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No. 4402, MARCH 9, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
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CONTENTS.
PAGE
273
275
276
278-279
BOOK SALE . .
279-280
284
285
LITERARY GOSSIP
286-288
SALE ;
. .
The BRUCE SETON
GOSSIP
288-289
MUSIC - THE ARISTOXENIAN THEORY OF MUSICAL
RHYTHN;
PERFORMANCES NEXT
WEEK. .
290-291
291-292
292
. .
have international relations “Labour is the great Conqueror. Not
but dimly apprehended till Norman war, but work is the great Educator. "
SATURDAY, MARCH 9, 1912.
Angell
, discarding all the old argu- Labour and Education must undoubtedly
ments which were based on sentiment, be the two great factors in bringing us to
and which depended on the increase of the third stage of the movement, which
humanitarian feelings, stated the case in will be social and intellectual. The peoples
PEACE (The Passing of War; True Patriotism). .
the light of cold reason and well-balanced of the world—that is, the masses that
VISIONS OF LIFE (The Drama of Love and Death) 274 logic. He did not claim to make any constitute the true organic life of nations-
TWO FRIENDS OF LETTERS (Life and Letters of John
Rickman ; Letters to William Allingbam)
discovery, but he expounded, with admir- are more and more on the side of peace,
ENCYCLOPÆDIA OF RELIGION AND ETHICS
able precision, a view which had been because they are becoming international
POETIC CRITICISM (Lectures on Poetry; Poetry and
presenting itself in different ways to in their sympathies. They are absorbed
Prose ; A Concordance to Wordsworth) 277—278 many minds, and by his book he roused in their work; they are occupied with
OUR LIBRARY TABLE (The Charwoman's Daughter; the whole world to a fresh discussion of their own industrial difficulties; their
Women and Prisons ; Histoire abrégée de la Franc-
Maçonnerie ; Two Visits to Denmark ; The New the problem of war in new terms and with power is increasing ; and the more they
Life of Borrow)
new arguments. The Peace movement are consulted, and the better they are
NOTES FROM RUSSIA ; THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK;
was at once stimulated. It left the informed of the broad lines of our foreign
LIST OF NEW BOOKS . .
280 region of pious aspiration, and entered an policy, the greater will be our safeguard
FORTHCOMING Books . .
economic and rational stage.
against war. But they must know the causes
Canon Grane, in a new volume which of our quarrels ; they must be allowed to
SCIENCE-FUEL (An Introduction to the Study of Fuel ;
will be a valuable addition to the literature understand the aspirations of other coun-
Liquid Fuel and its Apparatus ; The Coming of
Petroleum); MILK AND THE PUBLIC HEALTH ; of Peace, is anxious that the moral appeal tries; and they must themselves make a
SOCIETIES ; MEETINGS Next WEEK ; GOSSIP
should not be lost sight of, but should study of foreign national character. The
FINE ARTS - THE EARLY NORMAN CASTLES OF THE
BRITISH ISLES; THE CHURCH OF ST. GILES,
be combined with more recent economic rich and the idle will often be on the side
NORTHAMPTON;
arguments, in order to give them inspira- of war, and, so long as there is an idle
tion and strength :-
class who have great social and some
GOSSIP ;
political power, the risk of their occupy-
They are not to be accounted hinderers ing their abundant leisure in encouraging
Two NOVELISTS IN THE THEATRE (Milestones, and
in this crusade who hold that social reforma, the spirit of suspicion and hostility against
Kipps); MR. GEORGE GROSSMITH
tions are to be worked out by spiritual
The
INDEX TO ADVERTISERS
means, and that the seed of social ethics the foreigner will still be great.
will best fructify in the soil of spiritual more, therefore, political power can be
experience. . . . To demonstrate with Mr. transferred from the idle few to the
Angell's skill the Reasonableness of a right workers in every nation, the weightier
course is invaluable work. Nevertheless, to will be the consensus of opinion against
LITERATURE
persuade men of its Rightness is often the the destructive force of war : the greater
surest and sometimes the only way to stir the conviction of its futility.
them to take it. ”
In most of the books which deal with
He emphasizes one of the most important the Peace movement there is a tendency
PEACE. .
considerations, which is the difference in to disregard some of the indestructible
motive in war to-day compared with wars instincts, not only of individuals, but also
For years the cause of Peace has depended a hundred years ago :-
of human beings in the mass.
