St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1910-04-13
A New Book.
English Literature in Account with Re-
ligion by Edward Mortimer Chap
man.-An Appreciation.

Not only friends of the author but all
lovers of literature will welcome this
new and illuminating book recently
issued by Houghton and Miff1in. Its
$50 pages, faithfully indexed, give us
very finished product of liberal and
critical studies-fragments of which have
occasionally appeared in current Re-
views, and more definitely in lectures
delivered by the author at Yale Univer-
sity in 1906.
The purpose of the book, concisely
stated IN the title, more fully in the pre-
fatory note is ito set forth the debt
which literature owes TO religion for its
subjects, its language, its antagonists
and inspirations, as well as in many
cases for the training of its writers; on
the other hand to suggest the debt
which religion as indisputably owes to
literature for the extension of its inhu-
ence and the humanizing of its ideals"
The term religion is used in its broadest
sense including whatever inspires life
with its highest ideals and motives.
To the. treatment of his theme the
author brings ripe scholarship, erudition
and insight. He has intimate and exact
acquaintance not only with literature
itself considered, but with the conditions
and trends of contemporary thought, and
with various mental characteristics or
environments that were giving individual
touch to a writer's work. We are en-
abled to see situations in which literary
activity and religious ideas are most
naturally tho not always consciously,
blending, inter working. building up the
great product of English literature. "In
all this the path of literature lies parallel
to that of religion. They are old and
dear mpanions-brethren indeed of one
al f0 he
squabbling rather in true brotherly fash
ion now and then; occasionally falling
out very seriously and bitterly; but still
inter-dependent and necessary to each
Other.'
The contention is that there can be no
great or enduring literature that does
not relate itself either Understandings
or by sort of instinct to the universal
truths and facts of religion, to the element
al demands of mans nature. This will
not mean that in every case an author
accepts religious life, still less a creed;
he may be in a mood of protest or of
revolt; we are reminded, for example,
that Mill, who claimed to have never
had any religious belief whatever, illus
trated better than any other in his gener-
alton the fascination of religion for the
human mind, the hunger of the heart for
God.
1t is plain that the or'sconclusions
are wholly his own, independently ar
rived at and deliberately formulated,
not infrequently with respectful dissent
from the views of acknowledged masters
in criticism. Discriminating analysis is
made of contemporaneous writers and of
groups such as Clapham and Oxford,
Doubters and Mystics, with view to
contrasts or comparative estimate; two
familiar types are differentiated as fol-
lows" Both the humor and pathos of
Dickens are lush and full of sap; the
exuberance of May and June is in them
and they infect us with the exhilaration
of early summer. Thackeray's season is
rather harvest time which tells us that
not every bud of the expectant spring
has come to fruition; his story is told
from the standpoint of its last chapter"
One must note the the felicities of style
that enliven this discussion with fire.
quent light touches of allusion, with
genial turns of phrase or thought alluring
to the reader, and withal refined and
delicate humor never obtrusive but as
naturally in it's place as the wood
flower under the hemlocks. There's
something appetizing in the menu, the
suggestive chapter headings; Sons of the
Morning, for example, introducing
Wordsworth and Coleridge; The Apostles
of Revolt, i. e., Byron and Shelley; again,
Darwin and his P1oughshare. The
Great Twin Brethren are, as one might
surnise, Tennyson and Browning;
Elijah and Elisha stand for Carlyle and
Ruskin. Any close likeness between the
ancient prophets and these modern ones
is disclaimed, yet the Tishbite elements
in Carlyle are made very manifest, and
Ruskin, while of gentler mould was
nevertheless subject to gusts of wintrv
anger, under the stress of which he could
like Elisha curse those who dared to
mock him with all his masters junction."
Those who had the pleasure of know
ing DR.. Chapman during his residence
here will recognize in this book familiar
style and method, an enthusiasm for
letters as well as for truth, freshness and
independence of thought, a straight
forceful movement toward the point at
issue, and a wholly fair open-1ninded
treatment of themes, always characters
tic of his work. He is to be congratulate
ed on having made by way of an avo-
cation SO substantial a contribution to
our correct estimates of religion and
literature as related to each other.
Eff
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FOLEYSTIO YANDTAR