Dancer Grmoxs—By Llewellyn Powys Watts, London. 3/6, One of the popular cults of the post-war period has been Naturalism, has claimed its adherents by the thousand. One of the very clever expositions of its philosophy "Damnable Opinions", by Llewellyn Powys. Mr. Powys has a command forceful and beautiful English, and sometimes is inspired by the nature he loves to write poetry in prose. He ranges the eld "of Christan thought from the days of Origen and Augustine to the Intest house-party of the Oxford Group. For him, Christianity is impotent, Deliver-ignatian, at the Unimplicaied sun.
As indicating his impatience with the Church's interpretation of reli sion, note this:
2 impossible to exaggerate the amount of misery that could be sttri= Duted to Christianity. Make no mistake, there has always. been snake spite in the Holy Grail, and seeds of Renbane in the wafer. Long after Ure Christian vanity has become a subject {axes there fa to be found tacit conspiracy against the free joy of lie Mr. Powys sets forth his own religion Here are two paragraphs in which Jas over against that of the Church:
True religion is a worship of life.
Daby'is religious when tt laughs {to see' the leaves falling. from. the Dear tree branch that a grey-headed fan fs shaking...... The red dog fox scuffing through ihe brambles after his hot vixen is also religious. The ton, unspeakable in the rapture of its" realization, gentle and' consoling retrospect.
For such a of ute Epicurus is Cod ud Nietzsche is the prophet. Mr. Powys is sure that [viewers will be shocked and ministers of religion will be horrified by. his "damnable opinions" Iam neither Jshocked nor horr: fled, because T have Fun across th's philosophy too often fin these modern. days. Human pas-Jsions are made to dance on many Furthermore, 1 find myself in sympathy with those who think that religion and life have grown too far apart, There is a joy in life which would be a pity to lose. But must a man indulge his appetites to find a joy in living? I remember a Francis of Ass'si who spent hours in Jprayer and punished lis body in many ways, without losing the thrill lof companionsh: p with air, and moon, fand sun." Of them he sang as ex: uultontly as Mr. Powys, Sympathetic as one may be with the author's protest against dogmas and restraints as the sole form religious expression, there are some things which the race experience has aught:
(1) It has. taught that, indulgence, value to those who want to have on record the achievements of a notable statesmen. Lord Birkenhead was a great Lord Chancellor and it satisfactory, therefore, to find that his has left fo the skilled and thoritative pen of Sir Claude Schuser the task of describing Lord Bir-Kenhead's career on the Woolsack, That is in many ways the most attractive chapter in this book. If the Into Lord Birkenhead had never done anything else, his judgments on the Woolsack, and in particular his reform of the law of property, would have earned him a prominent place among British statesmen, In the twilight of his great career Lord Birkenhead was still a vigorous force, but the vigour became clouded. "it is impossible not to perceive that those qualities which had appeared in earlier triumphs in the nisse of forcefulness and merciless analytical perception, became blurred and developed inia petulance ana Gogmatic obscurantism. The biographer, as befits him, is gentle in describing the change. but he is sincere enough to indicate its appearance. But when alls said and done, the best summing up of this versatile Iawy-Politician, statesman and sportsman is that' of Sir Austen Chamberlain: was possible t be acquainted with him" and" dislike" hm intensely was impossible to know him, and not love him.
So will it always be with @ man who was more loyal to his friends than to himselt—en Though they cannot phrase it as poetically as "Mr. Powys there are thousands who practice "his philosophy, and they are among the most miserable of men. Naturalism. is 0 ts ROO substitute for the Kind of Christianity Mr. Powys condemns. 1s there no alternative? Why not be fair enough to recognize another type
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.