The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-07-15
A New Religion, Novel

The Reign of Law" by James lane AL
len, has attracted notice already, for two
special reasons; first, because the work OF
Mr.. Allen is always likely to be interest
ing, and second, because he has for the
i.us dogma as 1t influences human life and
thought. Anyone who has watched tie
authors work closely could easily have
prophesied that soon or later he would
DO this; for his mind is predisposei TO
theology of semi poetic kind, and the
ology has played SO large a part in the
inner history of the Middle South, where
Presbyterianism held sway. that it could
hardly fail TO attract his attention AT any
rate, here We have the religious novel as
he conceives it.
The hero is a young Kentuckian born
and brought up in the hemp country. son
OF small farmer, and early moved by an
impulse to become a preacher and teacher
OF religion. There is curious psychologist
cal study, worked out with marvellous skill,
in the results of this Impulse upon him
self and his parents. This boy is an alta
vistic reproduction, In different age. of
an ancestor Of his who suffered in the
cause Of free thought His parents are
more or less degenerate, and incapable
value. His impulse to preach is due solely
TO pure love of truth and righteousness,
stirred to the need of expression by con-
tinual porting over the Bible, which ap-
peals TO the imaginative side OF his ma
ture with its grand poetry and pulsing
humanity. His parents regard 1t from a
purely naterialistic point of view. 1t is
respectable, irreproachable, genteel TO be
n preacher, and they had never supposed
that this son OF theirs had it In him 10
be anything SO fine. They are accordingly
ju5ilant, and ready to make oil possible
sacrifices to further his ambition. When
he reaches the seminary he finds among
his fellow students much the same spirit
as his parents.
The poetry which he had thought so
great and enrolling, when conned as a
lesson becomes almost matter of fact and
squalid. His mind Graves other food than
the cut and dried maxims of withered the
oiogians, and guided by the same love OF
pure truth which had led him to seek the
ministry. he reads. begins to investigate
his religion or rather the dogmas which
are impressed upon him US being religion.
He goes to hear all the different clergy
men in town. and they all disagree and
abuse each other He begins to wonder
what truth is; and he stumbles then into
the conflict between religion and science,
as 1t was called in the early seventies
Unfortunately, Mr.. Allen has placed the
date of his story little too early-in 1868.
Darwins "0rigin of Species" was NOT
published till 81. and could hardly have
reached book store in Middle Kentucky
go soon after its publication; and THE
Descent of Man" did not appear till 1871.
three years after the hero is represented
as buying it. The end OF his investigations
and his uncompromising devotion 10 truth
funess, as well as truth. is that he is ex-
PEELED from the seminary, and comes back
home with nothing to show for his time
and money but truikful OF books which
have made him a free thinker in the lit
cral sense of the words The odium which
has come to attach to this term is a little
curious when one comes to reflect on the
probable value Of thought which is not
free, or Of a thinker who is chained to one
preconceived opinion.
The narroF minds OF his father and
mother reeoil with horror from his apos-