
ment which contrast oddly with the essential weakness they are 
employed to portray. And this is a reflection of the anomaly shown 
in the main character himself — the continued contrast between his 
manner of self-sufficiency and cold acuteness, and his ftmdamental 
irrationality of motive. For the central and directing weakness of 
this strange nature has written itself over the book in unmistakable 
letters. It is the self-love which makes self-will the measure of all 
obligation. It turns every normal reaction for self into an excess; 
hatred of poverty becomes precocious cynicism, fear of the re- 
straints of a religious life becomes indiflference to religion, genius 
becomes the excuse for sacrilegious writing and, finally, for apos- 
tasy. It is this obsession of self which gives the perspective through 
which life is viewed, showing it as at once coarsened and con- 
tracted — ^the disenchanting vision which creates naturalism as its 
proper literary expression. And it is this, by the irony that avenges 
broken laws, which leads this apostle of self to speak of finding 
freedom when he has left truth at home, and to desire self-expres- 
sion so ardently that, to compass it, he abandons God. 

WOMAN. By Vance Thompson. New York: E. P. Dutton & 

Co. $1.25 net. 

Mr. Thompson's superfluous contribution to the literature of 
feminism and of sex is distinguishable from its predecessors chiefly 
by a vulgarity of thought and expression that saturates it and a 

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398 NEW BOOKS [June, 

vehemence of treatment exhausting to the reader. All the stock 
features of this class of writings are present; a little truth, so 
warped that it becomes falsehood; facts either totally ignored, 
or tortured into support of the author's grotesque propositions ; the 
home described as a place where women are kept at " drudgery in 
which there is neither glory nor profit;" and Christianity held up 
to scorn, in language so offensive as to be unquotable, as a weapon 
employed by men for the subjection of women; and, throughout, 
the presentation of women in the light of victims of a sex-enslave- 
ment into which they have been forced and there held in bondage, 
though in physical strength they are equal to their enslavers, while 
mentally and morally their superiors. For all that is discreditable 
in women, men only are responsible. "The history of the race 

is a dark story of woman's struggle to establish her equality 

with man." This is now about to be accomplished by her en- 
franchisement, of which one result will be the single standard of 
morals. Of this Mr. Thompson is absolutely sure, though he is in 
doubt whether it is her intention to bring man up to her level 
or to descend to his, a matter of but trifling consequence, of course. 
The work is a shoddy product, not entitled to serious consider- 
ation in these pages, nor under any circimistances is it worth reply- 
ing to, easy as this would be. The only importance attaching to 
sophistries of this kind is the reception given to them. The author 
says, " in all the bad past woman was made to abandon the very 
thing which constitutes her dignity as a human being: her auton- 
omy." Were this book the first of its order, we should, upon read- 
ing this sentence, with many others of similar significance, expect 
from representatives of the " advanced " movement some expres- 
sion of, at least, deprecation of the assertion that the characters 
and destinies of women have been thus shaped and controlled by 
men ; but experience has obliged us to recognize the fact that this 
insulting inference passes unresented when wrapped in flattering 
words that proclaim woman's superiority, and cater to the human 
weakness which finds satisfaction in fostering a grievance. The 
prevalence of this latter and the growth of irreligion have worked 
together to produce in many women a myopia toward spiritual 
values that causes them to regard denial of their moral responsibil- 
ity as a phase of their emancipation. It is, therefore, not surpris- 
ing, however depressing, to see that the publishers are able to 
include in their advertisements commendations of the book from 
women prominent in feminist circles. 



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1917] NEff^ BOOKS 399 

Recent as this publication is, the rapid march of events has 
already relegated it to the past. The approaching conditions will 
leave neither time nor room for wordy contention about equality 
and superiority. When the fierce winnowing is over, there will 
remain for women's garnering saner and more wholesome counsels, 
such as suffice for the women who have not yet learned to aspire 
to anything higher than imitation of her to whom men and angels 
pay homage, the crowned Handmaid of the Lord. 

THE PACIFIC OCEAN IN HISTORY. Papers and Addresses 
presented at the Panama-Pacific Historical Congress held at 
San Francisco, Berkeley and Palo Alto, Cal., July 19-23, 191 5. 
Edited by H. Morse Stephens and Herbert E. Bolton. New 
York: The Macmillan Co. $4.00. 

The present volume contains twenty-nine papers read at the 
Panama-Pacific Historical Congress two years ago. The discus- 
sions were confined to the history of the Pacific Ocean and the 
countries upon its shores, both Asiatic and American. The Euro- 
pean war prevented a large attendance of foreign scholars, but 
despite it, Spain sent Professor Altamira of Madrid ; Japan, Pro- 
fessor Murakami of Tokyo; Peru, Professor Unanue of Lima; 
New Zealand, J. M. Brown of Christchurch; Canada, F. W. Ho- 
way of New Westminster, British Columbia, 

The student of American history will find these papers of most 
absorbing interest. Rudolph Taussig gives a complete sketch of 
the Canal idea from the beginning; Theodore Roosevelt defends 
his methods of acquiring the Canal zone; Professor Stephens writes 
of the conflict of the European nations for the control of the Pacific 
trade; Professor Colder describes the reasons for Russia's sale 
of Alaska; Professor Bolton tells of the early explorations of 
Father Garces on the Pacific Slope; Professor Burrows discusses 
the office of Governor-General of the Philippines under Spain and 
the United States, and James A. Robertson outlines a recently-dis- 
covered pre-Hispanic criminal code of the Philippine Islands. 

MAHOMET, THE FOUNDER OF ISLAM. By G. M. Draycott. 

New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. $3.00 net. 

Our author writes in his preface : " The Western world has 
alternated between the conception of Mahomet as a devil, almost 
Antichrist himself, and a negligible impostor whose power is tran- 
sient. It has seldom troubled to look for the human energy that 



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400 NEW BOOKS [June, 

wrought out his successes, the faith that upheld them, and the en- 
thusiasm that burned in the Prophet himself with a sombre flame, 
lighting his followers to prayel" and conquest" 

Mr. Draycott certainly brings out clearly the energy of will 
which made Mahomet impose his belief upon the Arabian tribes, 
conquer his enemies against almost overwhelming odds, and found a 
political empire that has outlasted the centuries. But his enthusiasm 
for this Oriental superman does not prevent his picturing him as a 
cruel, lecherous, imcultured hypocrite, who foist^ a man-made re- 
ligion on the people as a revelation of God, urged his followers to 
slay without pity the non-Moslem despite treaties and his pledged 
word, and enforced a moral and social code stamped with fanat- 
icism, intolerance and utter disregard of women and the weak ones 
of earth. 

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHINA. By Kenneth Scott Latour- 

ette. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. $1.75 net. 

The author of this volimie gives a brief sketch of the es- 
sential facts of Chinese history, an outline of the larger features 
of China's development, and the historical setting of its present-day 
problems. He reviews the materialistip nature of China's culture; 
her industrial and commercial development; her political organiza- 
tion; her lack of nationalism; her formal educational system; her 
language and literature; her religious life, and her contact in 
modem times with Japan and the European powers. He insists 
particularly upon the injustice of England, France and Russia in 
their attempts to capture Chinese trade, and their utter lack of 
honesty in seizing Chinese territory. Comparatively little is said 
of the religious future of Christianity, although the writer speaks 
in favor of a Christianity " which will restate its theology in terms 
more in accord with the traditional thought of China." The super- 
natural is to give way before the social message of the Gospel, 
which, he tells us, must be stressed to meet the needs of a material- 
istic people. 

CICERO. A Sketch of His Life and Works. By Hannis Taylor, 

LL.D. Chicago: A. C. Mcdurg & Co. $3.50. 

During the last twenty-seven years of his life, Cicero was 
the most brilliant exponent and the most loyal defender of the old 
Roman State. In fact, as Mr. Taylor well says, his life is the best 
possible commentary upon the Roman constitution. 

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In this scholarly volume the author has drawn a vivid, full- 
length portrait of Cicero as lawyer, statesman, philosopher and 
rhetorician. The most interesting chapters deal with the Roman 
constitution and the Roman bar in the height of its power. On the 
whole the life is written in too laudatory a strain, and Cicero's 
influence on early Christian thought exaggerated. An excellent 
and complete anthology of Cicero's most striking utterances con- 
cludes the volume. 

THE GRAVE OF DREAMS, AND OTHER VERSES. By James 
M. Hayes. New York : The Encyclopedia Press. 75 cents. 
This is a little volume of verse put forward with a disarming 
modesty, but happily the very charming apology with which it 
opens is far from necessary. All the lyrics are devotional in sub- 
ject or in treatment, and have an appeal that is practically imiversal. 
Genuine poetic feeling, delicate fancy, gentle but persistent opti- 
mism, transparent sincerity, thoughtfulness, and a spirit of priestly 
devotion characterize this beautiful little book. The occasional 
weak line is more than atoned for by many so exquisitely phrased 
that one will wish to commit them to memory. 

The opening poem is a good index to the spirit of the bode. 

Where are the hopes, the longings and desires, 
The dreams God gave me when my life was young? 
They are as dust of flowers the weeds among. 
Sweet perfumed memories, the ash of fires. 
The many voiceless strings of broken lyres, 
* The songs that in the long ago were sung. 
Alas, within the grave of dreams they rest; 
Blessed with sad tears, each one was laid away. 
Though life is dreary and the days are gray 
Will not the sunset's glory glow the West? 
Though shadows deepen, hope is in my breast, 
For starless nights must always end in day. 
The God Who gave me dreams is kind. Ah then! 
Somehow, somewhere my dreams will live again. 

The following, entitled Vocation, has a wistful, appealing 
quality : 

So delicately tender, 
The creature of an hour. 
Upon a mountain side it grew, 
A gentle little flower. 

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402 NEW BOOKS [June, 

It lived within the silence 
Wherein its life was bom; 
It blossomed in the twilight 
And withered ere the mom. 
Unknown it lived, unseen it died 
Upon its lonely sod; 
But not in vain its little life 
Before the Eyes of God. 

Father Hayes is to be congratulated on giving us an individual 
note in religious verse. We should say that it voices the love of 
an innocent heart for whatever is good and fair, whether divine 
or human, earthly or heavenly. It is summed up in every stanza 
of the very pretty concluding poem, Vale: 

Good-night, sweet world good-night! 

I love not heaven less 
Because my heart has found delight 

In earthly loveliness. 

THE RISE OF LEDGAR DUNSTAN. By Alfred Tresidder Shcp- 

pard. London: Duckworth & Co. 

This is the biogr^hy from childhood to early manhood of 
Ledgar Dunstan. Bom into an English Baptist family, he was re- 
moved by fortunate circumstance to an atmosphere more favor- 
able for his development ; after a short business career, he entered 
literature; his efforts met with success, and then came a 
happy marriage. At this point the story ends. The book is fairly 
well written and moderately interesting, along lines that are rem- 
iniscent of other authors who have worked the same field and 
reaped richer harvests. The sketches of middle-class life are touched 
in unsympathetically and sometimes unpleasantly, and in Ledgar's 
outlook and observations upon the world around him there is noth- 
ing of special value or originality. At all stages, prominence is 
given to his liking for speculation regarding matters theological, 
and much of the content is made up of conversations upon these 
themes, thus introducing, beside some unacceptable expressions 
by adults, many childish irreverences which, though unintentional, 
are unpleasant. The formlessness of the narrative tends to ob- 
scurity; the author has so concealed his intention that our antici- 
pations are not roused by his promise of a sequel, though it is pos- 
sible that in this will be shown Ledgar's rise to religious conviction 
and the acquisition of some form of faith. Otherwise, the book 
fails to explain its existence. 



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1917.I NEW BOOKS 403 

THORGILS. By Maurice Hewlett. New York: Dodd, Mead & 

Co. $1.35 net. 

Mr. Hewlett has given us here an Icelandic prose saga, a tale 
of rugged life in the Viking age, of adventure on land and sea, 
of ambitions and hardships, of livelihood wrested from unyielding 
nature. Thorgils, hero of prodigious deeds that make his name 
famous throughout the countryside, defies even the god Thor, 
whose apparition haunts him, reproaching and threatening the quon- 
dam worshipper who has become a Christian. But Mr. Hewlett's 
Icelander is not a Thiodolf ; he is barbarian to the end. His loves 
are warm and loyal, his friendship is true, his enmity relentless, his 
anger quick to bum and slowly extinguished ; even in old age, his 
sword strikes swift and deep in vengeance for private wrongs no 
less than in a righteous cause. 

Once more Mr. Hewlett has displayed his remarkable faculty 
for catching the spirit of a remote period and embodying it with 
picturesque expression, vigorous and dramatic. An effect of vir- 
ility and massive simplicity is produced with the art that is his own ; 
yet the result is not all that we could ask from an author so gifted. 
It is at once too detached, and too harmonious with the stormy 
note of today. We feel we have almost a right to demand from 
Mr. Hewlett that he either beguile our troubled eyes with a lovelier 
vision, or give us substance of hope and inspiration for the present 

MULTITUDE AND SOLITUDE. By John Masefield. New 

York; The Macmillan Co. $1.35. 

Mr. Masefield's novel, a reprint of an earlier work, is not 
unworthy of his later years. It tells the story of Roger Naldrett, 
a writer, who loves, and is loved by, Ottalie Fawcett, a woman of 
rare gifts and beauty of character. Death takes her from him, but 
his love for her remains a vital and ever-increasing influence for 
good. He seeks that field of activity which will enable him to 
shape a career that will approach most closely her exalted ideals. 
When he considers literature as a means to this end, his confidence 
in his chosen calling is shaken. At this juncture he meets Lionel 
Heseltine, who is under treatment for the sleeping sickness which 
he has contracted in South Africa, but who is determined to return 
there and fight the pestilence, even at the cost of his life. Roger, 
feeling that he has found action worthy of Ottalie, volunteers to 
accompany Lionel. The story of their expedition gives a dramatic 
and painfully vivid picture of this terrible disease; Lionel sue- 

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404 NEW BOOKS [June, 

cumbs again to it, but is saved by Roger, whose desperate efforts 
lead him to stumble upon a cure. When the two men return to 
England they find that a cure has been discovered and has received 
recognition* This is a bitter disappoinfanent to Roger, whose hap- 
piness it would have been to give the cure to the world as an offer- 
ing to Ottalie. Further thought, however, gives him a different 
point of view : he has found a way of fitting service to her memory ; 
he will dedicate his life to building up an interest in "the new 
hygiene and the new science; in all that is cleanly and fearless;" 
for it is his conviction that " all the ills of modem life come from 
dirt and sentiment, and the cowardice which both imply." 

The book is full of extremely well-written thought, and it 
has a strong interest; but this is of a kind that limits its appeal 
to those who read fiction not primarily for entertainment. 

SOME MINOR POEMS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. By Mary G. 

Segar and Emmeline Paxton. New York : Longmans, Green 

& Co. $i.oo net. 

Miss Segar's preface to this little volume expresses a hope that 
the book will fill a twofold purpose — to interest the general reader, 
and to help the teacher of Middle English literature to make his 
pupils realize the spirit of the Middle Ages. It should achieve 
both these ends. The poems selected are of varied character, they 
are not too long nor too numerous. They stand in their original 
form ; but capable guidance is furnished by the glossary which is 
Miss Paxton's contribution to the work. In an introductory essay, 
brief but very interesting. Miss Segar shows the relation between 
the English literature of today and that of the mediaeval period. 

IDLE DAYS IN PATAGONIA. By W. H. Hudson. New York: 

E. P. Button & Co. $1.50 net. 

The reader who takes up this book may do so with the cer- 
tainty of enjoying it. The sketches contained are the fruit of Mr. 
Hudson's sojourn in this country, " resting far off in its primitive 
and desolate peace, untouched by man, remote from civilization;" 
a land of strange legends and traditions. It was not, however, the 
long-felt desire to explore the " unmarred desert " of Patagonia, 
but the passion of the ornithologist that led the author there; 
and, he tells us, had all gone well with him "these desultory 
chapters, which might be described as a record of what I did not 
do, would never have been written." A bullet wound in the knee 

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1917] NEW BOOKS 40s 

disabled him early in his stay, and restricted activity later; there- 
fore, this fascinating bit of writing is the result of what he calls 
his idleness. His observations and reflections roam over many 
subjects suggested by his surroundings; and in their expression 
we have Mr. Hudson at his best. 

THE WHITE PEOPLE. By Frances Hodgson Burnett. New 

York: Harper & Brothers. $1.20 net. 

This little piece of fiction marks a departure and an advance 
by Mrs. Burnett. It is the autobiography of Ysobel Muircarrie, 
who, orphaned in infancy, passes the years of her sensitive, imag- 
inative childhood in the remote comer of Scotland, where is situ- 
ated the huge feudal castle that is her birthplace and inheritance. 
From time to time she has visions of what she calls " the White 
People," from the clear pallor of their faces, unconscious that her 
eyes are opened to the miminent presence of the dead. The loving 
care of her guardians keeps her in ignorance of the fact that she 
sees what they cannot, and it is not until she reaches girlhood that 
the truth becomes known to her, under circumstances it would be 
unfair to the reader to tell. 

Mrs. Burnett has been quoted as saying that already more 
letters have been received by her regarding this story than anything 
she has yet written. It is due to her to say that not all of this inter- 
est can be attributed to the almost universal attraction felt for 
whatever treats of the spirit world; much of it is on account of 
the way in which the tale is presented. This does the author great 
credit : she has not hitherto done anything with so sustained a note 
of simplicity and sincerity; moreover, she has here employed the 
brevity that is the test as well as the achievement of art. By this 
means she has accomplished that rare result, genuine pathos. The 
delicate, touching beauty of the one love scene, and of the closing 
chapter, is not paralleled in any of her former writings and is 
not surpassed by anything in recent fiction. 

SONGS OF THE FIELDS. By Francis Ledwidge. With an In- 
troduction by Lord Dunsany. New York: Duflield & Co. 
$1.25 net. 

Francis Ledwidge belongs in a measure to the group of poets 
discovered by the War. Although we are told that he has been 
engaged in untaught versifying since his fifth year, his first volume 
has been brought out only very recently, under the encouragement 
of Lord Dunsany, the well-known Irish dramatist and soldier. 

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Lcdwidge himself is also in active service, it appears, as a lance- 
corporal in an Irish regiment attached to the Mediterranean Force. 
Hence, one is a little surprised to find that the Songs of the Fields 
are worlds away from such robust utterances as Rupert Brooke's 
1914. Ledwidge's verse is not martial, and has little concern with 
the world's happenings. It represents, rather, a life-long medita- 
tion on the beauty of nature by one who needed not to be taught 
to observe her exactly nor to love her well. 

Lord Dunsany's foreword wisely warns off those looking for a 
" message." This young poet is a sort of minor disciple of Keats, 
weaving together the outer world and the inner mood into a tissue 
of verse often delicate and sweet. His materials are moments, 
minutely and exquisitely rendered — flashes of sympathetic vision, 
moments of unexplained sadness, the blackbird's note, the coming 
of spring, moon-rise, this or that strange bit of romantic lore — 
and his songs sing themselves instinctively and melodiously; but 
of real convictions there are none. There is no drawing of 
morals, and hence one fruitful possibility of wearying the reader 
is avoided. On the other hand, the defect of this virtue is inevit- 
able; it leaves an impression of ease and spontaneity rather than 
of depth. It is not evident that these verses, lovely as they are, 
strike deep roots. The clearness and the memorable quality of 
poetry that has a vital centre are lacking. The passion is often 
plaintiveness ; the substance often a mere mood made articulate — 
poetry for poetry's sake. 

Yet such verses as A Song of April, The Coming Poet, Grow- 
ing Old and Spring give a pleasure for which one is grateful^- 
pleasure in their exact imagery, their musical diction and in the 
unmistakable genuineness of their poetic speech. The foreword 
refers to the time when the young poet used such locutions as 
" 'Thwart the rolling foam," and "Waiting for my true love on 
the lea." But either that was long ago, or he has since matured 
quickly in the ways of hi^ art. There is little of the conventional 
in his expressions — ^they seem all his own: 

I only heard the loud ebb on the sand. 
The high ducks talking in the chilly sky. 

DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY. By Brother Chrysostom, 
F.S.C. Philadelphia: John Joseph McVey. $1.25 net. 
Development of Personality is a volume that will long stand 

as a worthy monument to the brilliant master mind of its author. 

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1917.1 NEW BOOKS 407 

A student of great talent and attainments, the late Brother Chrysos- 
tom has given us the fruits of his labor in a book that is truly 
remarkable for its lucidity, its strength and its erudition. 

The volume contains a broad and thorough treatment of those 
" principles possessed of an inherent fitness to produce and develop 
in the teacher qualities which are today universally admitted to be 
among the most highly prized of the fruits of education." It is 
intended to give teachers, especially religious teachers, a clear 
insight into those influences which aid in the development of real 
character. In order to do this, the book, in the opening chapters, 
brings forward a lucid comparison between the normal school and 
the religious- novitiate and shows how they agree and diflfer in 
aim, curriculum, method, spirit and presentation. The most es- 
sential difference, the author states, lies in the fact that in the State 
normal school only human faith can receive oflicial recognition; 
whereas the novitiate is unthinkable without the daily exercise of 
divine faith." 

Feeling that this, divine faith, is the great influence in the de^ 
velopment of character, he takes up the consideration of faith in 
general, its influence on the teacher's character and its pedagogical 
values. He examines closely into the biological, psychological and 
physiological aspects of faith and gives a modem, sane and coherent 
exposition of the elements of such troublesome conceptions as 
heredity, environment, plasticity, reflex action and habit. 

The teacher and student will find this volume an inexhaustible 
mine of close-reasoned facts and inferences. Not merely does it 
contain a wealth of subject matter but it also presents prolific 
references. 

THE MEXICAN WAR DIARY OF GEORGE B. HcCLELLAN. 

Edited by William Starr Myers, Ph.D. Princeton, N. J.: 

Princeton University Press. $1.00 net. 

In preparing a life of General McClellan, Professor Myers 
had occasion to consult the Mexican War Diary which forms part 
of the McClellan Papers in the Library of Congress at Washington. 
It was well worth publishing, for it gives a perfect picture of the 
young army officer who was to become in the Civil War the idol of 
the Army of the Potomac. The period covered begins with his de- 
parture from West Point, September 24, 1846, and extends to the 
battle of Cerro Gordo, April, 1847. 

The diary reveals to us a proud, self-confident and ambitious 

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4o8 NEW BOOKS [June, 

soldier, critical to a fault of his superiors, deeply sympathetic with 
his men, and beloved by many friends who admired him for his 
integrity, truthfulness and sense of honor. It gives us, besides, a 
vivid picture of the Mexico of the forties, describes the lack of 
discipline of the volunteers, and aflfords an eyewitness* account 
of the siege of Vera Cruz and the battle of Cerro Gordo. The 
regular's contempt for the volunteer is evident on every page. 
For example, under the date, December 27th, we read : 

" General Pillow had a difficulty with a volunteer officer who 
mutinied and drew a revolver on the General. The General put him 
in charge of the guard, his regiment remonstrated, mutinied, and 
the matter was finally settled by the officer making an apology.'* 

Of the line of march he writes, January i, 1847 • " They were 
marching by the flank yet the road was not wide enough to hold 
them, and it was with the greatest difficulty that you could get by — 
all holloaing, cursing, yelling like so many incarnate fiends — no at- 
tention or respect paid to the commands of their officers, whom 
they would curse as quickly as they would look at them. They 
literally straggled along for miles." 

TWENTY MINUTES OF.REALITY. By Margaret Prescott Mon- 
tague. New York : E. P. Button & Co. 75 cents net. 
The writer, recovering from a surgical operation, suffered a 
period of morbid and mental depression. Suddenly she imagines 
that she has pierced behind the veil of existence, that she sees 
reality in all its joy and beauty. She " sees life as it is — ravishingly, 
ecstatically, madly beautiful.** Instead of keeping her experience 
to herself, she proceeds to write it up for The Atlantic Monthly, 
which prompts other equally imaginative, morbid and pagan souls to 
write letters about their silly glimpses into "the joy and beauty 
of the Real.** This pseudo-mysticism might be amusing were it 
not that the neurasthenics who give their experiences are devoid 
of all sense of humor. 

TRAINING FOR A LIFE INSURANCE AGENT. By Warren M. 

Homer. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co. $1.25 net. 

The volumes of Lippincott*s Training Series, written by lead- 
ers in the various professions, present in concise and interesting 
form the demands upon character and education, and the best meth- 
ods of training for medicine, law, the stage and many others. Mr. 
Homer, who has had twenty years of experience as life insurance 

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1917] NEW BOOKS 409 

agent and manager, writes of the growth and development of this 
peculiarly American business, and describes at length its opportun- 
ities, methods and organization, the value of advertising, the secret 
of success in salesmanship and the like. 

INFANT BAPTISM. By John Horsch. Published by the Author, 

Scottdale, Pa. 40 cents. 

This brochure forms part of a larger work on the history of 
the Anabaptists soon to be published by the author. It deals with 
the controversies of the Anabaptists of the sixteenth century, with 
the Lutherans, Zwinglians and other Protestant sects on the ques- 
tion of infant baptism. With the Bible as their only rule of faith 
the Reformers were hard pressed to prove the necessity of infant 
baptism, and they fell back upon the argimient from divine tradition 
(Luther), the argument from circumcision and predestination 
(Zwingli), the need of an exclusive State Church (Oecolampad), 
etc. As the Anabaptists kept appealing to the Bible for texts prov- 
ing infant baptism, the reformers styled their teaching " a wicked 
error and blasphemy against the divine name," and urged their 
execution for blasphemy. The whole controversy is an excellent 
instance of the necessity of an infallible teaching authority to 
speak in Christ's name the complete revelation of God. 

THE FIGHT FOR THE REPUBLIC. By Rossiter Johnson. New 

York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. $2.50 net. 

In a brief introduction the author of this fascinating volume 
points out the remote and proximate causes of the Civil War. In 
most dramatic fashion he describes the campaigns and battles of 
1861 to 1865, which distinctly advanced or retarded the general 
movement towards the end. The progress of the war is traced 
with masterly hand, the plans of the various campaigns are ex- 
plained in detail with the aid of excellent maps, the comparative 
merits of the Northern and Southern Generals are set forth fairly 
and impartially, and many instances of bravery and daring are 
recorded. It is good to remember that New York State fur- 
nished one-sixth of all the men called for by the National Govern- 
ment; that she had fifty-nine regiments out of the total three hun- 
dred which had more than one hundred and thirty men killed dur- 
ing the war ; that the Sixty-ninth lost more men killed and wounded 
than any other New York regiment. In the two thousand four 
hundred engagements of the war the daily average loss of life was 
four hundred. ^ t 

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4IO NEfV BOOKS [June, 

THE DAYS OF ALCIBIADES. By C E. Robinson. New York: 

Longmans, Green & Co. $1.50 net. 

The Assistant Master at Winchester College has in these fas- 
cinating pages g^ven his readers a most vivid and accurate picture 
of Athenian life in the Great Age of Pericles. As he himself 
informs us : " These sketches conform to no strict canon of scien- 
tific history. They are rather intended to depict the manners, 
customs and general atmosphere of the times. Nevertheless the 
plots are in most cases based upon actual events and anecdotes, 
related in Plutarch and elsewhere. Nor are the characters ficti- 
tious; nearly all of their names at least are on record. They are 
designed, however, to stand less for individuals than for general 
types." 

Alcibiades is the background of the picture — ^Alcibiades, the 
ward of Pericles, the pupil of Socrates, the leader of Athens* gilded 
youth, the victor of Olympia, the patriot of 415 b. c, the traitor 
of 413 B. c, and the patriot again of 41 1 b. c. 

The writer initiates us into the home life of Athens, its wed- 
ding and funeral customs, its mode of warfare on sea and land, 
its Olympian games, its political meetings, its religion and supersti- 
tions, its dinner parties and its theatres. 

The book reads like a romance. A boy will learn more from 
these sketches, as the author modestly styles them, than from many 
a ponderous, old-fashioned textbook. 

THE WILL TO WIN. By E. Boyd Barrett, S.J. New York : P. J. 

Kenedy & Sons. 50 cents. 

This is an abridgment of Father Barrett's larger work, 
Strength of Will, which was reviewed in the March, 1916, issue of 
The Catholic World. It is addressed mainly to American Catho- 
lic boys, to inform them what will-power means, how important and 
necessary it is, and how it may be acquired. The writer emphasizes 
the need of will-training, suggests methods of strengthening will 
power, explains the secret of overcoming evil habits, and urges the 
boys to acquire the Christian spirit of self-reliance, or the will 
to win. 

MY BELOVED TO ME. Thoughts and Prayers in Verse. By S. 

M. A. St. Louis : B. Herder. 30 cents net. 

Father Rickaby's preiace to this little volume of verses gives 
the clue to their remarkable fervor and tenderness.^ The\ 

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1917.I NEW BOOKS 4":. 

says, the work of a cloistered nun in a convent of the Perpetual 
Adoration, who has written, she tells us, " for ignorant women." 
To this Father Rickaby rightly adds that some who are not ignor- 
ant may read her work with pleasure. One has a sense of minor 
artistic flaws, such as occasional rhyme irregularities, and the length 
of some of the poems, which at times gives an eflfect of repetition 
rather than progress. But these impressions are unimportant when 
measured with the reality and directness of feeling at the heart 
of these verses. They speak convincingly and sweetly of the love 
of God. 

A FLOWER FOR EACH DAY OF THE MONTH OF JUNE. 

By John J. Murphy, S.J. Edited by William J. Ennis, S.J. 

New York: The Home Press. 10 cents. 

This booklet first appeared some thirty years ago. It is re- 
printed as a tribute to the memory of Father Murphy who is re- 
membered by old readers of The Messenger of the Sacred Heart, 
and as an aid to devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is an 
excellent book of meditation for any season of the year, but will 
prove especially useful during the month of June for both private 
and public devotion. Father Ennis suggests that the book be read 
at the week-day Masses, during the Novena to the Sacred Heart, 
or at the evening services. 

A LILY OF THE SNOW. By F. A. Forbes. New York: The 

Encyclopedia Press. 25 cents. 

We recommend to our schools and academies this well-written 
and touching play. It is founded on the life and martyrdom of 
St. Eulalia who died for the. faith in Merida, Spain, a. d. 303. 

WE wish to announce to our readers that the John Lane Company 
of New York have in press a forthcoming volume of the 
poems of Charles W. Stoddard, collected by Ina Coolbrith and 
edited by Thomas Walsh. 

TN a small volume of one hundred and sixty pages. The Inter- 
^ dependence of Literature, by Georgina Pell Curtis (St. Louis: 
B. Herder. 60 cents net), the author endeavors to give her 
readers an outline of the chief literatures of the ancient and mod- 
em world, and to awaken their interest in the subject of their inter- 
dependence. The volume is suggestive and helpful to the beginner. 

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41^ NEW BOOKS [June, 

\UE recommend to our readers The Communion Prayer Book, 
'' by a Sister of St. Joseph. (Chicago: D. B. Hansen & Sons.) 
It contains prayers for Mass, Confession, Communion, and special 
prayers arranged in a way to bring home the life of Our Lord to 
the little ones. 

DETTER MEALS FOR LESS MONEY, by Mary Green (New 
-^ York: Henry Holt & Co. $1.25 net), contains good advice 
to every economic and patriotic housekeeper. It explains how 
food which in former times has been so carelessly wasted, may in 
these times of war and economic pressure be saved and utilized 
in the best possible way for our home and country. 

A variety of recipes are given: i. Those which require only 
a small amount of meat; 2. Recipes for vegetable dishes which 
can take the place of meat; 3. Recipes for the economical use of 
the cereals, dairy products and other common inexpensive foods; 
4. Recipes for breads, cakes, and desserts requiring only a small 
amount of butter and eggs. 

PAMPHLET PUBLICATIONS. 

The Australian Catholic Truth Society sends us The Literature of the 
Liturgy, by Mrs. M. Coulter. 

The American Catholic Quarterly Review sends us a reprint of an article 
by the Swedish convert, Sven Magnus Gronberger, on Saint Bridget of Sweden. 

Benziger Brothers, New York, have just published The Way of the Cross 
according to the method of St. Alphonsus Liguori. 15 cents. 

B. Herder, of St. Louis, have sent us a beautifully illustrated memento 
of First Communion, entitled Panis Angelorum. 45 cents net 

The latest publications of The Catholic Mind are Christianity and the War, 
by Bishop Carroll of Helena; The "Unbiased" "Independent," which contains 
the correspondence between Hamilton Holt and Thomas Woodlock on the 
situation in Mexico; The Greek Schism and Benedict XV,, by George Calavassy, 
a reprint from The Cathouc World; Governor Catts* Delusions, which brings 
out the stupid bigotry of the minister Governor of Florida; The Catholic 
Church and Billy Sunday, by Rev. J. H. Fisher, S.J., which gives the reasons 
why Catholics are forbidden to participate in his services. 



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IRecent Events. 

While the Ministry of M. Ribot remains 
France. in office and has undergone no change of 

members, the higher command of the 
armies has passed from General Nivelle, who succeeded Marshal 
Joffre, to General Petain, the hero of Verdun. The lack of decisive 
results from the recent offensive on the Aisne is given as the rea- 
son for this supersession. To a certain extent General Nivelle's 
appointment was due to the politicians, not in the bad sense to 
which we are so much accustomed, but to the French statesmen 
who considered the political effects upon the country and the 
world of military action rather than sound strategy. General Petain 
represents the subordination of the former to the latter, and de- 
mands a more complete freedom of action for the army, and to 
be untrammeled by Parliamentary committees. P6tain is said to 
be in favor of defensive action rather than of offensive, and is 
looked upon as the greatest defensive general of the war on any 
side. General Foch, who had recently been retired, returns as 
General Petain's Chief of Staff. He is looked upon as the most 
successful of the French generals in the offensive, and is, in the 
opinion of Marshal Joffre, the greatest strategist in Europe. These 
changes are looked upon by good authorities as strengthening the 
French army. Political influence, desirous of speedy results, will 
not drive Petain into an ill-advised offensive, as the new com- 
mander does not owe his position in any way to the politician, but 
to his ability and experience. 

Although the enemy is not being driven out of the land as 
fast as in the previous month, yet he is being forced backward 
gradually. The grand offensive of Hindenburg, so much talked 
about and perhaps dreaded, has nowhere developed. He has, in 
fact, been forced to use all his strength in the defence of his line, 
and has suffered fearful losses. The British forces are well on the 
way to Douai, while the French have captured Craonne. Large 
numbers of prisoners have been taken as well as of guns. The grim 
determination of the French to continue the war has been made 
more strong by the outrages which the Germans have committed 
in their retreat— outrages which render it impossible to make any 
terms with such an enemy except such as involve his absolute 
submission with full and complete reparation. r^^^^T^ 

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414 RECENT EVENTS [June, 

Russia still remains the chief cause of 
Russia. anxiety for the Allied nations, although 

the assurances of its determination not to 
make a separate peace are being repeatedly renewed. Even if these 
assurances are fulfilled, it seems to be certain that the most that 
Russia can do to help the Allies is to hold its own, that there is 
none or but little prospect of such a blow being struck as that of 
General Brusiloff last summer. On the contrary, fears have been 
felt that a determined drive on Petrograd would be made by the 
Germans, and one of the objects of the British and French activity 
on the Western Front has been to draw forces from the East to the 
West to ward oflf these attacks, a move which so far has proved 
successful. 

The primary cause of the weakness of Russia was the incom- 
petence of the old autocratic regime and the treachery of the Tsar- 
ina, a woman who was under German influence and blindly sub- 
servient to an erotic monk. The Tsar was well-intentioned, pa- 
triotic and loyal to his country, but easily influenced by the Court 
circles of his immediate entourage. This resulted in his becoming 
obstinately determined not to grant the reforms which were es- 
sential to the maintenance of the dynasty. One of his cousins, 
the Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovitch, as long ago as last Decem- 
ber, wrote to the Tsar a warning which if it had been heeded might 
have prevented the loss of his throne. In this letter the Grand 
Duke says that the Tsar's method of appointing Ministers had 
become widely known, and had caused a complete loss of con- 
fidence in his method of government. " Your first impulse and 
decision are always remarkably true and to the point ; but as soon 
as other influences supervene [those of his wife, and of a group 
of intriguers who used her as their tool], you begin to waver, and 
your ultimate decisions are not the same. If you could remove 
the persistent interference of dark forces in all matters, the re- 
generation of Russia would instantly be advanced, and you would 
regain the confidence of the enormous majority of your subjects 
which you have forfeited. Everything will go smoothly. You 
will find people who, under changed conditions, will agree to work 
under your personal direction. When the time comes, and it is 
not far distant, you can yourself proclaim from the throne the gift 
of the desired responsibility of the ministry to yourself and to the 
Legislative Institutions. That will come about simply of itself 
without pressure from outside, not like the memorable enactment 

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1917-1 RECENT EVENTS 415 

of October 30, 1905." To this advice the Tsar turned a deaf ear, 
and sent away its author to his estates. If it had been listened to, 
upon Russia would not have been imposed the gigantic task of 
carrying on at the same time a great war and the revision of its fun- 
damental institutions. 

The manner in which the Revolution was brought about in- 
creases the difficulty of the task. It was not primarily due to the 
Dtmia, which rather acquiesced in the movement than originated it. 
The prime movers were the associations of workingmen who were 
suffering from want of food caused by the maladministration of 
the Tsar's Ministers. The soldiers when called upon to suppress 
the uprisings refused as a body, with a few exceptions, to fire 
on the workmen. Thereupon Councils of Workmen and Soldiers 
were elected throughout the country. These Councils claimed the 
right of directing the movement which they began, and if they 
acquiesced in the decisions of the Provisional Government estab- 
lished by the Duma, they only did so because they approved of them. 
In fact, the imprisonment of the Tsar and the expulsion from 
office of all the members of the Romanoff family were forced upon 
the nominal Government by the Workmen's and Soldiers' Coun- 
cils. Other measures of a still more extreme character, such as the 
election of officers, have only been prevented by negotiations be- 
tween these two governing bodies. The Provisional Govern- 
ment represented the middle and upper classes, and was sup- 
ported also by the opponents of any change, while the Councils 
represented the proletariat. They are to a large extent So- 
cialistic, divided, however, into Moderates and the Extremists. 
All, it is said, are in favor of the prosecution of the war until 
Russia is freed from the foreigner, but the Extreme Socialists 
would be willing to unite with the German in order to overturn the 
HohcnzoUems. There is a smaller group who consider the only 
war worth waging is one against capitalists of every country. 
Their object is to weld into one body the workingmen of every 
nation against this common foe. To all of these the new freedom 
of the press, which has been proclaimed by the Provisional Govern- 
ment, gives for the first time an opportunity to advocate various 
opinions; it is difficult to learn how large is the support which 
they receive and to forecast what the outcome will be. It seems 
evident, however, that there is little prospect of a reversion to the 
old tyranny, unless indeed events should take the same course as 
they took in the French Revolution, owing to the advent to power 

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4i6 ^ RECENT EVENTS [June, 

of extremists, an event which might drive the country back into 
the arms of the Tsar. One of the worst of the evil results o^. auto- 
cratic governments is that by depriving moderate and judicious 
thinkers of all responsibility, they throw the task of necessary 
reforms into the hands of the violent The system is a shelter 
for many adventurers who have been aptly styled "self-ended;" 
and who when the crisis comes are a danger to the reestablishment 
of public order. 

In Prince Lvoflf and M. Miliukoff, the one the Foreign Secre- 
tary and the other the Prime Minister of the late Government, 
Russia had at her service men at once of great ability and of 
moderate views. Prince Lvoff has been the organizer of the 
Zemtvoes and of those associations which were formed for sending 
supplies to the armies, and which have been the chief means of 
keeping them in existence. M. Miliukoff has devoted his whole life 
to the freeing of the Russian people by establishing the constitutional 
form of government. He is an orator of wonderful power, who 
has repeatedly swayed the destinies of the country, notably when he 
denounced in the Duma the treachery of a former Premier, M. 
Stiirmer, when he was on the point of selling his country to Ger- 
many. The future of Russia seems largely to depend upon the 
ability of these two men to dominate the situation and thereby 
to control the course of events. 

Unwelcome intelligence has been received, which seems to show 
that the corruption engendered during the autocratic rule of the Tsar 
has left Russia incapable of availing itself of the opportunities to 
form a stable government. The soldiers had got out of hand and 
were fraternizing with their enemies. The resignation of the com- 
mander of the troops in Petrograd and of several other Generals 
thereupon took place, and was followed by that of the Minister of 
War, who declared that he found himself unable to control the army 
and navy. The representative in the Cabinet of Workmen's and Sol- 
diers' Councils declared that he could not see in the Russian people 
conscientious citizens who, having secured the rights of free men, 
were willing to fulfill the duties and responsibilities attached to those 
rights, but on the contrary slaves in revolt, despising all control. 
The peasants were taking possession of the land and the Dimia 
was afraid to check them, as the army was itself made up of 
peasants. The army was so quiescent that Germany has been able 
to withdraw, it is said, six hundred thousand men to the Western 
Front. Food and supplies were being withheld. A dictatorship 

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19171 RECENT EVENTS 417 

was being discussed as the only means of saving Russia from being 
broken up into a number of small republics, which would fall 
under the domination of Germany. 

The anxiety and ahnost despair caused by this untoward series 
of events have been in part removed by the successful formation, 
after several efforts had failed, of a Coalition Cabinet. The dual 
control of the Provisional Government on the one hand and of 
the Council of Soldiers and Workmen on the other was the cause 
of the reduction of the new Russia ahnost to a state of chaos. 
The amalgamation of these two bodies into one gives new hope 
for the future, although the disappearance of M. Miliukoff de- 
prives the new Cabinet of the ablest of Russian statesmen. Prince 
Lvoff, however, remains at the head, while the new War Minister, 
M. Kerensky, has the complete confidence of the Radicals who 
control the Soldiers' and Workmen's Councils. He is also idolized 
by the army. The new Cabinet is expected to be made up of six 
Socialists, five Constituticmal Democrats. and two Octobrists, the 
latter two being the Procurator of the Holy Synod and the State 
Controller. The three points upon which the Government, the 
Executive Committee of the Duma and the Council of Workmen's 
and Soldier's Delegates came to an agreement are: i. The unity 
of the Allied fronts. 2. The fullest confidence of the revolutionary 
democracy — a thing which was denied to the Provisional Govern- 
ment — is to be given to the Coalition Ministry. 3. A plenitude of 
powers is to be placed in its hands. This country's confidence has 
been so little shaken by the events in Russia that a loan has just 
been issued amounting to one hundred millions, while M. Jules 
Cambon, one of the most experienced of French statesmen, although 
he admits that the events which have been taking place are some- 
what disturbing, declares there is no reason to believe that the 
Entente is going to lose an ally, but that Russia will remain solid 
and sure. Russia will continue to play its part alongside of all 
the Allies as in the past. 

The restoration to Finland of her ancient Constitution and 
of the autonomy which had been pledged to her, a pledge, however, 
which was broken by the late Tsar with the complicity of the 
Dimia, is an event not only important and just in itself, but is also 
likely to have a considerable bearing on the course of the war. 
The disaffection in Finland, springing from unjust treatment, re- 
acted upon the relations of Sweden and Russia. In Sweden there 
is a fairly strong pro-German, or rather anti-Russian, element active 

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4i8 RECENT EVENTS [June, 

in driving the country to take the side of Germany, even to the 
extent of taking part in the war. Sympathy for Finland was a 
powerful motive. The new Russian policy towards Finland has 
removed to a large extent the reason for anti-Russian sentiment. 
This treatment of Finland is an exemplification of the political doc- 
trine as to right to independence of all nationalities, which the 
Russian Government has declared to be a first principle of its for- 
eign policy, and is in harmony with the declaration of our President. 
A disclaimer of any desire of conquest has been made. How far 
this applies to the taking possession of Constantinople has not been 
disclosed. 

To Poland the Provisional Government has promised the 
creation of an independent State, to be formed out of the territories 
of which the majority of the population is Polish. It is to be bound 
to Russia by a free military union, but will settle for itself the 
nature of its own government, expressing its will by means of a 
Constituent Assembly convoked on the basis of universal suffrage 
in the capital of Poland. To this Assembly is to be left the work 
of consolidating the union with Russia and the arrangement 
of the territories of the new Poland, which is to be made up of 
the three divisions that are at present separated. 

Public opinion, like everything else in Ger- 
Germany. many, is made by the State, and in the few 

instances in which its power does not go 
so far, the Censorship is so complete that very little can be learned 
of the true state of affairs by either those outside of the Empire 
or those who are confined within its borders. The Russian Revolu- 
tion was so near that its effects could not fail to reverberate through- 
out the Empire, and of those effects something has been heard. 
The German Socialists, who are the strongest of Germany's polit- 
ical parties, could not fail, docile though they have shown them* 
selves to be since the outbreak of the War, to be stirred up to 
follow the example, when they saw their own country (with its 
Allies, Turkey and Austria) left as the only representative in Eu- 
rope of the absolutism at whose doors such awful miseries and 
hideous crimes must be laid. So great was the danger that the 
German Government felt compelled to evade the dreaded conse- 
quences by at once making promises of a reform of the Prussian 
franchise, a reform, however, which was not to be carried out until 
after the War. The Chancellor's offer was, however, so much 

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1917.I RECENT EVENTS 419 

distrusted that even the Majority Socialists, who are distinguished 
from the Minority by the support which they uniformly give to the 
Government, went into opposition, and for the first time voted 
against a war credit. 

Unfortunately another step taken by the Chancellor to counter- 
act the effect in Germany of the Russian Revolution, seems to have 
been more successful. The affectation of a warm sjrmpathy with the 
movement in Russia has won over to the support of a separate peace 
with Germany a certain number, it is not known how many, 
of the Socialist soldiers and peasants and workingmen of that 
Empire. They have been led to the conclusion that the German 
people are longing to embrace them as brothers, and that they, 
by joining hands with them, may free Germany from Hohen- 
zollem domination as they have freed Russia from that of the 
Romanoffs. This idea has met with wide acceptance among the 
Russian soldiers, and this is one of the causes of the anxiety which 
is felt about Russian cooperation to the end. The idea, however, 
is foolish and chimerical ; its only effect would be to weaken Russia 
or to eliminate her, a thing which would be of supreme advantage 
to. Germany. All agree that there is the smallest of chances for 
a revolution in Germany. The absorption in materialist aims has 
left Germany without a leader ready to make the necessary sacri- 
fices for liberty. The subjection to the State is so complete and 
has for so long become a part of the German mind that there would 
be no response to the call to freedom were a leader to appear. 
The discipline of the army is so strict that any initiative of a 
movement on its part is not to be expected. What will happen in 
the event of so complete a military collapse as to take away even 
hope of victory, must be left to the future to disclose. There is no 
small reason for thinking that in any case as soon as hostilities are 
concluded a tidal wave of Social Democratic doctrines will sweep 
over Germany. 

The reception by the German press of this country's declara- 
tion of a state of war affords an opportunity of seeing how high 
an opinion some Germans at least have of themselves, and in 
what a fool's paradise they are still dwelling. The consequences of 
the President's action are declared to be more far-reaching for 
America than for Germany. America's accession is impotent to 
produce Germany's defeat. Mr. Wilson's sole motive was to pro- 
tect the millions which Mr. Morgan had invested in mtmition fac- 
tories. " For that reason, and for that reason only must war be t 

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420 RECENT EVENTS [June, 

declared against us." " Beyond striving after gold the Americans 
have no ideal." " Germans, however, will wage the fight with such 
energy that the gold-sated Yankees will be stupefied." " If Wilson 
places himself in our way he will be shown out of our way militarily 
as twice already he has been lifted from the saddle diplomatically." 
Such is the general drift of the comment. A few, however, of the 
newspapers say the declaration must be taken very seriously, and 
one, the Berlin Lokalameiger, goes so far as to admit that the 
participation of a Great Power with a hundred million of inhab- 
itants cannot be a matter of indifference. 

Rumors of food riots, of dissensions between the Agrarians 
and the Socialists, of a conflict between von Hindenburg and von 
Bethmann Hollweg, of the efforts of the Austrian Emperor to 
free himself from his vassalage to the Kaiser, have been widely 
circulated. How true or how false they are, no one is able to say. 
But when in the Reichstag itself one of its members publicly de- 
clares his conviction that what has happened in Russia must happen 
in Germany, that a Republic must soon be introduced, and proceeds 
to propose a Constitutional Committee to take the preparatory steps 
in that direction, doubts may well be entertained that the vaunted 
strength of the Kaiser's power is not so great as its suj^rters 
would have the world believe. 

The internal situation in Turkey is believed 
Turkey. to be very bad, but real knowledge is lack- 

ing. Of her external relations there is no 
doubt. On three fronts she is being pressed very closely. The 
British advancing from Egypt have driven the main Turkish force 
through a great part of the country once occupied by the Philistines. 
Jerusalem is within fifty or sixty miles of the British outposts, but 
as it is looked upon by the Turks as a sacred city, it will be 
held by them as long as they have the power. It is strongly forti- 
fied, and the way to it, both from the south and west, is very 
difficult. It is not known whether it is a part of the British plan 
to make an attempt to take the Holy City. Should such be the 
case it is probable that the seaboard of Palestine would first be 
seized, and then the most open road, through the Plain of Esdraelon, 
would be chosen for the purpose. The moral effect of the taking 
of Jerusalem would be greater than that of the taking of Con- 
stantinople. It is a strange thought that soldiers of the British Isles 
should be marching by the same road as that by which the 

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1917] RECENT EVENTS 421 

Assyrians of old marched against the Egyptians, and the Egyptians 
against the Assyrians. Along this road the hosts of Alexander 
the Great and the legions of Pompey and Caesar, Vespasian and 
Titus passed, and Napoleon on his way to Acre. 

While the capture of Jerusalem, if accomplished, would have 
the highest spiritual significance, the capture of Bagdad, already 
accomplished, is of the highest material importance. The first fruit 
of this victoly is the restoration of British prestige throughout 
the Moslem world and in the Far East generally. It marks a 
recovery of the blow dealt by the surrender at Kut-el-Amara, which 
was the only set-oflf the Turko-Germans had for the failure of 
their attack on Egypt, for the loss of the Hedjas, and the liberation 
of Mecca from Ottoman rule. Bagdad was the town of the Caliphs, 
the ancient political and economic centre of Arab civilization, and 
as such was an object of veneration. Its ancient importance, how- 
ever, was as nothing in comparison with that which it has assumed 
lately. It was to have been the terminus of the famous railway 
line through which German commerce, along with their Kultur 
and their domination, was to have found its way to the Persian 
Gulf and the Middle East. Even during the progress of the 
war no pains have been spared. to make this line complete, because 
it had come to be an article of faith for many in Germany that 
this railway would make them the masters of the East. Now this 
terminus is in the hands of the British, and has become one of the 
outworks of the British defence of India. 

The third front on which Turkey is being hard pressed is 
farther north. Almost the whole of Armenia has been for some 
time in Russian hands. The important towns of Erzroum, Trebi- 
zond and Erzingan have been lost — forever it is to be hoped, for 
this is the district which has been steeped in the blood of tens of 
thousands of massacred Armenians. The Turkish troops who 
have been helping the Austrians and Germans in the defence against 
the Russians, have, it is understood, been recalled to defend their 
own country in its dire extremity. 



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IN the army camps, already established, and those yet to be formed, 
there will be thousands of Catholic yotuig men. The percentage 
of Catholics in the United States Army before the Conscription Act 
was passed was between forty and fifty. That percentage will be 
increased, most probably, when the selective draft has been put in 
operation. Two hundred and fifty thousand Catholic soldiers will 
be enlisted in the new army. Every means within our power should 
be taken to provide for the spiritual well-being of these men, exposed 
as they will be to many unusual temptations, and deprived of the 
safeguards of home life. We should provide for them prayer books; 
books of instruction and edification, clean reading matter that will 
help them pass idle hours, and give them the inspiration of pure 
and noble thoughts. At the request of the Chaplains of the Army 
we have instituted an Association for this purpose, called The Chap- 
lains' Aid Association. The details of the organization will be pub- 
lished at a later date, but we wish to bespeak for it already the hearty 
support and cooperation of all our readers. The headquarters of the 
Association will be at 120 West 6oth Street, New York. 



''PHE predominant and truly heroic part that Catholic missionaries 
1 and Catholic explorers played in the discovery, settlement and 
exploration of vast portions of our country is too little known, even 
by Catholics. If we were in any way familiar with it we would realize 
more fully what an enduring debt of gratitude our country owes to 
these early heroes ; how their names have been written indelibly into 
her history ; how their achievement, their self-sacrifice and their suc- 
cess are one with their Catholic Faith. A sense of the inheritance 
which is therefore peculiarly ours as American Catholics would pos- 
sess us, leading us to imitate their zeal, deepening our love for our 
native land and urging us to strive, even as they did, in season and 
out of season, to bring those who do not believe to the true Church 

of Christ. 

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ 

IN 1902 The Catholic World called the special attention of its 
readers to the completed edition, in French and Latin and English, 
of the Jesuit Relations, edited by Reuben G. Thwaites and published 
by Burrows Brothers, Qeveland, Ohio. The edition is a monumental 
work, consisting of seventy-three volumes. These Relations are the 

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1917.I ii^ITH OUR READERS 423 

accounts sent to their Superior by the Jesuit Fathers who labored 
in the early missions in Canada and Ae United States. They are of 
course invaluable to every student of the secular or religious history 
of our country and of Canada. Besides these Relations, there are 
among original manuscripts the narratives of Ae Sulpician Fathers, 
also great pioneers and gjeat missionaries, such as Father de Galinee 
who, with Father de Casson, later Superior of the Sulpicians !at 
Montreal, and La Salle started from Montreal in 1669 to find a new 
route to the unknown West. 



IT would be impossible for the ordinary reader to consult these 
scattered documents ; the number of volumes and their cost also make 
inaccessible to him the Jesuit Relations. With special pleasure, there- 
fore, we call attention to a work just published by Scribners, entitled 
Early Narratives of the Northwest, and edited by Louise Phelps Kel- 
logg of the Wisconsin State Historical Society. The yearis of ex- 
ploration which it covers are those between 1634 and 1699. The 
narratives are all original, written by the actual missionary or ex- 
plorer, or his companions. None is so long as to justify even the 
busiest man in saying that he has not time to read it. All glow with 
the enthusiasm, the loyalty and tfie zeal of those men who seem never 
to have counted the cost. For the average student of, or reader in, 
American history, the book is admirably adapted. 

To understand the title it must be remembered that the term 
Northwest was used in the seventeenth century to designate the entire 
region about the upper Great Lakes and northeastern part of the 
Mississippi Valley. Its subject matter, therefore, is the heart of the 
North American continent. "Fourteen years after the Pilgrim Fathers 
had landed on the Massachusetts coast, a French discoverer had ad- 
vanced (1634) a thousand miles west, passed the straits of Mackinac, 
skirted the shores of Green Bay, and made his landfall in the present 
State of Wisconsin." 



THE volume gives a selection from the diary of Father Vimont, 
telling of the life and death of his friend, Nicolet, the explorer; the 
account of Father Lallemant of the journey of Father Raymbault and 
Father Jogucs to Sault Ste. Marie in 1641. Under Ae vivid pen of 
the Jesuit historian, the description given of a certain Indian festival 
" reads like a page strayed from a Grecian epic, so mighty 
were the combats, so virile the games, so plaintive the chants, and 
so agile the dances of these barbarians. This is a picture of the 
primitive Indians, before the white man's fire water and epidemics 
enfeebled their bodies and lowered their morals." Father Raymbault ^ 

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424 IVITH OUR READERS [June, 

weakened by his labors died at Quebec in 1642. " For Jogues was 
reserved a martyr's fate and fame." 



IT might be implied from the above statement of Dr. Kellogg Aat 
" fire water caused a lowering of the morals of the primitive In- 
dians:" that the morals of the Indians were not already low. Such a 
deduction would be false, indeed. The accounts given by Father 
AUouez and by Father St. Cosme, reprinted later in this volume, 
plainly show that the libertinism of the Indians was one of the 
greatest obstacles to their conversion. That these early missionaries 
were able to turn them from a life of excessive debauchery and 
sexual license to the restraint and self-control of Christian teaching, 
is testimony to the supernatural character of the message they de- 
livered and Ae sacraments they administered. 

" God has graciously permitted me to be heard by more than ten 
nations," wrote Father Allouez; "but I confess that it is necessary 
even before daybreak to entreat Him to grant patience for the cheer- 
ful endurance of contempt, mockery, importunity and insolence from 
these barbarians." 



YET what extraordinary wonders were accomplished may be judged 
from the following narrative of the same missionary : " I have 
received consolation this winter from seeing the fervor of our Chris- 
tians, but especially that of a girl named Marie Movena, who was 
baptized at the Point of Saint Esprit. From last spring up to the 
present time, she has resisted her relatives: despite all the efforts 
they have made to compel her to marry her stepbrother she has 
never consented to do it. Her brother has often struck her, and 
her mother has frequently refused her anything to eat, sometimes 
reaching such a pitch of anger that she would take a firebrand and 
bum her daughter's arms with it. This poor girl told me about all 
this bad treatment ; but her courage could never be shaken, and she 
willingly made an offering of all her sufferings to God." 

The editor says of this heroic missionary : " Heedless of fatigue 
or hunger, cold or heat, he traveled over snow and ice, swoJlien 
streams or dangerous rapids, seeking distant Indian villages, count- 
ing it all joy if by any means he could win a few savages ior a 

heavenly future A second St. Francis Xavier, Allouez, is said 

during his twenty-four years of service to have instructed a hundred 
thousand Western savages and baptized at least ten thousand." 

The first recorded voyage on the Mississippi is that of Jolliet 
and Father Marquette — a man of desires " pure and altruistic." From 
Mackinac he set forth to see the tribes he had long prayed to see. t 

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1917.I ^ITH OUR READERS 4^5 

never to return, " but to obtain his last and final wish to die a martyr 
to the cause he loved." 



THE volume concludes with the letter of the simple Canadian priest, 
Father St. Cosme, a member of the Foreign Missionary Society, 
who, on his way down the Mississippi, was murdered by some Chiti- 
macha Indians. The letter was first published by John Gilmary Shea, 
whose name frequently receives honorable mention in this volume. 
It was addressed to Bishop Laval and the self-sacrificing apostle 
signed himself " Your Grace's very humble and very obedient servant, 
J. F. Buisson St. Cosme, priest, unworthy missionary." And his post- 
script sounds very modem, " I have not time to re-read this letter." 



THE great disorders and the widespread immorality that immediately 
followed Luther's rebellion in Germany are strangely enough 
testified to at times even by those who write in his defence. Of 
course, they claim that he opened the springs of freedom, intellectual 
and religious ; that up to his time individual thought and action had 
been repressed. Even a slight reading of pre-Reformation history 
would show both these contentions to be absolutely false. But history 
does confirm the following synopsis of the grave injury done by the 
Protestant Reformation to the whole course of civilization, and the 
chaos produced in the souls of men, by the Methodist Bishop Earl 
Cranston of Washington, D. C. 

" The horrors of imperialism, sufiFered in the past, were dupli- 
cated in the horrors of individualism run mad. Thrones tottered and 
kingdoms crumbled as they will and must when men are inflamed by 
tragic memories to revolutionary deeds. By the more frenzied and 
reckless, God and religion, with the kings and popes who had ruled 
in their name and by their asstmied authority, were cast into the same 
abyss, and no excess of madness was too cruel for perpetration in 
the name of the new gods — reason and humanity. When one man's 
voice has long been accepted as God's voice and that man's voice at 
last loses its charm, with the result that his power is openly defied, 
then, for the time, religion becomes a byword, and morals are for- 
gotten in the revel of evil passions." 

♦ * * * 

BISHOP CRANSTON appeals to his co-religionists for greater 
Christian unity. He sees plainly the havoc wrought by private judg- 
ment in matters religious. " No marvel that Protestantism in America 
became a mosaic of sects. Any half-dozen zealots could organize, 
call themselves a church, and set up an ecclesiastical order — ^at any 
cost of disorder." " There was no tribunal with power to arrest the 

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426 tVlTH OUR READERS [June, 

evil." " Seventeen types of Methodists were at least fifteen too many. 
Fifteen kinds of Baptists and twelve or more of Presbyterians were 
not required for the peace of Zion." 

He adds that the denominations are insisting upon essential unity ; 
in other words they are bearing conscious testimony to their own 
inconsistency; to their own unfitness to be called the Churth of 
Christ. To advance thus far upon the road of truth is a hopeful sign. 
The Federal Council of American Churches is composed of thirty-one 
American Churches and of seventeen millions of Protestants. 

Bishop Cranston states that they have adopted a platform which 
for Protestantism is an absolute about-face, the reversal of the trend 
of four centuries; from protesting and destroying, to asserting and 
building up. " Liberty has at last recognized its law, and individualism 
is becoming sane," writes Bishop Cranston. A constunmation devoutly 
to be wished; for only when liberty does recognize law, has liberty 
itself meaning and virtue; only when individualism recognizes au- 
thority outside itself, as that from which it draws life, can the in- 
dividual be saved from mental and moral chaos. 

« * * * 

IN this very article no provision is made for anything like an 
efiPective universal religious authority that will secure Christian 
unity; that will save liberty frcmi license and individualism from 
anarchy. Indeed it champions radical individualism and denomination- 
alism in religious matters. The objection that the Bible cannot be 
the sole rule of faith because many have appealed to the same quota- 
tion as proof of contradictory propositions, is swept aside by the 
trivial ' answer that such proceedings arouse discussions about the 
Bible; lead many to read it, thus make it better known and its au- 
thority more widespread. 

In like manner by a sort of religious utilitarianism, dencmii- 
nationalism is defended. Competition is the life of trade; God will 
not allow one sect to make a monopoly of the riches of heaven, etc., 
etc. So weak are these defences that one is led to believe that Bishop 
Cranston's heart was not in the writing of them ; that he felt compelled 
to give a sop or two to the opponents in the Federal Council of any 
strong policy of unity. 

* ♦ * * 

ONE point he does make, however, which ought to lead him and 
many of his readers further on the road to truth. In speaking 
of Christian unity. Bishop Cranston says, in the name of the Protestant 
dencMninations, " we cannot long satisfy ourselves by mere confession, 
without the fruits of repentance** (The italics are in the original.) 
He continues, begging the diflferent Churches to examine their con- 
science, so to speak, and ask themselves if they have ceased to regard 



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1917.] ^ITH OUR READERS 427 

as an essential of faith that which was so regarded when that event 
(separation) occurred. 

If this be a true and obligatory process, then it holds true for 
four centuries as well as for forty years or four years. If every Prot- 
estant denomination would accept it and follow it, step by step, even 
the darkness of the centuries is not dark enough to hide from them 
the fact that they would be led back to that Church, all of whose 
teachings they held as essentials when separation began. 



TIME, it has often been said, is on the side of truth. In this work 
of vindication, time labors now slowly ; and again quickly. The 
New Republic, a weekly periodical in New York, and which for the 
most part is a journal of protest rather than of principle, solemnly 
announced, scmie months ago, that its attitude towards the Catholic 
Church in this country would have to be different from its attitude 
towards Protestantism or Judaism. The latter it would regard fa- 
vorably: the former unfavorably. Why? " Because," The New Re- 
public stated with sophomoric ignorance : " the Pope is a sovereign 
of a state none the less real because it is unterritorial in character. 
He is aiming at the victory of certain principles conceived as ultimate, 
and he is prepared to provoke conflict with all who come into antagon- 
ism with his aims. Ruler as he is by divine right, holding, in his hands 
the power of the keys, the gateway to salvation, infallible in every 
ex cathedra pronouncement, knowing no limit to a power which he 
only can define, he is without doubt a formidable antagonist. It is 
as a great sovereign that he must be treated. His subjects are in 
the same position as those mistaken Germans who have viewed the 
United States as a colony of their fatherland. Like them, Catholics 
are told that their attitude must succeed because of the universal right- 
ness. But just as what we term Prussianism contained, by reason 
of its very violence, the seeds of its own disintegration, so is this 
militant Catholicism destined to a similar destruction." 

« « ♦ 4( 

IF we may digress a mcHnent, it was, perhaps, by reading The New 
Republic that the pastor of St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church of 
New York, Dr. Leighton Parks, was prompted to make Ae gratuitous 
charge that the Kaiser and the Holy Father were in league to secure, 
one for Germany, the other for the Catholic Church, the domina- 
tion of Europe and thus restore the Holy Roman Empire. 

Or, perhaps, it was just ingrained prejudice suddenly wedded to 
the hateful name of Holy Roman that begot this phantom child of Dr. 
Parks' imagination. The sermon has been widely circulated; free 
copies of it are at the disposal of every visitor to St. Bartholomew's. 

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428 WITH OUR READERS [June, 

Thus one of the most prominent Episcopal churches of New York 
does not scruple to sow broadcast the seeds of base calumny. 



BUT to return to The New Republic. As the self-appomted cham- 
pion of American patriotism, it condemned the Catholic Church 
in America and all American Catholics. Now war has come upon 
us and war applies the acid test of patriotism. The President of 
the United States has already publicly congratulated the Catholics 
of America on their " large sense of patriotism and their admirable 
spirit of devotion to our own common country." 

The New Republic, on the other hand, since the declaration of 
war, has, according to The New York Globe, " committed itself to 
a campaign to do what lies in its power to contribute to the disinte- 
gration of American public opinion, a disintegration which, if achieved, 
will, of course, account to the direct benefit of Germany and help 
her to attain the objects for which she began the war." The Netm 
Republic " has practically charged that the President's defence 
of international law and of American rights is hypocritical; that 
we should reverse our policy and make peace with Germany on 
such terms as she is willing to grant." The New Republic gratuitously 
insulted millions of loyal American citizens. It now aims to insult 
the entire nation. 



THE Catholic Tribune of Dubuque, Iowa, has taken exception to a 
telegram sent by President Whalen of the American Federation 
of Catholic Societies to the Catholic workingmen of France in answer 
to their greetings to the Catholic workingmen of America. President 
Whalen, acknowledging their greetings, expressed his joy "that Amer- 
ica and France once more stood together in the fight for national 
rights and national liberty." 

The Catholic Tribune thinks that Mr. Whalen might have so 
expressed himself as an individual, but should not have done so as 
President of the Catholic Federation. Its editorial insinuates that such 
a message to Catholic Frenchmen is a defence of the impiety of the 
French Government. If a writer must resort to such misstatement as 
this to attack the President of the Federation his case is poor indeed. 
4( « « « 

BISHOP McFAUL, the Father of the Federation, has stated " it is in 
the spirit of patriotism and of service, therefore, that the American 
Federation desires to bring itself and its religion before our non- 
Catholic friends, so that when any great question arises, when any 
moral danger is descried, it can extend the hand of cooperation." 

The editorial of The Catholic Tribune, of Dubuque, states that 

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1917] ^ITH OUR READERS 429 

" President Wilson told Congress on February 3d that he severed 
diplomatic relations wiA Germany on account of that country's un- 
limited submarine warfare and destruction of American lives and 
ships — ^not because poor France is in danger." 



IT is well to remember that President Wilson also stated: "The 
present German submarine warfare against commerce is a warfare 
against mankind. It is a war against all nations. The challenge is 
to all mankind." " This minimum of right the German Government 
has swept aside under the plea of retaliation and necessity and be- 
cause it had no weapons which it could use at sea except those which 
it is impossible to employ as it is employing them without throwing to 
the winds all scruples of humanity or of respect for the understand- 
ings that were supposed to underlie the intercourse of the world." 

" The wrongs against which we now array ourselves are no com- 
mon wrongs; they cut to the very roots of human life." 
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ 

IT is extremely important that we understand "what our motives 
and our objects are," for of these are born the measure and the 
worth of our patriotism. " Our object is to vindicate the principles 
of peace and justice in the life of the world as against selfish and 
autocratic power, and to set up amongst the really free and self- 
governed peoples of the world such a concert of purpose and of 
action as will henceforth insure the observance of those principles." 
France is fighting with us: we are about to send our own sol- 
diers to France. The message sent by President Whalen was the 
message of a patriot to an ally of his country ; and we feel absolutely 
certain that he voiced well the sentiments of the American Federation 
of Catholic Societies. 



OUR readers will no doubt recall that the following poem by Charles 
L. O'Donnell, C.S.C, was published in the March, 1917, issue 
of The Catholic World: 

A Road of Ireland. 

From Killybegs to Ardara is seven Irish miles, 
Tis there the blackbirds whistle and the mating cuckoos call, 

Beyond the fields the green sea glints, above the heaven smiles 
On all the white boreens that thread the glens of Donegal. 

Along the roads what feet have passed, could they but tell the story, 
Of ancient king and saint and bard, the roads have known them all ; 

Lough Dergh, Doon Well, Qen Columcille, the names are yet a glory, 
'Tis great ghosts in the gloaming remember Donegal. 



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430 WITH OUR READERS [June, 

The harbor slips of Killybegs saw Spanish poop and sail 
In days when Spain sailed round the world and held the half in thrall, 

And Ardara has writ her name in the great books of the Gad, 
Though sleep has fallen on them now in dream-lit Donegal. 

Wdl, time will have its fling with dust, it is the changeless law, 

But this I like to think of whatever may befall: 
When she came up from Killybegs and he from Ardara 

My father met my mother on the road, in Donegal. 

The poem was widely reprinted in many journals throughout the 
country. That, however, is not the reason why we reprint it now. 
It was answered or rather its memories awoke sympathetic memories 
in a kindred heart that replied in the following verses: 

I never saw a white boreen; ne'er heard the cuckoo's call — 
My father braved the western waves in Jackson's day of old — 

But, Blessed Lady, guard us yet! the glens of Donegal 
Familiar are as mother's beads, my baby fingers told. 

From Naran More to the Bridge End I love them, one and all ; 

(Don't fairies come at night to me, to lilt thdr matchless charm?) 
The wintry gales may lash the crags that sentry Donegal, 

But, God be praised, the peace and calm in dingles snug and warm! 

« « « « « 

A hangman's rope for Time, the thief, nor does his dust appall; 

And Truth enthroned our motto still, though bitter be the cup: — 
'Twas down the road my father went, in dream-lit Donegal, 

When he met my mother darling, as she was coming up! 

Note. — Father bom in Ardara and mother in Killybegs — ^and it's proud of 
Father Charles I am! 

D. a C. 



THE New York World has issued a valuable pamphlet, giving the 
views of prominent Americans on the question of self-govern- 
ment for Ireland. The list of contributors is a very notable one. 
" Home Rule for a united Ireland," writes Justice Victor J. Dowling, 
"with complete fiscal autonomy, unrestricted opportunities for com- 
mercial and industrial expansion and adequate saf^;uards for the 
political, religious and financial rights of minorities, if speedily and 
willingly granted, will send a thrill of enthusiasm around the world 
which will speed the hour of the return of peace, justice and honor." 



OF the two recent proposals of the English Government for a solu- 
tion of the Irish question, the first, the granting of Home Rule 
to all of Ireland except Ulster, was rejected at once by the Irish 
Nationalists. The second, the calling of a national convention of 

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1917.1 BOOKS RECEIVED 431 

representatives from all parts of Ireland, of different religious beliefs 
and political affiliations who will agree upon a solution, was accepted 
by the Nationalists. " For the first time in her history, Ireland has 
been asked virtually to settle a problem for herself," declared Mr. 
Redmond : and Mr. William O'Brien, " A Home Rule settlement by 
the consent of all parties and by my countr3rmen of all persuasions 
has been the object of my political life." Mr. Redmond also expressed 
his sure hope that the result of the convention would be a blessed one 
for Ireland, and that it would be animated by the true spirit of con- 
ciliation among Irishmen. The Irish Unionists — ^as always— did what 
they could to prevent Ireland from having self-government; and 
discouraged the .proposed national convention. Their leader said 
Ulster would never consent to Home Rule; but that the proposal to 
hold such a convention would be submitted to the people of Ulster. 
Carson also repeated the determination of the Ulsterites to withstand 
at all costs the will of the majority. 

Ex-Premier Asquith urged a settlement because it was "most 
vital to our own interests and to our honor." 

* « * * 

IT is well at least to hope that some fair measure of justice in 
the way of self-government may at length be given to Ireland 
as a result of the proceedings of the proposed national convention. 
But the hope is not unmixed with many fears. One truth stands 
always clear and distinct. The Elnglish Government because it has 
made this offer, cannot, as Lord Lansdowne sought to do, and as some 
American newspapers maintain, throw the blame of a non-settlement 
upon the people of Ireland. The blame rests upon the English Gov- 
ernment that has always upheld, even when they threatened rebellion, 
and that upholds now, a few recalcitrants of the North, a small min- 
ority who have refused to accept any proposal that would allow the 
vast majority of Ireland to govern themselves. 



BOOKS RECEIVED. 

Charles Sckibnba's Sons, New York: 

Th€ American Ambassador, By L. Byrne. $1.35 net. Letters and Diary of 
Alan Seeger. $i.2§ net. Early Narratives of the Northwest, 1634-1699. 
Edited by L. P. Kellogg. Ph.D. $3.00 net. 
DouBLSOAY, Pack & Co., Garden City, New York: 

The Preacher of Cedar Mountain. By E. T. Seton. $1.35 net. A Diversity of 
Creatures, By R. Kipling. $1.50 net. 
Ha&pkx & Brothers, New York: 

Literature in the Making, Presented by Joyce Kilmer. $1.40 net. 
Longmans, Grxbn 9l Co., New York: 

Benedictus Qui Venit. By Father W. Roche, S.J. 30 cenU net. Raymond: 
A Rejoinder, By P. Hookham. Pamphlet. 36 cents net. Sponsa Christi, 
By Mother St. Paul. 90 cents net. 



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Benzigxr Brothbrs, New York: 

The Rest House, By I. C. Clarke. $1.35 net The Story of the Acts of 
the Apostles. By Rev. D. Lynch, S.J. $1.75 net. 
Thb Century Co., New York: 

Aurora the Magnificent, By Gertrude Hall. $1.40 net. 
Thb H. W. Wilson Co., White Plains. New York: 

Prison Reform, Compiled by C. Bacon. |i.oo net. 
The Macmillan Co., New York: 

Russia in 1916. By S. Graham. St, Paul the Hero, By R. M. Jones. $1.00. 
Frederick A. Stokes Co., New York: 

The Russians: An Interpretation, By R. Wright. $1.50 net. 
The America Press, New York: 

The Hierarchy's Call to Patriotism, Pamphlet. 5 cents. 
HoDDER & Stoughton, New York: 

International Law and Accuracy, By G. G. Butler, M.A. Pamphlet. 5 cents. 
E. P. DuTTON & Co., New York: 

Soldier Songs. By P. Macgill. $1.00 net. Behind the Thicket, By W. E. B. 
Henderson. $1.50 net. 
D. Appleton & Co., New York: 

Enchantment. By E. Temple Thurston. $1.50 net. 
Little, Brown & Co., Boston: 

The Contemporary Drama of Ireland. By E. A. Boyd. $1.15 net. The 
Contemporary Drama of England. By T. H. Dickinson. $1.25 net. Criminal 
Sociology. By E. Ferri. $5.00 net. 
Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston: 

The Altar of Freedom. By Mary R. Rinehart. 50 cents net. 
John Murphy Co., Baltimore: 

Character Sketches of the Rt. Rev. C. P. Maes, D.D. By the Sisters of 
Divine Providence. $1.25. 
J. B. LiPPiNcoTT Co., Philadelphia: 

Our Flag and its Message. By Major J. A. Moss, U. S. A., and Major M. B. 
Stewart, U. S. A. 2$ cents. 
The Queen's Work Press, St. Louis: 

Historv of the Prima Primaria Sodality of the Annunciation and SS. Peter and 
Paul. By Father E. MuUan, S.J. $2.00. Aloysius Ignatius Filer, By 
Father R. P. Amado, S.J. 50 cents. 
B. Herder, St. Louis: 

Our Refuge. By Rev. A. Sprigler. 60 cents net. 
The Pilgrim Publishing Co.. Baraboo, Wis.: 

A Casket of Joys. By J. T. Durward. Pamphlet. 15 cents. 
The Bobbs-Mbrrill Co., Indianapolis, Ind. : 

The Light in the Clearing. By Irving Bacheller. 
T. Fisher Unwin, London: 

The Villain of the World Tragedy. By Wm. Archer. The Condition of 
the Belgian Workmen now Refugees in England, Canada to Ireland, 
Pamphlets. 
BuRRUp, Mathieson & Sprague, London: 

For Those in Captivity, Pamphlet. 
Australian Catholic Truth Society, Melbourne: 

Work for the Newman Society. By Mrs. M. C. Goulter. God's Voice in the 
Soul. By " X.*' Pamphlets. 5 cents. 
Williams, Lea & Co., London : 

The War in March. 1917, Pamphlet. 
M. H. Gill & Son. Dublin : 

Life of Saint Adamnan. By Very Rev. E. Canon Maguire, D.D. The Guile- 
less Saxon. (Comedy.) By L. J. Walsh. The Maguires of Fermanagh. 
Bloud et Gay, Paris: • 

Journal d'un Opcier Prussien. Par H. de V. Stacpoole. De I'Yser A VArqonne, 
Par C. Daniilou. Le Clergi et les ctuvres de Guerre. Par J. B. Eriau. 
Sur la Tombe des Martyrs, Sur la Tombe des Hiros. Par L. MirmaOi 
Rhn^Mlle. Par C. Beriet. Benoit XV., La France and les Allies. Pamph- 
lets. Reliques Sacries. Fslt L. Colin. 
A. PiCARD & FiLS, Paris: 

La Haine de I'Allemagne Contre la Viriti. Par Monsignor C. Bellet. 
Perrin et Cife, Paris: 

La Suisse Pendant la Guerre. Par M. Turmann. 3 /r. so. 
EMiLft-PAUL, Freres, Paris: 

Les Traits ttemels de la France. Par M. Barris. Pamphlet, i fr. 2$. 



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Charles Phillips 463 

John La Farge, 'SJ, 464 

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William J. Kerby, Ph.D. 469 



national Law 
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How Bryden Became a Catholic 
The Strategists 
Another Door for Alaska 
Stoddard, Psalmist of the South Seas 
Organizing the Country for War 
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M. R. Ryan 506 

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Frank O'Hara, Ph.D. 517 

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Vol. CV. JULY, 191 7. No. 628. 

'OUR POETS IN THE STREETS. 

BY GEORGE NAUMAN SHUSTER. 

|R. GAMALIEL BRADFORD, in an essay on.the in- 
spiring life of General Lee, compares it with a poem. 
" Lee's career," he says, " has the breadth, the dig- 
nity, the round and full completeness of a Miltonic 

epic It was indeed a life lived in the grand 

style. Only in these days so few people care for poetry." It is a 
meaty remark and also a shrewd one. If people do not care for 
poetry there is little enough reason to suppose that they will lead 
poetic lives, and the inference may appropriately be reversed. For 
half a century the externals of America have seemed to indicate 
the passing of an ancient dream. The ideals of statesmanship 
have become self-interested and concrete; our heroes are the men 
of finance, and our worship, as expressed in the aims of the suc- 
cessful, is centred on a golden calf. In the reflected light of our 
satiety, poverty resembles a bizarre hiatus into which some of our 
surplus wealth can conveniently be thrown. Triton and his 
wreathed horn may still entrance the meadows, but they are very 
far away. All this is generally and even boastfully accepted. And 
yet books of verse were never so numerous or their writers so wel- 
come. The poets have come in from the fields to tramp the 
streets of men. In the jostling commonplaces of today, they tell 
us, are oases of honey and musk, for behind every human lattice 
are the eyes of a deathless soul. 

Copyright. 191 7. The Missionary Society op St. Paul the Apostle 
IN the State op New York. 

VOL. CV.-28 p.g.j.^^^ ^y Google 



434 OUR POETS IN THE STREETS [July, 

Song itself is woven of the spirit. It has a mystic and in- 
explicable quality, a something elemental as fire or the pigment 
of the sky. Good verse is, first of all, genuinely emotional and 
visionary. If the poet has not suffered with the fever of dreams, 
then he will write prose because he is a commentator and no com- 
ment can be poetry. There is even profound truth in the idea that 
minstrels should come in rags : for they are like harp-strings, bare 
to the winds of heaven and the secret whispers of men. Though 
they quiver with the philosophy of their time, the poets must ex- 
press something which is even closer to the heart of truth than 
thought — that tremendous harmony which joins a people's soul 
with its ultimate destiny. If they are not the Alpha and the Omega, 
then they are the rest of the alphabet set to stirring music. For 
these reasons there are vast differences in poetry, like the great 
hiatus between Homer and Goethe. Each race and age speaks for 
itself in the form which is most vital, and which springs to its lips 
as naturally as the mother-tongue. Is America dreaming an4 suffer- 
ing; is it quivering with divine sympathy, reaching out to the 
stars on a ladder of song? Around us whisper the unmistakable 
tremors of a national soul in travail, noises that are faint and 
searching as autumn winds in the streets. Vague misgfuided cur- 
rents of religious fervor thrill whole seas of people and unalterably 
swerve their courses. The unceasing flow of widows' mites going 
out in charity to the needy forms, so gracious a contrast to the 
blatant philanthropy of wealthy men. Below the surface of our 
garrulous existence lies an intense yearning for spiritual surety 
and consolation, an avenue of deathless and groping faith. If we 
have poets we shall expect them to find these things and sing of 
them. Perhaps their song will be new, with a strange rhythm and 
an attitude towards life which differs from what we have read 
before. But we have a right to demand that it be poetry. 

In the days when our national existence was more simple 
and earthy, we raised two very representative poets, Longfellow 
and Whitman, It has been customary, with the dogmatism of 
literary indexing, to term the latter the Singer of Democracy. 
In truth he was not democratic at all. He was a Homeric bar- 
barian, temperamentally almost a savage, who reveled in the divine 
freshness of life, and felt keenly the pulsations of creation. Na- 
ture's sinews were so vivid, lusty and beautiful for him that their 
splendor awed his spirit, but still he realizes more poignantly than 
any modem the superiority of his own being. So many of his 



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1917.] OUR POETS IN THE STREETS 435 

poems seem catalogues of the profesisions and smack of the populace, 
but their significance lies in the fact that Whitman quivered with 
the realization of " I " — he read himself, his dreams and personal 
vigor into the milkmaid and the mechanic. One may almost say 
that he kne^r nobody but himself, and had no acquaintance with' 
the public at all. That pagan recognition of the beauty of the hu- 
man body, the forma spiritus, which is his most vital contribution 
to thought, was utterly alien to the trades. The ultimate wonder 
for him was an appraisal of himself. For these reasons the com- 
mon people have never understood him and will have none of 
him. He was wild and they were simple. His songs, however 
crude or imperfect, mirrored the great zest of dawn. And the 
ordinary American was merely a hard-working Puritan, whose 
sole heritage to the beauty of the universe was a dim recollection 
of the living spirit of the Christian ages. Longfellow understood 
this ordinary American admirably. He sang of daily toil, the 
sweat and the rain; he stood with the artisan on the bridge at 
midnight, caressed his memories and whispered of his children and 
the dead. Moreover, he barkened back to those misty days of 
cast-off Catholicism, with their fiery, dreams of virginity and 
sainthood and war. His melodies were dim and shadowy as the 
recollections of his people; his philosophy that which stood with 
them in the harvest fields. For these reasons, he remains the 
great democratic poet, who sang of Americans as they sang and 
felt. They have loved him because he was theirs. 

Whitman and Longfellow belong to a time that is done. We 
have since discovered steel and riches. There have come problems 
of economics, vistas of material opportunity and gardens of luxury 
of which the New Englanders could not have dreamed. The strug- 
gle for daily bread has taken on a primitive ferocity that has all 
the demoniac clamor of war. Youth plunges from the traditions 
of the past to find itself utterly shelterless and without succor. 
Literally we cannot call our souls our own. They are tossed about 
seemingly, upon restless waves of ambition. Sometime we may get 
somewhere, but really we do not know when. At every crossroad 
stands some new deliverer with his theory, which is forgotten al- 
most as speedily as it was proclaimed. Never was such a hubbub 
of advice and hypothesis, never such a sounding of brass and gold. 
Yet everyone realizes that the crying need is for rescue and not 
speech. We have plenty of bread, but the land is hungry. Now 
the poets coming into the streets of today will be gti^re^ X!5!U^?^lc 



436 OUR POETS IN THE STREETS [July, 

tumult and the drama; the lyric delicacy of Blake is almost im- 
possible. The age has also entered upon a highway which will 
not permit of platitude or compromise. We will have none of the 
mantle of truth : he must come like a warrior, bare and stalwart. 

In all, I think it is a turgid era, so much like that of Dante. 
Evil is just as sordid and strong, and the attitude of our sincerest 
thought is patterned after his. Some of the ancient dragons have 
been reborn. We have finally remembered that the devil is not a 
perfect gentleman with an oily tongue, but that he remains, as al- 
ways, a monster that roars like a lion or, in metropolitan parlance, 
is accompanied by a brass band. Now Dante, if anything, was a 
poet. Some have denied him impartiality, philosophy and even 
art, but none dare assert that he was not a singer bom. Yet if he 
has a distinguishing quality, it is his glowing intimacy with the 
world around him. His pen dealt with the men he fought, the 
women he admired and the tyrants he was forced to obey. There 
was never any hesitancy in his satire, though he might deal with 
the lowest and the highest alike. He described, intrepidly, the 
gentlemen who lived next door. One of our essayists has Written 
suggestively of Dante and the Bowery, divining the probable 
thoughts of the Florentine were he alive today in New York. It 
is certain that the spectacle would have burned his spirit, for the 
triumph of Dante's art lay in the transfiguration of the common- 
place. He drew the features of the world against the eternal back- 
ground of God. This he was able to do because he was intensely 
spiritual himself. His belief was utterly devoid of compromise, 
and in the strength of his knowledge of the Infinite he carried the 
finite fearlessly into the bottom of hell or across the stars into 
heaven. 

It is quite evident that we have no Dante, and the first de- 
ficiency of our poets is evidently their lack of background and the 
ashen character of their faith. But there is also the simpler dif- 
ference of form. Our verse is gorged with the environment of 
today, scintillates with locale and is done up, sometimes, in very 
novel parcels. The surest way to poetic fame is apparently to stand 
on one's head and talk backward. While the primitive philosophy 
of Whitman was never so out of place as now, in the detail 
of barbaric measures he has simply been outdone. Of course there 
is no sense in belittling a poet because his rhyme-scheme is odd. In 
itself the idea of free-verse is sane. For myself, I believe that the 
bread-line is not of a sonnet's texture, nor the gyrations of a speed- ^ 

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1917.] OUR POETS IN THE STREETS 437 

ing airship food for a quatrain. There is a different melody in 
these things, and if we wish to express them genuinely we must 
learn their tongues. The Village Blacksmith was civilized 
enough for a ballad, but the craftsmen of today rush onward with 
the outcries of a savage horde. Unclassical metres are not even 
new. So mystic a poet as Coventry Patmore is quite unrestricted 
in rhythm, and the intensely spiritual verse of Paul Qaudel is 
thoroughly unconventional in structure. Time was when Shake- 
speare's blank verse was shockingly new. The melody is eternally 
superior to the measure. Naturally vers libre has provided excuse 
for unutterable inanity. There is Miss Lowell, who writes prose 
about it like an hysterical Indian, and there is Mr. Henry B. 
Fuller, who serves cutlets of ingeniously varied lengths from the 
most insipid journalism. Schools of Verticalists have joined with 
Horizontalists against the Vortacists and Convexicists. The four 
wheels of the prophet Ezechiel have been revived, and no waste of 
paper is appalling enough to stop them. Even so, we should con- 
cede cheerfully the possibilities of new rhythms, if they are em- 
ployed by a poet and not merely by a printing press. 

However, we are chiefly concerned with the sharp cleft be- 
tween the vision of Dante and the outlook of today. While ex- 
ternally the city may form a succession of markets, with an endless 
host of venders screaming forth their wares, it is also something 
more. It is a bazaar of fancies, emotions and philosophies — a 
stage on which there are as many comedies and tragedies as there 
are personalities. Moreover, one will find the same unity of pur- 
pose, the same striving for clarity and peaceful success as in the 
more material embroglio. The poets, coming into the avenues, 
will take their stand with one or the other, for their only mis- 
sion in life is the prof erring of ideals. The outstanding bulk of 
American thought is undoubtedly material, and has naturally se- 
cured the largest advertising. The poets who have frankly swum 
with the age and the earthy philosophy which it absorbed from 
nineteenth century science, are the best paid and the most widely 
read. People are naturally more alive to the sensational than 
to the sensitive. They absorb this poetry for the shocks it pro- 
vides or the style of its clothing. Absolutely bald and sallow there 
is no reason why the poets are singing or why they are devising 
metres. Coventry Patmore, in Rod, Root and Flozver, suggests 
that the singer as a harbinger of life to the soul is more important 
than the statesman. It could scarcely be said of any of our re- 

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438 OUR POETS IN THE STREETS [July, 

nowned versifiers that he is necessary or that we would dispense 
with even senators for his sake. 

The most alluring example of this nouveau American is ob- 
viously Mr. Edgar Lee Masters, creator of The Spoon River An- 
thology, A new form of irregular blank-verse was here employed 
to tell a kind of washerwoman's story of the neighbors who were 
buried in the village cemetery. Mr. Masters was interested in 
" destinies obscure," but with a novel purpose. He constructed an 
Inferno of mean, stinted and overfed American rustics, so that by 
walking amid the sulphurous shapes he might prove beyond a doubt 
that epitaphs are untruthful. The venture was eminently success- 
ful. The men and women of his book sputter out in c)mical gusts 
of smoke, leaving behind a stale odor like that of burnt tallow. 
Every type of villager drags out the dingy skeleton from the closet 
and lectures on it, with the insinuation that his dwelling has been 
little else but the closet. From the standpoint of form this work 
is negligible. The old sketch which dealt after the manner of 
Balzac with the spume of existence was not salable, and Mr. 
Masters was simply shrewd enough to chop it into palatable lines. 
We concede that his impressions are powerful, that Spoon River 
is a definite locality, and that humanity lives round us with all 
the deplorable meannesses of Mr. So-and-So of Kansas. But what 
is the meaning of it ? Does the book bum with fiery hate for the 
things which have filled hell ? Not a whit of it. Masters mouths 
the loathsome platitude that " such is life " — ^a condition we may 
shrug our shoulders at, curse if we feel so inclined, but which after 
all is as permanent and stupid as an ox. Unmistakably it is 
anatomy, vivid and impressive, but still limited to stenches and 
bones, and preaching what is the most obvious of platitudes, the 
existence of the ugly and wicked. The repulsive atmosphere may 
sicken us, but it constitutes the sole aura of thousands who hope 
faintly that Pasteurized milk and electricity will some day better 
things. The soul is dead not only for many men, but what is far 
worse in many men. 

The other distinctly modem verse-school prides itself on a 
superibrity of intellect. Here is the goodly company of John Gould 
Fletchers and Amy Lowells, persons who have enshrined their 
utterances in a sort of scientific and dispassionate thought-halo. 
They have learned that night is not " a sable goddess on her ebon 
throne," but a simple phenomenon due to the tuming of the earth 
on its axis. Modesty is termed a " sex-reaction *' and the soul an 

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1917] OUR POETS IN THE STREETS 439 

ether. All the familiar faiths and emotions of common life have 
been abandoned; since the definiteness of modem astronomy makes 
the idea of God un-Miltonic, God has no place in the heavens. 
Poetry has come to resemble a mechanical athlete who throws shin- 
ing stones from a nicely fashioned sling. These people write with 
the effect of rubber tires on a smooth pavement : their verse has all 
the luxury and barrenness of a motor-car. 

Nothing is more noticeable than their disposition to haunt the 
childlike. Desiring so much to express themselves in the manner 
of babes and sucklings, they become martinet-infants as gray- 
bearded as Methuselah. Take, for instance, a rather fine simile 
from a rather striking book, Mr. Carl Sandberg's Chicago Poems. 
He likens the night stealing over the darkened city to a cat slink- 
ing along on padded toes. This is all vivid enough, but alas it is 
presumed to be boyish. No such idea has appealed to a normal 
and rightly-constructed child since the birth of Abel. No boy 
would compare the awful mystery of the dark to a household pet, 
but in the clarity of his tmspoiled vision would fancy himself alone 
in a dismal cavern, where the majestic ogre of the night was raising 
his hand and closing the entrances; he would think of a ship 
over which the eternal and impenetrable waves are folding. In 
other words he would possess the ancient and salutary sense of 
proportion which is inherent in all humanity. The powers of na- 
ture are mysterious adumbrations of the might of God, before 
Whom man is but a moment. Nothing displays the intrinsic in- 
fidelity of the modem school better than their confusion of such 
eternal values. They have not made a single poem which could be 
sung or even happily quoted. Charred with a philosophic outlook 
which was always dead, their native brilliance cannot preserve them 
more than a day. 

After we have done with a score of such volumes, polyphonic, 
irregular and scintillant as so many jewels, we are apt to wonder 
in despair what the trouble really is. Perhaps we should like to 
revert to Bliss Carman's April Airs or to a blessed verse by Qinton 
Scollard, but we have put theiti out of our minds;* theirs is the 
peace of yesterday, and what we are concemed with now is the 
streets and the general tumult of today. The verse which is termed 
most representative of the modern epoch is so vapid that one, read- 
ing it alone, might well conclude a draught of American life to be 
like absinthe or heroin. It reveals no more soul or light in the crest 
of America's onrush than there was in the march of Attila. Mas- 



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440 OUR POETS IN THE STREETS [July, 

ters, for example, sketches the life of the masses in hues of the 
desert, unbelievably parched and sterile, stirred only by siroccos of 
lust. No one conversant with American life will deny that in their 
measure they are true interpreters. Our people lack religious vision. 
They have been nursed on Puritan tracts and suckled with Metho- 
dist tea, a diet which has proven very weak. Men have lost their 
faith because they were weaned from it so gradually that the 
process escaped them. There is nothing new in sin, and re- 
pentance is as old and beautiful as the sunset on the wind-swept 
sands of the sea. We are not appalled at our vices : we are over- 
whelmed by the absence of our virtues. 

William James has said that education is the knack of dis-. 
covering ** a thing well done," and poetry ought to be considered 
a good religious education. Americans have been reared on the 
hollow theory that goodness is a passive whiteness: a matter of 
going round the wine-cup rather than of going up and challenging 
it to mortal combat. Virtue consists for them in keeping the peace 
because war would inevitably be disastrous. Quite naturally effi- 
ciency has become a more powerful aid to righteousness than 
religious conviction. If a man's soul is a kind of brute steel 
which he must temper in the fear of eternal damnation, he will 
forget his soul as quickly as he forgets damnation. We have suc- 
ceeded in doing this rather thoroughly, because we have discovered 
the heaven of material success. If a man has something to fight 
for, he will forget the invisible enemy he has to meet on a dis- 
tant field. Consequently the desirability of bodily and also ethical 
health has enforced the natural law. Professors urge youth to 
chastity because disease is ruinous ; to abstinence because drunken- 
ness is a preparation for failure ; to restraint, because anger leads 
to ostracism. In short we have forgotten that our souls are worth 
saving and inevitably have forgotten our souls. Mr. Edison has 
usurped the pulpit of Cotton Mather. There remained but one 
step, and it was taken recently by a certain fat and prosperous 
ten-cent dealer who gave a fortune to temperance movements, be- 
cause "they helped his business." 

Obviously nothing is more certain than the ultimate hollow- 
ness of such matter-idolatry. Crushed or cramped though the soul 
may become, its vitality is profoundly restless as the sea. Puri- 
tanism has withered because it never bloomed, but the soil is ripe 
for a new spiritual revolt. Men may follow diverse mystic paths 
for a while, or they may ally themselves with the gloomy cult 

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1917.] OUR POETS IN THE STREETS 441 

of agnosticism. That is the burden of the future. As Catholics 
we rely on the divine maxim that the loss of life is but its finding, 
and know that however tense the struggle may become, there will 
be no victory like unto ours. Faith is entering an apostolate that 
has discarded all passivity, and carries the cross in the militant 
form of the sword. Not all the biology and nostalgic deduction 
of the evolutionary savant can put it down, and the poets who 
have not thrilled with the marshaling of its hosts are as dead 
as if they had never lived. The skill of all the poetic laboratories, 
of which we have so many, cannot juggle life out of the clay 
of words. 

But American verse is infinitely better than this. There are 
poets who have come into the streets and absorbed a philosophy 
which is distinctly modem, and may in an offhand way be likened 
to a mixture of Tolstoy and O. Henry. One finds in their verse 
a little of the mystic longing for brotherhood and a little of whim- 
sical interest in the picturesque. Some of it is very good and 
noble. However much Mr. James Oppenheim's "bahs" and 
" ahs," or his unhappy fondness for Scriptural phraseology may 
annoy us, he remains a man of tensely wrought soul who is exalted 
and conscientious. His writing is frequently visionary and im- 
pressive enough to make us re-read him with fondness. The same 
may be said of Margaret Widdemer and Witter Bynner, two of 
the best known "poets of the people." Unfortunately they are 
victims of a mirage which may be explained most satisfactorily, 
perhaps, by analogy. A forest with the sky overhead is a thing 
of infinite beauty, a temple to enter and emerge refreshed. Yet, 
when men have dwelt in the shade too much, when the sky has 
been forgotten and the awful mystery of the leaves transmuted 
into reality, there appears the savage. No octave is completer than 
the range from wild to woodland. In these days we have not so 
many forests of trees, but quite a number of human jungles. Un- 
less a man be fortified, he can enter them too and forget the sky. 
He can become so absorbed in his fellowman that he will actually 
forget God. A great number of our most sincere poets, it seems 
to me, have undergone just this experience. The multitudes trudge 
along the highways so dramatically, tragically and dumbly that the 
singers would cry out for it in a voice that breaks all bounds. St. 
Philip Neri must have felt thus when thinking with God. But, 
alas, mankind is not the Infinite, nor have our poets been muscular 
enough. They have overlooked some of the essential things. TheLi^ 

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442 OUR POETS IN THE STREETS [July, 

people are not tragic at all : any anarchist will admit that. A song 
about hunger is apt to make them yawn, and they are tremendously 
more interested in vaudeville. The great stillness of humanity 
is not a fifth act in Ibsen; it is the pressure of sleep. Still, the 
poets who have pitched their songs in the key of toil and desti- 
tution are eminently worthy of admiration. For charity is a 
great virtue. 

But the dawn has come, and the singers who have rushed to- 
wards it must remain the masters. First is that remarkable poet, 
Mr. Vachel Lindsay. He is not a Catholic by any means, but yet 
a spiritual searcher as genuine as Socrates, and perhaps the greatest 
of contemporary writers. When I began the Congo and Other 
Poents it was with a sort of whimsical interest in their reputed 
oddity, but I found the fervor and ecstasy of Whitman, together 
with a boyish enthusiasm, that spent itself in brotherhood. He 
is surely the only child-like poet whom the new school has pro- 
duced. When so much verse was being dictated by theories which 
might have spun themselves in the foggy brain of a modem science 
professor, he flung open the dusty classroom. Poetry is song, 
and song is of the soul. If the professor denied the soul, the only 
thing for a real poet like Lindsay to do was to bid him farewell. 
Thank God that he did so, for there is no one who has passed 
the American spirit on the comers or in the fields with such 
ecstatic recognition. The rhythm of the Congo is new but also 
very vital. There may be something of the mountebank or the 
revivalist about him, but the ordinary American happens to be a 
little of both. We should sympathize heartily with such poetry, 
for in it like the seeds of a great harvest are hidden the things of 
the future. 

Very much of the same longing for faith surges in the totally 
diflferent and frugal lyrics of Robert Frost. This unique figure 
has arisen on what is surely the most barren soil in all the world, 
modem New England. Nature has somehow been bared to the 
stones, and the humanity living on them blends with the treeless 
hills. It is the Puritan philosophy brought to its fulfillment. Frost 
sings of the slow steps of winter, naked trees and wordless men. 
The want of color and incident gives his verse a startling reality, 
a sensation of drought or famine. And yet there is more in him 
than the hopelessness of Protestantism, or the wanderings of 
homeless men. One finds always a verve for discovery, a lust 
for fresher paths and a dissatisfaction with faiths that are built 

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1917.] OUR POETS IN THE STREETS 443 

of glass. Such poets are looking forward to something which is 
yet beyond them, like a rising sun, but whose ultimate appearance 
is just as certain and just as eagerly awaited. 

Then there is the cruder verse of John G. Neihardt, and the 
dying Puritan bloom of so many fine poets like Dana Burnet, 
Henry Van Dyke, and the best of all, Bliss Carman. The reverent 
lyrics of so many women like Sara Teasdale, Josephine Preston 
Peabody and Mrs. Dargan are alike beautiful and genuinely 
spiritual. About all of these poets hovers the charm of Puritan 
reticence and virginity of thought. Remote from jarring modernity, 
they will not cast off the memories of faith, but instead look for- 
ward to their reincarnation. Like so many of the older poets, Long- 
fellow and Lanier, for instance, they have unconsciously drifted 
away from the corridors of Protestantism into fields which are 
destined for the bloom of an older and brighter belief. For hearts 
so ready for the Grail, discovery is certain and victory more than 
a hope. 

American verse thrills with sublime hunger, although the 
wares of Calvinism are wasted and bitter. C)micism walks the 
streets, but in the crowd of buoyant spirits seems after all quite 
alone. Realizing the growing intensity of the Catholic appeal, we 
turn to our own poets a little anxiously. Have they been able 
to enfold this giant yearning of a whole people? Fortunately 
there is no need of apology for our verse : it is a matter of par- 
donable pride. The writers are an heroic army that has been 
mustered in slowly. Father Ryan, for all that he lacked in technique 
and range, was one of the truest of American singers, and The 
Valley of Silence is likely to remain our clearest vision of the medi- 
tative ideal. Then there is the beloved Father Tabb, whose lyrics 
stir the soul like the breath of Saints : miniatures of infinity, one 
may almost call them. And in the newer era, Catholicism is wit- 
nessing an outburst of song quite equal to its opportunity. Joyce 
Kilmer, Thomas Daly and Thomas Walsh are a splendid trinity of 
melody. Mr. Walsh sees the turrets of Christian beauty, and Mr. 
Daly the doorstep. If we concede to Mr. Kilmer the primal place, 
it is solely because of his universality and art. We are listening 
also to Father O'Donnell, to whom the spirit of Francis Thompson 
bequeathed some of its passion and all of its piety, and to Father 
Earls whose lyrics are vistas of holy peace. With sure and clear 
faith these, too, have entered the marketplace, fearless of the din 
and stanch as the crusaders we should like them to be. Perhaps 

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444 OUR POETS IN THE STREETS [July, 

there is less of the throng in their verse than one finds in the 
other poets, but certainly there is more of God. What is most 
noticeaWe in our verse is perhaps its recovery of the virtues. The 
quivering delight oT humility which Joyce Kilmer has expressed 
in those lines, 

Poems are made by fools like me 

But only God can make a tree, 

the new vision of forgiveness which Father O'Donnell has voiced 
in his best poem, and the sunshine of toil that beautifies so many 
of the poems of Thomas Daly and Father Earls, possess a fragrance 
quite distinct and lasting. As yet we miss the great leader; but 
then the conflict is only beginning, and the waxing need of the 
struggle holds many things unborn. 

Daily the surge of song in the streets is drawing the attention 
of the people. The poets are exchanging visions, faiths and dreams 
with a sincerity and fervor so intense that the world is catching 
fire. We have no Dante, and perhaps no man of his stature will 
be seen. I think that American verse will always be choral, par- 
taking of the democratic nature of its environment. Faith will 
parade the avenues, and parades are not constituted of kings but 
of armies. It may be that song will become so universal that its 
very commonness will preclude the extraordinary. Opera music is 
written for the stage, but church hymns were composed for all. 
Sometimes one is shocked to read something which voices a hope 
that paper will become scarce enough to prevent would-be poets 
from sending epics to the nervous publishers. For myself, I 
should like to think that everyone was a poet, writing because 
he was driven to it by a glimpse of beauty. If every tired man in 
the cars sat scribbling, it would be almost a tearfully beautiful 
spectacle. John rhyming " heart *' and " smart '* to Carlotta his 
wife, because he believed in Carlotta, the girl in the corner sing- 
ing to Mary because she believed in Mary ; the old man dreaming 
over his dinner-pail of death because he believed in death: surely 
this would be sufficient to compensate even for Dante. Schiller, 
in a great line, complained of " Was uns alle bandigt, das Gemeine," 
but the American vision is different. We tremble with the mystery 
of the smallest tear, and delight in the ecstasy of the quiet laugh. 
All of us are of the community and we long fervently to rise to- 
gether. Speech is the most ordinary of things and yet there are 
orators; soldiers are drawn up in column, but they have generals. 

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19^7] OUR POETS IN THE STREETS 445 

Why should not poetry partake of this glowing universality? I 
believe that the dream of American poetry in its finest moods 
is just this, that men groping for faith together and finding it, 
should have charity enough to scatter the treasure abroad in flights 
of song. 

Of course the possibility of all this is bound up with the suc- 
cess of the Catholic spirit. When every creed that has withstood 
it lies broken in the dust, the resurrection of the Church is the 
coming of dawn. Protestantism subsisted because it had borrowed 
sufficient vitality to meet the demands of a past age in some 
measure, but like a nursling it must perish in the merciless war- 
fare of today. The fight now is against the tyranny of matter 
which has settled like an c^ressive burden on the shoulders of 
man. The victory is still very far oflF. There will be wars without 
number, attended with bitterness and misunderstanding quite in- 
conceivable. Though the doctrines of Luther and Calvin be rags 
from which the spirit has departed, thousands will huddle in the 
cerements and refuse to believe that the Saviour is not there. Other 
thousands will continue to content themselves with the body and 
the things gold can obtain for it. The slumber of man may deepen 
so much that the trumpets of all the angels cannot shake it oflF. 
But America is dreaming and suflFering. The people who have met 
life with so much patience, sacrifice and uprightness will demand 
food for their souls as well as for their bodies. After all the poets 
are convinced that the stock exchange is but a hut of straw, and 
that some morning a torch may waste it into ashes. The timid 
altars in the marketplaces will glow finally in the presence of 
Truth. At all events we believe and strive that the touching of 
flames in the streets will kindle a great sunrise, and that the cadence 
of gathering song will greet it like the ceremonials of a death- 
less sacrament. 



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THE ART OF CONTROVERSY: MACAULAY, HUXLEY AND 

NEWMAN. 

BY CECIL CHESTERTON. 

I HE critical treatment of the art of controversy simply 
as an art has been seriously neglected. I suppose 
the reason is that it is the very aim of the contro- 
versialist to distract attention from his art and con- 
centrate it on his object. The stupid phrase " art for 
art's sake" (which is either the tamest of truisms or an extrava- 
gant absurdity) can hardly be applied by the most audacious to the 
art of controversy in the sense that some have attempted to apply 
it to the plastic arts. Controversy is not conducted for contro- 
versy's sake; it is conducted for truth's sake, or at least victory's 
sake. Even those who think that Raphael painted his Madonnas 
" for art's sake " and not for the sake of the Mother of God, even 
those who maintain that Velasquez in painting Philip II. — or for that 
matter Whistler himself in painting Carlyle — cared nothing for 
the personality of their subjects, and regarded them only as arrange- 
ments, will hardly go so far as to say that Swift did not care 
whether " Wood's Halfpence " were withdrawn or that Strafford 
did not care whether his head was cut off. Yet who will deny 
the title of the Drapier Letters or of Strafford's speech on his im- 
peachment to be considered masterpieces of art? 

Yet controversy, like any other art, can be considered from 
the purely artistic standpoint and its technical quality analyzed 
without reference to the rightness or wrongness of its aim. This 
is the obvious truism on which the aesthetic sophistry is raised. 
A good shot is a good shot, and if you are a technical judge of 
shooting you will judge impartially of the technical excellence of 
the shot whether it is fired by a patriot at his country's enemies or by 
a murderer at his wealthy uncle. It is hardly necessary to add that 
this does not mean — as the protagonists of the unmorality of art 
seem to suppose — that it does not matter whether you shoot your 
country's enemies or your uncle. 

The object of controversy is, of course, to impress a certain 
conviction upon the minds of your readers or hearers. Yet all 
writing that seeks this end is not necessarily controversy. Many 



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1917] THE ART OF CONTROVERSY 447 

great didactic writers were indifferent to the art of controversy, 
or when they attempted it failed completely. Caflyle was such a 
man; so was Ruskin. These great men preached — and pf cached 
most powerfully — ^but they preached to congregations. They did 
not debate with others; if either of them attempted to do so he 
failed lamentably. Exposition and the moving of men by rhetoric 
was the direction of their genius, not controversy. Carlyle was 
a greater man than Macaulay and has influenced the age far more 
profoundly, but had he engaged in controversy with Macaulay he 
would have been badly worsted. Many will say — ^though I cer- 
tainly shall not — that Ruskin was a greater man than Huxley, 
but no one can think that Ruskin could have debated with Huxley 
for ten minutes. The lamentable fate of Charles Kingsley over the 
Apologia affair may stand as a permanent warning to the eloquent, 
persuasive, imaginative, enthusiastic preacher not to allow himself 
to engage in battle with a genuine controversial genius. 

An analogy might be drawn between the relation of contro- 
versy to pure didactics and the relation of war to politics. The 
ultimate aim of controversy is to produce conviction, as the natural 
object of war is to produce a political effect, to impose the will 
of one country on another. But in each case there is an immediate 
object without which the ultimate object cannot be achieved; 
and this object is the elimination of the opposing army or the 
opposing controversialist. To render the position of a controversial 
opponent untenable, to force him into self-contradiction or into 
withdrawal, and to leave on the mind of the balanced reader the 
impression that his particular line of objection has ceased to exist — 
this is what the controversialist aims at; his success in this is the 
measure of his technical skill. 

The three nineteenth century names which I have already men- 
tioned, as those of controversial experts, may well serve to illus- 
trate the difference in effectiveness of various controversial 
methods. For each had his own special technique, which should 
be studied by those who wish to know how controversial victories 
are won, as carefully as the campaign of great commanders are 
studied by men who wish to be proficient in military strategy. 

The case of Macaulay is the most interesting, because it illus- 
trates very well the distinction which. I have drawn between the 
immediate and ultimate end of controversy. In the ultimate end 
Macaulay, of course, fails. He does not convince us, even if he 
convinced his contemporaries, that the curious Whig version of 

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448 THE ART OF CONTROVERSY [July, 

history and politics which he preached so picturesquely is valid. 
Events have gone against him: his political creed has become in- 
credible. But it is a gross injustice to allow that to blind us to 
the fact that he showed extraordinary genius as a controversialist 
in maintaining it. Nay, the very fact that he was so often in the 
wrong throws his ability as a controversialist into higher relief. 
Take, for instance, his attacks upon Southey's Colloquies on So- 
ciology. 

On the main points at issue, the evil effects of the indus- 
trial system upon the poor, the urgent necessity of a strong na- 
tional government, the need of a common religion if a community 
is to be happy and secure, Southey was certainly in the right, 
Macaulay as certainly in the wrong. But it is not less certain 
that in the actual controversy Macaulay is the victor and Southey 
the vanquished. To deny this because Southey's view has been 
found ultimately more true to the needs of men, would be as absurd 
as to deny the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo because the French 
are not now ruled by the Bourbons. 

If we try to examine the special quality in Macaulay 's effec- 
tiveness in controversy we shall find, I think, that it consists very 
largely in the cumulative effect of a rapid repetition of Mows, 
delivered successively at the same point and each a little heavier 
than the last. These things can best be illustrated by quotation, 
and I will take first a passage, not especially controversial, but il- 
lustrating the literary method which the process involves. It is all 
the better in that — like all that Macaulay wrote on matters outside 
the purview of an English Whig — it is full of insular crudities, 
and quite misses the view of those whom he is criticizing. It is 
from his essay on Mirabeau, and is concerned with monarchical 
France before the Revolution and with Fenelon's importance as 
a figure therein. 

The fundamental principle of Fenclon's political morality, 
the tests by which he judged of institutions and of men, were 
absolutely new to his countrymen. He had taught them, indeed, 
with the happiest effect to his royal pupil. But how incom- 
prehensible they were to most people we learn from St. Simon. 
That amusing writer tells us, as a thing almost incredible, that 
the Duke of Burgundy declared it to be his opinion that kings 
existed for the good of the people, and not the people for the 
good of kings. St. Simon is delighted with the benevolence 
of this saying; but startled by its novelty and terrified^by its 

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1917.] THE ART OF CONTROVERSY 449 

boldness. Indeed, he distinctly says that it was not safe to 
repeat the sentiment in the court of Louis. St. Simon was, of 
all the members of that court, the least courtly. He was as 
nearly an oppositionist as any man of his time. His disposi- 
tion was proud, bitter and cynical. In religion he was a 
Jansenist; in politics, a less hearty royalist than most of his 
neighbors. His opinions and his temper had preserved him 
from the illusions which the demeanor of Louis produced on 
others. He neither loved nor respected the King. Yet even 
this man — one of the most liberal men in France — ^was struck 
dumb with astonishment at hearing the fundamental axiom of 
all government expounded — an axiom which, in our time, no- 
body in England or France would dispute — ^which the stoutest 
Tory takes for granted as much as the fiercest Radical, and con- 
cerning which the Carlist would agree with the most republican 
deputy of the "extreme left." No person will do justice to 
Fenelon, who does not constantly keep in mind that Telemachus 
was written in an age and nation in which bold and independent 
thinkers stared to hear that twenty millions of human beings 
did not exist for the gratification of one. 

Now note the eflFect of what I have called the cumulative 
method in this passage. Every restatement is a little stronger than 
the last. St. Simon is at first " of all the members of that court 
the least courtly," and " as nearly an oppositionist as any man of 
his time." Then a definite statement is made about him : " He 
neither loved nor respected the King." Then he becomes " one of 
the most liberal men in France," and, finally, in the last sentence, 
not only is his liberality more emphatically stated, but his single 
person is transformed into the plural number and we hear of " bold 
and independent thinkers " staring and so on. A similar crescendo 
is observable in the description of the degree of his astonishment 
at the sentiment; while the sentiment itself, expressed in the first 
sentence in general terms, is at the end paraphased and thrown 
at the reader's head in its most concrete and violent form. The 
effect is superb. 

And now to consider the use of this method in the particular 
case of controversy, turn to Macaulay's famous essay on Bacon, 
and especially to the passage where Macaulay is answering the 
excuses put forward by Lord Verulam's biographer for the phil- 
osopher's treachery to his friend and benefactor. Lord Essex. 



VOL. 



In order to get rid of the charge of ingratitude Mr. Montagu _t 

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4SO THE ART OF CONTROVERSY [July, 

attempts to show that Bacon lay under greater obligations to 
the Queen than to Essex. What these obligations were it is 
not easy to discover. The situation of Queen's Counsel, and 
a remote reversion, were surely favors very far below Bacon's 
personal and hereditary claims. They were favors which had 
not cost the Queen a groat, nor had they put a groat into 
Bacon's purse. It was necessary to rest Elizabeth's claims to 
gratitude on some other ground; and this Mr. Montagu felt. 
" What perhaps was her greatest kindness," says he, " instead 
of having hastily advanced Bacon she had, with a continuance 
of her friendship, made him bear the yoke in his youth. Such 
were his obligations to Elizabeth." 

Such indeed they were. Being the son of one of her old- 
est and most faithful Ministers, being himself the ablest and 
most accomplished young man of his time, he had been con- 
demned by her to drudgery, to obscurity, to poverty. She had 
depreciated his requirements. She had checked him in the 
most imperious manner when in Parliament he ventured to act 
an independent part. She had refused to him the position to 
which he had a just claim. To her it was owing that, while 
younger men, not superior to him in extraction, and far in- 
ferior to him in every kind of personal merit, were filling the 
highest offices of the State, adding manor to manor, rearing 
palace after palace, he was lying at a sponging-house for a debt 
of three hundred pounds. Assuredly if Bacon owed gratitude 
to Elizabeth, he owed none to Essex. If the Queen really was 
his best friend, the Earl was his worst enemy. We wonder 
that Mr. Montagu did not press this argument a little further. 
He might have maintained that Bacon was excusable in re- 
venging himself on a man who had attempted to rescue his 
youth from the salutary yoke imposed on it by the Queen, who 
had wished to advance him hastily, who, not content with at- 
tempting to inflict the Attorney-Generalship upon him, had been 
so cruel as to present him with a landed estate. 



There you will find the same method but applied with a direct 
controversial object. He begins by approaching his opponent's 
argument quietly and with a certain respect as if he were going 
to treat it seriously. Then he proceeds to exhibit it, first in his 
opponent's own words, then in words a little stronger and touched 
with irony. Finally he hacks at it with energy and flings it away, 
throwing after it, as one throws a stone, the derisive anger of the 
last sentence. ^ ^ , 

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1917.] THE ART OF CONTROVERSY 451 

That is the method of Macaulay. 

Huxley brought to the art of controversy a far greater brain 
than Macaulay's and an infinitely wider outlook. Yet his method 
is Macaulay's — though with a difference that will be presently 
noted. It is not difficult to pick out from all his controversial 
essays passages which in everything but the literary style (which, 
of course, is far more lucid and restrained) resemble the passages 
I have quoted from Macaulay. For example, in the essay called 
The Lights of Christianity and the Lights of Science, he quotes 
a strange religious controversialist who from the calculation of 
the lives of the various early patriarchs draws the conclusion that 
" the account which Moses gives of the Temptation and the Fall 
passed through no more than four hands between him and Adam ! " 
Here is Huxley's comment (one quotes, naturally, not in approval 
of his opinions, but as an example of his controversial method) : 

If the " trustworthiness of our Lord Jesus Christ " is to 
stand or fall with the belief in the sudden transmutation of 
the chemical contents of a woman's body into sodium chloride, 
or on the admitted reality of Jonah's ejection, safe and sound, 
on the shores of the Levant, after three days sea-journey in 
the stomach of a gigantic marine animal, what positive pretext 
can there be of hinting a doubt as to the precise truth of the 
longevity of the Patriarchs? Who that has swallowed the 
camel of Jonah's journey will be guilty of the affection of 
straining at such an historical gnat — nay, midge — as the sup- 
position that the mother of Moses was told the story of the 
Flood by Jacob ; who had it straight from Shem ; who was on 
friendly terms with St. James; who knew Adam quite well? 

In another essay, where he is quoting (with approval) New- 
man's argument that the miracles of the Church are as easy to 
believe in as those of Scripture, the death of Arius after the 
Bishop's prayers to " take him away," is mentioned at first simply 
as the " death of Arius," then as his death *' in the midst of his 
deadly, if prayerful, enemies," and finally, as the "miraculous 
slaying of the man who fell short of the Athanasian power of 
affirming contradictions." This is the very manner of Macaulay 
in his best combative form. 

Yet an immense gulf separates Huxley from Macaulay, and 
that gulf is due less to a difference of method than to the difference 
between the moral and mental make-up. Huxley ardently loved 

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452 THE ART OF CONTROVERSY [July, 

and desired the truth — simply because it was the truth. This love 
and hunger for truth, for truth's sake was not only not among 
Macaulay's many admirable qualities, but was almost in so many 
words repudiated by him. The latter part of his essay on Bacon 
is practically a plea for not caring about truth unless it happens 
to be of immediate use to mankind. The effect of this difference 
upon their methods is very noticeable. Macaulay is fighting only 
for immediate victory. H^ looks for the weakest point in his op- 
ponent's armor and hammers at it. He does not care much if a 
hundred strong points remain unanswered. For his aim is simply 
to defeat his enemy, for he knows that the effect of his defeat is 
produced if only on one point the opposing pleader is entirely 
routed. So again he is not much concerned if the counter-theory 
he sets up is weak and untenable. If you look at his reply to Glad- 
stone, for instance, you will feel at once the contrast between the 
keenness with which he fastens on and demolishes the weak ele- 
ments of Gladstone's theory and the easily assailable structure 
of the counter-theory he attempts to erect in its place. 

Very different is the method of Huxley in controversy (by 
a curious coincidence) with the same man more than half a cen- 
tury later. His aim is not merely to set up a trophy but to 
conquer a province. Therefore, he is not content while a single 
strong point in his opponent's case remains unanswered or a single 
weak point in his own imdefended. He attacks the weak points 
of the other side as mercilessly and as successfully as ever Ma- 
caulay did. But he engages his enemy all along the line; he is not 
content while a single position remains unreduced. He even, in 
his controversy with Gladstone, suggests objections that he may 
rebut them, so anxious is he that no loophole for escape should 
remain. He wants his victory to be not only conspicuous but final. 

He was fond of attributing (it was his one permanent illusion) 
this characteristic of his to his pre-occupation with physical science. 
He was wildly wrong. It was due to a care for the final truth 
of things, which is a native quality of the mind and has no more 
to do directly with biology than with coal-mining. Aquinas had 
it before physical science (in the modern sense) existed. Newman 
had it, though his studies had lain in an entirely different direction. 
On the other hand, some of Huxley's scientific colleagues (Haeckel, 
for instance) conspicuously lacked it and argued as unfairly as 
ever Macaulay did, though far less ably. 

When we turn to the third name I have mentioned we find 

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1917.] THE ART OF CONTROVERSY 453 

ourselves suddenly confronted with an entirely new mode of con- 
troversy, so original and so wonderfully successful that it deserves 
more attention than it seems to have received from writers of 
criticisms and appreciations of Newman. 

Continuing the military metaphor which I have used — ^mis- 
leading, no doubt, in many points but not without its value — I 
might say that the difference between Newman and almost all other 
controversialists is that he is not only a tactician but a strategist. 
Macaulay, as I have said, tries to break his opponent's line. 
Huxley tries to defeat him all along the line. In Newman alone 
do you find an elaborate series of operations, patiently worked 
out without reference to the temptation of immediate " scoring," 
and intended to end, so to speak, in the surrounding and oblitera- 
tion of the enemy. He also seems to look past the battle to the 
campaign. 

It is of the very nature of this method that it cannot be shown, 
as I have tried to show the method of Macaulay, by quotation. The 
ultimate blow when it comes is indeed as smashing or more smash- 
ing than the most vigorous strokes delivered by Huxley and Ma- 
caulay, but it has always been carefully prepared, and its force 
really depends upon that preparation. 

The best way in which I can illustrate the method I am trying 
to describe, will perhaps be to take a particular example and follow 
it out in some detail. 

The third of Newman's lectures on The Present Position of 
Catholics in England is devoted to showing the true nature of 
the traditions upon which Protestant condemnation of the Catholic 
religion rests, and the flimsy and unreal character of their historical 
foundation. To this end he takes three instances, with only one 
of which I am at the present moment concerned. 

