Vol. XIV. NO. 25. THURSDAY,APRIL 23, 1914.

1 1 NOTESOF THE WEEK . READERSAND WRITERS. By R. H. C. CURRENT Cant . Phaedra By Beatrice Hastings . FOREIGNAffairs By S. Verdad. . VIEWSAND REVIEWS. By A. E. R. . HALT! YOUFOOLS ! By NationalGuildsman . MEDIAEVALISM AND Modernism 13y Llrthur J. Penty REVIEWS. . A MALICIOUSBIRTH. By Duxmia . ART. By A. ill. Ludovici . ANTONINSORA. Translated by P. Selver . DRAMA.By JohnFrancis Hope . ALLEN UPWARDSERIOUS. By EzraPound . PASTICHE. By P. Selver, “W. H.,” WilliamRep- THE “POOR”POLITICIAN. By ThomasFleming . ton C. Cunningham, E. H. Visiak . DRAWING From THE CAST. By Walter Sickert . LETTERSTO THE EDITORFROM T. Craven,Rich- TOWARDSTHE PLAYWAY-IX. By H. Caldwell mond Haigh, S. Waskey Beatrice Hastings, Cook . W. Schofield, HaroldLister, ’The Writer of PRESENT-DAYCRITICISM . “Present-DayCriticism,” R. Cox, 1’. S. POEMS. By T. R. A. . .. Dixon, A. M. Ludovici . THE DOCTOR.By Miss SylviaGosse . MR. HANNENSWAFFER By Tom Titt .

him as zealous on behalf of theCabinet as Mr. Red- mond-but they have never seen in his manoeuvres an object as clearly defined as Home Rule. Hashe in- deed anysuch object in mind? We doubtit. But to adoptsuch a policy as only a clearand unmistakable object canjustify is the mistake that Mr.MacDonald has made. In a word, it is not his policy that is wrong in itself, but such a policy with either no object at all or with an object that nobody clearly understands.

* 3- * In respect of .this,however, we mustsay that the Labourmovement is almost as much to blame as Mr. MacDonald. He,it is true, as theprofessed brain of theparty and cock of theLabour walk, had the first WE shall be expected, no doubt, to be gratified by the responsibility of defining the exclusive end for which the vote of censure passed by the I.L.P. Conference on Mr. Labour Party exists ; but next to him the duty fell upon MacDonald’spolitical policy. Buteverything depends hissupporters. How havethey fulfilled it? We know for us upon the reasons that led to it and the assump- that they get very angry whenMr. Asquith tells them tion involved in it. So far as we can see, in regard to that there are only trifling differences between his party each of thesecircumstances there is nothing to tbe and theirs. Ourreaders are aware that they will not, gratified at. Forit was for wrong reasons that the speak to us because we have for years maintained the Conferencecensured Mr. MacDonald ; andthe same same thing. But, at the end of it all, what object does assumptions are involved in their new policy as are in- radically distinguish the I.L.P. from the Liberal Party? volved in his old policy. What are the reasons that have Does anybody know? Can anybody put it into words? led us to criticiseMr. MacDonald? Not that he has We would ask Mr. Jowett himself ! But if no radical consistentlysupported thepresent Cabinet or voted differencecapable of being clearly defined exists,then against his own amendments or played with the notion nothing, we say, can prevent an approximation of poli-, of an electoral bargainwith the Liberal Party. These ciesalso between the two parties. Mr. MacDonald, we are indeed the reasons for which the Conference threw truly believe, is bewildered by therecent vote of the him over,but they areno reasons for us tothrow Conference. Has he not, he will say,done his best to him over. The Irish Party, it maybe seen, is open to supportthe Cabinet that is carrying the measures his the same charges; for Mr. Redmond no less than Mr. partydesires to seepassed ? TheParliament Act, MacDonald has supported the ,Government both in the Home Rule, Welsh Disestablishment, Free Trade, etc., Houseand out of it.Yet not on that account would etc.-all thesemeasures which theCabinet alone can anyIrish Conference declare Mr. Redmondunfaithful effect-are they not all approved by Labour at succes- or evenmistaken. Why? BecauseMr. Redmond has siveconferences and would itnot be folly to kill the taken good carenever to losesight of the object for goosethat is laying these golden eggs?This myst, which he has done these things ; on the contrary, he has suretyhave been Mr. MacDonald’sdefence; and, not done them in pursuit of that object and so openly that only from his point of view but from the point of view none of hisfollowers candoubt it. But can the same taken at present by hisparty,, we see no reply toit. be said of Mr. MacDonald’s policy? It is obvious that Provided that these measures are wanted by theLabour it cannot-for who, besidesMr. MacDonald, knows movementand wanted at once and before all others, even ‘what he is playing for? His followers have seen the sensible policy ,is Mr. MacDonald’s--to support the c: 770 //

Government that can supply them. Now is Mr. Jowett other canbe conceived thatcan satisfy all the condi- oris Mr. Snowdenindifferent to thesemeasures? Do conditionsof the definition. Higher wages, for instance? But they put any other measures before them? Not at all. what security is there under the wage-system that these Both are anxious, as they say, to clear these measures wouldbe permanent,progressive and general? None; out of the way as a condition of getting on to something noeconomist dare promise it.Better conditions, more else. Butthe something else, whateverit may be, is leisure,careers open to talents? So long as these de- clearly of such an importance in their eyes that it can pend upon employers, private or public, what security waitupon these. And thisis also the opinion of the isthere that they cannot be as easily takenaway as Liberal Party. Hence we do not see that anything re- given? No, try any nostrum formulated by any school revolutionary can come of the new policy, for Mr. Jowett, of social kindergarten, even if it could be adopted, its like Mr. MacDonald, will have to continue to support guarantee of security would be missing while the wage- the Government as the sole means of supporting these system remains. But if the abolition of the wage-system measures. is the sole all-inclusive object of the Labour movement, +** itshould instantlybe apparent that Parliament is the last place in which topursue it, and politicsthe last Butalso, as wehave said, the assumptions of Mr. means to be employed. For it is, if you please, a revo- MacDonald’scritics are identicalwith his own. What lution, an economic and spiritual revolution-and what in reality the Conference ought to have realised is that hasParliament to do with an economicand spiritual thefailure of Mr.MacDonald is the failure of Labour revolution, except to stave it off as long as possible? in politics-that and nothing less. Rut what they have ** )c concluded is that Labour politics are possible and may he fruitful, but that Mr. MacDonald’s methods are not Inthe next place, look atwhat politics has really the best. On thecontrary, however, we say that if done for the proletariat. Has it done anything? Divide Labour is in politics at all, the only methods are those of the total sum paid to the working-class to-day equally Mr MacDonald. he is far and away the ablest among all its members and compare that quotient with parliamentarian in the party ; he has the advantage of familiar the quotient afforded by such a division ten, twenty, a intercoursewith Mr. Lloyd George-a pastartful hundred, a thousand years ago. Relatively to the total dodger ; and he justly prides himself on knowing all the product of industry, not only has the share of the proletariat greasyropes. If, therefore, the political game is to be unitnot increased in all these years, but it has played by Labour at all, Mr. MacDonald is the leader diminished, is diminishing-, and will continue to diminish to follow. Butthe Conference while denying the latter unless the descent is checkedby something more than is yet quite as set as Mr. MacDonald on affirming the political action. Yet during the same period the political former. Therewas not, we gather, during the whole victories of the proletariat are said to have been enor- Conference, private or public, one word of doubt uttered mous. And enormous they are ;we do not deny it. Poli- of the wisdom of Labour being in politics at all. That, tically they have almost all the liberty it is possible to on the contrary, was taken for granted ; with the conse- have : liberty to read what they please, think what they quence, as we say, that except in opinion (and that to please, say what theyplease, and almost to do whatthey the advantage of Mr. MacDonald) he and his critics did please. Never shall it be thought that we deny that the not differ. Forourselves however, we go a long way proletariat has political liberty. But what is the use of furtherthan either of thetwo sections. We saythat it to them? Liberty without the means of exercising it Labour is not only not wise to be in politics, but it is not is an empty name ; and while the annual share of the right that Labour should be in politics. There ought to totalwealth produced is dwindlingper capita of the be no LabourParty in Parliamentwhatever. Its pre- proletariat, politicalliberties may be multiplied upon sence there is a menace to public life, an anomaly in the them so that each becomes a law unto himself, and still representative system,and, above all, is fatalto the theytumble deeper and deeper into slavery. Now ~e objects of the Labour movement. say that this is exactly what is taking place and what -,- -,- must take place while the Labour movement is looking in politicsfor what is notthere. Political progress, in We do not suppose that we can convince any Labour the nature of it, is progress in political freedom ; but it Member of the first twocharges we bringagainst isnot progress in the effectivecondition of politicaI Labour in politics. Theyimagine, we haveno doubt, freedom,which is economic freedom ! How canit be, that theirexcellent intentions are a guarantee of their we ask? Does Parliament claim, let alone exercise, the excellent effect upon public life; and, asfor the representative- right to transfer economic power from one set of per- system, they would reply, no doubt, that its pre- sons to another set? Its soleobject being to preserve preservation is pedantry if it interferes with their right to property wherever property exists, the mission of sit as Labour Members. Unfortunately they are not the politics is complete when it has secured the rights of pro- only ignorant persons proud of their contempt for reflec- property. Look back now and see whether this mission has tion. The “Nation” and the “Saturday Review not been fulfilled. Are the proletariat nearer to becom- fact, all the Press without exception (being written, for ingpossessed of property to-day than at anytime in the most part, by dunderheads who care for nothing)- theirtragic history? By God, they arc: further off and approve of a Labour Party and even of an independent going fast further ! Labour Party, in Parliament ; andreserve their criti- *-x * cisms. such as they are, merely forthe Labour Party that happens to be there. In such abounding company And next consider the diversion of energy, attention, we do not wonder that the LabourMembers assume their ability and will-power thatthe politicalaction of the seats as by divine right, and never doubt but that they Labourmovement entails. The siege of Troy,Thucydides- are a blessing to their country, and props,if anything, of explains,was prolonged by thefact that the therepresentative system. Well, let us leavethem in Greeks had simultaneously to carry on battle with the that mood for the present, and ask our third question, Trojansand agriculture for their own needs. Inthe whether their presence in Parliament is not inimical to siege of capitalismfor the emancipation of the prole- the veryobjects for which presumably they aresent proletariat from thewage-system youwould have thought there? We say that it is, and we shall set about prov- that the direct means was sufficient to occupy the be- ing it. In the first place, what is the object of the Labour siegers. In the workshop in the factory, in the mines movement?This must bedistinguished from the and on the railways--it is in these places that the war is means,for these may be many and diverse while the being carried on ; and with how little success ! Yet it formermust be single and constant. The object, we seems that the Labour movementthinks itself so rich reply, of the whole Labourmovement, whether it be in men, money and mind that it can easily afford to dis- aware of it or not, is the emancipation of the proletariat patchits best equipped battalions to capture the Par- from the wage-system ; and we say that this is the real liamentary windmill. Sport ! Talkabout the waste of and final object of theLabour movement because no Labour upon football or upon horse-racing--these con- \ 771 consume nothing in comparisonwith the consumption of to see reason? These amateur politicians talk of break- will and intelligence in the equally vain and far less pro- ing down the secrecy of the Cabinet system ; they com- fitable sport of Labour politics. To sportproper the plain that collusionbetween the Front Bencheskeeps proletariat devote their recreative hours, their surplus, theHouse of Commonsin darkness;they demand to or perhaps only their fatigue; but to the game of poli- know ! But in thematter of theirown immediate tics their leaders offer up all that is seriousin their class. affairs and inrelation to theirown followers their Itis ruinous,we say, ruinous. There is not a Trade secrecy is in the worst traditions of oligarchy. All that Union in existence that can out of its supply of capable wasnecessary, we believe, to haveavoided the costly officials spare one, letalone three-quarters of each, to and, useless strike that took place was a series of meet- attendthe Parliamentary matches. Our readers know ings at which the officials explained the exact state of. that if we had the power we would forbid any Trade affairs and left the men to decide. After all, a strike is Union official so much as to mention politics officially. a war; and it behovesloud-mouthed democrats to ex- He should be dismissed as swiftly as a confidential clerk plain totheir own army,at least, the reasons for or discovercd blabbing or a treasurer caught betting. And against. the money, too ! Is it understood that the game of politics *** tics costs the Labour movement something likea quarter, of a million a year? We are delighted to learnthat The storm in a tea-cup at the Postal Conference held therank and file aregrowing tired of it. TheI.L.P. last week was to our mind of much greater importance treasury isempty. Splendid ! The“Daily Citizen” than the officials naturally allowed. It appears that the must cease unless L50,ooo a year is provided. Let Mr. men’s leaders had taken a. farewell afternoon tea with Dilnot go back to the “Daily Mail,” where he belongs ! Mr. Samuel on the occasion of histransfer from the The political levies of theTrade Unions are slow in Postmaster-Generalship. No offence, they pleaded, in so corning in ; the Engineers will send none whatever. Oh, slight a matter-a matter, too, of mere courtesy ! But good good ! At last,the rank and file arerecalling is there not indeed-at least, under the circumstances? thew leaders to their proper task of economic action. ’ Onthe assumption that the Postal leaders were well *** known to be faithfulto their Union, incorruptibleby any And that it is about time everything connected with condescension, and beyondall suspicion of possible Trade Unionismproves. Thewant of attention, of treachery, their action might have been not only inno- brains, in the movement is immeasurable. While these cent,but meritorious; and as suchit would haveap- quarter-educated, unlettered and newspaper-fed leaders peared. To quote again the case of Mr. Redmond or, are worrying their heads about political problems the even better, of Parnell, the most suspicious of their fol very ABC of which they will never understand,their lowers would have thought noill of them had they taken own world of Trade Unionproblems is leftin its tea with anybody under the sun ; it might be, in fact, originalchaos. Who, do they think, is going to solve and certainly it would have beengenerally allowed to theseproblems for them-the problems of the sympa- be, good policy or, at worst,not bad policy. But we need not say that the Postal leaders are not and not theticstrike, the strike for status,the agricultural do labourers’problem, half-timethe problem, the deserve to beheld in this honourable odour. When their problem of Trade Unionismin State service,the pro- rank and file has evidence under its nose that they are seekingParliamentary candidatures for themselves blem of sectional strikes, and. a score of others? In the underthe pretext of servingthe Union ; when itis firstplace, the problems are theirs and nobody else’s; they tell us, in fact, that we in particular are damned known that at Christmas last they gave assurances to Mr. Samuel,behind the backs of theirmembers, that intruders even to offer advice. In the second place, the there would be no strike; when further they deprecate politicians will be rejoiced to seethe problemleft un- strong words no less than strong action on the abomin- tackledand unsolved for as longas the Trade Union able Holt Report and confess that they have been lobby- leaderscare to neglectthem. It isnot likely thatthe ingwith two hundred Members of Parliament ; and Press that pats the political Labour Party on the back when, finally, it is clear to any honest man that most of will resent or criticise the waste of Labour inpolitics them are such snobs that a cup of tea with Mr. Samuel since precisely thatwaste is the objecttheir masters would setthem up insuperior complacency for life; have in view. They will not complain if noTrade then,indeed, we thinkthat the storm overflowed the Unionproblem is everdiscussed again. And, lastly, tea-cupproperly. Theetiquette of thesematters cer- if only the solution of these problems can be postponed tainlyneeds some serious consideration. Itis not the a little longer, they will not need to be settled ! Oh no, case, we repeat, that trusted leaders may not do any of be sure of that, you Trade Unionleaders. The world these things. Trusted leaders, to put it plainly, may do will not wait until you come to your senses and, tiring anythingthey please ; forthey can safelybe trusted of your tame-goosechase after politics, turnat your seldom to err even in the appearance Of treachery. But easeto settle Trade Unionaffairs. Onthe contrary, for leaders who ought to know themselves to be reason- they will be settled by thecapitalists before you, and ablysuspect to behave as if theywere Parnells is im- over your thick heads. pertinent. Yi+ **Y Let us turn now to one or two of the Trade Union queries thrown up during the past week. The strike of Stillpursuing our inquiry into recent Trade Union the Yorkshire miners has been settled, we are told, but problems,we come next tothe Teachers’ Conference notuntil some ~~00,000of their funds had been frit- held last week at Lowestoft. Among these tweenies of the teredaway in strikepay. Now whatincompetent Labour world, neither artisan nor professional, the ques- general has been responsible for this? He ought to be tion of status actually arose; and on this subject the court-martialled. Forwe do not believe that ten new President, Mr. Steer, deliveredhimself amid loud thousand Yorkshireminers (we know the breed)went applause of somevulgar lies. Thepresent degraded with their eyes open to certain destruction. Either they status of the elementary teacher, he said, was due mainly were misled by men who had the duty of leading them ; to two things, their poor remuneration and thefact that or, as appears most probable, they were simply not led they are practically excluded from what arecalled higher at all, but left to strike in ignorance of what the cir- openings. What a toystatus would be, to be sure, cumstances of thecase reallywere. Theirleaders, we if money or higher openings couldbuy it. No change are informed, were opposed to the strike from the first ; would benecessary in the individual or the class, no and, as we happen to know, they had good reason to be painful effort on their part to become more intelligent or opposed to it. But the same reasons that decided them moreresponsible-no-clap another twenty pounds a to oppose thestrike would have decided the men to year on to their present salaries and, hey presto, their oppse it also-why were thelatter not told before- status automatically rises ! But status, Mr. Steer, is not hand, taken into the confidence of their leaders and made so easilycome by. Status is consideration, and con- 772 siderationis related to intrinsic value. Certainlyin a from teachers or fromany other class by reason of their plutocratic age, when values of all kinds are reckoned in smallincome. Status, we make bold to say, isstrictly money, cash and credit appear to go hand in hand. But proportionedto responsibility. If theteachers, while even then they do not really ! On the contrary, we are shirking any corporate responsibility for the control of prepared tostake our own status (which isnot, after education, seek merely to increase their wages they must all, money,for we notoriouslyhave none) that if the expect to be despised however highly they may be paid. Teachers’Union, while remaining in character what And the same may be said of wage-earners in general. it is, forces higher remuneration out of its publicem- To conclude : wages mayfollow statusand probably ployers, its status will go down by the same degree that will; but status will not rise with wages, even if wages its wages go up. Look at the doctors under the Insur- could be raised-which is impossible. ance Act for an example of this.They are nuzzling .)it* salariesand incomes higher thantheir profession has everknown. You canalmost see the panelled doctors In the “Times” of last Saturday a “Bradford Work- fattening and battening on their fourpenny victims. Rut ing Woman”was given over a column of space to has their status goneup with their higher remuneration? plead thecause of theemployers of half-timelabour. Well, has it? No decentman wouldbe seen in public Here, too, is a problem which the ‘Trade Union move- with a panel doctor to-day ! Nor has access to “higher mentshould take in hand.Not satisfied to extract openings” much to do with the present or future status labour power from the grown men (and women) of the of the teacher.After all, it is now quite twenty years proletariatclass, the profiteers of to-day, like their ago thatthe Union returned its firstMember to Par- kind in all ages, will delve into the marrow of children liament; and a great rise of status, we remember, was for it. Half a million children under the age of fourteen promisedfrom that. He has become a member of the are employed in whole or in part in creating wealth for Government and may, for all we care, become a member ourplutocrats to makethe world uglywith. And the of the Cabinet ; and he still remains, we believe, a member strange thing to add is that the parents of the children member of hisUnion. But does the known fact of hisrise willingly consent to it. When historycomes to reckon from the teaching profession to Government office affect upthe rights and wrongs of thecapitalist system, it thestatus of the teachers? The public thinks rather less will surelyset against the sins of theemployers of of them to-day than twenty, still more, forty years ago. childrenthe sins of the parents; for theselatter have Then we had hopes, but now we have almost none. But usually shown as much frenzied dread of poverty as the if not even the higher opening of a place in the Govern- former have shown a greed of riches. But what are the ment has raised the status of the profession, how can Trade Unionsdoing? Apart from the inhumanity of mere transfers with increased salaries do it? It cannot. the employment of children,economically it is a sure Napoleon’s soldiers were not honourable because they and certain means of loweringmen’s wages. It stands carried a marshal’s baton in their knapsacks ; they car- to reason, does it not, that if the price of anecessary ried a marshal’s baton becausethey were honourable. commodityis determined by its supply, alimitation of thesupply will raiseits price. Upon that principle *** every ’Trade Union, every profession, every corporation, is based. Yet the Trade Unionists in the Labour world r. This question of status,again, is one that the deliberatelyincrease the supply of Labour by shoving TradeUnion movement must examine; for onit, theirchildren into the market as well as themselves. we aresure, depends the whole future of the prole- You do not catch doctors or lawyers or parsons allow- tariat.The day for wage-strikes or salary strikes or ing juvenile labour to pulldown their wages. Onthe condition strikes or hours strikes is past. For as many contrary, they make it difficult even for adults to enter years now as the Labour movement has been in exist- their profession. Poormanual labour alone, self-crucified ence strikeshaving for their object some immediate crucified on its cross, piles up the agony of its own competi- and material advantage have been courageously fought. tion by presentingits children to employers. We do We respect the men who foughtthem and we affirm notknow who the “Bradford Working Woman” is that theyhave been as honourable as necessary.But whois given such prominence in the“Times.” But to-day we stand upon theirshoulders and can look she is a blackleg and the mother, presumably, of black- back over the strike campaigns which have been fought legs. The soonerher type is kept indoors the better -what has been the result of it all ? Wages relatively for everybody but profiteers. tothe total product of industryhave fallen, and are Y z continuingto fall. And nothing in all thestrikes for c wages that can ever be fought- can affect this slipping of And the woman question, too-what are the Labour wages down the economic slope so long as Labour re- leadersgoing to do aboutthat? At the I.L.P. Con- mains a commodity of themarket to bebought and ference, atthe N.U.T. Conferenceand atthe Postal sold like any other material of industry. But what con- ,Conference, thewomen, we areglad to learn, created clusionmust thisbring us to if not to the conclusion scenes of disorder. It is a judgmenton the Labour that wage-strikes arewaste-strikes? And towhat movement, and wehope the trouble has only begun; further conclusion, or rather resolution, are we brought for, much more, we imagine, will be necessary to teach if not to this, that the strikes of the future (if there must these effeminate creaturesthat they cannot playwith bestrikes) shall be strikes for status? Consider, for women economically any more than they can play with example,, how this resolution would affect the teaching them sexually. Is it not yet understood by the Labour profession. Inthe address to which we havereferred, movement that the unwilling migration of women into Mr. Steerenumerated among the demands of his industry is the result of men’s low wages and is likely Union “ashare of thecontrol of education.”Let us to bethe cause of stilllower men’s) wages? Men can suppose that instead of mixing this up with paltry de- no longerkeep womenon thewages theyreceive; mands, the new President had put it in the front of his therefore, the women must go into industry themselves. programmeand even to the exclusion of everything But the Competition of womenreduces men’s wages else. Who can doubt that at once the ears of the public still further. Hence marriageis more difficult than would havepricked up?What ! Theseobscure de- ever. Marriagebeing more difficult thanever, the gradedteachers demand a share in thedirection of number of women forcedinto industry grows greater their art? They actually aspire to have a voice in de- everyyear. As theirnumbers grow, men’s wages re- termining how and what and whom they should teach? latively will fall. What a circle of hell is this; and all It is obvious, we hope, that by this act alone the status to pleasewhom ? Thewomen? They hate industry. of the profession would have been raised ; for considera- The men? They hate women in industry. Then whom ? tion would. immediatelyhave been given to it ! And The profiteers. And it is in theinterests of the pro- there is justice in this attitude of the public, both now: fiteers alone that the Labour movement is indulgent of and in thefuture. Status is not perverselywithheld the women’s movement. 773

Current Cant. Foreign Affairs. “Pro BonoPublico.”-“ Pall Mall Gazette.” By S. Verdad. SINCEa few tentative references have been made in the “Howto stop strikes.”--“Daily Express.” French Press, and even in the “Novoye Vremya” and one or two newspapers in Austria and Germany, to the “The Guilds-or, rather, as theyshould be spelt, possibility of a definite Russo-English Alliance, it is ‘Gilds.’”-”The Times.” perhaps time for me to mention the negotiations to this end which have been proceeding for upwards of a year.

