SATURDAY, JULY 15, 1922. THE D AIL Y BRITISH WHIG. ---- -- By Professor Famous ' Agnostic Pleads Religions Caues | In the Preface to What Is Likely to Be His Last Book, Thomas Hardy, Aged 82, and Long Regarded as an Absolute Pagan, Declaizs That World Will Perish Unless Religion Survives. A Sensational One of the Most Celebrated of Living Auth Apology by Ors. W. T. Allison. By far the most important volume | English-speaking most published in the world this year, mayhap the valuable for years to come, is "Late Lyrica and Earlier" by Thomas Har- dy (the Macmillan Company, London and Toronto). There are several reasons why this book of poems will | provoke | have a large sale and will . much comment and discussion in literary circles everywhere. In all probability it is the last child of Thomas Hardy's invention, the last production of a man of genius whose brain is still active, whose pen is still facile, although he has reached the great age of eighty-two. As the title indicates, not all the 153 poems in this eollection are of recent composi- tion, but enough of them have been written during and since the great war to show that this famous dean of England's novelists and singers is still in full possegsion of his facul- ties and is still master of his craft. 1 question whether any great writer at his age has produced a work of such compass or of such powerful application of ideas to life Another reason why "Late Lyrics and Earlier will command instant attention from his contemporaries and will be re- ferred to with much comment by critics yet unborn is that this octo- genarian book of poems contains a remarkable preface in which a writer who has been very reserved in the face of much criticism speaks out at long last and makes some surpris- ing statements about his philosophy of life and his hopes for the future of mankind. Hardy, a Modern Pagan. The most surprising thing about this preface, or apology as the author styles it, is the respectful, even af- fectionate, way in which Mr. Hardy speaks about religion. Critics will rub their eyes and wonder if they are dreaming when they run across his emphatic statement that unless religion is retained the world will perish. Can this be the same man who wrote 'Jude the Obscure' and those other great but terrible mid- victorfan novels in which the char- acters are pictured as being helpless victims in the grasp of heredity and environment, not really free but at the mercy of destiny? In his novels Hardy has painted life as a vast tra- gedy in which things always come out wrong, where a belief in a loving God is merely idiotic, for fate rules nankind and fate is a cruel monster, Between 1870 and 1902, Mr. Hardy published twelve novels and all of them reveal a philosophy which is biank negation, so much so that their author has been characterized as an absolute pagan and the blackest pessimist of our time. No doubt it was the hostile reception accorded by his contemporaries to "Jude the Ob- scure," in which this pessimism found its horrible climax of brutal realism, that led Mr. Hardy to make the decision that he would write no more novels, but would devote him- self to the pleasanter paths of poetry. Some of his admirers have bemoaned this decision, for they did not regard him as & successful poet, and, while they lamented his pessimism, they admitted that he possessed marvel lous skill as a plot-maker, as a por- | trayer of character and as an inter- preter of nature. Mr. Hardy's father designated him for the church, but In his youth he decided that he could | not take holy orders owing to his ! fnability to reconcile the pain and sorrow and evil in the world with an all-wise' or all-loving God. Church- outed by unbelief, he became an ec- clesiastical architect, anad until the age of thirty, when he forsook archi- tecture for novel-writing, he built new churches and restored old ones As MRR SN He took an aesthetic delight in the courts of the Lord, although he could not find any spiritual presence there, [As Phot. Phelps has wittily observed, "No man to-day has less respect for |God and more devotion to His house." | | Modifies His Old Views in Old Age. age has not brought with it |goftening of the brain in Mr. Hardy's | case, but, as frequently happens, it | Pas apparently lled to a "modified point of view with regard to religion. I remember that this was true of an- other noted agnostic, the late Prof Golwin Smith. When that famous doubter became an old man, one of hie favorite themes was the ifmmor- tality of the soul. He used to write | letters to the New York Sun, in which he discussed the question of ques- tions, frankly setting forth the pros and cons, and revealing a pathetic {desire to take the positive position. [In one of these letters he stated that in his opinion the theory of evolution offered him the most valid ground of hope. Mr. Hardy has not been frank enough in his "apology" to acquaint us with the reasons for shifting his {ground from the land of deep dark- | ness to that of twilight, but he goes [80 