Like the ghost in "Hamlet," Mr Belloc here comes forward in hi most "questionable" shape, the Jshape, that is, which invites a shower of questions; and the question "How Catholicism stands. today" is the subject of Mr, Belloc's volume, Recalling how the old and new forms of attack upon the Church in history were rarely recorded except at the moments of their defeat or full activity, he has, attempted to appraise the flux of to-day: the decline of thoss vigorous in his youth, and the indications of the new that are emerging, writes Osbert Burdett in the "Observer." Only very sleepy people will in agine that this subject concerns his ce-religionists alone since, from the nature of the case, the standpoint of Catholicism provides a fire of criticism upon the-thoughts, the mood, and the society of to-day, a criticism that necessarily wakes us up to the atmosphere in which, left unpenetrated, we yawn complacent-'That historic sense which is the ife of Mr. Belloc's writings, the sense that places each epoch in relation to the past out of which it has been shapen, which gives proportion and perspective to the present, is turned upon the moods and movements of today. It is a truism that the Catholic Church must always be opposed to the spirit of the e she alone claims to be unchanging. In what forms is that time-spirit now in evidence?
The Survivaly noted are the Biblical attack (of which, f¢ instance, the late Edmund Gosse father was a typical product: Materialism: the Wealth-and-Pow argument of those who said that Spain, Italy, and Ireland were nations in decline because of thei religion; the Historical Arguments and that Sctentifie Negation which holds that nothing"which cannot be precisely measured can be known at all, From the 'Main Opposition: Clericalism, and the "Modern Mind" (the most' entertaining section of the book). The two concluding chapters discuss the New Arrival Christian Science, Neo-Pagai Spiritualism, the prospects of 1 (which looks ahead), and, for the Jast word, the opportunity that the Church has to combat these things. It is a European standpoint, and, with whatever rage it may be met,
ity.
cannot be dismissed for insular-
Though not one of Mr, Bolloc's best books, it is extremely stimulat= ing. 'The old note of conviction, which makes his style so irritating te those whose only conviction is, that all convictions are fallacious, is as vibrant as ever. Among many' 1 points one might engage, there is one that, so far as I recall, he has not raised before, and it seems to be a point against him, It ix thi Indastriot Capitatigm, for instaner, not develop of iescit: it was the low product of n tale religion, Te fons out of the Reformation: ani articular" from the 120 a But for the Reformation tha ovule arrangement would nat tro ling, us to-day. (I 14), Again:— een lent, Grent peasant areas in Franco have and in all Cathoi pain-whata ili. pongion. bur teen eat dhroughoue twe generations, sad eae' in the bet indortisiens euleriy" goon toda But, if indostratism produeci the some results in Catholic and in Protestant countries, if the forme States are unable to modify its influence, if the hateful system be the same wherever it appears, how can the Reformation be mainly to lame for it? If we could identify Jan odious system with one religion, what an argument the other would Navel The two. pasanges false {cation to. which T hope Mr, Belloe return. "The rat passage not new in his writings. It raised a doubt which, being admitted in ths accend, now favites an answer, To make his lite acburden wilh Guestions is the temptation of his styles Erich Remarque's "All Quiet the Western Front" is to be adapt, ed for the talking films.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.