“Perishthe ‘Daily Mail.’”-H.G. WELLS. It was about twelve months ago, when the final peace terms inconnection with the Balkan war were being “Thesolution of the Labour trouble is a dietetic one.” discussed, that the Russian Government first approached --DR. JOSIAH OLDFIELD. theForeign Office on thesubject of analliance; but the first preliminaries could naturally be little more than “Theold ineradicable Socialisticidea is a direct de- terrent toany effort towardsindividual industry.”- vagueand technically ‘‘correct’’ suggestions.Subse- British Commissioner’s Report on the Solomon Islands. quentlythe proposals have ‘been renewed. On each occasion the answer of the Foreign Office has been, in substance, that the offer of an alliance would have been “Nomore pianists. The perfection of the machine.” very favourably considered by those responsible for the -A Musician in the “DailyMail.” foreign administration of this country, had it not been ‘‘TheNew Worker’s Charter which the Labour Party that the announcement of any such alliance, or even the have drawn up under the title of the Labour (Minimum suggestionthat it might well beentered into, would Conditions) Bill is a measure no other party in the State haveshattered the Liberal majority in theHouse od would havehad the courage to introduce.”-“ Daily Commons and greatly lowered the prestige of the party Citizen.” throughoutthe country.

“Mr.Asquith’s triumphal progress.”--“ Daily News This, I repeat, is the official view of Sir Edward Grey and Leader.” and his colleagues-not a view which they kept to them- selves,but one whichthey communicated gravely and

“Important-ournew serial begins shortly.”--“ Even- soberly, as a matter of routine, to the Russian Ambas- ing News.” sador,and to theRussian Government through our representative in St. Petersburg. No doubt the Govern-

“Thisis thespring-time of ourdrama. On every ment has its own reasons-they may be good or bad- hand one can see new growths.”-E. A. BAUGHAN. for thinking as it does. To anyone who tries to take a detachedview of foreignaffairs, on theother hand, it will seem pity that a proposal, even if it meets with “A waistcoat of tan and a limp collar over the shoul- a ders makes a good suit.”--“ Times.” official approval, should be rejected by the Government of theday simplybecause wouldit “shatter its majority”-that it shouldbe rejected, in otherwords, “Thereis lessinsincerity, but not lessfaith : less parade, but not less Christianity. The churches are very for purely party reasons. full to-day.”--“Daily Express.” The objections toan alliancebetween thiscountry and Russia-as we saw in THENEW AGE and in other “Anunprecedented boom in poetry is at hand.”- ALFREDNOYES. papers, daily and weekly,when the Persian crisis was beingdiscussed a year or two ago-are forthe most part abjections of sentiment. There is in- England, par- “Whetherit is due to the Suffrage Movement or not, it is difficult to say, but women are undoubtedly coming particularly amongstthose elements of our political life into their rights by degrees.”-“Punch.” who call themselves Liberal, a vast belief in phrases and formulae and little appreciation of actual facts and social conditions.There is respect for freedom, one might “LabourM.P.’s wives, liketheir husbands, takelife seriously.”-“DailySketch.” even say a wish for it, amongst all classes ; but it does not occur to the Liberal elements I have mentioned that thehappiness towards whichfreedom is presumed to, “Thevery last word in comfort for the poor has been reached.”-“ The Standard.” leadmay be achieved in practice without the formulae upon which good Liberals lay such stress-that it may be achieved,indeed, even if formulzae of atheoretically “Butit must be understood that Socialism is gaining political power as a means and not as an end.”-“ The contradictory nature are taken as the bases of govern- Socialist Review.” ment.For example, the Persian people, as a whole, enjoyedmuch more freedom,comfort, and happiness “Ibelieve in the box-office test. It is the only test of under the despotic rule of the former Shahs than they a play, up to a point, just as the sale of a book is also, are now enjoying under the rule of a Shah who is, in up to a point, anindex of its value.”-W. L. GEORGE. theory,controlled by a Medjliss, or Parliament. The rule of the Medjliss, the practice of sending Deputies to “Mr. W. I,. George takeshis stand upon the good a central city, is irksome and irritatingto a nation tradi- Sense of the ‘commonman.’”-”The New Weekly.” tionallyaccustomed to patriarchalrule. A Medjliss,in otherwords, and all that it implies, is repugnant, in theoryand practice, to the habits and customs of the “A new religious sentiment seems to me to be gradu- ally spreadingthroughout the world, andespecially Persianpeople: vet the Liberal Press throughout among young people in the United States. It is a senti- England hailed theopening of thefirst Medjliss as a ment which takessmall account of ceremonies, rites, greattriumph for democratic principles, freedom of sacraments, creeds, and dogmas, but inspires an enthusi- thought, speech, and action, and so on. In other words, asm for the service of family, neighbour, and society at because thenature of Western peoples hadfrom the large. Guided by the modern scientific spirit, this senti- beginning been adapted for Parliamentary institutions, ment is developing a new kind of Christianity, based on the ethics taught by Jesus, and particularly on the cum- because Parliamentary institutions had succeeded in the command, ‘ Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,” and West (though there are some thinkers who would ques- the parable of the good Samaritan.”-CHARLES W. tion even this statement), it was thought by a very large ELLIOT,President Emeritus of HarvardUniversity. body of opinion herethat Parliamentary institutions 774

must necessarily suit peoples and races of quite a dif- ferent type-the Persians,the Hindus, the Chinese, Halt! You Fools ! theJapanese, the Egyptians, and the like. The aboli- An Open Letter to the Fabian Women’s Group, tion of the Chinese Parliament by President Yuan-Shi- Kai, the grave difficultiesencountered by Western in- particularly the writers of a recent Special. Supplement. stitutionsin Japan, the utter failure of thePersian MESDAMESAND MALLON,- Medjliss, andthe almost entire failure of theRussian You have recently issued a manifesto on the subject Duma, may perhapsinduce even the most ardent of of womenin industry.Adopting the usual Fabian Liberals to reflect that, after all, the beliefs engendered by the practice of centuries are likely to result in a type method of presenting inadequate statistics of no signifi- of character capable of evolving the form of government cance,you have forgotten the essential facts of the best suited to it, and that totally different nations can- problem and provedyourselves blind and wanting wit not well adopt one another’s institutions, whether they to choose the true way of economic emancipation, not appear to be good or bad, without grave consequences only for your own sex, but for the mass of the wage- arising. earnersinindustrial Europe. You claimeconomic equality with the men and the social equality that flows Withthe initialindustrial exploitation of Russia, out of it. You will, therefore, forgive me if I treat you difficulties with theagricultural population had to be withthe same candour that I would men. Hadthis met; and the capitalists, as was the case in Germany, supplement been written by men, I should have called hadto deal with the aristocratic elements which pro- tected theagricultural population. No groups of capi- them fools. Then why notyou? For, without doubt, talists, no matter how well they may be organised, can this supplement which you have written for the “New overcome a firmly-established aristocracy or monarchy, Statesman”theis most foolish contributionyet orboth; but a Parliamentendowed with sufficient offered to the problem of women’s true function in the power can eventually do what it likes with either, and body politic. allParliaments, no matter how democratic or aristo- You, Mrs. Webb, ought to have known better than cratic their constitutions may be, musteventually and inevitablycome under thecontrol of capitalists. It is to beassociated with such a vain polemic. You are the capitalisticelements in Russiathat seek to supposed to know something of industrial organisation strengthen the influence of the Duma ; naturally. That and of the motives that move men in the production of they have on their side the half-baked “intelligentsia” wealth. I am reluctantly coming to the conclusion that --the anti-national,un-Russian Russians who have you and your husband are a couple of pestilent quack picked up their political theories in Paris or Geneva from doctors. Fortwenty or more years a stream of in- disciples of the Physiocrats or of the Manchester school dustrialstatistics has passed through your mill. The -need not concern us. Capitalism makes strange bed- public that interests itself in this kind of thing has too fellows. The Fabian Society is the most useful tool the readily assumed that out of these facts and figures you Englishcapitalists possess; and the mob may yet set had evolved a scheme of life theadoption of which Mrs. Sidney Webb in a place of honour in Westminster would bring some measure of easement and comfort to Abbey, exactly as a Frenchlady of less strict morals thewage-earners. Your pertinacity inbooming your but greater notoriety was honoured at the time of the quack remedies has only been equalled by your industry Revolution. incollecting superficial data. Youremind me of a quackwho advertised a curefor consumption. His Before I proceed, next week, to go into the question advertisementstold with great wealth of detailthe of a Russian alliance in somedetail, let me remind number of deaths that were yearly due to consumption, NEW AGE readers of the progress which industry, has thesymptoms and the causes of thecomplaint. The made in Russia during the last few years. In 1897-8 the fellow,in fact,knew everything About the disease world’sproduction of raw beet sugarwas 4,902,844 excepthow to cure it. Everyyear thousands of un- tons. The Russianproduction for the same year was fortunatesufferers, deceived by hiswealth of detail, 744,159 tons. In the year 1911-12 the world-production came to him for a cure.They came out of thesame of raw beet sugar had risen to 6,957,752 tons ; and in door through which they had entered, wiser and poorer, the same year Russia produced no less a quantity than andanother march towards death. Do you take my 2,248,170 tons of thissupply. In 1890 the worldpro- meaning?For almost a generationyour quackeries duced 474,579,000 metric tons of coal (a metric ton is haveeach year succeeded oneanother, and each year 2,204 lbs. as distinguished from the ordinary British ton havedisappeared, leaving behind nothing but dis- of 2,240 lbs.). Of thisamount Russia was responsible appointmentand disillusion. Why notretire before for 6,015,000metric tons, the United Kingdom for you are completely exposed?Can’t you go? Must 184,529,000metric tons,and the United States for you stay? 143,128,000 metric tons. In 1911 the world’s production Your limit was reached- last year when you and your had risen to 1,069,317,000 tons, the United States con- egregious Sidney issued a tract to prove that the wage tributing 450,261,000 tons,theUnited Kingdom system was permanent and inevitable. That pronounce- 276,255,000 tons,and Russia 23,197,000. Whenit is ment“dated” you. Fromthat time on, do what you borne in mind thatRussia has entered the industrial would, write as youliked, the employingclasses .arena onlywithin thelast generation, the enormous claimedyou as their own. They knew that so long as rise in her industrial output is clearlysignificant. The you endorsed the wage system, you were safely theirs. pig-iron figures are equally strong. In 1891 the United And just as surelydid we know that, in thecoming Kingdomproduced 7,406,000 tons,the United States years, you would prove an enemy and an obstruction to 8,280,000tons, and Russia 981,ooo tons. In 1911, just theone great emancipating idea that the abolition of twenty years later, the figures were : the United King- wagery is the necessary prelude to economicfreedom. kingdom, 9,526,000 tons, the United States, 23,650,000 tons, I was not, therefore, surprised to find that throughout Russia,3,581,000 tons. The German production in- thesixteen pages of your supplementthere is not a creased in thesame periodfrom 4,631,000 tonsto single reference, direct or indirect, to the wage system I 5,572,000 tons. It will be seen how Russia maintained as theinstrument of capitalisticoppression. On the her proportionateincrease with respect to the United contrary, you glory in the wage system ; it is SO much States and Germany, in spite of the fact that she was a to yourliking that you andyour colleagues want to novice as compared with both of them. I may conclude force women into it, just as the men are seriously think- this week by setting down the reminder-hardly neces- ing of getting out of if. Is “force” too strong a word? sary, perhaps-thatcommerce is still an influential Listen to Mrs. Pember Reeves and Mrs. C. M. Wilson, factor in deciding peace or war. in thelast article, which you expresslyendorse : “In 775

theinterests of nationalhealth we wantthe feminine takethe lighter. The women receive‘equal payfor half of thepopulation driven out of doors-engaged equalwork’ ; they arenot as womenexcluded from once more in work on the soil, or at least obliged to go doing any kinds of weaving, and they are admitted to out to workshop or office.”You fools ! full membership of the union.” I do not know how many of you women are mothers, Now will Mrs. Hubback or Miss Hutchins kindly in- nordo I care.But I affirm, withoutfear of contradic- form me if the men in this industry are contented with tion, that if you or any of your group have daughters, such a low wagefor sucheconomically valuable the very last thing youwould dream of would beto labour? Of coursethey are not ; they are perpetually “‘drive”them out of doorsto work on theland or- in onthe pounce to improve it. Whydo they receive workshops. about half the wage paid to engineers,boiler-makers, Not you, you hypocrites ! You might: conceivably carpenters,plasterers, and other trades? The answer “drive” them into a gymnasium or on to a tennis court, is simple : It is because women have entered the textile or a golf course. The onlyknowledge your daughters tradesand so havedragged down the men’s wages, are likely to possess of agriculture is of a flower garden whilstwomen are rigidly excluded fromthe more or, perchance, a hen-roost. But you are not the direct highlypaid trades cited above. When Mrs. Hubback victims of thewage system, and, inconsequence, you usesthe word “approximate,”she indulges in an feel noidentity or personal communion with wage- euphemism thatmust sound grimly ironical to amale slaves, maleor female. You would “drive”the work- weaver,who dreams of hisdaughter developing into ing women in the industrial areas into the workshop “in something vastly different from the flat-chested, anaemic theinterests of national health.”Philanthropic womenwho crowd into the factory and reduce him to sweaters have been known to talk like this ; is it the new the economic level of a female. Some day it will occur Fabiannote? If Iwere a manufacturing millionaire to himand the other men thatit wouldactually pay sweater, Ishould make haste to subscribe £10,000 a them to clear out the women workers and pay them in year to your propaganda.“National health!” Mrs. hardcash the equivalent of thewages of which they Hubback tells us that in the cotton trade the wages of werethus deprived. For the men’s wages would rise men and women approximate to within a shillinga with a boundeven beyond the amount nowpaid as week of each other. She tells us that there are 683,000 women’swages. As fornational health. ... women engaged in thetextile industry (of whomonly 183,000-vide Miss Hutchins-belong totheir union), But have the menvoluntarily accepted “the heavier and 725,000 in the clothing trades (of whom only 7,898 kinds of work”? Not they ; they hate it.But they are belong to their union-vide Miss Hutchins). Very good. doubly victims of the wage system : they are not only ClearlyYorkshire and Lancashire are veritable health compelled to sell their labour as a commodity (with the resorts from the point of view of the Fabian Women’s cordial concurrence of the Webb), but they must com- Group.These Lancashire and Yorkshire women have pete in the sale of theirlabour commodity with their been successfully “driven” into the factory. Allow me, wives, sisters, and daughters. And you gravely inform however, toassure you that theydid not trip lightly usthat this is “in the interests of nationalhealth” ! We are to infer that a marriedfemale wage-slave in Into industry “in the interests of the national health.” Indeed, if Imay use an Americanism,“they are not Lancashire is superior in health and vitality to the wife therefor their health.” Do you know that in the Re- of an engineer or boiler-maker. Whydo you write port onPhysical Deterioration it was proved that the such pestilent rubbish ? average weight of two Eton boys of the age of thirteen I note, too, with what ignorant complacence you ac- equalled the average weight of three RochdaIe boys of cept without demur the wage system. Mrs. Reeves and the same age? Do you knowthat in parts of Lanca- Mrs. Wilson put it in black and white : “Therefore we shire at thetime of the Boer war more than 80 per cent. desireforthem personal economic independence, of the Volunteers were rejected as physically unfit? Do gained, like the economic independence of men, by their you know that tuberculosis is rampant all through the creation of marketvalues-or, rather, of valuesfor textile districts? “In the interests of national health!” whichsociety will pay.” Now if you hadever been You crazy fools ! able to give ten minutes’ serious thought to the founda- I am glad that you have laid so much stress upon the tionprinciple of wagery, you would know that society textile industries. It is evident that the women engaged does not pay the wage-slave the market value of what in wage-industry do better in the cotton trade than in he creates ; it pays the commodity value of the labour, any other occupation. It may be well, therefore, to see which, in the case of female labour, is almost invariably the economic and socialconditions that obtain. It below thesubsistence level. And knowingthat where would be easy to adduce a wealth of significant evidence men and women workin the same trade their wages to provehow futile is theattempt of women,in the “approximate,” you are deliberately urging women not textile trades or elsewhere, to workout an economic only to drag down men’s wages, but indefinitely to pro- equalitywith men. But I shallcontent myself with longthe wage system. You fools ! such facts as you yourselves supply in this supplement. Be it observed that despite all your pretence that men Let me then quote Mrs. Hubback’s figures as to wages and women should receive “equal pay for equal work,” paid in the cotton trade :- you admit that “equal work” is a figment.Mrs. Hub- Male Weavers over 20 years of age. backadmits it. “ Still,generally speaking, in the Three looms ...... 20s. 2d. manualtrades we hearthe same tale as before-i.e., Four looms ...... 25s. 10d. that even where the actual work turned out by women Six looms ...... 33s. 6d. is as good, or better, than might be done by a man, still she is not, in the opinion of her employer, of the Female weavers over 18 years of age. same value as a man; illnessin herhousehold, if not Three looms ...... 19s. gd. herown illness, causesmore absence, and, thanks to Four looms ...... 25s. 3d. certainrestrictions under the Factory Acts, she is not Sixlooms ...... 31s. gd. able to work at nightor during mealtimes.” The Mrs. Hubback tellsus that “owing to the pressure employer is, of course,. perfectlyright. Continuity of of a strongtrade union,piece ratesare the same for employment is almost, If not an equal, factor with skill. both men and women,’’ and that “women’s wages ap- If a woman goes home to bear or nurse a child in the proximate to those of the men to an extraordinary ex- busyseason, her skill avails her nothing. Mrs. Hub- tent.” Miss Hutchins, however, makes an illuminating backproceeds : “Weare here met withthe double comment on this statement:“It is significant that in work of women as wives and mothers as well as wage- this industry, too, women have from the first received earners. [So I should think !] Among working women, the same piece rates as the men. There is reallylittle a quarter are married before they are 21, and the re- or no ‘sex competition’ asthe men mostly takethe mainder,with a few exceptions,during the next five heavierkinds of work, and all but exceptional women years.”Mr. J. J. Mallonalso contributesan article : 776

“Womenchain-makers at CradleyHeath are chiefly wives and mothers and of these a portion take the bene- Mediaevalism and Modernism. fit of the higher rates [zgd. an hour, fixed by a wages By Arthur J. Penty. board!]in the shape of ampler leisure or intime de- voted to their domestic concerns.” I quote Mr. Mallon MR. COLE complains that inmy article “Estheticism again:“Substantially it is true that in these trades andHistory” I have misunderstood his position, and men and womennever do ‘equalwork.’ Thework thaton the sentence I quotedfrom his “World of donemay seem equal; women, for instance ‘press’ in Labour” to the effect that “There is no hope in solu- tailoring and ‘cut’paper andcard inbox-making tions of the socialproblem which endin a false factories.But their pressing and cutting prove to be aestheticism as theybegan in a falsereading of his- altogetherlighter than operations of thesame name tory,” I have built up a theory that he is an opponent performed by men.” of Mediaevlalism. I am pleased at Mr. Cole’s assurances Economicallyconsidered, then, women’s work is in- thathe is not. All thesame, I thinkhe would be if ferior to men’s. Andeven where some technical notin sentiment, atany rate inpractice, an anti- equality is reached, the natural facts preclude the pos- Mediaevalist. If thissentence were an isolated one I sibility of industrialequality. Mrs.Reeves and Mrs. might feel disposed to acceptMr. Cole’s assurances ; Wilson are, therefore, engaged in a futile quest, when but the paragraph in which it appears is full of heresies theyurge that “every girl shouldreceive a technical from the Mediaevalist point of view-. Mr. Cole may be training for some lucrative craft, trade, or profession, unconscious of this. But it does not alter the fact that following upon a broad general education, and that all actions based upon what he says would not lead in the women, exceptingduring the time whenthey are in- directionwhich the Mediaevalist wants to go. He that capacitated by motherhood and its claims, should earn is not for us is against us. theirown living.” On yourown showing, therefore, On this issue there is noroom for compromise. Cir- you are willing,anxious, and enthusiastic to“drive” cumstancesmay at the present timecompel us in your own sex into competition with the men, in the sure practice to compromise if we are to get anything done. and certain knowledge not only that you will bear down But that is only because the modern world does not as the existing average wage level, but also that you will vet understandthe issues, and in practicalaffairs we rivet upon the men for another generation or two the cannotstop to discussfundamentals. But intellectu- wagesystem, from the thrall of whichthey are now ally no compromise is possible. Mr. Cole apparently is beginning to escape. Butwages cannot be abolished notwithout sympathy for the Mediaevalist position. until the workers have a monopoly of their own labour. Thatis allright as faras it goes. Butthat is not You admit that women do not readily join unions, and sufficient. Sympathy of a vague and indefinite kind the you therefore seek to destroy the monopoly upon which Mediaevalist has inabundance. What we need is help, the men’shopes are fixed. Fools ! And we find that those who are only sympathetic fail It has interestedme to observe how hardly you all us in the hour of need. As a basis for actionwe need striveto dodge the limitations of yoursex and to somethingdeeper than sympathy with Mediaevalism. evade consideration of women’s true function in society. We need the conviction,not merely that mediaeval Nevertheless,women you are and women you must society was a very sane and reasonable form of society, remain. Why not acceptyour fate? Is it, after all, so but thatit is the form of society to whichsooner or dreadful? Mrs. Reevesand Mrs. Wilsonwrite of later we have no option but to return, if we are not to being“incapacitated” by motherhoodand its claims. degenerate into barbarism. And suchconviction I con-. As though motherhood and home building were some- tend Mr. Cole hadnot got at thetime he wrote his thingderogatory, something to berushed through to book, and I do not think he has got itto-day, for in get back to the joys and ecstasies 0.f weaving or chain- his letter he repeats one of the heresies which is in his making. As though motherhood were not truly a state book. Heseeks to identify himself with thepoint of of being “capacitated.” I am not a moralist; but you view of Morris by misinterpretinghis words. “I be- positivelysicken me. You are poisonedwith the Lon- lieve” hesays, “with Morris, that there will bemore donatmosphere. Your little groupknows nothing of machinery before there is less.” Now what did Morris therealities of industriallife or you assuredlywould mean by this? I think I can say without fear of contradiction notwrite such priggish nonsense. The veriestlittle contradiction that he did .not mean what Mr. Cole means. factorygirl knows far more about life than youdo. What Morris meant was, that if people could not in his Doesshe, with mincing words, talk about going into day be made to see the evilswhich would follow un- the factory “in the interests of national health” ? Not regulated machine production, then it would be neces- she. Shedreams of a mateand a home of her own. sary to wait until the evils were obvious to the average Does she enter the wage system because she likes it? man before it would be possible to regulate them and Shehates it. Sometimes she hates it so fiercely that have less. Just in thesame way that Ruskin might prostitutionseems preferable. And you,middle-class havesaid, when the public disregardedhis warnings, in body andsoul, with some semblance of education that it would be necessary to have more poverty before and some experience of the amenities of life, how dare there was less. Now, I ask Mr. Cole whether, if Ruskin you urge young women to go into industry, when you had said such a thing as this, he would have thought remain safe and sound outside? Are you too feminine ithis duty to increasepoverty as much as possible? inintellect as well toexamine the wage system? In For he stands in exactly the same position in his atti- God’s name,stop your Fabiandebauch in statistics tude towards machinery. If he thinks we have got too thatmean nothing and get down tothe realities of much machinery, then his duty is clearly to say so, and wagery. Then, I hope, you will do what inyou lies to not that we must have more before we have less. Now keep women out of the Industrialpit, where the men that his eyes, at any rate, have been opened, he should are now rapidlymobilising theirlabour monopoly, so do hisbest to openthose of others ; for a time will thatthey may win thefruits of theirlabour through nevercome when we shallhave less until there is a Guild organisation. band of reformers which demands it. If you do not understand the wage system, then pray Now, I contend thatthe present time is peculiarly be silent. As foryou, Mallon, if you cannotdo any- favourable for the inauguration of a movement which thing better than dicker with women’s wages-a dread- demandstheregulation of machinery. All the ful occupation-I can only suggestthat you betake modernists who have based their theories upon an ex- yourself toTurkey, where doubtless some prosperous tendeduse of machinery arebankrupt inideas. Mr. Turk will instal you as eunuch in his harem and arbiter Sidney Webb, Mr. H. G. Wells,and Mr. Chiozza of wages of his female serfs. Moneyhave, in turn,come to grief.They are all in- Yoursfaithfully, volved in contradictionsfrom which theycan find no NATIONAL GUILDSMAN. escape. And, indeed, from their point of view there is 777 none. They are standing, as itwere, on the edge of a will be onthe threshold of salvation.For it will no precipice andcan find noroad. They cannot go forward longer be a part of the disease. wardand they are afraidto go back. We criticise I am sorry if any of thereaders of my article on themand they do not reply. The reasonis simple ; “AEstheticism andHistory” should havethought I they have no reply. They began by compromising with wished to identify Mr. Cole with the Fabian Report on things as they are; they have ended by becoming com- the Control of Industry, as such was not my intention. promisedthemselves. They thought theycould afford There is nomistaking the authorship. No other toregard Morris as animpractical dreamer. Nowa- Socialist could have been so shamelessly logical as Mr. days we know who are the impractical dreamers. They Webb. Mr. Cole’s book is an excellentbook as far as are the“practical men.” Mr. Wellshas lost the con- it goes, apartfrom his attitude towards Mediaevalism. fidence o.f reformers by constantlychanging his My objectionto it is, that itdoes not go far enough. opinions. Mr. Webb is losing it by not changing them. Hehas notyet, apparently, learnt to understand the He occupies ananomalous position, for he is at once part whichmachinery is playing in thegrowth of the our best friend and our worst enemy. He is our worst social problem, and I ask him to face the facts before enemybecause, if hehad his own way, we shouldall it is too late. It is all very well for Mr. Cole to say that be docketedand labelled as members of theServile he said “little in his book about skilled crafts, because State; while he is our :bestfriend because he has theyare, in themain, a craftsman’s problem.’’ But, organised for us all the errors and has secured for us pray, would he tell me how the craftsman can possibly publicrecognition of all the facts which are necessary revive handicraft if he is going to increasethe use of for the destruction ‘of the modernist: position. Take the machinery? And, further, I would tell him that if he Minority Reportand the Fabian Report on the Con- thinksthat Guild organisation woulddeaden and controlof Industry. ‘They have been godsends to us. We perverthandicraft, he has a fundamentallydifferent might have preached Mediaevalism until we were black conception of the nature of the Guild from what I have, in the face without them, and few would have heeded. and, I might add, from the Mediaeval craftsmen. We should have been told that we cannot go back. But these two reports have demonstrated conclusively that we cannot go forwardwith safety; and as we cannot A Malicious Birth. stand still, we are left with no option but to go back or By Duxmia. to perish. Mr. Cole, too, appears to have got himself entangled AT theHades Police Court on Monday last,before in this net of Modernism. For he says, “If we scrapped Minos, Eacus, andRhadamanthus, and a jury of the machines, we shouldmerely condemn a greatpart of Holy Souls,the Welsh nation was charged with wil- the population to famine and penury.” And yet in the fully and maliciously givingbirth toDavid Lloyd Minority Report I read thatthere is no denying that George. For theprosecution : ’The Destroying Angel, nowadays machinery is displacing labour. And then Mr. instructed by a Boardof Expert Theologians. For the Cole says we wantmore of it. That looks as if he Defence : ’The soul of Mr. Chadband,instructed by wantedto displacemore labour.But I can scarcely Beelzebub. Accused werenot present in court,having thinkthat is true, foritdoes not accord with his refused to appear without a written guarantee that they generalintention ; so Ican only assumethat he has would be refunded their railway fares. misread thefacts. The truth is, Ithink, that, like so The case for the prosecution was opened by the De- many of theFabians, he isoppressed with the im- stroyingAngel, who remarkedthat things had really mense mass of poverty in the world, and in his anxiety gone a littletoo far. It had ‘been stated by a certain to find an immediateremedy he has hitherto been im- school of political philosophers that a people could not patient with those who took longer views and mistook will thewrong but onlybe deceived. He was unable themfor impracticable dreamers. Not understanding to say how much truth there was in this assertion, but that their apparent detachment from so-called practical he was confident thathe would commanduniversal activity was the effect of their knowing the facts about agreement when he asserted that something more than Industrialism,and realising the futility of Socialist mere carelessness-something more culpable than simple measures. And thatnowadays, when Collectivism has self-deception-must have beenrequired for the com- filed its petition, he is like so many, mission of the crime now broughtbefore their notice. Wandering between two worlds, The realtrouble about the offence was that-, so far One dead, the other unable to he born. fromrealising its heinous nature, defendants seemed For this is the positionin which theSocialist movement proudof it. There was,therefore, no guaranteethat movement findsitself to-day. It is flirtingwith mediaeval- it would not berepeated. (Sensation.) He asked for ism in the hope of detaching from it a pair of wings by anexemplary sentence. which it hopes to fly. Butit cannot be done. The The Recording Angel was summoned as witness, and dead weight of Industrialism is too heavy for mediaeval tookthe oath in theusual manner. He informed the wings.There is ultimately no sure footholdanywhere Court that, according to the best theologians, the world betweenpure Collectivism andpure Mediaevalism, and had been created “for the honour and glory of God.” sooneror later everybody will have to come down on ‘There was no evidencein his possession to show that oneside or theother. It is purelya matter of time, Mr. Lloyd Georgehad in any wayserved that end. andI have nohesitation in saying things will eventu- Asked by the Court if he had anything in his records to ally go. The Mediaevalist has his feet as firmly planted show whether the bringing into the world of Mr. Lloyd on thefacts of Industrialism as of humannature. All Georgewas intentional, or whether it was not rather the Fabian can do by collecting facts is to strengthen the result of one of those accidents which are bound to the Mediaevalist position. Whenat last the Socialist happen in thebest regulated nations, witness stated movementarrives atthe Mediaevalist position,it will that, unfortunately, there was only too much reason for paradoxically be able to make real progress towards the concluding that the crimehad beencommitted delibe- solution of theproblems of poverty,not only because ratelyand of set purpose. Accused hadbeen thinking the movement will gainsupport from other sections about that sort of thing for years. of society, whohave hitherto held aloof,but because Cross-examined by Mr. Chadband : No; realsigns it will find itself able to handle things in a holder spirit. of repentancewere entirely wanting. There was a lot For having given up the hopeof saving existing society, of howlingand yowling in various tin and stone erec- it will be able to lay the foundations of the new one by tions which he believed wereconsecrated to the pur- setting inmotion forces which run counter to modern pose ; but he never took any notice of it. tendencies. And we shallgrow stronger in thefight. Instructions were then given to call an Englishman. The defect of theSocialist movementto-day is a cer- Aftersome delay a personanswering to that descrip- tain timidity which comes from itstill having some tion was producedfrom a noisome dungeon, in which faith in Industrialism. When at lastthat is goneit hehad been confined for refusing to lendMr. Lloyd 778