There may
on the advocacy of a very small body of
“The Napoleonic period is over for ever. be no such thing as racial animosity to-
opinion, which has been sincere and War is no longer the concern of one man, nor day, and the primitive instinct of combat
courageous, but at the same time not very even of a Cabinet plus an army-Nations may have become very much mitigated,
convincing. The arguments were based are armies now. The participation of the but there is in every nation a great force
on an appeal to the better instincts of people in this great affair of State grows less of combined energy which demands an
mankind, and the response was timid and and less a negligible quantity. ”
outlet. The fact that this energy has been
uncertain. Wars were frequent, and the Speaking as an orthodox Christian, Canon often devoted to a destructive purpose,
final arbitrament of arms in disputes Grane openly acknowledges that “the leads many to suppose that it should
between nations was regarded as inevito breach between the creed and conduct of be condemned. But it should neither
able. National ambitions had always been Christendom is peculiarly flagrant " where be condemned nor ignored. There is a
pursued by aggressive action. National war is concerned. Even more attention spirit of adventure and enterprise, particu-
pride had always responded with defensive might be called to the attitude of the larly noticeable in the British race, which
action. A Peace party was a party to be clergy, especially those of the Church of will break out sooner or later, and cannot
despised as not being sufficiently alive England, in time of war. For one who be confined by any humdrum negative
to national responsibilities, and not suffi- lifts his voice in the pulpit against violence doctrine of existence. It is to be met with
ciently imbued with what was considered and against the wholesale extermination in its crudest form in the boy mind, and
to be the proper spirit of patriotism. of human life, there are scores who openly though such a book as 'True Patriotism'
This may be called the sentimental and or covertly fan the flames of passion and is to be highly commended to teachers,
humanitarian stage of the Peace move- hatred, in direct violation of the very most boys will still turn with far more
ment.
essence and spirit of their creed. In eager and far more natural interest to
Unforeseen changes brought about a
a small book just reissued for the use read of Nelson boarding the enemy's
complete transformation in human rela of schools which we add to our notice, ship, sword in hand. Miss Pease no doubt
tionships. Suddenly almost, as a result the story of two bishops (one in the appreciates this point, for she gives in a
of inventions and discoveries, the world Argentine, the other in Chili
) who, by simple and telling way several instances of
became smaller, and a host of circum- their eloquent and incessant exhortations heroic exploits in time of peace. Martial
stances occurred which gradually broke to the people, actually, prevented an heroism to-day is necessarily very different
down a number of the barriers which outbreak of war between the two countries, in character from what it was in the
separated and estranged the nations is a striking testimony of the power of past, and it is far less attractive, even
from one another. The full significance religious influence in a great national to the youngest imagination.
of this change and of the effect it must crisis.
The truth is that action must be offered
But something more is wanted than the in exchange for action. The passive and
The Passing of War: a Study in Things that moral argument, even when it is supple- negative attitude of the old-fashioned
make for Peace. By William Leighton mented by economic and financial con- pacificist and the dispassionate reasoning
Grane. (Macmillan & Co. )
siderations. The author of 'The Passing of the modern opponent of war are in-
True Patriotism. By Margaret Pease. (The of War' touches the next stage of this sufficient in themselves, unless they can be
Pilgrim Press. )
great world-problem when he declares : 1 supplemented by an indication of the


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real channel into which this great and the credit of having enriched our nation us, vanishings, blank misgivings of a
increasing force of mental, moral, and with Utopian conceptions of the ultimate creature moving about in worlds not
physical energy which is generated by blessedness of the evolution of man. realized,” of which it is the cause, and
civilized humanity can be directed. Where In his new book, which was no doubt through love, which is the denial of
is the enemy? How can we get at him ? partially suggested by Love's Coming annihilation. Indeed, within this sphere
Those are the vital questions. Not “ Lay of Age and The Art of Creation,' but of thinking, the association with Intima-
'
'
down your arms and fold your hands in which extends the volume and scope of tions of Immortality 'and. We are Seven,'
pious resignation,” but “Pick up the its material far beyond them, he tacitly which has been analyzed so luminously by
right weapons, and put all the force and claims to be considered in what is to a Mr. A. C. Bradley, is close. Nor is the
power you have at your command into a large extent a new light-not only as a survival of certain functions of the Self-
mortal combat with the real foe,” is the psychologist of exceptional intuition, but hood inconsistent with the final mystical
true injunction. We realize more clearly also as a religious speculator whose fusion with the universal consciousness.
