1933-09-04 — Page 5

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1933.

LITERARY NOTES

ROUND THE WORLD TO FREEDOM.

THE CHINA MAIL-

A Modernistic Bunyan New Highland

Adventures Of A War An Apology For

Fugitive.

ww

FROM SIBERIA TO CHINA.

Round the World to Freedom. By

Major Paul Stofa

(Bodley Head. 7e 6d.)!

For Christianity In Allegorical Form

PARABLES FOR GROWN – UPS

EMERSON.

Major Paul Stoffa's "escape" book "Yet not for all his faith can see is a worthy addition to the litera-Would that cowled churchman be." ture which chronicles the exploits off tnose daring war-time adventurers who staked their lives in order to escape internment.

Like the Ger-

man von Mucke, Major Stoffa went round the world in his quest of freedom, and one regrels that so gallant and audacious a fugitive did not succeed.

In September..1914. this Hun- garian offer was taken prisoner by

[The Pilgrim's Regress:

An Allegorical Apology for Christianity, Reason and Romanticism. by

C. 3. Lewis.

London: J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd,

6/- net].

- (P. 189).

Novel CO-OPERATIVE

Challenging The Scot.

Is the present-day idea of the Highlander, as poet, dreamer, and Idealist, all wrong? The question is raised in "Challenge to the High- lander" which John Morrar an-{

nounces.

Take not. Oh Lord, our literal. It is by Dr. A. A. W. Ramsay,

sense, but in thy great,

who, as "Ivory Burnett," has done Unbroken speech

our halting several historical Highland novels, metaphor translate."

He instances Montrose, Argyll,|| Lochiel, Lovat, and Forbes of Cul- But, notwithstanding the beauty loden as examples of the very so of this and some other parts, the phisticated Highlander. book as a whole leaves a nasty taste in the mouth and gives a very bad impression of the world.

A MASEFIELD · "TALL

SHIP."

This is partially because when we come to the positive side everything Mr. John Masefeld did not cease The allegory and the parable have is so featureless. Old Mother Kirk, to love the sea when he became Poet the Russians and sent to an intern been used from early times as forms who is the Guide, and the Landlord Laureate. We shall see this again the himself, save for a kind of intan in a history he has done of the in Siberia. Impene of literature, especially when

element to didactic trable jungle barred the road

prominent. gible repulsiveness, peter out into training ship Conway. It is an- Manchuris, and many had tried to Almost the whole English-speaking nebulous inanity.

The absentee nounced by Heinemann, who escape and failed. But Major Stoffa race has come to some extent under)Landlord is a poor substitute for anipublished Mr. Masefield's book on! and five of his compatriots did the the influence of Bunyan's Pilgrim's inefficient God.

ment camp

trick.

·

-

was

A Philosophy of Pessimism. We cannot help feeling that Mr.

the famous Liverpool "tal ship": Wanderer.

Progress, which was written by al Then the amnor's odysey began working man for working men. ia caruest. Once in China he took. This allegorical form of literature Lewis is much better versed in the viewer finished reading this book Ship from Shanghai to seattle as is perhaps the least suited for ajerrors of the interpretation of the there was being enacted at the guised as a stoker: on to New York critical age. Parables seldom stand Doctrine of the Mean than he is in White City Stadium in London a he went, sailing from that port with of all fours and allegories, such as the fundamental difficulties which kind of ecclesiastical dramatisation a faked passport for Gothenburg, the Pilgrim's Progress, have most agnosticism finds in the Christian which was evidently quite as repul- But a British cruiser supped the influence on our childhood, and in-system.

sive to the thoughtful immority as ship off the Hebrides, and then Hundeed are generally read before the

Here, for instance is a passage on it was attractive to the llurgical

tastes of the masses.

garian eventually found himself in critical faculty is fully developed or the origin of evil:- Alexandra Palace. He had protest-called into requisition.

"But what about the charge of "The heaviest rain fell as the end

en that he was a civilian, so he was Yet quite recently Mr. Shaw has "cruelty? I was just coming to "of the final procession left the

taken at his word and sent to a token to this for

of

literature, "that. The Landlord has taken the "arena and the vast congregation civilian interment camp. Major in a shot brochure which is quite risk of working the country with left in a deluge"--so that Mulu- Stoffa did not surveed in escaping evidently not intended for children, free tenants instead of slaves in lungu, the great rain God, disliked

and the volume before us, The Pil-chain gangs; and as they are free the whole thing as much from Alexandra Palace, but he made,

aa Mr. a bold bid for freedom when he was grim's Regrest, is not less evidently "there is no way of making it im- Kensit transferred to the Knocksloe camp for the grown-up.