George ninepence forfourpence. Witness inquired said that, with the Court’s permission, and to show that wherehe was, and on being told “in Hades,” replied he was of the Elect, he would open proceedings with a that it was a jolly sight pleasanter than England. Asked Psalm. Witness then sangthe fifth Psalm,“There is for his estimate, of Lloyd George’s social and religious no faithfulness in theirmouth. They flatterwith their value, witnessreplied : “______” (Terms tongue.Their inward part is very wickedness.” Wit- deleted at the urgent request of the printer, who is very nessstated that for several hundred years beforehis frightened of a libel action.) Had contributed fourpence conversion by the Methodistshe had thieved, lied, a week for some time past to Lloyd George’s “Criccieth whored,cursed, and sworn, like the rest of mankind. EndowmentFund,’’ alias “The National Insurance Now he onlythieved, lied andwhored. Such were the Act.” Was not a teetotaler.Did not sing Psalms. fruits of the Gospel. He was alsocareful to commit Yes,he did prefer the truth to lying.Could not say if all thesesins at home on theSabbath. He was a Lloyd George did. Should think it probable he did not. Baptistand made for peace. Hethought that David Would be very pleasedindeed todrink the Court’s was a fine little Welsh gentleman, whatever ! health. Mr. Chadband, on starting to close the defence, was King Saul assured the Court that there were innumer- interrupted by Beelzebub, whostated that, unfor- able cases of whole nations being exterminated for far tunately,counsel’s leave from Hell had expired, and lessercrimes than those which defendants were being thathe was due for histurn on the hot bricks. Mr. tried for. Invited to give instance, witness mentioned the Chadbandwas thereupon removed and replaced by Amalekites,whom he personally had smitten from “P. W. W.” of the “Daily News,” who began to read Havilak, as thou goest to Shur, that is before Egypt : a lengthy“appreciation” of our Davidfrom aback andthat for comparatively minor offences. Infact, he file of that paper. hadactually spared Agag and got into an awful row Rhadamanthus : It’s no use your trying that on down about it. No, Lloyd George andAgag had really here, my friend ! We know too much about you ! nothing in common. Agag was a decent sort of fellow. “P. W. W.” then retired to a corner of the Court and Theyhad got on quite well together,but Samuel be- commenced towrite a sycophantic“appreciation” of cameratty about it. He supposed it was allright. Rhadamanthus.He was followed by well-knowna Anyhow, therewas no arguing-with prophets. Asked Irishjournalist and M.P., who filled hismouth with to give further instancesof extermination, witness men- soapand water and attempted to squirtit over the tioned the Canaanites and such of the Israelites as con- Court.Hewas removed for impalement.Some formed tothem, who had been wiped out byvarious trouble was also caused at this stage by the antics of a judges.In reply to a requestfor reasons for such dog answering to the name of Toby, which ran about severity, witness stated, in a guarded voice, that as a tryingto lickvarious persons’ boots. The collarbore matter of fact it was for ritual murder-but he did not anaddress inBouverie Street,and stated that the want it to be known he said so, as it would make him animal was the property of any government that hap- unpopular with the other Jews in Paradise. pened to have honours to distribute. This closed the case for the prosecution. Mr. Chad- Rhadamanthus: Take the beastaway and shoot it ! band, in his opening speech, referred to the undoubted Rhadamanthus, in summingup, remarked upon the popularity and influence of Lloyd Georgeamong all urgent necessity of preventing a repetition of such that was best and truest in the United Kingdom. Lloyd crimes asthe onebefore them. If theythought that Georgewas a greatwarrior for the Terewth. The DavidLloyd George was an unfortunate accident, and labourerwas worthy of hishire. (Habakkuk, xvii. 6.) unlikely, therefore, to recur,they would pronounce Lloyd ,George’s hire was paidin corn, oil, and wine accused “Notguilty.” If, on theother hand, they (Job iii, 8-10}, or money,which was much thesame thoughtthat the crime was complicated by intention, thing (Bleak House. passim.). they would not hesitate to find an adverse verdict. Mr. Chadband proceeded to call a Jewish Financier of TheJury returned averdict of “Guilty”without DoubtfulReputation, who statedfor the defence that leavingthe box. A riderwas added to the effect that hehad found his David extremely useful, and that he they had been unable to discover any adequate excuse could not conceive what all thistrouble was about. for the crime. Without such characters as Lloyd George, persons like Sentence was pronounced to the effect that the Welsh himself could not continue to exist and to degrade and Nation should be compulsorily sterilised to prevent a corruptthe countries which were foolish enoughto repetition of this unhappy occurrence. harbour them-and where would civilisation thenbe, The sentence was greeted by loudapplause from an he would like to know ? He was of opinion that, so far individual seated at the back of the court. fromdeserving condemnation, the Welsh peoplede- Rhadamanthus : Who is that person? served thegratitude of every parvenu andsweater in A gentlemanstood up andwas understood to say a thekingdom. Hehad shownhis in highlypractical that he was Lloyd George’s broker. form. Evan Roberts climbed into the box and announced in Rhadamanthus : You are excused. a loud voice that he was about to testify. Eacus (hastily) : You had better not.! Witness replied that he was not to be deterred from ANTONIN SOVA. his holy purpose. He hadkept silence longenough. The Master to the Pupil (translated from the Czech Had been commissioned by the Holy Spirit to proclaim by P. Selver). the Messiah in David Lloyd George.This was he of I am as bold as I have ever been, whom itwas spoken by theprophet, saying, “I saw As tender as I ever was, but when My pupil, rival, enters on the scene, comingout of themouth of thedragon ... an un- I would prevail on him to conquer men... clean spirit” (Rev.xvi. 13). Thcdragon, of course, meantWales. Itwas quiteobvious thatthe Messiah In the long nights his lore from me he gained, would appear in Wales, because it was prophesied that Of strife, its harsh and noble aim, and then athis second coming,He shouldnot find Truth upon He borrowed of my armour what remained, the earth-and there was no place where this condition Begirt him with the virtue of my ken... fulfilled itself so accurately as in the principality. Selah ! Banzai ! Hallelujah ! Chin ! Chin ! Hooh ! Hoch ! Hoeh ! I taught himwhat shall make his shackles fall, I taught him how new spring-tides he can fill (At thispoint witness was possessed by demons,who With blossom and new days when tidings call... hurried him from the box.) TheWelsh Dragon tookthe oath in theWelsh Ah well, my pupil, learn now to prevail, manner by holding up a claw and swearing before E’en over me, mine is the honour still... Almighty God to tell the Truth, no ’Truth, and anything Spare but my heart... and let not memory fail! except theTruth, so help him, Satan ! Witness then ‘‘Contestsand Destinies ” (1910). the practice of writing as a trade-that anyone who has Allen Upward Serious. once earned a livelihood, or part of it, obviously and By Ezra Pound. openly, by popular writing, can never be seriously re- garded by anygreat number of people. And then, of “ITis a curious thing about England” ???? No, it is course, “he does too much.” The populace, the read- not a “curious”thing” about England or about any- ing populace, is likethe fat criticin “Fanny’s First where else, it is a natural habit of il mal seme d’ Adamo Play,” it cannot conceive the same man doing two kinds that theyneglect theclear thinker in his own day. of work,or at leastit won’t. Itis perfectlylogical. And if a man have done valuable work of one sort, and It is insanely logical. have, at the same time, done vendible work of another, On the other hand, oneclear, hard paragraph like the the vendible work will kill him among the little clique one quoted is enough to queer a man’schances. whodecide whether orno one is to be‘‘taken “How,” say the professors, “is this man a classicist? seriously.” So Mr. Upward is known for short stories Why does he not stick to his trade? Why does he ex- of a sort, and not for two books, as interesting philoso- pose our patient error? ’To hell with him !” phically as any that have been written in our time. “How!”says the windy logomachist, who believes Of course,any man who thinks is a bore. He will that if a thing is worth doing it is worth doing badly. eithermake you think or he will despise,irritate and “Clear,hard, serious, specialised writing from a insult you if you don’t, and all this is very distressing. journalist.Damn him.” What forinstance could be more distressing to a And then, of course, there’s the church ; nearly every- wooden-headed imbecile, fat withhis own scholastic body has an uncle or a cousinwho gets paid for be- conceit, than sucha clearly-written paragraph as that lieving, officially, inthe established church. It won’t which follows ? doto think about religiontoo seriously or else we’ll have to scrap the lot : all the established salaries. We ‘‘That old talk about the Gods, which is called mythology, is confused in many ways, partly because all mustnot treat this gentleman too gravely. Let US language is confused, partly because it is a layer of labelhim a (brilliant superficial writer. So it goes. many languages.When thetalkers no longer used the Mr. Upward has taken up the cause of the sensitive ; beast as an idol they used it as a symbol, in short a and the sensitives are too few and too indolent to sup- word ; when they no longer slew the real Christ at Easter porthim, save in their slow andultimately victorious they named the sun at Easter, Christ. Their language is manner. tangled and twisted beyond our power wholly to unravel because it was beyond their power; because it began as Of course, what Mr. Upward says will be believed in a tangle when man’s mind was still a blur, and he saw another twenty or fifty or a hundred years, just as a lot men as trees walking,and trees as men standing still. of Voltaire’s quiet thrusts are now a part of our gospel. How hardthe old cloistered scholarship to which the Mr. Upward will be nicely buried and no living curate Nobels of a bygone age gave their endowments has toiled will be out of a job, so that will be all right. to understandthe word glaukopis given to the goddess Mr. Upward takes on the lot of ’em. If he were con- Athene. Did it mean blue-eyed or grey-eyed, or-by the aid of Sanskrit-merely glare-eyed? And allthe tent to poke fun at one science...ah ! But he says time they had not only the word glaux staring them in most scientists are stupid, or something of that sort : the face, but they had the owl itself cut at the foot of most of the rank and file-but what is the use of talk- every statue of Atheneand stamped on every coin of ing about mosts? Athens, to tell them that she was the owl-eyed goddess, Let us searchfor Mr. Upward’s dangerous and thelightning that blinks like an owl. For what is hereticaldoctrines. Most mild istheir aspect. Thus : characteristic of the owl’s eyes is not thatthe glare, but that they suddenly leave off glaring like lighthouses “When,instead of thinking of men one by one you whose light is shut offWe may see the shutter of the think of them all atonce and call your thought humanity lightningin that mask that overhangsAthene’s brow youhave merelyadded a new word tothe dictionary and hear its click in the word glaukos. And the leafage and not a new thing to thecontents of the universe.” of the olive whose writhen trunk bears, as it were, the lightning’sbrand, does not. glarebut glitters, the pale That ought to be fairly obvious. under face of the leaves alternating with the dark upper “Altruism is theprinciple that mankind ought to face, and so the olive is Athene’s treeand is called serve those who are serving it, but not those who are not glaukos. Why need we carry owls to Oxford?” serving it.” That is the sort of clarity and hard writing that one Ah ! finds all through“The New Word.” Of course,it is “It used to be written... ‘All menare liars.’ .... very irritating : if you suggest to Mr. Upward that his ‘It repented the Lord that he had made man..’ No one mind is as clear as Bacon’s, he will agree with you. If would dare to say such things about Humanity.” you suggest to Mr. Upward that his middles are less “Thereligion of Humanity is not the worship of the indefinite thanPlato’s, he will agree with you. If you best man nor of the best in man. It is the worship of suggestto him thatone manwho thinks is worth a the middling man.” dozen ambulatingworks of reference,he will agree This begins to look ugIy. with you ;and all this is very annoying to the supporters And still he goes on. He draws an invidious compari- of things at large, for our ambulating works of refer- son betweenscience and “scientology.” He propounds ence are far more numerous than our thinkers. riddles. He asks : “When is the good not good?” and The writer of this present essay has suffered from a answers, “When it is an abstract noun.” Perplexing ! modern education; he has met a number of ambulating works of reference ; his respect for the mnemonic mind “In the beginning the Goat created heaven and earth.” has been lessened by contact, and by the presence in the It is the astrological goat, but it gets the churchman’s. modern world of thecinematograph and the gramo- “Thereligion which that Idealist (i.e., Christ) has been phone. accused of founding.” Mr. Upward has taken up the cause of intelligence, “Theultimate nature of Materialism is the worship of the perceptive man ; it is the height of quixotism on of fixity under a hundred names.” his part. If you refer to him as a thinker, if you say his “I think that no two men have ever had wholly the mind is lessmessy thanBergson’s, theytell you he samereligion, and I am sure notwo men oughtto.’’ writesdetective stories. Yet if “The New Word” and “Whateveris has been rightand will be wrong.” “TheDivine Mystery” had been written by a civil “TheChurchmen had no doubt that Aquinas was a servant or a clerk in a dry goods shop, or by a broken- saint.They applied a simpletest and found that, how- down parson, they would have been acclaimed as great ever impartialmight be thesumming up, the verdict works. They would have been patted on theircovers was always in their favour.” by “The Edinburgh,” etc. “To-daythis book (Aquinas),the greatest book of Butthere is something so degrading-at least,one Catholic Theology, ranks as a curiosit ratherthan as would think that there were something so degrading in literature. And thatis not because, like the book of 780

Copernicus it has done its work, but because no one any summary of certain things that he stands for, or that he longer hopes that it can do any work.” appears to me to stand for ; certain conclusions which I

“ The bloodiest iconoclasts the world has ever seen draw more or less from his books. ought not to whine so miserably when their own idol is I. That a nation is civilised in so far as it recognises being washed.” the specialfaculties of theindividual, and makes use Of course,Mr. Upward should not assail the scien- thereof. You donot weigh coalswith the assayer’s tists, the philologists and the churchmenall in one book. balance. Whatfaction will come to hisaid? What formed Ia. Corollary.Syndicalism. A socialorder is well party will support him? balancedwhen thecommunity recognises the special The clear-headedlogician haslost sight of psycho- aptitudes of groups of men and applies them. ofcrowd psychology. One shouldalways com- fogy, 2. That Mr.Upward’s propaganda is for asyndicat promise with fools, one should always be sure to please of intelligence ; of thinkers and authors and artists. a majorityof thedullards, if onedesire immediate 2a. That suchaguild is perfectly in accordwith results. Syndicalist doctrines. That it would take its place with What ! Notdesire immediate results? Do I suggest than anyman is contentto await the verdict of the the guilds of more highly skilled craftsmen. future, or at least of the next generation? 3. That Mr. Upward “sees further into a mile-stone, Supposing I do? etc.,” Imean that his propaganda is for the recogni- Ofcourse, I am not an impartialjudge. I think all tion of the man who can see the meaning sf data, not established churches an outrage, save in so far as they necessarily as opposed to, but as supplementary to, the teachmedicine and courageto the moreobfuscated man who is only capable of assembling or memorising heathen, and they don’t do such a lot of that. such data. Note.-This latter sort of man is the only But on the whole they are nearly as great a pest as sort now- providedfor by the AmericanUniversity were the “fat bellies of the monks toward the end of system. I cannotspeak for the English. the Middle Ages” ; they sit in fatlivings ; they lead Aristotle said something about “the swift perception lives of intellectual sloth supported by subsidies origin- of relations.” He said it was the hall mark of genius.. ally intended, at least in part, for “clerks,” for clerics The“Century Magazine” wants to bring its fiction whowere supposed to need a certainshelter wherein “ as near to truth, and make it as interpretive of life, as to conductthe intellectual life of the race. Onede- conditions alllow” (’‘Century Magazine” for September, mands purely and simply that people oustthe parson 1913, page 791, col. 2, lines 29 and 30). Mr.Upward from his feathered eyrie, and put in itsome construc- hasnothing to do withthis spirit. “As conditions tiveperson, some thinker, or artist, ,or scientific ex- allow” ! ! ! ! ! ! “Let the bridge come as near to bear- perimenter, or someteacher of somethingor other, ing the strain of traffic ‘as conditions allow. ’ ” which he can himself take seriously,and which might 4. That since Christ’s notable success-in gaining a conceivablybe of someuse to the race. Theymight reputation, I mean-a number of people have desired to take to readingConfucius . . . if itamused them. Or “savethe world” without undergoing the incon- they might even talk seriously abouttheir professed venience of crucifixion. religioninstead of playingthe barrister. But this is a 5. That Mr. Upward is a very capablethinker, and matter aside. It is one of the minute corollaries of Mr. that he deserves more attention than he now gets. Upward’s work as I understand it. It is a part of what he calls “Altruism.” I recognisethe danger of leaving Mr. Upward at THE “POOR ” POLITICIAN. large.Not an immediate peril ! I recognise also the I harkened to a simple speech, need of some sort of delayed book reviewing. I mean True lessons did the speaker teach, thatthe presentadvertising system provides that all In fact, his subject was a peach- books of whatevermerit shall be praised by a certain The poverty of politics. number of people the instant they appear; that certain kinds of books,or certain particular books, shall be He’d risen from the depths below, largelycirculated ; andthat certain, practically all, And pushed a pen not long ago. books, save books of verse, go into desuetude within a As ministerhis state doth show year or so. The poverty of politics. There should be anew sort of semi-critic,semi- On little points of love and hate reviewer, to go over the mess of books that are a few He’d sold his views for six-and-eight ; years old and pick out the few worth saving, the few And now he charges all the State thathe stillremembers. It issomething of thatsort With poverty through politics. that I am trying. We all recognise the typeof writer produced by He then bewailed his harassed life, presentconditions, who keeps in the public eye by a And longed for peace and rest from strife, continuousoutput of inferiorwork. He is known for Yet prated to his audience rife his persistent ubiquity. Damn him ! I want Some more The poverty of politics. efficient machineryfor the preservation of the sort of Of course, a pension scheme was his, writer who only writes when he has something to say, Also an Act all born in “quiz,” whoproduces odd sorts of books inuncommercial Yet he ne’er sipped the sparkling “phiz” sizes. Through poverty of politics. I thinkalso that we shouldtry to discriminatebe- tween the real man and his secondary emanations. Does For he ne’er carried aught within itmatter the least whether Mr. Upwardplays golf or That could be labelled under sin, writesdetective stories in theintervals betweenhis For all he sought was fame, and tin, serious work? And poverty, and politics. He drew five thousand pounds a year I present Mr. Upward’sdicta rather jerkily, partly In salary from a nation dear, because I thinkthe readers of THE NEW AGE are And smiled the truth through many a tear, heartily sick of my writing,and partly because Ibe- The poverty of politics. lieve they do not want their pabulum diluted, and that As “Chancellor” Ire took a hand, they are able to build up the intellectual consequences of And built a house on sinking sand, a given theme. However, I cannot quote Mr. Upward And took in our unhappy land, entire, and I cannotadequately represent his trend in Through poverty ofpolitics. scatteredquotations, so I mustneeds make a partial THOMASFLEMING. 781