every year that our fellow-men in foreign tentative deductions may yet shake the The book as a whole is concerned with
lands are not our enemies. The great marshalled forces of orthodoxy. To our what we may call the metallurgy of souls,
strides made of late in convincing us of minds, the supreme achievement of The their intrinsic meaning, their origin in the
the wastefulness, futility, and barbaric Drama of Love and Death' is its com- All-Self,” their pre-existence in a “fourth
nature of war, should put men on their prehensiveness. It stretches feelers far and dimensional” state of being, their evolu-
guard and prevent them from submitting wide, reaching out into philosophic, social, tion, and the possibility of their liberation
to be used as tools for the aggressive psychical, and scientific theory, and in after the dissolution of the body. That
ambitions of governments, unscrupulous one way or another — consciously or un portion of the book which deals with the
statesmen, and financiers. Canon Grane's consciously-concerns itself with the two memorizing capacity of the subliminal
book in the hands of statesmen and verities which, amid the flux and conflict self, its intense and incessant creativeness,
thinkers, and Miss Margaret Pease's in- of mortality, have their fibres fast rooted betraying the “ very source of the visible
dication of line of instruction for in eternity-love and death. The spiritual and tangible world,” and its forms of
children, should both be of value in unity of mankind and the permeation of materialization, is a development of the
fostering the proper
of social life and intelligence through all the phe-theory of the "Mass-man " and the “Unit-
responsibility and international goodwill. nomena of nature are the keystone of this man,” which is embodied in Civilisation :
But to the conviction that war turns us philosophy, and the romanticist, the its Cause and Cure. ' To its elucidation Mr.
against our friends, must be added theologian, the teacher, the reformer, Carpenter brings a mass of circumstantial
a determined concentration of effort in the artist, and the man of science-all evidence drawn from the Psychical Re-
order to seek out the real enemy that who have sifted and scrutinized life, as search Society, and from the investigations
lurks in our midst, and forge the proper well as lived it are concerned. They of Frederick Myers, in support of his con-
weapons for a far more formidable, but a will have to reckon not only with ception of its immortality and perdura-
far more invigorating, and ennobling the potential and centripetal develop- bility through various phases of existence,
encounter against the deadly forces that ment of Mr. Carpenter's creed of pan- both hereafter and in pre-vital cosmo-
stand in the way of social advancement. theistic unification, which is tolerably gonies. This world, he says, is " a curtain
“
familiar and indeed inherent in the concealing a vast and teeming life,” fuller
majority of religions, but also with the and richer than our own, and the human
wonderful interrelation of their own soul is for ever passing through countless
VISIONS OF LIFE.
crafts, professions, and gospels, which, “sloughings, moultings, and metamor-
with the arrival of a wider self-conscious-phoses, made possible through love-
THE appearance of a new book by Mr.
Edward Carpenter is that of a comet inness, will operate from a central, original consciousness and postulating eternity.
base into a similarity of conclusion. Survival of the subliminal self is through
the literary firmament; so rare are its That potent relevancy the book before continuity of consciousness, " which,
visitations ; so iridescent, yet remote and
us amply demonstrates.
affiliated to some cosmic life “at once
unfamiliar its presence. He belongs, in-
Three salient features, which differentiate the soul of each and God of all," as Cole-
deed, to those latter-day Victorians who,
· The Drama of Love and Death 'from the ridge says, forms the basis of successive
in an age of atrophy, Philistinism, and
artistic decrepitude, placed on its old and earlier prose works, strike us forcibly. In incarnations.
palsied head a fresh coronal of hopes,
the first place, the theories expounded are Through all this complex and com-
visions, and liberation. In another age; The vague, symphonic opulence of lan- personal religious belief, we
,
more formative and definite in character. posite massing of scientific data and
poor in achievement, confused in its
purport, lacking a distinctive voice to guage is happily untarnished by contact fronted with a sureness, a rapidity, and
concentrate and declaim its inchoate,
with psychical, physiological, and scientific a subtlety of reasoning, which only a
embryonic ideals, which it none the less factors, that demand the utmost coherence powerful mind, endowed with the keenest
could
possesses, those Victorians are already and lucidity of argument in the exposition sensibilities, have successfully
stored in the archives of memory; hence
of them. Secondly, we notice the accre- evolved. Innumerable channels of thought
the falling among us of a star from
tion of stores of Oriental conjecture in have flowed into this receptive mind, have
that bright constellation has something from many sources, and incorporated broad, confluent stream, which, in the
the framework of the thesis, gleaned irrigated it, and swept out again in on
portentous, almost Delphic, in its signific-
We have an impression that Mr. I implicitly, and by suggestion, chiefly present reviewer's opinion, may profoundly
Carpenter's reputation is much below through the tenets of reincarnation and modify the ethical, social, and religious
its deserts. Mr. H. W. Nevinson, on the its implications. Bhagaran Das's illu- beliefs of the future.
. ;
publication of Civilisation : its Cause minating book The Science of Peace
The idea that the macrocosm, which is
and Cure,' labelled him as “ The Complete is more than once directly quoted. Lastly, the pantheist's “ heaven of heavens,”
Anarchist," and it is as the exponent
we find an apparently incongruous de- should connote an individualizing tendency
of anarchistic doctrines in their most parture from the elemental doctrines of of soul-survival, is an empirical audacity
-
enlightened, visionary, and pacific forms, the monists and the pantheists in the which will excite attention. It is due in
and as the interpreter of the democracy theory of the survival of the identity of part, says the author, to the inflexibly
according to Whitman, that he is best the personality into ever-widening spheres personal character of love, which moulds
known to English readers and thinkers of consciousness.
