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THE NEW AGE, July 25, 1908 THE BOURGEOISIE. By UPTON SINCLAIR.

A WEEKLY REVIEW OF POLITICS, LITERATURE, AND ART Edited by A. R. Orage.

No* 724 series. Vol. III. No. 13] SATURDAY, JULY 25, 1908. C”“*] ONE PENNY

CONTENTS. PAGE PAGE NOTES OF THE WEEK . . . ,...... ,, . . . 241 ORIOLE NOTES. By Beatrice Tina ...... 250 THE EDUCATION BILL. By Sir Hartley Williams ...... 244 ANDREA D'AGNOLO (DEL SARTO). By Eden Phillpotts . . . 250 THE KIDDIES AND THE FLOWERS. By Kennington Cross . . . 244 MR. S. G. HOBSON'S ATTACK ON THE LABOUR PARTY. By WHY DO WE SEND OUR CHILDREN TO THE DOCK? By W. R. R. C. K. Ensor ...... 251 Titterton ...... 245 BOOKS AND PERSONS. By Jacob Tonson ...... 252 GOOD BREEDINGOR EUGENICS. -XIII. By M. D. Eder . . . 246 BOOK OF THE WEEK : Virgil. By W. Bailey-Kempling . . . 253 WOMEN AND WAR. By Richmond Haigh...... 247 REVIEWS : The English People Overseas ...... 254 MILITARY EDUCATION AT WHITEHALL. By Dr. T. Miller DRAMA : Towards a Dramatic Renascence.-II. By Dr. Maguire ,, , ., ...... 248 L. Haden Guest ...... 256 THE BOURGEOISIE. By Upton Sinclair ...... 249 CORRESPONDENCE . . , ...... 257

NOTICE TO CORRESPONDENTS,-All Business Com- We heartily congratulate the “ Daily Chronicle ” munications must be addressed to Publisher, New Age,” 139, on having had the honour of publishing the greatest Fleet Street, E.C. ; communications for the Editor to 1 & 2, humanitarian appeal ever written. But we cannot con- Took’s Court, Furnival Street, E.C. gratulate it on the manner in which it has accepted that honour. The attempt of its leader-writer to express sympathy with the “noble outburst ” of the spokesman of the Russian people and at the same time to defend NOTES OF THE WEEK. the insane rapprochement between British Liberalism and Russian despotism would have been ludicrous but THE event of last week was the publication in the for its painful servility. Perhaps, however, we should “ Daily Chronicle ” of Count Tolstoy’s open letter to rather sympathise with those who are in the predica- the governors of Russia. Were all the rest of his work ment of the “Chronicle.” To be unable to question destroyed, this mighty philippic would suffice alone to the policy of such a Foreign Secretary as he in whom secure its author such immortality as men may claim. the Liberal Party now rejoices must be an unhappy Written at an age when the vast majority of those who fate. use their brains have lost all but the shadow of their * * * youthful powers, it must take its place among the great documents of history. Quite apart from its For many reasons we hope that Count Tolstoy’s political significance, its remarkable character can “ tremendous indictment ” will be widely disseminated scarcely be exaggerated. To read it is to be convinced in the country without delay. Persistent rumours that that the man who wrote it could have founded a great the Tsar is about to pay us a visit defy Sir Edward religion. Grey’s assurances to the contrary, and it is well that a * +i * suitable welcome should be prepared. Report suggests that the Isle of Wight is the only portion of Great Gladly would we reprint the whole. But for the pre- Britain in which the arch-murderer feels he can safely sent we can only offer to those who have not already stay, and that landing there, he will venture no further, seen the complete letter a quotation from its culmi- But what has the Isle of Wight done to deserve this nating passage :- indignity? We have never before heard it suggested “ I cannot help feeling that my peace is really de- that Newport and Ryde were strongholds of royalism, pendent on all the horrors that are now being perpe- or that their inhabitants lacked the ordinary prejudices of free men. Indeed, if we remember aright, it was trated by the Government. And being conscious of in Carisbrooke that the last man who attempted to this, I can no longer endure it, but must free myself rule this country despotically was imprisoned. In any from this intolerable position ! It is impossible to case, we trust that the gallant 59 who voted against live so. That is why I write this, and will circulate the Reval visit will not forget that we are all relying it by all means in my power, both in Russia and upon them, and will see that these rumours are either abroad ; that one of two things may happen : either confirmed. or dispelled before the motion for adjourn- that these inhuman deeds may be stopped, or that ment comes on. A determined protest would probably prevent the visit, even if it be already arranged. The my connection with them may be snapped and I put Tsar, we understand, has all the personal nervousness in prison, where I may be clearly conscious that for which his brother-potentate in Constantinople is these horrors are not committed on my behalf ; or, noted. still better (so good that I dare not even dream of * * * such happiness), they may put on me, as on those It is announced that the King is to go from Marien- twenty or twelve peasants, a shroud and a cap, and bad to Ischl in the middle of August to meet the may push me also off a bench, so that by my own Emperor of Austria. This, we trust, will complete the weight I may tighten the well-soaped noose round series of international visits. The Kaiser has been to my old throat.” England, King Edward has been to Russia, President JULY 25, 1908

Fallières came here last month, and will be at Reval cruisers by the score and smaller vessels by the hun- this week, and now our King visits Austria. The dred. These unconsidered trifles, according to Dr. plain man, in the street or elsewhere, may well ask Macnamara are amply sufficient to secure the two-Power what it all means, whether indeed the result does not standard without a superiority in Dreadnoughts. cancel out to nothing. Politicians seem to think other- * x- * wise, and some perhaps regard King Edward’s Aus- Another exposure was of the purblindness of the trian tour as a spying out of the land. However, present Government in the matter of industrial Ischl is not Reval, nor ‘Francis Joseph the Tsar, and economy. With unutterable scorn Mr. McKenna dis- we have no complaints to make. The life of the aged missed the suggestion of Mr. Gretton that the state of - Emperor, like that of his contemporary, Queen Vic- employment in dockyards should be considered in the toria, has been a singularly harmless one. It is his arrangement of naval construction. None but naval death that will be the very devil. considerations, he declared, should govern the laying * * * down of England’s warships - forgetting for the For half a century or so the Great Powers have been moment how frequently political considerations enter trying, or pretending to try, to reform the government into ‘these matters. That, however, is by the way. of Turkey. They have never met with the slightest What we complain of is that in this year of grace success. At last there are signs of a strong and 1908 a leading member of the Cabinet should be SO healthy revolutionary movement amongst the Turks ignorant of the elements of the unemployed problem. themselves. The Young Turks, as those are called Mr. McKenna, with his colleagues, has a sincere desire who are awake to the advantages of political freedom, to solve that problem. Yet he is still unaware that it have suddenly shown that their power and determination can never be solved except (inter alia) by the Admiralty are not such negligible quantities as was generally and all other public employers deliberately regulating supposed outside Turkey. Armed rebellion has begun the amount of work done in different seasons. It is as on a large scale. One Governor has been assassinated great nonsense to say that the state of employment and another rendered hors-de-combat. The Sultan’s should never be considered as to say that that con- European troops are refusing to march against the sideration alone should govern Admiralty policy. We rebels, and in many cases are actually joining them. suspect that when the new Unemployment Bill which What will be the outcome it is impossible to forecast. is promised for next session comes along Mr. McKenna But whether Abdul Hamid prevails or no, it is certain will have to eat his words. that a good sprinkling of his subjects have learned to * * * covet liberty, and will never rest till they have On the following day- the consideration of the Budget achieved it. was renewed. Mr. Snowden proposed a reduction of * * 3c the tea duty from 5d. to 3d as a step towards the aboli- Civilisation, we are told, has travelled West. It tion of all indirect taxation. To show the injustice of seems that constitutionalism is travelling East. In the present tariff, he produced figures proving that Russia, in Turkey, and in Persia we are witnesses of while the man with £1 a week pays taxes equal to its birth-pangs. The next generation may see its ac- 2s. 8d. in the pound, the man who earns £2,000 a complishment still further East. In India Mr. Tilak year pays no more than 9¾d. The Government, he is on trial for sedition, and the eagerness with which added, came into power on “free food,” yet to the the proceedings are being watched all over the country consumer there was no difference between a tax upon shows how wide and deep are the roots of the National tea and a tax upon corn. Mr. Hobhouse, in reply, movement he represents. His magnificent defence of admitted that the tax was unjust and repugnant to the the views and aspirations of his party will be made finer feelings of the Government, but pleaded the known to the people through the native newspapers, financial impossibility of removing it. and will penetrate even beyond the reach of the Press * 3i * through news-agencies of a sort unknown to the West. We are tired of commenting upon these habitual Such eloquence will not be lost. confessions of impotence on the part of the strongest * * * Government of modern times, and we will only sug- Whether we like it or not, it is impossible any longer gest that the importance of the subject demanded at to deny that the demand for Indian autonomy is as the least an answer from the Chancellor of the Ex- extensive as it is serious. It is of no use talking con- chequer. No one in the country can yet have for- temptuously of “a few over-educated Babus wanting gotten the great campaign which was waged against to govern the rest of their countrymen.” Rather must the tea duty by the Liberals when in opposition. we recognise that the movement is already large and Posters depicting desolate and tealess homes were on articulate, and that in such matters there is no going every hoarding and helped to defeat Unionist candi- back. It may. be admitted that India is as yet unfitted dates at by-election after by-election right up to the General Election itself. ,- for self-government on a large scale ; that most of her Yet on Tuesday last Mr. population could not even understand the meaning of a Lloyd George did not even pay Mr. Snowden the vote ; and that to place supreme power in the hands of common courtesy of being present to hear his speech. the Westernised minority would be to invite disaster It is extraordinary that the Government, however care- and betray the masses. To-day these facts are unques- less of other considerations, should fail to realise the tionable. But equally so is the further statement that obvious tactical advantages of abolishing this indirect at some future time they will no longer be true. It is taxation. Imagine the effect of being able to go to on ‘that day rather than on the present that we must the country and say : “We have taken off all the taxes fix our attention. If we remember that it is coming, upon your food ; we have given you a free table for and frame our reforms accordingly, then we may hope tea and supper as well as for breakfast ; the Tories for a peaceful transformation. But if we forget, then propose to go back and add to the old new taxes on inevitably we shall find ourselves faced with just such corn and perhaps on meat. Which of us will you have ? ” a’ situation as that which is now perplexing Tsar and There is nothing in the way of this but “financial im- Sultan and Shah. possibility. ” x- * * w * + The discussion in the House last week on the Naval On Wednesday Mr. S. Roberts moved to reduce the Estimates was chiefly interesting for its exposures, income tax with the usual appeal to precedent and Mr, The furious controversy as to the relative strengths of Gladstone and the usual description of it as ‘( a war England and Germany has been carried on for the past tax. ” He also quoted Mr. Asquith’s promise to relieve year as if neither country possessed anything but the income tax payer when opportunity arose. Mr, “ Dreadnoughts. ” This, it now appears, is not the Lloyd George, in reply, accepted full responsibility for case. In point of fact, we have a great many other the pledges of his predecessor, but added drily that battleships of the first class, not to mention armoured he saw no prospect of the said opportunity arising, THE NEW AGE

In Japan, he casually informed the House, there was We can now state definitely that the Old Age Pen- now a graduated income tax, rising to as much AS sions Bill will pass through the Lords without either 5s. in the £, and he had been told personally by the delay or serious amendment. The “ Times ” has issued Japanese Chancellor of the Exchequer that the experi- a Bull threatening the Upper House with dire pains ment was working quite satisfactorily. It is a new and penalties if it should venture to obey the “ Spec- experience for us to learn interesting facts of this sort tator ” and give effect to its private opinion of the from a Minister instead of having ourselves to press measure. In that assembly Lord Northcliffe’s organ them on his attention ; but it is none the less welcome still retains its ancient pontifical authority, and we for that. Already our Eastern ally has proved her may rest assured that the instructions of the heavy efficiency in war. Is she now to show us the way in father of journalism will be followed to the letter. The social legislation ? constitutional position, the Peers are informed, is very * * * intricate, and unless they acquiesce in a Bill which is really part of the Budget “ they will place them- When Mr. Roberts had been disposed of, Mr. Chiozza selves in a very difficult and dangerous situation. Money moved an amendment to secure a declaration of No word is said of political expediency. Thus. is dignity income from all taxpayers. At present only those who preserved and England saved from untold disaster, are poor enough to claim abatement are required to t + ” disclose their total income, and consequently we have We have received some documents from Mr. T. C. T. no information as to the probable revenue that would Potts alleging gross misgovernment of the Gilbert and be obtained by a tax graduated all the way up the Ellice Islands, which are remote British dependencies scale. Mr. Lloyd George, however, declined to clear situated in the Western Pacific. Mr. Potts has peti- the ground for future developments. Possibly the tioned the King for an inquiry into certain grave alle- gambler’s instinct forms part of that inscrutable Welsh gations of himself and a trader, Mr. Lodge, and also personality. He does not care to know how many into the circumstances under which a concession was eggs there are before he robs the roost. We confess granted to the Pacific Phosphate Co. This company to some sympathy with him in this case-provided, of appears to have been fortunate enough to obtain from course, that he really intends to rob the roost-but the authorities a ninety-nine years’ monopoly of the the information would have been acceptable, all the phosphate deposits of the Paanopa Island, at a rental same. of £50 per annum, and in two years’ working its net * 9 * profit was £85,000! It is an unpleasant coincidence that Lord Stanmore, sometime Governor of Fiji, and The Home Secretary has been making valiant efforts High Commissioner of the Western Pacific, is chair- to retrieve his character as an administrator. Severely man of this concern. as he was heckled last week about the. imprisonment * * * of the Suffragettes he never lost his stolid official atti- Other charges which we have not had time to tude. Except once ; and that was when Mr. Alden asked scrutinise and verify are brought by Mr. Potts against him whether there was any precedent for such treat- Mr. Campbell, the present Resident Commissioner. ment in cases of political prisoners. With startling The statements of fact set out in the Petition involve and brilliant irrelevance came the reply : “ Does my reflections of a most serious character on the integrity honourable friend suggest that political murder should of Mr. Campbell and other officials in the Colonial not be punished?” Another question, asked by Mr. service. A careful perusal of the documents before MacNeill, his face blazing with honest indignation, us certainly lends colour to the view that Mr. Campbell was as to whether these ladies were obliged to wear the should be transferred to a less responsible post, and cast-off clothes of other prisoners. “ New clothes can- that Mr. Potts has been the victim of gross persecution. not be supplied for every prisoner,” remonstrated the Lord Crewe would be well advised to order a searching Home Secretary. That they should be allowed to wear investigation into the matter. their own clothes was a solution which did not occur + * * to him. A most lamentable lack of imagination has The action for libel brought by Mr. Jack Williams characterised the proceedings of the Government against the “ Daily Express ” was heard last week, and throughout in this matter. Feeling themselves-quite some of its features should interest Socialists who may reasonably-to be in the right, they have adhered at any time contemplate similar proceedings in the with petty persistence to the letter of the law. They courts of justice. The “ Express ” had stated that Mr. have insisted upon the justice of punishing street dis- Williams was a confirmed loafer, that he was con- turbances, when a generous recognition of the legiti- victed last summer and fined for being drunk and dis- macy of the agitation would have diverted sympathy orderly, and that he had used obscene language in to their side. To tiresome interruptions they have addressing a meeting of the unemployed on Tower replied with petulant reproaches and discourteous Hill. The question at issue was as to whether these refusals to receive properly constituted deputations. In statements were true or false. On the first the jury short, they have played up to their opponents by show- preferred their own opinion of Socialists in general to ing annoyance. On two occasions Mr. W. E. Glad- the direct evidence of the plaintiff’s employer for the stone peremptorily dismissed the demands of the last sixteen years ; on the second they refused (in women, but he never let himself look a fool. effect) to accept the statement of the clerk of the court * + * in which the plaintiff was alleged to have been so con- victed ; and on the third they accepted the recollections Mr. Balfour’s speech in the Queen’s Hall on the of the “ Express ” reporter and a friend of- his against education difficulty opened new vistas of religious con- the evidence of the police, who had taken a full short- troversy. Professing to be the bearer of a message hand note of the speech and declared that it contained of peace he defended with studied arrogance the no obscenity whatever. The jury are, however, per- superior claims of the Church of England. He declared haps less to be blamed for their bias than the Lord his firm adherence to the principle of tests for teachers, Chief Justice, who in summing up the evidence sug- and ridiculed those who are dissatisfied with the 1902 gested to them that if they found for the plaintiff (the settlement. His only new proposal was that the verdict which he naturally expected) they should award Cowper-Temple clause should be repealed and only nominal damages, since people who expressed such denominational teaching introduced into the Board views (i.e., Socialist views) could scarcely be “ really schools. In other words, he proposes now to sow damaged by this sort of thing.” The costs of both discord in the only schools that have escaped the sides fall on Mr. Williams, who cannot afford to appeal. demoralising effects consequent upon the war of the * * * Churches. The cause of education is to be sacrificed in [NEXT WEEK.--“ Porker on Women,” by Ashley Dukes ; order that the Opposition may have a new pawn to Occasional Reflections,” by Edgar Jepson; H. Quelch on play. The sinister figure of Mr. Balfour feeding the Socialist Policy.” Also First Part of a Lecture (specially flames of sectarian strife conjures up Mephistophelian ranslated for the NEW AGE) on “Free Union,” by Dr. Auguste memories. Forel. July 25, 244 --- THE NEW AGE 1908