is the proper aim of an art school, and that neither the Drawing from the Cast. production of an imposingelectioneering facade nor accommodation forthe largest possiblenumber of By Walter Sickert. capitation-paying students are the primary aimsof education- THEsame dull spirit that makes itpossible for people cation. To forget this is to lose for the sake of living to speak of “duty calls” has made of study from the the reason for life. cast, instead of the enchanted garden that it might be, Propter vivendum vitai perderd caussas. a perfunctoryand stupid purgatory. Snobbishness and For study by daylight, students shouldnot work on competitive arrivisme are fostered by treating work from thesame drawings onsunny and on greydays. The the cast as an anteroom to the real entree en jouissance, effect of light and shade, ona grey day, is simplified, which promotion only to “the life” is supposed, by the andis valuable for that reason. Thelight on a sunny big babies that students are, to confer. day, which rifles theform with greaterintimacy, is The philosophy of pictorial art has seldombeen in- complex, and valuable for that reason. Where the sun vestigated in writing by practitioners. Speculation from falls on the casts, and a room with a south light is the outside may be amusing, or not, as an exercise in dia- best of all, students should work on a series of draw- dialectics, butit can have no more utility, and therefore ings for about twenty-five minutes at a time, and take no more permanent interest than the essays of a pure thesame drawings up in thesame successionon the litterateur onnavigation. The bestit can be isread- next sunny day. When the weather gives alternations of readable,and, when youhave read it, you have eaten a sunshine and grey weather, students should pass from meringue, and nomore. their sunshine studies of the casts, backwards and for- I propose only to speak of our European art, which is wards to their grey-day studies, as the sky changes. the only art of which I have any understanding, and it One consequence which follows from these directions is hardlynecessary to say that this limitation of mine is consoling to the student of limited means whose main implies neither a tacit expression of opinion on the vast objectis to learnto draw, since it follows from the field of Easternart, on whichI amnot competent to abovethat any old roomwith one window is better speak, norany impertinent comparison of theimport- thanthe finestand mostexpensive atelier. So that in ance of the twofields. It implies merely a strict limitation- art,as in mostthings, it is thepoor who have the tion of myself to the department in whichI have any best of the bargain. claim to suggest reflections, or to express an opinion. Having disposed of the question of illumination,it “ Chacunson metier, et les vachesseront bien may be well to repeat that drawings or paintings from gardees,” or as we say in English, Every man to his objects should be made on the scale that those objects job, and the cook to the fore-sheet.” would cover, were the student’s sheet of paper a sheet Our art, as it has been handed down to us, is an art of glass, and were it held at the distance from the eyes of lightand shade. With a realistic understanding of of the student at which his drawing board or canvas are the brevity of each individual life, and of the tiny sum placed. of capacity of every,the most powerful and gifted One point it is very important to insist upon. Drawing- individual, I can be noconstitution-monger, nor do I ing on the scale of vision is only necessary in work stand for anything but the rigour of the game as it has donedirect from nature. i shallhave things to say beenhanded down to us. And it is justbecause the later about scale, when we come to consider the making past achievements in art have always been to me very of picturesand decorations, which will prove that I living and present realities, and the old masters neither haveno preference for a small scale in itself. I shall remote mysteries nor occult bores, that I know that the then urge my belief that the real art quality of drawing future,with its infinitepossibilities of variation,can is frequently strangled by treating subjects that are too only continue to rise gradually on the solid foundation comprehensiveon too smalla scale. Rut in drawing of the past. from nature the image on the eye and the image on the Our art deals with the expression of the light of the paper or the canvas should be as nearly as possible on sun,direct or indirect, concentrated or diffused,on the same scale. material objects. And since the first torch of flame was Let us imagine for a moment two frames set up be- originally stolen by Prometheus from the sun, our pic- tween us and the cast or the model, these two frames tures of scenes by artificial light may justly be classified- equidistantfrom our eyes. Letus suppose that in the fied as only an extension of the effects that have their one frame is fixed a board with a sheet of paper, and origin in the light of the sun. in the other a sheet of glass. Nowlet us imagine our We all know, and it is useful to recall, the experiment two wrists handcuffed with a rigid steel bar so that they that is quoted in most elementary treatises on drawing. could only move in unison, after the manner of the two And you may takeit from me, exhibitor atthe New legs of the instrument called a pantograph. In the one EnglishArt Club, member of theSalon d’Automne handwe holdadiamond and in theother a small that I am, that nearly all the unpretentious text-books pencil. As we nowproceed to tracewith the diamond onart that you canbuy from a shillingupwards, in the outline of the model on the sheet of glass with one most countries, are all right. (I have a shrewd suspicion hand, with the other, by a series of parallel and identical- that I have never written, and shall never write a sen- cal movements, we trace with the pencil the same outline- tence that will be more serviceable to students than this lineon paper. The comparison betweenthese two last.) The hackneyed (give me the hackneyed I) experi- drawings would in this way be direct and not propor- mentis the following. It isknown that you may so tional. Themore or lessclumsy mechanism of this illuminate a sphere of white plaster which is suspended illustrationshows what should be theoperation we in front of a sheet of white paper that, all shadow being accomplish by brain and eye when we draw from nature. eliminated,the form of thesphere becomesinvisible. Consider for a momentthe immense and useless Therefore, as soon as light and shade is banished, there work thrown on the eye and the mind when, as in the is no longer matter for our plastic or pictorial art. scale of most art-school drawings, at each turn of the Now thepractice of art, nomore than lawn-tennis head, a proportionsum has to be improvised,and to or chess,isnot a naturalthing. Itis highlya whatpurpose? If a cartoon of any size is required artificial game, with conditions that have been evolved from the studies, they can always be squared up. The by the players of the past in the same manner as has authority of the museums is entirely against the large theform and exact make of a cricketbat. Its limita- scale drawingdone from nature. I believe that hun- tions are peremptory and permit of no excursions. dreds of studentshave beenpermanently broken and The casts in a school should be illuminated either by deviated from the normal path of natural drawing by a single window of restricted size, or by the flame of a the Procrustes bed of the manufacturer’s sheet of so- singlelight. I leave the working-out of this necessity called Ingres paper. tothe architects and teachers concerned. I need not Leighton reminded me some thirty years ago that in remindthem that the artistic progress of the students orderto see a six-footman properly you must be 782

eighteenfeet away from him.Hold up a rule at that of the first scene ; he bids them “Whisper whence they distanceand see howmuch the modelsubtends. A stolethose balmy spoils.” Theyadmit that Antonio matter of nine or ten inches. Why are we, then, to fill and his friends suggested it in what they said, and one a piece of Ingrespaper, and make him thirtyinches boy actually gives Salarino all the credit for the ships ; high, that is three times the scale of our vision? What which, if you know the play well, you will easily under- have theoculists to say to thispractice? Is it more stand.It is now a simplematter to suggestthat the likely that Rembrandt and Charles Keene and Leighton gentlemenhave taken away with them the street-stuff are right or, with all respect be it said, the advisers of theyhad brought. They think. One presently asks : the late Prince Consort and the late Sir Henry Cole. “Isthe scenery mixed up with theactors?” And an- Thisfatal error must be swept away. There is,in other,not necessarily themaster, replies : “No, the fact, no reason to fear that it will not be swept away. sceneryis given in the lines.’’ On the opening of the Government nowadays is supposed to go by the consent curtain,Portia and Nerissa are expected in theirturn of the governed, and the students that I haveformed to suggestanother setting. But they do notseem to duringthe last decade are, some of them,already giveany verydefinite help ; andthe onlookers are teachers.They are already insisting on the scale of clearlymore sparing of theirfancy over the second vision, andthe uniform scale of thedrawing-board is scene, and do not localise it at all definitely. Some are as good as dead. for aboudoir, some for a garden.Discussion springs up again. At such an earlyoccasion in the playdis- cussionshould not be tooruthlessly checked. The Towards the Play Way. playboyshave still tomaster the conventions. One By H. Caldwell Cook. proteststhat neither Portia nor Nerissa has told us “wherethey are.” The master asks, “Where do you IX. thinkthey are?” “At Belmont” comes the reply in STAGEconditions must of course be studied in connec- chorus. That is all we know, and all we need to know. tionwith theacting of a play. Whenthe third form, Already by the conclusion of the second scenethe say,begins to act“The Merchant .of Venice” their master’said in thismatter of “scenery”is no longer attentionis called to animaginary line drawnacross required. The playboyshave graspedthe firstrules of the floor-space they are using.This linedivides the thegame. While the producer goes through the two-thirds in front from the third at the back. It soon motions of closingthe traverse-you must “do it in wants a name, so YOU callit the “curtain” or “tra- action” lest the imaginary fittings be forgotten and the verse.” Some boy issure to protest that the curtain playmarred-Bassanio walks on to the front stage in ought to be in the very front. He can then be told not companywith Shylock. .4t once the onlookers, already only that the stage for which Shakespearewrote was morethan audience now,and almostequivalent to a differentfrom those we have now, but also thatthis chorus, smile knowingly to themselves as they recognise fact made a great difference to the plays themselves, as that Bassanio is bringing back the street, with the rig- he shall see. Many questions arise at once, but we un- ging of ships in thebackground. If he were not, you dertake that such of them as the performance does not may be sure that Shakespeare would havemade clear answerfor itself shall be dealt with at the end of the the change of locality. And the playboys are now ready lesson. All therules of thegame are at firstknown to give careful heed to learn whether Shylock will lend only to the master. If he insists on the actors keeping Bassaniothe “three thousand ducats” of which he in front of the traverse line throughout the first scene keepsmuttering to himself. Forhowever familiar the theirinterest is at oncearoused. Whenever I have story may be to some of us, it is as well to remember opened theperformance in this way-andwe always that children are notborn knowing the plot of “The read “The Merchant’’ in IIIB-several of the boys not Merchant of Venice. ” acting at the moment have, by turning over to the next Butthe scene-openings of this play are notby any scene,discovered why the imaginary curtain was kept means the easiest to cope with. I have just shown one shut.Once a boy called outexcitedly, “Oh, see,I difficulty at the very start : theaudience having been Portia’shouse is hidden behind there.” “There” was, preparedalready for the appearance of Portiaat Bel- of course, nothing more substantial than the imaginary mont,no more in the .way of explanationis deemed curtain. Then while Bassanio is telling Antonio necessary by thedramatist when sheis shown. His In Belmont is a lady richly left concern now is to get the matter of the caskets intro- the producer quietly ushers his Portia and Nerissa into duced as soon as possible ; the which he does with no a cornerat the back, whence they are ready to walk little skill.But “TheMerchant of Venice”does fur- on as soon as the first scene is ended. ‘The class easily nish an excellent example of the alternation of scenes on understands that no curtain comes down at the end of the Elizabethan stage. Throughout the first three acts Scene I. Instead,the traverse is nowdeclared open, the scenes are laid either in Belmont or in a Venetian and the master explains that the street inVenice dis- street.This makes your exposition of theelementary appearsand the whole stage becomesBelmont. The principles of Elizabethanstage-craft quite a simple boys are not quiteready for this. Some have con- undertaking. A grasp of the “alternation theory” may vinced theirimaginations that this is a street.They not at first sight appear to have any particular value. havefancied houses, andthe canal, and the masts of But in addition to making the story clear, it directs the shipping in thedistance. If anyteacher doubt this- interest of theboys tothe constructive side of the and many teachers behave as though they doubted all artist’swork. It is alsoan extremely useful asset in thepowers of their pupils-let him getthis opening their own playmaking. scene played by a group of boys, and then allow them Here, then, are matters worthy of consideration when to talk about it. After they have been at pains to con- you take up the reading of a Shakespearean play in the struct such a complete setting it appears rather cool to classroom. The pursuit of hares“whether historical, clearthis picture all away upon the opening -of an mythological,moral, geographical, political,etymolo- -imaginary curtain behind ; and start all over again, this gical,architectural, or ecclesiastical,” not only bores time to picture the interior of a palace. For a moment theclass, but distracts their attention from the very it seems as though they might dispute the plausibility subject they are called upon to study. And God and the of thechange demanded. For, strange to relate, the pedant alone know how difficult it is tohold the attention playboys are permitted to have a say in the conduct of ofthe boys by thesystem of teaching whichprevails a lesson which, after all, is being given solely for their everywhere at the present time. The Play Way is not ‘benefit. It seems as if theymight be indisposed to a collection of schemesfor keeping small boys enter- grant what Coleridge calls ‘‘that willing suspension of tainedduring school-hours, withoutreference to the disbelief forthe moment, which constitutespoetic subject-matter of their lessons. Onthe contrary, it is faith.” So themaster seeks to justifythe dramatist perhaps the main principle of the Play Way that you %y asking the boys whence they obtained their picture shall get right to the heart of the matter you have in 783 hand, and then do actively what pour interest bids, as genius who was able to rely with glorious abandon upon thenecessity of the case demands. If you have a play the first fine careless rapture? Stuff.Did henot in hand, and get to the heart of thematter, you will actually copy outhis lines with such a finished care find thatyour interest bids you act it. If you do thathis editors received of him scarce a blotin his not find this you are not yet at the heart of the play. papers? Atall events, the craftsman who had that And the necessity of the case requires that you get some skill,in scene-openings alone, which I have beenable knowledge of theconditions inrelation to which this to illustrate in this brief paper, will serve well enough particular play was wrought actable. as a master for my playboys. Accordingly the Play method allows the master or the boys to hold up the dramatic narration of the story from time to time. But these interruptions only occur often at the beginning, and become less and less frequent as the Present-Day Criticism. boys’ grasp of the Elizabethan stage convention makes commentmore rarely necessary. When a proffered re- IN reviewingthe Birthday Number of the “ Daily mark is obviously on some point now quite familiar to Herald,” we have a task which can only be endured by the whole class it may with more gain than damage be the use of irony ; without this strange salve of melan- suppressed.The notable distinction between the two choly, disgust would rise inarticulate at these pages of methods is this. “Hitting below the belt” or the hunt- sentimentality, cynicism, cantand all staleness of a ing methodis off the point at everyinterruption. The spiritlessand corrupted body. Itis something reliev- plan upon which the whole hunting method is founded ing to feel certain that this issue of the “Daily Herald” -that of taking a slice of thirty lines or so and proceed- could not have been offered to the Leaguers; this im- ing to mince it into an unrecognisable slush--is in itself plies that the public of this journal has changed : it has enough to kill the play. But the interruptions made by now, by all signs, a public of which “Everyman” and the playboys serve only, by raising the discussion of the “Daily News” would not be ashamed, a caligraphical essentialquestions, to enhance the value of the whole caligraphical, natty, pious, pushing,soft-handed, conceited, study. gullible,pill-buying, instalment-plan public that cuts a In many of the plays the scene-openings are not only bit above your pother between Fat and Thin, and is inti- very carefully localised, but they serve also to make the matelyconcerned with the difference between Fat and author’s purpose clearby explaining the plot and charac- Medium. ters, precisely at that point where exposition is neces- Thereis one contributor to thisbirthday issue who sary. Look at Act I of “TwelfthNight.” You must, knowsthe present-day reader of the“Herald.” This of course,always ignore the printed stage directions, man speaks from the bottomof the commercial bog into which with a few exceptions, do not appear in the First which the“Herald” has long beensliding and which Folio. Orsinopartly introduces himself,and he and has been comfortablyreached since the defeat of the Valentineclear the way for Olivia. But the second Leaguers. He is a Mr. Eric Field, advertising manager scene introduces Viola. So, to save confusion, the place, of the Caxton Publishing Company ; and his “contribu- the persons,the recent events, present circumstances tion,” though, as we suppose,its admission was paid and future possibilities are all dealt with in the utmost for like any ordinary advertisement, is headed benevo- precision. lently, “Why I support the ‘Herald’ ” ; and you would Viola : What country, friends, is this ? once have been naturally interested-would you not?- Captain : This is Illyria, lady. by such a title in a paper of such fraternal professions. Then they discuss her brother, and the shipwreck, the “Why I supportthe ‘Herald.’ ” By EricField, captain, the duke, Olivia again, and Viola’s own posi- Manager,” etc. tion andprospects. Which being done they go off. Mr.Field thinkshe can claim to have helped the They only came on to do that. The third scene opens “Herald”“quite a lotand at thesame time, I have with the remarks of a stout and jovial person, who is helped my employers a lot.”It would beno use, of addressed asSir Toby, referring to his niece who is course,even if onewanted, totry and blarneythe lamentingthe death of herbrother. This is the third “Herald” Reader ! Mr. Field has helped the “Herald” time we haveheard about the lamented brother, so on business terms, and is too good a business man to there can be no doubt that the niece in question is no makeany bones about it. Hehas spent “all this other than that same Lady Olivia, whom we are by now money ” in advertising in the “ Herald,”advertising quiteanxious to lookupon. Sheis discussed again in booksfor serious-minded“’Thinkers.” (Thecommas the fourth scene, and only enters in the midst of scene are Mr. Field’s.) At the same time he would not have five. In the meantime, since the play opened, no fewer advertised thus if he had not been “absolutely convinced than ten persons havebecome known to us ; and the plot of thevalue of ourbooks, for the Heraldites are a is well afoot. We are all in a verygood humour, and shrewd lot.” Moreover, “it is no use asking Heraldites would not even notice the escape of an astrological hare to buy a pig in a poke. They have to earn their money when Toby says, “Were we not born under Taurus?” so hardly that they want to know all about a thing be- Further discussion of theimaginary stage must be fore they spend money on it. So all I do is to offer to postponed.But we havenot fared ill so far with our sendparticulars. . .” No, notquite all ! It ispossible imaginary line called a traverse, and our scene-openings. to avoid irony here by saying simply that this sort of If “Shakespeare wantedarte” it wasdoubtless the information was exactly what was asked by and denied kind of art typified by rare old Ben himself, who was so to the Leaguers. Here is a proof that Mr. Field knows stuffed up withmuch Greek and moreLatin that he he is certainly not. addressing the former readers of the applied the critical standard of one age to the creative “Herald.” production of a totally different one, as though the in- “So now, my ‘Herald’ reader, if I have helped your fluence ofintervening time (during which as a matter paper at all [not his paper, then ?] will you in return just of fact the drama of his day actually took its rise) were readon . . . .“ of small account, and the whole new character of con- A thoroughly business-like proposition ; from a busi- temporary life and art, including his own, of no account ness view,impeccable. at all. The criticalstandpoint of suchcraftsmen as . . . . . “while I tell you aboutone book I canper- Jonson, who himself confessed that he wrote his poetry sonallyrecommend. . . .“ first as prose and then translated it into metre, is not But when are we going to come across a sentence, one unknown amongus at the present day. Any work sentence, which might not equally well be addressed to which showsabounding vigour and joy is,without the readers of the “Daily News” ? What kind of fools respect to its intrinsic worth, held undisciplined by those are these that are expected to purr and purchase after whose own uninspired productions reveal their laboured a smearing with the common quack’s treacle? mechanism at everyjoint. Am I notright in saying “YOU cannot do without it, whether you are an am- thatShakespeare is indulgentlyregarded as a rare bitious young man on the threshold of your commercial 784 life or a mature business man who dreads that he may receptacle even of our dead ashes. “A Rebel is a bit of be crowded out of the Business fight owing to the stress a Lout.” Mr. H. G. Wellscannot abide louts. “To of present-daycompetition.” God’s truth ! There is flourish about it [rebellion] as though it was something none in man, if this is the fight for which the “Herald” gaudy and glorious is to show an imbecile’s outlook on is opening its columns as a field of battle. Your fellows life.” Quite true ; but whydeliberately go, evenif are down, comrades; keep them down and keep your- invited,and kick the imbecile downits own stairs? self on top ! Buy our book that tells you how to do it. The “Daily Herald” does display an imbecile’s outlook. Perpetuate the bloody system, Heraldites ! Do you want For this reasonwe do notsupport its continued pub- examples of greatmen? Behold them,here, testifying licity. “The ‘ Daily Herald’seems to me to have re- to our Book : Burbidge of Harrod’s, Cansfield of Lip- trogressed.” The “Daily Herald,” in fact, is all wrong, ton’s,Gamage, Lawrie of Whiteley’s,Lyons, Sel- and Dyson,“whom I respect enormously,” why does fridge, Wareham Smith of the “Daily Mail.’’ Here’s a not Dyson quit his enormously respectable present work league of Heraldites for you ! and take my advice to try his hand on something else- What’sthis, inmiserlya fill-up sentence in the AugustPersonages, for instance? Here, we, who do adjacent column ? “Several Wallasey market gardeners not love people who prick others all over with friendly, havegranted the men’sdemands.’’ Pooh, nothing im- oh, so friendlypins, ask Mr. Wells whyhe does not portant ! producehis own notoriousportfolio of cartoons of “Moreover, if you ownthe Business Encyclopaedia, August Personages, or, at least, write a series of studies you canenter for the position offered byMessrs. forthe so-adored “Herald” as disagreeable to the Gamage, the famous, etc., etc., who require a man or Crown as Mr. Dyson’scartoons might possibly be? woman for a responsible position in their firm and who Mr. Wells’strictures, though gratefully reprinted by believe that the person who owns and studies the B.E. the Fat journals, will not, however, do the plutocrats any isthe best possible, etc.,etc., etc. The post will be particular good service : the “Daily Herald” will never filled by competitive examination.” more make Fat turn a hair. By God ! Will the wretched competitor be questioned It is a relief to pass to the articles, marred only by as to whether he owns this Encyclopaedia? If not, why meresentimentalities, of Mr. Chestertonand Mr. not advise him to borrow it if he dare not spend half a Belloc. Mr. Chesterton’s influence on the “Herald” has guineaon a ten-thousandthpart of a chance? Why beennothing. His qualities of sincerityand incupidity stickit into him thathe must “own” thisexpensive are such as wouldcommend themselves theto ’property ? imitation of few of his colleagues. Despite his sacrifices, The Book maybe all that Mr. Field says it is ; but his influence is nothing. The“Herald” ismore anti- his manner of introducing it is the manner of one who manand pro-woman than ever ; it ismore gaseous, means to sell it to would-be profiteers. more piously hypocritical, more neglectful of the manual Mr.Lansbury’s contribution cannot be better criticised labour movement and more servile to the pen and ink criticised than by our borrowing a sentence from the article slaves of the desk and to the shop-gents, than was ever by Mr. G. K. Chesterton. “DO you believe in the conceivable of it save by the devil ; and it is irredeem- brotherhood of men : and do you, dear bretheren, believe ably commercial-no Fat journal more so in all Eng- thatBrother Arthur Henderson does not?” But there land ! Mr. Chesterton, however, seems dissatisfied with is much worse than the usual in Mr. Lansbury’s leader. the“Herald.” He, too, has been struck by itscant “Wewant,” he writes, “the desperate struggle after about rebellion.But whatsentimental impcurved his riches to cease.”Place this beside those paragraphs pen around the name “Limits” to supersede that now about the Business Fight, andsee it wriggle. Which verysuspect “Rebels”?“Limits” is no better;it is brings us to “G. R. S. T.,” that plutocratic sycophant meaningless,even if oneoverlook itspetty vulgarity anddemocratic parasite. Here is the style of the snob as the favourite catchword of Coney Island nuts. It is in his essence : “As the daughter of one of the greatest nut’s slang, and will never signify anything more revo- manufacturers in the worldsaid to me : ‘The strikers lutionarythan a nut’saversion from propriety. Let Mr. Chesterton present himself before the Most August are always right.’ ” Very valuable information coming from Miss Pills ! Mary Bricklayer will be glad to know Personage, exclaiming at his fiercest, “I’m the Limit,” that her father is in the right. We pass over “The Ad. and report if his Majesty trembles. Then we should be Man’sTalk,” by a genialsoul who, like Mr.Field, assured, perhaps, one way or another, of the power in “knows our readers to be a body of intelligent people this bit of argot. . . . morereadily respond to soundpropositions,” etc. Mr. Belloc’s sentimentality is in describing the “Suc- -and glanceat another Birthday Article, a Mr. Will cess of the Free Press in Spite of Boycott.” The Free Allen’s noteon the “Rebel’s Diet,” the whichis a Press is not so very, very successful ! It does not cir- brazen puff of certain vegetarian products advertised on culate. It livesupon subsidy. What is theuse of pre- the same page. tending otherwise?-to do so will not alter the truth. “TheSpirit of the ‘ Herald,’ ” according to Mr. For our part, we deny the name of Free Press to any W. P. Ryan, teaches that “the duty of revolt against journal that puffs its advertisers. psychic andintellectual tyrannies is even greater than the duty of revolt against wage-slavery. . . Revolton TO VANITY. theselines will beprotracted.” No longerthan, but exactly aslong as, it takesto abolish wagery ! The “Thoushould’st not comb thy hair,maid, revolt againstwagery is psychic and intellectual-its But hide it out of sight, For hair is never sweet, maid, contrast witha struggle merelyfor higherwages. Until it fades to white. Gaseous Heraldite ! Nor should you deck your body Mr. H. G. Wells explains “Why I Like the Herald.” With rings and gauds of pearl, The hypocrite pretends that he isreally too overcome by For Virtue was most vicious this command of his pen for the paper’s second birth- When she was but a girl.” day, “an honour eagerlyto be clutched.” It isan honourhe might clutch, if hechose, any day of the TO MY EYE. week. “Perishthe ‘Daily Mail,’ ” hecries. “I do not care what happens to any of them -----” Rut Mr. Wells I covered you, and heard pathetic music is only really fluent aboutwhat he dislikes in the And gliding feet; And smelt the air with many perfumes laden, “Herald.” He dislikes the talk of rebellion : “I think Surpassing sweet. the‘Daily Herald’ comes near to making Rebellion a I heard low voices sing with wondrous grace. cant.” Well, most of us think with him, but if we had I opened yon, and saw in some white mirror knocked the bottom out of an old rattling tin can, we A grinning face. shouldnot thereafteryearn to make it the honoured T. R. A. 785

THE DOCTOR. BY Miss SYLVIAGosse.