.
the progressive embodiments and manifes-
He also shares with William Morris, Mr. Carpenter, in this connexion, makes tations of the “world-soul,” and in part to
Mr. W. H. Hudson, and Mr. H. G. Wells
a careful distinction between the self, a theory of the “ All-Self” and the Race-
bounded by the local and ephemeral con- Self,” which is contained in the latter
The Drama of Love and Death : a Study of ditions of earthly life, and the subliminal portion of the book. In the early stages
Human Evolution. By Edward Carpenter. self, the revelation of which is only vouch- of life, both in the animal and vegetable
(George Allen & Sons. )
safed to us through those “ fallings from kingdom and in primitive man, the
are
con-
ance.
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young Irish
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Race-Self was paramount. Each self of immortality. It is not known exactly Letters' from 1849 onwards, except in
of a particular animal species, for instance, when the introduction took place. Mr. that published by the Boston Bibliophile
springs from its own Race-Self,” and Williams states that, though Rickman Society. It is the statement that Rick-
at death returns to and is merged into it. was familiar with Lamb's name, he had man is very intimate with Southey, “but
The “ Race-Self is “rich with the not made his acquaintance when, in a never reads his poetry”; whereas the
countless memories” and “ wise with the letter to his friend Southey on July true reading is but does not always
united knowledge ” of the individuals 29th, he told him that “ Mr. Lamb is soon | (read] his poetry a very different
which have comprised it, until at length to be my neighbour in Southampton pronouncement. It was not Amos, but
in the epoch of civilization " a soul-bud Buildings. A certain statement, how- Joseph Cottle who was the author of the
is detached from the race-life and re- ever, in a letter of April 18th to the same tremendous poem Alfred,' in twenty-
embodied as a separate identity. ” It correspondent, makes the conjecture not four books ; and the slip spoils the point
persists, expands, and radiates into suc- | improbable that there had been a meeting of Lamb's story of his visit of condolence
cessive condensations in other spheres, at least as early as that month, for Rick-to the latter on the death of his brother.
finally being reunited into the “ All- man writes : “I learnt at the India House
Self,” which is the very fount of being. that Mr. Coleridge had taken flight north- tions of views of the buildings in New
There are several interesting reproduc-
The preliminary and introductory chap- ward. ” Who was there at the India Palace Yard in Rickman's time.
ters, which treat mainly of the theme of House to know of that fact but a certain
love, are an extended re-affirmation of clerk in the Accountant's office ?
The interest of ‘Letters to William
'Love's Coming of Age,' and also serve For the greater part of his career, Allingham' is mainly literary: it is the
as the groundwork for describing later Rickman was Clerk at the Table of the correspondence of the
the interplay of love with the immortality House of Commons, having been for a Customs House officer who, by sheer
of the soul. The book as a whole leaves few years previously the Speaker's Secre- force of
character and enthusiasm,
us with a dim cognizance of unplum bed, tary. He was also the originator of the became the editor of Fraser's Magazine,
Titanic forces within us, about us, and in Census. He met Southey in 1797, and
a verse writer of merit, and the friend
eternity, of which we are the stuff and between them there sprang up a friendship and correspondent of most of the literary
essence, and from the perception of which which lasted until Rickman's death in and artistic set in London during the
we recognize the transfiguring divinity of 1840. The Southey Rickman corre- third quarter of the nineteenth century.
mankind.
spondence—to which Mr. Williams has
“ You describe better than any letter-
Mr. Carpenter comes to us from another had access—consists of over 1,200 letters. writer I have had since the time of
age, with vitality and enthusiasm un-
Those written by Lamb amount only to Shelley,” says Leigh Hunt, writing with
impaired, and bearing a message we twenty-three. Eighteen of these were that “ heart and imagination,” as his
cannot afford to neglect. His triumphant published by Ainger in 1904 (not 1906, correspondent prettily puts it, “that have
command over language, his searching as stated by Mr. Williams) ; one by Mr. not had time to grow old. ” Leigh Hunt's
perspicuity, retain their dominion, and the E. V. Lucas in 1905; the remainder had generous letters of sympathy and en-
rich ore of his mind is as unalloyed as ever.
been printed previously. Unfortunately, couragement to the young and struggling
To a singular degree he has succeeded in Rickman's biographer has not
has not been poet of Ballyshannon will, we are sure,
reconciling those world-old foes, romance allowed to use the Ainger letters.