ject, the only plan is to take the bull by the horns, and The Education Bill. quietly ignore them and their opposition, bitter and strenuous as it will be. If the clergy then fail, as they By Sir Hartley Williams. probably will fail, to utilise the liberty proposed to be given to them to impart religious teaching in the WHAT has become of this Bill? It has undoubtedly been schools, they will only have themselves to blame, and very sick. Is it then moribund, or is there any reason- onlookers will be able to estimate at its true value the able prospect of its restoration to health? Judging by violence of their enthusiasm for the religious teaching report, there appears to be but a small chance of its which they now so strongly advocate. recovery from the effects of the prolonged agony and This way out, which common sense indicates, and of - torture and the many knock-down blows to which it which the outline has been given, is no doubt simple in the extreme. Its simplicity will probably be one of has been subjected. The attempts to pacify the various the chief objections to it. It will no doubt be regarded ‘denominational bodies and to persuade them to agree as too rough and ready ; but when we contemplate * to any compromise or modus vivendi upon the subject the present lamentable and hopeless condition and posi- of religious teaching in the schools have all proved tion of the Education Bill, we feel forced to the con- abortive, and no progress can be discerned as possible clusion that the most merciful course to pursue is to with a measure which, we were assured a short time put an end to its tortured existence. Let us, therefore, ago, is a matter of national importance. consign it to the waste-paper basket, and start de novo ‘In this impasse, why should not common sense essay on the lines suggested in this article. If we desire precedents for an educational measure of the kind indi- to find a way out. 2 Prima facie it is the duty of the cated, bold and drastic as it undoubtedly is, we have State to see that the children of the State receive such only to look abroad, and we will have no difficulty in an education as will tend to turn them out efficient, finding them. We think that, outside the religious good, and moral citizens. Prima facie it is the duty of denominations, such a measure would be generally parents and guardians and of the clergy of the various acceptable, and that the mass of the people of this denominations to impart religious instruction to the country would support it. With that support it might be successfully piloted through the House of Commons. This function is one of the reasons for the children. Whether the votes and influence of the spiritual lords creation and existence of the clergy of all denomina- in another place would be too many and too much for tions. If, however, they all could agree upon some it is another question. For many years their votes and simple form or forms of religious lessons or instruc- influence defeated the Deceased Wife’s Sister’s Bill, tion to be given in school, the sectarian difficulty would and there is no doubt but that they would strain every still remain unvanquished. The teacher, whose duty it nerve and stick at no obstacle to defeat an educational would be to administer the religious lesson or instruc- measure framed on the lines suggested in this article. tion would either have a bias against religious instruc- tion or in its favour, and if in its favour, that bias would be tainted with sectarianism originating from The Kiddies and the Flowers. ‘the religious belief of the teacher. Then again the children to be taught are not dumb, and, like most I aint no bloomin’ juggler, but I knows children, being of an enquiring turn of mind, they Wot brings the ruby colour to the rose ; would be certain to ask questions. If these questions Wot mykes the pink-an’-white o’ London Pride, be not answered, the children will be tolerably sure to W’y the tall lilies are gold-tinted inside, form a low estimate of the religious lesson or instruc- An’ lykewise w’y the scarlet runners run- tion given, while if, on the other hand, they be It is the influence of the glorious sun ! answered by the teacher, the answers given are equally sure to be in some degree coloured by the religious An’ not alone the sun ; it is the rain, belief of the teacher. Further, there is clearly no desire The bath o’ Nature streamed o’er ‘ill an’ plain ; on the part of the teachers that this function, which, It is the kindlin’ o’ the clean, sweet air as we have pointed out, is that of others, should devolve That mykes all ‘erbs an’ blossoms fresh an’ fair, upon them. In fact, taking the whole body of teachers, That mykes it ‘appiness ter live an’ grow the great majority of them are adverse to the proposal. Until the garden is a ‘Eaven below. . The teachers are quite willing to teach, and, we are glad to say, do teach morality : they do their best to I aint no bloomin’ doctor, but I sees instil into the minds of the children, and to form in W’y doctors overwork fer scanty fees them, habits of diligence, honesty, truthfulness, kind- Around our district- w’ich is Lambeth way- ness, obedience, clean living in body and mind, and An’ w’y we ‘ave kids’ funerals every day ; punctuality. If, however, teachers are to be compelled It is because the kiddies only thrive to do that which the clergy appear desirous of shirk- On wot doth keep the ‘erbs an’ flowers alive. ing -viz., to impart religious instruction-then, no matter how simple the lesson may be, it will either Pore little kiddies, doomed ter waste -ter death, degenerate into a meaningless farce, and be so esti- Fer lack o’ Nature’s clear an’ balmy breath ! mated by the children, or sectarianism will creep in. Pore little stunted lilies-O so white ! What then is to be done? There is only one way out, O give ter each the simple, ample dower and to get out there is only one thing to be done. That Thou dost give ter every rural flower ! That is to enact free, compulsory, and secular educa- Dear Christ, ‘ave mercy on each fragile mite ! tion, with liberty to the religious instructors of the various denominations to enter the schools at specified In Galilee, You said once long ago : hours-say, an hour before school commences and an ‘(Consider ‘ow the beauteous lilies grow : ” hour after it closes-and give to the children of their We do consider this most pleasant word, denominations whose parents desire that such instruc- But-let me put it plynely, gracious Lord- tion should be given whatever religious lessons or Ain’t all the little kiddies, Lambeth way, instruction they consider advisable or best. This is the As precious as the lilies any day? solution of common sense, and, in our opinion, it is, and will be found to be, the only effective solution. it Yer knows it, Lord ; then do not let ‘em pine is also one no doubt to which the greater portion of Fer want o’ Nature’s influence benign ; the laity would agree, which the large majority of the If blokes lyke me must pay the bitter price teachers would welcome, but which the clergy of the Of our fust parents’ fall in Paradise various denominations would probably attack tooth (W’ich is a story as I greatly doubt)- and nail. AS it is impossible to please them, or to get There ain’t no sense in shuttin’ kiddies out ! them to agree even amongst themselves on this sub- KENNINGTON CROSS, Then I tried the lawyers. The answer I got most Why do we send our Children frequently was this : “It’s the law,” and then they crossed themselves and looked grave. to the Dock ? One old gentleman admitted that, viewed sentimen- “THIS poor little thing,” said Miss Duncan, “is not tally perhaps, hem ! hem ! viewed sentimentally, the allowed to dance because she is just under ten,” and police-court was not quite the place you would like to she patted the poor little thing’s head, and the poor take your own girl to, but he had really never seen any little thing looked unutterably miserable. evil consequences (psychological consequences while But I felt proud. you wait ! the quaint man !). Maybe he was so used to “You see,” I said, “we have to fix a limit some- the police-court-spent half his life there, you know- where, and ten seems about the proper one. Of course, that it did not jar on him (mark that ! it didn’t jar on it’s hard on you ; you treat the children so wisely and him), and everything was managed decently, children educate them well and make them so fit and fine, but, brought in first thing when the court was clear, almost generally, it wouldn’t do, would it, to let a very, very never mixed with the drunks . . . little child go on the stage and get over-excited and “ Mixed with the drunks ! ” neurotic and all that sort of thing? We English are “ Oh, almost never.” strict, but we are kind. The moral and physical health God! I had not thought of that. Think of the bare of the children : we are very careful of that.” possibility, ! “You are so careful? “- Miss Duncan smiled the I went to the theatre-managers. The theatre- query straight at me. managers did not help me to a solution. They merely “Yes ; our medical regulations are the only thing in deepened my horror and perplexity. connection with the theatre we can be proud of. The Mix with the drunks? Every time, almost, at some plays and the acting are bad, cannot be worse, I sup- courts--that means once a week on tour. (A devil’s pose, but we have wonderful medical regulations.” Sabbath.) Of course, some magistrates are particular, “Then why is it,” she asked, turning to me abruptly, and try to keep the courts clear, but what would you? “that you send these children down to the police-court The drunks come on next turn, and one must not to be licensed ? ” waste time ; they generally meet in the wings. Her finger pointed towards the stage, where the And, yes, they would like to see the law amended. troupe of beautiful Parisian dancers (see advertisement) Better a medical-officer, better even a puritanic County were sitting and lying in all postures of ease, and Council, than the police-court. In some towns already watching us with bright, eager eyes for a sign of con- the evil was realised, and the magistrate saw the chil- clusion to my chatter. dren in a private room ; but, anyhow, the police-court I blushed-and then turned pale. The bringing to- was the police-court ! From which one gathers that gether of those two ideas, the police-court and these theatre-managers have bowels. children of the sun, produced in me a feeling of nausea. But the law has none ; this blind, mechanical, It appeared that our regulations were not so perfect moralist’s law that treats the actor-children as if they after all. were criminals, brands them, makes them breathe con- Then the band began to twitter in an impatient, tinually the air of this ante-chamber of the pit, accus- jerky manner, and Miss Duncan shook my hand and toms them to go there, to stand as a “case ” before a smiled me into oblivion . . . magistrate, to be familiar with corruption-(and do Why do we send these children to a police-court to you understand the immense importance of the com- be licensed ? mon man’s disinclination to go to a police-court, of his I could not imagine. It was too absurd. Now, I unfamiliarity with-and perhaps therefore, his dislike could have understood the sense of sending the police- of, the paraphernalia of the place?)--this foolish law court to the children for approval. But even that . . . that places an impressionable child cheek by jowl with The bringing of them together would not bear think- the dregs and offal of life, the obscene, dirty, diseased ing cf. by-products of the social machine. You know the pestered magistrate, worn threadbare emotionally by his constant rubbing against brutality, This is no unimportant matter. The number of children employed on the stage is considerable. It is you know the pedant clerk, the callous, well-meaning good they should be employed there. Most of them policeman, the lewd, grinning public, the shabby, dirty get better fed and better educated than they would in atmosphere, the sour, sanitised odour of filth and crime. their own homes. It is not a bad training even for the average man to learn to be easy and unconstrained, Why do we send these children there? to speak clearly, to move gracefully, and keep his A police-court is a place where crime is punished mouth shut without looking a fool. with many stripes and virtue rewarded from the poor- These are all good things. Why need we spoil them then with this con- box. You go there if you are a criminal or a judge or both, or a virtuous pauper. But these children eluded stant pressing in of the mark of the beast? such classification. To shift the scene to a private room in the police- Let us analyse. They go to be licensed. To do court building, to try to keep the child clear of the what? To appear in stage-plays, music hall entertain- charge-sheet is like getting him to touch infection with ments, and the ballet divertisements of Mr. Beerbohm a glove on. There is no possible controversy over the Tree. For whose sake are they licensed? For their matter. The law has got to be altered. We do not own, obviously, that the theatre manager may only want a constant stream of infection passing into our employ them when they are strong enough to stand it, homes and our theatres. We want some day to see when the moral atmosphere of the theatre is not dis- the theatre a temple and- the actors priests ; we will cordant, when their schooling is looked to, when they not let the law pollute our priests. Already most of are well fed, do not work too long hours, and have the business is done by the County Council inspectors. passable parents. A very pretty picture-it makes one It is their reports that really regulate the granting and feel fatherly to look at it. And we give them this refusing of licenses. The man of the world magistrate charter of health at the police-court !Why in the is largely a wax figure that pats the child’s head and world do we do it? says, “ Do you like acting, dear? ” and “That’s right, This dreadful query sat on my spirit clawing for that’s right.” Why not put away the wax figure? All sundry nights and days. At last it grew too much for you want is the certificate of the L.C.C. inspectors me. I had to get some sort of answer or go under. and a competent medical officer. Where do the police- So I went a-questioning. I tackled people in the station and the magistrate come in? streets, on top of ‘buses, ‘in marble-topped restaurants. I urge the absolute necessity of getting an amend- “Why do we send our theatre-children to the police- ment added to the Children’s Bill transferring the station to be licensed? ” granting of licences from the magistrate to the borough No one had any idea. One or two thought it was a or county council medical officer. conundrum, and asked what was the prize. W. R. TITTERTON, 246 THE NEW AGE JULY 25, 1908

