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diff --git a/old/51593-0.txt b/old/51593-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 34ba989..0000000 --- a/old/51593-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2721 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Essays Literary, Critical and Historical, by -Thomas O'Hagan - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Essays Literary, Critical and Historical - -Author: Thomas O'Hagan - -Release Date: March 28, 2016 [EBook #51593] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ESSAYS LITERARY, CRITICAL, HISTORICAL *** - - - - -Produced by Mardi Desjardins & the online Distributed -Proofreaders Canada team (http://www.pgdpcanada.net) - - - - - - ESSAYS - - LITERARY, CRITICAL - AND HISTORICAL - - - BY - THOMAS O’HAGAN, - M.A., Ph.D. - - Author of “Canadian Essays,” - “Studies in Poetry,” “In - Dreamland,” “Songs of - the Settlement,” - etc. - - - AUTHOR’S EDITION - - TORONTO - WILLIAM BRIGGS - 1909 - - - - - Copyright, Canada, 1909, by - THOMAS O’HAGAN. - - - - - TO - - HIS FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN, - - THE FRENCH CANADIANS AND ACADIANS - - Who, speaking the language of Bossuet - and Lamartine, have added Lustre - to our Canadian Citizenship, - Virtue to our Canadian - Homes, and Joy to our - Canadian Firesides, - - THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED, - - IN SINCERE ADMIRATION, - - BY THE AUTHOR - - - - - PREFACE. - - -Four of the five essays which make up this volume have appeared during -the past few years in the _American Catholic Quarterly Review_ and the -_Champlain Educator_. The author begs to acknowledge particularly his -indebtedness to Dr. S. E. Dawson’s admirable work on Tennyson’s “The -Princess,” in the preparation of his study of that poem. Indeed, without -Dr. Dawson’s fine analysis of the poem the first essay in this volume -could never have been written. - -The paper on “The Italian Renaissance and the Popes of Avignon” was -prepared while the writer was sojourning at Louvain University, Belgium, -in the autumn of 1903, and at Grenoble University, France, during the -summer of 1904. It may be well to add that the libraries of both these -ancient and renowned seats of learning are very rich in works relating -to medieval history and literature, and afforded the author unusual -opportunity in the preparation of the essay. - -In the writing of the essay on “Poetry and History Teaching Falsehood,” -the author has been motived by a desire to set forth in the clearest -light possible the misrepresentation of Catholic truth which obtains in -much of the history and poetry of our day. - -The third essay in the volume, “The Study and Interpretation of -Literature,” is based by the author upon ideals gained in post-graduate -courses pursued in this subject at several of the leading American -universities, as well as upon a practical knowledge in the teaching of -literature obtained in the High Schools of Ontario. - -The paper on “The Degradation of Scholarship” has never before appeared -in print. Let the reader, divested of every predilection and bias, -examine it carefully, remembering that the courage to state the truth is -a more valuable asset of character than the gift of bestowing false -praise, though that praise should secure friends. - - T. O’H. - Toronto, Canada, March, 1909. - - - - - CONTENTS. - - - PAGE - - A STUDY OF TENNYSON’S “PRINCESS” 11 - - POETRY AND HISTORY TEACHING 45 - FALSEHOOD - - THE STUDY AND INTERPRETATION OF 65 - LITERATURE - - THE DEGRADATION OF SCHOLARSHIP 83 - - THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE AND THE 101 - POPES OF AVIGNON - - - - - A STUDY OF TENNYSON’S - “PRINCESS” - - - - - A STUDY OF TENNYSON’S “PRINCESS.” - - -Few poems written within the Victorian era of English literature have -been so singularly underrated and misunderstood as Tennyson’s -“Princess.” At its very birth—as if it had been born under an -unfavorable star—it encountered the adverse breath of criticism; and -even now, after nearly fifty years have rectified many a past error of -judgment in literary matters, this, the first long and sustained poem of -the late Poet Laureate, receives but grudging recognition and -commendation in a general review and study of the author’s works. We -think it was a little unfortunate that its second title, “A Medley,” was -tacked to it when the poem first appeared, for it gave some of the -critics who had neither the gifts nor disposition to study it aright a -pretext, and, in some measure, justification, for the violent onslaughts -which they from time to time made upon it. - -In the light of the progressive views held to-day of the higher -education of woman, this poem may be regarded as a prophecy voicing the -advent of a broader, rounder and deeper culture for the race upon a -plane of civilization in which woman as a primal factor and true -complement of man shall unfold her being in a ceaseless striving for -truth, beauty and love. The attainment of this higher condition of life -will not, however, be hastened by isolated Idas walled within colleges -of their own pride and sex, and vainly and foolishly waging war upon -their own brothers; and every movement which starts out with the purpose -of setting up woman as a rival of man in achievement, is not only a -detriment to the cause of human progress, in which man and woman alike -are shareholders, but the end thereof must be abasement and defeat. - -The “Princess” appeared first in print in 1847, at a time, by the way, -when the surface thought of England was largely given up to corn-laws -and free-trade; and this may account, in some measure, for the coldness -of the reception accorded it, as the English are a people who have -proverbially little time or thought for “bainting and boetry” when a -commercial or economic question is on the boards. The poem is a medley -in form, but not in essence, as it possesses the real and deep-seated -unity which all art demands—that of a consistent purpose and a -pervading harmony of tone. The medley consists in the poem being -serio-comic, constructed of ancient and modern materials—a show, as -Edmund Clarence Stedman says, of medieval pomp and movement observed -through an atmosphere of latter-day thought and emotion. It is such a -mixture as we find in Shakespeare’s “Winter’s Tale,” and, indeed, in the -prologue the name of that drama is introduced as if to justify by -precedent the incongruities of the narrative. - -We think, however, that the critics have made too much out of the -improbability of the incidents in the poem. Surely to be consistent such -critics should extend their reproach to “The Tempest” and “Midsummer -Night’s Dream.” To us the impossible elements and anachronisms render -the poem more attractive. In estimating a poem we must always take for -granted the conditions assumed by the poet, and these being assumed, we -have only to inquire whether the poem possesses unity, congruity and a -definite and worthy object. There are, however, two things we have a -right to demand: that the characters are congruous with themselves, and -that the treatment of the incidents is poetic. But as far as art is -concerned, we should not lose our literary tempers or prepare to let -fall the axe of condemnation merely because some idealized scene in a -poem or drama does not harmonize in every particular with our own -workaday world. We mention this fact because in all fairness we consider -that this poem, “The Princess,” should be judged and appraised according -to some canons and rules that apply to similar works of imagination and -fancy. - -The prologue and epilogue form the setting of the poem, and it would be -difficult to find in all English literature a more truly natural and -graceful picture than the scene from English life of to-day which the -poet paints for us in the opening lines of the poem. The place is the -South of England. The occasion a festival upon the grounds of a wealthy -baronet. Sir Walter Vivian has thrown open his grounds for a summer’s -day, and the people of the neighboring town, and especially the members -of its scientific institute, throng the park and give themselves up to -recreation and pleasure. A party of young collegians on vacation, in -company with some of the wellborn and cultured girls of the Hall and the -neighboring country seats, have made a select picnic of their own in a -ruined abbey. The baronet’s son, young Walter Vivian, is of the company. -One of the collegians, a dreamy youth—the poet himself—has been -looking through the library and has come across a book telling of -knightly deeds of the medieval ancestors of the stately Hall. Taking the -book with him, he joins the party, keeping his finger on the place where -is told the story of a fearless dame of the house, who, in defending her -castle against a lawless king, had armed - - “Her own fair head, and sallying thro’ the gate - Had beat her foes with slaughter from her walls. - ‘O miracle of women,’ said the book; - ‘O noble heart who, being strait besieged - By this wild king to force her to his wish, - Nor bent nor broke nor shunned a soldier’s death.’” - -These last lines form a key to the story which Tennyson employs in -giving us his views as to the proper sphere of woman, for this “miracle -of women” is the prototype of the Princess Ida. While discussing the -character of this heroine who defended her castle in days agone, the -question at once arises among the members of the picnic party—are there -such women now? One of the young ladies, Lilia, the baronet’s daughter, -answers: - - “There are thousands now - Such women, but convention beats them down,” - -and in a half serious, half sportive way protests against the way in -which nowadays the powers of her sex are dwarfed by insufficient -culture, and as a consequence women are no longer capable of exhibiting -such heroic qualities. Young Walter Vivian in the course of his remarks, -which are banteringly addressed to his sister, mentions a favorite game -which he and his college companions used to play, of telling a story -from mouth to mouth, each one in succession taking up the thread till -among them they brought the story to a close. It is then forthwith -agreed that the seven youths should transfer this medieval miracle of -womanhood to modern times in a story to which each should contribute a -chapter. Of course, the conception out of which the plot is developed is -the founding of a Ladies’ University by the Princess Ida, who has set -before her the task of - - “Raising the woman’s fallen divinity - Upon an equal pedestal with man.” - -It may be added that the question discussed in this poem by Tennyson is -one of vital importance to the human race, and is in every way worthy of -the attention of the best and most earnest minds of our century. The -poem proper is made up of seven cantos, written in semi-heroic verse, -each story linked to and growing out of the previous canto. The first -canto represents the Prince, who is none other than the poet himself, as -longing for the bride betrothed to him in childhood. She, however, -disregarding all pledge and promise, has conceived the idea of founding -a University for Women, from which men are to be excluded on pain of -death. To carry out her strange project she obtains from her father one -of his castles with the domain surrounding it. Here the Princess Ida -establishes her faculty, and rains down the dews of knowledge upon the -thirsty flowers that bud and bloom under her high-souled care. This -lofty enterprise is, however, in no way acceptable to the Prince, nor to -the King, his father, who, inflamed with rage at her refusal to marry -his son, swears - - “That he will send a hundred thousand men - And bring her in a whirlwind.” - -The Prince, in company with two friends, Cyril and Florian, steals away -by night from his father’s court for the purpose of making a personal -appeal to his affianced bride, encouraged by a mysterious voice, borne -upon the winds in the woods, which whispered, - - “Follow, follow, thou shalt win.” - -In his interview with Gama, the King, father of the Princess Ida, who, -by the way, was powerless to oppose the wishes and designs of his -daughter and her two widow companions, we learn the two fallacies which -mislead the Princess in her design to found a Ladies’ University: that -the woman is equal in all respects to the man, and that knowledge is all -in all. These are the very two fallacies which to-day are productive of -most mischief to the true advancement of woman. - -The second book or canto brings the Prince and his two companions, -disguised as women, to the University, where the detection of Florian by -his sister, Lady Psyche, one of the lady lecturers, is narrated. The -description of the grounds and walks leading to the University shows -Tennyson’s keen knowledge of feminine nature. Just note, please, the -following appointments in the grounds. Do they not reflect the artistic -taste of woman? - - “We follow’d up the river as we rode, - And rode till midnight, when the college lights - Began to glitter firefly-like in copse - And linden alley: then we past an arch, - Whereon a woman-statue rose with wings - From four wing’d horses dark against the stars; - And some inscription ran along the front, - But deep in shadow: further on we gained - A little street, half garden and half house; - But scarce could hear each other speak for noise - Of clock and chimes, like silver hammers falling - On silver anvils, and the splash and stir - Of fountains spouted up and showering down - In meshes of the jasmine and the rose: - And all about us peal’d the nightingale, - Rapt in her song and careless of the snare.” - -The only thing wrong in this nice bit of description, as Dr. S. E. -Dawson has pointed out in his study of “The Princess,” is in reference -to the song of the nightingale. It is only the male bird which sings. -Scientifically, therefore, Tennyson is wrong, though historically and -poetically he is correct, for, according to the Greek myth, Philomela -was a princess who was turned into a nightingale which sang. - -Lady Psyche having discovered that her three visiting friends are men, -not women, the Prince and his two companions, upon promising a speedy -departure, prevail upon the fair professor to conceal their real -identity. Disguised as women, and keeping their hoods about their faces, -the three young men stroll through the lecture-rooms and listen to the -“violet-hooded doctors” descant on the ancient glories of Greece and -Rome, now reciting some scrap of thunderous epic, now lilting off some -throbbing ode, now dipping into the science of star and bird and shell -and flower, electric, chemic laws and all the rest, and whatsoever can -be taught and known—with what result? We will let the Prince tell: - - “Till like three horses that have broken fence, - And glutted all night long breast-deep in corn, - We issued gorged with knowledge.” - -Cyril, however, is not pleased with the condition of things, and thinks -that violence is done to woman’s nature in this isolated institution. -This plain-spoken fellow evidently regards the heart and its