far as to protest against being called a pessimist, avowing himself as an evolutionary meliorist, and, as [ have already indicated, he speaks out loud and clear in favor of ration- al religion. He is kind in his refer- ence to certain small bodies of vari- cus denominations, whom he does rot specify, is kinder to the Establish- ed Church, and, mirabile dictu, is kindest in his reference to the Roman Catholic church, Hardy's Allusions to the Churches. The paragraph in this "apology" which will excite most surprise, com- ing as It does from this famous ag- nostic, must be quoted in full. After referring to some of the darker ten- dencies in the life of our generation, including the decline of poetry, he proceeds, "In any event poetry, pure literature in general, religion--1I in- clude religion because poetry and re- ligion touch each other, or rather modulate into each other; are, in- deed, often but different names for the same thing--these, I say, the vis- ible signe of mental and emotional life, must like all other things keep moving, becoming; even though at present, when belief in witches of Endor is displacing the Darwinian theory and 'the truth that shall make you free," men's minds appear, as above noted, to be moving backwards rather than on. I speak, of course, somewhat swelepingly, and should except many isolated minds; also tha minds of men in certain worthy but small bodies of various denomina- tions, and perhaps in the homely quarter where advance might have been the very least expected a few years back--the English Church--if one reads it rightly as showing evi- dence of 'removing those things that are shaken,' in accordance with the wise Epistolary recommendation to the Hebrews. For since the historic and once august hierarchy of Rome some generation ago lost its chance of being the religion of the future by doing otherwise, and chance of being the religion of the future by doing otherwise, and throwing over the 1it- tle band of neo-Catholics who were making a struggle for continuity by applying the principle of evolution to their own faith, joining hands with modern science, and outflanking the hesitating English instinct towards liturgical reform (a flank march which I at the time quite expected to witness, with the gathering of many millions of waiting agnostics into its fold) ; since then, one may ask, what other purely English establishment PIRIN UNLESS you see the name "Bayer" on tablets, you are not getting Aspirin at all Accept only an "un Aspirin," which .contai physicians during Colds Toothache Earache broken package" of "Bayer Tablets of ns directions and dose work 22 years and proved safe by millions for Headache - Neuralgia Lumbago ed out by . Neuritis Pain, Pain Handy "Bayer" boxes of 12 tablets--Also bottles of 24 and 1 the trade mark 3 Egan ou BARS 9 be slams With 'thelr pagensrinat 1a » 1h8 "Bayer Cross." Rana I than the church, of sufficient dignity and footing, and with such strength of old assofation, such architectural spell, is left in this country to keep the shreds of morality together ? "It may be a forlorn hope, a mere dream, that of an alMance between religion, which must be retained un- less the word is to perish, and con:- unless also the world is to perish, by means of the interfusing effect of poetry-- 'the breath and finer epirit of all knowledge; the impassioned ex- pression of science,' as it was defined by an English poet who was quite orthodox in his ideas is never in a straight-Mme; but.in a looped orbit, we, magrinethe afore back for a spring. I repeat that 1 forlornly hope so, notwithstanding the supercilious regard of hope by Schopenhauer, von Hartmann, and other philosophers down to Einstein who. have my respect. But one dares not phopresy," What Does He Mean by Religion ? The latter part of this astonishing deliveranee is rather gloomy, and the whole thing is rather vague, for while we may be glad. and are glad, to hear that Mr. Hardy, author of "Jude the Obscure," is in his wise old age convinced of the absolute neces- sity of religion if the wérld is not to perish, it is to be regretfad that he did not enlighten us as to the mean- ing of religion. Mr. Hardy seems to intimate that he and millions of ag- nostics like him would have joined the church of Rome if the mother church had accepted the findings of modern science a generation or so ago. Does this not imply that all these agnostics, Mr. Hardy among far as a belief in God is concerned ? For even if the Roman. church had niay be sure that she would not have yet in Christ and immortality. Nei- ther Mr. Hardy nor any other agnos- tic could have entered her fold, there- fore, without professing a belief in these doctrines. If this eminent no- velist has come thus far, he has made a great advance since he wrote his early novels in which a blind fate, a cruel destiny, is described as govern- ing the little lives of men. But inter- preting his plea for religion in the largest and most general way, is there not good reason to hope that Mr. Hardy has come to