The historian Hallam, in his View of the State of Europe 
during the Middle Ages, had remarked that " in the very best view 
that can be taken of monasteries their existence is deeply injurious 
to the general morals of the nation," since " under their influence 
men of the highest character fell implicitly into the snares of crafty 
priests, who made submission to the Church not only the condition 
but the measure of all praise." And to illustrate the fact he pro- 
ceeds: 

He is a good Christian [says St. Eligius, a saint of the 
seventh century] who comes frequently to church, who presents 
an oblation that it may be offered to God on the altar; who 

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454 THE ART OF CONTROVERSY [July, 

does not taste the fruits of his land till he has consecrated a 
part of them to God ; who can -repeat the Creed and the Lord's 
Prayer. Redeem your souls from punishment, while it is in 
your power : oflfer presents and tithes to churches, light candles 
in holy places, as much as you can afford, come more frequently 
to church, implore the protection of the saints; for, if you 
observe these things, you may come with security at the day 
of judgment to say, " Give unto us, Lord, for we have given 
imto Thee ! " With such a definition of Christian character, 
it is not surprising that any fraud and injustice became hon- 
orable, when it contributed to the riches of the clergy and glory 
of their order. 

Now the statement that St. Eligius ever gave " such a definition 
of Christian character '* is, as will presently be seen, a lie. One 
can readily imagine with what promptitude and energy Macaulay 
and Huxley would have poimced upon that lie, how they would 
have torn it to pieces, and scored heavily by exposing and de- 
nouncing it. Not so Newman. 

Newman proceeds, while leaving the statement as yet uncon- 
tradicted, to point out to the reader that Hallam gives as his ref- 
erence for this statement Dr. Robertson, the historian of Charles 
v., and the German Lutheran historian, Mosheim. To Dr. 
Robertson then Newman turns and quotes him as saying that in 
the dark ages "the barbarous nations, instead of aspiring to 
sanctity and virtue, imagined that they satisfied every obligation 
of duty by scrupulous observance of external ceremonies," and in 
support of this giving what he calls " one remarkable testimony," 
namely, the foregoing quotation from St. Eligius, adding what he 
describes as " the very proper reflection " of Dr. Maclaine, Mos- 
heim's translator : " We see here a large and ample description of 
the character of the good Christian in which there is not the least 
mention of the love of God, resignation to His will, obedience to 
His laws; or of justice, benevolence, and charity towards men." 

Newman now turns to a certain Mr. White, a professor who, in 
lecturing on the life and works of Mosheim, remarked that " no 
representation can convey stronger ideas of the melancholy state 
of religion in the seventh century than the description of a good 
Christian as drawn at that period by St. Eligius," and proceeds to 
quote as before. A further step backward carries Newman 
to Archdeacon Jortin, who made the same quotation in his Remarks 
on Ecclesiastical History, introducing it with the observation that 

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1917.] THE ART OF CONTROVERSY 455 

it constitutes " the sum and substance of true religion as it is drawn 
for us by Eligius, one of the principal saints of the age." 

Newman now takes us to Mosheim himself, who in his Eccle- 
siastical History observes that while the religion of the earlier 
Christians was spiritual, the later ones "placed the substance of 
religion in external rites and bodily exercises/' and proves this by 
the same quotation. 

Now Newman has manoeuvred his guns into position, and he 
proceeds to open fire as follows : 

Brothers of the Oratory, take your last look at the Protestant 
Tradition, ere it melts away into thin air from before your 
eyes. It carries with it a goodly succession of names, Mosheim, 
Jortin, Maclaine, Robertson, White and Hallam. It extends 
from I7SS to the year 1833. But in this latter year, when it 
was not seventy-eight years old, it met with an accident, at- 
tended with fatal consequences. Someone for the first time, 
instead of blindly following the traditional statement, thought 
it worth while first to consult St. Eligius himself. 

He then proceeds to show that the quotation is made up by 
picking out and putting together odd sentences scattered through 
a very long sermon, and that the surrounding sentences actually 
contain those very recommendations to general piety and benevo- 
lence made by St. Eligius and for the omission of which he had 
been so vilely abused by Mosheim, Maclaine, Robertson, White 
and Hallam. Thus : " Wherefore, my brethren, love your 
friends in God and love your enemies for God, that he who loveth 

his neighbors hath fulfilled the law he is a good Christian who 

receives the stranger with joy, as though he were receiving Christ 
Himself who gives alms to the poor in proportion to his pos- 
sessions who has no deceitful balances or deceitful measures 

who both lives chastely himself and teaches his neighbors 

and children to live chastely and in the fear of God Keep peace 

and charity, recall the contentious to concord, avoid lies, tremble 

at perjury, bear no false witness, commit no theft Visit the 

infirm Seek out those who are in prison " And St. 

Eligius adds : " If you observe these things you may appear boldly 
at God's tribunal in the day of Judgment and say, 'Give, Lord, as we 
have given.' " 

Now observe the controversial effect of Newman's superb 
strategy. He has nailed the particular lie about St. Eligius to 

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456 THE ART OF CONTROVERSY [July, 

the counter as Macaulay and Huxley would have done. But he 
has done much more than that. By his patient tracing of the tradi- 
tion, by his careful marshaling of all the authorities that sup- 
port it, before he smashes it, he has erected in the minds of his 
readers an indelible distrust of all the Protestant traditions how- 
ever venerable and however authoritative. The victory is complete. 
The enemy is simply obliterated. 

I could give a hundred other instances, did space permit, of 
this method in Newman's controversial writings. There is that 
amazingly effective chapter, in the Development of Christian Doc- 
trine, which deals with the early Christians, where the attitude of 
the Roman world towards the new Faith is carefully delineated 
and illustrated by numerous quotations from pagan writers, and 
the reader gets to the end of it without a suspicion of the masked 
battery which Newman has prepared, until he is suddenly reminded 
that the accusations which he has been reading are almost word for 
word the same as those now brought against the Catholic Church. 
If there be now in the world, says Newman, a form of Christianity 
which is accused of superstition, insane asceticism, secret prof- 
ligacy and so on, " then it is not so very unlike Christianity as 
that same world viewed it when first it came forth from its 
Divine Founder." 

How triumphantly Newman used the method here described 
is best shown in his famous controversy with Kingsley. In reading 
the earlier phases of that controversy one is almost inclined 
to fancy that Newman is meeting points, and not taking full ad- 
vantage of his adversary. But he has missed nothing. He has 
ruthlessly taken every advantage. His guns command every posi- 
tion. At the end his adversary, surrounded and already doomed, 
dashes backward and forward striving wildly to find the answer 
or the escape which are alike forbidden him. That is what I call 
great controversial strategy. 



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A SIXTEENTH CENTURY THEOLOGIAN ON INTER- 
NATIONAL LAW. 

BY HERBERT FRANCIS WRIGHT. 

|F a war is useful to one province or state, but would 
draw in its train great injuries to the entire world 
and to Christianity, I think that such a war is un- 
just." These are not my words nor the words of 
a modem international lawyer, but they are words 
which were dictated to a class in theology of a large European 
university about forty years after Columbus discovered the New 
World. Startling as this statement may appear, coming as it does 
from the lips of a sixteenth century theologian, it is but a type 
of the clear and logical opinions boldly advanced by this great 
man, opinions which some of the international lawyers of today 
are just beginning to find courage to uphold. 

At the present time, when the attention of the entire world 
has been engaged so long by the war in Europe, it is no unusual 
thing to hear propounded on all sides such questions as " May 
Christians make war? '* " Have the people any voice in declaring 
war? " " When are wars just? " "What may be done in a just 
war and how far may one proceed against enemies ? '* And while, 
at first sight, we may think that these questions, which are suggested 
by the present war, are new, the fact remains that each and every 
one of them — and many more like them — was discussed and 
answered by the Spanish moral theologian, Franciscus de Victoria, 
of the Order of Friars Preachers, in his De Jure Belli, published 
about three hundred and sixty years ago as the fifth of his Re- 
lecHones Theologies XII . For, to use the words of Thomas Al- 
fred Walker in his History of the Law of Nations: " In Victoria's 
treatment of these problems, the reader, who is unprepared for the 
surprises of the literature of the Reformation Age, will be as- 
tonished to discover the setting forth of principles which the his- 
torian of international practice is wont to represent as entirely 
modem." 

Franciscus de Victoria was bom in Victoria in Old Castile 
about 1480. In his early youth he entered the Dominican Order 
and later, on account of his exceptional ability and 

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458 A THEOLOGIAN ON INTERNATIONAL LAW [July, 

promise, was sent by the Order to the University of Paris for 
more advanced studies. After obtaining the highest honors in 
theology which his Order could bestow, he finally in 1526 became 
the occupant of the " primary chair of theology " at the University 
of Salamanca. Here he lectured for twenty years and obtained 
universal fame and glory as " the restorer of scjiolastic theology," 
because he inaugurated a movement to give to theological science 
a purer diction and improved literary form and to treat scholastic 
theology, not in a jejune and imcultivated manner, but in a scholarly 
and ornate manner, enriching it with every kind of learning, sacred 
and profane. While Victoria was making preparations to attend 
the Council of Trent, which had just (November 19, 1544) been 
convoked after several fruitless attempts, he was overtaken by ill- 
health, which caused him to relinquish his professional duties and 
finally led to his death in 1546. 

No little testimony is given to the greatness of this master 
of wisdom by his famous and learned disciples, Melchior Cano, 
Domingo Soto, Thomas of Chaves, Martin Aspilcueta (Doctor 
Navarrus), and many others. Melchior Cano, for example, says 
that " Spain has received this eminent professor of theology by 
a singular gift of God," and he attributes the doctrine, judgment, 
and eloquence which he himself possesses to his careful heed of 
Victoria's precepts and admonitions. This praise is reechoed by 
other contemporaries and by later scholars. 

Yet it is not as philosopher or theologian that we are con- 
cerned with Victoria here, but as one of the founders of inter- 
national law. It is Franciscus de Victoria, in fact, who first 
admitted into a classification of law international law in its modem 
acceptation, ius inter gentes, although Richard Zouche is com- 
monly considered by most authorities as the creator of this term. 
" That which natural reason has established among all nations 
is called international law," says Victoria, consciously adapting 
a statement of Gains found in the Institutes of Justinian. Zouche 
also quotes Gains* statement, omitting two words of no little im- 
portance, and after some discussion continues, " Law of this latter 
kind," that is, of commerce and wars between different nations, 
" is called ins inter gentes." Hence the reason why the term is 
attributed to him. But Victoria's alteration of Gains' words was 
intentional. Consequently, it can be said with truth that the ex- 
pression, ills inter gentes, is found for the first time in Victoria. 

The expression is remarkable, but what is still more remark- 
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1917.] A THEOLOGIAN ON INTERNATIONAL LAW 459 

able is the idea to which this expression corresponds, the notion 
presented by Victoria of this ius inter gentes, of a juridical bond 
which it establishes between nations or rather of the international 
juridical society of which it is the expression. In Victoria's sys- 
tem this law is a real law which is based on sociability, because 
there is a natural society, there are mutual relations, a communion, 
a bond betwe^ peoples. One nation has the right of entering 
into relations with another nation to such an extent that the denial 
of the exercise of this right justifies war. In other words, Vic- 
toria saw clearly the interdependence of nations, their reciprocal 
rights and duties. 

It is Victoria also who was one of the most vigorous op- 
ponents of three errors commonly found in extremist writers on 
civil and canon law who preceded him, namely, that infidels had 
no right to possess anything and war with them was therefore 
always just, that the Emperor of the Roman Empire was the 
temporal sovereign of the entire world, and that the Pope was 
the temporal sovereign of all the earth. It is not my purpose to 
give here the history of 'these errors and Victoria's refutation of 
them. It will be sufficient simply to state the fact that one of the 
dreams of the Middle Ages was the reconstitution of the Roman 
Empire, which was to embrace the entire world, and that errors 
which arose from attempts to realize this dream were so ably op- 
posed and refuted by Victoria that later writers mention them 
merely as a memory and as no longer upheld. 

But in Victoria's time these were live topics of discussion. 
The Spanish conquests subsequent to the discovery of the New 
World by Columbus forced upon the Spanish sovereigns a very 
momentous question. On the one side the conquerors wished 
to justify their seizure of lands and their right to use armed force 
against the natives who refused to accept their domination; on 
the other side, the missionaries accompanying the conquerors 
wished to secure fair treatment for the Indians. It is at this time 
(1532) that Victoria delivered his lecture De Indis, in which he 
reviews in succession the false and true titles alleged by the con- 
querors. The frankness with which he rendered judgments with- 
out fear or favor of the Catholic sovereigns, who had a very 
keen interest in the subject, is well worth noting. He stands out 
among the Spaniards and Portuguese as the defender of the propo- 
sition that infidels cannot be despoiled of civil power or sovereignty 
simply because they are infidels. He makes his position strikinfi^ly^ip 

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46o A THEOLOGIAN ON INTERNATIONAL LAW [July, 

clear by declaring that the Spaniards have no more right over the 
Indians than the latter would have had over the Spaniards if they 
had come to Spain. It is no wonder, then, that Hugo Grotius in 
his epoch-making work, De Jure Belli ac Pacis, calls Victoria 
a " theologian of sane judgment." 

The De Indis was followed by a second lecture, De Jure Belli, 
which was intended to supplement the discussion of the just and 
just titles to the lands of the barbarians by a short discussion 
on the law of war. And although the author, as he himself 
states, merely noted the main propositions of this topic together 
with very brief proofs, an answer may be found here for many 
of the questions suggested by the entry of the United States into the 
European War. The following questions, for instance, are pro- 
posed and answered by Victoria : " What may be a reason and 
just cause of war? " " Is it enough for a just war that a prince 
believes himself to have a just cause? " " May subjects serve in 
a war without examining the causes?" "Is it ever lawful to 
despoil or kill all the innocent? " " Is it ever lawful to kill all the 
guilty in a just war? " 

The importance of Victoria's opinions on the law of war may 
be gauged from the fact that Hugo Grotius cites Victoria's De 
Jure Belli no less than forty- four times in his De Jure Belli ac Pacis, 
although he does not use Victoria's exact words, and that only 
twice does he expressly take exception to Victoria's statements. 
Grotius himself, in the prolegomena to his great woric, acknowledges 
that he has consulted Victoria among other theologians and juris- 
consults, but he belittles them because of their brevity and charges 
most of them with confusion of ideas. This latter criticism, how- 
ever, cannot justly be charged against Victoria. 

Moreover, there is reason to believe that Grotius is indebted to 
Victoria to a far greater extent than he is willing to admit. For 
instance, in his Mare Liberum, which is a chapter to his De Jure 
PrcedcB, in discussing Portuguese titles over the Indians of the 
East, Grotius uses arguments which recall the position of Vic- 
toria with regard to Spanish titles over the Indians of the West. 
Nbr is this all. Hermann Conring goes even so far as to say 
that, if Grotius " excelled in philosophy and produced the incom- 
parable book, De Jure Belli ac Pacis, he owed it to his reading 
of the Spanish jurists, Ferdinand Vasquez and Diego Covarruvias, 
who had in their turn made use of the work of their master, 
Franciscus de Victoria." In fact, if we may believe a statement t 

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1917.] A THEOLOGIAN ON INTERNATIONAL LAW 461 

made by Daniel Georg Morhof in his Polyhistor Literarius, Philo- 
sophicus et PracHcus, Grotius* direct indebtedness to Victoria may 
be greater than has hitherto been recognized. Until recent years 
we find scant credit given to any Catholic writers in the histories 
of international law. " Ever since the Reformation," writes the 
celebrated James Lorimer in his Institutes of the Law of Nations, 
" the prejudices of Protestants against Roman Catholics have been 
so vehement as to deprive them of the power of forming a dis- 
passionate opinion of their works, even if they had been acquainted 
with them, which they rarely were." 

That Victoria has been able to survive this state of affairs, 
therefore, may well mean more than is apparent on the surface, and 
weight is added to this view by the fact that Victoria's Relectiones 
went through at least ten editions, six of them appearing within 
fifty years. Yet in spite of these ten editions, Henry Hallam 
states that it " is a book of remarkable scarcity," and that some 
of those who since the time of Grotius have mentioned Victoria's 
writings, lament that they are not to be met with. It is this, in 
addition to the fact that he dictated his lectures and never pub- 
lished them himself (for they were published from the notebooks 
of his students eleven years after his death), that explains why this 
author, who enjoyed such great fame among his contemporaries, 
until recent years has been little known and rarely quoted. 

All that Victoria has said about the law of war can be sum- 
marized in the three canons or rules of warfare, with which he 
brings his De Jure Belli to a close. They have reference to the 
conduct of nations and their princes before war, during war, and 
after war, respectively. The first of these canons is: Assuming 
that a prince has authority to make war, he should first of all not 
go seeking occasions and causes of war, but should, if possible, 
live in peace with all men, as St. Paul enjoins on us (Romans 
xii. 18). Moreover, he should reflect that others are his neigh- 
bors, whom we are bound to love as ourselves, and that we all have 
one common Lord, before Whose tribunal we shall have to render 
our account. For it is the extreme of savagery to seek for and 
rejoice in grounds for killing and destroying men whom God has 
created and for whom Christ died. But only under compulsion 
and reluctantly should he come to the necessity of war. 

The second canon is : When war for a just cause has broken 
out, it must not be waged so as to ruin the people against whom 
it is directed, but only so as to obtain one's rights and the de- ^ 

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462 A THEOLOGIAN ON INTERNATIONAL LAW [July, 

fence of one's country, and in order that from that war peace and 
security may in time result. 

The third canon is : When victory has been won and the war 
is over, the victory should be utilized with moderation and Chris- 
tian humility, and the victor ought to deem that he is sitting as 
judge between two States, the one which has been wronged and 
the one which has done the wrong, so that it will be as judge 
and not as accuser that he will deliver the judgment whereby the 
injured State can obtain satisfaction, and this, so far as possible, 
should involve the offending State in the least degree of calamity 
and misfortune, the offending individuals being chastised within 
lawful limits. An especial reason for this is that in general among 
Christians all th6 fault is to be laid at the door of their princes, 
for subjects when fighting for their princes act in good faith, and 
it is thoroughly unjust, in the words of the poet Horace, that 
*' Quidqtiid delirant reges, plectuntur Achivi." 

It is difficult to imagine how more prudent or more equitable 
rules could be formulated than the noble Christian principles which 
summarize Victoria's doctrine on the law of war. So well-adapted 
are they for universal application to modem conditions, that one 
can scarcely believe that they are over three and a half centuries 
old. If the rulers of the countries now at war and in fact all 
other rulers would thoroughly learn and practise these true prin- 
ciples, it would be difficult indeed for wars to come, and, if they 
should, as come they may, they certainly could not long endure. 



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MUSIC. 

BY CHARLES PHILLIPS. 

There is a hunger in my heart tonight, 

A longing- in my soul, to hear 
The voice of heaven o'er the noise of earth 

That doth assail mine ear: 

For we are exiled children of the skies, 
Lone and lost wanderers from home 

The stars come out like lamps in windows lit 
Far, far from where we roam ; 

Like candles lit to show the long late way, 
Dear kindly beacons, sure and bright ; 

But O, the heavy journeying, and O 
The silence of the night ! — 

The dark and vasty silences that lie 

Between the going and the goal ! 
Will not God reach a friendly hand to lift 

And lead my weary soul? 

Will not God speak a friendly word to me 

Above the tumult and the din 
Of earthly things — one little word to hush 

The voice of care and sin? 

He speaks ! He answers my poor faltering prayer ! 

He opens heaven's lattice wide ; 
He bids me bathe my brow in heavenly airs 

Like to a flowing tide! 

He calls ! He gives unto my famished soul, 

Unto my eager heart, its meed : 
He breathes upon me with the breath of song. 

And O, my soul is freed. 

And I am lifted up and up, and held 

A little while — a child, to see 
The beauties of my Father's House, which shall 

No more be shut from me I 

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THE FASCINATION OF TRIFLES. 

BY JOHN LA FARGE, S.J. 

|0 one in sympathy with French thought there is an 
attraction in the works of Henry Bordeaux, the 
" novelist of the French family." His writings, like 
those of Lamb, or Jane Austen, or other gentle con- 
templatives of human manners, require a certain 
s)rmpathy; but that sympathy is richly rewarded. He does not 
sketch ; he elaborates with affection for his chosen field. The style 
is easy, quaintly humorous, colloquial. Each touch in his careful 
portrait of mceurs domestiques is a little entertainment in itself, 
which you enjoy apart from any thread of narrative. Yet he 
writes to have you reflect, as he himself has deeply reflected before 
writing. Perhaps a few thoughts suggested by his novel. La 
Maison, which has passed through some forty-six editions, may 
be of interest.^ 

In La Maison, Bordeaux deals with a topic of importance, 
especially for all those who have a care for the young: the 
subtle process by which the Catholic Faith, learned in its easier 
applications in childhood, becomes — or fails to become — ^a master 
principle of action in a young man's life. In his view this moment 
is when the young man first understands fully his responsibility 
to God, to the family, and to society. When he assumes that 
responsibility he ascends, by self -conquest, the throne that God ap- 
points to each of His servants. 

This idea is summed up in the words of retrospect at the close 
of this narrative, which is written in the form of an autobiography. 
" Before reaching manhood, I had experienced in anticipation the 
great struggle which occurs in every human life between liberty 
and submission, between the horror of servitude and the sacrifice 
necessary for existence. A delightful and dangerous guide had 
revealed to me in advance the miraculous charm of nature, of love, 
and of that very pride which makes us imagine we will subjugate 
the world. That fascination, all too sweet and enervating, would 
never again hold me in bondage. My life from that moment was 
fastened to an iron ring : it would depend no more on my imagina- 

^La Maison. By Henry Bordeaux. Paris: Plon-Nourrit et Cie. 



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1917] THE FASCINATION OF TRIFLES 465 

tion. I could only stretch chained hands now toward the phantom 
of happiness. Yet some day or other, every man receives these 
chains, if he is actu^ly to ascend his throne : whether his empire 
extend over but an acre or but a name. Like a king, I was 
now responsible for the decay or the prosperity of my own little 
kingdom, my father's house." 

One can never foretell when this realization may come to 
a young man. Often it b^ins with marriage; or — ^as in this 
story — ^the parental love which was the very support of selfishness 
is withdrawn by death; or again, a sudden sin may reveal the 
awful consequences of irresponsibility. With the acceptance of 
that responsibility comes a new understanding of the faith as a 
master principle, as a complete measure of life. 

If those who have lost the faith were all to reveal the genius 
of their infidelity, how many would acknowledge that it was just 
at that time when the call sounded to ascend the throne of man- 
hood! But they shrank from the burden, and softly sought by 
pride to exalt the nature which self-conquest alone can ennoble. 
Yet one who is to asstmie this burden must have some idea, gained 
through the use of liberty, of the restraint he is placing on himself ; 
he must have withstood to some extent the " fascination of trifles." 
There will be the danger that the'trifles will seek him after he has 
moimted his throne, and cause a wreck where before they would 
have uttered a warning. The problem then is in the introduction 
to liberty, in the forestalling of those temptations which will strive 
so treacherously to dethrone the future monarch. 

Young Rambert's autobiography does not deal with tempta- 
tion, but precisely with the " fascination of trifles," of that crucial 
question as to what association, importing infinite good or evil, 
may be found in the most indifferent little matters. It shows how 
simple pleasures, indifferent in themselves, may, through certain od- 
dities of training, contain just the germ of a principle which, planted 
in a moment of dreamy indifference, will later grow to a soul- 
killing upas tree. The experience is common to all, -yet the mode 
is never quite the same. 

For an American boy the influence that these particular trifles 
exert on Charles Rambert appears odd. We do not commonly 
find a boy of 'fourteen, to whom a stroll in the country with his 
grandfather is an epoch-making novelty, on a par with a camping 
trip to the Rocky Mountains. Yet it is just the turn given to 
these innocent strolls, the slight shock offered to the boy's un- 

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466 THE FASCINATION OF TRIFLES [July, 

questioning faith in his Catholic father's principles of law and 
order, the bit of disdain for punctuality and direction and respect 
of property and prudence in eating mushrooms or hobnobbing with 
gypsies, that plants the tiny seed in the boy's mind of his infidel 
grandfather's philosophy — utter irresponsibility to God, to family 
and to society ; " nature " as all in all, with Rousseau as its bliss- 
ful interpreter. The initiation into the chosen circle of cafe-topers, 
with their atmosphere of mutual flattery and quiet disloyalty to 
every definite standard of decency, and a boyish enthusiasm for a 
little Italian circus-rider complete the work. The incidents are 
but trifles : not a word is spoken to the boy against faith, or re- 
ligion, or his parents. There is but his grandfather's little 
mocking laugh, and a sense of liberty, of unrestraint. Yet the 
demon of unbelief has entered and touched the childish soul. 
The gentle cynicism that selects for the boy's first lesson 
in skepticism an old book of satire — familiar human types cari- 
catured as animals — just this cynicism cooperates with the boy's 
own instinct of secrecy. " You know that animals and men are 
brothers," remarks his grandfather. " But animals are better than 
men." The resefnblance of Mademoiselle Tapinois, the Royalist 
old maid, to the picture of the decrepit dove, with its night shirt 
and candlestick, was certainly a trifle: yet, though a trifle, "a 
secret instinct warned me not to consult my parents in this matter." 

The author appears to indicate weaknesses in certain educational 
systems. It is hard to designate these justly; but in this case, at 
least, Dr. Rambert, the boy's father, is anxious to put the young 
person's life on too strict a basis of principle, at an age when feel- 
ing and imagination naturally rule, and principle, the guide of 
maturer Ife, is only germinating. From his own goodness the 
Doctor cannot gauge the easy-natured malice of his father. The 
very simplicity of a noble nature prevents his meeting subtlety by 
subtlety. The art does not occur to hini of teaching self-discipline 
through the use of liberty, guiding the heart in the seeming absence 
of all guidance: that art, puzzling the memories of later life, by 
which a great Christian mother in Israel will sometimes weave 
for her home a whole paradise of innocence out of the very ele- 
ments that threaten danger. The very completeness of his system 
sets the spring for the easy reaction. With- a bit of chaflF, a little 
teasing, the Doctor could have nullified an influence against which 
all his sound reasoning was directed in vain. 

Yet it is anything but a morbid tale. The boy's naturalness 

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1917.] THE FASCINATION OF TRIFLES 467 

is the very flavor of the story: a naturalness so genuine that there 
is the illusion of a real autobigraphy, such is the vividness and 
delicacy of portraiture. The odd world of home geography and 
home politics, the mimic warfare against the garden bushes, and 
the fear of the threatened creditors as of huge caterpillars creeping 
in at night through the hole in the garden wall, is real, true to 
a child's mind. Bordeaux's humor is constant and childlike. He 
must have obtained from real life the delightful Tante Dine, 
rescuing the appalled cat from the ferocious rats, brandishing her 
broom, her tete-de-coup, among the cobwebs as a protest against 
the enemies of the Church and of the Comte de Chambord, and 
inventing impossible excuses for the children's peccadillos: 
" They stole the pears to relieve the poor trees of their weight. 
He puts his hands in the spinach to show his joy at seeing na- 
ture's verdure ! " ** Grand-pere " is absolutely alive, with all his 
high and low lights: his green dressing-gown and black velvet 
cap, his telescope and violin — ^the sweet tones of which opened 
for the sensitive boy "the mysterious empire of sounds and 
dreams in the forest of vanishing vistas " — his detestation of all 
order and system, and the memory of his own exacting " papa; " 
his gallantry to ladies; hi^ mordant little laugh, like the ric-rac 
of the pruning life — " L'ordre, I'ordre! Oh! Oh!" — his fame as 
a weather-prophet and interpreter of barometric mysteries; his 
passion for the country and mystic admiration of wandering 
shepherds; his contempt for the city, yet tender devotion to the 
" Cafe des Navigateurs," with its toper-visionaries, broken-down 
artists, and scheming agitators, his facility in accepting political 
candidacy against his own son, and the halo of imaginary martyr- 
dom, yet his quiet disclaimer of all responsibility, advising the 
Doctor "not to read newspapers," and his querulous helplessness 
in the hour of trial. " Grand-pere's " principle is simply the 
philosophy of disavowal : a philosophy which has been more potent 
than many a laboriously planned doctrine, potent in the fat times 
of peace, and ease, and unconcern of home and country. 

Above it all two figures stand out sublime : " a step and a 
shadow " — the " step " brisk, authoritative, reassuring of the heroic 
Dr. Rambert, whose life is oflFered for the salvation of his towns- 
men, in requital for their very ingratitude; the "shadow" of 
the ever watchful, prayerful Mother, who, by God dwelling in 
her heart, commands respect of those who expect nothing else on 

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468 THE NEW WINE [July, 

And in the end, in the moment of darkness when the step 
ceases forever to be heard in La Maison, the shadow wins: the 
victory is as subtle, as gentle, as true to a boy's nature as was the 
perversion. The illusion ceases when the insistent call comes of 
reality, and the young king ascends his throne. 

Your boy, of course, is not precisely a Charles Rambert. He 
is American, and the trifles that move him are of another kind. 
But the lesson is the same for all: for the process is common to 
all. The elusive influences, the small things count: the power of 
the over-kind friend, or good relative, who in a month releases the 
tension of years of home-training, the strange mental association 
of places and persons, and the physical aversions or likings to 
what seem to the boy s)rmbols of good or evil ideas, and the un- 
conscious inferences drawn therefrom. Only a heavenly tact, not 
mere human prudence, can guide the heaven-destined heart — the 
tact that is the fruit of prayer, the light of the Holy Ghost. 



THE HEW WIHE. 

BY CAROLINE D. SWAN. 

A PALE white moon above an opal haze 
Of sunset's ruddy gold, light violet veiled ; 

Below, the sea — ^and ships that have not sailed 

At anchor in the quiet harbor ways. 

It sings of peace and silent gracious days ; 
Of souls at rest, where evil long bewailed 
Hath won forgiveness and its pain hath trailed 

Off into moonlit calm and silvery praise. 

Grave moon of whiteness, rising high above 
Our earthly turbulence, have we no g^ace. 
No spirit-psalm, in unison with thine? 
No yearning for that Paradise of Love 
Where glows our Master's full veiled Face 
And ours. His rubied outpour of new wine ? 

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THEORIES OF COMPEHSATIOH. 

BY WILLIAM J. KERBY, PH.D. 

HERE is no inherent reason why we should ask or 
receive compensation for anything that we do. The 
reasons for compensation are usually extrinsic to 
the action to which it is attached. Nature does not 
trifle nor does she forget the harmonies which mark 
ler laws. We are endowed with faculties in order that we may 
use them. If nature has a purpose in endowing us with faculties, 
the purpose is revealed in the exercise of them. Hence, as far 
as nature is concerned, a faculty should lead to action without 
thought of compensation extrirtsic to it. It is true that we are 
led on to exercise faculties by some form of pleasure attached 
to action. This is, if you will, a form of compensation, but it is 
a by-product rather than purpose in nature. Nevertheless, there 
has never been a civilization into which some form of systematic 
compensation was not organized. Our normal social experience 
tends to divert us from the consideration of action for its own sake 
to action for the sake of something extrinsic to it. This extrinsic 
something is compensation. 

Compensation is a fundamental social institution. It is or- 
ganized into the deepest consciousness of the race. It is associated 
with every type of culture and with every degree of power. It 
accounts for the creation of honors, symbols of distinction and 
excellence, the quality and tone of fundamental institutions of civi- 
lization. The philosophy and forms of compensation, therefore, 
are essential parts of thought and social organization. Not only 
that, the forms and appeal of compensation reveal the deepest 
heart of culture just as they furnish to us the most searching 
commentary on human nature. As com.pensations are coarse or 
refined, civilization is coarse or refined. As men are selfish or un- 
selfish, forms of compensations are ignoble or noble. Humanity 
is governed by the compensations which obtain in a social 
system. 

The functions of compensation may be described in simple terms. 
Man is within obvious limits free to act or not to act. His desires t 

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470 THEORIES OF COMPENSATION [July, 

are more or less wayward, even lawless. He is supposedly lazy, 
opposed to exertion except when his immediate interest is con- 
cerned. He takes short outlooks, living in the present. He is gov- 
erned largely by emotion, feeling, passion. He begins life with latent 
ability which must be brought to full development. The world has 
imperative need for its progress, of the utmost that individuals can 
do for the common good. Social progress is periled upon the 
willingness of individuals to develop themselves and place their 
varied powers at the service of society. It is the function of - 
organized stable compensation to correct these tendencies in men, 
to develop their powers and correlate their activity in a way to 
serve the purposes of the race. 

The system of compensation, therefore, tends to determine the 
lines of our activity. It overcomes laziness and insinuates self- 
control. It induces men to make effort to develop themselves and 
to place their ability at the service of civilization, whatever be the 
motive hidden in their hearts. Men are disciplined and made 
orderly by prospect of compensation. Disinclination from any 
effort is converted into enthusiasm for it. Individuals are stimu- 
lated to supreme exertion. They are led to do the things which 
the common welfare demands even at the sacrifice of personal 
preference. Thus, society must organize the theory and forms of 
compensation into the very texture of social life, in order that hu- 
man progress may be safeguarded. Nevertheless, essential as are the 
functions of compensation^ it never ceases to be extrinsic to action 
itself. We are so accustomed to associate compensation with action 
and to relate motives to the former, that we are astounded when ex- 
ceptional men and women rise above the average and perform 
service for the joy of it without any thought of usual compensa- 
tion. These exceptional souls light up the world for us and give 
us example which exercises a blessed tyranny over the good men. 
Education, religion and other culture agencies endeavor so to purify 
motive and exalt purpose that individuals will lift themselves volun- 
tarily from the plane of low to that of higher compensation or to 
the surrender of the thought of compensation altogether. He alone 
is an ideal man, an exalted social type, who lifts himself to the 
level of the noblest form of compensation in his time. 

It is well to distinguish between the philosophy and forms of 
compensation which are organized into thought and life on the 
whole, and the personal attitude toward motive and compensation 
which, may be found in individuals. There are always those in 

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1917.] THEORIES OF COMPENSATION 47i 

human society who are morally and spiritually far ahead of the 
social system which forms them, and of the current aspirations 
which energize a civilization. There are likewise those who are 
coarser than the basest form of compensation which a civilization 
permits. It is not too much to say that the refinement of any 
civilization is indicated with exactness by the number of those 
w^ho rise above all-selfish forms of compensation, and through 
the influence of religion, social ideals, and even personal heroism, 
mark the pathway along which motives should flow. Such set 
the standards for those intangible forms of compensation which 
are s)rmbols of the highest nobility to which humanity can attain. 
No life is understood until its compensations are known. No heart 
is read until its deeper motives and valuations are analyzed : until 
eflfort, aspiration and judgment yield their final secrets by telling 
us of the compensations which bring peace to the soul. " Tell me 
your compensations and Til tell you what you are." 

One should not forget that there are many philosophies and 
forms of compensation current in human society at all times. At 
present, for instance, political and industrial societies are based 
on one philosophy of compensation while our secular culture is 
based upon another. Religion sets forth its own distinctive philoso- 
phy and forms of compensation which touch eternity. Now, in 
proportion as men are genuinely subjected to the influence of one 
or another of these forms of thought and action, its philosophy 
of compensation will be uppermost. 

Compensations are relative. This is the case because man 
has much control over motives and imagination. Ordinarily, a 
man can be compensated only in the direction of his needs, am- 
bitions or taste. Needs may be real or imaginary. Ambition may 
be serious and approved or merely the creation of ungoverned 
fancy or aspiration. Since we live in our needs, ambitions and 
taste, it is impossible to imagine compensations effective except 
as'they bear on one of these three. It was said of a public leader 
on one occasion that no one could control him because he did not 
want anything. In proportion as others control compensation that 
arouse us, they control us. In proportion as compensations imder 
the control of others do not appeal, we are free. This makes clear 
the extent to which the individual can escape the domination of 
current compensations, and in fact control those which will ulti- 
mately become supreme in his life. 

To a marked extent, needs, ambitions, and taste are controlled t 

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472 THEORIES OF COMPENSATION [July, 

by social valuations, by the valuations placed on things and rela- 
tions in the social circles that make our world. No history of 
recent France may fail to take account of the social valuation placed 
upon the French Academy and of the supreme role of its appeal in 
leading French genius to the achievements from which it has de- 
rived such splendor. There is no theory of compensation which 
is not a theory of human nature. There is no form of compensa- 
tion which does not show forth the psychology of the race or does 
not indicate the quality of its social morality or make known the 
motives which are most effective in everyday life. When a civi- 
lization is intellectual and aesthetic, its typical compensations are of 
the same kind. When a civilization is fundamentally economic, its 
primary compensations are economic. When a civilization is fun- 
damentally religious, its effective compensations derive quality and 
power from religious ideals. This occurs because organization 
tends to control social valuations and social valuations draw the 
world in their train. 

The word " compensation " suggests a comparison of two or 
more objects by weighing them over against one another. The 
social purposes of compensation have been already indicated. They 
are to organize the activity of free men in a way to serve social 
purposes, to assist in developing the social sense and insure whole- 
some social behavior, to stimulate individuals to develop all latent 
ability for the service of the common good. Now, these purposes 
can be accomplished and are accomplished substantially either by 
the prospect of reward or the threat of punishment. The power of 
the state over any one of us depends absolutely on the intensity 
with which we desire life, liberty, property or honor. Sovereign 
as is the state, it has little power of coercion except through the 
threat to take from us one or more of the four. If we were to 
treat the theme fully, it would be necessary to study the philosophy 
and forms of punishment no less than those of compensation. 
This study is confined, however, to the latter. The serious reader 
will find no difficulty in applying the thought to the process of pun- 
ishment as well. The extent to which threats are needed in a social 
system, the forms and quality of them, may reveal as much of the 
heart of civilization as the forms and theory of compensation. 
But it will be simpler to confine this study to the latter. The 
thought will be carried over a review of compensation under 
individualism, under Socialism, in the Old and in the New Testa- 
ments. 

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1917.] THEORIES OF COMPENSATION 473 

Compensation Under Individualism. 

The present social order is organized on the assumption that 
the most effective basic form of compensation is money. Society 
recognizes that as the world now stands, the most far-reaching and 
sustained appeal to man is money. The background of life for 
each of us is economic fear, the prospect of wanting food, and 
clothing and shelter, and of seeing those whom we love similarly 
dependent. The first pressure, therefore, exerted upon mind and 
affection is derived from fear. As fear is removed by the pos- 
session of sufficient income, we change our mental outlook and 
seek sufficient money to widen life, to be free, to be permitted a 
range of choice in human enjoyment, to be effectively thoughtful 
toward those whom we love. After this stage has been made 
secure, we change again our outlook, our motives and ambitions. 
We then seek power, dominion over persons and things, the dis- 
tinction that is associated with the possession of power, the ecstatic 
effigy of individual sovereignty which comes with imlimited wealth. 

On everyone of these levels, money operates as a stimulus, 
s)rmbol, compensation. Attitudes toward it are different on each 
level. One might say that we have four distinct social philosophies, 
ranges of motive, planes of effective appeal. Money as compensa- 
tion is not adequate of itself. It does not explain each life on 
each level. But it does explain the temper of life, the direction of 
effort, the force of appeal on each of them. Our property system 
with its selfish security and implications does explain the collective 
intellect, and gives us the terminology by which alone we may ex- 
plain and understand life. 

The wage system secures for human society the labor necessary 
to feed and clothe the world. The prospect of wages and of 
gradual increase in wages compensates men for overcoming dis- 
orderly inclinations and laziness, and leads them to do those things 
of which the world has need. The fee system secures for human 
society the services of the professional classes in exactly the same 
way. The salary system performs the same function in bringing 
the highest types of intellect to the surface, in promoting their de- 
velopment and in placing them at the service of society. In this 
sense and in this sense alone may it be said that money is the 
fundamental institutional form of compensation on which civiliza- 
tion depends. Now, there is no intrinsic reason why any phy- 
sician should be compensated for curing a patient if he is able to t 

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474 THEORIES OF COMPENSATION [Jply, 

do so. But there are a hundred extrinsic reasons why we should 
give to the physician good fees if thereby we can secure for the 
world many good physicians and have their services when we need 
them. 

Culture imposes upon us certain reticences in speaking about 
money. It is unusual for men to admit that money is their mo- 
tive, but we cannot hide under evasions or polite circumlocution 
the fact that our civilization is organized on that basis. I wish 
not to overlook the sense of duty, of loyalty, the love of work- 
manship and of joy in action that relieve the barbaric selfishness 
symbolized by money, but the facts of life have a compulsion of 
their own which pays little attention to the conventional indirec- 
tion of culture when we cover selfishness under polished phrases. 

Our attitudes toward money vary. When we are in need, 
money means food and clothing and shelter. When our needs 
are satisfied money means widened life, leisure and the touch of 
culture. After these happy experiences have been our portion, in- 
creasing supplies of money awaken ambitions, stir the desire for 
mastery and become the depository of power. These processes in- 
volve a complete revolution in our attitudes, but money remains in 
every case an essential condition, if not an exclusive motive. There 
are none of us who welcome the supremacy of money in life. 
Everyone of our cultural forces does its best to hold money in 
the background, and to set forth higher motives, more elevated 
compensations, but the triumph of these latter is neither certain 
nor universal. We teach the young not to work for money but to 
serve their ideals. We attempt to make powerful in their lives the 
appeal of honor and self-respect and duty. We aim to set the baser 
compensation that money is, in the background. Power, distinction, 
reputation, stimulate action and offer compensation for conduct of 
the very highest order. Yet money as a condition, if not a mo- 
tive, is so identified with these, and our indifference to interior 
attitudes toward all of them is so marked, that money is not 
ousted from its supremacy even by these relieving factors. 

Our attitude toward money is conditioned largely by the fact 
that we compete with others for it. Ours is a competitive civili- 
zation frankly organized to call forth the power of selfishness. 
Selfishness is called into action through the influence of competi- 
tion. It had been hoped that the cultural forces of life would 
have been sufficient to tone down our selfish struggle and to place 
money permanently in the background among our motives and corn- 
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191 7.] THEORIES OF COMPENSATION 475 

pensations. If we may believe the complaints from the pulpit, 
from social students, from radical movements, from every type 
of scholarship and statesmanship we have to admit that this benevo- 
lent hope has been disappointed and money has remained in fact, 
if not in profession, the most widely effective form of compen- 
sation in the present world. The nobler intangible compensations 
are never absent. Neither is the need of taking account of the ig- 
noble money compensation in our average life. It is, of course, 
impossible to make a census of those who are able to rise above 
the appeal of money as a form of compensation. Let us hope 
that the number is larger than we fancy. Nothing could serve to 
show us the contrast between money as a compensation and service 
as an ideal than this moment in our history, when every typical 
American forgets self and governs behavior by the thought of serv- 
ing the common welfare in a crisis. Unselfishness, not selfishness, 
should now be our law. Not profit but service should be our 
motive. The thought of duty done and of opportunity embraced 
to serve the nation, not the prospect of gain, should be our compen- 
sation. 

Compensation Unde:r Socialism. 

It is the main purpose of Socialism to overthrow the existing 
philosophy of compensation, to modify its methods and substitute 
for them an entirely different type. Socialism believes that the 
appeal of unselfish and exalted compensations which is now so 
weak, may be made universally effective ; that practically every man 
can be made as noble and unselfish as the exceptional man now 
is. By primary intention, it aims to eliminate economic fear from 
the world, and to assure to every well-behaved individual the rea- 
sonable satisfaction "of all normal wants through his own industry. 
If, as Socialism proposes, society takes over the control and direc- 
tion of industrial capital and permits practically no private 
ownership in it, no man will have any motive or opportunity to 
exploit another. Men may take for granted the assurance of dig- 
nified livelihood, and money or its equivalent will cease to be a 
form of compensation, becoming an index of service rendered to 
society and a claim for goods that are needed in living. We look 
now at the individual in the background of organized selfishness. 
Under Socialism, we would see him in the background of organized 
unselfishness. Having eliminated economic fear and having 
achieved an established assurance of all that is needed to livej 

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476 THEORIES OF COMPENSATION [July, 

well, we should be in position to see in operation the intangible 
forms of compensation which spring out of pure social ideals. 
Joy in service, self-expression through personal refinement, eager- 
ness to contribute to everything that would purify and sweeten life, 
will make the social atmosphere of the proposed world and trans- 
form the philosophy and forms of compensation. The free will 
of individuals will lead them to act for social ends without re- 
luctance. The laziness of which we have heretofore suspected 
man, will be replaced by an alert good will and joy in useful 
labor. The latent abilities which must be brought to full develop- 
ment in order that genius may serve society will respond to the 
subtle touch of great ideals, and the world will see such progress 
as it has never dreamed of. 

If I imderstand Socialism rightly, it does not promise to de- 
stroy the passion for distinction, but it does hope to discipline it 
by orderly, thoughtful emulation. It will not aim to establish a 
monotonous equality in life, but rather so to refine each that he 
will rejoice in the superiority of his fdlowmen. Distinction, honor, 
station, may still retain their compensatory nature, but neither 
distinction nor power nor opportunity for either will attach in 
any way to the possession of money. Hence, it will be eliminated 
as a fundamental compensation, retaining at best an altogether 
secondary role. Set before us as a dream, as proof that the race 
can think nobly and aspire greatly. Socialism is supremely attrac- 
tive. It finds no little support for itself in our poetry, art, oratory, 
and in the aspirations of great lovers of our kind. Set before us 
as a working philosophy and a practical view of motive and en- 
deavor, it can but discourage us by its very nobility. An eminent 
architect once remarked that he found his happiness in rendering 
to the race service for which he could not in any way be com- 
pensated. He wished that his best work, made best by a noble 
motive, might be offered to his age as an unrequited gift. Only 
when all of us can rise to that level may we believe that the compen- 
sations of Socialism will be effective. Who can resist the appeal in 
Kipling's lines : 

And only the Master shall praise us, and only the Master shall blame. 
And no one shall work for money and no one shall work for fame. 
But each for the joy of working and each in his separate Star. 
♦ 4c ♦ ♦ ♦ 

As the thought develops, one discovers many fields of human 

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1917] THEORIES OF COMPENSATION • 477 

endeavor that have been held undefiled by the money motive in our 
actual civilization. These give us a hint as to the aspiration of 
Socialism whether or not they give us confidence in its promise. 
There is no doubt that religion and the professions of law, medicine, 
art, literature, architecture, teaching, do hold forth high ideals and 
the inherent worth of duty, service, personal idealism, and do 
endeavor to lead their members to find compensation in these. 
However inconspicuous the success of the effort may be, one would 
be false to facts and unjust to these great professions, were one to 
fail to keep this in mind. The devotion of parents to their chil- 
dren is not only free from the coarsening touch of money, but 
eloquent as well in declaring the force of intangible compensations 
and pure affection in the world about us. A parent who had done 
full duty to a large family, once remarked ; " It is a mistake 
for parents to expect gratitude as a form of compensation from 
their children. Compensation must be found by parents in the 
consciousness of having served the race. Whatever of gratitude 
arid devotion may come back to parents from children will be the 
good fortune and happiness of the former, but it will not be 
compensation. There can be none." There are vast numbers 
of men and women in this selfish world working silently and im- 
known and finding genuine happiness in doing work that is good, 
without a thought of compensation for it. But not even these vast 
nimibers can redeem the present world from the tyranny of money 
as a fundamental form of compensation or permit us to believe 
that the race can be so refined as to find in the intangible com- 
pensations of life, adequate stimulation for effort, self-denial and 
devotion to the common welfare. There are none of us who have 
not many times been willing to find adequate compensation for 
painstaking and unselfish labor in a simple "Thank you.'* 
WTio has not known the power of praise to stimulate us? We 
read in The Winter's Tale: " Our praises are our wages. You 
may ride's with one soft kiss, a thousand furlongs ere with spur 
we heat an acre." There are none of us who have not been filled 
with resentment, who have not found all baser motives aroused 
when that simple form of appreciation has been denied us. 

It is not easy to speak accurately when one attempts to de- 
scribe the operation of the collective emotions and purposes of 
society. As we know humanity, it is in the thralldom of economic 
fear. We have conditioned the possession of food and clothing 
and shelter no less than culture, leisure and power on the exclusive 

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478 THEORIES OF COMPENSATION [July, 

selfish possession of money. One should scarcely wonder, then, if 
money tends constantly to become an end instead of a means, and 
then after security has been won, if it becomes a symbol of nearly 
everything that one can desire. This has happened under our com- 
petitive individualistic civilization. Nor is it to be wondered at 
that the majority of us are unable to believe that Socialism can 
succeed in eliminating ecomonic fear without paying an excessive 
price, whether or not it can make unselfish ideals so intimate to 
each of us, so enduring in charm as to accc«nplish in every life 
what is now the privilege of relatively few. At any rate, the 
diflference between individualism and Socialism is immediately a 
diflference in the judgment of the capacity of human nature to be 
noble; remotely, it is a difference in the philosophy and forms of 
compensation. 

Compensation in the Old Testament. 

As already stated, the function of organized compensation in 
social life is to overcome waywardness of desire, aversions, lazi- 
ness, and to stimulate the individual to develop latent ability for 
the advantage of society as a whole. The world is supremely con- 
cerned in the willingness of individuals to socialize their behavior 
and to promote the thought, movements, inventions, efforts and re- 
nunciations upon which progress is conditioned. It is to be noted, 
furthermore, that compensation takes on color from social back- 
ground and social valuations. Men's needs, tastes, ambitions are 
not determined exclusively by themselves, but in relation to the 
organized life of which they are part. Social organization and 
valuations drew the giant intellects of the thirteenth and following 
centuries into religion and theology just as they draw the twen- 
tieth century intellect into industry and statesmanship. Read in 
the light of these truths, the Old Testament reveals many inter- 
esting features of the philosophy and forms of compensation. 

The ideals of the Jewish race were supreme in the thinking 
and aspiration of the individual Jew. Jehovah dealt with the 
Jews as the chosen people. This race was His favorite. The con- 
sciousness of the solidarity of all Jews was uppermost at all 
times. The individual thought of himself, measured himself, 
governed himself in the terms of vivid race consciousness. His 
joys and his sorrows were related to the race. They were not 
even predominantly matters of immediate personal concern. A 
stable compulsion acted upon desire, ambition, imagination and 

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1917.] THEORIES OF COMPENSATION 479 

outlook as these were shaped by race organization, race mission, 
the position of the race in the plans of Jehovah. 

God had entered into a covenant, into intimate relationship 
with this chosen people. Family, clan and tribe were widening 
concentric unities held together in the harmony of one over-ruling 
purpose. Institutions operated, standards found their established 
proportions, the precepts of morality found their meaning here. 
Vivid realization of intimate relationship with God, vivid realiza- 
tion of race solidarity, the conviction that the individual Jew was 
the representative of Jehovah on earth, holding communion with 
Him, governed every detail of life. Property served a two-fold 
purpose. It prevented the extinction of the family and preserved 
.family integrity. Any attempt to accumulate and hold property for 
purely individual purposes, was condemned as almost treason to 
the race itself. Property in land and houses was a trust from 
Jehovah for the service of the family and it was inalienable. The 
family was the basis of social life; hence the reversion of property 
in the jubilee year. Clan and nation were coordinated. The Jew 
lived under the dominion of balanced claims of family affection 
on the one hand, and loyalty to the theocratic national principle 
on the other. The giving of tithes, first fruits and first born to 
Jehovah was an impressive and constant reminder of the valuations 
and relations which governed life. Separation from other peo- 
ples, preservation of faith and customs in the family, reg^ilar in- 
dustry in the land, guided the people in quiet and retirement toward 
their divine destiny. Although in the time of the prophets, in- 
dividualism had begun to appear in the psychology of the Jew, 
race appeal, race imagination remained dominant. 

All of this must be kept in mind in judging the function and 
forms of compensation in the organized life of the Jew. The 
blessings that were promised and punishments that were threatened, 
performed the functions of compensation. They were stated almost 
exclusively in the terms of life upon earth. Allusion to eternity 
and the intangible compensations that anticipate it are extremely 
rare. Piety brings good fortune. Godlessness brings evil fortune. 
Long life, numerous progeny, flocks and herds, triumph over ad- 
versaries, victory in battle, the possession of the land, stand forth 
as the forms of compensation which stimulate the individual to 
discipline desire, to arouse ambition and hold him to the faithful 
service of his race. Shortened days, childlessness, famine, slavery, 
are penalties for unfaithfulness, fear of which should operate to t 

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48o THEORIES OF COMPENSATION [July, 

make the Jew faithful to his law. The sum of all compensations 
to the race was to be the possession of the promised land. The 
sum of all punishments was to be the dispersion of Israel, which 
would thereby become timid, maltreated and despised among the 
nations of the world. 

Thus the motives and compensations that operated in the life 
of the Jew were controlled in both number and force by the 
supremacy of the race ideal. Jewish imagination associated good 
fortune with loyalty to Jehovah, and misfortune with sin, to such 
an extent that affliction could not be understood when visited upon 
a good Jew. The friends of Job, therefore, could not understand 
his sufferings. One recalls the incident in the New Testament 
when the disciples asked : " Rabbi, who hath sinned, this man or 
his parents, that he should be bom blind? Jesus answered: 
Neither hath this man sinned nor his parents : but that the works 
of God should be made manifest in him." 

The organized compensations of social life related to the 
Jewish race rather than to the individual. It is necessary to 
keep this in mind in any effort that is made to understand the 
function and forms of compensation in the Old Testament. It 
gives us an interesting background in which to interpret the reve- 
lations made by our Divine Lord when He came as the Promised 
Redeemer. 

Compensation in the New Testament. 

Our Lord startled the world by tearing away the intangible 
confusions among which the individual was lost, and by setting him 
forth in the full personal majesty of his nature, responsible and 
immortal. Race is a fiction ; society is a fiction ; nation is a fiction 
except in as far as these act upon the individual, modifying his 
relations, indicating his duties, multiplying his resources. All of 
these are for the individual. The individual is for God. Family, 
race, tribe, institution, ideal must be tested, must be judged as 
they serve the orderly spiritual development of himian persons. 
Each man, each woman, each child must live in relation to eternity. 
Eternity is of the person, of the individual soul destined to the 
Beatific Vision. Everything that could hurt the soul was swept 
aside. Everything that could diminish the consciousness of per- 
sonal dignity and the fullness of personal responsibility before 
God for thought and word and act, was made secondary, acci- 
dental, unimportant except when measured in relation to the 

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1917] THEORIES OF COMPENSATION 481 

spiritual welfare of men. Although the Gospel was to the Jew 
first and to the Greek, it was in fact the message of God to all 
men for all time. 

The individual was thus emancipated from all social confusion 
and set forth as a responsible person, an individual. Revelation 
corrected all mistakes in his self -estimate, for it declared him to 
be the child of God, full brother of his fellowmen, spiritual not 
carnal, of heaven, not of earth, of eternity, not of time. 

Under this astounding teaching of Our Lord, the individual 
remained still free, wayward in desire, reluctant in self-discipline, 
temperamentally lazy or energetic and capable of development as 
he had been and as he has remained. But Christ set Himself forth 
as the W^y, the Truth and the Life. God alone is compensation. 
Union with Him is the single inclusive destiny of life. All com- 
pensations find their form and meaning as they lead toward Him. 
No compensation whatsoever, let it be in money or in self-satis- 
faction or in the service of others or in culture, is worthy or ef- 
fective except as it is acceptable to God, serving to clarify our 
vision of Him and strengthen the impulse to duty. Eternity is 
set forth with appealing grandeur. Heaven is compensation. The 
beautiful story told of St. Thomas conveys the lesson with a strik- 
ing force. The narrative states that Our Lord said, " Thou hast 
written well of Me, Thomas. What reward shall I give thee?" 
The saint answered, " Nothing, Lord, save Thee." 

Although Our Lord emancipated the individual from all con- 
fusing race relations and social standards, the latter remains, never- 
theless, social. His life is lived in organized relation with fellow- 
men. Natural desires, tastes, needs, ambitions were not modified 
except in as far as spiritual ideals and supernatural strength gave 
to the individual new motive and power. It still remains neces- 
sary for organized society to build up systematic forms of com- 
pensation. It is still necessary to coordinate activity, to arouse 
ambition, to develop latent ability and to foster the interest of 
social progress. At no time in the Christian era has it been possible 
to dispense with the forms of compensation which indicate con- 
cession to our lower nature. Throughout Christian history the 
individualism that found its beginning in the teaching of Christ has 
operated until it has penetrated through political, industrial and 
social institutions. Throughout these centuries, we have had many 
forms and philosophies of compensation. They have been cultural, 
economic, religious. The drift of the world has been away from 

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482 THEORIES OF COMPENSATION [July, 

spiritual truth and the spiritual estimate of the individual; away 
from the spiritual compensations that are part and parcel of the 
spiritual individualism taught by Christ. Civilization has set in 
the remote background this spiritual philosophy and its compensa- 
tions. It has set back also, although in a less marked way, the 
political and cultural compensations. It has assumed, quite in antith- 
esis with Christ, that selfishness and a form of materialism mean 
more to civilization than the unselfishness and spirituality which 
Our Lord clothed in incomparable charm. Thus, money has be- 
come the fundamental form of organized compensation much to 
the detriment of the spiritual compensations established by Our 
^Lord to govern human life. 

The Christian Dilemma. 

All systems of compensation are coexistent. One may today 
organize life according to the coarse compensations of individual- 
ism, or in harmony with the unselfish compensations of Socialism. 
The Jewish dispensation has passed away, but Christ's law endures 
forever. It is contemporary in every century. We are called to 
test our attachments to money and to race or nation by the spiritual 
standards of Christ. He must make our selfishness pure and 
our spiritual idealism practical. We must fight against social ap- 
preciation of money which all but overwhelms us, and remain un- 
disturbed by the social depreciation of the Christian compensations 
that we hold in reverence. It is no easy task for the natural man 
to believe with practical trust that " all these things '* will be 
added when we " seek first the Kingdom of God and His Justice." 
Yet God alone is compensation. Happy they who know this and 
find in Him their enduring peace. 

The law of Christ remains supreme for the believer. God is 
the supreme compensation. Duty is law, regardless of conse- 
quences. No compensation in either distinction, honor, power 
or wealth is worthy or approved except in as far as it leaves the 
soul unstained, the spiritual vision unclouded, the spiritual impulses 
unimpaired. All compensations in wealth, honor, distinction, 
power, praise are wholesome and acceptable in as far as they leave 
undisturbed the harmony of the individual's relation to God and to 
his fellowmen. 



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HOW DRYDEN BECAME A CATHOLIC. 

BY BROTHER LEO, F.S.C. 

N the year 1686, John Dryden, then fifty-seven years 
of age, withdrew from the Church of England and 
entered the Roman Catholic Communion. In his 
young manhood he had been sufficiently attached to 
the Puritan position to write a poem on the death 
of Oliver Cromwell; and subsequently he was attracted to the 
fashionable skepticism of the Restoration period. After middle 
age, however, Dryden turned seriously to religion, as we see from 
his Religio Laid, which is a layman's defence of the Church of 
England, and from his metrical fable of The Hind and the Pan- 
ther, which, written after his conversion to Catholicism, is a tribute 
to the excellence of his new-found Faith. He lived a Catholic 
during the troublous days of the Catholic King James II. as well 
as during the reign of the Protestant monarchs, William and Mary; 
and a Catholic he died in the last year of the seventeenth century. 
Such, in brief, are the essential facts concerning the religious 
history of John Dryden. He was not the only Englishman of his 
day who, brought up a Protestant, became a Catholic ; but Dryden, 
partly by reason of his prominence as a man of letters and partly 
because of the enthusiasm with which he rushed to the defence 
of the Church of St. Peter, has been singled out for harsh and 
ill-tempered criticism. Writers ranging in scholarship, scope and 
viewpoint from Macaulay to Professor Christie, have represented 
him as insincere and worldly-wise, as a time-ser\Tr and an oppor- 
tunist ; and Dr. Johnson and Scott have come but reluctantly and 
half-heartedly to his defence. Professor Saintsbury, after a care- 
ful and judicious investigation of the fads in the case, declares 
Dryden's conversion to Catholicism to have been " thoroughly 
sincere as far as conscious sincerity went ; " but, he hastens to 
add, " of a certain amount of unconscious insincerity I am by no 
means disposed to acquit him." The upshot of it all is that Dryden 
was a good Puritan when the Cromwells were dominant, that 
Dryden was a loyal Episcopalian under Charles II., and that 
Dryden became an ardent Catholic when the Catholic Duke of 
York ascended the throne. An overwhelming majority of the 

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484 HOW DRYDEN BECAME A CATHOLIC [July, 

writers on English history and literature would have us believe 
that, in no very complimentary sense, John Dryden was all things 
to all kings. 

Is there justification for such an estimate of his character 
and motives ? Are not practically all his critics, inheritors by blood 
and breeding of the " anti-Popish " tradition, victims of the " un- 
conscious insincerity " with which Dryden has been charged ? Has 
not the violent and ingrained hostility to the Catholic Church which 
brought about such splenetic national epidemics as the Gordon 
Riots been a sub-conscious factor in their decision that Dryden 
acted dishonestly in adopting what Scott calls " the more corrupted 
form of our religion?" An investigation of Dryden's religious 
mutations will show that the poet laureate's conversion to Cathol- 
icism was not only sincere and consistent, but, when his type of 
mind is taken into account, almost inevitable; and that the steps 
which led him from Puritanism to Catholicism constitute an inter- 
esting contribution to the psychology of religious belief. 

I. 

Dry den's youthful adherence to the more extreme or austere 
form of Protestantism known as Puritanism was the most natural 
thing in the world. The Pickerings, his mother's family, were 
Puritans; and hi? uncle. Sir John Dryden, was among the most 
enthusiastic supporters of Cromwell. The poet's grandfather. Sir 
Erasmus Dryden, was regarded as a martyr to the Puritan cause, 
having been sent to prison a few years before his death in 1632 
for refusing to pay loan money to King Charles I. The poet's 
family traditions were Puritan traditions, and his early environ- 
ment was a Puritan environment. 

The Puritan influence on Dryden was doubtless considerably 
modified during his school days at Westminster under that stanch 
royalist, Dr. Richard Busby, whom the poet held in lifelong re- 
gard ; and when he matriculated at Trinity Collie, Cambridge, in 
1650, the Puritan atmosphere there, as we learn from Pepys, had 
appreciably thinned. But as a political party, Puritanism was still 
dominant, so it is not surprising that, when Cromwell died in 
1658, Dryden, then in his later twenties, should write his heroic 
stanzas in commemoration of the Lord Protector. 

Dryden's temperament and cast of mind had anything but a 
natural slant in the direction of Puritan ideals; but even had 



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1917] HOW DRYDEN BECAME A CATHOLIC 485 

we no evidence but the poem itself, we should be justified in con- 
cluding that, despite his family heritage and his early environment, 
Dryden did not share the fervid devotion to Puritanism possessed 
by his uncle and his grandfather. The heroic stanzas are emphati- 
cally pedestrian stanzas, and they lack the vigor and the bounding 
enthusiasm which distinguish most of Dryden's poetry. This may 
be accounted for in part on the hypothesis that the poet had not 
as yet mastered the art of writing; but in matter no less than in 
manner the poem is conventional, perfunctory. It is a tribute to 
Cromwell ; but by no stretch of appreciation can it be characterized 
as a glowing tribute. 

Dryden, in short, was a Puritan by virtue of family and 
training, but not through conviction. Puritanism was the garment 
in which his infant body had been swathed, but it failed signally 
to grow with its wearer. As a form of religion it never appealed 
to him. As a political faction it was in the ascendency during his 
young manhood, its leading figure had assumed the proportions of 
a national hero, so expediency, if nothing else, would lead Dryden 
to respect the power of Puritanism and to entertain a dutiful regard 
toward the Lord Protector. If the heroic stanzas demonstrate one 
thing more than another it is that Dryden's veneration of Crom- 
well was elicited by the politician rather than by the religionist. At 
the time the poem was written and for some years afterward, Dry- 
den had no definite religious views at all. He was a man who 
developed slowly. While many of his contemporaries were out of 
college before they were out of their teens, Dryden was twenty- 
three before he received his bachelor's degree. He achieved 
prominence as a man of letters when in the thirties, and his best 
work was not done imtil two decades later. He required nearly a 
lifetime to formulate his theory of literature, the development of 
which may be traced in his essays dating from 1668 to 1699. 
And so he took a correspondingly long time to orientate himself in 
religious matters, especially as with him religion was a thing more 
of the head than of the heart. 

11. 

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. 

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486 HOW DRYDEN BECAME A CATHOLIC [July, 

In these lines from The Hind and the ,Pantlter, Dryden sum- 
marizes the history of his religious experience from his youth to 
the time when, seeing the necessity of a visible Church and a body 
of definite dogma, he wrote a defence of the established form of 
religion in his Religio Laid, During his long London career as a 
dramatist and a writer of political satires, extending roughly from 
1662 to 1682, Dryden was an exceedingly busy man; and the busy 
man has proverbially neither time nor inclination to puzzle himself 
over religious problems. But Dryden was no recluse poet living in 
an attic, and his interest in the theatre, his attendance at those 
interminable discussions at the coffee houses and his connection 
with the court of Charles II., where from 1670 he occupied 
the posts of poet laureate and royal historiographer, kept him 
thoroughly in touch with current thought. Now the Restoration 
drama — including Dryden's own contributions to it — was the most 
frankly immoral period of the English stage; the habitues of the 
coflFee houses were chiefly literary workers of the perennial Bo- 
hemian stripe and wits who made great parade of their fashion- 
able skepticism; and the king, whose shameless profligacy was 
equaled only by his utter lack of religious convictions, set an ex- 
ample to the court. It is not surprising that Dryden ", followed 
false lights." 

The thinkers of the day — and Dryden was nothing if not a 
thinker — ^burnt their incense before the shrine of John Hobbes. 
Hobbes' vogue was greatest during the decade preceding his death 
in 1679. His theory of the absolute nature of state rights, his 
doctrines of extreme materialism, his adaptation of many of the 
principles laid down by Descartes, his embodiment of that down- 
right if shortsighted quality of common sense always so dear to 
the English mind, his occasional use of eminently quotable epigrams 
and his not less eminently convenient looseness of terminology, all 
tended to insure his popularity. He had his disciples, his imi- 
tators and his middlemen — " wandering fires " that left their 
charred and blackened spots on subsequent English philosophic 
thought. 

It was inevitable that Dryden, who was not only in his age 
but of it, should fall under the influence of Hobbes; that he had 
read the English philosopher we know from a passage in his essay, 
On Translating the Poets, And it was furthermore inevitable, 
owing to the peculiar bent of his mind, that, having absorbed 
the current principles of polite skepticism, he should formulate 



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1917] HOIV DRYDEN BECAME A CATHOLIC 487 

some theories on his own account. That .this is precisely what 
happened we have his own assurance: 

and when their glimpse was gone 

My pride struck out new sparkles of her own. 

Should we desire more evidence that such was Dryden's nor- 
mal mental process, we have it in the manner in which he developed 
his theory of poetry and the drama. His earlier essays concern 
themselves with a re-statement and comparison of the theories 
underlying represeiitative writers, ancient and modern; his later 
essays, based upon his own work as poet and dramatist, are the 
embodiment of the theories of his art wrought out of its practice 
during many years. The famous essay, Of Dratnatic Poesy, is a 
presentation of divergent views concerning the use of rhyme and 
allied topics; and though the author takes a part in the discussion 
as one of the four participants in the dialogue, he does not commit 
himself with any degree of definiteness. He is here what Hamalius 
styles him, the great compromiser. But he does not rest here. 
When we turn to the preface to his translation of Virgil or to his 
essay. On Translating the Poets, we see that after some twenty- 
five years he has secured a large measure of critical independence 
and sureness of touch, and has made a distinct selection from the 
store of poetical theory bequeathed him from the past. Here, like 
the prudent householder in the Gospel, he draws from his treasure 
both new things and old. 

For another reason it rs well that we should not forget Dry- 
den's development as a critic of poetry and the drama, for that 
development had an indisputable effect on his religious status. His 
years of experimentation with literary forms taught him what in 
the last century years of literary analysis taught the novelist Bour- 
get — ^the necessity of authority. A powerful motive in bringing the 
French novelist to his knees was his recognition of the fact that 
mere impressionism, either in art or in morals, makes for ultimate 
chaos. It was a somewhat similar chain of reasoning that led 
Brunetiere to exclaim: "If you wish to know what I believe, go 
to Rome and find out ! " 

John Dryden had at least one thing in common with Ferdinand 
Brunetiere. That is what Professor Saintsbury calls ** a consider- 
able touch of the scholastic.'' And Scott expresses the same thought 
in a slightly different form : " The distinguishing characteristic of 

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488 HOIV DRYDEN BECAME A CATHOLIC [July, 

Dryden's genius seems to have been the power of reasoning, and 
of expressing the result in appropriate language." Now when a 
man reasons concerning literary matters — ^and it is a process that 
not all who call themselves critics deign to employ — he is not long 
in reaching a point where he perceives the need of standards; and 
the existence of standards implies the necessity of authority. And 
such a man — if he meddle with religious matters at all — ^must be 
led, by even more cogent reasons, to recognize there, too, the neces- 
sity of dogmatic teaching. 

That such, at all events, was the case with Dryden we have 
more than mere conjecture. His poem, Religio Laid, is his profes- 
sion of belief in the existence of the spiritual sense in man, and of 
his recognition of a teaching Church which is the custodian of 
Divine revelation. In the preface — ^an invaluable document to 
one who would trace the evolution of the author's religious be- 
lief — while maintaining that he is " naturally inclined to skepticism 
in philosophy," he insists that religion is something infinitely above 
philosophy, and " that we have not lifted up ourselves to God by 
the weak pinions of our reason, but He has been pleased to descend 
to us." 

Despite the fact that in the body of the poem as in the preface 
he misreads the bearing of the Athanasian Creed, scoflFs — ^as only 
Dryden can scoff — ^at the claims of the Roman communion, ex- 
presses his fear of that eternal bugaboo, the Jesuit, and in other 
ways shows himself loyal to the tradition of English Protestantism, 
he nevertheless makes a powerful, if unwitting, argument in favor 
of the Catholic Church. He answers objections against the fact 
of a revealed religion; he insists upon the inspiration of Scripture; 
he emphasizes the authenticity of at least a portion of tradition, 
though he is not certain as to what principle should guide in dis- 
criminating between the true and the spurious; he is obviously 
impressed with the advantage of the doctrine of Papal Infallibility, 
though he endeavors to disprove its possession by the Church of 
Rome. 

Every open-minded reader of Religio Laid must agree, in 
essentials, with the following estimate of it by Scott : 

In considering Dryden's creed thus analyzed, I think it will 
appear that the author, though still holding the doctrines of 
the Church of England, has been biassed, in the course of his 
inquiry, by those of Rome. His wish for the possibility of an 
infallible guide, expressed with almost indecent ardor, the diffi- 

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1917] HOW DRYDEN BECAME A CATHOLIC . 489 

culty, nay, it would seem, in his estimation, almost the im- 
possibility, of discriminating between corrupted and authentic 
traditions, while the necessity of the latter to the interpreta- 
tion of Scripture is plainly admitted, appear, upon the whole, 
to have left the poet's mind in an unpleasing state of doubt, 
frcwn which he rather escapes than is relieved. He who only 
acquiesces to the doctrine of his Church, because the exercise 
of his private judgment may disturb the tranquillity of the 
State, can hardly be said to be in a state to give a reason for 
the faith that is in him. 

III. 

In 1686, four years after the appearance of his Religio Laid, 
Dryden was received into the Catholic Church. That the Catholic 
sovereign, James II., had ascended the throne of England early 
in the preceding year is often emphasized as a significant fact 
relative to the poet laureate's change of faith; but the truth ap- 
pears to be that the accession of the former monarch's brother was 
not even a minor motive of Dryden's renunciation of Protestantism. 
Dryden needed no such play for favor to stand in the good graces 
of the new rigime. He had really nothing to gain. Already, 
and prior to his conversion, he had been continued by James in 
his offices of poet laureate and royal historiographer. Long be- 
fore he had given any manifestation of a leaning toward the 
Catholic Faith, he had indirectly lent his influence to the succession 
of the Duke of York by his Absalom and Achitophel, a bitter sa- 
tire on the attempts of Shaftesbury to insure the crown to Charles' 
illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth. That performance had 
doubtless been prompted less by devotion to James Stuart than 
by opposition to certain prominent members of the Monmouth 
faction ; but nevertheless, when James came to the throne, Dryden 
could say with Othello, " I have done the state some service, and 
they know it." 

He had nothing to gain; and he had much to lose. What- 
ever else may be thought of Dryden, it can at least be confidently 
stated that he was no fool ; and he was sufficiently conversant with 
both the character of James and the temperament of the English 
people to foresee the conflict that in a few short months was to 
become so sad a reality. That he did foresee the eventual dis- 
comfiture of the Catholics is sufficiently indicated in the episode 
of the swallows in the third part of The Hind and the Panther, 

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490 HOW DRYDEN BECAME A CATHOLIC [July, 

Had he not lived in London in the days of Titus Oates and the 
frenzy of the alleged Popish Plot? In order tojnsure the con- 
tinued enjoyment of his cakes and ale it was neither necessary nor 
desira*ble that he should adopt the religion of the man who had 
taken a palpably precarious seat on the throne of England. As a 
matter of fact — Macaulay to the contrary notwithstanding — his 
conversion brought him no advantage that he did not already pos- 
sess. From the point of view of worldly <^isdom his safest course 
would have been to sit tight and keep still and watch the way the 
winds blew. 

In becoming a Catholic, eveh were he assured that the new 
king would be safe from deposition, Dryden exposed himself to 
serious inconveniences. He was a prominent man, and he had a 
sufficiency of personal and professional enemies who, he must have 
foreseen, would be ready enough to doubt the sincerity of his con- 
version. Dryden was no saint; but he had one thing in common 
with the most notable ornaments of sainthood — ^he suffered on 
account of his faith. The announcement of his conversion was 
the signal for a broadside of abuse and ridicule from the riff-raff 
of the rhyming tribe which continued not only to the time of his 
death, but even broke out with indecent violence on the occasion 
of his public funeral. And its spirit survives to this day in the 
treatment accorded Dryden by writers whom we might reasonably 
expect to exercise more discernment. Nowadays we hold, at least 
in theory, that a man's change of mind concerning a religious prob- 
lem is that man's own business. A vastly different opinion pre- 
vailed in seventeenth century England, and this applied with es- 
pecial force to the man who might announce his conversion to the 
Catholic Faith. So Dryden's conversion to Catholicism necessi- 
tated, to some extent, a readjustment of his whole life, a process 
which comes none too easily to a man well on in his fifties. Dry- 
den reckoned with all these things, which he certainly would not 
have done were his conversion a mere change of face to suit the 
new and uncertain completion of the royal court. 

An excellent specimen of the attitude of the present-day critic 
toward this important event in Dryden's career, is afforded in the 
following words from Professor Christie: 

It would be difficult in any case to give Dryden credit for 
perfect sincerity and disinterestedness in his adoption of the 
Roman Catholic religion, after James II. became king; 

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1917.] HOIV DRYDEN BECAME A CATHOLIC 491 

but his antecedents and general character make this altogether 
impossible. Dryden's temperament was by no means of that 
sort which engenders sudden conversions. He was not im- 
pulsive, and he had no enthusiasm. His clear sharp intellect, 
and his strong critical faculty, made it easy for him to see 
faults and flaws, and protected him against all fanaticism. 
His Religio Laici is the mature expression of a faith which is 
more of the head than of the heart: it is the religion of a 
calm and clear-sighted man, who has reasoned himself into 
accepting a quantum of theology, and desires as little dogma 
as possible. 

It would be difficult to find a more complete misreading of 
the facts. We have seen that Dryden's " antecedents and general 
character '' constitute a gradual and increasingly forceful develop- 
ment in the direction of Catholicism, and that his conversion was 
very far from being in any sense a sudden conversion. The Re- 
ligio Laici is written from the viewpoint of a man who has indeed 
" reasoned himself into accepting a quantum of theology, and de- 
sires as little dogma as possible," but it is so written simply because 
a clear and consistent thinker with a scholastic trend of mind could 
find in the Established Church but a modicum of theology and 
dogma to accept. It is easy to see that at the back of Professor 
Christie's mind lies intrenched that stubborn Protestant tradition 
which identifies the Catholic Faith with fanaticism, ^nd regards 
conversion to that faith as a step backward out of light into dark- 
ness. It is the Protestant tradition fostered by the annual ob- 
servance of Guy Fawkes Day, the tradition that expressed itself 
in such diverting manifestations as the Popish Plot agitation and 
the Gordon Riots, and which to this day leads some of the other- 
wise clearest heads in England to look upon such men as Cardinal 
Newman as unfortunate reactionaries. 

Dryden gave, in his own way, a reason for the faith that was 
in him by publishing, in April, 1687, his second religious poem. 
The Hind and the Panther, That he already felt and rightly ap- 
preciated the personal hostility which his conversion to Catholicism 
brought about is indicated in the opening paragraph of his preface. 
"All men," he tells us, "are engaged either on this side or that; 
and though conscience is the common word which is given by both, 
yet if a writer fall among enemies and cannot give the marks of 
their conscience, he is knocked down before the reasons for his 
own are heard." In the poem itself he provides a reliable key , 

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492 HOIV DRYDEN BECAME A CATHOLIC [July, 

to his conversion in his insistence on the necessity of an infallible 
Church : 

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. 

O teach me to believe Thee thus concealed, 

And search no farther than Thyself revealed ; 

But her alone for my director take. 

Whom Thou hast promised never to forsake! 
an an an $^ 

Why choose we then like bilanders to creep 
Along the coast, and land in view to keep, 
When safely we may launch into the deep? 
In the same vessel which our Saviour bore. 
Himself the pilot, let us leave the shore. 
And with a better guide a better world explore. 

And so, in the course of his extended fable, wherein the 
Catholic Church is the " milk-white Hind " and the Established 
Church the " spotted Panther," Dryden reviews the religious situ- 
ation in England in the days of James II., and sets forth for all 
who care to read with unprejudiced eyes the motives that led him 
to Rome. If any further proof of the sincerity of his conversion 
were needed, we have it in his attitude of kindly consideration to- 
ward those whom until recently he had called his brethren in the 
faith. He is harsh enough toward the " buffoon Ape," the Free- 
thinker, the " bristled Baptist Boar," the Anabaptist, and the " in- 
satiate Wolf," the Presbyterian; but the " Panther " is 

sure the noblest next the Hind, 

And fairest creature of the spotted kind. 

In this Dryden recalls St. Augustine who, after his conversion to 
orthodox Christianity, was always more kindly disposed toward 
his former co-religionists, the Manicheans, than toward the Dona- 
tists and other heretics. We entertain a not entirely groundless 
suspicion of the neophyte who with indecent haste proceeds to 
throw stones at his erstwhile brethren. 

But the ultimate and unanswerable proof of Dryden's good 

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1917] HOIV DRYDEN BECAME A CATHOLIC 493 

faith is his perseverence in Catholicism. Shortly after the acces- 
sion of William and Mary, he lost his yearly pension of one 
hundred pounds, his place in the customs, his post as royal his- 
toriographer and his office of poet laureate; and, to make the cup 
the more bitter, he saw his old enemy Shadwell, whom he had 
excoriated in MacFlecknoe, garlanded with the laureateship. 
Thus Dryden, because he was guilty of the unpardonable crime of 
being a Catholic, was left destitute when almost sixty years of 
age. Why, if he had been a time-server and an opportunist all 
his life, did he not renounce his new-found faith and curry favor 
with William of Orange? The thing has been done many a time 
by men whose interest has ventured largely in the location of the 
flesh pots. But instead Dryden resumed his pen and eked out 
what existence he could by writing more plays and engaging in 
translations. When he died, a Catholic, in 1700, he left no will; 
there was practically nothing to leave. 

We have seen that Dryden's conversion to Catholicism was 
the final link in a chain of religious experience which in its es- 
sentials is representative of a large number of men who have come 
by devious ways into the Catholic Church. The Puritanism in 
which he had been brought up never, profoundly affected him, and 
he sloughed it in his young manhood. Next he adopted the 
fashionable skepticism of the times ; but his cast of mind was Such 
that he could not permanently content himself with a negative 
attitude toward religion, and the outcome was his mature adhesion 
to the Episcopal form of belief. This, with his earnestness and 
thoroughgoing powers of analysis, he sifted and weighed; and, 
finding it wanting in certain of the marks of the Church of Christ, 
he proceeded, as a last resort, to examine the claims of the Catholic 
Church, with the result that he could consistently exclaim : " Good 
life be now my task; my doubts are done! " 

It may be urged that in that very line Dryden stands self -con- 
demned; that Dryden, neither before nor after his conversion to 
Catholicism, was conspicuous for sanctity. Certaintly, not even his 
most ardent admirers would have the hardihood to keep his canoni- 
zation; but on the other hand we have no reason for supposing 
that his profession of aiming at a good life was a mere rhetorical 
effusion. The plays that he wrote in his first dramatic period 
are undeniably foul, and the fact that they are not more so than 
most contemporary dramas — dramas that have today fallen into an 
eminently deserved neglect— does not excuse them. It is true like- j 

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494 tiOW DRYDEN BECAME A CATHOLIC [July, 

wise that much that he wrote subsequent to his conversion is decid- 
edly strong meat for babes ; but Dryden was a man of his times and 
he wrote for his times, and though his public acknowledgment 
of his breaches of good taste and decency does not condone his 
offences, it at least serves to remind us that he regretted his pro- 
fessional shortcomings. As to his private life, his enemies have 
gone through his career most thoroughly in their search for moral 
lapses, and the most they have been able to unearth is that he was 
once beaten by hired ruffians, that he generally knew a good thing 
when he wrote it, that he was not happily married and that, in the 
days of his youth, he was once discovered in the heinous act of 
discussing a tart with an actress, properly chaperoned. Verily, 
from such sins may we all be delivered ! 

The obverse of his character is given by his contemporary, 
the dramatist Congreve : " He was of a nature exceedingly himiane 
and compassionate; easily forgiving injuries, and capable of a 
prompt and sincere reconciliation with them who had offended him 

His friendship, where he professed it, went much beyond his 

professions, and I have been told of strong and generous instances 

of it by the persons themselves who received them To the best 

of my knowledge and observation he was of all men that ever I 
knew one of the most modest, and the most easily to be dis- 
countenanced in his approaches to his superiors or his equals.*' 

A supernatural element inheres in all conversions; God makes 
use often of natural means to bring men to a realization of right 
and truth, but His grace is the essential and ever-present moving 
power. It stands to the eternal credit of John Dryden, poet, dra- 
matist, satirist and critic, that he did not turn aside when the 
Divine Hand stretched out to him and led him on. 



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THE STRATEGISTS. 



BY THOMAS B. REILLY. 




HEN, on two previous occasions, Peter had strayed 
into the star-smitten reahn of romance, he had found 
the historical roles reversed and himself the pur- 
sued, whereupon he had instantly foregone his rights 
in the premises and fled incontinently. Now, how- 
ever, at five and twenty, he flattered himself that he had discovered 
a plan to destroy utterly the advances of the acquisitive. And, 
if, by some miraculous connivance of circumstance, he could escape 
the fatal assistance of his Aunt Cornelia, he hadn't the shadow 
of a doubt that his present delectable adventure would end with 
the golden symbol of eternity. So keen were his feelings on this 
point that, without exactly cutting the lines of communication, he 
had purposely refrained from answering his aunt's last letter, now 
almost six weeks overdue! In the light of past performances, such 
neglect was little short of felonious. Peter, however, didn't feel 
at all like a felon. He felt, if anything, like a master strategist. 
And thereby runs a tale. 

Peter drew in his chair to the breakfast table to find beside 
his plate two letters, each of which bore the Paris post-mark. 
The handwriting on one of the envelopes claimed attention, 
wherefore he hastily slit the cover to get at the heart of the matter. 
It w^as a message from his still loyal but somewhat complaining 
conspirator, the estimable James Spencer Barton. An unraveling 
of the chirographic tangle resulted in the following: 

Friend Peter : 

Do you know that she is in Paris? Fact. Met her last 
evening. Had dinner together. Don't be alarmed. I lived up 
to my part in your fictitious scheme of things. Fine role you 
picked for me in your personally conducted comedy, " Loved 
For Himself Alone!" 

Don't suppose you've had a look at her mightiness, the 
Duchess of San Bernardino? From what I gathered last eve- 
ning, she's about as freezingly precise as she is coldly beautiful. 
And yet — she seems to be alive to the humor of things. What 
American ever did forfeit that blessed birthright ! 

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496 THE STRATEGISTS [July, 

Miss L was under the impression that Fd given you a 

month's leave of absence. I told her that you'd abandoned 
your sinecure with me under the perfectly original delusion that 
the world owed your literary genius immediate recogniticm. 
I'm surprised at your lack of invention. 

Do you know, I can't reconcile myself to the thought of a 
girl like Miss Loring having to earn bread and butter as a 
governess. And I don't think you're helping matters by not 
playing fair. Personally, I'm through with this deception. 
There's a limit to my imagination. Besides I've developed a 
conscience. Moreover, she's in love with you — you scoundrel. 

Peter, smiling superiorly, picked up the remaining missive 
and, a few seconds later, was in full cry after the following : 

Dear Peter: 

At a peremptory stunmons from the duchess, I left Lx>ndon 
ahead of time. I've been spending a few days in Paris, but 
shall be at San Bernardino tomorrow. 

Why didn't you tell me you were writing a novel? You 
can guess the source of that information. He and I had dinner 
together last night. Are you sure there's no misunderstand- 
ing about your being on a leave of absence? Mr. Spencer 
thinks you've left him for good. 

You don't expect to get rich writing silly tales for idlers, 
I hope! How many times must I tell you not to worry about 
money. I'm glad that you are poor. I could be perfectly 
happy with water and a crust, as long as my husband's heart 
was all mine, as mine would be all his. Money seeds the heart 
with suspicions. 

I can't say just how soon I'll be able to see you. The duchess 
is very strict. Under no circumstance, remember, are you to 
send me letters by post. And don't prowl about the grounds. 

I shall be within a stone's throw of you tomorrow, won't I ? 
And I haven't seen you in almost three weeks. Are you 
famished? Ruth. 

" Famished ! " he echoed, and forthwith made a dash for 
the garden. He was diligently scrutinizing the neighboring land- 
scape of San Bernardino, when his hostess, Marianna Morello, hove 
to in the offing. Whereupon he launched a pertinent inquiry. 

" Suppose," he submitted, " suppose I were caught trespassing 
on those lovely lawns over there, would the duke set the dogs on 
me, do you think ? " 

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1917] THE STRATEGISTS 497 

'' Mache! '' exclaimed Marianna scornfully, " the duke is a 
gentleman/' 

" Ah/' murmured Peter as one reassured. 

" If you care to visit the castle/' suggested Marianna, " you 
may do so any Thursday, from one to three, by appointment." 

" I may ! " he cried. 

" Certainly," she threw out briskly. " It is well worth a visit. 
There are beautiful pictures and tapestries and — " 

"Ladies?" he suggested hopefully. 

" Not of the family," returned Marianna decisively. " Two 
men servants will conduct the visitors. It is a concession. Many 
travelers are interested in works of art. You could write for 
permission to see the galleries next Thursday." 

" I haven't the faintest desire," remarked Peter dreamingly. 
And, as his audience stood frowning incomprehension, he ex- 
plained : " There's only one object over there that really claims 
my interest, but it isn't on exhibition. And as long as I can't see 
that one, I won't see the others. They'd annoy me." 

" I never heard of that one," mused Marianna, frowning. 

" Of course not," agreed Peter. " It arrived only yesterday 
from Paris. But it's worth all the rest of the ducal collection put 
together. I wish I could give you even a faint notion of its exquisite 
charm, its rare desirability. But I can't. Some day, however, I'll 
let you have a glimpse. Until then you must exercise patience, 
and I'm not to prowl around the ducal domain." 

Marianna regarded him suspiciously, but without comment. 
Whereupon Peter conjectured : " We should know the worst in 
a week at latest." 

But he didn't have to wait that long, since the afternoon post 
brought him a letter charged with alarming news, but comforting 
in certain of its declarations. It informed him : 

Dear Peter: 

I'm here at last — a little Miss Nobody among a lot of Some- 
bodies. The lords and ladies of the realm aren't wasting time 
over me. Aren't you glad? Of course, there's the usual ex- 
, ception, but I've already crushed him with a look. Aren't you 
flattered ! 

I intended coming over to take tea with you tomorrow, but 
it's out of the question now. Something disagreeable has hap- 
pened. The duchess is up in arms. We've had a row. She 
and I quarreled about you. I can't imagine where she learned 
VOL. cv. — 32 

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498 THE STRATEGISTS [July, 

of our affair. But you mustn't blame her. She feels respon- 
sible for me, as indeed she is. 

Just now discretion is everything. I may not be able to see 
you for some time. But when I do, you shall have your 
answer. The quarrel has helped me understand myself. It's 
an ill wind, isn't it? But there are ever so many important 
things I want to talk over with you. I dread to do so, because, 
perhaps, you won't be able to see some matters in just the 
light that I do. And if you don't? But, of course, you will. 

Ruth. 

Peter read the revelation again, literally and between the lines, 
but with no appreciable effect upon his mounting apprehensions. 

A sharp summons from the doorway brought him back to the 
grosser realities of the moment. 

" A visitor wishes to see you," announced Marianna. 

" A visitor? " he wondered, jmtiping to his feet. 

" Here is the card," said Marianna. " The lady is sitting 
under the trees in the garden." 

" Why — er — good heavens," said Peter, glancing at the card, 
" it's my aunt. Did you tell her I was at home ? " 

" Certainly," replied Marianna. 

" Hm — ^m," said Peter, " in that case, I'll be down presently. 
And you'd better draw some fresh tea." 

Five minutes later he was undergoing the scrutiny of a some- 
what oldish lady, who was saying : " I dare say you are surprised 
to see me." 

" Frankly speaking," he returned, " I am. I didn't dream of 
meeting you here. If you'll share some — " 

" A cup of tea, nothing more," she stipulated. " I've just come 
from Siena, having a call to make in the neighborhood. I thought 
it well to look you up. I never knew you were fond of the 
country." 

" W — e — 1 — 1," he offered amusingly, " I felt the need of a 
change. I was tired of the boulevards, the butterflies, the gadflies 
and the noise." 

" Indeed," said she, examining his countenance, " nothing 
more serious, I hope?" 

"Would that drive me to the country, do you think?" he 
countered. 

" It has driven men to stranger places," she declared. " Be- 
sides, I can't exactly imagine you as a lover of desert places." 

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I9I7-] THE STRATEGISTS 499 

'* I don't catcfi the point/' admitted Peter, frowning. 

" Well," she enlightened him, " ours was always a marrying 
family. Its men folk, especially, stepped off early and lived to 
green old ages. There was never a shirker among them." 

" Oh — o," murmured Peter, and then : *' Their reward shall 
be exceeding g^reat." 

" It shall, indeed," she affirmed. " And when, pray, are you 
going to settle down? You're not willfully blind, I hope? " 

" On the contrary," he hastened to assure her, " but I prefer 
a woman that will have a thought for me and not for my purse." 

" Faith in womankind has always been a bright tradition in 
the family," was the accusing reminder. 

" Exactly," he conceded, " and our women have never cared 
for money, but for their children, husbands and homes. That's the 
sort of a woman I've been waiting for." 

" And have you found her? " asked his aunt with a wondering 
smile. 

And suddenly Peter's position dawned upon him. He was on 
thin ice. Nevertheless, he sensed an opportunity, wherefore he 
inquired : " What would you give to know ? " 

" A bit of advice that you'd find as priceless as it is im- 
portant," said she, tapping his arm with her fan. 

" Hm — ^m," he returned, wondering, " and what may that 
be?" 

" Marry her," was the prompt reply. " Who is she? " 

But just then their tea arrived. And it was not until Marianna 
had taken her departure that Mrs. Farrington reminded her nephew 
of the unanswered question with a little peremptory " Well ? " 
Whereupon, with purpose aforethought, he broke the news : 

"A poor, little, brow-beaten governess, innocent as a babe, 
bright as the sun, beautiful as a dream." 

" A likely story," threw out his aunt dryly. 

" It's the virgin truth," asserted Peter solemnly. 

" Love is, indeed, blind," murmured the other, lending herself 
to the business of the tea things. 

" I don't exactly get — " began Peter. 

" You will when she has captured you — and your money," 
laughed his aunt cynically. 

" Ah," said Peter, jubilant, " you're all astray. She thinks 
I'm more poverty-stricken than herself." 

" You ! " exclaimed his aunt. 

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500 THE STRATEGISTS [July, 

" Tve been next door to a pauper for almost six months," 
announced Peter. " And, up until a few weeks ago, I have been the 
ill-paid, much abused hireling of that chronic invalid, Mr. James 
Spencer, more creditably known as Jimmie Barton." 

" Hm — ^m," said his aunt with a flash of accusation in her 
glance. 

" But," went on Peter, undismayed in his search for certain 
exact information, " the need of bettering my fortune, not to men- 
tion the wisdom of giving fair play to my obvious talents, has led 
me into the more lucrative and genteel world of letters. As Peter 
Danforth she would have despised me for an idler. In Peter 
Vaughn's poverty she has already recognized a badge of honor. 
It becomes me to have her discern in his industry a pledge of 
faith. Her name is Ruth Loring. She's an American. And just 
at present she's the recipient of a lot of superfluous advice in that 
fortress of the high and mighty — over there." 

Peter waved a scornful hand in the direction of San Ber- 
nardino. 

" Ruth — Loring," murmured his aunt, regarding him askance. 
" A — governess — San Bernardino." Peter met her glance firmly. 

" Your friends will indeed be surprised," she remarked. 

" And you ? " sought Peter, arriving at the objective point. 

" To be perfectly candid with you," she replied, " the revela- 
tion is a shock. Still, you're the one to be suited. Have you the 
time?" 

" It's — er — just half after three," said Peter, " must you be 
going?" 

" I'm expected at four," was the rejoinder, " promptness and 
the duchess are synonymous — " 

" The duchess ! " exclainfed Peter, drawing back, incredulous. 

" An old school friend," was the disconcerting rejoinder. " You 
may see me to the carriage." 

" But," began Peter, following after. 

" Not another word," she returned, ** I'll write at the first 
opportunity." 

And before he could gather his wits, she had called out an 
unusually firm " good-bye," and was on her way to the exclusive 
kingdom of the somebodies. 

Peter, gazing at the swirling dust of her exodus, frowned 
apprehensively and muttered : " It was just as well to learn what 
she thought of it anyway." 

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1917] THE STRATEGISTS 501 

Forty-eight hours later he was further enlightened from the 
same source by means of a letter. This is what his aunt wrote : 

My Dear Nephew : 

The duchess and I had a heart to heart talk the other evening. 
Since she's the last person in the world upon whom one would 
dare play tricks, I told her everything. Don't attempt to argue 
the implied charge. You and your friend Jimmie Barton are 
culpable to a degree. 

There has been some very plain talk going forward at San 
Bernardino the past few days. You can guess its import. The 
duchess was thoroughly justified. She has an indisputable right 
in the premises. Her duty was, and still is, obvious. 

I needn't remind you that it required a deal of explanation 
to set you aright. Your predicament, however, is not quite 
hopeless. Certain of your fences need mending. I've left 
material scattered along the line. 

If you have that priceless treasure of the times — a moment 
to spare — you might do worse than keep in touch with me. 

" Heart to heart talk, eh," said Peter musingly, " I don't like 
the sound of that. Something's in the wind." 

It was. And twenty-four hours later he received indisputable 
evidence. It arrived by way of a letter, the envelope of which bore 
in part the alarming legend: "Mr. Peter Vaughn (Danforth)." 
Frowning doubt, and gripped with startling fears, Peter slit the 
cover and drew forth the message. It was clear as crystal, cold as 
ice, relentless as time, and announced : 

My Dear Mr. Danforth : 

The truth of your identity has just been made clear to me. 
The motive behind such duplicity is, of course, best known to 
yourself. I decline, however, to be the victim of it. 

Miss L . 

Three, five, ten minutes passed, and he still sat staring wide- 
eyed at the fatal missive. He suffered a temporary spasm of con- 
sciousness, wherein he shook a fist at the unoffending heavens and 
exclaimed: " I knew it! I could have taken an oath on it! " 

A minute later he disappeared under a tidal wave of deso- 
lating conjectures. He was rescued late that evening by the irre- 
sistible clutch of an aching appetite. Peter was young. Twenty- 
four hours thence his nemesis sent this reminder of her presence: 

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502 THE STRATEGISTS [July, 

Dear Peter: 

At the earliest solicitation of the duchess, I have decided to 
remain at San Bernardino for awhile. An epidemic of sudden 
leave-takings seems to have fallen on the place. The duke has 
been called to Milan. The butler left for London last night. 
And this morning there's a governess missing, bag and baggage. 
It never rains but pours in such affairs. 

There's a mystery surrounding the departure of your mouse- 
like governess. Still, don't take her decision to heart. There's 
nothing perfect in a world so interesting as this. And don't 
do anything rash. 

The duchess is taking me with her to Paris for a few days. 
She's to meet a friend and visit the shops. Since she has con- 
sented to take a significant interest in you, let me urge you to 
cultivate the opportunity. It isn't everyone that has the entree 
to San Bernardino. Did you know that she has a very lovely 
sister? Aunt Cornelia. 

" Hm — m," said Peter, " you couldn't miss the inference if 
you tried. Afternoon tea with the high and mighty, in order to 
introduce their ideal. And they've the unplumbed confidence to 
think I can't see it ! " 

Under the influence of that invigorating thought, Peter devoted 
his entire evening to the patient building of the following stnicture. 
The achievement cost him several brisk passages with memory, 
yet proved, on the whole, a secretly pleasing labor. Here is the 
edifice of his thoughts: 

Dear Ruth: 

I deserved every word that you wrote — ^and much more. I 
shall never cease to regret my folly in not telling you the truth 
from the beginning. And yet my motive in acting as I did was 
not altogether unfair and not at all dishonorable. 

I was tempted to tell you the whole story the night I left you 
in London, but was afraid of the very thing that has happened. 
My keenest wish had always been to meet a girl that would 
care only for myself. Until six months ago, I had not met 
her. And then you came. No need to remind you of the occa- 
sion that first brought us together, nor of our many subsequent 
meetings. I was happy for the first time in years. You can't 
conceive how happy I was. It was too beautiful and true to last. 
But I never dreamt it would end in just this way. 

Won't you please write and tell me that you will see me, 
and when and where? And I do want to see you — more than 



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1917.] THE STRATEGISTS 503 

you can imagine. Because of you I had come to taste a happi- 
ness I didn't think existed. I'll do anything you wish. You 
may put me to any test you choose, even to the abdication of 
friends and riches. Can't you see that I love you better than 
all else in the world? Wont you see that I am suffering? 

Peter. 
P. S. — Am addressing you at former hotel at Paris with 
instructions Jo forward. 

Peter regarded his handiwork at some length, but eventually 
decided to let well enough alone. He personally saw to its posting 
the following morning, then settled down to the heart-wrenching 
business of hopeful waiting. Forty-eight hours later, catching sight 
of two letters lying beside his luncheon things, he suffered a variety 
of emotions. A reading of the superscriptions crushed his last 
flickering expectancy. One of the missives formally requested the 
pleasure of his presence at San Bernardino the following afternoon 
at four o'clock. The other was from his aunt, and informed him : 

- My Dear Peter: 

The duchess with a friend and myself returned to San Ber- 
nardino yesterday. I understand that you are to take tea here 
tomorrow afternoon. In spite of your recent error of discre- 
tion (to put it mildly) you are a lucky man. 

The duchess is a charming woman. She'll put you at your 
ease in a moment. She has thoughtfully arranged to send one 
of her carriages to fetch you over. I'm specially anxious to 
have you meet her sister. 

I hope you realize your good fortune and are prepared to 
make the most of it. Aunt Cornelia. 

" Good heavens ! " muttered Peter, a scornful curl to his lips, 
" you can actually see her hand at work. Talk about errors of dis- 
cretion ! " 

Nevertheless, he dispatched a note of acceptance. The follow- 
ing afternoon found him in the shadow of the castle walls. Ex- 
cepting the silent obsequiousness of the servants, there seemed 
nothing to occasion the slightest alarm. The duchess, charming of 
person, affable of eye, and accompanied by Mrs. Cornelia Farring- 
ton, came forward to greet him. A word or two and he was es- 
corted out upon a terrace, where introductions to other guests were 
achieved. Eventually, the duchess left him to the care of four 
young persons seated at the edge of the terrace. Peter had scarcely 

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504 THE STRATEGISTS [July, 

entered into the spirit of the occasion, when his aunt somewhat 
hurriedly drew near. She handed him a telegram with the an- 
nouncement, ** The girl from your villa brought it a moment ago." 

" Oh — er — thank you," murmured Peter. And with an apolo- 
getic nod, which his audience returned, he hastily drew forth the 
message. " Sorry," said Peter, scanning the line, " I must leave 
for Paris immediately." 

" Paris ! " echoed his aunt, frowning. 

Wherewith, conventionally withdrawing, Peter drew his aunt 
aside and whispered : " Read it." 

Whereupon, a picture of incredulity, Mrs. Cornelia Farrington 
trained her glass upon the missive and read: 

Dear Peter: Come at once. Ruth. 

She said nothing, but shrugged her shoulder. It was an elo- 
quent shrug, and under its influence Peter straightened perceptibly. 

" I know you're disappointed," he murmured, " but my mind 
is made up. My heart is in Paris. Til tell you all about it later. 
Please find the duchess." 

"Well," sighed his aunt, as if fingering the fragments 
of a shattered dream, " what is to be will be. YouVe taking the 
step with wide-open eyes." 

She then led him indoors and down a corridor to one 
of the reception rooms. To the functionary that glided into the 
scene she announced : " You will please find the duchess." 

And as the man set out upon his mission, she returned to 
Peter with: " You will pardon me for not lingering; but I'm suf- 
ficiently embarrassed as it is." 

And before he could gather his wits she was gone : gone with 
an inclination of the head that was at once a regret and an in- 
dictment. 

" Great heavens ! " gasped Peter, staring at the vacant door- 
way, " she has taken it to heart." 

And then a figure filled the doorway. It was that of the 
duchess. She came forward rather slowly, an intangible something 
about her, a dignity, a polite patience. She came to a halt with a 
half wondering, half willing: " You wished to see me? " 

" I— er — that is Fve been suddenly called to Paris," said Peter, 
instantly scorning himself for his apparent trepidation. 

" Oh," she murmured with a lazy, an exasperating, uplift of 
her brows. 

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1917] THE STRATEGISTS 505 

" I wished to tender you an apology for my somewhat abrupt 
leave-taking/* he announced, " and to thank you for your great 
kindness/* 

" Ah/* said the duchess sympathetically, " Tm truly disap- 
pointed. Of course, I shan't urge you to stay, though you have the 
better part of three hours till train time. I had hoped that you 
would meet my sister. She has just arrived." 

And as the duchess stood graciously smiling an inquiry, Peter 
magnanimously informed her: "I should feel greatly honored, I 
assure you.'* 

And the nekt moment, with a slight inclination of her head 
and a murmured : " If you will pardon me," the duchess was gone. 

Peter, looking toward the vacant doorway, delivered an oration 
of exactly four words : " Tenacious — to — the — last ! " 

A few moments later, as his glance roved lazily about, he was 
aware of a movement of the portieres at the other end of the room. 
Expectant, he summoned his most diplpmatic smile, and waited. 
Suddenly the curtains were parted and a girl stood before him. 
Peter, diplomacy to the winds, stood staring at her, incredulous. 

" You're determined to start at once for Paris, I hear? " she 
challenged him. 

" Hm," returned Peter, his wits recovered, " it doesn't do to 
believe everything you hear." 

" But," she insisted, " you received a telegram." 

" On the contrary," corrected Peter, drawing nearer, insatiable 
hunger in his eyes, " I received an imperative summons." 

" Oh — o," she demurred, instantly receding a defensive inch 
or two. , 

" Which," he announced, striding boldly forward, " I intend 
to answer forthwith." 

And immediately — but, perhaps, you've been through an 
equally heart-gasping moment yourself. 



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^ 




ANOTHER DOOR FOR ALASKA. 

BY M. R. RYAN. 

S a whole, the aspect of war is repelling and hideous. 
While " the red rebellion of the guns '* is in progress 
it is difficult to discern in the chaotic outlook even 
one touch of softening color. Yet the ameliorating 
note is always present, though it may need a prolonged 
scrutiny to glimpse it. At the present moment, we of the United 
States are engaged in the conflict that already has taken its toll 
of millions of lives. With the hour of sacrifice upon us the situ- 
ation would seem to oflfer nothing in the way of alleviation. There 
exists one circumstance that makes for encouragement, however. 

When, on April 6th, we declared war upon Germany, we be- 
came, in eflfect, if not in fact, an ally of the Entente Powers; and in 
a particular degree we became the ally of our neighbor to the north. 
Now Canada lies between us and our colossal possession, Alaska. 
On that account, our communication with Alaska is via the sea only ; 
and it, and its resources, consequently, are none too accessible to 
us. The railroad that might have been built between this country 
and Alaska across Canadian territory, thus permitting Alaskan 
commerce a new exit, has never materialized. Will it materialize 
now? Possibly. Knit by closer bonds of friendship with Canada 
than ever before, and possessing her unqualified faith in our good 
intentions, we may be able to induce her to allow us to open up 
another door in our northern empire, for in the event of her con- 
senting, benefit would accrue to her as well as to ourselves. Thus 
would the war accomplish a most valuable result — a result, it 
must be added, that would not be generally appreciated. 

" Alaska,'* wrote Major-General Greely, in 1909, " has con- 
tributed to our public wealth products worth more than three hun- 
dred millions of dollars, yet to this day it is a terra incognita to the 
American public. Not only is the ordinary man of aflfairs ignorant 
of the general features of Alaska, but this is also true of the usually 
well-informed." 

It would not be stretching the truth unduly to say that at the 
present time this observation is still applicable. Since Seward in 
1867 negotiated the purchase from Russia of what was facetiously ^ 

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1917] ANOTHER DOOR FOR ALASKA 507 

known as his ice-box, Alaska has been visualized by the majority 
of Americans as a barren land, with perpetual snow and icebergs 
very much in evidence. As a matter of geographical record, how- 
ever, it is only in the extreme Arctic region that such conditions 
are to be found. Most of the Territory is within the north-temperate 
zone. Southeastern Alaska, indeed, is comparatively mild, while the 
Alaskan Peninsula is pleasant in summer, though rather severely 
frigid in the winter seasons. In the vicinity of St. Michael, about 
a hundred miles south of Nome, the winter temperature reaches to 
two and three-tenths degrees. 

The climate being what it is, it is not surprising that there are 
fifty million acres of agricultural land in the Territory. Some of 
this land is under cultivation, but its output is not sufficient to 
supply the home markets. At the Jesuit Mission, Holy Cross, on 
the lower Yukon, some exceptional results in farming have been 
obtained, and even up at the garrisons near the Arctic Circle suc- 
cessful vegetable crops have been produced. However, agriculture 
in Alaska does not offer an unduly tempting field to workers. It 
is from her copper, gold and silver mines, her practically untouched 
coal deposits, and her fisheries that Alaska derives her wealth. 
Through these, and lesser industries, nine hundred per cent per 
annum is being realized nowadays on the original purchase price 
of seven million two hundred thousand dollars. Seward's wild 
scheme has justified itself — and at that only in a conservative 
fashion ! 

It is singular that the real worth of Alaska should have been so 
completely ignored by administration after administration until re- 
cent years. After having been organized as a non-contiguous terri- 
tory in 1866, it was not supplied with a form of government until 
seventeen years thereafter, when the laws of Oregon were extended 
to it. Upon the discovery of gold in the Nome district in 1899, 
Congressional attention was directed towards the Territory, and in 
1900 actual civil government was granted it. Six years later it 
obtained representation in Congress. And five years ago a territorial 
assembly — with limited powers — ^was authorized by our legislators. 
In this tardy manner was Alaska (whose residents consider her the 
red-headed step child of the United States) finally propitiated. 

But not only has Alaska suffered from Congressional apathy ; 
from the consequent lack of a criminal code (so much so that some 
of the inliabitants, in dire need, were once forced to request pro- 
tection from the English navy !) ; from the absence of proper legal, j 

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5o8 ANOTHER DOOR FOR ALASKA [July, 

medical and educational facilities; she has also been the victim of 
political conditions as her importance grew; of an unnecessary 
Forest Service; of the belated opening of her coal fields; of a 
scarcity of good highways, and meagre transportation facilities. 

Wherever new policies are projected, for instance, there is bound 
to be pessimistic opposition. The far-seeing but untried plans for 
Alaska's welfare that were proposed by certain Government officials 
met with much blunt opposition, therefore. Thus advance in the 
affairs of the Territory was negligible, while discussions regarding 
them were rife in political quarters. 

Then, the Forest Service, which was inaugurated as a conser- 
vation measure, proved somewhat of a detriment. Some of its 
regulations, well suited tP the needs of the States, were unsatis- 
factory as applied to Alaska. To illustrate — before the Service took 
charge there was a territorial law in force with forbade the ship- 
ment of lumber to the United States. Under the new regime, lum- 
ber might be exported if stumpage were paid to cover the Service's 
expenses. Now, in a specific case (that of the Alexander Archi- 
pelago reserve) the forest was withdrawn, it was said, in order that 
the timber kings could not rifle it for export purposes. Yet would 
not the old territorial law have furnished ample protection in this 
instance? Was it not a better measure of conservation than the one 
introduced by the Forest Reserve? One need have no quarrel with 
the conservation enthusiasts to take exception to a system that im- 
posed irritating restrictions (as this system undoubtedly did) on 
people in a territory so sparsely settled. It worked hardship to more 
than one. This phase of the question, too, should be noted. Under 
the new order, railroads buying Alaskan lumber for construction 
purposes were obliged to pay for the same at the Forest Reserve 
stumipage rates, and this at a time when Alaska was crying for 
transportation! If this means improvement, it is difficult to see it. 

The belated opening of the coal fields was another cause of an- 
noyance to the Alaskans. Every day of delay in so doing put them 
at a disadvantage. Eastern coal operators were shipping more or 
less of their product to the Pacific seaboard. The Alaskans were 
convinced that once the Panama Canal was opened these operators 
would strongly intrench themselves on the coast, confident of the 
fact that they would be able to compete with such operators as 
Alaska would produce as soon as the coal fields were released ; and, 
it was also figured, the last men on the scene would, therefore, have 
an unequal business struggle before them. ^ I 

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1917] ANOTHER DOOR FOR ALASKA 509 

The troublesome situation was relieved in 191 4, when a bill 
authorizing the leasing of the coal fields was passed by Congress. 
By this bill, a lessee was permitted to rent two thousand five hun- 
dred and sixty acres, for w^hich he was to pay the Government a 
yearly rental of from twenty-five cents to a dollar an acre, this to * 
be applicable on the royalty demanded, which was two cents a ton. 

In the constructing of highways Alaska has proceeded none too 
rapidly. Since wheeled traffic there is, to all intents and purposes, 
out of the question until roads are built, and since railroads that 
cannot touch the interior have little reason for existence, it becomes 
apparent that highways are of paramount importance to the develop- 
ment of the Territory. The Board of Road Commissioners for 
Alaska was organized in 1905. Since then the building of routes 
has materially increased. 

One of the most serious problems that has confronted the Terri- 
tory has been that of the railroads. These paths of steel are the 
means to unlocking the treasure of an empire. Whether to leave 
those already in Alaska to private interests, such as the Morgan- 
Guggenheim Syndicate, thereby risking a possible unfair monopoly at 
some future date, or whether the Government should own and control 
them, were questions that were long argued. The matter was defi- 
nitely decided when Congress on March 12, 1914, voted in favor 
of the Government, the President being then directed " to locate, 
build, or purchase and operate'* a system of railroads at a cost not to 
exceed thirty-five million dollars. 

The Railroad Commission, with William C. Edes as Chairman, 
commenced construction in 191 5, with Anchorage on Cook Inlet 
for a base. As a part of the new system the Alaska Northern Rail- 
way was purchased. The Government road then stood on the en- 
gineer's blueprints as from Seward, on the southern coast through 
the Susitna Valley and Broad Pass to the Tanana River with a 
terminal at Fairbanks. Its length, including a short branch to the 
Mantanuska coal fields, totaled five hundred and four miles. In 
eight months' time a right-of-way was cleared for forty miles, 
and thirteen miles or more of track were laid. Shortly afterwards 
the inevitable labor difficulties ensued. These being presently ad- 
justed, the construction went on apace. It is hoped that by the 
fall of this year the Nenana coal fields, about a hundred miles south 
of Fairbanks, will be reached. This Government railroad gives an 
outlet to Alaska's resources through the ocean port at Seward. Its 
construction has meant much to the Territory. 

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510 ANOTHER DOOR FOR ALASKA [July, 

But a railroad to the United States would mean even more to 
Alaska. With its possibilities (some of which have not even been 
sounded, for but two-fifths of the Territory is mapped) an inland 
route to this country would be of untold value. And not alone from 
a commercial point of view would this be so. Alaska is an empire 
worth the having. It is entirely within the range of conception that 
Japan may one day cover it. Under such a contingency, provided 
conditions are not altered, there is a probability that Alaska will be 
lost to us. Soldiers — ^the implements of defence — now reach 
Alaska from the sea. But have we any assurance that in time of 
war our transports would ever reach Alaskan ports? 

True, we possess an important strategical point and a point of 
defence in Dutch Harbor of the Aleutian Islands that stretch chain- 
like from Alaska to Asia. Dutch Harbor is the same distance from 
San Francisco as from Honolulu. In a naval problem, Dutch 
Harbor becomes one point of a triangle. Therefore, an enemy 
admiral would scarcely chance an attack on our coast with the 
knowledge before him that once within the line stretching between 
Honolulu and Dutch Harbor he might trap himself, with our battle- 
ship squadrons converging upon him from the points of the triangle. 
But all the foregoing is based upon the assumption that Dutch 
Harbor is properly fortified and gfuarded. It is not — though it 
might be put in shape without an excessive expenditure. 

Alaska, then, is without the protection that a good naval station 
and an adequate fleet could afford. Practically her one defence is 
the army, and that army, en route, is at the mercy of a naval enemy. 
If our Government were able to transport its military forces to 
Alaska, both in war and peace, over a Canadian-American railroad, 
the gravity of existing conditions would be somewhat lessened. The 
time is ripe for action in the matter. 



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STODDARD, PSALMIST OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 

BY FRANCIS O^NEILL, O.P. 

HE life of Charles Warren Stoddard, the Psalmist 
of the South Seas, has a particular and strangely 
fascinating interest for students of American Cath- 
olic literature. Although reared outside the Church, 
with the influences of religious prejudices on every 
side, he found, when grown to manhood, a simple, childlike faith 
awaiting him at the baptismal font. He rose from the steps of the 
altar a new man. He had shattered the chrysalis that the wings 
of his soul might expand in the radiant light of faith. 

Bom in Rochester, New York, in 1843, he spent his boyhood 
days until twelve in New York City, then journeyed to California 
with his father. A trip in the old skipper Flying Clotui back to 
New York by way of Cape Horn made of him a passionate lover 
of the sea. After a two-year's stay in New York, the Sunset Land 
called to him again and he returned to California. 

Out where the handclasp's a little stronger, 
Out where the smile dwells a little longer. 
Out where the skies are a trifle bluer, 
Out where friendship's a little truer. 

When his furtive verses appearing in the Californm won 
notice, the literary critics were surprised to find the identity of 
the new author disclosed in the person of a diffident young clerk 
in Beach's bookshop. Mr. King, who made the discovery, bestowed 
praise and criticism so judiciously that he was able to introduce 
his youthful poet to Roman, The Overland Monthly publisher. 
Stoddard's packet of poems were gone over by Bret Harte and 
in 1867 came from the press. These were the wisdom- finding days 
of Stoddard's life, for from that brilliant coterie — Bret Harte, Ina 
Coolbrith, Noah Brooks, Mark Twain, Joaquin Miller — he drew 
the inspiration of his literary art. Had Stoddard continued to gaze 
upon the beauty of California, he might have pen-pictured the 
tints that crowd her landscape with such bafiiing changes of color. 
He chose rather to wander in distant lands, leaving, as a parting 



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512 STODDARD, PSALMIST OF THE SOUTH SEAS [July, 

gift, a new interpretation of the fogs that settle over the Golden 
Gate — to his fancy's eye, they had become the Ghosts of Ava- 
lanches. 

Before setting out to visit his sister, who had married a 
wealthy planter of Hawaii, he went on the stage for a couple of 
months, but the rapid change in bills was too strenuous for a lazy 
man who could neither sing nor dance. He found the Sandwich 
Islands an untouched garden of Alcinous. The luscious fruit of 
his musings dropped into his hands unbidden and he spread them 
before delighted friends in South Sea Idyls — " the lightest, sweet- 
est, wildest, freshest things that ever were written about the life 
of that summer ocean " in the judgment of Howells. 

The Idyls are filled with a boundless sympathy, a tender, 
reverential awe, with sufficient fantastic humor to bring out a 
telling contrast. Stoddard had an abiding trust in all things. 
The Petrel tossed on the waves for five weeks, but Stoddard re- 
membered that her cargo was edible; bad weather made the sea as. 
unpoetical as an eternity of cold suds and bluing; but Stoddard 
looked into the blossoming sky to see the stars that hung like 
fruits in sun- fed orchards. He pictures his blessed islands; reefs 
baptized with silver spray ; tropical night following purple twilight 
— all these as he lay dreaming sea dreams in the cradle of the 
deep. 

The Hawaiians recognized in him a brother without guile. 
Kana-ana took to him by instinct. Stoddard kidnapped his dear, 
little velvet-skinned, coffee-colored chum, but failed to make him 
conventional, either by speech or dress, nor could he prevent him 
from worshipping before every wooden Indian they met on their 
walks. So Stoddard sent his savage home, convinced that the 
little cannibal was not quite so good as when he got him. 

The Idyls will remain the most popular of Stoddard's books, 
for in them is blended tranquil, yet enthusiastic joys, soul stirring 
pathos and a spiritual vision that counts the trappings of arti- 
ficial living not worth striving for. Theodore Bentzon who gave 
thirty pages of the Revu^ des Deux Mondes to a study of Stoddard, 
says : " They have the flavor of the pomegranate in its native place, 
the fire of the oleander, the softness and languor of summer seas, 
with a dash too of the surf with its curving foam; the whole 
pervaded by the subtle spirit of the South." 

Stoddard became a Catholic in 1867. He tells the story of 
his religious development in A Troubled Heart — a simple, reverent 

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1917.] STODDARD, PSALMIST OF THE SOUTH SEAS 513 

recital of his souFs awakening. The change, with a few exceptions, 
made no difference of feeling among his friends. They had always 
thought him a gentle Prince Gharlie, a pathfinder in the realms 
of the spiritual, as is shown by the remarkable tribute of Joaquin 
Miller, written shortly after Stoddard's death : 

Say Charlie, our Charlie, say — 
What of the night? Aloha! Hail! 
What roomful sea? What restful sail? 
Where tent you. Bedouin, today? 

Oh, generous green leaves of our tree, 
What fruitful first young buoyant year? 
But bleak winds blow, the leaves are sere. 
And listless rustle — ^two or three. 

Say, Charlie, where is Bret, and Twain? 
Shy Prentice, and the former few? 
You spoke, and spake as one who knew — , 
Now Charlie, speak us once again. 

The night wolf prowls, we guess, we grope. 
But day is night and night despair, 
And doubt seems some unuttered prayer, 
And hope seems hoping against hope. 

But Charlie, you had faith and you — 
Gentlest of all God's gentlemen — 
You said you knew and surely knew. 
Now speak and speak as spake you then. 

Twas a happy thought for the editor of the San Francisco 
Chronicle, when he hit upon the plan of turning the young writer 
loose as a literary honey-bee, to wing his way over far fields of 
foreign clover, as his fancy led him. For Stoddard was fond of 
the unusual. He who could praise with just meed the fighting 
lions of Egyptian art, or weave for hours a garland of impassioned 
song to place upon the brow of the Ludovisian Juno, could stand 
the live-long day nmimaging through a musty antique shop in 
search of a gaudy trinket that had once adorned the dusky ankle 
of some South Sea Islander. 



VOL. cv.— 33 

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514 STODDARD, PSALMIST OF THE SOUTH SEAS [July, 

His wanderings through the Orient are sketched in Marshallah, 
A Flight into Egypt, and A Cruise Under the Crescent — ^the first 
published in 1881 ; the second in 1898. Joe of Lahaina, who called 
him to walk when vespers had just begun, whom he left sitting 
in the dark door of death, clothed in the gray garments of 
leprosy, was a memory that never passed from his mind; so he 
lingers upon the scenes that attract him, as if fearful they may not 
g^eet his eyes again. 

Since many believed that one who could so skillfully fashion 
should be able to teach others the secret of his art, Stoddard was 
induced to lecture on English literature at Notre Dame, where he 
spent two years; then at the Catholic University, where he spent 
thirteen. These years rested heavily upon him, for though his 
lectures were entertaining and stimulating to others, the mere 
sight of them threw their author into a panic. When the hour 
was up, he hastened to his study to regale himself in the fragrance 
of his evening mail. Everybody wrote him letters of affection, 
which he read over and over, comfortably propped up in bed. The 
friends he had made in the world of letters sent him their books 
with appropriate messages. 

At last the gypsy blood in his veins had its way. He broke 
the shackles of his professorship forever and journeyed back to 
old Monterey. He settled himself in a cosy comer of the Noon 
home, which he christened " El Casa Verde." Here he lived over 
again the days when friends gathered with him in Simoneau's Inn 
of the Padres, or walked together to the foam-fringed border of 
the Montereyan bay. He wrote for a few favorite editors the 
new visions that came to him in the afterglow of evening, through 
his open bay-window. ** Oh, these afterglows ! How much they are 
to me! I drink my fill of them nightly and that lasts me until 
daybreak, which is their only rival. If I am a worm of the dust, 
I think I must be an afterglow worm. Last evening in the 
twilight, I felt for a few minutes as if I were in the hollow of 
a great pink pearl." 

In this way were spent the last years of his life. It was 
to him a blissful thing that he could meet those old friends — 
Miller, the Soul of the Sierras, and Ina Coolbrith, Poet Laureate 
of the West — and recount with them the trials and triumphs of 
the old Bohemian days. Today, Miss Coolbrith alone remains, 
treasuring in her great soul the dulcet voices of her dead. She has 
just paid the debt of friendship in a new and complete edition 

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1917] STODDARD, PSALMIST OF THE SOUTH SEAS 515 

of Stoddard's poems, with an introduction by Charles Phillips.^ 
The work is a tribute of admiration and love from hearts that 
knew the measure of the poet's worth. 