whom it means not the joy of sacrifice, but the fierce delight of possession ; the man seizes, the woman Good Breeding or Eugenics. renders. The man’s protestations of eternal love are as unnecessary as they are futile. Women who have loved, XIII. and the introspective women of this generation who MARRIAGE is so unimportant a factor in good breeding have analysed the emotion, have realised this hazard that I have bestowed little attention upon it. Everyone their sex runs. At all events, in material things, which recognises nowadays marriages, as contracted in Euro- play no unimportant share in the round of life, the suf- pean States, are unions that cannot have the basis of frage-women, have said that women shall not suffer by permanency. In this country any two young persons reason of this strange antinomy of the two species that between whom a chance acquaintanceship evokes some compose the human race. The sensible modern man sex attraction can, in a few days, link themselves for can but look on and applaud ; for at the bottom of his life ; or that union may depend upon purely financial or heart he does not believe that any power of the vote, territorial considerations. Even in the more or less pro- any but the utmost freedom, will change the deep-lying longed courtship that is customary, what knowledge has instincts. On the contrary, there are signs that the either of the high-contracting partners of the other? sexes tend rather to a greater differentiation and not to a closer homogeny. * * * When knowledge reveals some gross incompatibility The question of the children has not been forgotten. of temperament, when experience shows that one is tied For the protection of women, and in the best interests to some unpleasant debauché, to a drunkard, an epilep- of the State, it has become necessary to place maternity tic, when one of the possible purposes of the marriage -maternity- is denied, when, as is not uncommon, the upon the footing of the most favoured industry. For many years blind efforts have been made in this direc- husband infects the wife with disease, the unhappy pair tion-for instance, in the free education of children- find no honourable escape. Marriage is supposed to but it has only recently become a conscious movement. mean monogamy in England. As a matter of fact, of course, most men are polygynous, and obey their in- For the details of a workable scheme I refer those interested to “The Endowment of Motherhood.” It stincts ; most women are polyandrous, and some obey becomes necessary to protest against the absurd matri- their true propensities. Various are the reforms that mania and genomania of some reformers. One corre- have been advocated ; some would make the divorce spondent from North America writes me that there are laws broader ; the English, whose middle class is more thousands of women in the United States whose sole licentious than that of any other civilised people, except desire is that Roosevelt shall be the father of their chil- the Yankees, have less liberal laws than other races, dren. Stupid, “cultured,” superficial, and uninteresting e.g., insanity under certain conditions is a ground for as are most American women, in piquant contrast to the divorce in Germany. Others would make marriage more natural vivacity and glow of the men, I know that difficult. The sensible and simple plan is to instruct women are not quite so devoid of imagination as is pre- your young persons, and then allow them to make what- soever contracts they wish, inducing them, if possible, tended. The correspondent, of course knowing little or nothing about women, imagines them attracted by the to ascertain some simple facts about one another in an appeal to the literary or political strong man or by a easy way. No one, I least of all, would pretend to wish to immolate themselves on the altar of the future. make this a perfect world. But at all events by allow- The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the ing people to make their own regulations and to break strong. The world is composed of individualities, and them we permit them to make other arrangements with though we cannot understand “what she could have sufficient frequency to discover in time the mates that seen in him ” or “he in her,” I think there is much to suit. x- * 3c be said for Grant Allen’s elective affinities ; perhaps some subtle chemical-emanation, or some subtler psychi- Women are now entering into all pursuits with so cal one that defies the senses of all outside the magic much zeal, and making themselves so efficient in every pair. occupation of life, that they can now enter marriage -x * * with a clear realisation of their own value. If they give up the occupation, temporarily or permanently, which It is just this mysterious bond that renders so afforded them a living, there can be no pretence that difficult the task of pedantic scientists like myself. In they are not entitled to a full partnership in the joint France and Germany it is proposed to allow no mar- home-to something more than the housekeeper’s wage. riage without a certificate of health - “a document Women could insist, then, on proper deeds of partner- setting forth that the holder of the certificate has under- ship, and though young people in love are apt to neglect gone a medical examination before getting married.” all precautions, they very soon discover the value of The details of the examination are to be entered on the some stable arrangement. At any time after their union certificate and given to the other side. This does not the contract could be made, and one that would have mean any prohibition of marriage, but it is a means, the same force as any other deed of partnership. It and a sound one, of allowing the two people to know would be better when thus made after they have lived something about their physical condition. If, knowing together some months and proved one another. In the worst, they are still bent on matrimony, well, they many cases women would not entirely surrender their must run the risk. There is no reason why such certi- occupation, and so they would remain in quite as inde- ficates should not be requested nowadays ; they seem to pendent a position as the man. me as useful as the legal enquiries into the young man’s position and the nature of the young woman’s invest- ments. Possibly some unhappy alliances might be It does not seem probable that rational people will avoided and some men and women would not unite if yet have their way, and the emotion of love become a there were a reasonable certainty of their children being negligible quality in human affairs. It is precisely on epileptics, or insane, or if one of the partners were this ground, and because of the safeguards that women suffering from an infectious disease. ‘It has been my require, that they demand to step in and protect their experience to caution a man suffering from disease own sex. In the arguments that travel around the against marrying ; to discover the warning unheeded suffrage question, women are insistent in avoiding the and the wife infected. Would the marriage have taken real issue and men are careful not to raise it. To woman place had the facts been known to her? Surely many love means renunciation, a complete abandonment of would avoid it, and even if it but save a few individuals herself without a thought or desire of compensation, of and a few children, unhappy from birth through some reward ; she gives up body and soul, and she finds inherited disease, the suggestion of health certificates therein her supreme joy. She makes no bargains, no before marriage is a Eugenic proposal worth entertain- conditions for the present or the future. Thus love ing, M. D. EDER, brings the woman under the subjection of a man to THE END, JULY 25, 1908

England who would be going about with their heads Women and War. down, and biting their hands in helpless rage. We sympathised with them, but we knew they would be “ WOMEN, being themselves non-combatants, would yet getting to work at once with both mind and muscle, have the power of declaring war and sending men out determined to do something. But it was a far deeper to fight.” As it was really some knowledge of the in- feeling than sympathy which went out to the women. tolerable and unfair strain of war upon women that The first thought was to the dear old Queen-and one’s firstly influenced me in favour of their appeal for equal heart contracted painfully-and then to one’s own voting rights, possibly my point of view may be worth women-folk, and then to the women of England. And a moment’s consideration. one went away and got to work quickly. Those I have heard bring the argument forward My friend receives a bullet in the head and is killed. There is a deep curse under the breath, and the tears have seemed to consider-ridiculous as it may appear- will rise when he is buried and a grave is left, but I that the man who went to fight was the principal suf- know he is all right ; the regret is for myself in having ferer in a state of war ; whereas, indeed, it is he who lost a good friend. Then, when it is over, I go home is to be congratulated ; and seldom, very seldom, and, on receipt of a little note, visit my late friend’s would he change places with the unfortunate fellow widow. There are three children-two boys, the . who had to remain at home. He would not miss the eldest nine, and a little girl. The widow tries to but I leave that house realising happiness of the movement, the action, the risk, the control her feelings, for the first time the real terror of the war through fighting, the life, the continual feeling that he is which I have been. The physical pains of a dozen really living. He would not miss this, I say, for wounds are not to be compared with the suffering of anything. that broken heart. It may be savagery and barbarism. The soldier will Again. We approach a Dutch farmhouse, and it is not argue the point with the man who brings it for- reported that two men were seen to slink away along ward ; he will pity him and let him stay at home ; but the orchard wall and disappear towards the spruit. There are three women in the house, two young-one he is satisfied that there is far less savagery and bar- lately married and mistress of the house-and the old barism in warfare than is to be found in any civilised mother. They are questioned, but deny that there are country in the piping times of peace. any Boers about the farm, or that any have been there It is hearts and souls that count and should be con- that day. Sentries are posted at a little distance, and sidered in this world. Bodies come afterwards. The we enter the house for the usual more or less casual hatred and bitterness is with the peaceful ones at inspection-firearms, hidden ammunition, or even men under beds or in lofts, as they were sometimes found. home who have caused the war, not with the soldier. We have hardly commenced to look round when, ,’ He still fights with an open heart. Kwa-ku ! the report of a mauser. We spring out and I can hardly imagine a soldier or a war correspon- see the sentry posted on the ridge to our right collapse dent of any genuine experience bringing forward the in a heap. A hurried movement and we are satisfied argument against woman suffrage given above, for the that it is the work of a sniper-and it must be one of simple reason that his knowledge of how much more the two who were seen to leave the house as we approached it. suffering and agony there is for women than for men We return to the house and, questioning the -women in time of war compels him to believe that reasons again, can see they lied to us. Naturally and of would have to be weighty indeed, and every possible course they lied to US. What were they to do? Our alternative a failure, before the voice of women would questioning is merely a formal matter from start to be for an appeal to arms. finish. However, a man has been shot at the home- stead, and the rules of war are plain and well known, The man on the field will perhaps go hungry and and if it is to be war at all they must be carried out. thirsty ; he will shiver through bitterly cold nights The women are told they have ten minutes to collect without covering. He will risk at all times the loss what they most require, and that the house will then of an arm or a leg ; capture and possible torture by be burnt down. the enemy-but his only dread is sickness. With Oh ! the pity of it ! everything else he is active and moving, and. chances The house and all its contents do not count for a are fair and compensations great. As to sickness and moment against the life of the sentry ; but the praying of the women, the wringing of the hands, and the disease, he is liable to that anywhere, but it is wicked streaming faces. They lose five minutes in vain im- to him at the front because then he is “ missing the plorings, then the torches are lit ; and they choke in fun. ” their throats and go for the last time into But there come trying times to the man on active their dear old home, with its quaint little harmonium service. As man to man he glories in it ; either side-- in the corner, its hand-carved chairs and tables and bedsteads, which they will never be able to replace ; savage brute ! When woman is included his heart the handwork ornaments on the walls, and the hun- falls. Innocent of all offence ; never having been con- dred and one things they love. They are given an sulted or considered ; having had, perhaps, to contain extra five minutes to make up for the time they lost ; her passionate protest silently within her heart : the and one or two soldiers go in and give them a willing soldier knows and shudders at the thought of what hand to collect some of the most precious things. she must suffer. Whether, in personal safety, she Then time is up, and all are ordered out of the house sits pining and yearning and dreading for those at the and torches are applied to the thatched roof. The women- not crying now, they are past that-sit down front, or whether the fighting actually takes place in beside the few things they have saved and bury their her neighbourhood, the feeling of utter helplessness, faces in their hands not to see the fire. the knowledge that she can only sit and wait must The Boers move on before us ; they mount their be crushing to the heart of the mother, the wife, and ponies and canter over the hills. Movement and the sister. action all the time ! A farmhouse is burnt, and they In Ladysmith, when we knew of the defeat of curse and shoot straight, and it is soon forgotten. Buller at Colenso, there was very little said, but when The men wanted war, and they are having it, and it is to a friend a remark was made, this would surely be all right ! But had the women-those whose sufferings are greatest and whose hearts are seared for all time the first : “ What an awful time it must be for them -a word in bringing on the South African war? And at home !” would war ever have been declared if women had had We sympathised with the poor fellows at home in to decide? RICHMOND HAIGH. their time there was utterly wasted. The authorities Military Education at Whitehall, of Whitehall fancy that any person who is ordered by By Dr. T. Miller Maguire. them to deliver lectures thereby becomes an efficient instructor. I get reports from all parts of the Empire III. of the deplorable results of this preposterous fallacy. For the first time in the history of any civilised State Not six officers out of all the Staff of the Army could has any generation of noblemen and gentlemen, so- give a on e h our’s lecture that would interest a Mechanic’s called, been grossly ignorant and proud of Ignorance Institute on Napoleon’s campaigns or on Marlborough as if it were Knowledge. We all admire all manly or on Wellington or on the British in India. Not four exercises and horsemanship, indeed our instructors Whitehall chieftains could speak on any professional have had to take no end of pains to teach wealthy race- subject at the Royal United Service Institution without frequenting idlers how to ride ; but manly exercise is preparation or lavish notes. one thing and the Cult of Sport to the neglect of Brain The late Lord Morley, when Secretary of State for Power is quite another thing. Every word that Euri- War, wrote to me more than twenty years ago that pides said in contempt of the worship of game players English Literature and History were left out of the by degenerate Greeks applies with ten times the force curriculum to please Eton ! Of course, the result has to the scenes at the shoddy Olympic games at Shep- been disastrous. As Lord Roberts declared, a large pro- herd’s Bush. All that Tacitus says about the worship portion of the officers cannot write or understand of jockeys and gladiators and other sportsmen and of orders. Their lack of necessary knowledge was often danseuses by decadent Rome applies word for word to fatal in the late war to themselves and their men. A the entertainments of Cabinet Ministers and the habits large proportion of the candidates for Woolwich and of life of our nouveaux riches and the titled women and Sandhurst never read six books of good English litera- men of to-day. ture, not even Scott’s novels, and know nothing about Of course this brutal folly is the child of Ignorance. Military History. A well-known politician wrote to me Young Tories and Whigs carry on the same system a few days ago in most contemptuous terms of this and manners at their War Office as they began at their inane system. I quote one phrase : “ In military circles schools. The Army Council system of Education : it seems to be thought that while only a drill-sergeant Qualifying, Entrance, Promotion, Staff College, Tac- can teach drill, any casual, untrained mind can teach tical, Strategic, Literary, Linguistic, Scientific, and military history and cognate subjects.” My correspon- Social is a farce and a fraud from beginning to end. dent is right ; the War Office is full of “ fools in The system of the Chinese mandarins was more reason- putties,” as Sir W. Butler called them. But their ap- able, as it was based on excessive reverence for certain palling ineptitude is worthy of a military adjunct of classical writings, while the Army Council’s methods fashionable and Ministerial society that worships music- and ideals are based on snobbery and jobbery and ab- hall artistes and pretends to worship cricket at Lords, horrence of Learning. and goes into raptures over stable boys in the pluto- I have before me the general education programme cratic and titled maelstrom of Ascot enclosure. of officers of every leading State. To compare White- But there is no worship for knowledge and its hall’s curriculum with any one of these is to compare votaries ! I could fill columns with anecdotes of insolent * the Stadium of West London with the Roman Coli- and mean ill-treatment of my own colleagues in educa- seum. From examinations for cadets who are allowed tion for the past generation. All teachers are worse to gain commissions without being able to read, write, treated in England than in Germany or any other civi- spell, or cipher, to the tactical tests for officers aged lised State. On the other hand, men take up hunting, forty, who are often examined by men who are much racing, and polo deliberately, because admission to the more ignorant than themselves, out of “cast ” text- highest social circles can be gained by lavish expendi- books, all is confusion and waste and irritation and ture of time and money on these arts by any rich fool, folly. But for a few German tutors in Tactics most however worthless in other respects and however of the Tactical Examiners could not set a scheme ! Yet ignorant of every other accomplishment. The military these private tutors are very badly treated by the text-books of the War Office for many years past have authorities, almost as badly as the well-known and supplied topics for ridicule to home and foreign critics. veteran English educationalist, Colonel Lonsdale-Hale, They are stupid and cheap compilations utterly un- who never received any decoration, though every mili- worthy of the nation ; yet men of genius have founded tary sycophant in society or hanger-on of the Court the elaborate and brilliant theories of the various has his breast covered with orders. Not one man in branches of the Art of War which used to have a three of the War Office Educational Staff could lecture splendid literature in England, and still furnishes lavish on any military topic to any audience, or ever studied material to most able writers on the Continent. Only the Science or Art of Education, or was ever a teacher five of all the British writers on the Art of War are or is any more fit to draw up Courses of Study and even noticed in the scholastic circles of any other army, conduct examinations than a Dean is fit to be engine- and two of these are barristers who have been very driver to the Flying Dutchman or Scotch Express. badly treated, and indeed insulted, by the charlatans of I have seen topographical papers in which streams Whitehall. ran up and down inclines like switchback railways. I So wantonly indifferent to the honour and prospects have seen scientific papers set to young candidates of officers are the Army Council authorities that they which no man of science in England could work out. often set courses on books that are out of print, and Some problems on military engineering might possibly terrible annoyance and irritation and injury result, and be solved by the engineers who constructed the Chinese not the least apology is made to victims. Wall or the bulwarks of Adrian and Antoninus, but no In such subjects as Tactics and Topography and man living could solve them. An ingenious examiner Engineering, the “ Army and Navy Gazette ” (June 30) officially censured sixty captains for ignoring what he proved that there is complete antagonism between the called “the fact ” that the Volga flowed into the Black views of our anonymous examiners, half of whom Sea, whereas the Councillors of the Royal Geographical cannot write intelligible English, and not only our own Society declare that it flows into the Caspian Sea. recognised text-books, but also the leading authors Another set of Staff College candidates were asked to of other armies. In fact, if the unsigned examination discuss the strategy of the British Empire on the sup- tests of the Whitehall Star Chamber. be right, every position that the English Channel and the North Sea tactician from Tokio to Potsdam and from Chalons to were dry land ! the Curragh must be wrong ! The sooner Military These are simple matters, but when it comes to the Education under the Whitehall Star Chamber system more technical branches of the Art of War, we find is abolished the better ; it is a nuisance and a snare cases of instructors being appointed for mere social to ordinary officers and a downright insult to all officers reasons or “ because they were good at games.” Sand- who take pains to learn their business. hurst as an educational establishment is so bad that But what is the Army Council? I will answer this the cadets have for many years declared that most of question in the next article. JULY 25, 1908 THE NEW AGE 249