ħave the happy result of sending many
and rationalism, and in revealing the
The earlier part of the book, which readers to the Diary’ published not so
spiritual potentialities huddled away under deals chiefly with personal
personal matters, long ago, and thence, it is to be hoped,
the cloak of the formulæ of science. For is the more interesting. The remainder
to the poetry, not a little of which—The
no religion can abide which recks not of is devoted almost entirely to politics, and, Athenæum is glad to remember—was
science. He rolls away the “pall from we must confess, makes but dreary reading published in these columns. “I
our dark spirits," and displays something There are a few fresh details relating to genuine, but not great,” he says of
himself.
of the immensity and infinitude of the Lamb, one interesting fact having been
These pages reveal, indeed, a
deeps within our personalities. The man unearthed, namely, that on two occasions genuine enthusiasm for good letters and
who, however incompletely, can do that, during Mary Lamb's sad absence from great writers. In Allingham's work his
is not to be placed within the pigeon-hole home, Lamb stayed with Rickman at his achievement is highest when he records
of one age or another.
house in New Palace Yard, although it is with least artifice a simple experience, an
a pathetic comment on the friendship, unforced thought. It is this quality of
which was described so glowingly by genuineness that gives their peculiar merit
Lamb in 1800, that his host should be to such poems as The Pilot's Daughter '
characterized in 1829 as only
Four
a sort of
Ducks
TWO FRIENDS OF LETTERS.
The
a Pond. '
a friend. ”
charm of his work, as Mr. Yeats has said,
THE two civil servants who are the joint Two amusing stories are told concerning is everywhere the charm of stray moments
subjects of our article were both promi- Dyer. With reference to one of them
and detached scenes that have moved
nent in literary circles, and will be best how the Lambs succeeded in talking
him. He should have his place in any
remembered as the friends of men whose him into love with Miss Benger — Mr. anthology of English verse.
names are household words in literature. Williams states that Lamb makes no From such a temperament one may
Allingham had, per se, a measure of mention of it.
” Not directly, it is naturally look for an output of good
literary distinction denied to Rickman, true ; but in two of his letters Lamb is letters, especially when they are addressed
but his best writing was due to his inti- probably referring to the incident when to
like Browning, Tennyson,
macy with the leading spirits of his age. he writes to Rickman (November 24th, Emerson, Ruskin, Carlyle, Arthur Hughes,
When, some time in 1800, John Rick-1801): “He [Dyer] talks of marrying";
He [Dyer] talks of marrying"; and almost all the Pre-Raphaelite Brother-
was introduced to Charles Lamb, and, again, to Manning (April 23rd, hood. Unfortunately, there are few of
clerk at the East India House, by that 1802) : George Dyer is in love with an Allingham's own letters preserved here,
"dispenser of benevolence,” George Dyer, Ideot [sic]. " It is incorrect to say that and a great many mere business notes or
the thought could not have entered his the letters in the book written by Dyer perfunctory letters of acknowledgment
mind that the quaint-looking little man are the only private ones by him hitherto from great men. But there are some
before him would be the means of con- known. There is a long one printed in
There is a long one printed in “good obsairves” in the few printed.
ferring upon him, eventually, the patent The Mirror for 1841, in a sketch of Dyer's “ The only quality Browning wants to
life; and others have occasionally turned be perfect is a little stupidity. ” Clough
Life and Letters of John Rickman. By Orlo up in the salerooms. There is a mis- is '* secret as an oyster ; opens a little at
Williams. (Constable & Co. )
quotation in each of two extracts from certain times of the tide, but snaps to
Letters to William Allingham. Edited by Lamb's letters; for one of them, however, again in a jiffy if touched, and maybe
H. Allingham and E. Baumer Williams. Mr. Williams can hardly be held respon- bites your finger. " Of Carlyle, whose
(Longmans & Co. )
sible, as it occurs in every edition of the letters reveal him generously helpful to
or
on
رو
men
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the young student, characteristically pro- mind by the two contributions are by no certain Christian or semi-Christian sects
lific of good advice and encouragement, means identical, but the facts are of a will no doubt be given later under Gnos-
Allingham says in a letter to Emerson :- very complex character, and it is perhaps tics,” “Manichæans,' and other headings.
as well that they should be dealt with Some shortcomings of the Jewish
“ Carlyle's company I enjoy immensely, from entirely different points of view. the series may also be remedied under
part of
and his wife's too I like. Amidst his atmo-
sphere, frowns and laughters, is the finest
We must object to Prof. de Groot's use the heading Kabbalah,' but the entire
upland exercise, climbing rocks, and racing of the term universalism
in the sense absence of a reference to the doctrine
half-rolling down hillocks. Knowing him, of worship of the universe, or nature-cult, of Sephiroth, or emanations, is rather
too, his books have become twice as enjoy- the word being reserved in English to surprising.
able ; one can see real fire spurting in every denote some such doctrine as that all We can only note briefly the shorter
emphasis, and recognise undoubtingly the
men will be ultimately saved. Nor can series of papers on Councils and Synods,"
faintest sly twinkle of humour, will o' the
Yet his
we regard his suggestion that one may consisting of a Buddhist and a Christian
wisps and volcanos together.