As his life drew near its setting, there came to him a testi- 
monial not meant for his eyes to read. It was penned by Mr. 
Beringer, then editor of The Overland Monthly, who had heard 
a report that Stoddard had passed away. When the magazine 
reached Stoddard, he read the appreciation, remarking that it was 
worth dying for; and under the impulse of the exceptional occa- 
sion wrote the following characteristic letter to the editor: 

Dear Friend: 

In the Easter number of The Overland Monthly, you have 
strewn the flowers of rhetoric upon my not unpremeditated 
grave. How can I thank you for a kindness — a loving kind- 
ness — ^the breath of which is as fragrant as the odor of sanc- 
tity? I was indeed dead, but am alive again! In a spirit of 
tranquillity, the memory of which shall sweeten every hour 
of the new life I have entered upon, I received the Last Sacra- 
ments of the Church. Do you know how one feels under 
such circumstances? I feel as if I had been the unworthy 
recipient of some order of celestial merit. 

The perspective of my past is glorified, I had almost 
said sanctified; but I am painfully conscious of the conspicu- 
ous anticlimax in the foreground. Anticlimaxes are fateful 
and hateful, yet this anticlimax I must wrestle with even to 
the end. It may be — it must be — that being spared I am 
spared for a purpose. In this hope I seek consolation, for I 
have unwittingly undone what was so prettily done for me. 
My anticipated taking-off was heralded to slow music; and 
had I not missed my cue, my exit should have been the 
neatest act in all my life's drama. 

I know not what use you can make of this letter, unless you 
make it public in order that my readers may know that I am 
I — and not another posing as the ghost of my old self, and 
that I am yours, faithfully, aflfectionately and gratefully, 

Charles Warren Stoddard. 

No one who called him friend can doubt that when the call 
came, April 23, 1909, death found him ready, even anxious to 
respond, that his gentle soul went forth richly ladened with golden 
deeds well done. 

*New York: John lane Co. ^^^ j 

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Si6 STODDARD, PSALMIST OF THE SOUTH SEAS [July, 

His contribution to literature must meet a fuller appreciation 
as time goes on. For forty years he stood among the chosen ones, 
bringing into the foreground, with gentle insistence, the spiritual 
aspects of life. Stevenson yielded to his charm; was persuaded 
to seek renewed health in the lotus lands of the South Seas, and 
rewarded him by a noble defence of the dead Damien of Molokai, 
the friend of the outcast leper. 

The scoffer who talked with Stoddard soon felt himself in har- 
mony with unseen truths. His host was so colloquial, so much at 
ease, sb casual, even, it would not have been too surprising had a 
shift in the scenes revealed the blessed St. Anthony feeding the 
poor of Christ with bread that multiplied with the needs of the 
hungry. 

It is this nearness to the realms of the spiritual, though not 
often expressly dwelt upon, that marks the man; since all his 
books are confessedly a revelation of his inner life. The homing 
of his heart is set within that well-loved orchard. His readers 
meet him there in the afterglow of evening, to follow the hymet- 
tian flow of his musings and catch what they may of a spirit that 
loved and trusted all save self. 



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ORGANIZING THE COUNTRY FOR WAR. 

BY FRANK O'HARA, PH.D. 

|0R some three or four centuries it has been the con- 
cern of the nations to see that no one of their num- 
ber should become so powerful as to endanger the 
integrity of the others. From time to time the neces- 
sity has arisen of readjusting or reaffirming this 
balance of power. The present war has come upon us because 
the nations were in danger once more of getting out of balance. 
We have gone into the war to guarantee the restoration of the 
equilibrium, so that our country or any country may continue to 
develop under institutions of its own selection. In the words of 
the President, we are waging war to make the world safe for 
democracy. But, says the pacifist, as soon as we have organized 
the country for war, we have already destroyed democracy, since 
war can be waged successfully only under a military autocracy. 

The pacifist, however, is mistaken in assuming that a democ- 
racy cannot wage war successfully. A democracy which has been 
devoting its attention solely to the pursuit of the arts of peace will 
of course find itself placed at a disadvantage when it must under- 
take the prosecution of the arts of war. But after it has been 
reorganized on a war basis there is no essential reason why it may 
not compete successfully with a government of a more autocratic 
form. There is much experience in the present war to support 
this point of view. 

In the early days of the war when the German troops burst 
into France and threatened Paris, the republican institutions of 
France were unable to support the stress thus suddenly thrust upon 
them. They broke down and in their place was built up an auto- 
cratic government, the members of which were responsible only to 
themselves. But it became necessary for the autocrats to delegate 
power to inferior officials, and it was not always possible to find 
such inferiors who could exercise the delegated autocratic power 
wisely. Soon there was a revolt against the autocracy, and demo- 
cratic government was reestablished. 

In England, too, democracy was organized for peace. But 
England found the time for making the necessary readjustment 

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5i8 ORGANIZING THE COUNTRY FOR WAR [July, 

from a peace organization to a war organization that was denied 
to France. As the existing form of government showed itself 
inadequate to handle the situation, changes were made. The num- 
ber of persons responsible for the conduct of the government be- 
came smaller and smaller, but they continued to be responsible to 
the representatives of the people. Democracy was maintained. 

On the other hand, Russia had the most autocratic of govern- 
ments. There was, it is true, the Duma, but it was not in session, 
and it had no right to demand to be called in consultation. 
The autocracy floundered and stumbled, and as the situation began 
to appear hopeless the government found itself under the necessity 
of summoning the Duma for advice and assistance. As the war 
went on the autocracy became utterly discredited, and a democracy 
is now rising from its ruins. 

Germany is often cited as an example of the greater military 
efficiency of governments which have approximated less nearly to 
the democratic type. But Germany's efficiency in war is due to the 
fact, not that its government is undemocratic, but that it is organ- 
ized for war. But even in Germany as th^ war progressed it be- 
came increasingly patent that there were many deficiencies in the 
governmental machinery from the standpoint of efficiency. More- 
over, there have been many proposals in the direction of the greater 
democratization of Germany in recent months, even the Imperial 
Chancellor himself proposing reforms in that direction which are 
to take place as soon as the war is over, if not sooner. 

The United States, although strong in resources, was poorly 
organized for war at the outbreak of hostilities. The trouble was 
not that the United States was democratic, but rather that it was 
organized for peace instead of for war. Fortunately its geo- 
graphical position is such that the country can take its time in 
going from a policy of peace to a policy of war. 

Every friend of the United States desires that the Govern- 
ment be strengthened in time of war. But all are not agreed as to 
the manner in which the strengthening is to be accomplished. In 
the beginning there was some difference of opinion between the 
President and Congress, the President holding that the Executive 
Department should develop the necessary organs and receive the 
necessary powers for effective action, while Congress was disposed 
to take the attitude that it should be consulted in very large measure 
as to the conduct of the war. In the trial of strength the President 
came out victorious. Congress granted him most of the things for 

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1917] ORGANIZING THE COUNTRY FOR WAR 519 

which he asked, but not without some grumbling on the part of 
many members of Congress. As the war goes on renewed attempts 
will undoubtedly be made to secure for Congress a larger share in 
the determining of the policies of the Government, but these at- 
tempts are not likely to prove successful in any large sense. 

Granted that the necessary powers for prosecuting the war 
were to be given to the Executive Department of the Government, 
the next question was to determine what organs of government 
should exercise those powers. For example, new problems of the 
organization of transportation, and of the production of munitions 
and of the administration of the food supply arose. It was urged 
in some quarters that new Cabinet positions be created to handle 
these matters, thus giving us a Secretary of Munitions, a Secretary 
of Transportation, and a Secretary of Food Control. In the place 
of this plan of adding to the President's Cabinet, however, the 
policy was adopted of exercising the new powers through a system 
of advisory committees and independent boards. 

Several months before the outbreak of the war, in anticipa- 
tion of the emergency, Congress had constituted the Secretaries 
of War, Navy, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce and Labor a Coun- 
cil of National Defence ** for the coordination of industries and 
resources for the national security and welfare,'' as it was stated in 
the Act. It was felt that in the eventuality of war it was especially 
important that the functions of these departments be coordinated. 

At the same time that the Council of National Defence was 
established, an Advisory Commission was created to assist the 
Council in the coordination of the country's resources. The mem- 
bers of this commission serve without pay. Each member is a 
specialist in some line of work which has a particular bearing upon 
the needs of the Council of National Defence. Each of the seven 
members of the Commission has built up around him a committee 
interested in his specialty. Thus, one member of the Commission 
is Chairman of the Committee on Medicine, including general sani- 
tation; another is Chairman of the Committee on Science and Re- 
search, including engineering and education; a third is Chairman 
of the Committee on Munitions Manufacturing, including standard- 
ization and industrial relations, etc. 

Each of the committees of the Advisory Commission has under 
it a variety of sub-committees. For example, Mr. Gompers, who 
is a member of the Advisory Commission, is Chairman of the Com- 
mittee on Labor, including conservation of health and welfare of 

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520 ORGANIZING THE COUNTRY FOR WAR [July, 

workers. This Committee on Labor is made up of some three 
hundred volunteers, who are divided into a number of sub-com- 
mittees dealing with various phases of the labor problem. There is, 
for example, the sub-committee on wages and hours of the 
Committee on Labor; the sub-committee on arbitration, etc. 
In addition to these sub-committees there is an executive com- 
mittee on the labor committee of the Advisory Commission. This 
executive committee consists of thirteen members, and is thus more 
suitable for the consideration of the larger questions of policy than 
the total membership of the Labor Committee would be. 

The committees and sub-committees mentioned above exercise 
their influence upon the Council of National Defence through the 
Advisory Commission. But there are other committees which are 
attached directly to the Council without the intermediation of the 
Advisory Commission. Thus, shortly after the outbreak of the 
war, the Council of National Defence appointed a committee of 
women of national prominence " to consider and advise how the 
assistance of the women of America may be made available in 
the prosecution of the war.'* Dr. Anna Howard Shaw was made 
chaimian of the committee. This committee which reports di- 
rectly to the Council of National Defence must not be confused 
with the women's sub-committee of the Labor Committee, of which 
Mrs. Borden Harriman is Chairman. Mrs. Harriman's sub-com- 
mittee reports to the Council of National Defence through the 
Labor Committee and the Advisory Commission, whereas Mrs. 
Shaw's committee reports directly to the Coimcil of National De- 
fence. 

Another committee which is attached directly to the Council of 
National Defence and not to the Advisory Commission, is the Com- 
mittee on Coal Production. This committee, according to a state- 
ment issued by the Council, " is designed to increase the output of 
coal at the mines and to cooperate with the Committee on Raw 
Materials of the Advisory Commission and with the Transportation 
Committee, also of the Advisory Commission, in accelerating the 
movement of coal to points where the need is greatest." The mem- 
bers of the Committee on Coal Production are for the most part 
selected from the managers of coal companies. This circumstance 
has recently led organized labor to enter an objection to the com- 
position of the committee. In a letter to President Wilson and the 
Council of National Defence, the United Mine Workers of America 
protest that " not a single representative of the mine workers " 

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1917] ORGANIZING THE COUNTRY FOR WAR 521 

has been appointed to membership on the Committee on Coal Pro- 
duction, and they add, " we are willing to fight for the Government 
of the United States to establish world democracy, but we must 
insist as a matter of sincerity that we be allowed to retain some 
measure of democracy of which we proudly boast in the mining 
regions of our nation." 

Over against this protest of the Mine Workers in regard to 
the Committee on Coal Production, may be set the fact that the 
Labor Committee of the Advisory Commission is controlled by 
organized labor. Since both are simply advisory committees no 
great amount of harm is likely to be caused by their partisan char- 
acter; and yet the protest of the Mine Workers may be taken to 
presage a struggle between capital and labor that is certain to arise 
if the war is long continued and if the profits of manufacturers 
are not curtailed. Canadian labor has already taken the position 
that the wage workers ought not- to submit to a lowering of wage 
standards since the employers are reaping increased profits. 

A very important task in the preparation of the nation for 
war is that of coordinating the transportation facilities of the 
country. Mr. Willard, President of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail- 
road, who is Chairman of the Advisory Commission and also of the 
Committee on Transportation Communication of the Advisory 
Commission, early in April issued a call for a meeting of the repre- 
sentatives of the railroads of the country. The call was responded 
to by than fifty executives of railroads, who met in Washing- 
ton and resolved " that the railroads of the United States, acting 
through their chief executive officers here and now assembled, and 
stirred by a high sense of their opportunity to be of the greatest 
service to their country in the present national crisis, do hereby 
pledge themselves, with the Government of the United States, with 
the Governments of the several States, and with one another, that 
during the present war they will coordinate their operations in a 
continental railway system, merging during such period all their 
merely individual and competitive activities in the effort to produce 
a maximum of national transportation efficiency. To this end they 
hereby agree to create an organization which shall have general 
authority to formulate in detail and from time to time a policy of 
operation of all or any of the railways, which policy, when and as 
announced by such temporary organization, shall be accepted and 
earnestly made effective by the several managements of the indi- 
vidual railroad companies here represented." 

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522 ORGANIZING THE COUNTRY FOR WAR [July, 

In accordance with this resolution an executive committee of 
five members has been created, which has already performed much 
effective work in the direction of coordinating the activities of the 
various roads in the interest of better service. While this com- 
mittee was formed at the instance of the Advisory Commission of 
the Council of National Defence, it is not of course a committee of 
that Commission. Its powers come from the railroads which have 
created it. As an example of what is being accomplished by this 
committee, may be cited the "pooling" of coal which is being 
shipped on the Great Lakes. In the past the custom has been for 
each individual shipper to send his coal to a Lake Erie port and 
gradually to accimiulate enough for a complete shipload, keeping 
the coal on the cars until enough had arrived to make up the load. 
Under the new plan coal owned by different producers will be loaded 
into the same steamer as fast as the steamers arrive to take it. 
It is estimated that the pooling arrangement will save one and 
one-half days in the time of each car that carries coal to Lake Erie 
ports. This saving in the time that each car is kept at the terminus 
before unloading, will be equivalent to adding fifty-two thousand 
cars to the freight equipment of the roads. 

For the purpose of increasing our facilities for ocean trans- 
portation an independent Federal Shipping Board has been created 
by Congress. A Government controlled ship-building corporation 
under the direction of the Shipping Board is undertaking to supply 
ships to take the places of those destroyed by the submarine war- 
fare. The corporation is under the management of General 
Goethals of Panama Canal fame, who has recently gone on record 
in favor of building large, practically unsinkable vessels of steel in 
preference to the wooden vessels favored earlier by the Federal 
Shipping Board. The construction of wooden vessels is to be 
continued, but the emphasis is placed upon the steel vessels. 

Another large war problem which we have to face is the pro- 
ducing and conserving of food products not only for our own 
use, but for the use of our European Allies as well. There are two 
important bills before Congress at the present time dealing with 
this matter. One of the bills is known as the food survey bill and 
the other as the food control bill. The food survey bill authorizes 
the Secretary of Agriculture to investigate and ascertain the con- 
ditions of demand for, and supply, and prices of, and other basic 
facts relating to food materials, feeds, seeds, fertilizers, and agri- 
cultural implements. 

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1917] ORGANIZING THE COUNTRY FOR WAR 523 

In addition to providing for a food survey, the food survey 
measure makes large appropriations for increasing food production 
and eliminating the waste of food by means of an educational 
campaign. The Department of Agriculture has for some time been 
carrying on such a campaign, and the present appropriations will 
give impetus to its efforts. These efforts include the gathering 
and publishing of telegraphic market news of food materials, the 
campaign for a wider use of parcel post and express marketing, 
the working with the railroad companies for an improvement in the 
food containers and refrigerators used in making shipments, and 
teaching the public more economical methods of canniaig and 
preserving. At present the Department is attempting to educate 
the public to economize in the use of skim milk by making it into 
cheese. The Department makes the claim that as a result of its 
agitation for an increased potato production, there has been an 
increase of twenty-five per cent in the early potato crop this year 
in the States from Florida to Delaware. 

The survey bill further provides for the regulating of grain 
exchanges by giving the President the power, if he finds that 
dealing in wheat or other food cereals for future delivery and not 
for present and immediate delivery unduly raises the price of such 
wheat or other food cereals, to prohibit the practice of dealing in 
these cereals for future delivery. In justification of this feature 
of the bill the recent "corner" in May wheat in the Chicago 
market is cited. A large amount of wheat has been sold for 
May delivery, and although there was plenty of wheat in the 
Northwest to fill the contracts, the sellers were unable to get the 
wheat to Chicago because of the shortage of freight cars. Those 
who had sold wheat to be delivered in May were therefore driven 
to bid against one another to buy up such wheat as was to be 
had in Chicago, so that they might fulfill their contracts. As there 
was not enough wheat to be had for this purpose within the fixed 
time limit, a panic seized those who had " sold short " and prices 
rose rapidly. An adjustment was finally made by which settle- 
ments were made without the actual delivery of the wheat and the 
crisis was passed. There had been no conscious effort to create a 
" comer '* in wheat, but the situation had simply grown out of the 
freight congestion due to abnormal transportation conditions and 
liberal purchasing for the European governments. It is to prevent 
or to remedy such situations in the future that the bill grants power 
to the President to regulate grain exchanges. 

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524 ORGANIZING THE COUNTRY FOR WAR [July, 

The food control bill is meeting with much more opposition 
in its legislative career than the food survey bill has experienced. 
The food control bill empowers the President to establish a license 
system regulating the importation, exportation, manufacture, stor- 
age or distribution of any food, feeds or fuel ; to limit or prohibit 
the use of food or feeds in the manufacture of liquors; to guar- 
antee minimum prices for foodstuffs; to operate factories, mines 
and other plants; to regulate all exchanges dealing in foodstuffs; 
and to create an agency for the control of food production and 
distribution. It is under the terms of this bill that Mr. Hoover is 
to be made " food dictator," although of course Mr. Hoover is 
not mentioned in the bill. As this article is being written the bill 
has just been reported to the House of Representatives by the 
Committee on Agriculture. It will probably be modified considerably 
before it leaves the House, and it will meet with very serious 
opposition in its passage through the Senate. 

The food control bill originally contained a provision for the 
fixing of maximum prices as well as minimum prices, but the 
former provision was modified in the committee. The opposition 
in the committee to maximum price legislation was not so much 
because of a feeling of tender sympathy for dealers in food ma- 
terials as because of the hopelessness of enforcing such legislation. 
The warring countries of Europe have had a great deal of ex- 
perience with maximum price fixing, but the prices refuse to stay 
fixed even where the penalties are most drastic. The present bill 
undertakes to overcome this difficulty by making use of the 
licensing feature. It provides that whenever the President finds 
it necessary to do so, he may require the licensing of all persons 
engaged in the importation, exportation, manufacture, storage, 
or distribution of foods, feeds, fuel, and articles required for their 
production. The President is then authorized to prescribe such 
regulations governing the conduct of the business of licensees as 
may be essential to prevent uneconomical manufacture and inequita- 
ble distribution of these necessaries. Whenever the President finds 
that any licensee is charging, an unfair or unreasonable price, he 
may order the discontinuance of the practice. Or the President 
may find what is a reasonable and fair charge and require the 
licensee to adhere to it. The licensing feature of the bill does not 
apply, however, " to any farmer, gardener, or other person with 
respect to the products of any farm, garden or other land owned, 
leased, or cultivated by him, nor to any retailer with respect to 



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191*7] ORGANIZING THE COUNTRY FOR WAR 5^5 

the retail business actually conducted by him, nor to any common 
carrier." It will readily be seen that while these provisions avoid 
the fixing of a flat maximum price as was attempted in some of 
the European enactments, and although the exemption of farmers 
and retailers tends to give it greater elasticity, it still goes pretty 
far in the matter of price regulation. 

The minimum price feature will be much easier to administer. 
Its purpose is to assure the farmer such a profit as will encourage 
him to increase the production of food materials. It authorizes 
the President " to determine and fix and to give public notice of 
what, under specified conditions, is a reasonable guaranteed price 
for any such products, in order to assure such producers a reason- 
able profit." The Government of the United States guarantees the 
farmer that he will receive for products for which a price has been 
fixed by the President, at least the amount of the prescribed price 
upon his compliance with the regulations prescribed by the Presi- 
dent. Where there is danger that the importation of products from 
outside the United States threatens to interfere with the practical 
operation of the plan of guaranteeing the minimum price, a duty may 
be levied upon such important products sufficient to remove any 
benefit that the importer might otherwise get from the price 
guarantee. In order to make it possible for the farmers to plan 
their crop rotation sufficiently far in advance, the President is 
authorized to guarantee the fixed price for any period not exceeding 
three years. 

There has been a great deal of debate concerning the desira- 
bility of prohibiting the use of food cereals in the manufacture of 
alcoholic beverages during the war. The prohibitionists call atten- 
tion to the waste in food value while the liquor 'interests minimize 
the amount of grain used, and call attention to use that is made of 
by-products in the feeding of cattle. The discussion practically 
raises the whole question of prohibition, and the liquor interests 
fear that after the war there will be no return to the status quo 
(mte. The food control bill, in its present form, provides "that 
whenever the President shall find that limitation, regulation, or 
prohibition of the use of foods, food materials, or feeds, in the 
production of alcohol or alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverages, or 
that reduction of the alcoholic content of any beverage, is essential, 
in order to assure an adequate and continuous supply of food, he 
is authorized, from time to time, to prescribe, and give notice of, 
the extent of the limitation, regulation, prohibition, or reduction 

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526 BONDAGE [July, 

so necessitated." And after such notice is given producers of 
alcohol or of alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverages are bound under 
penalty of fine and imprisonment to respect the regulations. 

Although it is likely that many of the provisions in the pro- 
posed legislation will undergo important modification before the 
legislation is finally enacted, there is no doubt that Congress will 
give the President power to prosecute the war vigorously. The 
rapidity with which the legislation for conscription was adopted 
indicates the ability of the American Government to act quickly 
in the face of an emergency even in the presence of a considerable 
amount of opposing sentiment. It is this ability to adapt itself 
to new conditions, to turn from the cultivation of the arts of peace 
to the prosecution of the arts of war, that is our best guarantee 
for the future of democracy in this country. 



BONDAGE. 

BY S. M. M. 

" And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all things to Me ; " 

Wherefore, O heart! know that thou art not free 

Save from sin's malices. 

Thou art my cdptive for eternity. 

The cross thy prison-palace is, 

The bands of My strong arms encircle thee. 

My Heart a chalice is; 

Thy sentence hear, love's penalty: 

Drink of this God-filled Cup thy death, thy Life to be ! 



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IRELAND AGAIN. 



BY SHANE LESLIE. 




I IKE a beautiful but haunting wraith the shadow of 
Ireland crosses the straining view of the nations at 
war and soon to be at war. Imperial politics, Ameri- 
can foreign relations and German secret service are 
all set agog by this unexpected appearance. What 
does it mean? How will it affect the war? How can Ireland be 
best used ? What in any case does Ireland stand for in the world, 
whose standards had long decried her as inefficient and measured 
her to the mediaeval scrapheap? 

The New York World as a type of modem efficiency has 
been recently stirred by the spectre or spectacle, and after recruiting 
the leading opinion of America on the subject, including views 
from Cardinal Gibbons, Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Taft, has dis- 
patched that last resource of civilization to the spot — ^the special 
correspondent! The opinion of America is to be tempered with 
information from Ireland herself. 

Mr. John Kirby's correspondences are accordingly laid before 
the American public and very interesting they are, especially be- 
cause they are the views of a phonograph, that is to say they 
reproduce exactly what Mr. Kirby hears. If we quarrel with some 
of the views, we are not quarreling with Mr. Kirby, who has 
" spent three weeks investigating conditions." The British Govern- 
ment has spent three centuries often with far less result. 

There are some curious slips. Mr. Kirby speaks of " the 
Nationalist Party which represents the South." But it also repre- 
sents or represented the East and the West and a good half of the 
North. Mr. Kirby says: "In May, 191 3, Carson was appointed 
Attorney General." This was not till two years later and the Na- 
tionalist gun running preceded not followed that inexplicable event. 

It is a good thing to know really what honest and educated 
men can still persuade themselves to believe in the miasmas of 
Belfast. Sir William Crawford believes that under Home Rule 
his house will be ballotted for, and he will become " a subject of 
the Vatican." He believes that " in all of the religious wars the 
Catholics had been the aggressors," forgetful that the very fact of 

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528 IRELAND AGAIN [July, 

an Ulster plantation proves the reverse. He recites a doleful tale, 
which we remember doing yeohian service in the General Elections 
eight years ago, about some children of a Protestant husband and 
Catholic wife being ** taken away to America or somewhere so 
that the father never saw them again. Mr. Kirby was not shown 
the Birdsnests at Kingstown, where children of purely Catholic 
parents are brought up in a different sect and shipped to Canada 
and elsewhere. The time has come for religion to be left out 
of any Irish polemic. Neither side need have the slightest chance to 
proselytize or persecute each other. 

We are told : " Politics are the national pastime of the South. 
It is the nightmare of the North." But Mr. Kirby can never have 
seen an Ulster election. However, his contrast between Qark of 
the Belfast Yards and the Bishop of Ross is his most vivid paper, 
contrasting the apostolic poverty of the latter with the well-meaning 
materialism of the former. 

It would be difficult to put the idealistic spiritual contentment 
of the Irish Celt better than in the words of Bishop Kelly : " It 
is not food that we are asking for. We want no bribes of money 
or help. All Ireland asks is to be left alone to work out her own sal- 
vation England is a hog's paradise. I sometimes fear that 

America is becoming one In America you have taken the 

classics down to the shops. You have put the body above the 

mind. That cannot last Germany is the logical result of 

such materialism. You see what she has become We would 

rather suffer some physical discomforts and maintain our racial 
instincts than go down into the depths of materialism." 

As a contrast Mr. Clark of Belfast expresses his views. 
We are told " he thinks like an American, acts like an American," 
but " he loves Ulster and hates the rest of Ireland," which does 
not quite correspond with American processes of thought in fact 
or in theory. Mr. Clark glories in the pseudo-rebellion which 
brought German arms into Ulster, and he declines to give up Belfast 
to a gang of lazy politicians. He has made a success of ship 
building, and no sane Nationalist wishes him to be excluded or 
persecuted or taxed out of his corner of Ireland. But he is intolerant 
of such Catholic ability as there is. He refuses to allow that it 
exists in the South, and by a prodigious blunder asserts that most 
of the successful Irish in America came from Ulster. Well, Mr. 
Ford did not. Mr. Clark is opposed to workmen who want to hear 
Mass in the morning lest it interfere with their work. 



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1917] IRELAND AGAIN 529 

As a matter of fact the contrast in Ireland is not always or 
necessarily so clean cut The South is full of business men who 
do thriving business and build churches out of their profits. Many 
industrials in the North understand the meaning of an ideal. 

Nor need Ireland prove the despair of the economist. All is 
not a jumble of erratic and inscrutable sentiments. Ireland is 
subject to historical laws like any other country, and the present 
situation, so far from bewildering the scientific mind, is perfectly 
deducible from given causes. The Law of Causation more than 
any " double dose of original sin," according to Lord Salisbury's < 
phrase, is responsible for matters as they stand. It is an impasse, 
but where there is a will there is a way, and the better the will the 
better the way. The Convention is an appeal to good will over 
bad judgment, both in Ireland and Irish-America. 

All is not blind chance or improbable destiny in Irish politics. 
The Law of Causation frankly and consideringly applied to the 
present situation would produce results from which a second and 
even a third generation might continue to draw benefit. Ireland is 
changeable when there are reasons for a change. Bad management 
has changed her whole attitude in the past year. Good management 
would achieve the reverse. It would be madness not to admit that 
everything which ought not to have been done, has been done 
during this past year. 

In the last thirty years Ireland has responded to certain causes 
much as a barometer answers to cold or hot temperature. The 
causes have been political or economical or sentimental or some- 
times a mixture of all three. Emigration, famine, disaflFection, 
landlordism. Nationalism or militarism, these applied or misapplied 
have mathematically affected any decade or half decade an inquirer 
may care to investigate. 

The years 1877 to 1882, marked by famine, the coming of 
Pamell and evictions, spelt a period of " rising hostility." The 
next ten years, marked by the Land war and coercion, stood for 
"organized hostility." From 1890 to 1894, the period of the 
Pamellite split and Gladstone's second Home Rule Bill, there was 
a period of " divided and slackening hostility," followed by one 
of " slumbering hostility," during which local government was suc- 
cessfully applied. The first decade of the new century was marked 
by the beneficent Land Act of Mr. Wyndham, the Gaelic Literary 
Revival and Sir Horace Plunkett's schemes of improved agricul- 
ture, and could be described as one of " rising conciliation," to be 
VOL. cv.— 34 r^ T 

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S30 IRELAND AGAIN [July, 

checked fitfully during the next four years by the Carson crusade, 
and finally by the blind folly of the War Office and the madness 
of the militarist to be thrown back in twelve short months at least 
one hundred years. We are where we were at the dose of the 
Rebellion of Ninety-eight, except that the best minds in Ireland 
instead of plotting the destruction of an Irish Parliament are en- 
gaged in planning its reconstruction at the earliest possible date. 
The Convention is Ireland's spoil from the war. It is more than 
any other small nation is getting. 

The present condition of Ireland is one which can be often 
explained but never apologized for. The clear results of historical 
laws, like those of chemistry, cannot be evaded or minimized by 
excuse or exigency or entreaty. Only the possible can be ex- 
pected of the Irish in the harrowing and cruel circumstances of this 
war. The impossible was asked of their temperament, and there 
was an explosion, which was as inevitable from the day the War 
Office tried to take the reins out of Redmond's hands as when, 
a lighted match is thrown into a gas csaq)e. Even the cold calcula- 
tions of the German mind could foresee cause and eflFect in Ireland 
better than the foolish and feverish insistencies of the Dublin 
bureaucracy. The mistake of the English politicians was to 
imagine that a few phrases could bring about the direct changes in a 
set way of national thinking. Phrases do their work in any com- 
munity for the period time of an election but seldom for longer. 
Had the war been a three months' aflFair, England and Ireland would 
have mutually seen each other through their difficulties, and Mr. 
Redmond would now be guiding the destinies of an autonomous and 
externally united Ireland. But the war has lasted for three years. 
Phrases have collapsed like ministries. The atavistic memory of 
the Irish people has asserted itself, and the two countries are today 
more estranged than at any time since the Union. It is sorrowful 
but not wonderful in our eyes. In destroying Redmond's influence 
in Ireland the British Government has destroyed its own forever. 

That matters have become topsy turvy in Ireland there is no need 
to state. What strange deviltry of chance decrees that Mr. Ginnell, 
the fighting irreconcilable, shall retain his salaried berth in the House 
of Commons, while Count Plunkett, who has been a talented and hon- 
ored placeman all his life, remains out of Parliament, the leader of 
the party that denounces placemen and all their works. Those who 
are vaguely in favor of German victory show their feelings by wear- 
ing a republican badge, as though Germany were not the antithesis 



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1917] IRELAND AGAIN 531 

of all rq)ublicanism. On the other hand, the Unionist party who 
are in vocal favor of redeeming the small nations, take every occa- 
sion to urge the repression of the only one at their own gates. 
Even the Irish clocks we hear are in variance since the order to 
adopt English time. Catholic timepieces resent this modernism 
while Protestant horology is now in communion with Greenwich. 
For a while some Catholic Nationalists compromised for a partition 
of the country, while some Protestant bishops — mirabile dictu — 
have signed the strongest anti-partition declaration that was ever 
framed, and that in Catholic company. It is difficult to measure 
the extraordinary advance towards Irish unity that underlies Arch- 
bishop Walsh's exulting and pulverizing phrase : " Us Irish 
Bishops, Catholic and Protestant ! " United Irishmen at last ! The 
fact remains that the sterling Protestant Bishop of Killaloe and 
the warrior Primate of Catholic Ireland have signed the same scrap 
of paper. May they never regret it! 

Under these conditions a Convention comes together in Dublin 
with their back on England and their eyes on the United States. 
There is no use pretending that the Convention is not the result 
of irresistible pressure frcmi America. America has brought about 
a unique result in war time, and it is for America to foster and 
further the constructive results of the Convention in every way 
possible, whether by endorsing the Irish Parliament it will un- 
doubtedly create or by hinting financial and shipping connections 
with Ireland after the war. At the same time there can be no 
necessity for America to complicate her foreign affairs by having 
to do a deal with England over a purely Irish matter, or by being 
carried away by the extreme Irish opinion on this side of the 
Atlantic. There is no doubt America is being called in to smooth 
out a number of political tangles for which she is not responsible 
in the first instance. Russia, Mexico and Ireland seem to hang on 
her hands, for there is no other power left in the world with her 
unimpaired resources and influence. 

Whether the Sinn Feiners accept the invitation to be present 
in their due proportion or not, the Convention will certainly be 
held. Even if they are not represented as they should be, their 
ideas will be discussed, and as much of their programme as is 
practical will be drafted into any decisions of the whole Conven- 
tion. There are a number of points in the purely industrial side 
of Sinn Fein which should have the greatest attraction for the 
business minds of Ulster, such as the protection and encourage- 



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532 IRELAND AGAIN [July, 

ment of home industries. As Sinn Fein can now fairiy claim a 
third of Irish public opinion, it would be perfectly fair to adopt 
a third of their programme. 

A historic point which should not be allowed to be forgotten 
is that at heart the Ulsterman is a Radical and not a Tory. Belfast 
celebrated the fall of the Bastile with greater rapture than any 
other Irish city. This is not recorded in history books, but a tell- 
tale print seldom seen in Ulster homes shows the parades and 
tricolor flying with which Belfast hailed the blow which hit Tory- 
ism hard the whole world over. When Ireland rose in hapless 
rebellion under sympathetic influences from France, Ulster sup- 
plied her quota. Protestant ministers died on the gallows. Radi- 
calism in Belfast was not averse to Catholic emancipation or even 
to Repeal. It was only gradually that Toryism won over the 
Orangemen to a subservient and religious dependence. There is 
no doubt but that the Ulstermen can exert an enormous influence 
in any Dublin Parliament by coming between the official Nation- 
alists and the Sinn Fein wing. What Ireland hopes is that they 
will find leadership among themselves instead of borrowing it from 
the London Carlton Club. The late Joseph Biggar, who forged 
Pamell's weapon of obstruction for him, was a Belfast Radical. 
Joseph Devlin, the present member for West Belfast, has a Radical 
Protestant leaven in his Nationalist support. Once withdrawn 
from malevolent English influences, the Ulstermen are liable to 
play as great a part in the fashioning of the future Ireland as they 
have in Canada. The only English influences still desirable in 
Ireland are the benevolent views of men like Gilbert Chesterton, 
Hilaire Belloc, Wilfrid Blunt, Massingham, Wilfrid Meynell. 
With Englishmen of this calibre, it will be safe to say that Ireland 
will use her n^w measure of independence to effect a true imion 
based on mutual defence and freedom of action. 

The new Irish Parliament will be Catholic in majority. 
Those who have expressed the fear that the new order of 
aflFairs will produce a great anti-clerical reaction may reassure 
themselves. There will be no legislation against the Catholic 
Church, but at the same time there will be none in its fa- 
vor. The problems of reconstruction are so colossal that the 
Catholic versus Protestant feud will become unreal and politics at 
least will know it no more. The Church of Ireland is severely 
Protestant, but is no longer aggressive. In the South of Ireland 
it has long settled down at peace with its neighbors. The Act 



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1917] I IRELAND AGAIN 533 

which disestablished it fifty years ago, gave it Home Rule within 
its own walls. The creation of a governing Synod, free from the 
sacerdotal control of the Crown or Canterbury, made it an Irish 
institution. The type of clergy became less aristocratic and more 
racy of the soil. Instead of the haughty children of landlords, 
the home-spun sons of farmers and professional men entered the 
remnants of the Glebes. The chilliness between the Churches of 
England and Ireland is very noticeable. In fact their members 
have the greatest dislike of attending each other's services owing 
to the ritual of the former. The Irish Protestant feels far friend- 
lier towards his Catholic fellow-countryman than towards the An- 
glican hybrid. Under the new order of affairs the Protestant 
Church in Ireland is assured a far smoother course than under the 
English influences, which have always snubbed and when necessary 
sacrificed her. 

The material objections to Home Rule are still likely to 
appear. The main sentimental one must continue as long as there 
are people living in Ireland who still refuse to admit Irish Na- 
tionality. But spiritual reasons are far more lasting than material 
ones. Ireland is a dream, and dreams will be the chief survivals of 
this present catastrophe. Cities and ships disappear over night. 
Thrones and empires totter and perish. Only the dreams of man- 
kind survive and " Ireland a nation " is one of them. 



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flew »ooh8. 

THE DEAD MUSICIAN AND OTHER POEMS. By Charles L. 

O'Donnell, C.S.C. New York: Laurence J. Gomme. $i.oo. 

Readers are ruefully, and for the most part perhaps rightly, 
shy of the " new poet." But one feels like promising at the outset 
that those to whom Father O'Donnell is " new," will find no dis- 
appointment in this slender volume with its coat of springy green. 
They are far more likely to find the book more or less of a revela- 
tion, for it harbors poetry of a really high order: poetry varied 
in theme and rich in expression and breathing throughout that 
hunger for beauty, that " nostalgia for sweet, impossible things," 
which is as the stigmata of the authentic muse. 

The Dead Musician is an occasional poem — a memorial * 
ode— of real power and beauty; of power and beauty so real, in 
fact, that by calling it Thompsonian one does not merely imply 
that it is reminiscent of Francis Thompson. Another ode of large 
sweep and many fine passages was written in commemoration of 
the Panama Pacific Exposition — although the little postlude ad- 
dressed to James Whitcomb Riley is rather a questionable addi- 
tion. Over against these poems it is interesting to set the really 
exquisite quatrains — Reception, Raiment, etc., which have already 
won for Father O'Donnell the inevitable comparison with 
Father Tabb. Then there is the charming l)rric simplicity of 
Saint Joseph-^and the concentrated lyric passion of Partus 
Virginius, Of poignant beauty are the nature poems: and even 
more poignant is the wistful human reticence of such lines as 
Forgiveness, 

The busiest summer traveler, if only he— or she — be a lover 
of beauty, of poetry, will be richly repaid for shipping this little 
book into the summer suit-case or packing-box. For it is doubly 
wise these troublous days to go supplied with what Charles 
O'Donnell calls "The Poet's Bread:" 

Morn oflFers him her flask'd light 

That he may slake his thirst of soul, 
And for his hungry heart will Night 

Her wonder-cloth of stars outroll. 

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However, fortune goes or comes 

He has his daily certain bread, 
Taking the heaven's starry crumbs, 

And with a crust of sunset fed ! 

THE MIDDLE YEARS. By Katharine Tynan. Boston: Hough- 

ton Mifflin Co. $3.50 net. 

The Middle Years adds one more to a constantly growing 
series of reminiscences from the pens of women whose full lives 
in the social, the literary, the artistic, even the political field, are 
rich in experiences which they not unjustly believe will interest 
the reading public. Mrs. Tynan Hinkson has seen much and has 
known many people both in Dublin and in London; she has already 
to her credit one volume of reminiscences. Twenty-five Years, and 
The Middle Years is its quasi-sequel. 

She has selected from her diary for the twenty years between 
1 891 and 191 1 much entertaining and diverting information about 
the books she has read or has composed, about the letters she has 
written or received, about the people she has met, or has visited 
or has entertained. The impression which remains after a read- 
ing has something of the moving picture effect; a vast number 
of more or less eminent personages appear upon the screen, play 
a brief part, and disappear, usually for good and for all. 

The publishers' notice presents the book as " of imusual vivac- 
ity and charm, presenting an intimate picture of English social, 
literary and political life, and of such diverse personalities as King 
Edward VH., Mr. Balfour, Hilaire Belloc, Thomas Hardy, George 
Meredith, William Dean Howells, Fiona MacLeod, and a hun- 
dred other well-known characters." The choice of names is rather 
inept, though doubtless guided by a desire to make the greatest 
impression upon the greatest niunber. But, truth to tell, most of 
those honpred by particular mention play a very small part indeed, 
while among " the hundred others " are many of at least com- 
parative respectability who figure much more prominently. Thus, 
for example. Queen Victoria's visit to Ireland in 1900 occupies 
three pages, and is a personal accoimt of what Mrs. Hinkson herself 
saw and heard, whereas the only reference to Edward VH. is an 
indirect quotation of three lines. Again, there are three jpages de- 
voted to a visit to Christina Rosetti when she was practically on 
her deathbed, whereas the only reference to Hardy is the state- 
ment that Mrs. Hinkson met him once at a party where he was 

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536 NEW BOOKS [July, 

sharing lionship with Gertrude Atherton. The " intimate picture " 
of Mr. Balfour lies in two references to the good his light rail- 
ways have brought to Ireland. 

The neo-Celtic movement, in which Mrs. Hinkson is a charter 
member, figures largely in the first part of the volume, with W. B. 
Yeats the prominent name in several chapters, and A. E. (George 
Russell) scarcely behind him. Sir J. M. Barrie, York Powell, Lady 
Aberdeen, the Wyndhams, Fiona MacLeod and his (or her?) 
mystery of identity, the Bellocs, though Marie Belloc Lowndes, 
rather than Hilaire, are charmingly presented ; but the real centres 
of interest are about the Meynells, Francis Thompson, and Lionel 
Johnson. Thompson, the unconscionable sleeper, Alice Meynell, 
hatted and cloaked, just as she entered from the street, writing an 
essay in a drawing-room which was bedlam with the noise of romp- 
ing children, Johnson, begging over and over again for Paudeen, the 
Hinkson's pet dog — these are indeed intimate pictures, peeks be- 
hind the screen; and those to whom these names already mean 
much as the names of leaders in modem letters, will find that their 
affection deepens in proportion to their more intimate, familiar 
acquaintance with the objects of that affection. 

RUSSIA IN 1916. By Stephen Graham. New York: The Mac- 
millan Co. $1.25. 
. Mr. Graham's latest work amply fulfills the expectations 
aroused by the publication of another book about the country whose 
fascinations he has so ably depicted in earlier writings. He has 
been in Russia a considerable part of the time of the war and now, 
by request, publishes this little volume of personal impressions, be- 
lieving that it is by such means, rather than by reading newspapers, 
that the Allied nations are kept in touch with one another. The 
book is short only because of the extraordinary conciseness with 
which it is written. It covers many subjects and is exceedingly 
interesting. We are shown Archangel transformed by the war's 
grim magic from the port where fifty vessels entered in 191 3 to 
the haven of five thousand in 1916. He gives us pictures of the 
war's reactions upon life public and private, from the nobility to 
the peasantry, in the great social centres, in towns and in villages ; 
and he touches upon the large, vital questions of wide, immediate 
interest. Of the notorious Rasputin he briefly states that he was 
neither monk nor priest, and adds : " He never had any influence 
with the Tsar." The information contained is of precisely the 

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1917] NEW BOOKS 537 

sort that the average reader is most eager for. " My little book 
of the hour," the author calls it, and so it is, even to the point of 
exclusions by the British Censor here and there; but when he says, 
in speaking of enforced temperance in Russia, that be believes it 
will be permanent, " at least as far as the Tsar's reign is concerned," 
we realize afresh how swiftly the hour passes. What is said about 
prohibition in Russia is illuminating and might be pondered with 
advantage in this country. Intoxication has disappeared, Mr. 
Graham insists; but though the removal of drink has probably 
been an tmmixed blessing in the villages, it is not so in the towns. 
" The roving eye of man has roved further," says the author ; and 
the conditions at which he hints are more than grave. He also 
depicts Kislovodsk, the watering-place, where is concentrated the 
insensate gayety of the commercial parvenus who have made money 
out of the war. 

Nevertheless, it is with undimmed enthusiasm that Mr. Gra- 
ham reiterates his love for, and faith in, the mystical Russia that 
is above and beyond all that he feels compelled to say in her 
dispraise. " Poor Russia, she has not many faults, she has only 
many misfortunes." Dishonesty, untruthfulness, cruelty and in- 
dolence are charged against the Russian peasant; but these faults 
are not his exclusively, nor are they the greater part of him. Grant- 
ing them all, and subtracting them from the sum total of the na- 
tional character, there still remains " Holy Russia, the beautiful, 
spiritual individuality of the nation." 

THE RUSSIANS: AN APPRECIATION. By Richardson Wright. 

New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co. $1.50 net. 

A sympathetic treatment of many phases of Russian life, this 
book, though written before the recent revolution, will do much 
towards furnishing the average American with the facts essential 
for a correct estimate of the present situation. Mr. Wright hits 
off the typical American admirably in the very first lines of his 
opening chapter. " Russia is a region of extreme cold, where 
people are jailed for speaking their own minds ; it is governed by 
a bureaucracy that grinds down the people ; its population is com- 
posed largely of anarchists and Jews." Would you know who it is 
whose ideas on Russia are so meagre and so vague? Throw a 
stone on any street in any town or city of America, and you will 
hit him. And to say that we Americans don't know much of 
Russia anyhow, may be an apology but it is no excuse. ^ , 

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538 NEIV BOOKS [July, 

The abysmal ignorance to which most of us must confess may 
be pleasantly corrected by this present volimie. Though his scope 
is too wide to permit of a very thorough handling of any part, 
Mr. Wright considers the much discussed though little under- 
stood Russ in his ethnology, history and religion, his literature, 
art and commerce. His information is all first hand, his judg- 
ments are all personal, for he spent seven years in Russia in con- 
stant study of Russian affairs as the correspondent for the New 
York World, and the London Daily Express. The pages on Siberia 
are especially enlightening; he says and proves that what was 
once a pariah land, a prison land, is now Russia's land of promise, 
a vast region one and one-half times as large as the United States. 
In the last chapters, " Russia's Manifest Destinies," and " Russia 
and America," Mr. Wright, while expressly disclaiming the 
hazardous role of political prophet, seems to see an entente cordiale 
existing between the two vast republics of the East and of the West, 
and does not hesitate to say that the profit resulting will be 
mutual. 

MY SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR. By Frederick Palmer. 

New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. $1.50 net. 

Frederick Palmer, the famous American war correspondent, 
has written a vivid account of the fighting in the campaign of 
19 16 in the Battles of the Somme, where he was one of the very 
few correspondents, and the only American, allowed the freedom 
of the field. The book, which is a sequel to My Year of the Great 
War, is an intense and stirring picture, drawn by a master hand, 
of the Allied offensive in the tremendous Somme campaigns, and 
gives an unforgettable, accurate and singularly clear picture of 
modem warfare. The author pays a high tribute to the valor and 
daring of England's Colonial troops, both ** Anzacs " and Cana- 
dians. The War has given Canada, the land of great distances, a 
feeling of imity that nothing else could have brought about. Thus 
has the Kaiser made the men from Ontario, New Brunswick, Quebec 
and Vancouver realize their brotherhood. 

The author calls Verdun, " German valor at its best and Ger- 
man gunnery at its mightiest, the effort of Colossus shut in a ring 
of steel to force a decision." With the failure of their offensive, 
he feels that the German soldiers must have had a revelation of 
the campaign's failure to crush France which no censorship could 
style. It was to combat this feeling after Verdun that the Kaiser 

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1917] NEW BOOKS 539 

dismissed Von Falkenhayn, and gave them Von Hindenburg who 
still had the military glamour of victory about him. Verdun was 
the Gettysburg of the war in its moral effect on the rank and file 
of German soldiers; for although they went from Verdun to crush 
Rumania, their superb confidence of final victory was shaken. 

STRANDED IN ARCADIA. By Francis Lynde. New York: 

Charles Scribners' Sons. $1.35 net. 

If fairly large demands are made upon the reader's imagina- 
tion in this story of the northern woods, they are not unpleasant 
demands; and the rather improbable course of the tale leads one 
into novel situations that are always described without offence. 
Marooned in most mysterious fashion, but happily within sight of 
each other, Donald and Lucetta learn to live the life of the 
woods, to tramp and paddle and make portage and shoot rapids 
and go hungry and sleep in the open, and all the other things that 
conventional people find it hard at first to do. They get off very 
luckily and live serenely ever after. 

ENGLAND IN THE MEDITERRANEAN. By Julian S. Corbet. 

2 vols. New York: Longmans Green and Co. $5.00 net. 

Julian S. Corbet has made a study of the rise and influence 
of British power in the Mediterranean between the years 1603 and 
1 71 3. The substance of this work was given in lectures in 1916, 
chiefly in the Senior and Flag Officers' War Courses at Greenwich, 
and the author's a:im has been to present an intensive study of 
England's struggle for maritime power on the " Keyboard of 
Europe," the Mediterranean. 

The seventeenth century has been a neglected chapter in naval 
history, as the author says, " a period which seems marked with 
little but confused and half -seen battles in the Narrow Seas with 
French and Dutch." While lacking the picturesque fascination of 
the age of great sailors just preceding, it is a far more significant 
century for England, since it brought her undreamed-of power 
with the control of the Mediterranean. For centuries its control 
had been a dominating factor in history; each power that had 
governed the main line of history had been a maritime power, and 
its fortunes had climbed or fallen with its force upon these his- 
toric waters. The treaty of Utrecht in 1713 which confirmed 
British possession of Gibraltar was of unmeasured importance to 
the future growth of England as a naval power, and with the t 

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540 NEW BOOKS [July, 

progress of time the control of the Mediterranean had added ad- 
vantages when England, by her expansion in Asia, took her place 
as an imperialistic power. Today the Mediterranean is more than 
ever the " Keyboard of Europe," and the history of the seventeenth 
century strategists who secured it for England must always be of 
deep historic interest. 

Some of the episodes discussed in the book are " Sir Walter 
Raleigh," " England and the Venice Conspiracy," " The Navy un- 
der James I," " The Spanish Succession," " Marlborough and the 
Navy," and "The Congress of Utrecht." 

A THOUSAND-MILE WALK TO THE GULF. By John Muir. 
Edited by William Frederic Bade. Boston: Houghton Mif- 
flin Co. $2.50 net. 

It was in 1867, before he had become the famous explorer, 
that John Muir undertook his great walk from Indianapolis to the 
Gulf of Mexico. The notes of his experiences on the road have 
now been gathered into a volume which for biographical purposes 
fills in the gap between his account of his own youth and the story 
of his first summer in the Sierra. Less than thirty years of age 
at the time, filled with the enthusiasm that goes with a youth's 
venture into unknown territory, making his way among a popu- 
lation at that time anything but friendly to the advent of a 
stranger from the North, botanizing and carefully recording his 
observations every stage of the way, the traveler made notes which 
are of unusual interest and importance to the botanist or the pedes- 
trian. The book is well edited, handsomely printed and well 
illustrated. 

HIS FAMILY. By Ernest Poole. New York : The Macmillan Co. 

$1.50. 

We have here another of the sectional studies of New York 
life that are so abundant today. It is the story of Roger Gale, 
a widower of sixty, living downtown in his old-fashioned house 
whose windows look out upon the high buildings that mark the 
alteration of the city of his youth. He is the father of three 
grown daughters, for whom he feels a growing sense of parental 
responsibility, as he realizes increasingly that the change is 
within the home as well as without. Their three lives differ 
widely from one another, and all are departures from the par- 
ents' ideals; but Gale is a kindly and tolerant observer, and as 

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circumstances in his daughters' lives make demands upon his love 
and energies, there deepens within him a conviction of family 
feeling beyond the ties of blood; he feels himself immortal not 
only because " we live on in our children/* but because he is 
an inseparable part of the g^reat hiunan stream. 

The theme is better than its execution, for although Mr. Poole 
gives evidence of considerable insight into the difficulties and ex- 
actions of family life, as well as of extensive knowledge of the 
city's social conditions, yet there is a lack of force in the presenta- 
tion of what should be the centre of interest, the character of 
Roger. He is not a sufficiently vivid personality to carry the bur- 
den of the book, and this defect will prevent it from making a 
permanent impression. 

PORTRAITS OF WOMEN. By Gamaliel Bradford. Boston: 

Houghton Mifflin Co. $2.50 net. 

The writer of these pages tells us that he was tempted to sub- 
stitute the word " psychographs " for " portraits " in his title, but 
he feared both publisher and purchaser. Psychography, according 
to Mr. Bradford, aiitis at precisely the opposite of photography. 
He writes : " It seeks to extricate from the fleeting, shifting, many- 
colored tissues of a man's long life those habits of action usually 
known as qualities of character which are the slow product of in- 
heritance and training, and which, once formed at a comparatively 
early age, usually alter little and that only by imperceptible degrees. 
The art of psychography is to disentangle these habits from the 
inessential matter of biography, to illustrate them by touches of 
speech and action that are significant and by those only, and thus 
to burn them into the attention of the reader." 

The nine portraits or psychographs in the present volume are 
of English and French women of the seventeenth and eighteenth 
centuries: Lady Montague, Lady Holland, Jane Austen, Madame 
d'Arblay, Mrs. Pepys, Madame de Sevigne, Madame du Deffand, 
and Madame de Choiseul, Eugenie de Guerin, the one woman of .the 
nineteenth century that figures in these pages, is the most worthy 
of all. 

MICHAEL. By E. F. Benson. New York : George H. Doran Co. 

$1.25 net. 

Michael's father. Lord Ashbridge, is a heartless and 
arrogant member of the English aristocracy with a vague notion 

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542 ' NEW BOOKS [July, 

that all Americans are snobs, and all Englishmen, not " one of us," 
his devoted admirers and slaves. His mother is a vapid oneature 
without real affection or strength of character. Her chief occupa- 
tion seems to be feeding her pet dogs, and uttering irrelevant com- 
monplaces at dinner. Michael is despised by his father for his 
ungainliness, his utter disregard of rank and title, and his inordi- 
nate love of music which might possibly be condoned in one of the 
lower middle class. His Aunt Barbara finally gives him this most 
excellent advice : " Get away from people who don't understand 
you ; try to see how ridiculous you and everybody else always are ; 
don't think about yourself." 

Michael finally leaves his father's house, studies music ser- 
iously enough to become a composer, lives with congenial artist 
and musician friends, and finds true happiness in the home of a 
German family living in London. The son, Hermann, becomes 
his best friend, the daughter, Sylvia, becomes his affianced bride, 
and they are on the eve of marrying when the Great War comes 
to bring unhappiness. Michael joins a regiment about to cross 
over into France, Hermann goes to fight for the Kaiser, and Sylvia 
is divided in her love for her sweetheart and her German father- 
land and brother. The dramatic climax comes when Michael kills 
his friend in a night attack in the trenches, and goes home invalided 
to break the news to Sylvia. 

The story is well told, the interest sustained; we are all 
pleased to find love tritmiph over war and death. 

THE HISTORY OF THE FABIAN SOCIETY. By Edward R. 

Pease. New York: E. P. Button & Co. $1.75 net. 

There are not many persons in America to whom the Fabian 
Society is much more than a name. That small niunber which 
knows that the name describes a certain sect of English Socialists 
will find considerable interest in the present volume. Inasmuch as 
the author has been for more than twenty-five years the secretary 
of the Society, he is exceptionally competent to write its history. 
Most of the chapters are written aroimd the prominent personali- 
ties of the Society : Shaw, Wallas, the Webbs, Wells, and others. 
Hence the book is very readable. Perhaps the two most significant 
facts in the volume are recounted respectively in the first two 
chapters and the last. They are the peculiar and varied combina- 
tion of views that were represented by the founders of the Society, 
Positivism, Henry Georgeism, Socialism, Christian Socialism, 

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Psychical Research, and the New Life; and the achievement of the 
Fabians in breaking the spell of Marxism before that result was ac- 
complished anywhere else. That a very small group of writers 
should have been able to produce this result, in addition to many 
others that are noteworthy, is sufficient reason for a systematic 
account of their methods and efforts. 

THE SPIRITUAL JOURNAL OF LUCIE CHRISTINE. Edited 
by Rev. A. Poulain, S.J. St. Louis: B. Herder. $1.50 net. 
This journal, a translation from the French, records the 
spiritual life of a devoted wife and mother from 1870 until her 
death in 1908. A pseudonym is used in the title, and the thoughts 
and experiences transcribed, much against the writer's will at the 
instance of her confessor, were not given to the world until some 
years after she had left it. 

The editor has selected salient points from several volumes, 
and made a connected account of mosaic-like fragments that tells 
of high and unusual spiritual experiences. The intimacy with 
God, the devotion to Holy Communion and prayer, the self-exami- 
nation are all told with that simplicity with which we are familiar 
in the lives of the saints. Lucie Christine, the preface tells us, 
although the recipient for years of unusual spiritual favors, ap- 
peared to those about her no different from any other pious, chari- 
table person, and many of her experiences can well serve as example 
and instruction for others who long for a closer union with heaven 
while' engaged in the daily duties of earth. 

SONNETS AND OTHER VERSES. By Rev. Francis A. Gaffney, 
O.P. New York: P. J. Kenedy & Sons. $1.00 net. 
These verses, which have reached a second edition in a few 
months, are mainly religious in subject and tone. However, there 
are personal and commemorative poems scattered throughout the 
volume which give a pleasant effect of many and warm friendships. 
The verse is not always even in quality, but such poems as A Sog- 
garth's Prayer and The Sleepless One make a distinct impression. 

ORDEAL BY FIRE. By Marcel Berger. New York: G. P. Put- 
nam's Sons. $1.50 net. 

Mrs. Cecil Curtis has given us, in this volume, a vivid transla- 
tion of a story that throbs with life. Marcel Berger, a sergeant 
in the French army, tells a remarkably fine tale of the days stretch- 



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544 NEW BOOKS [July, 

ing from August i, 191 4, to September 9th. He brings us dose 
to the lives of the intrepid French soldiers, and makes us live with 
them during the time when the shock of war was strongest. But 
most vivid of all is the sense impression he gives us as he leads 
a small detachment of his soldiers to an attack in early September. 
He analyzes his feelings as he plunged forward and then fell 
wounded in the leg, makes the whole story pulsate with reality. 
Then comes the awakening, and he must go on in life a cripple. 
But he takes up his burden heroically, cheerful in the love of his 
Jeanine. 

The Ordeal By Fire comes after a surfeit of war books, but 
it is, nevertheless, fresh and invigorating. 

OUR FIRST WAR WITH MEXICO. By Famham Bishop. New 

York: Charles Scribners* Sons. $1.25 net. 

This popular history of our first war with Mexico is based 
for the most part upon the scholarly work of George L. Rives, 
The Relations Between the United States and Mexico, 1821-1848, 
which we reviewed in the pages of The Catholic World some 
years ago. It sketches in brief the campaigns of Taylor, Scott, and 
Kearny, and mentions briefly the causes and results of the war. 
The book is fair and objective in treatment, although occasionally 
the writer goes out of his way to calumniate what he calls the 
" unpatriotic, clerical oligarchy." 

A STUDENT IN ARMS. By Donald Hankey. New York: E. P. 

Dutton & Co. $1.50. 

These are the thoughts of a man in the trenches who saw 
life as it was and yet was not overwhelmed by its grossness. At 
all times he sought to look beyond the enternals and to find the 
deep causes back of all the misery, the heroism, and the suffering 
he witnessed. And his interpretation, limited to some slight degree 
by its immaturity, is so sweet with the highest spiritual idealism that 
the reader pauses and marvels. Clothed in a fine simplicity of 
language it speaks of the quiet nobility of the officers and the 
fighting men of Britain, and gives a keen analysis of their relation 
to one another, to Church and to country. It is free from 
the smallness of smug conventional life, and finds that breadth 
of vision that comes only from a vivid realization of death. 

The author has seen life stripped of all its hypocritical trap- 
pings, and having witnessed the real, warns against the false, empty 



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1917] NEW BOOKS 545 

cant of our society that rests satisfied with the mere forms of 
religion and its kindred obligations. 

The deep sincerity of his words is strikingly accentuated by 
the publisher's note that precedes the sketches: "Mr. Donald 
Hankey was killed in action on the Western Front on October 
26, 1916." 

THE LIFE OF THE CATERPILLAR. By J. Henri Fabre. New 

York : Dodd, Mead & Co. $1.50 net. 

It is hard to conceive of the greatness of that genius that 
can tell the story of such a seemingly uninteresting insect as the 
caterpillar and give the recital all the charm, all the vivid interest 
and the movement of a novel. Yet that is exactly what the noted 
French savant has accomplished in this, the sixth volume of his 
entomological works in English. 

The author, who died in October, 191 5, at a very advanced 
age, brings to his subject such delicate imagery that the most ab- 
stract notion takes on a resistless charm and lives in quaint reality. 
He speaks of the arbutus caterpillar and the little insect becomes 
a real person, building his extravagant house with shutters filled 
with pipings of silk velvet. He talks with us about the pine 
processionary, and we see before us the wonderful communistic 
life these cenobites lead in their silken weavings. Every story — 
whether of the psyches, or the great peacock or the banded 
monk — ^takes on a new meaning in its telling, because of the inti- 
mate, interesting details that he gives out of the great wealth 
of his knowledge. 

Nor is this interest gained at the sacrifice of scientific truth 
or treatment. As in his work on the fly, the bee and the wasp, 
Fabre shows in this study of the caterpillar marvelous patience in 
experimentation, a keen perception and a wonderful power to 
interpret his observations in terms of the humanly real. So at- 
tractively does he clothe his ideas that there is a tendency to forget 
that all his conclusions are the deductions of a master scientist, who 
knew too much to be ever unscientific. 

But Fabre is more than a mere interpreter of nature as seen 
in her insects. He is a philosopher who sees in his entomological 
studies reaffirmation of the great principles of all life. His close 
application has not limited his vision: rather has it broadened it, 
and kept it free from those vanities and idle reasonings of many 
of our so-called philosophers and political economists. 



VOL. cv.— 35 

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546 NEW BOOKS [July, 

" Yes, caterpillars and friends/' he says, in one of the chapters, 
" we must all work. Laboremus/' And that must have been the 
secret of his great life, for no. one could have risen to such mas- 
tery of his subject or attained such eminence in his field of en- 
deavor as did Fabre without great labor. But from his writings 
we can see that his labor was the labor of love. And, loving 
his work, he was able to talk of it in words that charm by their 
friendly intimacy. 

The Life of thq Caterpillar is as interesting as a novel and 
more instructive. 

INTOLERANCE IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. By Arthur 

J. Klein. Boston : Houghton Mifflin Co. $2.00 net. 

In his introduction the writer declares : " The purpose of this 
essay is to estimate and to call attention not only to the intolerance 
of the government and the Established Church, but also to the 
rising Protestant groups of dissent, and to indicate the way they 
conditioned and influenced the attitude of both the government 
and the Church and intrenched themselves for the future con- 
flict." 

Professor Klein admits the Erastian character of the Estab- 
lishment, and the absolute supremacy of Elizabeth in matters 
spiritual. She was legislature, supreme court, and pope for 
the English Church, and hers is the responsibility for every penal 
law passed by her packed Parliaments. It is true that during the 
first decade of her reign Catholics were treated with comparative 
lenity, the severest penalties being fines, confiscations and imprison- 
ment. Still the Professor is wrong in asserting that no religious 
principle was involved in the demand for attendance at Protestant 
heretical worship. His words are : " The imprisonment of 
Catholics who refused to submit to the formal requirements of the 
law in regard to church attendance and outward conformity was 

not persecution inspired by religious principle it was little 

more than a pledge of political loyalty to the Crown." It was just 
this '' little more " that meant persecution for conscience' sake. 

The increased severity of the penal laws that followed the 
Bull Regnans in excelsis of Pius V. in 1570, and the defeat of the 
Armada in 1588 is admitted by our author, although he tries to show 
that the one hundred and eighty-nine Catholics who suffered the 
death penalty in Elizabeth's reign were either traitors, or suffered 
as innocent victims of the treasonable activities of their fellow- 



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Catholics. He unfairly takes the public proclamations of Eliza- 
beth at their face value, and gives credence to the made-to-order 
voltrme of Lord Burghley, entitled The Execution of Justice in 
England not for Religion but for Treason. He does not seem to 
have heard of Cardinal Allen's answer at the time (1584): A 
True, Sincere and Modest Defence of English Catholics that suffer 
for their fcdth both at home and abroad: ctgainst a false, seditious 
and slanderous Libel entitled the Execution of Justice in England. 
A summary of this work may be found in Haile's An Elizabethan 
Cardinal, William Allen. 

Catholics were legally traitors if they refused to acknowledge 
the Queen's supremacy, if they withdrew anyone from the re- 
ligion stablished, if they pretended to have power to absolve or 
reconcile anyone to the See of Rome, if they imported Catholic 
books of controversy into England, etc.. Green's words in his 
Short History are worth quoting : " There is something even more 
revolting than open persecution in the policy which brands every 
Catholic priest as a traitor, and all Catholic worship as disloyalty." 

In discussing Protestant dissent. Professor Klein proves the 
intolerance of Presbyterianism, and shows that it cannot in any 
sense claim to be the champion of liberty or democracy. His pic- 
ture of the Elizabethan bishops and clergy is fair enough. The 
bishops are time servers, subservient to the State, and " not un- 
reasonably pious ; " the clergy are in great part ignorant, illiterate, 
immoral men, recruited from the ranks of shoemakers, barbers, 
tailors, waterbearers, shepherds and horsekeepers. " Perhaps," he 
adds, "there was as much moral earnestness and truly religious prop- 
aganda as exists in any Church where men are busy with concerns 
more immediate and practical than the salvation of their souls ! " 

The early English reformers and divines — Barlow, Cranmer, 
Cooper, Whitgift, Bancroft — denied the divine origin of episco- 
pacy as do their Low Church descendants today, but the ideal of 
apostolic succession developed during the controversies with the 
Presbyterians under Elizabeth. 

There are many statements throughout these pages that strike 
a Catholic as ridiculous, but the writer borrows them from some of 
the prejudiced rationalists of our day. For instance he writes: 
" Its (the Catholic Church's) supernatural elements were empha- 
sized at the expense of human progress." Or again : " It (Cathol- 
icism) was anti-social in so far as it made its ideal one of other- 
worldliness." 

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548 NEW BOOKS [July, 

The bibliography is not critical, and evidences the author's 
anti-Catholic prejudice. He warns his readers against accepting 
the statements of Catholic writers, but says nothing against unfair 
books like Bury's A History of Freedom of Thought Again he 
is not aware of the utter unreliability of Sarpi's history of Trent, 
nor does he apparently . know that a new critical history of the 
Council is in course of publication. 

CANONICAL ELECTIONS. By Daniel M. Galliher, O.P. Wash- 

ington, D. C. : The Catholic University of America. 

This scholarly dissertation on canonical elections was sub- 
mitted by Father Galliher for the doctorate in canon law at the 
Catholic University of America during the past year. The sub- 
ject is a most important chapter in the Church's canon law, be- 
cause of the necessity of safeguarding the choice of her Popes, 
bishops, and superiors of religious houses of men and women. 
The enactments, decrees and constitutions published on this ques- 
tion for centuries before and after the Fourth Lateran Council in 
12 1 5 are legion. 

Father Galliher has given a thorough treatment of the many 
questions involved, special attention being paid to the elections 
of the Order of Friars Preachers, in which not only generals and 
provincials, but even local prelates are canonically elected. After 
a brief historical sketch of the laws of various countries, he defines 
the notion of election in canon law, clearly setting it apart from 
collation, postulation and nomination. In succeeding chapters he 
describes the qualifications of electors, the legal method of calling 
them together, the persons eligible, the act of election, defects 
in election, subsequent acts, and postulation. He concludes with 
a few words on the present manner of electing the Pope, and of 
selecting bishops in the United States to the ruling of July 25, 
1916. 

We know of no treatise in canon law that brings out so clearly 
the wisdom, common sense, fairness and democratic spirit of the 
Church's legal system. 

CRIMINAL SOCIOLOGY. By Enrico Ferri. Translated by Jos. 
I. Kelly and John Lisle. Edited by Wm. M. Smithers. Bos- 
ton : Little, Brown & Co. $5.00 net. 
This is the ninth volume of the Modern Criminal Science 

Series published under the auspices of the American Institute of 

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1917] NEIV BOOKS 549 

Criminal Law and Criminology. The writer, Enrico Ferri, is a 
positivist of the Italian school, who holds that crime is a biologic 
and social abnormality, produced in part at least by extra-social 
forces. His great heroes are Spencer, Darwin, Marx and Lom- 
broso, so that naturally he emphasizes on every page the denifil of 
free will, and stresses the physical, biological and economic factors 
of crime. 

The colossal conceit of unbelievers of the Ferri type is evi- 
denced on every page of this work, especially when he boasts 
of his power to pick out in every instance the criminal type mur- 
derer. It is evident again in his constant sneering at the men 
of the classical school who think religion to be more than mere 
sentiment, and dare question his unproved assertions of fact and 
theory; When he asserts that "positive psychology has demon- 
strated that the pretended free will is a purely subjective illusion," 
we are not at all convinced, and when we read his arguments 
we wonder at the sublime faith of his followers. His definition 
of crime is itself inaccurate and incomplete, his methods of col- 
lecting criminal statistics vitiated by a -false a priori philosophy, 
his theory of the criminal type false and out of date, his indict- 
ment of the jury system unjust and exaggerated. 

His hatred of religion breathes on every page, and like many 
a renegade he speaks falsely of the corrupt Rome of the Middle 
Ages with its " apostolic tariffs for the absolution of sins." And 
this is the man who is always taunting the classical school for 
fighting shy of facts. We regret very much that the American 
Institute cannot find American scholars to write on these topics 
objectively, instead of translating works nearly forty years old of 
anti-Christian bigots. 

HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT AND THE IRISH 

REBELLION OF 1916. By Francis P. Jones. New York: 

P. J. Kenedy & Sons. $2.ob net. 

The latest attempt at the solution of the Irish problem and the 
decided stand taken in the matter by the Sinn Feiners gives an 
added value to any volume dealing with Ireland, and especially so 
if it treats of Ireland's newest political organization. 

Not widely known outside of Irish circles, previous to the 
Easter of 1916, the Sinn Fein movement has grown in strength 
since the Dublin insurrection, and is now exerting a decided in- 
fluence in Irish affairs. ^^ . , , 

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A clear insight into the inception, growth and ideals of the 
movement is found in Mr. Jones' recent book. He analyzes the 
English influences that have been at work in Ireland for many 
years. He shows the pernicious attempts to strengthen Ireland 
commercially and politically. In contrast to these influences he 
explains the Sinn Fein ideals, and traces out the gradual unification 
of discontent that culminated in the revolt of 1916. Of that im- 
fortunate insurrection and its leaders, he gives a most intimate 
account, having gathered his material from personal contact with 
Pearce, Connolly, MacDonald and the other Sinn Fein leaders. 

His presentation of the Irish problem is the most conclusive 
written in recent years, and contains a complete review of a period 
in Irish history that will grow in importance with the passing of 
time. No one who would know Ireland's present position can 
aflford to miss reading this scholarly work. In writing it Mr. 
Jones has done a great service for Ireland and her people. 

SIXTY YEARS OF THE THEATRE. By John Ranken Towse. 

New York : Funk & Wagnalls Co. $2.50 net. 

Mr. Towse, dramatic critic for the New York Evening Post 
for over forty years, has written a delightful volume of remin- 
iscences. He is firmly convinced of the degeneracy of the modem 
theatre in all matters of sheer artistry and histrionism, and de- 
clares that the present-day stage cannot claim even one great actor. 
Throughout the volume he points out the causes of this generally 
acknowledged decadence, viz., the doing away with the old, care- 
fully trained and artistic stock companies, the prevailing system of 
purely commercial management, and the bought-up press lavishing 
unmerited praise upon poor plays and incompetent performers. 

These fascinating pages are valuable chiefly for the writer's 
critical estimates of plays and players for the past sixty years. With 
impartial pen he bestows praise and blame, sets forth the compara- 
tive merits of various actors in well-known roles, and frankly ex- 
presses his judgment as to their talent or genius. For example, he 
considers Salvini the greatest actor and artist of them all ; asserts 
that Booth was a great but not a very great actor; places Fechter's 
Hamlet first, with Booth a good second and Forbes-Robertson 
third. He regards John Gilbert unique in his interpretation of 
Sir Anthony in The Rivals; and grants Bernhardt's genius 
in the modern social emotional drama, but styles her Hamlet a 
presumptuous, ignorant and abominable travesty. He calls Modjeska ^ 

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1917.] NEW BOOKS 551 

one of the really great actresses of her time, admits the genius 
of Clara Morris, and has high words of praise for Irving both 
as actor and manager. He speaks rather disparagingly of Mary 
Anderson, Maude Adams, Mrs. Fiske, Sothem, Mantell and other 
popular idols of today. 

The reader may not always agree with the opinions of this 
rather exacting critic, but everyone will admit he writes out of 
honest conviction, and a full knowledge of his subject. 

GRAPES OF WRATH. By Boyd Cable: New York: E. P. But- 
ton & Co. $1.50 net. 

Without doubt this is one of the most fascinating books the 
war has produced. So vivid is its presentation of life at the front, 
so startingly real is its delineation of fearful charge and bloody 
attack that the recital grips the reader and holds him spellbound to 
its close. And when he lays down the book, all he can do is to 
shake his head in wonder and sorrow. 

In Action Front the author gave us a remarkable picture 
of trench life and warfare, but in this new book he reaches even 
a higher degree of perfection. He has attained a greater mastery 
of his tools. He moulds together all the pathos, the joy, the 
cruelty, the sublimity of the fearful struggle, and so rebuilds the 
scenes until they live agfain before us in their naked reality. The 
story that he tells is tremendous in its pull upon the emotions, for 
it is life itself. 

Grapes of Wrath is based upon Julia Ward Howe's " Bat- 
tle Hymn of the Republic," and tells the story of twenty-four 
hours in the lives of three private soldiers, " Kentucky," " Larry," 
and " Pug." Coming up from the rear, the three men advance 
with their regiment to the attack on a German trench. Then comes 
the conflict, fierce, pitiless, lethal. And through it all stands out 
the careless bravery of the three men. How they live, how they 
fight, how one dies forms a story that only the man who lived 
it could write. 

Grapes of Wrath is as big as its theme and as moving. . . 

ST. PAUL THE HERO. By Rufus M. Jones. New York: The 

Macmillan Co. $1.00. 

As an introduction to the life of the first and greatest of the 
missionary saints, this little volume will serve a useful purpose, 
especially with youthful readers. Beginning with Paul's boyhood, 

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552 NEW BOOKS [July, 

it runs through the various stages of his growth, at school, in 
Gamaliers college, during his violent anti-Christian days, as a 
Christian neophyte, and finally as an Apostle. The thrilling story 
of the wonderful journeys is happily told, and leaves one eager, 
for better acquaintance with the hero of the tale. St. Paul's life 
is so full of incident and so fascinating in detail that to write a 
long book about him would be far easier than a satisfactory short 
one ; but Professor Jones, with the exactness of a scholar and with 
the quiet reverence of a Quaker, has produced a series of brief 
chapters that will convey to young people a very cle^r outline of 
the main story, while not exceeding the compass of their patience. 
The little volume, therefore, is a welcome addition to our library 
of useful books. 

WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE BY CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. 

By H. St. George Tucker. New York: Yale University 

Press. $1-35 net. 

The five lectures in this volume were delivered by the author 
in the Storrs Lecture Course in the Yale University Law School 
in February, 191 6. They set forth clearly the real distinction - 
between the powers of the Federal and State Governments under 
the Constitution of the United States, and insist upon the necessity 
of maintaining those powers in a just equilibrium for the preserva- 
tion of American liberties. 

The author does not in any way treat of the merits of woman's 
suffrage, but discusses the proposed amendment to the Constitution 
with regard to woman's suffrage as one of the attempts to con- 
found State and Federal Governmental powers. 

The author proves his thesis in scholarly fashion. 

WHERE THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH STANDS. 

By Rev. Edward McCrady. New York: E. P. Button & Co. 

$1.75 net. 

The Rev. Edward McCrady writes this volume to prove the 
ultra Protestant character of tiie Church of England and its 
American daughter, the Protestant Episcopal Church. He has no 
patience with the High Churchmen who in convention after con- 
vention have tried to change the name of their Church. He thus 
declares his aim : " We have merely set out to prove that it is 
absolute impossible for anyone to assume that the theological 
position taken by the Anglican Reformers and incorporated into 



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1917] NEIV BOOKS 553 

the Articles and other formularies of the Church of England is 
not the present official position of that communion as well as of 
this Protestant Episcopal Church, that the doctrinal position of 
the Catholic party is not absolutely incompatible therewith, and 
that the present proposition to change the name of this Church to 
the American Catholic Church does not necessarily mean the entire 
abandonment of the official and historic position of this Church." 

He proves conclusively the Protestant mind of the English 
reformers, the Protestant character of the Prayer Book and the 
Thirty-nine Articles, and devotes most of the three hundred pages 
of his book to the Presbyterian contention that episcopacy is not 
a divine institution. 

The writing of the book is not carefully done, and is marked 
by many repetitions, and an annoying use of capitals and italics. 

MORE TALES BY POLISH AUTHORS. Translated by Elsie 

C. M. Benecke and Marie Busch. New York: Longmans, 

Green & Co. $1.50 net. 

The most striking story of the six dramatic tales of the 
present volume is The Returning Wave, by Boleslaw Prus. It de- 
scribes a German millionaire manufacturer living in Poland who 
acknowledges no God but money and w^orldly success. He treats 
his workingmen with the greatest cruelty and injustice, reducing 
their wages in order to give his spendthrift son money to squander 
on riotous living. His cruelty results in the death of one of his 
best workmen. Nemesis follows in the death of his beloved son 
in a duel, whereupon the old man goes violently insane, burns down 
his cotton mill, and dies in the flames. 

Another well-told story is Maciej, the Mazur, by Adam Szy- 
manski. It is a tale of murder, brother killing brother for re- 
vealing the plans of the Polish revolutionists. 

BREACHES OF ANGLO-AMERICAN TREATIES. By John 

Bigelow. New York: Sturgis & Walton Co. $1.50 net. 

During the Taft Administration when the Hay-Pauncefote 

Treaty was under discussion, a number of British journals charged 

the United States with bad faith in respect to its treaty obligations. 

These statements led Major Bigelow to examine the records of 

the diplomatic relations between Great Britain and the United 

States to determine the relative trustworthiness of the two nations. 

He reviewed and analyzed the more important Anglo- Ameri- 

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554 NEIV BOOKS [July, 

can treaties, and found that the United States has more than a 
safe balance of good faith to its credit in its regard for treaty 
rights, and is far above the level of British diplomacy. 

This book, which embodies this study of diplomatic bona 
fides, is marked by fairness of treatment and broad scholarly effort. 

UNDERTOW. By Kathleen Norris. Garden City, N. Y. : Double- 
day, Page & Co. $1.25 net. 

Mrs. Norris, the novelist of the American home, has written 
a new story on the theme of extravagance. Bert and Nancy 
Bradley are the happiest of couples on twelve hundred a year, but 
once they are caught in the undertow of living beyond their means, 
they drift apart, become discontended and envious of others, and 
lose all affection for simple home pleasures. A fire which destroys 
their expensive surburban home brings them to their senses, and 
they determine again to live the happy, simple life. The story is 
worth while and wholesome. 

THE REST HOUSE. By Isabel C. Clarke. New York: Benziger 

Brothers. $1.35 net. 

In The Rest House Miss Clarke tells us how the frail, pam- 
pered, but resolute Peggy Metcalfe found her way to the Catholic 
church despite the most bitter opposition of friends and kinsfolk. 
Her conversion is due to a direct call from the Christ of the 
Eucharist, which is more frequent than some Catholics realize. 
The contrast between the worldliness, prejudice and narrowness 
of the English Protestant home with the other- worldliness, devotion 
and spiritual outlook of the Catholic home is well drawn. It is 
a good book to put into the hands of inquirers who must face 
bitter opposition at home, if they are to be true to the call of 
God and conscience. 

THE LIGHT IN THE CLEARING. By Irving Bacheller. New 

York: The Bobbs-Merrill Co. $1.50 net. 

This is a story of northwestern New York in the forties. 
It is remarkable chiefly for its clear cut, attractive character 
sketches of the simple and sturdy country folk of the days of 
President Van Buren. Uncle Peabody and Aunt Deel are an 
unfailing delight, and the jovial schoolmaster and the honest Sena- 
tor are excellent companions for an idle hour. The love story, 
according to rule, is a story of bitter opposition and glorious 

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1917.] NEW BOOKS 555 

triumph. The villainous Grimshaw is punished in the execution 
of his only son, and the mysterious Silent Woman is restored to 
sanity and happiness. 

AURORA THE MAGNIFICENT. By Gertrude Hall. New York: 

The Century Co. $1.40 net. 

This wholesome and well-written novel describes the social 
Bet of the Anglo-American colony in Florence. Aurora, an ig- 
norant, vulgar, but warm-hearted and generous widow from Cape 
Cod, invades the sacred precincts of this exclusive body, and despite 
her many handicaps wins everyone, including a most fastidious artist 
whom she marries. The characters are well drawn, the love story 
interestingly told, although we hope that foreigners will not 
deem Aurora a type of the average American young woman. 

THE HOLY HOUR IN GETHSEMANE. By Francis P. Donnelly, 
S.J. New York : P. J. Kenedy & Sons. 75 cents. 
In this book of meditations and prayers for the devotion 
of the Holy Hour, the Passion forms the centre of thought. The 
Anima Christi is the text. The author tells us it was so chosen 
by request, and lent itself admirably to the purpose, an opinion 
from which none will dissent. Father Donnelly has arranged the 
meditations into three Hours; for Holiness; for Perfection and 
Strength; and for Perseverance, respectively. Each of these is 
so subdivided as to give three meditations for each quarter except 
the fourth, for which litanies, prayers and hymns are provided. 
The reflections are searching and inspiring, and the book cannot 
but fulfill the author's hope that it "may help to spread fiu-ther 
this consoling devotion which appeals so touchingly to the faith- 
ful in these days when the Sacrament of the Altar is coming to 
occupy so prominent a place in Catholic life." 

THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE MARTYRS OF TYBURN. 

By the Nuns of Tyburn Convent. London: Burns & Oates. 

35 cents net. 

This volume contains brief biographies of the one hundred 
and five martyrs who were executed at Tyburn from 1535-1681. 
In the number are included forty-four secular priests, twenty 
laymen, nineteen Jesuits, seven Benedictines, seven Carthusians, 
three Franciscans, two women, one Dominican, one Bridgettine, 
and one Archbishop. These brief lives refute the old Protestant 

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SS6 NEW BOOKS [July, 

calumny that these men suffered for treason, and not for their 
religion. On the contrary all could siy with Father Powel, O.S.B. : 
" This is the happiest day and the greatest joy that ever befell me, 
for I am brought hither for no other cause or reason than that I 
am a Roman Catholic priest, and a monk of the Order of St. 
Benedict." 

THE PRINCESS OF LET'S PRETEND. By Dorothy Donnell 
Calhoun. New York: E. P. Button & Co. $1.50 net. 
An appealing little collection of stories for young folk — the 
type of stories beginning with " once upon a time," that wide-eyed 
children clamor to hear at the twilight or bedtime hour. 

The illustrations are novel, being photographs chosen from 
moving picture films ; but their realism will disappoint the childish 
imagination, which can far more aptly picture its own fairy world. 

LIFE OF ST. ADAMNAN. By Very Rev. E. Canon Maguire, D.D. 

Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son. 

Dr. Maguire writes a brief but scholarly life of St. Adamnan 
or St. Eunan, the biographer of St. Columba of Zona, and the first 
Bishop of Raphoe (697-705). He was the most illustrious of the 
successors of St. Columba, remarkable both for his scholarship 
and his sanctity. He did his utmost to convert the monks of 
Zona to the Roman tonsure and the Roman Easter, but he failed 
to win them over. He brought these customs with him to Ireland 
when he left lona to be Bishop of Raphoe, and by his zeal and 
energy saved the Irish Church from possible schism. 

IN the Manuale Ordinandorum, or the Ordination Rite According 
to the Roman Pontifical, Rev. Aurelius Stehle, O.S.B. (Beatty, 
Pa.: Archabbey Press. Cloth, 50 cents; paper, 25 cents) pub- 
lishes the text of the Roman Pontifical on the conferring of orders, 
adding appropriate notes and citing authentic decrees of the Holy 
See. The book should be much appreciated by students approach- 
ing ordination and by the laity. Much praise is due the Benedictines 
for their constant endeavor to extend the knowledge of the liturgical 
beauties by translations in the vernacular. 



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The Hindenburg drive which the enemy 
Progress of the War. threatened a few weeks ago has not been 

begun, nor so far are there any signs of its 
being undertaken, although he is said to have five million men under 
arms. During the period of Russian disorganization fears were 
entertained for Petrograd, but with the exception of a bridgehead 
on the Stokhod, the Russian line remains intact. So far from an 
advance, every step of the enemy has been backward, and his boast 
now is of his ability in making " victorious " retreats. After hav- 
ing succeeded in extricating his forces on the Somme front, the 
Allies were brought into a stand on the line St. Quentin-Cambrai. 
But the rest accorded to the enemy was not to last long. On 
Easter Monday the British launched a fresh attack east of Arras, 
and at once secured far greater advances than during the Somme 
battle. Vimy Ridge, one of the chief German strongholds, was 
captured within a few hours ; eleven thousand prisoners, as well as 
more than one hundred field guns, were taken. To the right of the 
British line the French soon after made an advance toward the pla- 
teau of Craonne, and although the depth penetrated was not deep the 
positions secured were of great military value; the key-points, in 
fact, of the enemy's line. The C2y)ture of nineteen thousand pris- 
oners shows the swiftness of the blow and the severity of the 
defeat inflicted on the enemy. Perhaps an even more important 
gain than these local successes was that by these attacks Hinden- 
burg was foiled in his plans, and forced to draw upon the strategic 
reserves which he has been so laboriously accumulating, and to use 
them for a merely defensive purpose. It is said that he had created 
a reserve force of about it million men with which to make one 
last bid, if not for victory, at least for a draw. For this all Ger- 
many's resources during the past winter had been devoted. Every 
man in Germany had been placed at the disposal of the military 
authorities. On the other hand, the object of the Allies was ob- 
tained. Their attacks were made not to break through, as Ger- 
man writers assert, but to break up the armies in front of them. 
This, by the superiority of artillery which is now theirs, they have 

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5S8 RECENT EVENTS [July, 

been able to do in a large degree and by inflicting enormous losses, 
so that at least ten of Hindenburg's reserve divisions have had to 
be drawn into the battle to supply these losses. 

Hardly had the British consolidated the positions won east 
of Arras than a new attack was made farther north on the enemy's 
lines. The attack was preceded by an explosion of mines which 
had taken six months to prepare, and resulted in the capture of one 
of the strongest of the enemy's position and in a British advance 
of more than three miles. All this was accomplished after the Ger- 
man public had been repeatedly assured that the Allied offensive 
had broken down for this year. 

Meanwhile Italy had begun to act. Too much cannot be said 
in praise of the part which the Italian army has taken in the war. 
Where others have had hills to attack, Italy has had mountains. 
So important an influence on the war has been exerted by Italy 
that not a few think that the Allies would have been defeated if 
Italy had remained neutral. It is worthy of note that General 
Cadoma is the only commander-in-chief who has retained his com- 
mand from the beginning. His capture of Goritzia is considered 
a masterpiece of strategy. In the latter half of May, another 
offensive was opened on the front from the Isonzo to the Adriatic, 
a distance of more than fifty miles. By equally brilliant strategy 
Count Cadoma succeeded in capturing important positions on the 
way to Trieste, and in taking many prisoners. The Austrians, 
however, have brought up large reenforcements. The way to 
Trieste is still blocked. 

Little has been done in the other scenes of warfare, Saloniki, 
Armenia, Palestine, Mesopotamia, East Africa. Although little 
has been said, a great deal has been done in Persia. German emis- 
saries had succeeded in bringing about a state of anarchy and revolt 
throughout a large part even of Southern Persia, in preparation for 
the advance into India which once formed part of their dreams. 
After the taking of Kut by the Turks when British prestige had 
been brought very low, and there was a possibility of Persia being 
turned into a basis for this attack on India, a small British column 
started from the Persian Gulf in order to restore order and to 
clear out the enemy's agents. So great has been the success of 
this expedition that Sir Percy Sykes, its commander, is now at 
the head of eleven thousand highly-trained Persian police, and has 
brought the whole of Southern Persia under control. 

While the submarine warfare of the "assassins of the sea," 



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1917] RECENT EVENTS 559 

as Mr. Lansing styles our enemies, is still serious, their hope of 
success is being ever more and more deferred. Three weeks, at 
the beginning of the unrestricted campaign of ruthlessness, were 
given to bring England to her knees. Five months have passed, 
and now the deceivers of the German people have extended the 
time to two months. Keen disappointment is, moreover, being 
expressed in Germany. The well-known military critic, Captain 
Persius, has declared his conviction that the submarine cannot 
determine the war; in this he is in full agreement with English 
authorities. For a time it will be necessary for the population of 
Great Britain to practise economy in the use of bread, and this it is 
doing by voluntary rationing. For the immediate future measures 
have been taken by which two millions of tons of wheat will be 
added to this year's production, while for 1918 so much additional 
land will be cultivated that, even without so much as a single ton 
of imported food-stuff, all danger of starvation will have disap- 
peared. By shipping arrangements which have been made, even 
though the highest rate of submarine losses should be continued, 
more cargo tonnage will enter British ports in this month of July 
than came in during March. The working of British mines has 
been so much increased that four million more tons of minerals 
and ores will be available by August, while arrangements with 
France insure a full supply of timber 



One of the things which contributed to 
Peace Talk. the accomplishment of the Russian Revo- 

lution was the disgust felt by the nation with 
the inefficiency of the Tsar's government in the carrying on of the 
war, and the desire for greater military activity. And yet no 
sooner had its success been assured than a peace movement began 
which has its echoes in most of the belligerent States. This was 
due to the fact that the most influential of the agents in bringing 
about the Revolution was a body of Socialists whose ideals run 
counter to all purely national aspirations. In their view th^ world 
conflict is not between nations, but between the classes of each na- 
tion; the workingman is pitted against the capitalist; hence the 
Russian capitalist is the more immediate enemy of the working- 
man of the Empire than are the German working people. From 
this arises the obvious duty of bringing into alliance the working 
p^ple of each country. Russian Socialists took advantage of 

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56o RECENT EVENTS [July, 

their newly-won freedom to make an appeal to those of Germany 
for a common union on the basis of no annexation and no indemni- 
ties. They were strong enough to drive from office the Foreign 
Minister, M. Miliukoff, and to place in jeopardy the union of 
Russia with her Allies. To them the German Socialists were 
brothers, and this in spite of the fact that almost all of the party 
had from the beginning of the war proved false to the ideal of 
universal brotherhood, which had been the animating spirit of 
the movement, and had supported the war with an ardor equal to 
that of the most extreme of the Junkers. Nothing, in fact, more 
surprising has resulted from the war than the revelation of the 
hollowness of the Socialist movement. In every country it has 
played into the hands of the enemy of human freedom. Italy, 
France and England have suffered in various ways from Socialist 
activities, while in this country the party has favored a programme 
essentially Pro-German and therefore un-American. It supported 
the embargo on munitions, it called for the warning of Americans 
from going to sea, and offered nauseating apologies for the viola- 
tion of Belgium. At the present time it is putting forth all its 
energies in promoting a peace which would give the enemy most 
of the things he desires, a peace which would render fruitless all 
the sacrifices which have been made. 

In the dire straits in which Germany now finds itself it was 
willing to make use of the Socialists, although in the time of peace 
it had treated them as enemies of the State. It aided the return 
to Russia of the more influential advocates of the " Stop the War " 
propaganda, and did everything in its power to bring about a Con- 
gress at Stockholm at which peace by negotiation would be discussed, 
and allowed for the first time since the war began full reports of 
Socialist speeches. A Committee of the Reichstag has been ap- 
pointed to consider the revision of the Constitution. The Kaiser 
himself has declared that the thing which is dearest to his heart is 
the reform of the Prussian Diet and the liberation of the entire inner 
political life of the country. This declaration was made after the 
Russian Revolution and after our President's condemnation of gov- 
ernment without the consent of the governed, but it synchronized 
with the efforts of the Russian Socialists to enlist their fellow Social- 
ists in Germany in a peace movement. Bismarck has revealed the 
fact that the consent which he gave to the granting of universal 
suffrage for the German Empire was in his view merely a temporary 
blackmail tP th^ '* liberty-mongers," to b^ revoked when a conven- 

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1917] RECENT EVENTS 561 

lent opportunity offered. It is not difficult to arrive at the conclu- 
sion that it is from no love of wider political rights for the German 
people that the recent promises have been made, but with the view to 
win the support of the Socialists in their peace propaganda. 

Coincident with the German efforts to cooperate with the 
peace movement in Russia, the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Min- 
ister manifested his willingness to discuss peace terms, declaring 
that the Central Powers did not wish the destruction of their 
enemies. The proposal of a Peace Conference, made last Decem- 
ber, was, he said, still open. Replying subsequently to the Mani- 
festo issued by the Russian Provincial Government, which dis- 
claimed any design to dominate foreign - nations, to take from 
them their national heritage, or forcibly to occupy their 
territory, the Austro-Hungarian Government declared that those 
aims were identical with its own. No specific terms, however, were 
stated, and when some time after a clearer definition of these terms 
was given, it was found that once again deceit is wrapped up in 
generalities. It became clear that the whole purpose of the Austrian, 
as of the German, Government was to lure the Russian into the 
making of a separate peace. After no little hesitation the deter- 
mination of Russia to continue the war has been made, but not 
in so clear a way as to preclude all the hopes of her enemies. The 
Austrian Emperor seems still to cherish the idea of a separate peace. 
In his speech at the opening of the Reichsrath he referred to the 
great neighboring people with whom Austria was united in old 
friendship, forgetting that the war was occasioned by the gross 
insult which had been offered by his predecessor to that people. 
The fall of Count Tisza, described by a member of the Hungarian 
Chamber as a blood-maniac who had plunged Hungary into the 
war, and is still resolute for its continuance, may be an indication 
that a desire for peace exists in Hungary, although the cause of 
his fall was the old question of the extension of the suffrage which 
has for so long a time been a subject of debate. 

The Manifesto of the Russian Government which disclaimed 
all desire of annexation and indemnities excited considerable anx- 
iety among her Allies, and forced the Governments of Great Britain 
and France to make clear to the world and to Russia in what sense 
they understood this disclaimer. If its meaning was that no restor- 
ation to France of Alsace-Lorraine was to be made and no payment 
by the Central Powers of the damages suffered at their hands by 
Belgium, Poland, Serbia and Rumania, the Russian terms would . 

VOL. cv.— 36 Dmze6 by VjU'WglC 



562 RECENT EVENTS [July, 

not be endorsed by them. President Wilson has since made it clear 
that this country is in full agreement with the Western Powers. 
What stand Russia will take is not yet quite certain. The latest 
accounts, however, seem to make it clear that the dominant parties 
accept her Allies' interpretation. But the state of confusion which 
unfortunately is not yet at an end, makes it impossible for outsiders 
to feel full assurance of Russia's reliability. 

Among those in the enemy countries who are now talking about 
peace are certain of the German Catholics who, as Cardinal Mercier 
says in a recent pastoral, never found it in their hearts to utter a 
word of reprobation of the German armies when they massacred 
innocent inhabitants of Belgian cities and shot down priests, but 
have remained silent while the criminals were whitewashed. Today 
when the prospect for Germany is becoming dark, these Catholics 
are composing hymns to Christian fraternity, to forgetfulness of 
the past and to brotherly peace. The Cardinal recalls to their minds 
the doctrine of St. Thomas Aquinas, whom Pope Leo XIII. declared 
to be the great teacher not only of dogma, but also of morals. St. 
Thomas declares that there is a kind of vengeance that is a virtuous 
action, when, as in this case, it springs from. a respect to the rules 
of order and justice. The desire that the authors of the wrongs 
done to Belgium should be punished is nothing less than fidelity 
to these rules. To wish physical evil to a wrongdoer who remains 
obdurate for the sake of his conversion — a conversion which in- 
cludes restitution — is a reasonable love. " The collective crime of 
a nation which violates the right of another is incomparably more 
grievous than that of an individual whom society sends to the 
galleys or the guillotine." War is the means for the punishment 
of such a nation, and is therefore a righteous duty, and, in fact, 
a great act of love, to perform which Belgium has devoted all her 
strength, all her fortime, all her blood. That this task will be 
accomplished, the pledge just given by our President to the Belgian 
Envoys gives complete assurance : " The American people have 
been able to understand and glory in the unflinching heroism of 
the Belgian people and their sovereign, and there is not one among 
us who does not today welcome the opportunity of expressing to 
you our heartfelt sympathy and friendship, and our solemn deter- 
mination that on the inevitable day of victory Belgium shall be 
restored to the place she has so richly won among the self-respecting 
and respected nations of the earth." 



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1917] RECENT EVENTS 563 

The situation in Russia is still grave 
Russia. enough to cause anxiety, although within 

the last few days there are some signs of 
a stable settlement. The second Provincial Government remains 
unchanged, except that the Minister of Commerce has resigned. 
There seems to have arisen a master of the situation in the person 
of the Minister of War, M. Kerensky, who, as he is himself the 
leading Socialist of more moderate views, possesses great influence 
over the forces to whom the Revolution was chiefly due. M. 
Kerensky is a man of great decision of character, a man who 
sees things as they are, and therefore recognizes the supreme neces- 
sity of saving Russia from the foreign foe. As this cannot be 
done except by means of the army, he has proclaimed the intention 
of maintaining iron discipline within its ranks. There have been 
a few outbreaks of the extreme elements which were let loose by 
the Revolution. The garrison of Krondstadt revolted and pro- 
claimed its independence, but this seems to be an isolated instance ; 
its example instead of spreading having met with general condemna- 
tion. Regiments on the Rumanian border who mutinied on being 
disbanded, were at once brought under control by loyal troops. 
Discipline is being gradually restored by the efforts of the Minister 
of War. It is in fact rumored that the inactivity along the Russian 
front is coming to an end, and that the Germans are anticipating an 
attack. 

As the excitement involved in the Revolution is dying down, 
other and more sober influences will make their weight felt. 
Among these the American Mission will not be the least impressive. 
There has long been between Russia and this country a real sym- 
pathy, although of a somewhat intangible character, based upon the 
conduct of Russia during the Civil War. This will now tell in 
favor of the Mission of which Mr. Root is the head. 

The practical services which are being rendered by the Railway 
Commission in the all-important matter of transportation will give 
to this country a further influence in the establishment of stable 
government for new Russia. Above all President Wilson's Note 
harmonizes so well with the feelings of the party now dominant 
in Russia, that it cannot but establish a closer bond between the two 
countries, while at the same time it will make Russia more firm 
in her determination to prosecute the war for the attainment 
of the end which both are now seen to have in view, that is to 
say, that no territory shall be transferred without the consent of its 

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564 RECENT EVENTS [July, 

people, a policy which safeguards the rights of Poland, Belgium, 
Serbia and Montenegro. " No people must be forced under 
sovereignty under which it does not wish to live.*' This principle 
of the President if fully applied would secure for the Bt)hemians, 
the Serbs, the Slovenes and the other races now under Austro- 
Hungarian domination that measure of freedom to which they 
aspire. It may, however, be doubted whether the Russian Council 
of Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates will commit themselves to 
this wider extension of the principle, for they have disclaimed what 
they call " an imperialistic war in the name of the liberation of 
nations." This declaration was made before the publication of the 
President's Message to the Russian people; since its publication 
the Extreme Socialists represented by Lenine have shown openly 
that they were not in full agreement with the President's pro- 
gramme. 

While the Duma represents what is called the bourgeoisie, 
to which those of the supporters of Tsardom who acquiesce in its 
fall have allied themselves ; the soldiers and the workmen are more 
or less fully represented by the Council of Workmen's and 
Soldiers' Delegates. The great mass, however, of the Russian peo- 
ple are the peasants who do not seem to have had a prominent 
part in bringing about the Revolution, except in so far, and this is 
a fairly large exception, as the army is made up of peasants. A 
separate organization, however, has been formed of peasants' dele- 
gates of all Russia. These have been holding a Congress which has 
ranged itself on the side of the new democracy, has in fact declared 
in favor of a federal republic for Russia. As devotion to the Tsar 
was the deepest sentiment of this class, a sentiment thought so 
strong as to be incapable of being shaken, the last hold of Tsar- 
dom has been destroyed, if this Congress is a truly representative 
body. The reason is not far to seek. The revelation which has been 
made of the turpitude of the autocratic government of Russia 
has so shocked their moral instincts that it has changed reverence 
into contempt. 

It is now established that in February of this year the Rus- 
sian Ministry of the Tsar had already arranged terms of 
peace with Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey, 
and was secretly prepared, if France stood out for the return of all 
Alsace and Lorraine, to make a separate peace. This betrayal of 
the interests for which the peasants by the hundreds of thousands 
had shed their blood, resulted in that alienation which has come upon 



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I9I7-] RECENT EVENTS 565 

the world as so much of a surprise. The more thoughtful classes 
abandoned the cause of the Tsar when he took up a position of 
absoU^*:e intractability. Sint ut sunt, atit non sint became in his case, 
as in so many others, a ruinous motto. When it was a question of 
making even moderate concessions such as were desired not merely 
by the nobles, but by nearly all the members of his own family, he 
turned a deaf ear. This ruler of millions of his fellowmen was him- 
self ruled, so far as internal policy was concerned, by a treacherous 
German woman who was hostile to the best interests of the country 
of which she was the Empress. She in her turn was under the 
domination of a dissolute monk, who was seeking merely his own 
private interests. It is not believed that the Tsar was personally 
in favor of the peace with Germany or even aware of the intrigue; 
he allowed himself in this respect to be misled by his wife and her 
creatures in the bureaucratic ministry. His attention was en- 
grossed by the army, at the headquarters of which he chiefly passed 
his time. The Minister of the Interior, M. Protopopoff, not only 
did not try to serve the country, but did everything he could to serve 
the enemy. A plan was formed to cause serious disturbances by 
cutting off supplies of food, an artificial famine was engineered, 
and the disturbances consequent thereupon were to be the excuse 
for a call for peace with Germany. The internal confusion thus 
deliberately prepared would render a prosecution of the war im- 
possible. The Tsar was to be confronted with this situation and 
his consent to be won. Such in brief was the conspiracy against 
the country of which its rulers made themselves either directly or 
indirectly the agents. No wonder is it that when these facts were 
disclosed, a revolution, which was looked upon as impossible a few 
days before, was brought about within a few hours. 



The young Emperor of Austria is striving 
Austria-Hungary, to extricate his dominions from the thrall- 

dom by which they are threatened. An- 
other step in this direction has been taken by the meeting of the 
Reichsrath, which has taken place after the lapse of three years, 
during which all power was assumed by the late Emperor Francis 
Joseph. This course was not very agreeable to the Kaiser, for it was 
much more easy for him to work his will with an old man in his 
dotage than with an Assembly of the representatives of the people, 
even though that Assembly unfairly places a preponderance of 



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566 RECENT EVENTS [July, 

power on the Austro-Germans. The desire, however, to throw dust 
into the eyes of Russia and of the democracies of the West by an 
ostensible appeal to their principles, overcame the Kaiser's opposi- 
tion. In his speech the Emperor made a solemn asservation of his 
" unalterable will to exercise his rights as a ruler at all times in a 
truly constitutional spirit, inviolably to respect constitutional liber- 
ties, and to preserve, unimpaired to the people that share in the 
formation of the will of the States which the existing Constitution 
provides." After making this profession for reasons given, strange 
to say, he announced his decision not to take the constitutional oath 
until such time as a new and strong Austria should have been 
formed. This new and strong Austria, of which he gave a vague 
outline, he has taken it into his own hands to form, promising to 
act as a just, affectionate and conscientious ruler, and in the spirit 
of true democracy. 

The Germans within the German Empire and those in Austria 
are credited with the desire of extending still farther the control 
which they already wield over the various other races — Czechs, 
Slavs, Slovenes, Poles and others too numerous to mention. For 
this purpose, among other things, the Poles were to be ousted 
from the Reichsrath. The ruler's freedom from the oath to the 
Constitution as it stands will facilitate the carrying into effect of 
these schemes, not in the way in which the subject nationalities 
wish, but as it is well-pleasing to the German over-lords. Strenu- 
ous opposition is, however, already being offered. 

While the minority of Germans rule in Austria the Hungarian 
part of the Dual Monarchy is ruled by a Magyar minority, and 
they are perhaps even more unjust to the Slav majority. Of this 
minority and its unjust exercise of the position given by the exist- 
ing suffrage. Count Stephen Tisza, the Calvinist lay bishop, who 
recently placed the Crown of St. Stephen on the head of the new 
Emperor, has been for a long time the sturdiest supporter. He is 
convinced that the democratic reform of the suffrage promised 
several years ago, but not yet granted, would destroy the power of 
the Magyar oligarchy. When he fell on account of a half-hearted 
attempt made by him to deal with the question, it was expected that 
he would be succeeded by an equally stanch defender of the power 
of the Magyars, Count Andrassy. The opposition, however, has 
proved too strong : a Premier has been appointed who will attempt 
to bring in a genuine reform. Whether it will be carried is another 
question. 

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1917] RECENT EVENTS 567 

At last King Constantine has disappeared. 
Greece. On the demand of the Three Protecting 

Powers to whom Greece owes her Consti- 
tution and the King's father his crown, he was forced to abdicate 
in favor of his second son, Alexander. Since the beginning of the 
war Constantine has acted the part of a usurper, arrogating to him- 
self powers reserved by the Constitution to the Ministry and defy- 
ing the duly-elected representatives of the people. A section of 
the people — how large no one can say — and the army, at least its 
officers, supported him in a policy of cowardly submission to Ger- 
many, which resulted in the sacrificing of the best interests of the 
country. To him must, in a large measure, be attributed the 
inactivity of the Allied Army at Saloniki, as there was always the 
danger of an attack in the rear. Now that he has been removed, 
it is possible that an advance may be made in order to cut the 
railway which runs to Constantinople from Belgrade and Vienna. 



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RECENTLY the editors of a well-known collection of the best in 
English literature were persuaded, after considerable argument, 
that a new edition of their work ought to include such a poet as 
Francis Thompson. They had not intended to give him notice, nor 
to publish any extracts from his work, although they claimed that the 
new edition of their publication would be up-to-date and compre- 
hensive. An appeal in favor of a lesser Catholic poet — but one much 
greater than many included — was less successful. His name and his 
work will remain unmentioned in this (as advertised) complete digest 
of the best in all English literature. 

« ♦ ♦ « 

A SIMILAR case of the neglect of Catholic poets by The Cambridge 
History of English Literature has been pointed out in the pages 
of The Dublin Review, 

The Cambridge History, as is well known, is the work of different 
contributors, and in many ways is an invaluable publication to the 
student of English literature. In its treatment of Catholic poets and 
prose writers, and of religious questions, as they affect the literature of 
England, it cannot be termed fair and impartial. It does not always 
sail straight. Frequently it is lop-sided with Anglican and anti-Catholic 
prejudice. One need not ask, for example, if the editors, masters of 
the English tongue, know the opprobrium attached to the use of the 
word Romanist. They are well acquainted with it; and yet the 
volume is frequently stained by its use. And in a very subtle way it 
is attached to a Catholic author with the implication that it lessens 

his full claim to preeminence in the field of English literature. 
4c ♦ ♦ ♦ 

THE treatment of Newman in an earlier volume of the History is 
also an example of the bigotry of which we speak. From a literary 
point of view also it is lamentably deficient. To elevate Pusey " be- 
cause of his solemnity, pathos and grandeur'* above Newman will 
scarcely receive the approval of scholars. It is too late a day for even 
the prejudiced mind not to grant Newman a leading place in Eng- 
lish letters. The most unwilling must yield him a large share of 
praise, and, if he be attacked, it must be done in at least an apparently 
fair way — in that " broad," large-minded manner characteristic of so 
much modem writing. 

In The Cambridge History, Newman is indeed exalted, and highly 
exalted. Yet upon reading this estimate of him the reader, if he has 
had no other source of knowledge, will receive the impression 
that he was a skillful, rather than a great, writer; an artist rather than ^ 

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1917] ^JTH OUR READERS 569 

a genius. " Newman's Apologia/' says the History, " is wonderful : 
sincere, thorough, convincing." And then a few lines after we read: 
" It seems (italics ours) to represent without omission the whole 
mind of the writer. And yet it is a piece of finished art, not conscious 
but inevitable, because the writer had become half — ^perhaps altogether 
— unwittingly a supreme artist." " He could not write in any other 
way," we are told, " art had become to him a second nature." 

Newman was sincere, yes; but his art was so much a part 
of himself that it made spontaneity impossible. His was the great 
power of persuading his readers that he was speaking to them, heart 
to heart. The reader remembers that one page back the same writer 
in this History has told him that " Keble's Autobiography is even 
more truthful than Newman's Apologia/* and — ^that his erudition might 
be increased, and the desired impression might be deepened — that 
Williams, Newman's curate at St. Mary's, said : " Newman is in 
the habit of looking for effect and for what was sensibly effective." 
Again we are informed with emphasis that Newman " was an artist, 
and an incomparable master of his art." His later sermons, after he 
became a Catholic, " more obviously aimed at effect." 

4c ♦ 4t 4c 

BESIDE these innuendos of The Cambridge History of English 
Literature, which is advertised as the last work of scholarship 
on the subject, it is worth while to set the estimate of Professor Lewis 
E. Gates of Harvard University in his Selections from the Prase 
Writings of John Henry Cardinal Newman — an estimate which, by the 
way, the late Wilfrid Ward told us was, in his opinion, the keenest 
insight into Newman ever written by an American. Professor Gates 
says : " In spite of Newman's ease and affability, you feel, throughout 
his writings, when you stop to consider, an underlying suggestion of 
uncompromising strength and unwavering conviction. You are sure 
that the author is really giving you himself frankly and unreservedly, 
notwithstanding his apparent self-effacement, and that he is imposing 
upon you his own conclusions, persuasively and constrainingly. More- 
over, you are sure that, however adroitly he may be developing his 
thesis, with an eye to the skillful manipulation of your prejudices, 
he would at any moment give you a point-blank answer, if you put him 
a point-blank question. There is never any real doubt in your mind 
of his courage and manly English temper, or of his readiness to meet 
you fairly on the grounds of debate." 

And referring to Mr. Abbot's charge that Newman doctored the 
truth. Professor Gates answers: "The ultimate cause of his attack 
on Newman seems once more to be temperamental hostility rather than 
anything else, an utter inability to comprehend, or, at any rate, to toler- 
ate Newman's mental constitution and his resulting methods of conceiv- 

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570 WITH OUR READERS [July, 

ing of life and relating himself to its facts. Truth is to Newman a much 
subtler matter, a much more elusive substance, than it is to the Posi- 
tivist, to the mere intellectual dealer in facts and in figures ; it cannot 
be packed into syllogisms as pills are packed into a box ; it cannot be 
conveyed into the human system with the simple directness which the 
I^puta wiseacre aimed at who was for teaching his pupils geometry by 
feeding them on paper duly inscribed with geometrical figures. More- 
over, language is an infinitely treacherous medium ; words are so 'false,' 
so capable of endless change, that he is * loath to prove reason with 
them.' And readers, too, are widely diverse, and are susceptible to count-, 
less other appeals than that of sheer logic. For all these reasons it is 
doubtless the case that Newman is constantly studious of effect in his 
writings ; that he is intensely conscious of his audience and that he is 
always striving to win a way for his convictions, and aiming to insinuate 
them into the minds and hearts of his hearers by gently persuasive means. 

" But all this by no means implies any real carelessness of truth 
on Newman's part, or any sacrifice of truth to expediency. Truth 
is difficult of attainment, and hard to transmit; all the more strenu- 
ously does Newman set himself to trace it out in its obscurity and 
remoteness, and to reveal it in all its intricacies. Moreover, subtle 
and elusive as it may be, it is nevertheless something tangible and 
describable and defensible ; something, furthermore, of the acquisition 
of which Newman can give a very definite account; something as far 
as possible from mere misty sentiment, and something, furthermore, 
to be strenuously asserted and defended. 

" Now a fair-minded reader of Newman is always conscious of the 
essential mental integrity of his author, of his courage and readiness 
to be frank, even in those passages or in those works where the search 
for the subtlest shades of truth or the desire to avoid clashing need- 
lessly on prejudice, or the wish to win a favorable hearing, takes the 
author most indirectly and tortuously toward his end. It is this 
underlying manliness of mind and frank readiness to give an account 
of himself that prevent Newman's prevailing subtlety, adroitness, and 
suavity from leaving on the mind of an unprejudiced reader any im- 
pression of timorousness or disingenuousness." 

The History has room to quote from Father Faber only these two 
lines from his Magi: 

No Pope, no blessed Pope had they 
To guide them with his hand — 

It was certainly not love of literature that led the Cambridge 
History to preserve them. We remember also that the History places 
the Anglican Traheme above Father Baker — not alone on literary 
grounds, but also because the Meditations of the former " have a wider 
outlook on things that aflfect the meditative soul " than Sancta Sophia. 

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1917I WITH OUR READERS 571 

And speaking of Modernism this learned work tells us its object was . 
to remain orthodox, yet at the same time to create "a Catholic 
atmosphere in which the nlodem mind may breathe more freely." 

* * * . ♦ 

WE were not surprised, therefore, to read the protest in the current 
Dublin on the injustices done to Catholic poets of the nineteenth 
century by The Cambridge History of English Literature. In its latest 
volume, Charles and Frederick Tennyson have a chapter to themselves ; 
Patmore, Francis Thompson and Aubrey de Vere are hidden among the 
lesser poets. Thompson, as to space, has one page in a volume of six 
hundred. " We are left," says the Dublin, " to surmise uncomfortably 
that sectarian prejudice however subconscious can alone account for it. 
Everywhere is room and to spare for biographies of far inferior men 
who do not happen to be Catholics." Room is given to tell of James 
Thomson's acceptance of atheism; of Swinburne's denunciation of 
priests ; space and print given to soften Samuel Butler's irreverences 
and blasphemies. Thompson's conversion is not noted, and his popu- 
larity has been worked up by a." coterie." As the Dublin answers, 
this last suggestion is as ungenerous as it is false. Thompson had 
no audience, no press waiting to advertise his worth. Tennyson had 
his Cambridge apostolate ready with drawn pens to herald his great- 
ness; Rosetti himself speaks of prearranged reviews. Thompson 
came to be known simply by sending some verses to a magazine. His 
friends came singly, one, two, three, and it was years before they 
were, as they are now, unnumbered. 

We know that the very Dublin that now protests against Saints- 
bury's untrue statement rejected Thompson's Essay on Shelley, which 
George Wyndham heralded as one of the greatest essays in the 
English language. Mr. Saintsbury will find it impossible to explain 
how the following coterie was designedly formed and held together: 
H. D. Traill, a North of Ireland Protestant; Le Gallienne, Arthur 
Symons; the Bishop of London; Mr. Garvin, G. K. Chesterton, Mr. 
Campbell, William Archer, George Meredith, John Davidson, A. 
Quiller Couch and Bume- Jones. All have tendered exceptionally high 
praise to Francis Thompson. The coterie is even more amazing than 

Saintsbury's statement. 

* * * * 

THE Cambridge History considers Adelaide Procter scarcely worth 
a mention. It gives no reference to Lionel Johnson's poetry 
or his critical work, nor to Robert Hugh Benson. 

* Hi ♦ . ♦ 

THE reviewer in the Dublin challenges Mr. Saintsbury to a competi- 
tive examination on the purport and significance of Thompson's 
poetry with almost any one of the thousands of admirers of this^i 

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572 WITH OUR READERS [July, 

poet. A useless challenge. Mr. Saintsbury would fail miserably, and 
for the simple reason that he is unable to judge such poetry as Thomp- 
son's or indeed judge the religious poets at all. To judge a writer 
one must know his soul, and it is safe to say that such a critic as Mr. 
Saintsbury often wonders what Thompson is driving at. A soul must 
be attuned to the truth he sings, ere he can appreciate Thompson's 
music. 

* * * * 

TO return to our Harvard writer on Newman. " Truth does not exist 
primarily as for the formalist in the formulas or the theorems of 
textbooks, but in the minds and hearts of living men. In these minds 
and hearts truth grows and spreads in countless subtle ways. Its 
appeal is through numberless other channels than those of the mind. 
. .Truth, then, to commend itself to such a being, must come not merely 
by way of the brain but also by that of the heart; it must not be a 
collection of abstract formulas, but must be concrete and vital. If it 
be religious truth, it must not take the form of logical demcMistrations, 
but must be beautifully enshrined in the symbols of an elaborate ritual, 
illustrated in the lives of saints and doctors, authoritative and vener- 
able in the creeds and liturgies of a hierarchical oi^ganization, irresistibly 
cogent as inculcated by the divinely appointed representatives of the 
Source of all Truth. In these forms religious truth may be able to im- 
pose itself upon individuals, to take complete possession of them, to 
master their minds and hearts, and to rule their lives." 

The Cambridge History of English Literature is not entitled to 
the claim of an authoritative guide. 



INCREASING numbers of men and women who once thought that 
" ideas " were simply academic and that philosophy confines itself 
to the classroom, are beginning to see that it is out of ideas that prac- 
tical conduct is born, and that nothing matters so much in life as one's 
philosophy. Fire and the sword and civilization shaken to its very 
foundations have had to come before they could be persuaded. 

Perhaps the lesson sinking in deeper will arouse our people to 
give energetic support to those agencies that are combating one of 
the worst evils of the day, the vicious moving picture. 

4c 4c ♦ ♦ 

MUCH has been done successfully to prevent the exhibition of pic- 
tures that are grossly indecent, but the film that portrays con- 
duct between men and women, boys and girls that is unbecoming and 
improper ; that tells graphically of crime and the methods of crime are 
still very common. Public sentiment is so tolerant of them that even the 
License Commissioner is powerless to act effectively. Only when 
a strong public sentiment of protest against this employment of crim^Tp 



N' 



1917.] IVITH OUR READERS 573 

and the ways of crime in order to make money makes itself heard, 
will the evil be lessened and eventually eradicated. 

* * * i^ 

[O boy or girl can sit before the moving film that pictures criminal 
acts and be unaffected. His mind will inevitably be impressed by 
ideas which, if not favorable to, are at least tolerant of what he views. 
The less mature, trained and stable the mind the more will it be ef- 
fectively impressed, until these pictures secure an almost absolute do- 
minion. The soul is meanwhile robbed of the good impressions which 
it would receive from healthy entertainment; its tastes, its standards 
are weakened, and into the very texture of the soul is woven a false, 

unreal view of life and its personal responsibilities. 

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ 

A FRENCH journal lately published an article by an experienced 
lawyer which exposed the demoralizing effects of certain films. 
His words seemed to many exaggerated, and would doubtless so appear 
to many of our readers were they given here. But they received abund- 
ant confirmation shortly afterwards in the trial of twelve boys in the 
Department of Tarn for robbery and attempt to murder several persons. 
Their personal possessions of revolvers, masks, stilettos, etc., were an 
exact duplicate of what had been shown by the films which they fre- 
quented ; in fact they confessed that they had wished to enact in real 
life the scenes that had delighted them at the cinema exhibitions. 

♦ ♦ 4c 4c 

RECENTLY in the city of New York the License Commissioner 
forbade the exhibition of a certain film. The proprietors of it 
secured from the courts an injunction against his action. But even- 
tually the motion of injunction was denied, and the Justice stated that 
the Commissioner's disapproval of the play was not an abuse of his 
discretionary power. He continued : " As addressed to the senses of 
a general audience it offends public decency. The inquiring mind of 

youth is quick to seize upon what is novel the majority, 

particularly the younger element, would find in the portrayal only what 
is portrayed — a pruriency attributed as typical of youth — ^to which 
t)rpe, happily, many do not conform. Such a play has no proper place 
upon the stage of a public theatre and does infinitely more harm than 
good." 

Everyone of us can do much to support publicly such a healthy 
and encouraging attitude. 



THE distribution of Catholic literature is always a fruitful means of 
preserving and increasing the faith of Catholics; of doing away 
with non-Catholic prejudice and frequently of leading non-Catholics to 

vjoogle 



a knowledge and acceptance of the Church's teachings 

Digitized by 



574 IVITH OUR READERS [July, 

Father La Farge in a recent issue of America pointed out how 
much good work may be done by circulating among those who do not 
speak English, Catholic periodicals in their own language. The enemies 
of the Church have not been slow in thus circulating their errors among 
the foreign born ; we should not be slow in combating and even antic- 
ipating them. Father La Farge also offers the excellent suggestion that 
Catholics of rural districts should write to their own local paper letters 
or short articles that would surely be acceptable to the needy editor, 
and serve as an antidote to error and to bigotry. The articles should not 
treat directly of religion or religious subjects, but of living subjects of 
the day with Catholic truth as a basis. The opportunity would thus be 
open to present solid fundamental truth so needful at the present hour. 
" For instance, a set of little papers on the relations of employer to 
employee and kindred subjects; on religion as the foundation of pa- 
triotism, or of the home, or of prosperity; on the evils of divorce; 
on proper training of children; on^ bigotry; the results of infidelity; 
reasons for believing in God," etc., etc. 

The writer adds that much of the material now appearing in 
college journals would be well suited for this purpose. 

What is said of the rural press, may be extended to the cosmo- 
politan press. A temperate, short well-worded letter will generally 
be printed by the city editor, and thus sow the knowledge of funda- 
mental truth and justice. Our Catholic college graduates ought to be 
doing much more of this than they are doing ; and indirectly it would 
serve as a most effective means of increasing interest in the work of 
the Catholic press. 



THE following paragraph, written by William Redmond, in the 
current Dublin Review, is both prophetic and increasingly poignant 
now : " The old system of government in Ireland is dead — no sane 
man believes it can ever be revived. Let it be the task of statesmen 
of all sections to devise a new system, founded on freedom and 
possessing every reasonable safeguard for minorities. Let old preju- 
dices be cast aside; let the hands which have been grasped upon the 
field of battle be grasped upon the field of peace in Ireland also; 
let England trust fully and freely the people who have given so many 
brave soldiers to the common cause. In this way, and in this way 
alone, can Ireland, consistently with her national existence, become 
a loyal and true partner, ready to take her full place in peace and war 
with England and Scotland and all the great young nations of the 
Empire, so many of them her own children. 

"The reflections here set down are the very reflections whidi course 
through the minds of many thousands of Irish soldiers in trench and j 

Digitized by VjVJI^QIC 



1917] BOOKS RECEIVED 575 

camp today; and of these things many and many an Irish soldier 
bought who will never think again in this world." 



THE Manhattanville magazine for 1917 contains the very important 
announcement that Manhattanville, beginning with the next 
scholastic year, will become a coll^;e with charter granted by the 
State of New York. The list of courses is added. The magazine con- 
tains also articles that tell of the splendid work done through the year 
by the Manhattanville Association, the Children of Mary and by the 
Barat Settlement. 



THE following letter from Agnes Repplier to Jesse Albert Locke, of 
Newman School, speaks so wisely and well of the necessity of 
religious training in education that it easily merits the widest publicity : 

Dear Mr. Locke: Philadelphia, May 26, 1917. 

