Evening star., 1933-09-20
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
Margaret Cermond.

Margaret Cern0nd.
NO SECOND SPRING. BY Janet Beth.
New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co.
Two family portraits, one of them
unfinished, hang upon the dining room
wall In the home Of the third genera
tion Of descendants Of the Very Rev.
Hamish Quentin McGregor. These por-
traits are the foundation for story Of
exquisite beauty, told with such SIM
plictty and effectiveness that its char
acters are vividly alive and their joys
and sufferings are those Of living beings.
In the blanketing snow Of bitter,
cold Winter evening there rode. many
years ago. into the little village Of
young minister and his family-a frail,
beautiful wife, two small children and
two servants. Disappointment and
hardship had met them at every turn
along the strenuous journey, pursuing
them even into the tumble-down build
ing which was to serve as their home.
Terrified by the raging mountain
Snowstorm, and wearied to the point of
exhaustion by the continuous battle
against cold and fear, nameless hor-
ror was gripping the heart Of the wife
as her courage waned. But not so with
her stalwart husband, for the Rev. Ha-
mish McGregor was an inspired man.
The elements invited him to defeat
them with his powerful strength; lack
Of food and physical comforts were 'un-
important to a man whose soul was fed
by the Divine Spirit, and no member of
his small family could be allowed to
admit physical suffering or want. The
h@c vvyfkk, ,tat, I, IzI
on all sides meant nothing to his elated
soul. The. people were ignorant and
wallowing in sin. 1t would be his work
to set them in the path of righteous
ness. He was not one of them, but
man apart, chosen by the Almighty to
save that particular corner of the world
from Satan.
Completely satisfied with himself and
thoroughly stepped in the conviction
that no other man was SO perfectly at
tuned to do the will of God, he pos
SeSsed all Of the arrogance, selfishness,
egotism and obstinacy which invariably
marks that type of Individual He had
no spark Of understanding Of either the
frailties Of human nature or its
strength. His was q God who dealt
out revenge and who suffered no sin
ner to 60 unpunished. His conception
Of the path to godliness was so narrow
that no human could ever hope to
tread upon it.
During the two years or so of his
ministry at Glenlee there was no less
ening OF the hostility against him.
Thrown bodily out of drinking estab-
lishment into which he thundered his
way with his message of hell fire and
damnation to gathering of drunkards,
he repaid that and other such rebuffs by
a more vigorous endeavor to thrust his
own will upon the people. He made no
effort to find the good in these
kindly and godly folks who found re-
lease in drunkenness from the hard
ness and cruelty Of their cramped
and thwarted lives. That they
possessed an innate fear of any one
unlike themselves. and that what they
could not understand they hated, meant
nothing to him. Even two years of liv-
ing in place where during the long,
bleak winter months the mist sweeps
down from the mountains, enveloping
and closing in upon the community
until 1t sinks into the very souls of
impelling them into indulgence in for
getfulness, brought to Hamish Nc
Gregor no understanding of these peo-
pie unto whom he had come to minister.
He had gentleness in his heart for his
wife, but no mental capacity to ACCEPT
her inability to follow him completely
on his flights into spiritual oratory and
belief.
The religion of a man like Hamish
McGregor is beyond the comprehension
Of the enlightened individual today.
Yet it was not so many years ago that
this type of preacher was the rule and
not the exception. There are perhaps
some religionists in this generation who
terrify their innocent children, as did
Hamish, with descriptions of punish
ment in the gaping fire pits Of the
neither regions because they have COM
mitted some negligible misdemeanor.
If SO, the children of such a father
undoubtedly live as much in terror of
him as of the punishments promised in
the hereafter. It cannot be said that
this type Of religion is emphatically
fanatic. but where intellect and reason
give way to the intangible heights of
emotionalism there can be no true con-
ception of the meaning and the pur-
pose of life.
To such man as this was gentle,
beautiful, unselfish and trustful Allison
married. To this man must she re-
main faithful and dutiful for all of her
life. And to this man she bore ten
children.
Several months after the McGregors
became settled in their new parish a
wandering artist sought shelter at the
manse from bad storm. Hamish took
him in, and for some weeks he re-
mained as a guest and companion. for
Hamish was eager for conversation with
some one of his own intellectual stand
ard. Through Andrew Simon there
comes to Allison vision of the true
meaning of a life fulfilled by love.
The Rev. Hamish's egoism leads him
his descendants will point with pride
as the great servant Of God. In re-
turn for his lodging the young artist
undertakes to paint both Hamish and
his lovely WIFE, Before the portrait of
Allison IS completed second Spring
beckons to these two victims of
world which has dealt tragedy to
both. A great love is born. And that
Is why the unfinished portrait hangs
beside that Of the Very Rev. Hamish
Quintin McGregor in the home of the
third generation of his descendants.
mo Second Spring" is q strikingly
powerful novel, and it has come from
the pen of q young woman who is but
tWenty-Slx years OLD: she lives with her
parents in Chinley. Derbyshire. and she
is the niece Of Ian Hay" well known
in many countries as a lecturer and
writer. This is the first novel which
Miss Beth has ever submitted for pub
lication, though she has written others
and destroyed them because they did
not please her. The story is so COM
pelling in its intensity and in the SIM
plcity and directness of its handling
that its author has been awarded the
$40, 900 prize in the International Prize
Novel Competition.
Miss Beth is so shy that the first
knowledge her family had of her liter
ary work was the newspaper reports
announcing that she had won the larg-
est prize ever offered by book publish
ers. and her dread of publicity caused
her to decline to participate in formal
ceremony Of presentation Of the award.
She attended Girton College. in Cam
bridge, and for several years she was