"possible for them to go into for- According to The Times account

and go. and he failed.

,

on the Isle of Man. It was touch Indeed the criticisms in its pages"bidden places and eat forbidden (of July 17) of this celebration, cover everything from Stoicism to "fruit. Up to a certain point he kites flown outside the Stadium When the war ended he was res to Frendianism; and in one case, can doctor them even when they announced: "The Protestant Al- patriated to a defeated and troubled even Aristolle's term is given in the have done so, and break them off liance declares this High Mass Hungary.

It is a good exciting original Greck.

But beyond that point illegal." story he had to tell, and he relates

it modestly and without rancoúr.

DEFENDING DEVIL'S ISLAND.

Monotony Promotes

Terror.

An Unknown Author.

"the nabit.

"you can see for yourself. A Further on we read:"Just as the The reviewer knows nothing of "man can go on eating mountain "Bishop of St. Albans was entering, Mr Lewis and has failed to discover"apple so long that nothing will cure and the choirs were preparing to whether he has written any other his craving for it, and then very "greet him with, 'Ecce Sacerdos works of religious apologities. "worms it breeds inside him will "magnus' a voice was heard boom- A surmise would place him as a "make him more certain to eat more."ing: "The Bishop of Rome hath classical senolar. perhaps as a pro-"You must not try to fix the point "no jurisdiction in this Realm of fessor of Greek. His exposure of "after which a return is impossible, "England." the errors in the interpretation of "but you can see that there will be Where is Old Mother Kirk in all Aristotle's Doctrine of the Mean is "such a point somewhere."

this? And how is she to lead "John' emphasised in a way which might| Or again Lake this passage on from the Land Furitania to the New The Island of the Doomed. By P. have pleased the father of Nicko-Hell :----

Jerusalem? John' would be better G. Ettighoffer. (Hatchinson. machus, with an almost superfluous i "The Landlord does not make the jadvised to, stand apart and watch 10s. 6d.)

apology for the insistence un the "blackness. The blackness is there the whole comedy from a distance. For generations the world over correct detail

already, wherever the taste of Sir Leslic Stephen's Advice. the mere name of Devil's Island, the, But since we know nothing about "mountain apple has created the Indeed, a much greater man than Faench penal settlement, has been the author perhaps we should hear "vermiculate will. What do you Mr. Lewis, years ago, gave this very sufficient to suggest something the dust-cover epitome:-"Though "mean by a hole? Something that advice:How are we to be guided in cruel and sinister. It has been the "the dragons and giants of this "ends. A black hole is blackness"these troublesome days, when rash centre of a thousand sombre stor-"able and different from those of enclosed, limited. And in that "persons have Insisted upon reveal- ies.. One thinks, with a shudder, "Bunyan, the allegory performs its sense the Landlord has made theing the open secret and the esoteric of a veritable bell on earth.

"old function of enabling the author "black hole He has put into the creed of the sensible man has been But according to the author of "to say with brevity and simplicity "world a Worst Thing. Bat evil of "proclaimed so that they who run this book Its evil reputation is "what would otherwise have de-"itself would never reach a worst:"may read?. On the whole, the sen- mainly the product of minds dis- "manded a full-length philosophy of "for evil is flasiparous and could "gible man would reply: you had torted by moustony; of prisonera "religion. The straight road which "never in a thousand eternities find "better hold your tongue. We, at who remember only the dangers of "guides the pilgrim past the City "any way to arrest its own repro-"least, who have no gospel to preach, armed gaolers, a shark infested sea, "el Claptrap between the tableland | “duction." If it could, it would be "will not set up for. prophets. Let! and a tropical sun without conced-"of the High Anglicans and the far-"no longer evil: for Form and Limit "us look on as calmly as may be at ing that none of these is perilous "of marsh of the Theosophiats, is "belong to the good. The walls of "the huge turmoil of conflicting con- unless provoked

"traditional Christianity, but the "the blackhole are the tourniquet on "troversy; emile with equal calmness: Such is the tenor of "The Island "motives for walking that road are "on the wound through which the "at the bigots who would damn pec- in certain lost soul else would bleed to a death "ple for losing their way, in the of the Doomed," an account of "shown as they exist prisoner's experience on an island "neglected facts of the romantic "she never reached. It is the Land-"dark; at the pompous dogmatists which "any nerve specialist might "imagination. From what he deems"lord's last service to those who will "who would face it out that they recommend for a cure."

"the false simplicities of modern "let him do nothing better for "can see as clearly as in broad day Alfons Emil Puoli Schwartz,"thought, the author recalls us to "them."

