The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-11-03

and symbols in which men had sought to tmprison 1t, that it was already at work anonymously and obscurely in the universal acceptance of the greater state. He gave it clearer expression, rephrased it to the lights and perspec- lives of the new dawn
 But if we return to our novels for our evidence of the spirit of the times 1t becomes evident as one reads them In their chronological order, so far asl that is now ascertainabIe, that as one comes to the later nineteenth century and the earlier twentieth century the writers are much more acutely aware of secular change than their pfedeces- gors were. The earlier novelists tried to. show life as 1t is the later showed life as it changes. More and more of| their characters are engaged in adapta- lion to change or suffering from the eff fleets of world changes. And as wel come up to the time of the last wars this newer conception of the everyday life as a reaction to an accelerated de- velopment is continually more mani fest Barnet's book, which has served US so well, is frankly a picture of theI world coming about like a ship that sails into the wind Our later uoveIistsl give vast gallery of Individual con- dicts, in which old habits and customs, i, limited ideas, ungenerous tenpera- ments and innate obsessions are pitted against this great opening out of fife that has happened to us. They tell us of the feelings Of old people who have been wrenched away from familiar surroundings and how they have had to make peace with uncomfortabIe com forts and conveniences that are still strange to them. They give us the dis cord between the opening egotisms of youth and the Ill defined Limitations of 2 changing social life. They tell of the universal struggle of Jealousy to cap ture and cripple our souls. of romantic failures and tragicaI misconceptions of the trend of the world. of the spirit of adventure and the urgency Of curiosity and how these serve the universal drift And all their stories lead in the end either to happiness missed or hap piness won, to disaster or salvation. The clearer their vision and the subt CT their art the more certainly do these novels tell of the possibility Of saliva ton for all the world For any road in life leads to religion for those upon tf who will follow it far enough.
 It would have seemed strange thing to the men of the former time that it should be an open question. as it is to- day, whether the world is wholly Christian or not Christian at all. But assuredIy we have the Spirit. and as surely have we left many temporary forms behind Christianity was the first expression of world religion. the first complete repudiation of tribalism and war and disputat1on. That it fell presently into the ways Of more ancient rituals cannot alter that The common sense of mankind has toiled through 2.0OO years of christening experience, to find at last how sound a meaning attaches to the familiar phrases of the Christian faith The scientific thinker, as he widens out b the moral problems of the collective life, comes inevitably upon the words of Christ, and as inevitably does the Christian, as his thought grows clearer. arrive at the world republic.