The New York herald., 1922-03-12

IDS. Win u IOreWoTu Dy Dir fTeu-
erick Bridge. L. p. Dutton & Co.
FREEDOM, TRUTH AND BEAUTY.
Sonnets BY Edward Doyle. Man
haitian and Bronx Advocate.
MUSIC. Lyrical and Narrative Poems.
BY John Freeman. With a portrait
OF the atfthor from an unpublished
drawing by William Rothenstein.
Harcourt, Brace & Co.
A GATE OF CEDAR. BY Katharine
Moore. The Macmillan Company.
THE LAND OF BEGINNING AGAIN
by Louisa Fletcher. Boston: sna...
Maynard & Co.
Wells OF SAAnTE. BY j. Carson
Miller. Boston: Small. Maynard &
90.
IN r. PHILLIPS has made up a
charming and instructive
book from his lectures given
at various times on the subject of
carols and their music. The subject
is entirely unhackneyed. and the
present volume is an attempt to
popularize a fascinating branch of
folklore in which music is ancillary,
yet with its own quality of individual
distinction.
Dr., Phillips remarks that the
amount of carol material is SO large
tkat only comparatively small Sc
lection can be included, but it is
carefully varied in type and will
serve admirably to give an idea of
The popularity of the carol in earlier
times. Sir Frederick Bridge, the
organist OF Westminster Abbey,
writes a PREDATORY word in which he
remarks that "the carol has char
acter quite its own-it is not a part
song or a hymn tune, but some
thing quite distinct. have read DR..
Phillips's book with great interest.
IL will help those who desire to
select real carols"
In his explanation OF the origin Of
the carol and of the creche Of st.
Francis Of Assist the author notes
that in the eleventh and twelfth
centuries there existed in the Chris
tian Church a great heresy called
Manicheism. This heresy
denied the Virgin birth, Of Christ and
was directly antagonistic to the
church's doctrine OF the Incarnation.
The Manicheans asserted that ali
matter was evil and only things of
the spirit good, that the entrance of
the spirit into relation with tie body
brought about the fall of man, and
that salvation could only be attained
by emancipating the soul from the
bonds of the flesh. The doctrine
Of. the Incarnation could have no
place in such a religion, and there
fore st. Francis cast about in his
mind for some way OF popularizing
in the minds of the people knowl-
edge and true understanding of the
meaning of the Incarnation" The
idea came TO him In 1928, while
journeying from Rome, on his ar
rival at Christmastide at Erecia,
near Assist. He caused a manger,
an OK, an ass and all the trappings
OF stable to be prepared in the
church, and, according to Mrs. OIL
phant in her book on Francis of
Assisi"-"Ffancis and his brethren
arranged these things into a visible
representation OF the occurrences of
the night at Bethlehem"-a repro
duction, so far as they knew how, in
startling realistic detail of the
surroundings of the first Christmas.
Tho population OF the neighborhood
rose as one man to the cali OF ST.
Francis. and the night was filed
with their canticles. I'VE are
told fgoes on the chronicle1 that
Francis stood by this his simple
theatrical representation. all the
night long. signing for Joy and filed
with unspeakable sweetness. /.
This simple performance in a tiny
Italian village was the origin no,
only OF the Christmas carol but also