affections -in woman as of much more importance than the intellect, for how -otherwise are we to interpret his opinion, as expressed to Florian: - - “A thousand hearts lie fallow in these halls, - And round these halls a thousand baby loves - Fly, twanging headless arrows at the hearts, - Whence follows many a vacant pang.” - -In the third canto the mock damsels pursue still further their studies, -and mounted on horses, in company with the Princess, make a geological -excursion in the neighboring country. The Prince and Princess ride side -by side, and out of their conversation grows a reference to her -betrothal to the young prince in the North. Her reply to the statement -of her disguised companion, that her persistence in refusing to make -good her pledge of marriage would surely lead to the death of the -Prince, is characteristic of a woman who is waging war with her womanly -instincts and the rooted affections of her heart, and undertakes the -heavy task of breasting the current of nature with its strong and -irresistible tide. Here is the crumb of consolation she offers him in -his disappointment: - - “‘Poor boy,’ she cried, ‘can he not read—no books? - Quoit, tennis, ball—no games? nor deals in that - Which men delight in, martial exercise? - To nurse a blind ideal like a girl, - Methinks he seems no better than a girl; - As girls were once, as we ourself have been; - We had our dreams; perhaps he mixt with them.’” - -This reminds one of the advice given in Donald G. Mitchell’s “Reveries -of a Bachelor” to a disappointed lover—to adopt a diet of vegetables -and read Jeremy Taylor’s sermons. - -The fourth canto contains the grand crash. It is also the canto which -closes the humorous or serio-comic part of the story, the transition -being made from jest to earnest at the request of Lilia, who, as -spokeswoman for the ladies in the poem, objected to the banter in the -first four cantos; - - “They hated banter, wished for something real, - A gallant fight, a noble Princess—why - Not make her true heroic,—true sublime? - Or all, they said, as earnest as the close? - Which yet,” replies the poet, “scarce could be.” - -The crash comes when Cyril, honest-hearted Cyril, after the party, tired -from geologizing and astronomizing, are seated in a silken pavilion -indulging in meat, wine and song, responds to the request of the -Princess for a song that would have in it something of the flavor and -manners of his countrywomen in the North. Cyril is a merry fellow and -reminds one not a little of Shakespeare’s Mercutio. He is the least -sentimental of the three friends, and while the Prince has been dwelling -in cloudland, rocked in airy dreams, Cyril has given himself up to the -excellent vintage of the southern kingdom, and so, wrought upon by the -purple grape and his own sense of sport, he trolls out, in absolute -forgetfulness of his disguise, a rollicking love-song in mellow and -melodious tenor. Such song was not, of course, meant for the ears of the -Princess and her companions, and so Florian nods at him frowning, Psyche -flushes and wans, Melissa droops her brows, the Prince smites him on the -breast, while the noble Ida, shocked beyond all endurance, cries, -“Forbear, sir!” and “Home! to horse!” and dashing off on her steed falls -into the river and is rescued from death by the Prince. - -In the fifth canto the Northern King has marched with his army into the -Southern kingdom, and, anxious for the safety of his son, has surrounded -the Princess Ida’s domain. He has taken the King, her father, a -prisoner. Meantime, by judgment of the Princess Ida, the Prince and his -two companions have been ignominiously thrust out of the University and -reach the camp of the investing army in draggled female attire. Ida’s -warlike brothers, fearing for their sister’s safety, march their troops -northward to protect her. After a parley between the two armies, it is -decided that the matter be finally settled by a tournament between fifty -knights on each side—the hand of the Princess to be the reward of the -Prince if his side win. The fight takes place and terminates -unsuccessfully for the Prince, who loses his bride and is wounded nearly -to death. - -The tournament scene is, indeed, a magnificent passage and has about it -a certain Homeric swiftness of movement and action that is in strong -contrast to some of Tennyson’s more labored narrative. We feel the shock -of combat and shiver of lance as we read the following vehement lines, -full of the pulse and power of the lists: - - “Empanoplied and plumed - We entered in and waited, fifty there - Opposed to fifty, till the trumpet blared - At the barrier like a wild horn in a land - Of echoes, and a moment, and once more - The trumpet, and again: at which the storm - Of galloping hoofs bare on the ridge of spears - And riders front to front, until they closed - In conflict with the crash of shivering points - And thunder. Yet it seem’d a dream I dream’d - Of fighting. On his haunches rose the steed, - And into fiery splinters leapt the lance, - And out of stricken helmets sprang the fire. - Part sat like rocks: part reel’d but kept their seats: - Part roll’d on the earth and rose again and drew: - Part stumbled mixt with floundering horses. Down - From those two bulks at Arac’s side and down - From Arac’s arm, as from a giant’s flail, - The large blows rain’d, as here and everywhere - He rode the mellay, lord of the ringing lists, - And all the plain,—brand, mace and shaft and shield— - Shock’d like an iron-clanking anvil bang’d - With hammers. - - * * * * * * - - With that I drave - Among the thickest and bore down a Prince, - And Cyril one. Yea, let me make my dream - All that I would. But that large-moulded man, - His visage all agrin as at a wake, - Made at me thro’ the press and staggering back - With stroke on stroke the horse and horseman, came - As comes a pillar of electric cloud, - Flaying the roofs and sucking up the drains, - And shadowing down the champaign till it strikes - On a wood, and takes, and breaks and cracks and splits, - And twists the grain with such a roar that Earth - Reels and the herdsmen cry; for everything - Gave way before him: only Florian, he - That loved me closer than his own right eye, - Thrust in between; but Arac rode him down: - And Cyril seeing it, push’d against the Prince, - With Psyche’s color round his helmet, tough, - Strong, supple, sinew-corded, apt at arms; - But tougher, heavier, stronger, he that smote - And threw him: last I spurr’d; I felt my veins - Stretch with fierce heat; a moment hand to hand, - And sword to sword, and horse to horse we hung, - Till I struck out and shouted; the blade glanced; - I did but shear a feather, and dream and truth - Flow’d from me; darkness closed me; and I fell.” - -The sixth canto is, perhaps, taken all in all, the finest in the poem. -In it the full strength of the poet is put forth. The field of battle, -the wounded knights, the old king’s haggard face stooping over the -prostrate body of his son—all are themes for touching and pathetic -pictures. How beautifully the poet traces in this canto the growth and -final supremacy of the true womanly elements in Ida’s nature. The tender -domestic instincts, first awakened by the care of Psyche’s child, are -now quickened into new and stronger life by the presence of suffering -and sorrow around her. - -The seventh canto, which opens with one of the sweetest songs in the -English language, “Ask Me No More,” shows the complete transfiguration -of Ida’s nature under the influence of the affections. The college has -been turned into an hospital, and the ministry of the heart in all its -tenderness has taken the place of mere pride of intellect. Love has -built its lily walls and transformed the cold hearth of solitude and -selfishness into a radiant altar of self-sacrifice, devotion and love. - - “Everywhere - Low voices with the ministering hand - Hung round the sick: the maidens came, they talk’d, - They sang, they read: till she not fair began - To gather light, and she that was, became - Her former beauty treble.” - -Ida sits by the couch of the Prince, watching him in his delirium of -fever. Her name is ever on his lips. Finally, in the still summer night, -consciousness returns, and observing Ida at his bedside he murmurs: - - “If you be, what I think you, some sweet dream, - I would but ask you to fulfil yourself: - But if you be that Ida whom I knew, - I ask you nothing: only, if a dream, - Sweet dream, be perfect. I shall die to-night. - Stoop down and seem to kiss me ere I die.” - -The transforming power of love has done its work. Ida, who sought far -less for truth than power in knowledge, is defeated in her purpose, but -rises in this apparent defeat to the supreme height of her womanhood. -Frankly she confesses her failure and the cause thereof: - - “She had failed in sweet humility.” - -Still she will not relinquish her high hopes of a nobler future for -woman; nor is it necessary that she should do so. “Rather,” says the -Prince, - - “Henceforth thou hast a helper, me, that know - The woman’s cause is man’s: they rise or sink - Together, dwarf’d or godlike, bond or free. - - * * * * * * - - If she be small, slight-natured, miserable, - How shall men grow? but work no more alone! - Our place is much: as far as in us lies - We two will serve them both in aiding her— - Will clear away the parasitic forms - That seem to keep her up but drag her down— - Will leave her space to burgeon out of all - Within her—let her make herself her own - To give or keep, to live and learn and be - All that not harms distinctive womanhood.” - -And then, in the following beautiful passage, which for majesty of -thought and delicacy of feeling can scarcely be matched in the whole -realm of poetry, the poet describes the relations of man’s nature to -woman’s and paints the ideal of a perfect marriage: - - “For woman is not undevelopt man, - But diverse: could we make her as the man, - Sweet Love were slain: his dearest bond is this, - Not like to like, but like in difference. - Yet in the long years liker must they grow; - The man be more of woman, she of man; - He gain in sweetness and in moral height, - Nor lose the wrestling thews that throw the world; - She mental breadth, nor fail in childward care, - Nor lose the child-like in the larger mind; - Till at the last she set herself to man, - Like perfect music unto noble words; - And so these twain, upon the skirts of Time, - Sit side by side, full-summ’d in all their powers, - Dispensing harvest, sowing the To-be, - Self-reverent each and reverencing each, - Distinct in individualities, - But like each other ev’n as those who love. - Then comes the statelier Eden back to men; - Then reign the world’s great bridals, chaste and calm: - Then springs the crowning race of humankind.” - -Then follows the epilogue or conclusion, whereby the reader is -transferred from the fairy-land of imagination back to the festival -crowd in the park, with which the poem commenced. There is not a jar in -the transition, and the mind of the reader, translated from the stirring -incidents of trumpet and tournament, finds repose in the idyllic beauty -which reigns in the heart of English life and scenes. - -Having traced the motive of the story and the unity of its conception -throughout, let us now see whether the separate characters are congruous -within themselves, and in what way they have a share in the development -of the plot. - -The Princess Ida is drawn as the prototype of “the miracle of women” who -beat the king and his forces with slaughter from the walls. She -possessed a noble enthusiasm, a quality which would have made her an -ideal wife for Arthur. As a wife she would have sympathized with him in -his lofty aims and purposes, and been willing to share with him in his -failures and lost hopes: - - “She sees herself in every woman else, - And so she wears her errors like a crown.” - -With what a loving hand Tennyson does justice to her unselfish nature, -even with the failure of her enterprise inevitable. Cold natures cannot -understand her enthusiasm for the cause which she has espoused: - - “They know not, cannot guess - How much their welfare is a passion to us. - If we could give them surer, quicker proof— - Oh! if our end were less achievable - By slow approaches, than by single act - Of immolation; any phase of death; - We were as prompt to spring against the pikes, - Or down the fiery gulf, as talk of it, - To compass our dear sisters’ liberties.” - -And as the womanly elements gain ascendancy in her nature, how -beautifully the poet tells of the dawning of love in her heart: - - “Love, like an Alpine harebell hung with tears, - By some cold morning glacier; frail at first - And feeble, all unconscious of itself, - But such as gathered color day by day.” - -The Prince represents the poet himself, and when he speaks it may be -taken for granted that his opinions relative to woman’s sphere and -duties are the opinions of Tennyson himself. It may be noticed that his -character is not defined in very strong colors, simply because he is a -foil to the Princess, and would, if brought out more strongly, detract -from the brilliancy of the Princess as well as mar the general unity of -the poem. The character of the Prince must have given Tennyson a great -deal of trouble, for it was not until after the fourth edition that he -ceased to elaborate it. It is hard to understand why the poet added the -passages relating to the weird seizures of the Prince. Perhaps his -object was to set forth the weakness and incompleteness of the poet side -of the Prince’s character until he has found rest in his ideal. - -It will be observed, too, that the Prince aims at elevating woman, but -he differs from Ida as to the means. Ida dreams of intellectual -advancement alone. The Prince recognizes moral elevation to be the -higher of the two. He pays tribute to the moral greatness of woman where -he says they are, - - “Not like that piebald miscellany, man; - Bursts of great heart and slips in sensual mire; - But whole and one; and take them all in all, - Were we ourselves but half as good, as kind, - As truthful, much that Ida claims as right - Had ne’er been mooted.” - -And when the Prince sets forth the mission of woman as the conservator -of the results of civilization hardly won by the struggles of man, and -paints his ideal of a perfect marriage, the Princess asks: - - “What woman taught you this?” - -To which the Prince replies, in language which touches the heart of -every man: - - “One - Not learned, save in gracious household ways; - Not perfect, nay, but full of tender wants; - No Angel, but a dearer being, all dipt - In Angel instincts, breathing Paradise, - Interpreter between the gods and men, - Who looked all native to her place, and yet - On tiptoe seem’d to touch upon a sphere - Too gross to tread, and all male minds perforce - Swayed to her from their orbits as they moved - And girdled her with music. Happy he - With such a mother! faith in womankind - Beats with his blood, and trust in all things high - Comes easy to him, and tho’ he trip and fall, - He shall not blind his soul with clay.” - -As to the