beleve in God and the future lite ? For there can be no religion which does not demand a belief in the first, if not in the second teaching as well. It may be that Mr. Hardy "faintly trusts the larger hope" that there is a God and that the soul of man is immortal, but hope he does in some degree, else he could not stultify his intellect by speaking so kindly of the church and by declaring that humanity will per- Ish if religion decays and dies. At any rate his whole statement is an inter. esting refutation of the assertion that H. G. Wells puts into the mouth of one of his leading characters in his new novel, "The Secret Places of the Heart," that after a man is forty he does not feel the need of-a person- al God. rn Will Not Make His Reason Blind. But Mr. Hardy abates no jot of his habitual right to indulge in question- ings and misgivings regarding the suffering and evil in the world "While I am quite sure," he says, "that a thinker is not expected, and, Indeed, is scarcely allowed, now mora than heretofore, to state all that crosses his mind concerning exist- ence in this universe, in his attempts to explain or excuse the presence of evil and the incongruity of penalizing the irresponusible__it must be obvi- ous to open intelligences that, with- out denying the beauty and faithlul service of certain venerable cults, such disallowance of 'obstinate ques- tionings' and 'blank misgivings' tends to a paralysed intellectual stalemate. Heine observed nearly a hundred years ago that the soul has her eter: nal rights; that she will not be dark- ened by statutes nor lullabled by the music of bells. And what is to-day, in allusions to the present author's pages, alleged to be 'pessimism' is, in truth, only such 'questionings' in the exploration of reality and is the first step towards 'the soul's betterment and the body's also. If I may be for- given for quoting my own old words, let me repeat what I printed in this relation more than twenty years ago, and wrote much earlier, in a poem entitled 'Tenebris': 'It way to the Better there be, it exacts a full look at the Worst'; that is to say, by the exploration of real- ity, and its frank recognition stage by stage along the survey, with an €36 to the best consummation possi- bie; briefly, evolutionary meliorism." And looking down the future, with some belief in the freedom of the human will in the presence of neces- sity, he says that he holds fast to this, "that whether the human and kindred animal races survive till the exhaustion or destruction of the globe, or whether these races perish, and are succeeded by others before that conclusion comes, pain toallupon it, tonged or dumb, shall be kept down to a minimum by loving kind- ness, operating through scientific knowledge, and actuated by the modi- cum of free will conjécturally poe- ®essed by organic life when the mighty necessitating forces--uncon- ious or other--that have 'the balance Ings of the clouds,' happen to be in Aquilibrium, which may or may not be often." i -- + An Apostle of Questionings have been and now are, Ro one can gainsay the fact that he has a loving heart. In spite of the darkness behind her, he has always loved nature, and no ome can read t plete rationality, which must come, | Folks Back Home But if it be | true, as Comte argued, that advance | said ominous moving back wd #4 "he | doing it pour mieux sauter; drawing | them, have ceased to be agnostics as | accepted the theory of evolution, we | surrendered her faith In God, nor | Numerous as Mr, Hardy's obstinata English r [ | rer" Conversation, Uncle Gus jper with' a lin bis black reckon I'm ol'-fashicnegd," 'cut it makes me fesl right bal to | see the way women is changin' G% | tin' into busin |like that- is makin' | They talk straight ou: what {mean an' keep the' promises {don't ask no favors. Seems | just can't git used to it. ned. corn.cob pipe, I'ke sigh and sought ¢ .mfort {first and most lively desire | "I {proud of himself-- his attainments, s2id he, |bis excellences and his | which to heng a shred of pride, else laid aside his newspa- |life would be Insupportable; but his S$ to be integrity. ft lis only when he finds nothing in him- ess an' votin' an' things 'turns to othe 'em like men. [fort for his ego. they | an' decent, I [soothes his vanity as nothi When I was | can. self of which to be proud that he r sources to find com- The natural desire of man is to be for a sense of decency ng else Place him where he can build a young feller, a-courtin' gals, they | was all sweat an' feminine an c.ing- | : jin'! They expected ever- {didn't give nothin', ichange her mind, like as not; an' I | never believed much they said, hav- in' learned to grant 'em the privilege jo' lyin'. They was mighty cheerful winners, them gals was, an' the sex kept 'em from payin' when they Jost I sever knowed one of 'em to admit | that anything was her fault. Gosh, | but they was sweet an' enticin'. Well, well; I reckon ever'thing has to change. I only hope if this here fem- |inism makes 'em as honest an' fair