bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
“And Suchlike Fooleries”
Authors: Jarrett Bede 
Published: July 2007

A literary habit has accustomed us to speak of the Middle Ages as the Ages of Faith ; and it is no doubt our fond hope that future generations will speak of us by contrast as the Age of Reason. But unless future generations are hypnotized by our pretensions, we are much more likely to be known as the Age of Imagination. We are enormously busied over imagination. We have even reached the position in which we are scientifically educating imagination, developing it and with cold deliberation harnessing it to practical purposes. Yes, it is really quite unfair for an age that dabbles in Spiritism, Christian Science, Theosophy, and Pelmanism to pretend to be reasonable. Possibly the ages that lay between medieval times and our own have some right to that name ; but, since, fortunately, both Queen Anne and Queen Victoria are dead, we have no business to be claiming it. Reason is probably all very well in its way, but not in everybody else’s way.Now imagination has immense powers. It has founded the Daily Mail, canonized Mrs. Eddy, and deceived “eminent scientists” like Oliver Lodge and Arthur Conan Doyle, whom it is not unkind or frivolous to call dazed knights. Of course it hasn’t deceived them in matters where they know more than we do, in science and literature ; but only in matters where we are at least on their level, at the séance. People ask breathlessly whether one’s faith isn’t upset by this earnest belief in spooks publicly professed by our dazed knights.
The Meaning of Dividends
Authors: Clayton Joseph 
Published: July 2007

The dividends drawn yearly or half-yearly provide incomes for a very considerable number of people, and many by this provision are relieved from the necessity of earning a livelihood. Sometimes these dividends provide incomes for people quite incapable of earning a living for themselves. In other cases they supplement the incomes of hard-working professional men and women.The incomes from dividends, when sufficiently large, are an assurance to their possessors that the material needs of this life shall be satisfied: that is, that money will be duly forthcoming to pay for necessary food, clothes, and house-room. It may even happen that the income from dividends alone will provide not only the bare necessities of life, but allow us to gratify the desire for pleasant comforts and joyful luxuries, without working.Small wonder is it then that so great an attention is paid to this matter of dividends.
Disraeli Among the Prophets
Authors: Leslie Shane 
Published: July 2007

It has taken two editors and six volumes to complete the biography of Disraeli. The last two volumes enjoy the advantage of the freedom which the war has brought to those who search the faded purples and tinsels of the Victorian ash heap. The love letters of a Premier are not generally disclosed forty years after his death. However, as Lady Beaconsfield was dead, Catholics need only smile at his septuagenarian infatuation for Lady Bradford, illustrated in letters which outcloy even his coy adulation of the Queen. Lady Bradford he could not marry because Lord Bradford lived, and Lady Chesterfield her sister refused to marry him, though they were single, while the Queen, who was both single and devoted to Disraeli, could not have married him without putting Gladstone into office and perhaps their hate of Gladstone was their strongest bond.Bishop-making is always a fascinating pursuit, even more for the makers than for the made. That Anglican Bishops are elected by the Grace of God and the favour of Downing Street has always added to the piquancy of the pursuit.
The State Family
Authors: Mott Agnes 
Published: July 2007

The modem theory of the supremacy of the State in all departments of life disposes of the fundamental principle of the Family as an independent unit of society. Prominent Socialists have pointed out the logical conclusion that State Ownership of Property is State Ownership of the Family. H. G. Wells has publicly said that the State would have no more scruples about taking over the Family than it would in taking over the private gasworks. Hence we have an altogether new conception of Society based on the idea of the State Family. As to how this will work out in practice remains to be seen. The Family is a natural institution, and mankind must inevitably return to it or perish. Meanwhile we can see the beginnings of the new system at work.It is everywhere presumed in modem legislation that the State and not the parent is the final arbiter of the welfare and upbringing of the child. Nowhere, for instance, in our elementary educational system is there any reference to the parent’s wish as to what his children are to be taught. Attendance of children is compulsory and the law is stretched beyond its limits in forcing such attendance contrary even to the parents’ will. Thus frequently a mother may keep a child away from school because it is delicate or because there is some domestic emergency making it necessary for it to be at home.
Medieval Economics
Authors: Clayton Joseph 
Published: July 2007

