feels weary, tired; and perhaps he has more than once turned to God in the words of Elias: Enough, Lord; take now my soul!" The agitation aroused in Germany in 1910 against the authority of Rome has been the crowning sorrow of his pontificate. In a few days he aged as though ten years had passed by. His spirit was not broken; but he no .longer has the conviction he had had formerly of the near and brilliant victory of divine authority against the forces of evil. Against the French Government and against Modernism he battled with growing enthusiasm, for he saw victory "with the eyes of his flesh," if I may be permitted to speak thus. Without wholly opposing Germany and France, he comforted himself because of the misdemeanors of the former, counting on the return of the latter to the fold, and expecting the prodigal daughter to return at once to take the place of the elder daughter. Instead, occurred the violent demonstrations which had their center and their inspiration at Berlin. The disappointment was grievous; and the more cruel because it coincided with several sad experiences of the Holy Father concerning a number of men whom he had believed to be more loyal to his ideas than to himself personally. He found in them but little moral and religious strength, and this lack caused him great sorrow. These are the causes which have so vitally undermined the health of Pius X. It may be that he will go on for two or three years longer, but if so it will truly be a miracle. I have endeavored thus to reproduce, as faithfully as possible, my remembrance of this conversation, because it indirectly sketches, so to speak, a moral silhouette of the Sovereign Pontiff. It explains this paradoxical man-so gentle that he does not venture to ask his own cook not to scramble his eggs too hard, and yet so determined that he does not hesitate to impose his wish on the Episcopate, to disregard the advice of his Cardinals, and to stand alone in his most important resolutions. The deep and universal agitation produced by the announcements of the ill health of the Pope is an indication that the world is concerned, not alone with the death of Giuseppe Sarto and the question of his successor, but with the realization of the fact that the Papacy is passing through a crisis, and that the institution which since the year 1870 has seemed to attain its highest point of logical perfection may be on the verge of unforeseen changes. One might say that, except at Rome and in the immediate vicinity of the Cardinals, the personal question is lost in the contemplation of more serious considerations. It would be idle to waste time in speculating on the chances of various Cardinals, as the newspapers delight in doing. A Conclave rarely achieves the predictions of the thoughtless and innumerable prophets who announce results. Even those who are present at a pontifical election are puzzled when they come to tell or write of it. They know the facts only in part, they are misled by current opinion, by intrigue, influences, and end by endowing anecdotes with a value they do not possess. If one could examine the politico-ecclesiastical considerations awakened by the prospect of the death of Pius X, one might enumerate them in a single phrase, put into circulation, if I mistake not, by an eminent Italian prelate-" the internationalization of the tiara." But I wish to go a step farther, and above all, to probe deeper, in order to reveal the thoughts that have been bred here and there in the consciousness of the Roman Catholic world. In other words, I wish to approach the question of the succession of Pius X in its religious aspect. To maintain government by divine right without fear and without reproach, without palliation or concession, with a decision and a frankness which command respect; to impose forcibly on all Catholics the affirmation that the concrete and historical Church has all the rights which the ideal Church, directed by God in person, could have; to assume that absolute theological dogma should take the place of the political and scientific efforts of the world; to regard the static formulas of logicians as concealing on all sides the reality of life; to conceive of the Church, not as a working association to point the way towards broader horizons, but as a means of saving intellectual toil; to transform unconditional and absolute submission into religious virtue; to create a system in which the cure thinks for his parishoners, the bishop for his cures, the Pope for his bishops; to believe that union with the Apostolic See is greater than all the rest, replaces all, is allsufficient-that there is in traditional Catholic thought the germ of all this I should hesitate to deny. But there is more besides. In bringing these points into pronounced relief by schisms more violent, perhaps, than those of Luther, the present Pope has essentially altered the THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE FUTURE POPE ence and respect. 