The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-04-21
!" ENOCH
WILLOUGHBY. !"
A New Novel Notable in Depth
and Insight.
The Author Is Prof. James A.
Wickersham,
OF Rose Polytechnic Institute,
Terre Haute, Ind.
FORMERLY OF KANSAS.
Student and Instructor at the
State University.
Treats of Quakerism as the Old
Spiritualism and
The Still UnsOIved Problem of
the Unseen Power.
FORMERLY OF KANSAS.
Student and Instructor at the
State University.
Treats of Quakerism as the Old
Spiritualism and
The Still UnsoIved Problem of
the Unseen Power.

Enoch Willoughby, by James A Wick
ersham; Charles Scribner's Sons, publish
ers, $1.50.
1t would be in exact accord with Pro-
fessor Wickersham's tendency to write
a psychological novel. And that you
will see is what he has done His bent
was always that We y. When he was a
student and an instructor at the Kan
sas university he was known among his
comrades for his love of German and
Greek poetry, the metaphysical specu-
lation in both these literatures and
English folk songs. He was, you see,
half philosopher and half artist.
used often to hear him quote Greek
and German subtleties and remember
on one occasion when We were walking
under brilliant spring sky-why is 1t
no other atmosphere has the marvel
lous clarity and electric fire of that
limpid Kansas aether? on such day as
that he sprung upon me his conclusions
upon and settlements of the mooted
question of Necessity or Free viii. 1t
was all so dazzling-the face of nature
at that time-that it was vexing to say
under which condition we did live. At
one moment when a meadow lark rose
from under a bunch of bastard indigo
and sang rising, rising in to the I'M
fashionable blue above. you thought 1t
must be Free WILL But then again
when the winds shook the myriad apple
blossoms and Whitened the earth at
your feet and cast the intoxicating fra
GRANGE abroad on the dewy air, you felt
cessity.''
That was long ago; and now comes
this book which shows that for the
speculative subject named above the
authors opinions have little altered
even when after mature years he has
sifted the complete metaphysical grisU
through his clear intelligence. He is
still neither a Necessitarian nor Liber-
tartan, but meets both sides half way
and unites and modifies both.
But a flip to metaphysics. Professor
Wickershan's book is "Enoch Will
loughby" and, while it is psychological,
| it is vastly Humankind it is vastly
more human than it is psychological.
| We say psychological before we say hui
man because we are polite and conces-
| sive to the fad phases of the small army
| of reviewers which is abroad in the
! land these days (or the army of small
reviewers, whichever way you like to
put iD, and SO we keep to their critical
argot when talking about the last new
| novel. But "Enoch Willoughby'' is by
! all means human first. You will see.
/ This is something of the story.
The hero, Enoch Willoughby, is d
| Quaker of early Pennsylvania Quaker
| stock-the stock that traces its real es-
tate holdings from the deeds of William
! Penn. Enoch is a religious dreamer,
| who, at the beginning of the story
| knew so little of human nature that he
took his new-married wife to the home
| of his mother,
the kind of a person one would like to
| call Lady Margaret, if there was a sys-
! TEN of titles in this country-high and
mighty, lordly proud and peculiar"
The couple migrates after a time
| from this homestead of Lady Mar
| garets in Ohio to one farther west;
the wife dries her tear-stained face
| and ever after becomes her husbands
| most devoted follower, guardian and
genuine helDmeet. The husband en-
| bodies all the strength and indepen-
| dence and intense individuality of the
| mir Tn hn Srr1,4 So l,
not only takes his own young family
but also younger sister and brothers
of his wife
Enoch, we say, is a religious dreamer
and withal the strong and Independent
NAL in physical expression, and spirit
ual elevation which filed the west in
the generation that matured in the
forties- At that time-as rarely now
a religious fervor was the very muscle
and SineW of the peoples life. Upon
the frontier, especially, this fervor was
expressive of that Indebtedness
which had taken form in the liberaliz-
| ing tendency and tractarian movement
in England. and was readjusting old
conditions upon our Atlantic seaboard
Enoch with his family was leading
an absolutely simple life, healthy, nor
| bmal in physical expression, and spirit
ually saturated with readings, refec-
lions and studies of the Bible. Being a
Quaker he was sometimes moved by the
Spirit 10 speak in meeting. He spoke
/
soul, but always in talking at home
afterwards of his giving way to the in
f1uence with certain pride in what
he had been moved to utter. Upon his
solitariness the religious idea grew
over much, and the spirit or sense OF
control or influence which possessed
him crept in, and in, until Enoch finally
determined that the power was that OF
departed spirits.
''They felt the humiliation that wa.
coming upon them by Enoch's determined
and persistent use of the name of spirit
ualism.
1.-THE sect had much about it that wal
not reputable even then. 1t some
what connected with necromancy and for
tune telling. Yet it was not as now, when
as soon one says spiritualism, Their
, flashes across the mind of the nearer
! picture of planchette boards and darl
cabinets and stage performances: of Geor
gias wonders: of people being miraculousll
bound and unbound for show; and of ex
posing the secret workings of a myster
ious power for pay
1.-The Willoughbys would have though
that this sort of spiritualism had con
| neetiOn with matters of the spirit. and 70
| their part had nothing Of it. Theirs was
and visions and experiences. that ar
| found everywhere in the Bible. But II
spite of their humiliation, in spite of tn
| charitable Interpretation of his theory b.
L | the woman preacher in spite of every
z | thing. EnOch Wi1loughby was really
| spiritualist, for he believed in the FIRE
| quent communication with departed spfr
2 its; and by that name he had chosen hi
s company and he would have to go wit
Z | them.
How easy was the change to earl,
spiritualism from the trusts and prac
. tice of the Quakersl In these days
= in the sophistication of the plain oil
S spirituaIism of Scriptural simplieit