I was amazed the other day to hear that the Newman School had attained, 
or was about to attain, its seventeenth birthday. Time slips by so rapidly, 
as one grows old, that I had thought it still ih its infancy, whereas it had 
reached a dignified stretch of years, which should fill your soul with satisfaction. 
It is hard work and big work you are doing, and surely needs to be don(e. 
The educational demands of the present generation seem to me insatiable, so 
much is being taught, and well taught, that I gape in wonder at the accom- 
plished young people about me, and when to these requirements so amply 
fulfilled you add the one supreme essential, religion, your programme must 
be full to overflowing. 

I have long since lost patience with irreligious schooling. It is so thin, 
so metallic, so unwarrantably complacent, so aloof from the great currents of 
thought, the great enthusiasms, the great purposes of the past. Apart from 
the prop, which faith lends morality, it lights up history and interprets the 
heart of man. It also serves to steady our not justifiable pride. It is like the 
good landscape background which the famous English portrait painters loved 
to give their subjects. 

All of which means, my dear Mr. Locke, that I congratulate you on your 
past, and wish you a still wider field of usefulness in the future. 

Sincerely yours, 

Agnes Repplier. 



BOOKS RECEIVED. 



Longmans, Grrxn & Co., New York: 

Sardina in Ancient Times. By E. S. Bouchier, M.A. $1.75 net. The Inward 
Gospel. By W. D. Strappini, S.J. $1.25 net. The Work of St. Optatus. 
By Rev. O. R. Vassall-Phillips. $4.00 net. 
E. P. Button & Co., New York: 

The Soul of Ulster. By E. W. Hamilton. $1.25 net. The Royal Outlaw. By 
C. B. Hudson. $1.50 net. Trench Warfare. By J. S. Smith. $1.50 net. 
The Church and the Hour. By V. D. Scudder, A.M. $1.00 net. Euphues: 
The Anatomy of Wit, By J. Lyly. 



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The America Press, New York: 

ReHgious Bigotry in Action, The Present Position of Catholics in Florida, 
rampblets. 5 cents each. 
The Bobbs-Merrill Co., New York : 

Someone and Somebody By P. E. Browne. $1.35 net. Robert B^ms: How 
I Know Htm, By W. A. NeiUon. $1.50 net. Matthew Arnold: How I 
Know Htm. By S. P. Sherman. $1.50 net. 
Funk & Wagnalls Co., New York: 

The New Archeological Discoveries, By C. M. Cobcrn. D.D. $1.00 net. 
The Macmillan Co., New York: 

^^|.^!*/'??«v|y ^I J°**"^*^"- ^'•°°- ^''«*«'.- Today and Tomorrow, By L. E. 
Elliott, F.R.G.S. $2.25. God, the Invisible King. By H. G. Wells. $1.25. 
HoDDER & Stoughton. Ncw York : 

The Murderous Tyranny of the Turks. By A. J. Toyhbee. Pamphtet. The 
German Fury in Belgium. 
The Encyclopedia Press, New York: 

A Memorial of Andrew J. Shipman. Edited by C. B. Pallen. LL.D. Sisters 
S/ ^^^^%?f !^a£areth, Kentucky. By A. B. McGill. Thomas Maurice Mulry. 
By T. F. Meehan. 
The Educational Book Co., New York: 

Making the Most of Children. By D. W. La Rue, A.M. 
Charles Scribner's Sons, New York: 

The Basis of Durable Peace. By Cosmos. 
George H. Doran Co., New York: 

Lilla: A Part of Her Life. By Mrs. B. Loundes. $1.35 net. 
Oxford University Press, New York: 

Epictetus: The Discourses and Manual. Translated by P. E. Matheson. M.A. 
Yale University Press, New York: 

The Influence of Horace on the Chief English Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 
By M. R. Thayer. 
John Lane Co., New York: 

An Evening in My Library Among the English Poets. By Hon. S. Coleridge. 
$1.25 net. 
Columbia University Press, New York : 

The Mystic Vision in the Grail Legend and in the Divine Comedy. By L. A. 
Fisher, Ph.D. $1.50 net. 
Alfred A. Knopf, New York : 

The Russian School of Painting. By Alexandre Benois. $4.00 net. 
Benziger Brothers, New York: 

Names That Live in Catholic Hearts. By Anna T. Sadlier. 50 cents. 
St. Paul's Library, 113 East 117th Street, New York: 

Sermons and Discourses. By Rt. Rev. John McQuirk, LL.D. Vol. IlL 
Woodstock College Press, Woodstock, Maryland: 

The Divinity of Christ. By Rev. Walter Drum, S.J. Pamphlet. 5 cents. 
J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia: 

Some Russian Heroes, Saints and Sinners. By S. E. Howe. $2.50 net. Church 
Advertisina: Its Why and How. By W. B. Ashley. $1.00 net. War. By 
P. Loti. $1.25 net. The Soldiers' English and French Conversation Book. 
Compiled by W. M. Gallichan. 
The Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia: 

The Story of Bible Translations. By M. L. Margolis. The Holy Scriptures, 
Catholic Book Co., Wheeling, W. Va. 

Child*s Life of Abraham Lincoln. By Mary M. MacEachen. 
The Mayer & Miller Co., Chicago: 

Christopher Columbus in Poetry, History and Art. By Sara A. Ryan. 
B. Herder, St. Louis: 

An Unwilling Traveller. By M. E. Donovan. 8e cents net. The Church and 
Science. By Sir B. C. A. Windle, LL.D. $3.00 net. The Church and the 
Worker. By V. M. Crawford. Pamphlet. Eschatology. By Rt. Rev. Mon- 
signor J. Pohle, Ph.D., and A. Preuss. $1.00 net. The Sacraments. By 
Rt. Rev. Monsignor J. Pohle, Ph.D.. and A. Preuss. Vol. IIL $1.50 net. 
Rev. John F. Noll. LL.D., Huntington, Ind. : 

For Our Non-Catholic Friends. By Rev. John F. Noll, LL.D. 
Australian Catholic Truth Society, Melbourne: 

The Cinema and Its Dangers. By Professor M. Drennan. Gilds and Crafts 
of the Middle Ages. By Very Rev. A. Corbett, O.S.C. Pamphlets. 5 cents. 
T. Fisher Unwin, London : 

The Workers' Resolve. By J. W. Grigg. Pamphlet. 
Bloud et Gay, Paris: ^ ,, ^ 

Dans les Flandres. Par D. B. de Laflotte. Le GSnSral Leman. Par M. dcs 
Ombiaux. De I'Yser d I'Argonne. Par C. Daniilou. 
Pierre Tfegui, Paris : 

Les Sources d'eau vive. Par L. Poulin. 3 /r. 50. Retraites de Commumon 
Solennelle. Par C. J. Vaudon. 3/r. Kantisme et Modemisme, Par Abb6 
V. Loo. 3 fr. Benott XV. et la Guerre. Par Abb^ E. Duplessy. 1 fr. 



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F. Aurclio Palmicrx, OS,A. 577 

National Conference of Catholic Charities Henry Somerville 587 

The Priest * Hilaire Bclloc 598 

The Song Makers 3/. E, Buhler 613 

Our Merchant Marine 3/. R. Ryan 614 

The False Decretals Bertrand L. Comvay, CS.P, 620 

The Wise Virgins Armel O'Connor 631 

Herbert Spencer: A Fallen Idol 

James J. Walsh, M.D., Ph.D., Sc.D. 632 

"Pearl of the House ofAragon" Thomas B. Rcilly 637 

Alaska's Prospective Contribution to Our 

Meat Supply Clio Mamer 647 

Bells iM^d Their Message R- Bancroft-Hughes 652 

For Love is of God Henriclte Eugenie Delamare 660 

Salve Regina Aetema /. Corson Miller 671 

Mobilizing the Law of Supply and 

Demand Frank O'Hara, Ph.D. 673 

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Vol. CV. AUGUST, 191 7. No. 629. 

THE CHURCH AND THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION. 

by f. aurelio palmieri, o.s.a. 

The Religion of the Russian " Intellige^^tsiia." 

I HE new conditions created for the Russian Orthodox 
Church by the successful revolution raise the problem 
of the influence which the clergy of New Russia will 
exert over their democratized flock. We have no 
-doubt that a great number of the most active mem- 
bers of the Russian priesthood will reconcile themselves to the 
revolutionary movement. They will consider the abolishment of 
Tsarism as an act of divine wisdom and mercy, designed to re- 
establish ecclesiastical freedom and to stir up in a religious 
revival the spirit of the nation. 

As Russian ecclesiastical writers frankly avow, the Russian 
Church has lost her grasp on both high and low classes of society. 
The cultured elements of Russia have gone away from their Church 
to evolve for themselves a new form of religion, a new code of 
religious and ethical tenets. The low classes, ignorant, super- 
stitious, leaning towards anarchy, credulous of the apostles who 
preach a leveling of all social barriers, are enlarging the ranks 
of a socialism exceedingly radical in character. What a task the 
Russian Church must perform if she is to recover and maintain 
hel" ascendency over Russian intelligentsiia and the Russian 
peasantry! We hope the Russian revolution will not begin an era 
of dechristianization of the Russian soul. 

Copyright. 1917. The Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle ^^ ^ 

IN THE State op New York. Digitized by VjOOQIC 

VOL. cv.— 37 ^ 



578 RUSSIA AND THE REVOLUTION [Aug., 

The so-called Russian intelligentsiia has readjusted or, rather, 
deformed Christianity according to its whimsical ideals. Strange 
to say, the new religion of those reformers of the intelligentsiia is 
indeed genuine irreligion, a confused medley of old and modern 
heresies and vagaries, aiming to supersede Christianity. The name 
itself of intelligentsiia sounds strangely in Russian ears. The 
word has an elastic meaning; and embraces more or less, according 
to the views of the writer. It seems that it was coined and made 
fashionable by Boborykin in i860. At the beginning, it was a 
free translation from the French word intelligence, and meant the 
leading classes. As time went on a peculiar sense was attached 
to it, and that sense is not to be found in any other European 
language. Generally, it has been synonymous with rationalism. 
V. A. Temavtsev defines the intelligentsiia as those Russian minds 
w^hich are athirst for God and truth ; which are searching for God 
without being inside the Church. In other words, the Russian 
intelligentsiia is a religious body enjoying full autonomy outside the 
Russian Church, and Sergius, Archbishop of Finland, was not 
wrong when he asserted that there has been a complete divorce be- 
tween the Church and the intelligentsiia in Russia. 

"The Church and the intelligentsiia," says the above quoted 
Temavtsev, " are two conflicting forces, two opposite poles. The 
Russian Church paints for her followers a dead ideal, the ideal of 
a life hereafter; the intelligentsiia, on the contrary, is toiling to 
realize her ideals among living men. It is optimistic in its vision 
of the future. It believes that after many wanderings man will at 
last reach happiness and unity. The adherents of the intelligentsiia 
believe in the reality of a human and universal felicity. Faith 
is to them a golden dream of the heart. Whenever the Orthodox 
Russian Church speaks of civilization, she understands the knowl- 
edge of God : she lays stress upon the incomprehensibility of the 
final truths; she teaches men, but her aims and methods do not 
chime in with those of the intelligentsiia which, for its part, strug- 
gles for the culture and enlightenment of the whole human race, 
not of individuals. The whole human race is the beating heart of 
the yearnings of the intelligentsiia. In her prayers, the Russian 
Church communes with the saints of all times and nations: she is 
supernatural in her mystical life of today, and in her historical 
past, but at present she is wholly separated from Western Chris- 
tianity. The Russian intelligentsiia, on the contrary, although the 
last born child in the religious evolution of Russia, does not 

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1917.] RUSSIA AND THE REVOLUTION 579 

recognize divisions in the human race, but keeps closely in touch 
with the West, seeking to act as a supernatural force in the life of 
the people. Emancipated from the narrowness of social classes, 
the intelligentsiia finds a new motherland in the kingdom of those 
ideas for which it is giving its best in intellect and energy. The 
Russian Church devotes her energies to the performance of liturgi- 
cal duties, and to the guardianship of the sacraments and mysteries 
of faith. Her preaching, however, is colorless and fruitless. The 
intelligentsiia, on the contrary, trains the types of non-religious 
preachers and agitators who are seeking to infuse a new soul into 
the Russian body. While the Russian Church cares only for in- 
dividual salvation, the intelligentsiia aims at a social regeneration. 

** The Russian Church is popular in Russia. She has lived side 
by side with the people; she has shared in its fate in the trying 
times of the servitude of the Russian peasantry ; she has resorted 
to prayer in order that she might not fall under the burden im- 
posed on her. The intelligentsiia, on the other hand, does not fol- 
low this path. It is not in contact with the people, however much 
it has striven unsuccessfully to have the people's support. The 
intelligentsiia could not reach the heart of the people, for it has no 
faith in the Christ of the people and will not share in the daily 
life of the Church." 

The simple enumeration of those antitheses which Ternavtsev 
discovers between the Church and the intelligentsiia shows that the 
Russian intelligentsiia grew up as a reactionary movement against 
the passive attitude, the formalism, the barren sterility of the 
official Church. It owes its origin to the intellectual inertia of the 
Russian Church, narrowly confined to the performance of liturgical 
offices, and without interest in the social evolution of the Christian 
flock, or in the erection of a strong bulwark against the spirit of 
incredulity. In fact, the chief representatives of the intelligentsiia, 
though recognizing the services rendered in history to the develop- 
ment of Russia by the orthodox clergy, sharply criticize their con- 
duct. They admit that the Orthodox Church is the vital strength 
of the Russian people; they declare that the reorganization of 
Russia should be carried out on a religious programme and within 
the confines of the national Church. The Russian clergy, they 
say, are unable to understand the 'mystic and prophetic role of 
Christianity. The ideal which they seek is a lifeless one, they lose 
sight of the realities of life. They do not realize that Russia is 
called to interpret a new revelation for the world. r^^^^T^ 

Digitized by VjOOQIc 



58o RUSSIA AND THE REVOLUTION [Aug., 

The absence of life in the ranks of the Russian clergy, 
besjizncnnost — this is the theme upon which the Russian intelli- 
gentsiia is constantly harping. Its followers accuse the Russian 
Church of being secluded from society : of not looking upon Chris- 
tianity as the great religion of the future, which will embrace in 
the most perfect unity all the members of the human family. 

From what we have said it follows clearly that the formalism 
of the Russian Church, her servility to the civil power, her isolation 
in the midst of social struggles, have given birth to a deep feeling 
of antipathy against her among the cultivated classes of Russia. 
The intellectualists, while calling themselves orthodox, in reality 
broke their bonds of allegiance to the national Church. But they 
did not confine themselves to inert contempt of Russian ecclesiastical 
life. As Russia had apostles of anarchy in the realm of politics, so 
she had them in the realm of religion. The local sores of the Rus- 
sian Church were exaggerated by them into an organic disease 
of all Christianity; the weaknesses of the Russian clergy were 
alleged to be those generally of the Christian Church. Russian 
adogmatists began to drive the axe to the roots of Christian revela- 
tion : they assumed an attitude frankly hostile to the external truths 
of Christian faith; they went even so far as to preach religious 
nihilism. 

Count Leo Tolstoi became the legislator, the torchbearer of the 
religion, or rather, of the irreligion of Russian adogmatism. He 
devoted the last period of his life to a ruthless war against Chris- 
tianity. By turns he strove to deform the content and the teaching 
of the Gospels, to sneer at and repudiate the fundamental theses 
of Christian dogmatics ; to launch the most violent invective against 
the clergy; to nullify or deny the supernatural and moral influence 
of the sacraments of Christian life. The religion of Tolstoi ef- 
faces all the characteristic features of Christian revelation. Under 
the pen of Tolstoi and his disciples Christianity was stripped of 
its supernatural brilliancy. It became the product of human 
searchers, a religious system filled with contradictions, void of ex- 
pression, doomed to an approaching failure. 

The sacrilegious work of Tolstoi was continued by a small 
legion of brilliant men, who believed that their facile pens gave 
them the right of passing judgment, as censors and critics, on the 
divine wisdom of the Crucified Lord. In his famous romance, 
Julian the Apostate, and in the second volume of his critical 
treatise, Tolstoi and Dostoievsky (only the first volume has beenj 

Digitized by VjU'O'QIC 



1917] RUSSIA AND THE REVOLUTION 581 

translated into English), Demetrius Merezhkovski glorified the 
hero of his book as the wisest of Roman thinkers, justified the war 
waged by him against Christianity, defamed the Fathers of the 
Church as the corrupters of Christianity, and branded the ecu- 
menical councils as the meeting-places of tricksters, who mortally 
wounded the living soul of Christianity by dead formulas. Basil 
Rozanov, a versatile and talented man, assailed Christian dogmas 
as useless, meaningless tenets, which do not afford any gleam 
of light to the solution of the vital problems of mankind. Nicholas 
Minsk, a pseudonym of Vilenkin, was the herald of an atheistic 
mysticism. The Russian adogmatists founded their own official 
organ. The New Path. They organized in Petrograd public meet- 
ings (1902-1903), whose reports were published in 1906. After- 
wards, the centre of their religious and literary propaganda was 
established in Moscow. A series of volumes, dealing for the most 
part with the philosophical side of religion, was there published by 
the printing company known as ** Put" (the path). The main 
sources, however, of their teaching are the Reports of the Re- 
ligious and Philosophical Meetings of Petrograd, The reading of 
those documents is of great importance for the study of religious 
currents in Russia. They reveal how large is the g^lf between the 
Russian intelligentsiia and the Russian Church, and how pitifully 
the members of the Russian clergy who took part in those meet- 
ings, failed, in ignorance of their task, to defend the immutable 
principles of Christianity. 

The religion of Russian intelligentsiia is the genuine offspring 
of the anarchical and mystical tendencies of the Russian soul. It 
is a medley of all the ancient and modern heresies. It has been 
called adogmatism by Russian orthodox theologians. We would 
prefer to call it a mystical Unitarianism. Unitarian, indeed, are 
its main positions, while the mystical element is represented by 
the belief in a new revelation which will either fulfill or supersede 
what they call the teaching of historic Christianity. 

According to Merezhkovski, peace between the Church and 
the intelligentsiia is impossible, for the one affirms the divinity 
of Christ, and the other denies it. Dogmas, he says, are the chain 
of the spirit, and human reason the measure of the revealed truth. 
Hence it follows that the religion of Russian intelligentsiia is 
grounded on a mere rationalistic foundation. A truth which over- 
tops the limits of our created minds is, according to it, either a 
falsehood or a meaningless magic formula. By this statement. 

Digitized by Vj^OQIC 



582 RUSSIA AND THE REVOLUTION [Aug., 

supernatural revelation is at least implicitly denied, and religion 
takes its place in the history of human speculations or philosophical 
systems. 

It is especially the mysteries of our Faith that the Russian 
intelligentsiia intends to attack in its criticism of Christian truth. 
It does not touch the question of their reasonableness or reality. 
It limits itself to this assertion : that mysteries are the prisons of 
intelligence, are a wall which arrests the onward march of scientific 
progress, and an obstacle to be demolished. It is needless to say 
that the adogmatism of the Russian intelligentsiia culminates in 
the negation of our Christian mysteries. It limits the infiniteness 
and immensity of the divine intelligence; it enchains the divine 
will; it puts man on the throne of God; it makes the human 
mind the source of truth even in the realm of divine realities. The 
followers of that adogmatism, then, are really mystics without 
God, as they call themselves. If we wished to go back to the 
original springs of these absurd pretensions, we would find that 
the errors of Russian adogmatism are rooted in neo-platonic 
mysticism, which they try to rejuvenate.* The strongest argu- 
ment which the Russian intelligentsiia sets forth against mysteries, 
is their uselessness. Merezhkovski, for instance, would exclude 
from the treasure of the Christian revelation the dogma of the 
Blessed Trinity. That dogma, he writes, does not help the scien- 
tists of our days to solve the most trying social problems; it 
presents a barren, incomprehensible formula which has no practi- 
cal value. According fo him all the controversies about mysteries 
represent a waste of time, and are fruitless logomachies. They 
torture minds which are moiling and toiling in the darkness sur- 
rounding them. 

It is needless to demonstrate that the statements of Merezh- 
kovski, as I have shown in my Theologia Dogmatica Orthodoxa, 
are made in absolute ignorance of the principles, methods and re- 
sults of Christian theology. The mysteries are not useless in 
our scientific and moral life. They draw us nearer to God. They 
reveal to us the secrets of the divine life, which we could not 
reach with the human eye. They are the highest truths which 
we are not able to grasp in their inner meaning, but which we 
can ilfustrate by analogies which we can defend against the 

'It need hardly be pointed out that we are not stopping here to refute the 
absurd and impious doctrines of Russian adogmatism, especially since we have care- 
fully and exhaustively refuted them in the first volume of our Theologia Dogmatica t 
Orthodoxa, Florence, 191 1, pp. 89-114. Digitized by VJ^OQlC 



1917.] RUSSIA AND THE REVOLUTION 583 

sophisms of rationalistic opponents, which we can unfold, 
to a relative degree, by human speculation. From a Christian 
point of view they are the clearest proofs of the friendship of 
God to man, for it is natural to a friend to reveal his secrets to a 
friend. The usefulness of mysteries consists in that they augment 
our knowledge of God; that they lead us far beyond the limits 
of our natural vision of God. As such they have a great practical 
value. Whatever contributes to the enlargement of our learn- 
ing, to the depth of our knowledge, has a spiritual value which 
is higher than any material advantage. No one would affirm as- 
stronomy to be a useless science, because it scrutinizes the heavens 
instead of exploring the earth. As a science astronomy enriches 
the patrimony of our learning. In a like manner it would be 
absurd to say that mysteries are useless since they reveal heaven 
to us, and disclose to us hidden treasures of divine wisdom. What- 
ever perfects the knowledge of God in us cannot be useless. 

The Russian intelligentsiia believes that dogmas die. In some 
points its theories square with the famous paradoxes of the French 
mathematician, Edward LeRoy, who wanted to change the sig- 
nificance of the Christian dogmatic formulae in order to make 
them congenial with the religious needs of our own age. Merezh- 
kovsky, for instance, asserted that the time had come to evolve 
a new sense and meaning for the chief dogmas of Christianity. 
But, properly speaking, Russian adogmatists do not stick to the 
evolution of dogmas as conceived by' the Western modernists. 
They go even further : they deny that Jesus Christ our Lord gave us 
any revealed truths. According to the views of the most advanced 
of them, the Christian religfion is one of the stages of the religious 
evolution of men, a religion doomed to death like those before it. 
Christian dogmas are truths for a while; are the religious utter- 
ances of a given number of generations, are the product of a fixed 
period of time. They are a part, a flashing ray, of the eternal 
truth of God, which can survive for centuries, but which must at 
length perish. According to Merezhkbvski, Christian dogmatics 
are but a grammar without the throbbings of a living heart; at 
times they look like the motionless members of a dead man, or 
withered leaves of a fallen tree. Dogmas have their death just 
like the hypotheses of human science. Their life depends on the 
consent of men and on the evolution of scientific progress.^ 

From this it follows that Russian intelligentsiia is an es- 

*ZapUki Retigiosno—fitosofskikh sobranii, Pctrograd, 1906, pp. 445, 468, 520. 

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S84 RUSSIA AND THE REVOLUTION [Aug., 

sentially anti-Christian movement. The Russian Church could not 
refrain, therefore, from excommunicating Tolstoi and his school. 
Theoretically they ceased to be Christians. They have lost their faith 
in the inner and life-giving power of Jesus Christ, they have robbed 
Him of the aureole of divinity, and placed Him between Buddha and 
Mohammed ; they have degraded the teaching of the Gospels to a 
philosophical system which bears the imprint of human frailty; they 
have foretold the advent of a new religion which will supersede 
Christianity, just as, among men, the appearance of a new philoso- 
phical system often obliterates an ancient one. In this way, by deny- 
ing the theoretical truth of the revelation of Our Lord, as we have 
amply demonstrated, they have overthrown also the ethical teaching 
of the Gospels. They became vindicators of the claims of the 
flesh against those of Christian asceticism. They assailed Jesus 
Christ as the torturer of human bodies for the ideal of a happiness 
far beyond our reach. They became the apologists of a boundless 
materialism, the preachers of a reaction against the spirit of hu- 
mility and mortification as exemplified by our Blessed Lord. And 
what is stranger, even professors of the ecclesiastical academies, 
for instance, Professor Tarieev, ranked themselves among those 
accounted as the vindicators of the so-called rights of the flesh.* 
We have remarked that there is a diflFerence between the 
Western modernism and Russian adogmatism. The first stands 
on merely rationalistic ground. It rejects the supernatural and 
mystical character of the Christian revelation. Russian adogmatism 
cannot escape the influence of the mystical tendencies of the Slavic 
soul, and it does not cut oflF entirely the revealed element in the 
religious life of men. But its mysticism is not Christian. The 
followers of Russian adogmatism are a kind of Adventists, who 
wait for a new revelation. They look to heaven in search of a 
star not yet visible. The theorist of the " Advent " in the Russian 
intelligentsiia is Nicholas Berdiaev, a writer of great talent and 
a master of style. According to Berdiaev there will be three 
stages in the history of revealed religion. The first period was 
that of Mosaism, condemned to destruction. That was the period 
of the flesh, a period in which God, the Father, promised earthly 
happiness to the chosen people. Mosaism, as a religion, marked 
the glorification of the flesh. The second period, that of the Son, 

■We have exhaustively refuted the theories of the modernists, Russian adog- 
matists, and of LeRoy in our work, // Progresso Dogmatico nel Concetto Cattolico, 
Florence, 19 >o, pp. 275-303. t 

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1917] RUSSIA AND THE REVOLUTION 585 

appears as a reaction against the revelation of the Father; it 
is the religion of the spirit, which dominates and crushes the flesh 
in order to spiritualize the man. . This revelation marked a progress 
over the revelation of the Father, but it was not the ultimate stage 
in the history of the relations between God and His creatures. 
It was useful in attracting men away from their materialistic aims, 
but it went too far. Besides, if the Father and the Son have been 
glorified by their respective revelations, why could not the Holy 
Spirit claim also His part of human glory? Christian ascet- 
icism is highly distasteful to our modern generation. Conse- 
quently the ethical and religious tenets of the Christian revelation 
will be replaced by a new revelation, the revelation of the Holy 
Spirit, Who, according to the Gospel, has His word to say to men. 
The Holy Spirit will reveal the perfect religion, harmonizing the 
aspirations of the spirit and those of the flesh, guiding us to 
celestial happiness without destroying our earthly joy. In the third 
stage of the religious history of mankind, the Holy Spirit will 
reconcile the flesh with the spirit and will unify human joys with 
yearnings of divinity.* 

One need be only superficially acquainted with the history of 
the earliest Christianity to discover at once that the Russian 
intelligentsiia has drawn its mystic theories from the heresies of 
the Primitive Church, from the Gnostic sects, and above all from 
Montanism. Consequently, the intelligentsiia has not even the 
merit of novelty. To affirm that a new revelation would obliterate 
Christianity would mean that Jesus Christ established on earth a 
tottering institution, doomed, to be washed away by the waves of 
time; it would mean that in founding His Church, Jesus Christ 
acted merely as a man with all the known characteristics of human 
incompleteness and '* makeshiftiness." If Christian revelation were 
imperfect, the teaching of Christ would be no longer the radiation 
of the divine wisdom on earth. The sacrilegious statement aims 
at the divine foundation of Christian faith. The Church cannot 
admit the possibility of a new revelation, alleged to complete the 
spiritual and doctrinal inheritance of Jesus Christ and his Apostles. 
For the Church and those within its fold the treasures of doctrine 

*Thesc theories are explained in three famous works of Berdiaev: Sub Specie 
Mtemitatxs, Moscow, 1903 ; The New Religious Consciousness, Petrograd, 1907 ; 
The Spiritual Crisis of the "Intelligentsiia/* Petrograd, 1910. We have refuted 
these theories in our work : // Progresso Dogmatico, pp. 1-33. The theories attacking 
the infallibility and immutability of the dogmaltic definitions of the Ecumenical 
Councils have been categorically refuted in our Theologia Dogmatica, v. i., pp. 

401-435. ^ T 

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586 RUSSIA AND THE REVOLUTION [Aug., 

poured forth by Jesus Christ to the world answer the needs of 
all ages and generations, and he who calls in question this con- 
stancy and continuity of the Church's faith, loses the right, as St. 
Athanasius tells us, of calling himself a Christian. 

Such are the extravagant tenets of the followers of the Rus- 
sian intelligentsiia. It is quite evident that they are not only op- 
posed to the beliefs of the Russian Church, but also that they are 
destructive of Christianity. More or less, they have permeated 
the intellectual classes, and the faculties of the Russian universities. 
They have inoculated those classes with a profound aversion to 
theological literature, which now has no readers outside the ecclesi- 
astical academies and seminaries. Some of the official organs of 
the theologfical academies, in spite of their great scientific value, 
hardly secure a few hundred subscribers. The philosopher, Kavelin, 
rightly remarked that Russian professors and students acted as 
if they ignored and despised the faith of four-fifths of Russia's 
people. 

The Russian Church, therefore, faces a great task in the New 
Russia. She has been looked upon as the enemy of the intelli- 
gentsiia, for she has supported a power which has ceaselessly 
sought to cripple the intellectual life of the Russian people. Will " 
the Russian Church now succeed in reconciling herself to the lead- 
ing classes of Russia and placate their hostility? This question 
cannot as yet be satisfactorily answered; but if she is to avoid a 
disastrous failure, the Russian Church needs to go back to the 
true conception of the Church, which must not be a tool of political 
factions, but a divine institution, independent of the civil power 
and of the convulsions of society.*^ 

■In the American Journal of Theology, there has recently been published a 
part of a lecture given in 1914 on the "Russian Liberal Theology." This lecture 
is a separate chapter of a book on the destructive, formalistic and Catholic types 
of Christianity in Russia (Tolstoi, Khomiakov, Soloviev). The lecture is a simple 
expose of the errors of the Russian adogmatists, outlined in their own words. A 
refutation of them from a Russian point of view is contained in the third lecture 
on Soloviev, which I hope to publish in a short time. In passing, I may be per- 
mitted to observe that I have given the most complete refutation of the theories 
of Tolstoi, Merezhkovski, Rozanov, and Berdiaev in my works: Theologia Dog- 
matica Orthodoxa and // Progresso Dogmatico. 



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NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF CATHOLIC CHARITIES.^ 



BY HENRY SOMERVILLE. 




ATIONS have always had their " social problems," 
and the millions of souls who throughout the Chris- 
tian centuries have felt it their vocation to devote 
their lives to the performance of works of charity 
have been rendering social service in the best sense 
of the term. The seven spiritual and the seven corporal works of 
mercy comprise the whole programme on behalf of those two great 
categories of our neighbor in need, whom the sociologist calls the 
dependent and the delinquent. In this country at the present time 
social service has become, if not the vocation, at least the avocation 
of a host of persons who now constitute a distinct professional 
class. I have seen it stated in one of those labor union journals 
which are not friendly to that class, that "organized charity" is 
now the sixth largest industry in the country. I don't know what 
kind of activities were reckoned as organized charity in order to 
get that estimate, but I fancy it is not so greatly exaggerated as 
the ordinary reader might think. In New York City there are over 
four thousand salaried social workers employed by private philan- 
thropic agencies, and in one case at least the salary amounts to ten 
thousand dollars a year. 

No doubt the professionalizing of social work is less ideal than 
the consecrated sen'ice of religious, but it is a fact which Catholics 
must accept and reckon with. Catholic charity can no more remain 
independent of the developments of modern philanthropic method 
than Catholic schools can be indifferent to the systems and stand- 
ards of the secular educational institutions of the country. Catholic 
charitable agencies are inevitably brought into connection — ^and 
sometimes into collision — with non-Catholic agencies, both public 
and private. A large part of our present problems arise from the 
fact that we have to work with those who differ from us in mo- 
tives, methods, and principles; and often enough we have to use 
machinery that we have not fashioned and which is ill-adapted to 
our special ends. But of course not all our difficulties arise from 
the non-Catholic and anti-Catholic elements with which we have 

^Report of the Fourth National Conference of Catholic Charities. Washing- 
ton, D. C: Catholic University of America. 



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588 CATHOLIC CHARITIES [Aug., 

to deal. Charitable work of its own nature always presents prob- 
lems that can only be solved by hard study, and after repeated ex- 
periment and error. The Church teaches us the principles of 
charity, but we often make mistakes in their application. Saints 
and doctors from very ancient times have been aware of the abuses 
by which almsgiving tends to produce not good but evil, by sub- 
sidizing imposture and idleness ; yet no one has found an infallible 
and practicable safeguard against this abuse. St. Vincent de Paul 
pointed out that charitable acts, though inspired by the loftiest 
motives, could be entirely ineffective if they were not well regulated. 
How to regulate our charitable activities so as to make them 
properly effective is one of the greatest problems that Catholics 
can concern themselves with in America today. 

The wide field and the multitudinous forms of charitable enter- 
prise may be seen from a glance at the contents of the Report, 
just published, of the Fourth National Conference of Catholic 
Charities held at Washington last September. There are still many 
good people who think of charities as merely a matter of alms- 
giving, orphanages, and homes for the aged poor. The Report 
under review will show the National Conference of Catholic Chari- 
ties dealing with such questions as the legal minimum wage, public 
and private employment agencies, types and causes of f eeble-minded- 
ness, the role of legislation in the field of relief, the availability of 
parochial schools and parish halls as social centres, juvenile delin- 
quency, and the social needs of Catholic young women. To reprint 
a complete list of the titles of all the papers read at the Conference 
would give an idea of the diversity, but not of the unity, of the 
Conference discussions. Only those who are intelligently as well 
as actively engaged in charitable work can see the ramifications 
of the most commonplace relief problems. The daily work of the 
ordinary member of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, for instance, 
presents questions about which there is voluminous debate. The 
principal work of the St. Vincent de Paul Society is to visit and 
relieve the poor in their homes. It is, or should be, what scientific 
philanthropy calls family rehabilitation, that is, to secure for the 
family a certain minimum standard of living; and whenever pos- 
sible, and as far as possible, to make the family provide for its 
own needs by its own efforts. 

The largest section meetings of the Conference were those 
held by the Committee on Families, the committee which dealt 
with the problems of family rehabilitation. Perhaps the best way 

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1917] CATHOLIC CHARITIES 589 

of showing the kind of work done at the Conference will be to de- 
scribe the programme at one of these section meetings. 

At the first meeting of the Committee on Families three pa- 
pers were read : one was on Adequate and Inadeqtuite Relief, the 
second was The Meaning and Limitations of Records in Relief 
Work, and the third was Difficulties and Objections in Making 
Records in Relief Work, At the second meeting of the Committee 
on Families there were three more papers: on Personal Service 
in Relief Work, on The Practical Responsibility of Parents for the 
Education, Health and Faith of their Children, and on The Family 
Budget. 

Although read at different meetings the papers on Adequate 
and Inadequate Relief and The Family Budget were both on the 
one subject, and it is more convenient to take them together. It 
is not unjust to say that the average St. Vincent de Paul conference 
does not pretend to follow out a consistent programme of giving 
" adequate '' relief, that is, relief sufficient to maintain the relieved 
family according to a certain settled standard of life. What a 
conference usually does is to make a weekly allowance, the amount 
of which is roughly proportionate to the resources of the con- 
ference, and to the deserts as well as to the needs of the relieved 
family. Sometimes the total income of the family is thus made 
to exceed what is strictly necessary for decent maintenance, but 
more often the relief is less than adequate, after taking other 
known sources of income into account, to supply the necessaries of 
reasonable living. The family is expected to manage somehow on 
less than a sufficiency. If an outsider asked a Vincentian why 
more relief was not given, the first reply would most likely be that 
the conference funds would not allow it. But I believe that most 
Vincentians have the impression that, apart from the question of 
conference funds, the giving of relief that leaves the applicant 
skimped is a practical way of stimulating him to strive to better 
his condition by his own exertions. Moreover, relief that seems 
inadequate in view of the known resources of the family may be 
fully adequate with the real resources, of which the conference does 
not know all. There is no question here of fraud on the part of 
the family, of deliberate concealment of resources. The fact is 
that most families have resources of income, which are compara- 
tively important, but of which they are scarcely conscious. Per- 
haps the children earn a few coppers by running errands for 
neighbors, somebody may be giving the family cast-off clothing. 

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SQO CATHOLIC CHARITIES [Aug., 

or broken food, or firewood, and even coke and coal are often 
obtained gratis in various ways. It is a familiar saying that one- 
half the world does not know how the other half lives. It is 
literally true that we don't know how our next-door neighbor lives, 
and many of us don't know how we live ourselves. 

Scientific philanthropy is very impatient with such incomplete 
knowledge of the families relieved, and with such rough and ready 
modes of allotting relief; and it seeks to insure that the relief 
given is exactly proportionate to needs. In this attempt to secure 
exactness many things are involved. First, it is necessary to de- 
termine what are the requisites of a proper standard of life for 
a dependent family. Certain lists of such requisites have been 
drawn up and the money cost of the commodities taken into ac- 
count, thus getting a " budget statement " of what a dependent 
family needs, and relief is given accordingly. Of course the budget 
will vary for diflFerent families according to the number and ages 
of the children, the health of the members of the family, the level 
of prices in the neighborhood, and other circumstances. The bud- 
get plan had some strong advocates at the Conference. One of 
the speakers said: 

All families are identical in this, that they require a certain 
amount of food, and of clothing and a decent shelter, without 
which they cannot hope to exist. Through careful study an 
" irreducible minimum " has been worked out. It is the norm 
whereby a family of five may live and enjoy health and even 

some small measure of comfort on a limited income The 

allowance for rent gives the family decent quarters with proper 
sanitation and ventilation. It is the duty of the Friendly 
Visitor to see that each family is housed as healthfully as 
possible for the money allowed for that expenditure. In New 
York City the average rent for a family of five in all districts 
of the Borough of Manhattan is $12.50 per month. The cost 
of fuel and light ranges from two to three dollars per month 
in summer to four or five dollars in winter, so the allowance 

for these items throughout the year is $3.75 per month In 

the estimation of the food allowance the Atwood standard has 
been found practical. The dietary has been agreed upon by 
many authorities in various parts of the country, and it has 
been checked up by Professor H. C. Sherman of Columbia 
University, according to the most exact laboratory standards. 
The dietary now in use for the average family of five provides 
the following foods: Milk, 14 quarts; eggs, i dozen; but- 



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1917] CATHOLIC CHARITIES 591 

terine, J^ pound; cheese, yi pound; chuck steak, 2 pounds; 
flank steak, 2 pounds; cod fish, i pound; bread, 12 
pounds ; oatmeal, 3 pounds ; macaroni, ^ i pound ; rice, ^ 
pound; sugar, 3^^ pounds; beans, 2 pounds; carrots, 4 
pounds; onions, 4 pounds; potatoes, 15 pounds; tomatoes, 
I pound ; apples, i pound ; prunes, 2 pounds ; dates, i pound ; 
cocoa, yi pound ; tea, j4 pound ; coffee, J/^ pound.^ 

The budget plan requires, not only that a detailed statement of 
the families' needs be drawn up, but that there be complete knowl- 
edge of the families' own resources so that the relief given as a 
supplement to those resources will be just sufficient to make up the 
amount required for the budget. This complete knowledge of 
resources necessitates skilled and searching investigation of the 
circumstances of the family. Further, the agent of the relief so- 
ciety who visits the family must see that the money is spent in 
accordance with the budget directions. The whole plan would be 
made useless if the family doubled its consumption of meat at 
the expense of the milk and vegetables, or if it spent on candies 
the appropriations for fruit. 

Obviously, there may be acceptance of the principle of the budget 
plan but disagreement about its details. Some of the speakers at the 
Conference bluntly denied that any private charitable organization 
ever can or ever does continue to give " adequate " relief to all the 
families with which it deals. An objection to the budget principle 
as it is advocated and practiced by secular charitable societies, was 
that it establishes between the charity worker and the recipient 
of relief a relation which is not that of friendly help but of dic- 
tatorial supremacy. Poor persons are given relief only on condition 
of their surrendering the right of managing their own households. 
The following remarks were made by a speaker at the Conference : 

I think that a distinction is necessary between families that 
are entirely dependent and those that are dependent only in an 
emergency or intermittently. In a family of the latter type 
the mother has a certain kind of self-reliance and resourceful- 
ness which must be taken into account. Perhaps her methods 
may not approve themselves to the charity worker, neverthe- 
less they are her own. It seems to be assumed that one who 
applies for relief is absolutely worthless and capable of stand- 
ing only when one holds him up. I myself, in many years 
of work in charity, have never met that type. Persons of 
that description ought to be in an institution.* 

* Report, pp. i6x, 162. *Ibid., p. 167. 

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592 CATHOLIC CHARITIES [Aug., 

Another burning question discussed by the Committee on 
Families was that of the keeping of case records in relief work. 
Such records are defined as " repositories of information concerning 
the social relations of individuals." In more concrete terms, they 
are records of all the facts concerning a dependent which may 
possibly have a bearing on the condition of dependency. An advo- 
cate of record keeping enumerated some of the particulars which 
ought to be recorded : 

Why is the family in a state of destitution? How long has 
it been so? Are the causes within the family, or external to 
it? Do the conditions arise from sickness, loss of work, 
drunkenness ? What is the source of the information obtained ? 
If from the family itself has it been checked by independent 
testimony? What public agencies can or should be invoked 
to remedy some of the conditions discovered? Is the family 
a chronic or an " acute " case? Have other orgaiiizations been 
engaged upon it? What private aid, outside the organization 
itself, can be enlisted? These and many other questions of 
detail should be investigated and answered, before a record 
is made, if the organization is to accomplish any really efficient 
work.* 

The value of records is urged from the standpoint of the in- 
dividual relieved and from the standpoint of the community. The 
record preserves the results of investigations. The purposes of 
records are stated as follows: 

1. To preserve for reference in the records of the organiza- 
tion a ipemorial of the facts ascertained and the relief given. 

2. To economize the labor of subsequent investigators in 
dealing with the same family. 

3. To serve as the basis of an annual or other periodic re- 
port to the supporters of the organization, thereby promoting 
further interest in the work. 

4. To furnish confidential information to other charitable 
organizations dealing with the same family in return for 
similar favors. 

5. To furnish data for a study of the causes of dependency, 
with a view to their amendment or removal.* 

The advocates of " records '' were in the majority among the 
speakers at the Conference. The word is put in inverted commas 

*Ibid., p. 133. 



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1917.] CATHOLIC CHARITIES 593 

because records of some kind are kept by the most old-fashioned 
charitable societies, including all conferences of the St. Vincent 
de Paul Society. But the details recorded in the minute books 
of St. Vincent de Paul conferences are not records in the sense 
that scientific philanthropy uses the term. Records mean the as- 
certainment an^ preservation of all kinds of facts about the 
economic, social, educational, moral, mental and medical history 
of a family. The St. Vincent de Paul Society has never tried to 
obtain or to keep such records. The arguments in favor of records 
are implied in the statement given above of the purposes of records. 
Records are objected to by opponents because they are often im- 
reliable, because their compilation means the diversion of a large 
proportion of charitable funds from the direct relief of the poor 
to clerical and investigation expenses, and because, it is said, they 
violate the confidential relation that should, exist between the giver 
and the receiver of charitable relief. 

It is not the business of the present article to discuss the value 
of these various arguments, but only to show the questions at issue 
relating to the administration of such ordinary charitable works 
as are undertaken in nearly every parish of the country by the St. 
Vincent de Paul Society. There is one very important point that 
is worth particular notice. The adoption of the two policies under 
consideration, the budget plan and record keeping, would both 
require charitable workers with far greater skill and knowledge, 
and with much more time at their disposal, than the great ma- 
jority of Vincentians possess. In other words, these policies would 
require a great extension of the employment of trained salaried 
workers in Catholic charitable work. This is another question that 
causes controversy, for it is urged by some that the tendency of 
the salaried worker is to push out the voluntary worker from the 
field of active charity. 

There are two schools of opinion, which have been called the 
"conservative" and the "progressive'' among Catholic charity 
students and workers. The differences between them are not 
sharply defined, but they are clearly discernible. The progressives 
are disposed to favor many of the methods of organization and ad- 
ministration that distinguish modern secular philanthropy, as the 
budget plan for dependent families, the keeping of case-records, the 
use of the confidential exchange, the employment of salaried work- 
ers, and closer cooperation with non-Catholic agencies. It was the 
present writer's personal impression, when attending the Conference 

VOL. cv.^38 

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594 CATHOLIC CHARITIES [Aug., 

last Sq>tember, that the members of the women's societies present 
showed themselves distinctly progressive, whilst the men, or at 
least the laymen, nearly all of whom were Vincentians, were for the 
most part conservative. 

If I may mention another personal impression, it is that the 
progressives had the advantage in the discussions of being more 
articulate. They had perhaps less experience in practical work, 
but they were more acquainted with the literature of relief, they 
were more accustomed to regarding methods of charity as sub- 
jects for argument, arid they were more skillful in dialectical state- 
ment. The assertions of the progressives were often a distinct 
challenge to the conservatives, but the challenge was not taken up 
on the Conference floor. Yet the conservatives were not convinced ; 
they stick to the old ways. I do not by any means believe that this 
is altogether due to mere prejudice or to the human tendency to 
stay in a rut. It is, I think, due to a feeling that the new methods 
are not in keeping with the spirit of Catholic charity. The feeling 
may be all wrong, or partly wrong, or it may be quite right. 

It is important to have the question thrashed out. The Na- 
tional Conference of Catholic Charities is helping us to get the ques- 
tion thrashed out. Without the National Conference we might 
despair of ever having the question settled, or even intelligently 
discussed. The conservative whose views have been formed by ex- 
perience rather than by theoretical study, will not be able to make 
themselves vocal and give their proper contribution to the discus- 
sion until they take more interest in what may be called the theory 
of charity administration, in the study and comparison of methods, 
and in the observation and recording of results. We are all ac- 
quainted with persons who are very proficient in the art of a thing 
without being interested in the science of it. Many an excellent 
writer cannot tell others the rules of good style. Many an efficient 
teacher would be a poor informant on pedagogy. The questions 
at issue in regard to the practice of charity cannot be determined 
by merely abstract reasoning; there will be no satisfactory verdict 
on the value of a method except the verdict of experience. What 
is neccessary is that the practical Catholic workers in charity (es- 
pecially Vincentians, because of their great importance and great 
opportunities), should be aware of the questions at issue; they 
should study the new methods in the light of their experience, and 
they might even test them by experiment. These questions of 
method in relief work are of vital importance. 



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1917.] CATHOLIC CHARITIES 595 

Experienced members of the St. Vincent de Paul Society could 
throw a flood of light on these questions if they would study them 
as questions of science as well as of practice. Vincentians who 
have this mental attitude to charity questions will not only increase 
their practical efficiency, but they will have a power of expressing 
their judgments on doubtful questions which will be of the most 
valuable service to the Church and to the cause of charity. Not 
the least of the splendid accomplishments of the National Con- 
ference of Catholic Charities will be just this formation of a men- 
tal attitude in charity workers, the cultivation of an intellectual 
interest in the theory of charity, that will help us in the making 
of a Catholic science of charity applicable to the conditions of a 
country like America in the twentieth century. 

The treatment of dependent families was only one of the many 
questions discussed at the Conference, but I have taken it as an 
illustration because it is a branch of charitable work that has to be 
done in practically every parish, and which is largely in the hands 
of the laity. Another of the most elementary and best known forms 
of charity is the care of dependent children in institutions, usually 
called orphanages. Recent events have made the general public 
aware that children's institutions form the subject of heated con- 
troversy amongst those who are actively interested in the adminis- 
tration of charity. 

The dispute is not as to whether certain institutions are well- 
conducted or ill-conducted, but whether such institutions should be 
allowed to exist at all. Some prominent leaders of the new scientific 
philanthropy say that orphanages should be abolished, and that so 
far as dependent children of normal mentality and physique are con- 
cerned, institutions should be used for their temporary shelter only, 
until such children can be placed in foster homes or returned to 
their natural homes. A strenuous campaign is being conducted to 
educate the public as to the superiority of foster homes over in- 
stitutional care. 

Now there is no doubt that orphanages, like almsgiving, repre- 
sent a form of charity liable to ready abuse. The trouble about 
many orphanages is that though they are crowded with children 
they contain few orphans. The majority of the children have one 
parent or both parents living, and many of these parents are able, 
or could be made able, to take care of their own children. This 
would be good for the children and, still more emphatically, it 
would be good for the parents. The easy admission of children 



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596 CATHOLIC CHARITIES [Aug., 

to institutions contributes to that disorganization of the family 
which is, I venture to say, the gravest social evil of the present 
time. 

The institutional care of children is a department of charity 
in which Catholics are simply forced to take account of the modem 
theories and standards with which scientific philanthropy is fam- 
iliarizing the public mind. Our institutions in many cases are 
financially supported outpf public funds and the public authority can 
and does impose conditions on the institutions receiving such funds. 
The Committee on Children at the National Conference of Catholic 
Charities naturally gave a good deal of attention to the questions 
relating to the policy of Catholic institutions in receiving and dis- 
charging children, and also with regard to the placing of children 
in foster homes. The papers and discussions on this subject were 
eminently realistic. There was a general recognition of the fact 
that it is useless to adopt an absolute attitude either of pro-in- 
stitutionalism or anti-institutionalism. Both institutions and foster 
homes are needed. Much of the talk against institutions is based 
on theorizing and not on experience. To prove that the family 
home in the abstract is better than the institution in the abstract, 
does not help us with the concrete question as to whether the actual 
foster-homes available are^ better places than are our institutions 
for the actual children that we have to care for. The most ardent 
friends of institutions will admit that we can make use of all the 
satisfactory foster horiies that may be found. Defence of the in- 
stitution does not mean hostility to the foster home, but it means 
that if we make comparisons, we must compare the concrete insti- 
tution with the concrete foster home, and not waste time debating 
about abstractions. 

It would be well if the National Conference of Catholic Chari- 
ties were to encourage such research as would enable us to shov^ the 
actual accomplishments of institutions, as to what happens in after- 
life to the children discharged. There should be research also into 
the actual accomplishments of foster homes taken as a whole. It 
is not sufficient to give the results only of those foster homes that 
have proved satisfactory. Catholic charitable agencies of all kinds 
are subject to constant and searching criticism from investigators 
making all sorts of surveys, and surveys are generally undertaken 
to prove that established ways of doing things are wrong, and that 
new ways are the best ways. It would be worth while to have 
many of these investigations investigated, and to use the same sta- 



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1917.] CATHOLIC CHARITIES 597 

tistical methods of testing the new philanthropic agencies as are 
employed in criticism of the old. 

It is very noteworthy that the question of " delinquency " 
was considered big enough to deserve the attention of a general 
meeting of the Conference instead of being dealt with by a section 
committee. The increase of juvenile delinquency during recent 
years in North America constitutes not only a difficult social 
problem, but a most disquieting social symptom. A general 
scrapping of old methods of dealing with delinquents has not pre- 
vented a steady deterioration in conditions. There are now juvenile 
courts and staffs of probation officers in nearly every city, but 
juvenile lawlessness increases. What is the cause and what the 
remedy? In much of the discussions at the Conference there was 
a note almost of desperation in speaking of this subject. A multi- 
tude of measures was suggested as likely to be helpful in limiting 
delinquency, but there was no robust confidence in any of them. 
" Church and State and community must in one way or another 
divide responsibility for delinquency," said one speaker. More 
truant officers, more playgrounds, more social centres, more sodali- 
ties, more Sunday-schools, more religious education, more voca- 
tional guidance, more " big brothers " were all asked for. It made 
me think of a remark I once heard from an Archbishop : " In the 
United States," he said, " the Family has been given up. It is lost 
sight of. The social workers and writers do not take it into ac- 
count." Surely in the question of juvenile delinquency the Family 
is an institution of some consideration, not less than Church and 
State and community. It may be predicted that at no distant time 
social and charity workers will be brought back to the ancient 
view of the Family, of its natural functions and its natural liberties. 
When that time comes many 'of the policies most in favor at the 
present day will be cast aside as profoundly anti-social, and every 
measure will be judged according to its effect on the weakening 
or strengthening of family ties. The doctrine of the Family will 
be one of the comer-stones of that modem sociology that we hope 
to see builded, and for which the National Conference of Catholic 
Charities is collecting invaluable materials. 



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THE PRIEST. 



BY HILAIRE BELLOC. 




N the folds of the mountains, half way between their 
highest summits and the plain, in the places where 
snow still fell in winter, where the rivers never froze 
and wheat would grow and wild grapes, of which a 
wine could be made, there lived the last families of 
a tribe which had once been a great nation. It was in their 
written history, burnt in upon the sacred hides, that they had ruled 
from Puget Sound to the Mohave, and westward nearly to the 
sea; but not to the seacoast itself, for they abhorred the ocean, and 
had left the rocks, the driving mist and the slopes of sand to a rare, 
untutored and gentle people whom they had neither oppressed nor 
hated, but who had looked up to them as descendants of the gods. 
This nation had wholly decayed. Its wooden cities, where 
the altar only had been of stone, still crumbled here and there, with 
creepers intertwined among the tottering and rotten posts, or buried 
in the new growth of the redwoods; but for the most part they 
had disappeared. The circle of rough seats, which had been the 
thrones of the ruling council, still stood in the vast plain, where 
the two great rivers met: that could not have met for three gen- 
erations of men. There survived still, dwelling with the remnant 
in the hills, a woman of great age, whose father, as a boy, had 
been initiated, and had heard the elders debate in that last assembly 
wherein had been taken the fatal resolution to advance through the 
gap in the Sierras, and to meet the enemy on his high plains beyond. 
This boy had escaped the slaughter, and later had himself been 
long the leader of the host. 

Many things — all signs of fate — ^had weighed this great peo- 
ple down. They had been, in the old time of freshness, warriors 
of an angry and careless kind, but the increasing sobriety of their 
souls, their intense and sacramental attachment to their own soil — 
a garden — and especially that reverent and noble spirit which comes 
from institutions rooted and customs long observed, had left them 
dignified and indiflferent to doom, for they desired only to be 
themselves; and in maintaining their common tradition they were 
content now rather to resist than to combat, for they already felt 



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1917.I THE PRIEST 599 , 

the extinction, as summer at its close feels autumn and the neces- 
sary end of leaves. 

In stature they were tall; in figure spare and hard. They 
carried themselves proudly, and their faces were mild, sad and 
self-governed, as though they carried in them immortal memories. 
They dressed in good skins, well worked ; their feet they protected 
with cured leather strapped by way of sandals ; on their heads they 
wore no covering. It was a rule among the men that their faces 
should be shaven; the women had no rule, save that their long 
dark hair, untrimmed, was bound by a metal band, and this band 
was once designed in any metal of choice, but in the later days, 
when the race had grown so rare, sacredness had attached to it, 
and they fashioned it commonly of gold, as though so few re- 
maining had space and leisure for finer ornament, or as though 
the approach of death merited to be welcomed by a special apparel. 

They were of but one class without slaves, as are often old so- 
cieties in their climax, and so on to their repose and end. There 
was, indeed, among them a legend of greater and lesser, and their 
ritual service of their goddess seemed to contain the relics of such 
things; but whether the two castes had mingled long ago on that 
good and sunlit soil, or whether it was only a story come over the 
mountains from less happy lands, no one could tell. There was no 
record, though their records went back far. 

Isolation and its accompanying unity had marked their civili- 
zation for a great space of time. There had, indeed, been a regular 
though dwindling intercourse with the south; there was a docu- 
mentary and a traditional acquaintance with many highly different 
nations linked out beyond the salt and desolate valleys towards 
the tropics, and further " to where the sun was turned." From 
these distant lands chance travelers came in more rarely and more 
rarely, one year and another; twice, men could remember, an 
intermarriage had been permitted; but there was no commerce to 
sustain the southern trail, and this, their only and difficult path- 
way to the cities and communion, had at last dropped out of their 
knowledge. 

To the east the Sierras rose high into the upper sky, a 
tremendous, steady, formidable wall; and beyond these summits, 
borne on their gigantic shoulders, lay for a thousand miles the 
waste plateau and desolation of a vile wilderness where nothing 
good can ever be: brine, thick with salt, lay stagnant in its dead 
seas; the hills that ^rang from that desert sprang up at random, ^ 

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6oo THE PRIEST [Aug., 

shapeless or fantastic but always arid, and all the place was driven 
by a fine and bitter dust. 

The ocean to the west they believed to be the limit of man- 
kind ; and over its waters one might find at last the islands which 
still contained the spirits of those who died unfamous. Far to 
the north, which winter cold and great storms rendered ill-suited 
to men, stretched the fiords and forests that had been untenanted, 
it was thought, since the beginning of the world. Hither they 
would sometimes venture in spring, pursuing the hunting-trail to 
the edges of distant inland waters, whose sad and gray reeds and low 
monotonous pines betrayed the approach of the Arctic. But in 
such journeys no settlement was established; only a vague claim 
to sovereignty over the lonely distances. 

Shasta, with its white, enormous pyramid, was for them at 
once a boundary and a shrine; there, in the flanks of the moun- 
tain, where rose the headwaters of their river, a cave concealed 
some ancient mystery of their race. A lava stream had there, 
perhaps, aflForded them fire in their first migration, or, as 
is more commonly true of religions, this shrine marked the site 
of some high spiritual grace, some inner miracle of consolation 
in the despair of the long marches, when a whole folk moves out 
led by a god, to find new lands. 

Here — old, frightful, squalid — living only in his confused 
memories and the observance of his rites, the last Priest dwelt 
apart, careless of the cold and careless of the loneliness which 
separated him by days and days of awful silence from the last 
encampment of his kind. He cowered over the sacred fire, main- 
tained and saved it, still giving to the moon at evening or before 
dawn, according to her seasons, that higher worship to which his 
life had been devoted. 

For the moon was the goddess that had given their soul to 
this people. She had ruled and blessed them with her even su- 
premacy, and had not failed them; she had received in return 
all that reciprocal benediction which humanity at worship can 
furnish to the divine. Her charm across the night was their 
visible consolation against the dark places of the mind and the 
memory of death; her change was their period and their inter- 
est; of her cold light — received in secret and apart as the holy 
laws required — they had made their subtle sacrament of purifi- 
cation. Through what an immeasurable time had hunters or 
scouts in the marshes under Diablo where the rivers meet, watch- 



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1917] THE PRIEST 6oi 

ing before sunrise, marked her quite pale and dying over the arch 
of morning, or rising at midnight blood red and terrible beyond 
the grasses of the river banks: at midnight, when men most feel 
mortality. She was worshipped also up in the middle sky, majestic 
and benignant, riding at the full, a queen of great power and 
kindness, visibly pouring over her own consecrated land influence 
and good dreams. In the secrets of the initiation they gave the 
tribe her name. 

There was resurrection in her, terror and the conquest over 
terror; she seemed to have cast upon them the mutability that 
filled and saddened their long story, yet also the perpetual power 
of renewal, by faith in which th^ nation had survived. That lives 
should be lost so lightly and friends should fall so early dead; 
that something should remain and that memory should be a per- 
manent thing; that the state should shine with victories and should 
yet have the patience necessary in defeat ; that the race should per- 
petually stand — all this was mingled with her tranquil subtleties 
of mood and recurrence, with her particular spell, her aspect, and 
that light of hers which never ceases to observe human beings 
from between the clouds. 

The little children, who chiefly preserve the thread of national 
vision, found her, whom they saw perpetually real to their eyes, 
repeated also in songs and stories as her clear crescent is repeated 
in ponds at evening. Not for nothing, nor for little, had she 
been generation upon generation, since the dark origins of their 
race, at once the stuff and symbol of their creed. 

The double mystery of religion enveloped her as with a veil, 
and forbade them to distinguish profanely whether the she they 
worshipped were indeed this lovely visible thing or something other 
of which that lovely visible thing was but the servant emblem. 
They were humble because they had believed, and the high quality 
of faith dignified the close of their history. They would not doubt, 
even upon the edge of death. They had known long ago, taught 
by legendary examples of disaster, what falls when rude humanity 
attempts to touch those immaterial but eternal boundaries. They 
feared, if they asked the goddess the awful question which their 
dogmas purposely ignored, to break a tenuous bond between them, 
mortal, and her, supreme; and they dreaded less religion offended 
should rise away to higher places and leave the skies empty of 
meaning and the soul unsustained. 



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6o2 THE PRIEST [Aug., 

From the north, from the east, from the impossible desert 
places and the salt frozen plains something lesser had pressed 
upon and supplanted this nation. A people dwarfish, darker than 
men should be, filthy and with tangled hair all close, as though 
their squalor had something in common with the untilled and ac- 
cursed lands of the desert, or with the unfelled, dense, stunted 
woodlands of the far north, where they had first been seen. They 
were lesser — they were almost less than human beings — ^but they 
had conquered. 

In the art of war they were untrained, in assault cowardly; 
their weapons were a rude bow, and a bludgeon of stone, lashed 
into the cleft of a stick with withies. They could not build, nor 
plow, nor grind, nor did they understand the stars. Yet they had 
conquered. For they could live in those intolerable forests of the 
desert plateau, and they could go three days without food, and 
gorge themselves at the end ; they could march thirty hours without 
water, and at the end, lying down, lap like beasts out of the rare 
and icy torrents that here and there pierced the desolation of 
their homes. For them no defeat was final; nor any attack dis- 
astrous ; for retreating they could scatter when an. enemy charged, 
and advancing they needed not ever to press the attack, as men 
civilized, to whom something great and immediate stands to be 
gained, must press it; for men of account must hazard in war, 
like gamblers, great loss for a great reward; but men of no 
substance raid. 

They conquered also because their breeding was like the breed- 
ing of animals, certain and rapid; they conquered because, while 
they could waste and destroy, no waste and destruction could reach 
them in turn. Pliable to pain, unmanly, a slow-thoughted, silent 
herd, had they come ; pressed by some necessity in one great body 
they might have been caught and tamed as slaves. But they came 
in no such fashion. They came singly in tribe after tribe, and 
sometimes in single families wandering out with that mixture of 
curiosity and instinct which is proper to the brute. The sunshine 
was no more to them than the darkness of their original home, and 
they would descend from the Sierra partly to enjoy, but more to 
waste, or even wantonly to disperse, the wealth of those whom 
they harassed. 

In the life of every high people there must come an era so 
full of wisdom and security that it can with difficulty be supported 
in the eddy and jostle of time. Something unpliable and proud in 



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19171 THE PRIEST 603 

those who have long enjoyed the blessing of a full state, leaves 
theni, before this barbaric attack, like great rocks before the forces 
of the air. They waste away, but they can never be renewed. So 
had it been with the great nation, these wild things frittered away, 
and it was very certain, and each of them now knew it well (though 
the word was never spoken amongst them), that they had come 
to that day of which Favoa had sung when Sinhari would have 
killed her before the people, but spared her for her song; the day 
when the sadness of a nation's soul is justified, and the perfect 
thing goes down before the anarchic and worthless instrument of 
death. 

Against this fate, then, so conceived, or rather so very thor- 
oughly apprehended, they made no more than that resistance which 
honor and the love of one's kind demands; but now reduced to a 
folk of less than one thousand, so pressed, so supplanted, they had 
gone, ten years since, under the leadership of the elders, and had 
formed this encampment and stockade where nature protected 
them, as they thought, with precipices and a great river. It was a 
camp high in the foothills upon a flat of land, close by the line 
of the winter snow. Here also, with every opening season, stealthy 
but perpetual attacks wounded and wore them away; not battles, 
but short raids; and every now and then would fall on them the 
sudden fear of the little men lurking in the forest. So had two 
young men died in one day. So a woman in another, shot with 
an arrow from the thicket: and one of the children also died, 
poisoned by her milk. And so once for many days they had ra- 
tioned the camp because one of their fields had been fired at night ^ 
just before the harvest. 

Nevertheless, with every opening spring they had remembered 
the Faith, its Ritual of Supplication, and its Sacred Things, some- 
times at the expense of a skirmish, sometimes at the price of a 
house or of a field destroyed, they had chosen the fixed number 
under the headship of the oldest who could still bear arms, and 
had made the march, that began when the moon was at the full, 
up to that northern place where the Priest still watched the sacred 
fire. And there, year, upon year, it was the sanctified custom to 
refill the last of the braziers which the heroes had made — a sacred 
vessel still between their hands — and having filled it to watch for 
the new moon till they could see on the first night of her arrival 
the goddess wonderful and serene who should perpetually restore 
the ancient benediction of their blood. This, then, they would do 

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6o4 THE PRIEST [Aug., 

year after year, though every year they dwindled ; for they were 
confident of something — ^beyond the world, and even if their end 
should come, yet in the end they would still be thoroughly them- 
selves. 

So, when the time of the last opening spring had arrived and 
those stars were rising which bade them make the journey to renew 
the tribal fire, nothing was omitted of a ritual that had once been 
the exultant accompaniment of a great throng. And as a man 
who has left his home and his children will yet keep a tiny, faith- 
ful picture of them in some little locket, so these people whose num- 
bers and glory had departed kept in their every gesture during 
three peculiar days when the year turns and all things mysteriously 
rise from the dead, the full detail and picture of the creed which 
still clothed their souls. They called from the morning of the 
first day the eldest who led them in battle, the eldest who could 
still bear arms, and he chose at the feast the seven sevens which 
made up the company, and each of whom, if but one should sur- 
vive, had authority to hold the brazier and to bring back the fire. 
Seven virgins and seven matrons, seven youths uninitiated and 
seven youths initiated, seven elders yet hale for the march, seven 
of the singers, and seven warriors that had each done something 
in the war. 

Among these last, on the evening of the third day, the eldest 
chose by signs Rabah to be the bearer with him of the brazier, 
and to cry the Recognition when the new moon should rise, to 
fast and watch all night in arms as being the most sacred of the 
fifty, and as it were the shield-bearer of the goddess. Then when 
the fourth morning broke, having seen that the encampment was 
strong, and appointed to their duties the lessened garrison re- 
maining, these fifty set out, singing the ritual hymn, northward 
upon the half-moon of marching that should lead them at last 
across the plain of the two rivers and up the roots of Shasta, to 
the last valley where they would find their shrine. But as they 
went little dark figures were twice seen in the woods, and once 
the ashes of a fire : a bone, and broken meats of a kind man may 
not eat, but which those foul things devoured; and once again a 
serpent skin accursed to mankind that had been worn for a girdle 
and had a clasp. But of these things they said nothing to one 
another, not even two of them together in whispers; but the women 
thought of the camp, for some of them had children there, and the 
men doubted the return. So till the thirteenth day, to the waning 



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1917] THE PRIEST 605 

and the disappearing of the moon, they went up northward, and 

were in the further hills. 

* * * * 

They went in silence up that majestic valley, which has been 
lonely since the, beginning of the world; an afternoon of spring 
surrounded them — the warmth, that is, of the air rather than 
of the earth. A promise of growing days rose from everything, 
and there was given them to breathe that rare but immanent smell 
of the earlier flowers on the swards that fringed the opposite hills. 
It filled them and mixed them with the season. The sun, just 
hidden below the western ridge, still kept his wide heaven alive. 
There was no darkness in the east, nor any cloud, but only a full 
light, still and rich with the approach of evening. 

They were accurate and learned in the inherited rule of time 
and changes; they knew that already the goddess had appeared — 
stood in her own place, behind the hill, but something older and 
more profound than mere knowledge forbade their utterance of the 
truth for fear of desecration ; they kept their eyes averted towards 
the east, or cast them down upon the dim trail that ran before and 
was lost at last in the slight mist that caresses the lower deeps in 
twilight. They were comforted by the high hill that stood between 
their eyes and her, and made a rude screen for them ; and as they 
talked in whispers their talk ran on other things. They spoke of 
Mol and Sinhari, and of the Seven Warriors, who had been carried 
up from the battle of Runi and were fixed as stars; of their dear 
homes also, and of their destiny, and of wounds and of rest at the 
end. But of the goddess they said nothing, and they still kept their 
faces turned from the west. 

In this solemn play of ignorance they persisted till the sun 
was setting, and this they knew by the shadow which grew till 
it engulfed the eastern wall of the vale. Then, as ritual and an 
older time demanded, the leader sent out Rabah, chosen by signs, 
to perform what should be performed, and to cry the Recognition. 
The young man turned at the order and sprang upward among the 
trees toward the rocky skyline of the ridge, while below on the trail 
the whole company halted in reverence. It was not permitted him 
to speak or to adore, not even when there broke on him first the 
sudden vision it was his office to greet. He might not bend to 
Shasta and the awful field of snow to the north that bounded all 
known lands, nor to the mountainous wood which dissolved, crest 
on crest and beyond into the south, into the lost Empire of his 

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6o6 THE PRIEST [Aug., 

people, nor to the vast ocean at his feet. All these things were 
but to aflfect but not to occupy a mind intent upon the consumma- 
tion of an order that stretched out to the roots of his blood. He was 
doing what so many had done ; greater men than he, who had met 
with greater foemen, his fathers before him; and in this thought 
all that a man might for a moment feel from visible things was 
swallowed up. He was not even to receive, save in one first 
startled glance, the goddess whom he knew. The instant he had 
caught the gleam from the summit, he had put one hand up before 
his eyes and, turning sharply round, raised up the other arm as 
he had been taught in childhood and cried out loudly three times 
to the valley the sacred name of the tribe, which was also hers. They 
answered him from below in a set of chorus with ritual exalta- 
tion : " She has manifested herself ; he has seen her." And as he 
stumbled to race towards them down the steep, the narrow hollow 
echoed their united voices, and buried the hannony at last in the 
forest and the solemnity of the pines. 

When they were reunited the leader said : " It is time to go 
upwards." They followed infile up the last wall and end of the 
valley, and still from time to time the leader dipped his hand in 
the stream till at last he felt the water warm; he halted them 
and said : " It is here." 

A little trickle of water, steaming in the air, fell in tiny cas- 
cades beneath dense bushes down the hillside; alongside of it 
there ran up steeply a path worn deep into the rock, aided here 
and there by rude and ancient steps, and marked, upon the face of 
the rock- wall near it, with graven letters, the names of kings long 
dead, and of the heroes who lived before Zer and had never been 
written on the hides. But creepers had gathered upon the face of 
the rock, and there was moss on it; and even on the path itself 
dead leaves, the last of winter, and thick webs of ground spiders, 
lay undisturbed. No man had passed there for a year. 

The path had not risen three hundred feet when the hillside 
opened like a kind of down to the right, and on the left an en- 
trance showed, once the rude mouth of a cave, long since sculptured 
a little, and squared and decorated with offerings and simulacra of 
gold; now once more hidden by the growth of natural things. 
Here, then, they stood, while within, crooning and talking to him- 
self, hearing steps but not awakened by the memory of duties to 
come, sat the Priest whom they sought. 

The time had come for the due word. The Father led forward 

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1917] THE PRIEST 607 

Rabah by the hand (as a year before he had lead Mori, slain in 
battle, and yet a year before that Acunah the horseman) ; he 
set him in the place appointed and gave him the word. Then both 
together, the old man and the young man, chanted the Entry : " We 
have seen the goddess; we have come for her gift at her bidding." 

Immediately — for such is the power of things repeated — like 
a physical effect following a physical cause, an answering line of 
admittance summoned them within. They called the women and 
the rest; they entered, all the fifty, and they saw, but very dimly 
by the glow of coals or perhaps of rock yet warm, the withered 
form of the priest. 

He was crouching in the consecrated posture, his hand spread 
and open towards them, his face bowed. He had but time to take 
the brazier from them, and to fill it from his own, and then awe 
came over them all; they knelt upon the ground, and, putting 
one hand over their faces, leaned with the other forward before 
them upon the ground, as since childhood they had been taught to 
kneel and to adore. 

Ritual that binds the sons to the fathers and the living brothers 
together, ritual that is the cement and method of a people and 
that of necessity accompanies all the profound and perilous re- 
searches of the soul in its quest for unity, ritual that defends with 
an armor the spirit at war and lends to one life the dignity of a 
thousand years, passed into the old man, and from him to his silent 
audience, increasing their every appetite, restoring to his age, vigor ; 
to their manhood, control and boundaries. 

Something not himself in the Priest awoke at the call of his 
office, and he muttered rapidly in a voice of earlier strength the 
words of their old language, all of whose meaning had been exactly 
preserved in a dogmatic teaching that could only perish with the 
race. 

He told in form the story of how fire had been sent by the 
goddess herself, her herald yet not her friend ; a new thing and a 
peril ; an enemy, yet of her own making; had been sent to the crea- 
tures of her chief concern, the uplifted and struggling brood of men ; 
had been sent, often an evil thing to the good and a good thing 
to the evil, but always a servant to the wise. 

He mumbled rapidly the tale of how fire was a servant also to 
her, rebellious in lightning, but tamed always at last, and remaining 
hidden in the heart of things. He recited the expiation for the 
sins of fire; of sacrifice and disaster; of how fire taught them the 

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6o8 THE PRIEST [Aug., 

use of weapons and the orderly dwelling in towns, and the measure 
of seasons, and the distinction between men and beasts in the eat- 
ing of food, and what food was lawful and what unlawful. 

And still as he muttered these set relations the last phrase 
of every familiar recital was repeated by his hearers in a subdued 
chorus, till at last he came to the benediction. He stretched his 
hands out stifly over the dull mass in the braziers, and chanted 
rather than spoke the words that introduced divinity. He rose, 
and with the ordained gesture he cast in the sacred spice-dust, 
gathered in its own space by him in the sacred season and set aside 
under the influence of known prayers. The flame increased and 
glowed. 

With the gesture proper to such solemnity he waved his hands 
above it in ecstasy as the fire grew; he called the goddess by her 
virtue and her powers; he chanted the spirit of life that comes 
from her, and blows through man forever and through flames. To 
this also they responded, still veiled, but more loudly than before, 

with the fixed and rhythmic " Mala-Lu " — " Praise her 

" — till the flame leapt high, and for the first time lit the 

room, so that the broad twilight outside seemed dark in contrast. 

To this, then, to the outer air, still with a step like youth, the 

Priest went forth, and at the mouth of the cave, looking full at 

the goddess where she lay, he called her loudly by her secret name, 

" Mahala." 

The ceremony was ended, and their souls purified. 
♦ * * * 

They spoke together; the women trembled a little as if with 
joy; the brazier, suspended upon a pole, was supported by the 
leader and Rabah, whom the signs had chosen. But upon the Priest 
old age more suddenly descended. They left their offerings at his 
feet as he cowered again, huddled in his recess, thanking them 
alternately and blessing them, and smiling and frowning inco- 
herently with uncertain, ordinary words upon his lips : senile and 
ill-ordered. His age, his weakness, his last offices, were in the 
familiar experience of their religion; they turned and left the 
cave. And now it was permitted them from the open sward 
without to gaze like free men at the chief and centre of their wor- 
ship, their light and their queen. They stood in rank upon the 
mountain side towards the west, their souls full like a tide, and 
(though silence was not of their daily nature) silent for a while 
from a plentitude of devotion. 



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1917.] THE PRIEST 609 

She hung there, personal and apart; it was yet too early for 
any stars. The last light, transfigured and solemnized, had 
softened and turned from mere red fires of death into the colors 
of a vision, and the whole arch so full of glory beyond glory, it 
had such depths of clean, translucent hues, steadfast though tenu- 
ous, illuminate from within, irradiant and still, that you might 
have thought it, for all its harmony, the hall of a multitude : a host 
of spirits, fixed for a moment and adoring. In the midst of which 
she hung, personal and apart, supreme, particular, immaculate. 
Then as though indeed she were quickened by the homage of a 
vast assembly, the silver of her tender crescent changed from pale 
to shining, and began against the deepening air about her to take 
on a regal gold. 

4c 4c ♦ 4c 

That night they pressed down the valley, their souls calmed, 
yet determined (from a human anxiety, and from that grasp of 
things real which accompanies the satisfaction of mystical desires) 
to reach the encampment, and to furnish it with the double strength 
of their arms and a duty accomplished. 

Before them, as they went, the Father and Rabah swung over 
the pine needles, carrying the pole upon which the brazier hung. 
They fed it with essences, and it sent up into the night, trailing 
above their rapid nrnrch in the still air, scented smoke lit up by that 
red glare which ran in their minds for something holy. So, hour 
after hour, until, in the rhythm of their regular steps, sleep was op- 
pressing them all, they descended the defile. 

There is a place, the first halting-place on that remembered 
journey, called in their language Van, which means " The Gate." 
Here two sheets of rock precisely twin come close together and 
stand, an introduction to the last sacredness of the valley. They are 
so tall that men, seeing them, fall at once into the presence of the 
gods. They are so similar on the left and on the right that no 
man, seeing them, can quite persuade himself but that they were 
placed there by some mind. 

Here, then, where the torrent gallops and tttmbles in a rapid 
through the extreme confinement on its bed, they halted on the 
upper side where lies a little meadow, just before the chasm ; and 
leaving on guard the two leaders, supported by such an unnatural 
vigil by the sacrament just received, they all lay down to a sleep 
over which there settled something more profound than weariness — 
the weight or the repose of the great hills. 

VOL. cv.— 39 r-^ T 

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6io THE PRIEST [Aug., 

It was midnight long past, and their sleep was full on them, 
when Rabah heard far off the noise Hke the new noise which the 
sea makes when you round the turn of a road and come full upon 
an open beach in a storm. At once the Father and he called to- 
gether with a loud cry, and at once, trained by so many years of 
a desperate warfare, all the fifty heard it in their sleep and rose. 
In the very moment of their rising, water was upon them, turbu- 
lent, rising in leaps like the pulses of a man, as water comes out 
of sluices when they are opened by the miller after a summer 
rain. 

It throbbed up immediately so that men and women strug- 
gling felt nothing of depth or of position, but only a blind force 
that threw them here and there in the darkness, and made the shout- 
ing seem like little pitiful complaints addressed, not to human 
brothers, but to the awful god that came wrestling with them here. 
Great branches, spinning as birds spin when an arrow catches them 
in the air, struck full upon this one and upon that, killing and 
stunning and pressing under; and beneath, the feet were caught 
and above the arms; a number of dead leaves also, or a whirling 
mass of sheer earth dashed away, or a great boulder rolling terribly 
and bruising the feet of those that tried to climb towards the 
shore. But all the while an utter dissolution of the human bond, 
an utter inability for one to help another, marked those few 
moments with chief terror of death. Very soon, against those 
that still attempted to struggle (being stronger) or climg upwards 
to the rock and made some desperate motion to rise upon the swell 
of the flood, the dead or dying jostled and dragged all into one 
company; and very soon, again, there was no human thought or 
life or meaning in the lake of muddy and swirling water, but 
only a jam and race of log and branch and reeds, and animals 
also, and men and women dead, pushed and driven into ^the roar- 
ing of the outlet. It was in this way that after those many thou- 
sand years the fire was extinguished 

In the next morning, that is, some four hours later, Rabah, 
much weaker than a child, weaker than are men wounded when 
the blood has run out of them into the earth and they speak faintly 
before death, weaker than women who are in their sudden weak- 
nesses of joy or of terror, saw with his eyes, unjudging and care- 
less, that he was looking upwards at the sky. Then he closed his 
eyes again and slept, or fainted, and was extinguished. 

At noon a clearness of thought rather than a vigor returned 



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1917] THE PRIEST 611 

to him ; he leaned a h'ttle upon one arm, muttering like a man gone 
foolish in the exhaustion of a march; he tried to give names to 
things that were in his mind. He recognized the hills, and he 
made towards Shasta a motion of reverence. He sat up, and 
possessed himself in full. 

The river ran, swollen, deep and racing in lump over lump, 
like a harbor tide, but foul with mud, and carrying all manner 
of refuse sparsely on its foam. The place all around him was a 
marsh with more than a vileness even of the fever-marshes, for 
recent mud was over it all, slime and the stench of the green foul- 
ness that hides in the stagnant haunts below streams. There were 
beasts there dead, even some birds, and fishes agape and staring, 
with the hot sunlight glistening upon the dying colors of their scales. 
And there also, but further off from him, were two men dead, lying 
close together, and to his right a woman whose face a torn tree- 
trunk had struck when the sudden death had come upon them in 
the night. He tried to rise, but could not. He waited a Httle and 
breathed deeply three times, as he had been taught when they 
taught him the fighters' tricks as a boy, and so staggered and 
stood up. 

Since things that terrify and overwhelm also benumb, and, 
though we will not admit it, madden in a fashion and turn the 
mind right out of its strong and natural supports — since, I say, 
these gods of death can never touch the body of men alone, but 
the soul also, he crept smiling a little along the river bank, and 
now and then upon his face would be terror, and then, again, some 
new, incongruous thought that pleased him; and he crept on and 
on under the sun for hours. All that he had hated in his savage 
enemies, their instinct and their lives like animals, stood him in 
some service. He ate, he knew not what, from trees; he caught 
and killed a little animal for food, and then at night he slept, and 
the next day crept on and did the same. 

He thought he was in that country of which he had read, 
where Sinhari rules, and of whose approach he had heard that it 
was difficult and foul, but led at last to the happiest of happy 
fields. For, as he wandered southward, and as with the days his 
strength returned the traces also of the flood were lost. His dream 
continued. And there mixed into it what is proper to dreams, the 
mixture between things real and things imagined. So that when 
after many days of marching and muttering, and the killing and 
plucking of things, he saw a long way off to the south, beyond the j 

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6i2 THE PRIEST [Aug., 

plain, the blue cloud of the mountain Diablo, which they called 
Romolah, he said out loud: 

" There is Romolah, but not the Romolah I have known, for 
this is the kingdom of Sinhari, and I shall soon be in the com- 
pany of the blessed heroes, of which I am one; they will show 
me all earthly things transfigured, and I shall meet my comrades, 
the men and women, and they shall be bearing the brazier, and so 
I shall find that I have come into the greatest happiness which 
is promised to all." 

But every day things more familiar pulled at his heart and 
brought back into his eyes the necessary sadness of our lives, and 
made him doubt his imaginings and restored his reason. 

It was one morning, after a sleep so long that, having fallen 
into it before sunset, he now woke with the sun half way up the sky ; 
it was one morning after such repose that full reality came upon 
him suddenly, and, lying down upon the earth with his head upon 
his crossed arms, he cried out loud, calling one by one to himself 
the names of what he had lost, and kissing the earth that had 
borne him, and losing all joy and all sustenance. He looked about 
on the great plain towards the mountains, and he felt, as sane men 
feel it, the premonition of disaster. 

With his eyes still drawn hard in such an overwhelming sor- 
row, he passed on for two days, first to the foothills, and then 
through the deeper ravines, till he stood at last upon a spur at 
evening, and looked down a thousand feet into the valley of his 
home. He saw innumerable little tents of skins, innumerable little 
dirty figures, hardly erect, with long hair matted, and slobbering 
cruel mouths, chattering or quarreling like apes as they passed one 
another, going about the business of their camp, their little domestic 
barbarous necessities, their carrying of water in leaky skins, their 
cooking with daubed clay, their sharpening of foolish instruments 
upon the stones. And where the last settlement of his kind all 
the earth was burnt black in a circle three hundred yards around, 
and a few burnt planks lay about it, and one doorpost, burnt also, 
stood desolate and jagged, and upon it some barbarian pigmy had 
hung his bludgeon and his bow. 

Then, not lingering there, but turning to the crest of the hills, 
he passed them with a set purpose in his mind, and going south- 
ward by regular long days, observing wisely all rules of travel, 
and repossessing his manly mind; reciting thrice — ^at morning, at 
noon and at evening — ^those prayers which were the principal duty of 

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1917] THE SONG MAKERS 613 

his race, and worshipping by her name of saviour the goddess who 
preserves, he passed beyond the salt deserts to where the cactuses 
begin, and beyond that, again, to the fire mountains; and being 
accepted, a noble stranger, he grew to be the head of a great peo- 
ple, to whom he gave laws and foundation and being. 

For those who have so suffered and so observed a rite contain 
in themselves something indestructible, and it is they who preserve 
the name and meaning of their race. 



THE SONG MAKERS. 

BY M. E. BUHLER. 

Singers of earth, whose only gift is song, 
Sing when the night is dark and overrlong, 
And by your music you shall make men strong. 

Though wastes and solitudes encompass you, 
Sing of brave deeds that keep the true men true, 
And of the laurel much shall be your due. 

The fires of God are nurtured in the dark 
And blown to flame from that undying spark 
That feeds the lyric of the unseen lark. 

Sing — ^as at dawn amid Jamaican hills 

Over far seas, the solitaire's sweet trills 

Break forth, and earth with flute-like music thrills ; 

And even the great stars in the stooping skies 
Bum with a whiter splendor; while arise 
From mist-filled valleys notes of Paradise. 



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OUR MERCHANT MARINE. 

BY M. R. RYAN. 

N an address in New York City on June 5th, the 
Chairman of the House Committee on Appropria- 
tions asserted that if the United States shall fail 
to provide three million tons of cargo shipping to 
the Allies within the next eighteen months the war 
will be lost. Now, generally speaking, war is considered in terms 
of dreadnoughts and submarines, of army divisions and flying 
corps. Beside these mighty forces, vessels for cargo shipping take 
on an appearance of insignificance. Yet soldiers and sailors and 
" knights of the air " must be clothed, fed, and supplied with the 
necessaries of their grim occupations. To this service of upkeep 
are cargo vessels dedicated in periods of conflict. The success of 
a fighting nation, therefore, depends not a little upon an adequate 
merchant marine. 

On Good Friday of this year the United States entered the 
World War. Where was our adequate merchant marine? Echo 
alone answers. 

It would seem that this country with its vast possibilities for 
international trade should be, by this date, in possession of at least 
a presentable marine. On the fourth of July, 163 1, in New Eng- 
land, the keel of the first American commercial ship was laid. That 
was but the beginning of a ship industry, that thrived (save for 
a short period) for two hundred years along the Atlantic coast. 
In the course of time, British battleships were launched from 
American yards; freighters of American make were always in 
demand in England. It is a matter of record, however, that the 
prosperous condition of the maritime enterprises of the colonies 
was not altogether pleasing to the English government. Restric- 
tions upon American shipping were imposed, therefore; though 
these were not always enforced. 

At the close of the Revolutionary War, the outlook for the 
shipping interests was not particularly good. But in 1789 Con- 
gress passed a measure for the protection of these; this provided 
for discriminating duties upon imports brought to this country in 
foreign bottoms, and a tax of fifty cents per ton of the registry of 

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1917.] OUR MERCHANT MARINE 615 

every arriving foreign merchantman. Thereafter, despite nu- 
merous obstacles, shipping grew tremendously. Some of our ships 
voyaged as far as the East Indies; and Baltimore vessels carried 
on the trade with China. 

About 1847 the construction of steamships was taken up. 
The Ocean Steam Navigation Company was then organized; and 
it obtained from the Government a contract to transport the mails 
between New York and Bremen. By the terms of this contract 
the company was required to place four steamships in commission 
within a year. When mail subventions were withdrawn in 1858 
the Bremen service was abandoned. 

About the same time, E. K. Collins of New York established 
a passenger line for trans-Atlantic business. Its four ships were 
models of luxury; and its freight rates very much lower than those 
of the Cunard Line. A mail subvention of $385,000 per year was 
provided by the Government; and when the Cunard Line was 
granted an increased subvention that amounted to over eight him- 
dred thousand dollars for fifty-two round trips, our Government 
furnished the Collins Line with a subsidy of $853,000 for twenty- 
six round trips. The high speed demanded by the Federal contract, 
however, made for a costly operation on the Collins vessels; and, 
also, their semi-monthly trips did not permit of enough time to 
load sufficient cargoes, which meant financial loss. Then, the line 
was unfortunate in losing two of its ships at sea. So when the 
subsidy was withdrawn, as in the case of the Ocean Steam Naviga- 
tion Company, the Collins Line went out of business. 

This is when the backward movement in our merchant marine 
began. But England's maritime industry developed rapidly. In 
seventy years her government paid out $300,000,000 in ship 
subsidies. As a result she commanded the sea at the opening of 
the World War, with Germany as her close rival. The United 
States was shipping then but a meagre twentieth of her foreign 
commerce in American bottoms ! 

At the time of the Spanish-American War we were so desti- 
tute of army transports and naval auxiliaries that we were forced 
to buy ships where we could, and regardlgsft-of their suitability. 
Millions of dollars were expended by the army to meet the emer- 
gency. The navy purchased one hundred and two ships for $18,- 
000,000. After the war twenty-five of these were sold. An idea 
of the inferior grade of some of the vessels may be gained from 
the following figures : The Zairo, which was bought for $87,597, 

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6i6 OUR MERCHANT MARINE [Aug., 

was disposed of for $3,300; the Yosemite, purchased for $575,000, 
was sold for $11,522.04. 

With this sorry spectacle before us, we took, nevertheless, no 
steps to remedy conditions. When the Palina administration gave 
way in Cuba, we sent a few thousand of our soldiers down there 
— ^in English ships ! When our fleet circled the globe a few years 
ago, the twenty-seven collieries with its coal supply that accom- 
panied it were imder foreign registration. Seven or eight years 
back there was a current story to the effect that an English naval 
officer was so surprised to note our flag floating from a masthead 
on the Liverpool water front that he took the trouble to investi- 
gate its appearance there, only to learn from the harbor master 
that it flew over the first American merchantman that had put in 
to that port in twelve years. 

Why have the Stars and Stripes disappeared from the shipping 
industry of the world? is the question that naturally presents itself. 
The answer is not difficult to find. 

With the advent of the steamship the cost of operating a 
vessel was materially increased. The rate of wages also has been 
much higher in the United States than in countries competing with 
us for international trade. The following are report figures sub- 
mitted to investigators in 1905: The average pay of skilled me- 
chanics in an American shipyard was two dollars per day — that 
in English yards a dollar and fifty cents. When the Mongolia 
of the Pacific Mail was about to be built, the English bid was 
$400,000 less. than the American bid. The monthly wages of the 
crew of the American ship Aztec, operating between San Francisco 
and Hong Kong, was $2,695; those of the British On Sang, a 
tramp vessel between the same ports, $1,054.71. 

American shipping has long needed protection in the shape of 
subsidies. England early recognized such a need in her own ship- 
ping, and it has prospered accordingly. Even within the last de- 
cade or so, upon realizing that Germany was outstripping her in the 
building of vessels such as the Deutschland, she offered the Cunard 
Line, to which she had been already very liberal, a loan of thirteen 
millions at two and three-quarters per cent interest for twenty years, 
promising also to give the line $1,100,000 annually in mail pay- 
ments and admiralty subventions. The outcome of this was that 
the ill-starred Lasitania and the Mauretania were put into service. 
The United States, however, has neglected (except for a few at- 
tempts at mail subventions) to aid its merchant marine. 

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1917] OUR MERCHANT MARINE 617 

The American people, rather inconsistently, it would seem, 
have been averse to the subsidy policy. Though they have gen- 
erally agreed to a protective tariff, yet their disapproval has been 
manifest in regard to a ship subsidy, which bears a close relation- 
ship to that tariff. To encourage certain home industries, they 
pay tariff with every purchase they make of protected articles. In 
the case of a shipping company, the Government would pay a lump 
simi to encourage, too, and to protect. And that money ultimately 
would come out of each individual pocket — ^under the guise of 
taxes. It would no more be a gift from the United States Treasury 
(as is charged) than tariff is a gift. 

The fight for and against subsidies has raged for many years. 
In addition to this, rulings upon rulings on navigation matters 
have been set down, many of these assisting towards the disap- 
pearance of the merchant marine from this country. For instance, 
the La FoUette Seamen's Bill supported by organized labor, while 
good in some respects, is unreasonable and drastic in others. 
In 191 5, when it received the President's signature, the claim was 
made that it would nullify every effort being made to build up our 
merchant marine. By unnecessarily increasing the crews on both 
American and foreign ships clearing from or entering our ports, 
the measure is detrimental to trade; for where American ships 
will be in competition with foreign ships for international business 
other than that exported from, or imported to, our shores, the foreign 
vessels can operate more cheaply with a smaller crew. It was said 
at the time the bill passed that the Japanese were enthusiastic over 
the news, for the reason that they were convinced that the Pacific 
trade would soon be theirs. Nor did this enthusiasm of theirs seem 
absurd, when the well-known Pacific Mail Steamship Company sold 
its five largest ships soon after the bill was signed, because it would 
be impossible for it to compete with foreign lines upon the western 
ocean when the measure should go into effect in November, 191 5. 
That these vessels were not really lost to the United States was 
due to the war. Vessels of their calibre were a welcome addition 
to war-time trading from Atlantic ports; and they were purchased 
by the American Transport Company of West Virginia. The Pa- 
cific, however, is practically denuded of an American merchant 
marine. 

Since the World War began, the American public has been 
slowly awakening to the realization that a merchant marine is a vital 
essential to its welfare. Shortly after the outbreak in Europe, a 

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6i8 OUR MERCHANT MARINE [Aug., 

bill favoring Government ownership and operation of merchant 
vessels in our foreign trade was introduced in Congress. That this 
measure was not popular is evidenced by the fact that it failed of 
carriage in its original form and that in its revised form it did not 
pass until August, 1916. Business organizations by the hundred 
advanced earnest objections to it. In the early part of the contro- 
versy it was pointed out that private enterprise ends where the 
Government steps in. 

"There will never be any private competition," declared 
Senator Lodge, while addressing his colleagues on the bill, " where 
Government-owned ships run. On those routes American private 
vessels would be excluded. It is impossible to compete with a 
competitor who is willing to incur indefinite losses, because the 
taxpayers of the country pay the losses." 

It was also shown that a Government-owned ship might be 
searched for contraband by a warring nation; and that in this 
event the resentment of Americans would surely be aroused, be- 
cause the act would appear to be directed not at an individual but 
at the Government. Again, it was asserted that the proposed pur- 
chase of interned German vessels by the Government would be 
both unwise and unneutral. This detail was also dwelt upon : Gov- 
ernment ships would be obliged to offer as advantageous freight 
rates as competing lines. Now, it is no secret that the Government 
cannot run an enterprise as cheaply as can a private concern. In- 
deed, it has been demonstrated that it costs nearly twenty per cent 
more to build a battleship in a Government yard than in a private 
yard. Therefore, if the United States undertook to build merchant 
ships (as the bill authorized) it would be launching on a losing 
venture. A subsidy then would be more economical: for in one 
case the Government would not only be footing the cost of ship 
operating, but would also have to invest some $30,000,000 for 
constructing or purchasing freighters ; whereas a subsidy of a few 
millions would establish a line of American ships, private interests 
providing these. 

When the Shipping Bill was finally passed, the idea of buying 
the interned German ships had been given up. The bill put the 
limit of Government ownership of vessels at five years succeeding 
the end of the European war. It authorized the creation of a 
Shipping Board of seven members, which Board might form a cor- 
poration to be capitalized at not more than fifty millions. Objec- 
tions to this bill were ( i ) that in ten years or so this country would 

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I9I7-] OUR MERCHANT MARINE 619 

require from six to ten million tons of shipping, beside which the 
600,000 tons to be provided by the Board would amount to little; 
(2) that the Board, while operating its own vessels, would also be 
regulating the rates of its competitors, which would be a curious 
situation; (3) that it was doubtful whether 600,000 tons could be 
secured with the shipyards alre^idy overburdened with orders for 
which the war was responsible. However, the bill passed the Senate 
by a vote of 38 to 21. 

Shortly before we declared war on Germany the Shipping 
Board was engaged upon a plan to construct wooden cargo vessels 
to take the place of such steel freighters as would be assigned to 
collier duty in the event of difficulties. Admiral Benson, in 191 5, 
estimated that four hundred merchant ships of 1,172,000 gross 
tonnage would be required for this war service, not to mention 
three hundred and twenty- four small boats for mine sweeping. It 
was apparent that 700,000 gross tons only being available, both the 
collier and merchant services stood in dire need of attention. 

In the middle of April, General . Goethals was appointed by 
the Board to take charge of the building of a thousand wooden 
ships. This left the Board free to lay plans for the construction 
of steel freighters in the future, and to make arrangements for the 
converting of the German vessels in our harbors to American use. 
Now, no one would contend that wooden ships are preferable 
to those of steel. But it was figured that they could be built more 
rapidly than steel ships, although the labor problem incident to 
the construction was none too easy to solve in view of the fact 
that there were not more than twenty-five thousand ship mechanics 
to be had. One hundred thousand were needed. Also, steel was 
scarce. Nevertheless, once the General surveyed the field of work 
before him he announced that the wooden ships proposition was 
" simply hopeless." First of all there was not enough dry lumber 
to be had; and it developed that green-lumber vessels, heavily 
engined (as would be necessary), would become junk in no time. 
He contracted therefore for three million tons of steel; by some 
expedient managing to procure it. The ships made from this will 
be finished in eighteen months. Meanwhile, our Allies are crying 
for food cargoes. What very material assistance could we not 
furnish them if we had an adequate merchant marine at this mo- 
ment? In eighteen months, of course, no delays occurring in the 
interim, a fleet of merchantmen will be at our command. We 
must take what small comfort we can out of that knowledge ! 



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THE FALSE DECRETALS.^ 

BY BERTRAND L. CONWAY, C.S.P. 

R. DAVENPORT, an English Protestant lawyer, has 
just published an excellent dissertation on the False 
Decretals, which refutes in a most effective manner 
the inaccurate statements of many prejudiced anti- 
Catholic writers. His book has grown out of the 
Lothian prize essay which he presented to Oxford three years 
ago. The writer makes abundant use af Saltet's article in The 
Catholic Encyclopedia and Foumier's articles in The Revue 
d'Histoire Ecclesiastique of Louvain, and although he tells the 
Catholic scholar nothing that he did not know before, he has suc- 
ceeded admirably in presenting the salient facts regarding the con- 
tents, environment, origin, purpose, and influence of this mediaeval 
forgery. 

For the past four hundred years the opponents of the Papacy 
have asserted that its power and authority from the Middle Ages 
onwards was based chiefly on a collection of forged letters and de- 
crees. We are informed that "they brought about a complete change 
in the constitution and government of the Church, and were eagerly 
seized upon by Pope Nicholas I. to be used as genuine documents 
in support of the new claims put forward by himself and his suc- 
cessors."^ Canon Gk)re, following the unscholarly Milman,* de- 
clares that " they represent a step of immense importance in the 
aggrandizement of the Papal claim, and that they inaugurate a 
wholly new epoch of canon law.* The learned and saintly Pope 
Nicholas I. has been accused of ambition and dishonesty in giving 
deliberate sanction to a pious fraud that enabled him " to revolu- 
tionize the Church, and reduce the churches of the world to servi- 
tude."*^ One of the earliest and best known authentic collections 
of canons in the Church had been compiled by Dionysius the Little 
at Rome in 510. It contained fifty apostolic canons, the decrees of 
the Oriental Councils as far as Chalcedon, the Councils of Sardica 

^The False Decretals. By E. H. Davenport. New York: Longmans, Green 
& Co. 1916. $1.50 net. » Janus, The Pope and the Council, pp. 97. 99- 

*Lat%n Christianity, vol. iii., p. 60. *Roman Catholic Claims, p. 121. 

•Lagardc, The Latin Church in the Middle Ages, p. 283; Littledale, Plain 
Reasons, p. 100; Milman. 1. c, C5, 66. 



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1917.] THE FALSE DECRETALS 621 

and Africa, and the decretals of the Popes from Siricius (385) to 
Anastasius II. (498). It had been sent to Charlemagne by Pope 
Hadrian I. (772-795). A more complete collection was made in 
Spain about 610, and falsely attributed to St. Isidore, Bishop of 
Selville (636). A French edition of this collection, known as the 
Hispana Gallica, was circulated widely in the Prankish kingdom 
from the end of the seventh century. 

In the middle of the ninth century there appeared four spurious 
collection of canons, the Capitularies of Benedict the Deacon, 
the Capitularies of Angilramnus, Bishop of Metz, the canons of 
Isaac of Langres, and the decretals of the Pseudo-Isidore. The 
compiler of the last-named forgery called himself Isidorus Merca- 
tor, combining the name of the well-known Bishop of Seville with 
Marius Mercator, a canonist of the fifth century. He put forth 
his work merely as a new and enlarged edition of the Collectio 
Hispana, using a very imperfect French edition (Autun) which 
some consider his own invention. 

Neander in his General History of the Christian Religion^ 
says that " this fraud was so clumsily contrived and so ignorantly 
executed that in a more critical age it might have been easily de- 
tected and exposed." It is certainly true that this collection is full 
of anachronisms. Popes of the first three centuries write in Prank- 
ish Latin of the ninth century on mediaeval conditions in Church 
and State, besides quoting documents of the fourth and fifth cen- 
turies; later Popes up to Gregory I. (604) use documents of the 
seventh, eighth and ninth centuries. Por example. Pope Victor 
writes to Theophilus of Alexandria, who lived in the fourth cen- 
tury, on the Paschal controversy of the second ; Popes living before 
St. Jerome quote the Vulgate. Still it is inaccurate to state that 
the Palse Decretals were climisily contrived and ignorantly exe- 
cuted. On the contrary they were the work of a most learned, if 
unscrupulous, canonist. He deceived the best scholars of his age — 
men like Hincmar, the Archbishop of Rhehns, who for forty years 
dominated the Prankish Church — by cleverly intermingling authen- 
tic with spurious documents. He inserted many genuine 
decrees of councils and Papal letters drawn from other canonical 
collections, introduced whole passages from writers like Rufinus and 
Cassiodorus, and cited largely from the Roman Law. He fre- 
quently used the Liber Pontificalis as a background, forging the 
lost letters alluded to in that well-known work. Frequently he cites 

•Vol. iii., p. 347. 



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622 THE FALSE DECRETALS [Aug., 

real letters of Popes like Leo I. (440-461), but ascribes them to 
Popes living in a previous century. Modem scholars have found 
at least one hundred thousand passages in his collection borrowed 
from other writers. 

These authentic passages were numerous enough, therefore, to 
deceive for centuries the fact and extent of the compiler's for- 
geries. Had the False Decretals introduced a complete change in 
the constitution and government of the Church, they would not 
have been so readily accepted. They won approval simply because 
they introduced no new principle of canon law, and taught nothing 
new in dogma, liturgy or penitential discipline. 

The False Decretals are divided into three parts. The first 
part contains, besides the preface and certain introductory sections, 
the fifty Apostolic Canons of the collection of Dionysius, fifty-nine 
apocryphal decretals of the Popes from St. Clement I. (88-97) ^^ 
Melchiades (31 1-3 14), a spurious letter of Aurelius of Carthage, 
one of St. Jerome (380), and two of St. Clement I. to James, the 
brother of the Lord, copied from another collection. The second 
part contains the authentic canons of the Eastern, African, Galilean 
and Spanish Councils from Nice (325) to the second Council of 
Seville (619), which formed part one of the CollecHo Hispana. 
Pseudo-Isidore interpolated a canon on the chorepiscopi, two spur- 
ious letters of Attious of Constantinople (406-426) and Aurelius 
of Carthage (411), the forged Donation of Constantine, and some 
personal notes on the primitive Church and the Council of Nice. 

The third part continues the decretals from Sylvester (314- 
335) to Gregory IL (715-731). The authentic decretals of the 
second part of the Hispana began with Siricus (384-399). 
Pseudo-Isidore forged thirty letters, attributing them to Popes from 
Sylvester to Damasus (366-384), added the authentic letters, and 
interpolated thirty-five spurious decretals under the name of Popes 
usually ommitted from the Hispana. 

Despite his own statement in the preface it is certain that.the 
compiler did not write as a serious and painstaking canonist. He 
made many flagrant omissions (he does not say a word about bene- 
fices, tithes, simony, the monastic life, the pallium, rural parishes, 
etc.), and compiles as many false decretals as he did authentic. 
Every scholar, therefore, admits (Saltet, Fournier, Villien) that the 
compiler's object must be sought in the apocryphal decretals which 
were his chief concern. 

We need not discuss the false decretals which treat of the 



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1917.] THE FALSE DECRETALS 623 

heresies on the Trinity and the Incarnation, the administration 
of the Sacraments, the law of celibacy, fasts, festivals, midnight 
Mass, etc., for they are in no sense peculiar to this collection. What 
Pseudo-Isidore did lay stress upon was the protection of the bishops 
from secular oppression, the immunity of ecclesiastical property, the 
constitution and good order of the Church, and its rights and 
privileges in relation with the State. 

Mr. Davenport divides the False Decretals into three distinct 
classes — the defensive texts, which protect the Church against 
violence from without; the constructive texts, which provide the 
Church against abuses from within; and the aggressive texts, which 
deal with the relations of Church and State. 

The defensive texts declared that the trials of priests are no 
longer to be held before secular tribunals, but before competent 
ecclesiastical courts, appeals being allowed to the provincial council 
presided over by the Metropolitan. Bishops are to be tried by the 
provincial council, with appeal to the Pope. The existing law 
allowed a direct appeal to the Pope, if the bishop reasonably sus- 
pected the impartiality of his judges. Pseudo-Isidore expanded 
this law by allowing the Pope to decide that the final trial was to 
be held in Rome, and changed it by limiting the power of the pro- 
vincial council to a mere hearing of the case, which must be re- 
ferred to the Pope for judgment. 

This was against the Council of Sardica (343) which had 
decreed that a bishop deposed by a provincial council could appeal 
to the Pope, but that the new trial should take place before the 
bishops of the neighboring province under the presidency of a 
Papal legate. Still from the fifth century the Popes had heard 
episcopal appeals in Rome. Pope Nicholas in maintaining this 
right quotes the second canon of the Council of Chalcedon, the 
letter of Sardica to Pope Julius, and the letter of Innocent I. to 
Victricius of Rouen. Pope Innocent writes : " The more important 
cases (majores causae) were to be referred to the Apostolic See, 
after the decision of the bishops had been given in accordance with 
the synodal decrees and custom." 

Bishops' trials were made as difficult as possible by insisting 
on many of the rulings of the Roman law. Laymen could not 
testify, seventy-two witnesses were required for condemnation, 
accusers and accused must both be present, confessions of guilt 
must not be forcibly extorted, and the accused could refuse to be 
tried until restored to his see or translated to another. 

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624 THE FALSE DECRETALS [Aug., 

Pseudo-Isidore also insisted upon the inviolability of Church 
property. To seize it was sacrilege, and the laity were forbidden 
to dispose of it under any pretext. No bishop could be brought to 
trial unless all his possessions had been restored to him. 

The constructive texts aimed at preserving the Church from 
anarchy and ruin. In his picture of the Church's organization, 
Pseudo-Isidore insists on the loyalty of both people and priests to 
the bishop, elected and consecrated for a particular city with the con- 
sent of the bishops of the province. Disloyalty to him merits the 
severest censures. He attacks bitterly the chorepiscopi, falsely deny- 
ing their episcopal powers.'' The feeling of the time was against 
them on account of their avarice,® and because they were ap- 
pointed by bishops who spent their time in secular affairs. 

He did his utmost to curb the tyranny of the Metropolitan 
Archbishop, by putting the province under the rule of the provincial 
Council. The Metropolitan had the right to preside, but he was 
not to direct its debates, nor to pass any decision without the con- 
sent of every comprovincial bishop. If he acted arbitrarily, he was 
to be called to account by either council or Pope; if contumacious, 
he was to be divested of all authority by the Pope. One can readily 
see that Pseudo-Isidore had in mind powerful prelates, like Hinc- 
mar, the Archbishop of Rheims. He was a very strong-willed man, 
possessed of a most exalted idea of his position, authority and 
rights. Time and time again his lust for power and his imperious 
nature led him to acts of tyranny and injustice. He refused to 
recognize the ordinations of his predecessor, Archbishop Ebbo, 
who had been deposed by his friend, Charles the Bald (845) ; in 
853 he forced the Council of Soissons to declare these ordinations 
invalid, and for many years refused to restore the suspended priests 
until finally Pope Nicholas I. threatened to deprive him of his pal- 
lium ; he reinstated an unworthy priest who had been suspended by 
Bishop Rothad, one of his suffragans, and excommunicated and im- 
prisoned the bishop when he objected to this crime against the can- 
ons; he did his utmost to fight the appeals of Rothad to Nicholas I. 
and Hinmar of Laon to Hadrian II. ; he inspired the insulting letters 
sent to the Holy See by Charles the Bald and the Prankish bishops 
in 871 ; he resented the appointment of Ansegisus of Sens by John 
VIII. as permanent legate to France and Germany. In fact he 
was so tenacious of what he deemed his canonical rights that anti- 
Catholic writers have pictured him as desirous of founding a 

'C/. Council of NeO'Casarea, 314, canoDt 13, 14. * Council of Aix, 836. 

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1917.] THE FALSE DECRETALS 625 

national Church, and as contemptuous of the Papal authority. But 
in every instance he yielded in the last resort to the Pope's com- 
mands, and in letter after letter set forth clearly the divine right 
of the Papacy. 

The Primates of the False Decretals were given authority to 
judge the cases of Metropolitans, and to hear the appeals of the 
provincial councils, but the texts bearing on them are most in- 
coherent, inaccurate and uncertain. They were probably suggested 
by the Eastern councils which recognized the authority of pa- 
triarchs over the Metropolitans. 

The Pope was the final, supreme authority. Pseudo-Isidore 
asserts his right to authorize the calling of all councils, provincial 
or national, and of approving their decisions. Put in this general 
way this was new legislation, although for centuries it was a com- 
mon practice to have them approved by the Pope. Many ecu- 
menical and provincial councils® had acknowledged the Pope's au- 
thority. Independently of the False Decretals Pope Nicholas I. 
(858-867) always claimed the right to convoke, direct and ratify 
the decisions of councils, but he nowhere asserted that every council 
must have Papal approbation. 

The aggressive texts made the ecclesiastical authority supreme 
within its own sphere. Laymen were forbidden to make charges 
against clerics, to dispose of Church property, or to perform a 
spiritual office. The King or Emperor was no longer to convoke 
councils as Charlemagne had done. The Prankish clergy were to 
be free from the domination of secular courts and princes, and sub- 
ject only to the bishops and the Pope. The bishops were also al- 
lowed a certain limited jurisdiction in secular matters as had been 
allowed under the old Roman law. They were the chief censors 
of kings and nobles who acted against the divine law, and were 
to excommunicate the recalcitrant. 

When and where were the False Decretals compiled? The 
accepted date today is 850.^® Lupus, Abbot of Ferrieres, quotes 
them in 858 in a letter to Pope Nicholas I. ; the Council of Quierzy 
quotes them on the immunity of Church property in 857; Hincmar 
of Rheims quotes Pope Stephen in his diocesan statutes, No- 
vember I, 852; the Capitularies of Benedict the Deacon, one of 
the sources of the False Decretals, were not anterior to April 21, 
847, for they speak of Bishop Otgar's death on that day. 

*£phesu8 431, Chalcedon 451, Mileve 4x6, Aquilea 381, Carthage 416. 
"Fournicr, Revue d'Histoire EceL, vol. iii., pp. 30 1-3 16. 



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626 THE FALSE DECRETALS [Aug., 

Some ancient writers, misled by the name of St. Isidore of 
Seville, ascribed the False Decretals to Spain, but that theory has 
been abandoned for at least four hundred years. The Abbe P. S. 
Blanc is the only modem scholar who maintains it.** Old-time 
controversialists used to argue that they were compiled in Rome 
on the principle: Is fecit cut prodest. But since the days of 
Theiner (1827) and Eichhorn (1831) no scholar maintains that 
they were written in Rome, or compiled directly in the interest 
of the Popes. 

Today both Catholic and non-Catholic scholars agree that 
they were forged in the Prankish kingdom about the middle of 
the ninth century. This is proved in many ways. The most 
ancient manuscripts we possess come from France; in that coun- 
try they were first quoted and their influence most marked. 
They were based in great part upon the Collectio Dionysio-Ha- 
driana which had been sent to Charlemagne by Pope Hadrian I., 
and the Collectio Quesnelliana which was undoubtedly of French 
origin. There is constant reference to small French provincial 
councils such as Paris (829, 846), Aix la Chapelle (836), and 
Meaux (836, 845). This theory becomes morally certain once 
we consider the conditions in Church and State at the time they 
were cornpiled. 

The great monarchy of Charlemagne did not long survive its 
founder. Within fifty years anarchy reigned throughout the em- 
pire. Louis the Pious (814-840) and his sons (840-876) waged 
continual war among themselves, and their weakness permitted the 
revolts of powerful princes like the Duke of Brittany (Nomenoe, 
851) and the Duke of Septimania (850). The Saracens harassed 
the coasts of the Mediterranean, the Slavs ravaged the Eastern 
Marches, and the Normans pillaged scores of French and German 
cities, and even laid siege to Paris. The bishops, who were also 
secular princes and vast landed proprietors, frequently neglected 
their spiritual duties, and were oppressed and persecuted by their 
political enemies. 

They were falsely accused by princes and kings, condemned 
by councils ruled not by canon law but by political exigencies, dis- 
possessed of their sees and robbed of their property. The higher 
clergy were often mere tools of the princes, and utterly ignored 
the canonical rights of their suffragans and inferior clergy. 

On every page the False Decretals imag^ forth this state of 

^Histoire Bed, vol, ij,, p, i0» ^ 

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1917] THE FALSE DECRETALS 627 

affairs, and evidence the compiler's sincere desire to effect a genuine 
canonical reform. 

It is impossible to trace with certainty the origin of the False 
Decretals to any one city of the Prankish kingdom, although prob- 
able arguments point to Mayence, Rheims or Tours. The defenders 
of Mayence (de Blasco, de Marca, Baluze, Knust, Wasserschleben, 
Gocke, Pitra and Denzinger) point out the dependence of the 
Pseudo-Isidore upon the Capitularies of Benedict the Deacon, and 
the many quotations from the letters of St. Boniface. But it can- 
not be shown that Benedict was an historical character, or that 
these letters of St. Boniface are authentic. Bishop Otgar of 
Mayence, in whose favor the False Decretals are supposed to have 
been written, died in 847, and his successor^ Rhabanus Maurus, 
never alludes to them. A more popular theory today upholds 
Rheims (Weiszacker, Roth, Dove, Von Noorden, Hinschius, Fried- 
berg, Liirz, Tardif, Schneider, Lot and Lesne), and even names 
the compiler. Archbishop Ebbo, or one of his clergy, Wulfad, after- 
wards Archbishop of Bourges. It is true that many of the 
forged decretals seem to fit the case of Archbishop Ebbo to a 
nicety, but, as we have already seen, bishops were robbed of their sees 
and dispossessed of their property in all parts of the Prankish king- 
dom. Besides the period during which the False Decretals were 
written (847-850) was one of calm for the suspended clerics of 
Ebbo. They were busy appealing their case to Rome, and it cannot 
be shown that they ever quoted the False Decretals against 
Archbishop Hincmar. 

Hincmar's silence is also inexplicable, for if these priests whom 
he had suspended were compiling forgeries against him, he would 
have at once immasked the fraud. Many other questions suggest 
themselves : Why do not the False Decretals mention the fact of 
priests appealing to Rome? Why do they not discuss the validity 
or invalidity of ordinations performed by a deposed bishop? Why 
do they devote so much space to matters pertaining to the internal 
constitution of the Church, which were entirely irrelevant? The 
two forged documents. The Apology of Ebbo and the Narration 
of the Clergy of Rheims, that were circulated in the diocese in 
defence of the deposed archbishop prove nothing, as they did not 
appear until 867. 

A final theory suggests Tours as the birthplace of the False 
Decretals. Its defenders (Foumier, Langen, Simson, Duchesne, 
VioUet, Havet, Schneider and Dollinger) maintain that the con- 
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628 THE FALSE DECRETALS [Aug., 

ditions of the Church in Brittany at the time point clearly to the 
reforms aimed at by the Pseudo-Isidore. In 845 Duke Nomenoe 
had defeated Charles the Bald at Ballon, thus securing the inde- 
pendence of Brittany. In 846 he defeated the Prankish king again, 
and seized Nantes, Rennes, Anjou, Maine and Vendomois. In 
847 he drove four Prankish bishops from their sees, and had 
them condemned by the Breton Council of Coetleu. Later on he 
dispossessed Actard, Bishop of Nantes, and made Dol, an obscure 
little village, a metropolitan see in place of Tours. He and his 
successor firispoe refused to restore the expelled bishops despite 
the remonstrances of the Councils of Savonnieres (859) and Sois- 
sons (866), and the demands of Popes Leo IV., Benedict III., Ha- 
drian II. and John VIII. 

It is certain that many of the forged decretals aim at remedying 
conditions similar to those of Brittany in 850. They decreed, for 
instance, that no new bishops should be created in districts other 
than determinate cities; that the limits of a province should be 
ever observed; that the rightful Metropolitan should be acknowl- 
edged ; that bishops should keep strictly to the bounds of their own 
dioceses; that bishops were to be protected against false charges 
of princes and unjust condemnations by packed political tribunals, 
and, if dispossessed, translated to other sees; that bishops must 
have three consecrators instead of one; that parishes must be in 
charge of parish priests subject to the bishop, and not under 
monks subject to a neighboring monastery j that appeals to Rome 
should be allowed by provincial councils and by secular princes. 

Whether the object of the Palse Decretals was local and per- 
sonal as the majority of scholars m;aintain, or whether their com- 
piler had in view the whole Prankish Church in general, as Mr. 
Davenport holds, is unimportant. His immediate concern was 
certainly the protection and purification of tfie Church in Gaul. 

The Palse Decretals had very little immediate influence upon 
the Prankish Church. After them, as before, princes and kings 
continued to interfere with the freedom of elections, dispossess 
bishops and confiscate Church property. The chorepiscopus died 
out naturally with the rise of the archdeacon. The Metropolitans 
did not lose their authority or power, but were called to account by 
the Popes for personal crimes against the canons as they always 
had been. The order of Primates was universally rejected. The 
protest against the interference of the State in Church affairs ante- 
dated the Palse Decretals, and the rulers of the Carolingian decline 



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1917.] THE FALSE DECRETALS 629 

were glad to use the authority of the Church in the maintenance 
of law and order. 

The thesis of non-Catholic controversialists that the effect of 
the False Decretals on Rome was immediate and decided has been 
ably refuted by Foumier.^^ In fact they were not generally re- 
ceived in Rome until the latter half of the eleventh century; the 
Popes of the tenth practically ignored them. The Pope's control 
over episcopal councils, his right to hear the appeal of bishops, and 
his insistence upon the restoration of dispossessed bishops to their 
sees before trial, were not new canons invented by the Pseudo- 
Isidore, but old laws and customs as we learn from the letters of 
Nicholas I. 

The old charge that Pope Nicholas used the False Decretals to 
strengthen the Papal claims has been disproved often enough, but 
we are glad to see it refuted once more by a non-Catholic writer. 
It is certain that Pope Nicholas knew of the existence of the False 
Decretals from Bishop Rothad of Soissons in 864. But that he 
ever quoted them cannot be proved. In his letters he frequently 
cites the canonical collections of Dionysius the Little and of John 
of Antioch, but there is never a mention of the Pseudo-Isidore. 
The only one citation common to him and the False Decretals is 
the letter of Pope Clement, a forgery of the fourth century, which 
he could easily have known from an independent source. Even 
when he quotes a genuine text found in the Pseudo-Isidore, we 
find him invariably ascribing it to the real author, and citing it 
accurately. If he had not had doubts about the genuine character 
of the False Decretals, he would certainly have used them in his 
letters to the Emperor Michael and to Photius at the time of the 
Eastern schism, but he utterly ignored them. 

His successor Hadrian II. mentions them once only in a letter 
to the Council of Douzy (871). John VIII. (872-882) possibly 
quotes them twice in a Roman synod. Stephen V. (885-891) also 
cites them twice in his letters, although it cannot be proved that 
he uses directly the text of Pseudo-Isidore. In fact they were 
rarely cited in Italy until the time of Gratian (1140), who inserted 
them in his Decretum, which became the official textbook of canon 
law. They are mentioned by John the Deacon (872) in his Life 
of Gregory the Great; by Auxilius (891) in his Ordinations of 
Formosus; by the Pseudo-Luitprand's in his Lives of the Roman 
Pontiffs (970) ; by two reforming Bishops, Atto of Vercelli (960) 
and Rathier of Verona (972). 

"I. c, ^o\, viii.. PP. 19-56. Digitized by Google 



630 THE FALSE DECRETALS [Aug., 

In other parts of Europe they were included in the canonical 
collections of Regino of Priim (906) and Burchard of Worms 
(1025), and cited by provincial councils (Cologne 887, Mayence 
888, Metz 889, Tribur 895, Trosley 909). They were brought 
to England by Lanfranc in 1070, and to Spain about two cen- 
turies later. 

Mr. Davenport declares that the Pseudo-Isidore was no forger 
in the modem sense of the word. He wrote to edify the faithful 
like the hagiographers so well described by Deleheye in his Legends 
of the Saints. He writes : " Their idea of history was not ours. 
They were not concerned with accuracy either in chronology or 
geography, and historical sequence had no meaning for them. 
Their history was little short of legend. His (Pseudo-Isidore's) 
work, in fact, was not a forgery written with deceit ; it was rather 
a legend written with a moral." 

This is partly true, but Mr. Davenport fails to bring out 
the fatal influence of the False Decretals upon historical writing 
in the Middle Ages. They increased the difficulty of distinguishing 
true documents from false until it became almost insurmountable, 
and they blurred the whole historical perspective.^' 

It is good to remember, however, that their authenticity was 
questioned long before the Reformation by Catholic scholars and 
canonists. The first doubts came from Peter Comestor, Chancellor 
of the University of Paris (1178), who was followed by Godfrey 
of Viterbo (1180) and Stephen of Toumai (1203). In the four- 
teenth century two Cardinals, Nicholas de Cusa ( 1431 ) and Juan de 
Torquemada (1468), rejected the Donation of Constantine and the 
letters of Popes Clement and Anacletus, although they did not suc- 
ceed in shaking the common conviction of the collection's genuine- 
ness. The fraudulent character of the Pseudo-Isidore became evi- 
dent once it was printed at Paris in 1523 by Merlin in his Collection 
of Councils. The first to question them at this time were the Cal- 
vinist Dumoulin and the Catholic scholars, Erasmus, George Cas- 
sandre and Antoine le Conte. The Centuriators of Magdeburg 
(1559-1574) macfe a most bitter attack upon them for controversial 
reasons, and were followed some years later by Blondel (1620). 
For a brief period a few Catholics, Torres, S.J., Malvisia, O.S.F., 
and Cardinal Aguirre defended them, but many other writers of 
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries admitted that they were for- 
geries, viz., Antonio Augustin, Baronius, Bellarmine, du Perron, 

"Saltct, Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. v., p. 779. 