MODERN DRAWINGS-NO. 14 EDITED BY WALTER SICKERT ,1 .. I. /, 786

like a wreath of roses? I am not a Cubist ! And why Readers and Writers. the thirst of thieves?Meredith, it will notdo ! *++ To the series of Oxford reprints that I have praised so A symposium on“Reincarnation” ought to be in- often has just been added Kingsley’s “Poems, 1848-70” teresting ; but the Power Book Company that publishes (Oxford Press. IS. 6d.). I am glad enough to have it in it (2s. 6d.) and Mr. Cross, who edits it, have neither this form ; though Kingsley’s verse is none the better for S. being readseveral times. In brief, hewas no poet. tastenor sense between them. After a collection of The play “TheSaint’s Tragedy,” in proseand blank rubbishyextracts and opinions, each introduced and commented on by himself, the editor sums up in twenty verse,which takes up half this volume, is verynearly four points against the doctrine. The first of his objections- unreadable;and so is F. D. Maurice’spreface to it. tions is that “there is no proof.” Among the remaining I turn,however, to Kingsley’ssongs and lyrics,, and twenty-threeare such as these: “Itis cruel,disconcerting- here at any rate are familiar lines. “I once had a sweet certing” ; “It is unsuited to thewarm hearts of the little doll, dears” ; “When all the world is young, lad” ; West.’’ Is there no means of saving the art of printing “’The merrybrown hares came leaping” ; “Welcome, from prostitution? Wanted : a Society for the Prevention- wild North-Easter” ; “Three Fishers” ; etc., etc. Why tion of Cruelty to Compositors. are these,askI myself, so familiar toeverybody? Chiefly, I suppose, because they are taught in schools, Underthe title of “TheLittleness of Greatness” being suitable for the purpose of puerility, grammar and parsing.But how brief is theirinspiration and how (6d.), Messrs. Endacott of Melbourne publish a brochure containingthe judgments of famous menupon each mechanically are its defects filled up ! I doubt if many of my readers,after all their schooldrill, remember the other. The intention, of course,, is to flatter mediocrity next line to each of thosejust quoted. What,for in- by proving the equal intolerance of the distinguished ; stance,comes after the merry brown hares leaping? but mediocrity had better be careful. Great men belong I’msure I hadquite forgotten ; andon reading the to a clan, as Dryden said, and whilethey freely exercise- verseagain I founditdid not matter. As forthe cisecriticism among themselves they will freelycombine- Fishers, look at the mechanism of thethree stanzas bine to resent the criticism of any of their number by an outsider. What Montaigne thought of Rabelais, or respectively beginning : ThreeFishers, three wives, three corpses. The story is as naked as a cinema plot ; Rousseau of Voltaire, not even their published opinions indecently exposed, in fact. No, Kingsley was no poet. giveus any real clue. As littledo we know what *** Johnsonthought of Fielding or Carlyle of Coleridge fromknowing that Fielding was calledby Johnson a Neitheris Meredith, I regret to say-for longago I laboriously copied into my note-book (in case I should blockheadand Coleridge byCarlyle apoor, greedy, sensual creature. These expressions, strange as it may one day be cast on a desert island) some scores of pas- sagesfrom his “Reading Earth.” Many of these appear, are not only compatible with profound respect, of but, ina sense, they are evidence of it; for inthese very passages (a compliment to my boyish judgment I) phrases you hear the voice of the proper republicanism appearnow in the newshilling edition of Meredith’s of theliterary world. Contrastthis characteristically ‘‘Selected Poems” (Constable), where I have read them Englishfraternalism with the fraternalism of, say, invery cold blood. Theman has scarcelya note of French men of letters. Among Frenchmen a good deal music in him ! He is for ever torturing words to riddle of politeness is maintained at theexpense of home- with them, wresting them from their use and wont and truth.The downright is lesspreferred by them than puttingthem to mostinappropriate uses. Look at the the oblique. SomeEnglish writers have the same opening stanza of “The Thrush in February” :- habit, betraying-,however, theireccentricity ! For in- I know him,February’s thrush, stance, Meredith called Matthew Arnold “a dandy Mes And loud at eve he valentines On sprays that paw the naked bush Messiah”; Swinburne called Robert Buchanan“apolypseudonymous- Where soon will sprout thethorns and bines. donymouslyrist and libeller.” Theseare not phrases What meaning has “valentines” here to justify its use burstingimpetuously out of ,an honest, friendly and as a verb? And “paw”-what a hideous association of fraternal nature ; they are carefully fashioned poisoned ideas-sprays pawing a nakedbush ! Fancy,also, darts, not only laden with contempt for the men against thorns “sprouting” ! The whole is, indeed, a wretched whomthey are directed,but laden with contempt for and obscene jumble of absurdities, not the least of which the clan of letters. If you are going to criticise a man is the conclusion :- of letters at all, do it with due respect for his manhood : that is, hit hard and openly. Who would not rather be When lowly, with 3 brokenneck, the crocus lays her cheek to mire, called a blockhead by Johnson than a dandy Messiah by Meredith ? Turn now to the well-known Love in a Valley.” This *** poem,written, of I surmise, in the flood “Richard Believe me, it is not manly censure that wounds, but Feverel,” has a wonderful attraction for miniscule poets the effeminate tricks of the boycott and the sneer-the in their rutting season. The very rhythm is effeminately prevailingweapons of to-day. ‘These offensivelygood sexual,without strength and without humour. Instead persons (our moderns), professing to be so much more of by a young man it might have been written by an old tolerant,polite and humane than, say, Milton contra man amorous but impotently dallying. Even to read it Salmasiusor Burke contra Hastings or Swift contra is to be made maudlin. Let us laugh at it and pass on. nearly everybody, are in reality neither generous, good- “The Woods of Westermain” was once a favourite of mannerednor well-intentioned. Theirprocedure, in mine.Look at it now :- short,is that of disease-bearingmicrobes. Whatare Haggard wisdom, stately once, theirnames? Oh, I knowthem very well, and so do Leers fantastical and trips : Allegorydrums the sconce, my readers. (N.B.-This is a note of anger-it is not Impiousness nibblenips. intended to be pretty:)*** It does indeed ! Oh, let me try “Fair Ladies in Revolt” -there is surely something preserved in that. TheOxford Press has just publishedshillinga volume of “Selected English Short Stories ” edited by See the sweet women, friend, that lean beneath Messrs.Milford andWalker, with an Introduction by The ever-falling fountain of greenleaves Round the white bending stern, and like a wreath the latter. The stories are thirty in number and include Of our most blushful flower shine trembling through, examples from nineteen authors. They are certainly an To teach philosophers thethirst of thieves : excellent selection, and though they are confined to the Is one for me ? Is one for you ? nineteenthcentury their range is wide. Scott,Lamb, Not so bad to the outer ear, but try it with the mind : Hawthorne,Disraeli, Poe, Bret Harte are all repre- can a picture be formed of a group of women leaning sented.Indeed, of thethirty stories no fewer than a belowleaves round a whitestem and shining through thirdare with good reason the work of thethree 787

American writers. The introduction by Professor ismspecialises everybody ; and law requiresgreat Walker is a model of eruditionand contains as well generalising minds. Inshort, the prospect appears some ideasworth considering. Examine, for example, gloomy, and serve us right. thisweighty judgment : “The principles of theshort storyare more akin to the laws of the Greek than to For our so-callededucated classes will really get to those of theElizabethan drama.’’ Much time could thebottom of nothing but business. Mr. Adamssays usefully be spent in drawing out the meanings contained truly that our modern plutocracy thinks more of money in this.Moreover, I think the sentence is true. It does than ever aristocracy did of birth or kings of power. not follow, however, that in the examples beforeus or Occasionally, at least,and in regardto somethings, in theshort stories written since the period of this pastaristocracies and royalties set aside their distinc- volume, our writers have yet come within sight of per- tion and acted as men ; but our business men apply the fection. The perfect shortstory, in fact,has notyet measure of money always and to everything. What an beenwritten in English ; and chiefly, as I think, be- exercisefor a philosopher tobe born in thesedays ! cause our writers are as yet crudein their philosophy as No wonder, as I haveheard, that Plato and the rest the great Greekdramatists werenot. Hence comes, givethis planet awide berthfor the present ! But I believe, the sense of triviality attaching at present to there, I am starting off from my mark before the pistol short stories. Nobody regards them as great works of has been fired, for my intention in this note was to say art.Strangely enough, whilementioning thethree I havejust read the Symposium on“Property : its great treasuries of stories, the Greek, the Scandinavian Dutiesand Rights” (Macmillan. 5s. net),edited by andthe Teutonic, all of whichwere derived fromthe theBishop of Oxford, and contributed to by seven East by divers ways, Professor Walker does not refer writers, mostly Oxforddons. The word that occurred by name to the source and container of them all-the continually to my mind while reading these able essay-

“ Mahabharata. ” ists was “mealy-mouthed.” I do not, I cannot, doubt the sincerity, the ability or the seriousness of any one Mr. Pease of theFabian Society appearsto be un- of them, from Professor L. T. Hobhouse who opens to fortunate in hisreferences to THE NEW AGE. Though CanonScott-Holland who closes the discussion. At few, they are alwaysinaccurate. In hisdrastically re- the same time I put the book down tired and somewhat vised “Kirkup’sHistory of Socialism’’(Black. gs.) he depressed. Instead of clearing up a problem they have has occasion to tabulatethe journals associated with raisedmany problems, and instead of comingto any the movement.Among them he describes THE NEW plain conclusion they have merely pushed interrogative AGE as published at a penny. Theerror, however, is hornsinto a dubiousfuture. The attitude, in fact, of mitigated by my pity when I find Mr. Pease writing a thewriters generally is one of uncertainty.They pro- sentence like this : “I am convinced that historians in fess,indeed, to subjectthe institution of privatepro- the future will recognise, as indeed they are beginning perty to the test of its necessity to the “good life” ; to realisealready, that the successor to Karl Marx in butfrom this test no judgment appears to follow. At theleadership of Socialistthought belongs to Sidney no point does any writer rise to certainty or to the faith Webb.”This is a regularowl-gobbet of illiteracy. of the prophet. It is all it may be or perhaps or possibly How can “historians in the future” be able ‘to begin or may it not be; and when the dialectics is over the already to realise, etc. ? And what is it that they are practical problem remains where it was. beginning to realise-that Mr. Peaseis convinced or that they themselves in the future will recognise. . . ? For all Julian the Apostate’s apology for the myths of Is thereany subtle differencebetween “recognising Plato I confessthey are to meboth bewildering and recognising” and“realising already” ? Andwhy isthe unimpressive. I have read them many a score of times “already”attached to “realise”instead of to “begin- with Julian’s warning in my mind : “in the very things ning” ? These questions answered, tell us, Mr. Pease, whichin thesemyths are most incongruous, he drew whois the “successor to Karl Marx” who “belongs nearest the truth : for just in proportion as the enigma to” Sidney Webb-is it, perchance, Mrs. Sidney Webb? is moreparadoxical and wonderful, so doeshe warn us to distrust the appearance and to seek for the hidden The distribution of the responsibility of government meaning.” My search,however, is invain. Now this over the whole population has not yet made the serious is not the case with the classical mythology which, un- study of statesmanship popular. Emphatically we have like Mr. Solomon Eagle (“New Statesman”), who has notmade up in breadthwhat we havelost in depth. tickled the “Daily Express” with his smarts hits at it, In Swift’s day he could count on two thousand readers, I find a perpetual source of intelligence; still less is it so he calculated. In our own, with ten times the popu- the case with the “Mahabharata.” The stories may be lation, he could count on no more. It is even worse in andare rationallyunintelligible-or, rather, Ishould America, where, Mr. Brooks Adams tells us, if Hamil- say,they cannot be syllogisedby human logic. But ton’s “Federalist” were again to appear, not more than theynever give one the feeling that they are without a dozen or so peoplewould wade through it. ‘The rhyme or reason. On the contrary, one feels (at least, I “Federalist,” I own, is a little tedious; but, good Lord, feel) thatthere in them,but for my stupidity,goes a it is nothing to the tediousness of the stuff Americans high piece of knowledge. I look forward, in short, to readnowadays. I hadcertainly rather have the understanding them one of these days., never doubting “Federalist” alone than the whole caboodle of modern that they are to beunderstood. Plato’s myths, on the American literature. . . However,this note was to otherhand, strike me as really being beyondunder- call attention to Mr. Brooks Adams’ “Theory of Social standing.It is pretended, I know, thathe was aware Revolutions” (Macmillan. 5s. 6d.). His theory is a little of the danger of divulging mysteries and dealt only in too pat to my liking ;I had rather see it illustrated again hints; but had he, I wonder, any more than hints him- before I accept it; but in his demonstration Mr. Adams self? After all, the “hidden meanings’’ of things must remarkssome noteworthy features of capitalism. be under our noses and so obvious that only their plain- Moderncapitalism, he says,has developed so much ness conceals them from us : the Universe, I mean, is more rapidly than social intelligence that practically all laid out for our minds-what, then, is the need of mere its main functions arebeyond the cognisanceof the law. men to conceal whatthey know? That is it ! Plato, Inlaw there is noprinciple formulated youngerthan for allhis genius, is a man, a human; but the myth- Justinian;and hence law’scontrol of capitalismis no makers of Greekand Indian classic mythologywere more than that of a catapult over a maxim gun. But all notmen, but what we are pleased to calla race. All revolutions, our author says, have arisen from just this this,once more, is to introduce the title of a book : disharmony of lawand socialdevelopment. Hence “Myths and Parables from Plato” ; adapted by Laura unless society can recover ground quickly, the present Stubbs(Moring. 2s. 6d.). Inmentioning its title, I divorcebetween capitalism andlaw will soonbring have said more than deserves to be said of it ! about a catastrophe.Unfortunately, however, capital- R. H. C. 788