"light at the feather-headed born of German parents in Corsica, !"the complex relations of erotic with

"thusiasts who take the first will o' fought for Germany throughoutį"zesthetic experience, and of both When the 'darkie' preacher, giving "the wisp for a safe guide, and patch) the war. When the hysterical "with religion; but the conclusion an account of the creation of man."up a new religion out of scraps and patriotism which

followed the "thence drawn is neither that of said that God made Adam out of the tallers of half-understood science; Armistice was at its height in "Frend nor of D. H. Lawrence dust of the earth and leaned him"and at the simple-minded philoso- France, Schwartz, held to be "Many contemporary, and many up against a paling to dry, some "phers who fancy in all seriousness French because of his place of "eternal, absurdities, come by turn body asked him,-Who made that "that men are about to become res birth, was convicted___ of "bearing "under the lash before the tale es- paling ?" -

“soning, animala. Vanity Fair is al arms against France", and sent to "capes in Its closing-chapters out "Oh!" said the darkie, "your ques-"queer place at best; and amid all Devil's Island.

of the realm of controversy."- tions would destroy any theology.""the confused outcrles that rise The story of Schwartz's arrest, Interesting Sustained.

And we leave the above quotations ceaselessly from its noisy inhabi- trial, and conviction la told by P. The book is cleverly written, and for the edification of the reader,ants, the screams and curses_of G. Ettighoffer with vigour and ein-keeps the reader's attention to the without asking any questions. But rival religious quacks are purely cerity.

clase; it makes acute criticisms of "springes to catch woodcocka" was the fittest to provoke a bitter smile. various modern forms of thought; Hamlet's expression for this kind of "We may pity the poor pilgrim it emphasises the importance of the stuff

"groaning in Doubting Castle, and realisation of the metaphorical, in Bishop Buller and Mr. Lewis, what is, without doubt, the greatest As I write there lies before me "Pope in his ancient den; but the "despise the impotent fury of Glant poem in the book. It is put into a first edition of Bishop Butler's "empty brag of charlatans and hum- the pilgrim's mouth:-

Analogy of Religion for 1756-al-bugs in the Fair itself, though they "He whom I bow to only knows most two hundred years prior to this "are masquerading in the most im

to whom I bow,

work, Many of the problems are "posing of robes, is best met with When I attempt the ineffable the same or similar to those which "silent contempt. Let us trust that,

name murmuring Thou; 2.

BLINDNESS IS NO DISABILITY,

Sightless Officer's Amazing Book.

Captain Gerald Lowry, the first British officer blinded in the Great War, has written a book entitled "From Mons to 1933."

It will be published shortly by Mesare. Simpkins Marshall Cap tain Lowry is now a keen sports min: able to-box, run, dive, swim, skafo, dance and play bridge, and here he tells how he has discount ed his disability.pn

NEW ESTIMATE

RUSKIN.

(P. 233)

CI-

And dream of Pheidian fancies different. Personally, we much pre- will subside in time, that the great Mr. Lewis handles. Yet how somehow or other, the mad bustle and embrace in heart

fer the more agnostic treatment of "world will blunder in its own. "clumsy fashion into some scum of

Meanings, I know, that cannot be the great Bishop..

the thing Thou art,

All prayers always, taken at their

word, blaspheme,

Involding with frail Imageries

folklore dream;

And all men are idolaters, crying

-unbeard'

To senseless idols, if Thou take

them at their word, And all man in their praying, self

deceived, address ⠀⠀

"Ruskin," by E. H. Wilensid. One that is not (so saith that old which Faber and Faber publish at rebuke) unless in tempta a new estimate. It Is RusThou, of mere grace, appropriate, kin's” solution" of present-day pro and to Thee divert drape blems in which Mr Wilensk Is Men's arrows, all at hazard aimed, particularly interested..

beyond desert,

1-

And then, what are we to say of "effete superstition he worked off in Old Mother Kirk? Sho, seems the chaotic fermentation Mean- rather elusive and almost mythical."while, let us cultivate our little This of course may be intentional "res of garden knowing well that, realism,

***** "long before a brighter day dawna, Actually Instead of Old Motherwe too shall have been swept off Church what we do find in the world into the great darkness, and our is an agglomerate of wrangling "Utile scrotchets, and nostrums will creeds none of which seems to have have become as ludferous as those the germ of the great religious "of our forefathers Let us possess synthesis of the future,

Even, formos like Boman Catholic-edge that Swift has pretty well

our souls in peace, and acknow jam are losing hold in places like "summed up the fittest epilogus for Brain and Mexico, the great centre Jove, bo pronounce upon the faros of their Indigenous sway where they of the world, I damn, auch fools) had no competition. It chanced that (Bir Leila Blepher just on the day on which the re- Apology, P. 839),

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