51 This is because the idea of unity has made much progress, and also because, without regard to its confessional aspect, one feels that the Church has created this aspiration toward which the masses are turning with increasing fervor and devotion. One may say that, if the idea of unity is the very foundation of Catholicism, France has never been as truly Catholic as at this moment. Considering even her most incongruous and complex efforts, one finds in them a soul, so to speak, and this soul is in pursuit of unity. At times there are tentative efforts towards establishing an exterior and liturgical unity; more often it is a sort of missionary fever which drives us to wish other people to adopt our political and social ideas. But what is remarkable in all these tendencies is their mysticism. They are perfectly disinterested, and free from all alloy. The Frenchman does not wish to conquer new territory; he wishes to pass on his faith to others. Apparently I have wandered far from Pius X, the Conclave, and the future Pope; in truth, I am in the very midst of the question. The future Conclave, particularly if Pius X lives several years longer, will assemble under conditions absolutely new. For one thing, the sovereign Pontiff will have pushed to the limit his idea of Divine, Absolute, and Universal authority, and will have practically demonstrated its dangers even to those who, intellectually and doctrinally, are in perfect accord with his ideas. On the other hand, many Catholics who are resolutely loyal to their Church, who have found in their faith not only a little treasury of truths acquired forever, but also an inspiration to work, to love, and to live, will continue to investigate the practical worth of dogma. For them the dogmas concerning the Church, its unity, and the obedience due her are facts which never really grip their intelligence until they have first, through experience, found root in the heart. Therefore they do not conceive of the unity of the Church as an exterior unity, disciplinary and bureaucratic, but as a unity of life and of progress; unity of aspiration where harmony is obtained through the myriad of voices, each one giving his note freely, joyously. Now, these convictions, far more common than those inside the Church may believe to be true, coincide with laic thought in its deepest and most helpful aspect. Such is, it seems to me, the actual position of the Church at the moment when the question of a successor to Pius X presents itself. Readers may find all this rather vague, and they will not be far wrong. But I do not wish to state in precise terms that which is, at the historic moment we are facing, so complex, confused, unorganized; although, doubtless, from these confused and confusing tendencies orderly, concrete efforts will one day ensue. It is very evident that, for centuries, circumstances and, above all, combinations of interest have worked to the end that all Popes should be Italian. It seems to many Catholics, and even to some eminent Italian prelates, that the interest of the Church, as also the interest of the Papacy, the eternal symbol and center of unity, demands that the future Conclaves renounce this existing order to erect in its place a rule of simple precedence. An American Pope! Why not? How can the Church maintain its title of "Catholic" if, deliberately, she continues to declare ineligible the citizens of a country where the Church is progressing more rapidly than anywhere else in the world? If I have succeeded in painting the state of affairs in their true light, readers will recog nize that the Roman Church is rent internally by influences which may profoundly change its exterior and perhaps alter the course of its destiny. The question of authority looms large. Pius X solved it in the most logical, reactionary, and severe sense. One might have believed for a time that he would sign the decree divorcing the Papacy and the Roman Church from the Modern Spirit; but in the instant that the head of the Church attempts that, other voices, of a different sound from his own, will be raised about him; voices which clamor, not only for the reconciliation of the Church and the age, but which proclaim that the most ardent aspirations of our time are blessed by the Church and have their source in her; that the spirit of the age can find peace only in the Church; and that the Church will not be a true mother to her Ichildren if she fails to understand the age, the soul of which she has created. The date of the election of a successor to Pope Pius X will be a historic one in the religious history of the world. Let us pre: pare ourselves to consider it in a high sense, and not permit ourselves to become absorbed by the detailed chronicle of daily events. THE NEW BOOKS Spiritual Message of Dante (The). By the Rt. Rev. W. Boyd Carpenter. Harvard University Press, Cambridge. $1.50. In justice both to Dante and to his great poem, this volume of lectures at Harvard should be read by those to whom its best known or only known portion is the "Inferno." Bishop Carpenter modestly disclaims a purpose to contribute to the critical study of Dante, though he has not avoided it, and could not. He aims simply to express his thoughts on religious experience as exemplified in the "Divina Commedia;" others are suggested by "pregnant fragments of thought which Dante has left hanging, as it were, on the hedges of the way along which his pilgrim feet