Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-22
IDA GILBERT MYERS.

SAINT PAUL. BY Emile Baumann.
Translated from the French by
Kenneth Burke. Frontispiece by
Emile Bernard. Decorations by
Rene Potuier. New York: Har-
court, Brace and Company.
n A INDS are divided on the mat
M ter. Some maintain that
wv any historic consideration of
4 Il Bible characters Is in the ma
tCre OF Sacrilege, q menace to
religious faith. Others hold that the
modern writer Is able to bring the great
men Of tine Bible into living reality
with the present. is able to identify
theiK lives and Their problems with those
OF today in a manner that is altogether
helpful In the spiritual life. Probably
the two orders win not come together.
Saint Paul. Is, however, a life study
OF competent source that deals with the
subject in SO clear reverence Of mind,
In so positive faith, in so complete an
acceptance OF the miracles preached by
Paul, and indeed experienced by him,
that neither of these two groups could
easily support its particular stand to
the exclusion of the other. This Is
history, unequivocally that. It Is his
toric research Of modern mold bent
upon clearing the facts of Pauls life as
wISoC A1Nbo dAC AIldIJCI VI ICCOIOS, AIlO
of corrected records. With reverent
ayowal of the mysteries that wait upon
the Christian religion. mysteries that
appeal to faith as well as to works, this
author traces the movements and the
work of Paul--first as prosecutor of the
advocates of the new faith, then as its
most ardent supporter, as its ableSt
and most constructive interpreter and
dissemination. The clear mind Of this
French savant has been brought TO
bear upon that period of history when
Paul wrought SO Splendidly for the
spread Of the religion of Jesus. To it
toward disputation. Instead, the pur-
pose is Qualification, simplicity uniiica-
ton. The whole is projected in an
orderly way, with the lucid mind and
the direct speech Of a French scholar
as its medium. To many this will
prove to be an Illuminating and an in
spring story of singularly gifted man.
Saint Paul. who saw further, who dared
more greatly, who reasoned more deeply
than any of the others who, 1t that
time, were declaring the gospel Of Jesus.
y X 4
LONE VOYAGERS. By Wanda Fraiken
Neff, author Of I'VE Sing Diana"
Boston Houghton Mifflin Co.
SCHOLARS. thinkers. searchers in
~ tellectualS-these are the lone
voyagers" of Mrs. Neff's new novel. To
give her theme room and to avoid in
reference she has chosen Chippewa
University in Northern Minnesota,
where the college concerns dominate
the sparse surrounding community. In
complete honesty Of design and in
true distinction Of invention Mrs. Men
I,or the
standpoint of the professor himself. We
are used to stories Of college life, to rec
ords of students indulging their half
baked visions and projects in forecasts
of their real flight out into life. This
is different. In effect, this is a tragic
story where those others were merely
unready to be stories at all. To have
deep confidence in either the ability or
the sincerity Of the great body Of the
population to pursue the lone paths Of
pure truth Is a tragic enterprise. And
Of learned men, absorbed in the search
for truth, each along his own desired
line. with the student body. with their
own families, with their own wives. The
distractions, the utilities, the thwart-
ings of these make UP the substance of
this novel. Yet, it reads much like the
affairs Of other people-these men en-
during, their wives fatuously calling
themselves helpmates, the social ges-
lures that they feel compelled to make.
At the end. however. one woman at
least has sense enough to realize that
she has, in effect, ruined q scholar
through her silly ambition to have him
put out work that Is q mere catch
penny, not true work at ALL not for this
man. Carefully and completely de-
veloped, the novel Is in the nature OF an
indictment against those who conspire,
to divert great workers
from their highest endeavor. Oh. yes,
and the men conspire against them
doris Of their own natures. Oh, these
wives for those shaped for the lone
voyages"-this near intelligence in
women-but without discipline, real I'M
or wisdom. Women were
too ambitious-the best of them-un-
willing to wait-demanded miracles"
Just one of the men of the story talk
ing-but he's talking from his heart
and from his eyes. too. Well, here you
have it. A very strong, unflinching
story. admirably constructed in a kind
square on its underpinning, that grows
brick by brick and wall by wall into
this challenge of life as the lone voy.
ayers" try to make terms with 1t. Dif-
fused, the matter embraces many be-
side these particular lone" ones-but,
most clearly, that is quite another story,
another facet of the worldwide loneli-
ness of individual life. Splendid work
just truth with no softening Of its parts,
shaped into the art form Of the novel.
A DAUGHTER OF THE SEINE; The
Life of Mime. Roland. BY jeanette
Eaton New York: Harper &
Brothers.
over an old story to look,
AVA and feel. like brand-new tale is
a more exacting thing to do than cut
ting out romance or adventure from the
whole cloth of fancy and imagination.
There Is the day and date to mind in
it's particular outlook upon life. There
is the place to keep in hand with its
special cast of circumstance and APP
pearance. There are all the people In
one or another of them wander away
entirely or behave in manner to bring
doubt and suspicion upon the whole.
It sounds easy, to retell an old event or
1t is anything but. Here,
however, is a clear case Of triumph in
such an undertaking. The life Of Nine.
Roland is at least Sketchily familiar.
Here it changes from vague impress
sion to an immediate matter that goes
on under the readers eye. Within the
first paragraph one wakes to the stir
ring fact that he is partaking in live
adventure. 1.-THE wind was lively that
March day in Paris" The opening
statement. Lively" indeed, to the
reader as he joins the little company
and goes across the bridge and into the
little church to witness the christening
of ."Marie-Peanne Philipon" just born
the day before. Setting of on that
windy March day of 1854, the story
gradually moves out into the reign Of
Louis XIV and out Of that reign into
the tempestuous years of the French
muttering approach. its
stormy arrival, its tremendous and ter