way of life, and it is all that the masses are fit for ; The Bourgeoisie. they, are ugly and dirty and vicious, and never can be anything else, and there is nothing to do but keep’ By Upton Sinclair. hem in their place. This was once easy, but now THE bourgeoisie, or middle-class, is that class which, it is growing harder-and thus little by little the bour- all over the world, takes the sceptre of power as it geoisie is losing its temper. Just now it is like a fat falls from the hands of the aristocracy ; which has poodle by a stove-you think it is asleep and venture * the skill and cunning to survive in the free for all to touch it, when quick as a flash it has put its fangs combat which follows upon the political revolution. in you to the bone. Its dominion is based upon wealth ; and hence the The bourgeois civilisation is, in one word, an determining characteristic of the bourgeois society is organised system of repression. In the physical world its regard for wealth. To it wealth is power ; it is it has the police and the militia, the bludgeon, the the end and goal of things. The bourgeois represents bullet, and the gaol ; in the world of ideas it has the an achievement of the body, and all that he political platform, the school, the. college, the Press, knows in the world is body. He is well fed himself, the Church-and literature. The bourgeois controls his wife is stout, and his children are fine and vigorous. these things precisely as he controls the labours of He lives in a big house and wears the latest thing in society-by the control of the purse-strings. clothes ; his civilisation furnishes these to every one- We have at present established in this land a religion at least to every one who amounts to anything, and which exists in the name of the world’s greatest revo- beyond that he understands nothing-save only the lutionist, the founder of the socialist movement ; this desire to be entertained. It is for entertainment that man denounced the bourgeois and the bourgeois ideal he buys books, and as entertainment that he regards more vehemently than ever it has since been denounced them ; and, hence, one characteristic of the bourgeois -declaring in plain words that no bourgeois could literature is its lack of seriousness. The bourgeois get into Heaven ; and yet his Church is to-day, in all writer has a certain kind of seriousness, of course- its forms, and in every civilised land, the main pillar the seriousness of a hungry man seeking his dinner ; of bourgeois society ! but the seriousness of the artist he does not know. With the Press the bourgeois has a still more direct He will roar you as gently as any sucking dove ; he method than endowment ; the Press he owns. All the will also wring tears from your eyes or thrill you with daily newspapers in New York, for instance, are the terror, according as the fashion of the hour suggests ; property of millionaires, and are run by them in their but he knows exactly why he does these things, and own interests, exactly the same as their stables or he can do them between chats at his club. their cuisine. The basis of a bourgeois society is cash payment ; And so we come to literature-and to the author. it recognises only the accomplished fact. To be a The bourgeois recognises the novelist and the poet Milton with a “ Paradise Lost ” in your pocket is to as a means of amusement somewhat above the prosti- be a tramp ; to be a great author in the bourgeois tute, and about on the level with the music-hall ; he literary world is to have sold a hundred thousand recognises the essayist, the historian and the publicist copies, and to have sold them within memory-that is, as agents of bourgeois repression equally as necessary a year or two. With the bourgeois, success is success, as the clergyman and the editor. To all of them he and there is no going behind the returns ; to dis- grants the good things of the bourgeois life, a bour- criminate between different kinds of success would be geois home with servants who know their places, and to introduce new and dangerous distinctions. a bourgeois club with smiling and obsequious waiters. The bourgeois ideal is a perfectly definite and con- They may even, on state occasions, become acquainted crete one : it has mostly all been attained-there are with the bourgeois magnates, and touch the gracious only a few small details left to be attended to, such fingers of the magnates’ pudgy wives. There is as the cleaning of the streets and the suppressing of only one condition, so obvious that it hardly needs to the labour unions. There is no call for perplexity, and be mentioned-they must be bourgeois, they must see no use for anything hard to understand. Originality life from the bourgeois point of view. Beyond that is superfluous, and eccentricity is anathema. The there is not the least restriction ; the novelist, for in- world is as it always has been, and human nature stance, may roam the whole of space and time-there will always be as it is ; the thing to do is to find out is nothing in life that he may not treat, provided only what the public likes. The-public likes pathos and the that he be bourgeois in his treatment. He may show homely virtues. The public does not like passion ; us the olden time, with noble dames and gallant gentle- it likes sentiment, however-it even likes heroics, men dallying with graceful sentiment. He may enter- provided they are unconventionalised, and so, to amuse tain us with pictures of the modern world, may dazzle it, we turn all history into a sugar-coated romance. us with visions of high society in all its splendours, may The public’s strong point is love, and we lay much awe us with the wonders of modern civilisation, of stress upon the love element-though with limitations, steam and electricity, the flying-machine and the needless to say. The idea of love as a serious problem automobile. He may thrill us with battle, murder, and among men and women is dismissed, because the Sherlock Holmes. He may bring tears to our eyes social organisation enables us to satisfy our passions at the thought of the old folks at home, or at his pic- with the daughters of the poor. Our own daughters tures of the honesty, humility, and sobriety of the know nothing about passion, and we ourselves know common man ; he may even go to the slums and show it only as an item in our bank accounts. To the us the ways of Mrs. Wiggs, her patient frugality and bourgeois young lady--the Gibson girl, as she is other- beautiful contentment in that state of life to which it wise known-literary love is a sentiment ranking has pleased God to call her. In any of these fields the with a box of bonbons, and actual love is a class mar- author, if he is worth his salt, may be “ entertaining ” riage with an artificially restricted progeny. -and so the royalties will come in. If there is any These which have been considered are the positive one whom this does not suit-who is so perverse that and more genial aspects of the bourgeois civilisation ; the bourgeois do not please him, or so obstinate that the savage and terrible remain to be considered. For he will not learn to please the bourgeois-we send it must be understood that this civilisation of com- after him our literary policeman, the bourgeois fort and respectability furnishes its good things only reviewer, and bludgeon him into silence ; or, better yet, to a class, and to an exceedingly small class. By we simply leave him alone, and he moves into a means of its control of all economic opportunity this garret. The bourgeois garrets resemble the bourgeois small class is enabled to charge a monopoly price excursion steamers. They are never so crowded that while paying a competitive wage, and thus to skim off there is not room for as many more as want to come the entire surplus product of society for its own use. on board ; and any young author who imagines that The majority of mankind it pens up in filthy hovels he can bear to starve longer than the world can bear and tenements, to feed upon husks and rot in misery. to let him starve, is welcome to try it. Letting things This is unpleasant to think of, of course, but it is the starve is the specialty of the bourgeois society. JULY 25, 1908