Admirable in its tone and temper, entirely lucid in statement, and very thorough in its examination of the writings relative to the subject, the value of Dr. O’Brien’s work, as a contribution to our knowledge of Catholic teaching in the Middle Ages, can hardly be rated too highly. The value is the greater to-day when the minds of many, their hearts perturbed by the strife of capital and labour, are turned to the ages of faith for light and guidance.What was the Christian teaching in the Middle Ages on the economic relations of man to man? Wherein did it differ from the political economy taught in schools and colleges in the nineteenth century?The first thing to note is that scientific economics as such were unknown to the great medieval teachers, for whom economics did not exist as a separate study. Much was written on labour, property, usury, and trade ; but all these things were subject to the laws of justice and charity, and the economic relations of man to man were governed by the Christian teaching on morals. Our modern political economy is something entirely different from this, for it distinctly and definitely excludes the moral question.
Mrs. Meynell in Her Prose
Authors: Page Frederick 
Published: July 2007

Having gained permission from the Editor of BLACKFRIARS to contribute an article on Mrs. Meynell’s prose that should, as it were, balance Mr. Osbert Burdett’s recent article on her poetry, I find it well to set myself a wide and easy limit, and not attempt to appraise critically her writing, nor to discuss its technique, and only incidentally to settle the question of her “preciosity.” I am of Francis Thompson’s persuasion and do not know the body of her writing from its soul, and could love it for its very faults—if such were proved in it—so deeply have the beauties of its virtues ensnared me.My subject, then, is not the prose of Mrs. Meynell, but Mrs. Meynell in her prose, who is its style.In Miss Winifred Lucas’s Fugitives (1899) there are some lines which may have been intended for their writer’s friend, Mrs. Meynell, and which shall serve me as a text for this paper.Since in the paths of mental liberty A finished saint,To such as you ‘twere death to be A moment free Of thought’s restraint.
The Condition of Ireland
Authors: Jarrett Bede 
Published: July 2007

Is it too soon to write on a country after having been in it only a fortnight? Or should we not rather say, if one stayed in a country longer than a fortnight, one would not have enough courage to write about it at all. You see, a fortnight just gives one time to take the most superficial view of things. Later on, mere knowledge brings disconcertment. You might learn too many details, too many contrary instances, to fit in with the generalizations you had first made. Yet after all it is our first impressions that are nearly always truer. Instinct, the illative sense, the intellectus of the Scholastics, the “morning knowledge of the Angels” in the fantastic Africanism of St. Augustine, these are finer than reason, aren’t they? at least more to be trusted? Why it is the very age of instinct! “We feel that we are greater than we know.” So here I shall set down my account of the condition of Ireland after a fortnight in Cork.Yes, but whom did I see and talk to? Well, there you are. That does, of course, make a great difference. The class, the temperament, the political outlook, must each give a twist to the expression of opinions and help one to know how much to accept and how much to discount. By your leave, however, I shall give no names, for a third-class railway ticket, the conversation of priests and undergraduates, oh, and nuns, why there you have the most perfect instruments whence to hear the music of real public opinion.
The Deadlock in Ireland
Authors: Sykes Edith 
Published: July 2007