characters of the two kings, they are well conceived and -drawn. Ida’s father has an easy, loving disposition, and it is very -evident that she inherits her strength of character from her mother. The -Northern King is of a rough and violent type, which recalls the time -when marriage was a capture: - - “Look you—Sir! - Man is the hunter; woman is the game; - The sleek and shining creatures of the chase, - We hunt them for the beauty of their skins; - They love us for it and we ride them down.” - -While the character of Florian is vague and indefinite, that of Cyril is -well and clearly conceived. The latter is a wholesome, jovial and -honest-hearted fellow. He is no dreamer and can always tell the -substance from the shadow. He is not at all impressed by stately women, -and so he tells the Princess that Love and Nature are more terrible than -she. - -The two widows, Lady Psyche and Lady Blanche, are in sharp contrast to -each other. The former remains womanly under every circumstance. Even -when discoursing on the nebular hypothesis in the lecture-room, we find -that her babe, sweet Agläea, is by her side, and when she has lost it -she bitterly reproaches herself for having left it behind. - -Lady Blanche is the most unlovely woman in the whole gallery of -Tennyson’s women. She has no thought but for herself, and even asperses -the memory of her dead husband. She is full of envy and jealousy, nor -has she even the affection of a mother for her sunny-hearted and winsome -daughter, Melissa. She is a type of not a few who identify themselves -with the Woman’s Rights movement of to-day, ostensibly to better the -social and intellectual position of woman, but virtually to blow a -bubble before the eyes of the world and gather about them an atmosphere -of notoriety. - -Having analyzed the poem as to its motive and plot, and shown the part -which each character contributes to the development of the plot, we will -now consider the purpose and import of the songs or ballads which the -young ladies sing during the pauses or interludes in the poem. The songs -did not appear at first, but were added by the poet to the third -edition, which appeared in 1850. It will be noticed that they nearly all -relate to children, and serve as choruses to guide and interpret the -sympathies of the reader in the progress of the poem. Let us take them -in their order, one by one. The first tells of a quarrel between a man -and his wife, and of the reconciliation caused by the memory of their -dead child: - - “As thro’ the land at eve we went, - And pluck’d the ripen’d ears, - We fell out, my wife and I, - O we fell out I know not why, - And kiss’d again with tears. - And blessings on the falling out - That all the more endears, - When we fall out with those we love - And kiss again with tears! - For when we came where lies the child - We lost in other years, - There above the little grave, - O there above the little grave, - We kiss’d again with tears.” - -Here we have the abiding influence of the child reaching back from the -grave and uniting by its memory the tearful and desolate hearts of the -estranged parents. - -The second represents how the toil and labor of the father are ennobled -and lightened amid the perils of the deep through the memory of the -little babe for whose life and love he fondly braves every danger: - - “Sweet and low, sweet and low, - Wind of the western sea, - Low, low, breathe and blow, - Wind of the western sea! - Over the rolling waters go, - Come from the dying moon, and blow, - Blow him again to me, - While my little one, while my pretty one, sleeps. - - “Sleep and rest, sleep and rest, - Father will come to thee soon; - Rest, rest, on mother’s breast, - Father will come to thee soon; - Father will come to his babe in the nest, - Silver sails all out of the west - Under the silver moon: - Sleep, my little one, sleep, my pretty one, sleep.” - -Sweet influence, indeed, this of the babe which reaches across the ocean -and unites loving hearts. - -The next song, “The Bugle,” is regarded by many as the finest lyric that -has been written since the days of Shakespeare. Its real meaning is -frequently not grasped by the casual reader. It is based upon the -contrast between the echoes of a bugle on a mountain lake, which grow -fainter and fainter in proportion to the receding distance, and the -influence of soul upon soul through growing distances of time: - - “The splendor falls on castle walls - And snowy summits old in story: - The long light shakes across the lakes, - And the wild cataract leaps in glory. - Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying, - Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying. - - “O hark, O hear! how thin and clear, - And thinner, clearer, farther going! - O sweet and far from cliff and scar - The horns of Elfland faintly blowing! - Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying: - Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying. - - “O love, they die in yon rich sky, - They faint on hill or field or river: - _Our_ echoes roll from soul to soul - And _grow_ forever and forever. - Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying, - And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying.” - -The stress of meaning is in the words _our_ and _grow_. _Our_ echoes -roll from _soul to soul_—from generation to generation—from -grandparent to parent and grandchild. This poem represents unity through -the family in its relation to the future, just as the first two songs -represent that unity through the past and present. - -The fourth is intended to show the influences of home and wedded love in -nerving a man for the shocks and conflicts of life: - - “Thy voice is heard thro’ rolling drums, - That beat to battle where he stands; - Thy face across his fancy comes, - And gives the battle to his hands: - A moment while the trumpets blow, - He sees his brood about thy knee; - The next, like fire he meets the foe, - And strikes him dead—_for thine and thee_.” - -We see by this lyric that patriotism and heroic effort have their root -and origin in home affection. - -The next song represents the influence of the family, of which the child -is the bond, upon the mother: - - “Home they brought her warrior dead: - She nor swoon’d nor utter’d cry: - All her maidens, watching, said, - ‘She must weep or she will die.’ - - “Then they praised him, soft and low, - Call’d him worthy to be loved, - Truest friend and noblest foe; - Yet she neither spoke nor moved. - - “Stole a maiden from her place, - Lightly to the warrior stept, - Took the face-cloth from the face; - Yet she neither moved nor wept. - - “Rose a nurse of ninety years, - Set his child upon her knee— - Like summer tempest came her tears— - ‘Sweet my child, I live for thee.’” - -In this poem we see that desolation and despair have sealed the fountain -of tears in the widowed wife—that the light of love has gone from her -life and returns only through the influence of childhood, with all its -tender links and memories. - -The last song, “Ask Me No More,” is like the sestette in a sonnet—the -application of all the preceding. These influences of the family, with -all its sacred ties and affections, are too much for the strong and -noble soul of the Princess, who throws aside all theories of -intellectual independence for woman, and, yielding to the impulse of -love and affection, proclaims the triumph of the womanly elements in her -nature in the following sweet and tender lines: - - “Ask me no more: the moon may draw the sea; - The cloud may stoop from heaven and take the shape, - With fold to fold, of mountain or of cape; - But O too fond, when have I answered thee? - Ask me no more. - - “Ask me no more; what answer should I give? - I love not hollow cheek or faded eye: - Yet, O my friend, I will not have thee die! - Ask me no more, lest I should bid thee live; - Ask me no more. - - “Ask me no more: thy fate and mine are seal’d: - I strove against the stream and all in vain: - Let the great river take me to the main: - No more, dear love, for at a touch I yield; - Ask me no more.” - -What bearing these six lyrics, which are truly miracles of workmanship, -have upon the main theme of the story will be readily perceived. They -not only contribute to the unity of the poem proper but are in -themselves linked together by a kindred bond and purpose. They are the -voice of the heart singing through the night, cheered by the kindly -stars of faith, hope and love. - -Having analyzed the poem and reached its central thought, let us now -consider who is the hero or heroine of the story. Assuredly it is not -the Prince, for he has been ignominiously thrust out of Ida’s gates in -draggled female clothes. Nor is it his jovial-hearted companion, Cyril, -nor Arac, who cares for nothing save the tournament. It cannot even be -the high-souled and stately Princess, for has she not been vanquished at -the very moment of triumph? The only one who comes out triumphantly is -Psyche’s baby—she is the real heroine of the epic. The little blossom, -sweet Agläea, is the central point upon which the plot turns. In the -poem, in the songs—everywhere—this unconscious child, the concrete -embodiment of nature itself, exerts an overpowering influence, shaping, -directing, nurturing the tender instincts of womanhood and clearing away -all intellectual theories which tend to usurp the sacred offices of -mother and home. - -In the despatch which Ida sends to her brother she acknowledges the -power of the child in the following lines: - - “I took it for an hour in mine own bed - This morning: there the tender orphan hands - Felt at my heart, and seemed to charm from thence - The wrath I nursed against the world.” - -And again: - - “I felt - Thy helpless warmth about my barren breast - In the dead prime.” - -Notice, too, how ubiquitous the babe is. Ida carries it with her -everywhere. It is on her judgment seat, it shares in her song of triumph -when the tournament is ended, and is with her on the battlefield when -she is tending her wounded brothers. - -The babe is indeed the heroine of the story, holding the epic along the -channel of its main motive, despite every current and breeze stirred by -foreign elements in its course. - -It is not hard to read in this poem Tennyson’s solution of the woman -question, though there are some who maintain that it is vague and -unsatisfactory. Such persons forget that it is the office of the poet -not so much to affirm principles on a subject as to inspire the -sentiments which ought to preside over the solution. - -It seems to us that the transfiguration of Ida’s nature under the -influence of the affections is the only solution possible that could be -offered by the poet for the questions raised in “The Princess.” It is -the office of poetry, not to guide the conclusions of the intellect, but -to tone the feelings in accordance with truth and duty. Poetry is not to -teach the truth—it is truth itself. - -Those who have the interest of the true advancement of woman at heart -should remember that neither the whole race nor woman herself can be -benefited by any system of education for woman at variance with Nature -and not co-ordinate with the highest needs of the race. It is idle to -discuss the equality or inequality of gifts and faculties as between man -and woman. Every person knows that woman is not only the equal of man in -many respects, but his superior in not a few; yet this does not justify -her in waging a war with Nature and, with her heart clothed in an iron -panoply, riding forth into the arena of dust and turmoil to perform -services for which the strong hand and knightly heart of man as well as -the vocation of centuries have fitted him alone. - -As to her education, that which enables her every faculty to grow and -unfold its beauty and power, with no harm to her distinctive -womanhood—that should be her privilege and right to enjoy, whether it -be obtained in convent or co-education hall. That woman needs a greater -breadth and solidity of intellectual culture goes without saying, and -this for two reasons—to better fit her for the high moral offices which -belong to her domestic mission, and to keep alive in her a just sympathy -with the larger social movements of which she is the passive, but ought -not to be the uninterested spectator. - -If Ida’s theories were carried out, the child element in woman and the -feminine element in man would be crushed out, and it is this very -feminine element in man which gives him moral insight—it constitutes -the poetic side of his nature. Without the feminine element in his -nature Chaucer never could have written “The Canterbury Tales.” - -Ida was right in seeking for a more generous culture, but the spirit in -which she sought it was wrong. Mrs. Browning’s Aurora Leigh would be an -artist first and then a woman. Ida, too, would crush out the womanly -elements in her nature in her eagerness to satisfy the claims of the -intellect. She set the claims of the head above those of the heart, and, -like Aurora Leigh, she failed. - -Enthusiasts often point to the glories achieved by women through the -centuries, and make this a pretext for their vagaries and Utopian -dreams. Because Corinna won the lyric prize from Pindar, and Judith -delivered her people from Holofernes, and Joan of Arc repulsed the -English from the walls of Orleans, and Queen Elizabeth laid the -foundation of England’s supremacy upon the sea, is it meet that the -whole social order should be turned upside down and Nature wounded in -its very heart? Such enthusiasts forget that the mother of Themistocles -was greater than the vanquisher of Pindar, the mother of St. Louis of -France greater than the Maid of Orleans, and the mother of Shakespeare -greater than she who held with firm grasp the sceptre of English -sovereignty during the closing years of the Tudor period. - -In spite, therefore, of all theories to the contrary, in spite of many -zealous but misguided women who are looking in the near future for the -reign of woman and the complete subserviency of man, the true mission of -woman is, and always will continue to be, within the domestic sphere, -where she conserves the accumulated sum of the moral education of the -race, and keeps burning through the darkest night of civilization upon -the sacred altar of humanity, the vestal fires of Truth, Beauty, and -Love. - - - - - POETRY AND HISTORY TEACHING - FALSEHOOD - - - - - POETRY AND HISTORY TEACHING FALSEHOOD. - - -The function of the poet is to speak essential truths as opposed to -relative truths, and Mrs. Browning in “Aurora Leigh” testifies to this -fact in the following lines: - - “I write so - Of the only truth-tellers now left to God, - The only speakers of essential truth - Opposed to relative, comparative, - And temporal truths; the only holders by - His sun-skirts, through conventional gray glooms; - The only teachers who instruct mankind - From just a shadow on a charnel wall - To find man’s veritable stature out - Erect, sublime,—the measure of a man; - And that’s the measure of an angel says - The Apostle.” - -It is much to be regretted that the poetry of the present day does not -always fulfil this high