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I9I7-] THE WISE VIRGINS 631 

Labbe, Sirmond, de Marca, Baluze, Papebrock, Noris, Noel 
Alexandre, Van Espen, the Ballerini brothers, Blasco and Zaccaria. 
The Catholic Church saw the False Decretals come and saw 
them go with the greatest equanimity, for she knew that the Papial 
claims could be proved independently of the forged documents of 
a well-meaning but dishonest French canonist of the ninth century. 
We are pleased to see Oxford give its imprimatur to the nailing 
of an old controversial calumny, which was also ably refuted a few 
years ago in the new edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. 



THE WISE VIRGINS. 

BY ARMEL O'cONNOR. 

Not yet! They have not seen Him yet, 

The Bridegroom of the soul; 
But they prevent their hearts from fret. 

Keep white each lily scroll. 
For ev'ry cloud may be the door 

He opens, speeding down 
To justify for evermore 

The life-worn bridal gown. 

They spurn the lesser good that cramps 

The soul's expedient growth; 
In joy, they work with lighted lamps, 

True to their plighted troth. 
They know not when His hour shall be. 

The time of glad surprise; 
But Faith shines out, their certainty. 

From beautiful, kind eyes. 

'Tis but a step for such as these 

From exile to the Place 
That hath no earthly boundaries — 

Just God, seen face to face. 
Their songs are hymns of confidence, 

Though skies are overcast. 
Prepared they are for going hence. 

For love's deep sigh: "At Last I" 



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HERBERT SPENCER: A FALLEN IDOL.' 

BY JAMES J. WALSH, M.D., PH.D., SC.D. 

jERBERT SPEN'CER was a name to conjure with 
twenty-five years ago in certain scientific and cultural 
circles. But how are the mighty fallen ! How little in- 
terest is shown in Herbert -Spencer at the present 
time! A generation ago he was quoted confidently, 
and by many his opinion on a question was accepted as final. 
Occasionally a man now far beyond middle life still quotes him, 
but the quotation is received with a shrug of the shoulders and 
a conviction that an old fogy is speaking, one whose intellectual 
life ended during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. 
For we of the twentieth century have other divinities to worship, 
though in philosophic circles I venture to doubt if any of them 
exercises the influence that Herbert Spencer did in the nineties. 

Herbert Spencer is, indeed, of so little practical interest at 
the present time that the annoimcement of a new biography of 
him evoked no little surprise, and his most recent biographer 
almost apologizes for writing his life. The one thing that 
justifies it, in his eyes, is Spencer's attitude toward war, for "if 
Europe had followed Spencer this war could never have occurred." 
And yet the biographer confesses that his own reading of the 
English philosopher was carried out while " on active service on 
the South African veldt, where not infrequently I had little 
other baggage than a toothbrush and a volume of The Principles 
of Psychology/' " There exists in the English language no more 
trenchant indictment of war and militarism than is contained in 
The SUidy of Sociology, Yet it was my lot to read that work 
many miles from any inhabited town, in momentary expectation of 
an attack, and with revolver ready loaded in case of sudden need." 
The life appears as one of the series of Makers of the Nine- 
teenth Century, edited by Basil Williams, but the general editor of 
the series has no illusions as to Spencer's place in twentieth century 
thought. He does not hesitate to talk of " Spencer's already almost 
neglected tenets," nor to say " as far as one can see whether as a 
philosopher or a man of science, Spencer is not likely to live for 
future generations." 

^Herbert spencer. By Hugh Elliott. New York: Henry Holt & Co. xfl|7. 

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1917.] HERBERT SPENCER: A FALLEN IDOL 633 

The one reason that would seem to make it worth while to re- 
view this recent biography of Spencer now is because of the cri- 
terion of the intellectuality of that last generation of the nineteenth 
century which the worship of Herbert Spencer so amply furnishes. 
We can judge men by the idols they make for themselves. Francis 
Bacon suggested long ago the division : "idols of the tribe, of the den, 
of the marketplace, and of the theatre " — ^the last division was 
founded on the prevalence of imperfect philosophic systems or mis- . 
leading methods of demonstration. Undoubtedly the "theatre idols" 
of recent years are very amusing once we are able to see them in 
time's perspective. They represented an age of cheap materialism, 
in which the highest hopes and aspirations of mankind were veiled 
by a superficial philosophy that did not penetrate below the sur- 
face of things, and yet presumed to solve all the problems of 
mankind and all the mysteries of the universe. 

Here in this country The Popular Science Monthly and its 
editor, Mr. Youmans, who founded the magazine in order to pro- 
vide a vehicle for Herbert Spencer's philosophical and scientific 
writings, brought the English philosopher into such popular no- 
tice that Herbert Spencer was much better known here than in 
England. His books sold well in this country and the 
Popular Science Monthly was carried on to a wave of genuine 
popularity. 

The subsequent history of science has shown how disad- 
vantageous for the progress of thought, and the diffusion of valuable 
information, was the influence of The Popular Science Monthly, 
With Herbert Spencer's articles at that time were published Presi- 
dent White's notorious chapters on The Warfare of Science With 
Theology. 

In Spencer's own life time his disciples usually made it a sub- 
ject of apology for their master that he had not been influenced by 
German philosophy. Practically all the intellectuals of his generation 
considered this a serious defect, but set it down to Herbert Spencer's 
very individual temperament and his unconquerable aversion to any- 
thing lacking in clearness. Spencer quite frankly confessed that 
he could not stand German philosophy at all. He admitted once 
that he had tried to read Kant, but after getting through a few 
pages grew increasingly impatient and finally threw the book away. 
Now it is interesting to find that his latest biographer sets this 
attitude of Spencer down as rather a favorable aspect of his genius. 
German philosophy and German thought are of course utterly ta- 

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634 HERBERT SPENCER: A FALLEN IDOL [Aug., 

booed now in England, and Spencer as the one mind uninfluenced by 
it, it is claimed, has a special merit of his own. Judgments in such 
matters are supposed to be dependent purely on intellectual reason- 
ing, but this episode illustrates what an important role feeling plays 
even in the history of philosophy. Spencer may even look for a 
return to favor, it is asserted, because our war spectacles have 
revealed to us the comparative insignificance of our German teachers 
of yore and magnified the importance of British thinkers. Verily 
with some the intellectual life and topsy-turvydom are not so far 
apart. 

What is perhaps most amusing with regard to Herbert Spencer, 
considering the interest of scientists in his work, scientists who 
were quite sure that the only way to get at truth was by inductive 
reasoning, that is by gathering together a number of instances and 
then finding the law in them, was the fact that Spencer's philosophy 
was entirely one of deduction. His mind lit upon some principle 
and then he proceeded to find facts that would support it and illus- 
trate it. He had a marvelous memory for instances that would 
confirm his notions, but paid no attention at all to anything that 
disagreed with his preconceived ideas. Nothing illustrates better 
the place of deduction in any system of philosophy than Spencer's 
devotion to it, though he appeared to be so intent on modem 
science and the accumulation of instance^ that a great many of his 
disciples were quite sure that he was writing an inductive philosophy. 
Even the great accumulation of facts in his Sociology had no 
influence except to confirm certain principles already outlined in 
Spencer's mind. 

In his old age he did not think that whatever moral help 
may be derived from the belief in punishment after death should 
be denied, though as a young man he would have scornfully re- 
pudiated the thought of any such aid. He suggests that " those 
on whom the fears of eternal punishment weigh too heavily may 
fitly be shown that merciless as is the cosmic process worked out 
by an unknown power yet vengeance is nowhere to be found in it," 
but then he adds immediately : " Meanwhile, sympathy commands 
silence towards all who, suffering under the ills of life, derive 
comfort from their creed. While it forbids the dropping of hints 
that may shake their faiths, it suggests the evasion of questions 
which cannot be discussed without unsettling their hopes." 

Spencer had reached the conclusion as he grew older, that 
education of the intellect did not make people better. We have 

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1917] HERBERT SPENCER: A FALLEN IDOL 635 

been treated to a great deal of this doctrine of intellectual educa- 
tion making people better during the past ten years. Many of the 
discussions in the National Educational Association would lead one 
to think the more people knew, the better they would surely be. 
At the end of his life, at least, Herbert Spencer had no such mis- 
taken notion. Indeed he did not hesitate to say that his change of 
view was due to a previous over-valuation of power of knowledge. 
In his essay on " Feeling Versus Intellect " in Facts and Comments 
he wrote : " Everywhere the cry is — educate, educate, educate ! 
Everywhere the belief is that by such culture as schools furnish, 
children, and therefore adults, can be molded into the desired 
shapes. It is assumed that when men are taught what is right, 
they will do what is right — ^that a proposition intellectually accepted 
will be morally operative. And yet this conviction, contradicted 
by every-day experience, is at variance with an every-day axiom — 
the axiom that each faculty is strengthened by exercise of it — in- 
tellectual power by intellectual action, and moral power by moral 
action." 

Spencer would have been one of the most emphatic in insist- 
ing that training of the will and exercise of self-denial and of 
self-control are the most important elements for the proper regu- 
lation of human conduct. The intellect of itself has almost no 
influence over conduct, and he adds : " Injunctions practically do 
nothing unless indeed they excite repugnance as sometimes hap- 
pens." He pointed out that this unfortunately unlimited faith in 
teaching has now obtained so strong a hold that it is even not 
to be changed by facts. " Though in presence of multitudinous 
schools, high and low, we have the rowdies and hooligans, the 
savage disturbers of meetings, the adulterators of food, the givers 
of bribes and receivers of corrupt commission, the fraudulent so- 
licitors, the bubble companies, yet the current belief continues un- 
weakened; and recently in America an outcry respecting the 
yearly increase of crime was joined with an avowed determination 
not to draw any inference adverse to their educational system." 

Spencer was in thorough agreement with Foerster, the German 
ethical philosopher, whose works have attracted so much attention 
in recent years. Foerster insists the way to teach children to be 
better and to avoid the moral evils of life is to exercise their wills. 
They acquire moral power, in the words of Spencer, by moral ac- 
tion ; according to the words of Foerster, by exercise of their wills 
through self-denial practised from early years. 

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636 HERBERT SPENCER: A FALLEN IDOL [Aug., 

Mr. Spencer ended his essay on the subject with a paragraph 
that deserves to be in the commonplace book of every educator. "The 
emotions/' he states, " are the masters, the intellect the servant, so 
that little can be done by improving the servant while the masters 
remain unimproved. Improving the servant does but give the 
masters more power of achieving their end." The doctrine thus 
emphatically stated, deserves weighty consideration above all in our 
time when we are so bent on education for its own sake. 

In his paper on State education Spencer suggests the grave 
consequences that may result from instruction unaccompanied 
by a moral discipline directing the right use of knowledge. He 
relates the experience of a friend who had been a great advocate 
for State education, but whose experience as a magistrate in 
Gloucestershire had changed his opinion. " Many years later my 
friend confessed that his experience as a magistrate in Gloucester- 
shire had changed his opinion. It had shown him that education 
artificially pressed forward, raising in the laboring and artisan 
classes ambitions to enter upon high careers, led through frequent 
disappointments to bad courses and sometimes to crime. The gen- 
eral belief he had reached was that mischief results when intellect 
tuaiization goes in advance of inoralization — ^a belief which ex- 
pressed by him in other and less definite words, at first startled 
me, though it soon became clear that it was congruous with the 
views I had often urged." 

Cardinal Newman said that one might as well try to hold huge 
ships with silken threads or quarry marble with razors as expect 
that the intellect would do the rude work of repressing human 
passions when they are really aroused. Spencer and Newman 
might perhaps not be expected often to agree on ethical subjects, 
and yet here at least they were in excellent accord. 

Perhaps the reversal of opinion on the part of Mr. Spencer, 
most disturbing for his disciples, was that expressed in the last 
chapter of Facts and Comments. In it he said : " Could we pene- 
trate the mysteries of existence there would remain still more 
transcendent mysteries." Space eternal, self-existent, uncreated, 
infinite in duration and extension, assumptions required by Spen- 
cer's previous mode of thinking now seemed to him staggering. 
The last sentence of his book was: " Of late years the consciousness 
that without origin or cause infinite space has ever existed and 
must ever exist produces in me a feeling from which I shrink." 



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"PEARL OF THE HOUSE OF ARA60H.'' 

(ST, ELIZABETH OF PORTUGAL.) 

BY THOMAS B. REILLY. 

|0 mention the Spanish Peninsula is to rouse in the 
mind glimpses of great kings and still greater queens, 
of a chivalrous and warm-blooded people, and of a 
fruitful country swept by fire and sword. History 
has drawn the eyes of the generations to the absorb- 
ing romance and brilliant glories of that land beyond the blue-gray 
curtain of the Pyrenees; it has filled a generous page with fasci- 
nating pictures of gifted souls moved to far adventures, stirred 
to noble sacrifices, made glorious in memorable conquests; it has 
been less liberal to one whose life shone with signal splendor 
through the storm and darkness of a very passionate day. 

In the thirteenth century, Spain, no less than her sister- 
countries, was athrill with that spirit of freshened forces that 
later on swept fire-like across the nations of the south, begetting a 
picture of such striking quality that it has had as yet no rival in 
the long gallery of human achievements. It was in the rising flow 
of those forces; in the year 1271, that Constance, wife of Dom 
Pedro of Aragon, gave to the world the daughter that was to play 
so important and fruitful a role in the strangely bracketed affairs 
of sanctity and politics. 

There is doubt as to the exact birthplace of the Saint, but 
the more reliable authorities favor the heroic city of Saragossa. 
There, at least, the infant was baptized and, contrary to Spanish 
custom, was named after her grand-aunt, the illustrious St. Eliza- 
beth of Hungary. At the age of twelve, the little princess was 
eagerly sought in marriage. Edward I. of England wished her to 
become the wife of his eldest son. The King of Naples desired 
that she accept the hand of Prince Robert. Each monarch sent an 
embassy to the court of Aragon, but without success. In the mean- 
time, Dom Denis mounted the throne of Portugal. The beginning 
of this young king's reign was far from auspicious. Politically 
estranged from his mother, in open conflict with his brother, har- 
assed by cliques, and factions, the youth's position was not only 
isolated but perilous. Nevertheless, it was with this young man, 

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638 ''PEARL OF THE HOUSE OF ARAGON" [Aug,, 

surrounded by tumult and danger, that Elizabeth, the great lover of 
peace, was destined to share her life. 

The royal affiancing took place in the month of February, at 
Barcelona, where the King of Aragon was then holding court. It 
was an affair of more than passing splendor, even for that unique 
century when the graces of a waking West and the smouldering 
glories of a pagan East met and mingled in Spanish courts. It 
was not until the following June that the nuptial feast was cele- 
brated in the little village of Trancoso, when Elizabeth and Denis 
set out for their court in the city of Coimbra. 

From the kindly shelter of her father's house, where she had 
been idolized, the young queen was flung into a veritable storm- 
pit of wars and rebellions. Before her young eyes went on the 
remorseless business of betrayals and dethronements, the sternness 
of excommunications, the violence of bitter partisanship, the tragic 
politics of the hour. The alarms of the day were many and por- 
tentous. Following the affair of the Sicilian Vespers, the King of 
Aragon carried war into Sicily. Passions flamed high at home and 
abroad. Dom Pedro, under censure of the Church, hurried back 
to Spain, where he lost his life. Constance and her son Dom 
Jaimie were excommunicated. Elizabeth found herself in a be- 
wildering coil of dangers and sorrows. Five years passed away 
before the Church and Portugal were reconciled, one of the happy 
fruits of this reunion being the foundation of the famous Uni- 
versity of Coimbra. Eight years had come and gone since that 
morning in Trancoso when the young princess and Dom Denis had 
been made husband and wife. No children had as yet blessed that 
union. The king, however, had three natural sons. The queen 
knew it. She also knew his affection for them and that he regarded 
them as heirs to the throne. On January 3, 1291, a daughter was 
given the royal couple. She received the name Constance. A year 
later, a son was bom, whose coming solved the important question 
of a legitimate heir to the Crown. This was the noon-hour chosen 
by Dom Denis to abandon his wife. To the woman it was an in- 
describably wanton blow; to the Saint it was an opportunity not 
to be missed. Elizabeth sought out the natural children of her 
husband, had them properly cared for and educated. For Dom 
Denis — not a word, not even a look, of anger. It is an amazing 
example of patience, a tranquillity of soul almost beyond belief. 
It stands by itself as a miracle of her womanly heart. 

When reproached for being so tolerant and forgiving, Eliza- 
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1917] ''PEARL OF THE HOUSE OF ARAGON" 639 

beth inquired : " Should I, because the king has sinned, renounce 
the virtue of patience and add my sin to his ? '* This restraint and 
vision were significant. She was not yet twenty-two years of age. 
Her father was a Spanish king, her mother an Italian princess. In 
the young queen's blood ran the quick passions of her forbears; 
but the only sign of her otherwise conquered humanity in this 
crushing trial was when her ladies sometimes found her battling 
vainly against her startled tears. 

It was during this period of intimate sorrow that there took 
place an event of such striking issue that it has been given a 
notice in all biographies of the saintly queen. Elizabeth, who loved 
to exercise her charities with as little personal display as possible, 
frequently made use of the services of a young page. A certain 
evil-minded courtier intimated unspeakable things regarding the 
relations of the page with his queen. Dom Denis gave credence 
to the calimmy and plotted vengeance. He gave orders to the 
owner of certain limekilns to seize the first messenger sent to him 
the next day from the court, and to throw him alive into one of 
the blazing pits. The following morning, the king, under a pre- 
text, sent the page to the owner of the kilns. The youth, on his 
way, happened to pass a church where Mass was about to be said ; 
he entered, became absorbed in his devotions, and delayed overlong. 
The king, impatient to hear the result of his ruse, sent to the owner 
of the kilns the calumniator himself, who being the first to arrive 
from court was promptly pitched headlong into the roaring furnace. 
The dinouement brought Dom Denis to his senses and to the feet 
of the queen. 

Upon the assumption of the Castilian crown by Ferdinand IV., 
a fresh conflict threatened. The King of Aragon and the King 
of Portugal became involved. Elizabeth, yotmg but sick with mem- 
ories of bloodshed, once more found herself in the midst of de- 
fiances and impending war. The ambitious lords and turbulent 
politicians left nothing undone to fire the kingdom. The contend- 
ing factions were hot and eager. Family skeletons were dragged 
forth to help inflame the populace. With kings and wise men at 
their wits' end, Elizabeth, almost single-handed, turned aside the 
imminent outburst and made possible the treaty of Alcanizes. From 
this settlement came a double marriage: that of the sister of 
Ferdinand, King of Castile, to Dom Alfonso, Crown Prince of 
Portugal; and that of Ferdinand himself to Constance, daughter 
of Elizabeth. 



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640 "PEARL OF THE HOUSE OF ARAGON" [Aug., 

With the marriage of Constance and Ferdinand, another dis- 
pute arose. And once again, the Moors ready to sweep down upon 
the disunited Christians, Elizabeth stayed the hand of disaster, her 
effort this time resulting in the treaty of Agreda. An uneventful 
period of eight years is here met with in the life of the queen and 
her country. In 13 12, Ferdinand died very suddenly, his wife, 
Elizabeth's daughter, did not long survive him. Shortly thereafter, 
events of the gravest character presented themselves, in the course 
of which the remarkable influence, the courage and spirit of abne- 
gation of Elizabeth were to take their place in brilliant lines on the 
pages of Spanish history. 

When Dom Alfonso, eldest son and heir to the throne, had 
reached the age of manhood, he was installed in a palace of his 
own and there left to do as he pleased. Dom Denis, in the mean- 
while, spent his thought and leisure upon his other sons. This 
isolation of the impetuous Dom Alfonso became an opportunity 
to hand for the mischief-makers. They played, without ownpunc- 
tion, upon the raw feelings of the heir, intimating that the crown 
was as good as lost unless he took instant steps to secure his rights. 
Dom Alfonso, in attempting to verify his suspicions, quarreled 
bitterly with his father, going so far as to harbor thoughts of 
fratricide and usurpation. A melee of conspiracies buzzed and 
fretted. The kingdom figuratively held its breath awaiting the 
crash. Elizabeth, in an effort to control her son, incurred the 
displeasure of her husband. Trouble-makers fanned the displeasure 
into flame; declared that the queen was a menace to throne and 
country, and should be sent away. Elizabeth, banished from court, 
was given a residence in the village of Alemquer on the shore of 
the Tagus. Were space permitted, many pages might be written 
on the life of the Saint in banishment. It was an exceptionally 
fruitful period of her spiritual career, and one rich in divine ap- 
provals. 

The exile of the queen increased the stress of the hour. The 
tension was stiffened by an open attempt at Coimbra to fetch her 
back to the throne. Elizabeth would have none of this. Shortly 
thereafter, Dom Denis voluntarily recalled her to his side, where 
again she brought about peace between father and son. The issue, 
however, was soon rejoined. Once more, with that baffling sim- 
plicity of thought that marks the southern mind, Dom Alfonso 
determined ^o strike at the centre of the snarl by sedcing the as- 
sassination of his brother Dom Alfonso Sanchez. This attempt set 



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1917] "PEARL OF. THE HOUSE OF ARAGON" 641 

loose a terrible civil war, wherein fire and pillage, sacrilege and 
profanations, massacres and lootings left the country torn and 
bleeding. 

Dom Alfonso marched on Coimbra. His father, angry and 
determined, laid siege to the city captured by his son. The fight, 
equally obstinate, lasted many months. A savage battle was under 
way on the ninth of December, when a terrific earthquake, claiming 
hundreds of victims, brought human hostilities to a sudden halt. 
Elizabeth seized this opportunity to reconcile Dom Alfonso with 
his father. The truce, which took place at Pombal, was short- 
lived. Eighteen months later, Alfonso set out to lay siege to the 
city of Lisbon. Dom Denis, forewarned, put his forces in motion 
to prevent it. This was in the spring of 1323. The two armies 
met on the plains of Alvalade. The soldiery became hopelessly • 
entangled and fought hand to hand. In the midst of a veritable 
shambles, father and son met face to face. The one crazed, the 
other desperate, they were almost at each other's throat, when all 
at once, through blood, dust and sword-light, on through masses of 
struggling soldiery, there galloped a mule, bearing a woman — St. 
Elizabeth. She had come alone, none having dared follow her 
into that maelstrom of death. So startling was her appearance that 
the fighting ceased, while Dom Denis and his son stood shocked 
to consciousness. There, in the presence of the two armies, Dom 
Alfonso, at command of his mother, kissed the hand of the king 
and pledged him lasting submission. 

In the period of peace that followed, Elizabeth founded many 
of her more important religious, charitable and educational houses, 
chief among them being the famous monastery of Santa Clara at 
Coimbra. A glance at the plans of the monastery reveals a sig- 
nificant fact. The queen's residence was connected by an arched 
passageway, not with the church, but with the hospital for the poor. 
And it was in this residence, which had been set aside for the use 
of the saintly queen, that Inez de Castro was destined to die 
under the merciless daggers of her assailants! 

Towards the end of 1324, Dom Denis fell ill at Santarem. 
Elizabeth spent night and day at his side, serving his soul on 
the brink of its last adventure with the same success and devotion 
that had marked the thirty-eight years of her service to the welfare 
of his throne. Upon the death of her husband, Elizabeth doflfed 
the robes of a queen, and with her own hands cut off her hair. 
Then, putting on the coarse dress of the Clares, she went forth 

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642 "PEARL OF THE HOUSE OF ARAGON" [Aug, 

to meet the dignitaires of the kingdom. She received them with 
the words : " Know that in losing your king you have at the same 
time lost your queen." She converted her costly garments into robes 
for use in the churches of the kingdom. She had her money melted 
down into church vessels. Some precious rings and her diadems 
she apportioned among her relatives. Then, free of the pomp and 
circumstance of royalty, she made ready to take up a life of re- 
ligious solitude in the convent of the Clares at Coimbra. Heaven 
decreed otherwise. Once more and for the last time, broken in 
bodily health, denied the tranquillity she craved, the retirement she 
sought, Elizabeth was to appear in the role it had pleased heaven 
to give her. 

Owing to the infatuation of the Castilian king for the dazzling 
Eleanor de Guzman, relations between Dom Alfonso and his 
high-handed, loose-living, son-in-law, Alfonso XL, King of Cas- 
tile, became strained to the snapping point. Affairs were little 
better at home, where Dom Pedro, son of the King of Portugal, 
already married, had become enamored of the beautiful Inez de 
Castro. To those familiar with Spanish history, the mention of 
these two women will recall strange events, not least of which was 
the wanton poignarding of the unfortunate Dona Inez and the 
tragic coronation of her corpse. 

Alfonso XI. proving incorrigible, conflict burst forth. In an 
attempt to end the carnage, Elizabeth, in the evening of her life, 
made ready to sacrifice herself in the cause of mediation. Every- 
thing was done to restrain her, but she declared that her life could 
have no fitter ending than a death suffered in behalf of peace. 
Wrecked by age and anguish, forced to traverse a country then 
swept by an epidemic of fever, her indomitable soul brought her 
across the desolate plains of Alemtejo and to the city of Extremoz. 
The journey's end found her fever-stricken and exhausted. The 
two adversaries. King of Portugal and King of Castile, were 
already in waiting at the palace on the hill above the town. Eliza- 
beth, refusing rest and refreshment, had the two men fetched before 
her; and there, out of the richness of her faith and experience, 
taught them their duties as Christian kings. That evening she was 
forced to take to her bed. The fever had gone beyond the reach of 
drugs. Three days later she received the last offices of the Church. 
Shortly thereafter, while her daughter-in-law. Queen Beatrice, was 
sitting alone at the bedside, Elizabeth looked up and said : 

" My child, fetch a chair for that lady." 

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1917] "PEARL OF. THE HOUSE OF ARAGON" 643 

" What lady ? " asked Beatrice, who saw no one. 

" She that comes radiant in those white garments," replied the 
dyings Elizabeth. And, raising herself by a last effort, she smiled 
and, smiling, murmured ''Maria, Mater gratice." And that was 
the end. 

In accordance with her will, the queen, who died at the age 
of sixty-six, was dressed in the garb of the Clares and buried 
at Coimbra, in her beloved convent of Santa Clara. By a strange 
array of circumstances, her body, the forces of which had been 
spent in pursuit of peace, was, for nearly five hundred years, denied 
the well-earned tranquillity of the g^ave. History records no less 
than six authenticated removals, the last taking place about 181 5, 
when the remains were laid in the choir of the new convent of 
Santa Clara, along the left shore of the Mondego, on the side of 
Mount Hope, in the suburbs of Coimbra. Already proclaimed a 
saint by her people, it was not until three centuries later that she 
was given as such to the universal Church. She was solemnly 
canonized by Pope Urban VIII., on May 25, 1625. And her feast 
day was fixed for July 8th. 

Some of the events related in connection with the' births of the 
illustrious children of men are doubtless due to the spirit of an 
age and the poetry of a people. Nevertheless, it is a matter of 
record that with the coming of Elizabeth, her grandfather, Don 
Jaimie, who had lived so disordered a life that the censures of the 
Church were threatened him, suddenly abandoned his evil course, 
and reformed his ways — a conversion that was as singular as it 
was permanent, and one that had baffled the efforts of two great 
souls, Gregory X. and Raymond of Penafort. And it was over the 
cradle of the little princess that "The Conqueror" declared that 
this child, who had converted him in spite of himself, would be 
the " Pearl of the House of Aragon." 

Bom a princess, idolized by her father, ardent of blood, con- 
scious of her beauty, flattered and beloved, Elizabeth of Portugal 
entered the spiritual battle with serious disadvantages. Wise 
beyond her years, she recognized her danger. Courageous beyond 
her youth, she defended herself from tfie outset. Her life, public 
and private, became a constant sacrifice of self, an endless act of 
humility. She found the space between sun and sun all too brief 
for the needs of her soul, the claims of her heart, the demands of 
her country. An early riser, she always assisted at two Masses. 
Her walks were invariably directed to hospitals and monasteries. 

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644 "PEARL OF THE HOUSE OF ARAGON" [Aug., 

Alms-giving and manual labor were special delights. She obliged 
her ladies to share in the humblest of tasks. She was not only 
sparing of food, but fasted several times a week. She frequently 
slept upon the floor, not infrequently spent the long night hours 
in forced wakefulness on her bare knees. She was never known, 
even under keenest provocation, to show the least sign of impatience. 
After dinner she'^gave audience to all that wished it. In relieving 
the pressing wants of the beggars, the sick poor, the old and the 
friendless, she added that rare gift of simple comradeship which 
was the dearest of the many lingering memories in the hearts of 
the unfortunate. 

St. Elizabeth, as queen, insisted in interesting herself person- 
ally in the lives and fortunes of her subjects, answering her critics 
with the unanswerable sentence : " I am responsible for their well- 
being.** When warned that her ceaseless labors would shatter her 
bodily health, she remarked that work and self-sacrifice were spe- 
cially necessary for one on a throne, since there the human passions 
were liveliest and dangers greatest. There was more than a hint 
in these words of the battle she was called upon to wage, not only 
against herself, but against circumstance and opportunity. She 
astonished the heedless court by her restraints, her judgment, 
her tranquillities. This steadiness of poise is no less admirable 
than it is memorable. To mount the barriers builded of race 
and environment was a task peculiarly worthy the mettle of her 
soul. 

Like all great saints, Elizabeth never found her path toward 
sanctity eased by any exterior circumstance. From the day she 
left her father's house, she was called upon to face conditions that 
only a stanch heart and serene soul could profitably endure. The 
great passion of her life was for peace; her lot, for more than half 
a century, was to be dragged into strife and discord, burdened 
with the demands of a distracted kingdom, heart-torn with a con- 
fusion of family quarrels. Neither husband nor son served to 
smooth her pathway. Dom Denis, " The Laborer," had the defect 
of his qualities. In analyzing his achievements, his public reforms 
and measures of relief, one is frequently conscious of a wiser mind 
than his. In many instances, Elizabeth's gliding hand and tender- 
ness of heart are plainly seen. Initiative and practical ability are 
far from being alien to the saints. They were present in marked 
measure with St. Elizabeth of Portugal. Faith and experience, 
of which the king made so little use, had given his wife the broader 

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1917] "PEARL OF THE HOUSE OF ARAGON" 645 

vision he lacked, the deeper wisdom he openly coveted, the moral 
strength he secretly admired. 

So interwoven with the fortunes of the Spanish Peninsula 
is the life of this illustrious daughter of Aragon, that it is impos- 
sible to treat of the one and not of the other. You may indeed follow 
the queen, but you are still conscious of the saint. When you 
flatter yourself that you are in touch with the saint, the qu^een 
appears. It is in silhouette, where the contrasts are vivid, that 
the singular merits of her mind and soul flash clearest against 
the deep shadows of national unrest and the dark circumstance of 
her day. In a court that was lax when not dissolute, she lived a 
life unblemished, unique — an arrestive silence in the tumult and 
revels, a commanding voice in the sinister silences. In the bosom 
of her family, which was so sadly sundered by swift passions, she 
was loveable beyond words; but it was out in the unsheltered 
spaces of public activity that the rare qualities of her soul, the 
boundless riches of her mind, the startling tranquillities of her 
heart, were fully revealed. As daughter of the King of Aragon, 
wife of the King of Portugal, and grandmother of the King of 
Castile, she exercised an incalculable influence in the Spanish 
Peninsula. With SS. Ferdinand and Louis, she represents, as one 
writer puts it, " saintliness upon the throne." It was to her wise 
and ideal training that the glory of her granddaughter, Dona 
Maria, Queen of Castile, " La Charmante Maria," is largely due. 

To say that the golden quality of this saint's character is 
patience, is only another way of stating that she was obedient, in 
the last degree, to her duties as queen, wife and mother. Her 
public career was begun by an act of submission to the will of her 
father, when, in the palace at Barcelona, she solemnly pledged her- 
self to become the wife of the absent King of Portugal. Her 
earthly career as saint was crowned by an act of obedience to her 
duty as queen-mother, when she gave her life in an effort to bring 
about concord between Christian kings and secure the welfare of a 
Christian people. In the onslaughts for thrones and cities, in the 
rush of follies and pretensions, in the swirl of factions that were 
seized of the notion that might made right, she is seen moving 
serene and masterful, one of the great moral forces of her day in 
Spain. Like all nobly-gifted natures, she kept the faculties of her 
mind and the claims of her heart in perfect balance. Firm yet 
amiable, with a vision never blinded, sure in her judgments, keen 
of intellect, far-sighted to admiration, she was not only a valiant 

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646 "PEARL OF THE HOUSE OF ARAGON" [Aug., 

woman, an illustrious queen, a memorable saint; but she stands 
forth as one of the truly great historical figures along the crowded 
march of time. 

If little or nothing has been said of St. Elizabeth's works of 
mercy, of her religious, charitable and educational foundations, of 
the brilliancy and depth of her policies, of her luminous and per- 
suasive faith, of the shape and substance of her spiritual life and 
the miracles that crowned it — it is that these would require a volume 
— a volume that the troubled world could profitably ponder and 
one that English Catholic letters can ill afford to neglect. Only the 
genius, faith and sympathy of another Montalembert are equal to 
the task of picturing for future generations the life and times of 
this wonderful Spanish saint. In that picture — of high lights and 
profound shadows — will be seen not only a land and a people, but 
even a literature in the making. War, famine and pestilence; 
faith, courage and devotion; injustice, sin and sorrow; virtue, 
holiness and mercy ; historical hates and memorable loves ; blasting 
storms and tranquil starlight; astounding evil and incredible good 
— all will be present to give to the modern mind an adequate idea of 
the most fruitful and glorious period of Portuguese history, and a 
satisfying vision of one of the saintliest queens of time. It is the 
old, old story: out of the mold, a lily; out of darkness, light; 
out of battle, wounds and bloodshed — ^an Elizabeth of Portugal, 
lover and martyr of peace. For, although illustrious as the patron 
saint of the episcopal city of Coimbra, and memorable as the most 
beautiful gem in the Portuguese crown, it will always be as 
" Mother of Peace and of Country " that the Church will proclaim 
her glory and the world remember her name. 



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ALASKA'S PROSPECTIVE CONTRIBUTION TO OUR 
MEAT SUPPLY. 

BY CLIO MAMER. 

|OHN J. UNDERWOOD in his classic on Alaska— 
An Empire in the Making, published in 1913, 
dreamed a dream which the present war with its at- 
tendant high cost of living and its scarcity of food 
may soon cause to come true. In his book there is a 
paragraph which in the light of present day happenings may well 
be looked upon as a prophecy. He says:. "The day is within 
measurable distance when big reindeer ships from the Arctic and 
sub-Arctic Alaska will roll into Seattle and other western cities as 
the great cattle trains now hourly enter Chicago and St. Louis. 
Long before the end of the present century, Alaska from her cattle, 
reindeer, and agricultural resources will be helping to feed the two 
hundred million men and women whom it is estimated will then be 
living within the border of the United States." 

Very recently Secretary Lane, who is reported to be a firm 
believer in the future of the reindeer industry in Alaska, suggested 
that reindeer meat could, and should, be made a valuable part of the 
nation's meat supply. With the completion of the new Government 
railroad in Alaska at a very early date, and the vast improvement in 
transportation facilities which are bound to result from it, reindeer 
venison will soon be found for sale at reasonable rates in the mar- 
kets of all our large cities. For some years it has been possible 
to order reindeer chops and steaks not only in Alaskan hotels, but 
in all the first-class hotels of many Pacific coast cities at about a 
quarter to a half the price of a good beefsteak. Now that the 
necessities in the food line have elected themselves, or been forced, 
into the luxury class, it may not seem incongruous that venison, 
once the favorite dish of lords and ladies, should condescend to 
grace the workingman's table. 

There are many things to be said in favor of using reindeer 
meat on our tables, aside from a desire to cut the high cost of 
living. The reindeer is not only easy and cheap to raise, but its 
flesh is pleasing to the taste, and it is fully as nutritious as 
beef or mutton. Moreover, practically every part of the animal 

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648 ALASKA'S MEAT SUPPLY [Aug., 

can be utilized for human consumption, and it is one of the easiest 
of meats to keep from spoiling. To my mind, however, there is a 
more urgent reason than any which I have mentioned so far whfch 
should impel us to assist the Government in any campaign which 
it may undertake this fall to popularize the use of reindeer meat, 
and that is the conviction on our part that it is a patriotic duty in- 
cumbent upon each and every one of us to assist each and every 
part of this vast country of ours to develop its latent resources, 
and thus contribute our mite towards the success of our own arms 
and those of our Allies. Alaska has tremendous possibilities, and 
this far-away territory of ours, which we purchased from Russia at 
the unheard of price of two cents an acre, has done nobly during 
her first half century under American rule, and is entitled to all 
the aid and encouragement which we can give her. Now that 
she is producing a supply of venison in excess of that required to 
feed her meagre population, it behooves us to assist her in disposing 
of her surplus, and thus encourage her to make this comparatively 
new industry of hers yield its maximum results. 

Last winter marked the entrance of the reindeer upon the 
scene as a possible economic factor in the great World War. The 
Swedish Government sold to German agents, and gave to them the 
requisite permission to ship to Germany, forty-three thousand and 
five hundred carcasses of reindeer, which it was estimated provided 
three thousand four hundred and eighty metric tons of venison 
for the German soldiers. This meat was purchased at a price 
which would make it the equivalent of twenty-eight cents a pound 
in our money. These same reindeer, which our enemy was so glad 
to purchase in order to augment a rapidly decreasing meat supply, 
were in all probability closely related to the reindeer which are 
being raised in Alaska, as a brief survey of the industry in that 
country will show. 

When the United States Government took over its newly-pur- 
chased land from Russia, and enacted laws for the protection of 
the seal, the Indians and Eskimos were reduced to a state of star- 
vation. With the coming of the white man, the wild game and 
whale upon which the natives had relied for their food supply, had 
been driven into the inaccessible north lands, and now the seal, the 
one animal which remained for them to live upon, was taken from 
them. Scores of these people were wiped out of existence by disease 
and hunger before the Government awoke to the fact that it was 
its duty to attempt to preserve the lives of these unfortunate 

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1917]. ALASKA'S MEAT SUPPLY 649 

wretches. It was Captain M. A. Healey of the United States 
Revenue Cutter Bear who was responsible for the suggestion which 
finally led to the introduction of the reindeer into Alaska. Some 
time later Dr. Sheldon Jackson was so moved by the terrible dis- 
tress of the natives that he filed a petition with the Bureau of Edu- 
cation, urging them to do something to alleviate the sufferings of 
these people. As a result of his appeal, Lieutenant E. P. Bertholf 
made a trip to Russia, where he purchased a number of deer, which 
were shipped across Behring Strait to Alaska. About twelve hun- 
dred of these animals were bought from Russia between the years 
of 1902 and 1906, and the reindeer industry, which has since 
proved the salvation of countless Alaskan Indians and Eskimos, was 
formally launched by this Government at a cost of about two hun- 
dred and twenty thousand dollars. With this small beginning, Con- 
gress had to be content, as Russia firmly refused to part with any 
more deer at any price. 

The imported deer were placed under the care of competent 
Laplanders, who were brought to this country by the Government 
for this express purpose, and the natives of Alaska were taught 
very quicky how to care for and how to breed these animals. The 
introduction of this industry into Alaska, at public expense, caused 
almost as much criticism from the opponents of the scheme as the 
purchase of the territory itself had done years before. The wonder- 
ful results achieved in a few years fully justify the men who 
were courageous enough to pass this measure in spite of all op- 
position. Through their foresight the Alaskan natives have been 
raised from a starving, irresponsible, roving people to industrious, 
and contented land and cattle owners, whose reindeer furnish them 
with all the necessities of life: food, clothing, a healthful occupa- 
tion, and a much needed means for transportation. There are still 
many sections of Alaska where there are no canning factories, and 
where there is little or no mining carried on, which cry aloud for 
the introduction of the reindeer industry. It is in these parts that 
the look of suffering upon the dark faces of the patient natives 
arouses a feeling of the deepest pity in the breast of the traveler 
who happens to pass their way, and he is moved to send up a fervent 
prayer that such conditions may be of short duration. 

The Government has an excellent apprenticeship plan which 
it employs in connection with the reindeer industry in Alaska. The 
Indian or Eskimo boy who wishes to fit himself for this work is 
taken to a Government experimental station, where he is taught both 

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6so ALASKA'S MEAT SUPPLY [Aug., 

the theory and practice of the reindeer industry much as he would 
be in the agricultural department of any one of our large state uni- 
versities. His apprenticeship lasts five years, and during this period 
he receives his food, and his clothing from the Government. When 
his time is up he is given a bonus of from six to ten reindeer 
together with their increase, and with these deer he is expected 
to start a herd of his own. During the five years that the boy has 
been under the care of Uncle Sam's agents, he has acquired some- 
thing more than his trade, for he has been instructed in the ele- 
mentary branches of a common school education : reading, writing 
and arithmetic. The result of this common-sense policy of his 
legal guardians at Washington is that the Eskimo or Indian boy 
who elects to take advantage of the opportunities offered him for 
self -improvement leaves the Government station with sixty or 
eighty reindeer to start him out in life, a fair education, and a 
lucrative occupation which will enable him to live his life in the 
open, a very vital thing to him, as any other kind of life exposes 
him almost invariably to the ravages of the great White Plague. 
And to accomplish this magnificent result costs the taxpayers of 
this great republic exactly three hundred and fifty dollars per boy. 
This is certainly a modest sum when we compare it with the bur- 
densome expense of many of our other educational or charitable 
institutions. It is a system which meets the approval of all workers 
among the natives of Alaska, as it leaves the boy educated under 
it at home in his natural environment, and makes of him a con- 
tented, healthy, and industrious member of his own community. 

Many Alaskan natives who have worked for the Government 
have become very well off. All through Alaska one hears of, 
and sees displayed on all sides, the pictures of Mary Antisarlok who 
is known as the reindeer queen of Alaska. She merits the title, 
as she has an exceptionally- fine and large herd at Golvin Bay. 
No doubt that picture postcard which a good friend of yours who 
visited Alaska last summer sent you, bears on it the portrait 
of Abalok, the reindeer king of Cape Prince of Wales. He, too, 
has grown rich by merely taking advantage of opportunities placed 
in his way. 

What marvelous strides this industry has made in a few years 
are shown by the Government reports of 191 5 which are the 
latest available at the present writing. These statistics show that 
there are at present 70,243 reindeer in Alaska distributed among 
seventy-six herds. Of this number 46,683, or sixty-six per cent, t 

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1917]. ALASKA'S MEAT SUPPLY 651 

are owned by natives; 3,408, or five per cent, by the United States 
Government; 6,890 by missions; and 13,262, or nineteen per cent, 
by Laplanders and other whites. The total income to the natives 
from the reindeer industry for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1915, 
exclusive of the meat and hides used by the natives themselves, was 
$81,977. 

Until 1 91 4 this industry was confined to the natives and Lap- 
landers in Alaska, but since that date the Government has allowed 
these -people to dispose of part of their surplus deer to white men. 
During that year a number of them organized a company at Nome 
for the avowed purpose of producing deer meat for the United 
States market, and about twelve hundred animals were purchased 
from a prosperous Laplander with this end in view. That same 
summer the last steamer to leave Nome before the close of navi- 
gation brought into Seattle twenty-five carcasses of reindeer. These 
were placed on sale in the markets of that city and brought from 
twenty to twenty-five cents a pound. Since nearly every portion 
of the reindeer's flesh can be used, and since one cut is practically 
as good as another, it would look as if raising deer for the market 
might easily be developed into a profitable undertaking. 

It would seem as if this industry ought to Appeal strongly to 
those of our young agricultural students who are particularly in- 
terested in stock raising, for it undoubtedly has an element of ad- 
venture about it which they, more than any other class of farmers, 
would appreciate. Reindeer can be raised for the market much 
more cheaply than cattle, for they find their own feed both in 
winter and in summer, and they can live in barren wastes which 
could support no other kind of animal. It has been estimated 
that there is in Alaska close to three hundred thousand square 
miles of this land which would afford pasturage for millions of 
deer. These domesticated descendants of the caribou which still 
roam wild in certain parts of Alaska and British Columbia besides 
being easy to feed, are not difficult to raise, as they are exceptionally 
healthy, and suffer from no disease except occasionally a little foot- 
rot which every cattleman knows how to treat successfully. 



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BELLS AND THEIR MESSAGE. 

BY R. BANCROFT-HUGHES. 

O few material objects clings so spiritual a character 
as to bells. Those of us who count among our early 
memories the cheery chiming of the sleighbells 
across the crisp, crackling crust of the northern 
snows, can understand the fantastic possession this 
might take over the mind of the hearer — 3, possession which has 
been so vividly set forth in the weird drama where the murderer 
who committed his crime within their sound, is forever after 
haunted by the tinkling until he betrays himself under the influence 
of the fascinating music. 

We stand beneath some great peal and listen to the strange 
solemn sough that results immediately after the impact, whilst the 
vibrant sounds themselves seem instinct with spirit life, and come 
rushing from the great dark circles of metal above us, as from a 
teeming womb — clanged out from mysterious depths by myriads, 
hastening into space — spirits that seem to smile upon or to 
threaten us as they float by, spirits of joy and sorrow, of life 
and death, of time and of eternity. 

It is a delightful subject, ranging as it does from the huge 
cracked monster of Moscow, a mass of metal impracticable for 
musical production, to the tiny crotals, found in graves of ancient 
warriors, which were borne at the end of the spear in battle, or 
to the quaint bronze remnant of Elizabethan days, in use in our 
childhood's nursery, when her (I had almost written her Satanic) 
Majesty's crowned head and be-ruffled neck, surmounting a tightly- 
laced bodice and puffed sleeves, became the handle of the bell, while 
the full, hooped skirts concealed a slender metal clapper, giving 
out a clear soft sound distinctly audible between the two night 
nurseries. This bell, which undoubtedly dated from her reign, 
conveyed a subtle compliment to the vain monarch by giving her 
the character of a " belle." 

Here a crude critic — at home for his holidays — ^peeps over and 
reads the opening paragraph. 

"Spiritual?*' he inquires, "and how about the dinner bell? 
Is that also spiritual? " i^ T 

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1917.] BELLS AND THEIR MESSAGE 653 

Oh ! crude one, " thou whose exterior semblance doth belie 
thy soul's immensity ! " Knowest thou not that a gong is the proper 
instrument to be put to such a use, in company with tom-toms, 
tam-tams and all other such means of eliciting sound ? And, joking 
apart, is it not pleasant to hear a well-played gong calling to the 
festive meal ? 

Oh ! ring me not a dinner bell 

But sound a silver gong — 
And play it softly — ^let it swell — 

And bang it not too long! 

Speaking largely, we may make two great divisions or classes 
of instruments for eliciting sound. First, those that are struck, 
and, second, those that are swung; and these again are subdivided; 
of the first Durandus names three kinds in common use in com- 
munities, all really to be called percassio, viz,, the cymbalum, strictly 
speaking, a gong struck by a hammer hanging at its side, and 
which — crude one, listen! — ^which gave the signal for prandium. 
Next, the squilla, used in the refectory, and occasionally met with 
in old testamentary documents under the diminutive form of skiU 
leta, because it somewhat resembled a small lobster in shape; last 
the clock sounded by a nola or nohda, a word akin to our modem 
one of "knell." In the second class remain the large hanging 
bells known either as cantpatue or signa, all of which require to be 
swayed or set in motion in some w^y in order to make them give 
forth their voices. 

The names used in various languages for bells may be lightly 
touched upon here with interest. From the sound comes the Latin 
Hntinnabulum: the iteration of the name of the metal in use is 
obvious. Stannum was the common every-day word used by the 
Romans for tin, and estcmo, no doubt its offspring, is the Basque 
version of the word at the present day. The sound suggested the 
name for the metal which produced it, as well as for the tinkling 
cymbal itself. From the sound again comes our own familiar 
word bell, derived from the verb balare (sometimes spelt belare), 
meaning the bleating of sheep. 

The Hntinnabulum, familiar to all of us as the handbell used 
by St. Francis Xavier in the streets of Goa to draw the pagans 
and children to his marvelously fruitful preaching, is not necessarily 
very small, since the learned Dr. Raven ^ refers to an engraving 

^BeJts of England (Antiquary's edition. Met^ueii).^ ^^ ^^^^qJ^ 



654 BELLS AND THEIR MESSAGE [Aug., 

in Hieronymus Magius' treatise, De Tintinnabidis, of a small, well- 
clothed elephant with a bell hung to its neck by a cord. This bell, 
from its size, might serve for a treble in a village set of four or five. 
St. Boniface, born at Crediton in Devon, a. d. 680, and a Benedic- 
tine monk at Nutschell in the same county, sent the Pope a 
present of a handbell. It is greatly to our purpose to note 
the words he uses, " Cloccam qtialem ad manum Itabui ttuB 
paternitati mitt ere curavimus" (p. 21). This word (cloccam) is 
particularly interesting, both because it is definitely known what is 
meant by it, and because it is certainly Irish in origin, and 
occurs at an early date both in Latin and in the Irish form clog. 
Thus it is found in the Book of Armagh, and is used by Adamnon 
in his Life of St. Colunibkill, written about 685. It is plain that in 
Celtic land extraordinary importance was attached to bells. A 
very large number of these ancient bells, more than sixty in all, 
the immense majority being Irish, are still in existence. Many of 
them are reputed to have belonged to Irish saints, and partake of 
the character of relics. The most famous is that of St. Patrick, 
the clog-an-edachta, or bell of the will, now preserved in the 
Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin. There can be no 
reason to doubt that this was the bell that lay upon St. Patrick's 
breast, and was taken from his tomb in the year 562. Like most 
of these bells it had an official and hereditary custodian (in this 
case the well-known Mulholland) in whose possession it remained, 
being handed down for centuries from father to son. 

The strange story of the Marden bell in Herefordshire in 
England is worth telling, since this particular bell is very similar 
to the famous Irish clog-na-fulla, or bell of blood, which is, or rather 
was, under the care of the late Bishop of Kilmore, afterwards 
Archbishop of Armagh. I quote this story from the Journal of 
the ArchcBological Institute (v. 330): "The bell was found at 
Marden, in cleaning out a pond, below the mud and rubbish which 
had accumulated for centuries, and at a depth of eighteen feet 
below the adjacent ground. The pond is only a few yards from 
the church built on the spot where the body of St. Ethelbert, 
murdered by Offa, was said to have been deposited, and where there 
is still a hole in the floor, where, says tradition, the body rested 

and a miraculous spring arose the bell appears to have been 

formed of a sheet of bell-metal which had been hammered into 
shape, and it is rivetted on each side; the handle at the top is 
rounded beneath for the hand.'* The clog-na^ftdla is somewhat t 

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1917.] BELLS AND THEIR MESSAGE 655 

smaller than this bell, but similar in shape. The word itself, clog, 
is nearly related to the French cloche and to the German glocke. 

Overwhelming evidence proves the extraordinary veneration 
for these bells in Celtic lands. Giraldus Cambrensis notes, in the 
twelfth century, that upon them was taken the most solemn form 
of oath. Says the learned Dr. Raven : " To swear falsely on the 
bell, is to aggravate the guilt of perjury." " Both the clergy and 
laity, in Ireland, Scotland and Wales, were more afraid of swear- 
ing falsely by them than by the Gospels, because of some hidden 
and miraculous power with which they were gifted; and by the 
vengeance of the saint to whom they were particularly pleasing, 
their despisers and transgressors were severely punished."^ 

The custody of these bells became an inheritance and was often 
attached to a title, more often, perhaps, than to a territorial pos- 
session, or investiture, so that on the death of a custodian the bell 
was placed in the hands of his heir, much in the same way as 
the key of a church is to this day placed in the hands of a new 
incumbent at induction to a benefice in England. 

These bells, at a later dater, were often enclosed in cases or 
** shrines '' of the richest workmanship. The shrine of St. Pat- 
rick's bell bears an inscription of some length, from which we 
learn that this beautiful specimen of the jeweler's craft must 
have been wrought about the year 1005. 

It must also be noted that the famous round towers of Ireland, 
which are now generally recognized to have been places of refuge 
against the inroads of the Danes and other marauders, were com- 
monly called clog teach. The bells occasionally stored there for 
the sake of safety seem to have been regarded as among the most 
precious treasures. From this circumstance the towers probably 
derived their name, though it is, of course, possible that in some 
cases they may have served as belfries in the more ordinary sense.^ 

Probably the best-known historical instance of a consecrated 
bell being used for a purely civil purpose is that of the curfew, 
now rarely to be heard, ringing, as it were, the requiem of the 
dying day, when, as Father Abraham Ryan so beautifully says: 

Day took off her golden crown 
And flung it, sorrowfully, down. 



'Sir R. C. Hoare, translated from Giraldus Cambrensis. 
"Father H. Thurston, S.J., "Bells." Catholic Encyclopedia. 

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6s6 BELLS AND THEIR MESSAGE [Aug., 

The purple shades of dusk creep up towards the primrose hem 
of the evening sky, and soon night will spread her sable mantle 
over all; but in the enchanted interval that solemn tolling |s 
heard, and many a heart in poor heretic England that knows not 
what it is to raise the voice of prayer at the sound of the holy 
Angelus bell, yet at curfew sends up a silent petition for safeguard 
during the hours of darkness. 

Even the curfew, however, is not without a comic side, which 
was wittily touched upon by a nameless writer in his Joys of Life in 
the Middle or Dark Ages, where he says : 

Cover ye fyre, 

Cover ye fyre! 

Tis eight of ye clocke 

All sounde as a rocke 

Aslepe and in bedde 

Bee cache fellowes hedde. 

Noe late suppers nice, 

But leave alle to ye mice — 

For I saie — 'tis your kinge's desire 

That ye cover that fyre I 

With an undeniable sigh of pleasure the student turns to the 
attractive subject of church bells. Well we recall our first visit to 
an old country belfry in England, when, too small of stature, per- 
haps, to climb the crazy ladders without a helping hand or to peep 
out of the arrow-slits in the ancient, massive walls, half obscured 
by the matted ivy that clothed the edifice to the very battlements, 
we at last landed on the huge oaken beams where hung the musical 
masses of metal. By dint of careful fingering and spelling we 
managed to make out the brief inscription on the oldest and, 
therefore, the mo^t attractive of the bells — somewhat barrel-shaped, 
if memory fails not, and triumphantly announced : " Stepne Norton 
hee made mee; M. CCC. XXXIII." Ever since that moment a 
mysterious magic has drawn us to feel the bond of union between 
the living present and the dead past, made tangible and audible 
at the sight and sound of these inanimate singers. 

For, wonderful as the enormous modem bells undoubtedly are 
— witness that largest among European bells consecrated by the 
rites of Holy Church, the great tenor at Cologne Cathedral, cast 
in 1888, out of captured French cannon, and weighing something 
like twenty-seven tons — there is a charm about ancient and mediaeval 

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1917.] BELLS AND THEIR MESSAGE 657 

bells like an echo from the chime of the golden bells on the fringes 
of the priestly vestment of Aaron of old. We listen to their voices, 
and, even though we know them to have been recast, perhaps more 
than once since the days of their original founder, yet they speak 
(or, rather, sing) of the days of Faith, the faith that dedicated 
them to the worship of God in the name of some one of His saints 
and consecrated them to the perpetual memory of some one or other 
of the holiest mysteries. 

Who can hear the note, for example, of the Gabriel or Angelus 
bell, after seeing and touching the deep old black letter on its rim — 
probably some such inscription as the well-known old hexameter: 
}^Miss% de cells Habeo nomen Gabrielis; or again : ►J^ Missus veto 
pie Gabriel fert leta Marie, without a thrill of feeling far removed 
from that which might be aroused by another bell, of modern 
date, bearing, to our certain knowledge, these touching lines: 

Badgeworth ringers they were mad 
Because Rigbe he made me bad. 
But Abel Rushal you may see 
. Hath made me better than Rigbe.* 



or agam : 



At proper times my voice I'll raise 
And sound to my subscribers' praise.' 



Dr. Raven, at the opening of his chapter on signa writes thus : 
"A good ear-filling sound from one large instrument is dear to man. 
There seems to be something satisfying^ to the soul in it (!) apart 

from its utility as call to various duties, etc ," and he adds : 

" no instrument can vie with a cast bell." 

This is a pleasant view to take, but one cannot help wondering 
whether the near dwellers to a powerful peal, played by an earnest 
and energetic guild of ringers, would respond to this " soul-satis- 
faction " in a grateful manner. 

Olden bell-ringers seem to have had a more strenuous time than 
modem ones. At Canterbury, in the era of swimg signa, it needed 
quite an army of men — sixty-three ringers to keep five bells going. 
After a while, a treading plank or planks, and then a stock or 
gudgeon came into service. Then the immortal lever was used. 
Soon a frame was made to the hanging apparatus, and from the 



* Badgeworth, Gloucestershire. 
•At Bradford, Yorkshire. 
VOL. cv.— 42 



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6s8 BELLS AND THEIR MESSAGE [Aug., 

time of the introduction of a wheel may be dated the frequent 
dedications of bells to St. Catherine, the instrument of whose 
martyrdom it was. At the present day, the complete wheel is used, 
by which a bell can be swung so as to have its motfth upwards, 
then, not turning over, but back, so as to have its mouth upwards 
again. But enough — An interesting note of the trials and 
weariness of the physical labor of ringing is eloquent in the inscrip- 
tion on a bell dedicated to St. Margaret at Norwich : >{< Fac Mar- 
garita nobis hec munera leta, 

I think it is Dr. Raven who, in quoting this, somewhat grimly 
adds : " It struck me that it might allude to the position of a bell 
being unpleasant; to be hung like a criminal and struck hard by a 
clapper ! " More, probably it referred to the ringers. 

Of the purely secular uses to which custom or tradition permit 
the bells of churches to be put, we have already named that of the 
historical curfew. In cases of fire the bells may be rung, but should 
be jangled or rung backwards, that the signal of alarm may be 
understood. An inscription on a bell intended for this purpose 
only is quoted in an article in The Dublin Review, 1895: 

Lord, quench this furious flame!' 
Arise! run! help! put out the same.® 

In many places the bells are rung on New Year's Eve. This 
is called '* ringing the old year out, and the new year in," tolling 
just before midnight, then, with a pause for the striking of the 
clock, pealing a merry chime of welcome to the newcomer. This 
custom has formed the theme of many poems, and appeals to every 
listener at the weighty moment. 

The ancient practice of ringing the church bells in .case of 
dangerous thunderstorms, still obtains in many places. Most people 
are familiar with Longfellow's poem where graceful mention is 
made of the old reason for this custom; but since few libraries are 
so fortunate as to possess a copy of the original black-letter edition 
of the Golden Legend, printed by Wynkyn de Worde, I give the 
popular belief as it stands there, retaining the quaint mediaeval 
spelling : " It is sayde, ye evil sprytes that ben in ye region of ye 
ayre doubte moche whan they here the belles ringen ; and this is ye 
cause why ye belles ringen whan it thundreth and whan grete tem- 
peste and rages of wether happen, to ye ende that ye feindes and 

•On the fire-bcU, ^h^rbgrnCi Porset. 

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1917.] BELLS AND THEIR MESSAGE 659 

wycked sprytes sholde ben abasht and flee and cease of ye mooynge 
of tempeste." 

Without arguing the point; it is quite possible that the atmo- 
spheric vibration caused by the ringing of bells, especially of large 
ones, may not be without effect on impending clouds charged with 
electricity, particularly if resorted to whilst the clouds are coming 
together. 

No doubt the standpoint from which the mediaeval faithful 
took the view just quoted from de Worde, has its origin in the 
pontifical office for the Blessing of the Bells, in the two last prayers 
of which the " powers of the air " are distinctly mentioned. This 
office is sometimes called the " Baptism of the Bells," and the name 
has led to erroneous opinions concerning it. Since the Pontificale 
is not in everyone's hands, and one seldom has the privilege and 
pleasure of being present at this ceremony of Holy Church, a brief 
account of the function of Blessing the Bells may be welcome here. 

The bishop in white vestments first recites seven Psalms with 
his attendant clergy, to implore the Divine assistance; the bells 
meantime being himg at a very little distance from the ground, and 
with free space around them to allow of the various ceremonies 
being conveniently performed. 

Then the bishop mixes salt with water, reciting prayers of 
exorcism somewhat similar to those used in the preparation of holy 
water, but rhaking special reference to the bell and to the " powers 
of the air " — the phantoms, storms and lightning — which threaten 
the peace of devout Christians who come to church to sing the 
praises of God. Then the bishop and his attendants wash the bell 
inside and out with the water thus prepared, and dry it with towels, 
the Psalm Laudate Dominum de ccelis and five others of similar 
import being meanwhile recited or sung. These are followed by 
various unctions, those on the outside of the bell being made with 
the oil of the sick in seven places, those on the inside with chrism 
in four places. In the accompanying prayers mention is made of 
the silver trumpets of the Old Law and of the fall of the walls of 
Jericho, while protection is asked once more from the " powers of 
the air," and the faithful are encouraged to take refuge under the 
Sign of the Holy Cross. 

That the term " baptism " is inaccurate, can be seen from this 
description, as also from the fact that in making the imctions, and 
not in washing the bell, is used the form of words introducing the 
patron saint: " May this bell be Hh hallowed, O Lord, and Hh con- ^T^ 

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66o BELLS AND THEIR MESSAGE [Aug., 

secrated in the Name of the >{< Father and of the >{< Son, and of 

the 1^ Holy Ghost. In honor of St. N Peace be to thee." 

Finally, the thurible with incense and myrrh are placed under the 
bell, so that the smoke arising may fill its concavity. Then is said 
another prayer of similar import to the last, and the function ends 
with the reading of the passage in the Gospel concerning Martha 
and Mary. 

Surely here may be found the connecting link between the 
bells themselves and their spiritual character. When we stand 
beneath them, listening to that strange, solemn sough that fills the 
air immediately after the impact, and recall the holy unctions and 
blessings bestowed upon the bells, we realize that the old, varied and 
oft-quoted hexameters : 

Laudo Deum verum, plebem voco, congrego clerum, 
Pestem fugo, fulgura frango, sabbato pango, 
Defunctas ploro, nimbum fugo, festa decoro, 
Excito lentos, dissipo ientos, paco cruentos,^ 

were bom of a lively faith in the divine mission of bells, through 
the ministry of those who stand, as God's vicegerents, between the 
living and the dead. 

»"I sing praise to the True God; I call the people; I gajthcr the Priests 
together ; I put pestilence to flight ; I shatter the lightning ; I announce the Lord's 
Day; I toll for the dead; I scatter the clouds; I chime joyously for festivals; 
I arouse the slothful; I drive away tempests and peal forth a psean of praise 
when peace takes the place of war." 



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FOR LOVE IS OF GOD. 

BY HENRIETTE EUGENIE DELAMARE. 

IT seems little to be wondered at that Protestants and 
unbelievers who know and understand so little about 
our holy Faith, should assert that deep piety, and 
specially that of the religious life, makes people 
gloomy, self-centred and lacking in natural affection. 
But it is a matter of astonishment that many fairly good Catholics 
are too often disposed to agree with them on that point, and mourn 
and lament when they hear of their sons or daughters having re- 
ligious vocations, talking as if they were about to lose their love 
as well as their bodily presence, in consequence. 

Nothing could be more false than this idea, for none have a 
firmer or more intense human love than the religious and the saints 
of God, and this is perfectly natural, for every faculty, either of 
body or soul that is much practised and labored over, becomes all • 
the more developed. An athlete's limbs grow abnormally strong; 
the vocal organs of a professional singer develop imusual power 
and richness of tone, the brain of a mathematician or scientist 
acquires wonderful clearness and insight. And in the spiritual 
life this also holds good. One who is constantly endeavoring to 
bear crosses with fortitude becomes a model of patience and one 
who is constantly fighting against pride will attain to saint-like 
humility, for the virtue they are thus striving to acquire finally 
becomes, as it were, a second nature. Is it not natural,* therefore, 
that a soul in union with God, Who is Love Itself, a soul which is 
ever striving to attain to more fervent love of Him, will become 
all the more capable of love for its fellowmen, and specially for 
those united to it by ties of kindred and friendship? 

We have proof of this both in Holy Scripture and in the 
lives of the saints. What i3 more touching than the friendship of 
David and Jonathan, the love of Abraham for Isaac, or of Jacob for 
his favorite son Joseph, in the Old Testament? And is not the 
New Testament one long poem of love? Who ever loved his 
mother as Our Divine Lord loved His? and not only His Mother, 
but His friends. " Having loved His own that were in the world, 

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662 FOR LOVE IS OF GOD [Aug., 

He loved them unto the end," says St. John, the disciple whom 
Jesus loved; the disciple who, when too old to preach sermons, 
would constantly repeat to his flock, " Little children, love one 
another." What mother ever loved her child with the passionate 
intensity with which Mary, the Immaculate Mother of God, loved 
her divine Son, with a love so true and unselfish and perfect that 
it gave her courage to share in His immolation, and stand for 
those three long hours of agony at the Foot of the Cross! And 
if she loved Jesus, does she not love us too, her erring spiritual 
children? When have we ever found her to fail us, unworthy as 
we are? 

Then if we look into the lives of the saints, how full of love 
they are! What passionate yearning there is in the epistles of 
St. Paul to his " Dearly Beloved," how affectionately he mentions 
his friends by name and is solicitous for their welfare. " Salute 
Epenetus, my beloved; salute Ampliatus, most beloved to me in 
the Lord." " Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is scan- 
dalized, and I am not on fire ! " he exclaims. What greater love and 
sympathy could one have for one's friends? "And now there 
remain faith, hope and charity, these three: but the greatest of 
these is charity." Yes, truly the Gospel of Christ is the Gospel 
of Love. 

Now listen to the saying of St. Chrysostom, one of the greatest 
saints of the Church, in the fourth century: "Words cannot ex- 
press the joy which a friend imparts; they only can know who 
have experienced it. A friend is dearer than the light of heaven, 
for it would be better for us that the sun were extinguished than 
that we should be without friends." Does this sound like coldness 
and lack of human affection? St. Teresa, that saint of truly sera- 
phic love of God, had all her life the most tender affection for her 
family, and more specially for the brother who had been the com- 
panion and confidant of her childhood. Not only did she take 
interest in his immortal soul, but she sympathized deeply in all his 
temporal joys and sorrows. Her heart, though pierced with the 
Seraph's dart, was great enough to have room in it for the deepest 
humqn love. And so with all the saints and servants of God. 
Think of the intense affection between St. Monica and her son, 
St. Augustine, specially after his conversion, and of the perfect 
sympathy that united the great ascetic, St. Benedict, and his sister, 
St. Scholastica. 

St. Teresa's namesake, Soeur Th^rese of the Child Jesus and t 

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1917] FOR LOVE IS OF GOD 663 

of the Holy Face (the Little Flower), loved her family with a depth 
of feeling which is touching in its simplicity and earnestness. She 
says herself that words cannot tell with what passion she loved 
her dear father from her very childhood, and her love for him and 
for her sisters and other relatives did but grow with her sanctity. 
In her touching autobiography she writes : " I remember that in the 
month of June, 1888, at the time when we feared he (her father) 
would have paralysis of the brain, I surprised my mistress by 
saying : 'I suffer much, mother, but I feel I could bear still more.' 
I did not think then of the trial which was awaiting us. I 
did not know that on the twelfth of February, a month after my 
taking the habit, our revered father would drink such a bitter 
chalice ! Ah ! I did not then say that I could have suffered more ! 
Words cannot express my anguish and that of my sisters. I will 

not try to describe it And what interviews I had with my 

Celine. Ah, far from parting us, the gratings of Carmel united us 
more strongly than ever; the same thoughts, the same wishes, the 
same love for Jesus and for souls were our very life." Later 
on she adds : " When giving itself to God the heart does not lose 
its natural tenderness; this tenderness on the contrary increases 
by becoming purer and more divine." True, she knew how to mor- 
tify this love of her dear ones, and she tells in her simple ingenuous 
way how when her beloved " little mother," her sister Pauline, had 
become her superior, she schooled herself never to ask of her any 
greater favor, attention, or love than was granted to the other nuns, 
in fact, not so much perhaps, and she relates how she often had to 
clutch at the banisters of the stair to prevent herself from going 
in to pour out her soul to her. But though she mortified all out- 
ward show of her affection, she never dreamt of smothering or 
lessening it, and to her dying day it did but increase in intensity. 
She could not even think that she would be happy in heaven by being 
forgetful of those she loved on earth ; she wished to continue her 
apostolate among men, her helpfulness and tender care of them after 
her death. " You will look down upon us from heaven, won't 
you ? " asked a nun of her one day. " No, I will come down," 
she answered. 

Her letters to her sisters are full of tender love, specially 
those to her " little mother " or her beloved Celine. To the latter 
she wrote shortly after entering the convent : " Already a month 
since we were parted. But why do I say parted ? Were the ocean 
between us, our souls would remain united The tender love of 

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664 FOR LOVE IS OF GOD [Aug., 

our childhood has changed into a far greater union of thoughts 
and feelings." 

When Celine was about to enter the convent, she wrote to her : 
" This is perhaps the last time, my dear little sister, that I use 
my pen in order to converse with you ; God has granted my dearest 

wish. Come ! We will suffer together and then Jesus will 

take one of us and the others will remain a little longer in exile. 
Listen to what I wish to say to you. Never, never will God part 
us: if I die first, do not think that I will go far from your soul, 
never have we been more closely united." 

Who has not read the touching story of St. Elizabeth of Hun- 
gary's love for her husband and of her almost inconsolable sorrow 
at his death? What wife ever loved her spouse more than did St. 
Jane de Chantal or her children either, though she did have the 
courage to step over the body of her only son when he tried to 
prevent her from leaving them to become the foundress of the 
Order of the Visitation. Never did her motherly love or solicitude 
for him or for her other children slacken after she had undertaken 
the duties of religious life and become Superioress of her order. 
She loved them none the less, but even more for having felt it her 
duty out of love for God to leave them after having carefully 
provided for their future. 

Among other great servants of God who are not canonized, 
but who yet worked and suffered much for their dear Lord and 
led many souls to Him, we find the same passionate human love. 
" We all need the heart of a friend," said Pere Lacordaire, the 
world-famed Dominican, ** the Christ Himself had St. John." An- 
other famous orator and writer of the great Dominican order, Pere 
Didon, seems so austere and detached from all worldly things 
that at first one expects him to have had little feeling or even 
thought about anyone except in a spiritual way. *' Le Christ est 
ffia passion divine/' was his motto, a very hard one to translate 
in all its touching beauty. " Christ is the one divine passion of 
my heart " would be, I think, the best rendering of it in English. 
His soul seemed to soar like an eagle above all the petty things 
of life. He was, as he says himself, a soldier of Christ, an untiring, 
unfearing warrior in His great cause, sparing himself neither pain, 
nor danger, nor fatigue, and dauntlessly heedless of the opinions 
of men, because he felt he was fulfilling the call God had given him. 

Yet, when one comes to read his letters, one is touched almost 
to tears by the gentleness and tenderness that were in him, and 

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1917] FOR LOVE IS OF GOD 665 

specially by his passionate love for his dead sister and for his 
mother, that " valiant Christian " of whom he was so proud, and 
whose sorrows and sufferings during the last years of her life cut 
his noble heart to the quick. In the crushing sorrow of his own 
temporary disgrace, the chief bitterness of his cross was the grief 
of his mother, and when she died suddenly during his exile, his 
sorrow was unspeakable, and was perhaps responsible for the ter- 
rible heart disease which carried him off a few years later in the 
midst of his labors, when fame and success were once more his. 
On reaching home immediately after her death he wrote to one of 
his penitents : " I cannot write. My heart is breaking. My grief 
is infinite. No sacrifice has been spared me. My poor mother has 
died without my being there at her last hour to close her eyes; 
hear the supreme words of her heroic tenderness. She is dead. 
I did not see her even in her coffin. I only arrived on Sunday and 
she had already been buried on Saturday. Destiny has hours which 

are fearful. God's hand is heavy upon me. I am crushed 

Farewell, I cannot write more, I could not speak to you. My tears 
are choking me. Ah! how I loved my poor mother " 

In another letter he says again : " I remain prostrated under 
the terrible hand of God. My heart is broken. I worshipped my 

mother. I am stabbed to the very core I am in agony before 

Christ Whom I love and Who spares me no sacrifice I can 

but suffer and pray in silence, living in intimacy of soul with my 
beloved dead. I find her in the depth of my soul and feel her still 
living there. My sorrow absorbs me. I live in it, I would I could 

die of it Griefs such as mine cannot be comforted; and in 

spite of my unconquerable faith, in spite of my energy, it will take 
time for me to regain my mental poise." 

Could any filial love be deeper or more impassioned than this ? 
How true it is that, as Cardinal Manning once said, the best 
daughter makes the best nun, and the best son the best priest, monk 
or missionary ! 

Among priests who have been converts to the Catholic faith 
the life of Cardinal Manning, so austere to himself, so gentle, 
courteous and sympathetic to others, gives one a thousand touching 
examples of the lovingness as well as the loveableness of hearts that 
belong entirely to God. More lately still, the life of Monsignor 
Benson, whose death, after a short and brilliant career, was such 
a loss to the Church, is an illuminative and encouraging lesson, for 
it shows in what perfect sympathy a zealous lover of God and 

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666 POR LOVE IS OF GOt) [Aug., 

worker in His vineyard can remain with his dear ones, even if 
they do not belong to the true Church, yet are in perfect good faith 
about their own belief. 

Mr. A. C. Benson, in the preface to his charming Memoirs 
of a Brother, says : " Moreover, his family affection was very 
strong; when he became a Catholic we, all of us, felt, including 
himself, that there might be a certain separation, not of affection, 
but of occupations and interests; ^d he himself took very great 
care to avoid this, with the happy result that we saw him, I truly 
believe, more often and more intimately than ever before. Indeed, 
my own close companionship with him really began when he came 
as a Roman Catholic to Cambridge." 

One of the means which enabled Monsignor Benson to carry 
this out was his perfect frankness with his family from the very 
first. Writing to a friend he says : " I told my mother I was 
troubled in mind more than a year ago. Of course it was something 
of a shock to her, but comparatively slight. Then as the months 
went by, I kept her fully informed, so far as was possible, as 
to my state of mind, and ultimately, when my decision was taken, 
it was very little shock to her, as the idea had become familiar to 

her The result has been that neither she nor I am conscious 

of an estrangement." 

Writing to his brother Arthur, after his reception into the 
Church, Father Benson said : " Mamma and I are meeting in 
London next week. She really has been good to me beyond all 

words. Her patience and kindness have been unimaginable 

I must thank you again for your extreme kindness— I am really 
grateful, though I am always dumb about such things when I meet 
people." 

Again after many years he wrote : " Between my mother and 
myself there is not a shadow of a shadow; in many ways we are 
nearer to one another than we were before." 

Monsignor Benson had bitter religious discussions, almost 
quarrels, with his brothers and sister at first, but this evidently 
wore away, and his intimacy, specially with his brother Arthur, 
grew deeper and more loving than before. 

Not only did his heart remain in union with his family, but 
his solicitude for his friends and, indeed, for all who came to 
him for help or advice was untiring, and his patience with the 
most unreasonable and wearisome was truly wonderful. Even 
when, through overwork, his health and strength were failing 



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19171 POR LOVE IS OF GOD 6S7 

fast and he was suffering acutely, he found sufficient energy to 
answer their innumerable letters fully and constantly. And when 
death came, so suddenly in the midst of his successful labors and 
he accepted it with such perfect resignation to God's will, his love 
for his dear ones was true to the last. " Excuse me," he murmured, 
interrupting the prayers for the dying to say to Mr. A. C. Benson, 
" give my love to them alW 

Sceur Therese, the Little Flower, explains her special veneration 
for the holy missionary martyr, Blessed Theophane Venard, in 
these words : ** Theophane Venard was a *little' saint, his life was 
quite ordinary. He loved Our Lady very much and he loved his 
family very much — I too, I love my family! I do not understand 
saints who do not love their families." 

One cannot but feel as she did, when reading his biography, 
one of the most touching pictures of Catholic family life ever 
written. They were all very devout, the children were trained to 
deep piety from their babyhood and Theophane, the holiest of 
them all, was perhaps the most loving. He was a devoted son and 
much attached to his two younger brothers, but his deepest love, 
his true heart union was with his beloved sister Melanie. It is a 
very poem of brotherly love. His simple, unaffected letters to her 
are not only full of deep piety and resignation to God's will, but of 
intense sympathy and affection. From their early childhood they 
had planned how they would spend their lives together in the 
service of God and His poor, and when still a boy at boarding 
school, he wrote to her : " Very often when I am at work my 

thoughts fly back to you I follow you in thought everywhere. 

Although so far apart, our thoughts, our wishes, our aspirations 
seem to be one. O what a blessed thing it is, this commimion of 
souls, to be able to pray for each other and to pray for our loved 

ones together f But I should like to be with you again in 

body as well as in spirit. Oh! when shall we be able to live 
together as we did as children and share all our troubles and all 
our joys." And in another letter he says : " But you, you are half 
of myself. You are more than my sister, you are my guardian 
angel." And again: " O how happy I should be in a quiet coun- 
try parish with my Melanie, I would guide the good people and 
try to save their souls and you would have care of the church; 
and together we would labor for God and talk of Him and of His 
holy Mother and of all those we have loved and lost." 

Later on, she confided to him her belief that God was calling 



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668 FOR LOVE IS OF GOD [Aug., 

her to the religious life, and he answered: " No, dearest Melanie! 
believe this — I will never try for an instant to turn you from any 
generous or holy project. I should be afraid of robbing you of 
your crown! But I tell you frankly that to lose you would be a 
terrible sacrifice on my part. Every time the thought conies across 
my mind, I beg for the grace of God to enable me to bear it, 
if it be His will that you should go and leave us." 

When he himself felt called to sacrifice his life to God's service 
as a missionary, he broke the news to his dear ones with the most 
loving tenderness, begging for their consent and prayers that he 
might be worthy of his great calling. Upon receiving their heart- 
broken, but nobly resigned answers, he wrote again to Melanie: 
" O how I cried when I read your letter ! Yes, I knew well the 
sorrow I was going to bring upon my family and especially upon 
you, my dear little sister. But don't you think it cost me tears of 
blood, too, to take such a step, and give you all such pain. Who 
ever cared more for home and a home life than I? All my happi- 
ness here below was centred in it. But God, Who had united us 
all in links of the tenderest aflfection, wished to wean me from it 
Oh ! what a fight and a struggle I have had with my poor human 
nature ! But then Our Lord, Who asked the sacrifice at my hands, 
gave me the strength to accomplish it. He did more. He gave 
me the strength to oflFer myself the bitter chalice to those I loved. 
I undertook it because I knew you all so well, and I was full of 

faith and hope and now, I can only adore His mercy, and 

praise Him Who has led me so tenderly through this terrible trial 
...;.. Can it be, then, that family ties and family joys are not 

holy and blessed? " he adds, " has God forbidden them No, 

a thousand times, no ! " 

When starting for his mission to China, he wrote again : " My 
much-loved sister, my own little Melanie, good-bye. I feel it very 
much that I am not able to write you a good long letter. It is a 
positive suflFering to nie for we have so many, many things to 
say to each other, but I have scarcely a moment. I shall never 
forget you or our happy childhood together, or our family gather- 
ings and home joys, but by and by we shall all be reunited. I 
go with a heavy heart and eyes full of tears, but we must pray 
together, the one for the other, and bear the pain of parting 
bravely. God bless you. My paper must convey my last kiss to 
my darling sister." 

On his journey he writes again : "And now I am leaving and 



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1917.I POR LOVE IS OF GOD 669 

probably forever. Ought we not, then, to have a good long talk. 
Ah, now comes the sorrow! ! must have all the say to myself. 
There is not dear little Melanie to answer me; no gentle eyes to 
look at me ; no soft hand to hold in mine, and to keep it back and 
try to make me stay a few minutes longer Ah, you are all to- 
gether; and I? I am alone! Alone with God — ^alone forevermore. 
But I know how you have followed me in thought, and I like to 
think of this letter's arrival home, and the welcome it will get! 
Am I not a real baby? But, O my God, it is not wrong, is it, 
to love one's home and one's father, and one's brothers and one's 
sister? to suflfer terribly at parting from them — ^to feel one's lone- 
liness, to try to console one another? To mingle our prayers 
and our tears, and also our hopes. For we have left all for Thee. 
We wish to Vork for Thee ; and we trust to be reunited one day 
in Thee forever and forever." 

During the trying years of his life as a missionary to the 
heathen, neither his tireless labors, his long privations and suffer- 
ings, nor the knowledge of his approaching martyrdom, could 
lessen his constant affectionate thoughtfulness for his dear ones, 
and in his cage awaiting execution, he wrote to console them and 
bid them a loving farewell. To Melanie he said : " Now, as my 
last hour is approaching, I want to send you, my darling sister and 
friend, a special word of love and farewell. For our hearts have 
been one from childhood. You have never had a secret from me, 
nor I from you. When as a schoolboy, I used to leave home for 
college, it was my little Melanie who prepared my box, and soft- 
ened by her tender words the pain of parting. It was you who 
shared in the sorrow and joys of my college life; it was you who 
strengthened my vocation for the foreign missions. It was with 
you, dearest Melanie, that I passed that solemn night of the 
twenty-sixth of February, 1851, which was our last meeting upon 
earth, and which we spent in a conversation so full of intimate 
thoughts and feelings qf sympathy and holy hope, that it reminded 
me of the farewell of St. Benedict and St. Scholastica. 
And when I crossed the seas, and came to water with sweat 
and blood this Annamite country, your letters were my strength, 
my joy, and my consolation. It is then only fair that, in this last 
hour, your brother should think of you, and send to you a few final 
words of love and never-dying remembrance." Then after burning 
words of divine love, joyful resignation and even exultation at 
being able to lay down his life for his beloved Master, he bids her 



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fl7o FOR LOVE IS OF GOD [Aug., 

grow in the practice of every virtue, looking forward to the happy 
time when they shall be happy for evermore, and ends his letter 
thus : " Good-bye, my Melanie, good-bye, my loved sister ! Adieu ! 
Your devoted brother. Theophane." 

In his last words to his superior he also requested that a 
few of his simple belongings might be sent home to his family who 
would, he knew, prize them so highly. 

Did his love of God or zeal for souls chill his tenderness 
for his own, or did his faithful love for them hinder him from 
attaining to sanctity and the martyr's crown ? Did they not, on the 
contrary, work together for the perfecting of his pure and beautiful 
soul ? 

" I do not believe that lovely things should be stamped upon," 
answered Monsignor Benson to a friend who was urging the danger 
of a strong sense of beauty, " should they not rather be led in 
chains ? " Does not this saying also apply to the love of one's 
family and friends? Is it not God's will that it should in no way 
be stamped upon but, on the contrary, developed to the full, yet 
so perfectly led in chains that, at the first word from the Divine 
Master, we should be willing to sacrifice it completely, as did 
Blessed Theophane, even though the parting cost him tears of 
blood! 

So long as we love in God and for God then, is it not true that 
we cannot love too deeply? — for God is Love and love is of God. 



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SALVE REGINA JETERNAt 



BY J. CORSON MILLER. 



Robed in thy flawless beauty sempiternal, 
That shames the towering loveliness of Night, 

Earth's ancient message vernal 
Is turned for thee a hymn of praise diurnal. 

Of elemental might. 
Yea, Summer, in her fragrance-laden flight, 

Doth spill her shining hours. 

Brimmed high with fruits and flowers. 
For thee who art the Queen of All the Year. 
So, too, when Autumn, ruddy-cheeked and brown, 
Along her flaming fields comes dancing down. 
Freighted with golden harvest of good cheer — 
(The purple grape that clustered to its fall. 
The new red com, ripened for festival, 
God's every gift from field and tree and vine,) 
There comes a mem'ry of thy Son divine, 
And thy dear voice saying : " They have no wine." 

Then Winter, white and tall, 
Though aged, gaunt, of chilly mien withal. 
Brings to thine arms again the Christ-Child — Him, 

Adored by highest Heaven's Seraphim ; 
Him Whom the Father loves ; of Whom He spake. 

What time the Earth did quake, 
On Tabor when the Vision smote men's eyes — 

" This is My wellrbeloved Son, 
Mark ye Him now, this is The One, 
In Whom forever I am well pleased." 

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672 SALVE REGINA STERNA [Aug., 

In truth, throughout the year's proud festal chain, 
Come hail or snow, sunshine or silver rain, 
Thy Name is linked to veneration-days. 

And dedicate to praise. 

Hence am I come. 

Soul-weary, harassed, dumb — 

A strayer by lone streams, 

A dreamer of poor dreams. 
Albeit a weak mortal smirched with mire. 

And seared with Sin's fierce fire. 
To lay my humble tribute on thy shrine, 

To ask thee, mother mine, 
If thou wilt take tonight my simple song. 
Abashed, I press from out the straining throng. 
To hail thee Queen Possest of Heaven's Charms, 

To seek thy shelt'ring arms. 
Art thou not Mother of our Fallen Race? 
Lol let the pity pictured in thy face 
Rush down upon me, flooding all my soul 
With penitential peace to make me whole. 

For thee, for thee. 
Lady of Loss, yet White- Winged Victory, 
I touch my lowly lyre to fervent strains, 
And sing thee Queen of Heaven's rich domains. 

Dowered with tenderness. 

Flowered with gentleness, 

From thy lily-white feet to thy hallowed hair, 

Beloved of Jesu, Beloved, Beloved, 

Supremely spotless, eternally fair, 

Virgin of Virgins, hear my pray'rl 
Hail Mary, Full of Grace, pray far me when 
In what tense hour I go to death, Amen. 



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MOBILIZING THE LAW OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND. 

BY FRANK o'HARA, PH.D. 

HE value of a thing," the economist says, "depends 
upon the supply of it and the demand for it. In- 
crease the supply or diminish the demand and you 
lower the value. Decrease the supply or increase the 
demand and you enhance the value." " That was all 
true enough in the past," objects the nervous individualist, " but it 
bids fair to be true no longer, since Congress is at work abolishing 
the law of supply and demand. In the future the law of supply 
and demand is to be discarded, and values are to be fixed arbitrarily 
by governmental authority." " One test of a just price," said the 
older reformer, " is that it is in conformity with the price fixed 
by competition, and has not been brought about by arbitrary inter- 
ference with the law of supply and demand." " But," urges the 
man who would keep food prices within bounds, " the price fixed 
by the competitive principle is extortionate, and we can have just 
prices only with arbitrary regulation." And so our economic 
principles appear to be at sixes and sevens. 

Not only are our economic principles in sad confusion, but 
the motives which lead men to economic action are said to be taking 
on freakish aspects. Owners of potatoes, it is said, for example, 
destroy them in carload lots for the purpose of increasing the value 
of their remaining holdings. Now this action would be imderstand- 
able if these owners held their wares under monopoly conditions, 
but it is not reported that they individually own a considerable 
fraction of the total supply or that they are acting in collision with 
other owners so as to establish a monopoly. Men have never 
before on land or sea acted in this way from this motive. There 
is of course the classical instance of the Cumaean Sibyl, who burned 
the six books and received the same price for the remaining three 
that she had originally asked for the whole nine. But it must be 
remembered that the Sibyl was a monopolist. If there had been 
other competing Sibyls in the neighborhood with equally good 
books she would probably have lost money in the venture. But the 
potato owners are competitors and not monopolists. It seems prob- 

^^^•^•-43 • Digitized by V3^wgle 



674 THE LAW OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND [Aug., 

able, therefore, that there has been some mistake made in reporting 
the facts in the case. 

Another case where it appears on the surface that the usual 
economic motives do not operate is that of wheat. While wheat is 
selling in the United States at two dollars or more a bushel, it is 
selling in Great Britain and France at a dollar and eighty cents, 
in spite of the fact that Great Britain and France are buying a 
large part of their supply in our markets. And it is reported that 
flour is relatively lower in price than wheat in those countries. 
The explanation of this strange situation is not difficult to find. 
The European governments are selling the wheat at a loss in order 
to give their people cheaper bread. The loss is being made up by 
taxation. Then, too, the war flour of Europe contains a larger 
percentage of the weight of the grain than does our flour. It is 
poorer in quality and therefore cheaper in price. Not only does it 
contain more of the wheat bran, but it also contains a considerable 
mixture of the flour of cheaper cereals than wheat. For these 
reasons it is not surprising that it should be sold at a lower price 
than American flour. 

Our wheat dealers, then, do not sell wheat to the Europeans at 
a lower price than that which the American millers pay. They sell 
now, as they have always sold, to all comers at the price fixed by 
the law of supply and demand. They are called extortioners not 
because they invoke a new principle in the establishing of prices, 
but because the conditions of supply and demand are now such as 
to establish prices at a high level. Contrary to a view that is gain- 
ing much currency, speculation does not necessarily result in extor- 
tion. Indeed under normal conditions speculation in food-stuffs 
is highly desirable from a social point of view. Under the influence 
of speculation and of the law of supply and demand, surplus food 
materials are normally kept from a time when they are less needed 
to a time when they are more needed, and are transferred from 
owners who need them less to owners who need them more. The 
speculators, of course, reap a reward for performing this important 
social function, and in ordinary times this reward is paid without 
much grumbling. But under our present war conditions, with the 
value of money falling and the value of food materials rising, the 
burden of the speculator's charge becomes more keenly felt, and 
we seek to have his service performed by other agencies at a lesser 
expense. 

The food situation with which we are confronted is substan- 



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1917.] THE LAW OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND 675 

tially this : the food producer must we well rewarded in order to 
encourage him to increase production; the food consumer must 
not be charged too high a price or he cannot purchase the neces- 
sary food. The middleman must be eliminated in as far as it is 
possible, in order to conserve the interests of both producer 
and consumer. The middleman is not to be eliminated because he 
is an extortioner, but because there is little or nothing left with 
which to pay him for his service after the producer has been paid 
out of what the consumer is able to pay for the food. Manifestly 
the middleman cannot be dispensed with unless some other agency 
can be found which will perform his work at little or no expense, 
or at a cost which is borne by someone other than the producer or 
consumer. 

The law of supply and demand is not to be allowed to work 
under the usual conditions. It must be mobilized for senace in the 
war. It will continue to be true that an increase in the supply or a 
decrease in the demand will lower prices, while a decrease in the 
supply or an increase in the demand will raise prices. But the 
demand and the supply themselves are to be regulated in new ways. 
Increase in supply and decrease in demand will be encouraged, and, 
with the work of the speculating middleman reduced to a minimum, 
the producer and consumer will come to a better understanding 
with each other than has prevailed in the immediate past. 

The new plan of mobilizing supply and demand, in so far 
as it relates to foods, may be considered under three heads. In 
the first place, the demand for our food products is to be regulated 
and limited by placing such restrictions upon exports as will guar- 
antee a sufficiency to ourselves at reasonable prices, and give the 
surplus to our Allies in so far as they need it, leaving whatever 
remainder there may be for the neutrals. Secondly, governmental 
agencies are to be interposed between producer and consumer for 
the purpose of saving to them the profit of the speculating middle- 
man. The increased price which this arrangement will secure for 
the producer will encourage him to increase the supply. And finally, 
the food consumers are to be brought together into a food con- 
serving organization which, through the saving of waste and 
the simplifying of diet, will afifect favorably both 'supply and 
demand. 

Power to control exports was given to the President in the 
espionage law, which makes it unlawful to export from the United 
States articles which the President has proclaimed it against the 



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676 THE LAW OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND [Aug., 

public safety to export, except under such conditions as he may 
prescribe. Under the terms of that act an Exports Council has 
already been established, and has undertaken the elaboration of 
machinery for the administration of the law. 

At the time of the appointment of the members of the Exports 
Council, President Wilson issued a statement in which he outlined 
its policy. " Our primary duty in the matter of foodstuffs and like 
necessaries," he said, " is to see to it that the peoples associated with 
us in the war get as generous a proportion as possible of our 
surplus, but it will also be our wish and purpose to supply the 
neutral nations whose peoples depend upon us for such supplies 
as nearly in proportion to their need as the amount to be divided 
permits." The policy here announced differs from that which 
has hitherto prevailed, in that under the former policy of com- 
petitive buying neutrals entered our markets upon equal terms with 
our Allies and ourselves, and the amounts which they were able to 
take away depended on their bidding power in the open market. 
Under the new plan the amount which they can get is relatively 
independent of their purchasing power. They can get only what 
is left over, and they cannot even get so much when there is danger 
that they will use it to furnish aid to the enemy. 

On July 9th, in accordance with the provisions of the espion- 
age act, the President issued a proclamation requiring persons ex- 
porting certain classes of commodities after July 15th to secure 
licenses from the Department of Commferce. The list of commod- 
ities mentioned in the proclamation included, among other things, 
coal, coke, fuel oils, kerosene and gasoline, food grains, flour and 
meal therefrom, fodder and feeds, meat and fats, pig-iron, steel 
billets, and certain other iron and steel products. The reason 
given in the proclamation for the embargo against and the licensing 
of the export of these articles, was that ** the public safety requires 
that succor shall be prevented from reaching the enemy," but 
in a supplementary statement the President explained that "in 
controlling by license the export of certain indispensable commodi- 
ties from the United States, the Government has first and chiefly 
in view the amelioration of the food conditions which have arisen 
or are likely to arise in our own country before new crops are har- 
vested." Through the licensing system the Government will be 
enabled to keep a close watch on exports to the various countries, 
and to put a stop to such exports wherever and whenever it becomes 
to our interest to do so. 



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1917.] THE LAW OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND 677 

The second part of the programme, namely, the abolition of 
the speculating middleman, is the one which is apparently the most 
difficult to accomplish. As these lines are being written it seems 
certain that some legislative device will be adopted to reduce 
speculation to a minimum, but there is the greatest uncertainty 
as to the nature of the device. As the food control bill was 
originally proposed, provision was made for the fixing of both 
maximum and minimimi prices. Early in its history, however, the 
idea of a rigid maximum price was abandoned, and in its place was 
substituted a plan to regulate the price to the consumer by a system 
of Government licensing and Government purchase and sale. The 
minimum price below which the food products should not be sold 
and which was to be guaranteed by the Government to the producer 
still remains a feature of the bill. This provision was designed to 
encourage production, and to secure the support of the farming 
element of the population for the legislation. It has not been en- 
tirely successful in accomplishing this purpose, however, as the 
amount of the minimum has remained in doubt, and the farmers 
appear to be afraid that when the law goes into effect and the Presi- 
dent proceeds to determine and establish the minimum price to be 
paid to the farmer, he will listen to the pleas of the consumers and 
especially to the plea of organized labor, with the result that the in- 
terests of the producing farmers will be lost sight of. and a mini- 
mum price will be fixed too low to reward the producer fairly for his 
efforts. To obviate this difficulty many of the representatives of 
the farming interests in Congress are struggling to have the mini- 
mum price named in the law, and not left to the tender mercies 
of the President and his advisers. 

The farmers as a class cannot be said to be even mildly en- 
thusiastic over the proposal to abolish, speculation in the cereals. 
In May speculation had run the price of wheat up considerably 
above three dollars a bushel, whereas at the present time it is in 
the neighborhood of two dollars. The farmers believe that this 
falling off in price is largely the result of the present l^islative 
campaign against speculation, and they consider therefore that the 
legislation is hostile to their immediate interests. This, of course, 
is no indictment against the patriotism of the farmers. They are 
willing to make whatever sacrifices may be necessary, but that does 
not prevent them from seeing that they are making sacrifices. 
Their situation is identical with that of the coal or steel producers 
or the labor interests. All are willing to do their bit, but each 

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678 THE LAW OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND [Aug., 

feels that if his interests is to be looked after it must be done by 
the friends of the particular interest. 

The conflict of interests is, of course, the root difficulty in the 
way of the immediate mobilization of the law of supply and de- 
mand for war purposes. The different interests know what their 
prospects are if the law of supply and demand continues to be 
operated in the old way. The producing interests are likely to reap 
an advantage while the consuming and taxpaying interests are 
likely to suffer. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that, 
on the whole, individuals, in so far as they are producers, would 
be gainers, and in so far as they are consumers and taxpayers 
would be losers by permitting the free play of competition at this 
time. In order to safeguard the interests of individuals as con- 
sumers and taxpayers, it becomes necessary to legislate restrictions 
upon free competition, but before deciding where the restrictions 
are to be placed, it becomes necessary to consult the conflicting 
interests of the same individuals as producers. 

The charge that freely competitive production is planless and 
extremely wasteful, is not now made for the first time, nor is it 
truer now than it has been in the past. It has always contained 
a considerable amount of truth. But the need for avoiding 
planless and wasteful production is much greater in the present 
crisis than it has been heretofore. Moreover, it is now possible 
to bring pressure to bear upon the individual as producer to agree 
to compromise legislation in a way that would not be possible in 
time of peace. It is in the light of these circumstances that emer- 
gency measures are now being adopted, that under other conditions 
would rightly be objected to as socialistic. 

As we have seen, the supply of and the demand for food 
materials are to be modified during the War by restricting expor- 
tation and by eliminating speculation in foodstuffs as far as feasi- 
ble. But there still remains to be mentioned a very important 
phase of the campaigiyf or controlling the food supply. This is the 
voluntary organization of the consumers for the purpose of avoid- 
ing waste in food consumption. Since the preparation of the foods 
for final consumption is practically entirely in the hands of the 
women of the country, this phase of the movement addresses itself 
especially to them. 

To carry out the plan of organizing the consumers a central 
staff under the direction of Mr. Hoover is already at work in 
Washington. The members of this staff are volunteers, mostly t 

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1917] THE LAW OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND 679 

women, who are donating their time to the cause. This bureau of 
food administration uses a variety of agencies in getting in touch 
with the women who direct the consumption of food throughout the 
country. In the first place pledge cards are widely distributed by 
the bureau to be signed by those handling food in the homes. 
Those receiving the cards are asked to sign the pledge, in which 
they agree to carry out the directions and advice of the Food Ad- 
ministrator in the conduct of their households as far as their cir- 
cumstances permit. Upon receipt of these pledge cards the bureau 
sends instructions to the homekeepers explaining the methods to be 
used in conserving food. 

The Food Administration is making use of the Council of Na- 
tional Defence to bring its campaign before the public. The Coun- 
cil of National Defence is in touch with the Council of Defence 
of the various States, and these local organizers are or- 
ganizing the work of the Food Administration locally. In addi- 
tion lectures on food conservation are being delivered in summer 
schools and at county fairs throughout the country, and it is expected 
that in the fall the schools will take up the work of teaching thrift 
in the homes. 

A few extracts from the advice of the Food Administrator will 
indicate the nature of the crusade : "Save the wheat. One wheatless 
meal a day. Use com, oatmeal, rye or barley bread and non-wheat 

breakfast foods If each person weekly saves one pound of 

wheat flour, that means one hundred and fifty million more bushels 
of wheat for the Allies to mix in their bread." " Save the meat. 
Beef, mutton or pork not more than once daily. Use freely vege- 
tables and fish. At the meat meal serve smaller portions, and stews 
instead of steaks. Make made-dishes of all left-overs. Do this and 
there will be meat enough for everyone at a reasonable price. 

If we save an ounce of meat each day per person, we will 

have additional supply equal to two million two hundred thousand 
cattle." " Save the milk. The children must have milk. Use 
every drop. Use buttermilk and sour milk for cooking and making 
cottage cheese. Use less cream." " Save the fats. Use butter on 

the table as usual but not in cooking. Other fats are as good 

Save daily one-third ounce animal fats three hundred and 

seventy-five thousand tons will be saved yearly." "Save the sugar. 

So there may be enough for all at reasonable price, use less 

candy and sweet drinks." " Save the fuel. Coal comes from a 
distance and our railways are overburdened hauling war material." ^ 

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68o THE LAW OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND [Aug., 

" Use the perishable foods. Fruits and vegetables we have in 
abundance. As a nation we eat too little green stuffs. Double their 
use and improve your health. Store potatoes and other roots 
properly and they will keep. Begin now to can or dry all surplus 
garden products." " Use local supplies." A very extensive public- 
ity campaign is being undertaken, and it is expected that these 
appeals to patriotism and to self-interest will show important 
results. 

The law of supply and demand, then, is not to be abolished, 
but it is to be mobilized for the purposes of the War. Supply and 
demand are to be regulated and controlled in new ways. The self- 
interest which will move men to economic action will be enlightened 
by patriotism. It will not be a narrow and a shortsighted selfish- 
ness, but rather a self-interest broad enough to include the national 
interest That is the ideal. Undoubtedly there will be many busi- 
ness men who will not attain to it. But there is already an in- 
spiring array of representatives of big business who have ac- 
cepted it. 



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IRew Books. 

LITERATURE IN THE MAKING. By Some of Its Makers. 

Presented by Joyce Kilmer. New York : Harper & Brothers. 

$1.40 net. 

Here is a book of fascinating quality and wide appeal, for 
what could be of more interest or invite a larger body of prospec- 
tive readers than an intimate, personal and first-hand account of 
talks with our leading writers concerning the " inside " affairs of 
their profession. 

This symposium of literary opinions includes those of such 
widely different authors as William Dean Howells, Kathleen 
Norris, Booth Tarkington, Montague Glass, Rex Beach, Robert W. 
Chambers, James Lane Allen, Harry Leon Wilson, Edward S. Mar- 
tin, Robert Herrick, Arthur Guiterman, George Barr McCutcheon, 
Frank H. Spearman, Will N. Harben, John Erskine, John Bur- 
roughs, Ellen Glasgow, Fannie Hurst, Amy Lowell, Edwin Arlington 
Robinson, Josephine Preston Peabody, Charles Rann Kennedy, and 
Percy MacKaye; and not the least of its pleasant surprises is that 
these writers more often than not express ideas with which they 
are not commonly associated by the public. Hence not only do we 
gain first hand, authoritative opinion, but a new light on the actual 
personalities of the men and women who are the makers of our 
present-day literature. 

The composer of the volume modestly offers it as " presented " 
by himself ; and we wonder how many readers will realize all that 
resides in that word " presented." For interviewing is an art, and 
one not easy of attainment, and Mr. Kilmer merits praise for his 
exercise of the art. To let one's " characters " talk, to keep one- 
self in the background, and yet not to such an extent as to give 
the effect of a monologue ; to put the " vexed " questions at the 
right moment and with discretion ; to interpolate casually and by 
the way the information necessary for the reader's full understand- 
ing — these are things liable to pass unnoticed of the multitude. 
Although the American interviewer has long been the bete noir 
of famous traveling Britishers, he really fills an important place 
in the scheme of things; and certainly only an ungrateful celebrity 
would complain when Mr. Kilmer " presents " him. 

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682 NEIV BOOKS [Aug., 

A THOUSAND YEARS OF RUSSIAN HISTORY. By Soma E. 

Howe. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co. $2.50 net. 

The somewhat pretentious title does not fully correspond to 
the content of the volume. The author rightly remarks that 
in England great ignorance prevails about Russia as a whole. Her 
book, therefore, seeks to convey general impressions of the various 
stages of Russia's evolution, and to give sketches of the lives of 
those of her rulers who have stamped their era with the mark of 
their personality. At times she is pleased to be rather the reserved 
apologist than unbiassed historian. The work lacks proportion in 
treatment. A comparatively small section is devoted to the origins 
and earliest history of Russia, most of the volume being devoted 
to the lives of the Russian autocrats from Peter the Great to 
Alexander II. Besides, the life of the latter Tsar is but incom- 
pletely traced. The volimie closes with the dramatic episode of 
the emancipation of the Russian serfs in 1861. 

As a popular history of Russia, the volume of Sonia E. Howe 
is a highly interesting work, remarkable for fullness of information, 
elegance and ease of style, dramatic force of narrative and mas- 
tery in character portrayal. It has all the fascination of a novel, 
so skillful is the writer in the organic synthesis of the historical ma- 
terial she has exploited in her literary work. Some complimentary 
chapters outline the past and present of the Ukraine, Poland, Fin- 
land and of the Baltic provinces. They are written with great 
care, especially the last, which describes the heroic resistance of 
Finland to the oft-repeated aggressions of the policy of Russifi- 
cation. 

It is a matter of regret that the author stops her narrative at 
the beginning of the reign of Alexander II. The period follow- 
ing that event down to the tragic end of the reign of Nicholas II. 
is exceedingly dramatic, and now-a-days, when the eyes of the 
whole world are turned towards Russia, an historical survey of this 
period would have increased the value and interest of this excel- 
lent book. 

The author touches in a few pages on the religious history of 
Russia, yet not always with a dexterous hand. For instance, she 
is not right in affirming that the new constitution of the Russian 
Church was outlined by Peter the Great. " The " Spiritual Regula- 
tion " of the Holy Synod was conceived and framed by Theophan 
(not Theophal, p. loi) Prokopovich, "a learned theologian," too, 
but a strong asserter of the main doctrinal positions of Luther- 
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1917] NEW BOOKS 683 

anism, which he strove to impart to the Russian Orthodoxy. 
On p. 266 she says that the only Church which made propaganda 

in Russia was that of Rome but she fails to note that the 

Catholic propaganda in Russia was carried on by means of apos- 
tolic labors, whereas that of the Russian Church, which culminated 
in the complete ruin of the United Ruthenian Church under Peter 
the Great, Catherine II. and Nicholas I., had recourse to violence 
and brutality, and added new pages to the martyrology of the 
Catholic Church in Russia. 

Catholics cannot overlook the false and unfavorable criticism 
of the educationol work of the Jesuits in Poland. In his well- 
documented works, F. S. Zalenski, S.J., vindicates the honor of 
his confreres against such false accusations. 

The writer says but a few words of Sergii Krishanich. It 
would have been timely to have placed in stronger relief the ener- 
getic personality of that Catholic priest who first advocated the 
racial and political imity of the Slavs. 

SOME EXPERIENCES IN HUNGARY: AUGUST, 1914, TO 
JANUARY, 1915. By Mina MacDonald. New York : Long- 
mans, Green & Co. $1.25 net. 

This book may be called a garland of impressions woven by 
an English lady, who, at the outbreak of the War, was living in 
the vicinity of Pressburg, Hungary, as the companion of the two 
daughters of an Hungarian magnate. It is easy to understand that 
her position was far from agreeable. The family, whose " enemy " 
and guest she found herself, endeavored to make her forget the 
unpleasantness of her surroundings. At the same time, being a 
lover of truth, she never made any secret of her opinions about the 
War, while, on the other hand, her hosts discussed the same theme 
in her presence with pathetic frankness. At last, in January, 191 5, 
she was able to return to England, and to acquaint her countrymen 
with her experiences in Hungary. 

The lively narrative of her vicissitudes is sketched in a gay 
and alert style, with an abundant vein of fine humor. At times, 
however, a pathetic note casts a shadow over the cheerful tone of 
her stor)^ The description of the suflFerings of the wounded soldiers 
in the gigantic battles in Galicia is filled with dramatic interest. 
As a rule, the writer refrains from touching the political sides 
of the War. But with all due reserve and moderation of state- 
ment, she frequently provides her readers with valuable informa- 

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684 NEW BOOKS [Aug., 

tion as to the conflicting aims and aspirations of the varied races 
of the Austrian empire. The book is beautifully illustrated and 
makes delightful reading. 

A DIVERSITY OF CREATURES. By Rudyard Kipling. Garden 

City, New York: Doubleday, Page & Co. $1.50 net. 

In these stories Kipling presents the lamentable spectacle of 
the writer who has written himself out From As Easy as A, B.C., 
a wearisome, drawn-out, scientific tale in the early H. G. Wells man- 
ner, to Mary Postgate, an account of the War's reactive eflfect on 
two lonely women, he gives on the whole only meagre evidence 
of that power which in the eighteen-nineties made his name famous 
over the globe. 

Of course, the fourteen tales vary in merit, but by a curious 
grouping the poorest and dullest rank first, so that the reader is 
obliged to pass through some very arid stretches before he comes 
to the last five stories, the best of the collection. Only four of the 
stories were written since the War began, and in two of these — 
Swept and Garnished and Mary Postgate, the most compressed and 
altogether most artistic tales in the book — we get the real war at- 
mosphere. 

In the book there are two stories of practical jokes on a large 
scale — The Village that Voted the Earth was Flat and The Horse 
Marines. The last is the better, and has more than a little 
of the old rollicking humor of Soldiers Three. The Village 
that Voted the Earth was Flat is interesting in conception, but is 
drawn out to such impossible conclusions and to such an un- 
conscionable length as to destroy its eflfect. 

Paired oflf with each story and re-interpreting it, is a set of 
verses, but these never rise superior to their occasion and frequently 
fall below it. Altogether this book will add nothing to Kipling's 
reputation, and would receive scant attention from either reviewers 
or readers were it not for the prestige of his earlier work. 

THE BIRD STUDY BOOK. By T. Gilbert Pearson, Secretary 
National Association of Audubon Societies. With Pen and 
Ink Drawings by Will Simmons. Garden City, New York: 
Doubleday, Page & Co. $1.25 net. 

Mr. Pearson's book is for the people who know next to noth- 
ing about birds, but are ready to attempt their acquaintance. It 
is a most readable book, very simple and practical, and well calcu- 

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1917] NEW BOOKS 68s 

lated to initiate the inexperienced in those quiet joys that dis- 
tinguish the student of bird life. It presents briefly much informa- 
tion that would be overwhelming in formidable scientific publica- 
tions ; and is intended to stimulate rather than to satisfy. Those 
who are disposed to cultivate an intelligent interest in the habits 
of their bird neighbors, will find the necessary help and inspiration 
for beginners in the matter here presented for their guidance. 

THE FRAGRANT NOTE BOOK. By C Arthur Coan. New 

York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. $2.50. 

This book addresses itself to lovers, not makers, of gardens. 
In its content there is, as the author warns us, " of horticulture 
not a word," but its prettily decorated pages are a treasure-house 
of flower-lore, legends, myths, traditions and stories of history 
connected with the blossoms that perfume the summer air. These 
are told in charming prose, as well as in much poetry, some original, 
some quoted. The appearance of the volume is handsome, and it 
will doubtless figure as a gift-book. 

THE PREACHER OF CEDAR MOUNTAIN. By Ernest Thomp- 

son Seton. Garden City, New York : Doubleday, Page & Co. 

$1.35 net. 

Mr. Seton's contribution diflfers in character from the writ- 
ings we are accustomed to receive from him. It is a picture of 
life in the Western country some fifty years ago; not life in 
mining camps, but in the open. It tells the story of James Harti- 
gan's struggle to fulfill the wish of his dying mother, that he 
should enter the Methodist Church and become a preacher, a 
calling for which he possesses one qualification, the gift of oratory; 
of how he is handicapped by two powerful factors for evil, an 
inheritance from his father in the shape of a craving for strong 
drink, and a love of horses and horse-racing that nearly causes 
his undoing; of how he is helped to conquer by the woman who 
as sweetheart and as wife holds him to high standards and restores 
his courage when he falls. He is an attractive hero, handsome and 
brawny, giving more than one practical demonstration of the mus- 
cular quality of his Christianity. 

The book is vaguely reminiscent of others along similar lines ; 
it is readable, however, and, as might be expected, it breathes 
a spirit of love of nature, and contains many beautiful word-pic- 
tures of landscapes. 

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686 NEW BOOKS [Aug., 

ENCHANTMENT. By E. Temple Thurston. New York: D. 

Appleton & Co. $1.50 net. 

Mr. Thurston has before now written novels around the oc- 
casional hardships that the Church's laws entail upon the faith- 
ful, but he has not hitherto gone to such lengths of extravagance 
as in the present instance. In view of his intimate acquaintance 
with the heart and mind of the Irish people, this novel, based upon 
what purports to be a phase of Irish Catholicism, can scarcely be 
regarded otherwise than deliberate and willful misrepresentation in 
both theme and treatment. The impious layman whom he presumes 
to call a " good Catholic," is hardly more objectionable than the 
priest who is tacitly presented as typical. Such wretched travesties 
could not be set forth in good faith by any writer save one totally 
Ignorant of the Church, especially as she is found in Ireland. 

Despite its title, there is little charm of any kind in the book. 
It is a disagreeable story, founded on a preposterous premise, and 
can give employment only to those whose animus against the 
Church is sufficient to impart zest to anything written in her dis- 
paragement. 

AN UNWILLING TRAVELER. By Mary E. Donovan. St. 

Louis: B. Herder. 80 cents net. 

Merit of somewhat more than the average of its class is in this 
pleasant little story. It tells the experiences of a ten-year old girl, 
Anne, during a few moments spent in the prairie home of some 
relatives. Nothing momentous occurs; but the author evidently 
realizes the keen interest that normal children take in the 
practical conduct of life under new conditions, the things that can 
be seen and handled. The happy time is interrupted by a highly 
dramatic incident that throws the small heroine into distress and dif- 
ficulties, from which she is extricated largely by her own good 
sense and good behavior. Though plainly a sequel, no serious 
reading is requisite to make the tale complete; nevertheless, the 
young reader who first made Anne's acquaintance in this volimie 
will want to know all about her from the beginning. 

THE MASTJER'S WORD IN THE EPISTLES AND GOSPELS. 

By Rev. Thomas Flynn, C.C. Two volumes. New York: 

Benziger Brothers. $3.00 net. 

In these sixty sermons Father Flynn has set forth in a simple 
and orderly manner the special lessons of the Epistles and Gospels 



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1917.] NEW BOOKS 687 

of the Sundays and special feasts of the year. Each sermon 
is based on a text from both Epistle and Gospel, and brings out 
in brief but suggestive fashion the Church's teaching on faith and 
morals. 

AN EVENING IN MY LIBRARY AMONG THE ENGLISH 
POETS. By Stephen Coleridge. New York: John Lane Co. 

$1.25 net. 

This book is rather a personal expression of likes and dis- 
likes in the field of poetry than a work of genuine criticism, that 
will have an abiding value in one's own library. The author has 
collected some of his favorite poems and commented on them and 
their authors: sometimes wisely, as when he refuses to praise all 
of Whitman, sometimes without wisdom, as when he talks about 
Francis Thompson without a mention of The Hound of Heaven, 

Mr. Coleridge likes Longfellow, but declines to be impressed 
by Excelsior; once in a while he offers too lavish praise to a poem 
good enough in itself, but not quite good enough for a judicious 
critic's larger encomium. Mr. Coleridge illustrates his taste in 
poetry by examples from the poets of Great Britain, Canada, Aus- 
tralia, and the United States, and chooses many fair flowers to 
show what the English-speaking world has done to translate life 
in the beauty of rhythm and rhyme. 

It is very refreshing in these days of frankness and realism 
to find a critic withholding his praise from rubbish, and worse, 
that many a poet allows himself to write and his publishers to print. 
The present critic is generally on the right side in this respect. 

One could wish for a better arrangement of the subject-matter, 
and for a breaking up of the content of the volume into chapters. 
The transitions from one subject to another are often too abrupt 
and too forced to allow the reader easily to get a proper view of 
the author's design. 

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH FROM WITHIN. By Alice Lady 
Lovat. New York: Longmans, Green & Co. $1.25. 
This is the third edition of a book which has done excellent 
service in the cause of Catholic truth. It is addressed to Catholic 
and non-Catholic alike, and its purpose is to aid both in the de- 
velopment of the supernatural life of the soul. It is especially 
valuable for its chapters on the beauty, variety and meaning of the 
liturgy, the giving and taking scandal, the necessity of religious 
education, and the cultivation of Catholic instincts. 



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688 NEW BOOKS [Aug., 

THE MONKS OF WESTMINSTER. By E. H. Pearce. New 

York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. $3.00. 

The Abbots of Westminster are fairly well known to his- 
tory. Their life, however, was spent for the most part outside 
the Abbey itself. Frequently they were sent by the King on 
foreign embassies, and even when at home they resided as a rule 
at their manor house of La Neyte. 

The daily life of the convent, which Canon Pearce tries to 
picture for us, depended on the Prior and his brethren. In the 
present volume, with most painstaking labor, he has compiled a 
list of the priests and monks of the Abbey from the time of Ed- 
ward the Confessor to the Dissolution ( 1049-1540). He has found 
in the compotus rolls and muniments seven hundred and six names 
in all, the majority of whom joined the monastery in the fourteenth 
century. These names are arranged in chronological order, and a 
brief summary of their lives is added. The volume will remain 
an invaluable book for the future historian. 

Outside of a brief appendix of three pages, little is said 
about the monks under Queen Mary, and the suppression is prac- 
tically ignored. We have only the names of those who signed 
the deed of surrender, January 16, 1540. 

THE SACRAMENTS. By Rt. Rev. Mgr. Joseph Pohle, D.D. 
Authorized English Version by Arthur Preuss. Volume IV. 
$1.50 net. 
ESCHATOLOGY. By Rt. Rev. Mgr. Joseph Pohle, D.D. Au- 
thorized English version by Arthur Preuss. St. Louis: B. 
Herder. $1.00 net. 

The eleventh and twelfth volumes of the Pohle-Preuss series 
of dogmatic textbooks contain the treatises on Extreme Unction, 
Holy Orders and Matrimony, Death, Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, 
the Resurrection of the Body and the Last Judgment. They fol- 
low the traditional method, providing the thesis by Scripture and 
tradition, and answering in a brief manner the common objections 
of non-Catholics. The bibliography has been brought up to date 
by the English translator. 

SERMONS AND DISCOURSES. By Rt. Rev. John McQuirk. 

New York: St. Paul's Library. 

Monsignor McQuirk, the Rector of St. Paul's Church, New 
York City, has just published a third volume of his parochial ser- 



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1917.I NEW BOOKS 689 

mons. They are suggestive, timely, well-written and thoughtful. 
The present volume contains doctrinal sermons on the Incarnation, 
the Divinity of Christ, and Purgatory; moral sermons on Sin, 
Death, Judgment and Intemperance ; and panegyrics on St. Cecilia 
and St. Patrick. ' \^ 1 v 

• • . •■ •^••V- • v^-l 
THE STORY OF THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES,*' b/ rJv. 

Denis Lynch, S.J. New York: Benziger Brothers. $1.75 net. 

Father L)mch, in this excellent commentary on the Acts of the 
Apostles, gives a detailed and accurate study of the development 
of primitive Christianity. In simple and popular fashion he de- 
scribes the first preaching of the Gospel after Pentecost, the first 
persecutions, the deacons and their work, the Council of Jerusalem, 
and the three missionary journeys of St. Paul. Most of the illus- 
trations are from present-day photographs of Jerusalem, Lydda, 
Antioch, Miletus, Athens, Corinth, Ephesus and Caesarea. 

ST. BERNARD, ABBOT OF CLAIRVAUX. The Notre Dame 

Series of Lives of the Saints. St. Louis : B. Herder. $1.25. 

The figure of the distinguished Cistercian here stands out as 
the embodiment of his age. From the first chapter, which sets 
forth the ideal of monasticism in mediaeval times, through the 
thorny days of Citeaux, we follow the story with deeper interest 
than any romance. With a faith so vivid that it seems vision, 
the noble band, under Bernard's leadership, leave earthly for heav- 
enly gain, even the children holding the former as dross, and 
reckoning themselves worsted in the bargain of life when left heirs 
of .lorldly manors and estates. 

A veritable breath of Pentecost seems to have swept over the 
face of Christendom, and once again the desert bloomed as the 
rose. 

Bernard had fled the world for solitude, but as the friend 
of the Bridegroom he was consumed with zeal for the Church, 
the Bride of Christ. So long as valiant soul and frail body held 
together he must spend and be spent for souls. Pope and anti-Pope, 
ruler and Crusader, schismatic and heretic, each in turn felt his 
marvelous influence. Peter Leone and Abelard; Pons of Cluny 
and Gilbert de la Porree; William of Aquitaine and other feudal 
lords of his ilk, met with the unflinching opposition of the saint, 
while all that was virtuous and great and good gathered round the 
humble monk ! His winning personality, his noble detachment, his 

VOL. cv.— 44 ^ T 

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ready humor all combine to produce a character, whose far-reach- 
ing influence left an ineffaceable impression on his century. The 
work of St. Bernard and his order easily refutes* the stupid preju- 
dice which counts the mediaeval monk as useless to his fellowmen. 
One has but to read this book to realize the debt of Christendom 
to great Bernard of Clairvaux. 

POLAND'S CASE FOR INDEPENDENCE. Being a series of es- 
says illustrating the continuance of her national life. By the 
Polish Relief Committee. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. 
$3.00 net. 

In his famous work, Poland, George Brandes writes : " We 
love Polond as we love freedom. Poland is a symbol, a symbol 
of all for which the best of the human race have either loved or 
fought." This well-deserved love for Poland has grown with 
the great tragedy of the World War. "A great part of that gigantic 
struggle has been waged on Polish land, and aims at the possession 
of Polish territory. Polish towns have been destroyed, Polish 
villages burnt, Polish industries ruined, and the remaining rem- 
nants of the nation's glorious past have been annihilated. Worst 
and most deplorable of all, her sons have had to fight against one 
another in the different armies. Yet, when the day of peace comes 
and the ministers and diplomatists of Europe are gathered round 
a table to discuss the grave and vital problems of the future, there 
will be none to represent that Poland which has known famine 
and devastation, that Poland which has become the cockpit of the 
East, where innumerable armies have fought and held up the 
others." 

No wonder, then, that Poles, looking to a better future and 
the realization of their patriotic aims, assert with the pen their 
imprescriptible right to national independence. 

The present volume is the collective voice of Poland for the 
defence of Polish claims. It comprehends the following treatises : 
I. Landmarks of Polish History; 11. Poland's Struggle for In- 
dependence; III. Poland as an Independent Economic Unity; IV. 
Polish Literature; V. Polish Art; VI. Polish Music; VII. Intel- 
lectual Poland. These essays, sketched by Polish writers, with 
exception of the one on Polish music, are designed to throw light 
on the continuance of Polish national life, and to interpret the 
manifestations of that life to foreigners, especially the people of 
Great Britain. 

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The spirit of ardent patriotism, the same indomitable will to 
restore new life to Poland, the same hope of a united and inde- 
pendent Poland give synthetic unity to this collective work. 

Of course, not all the data contained in this book will meet 
with unanimous approval. Lithuanians, for instance, and Ruthe- 
nians will not subscribe to the statistics here presented concerning 
their own nationalities. An impartial critic will find several bom- 
bastic expressions in the essays on the Polish art and music. These 
may perhaps be excusable because they spring from a tender and 
almost ecstatic love of the mother country. 

The sketch on the Polish literature by Jan Holewinski is most 
elaborate. Nevertheless, we should have preferred to find in it 
sounder criticism of writers, who in ^ite of their talents have 
shown a lack of good moral taste, and too great a fondness for the 
standards of a shameful type of realism. We might mention, for 
example, Zeromski. Furthermore, one page of this essay has the 
unmistakable odor of anti-clericalism. The writer overestimates 
the literary influence of the Reformation upon the Polish mind. 
The following passage in particular merits strong condemnation: 
"Jesuitism seized upon Poland, and held her in its grip till the 
middle of the eighteenth century. The influence of the Jesuits 
was enormous; they ruled the minds, the schools were in their 
hands, and they lowered the intellectual level so that the literary 
field became almost sterile, except, perhaps, for the traditional 
eloquence; even this became infected with ecclesiastical Latin, and 
resulted in a macaronic medley, without value either as Latin or 
as Polish " (p. 188). The truth is that the Jesuits not only spread 
and gave firm root to the highest culture among the Poles, but they 
contributed powerfully to the fastening of the bonds of political 
unity, and to the religious and literary influence of Poland upon her 
non-Polish subjects. 