just as well call Confucianism Classi- section; and on Creeds and Articles,
books also seem but pails of water from a
river. . . ,"
cism as very happy, for Classicism does which in their Christian and Jewish por-
not of itself call to mind any set oftions must necessarily overlap what has
Amongst the more notable letters from religious ideas whatsoever.
already been said under Confessions
other correspondents is a vigorous ex-
The paper on ‘Conformity,' by Mr. in Vol. III. of the ` Encyclopædia. ' Much
position by William Morris of his political Henry Barker, includes the following attention will no doubt be bestowed on
views. Much of this correspondence
courageous and defensible expression of the long series of articles dealing with
is naturally concerned with
poets
Crimes and Punishments. ' Here is, in-
and their works. We are reminded that the day. Speaking of "clergymen who deed, matter that will be interesting alike
* Maud'
by nearly all the critics. Leigh Hunt, do not accept certain propositions in the to the moralist, the legislator, the jurist,
the
referring to the “ Indian Air” of Shelley's Apostles' Creed in their literal sense,” the and the historian. Dr. J. 'MacCulloch
writer says that
opens the list with an elaborate and
lines “I arise from dreams of thee,'
promises to send it to Allingham: "I am
" the only objective definition of the extent highly important contribution on crimes
to have it before long from the lady of the clergyman's obligation is that which and punishments in primitive and savage
is given to it by the authoritative organs times; and among the other writers are
herself, who furnished Shelley with it. "
of the Church's government. And if he Dr. T. G. Pinches (Assyro-Babylonian),
Mr. Rossetti showed that the story of satisfies his own ecclesiastical superiors, who, however, gives us rather less in the
Shelley having written the words to an outsiders have no right to apply to his action article than he appears to promise in the
air brought from India by Mrs. Williams a standard which implicitly sets aside the opening paragraph ; Sir Edward Anwyl
cannot be correct. Mr. Buxton Forman, Church's authority. ”
(Celtic) ; Mr. W. Gilbert Walshe (Chinese) ;
in his edition of Shelley (1882), says that As we are here face to face with a Dr. Th. W. Juynboll (Muhammadan); and
the air to which that lady sang it is very question of personal truthfulness as dis- Dr. M. N. Dhalla (Parsi, the writer holding
widely known in India, and can scarcely tinct from that of truth, it would not the rank of high priest among the Parsis).
be beyond finding. Yet, so far as we have been amiss to discuss this interesting Dr. R. F. Quinton's contribution under
know, that inspiring, but elusive melody problem under the heading 'Conscience, the heading ‘ Criminology,' which follows
has never been recovered.
à subject which is by no means treated the above-named series, deals effectively
exhaustively in the volume, the six articles with the theory, practice, and general
of the series only including, besides an results of punishments in modern times.
Introductory Paper, the Babylonian, The longest series of articles in the
Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics : Egyptian, Greek and Roman, Jewish, volume treats on Death and Disposal
‘
Vol. IV. Confirmation-Drama. (Edin- and Muslim branches of the theme of the Dead. The introductory and
.
'
burgh, T. & T. Clark. )
Why not, one may ask, an article on primitive section, contributed by Mr.
Christian Conscience'? and is there no E. S. Hartland, alone occupies pp. 411-44,
The new volume of this · Encyclopædia ' question of conscience in connexion with and is by no means too long, being filled
will be welcomed with as much heartiness Buddhism and other religious and philo- with well-arranged and highly important
as was each of the previous instalments. sophical systems ? Nor can it be said information on almost every conceivable
The treatment of the subject of 'Con- that the series, as it stands, satisfies part of the subject. It is, however,
firmation,' with which the volume opens, throughout all just requirements, for difficult to accept without qualification
presents an acceptable feature of some under the heading Conscience (Jewish)' his statement that “the obstinate dis-
novelty in the method of showing the we really have an essay on ethics rather belief in the necessity of death” in primi-
different aspects of the theme under con- than an article on conscience.
tive times was caused by “horror of
sideration. Canon H. J. Lawlor's article, Regretfully passing over a long list of death. ” The inability of the savage to
written from the usual Anglican scholarly interesting topics, such as ·Conscientious- understand the natural causes of physical
point of view, is followed by an equally ness,' • Consciousness,' • Consistency,' and decay must have been a strong con-
learned contribution from the pen of the Conviction,' we come upon a long series tributing cause, if not the chief one.