have trod." What Bunyan's allegory was in the seventeenth century Dante's was in the fourteenth, a pilgrim's progress in experiences that reach the heights by a path that first leads through the depths of evil self-revealed. According to Dante, hell is the region from which love is being slowly banished. . . . The lack of love is the disease of the soul, from which all life's worst lives 66 Essays on Faith and Immortality. By George Tyrrell. Arranged by M. D. Petre. Longmans, Green & Co., New York. $1.40. Father Tyrrell was excommunicated in 1908 for criticising-though with good Catholic precedents-the papal bull against modernism. His autobiography was published two years ago by Miss Petre, his literary executrix, with a memoir and supplementary documents-the story of a noble struggle for a free intellect and conscience. Further memoranda of that struggle appear in the present volume. Drawn and rearranged mainly from Father Tyrrell's notebooks and journal, they give chief prominence to the subjects named in its title. The essays on Faith run largely on the line of the so-called new theology that is modernizing the old Protestantism. He writes: "The Christianity of the New Testament is as little Catholic as it is Protestant. . . . It was not a religion but a spirit. . . which might be found in various religions." The essasy on immortality cast their sounding-line into waters too deep for it to fathom. Their inconclusive questionings find vent only in faith's conviction that the final "merging" of human life in the divine will prove to be not the extinction but the enlargement of personality. Father Tyrrell denies that the liberal Catholic is making more slowly for the same goal as the liberal Protestant, but both are represented in him. Roman Idea of Deity (The). By W. Warde Fowler, M.A. The Macmillan Company, New York. $1.40. In this short course of lectures at Oxford an accomplished scholar discusses a part of the history of religion not hitherto so systematically treated. He finds Cicero's well-known book, "De Natura Deorum," far from satisfactory the work of "an amateur " who did not really believe the subject to be of vital interest. Dr. Fowler pronounces the modern investigator's task to be one of enormous difficulty, and one that yields only a meager result from thorough scrutiny of all that Latin literature contributes to it. The Roman idea of Genius as a divine force History of Philosophy (A). By Frank Thilly. In giving under this title a connected account of the attempts of thinkers to solve the problems of existence and experience Professor Thilly follows the historico-critical method. Regarding the history of philosophy as exhibiting philosophy at work in self-criticism and self-correction, he lets the philosophers present their thoughts with little criticism by him to interrupt. Greek, mediæval, and modern thinkers having thus been heard from, the historian pronounces for rationalism. By "rationalism" he means more than intellectualism-reason that includes more than the processes of the 333 53 discursive understanding. "Living consciousness is an event in the world which living consciousness alone can know." He dissents from Bergson's intuitionism, but insists that science is not limited to external objects and outward perception. His rationalism protests against the naturalism which mechanizes all of life and mind, and leaves no room and play for freedom in a "dynamic and developing universe." In view of the rational need of one supreme dynamic to realize such a universe and control its development, why should Professor Thilly's rationalism turn a cold shoulder to all monistic schemes, whether materialistic or spiritual? Eucken's conception of a universal spiritual life as the unitary ground of all being and of its evolutionary processes secures both place and control for all the oppositions, changes, and free development that pluralists recognize, and that Professor Thilly would provide for. His book does credit to the department of philosophy at Cornell. Collected Essays of Rudolf Eucken. Edited and Translated by Meyrick Booth, B.Sc., Ph.D. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. $4. The nineteen essays in this volume are upon widely different subjects, and view them from the German standpoint. The problems treated are of universal interest, and the personalities contemplated belong to the literature of mankind. The inner connection that unifies the whole is the central principle of Eucken's philosophy-namely, an Absolute Spiritual Life as the ultimate basis of all reality. Eucken views human existence as one vast process of realizing and appropriating this spiritual reality as a principle that claims for itself every branch of human activity, surmounts all difficulties, harmonizes all discords, and alone can impart consistency and unity to the chaotic confusion of the actual world. Chambers's English Dictionary. Edited by In its earlier and much smaller form The Outlook long ago commended this work for its clear definitions, numerous useful appendices, and compact methods. In the present edition, with its supplemental vocabulary and other improvements, the work fulfills excellently its claim to be a "library dictionary" in one volume. The typography is vastly better than before. Lad of Kent (A). By Herbert Harrison. The The story of this English lad who lived in Kent a century ago tells in stirring manner and excellent literary form of highwaymen and smuggling, of the press gang and war at sea. The action is vigorous and the incidents are varied and exciting. BY THE WAY A great department store in Chicago, according to a writer in "Collier's," never advertises reduced-price goods in the familiar form, “Was $5; now $2.50." "We take the position," said an official of the store, "that things are worth what they will bring." If the store gets a lot of coats that were meant to sell at $40 but which it is willing to sell at $22.50, it never advertises "Worth $40," but "just points out that these are exceptionally good coats for the money." This advertising pays, the official said, because in the long run it teaches the people to rely absolutely on the store's statements. Vorticism is supposed to be the latest thing in art, Cubisim and Futurism being regarded as too photographic for the taste of the Vorticists. They are largely English, and publish a magazine called "Blast." The Cape of Good Hope," a picture by Edward Wadsworth, reproduced in the magazine, shows a medley of shapes remotely suggesting lifeboats, funnels, marlinspikes, and anchors, without perspective, coherence, or intelligibility. Spain has a car-building plant which employs 1,800 men. In 1913 it ran nearly to its full capacity-3,000 freight and 200 passenger cars per year. Mexican dishes as Americanized along the border are characterized by a writer in" To-Day" as most delicious. Frijoles are called much better than our baked beans, Spanish rice is described as very palatable, and chili con carne as a troublesome and elaborate dish, but one well worth the effort of making. Cooked cucumber salad is a novelty that is said to be well worth imitating. "There is no mistaking the influence of the English Bible on Conrad's prose style," says James Huneker in an appreciation of Joseph Conrad's genius. "He is saturated with its puissant, elemental rhythms, and his prose has its surge and undertow. That is why his is never a 'painted ship on a painted "Please give me a lift," a familiar appeal by a pedestrian on a country road to his more favored brother in a vehicle, is sometimes varied in New York State, a newspaper writer asserts, to "Please give me a hitch." Apropos of this the story is told that Lincoln once asked a man driving along a country road to carry his overcoat. Certainly," said the man, "but what about yourself?" "I intend to remain in it," was the laconic reply. แ exchange a couple of generals for a case of cigarettes and a pack of cards.'” Starlings are not liked in Australia, according to reports from the American Consul at Melbourne. Besides being destructive to fruit, they are charged with turning valuable native insecteating birds out of their nests. Starlings are said to be rapidly increasing in the United States, and are, it is thought, destined to become among the most numerous of our birds, ranking with that other objectionable exotic, the English sparrow. "The omission of remarks from funeral services," says the "Christian Register" in an editorial on Post-Mortem Proprieties," " "... is a protection against well-meaning excess of praise, and it preserves the minister from ghastly, but blameless, mistakes. . . . In our recollection the services that have brought the greatest personal comfort have been those in which there was the least personal reference.” The " Register "commends the "great sentences of the Scriptures as the best service, saying that what is worthy in the life that is departed is called up by them, and from what may have been unworthy we are withdrawn by their noble guidance. A subscriber writes to urge the claims of Richard Trevithick as entitled to the empty glory of having designed and built the first successful locomotive." The date of its trial was February 21, 1804. As with other inventions, however, fate is whimsical in awarding popular glory to this or that individual where several are working on similar lines, and Stephenson's fame as the originator of the first practicable railway locomotive seems secure. Paragould, Arkansas, a city of S,000 people, is building a $100,000 hotel and reaching out for business through what its Chamber of Commerce describes as the Baer plan." The plan in brief, it says, is the donation and purchase of idle real estate in any community for the business advantage of the city. In less than a week, the descriptive circular says, the committee has secured for this purpose donations of real estate amounting to more than $15,000. Little Rock, it is stated, has raised $250,000 by this plan. The Rev. Alan Pressley Wilson, President of the Society for Social Advance, Baltimore, Maryland, suggests a campaign in favor of persuading country boys and girls to stay on the farm. Mr. Wilson claims that country youth make up a large portion of the victims of the social evil, and that by making life on the farm so attractive that they will not desire to leave it the traffic in souls will be reduced, if not curbed. |