In order to understand the present deadlock in Ireland it is necessary to study its history and the series of political blunders which has led up to the deplorable situation now prevailing in that unhappy country. For this purpose I would recommend everybody, who has not already done so, to read an article entitled “A Tragedy of Errors” that appeared in The Nation on January 8th, written by Mr. H. L. Hammond. This most admirable article has now been reprinted in pamphlet form and can be obtained in the offices of the “Peace with Ireland Council,” 30 Queen Anne’s Chambers. Also the excellent study of recent Irish history, The Evolution of Sinn Fein, by R. M. Henry, should be read by all.It is difficult for those who have not been over to Ireland to realize the lamentable effect that the policy of the Government is having upon the Irish people. As soon as you cross the Channel you are in a totally different atmosphere. Everybody is living on the edge of a volcano and the talk is of reprisals, raids, murders, robberies, and the sad and dreadful events that are happening daily in town and countryside.
An Early Anti-Christian Calumny
Authors: Atteridge A. Hilliard 
Published: July 2007

Readers of Wiseman’s Fabiola will remember how when Corvinus tries to provoke Pancratius to a quarrel he calls the Christian boy “a cowardly worshipper of an ass’s head.” The author explains in a footnote that this was one of the many calumnies against the Christians that were current in pagan Rome. Now, most lies have some slight foundation in truth. Even the deliberate inventor of a calumny looks round for some reality that can be distorted into a seeming confirmation of his story. And it will sometimes happen that when there is enough ill-will to make men keenly watchful for something that can be made the basis of an accusation, they more or less honestly make mistakes and unconsciously misrepresent and misapply real facts.There is some reason for believing that the pagans of the early centuries who circulated this story of the worship of an ass’s head by the Christians were thus maliciously blundering. Strange to say, the cultus of an Egyptian god seems to supply the key to an answer for the puzzling question as to how it was that this calumny ever gained credence, not merely among the ignorant crowd, but also amongst the educated men of the time.
The Rights of the Consumer
Authors: Muir Francis R. 
Published: July 2007

The Catholic Social Guild is distinguished by one feature which marks it off from every other of the many Catholic societies which flourish in this country. It seeks to promote its objects not by action so much as by thought. Personal investigation and common discussion are the characteristics of its life. The student and the study-circle are its essential elements. I can go further and boldly assert that the Catholic Social Guild is a University—a Catholic University—the most democratic of all universities if it is judged by its members, and the most aristocratic of all if it is judged by its aspirations. This University of rich and poor, young and old, wise and simple, is naturally growing up everywhere in these our islands, because it has in itself that spontaneous creative spirit of every true University—the love of learning.It is that same spirit which manifests itself at this very meeting. I have been accorded, not the duty of giving an instruction, but the privilege of initiating a discussion. For the former task I hold no expert qualifications ; but for the latter favour I hold those which belong to every man.
The Dante Sexcentenary
Authors: Makepeace J. F. 
Published: July 2007

On September the 14th, this year, the six hundredth anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri, at Ravenna, will be celebrated. It is a significant fact that the revival of the study of the great Italian poet, and of mediæval Italian literature generally, in the nineteenth century was contemporaneous with the “Second Spring” of Catholic life in England. For while it is true that many non-Catholic scholars have contributed to our knowledge of his life and work, it is also true that no one who has not an inner knowledge of the Catholic Church can fully understand the Commedia. To such there must always be, inevitably, something in it that is alien to his mind. For Dante was, first and foremost, a Catholic and regarded everything from a Catholic standpoint.The argument in his famous political treatise, De Monarchia, and the real purpose of the Guelph and Ghibelline wars in Italy, can be properly understood only from that point of view.Those protracted wars ended at last, in 1266, after fifty years of swaying fortunes, in the victory of Charles of Anjou over King Manfred at Benevento, and the final supremacy of the Guelphs. Dante was one year old when that decisive battle was fought. The echoes of the long struggle are heard throughout all his writings, for his family were patriotic Guelphs. It must be remembered that the war was not, fundamentally, a strife for mastery between Popes and Emperors.
The Position of Bulgaria
Authors: Buxton Leland 
Published: July 2007

