Evening star., 1924-08-16
The Library Table
BY THE BOOkLOVER

| Arthur Machen, mystic, symbolist,
romanticist and bitter ironist, has
never been popular writer and is
not as we'll known as his merits,
| either In his native Britain or in the
| United States. In his preface to one
OF his most original stories, THE
Secret Glory" he explains how he
came to write X. His method, he
says, was like that of a young re-
viewer who had to review work
In Chinese metaphysics. He read up
for the subject in the Encyclopedia
Britannica. under the letter NJ for
metaphysics and under the letter g
for China, and then combined his in
| formation. So, one year Mr.. Machen
| got his back up" after reading the
life of famous schoolmaster whose
views on education he considered not
only rot" but poisonous rot at
that" The year after, he says.
''schoolmasters and foot ball had
! ceased to engage my attention. / was
deeply interested in d curious and
| minute investigation of the wonder
full legend Of the Holy Grail.
My researches led me to the connec-
| ton Of the Grail legend with the
! vanished Celtic Church which held
the field in Britain in the fifth and
sixth and seventh centuries.
The year after, it came upon me to
write book. And ! hit upon an
original plan: or SO thought | took
| life,' I took my knowledge of Celtic
| mysteries-and I combined my infor-
mation" OF such diverse elements
| is "The Secret Glory" composed. 1t
| is the story of the martyrdom of
| Ambrose Meyrick because he was not
| like his fellows. because he was
blessed, or cursed, with an inner
vision by which he lived. A French
| man once said to Meyrick: Don't
| you know that the populace always
hates the artist-and kills him if it
| can? You are an artist and mystic,
too. What a fate" When Meyrick
was schoolboy at the famous
| school of Lupton a ragged old fiddler
had prophesied for him that he should
gain Red Martyrdom" and before
many years the prophecy was fulfilled.
In the middle ages before the era, of
| modern hospitals, monasteries and con-
| vents frequently served as hospitals, and
| the monks and nuns were both doctors
| and nurses. Later, when secular hos
! pitals and medical men had become ger,-
| eral, the care OF the sick still remained
! to large extent in the hands Of nuns.
Many lives were lost because of the
! lack Of asepsis. antisepsis and modern
| methods of medical and surgical treat
| ment, but many others were probably
| saved because of the devotion of those
who considered ministering to the sick
| a sacred vocation. In his Life Of ST.
! Ignatius Loyola." Francis Thompson
| tells among many other admirable char
acteristics of this remarkable man, of
1, ,;y,$s 10 49, <1~
| the sick. His care of the sick was
most tender. A patient had been ordered
soft skins to enwrap him; the infirlna-
rian acknowledged they had not been
| procured He was dispatched at night
with a couple of comrades to get them
The saint not only visited but
watched the sick during the night. if
their illness were serious. To fathers
! who were sick in his absence he wrote
| encouraging letters-one is preserved on
the wall of his room in Rome. God he
said, had afflicted him with so much ILL
ness that he might sy1npa thize with il in
others A father laughingly repeated
the words of a delirious brother; Igna-
thus was severely vexed with him. He
sold pewter plates and dishes, even the
bed coverings. to buy food ordered for
the sick, and when. delicacies being pre-
Scrbed for PROSTATE brother, there
were but three small coins in the hands
of the steward, Spend them on the sick
man. said he; we will dine on bread
The rector of Ravenna College
| he menaced to remove for slack care of
| the sick; he sent novices to cheer by
singing a patient suffering from deep
melancholy
A propaganda novel of great serious
ness-rather too much seriousness-is
0~H -.o1-g
| waste in American life according to the
| author, is the waste of human vitality,
spontaneity and originality caused by
the almost universal mania to get ahead
| in the world-that is, to get ahead of
others This spirit of false ambition is,
he holds. peculiarly American. 1t has
grown rapidly since the Civil War, and
since the World War threatens to sub
merge all other ideals. For this spirit
Mr.. Herrick holds women chiefly re-
sponsible. They drive their men on to
money getting and success in the pure
ly materialistic sense. Love, with them,
| implies no sacrifice on their part, but
| rather the sacrifice of all spiritual val
ues by the men whom they depend upon
to help their social and financial ad-
vancement They are unwilling or un-
able to give up anything they already
have, but are always wanting more.
Through the progress Of his story Mr..
Herrick attempts to demonstrate these
ideas.
* *
In the pleasant vein of gentle irony
that characterizes nearly everything
that he writes, under the title of Keep
| ing Up With the Smart Set in Ltera-
ture," Samuel McChord Crothers pokes
fun in the August Atlantic Monthly at
those who have no tolerance for the
things of yesterweek,'' and teliingly
makes and illustrates the point that the
so-called new verse forms have not all
been invented since 1910. He matches
the eccentricities of the poetry of the
present with passages equally bizarre
from Sir Philip Sidney, George Herbert,
Lord Herbert of Cherbury, Lord Tenny-
son and even from Martin Farquhar
Tupper- 1t is delightful fooling.
| X x
Tho popular myth Of the squalid,
thrifuess, 'poor-white' origin of Abra-
ham Lincoln has been shattered by Ida
Tarbell in her book "In the Footsteps of
| the Lincolns." She shows from genea-
| logical studies that Abraham Lincoln
was descended from a long line Of an
cestors who were men and women of
| worth and achievement. Samuel Lin
coin, the great-great-great-gre -great-grand-
father of Abraham Lincoln. landed at
bingham. Mass, in 1887. He lived to
be 20, and his sons and daughters. of
whom he had many, married into the
best families of bingham. The Lin
coins, through the intervening genera
tions before the birth of Abraham Lin
coin, were farmers. carpenters, builders,
ironmasters, owners and dealers in real
estate, justices, officers in the militia.
Many of them were men of property and
some owned slaves
| + X r