self : “I love him ?” So murmuring, she throws herself Phaedra. upon the knees of Proserpina, believing there to be the lap of her well-known nurse. And the goddess, looking By Beatrice Hastings. upward,beholds triumphant Aphrodite staying in her APHRODITE, eager in acts to afflict the children of the bird-drawnchariot, and close by, Destiny. Then Proserpina Sun, resolves to confuse once more the house of Minos. Proserpina, making Sleep to comeupon the princess, re- Theseus is in Crete,free, a victorover the Mino- sumesher owndivine form and withdraws,mourning taur. This conquest has not been achieved by his arms the crime of Apollo. alone. With aweapon stolen from royal Minos, the SoonPhaedra awakens,and she believes all this to princessAriadne has equipped theAthenian hero for have been a dream.She is afraid, and hastens home- combat with the man-devouring bull. And his life, thus ward; but what was fearful in the dream fades out of given by herpity andcourageous love, Theseushas mind. Sheremembers only thekiss of Theseusand, secretly pledged to her with his heritage of Athens. constantlyrecalling this, assures herself that it \\-as The sullen Queen of Love will accept no happy service real. Sheknows it to have been nodream when she from the maidendescended from Apollo. Ariadne will passes Theseus in the feast-hall and the Athenian, from know only thepains of love, forthe goddess comes the very shadow of King Minos, displays that boldness down to turn the desire of Theseus from Ariadne to her which had deserted himin presence of theforlorn old sister Phaedra-she, too, of joylessdestiny. nurse.Aphrodite bewilders the minds of all so that Apollo himself,beholder of allthings celestial and none see themeaning of Theseus, nonechallenge the mortal, yet doubts which is the goddess and which the conduct which exceedswhat distinguishes strangers ; maiden when Aphroditeleads the fated daughter of he is giventhe liberty of a heroamong hemes. And Pasiphae upon theCretan hillside. Forthe Queen of perhaps Minos would not be displeased if his daughter Love has cast a veil about her awful glory : and Phaedra were to beasked for by Athens-but Theseusmight is arrayed by the hands of the goddess. As lovely as an not ask for Phaedra. Immortal, the maidenseems a part of the spring-tide, Between this and themorrow, Phaedra continually or noother than Spring herself.Bees settled upon seeks her nurse. “I am unhappy!”she says a hundred those robes wrought by Aphrodite-you would believe times, but her eyes look happy. there bloomed living rose and violet. “Thoushalt come and see the Spring and gather The purpose of the goddess brings Theseus hunting budsfor the altar of blessed Proserpina.”Thus the in this place. Then,rising upon theshining air, she dame. They go out along the blossoming alleyswhere flies upward,mocking Apollo andembittering as she Minos’queen, melancholy Pasiphaewanders, ever be- may that quarrel which torments the peace of heaven. wailingthe hatred of pitiless Aphrodite. For Pasiphae “I revenge my shame on thy children, O son of Leta ! had been the mother of the man-devouring bull. Bring now the mirthful gods to beholdthine own de- “Thy mother mourneth for her descent from the Sun- scendant fast in thenet of love as aforetimeIlay god. ” chained with the amorous god of war when thou assembledst “And I also am descended from the Sun-god,” says assembledst the celestials and came laughing by.” Phaedra. Buthe, sorrowing,relinquishes not thereins of his The damesays, “Aphrodite pursueth all hisrace steeds. since he showed her to the Immortals, chained upon the Wherethe divine-clad Phaedra plucksflowers upon bed of Ares. But these matters are not for maids. See the hillside, Theseusstays. She, encountering the re- here are flowers, ! Pluck thou any-but not the myrtle gard of the hero, drops her flowers. leaf, or apple, or rose,for these are of theQueen of But now sounds the voice of Ariadne,calling. They Love and we pray her to forget‘us.” stand ‘a moment unable to leave gazing at one another ; Yet Phaedra plucks only myrtle and apple and rose. thenthey look alongall ways. No oneapproaches. Now the old woman weeps, bursting into reproaches, Ariadne is notthere, indeed. It is Apollo whohas and she seizes the leaves and looks about for some place sentthe Voice, a warning of noavail, for watchful wherein to hidethem. Phaedra,with strength,takes Aphrodite creates a spirit out of her laughter, and this back the leaves and clasps them, bending her head in takes the hands of the lovers and draws them together. amongthem, and, maddened by theirperfume, cries Yet, in Athens, long years after, anguished Phaedra out her love with confused words ; and the nurse under- shall believe shehears Ariadne calling. stands that the princess is in pain to be with Theseus. That is accomplished now which binds two who shall Trembling, she hurries Phaedra to the furthest part of henceforthseek only the oblivion of full love. They thegardens, and there hearing all, is madefaithless kiss, even so soon, self-abandoned. by terror of the goddess. Oncemore Apollo obstructsthem. Proserpina is “The gods be served !” she says, drying her old eyes. upon thesehills, she the friend of the Sun whoyearly “And behold, coming here, sent by heaven, the Athenian salutes her return from Dis to the bright world. Apollo hero ! Who am I to draw upon myself the spite of holy asks her aid ; and she, taking a mortal form, appears powers? I will go prayAphrodite to relent towards like the nurse of Phaedra. thee, child, and favour thy love. Behold Theseus whom Thehero curses the old woman,inopportune, and the goddess commands, and not I !” bids her depart : but Phaedra, notyet loosed from the Phaedra neitherhears her, nor sees her depart.She custom of maids, turns in obedience, breaking the tem- standswith Theseus. He is speaking. He is bidding per of impetuousTheseus. He consolesthe trembling her go withhim to Athens. No kisshas beengiven. dame, and passing between her and his love, hides with They forget to kiss, or they think they have kissed, or his shoulders the farewell gesture of their hands and the the watchful goddess forbids what may keep them lin- look in their eyes. gering in aplace unsafe. But all is said : and Phaedra Proserpina,feigning a pausefor breath, sits down will go aboard the vessel at the flood of midnight. upon the- young grass which she herself, as the Spring, It is midnight.She is aboard.The sails are set. has lately caused to sprout. Thrusting back her dame’s Theyare away. Once again, Phaedra hearsAriadne veil fromher forehead made wrinkled, she stares at calling. And it is Ariadne,she there, betrothed to Phaedra, speakingwith meaning and chidingly : “O Theseus. princess, of happy eyes, what doest thou so far from the “Thou ?” sayseach sister to the other-“Thou palace, and thy sister who seeks thee?” here?” Ariadnerejoices; but Phaedra sinks upon the Phaedrareplies : “One led mehere whovanished deck of the ship. When she is uplifted, she is upon the away. I scarceremember her. I cannot tell thee who arms of Theseus, and they are his eyes which reassure shewas.” her returning senses. “Thegods delude thee, Phaedra. Aphroditehath Now thevengeful goddess, bent upon destroying, bewitched thee with a man false to his love.” makes Theseus likea god for strength and beauty before Then Phaedra, plucking at the grass, whispers to her- the gaze of Phaedra. Shelistens while he speaks, and 789 listening soon breathessweetly She takeshis hands of the children of the poor; it was in 1740 that famine andworships them, she touches his head,and never fell upon theland and killed 400,000 of the people. ceasing to look at him, assents. “Thisfamine,” says Mr.Connolly, “like all modern “Whatcan I say, Phaedra? It is thee I love. Say famine, was solely attributable to economic causes; the thou lovest me. Do notreproach me, thustrembling. poor of all religions and politics were equally sufferers ; Thou art safe. the rich of allreligions and politics were equally “What judgment artthou making? What sentence exempt.”Following on the famine came a period of art thou passing upon me ? It was not thee I deceived, economic-development. Disease having attacked cattle Phaedra ! in England,Irish cattle and dairy produce were ad- “Thy breathcomes with mine. I feel theeall mine. mitted at the English ports ; with the consequence that ‘‘Thou shalt judge. Thou shaltsentence me. Tell the price obtainedfor these provisions made tillage me what Ishall do.” farming comparatively unprofitable in Ireland. The Iand- Phaedra cries, “Thou art Theseus ! Thou art Theseus ! lordsturned their attention from tillage to grazing ; I judge thee not.” theyevicted theirtenants, broke up small farms,and He bears her away, along the dark ship that sways seized villagecommons and pasture lands. Secret upon the flood, gleaming where the cloudy moon drops organisations, of which themost famous was the herlight. And smilingAphrodite guides her now who Whiteboys,began the usual series of agrarian out- was a maiden. But Sleep watches‘beside the weary rages, as they are called by the governing classes ; with Ariadne of unvengeful heart. theusual consequences. Economics certainly unite, for both the wealthy Protestants and Catholics offered sub- stantial monetary rewards for the capture of the White- boy chiefs. An EnglishGovernor, Lord Chesterfield, Views and Reviews.* said that if themilitary had killed half as manyland- WHEN Marx invented the economicinterpretation of lords as they had Whiteboys, they would have restored history,he forged a weapon which, skillfully used,can quiet more effectually ; but Flood, the great Protestant destroymost historical reputations, and reducemost “patriot,” denounced theGovernment for its “cle- historicalheroes tothe extremity of ignobleCassio mency.”Patriotism may be thelast refuge of the crying, “O,I havelost my reputation ! I have lost scoundrel ; it is undoubtedly the firstdefence ofthe the immortal part, sir, of myself,and what remains is landlord. bestial !” A manmay hold thehistorical stage for ButI cannot linger over the loss of thereputations generations, be doweredwith thedescriptions of semi- of the various “patriots” ; as with Flood, so with Grat- divinity, honoured as a hero, worshipped as a saint, put tan, so withO‘Connell, so withSmith O’Brien. One beyondcriticism as “a national institution,” and come and all of them fought not for Ireland against- England, atlast to the condemnation of a stage-player of the but forlandlordism and capitalismagainst the spirit. The economic interpretation of history,with its peasantry. Grattan denounced and betrayed the Volun- closerscrutiny of essentialfacts, makes hero-worship teers? who had made his fortune ; O’Connell denounced difficult, perhaps impossible; for, as I have said before thetyranny of thetrade unions, and, like our won inthese columns, history is not really a soundaristo- Cobden,resisted the ‘regulation of childlabour in fac- crat, historyisthe economicman. Certainly, Mr. tories.Smith O’Brien broke up ‘‘a peaceful organisa- Connolly, in thischeap reprint of aseries of articles, tion in the cause of war, promised war to a people in makes it clear that the real history and tragedy of Ire- desperatestrait, went into the country to wage war, land have not been solely due to the oppression of the thenconsidered it guilt to do anyact of war.”The Irish by theEnglish, of the Catholics by thePro- economic motives of these “patriots” are duly detailed testants ; the history and tragedy of Ireland have been by Mr. Connolly. Sideby side with his denunciation of thetype familiar to all students of history,the of these menis a statement of the economiccondition oppression by the rich of the poor. Previously to 1649, of thepeople; indeed, Mr. Connolly hasdemonstrated the risings of the Irish against English rule were really beyonddoubt thedebating value of Marx’s invention. war against a system of private property in land, and Butthe book needs a sequel. It is true that Mr. Con- weretherefore national in character.England cer- nolly says that “this book does not aspire to be a his- tainly broke up the clan system at that date, and forced tory of labour in Ireland ; it is rather a record of labour upon Irelandthe capitalist-landlord system thathas in Irishhistory.” But even a history of labour in Ire- made England what she is ; but Mr. Connolly, perhaps land, interesting as it would be, is not the most neces- with too much deference to the inevitability of economic sarywork atthe moment ; what is needed issome processes, remarks that “communal ownership of land survey and estimate of the economic forces nom at work would,undoubtedly, havegiven way tothe privately in Ireland,some prophecy of theprobable results of owned system of capitalist-landlordism, even if Ireland their working, some statement of an ideal towards the had remained an independent country. ” realisation of which men may direct their efforts. Ireland, then, was forced into the course of economic HereI find Mr.Connolly unsatisfactory. It istrue development in 1649; “the dispersion of theclans,” that “Capitalism is now the enemy, it reaches across the says Mr. Connolly, “put an end to the leadership of the ocean ; andafter the Irish agriculturist has gathered chiefs, and, in consequence,theIrish aristocracy hisharvest and brought it to market he finds that a being all of foreign ortraitor origin, Irishpatriotic competitorliving three thousand miles away under a movements fell entirely intothe hands of the middle- friendly flag hasundersold and beggared him.” But class,and became, for the most part, simply idealised what is thededuction to be drawn from this fact? Is expressions of middle-class interest. ” The Consequence theIrish labour movementsimply towaste its breath wascertainly inevitable; whether the patriotic move- denouncingan international capitalism? If not,to the ments were successful or unsuccessful, the condition of exercise of what method is it todevote its energies? the people did not improve. Indeed,the history of the Ireland is, in many ways, more favourably situated than eighteenthcentury is as horrible as the history of the any other countryfor the solution of the economic riddle nineteenth ; andalthough the legislative Union seems of our time ; she produced in William Thompson a pre- to divide thetwo periods, really it only serves to em- decessor of Karl Marx ; she experimented with remark,- emphasise the fact on which Mr. Connolly insists, that the able success in Owen’s co-operative communism ; now miseries of Ireland were due to the inhuman economic she practically has the land in her own hands, and the system that the Irish abusively call “the Englishpoli- power of self-government. What will she do to make tical economy.” Itwas in 1729 thatSwift wrote his English political economy obsolete in Ireland ? “Modest Proposal’’ for feeding the rich with the bodies Mr.Connolly certainly hintsthat the recent Land * “ Labour in Irish History.” By .James Connolly, Acts areconverting Ireland into a country“shaping (Maunsel. IS. net.) itself after capitalisticlaws of trade.”But to what 790 extent will this be modified by the action of co-operation with brooches of gold and with earrings and armlets.” among the farmers; and if co-operation will only make Hereis a sample of Mr.Kirtland’s style. Beowulf a close corporation of profiteeringfarmers, in what is fighting under the sea with one of the man-devouring manner will or should the working class combine to pro- demons : “ Then she made a grab at him andclosed tecttheir interests? Mr. Connolly tantalisesme with on the warrior withdire embrace. Rut not at firstdid the statement “that Trades Guilds existed in Ireland as shescathe his body safeand sound.” This following upon theContinent and in England,during Roman is better, but Mr. Kirtlandis seldom so comparatively Catholic, pre-Reformation days ;that after the Reforma- dignified-“ Nor in these dwellings did the Lord of the tion those Trade Guilds became exclusiveIy Protestant, Geatstake any other treasure, though much he saw and even anti-Catholic,within theEnglish Pale ; that there,except the head andthe hiltdecked out with they continued torefuse admission to Catholicseven jewels. ” after the passage of the Catholic Emancipation Act, and that these old Trade Guilds were formally abolished by Darts of Defiance. By Maximilian Mugge (Lyn- law in 1840.” But what was the nature of those Guilds, wood. 2s. 6d.) whethertheir constitution had any features worthy of He abuses his mistress who “ struck the spark divine revival to-day, whether the tradeunions of Ireland could out of the flint,” and then left him-presumably to let or should convert themselves intoGuilds modelled to any him besome sort of a fireon his own account. He extenton the old ones, arethe very thingsthat Mr. ungratefullycalls her the murderess of hissoul. He Connolly doesnot tell us. It mayseem ungracious abuses sleep thatwastes his precious time, but later to insiston what Mr. Connolly has not done, forhis welcomes it for restoring to him sweet Fancy’s dreams. book does provide excellent reading, and is an effective He addresses his “ Eugenic Partner,” who appears to destruction of the political myths of Irish history ; but have accepted a father with a slain soul for her progeny. history in the making has even more interest than his- It must be terrible, this eugenic pairing ! tory that is made, and I can only hope that the ‘‘more Two wanderers almost blinded with the rain, propitious moment”of which Mr. Connolly speaks as The fierceness of the storm, my love and I, Being necessary to his further labours upon this subject We fightand struggle on without a sigh, may come quickly. A. E. R. Well knowing most endeavours are in vain. Over ridges, rocks, abysses with “dauntless courage,” they go to bag the Superman. REVIEWS. We have to go, my love, but why this tear ? No one yet knows; let us belienve instead! In Quest of Love. Ry E.E. Bradford, D.D. (Kegan Where we but guess, our children may see clear. Paul. 4s. 6d.) It must have been his brains that were murdered by that How the world wags ! Fifteen years ago, or less, Dr. mistress. Bradford would probably have found himself hunted out of England for publishing this volume-that is, if any Wind in the Wold. By AlexanderSteven. (Goschen. pubIisher might anywhere have been induced to risk his 2s. 6d.) business on it. Dr. Bradford celebrates the “heavenly” Verypretty and skilful verse,mostly descriptive of lovebetween men and boys. The vocabularyis exces- the author’s glimpses of nature, but one or two of the sive, and very little of the verse is poetical, while much pieces show spiritual strength and purity of understand- is doggerel, though often picturesque doggerel. ing.Onesentimental absurdity about anthropo- morphousroses mars areasonable and on the whole The Story of Beowulf. Translated by E. B. Kirtland. gay-spirited volume. (Kelly. 3s. 6d.) The faults of this translator are almost too many for Dislikes. By Charles Masefield. (Fifield. IS.) mention. TheEnglish is ponderous and stickywith Clever satire on many subjects, and very well worth compounds and epithets. From grandiosity to slovenly buying. jingle, nothing that should be avoided is missing. The introductionis sentimental-“in the forest of pain we The Tale of Florentius. By A. G. Shirreff. (Black- discover the most subtle perfumes.” Heine knew better well. IS. @.) with his “smell of warm towels.” A satireon women’smanly aspirations.The slight The base of the story of Beowulf, like every other in matter is not supportedby the form of Spencer’s stanza. mortal memory, is to be found in the “Mahabharata.” The rest of the original pieces are intentionally doggerel, Inthe “Beowulf,” demons that continually came by “ PeterPiper “ beingperhaps the most amusing. night,mangled, slew, and devouredthe warriors, and Some renderings from foreign poets conclude a volume thereafterplunged into a cave of treasuresunder the altogether too miscellaneous for its size. sea.Compare with theVana Parva, Section C I. “TheDanavas, having resolved to destroythe uni- Phelim the Blind. Ry Anna Pike.(Headley. IS.) verse,became glad. And thenceforth they madethe What on earth is a “modest shell upon the shore?” ocean, with billows ashigh as hills, theirfort from MissPike’s ballads will scarcelybecome thetreasure which to maketheir sallies. . . And duringthe dark- of the minstrels. All the pieces, except a little reflective ness of the night they devoured the ascetic Munis found verse here and there, have the stamp of the made, not in woody retreats . . . and they began to do all this by born. night, while they entered the depths of the sea by day Sonnets from the Patagonian. By Donald Evans.. . . . yetmen failed to track them. And every morning (Claire Marie. New York 2s. &I.) people sawthe dead bodies of Munis lyingupon the Forgetting her mauve vows the Fania fled ground, and many of those bodieswere without flesh Taking away her moonlight scarves with her. and without blood, without marrow or entrails and with America has caught it. The young man is a terrible limbs separated from one another. And here and there decadent and cynic, leads a fearful life inhis mind. lay on the ground heaps of bones like masses of conch Belongs to the Baptists. shells. And, O King, whenmen beganto perish in thisway, the survivors, afflicted withterror, fled to Odd Numbers. By Robert Calignos. (Bell. 2s. 63.) cavernsand behind mountains. And some whowere Satire, some of it serious enough, and serious pieces brave and mighty bowmen cheerfully went out to track always a little satirical. theDanavas, but these had gone down beneath the sea. “ For Australia. By Henry Lawson (Standard Com- It was one who had previously assumed the form of pany. Melbourne. 3s. 6d.) a boar (Beowulf’s device) who finally broughtabout Patrioticverse occasionally startling in its sincere thedislodgment and slaughter of theDanavas. And horror of theJaps. We are opposed absolutelyto when the demons were taken they were found “ decked miscegenation,but the Japsare not every one of ’em 791 murderouslepers ! God mayjudge whether white or of his work, he will quite cheerfully, if left to himself, black isspiritually most ruinous to the other. On the make the most heart-rending blunders, put your capitals mortalface of thingsthe white has nothing much in upside down on your columns, and do every imaginable hisfavour. Mr. Lawson’s “ TheFederal City ” is a trick to spoil your cherished design, unless you are care- goodpiece of work in parts.But if Australiais the fully watching him and insisting upon his undoing his den of stupidity and frivolity he paints it in “ To Be mistakes and setting them right.” This passage renders Amused,” “The Federal City” will not be of much more futileany appeal to the English to introduce reforms, avail than Sydney, ‘‘ vain and bad and gambling mad. ” for reforms by the English mean the continuance of the Vulgar ! allnations vulgar together-even the Japs. English in Egypt,as Lord Dufferin said,and the Not a gentlemanly conqueror left in the world.Dieu ! Nationalism thatappeals for reform and freedom is c’est le temps. Amusez-vous avec un deluge ! simply trying to reconcileirreconcilable things.That The Comic Kingdom. By Rudolf Pickthall. (Lane. economic power precedes political power is at last being 3s. 6d. net.) learnt by the Nationalists ; and Mr. Symons tells us that some of the members of the Nationalist party “are turn- In spite of the publisher’s announcement, we cannot ing their attention to the social condition of the people, regard Mr. Pickthall as “ a bornhumorist.” studying the needs of the peasant population, starting Napoleon’sresidence in Elbacertainly does provide co-operative societies and trade unions, leaving theories matter for comedy, or, at least, for comic opera; and of self-governmentfor the time being in the back- when Mr. Pickthall is dealing with the details of that ground.” There, at least, is a glimmer of hope; and if temporary kingship, or with the authenticity of the re- the Nationalists discover that Liberty, Equality, Frater- puted relics of it,he does so with the facility of the nity, or Deathhave hitherto been synonymouswith comedian. But “Orestes” is a bore ; Mark Twain failed Kent,Interest, Profits, and Wages they may beable to get any comedy from his encounter with the Italian to direct the development of Egypt towards civilisation guide to the works of Michelangelo, and Mr. Pickthall -for Egypt has sufferedmany things at the hands of is no more successfulwith hisguide to the relics of the financiers. Napoleonin Elba. “Orestes”be damned ; likewise The Real Mexico. By HamiltonFyfe. (Heinemann. Cecilia, Mr. Archibald, and the Harrisons. In damning 6s. net.) them we damnquite half the book; whichwould not The real Mexico is, of course, what Mr. Hamilton Fyfe have been possible hadMr. Pickthall been “ a born sawduring his trip to the country last autumn. The humorist.”However, the rest of the book canbe publisher tells us that Mr. Fyfe has given “a lucid ex- read ; it is history made easy and meaningless ; and the planation of the causes which have led up to the present photographs afford relief from the boredomcaused by deplorablecondition.” Our impression,after reading the flirtationbetween Ireneand Mr.Archibald, the the book, is that the sole cause of the present condition stock exclamations of Colonel Harrison, (‘Orestes” with was the provision of an excuse for Mr. Fyfe’s visit to his “cabmen, gardeners, and barbers,” and even by Mr. the country. Mexico travailed until Mr. Fyfe was borne Pickthallmeditating on anythingbut Napoleon. The into the country; but it is all right now that he has been comedy of Napoleon in Elba is due to the fact that his there.Oil hasnothing to do with it; be assured of residence therewas only an interlude;had he died that ; Mr. Fyfe asked the managers of the rival com- there, the Napoleonic legend would have centred about panies. “Mexican rails” will some day be a very good Elba instead of St. Helena, and “The Comic Kingdom” investment; Mr. Fyfehas travelled on them, and he could never have beenwritten. Thecreation of knows.Education, too, is not as efficient as itmight ‘(Orestes”obscures this fact without compensating be ; andthe newspapers “miss altogether that educa- for it. tional influence which makes the Press valuable.” They The Riddle of Egypt. By M Travers Symons. (Pal- are not like the “Daily Mail,” which provides wisdom mer. 3s. 6d. net.) while you wait.. And the language ; oh, the language ! Mrs. Travers Symons has prepared a very convenient “He [the Mexican] refuses to roll the double ‘1. ’ [This outline history of Egypt, which should be useful to the is rank mutiny.] Insteadof ‘Cabahlyo’ for ‘caballo’ general reader who is interestedin politics. The author’s (horse),he says ‘cah-by-yoh.’ ” There’s a race of biasunmistakablyis Nationalist, and, of course, people for you ! In battle, too, these ferocious villains feminist;and his work, therefore, suffers from very do not even take aim with their rifles, do not even raise obviousdefects. The naif assumptionthat it is Eng- their rifles totheir shoulders. Oh, the war is frightful land’sbusiness totrot around the world distributing in Mexico; even Mr. Fyfe has been under fire, and did Parliamentarygovernments to oppressednationalities not know it. But the wisdom of the man surpasses be- is made by thisauthor no less than by thenative lief, but does not surpass quotation. “Everyone knows Nationalist writers ; with the consequence that his work howmuch theCanadian Pacific Railwaydid for the really does not rise above the level of an expose of the Dominion. [Don’ttranspose “for” to follow disparitybetween England’s intentions towards and “Dominion.”]It is quite likely thatthe railways of performancesin Egypt. We certainlyblundered into Mexico may do as much for her. Here is a land which Egypt in the interests of High and Holy Finance; and could support sixty instead of sixteenmillions of people. we seem to have developed the habit of remaining there, Hereare po,& square miles [according to “Whit- but whetherfor good or for evil only God andthe aker ’) it is 769,000 square miles] ready to bring forth bankers and bondholders know. That the sting has been their increase as soon as they are tilled. The best hope taken out of NationalismMr. Symons himself reveals, of improving the peon is by giving him an example of for he says that “the older Nationalism was largely the industryand energy and common sense. The railways product of Islam ; the modern Nationalism is the pro- can help todo this by bringing in settlers of more duct of engraftedEuropean intellectualism” ; andthe vigorous blood.” Likethe “Daily Mail”staff, for in- fact that the Party died in 1912means that the merely stance? Mr. Fyfe, too, is something of an ethnographer political agitation has failed. The whole movement was and ethnologist ; he writes a chapter on “The Character on the wrong lines ;indeed, it was really anti-National- of the Mexican,” and says : “But clearly the Mexicans ism, for it demanded representative institutions on the are ‘Asiatic’in the sense that they and the peoples of model of theEnglish ones. In aprevious chapter Mr. Asia had commonancestry.” All humanbeings are Symonshas, by theuse of ananalogy, proved the monkeys, in thissense. “When I saw theTwenty- futility of such an imitation of English methods ; “any- Ninth Regiment, the most trusted of all, on parade in one who isacquainted with Egypt,” hesays, “knows Mexico City, I cried out-and a British officer who was that the Egyptian masons can put up an Egyptian house withme felt at the same instant the same impulse of which will perhaps completelysatisfy itsowner. But speech-‘ They might be Japanese.’ ” They were not ; give the Egyptian builder the plans of a house drawn up butwhat would these “two mindswith but a single by an English architect, and though, to prevent a mis- thought” have said if they had seen the Thirtieth Regi- take, you supply him with full-size details of every part ment ? Ah ! who knows? 792

sitting behind a table loaded with catalogues Art. and asked for information He gave me longa and detailed account of thepainter of these Rue Lafitte, the Boulevard, and Elsewhere. wonderful pictures, and thensuddenly interrupt- By Anthony M. Ludovici. ing himself,saidhewith an air of connois- I DO notthink I have ever before seen Paris looking seurship, “mais est-ce-que Monsieur nerepresents pas more beautiful, or more thoroughly enjoyed walking in un journal?”Delighted, I exclaimed that I did,and I her streets and mixing with her people. X certain very wrote down the title THENEW AGE. He glanced at the definite attitude of mindis necessary if a man would name, gave no sign of uunderstanding, but in a manner feel happy in a thick crowd rubbing shoulders with total denotingperfect confidence handed me a delightful strangers, overhearing their chatter, and enduring with little illustrated catalogue, for which, had he not taken them not only the heat, the dust and the constant jars, my word, I shouId have had to pay. Then I knew that but also the incessant and ear-splitting roarof the traffic Ihe painter of theseManet pictures was thatpathetic beyond thekerb. ‘This attitude of mind theParisian worshipperand pupil of themaster’s, Eva Gonzales. possesses in an eminentdegree ; it is an attitude dis- In 1879 this gifted young ladybecame the wife of M. distinctly human, positive, generous and patient, sustained Henri Guerard and for four years the two lovers lived in him by a deep,almost instinctive feeling, that his happily together.Late in April, 1883,to M. Guerard’s familyextends beyondhis remotest cousins, and that great joy, hisyoung wife presented him witha child, all of us who jostle him on the boulevard are his fellow- but almost immediately afterwards, to the consternation creatures.Iwonder if thisattitude of mind and its of all concerned, Manet died,and the rumour of his effects arc as apparent to all visitors as they were to me. death was unfortunately and unwisely allowed to pene- At all events, I readily confess thatthis was thefirst trateinto Madame Guerard’s sick-room. The news occasion on which I could honestly boast that I too had was a terrible shock to her. ‘The whole morning of the been possessed of thissame attitude of mind. I paced dayon which Manet was buried,his devoted disciple theboulevards without a sign of impatience or irrita- sat up in her bed makingcrowns and bouquets of tion, I strolled about the wonderful ‘Terrace de Meudon flowers for his grave, and during the night of May 5, on the afternoon sf Easter Day, amid a throng of ex- after giving vent to a loud groan and crying for water, cursionists, children and perambulators,and felt ex- she died in herdesperate husband’s arms. She had tremely happy. beenable to surviveher greatmaster’s death only a One of the first galleries I visited was Georges Bern- fewdays. A portrait of her by Manethangs on the Bernheim’s in theRue Lafitte.saidI that I camefrom walls of the DublinArt Gallery. THE NEWAGE, and I was treated with the utmost defer- To turn from this story to the pictures on the walls ence ; indeed, the scholarly young man who received me was to proceed from the statement of a fact to its prac- turned the gallery almost upside down on my account. ticaldemonstration. We all knowthe extraordinary Iwas there a long time. I had expected to see a quan- receptive and imitative capacity of women-particularly quantity ofmodern work, but in this I was mistaken. As where they love and where they admire ; but this exhibi- the young man explained, I must have been thinking of tion of Eva Gonzales’ paintings far exceeds anything I Bernheim-Jeune. Instead of seeing Van Goghs,then, haveever seen of thisnature. It was in every way ;I :x even the pictures of Henri Matisse I saw the work wonderfulexperience. And whereManet’s excellent of those who constituted Van Gogh’s educators-people exampleand method were so well understoodthat it like Th. Rousseau, Corot,Diaz, Cezanne and even was possible for the artist to divulge a little of her own Renoir.Georges Bernheim is notover fond of the personaltaste and superior love of colour, as in the modern school, and his collection of the masters of the pastels,for instance, a degree of artisticbeauty is nineteenth century is so excellent and valuable that he attained which is enchanting.I would refermore par- can well contenthimself with ignoringtheir supposed ticularly to “A la fenetre ” (So.25), “Dans le Jardin” epigones. He informed me that it is foreigners mho are (No. 27), “Le BouquetViolettes”de (No. so), chiefly responsible for the sale of the latter’s works in “Poires” (No. 31), and “Tete” (No. 32). Paris. In any case it was to me an interesting experi- Verysoon Bernheim-Jeune’s interesting and erudite ence to examine one of the large Corots-at least sixty manager, M. Feneonappeared on the scene,and he inches by fort:-eight inches-painted in 1838,during the struck a true note whenhe said in confidence to me : artist’sstay in Italy. I supposethat the reason why “We have had our Manet-how can we need this repeti- the Corots of this period are so full of rich colour and tionof him, however excellent?” This was obvious variety of tone is not merely the influence of Italy, but enough.Still I cannot helpfeeling that I should be also the influence of youth in the painter’s eye. A grey proud to possess one of these pictures, particularly one Corot would seemlike a blackand white beside this of the pastels. picture. All those who have painted out of doors on a But M. Feneon is a finer talker than he is a connois- ’brilliant ‘summer’sday know how jaded their optic seur-at least,that is my private opinion. For what nerves are by five o’clock in the afternoon. Everything would you think of a man who said to you that no man looks black and white, all colour seems to have vanished over forty has any rightto judge the Futurists’ pictures? from the landscape. I wonder whether a similar pheno- “C’est un phenomene impressionant,” he declared, “que menon does not characterise the evening of lifeitself. tant de jeunes gens entrant en carriere, se devouent ;I After a longsunny youth, does not the eye perhaps cette nouvelle ecole, et un homme de mon age (he is at cease to discern the variegated colourings which were least fifty) aurait tort de s’aventurer dans une critiqute ‘its delight in former years? But to call such monotone partrop hostile A cesouvrages incomprehensibles !” vision a harmonising vision mould surely be an error. He showedme about half adozen Matisses, all very My next call waspaid to Bernheim-Jeune on the large,and he mentioned an extraordinary price, when Boulevard de la Madeleine andthe Rue Richepance. I asked him what he intended asking for them. Nor did In the window I saw a group of Henri Matisse’s work, heseem to doubtfor an instant that he would get it. but onentering from the boulevard I had a strange “Matisseis the most successful youngpainter of the surprise. The roomsseemed to ,be hung entirelywith day,” he said. “But it is difficult to acquire his works. Manets. And what was stillmore curious-Manets He is a slow, conscientious worker, who absolutely re- thathad neverbeen seen orheard of. It was as if I fuses to hurry or to paint an uninspired work. And yet had taken a drug at the door and had been bewitched. I he has every reason to sell, for he is married and has a admitthat I veryquickly beganto doubt that Manet family. ” I asked how old he was, and whether he was was the author of the whole exhibition, but I defy any- strong and healthy. I was informed that he was forty, one to look at the picture “La Noge” (No. I) and not andthat he was robust. I-Ie said a greatdeal more, exclaim that here is a Manet he has never before seen, butI must leave it over, as I must also postpone my andthe same applies to thepicture “Indolence” (No. account of the Independants, the Salon des Beaux Arts 2). Iturned in despairto an intelligent-looking lad and Bourdelle. 793