Oriole Notes . Andrea d’Agnolo By Beatrice Tina. (de1 Sarto). How often did his soul ache as he painted? I DID never believe to have sung an oriole note about England : so jealously my heart was with the heart of How often fainted Ethiopia. His erring spirit, while the immortal gift But while a rose-hedge tilts its white, wild blossoms Of his right hand cut wider the deep rift against a summer-blue-sky, I must lie back among the Between him and his art? clover and sing. How often did his palette light a higher For crimes against the gods, the early folk were And purer fire changed to birds and streams ; and disobedient nymphs Within him? Much he suffered, so they say, were turned to reeds and laurels. Because a worthless clod of woman’s clay Would I knew the crime which would commit me Burdened his foolish heart. ever to be a rose ! * * * He made her dust immortal ; never man Since world began Syllables which swell to a sound like my rapture Paid better for the privilege she gave circle with the noontide butterflies around the rose-bush. Of share in her ; but did the baggage save I hear them winding in the spiral of my mind ; and the Him from his faulty self? inner ear tries them with its tuning-key. They float While he translated her into the sky, about my lips, and I say A with the grass, and B with Madonna high : the bee, and Oo with the bird : and the soul of me All that she did was drag him down, down, says Ay with them all. down. Whoever told me that I might pluck a rose and, with To coin his fame and sully his renown no fear of death, despoil the thrush’s nest and tear the And smirch his soul for pelf. daisy from its bed. ? I know that I may not do these things. The blossom and the bird came with us out of Uxorious master ! that could let a wife ’ Paradise. They sing the song Eve taught them. Tarnish your life Heaven hold our hands ! And with her greedy, harlot view of things * * * Betray your spirit, soil you, clip your wings To line her dirty nest. I note the rhythm of the rose. It is swaying above Some other she had helped to lift your soul its five-leaved sprays, nectared and expanded to the Nearer the goal- uttermost edge of its burnished curves. It seems the To raise your genius and environ it favourite, the confidant of Earth, through whom she With womanhood a little better fit does up-breathe, at last, her answer to the Sun. To guard your precious best. Sunflowers, tulips, and such proudly-rearing blooms stand to express the message of the great Lover ; but Vain, vain to think so ! Pitifully vain roses, to convey the message of Earth. Not in a single This futile strain. May-day is she won. Our fires burn dull or splendid as they can. And when the last summer instant comes, and the rose divinely strips her heart, no Tragedy is this ex- No woman’s taper shall eclipse in man cept to the butterfly beau and the robber bee. His own, his proper light. The Sun smiles very broadly on September mornings : That stuff we’re filled with makes or mars for Winter is the trysting hour in Infinity. the fame ; * * 9 Decides the flame. The mingled oil that rare d’Agnolo fills How Africa claims me. I remember my little friend, Laura, a girl of the Eastern Province. Laura had a Came from the presses of ancestral mills passion for crimson roses. And these flowers rested To burn now dim, now bright. upon her with a triumphant fitness. Her form was a delicious bubble ; and, girdled in a white dress with a Andrea was Andrea ; higher than his soul great velvety rose on her bosom, she seemed a votary Shall wave the scroll of some order. One might have believed her a novice That rates his place supreme ; and if a fool- in the Order of Venus. If his days show a sort of crepuscule And Louie -ethereal Louie !-another rose devotee : Between their dawns of glory, at sixteen no bigger than a fairy-child of ten ; but lithe, What strange, unparalleled concern is that and pale with the pallor of perfect health. I would tell To babble at? of YOU as I remember you once standing. on the step, begging me to come out, and holding a rose in one Clothe a phoenix sense of colour, form hand, and in the other an enormous peach-which, Twined up and wove with feeble human norm ; surely, you could never eat ! I can speak of the hazel And hence the master’s story. stars which were your eyes. But, by what magic, might I convey the exquisite voice which held me fascinatedly We gather fig from thistle, grape from thorn talking nonsense to you while my lessons waited? Where art is born ; * * * Then suck your grapes with joy, and leave the A pestiferous barrel-organ has begun to shriek. It stones, is being turned in a street at least a mile away. It Nor utter sanctimonious silly groans breeds maggots in my mind-maggots of memories of a Because the seed is sour. lout humanity, a beer-shop standard, foot-lights, and Let clocks of men, that only keep good time, poverty. Make their own rhyme And now I will tell ! And tick perfection from the mantelpiece A dozen yards from me is an insolent board. It says “ Trespassers. ” I am on this piece of grass at my Over the parlour fire ; art’s ancient lease peril. I am Trespassing. Is shortened not an hour. No ! that could not happen in Ethiopia. Florence, June, 1908 EDEN PHILLPOTTS, day a Socialism that in all but name is quite as genuine Mr. S. G. Hobson’s attack on as the S.D.P. ‘s, only more up-to-date. Everywhere he sought frankly to make Trade Unionists fight side by the Labour Party. side with Socialists for their common objects on the terms of the Labour Party alliance. He is not a dazzling By R. C. K. Ensor. but a sterling man, and within and without the WE all know Ishmael. “ He will be a wild man,” says House wields the leadership of one who is no wind-bag the text, “his hand will be against every man, and and always acts up to his professions. Now what has every man’s hand against his.” He shines wherever Mr. Hobson to say of him? One gem shall suffice : there is guerilla fighting. While the adherents of a ‘ No economic issue divides Mr. Arthur Henderson cause are too few to be worth disciplining, his knack of from Sir Christopher Furness.” That is not fact ; it is hitting at every head that he can see may be invalu- not even opinion ; it is stupid abuse. It would be just able. When they are numerous enough for regular as true, tactful, helpful, and witty (and really less warfare, he becomes a nuisance. vituperative) if we were to compare, say, Mr. Hobson English Socialism to-day is faced by few greater to Judas Iscariot. dangers than that of its Ishmaels. Some have in the There is not room for more than a few observations past done yeoman service, and they have done it by ion Ishmael’s chief target-the view that has built the practising Ishmaelitism, or, as they would misdescribe Labour Party up ; though its elements are so seldom it, by “being revolutionary.” The habit has grown on explained to Fabians, that a real treatise on it in THE them, and is hard to shake off. Its good repute is NEW AGE might enlighten many Socialists of that de- associated with their own ; and, besides, it has an scription. obvious glamour. It is more romantic to captain a Our prime business is to make our people Socialist. little band, crouched in a side valley along the Socialist But it is a crude individualistic analysis which resolves army’s march and taking shots for a lark at every- a people merely into so many million human atoms. body, than to be a unit in that patient, footsore, dust- Organisations, traditions, and all manner of composite brown multitude,, doing all the tedious, inglorious, but Forces are also components. Now, when one longs to invaluable work of a loyal soldier, and firing as a rule win the British proletariat for Socialism, what is its at nothing more exciting than the enemy. Why outstanding feature? Surely the Trade Unions. I say Ishmael in his luckiest moments may snipe at (what outstanding ; and yet what is apt to mislead the raw rarer sport ?) the Socialist generals themselves !- middle-class Socialist recruit (the kind from which Mr. whenever they expose their backs to him, absorbed in Hobson announces that he can summon his ten legions their far-calculated operations. O the rapture if he of angels ‘to submerge the Hendersons and Mac- graze one ! if he inflict a scratch, perchance even a Donalds), is that for him the Trade Unions do not wound ! if the great one be compelled to turn round stand out enough. He has not belonged to one him- and know that Ishmael must still be reckoned with ! self, and it is only when he gets (if he ever does) into And some day, with the last of countless snipings, the the real heart of working-class life that he takes the great one may bite the dust. Probably the cause will measure of these wonderful organisations. To talk suffer, perhaps perish ; but what is that to the joy of about a class-struggle and then leave them out is like revenge for his having discredited Ishmael and led the playing “ Hamlet ” without Hamlet. Through them Socialist army to such humdrum conclusions as vic- the main devoting, class-uplifting, spiritual forces tories ? among our people have for seventy years flowed. Prac- Mr. S. G. Hobson’s two articles in THE NEW AGE, tically all their work is our work ; their stones have to by which these observations are prompted, exhibit very be laid if our wall is to rise ; they themselves-doubt- characteristically one of the subtlest and most insinu- less with many modifications and evolutionary changes ating of our Ishmaels. There is nothing new in them. --will always play a vital part in any Socialist (I do not Anyone familiar with his long career as a superseded say Anarchist-Communist) scheme. Now, what were prophet could have put them in his mouth beforehand. the relations between these bodies and the Socialists For a taste of his random knocks, try that at the Salva- in the ‘eighties? Those between two next-door neigh- tion Army. The Army (a body not to be exempted bours, who profoundly distrust each other, seldom from grave criticism) has for years done a gigantic speak to each other, and perpetually malign each other work of research, protest, and personal care in con- behind each other’s backs. Consider the difference nection with children exposed to criminal environments. to-day. What has wrought it? There is only one This work culminated in the introduction and discus- answer . the “ traditional policy of the I.L.P. ,” leading sion of the Children’s Bill ; and the other day Mr. J. R. up to and through the Labour Party alliance-the MacDonald paid it a well-earned tribute. Mr. Hob- policy which Mr. Keir Hardie founded, and Mr. Mac- son’s comment thereon is to talk of “Mr. J. R. Mac- Donald cemented, and of which Mr. Hobson has be- Donald’s fulsome panegyric ” and “ General Booth’s come well recognised as, in a humble way, a “ tradi- ugly creed, ” and to say that the former shows the tional ” opponent. Labour Party to be “dominated by Nonconformist Note the key to the opposition. There are two ways Liberalism,” while the latter is “repugnant ” to the of trying to win the Trade Unions for Socialism. One moral code of Socialists. Truly a fair-minded and is to “ nobble ” them. You get them to elect Socialists politic comment ; well calculated to assure everybody as delegates and so forth, and then these Socialists act that Socialism stands for sweetness and light and as if they were delegates of Socialist bodies. This respects the inviolability of religious opinions. might nowadays be described with a fair deal of accu- But, you see, Ishmael must have his knock ; his racy as the “ traditional policy of the S.D.P.“; and it motto is “ Hit every head you see “-not excepting the is the policy which Mr. Hobson espouses when he head of the Chairman of the I.L.P., if he has the wants the Labour Party’s Annual Conference to adopt temerity to replace Ishmael’s methods by the methods a Socialist constitution. For a lover of intrigue it has of civilised warfare. Indeed, it can escape no attentive a natural fascination. The ‘I.L.P. policy, which has reader of the two articles that their writer shows most built the party up, is the very opposite of this. It gusto-or at least the blindest unfairness-precisely precisely is not to “ nobble ” the Trade Unions, but to when he snipes at the Labour Party’s leaders. Take ally with them for common ends on the basis of a his treatment of Mr. Henderson. The past five years frank recognition that they are non-Socialist bodies. show few things more encouraging than Mr. Hender- This does not prevent-it enormously facilitates-the son’s Socialistic development-a development that carrying on of Socialist propaganda among their mem- could hardly be dreamed of ten years ago, and yet is bers. And that is the only way to win the Trade to-day under the Labour Party being paralleled in Unions for Socialism. It is idle to superpose a Socialist nearly every trade union. Here you have a tried leader basis on them ; the proper place for a basis is under- of an old strong union going about in politics divorced neath. Or, to borrow a good metaphor used by Mr. from Liberalism and Toryism, declining, it is true, the Wells in another connection, it is folly to go behind Socialist label, but preaching on most issues of the their backs when they are not looking. They will only dislike and distrust you when they find out the trick regret this change, For I have loved the “West- that you have played. If you want to preserve the minster. ” In my early free-lancing days I once sent a confidence of the Trade Unions and the chance of political joke to the “Westminster,” and next after- making their members Socialists, you must stick to noon myself and all Fleet Street were astonished to find treating them on the straightforward Hardie - Mac- the joke printed among “ OCC. Notes,” exactly like a Donald lines, and realise exactly why and where Mr. piece of Occ. verse. A long time ago ! The “West- Hobson’s line is fatal. minster ” wouldn’t do that now. Neither should I. The Labour Party, then, is not a Socialist Party, nor This has been my sole contribution to the “West- meant to be, until its members (I do not mean its minster. ” Result, 3s. 6d. Except for 3s. 6d., our M.P. ‘s) are Socialists. It is frankly an alliance be- relations have, I think, been pure. Hence I can tween Socialist and non-Socialist elements ; let us be express my affection for the “Westminster ” without clear about that. What then may a Socialist fairly qualms. I hate people who express their affection for demand of it? Two things. Firstly, that its existence people, places, or things by the adjectives “dear old.” should promote and not retard Socialist propaganda ; As, “dear old Balliol, ” “dear old Fred Leslie,” “dear secondly, that it should do good work in Parliament. old Strand ” (when in Burmah). I simply hate them. On the first ground it has overwhelmingly justified I would kill them in sheer anger. But upon my soul, I itself. Even among the middle classes it is its boom almost catch myself murmuring, with humid eyes, above all that since 1906 has so transformed the “ Dear old Westminster ! ” horizon of our propaganda. Among the manual * SC * workers it has yielded similar results fifty-fold. No I shall still read it. I shall’ not let its caprices in the country can show so much Socialist progress in so matter of ownership affect our relations. When I am short a period. Ishmael hardly disputes this, though aged, when I am convinced that the world is going to he practically ignores it. But on the second ground the dogs, I shall still be reading the “Westminster,” he expands himself. The gist of all his plaints is that for it has wound its tendrils round me. I have seen “ Parliamentarianism (the politician’s worst vice) has other Socialists writhe in fury at the occasional Whig- eaten its way into the Labour benches.” Does not this geries of the “Westminster,” and I have remained somewhat hackneyed criticism practically amount to calm.- I have forgiven its worst sins. For example, saying that the Labour members have done what they its painful passion for the All-Red Route. I have for- were sent to do-have learned their trade? They might given even its literary criticisms. And a man who can easily, of course, have neglected it, have ranted, forgive some of the literary criticism of the “West- have made futile scenes ; they preferred to master it minster Gazette” could swallow camels. The other and reap results. These Mr. Hobson despises as “just day it occurred to the “Westminster ” to review Mr. the legislative tit-bits that are dear to the heart of the Trevena’s novel, “Heather,” which is quite a good practical politician, that blatant and blasting blight book. It goes without saying that the “Westminster ” upon all great crusades.” Well, the widow of the singled out the originalities of the novel for blame, and docker killed by accident, the mother of the starving called them blemishes. It then went on to state that school-child, the miner half-brutalised by overwork, the “ Heather ” is “without a doubt the only really impor- veteran of labour with the workhouse staring him in tant novel of the summer.” Could the fatuity of the face, even the unemployed man who knows the fight fatuous literary criticism go further? I wonder by put up for him by the party in the House, have come, what process the egregious journalist who committed or will come, to judge differently and, I think, more that review managed to eliminate the element of doubt rightly. That is where the Trade Unions give us airy from his assurance. Well, I have forgiven that, too. Socialists such helpful reminders ; they live on the But I do entreat the “Westminster ” to be a little solid earth, and grip concrete facts. more literary, at large. Its leaders are full of literary One word more. Neither the Labour Party nor the distinction, and so is the letterpress of F. C. G.‘s situation generally are all that they might and should cartoons. Its dramatic criticism, since the sad mole- be. That is obvious. But Socialists will not mend the cular change in Mr. A. B. Walkley, is the best in pace of non-Socialists by calumniating and alienating London. Its art criticism is passable. Vernon Lee them. And the sniping in the back which our own leaders illuminates its pages now and then. But its sketches, endure is a disgrace to our movement. No bit of abuse its literary criticism . . . ! It often strikes me as if seems too undeserved for some Socialists to fling at Mr. its literary criticism was done by someone who could MacDonald and Mr. Henderson ; even Mr. Hardie, who do, and did do, something else- much better, and who is more sacrosanct, draws down Mr. Hobson’s sneer. after a hard day’s work on that something else said to Such a policy of pin-pricks stimulates and improves himself : “By the way, before going to bed, I’ll just nobody ; it distracts the party, and may wreck it some polish off a few books.” Mr. Spender is among the day. The time for Ishmaelitism and captious intrigue very greatest of journalists. But there is a lot of spade is long over ; the time for reasonableness, self-restraint, work to be done before the “Westminster ” can depose and discipline, for mutual loyalty, sympathy, and for- the “Manchester Guardian ” from its position as the bearance, is most emphatically here. greatest of daily papers. * * -x- It would seem that one must read foreign periodicals Books and Persons. for most interesting items of English literary news. Had I not been a subscriber to the “Mercure de (AN OCCASIONAL CAUSERIE.) France ” I should probably never have heard of Messrs. THE sale of the “Westminster Gazette ” brings on the Arthur Symons’ and Louis Thomas’ beautiful edition meditative mood. I hear the “ Globe ” saying to the of the poems of Choderlos de Laclos, published by “Westminster ” : “You see, it may happen to any of Dorbon (Paris). Some years ago Mr. Symons wrote a us.” But whereas the “Globe ” has only one proprietor couple of bibliographical articles in the “Outlook ” on (who probably made himself a present of the “ Globe ” the subject of Laclos’ verse. I do not imagine that the as a man in a fit of generosity may make himself a present of an antique scarf-pin), the “Westminster Gazette ” has, apparently, ten. Ten is too many. The COOMBE HILL SCHOOL, WESTER- comment of Bagshot on these ten would be agreeable HAM, KENT,-Boarding and Day. Co-educa- reading. A fracas there is bound to be, sooner or tional. Vegetarian or Meat Diet. No fads. Small later. The Radical gentlemen may put down £100,000 Classes. Children of Socialists specially welcomed. to buy an organ, and in the act their hearts may beat as one, but when the party declines from power, and ~ Terms Moderate .-Apply, Miss CLARK, Principal. darkness covers the land, and honest men are tried in adversity as in a furnace, then the evils of a too UNDER - MATRON WANTED. Plain sewing. numerous proprietary will peep forth and the decadence U Able to assist in Recreation, etc., of younger children, of a deservedly great reputation will set in. Yes, I -Apply as above. JULY 25, 1908 verse has much value, but nothing from the pen of the Or, to put the matter in a different way, the only great author of “ Les Liaisons Dangereuses ” will be possible controversy between their votaries is one of neglected by lovers of honesty in fiction. I possess, by individual taste, which is not only insoluble in itself, the way, a copy of another little-known work by Laclos, but no person whose taste is sound and sane will think “De l’Education des Femmes ” (with notes by Baude- of raising it. laire), which was given me by its learned young editor, There are many reasons why Virgil should appeal in Edouard Champion. The price of Mr. Arthur Symons’ a special way to Englishmen of our own times. He is volume is 3 francs, and there are only 312 copies of it. the- poet of agriculture and country life, of a fervid Here is a specimen of the rhyme : “To the lady to whom patriotism based on love of the country and on rever- the author offered an apple at a ball, and who would ence for its traditions. He is also the poet of Empire, only accept it with verses.” with all its burdens, and problems, and destinies, and Comme Venus vous êtes belle, duties. All these he raises to the higher plane of the Comme Pâris je suis berger, ideal and suffuses with poetic emotion. By all these Comme lui je viens de juger ; functions of his poetic office he makes a special appeal Voulez-vous me traiter comme elle? to citizens of the British Empire. And we are not less It is an idea : to go to a dance with an apple all ready touched than our predecessors, but more, by Virgil’s in your pocket ! JACOB TONSON. pathetic appeals to human feeling, to unchanging ex- periences, to individual sorrow. The sense of tears in mortal things becomes more poignant as the problems BOOK OF THE WEEK. of the world grow upon us in complexity and number. For all these reasons, Virgil has something to give us Virgil.” which Homer does not and cannot give ; he appeals OUR French neighbours describe the forty members in a more special way to our individual experiences, to of the Académie Française as The Immortals ; and our patriotic feeling, and to our Imperial anxieties. some French writers of the past, to whom the conven- Some of these aspects of Virgil have been brought tional epithet Immortal may be applied, have been home to Englishmen who do not read Latin by Tenny- members of the Academy. But immortality in litera- son in lines which are perhaps among the best, and ture cannot even be predicted with any certainty of the certainly are the most unTennysonian, that he ever living. We do not assign it as yet to the members of wrote ; and now we have a new poem which gives us our own Order of Merit, or of our very juvenile British the mind and person of Virgil more fully than they Academy ; though the public is often disposed to give have been presented in English verse before. Mr. it to certain popular writers, judging solely by the Warren, the President of Magdalen, and at present number of their editions, and one of our most popular Vice-Chancellor of the University, has written “The novelists has not hesitated from appropriating it to Death of Virgil,” a poem in blank verse, of nearly herself. Popularity, circulation, are however merely thirteen hundred lines. The quality of the verse makes gauges of the public appetite. Of immortality, Time, it a great English poem. There are some things in the the Devourer, is the sole unerring Judge. style, perhaps, which may not be appreciated by non- But when we go beyond the range of our modern classical readers. Certain lines, certain phrases, may literature, and pass into a world which in some senses appear to them abrupt, harsh, unpolished ; but, to has vanished, though in others it is more living than scholars, many of these experiments will be full of ever, we do find certain writers to whom the phrase reminiscence, of suggestion, and of interest. Mr. Immortal can be applied with a fuller and more certain Warren’s verse is, as a whole, strong, majestic, digni- meaning. Of these, undoubtedly, is Virgil. By his fied. It is a fine addition to our literature, in which own time and people he was accepted immediately as good modern blank verse is rare. the “lord of language,” as the predestined seer and Virgil, after working eleven years at the Aeneid, and singer of imperial Rome ; whose fame, like that of the bringing it to the stage in which we have it now, went city, should be eternal. By the early Middle Ages he to Greece and Asia Minor to finish his epic among was half-worshipped as a prophet of Christianity, and some of the places which it describes. As Mr. Warren half-dreaded as a magician. To Dante he became once makes him say :- more the poet of a sacred Empire, the inspirer of I had meant, Eros, to consider all, Italian patriotism, the guide and teacher of modern To polish and perfect, visit myself writers. Down to the fifteenth century Virgil was the Each site, each scene, and on the classic soil unquestioned sovereign of European poetry. Even Of Greece or Asia, Troy, Crete, Sicily, Bacon described him as “ The chastest poet and royalest Catch and revive and fix, whate’er remains that to the memory of man is known.” But, as learn- Of rite or custom, colour, tale, tradition. ing revived, and Greek was recovered, there broke out But it was not to be. After only a brief sojourn at a pedantic and barbaric warfare between the partisans Athens, he was met there by Augustus, who persuaded of Homer and of Virgil. Each century, each critical him to return. Unfortunately, before sailing, he visited school, urged its own futile reasons for preferring one Megara, and contracted a malarial fever as he poet to the other. The prevailing fashion of the nine- lingered over its antiquities. He was grievously ill teenth century was to put Virgil into quite a secondary during the voyage, and died on the fourth day after place, as “artificial,” as “imitative,” as on the whole his landing at Brundisium. His own desire was to wanting in some mysterious quality which was assumed burn his unfinished Aeneid. Mr. Warren describes to be in Homer. To sum up, the “Homer ” of the these last days of his life and the imminent peril of Iliad was supposed to have lived in the times of which one of the great poems of the world. Though we know he sang ; and his poems were discussed as though they the Aeneid is safe, Mr. Warren’s skill may be measured had come into the world ready-made, like a natural by our apprehensions as he reconstructs its wavering production, without even the intervention of writing. fate. Recent archaeology, which has moved recorded history This is the main incident, the object, of the poem ; so far back, has exploded this fiction ; and the Homeric but Mr. Warren brings out, in the course of it, Virgil’s poems, as we have them, are seen to be the product own mind, with his passion for philosophy, his yearning and reflection of a civilised time, not of a primitive to solve the riddle of the universe ; his fervent love of time, and to rest upon many previous ages of an old and complete civilisation. In other words, “ Homer ” is certainly as “ artificial ” and is probably as “ imita- tive ” as Virgil was accused of being. Let us hold, rather, and with gratitude, that both poets were heirs of all the ages which preceded them ; and that each Tower poet is, as Bacon says, “ royalest ” in his own dominion. - * “The Death of Virgil.” By T. H. Warren. (Oxford : Blackwell ; and London : John Murray.) Lemonade JULY 25, 1908