purpose. The poets of to-day—and by poets of -to-day I mean the poets of the past half-century—are not “the only -truth-tellers now left to God.” Nay, they are often disseminators of -falsehood. It is true the non-Catholic poet—a Wordsworth, a Byron, a -Longfellow, or a Tennyson—by being true to art and inspiration, which -has as its basis Catholic truth, sometimes unwittingly expresses a -Catholic truth of the deepest significance. But as poetry is only a -reflection of life idealized, and as there is nothing in poetry but what -is in life, we may expect the anti-Catholic seeds scattered about by -prejudiced hearts in the garden of the world to bear the poisonous -blossoms of falsehood as they are translated and reflected in the pages -of modern poetry. - -And this is sometimes done indirectly. Sometimes, too, it is done by -expressing a half truth or by seizing on some exceptional phase of -Catholic religious life and impressing it upon the non-Catholic mind -with an “_Ab uno disce omnes_.” - -A concrete example will best illustrate this. Browning has a poem -entitled “The Bishop Orders His Tomb at St. Praxed’s Church.” Now -Browning’s poetic workshop was Italy, so this great psychological poet -wrote: - - “Open my heart and you shall see - Graven on it Italy.” - -He found in the land of Dante and Michael Angelo fit subjects for his -dramatic monologues. The art world of Italy opened up to Browning new -themes, new thoughts. The intense life of its people, full of the -sweetness and aroma of virtue and the dark tragedy of vice, gave him -scope which he could not find elsewhere. Pity it is that he presents -only the dark side of Italian character. Pity it is that the paganized -and sensual Bishop of the Italian Renaissance depicted by Browning in -“The Bishop Orders His Tomb at St. Praxed’s Church” did not find -setting, in his poems, as a foil to the pure and pious men and women who -prayed before the shrines and in the cloisters of Italy when the new -wine of old classicism poured from Homeric flasks and casks had -intoxicated the head and heart of that garden of Europe and turned -possible saints into satyrs. - -De Maistre, the great French publicist, has said that history for the -past three hundred years has been a conspiracy against truth. Aye, and -poetry, too, whose countenance should reflect the beauty of heavenly -truth, often wears the mask of the assassin. To-day there are so-called -advanced and up-to-date scholars in our universities and clubs who hold -that “The Bishop Orders His Tomb at St. Praxed’s Church” is a true -reflection of the religious life of the Italian Renaissance. They quote -Ruskin as saying of that poem: - -“I know of no other piece of modern English, prose or poetry, in which -there is so much told as in these lines, of the Renaissance spirit—its -worldliness, inconsistency, pride, hypocrisy, ignorance of itself, love -of art, of luxury, and of good Latin. It is nearly all that I have said -of the Central Renaissance, in thirty pages of the ‘Stones of Venice,’ -put into as many lines, Browning’s being also the antecedent work.” - -We would say just here to students of literature and history: Let not -the shadow of a great literary name overawe you. John Ruskin did a great -deal for art and criticism, but he is far from being an infallible -apostle of truth in either domain; and though he loved the lowly, -brown-hooded friars of St. Francis, this love was not based on spiritual -affinity, but on the poetry and art bound up in their humble lives. - -John Ruskin and Robert Browning, respectively art critic and poet, have -done the religious life of the Italian Renaissance a grievous -wrong—nay, they grossly misrepresent it when they say that this -abnormal picture of a Renaissance Catholic bishop truly represents and -reflects the religious life of Italy at that period. No doubt but a -certain amount of abuses and corruption prevailed in the Church at that -time, largely as a consequence of the worldly spirit which had gained -entrance into it during its exile at Avignon. - -However, all was not darkness and sin. The vivifying life of the Church -was not exemplified in the Bishop of St. Praxed’s. As the great -historian of the Popes of the Renaissance, Dr. Ludwig Pastor, says, “If -those days were full of failings and sins of every kind, the Church was -not wanting in glorious manifestations through which the source of her -higher life revealed itself. Striking contrasts—deep shadows on the one -hand and most consoling gleams of sunshine on the other—are the special -characteristics of this period. If the historian of the Church of the -fifteenth century meets with some unworthy prelates and bishops, he also -meets in every part of Christendom with an immense number of men -distinguished for their virtue, piety and learning, not a few of whom -have been, by the solemn voice of the Church, raised to her altars.” - -Limiting ourselves to the most remarkable individuals of the period of -which we are about to treat, we shall mention only the saints and holy -men and women given by Italy to the Church: St. Bernardine of Siena, of -the order of Minorites, whose eloquence won for him the title of -“Trumpet of Heaven and fountain of knowledge”; around him are grouped -his holy brothers in religion, Saints John Capestran and Jacopo della -Marca. St. Antonius, whose unexampled zeal was displayed in Florence, -the very centre of the Renaissance, had for his disciples blessed -Antonio Neyrot of Ripoli and Constanzio di Fabriano. In the order of St. -Augustine are the following who have been beatified: Andrea, who died at -Montereale in 1497; Antonio Turriani, in 1494. In 1440 St. Frances, the -foundress of the Oblates, was working at Rome. The labors of another -founder, St. Francis of Paula, who died in 1507, belong in part to this -period. These names, to which many more might be added, furnish the most -striking proof of the vitality of religion in Italy at the time of the -Renaissance. Such fruits do not ripen on trees which are “decayed and -rotten to the core.” - -Indeed, it is astonishing what nonsense is talked about this period of -the Italian Renaissance, especially as it influenced the religious life -of the people. In one breath our would-be professors will tell you that -the Italian Renaissance movement swept the Catholic Church into a vortex -of paganism—pope, cardinals, bishops, and all; and in the next they -will lead you to believe that the Catholic Church set its face against -the new revival of classical learning, fearing that the development of -the intellect would be prejudicial to the faith of the people. Either -slander will effect its end. - -As we write we have before us two historical works of somewhat recent -publication: “Books and Their Makers During-the Middle Ages,” by George -Haven Putnam, A.M., and “A General History of Europe,” by Professors -Thatcher and Schwill, of Chicago University. As the latter is now used -as a text-book in many American High Schools, we will deal with its -worth and wisdom first. - -There is but one Chicago University in the world, and we might expect -its distinguished professors of medieval and modern European history to -understand at least the elementary truths of the Catholic Church and -something of its spirit and policy. - -Let us examine for a moment some of the statements contained in this -“General History of Europe,” by Professors Thatcher and Schwill. Here is -a choice morsel which will amuse the student of Church history. The -topic is “The Church and Feudalism.” The author says: “As late as the -eleventh century it was not at all uncommon for the clergy to marry. -Since fiefs were hereditary, it seemed perfectly proper that their -children should be provided for out of the Church lands which they held. -But unless all their children became clergymen these lands would pass -into the hands of laymen and therefore be lost to the Church. _One of -the purposes of the prohibition of the marriage of the clergy was to -prevent this alienation and diminution of the Church lands._” - -And this little paragraph dealing with the Italian Renaissance, found on -page 264 of the same work: “Medieval life knew nothing of the freedom, -beauty and joy of the Greek world. . . . The medieval man had no eye for -the beauty of nature. To him nature was evil. God had indeed created the -world and pronounced it very good, but through the fall of man all -nature had been corrupted. Satan was now the prince of the world. _As a -result no one could either study or admire nature._” Pray note the force -of the auxiliary “could.” - -Just think of it! A Catholic—a medieval Catholic—was forbidden to look -at or admire a flower, a forest, or a mountain peak. How so much of -nature got mixed up in the singing of “Old Dan Chaucer,” a Catholic poet -of the fourteenth century, we know not. ’Tis a mystery. Chaucer is -essentially the poet of the daisy, and robed it in verse long before -Burns turned it over with his plough. - -Then we have the brown-hooded and gentle Friar, St. Francis of Assisi, -who was wont to call the birds of the air and the beasts of the field -his brothers, and who composed canticles to the winds, the flowers and -the sun. Did the erudite professors of Chicago University ever make a -study of Gothic architecture, the distinct inspiration and creation of -medieval times? If so, they will remember that plants and flowers play, -in symbolism, an important part in ornamentation. The hatred of nature -as well as the hatred of art imputed to the early Christians is simply a -“_fable convenue_,” manufactured by the partisan and superficial -historian who is either too dishonest or indolent to state or reach the -real facts. - -It is enough to say that Professors Thatcher and Schwill’s work is -actually teeming with historical inaccuracies and gross -misrepresentations of the Catholic Church. Whether by inference or blunt -statement, these two professors have written themselves down in the -pages of their history either as ignorant or dishonest historians, and -it is unworthy of a presumably great university, such as Chicago, to -give its _imprimatur_ to such unreliable and unscholarly works. - -But lest we may not have convicted as yet Professors Thatcher and -Schwill of having misrepresented the truth, life and policy of the -Catholic Church in the pages of their history, we shall cite one more -paragraph found on page 172. It deals with monasticism. The author says: -“The philosophic basis of asceticism is the belief that matter is the -seat of evil, and therefore that all contact with it is contaminating. -This conception of evil is neither Christian nor Jewish, but purely -heathen. Jesus freely used the good things of this world and taught that -sin is in nothing external to man, but has its seat only in the heart. -_But His teaching was not understood by His followers._ The peculiar -form which this asceticism in the Church took is called -monasticism. . . . After about 175 A.D. the Church rapidly grew worldly. -As Christianity became popular large numbers entered the Church and -became Christians in name; but at heart and in life they remained -heathen. The bishops were often proud and haughty and lived in grand -style. Those who were really in earnest about their salvation, -unsatisfied with such worldliness, fled from the contamination in the -Church and went to live in the desert and find the way to God without -the aid of the Church: her means of grace were for common Christians. -Those who would could obtain, by means of asceticism and prayer, all -that others received by means of the sacraments of the Church. There -were to be two ways of salvation: one through the Church and her means -of grace; the other through asceticism and contemplation.” - -There is assuredly something of the historical _naïveté_ of the -schoolboy in the above. Mark when the Christian Church became -corrupt—nearly one hundred and fifty years before it was upheld by the -arm of Constantine and when it had been hiding for more than one hundred -years in the Catacombs carving and painting in symbol the truths and -mysteries of God. This was the corruption, that as Christ had birth in -the lowly manger of Bethlehem so the Church, His Spouse, was cradled in -humility, hidden away from the purple rage of the Cæsars, and, like a -little child whose dreams are of the past and the future, was rudely -fashioning her life and soul in terms of eternity, in symbols of the -palm, the dove and the lamb. - -Now let us cite from Putnam’s “Books and Their Makers in the Middle -Ages” an instance of historical contradiction within the compass of -three pages. It is said that he who misrepresents the truth must have a -good memory, but the author of “Books and Their Makers in the Middle -Ages” is evidently devoid of that faculty, otherwise he would not have -contradicted himself in almost succeeding pages of his work. Here is the -contradiction. He is speaking of book-making at the time of the Italian -Renaissance. On page 331, Vol. I., the author says: “A production of -Beccadelli’s, perhaps the most brilliant of Alfonso’s literary -_protégés_, is to be noted as having been proscribed by the Pope, being -one of the earliest Italian publications to be so distinguished. -Eugenius IV. forbade, under penalty of excommunication, the reading of -Beccadelli’s “Hermaphroditus,” which was declared to be _contra bonos -mores_. The book was denounced from many pulpits, and copies were -burned, together with portraits of the poet, on the public squares of -Bologna, Milan and Ferrara.” - -On page 333 of the same volume Putnam writes—and we beg the reader will -compare carefully the two statements: “Poggio is to be noted as a free -thinker who managed to keep in good relations with the Church. _So long -as free thinkers confined their audacity to such matters as form the -topic of Poggio’s ‘Facetiae,’ Beccadelli’s ‘Hermaphroditus’ or La Casa’s -‘Capitolo del Farno’ the Roman Curia looked on and smiled approvingly. -The most obscene books to be found in any literature escaped the Papal -censure, and a man like Aretino, notorious for his ribaldry, could -aspire with fair prospects of success to the scarlet of a Cardinal._” - -These are the kind of books that stuff the shelves of the libraries in -our great secular universities. - -There is perhaps no other period in the history of the world that -requires more careful investigation than that of the Renaissance in -Italy, and this because of its complex character. Speaking of this -complexity Dr. Pastor says: “In the nature of things it must be -extremely difficult to present a truthful picture of an age which -witnessed so many revolutions affecting almost all departments of human -life and thought, and abounded in contradictions and startling -contrasts. But the difficulty becomes enormously increased if we are -endeavoring to formulate a comprehensive appreciation of the moral and -religious character of such an epoch. In fact in one sense the task is -an impossible one. No mortal eye can penetrate the conscience of a -single man; how much less can any human intellect strike the balance -between the incriminating and the extenuating circumstances