Evening star., 1935-03-10

- All is in profound ferment. This
ferment arises not from within, but
from without. Its causes are exter-
nal, foreign. Herein lies the full
gravity of the situation. Acute though
our Western crisis may be, it Is less
serious than that Of Asia. For our
problems are fundamentally those of
adaptation to changes engendered by
ourselves and possessing logical con-
nection with our past. The peoples
of Asia, on the contrary, are suddenly
compelled to rebuild from the ground
up an edifice continuously shaken to
its foundations by strange new forces"
Mr. Stoddard's explanation of "Asias
fivefold revolution"-political, eco
nomic, social, cultural, religious
with his forecast of what may happen
if it gets entirely beyond control is the
most lucid and impressive discussion
of the subject we have seen. His
final chapter Is given to the color
problem in Africa.
DANTE VINO. BY Giovanni Papini.
Translated by Eleanor Hammond
Broadus and Anna Benedict. New
York: The Macmillan Co.
DANTE literature-biography, criti-
- cism, translation-fills enough
volumes to stock a small library. It
is library to which the general reader
rarely goes, however. Barbi, Toynbee,
Fay, Lord Vernon and Panizzi are for
the scholar. Giovanni Papini writes
of the man Dante, Dante vivo," as he
walked about the narrow streets of
from afar. was the friend of Guido
Cavalcanti fought at Campaldino,
married Gemma Donati and fathered
children, was banished from his native
city as neither Guelph nor Ghibelline,
but an opponent Of Pope Boniface,
condemned to death, wandering from
castle to castle and from town to
town, dying in exile at Ravenna.
Papini says that he writes a book
of an artist about an artist, of a
Catholic about a Catholic, of a
Forentine about a Florentine." There
is in the book much of the rhapsody,
the ecstasy which this description of
his own would lead us to expect. Dante
is to Papini IAN eagle who was forced
to content himself with the COM
panionship of sparrows and barnyard
fowls; not only writer, philosopher,
moralist. He is demiurge, a sort
Of rival Of God"
In spite Of such panegyric, Papini
weighs the character of Dante and
finds in it human faults. "The gospel
enjoins chastity, and Dante was given
to love affairs not altogether platonic
and poetic, and, according to his own
son, to sensuality" Also I'VE must
admit that in his works We do not
find accents Of tenderness for his
fellow men In general" and he had a
habit Of praising himself and the
qualities of his genius more often and
more freely than BELTS so lofty a
spirit" Using the measuring rod of
the seven deadly sins of Catholic
doctrine, Papini finds Dante guilty of
three Of them-lust, wrath and pride
and free from three Of them-sloth,
gluttony and envy. Most of the de-
ductions about the character of Dante
and some Of those about the facts Of
his life must be made from his works
the "Divina Commedia," Vita Nuova, :"
"Convivio" and de Vulgari Eloquen-
tia"-and Papini has evidently made
a thorough study of all Of them. He
divides his work into five parts
"Prolegomena," "Life," "Soul," I" Work"
and "Destiny'--and concludes with an
appeal to the soul Of Dante. And
suddenly at the end Of this my