The San Francisco call., 1904-02-28
~JSSE WRITES
Life OF Jeremy Taylor.

a. -+AA eNu GAYS are these that
tEi "e moderus have fallen upon
= "rd what a lacking have we
that Tye know rot. al OF US.
'"- es OF classical prose. True
s. 90 cas- omitted. how many are
iher- y he readers Of to-day who
b. '. 10 Jeremy Taylor was; or
Wh- oe- he wrote Holy Living and
1o nying" or Ships That Pass in
ih- Nieht"? Yet he needs not the
ea.ay Il Edmund Gosss. Just pub
iish ac. ~ make MS name the brighter
io ih'se fsw who have known the joy
oi sacanins big volume on knee and
o-l ne H. the stately rolling periods
~ BIS prose. We may not bend i'm
pliCtly 10 his scheme Of theology, but
X is our boon 10 gather from his rare
o.o sermons the beauties that appeal
10 The ear-the rhythm and the beat of
MS surprising word building.
Siace coleridge wrote his critique
upon The old churchman there has been
10 attempt az biography or an appre-
clation SO worthy as this patient and
subdued work Of Edmund Gosse's It
Is as II the living man Of letters had
made OF himself a Boswell 10 the shade
OF Jeremy Taylor so successfully that
hoyalist preacher, now dead these $50
years, seems 10 be breathing again
through the pen Of its biographer. His
effort is directed more toward an ex-
position OF the sweet life and inspira-
lions OF thought which made Jeremy
Taylor what he was in the seventeenth
century than a review Of the position
which his writings hold in the world
OF letters to-day. It is more a biog-
rsphy Of the theologian than of the
writer Mr.. Gosse finds a fertile fund
OF thought in the analysis OF Taylors
mind and the moral philosophy which
enansted therefrom.
What Coleridge dwelt upon with
somewhat morbid interest-Taylor
very vigorous definition Of future pun
ishment-Edmund Gosse very discreet
ly disregards. Even though the uncom-
promising theology OF the old school
OF Taylor, Butler and the rest. which
limned in the Pit with definite
boundaries. has softened its severity
somewhat in these laXer days. the
biographer makes statement near the
close Of his work Of his purpose in
steering a wide course about these
hidden reefs Of controversy.
From the standpoint of Literature
alone Jeremy Taylor is the most in
teresting Of all the old rhetoricians
whose pUlpits were wont 10 ring again
with the thunders Of their logic. This
is because Of his remarkable depth and
the sincerity Of his moral sensibility
Life is sinsulsrly close to him; it seems
- thrill him through and through with
its manifold mysteries. To this mag
r-r.rrH
thought which for its scope and oft
times its daring seems TO be in inverse
ratio 10 the impulse which set 4 free.
For he is never man only with a definite
view, but always the poet whose
horizon Of thought is boundless.
As Gosse truthfully points out, no
prose writer In our English literature
has been so much Of the poet as Tay-
lor If poetry is the language of the
soul and prose that OF the intellect,
Jeremy Taylor in some Of his grandest
flights is nothing else but the poet
With true poetic insight he is ever
ready 10 clothe the thought in the
words which viii best suit the harmony,
70 seek out the simplest and yet the
strongest figures by which TO bring out
the thought clear cut. Like a poet. too.
Lne Flcd+ u 1o4ueu NIIoFe IS SenStllNe
20 the profound significance which lies
behind all life: not the theological sig
ni1cance is this but the true poetic.
He feels the change from life TO death
with surprising poignancy. but it is
not a philosophical deduction which he
draws from that, but one poetic.
II is Gosse's task in this biography
OF his TO show wherein lies the secret of
the power to produce such grandeur of
concept and beauty Of diction. By
painstaking analysis Of the character Of
Taylor-his innate force, his simplicity
OF faith and the masterful purpose that
was his-the biographer is able. to
picture for the first time Jeremy Tay-
Tor. the man
CThe Macmillan Company, New York;