jan' reasonable as men, it won't plum' | spoil 'em." -------------- Pride. | Pride is the 'bulward of civiliza- (tion. Tt is pride that keeps men de- cent, pride that males men strive for | excellence. The two prides most common jamang men are pride of birth and 2 ! : street is dreaming dreams and 2 pride of possession, but the preval- | wo the b ' » o Ones ence of these two is the work of cir-( OTe the butcher boy finds life bit- result of | ter and existence as ashes cumstance and not the A A et Arr mtn. arrmar------------ Willie Willis, lis went evening, ily washed ears, and 'announc- ary. than - a touch of his last volume without feeling that his lovingkindness extends to the Weakest thing in creation. Scores of poems show how keen is his sym- pathy for 'erring, sinful human be- ivgs, his brothers and sisters, and the last lyric in the book, given this Special position on the chance that it might be his last message to the world, is a forceful rendition of Si. Paul's saying that the greatest of things is Charity. In next week's article I will give the text of this notable poem and will discuss and quote other poems in this important book. --W. T. ALLISON. Literary Notes. Douglas Durkin, late of W irnipeg, now of New York, has raturped to the Canadian west this summer to Write a series of stories descriptive of the life of northern Briti i: t'olum- bia Some years ago he was on a mission held in that part of the world and has gone back to renew earlier memories. We may expect some live- ly out-door stories as the result. "The King's Pilgrimage," an ac- count of His Majesty's recent jour- ney to the war graves of France and Belgium, Is to be published shortly by Hodder and Stoughton. The vol- ume will include a full text of the Rudyard Kipling's poem, "The King's Pilgrimage." By His. Majesty's de- sire, the profits from the sale ~f this book will be distributed among the philanthropic organizations which have been assisting relatives to visit the cemeteries abroad. A. S. Hutchinson, author of that famous novel, "If Winter Comes," bas made a recent confession to an English editor that his characters al- ways pop into his brain with their rames attached or else he imagines them out of the faces of psopla he sces in the streets or public places. "I see a face," he says; "and away goes my immagination into the face's life, career, friends,--all kinds of things. The longest and best short story [ have written was written for me from start to finish by the faces of a man and girl opposite to ne for two stations in the tubs. I (hink this trick is responsible for the exag- geration with which I sometimes draw a character." -- John Galsworthy has collected his Forsythe novels into one volume, and dedicates them thus: "To my wife I dedicate the Forsyte Saga in its entirety, believing it to be of al' without whose encouragement, sym- puthy, and criticism I could never have become even such a writer as I am." See Robert Nichols, the young English Poet, who recently came through Can- ada, and dropped off to see some of us on his way back from Toklo, where he has been professor of Eng- {lish In the Imperial University for the last three years, bas been telling an interviewer his opinion of the Japaness. "It fs quite a mis. take," he says, "to suppose that the Japanese are Europesnized. They are not. They are far too proud of their own Institutions and far toc 0 1 If one of em | | promised somethin', I knowed she'd | king's address at Terlincthun, and | my work the least unworthy of one | thing an' | # Sketches by J. H. Striebel }a home and rear his chil By Rob iren in free- dom, with none to molest or make afraid, and he will be a model citizen, * But let authority éidsavor to take away his liberty and he becomes sullen. Hate kindles in his heart, and in spirit he becomes an outlaw In the name of liberty he stoops to crimes that a free man would scorn. He feels no pride, but only a sullen desperation. y To chain man is to take away the pride that prompts him to be decent. The @irl Across _the Street. choice. Man must have some peg on | mouth, Little Wille Wi. | It Was typewritten and unsigned, but home it radiated romance and Cupid peer- from play Tuesday |®! between the lines. voluntar-, °r@ature," it began, and thereafter, his through two single-spaced pages, it ed his intention to|"aN. saddened by contact with the become a mission- | World, for an idol whom he worship- The doctor ped from afar, deeming himself un- said it was noth. |WOrthy as yet to tell the story of his ing more serious |0Vve face to face, Once more the girl across the in his Monday the gir] received a letter. "My dream pictured the adoration of a strong Gosh! The girl brought the letter A As ens loyal to the spirit of their ancestors. Perhaps they are right. They have just taken as much of the superficial niachinery of the west as, in their opinion, they need to safeguard their own institutions. Remember they arc a communal race; individualism Is at a discount; Their government 13 an autocracy, modifified