The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-09-02

were Fiponed rapidly into complete nev,.
ton. The author Of that book arrives a,
the conclusion that before truth can bs
sought after with any hope Of success nil
s-upernAturalist illusions must be aban.
doned. The last to goi Is the most cherished.
figured by Olive Schreiner in an ala.
CORY a. the dark plumed bird OF immortal
ity. For the little soul" she writes. that
cries aloud for continued personal En-
istencs for itself and its Beloved there IL
10 help. For the soul which knows itself
no more az a unit. but only a. a part Of tina
Universal Unity, whereof the Beloved also
In a part; which feels within itself the throb
Of the Universal Life; for that soul there
Is no DEATH" The most memorable OF sub
sequent contributions made by a woman
TO the rationalistic literature Of fiction was
Robert Elsmere." Mr.. Benin sees that, as
bein- the most moderate, IL was for that
very reason the best calculated TO win
success. The hero, a young clergyman
Of the Church Of England. il led by his
studies in the lives OF the Spanish saints to
examine the sort Of evidence oil which be-
lief in miracles rests. with the result Of
abandoning II altogether. He then gives
up his living, goes to London and breaches
a rather indefinite sort Of theism, whose
chief recommendation seems to Do that
IL nno be disproved. After some years
Of this apostolate he dies young, consoled
by some equally vague hope Of a not inn
possible uture life"
We ave left ourselves but little space
for the English poets OF the ~rationalistio
era. but we lnnot pass them over without
a word. Byron, Of course, WAS as con-
s~picuous a deist as he was a Wing. Shell
Icy, a more advanced political reformer;
was an avowed atheist. The poet Camp
bell, a good Liberal. is described in Mrs.
De Morgan's "reminiscences as very doubt
full Of the reality OF another life" Coleridge.
Southey and Wordsworth although their
e2rlier writings are sown thick with hetero-
dox o~pinions', when ultimately they adopted
re~actionary politics, returned also to the
theology which, as Republicans, they had
discarded. 1t is undeniable that Words
worth produced all his best work during
the pantheistic and radical period OF his
career. Keats died. as he had lived, a pagan.
Tennyson, who, although he tried at times
to play the part Of a philosophic poet, was
no philosopher, il amply denominated in
the book before III an imperfect mystic"
He always trembled at the brink OF the
abyss, and shrank back into a half hearted
dualism, which he cannot present with
any approach to logical conference. IL
NAV be remembered that Leasing wrote a
dissertation to prove that Pope was no
m~etaphysician. MIR. Benn submits that
the author Of the Essay on Man" seems
a strong, systematic thinker when CON-
pared with the singer Of The Higher
Pantheism." Matthew Anold's srgu-
ments against miracles and against the
proofs Of a personal creator are already
beginning to be forgotten. There is no
doubt thai religion, as he and JOwett strove
to reconstruct it, had a pantheistio basis.
As to his appeal to the existence Of re-
liRion as a witness to the eternal conscious
ness Of a Power without US helping Us to
be good, this is now generally recognized az
implying a strange misunderstanding Of
the historic relations between theology
and morality. Among other Middle Vic
torian poets Of the first rank, S~winburne and
William Morris must be classed among
u~ndisguised atheists; Dante Rossetti was
an agnoetic. II, finally, the devotional
element received a glowing expression
from Coventry Pstmore and Christina
Roesetti, Robert Browning broke definitely
with Christianity, and Tennyson's hold
on it, as we have seen, became, in the cod.
remarkably uncertain. n. W. H.