The New York herald., 1922-07-30

nineteenth century inventlon-aS II,
to SO no further. there had never
been such school of thought as
that of Pyrrho. or that Of Carne-
ades. with it's doctrine Of "probabil-
ities." The comment Is justified,
since Prof. Shuster's book is quite
as much concerned with the philoso-
ply of religion as it is with "pure"
literature, and it needs to be noted
that his perspective is not always
Having found thus much fault
there remains little to do save to ex-
press thanks and appreciation for
the rest of the book, for it's freshness
Of vision and it's insistence upon
factors of Importance in the make
up of the life of to-day which are
apt to be underestimated by those
to whom they are not congenial.
1t is scarcely wise and it is surely
not very intelligent for the modern
scientist-biologist, astronomer, geo.
logist or chemist-to pooh pooh the
swing of certain currents in the
thought of the day toward medic
valism as if it were an entirely neg
ligible phenomenon. 1t is better to
try to understand it, to sympathize
as far as possible, and in any case
to realize that some elements, at least,
of it are going to be a necessary
part of any satisfying new synthesis.
By the Catholic Spirit" Prof.
Shuster means, he tells US, nothing
sectarian or narrowly controversial,
but the broad. traditionally Christian
outlook upon life which through
many centuries nodded European
society into all but its ultra-modern
FORMS" He claims, with some JUS
tice, a good many non-Catholics as
participants in this spirit: from
Scott to Oscar Wilde and Aubrey
Beardsley, and, of course. the insti-
gators of the Oxford Movement,
Kingsley, Keble and Pusey, though
they stopped half way and were
unable to go with Newman into the
church. He also includes the Ros-
settis and even Walter Pater, though
some strain is involved. And Rus
kin, Morris and the pre-Raphaelites.
On it's intellectual side it repre-
sents the revolt from pure reason
and self-reliance to faith, to the ac-
ceptance, as starting point, of
revealed religion; in other words.
a full return to traditional Chris
tianity. The process is, obviously,
best exemplified in the familiar case
of Cardinal Newman, by all odds the
greatest of its exemplars. On the
aesthetic side with which creative
literature is, perhaps, more generally
concerned) it means a reversion to
medieval romanticism.
In other words. his Catholic
Spirit" is a part of the broader
general movement of Romanticism;
broader, because it included good
deal that lies outside the Church.
On it's intellectual side, IL one can
grant the starting point, the logic OF
the situation lies with the Catholic,
and, as most innocent bystanders"
will agree, Cardinal Newman had
much the best of it in the Tractarian
debate-as a debate. On the &sthe-
tic side one cannot be SO sure. 1t
is not quite SO simple or capable OF
exact analysis. But, undeniably, the
romanticists. from Burger, Walpole,
Monk" Lewis ct al. onward, had and
have a valid case. And it is also true
that the Catholic Church has played
no small part in this revival.
III.
Prof. Shuster starts his survey
with the curiously interesting but
little known Kenelm Henry Dig
by, whose Broad Stone of Honour"
and "Mores Catholics" in some ways
laid a foundation for the literary
movement within the Church. Scott,
Prof. Shuster correctly remarks,
was neither democratic nor spirit
ual," although the immense influ-
ence of the Waverley novels made
in the end for both qualities" His