on which our -judgment of the moral condition of such a period depends, amid the whirl -of conflicting events. In a rough way, no doubt, we can form an -estimate, but it can never pretend to absolute accuracy. As Burckhardt, -author of ‘The Civilization of the Period of the Renaissance in Italy,’ -says: ‘In this region the more clearly the facts seem to point to any -conclusion the more must we be upon our guard against unconditional or -universal assertions.’” - -It were well assuredly if some of our professors of history in the great -secular universities—professors who assume to understand the Catholic -Church and her policy better than her own clergy and laity—it were -well, we say, if these would lay to their historical souls Pastor’s -judicial words ere they indict the “Renaissance Period” and blacken the -character of its popes, its prelates and its people. - -The truth is that few if any non-Catholic students read Catholic -historical works to-day. Jansen’s great work, dealing with the social -and religious life of Germany in the period that preceded the advent of -Luther, is considered to be the last word on this debatable ground, and -yet how many non-Catholic students have ever opened its pages? The same -may be said of Pastor’s monumental work. “Lives of the Popes Since the -Close of the Middle Ages.” When this ignorance of Catholic fact is -supplemented by the reading of such misrepresentation as is found in -Browning’s poem, “The Bishop Orders His Tomb,” what hope can there be of -justice to Catholic truth and the Catholic faith in our great secular -universities? - -We see, then, that not alone are the facts of history falsified, but the -genius of the poet is enlisted to give glamor and glow to the historical -slander. - -Take again Tennyson’s poem, “St. Simeon Stylites.” This is a satire on -ascetic life. Tennyson was a Broad Churchman, and it is said that he was -particularly careful not to write anything that would offend the -religious feelings of any of his friends. He saw, however, at the time -of the “Oxford Movement,” the English mind in certain quarters look with -favor on monasticism, and he wrote “St. Simeon Stylites” as a rebuke to -the movement. But is it a true picture of the spirit and life of those -early hermits of the desert? Not at all. Tennyson as a satirist did not -aim at truth, but rather at exaggeration. So he puts into the mouth of -this pillar-fixed saint these words of pride: - - “A time may come, yea, even now, - When you may worship me without reproach, - And burn a fragrant lamp before my bones, - When I am gathered to the glorious Saints.” - -The essence of the Catholic faith is not “the torpidity of assurance,” -but the working out of one’s salvation in fear and trembling. That pride -should sometimes gain entrance into the cloister and assume the garb of -humility is no doubt true; but the self-renunciation which is the true -spirit of the cloister, giving up all for the service of God, is in -itself a mantle of virtue—a seamless garment of grace which neither the -false satire of a Tennyson nor the flashlight of a Browning monologue -can transform from a beauteous raiment of light. - -It is true that the same pen which gave us “St. Simeon” gave us also -these beautiful lines in “St. Agnes’ Eve,” a poem which is stirred with -the loveliness and tenderness of religious life. St. Agnes on the very -eve of death utters these ecstatic words in beatific vision: - - “He lifts me to the golden doors; - The flashes come and go; - All heaven bursts her starry floors, - And strews her lights below, - And deepens on and up! The gates - Roll back, and far within - For me the heavenly Bridegroom waits - To make me pure of sin. - The Sabbaths of Eternity, - One Sabbath deep and wide— - A light upon the shining sea— - The Bridegroom with his bride.” - -The student, before accepting Tennyson’s poetic or, more correctly, -satiric picture of the hermits of the desert in the early centuries of -the Church as represented in “St. Simeon Stylites,” would do well to -study the condition of the Christian, or rather pagan, world at the time -when the hermits fled to the desert. It is a remote period in the life -of the world, and like all remote periods you must translate yourself -into it if you would clearly and justly understand it. But we warn you -that Kingsley’s “Hermits” will not enlighten you. - -Catholics have no need to apologize for the life or policy of their -Church during its reign of nineteen hundred years. It is a book open to -the world, and every chapter in it is a record of the spiritual and -intellectual progress of man. There have been, indeed, twilight -epochs—spiritual eclipses—when man seemed to forget his divine -destiny; but the Church of God still stood at her altars waiting for her -people to kneel—waiting for the “_Introibo ad altare Dei_” to reach the -heart of king and noble, peasant and slave. - -Therefore as a student of history and literature we protest against -every misrepresentation of Catholic truth, whether within the pages of -history, fiction or poetry, no matter who may be its author—a professor -in one of our New World universities, a Marie Corelli counting her gains -as she kneels at the shrine of a publisher, a Tennyson striking the -chords of falsehood and “looking down towards Camelot,” or a Browning -constructing his little monologue chapel by the wayside to seduce from -Catholic truth his poetic pilgrim—it is ever misrepresentation wearing -the specious garb of truth, whether it be in history or fiction or -poetry teaching falsehood. - - - - - THE STUDY AND INTERPRETATION - OF LITERATURE - - - - - THE STUDY AND INTERPRETATION OF LITERATURE. - - -The study of literature has of late years become somewhat sane and -rational in its aim and purpose. There was a time, and that not very -long ago, when literature was forced to yield up its spirit in the -class-room to mere analysis or a talk about grammar, philology, rhetoric -and sundry other irrelevant subjects. - -To-day, however, in the best schools and colleges, this vicious method, -which has for years worked destruction to true literary culture, has -pretty well died out; nor is a through ticket by flying express down the -centuries from Chaucer to Tennyson any longer regarded as satisfactory -evidence that the privileged passenger knows much of the glory which -nestles on the way. - -How any person can hope to become a literary scholar in the highest and -best sense of the word without assimilating the INFORMING life of -literature has always seemed to us a problem in dire need of solution. -We can well understand how one may possess himself of the literature of -knowledge without such assimilation, but how he can become possessed of -the literature of power without responding to the inner life of an art -product, is to us a question incomprehensible. - -Nor has the old spirit, we fear, been fully and wholly exorcised, as -yet, from the class and lecture room. There are still to be found those -who believe that the analytical exegesis of literature should be the -main purpose of the teacher—that to elucidate the intellectual thought -which articulates a poem, precipitating it from a concrete creation into -a barren abstraction—this and this alone should be the aim and end of -all literary study in the school or lecture room. - -The fault with such persons is, that they do not fully understand and -appreciate the true meaning and import of literature, mistaking its -lesser coefficient for its chief and primary one. No definition of -literature can be at all adequate which does not take into consideration -the spiritual element as a factor. The late Brother Azarias, whose study -of literature was most profound, clear and sympathetic, gives us a -definition in the very opening chapter of his charming little volume, “A -Philosophy of Literature,” which is entirely satisfactory. He regards -literature as the verbal expression of man’s affections, as acted upon -in his relations with the material world, society and his Creator. -Literature may therefore be defined as the expression in letters of the -spiritual co-operating with the intellectual man, the former being the -dominant co-efficient. - -Knowing, then, that the spiritual element constitutes the INFORMING life -of a poem, how can teachers fritter their time away with brilliant -analytics which do little or nothing for true literary culture? Better, -far better, that the students under their charge be turned loose in some -library—there to browse at will, free to follow their literary tastes -and inclinations. - -We have long considered that examinations for certificates and degrees -are for the most part a detriment to literary studies—that they dull -the finer faculties of appreciation and magnify the importance of mere -acquisition. Assuredly, when a young man finds that in order to reach -his diploma or degree he must be able to discuss the Elizabethan English -as found in Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” and “As You Like It,” or trace the -gerundial infinitive through Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales,” he will pay -little heed to either the spirit of Shakespeare or Chaucer as embodied -in their works. - -In our great eagerness to fill our heads with facts, without any -co-ordination, we lose sight amid the stress and strain of our -educational work of the ONE GREAT FACT: That if we would be wisely -educated, we must seek it on the basis of a maximum of education with a -minimum of acquirement. It is impossible to play fast and loose with the -spirit of literature and not suffer for our insincerity. Literature is a -jealous mistress and will brook no rival. Those who woo her must come -with clean hearts and minds, setting aside all thought of mercenary -returns, for, as Mrs. Browning says: - - “We get no good - In being ungenerous, even to a book, - And calculating profits—so much help - By so much reading. It is rather when - We gloriously forget ourselves and plunge - _Soul-forward_, headlong into a book’s profound - Impassion’d for its beauty and salt of truth— - ’Tis then we get the right good from a book.” - -Another fault which characterizes the literary studies of to-day is, -that we grasp at too much, and not a little that we fain would compass -is, as far as literary training and culture are concerned, entirely -unimportant. A few great literary personages—epochal men—who have -handed the intellectual torch down the centuries—these are worthy of a -devoted study. We think it is Ruskin who says that he who knows the -history of Rome, Venice, Florence, Paris and London has a full knowledge -of medieval and modern civilization. Twenty authors are not many, still -they largely cover the great masterpieces of poetic thought, both -ancient and modern. Homer, Virgil and Dante, Calderon, Molière and -Goethe, Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth and -Tennyson—these contain much of the best poetic thought in all ages, and -yet we have but named little more than half of the twenty. There is a -flood of ephemeral literature—chiefly novels—day by day deluging the -land, which fashion and frivolity set up for literary study. How much -harm these novels do, lashing with their waves the moral shores of life. -God alone knows. To-day, in the minds of many, the novel has supplanted -the Bible, and the ethics of George Eliot take precedence of the Sermon -on the Mount. It is doubtful if either Cardinal Newman or John Ruskin -ever read a line of Tolstoi, Ibsen or Kipling, and yet both hold -respectable places in literature. - -Passing now from the subject of literature in itself to a consideration -of its interpretation, we desire to touch upon a subject of vital -import: The Vocal Interpretation of Literature. The spiritual element in -a poem is indefinite and cannot be formulated in terms of x and y. No -examination on paper, be it ever so thorough, can satisfactorily reach -it. The only full response to this spiritual element, this essential -life of a poem, that can be secured by the teacher is through a vocal -rendering of it. But before he is capable of doing so he must first have -sympathetically assimilated the INFORMING life of the poem. This is why -no person need hope to become a great reader without a deep and -sympathetic study of literature, nor a great interpreter of -literature—which means a great teacher of literature—without the vocal -capabilities requisite for voicing the indefinite or spiritual element -which constitutes the soul of an art product. A true literary scholar is -one who grows soulward. It is not enough that he store his mind with -intellectual facts, he should grow vitalized at every point of his soul -in his literary studies. - - “Let knowledge grow from more to more, - But more of reverence in us dwell.” - -Knowledge is of the intellect, wisdom and reverence of the soul. We -should aim, in our study of literature, to pierce through the show of -things—to reach the vital, quickening, spiritual element, by breaking -through the baffling and perverting mesh of words which hide and blind -it. How true are the lines of the late Poet Laureate: - - “I sometimes hold it half a sin - To put in words the thoughts I feel, - For words, like nature, half reveal - And half conceal the soul within.” - -Herein, then, comes the office of the voice in literary -interpretation—to aid in laying bare the soul within. When the same -time is given in preparing the voice for the high office of literary -interpretation that is now devoted to it in preparation for the operatic -and concert stage, then we may look for the best and highest results in -literary study. Then, indeed, will the throbbing pulse of poetry be felt -in the class and lecture room, and the divine infection of inspiration -will do its benign work, cheating the lazy and indifferent student of -his hours and days. - -Many make the mistake of believing that they may become capable vocal -interpreters of literature in a month or a year, whereas the great work -should cover a lifetime. Professor Corson, of Cornell University, who is -acknowledged to be the ablest vocal interpreter of literature in -America, once told the writer that he had made it a custom to read aloud -for an hour each day for more than twenty-five years. Those who have -been privileged to hear Professor Corson interpret vocally the great -masterpieces of poetic literature, as found in Shakespeare, Tennyson, -Coleridge, Wordsworth, Milton and Browning, can better understand and -appreciate the true value of vocal culture as a factor in the great work -of literary interpretation. - -If we could combine the voice work of our best schools of elocution and -oratory with the fullest and most comprehensive courses in literature -found in our best universities, we might soon hope for the very summit -of literary culture and training. The worst of our elocution schools are -a positive injury to vocal training as a worthy factor in the -interpretation of literature, inasmuch as they induce both -superficiality and artificiality, their chief ambition being to graduate -pretty girls with pretty gowns who can recite some catch-penny piece of -current literature, before an assemblage of admiring friends, according -to the numbers or lines upon an elocutionary chart or fashion plate. -When these graduates leave their schools after a six months’ course, all -equipped and prepared to voice the depths of Shakespeare, the heights of -Milton, or the zigzag involutions of Browning, they never fail, also, as -a rule, to carry with them the brand or trade-mark of their respective -manufactories. - -In the best of our elocution schools, such as are found in Boston, -Philadelphia and New York, where saner and more thorough methods are -pursued and a certain measure of literary scholarship finds a habitation -and a name, respectable attention is given to some of the chief -masterpieces of literature, and a graduate knows something more than the -scrappy selections found in a few recitation books. - -Still the aim of all these schools is to turn out readers and teachers -of reading, and this very aim precludes a deep, serious and -comprehensive study of literature. - -In many of our leading colleges and universities there is a professor of -oratory, who trains young men for declamation and intercollegiate -contests in oratory and debate, but here again the aim determines the -character and limitations of the work done. The most suitable department -for voice training in a college or university is that of English -literature, for it is as needful in the dramas of Shakespeare as in the -orations of Webster and Burke; as requisite in the lyrics of Moore, -Burns and Longfellow as in the glorious epics of Homer, Dante and -Milton; as potent in the sonnets of Cowper and Wordsworth as in the -tender elegies of a Shelley, an Arnold or a Tennyson. - -But what about the vocal interpretation of literature in our primary and -intermediate schools—in our academies preparatory to college and -university work? It is here where the great work of vocal culture should -begin—and begin in earnest, too. But it should never be pursued as an -accomplishment or means of frivolous display. The aim should be, in -every class, the adequate voicing of literary thought. Teachers will -find in the voice an invaluable aid in the work of interpreting, -particularly lyrics. - -The lyric being subjective, and its very lifeblood being feeling, a -sympathetic vocal interpretation of it will give a better insight into -its poetic moment or inspirational thought, around which centres the -whole structure, than hours of sentence chopping and phrase stitching. -For the purpose of illustrating this fact let us take Tennyson’s -exquisite lyric, “Break, Break, Break,” which embodies or crystallizes a -mood. Here is the delightful little gem: - - “Break, break, break, - On thy cold gray stones, O Sea! - And I would that my tongue could utter - The thoughts that arise in me. - - “O well for the fisherman’s boy - That he shouts with his sister at play! - O well for the sailor-lad, - That he sings in his boat on the bay. - - “And the stately ships go on - To their haven under the hill; - But O for the touch of a vanish’d hand, - And the sound of a voice that is still! - - “Break, break, break, - At the foot of thy crags, O Sea! - But the tender grace of a day that is dead - Will never come back to me.” - -It will be remembered that this lyric, as well as another poem, “In the -Valley of Cauteretz,” though not contained in the linked elegy of “In -Memoriam,” are practically a part of it, and are co-radical as to their -subject of inspiration—the sorrow borne by Tennyson for young Hallam. -Here are the lines of the second poem: - - “All along the valley, stream that flashest white, - Deepening thy voice with the deepening of the night, - All along the valley, where thy waters flow, - I walked with one I loved two and thirty years ago. - All along the valley, while I walk’d to-day, - The two and thirty years were a mist that rolls away; - For all along the valley, down thy rocky bed, - Thy living voice to me was as the voice of the dead. - And all along the valley, by rock and cave and tree, - The voice of the dead was a living voice to me.” - -It is easy to find the poetic moment in the first lyric, as it may be -seen and FELT at once that the whole poem-thought centres around the -inspirational lines: - - “But O for the touch of a vanished hand, - And the sound of a voice that is still.” - -We have seen an examination paper strewn with questions upon this lyric, -among them being one asking for the reason why the first line, “Break, -break, break,” is shorter in the number of its feet than the others -which follow. As well ask for the reason of the permanency of parental -or filial affection. The question is entirely gratuitous to one who has -assimilated the poem in its essential life and can voice it properly. To -those who have not responded, or, worse, cannot respond, to the -INFORMING life of the lyric, a technical answer is of as much value as -are many of the treatises that assume to deal with the subject of -versification. But enough. Let the reader be assured of one thing: That -the vocal interpretation of literature is in every way a subject worthy -of his attention, and that he is the best interpreter of literature -whose every faculty is fully developed—not the least of which is the -voice—and who brings to his work a full and vitally spiritualized life. - -Now as to the best method of taking up the study of literature—and we -refer particularly to that department of it known as poetry—in our -primary and secondary schools and colleges, why, we should say that the -less method put into the work the better. For indeed there is no best -method in the study and interpretation of literature. A poem being a -work of art, the approach to it must be along the same lines as is the -approach to every work of art. - -As a matter of fact, no two interpreters of literature—we use the word -interpreter here rather than that of teacher, since the study of -literature is entirely subjective—will ever approach a poem along -exactly the same lines. Why? Because the poem makes to each a different -appeal. Nothing is truer than the statement that you get out of a poem -what you bring to it. But the teacher of literature should ever remember -that the primary purpose in the study of poetry is not discipline and -instruction but exaltation and inspiration. - -Dr. Hamilton Mabie, the well-known American critic and author, writing -upon the study of poetry, says: “So much has been said of late years -about methods of literary study that we are in danger of missing the -ends of that study; in the multiplication of mechanical devices of all -kinds and in the elaboration of systems the joy which ought to flow from -a true work of art escapes us, and we are disciplined and instructed -where we ought to be exalted and inspired. There are other studies which -train the mind and impart information; the study of poetry ought to do -more; it ought to liberate the imagination and enrich the spirit of the -student.” - -Dr. Corson, now Professor Emeritus of English Literature at Cornell -University, N.Y., to whom reference has already been made, whose -sympathetic interpretation of poetry will remain a gift and memory to -every student who has ever had the rare privilege of sharing in his -instruction and enjoying the fine infection of his inspiring lectures, -has this to say with respect to the study of poetry: “In studying a poem -with a class of students, the purpose being literary culture (that is, -spiritual culture), the aim of the teacher should be to hold the minds -of the class up as near as possible, which at best may not be very near, -to the height of the poet’s thought and feeling. He should carefully -avoid loosening, so to speak, more than there is need the close texture -of the language; for it is all-important that the student should be -encouraged to think and feel as far as he is able in the idealized -language of the higher poetry.” - -Nor should it be forgotten that much of our best poetry is expressed -under the form of a symbol. Take, for instance, Longfellow’s little -simple lyric, “Excelsior.” Think you that the full meaning of that poem -lies upon the surface? Instead of representing the failure of a youth -climbing the Alpine peaks of life, does the poem not rather represent -the triumph of a soul over all earthly difficulties, freed from every -worldly allurement? Is not the voice we hear at the close “from the sky -serene and far” but the voice of triumphant immortality? - -If the student would indeed know what poetry really means, and what is -its function, and what the office of a poet, he should read Tennyson’s -“The Poet’s Mind” and “The Lady of Shalott,” the Fifth Book of Mrs. -Browning’s “Aurora Leigh,” and her “Musical Instrument,” and Browning’s -poem, “Popularity.” In nearly all these poems the meaning is expressed -in symbol. - -Another thing to remember in the interpretation of poetry is that its -value is constant; nor has it one message or meaning for the boy and -another for the man. But in order that this may be realized it would be -well to take up first for interpretation in the classes the poets whose -work is chiefly confined to the lyric, the idyl and the ballad, and -leave for mature years—the years of philosophic thought—the study of -poets of the more complex and philosophic school. - - - - - THE DEGRADATION OF - SCHOLARSHIP - - - - - THE DEGRADATION OF SCHOLARSHIP. - - -Nothing is more evident in this our day than the degradation to which -scholarship is subjected at the hands of certain so-called educators. -Indeed, it has become a malady which sooner or later must prove fatal to -the life and welfare of the body educational. How could it be otherwise -when pedantry with all its assumption and presumption usurps the throne -of scholarship, and true culture often finds but little welcome in the -class-rooms and academic halls of our land? - -Nor is this an exaggerated picture of the educational conditions which -obtain right here in the Province of Ontario. No person at all -acquainted with the character of work done in our primary and secondary -schools but knows that in many respects it is not only inferior, but -that much that bears the name of scholarship is only the merest pedantry -tricked out in the feathers and pomp of a school curriculum. - -Should you ask for a proof of this statement you have but to visit with -an open and unbiased mind the primary and secondary schools of our -Province and learn for yourself of their lack of efficiency in the -foundation subjects of reading, writing, composition and spelling. - -Should your desire lead you further to ascertain something of the -character of the work that is being done in the departments of what may -be designated culture subjects, such as Latin, French and German, you -will quickly find proof that here it is pedantry rather than scholarship -which obtains. - -As to the subject of reading, it is conceded on all sides that it is -badly taught in both the Public and High Schools, and that along this -line little progress has been made for a number of years. The High -School teachers lay the blame for this at the door of the Public -Schools, alleging that the pupils read very badly when they enter the -High Schools, forgetting meantime that the charge recoils upon -themselves, since the teachers of the Public Schools are the product of -the High Schools. - -The fault lies in the fact that neither teachers nor inspectors of -Public or High Schools in Ontario have had any training in the subject -of reading; or, if they have had, it has only been along the line of -barren and worthless theorizing. This is borne out by the fact that -teachers who have from time to time boldly ventured to prepare manuals -of reading have not been able to apply their own principles, and as -readers or vocal interpreters of literature have been and are pronounced -failures. - -If the teacher whose spirit has been quickened by the deeper sympathies -and experiences of life cannot read, how, pray, can you expect the boy -or girl to do so? If “Learn by doing” is pedagogically of great value to -the pupil, should it not be of equal value to the teacher? - -Now turn we for a moment to the subject of composition, and what do we -find? A condition which reveals manifest defects in its teaching. We can -readily put our finger on its weak spots, and with Goethe say, “Thou -ailest here and ailest there.” In the first place, the translations in -the secondary schools from Greek, Latin, French and German authors are -so badly done, so inaccurately done, so inelegantly done, that what -should be a daily practice in English composition in the construction of -sentences and paragraphs, the disposal of phrases, and the choice of the -exact word, becomes almost worthless. The introduction of no fad like -oral composition will or can compensate for this. - -Again, while the Public and High Schools are being provided with -libraries—in many instances quite an unnecessary expense being -entailed—little direction is given to the reading, and pupils gabble -thoughtlessly through books in mental gallop from chapter to chapter -without adding to the capital of their scholarship a single new thought -or idea, or to their vocabulary a single new word. Was it not at a -convention of teachers, held but a short time ago in an Ontario city, -that a Public School teacher boasted of the fact that one of his pupils -had read sixty books in three months? And not a teacher present—not -even the Inspector—protested. - -Then, too, in many cases the teachers cannot teach composition, since -they cannot write themselves. What does a teacher know about sentence or -paragraph construction, or the logical and artistic expression of -thought, who has never served his time as an apprentice in the great -laboratory of composition? It is but a few years since a leading -Canadian journalist told the writer that among the letters sent to his -paper many of the worst and most faulty came from teachers. - -Lastly, the study of literature, which should be an auxiliary to -composition, nay, be its right arm, is often such in our schools as to -aid the student but little in the work of composition. - -There yet remain to be considered, of the foundation subjects, writing -and spelling. Perhaps nowhere else in the world can be found as many -slovenly and bad writers as here in the schools of Ontario. Go to -England, Ireland, Scotland, Germany or Switzerland, and you will find -that a boy or girl of fifteen years of age writes a hand marvellously -clear and legible. Why is this? Because in Europe its importance is -emphasized, and it counts for quite as much in the estimate of -acquirements as arithmetic or grammar or history or geography. We also -know of no word in the school vocabulary of Europe—in any -language—that exactly corresponds in meaning to our word for school -exercise book—“scribbler.” Sometimes a word when traced to its origin -is very significant. - -Now just here it will be well, lest it might be thought that we are -making statements without any facts to support them, to quote from the -official report of McGill University matriculation examination held at -Montreal and the