The Irish standard., 1909-03-20

+. c. Byrne, Chaplain Of the Catholic
Association of the University, appeared
In the Tribune next day:
'The great need of the university is
y teacher Of theology. The chair of
theology is nominally vacant now, but
Tn fact. it Is never left vacant. Pretty
much every teacher in the institution
has from time to time taken his place
in it and issued DEGREES on religious
matters with an assumption of finality
that makes the canons of ecumeni-
ca! councils comparatively feeble
echoes. Professor Beach is not the first
VINO has taken the vacant chair and
waved his ears. His distinction is
that he extracts his erroneous views
from the very place where they are
least in evidence. All the opinions
go far advanced by theologians and
scientists in regard to Immortality are
absurd Furthermore he said, the
poets are the only cnes who are cap
able of advancing opinions in regard
t. future life. Pers ;nally believe as
Shelley does
Shelley, with all his his poetic genius
is not the poets. He is "a ther the ex-
ception to the poets in his hayward
atheism. The poets and the theolog-
ians as are at one with regard to the
Immortality of the soul. 1t would be
wholly superf1uous in matter so evil
cent to go into particulars and quote
from Homer, Virgil, Dante, Shake
speare, Goethe, ETC., the greatest poets
CT the different nations, both ancient
and modern. They all express the con-
Hictions of people and scholars re-
garding Immortality. To come back to
Shelley. Perhaps only two men fully
grasped the poetic genius of Shelley.
They were Robert Browning and
Francis Thompson. They were both
poets of the highest order and both
believed in immortality. They were
able to distinguish the poetic faculty
of Shelley from that waywardness of
character, which led him into unbelief.
For a teacher of literature and such
brilliant alumnus Of Yale, Professor
Beach has rather hazy notions with
regard to poets and poetry. The poet
does not give light en- the future life
CT on anything else. He originates
rothing. From his infancy he is wrapt
up In his symbols. His knowledge
comes to him at second hand; he is
never an authority except as a
witness to the ideals or the err
rors Of his age. His work, a most
roble work indeed, is to translate the
language of knowledge into the Ian
guage of power. When we want
knowledge we go to the scientist, the
philosopher the theoogian, for it. But
when we want that knowledge put
in terse and forcibe way we go to
the poet for the expression of it.
with regard to Immortality take this
fSom one who was both a clergyman
and a poet and whose works belong
70 Nineteenth Century literature. New
man introduces dying factory girl as
saying: I think, if this should be the
end of all, and if all have been born
for is just to work my heart and life
away and to sicken in this dree place
with those millstones always in my
ears, until I could scream out for them
to stop and let me have little piece
of quiet, and with the fluff filling my
lungs, until I thirst to death for one
long deep breath of the clear air, and
my mother gone, and never able to
tell her again how loved her, and
OF all my troubles-I think, if this life
is the end, and that there is no God
to wipe away all tears from all eyes,
could go mad This passage ex-
emplifes the ethical argument, the
least of the arguments, which are adj
vanced by theoogians and scientists
end which make for the Immortality:
represents the much burdened human
race and her cry is the elemental cry
&C nature, to which, if there is ration
ability in the university, there must be
a response. TO call such arguments alb
surd is a sign not Of superiority but
of idiocy. Furthermore it comes with
very bad grace when such a statement
is delivered to Christian students by
one who is supported by Christian tax
payers.
Perhaps, however. it is needless to
take notice OF such utterances as
those of Professor Beach. The uni
versity professor in our day seems to
have mania for contradicting the
common sense of the taxpayers. Give
me ranter on the street corner and
shall find some grain of wisdom i'll
his utterances. But n university pro-
fcssor. assuming that his little class
in law, medicine or literature is the
criterion by which the whole universe
Of thought is judged. talks sheer non
sense. From his assumptions he can