New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-09-18

ub,cb che WAS more or less discredited in which
woman IL not attached in some weii-denheu
and legal relation 10 man was an outcas'' anu
the sons seized rights that had once belonged
to the daughters 1t Is not easy TO see now fro-
fessor Pearson could plot curve depicting the
progress Of mothcr-right society without hndlns
the same difficulty which he complains OF In
his study Of Monte Carlo roulette.
Not that the customs Of the primitive time
disappeared forth Nth. They survived long IN
the witches sabbath which the author hoids
to be repetition Of the ancient sex festival IheE
still live in the prejudices Of remote ViiiaeerS
and r1iey are recorded even in the chuIch car
endar. where some Of the female saints are
only the old Teutonic local godGesses under
new auspices These serve to show where the
Southern civilization and the religion from the
Orient failed to perfect the conquest which they
had begun. The history Of the medieval pop
ular drama. which forms the last and most
elaborate study in Mr.. Pearson's book. shows
how the conflict between Christianity and
Roman Sviz alton on the one hand and INC
popular spirit on the other went step by step
to the time Of the Reformation. Professor Pear
sons theory Of religious development is that
II is conditioned solely by the character o. us
edherents He sees in medieval German Chris
sonaries and preachers Of the new religion
would have abolished altogether the dances ana
rude plays Of the pagan populace. What nap
pened was that the people in the cnd carried
these into the church. The severe ritual 81 the
first missionaries was expanded slowly as the
people took part in it until responses became
interudas and interludes whole dramas, uhtl1
what had been once a sentence In the church
became a whole days exhibition In the mar
ket-pace In the passion play all medi@VaI Ire
doomed. the guilds. the political system the
customs and costumes Of high and low rch ana
poor. Above ALL the old cult Of the Teutonic
goddesses gathered anew about the Virgin Mary
on the hand and Mary Magda.ene on the
other. The author is far from wishing TO MN
imize the worship Of the Virgin. He maintains
that the people. in accepting so much OF Chrls-
tianity as they were capable of, turned II into
a polytheism more or less unlike their ancient
religion "Mariola.ry has, on the whole. he
asserts. been a beneficial factor in European
civilization, and II may well be doubted whether
the women OF to-day would have advanced 50
far as they have done had not the worship or
q goddess prepOtent in religious feeling. in ART.
and IN the drama, come 10 help them IN the
struggle" All this-the dance the festive array
the polytheism-were as necessary to the evolu-
ZION or modern European 'lNlliHdtl'H ~ ''''
mythology Of the Greeks was TO Hecnism and
they tea IN the same lesson. according - Prof"s-
sor Pearson, that If religion Is 10 create great
art and 10 be a centre Of social ana civic on
thusiasm, It must he a religion ~ festival or
great folk ga therings. Of ceremonial ritual. of
the drama and OF song and dance. In his admit
ration Of the Middle Ages he refuses TO con-
cede superiority to ancient Greece He puts
Dante beside Homer, he declares that -.
Thomas Is as dry as Aristotle. and pictures the
builder Of the ParthenOn standing speechless be-
fore the Strashurg Minister or tho Cologne Ca
thedral. If Hallenism perfected sculpture med
iavalism developed the pictorial art IN the
highest degree. The passion play shows every
step Of the journey from the rude picturesque
ness Of savagery to the engravings and paint
ings Of Holbein 1t ought to be studied, and
the literature OF those times ought to be studied
for the same reason that Greek literature and
art studied. namely. that men may truly UNI
derstand the past and the present by the past,
that they may enjoy their whole heritage ana
not merely, part of 1t.