various examining centres of Canada in June, 1908. -Touching the subjects of writing and spelling, the chief examiner in his -report says: “The handwriting of some of the candidates was so unformed -and untidy that it was hard to believe that the writers were actually -candidates at a matriculation examination. Certainly such candidates -will stand a poor chance of being accepted should they look for any -employment in which writing is a factor. It is regrettable that a number -of papers otherwise excellent showed conspicuous lapses in this -particular. This will explain to some candidates thoroughly well up in -their subject why their marks were not high. A word of warning might be -given them that if they wish to have a high standing in English when -they come to college they must give their days and nights to the study -of the spelling-book—or the dictionary, perhaps, for there are no -spelling-books nowadays.” This is frank criticism, and if hearkened to -by schools and colleges cannot but prove a benefit educationally. There -is no attempt here to consider the work of the examiner as -“confidential.” Such criticism is, indeed, the basis of progress. - -But pray enter the temple of higher studies and see what we find. -Assuredly the work done in Latin is not thorough. How could it be so -when a course that demands six or eight years of study in Old World -schools is completed here in three? Is it any wonder that the Canadian -matriculant, when pursuing his classical studies at the University, ever -lives on intimate terms with his “crib” or “pony”? How extensive can be -the vocabulary of a student in Latin whose class work has covered but -four thirty-minute spaces a week for three years? What will be his grasp -of the Latin grammar? During his third year he has been “sight reading.” -Is he really prepared for such work at the end of the second year? It is -quite true that “sight reading,” or translation without preparation, is -excellent practice in the study of any language, but does it not -presuppose a solid grounding in the grammar and a wide vocabulary? The -boy’s teacher, fresh from the academic halls of his alma mater, has -pathetically bid farewell to his “crib” or “pony,” and now goes out into -the cold classical world alone to teach “sight reading” to his class, -that have been tiptoed into Latin. What is the result? In most instances -the work is worthless—a loss of time which could have been far better -devoted to the Latin grammar or the extension of his vocabulary. But it -looks well, you know, in a High School curriculum. - -In the department of modern languages—that is to say, French and -German—a still worse condition exists. After a three or four years’ -course in those languages in an Ontario High School, what does the -student carry away? The ability, think you, to converse in those -languages, to write them and read them easily? Not at all. Though in -many cases the students have been taught by so-called specialists, their -accent in reading French or German is in most instances unlike that of -either “Christian, pagan or man.” They have prepared for an examination -and have passed. That is all. - -The purpose in studying modern languages in Europe is to be able to -speak and write them with ease. Here gabbling through syntax and making -application of its rules to the prescribed text seem to constitute the -chief aim in their study. Indeed, an Ontario teacher who went to Europe -a couple of years ago for the purpose of taking a summer course in -modern languages complained on his return that over there too much -attention was given to the speaking of the languages and not enough to -the grammar. He was probably disappointed with Old World scholarship, -finding that it was so devoid of pedantry. No doubt grammar has its -place, but its role is a secondary one in the acquisition of any modern -language. - -Let us for a moment consider next how the important subject of history -is taught in our secondary schools. No one will deny how large a place -this subject should hold in a curriculum of well ordered studies in -either a High School or a University. For what is history but a record -of the activities of the human race, and to have a thorough knowledge of -this is in itself equivalent to a liberal education. - -But the student who pursues a course in history in the High Schools of -Ontario is beset with a double danger—that of endeavoring to cover too -much ground and thereby getting but a superficial knowledge of the facts -and great movements of history, and that of basing his judgments on data -drawn from only one source. - -The course in history, as at present constituted in the High School -curriculum of Ontario, comprises five years. Now, certainly a good deal -should be done in that time, but it would be the sheerest folly to think -that any boy or girl could within that time gain even a fair knowledge -of the history of Greece, Rome, Canada, England, medieval and modern -Europe. This tiptoeing the pupils in history is not a whit better than -tiptoeing them in Latin, French or German. Indeed, we are not sure but -it works greater harm to true scholarship. We are living in an age when -education is becoming so widely diffused that scholarship as a -consequence is becoming very superficial and thin. - -As we write we have before us the Syllabus of the Ontario High School -Course in Medieval and Modern History. It briefly outlines the scope of -the work to be done and gives a list of books to be consulted as works -of reference. Now, the scientific method of studying history warns you -to take nothing for granted. First you must verify the facts by -examining the witnesses that testify to these facts. Secondly, you must -properly appreciate or value these facts from the point of view of -principles that ought to govern human actions, and thirdly, these facts -should be explained by going back to the causes, whether particular or -general, that produced them. That is, the scientific method in history -requires, first, verification; secondly, appreciation or valuation; and -thirdly, explanation of historic facts. - -In a High School it is true there is not sufficient time for historical -research or investigation, but there is sufficient time to study a -question on more than one side; there is sufficient time to be honest; -there is sufficient time to prefer truth to falsehood; and where in a -mooted point the policy and teachings of the Catholic Church are -involved there should be sufficient time and sufficient honesty to -consult authors who know whereof they write. Take for example the -history of the Middle Ages. Without a thorough and correct knowledge of -the policy, teachings and work of the Catholic Church, how, I ask, may -the student hope to follow and understand the great movements of history -in those centuries? In the first place, the Catholic Church in the -Middle Ages was the bulwark of sovereignty, law and order, the founder -of universities, the patron of letters, the inspiration of art, the -shield of the oppressed, and a very staff and guide to the halting and -stumbling steps of civilization. She was knowledge, she was authority, -she was order, she was reverence. - -Taking up now the books of reference recommended in the Syllabus of the -High School Course in Medieval and Modern History in Ontario, we find -the work of but one Catholic author on the reference list—“English -Monastic Life,” by Dom Gasquet, the Benedictine. Is this not truly a -one-sided study of history that obtains in the secondary schools of -Ontario? Yet the teachers of history in those schools are supposed to be -broad-minded and cultured men. Why, then, should they refuse to read the -Catholic point of view in the study of historical periods and historical -movements in which the Catholic Church was the greatest factor? - -It will not do to say that Catholic authors are not available. -Translations have been made of many of the most valuable works in -medieval and modern history written by leading Catholic scholars of -Europe. We usually find what we look for. Why, for instance, not put on -the list of reference books the lives of St. Benedict, St. Dominic, St. -Francis and St. Ignatius written by members of their own communities? -They should best understand the meaning, spirit and purpose of the -religious society in which they live. Why not put on the list the great -German historian Jansen’s work dealing with the history of Germany on -the eve of the Lutheran revolt, or Father Denifle’s monumental work, -“The Life of Luther”? For the beginnings of Christianity why not put on -the list Dr. Shahan’s excellent studies in this subject, as well as his -scholarly work on the Middle Ages? For a study of the Thirteenth -Century, which saw the founding of the medieval university, the rise of -the Gothic cathedral, the development of scholastic philosophy, the -birth of Dante, the world’s greatest epic poet, the composition of the -great Latin hymns, the foundation of great libraries, and the origin of -democracy, Christian socialism and self-government, is there a better -work of reference than Dr. J. J. Walsh’s “The Thirteenth, Greatest of -Centuries”? Why, then, not put it on the list? And beside this, why not -put on the list Pastor’s “Lives of the Popes Since the Close of the -Middle Ages”? - -If the purpose in the study of history be to reach truth, why accept in -the court of history the testimony of but one set of witnesses? Such a -proceeding is neither judicial nor just. It would not be permitted in -the law courts of our land; why, then, permit it in the history courts -of our schools and colleges? - -Nor is this _ex-parte_ study of history more obvious in the curriculum -of the High Schools of Ontario than is the objectionable character of -many of the poems that are assigned for literary study. In the -selections from Browning of last year this choice stanza greeted the -Catholic pupils in their study and appreciation of “Up at a Villa—Down -in the City”: - - “Or a sonnet with flowery marge to the Reverend Don So and So, - Who is Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarca, St. Jerome and Cicero. - ‘And moreover’ (the sonnet goes rhyming), ‘the skirts of St. Paul has - reached, - Having preached us those six Lent-lectures more unctuous than ever he - preached.’ - Noon strikes,—here sweeps the procession! our Lady borne smiling and - smart - With a pink gauze gown all spangles and seven swords stuck in her - heart! - Bang-whang-whang goes the drum, tootle-te-tootle the fife; - No keeping one’s haunches still: it’s the greatest pleasure in life.” - -It may, we think, be legitimately questioned whether either the study in -our secondary schools of a one-sided presentation of the facts of -history or the interpretation of poems which ridicule the tenets and -ceremonies of any Church conduces to that breadth of scholarship and -culture and to the upbuilding of that large-minded Canadian citizenship -which we all so heartily desire in our land. - -Is it not on the plea that these higher institutions of learning—High -Schools and Normal Schools—are broad and just and free from prejudice -in their teaching that the Roman Catholic Separate School System has -been persistently denied by successive Governments in this Province the -right to develop beyond an elementary status, though this right is -manifestly inherent or implied in the very pact which made provision for -the establishment of Separate Schools for the minorities in the -Provinces of Quebec and Ontario. The Government of Quebec has recognized -the right; the Government of Ontario refuses to do so. - -Now a word as to certain conditions educational which prevail in Ontario -and which have not only led to abuses but are contributing factors to -the degradation of scholarship as well as to the debasement of the -teaching profession. - -And first of these is the system of creating “specialists”—a system or -method which has not scholarship as its basis. Why should a university -graduate whose average is sixty-six per cent. in his examinations be -regarded as having the academic standing for a specialist, while the -graduate whose average is sixty per cent., though he may have pursued -post-graduate work for two or three years, is refused this standing? How -large a part does not mere memory play in examination percentages? If -specialism were based upon the post-graduate work of one, two or three -years it would have some meaning or value, but as it exists to-day in -Ontario it is largely a sham. - -Then as regards the professional qualifications of a specialist, are -they not almost wholly based upon the opinion of an examiner or -inspector? Now this opinion may be worth a good deal; it may be worth -very little; it may be worth nothing. As a matter of fact the High -School inspectors of a few years ago often differed as widely as the -poles in their estimate or rating of the High School teachers of this -Province, and the High School inspectors of to-day are rating teachers -high who had been marked low by the former inspectors. - -And what shall be said of educational officials who, lacking a fine -sense of duty, dignity and honor, have been playing the part of -educational Warwicks in the Province, crowning and uncrowning, making -and unmaking teachers, now in one part of Ontario, now in another? We -endeavor to keep education out of politics, while gross partisanship is -doing its work. - -With such conditions educational in our Province, need we wonder that -during the past year an inspector refused to permit a French-Canadian -girl who held a Normal School Entrance and Normal School Professional -Certificate to teach in a school where three-fourths of the children are -of French-Canadian origin? Either the Normal School staff, in granting -that French-Canadian girl a certificate to teach, did not know what they -were doing, or the inspector exceeded his authority. Look at it as you -will, the matter is discreditable. - -For how, we ask, may the teacher be expected to grow and reach out -towards higher things if he be not permitted to enjoy the very first -conditions of growth—the right to develop and advance by virtue of his -own gifts and toil? Who stands between the lawyer and the acceptance of -his brief? Who stands between the physician and the diagnosis of his -case? We speak of the dignity of scholarship and the dignity of the -teaching profession, but if the law of development be thwarted and its -attendant right to advancement be denied, degradation, not dignity, -would be the fitting term. - - - - - THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE AND - THE POPES OF AVIGNON - - - - - THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE AND THE POPES OF AVIGNON. - - -There is probably no other period in the history of the world in which -the attitude of the Papacy toward art and letters has been so -misrepresented by certain writers as that of the Italian Renaissance. If -one takes up the works of such well-known historians of this period as -Pastor, Burckhardt and Symonds, the conflict of opinion is so great that -one almost despairs of getting at the real truth. - -The charm of style in the