The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1906-04-08
BOOK A FIT ESSAY
FOR EASTER TIME

anu tdA-cQ Inc DQl1Ql4k VI lAE lily
Beautiful" A new and enlarged edition
of this work has recently been brought
out. As for the small editions Of 1884,
they are comparatively unknown. As the
poet puts it The Building of the City
Beautiful was never really published
till now so far as the press and public
are concerned. the small and unfinished
editions being absorbed mainly by per-
sonal friends The book is pious. fanci-
ful, poeucal, allegorical, mystical,
mingled of Buddhistic and Christian be
liefs-perhaps above all il superlatively
breathes a spirit or faith In resurrection,
and therefore is fit essay for Easter
contemplation 1 do not know just how
TO classify it as TO the particular division
Of literature il belongs 10. II is not a
novel; it may be history in the sense
Of the history of a souls education: per-
chance IL is acknowledgement it
would not be altogether error to label
it allegorical and put it on the shelf by
Bunyans Pilgrims Progress; some might
say ii was branch Of sociology and con-
slider il a treatise on political economy
under the guise OF fiction, like Bellamy's
Looking Backward or More's Utopia;
or it might appropriately be classified as
poetry il there were no dictatorial OBJ
jections to prose-poems being so appor-
toned any way it is conservativeIy safe
to call it an essay, and it may mystically
succeed in helping the high thing which
il essays. TO wit, the regeneration or men,
temporarily and eternally, through their
adoring love Of noble womanhood and fol-
lowing aloft TO the ideals these loved
ones lift before our mid1s eyes. IT IS
another story of the eternal feminine,
leading US upward and onward" 1t is
the Dante and Beatrice idea brought
down 10 date. and urged as close home
TO US as from the voice of a seer on
-
with the throbbingly ardent expectation
Of a glorious resurrection that for Cali
fornians to read during this Easter week
this prose-poem of the premier poet of
the Pacific Coast will surely be in sweet
accord with the eternal fitness of things
In Two dozen chapters. each one mot
toed with q short poem by the author
this poet of the Sierras' tells of the
spiritual education of man OF this new
world by a beautiful woman, who is a
reincarnation of a spirit from the old
world, when the Jewish prophets were
close n touch with the teaching of Gods
still. small voice. Miriam is the name
Of this Jewess- Try to vision her from
these suggestive fragments / gather for
you from here and there: 1T was a sad
picture, and the serenely beautiful face
of the silent woman. ." This tall
dark woman on the outside of the group
of Christians was very patient 1.-The
dust Of travel was on her sable gar
ments." And now her great dark eye
took fire. Her brow grew dark. Her
dark immensely of hair seemed to take
on faint tinge of the fire about the
face and at the tips THE tall, grand
woman drew her loose mantle more
closely about her throat, and lifting her
eyes looked away toward the hill, on
which stood the camp of Titus when
Jerusalem was overthrown, and without
intending it, or really knowing that she
did 50, she looked entirely above the man
before her as she went on in an earnest,
far-away voice"
Thus we are TO imagine her person as
in the allegory she teaches. the spirit of
the man the great lessons of life. Just
at the moment above described she was
explaining to her platonic lover and pupil
what was the meaning Of the few plain
words of Jesus Christ about its being
easier for a camel TO pass through a
needles eye than for rich man to enter
heaven. That has been so often misun-
derstood TO signify that heaven shuts it's
door in the face Of rich men. AS Miriam
interprets the igurative language it is a
simple but sublime lesson about the
Resurrection. The rich man must lay
aside his wealth at the door of death and
enter the kingdom Of God as poor as the
poorest
Perhaps the most deliberately eloquent
description of this Miriam-this strong,
beautiful spirit reincarnate as a fair
woman-is given in an account of her en-
counter with a terrible lion of the desert.
She and a man companion are travelling
in Egypt. 1t is q, story of an incident in
her life during a long distant, other in
carnation. The lion was about TO attack
the man, when the woman sprang be-
tween the intended victim and the king
of beasts. Her companion Of the night
relates what followed thus: 81 would
have followed her, but the same force,
which I can now understand was a men,
tai force and not at all a physical force,
held me hard and fast to where 1 stood"
She let her robe fall as she sprang forward
and now stood only the hand of God had
her: snow-white Silhouette OF per-
fect coneliness against the terrible and bloody
mouth and tossing name Of the Hon
who was tins woman here who stepped be-
aeTt on hnd the e faee Was tbs JUDITH
gain fncarnate2 Or was this something more
nan Judith? Was it the old and for
gotten mastery OF all things animate which
Noes ana his sister knew that gave her do
ninfon over the king OF the desert? Or was
ber name Mary? That Mary. II you will,
s,bo won all things to her side God in heav-
m God upon earth. by the sad. sweet pity
n her face and the story OF holy love that
was written there2'
!. second only the combat lasted
So the allegory goes on and on. From
his glimpse you can imagine both the
.torv's fancifuIness and the nobility OF its
planned import / will close by giving
,au An extract from far toward the
,oolx,s end. which is suggestive of that
yold thread of resurrection hope which
ms ali through the volume. The hero
# the story, Miriam's pupil, has sadly
allied in his attempts to build an earthly
city beautiful" and after long absence
= ts going again to meet the woman who
lad inspired him. He is high UP in the
LIQUIDS in an airship
He sank into his seat 6GTeS q his n,t head e ana
: &C. q Zine he lifted his face. for he felt !
bat he was not alone and To- there o she s sa5
eio.s -, 49, : ~ dIxfnftv Of presence All the l
majesty Of perfect wqsnhocd was se with n hsr
so~.t-- 20 iruperfously beautiful The same
wset touch OF tenderness, The same pathos