Lancaster Standard and County Advertiser. — 1905-04-20 (Lancaster, Lancashire, England)

FIENDS AND ANGELS."  AN INTROSPECT.  The supernatural has a faseinatlon Syr most readers; otherwise, hew ektrld we explain tho popularity of such a book as Mario Curelli's  " burrows of Satan 'f There is something in being brought into intimate coatact with the pesionago-s of the ether world whiih, if the truth has to be told, appeals more or losai to all of an. Hence, novelists who take " either Hell or Heaven as the venue of their atones, and bring in the chief characteis of • those regions to play their parte upon the paged of the book, are sure, as a rule, to find a reading public. " Fiends and Angela, A Story of the L.Ving !lead," W the title of a now work by " an anonymous writer which ham come our way for review. Briefly, the idea is that the " author, from the isimmiseiun of Wino crime, finda himself a lust soul and a tenant of hell, ; and his adventures there take up the first part of the story. The writer is a Churchman, and ho evidently has no sympathy with who imitate the ritual of Home. Thus, ; his first view comprises is gathering bePlito • Satan tvmposed of a large number of clerics. He wan wondering what had brought Giese ' priests to Hell When the story Minn imt. The spokesman of the deputation informed ;ha. Satanio Majerity that they were Making WllSialerablo progreos in winning over England to His Majetay's service. " Out of .20,000 centres ci our enemy's activity WO have now gained piroession of over 4,000." What the wr.ter of the book means of course is that these four thousands of perjured ; priests, as he calls them, are taklng the pay of one Church whilst they act as traitors to it by openly teaching the religion of another Church. Passing on,. he .approaches  „ . what he thought was a public-house, and here we find one of the neat grimly humorous touches there 1.2. in the book. He gm's to the bar along with a toper, and there learns one of the punishments of Hell. Drunkarits, it appears, are afflicted with a fiery, unquenchable thirst, and. spying a public-house bar, they hasten to it pell-mell, only to find the place empty and that there is no drink, and nobody to servo it even it there were. Thus, to du' pangs of thin, is added the disappointment of not being able to quench it. At the same tone, it is rather a strange kind of Hell, and does not seem to fit in with popular notions, for on anctlier occasion he saw is man commit suicide by blowing his brains lit with a revolver. How this ic possible in an immaterial Hell is not explained. By and by he has had enough of the lower regioia, and by a process of translation he finds 1i a way into, Heaven. The beauties of Paradise are described in tenventional language, but one thought stands out amidst the conversations in Heaven. '• A man may seek Gal and find Him, but the quest must he mad, on earth.” There is a touch of sublimity n this thought whieh arrests attention. From Heaven the author is brought back to earth, and here, as a sort of embodied he taken around by his mentor aml given opportunities of seeing the sin and misery of the world as hidden from the sight of most of us. This portion of the book breathes a spirit of charity and of real soulful sympathy for the condition of the submerged population of our islands. But the writer', res ligktut real at times rouses him to run away with his pen. For instants', why nessl he have thoughtlessly penned this sentence, which will certainly give pain to all who understand the spirit of Mohammedanism? his says: "The hosts of Hell will be further reinforced by 175 millions of Moslems uttering the blasphemous cry • (hid is great and Mohammed is his prophet.' " But that is not all. As In. looks upon the world ho sees the vast majority of it hastening Hollwards. Agnostics and infidels will be there " under the leadership of Brigadier-General Voltaire"; and the drunkard., as well as the " millions of victims of the betle-nut : hundreds of millions already reaped of •iet of Hatilrish ; and 400 millions of victims of opium: and millions of fetish worshippers, Boshians and Buddhists." So sweeping an indictment ZIA till,. is out of harmony with the charitable anti tolerant spirit which pervades the earlier part of the book, for it appears to Its ineredible that Moslems and Buddhists, who amongst them comprise nearly half the world, are going to be shut out of Heaven in this drastic fashion.  , I In taking leave of the book we willingly I bear tevtimony to the writer's ability. to Ibis imaginative powers, to the breadth of bin lavmpathy. and to thn yearning which evidently has prasession of his soul for the redemption of mankind. " Fiends and Angels" is a hook to rend, and to throe who have a taste for this class of literature, it will dmibtlevsi appeal vorr ,trongly. We may add that in Lancaster it in ;rift! by Mr. Wigley, , Market Street.  111:11114',CANI liE