THE INFLUENCE OF HORACE ON THE CHIEF ENGLISH 
POETS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, By Mary Re- 
becca Thayer. New York: Yale University Press. $1.00. 
In a lengthy introduction Miss Thayer discusses the character- 
istics of Horace and his poetry, and his influence upon his con- 
temporaries and writers through the centuries. The author enu- 
merates both the unquestionable and probable traces of Horace in 
the seven principal poets of the nineteenth century, Wordsworth, 
Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Keats, Tennyson, and Browning. The 

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work is carefully done, and her readers will certainly welcome 
also her promised volume on the wider theme, Horace and English 
Literature. 

EPICTETUS. The Discourses and Manual. Translated by P. E. 

Matheson, M.A. New York: The Oxford Press. $1.50 each 

net. 

Rome was not built in a day — oft we have heard this story 
told — ^and the more one studies the history of the ancient world 
the more strongly one becomes convinced that the Empire ruled 
by the Tiber city was not destroyed in a day. In very truth much . 
of Rome was not destroyed at all, but only changed hands like the 
gold of a careful ancestor. 

We are sometimes in our easy interpretation of the philosophy 
of history led to a belief that Roman character must have been 
at a rather low stage in the days after Augustus. When we think 
of Nero and Domitian and their persecution of the Christians, 
more than a few of us are willing to think that the Roman people 
must have been a depraved throng, that they had fallen sadly 
from their high estate of simplicity and justice, and that their 
spiritual side was bankrupt. Of course, this is not true, and noth- 
ing convinces us of the interpenetration of a philosophy of life 
with the acting of life more than a reading of the Discourses and 
Manual of Epictetus. 

About this man, the chief exponent of the Stoic philosophy, 
with the possible exception of Marcus Aurelius, next to nothing is 
known. We do know, however, that he was a slave, that he came 
to Rome from Phrygia, that he was lame. Through the grace of 
his master, Epaphroditus, a freedman of Nero, he attended the 
lectures of the Stoic Musonius Rufus. In course of time he ob- 
tained his freedom and became a teacher of philosophy. The 
Emperor Domitian expelled the philosophers from Rome and all 
Italy in the year 89, so Epictetus went to Nicopolis, in Epirus. 
There he lectured to those who came to him, his students including 
young men from Italy and the Greek East. Some of these were 
serious youths who asked no better delight than the joys of specu- 
lative thought; others were practical young men to whom the 
- world of aflfairs appealed, and who were pursuing philosophy as a 
training for the offices that were multiplying with the ever-enlarg- 
ing empire. It was one of the latter type, one Flavins Arrianus, 
of Nicomedia in Bithynia, afterward a consul, to whom we owe the 

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Greek original of the Discourses and Manual of Epictetus. Ar- 
rianus made notes of the master's lectures, " to preserve his sayings 
as reminders for myself of the nature of his mind and the directness 
of his speech." 

The present translation of the Discourses of Epictetus, made 
by Mr. Matheson of New College, Oxford, is an admirable piece 
of work. It is charmingly bound in two dainty volumes that 
seem to bespeak the Greek flavor of the philosophy that lies within. 
One of the features of the present edition is a running summary of 
the argument printed as a marginal interpretation. This additional 
offering of Mr. Matheson is a very useful aid not alone for one 
who desires to add Epictetus to his list of light reading, but for 
those who would make a comparative study of Christian beliefs 
and ideals and the aspirations and motivations of the Stoic school. 

To read Epictetus is to find that conduct is the major portion 
of life; and that the highest good is to follow the light of reason. 
Man is captain of his soul, believes Epictetus, and his conduct 
consists in ruling his will correctly. Still he believed ^that the 
highest virtue is to be found in the wisest, and that sin is an error 
of judgment rather than of the individual. In this, as one example, 
we can see wherein he falls short of a proper Christian view of 
good and evil. Another weakness of the Stoic philosophy was 
that it held no belief in the permanent character of each individual 
human soul, and offered no happiness beyond the grave. However, 
generally speaking, it was undoubtedly the finest theory of life in 
those pagan days, a guide to plain living and high thinking that 
made its followers in the Empire better and wiser than most of 
the adherents of Epicurus. And it is pleasant and probably safe 
to believe that the Epictetus who could advise his followers to 
" think of God more frequently than you breathe," prepared many 
an eager Roman youth for the truth and beauty of the wisdom of 
Galilee. 

NEW ENGLAND. By Clifton Johnson. New York: The Mac- 

millan Co. $1.00. 

This beautifully illustrated geographical reader presents a 
general view of those characteristics which give New England 
interest and charm. Its youthful readers will find in its pages count- 
less facts drawn from biography, literature, legend, nature and his- 
tory. It is as entertaining as it is instructive, but the author be- 
trays his prejudice by absolute silence regarding all things Catholic. 

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694 NEIV BOOKS [Aug., 

BELGIUM'S CASE. By Ch. de Visscher. New York : George H. 

Doran Co. $i.oo net. 
THE GERMAN FURY IK BELGIUM. By L. Mokveld. New 

York: Hodder and Stoughton. $i.oo net. 
FALSE WITNESS. By Johannes Jorgensen. New York: Hodder 

& Stoughton. $i.oo net. 

In Belgium's Case Ch. de Visscher, Professor of Law in the 
University of Ghent, marshals the arguments for and against 
Germany's action, analyzes them with an admirable degree of care, 
and offers his results to the world as his contribution to the defence 
of Belgium in resisting the march of the Prussians. It is a schol- 
arly work, written without bias or a desire to cloud the issues, and 
is worth the consideration of all who would like the legal issues of 
the question treated in an entire and comprehensive manner. A 
bibliography of Dutch, Belgian, French, German and American 
writings on the subject is appended. The work is translated from 
the French by E. F. Jourdain, of St. Hugh's College, Oxford, and 
has an interesting preface by J. Van den Heuvel, Minister of State 
and Belgian Minister to the Holy See. 

The German Ft^ry in Belgium is the work of a Dutch Catholic 
journalist, war correspondent of De Tyd. He describes the atroci- 
ties in Belgium, and seeks to find the reasons for the barbarous 
treatment of an unfortunate land and people. Mr. Mokveld covers 
the whole situation in and about Liege, Vise, Louvain and Namur, 
and other places in the land of desolation, and his conclusions are 
an indictment of Germany's course. 

False Witness is the title given to the translation of Klokke 
Roland, a work dedicated to the Archbishop of Malines, better 
known to all the world as Cardinal Mercier. It is from the pen of 
Johannes Jorgensen, the author of The Life of St. Francis of 
Assisl Klokke Roland is the bell that used to ring in the belfry 
of Ghent. In olden days, says the author, the following legend was 
written on the bell: 

Bell Roland is my name. 
When I ring it is for Fire, 
And when I chime it is for Victory 
In Flanders. 

Roland chimes battle's victory no more, for Belgium is silent 
under the heel of the oppressor; and yet the old bell of Ghent 

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peals deeper and stronger than ever it sounded in the battles of 
long ago, for it has awakened Europe and America, and its voice 
is the voice of right triumphant. 

The author bases his book on a Gennan work entitled An 
Appecd to the Civilised World, published in the early months of the 
War. This publication, it may be remembered, was a plea for fair 
judgment of Germany, and was signed by ninety-three philosophers 
and literary men and others, an array which included names as 
well known as those of Eucken, Haeckel, Humperdink, Sudermann, 
Hauptmann and Hamack. Over against this publication, Jor- 
gensen sets fourteen French and Belgian works on the Belgian 
invasion. The Appeal contained six accusations against Germany's 
foes, " six words of false witness," which Jorgensen, one by one, 
refutes. 

It is an interesting book, written in genuine and acknowledged 
sympathy with Belgium, and bears the marks of a craftsman. Not 
the least impressive of its pages are the four illustrations which 
s)mibolize the entire written matter, one of which "A Scrap of 
Paper" — the treaty of 1839, with the signatures of the powers — 
typifies the Allied conception of Germany's notion of treaty ob- 
ligations. 

THE PROSECUTION OF JESUS. Its Date, History and Legality. 
By Richard Wellington Husband. Princeton : Princeton Uni- 
versity Press. $1.50. 

We would advise Professor Husband of Dartmouth to write 
on his specialty, the classics, and not venture into a province which 
is evidently terra incognita to hint. A knowledge of Greek and 
Latin does not imply a knowledge of New Testament exegesis. 
Our professor does not prove his extraordinary thesis that Our 
Lord was legally condemned to death by both Jew and Roman. 
Everything that goes counter to his theory in the Gospels is re- 
jected a priori as improbable, impossible, spurious, unauthentic, or 
an interpolation. Does the Gospel speak of false witnesses (Matt, 
xxvi.)? He tells us "that it is quite apparent that the word 
"false" cannot be historical. Do St. Mark and St. Matthew picture 
the proceedings against Jesus as a criminal trial? Their narra- 
tives are to be set aside as historically inaccurate. Do the words 
of the Jews to Pilate (John xviii. 29, 311) militate against his 
thesis? "Then it is impossible to believe that their reply to 
the request of Pilate has been correctly reported by John." ^ j 

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696 NEW BOOKS [Aug., 

THE PROVOCATION OF FRANCE, By Jean Charlemagne 

Bracq, Litt.D., LL.D. New York: Oxford University Press. 

$1.25. 

In his preface the writer frankly admits that his offering to 
the Cause is not a book of erudition, but a marshaling of facts to 
prove that Germany in her rulers has consistently endeavored to 
exasperate and humiliate France. It is shown how Bismarck 
mutilated the famous Ems dispatch. Dr. Bracq dilates at length 
on the Moroccan question with its many ramifications, and the 
ever-present menace of German militarism. He takes for his foun- 
dations Le Temps, the editorial opinions of The Revue des Deux 
Mondes, and the statements of Lavisse, Sorel, Monod, Taine, Renan, 
Fouillee, E. Caro and Pasteur. 

While one cannot but admire the evident earnestness of the 
writer, many people would be more convinced by a calmer, more 
judicial treatment of the matters at issue. There is no doubt 
of the enthusiasm and patriotism of Dr. Bracq, but it is a question 
whether he might not have served his end better had he observed 
more reticence of feeling and precision of phrasing. 

MAKING THE MOST OF THE CHILDREN. By Professor D. 

W. La Rue. New York : The Educational Book Co. 

A stimulating little book ! After the hysterical trash to which 
we are often treated on the subject of education, it is refreshing 
to read anything so sane, so practical, so well balanced. The author 
has no ax to grind, no fad to herald, nobody's trumpet to blow. 
With discerning humility he assigns to the home the first place in 
the work of " making the most of the children," thus proving him- 
self above the littleness of thinking and judging in terms of his 
own specialty. He does not pretend to solve all difficulties, but his 
little work will be a real help to those of good will who have a 
modicum of leisure, of inventiveness, and adaptability. If the 
home is a real home, school at a very early age is not advised, nor 
are we all expected to become observation bureaus, indeed it is 
comforting to learn that we are all likely to remain poor discrim- 
inators in some departments. Every chapter abounds in z:plt and 
illuminating illustrations, notably page 62; and the chapter on 
"Child Culture." We cannot quite agree with the author's un- 
reserved recommendation of the Book of Knowledge. Unfor- 
tunately it contains some bigoted history that " is not so," and a 
little, so-called, science of the same type. As Professor La Rue 

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reminds us, first impressions are deep ones: therefore such books 
are injurious, for they are seldom or never revised. We note a few 
faulty expressions in English, due perhaps to foreign construction of 
phrases. Obedience is taught, and punishment is mentioned as 
sometimes necessary; religion is treated with reverence, but there 
is no mention of God or of the claims of the Creator to Whom we 
owe what Longfellow designates " The Flowers of Creation." 

THE IDEAL CATHOLIC READERS, Fifth Reader. By a Sister 
of St. Joseph. New York : The Macmillan Co. 50 cents. 
This book, the fifth of the series, seems rather simpler than 
the one preceding. Variety of subjects favors a variety of words, 
but these should be suited to the age of the pupil. Many of these 
lessons are composed of extremely easy words. One thing worthy 
of great commendation is the use of the exact words of the sacred 
text, as far as possible, in all the stories from the Bible. 
The format of the series is all that can be desired. 

HISTORY OF THE PRIMA PRIMARIA SODALITY OF THE 
ANNUNCIATION AND SS. PETER AND PAUL. From the 
Archives by Father Elder Mullan, S.J. St. Louis: The 
Queen's Work Press. Cloth, $2.50; paper, $1.50. 
Father Elder Mullan crowns his labors for the Sodality of the 
Blessed Virgin Mary by this comprehensive history of the Prima 
Primaria of Rome. This title does not mean that it was the first 
Sodality founded in honor of the Blessed Mother, but that it was 
the forerunner and model of all confraternities erected for this end. 
The amount of curious information, gathered in this large 
volume of four hundred and eighty pages, is truly impressive. It 
is, indeed, a labor of love. From the inception of the Prima Pri- 
maria to the last date of the Annals, 1884, every important item 
receives attention. The growth of the Rules, the requisite changes, 
the officers and offices, etc., all are noted. It appears to be an ex- 
haustive account of this famous Sodality. 

FROM DARTMOUTH TO THE DARDANELLES. A Midship- 
man's Log. New York : E. P. Dutton & Co. 60 cents net. 
Somehow this little book of one hundred and seventy-four 

pages, written by a midshipman of H. M. G is one of the most 

moving tales of the great gray fleet that slipped away to sea that 
first of August three years ago. When the mobilization word came. 

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698 NEIV BOOKS [Aug., 

from Dartmouth College, Devonshire, the naval cadets trooped 
down, assigned to the' ships. The writer of this log was within 
three weeks of his fifteenth birthday when he went off to war ! It 
will be remembered that on the occasion of the sinking of the 
Aboukir, the Cressy and the Hague, when many of the cadets 
were lost, a member of Parliament wrote a vehement letter to the 
papers, declaring it a horrible act. The school lads that left Devon- 
port that merry summer morning came back ten months later — 
except those "that went West" — exceeding old with grimmest 
experience. 

In simple, unaffected fashion the midshipman tells the story 
of the long cruise; of the attack at Gallipoli, and then of how a 
torpedo snuffed out the life of the ship. She sank in three minutes 
and a half. Out of the ship's company of seven hundred and sixty, 
only one hundred and twenty men and twenty officers survived. 
The writer, though bruised and battered, is saved, and nothing 
daunted, manages to be appointed to another boat. But the powers- 
that-be, realizing the mental strain that the boy officer has under- 
gone, sent him home on leave. His mother tells the last chapter 
of the log : 

I had not seen him since he left for Dartmouth, nearly four- 
teen months before. Then he was a round-faced, rosy boy 

Up the steps, dragging a seaman's canvas kit-bag, came a 
tall, thin figure, white of face, drawn, haggard — incredibly old. 
I had not quite realized this. For a second my heart stood still. 
Where was my hoy? 

Then he saw me waiting in the hall, and his face lighted 
with half-incredulous joyous wonder: "Mother! You here? " 

♦ 4t 4t ♦ 

My boy was gone forever — but my son had come home. 

BENEDICTUS QUI VENIT. By Father W. Roche, S.J. New 

York : Longmans, Green & Co. 25 cents. 

The best idea of this tiny booklet may be given by quoting 
Father Roche's sub-title — "A new Mass book for Youth, containing 
instructions and new prayers for Mass and Communion, proper 
for the days of youth." Father Roche's work is built on the con- 
viction that a too early familiarity with the prayers intended for 
adults is apt to create a distaste for prayer altogether; and that 
simpler forms will draw children's hearts to speak their own 
thoughts freely to God. 

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1917] NEW BOOKS 699 

HOW TO LEARN EASILY. By George Van Ness Dearborn. 

Boston: Little, Brown & Co. $1.00 net. 

Alas for the sanguine student, who, lured by the title, opens this 
book in the hope of finding a short cut, an easy way to learning. 
There is no royal road, no flowery path along which we may bowl 
or loiter at our leisure — only the ancient well-trodden way of toil, 
toil, toil. Even so, along the road of toil we may waste strength 
and energy. The chapter headings denote the author's plan — fore- 
most stand concentration, observation, method. When the writer 
leaves his psychological pedestal, and descends to plain statement he 
is hicid, practical and interesting. One may not always agree with 
him ; sometimes much talk is expended on the obvious ; but a prac- 
tical teacher^ will surely endorse every word of the chapter on 
" Examination Preparedness," as the author terms it. The style is 
uneven, ranging from scientific to colloquial, in a few cases, even 
careless. 

IN THE CLAWS OF THE GERMAN EAGLE. By Albert Rhys 

Williams. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. $1.50 net. 

Of " war " books there has been for the past two or three 
years an unending stream, and now that our country has entered 
the struggle we may expect an even greater supply of them. 
Whether or not there is an actual demand for what is so liberally 
provided may be questioned, since all have more or less the same 
story to tell. The volume before us, however, has some noteworthy 
diflferences from the general run. In the first place, the author was 
not a professional war correspondent when the War began, but 
simply an American social worker studying and sojourning in 
Europe. Hence his narrative possesses a certain freshness of outlook 
and naivete of presentation. Secondly, as he tells us, " there is no 
culling out of just those episodes which support a particular theory, 

such as the total and complete depravity of the German race 

So I am not to blame whether those episodes damn the Germans 
or bless them. Some do, and some don't. What one ran into was 
largely a matter of luck." 

There is a very human note running through the book; the 
author strikes no heroic attitudes, but quite frankly and simply 
tells how he was badly frightened on several ticklish occasions; 
or again touched to tears by an act of kindness to himself or by 
some pathetic sight along the ruined countryside. 

The account is episodic with no extended view of the battling 

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700 NEIV BOOKS [Aug., 

armies, but merely a series of human pictures of what came 
before the author's eyes. His conversation with the Belgian soldier 
who was a Socialist is illuminating, as to how artificial barriers 
go down before the love of one's country. 

" You are a volunteer. You went to war of your own free- 
will, and you call yourself a Socialist? " 

" I am, but so am I a Belgian! " he answered hotly. " We 
talked against war, but when war came and my land was trampled, 
something rose up within me and made me fight*' 

Despite occasional laxity of style the book gives a bright, 
readable, and sometimes humorous account of the b^nnings of 
the great conflict. 

THE GUILELESS SAXON. By Louis J. Walsh. DubUn: M. H. 

Gill & Son. 35 cents. 

The theme of this cleverly-written comedy is the prejudice of 
the English Tory against Catholics in general and Home Rule in par- 
ticular. It is well-written, full of clear-cut character sketches and 
abounding in clean ;and wholesome humor. 

[ 
PAMPHLET PUBLICATIONS. 

The Australian Catholic Truth Society of Melbourne sent us Why I Am 
a Catholic, by Patrick John CHurley; The Catholic Faith, by Rev. John B. 
Harney, C.S.P.; The Church and the Citizen, by Rev. Chas. F. Ronayne; The 
Holy Angels of God, by Rev. M. J. Watson, S.J.; The Restoration of the 
Home, by Most Rev. J. J. Keane, Archbishop of Dubuque; 5*1. Elisabeth of 
Hungary, by Thomas B. Reilly; Faith Found on the Battlefield, by Rev. S. 
M. Hogan, O.P.; Medically Unfit and Other Stories, by Miriam Agatha; The 
Catholic Working Girl, by Rev. P. H. Casey, S.J.; The Cinema and Its 
Dangers, by Professor M. Drennan; The Guilds of the Middle Ages, by Very 
Rev. A. Corbett. 

The Catholic Truth Society of Ireland sent us Our Duties to the Dead, 
by Right Rev. Monsignor Hallinan. 

The Loyola Press of Chicago has just published a brochure on devotion 
to St. Joseph, entitled The Master Key in the Hand of Joseph, 

D. B. Hansen & Sons of Chicago published an interesting pamphlet on The 
Way of the Cross, Its Origin, Nature and Object. It contains the prayers 
of St. Alphonsus Liguori. 

Rev. John J. Qifford, S.J., has edited The Dream of Gerontius, by Car- 
dinal Newman, for school use. The editor writes a brief introduction, and 
instead of annotating the text suggests a hundred questions, which bring out 
clearly the many merits of the poem. 

The latest publications of The Catholic Mind arc Religious Bigotry in 
Action, by Stephen H. Horgan, and A Protest made by the Mexican Hierarchy 
against the Persecutor's Constitution of February 5, 1917. 



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IRecent Events* 

Opinions differ about the outlook for Rus- 
Rttssia, sia. Some are pessimistic, like Mr. Sim- 

onds in the Tribune, who thinks it quite 
possible that there may be a counter-revolution which will place 
the extreme radical and pacifist elements in control and bring an 
immediate peace. Within the range of possibilities he numbers 
the restoration of the old regime or the rise of a dictatorship of 
the Napoleonic type. On the other hand, Mr. Root, as the result 
of his survey of the situation, declares that the solid, admirable 
traits of the Russian character will pull the nation through the 
present crisis. " Natural love of law and order and capacity for 
local self-government have been demonstrated every day since the 
revoluticm." "We found no organic or incurable malady in the 
Russian democracy. Democracies are always in trouble, and we 
have seen days just as dark in the progress of our own." To 
which may be added that what comes to the surface and is pub- 
lished in the newspapers are the events which are disquieting and 
abnormal. Prince Lvoff, who has been Prime Minister from the 
inauguration of the Provisional Government, has the same confidence 
in the good sense of the main body of the Russian people as that 
felt by Mr. Root. The wild theories to which the new freedom 
has given an opportunity of public expression are not shared by 
the population as a whole, which indeed consists of illiterate peas- 
ants. A certain degree of disregard for law has appeared in their 
ranks, which has shown itself in the seizure of lands without com- 
pensation, but this danger has to a great extent been averted by 
the promise that the Constitutional Assembly will deal with the 
matter. 

Order and discipline have been restored to the army by M. 
Kerensky, who has attained an unheard-of ascendency over the 
soldiers, and has led them on to the altogether unexpected renewal 
of the offensive, a renewal which has completely upset the plans of 
the Central Powers. Considerable progress has been made in the 
direction of Lemberg. Although not to be compared with the 
advance made by General Brusiloff last year, yet notable defeats 
have been inflicted on the Austrians, no fewer than thirty-six thou- 

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70:2 RECENT EVENTS [Aug., 

sand prisoners having been taken, with a large number of guns and 
munitions of war. It is needless to say that the German hope of 
a separate peace has vanished. 

Immediately after the abdication of the late 
Greece. King Constantine in favor of his second 

son, M. Venezelos became the Prime Min- 
ister, and the Provisional Government, which some months ago 
was formed at Saloniki, came to an end, being merged into that of 
Constantine's successor. Considerable obscurity exists as to the 
relations of the Powers with the deposed King — for his abdication 
was in no sense voluntary. He had long forfeited all rights to the 
throne by infringing upon the Constitution which gave him his 
sole claim to reign, and the Powers who were its guardians had 
become almost as delinquent in the matter. Consideration for Rus- 
sia is said to have been the reason for their dilatoriness. Even 
when the action was taken it was not fully acceptable to the whole 
of the nation, for the late King's usurpations and infringements 
of the Constitution had made ever-increasing numbers of the 
Greeks desirous of the establishment of a Republic, and opposed 
to the retention of any form of monarchy. However, M. Venezelos 
and his supporters acquiesced in the decision of the Powers, who 
considered that the establishment of a Republic would be a violation 
of the trust reposed in them as the Constitution's protectors. On 
assuming the Premiership, M. Venezelos returned to legal methods 
and summoned the Parliament, which had been arbitrarily dissolved 
by the late King. The enemy agents and disturbers of the peace 
were banished and interned, and the normal development of the 
country resumed along the democratic lines, which had been char- 
acteristic. The efforts of a would-be autocrat have been frustrated, 
although, according to the latest rumor, the present King is making 
an attempt to walk in the steps of his predecessor. Of the four 
Kings of modem Greece, half have yielded to these inordinate 
desires, and have suffered the penalty of deposition. 

It was in Austria-Hungary that the Rus- 

Austria-Hungary. sian Revolution produced its first effects. 

For the Dual Monarchy the War had had 

no result which was not a disaster. Beaten in arms by Serbia and 

Russia, it had no other means of safety except the throwing of 

itself, bound hand and foot, into the arms of Germany. That 

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1917.] RECENT EVENTS 703 

meant a state of vassalage which German arrogance made not even 
a pretense to mitigate. This was the condition of things at 
the time Francis Joseph died. There is every reason to think 
that his successor ever since his accession has been striving 
to shake off the yoke. This was shown in his appointment as 
Premier and Foreign Minister of two Bohemiah Conservative 
noblemen to fill the places held before by a German and a Hun- 
garian. This was done for the purpose of conciliating the Slav 
elements of the population, and was eo ipso a blow to the German 
element, whose whole object of political action is domination. 

The late Emperor, before his death, had assented to a scheme 
for the Germanization of Austria by the introduction of German 
as the State language even in Bohemia and the districts inhabited 
by Slavs. Electoral and administrative districts in Bohemia were 
to be so redistributed or, as we should say, gerrymandered as to 
destroy Czech influence in Parliament, and in the appointment of 
public officials. The one hundred and thirty Polish and Ruthene 
deputies were to be removed from the Reichsrath by giving auton- 
omy to Galicia. This would give the German deputies an absolute 
majority. In this way, and by a revision of parliamentary pro- 
cedure, all opposition to the German party was to be crushed. The 
young Emperor refused his sanction to this scheme, and soon ap- 
pointed, as has been said, two opponents of, the German policy to 
the highest offices. The Slav Premier and Foreign Secretary pro- 
ceeded to make advances to the reactionory ministers of the Tsar 
for a separate peace with Russia even before the Tsar fell, but 
failing to carry with them their fellow-Slavs, they, in their dis- 
appointment, were falling back upon the German policy, which had 
at first been rejected, when the Russian Revolution came. Before 
the end of the month the Foreign Minister made his first peace 
offer to the new Russian Government, and supplemented it on April 
iSth by declarations still more precise. The Union of Czech Depu- 
ties passed a resolution demanding the reorganization of Austria 
by the recognition of the right of peoples to determine their own 
fate. Any attempt to enforce the German scheme by Im^perial 
decree they resolved to meet by the resignation of the whole of the 
Czech members of the Reichsrath. This led to the convocation of 
the Reichsrath, which had held no sitting since the beginning of the 
War. ^ An important question for the Government was the attitude 
towards it which the Poles would take, for they were able to turn 
the scale either for or against it. After long negotiations, their 

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704 RECENT EVENTS [Aug., 

support was secured by the promise that a bill would be introduced 
to give back to Galicia its economic position, and that no opposition 
would be offered by Austria to the eventual union of Galicia with 
a future kingdom of Poland, to be formed in alliance with the 
Central Empires. 

When the Reichsrath met, the Chairman of the Czech Deputies, 
in the name of the Bohemian people, demanded a re-shaping of the 
Austrian Hapsburg Monarchy into a Federal State of free National 
States with equal rights. This had become necessary in order to 
remove the privileges possessed and desired by the Austrian Ger- 
mans, which had resulted in the domination of the latter and the 
subjection of the other races. A similar demand was made by 
their representatives on behalf of the Southern Slavs for the union 
of Croats, Serbs and Slovenes into an autonomous State, free from 
every racially foreign domination and founded on the basis of 
democratic principle under the Habsburg dynasty. Finally after the 
Reichsrath had assembled, Czechs, Poles and Southern Slavs imited 
in the demand for the establishment of a united and independent 
Poland with an outlet to the sea. This union of the Poles with the 
Czechs and Southern Slavs in violation of the arrangement which 
had been made, rendered the position of the Prime Minister unten- 
able, and in June he tendered his resignation to the Emperor. A 
Ministry of Affairs followed. It offered its resignation after a 
few weeks: this resignation seems not to have been accepted. 

The situation at the present moment remains in so chaotic a 
state that the attempt to define the position of the ramshackle 
Empire, as it is called by the Frankfurter Zeitung, is well-nigh im- 
possible. And yet it may prove a decisive element in the War, for 
the failure of Austria may well be the last straw on Germany's 
breaking back. There is good reason, indeed, for thinking that the 
possibility of Austria's defection may have been the occasion of the 
recent crisis in Germany. It is worthy of note, too, that the aims 
of the majority of the races in the Austrian Empire, the Czechs, the 
Poles and the Southern Slavs — almost the same may be said of 
those who are subject to the Magyars — are substantially in accord 
with the objects set forth by the Provisional Government of Russia, 
our own President, and the Entente Allies. All agree in claiming 
the right of all peoples to choose their own form of government. 
The peoples now comprised within the Dual Monarchy while willing 
still to live under the rule of the Habsburg, claim freedom from 
the respective German and Magyar domination from which they 

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1917.] RECENT EVENTS 705 

have so long suffered, and of which they now fear the intensifica- 
tion. How great these sufferings have been up to the present is 
seen from the fact that while nearly two thousand Bohemians have 
been executed for disaffection since the War began, the anjnesty 
recently granted by the Emperor extends to as many as fourteen 
thousand persons. The Habsburgs, who have so long played 
upon the discontent of the various races, by setting one set of them 
against another, in order to preserve their own autocratic power, 
now listen, from fear of German domination, to these claims for 
justice hitherto denied, and find their own position even more pre- 
carious than before. 

Among the Germans of Austria a revival of the agitation 
which was so strong a few years ago for union with Germany, 
and which was the occasion of the Los von Rom movement, is again 
being talked of, although it has not yet attained any serious pro- 
portions. The threat, however, is being made in order to prevent 
the Emperor and his advisers from yielding to Slav interests. 
Count Tisza's successor in Hungary, Count Maurice Esterhazy, is 
now endeavoring to make the non-Magyar peoples place their con- 
fidence in a plan which he has introduced for the extension of 
those political rights which have so long been denied. None of 
these efforts cause confidence in the minds of those whose aim it is 
to make the world safe everywhere for democracy. 

Events of great significance have occurred in 
Germany. Germany. The Reichstag which has for 

the past three years, with almost complete 
unanimity, bowed to the will of the Kaiser has at last made a stand 
and asserted the right to act according to its own judgment, and 
one not in accordance with the wishes of the Government. A bloc 
has been formed which comprises the Radicals, the Centre Party 
and the Social Democrats. The chief agent in bringing the Centre 
into this group is the Catholic Deputy, Matthias Erzberger, who 
has hitherto made himself conspicuous for his defence of the worst 
of the German barbarities. Following upon the refusal of the 
Reichstag to pass the vote of Credit the Chancellor, Herr Theobald 
von Bethmann Hollweg, gave in his resignation. This has been 
accepted by the Kaiser " with a heavy heart." Herr Zimmermann, 
the Foreign Secretary, has also departed leaving an inglorious 
record. In their train has gone the War Minister, General von Stein. 
These are the facts^ and they indicate an indubitable crisis. What, 
VOL. CV.-.45 ^ ^ T 

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7o6 RECENT EVENTS [Aug., 

however, is their precise meaning it is impossible to say, 
and still less what will be their result. The Kaiser has indeed 
amended the promise of franchise reform made last April in two 
respects : the new franchise is to be based on equality, and it is not 
to wait for an indefinite period after the war, but to be put in 
force at the next elections. This is a step in the right direction, 
but a very small one. Two vetoing powers stand in the way of 
every popular wish, the House of Peers and the Kaiser himself. 
No concession has been made to the desire for parliamentary gov- 
ernment; that is to say, the Chancellor and the Ministers of State 
are left responsible solely to the Kaiser whose right is absolute. 

To the demand for reforms made by the bloc a declaration in 
favor of peace is, it is said, to be proposed. A part of this declara- 
tion is to the following effect : " The Reichstag labors for peace 
and a mutual understanding and lasting reconciliation among the 
nations. Forced acquisitions of territory and political economic 
and financial violations are incompatible with such a peace." This 
declaration if passed would commit the Reichstag to the restoration 
of Belgium and Serbia, the occupied part of France, Rumania -and 
Russia. Even if it were accepted there is no reason to think it would 
have any influence with the Kaiser and his military advisers. In 
fact, so long as the Kaiser remains in power it matters very little 
who is the Chancellor and who are the Ministers. It is he who rules, 
nor is he likely to abdicate. The rumor that he was on the point 
of doing so, is the most unlikely thing in the world, although the 
mere fact that it has been circulated is an evidence of the existence 
of a widespread feeling of unrest. 

A short time ago the news came that the 
China. largest of the world's Republics had ceased 

to exist, China having reverted to mon- 
archical institutions. A military leader had brought forth the 
Manchu heir from his seclusion and had placed him on his ancestors' 
throne. His triumph, however, was short-lived; within a fort- 
night the supporters of the Republic forced the youthful sovereign 
to abdicate, his military supporter being compelled to take refuge 
in a foreign legation. Whatever may be thought of the methods of 
the Republic, it seems to be the form of government which is most 
acceptable to the Chinese. The first President made an effort to 
place himself on the throne, but was forced, by the opposition 
thereby excited, to relinquish the attempt, Now that the second 

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1917.I RECENT EVENTS 707 

attempt to establish a monarchy has failed, it is to be hoped that a 
genuine government for the people, of and by the people will be 
evolved. 

The part taken by the Socialists both 
Socialists and Peace Talk, in the War and in the efforts now being 

made to end it form both an interesting 
and a not uninstructive study. In Germany, as a body, they at once 
fell in with those who until then had been their most bitter enemies, 
and have since participated by word and deed in all the outrages 
by which Germany has been disgraced, thereby overthrowing the 
belief which many had entertained that they would stop any war. 
The French Socialists were as zealous in defence of their country, 
but in Italy a great share in the opposition to the War sprang 
from those who are called Official Socialists. These are as eager 
even now in working for peace, and even the French Socialists 
have been led to send a delegation to the Stockholm Conference. 
Most of the few Englishmen who deprecate the War belong to 
the Socialist organization, while in this country true Americans 
have had to renounce the Socialist body with which they have been 
working as unpatriotic — ^not to say disloyal. It is, however, in 
Russia that the power of Socialistic ideas has been made most 
manifest, for it was by Socialists that the Autocracy was over- 
come, and when the Provisional Government was established it 
was not in its hands that the power of the State rested but in those 
of the Soldiers' and Workmen's Committee, which was almost in 
its entirety a Socialist body. The dominant power in Russia is in 
fact socialistic, a thing to ponder over as another instance of ex- 
tremes begetting extremes. Under the influence of this Committee 
the declaration of peace aims, involving no annexation and no in- 
demnities, was made — ^a declaration which may modify the policy 
of Great Britain, France and Italy. 

It is, however, upon German policy towards peace that So- 
cialist action has the chief bearing. Germany in the straits Sn 
which she now finds herself, is seeking to make use of every means 
to escape. The growing pressure in every department is being 
recognized, and it is clearly seen that so far from diminishing, it is, 
owing to this country's embargo on exports, going greatly to in- 
crease; the submarine campaign is by no means so successful as 
had been, not anticipated but promised; doubts are arising in the 
minds of the people about the power of their troops to stand up 

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7o8 RECENT EVENTS [Aug., 

against the attacks which are being made upon them. These 
doubts have been intensified by the resumption of the Russian 
offensive. The entry of this country into the War and the arrival 
in France of the first detachments which are the heralds of two 
hundred and fifty thousand men before the end of the year and 
of half a million by next spring, has deprived those among the 
Germans who see things as they are — ^and they are an ever-increas- 
ing number — of all hopes of the success which was looked for at 
the beginning. Even wholesale disaster is now being considered 
as possible. The desirability of peace is therefore evident; but to 
declare the terms is still felt to be too great a humiliation ; to get 
peace talked about and to throw the burden of rejecting it upon 
the Entente is a much better way. For this purpose the Majority 
Group of the German Social Democrats has been mobilized. The 
Dutch Socialists had taken the lead in proposing an International 
Conference at Stockholm for a discussion of the terms of peace, 
and in this they were supported by Swedish Socialists. Both the 
Russian and French Socialists accepted the call, the latter by a 
unanimous vote. The French Government, however, refused pass- 
ports as our own Government had done. A few British Socialists 
wished to go, but the feeling among the sailors was so strong that, 
although passports had been given by the Government, these dele- 
gates were unable to leave the country. The chief interest, how- 
ever, of these efforts for a Conference is the use to which the 
German Government tried to put it, and the willingness of the 
German Socialists to further those wishes. For the German Gov- 
ernment it is a matter of congratulation that, whether held or not. 
Socialists in every country have been set to work discussing terms 
of peace, and filling the public mind with ideas of settlement such 
as the German Socialists, in subservience to their Government, desire 
to have adopted. The Conference seems to have failed. The 
workingmen of the Allied Nations, who have freely given their 
lives, to use the words which Cardinal Gibbons has made his own, 
" to vindicate the principles of peace and justice in the life of the 
world as against selfish and autocratic power," were not to be 
turned aside from the attainment of this end by unauthorized and 
premature proposals, although these proposals proceeded from their 
own ranks. Nothing can be more satisfactory than the declara- 
tions of devotion to the cause made by their leaders in this country. 
'* Peace can only come through victory." 



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With Our Readers. 



THE welfare of our country, the hearty and eflfective prosecution 
of the War, is the interest nearest at this hour to the heart of 
every American. Vitally one with that interest, is the interest of 
every Catholic in the spiritual welfare of the soldief and the sailor. 
We are asked to contribute to every cause that concerns the soldier's 
and sailor's temporal and physical well-being, and it is our duty to 
do so. But all such work will in the end be vain unless we have also 
cared for that which is infinitely higher than the temporal, namely 
the spiritual welfare of the soldier and sailor. 

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ 

IN the calling of hundreds of thousands of young men from their 
homes and the normal paths and influences of life, our country 
faces a grave crisis. We speak not of the danger from an external 
enemy, nor of the possible sacrifice on the battlefield of many of our 
bravest men; we speak of the moral crisis, which such an extra- 
ordinary event means for the country, for society, for the home, and 
eventually for the welfare of the Catholic body. The event, aside 
from military victory or defeat, is pregnant with enduring conse- 
quences of good or evil for the future generations of America. If 
the moral standards of our Army are kept up to a high level ; if the 
rulings of the National Commission on Training Camp Activities are 
rigidly enforced; if the officers and men conform to the regulations 
laid down, America will weather the storm with honor to herself, and 
with the fair promise of moral and physical health to the generations 
yet unborn. 

But to think that this can be done without the aid of religion is 
equivalent to thinking that one can keep the ocean's tide from rising 
or falling. Those who are conversant with the moral history of great 
armies; those who know the gross excesses, the ravages of disease 
occasioned by sinful indulgences in the present armies of England 
and France ; those who know the history of some of our own divisions 
in the recent encampment on the Mexican border, know well the fear- 
ful danger that faces the flower of our American manhood today. 

♦ * * ♦ 

AS Catholics we must, first of all, realize the gravity and the extent 
of the danger both for Church and for country ; we must not make 
it the subject of our prayers alone, but, united as one body, we must 
give our hearts and our hands to tangible work within our reach for 



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710 IVITH OUR READERS [Aug., 

the religious, spiritual and moral welfare of Catholic soldiers and 
sailors. In the faithful observance of Catholic duty and Catholic 
obligation, of the religious duties incumbent upon them, lies their sole 
salvation. No cry from Macedonia was ever more appealing than 
their cry to us, " Come and help us." Every cent at our 
command; every agency for effective work; every hour that 
we can give to it; every interest we can command should be used 
by us, and used at once, to minister to their spiritual welfare. 

On every camp site a recreation hall should be erected, where 
the Sacrifice of the Mass may be offered. The Knights of Columbus 
have already been authorized by the United States Government to 
build such recreation halls. They have set about their heavy task with 
zeal and wisdom. The Knights of Columbus did splendid work among 
our troops on the Mexican border; erecting and managing there 
sixteen recreation halls, where men of every creed were welcome. 
Those recreation halls were the most popular of any in the camps. The 
whole Catholic body of the country ought to stand back of their 
present effort. They have undertaken to raise, principally from 
their own members, a fund of one million dollars. Every Catholic 
should contribute generously towards that fund. One million dollars 
will not begin to meet the demands that will be made upon the Knights 
of Columbus. These halls must be well built, suitable for winter as 
as well as summer. They must be fully equipped with reading rooms, 
pool tables, assembly halls, moving picture outfits, all that the com- 
fort and entertainment of the men demand. 

He ♦ 3*c He 

IN this work every Catholic society, every individual may whole- 
heartedly join. For the national need demands that we think na- 
tionally and act as one country-wide united body. 

In many camps as many as twenty thousand Catholic soldiers 
will be gathered. Provision must be adequate for all these men to 
assist at Mass on Sundays. The services of many priests who are not 
official chaplains will be necessary; the salaries and the housing of 
these priests must be supplied. 

We have but sketched some of the more important phases of 
the problem. We do so that our readers may be informed how vital, 
how vast it is, and when asked to aid may know that they are (par- 
ticipating in a work more important than any other both for time 
and eternity. 

He He He ♦ 

TO serve the spiritual needs of the Catholic soldier and sailor, The 
Chaplains' Aid Association has been organized. The Honorary 
President of the Association is His Eminence John Cardinal Farley 
of New York; President, John J. Burke, C.S.P.; Treasurer, John J. 

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1917.I ^ITH OUR READERS 711 

Pulleyn. The general offices of the Association are at 580 Fifth 
Avenue, New York City. Through direct letter our readers have been 
acquainted with the work of the Association, and their financial aid 
and personal interest requested. The Association asks the aid of, and 
will itself gladly cooperate with, any other society or agency ready 
to further the work of the chaplains in caring for our soldiers and 
sailors. The Chaplains' Aid Association proposes to publish and dis- 
tribute prayer-books, catechisms, tracts, pamphlets and general Cath- 
lic reading matter particularly suited to the needs of men in the mili- 
tary and naval services, as contributory to the work of the chaplains. 
The magnitude of the undertaking may be judged from the fact that 
a safe estimate places the number of Catholics in the whole United 
States Army, formed and to be formed in the immediate future, at 
three hundred thousand men. This is probably an imderestimate. 
To supply these men with prayer-books alone, costing seven and a 
half cents a piece, will require twenty-two thousand five hundred dol- 
lars. Bibles, particularly copies of the New Testament, are very fre- 
quently asked for. The Association should be enabled to furnish every 
man in the service with a copy of the New Testament; and also to 
supply every post library with a number of complete Bibles for gen- 
eral use. Rosaries, scapular medals, devotional pictures — ^these are re- 
quested, not by the hundreds, but by the thousands, and it re- 
quires no unusually active imagination to estimate the expense en- 
tailed if these requests are to be answered in a satisfactory manner. 
The chaplains themselves must be supplied with their " kit " con- 
taining everything — ^altar stone, missal, altar cards, linens, cruets, vest- 
ments, oil stock, etc., etc., requisite for the work of their ministry. 
Each kit costs one hundred and twenty-five dollars. In the new Army 
one hundred and sixty-two Catholic chaplains will be appointed; not 
including the Catholic chaplains of the State Militia regiments, nor 
those of the Red Cross Base Hospital Units. To supply with kits 
one hundred chaplains — which again is putting the figure low — ^an 
initial expenditure of one hundred thousand dollars would not suffice. 
Moreover, chaplains in the service frequently require a renewal of 
" stock ; " of the necessities of the Sacrifice of the Mass ; of Catholic 
reading matter, tracts, catechisms and pamphlets. 

♦ :«c 9tc :«( 

ANOTHER important work for the Catholic body is to keep a 
record of all the Catholics who enter the service of our country — 
a vast undertaking, some will say, and others will add " impossible." 
But no work that ought to be done is ever impossible. Zealous people 
have already initiated the work in a local way. It is undertaken with 
no desire for vain glory, nor undue publicity. It is necessary: first, 
because for their sake we ought to keep in touch with our Catholic 

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712 WITH OUR READERS [Aug., 

soldiers, giving them what aid we can ; secondly, our claim for a de- 
finite number of Catholic chaplains can be based, intelligently and 
fairly, only on a definite knowledge of the actual number of Catholics 
in the Army and Navy, for the apportionment of chaplains ought 
not to be based on the religious census of the country in general, but 
on the religious census of the Army and Navy, since chaplains are 
appointed not to serve the general public, but the men of the Army 
and Navy. Indeed we should endeavor to see to it that, by law, every 
regiment, with a fair percentage, of men professing a definite religious 
belief, should have a chaplain of that denomination. It is bordering 
on the ridiculous, that a regiment, where sixty per cent or more of 
the men are Catholics, should have a Protestant chaplain. 

Again definite statistics of this kind will prove the most eflfective 
answer to the charge repeated by bigots time and again, that Cathdics 
are not patriotic. 

To carry on such an undertaking demands an office staflf of at 
least six expert workers; a large equipment, and a correspondence 
necessarily heavy. No one society can do it alone. The Chaplains* 
Aid Association stands ready to do its part, to do its utmost for the 
success of this work, dear to the Catholic heart, but without means 
it is powerless. To you ; to the great Catholic public, it holds out its 
hands for support. 

♦ * * ♦ 

WE add a " sample " letter, which shows not only the devoted 
zeal of such a priest as Father Boyle of Gettysburg, but will serve 
to bring home to our readers the need of this aid and the necessity of 
getting to work at once. 

ST. FRANCIS XAVIER CHURCH 

22 High Street, 

Gettysburg, Penna. 

July 19, 1917. 
Chaplain's Aid Association, 

New York City. 
Dear Sirs: 

r am just in receipt of a circular appealing for aid to The Chaplains' Aid 
Association. I am glad to know of the existence of such an association, for no 
one better than myself realizes the need of such an association. While I would 
be willing and glad to contribute to such a worthy cause, I regret to say that it 
is impossible for me to do so at this time, due to the fact that we have a training 
camp here at Gettysburg for the Regular Army, which seems to be on no 
list of cantonments issued by the National Government, and consequently its 
existence is unknown to the mass of people throughout the country. 

We have at present about eight thousand soldiers, comprising six Regfi- 
ments, Fourth, Seventh, Fifty-eighth, Fifty-ninth, Sixtieth and Sixty-first of 
the Regular Army. They came here from the border about five weeks ago, 
and are filling up. to war strength by the new recruits who arc coming in daily 

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1917.] ^ITH OUR READERS 713 

from various recruiting stations. There is no Catholic chaplain among them. 
I have been trying to take care of the Catholics who number, I understand, 
about twenty-five per cent. 

I have been working through their camp trying to get the soldiers to 
come to church, but have not met with the success I should have made. I 
am now to have a mission for them beginning July 29th, to be conducted by 
Father Wood, S.J., of Woodstock, Md., with the hope that I may be able 
to induce the majority of the Catholics at least go to their religious duties 
before entering into actual warfare, which they evidently 'will be obliged to 
do. I have opened up my hall as a social room for the soldiers, have fur- 
nished them with magazines, inks, pens, envelopes and paper for writing, 
have given them the use of the piano in the hall, and am now preparing some 
vaudeville entertainments, with the soldiers as the actors. These I am furnish- 
ing at my own personal expense. 

The Y. M. C. A. have placed three large tents in the camp, one in the 
Fourth Regiment, one in the Fifty-ninth and one in the Sixtieth Regiments, 
respectively, with men constantly on the ground. 

Of course I am up against a proposition with my congregation of seven 
hundred people in the country to look after. I am unable to devote as much 
time as I possibly would like, but all my spare time is devoted to the soldiers 
and their welfare. 

You will realize, therefore, that much as I should like to contribute to 
so worthy a cause, I will need all my surplus money to look after the boys 
in khaki here in Gettysburg, who when brought up to war strength will num- 
ber about twelve thousand. 

Am sorry to tire you with this long explanation, but I want you to realize 
that there is a mobilization of troops here that the world at large knows 
nothing about, and our little town of five- thousand inhabitants scarcely know 
sometimes how to make the evenings of the soldier boys pleasant and profit- 
able, and shield them from the influences that have a demoralizing effect 
upon them. 

Assuring' you of my best wishes for the success of The Chaplains' Aid 
Association, I remain. 

Very sincerely in Christ, 

(Signed) W. F. Boyle. 



DISRESPECT and denial of the law have lately been very severely 
condemned in the courts throughout our country. The importance 
of law and order, the respect due to authority, the grave dangers of 
license have been brought home forcibly of late to our leaders in every 
walk of life. Our country, inclined in certain places and in certain 
parties, to go insane on the subject of freedom, is being made sane 
again. Our current literature for the last ten years certainly voiced 
a philosophy of lawlessness unequaled in all our history. The great 
seriousness of the times, the evidently disastrous results of academic 
irresponsibility have made the writers think a bit more deeply, and 
they have grown to know more intimately both sobriety and serious- 
ness. The daily newspapers have even editorially championed the 
long-term imprisonment of all who defied the law, spoke disparagingly 

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714 IVITH OUR READERS [Aug., 

of our country's flag, or sought by spoken or written word to under- 
mine her Constitution. 

These condemnations have been voiced against those who by ex- 
ternal act violated the law or sought to prevent its execution. Now 
the condemnation of court, or newspaper, or public opinion is based 
on the supposition that the guilty person is responsible for his act; 
otherwise we place such a person in an asylum for the insane. All 
citizens are asked to respect and obey the law, and are, antecedently, 
supposed to be intelligent, that is, possessed of reason that can judge, 
and a free will that can of itself determine. Any one who preaches 
that man has no intelligence, no free will, is the most guilty of anar- 
chists. He strikes at the most vital part of the life of human society; 
he makes of man an animal with no inspiration from the past; no 
present responsibility or dignity, no future glory. 



FROM ideas, deeds are bom. And it is time that the Government, 
in whose hands is the defence of law, should take steps not only 
against those who do criminal acts, but also against those who preach 
a doctrine that not only encourages crime, but empties the word and 
the deed of all meaning. 

Men in high and responsible places should be prosecuted for preach- 
ing irresponsibility, as well as those in low places for practising it. 
It may be said that the law cannot concern itself with other than ex- 
ternal acts, but, after all, publishing an anarchial statement in a maga- 
zine is an external act. The mail has been denied to journals that 
unjustly attacked the President; why not deny it to magazines that 
attack the fundamental worth and dignity of all humankind? 

:¥ * * * 

IN this hour when our country appeals to us as intelligent citizens, 
it is certainly surprising, and we may say disreputable, for a maga- 
zine of the standing of the North American Review to permit Hud- 
son Maxim to publish in its pages a denial of any distinction between 
animals and men. ** The word hisHnct, as a distinction between the 
intelligence of man and of lower animals, should be abandoned for 
all time. Instinct in the lower animals is but inherited experiential 
knowledge. Much of what we know is likewise inherited experiential 
knowledge. The child who learns with great facility something for 
which his immediate progenitors possessed especial aptitude, acquires 
but part of the knowledge by his own efforts; the rest comes to him 
as instinctive knowledge inherited from those progenitors. 

" A condition of mind is a physical condition. It is a physiological 
condition. It is as much a physical, chemical, electrical phenomenon 
as is the production of a spark from the discharge of a storage bat- 
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1917.] WITH OUR READERS 7^5 

tery exploding a gas mixture in an internal combustion engine. It 
is as much the result of an arrangement of atoms and molecules as 
is the formation of a frost-crystal. It is as much an electro- 
mechanical phenomenon as is the establishment of an electric current 
in an induction coil." 

The editor in this same issue asks us " to reason together." If 
his readers peruse Maxim's article they will answer " What is the 
use?" 



IN a recent address before the Technical Instruction Congress, in 
Dublin, Ireland, President Dr. Bertram Windle spoke of the 
shortcomings and handicaps of popular education in Ireland. He is 
the President of University College, Cork, and Vice-Chancellor of 
the National University of Ireland. Readers of The Catholic 
World are familiar through its pages with his writings. 

The meeting of the Congress was the first held since the opening 
of the War, and its President stated that none of its conferences had 
been held at a more critical time than the present. 

England is considering seriously improvements in her own system 
of education. " But what," asks Dr. Windle, " is being done for 
education in Ireland? Who or what agency is endeavoring to better 
it? " He then proceeds to survey the educational field in Ireland. The 
Elementary Schools are under an independent board, and entirely 
severed from every other department of the educational system. In fact 
there is no organic system at all. The Secondary Schools are controlled 
by still another board, entirely independent, wholly unconnected with 
other parts of the educational field. Technical education is a distinct 
department under the control of another board. " Like the other 
boards it is in its own water-tight compartment as far as regards its 
sister branches of education. The Universities are totally unconnected 
with one another." 

♦ ♦ :«c 9|e 

T\R. WINDLE speaking of how this heterogeneous character was 
-L' stamped on the Universities of Ireland, reviews for a moment the 
history of the rise of the so-called University of London. In the 
earlier part of the nineteenth century, owing to the exclusiveness of 
the existing Universities in England, and goaded on by the fact that a 
ntmiber of persons not members of the Established Church wanted 
degrees, and, strange to say, were unwilling to change their religious 
beliefs in order to get them, England established what she called the 
University of London — simply an Examining Board, a kind of mon- 
strosity never before known in any land. Eventually it was seen to be 
the wrong kind of an instrument; but England did not realize this 



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7i6 WITH OUR READERS [Aug., 

until after she had imposed a similar organization upon Ireland in the 
shape of the late Royal University. 

" The Royal University passed away. But it is a matter of 
common notoriety that there are two independent Universities 
(Trinity and Belfast) in this country, one of them very well, the 
other moderately well endowed, and both of them, for the most 
part, frequented by adherents of the religious faiths of the 
minority in the country. Then, in addition, there is the Federal 
University, which the British Government infected us with when they 
had lost the fever themselves. Frequented for the most part by ad- 
herents of the religious belief of the majority in this country, it is 
badly provided with means, and consists of three Constitutent Col- 
leges (Cork, Galway, Dublin), each of them with slender resources 
for carrying on its work. It suffers from all the disadvantages from 
which a Federal University must inevitably suffer — even one like this 
where the maximum of autonomy is allowed to each College. No one 
takes any mterest in the University as such, or at the best takes but 
a very secondary interest in it. What each person is interested in is 
the college to which he belongs. 

"The whole arrangement of education in Ireland reminds me 
of an army going out to fight with separate commanders, wholly un- 
connected with one another, and totally ignorant of one another's 
plans, for horse, foot, and artillery ; not only ignorant of one another's 
plans, but, perhaps, a little scornful of them. What sort of chance 
would an army thus led have against coordinated forces adequately 
controlled? Yes, and what chance are our children going to have 
against the children of England? 

" Is it always going to be 'linen shirts on the sons of Conn and 
the enemy in chain armor?' Are we going to be content to allow the 
next succeeding generations of Irish youth to be turned into hewers 
of wood and drawers of water? That is what is going to happen if 
something drastic does not take place. Yet none of those who govern 
us seem to be taking even a moment's thought for us." 

Dr. Windle closes with a plea that those who have the immediate 
care of education in Ireland should confer among themselves, formu- 
late definite plans, and definite demands for increased public funds. 



WHEN the lips of the stranger reecho our .own love and reverence 
for one who belongs to us, our hearts are pleased because such 
confirmation is very satisfying. To the citizens. Catholic and non- 
Catholic alike, not only of New York but of the entire country, John 
Cardinal Farley is well known and well beloved. The editorial appre- 

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1917.] IVITH OUR READERS 717 

ciations on the occasion of his elevation to the Cardinalate, published 
by the cosmopolitan press, were ample proof of that fact. 

We know our readers will be intensely interested in reading the 
following extracts from an appreciation published in the June 30th 
issue of the London Tablet: 

"As the British Commission shot down Fifth Avenue, their eyes, 
bewildered by the towering skyscrapers, may have descended to rest 
on the twin spires of the Gothic Cathedral founded by Archbishop 
Hughes on the spot he foresaw would be the centre of New York 
fifty years later. Under the shadow of the Catholic church lives, in 
lonely dedication but in constant business, the Cardinal of New 
York, to all but himself its leading private citizen. Five years before 
the Irish famine he was born in Newtown Hamilton, County Armagh. 
As a young priest he became secretary to Cardinal McCloskey, the first 
American to wear the purple. During the reign of Archbishop Corri- 
gan he was rector of St. Gabriel's. McCloskey's life he hopes soon 
to publish himself, based on archives, as well as the stores of his 
wonderful memory. The threads of Archbishop Corrigan's incom- 
plete and clouded Episcopate he gathered up and made whole. 

" John Farley came as a peacemaker, and he brought peace first 
among the clergy and later among the Hierarchy. It was a labor of 
love, but it was none the less a labor, calling for the highest and yet 
most inconspicuous gifts of modesty. In Cardinal Farley America 
lost a great diplomatist. What every priest is to his parishioners he 
is to his priests. To religious he is no less fatherly than to his own 
direct subjects. He is accessible almost to a fault, and open to callers 
day and night. Many do not come even by appointment. The visitor 
sees a crowded parlor, which is as much a common meeting-place of 
clergy as the ante-chamber of a prince. 

"Amidst a city inhabited by the men Roosevelt used to describe as 
'of soft bodies and hard faces,' what a contrast to meet a prelate with 
ascetic frame and gentle face! His presence abashes the rough-and- 
ready, the millionaire and the man of business. Without touching 
politics he watches and hears all. Taking no sides, he can always say 
a word on what is vital. The President does not respect him less for 
his strong view on affairs in Mexico. From his study he has saved 
the lives of Mexican bishops fated to die. All the troubles and burdens 
of New York come to him sooner or later. When he can lift a saving 
or helping or warning finger he does so. Seldom his left hand knoweth 
the good he has achieved with his right. What strikes a visitor most 
is his power of entertainment. He can bring to bear a flow of 
anecdote conversation that seems too good to be lost. Seeing and 
entertaining others is his relief from business that would appal, a 
European bishop. 

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7i8 WITH OUR READERS [Aug., 

" The New York diocese is decidedly big business. It covers a 
hundred millions worth of dollars. The statistics are staggering. The 
stewardship is colossal. New York is a great polyglot metropolis of 
many rites and languages. It is the most numerous see of the English- 
speaking world. New York seems to have been called in to redress 
the balance lost to the old York of Catholic memory. The centre of 
English-speaking Catholicism has crossed the sea, and reared itself 
at the gates of the new world. Canterbury has passed away from the 
the Catholic map, but the primatial name of York lives on in tenfold 
importance and strength. 

" Since 1902 Cardinal Farley has erected eighty-five Catholic 
schools, some of which cost two hundred thousand dollars and house 
two thousand pupils. They have in some cases depleted the public 
schools in their neighborhood, and voluntarily invite inspection and 
examinations. On their own merits they outclass the purely secular 
foundations. It is the Cardinal's greatest work, and alone constitutes 
an epoch. In comparison, founding a cathedral college, paying off 
a quarter of a million on the seminary and three-quarters of a mil- 
lion on the cathedral, are but side-tasks in a life of constant call and 
effort. 

" During his rule emigration from Europe has thrown six or 
seven hundred thousand souls on his care — Slavs, Bohemians, Croa- 
tians, Lithuanians, Slovaks, Syrians, and the like. Half a million 
Italians came to the New World often with but a rudimentary knowl- 
edge of the old Faith. To save these from Protestant propaganda 
Italian priests and churches had to be organized in every direction. 

" The Catholic University is one of his cares, but the chief monu- 
ment of scholarship marking his reign is The Catholic Encyclopedia, 
which bears his imprimatur. 

"There are two types of American — ^those who get into the pa- 
pers and those who keep out. Cardinal Farley belongs to the latter 
and distinguished minority. He does not seek the public, but they 
seek him. He does not keep a press agent, but he keeps New York 
sympathetic to himself and reverent to the Faith. The outlines of 
Archbishop Hughes, the dreams of McCloskey, and the struggles of 
Corrigan have found their quiet and gradual achievement. But that 
the heroic championship of a Hughes, the dignified ardor of a Mc- 
Closkey, and the martyrized zeal of a Corrigan were necessary pre- 
ludes to his achievement none would be more ready to grant than 
the most eminent and most humble servant of the people of New 
York." 



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BOOKS RECEIVED. 

Longmans. Green & Co., New York: 

Four Lectures on the Handling of Historical Material. By L. F. R. Williams. 
$1.00 net. The Upbringing of Daughters. By C. D. Whetham. $1.75 net. 
A Scallop Shell of Quiet. 60 cents net. Sermon Notes bv the Late Mon- 
signor Robert Hugh Benson. Edited by Rev. C. C. Martindale. 

Benzigbr Brothers, New York: 

Life of St. Ignatius of Loyola. By Father GenelH. 50 cents net. Women of 
Catholicity. By A. T. Sadlier. 50 cents net. Life of Mademoiselle Le Gras. 
50 cents net. Leaves of Gold. By F. McKay. The " Summa Theologica " 
of St. Thomas Aquinas. Part II. (2d Part). First Number (QQ. I-XLVI.). 

E. P. DuTTON & Co., New York : 

The House in Order. By L. C. Willcox. 25 cents net. The Adornment of 
the Spiritual Marriage. By J. van Ruysbroeck. Helen of Four Gates. By 
an Ex-Mill Girl. The Joyful Years. By F. T. Wawn. $1.50 net. 

DouBLBDAY, Page ^ Co., Garden City, New York : 

Gems (T) of German Thought. Compiled by Wra. Archer. $1.25 net. 
Frederick A. Stokes Co., New York: 

The Living Present. By Gertrude Atherton. $1.50 net. 
HoDDER & Stoughton, Ncw York : 

The Czechoslovaks. By L. B. Namier. The New German Empire. British 
Finance and Prussian Militarism. Microbe-Culture at Bukarest. England, 
Germany and the Irish Question. By an English Catholic. Plain Words from 
America. By Prof. D. W. Johnson. Pamphlets. 

George H. Doran Co., New York: 

Those Times and These. Bv I. S. Cobb. $1.35 net. The German Terror in 

Belgium. By A. J. Toynbee. The Battle of the Somme. By J. Buchan. 

The Dead Lands of Europe. By J. W. Headlam. Pamphlet. 

Yale University Press, New York: 

The Life and Poetry of James Thomson. By J. E. Meeker, M.A. $1.75 net. 

The America Press, New York: 

The Mixed-Marriage Problem. What Luther Taught. American Catholic His- 
tory and Religion. Pamphlets. 5 cents each. 

D. Appleton & Co., New York: 

Summer. By Edith Wharton. 
Guaranty Trust Co., New York: 

The Railroad Situation. Pamphlet. 
Frederick Pustet & Co., New York: 

Solution of the Great Problem. Translated from the French of Abb^ Delloue 
by E. Leahy. $1.25 net. 

The International Historical Society, New York: 

The Hand Invisible. Edited by E. B. Harriett. $1.75. 
John Lane Ca, New York: 

The Red Planet. By Wm. J. Locke. $1.50 net. 
Latin-American News Association, New York: 

The Work of the Clergy and the Religious Persecution in Mexico. By R. M. 
Mena. The Mexican People and Their Detractors. By F. G. Roa. 25 cents. 
Pamphlets. 

McDevitt- Wilson's, Inc., New York: 

The Art of Extempore Speaking. By Abb* Bautain. $1.50 net. 
St. Bonaventure Seminary, Allegany, N. Y.: 

St. Bonaventure* s Seminary Year Book, igty. 
Commissariat op the Holy Land, Mt. Saint Sepulchre, Washington, D. C. : • 

The "Chronica Fratris Jordani a Giano.'* By Rev. E. J. Auweiler. O.F.M. 
Pamphlet. t 

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720 BOOKS RECEIVED [Aug., 1917.] 

Small Maynard & Co., Boston: 1 

The Poetical Year for 1916: A Critical Anthology, By Wm. S. Braithwaite. ' 

Little, Brown & Co., Boston: 

The Definite Object. By JeflFery Faraol. $1.50. 

John J. Walsh, 58 Lambert Avenue, Roxbury, Mass. : 
Voices of Erin. By J. J. Walsh and M. F. Neary. 

The Pkabody Museum op American Archaeology and Ethnology, Cambridge, 
Mass. : 

History of the Spanish Conquest of Yucatan and of the Itzas. By P. A, Means. 
Catholic Layman's Association of Georgia. Augusta: 

Catholics in American History. By T. K. Oglesby. Pamphlet. 
The University op Chicago Press, Chicago: 

The President's Report, 1915^1916. 
Rand, McNally & Co., Chicago: 

" Blessed Art Thou Among Women." Compiled by Wm. F. Butler. $3.50. 
The Illinois Centennial Commission, Springfield: 

Illinois in j8i8. By S. J. Buck. 
Central Bureau op Central Verein, St. Louis: 

God's Armor, A Prayer-Book for Soldiers. 12 cents. 
B. Herder, St. Louis: 

The Roman Breviary. 4 vols. $8.00 net. Luther. By H. Grisar, S.J. Vol. VI. 
$3.25 net. A Catholic Dictionary. By W. E. Addis and T. Arnold, M.A. 
$6.50 net. 

Catholic Truth Society, London: 

The Gosfel According to Saint Luke. By R. Eaton. 2 j, Bd. Simple Prayer 
Book for Soldiers. War Loyalty, Defence, By Father B. Jarrctl, O.P. Hix 
Greetings. By Mother St. Paul. On Active Si^nncc, By F. B. Pike, O.P. 
Christ the Healer. Authority and Religious Belief. By Rev. J. Rickaby, ^J. 
A Little Book for Mourners. By A. Ross. Retreat J^otes. Cod's Will amd 
Suffering. By Dom R. Hudleston, O.S.B. GoiVs Tntih. By Rev. H. Lucas, 
S.J. The Catholic Chaplain in the Great War. By A. H. Atteridgc Sister 
Maria Assunta. The Sisters of Charity of St. l*ineent d^ Paul. A War 
Pilgrimage. By M. E. M. Young. Authority or Frivatr Judgment. By H, E- . 
Hall, M.A.. The Date of the Anglican Schism. By Rev. A. Fortcscue, D.D. 
The Kulturkampf. By H. Johnson, B.A. The UrjttHner. Marriage and 
Divorce. By J. E. Kendal, O.S.B. Don'ts for SUtdents in Science and ' 

History. By G. S. Boulger, F.G.S. Shakespenrt and the CafhoHc Church. ' 

Pope Joan. By Rev. H. Thurston, S.J. St. I'nui of the Cross. By F. M. 
Capes. Pacifism. By Rev. A. Fortescue, D.D. Oid England and Her Church. 
By V. Hornyold, S.J. The Peace of God. By ihe Bishop of Northampton. 
The Compleat Protestant. By J. Ayscough. 

T. Fisher Unwin, London: 

England and Her Critics. By M. Borsa. The Ottoman Domination. The De- 
portations of Belgian Workmen. The Moral Basis of Italy's War. By G. 
del Vecchio. Pamphlets. 

Burns & Oates, London: 

" Courage, My Brethren." Pastoral Letter by Cardinal Mercier. " Union 
Sacrie." By His Eminence Cardinal Bourne. 

The " Universe," London : 

German Nationalism and the Catholic Church. Pamphlet. 
Richard Clay & Sons, London : 

Why Italy is with the Allies. By Anthony Hope. Pamphlet. 
Williams, Lea & Co., London: 

The War in April, jgif. Pamphlet. 
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Vol. CV. SEPTEMBER, 191 7. No. 630. 

THE ANOMALY OF MODERN EDUCATION. 

BY JOSEPH V. MCKEE. 

|ODERN education, taken comprehensively, is eclectic. 
It is the hybrid product of many different tenden- 
cies — a combination of elements heterogeneous in 
origin and composition. It is the result of no single 
trend of thought nor any one principle of continuity. 
Beginning with the seventeenth century ( for it is at this period 
that a clear line of demarcation shows up between the old and so- 
called new theories of education) we see the influence exerted by 
Mulcaster, Bacon, Comenius and Ratke — an influence that modem 
writers describe as a strong factor in the development of sense 
realism in education. Mulcaster with his Eletnentarie, Bacon with 
his Novum Organum and The Advancement of Learning, Co- 
menius with his Didatica Magna and Ratke with his rules for 
teaching languages receive credit for bringing forward the sense 
appeal as an educational determinant and making the primary 
processes concrete and objective. 

While these writers of the seventeenth century did much to 
shape educational thought, their influence judged in terms of 
present day power was slight and inconsequential compared with 
ttfce extreme naturalism of Rousseau, Pestalozzi and Froebd which 
marked the eighteenth century the period of widest departure in 
education. At most the realists merely pointed to the value of 

Copyright. 19 1 7. The Missionary Society op St. Paul the Apostle 

IN THE State op New York. 
VOL. CV. — 46 /-^ T 

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722 THE ANOMALY OF MODERN EDUCATION [Sept., 

objective education; the naturalists, led by Rousseau, not only in- 
dicated new lines but they broke away entirely from the very fun- 
damentals which the educators preceding them had always deemed 
essential, and led their followers far afield. They were more than 
mere revolters; they laid the very foundation of our modern sys- 
tems. By their doctrines they so influenced education that, even 
today, they are the controlling factors in the training given in our 
public schools. Entile was instrumental in bringing attention to 
Rousseau's " positive " and " negative " education, and is still the 
source of inspiration to modem educators. Pestalozzi and Froebel 
in their studies of the child, did praiseworthy work in advancing 
education along these lines, but in the main they furthered the 
" naturalism " insisted upon by Rousseau, and helped give impetus 
to the tendency present in education today to over-emphasize the 
value of interest and to negative the only real reason for any edu- 
cational system — its power to discipline. 

Another contribution to modem education was made by Her- 
bart, Fichte's pupil at Jena and Kant's successor as professor of 
philosophy at Konigsburg. To him the educators of today like 
to look with pride, ascribing to him the credit of giving education 
its psychological interpretation. His work, however, was supple- 
mental of Rousseau's, and was of moment only in so far as he 
attained success in emphasizing methods whereby the child might 
be reached naturally or " easily " — a characteristic that is the 
predominant trait of all modem aims and systems. 

Spencer, in no less degree, is honored for the so-called " scien- 
tific " impulse given to education. He is the father of our science 
" course " in elementary and secondary schools, and to him can 
be ascribed the present day curriculum that places before the child 
of eight or nine the study of the crustaceans, the dissection of 
frogs and all the other " advanced " knowledge of vertebrates 
and invertebrates over which it is now deemed necessary that every 
little boy and girl should ponder. That his scheme left no room for 
character development was nothing novel, since from the time 
of the humanistic reaction, religion had found no place in the 
curricula of the innovators, and restraints of any kind had been 
frowned upon as inconsistent with the growth of the little animal 
known as the child. 

These: the realism of the seventeenth century writers, the 
naturalism of Rousseau, the psychology of Herbart and the science 
of Spencer, have been the determinant factors in shaping modem 

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1917.] THE ANOMALY OF MODERN EDUCATION 723 

educational thought. Today they are the basis of our curricula and 
form compositely the essentials of educational principles. Subtract 
them and there would be left only a few fragments added by some 
obscure writers. 

But of all these factors the greatest by far was the force 
exerted by Rousseau and his school. Education as we know it 
today, is an evolution directly caused by the teachings of the 
naturalists and there is no system in vogue in our public schools 
that does not show in its plan and scope the impress of his thought. 
The means taken by our educators to train our children, are shaped 
and used along the lines marked out by Rousseau and the naturalists. 
It is at this point, when we place before ourselves the ideals of 
modern education and then examine intensively the means used to 
attain it, that we realize the anomaly of our present systems. 

What is the ideal of modem education? The dominant note 
apparent in all definitions is that education must be sociological. 
Turning to John Dewey we find education defined as " the increas- 
ing participation of the individual in the social life of the race.*' 
Professor Nicholas Murray Butler writes: "If education cannot 
be identified with mere instruction, what is it? What does the 
term mean? I answer, it must mean a gradual adjustment to the 
spiritual possessions of the race.*' These are representative defini- 
tions by representative leaders of present day education, and show 
clearly that education must have an aim higher than the mere im- 
parting of information. 

If this then is, and it seems to be, the ideal of education, if 
the gradual adjustment of the individual to the spiritual possessions 
of the race or his increasing participation in its social life con- 
stitutes the end of our systems of training, we are confronted with 
this grave problem: How can modern education based upon the 
mere content theories of Ratke, Comenius, Rousseau, Froebel, Pes- 
talozzi, Herbart and Spencer accomplish this ideal set up by the 
very educators who sanction the teachings of the former? How 
can our modern systems, the direct result of Rousseau's influence, 
with their lack of discipline and restraint, provide our children with 
characters stable enough, with wills strong enough, with desires 
lofty enough, to adjust themselves to the spiritual possessions of 
the race or even to wish to do so? Can we expect to attain an 
ideal by using means absurdly inefficient, if not even hostile, to 
its accomplishment? 

Never at any previous period in the' world's history has the 

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724 THE ANOMALY OF MODERN EDUCATION [Sept., 

need of true education loomed so large as at the present time. The 
war has made changes in a day that could have been accomplished 
only in centuries. While we spoke and wrote academically of so- 
cialism, of government control of the means of production, of 
competition and the right to contract and of the freedom of the 
individual, the Great War came and within a year we saw the 
governments of Europe take over the railroads, the steamships, the 
crops and even the men, instituting at a single stroke of the pen 
more government regulation and control of capital, labor and their 
complements than the most radical dreamed of. In the name of 
national necessity, hundreds of industries have been abolished and 
others established; prices have been fixed, hours of labor have 
been determined and even the amount and kind of food to be con- 
sumed has been made the subject matter of royal decree. In great 
measure the freedom of the individual has been curtailed and 
governments have usurped hitherto unheard-of functions. 

These are conditions that will have decisive influences on the 
individual and his social relations. It is idle to suppose that these 
changes are entirely beneficial in themselves; that they carry no 
inherent danger to the constitutional rights of the governed. They 
are the outcome of abnormal causes and are justified by necessity, 
but if they are not wisely and providently supervised and controlled, 
they will present a status fraught with tremendous possibilities for 
evil. Because of this the need is more insistent than ever for the 
development of men of sound judgment, who can think clearly and 
act courageously. 

Exonomically the problems that will confront us are very 
serious. At present the country is suffering from price inflation. 
All food stuffs have advanced more than sixty per cent and the 
general cost of living has increased over fifty-two per cent in the 
last year. On the other hand, profits in business have never been 
so high. Many manufacturers are making enormous returns, some 
as high as from one hundred per cent to three hundred per cent. 
As a solution of a problem that has already reached grave propor- 
tions, the people are calling for a minimum price list to be fixed by 
government mandate. But it is clear that this is not the solution 
of the difficulty. Prices and market values are not matters sub- 
ject to government dictation or control. They are the result of 
causes which the government can reach only partially and then 
most imperfectly. 

But if this situation is serious now, what will it be after the 

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1917] THE ANOMALY OF MODERN EDUCATION 725 

War? Will our alliance with the European Powers save us from 
the effects of a post-bellum drive for lost markets and vanished 
trade balances ? How will we meet the commercial warfare that will 
surely follow the signing of the articles of peace? Can we expect 
to find a panacea for all our economic problems in the government? 
And if the government cannot supply the remedies, where can they 
be found? Again we see the utmost need of men who have been 
trained by true discipline to do sustained thinking. Can we expect 
such men from a system of education that insists upon mere con- 
tent study, that allows the child at nine or ten to choose the studies 
that appeal to him because they are easy and omit the ones that 
are difficult — sl prevalent theory that is the direct outcome of 
Rousseau and the naturalists? Can we expect a youth spent in 
mental dissipation to become, by age alone, a man of self-sacrifice 
and large vision? 

Sociologically, we will have to face great difficulties. The 
workingman, through the invention of many time and labor saving 
devices, has been freed from much drudgery and now finds his 
day portionable into eight hours for rest, eight hours for work and 
eight hours for recreation. Immediately we are confronted with 
this question : Are eight hours needed for recreation ? It is equita- 
ble that the workman should be accorded this time but what is he 
to do with it? Who are they who will lead him to safe places 
of amusement? What are the influences that will bring him to a 
realization that that period of freedom from his factory work must 
not be wasted ; that it is an opportunity for self -improvement and 
advancement? Without the proper leaders, he will make himself 
a temptation to others to exploit. Without the power to think be- 
yond the confines of his day, he will become but a unit in a crowd 
that blindly obeys the dictates of selfish leaders. Can we expect 
to give him, or his children, the proper training to meet these 
problems by whirling them through a vast unseasonable series of 
sense impressions that give no opportunity for discipline, whether 
mental or moral? Can we expect his children to rise superior to 
their environment, or even to adjust themselves to it, by allowing 
them to dabble in clay modeling, printing, basketry or other soft 
work, when they should be trained to the realization that hard, 
exacting work is the basis of a happy and successful life? 

Religiously the problem is even worse. With the single ex- 
ception of the Catholic Church, religion has ceased to be an in- 
fluence in the lives of the people. The automobile, the Sunday t 

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726 THE ANOMALY OF MODERN EDUCATION [Sept., 

newspaper, laziness and general indifference have thinned the ranks 
of the church-goers until now they are little more than a corporal's 
guard. Competition with the moving pictures is emptying the 
churches at the evening services. Can we expect any other condi- 
tion when all religion has been intentionally excluded from our 
modern curricula? Can we hope for any happier state of affairs 
while we follow the doctrines of men such as Rousseau ? Morality 
is impossible without religion, yet to obtain morality, our educa- 
tors are using means that tend to destroy every vestige of religious 
feeling in the child. 

These, broadly stated, are some of the difficulties that must 
be met in the coming ^ years. They are apparent now, their 
full effects will be felt later and will form the burdens carried 
by the men of tomorrow. If education is a gradual adjustment 
to the spiritual possessions of the race, if it means ** the increasing 
participation of the individual in its social life," then it should 
provide the means by which it can enable the child to attain the 
ideal it sees before him. Education, it is true, is a process of 
living, but it is more than that. It is today's training for tomor- 
row's problem. It must fit the child not merely to his life, but 
also prepare him by discipline of mind and body to rise superior to 
his environment and make life better for himself and those about 
him. 

It is unnecessary in this article to prove that our present system 
of education is woefully inefficient in its attempts to attain this 
end. That is a fact that most people are beginning to realize, and 
with little comfort. Our children are not receiving the proper 
training to equip them for their work in life; to participate more 
actively in the social relations. Nor can this be different so long 
as education presents the strange anomaly of setting up an ideal 
and then attempting to reach it by using means that are inefficient 
and inimical. 

The fundamental error lies in the slavish, extravagant ad- 
herence to the so-called ** naturalism " of Rousseau, the *' interest " 
of Herbart, Froebel and Pestalozzi and the ** science " of Spencer. 
In Emile Rousseau laid down the doctrine that the child should 
learn naturally, that we should let the baby bum his fingers to 
learn the lesson that he should keep a safe distance from the fire. 
He would let the tree grow as it would, with little direction from 
outside forces or influences. 

We can see clearly the application of this principle in our 

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1917] THE ANOMALY OF MODERN EDUCATION 727 

present day public school and the utter havoc it is making. The 
elective system is the direct offspring of Rousseau and his followers, 
and the elective system is the curse of our public, elementary and 
high schools and our colleges. So far has this mistaken idea, that 
immature minds know what is best for themselves, been carried, 
that in a great number of our elementary schools the child of nine 
or ten is permitted to choose the studies he will take up. We know 
that the great temptation in such a case is to choose not the subjects 
that will prove the best source of training, for all such subjects 
are " drill *' subjects and therefore dry, but to take up those 
which are attractive because they are easy. And it would 
not be consistent with human nature to expect a child to choose the 
harder, though more beneficial course, when a comparatively easier 
one beckons. 

This ridiculous condition is equaled by that in the high schools. 
Here we see boys and girls plotting together, helping one another 
to find the easiest way through. The whole matter of education has 
become a patch-quilt match. When the child enters the high school, 
he has before him a frame which the authorities will require him 
to fill with so many patches of English, modern languages, mathe- 
matics, music, physical training and other subjects. So he begins 
to pick out his patches, according to the appeal of the subject or the 
rumor that it is easy or that the teachers are lenient. Towards the 
end of his course, it may be after three, three and a half, four, four 
and a half or five years, he presents his frame work of patches 
to the authorities and if he has enough, he is graduated. Continuity 
of subject; value of subject matter; regard for mental dis- 
cipline? These never enter his mind. All he, desires is a certain 
number of " counts " and when he gets them he is satisfied, and 
many times he enters the last terms of his course not knowing 
whether he has enough patches or how to fit them in. The absurd- 
ity of the whole situation can be seen at a glance when we learn 
that in one school it takes a corps of especially trained teachers, 
over sixty in nimiber, seven weeks, working eight hours a day at 
this problem exclusively, to arrange the pupil's system of patches ! 
This monumental folly occurs twice a year. 

But even this waste might be justified if real benefits accrued 
to the student, but that is not so. Rare, indeed, is the boy or girl 
who purposely chooses the subjects that will give the most adequate 
training. Practically every child follows the line of least resistance 
and when he does that, we can be sure that he is not being educated. 

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728 THE ANOMALY OF MODERN EDUCATION [Sept., 

This freedom, or naturalism, is closely allied in its results with 
the over-emphasis now being placed on " interest " in education. 
Froebel and Pestalozzi advocated its use in the kindergarten and 
now it has spread through the whole school, rendering the discipline 
aenemic and weak and destroying all possibility of obtaining accur- 
acy or perfection by repetition and drill. Interest in itself is a won- 
derful asset in education ; without it education would become a dull 
matter of driver and driven. But it is unjustifiable to hold that it 
should be the sole determinant of a subject's value. Our education 
has become soft and spineless because the authorities act always in 
the fear that the child's interest may be lost. They forget, or 
do not realize, that the keenest enjoyment comes from gjrappling 
with problems that are difficult and, therefore, on their face not 
interesting. But the sad part of it all lies in the fact that the child 
is left to learn by bitter experience that much of life's work is not 
always interesting, yet it must be done and done efficiently. 
Of all the evils inherent in our present systems of education, these 
two are the greatest: The naturalism influence of Rousseau, and 
the excessive emphasizing of interest. 

A third tendency, which is being especially stressed at the 
present time, is the use of science as an educational factor. A great 
impetus was given this by the publication of Dr. Abraham Flexner's 
plan for The Modern School, According to his prospectus (and the 
school itself will open its doors this month), he discards Latin, 
Greek and mathematics as inefficient means to educate properly. He 
centres his curriculum around science and makes science the basis 
and foundation of all studies. This scheme, since its publication 
and endorsement by the powerful Rockefeller Foundation, has at- 
tracted widespread attention. But when we study the pamphlet 
carefully, we can readily see that Dr. Flexner has given us little that 
is new. He has merely torn a leaf from Spencer. To justify his 
substitution of science for the languages and mathematics, he quar- 
rels with the present curricula that contain these subjects. The 
justice of his quarrel with the classics cannot be taken up here. 
That would give matter enough for a paper in itself. What is more 
important, at the present, is his plea for the widest use of science 
studies in the school. 

In the early part of his paper he informs us that " never has 
there been greater need for abstract thinking." Yet when he would 
make science the centre of his course of study and discard, the 
traditional subjects, long recognized for their value to discipline 

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1917] THE ANOMALY OF MODERN EDUCATION 729 

mentally, he falls into the serious error of believing that by em- 
phasizing the study of the sciences, he will train the youth to do 
clear, abstract thinking. 

No one who has had practical experience in the elementary 
or secondary schools, can admit the truth of his contentions. For 
the most part science studies are mere content studies. They are 
informative studies only. And any study that merely gives in- 
formation is of little value for disciplining the mind. It is true 
that it does improve the powers of observation; it is true that it 
does strengthen the memory, but it fails in the most essential 
requisite, in the only real value that a study can have: it seldom 
trains the mind to think, or the judgment to act. After long con- 
tact with some of our most capable science teachers, the writer has 
found the complaint the same in every instance, whether in zoology, 
botany, biology, chemistry or physics; the pupil will do all the 
work of observing and experimenting, but when a conclusion must 
be deduced, he fails absolutely to do any original thinking, and the 
work then devolves upon the teacher. As soon as any intensive 
thinking must be done, the child, even in advanced high school 
grades, loses interest in his subject and evades, by trickery or 
otherwise, that part of the work which alone can provide him with 
the sort of training that aids in the development of sound judgment. 
The study of science is so poorly adapted to the training of the 
mind, beyond the memory and observation, that it resolves itself 
into a mere imparting of information that anyone can get by going 
to the proper page in the encyclopaedia. If I care to know the 
shape of a flounder's backbone (and this is not infrequently an 
exercise given to school children) I can go to the library and after 
little effort acquire the proper facts. The judgment exercised in 
this instance seems an absolute minimum compared with the inten- 
sive thought that must come into action if I am called upon to 
translate an English exercise into Greek or Latin. Yet the modem 
educators would exclude the teaching of Latin and Greek from our 
schools and substitute such things as " the making of a camera " 
or the study of the birds and bees. 

Further than instructing the pupil in the principles of sanitary 
living, the teaching of science in the elementary and for the most 
part in the secondary schools, is a waste of time. It loads down the 
mind with fact impediments that the child has no use for, and 
which he could not use if he needed. And when we find a boy 
of twelve learning by memory the division of the invertebrates or 

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730 THE ANOMALY OF MODERN EDUCATION [Sept., 

a girl of fifteen studying the frog, we begin to wonder how either 
can be trained to do abstract thinking by these means. 

If any change is to be adopted it should be along those lines 
that will restrict the mere content studies, such as biology, zoology 
and botany, to the imparting of only such facts as will help the 
child to live more healthfully. 

The Reformation, it has been asserted, marked an era of 
" freedom." The old inhibitions of the Church were cast aside as 
obsolete, self -destructive and opposed to the development of all that 
is best in the individual. Freedom became the watchword — freedom 
of thought — freedom of action. Discarding the principles on which 
the Church was founded and which it insisted upon as requisite for 
right living, the innovators builded along the lines of their new 
founded freedom. The Protestant creeds that resulted were to 
accord man the spiritual help that he needed. In the passing of 
the centuries the test has been made. Today Protestantism, inas- 
much as it means religion, stands before the world a futile thing, 
bankrupt of all spiritual force, a mere convention, powerless to 
react in any degree upon its members. And in the minds of the 
thoughtful there is dawning the realization of the emptiness of its 
tenets. Freedom is not the goal of the creature, and Protestants 
of today are beginning to discern the fact that the revolt of the 
sixteenth century was in no sense a reformation but a religious 
debauch, the price of which they are now paying. 

As it has been with religion, so has it been with education. 
Education and religion are practically synonymous, and when a 
blow is struck at one, it cannot fail to react upon the other. The 
license of Luther and his contemporaries was not confined to re- 
ligion. It had a direct effect upon education. The strict discipline 
of the Schoolmen, which gave the world such men as St. Thomas 
Aquinas and St. Dominic, was battered down by the iconoclasts who 
proclaimed the new " freedom." The aim of education up to this 
time was to train by thorough drill and constant practice. The mind 
was reached by intensive training, and abstract thinking was obtained 
by dialectic exercises that brought the judgment into rapid action. 
Judged in the light of present day standards, the course of study 
laid down was unusually severe, yet the training that it gave was 
magnificent. The studies taken up carried no excess, useless bag- 
gage. When the student passed his work in poetry, rhetoric, logic 
and philosophy, he went forth equipped mentally to do close, con- 
centrated thinking. He was a finished product. 

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1917.] THE ANOMALY OF MODERN EDUCATION 731 

But when looseness of thought deluged the intellectual 
world subsequent to the Reformation, this mental discipline of the 
Schoolmen was found inconsistent with the newly-proclaimed 
" freedom." In the reaction, the pendulum began to swing wide. 
The strict, disciplinary methods of the old school were swept aside 
and the radical naturalism of Rousseau, the science of Spencer and 
the psychological interpretation of Herbart took their place. Con- 
tent studies were now insisted upon and the disciplinary subjects, 
by means of which the mind was put through mental gymnastics, 
were thrust aside. The results are apparent today. They are 
forcing us to a candid confession that education, as well as religion, 
that is bom of license cannot efficiently train the youth for life, 
since life has always been predicated upon the bases of strictest 
obedience and accountability. After these long years of fruitless 
experiment and wasted effort, the modem educator must soon real- 
ize the absurdity of expecting order out of chaos or strength out 
of weakness. 

This is the anomaly of education. Our modern educators are 
setting up an ideal of social participation and for its attainment are 
using means that must ultimately destroy it. How much farther 
must the pendulttm swing before it retums from its quixotic gyra- 
tions? 



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THE CATHOLIC FOUNDERS OF THE NATIONAL CAPITAL. 

BY MARGARET B. DOWNING. 

EORGE WASHINGTON'S majestic figure over- 
shadows all others concerned in establishing the 
Capital of the United States on the banks of the 
Potomac. From the hour the first President ac- 
cepted from Congress the- mission of providing a 
permanent seat for the Federal Govenmient, until a few days pre- 
vious to his death, some nine years later, he devoted to the task all 
his consummate wisdom and prudence, his tireless energy and inex- 
haustible patience. Washington's writings in relation to the found- 
ing of the fair city which bears his name, have recently been col- 
lected, and the story told in chronological sequence is entertaining 
even for the casual reader, and has proven extremely serviceable 
for the historical student.^ From this volume an adequate idea may 
be gathered of the assistance which the Chief Magistrate sought 
and received from distinguished Catholics. Some were owners in 
the ten miles square taken from Maryland and Virginia to form 
the District of Columbia. Others were brilliant professional men, 
like the French engineer. Major Charles Pierre L'Enfant, and the 
talented young Irish architect, James Hoban. Many others ren- 
dered the most important services in the purchasing and laying out 
of the city, as Daniel Carroll of Rock Creek, brother of the Arch- 
bishop, and those whose memory is intimately associated with the 
erecting and adorning of the Federal structures. All of these early 
Catholic residents, through their loyal efforts to aid President Wash- 
ington in the formidable labor of building the permanent seat of 
government, are honored as co-founders of the splendid city, now 
the Capital of one of the world's most powerful nations. 

Of the sixteen proprietors who owned the estates at present 
comprising the District of Columbia, six, or three-eights of the 
total number, were Catholics. Of these six, two, Notley Young and 
Daniel Carroll of Duddington, were joint proprietors of the vast 
tract known as Cerne Abbey Manor, which roughly sketched em- 
braces all that portion of Washington city proper, from the site of 

^Records of the Columbia Historical Society. Writings of Washington, vol. 
xvii. Washington, D. C. 1914. 



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1917.] CATHOLIC FOUNDERS OF THE CAPITAL 733 

the present Bureau of Engraving and Printing to Ninth and K 
Streets, northwest; and from the confluence of the Anacostia River, 
or Eastern Branch, with the Potomac along its southeast and 
southwest shores to the rural districts beyond the navy yard. To 
this must be added all of the village of Anacostia to Bennings and 
northeast of the city to the suburb of Eckington. Preeminent 
distinction must be given the same Notley Young and Daniel Car- 
roll among the founders of the Catholic Church in the Capital of 
the nation. The chronicle of their achievements, with those who 
played a different though no less important role, makes an edifying 
page in the history of the Church in its oldest American English- 
speaking province. 

Notley Young was the uncle of Daniel Carroll of Duddington, 
and their vast estate on the Potomac had descended, on the distaff 
side, from that Notley Rozier who was the godson and heir of 
Thomas Notley, Governor of the Province of Maryland, 1676-79. 
Governor Notley came of a noble Catholic line of Dorset, England, 
and he had called his Potomac manor grant Ceme Abbey, after 
the famous Benedictine foundation which Aelfric, the Grammarian, 
ruled for many years as Abbot. The Roziers were kindred of the 
most illustrious pioneer families of Maryland; Sewalls, who 
for three generations gave missionary priests to the Province; 
Digges, who were militant as well as religious defenders of the 
Faith, since the founder of the family in Lord Baltimore's Pala- 
tinate, Sir Dudley Digges, was the gallant defender of St. Mary's 
City when it was besieged by Coode in the Protestant rebellion; 
Neales, who were stanch upholders of the Calverts, and gave emi- 
nent churchmen during the years of persecution, as well as in the 
years of religious liberty ; Fenwicks, cavaliers who 'stood loyally 
for the Stuarts in the Scottish Highlands and in the wilderness of 
Maryland, and from whose later descendants came two of the 
earliest members of the American hierarchy. To this list of sturdy 
Catholic families of Maryland in the late seventeenth century may 
be added the Damalls, the Brents, the Hills, the Queens, the Car- 
rolls, the Jenkins, the Mattinglys, the Spaldings and the Lancasters. 
All had intermarried with the ancestors of Notley Young and 
Daniel Carroll. It is conceded that the survival of the Faith in 
the days of penal persecution was entirely due to the unflagging zeal 
of these native Marylanders. They sent their sons to St. Omer's ta 
receive a religious education, and their daughters to the convents 
of Flanders. Many of the sons returned to labor as missionaries 

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734 CATHOLIC FOUNDERS OF THE CAPITAL [Sept., 

at a time when a price was set on their heads. They suffered long 
years of unjust persecution and cruel privation. Their churches 
were the wigwam of the Indian or some dim room in a secluded 
manor, and they crept disguised about the country, endeavoring 
to bring occasional religious consolation to the faithful. Their dis- 
regard of comfort and their heroic courage in the performance of 
duty, makes a glorious chapter in the Catholic history of Maryland. 

Of such stem and uncompromising Catholic ancestry came Not- 
ley Young, a patriarchal figure in the early days of Washington city. 
He was twice married ; first to Mary, daughter of Ignatius Digges 
of Melrose, and second to Mary, daughter of Daniel Carroll of 
Upper Marlborough. By the first alliance he became the brother 
of Rev. Thomas Digges, S.J., who celebrated the Holy Sacrifice of 
the Mass for the first time within the boundaries of Washington 
city, and by the second, of Most Rev. John Carroll, first Arch- 
bishop of Baltimore. More than thirty years before Washington 
came from Mount Vernon to confer with the proprietors along the 
Potomac, the manor house of Notley Young was a shelter and a 
refuge for the Catholics in the vicinity. It stood on the high river 
bank on what is now G Street, between Ninth and Tenth, south- 
west. A commodious chapel led from the pillared portico overlooking 
the Potomac and occupied the entire western wing of the dwelling. 
Tradition has it Father Digges rode up from his father's mansion, 
in Prince George County, to visit his sister in the spring of 1760, 
and administered the sacraments and celebrated Mass in the chapel 
during the entire week of his sojourn. When Father John Carroll 
took up residence at his mother's home in Rock Creek in 1774, 
he began parochial work in an area which was coterminous with 
what was latef- the District of Columbia and parts of adjacent coun- 
ties in Maryland and Virginia. He frequently made long visits 
to Notley's hospitable mansion and attended to the spiritual needs 
of Catholics scattered about the countryside. 

Notley Young gave generously of his abundance to the strug- 
gling church of the District of Columbia. An entire square of 
land was devoted to the purposes of a cemetery near St. Peter's 
Church, and lesser parcels were left by his will to be held at the 
disposal of Bishop Carroll and to be used at his need. He left six 
children. Notley second became a secular priest, and figures hon- 
orably in the first decade after the establishment of the See of 
Baltimore. Nicholas and Benjamin married and left large families. 
At least one priest, sometimes more, appears in every generation, 



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1917.] CATHOLIC FOUNDERS OF THE CAPITAL 735 

with more than a generous quota of fair and accomplished daugh- 
ters who joined the teSaching orders locating in the new city. 

The Rev. Dominic Young, a member of the illustrious 
Order of Preachers, was a well-loved pastor at St. Dominic's 
Church in South Washington. There were two, Revs. Ignatius 
Fenwick Young, uncle and nephew, and Father Raymond Young, 
all laboring in parishes of the province of Baltimore during the 
same juncture of time. Notley Young's eldest daughter, Mary, 
married into the Fenwick family. She resided for years near St. 
Patrick's Church and was its liberal benefactor. Eleanor married 
Robert Brent, nephew of Archbishop Carroll and first Mayor of 
Washington. A third daughter, Ann, married Peter Casanove, 
and with her family is counted among the founders and patrons of 
Trinity Church, Georgetown. Notley Young died in his manor 
home in 1802, and was buried with his kindred in the stately mauso- 
leum on the river bank. When the growing city began to encroach 
not only on the homes of the living but of the dead, Robert Brent, 
the mayor, had all the remains reverently laid in the Carroll burial 
ground at St. John's on Rock Creek. It is a reproach that the 
exact location of the grave of this Catholic founder of the National 
Capital is unknown. But the memory of such men as Notley Young 
survives without the aid of imposing mortuary marble. 

Sprung from the same sturdy Catholic stock on the maternal 
side as Notley Young, Daniel Carroll of Duddington added the 
heroic strain of the O'Carrolls, chiefs of Ely. He was the great- 
grandson of that Charles Carroll, the immigrant, who appears in 
provincial annals as the Attorney-General of Maryland. He was 
the second cousin of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the Signer. 
Daniel of Duddington was just entering his majority when Presi- 
dent Washington became a familiar figure to the denizens about 
the Upper Potomac. His was a commanding presence in the devel- 
opment of the Capital in its first half century. His life was full 
of vicissitudes, but he remained through all reverses of fortune the 
high type of Catholic gentleman — ^benevolent to the poor, generous 
to the Church and to his friends, chivalrous and high principled in 
the aflfairs of daily life. When he died in 1849, the National Daily 
Intelligencer (May 15th) said of him editorially: "He made 
every exertion for the accommodation of the First Congress, erect- 
ing numerous buildings which did not prove profitable. He was 
always an indulgent landlord. He favored the widow and the 
orphan and other needy tenants, and would yield thousands of 

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736 CATHOLIC FOUNDERS OF THE CAPITAL [Sept., 

dollars rather than dismiss them for owing rent. He was the 
friend of the poor and dispensed large sums in charity from his 
abundant means. But, alas, the mutability of fortune deprived him 
of late years of the means of giving to the poor." No one man in 
the chronicles of the city gave such large sums to the Church as 
Mr. Carroll. An examination of the archives of Baltimore show 
how promptly he answered every call, and how prudently he set 
aside land to be used in the future, when the needs of the parishes 
increased. The youngest of urban churches in Washington, 
St. Vincent's, is built on a square of land Carroll deeded to the 
bishop in 1805. No man showed a broader public spirit. Thus 
he is found leading the subscriptions of the citizens who were 
patriotically planning to erect an edifice in which Congress could 
meet, until the structure destroyed by the British in 1814, was 
rebuilt. He gave more than two thousand dollars and collected 
more than half of the sum needed, seventeen thousand five hun- 
dred dollars, from his kinsmen, William Dudley Digges, Robert 
Brent, William Brent of Richland, whose daughter he had married, 
Charles Carroll of Bellevue, his brother, and James Young: Other 
generous Catholic subscribers to the fund for the " Brick Capitol," 
as it is called, were James D. Barry, friend of Archbishop Carroll 
and founder of Barry's chapel on Greenleaf's Point, the present 
navy yard, and Nicholas L. Queen, owner of the imposing country 
seat, "The Enclosure," with its famous colonial shrine. Queen's 
Chapel. Daniel of Duddington figures in another national emerg- 
ency, according to Dolly Madison's letter to her sister, Cutts, hastily 
inscribed after the battle, scornfully called by latter-day historians 
" the Bladensburg races." In the second paragraph, the distressed 
lady says : " Our kind friend, Mr. Carroll, has just come to hasten 
our departure, and is in a very bad humor because I insist on waiting 
for the large portrait of General Washington to be secured, and it 
requires to be unscrewed from the wall. This process is too tedious 
for the perilous moments and I have ordered the frame to be broken 
and the canvas taken out."* 

When Major L'Enfant and his colleague, in laying out the 
Federal city. Baron de Graff e, arrived in the spring of 1791, they 
were entertained by Daniel Carroll. This was before the famous 
quarrel over the situation of the new manor house of Duddington, 
a controversy which eventually caused L'Enfant's dismissal from 

* Memoirs and Letters of Dolly Madison. Edited by her grandniece. Pp. no. 
III. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin Co. 1888. 



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1917.] CATHOLIC FOUNDERS OF THE CAPITAL 737 

the post of chief engineer. Carroll owned that beautiful eminence 
which stands eighty-eight feet above the river, now crowned by 
the United States Capitol. It was almost the geographical centre 
of Cerne Abbey Manor domain, and Carroll realizing that his home, 
Notley Hall, in Prince George County, was too far removed from 
the city, had fixed on this hill as the ideal site for a new mansion. 
L'Enfant, however, would hear of no other position for the legis- 
lative halls, and Carroll becoming enthusiastic over the engineer's 
plans, parted with this property at a figure so far disproportionate 
to its value that it was a virtual gift to the nation. 

The slow and inscrutable decrees of truth and justice have 
worked out the vindication of L'Enfant's memory. He was pos- 
sessed of untoward temper, and was insubordinate to Presidents 
Washington and Jefferson and the Commissioners whom they ap- 
pointed. But to his pure and exalted ideals, his transcendant genius 
and the int^^ty of his character, history has paid a belated but en- 
tirely adequate tribute. His plan, rescued from a dusty pigeon hole 
of the War Department, has been executed to its last detail, and as a 
consequence Washington is one of the beauty spots of the world. It 
is pathetic to know that for this almost perfect piece of work, he 
received one thousand three hundred and ninety-four dollars, which 
was the interest and principal combined of six hundred and sixty- 
six dollars, the princely sum offered him on his dismissal, and 
which for ten years he refused to accept. The nation cannot be 
accused of reckless prodigality towards this unfortunate French 
patriot to whom it owed such signal benefits. For, several years 
previous to these events, the lot on Seventeenth Street nearly oppo- 
site the White House, given him in the first survey, was sold for 
taxes. In his declining days, stricken with illness and suffering 
from loss of fortune, L'Enfant found a home and tender care with 
William Dudley Digges at Chillum Castle Manor, Green Hill, Mont- 
gomery County, Maryland. The chatelaine of Chillum Castle 
Manor was the daughter of Daniel Carroll of Duddington. It 
seems poetic justice that this noble lady should smooth his path 
to the grave with almost filial tenderness since her father, unwit- 
tingly, had brought such misery into his life. More than eighty 
years the eminent engineer rested in a forgotten spot at Green Hill, 
when the Government, aroused by the efforts of Right Rev. 
D. J. O'Connell, Bishop of Richmond, then rector of the Catholic 
University, and the late Rev. D. J. Stafford, pastor of St. Patrick's, 
to remove the remains to a worthy mausoleum, provided a military 

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738 CATHOLIC FOUNDERS OF THE CAPITAL [Sept., 

funeral and a grave among the heroic dead at Arlington. L'Enfant 
now awaits the last summons on the brow of a hill directly over- 
looking the city which is his monument, and upon which as an artist 
and an engineer his fame will rest enduringly. 

The name of James Hoban, architect of the attractive home 
of the Presidents, appears frequently in the annals of Washington 
from the first five years after the purchase of the ten miles square 
until his death in 1817. Like UEnfant, he was a regular attendant 
at St. Patrick's Church. He came from Dublin in his early man- 
hood, and was winning a competence in Charleston, South Carolina, 
when the new Capital and its opportunities lured him north. The 
White House shows the cherished memory of Hoban's old home, 
many of its features being taken from the palace of the Duke of 
Leinster in Dublin. Hoban was held in high esteem by General 
Washington and by all with whom he was associated. He entered 
heartily into the life of the city, and became captain of the first 
militia company in the District of Columbia. It was his proud 
privilege to lead forth his command in 1797 to meet the retiring 
Executive, who was en route from Philadelphia to Mount Vernon. 
Besides the White House, which is exclusively his work, Hoban 
labored on many other public buildings. He laid the foundations 
of the new Capitol building in 181 5, after several sets of contractors 
had defrauded the Government by spurious attempts, and he became 
an associate of Dr. William Thornton, the official architect, until 
the handsome pile which is the admiration of the world was nearing 
completion, and death bade him rest. 

Another distinguished architect, not Catholic in practice but 
certainly one in education and sympathy, was Benjamin Henry 
Latrobe, like Hoban an associate of Dr. Thornton in the lofty 
ideals which inspired the building of the legislative halls. Latrobe 
had studied for many years in Rome and was entirely permeated 
with its canons of art. He prevailed on President Jefferson to 
permit him to seek the best artists of Italy, in order that the interior 
of the Capitol might be worthy of the designs of the architects. 
When Latrobe sailed for Europe in 1804, it was with the avowed 
purpose of influencing Antonio Canova to return with him. The 
great master, however, was engaged with the Duke of Tuscany and 
the Venetians, and the infant republic could offer nothing com- 
mensurate with the tenns of these patrons. Canova, however, was 
sympathetic and he obtained for Latrobe the best available sculptor 
Florence and his studio afforded, namely his kinsman and as- 



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1917] CATHOLIC FOUNDERS OF THE CAPITAL 739 

sistant, Guiseppe Franzoni. This gentle Tuscan came to Washing- 
ton early in 1805 with a large retinue of servants, several well- 
known artists and sculptors, among whom was Giovanni Andrei, 
some master stonemasons and woodcarvers, and before the leaves 
were green in the parks of the Capital, he was working with the 
zeal of one of the ancient masters. Franzoni was cultured and 
intelligent, and he was admitted at once on terms of cordial friend- 
ship with that most cosmopolitan and democratic of all Amer- 
can executives, Thomas Jefferson. He supped at the White House 
several times a week, and politics in Europe — it was the Napoleonic 
era — ^art, letters and prominent personalties engaged him until a 
late hour. 

For ten years Franzoni and his assistants labored until the 
interior of the Capitol began to assume the beauty and ornateness 
dreamed of by Thornton, Hoban and Latrobe. Of this noble work, 
practically nothing is known at the present day. Franzoni was 
worthy of his training under Canova, and he wrought wonders in 
marble and in bronze. There were exquisite angel heads peeping 
from obscure recesses, and an allegorical frieze was in progress 
just above the fine portraits of Louis XVI. and Marie Antoi- 
nette, presented by them in 1779: "To our Great, Faithful and 
Beloved Friend and Ally, General Washington." The letter, ac- 
companying the paintings, sent by Chevalier de la Luzerne, fortu- 
nately exists but the portraits have perished. Some faint idea of 
the superb treasures of art wrought under the direction of Fran- 
zoni, may be gathered from the writings and speeches of Webster, 
Clay and Calhoun. But Franzoni did not possess the art of self- 
advertising so essential to success in the new world. He made 
glorious statues, but he wrote no dogmatic treatises on art, and 
he failed to keep any inventory of his achievements. When the 
British, under Admiral Cockburn, so wantonly burned the Capitol, 
all his faithful labors were reduced to ashes — ^all, save the lovely 
figure of " Justice " adorning the law library, and a graceful and 
appealing statuette of " Liberty " above the Speaker's desk. Fran- 
zoni never recovered from the grief caused by the British admiral's 
barbaric act. For days he went about the ruined Capitol wringing 
his hands and weeping, trying to find something which had been 
spared and might be restored. Just six months after the burning, 
death, the consoler, brought him relief. Franzoni was buried in 
St. Patrick's old cemetery, and later was removed, with other illus- 
trious aliens who had given their best to the United States Capitol, 

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740 CATHOLIC FOUNDERS OF THE CAPITAL [Sept., 

to a mausoleum in Oak Hill. A year later Carlo Franzoni, with 
Francesco lardello as assistant, came to finish his brother's con- 
tracts. Carlo was a sculptor of greater renown than Guiseiq)e, 
and had been for many years employed by Pius VII. in the Vatican. 
His most admired work in the legislative halls are the celebrated 
com columns of the north vestibule of which Anthony TroUope 
wrote, " These pillars are the only original thought I noted in 
America." 

All these first Italian exiles were members of St. Patrick's, un- 
til the needs of the growing city caused the division of Washington's 
most venerable parish. The first modest church of the new parish of 
St. Peter's occupied the same site as the present stately struc- 
ture. The inhospitable climate killed off these children of the South 
one by one, as indeed it had ten years previous to Latrobe's journey, 
the Irish laborers Hoban had brought to work on the White House. 
There were few physicians, no hospitals or orders of nursing re- 
ligious, to which both Irish and Italians had been accustomed. The 
nation owes these early Catholics a heavy debt, but except to the 
special investigator, their zeal, diligence and heroic endurance are 
utterly unknown. To the Italians another debt is owing in that 
they, with the influence of Thornton, Hoban and Latrobe, stamped 
on the national mind a sense of true values in art This is apparent 
in the first Federal buildings erected when this influence dominated 
even the subtle plans of politicians. Note the magnificant pile of 
the Capitol buildings, not without architectural blemish it is true, 
but of such splendid proportions and general symmetry no later 
architect could destroy its grandeur, no matter how many terraces 
and sunken gardens were added. There is the stately Treasury 
and the majestic Corinthian Patent Office. Nothing so worthy has 
been erected since, except the Library of Congress and the fine 
railroad terminal. These Italians effected, moreover, the first organ- 
ized effort towards good classical music. What has evolved into 
the nationally famous Marine Band began with a few homesick 
Tuscans training and conducting some Americans who showed 
talent. They also were among the first organists and trained choir 
singers who helped to enhance the beauty and solemnity of the 
Divine Service. 

In the first two decades of Washington's municipal existence. 
Catholic mayors presided over its destinies for eleven years. Robert 
Brent, the first mayor of Washington, was appointed by Presi- 
dent Jefferson in 1802, and served for ten years. He was the son 

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1917.] CATHOLIC FOUNDERS OF THE CAPITAL 741 

of Robert Brent of Woodstock, on Acqui Creek, Virginia, and his 
mother was Anne, eldest sister of Archbishop Carroll. The Brents 
of Acqui were descendants of George Brent, the immigrant who 
came to the colony of Virginia in the middle of the seventeenth 
century. They were not, so far as genealogical records can show, 
related to the Maryland Brents, Gyles and Hugh, who came over 
with Governor Leonard Calvert's colony on the Ark and the Dove. 
During his term as mayor, and during which he served without 
remuneration, Robert Brent was judge of the Orphans' Court and 
in charge of the extensive charities devolving on him through his 
father-in-law, Notley Young's will. His handsome country seat, 
Brentwood, was a radiating point of social life when Washington 
was in its infancy. He is buried in the brick vault near the old 
mansion. Thomas Carberry was mayor in 181 9, and is credited 
with the excellent reform of separating juvenile delinquents from 
criminal adult inmates of the city jail. Mr. Carberry was the 
brother of that Mrs. Ann Mattingly, whose miraculous cure through 
the intercession of Prince Hohenlohe von Schillingsfiirst caused 
such religious enthusiasm in the early part of 1824.' 

The Carrolls of Upper Marlborough, or of Rock Creek, had 
two eminent founders, in the limited political as well as the broad 
Catholic sense, in the Archbishop and the Commissioner, that Daniel 
Carroll who was a member of Congress from Maryland and is 
also known in history as the ** Statesman." The Archbishop, to 
the renowned titles which he holds as Primate of the American 
hierarchy and founder of Georgetown College, adds that of being 
the first regular parish priest the District of Coltmibia boasted, 
until the establishment of the College in Washington's mother city 
of Georgetown in 1 789 and of Trinity Church some five years later. 
Father Carroll attended the needs of Catholics all along the Potomac 
until 1783, when he was called to Baltimore to fill a larger role. 
Daniel Carroll, the Commissioner, is intimately associated with the 
Catholic proprietors, Notley Young and Daniel Carroll of Dud- 
dington, his nephew. His name may be found on every subscription 
list looking towards the erection of Catholic churches or for causes 
of Catholic charity from the purchase of the Federal property until 
his death in 1796. He maintained St. John's chapel at Rock Creek 
out of his private funds, until his brother was in position to support 
it from diocesan funds. The old manor house at Rock Creek which 

•Whitfield, Examination of Evidence and Report on the Miraculous Restoration 
to Health of Mrs, Ann Mattingly, Charleston, South Carolina. 1830. 

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742 CATHOLIC FOUNDERS OF THE CAPITAL [Sept., 

Daniel, the Commissioner, inherited as his mother's portion of the 
great colonial grant, " The Woodyard,*' was destroyed by fire 
nearly half a centliry ago. The modem stone church of St. John's, 
at Forest Glen, is situated about two hundred yards from the hal- 
lowed shrine which was the scene of Father John Carroll's mission- 
ary labors, and on a tract of land left for church purposes by the 
Commissioner. The old g^veyard, to which reference has been 
made as the burial place of Notley Young and his kindred, is a 
sacred spot, although one little known. One of the time-stained 
tombstones bears the name of Archbishop Carroll's mother, Eleanor 
Damall of "The Woodyard," a valiant woman, typical of the daugh- 
ters of old Catholic Maryland. She died in her ninety-sixth year and 
lies beside her husband, Daniel Carroll of Upper Marlborough. 
Another Carroll, worthy of mention, is Charles of Bellevue, younger 
brother of Daniel of Duddington, who was a generous benefactor 
both of Trinity and of St. Patrick's. Charles built a fine mansion 
in Georgetown after the pattern of Duddington Manor, but he soon 
became interested in a project to join a Catholic colony in New 
York State. He sold his handsome estates, Bellevue and Evermay 
in Georgetown, and made a home in the Empire State. He is hon- 
ored among the founders of the diocese of Syracuse. 

Rev. Francis Neale, the first pastor of Trinity Church, was 
the brother of the second Archbishop of Baltimore, and holds an 
honored place in Catholic records, in that he is the first shepherd 
to keep a detailed account of his flock. His old parish book is 
almost in fragments, but it holds the honor of being the first Catho- 
lic register in all this District of Columbia, where such vast and 
vital Catholic interests are now centred. St. Patrick's, the first 
parish in Washington city proper, claims a history which though 
snd Ovid, 
Fasti, iv. 347, et seq. ^De Civitate Dei, i. 30« ^Loc. cit, 

'^Cf. also Sallust, Jugurthine War, 41 et seq.; and Velleius Paterculus, ii., 
passim. 

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1917] ST. AUGUSTINE ON INTERNATIONAL PEACE 749 

could obtain this succession of advances unless ambition prevailed. 
But ambition would by no means prevail, except in a people cor- 
rupted by avarice and luxury. And a people becomes avaricious 
and luxurious through prosperity." ^* 

The reason underlying the rise of evils out of prosperity 
is very evident. For " if the better things of the heavenly city, 
whereby the victory will be secured in eternal and highest peace, are 
neglected and these earthly goods are coveted to such a degree 
that they are either believed to be the only goods or loved more 
than those which are believed to be better, misery necessarily will 
follow and the evils already possessed will increase."'® 

Yet, despite their evils, some wars are just.*^ Wars under- 
taken on the authority of God, for instance, must be just.'* Hence 
the Israelites waged just wars.'* Besides, Christian doctrine does 
not forbid all wars,'* or the soldier in the Gospel narrative'*^ would 
not have been given the advice he received, but would have been ad- 
vised to give up his profession. Nevertheless, when the wise man 
wages even just wars, he will " far more, if he remembers that he 
IS a man, lament the fact that just wars have been necessary for him. 
For unless they were just, he would not wage them, and therefore 
for the wise man there would he no wars. For it is the injustice of 
the opposing party which compels the wise man to wage just wars ; 
and this injustice must be a source of grief to a man, because it 
is men's injustice, even though no necessity arose therefrom of 
waging war."" 

If, then, even the wise man laments the necessity of waging 
war, why does God permit it? " Either to deter, destroy or subdue 
the pride of mortals; since not even a war waged on account of 
human greed can injure not only the incorruptible God, but even 
His saints, to whom rather it is beneficial for the exercise of pa- 
tience, humility of soul, and the bearing of paternal correction."'' 

The greatest benefit of war, however, is foimd in the attain- 
ment of its end, peace. For " to make war on your neighbors and 
thence to proceed to others and through mere lust of conquest to 
crush and subdue people who do you no harm, what else is this to 
be called than great robbery? "" Therefore, to carry on war and 

^De Civitate Dei, i. 31. . ^Ibid., xv. 4. 

*^ Quttstiones in Heptateuchum, iv. 44. ''Contra Faustum, xxii. 65. 

^Qwistiones in Heptateit£hum, iv. 44. 

^Epist. 138, 15, addressed to Marcellinus (a. d. 41a). 

"Luke iii. 14. »Pe Civitate Dei, xix. 7. 

"Contra Faustum, xxii. 65. "JD* Civitate Dei, iv. 6. 



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7SO ST. AUGUSTINE ON INTERNATIONAL PEACE [Sept., 

extend a kingdom over entirely subdued nations, to the evil seems 
to be happiness; to the good, necessity. But because it would be 
worse if the unjust conquered the just, it would not be out of keep- 
ing to call even that 'happiness.' But beyond doubt it is a greater 
happiness to have a good neighbor at peace than to subdue an evil 
neighbor by war. Your wishes are evil, when you desire that one 
whom you hate or one whom you fear be one whom you can con- 
quer."®® Furthermore, conquest cannot be the end of war. For 
he who lusts for extensive dominion does not seek conquest as an 
end, but as a means, the means of obtaining a peace suited to him- 
self. For " wars are waged to secure peace,*® even by those who 
are eager to exercise their warlike nature by commanding and fight- 
ing. And hence, peace obviously is the end sought for by war.*'*^ 

Nevertheless peace is not obtained by war. The earthly city 
" is often divided against itself by litigations, wars and battles, 
and quests for victories either life-destroying or certainly short- 
lived. For any part of it that wars against ahother part of it, 
seeks to triumph over the nations, since il is in bondage to vice. 
If, when it has conquered, it is swelled up with pride, the victory 
is life-destroying; and if, considering the common misfortunes of 
its condition, it is more disturbed by the adversity that may come 
than elated with the prosperity already obtained, that victory is 
then only short-lived. For it will not be able to rule abidingly 
over those whom it has victoriously subdued.''*^ And if war does 
not^tain its object, how can that object be attained, how can peace 
be secured? 

Leaving this wider question unanswered for the moment, it 
might be well to see how peace is secured among individuals. "If 
we desire to receive the peace of the times, let us not pretend to 
keep peace with our neighbors. For if you truly wish to conquer 
the devil, your enemy, be reconciled quickly with your neighbor."** 
Let us not pretend to keep peace, as we would be doing, if we but 
concealed our belligerent attitude ; but let us be quickly reconciled. 
And how this reconciliation is to take place, is very clearly expressed 
by St. Augustine. " I am going to tell you something," he says, 
" that frequently happens among men. Sometimes someone is in- 
imical to a very dear friend of yours, who previously had been a 

^Ibid., iv. 15. 

**C/. also Epist. 189, 6, addressed to Boniface (a. d. 418). 
*^De Civitate Dei, xix. 12, i; cf. also ibid., xv. 4; Epist. 229, addressed to 
Darius (a. d. 429). 

^De Civitate Dei, xv. 4. ^Sermo 174 (De tetania). 



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1917] ST. AUGUSTINE ON INTERNATIONAL PEACE 751 

friend of both. Two of the three friends become mutual enemies. 
What shall he do, who remained neutral? Your friend desires, 
entreats, demands that you second his hatred 'of the other, and 
flings these words at you: *You are no friend of mine, for you 
are a friend of my enemy/ The other also meets you with the 
same charge. For the three of you were friends. Of the three, 
to become discordant, you remained. If you ally yourself with 
the one, the other will become your enemy; if with the latter, the 
former; if with both, both will object. See the trial; see the thorns 
in the vine whither we have been led. You expect me, perhaps, to 
tell you what to do. Remain the friend of both. Those who mur 
tually disagreed, will agree through yon."*^ Obviously then, a 
peaceable adjustment of private differences is secured by thje inter- 
vention of a mutual friend. Why should not international differ- 
ences be adjusted on the same principle? 

For, since the individuals make the home and " the home should 
be the beginning or element of the city, and every beginning bears 
reference to some end of its own kind and every element to the 
integrity of the whole of which it is a part, it follows plainly enough 
that domestic peace has reference to civic peace, that is, the ordered 
concord of domestic obedience and domestic rule has a relation to 
the ordered concord of civic obedience and civic rule."** Inter- 
national peace demands national peace; national peace demands 
domestic and individual peace. Now it has been seen that individual 
peace is secured through the kind offices of mutual friends** and 
domestic peace is secured through mutual cooperation.*' Why, 
then, is international peace left to be decided by war, which does 
not really accomplish its purpo"se, instead of by mutual friends and 
mutual cooperation ? 

This question received a very adequate and unequivocal answer 
in a letter*® addressed by St. Augustine to the distinguished officer 
Darius, who had been the instrument of effecting a reconciliation 
between the Empress Placidia and Count Boniface, and had also 
been successful in obtaining a truce with the Vandals. " Those 
warriors," he writes, " are indeed great and worthy of singular 
honor, not only for their consummate bravery, but also — which is 
of higher praise — for their eminent fidelity, by whose labors and 

**Sermo 59, 6. 

^De Civitate Dei, xix. 16; cf. De Civitate Dei, xix. 13, for the similarity of 
these two definitions. ^Sermo 59, 6. *'De Civitate Dei, xix. 13. 

^Epist. 229, addressed to Darius (a. d. 429) ; see also Smith, Dictionary of 
Christian Biography, s. v., Darius and Galla. 

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752 ST. AUGUSTINE ON INTERNATIONAL PEACE [Sept., 

dangers along with the blessings of divine protection and aid, 
enemies previously unsubdued are conquered and peace obtained 
for the state and the province reduced to subjection. But it is a 
higher glory to destroy war itself with a word than men with the 
sword and to procure or maintain peace by peace, not by war. For 
those who fight, if they are good men, doubtless seek for peace; 
nevertheless it is through blood. Your mission, however, is to pre- 
vent the shedding of blood. And so, that which is a necessity to 
others is a pleasure to you. Therefore, my worthy, illustrious, and 
very powerful lord, and very dear son in Christ, rejoice in this sin- 
gularly great and real blessing vouchsafed to you and enjoy it in 
God, to Whom you owe that you are what you are, and that you 
undertook such a work. May God strengthen that which He hath 
wrought in us through you.'**® 

It is this spirit of peace-making, so highly lauded by St. Augus- 
tine, that should be preserved even in waging war. " Consider this, 
then, first of all, when you are arming for the battle, that even your 
bodily strength is a gift of God; for, considering this, you will not 
employ the gift of God against God. For if, when faith is pledged, 
it is to be kept even with the enemy against whom the war is waged, 
how much more with the friend for whom the battle is fought! 
Peace should be your desire ; war should be waged only as a neces- 
sity and waged only that God may by it deliver men from the 
necessity and preserve them in peace. Be peace-makers, therefore, 
even when waging war, so that those whom you conquer, you may 
make conscious of the utility of peace by your conquest."^® 

From all that precedes, it may be concluded that the early 
Christians, as represented by St. Augustine, believed that world- 
wide peace could be obtained, if at all in this life, by the intervention 
of an impartial third party, provided that the two belligerents were 
willing to submit to and abide by his decision ;*^^ and that two bel- 
ligerents would do this willingly, only when they have learned to 
be just. In other words, peace is to be promoted by a more wide- 
spread education of the citizens of nations in right morals. 

This conclusion is corroborated and affirmed by the general 
spirit of the writings of St. Augustine, especially the comparisons 
of the earthly and heavenly cities. They are alike, he says, in that 
they both seek peace for the enjoyment of earthly things.*^* They 

*• Psalm Ixvii. 29. "Epif/. 189, 6, addressed to Boniface (a. d. 418). 

