Helbeck of Bannisdale. By Mrs. Hum-phy Ward. 8vo., 464 pp. London': Macmilian's Colonial Library, 1898. Shang Kelly & Walsh, La.
The psychology of exaggerated religious fervour appears to have the same fascination for Mrs, Humphry Ward as abnormal sexual problems for Mrs. Sarah Grand and her school. It may be doubted whether the average novel reader. takes an intense interest in the struggles of a diseased conscience against such a commonplace incident of life as falling in love, in quite a proper manner, with highly eligible person. And the ordinal man "certainly does not worry himself to any appreciable extent about the eccentricities to be found in every religion in its extreme form. But the success of Mrs. Ward's books makes it evident either that there exists a large number of persons to whom the dissection of a foolish soul is as entertaining as a funeral or other gruesome spectacle, or that Mrs. Ward's powers as story-teller enchant her readers in spite of their being bored with the moral she is pointing.. Helbeck of Bannisdale appears to have been written for the purpose of discrediting Roman Catholicism, and in such case we protest altogether against Mrs. Ward's method. It is unfortunately the fact that to an outside critic, by which we mean a person who does not profess the particular form of faith, every religion presents certain aspects" which appear foolish and even bad and objectionable. The interval between faith and superstition cannot be measured. Priests who are coarse, ignorant, and sometimes positively vile are to be found in every sect while fanatical austerity and illogical harshness render many an admirable doctrine repulsive in its perversion. But to limit our view to shortenings, and to shut our eyes resolutely to all that is good in it, is not a wise or fair way of arriving ata just appreciation of any system. The one thing that this book tries to teach is that a fervent faith in the Roman Catholic Church makes life exceedingly uncomfortable both for the victim and for all who come into contact with him, unless they. happen to be priests or nuns. No sensible person would take such a lesson to heart.
The hero of the book is a very fine character, possessing all the attributes which make a real man. But he is a religious ascetic of an extreme type, giving pail his substance tothe Church, thoroughly priest-ridden, and ruining his property. His widowed sister and her stepdaughter come to live with him. The latter is the daughter of a scientific agnostic, a lovable man, who has brought her up to be a healthy-minded girl with a contempt for all the mummeries of religion. say here that the whole charm of the and to our mind almost its only living interest, is centred in Laura Fountain. She is a girl to fall in love with without a moment's hesitation, and her character is as charming as her appearance. At the close of Passion Week, with its constant services in the chapel attached to the house then haunted by priests, Laura writes to a friend; and this extract gives " capital pi2- ture of a sensible and pure-minded girl 'As to "sin," and the gloom in which we all live because of it—what on earth does mean to any decently taught and brought-up creature? You are' greedy, or selfish, or idle, or ill-behaved. Very well then—nature, or your next-door neighbour, knocks you down for it, and serve you right. Next time you won't do it' again, or not so badly, and by degrees you don't even like to think of doing it—'* You would be ashamed," as people say. It's the process that everybody has to go through, Tsuppose—being sent into the world the sort of beings we ate, and without any leave of ours, altogether. But why mako such a wailing and woe and hullabaloo about it! Oh—such a waste of time! has an' intense affection for the memory We quite agree with Laura. The girl of her father and is steeped in his ideas which she holds in the greatest reverence, and her spirit rises in constant revolt against that side of religion which is presented to her. On the other hand, Helbeck's religion ix his life, and all outside of the church appear to him little Tess than monsters of iniquity. However, fate, in the person of Mrs. Ward, decrees these two antagonistic spirits, in spite of their struggles against it, shall fall passionately in love and become engaged. The man hopes that the girl may be gently won over to his faith, and the girl loves the man for his sterling qualities. But she soon realises that their union would mean disaster. She sees that she can never have the first lace in his heart notwithstanding his love for her. She flies from the house and breaks off the engagement, but is afterwards called back to the bedside of her dying stepmother. Then the great love of these two brings them together again, but again the situation is proved impossible. The loyal girl tries hard to reconcile herself with her lover's beliefs. She reads his books and even prays, but all in vain. Her independent spirit revolts against the tyranny of superstition and the authority of the priesthood, and in spite of her passionate adoration of Helbeck, she decides that she must never marry him. Mrs. Ward having thus brought her hero and heroine into a position from which she is unwilling to rescue them by common
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.