New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1922-07-02

not course in etiquette. John Bishop
read The Divine COMEDY" ar the
front; Dos Passos read Cervan,es
in dugout; Wilson read Racine in
done by Fitzgerald, Cummings. Beer,
and others of the much aspersed
younger group was done in the nfre-
quent and hazardous leisure of war
| Those among them who are inclined to
smile wryly and to blow their noses
when the "Shelbourne Essays" or Ira
dition and Culture" are mentioned may
be pardoned their bad manners out of
knowledge that they at least know why
they act thus. . . . Wilson was, I be-
| lieved, momentarily deceived by the
enormity of Mr: Nocks accusation. He
observed that Wordsworth was one Of
the greatest poets in the language and
recalled that one among us had cast a
stone at him. l. being the culprit asked
HIM what poem was especially great
and when he said The Ode On Intima-
| tons of Immortality" l got the book
down from the shelves and read the
stanza,
Then sing, ye Birds, joyous song
And let the young lambs bound
/ As TO the tabor's sound
| We IN thought will join your throng
! Ye that pipe and ye that play,
Ye that through your hearts ' today
I
agree with Jeffrey: This will
never dot" ] may be pardoned perhaps
if prefer the lyrics of Elinor Wy!ie
and Edna St. Vincent Millay, two ter-
riblc representatives of the younger
generation. Wilson then read Lucifer's
speech from "Paradise Lost" which
left me rather cold. To tell the truth
| like the shorter Milton poems. and
( "Comus.' and Samson Agonistes" and
above all l prefer his "Areopagitica."
a prose work which had it been pub
lished as pamphlet during the war,
would have sent half the department of
justice agents seeking the whereabouts
| of John Milton.
Went to the "Bookman" luncheon
to-day. Around the table sat: Percy
Hammond, satyric Buddha, as pink
iowled as. though more globular than.
John Farrar, wearing ever an air of
arriere pensec; J. O'Fare Cosgrave,
formal diznihed. alert; Christopher
Morley, two hundred pounds Of anna
hility in rakish tweed suit; Haywood
broun, "un bon type" careless OF
d,css, with the quiverine smile Of n
two months old baby and the eyes Of
pet Newfoundland; Herbert German,
a wistful Ernest Dowson chained to g
desk job; Arthur B. Maurice. taut-
nervcd and businesslike; Z. w. Os-
borne, his face a rubric of companion
able days, his hair as white as Comis-
keys, reminding one of Frank Morris
the noble Roman of the Chicago rare
book-dcalers; Stanley Rinehart, we'll
Groomed and vel! brushed, dclicately
featured like his mother, with the nos
hentt, lanky sacristan in the literary
temple. with eyes like gimlet holes in
a homemade mask; Stephen Vincent
hcnet. a moor-faccd imp wearing
thicklcnsed glasses, with the puzzled,
challenging expression of sophomore
who has just fallen through a sky
light into a sorority meeting; Allen
Wilson PorterGe!d. a bustl;ng, ener-
getic fellow. rapid talker with no
nonsense about him. seemingly always
on the point of offering you a cigar
ccnvincingly) about an advantageous
new bond issue; Grant Oyerton, with
a clownesQue countenance highlishted
with gravity, sincerity and kindness;
John Farrar, an unstable thormostat of
moods, looking all of fifteen one mo-
nlcnt and all Of forty the next.
B;ll Benet and got into a discussion
of George Shusters "Thc Christian
Spirit in Modern English Literature, "
highly interesting study, inevitably
biased, but on the whole & fairly Just
and accurate treatment of the Catholic
as opposed to the Protestant spirit in
literature. which, by tho way, has moth
ing to do with religious afliliation.
Many devout Catholics have been ex-
cmplars of the Protestant spirit and
on the other hand many avowed Prot
estants have been exemplars Of the
Catholic spirit. Professor Shuster ac-
knowledges but does not always OBJ
serve this difference. He speaks with
definite parti-pris and is inclined to
include as Catholics every one whose
work particularly pleascs him and to
reject those whose work does not. BY
are peculiarly Protestant and rejects
land condemns) some who arc pecu-
liarly Catholic. Thus he eXcommuni-
Gates George Moore and says he has
gone to the devil" whereas Moore is,
for all his anti-Catholic prejudices, as
definitely Catholic as Francis Thomp-
son or Father Tab. All Of the TWEEN
tieth century diabolists, decadcnts,
and aesthetics -Huysmans. Baudelaire
Beardsloy, Wilde, D'Aurcvilly. de LIsle
Adam. tho great blasphemers and cell
cpIbUtS Ol the ScNSeS-HEVe Deen InOT-
oughly Catholic in spirit. One cannot
imagine Shakespeare or Goethe bias
pheming the Christian religion any
more than savage or a Brahmin, for
blasphemy presupposes a certain sort
Of credence or obsession concerning the
object blasphemed. Once this is un-
derstood there would be less puzzle
ment over the conversion of satanists
and profigates such as Huysmans and
Beardsley. The essence of the Catholic
spirit is reliance upon emotion rather
than upon reason. Professor Shuster
ackI ow!edges this, for he sees in
Blaisc Pascal representative of the
Catholic spirit. The Catholic spirit,
III the broader sense, is democratic in
trend; the Protestant aristocratic the
Catholic spirit is communal, the Prot
estant individualistic. The Prote slant
is constantly assuring himself that
reliance may be put upon reason
he keeps his emotions in check
he is pragmatist, materialist,
or nationalist. The Protestan. spiri:
pcrvaded the eighteenth century. par
ticularly among the professed Catho-
hes; Rousseau was Catholic in spirit,
the Cardinal de Retz was not The
Elizabethans were Protestant in
spirit; the Cromwellians were Catho-
lie. The national characteristic of the
English and the Germans is pvotes-
tantisM; that of the Irish, French.