"^This idea corresponds very closely to the modem conception of a permanent 
court of arbitration with the consent of nations -as the sanction of its rulings. 
'*De Civitate Dei, xix. 17. 



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1917] KILLED 753 

are unlike in that one makes this the last end, the other uses it as a 
means to a higher and better peace, the true and perfect peace of 
eternal life.*^^ " Even the heavenly city, therefore, while in its state 
of pilgrimage, avails itself of the peace of earth, and, so far as it 
can without injuring faith and godliness, desires and maintains a 
common agreement among men regarding the acquisition of the 
necessities of life, and makes this earthly peace bear upon the peace 
of heaven; for this alone can be truly called and esteemed the 
peace of reasonable creatures, consisting as it does in the perfectly 
ordered and harmonious enjoyment of God and of one another in 
God."" 



KILLED. 

(AGED 19, 20, 21.) 
" Your young men shall see visions" 

BY EMILY HICKEY. 

'' Your young men shall see visions!" Some who have died. 
Having their noon at dawn, have they, clear-eyed, 
Seen a fair vision and been satisfied? 

These not cut off in promise tmfulfilled. 

And not with hope's high sunlight lowered and chilled. 

And not with deeds undone and wills unwilled, 

But bearing autumn's fruit in springtime's leaves; 
In sowers' arms home carrying their sheaves; 
(Garb royal for the hand one hour that weaves.) 

Bright boyhood sprung to splendor of manhood, still 
Keeping the dew of youth, its laughter's rill. 
With all the ocean strength of adult will. 

Oh, have not these, with purged vision clean, 

A vision of the supreme Vision seen, 

That for which life and death and all have been? 



"/&«/., xix. 20. ••/Wdv »3C. 17. 

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FRIENDS. 

J 

BY ESTHER W. NEILL. 

UDGE MATTOX rode along the familiar highway, 
c< >nscious of a reluctance to reach his destination such 
as he had never experienced before. His tall figure, 
ill his summer suit of black mohair, looked shrunken 
in his saddle, and his white goatee was flattened 
against the comers of his collar, for his head was bent and he 
seemed to travel with unseeing eyes. His old sorrel mare 
took advantage of her master's mood and slackened her speed to 
a loitering pace, stopping, unreproved, to browse the fresh grass 
that grew in the shadow of the toll gate. The keeper of the gate 
also noted the Judge's unusual attitude. He had thrown the toll 
in the box by the window, and passed on without making his cus- 
tomary remarks about the parched crops and the possibility of 
rain. 

"Judge Mattox is surely showing his age," said the toll-gatherer 
to his wife as he returned to his cosy kitchen. " Reckon it's time. 
He was a young fellow when the war broke out. But Lord ! that's 
more than fifty years ago." 

" And now there's another war a ragin*, " she replied indif- 
ferently, clattering her supper dishes into a pan. " The Civil War 
wa'n't but a cock fight compared to this here Kaiser." 

" Well, I ain't lookin' for nothin' worse," said her husband. 
" I reckon you're too young to remember and I wa'n't but a boy, 
but in this here valley of Virginia we caught it comin' and goin'. 
The Mattoxes and the Jessups was the big people in the county 
then — ^that's where the Judge is goin' tonight. I reckon he and 
*Doc.' Jessup's been friends seventy years." 

" Well, friends don't stay friends now," she declared gloomily. 
" There's Mirandy Claxton gone and quarreled with me because I 
wouldn't lend her my new hat to go on the church picnic with her 
beau. I ain't had a new hat in five years. I don't want people to 
think I bought it off Mirandy second-hand." 

" Course not — course not," said her husband soothingly, " but 
seems like women are different." 

" Different ! Well, of course we are different. Men never 

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1917.] FRIENDS 755 

did take any interest in hats. I reckon fussin' with your friends 
is just a part of life. Nobody makes allowances." 

" Well, I don't know," he drawled. " Seems like married men 
have to make a good many." 

He spoke with a certain huniforous, irritating conviction and 
then he sought safety out of doors. The distant honking of an 
automobile horn gave him an excuse to retreat. 

The Judge's horse was still in sight; the toll-keeper's eyes 
followed it across the narrow foot bridge and into the bridle path 
of the woods. 

" Now why didn't he stay in the open road ? " he wondered. 
" It's gettin' dark and the moon don't rise till nine, but I reckon 
that horse can find her way blindfolded. She's been there every 
night for years." 

The Judge had chosen the bridle path because it was less direct. 
He wanted more time to strengthen his failing resolution, to summon 
up his courage for the ordeal he had set before him. He had lived 
too long he told himself — ^three score and ten, the Biblical span of 
life. No man should desire longevity. Sorrows fall too heavily 
upon the old when they have lost the youthful buoyancy of hope 
that cancels most calamities. Now there was nothing left but the 
spiritual expectancy of a world beyond. The Judge was deeply 
religious, he looked between the interlacing lindens to the star- 
strewn sky. " There are other worlds," he murmured softly, " other 
worlds where we shall understand." 

The bridle path branched into a broad avenue bordered with 
silver poplars. " Doc." Jessup's old home stood revealed. A 
rambling gray stone house, built on hospitable colonial lines; the 
white pillars stretching to the roof, were shaggy with ivy; deep- 
seated chairs stood on the flagged portico to welcome the visitor, 
and in one of them " Doc." Jessup reposed. He was short and 
fat and his smooth face, carelessly shaven, was creased by kindly 
wrinkles ; he was smoking a long meerschaum which, in his recum- 
bent position, reached to his gold watch fob. 

" Come up, come up," he cried genially as he spied the Judge. . 
" Call that little nigger Abe to take your horse. He's 'round here 
somewhere polishing my boots. I fell in a mud hole this morning 
trying to land a five-pounder. You don't believe me ? I'll show 
you the boots." 

The Judge laughed mirthlessly. "I'd rather see the fish," he said. 
" Oh, the fish ! Well, he got away. You know my fish all 

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7S6 FRIENDS [Sept., 

seem to get away. Take that other chair, the one by the window 
is 'busted.* You broke it last week. You're getting too fat, Tom. 
Sitting on a bench all day is a lazy way to make your living; it 
isn't good for your liver. My Lord! we're all getting old and 
I don't like it. I swear I don't like it." 

" Hm," grunted the Judge. " Maybe we don't but we can't 
stop it. Don't call that little nigger of yours, he's no good. I'll 
tie Dixie here. Ever since you pastured her last year she thinks 
she belongs here. Can't go all the way to the east meadow to get 
her when I'm ready to start home. How's everything?" 

He sat heavily down in an armchair close to the Doctor's 
own and taking a cigar from the box on the rustic table, he asked 
his host for a light. 

" Doc." Jessup pulled at his pipe until it seemed ablaze. " It's 
no way to light a cigar," he objected. " I'm going to buy you fifty 
gross of matches and send them to you for a Christmas present. 
Where's the match box Betsy gave you ? " 

" I believe I lost it," he answered apologetically. " I always 
lose 'em. I reckon the last one was stolen — it was too handsome, 
all silver filagree. Tell Betsy to give me a ten-cent one next time. 
I never did care for frills." 

The Doctor held out his pipe. " Seems to me I've been 
lighting you up every since we tried smoking com husk cigarettes 
over there in the tobacco house. You were six and I was eight. 
Believe we filled them with the real stuff. My Lord! I was green 
about the gills and my mother, Goid rest her soul, thought I was ' 
getting the measles, but father caught on and applied the horse- 
whip. I remember Sister Carrie cried and brought me chocolate 
cake — ^the thick layer kind — ^and I was too sick to eat it. 'Pon 
my soul, Tom, I believe that chocolate cake has always been one of 
the most poignant regrets of my life." 

"How is Carrie?" 

'* Carrie is getting gouty though she won't admit it. I tell 
you we are all getting old, though Carrie shows it less than any 
of us. Remember how pretty she looked the day we marched oflF 
with our regiments? She was dressed in some sort of a sprigged 
muslin and her black curls were falling about her face. Wonder 
why don't women dress that way now-a-days; I always suspected 
you were a little soft on Carrie then, but her mind was fixed upon 
poor John Dennison. Poor John! It never seemed to me he had 
a chance at life." 

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1917] FRIENDS 757 

The Judge looked off into the darkness and puffed patiently 
at his cigar. " Perhaps that's the happiest way," he said. 

" Don't believe — don't believe it," snapped the Doctor. " I 
can't go round the world preaching a pessimistic doctrine like that. 
I've got to believe in life, the joy of it. Ever seen the ecstatic look 
on the face of a young mother? — ^then you'd know the value of 
it. I've ushered too many people into this world not to have faith 
in the worth-whileness of living. Why do we all hang on so? 
Life is a gift of God and therefore good! Didn't you do all you 
could to save John ? Didn't you haul him on your back for a mile 
or more? My Lord ! when I met you, you were bloodier than he — 
and you fainted in my arms." 

The Judge smoked steadily. He was grateful for the shadow 
of the swaying ivy; there was a moisture in his eyes that he did 
not want the Doctor to see. "And then — ^then we were taken pris- 
oners. I believe I would have died that year in Richmond, Jake, if it 
had not been for you." 

" Well, I couldn't do much," said the Doctor gratefully, " but 
I believe that winter in the hospital put the notion of studying medi- 
cine in my head. We must have been tough customers to have 
survived it. When I think of the nerve of those old Southern doc- 
tors performing major operations without anaesthetics, I take off 
my hat to them and their patients too. You see such endurance 
comes back to what I was saying a moment ago — the love of life, 
the love of life." 

" I don't know," said his guest doubtfully, " there are so many 
things that we value more." 

" Well, of course I'll grant you that men have been ready to 
die since the beginning for 'their country, their king, their God;' 
but the average man — ^well, you can't make me believe that he ex- 
pects to enjoy it." 

"You have left out honor and— ^and friendship," added the 
Judge. 

" Well I always omit a few facts in passing, Tom. You see 
I haven't your .legal love of accurate statement. Friends are scarce 
in these days; I wonder why. People seem to have so little time 
to enjoy each other. I wonder if the things they gain are worth 
the things they are always giving up." 

" Friendship means service," said the Judge solemnly, " and 
sometimes service is harder than death. I'm up against it tonight, 
Jake, that's why I'm so inarticulate. We've known each other 

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7S8 FRIENDS [Sept., 

seventy years, and I don't believe I ever had a secret from you be- 
fore, but I've had one for the last week and I meant to let it die 
with me, but I can't. It wouldn't be fair. I've told myself a 
hundred times that blood is thicker than water; that may be a 
true old saw for some people, but it isn't so when you're the 
water, Jake." 

The Doctor let the ashes of his pipe fall unheeded upon the 
crinkles of his waistcoat. " Nonsense, nonsense," he growled. 
•' You're out of sorts, Tom ; I don't like secrets, I hate 'em. Had 
hundreds dropped on me professionally. If you've got any bombs, 
preserve them in peace or can them. I'm not joking. Carrie has 
been putting up strawberries, and I've just naturally adopted the 
present vernacular of the house." 

" This is serious," said the Judge looking catutiously around 
him. " It concerns Betsy and Bob. They are all we have left, 
Jake. Two grandchildren; rather skimp posterity eh? I believe 
we've always felt that we owned them jointly. Betsy has always 
seemed like my own. God bless me ! Here she comes now." 

The front door was open and through the mellow lamplight of 
the hall came a slender, girlish figure bearing a waiter which held 
two old-fashioned goblets encrusted with frost. 

" Hebe ! " exclaimed the Judge rising from his chair with never 
failing formality. " Ah, Betsy dear, what kind of nectar are you 
bringing us two old codgers, since this infernal state went dry? " 

"Guess?" she answered laughing, "a little bit of everything 
and some mint leaves stuck in the top for a make-believe." She put 
the waiter down upon the table. "Aren't they beautiful?" she 
added, " frosted on the outside all the way to the bottom ; they 
wouldn't do that last night, but this time I m^de them." She waited 
with childish expectancy for the Judge's grandiloquent praise. 

His chivalrous speech was equal to the occasion, but his spirit 
was laboriously forced. 

"They look quite dangerously intoxicating and so do you. 
'Pon my soul, Betsy, there's something supernatural about you to- 
night, dressed all in white and your golden hair shining like a 
nimbus. If I were only forty years younger, I'd call you an angel, 
and then lasso you to that pillar for fear you would fly away. 
You're too good to us. Frosted drinks like that are fit for a king." 

She laughed again, and leaving the glare of the moonlight she 
went and leaned over the Doctor's low-backed chair and smoothed 
his growing bald spot. " Nothing is too good for you and grand- 
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1917I FRIENDS 759 

father," she said gaily. " I think you both are a great improvement 
on kings. Are you going to have your game of chess this evening? 
I put all the men on the board while I waited for the drinks to get 
frosty." 

" It's a little too warm to go inside," answered the Doctor, 
taking possession of the soothing hand and raising it to his lips. 
" We'll just smoke a pipe or two and drink these mysterious soft 
drinks and go to bed, Betsy. Turn out the lamps in the library 
and see if your Aunt Carrie wants an)rthing. She had a headache 
when she went upstairs. Old people have to be so dum careful 
of themselves. An extra spoonful of preserves and we're out of 
commission for a week." 

The girl fell upon her knees beside her grandfather's chair, 
and putting her arms around him she kissed him passionately. 
There were moments when her love for him was mingled with the 
tragic fear of parting. " Now you know you are well — ^perfectly 
well. But what do you find to talk about? Haven't you two ex- 
hausted every known topic, after all these years? " 

" Not quite," answered the Judge. " Not — not — everything." 
She did not notice the confusion of his manner, as she held up her 
face to him. He stooped and kissed her reverently, and then she 
turned and went into the house. 

" She is like her mother," said the old Doctor, smiling happily 
after her. " Not so beautiful but she is more docile. Her mother 
had a streak of stubbornness, inherited I suppose from me." 

" I never thought her stubborn." 

" Ah well, I know you never would agree that she had a 
fault, but I never could quite resign myself to her marriage. 
George was an impractical reformer, tilting at wind mills. He 
didn't know how to take care of the fortune his father left him 
and he couldn't make money himself. 

" He was an idealist," said the Judge dreamily, " and they 
were very happy together. He was so honest, so high-minded I 
always liked and respected him, even though I wanted her for 
my boy." 

" I know — I know. We had our hearts on that marriage, and 
before oiu* two young people had time to fall in love with each 
other, George 'butted' in. Perhaps I was unreasonably prejudiced 
against him on that account, but it looks like we can remedy it all 
in this generation. When is Bob coming home ? " 

A slight shudder passed through the Judge's big frame. " I 

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76o FRIENDS [Sept, 

came here tonight to talk about Bob. That is my secret, the 
secret that is hard to tell. He is not worthy of her, he is not 
worthy. Betsy must not be allowed to ff tarry Bob." 

The Doctor dropped his pipe, the carefully-colored bowl was 
shattered into fragments on the floor. 

" My Lord ! " he cried, " Bob and Betsy. Why they were made 
for each other! Why not? No — ^no — I won't ask you why, 
Tom; I'll take your judgment. We know each other too well to 
ask for reasons. I'll not ask for them. I've had faith in you 
always. I won't have reasons." 

He rose from his chair and paced restlessly up and down, his 
short shadow showed sharp and black as it advanced and retreated 
across the square flags of the portico. The Judge sat watching 
him in silence. For some inexplicable reason the Doctor's agita- 
tion produced a calm in his own manner that he could not have at- 
tained to alone. 

" But I came here tonight to give you reasons," he went on 
dully. " It's the first time in my life, Jake, that I haven't wanted 
to come. When you spoke just now of a love of life, I was think- 
ing of myself — I have lived too long." He paused a moment to 
steady his voice and then went on bravely to the end. " I have 
lived — lived to find that my grandson is a thief/' 

" My God ! " cried the Doctor protestingly, and he leaned 
weakly against one of the vine-laden pillars for support. " I don't 
believe it of Bob. Someone has accused him falsely, or you're 
straining at gnats, Tom. I — I can't, won't believe that of Bob." 

" It's God's truth," said the Judge, and his face looked white 
and strained in the moonlight. " I need not tell you, Jake, the 
shame it has brought to me. You know he has been trying to help 
pay his way through the university by acting as secretary to one 
of the professors. I couldn't quite see how I could meet all the 
expenses. Professor Carson trusted him and left a large sum of 
money in his care. Carson was always absent-minded and care- 
less about money matters. It's the same old story. Bob speculated 
with t\ie money, expected to return it. Carson found him out and 
threatened to prosecute and I — " 

" Go on." 

" Well, I sold the fifty acres that the railroad has wanted for 
so long and Carson has agreed to hush the matter up." 

" My Lord ! Tom^ — the fifty acres ! Why that's the best part 
of your farm." 

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1917.] DAiVN IN THE CITY 761 

" I know — I know," he agreed indifferently, " but that does 
not matter now. Nothing seems to matter now. I feel that Bob 
is in prison. I have convicted so many men for less. The memory 
of it will always lie between us as tangible to me as bars, Carson 
trusted him. I feel that it was worse than disgrace — it was dis- 
honor. Betsy must not be allowed to marry a thief." 

The Doctor paused in his excited walk and laid his heavy hand 
upon the shoulder of his friend. It was his only outward mark of 
sympathy. From the shore of the far-away trout stream came the 
hoarse croaking of frogs and the shrill timeless notes of the 
crickets; a fresh breeze, reversing the leaves of the poplars, trans- 
formed them into a spectral line : ghosts of a regiment, in tatters 
of silver gray, guarding the sanctity of the familiar garden, for the 
peace of the place seemed threatened. 

For a long time the two friends were silent, and then the old 
Doctor spoke as if the Judge had had the insight to follow all the 
ramifications of his thoughts. 

" I don't know about it," he said tolerantly, " I don't know — 
I don't just see it as — as you do, Tom. Maybe it's because I've 
been trying to cure people all my life, while you've been judging 
them. You see the boy may never be tempted again. I believe I 
would trust him, Tom. I know I would trust him because — ^well 
you see he is your grandson/' 



DAWN IN THE CITY. 

BY PIERRE LOVING. 

Behind dim-carven bridges shadowed deep ^^ 

In memoried pools of bistre-blue 

Where, brokenly, the moon-ribbed waters keep 

Musical vigil by pile-guarded quays. 

Unfolds the breast-flower of the dawn 'mid dew 

And mystic chanting smokes up from the seas. 

The withering ebb and flow 

Of change and circumstance 

Let loose amid the marts and city-canyons, lie asleep, 

Whilst star-decked roofs foursquare r^ 1 

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762 DAIVN IN THE CITY [Sept., 

Saliently sculpt the dawn-whist air 

Of Heaven ; 

And plucking one by one sidereal blooms, 

Voiceless each looms 

And penitent for daylight sins, upstands. 

And one by one by strange invisible hands 

Are shriven. 

Lo, all the while 

Across each waking mile 

A lean wise wind 

With never-idle and incanting hands 

Prays all things into life. 

Prays old things into new. 

Prays green things into rife 

And where, a moment gone, dark brooded, still 

And shuttered markets lay. 

In harried disarray, 

Wondering at Night's overstay, 

Now, now, full-panoplied, rides down 

The chivalry of Day. 

Yea, now the onset with sun-tempered brands 

Befalls, 

The faery visit of gay hands 

Upon Night's portals 

Until 

At last to all the world of mortals. 

Stirring the subject seas. 

Flicking the blades of grass. 

Speeding the winds that flit and pass, 

Unbarring mills and factories 

With musings tinged immortal white, 

While stare-eyed streets and ways 

Grow choked with carts and drays, 

God thunders large in light! 



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AIMS AND METHODS IN SOCIAL INSURANCE. 

BY JOHN o'gRADY, PH.D. 

|T IS very important that workingmen receive living 
wages, that the hours of their labor be reasonably 
short and that they carry on their work under health- 
ful conditions. They have a right to these things 
and the welfare of society demands that they be 
secured for them. But, after all, it is not low wages nor long 
hours that causes so much of the poverty with which we come in 
contact. It is when the income of the worker has been cut off 
that real want begins to stare him in the face. 

Contact with powerful machines results in the maiming of 
thousands of workers in this country every year. Sometimes they 
are killed outright but, more frequently, they are totally or par- 
tially disabled. Contact with poisonous substances, gas fumes and 
dusts frequently brings about fatal diseases. Harmful conditions 
in places of employment and excessive fatigue, predispose the 
workers to sickness. After his day in the factory, the lyorker 
frequently has to go to a home which is anything but conducive 
to health. It is overcrowded, ill-ventilated and unsanitary. 

The great speed of the modem factory has an undoubted 
tendency to shorten man's working life. The man who is past 
middle life finds it increasingly difficult to keep the pace set by 
the machine. Should he be displaced by some industrial change, 
he will find it exceedingly difficult to secure another position. 

Workers are subject to periods of unemployment, owing to 
the seasonal character of certain trades and to financial depressions. 
Again, it not infrequently happens that the breadwinner of a family 
dies before his dependents have become self-supporting. 

Everyone is interested in devising ways and means of safe- 
guarding the workers against the various hazards to which they 
are exposed, and which may any day cut off their income and leave 
themselves and their families penniless. 

Insurance is the great means which society has devised to 
protect its members against risk. 

In a small town there are, let us say, one hundred houses valued 
at ten thousand dollars each. Experience shows that on the average, 

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764 METHODS IN SOCIAL INSURANCE [Sept., 

three of these houses will burn down every year. The loss of these 
three houses may mean financial ruin to their owners. In order 
to avoid such large property losses in the case of any one or num- 
htr of individuals, all the owners in the town pay a certain fixed 
premium every year. They determine, in a word, to spread their 
risks and to bear their losses conjointly. The same principle ap- 
plied by the inhabitants of the town to protect themselves against 
fire losses, is applied in all branches of insurance. By the payment 
of a fixed premium men protect themselves against probable large 
losses in the future, whether these losses be due to death, accident, 
sickness or fire. 

There is no reason why this same means, which has been so 
successfully applied by the more fortunately situated members of 
society to protect themselves against the various hazards to which 
they are exposed, should not be also applied in case of the workers. 
A powerful movement is on foot in this country having for its 
goal the application of the insurance principle to the hazards which 
threaten to deprive workingmen's families of their incomes. But 
why should a movement like this require artificial fostering? Are 
not the workers sufficiently alive to their interests to render out- 
side interference unnecessary. Upwards of two and one half mil- 
lion wprkmen in this country belong to trade unions which not 
alone secure for them higher wages, shorter hours and more rea- 
sonable working conditions, but also protect them against the 
economic losses due to accidents, sickness, invalidity, old age and un- 
employment. Again, many thousands of workers belong to friendly 
societies which offer them a certain amount of protection against 
industrial hazards. It must be remembered, however, that only 
about eighteen per cent of the organizable workers in this country 
belong to trade unions. With a few notable exceptions organiza- 
tion has made very little progress outside of the skilled trades, and, 
even in these trades, the unions have been compelled to devote 
most of their time to collective bargaining. It is only in the older 
and more powerful organizations that benefit features have at- 
tained any degree of development. Among these, beneficiary ac- 
tivities have been looked upon as a useful means of attracting and 
retaining members. Scarcely half the members of fraternal or- 
ganizations in this country belong to the working classes; and, 
furthermore, the protection afforded by these organizations is not 
at all adequate. Their insurance is in most instances little more 
than funeral insurance. ^ ^ 

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1917] METHODS IN SOCIAL INSURANCE 765 

There are two reasons why workmen have been unable to 
protect themselves against industrial hazards by means of insurance. 
A large percentage of them do not receive sufficient to maintain 
a decent standard of life. These, of course, have no surplus to 
pay insurance premiums. Even for the worker who has a small 
surplus, so many and so varied are the hazards to which he is 
exposed that the cost of insurance becomes almost pjohibitive. 

If the ordinary workman has no surplus, if he is without pro- 
tection against industrial hazards, it is not difficult to estimate what 
will be the result of an industrial accident, of a long period of 
sickness, of premature invalidity or of two or three weeks unem- 
ployment, so far as he and his family are concerned. What then 
must have been the results of the two hundred thousand industrial 
accidents every year in this country before the passing of workmen's 
compensation laws and of the thirty thousand deaths due to in- 
dustrial accidents? What must be the social consequences of the 
eight hundred million dollars annually lost to wage-earners in this 
country by sickness? The poverty and suffering from all these 
accidents and all this sickness are evidently a social concern. They 
interfere with the efficiency and well-being of the nation as a 
whole. Our desire for more efficient workmanship, as well as our 
charitable impulses, compel us to find a remedy for them. 

In the middle ages the guilds protected their members against 
sickness and other disabilities. In the sixteenth and seventeenth 
centuries the social functions of the guilds were taken over by the 
state. The government then took care of those who were not self- 
supporting by means of the " poorhouse " or outdoor relief. In 
the beginning of the nineteenth century, many private organiza- 
tions sprang up in England and elsewhere for the purpose of pro- 
tecting their members against poverty due to wage losses. These 
organizations were accorded various privileges by the state. Later 
it was deemed necessary to regulate them so as to protect them 
against insolvency. When it was discovered that regulation was 
not sufficient to extend the benefits of these organizations to all 
wage-earners, some modem states determined to subsidize them. 
Within the past twenty-five years many European governments 
have concluded that if workers are to be effectively protected against 
the various risks which cut off their incomes and compel them to 
become dependents, compulsory insurance legislation must be 
enacted. 

There are several ways by which compulsion may be made 

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766 METHODS IN SOCIAL INSURANCE [Sept., 

effective in the field of social insurance. The state may say to 
the employer, " You shall defray the cost of certain occupational 
hazards in your factory," at the same time leaving him free to 
protect himself as he thinks best. In such a case the employer will 
naturally try to spread his risk by means of insurance. Should 
the employer fail to insure and at the same time prove insolvent, 
the victims of industrial accidents in his factory or their dependents 
would be in a rather serious plight. In order to protect the 
workers against such an eventuality, most states compel the em- 
ployer to insure. In some instances the employer is free in regard 
to the form of insurance to be adopted. In other instances he is 
compelled to adopt a particular form of insurance. In case of 
other risks besides industrial accidents, the state may conclude that 
it is not equitable to place the whole burden on the employer. Sick- 
ness is due to extra-occupational as well as occupational causes. 
The state may accordingly compel the employee to bear a part of 
the cost of sickness and invalidity insurance, while, at the same 
time, it compels the employer to bear a part and bears a part itself. 
Finally, the state may impose a tax upon all its citizens for the 
payment of a pension to workers who have been unable to save 
anything for old age. It may conclude that their long years of 
service gives these workers a right to a pension, or that a pension 
is a better means of relieving their dependency than charity. The 
foregoing represents, in brief outline, the attitude of modern states 
towards social insurance. It has been generally admitted that in- 
dustry should bear the entire cost of industrial accidents, to be 
transferred to consumers in the form of increased prices. It is con- 
sidered a better social policy to have the consumer defray the cost 
of industrial accidents than to have their victims become dependents 
upon public charity. 

Under the old common law of England as applied in this 
country, every individual was supposed to be responsible for the 
results of his own actions. In the case of an industrial accident 
the courts, accordingly, tried to find out who was responsible. 
But the position of the employee before the court was weakened by 
reason of the fact that certain defences were developed on the side 
of the employer, which gave the latter an unequal advantage. The 
employee was supposed to have assumed the ordinary risks of the 
trade. If the accident resulted from the negligence of a fellow- 
€^iiployce, the injured party had no recourse against the employer. 
His only recourse in such a case would be against the fellow-em- 

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I 



1917] METHODS IN SOCIAL INSURANCE 767 

ployee. If the employee in any way contributed to the accident 
by his neglect, he had very little hope of obtaining compensation, 
though the employer might have been equally negligent. It is 
evident that the application of such legal doctrine must have placed 
the workers at a very serious disadvantage under modern in- 
dustrial conditions. 

They could not expect to command the same legal talent as 
the employer in the legal battle which generally followed a claim 
for compensation. The case was generally before the court for 
a long time before a final decision was rendered. According to 
the insurance year book for 191 1 there were thirteen thousand 
and forty-three suits outstanding against fourteen liability insurance 
companies, December i, 1910. Of these nearly three thousand had 
been in court before 1908 and more than five thousand before 
1909. In the meantime the worker or his family were, in many 
instances, depending upon public charity. If the case was finally 
decided in favor of the injured party, a large part of the money re- 
ceived went to pay lawyers' fees. According to the New York 
Employers' Liability Commission the lawyers received twenty-six 
and three-tenths per cent of the total amount awarded to injured 
employees. The modem compensation law does not take into ac- 
count the negligence of the employee, except in so far as it is 
gross and willful. Neither does it take into account the negligence 
of the employer. It is based almost entirely on the theory that ac- 
cidents are incidental to the modern industrial process, and that 
compensation for them should be as necessary a part of the cost 
of production as the wear and tear of machinery. Under the 
compensation system, it is not so much the character of the injury 
received by the worker, as his needs that determines the amount 
of the award. One rarely finds a modem compensation board 
granting a large sum to an injured worker. In all probability it 
would not be turned to the best account by the ordinary wage- 
earner. A serious effort has been made, under compensation legis- 
lation, to adjust the compensation scale to the needs of the worker. 
The amount of compensation, therefore, generally depends on the 
economic loss suffered by the injured party or his family, as a 
result of the accident. When the worker has been totally and 
permanently disabled, the best compensation laws allow him a pen- 
sion equal to two-thirds of his wages for life. If he is partially 
disabled, the amount which he receives depends on his loss of eam- 
ing power. If the worker is killed, the amount of compensation paid 

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768 METHODS IN SOCIAL INSURANCE [Sept., 

to his widow depends on the number of children which she has to 
maintain. 

But the modem state is not satisfied with laying down the 
general principle that employers must defray the cost of industrial 
accidents. It also takes the necessary steps to see that they are 
capable of discharging their obligations in this regard by compelling 
them to insure. In two countries, namely Norway and Switzer- 
land, the employer is obliged to insure in a state fund. In Ger- 
many and in Austria the employers in each district must form their 
own mutual insurance institutions, which are supervised and regu- 
lated by the state. In American states, with the exception of Ohio 
and Washington where insurance in the state fund is obligatory, 
employers are free to insure in a state fund, a private stock com- 
pany, a mutual company or to carry their own risk. Insurance 
generally frees the employer from further responsibility in regard to 
industrial accidents. All the claims of injured employees against 
the establishment have henceforth to be met by the insurance 
companies. 

Germany was the first modem country to adopt the principle 
of compensation for industrial accidents on a national scale. The 
German Emperor, in his now famous message to the legislature, 
^in 1881, recommended the making of national provision for sick- 
ness, industrial accidents and invalidity. In 1883 Germany passed 
a compulsory sickness insurance law, and in 1884 a compulsory 
accident insurance law. Since that time all European states have 
followed the example of Germany in making national provision 
for industrial accidents. Austria was the first to follow the ex- 
ample of her neighbor, passing a compulsory accident insurance 
law in 1887. Ten years later Great Britain passed a compulsory 
compensation law, leaving the matter of insurance to the discretion 
of the employer. In 1898 a similar law was passed by France. 

The United States was the last of modem great nations to 
accept the compensation principle. Up to ten years ago very little 
was known in this coimtry about the European compensation move- 
ment. Most people who gave the question any thought, believed 
that it would be a better policy to modify our liability laws than 
to pass workmen's compensation or industrial accident insurance 
laws. 

New York in 1910 was the first American state to pass an 
effective workmen's compensation law; but a year later this law 
was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of that state. 

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1917] METHODS IN SOCIAL INSURANCE 769 

on the ground that it constituted an unreasonable interference with 
the liberty and property rights of the individual. The decision of 
the New York court gave a great setback to the compensation move- . 
ment in this country. The different states were anxious to pass 
compensation laws, but were prevented from doing so by the con- 
stitutional difficulty. It was evident that American courts would 
not compel employers to pay compensation for accidents which 
were not due to their own neglect. An interesting* compromise 
was adopted by New Jersey in 191 1. Under the New Jersey law 
the employer is free to elect employers' liability or workmen's 
compensation; but if he elects employers' liability, he is not per- 
mitted to plead the defences of common law, that is, he cannot 
claim exemption from compensation on the ground that the acci- 
dent was due to the negligence of a fellow-employee, that the in- 
jured employee assumed the ordinary risks of the trade or that the 
employee himself contributed to the accident by his own neglect. 
This compromise has already been adopted, with rather favorable 
results, in twenty-four American states. 

With a view to forestalling the constitutional difficulties in the 
way of compulsory compensation legislation, a number of states 
have amended their constitutions. Amendments in favor of such 
legislation were adopted in 191 2 in Ohio and in New York in 
191 3. As a result of the constitutional amendment New York 
passed a compulsory compensation law in 1913. The constitu- 
tionality of this law was again called into question as being at 
variance with the Fourteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitu- 
tion. A short time ago the Supreme Court of the United States 
declared the New York law constitutional, its enactment having 
been justified in the interests of public health and welfare. This 
decision of the Supreme Court will remove most of the difficulties 
in the way of compulsory compensation legislation. The same day 
on which it handed down its decision in the New York case, the 
United States Supreme Court also upheld the constitutionality of 
the Washington compulsory insurance law which obliges all employ- 
ers in certain industries in that state to insure their employees in a 
state fimd. American legislatures, therefore, are not only free to 
enact compulsory compensation laws, but they may also compel 
employers to insure in a state fund. 

From the foregoing brief outline of the compensation move- 
ment in the United States, it may be seen that, although this 
country was rather slow at first in taking up the compensation 

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770 METHODS IN SOCIAL INSURANCE [Sept., 

idea, the progress since 191 1 has been very great. Within a short 
period of six years no less than thirty-five American states have 
passed compensation laws under one form or another. 

But while the great majority of American states have accepted 
the compensation principle, we must not deceive ourselves into 
thinking that all the victims of industrial accidents in this country 
receive compensation. Not more than twenty per cent of the 
reported industrial accidents are compensated in any American 
state, and the percentage of those receiving compensation is some- 
times as low as six or seven. The elective character of most 
American compensation laws excludes large numbers. Many em- 
ployers still prefer employers' liability to workmen's compensation. 
American states passing compulsory compensation laws have been 
compelled, on constitutional grounds, to limit their application to 
certain dangerous trades. Most of the laws exclude large classes 
of workers, such as those engaged in agriculture, domestic service 
and office work. Thousands of workers engaged in interstate com- 
merce do not come under any compensation law whatever. We 
can, therefore, see that much still remains to be done before the 
American compensation laws approach perfection, before the prin- 
ciple of compensation for industrial accidents becomes eflfective, 
so far as American workers on the whole are concerned. 

Workmen's compensation, especially when it includes all occu- 
pational accidents and diseases, must prevent a considerable amotmt 
of dependency, but it can, by no means, be as effective in this 
regard as sickness insurance. According to the report of the 
United States Commission on Industrial Relations, accidents cause 
only one-seventh as much destitution as sickness. The Immigra- 
tion Commission, in its study of thirty-one thousand four hundred 
and eighty-one cases of dependency among immigrants, found that 
the illness of the breadwinner or other members of the family, was 
the apparent cause of need in thirty-eight and eight-tenths per cent 
of the cases, while accidents were the apparent cause in only three 
and eight-tenths per cent. At the hearing before the New York 
Legislature on health insurance in 1916 it was shown that 
thirty-seven per cent of the families aided by the Charity Organi- 
zation Society of New York City, during the preceding year, were 
dependent because their wage-earners were disabled by sickness, 
and that from two-thirds to four-fifths of the expenditures of the 
New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, 
were necessary because of illness. In order to get an exact picture 

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1917.] METHODS IN SOCIAL INSURANCE 77^ 

of the part played by illness in the dependency problem of Cali- 
fornia, the Social Insurance Commission of that state examined 
the records of over five thousand families recently assisted by the 
charitable organizations of San Francisco and Los Angeles. From 
this examination it was discovered that illness, combined with other 
causes, was a factor in dependency in two thousand six hundred and 
fifty-two cases or fifty-two per cent of the total number of cases, 
and that illness alone was the cause of dependency in one thousand 
five hundred and five or twenty-eight and forty-two hundredths per 
cent of the total number of cases. 

A fairly large percentage of American workers do not re- 
ceive sufficient wages to make any provision for the future. Of 
the twenty-two thousand four hundred and forty families whose bud- 
gets were studied by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, 
fifty per cent reported an average surplus of one hundred 
and twenty dollars; sixteen per cent, an average deficit of • 
sixty-five dollars; while the remaining thirty- four per cent 
reported neither a surplus nor a deficit. Of the six hundred and 
sixty-seven women employed in department stores in New York 
City recently investigated by the New York Factory Investigating 
Commission, less than one-fourth or fourteen and five-tenths per 
cent had been able to save. Even where individual saving is possi- 
ble, there may be a serious question whether it is an economical 
method of providing against a risk which is so uncertain and so 
unevenly distributed as sickness. We know that the average work- 
men loses from eight to ten days in the year through sickness, but 
we cannot tell how much time any one individual will lose. He 
may escape entirely, or a severe attack may cut oflF his income for 
months. If in the latter case the worker is not protected by in- 
surance, that is, if the loss is not spread over a large group, he 
may be compelled to dissipate the savings of a life time and even- 
tually be reduced to a condition of dependency. 

The protection of workers against the economic losses due to 
sickness has been a source of cooperative effort at all times; it 
was one of the primal objects of the guilds of the Middle Ages; it 
forms a part of the policy of the modern friendly society or fra- 
ternal order, and is one of the channels through which the fraternal 
impulse of the modern trade union finds expression. Many of the 
more progressive employers of our day are beginning to realize the 
close connection between the health and efficiency of their workers. 
They know that if their workmen have not proper medical attention 

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772 METHODS IN SOCIAL INSURANCE [Sept., 

in sickness, they lose time and are in danger of having their health 
permanently undermined. It is not from motives of pure philan- 
thropy that so many employers establish welfare departments in 
their factories, that they detail nurses and physicians to attend to 
their employees when ill, and establish benefit funds to neutralize 
the economic losses due to illness. They know that all their efforts 
will be repaid by the increased efficiency and permanency of their 
labor force. 

The fraternal orders have done a great work in supplying the 
need for cheap insurance in this country. Through them millions 
of persons, who would otherwise be left unprotected, have been 
able to purchase insurance. The fratemals have a singular ad- 
vantage in the fact that they can combine insurance with other 
social activities and, also, in the further fact that the weekly or 
monthly premiums may be collected by the local lodges, thus avoid- 
ing the necessity of a house to house canvass which entails such a 
heavy expense for the old line companies. On January i , 191 5, there 
were in the United States one hundred and seventy-nine fraternal 
associations with a membership of seven million seven hundred thou- 
sand. Of this number thirty associations, with eight hundred thousand 
members, paid sick benefits in 19 14. The amount paid was one 
million one hundred thousand dollars or one per cent of the whole 
fraternal insurance business in the United States. This, however, 
does not give a complete picture of the work done by fraternal 
orders in this country. In many of these orders provision against 
sickness is left to the local chapter or lodge; of the work done by 
the locals we have very little information. The California Social 
Insurance Commission found that three hundred thousand members 
of the local branches of fraternal organizations in that state, were 
entitled to sickness benefits. This, according to the commission, 
represented thirty-five per cent of the total membership of the fra- 
ternals in California. If the same proportion prevailed through- 
out the whole country, it would mean that about two million eight 
hundred thousand persons are entitled to sickness benefits from the 
local branches of the different fraternal orders. If all these be- 
longed to the working class, it might be said that the fraternal 
orders, together with the other private organizations in the field, 
were going a great way towards solving the problem of sickness. 
But according to the best estimate not more than half the members 
of fraternal societies in this country belong to the working class, 
anjd, in all probability, not more than the same proportion of the 

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1917] METHODS IN SOCIAL INSURANCE 773 . 

persons insured against sickness by these organizations are wage- 
earners. If, as is probably true, the fraternal orders protect two 
million wage-earners against sickness, they are doing a great work 
in the field of health insurance. 

But the fraternals have their limitations; the two principal 
ones brought to light by the California commission are the financial 
insecurity of the small lodges and the absence of medical aid. 
In a small society of less than two hundred and fifty members, there 
is not a sufficient distribution of loss for the making of a reliable 
statistical average. Again, where the central organization does not 
exercise a high degree of control over the local funds, they are 
liable to be handled in a rather careless manner. Another important 
limitation of the fraternals is the absence of the medical benefit. 
It is generally admitted that the fraternals do not provide proper 
medical care, and it is unreasonable to expect them to do so. Medi- 
cal care for the sick which ought to mean the attention of a quali- 
fied physician, dental care, drug supplies and hospital care, when 
necessary, is an expensive undertaking. It cannot be provided 
by a fraternal order without such an increase of dues as would 
drive away countless prospective members. 

The modern trade union, as the name indicates, is primarily an 
organization for trade purposes. It regulates wages, methods of 
payment, hours of labor, application of machinery and entrance to 
the trades. It is only when it has succeeded in attaining its pri- 
mary object, that the trade union begins to engage in beneficiary 
activities. Then it begins to look upon benefits as a useful means 
of attracting and retaining members, and as a reward for long 
years of patient service in the cause of labor. Accordingly, we find 
that sickness as well as other benefits are confined, to the old and 
well-established trade unions like those in the building and print- 
ing industries or in railroad train service. A federal investigation 
in 1908 showed that of the one hundred and twenty-five national 
unions in this country, only nineteen provided benefits for temporary 
disability which includes sickness and accidents. The nineteen 
unions had a membership of three hundred and fifty thousand to 
four hundred thousand, or about one- fourth of the total trade union 
membership in the country at the time. The total amount expended 
by the American national unions for temporary disability in 1907, 
was eight hundred and thirty-two thousand seven hundred and 
sixty dollars. 

But in providing sickness benefits the local unions play a far. 

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774 METHODS IN SOCIAL INSURANCE [Sept, 

more important part than the national. The tendency, in fact, 
seems to be to leave this branch of activity entirely in the hands 
of the local. How far the different locals pespond to the need of 
providing sickness benefits for their members, is difficult to say, as no 
complete study of the question has ever been made in this country. 
Of the five hundred and thirty local unions investigated by the 
United States Bureau of Labor Statistics in 1908, it was found 
that two hundred and forty-six, having a membership of one hun- 
dred and three thousand four hundred and fifty-two, paid tem- 
porary disability benefits, including sickness and accidents. The 
amount paid varied between two dollars and ten dollars a week, 
the maximum time for which the benefits was paid being generally 
about thirteen weeks. 

Even where no systematic benefit has been established, the 
care of the sick forms an important part of the activities of the 
local branches of American trade unions. Every local has its sickness 
committee, whose duty it is to visit members who are indisposed. 
In case sick members are in want, an appeal is generally made to 
the membership on their behalf; in which case an appropriation 
is made from an emergency fund specially set aside for this pur- 
pose or out of the local treasury. If there are no funds on hand 
a collection is taken up from the members. 

Like the fraternals, the trade unions have their limitations 
as a means of protecting the workers against sickness. Their mem- 
bership constitutes only about eighteen per cent of the organizable 
wage-earners in this country. They generally represent the best 
paid and most highly skilled workers. To the great mass of un- 
skilled workers, they afford practically no protection against low 
wages or the other risks to which they are exposed. Even in case 
of the skilled workers, the protection which they offer, in case of 
sickness, is far from being sufficient. They may protect the worker 
against the economic losses due to illness, but they fail in the all- 
important essential of medical care. 

Benefits in case of sickness and accidents constitute an im- 
portant part of the industrial betterment schemes introduced by 
American employers during the past few years. As was already 
noted, the more advanced empfoyers are beginning to realize the 
close connection between health and efficiency. They feel that if 
their employees have proper medical attention during periods of 
illness, they will lose less time and that their output will be increased. 
[to be concluded.] 

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COVENTRY PATMORE'S "UNKNOWN EROS." 

BY FREDERICK PAGE. 

Dear Lord, for forty years I tried to raise in the wilderness a house for 
Thy abode. I painfully gathered bricks, and worked a bit of cornice here, and 
{here a capital; but as I put it together all would suddenly fall, and still 
I gathered up material, though the more I gathered the greater seemed the 
chaos; but one day, why none could tell, except perhaps that I felt more 
despair than ever I had done before, I heard a winnowing of unseen wings, and 
lo, the bricks and stones all took their place. 

And a gay palace fine 

Beyond my deepest dreamt design. 

May He Who built it all 

Take care it does not fall.* 

T has always pleased me to draw attention to the un- 
conscious Catholicism of Patmore's poetry written 
before his conversion. And in treating of his later 
poetry : the odes in irregular metre published under 
the title of The 'Unknown Eros, I am still primarily 
concerned to commend this poetry to Catholics as Catholic and only 
incidentally to prove it poetry. 

The Unknown Eros comprises poems of very diverse charac- 
ter, yet was regarded by its author as a single poem. He printed 
nine of the odes in 1868 for private circulation, and these he then 
described as fragments of an intended poem which he found himself 
unable to complete. Nine years later, in 1877, he published anony- 
mously thirty-one odes, under the title of The Unknown Eros, and, 
the next year, these and fifteen more were issued in his own name. 
The arrangement of the poems in these earlier editions seems quite 
haphazard, and Patmore's readers had ample excuse to question 
then whether this series of rural, personal, political, ecclesiastical, 
and mystical poems had sufficient unity or progression of thought to 
justify the title. The poems are now rearranged and grouped into 
two books, and this division and rearrangement makes it possible 
to trace a very suggestive sequence of thought. 

Patmore's work, from beginning to end, was at one with itself, 
and developed one theme — the reconciliation of body and soul, of 

* Coventry Patmore. A posthumously published fragment. 

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776 PATMORE'S " UNKNOWN EROS" [Sept., 

which the sacrament of marriage is a type, the man and the woman 
really finding the fruition of their eternally separate selves only in 
God. It will not be strange, then, if the poet-mystic, knowing love 
as few know it, and yet unsatisfied, hungering for God, should con- 
ceive of God's relation to the soul as that of a Wooer and (at our 
consent) a Husband, 

Who woos man's will 
To wedlock with His own, and does distill- 
To that drop's span 
The attar of all rose fields of all love. 

This progress of the soul, from the earthly symbol to the heav- 
enly prototype, was exhibited in its entirety in each of Patmore's 
longer poems, and in his later religious prose. " Love shall begin 
here and so, but not here and so shall it end:" this is the theme 
equally of Tamerton Church-Tower, of The Angel, of the odes; 
and of the prose Religio Poetce and Rod, Root and Flower; but the 
emphasis falls differently in the different writings, for only so could 
the proposition be set forth in its fullness. 

" First the natural, afterwards the supernatural :" this marks 
the distinction between the two books of The Unknown Eros. The 
second book is to speak of the Beatific Vision mystically appre- 
hended, while in the first book the soul is yet pursuing towards the 
mark " faint, yet pursuing." 

The opening odes speak of the Divine institution of marriage, 
yet with true Catholicism sing the praise of virginity in those capable 
of this grace. This latter motif is recurrent in Patmore, as it must 
be in any writing having for its subject the relation of the soul to 
God. The first ode (Saint Valentine's Day) speaks of virginity, 
as that difficult yet ideal life frequently conceived only to be relin- 
quished by the soul in its awaking to the full life of the senses, in 
a lovely parable of the earth in February putting by the austerities 
of winter. Yet " the rash oath of virginity " is '* first-love's first 
cry," and some are divinely moved to persevere therein; to them 
the more mystical odes each in turn yields nobler praise. The sec- 
ond and fourth odes (Wind and Wave and Beata) speak of 
marriage in its sacramental aspect, wherein God condescends to the 
feebleness of the soul, permitting a mediate approach. Yet in Wind 
and Wave we see His claim as postponed, not remitted. Of the 
object of marriage-love Patmore writes : 

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1917] PATMORES " UNKNOWN EROS" 777 

She, as a little breeze 

Following still Night, 

Ripples the spirit's cold, deep seas 

Into delight; 

But, in a while. 

The immeasurable smile 

Is broke by fresher airs to flashes blent 

With darkling discontent; 

And all the subtle zephyr hurries gay. 

And all the heaving ocean heaves one way, 

Tward the void sky-line and an unguess'd weal. 

For the heavenly attainment, I will refer my readers to the poem 
itself. 

The ode which breaks in between the two last mentioned, is 
Winter, a description in which, were it not an integral part of 
The Unknown Eros, one would not look for any mystical meaning 
at all. Indeed, if to any its perfect loveliness is spoilt, when regarded 
as in the least allegorical, I would not press the point, for I am by 
no means certain of my own interpretation. Some, however, may be 
willing to read it with me as a not too obvious parable of the celibate 
life, existing in a wintry world by faith in an unseen future: 

Nor is in field or garden anything 

But, duly look'd into, contains serene 

The substance of things hoped for, in the Spring, 

And evidence of Summer not yet seen. 

Having so outlined the problem of the spiritual life, Patmore, 
who was nothing if not definite, proceeds to speak out of his own 
experience of love and of religion. The fifth ode. The Day after 
Tomorrow, offers some diflficulties of interpretation. It has been 
supposed to refer to the reunion of beloved souls in heaven; but 
since the following half-dozen odes are autobiographical, telling of 
the death of the poet's first wife and his own second marriage; and 
since the whole of The Unknown Eros has been rearranged in a cer- 
tain order, I would suggest that in these autobiographic odes the 
order is chronological, and that The Unknown Eros (regarded as 
a single poem) represents, in miniature, the whole life of a man. 
The rapture of this ode, then, is that of a literal day after tomorrow 
— the anticipation of reunion after an absence: a feeling which 
(we tnay learn from the biography) never lost its freshness for these 

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778 PATMORES " UNKNOWN EROS" [Sept., 

married lovers, and which finds at least four separate expressions in 
the poems of Coventry Patmore. The next ode, Tristitia, opens 
with a description of the most perfect happiness of marriage: 

with hearts conjoin'd in such a peace 

That Hope, so not to cease, 

Must still ga^e back, 

And count, along our love's most happy track. 

The landmarks of like inconceiv'd increase. 



To sum up briefly, this ode and the five following match the 
utmost sweetness of these lines by the piercing pathos of their 
desolation, and the merciless sincerity of their self-examination. 
After that, by a long and slow approach, with constant interrup- 
tions, the poet attains to the heart of his theme, the intercourse 
which the soul was created to hold with God. What this will be in 
its ultimate expression, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it 
entered into the heart of man. What it may be here and now the 
saints alone know by experience, having attained their knowledge 
by heroic suffering. But to poets, actual or potential, this knowl- 
edge is sometimes granted without the qualifying holiness — " in the 
counsels of the generosity of God," as Mrs. Meynell says. 

Patmore, however, never forgot the responsibilities of revela- 
tion. Men of genius, he said, were generally the worse and not the 
better for their strange prerogative, since sin in them is terribly in 
danger of being sin against the Holy Ghost. Therefore the moral 
note is never absent from even his most mystical poetry, as also it is 
never absent from that of his disciple and fellow, Francis Thompson. 
In The Unknown Eros there is far more said of preparation, of de- 
lay, of warning, of reticence, of a withdrawal of vision in mercy or 
in anger, than there is hinted of the ineflfable bliss of union with 
God. 

His biographer has said of him that " the encomium he would 
have valued most of all might be expressed in a variation of a 
phrase of TertuUian's : mens naturaliier CathoHca;" and it would 
seem that the whole of the Catholic system makes itself felt in his 
writings. His religion was no aesthetic hobby, it had been firmly 
based, twenty years- before he became a Catholic, on a sense of the 
infinite malice of sin, and when he speaks in one of these odes 
(Tristitia) of the possibility of his own eternal reprobation, it is 
not the easy exaggeration of a sentimentalist, even though he seem 

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1917] PATMORES " UNKNOWN EROS" 779 

to write of it too lightly ; he but repeats in verse what he had said 
thirty years before in a plain and unmistakable prose letter. And 
even in The Angel in the House, which to many is a " sweetly 
pretty story," hell is ever set forth as the dread alternative to the 
infinite development of the happiness he is depictir^g. 

And so here, religion is a thing to be confessed and agonized 
for. One of these odes, A Farewell, is often read as a valediction 
to the dead beloved, accepting the separation wrought by death. 

With all my will, but much against my heart 

We two now part. 

My Very Dear, 

Our solace is, the sad road lies so clear. 

It needs no art. 

With faint, averted feet 

And many a tear, 

In our opposed paths to persevere. 

But a friend of Coventry Patmore's tells me that he reads this as 
referring to the separation wrought by k difference of creed. The 
poet indeed had his dead wife in mind, and what would have been 
the mutual pain of their broken unity of sympathy resulting from 
his conversion. So read, the ode has a terribly important position 
in this drama of a soul. " If any man come to Me, and hate not 
his father and mother, and wife, and children, yea, and his own 
life also, he cannot be My disciple." It would be unjust to the 
poet's affection not to refer the reader to the conclusion of the ode, 
with its hope of reunion. 

A word must be given to the four political odes which break in 
so curiously upon the last few domestic poems. Patmore is no- 
where so fallible as in these despairing and accusing lamentations 
and prophecies; yet their anger was not all unjust, and their fore- 
boding never less than courageous. They have their place here, 
as symbolizing the Christian's necessary concern to make the will 
of God prevail in the world; and we need not ask them to do 
more than symbolize that: if not these particular odes, then certain 
other secular odes should be here; and these that are may well 
stand, in intention, for those that should be. 

The remaining five odes of the first book speak of that neces- 
sary acquirement of charity which will prevent us from judging 
others, and will accept even unjust blame, as "missing only the 
right blot." They speak of the painful life of daily endeavor in 



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78o PATMORE'S " UNKNOWN EROS" [Sept., 

periods of dryness — the indispensable preliminaries to the peace of 
God — and the first book closes with a parable of the sudden influx 
of that peace : the man's painful struggle to please God has been as 
unhopeful as St. Peter's fishing, yet he will persevere, 

And, lo, I caught 

(Oh, quite unlike and quite beyond my thought), 

Not the quick, shining harvest of the Sea, 

For food, my wish, 

But Thee! 

Then, hiding even in me, 

As hid was Simon's coin within the fish, 

Thou sigh'd'st, with joy, " Be dumb. 

Or speak but of forgotten things to far-off times to come." 

It is these things, the mysteries of the love of God, now gener- 
ally forgotten, of which the second book is to speak ; but our pres- 
ent concern is merely to note how, even here, these mysteries are 
hedged about with hard conditions and threatenings. The first ode 
speaks of God as the unknown Eros Who waits to crown all the 
longing of the soul; the second speaks of the nuptial contract of 
our first parents, which the poet imagines, perhaps only in parable, 
as a contract of virgin spousals, to which their strength proved 
insufficient; this weakness they have bequeathed to us, their children 
in the flesh. Our redemption from the " body of this death " began 
in the consummated virgin spousals of Our Lady and St. Joseph. 
The opening theme of the first book is thus repeated, but only to be 
immediately interrupted by two odes (Arbor Vitce and The Stand- 
ard) on the authority of the Church as the guardian of these 
mysteries. She is the Tree of Life, of no beauty that the wise 
and noble of this world should desire her. If I may translate the 
poet's metaphors, he says of the Church that some of the devotions 
she permits her children are nothing less than childish; that her 
decorations are often tawdry; that her history is not much 
more blameless than that of the men " after God's own heart;" her 
decrees sometimes harsh ; her priests not invariably scholars. But 
the Tree's fruit, the Church's dogmas — 

Rich, though rejected of the forest pigs 
Its fruit, beneath whose rough concealing rind 
Those that will break it find 
Heart-succoring savor of each several meat. 

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1917.1- PATMORES " UNKNOWN EROS" 781 

And kemeird drink of brain-renewing power, 

With bitter condiment and sour, 

And sweet economy of sweet. 

And odors that remind 

Of haunts of childhood and a different day. 

The second of these two poems speaks of the Church as enlisting 
her children beneath her banner; and again the insincere are re- 
pelled with rough truth : the Church is not for gentlemen careful 
of their gentility; conspicuous among her children are tbe blind, 
the lame, the publicans and sinners; but what then? — shall we 
enlist under the opposed standard? 

With this pressed upon our consideration, we go on to hear 
of the soul as the Spouse of God, and our earthly loves as only a 
faint symbol of His love; we respond (with the next ode) that our 
delight is in His law ; we thank Him for the joys of the body, but 
only to exalt the great virgin-souls. We, for our earthliness, 

needs must, for a season, lie 

In the grave's arms, foul and unshriven, 

whilst we see with envy 

Enoch, Elijah, and the Lady, she 
Who left the lilies in her body's lieu. 

And here the poet interrupts his high mystical strain once more, 
to say there is but one of his day who can rightly speak of these 
things — John Henry Newman: 

Behooveful, zealous, beautiful, elect, 
Mild, firm, judicious, loving, bold, discreet. 

Without superfluousness, without defect 

O, that I might his holy secret reach; 
O, might I catch his mantle when he goes; 
O, that I wtfre so gentle and so sweet. 
So I might deal fair Sion's foolish foes 
Such blows! 

At last (in the ode called Delicicv Sapientice de Amore) the 
poet is at the heart of his theme, the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, 
celebrated in the glad Palace of Virginity, to which are welcomed 
all virgins and all who are virginal of thought : " Young Lover true. 

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782 PATMORE'S " UNKNOWN EROS'' [Sept., 

and love- foreboding Maid, and wedded Spouse;" the penitent, also, 
since 

There of pure Virgins none 

Is fairer seen 

Save One 

Than Mary Magdalene. 

These have all loved God, mediately or directly, and are therefore 
" heirs of the Palace glad." Yet even at the Porch of the Palace, 
the poet cries aloud for the flaming swords, and after this great 
ode he thinks well to introduce a satiric interlude. 

This corresponds to a similar interlude of two odes in the first " 
book : The Two Deserts and Crest and Gulf. The first rebukes that 
" cloudy cant " which thinks to buttress religion with the comfort- 
shattering conceptions of astronomy, not perceiving that these make 
demands, upon our faith in a man-regarding God, and do not 
minister to it. What has the telescope shown us, asks Patmore, but 
that the moon is dead, and the sun in a combustion as terrific as 
hell-fire? Give me rather the microscope, he says : 

The nobler glass that swells to the eye 
The things which near us lie, 
Till Science rapturously hails, 
In the minutest water-drop, 
A torment of innumerable tails. 
These at the least do live. 

This is answering fools according to their folly, since the grotes- 
ques of the microscope as little make for the " braced mood " of 
worship as does the desolation of space. But between these two 
deserts of the infinitely great and the infinitely small there is, he 
reminds us in a few lines of poetry after many lines of satire, a 
" royal fair estate " where wonder and beauty themselves press to 
catch our gaze. What is this but to say that God has locked some 
secrets from us, and has given us to eat of all the other trees in 
His garden? 

Crest and Gulf rebukes that fussy philanthropy which would 
assume the whole burden of the world, never having realized the 
(humanly speaking) hopeless extent of evil. If a man tias indeed 
received the call to a life of service, woe be to him if he does not 
respond, but let him recognize humbly that he has received a favor, 
and is-by no means conferring one : God was not in desperate straits 

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1917] PATMORE'S " UNKNOWN EROS " 783 

that He called upon him; nor can any, save God, contend 
with evil. 

As these two odes rebuke the foolish good, so does the satiric 
interlude of the second book (The Cry at Midnight) rebuke the 
foolish " wise." And here Patmore will himself use their own 
favorite " facts of science " to stop their mouths. The " Ration- 
alists " have accused us of being anthropomorphic; then let them 
not be anthropometric. The agnostic-turned-deist (that he may by 
any means resist conviction) asks : Is it thinkable that the Creator 
of the Universe should enter into personal relationships with His 
puny creatures? We admit that it is incomprehensible; but with 
what measure shall we mete the things of God? — or the things of 
science? 

The Midge's wings beat to and fro 

A thousand times ere one can utter " O ! " 

And Sirius' ball 

Does on his journey run 

As many times immenser than the sun: 

shall we say that the easily-counted beating of a sea-gull's wings 
is the normal rate of flight and the midge's abnormal ; or our own 
sun an eminently reasonable sun, and Sirius an unnatural monster? 
No, each is unique, of its own kind, and as little can we bring 
God to book: There is no God but God. H He is self-defined as 
the Inhabitant of the soul, and her Bridegroom, not all our rever- 
ence for His immeasurable Majesty must keep us from accepting 
the seeming incompatibility. 

Thrice again the poem reaches the lyrical heights of Delicice 
SapienticB de Amore, in two poems of the nuptials of Eros and 
Psyche, and in an ode to the Blessed Virgin ; but before the first of 
these the poet stops to thank God for having granted him, and then 
again withdrawn, that open vision, which, in " childish years and 
since," he had sometime enjoyed. The withdrawal is 

by grace 

Lest, haply, I refuse God to His face, 
while yet 

Often in straits which else for me were ill 

I mind me still 

I did respire the lonely auras sweet, 

I did the blest abodes behold, and, at the mountains' feet. 

Bathed in the holy Stream by Hermon's thymy hill. 

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784 PATMORE'S " UNKNOWN EROS" [Sept., 

It was on principle that Patmore usually spoke of the life of 
religion in parable. He has used sufficiently often the direct method 
to convince us that his parables never mean only what they say. 

Wise poets, that wrapped Truth in tales, 
Knew her themselves through all her veils, 

and these poems of Eros and Psyche, with all their "heathen 
fabling," are full of the Christian doctrine of God and the soul. 
They have been misunderstood, even by such an intimate friend of 
Patmore's as Aubrey de Vere, and even by Patmore's revered 
leader, Newman; but anyone who reads the poet's work as a 
whole, will see them merely as impassioned apprehensions of the 
love of God, than which surely nothing should be more impas- 
sioned. 

A sorry God were He 

That fewer claimed than all Love's mighty kingdoms three ! 

If a prospective reader of Patmore would consent to the discipline 
of passing by these " Psyche " odes till he had read the two little 
books of prose, Religio Poetce and Rod, Root and Flower, I believe 
he would then find them of devotional value throughout. They 
are but annotations of the Gospel; they are but " aspirations and 
ejaculations, that may be made in the midst of our daily actions :" 
as thus, when the soul's confessor says to her: 

We know the Lover, Psyche, by the kiss, 

the soul answers 

If speech of honey could impart the sweet, 
The world were all in tears and at His feet ! 

We misread the poem if we do not see in this a response to the 
invitation, " O taste and see that the Lord is sweet ! " and a re- 
statement of Our Lord's prophecy, ** I, if I be lifted up from the 
earth, will draw all things unto Me." And for examples of " aspira- 
tions and ejaculations " take these : 

Yea, how 

Tis easier grown 

Thine arduous rule to don 

Than for a Bride to put her bride-dress on I 

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1917] PATMORRS " UNKNOWN EROS'' 785 

and when God withdraws His more manifest presence, 



and 



Whilst Thou art gone, I'll search the weary meads 
To deck my bed with lilies of fair deeds ; 

Be my dull days 

Music, at least, with Thy remembered praise. 



The ode to the Blessed Virgin fitly closes the poem, since in her 
is fulfilled God's intention for every soul : " For whosoever shall 
do the will of God, he is My brother, and My sister, and mother." 
This climax is approached by an ode to pain — ^the pain of purga- 
tory, which shall leave the soul, 

so dark erewhile. 

The mirror merely of God's smile. 

Then, as though to excuse the necessary inadequacy of the great 
ode which is to consummate the poem, it is preluded by a second 
" song against singing " (Prophets Who Cannot Sing). It was 
Patmore's conviction that poetry, though the most expressive of the 
arts, could barely do justice to the more delicate feelings of human 
(or even animal) life, and much less to the hidden life of the saint. 
This can only be imaged in the , " weak but not diverse " meta- 
phors of human love. When they treat religion directly, the poets 
fail miserably of the height of their great argument; and Patmore 
always maintained that for the " substantial poetry " of religion, 
for " imaginative insight into the noblest and loveliest reality," we 
must go to " the, for the most part, hard and stuttering prose " 
of the great theologians. 

After the great and glorious Ode to the Virgin (The Child's 
Purchase), The Unknown Eros actually ends in the bitter self- 
mockery of a great regret! 



VOL. cv.— 50 



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THE REORGANIZATION OF THE RUSSIAN CHURCH AND 
THE GENERAL COUNCIL OF MOSCOW. 

BY F. AURELIO PALMIERI, O.S.A. 

I HE sudden overthrow of autocratic Russia, has, of 
course, shaken the very foundation of the Russian 
Church and the editorial board of the official organ 
of the Holy Synod, The Ecclesiastical News (Tser- 
kovniia Viedomosti) , a weekly magazine, filled with 
names of decorated priests, of appointments to the varied offices 
and bureaucratic charges of the Russian Church, has found it nec- 
essary to trim its sails to the spirit of revolution. The Russian 
Church is no longer the spoilt child of the ruling powers of Russia. 
She has been deprived of support. The ancient laws which gave her 
ascendancy over all the other Christian Churches and denomi- 
nations virtually have been abrogated. The rulers of New Russia 
have a spite against her, because she has been for three centuries 
the pillar of the autocratic rigitfie; on the other hand, the peasantry 
and the working classes, led astray by a socialism imbued with 
hatred against Christianity, are wavering in their religious convic- 
tions and are ready to divorce themselves from her. The gravity of 
the danger which threatens her very existence has exerted a bene- 
ficent influence. The leaders of the Russian hierarchy have thought 
it best to allow the widest freedom in dealing with the burning ques- 
tions of the day in order to prevent the complete isolation of their 
Church in the new order, and to avoid party spirit in the ranks of 
the clergy. So the organ of the Synod has been transformed into 
a daily paper : The Ecclesiastical and Social Messenger of All Russia 
(Vserossiiskii tserkovno-obshchestvennii zAestnik), and The Eccles- 
tical News has become a stunted weekly which publishes the official 
documents of the decaying Holy Synod. 

At present the ecclesiastical staff of the Holy Synod is composed 
of four bishops, Sergii, Archbishop of Finland ; Agathangel, Arch- 
bishop of Yaroslav ; Mikhail, Bishop of Samara, and Andrei, Bishop 
of Upha. The first is undoubtedly the most intransigent member of 
the Russian hierarchy, a theologian of renown who sees neither 
the shadow of God nor the horizons of heaven, outside of the Or- 
thodox fold. The last named, a scion of a princely family (Ukh- 
tonskii) , has a good reputation as a religious reformer. He belongs, ^ 

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1917] REORGANIZATION OF RUSSIAN CHURCH 787 

however, to the men of the good old stamp of the Russian Church. 
Over the signature of the above, in the place of honor in The Ec- 
clesiastical News (N. 18-19) of April 29th (old style), 1917, ap- 
pears a document which will open a new era in the history of the 
Russian Church, if, as it is hoped, the sun of freedom continues 
to shine in Russian skies. It points out the absolute need of convok- 
ing a General Synod of the Russian Church to discuss radical 
changes in the organization of the Russian Orthodox Church. 

The circular letter of the Holy Synod outlines a plan of reform, 
aimed at reviving the languid vitality of Russian orthodoxy: 

It is urgent that we bring about changes in every branch of 
our religious life. The electoral system, which of late has been 
predominating in the Orthodox Church, ought to be restored in 
all possible forms of religious administration. All the members 
of the Church will have bestowed upon them the largest par- 
ticipation in ecclesiastical affairs, without any fear of violation 
of their rights and duties. These prerogatives will enable them 
to take a lively interest in matters concerning our Church, and 
they will become in our own day the main foundation of the 
ecclesiastical organization. Ecclesiastical schools and tribunals 
want also to be reorganized. By such measures, the life of 
the Church will be regulated, and a kind of uniformity estab- 
lished among the different institutions relying on her. It may 
be that some of the proposed transformations will have a tem- 
porary value. It may be that the future Synod will open new 
roads to a reconstruction of our religious life, but in view of 
the radical changes which affect the political rSgime of Russia, 
the Russian Orthodox Church can no longer rest upon her 
obsolete forms and methods. 
This circular letter further contains an earnest appeal to bish- 
ops, priests and laymen to contribute in all possible ways to the at- 
tainment of the aims of the Council. Priests are reminded that they 
owe obedience to their bishops, for without bishops the Church must 
go to wreck and ruin. 

The document which we have quoted and partly summarized 
is too general to demonstrate clearly the architectural lines of the 
Russian Church of the future. Yet, in its cautious terms and well- 
pondered expressions, it betrays the fears which haunt the rep- 
resentatives of the Russian episcopate. The political upheaval in 
Russia sprang from the lower classes of society. It was a popular 
revolution in the widest sense of the word, and it ought to be re- 
membered, that even the " white " clergy belong to the downtrodden 

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788 REORGANIZATION OF RUSSIAN CHURCH [Sept., 

mass of the Russian people.^ Will the movement of political eman- 
cipation which began from the people and threw down " the dark 
powers" of aristocracy and bureaucracy, exert its influence upon 
the " white " clergy and increase the gulf which separates Russia's 
married priests from her celibate bishops and monks ? The chances 
are that this question will have to be answered in the affirmative. 
The bishops of the Synod seem to be aware of this grave danger of 
an inner schism in their ecclesiastical body, when they stress the 
fact that the Church cannot live without bishops. Gene^^ly the 
"white" clergy, the rural priests who have been in close contact with 
the common people, who know by their own experience, their own 
poverty, their miserable life, the wrongs and difficulties of the auto- 
cratic rSgime, are accustomed to distrust their bishops drawn from 
the ranks of monasticism and linked to the lay bureaucracy which, 
since the time of Peter the Great, has exhausted the vital sap of the 
Russian Church. Will these priests, who are now breathing the 
deep breaths of a liberty bordering on license — will they keep within 
the bounds of moderation, and stifle their desire for vengeance on 
their unloved ecclesiastical rulers? Qui vivra verra! In any case, 
it would be hazardous to deny that a crisis of vast proportions is 
threatening the internally divided body of the Russian clergy. 

The fundamental reform of the Russian Church leans toward 
the reestablishment of what Russians call the synodal principles, the 
synodal constitution of the Church. The epithet of synodal in this 
case has a quite diflFerent sense from that which designed the being 
and activity of the most Holy Synod. It means a recurrence to the 
convocation of particular and general councils, in which representa- 
tives of the hierarchy, of the lower clergy and the laity discussed the 
problems of their religious life and endeavored to solve them. Ac- 
cording to Russian writers, the continuous decay of the Russian 
Church coincides with the practical suppression of the ecclesiastical 
councils, a measure imposed on the Russian clergy by the iron hand 
of Peter the Great. The synodal life of the Russian Church harks 
back to the earliest development of Russian Christianity, to the 
eleventh century. Historians of the Russian Church assert that its 
first council was held in Kiev, in 1051 by order of Yaroslav I., 
Vladimirovich the Wise ( loi 5-1054). Russian bishops met to elect 
the Metropolitan of all Russia, and to work out a way for the future 
emancipation of the Russian Church from the ecclesiastical juris- 
diction of Byzantium. From the beginning of the fourteenth cen- 

*The color of the habit determines the names of " white " and " black " clergy 
for the secular and regular clergy respectively. ^^T^ 

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1917.] REORGANIZATION OF RUSSIAN CHURCH 789 

tury Russian councils were held in Moscow, and exercised a power- 
ful influence on the religious life of Russia, especially in reforming 
ecclesiastical discipline, and in safeguarding the Orthodox faith 
against heresies. It suffices to recall the Council of the Hundred 
Chapters (Stoglav) in 1551, whose decisions concern disciplinary 
matters, the rules of Christian life, the Orthodox liturgy, and the 
government and revenues of the Church. The council of 1667, dis- 
tinguished by the epithet of great, ended in an ignominious surren- 
der to the civil power — the long and dramatic contest between Pa- 
triarch Nikon and Alexis Mikhailovich (1645-1676). These coim- 
cils certainly gave proof of the vitality of the Russian Church, but, 
especially in the seventeenth century, they ceased to express the 
freedom of the Church. The most learned historian of the Russian 
Church, Kapterev, shows by authentic documents that the Moscow 
councils of the seventeenth century professedly proclaimed the Tsar 
the main source of all law both ecclesiastical and civil, the Vicar of 
Jesus Christ on earth, the manager of God's business among men. 
The council of Moscow of 1660 stated that God had delivered the 
government of His Church into the hands of the Ts^rs. In spite of 
the servility of the Russian councils, these last remnants of eccle- 
siastical freedom were distasteful to Peter the Great. He fostered 
the memory of the obstinate feud between his father and Patriarch 
Nikon, and by the institution of the most Holy Governing Synod 
and the military organization of the Russian Church, closed the 
period of Russian councils. 

A return to the old traditions ; to the summoning of a national 
council to heal the wounds inflicted on the Russian Church by the 
reform of Peter the Great, was mooted in 1905, when Russia joy- 
fully hailed Nicholas II. as the emancipator of his people, and the 
creator of a New Russia. In the month of March, the Tserkovnii 
Viestnik, the official organ of the " white *' clergy, which stopped 
publication in 191 5, published a memorandum on the necessity of 
reestablishing the constitution of the Russian Church. The memo- 
randum pointed to a national council as the only means of re- 
storing the freedom of the Russian Church, and rooting out the 
abuses which had entwined themselves about her administrative life. 

The appeal of the thirty-two priests, who had drawn up the 
memorandum, fanned the flames of the spirit of reform throughout 
Russia. Even the decrepit and novelty-hating Pobiedonostsev, felt 
that the old edifice of Russian autocracy was tottering and breaking 
under the blows of the new ideas, and that the only way to delay 

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790 REORGANIZATION OF RUSSIAN CHURCH [Sept., 

its full destruction was to yield somewhat to the spirit of revolution 
then sweeping over all Russia. The idea of the convocation of a na- 
tional council was greeted with enthusiasm, even by the paladins of 
the conservative office of the chief Procurators of the Holy Synod. 
The leading minds of the Russian Church were called to Petrograd, 
and asked to form several commissions for the preliminary study 
of the crucial problems, to be solved by the " Fathers " of the future 
council. The commissions set to work, and gave proof of an intense 
activity. The fruit of their laborious researches and Byzantine dis- 
putes was condensed in four volumes, printed at the expense of the 
Holy Synod. 

The Russian bishops, in their turn, were requested to address 
to the Chief Procurator of the Holy Synod a sincere statement of 
the reforms they thought proper to be submitted to the examination 
of the future council. The fine-spun theories of their reports 
were garnered in four volumes of a montmiental size. The religious 
press, for three whole years, expended itself in detailing the tasks 
of the future council, in magnifying the greatness of its mission, 
in setting forth the blessings to pour down upon the Russian Church 
from its divinely inspired decisions. Alas! Time proved those rhe- 
torical essays, the painful outcome of three years of labor, to be 
wholly wasted. Once the sanguinary conflict with Japan was set- 
tled, the party of reaction again held up its head, and erased all the 
plans of reform. It was declared that the debates of the press had 
revealed an irreconcilable antagonism between priests and monks, 
between the " white " and the " black " clergy; that a council would 
have broadened the gulf between both the rival parties ; that the poi- 
sonous seeds of liberalism had found a congenial soil in the hearts of 
many village priests; and lastly, that Russia had so much on her 
mind in the political and social domains, that it would have been 
a great mistake to embark on the stormy ocean of a religious reform. 
Little by little the ecclesiastical press was gagged : no one dared to 
drop a hint as to the council. The champions of religious intoler- 
ance stood in the first rank. They silenced all opposers, and openly 
associated with the apostles of political and religious Russification 
of all the subjects of the Tsar; they succeeded in alienating the 
masses more and more from the old rigime, and in disgracing the 
name of Russia in Galicia. There Bishop Elogius and Count 
Bobrynski tried in vain to destroy the United Ruthenian Church, and 
to eradicate from the Galician soil the " evil weeds " of Ukraino- 
philism. 

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1917] REORGANIZATION OF RUSSIAN CHURCH 791 

The downfall of the Empire again opens up the discussion of 
the reestablishment of the ancient forms of Russian ecclesiastical 
life. But the cards are now in the hands of the other side. The 
task of dictating laws is slipping from the hands of the hierarchy. 
In a Russia ruled by liberals or socialists, the future of the Russian 
Church hangs on the " white," or secular clergy. The letter itself 
which convokes the General Synod shows clearly that the lower 
clergy have won a great victory. The Council will not be an assem- 
bly of bishops. Priests and laymen are summoned to participate 
in its sessions, in its debates, in its decisions. 

Bishops who spoke so arrogantly in 1905 have momentarily 
put aside their fierce intransigence. They no longer deny to the 
long-despised " white " clergy the right of raising their voices in the 
full assembly of the Russian Church. They know that those priests 
whom they have ill-treated with the supercilious arrogance of the 
old Russian bureaucracy, have sympathized with the bearers of the 
standards of the great Russian revolution. Yet they declare them- 
selves ready to stand beside them and work with them for the restor- 
ation of the Russian Church. In my opinion, the appeal comes too 
late. The power of the hierarchy is at stake, and it is only by large 
concessions that they will retain a shadow of their authority. 

The first concession is already alluded to in the circular letter 
of the Holy Synod. The Russian Church is recalled to her primitive 
organization, to the autonomy of her parochial life. In a series of 
interesting volumes, Aleksander Papkov has tried to establish his 
contention that the stagnation of the Russian Church is the out- 
come of the abolition of the independent life of the Russian parishes. 
In old Russia, the parish chiu-ches were the property of the niir, or 
of the congregation which built them. The mir had the right to 
inspect ecclesiastical goods, and to elect the parochial clergy. The 
community could choose from among its own members a candi- 
date for the priesthood and present him to the bishop for ordination. 
In this way the power of the hierarchy over the lower clergy was 
merely a sacramental one. The parish entirely escaped its jurisdic- 
tion. In turn, the parochial clergy depended exclusively on the good 
will of the mir for their support, and the permanency of their cures. 
This " ideal " state of the autonomous parish was not without its 
inconvenience. A learned historian of the Russian Church, 
Znamensky, quotes the complaints of some Russian bishops, who 
accused the imrs of assigning the parish churches to drunken or li- 
centious priests, merely because they were willing to offer their serv- 

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792 REORGANIZATION OF RUSSIAN CHURCH [Sept., 

ices at a lower rate. The Russian nobility contributed to the degra- 
dation of the clergy. They had some of their serfs ordained to 
the priesthood in order that they might derive profit from their ex- 
ercise of the ministry. 

This state of things will be revived to a certain extent by the 
restoration of the elective system in selecting the clergy. The ques- 
tion of the choice of clergy by the congregation was sedulously dis- 
cussed in the great reform movement of 1905-1907. Some Russian 
bishops even agreed to the necessity of a more active participation of 
laymen in the life of the Church. Other bishops, in their reports to 
the Holy Synod, suggested that, in case of the vacancy of a parish 
church, the parishioners might be authorized to present to the bishop 
as candidates for the priesthood, young men twenty-five years old, 
acquainted with the theological teaching of the Orthodox faith. 
They would be free to make a choice between married life and cel- 
ibacy before being ordained. In rural districts the election of a 
candidate to the priesthood would be by the ballot of all the pa- 
rishioners; in the towns the right of choice would be reserved to 
political voters, who elect the representatives to the Duma. More- 
over, according to the views of Peter, Bishop of Smolensk, Russian 
priests were to be free to renounce priesthood, if, for reasons of 
their own, they feel themselves unfit to perform their duties. In 
this case, they should not be deprived of their academic titles, nor 
of the allowances they get from the Church or the State because of 
their services. Others like, for example. Archbishop Antony of 
Kharkov, are strongly opposed to every attempt at lay interference in 
the inner government of the Russian Church. " A man," he says, 
" who suffers from typhoid fever, cannot, without danger of death, 
absorb the copious meal of an athletic champion. At present, the 
parochial community is far from having reached that high degree of 
culture and religious consciousness which will enable it to use the 
right of electing the clergy. The application of the elective principle 
within the pale of the Russian Orthodox Church would lead Russia 
to a vital dissolution of her ecclesiastical body, and would definitely 
lower the moral and intellectual level of the clergy." 

The future Council of the Russian Church is destined to stand 
midway between these conflicting tendencies. The letter of the 
Holy Synod permits us to foresee a victory for the reformist wing. 
In fact, we have already a practical realization of what the above 
quoted document calls "the largest participation" of all the menibers 
of the Church in ecclesiastical affairs. In May, Archbishop Tikhon t 

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1917.] REORGANIZATION OF RUSSIAN CHURCH 793 

(Bellavin), who lived a few years in America as Bishop of the 
Aleutian Islands, was elected by popular suffrage Metropolitan of 
Moscow. 

Needless to say, the convocation of the general Council of the 
Russian Church is awaited with intense interest in Russia, as well as 
abroad. Besides its religious influences, it is expected to turn the 
political scale of Russia. At the dawn of the revolution, the hier- 
archy* and monasticism were devoted to wedding the Russian 
Church with the autocratic regime; the " white " clergy on the con- 
trary yearned for popular government. Wise policies on the part of 
the rulers of New Russia would have enlisted in their cause the great 
moral influence of the lower clergy, and the favor of the peasantry, 
which in most villages closely retains its attachment to the Orthodox 
Church. But their inexperience, or rather their stolidity, has 
estranged from the revolutionary cause many supporters in the 
ranks of the " white " clergy. They feel no good can come from a 
handful of anarchists, who run riot in their Utopian reforms, and 
give loose rein to thle worst elements of Russia. The consciousness 
of the great danger to the Russian Church and to Russia's na- 
tional existence may drive into the ranks of the conservatives many 
in whom radical liberalism had killed both patriotism and all at- 
tachment to the Russian Church. In this event, instead of growing 
weaker, the Russian Church would be stronger ; she would give her- 
self an ecclesiastical head who would restore the patriarchal dignity 
of Russia, and rise in protest against the forces dissolving the enor- 
mous fabric of the Russian Empire. 

It ought to be remembered that in the most trying times, such 
as " the period of troubles," when Russia was about to become a 
province of the Polish Kingdom, the Russian Church powerfully 
contributed to the rescue and preservation of the independence of 
the Russian people. In the chaotic disorders now turning the ill- 
fated democratic regime of Russia upside down, the Russian Church 
will perhaps attempt to act as a sheet-anchor. Consequently her 
forthcoming Council is anxiously awaited as an event of vast his- 
torical significance. 



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THE DEVOTION TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS.^ 

BY BERTRAND L. CONWAY, C.S.P. 

|R. PETROVITZ' dissertation on the theology of the 
cultus of the Sacred Heart, presented this current 
year for the doctorate at the Cathoh'c University of 
America, is the only complete treatise we possess 
in English on this most popular devotion. We feel 
confident that the readers of The Catholic World will welcome a 
brief summary of this scholarly volume, which relates so well the 
history of this devotion, explains so accurately its theological basis, 
and discusses so fairly the controversies regarding the Twelfth 
Promise. 

Devotion to the Sacred Heart consists of two distinct ele- 
ments, the formal, or the love of Christ, and the material, or His 
Sacred Heart. The formal element is older than Christianity: 
" Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, with thy 
whole soul, and with thy whole strength."* From the earliest 
days the love of Jesus Christ has been the chief love of the Chris- 
tian.* The material element is to be found implicitly in other devo- 
tions, such as the Passion of Christ,* the Five Wounds (St. Am- 
brose, St. Peter Chrysologus, St. Bernard, St. Francis, St. Mech- 
tilde and St. Gertrude) and the Side of Christ (St. Ambrose, St. 
Chrysostom, St. Augustine and St. Gregory). Explicit mention of 
the Heart of Jesus dates from St. Paulinus of Nola in the fifth 
century (+431), but the devotion as such did not begin until the 
sixteenth century. The Carthusian Lanspergius ( + 1539) and the 
Benedictine Louis de Blois ( + 1566) introduced it among the re- 
ligious, and two Jesuits, Father Hajnal (-f-1644) and Father Druz- 
bicki ( + 1629), strove to popularize it among the laity. 

Father Eudes was the first great apostle of the devotion. In 
1670 he published a treatise on Devotion to the Adorable Heart of 
Jesus, and inserted in it an Office and Mass in honor of the Sacred 
Heart. The devotion, however, will always be associated closely 
with the name of Blessed Margaret Mary, for through her writings 

^Theology of the Cultus of the Sacred Heart, By Joseph J. C. Pctrovitz. 

Washington: The Catholic University of America. 1917. "Deut. vi. 5. 

■Rom. viii. 35; 2 Cor. v. 15. *2 Cor. i. $; Heb. ii. 9, 10; Apoc. i. 6. 



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1917.] THE DEVOTION TO THE SACRED HEART 795 

and her apparitions it became widespread and popular throughout 
the Christian world. 

Blessed Margaret Mary was a Visitandine nun of the Convent 
of Paray-le-Monial from 1671 to 1690. The instructions she gave 
her novices and the many letters to her friends abound in expres- 
sions of love and devotion towards the Sacred Heart. She ever 
pictures It as the source of God's love and bounty to mankind. 
Four apparitions of Christ to her are mentioned by her biographers, 
and the general belief in their authenticity did much to win over 
those who were at first opposed to this devotion. She had 
been the object of much uncharitable criticism, for many regarded 
her, at first, as a sentimental visionary. But the nuns who lived with 
her reverenced her as a saint. They saw that she practised virtues 
to a heroic degree, submitted to most extraordinary tests, and 
despite her many divine favors, ever talked and wrote with the 
greatest simplicity, humility and self-forgetfulness. 

Father de la Colombiere, a devout Jesuit, was the first to 
popularize the devotion to the Sacred Heart (1677). Another 
Jesuit, Father Croiset, published a short life of Blessed Margaret 
Mary in 1691, which set forth in a brief manner the new devotion. 
This life was reprinted at Bordeaux in 1694, at Lyons in 1698, and 
at Besan?on in 1699. It contributed in large measure to the growth 
of the devotion. Many chapels were erected in honor of the Sacred 
Heart, and the feast began to be solemnized on the day after the 
octave of Corpus Christi. 

Within thirty-six years more than three hundred confrater- 
nities had been founded in France, Flanders, Germany, Italy, Lithu* 
ania, Poland and Bohemia. Two other writers did much to foster 
the devotion, the Jesuit, Father Galliffet, who wrote in 1726, and 
the scholarly Bishop Languet, who published his Life of Blessed 
Margaret Mary in Paris, 1729. 

Benedict XIII. (i 724-1 730) refused, however, as his prede- 
cessor. Innocent XII. (1691-1700) had done thirty years before, to 
establish a feast of the Sacred Heart for the universal Chiu-ch. 
The objections made at the time against the devotion were that it 
savored of Nestorianism; that its acceptance would give rise to 
many scandals and unreasonable requests; that it made the heart 
the source of all virtues and affections and the centre of all internal 
pleasures and pains ; that the case of the holiness of Blessed Mar- 
garet Mary was still pending. Notwithstanding the opposition of 
certain theologians and especially of the Jansenists, the devotion 



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796 THE DEVOTION TO THE SACRED HEART [Sept., 

continued to spread. By the time of Clement XIII. (i 758-1 769) 
there were one thousand and ninety confraternities all over the 
world, and bishops kept urging the Holy See to grant a special 
Feast, Mass and Office. The request was granted for Poland and 
Rome in 1765, and this did more than anything else, except the 
beatification of Blessed Margaret Mary by Pius IX. in 1864, ^ 
foster the devotion. Finally Leo XIII. in 1899 consecrated the whole 
world to the Sacred Heart. 

The legitimacy of the devotion to the Sacred Heart is under- 
stood by all who have a perfect grasp of the dogmas of the 
Incarnation and the Redemption. Jesus Christ is perfect God and 
perfect Man in one divine personality. The divine Person is united 
hypostatically not only to the Humanity of Christ considered in 
its totality, but also considered in its several parts, as, for instance. 
His hands, His feet. His precious blood, and His Heart. It fol- 
lows, therefore, that every one of these organic parts is deserving 
of adoration, not considered in itself, but in view of its union with 
the Godhead. 

This doctrine was clearly taught by Pius VI., who condemned 
the Synod of Pistoja which maintained that a direct adoration of 
the Humanity of Christ, or, what is still less, any part thereof, was 
equivalent to rendering divine honor to a creature. The Sacred 
Heart of Christ, therefore, is worthy of the same worship as His 
Divinity, provided it is worshipped conjointly with His Person. 

The primary motive of the Redemption was love. " Jesus was 
conceived by love, the Word became flesh for love of us; and all 
the subsequent acts of the God-man were an uninterrupted mani- 
festation of a love so ardent that it induced Him to remain with us 
until the end of the world." The infinite love of Christ for men 
is both the motive and the formal object of the devotion, while the 
material object is His Sacred Heart as the symbol of that love. 
The unanimity of theologians and of spiritual writers on this point 
is beyond question. 

A chapter on The Heart in Symbolism discusses the meaning 
of the word in the Sacred Scriptures, in common parlance, in phys- 
iology and psychology. The Scriptures speak of the heart as the 
ideal seat of the affections,^ the source of desire and volition® and 
assign to it intellectual operations.'' The nations of the world use 

■Is. Ixv. 14; Prov. xxiii. ly; i Tim. i. 5. 

•Matt. XV. 19; Rom. i. 24. 

^Deut. xi. 18; Deut. xxxii. 46; i Cor. ii. 9, ^^ , ^ 

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1917.] THE DEVOTION TO THE SACRED HEART 797 

the word heart as " a subject of every class of operation, emotional, 
intellectual, active, incident to the spiritual nature of man; it is the 
whole man extensively and intensively, a source both of good and 
evil." The physiologists of the past were responsible for the erro- 
neous popular belief that the heart was the seat of love, but all 
physiologists today admit an influence exercised on the heart by 
the affections and passions of men. The connection between the 
heart and the emotions, is sufficiently close to authorize the state- 
ment that the heart is an indirect organ of the appetitive faculties. 
It thus participates in all the emotions, the strongest of which is 
love. 

It must be borne in mind, however, that in this devotion the 
heart is not viewed as the organ, but only as the symbol of love. 
" Just as the lily represents purity and the scale symbolizes justice, 
so the heart suggests the thought of love. This symbolical signifi- 
cation is so deep-seated that it is likely to last until the end of the 
world." 

" Psychology teaches that supernatural truths can best be 
grasped through perceptible objects. The clearness and fullness of 
our comprehension of such truths depend on the appeal the symbol 
makes to the senses. The deeper the impression made by the sym- 
bol, the quicker the response of the soul, and the more inspiring 
and enduring the realization of the thing symbolized." 

Theologians distinguish between the increated love which Jesus 
Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity, possessed from all eter- 
nity, and the created love which He manifested through the instru- 
mentality of His Human Nature. In view of this distinction a 
controversy has arisen concerning the nature of the love which we 
worship under the symbol of the Sacred Heart. 

Blessed Margaret Mary did not even suspect the existence of 
such a problem, and the decrees of the Sacred Congregation on the 
devotion are not at all explicit on this point. After a discussion of 
some forty pages, Dr. Petrovitz adopts the opinion of Alvery, 
Ramiere, Bainvel, Vignat and others who declare that directly and 
immediately the Sacred Heart symbolizes the created love of Christ, 
but remotely it also symbolizes His increated love. Father Vigrtat 
writes : " Jesus being only one Person in two natures, divine and 
human, manifests to us the whole love of His Person by His Heart, 
not only His created but also His increated love. Only in this 
sense, but in the fullest extent of this sense, one may say: Jesus 
as God loves us by means of His Hiunan Heart." 

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798 THE DEVOTION TO THE SACRED HEART [Sept., 

The last five chapters of Dr. Petrovitz' dissertation, which 
treat the Twelfth Promise in its historical, dogmatic and moral 
aspects, are the most interesting portion of the volume. 

The devotion of the Nine Fridays with its spiritual rewards 
promised by Our Lord to Blessed l^Iargaret Mary is known as the 
Great Promise. This private revelation was, as many maintain, men- 
tioned in a letter addr^sed by Blessed Margaret Mary to Mother de 
Saumaise. The date of this letter is imcertain, various manuscripts 
assigning it to the years 1687, 1688 and 1689 respectively. More- 
over, the original letter, if it ever did exist, has been lost, so that the 
Great Promise has come down to us in five different versions. Those 
who defend its authenticity point to the fact that Bishop 
Languet, in his well-known life of Blessed Margaret Mary, published 
in 1729, refers to it, although he does not cite it verbatim. Again 
this Promise was known to the Visitandines, and the devotion of 
the Nine Fridays probably practised among them as early as 1714. 
If the letter had been spurious, the Visitation nuns would never 
have forwarded it to Rome for the beatification of Blessed Margaret 
Mary, and the Sacred Congregation would never have let it go 
imchallenged in their decree of September 22, 1827. On the other 
hand, those who question the authenticity of the letter marvel at 
the fact that no mention of the Great Promise is found in any other 
letter or writing of Blessed Margaret Mary. She never once in- 
sisted on the practice of the Nine Fridays. They wonder again 
why Bishop Languet, who devotes more than one half of the four 
Tiundred pages of his life to verbatim extracts from her letters, her 
autographic memoir, and the letters and writings of her superiors 
and friends, does not quote the words of this most important letter. 
And yet as a matter of fact he reprints thirteen other letters which 
Blessed Margaret Mary wrote to Mother de Saumaise. Moreover, 
if, as many maintain, her writings had been open to public inspec- 
tion up to the year 1789 or 1792, how are we to explain the silence 
of those who were so zealous in spreading this devotion? Why is it 
that the three Jesuit priests — de la Colombiere, Rolin and Croiset— 
who knew her personally and corresponded with her frequently, 
make no reference to the Great Promise in their writings? No one 
did more than Father G^lliffet to spread devotion to the Sacred 
Heart, yet he is utterly silent regarding it in his volumes published 
in 1726 and 1732. 

In fact the Great Promise was not printed until 1867 ^^ 1870, 
three or six years after the publication of the decree of Beatification. 

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1917.] THE DEVOTION TO THE SACRED HEART 799 

It has come down to us in five different versions. The first is 
found in the first volume of the 1867 ^^^ ^876 Visitandine edi- 
tions of the Life and Works of Margaret Mary; the second, in> 
the second volume of the same two editions; the third in the Life 
by Bishop Languet; the fourth, in a manuscript discovered by 
Father Hamon in 1902 in thejibrary of Joseph Dechelette; the fifth, 
in the annals of the Monastery of Dijon. It is impossible to deter- 
mine which of these is the original version. Father Hamon has 
proved that the Visitandine Life of Blessed Margaret Mary, on 
which Bishop Languet based his book, is full of incorrect citations 
from the original writings of the Beata. He also points out many 
inexact quotations in the works of Fathers Croiset, Daniel, Bou- 
gaud and Galliffet. It is, therefore, very doubtful if the wording 
of the letter containing the Twelfth Promise has come down to us 
intact. 

All the versions agree in insisting upon Communion for Nine 
First Fridays of the month, and in promising the grace of final 
repentance and the grace of not dying without the sacraments. 
But Bishop Lapguet's version declares that after one has complied 
with the required conditions, he may entertain a hope of receiving 
the sacraments of the^ Church and the grace of final repentance 
before dying. The fourth version introduces the promise with 
the words, *' if she be not mistaken." 

In discussing the meaning of the text Dr. Petrovitz selects the 
version found in the second volume of the Life and Works of 
Blessed Margaret Mary, published by the Visitandines of Paray 
in 1876. It is practically identical with the fourth version men- 
tioned above. It reads : " One Friday during Holy Communion 
He said these words to His unworthy servant, if she be not mis- 
taken: 'I promise thee, in the excessive mercy of My Heart, that 
Its all powerful love will give the grace of final repentance to all 
those who communicate nine successive First Fridays of the month ; 
they will not die in Its displeasure, nor without receiving the sacra- 
ments. My Divine Heart being their assured refuge in that last 
moment.' " 

A doubt at once arises concerning the meaning of the words 
'' if she be not mistaken/' We cannot determine whether they are 
added by the Beata in humble obedience to her superior's counsel 
not to set forth her supernatural favors too dogmatically, or whether 
as a matter of fact she herself was uncertain about the reality of 
the revelation. It is clear that to gain the reward of the Great 



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8oo THE DEVOTION TO THE SACRED HEART [Sept., 

Promise one must receive Communion the First Friday of every 
month for nine consecutive months. With regard to the grace of 
final repentance, three interpretations are given by theologians. 
Father Ramiere holds that Christ promises only a little more than 
the ordinary help at the hour of death to the one who fulfills the 
prescribed conditions. He extends the hope of a particular grace, 
but gives no assurance concerning the cooperation with it. He 
promises also a special opportunity of receiving the sacraments one 
may require. 

Father Bachelet declares that one may expect the realization of 
the Great Promise only after having complied with the requirements 
of the ordinary means of salvation, as well as with those of the 
Nine Fridays' devotion. 

Father Vermeersch maintains that the Great Promise is com- 
plete in itself, and that no one who makes the Nine FHdays prop- 
erly will be excluded from the moral certainty of a happy death. 
The grace of final perseverance is an efficacious grace, which will 
infallibly obtain the consent of the will. 

What about those who presume that their salvation is secure 
irrespective of the life they live in the future, provided they make 
the Nine Fridays? If their presumption arises before they engage 
in the devotion, all agree that they lose all right to the promised 
reward because they lack the necessary dispositions. If it arises 
afterward, then the interpreters disagree. Some, like Father Bach- 
elet, maintain that sinners, by the very fact of sinning, lose their 
assured title to this special divine assistance. However, they may 
hope that the Heart of Jesus, in view of their fonrter devotion, 
may cause the obstacle of sin to disappear, and at the same time 
restore to them the right they lost by their infidelity. On the other 
hand Father Vermeersch holds that once a man has p<^rformed the 
Nine Fridays with the necessary dispositions and good intention, he 
may entertain a moral certitude regarding his salvation. By this 
special grace, God will safeguard him from falling into presumption 
or at least from persevering in it. The most inveterate sinners 
have the same chance as slight sinners ; the merited grace will give 
an equal assurance of salvation to both. 

With regard to the second spiritual favor, some have called 
attention to the fact of the sudden death without the sacraments 
of many devout clients of the Sacred Heart. Father Vermeersch 
answers them by saying that the promise of the sacraments is 
conditional, inasmuch as Christ will furnish ^n'occasion of receiving 



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1917.] THE DEVOTION TO THE SACRED HEART 801 

them, only in case one needs them to obtain the grace of God. The 
grace of final repentance is indispensable to salvation, but the last 
sacraments are only relatively necessary. 

In a controversy that occurred in the Tablet in 1903, some of 
the opponents of the Twelfth Promise declared it an unauthentic, 
derogatory and disfiguring characteristic of the devotion to the 
Sacred Heart, if accepted in the light of the general interpretation 
of many pious books and pamphlets. It is beyond question that 
many inaccurate and misleading statements are to be met with in 
the pious effusions of many over-zealous devotees. Some have 
seemed to advocate the certainty of salvation, no matter how a 
person lived after having fulfilled the requirements of the Great 
Promise. Others have inaccurately asserted that the Great Promise . 
"went further than the promises found in the Gospel; that the 
grace bestowed by the Twelfth Promise' was of a higher order than 
the grace given by the sacraments; that the Church has adopted 
and blessed this practice (of the Nine First Fridays) ; that these 
Holy Communions will infallibly obtain for us a happy death ; that 
this promise is found in the authentic writings of Blessed Margaret 
Mary." 

In a final chapter Dr. Petrovitz summarizes his conclusions 
with regard to the Great Promise. While stating that the authen- 
ticity of the letter containing it cannot be proved, he argues that 
such a letter probably did exist. It is impossible to suppose that 
the Visitandines would have invented such a revelation out of 
whole cloth, and then backed it up by an impudent forgery. Bishop 
Languet was too conscientious and too scholarly a man to have 
mentioned such an important letter unless he himself had seen the 
document, or had at least heard of its existence from some trust- 
worthy source. His version is not in the least dogmatic, for he 
speaks of Our Lord " leading her to hope for the grace of final 
repentance," etc. His words say nothing of an absolute infallible 
assurance, but merely indicate the idea of hope. Dr. Petrovitz 
rightly lays a special stress upon these words, declaring " that this 
pious expectation, the verification of which may be looked for with 
humble confidence, in no way nullifies the efficacy of the Great 
Promise, nor does it render 'this revelation worthless. Christ, by 
extending the prospect of greater good, bound Himself to be more 
generous than He would have been had He not imparted such a 
supernatural manifestation." 

This is a compromise view between those who invest the 

VOL. CV.— 51 rA^ 

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8o2 • AN OLD MASTERPIECE [Sept., 

Great Promise with an absolute infallible efficacy, and those who 
reject it entirely as unauthentic. He rightly thinks it more fitting for 
sinners to hope for such a reward, rather than to feel that through 
any action of theirs they have acquired an inalienable right to its 
infallible fulfillment. In view of the fapt that the revelation is at 
least doubtful, it seems most wise and prudent to reject the third 
interpretation above mentioned. To advocate the absolute and 
infallible efficacy of the Great Promise is apt to cause scandal and 
give rise to material superstition. 



AN OLD MASTERPIECE. 

BY CHARLES PHILLIPS. 

'How divine a thing a woman may he made!" — Wordsworth, 

Such masterpieces do we love the best I — 
Pictures that all are touched and mellowed o'er 
With the soft brush of Time ; — ^ay, love them more 

For the fine marks of age they bear, the test 

The years put on them but to prove the zest 
And fadeless glory of that Master's lore 
Who dreamed them and Who made them from His store 

Of Heavenly magic, at His love's behest: 

A masterpiece ! — ^a mother's face ! — each day 

For the dim secret of the blended years 
Loved all the more ! See how the soft lights play 
Upon the picture, hallowed o'er with tears, 
Lit with sweet smiling, till every tone and shade 
Tells how divine a thing a woman may be made ! 



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THE PROBLEM OF RESEMBLANCE IN PORTRAITURE. 

BY ALBERT BESNARD, 

Member of the French Acadimie des Beaux-Arts and President of the National 
Academy of France in Rome. 

|T the risk of destroying an illusion very dear to the 
public, I venture to state that no portrait exists or 
has existed which is a perfect resemblance — that is, 
one which will be generally acknowledged to be a 
perfect resemblance. The face of every person is 
just as variable as his emotions. This alone precludes all possibility 
of attaining an absolute and universally acknowledged resemblance. 
For it is only possible to portray one of the many changing expres- 
sions which pass over the face, each revealing the nature of the 
person in a new light. . 

There are several kinds of resemblances — a statement which 
the general public will not admit. This mental attitude of the pub- 
lic is most unfortunate for the painter who has selected one expres- 
sion of his model, as portraying the widest range of emotions. 
There are so many " resemblances!" It seems to me three can be 
defined definitely. 

The first is the resemblance which limits itself to the simple 
reproduction of features. At first glance this one seems most sat- 
isfying. 

The second resemblance is that which pictures the psychologi- 
cal expression of the individual, the physiognomy. This is the most 
difficult to grasp, but is also the most valuable. 

The third I should like to call the " apparent resemblance," for 
it aims at catching what may be called the habits or characteristics 
of a person. This is most surprising and almost undefinable. 

From among these three resemblances the spectator or rather 
the critic, chooses the one most in accord with his own charac- 
ter and with his own estimate of the person represented. 

Manifold are the standpoints from which a human being may 
be .viewed. Social position, age, profession suggest u certain tradi- 
tional formula to the public eye. 

According to this popular formula a child must laugh, a 

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8o4 RESEMBLANCE IN PORTRAITURE [Sept., 

woman must look dreamy, a man must look manly, his glance must 
express decision. A general must appear to hear the thunder of can- 
non in battle. A prince who has his portrait painted, must present 
that dignified appearance in keeping with his high calling ; he must 
look majestic. A number of conventional symbols are used suitable 
to the sex, age and rank. A child should have a toy or fruit, a young 
woman a fan. The man of mature age is usually seated at a table 
looking thoughtful. The rich young man of leisure might have a 
globe beside him to indicate the universality of his unused capabil- 
ities. 

The public of which I speak, will not for one moment place 
itself in the position of the painter, who sees in the face of his model 
the passing of complicated, ever-changing emotions and who has 
chosen one best suited to bring out most strongly the personality of 
the individual portrayed. The emotions reflected in the face some- 
times seem to take special pleasure in overthrowing all formulas of 
tradition. The general looks like a bishop, the child like a phil- 
osopher and the delicate lady assumes a commanding mien. There 
is, therefore, a continual clashing between the one who reproduces 
what he has seen and the one who will only see what he wishes to 
see — between the painter and the public. It would be very easy for 
the painter to make himself understood if painter and public under- 
stood each other. 

Mothers value most the first resemblance: the resemblance of 
features. This resemblance expresses the race or rather the species. 
The instinct of family, the woman's love which sees in her child an 
ever faultless work, which loves it for its own sake, the desire to 
recognize these beloved features in the portrait, all conduce to ex- 
plain the mother's preference for this sort of resemblance. Hence 
mothers are very difficult to satisfy. A still more difficult critic is 
the lover. He has not created his beloved out of his own flesh and 
blood, but he has re-created her with all the power of his brain; 
her picture is vividly new and moulded by the fire of his love. Who 
can tell with what qualities he has endowed her, what picture of her 
he carries in his heart? 

The second kind of resemblance, the physiognomical, is more 
subtle and more valuable. It is preferred by the philosopher, by the 
psychologist, by the poet, in fact, by all who seek to read character 
in the human face. We touch here the mysterious influence of 
atavism. Unknown hands have dropped good and bad, brilliant and 
perturbing qualities into the stream which runs from generation to 

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1917.] RESEMBLANCE IN PORTRAITURE 805 

generation. Circumstances, which we call fate, regulate its course. 
Dead bodies can poison these waters. The tendencies and passions 
which come to us from this atavism are stamped on our physiog- 
nomy. But atavism also governs the race. Physiognomy, there- 
fore, reveals the race. 

The physiognomy, not the features, reveals the race. A Span- 
iard, an Englishman, a Turk may at first sight resemble in feature 
a Frenchman. (Certain variations in the form of nose or mouth 
or in coloring are of very little consequence here.) But place one 
of these persons into an emotional state, arouse his passions and 
suddenly his physiognomy will appear. The soul of every race ap- 
pears in the real face of the Spaniard, Englishman and Turk. 
Without this physiognomy they would probably resemble one an- 
other. 

Few artists have the gift of physiognomical resemblance — few 
persons discover it. It is the most valuable attribute of a portrait, 
but it is also the greatest stumbling-block for the portrait-painter. 

The last resemblance which I have called the " apparent re- 
semblance," is the one which ensnares the casual observer. It 
savors of the arabesque, it is more satisfying to the eye than to the 
mind. It is as flitting and elusive as movement, often uncanny in 
its power of impression, but when united with the two other re- 
semblances it is a complement to every representation of the human 
face. 

Which portraits can we name as examples of the first kind of 
resemblance? At first thought come to mind Jehan Fouquet, Ra- 
phael, Holbein, Cranach and most of the northern schools. That 
which prompts me to thus classify them is principally the instant im- 
pression of careful execution, the observance of details, an often 
exaggerated exactness in representing certain conspicuous points. 
These prove that the painter has tried to reproduce the features 
with such infinite care that he almost exagge^ates. It is obvious 
that these masters would exemplify the undeniable relation between 
the types of their day and the types of ours. Features which show 
the species are the least changeable element in resemblance. 

The great painter of the physiognomical resemblance is, and 
ever will remain, Rembrandt. In order the better to express physi- 
ognomy in all its manifold revelations, he made use of the magic 
of light, the mystery of shadow, and he invented that secondary 
light without which shadow would be nothing. He became the in- 
genious creator of the "chiaroscuro." Sometimes the face a] 



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8o6 RESEMBLANCE IN PORTRAITURE [Sept., 

pears brilliant like a revelation, sometimes obscure like a riddle. 
After Rembrandt comes Diirer, Velasquez, Titian, Giorgione and 
the wonderful, passionate Tintoretto. 

In France at this time there was Francois Clouet and his 
school, the cruel and truth-loving portrait painters of the Court of 
the Valois. In the seventeenth century appear Philippe de Cham- 
paigne, the brothers Le Nain, and later the clever and brilliant 
Rigaud and Largilliere. Latour, Perronneau and truest of all, Char- 
din, follow. Then David and Prudhon, the French Corr^gio only 
more brilliant, a colorist and designer at the same time. This 
combination, a typically French genius, indicates the tendencies 
of modem French art. Coming down almost to our own days, 
we have " Monsieur " Ingres, and finally our contemporary, Eugene 
Carrere. To this great name we must also add the names of the 
great Englishmen, Gainsborough, Hoppner, Hogarth and Raebum. 

Among the masters for the " apparent resemblance " I place 
preeminently the Spaniard Goya, and next to him Sir Thomas Law- 
rence, the elegant and graceful Englishman. These great masters 
and their schools present life as a mantle under which the personality 
is more suggested than determined, and this, to my mind, for fear 
of reality. But in justice to them one must say that, thanks to their 
quick perception of expression, naturalness and the spontaneity of 
gesture in portraiture have been renewed. Standing before a cer- 
tain and very difficult and magnificent picture of mother and child, 
one almost believes that the lips will open and whisper: " Darling!" 



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CATHOLICS AT OXFORD. 

BY FATHER CUTHBERT, O.S.F.C. 

|UST fifty years ago the Catholic body in England 
were deeply stirred over the failure of the project to 
establish an Oratory at Oxford under the guidance 
of John Henry Newman. The story of the proposed 
Oxford Oratory is one of the painful chapters in 
Wilfrid Ward's Life of Newman — it is the record of much mis- 
understanding between great men of deep sincerity, but opposing 
views, and of the meddlesomeness of small men in affairs they 
could not understand. To Newman himself the incident caused 
much pain, not because he had set his heart upon the scheme — in 
fact he entered into it with some unwillingness — ^but because the 
refusal of those in high place to allow him to go back to Oxford 
was taken by some to reflect a suspicion as to his orthodoxy. And 
to Newman, with his simple loyalty to the Church and the Holy 
See, the existence of such a suspicion was torture; " any impeach- 
ment of his faith was to touch the apple of his eye." 

Looking back from the vantage-ground of " half-a-century 
afterwards," we are able to consider the " Oxford incident " upon 
its own merits, and to disentangle it from the many side issues 
which entered into the heated controversy of the time. Newman's 
orthodoxy was generously vindicated by Pope Leo XIIL when he 
bestowed upon the aged Oratorian the Cardinal's hat. The heart 
of Manning was revealed to the world in the last years of his 
episcopate, when he fearlessly championed the rights of the labor- 
ing class to a living wage and human existence. We know, too, 
that notwithstanding the efforts of his traducers to represent New- 
man as a dangerous liberal in matters of faith, Pope Pius IX. had 
a large trust in his sincerity and loyalty. It was not the Roman 
authorities who accused Newman, but the coterie of English ultra- 
montanes who were more Roman than the Romans themselves. 
And so far as the incident of the Oxford Oratory is concerned, 
it is now evident that the refusal of Rome to allow Newman to 
reside in Oxford was a matter of policy not directly concerned 
with Newman himself. The Roman authorities were opposed to 
any s^mction being given to the sending of Catholics to a non- 
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8o8 CATHOLICS AT OXFORD [Sept., 

Catholic university, on the ground that " mixed education " was a 
danger to the Faith. To allow Newman to reside in the proposed 
Oxford Oratory would mean (so it was argued) a virtual infringe- 
ment of that policy, since the presence there of the great Oratorian 
would inevitably induce Catholic parents to send their sons to the 
university. The refusal was an acknowledgment of the influence 
which Newman's personality had over the educated Catholic laity 
in England: allow Newman to reside in Oxford and he would, 
without any deliberate act of his own, draw Catholic youths to the 
university, and thus the policy of the Roman authorities in regard 
to higher education would be subverted. 

Newman himself was quite aware that this would probably 
be the case, though in loyalty to the Holy See, he had no intention 
of laying himself out to attract Catholics to Oxford. In principle, 
too, his own personal judgment was in accord with the Roman 
policy of an entirely Catholic education for Catholic youth. He 
had some years previously accepted the rectorship of the Catholic 
University in Dublin, with a view to establishing a university 
under Catholic control which would take the place of Oxford and 
Cambridge for the Catholics of the United Kingdom. But expe- 
rience had shown him that as far as English Catholics were con- 
cerned, such a scheme was futile. At the time of the Oxford 
Oratory incident, his own views on this matter were thus formu- 
lated in a memorandum sent to Father Ambrose St. John : " I have 
ever held, said and written that the normal and legitimate proceed- 
ing is to send youths to a Catholic university, that their religion, 
science and literature may go together. I have thought there were 
positive dangers to faith and morals in going to Oxford. But I 
have thought there were less and fewer dangers in an Oxford resi- 
dence to faith and morals than at Woolwich than at Sandhurst, 

or in London — and especially for this reason, that there is some 
really religious and moral superintendence at Oxford and none at 
Woolwich or in London. That the question then lies in a choice 
of difficulties, a Catholic university being impossible." He adds that 
things being as they are, the best way out of the difficulty would 
be " not to forbid Catholic youths going to Oxford, but to protect 
them by the presence of a strong Catholic mission, such as a com- 
munity of priests would secure." 

All that has happened since, has shown the wisdom of these 
conclusions: but in 1867 they were not accepted by the authorities; 
and Catholics in England were strongly at variance on the subject 

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1917] CATHOLICS AT OXFORD 809 

Many who desired a university education for Catholic youths still 
dreamed of a Catholic university; and only Cardinal Manning's 
abortive attempt to create such a university finally dispelled the 
dream. The truth of the situation was, and is, that the Catholics 
in England who have the means for utilizing a university and 
supporting it are too small a body. A magnified school is not a 
university, nor can it supply that peculiar quality of education 
which a true imiversity supplies. Moreover, Oxford and Cam- 
bridge with their historic traditions going back to the Middle 
Ages — the only universities in Europe of mediaeval foundation — 
and with their intimate connection with the national life of England, 
would inevitably overshadow any new creation, and draw to them- 
selves Catholic youths aspiring to take part in the national life of 
their country. As a matter of fact, notwithstanding the known 
attitude of the Holy See, Catholic youths were sent to Oxford, 
and even in Rome it was felt that a formal prohibition would put 
too great a burden on the conscience of English Catholics. Such 
a prohibition was never issued ; and the ultimate failure to provide 
a Catholic university eventually led to a change of policy on the 
part of the Holy See itself. In 1895, Leo XIII. formally permitted 
Catholic youths to go to Oxford and Cambridge, subject to such 
safeguards as Newman had thought to provide when he accepted 
the proposal to establish an Oratory at Oxford. The logic of 
events had proved the necessity for such a change of policy; but 
more than that, the change was due to a new temper of mind on 
the part of many English Catholics themselves, such as Cardinal 
Vaughan, who had hitherto been opposed to Newman's scheme. 
Newman himself had pointed out what he considered a fundamental 
weakness of the policy adopted by many Catholics — the tendency 
to withdraw themselves from the world about them, and to regard 
themselves as a sect instead of proclaiming their world-wide mis- 
sion, and going forth to conquer. That tendency was a relic of 
the penal days when Catholics felt themselves helpless, and were 
driven to seclude themselves from public view. But Newman felt 
strongly that the penal days were past, and that Catholics had but 
to come forth and assert themselves in the common life of the 
nation to gain the respect of their countrymen and to bring Cathol- 
icism to bear upon the nation's life. Again, events had proved 
Newman to be a true prophet. The increasing activity of Catholics 
in political and social life; Cardinal Manning's own action in 
regard to the Dock Strike and the success which attended his 

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8io CATHOLICS AT OXFORD [Sept., 

action, had gradually brought home to the Catholic body at large 
a sense of solidarity with the nation and pointed the way in the 
direction of a new policy — the policy of cooperation with all that 
makes for moral and spiritual betterment in the life of the country. 
Gradually it came to be recognized that the Catholic Church in 
England would fulfill its divine mission not by a rigid segregation, 
but by cooperation and permeation; in the same way as the early 
Christian Church fulfilled its mission in the Roman Empire. So 
it came that Cardinal Vaughan, who -had opposed Newman in 
1867, years later obtained from Leo XIII. a liberty which more 
than fulfilled Newman's own desire. For Leo XIII. not merely 
gave leave to Catholics to attend the university; he gave to the 
Catholic undergraduates a definite ecclesiastical status in deter- 
mining that their religious interests should be in the care of a 
board of bishops and laity especially created for that purpose ; their 
duties to include the appointment of a chaplain and the provision 
of specially selected priests to give the weekly spiritual conference 
during term. 

From that time the number of Catholic undergraduates at 
Oxford gradually increased: in 191 4 there were over one hundred 
lay Catholic undergraduates and about twenty-four undergraduate 
members of religious orders; whilst the Catholic women-students 
numbered about twenty-five. Relatively to the three thousand and 
more undergraduates in the university and the four hundred 
women-students, Catholics were still but a small body; but in 1914 
there was an assured promise that the number would steadily in- 
crease. The Catholic higher schools and colleges had begun to 
link up their teaching with that of the universities, as is the case 
with the non-Catholic public schools; the Jesuit and Benedictine 
colleges and the Oratory School in Birmingham were already recog- 
nized " feeders " of the national universities. The War has for 
the time being set back the steady increase in numbers ; but there 
is every hope that with the return of normal conditions the Catholic 
schools will be even more strongly represented in the university than 
heretofore. 

One immediate result of Leo XIII.'s action was the establish- 
ment of a Jesuit house of studies at Oxford in connection with 
the university, and the Jesuit initiative was shortly followed by 
the Benedictines of Ampleforth Abbey. In 191 1 the Capuchin 
Franciscans opened a similar house of studies, and later, a sec- 
ular-clergy house for students of the diocese of Birmingham was 

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1917.] CATHOLICS AT OXFORD 811 

established. In 1907 the Sisters of the Holy Child had opened a 
hostel under the Society of Oxford Home Students. Thus besides 
the Catholic chaplaincy there are at Oxford five religious and 
clerical houses directly associated with the university. Surely 
Newman would have rejoiced in spirit could he have foreseen this 
fulfillment of his dream. 

So things stood when the War broke upon us, and for a time 
brought academic activity to a comparative standstill. Of the 
Catholic undergraduates who went down for the summer vacation 
in 19 14 only a handful returned at the ensuing Michaelmas term: 
most of them had at once answered the call of their country, and 
had either joined the army or undertaken some form of war serv- 
ice. Hardly had the new term begun, when the first Requiem 
for our dead was sung in the undergraduates' chapel; since then 
many have fotmd their graves on the battlefield. When Oxford 
resumes its normal life it will be a new Oxford, so far as the 
undergraduates are concerned. 

But should any of the past Catholic undergraduates be spared 
to revisit the university when the War is over, they will find a new 
development in the Catholic life of academic Oxford. Before the 
War the Catholic chaplaincy and the Newman society were the 
two centres of Catholic life. At the chaplaincy the undergraduates 
met to fulfill their religious duties. There was the daily Mass and 
the Sunday conference; the chaplains' "at home" on Sunday 
afternoons, followed by Benediction in the chapel. Quietly and 
unostentatiously the chaplaincy has been as it was meant to be, 
the centre of Catholic life in the university, and few are the under- 
graduates who do not carry away with them, when their academic 
course is finished, a grateful memory of the chaplain who has 
been their friend as well as their spiritual g^ide. Catholic Oxford 
was fortunate in its first chaplain, a priest in whose refined and 
sympathetic presence the best traditions of Oxford social life and 
of the priestly office were combined. The undergraduates in their 
reserved youthful way were proud of Monsignor Kennaird and 
affectionately attached to him. When he retired in 19 12, the chap- 
laincy had established itself firmly in the reverence and esteem of 
the Catholic youth in the university — no small achievement as the 
instructors of youth know well. 

Then, too, there was the Newman society— an academic de- 
bating society which met every fortnight during term, and was run 
by the Catholic undergraduates themselves. The handful of under- 
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8i2 CATHOLICS AT OXFORD [Sept, 

graduates, about thirty in number, including the members of the 
religious orders, who represent Catholic youth in the war condition 
of the university, still keep the society in existence, holding it in 
trust until normal life is restored. 

We come now to the new devdopment which has just been 
mentioned. When, in 1895, the Holy See formally allowed Catho- 
lic youths to attend the university a condition was made that 
Catholic instruction should be provided to guard against any dan- 
gers to the Faith which might be met with in a non-Catholic uni- 
versity where every shade of religious opinion finds expression. 
The danger was, and is, a real one. Not that any attempt on the 
part of lecturers or tutors to subvert the Faith of a Catholic stu- 
dent would be tolerated by the academic authorities, but simply be- 
cause of the freedom of thought which is found in academic life, 
and finds utterance there ? At Oxford this freedom of thought, as 
it is encouraged by the university, is in no sense anti-Catholic: 
a Catholic is as much at liberty to express and uphold Catholic 
views as is anyone else, and he will receive the same sympathetic 
hearing as anyone else, provided that he can express himself intel- 
ligently. Oxford is preeminently a nursery of ideas and intelligent 
thinking, rather than of systems, and it welcomes any intelligent 
expression of an idea. The danger to an uninstructed Catholic 
youth is manifest; yet in practice the danger is minimized by that 
respect for religious convictions which goes with this freedom of 
thought; and further, by the peculiar mentality of the average 
Oxford undergraduate, which inclines him to hold his own opinions 
against lecturer or tutor until he is convinced of the reasonableness 
of opinions he is asked to accept. The danger is thus minimized, 
but still it exists. 

To meet this danger there has hitherto been the weekly spirit- 
ual conference during term provided by the chaplain. The weekly 
conference, however, has never been considered adequate. Some- 
thing more, it was felt, was needed to meet the intellectual diffi- 
culties which a student must inevitably be conscious of from time 
to time as he pursues his studies, whether in philosophy, history or 
literature. It was proposed by the Holy See a few years since, that 
lectures dealing with such difficulties and giving the Catholic point 
of view should be provided, but until now circumstances prevented 
any attempt to carry out this larger scheme of instruction. The 
attempt, however, is at last being made, with every hope of a suc- 
cessful issue, by the combined efforts of the religious houses and 

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1917.] CATHOLICS AT OXFORD 813 

the secular clergy house. An accident, one might say, deter- 
mined the heads of these houses to seize the present moment to 
inaugurate a scheme of Catholic lectures such ^s was desired. The 
upper rooms of a building known as " The Octagon," admirably 
suited for the purpose, fell vacant in the autumn of 1916; it was 
decided that these rooms should be taken as a common lecture-hall, 
and that the heads of the Catholic houses should form a board to 
carry out the scheme. The building itself was conveniently situated 
in the heart of the city, and its Catholic associations gave it a claim 
upon Catholic sentiment. For in pre-Reformation days it had 
been a chapel, and a mediaeval sculpture of the Annunciation still 
graces the doorway. Further, circumstances had brought together 
a small number of Catholic lecturers who might be depended upon 
to secure a continuance of the lectures with occasional assistance 
from outside the city. The scheme was inaugurated before the 
end of the Michaelmas term, and has been further developed 
during the two following terms. Two classes of lectures are con- 
templated: courses of lectures for university students only which 
will have reference to the special subjects included in the university 
course; and occasional lectures which will deal with topics of the 
day, and are open to others as well as students. Thus in the 
Hilary term of this year a course of lectures for students was 
given on English mediaeval literature; and in the summer term 
a course on the idea of the state in Christian thought. Other lec- 
tures included such subjects as Theosophy and Christian Science, 
International Law and Cardinal Newman's Apologetics, The pro- 
posed scheme for the next winter takes in a course of lectures on 
Catholic Christology and another course on modem literature. 
Other lectures will deal with certain Scriptural problems and the 
origins of the Benedictine Order. It is indeed but a small begin- 
ning, but the attendances at the lectures, considering the depleted 
condition of the university, has been so far encouraging. Though 
primarily intended for Catholics, a few non-Catholics have been 
present at most of the lectures; and doubtless as it becomes gener- 
ally realized that the lectures are in no sense controversial, but 
simply an exposition of Catholic thought, the numbers of non- 
Catholics will increase : and in time the " Octagon " lectures may 
find their place side by side with the lectures of non-Catholic insti- 
tutions such as Manchester and Mansfield Colleges, which though 
not officially recognized by the university, are yet welcomed as a 
genuine contribution to the intellectual life of Oxford. 

