New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1895-10-06
AN AMERICAN MYSTIC.
A NEW BOOK BY THE AUTHOR OF GOD
IN HIS WORLD"

A STUDY OF DEATH. BY Henry NILS AIdeh
Pp tx, 336. Harper x Brothers
The welcome which was accorded to Mr.. Alden's
former work God in His World" fixed his po-
stion as a religious teacher. He was warmly
greeted as an unknown author by thousands of
people who felt that he had spirtualized FOR
them the facts of history and SCIENCE that ne had
opposed to the materialsm which is powerful
even within the Christian Church conservatism
broad enough to embrace modern knowledge and
to harmonic 1t with ancient faith. Whatever
there was in his views that was revolutionary
they felt to be so in the prophetic, not in the
skeptical sense His intent plainly was not to
overturn but to build anew where others saw
only ruins If hi, thought escaped minute def
milton and analysis, that was because the theme
itself dehed such artificial accuracy.
Those who take up "A Study Of Death will
find that its author has not departed from ms
method as already known. He writes with de-
cision and certainty that are individual. but his
thought is not exclusive. They will feel that they
have a share of it. that he is speaking for Them
and that his doctrire is broad enough to cover
many minor differences. If they are hnica to the
degree that they wish their philosophy In the
mathematical fol m. after the manner Of Spnoza.
they will be sure to find heresy In this book No
man ever tried to solve the problem of evil with
out traversing all set creeds at some point. Mr..
Aldens point of view.while ii Is individual to him
self is In a larger sense impersona The conclu-
sions he reaches are those Of one who Is thinking
of the universe as whole rather than Of the
self-conscous responsibility Of the units Of hu-
mainly He has tried an experiment like that OF
Copernicus To a man standing the earth his
footing seems the only motionless part OF the
universe. But. thought Copernicus, how would it
was startling and marvellous. so Mr.. Alden
seems to ask How will this Heractean fux and
refiux Of things look to one not in the current?
He cannot reduce his observations to mathemat-
ical laws. but he make mysticism approx
matey rational
1t was not without cause that comparison was
suggested by some one between Mr. Alden's
former book and the devout WORK of Thomas
Kempis. That deep and solitary meditation upon
what seem to be the facts Of life which Is the
basis Of all mysticism is characteristic of the
modern well as the medieval author. But
the outlook of the two is not the same. To the
contemplative ascetic OF Mount st. Agnes the
world nothing. There were indeed. other
human beings in the world besides himself. but
for them the problem was the same for him.
one in which each was to seek personal reconcile
ment with the Author of all things The task
such that each had to perform ii in his own
way. But there much to be said in the way
of doctrine of reproof Of correction. of individual
experience in q world where all commune alton
with men. face to face. seemed to have something
worse in it than the mere lack Of spirituality
That ancient problem Of ascetic holiness has APP
parently been thoroughly worked out At all
events men and women turn nightly. may
say. to the book of Thomas a Kempis II they
found there he answer o their deepeSt inner
questionngs. The mystery that confronts the
m biern mystic is not one Of individual conduct
III here Is as mucn of a mystery that side OF
Humanity there ever was. still no more can be
said about 1t than has already been said In the
ages that are past The Taulers the Bonaven
turas. the Thomases have done all that they can
to give people in the world the benefit Of their
lifelong loneliness At the present day the mys
terry which troubles the devout man is one that in
wolves all life. What is conduct to him who is as
the beasts that perish?
The new problem Is worldwide in It's scope and
social to infinite degree. 1t concerns no hu-
man being separately. but all as branches OF that
tree of life which seems to have sprung from a
single root. All men have the same interest in
IT, and this interest is such that it forbids lowell
ness as earnestly as the ancient science and
philosophy seemed &c enjoin it. Man moulded
by the hand OF the Deity and marred by the
malign interference Of the devil has disappeared.
and in his place is man the sport Of nature with
a Missing Link for a parent with the Unknow-
able for God. with moral system for which
he can find no sanction. and a pessimistic phil
osophy the only logical conclusion OF which Is
suicide The problem is far enough from being
medieval. and yet 1t seems to have Its counter
part If one is pedantic enough TO look for It, in
more distant time-that of the last philosophers
Of Greece. Mr. Alden is nearer TO Plotnus than to
Thomas a Kempis But he has the advantage
of living after Thomas and Of knowing that on
the individual and ascetic side the last word Of
mysticism has been said. The old Greek In a
time when the world falling to pieces just
as II seems to many to be falling to pieces at
this moment had both the world problem and
the individual problem to solve best he could.
Mr. Alden has only TO put in the best form he can
a solution of the world problem In which the say
ings OF modern science shall have a spiritual
well as a material significance. Having done
that he shows that when pessimism is supple
mented by that which belongs 10 1t. 1t becomes
the true philosophy Of faith The hopelessness
of what man calls life lies Just in the fact that
it is not life but the negaton of life correspond
Ing to affirmation that is infinite and eternal.
To work out his thought Mr. Alden has, in the
literary sense. the very best Of instruments. He
is heir TO the best traditions OF that language
which had almost ita earliest expression from
the lips OF that Hermit of Hampolc whom The
Tribune had recently occasion 10 study. The
English language is truly sweetest and richest
when ii comes to the utterance Of religious
thought. 1t has flowed so long. too ir this chan
mel that religious thought and the cadences Of
devout expression come easily TO IT, But Mr..
Alden has also another tradition, that Of New
England. There is something Of Emerson In the