The New York herald., 1922-09-03
HENRY WALKER

thousand words, we are told
is but a prelude to the Par
sons progress an Introductory
section of what promises TO be a
colossal study. 1t carries the future
parson, Mark Lidderdale, from the
age of about to his admission as a
deacon in holy orders, in his early
twenties; it dates during the last
twenty years of the nineteenth Gen.
tury, spilling over little into the
present. 1t is almost wholly con-
cerned with the spiritual growth Of
the boy. his progressive psychic and
mystical experiences up to his ordi-
nation. And all these experiences
lie within the front ranks of the So
called Catholic movement In the An
glican Church, that small but turbu-
lent back water left eddying in the
wake of the Oxford movement and
Cardinal Newman's sweep of quest
ing souls into the Roman ocean. A
good deal of the book Is likely to
leave the reader who is outside of
this ritualistic, mystical swirl In
something OF the state OF mind of
that Lost Mr.. Blake" of whom Gil
bert records in the ''Bab Ballad" dn
that eurhythmic forerunner of pers
hbre):
/ have known him indulge in pro-
fame. ungentlemanly emphatics,
When the Protestant Church has
been divided on the subject of
the proper width of a chasuble's
hem;
/ have even known him to sneer at
albs-and as for dalmatics,
Words can't convey an idea OF the
contempt he felt for them.
At first glimpse it appears to be
refractory material for treatment in
the form Of fiction, even as an
avowedly psychological novel. Many
Of the events hang upon disagree
ments between sundry parish
priests" and the latitudinarian
bishops. sometimes upon such mat
ters as the presence of an ALTAR for
the dead" and the saying of masses
for the souls of the departed in an
Anglican church, sometimes upon
the proper color for various vest
ments; occasionally it strikes one as
much ado about very little. Never
theless. behind these outward things
there are real issues, soul crises and
things that matter, and in Mr.. Mac
kenzie's very skillful handling ii
manages to be curiously interesting
Though some Of them are a little
shadowy, his people are plainly alive.
with nothing whatever of the mar
ionette about them.
Marks early childhood was over
shadowed by the grim zeal OF his
father. the Rev. James Lidderdale,
who has built up church from the
small beginnings as a mission at
Noting Hill. only to have il taken
away from him by the bishops, who
cannot countenance his extreme
Catholicism" The Rev. James is
a man who never should have mar
ried; natural celibate led from the
path by momentary emotion. He
breaks with his wife. as wei as with
the bishop. and the rest of Marks
boyhood is spent in remote parish
of Cornwall, where his mothers
father is rector. After the tragic
death of the old man Mark passes
through half dozen different stages
of religious experience, including a
year or SO spent as a lay brother in
an imitation monastery, but the
reader interested in the psychology
OF conversion" and OF the making of
what may be called, despite the ap-
parent contradiction in terms, a ra-
tionalizing mystic, should follow
Marks progress, step by step.
Mr.. Mackenzie's work has a fine
texture. a highly polished surface,
and he is not devoid of humor. The
book is fun of felicitous pictures.
such as that of the old bishop, dying,
lying there under a chequered COW
erIet. looking like an old ivory chess
man. a white bishop that had been
taken in the game and put of the
board"
From the theological standpoint
tho hool, 4. .ba ha.t eta.an1ons 80 ,ha