by public opinion. Whether this experiment of adopting western machinery with- out the western spirit will prove a ert. Quillen 1 Deformity, { The land is full of uplifters and people are divided into two {8roups, one of which holds that all {reformers are great and good men, | while the other as sincerely believes jivat persons interested in reform {have axes to grind and are in the | business for revenue only. {| - That there are knaves who fatten jon the credulity of pious folk is an {established fact. But to talk with | reformers, great and small. is to be | persuaded that nearly all of them are | Inspired by a sincere and uncom= |the } promising hatred of the things that . areqevil, he | When men make argument in |rublic, personal interest of the desire |to overcome an adversary will per- suade them to maintain that evil is good and good evil; but in their so- cret hearts all sane men agree cone cerning the right or wrong of things Lithat matter over to our house and she and Daughter had the time of their lives. How delightful is mystery! There are only six typewriters in town, and the only unmarried man who has one is Lawyer Davis. Davis is a widower, bald, lean and solemn; but he has lived here only three | years, and doubtless his past life was | romantic and mysterious. They say | he has money. The butcher boy was permitted to See the letter, and in the post office lobby Tuesday he said in the presence of Davis that he could lick any man v.ho wrote anonymous letters. Davis did not appear interested in the sug gestion, however, and the mystery | When normal people pass a hunch |back or a cripple whose hideous mal. formations are exposed to invite charity, they feel qualm that is very Fear to nausea. An innate sense of fitness, of beauty amd of harmony causes them to recoil from any vige lation of the normal; for the normal Is invariably pleasing. To normal men right is pleasing and logical. To these wrong js hide- ous and the wrong-doer a monstros- ity. The desire to rid the world of wrong, held in common by all proper [ men, is but a desire to heal the men- [t* and moral deformity that makes wrong seem desirable. So men would labor to heal the hunchbacks and {cripples if it were possible by labor- {ing to make them straight again. Aunt Het, "l hear a lot o' talk about idle tongues spoilin' the reputation o' good girls; but I've yet to idle tongues waggin' about a girl until she gives plenty to ibout." see deepens as the days pass, Bmmme ticisms, sharp-tongued Margo: has this to say of Americans, "Whether it is from the difficulties of the climates and the overheated rooms, the voices of even the nicest people appeared bo | generous hosts. Among other eri- | me to be loud, and however generous- ly you may have been entertained yon are left with a sense of suffocation which it would be difficult to explain The excuse of being a young country will not contine to cover the rush and success is beyond my knowledge, and beyond, I tiink, the knowledge of most Europeans. It is now and dur-' ing the next thirty years that Japan will have to stand to prove of what she Is made. Her trials are not over, they are only beginning." -- { Mrs. Asquith has imitated many of her countrymen who have been lion- noise and lack of privacy that pre- Vall; and the amount of small chil- dren that | have seen in hotels, ships. and restaurants that go to bed at midnight after sucking candy be- tween enormous meals is not promis- ing for a nation which is always growing up." Margot has a weak voice herself which made her a dis- tinct failure us a lecturer; there are ized in the United States only to go Lome to speak disparagingly of their a + ing them. Satisfying! driving, hard- Juicy, inspected. NATIONAL CANNED | --and don't forget the beans! A can of Victory Pork and Beans will crowd into small packing space more sustenance than almost any other food you can carry. It's Victory Pork and Beans you must have if you want the most nourishment and delicious flavor, because of the Victory method of cook- times when a loud voice is to be ap Irroved. Ke Lunch Public Library Bulletin HAVE YOU READ Roving East and Roving West--Lucas, Memoirs of a Midget--De La Mare, W. Readers and Writers--Orage. . Cruise of the Kawa --Traprock, W, BE. In the Track of the Trades--Freeman, LR In the Eyes of the East--Greenble, M. Moder % y ~~ y pg, Cl Fd hs Toumanis- trie: Christopheg PT rr ---- Every man has a lot of natural re sources he ought to conserve more than he does. Small talk is responsible for the use of many big words. A man's good opinion of himself is the real thing. ep a shelf of Victory - Pork and Beans Tongue Compressed Corned Beef Roast Cambr| Every bean is full of paddle- tramping autriment to make you strong for the trip and enjoy yourself. Sweet, tender pork aplenty to round out a balanced food. Flavor that took experts years to attain!--Chili or Tomato sauce. Made in Canada; Dominion Government MEATS LIMITED, TORONTO, CANADA Corned Beef Luncheon Beefsteak and Onions Beef idge Sausage