work of Symonds is so seductive that for the -moment misrepresentation and contradiction pass unheeded and one is -swept along a current of rhetoric, dazzled now by the coloring of -thought, now by the very atmosphere which rests upon the art headlands -and uplands of this transition period. - -The Italian Renaissance flowered during the fifteenth century, but it -drew its nutrition from the soil of the thirteenth and fourteenth -centuries. The spirit of free inquiry and delight in beauty which are -especially credited as belonging to the Italian Renaissance had a place -in the life and art of Italy as well as France long before the fifteenth -century. - -The Catholic Church has during no century prohibited free inquiry on -questions that pertain to science, art and letters, and the expression -of her life as represented in art and literature is but the reflection -of that beauty which emanates from the source of all beauty—God. - -It is not only unjust to the Catholic Church, but it betrays as well a -superficial knowledge of the basis and genesis of Christian art to -maintain that all great poetry, painting, architecture, sculpture and -music had first soil in the wilderness of the world rather than within -the sanctuary of God. So it is that certain historians, for example, -turn their faces in every direction seeking causes for the great -awakening of life and art in Italy during the fifteenth century, but are -absolutely blind to the light and influence which streamed from the -centre and headship of Christianity. - -These historians would fain have us believe that the Popes of the -Renaissance set their faces like flint against the revival of -letters—that they feared it would emancipate the human intellect from -the power of the Church. Indeed, as has been elsewhere pointed out, -Putnam, in his work dealing with the making of books during the medieval -centuries, states in two paragraphs, in almost successive pages, that -the Pope had a certain work burned “because it was _contra bonos -mores_”; and, again, that the Roman Curia looked on and smiled -approvingly at such a work because it was not contrary to faith. The -real truth is that the Catholic Church was the greatest factor in the -Renaissance movement, and he who would understand the forces that -contributed to this great awakening of the human intellect, and the -development of art and letters which followed logically in its train, -must understand the beginnings of the Renaissance in the fourteenth -century and the share which the Popes of Avignon—then in exile—took in -its promotion and extension. - -The poet Petrarch is justly styled the “Father of Humanism,” but were it -not for the influence, kindly offices and patronage of the Papal Court -of Avignon, the sweetest of Italian sonneteers might have lived -unheeded—obscure in a lonely villa of Parma or Verona. - -Let us, then, examine the share which the Popes of Avignon justly have -in this great movement which filled the world of Italy of the fourteenth -and fifteenth centuries as with the glory of a new and dazzling sunrise. - -It should not be forgotten that the revival of classical learning in -Italy really began early in the twelfth century with the revival of the -study of Roman law. Italy was heir to the mid-day splendor of Roman -literature, with its Virgils, its Horaces, its Ciceros, its Quintilians. -Not only this, but as Carducci says, “By the fall of Constantinople -Italy became sole heir and guardian of the ancient civilization of -Greece.” - -But it is a mistake to consider that it was the discovery of some -manuscripts by Petrarch at Verona, or the appointment of Manuel -Chrysoloras to the chair of Greek at the Florence University in 1396, -that set aglow the skies of the Italian Renaissance. - -A writer tells us that the growth of civilization is as gradual and -imperceptible as that of an oak tree. It does not suddenly pass from -night to day, not even from night to twilight. So was the Renaissance in -Italy ushered in slowly, and the factors which contributed to this great -intellectual awakening were indeed many. - -Now, not the least of these factors was the Papal Court, whether its -influence went out from Rome or Avignon. It seems to us strange—nay, -absurd—that historians of the Italian Renaissance eagerly gather up -every vagrant straw that may contribute to their theory as to the cause -of the great intellectual awakening of Italy in the fourteenth and -fifteenth centuries, but absolutely ignore the influence of the Catholic -Church as a potent force in the Renaissance movement. - -Non-Catholic historians are fond of quoting the Latin poet’s words: -“_Nihil humani est mihi alienum_,” and hold that it was out of this -spirit—this attitude towards the world and mankind—that the Italian -Renaissance was born. This is quite true, but as Guiraud points out in -his admirable work, “L’Eglise et Les Origines de la Renaissance,” the -need of simplifying and generalizing—of studying man in himself rather -than any man in particular—could find recognition in the classical -spirit only because it already existed in the spirit of the Renaissance. - -One thing is quite certain, that it was the relation of the Papal Court -to the Greek Church at Constantinople and the religious controversies -that took place during the fourteenth century between Avignon and -Constantinople that gave an impetus to the study of the Greek Fathers, a -large number of whose works were in the Papal library at Avignon. In -fact, relations of friendship bound together the men of letters of -Avignon and Constantinople in such manner that there was often an -exchange of manuscripts between the East and West. The life of Petrarch -furnishes examples of this. - -From the very beginning of the Papal occupancy of Avignon the Vicars of -Christ enriched the library of the Holy See with numerous copies of the -works of the Latin and Greek writers—now the works of Seneca, Pliny, -Sallust, Suetonius and Cicero, now the Ethics of Aristotle and the Poems -of Virgil. - -As to theological works written in Greek, it was most natural that at a -time when theology reigned incontestably as the chief of the sciences -the Papal Library was well supplied. - -It is true that the great masterpieces of Greek literature, such as the -works of Homer, Hesiod and Pindar, the great tragedies, and the Latin -writers, Horace and Tacitus, were not as yet well represented in the -Papal Library at Avignon, but it is equally true that on the eve of the -great schism the Popes had collected together an important number of -manuscripts in which Latin literature was well represented, so that in -the number and quality of the volumes the Apostolic Library was second -only to the ancient libraries of the Sorbonne and Canterbury. - -In several of his letters the poet Petrarch has shown himself very -severe towards the Popes of the fourteenth century, who, in his eyes, -were guilty of the double crime of being French and of having left -Italy. Meanwhile the very literary reputation and glory which Petrarch -loved so much were due in no small measure to the protection accorded -him by the Popes of Avignon. Was it not, too, at the Papal Court of -Avignon that Petrarch’s father, an exile from Florence, had sought an -asylum, and in the sunshine of whose favor the poet himself had grown in -peace and security? - -Nor should it be forgotten that it was from the Papal Curia of Avignon -that the order first went out to search for the Latin manuscripts which -were of so great service in the study of the ancient literature and -language of Rome. The work of copying also went on, so that a manuscript -copy of nearly every valuable Latin work was soon to be found in the -Pontifical Library. - -In collecting thus the scattered literary remains of antiquity the Popes -gave proof of an enlightened taste for letters, while at the same time -they favored the movement born of humanism. As in our own day, the -Apostolic Library was thrown open to scholars, and the poet Petrarch, in -several passages of his familiar letters, testifies to the fact that he -himself had full access to the books and manuscripts of the Pontifical -Library at Avignon. - -Again, the missionary work carried on in Africa and Asia during the -residence of the Popes at Avignon did much to bring in contact the mind -of the Orient and the Occident. Towards the close of the thirteenth -century, before the Papacy had yet removed to Avignon, the Franciscan -Jean de Montecorvino had established flourishing Christian missions in -China, and in 1306 Pope Clement V. erected for him the see of Pekin. -Numerous missions were also established in the Barbary States, in -Northern Africa, as well as in Tunis. - -If, then, the discovery of new worlds, the fall of Constantinople and -the invention of printing were factors in the development of the Italian -Renaissance, assuredly the mission work of the Papal Court of Avignon in -its propagation of the gospel in distant countries contributed -indirectly but incontestably to this great awakening of the human mind. -Indeed, “humanism” may be said to have had birth at Avignon within the -Pontifical Court, with him who has been justly designated “the first of -Humanists”—the poet Petrarch. - -As to the study of Greek in Italy, long before the dispersion of Greek -scholars consequent on the fall of Constantinople in 1453, long, too, -before the appointment of Manuel Chrysoloras to the chair of Greek at -the Florence University in 1396, the monk Barlaam, a Greek scholar of -great repute, a Calabrian by birth, who had passed his youth at Salonica -and at Constantinople, where he became, thanks to his literary and -scientific culture, a favorite of the Emperor Andronicus, was sent by -the latter to propose to Benedict XII. a reunion of the Greek and Latin -Churches. - -On his return from Rome in 1342, where he had received the laurel crown -of poetry, Petrarch found Barlaam at Avignon and requested from him -lessons in Greek. Another instructor of the poet Petrarch in Greek was -Nicolas Sigeros, also a Byzantine envoy to the Court of Avignon. When -the latter had terminated his negotiations with Clement VI. and had to -return to Constantinople, Petrarch made him promise that he would search -for manuscripts of Cicero which might be hidden in the libraries of the -Bosphorus. Sigeros, however, found none, but to show his good-will he -sent to his friend of Avignon a copy of the poems of Homer. - -It was Petrarch’s different visits to Rome that inspired in him a love -for antiquity. His first visit to the Eternal City was on the invitation -of his friend, the Bishop of Lombez, in 1337, and it is from this year -that his Roman patriotism dates, which henceforth inspires all his works -and in particular his Latin poem, “Africa,” and which, too, made him the -enthusiastic friend of Rienzi. - -A study of the life of Petrarch reveals the fact that it was the good -offices of the Papal Court of Avignon which placed him in touch with the -eminent Greek and Latin scholars of the day and made it possible for -him, in the seclusion of Vaucluse, to pursue his studies of the great -masters of Greek poetry and philosophy. - -Petrarch also prevailed upon his friend Boccaccio to publish in Latin -the Iliad and Odyssey. It was Leontius Pilatus who took charge of this -work a little time after and thus began the great work of translating -Greek authors which Pope Nicholas V. was later to bring to so successful -an end. - -But the works of the nature-loving Greeks would never have inspired in -the heart and mind of Petrarch a love of the beauty of life around -him—Hellenism was but a factor—were it not that his own beloved -Provence revealed its charms to his eyes and filled his soul with poetic -dreams. In his garden at Vaucluse, among his trees and vines, he found -the inspiration which Nature never refuses to the open and responsive -heart, whether the votary at her altar be a Wordsworth, amid the lakes -and cliffs and scenes of Cumberland; a Burns, treading the hillsides of -his native Ayr, or a Whittier, dreaming amid his Berkshire hills. - -Many historians do an injustice to the character of Petrarch on the -moral side. Petrarch, in the moral gospel of his life and living, was -far from being either a Poggio or a Machiavelli. Much as was his respect -for the master geniuses of antiquity, his love for the sacred writings -of St. Jerome and St. Augustine was more profound, and it is said that -on reading for the first time the works of the latter he thought of -abandoning altogether the frivolous study of the classics, with a view -of consecrating himself entirely to Christian meditation and reading. -Petrarch’s respect for the Christian ideal is to be found in the -marginal annotations of his manuscripts. We have the poet’s own word for -it that he took the “Confessions of St. Augustine” for his model when he -wrote his “De Contemptu Mundi.” Practices of scrupulous piety marked his -whole life. Each night he arose to pray to God, and on every Friday he -practised a rigorous fast, while his devotion to the Blessed Virgin was -most ardent and sincere. - -It is true that, like all men of the Renaissance period, Petrarch was -intense in his character. He hated with a Renaissance fervor, and he was -not free from the jealousy and vainglory which belonged especially to -the spirit of his times. - -In estimating the character of Petrarch one must remember the spirit of -the times in which he had birth—that it was an age of great virtues and -great vices, and that excessive liberty to sin followed in the wake of -the Renaissance in every land. In England it is reflected in the lives -of such men as Green and Marlowe and in Marlowe’s play of “Dr. Faustus,” -while in France the courts of the House of Valois and the camps of the -Huguenots were marked by the greatest wantonness and license. In Germany -men like Ulrich von Hutten were anything but moral. - -Petrarch was certainly “the morning star” of the Italian Renaissance, -but it was the Papal Court of Avignon that made possible his light—it -was the Pope, as representative and head of a universal Church, that -quickened by contact the mind of the East with the West—in a word, it -was the enlightened scholarship of fourteen centuries illumined by the -rays of Divine Faith and speaking through the lips of the Vicar of -Christ in exile at Avignon that led the way in that greatest of -intellectual movements—the Italian Renaissance of the Fifteenth -Century. - - * * * * * - -Transcriber’s Notes: - -Hyphenation, and spellings have been retained as in the original. -Punctuation has been corrected without note. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Essays Literary, Critical and -Historical, by Thomas O'Hagan - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ESSAYS LITERARY, CRITICAL, HISTORICAL *** - -***** This file should be named 51593-0.txt or 51593-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/1/5/9/51593/ - -Produced by Mardi Desjardins & the online Distributed -Proofreaders Canada team (http://www.pgdpcanada.net) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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