Bulgaria has shown more readiness than any of our late enemies to carry out the crushing obligations imposed upon her, and the Allies have taken advantage of this attitude to treat her with greater severity than other States which have given more trouble. It may be possible to justify this policy, but it is surely impossible to deny that the Allied Powers, on their part, ought to carry out their Treaty undertakings towards Bulgaria. This they have failed to do.They undertook, for instance, to provide Bulgaria with a commercial outlet on the Ægean. Not only have they done nothing to fulfil this promise, but the British Government still insists on retaining Greek sovereignty over Western Thrace (where less than a third of the population is Greek), which is equivalent to debarring Bulgaria altogether from direct access to the Mediterranean.But the question which affects the Bulgarians even more vitally is that of the protection of minorities, for at least a quarter of the Bulgarian race is under the rule of its worst enemies. The Allied Powers have undertaken, in the St. Germain and other Treaties, to safeguard the racial and religious rights of minorities in Serbia, Roumania, and Greece. Since these Treaties were signed, tens of thousands of Bulgarians have been driven from their homes in Macedonia and Thrace ; all Bulgarian schools have been closed, and all Bulgarian churches handed over to the Patriarchists.
The Land
Authors: Dawson Christopher 
Published: July 2007

Nowhere in the world has industrialism achieved such a complete victory as in England. Here alone do we see a Society which exists entirely by and for a cosmopolitan market, and which has lost the last remnants of economic self-sufficiency. And the disturbance of social equilibrium is the more profound because the England of the past was, more perhaps than any other country in Western Europe, an essentially agrarian State. The changes which have made English society and civilization so entirely different in type to anything that exists on the other side of the Channel, in so far as they are not attributable to religion, are mainly due to the peculiar course of English agrarian history.During the Middle Ages the English countryside, with its open fields cultivated in strips and its wide stretches of common and forest, must have presented very much the same appearance as the neighbouring districts of the Continent, and at the same time England was socially a province of Christendom, sharing in a common civilization, a common art, and common political institutions. The Reformation, however, and the rise of the new landlord class, which had no real parallel in any of the continental countries, launched England on a new path.
Space, Time, and Deity
Authors: Walker Leslie J. 
Published: July 2007

There have been many digressions and regressions, modifications, adaptations, new points of view, new theories on special subjects, in the philosophic world since the days of Berkeley, but, with the exception of Herbert Spencer, no one has attempted to devise a new philosophy outright. Professor Alexander has redeemed our English reputation for originality. Mill is little more than a methodologist, Wm. James and Dr. Schiller have given us a new theory of knowledge, Green adapts Hegel, Bradley introduces further modifications, and criticizes everybody else, Professor Ward has revived Leibnitz, but it has been reserved to Professor Alexander to make a fresh start and to think out a new philosophy ab initio.The fact that the Aristotelian Society should have allotted four sittings to the discussion of Professor Alexander’s book, testifies to the esteem with which he is regarded in the philosophic world, and also to the importance of the views he sets forth. The reason is apparent. The fundamental reality out of which all evolves is for Professor Alexander space-time. His philosophy, in fact, though not based upon Einstein, nor discussing in detail his theory, may be aptly described as an Einstein-metaphysic.
Acorns in the Wheat Age
Authors: Biddle G. E. 
Published: July 2007

“Après l’invention du blé, ils voulaient encore vivre A du gland.”There is a prejudice against primitive survivals. Few men to-day persist in kindling their fires with the flint stock. The devotee who, in the twentieth century, invoked Apollo or prayed to Juno need expect scant sympathy. Manuscripts are no longer copied by hand, now that the printing press is everywhere available. The electric light has put out the feebler glimmers of thousands of tallow candles sufficient for our great-grandparents.It had to be. We are being shoved along—willy-nilly. It is hard to kick against the pricks. The inventions of to-day leave behind the makeshift contrivances of yesterday. And to-morrow, the something newer that will be offered—at which we shall eagerly snatch—will find us as conceited and as unsatisfied as ever ! Hence the diffidence of many.Men squatted on the ground until the bright genius arose to whom we owe chairs and sofas. Food was taken up with the fingers before seemliness suggested knives and forks. The strongest male carried off by force his mate until customs of wooing introduced refinements and sentiment into courtship and marriage. Grunts, scowls, nods and imitative gestures were the means of communicating ideas ere the wonders of language revealed a better way. And so forth.
Epilogue to the Life of Cardinal Manning
Authors: Leslie Shane 
Published: July 2007

