The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1919-12-08
by WILLIAM DRAKE

are lines like
Come, thou silver breasted moonbean
of desire
And from their pierced hearts. rich
with pain
which might not unworthily have fall
len from Trans soft lutte or have heen
sung of ISRAELI Others are simple
and sweet; some are FAULTY. but these
are 1nfrequent and always redeemed
Dy some fine phrase or delicate bit
OF imagery
AS Gosse says she spring from
the very soul of India and her spirit
is unsponled by contact with Western
Iclvilization. Still she sings her hymns
to Buddha on his lotus throne gazing
upon the life about her with eyes pc
culiarly Hindu; and her poems are
redolent of the east, with it's ANTIQUE
religions, its glamorous mysticism, and
the fleeing shadows of figures hui
man or divine, from the long pageant
of her past.
Several years since, Louis Wi1kin-
son astonished the public with his
mastery satire, The Buffoon. Later
appeared A Chaste Man. which finally
i
lsideration; and his newest book Brute
Gods tAlfred A. Knopf) will place him,
4 If it be not an egotism SO early to
judge, among the supreme creative
/ artists of modern times
4 The theme of Brute Gods concerns
/ the crushing establishment of young
love and the hopeless struggle CO a
i sensitive young man against the brute
forces of life. Alec Glaive is a lad
whom domestic incongeniality has
thrown upon himself; he is hyper
sensitive, and takes perverse pleasure
in indulging and studying his reactions.
His friend, Father Collett, seeks to de-
iyelop the spiritual side of the boys
nature, with the view eventually of
! bringing him to the priesthood.
Unfortunately for Collects designs,
his niece Gillian visits in the neigh
borhood; and, although she is seven
years Alec's senior. strong mutual
J attraction results. Following a break
, with his father, Alec goes to London
: where Gillian is employed as fem
! mist leader. She is charming and
! broad-minded, but haunted by fear
that the disparity in age would deaden
Alec's love after the first heat of pas
sion had passed; and her continual
references to this obstacle at last ac-
composites the result.
1
home; he confesses to Collett, who ac-
knowledges Gillian as an ilIegitimate
daughter, and they two arrange to en-
ter a monastery. At this last period
Alec resembles Huysnnans; he has nc
, deep religious feeling. but loathing the
world for its submission to it's brute
gods, he seeks a refuge-In refuge, he
: paid homage; paid blindly, now. te
: those outraging brute forces theil
i
Mr.. Wilkinson is especially success
, lful with his characters. Each stand:
Tout distinctly; Wilfred Vail, cousin tt
the Cyprian Strange of A Chaste Man
Stephen Glaive. with his maliciou.
ifrony and egotistfcal narrowness
cynical, commonplace Mervyn; Aun
Cathy, morose in her blighted happi
: mess; poor little F'rippy Clark. the sen
a timental Carlyon-W Williams. The bool
is an achievement, and Alec Glaive il
worthy to take his place beside TIL
I Richard Feverel of Meredith.
. Another distinctive is Heritage (Do
r RAM. by V. Sackyille West. 1t is
q tale of the Weald of Kent, where Eng
\ lish is spoken broad and rude as ok
: Caxton hath it. Mallory, the narrator
is a student of life who, fleeing from
business anxieties to a vacation on
q farm. chances upon an excellent sub
: ject for observation.
In Ruth Pennistan is fused a Qua
= heritage of yeoman stolidity and Span
ish passion, and she is torn continual
al ly between these conflicting tempera
ments. The English side of her natur
= loves Mallory but the southern is draw
by an influence almost hypnotic
Rawdon Westmacott, a Bedouin
corduroy, with a thin, fierce face, tn
- &0Tr Il 10 Il
of hawk Ruth marries Rawdon, BIT
there was never love between ther
t and, at last, he deserts her, freein
e her for Mallory.
e There is a ruggedness and strengt