The Washington herald., 1913-06-15

| nutritive substances and salts are with
drawn from II.
Many of the subjects treated by tht
author have been heretofore touched
| upon but little or not at all in scientific
works.
THE INSIDE OF THE CUP: By Winston Church
III. New York-The Macmillan Company.
1t is impossible to consider 'The Inside
OF the Cup" as novel and nothing else:
! 1t is really a polemic discussion and
argument in which story, plot and charac-
tiers and everything else are subordinated
TO the novelist's desire to make his plea
and to uphold It. 1t is a tract In which
he vigorously propounds and expounds
thesis Of great contemporary Importance,
! writing with all the ardor Of the reformer
who believes that certain conditions In
whose midst we live should be immedi-
ately revolutionized. His characters are
arranged In two hostile camps of reform
and anti-reform, of radicalism and con-
servatism, of heterodoxy and orthodoxy,
Of goodness and badness, OF virtue and
vice, Mr.. Churchill having apparently
made up his mind at the outset OF his
story that the entire world Is so divided.
and that by no means can the breech be
healed. In other words, IL we read him
Alright, reform, radicalism, heterodoxy,
goodness, and virtue march hand II
hand on the one side, and on the othel
are allied the forces Of anti-reform, con
servation, orthodoxy, badness, and vice
That we may not misunderstood him,
and that We may not err in seeking to
associate his opinions from the opinions
of his characters, Mr.. Churchill explicitly
informs US that certain of them speak
with his own voice. In a book of this
kind" he says in his "Afterwsrd," the
setting forth Of a personal view OF re-
ligion is not only unavoidable, but neces-
sary; since. II I wrote sincerely, Mr.. Hod-
der's solution must coincide with my
own-so far as 1 have been able to work
one out" We have, therefore, Mr..
Churchilrs own statement that his chief
character speaks for him. and that by in
ference all the other persons who argue
from the same standpoint as Mr.. Holder
in the story are likewise the opponents
of his views. He further assures us, lest
we may question the seriousness and sin
cerity OF his work. not as a story, but
as an argument, that its pages have been
written with reverence" that the matter
they contain has been pondered over dur
ing long winters, and that no one realizes
the incompleteness of the religious inter-
pretations they contain more than he.
Nevertheless, despite Mr.. ChurchiIPs
overwhelming seriousness, l venture
to say that The Inside of the Cup"
would be much more influential and
convincing, much more likely to pro-
duce the reformatory result the writ
er seeks, were 1t more of story and
less of a preachment. As far as 1t
was possible to outlins its course, It
may be said that its hero is one John
Holder. a clergyman, who leaves a
New England country parish to as
sumo a rectorship in a thriving city
in the Middle West; that from extreme
orthodoxy he soon lapses into manifold
heresies, and that he antagonizes the
influential men of his church. who are
described as men who have gained
their wealth by criminal means, and
refuses to resign, when requested by
his vestry. obtains the support Of his
bishop, and drives the money chang
ers from the temple" Incidental to
all this are a variety of episodes,
without which no novel is complete,
ranging from suicide to sudden death
by apoplexy to the account of a chill
dren's half-holiday under the charge
of the beneicent Mr.. Bentley.
Throughout the story there is no
golden mean for Mr.. Churchill, his
characters ranging from this Mr.. Bent
ley, who is altogether too good for a
long life in this world. to the multi
millionaire, Eldon Parr. who is made
responsible for more than a thousand
and one ills to which human flesh is
heir.
Perhaps the best instance of his in