Evening star., 1924-05-03
The Library Table
BY THE RoOKLOvER

When Macbeth is told of the death
of Lady Macbeth he gives utterance
to a bitter denunciation Of life. end
ing:
"Life's but a walking shadow. a poor
player
That struts and frets his hour upon
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and
fury,
signifying nothing"
1t is from this soliloquy that Rose
Macaulay has taken the It'll for her
novel, Told by an Idiot" which is
really a sketchy social history of
England from the late Victorian era
to the present time, with the large
Garden family as the chief demon
strators Of the ideas and customs Of
the period. The four parts of the
novel are headed Victorian" 'F'in de
Steele" "Edwardian." Georgian" and
the last part is divided into three
periods-"Circus." Smash. Debris"
In many ways the book suggests
Kathleen Norris similar treatment of
American life from the civil war to
the twentieth century, in Certain
People of Importance" Rose Mac
aulay's Is the more satirical point of
view. She seems to agree with Mac
beth that all life is "a tale told by an
Through the experiences OF Papa"
Garden we are given glimpses of all
the various religions, old and new.
which have attracted followers during
the nineteenth and twentieth CEN
turies, for Papa" tries them all. At
the age Of eighty, he has led "a long
life Of spiritual adventure" "He had
believed so much, he had believed so
often, he had fought with doubt SO
ardently and with such repeated sue
cess, he had explored every avenue of
faith with such adventurous zeal. that
he had at last reached tableland
from which he could survey all creeds
with loving, impartial pleasure.
And now, in some strange. transcend
ent manner. he believed them all. .
very lovely, as he journeyed west
ward. into it, murnurins, believe,
believe Catholicism (Roman and
Anglo). Evangelicism, Ethicism, Uni
tarianism, Latitudinarian Anglicism,
Seyenth-day Adventism, Christian
"a medium) and her chat, he did very
happily and earnestly believe"
4 \ X
Victoria Garden (Vickeyl is "a
merry, skimming matron," enjoying
to the full the life Of her era and not
worrying over its defects. Rome Gar
den, the only unmarried one of
"Papa's" six children, finds "the COM
edy OF the world too amusing TO be
bitter. . Life was a good show to
her; but her brother Maurice calls
her "a cynic, the basest of Gods crea-
lures" Stanley Is a reformer. She is
always fighting for some cause-votes,
women's trade unions. the welfare of
factory girls, continuation schools.
penal reform, clean milk and the de-
crease of prostitution. She has no
time for pleasure and thus, as Rome
of the jam" Una Is unaffected by
reigns and periods" She is elemental
woman and loves the soil, her yeo-
man-farmer husband her handsome
children, her dogs and her garden.
Maurice Garden is a sincere but vitri-
He discusses the problems Of his day
with unsentimental frankness and
refuses to call prostitutes white
slaves" "Tosh and slush he would
not StanQ. living d suS-
cessful business man, always cheer
full. except when he was cross He
owns a town house and country
house and two motor cars. enjoys eat
ing, fishing and shooting, and com :
plains a good deal about the land
taxes. The conclusion OF the whole
matter as Miss Maca1lay sees 1t is
given in the last few pages in the re-
Elections of Rome" The brief pag-
cant the tiny, squalid story of human
life upon this earth. has been llt'
among the sQualor and the greed,
by amazing flashes of Intelligence, OF
valor. of beauty, of sacrifice, of love.
A silly story, IL you will, but some
what remarkable one. Told by an
idiot. and not a very nice idiot at that,
but an idiot with CLEANS OF genius
and Of fineneSs."
The disturbance caused in domestic
life by changes in the fundamental
beliefs of a husband or wife is il
Illustrated by the case OF Count ana
Countess Tolstoi. A similar situation,
not ending in 80 complete tragedy,
existed in the life of Thomas Arnold,
father of Mrs. Humphry Ward. HIS
story is told. incidentally. in Inc
Life of Mrs Humphry Ward by
her daughter, Janet Penrose IreEel-
van. Thomas Arnold seems to have
been a man to whom religion was
most serious concern, but not a man
who was able to adopt and hold q
lifetime belief HIS gTanoGaEinn" ideaist :"
Originally an Anglican, he found
himself more and more drawn to-
ward Roman Catholicism, and in 1886.
while living in Tasmania, ne was re-
ceived into the Roman Catholic
Church" His poor wife. in whom
her Husuenot ancestry had bred an
Instructive and inyincible loathing
for Catholicism, felt herself over
taken by kind of black DOOM"
Prejudice in Tasmania was SO strong
was obliged TO give up his govern
ment appointment as inspector of
schools, and, with his wife and three
children, return to England. There
he was able to earn only precari-
Gus living by teaching at the Catholic
| University in Dublin. But by 1865
his religious feeling had undergone
another reaction and he left the
Church of Rome. His family were
all delighted and little Mary (Mrs
mother: MY darling mother, how than
thankful you must be- This new
change opened up better prospects for
the Arnold family, and for some years
Thomas Arnold met with consider
able success as a tutor and lecturer
restless again. and when he took his
younger children to church they
would hear him muttering under his
breath Latin prayers. In 1876, just
when a professorship of early Eng
| Iish was pending for him at oxford.
| he returned to the Roman fold. The
professorship was voted to some one
else, and from that time the worldly
| fortunes of the Arnold family de-
clined and Mrs. Arnold was obliged
| to take boarders to help support the
| large family. Five years later, when