Italy, his conception of the Roman Empire are charged English settlers overseas built the intellectual fabric of with a beneficent mission to mankind, through the their new abodes. Without some such treatment as instrumentality of Caesar and his divine Trojan blood. is, it is impossible to understand the past history and Caesar himself is described happily by Mr. Warren present attitude of the English-speaking peoples in as threecontinents. On reading the record of the founda- The hero of the Gallic provinces, tion of the American colonies, the War of Indepen- Half-sainted for his tragic martyrdom. dence is seen to follow as the inevitable result of the The Empire is summed up in the lines which tell us of spirit in which they were established. It is indeed a the beauty and wealth of Italy melancholy commentary on the Imperialism of an Im- And all the wondrous ways of God to Rome. perial people that twice in its history it should have These passages are filled with Virgilian echoes, ren- driven out some of its best blood to build up what dered most happily into English verse, which is always could not but be an alien nation. Such blunders as original, in spite of its fidelity to the words and thought these Mr. Tilby makes no attempt to palliate. Nor is of the Latin. Mr. Warren’s descriptions are far too he ablind admirer of the great Imperialists. Both numerous to quote ; but we may transcribe one, about Clive and Warren Hastings come in for their measure Athens, not only because it is exceedingly beautiful in of condemnation. In connection with such men as itself, but it is not unworthy to stand by Milton’s famous description in “ Paradise Regained.” Athens, loved Athens ! Would I had never left that charmèd cirque, FABIAN SUMMER SCHOOL. Your violet hills and their delicious air ! With Socrates beneath the blossomed bough July 18th to September 12th. That over-hung Ilissus’ rill I sat, I strolled with Plato in the olive-grove Why not spend your holidays amid the delightful scenery of North Wales and get a fuller knowledge of the aims and Of Academe, and with them both discoursed ideas of Socialists ? Of life before the cradle, after the grave, Courses of Lectures by well-known Fabians and others. And through Colonus’ thicket saw and heard The stars and nightingales of Sophocles. Economic History - Present Problems - The This extract must suffice us in the way of quotation ; Drama and Education, etc. though we should like to give the lines in which Cicero, Open to Socialists and non-Socialists. Sea - bathing, Special Classes in Swedish Gymnastics Lucretius, Catullus, Gallus, Varius, and Horace are Tennis, Golf, etc. hit off so pertinently. The whole Augustan age is put Write to Secretary, Fabian Summer School, 3, Clement’s before us with the firmest and lightest strokes. There . Inn. Strand, W.C., for Prospectus. is no work without a blemish. If there were such a paragon of perfection, says a wise Frenchman, it would ADULT SUFFRAGE AND ELECTORAL REFORM, only be a perfect monstrosity, because it would be in- human. But the only serious blemishes which the SOCIALIST&LABOURCONFERENCE, present writer can find in Mr. Warren’s poem are in HOLBORN TOWN HALL, Gray’s Inn Road, London, W.C., the presentation of Augustus and Maecenas. Neither Saturday, July 25th, 1908. The Chair to be taken at 10.30 a.m by WILL THORNE, M.P. of these figures is quite worthy of the great and most Reception of Delegates at 10 a.m. interesting originals, to both of whom the world of PUBLIC MEETING at 8 p.m. civilisation and letters owes more than it usually re- HERBERT BURROWS. H. M. HYNDMAN, ADELA KNIGHT, P L G., members. DORA B. MONTEFIORE, H. QUELCH, and other Delegates. For further particulars, Visitors’ Tickets, etc., apply to H. W. LEE, Space fails us to dwell on Mr. Warren’s memorable S.D.P. Office, 21a, Maiden Lane, Strand, London, W.C. rendering of the great passage in the Second Georgic, or on his fine verses where he touches on deeper themes, such as :- INTERNATIONAL VISITS What are our lives but dreams within a dream, For the purpose of Studying the Customs and If death be real, yet not less real is life. Institutions of other Countries, And so we must leave his volume, recording our genuine thanks and admiration ; happy at finding so great a A VISIT TO NORWAY contribution to English literature, which carries on, as it AUGUST 18th to 27th. seems to us, the traditions of Milton, Shelley, and Arnold Inclusive Cost of Visits need not exceed Ten Guineas in the workmanship of our blank verse, and also in its for the fortnight. Full particulars will be sent on application to MISS F. M. BUTLIN, scholarly and living presentation of those classical Hon. Sec. THE INTERNATIONAL VISITS ASSOCIATION, OLD HEADING- writers who are undoubtedly Immortal. TON, OXFORD. W. BAILEY-KEMPLING. REVIEWS. The English People Overseas. By A. Wyatt Tilby (Francis Griffith.) Books on all Subjects. There is no dedication on the title-page of this volume. Had the author desired to pay such a tribute he might fitly have rendered it to Sir John Seely “The Expansion of England ” has been the inspiration of the present work, which in conception and execution BOUGHT, SOLD& EXCHANGED reflects credit on the school founded by the great BOOKSBEST PRICES given for good books. pioneer of Imperialism. The volume treats its subject from two points of view. In the first place, it gives an OBTAINABLE NOW FOR THE FIRST TIME account of the English in India and Australasia up to AT A POSSIBLE PRICE. 1815, and of their doings in America until the War of THE SOUL OF MAN Independence. In the second place-and this is the chief merit of the work-it brings all these episodes UNDER SOCIALISM. into their proper place in the general history of the By Oscar Wilde. English people, and exhibits them as so many mani- Cloth gilt, post free, 3s. 8d, festations of the spirit of the age. Careful study of The most brilliant and beautiful exposition of contemporary literature, especially of contemporary Socialism ever penned. drama, has enabled Mr. Tilby to show what the Eng- Other books by the same author always in stock. lish people thought of their Empire at any given moment. Further, he has made it clear that in C. CANNON(Successor, D. J. RIDER), domestic events must be found the ideas on which the 36, St. Martin’s Court, Charing Cross Road. BOOKS JULY 25, 1908 THE NEW AGE 255 these the English conception of Imperial rule is con- mercial life ; but the aim of Socialism is to rid Eng- trasted with the conceptions of our Spanish, Dutch, land of the curse of uneven production and incompetent and French rivals, and its strong and weak points duly distribution, which is the real cause (except the failure brought out. The history of the growth of the Imperial of crops) of “ bad times.” To suggest that it is neces- idea at home is too long to be summarised here, but it sary to have “ the passion for accumulation,” lest pro- is in this part of the subject that Mr. Tilby makes his ducts be consumed as fast as they are made, is econo- one serious error. In our opinion, far more stress should mically unsound, for the excellent and unassailable have been laid on the Peace of 1763. The War of Inde- reason that the productive powers of mankind, if pro- pendence raises the question of the fitness of the Eng- perly organised and adequately distributed, are greater land of that day for Imperial rule, a subject to which than their consuming powers. As has so often been Mr. Tilby devotes several thoughtful pages. With his pointed out, under Capitalism the more plentiful a crop treatment we do not quarrel as far as it goes. But it or a take of fish is, the more likely are those in need of does not go far enough ; it does not bring out the utter the crop or the fish to starve, because the luxuriant lack of an Imperial point of view, as shown by the crop or the heavy net of fish reduces the price to such Peace of 1763. That- peace was one of the worst in an unprofitable level that it is not worth while to pay history. It made a most injudicious restoration of terri- the cost of transport. Moreover, this is a necessary tory and it created the Newfoundland fisheries ques- and inevitable result of Capitalism. Socialists are de- tion, a running sore in the body of our diplomacy for termined to end this tragedy of the mockery of plenty the next 141 years. That such a treaty should have being accompanied by the awful reality of want and been made is surely conclusive evidence that the Im- starvation, and Mr. Harrison should produce some perial spirit, so conspicuous in the Seven Years’ War, better arguments to justify his opposition than the un- was but a passing enthusiasm evoked by the magnetic sound economic thesis which underlies it. personality of Pitt, and that the Walpolean tradition Mr. Harrison’s essays on foreign politics are much of peaceful development still had firm hold on men’s better reading than his criticisms of Socialism, as he minds. and the author of “The Present Position of European The- book would be improved by the addition of an Politics ” are the two best-informed Englishmen on all appendix containing a few of the most important State aspects of European politics, now that the late Lord papers of the period. In the next volume we trust Acton has passed into the Land of Shadows. The that room will be found for a copy of the Declaration studies of Garibaldi and Cavour are admirable. We of Independence-a document which one Englishman are glad to see that Stein is ranked with Bismarck as in a hundred has read. A few maps would also be a the “great man ” ; personally, we should be inclined great boon. Also the author’s practice of splitting up to place him higher than Bismarck. The tribute to his chapters by cross-headings strikes us as unfortu- Léon Gambetta should be received with caution, owing nate. This is an historical work, not a newspaper to the glamour in which Gambetta was surrounded at article. If these signposts are required at all, they the time it was delivered. should be relegated to the margin. From some points of view, the ablest essay in the book is on “The State of Siege,” in which English National and Social Problems. By Frederic Harri- judicial opinions on martial law are well summarised, son. (London : Macmillan and Co. 1908. 7s. 6d. net.) and Lord Halsbury’s corrupt decision in the Marais This collection of essays on political and economic case subjected to a most damaging attack. Lord Hals- problems of the last forty odd years reads as freshly bury will go down to history as the Lord Chancellor to-day as though they were of to-day. England is who threw over law to gain popularity, and whose fortunate in possessing such citizens as Mr. Harrison, Marais decision shook English law and morality to men who are prepared to sacrifice a life of leisure and their foundations ; it was a decision which should have social amusement for the purpose of waging implacable led to impeachment. war against cruelty, oppression, and injustice of every kind. The most valuable service rendered to the work- ing classes by Mr. Harrison was his long and strenu- BOOKS RECEIVED. ous campaign on behalf of Trade Unions. Apart from ( An Essay on the Distribution of Livelihood.” By Rossing- this, his destructive onslaughts on the cruelty of Im- ton Stanton. (Fax-well. 6s. net.) perialism and the immorality of Plutonomy stand out (( The Freedom of Women.” By Ethel B. Harrison. (Watts. as most worthy of praise. In politics it is impossible 6d. net.) to classify this humanist. Neither Conservative nor (( The Red Lily. ” By Anatole France. Trans. by Winifred Liberal, neither Socialist nor Radical, he has truckled Stephens. (Lane. 6s.) " The Path to Paris.” By Frank Rutter. Illustrations by to no party, and has been listened to with respect by Hanslip Fletcher. (Lane. 10s. 6d. net.) all. (( Captain Margaret.” By John Masefield. (Grant Richards. It is worth while to examine this able publicist’s 6s.) attitude towards Socialism. Like all great movements, “ The Black Bag. ’ By Louis J. Vance. (Grant Richards. Socialism counts among its advocates the most diverse 6s. types, while its opponents, unfortunately, include some “The Heart Line.” By Gelett Burgess. (Grant Richards. of the noblest and best Englishmen. Mr. Harrison is 6s.) (( Love’s Shadow.” By Ada Leverson. (Grant Richards. 6s) definitely opposed to the “annihilation of personal (‘ Mistletoe and Olive. ‘ By Mary Everest Boole. (Daniel. ownership of capital,” as such annihilation would lead 1s. 6d. net.) to “the annihilation in the early future of the Family, “Ireland a Nation.” By Amicus Hiberniae. (Rees. 1s. net.) and ultimately of Civilisation-because it applies a (( The Fiscal Question.” By A. Bonar Law, M.P. (( National rigid and dominant democracy to material life alone, Review ” Office. 1S. net.) blind to all life, domestic, moral, intellectual, and re- “Gems from Henry George.” (Fifield. 6d. net.) ligious. ” The vigour of this denunciation makes it a (‘Ballads and Lyrics of Socialism.” By E. Nesbit. (Fifield. little incoherent. In the essay on “Moral and Re- 6d. and 1s.) (( Erewhon Revisited.” By Samuel Butler. (Fifield. 2s. 6d.) ligious Socialism ” we find the principle on which this ‘ The Empire of the East.” By H. B. Montgomery. criticism is founded : “ Without the passion for accu- (Methuen. 7s. 6d. net.) mulation which makes a capitalist what he is, products ( American Sketches.” By Charles Whibley. (Blackwood. would be consumed as fast as they were made, and no 6s.) accumulation would exist. Without accumulation, society would come to a standstill, and at the first turn of bad times or a succession of bad seasons, the people DELICIOUS COFFEE ’ would everywhere be deprived of the means of living.” This reasoning is based on the application of the pre- sent capitalist system and its evils to the future system RED WHITE & BLUE of Socialism. Accumulation may be necessary to-day For Breakfast & after Dinner. under the profit-making society which rules our com- “What is Truth?” By L. B. (Stock. 2s. 6d. net.) such a management passing away again, because in ” Antinous and Other Poems.” By Montague Summers. the nature of things it cannot bring in such large (Sisley's. 3s. 6d. net.) returns as ordinary theatrical management. ” Within Four Walls," and ‘( Children at Play . ” Two Plays. By Leo Sarkadi-Schuller. (Unwin. 5s. net.) It certainly ought never to be forgotten that theatri- (‘ Peru. ” By C. R. Enock, F.R.G.S. South American Series. cal business is essentially a gambling game. A couple (Unwin. 10s. 6d. net.) of thousand pounds invested in a London production “ Mathilde : A Play. ” By A. A. Jack. (Constable. 3s. 6d. net.) may either bring in profit at the rate of hundreds per ” The Japanese Spy.” By Lancelot Lawton. (Grant Richards. 6s.) cent. if it is successful, or be absolutely swept away, “ The Workers’ Handbook.” By Gertrude Tuckwell and not to speak of a legacy of liabilities if it be a failure. Constance Smith. (Duckworth. 3s. 6d. net.) And the glitter and splendour of the gambling world “Contemporary Socialism.” By John Rae. (Fourth Edi- tion. (Sonnenschein. 5s. net.) tend to make mere sober and serious profits earned “France in the Twentieth Century.” By W. L. George. by steady hard work appear dull and insignificant. (Alston Rivers. 6s. net.) As the kind of theatre and the kind of drama we want “ The Early History of the Levant Company.” By M. Epstein. (Routledge. 2s. 6d.) can never make these big gambling profits it is always “ Poems.” By W. B. Yeats. New Edition. (Unwin. 7s. 6d.) unattractive to the manager who thinks he can produce “ Poems. ” By George C. Cope. (Mathews. 4s. 6d. net.) a success as well as another man, and spend money “ Marriage and Diseases.” By Senator and Kaminer. (Reb- with just as much ease and comfort. man: 10s. 6d. net.) Combinations such as the Vedrenne-Barker manage- “Ethics and the Materialist Conception of History.” By Karl Kautsky. (Twentieth Century Press. 1S.) ment are only possible apart from the ordinary course (‘The Lamb Slain.” By Richard Heath. (Author : Limps- of theatrical events, and by means of some such acci- field, Surrey. 2s. 6d.) dent as left a little “ pocket ” of Bernard Shaw’s ‘(Man, Sin, and Salvation. By Rev. R. S. Franks. “Life plays unexploited until the Court. Theatre took them and Teaching of Jesus Christ.” By Rev. W. B. Selbie. up. They cannot be counted upon. Nor can the indi- Century Bible Handbooks. (Jack. 6d. and 1S.) vidual experiment of the production of this or that ‘( The Great Companions. ” By Henry Bryan Binns. (Fifield. play. The tendency of aberrations from the usual course 2s. net.) “ Israfel.” Poems. By E. M. Holden. (Fifield. IS.) of theatrical productions to be dragged back to the ‘( Treatment of Pulmonary Tuberculosis.” By A. Tucker normal level of commercialism is almost irresistible, Wise. (Baillière, Tindall and Cox. 1S. net.) although the success of Miss Lena Ashwell at the “Mr. Gladstone at Oxford.” By C. R. L. F. (Smith, Elder. Kingsway seems to point to a time near at hand when 2s. 6d. net.) such aberrations may establish’ themselves. “India Through the Ages.” By Flora Annie Steel. (Rout- In Ireland they have the Irish Theatre ; but that is ledge. 4s. 6d.) not in London, and cannot be expected to do more “ Les Traités Ouvriers.” Par Albert Métin. (Paris : Armand Colin. 3 fr. 50.) than just occasionally visit us. In Manchester a “Miscellanies.” Fourth Series. By John Morley. (Mac- local drama has also arisen. And both these enterprises millan. 7s. 6d. net.) have been subsidised. ‘( Democracy and Reaction.” By L. T. Hobhouse. Cheap In London the only permanent home the drama we Edition. (Unwin. 1S. net.) want possesses is in those pioneer dramatic societies “Aunt Maud.” By Ernest Oldmeadow. (Grant Richards. 6s.) which are financed by the subscriptions of the members. ‘(The Voice in Education.” By Barnard Baylis. (Sampson The best known is the Stage Society, now in its ninth Low. 2s. net.) “ Regenerative Food and Cooking.” By W. A. and E. Wil- liams. (Fowler. 1S. 6d. net.) - “ Les Méthods de la Raison.” Par P. Froument. (Vigot HEALTHIN THE GLASS Frères. 2 fr.) “Studies in Solitary Life.” By W. R. Titterton. (New Age is to be found by all who drink this Press. 2s. 6d.’ net.) pure unfermented juice of the grape. “Masque of the Grail. ” By Ernest Rhys. (Mathews. 1S. net.) “ The Compleat Baby Book.” Part I. Baby Rearing. By As a delightful and sustaining beverage Arnold Crossley. (Celtic Press. 2s. 6d. net.) there is nothing like DRAMA. MOST Towards a Dramatic Renascence. II. which is non-alcoholic sterilised THERE are a good many societies and individuals who Grape Juice direct from the vine- have turned their attention to the rescue of Drama from yards of Spain, It is palatable to the ogre of metropolitan commercialism. To enumerate abstainer and non-abstainer and them all, or to do justice to them all, would need not is most refreshing when di- two or three articles, but a history. Even the worst luted with table water. and most commercial of theatrical authors and mana- gers have their moments when they find that the *SAMPLE artistic conscience forbids them to overstep certain BOTTLE limits. The great majority of authors and managers “ It possesses all the vir- and descriptive booklet, do try very hard to square the commercial process tues of wine and fresh fruit sent to any address for ONE in a combination which is SHILLING post free. unique.” of collecting money from large audiences with the Of High-Class Stores, etc. If your Stores do not keep artistic process of producing good plays. Small, 12/- doz. Large 18/- it, we send 2 doz. Carriage But the doz. Red OR White. paid. temptations to fall away from the path of artistic merit are numerous and usually succumbed to. Yet even a THE GRAPE JUICE CO., Ltd. hardened melodramatist will subscribe his guineas to I(Dept. D.) 7 GREAT TOWER STREET, LONDON, E.C. I the Stage Society. The important thing for us, however, is to consider BEAUTIFUL HOLIDAY CENTRE. - Dean B Forest, Severn and Wye Valleys. Spacious House, exten- how far existing agencies are likely to meet our demand sive grounds (altitude 600 ft.). Excellent piano, billiard room, bath, for drama of the kind we want. Certainly, the most tennis, conveyance. Homelike. Good roads, magnificent scenery. Vegetarians accommodated. Board Residence from 27s. Photos, important of these agencies has been the Vedrenne- particulars- HALLAM, Littledean House, Newnham, Glos’shire. Barker management, and there is always the chance of such a management cropping up on the ordinary com- TO SUBLET for some months, Lightly-Furnished Chambers in Clifford’s Inn. Suitable for two people.- mercial field. But there is always the possibility of Apply X, c/o NEW AGE. year. It has produced some admirable plays. But it CORRESPONDENCE. - is not experimental or courageous enough, and it only gives ten performances in a season. It produced in the FOR the opinions expressed by correspondents, the Editor does not hold himself responsible, early days “ Mrs. Warren’s Profession,” and then “Waste ” ; it has produced some poor plays and a good Correspondence intended for publication should be addressed to the Editor and written on one side of the paper only. many foreign plays. What it has done it has done SPECIAL NOTICE. -Correspondents are requested to be brief well, and rather expensively ; but it has not given a Many letters weekly are omitted on account of their length. new and definite direction to British drama. Even when we add to the Stage Society the performances of the PROPAGANDA BY ART. Pioneers, the New Stage Club, the English Drama To THE EDITOR OF (( THE NEW AGE.” Society, and the Playactors, we have not got a very Allow me to protest against Anthony Oldpate inviting the imposing list even on paper, while in practice the list readers of THE NEW AGE to join in his merriment over a is less imposing still. During this season the Pioneers futile conversation. One can forgive his naughty friend who was convinced that Mr. Shaw’s plays are intended solely produced Masefield’s “Nan,” the New Stage Club for the salvation of the suburbs. He merely expressed a plays of Dr. Schnitzler, and the Playactors’ pious desire that they might be such, in an unsuspecting “ Hannele. ” But only one, or at most two, perform- moment. It is more difficult to be generous to ances of good plays is very unsatisfactory, and involved Mr. Oldpate, who declares in a pontifical manner as the performances are in all the business of the special that Mr. Shaw writes “drama,” and then rings the organisations which produce them, they are not acces- curtain down on the argument like a superior person worsted sible to the public who would like to see them. In fact, in debate by a dangerous and rather too polemical youth. the experimental drama societies are badly organised ; Because Pinero is no philosopher and Ibsen no social re- former it follows that Mr. Shaw is no propagandist! Be- they are casual attempts to produce drama which is cause the Poet Laureate is no politician and Mr. Yeats no “ interesting ” or “ unacted ” or “ advanced.” They scientist, it follows that John Davidson is no iconoclast ! have, none of them, the definite idea of leading the The reasoning of our friend Anthony is droll. He is mani- drama away from metropolitanism to find for itself a festly the victim of that mischievous epigram, “Art for Art’s more real and more acutely individualised existence. Sake.” It is late in the day to point out that every idea, The English Drama Society, although perhaps not every new point of view, whether it is woven into a poem, a so well known as some other organisations, has been picture, or a drama, carries with it a certain power of pro- doing very important work. This society is in practice pagating itself, of being absorbed-and therein lies the supreme virtue of Art. Let Anthony Oldpate’s mind cease an association of a few players who produce good and to be tickled by an epigram and held in bondage by a interesting plays whenever they can create the oppor- narrow and superficial theory of drama. tunity. They support their enterprise by inviting the R. L. GRAINGER. public to buy tickets for their performances, not by * * * subscriptions. Their work, too, has been more defi- “THE JEWISH APOLOGISTS OF THE TSAR.” nitely experimental than that of the others, and with one To THE EDITOR OF “THE NEW AGE.” enormously important factor, that of cheapness of pro- Some time ago you inserted an article in THE NEW AGE duction, kept constantly in view. How far the other dealing with a body calling itself the Jewish Board of societies have kept this factor in view I do not know, deputies. Dr. M. D. Eder, after giving a short résumé in but the total of £954 OS. 7d. for the series of per- regard to its constitution, uttered some very pregnant formances of five plays shown in the Stage Society remarks about this Board and the house of Rothschild. At the time I thought that the interests of Jewry, and especially report for the year 1906-7 does not look as if economy Russian Jewry, would best be served by keeping a discreet was studied very seriously. The 1907-8 figures will, silence. The fact that the article in question was read by I am sure, be about the same. It is upon, the question Mr. Leopold Rothschild and other influential gentlemen, of expense and the possibility of cheap production as bracketed with the further fact that the Board had recently one of the items of that expense that the whole ques- acquired a more vigorous accession of strength, gave ground tion of the production of the drama we want turns. for some belief that-this body would act with somewhat The best known production of the English Drama greater vigour. Judge, then, of my surprise when at the last meeting the President, with the apparent approval of the Society is that of the Chester Mystery Plays ; but this whole body, absolutely refused to permit the Board to asso- return to Mediaevalism is balanced by their production ciate itself with those members of Parliament who protested of “The Song of Solomon;” “ In a Balcony,” and the against the recent visit of the King to Russia. I submit that modern plays of Dr. Nugent Monck, one of the mem- such action is worthy of consideration. bers. In many ways the English Drama Society is en- Here is a body with whom the Lords Rothschild and couraging because it is less bound up with theatrical Swaythling are associated, which specifically claims to watch and social fetters than either the Stage Society or the over and guard, not only the interest of Anglo-Jewry, but of Pioneers, and having shown in its productions a more that greater Jewry beyond the seas, refusing to accept the proffered services of men who had nothing to gain by their definite idea of its development. humane action. Unless the claim of this Board is restricted There do exist other managements and experimental to an indulgence in high-sounding words or pernicious societies I have not mentioned, as, for instance, Mr. philanthropy, it is difficult to see how they could have Charrington’s presentation of “ Ghosts ” in Manchester last winter. And I have not attempted to mention the work of societies which have laid the foundations of THE NEWBEEF TEA -- JU-VIS Prepared solely from Beef and Vegetable. present-day work, but have now ceased to exist, nor to Makes delicious rich gravies or a cup of strong criticise and compare impartially the work of those still Beef Tea for a penny. Ask your grocer. going on. But even taking the most favourable esti- ZION’S WORKS mate of the activity of all these societies, prophesying contain explanations of the Bible, which free mankind from the charge of a reinvigoration of the “ Vedrenne-Barker, ” with all Sin. Read Vol. V., p, 87, and the Discourses,” Vol. XII. IN THE PRINCIPAL FREE LIBRARIES. its old fire and perpetual youth for Miss Lena Ashwell, UNITARIANISM AN AFFIRMATIVE FAITH,” ” UNITARIAN CHRIS- it is fairly clear that we have not got anything very tianity Explained” (Armstrong), ‘ Eternal Punishment ” (Stopford Brooke’; much to flatter ourselves about. The drama we want Atonement ” (Page Hopps given post free. --Miss BARMBY Mount Pleasant Sidmouth gets produced, if at all, with difficulty and spasmodi- cally. Is there no way of doing anything more to help APARTMENTS. -LONDON. Economical, home it and regularise it ? There at once comes into my mind comforts, Bed, breakfast 2s. 6d. Write requirements, the idea of a municipal theatre subsidised by the L.C.C. CATHRALL, 66 De Beauvoir Road, N. But this is not a living political issue, nor would it meet WANTED : Advertisement Canvasser for estab- our wants. Let US agitate for the municipal theatre by lished weekly Labour Paper, undeniable references re- all means, but until we have created the agitation it is quired. Advertisement canvasser wanted, not a lecturer or Propa- useless formulating our demand. And in the mean- gandist. Salary and Commission.-Apply Box, “ New Age ” Office, time I believe we can do a good deal towards estab- lishing a drama and a theatre such as we desire. LADY (23), well-educated and trained, good refer- ences, Wants post as Secretary or Clerk-Shorthand, Type- L. HADEN GUEST. writing, and Book-keeping .-F. E. T., 74, Revelstoke Road, (To be concluded.) Wimbledon Park, S. W. THE NEW AGE JULY 25, 1908+