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8i4 CATHOLICS AT OXFORD [Sept., 

The very freedom of thought which is characteristic of Ox- 
ford's academic life is a guarantee that Catholic lectures, which 
aim at elucidating the Catholic mind and Catholic teaching, will be 
welcomed and accepted at their real value. And though this free- 
dom of thought may constitute a danger to the Faith of the unin- 
structed Catholic, it yet gives a liberty to the Catholic body which 
if taken advantage of, will neutralize that danger and make it pos- 
sible for Catholicism to obtain a fair hearing even amongst non- 
Catholics. 

But the '* Octagon " scheme includes not only lectures, but the 
formation of a reference library of books which deal fairly with 
the Catholic point of view, so that the students attending the 
lectures may be enabled to pursue still further their study of " the 
Catholic point of view." Consequently the " Octagon " rooms are 
being fitted out as a library, and an endeavor is being made towards 
collecting books which will be really helpful to the students, and as 
the scheme becomes known, Catholics who are interested in Oxford 
will doubtless contribute to make the library worthy of a place in 
the life of the university. 

The question may be asked : why start such a new scheme in 
the midst of the hurly-burly of a war which has reduced the 
academic body to a mere shadow of its normal self ? The answer 
is obvious. The opportunity presented itself, and opportunities 
neglected, frequently are lost and are not easily regained. More- 
over, there is this further reason for beginning now what will 
be urgently needed after the War. When Oxford resumes its 
normal life, the " Octagon " lectures will be, we trust, an established 
thing, ready to take their part in the renewed activity of academic 
life. If Oxford is willing now to give a fair hearing to the 
Catholic point of view, it will be still more willing when men come 
to reconsider the past in the light of the catastrophic upheaval of 
the War. 

There can hardly be a doubt that this new development in 
the Catholic life of Oxford, would have given satisfaction to the 
great Cardinal whose name is indissolubly linked with the uni- 
versity in which the great part of his life work was accomplished. 
And, moreover, there can be hardly a doubt that it has come about 
under circumstances far more favorable than existed fifty years 
ago. Five years after the quashing of the Oxford Oratory scheme, 
Newman wrote deprecating the jidea of a. Catholic college at 
Oxford on the ground that " it would be challenging controversy," 

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1917.] THE MIRROR 815 

and would lead to "a mortal fight between Protestant professors 

and tutors and a Catholic college." The decree of Papal Infallibility 
had indeed aroused Protestant prejudice and opposition to the 
Church, and the controversies resulting from individual interpre- 
tations of the decree had accentuated the dissensions which divided 
the English Catholics at that period. Manifestly the time had not 
arrived when Catholic teaching could be put forth dispassionately 
and uncontroversially, as it must be if it is to gain intellectual 
assent or a fair hearing upon its own merits; remembering this, 
we may see in the failure of the Oxford Oratory scheme a dis- 
position of Divine Providence. Newman himself saw in the re- 
fusal of Rome to allow him to reside in Oxford an indication 
of God's will, and in that attitude of mind accepted the decision. 
Even he himself had not then been forgiven by the university he 
loved so well. Today his memory is revered. Trinity College, of 
which he was an honorary Fellow, publicly professes its pride in 
him, as anyone may see who saunters through the college garden. 



THE MIRROR. 

BY BLANCHE M. KELLY. 

Lord, make my soul 

To mirror Thee, 
Thyself alone 

To shine in me ; 
That men may see 

Thy love. Thy grace. 
Nor note the glass 

That shows Thy face. 



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THE RIVERS AND HARBORS BILL. 

BY M. R. RYAN. 

I O follow the debate on the Rivers and Harbors Bill in 
the House of Representatives is to realize that our 
legislators are prone to thrill to the adage that there 
is no place like home. With earnest fervor, pane- 
gyrics were pronounced on various portions of our 
land, from as far north as Alaska, with its Yukon, one of the 
" noble rivers " of the universe, to Mississippi's Tombigbee, " with- 
out which the Gulf of Mexico would go dry,'* and from Casco Bay, 
"the most beautiful harbor in the United States" on the Atlantic 
Coast, to Richmond, with the "largest winery in the world" on 
the Pacific. Here is affectionate admiration evidenced; and no 
doubt sentiments resembling the above are to be found in the hearts 
of all our representatives in Washington. This is as it should be. 
And it is only when Congressional love seeks to supply the homeland 
with quite unnecessary " bacon " that commendation must shift to 
condemnation. 

It has been charged that the Rivers and Harbors Bill recently 
passed in the House is a " pork " bill. In fact, seven members of 
the Rivers and Harbors Committee asserted in a minority report 
on the bill that it was " only the continuation of efforts to secure 
river and harbor legislation, portions of which invariably bear the 
justifiable designation of pork." To their belief the public in gen- 
eral seems to have subscribed. It certainly is not a popular measure 
at this writing. 

The annual Rivers and Harbors Bill came into existence years 
ago when the Republican Party was at the height of its power. 
There was then a great surplus of money in the Treasury; and it 
was proposed that with this money the waterways of the country 
should be developed. Now there is no gainsaying that some excel- 
lent results were achieved upon the undertaking of this task. How- 
ever, it is equally true that many absurd and chimerical schemes 
were carried out with a big loss to the Government that financed 
them. 

The deplorable failings of the Republicans in regard to ob- 
noxious waterway projects were, of course, criticized by their ^ 

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1917] THE RIVERS AND HARBORS BILL 817 

Democratic brothers. Yet when the wheel of fortune put the latter 
in command at the Capitol, rivers and harbors bills did not fade 
from the legislative programmes. However, out of the last four 
bills of this nature, three were defeated; and that one of 1916, 
which received the Presidential signature, won its way through the 
Senate by only one vote. 

For 191 7, the Democratic caucus decided to omit the pork- 
barrel bill from its plans. Nevertheless it was dragged into this 
special session of Congress. When the session was convened the 
understanding was that war emergencies, national defence and 
military preparedness alone were to be considered. So the Rivers 
and Harbors Bill entered Congress under the guise of a war meas- 
ure. Indeed the Chairman of the Rivers and Harbors Committee 
stated : " Every appropriation in the bill constitutes an emergency 
either for commerce or national defence, and I wish to state that 
there is no item of appropriation in this bill, either for maintenance 
or improvement, which was not specifically recommended by the 
Secretary of War." 

But now observe the minority report of the Committee. " The 
minority are convinced that the only items that can be justified at 
this time are of two classes. First, items of maintenance for meri- 
torious projects that would retain the present channel depths or are 
of such commercial importance as to require continual attention. 
Second, such harbor improvements as are of value and importance 
in the general plan of better preparedness, considering both the 
commericial requirements and naval needs. Unless the bill is ma- 
terially amended along the lines suggested in this report, the 
minority of the Committee believe that no rivers and harbors legis- 
lation should be passed in this critical time of our national life." 

The two opinions widely diverge. 

In all probability there is no level-headed person in the United 
States who is antagonistic to the development of our important 
harbors and waterways. The natural paths of trade, rightly im- 
proved, may, other things being equal (which they are not usually), 
serve shippers of certain freights. There are those, too, who sin- 
cerely urge the development of smaller streams as an aid to com- 
merce. And it might be argued, experimentation along such a line 
is permissible to a moderate degree, provided the Treasury can 
stand it. 

But this question is before the country today: Is Congress 
justified in taxing us twenty-seven million dollars for unnecessary 

VOL. CV.-52 [3,gi^i^3^ by vj^^wgle 



8i8 THE RIVERS AND HARBORS BILL [Sept., 

work on our big rivers and harbors, for unnecessary experimenta- 
tion on our lesser streams? 

The people of the country, rich and poor alike, have been ex- 
horted to purchase Liberty Bonds. The appeal was not made in 
vain ; the bond issue was over-subscribed. Now a two billion dol- 
lar tax is confronting us, that our stupendous financial needs may 
be guarded. Yet in the face of the apparently embarrassed situa- 
tion of the Government, which is indicated in the case of the army 
exemption boards that are operating on the currency of the members 
of the same, a majority of the House, including Republicans and 
Democrats, have expressed their willingness to obligate the people 
to an extent of twenty-seven millions for rivers and harbors work. 

"After all our searching and hunting " (on the Committee of 
Ways and Means), " we were unable to find anything that did not 
surpass either in degree or in form taxes which were proper in 
times of peace, and we were obliged in some measure to levy taxes 
which necessarily inflict hardship on those who have to pay them," 
said Mr. Green of Iowa to his colleagues in the House. War, how- 
ever, is a period of sacrifice. Heavy levies upon the individual must 
be, and are, met with equanimity. And it is only when some of 
the moneys so raised are frittered away upon far-fetched or non- 
essential projects that protest bursts forth. 

That several of the items of the Rivers and Harbors Bill do 
not fall in the classes just mentioned must be conceded. For in- 
stance, the deepening of the East River in New York at Diamond 
Reef to forty feet is a vital necessity. At present the depth there 
is not sufficient for the larger of our naval vessels to gain access to 
the Brooklyn Navy Yard at low tide. Mr. LaGuardia of New Yoric 
put the situation concisely when he declared that should our warships 
in the yard be summoned for sudden duty, they would have to 
" flash out the signal : 'We cannot come out now ; wait for eight 
hours until high tide.' " Then, the work recommended for Nor- 
folk Harbor is meritorious, inasmuch as it has to do with naval 
conditions there. Dredging Portland harbor in Maine appears to 
be a worthy enterprise at this time, too, not only from a ccrni- 
mercial standpoint, but also because it could be utilized by the army 
transports of our Canadian ally. These and other projects un- 
doubtedly deserve consideration. .And with an appropriation of 
six or seven millions and the balance of thirty-two millions from 
previous appropriations on hand, our rivers and harbors work could 
proceed satisfactorily. 

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1917.] THE RIVERS AND HARBORS BILL 819 

But the Bill incorporates, for example, an expenditure of seven 
millions for three rivers — ^the upper Mississippi, the Missouri and 
the Ohio. Perhaps there is a military necessity for pending this 
amount, but it is not very evident. Of this sum one million two 
hundred thousand dollars is to be dumped into the upper Missis- 
sippi. Now, a short while ago, General Black of the Engineer Corps 
asserted that as far as improvement goes the Mississippi surpasses 
the Rhine, about which there is so much laudatory comment. On the 
two hundred mile stretch between St. Louis and the mouth of the 
Ohio an outlay of about eighteen million dollars has been made. 
Yet J. H. Bernhard, an optimistic boat builder, was responsible for 
the statement (in 1915) that the Mississippi from St. Louis to its 
mouth, though possessing the best channel in the world, is com- 
paratively empty of commerce. No doubt this emptiness may be 
accounted for on the grounds of rate discriminations against the 
waterways by the railroads and poor wharf facilities. If this be the 
case, however, would it not seem sensible, before sinking another 
million and a quarter into the upper Mississippi, to regulate the rail- 
roads, and to supply, by some manner of means, the necessities of 
trade in the lower river? 

During the course of the debate on the Bill, Mr. Madden of 
Ilh'nois suggested a plan that deserves more than a passing thought. 
He urged that one important channel be selected by the Government 
and completely improved ; in the event of this channel being popu- 
larized for trade, the same plan could then be pursued elsewhere. 
This idea has merit and sound reasoning behind it, to say the least 
for it. 

Some projects numbered in the House Bill present very 
amusing features. For Cold Spring and Absecon Inlets, Absecon 
and Tuckerton Creeks, and Toms River, N. J., thirty-five thousand 
dollars is apportioned for maintenance. Now, in 1915, no commer- 
cial report was issued for Cold Spring Inlet for the good and suffi- 
cient reason that the commerce there was negligible. Previous to 
the present date we have appropriated nine hundred thousand dol- 
lars for this inlet. In view of the fact that this item comes under 
the head of war emergencies, note this portion of a 1916 report of 
an army engineer on the question of improvement work : " It will 
increase the attractive features of Cape May to visitors" 
and " also permit the resimiption of yacht races." Also, an earlier 
report on Toms River disclosed the fact that the stream is on 
one of the principal automobile routes and that "dredging it to 

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820 THE RIVERS AND HARBORS BILL [Sept, 

a suitable depth would increase the traffic, owing to the ease with 
which owners could communicate with the yachts at this point." 

Four hundred and fifty-five thousand dollars is set aside, with 
an annual allowance of one hundred thousand dollars hereafter, for 
the Brazos River and vicinity, up to Freeport, Texas. A few years 
ago. General Black stated that the plan was "in a sense, experimental." 
The appropriation for the Congaree River was raised from thirty 
thousand dollars to eighty thousand, and this is a stream that boasts 
one stem- wheel boat! One is reminded here of some comments on 
the Bill in general by Mr. Howard of Maryland. " Should we 2^ 
propriate money to improve rivers and harbors that a 'high- 
land' terrapin would die of thirst in ? I know all about some of 

these creeks. I have fished in some of them, and if the Secretary 
of War recommends these projects as war emergency propositions, 
all I have to say is that some member of the House has perpetrated 
a great joke on him." Two thundred thousand dollars was appro- 
priated for surveys which Colonel Newcomer asserted were not par- 
ticularly important at this moment. Five thousand dollars were 
fixed as the proper sum with which to institute condemnation pro- 
ceedings on the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. 

An extremely interesting fact was also brought out in debate 
by Mr. Lenroot of Wisconsin. It appears that while the Bill was 
being drafted in Committee, an item of nearly a million dollars for 
improvements at the mouth of the Columbia River, Oregon, was in- 
serted in it. Before the Bill was quite completed, however, it was 
discovered that a report on improvements absolutely necessary for 
our navy, made by a special board, had been neglected, save for the 
East River item. These improvements would require about a 
million dollars. Now it is supposed that the Committee desired 
to keep the appropriations within a certain sum. At any rate, 
a telegram presently arrived from the district engineer on the Co- 
lumbia with the cheering information that the work there should 
be suspended on account of the cost involved, the jetty having been 
brought up to a fair grade, anyway. At once, on the advice of a 
subordinate officer, the Columbia item was struck out. The incident 
leads one to ponder! 

Now, there were many members in Congress who realized that 
a defeat of the Bill would prove disastrous for the items of worth 
incorporated in it. To save these items, Mr. Parker of New Jersey, 
offered an amendment, which was further amended by Mr. Tread- 
way of Massachusetts. The latter amendment is quoted : " That 

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1917.] THE RIVERS AND HARBORS BILL 821 

no money shall be expended for the items of maintenance in this 
act until and unless the items are certified to by the President of the 
United States as necessary, in his judgment, for the commercial 
needs of the country or for the successful prosecution of the present 
war: And provided further, that no money shall be expended for 
the items of new projects, surveys, or for continuing improvements 
until and unless the items are certified to by the President of the 
United States as necessary, in his judgment, for the successful prose- 
cution of the present war." 

It will be noted that this does not give the President any more 
power. But " it limits the possibility of extravag^ant expenditure 
of public money." 

The two amendments were decidedly opposed. And the Bill, 
lacking them, passed the House by a vote of two htmdred and four 
to a hundred and thirty-two. 

Immediately announcement was made to the Senate and con- 
currence of that body to the Bill was asked. Whether it will ever 
be reported out from the Upper House remains to be seen. It is 
to be hoped that there it will die the death it deserves. Omnibus 
legislation, as exhibited in the Rivers and Harbors Bill, is all 
wrong; and this is no time to tolerate it. 



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flew Books^ 

POEMS OF CHARLES WARREN STODDARD. Collected by Ina 

Coolbrith. New York : John Lane Co. $1.25 net. 

Forty years ago William Deaii Howells said of Charles Warren 
Stoddard's prose writings that they had in them " the very makq 
of the tropic spray, which knows not if it be sea or sun." The 
same elusive charm, at once refreshing and languishing, opulently 
rich and inexpressibly delicate, characterizes Stoddard's poetry, 
now published after his death. In his lifetime, as Miss Coolbrith, 
the collector of his poetical writings, tells us, Stoddard published 
but one book of verse, and that when he was but a mere lad. The 
remainder of his literary life was devoted to prose writing — ^though 
no one at all familiar with his work need be told at this late day 
how infused and palpitant with the very essence of poetry were his 
prose productions. They were, in fact, poems in prose, and all the 
more delightful because lit with a flashing and iridescent humor. 

Stoddard was one of the great " intimate " writers of his 
time : once, when asked why he did not prepare an autobiography, 
he laughingly replied that it was not necessary — ^that his books as 
they already stood were " Stoddard stark naked !" Here in these 
poems, however, we catch glimpses of the inner man even more re- 
vealing than any given in his other books: we see him here, not 
alone baring his soul to his brothers whom he loved, but secretly 
communing with hfmself sadly and wisely, as is the wont of poets. 

Stoddard was called " the poet of the South Seas," and in this 
volimie we hear him singing rapturously of those " islands of tran- 
quil delight " which he so loved. In Otaheite he celebrates in sonnet 
form — ^a form to which his ample spirit was not over partial — ^that 
whole lovely hidden comer of the world in which he found so much 
happiness. So also in The Cocoa Tree he sings of the languorous 
South. This is Stoddard at his best. 

But Stoddard is not all South Sea languors. In The Bells of 
San Gabriel, Litany of the Shrines, and Old Monterey we have the 
spirit of California revealed; and here the poet is happy indeed, 
stirred with the beauty of the land and touched to the soul by the 
noble story of the Old Missions and the tragedy of their passing. 
In these poems, too, he shows himself a consummate master of j 

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1917.] NEW BOOKS 823 

lyric verse writing. There is nothing in Swinburne better for the 
sheer music and swing of words. 

Nor is all of Stoddard's poetry gentle and dreamy. Hidden 
strengths appear in such a little masterpiece, for instance, as Alba^ 
tross. One Life is not only one of the best things in the book, but is 
likewise a curiously remarkable production — a poem in English with- 
out a single sibilant in it. We have never come across such an 
achievement in the language before. Stoddard's gift of imagery is 
brought out especially in Sanctuary; here he sees the things of na- 
ture with the eye of the soul, drawing on the rich symbolism of the 
altar to picture the beauties of earth about him. 

Until we are given a complete and definitive collection of 
Stoddard's poetical writings (which we hope Miss Coolbrith will 
some day be enabled to publish) this beautiful little book, illus- 
trated with a fine engraving of the beloved and lamented author, 
will fill a want in the hearts of his many admirers. The work is 
published as a memorial by Stoddard's friend, Mrs. Morton Mit- 
chell, who thus makes the literary world her heavy debtor, and it 
opens with some notable tributes in verse from the pens of Joaquin 
Miller, George Sterling, Thomas Walsh (the editor), and Ina 
Coolbrith, whose loving labor has made the work a possibility. 

THE CELT AND THE WORLD. By Shane Leslie. New York: 

Charles Scribner's. Sons. $1.25 net. 

In this study of the relation of Celt and Teuton in history, Mr. 
Leslie has woven some of the facts of history and the ideals of 
men into an interesting volume. For the most part it is not a primer 
in the chronicle of Celtic achievement nor a first book in the record 
of Teutonic conquest, but pre-supposes a " well-read " reader and 
a receptive mind. It begins, however, at the beginning, and tells 
the story of the Aryan dispersion over Europe, and the various 
manifestations of religious feeling in that long ago, vaguely out- 
lined people. Then the book views broadly the European camping 
ground of this westward-looking throng, the appearance of tribes 
and nations, and the results that came when one group met another 
in battle or in friendly communion. The Celtic accomplishment in 
Europe and elsewhere as distinguished from the work of the North- 
men is the general thesis of the rest of the book, and this long 
story displays the quest of the Celt after the infinite and of the 
Teuton after the absolute. The Celt fought in every battle in the 
world, but only in the things of the spirit did he win the lion's share; 

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824 NEIV BOOKS [Sept., 

the Teuton, as represented by England and Germany, has become 
the overlord of the things of earth. The conversion of the Celt and 
his missionary spirit in spreading the tidings of great joy, make an 
absorbing chapter. Celt that he is, Mr. Leslie does not fail to record 
Herr Zimmer's praise of the Irish monks in Switzerland and Ger- 
many in the long ago. To many the sketch of Irish history will 
be the most interesting thing in the book; and the praise heaped 
upon the Celtic hero, Daniel O'Connell, will find few critics. Mr. 
Leslie surely knows his subject; probably he, best of all, can answer 
the question he puts to the world: "Who can tell the Irish heart?" 

BRAZIL, TODAY AND TOMORROW. By L. E. Elliott. New 

York: The Macmillan Co. $2.25. 

Mr. Elliott, the literary editor of The Pan-American Magazine, 
has written a most complete account of conditions in present-day 
Brazil. After a brief sketch of the history of Brazil, he treats of 
its colonization, its social conditions, its industries, its finance, its 
commerce, its railways, roads and shipping. The book is remark- 
able for its fairness and kindly tone, and should do a great deal 
towards fostering interest in our Southern neighbors. The author 
praises the men of Brazil for their energy, courtesy and sobriety, 
and the women for their charm, their purity, and their love of 
home and children. 

He reminds Americans of their neglect in the purchase of South 
American raw materials, such as hides, coffee, rubber, fibres and 
ivory nuts, declaring : " That it would not matter very much to the 
United States if she did not sell anything to Brazil." He thinks it 
most important for accurate information regarding Brazil to appear 
in our American papers, and for a special news service to keep Bra- 
zilian papers informed of important happenings in North America. 
As it is, the latter hardly ever mention the United States unless to 
record the sayings and doings of some distinguished Brazilian in 
New York or Chicago. 

A MEMORIAL OF ANDREW J. SHIPMAN. His Life and Writ- 
ings. Edited by Conde B. Fallen. New York : The Encyclo- 
pedia Press. $2.00. 

In a brief biographical sketch, Conde Fallen gives an interest- 
ing picture of the late Andrew J. Shipman. He was an able Cath- 
olic ecclesiastical lawyer, an energetic director of the com- 
pany which published The Catholic Encyclopedia, and a member of 

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1917] NEW BOOKS 825 

the Board of Regents of the New York State University. Mr. Ship- 
man was chiefly remarkable for his knowledge and love of the Slavic 
peoples in the United States. His interest in them began when he 
was assistant manager of the coal mines of W. P. Rend and Co. in 
Hocking Valley, Ohio, in 1881. He studied their languages, 
their rites, and their history at first-hand. He came into intimate 
touch with their clergy, here and abroad, and took up their cause 
effectively with the bishops of the United States. 

The more than thirty articles and addresses in the volume deal 
principally with the Slavs in America, whose cause he so ably de- 
fended, and whose rites and peculiar customs he did so much to 
make known. Readers of The Catholic World will remember how 
ably and how thoroughly he refuted the inaccurate and false state- 
ments of the English critic, Mr. Archer, who out of prejudice 
warmly espoused the cause of the anarchist Ferrer. Mr. Shipman 
visited Barcelona to get his facts at first-hand. He visited the 
scenes of riot in the city, interviewed the participators, witnesses 
and officials, looked up and copied records and affidavits, and read 
up the Spanish law, both civil and military, on the case. The bril- 
liant writer of McClure's, indifferent to facts, was no match for the 
careful and painstaking student and defender of the Church. 

THE HANDLING OF HISTORICAL MATERIAL. By L. F. 

R. Williams. New York : Longmans, Green & Co. $1 .00 net. 

The object of this volume is to make the reader realize the 
nature of the special training of the modem historical student, and 
the reasons which make this training necessary. The first two lec- 
tures discuss in detail the classification of historical material. The 
third indicates the pitfalls in the path of the historian. The author 
discusses the difficulty of preserving the impartial attitude of mind, 
of separating the provinces of theory and fact, of obtaining adequate 
evidence, of weighing evidence when obtained, and of distinguishing 
between essential and non-essential elements. The fourth lecture 
treats the problem of personality in history. "Are we to say with 
Carlyle that the great man shapes his surroundings or with Buckle, 
that he is shaped by them?" Mr. Williams answers this question 
with the words: "it all depends." Historians writing at a time 
which favored the free development of individuality are inclined 
to consider the personal factor as predominant. On the other hand, 
if conditions are such that the individual experiences difficulty in 
asserting himself against the overwhelming force of convention and 

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826 NEW BOOKS [Sept., 

/ 

custom, there is a tendency to minimize the influence of personality 
upon the course of events. 

The author holds the Chair of Modem Indian History in Alla- 
habad University. 

THE SOUL OF ULSTER. By Ernest W. Hamilton. New York : 

E. P. Dutton & Co. $1.25 net. 

It is difficult for the American reader to read this book with 
patience or to give it serious consideration ; it is equally difficult to 
imagine such a work being accorded attention by the British reading 
public. Yet it is written avowedly to set English readers right con- 
cerning the problem it discusses, and its American publishers adver- 
tise it as a document of enlightenment on a much mooted question. 

Mr. Hamilton was, we are told, for seven years a member of 
Parliament from Ulster, and he assumes to speak authoritatively. 
Yet this very assumption is a contradiction, for it is based on the 
most partisan of grounds. The author is frankly British Protestant 
to the core; yet he proposes to reveal to us the " soul " of Ulster, 
forgetting his own acknowledgment that half of Ulster is Irish and 
Catholic. 

Of that Irish and Catholic half of Ulster, Mr. Hamilton knows 
nothing — or at best, only the worst! Prejudice and bigotry speak 
from his every page. How then can he presume to reveal the "soul" 
of Ulster ? He cannot do it. And since his whole thesis is grounded 
on an assumed knowledge of " the inside " — which, on the face of 
it he does not possess — ^his argument falls to the ground. 

That is, if what he writes could be called an argument. But 
that is stretching things. His book is really a rehash of old-time 
calumnies with some absurd " conclusions " tacked on. The plan 
of his work is clear enough : he gives an historical survey of the 
conflict in Ireland between the natives and the usurpers ; and with 
this preliminary he shows how the foundations of the present 
trouble were laid. This is, of course, quite right: the trouble in 
Ulster today does unquestionably date back to other times. This is 
a fact almost too obvious to mention. But according to Mr. Ham- 
ilton, all the blame of those unhappy and bloody other times lies 
with the Irish. The bland ingenuousness with which this English- 
man recounts the story of Ireland's crimes and England's wrongs 
would make one smile, were not the story itself, in its truth, such a 
horribly tragic one. 

The book is full of absurdities and contradictions. It is only 

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1917] NEIV BOOKS 827 

by unconscious self-contradiction, in fact, that the author does oc- 
casionally light on the truth, as when he admits, by clear implication, 
the superiority of the Irish race over his own : " It will be generally 
admitted," we read, " that when an expanding race encroaches upon 
lands of weaker nationalities, and establishes itself in their midst, 
there is a tendency on the part of the invaded races to disappear. 
* In Ireland the reverse has been the case." Would he ac- 
knowledge why? In another chapter, apparently without weighing 
what his admission means, he acknowledges that the Protestants of 
Ulster are usurpers, and that the Irish have a grievance. 

But with such writers, today as of old, the unpardonable sin of 
the Irish is that they are Irish. Mr. Hamilton's solution of the 
Irish question is almost comical in its simplicity. Let the Irish 
cease to be Irish, and the problem will be solved. That is the gist 
of his book. He thinks that the Sinn Feiners will bring this about. 
Being, in his unbounded imagination, an anti-clerical party, the Sinn 
Feiners will intermarry with the Protestants, and in due time a race 
will be propagated in Ireland which will be neither Catholic nor 
Protestant, Irish nor English. Can absurdity go farther? 

The book has no further value except as another example of 
the wonderful stupidity of the Anglo-Saxon mind when confronting 
the Celtic temperament. 

LYLY'S EUPHUES. Edited by Morris W. CroU and Harry Clem- 
.ons. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. $2.25 net. 
Scholars will welcome this excellent edition of Lyly's Anatomy 
of Wit and Euphues and His England. The introduction on the 
sources of the Euphuistic rhetoric is written by Professor Croll of 
Princeton. He defines Euphuism as " a style characterized by the 
figures known in ancient and mediaeval rhetoric as schemes (sche- 
mata), and more specifically by the word-schemes, in contrast with 
those known as tropes; that is to say, in effect, by the figures of 
sound, or vocal ornament." It was a common form of style in the 
sixteenth century. Its origin is traced not to the classical orators, 
Cicero and Isocrates, not to the parallelism of the Psalms or the 
Prophets, not to the Fathers of the Church, but to the mediaeval 
Latin prose found in sermons, chronicles, lives of the saints and 
books of devotion. This is proved by citations from Bede's Sermon 
on the Annunciation, Felix' life of St. Guthlac, the thirteenth cen- 
tury chronicle of Jocelyn of Brakelond, and the Imitatio Christi. In- 
teresting chapters follow on the humanistic criticism of the schemata, ^ 

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828 NEfV BOOKS ' [Sept.. 

and their use in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Euphuism 
died out through the efforts of the Anti-Ciceronians, of whom 
Montaigne, Lipsius, Bacon and the Spanish prose-concettists were 
the chief exemplars. 

Copious literary and textual notes, a fair index and a good 
bibliography accompany this volume. 

SERMON NOTES BY THE LATE H0NSI6N0R ROBERT H. 
BENSON. New York: Longmans, Green & Co. $1.25 net 
Father Martindale has published the first volume of Mon- 
signor Benson's Sermon Notes, made while still an Anglican. In 
his preface the editor apologizes for their lack of literary finish, but 
reminds us that they are notes, not sermons. They are valuable as 
a spontaneous expression of Father Benson's personality, indicate 
his growth in the knowledge of Catholic doctrine, and if not strik- 
ingly original at least show the devotional bent of his mind from 
the beginning, The doctrinal errors are few — ^about ten in all — ^and 
they are carefully pointed out by the editor in his notes and in the 
appendix. 

THE SPELL OF SCOTLAND. By Keith Clark. Boston: The 

Page Co. $2.50 net. 

In these days, when the gates of the Old World are shut 
against him, the armchair traveler is at his best. He may hope some 
day to see the far lands he dreams of, praying the while that they 
be not utterly ruined and destroyed before he sets eyes on them ; 
but see them now he cannot except through the pages of his book. 
Some years ago The Page Company of Boston began the publi- 
cation of a series of volumes called "The Spell Series," descrip- 
tive of the various countries, and most especially of their soul 
and spirit — the spell they weave over the beholder. The latest 
of these books is from the pen of a writer who has already con- 
tributed to the series a volume devoted to Spain. But though Miss 
Clark succeeded admirably in The Spell of Spain, she could hardly 
have hoped to achieve there what she has in her second book. 
For she is Scotch of the Scotch herself, and here every page of her 
writing breathes an instinctive and inherent S)rmpathy and under- 
standing. To " see " Scotland through such eyes is indeed to feel 
its spell. 

To the Catholic reader Miss Clark's book cannot fail to recom- 
mend itself with a very special appeal. Catholics are either bored 

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1917] NEW BOOKS 829 

with dull bigotry or confronted with misrepresentation and false- 
hood in travel books describing those countries where the ancient 
Faith once was strong. But here they find a writer, although her- 
self not a Catholic, fair-minded and clear-headed enough to see 
things as they are, not as they have been writ down out of the days 
of bitter partisanship. With Miss Clark we can view the remains' 
of Scotland's lovely old churches and, alas, desolated altars with 
a sympathetic eye; she does not halt us in their shattered sanctu- 
aries to give us tirades on the blessings of the Reformation. She 
senses the lost beauty of those fanes, and her soul speaks out for 
their now desecrated holiness. Nor can one resist her whole-hearted, 
open sympathy with the lovely and unfortunate Mary, Queen of 
Scots. 

The publishers have clothed Miss Qark's book worthily. It is 
a handsome volimie, richly bound and boxed, and illustrated with 
innumerable fine photographs and historical prints, a map, and half 
a dozen colored plates that are -in themselves little masterpieces 
luminous with the lovely " Spell of Scotland." 

THOMAS HARDY. A Study of the Wessex Novels. By H. C. 

Duffin. New York: Longmans, Green & Co. $1.75 net. 

In a prefatory note, Mr. Herford of the University of Man- 
chester, in view of the well-known essays of Lionel Johnson and 
Lascelles Abercrombie, apologizes for another study on the novels 
of Thomas Hardy. But he is justified in recommending this new 
book, for Mr. Duffin has indeed " something fresh and stimulating " 
to say. Whether Hardy attracts or repels you, whether you agree 
with Mr. Duffin's critical estimates or not, we advise you to read 
these interesting pages. 

Hardy is praised for his mastery of character, especially for 
the power that makes vitally interesting the prosaic souls of milk- 
maids, stonemasons, shepherds and hay trussers. His plots are 
remarkable for their outstanding simplicity, their creative power, 
and their picturing of the soul's strife under the stress of divided 
affections. He is an ardent lover of nature, interpreting it and 
allegorizing it like an old-time Greek, while limning the beauties 
of his own beloved Wessex with wonderful faithfulness and skill. 

After discussing the art of Hardy, Mr. Duffin treats of his 
philosophy. His defence of Hardy does not ring true. Hardy 
declares more than once, and implies everywhere, that the rustic 
faith of England is essentially naturalistic, pagan, animal. He 

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830 NEW BOOKS [Sept., 

implies, at times, that this is the case also with the more cultured 
classes. His Christians, ministers or layfolk, are all veneer Chris- 
tians, forgetful of God in times of stress and trial. His doctrine 
of fatalism makes him necessarily hostile to religion: holding it 
to play a very small part in the lives of modem English men and 
women. 

His pessimism taints his portraits of women, just as his crude 
determinism makes their lust and crime inevitable. Mr. Dufiin is 
wrong in saying that Hardy's conception of human nature is not a 
low one. He sees it as dominantly pagan, ruled by passion and im- 
pulse; inevitably forced to sin by emotional or animal wants. To 
say that his understanding of women is "deep and absolute" is sheer 
nonsense, for he is incapable of drawing a pure woman. The woman 
who wrote in Barrie's copy of Tess: " How I hate Thomas Hardy," 
gave the true verdict. The immorality of certain scenes is not half 
so blameworthy as the theory that the law of chastity knows no 
other sanction than the conventions of society (Tess), nor can you 
condone the vice of adultery by calling it a weakness (Jude the 
Obscure). 

SA RDINI A IN ANCIENT TIMES. By E. S. Bouchier, M.A. 

New York: Longmans, Green & Co. $1.75 net. 

Mr. Bouchier has written an account of Sardinia from pre- 
historic times down to the days of Pope Gregory the Great. Al- 
though a small and very poor province of Rome, Sardinia merits 
our attention becausV of its primitive civilization, the architectural 
and artistic remains of which are numerous and varied; its old 
flourishing Phoenician colonies ; the culture and martial spirit of its 
freedom-loving inhabitants, and because of the proof it affords of 
the consolidating effects of Roman rule. 

In a dozen interesting chapters the author describes the chief 
cities of the country, its natural products and commerce, its archi- 
tecture and art, its religion, and its history. 

MATTHEW ARNOLD: HOW TO KNOW HIM. By Stuart P. 

Sherman. New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Co. $1.50 net. 

Professor Sherman of the University of Illinois in this brief 
sketch of the character and career of Matthew Arnold, gives an ex- 
cellent appreciation of his ability as poet and literary critic Al- 
though Arnold made an extraordinarily high claim in behalf of his 
own poems in a letter to his mother written in 1869, he is vastly in- 
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ferior to his great contemporaries, Tennyson, Browning, Rosetti, 
Morris and Swinburne. What Professor Sherman says of his 
Merope may be applied to most of his poetry : " It is the contrivance 
of an austere and intelligent artisanship without the warmth and 
vital rhythm of authentic creative impulse." As the critic in The 
Encyclopcedia Britannica well says : " In nobility of temper, in 
clearness of statement, and especially in descriptive power, he is be- 
yond praise. He lacks the one characteristic of the bom poet, the 
instinctive mastery of metrical effects." 

As a literary critic he was eminently judicial. The discrimina- 
tion of values is the final object of all his work. In discussing a prin- 
ciple, a poem or a writer, he ever speaks with a tone of finality and 
authority in accord with the classic spirit and tradition. He is 
also an impressionist like Lamb, Hazlitt and Hunt, and like them 
proves himself a critic of taste by his apt and well-chosen quotations. 

The relatively slight use he makes of the historical method is 
due to the fact that although a scholar of deep and varied culture, 
he had not the minute and exhaustive erudition required for its suc- 
cessful use. He shows very little acquaintance with the Elizabethan 
period, sweeps aside with a wave of the hand the great body of 
French romance poetry which he barely knew, and writes of Celtic 
literature without any acquaintance with Celtic works in the original. 
He states truly, however, the function of literary criticism : " To 

make the best ideas prevail; to know the best that is known 

and thought in the world, and by making this known to create a 
current of true and fresh ideas; to keep a man from self- 
satisfaction, which is retarding and vulgarizing, to lead him to- 
wards perfection, by making his mind dwell upon what is excellent 
in itself, and the absolute beauty and fitness of things." 

As inspector of schools for thirty-five years, Arnold did his 
utmost to raise the standards of English educational methods. Like 
all secularists he was a determined opponent of the religious schools, 
although he was right in insisting on state superyisioa over incom- 
petent teaching. He is to be praised for his strenuous defence for 
the study of the humanities against Spencer's utilitarian and ma- 
terialistic view of education. Gladstone well said that Matthew 
Arnold's books on religion presented Christianity in such a form as 
to be recognizable neither by friend nor foe. Without any theolog- 
ical learning whatever and without any grasp of Biblical criticism, he 
dogmatized on such abstruse problems as the existence of God, the 
idea of religion, miracles, the divinity of Christ, the teaching of St. 

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832 NEW BOOKS [Sept., 

Paul and the like. These volumes have done untold harm to the 
many who read him for his graceful style, and imbibed unconsciously 
the poison of his out-and-out rationalism. 

GOD THE INVISIBLE KING. By H. G. Wells. New York: 

The Macmillan Co. $1.25. 

Mr. Wells is seeking God insistently and he knows not where 
they have laid Him. He said through the lips of Mr. Britling: 
" Religion is the first thing and the last thing, and until a man has 
found God and been found by God he begins at no beginning, he 
works to no end." 

In his latest book Mr. Wells very frankly declares that he has 
no belief in any Christianity, though he is sympathetic with all 
sincere religious feeling. His subject-matter is modern, creedless 
religion as he sees it; a religion without a founder, sprung into 
being simultaneously and imperceptibly all over the world, among 
" English, Americans, Bengalis, Russians, French, people brought 
up in a Catholic atmosphere, Positivists, Baptists, Sikhs, Moham- 
medans." His faith he proceeds to define in several chapters: 
" The Cosmogony of Modem Religion ;" " Heresies, or the Things 
That God Is Not;" "The Likeness of God;" "The Religion of 
Atheists;" "The Invisible King;" "Modem Ideas of Sin and 
Damnation ;" " The Idea of a Church." It is not necessary to 
analyze his beliefs, if, indeed, his views can be called beliefs. His 
system, possessing " no church, no authorities, no teachers, no or- 
thodoxy," will be found a weak reed to lean upon amid the convul- 
sions of nations. The new orientation sheds no beam to guide ship- 
wrecked civilization to firm anchorage. When one has finished 
reading this vague philosophy, one wonders if this feeble attempt of 
the perplexed, harassed Wells may prove a stepping-stone to true re- 
ligion. 

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS IN POETRY, HISTORY AND 
ART. By Sara Agnes Ryan. Chicago : The Mayer & Miller 
Co. 

This is a most interesting sketch of Columbus, illustrated by 
many well-known poems relative to his life and work. The volume 
contains many photographs of the statues erected in his honor in 
Santo Domingo, Peru, W^hington, Boston, and mentions espe- 
cially as his living monument that most vigorous body of Catholic 
laymen in the United States, the Knights of Columbus. 

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THOMAS MAURICE MULRY. By Thomas F. Meehan. New 
York: The Encyclopedia Press. Boards, $1.00; cloth, $1.50. 
It is not easy to set forth the principles that should govern one 
in reviewing a book. If the reviewer stands in the relation of guide 
to prospective readers one might expect him to state the case fully 
for and against a volume at hand. One reviewer speaks of the work 
before us as " in every way a worthy tribute to that noble Catholic 
gentleman. Besides presenting in bold relief the universal high re- 
gard in which Mr. Mulry was held, it affords through his correspond- 
ence, intimate personal insight into the genuine character of the 
man." 

As a matter of fact the book is most unsatisfactory from every 
standpoint, if we are to consider it as a biography. It is practically 
a reproduction of the May, 1916, issue of the St. Vincent de Paul 
Quarterly. That memorial number of the Quarterly was fairly well 
distributed throughout the country within two months after Mr. 
Mulry died. It was not intended in any sense as an adequate pres- 
entation of Mr. Mulry's character and career. The author of this 
volume did not obtain and could not have obtained permission from 
the editors of the Quarterly to use that material as the basis of a bi- 
ography. In fairness to possible purchasers it should be known that 
the author of this work used none or practically none of the sources 
from which Mr. Mulry's biography must be drawn. Mr. Mulry was 
worthy of a great biography. The American Church has need of it. 
American Catholic Charities have need of it. This work on Mr. 
Mulry falls short at every point. In addition to the contents as de- 
scribed, the volume contains a few of Mr. Mulry's addresses which 
are, of course, interesting and authoritative. 

THE UPBRINGING OF DAUGHTERS. By Catherine Burning 
Whetham. New York: Longmans, Green & Co. $1.75 net. 
In a brief preface, the author says, in effect, that she has 
but restated some old truths and commonplaces that are apt to be 
overlooked in times of stress and strain. She exploits no personal 
theory of social reform and makes no contribution to the contro- 
versial literature of sex. There is, indeed, so little specialization 
along the lines suggested by the title, and the outlook is so compre- 
hensive, that the book has a general interest as an elaborate study of 
certain principles for the conduct of life which, though widely dis- 
avowed at present, are corroborated by tradition and experience. In 
consideration of the various themes correlated to the main subject, 



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834 NEW BOOKS [Sept., 

there is no attempt to turn back the hands of the clock, but the pos- 
sibility is shown of establishing relations with the wisdom of earlier 
periods by a reasonable process of adaptation. Concerning educa- 
tion she would, no doubt, be classed by many as a hopeless reaction- 
ary. But Mrs. Whetham's restatements are of the kind that make 
old things new. Her cultured perceptions realize the vast extent of 
the ground her subject covers; she traverses it searchingly, with 
keenest insight, and presents her collected gleanings with the addi- 
tion of much that is fresh and original, expressed gracefully and 
touched now and then with a quiet, natural humor. Thus, though 
the book is close, earnest reading, it is neither heavy nor pedagogic; 
it appeals to all who take interest in intelligent defence of the stand- 
ards by which alone any true progress has been or ever can be made. 

SOME RUSSIAN HEROES, SAINTS AND SINNERS. By Sonia 
E. Howe. Philadelphia : J. B. Lippincott Co. $2.50 net. 
Saints, sinners and heroes are the three outstanding groups in 
the tapestry of any country's history ; of them Russia has had a full 
share. From the very beginning her leaders have had marked spir- 
itual definition due to the strong religious background which has 
always given color to Russian life. In lifting them out of this tap- 
estry as definite studies, Mrs. Howe has made almost as valuable a 
contribution as was her previous book, A Thousand Years of Rus- 
sian History. 

The figures she chooses are the following: Oleg, the Wise, 
Prince of Kiev, who stormed Byzantium and reigned gloriously over 
ancient Russia for thirty-three years; Olga, the wife of Prince Igor, 
the first Russian convert to Christianity; Vladimir, whose choice 
made Russia a Christian country; Predslava and Gradislava, saintly 
daughters of the warrior of Polotsk; Alexander Nevoki, whose 
courage helped rid Russia of the Mongol ; Dimitri Donski, a saintly 
soldier who gave the Tartar his death blow ; Sergius, the upholder, 
of the pure religious light in dark times ; Ivan the Terrible and his 
saintly foils, Philip and Sylvester; Yermak, who drove the first 
Russian wedge into Siberia and opened the way to the conquest of 
that vast territory; the False Dimitri, a figure of great romance in 
Moscovy; the patriots whose patience restored and elected Mikail 
Romanoff to the throne; and finally the Boyaryinia Morozov, the 
last ot the Old Believers who was persecuted because she refused to 
accede to the reforms of Nikon. The background to these high 
lights in old Russian history forms a fairly comprehensive view of. 

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what went on in those days, because up to the time of Peter the 
Great the history of Russia was the history of its leaders; from that 
reign on it becomes more and more the history of the people. 

Mrs. Howe's easy style miakes her history eminently readable, 
while detracting naught from the scholarship evident in every 
sketch. A lover of Russia's past, she makes no attempt to condone 
the evils and excesses of Russia's sinners, nor to exaggerate the 
saintliness of her spiritual leaders. This balance of scholarship and 
restraint makes the book a genuine contribution to the growing mass 
of books on Russia. She is especially happy in her studies of Ivan 
the Terrible, the Boyaryinia Morozov and the False Dimitri, three 
quite different characters, whose lives add rich color to the picture of 
Russia and whose outlook on life represent, incidentally, three sa- 
lient contradictory elements in the present-day Russian soul — its 
cruel insistence on the attaining of its wishes, its deep religious fer- 
vor, and its happy, care-free way of taking life as it comes. 

Scattered through the pages of the book are wood cuts from old 
manuscripts and paintings of the various heroes as pictured by mod- 
em artists. Nesteron's " Labors of St. Sergius," Refin's famous 
" Zaporogian Cossacks," and the fine study of an old Moscow crowd 
called "Coming" by Ryaboushkin, are beautifully reproduced. 

THE SUHMA THEOLOGICA OF ST. THOMAS AQUINAS. 

Part II. New York : Benziger Brothers. 

The latest volume of the English translation of the Summa 
treats of the theological virtues, faith, hope and charity. The 
Dominicans of the English province deserve the highest praise for 
the accuracy and literary finish of their translation. 

PRISON REFORM. Compiled by Corinne Bacon. White Plains, 
New York: The H. H. Wilson Co. $1.35 net. 
The purpose of this book is to give the reader a general 
knowledge of prison reform in the United States. Miss Bacon has 
gathered together one hundred articles and speeches by prison ex- 
perts, grouping them under the various headings of the history 
of prison reform, conditions and methods in prisons. Sing Sing 
prison, psychopathic clinics and classification of prisoners, convict 
labor, the indeterminate sentence, probation, parole and jails. 

Everyone will praise the abolition of the oldtime cruelties 
of convict labor, excessive flogging and the solitary cell, but the new 
penologists go to the other extreme of making the prison a place 

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836 NEW BOOKS [Sept.. 

of recreation instead of punishment. They over-emphasize the 
reformation idea, and forget altogether the necessity of punish- 
ing the evildoer. Few will question the good effected by proba- 
tion and parole, and the benefits of the indeterminate sentence. 

THE CENTENARY OF THE SOCIETY OF MARY. By 

Brother John E. Garvin, S.M. Dayton, Ohio : The Brothers 

of Mary. $1.50 net. 

In connection with the centenary of the Society of Mary, 
Brother Garvin has written a sketch of its founder. Very Rev. Wil- 
liam J. Chaminade of Bordeaux, and a history of the Society in the 
United States from 1849 ^^ ^^^ present day. This well- written vol- 
ume gives the reader a good insight into the spirit of the Society of 
Mary and its saintly founder, explains the character of their edu- 
cational work, enumerates their many foundations, and gives brief 
accounts of the lives of the Society's superiors here and abroad. 

THE CALL OF THE REPUBLIC. By Jennings G. Wise. New 

York: E. P. Button & Go. $1.00 net. 

In this little volume Golonel Wise gives us a clear, well-argued 
case against the military system that has prevailed for so many 
years in this country. He analyzes the question of national defence, 
and offers proof to show that a purely voluntary system of military 
service is wastefully inefficient and opposed in principle and prac- 
tise to the best interests of the individual and the nation. His 
analysis takes in a general resunU of the military systems of 
ancient, mediaeval and modern times. His conclusion is a plea 
for universal training. 

THE PRACTICAL BOOK OF ARCHITECTURE. By G. Matlack 
Price. Philadelphia : J. B. Lippincott Go. $6.00 net. 
This well- written and scholarly addition to the Home Life 
Enrichment Series, which Lippincott has been publishing on arts 
and crafts, period furniture, outdoor rose growing, oriental rugs and 
garden architecture, gives in broad outline the principles of architec- 
ture in general, a history of the various styles from the days of 
Egypt and Assyria to the present day, and concludes with a number 
of good practical suggestions to the man about to erect a private 
home or a public building. 

Part I., "A Practical Guide to Styles," discusses in a clear and 
concise manner the value and benefit of architectural appreciation, 

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1917.] NEW BOOKS 837 

the growth and development of pre-Christian styles, Byzantine and 
Romanesque Architecture, Gothic and Renaissance Architecture, 
the Classic Ideal, Byzantine, Romanesque and Gothic derivations, 
Early and Modem English derivations, Latin derivations in Amer- 
ica, Native American Architecture, and the latest developments in 
the form of the city house, the office building, the modem hotel, the 
apartment house, and the railroad terminal. 

Part II. deals with the selection of a site, the choice of an 
architect, the nature, cost and suitability of building materials, the 
question of labor conditions, the different kinds of plans, the de- 
tails of interior trim and finish, lighting, plumbing and the like. 

Two hundred and fifty-five plates perfectly illustrate the text, 
whether the author is speaking of a Greek temple in Sicily or 
a skyscraper in New York. 

THE DEFINITE OBJECT. By Jeffery Farnol. Boston : Little 

Brown & Co. $1.60 net. 

The hero of Jeffery Farnol's latest novel is a young American 
millionaire, Geoffrey Ravenslee. Despondent, blase and weary of 
life he is about to commit suicide, when a would-be burglar, whom 
he captures in his beautiful home on the Hudson, suggests to him 
the idea of living in the slums. He goes off with " Spike " to Mulli- 
gan's flat on Tenth Avenue, where he has the most stirring adven- 
tures with crooks, gunmen, prize-fighters, peanut venders, and above 
all " the Definite Object," Hermione. The book has all the romance 
of Beltane the Smith, the only difference being that the author sub- 
stitutes Heirs Kitchen in the twentieth century for the woods of 
mediaeval England. 

Some of the character drawing — the pompous butler Brimberly, 
the loquacious Old 'Un, and the shrewish Mrs. Ann Angelina 
Trapes — is as good as Dickens at his best. Hermione, the good 
angel of the tenements, is most human in her inordinate love for 
her scapegoat brother, and certainly deserves to win her Quixotic 
lover. 

HELEN OF FOUR GATES. By an Ex-Mill-Girl. New York: 

E. P. Dutton & Co. $1.50 net. 

It is not a novel of industrial conditions and reactions that the 
anonymous author has given us, but an intensive study of rural life, 
unpleasant and depressing. We are told that this is her first book ; 
and it is plain that in theme and treatment she has been, probably , 

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838 NEW BOOKS [Sept., 

unconsciously, influenced by the writings of Mr. Thomas Hardy and 
Mr. Phillpotts: thus the very considerable powers of expression 
with which she pictures the rich loveliness of an English countryside 
in springtime throw into ironical and shocking relief the sins and 
miseries of the human element. Four Gates Farm is a storm centre 
where mental and moral deformity, senseless revenge, hatred, cru- 
elty and love that brings years of anguish of spirit, wreak their fury 
upon the hapless victim, Helen. The author has somewhat overshot 
the mark; the impression received is not that of a tale so sincerely 
conceived that it needs must be told, but as the result of laborious 
effort to evolve a situation sufficiently striking. The material seems 
at times to get out of hand, the characters are not always intelligible, 
and there are unnecessary uglinesses. Nevertheless, the ability dis- 
played is such that it is to be hoped the present work may be soon 
followed by another upon a subject more simple and agreeable. 

THE « CHRONICA FRATRIS JORDANI A GIANO." By Rev. 

Edwin J. Auweiler, O.F.M. Washington, D. C. : Catholic 

University Press. 

Father Auweiler has submitted to the Catholic University of 
America for his Doctor's degree the introduction to his new edition 
of the Latin text and English translation of the Chronicle of Friar 
Jordan of Giano. It contains a brief preface on the value of this 
work to students of Franciscan history, a list of the manuscripts 
of Berlin and Karlsruhe, the indirect sources of the text in Komer- 
owski, Glassberger. Gonzaga and Wadding, the various editions 
of Voight, Quaracchi and Boehmer, the life of Friar Jordan, and a 
brief account of the Latin text of the present edition. A complete 
bibliography and an apparatus criticus conclude the dissertation. 

JOURNAL OF SMALL THINGS. By Helen MacKay. New York: 

Duffield & Co. $1.35 net. 

For the reader, who reads slowly enough to savor literary qual- 
ity, these quietly written little vignettes will hold a distinctive place, 
even among many notable impressions of the War. Mrs. Mackay is 
an American who has been doing hospital work in France, and the 
book is concerned mainly with her experiences in this service. It is 
full of appeal ; the style, though admirably distinctive, is free from 
any effort after " fine writing;" the writer's intense sympathy with 
the sufferings she records is unmarred by emotionalism, and permits 
her to produce an account objective enough to be valuable; and, 

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although Mrs. Mackay is apparently not a Catholic, the Journal is 
full of a beautiful reverence for the religion of the French people. 

Truth to tell, such brightening touches are badly needed in a 
record of this sort. The Journal of Small Things is not a book to 
be happy over. It is too full of tragedy for that — of vivid, unfor- 
gettable fragments of suffering, torn by chance from many different 
lives. The pages seem crowded to the reader who has not sensed 
war's power of universal desolation, almost intolerably crowded 
with pain. One is half fretted by the very monotony of human 
anguish, as person after person, each the symbol and centre of an 
individual world of hope and happiness, slips unpretentiously along 
his appointed path of unique and separate agony. One resents, as a 
cruelty, the being asked to believe that one little hospital could have 
enshrined so many perfect tragedies. 

It is not a book to make one happy, especially at this hour. 
But it is a genuine and moving piece of literature. 

THE JOYFUL YEARS. By F. T. Wawn. New York: E. P. 

Button & Co. $1.50 net. 

In many ways this is an old-fashioned novel — which is another 
way of saying that it is a romantic, leisurely and delightful one. 
The plot is the simplest imaginable — an outright love story ; a run- 
away match ; obdurate parents ; and a reconciliation. But there is 
really a good deal more than this to the book. There are some ex- 
cellent character studies; the central figiu-e of the tale, Shaun 
James, whose unselfish love and unfailing wit pull the strings of 
the action, is a particularly charming personage. His whimsical 
ways and wise sayings give a dash of flavor to the story. From one 
of his saws the book derives its title — " the joyful years are those 
when you are finding yourselves, my children." It is Shaun James 
who engineers the elopement of Cynthia and Peter, at the sacrifice 
of his own great love; for he too has given his heart to the lovely 
child of the kind but uncomprehending Sir Everard and Lady 
Bremmer. The whole story of Shaun, in fact, is one of sacrifice — 
sacrifice offered with brave laughter and never a tear of self-pity. 
The wholesomeness and sweet reasonableness of the people one 
meets in the pages of this book are indeed refreshing; and there is 
some really beautiful writing also. There is more than one mem- 
orable word picture of the most interesting scenes in all England — 
the scenes associated in legend and literature with King Arthur and 
his court. In visiting these historic spots, one could have no better ,^T^ 

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840 NEW BOOKS [Sept., 

traveling companion or guide than The Joyful Years. A word 
should be said also for the delicacy with which the author has writ- 
ten of love and marriage. The very soul of purity breathes in his 
pages, and the whole book is worth reading, for the sake of the last 
chapter alone, the story of Peter's return from the war and finding 
his young wife and baby in the garden. 

SCIENCE AND LEARNING IN FRANCE. An Appreciation by 
American Scholars. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co. $1.50. 
As stated in its preface, the purpose of this volume is to put 
before the American public the contributions of France in all fields 
of scientific knowledge, and to show her status in the forefront of 
the world's progress, thus furnishing to American university stu- 
dents an incentive to pursue graduate work in France. Each chap- 
ter sets forth briefly for a particular field the notable achievements 
and eminent leaders of French scholarship during the past century; 
and the courses of instruction given now or recently at the French 
universities, especially at the University of Paris, with the facilities 
available for study and research. There is also an introduction, by 
President Emeritus Eliot of Harvard, on the intellectual inspira- 
tion of Paris and France, and an appendix describing the organiza- 
tion of French universities, the standards of preparation expected 
of the student, the system of degrees, the regulations and customs 
as to residence, attendance, fees and the like. The twenty-two chap- 
ters, though varying in thoroughness and detail, cover well the 
range of human knowledge; the authors collaborating on each sec- 
tion are certainly qualified to speak for American scholarship in 
their respective fields, and there is a list of sponsors, nunAering well 
over a thousand, who join with the authors in making the book a 
national homage, oflFered from the universities of America to the 
universities of France. 

No treatment of French scholarship could be complete which 
refused recognition to French Catholic scholarship, and, on the 
whole, the appreciation of Catholic scholars is just. Priests who 
are really prominent in certain departments like anthropology and 
philology are duly mentioned, and the names of Catholic laymen, 
though, of course, not labeled " Catholic," form the larger part of 
the list. There are occasional omissions of names which might be 
expected, such as Branly, of the Catholic Institute of Paris, the 
discoverer of the principal of the wireless, but this could hardly be 
avoided in view of the fact that there is no absolute standard in 

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1917] NEW BOOKS 841 

reckoning prominence. The paper on religion deals almost ex- 
clusively with the history of religions, and is written with a care- 
fulness apparently designed to avoid points of controversy. In the 
list of libraries, that of the Catholic Institute of Paris should cer- 
tainly have been mentioned, and even that of the Seminary of St. 
Sulpice, which has a recognized standing. Most regrettable, per- 
haps, from a Catholic standpoint, is that, in a list of over a thousand 
sponsors, there is but one name connected with a Catholic institu- 
tion. 

BURNS: HOW TO KNOW HIM. By William A. Neilson. New 

York: The Bobbs-Merrill Co. $1.50 net. 

A Scotchman born and a graduate of the University of Edin- 
burgh, Professon Neilson of Harvard is eminently fitted to write 
a critical and an enthusiastic estimate of Scotland's most beloved 
poet, Robert Bums. He gives us an interesting and truthful sketch 
of the poet's life, describing vividly " the cheerless gloom and galley- 
slave toil " of his youthful days, his unfortunate thirst for stimu- 
lants and his gross immorality. He praises him for his independ- 
ence of character, which made him refuse to write for money or to 
truckle to his aristocratic friends and patrons in the days of his 
Edinburgh triumph. 

Burns was a master both of English and of Lowland Scots, a 
dialect of English descended from the Northumbrian dialect of 
Anglo-Saxon. But as Professor Neilson well says : " He wrote 
English as he wore his Sunday blacks, with dignity, but not with 
ease." This is very evident in poems like The Cottar's Saturday 
Night, where both tongues are used, and can be proved by a com- 
parison between such songs as Corn Rigs or Whistle and I'll Come 
to Thee, My Lad and the artificial songs to Clarinda. 

As a song writer Burns began and as a song writer he closed 
his career. In 1792 he contributed one hundred songs to George 
Thompson's Select Collection of Original Scottish Airs, the best 
of which are known and loved the world over. He often took old 
songs like Aytoun's Auld Lang Syne and made their crude lines 
a thing of beauty and a joy forever. He knew scores of the old songs, 
ballads and melodies of Scotland, and his genius enabled him so to 
amend them that his version at once superseded all others. At times 
he would retain the first line, the first stanza or the chorus of the 
old song; again he would keep merely a striking phrase or epithet. 
Many of course are entirely original as Mary Morrison, Handsome t 

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842 NEIV BOOKS [Sept., 

Nell and My Nannie's Awa, and their perfection prove that he was 
in no way dependent upon old material for his inspiration. Noth- 
ing was too mean or insignificant for his lyric flights. No matter 
what his theme, he speaks directly to the heart of the most humble, 
and wins the minds of the most exacting critics by his brilliant col- 
oring, his rollicking humor, his vivid descriptions, and his love of ex- 
ternal nature. 

THE MADNESS OF MAY. By Meredith Nicholson. New York : 

Charles Scribner's Sons. $i.oo net. 

Mr. Nicholson's little fantasy — it is almost extravaganza — will 
furnish many smiles and not a little of the mystification which is 
half the joy in reading fiction. It is only an elaborated short story, 
but it is just long enough to entertain a reader in the mood for a 
trifle that is not trash. For trifle it is; but it is far too well done to 
be called trash. The fanciful spirit in which the story of Robin Hood 
and his " merrie companie " up to date is conceived, is sustained 
with perfect artistry. One can imagine that the author had a lot 
of fun writing this gay little tale; at any rate, even the book-hard- 
ened critic cannot resist the fun of it in reading it. Perhaps out of a 
kind heart, that is what Mr. Nicholson wrote it for ! 

NAMES THAT LIVE IN CATHOLIC HEARTS. By Anna T. 

Sadlier. New York: Benziger Brothers. 50 cents. 

We have here interesting biographies of seven great Catho- 
lics of history, Cardinal Ximenes, Grand Chancellor of Spain, 
Michelangelo, painter, poet, architect and sculptor, Samuel de 
Champlain, the founder of Quebec, Oliver Plunkett, the martyr 
bishop, Archbishop of Armagh, Charles Carrollton, the signer of 
the Declaration of Independence, Henri de Larochejacquelein, the 
hero of La Vendee, and Simon de Montfort, the leader of the 
crusade against the Albigenses. These brief sketches give the 
reader an insight into various periods of Church history, teach in 
a most interesting manner the virtues of the perfect Catholic, and 
arouse enthusiasm for the Church of God. 

THE AMERICAN AMBASSADOR. By Lawrence Byrne. New 

York: Charles Scribner's Sons. $1.35 net. 

The American Ambassador is the work of an American diplo- 
mat, who for obvious reasons employs a nom de plume. The story 
centres around an American embassy somewhere in Europe, and 

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1917.] - NEW BOOKS 843 

deals with the triumph of an inexperienced Westerner over the 
deceit and intrigue of unscrupulous and scheming European poli- 
ticians. The heroine for a time is willing to sacrifice herself to save 
her father's honor, but luckily the villain meets his Waterloo, and 
the hero comes to his own. 

THE MAGUIRES OF FERMANAGH. By John Magauran. 

Edited by Patrick Dineen. Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son. $1.00. 

Gaelic scholars will read with interest this life of Manus and 
Giolla losa, the sons of Donn More Maguire — b. Gaelic text of 
the year 1716 based on an old manuscript of the thirteenth century. 
Patrick Dineen has added an English translation with copious 
explanatory notes, and a scholarly introduction describing fully the 
contents of this interesting history. It recounts the revolt of the 
O'Flanagans against the Maguires, gives a good insight into the 
laws and customs of the mediaeval Irish clans, and an accurate ac- 
count of the ancient topography of Fermanagh. The manuscript 
errs in making the Maguires kings of Fermanagh in the thirteenth 
century, whereas the Irish annals prove them to have been only the 
acting lords for the O'Donnells of Tyrconnell. 

THE VINTAGE. By Sylvia Chatfield Bates. New York : Duffield 

& Co. 75 cents net. 

This little story has a point and a message particularly telling 
at the present moment. It relates how a reforming-minded, self- 
sufficient university graduate loses that scorn of country so intel- 
lectually fashionable a little while ago, and sees patriotism as an au- 
thoritative and a beautiful thing. The transformation is effected by 
reading the letters written from the Front by his grandfather during 
the Civil War. These letters see national duty so clearly and ex- 
press national faith with such generous devotion that the grandson 
comes to feel that both the duty and the belief are a sacred trust to 
him. The little tale is very well written. However, as a brief for 
patriotism, it would lose nothing by the omission of the love-story. 

GETTING TOGETHER. By Ian Hay. Garden City, New York : 

Doubleday, Page & Co. 50 cents net 

For those who wonder why England at war and the United 
States at peace should have viewed the European conflict from dif- 
ferent angles, Captain Hay's little book is a home university course. 
Written before we entered the Great War it aims to answer the quesL t 

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844 NEIV BOOKS [Sept, 

tions Englishmen and Americans have put to each other in thought 
or word from August, 19 14, until April, 191 7. Our neutrality; the 
British blockade; the interception of our mails; American interven- 
tion; the submarine menace; England's will to win, are matters 
handled here in a clear, vigorous, concrete fashion! It is a little lec- 
ture on the seeming inability of Americans and Englishmen to un- 
destand each other, despite the common language, and a plea to " get 
together " on a sounder basis of understanding than the old blood-is- 
thicker-than-water creed, a theory so meaningless and irritating to 
" that not inconsiderable section of the American people which does 
not happen to be of British descent. 

" We both believe in God ; in personal liberty ; in a law which 
shall be inflexibly just to rich and poor alike. We both hate tyranny 
and oppression and intrigue; and we both love things which are 
clean and wholesome and of good report. Let us take one common 
stand upon these.'* 

SPONSA CHRISTI. By Mother St. Paul. New York: Long- 

mans. Green & Co. 90 cents net. 

These meditations for religious are strikingly original, and 
specially fitted for women. In his preface Father Rickaby wisely 
suggests the advisability of women writing on spiritual doctrine 
for women on the plea " that a woman's piety is not quite a man's 
piety, her faults not a man's faults, her aspirations, her aptitudes 
other than a man's." Layfolk will also find this book a most help- 
ful aid in prayer, for the good Christian is always at heart a 
religious in the sense that Our Lord's invitation, " Be ye per- 
fect " is extended to all. Especially good are the chapters on 
poverty, chastity, obedience, the fig-tree, the bridal dress, the re- 
ligious and the Mass. 

j 
ALOYSIUS IGNATIUS FIXER. By Raymund R. Amado, S.J. 

Translated by Elder Mullan, S.J. St Louis: The Queen's 

Work. 50 cents. 

Father Mullan tells us that " Father Fiter is unquestionably 
the most important figure in sodality history in the last two hun- 
dred years. He has two titles to the distinction: his sodality at 
Barcelona and his part in preparing the common rules of 1910." 
This biography will prove invaluable to directors who wish to obtain 
correct ideas of the true spirit and working of the Sodality of 
Our Lady. 

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1917] NEW BOOKS 84s 

THE SONGS OF CREELABEG. By P. J. Carroll, C.S.C. New 

York: The Devin- Adair Co. $1.25 net. 

Father Carroll is at his best when singing of Erin. His sweet, 
delicate verses come straight from the heart perpetuating her joys 
and sorrows, the devotion of her people, the purity of her daughters, 
the legends of her past, the beauties of her hills, streams and skies. 
He wrote them for the exiles in our American cities, that they might 
hear again the song of the Irish thrush and cuckoo, and see again 
the brown sods burning, the wild geese flying, the sweet shamrock 
growing, the cliffs of Aherfall, the cross of Athery and the skies of 
Creelabeg. 

OUR REFUGE. By Rev. Augustine Sprigler. St. Louis: B. 

Herder. 60 cents net. 

The rector of St. Mary's Church, Sullivan, Ind., has published 
a dozen simple instructions on devotion to the Holy Eucharist. 
They deal with types and prophecies, the institution, the sacrifice 
of the Mass, attendance at Mass, preparation for, and thanksgiving 
after Holy Communion, and furnish suitable prayers for practical 
devotion. 

DEVOTION TO THE HOLY FACE. By E. Seton. New York: 

Benziger Brothers. 65 cents net. 

This volume describes in simple language the significance of 
the devotion to the Holy Face, and gives a brief sketch of its 
history from the time of St. Veronica to its modem apostles, Sister 
'Mary of St. Peter and M. Dupont, "the holy man of Tours." 
An appendix contains a number of prayers and special devout 
practices in honor of the Holy Face. 

THE NECESSITY OF CHRIST. By Rev. W. E. Orchard, D.D. 

New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. $i.?s. 

The writer of this book tries to show that the whole modem 
movement in philosophy and religion so far from denying the 
divinity of Christ, offers proof of the necessity of that doctrine for 
all serious speculation, religion, Christianity, personality and so- 
ciety. The author is too vague and indefinite to be convincing, and 
his statement that the old evidences for the divinity of Christ are 
now presented in a way which only stimulates revolt, is unproved. 
However, he utters some wise words, as, for example, " that the 
modem denial of Christianity is due to superficiality rather than 

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846 NEW BOOKS [Sept., 

to profundity; that the modern' mind underestimates the tre- 
mendous mental stature and acumen of the scholastics; that to be 
irreligious is to be really anti-social and inhuman; that the breakup 
of the one visible Church was one of the greatest catastrophes of 
history ; that Christianity needs religious orders, where men would 
have the continual inspiration which comes from corporate devotion 
and corporate sacrifice." 

OUR ANNIVERSARIES. By Rev. Joseph V. Nevins, SS. St. 

Louis : B. Herder. 35 cents net. 

This little book is dedicated " to the dear memory of Father 
Chapon, SS.," and will doubtless have a special appeal to those 
who were honored and aided by his friendship. But it will be 
welcomed also by all who have passed their years of preparation 
for the sacred ministry, under the priestly training of the Sulpician 
Fathers — a reminder of holy days, a renewal at their fountain-head 
of the stores of grace garnered in earlier years. 

''PWO officers of the United States Army, Major J. A. Moss and 
^ Major M. B. Stewart, have written a little booklet, Our Flag 
and Its Message, which will be read with profit. In the compass of 
less than thirty pages they give the story of "Old Glory," explain 
its symbolism and present in addition the President's appeal for 
unity at the opening of hostilities between our country and Germany. 
The little book, published by J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia, sells 
for twenty-five cents. It is neatly bound and is one of the most 
attractive leaflets we have seen among the host of such publications 
the War has brought forth. 

WAR LYRICS — 191 4 TO 191 7, published in a twenty-eight page 
pamphlet, while hardly pretending to literary merit, are full of 
ardent patriotic feeling. They have peculiar interest as the product 
of the pen of an octogenarian still full of the fire of youth. The 
author is C. Augustus Haviland, of Brooklyn, N. Y., now in his 
eighty-fifth year. If his fervent lines succeed in kindling in some of 
our lackadaisical twentieth century youth the spark of patriotism, 
the little book will be more than justified. 

VOICES OF ERIN, by John J. Walsh and Michael J. Neary, is 
a book of poems written in the pleasing reminiscent style that 
characterizes much of the old-time Irish verse. It presents none of 
the subtleties of the modern school, but is filled with wholesome feel- 
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1917] NEW BOOKS 847 

ing and pure religious faith. For many readers it will have an 
added appeal as the joint work of two young Irish students who are 
preparing for the Holy Priesthood at St. Joseph's Seminary, Balti- 
more, and who hope through the sale of the book to secure funds 
with which to continue their studies. The little volume, very at- 
tractively bound, sells for one dollar, and may be procured at 88 
Lambert Avenue, Roxbury, Mass. 

'PROM E. P. Button & Co. we have a very timely and valu- 
^ able pocket companion: The Soldier's Spoken French, by 
Helene Cross (sixty cents net). This comprehensive little volume 
in one hundred and twenty-five pages gives an epitome of French 
grammar with vocabularies especially adapted to the soldier's needs. 
It is the result of the author's practical experience in teaching 
French to the New Zealand soldiers, and may be confidently recom- 
mended to the American soldier as a short-cut to acquaintance with 
the French language, so much to be desired at the present time. It 
was an oversight, however, on the part of the American publishers 
not to give the equivalent of the French money in American, as well 
as in English currency. 

'THE White Knights on Dartmoor, by Olive Katherine Parr (New 
^ York: Longmans, Green & Co. 50 cents net), is a little bro- 
chure on the crusade of the White Knights, an organization to com- 
bat the social evil among the English soldiers at the front. 

DENZIGER BROTHERS have published in a fifty cent edition 
-'-^ three well-known and highly prized volumes, Life of St, Ignatius 
Loyola, by Father Genelli, S.J.; Women of Catholicity, by Anna 
T. Sadlier, and the Life of Mademoiselle Le Gras. 

JPIONA McKAY has made an excellent and timely collection of 
-■- the principal moral sayings from the Books of Proverbs, Wis- 
dom and Ecclesiasticus, which are published in a tastefully ar- 
ranged and handy volume, entitled Leaves of God, by the Angelus 
Press. 

A N invaluable book for our Catholic schools is The Gospel Ac- 
-^ cording to St. Luke, compiled by Rev. Robert Eaton (London 
Catholic Truth Society). The full text is given with able and ac- 
curate explanations of every difficult passage. The cost is about 
seventy-five cents. 



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IRecent lEvents. 

The sacred union which was formed at the 
^ France. beginning of the War by all the political 

parties in France from the Royalists on the 
Right to the Socialists on the Extreme Left, has lost indeed some- 
thing of its strength but is still substantially intact. The proposed 
Stockholm Conference and the invitation to take part in it sent by 
the Russian Workmen's and Soldiers' Council is responsible for 
any weakening of the union that has taken place. The Socialist 
parties of France decided to accept the invitation and to send 
delegates to the Conference. Passports for these delegates were 
refused by the Government. This refusal threatened the loss of one 
of its most useful members — M. Thomas, the Minister of Muni- 
tions. However regrettable his loss would have been in itself, 
a worse result would have been the alienation of the large number 
of Socialists which would have followed upon his resignation and 
might have led to a serious disruption of the unity which is now of 
such extreme importance. M. Thomas, however, has withdrawn 
his resignation, and the danger has for the time being, at least, been 
averted. There are still, however, many elements of uncertainty. 
The enemy is making a supreme effort to cause the divisions upon 
which alone his hopes of success now depend. 

When the envoys of the Government were in this country 
there was much said about the losses which the French had sus- 
tained in the course of the War. France was represented as having 
been bled white. Doubtless this was done in order to impress upon 
our Government the importance of sending troops to France; for 
at the time there was some doubt as to whether this step would be 
taken. Statements of this kind were greatly exaggerated, as was 
at once pointed out on their appearance. The High Commissioner 
of France in this country has done good service in laying before 
the public the real state of the case. So far from being exhausted, 
France has actually engaged in military operations something more 
than thre^ millions of men. Besides these there are great numbers 
engaged in the manufacturing of munitions, estimated at about 
a million and a half. Owing to the great use of artillery the losses 
in battles are growing less and less. For the six months ended in 



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1917.] RECENT EVENTS 849 

December, the rate of loss was only one and twenty-eight hundredth 
per cent of the enlisted strength. This method of saving the lives 
of French soldiers is at the same time death-dealing to the enemy. 
Their losses have been so stupendous, that the morale of their 
troops has deteriorated to such an extent that they have been 
obliged to choose out of the main body what are called shock troops 
to lead the way in an attack. They are no longer able to bring 
forward the units as a whole. The Allies have now four millions 
of men on the Western Front, while the enemy has only two 
million five hundred thousand. The artillery of the Allies far 
outmatches that of the Germans, the position having been com- 
pletely reversed from what it was at the beginning. So far is 
France from having been bled white, that of the five millions of men 
capable of being mobilized in France, she has suffered the loss, ac- 
cording to M. Tardieu's estimate, of approximately only six hun- 
dred and twelve thousand in killed, missing and prisoners. This 
does not include the wounded, and about these M. Tardieu is silent. 
If they number one million seven hundred and fifty thousand, which 
may be considered a fair estimate, the total loss of the French 
up to the beginning of this year would be approximately one mil- 
lion five hundred thousand, for it may be said that fifty per cent of 
the wounded are able to return to the front. 



Heartrending oppression is still the fate of 
Belgium. many Belgians, so that it cannot be won- 

dered at if there are some who yield and 
yet others who suffer with murmuring and discontent. The late 
Governor flattered himself with the thought that he would ultimately 
be able to use the Belgian clergy for his purposes. He was doomed 
to disappointment, as is shown by a typical incident which has 
recently taken place. The vicar of one of the principal parishes in 
Brussels was brought before one of the military tribunals and con- 
victed of an offence for which the prosecutor claimed the sentence 
of death. The court in view of the character and antecedents 
of the priest contented itself with the sentence of twelve years' 
hard labor. When he heard the sentence the abbe said : " I desire 
to thank my judges, first, for preserving my life, because I desire 
to see the return of my beloved King at the head of the army in 
which my brothers are serving; and, secondly, for having sen- 
tenced me to twelve years' hard labor, because if the sentence had 

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850 RECENT EVENTS [Sept., 

been lighter it would appear as though I had not done enough for 
my country." A few days later he was taken to Germany to work 
out his sentence in company with the common German criminals. 



Things have gone so badly in Russia dur- 
Russia. ing the course of the past month that for a 

time all reliance upon her fulfilling the part 
which she had undertaken seemed to have been lost. The fear that 
a separate peace with Germany would be made had, it is true, been 
dissipated by the assurances of the Government; but these assur- 
ances were worthless when the soldiers at the front mutinied and 
retired before the enemy without offering in many cases any resist- 
ance. The offensive which was begun by General Komiloff on 
the second of July in Eastern Galicia, had resulted in the capture 
of Halicz and several other towns with many thousands of prison- 
ers, bringing the recapture of Lemberg within the range of the prob- 
able, when the Russian troops at many points refused to obey the 
orders of their commanders and deserted in large numbers. One 
of the features of the Revolution which inaugurated the new era 
of freedom was that this new era was extended to the army. Com- 
mittees were formed to choose officers and to consult with them in 
the conduct of the campaign. The result was that all active opera- 
tions ceased for a time, and in many parts of the line fraterniza- 
tion began with the enemy. He was by this means able to propa- 
gate the idea of a separate peace through the ranks of the soldiers. 
The visits of M. Gutchkoff and of his successor as Minister of War, 
M. Kerensky, were for the purpose of restoring the necessary dis- 
cipline. It seemed as if all danger from this cause had been removed, 
especially when the latter put himself at the head of the attacking 
forces. But a turn for the worse came. Large numbers in the 
armies refused obedience and retired before a numerically inferior 
enemy. A rapid succession of losses ensued — ^Tamopol, Czemo- 
witz, and finally the whole of Galicia. Vast quantities of stores 
and munitions were abandoned, thousands of prisoners taken and 
the way to Odessa was in danger of being opened, putting in peril 
the vast quantities of grain stored in that city as well as the crops 
of Bessarabia and of the most fertile provinces of Russia. 

Thereupon it became clear that it was necessary to put an end 
to a liberty which had degenerated into license. The new Govern- 
ment which had been formed after the resignation of Prince Lvoff 



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1917.] RECENT EVENTS 851 

was proclaimed to be a Government of National Safety, with un- 
limited powers both at home and at the front, for reestablishing the 
organization and discipline of the army and for a fight to the 
finish against the enemies of public order. M. Kerensky, its head, 
announced that since argument and reason had failed so far as 
the army was concerned, Russia must be saved by blood and iron. 
To traitors no mercy would be shown. This was no mere threat. 
A whole division of one army was blown to pieces by its own 
artillery. The commander of the crack regiment who was leader 
in the revolt was court-martialed. Following closely upon drastic 
measures of this kind the Russian retreat has slowed down ; while 
on the Rumanian front some slight gains have been made by the 
Russo-Rimianian army. Strong resistance is being offered once 
more to the Teutonic advance, but it is too soon to tell how great 
will be its success. It is not thought, however, that the Germans 
have enough men to make any great advance into Russian terri- 
tory, and if they had, such an attempt would not be regarded 
with any great degree of anxiety. Nor would anything be better 
calculated to bring about the imity of the Russian people, a thing 
which defeated in 1812 a far greater master in the art of war than 
Germany has yet produced. 

The internal situation of Russia a few weeks ago may be 
described in the words of M. Kerensky : " The country has been 
brought to the brink of a precipice by treason ; mortal danger 
threatens liberty and the conquest of the revolution." The chief 
weakening influence was the dissension promoted by anarchists 
who go by the name of Maximalists. These were led by an orator 
called Lenin, who advocated an immediate separate peace and the 
confiscation of private property. Some regiments of the army 
seconded these ideas, and riots of a more sanguinary character 
than those which took place at the Revolution, took place at Petro- 
grad. Thereupon, but not it would seem for this reason, the 
moderate members of the Provisional Government with the Pre- 
mier, Prince Lvoff, at their head gave in their resignations or, as 
it has been said, deserted their posts. A new Government was then 
formed, all the members of which were Socialists, with M. Keren- 
sky as Prime Minister. He frankly announced a blood and iron 
policy for the repression of disorder whether at home or in the 
armies. The Council of the Workmen's and Soldiers' Committee, 
a body which had had more power than the Government, jaid had 
thereby been one of the chief causes of the misfortunes that had t 

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8S2 RECENT EVENTS [Sept, 

taken place, called for strict obedience to its commands imder the 
penalty of being treated as traitors, to whom no mercy was to be 
shown. The look of things, however, became so dark that even 
M. Kerensky resigned, and only consented to resume office on the 
condition that he should be given unlimited powers. A new Cabinet 
was then constructed, the fourth since the Revolution. In this, 
representatives of the Cadets as the more moderate party are nimi- 
bered, M. Kerensky is supreme, and the hopes of saving Russia 
are centred upon him. Many arrests have been made, and the 
inopportune rejforms which were being demanded have been ad- 
journed for the time when the country shall have been saved from 
the common foe. It has begun to dawn upon the Russian mind that 
there is no use in making reforms if the Germans are to become 
their over-lords. 

The influence of the Russian Revolution has so far been detri- 
mental not merely to their own internal affairs, but to the whole of 
the European situation. The declared policy of " no annexation 
and no indemnities" has not indeed divided the Allies, but has 
introduced dissension among the workingmen in the Allied coun- 
tries. The invitation to the Conference at Stockholm sent forth 
by the Council of Workmen's and Soldiers' Committees, has also 
been the occasion of dissension. This invitation has been accepted 
by sections of the French and Italian Socialists and by the British 
labor unions. The action of the last-named body has led to the 
resignation of a member of the British War Cabinet. His col- 
leagues were opposed to having any intercourse, direct or indirect, 
with the enemy for the purpose of discussing terms of peace; 
it was not, they held, a subject to be treated by unauthorized bodies, 
and fell exclusively within the province of the Government. 

The army troubles and those which spring from foreign rela- 
tions, form a very small part of the problems with which the Rus- 
sian Government has to deal. The peasants, who form something 
like eighty per cent of the population, have but one supreme and 
all-absorbing desire, and that is the distribution of the land, and 
as a means to this the stripping of its present owners of their pos- 
sessions. In many cases they have already taken the law into their 
own hands. The artisans of the towns are clamoring for a large 
increase of wages and at the same time demanding a diminution 
of the hours of labor. No small number of the workingmen hate 
the capitalists of their own nationality more than they hate the 
German soldiers with whom they are at war, and are seriously 

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1917.] RECENT EVENTS 853 

aiming at a union between the proletariat of all nations in opposi- 
tion to the classes that possess property. The Finns are making 
claims which amount to virtual independence, and a .question some- 
what similar has arisen in the districts which go by the name of the 
Ukraine. The Polish question has been settled — so far as it is 
in the power of the Provisional Government to settle anything — 
by a full concession of the rights for which the Poles have so long 
contended. Similar concessions have been made to the Jews. Here 
and there sporadic efforts have been made to revive the ancient 
ways which preceded the domination of the Romanoffs — when Rus- 
sia was a loosely-knit federation of a large number of small states. 
These efforts have not, however, been successful. When it is re- 
membered that immense numbers of hostile spies and provokers 
of disturbance, are scattered throughout the Empire, and that 
paper money is the sole alternative to bankruptcy, it will be seen 
how stupendous is the task which it has fallen to the lot of Russian 
statesmen to solve. Great, however, as is the task, confidence is 
felt that it will be accomplished, and that Russia will be made into 
a stable, well-organized and prosperous Republic. This is the 
opinion to which the members of the American Commission have 
given expression, based on the observations which they have made 
during their recent visit. They may, of course, be mistaken, but 
th^ir opinion is not lightly to be disregarded. 

A noteworthy feature of the Revolution is the secondary part 
which was taken by the Duma. Since 1905 the battle for liberty 
has raged round this body; the fight was for and against the 
extension of its powers. Yet when the time came for action as 
a body it hesitated, and took only a subordinate part in the events 
by which the result was achieved. The first act of the All-Russian 
Congress of Workmen's and Soldiers* Delegates was to pass an 
almost unanimous vote for the abolition of the legislative body 
on the possibility that it might become a centre of reaction and 
counter-revolution. The Council of the Empire shared the same 
fate. The members of the Dimia did not sutenit in silence. They 
passed a resolution that as it had contributed to the Revolution 
it had received an implied vote of confidence from the people, and 
that, consequently, it was a revolutionary institution. The patriotic 
duty, therefore, was still imposed upon it of raising its voice to 
save the fatherland from the dangers which threaten it, and to 
guide it into the right path. Another of many Congresses to which 
the Revolution has given birth, that of the Cossacks, one of the. 

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854 RECENT EVENTS [Sept., 

most powerful of the Russian peoples, endorsed this resolution of 
the Duma, and exhorted it not to cease fulfilling its function as a 
mouthpiece of the people. The all-powerful Workmen's and Sol- 
diers' Council seems to have paid no heed to these representations. 
The Council of the Peasants joined forces with them. All the 
subsequent changes have been made by their sole authority, all 
alike have now been superseded by the grant of unlimited powers 
to M. Kerensky, who is at present invested with virtually dicta- 
torial powers. 

Shortly after the departure of the ex-King, 
Greece. Constantine, M. Zaionis, the last of the 

many Prime Ministers who had held office 
under him, resigned. M. Venezelos, who had been head of the 
Provisional Government established at Saloniki, took up the vacated 
post. The first step taken by him after assembling the Parliament, 
arbitrarily dissolved by Constantine, was to propose the calling of 
a Constituent Assembly to revise the Constitution, so that it would 
become legally as well as morally impossible for the Sovereign ever 
again at his own will and pleasure to dissolve the Chamber and 
take into his own hands the powers which of right belonged to it. 
The Premier then proceeded to purge the Greek services of anti- 
Ally officers, of whom large numbers were arrested. Those who 
were guilty of the crimes committed last December by the treacher- 
ous attack made on the Allied troops, are to be prosecuted. Enemy 
intriguers have been deported, and finally the existence of a state 
of war with the Central Powers has been declared. The fear of 
a rear attack having now at last been removed, the chief obstacle 
to an advance for cutting the communications between Berlin and 
Constantinople no longer exists. It may, however, be too late in 
the season for such an attempt to be made in the present year. 

The protecting Powers, in deposing the late King, acted within 
the rights conferred on them by the Greek Constitution, which 
made them the guardians of the dynasty. It was for this reason 
that one of Constantine's sons was chosen in the place of his father. 
A large number, however, of the Greeks were, and still are, anxious 
to dispense with monarchical rule altogether, and to establish in 
Greece the republican form of government. They have only 
acquiesced in the Powers* decision on account of the difficulties 
involved in a change at the present time. In this they are supported 
by the Greeks residing in foreign countries. The efforts made by j 

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1917] RECENT EVENTS 853 

the late King to become an absolute ruler have resulted in reviving 
among a large number of the modem Greeks the spirit which char- 
acterized those of old time. The prospects of the new King depend 
entirely upon his walking in the steps not of his immediate prede- 
cessor, but in those of his grandfather, who scrupulously respected 
the limits imposed upon him by the Constitution. 



Ever since Bismarck was dismissed by the 
Germany. Kaiser for the purpose of making himself 

the uncontrolled and absolute ruler, Ger- 
many has had a succession of less and less noteworthy Chancellors 
— Caprivi, Hohenlohe, Biilow, Bethmann Hollweg, and finally 
Michaelis, an unknown bureaucrat pure and simple. Men of ability 
are unwilling to bear the military yoke to which the present regime 
subjects them. The late Chancellor had became convinced that an 
early peace was necessary if Germany was to escape disaster. Hence 
he entered into intrigues with the Socialists, and supported the 
plan for a Conference at Stockholm. To win Socialist support 
he made the promise of democratic reforms somewhat more definite 
than before, and to be brought into effect at once. The Junkers, 
the military and the capitalists began to become alarmed, or rather 
they renewed the contest against the Chancellor, which had been 
waged by von Tirpitz. In this case they have proved successful 
and von Bethmann Hollweg has returned to obscurity. Shortly 
afterwards the Cabinet was almost entirely reconstituted, and men 
came into office who, with two exceptions, have never been known 
as anything else than office holders. The first of the two excep- 
tions is the leader of the Centre, Dr. Spahn ; the second is the new 
Foreign Secretary, Dr. Kiihlmann, who organized in England 
the German spy system, and who so woefully misinformed his 
master about the likelihood of Britain's going to war. It is said 
that he opposed the submarine campaign. The main subject of the 
new Chancellor's first speech was the peace which it is now Ger- 
many's chief concern to bring about — upon her own terms. It 
gave no promise of the " complete restoration, full reparation, 
eflfectual guarantees " which the Allies demand. 



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SOCIOLOGISTS when brought face to face with definite concrete 
problems frequently expend their energy and their information in 
stating how they ought to be met, while others, who make no claim to 
the title, are actually meeting them. The present problems created by 
the formation of the vast military camps, the removal of hundreds of 
thousands of our young men from ordinary conditions and safeguards 
of life into conditions abnormal and replete with moral dangers, can 
only be met by immediate, practical measures. 

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ 

ACLEIAR example of the exaggerated value placed upon theory is 
seen in the July issue of The American Journal of Sociology, 
where a large number of sociologists had under consideration the 
problem of the present war situation. The papers are for the most 
part not only a pitiful index of the poverty of positive principle, the 
chaotic condition of thought characteristic of much modem writing, 
but as a rule state nothing in practical concrete terms. One con- 
tributor, the Rev. Dr. William J. Kerby, admirably suggests that in 
the present crisis ** problems of thought may wait," yet it is with 
problems of thought that most of these writers engage themselves, for- 
getting the actual problems that face the country. 

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ 

''PHE discussion, as one reads it carefully, brings home the pitiful 
1 truth that it is not alone the individual writer on fundamental sub- 
jects who is hopelessly beggared of definite principles, but that the 
many such writers have so far affected the social body in its social 
thinking, that the primary principles of civilized and Christian society 
are either questioned or forgotten. It is safe to say that there is not 
one fundamental principle upon which Christian civilization has been 
built, that is not questioned or denied in the course of this discussion. 

♦ ♦ 4" ♦ 

MORE thoroughly than the present Great War, this warfare on truth 
and the principles of right living has upset the world. The exist- 
ence of God is seldom seriously considered. Many of these sociologists 
consider the law of life and death to be matters upon which God has 
nothing to say. Man has no direct personal responsibility to a per- 
sonal God ; nor has God ever spoken in intelligible terms to man, de- 
fining for him the law and stating the measure of his obligation. Upon 
that personal responsibility of the individual to God is founded all the 

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1917.] ^ITH OUR READERS 857 

well-being of society. External law may by external sanctions police 
society — for a time — but it cannot even police it all the time. Human 
nature, unless subjected to a power greater than itself, will break be- 
yond all police restrictions ; and sow injustice, tyranny, hatred, quar- 
rels and wars between nations and between the children of the same 
nation. The individual man must by the acceptance of a definite spir- 
itual law, ordained by God for his right development, make himself 
one of that human society, all of whom are governed by the same 
law. Otherwise he can never be an orderly part of the orderly whole. 
To frame his own theories, to make his own laws out of what he 
thinks social necessities ; to create God according to his own image is 
to prove himself an eccentric; an opponent of order; of justice; of 
well-being ; of progress. 

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ 

MUCH of value may be found in the detailed information presented 
by many of these sociologists, but when they speak of truths 
that are fundamental, when they begin to give a theory of society as 
a whole, they, as a rule, pronounce their entire unfitness for the task. 

i^ i^ * * 

LET us take one example from these many papers dealing with the 
discussion. More than one of them state that a necessary element in 
the successful solution, for the welfare of the nation, of the problem 
presented is the preaching and practice of birth control. We might ap- 
propriately review what we said above about the necessary considera- 
tion by creatures in this creative act of the Creator. But these sociolog- 
ical writers evidently admit no such obligation. Leaving aside the 
higher truth which they will not admit, we will say that even on the 
ground of purely human considerations these sociologists are the en- 
emies of the race and the enemies of the nation. Inevitably they who 
deny the Source of truth will deny truth itself. Having lost sight of 
the necessity of a foundation there is nothing on which to plumb their 
building. And at best it is a hopeless process thus starting from no- 
where and ignorant of what is ultimately aimed at. 

* * ♦ * 

"TTHE growth of population," says one writer, "must be so con- 
1 trolled that excessive pressure will never occur." This, he con- 
cludes, offers the best hope for the right solution of the problems that 
face us as a nation. 

As a matter of fact the exact contrary is true. There is no greater 
enemy against our country today than the preaching of this nefarious, 
inhuman and sinful practice of birth control. It is defended not only 
by atheists but by many who call themselves ministers of the Gospel of 
Christ. Love of ease ; unwillingness to endure sacrifice have led many 

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8S8 WITH OUR READERS [Sept, 

of our American people to defend and to practise it. Economic reasons 
are employed as a respectable cloak for their immoral conduct, for im- 
moral, subversive of the law of man and of God, it certainly is. 



WE think it well to reprint here the greater part of an editorial from 
the June issue of the Month: "This detestable propaganda has not 
ceased during the war. The hundreds of thousands of young lives that 
have been sacrificed, to the inevitable detriment of future generations, 
have not given these doctrfnaires pause. They will not recognize that 
the need of the moment and of all time is to secure conditions for the 
bulk of the population in which both quality and quantity in the matter 
of children can be secured. Let them study the sad case of our gallant 
ally, France, now expiating on the blood-drenched field the crime and 
folly that made so many of her citizens neglect their duty of handing on 
the torch of life. Our contemporary the Revue Pratique d'Apologe- 
tique has froni time to time done excellent service in pointing out 
frankly how the curse of Malthusianism has been depopulating France, 
and in its issues of March isth and April 15th of this year it returns 
to the charge with an array of figures of terrible significance. Some of 
these may be quoted here to show whither the teaching of Major 
Leonard Darwin, Dean Inge, and other such sociologists would lead us. 
Since the boundaries of most European States have been constantly 
changed, we may restrict ourselves to a comparison of population be- 
tween France and this country, where the areas have not been altered. 

" In 1700, France mmibered about 20 million inhabitants; the Brit- 
ish Isles numbered from 8 to 10 millions. In 1789, France numbered 
about 26 millions; the British Isles numbered about 12 millions. In 
1814, France numbered about 29J4 millions; the British Isles num- 
bered about 19 millions. In 1880, France numbered about 37.2 millions; 
the British Isles numbered about 34.8 millions. In 1913, France num- 
bered about 39.5 millions ; the British Isles numbered about 46.0 mil- 
lions. 

*' In these last two periods the decay of Christian morality had 
its effect in both countries, but to a far greater extent in France, es- 
pecially when we consider how the population of Ireland steadily de- 
creased owing, not to race-suicide, but to the causes and consequences 
of the Famine, from over 8 millions in 1841 to less than 4^4 millions in 
1914. 

" In 1881 France had about 10 million more inhabitants than Italy 
but 144,000 less births. In 1910 France was only three millions ahead 
of Italy and yet fell short of the latter's number of births by 370,000. 

" Many indications show that the main cause of this terrible decay 
is voluntary sterility. The number of marriages is increasing (282,000 t 

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1917.] ^ITH OUR READERS 859 

in 188 1 ; 308,000 in 191 1; a greater percentage than in Germany). 
There is no trace of organic incapacity. Few unions prove entirely 
sterile, and one authority places the number of abortive births at 500,000 
per annum. Volimtary sterility is proved by the fact that the 282,000 
marriages in 1881 produced 937,000 births, whilst the 308,000 marriages 
in 191 1 produced only 740,000. In 100 French families 16 have no 
children, 50 have one or two, 23 have three or four, 8 have five or six, 
and only 3 over seven! The average family is 2.7 in France, 3.7 in 
England, 4.2 in Germany, 4.5 in Italy, 4.7 in Russia. 

" The lesson is only too clear. France cannot be saved as a nation 
but by a return to the principles of the Gospel, and the decline of Great 
Britain, and of every nation that countenances race-suicide, can only 
be arrested by the same means." 



THAT the attitude of the Socialist party today is incompatible with 
sincerity and patriotism is pointed out by Chester M. Wright, for- 
mer managing editor of The New York Call, in explaining his resigna- 
tion from the party. He characterizes it as " anti-American, anti-dem- 
ocratic " — " anti-social." Anti-American because : " By its attitude 
the Socialist party has placed itself in the position of being a friend of 
the German cause." Anti-democratic because the cause of labor and 
democracy is *' a cause so bound up in the fortunes of this war that to 
desert the cause of America would be to desert everything that the nor- 
mal heart holds dear and that the normal mind clings to." The party is 
anti-social and insincere for while professing friendship for progress, it 
has espoused the cause of reaction and " become an enemy of htunan 
freedom in the hour of freedom's greatest need." Mr. Wright says 
further : 

" The world today is psychologized for democracy. Democracy is 
the household word of the world. And every shot fired on the Allied 
front, as it tears away the defences of autocracy, helps erect the found- 
ations for more democracy than earth has ever known. The Socialist 
party ought to know enough about psychology to perceive something 
of what this world cry for democracy portends; it ought to know 
enough about evolution to see in which direction we are moving. If 
it does not know it only proves what some have suspected — that the 
movement never has been a real Socialist movement; that it never has 
fitted American conditions and the American people, and that sooner or 
later it would have to give way before some more native effort. 
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ 

THESE conclusions are interesting, coming from one who has been 
on the " inside " and ought to know, but for us they possess no nov- 
elty. In every crisis it is the man behind the gun — ^the thought behind 

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86o WITH OUR READERS * [Sept., 

the movement — ^that counts : to reckon truly with any system or party, 
we must reckon with the philosophy which directs and mobilizes it. So- 
cialism claims no higher philosophy than materialism. To the greed of 
capitalism it opposes the g^eed of labor, nothing more. That its cause 
is that of the many against the few has, to some, seemed to justify it, 
but to those who hold that spirit is above matter, that nothing can rise 
above its own level it has ever seemed a futile thing, answering no 
problem, pointing no way : of earth earthy, doomed to die. 
* * * * 

LOVE is a spiritual thing, it is of God, the breath of life informing 
the "body of this death ;" love of country, love of kind, love of race 
cannot thrive in the sterile soil of materialism. All love demands sers^- 
ice and sacrifice, and sacrifice and service are bred of something higher 
than self-seeking, and must tend to ends beyond the things of time. 
The true " brotherhood of man " rests upon the ** Fatherhood of God " 
and through God alone may be obtained. And so it is not surpris- 
ing to find attention drawn to the inadequacies and inconsistencies of 
Socialism. True patriotism must rise above personal gain and party 
aim ; true democracy must be grounded in justice and truth : these are 
spiritual values, requiring spiritual sanction — for this a materialistic 
philosophy makes no provision. 



IN the fight against the unwholesome literary ideals generally cov- 
ered by the term "realism," Catholic writers have taken a leading 
part, a part which cannot be too much praised. However it may be 
doubted whether those who wish to sweep away the dubious '* prob- 
lem " novel in the interests of cleaner fiction always see clearly the 
danger of the opposite literary extreme — the danger of sentimentalism. 
It is possible to discard the devices of " realism " so thoroughly that 
the impression of reality itself is lost, and, in the attempt to portray 
unmixed virtue and unexceptionable situations, the narrative becomes 
simply flaccid and unconvincing. 

♦ ♦ ♦ 4c 

A SOUND novel, however light, should entertain by the fresh, 
* V wholesome presentation of recognizable realities. A make-believe 
universe is of no possible service. It is not a question, merely, of satis- 
fying artistic canons, though these assuredly have their claim ; it is a 
question of furthering or stultifying the whole campaign for decent 
literature. If an author aims to inspire by depicting unsullied inno- 
cence and high decision, he must give them a context familiar and 
credible to human beings. An unreal book, however laudable its 
moral tone, has no positive authority over the mind ; and it may have 
the misfortune of actually enervating spiritual ideals by conveying the 

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1917.] * WITH OUR READERS 861 

impression that innocence and duty and piety are, somehow, senti- 
mental, or " goody-goody," or faintly ridiculous. 

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ 

PRECISELY the deepest criticism of realistic literature' applies 
here also : it is not life. Realism frequently errs by stressing the 
sordid and painful, and producing a picture gloomily out of the per- 
spective. The type of writing under consideration errs by abandoning 
altogether the serious attempt to render actuality, and appeals instead 
to a sentimental and weakly derivative fancy. The first may do — ^too 
frequently does — ^much harm. But it is hard to believe that the second 
accomplishes any positive good by adding to the prestige of Catholic 
letters or rewarding the reader for the time spent in its perusal. 



THE CHAPLAINS' AID ASSOCIATION wishes to express its 
thanks to the readers of The Catholic World for the generous 
response made by them to its appeal in our August issue. The gener- 
ous response has permitted us to send thousands of prayer books and 
devotional articles to our Catholic soldiers, both at home and abroad. 
The demands made upon the Association from all parts of the coun- 
try have been many, showing the extreme need and urgency of the 

work which it has undertaken. 

♦ * * * 

THE Association has endeavored, in every case, to send what has been 
asked for, but the requests at times have included such numbers 
of prayer books, rosaries and scapular medals, as to make it impos- 
sible for it, at the present time, to meet every demand. Already the 
Association has fitted out ten of the priests who will serve as army 
chaplains with full outfit. This outfit consists of a well-made bag, 
containing a folded mahogany altar, sets of vestments, full sets of 
altar linens, missal and missal-stand ; a silver chalice, candles, candle 
sticks, crucifix, altar cards and everything needed for the celebration 
of holy Mass, and the ordinary administration of the sacraments by • 

the priest. 

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ 

THE Association has been able, by purchasing wholesale, to make up 
these outfits at a cost of $100.00 apiece. It has, therefore, during 
the past month spent over $1,000.00 in furnishing and distributing 

these chaplains' outfits. 

♦ ♦ * ♦ 

THE work of The Chaplains' Aid Association has not forgotten the 
needs of our Catholic soldiers who are already in France. It has 
sent five hundred dollars ($500.00) worth of prayer books, rosaries 
and religious articles to Father John J. Brady, of the Fifth Regiment 
Marines, now serving in France, and it has also sent a large supply of 

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862 IVITH OUR READERS [Sept, 

religious articles with Father Feinler, an army chaplain, who recently 
sailed for France. Later, a large consignment of religious articles 
went with Father Pontur who sailed about the middle of August for 

France, as a supplementary Catholic chaplain. 

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ 

WITH r^;ard to our soldiers now mobilized in camps in this coun- 
try, and our sailors, the Association has distributed a large num- 
ber of prayer books and religious articles. Quantities of such articles 
have been sent to Rev. E. A. Duff, U. S. N. Nevada; Rev. M. G. Glee- 
son, Naval Training Station, Newport, R. I. ; Rev. Eugene Burke, U. 
S. S. Michigan; Rev. I. J. Bouffard, U. S. S. South Carolina; Rev. E. 
Rosecrans, San Diego, California; Syracuse, New York; Fort Totten, 
New York, and many other camps and regiments. 

Besides thb work, the Association is sending both to France and 
to the camps all their currents issues of Catholic magazines, and also 
secular publications that are healthy and wholesome in tone. 

Any information as to how and where such magazines and read- 
ing matter may be forwarded, may be obtained from the office of 
the Association at 580 Fifth Avenue, New York City. 

* i(H i(H IK 

THE Association has also compiled at the request of The American 
Library Association, suitable lists of books for the camp libraries. 
This Association has promised to cooperate with us, and thereby ex- 
tend the reading of the books that we recommend, not only through 
the Catholic recreaticm halls, but also through the other recreation 
halls that will be built on camp sites. 

The Chaplains' Aid Association has extended its activity through 
local chapters, and also through other societies who have taken up the 
work, retaining their full autonomy, but all working in cooperation 

with one another. 

♦ * ♦ ♦ 

THE office at New York provides a central purchasing office, and this 
insures a great saving in procuring the necessary goods. The Asso- 
ciation finds that there is a wide-spread demand for a pocket edition 
of the New Testament on the part of Catholic soldiers and sailors, and 
it is anxious to receive contributions that it may be able to provide, 
free, a Testament to all of our Catholic soldiers and sailors. This 
will be an enormous task, of course, but the Association intends to 
undertake it, and will be most grateful for any contributions sent for 
the purpose. 



ON August nth and 12th there was held at the Catholic University at 
Washington, D. C, a conference called by the authority of their 
Eminences James, Cardinal Gibbons, John, Cardinal Farley and Wil- 

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1917.] IVITH OUR READERS 863 

liam, Cardinal O'Connell, which included representatives from fifty- 
eight dioceses throughout the country ; representatives of all the lead- 
ing Catholic societies of the country, both men and women and repre- 
sentatives of the Catholic press. The conference met to consider the 
problems which the War has obliged American Catholics to face ; to 
decide how in the work common to all, unity of action and aim: the 
full coordination of all our societies might be secured. The conference 
unanimously agreed upon a national organization which, through the 
Ordinaries in every diocese and through a national executive board, 
composed of a representative from each archdiocese appointed by the 
Archbishop of that diocese, should, during the war, study to cooperate 
and coordinate the work of every Catholic society. This was the 
unanimous decision of all the representatives and the societies present, 
and it is hoped that the vast, generous agencies of Catholic activity 
will thus be made more efficient, saved from loss of effort and 
money caused by overlapping, and enabled to work together under the 
hierarchy with a common purpose for a common end. 



DOGMATIC truth, it is frequently stated, has grown unfashion- 
able. Arnold Bennett, the well-known novelist, recently in criticiz- 
ing G. K. Chesterton said : " In my opinion, at this time of day, it is 
absolutely impossible for a young man with a first-class intellectual ap- 
paratus to accept any form of dogma, and I am therefore forced to 
the conclusion that Mr. Chesterton has not got a first-class intellectual 
apparatus." 

One phrase in Bennett's criticism interested Chesterton very 
much. It was not merely the idea that " dogmas " are incompatible 
with first-class intellect, but that "the dogmas are considered untenable 
at this time of day." He goes on to say: 

" Mr. Bennett probably did not even notice that he was using a 
metaphor, still less that the metaphor exposes and explodes his whole 
philosophy. He would think it very absurd to say he could believe in 
Reincarnation at 12.30 a. m., but not at 3.30 p.m. He would think it 
ridiculous to say after lunch that Mahomet was the true prophet, and 
then to say after tea, 'One cannot believe in Mahomet at this time of 
day.* Yet it is every bit as irrational to deal thus with mere cen- 
turies as to deal thus with mere hours. My apparatus, not to men- 
tion his own apparatus, is at any rate a more subtle, lively and flex- 
ible apparatus than a clock. He does not worship an eight-day clock 
(if I may so far intrude upon his private habits), and I will not wor- 
ship an eight-century clock either." 



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The Century Co., New York: 

Inside the British Isles, 19 17. By Arthur Gleason. $2.00 net. In the Wotid. 
By Maxim Gorky. $2.00 net. The Inner Door. By A. Sullivan. $1.35 net. 
The Bobbs-Merrrill Co., New York: 

The Sport of Kings. By A. S. Roche. $1.40 net. 
Oxford University Press, New York : 

Italy: Medieval and Modem. By E. M. Jamison, C. M. Ady, K. D. Vernon 
and C. S. Terry. 
Frederick A. Stokes Co., New York: 

A Young Lion of Flanders. By J. van A. Kueller. $1.50 net. 
The America Press. New York : 

A Catholic Soldier^ s Diary. Pamphlet. 5 cents. 
Henry Holt & Co.. New York: 

The Sorry Tale. By Patience Worth. $1.90 net. 
DuFFiKLD & Co., New York : 

The New Carthage. By G. Eekhoud. $1.50 net. 
Longmans, Green & Co., New York: 

The Method in the Madness. By C. Bevan. 
Funk & Wagnalls Co., New York: 

Women of Belgium. By Charlotte Kellogg. $1.00 net. 
E. P. Button & Co., New York: 

A Student in Arms. Second Scries. By D. Hankey. $1.50 net. Cone to 
Earth. By M. Webb. $1.50 net. The Master of the Hills. By S. J. Cocke. 
$1.50 net. The England of Shakespeare. By P. H. Ditchiield. $2.00 net. 
John Lane Co., New York: 

Through the Iron Bars. By E. Cammaerts. 
HoDDER & Stoughton, Ncw York : 

Britain's Financial Effort. The Welfare of Egypt. By J. S. Willinore. The 
Justice of Rumania s Cause. By A. W. A. Leeper. Prussian Militarism at 
Work. By Rt. Rev. Dr. Cleary. Frightfulness in Retreat. PamphleU. 
P. J. Kenedy & Sons, New York: 

The Mystical Knowledge of God. By S. Louismet, O.S.B. 75 cents. LittU 
Pilgrims to Our Lady of Lourdes. By Mrs. F. Blundell (M. E. Francis). $1.10. 
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington, D. C. : 

Year Book for 1917. 
Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston: 

The British Navy at War. By W. M. Dixon. 75 cents net. The Mexican 
Problem. By C. W. Barron. $1.00 net. 
LangdOn & Co., Chicago: 

Operative Ownership. By James J. Finn. $1.50. 
The Thrift Publishers, Racine, Wis. : 

Saving and Investing Money. By T. E. Sanders. $1.00. 
Rev. a. M. Skelly, O.P., Seattle, Wash.: 

The Woes of Ireland. By Rev. A. M. Skelly, O.P. Pamphlet. 5 cents. 
Hayman, Christy & Lilly, London: 

The Case of the Allies. Pamphlet. 
J. M. Dent & Sons, London: 

The Destruction of Merchant Ships. By Sir F. Smith. K.C., M.P. 
R. & T. Washbourne, London : 

The Cardinal Archbishop's Visits to the Fleet. Pamphlet. 
Wm. Heinemann, London : 
France. By C. Myrop. 
T. Fisher Unwin, London : 

The Deportations of Belgian Workmen. By J. Destrcl. The War on Hospital 
Ships. From the Narrative of Eyewitnesses. To the Men Behind the Annies, 
By E. Cammaerts. Pamphlets. 
Australian Catholic Truth Society, Melbourne: 

The Manliness of St. Paul. By Very Rev. W. MacDonald, D.D. Social Ideals. 
By Rev. M. Edge. Pamphlets. 
Bloud et Gay, Paris: 

Le Dieu Allcmand. Par D. Cochin. Discours. a I'Hopital. Par F. Masson. 
Les Frangaises et la Grande Guerre. Par Berthem-Bontoux. Guerre de 
Religions. Par F. Masson. La France, les Catholiques et la Guerre. P*r 
Mgr. A. Baudrillart. Pour la Croisade du XX-e Siicle. Par T. Delraont. 
Gabriel Beauchesne, Paris : 

Meditations du Prisonnier. Par Dom Hibrard. 2fr. 7$. L'Ame existe. Par 
H. de Pully. Le Train Rouge. Par A. Bessi^res. sfr. 50. 



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To partly cover increaoed cost of manalactiire, the 
7-20-4 IOC Cigar haa advanced ia price. This assures 
the smoker that the present high sundard of quality 
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"toTciGAR ^ R. G. SULLIVAN 

Largest selling brand of 10c. Cigars In the world. 

FACTORY. MANOHESTER, N, H. 



DoKj 8vo, pp. zfl, 468. Poft Free to U.S.A. tt7S 

The Lesser Eastern Churches 

IT 

ADRIAN FORTESCUE, PIlD., D.D. 
With Illustrations. 

''PHIS book forms a contintiadon, or second part, of The Orthodox Eastern 
1 Church, by the same author. Its object is to describe the lesser separated 
Eastern Churches in the same way as that volume described the |^eatest 
(The words "greatest" and "lesser" are only meant to qualify their size.) 
The present work consists of four parts : I. The Nestorians, who come first, 
as being the oldest schismatical Church in Christendom; 11. The Copts, with 
a preliminary chapter on the origin and early history of the Monophysite 
heresy; III. The Abyssinians, Jacobites, and Malatratr Christians; IV. The 
Armenians. In each part the first formation of the Church is described; 
then follow chapters on its history in the past, on its present state, numbers, 
hierarchy, oi^nization, rites, vestments, creed, and customs. The book con- 
tains many illustrations from photographs and drawings, views, and plans 
of churches, and portraits of* the present heads of these religious bodies, 
several of which have never hitherto been published. 

CATHOLIC TRUTH SOCIETY 
69 Southwark Bridge Road London, S.E. 



NEW EDITION. 

FATHER ELLIOTT'S 

LIFE OF CHRIST. 

PROPUSKLY ILLUSTRATED. BOO pag«s. 
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PRICE^ : : S1.50 

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/'-^ r-^ i-^ I 



TO INVESTORS: 



We own and of7er, subject to prior sale, the following unsold portions of first mortgage real estate 
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showing the character <ff the moral as well as the physical security behind them. The notes arc all pay- 
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Every facility furnished non-resident purchasers. Reservations can be made for delivery any time witliin 
thirty days. 



Congregation of the Sisters Marianites of the 

Holy Cross 

Lake Charles, La. 

Total issue was $25,000.00; paid and canceled to 
date, $1,000.00 ; now outstanding, $24,000.00. Se- 
cured by school and convent property at Lake Char- 
les, Louisiana, valued by us at $48,000.00. Notes 
executed by Motherhouse at New Orleans. 

Maturities now available: August ist, 1924 and 
1925^ 

Saint Thomas Hospital 
Nashville, Tenn. 
Total issue was $200,000.00; paid and canceled 
to date, $10,000.00; now outstanding, $190,000.00. 
Secured by hospital property in Nashville, Tennes- 
see, conducted by the Daughters of Charity of St. 
Vincent de Paul, valued by us at $465,000.00. 

Maturities now available: May ist, 1923 and 
1924. 



Church of the Immaculate 

Seattle, Washington 

Total issue was $100,000.00; paid and canceled 

to date, $7,000.00 ; now outstanding, $93,000.00. 

Secured by first mortgage on an entire block of 

ground in Seattle, Washington, together with church 

and school building, all valued by us at $200,000.00. 

Maturities now available: January 15th, I9-24- 

Pioneer Educational Society 
Spokane, Washington 

Total issue, $200,000.00 ; value of real estate se- 
curity, $470,000.00. These notes are the obligation 
of the Pioneer Elducational Society (Jesuit Order) 
secured by a deed of trust on a tract of land con- 
taining 480 acres, together with four-story and 
basement, fireproof building, used as a scholasticate 
for the Western Providence of the Jesuit Order. 

Maturities now available : December ist, 19-24. 



Loans We Have Hade and Sold on This Plan in the Last Few Tears Include: 



Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, 

Amarillo, Texas 

Reverend F. G. Holweck St. Louis, Mo. 

Knights of Columbus Building Co. ... St. Louis, Mo. 

Loretto Lit. & Ben. Institute St. Louis, Mo. 

St. Vincent's College Cape Girardeau, Mo. 

Right Rev. John B. Morris Little Rock, Ark. 

Redemptorist Fathers Kansas City, Mo. 

Retreat of Passionist Fathers Normandy, Mo. 

Sisters of St. Mary Kansas City, Mo. 

St. Teresa's Academy Kansas City, Mo. 

St. Thomas Theological Seminary .... Denver, Colo. 

St. Vincent's Free School St. Louis, Mo. 

St. Vincent's Hospital. ,* Little Rock, Ark. 

Catholic Bishop of Chicago Chicago, 111. 

Columbus College Chamberlain, S. D. 

Loretto Lit & Ben. Institute Denver, Colo. 

Right Rev. T. Meerschaert Oklahoma City, Okla. 

Right Rev. P. J. Muldoon Aurora, 111. 

Pioneer Educational Society Spokane, Wash. 

Rev. T. T. Pudlowski St. Louis, Mo. 

St. Anne's Widows' Home St. Louis, Mo. 

St. Edward's Catholic Church Little Rock, Ark. 

St. Joseph's Convent of Mercy St. Louis, Mo. 

Reverend Joseph T. Shields St. Louis, Mo. 

Sisters of the Humility of Mary Ottumwa, la. 

Sisters Holy Name of Jesus and Mary, 

Portland, Ore. 



University of Dallas Dallas, Texas 

Right Rev. M. F. Burke St. Joseph, Mo. 

Reverend J. T. Foley St. Louis, Mo. 

Hotel Dieu New Orleans, La- 
Reverend George P. Kuhlman St. Louis, Mo. 

Redemptorist Fathers San Antonio, Texas 

St. Francis Passionist Miss. Inst St. Paul, Kan. 

St. John's Catholic Church Hot Springs, Ark. 

Sisters of Charity of Providence Medford. Ore. 

Sisters of Charity of Providence. .Vancouver, Wash. 

Sisters of the Good Shepherd New Orleans, La. 

Sisters of Mercy Janesville, Wis. 

Sisters of Mercy Little Rock, Ark. 

Sisters of St. Mary Madison, Wis. 

Sisters of St. Francis Tacoma, Wash. 

Sisters of St. Mary Blue Island. 111. 

Rev. C. Spigardi St. Louis, Mo; 

Ursuline Nuns New Orleans, La, 

Reverend Francis Gilfillan St. Louis, Mo. 

House of the Good Shepherd Milwaukee, Wis. 

Sisters of Charity of Incarnate Word, 

Shreveport, La. 

St. Paul Sanitarium Dallas, Texas 

Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, 

Oklahoma City, Okla. 
Reverend F. J. O'Conor St. Louis, Mo. 



We solicit applications for loans on hospital and church property in cities having a population in 
excess of 30,000, and where the amount of loan and margin of security are sufficient to warrant our mak- 
ing a personal examination of the property. Correspondence invited. 

MERCANTILE TRUST COMPANY 

Real Estate Loan Department 
EIGHTH AND LOCUST STREETS, ST. LOUIS, MO. ^^ , 

FF5;TIIS J. WADE. President J. B. MOBEg^^jSf^^&O^^O^ff^cer 



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Advent, Its Meaning and Porpose. 

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Mary, Tower of Ivory and Glory of laraeL 

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My Home-Coming. By Ingeborg Magnussen. 
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Outline of Church History. 

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Science and Religion — ^Thea and Now. 

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Social Reform on Catholic Lines. 

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The Acceptable Time. Daily Readings for Lent 

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The Saint of the Crucified. 

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The Socialist State Doomed to Failure. 

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The Virtue of Bigotry. 

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The Voice of the Good Shepherd— Does It live? 

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The Worth of the Commonplace. 

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Thoughts on Holy Week. 

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To Prepare'^the Way. By Julia C Dox. 
To Whom Shall We Go? 

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True Story of a Conversion. 

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Wage Legislation for Women. 

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What Do the Methodists Intend To Do? 

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Gentiles. 

THB FIELD AFAl records the pro- 
greii9 of the WMlM Portlgi KlntM 8mi. 
Inary of Itrioi 

The Field Afar appears monthly and 
the subscription, including membership in 
the Foreign Mission Society, with the 
assurance of many spiritual advantages, is 
ODE DOLLAR A TEAR. 

Addre&a: 
HARTUOLLi 08II1II0 P. 0., I. T. 




Far W^ell-Borti Pect 

A baby's heritage is perfect f«t Hut that 

jjift must lt>e ireasurcd ihrough the formative 

period when the iooi and ankle bonrs are 

gmwme and hardcniuf;. tnsure yourcbild^s 

health and corn Tort bf choosinc Co^^ard 

Shoes. Thpy are nia.de ta jjuide the gmwih 

in the natural way and torecrify weak arches 

and ankles. 'I'hey keep perfect fe«t perTect 

fOR CHILDREN. WOMEM «N0 MEN 

Sold nowhort iIm 

JAMES S. COWARD 

262-774 Smnwlch St. n«ar W«rr*ii St. Miw Yorh 

Hill Oiil«ri nilf d Stni] h>r Caliltp 



Stories I Stories I 

THE IDEAL SHORT STORY MAGAZINE 

How many Catholics know that we have a Catholic short- 
story magazine which offers the best fiction in the market? 

The ideal companion for trip, for voyage, for week-end, or 
holiday. 

Send 10 cents for Sample Copy. 



XEbe « /Ragnlficat 



MANCHnSTBR, N. H. 



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Wlum tttriiina to advertisers tlease mention The Catholic World 



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The Composition^^Cgca-C \ 

and its RGlati<^^Q:^a ^^ I 

Prompted by tfie deelre ^that the public shall s 

be' thoroughly infornled as to the composi- s 

tion and dietetic, cliaractev of Coca-Cola, the 5 

Company has , issued a booklet giving a de- § 

taUed analysis of its recipe which is as follows : s 

Water, sterilized by boiling (carbonated); s 

sugar, granulated, first quality; fruit flavoring s 

extracts v^ith caramel; acid flavorings, citric S 

(lemon) and phosphoric; essence of tek^the 5 

refreshing principle* S 

The following analysis* by the late Dr. John S 

W. Mallet^ Fellow of the Royal Society and S 

,/ .^ fpr nearly forty years^ Professor. of Chemistry 5 

in the University of Virginia, show^ the com- § 

parative stimulating or refreshing strength of 5 

tea and Coca-Qola, measiired in terms of the s 

refreshing principle: s 

B 

Black tea—1 tmpfuL. L54 § 

ihot) (SAom.) S 

Green tea — 1 glassful - 2,02 S 

icold) {,8 B. OM. Bxelumirm of 100) S 

Coca-Colar-l drink, 8 H. oz. .;. t21 . § 

( Fountain) {pnprwi with 1 B. om. Syrup) S 

Ccxya-Cola—l drink, 8 fl. oz.^ -..- 1.12 § 

(6oM/er«> (prmpmnd with J £. om. Sjnp) S 

Prom the above recipe and analysis, which are s 

confirmed by all chemists who liave analyzed S 

these beverages, it is apparent that Coca-Cpla 5 

^ is a carbonated, fruit-flavored modification of g 

tea of a little more tluuv one-half its stimulate* s 

ing strength. g 

A xopy of the booklet referred to above'wtU g 

be mailed free on request, and The Coca-Cola S 

Company especially invites inquiry from s 

those who are interested in pore food and S 

public health propaganda. Address g 

The Coca-Cc^ Co, DepU J^ AOBQia^Ga^U.aA. g 



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UNlVERSmr Of MICHIGAN 



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