theland of-what shall I call it?--of cuckoldry-the Drama. Utopiaof gallantry, where pleasure is duty, and the By John Francis Hope. manners perfect freedom,” is not an effective reply to Collier; it is a repetition in other words of his charges. is one supreme advantage in reading history-if THERE Strive as one may, one cannot resist the conclusion that it is written by a literary man ; one renews acquaintance the Puritan genius has triumphed; he has forced upon with so many of the great personages of literature. The subjects of this history, *Etherege, Wycherley, Congreve, theartist the alternatives of beingimmoral or hypo- critical.Lamb’s excuse that,otherwhere than in the Vanbrugh,and Farquhar, are themselves good com- cloud cuckold-land of the comedy of manners, he was a pany to those who still appreciate good English speech law-abiding citizen, is perhaps the most fatuous defence andFrench manners; but the reputed nature of their workhas attracted the praise or censure of so many of all against the Puritan onslaught. otherwriters of equalreputation (perhaps of equal Nor is Mr. Palmer’s argument that the plays are re- merit), that ahistory and defence of the comedy of presentations of themanners of the period anymore manners,the so-called Restorationdrama, has all the effective, for Collier presumably objected as much to the interest of a symposium. None of them seems to have manners of the period as he did to the representations had any ideas concerning drama, which makes them still of them. Mr. Palmer himself tells us that, following on more interesting; such was their childlike simplicity that Collier’s denunciation of the comedy of manners, “Lon- the controversyconcerning the works of these five don was honeycombed with societies for the reformation dramatic writers did not really establish a difference be- of manners. “ Admit therepresentative idea, and you tween thedisputants. Jeremiah Collierproved tohis are forced to acknowledge the Puritan argument that all ownsatisfaction that the plays of the Restoration representationsshall edify, that the seducerand adul- dramatistswere immoral, andRestorationthe terer shall meet with condign punishment, in short, that dramatists themselves couldonly rebut the accusation melodramashall be the only representation allowed in with varying degrees of ill-success. Jeremiah Collier, a the interests of the public. Puritan clergyman, was the inventor of the moral test But if themoral test cannot be evaded, then Mr. of drama ; and so utterly unexpected was the application Palmer’s defence of the comedy of mannersis disin- of this test that none of the Restoration writers had an genuous.The arguments that the comedic treatment effective reply to it.Swift accepted thetest; so did of sex has nothing to do with morality, and, alternately, Steele ; indeed,Mr. Palmer reproduces one of Steele’s isnot so veryimmoral, are really contradictoryand remarks concerning Wycherley’s “The Country Wife,” cancel each other. Indeed, Mr. Palmer supplies us with to the effect that Wycherley “has shownthe gradual manysuch contradictory arguments. The jealoushus- stepsto ruinand destruction which persons of condi- band,he says in one place, wassatirised not because tion run into without the help of a good education how hewas a husband,but because he was jealous; in to formtheir conduct.” This descriptionof his inten- another place, he tells us that it was the very essence tion would certainly have been amazing to Wycherley ; of husbandry,the exclusivepossession of onefemale, but that Steeleshould ever have thought of it shows how thatwas satirised. TheRestoration dramatists, quickly an idea concerning drama may infect otherwise Etherege in particular,made “ noproprietary claims healthyminds. Johnson accepted the moral test ; in- upon [a] mistress.[Their] doctrine isthe doctrine deed,we have to wait until Hazlitt, Lamb, and Leigh of tenancy or possession.”But, here again, is an Hunt wrote before the moral test is repudiated, and they admission thatJeremiah Collier was right; theywere wereout-shouted by Macaulay.Macaulay had as keen immoral,in the sense that they accepted a different a nose for stinks as a sanitary inspector shouldhave, morality of sex. The onlyproper argument, it seems and he isolated theRestoration dramatists as though to me, is not to pretend that the moral test is irrelevant, theywere prejudicial tothe publichealth. It is only that the writers did not mean to be immoral, that they of lateyears that writers like Mr. GeorgeStreet and werenot very immoral, and that they escaped from Mr. Edmund Gosse have re-acted againstMacaulay’s morality in imagination, but that their immorality was estimate of these dramatists, and have made possible, the cause and condition of their comedic treatment of perhaps imperative, the reconsideration of their work. sex,that the comedic treatment of sexis as valid a Mr. John Palmer has now been prompted to fill a gap in literary process as the tragic or melodramatic treatment our knowledge, and to attempt to provide grounds for of it, that the comedic treatment of sex is justified by a revision of judgment. the comedy they made of it,and that the Puritan I am afraid that Mr. Palmer’s attempt to rehabilitate morality of sex is precisely the object of their derision. these writers in the regard of the reading public is not successful. showthat Macaulay insisted that Thatthe Puritan shouldobject to “ theirsmut- To tiness of expression ; theirswearing profaneness Plato should be judged according to his time, and that Etherege and Wycherley should be judged according to and lewdapplication of scripture,their abuse of the theirtime, and yet Macaulay judged Etheregeand clergy, their making the top characters libertines, and Wycherley according to his own time, is not really to giving them success in their debauchery,?’ is a natural advancethe discussion. Grantthat Macaulay was in- objection ; butit is not the business of any lover of tellectuallydishonest in his procedure, yet the fact re- comedy to let him have his own way. He is himself a mains that the Restoration dramatists were judged ac- comic figure, particularly when he is indulging his usual cording totheir own time by Jeremiah Collier. If the method of expression, denunciation ; he is probably the argument is that the moral test is irrelevant, that argu- best joke in English history, and he should be kept alive ment should be developed-and some surprising conse- and kicking at what he calls abuses; for the benefit of quences will follow from it. If the historical judgment posterity. He mustnot be allowed to create a mono- is to be allowed, then Jeremiah Collier must be accepted poly of the vices(which are,after all, onlydifferent as a competent witness; and the whitewashing of our ways of achieving the same ends), for his exhortations dramatic blackbirds becomes more difficult. arenot so funny as hisdenunciations. Besides, he is The moraltest killed the comedy of manners,and a part of ourselves.Conscious lifeis an alternation made our literature frightfullyindecent ; but it has forced betweenexpression and repression; where the instinct everyone into some relation to a moral principle. People of expression prevails, we have the artist ; where the in- can only acceptit, or re-actagainst it; Lamb, for stinct of repression prevails, we have the gentleman. The example, who always made an ass of himself when he Puritan is the intermediate type. He wants to express had something sensible to say, regarded the comedy of the same things that the artist expresses, and he wants manners as an escape from morality. That the charac- to exercisethe same repressions that the gentleman ters of these comedies had “got out of Christendom into exercises ; and in the struggle his matter becomesin- verted, and issues in a negative form. But the Restora- * “ The Comedy of Manners : A History, 1664-1720.’’ tion dramatists are none the less amusing because the By John Palmer. (Bell. 10s. 6d. net.) Puritan thinks that he ought not to like their works. 794

And set you, willy-nilly, chanting. YOU- Pastiche, Egad man, why, you’ve never lived, except You call this living, like an ailing mole A FEW WORDS WITH A MODERN POET. Burrowing blindly in .a groove that leads Poet? My title’s gone awry. To all To sunless dens where fossils flourish. Who, since a singer’s lips were first unlocked Yes, TOgreet the rising sun, have served the craft You plaguey jackanapes, you-versifex, Untiringly, I makeamends. Delete I pity you. . . That pair of syllables, that mean so much Remove this dismal trash- And often mean so little. Intheir stead Putit elsewhere. Now fetch that Milton down- Write, nearer to the truth-but what’s the word Some Lycidas ” to take away the taste. To mark the antics of this nincompoop,; P. SELVER. This plaguey jackanapes ? Ah, versifex ! MODERN REVIEWING. What,post-Augustan, sayyou? Even worse, Unlexiconed? Pooh, whatof that? Shall I (Mr. Thomas Seccombe in “The New Witness,” April 9). Waggle my tongue subject to beck and call The romance of theEnglishman abroad still seemed Of index-builders ? Nay,write versifex- to hover about theliterature and gossip of myyouth. That’s his true title. (Gad ! I’m getting on.) NOW,what shall I say? Come on, come on, come on ! Tothe Frenchman of Balzac’s Well, good versifex, time,French and English were mutually unintelligible. Begetter of yon fluffy reams-ornate, Oh, yes they were ! What do I mean by it ? I dunnow ! Goodly imprinting, stout an4 parchmenty, Do yew ? But theEnglishman of Gautier was, broadly Ample of margin-how I pity you ! speaking,the incarnation of self-willed individualism. You turn your nose-tip heavenward. Idle rant That seems to prove it; anyway, the“but” suggests Of some hoarse starveling, whose indictments pass an argument. Of no account with the Elect. A fig It is. strange to find the old burlesque of an English- For me and for my pity, say you. Stop, man imposing on such a compendious sceptic as My soft-maned versifex (in sooth, it slips Anatole-my friend, France, y’know ? We alwayswrite Like honey from the tongue, this frowned-at word) of each other like that. “Peste ! ” he says, in a dozen And hear me out. journals in a week, “ce vieux Tom will kill me one of thesedays! ” An draws justthe conventionalEnglish- Why should I pity you ? man in “Jocaste,” I think it is. But I musthitch this Perfumed, befrilled, you sidle mincingly up.Haw ! There were, of course, real models for the Or strut with arms akimbo in your pride eccentric English person of the ’thirties, and among them Upon Parnassus-yea, the verypeak I am inclined (I am inclined) to give a prominent place Whereof you are a freehold tenant.This to LadyHester Stanhope. Yes, I certainlyfind myself You share with divers rhythmic acrobats here in agreement with everyone who has ever mentioned In brotherly accord. No envymars the woman. Shewas an eccentric. In 1814, just a hun- This goodly fellowship of Rhyme’s apostles. They- dred years ago (never overlook a bit of real gossip !), she Stout artisans of mettle, deft, alert assumed the unrecognised sovereignty of Mount Lebanon To whittle sonnets and to shake ballades -simultaneously with Napoleon’s assuming the sove- Out of their fustian sleeves, to lavish odes reignty of his new kingdom of Elba. What? I wouldn’t On heaven and earth and all that in them is- say that to old Nap’s face. Wouldn’t I ? I would then ! Even as you, have had their due awards, A damn good joke,too! New-minted guineas jingling in the palm, (Solomon Eagle in “ The New Statesman,” April PI.) And paragraphs in “ Rhymers’ Chat,” “ The Bard,” It would be inexact tosay that no modern mancan “ The Sonneteers’ Gazette.” write good poetry on a classical subject. Very rarely the thing is done. Mr. Sturge Moore-one remembers that And then your works . . . ! delightful poem-but even so one had to overcome one’s In pink octavo, gilded lettering, nausea at those outworn trappings of Greek mythology. Softly betitled, “ Musings in the Dusk,” Outworntrappings-they make me absolutely sick! I “The Shuddering Lute,” “Endymion’s Looking-glass,” can’t understand how on earth the poets can stick ’em- “ The Hoofof Pan.” (Drag Pan in-Pan displays Arnold, for instance,let aloneShakespeare and Milton, ‘Your classic touch. Leave mensa andthe rest and all that crowd. Shakespeare makes me sick if I come Between their covers. Pan’syour safeguard.) to think of him. Tristram makes me sick. It’s a thump- ing good job I wasborn to be ajournalist and not a Well, poet ! I simplycouldn’t standwhat Keats stood from Let’s probe your quality. A sheaf or two those old mythologies. I should be sick ! I can’t read From this, your garner. Keats half the time, don’t know what he’s talking about ! Look here, men of letters and brother reviewers, don’t “ Ode to London Bridge,” let’spatronise in futureany poet who mentions any Hear the sweet tremors :-“ See, this ruddy blot, classical rot ! We all know how difficult it makes review- The sun hath mocked thee. Ah ! Thy dismal lot ing ! We all know that each other has never looked inside Moves me to tears.Nay, weep not,versifex, a classic sincehe stopped swat. Achilles, AEneas, and, To swell the tide beyond its wonted marge, perhaps, Polyphemus, are all right-we know enough not This is rare merriment. to fallover these, but when it comes to all sorts of mytho- logical johnnies, why-you’ve jolly well got to go canny. Your sonnet on If the poets insist on talkingabout ’em, don’t review “Anake ” that was smart ; your readers gape their books, or, at most, say, “dull and imitative.” Men And gulp yourverselets down, good Greek and all. of letters ! put your feet down. You’ve got to make your Liddell and Scott’s amasterpiece. Ho, ho . . . ! living by reviewing. Nuff sed ! Formy part, I’d have Poesy in good sooth : “ The night is black, poets stuffed to death with the ashes of the whole bloom- And blacker still this city with its pack ing library of classics. I’d have ’em boiled alive,eaten Of wolves that leap to drag me in the mire by rats, I’d chop their eyelids off ! And quench the lustre of my deathless fire.” O naughty wolves ! Your deathless fire?Methinks THE WAGE-SLAVE’S DREAM. The fuel’s running low. BY “ W. H.” But come, this mirth Is most unfitting. Now solemnity OUTSIDEthe watchman’s hut he lay, Shall be my watchword. For I pity you, His pick was near his hand; Because you never felt your soul exult He looked half-fed, his throbbing head And soar, for once, beyond its petty round He’d pillowed in some sand. Of tinkling doggerel. You never felt And in his fevered, troubled sleep Your soul conceive and bear a mighty thought, He saw a bloody Land. You’ve never known the pangs of travail-words Bursting in molten -clusters through your brain Wide through the landscape of his dreams Wth precious ores to fill the moulds wherein The River Death there flowed; They slowly harden to your shaping skill ; Upon the pavements wet with blood You never heard a clang of harmonies At last a man he strode; Beating upon you, not to be denied- And heardthe coughing maxim-guns Some cunning counterpoint to haunt your heart At work far down the road. He saw once more his haggard wife I was promised manythings. Among herchildren stand; I had vistas. They kissed his cheeks, and asked for bread ; But now I hear that I am not entitled to benefit, They stroked his roughened hand. That my medical benefit is suspended. A sob burst from the sleeper’s throat; And I have not even claimed on them yet. ’Twas stifled in the sand. And my wife has eloped. She ran away with a man who had drawn 30s. And then at furious speed he rushed 30s. from the State. With others to the Bank; 30s. maternity benefit. With bursting veins he ran the lanes The sudden fortune tempted the man. ‘That bore down on its flank. O Judas, Judas ! And at each fearful leap he felt O! O! O! O! Death’s sickle, red and dank. And that is why I played my bassoon, under the moon. Upon him, in the form of lead, ! ! what a tune WILLIAMREPTON. Relentless winged Deathflew; From morn to night he dodged its flight THE LOST WIFE. Till half-insane he grew ; Returning from citywards home to his wife, ‘Till the scorching flames from out of Hell The clerk, Goodman, looked for the light of his life, Uprose before his view. But finding her absent he groaned a good deal, And said it was shameful to wait for his meal. That night he heard the cannon roar, He heard the shrapnel scream; “Ha, where are you, hussy ?” Be grumbled aloud ; And the sickening thud of the hit, on the mud; “I hope that the Devil is here with your shroud. And he started to blaspheme, But happen some business is taking your mind; But stopped. Hislips had been shot off. So, softening my words, I will call on you kind. Hewrithed, though ’twas a dream. “ Come, hurry up, duck, I am waiting for thee. The maxims with their myriad tongues Thy pans are done boiling,” he shouted with glee. Hissed high that he was done, But no jesting echo came back to his ear, And the Devil, Death, took up the scream, Whereat for his cosset he sweated in fear. And he started as to run. He started in his sleep, and swore, “My darling, my darling!’’ he cried, in his pain, Then lay still in the Sun. “I fear in some sickness thy body is lain.” And upto her bedroom he went with a sigh, He did not feel the foreman’s hand, To find her not there or in any place nigh. Nor hear the buzz of day, For Death had brought him silent sleep : “Now, where has she gone to, I wonder ?” said be. And there the body lay “She knows that this waiting is dreadful to me; Of a worn-out wage-slave, the plutocrats Andwhy does shenot in her gaddingabout, Had broken and flung away. Set ready the table before she goes out ?” “Thy mother, where is she ?” he asked of his brats ; “I expect she is talking with some other cats.” To his question they answered, with many a sob, A PASTORAL. “She went out this morning with all her old mob. ” Written in the green fields of Bermondsey. “0 heavens ! ” cried he, “she is gone off her head, SHEPHERD: “ Woe to mankind, and woe to the earth, And all of us now just as well might he dead, Woe to the seas, and woe to all mirth. For, sure as my fate, she is after the vote, Sadnessand sorrow ever prevail, But why did the trollop not leave me a note?” The wicked all prosper, the good always fail.” “If she only came back,’’ be cried in his fright, Under the moon, he played the bassoon. “I would eat all my dinner and dance with delight; God’s truth, what a tune ! And what will become of these poor little dears?” He looked at his bantlings and burst into tears. “Woe to the drink, and woe to the meat, Woe to the saints, and woe to cold feet, “And what with her vote,” he said, “and my card, Woe to them all and woe once again. I think that the world is driving me hard. I’m smitten, I’m bitten, most cruelly slain.” By politics have I been twice over-tricked, Under the moon, he played the bassoon. With no wife to lick me for whom I have licked !” By crumbs, what a tune ! CHARLESCUNNINGHAM . “Woe io all horses, woe to all mules, THE MISER. Woe to all mushrooms, woe to toadstools. I sit by the hearthside and warm my old bones. Horses and mushrooms soon pass away The bitter night’s wind in the chimney-flue moans ; ,Ad so will this night at the break of the It moans as a voice ; it would thrill me with cold. day. ” There’s fire for the heart in the glint of the gold ! Under the moon, he played the bassoon. Lloyd George, what a tune ! The embers glow white; yet I shiver a-cold- And how is the glitter gone out of the gold ? “Woe to all swine, and woe to M.P.’s, And what does the wind say? A curse on the wind ! Woe to the worms, and woe to all fleas; It moans in the flue as a soul that hath sinned. May they all perish, and with a spoon Be supped bythe Devil and that very A curse on the wind! Had it body or bone, soon.” It should learn that I live, and will live, alone ! Under the moon, he played his bassoon. But it cannotget warm ! It shivers a-cold ! Hall Caine what a tune ! It cannot lay hands on one guinea of gold ! But what does it say as it whirls in the flue? POET, “Sweet stranger with thy rolling eyes, “ There is no time to lose. There’s plenty to do.” Dishevelled locks and windy sighs, That’s what it says. . . May it wither with cold ! What means this strain ? “ There’s much to be done with three bags full of gold.” Why art thou sad, what makes thee blow This strange, mad theme, pray dost thou know “ ’Tis a perishing night ; there’s four feet of snow.” A sweet refrain ?” it There’s four feet of earth where a man lies below !” “My cloak is in tatters. My shoes are worn thin.” SHEPHERD (breakinghis bassoon. over an L.C.C. horse “ ’Tis better to shiver without than within!” tram). ‘‘ The gold is fullheavy. Though lusty and strong ”- “OSir! I am a National Deposit Contributor. ‘‘ Get you up ! Get you out ! I will shove you along ! ” X amsore stricken. E. H. VISIAK. 796

YOU Like It ” and ‘‘ King Lear- ” andthirty-nine of LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, Bacon’s essays. Now, do you think that, considering (a) “SATURDAY REVIEW’S”CANT, the year’stime allowed and (b) thenature of the Sir,--Referring tothe loans advanced by Parliament questions set (some of which require a good deal of to theprivate capitalists of British East Africa andto that type of knowledge only to be got by cramming and the debatelast week the same, the Saturday Re- strenuouslydigging for the meanings of words and on (‘ phrases), Mr. Cook’s method could be successfully view ” has the followingparagraph, which, as a speci- men of mixedcant, sophistry, and dishonesty, it would carriedout ? I fearnot. be hard to beat :- WALTERSCHOFIELD.

“ An unpleasantfeature of the debate was theinter- vention of Mr. Outhwaite criticising Sir John Rees. The PRESENT-DAY CRITICISM. latter had discussed the condition of Nyasa, acountry which has been neglected by the Colonial Office. Mr. Sir,--My article of a yearor so ago, to which MY Outhwaitecharged Sir Johnwith having personal in- Caldwell Cook referred, was written apropos of the terestin that Protectorate. SirJohn quite openly ad- Montessori system. It was necessaryfor me to have mittedas much, but common sense rebels against con- read his introduction to the new Perse Play Book (which cluding that, because a member hasa direct interest in I hope to review shortly)to comprehend how utterly a topic, andsays so, heand heonly should be silent differentthe Play Way is from that veryvile system. when the question comes up in the House. . . . One does I have now read his notes, andhasten to withdraw, if not wanta Parliament of men seekingpersonal advantages I have SO much as hinted thatthe effects of the two advantages,but equally one does notwant a Parliament of might be at all the same. men who have no personal interest in anything.” THE WRITER OF “ PRESENT-DAY CRITICISM.” THOS. CRAVEN.