Rev. H. Thurston, S. J. , which is designed, of articles under the heading Cosmogony | In the “ early Christian " part of the
not only to supplement the data furnished and Cosmology. ' The introductory subject we find (p. 457) a long list of
by the first-named writer, but also to article is by Dr. Louis H. Gray, and the authorities for the statement that “the
controvert some of his views from the list includes no fewer than
no fewer than eighteen Christians did not fear cremation, though
Roman Catholic standpoint. The two special sections, dealing, amongst others, they preferred the ancient and better
articles will no doubt be carefully scanned with the North American, Babylonian, custom of burying in the earth. '” In
by theologians of various schools of Buddhist, Chinese, Christian, Jewish, Poly- the Babylonian section, contributed by
thought.
nesian, and Teutonic branches of the Dr. S. H. Langdon, the question as
The design of placing before the reader subject. The longest of these artịcles to cremation in the regions concerned is
different sides of the same problem may is that on Buddhist Cosmogony, by Prof. decided in the following way :-
have also been present in the editor's L. de la Vallée Poussin, who has spared
“ Cremation appears to have been the
mind when he assigned the articles Con- no pains to make his contribution as com- rule in certain parts of ancient Sumer and
fucian Religion' and 'Confucius' to two prehensive as possible, both as regards Akkad, as in the region north of Lagash;
writers so different from one another as subject-matter and bibliographical infor- but in other parts interment in coffins and
Prof. de Groot and Mr. W. Gilbert Walshe, mation. The Christian section appears
vaults is more frequent. ”
the former aiming at being philosophical, rather meagre, notwithstanding its sub- Among the other sections dealt with are
and the latter writing down his statements division into an "early and mediæval” Buddhist, by Dr. L. de la Vallée Poussin ;
in as transparent a fashion as possible and a modern section; but fuller informa- Chinese, by Mr. W. G. Walshe; Coptic,
The impressions left on the reader's Ition on the cosmological systems of l by the late Mr. P. D. Scott-Moncrieff;
6
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>
6
6
6
>
.


## p. 277 (#215) ############################################

2
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4402, MARCH 9, 1912
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No. Egyptian, by Mr. R. H. Hall; Muham-
madan, by Dr. Stanley Lane-Poole;
THE expressed purpose of Poetry and
Prose : being Essays on Modern English
and Tibetan, by Dr. L. A. Waddell.
POETIC CRITICISM.
Students of folk-lore and occultism will
Poetry, by Mr. Adolphus Alfred Jack (Con-
stable & Co. )"to make a little clearer
find abundant material to interest them Lectures on Poetry. By J. W. Mackail.
what every one feels about poetry"_is both
in the series of articles on ‘Demons and (Longmans & Co. )- This is the final instal-
vague and vast. It is moreover unsatisfy-
Spirits' and on ‘Divination. Of more ment of the lectures which Mr. Mackailing in view of the fact that a distressingly
general interest are the eleven papers delivered from the Chair of Poetry at Oxford. large proportion of modern readers do not
“ feel about poetry
under the heading ‘ Disease and Medicine,' In an inaugural lecture he announced his
at all. Whether or
not Mr. Jack has succeeded in his aim does
dealing with the various notions and purpose of taking the “ Progress of Poetry
as the dominating idea of his professorship. not greatly matter. He has, in either case,
practices in vogue among savages, in This idea he illustrated first in three lectures produced a series of critical essays of singular
mediæval times, and among the nations on Chaucer, Spenser, and Milton; next in a value and marked individuality. Much
of antiquity. It is, however, difficult series of lectures on the development of familiar ground has of necessity been re
to see why a brief survey, from the moral poetry in Greece; and now, in the volume traversed-eighteenth-century rhetoric and
and psychological point of view, of some
before us, he takes subjects apparently at didacticism, the inevitable Romantic Re-
present-day aspects of the subject should random Virgil and Virgilianism, Shake-vival," and the changing phases of the
have been excluded from an Encyclo- and Life, The Divine Comedy, Imagination o'er travelled roads'
speare's Sonnets, Arabian Romances, Poetry Victorian era. Such a “backward glance
pædia which avowedly embraces an ex-and treating these sometim
--and treating these sometimes from the instruct, suggest, or
may easily fail to
entertain, for the
ceedingly wide range of topics. Still literary, sometimes from the scholastic,
sometimes from the scholastic, average reader who dabbles in these things
less excusable seems to us the absence of sometimes from the philosophical point of is prone to think in the groove which criti-
an article on the modern stage from the view, still interweaves from time to time cism has hollowed out for him—to accept
series given under the heading 'Drama'
the idea of a progress of poetry.
theories of literary movement and tendency
at the end of the volume. There surely Mr. Mackail's emphasis is not laid, we without vitalizing them for himself by
is an aesthetic and ethical side in the think, on what is really most valuable in personal study. Mr. Jack, on the other
drama of recent times which demands his contribution ; and the ideas which under hand, while paying all reverence to expert
treatment in a work like the present. lie his treatment are, perhaps, too large and contemporary commentators and those great
ones who have gone before, has the merit of
We have so far dwelt mainly on the vague to be of much service in criticism.
