Evening star., 1935-09-25
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
THE INQUISITOR. BY Hugh Walpole.
New York: Doubleday, Doran & Co.
Margaret Cerm0nd.

ANSW AOAhs A<OhblCddJt 4<Viu uh CL W.
From that mysterious realm beyond
life toward which all mankind turns for
an answer to the riddle Of human destiny
the Inquisitor looks into the heart of
the cathedral town of Polchester and
discovers the answer to the moral and
spiritual decadence of life in q COM
munity that for ages has centered its
social and business activities within the
shadow Of the massive religious ediflce
from which is supposed to issue the
promise of eternal security and peace.
PolcheSter is symbol, indicative of
the age of decadence from which the
entire civilized world is but beginning to
emerge. The pendulum, measuring the
mental and ethical response of human
nature to the changing conditions Of the
physical universe, swings as surely and
accurately as do the stars in their courses,
describing the arc of each era as it pro-
crosses toward spiritual elevation or re-
crosses toward decay. PolcheSter, in
1882, witnesses the last stage OF the
swing backward in the era of decay
resulting from the abnormality OF mind
and temper in the aftermath OF four
years of futile bloodshed.
1t was the original purpose Of Mr..
WdlDOle. Ill SCIlcUlc, Out a
quarter of a century ago, to write three
groups of novels of three volumes each.
Contemporary England was to be the
subject of this ambitious program, one
group to be written with London as
background, second group devoted to
country life and a third group dedi-
Gated to the provincial town. . The
London and country groups grew to
four volumes each. and now The In
quisitor" numbers fourth in the provin-
cial. or cathedral, series and brings to
a successful completion the plan con-
ceived so many years ago.
The self dissatisfied small town is never
without its sensations. its minor scandals
and its normal amount of human dry-rot,
all of which contributes its own pc
culiar share to the events OF the day.
The changing spirit Of the modern era
strikes more slowly at the roots Of Sc
curity in these communities and makes
less noticeable the gradual sapping of
spiritual vitality until the forces of
decay break through the weakened moral
surface of respectability and it topples
into the mire of reality.
The spirit of old Mordaunt. with his
watching figure and live knights" influ-
ences to some extent the dominant theme
in this final chapter in the saga OF Pol
chester. Canon Ronder, now old and
retrospective, wonders as he talks with
the new minister. who may some Gay
succeed him, if perhaps old Mordaunt S
idea is not right, and whether or not
it is possible to solve the mystery of
the proper balance between religion and
intelligence.
do you realize" he asks young Gaselee,
what Arden and Leofranc and the others
had that We haven't got? They had in
tensity. They may have been wrong, but
they believed they were right and fought
and sweated and prayed. Don't you see?
Either this whole thing, this spiritual life,
is nonsense or it's real. 1t must be one
or the other. If it's nonsense, what rot
this all is and has been for centuries! But
If it's real, what are we doing about It?
Have you attended ordinary Mathis or
Evensong at a country or town church
lately? What do you find. nine times
out of ten? A droning mechanical Office
without thought or meaning. an unreal
sermon, with a lot of dead symbolic
phrases taken for granted. What's the
daily Evensong in this cathedral or any
| other? A mumbled repetition with lazy
choir and a scrap OF congregation. II
it's real. don't you suppose that some one
is angry somewhere? Mordaunt's In
quisitor or another? He examines per-
haps one after another. and throws them
away. No life here. Nothing worth pre-
serving"
And so Polchester its spiritual and
physical fiber mouldering from Within
rides on to catastrophe. Murder. riot,
conflagration and suicide strip away the
shame and pretenses and reveal in its un-
lovely nakedneSS the cancerous growth
that avarice, jealousy, corruption and vice
have fed its Unsuitable appetite.
Stephen FurZe, miser and usurer, whose
wife is blind because of his refusal to
spend money for proper treatment, and
whose ambition it Is to hold every man
and woman in the community. and even
God, in His power. is the evil genius in this
forceful presentation of the eternal strug-
gle between the spiritual and the physi-
cal world. Michael Furze his boastful
wandering, worthless brother, is the hero
If such there be, of the events which
crowd upon Polchester with his arrival.
an almost priceless black marble crucif1X
his only possession. Many of the familiar
figures again appear, though in minor
roles, for time has passed since those
who were leaders in the earlier Polchester
novels were young and ardent. But even
the new characters are less important
than the events in which they become
involved. 1t was the intention of Mr.
Walpole that this should be so, and he
has succeeded in his purpose.
THE PONY EXPR ESS GO E
THROUGH. BY Howard r. briggs.
New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co
With eight full pages in color and
numerous line drawings by William H
Jackson, the history of the pony express
| In the Old West is recorded through this
work of Mr.. briggs by the heroes who
rode the pioneer trails back in those
adventurous, uncertain days of far
| frontiers, uncharted deserts, forbidding
mountains, treacherouS rivers, Indian
infested wildernesses and lonely plains
In culling these stories the author made
many visits to the territory through
| which the courageous lads Of the early
sixties rode their thoroughbred ponies
over the two-thousand-mile trail from
st. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento
| California, seeking out the men and get
| ting from them and from those who knew
| them the stories of their endurance and
| the chronicle of their achievements
against the unknown as well as the
known dangers that lurked in the unset
tied and sparsely inhabited regions be-
| tween the Mississippi River and the Pa
ciflc Ocean. The result is thrilling and
true history of that first rapid transit
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