ARISTOCRACYAND DEMOCRACY. SOUTH AFRICA. Sir,--As I happen to be reading Machiavelli’s “Floren- Sir,-In yourissue of March 5, which hasjust come tine History,” the following extractmay interest Mr. to hand,there is a letter signed (‘P. M. M.” Please Rose. Rut first let me pointout thatit appears that allow me tostate that his assertions-in regard tothe when Mr. Penty speaks of the wealthy,he has in mind Boers-that they have “ black blood intheir veins ” the cultured wealthy, or the intelligent aristocrat, whereas and are a “ half-caste race,” etc., are as false and venom- the writer of “ Present-Day- Criticism ” refers to stinko- ous (or ignorant), when referring to the Dutch, as they cracy. would be if said of the English. At the end of the Second Book, Machiavelli says, “The Theremay be people in England who reallydo not destruction of the nobility was so complete, andthe know, hence thisletter. order so depressed, that never afterwards were the nobles RICHMONDHAIGH. bold enough totake up arms against the people, but graduallysank into a low subject position. This was the cause of Florence losing, not only her fighting quali- ties, butevery description of high-mindedness.” And WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE. thn he sums up the position atthe beginning of the Sir,-The accompanying newspaper clipping may help Third Book, andthe verdict is immortal--” Thein- some of the male suffragists to realise the paradise they eradicablehostility which naturallyexists between the areendeavouring to bring about on earth.Incidentally, people and the nobles is caused by the one wishingto I think it is another illustration of the soundness of your rule and the other to resist, and from this follows all the position on the suffrage question. Thelast sentence is evils which arise in cities ; for this contradictory spirit a gem. fosters everything which tends to disturba common- Winnipeg. S. WASKEY. wealth. . . . The dissensions which arose between the THIS Is No APRIL FOOL JOKE ON COLORADO’SMEN. people andthe nobles in Rome were settled attheir commencement by discussion,while those of Florence Denver, Col., April I.-Mrs. Gertrude Lee, chairman were terminated by fighting. . . . Whilst the dissensions of the Democratic State Committee, to-day issued a warn- in Rome transformed the equality of her citizenship to the ing to the men who are attempting to oust her that the utmost inequality, those of Florence have reduced her womenof Colorado will fight.They intend to have SO citizens from a condition of inequality to a wonderful many women in the convention next year that a woman equality. . . . Since the objectswhich the Florentine can be elected chairmanwithout askingthe consent of people had in view were unjustand injurious, the the men. nobllity were compelled to resort to force inits own defence. And the laws which were afterwards passed by the victors were for their own advantage and not for WOMEN ANDLABOUR. the general good. The victories which the people of Sir,-I takemy economics ready-made, justlike Mr. Rome thus obtained over the nobles assisted inthe Kerr, onlymy accepted authoritiesare different. I do advancement of thecity herself, because the people not suppose I shall waste timere-perusing “ Six Cen- became eligible to assist the nobles inthe administra- turies ” while I can get instruction from National Guilds- tion of the empire, the army, ancl the laws, and all being men. As for the rest of my “ admirable letter-writing,” animatedwith the same spiritthe city grew in valour it is allonly what I see withmy own eyes. Mr. Kerr and increased in power. . . Florence even grew more reallycannot convince methat he understands what abjectand mean-spirited. Whilst the valour of Rome women wantand need betterthan I do. I know none raisedher to such a pitch of pridethat she could not but ineligibles who even say theydo not want to marry. existwithout aprince, Florence reached suchdepths that cleverlaw-maker could turn the Government I know none but wasters who hate ” domesticity. I any have never said that women work harder now than they into any shape he pleased.” ( !) used to. Oh, quitethe contrary! I repeatwhat neither The italics are mine ; they might well be Machiavelli’s. the history of the past, the present, nor forecasts of the The average man is a ’‘ wobbly loon.” He was future will change from being a fact-that work requiring formerly a craftsman because he had the tradition of his a woman to be all day and every day outside the house guildas a . That is the essential duty of a guild, is abomination. BEATRICEHASTINGS. and we shallnot have a returnto craftsmanship until we haveaguild ,or guildsdeliberately keeping this power of spiritual discipline in view. THE PLAY WAY. HAROLDLISTER Sir,-Mr. H. Caldwell Cook, in his splendid article on Shakespeare in schools which appeared in THE NEW AGE ARISTOCRACY AND MR.LUDOVICI. of April 9, says nothing about one side of the question. I admit that,as an ideal, the method of teaching Sir,-Mr. Ludovici seems to feel thatif he were to Shakespeareby letting the boys act theplay is good, answer at this stage the questions I put to him in my but can it be put into practice with success in the case last letter he would be drawn into a complicated discus- of boys taking public examinations like the Senior Locals sion which would obscure theplain and simpleissue of theHigher Certificate examination ? I myself intend between us. He, therefore, now retraces hissteps to an to take the Higher Certificate examination in July, and earlierstage in ourcontroversy, andrestates his own position. I do not believe that the discussion need have the books I am studying for it areShakespeare’s “AS 797 become more obscure by his answering my questions; Secondly, let me explainfurther why I put to Mr. indeed, I amalmost sure it would have become clearer, Ludovici suchquestions as this and those of mylast for hisanswers would havetold me more of what was letter. at the back of his mind. But before he will let me know When Mr. Ludovici began to talk of doctors and dray- more of that, he wants to know what was at the back of men, I wondered whether he believed (I) that to be a good my own mind when I first asked what precisely he meant‘ doctor or a good drayman is necessarily to be a good man, “essential.” I will confess all, in the assurance that by or (2) that to be a good doctor is necessarily to be a better he would do no less if he thought it might further the man than a good drayman. In short, I wondered whether discussion. Some confusion between life and a part of life might not I had often felt THENEW AGEto be far too aristocratic, be the real reason for his thinking aristocracy to be a true andsince I believe aristocracy to be a falsetheory of theory of society. I was still more anxious to ‘find out society I wanted first to find out why so many NEW AGE aboutthat when I found him speaking- of politics asa writers suppose it true, and then to consider how best to “department of life,”for I then wondered whether he persuade them that it is false. The arch-aristocrat of all, understoodby “politics” merely the devising of means Sir, is, I suspect, yourself; but I know from experience to a prescribed end, or whether he included in “politics that you will not readily discuss such things-certainly, one prescribing of ends. I should like to know, for once notwith me, for you havea very quick mind and no clear about that we could come rapidly to a conclusion. patience with slowness or orthodoxy. Besides, oneman Again, I suspected that what Mr. Ludovici really cannot do everything wanted to maintain was that (I) civilisation is a better Now I have confessed all this partly because I wish to life than barbarism,, and (2) the ruler is a better man than be frank,and partly because so longas Mr. Ludovici the ruled.But if civilisation is a betterlife than bar- fancies (as he seems tu do) that from some secret brief for barism it cannot be so merely because of the difference democracy I am trying to lure him into admissions by between ruler and ruled, for there were rulers and ruled cunning cross-examination, so long will he be reluctant even among barbarians. Mr. Ludovici should go further, to answer my questions, and I shall fail to find out what and say why civilisation is better (if it is), and why the I wanted. ruler is the better man (if he is) ; and he cannot go so far as that without coming to the question of ends, of things Let US turn, then, to his last letter, in which he recalls good in themselves.When he getsto that, the whole the fact that eight-ninths of my second letter was devoted discussionshould become clear.At anyrate, he will to his use of the word‘ “essential,” but in which he says recognise that if hetalks vaguely of “civilisation,” or also that the reason why controversies become “heavily “rulership,” the two parts of his argument invalidate one laden with questions and counter-questions” (as this one another. X cannot be betterthan y merely because of has done, in which most of the questions“remain un- something which is common to both. answered”) must be thatthe controversialists“are not . . . agreed as to the precise meaning of the terms” they I hope that Mr. Ludovici now sees enough of what was are using. Now, it was in order tostart withsuch an at the back of my mind to answer my questions ; and I agreement that I first asked Mr. Ludovici what precisely hope, too, that he will recognise how pressingly relevant he meant by “essential”; and I then said, at the end of they are-so relevant thatthe issue between us should my second letter,that we might cease to argueabout become clearimmediately they are answered. I havea terms if onlyby some other way we might get at the fancy that Mr. Ludovici is not quite clear about this aris- ideasbehind the terms. One suchway, T am still con- tocracy of his; that he holds it because it is a‘ pleasant vinced, lay in my leading question to him : “Is what is and easy doctrine to hold ; and that if he were clear about common to menless importantthan what is not it he would see it to be false. Moreover, if he were clear common?” To thathe replied by a counter-question, about it he would not hesitate to answer questions about “Important for what?” and I answered, “For good life.” it. Let me assure him that the only thing I have at the back of mymind is what I conceive to be the case for Now Mr. Ludovici deprecates these “questionsand democracy. I think I am clear about that, and, therefore, counter-questions, most of which remainunanswered. I do not mind what questions he may put tome. May Mr. So do I ; but those which remain unanswered are mine to Ludovici have an equal conceit in his own case. him; not his to me, for I have answered themall, and R. Cox. will try to answer any others he may ask. However, in my last letter I did ask him a good many, and. if he would rather not answer them tillhe knows what is at the back ARISTOCRACYAND DEMOCRACY. of my mind, I will try to explain furtherwhy I put them, and also to appreciate Mr. Ludovici’s restatement of his Sir,-I intervene only as a commentator in the matter own original position. Let us take his restatement first. in dispute between Mr. Ludovici and Dr. Coomaraswamy. Mr. Ludovici is at leastless liberal in his defence of If I ask Mr. Ludovici whether x or y is the moreimportant aristocracy than Mr. Coomaraswamy, for, whereas the important for good life, it is irrelevant for him to ask me latter would admit ‘‘ pupillage ” as well asbirth to against what “background” I am regarding x and y. The constitutearistocratic descent, theformer would confine essence of good life must obviously consist, at any rate, it entirely to birth. But this is so manifest an absurdity partly, of things good in themselves ; andwhen I ask that the flat-earth theory would not be more out of place whether x is more important for good life than y I am inTHE NEW AGE. Indeed, I canonly wonder that Mr. really asking whether x, or what comes of x, is better in Ludovici does nothimself, from allhis reading,and itself than y, or what comes of y. Unless Mr. Ludovici is evenshould he be disinclined tothink of the subject, prepared to maintain thatnothing is good in itself he encounter disproof whereverhe turns.This passage will recognise that to talk of background is to be irre- from Aristotle-who, if he did not believe in aristocracy, levant for this reason, that if a thing is good against this at least believed, like Mr. Ludovici, in slavery-was background, butnot good againstthat background, it translatedmany years ago by a Dr. Gillies. I suppose cannot be good in itself. Mr. Ludovici has read it, but to what purpose? Moreover, if I am asking whether x or y is the more ‘(Were oneportion of the community asfar dis- importantfor good life, I amnot asking which of the tinguished above therest, as we believe the gods and two is the more “striking.”That is anotherquestion, heroes to be exalted above men; or, as Seylax says, the even if me found it to have the same answer. For instance, kings of India are superior to their subjects in the vir- a very good man and a very bad man may be walking along the street together, and it may happen that one of tues of mindand body, it would be proper that these them is veryshort and the othervery tall. Now this dignified races, or families should be invested with heredi- difference in heightmay easily be the most striking taryand unalterable authority, and for this purpose difference between them, but it is not necessarily, or, trained and educated in a manner peculiar to themselves therefore, the difference which is most important for good and relative to that pre-eminent rank which they were for ever destined to hold. But,since such races or life. familiesare nowhere to befound in theseparts of the Let me, then,repeat my original question to Mr. world, justiceconcurs with policy in requiring that the Ludovici (“Is what is common to men less important than citizens should rule by vicarious succession.” what is not common?”) with the addition “for good life,” which I gave in answer to his counter-question, “Im- I cannotrefrain from addinga passage from Swift’s portant for what?” and with the elucidation that (a) by (( Gulliver as indicating from his experience the man- “good life” I refer to things good in themselves, and not ner of patronage to be expected of kings : “ These kings to things which depend on background for their goodness, protested to me thatin their whole reignsthey never and (b) by“important for good life,” I do not mean did once prefer any person of merit, unless by mistake, “striking,” but just what I say. or treachery of some ministerin whom theyconfided; 798 neither would they do it if they were to live again; and more or lesstrained judge of aesthetic problems, and they showed with great strength of reason that the royal that of thelay userand purchaser of Mr. Romney throne could not be supportedwithout corruption, be- Green’s furniture. cause that positive confident, restive temper, which vir- With regard to the 29 lines dealing with the supposed tue infused into a man, was a perpetual drag to public defects in some of thefurniture-defects which I dis- business.” discovered from the standpoint of the user and purchaser of Mr. Ludovici ought, if his case had anystrength, to Mr. Romney Green’s furniture-Mr. Pentyadmits that be by this time attracting the attention of the aristocracy these exist, he acknowledges thatthey are a source he is inarms to establishand defend. But will they of annoyance even to the craftsman himself; but he de- back their self-devoted andgallant champion ? No he clares they are inevitable ; that by a process, consisting may die in a ditch, for all the House of Lords will care. either of ‘‘ bumps ” or of atmospheric influence (damp T. s. Dixon or dryness)they are insuperable. I mustsay that this *** surprises me; but, as I make no claim to being a man of themetier until some expertequal to Mr. Penty REPLIESTO CRITICS. assures me of the contrary I readily accept Mr. Penty’s Sir,-Mr. Penty will, I feel sure, believe me when I statement that it is impossible to produce a shovel-board say that nothing could have given me a greater surprise table more even than the one now on exhibition at the than his letter in your last issue on the subject of Mr. LittleGallery, or a cornercupboard with better-fitting Romney Green’s furniture.For notonly did I hope doors. Let Mr. Penty, however, remember that, when that I had actedwith extreme caution and justice. in I attempted to criticise thistable and this corner cup- regard to this work, but I was also conscious of having board, I was judgingthem from thestandpoint of the limited mypoints to withinthe smallest compass, and userand purchaser of Mr. Romney Green’s furniture, expressed myself withthe utmostmoderation, com- and that,far from “nosing about,” as Mr. Penty inconsider- patiblewith a frank statement of praiseand censure. atelyputs it, I waseagerly concerned to discover in I hadalso been quiteclear about the twostandpoints whatmeasure Mr. Romney Green’s furniture beat the from which I judged this work. When,therefore, I!r. furniture of capitalistic industry. I know theirritation Penty, by way of asking me “ a straight question,” In- the latter often occasions; was I wrong, therefore, when quireswhat end I think I serveby criticism of this I found similar,though, as I acknowledged,slighter kind, and proceeds to enumerate various possible replies, causes of irritation, both in the table and in the corner all of which he negatives, I answer that I consider Mr. cupboard, to callattention tothese? Knowing the Penty’s attitude an exceptionally daring, one, more par- forces arrayedagainst him and us, was I not, on the ticularlyas headmits that hehas not seen the exhibition contrary, well advised in putting Mr. Romney Green on tion.in question.What can possibly induce Mr. Penty hisguard against an opinion thatmight be held by to correct me inthis manner, blindfold ? One behaves others(also uninitiated) besides myself? Even now inthis way to a child, to a man who iswrong nine that I hear it is impossibleto produce abetter shovel- timesout of ten,to an impudent, inexperiencedtyro. board table than the one at the Little Gallery, or a better In suchcircumstances, without even seeming the work corner cupboard, I do not regret having called attention. hecriticised, one cancry “ Bosh ! Hemust be wrong; to the slight defects in these pieces ; for am I not right the work must be right.’’ If, among the readers of THE in suggestingthat, since an element of chance seems New AGE, I am acquiring the reputation of aman who toenter into the occurrence of these defects, it would may be treatedwith this heedless petulance, the sooner be well either to avoid theexhibition of pieces which I cease to contribute to the paper the better. But I have destiny has ill-used, or to offer some satisfactory explana- reasons to believe thatthis is not the case. I have tion to the layman which would avoid his drawing the reasons to believe thatthere are some who observe the invidious conclusions which I drew, and which 1 drew care andrestraint with which I administereither praise more in the spirit of R warning than of an indictment? or blame in my articles ; and that is why I felt inclined I-_ On the whole, I venture to believe that Mr. Penty will at first simply to beg Mr. Penty to reread my criticism r think differently of my article if heglances at it a of Mr. Romney Green and to reconsider his position. second timeand attempts to approach with more sym- But I trtlst Mr. Penty will do thisin any case, when pathythe spirit in which it was written. But let me c’ I have called hisattention to certainaspects of it. c i remindhim that, whether heis right or wrong, there In the first place, out of an article of 209 lines,only 1s an offensive assurance, an offensive a, priori under- 29 are concerned with the discussion of those defects estimation of mymethods, inthe manner in which he which Mr. Pentycharacterises as insuperable. Does Mr. condemned my work blindfold, which issurely more Penty’s straight questionapply to those 29 lines alone destructive of solidarity between us, who arefighting then, or does it applyto the whole article? for a better state of things, than was my initial criticism I will takeit that it applies tothe whole article- of Mr. Romney Green’s work. Another point Mr. Penty although, to judge from Mr. Penty’sletter, this would should have remembered before making such a sweeping seem to have consisted of a discussion of slight defects condemnation of myarticle was this,that on the occa- alone-and I shall now answer that questiona second sion of my last controversy with the workers in the arts time,with more detail. Before proceeding to dothis, andcrafts I was informed thattime was animportant however, let me call Mr. Penty’sattention to twomat- factor, andthat presentconditions frequently did not ters : (x) Thatthe questionitself, addressed to anyone allow the craftsman the timeto do full justice to his who takeshis work veryseriously indeed, is unneces- powers in his work. I actually referred to this rejoinder sarily offensive and was put unnecessarily offensively ; of the last controversy in my article of April 9, and on the (2) that it is only with the utmost reluctance that I am ground of that rejoinder, and, knowing its cogency, I drawn into adiscussion on the pointsraised, because admitted that the trivial defects to which I had referred 3s an avowed admirer of Mr. Romney Green’s work I mere satisfactorilyexplained and excused. Another am naturally loath to lay stress-as I may be obliged to expertrejoinder now informs me by implication that do-upon defects which in my original article I admitted this matter of time has really little to do with it; that, were trivial. in fact, I was misled when I was told that the hurry and To begin with,then, the end I thought I served, in scurry enforced by modern conditionshad anythingto that article, was the end which allsound criticism do with it, and that, really and truly, defects, wherever shouldhave in view-the assistingand abetting of a they are to be found, are insuperable.Very well, then, movement, or of a cause, in keeping with the direction until I have expert opinion tothe contrary I bow to andgoal which I, as a critic, hold most sacred. How this new ruling, since it comes from one mho “ has run did I try to achieve this end? By callingattention not a furniture workshop,”and who thereforeknows better only to the good in Mr. Romney Green’s work, but by than I do the truth about these matters ; indeed, I will pointingalso tothe bad-to thoseaspects of it,that go even further, and add that, if, owing to my lay belief is to say, which, in my opinion, seemed as if they might that these defects were susceptible of totalelimination, prove an obstacle to its ultimate triumph. I haveinadvertently hurt one whom I know to be an Thefirst 67 lines of the actualcriticism dealt solely enthusiasticand gifted supporter of a cause to which with Mr. Romney Green as a designer, and I adduced two I, too,am devoted-I refer to Mr. Romney Green--L instances of failures in this department. Does Mr. Penty unhesitatingly apologise to that gentlemanfor any distress contest those points? Does he think I haveargued un- pleasure I may have caused him; but at the same time fairlyor unjustlyin that paragraph ? Does he believe I protest against the tone of his advocate, and can only that I have presented inadequate reasons formy criti- account for it by supposing that he, too, owing to hasti- cism? But how canhe think anything about it at all- ness, musthave mistaken thespirit of my article. , he has not even seen either the dressing-table legs or the *** stool to which I alluded ! And remember that I told allthose who might wish toknow that I judged this Dr. Coomaraswamy has indeed succeeded inlight- furniture from twostandpoints only-from that of a ing upon the most fundamental of our differences; and 799 from his statement of them, sober and fair as it was, I priori judgment. In an age of anarchy and doubt, how- cannot help concluding that a reconciliation between us is ever, when healthyinnate ideasgrow every day fewer difficult. It all turns upon the question how to draw the and fewer, our judgments have to be of a more a posteriori line. Some people afterhaving put that question to nature. Hence the difficulty of masteringlife in an themselves, or to others, simply stare in blank hopeless- anarchicalage. In fact, I cannot understand in what ness at the apparentlyinextricable tangle of allstand- way Dr. Coonnmaraswamy thought he was raising an objec- points, and throw up their hands in silent despair. They tion to my view of racial beauty, or to my detestation of conclude, for instance, as I heard Mr. W. L. George catholicity inthe arts, bypointing to my attitude conclude the other day, that since all normal life is decay- towards Egyptian art. ing as well as growing, it is absurd to speak of decadence withdisapproval, because we areall decadent-that is The second point seems to me much like saying, since Chinamenand Hindus have ten toes: tenfingers, two to say we, as men, are all constantly decaying as well as arms, and twolegs in common, why should they have growing-where are you going to draw the line ? I confess a ? I plunged into the breach pretty hotly on that occasion, such strictnational idea of beauty Of course, I andinformed Mr. George that I knew perfectly well suppose that Dr. Coomaraswamy must be right when he where to draw the line. I demonstrated that it lay where claims a common possession of certain noble valuesfor the balance in favour of growth begins to go over to the all races. I cannot really see though how that affects the side of decay. Now, according to the passage he quotes, question of the soundness or unsoundness of catholicity Dr. Coomaraswamy admitsthe points I made my in art taste; since, as I have pointed out, the possession In in common of an incalculable number of physical features “Nietzsche and Art” concerning the essential need of a definite conception of beauty for the preservation of a never seems to have made any race doubt itsright to race; he acknowledges that“the apple-tree never asks claim its own type of beauty as supreme, and to dub the the beech how he shall grow” ; but beyond that point he barbarian’s, the foreigner’s, or the stranger’sas ugly. refuses to draw a ,definite line. He says : “But I see no Withregard to Blake, I agree.Certainly, one might proof in this that the beech tree should never admit the build upan English order upon him,and we probably charm of the apple-blossom.” Personally, I absolutely shall, not, however, because he was a sport in the true despair of ever makingmy objection tothis frivolous sense of the word, but because, if you please, Blake was tolerance clear ina printed letter..Dr. Coomaraswamy, the scion of an old Irishline of noblemen. I do not aftergoing certain compromising lengths-after having maintain that geniuses are not likely to appear in ages of swallowed the whale, that is to say, strains at the sprat. anarchy. I feelcertain thatthey do, andhave said so In order to make the discussion more comprehensible let (seemy thirdchapter, “Nietzsche and Art.”)What I us drop the botanic simile and speak only of men. App?- maintain is this : that in ages of anarchy when traditions Apparently, Dr. Coomaraswamy would agree with me if I said are seriously broken, geniuses will not only be likely to that the Chinaman must (as he does) think his style of occur muchless often thanin ages of order, but also nationalbeauty superior to all otherkinds of national wherever they do appearthey will be the creations of beauty. He would probably agree with me also if I said age, that is to say, of families or lines that have remained that this belief held by the-Chinaman is not only a proof trueto their principles inthe midst of the universal of his vitality, it is the promise and only security of the infidelity to everything. relati\-e permanence of hisnational type. it is self- The point as to the dates 600 and 85 B.C. must heartily preservative. It is more---it is self-assertive. It can be I aggressive. It alone can give the supremesanction to a thank Dr. Coomaraswamy for having raised ; while I also war of extermination. It is a belief suggested by the owe an apology to the readers of THE NEW AGE for having allowed so gross an error topass unnoticed. It was, of Will to Power. It is a. weapon of power. Now if this belief is going to keep its strength, to retain its supreme course, a typewriter’s or a printer’s slip, I cannottell sway over anation, and persist as a weapon of power, which. I canonly say that in my original MS., which; what isthe first essential condition of itshealthy sur- I have turned up, the dates stand quite plainly as600 and 850 A.D. ought to have seen the mistake as soon as the vival ? Obviously, that no counter-beliefs, doubts, no I no ,article was published; but somehow it evaded me. It is dangerouscatholicity of taste should ever impairthe difficult, as everyone knows, to read an article a second wholeness of the concept of thehighest beauty. To acknowledge that the Hindu is beautiful, is to go dan- or a third time with the same critical attention as at the gerouslynear admitting thatthe Chinaman is notreading. first A. M. LUDOVICI. supremely beautiful. It isto approachwithin perilous distance of the conclusion : “TheHindu is not quite, absolutely,eternally, and irrevocably separated from me APRIL CATALOGUE, just OUT. -the Chinaman.” What is the next step to this conclu- sion? Obviously, if we are not irrevocably incompatible, NEW CATALOGUE of PUBLISHERS’ REMAINDERS why should we not be compatible?-why should we not contains many EXCELLENT BOOKS now offeredat REDUCED be united?Why, in fact,should we notmerge and PRICES FOR THE FIRST TIME. mutuallydestroy each other’sracial individuality ? WILLIAM GLAISHER, Ltd., Booksellers. Result ?-Reciprocal race-vandalism ! Far, therefore, 265, HIGH HOLBORN. LONDON, W.C. ftom seeing “no proof that the beech-tree should never All Books are in new condition as when originally published. admit the charm of the apple-blossom,” I regard such an No secondhand books kept. eternal refusal on the part of the beech to acknowledge the apple’s beauty, as the necessary andinevitable out- come of Dr. Coomaraswamy’s view that“the apple-tree never asks the beechhow heshall grow.” Ugly is simply a word denoting “not of our race,” or “not a good, CARICATURES healthy example of our race. ” BY But Dr. Coomaraswamy puts two very much more ‘diffi- “TOMT” of “The New Age’? cult obstacles in my way. Hesays first : “Let Mr. (Jan Junoza de Rosciszewski). Ludovici account for his acceptance of Egyptianart,” and, secondly, “Let Mr. Ludovici explain why, since some Uniform with “The New Age ” Volumes. noble values are common lo all races, the latter’s beauty should not make some sort of appeal to everyone.” In Price 51- Net. Postage extra. the first place, I reply that since race is now more or less extinct, especially in myself--a modern European-I have lost the spontaneouscapacity for the self-assertion of New Age Press, 38, Cursitor Street, E.C. beauty. How, then, can I arrive at a canon ? I can arrive at a canon only in the same may that Hegel and Schlegel RAWING AND PAINTING -- SICKERTAND GOSSE, and Nietzsche all agreed that a race is formed-by the D Rowlandson House, 140,Hampstead Road, N.W. Day & Evening models. adoption or incorporation of a certain set of values. Those values will be whole-heartedly or reluctantly embraced by A FAIR PRICE Given for Old Gold, Silver, and Platinum, Old CoinsWar Medals Diamonds Silver Plate Jewellery Chinaetc AND me according as to whether I am pre-disposed to them or ALL KIND’S OF FOREiGN MONEYS Exchanged by MAURICE ESCHWEGE not. Having adopted such and such a code as the best, I 47 Lime Street, Liverpool. seek its materialisation everywhere. Why ?--Because adherents are a form of . Findingthe nearest REE SALVATION FOR ALL. By the Spirit of Revelation in ZION’S WORKS materialisation of these valuesin Egyptian Society and Vols.F I.-XVI. (with Catalogue) in Free Libraries. Art, I find myself more in sympathy with that Art than with any other. This, however, haslittle in common FRESH FISH DAILY at JOSEPH’S, 158, King Street, with the racial view of beauty, because it is not an a Hammersmith. 800

MR. HANNEN SWAFFER.

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