afforded to have disassociated themselves from the spirited sensed the dawn of Socialism. They are waiting with long- protest made by the Labour Party. Only when you come to ing eyes for the message which is being withheld under the examine the personnel of this body can you obtain a satis- stress of “practical ” considerations. That this subjective factory reply. So imbued with class feeling are the executive idealism is running quicksilver-like through the veins of that although they disregard all logic in dealing with matter: the proletariat cannot be doubted. Wherever the messenger affecting Russian Jewry they cover up their shortcoming: is true to his inspiration, wherever he delivers his message with the word diplomacy. And I think we all know what unadultered and undefiled, he finds an eager response from diplomacy means, especially when it is dark diplomacy. the common people-whether Socialist or non-Socialist. The They protect the rich Jew’s interests whilst the poor Jew rank and file are in the van, whilst too often the leaders is placated with liberal doles of charity. They fear anti- lag behind in the tortuous ways of “practical” issues. Semitism, not because it can hurt those who are already poor, Nevertheless, we must be fair. The careful men, who but because it means no more knighthoods, and no more have rendered such magnificent service to the movement, presentations at Court. During the past eighteen months and whose devotion one would not dare to question, are this body has been asked to thank the S.D.P. for supporting absolutely sincere in their desire for Socialism, which they the resolution carried at Carlisle condemning the Russian think can most quickly be attained by cautious-I had bureaucracy. It has been asked to approach those Socialist almost written Machiavellian-methods. The pity of it is M.P.'s who have expressed their willingness to modify or that they only faintly realise the great lesson of history, abrogate the Aliens Act. It has been further asked to which is that idealism is the cutting edge of all progress, an recognise a resolution acclaimed at Stuttgart relative to alien edge that cannot be blunted, which? through the ages, has emigration and immigration. To all these pleas it has hewn its way into the forest of reaction. It was the cutting- turned a deaf ear, preferring to seek inspiration at New edge of Christianity, of Buddhism, of all the movements Court, or sitting on the doorstep whining for an interview which have held enthralled the soul of mankind. In our with Sir Charles Hardinge at the Foreign Office. own time, it was the cutting edge of Colne Valley. You would naturally conclude that such a body would be The “practical ” man has the strength and-let it not be only too glad to clutch at any straw in order to save a large forgotten-the weakness of the objective mind. He fails to remnant of an oppressed race, but such is not the case understand that whilst, objectively, the people are fearsome with this Board. Before they do anything for the poor, they and have to be cajoled, yet, subjectively, they are permeated ask themselves : will it hurt the rich ? Quite recently the with latent idealism. The tinder is there-who will apply opportunity presented itself of preventing the executive pre- the spark? senting some fulsome adulation on the occasion of the pro- What are we going to do? The I.L.P. policy of the jected visit of the Tsar. A resolution embodying this was socialist-Labour union has been attended with excellent re- sent to a prominent member who prides himself on his sults, but-and it is a big (‘but “--we are not indefinitely progressive tendencies, and a postscript was added asking committed to it. Our nursery experiment has been success- the member to support it. Substantially the reply was that ful, but the Labour baby cannot be Parliamentarily wet- the resolution was premature. Could anything be more nursed when the teething process is completed-and it is ludicrous ! I suppose we must wait until a petition is pre- getting a big boy now. sented and then protest that our hands have been tied, the Again, what are we going to do? We must consciously while winking at the process. It would be humorous were work towards the objective of a British Socialist Party in it not so pitiable to see the way these deputies fawn upon the he House of Commons. It can be done. It will be done rich. If the Montagues or Rothschilds put in an appearance before many years have run their course. How is it to be their attitude of nervous trepidation is unaccountable, ex- accomplished ? By the socialising of the Socialists-in other cept upon the score of inherent snobbery. Hitherto I have words, by the unification of the various Socialist sections into always associated this psychological phenomenon with the C one body, with a unified policy towards the objective of Socialism. working classes ; I now know it to be shared with the pros- Let us have those virile differences of opinion by all means as regards method, but let us thrash out these perous Jewish bourgeoisie. differences within the party, the minority loyally abiding by A SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC MEMBER OF THE BOARD. the decision of the majority, in the same way that varied + * * currents of thought blend, at the International Congress, into one broad world-policy. But for the sake of humanity, THE INJUSTICE OF VOTES FOR WOMEN. let us avoid personalities. What a travesty upon the spirit To THE EDITOR OF (‘THE NEW AGE.” of Internationalism is the sectarianism of our movement. Too frequently the British Socialist carries in his veins the C. H. Norman urges as an argument against votes for malarial virus beloved of the theologian-which results in women that “long training through centuries has habituated the intermittent fever of sectionalism. the male mind to the initiation of policy, and the construc- If our Socialism is not a name only, why not have a Con- tive development of that policy,” women being disqualified ference of the I.L.P., S.D.P., Fabians, and “ Clarion ” by centuries of lack of training in these directions. Sup- organisations, with the object of evolving a conscious scheme posing the facts to be as stated, Mr. Norman must either for the calling into being of a Socialist Party, which in the relinquish his conclusion, or proceed to defend the theory of first place working through the country will naturally lead the inheritance of acquired mental characters. He will find in the fulness of time to a Parliamentary Socialist Party? this no easy task. Failing success in it, he must admit that each generation starts afresh in these respects, and the Let us take our courage in both hands, and, as Mr. Hobson says in his suggestive article, go forward “ uncon- apparent results are due merely to individual training and Let us break down the environment. Give to women equality of opportunity-the querable, fanatical, dogmatic.” true watchword of Socialism-and society may learn whether terminological barriers and the phantom divisions which or no they can be of use. The natural difference of tem- to-day stultify us. Revolutionary tactics are practical tactics. If we are not perament and genius in men and women is an argument for, evolutionists, in Heaven’s name what are we? Revolution not against, co-operation in statecraft. Let our revolutionary tactics be the As for the control of the lives of men by the exercise of the is our raison d’être. tactics of the rapier as well as the broad-sword. Let our vote in time of war-there is an instance of the advantage of the difference of temperament. Women might save us from some needless wars. And as it is now, it is those (men) who do not fight (often mere financiers), rather than those who do, that decide for or against war. Does Mr. Norman desire to disfranchise all men not liable to be called upon SUBSCRIPTIONRATES at any moment for active foreign service? If not, there is FOR no reason why he should regard such a non-liability as a disqualification in the case of women. Most of Mr. Nor- THE NEW AGE man’s other arguments are as flimsy. The statement that the fabric of civilisation is essentially and almost exclusively to any part of the world. the work of men, many sociologists would controvert ; and, if true, it is not a compliment to men, but an argument for 3 months ...... 1/9 the infusion of new blood into the world political. ANANDA K. COOMARASWAMY, D. SC. 6 ,, ...... 3/3 * Jc * 12 ,, ...... *. 6/6 A BRITISH SOCIALIST PARTY. All Subscriptions should be sent, and cheques and postal To THE EDITOR OF (‘ THE NEW AGE.” orders made payable to THE NEW AGE PRESS, (39, Fleet The most significant thing in the Socialist movement of this country, at the present moment, is the uneasy stirring of Street, London, E.C. the masses under the quickening of idealism, as though they