I received an amusing letter from a Catholic Layman recently, in which he said that the Holy See must be regarding with nervous apprehension the series of outspoken Lives which were accumulating round the names of the English Cardinals, Wiseman, Newman, and Manning (bis). Whether the Holy See approves of sincerity or indiscretion or both in the biographies of her favoured sons, she never speaks. She has other things to think of besides books in these days, though needless to say I would submit to the least whisper of her considered judgment, should she think it worth while to lift an eyelash over anything I happened to write.In the matter of writing the Lives of Cardinals, one cannot be too careful, though so careful are the biographers of Cardinals abroad that their memory as men is forgotten behind a little cloud of fading incense. The tradition of writing frank and human lives of Cardinals must be an English tradition, and let us hope will remain one. Our Cardinals have been and are men of action and men of genius. I think Ward’s Life of Newman is the best Life of a Cardinal in any language, but I think that Cardinal Manning left the finest biographical material. How fine it was perhaps few except myself really know. At any rate Mr. Purcell and myself have both crawled up out of Grubb Street, thanks to piles of that splendid collection, the Manning Papers, and I think that several volumes could yet be written out of what remains.Perhaps I am the best person to say what a number of friends and critics have hinted lately, that the final and all-comprising Life of Cardinal Manning remains to be written.
The Crime of Birth Control
Authors: McNabb Vincent 
Published: July 2007

Two dates in the present year are likely to be of great moment to the historians of this country. On Thursday, March 17 (St. Patrick’s Day) there was opened at 61 Marlborough Road, Holloway, N., the first “Mothers’ Clinic for Birth Control.” Its founders were “Humphrey Verdon Roe and his wife, Marie Carmichael Stopes, D.Sc., Ph.D.”On Tuesday, May 31, the Queen’s Hall held a large and sympathetic audience at a “Meeting convened by Dr. Marie Stopes, author of Married Love, Wise Parenthood, and Radiant Motherhood, on the theme of Constructive Birth Control: its Ideals and Helpfulness to the Individual and to the Race.”
St. Dominic and Dante
Authors: Charles Louis 
Published: July 2007

Was there ever such a year as 1921 for centenaries—centenaries, that is, of events which loom large in the history of the Christian Church? We have just celebrated in this country the seventh centenary of the Third Order of St. Francis ; we are about to celebrate that of the passing of St. Dominic ; almost simultaneously occurs the sixth centenary of the “Sommo Poeta,” Dante Alighieri, so intimately connected, spiritually and intellectually, with both the great Founders and their Orders. The Dominican Order celebrates this year the seventh centenary of its arrival in England. And attention was recently called to the fact that this same year sees the centenary of the conversion of St. Ignatius Loyola.These coincidences lend interest to a Conference given by the eminent Italian publicist, the Marchese Crispolti, at Florence, on May 28th, in the Dominican Church of Santa Maria Novella. The distinguished orator pointed out to his hearers that Dante after having in his youth learnt grammar and the art of “composing rhymes in the vulgar tongue” and of writing Latin epistles in the schools of the Friars Minor at Santa Croce—where also he imbibed from the Franciscan surroundings and spirit his admiration for the life of the Poverello and his inclination towards mysticism—went forth at the age of eighteen to enter upon his public life. It was after the death of Beatrice, when already many other influences were partly drawing him aside from the pure influence of her memory, that the Poet, then about twenty-five years of age, felt attracted to more solid and more regular studies.