Welsh Journals

Christianity in History," J. Vernon Bartlet, M.A., D.D., and A. J. Carlyle, M.A., D.Litt. London Macmillan. 12s. 6d. net. Pp. xix., 613. It has become a truism with us to-day that all history is the record of evolution. In this book we have the principle applied to the history of the Christian religion. It is not merely a history of dogma, or a history of the growth of an organisation, or a history of the relations between the Church and the World. It is all of these and more. It is a genuine attempt to trace the development of Christianity as a whole, indicating the changes which varying circumstances produced and shewing how its true growth has corresponded to the general movements of humanity. The Church has never been wholly isolated from its political and social surroundings, though its relation with the outside world has varied. It has been in turn a victim, a teacher, and an inspir- ation. The authors of Christianity in History distinguish five periods in their work. These are the primitive, the ancient, the mediaeval, the great transition and the modern. It is the first two which receive the larger portion of the space of the book, inasmuch as they are really formative. whilst the later ages do little more than modify what is already established. Yet it is impossible not to feel that the main interest of the book lies in the last three. One needs to be a specialist in dogmatics or in early Church History to get full value from the discussion of the first four centuries. On the other hand the very title of the fourth period is illuminating and instructive, and awakens expectations which are borne out by the text. To the wide and deep learning which is obvious everywhere there is added here particularly a critical appreciation and a breadth of outlook which result in a singularly just estimate of the period. The reader's chief complaint here will be due to the limitations of space. We should have liked more of this. In the last section the treatment of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is admirable, and one is again impressed by the extraordinary scope of the writers' interests. The book closes with a chapter on The Present Situation." We stand again to-day at the opening of a new period of transition. Perhaps insufficient weight is given to the influence of Higher Criticism in paving the way for the new developments, but all the other factors have their place in the authors' minds. The sixteenth century re-discovered the Bible, the twentieth is re-discovering Christ. That. one feels, -is the real message of the book. T.H.R. "Some Imagist Poets, 1916." London Constable. Pp. 96. This is a book of pen-pictures drawn in the style of the Impressionist school. In the preface it is pointed out that Imagism means a clear presentation of whatever the author wishes to convey," and that poetry must therefore adapt its form to hold the emotion of the writer. It is cadence that matters, the sense of perfect balance of flow and rhythm and not metre, for no theories or rules make poetry." In some respects this contention is true enough. But the twin dangers are the obvious facility of composition and the ease of imitation. When an artist fashions his own rules loosely enough to cover all possible deficiencies of technique it is ludicrous always to label the result as art. It is more frequently pure nonsense. The main objection to the volume as poetry (in spite of the quotation from Paul Fort) is that it reads equally well as prose. This is a fair sample The bells for evening church arc ringing, and the people come gravely and with red, sun-burnt faces through the gates in the wall." Miss Lowell, one of the contributors, frankly adopts the prose form. In justice however to the authors who ask to be judged by their own standards it can be said that occasionally they do create pictures and produce arresting similes Like a flock of blue cranes Resting upon the water, The ships assemble at morning, when the grey light wakes in the east." Mr. Fletcher in his Mexican sketches is the most successful of the six contributors, but the only real poem in the volume is Mr. Aldington's After Two Years," an exquisite little lyric. A.G.P-J. The Revelation of England through her Poetry," by Professor Hugh Walker, LL.D. (The Warton Lecture on English Poetry). Published for the British Academy by Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press. Is. net. Pp. 17. By England," Professor Walker means England in the strictest geographical sense, excluding Scotland, Ireland and Wales, and the object of his lecture is to explain how it is that the English, the most practical and least speculative of all great races have yet contrived to pro- duce the finest poetry of any. Professor Walker's view is that each fact in this paradox explains the other. True the English are practical, and that is the reason why they are not addicted to metaphysical speculation, which their practical sense shews them to be useless. But speculation can exist in the imaginative or poetic as well as in the metaphysical or logical sphere, and the distrust which the English have of the one has led them on to the other, and it is in this form of speculation that they most excel. Much has been written on this theme by critics and historians, but Professors Walker's view is novel and interesting, and he sets it out clearly and concisely. Those who have been accustomed to trace the poetic achievement of England to Celtic influence may not be convinced, but they will probably feel that there is much weight in his arguments. C.T. "Industrial Unrest," by Sir William Chance, Bt. M.A. London P. S. King and Son, Ltd. Is. net Pp. 40. This is an able epitome of the reports of the Commissioners (July 1917), who were appointed to enquire into the causes of Industrial Un- rest. The summary is given under five heads. In a convenient form we have the general causes of Industrial Unrest; the particular and temporary causes; an analysis of the unrest caused by War measures suggested remedies to allay discontent; and concluding remarks. It can be commended as a necessary and a serviceable production. Problems of The Self," by John Laird. London Macmillan & Co. 12s. Pp. xiii., 375. Professor Laird's enquiry is directed to the problems which arise directly out of the consideration of the subject-matter of psychology, but carry us beyond the limits of that science into metaphysics. The self, as he is concerned with it, is the self as involved in the interpretation of the contents of introspection, or of our immediate experiences with their characteristic unity and continuity. Now, it is certain that the self is much more than this; and while I am not sure that Professor Laird would accord sufficient weight in ultimate theory to some of the con- siderations which must be counted in the final reckoning, we must at least agree with him that a theory of the self which fails, as many have failed, to give an adequate interpretation of our subjective experiences and the unity which they involve, is doomed from the outset. Our initial question, then, is, what are these experiences ? Professor Laird's answer is that they are acts of reference to an object, the term object being used to signify whatever a man is aware of, so far as he is aware of it." The distinction between act and object must be applied even in the case of sensation. There is the act of sensing and the object sensed, and these are not one but two. My contention is that acts of sensing are mental and their objects not." (p. 53, note). Experiences being thus defined, their ultimate varieties consist in different ways of referring to objects, and we thus arrive at the familiar tripartite division of mind into cognition, feeling and conation, or endeavour, as Professor Laird prefers to call it. These form an interconnected unity the members of which are equally fundamental. In defence of this last position, the author enters upon a long and interesting examination of various views which would accord an essential priority to one or other of the three. The main thread of the argument having been resumed, it is developed in a careful consideration of the nature and degree of the unity and continuity of experiences involved in self-hood, of the basis of retentiveness as involved in this unity, and of the significance for the theory of the self of the crucial facts of abnormal psychology covered by the term multiple personality." A chapter on theories of the self as substance in modem philosophy leads up to the concluding chapter on