. JULY 25, 1908

fighting be scientific. But let us aim at the sun. In our star-ward course the meaner things will come to us. We need the propaganda of the fiery cross. ONE AND ALL CHARLES N. L. SHAW. * * * SICKNESS AND ACCIDENT ENGLISH FOREIGN POLICY. ASSURANCE ASSOCIATION. To THE EDITOR OF "THE NEW AGE:" Your correspondent, Mr. E. Wake Cook, falls into the a very error against which my letter was meant to warn him- WHAT Is. A MONTH WILL DO: that this policy of the isolation of Germany is a peaceful ENSURE £1 A WEEK FOR ANY SICKNESS. proceeding: he may rest assured that it is not so regarded by the Germans, more especially since the attempt,-which ENSURE £1 A WEEK FOR ANY ACCIDENT. they believe to have been made, to seduce Italy from the ENSURE £10 AT DEATH. Triple Alliance. (Not exceeding, but according to the number of Members.) If, as Mr. Cook admits, this is a “life and death ” matter, surely the English people should have the issue clearly CLAIMS PAID ON SIGHT. stated, and should not-misled by the glamour of a royal diplomacy-entrust its defence to paper treaties with broken No other Association offers such liberal terms. reeds, whilst its own army and navy are deliberately starved into inefficiency to provide the unscrupulous economies of ARE YOU IN A CLUB?. IF SO, COMPARE the present Government. There may be others of your readers who distrust the PAYMENTSAND BENEFITS. “two front bench people!‘, and doubt their collective cour- age to be loyal to the nation in opposition to royal influence. JUST CONSIDER HOWARD INCE. 1.-Will your salary cease when you are sick or injured ? * * * 2.-IS your earning power insured ? THE INDETERMINATE SENTENCE. 3.-Accident and sickness visit us when we are least prepared To THE EDITOR OF of THE NEW AGE." for it. How gloriously Irish is Mr. Louis J. McQuilland’s letter +-You will do your duty by your family, to yourself, and in its contradictoriness. First he deprecates the “ indeter- know you are not getting behind if you assure, minate sentence ” because it may lead to Irish political crimi- 5.-Nothing kills quicker than worry. nals being sentenced for life, and then decries the opposition 6.-If you are not insured you must worry. to death sentences and to the punishment of “indubitable criminals ” as being due to “ sickly sentimentalism.” Neither Mr. Cecil Chesterton’s article nor Mr. McQuil- General Manager : WILLIAM A. TRATHEN. land’s letter is in the least logical in decrying the ” indeter- Secretary: EDWIN S. R. SMITH minate sentence ” and the punishment of political criminals, (General Secretary of the National Society of Operative Printers’ Assistants.) and yet defending the general principle of punishment and the arbitrary sentencing of social criminals, whom Mr. Mc- Chief Office : " One & All Buildings,’ Quilland distinguishes as “indubitable.” What is an “in- 116& 118HIGH STREET,BOROUGH, S.E. dubitable ” criminal ? LEONARD J. SIMONS. x- Branch Offices--Caxton House. 26 Blackfriars Road. and 179 Blackfriars Road, SE. JUVENILE DANCING v. ETHICAL MOVEMENT. Telephone No, 2951 Hop. Telegraphic Address, “ Futurity, London.” To THE EDITOR OF THE NEW AGE.” Mr. W. R. Titterton had better give Little Puffball a friendly tip. Has he twigged “The Meaning of the Inter- Prospectus and Press Comments forwarded post free. national Moral Education Congress ” in the current “Fort- AGENTS REQUIRED ON SALARY AND COMMISSION. nightly ” ? The Devil, it seems, is not to take X+Y: X+Y is to take Little Puffball. List, list, oh list ! ” Mathematics, too, which at first sight may not appear to have any connec- tion with the moral life, is, on the contrary, identical with sound thought. Truthfulness is inexorably interwoven with arithmetical accuracy. Real illustrations, vibrating with human interest, can be borrowed for algebraic problems, which will clutch the hear: and mind of the child in a way that the hum-drum apportioning of eggs and apples has no power to do. ” EDWARD HARRISON. * 9c ROBERT OWEN. To THE EDITOR OF " THE NEW AGE.” Your reviewer, in his kindly notice of my little book, inquires why Owen, “an ardent pacifist,” insisted on mili- tary drill for both boys and girls in his schools at New Lanark. Well, there were no rifles or weapons of war em- ployed, and no uniforms were provided. The children marched together and were taught to walk upright, and keep in step, Surely this co-education must have discouraged any aggressive military ardour ; it certainly was not instituted to make soldiers of the boys, Owen’s Quaker partners objected to this drill, but they objected even more to the dancing of the children. As to spiritualists being deaf, Owen was over seventy when he became a spiritist, and, as a matter of fact, did suffer from deafness, and was consoled by the messages rapped out on the table. Possibly a certain deafness to the voice of human reason would quicken whatever organ is required to discern the greetings from departed celebrities. Who can tell? JOSEPH CLAYTON. EXPRESS CORRIDOR & BUFFET TRAINS, * + * TOURIST TICKETS ISSUED DAILY. SWORD AND BLOSSOM POEMS. CHEAP EXCURSIONS EVERY WEEK . To THE EDITOR OF (( THE NEW AGE.', TO OVER 600 SEASIDE & HEALTH While thanking you for the kind things you say about RESORTS in the MIDLANDS, NORTH “Sword and Blossom Poems ” in your review of last week, of ENGLAND. SCOTLAND &IRELAND. may I point out that these translations are not “by T. Hasegawa,” as you state. Mr. Hasegawa is the publisher of the book, and Messrs. Simpkin, Marshall and Co. are his English agents. The translations are by Mr. Shotaro Kimura and myself, CHARLOTTE M. A. PEAKE. 260 THE NEW AGE JULY 25 1908 YOUR LAST CHANCE:10/6 SAVED Many Leaders of Progress, Sociological Authorities and Experts on Social Problems have written so highly in praise of the magnificent New Encyclopedia of Social Reform described below that we have secured the option of offering a certain number to “New Age” readers at a special reduction of 10/6 on the price which will rule when this offer closes. One of the stringent conditions imposed upon us by the publishers is that under no circumstances must THIS OFFER REMAIN OPEN BEYOND AUGUST1. After then all purchasers will have to pay 10/6 more for every copy they s acquire ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SOCIALREFORM THE NEW SENT The only Complete Text-Book of Sociology Unsectarian, Non-Political, All-Embracing FREE FORL Every Possible Topic of Twentieth Century Progress is comprehended in this INSPECTION unique Encyclopedia I It contains the latest authoritative information upon all the principles underlying social, industrial and economic movements of the world. Not statistics or tables merely, but expert statements on all important movements. It is indispensable to all who wish to keep abreast with modern progress and problems; to writers who require the latest verified statistics and quickly accessible opinions. It furnishes an unexcelled amplitude of records and data, including the experiences of the past, the latest facts of the present, and the most intelligent proposals for the future. It is an encyclopedia of Political Economy, Sociology, and Political Science. No other work has ever approached it in completeness or accuracy,

A FEW OF THE CONTRIBUTORS. Rev. Stewart D. Headlam Hon. William J. Bryan Sir Henry Campbell-Ban- C. H. Shillinglaw Invaluable Rt. Hon. John Burns, M.P. Dr. John Clifford nerman (the late) Dr. J. B. Paton President T. Roosevelt Rt. Hon. Sir H. Plunkett Prince Kropotkin Benj. Kidd Contents. Jane Addams Upton Sinclair Lady Henry Somerset Miss Adler Prof. E. W. Bemis Percy Alden, M.P. Keir Hardie, M.P. F. Verinder Admirably Sidney Webb,L.C.C. Prof. Lindsey Canon S. A. Barnett Miss Helen Blackburn Indexed. GeorgeHaw Earl Grey Edward R. Pease Hon. Walter Clark Edwin Markham Booker T. Washington Auberon Herbert John Trevor Miss G. M. Tuckwell Miss C. M. Pankhurst John B. Wallace Etc. Would you understand Socialism in all its phases and in all Countries ; how it arose and what it really is? See pages 1128-1151 and sub-sections-“ Fabianism,” “ Christian Socialism,” ” Communism,” Labour and Unemployed Problems. Contributors : W. J. Ghent, Percy Alden, M.P., E. R. Pease, &~. What have you to learn as to the Black Stain, Social Purity, the Bible and Social Reform, Gambling, Factory Legislation, in their world-aspects ? The whole history and position is at your fingers’ ends in the Cyclopedia. Are you up-to-date on the Licensing Question, Drink Problems, Temperance, Prohibition, Local Option and kindred matters all over the globe? You can easily be so. Pages 1212-1219, 966-975, &c., Will tell you all there is to know. Do you want to know all about the Suffragettes throughout the World? See pages 1295-1301. British Section written by Miss Christabel Pankhurst. THOUSANDSOF OTHER SUBJECTS, ALL FULLY TREATED BY EXPERTS WHAT EDWIN PUGH WANTS (See “THE NEW AGE,” May 16, 1908). ‘ Just such a work was badly needed. . . . . It would have to be thoroughly well done . . . . a standard book of reference, arranged in alphabetical order, with precise and exact meanings plainly set forth in clear and unmistakeable language.” THIS IS THE GREAT FEATURE OF THE NEW ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SOCIAL REFORM. SPECIALDISCOUNT "NEW COUPONAGE' FREE CUT OUT THIS COUPON Please to send me by prepaid carriage THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF (OR MAKE A COPY), AND POST TO SOCIAL REFORM, cloth 1908 edition, for examination. If I do not care for the work, -I will return it within three days at your THE NEW AGE PRESS, expense. If I keep the work I will remit 5/- within eight days, 140, FLEET STREET, LONDON, E.C., and 4/- for four consecutive months thereafter, thus completing IN OPEN ENVELOPE, BEARING ½D. STAMP. the purchase for the special reduced price of 21/ instead of -- 31/6, the price after this exceptional offer ceases. You will receive the Work in due course to Examine Free, and, under our arrangements Name ...... with the Publishers, you will SAVE ONE- THIRD on the Published Price. Address ...... r...... Ifyou are wise, you will post to-day certain, to make sure. 1 Profession . . . ..‘...... r...... ~...... I...... *,..,,

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