principal series of articles contained in of poetry, we may mean its passage, pageant-
For example, when we speak of the progress independence, by virtue of which his “ back-
ward glance” becomes at once illuminativo
the volume, and we can now only refer like, from one country to another, or its and, in a mild degree, controversial. A
briefly to some few of the other contribu- successive appearance in the mind first of single instance will suffice.
tions which have specially arrested our one, then of another, representative poet ; Mr. Jack is keen to detect the elusive
attention. The article on Conversion we may mean that the form and content of beauties which lurk in Wordsworth's simplest
strikes us as valuable, though we think future poetry are conditioned by the form poems. We should imagine that the famous
that emphasis should have been laid on
and content of past poetry; or we may lines from ‘Peter Bell,' touching
the psychological aspect of the theme. simply mean that, as a poet grows older,
A primrose by the river's brim,
there will be progress, a developing mani-
Particularly bright and spirited are the festation of the spirit of poetry, in his work.
would arouse in him, and rightly, as much
papers on Criticism,' the history and The phrase, in fact, may have many different appreciation as they excited undiscerning
bearing of the Old and New Testament associations ; all of them useful and signi- laughter in the poet's own day. When,
parts of the subject being treated in dif- ficant, so long as we distinguish between however, he comes to the 'Ode on Intima-
ferent contributions. There well-them; but Mr. Mackail, in availing himself
tions of Immortality,'
he develops a tendency
more unorthodox. He writes :-
illustrated articles on the Christian Cross of them, fails to distinguish. Thus, in the
and non-Christian Crosses, as well as a
course of his lecture on The Poetry of “ The fact is of course, that these experiences
Oxford,' the question arises whether there are not spiritual at all, and Wordsworth's fond
separate paper on the American Cross. is at Oxford a progress of poetry or not.
thesis that the child is more spiritual than the
Mr. Andrew Lang writes on Crystal- Mr. Mackail's first answer seems to be in
man is the exact contrary of the fact. ”
gazing,' and Mr. Benjamin Kidd con- the affirmative. He quotes close
To those who are fated to dwell continually
siders Darwinism. ' The German heading hundred lines from 'Aeromancy,' a work of within sound of a nursery this view will seem
' Deutsch-Katholicismus' is given to an
the Oxford poetess, Mrs. Woods, and says plausible enough, but it is not poetical
interesting paper on the reform move-
that they exemplify “ the new method in criticism. Wordsworth bases his "fanciful"
Art,” and that in them " the poetry of theory on a doctrine of pre-existence which,
ment which sprang up within the Catholic Oxford speaks still the same language as being, as Mr. Jack observes, a belief, like
Church in Germany about the middle of that of the “Scholar Gipsy, though in a
all other beliefs is incapable of proof. ” He
the nineteenth century,” and has ended different manner and with a different accent ; omits to make allowance for the fact that,
in the renunciation of
and also, I may add, with a new grace. " for precisely the same reason, it is also in-
Yet he has hardly made this pronouncement capable of disproof, and does not appear to
"all definite formulation of doctrine, in before we find him admitting, apparently, perceive that its actual truth or untruth
order to avoid falling back into the dogmatic that the present period is unpoetical-50 is a question of no poetical moment. If we
Christianity which they condemn in other
Churches. "
unpoetical, and so deeply to be despaired of, approach the matter on scientific grounds,
that we might almost infer from our wintry such data as exist are both meagre and am-
Noteworthy in the history of this body is state the imminence of a new poetic biguous. But poetry has no concern with
the alliance into which they entered in spring:-
data. It has been given to the poet, in
1859 with the free Protestants known
the present case, to visualize for mankind
“The poet in every age is under the impression his own conception of existence ; and the
“the Friends of Light” (Lichtfreunde). that he has been born too late and that cry is militant-minded may reasonably contend
Among the comparatively few bio generally most audible just at the time when
graphies contained in the volume special and its most splendid achievements. ”
poetry is on the verge of its greatest movements that, inasmuch as Wordsworth's fanciful”
theory touches sublimer heights than those
mention might be made of the accounts
attained by Mr. Jack's eminently practical,
given of Constantine the Great, Democri-
Mr. Mackail is at his happiest, we think, somewhat prosaic view, it is therefore poeti-
tus, and Descartes, much stress being,
when he allows his rare power of critical cally more nearly true.
of
tact and discernment to work untrammelled
the philosophical
course, laid
For the purpose of his volume the author
systems of the last two named. Nor
by any artificial scheme of thought. His has chosen poets representative of the
should one omit to mention Dr. Gold-
charming remarks on Shakespeare's ro- various phases of poesy-Gray for “social
mances, his enthusiastic tribute to Keats,
or prose poetry,” Burns for “natural or
ziher's
paper on the great Muhammadan bring him out in his true character, that of spontaneous poetry," Wordsworth for
jurist Dawud b. Ali b.