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enumerated in the same letter among the special instruments of divine revelation “Moses, Abraham, Homer, Charlemagne, Luther, Shakespeare, Goethe, Kant and Emperor William the Great." In October he supplemented this declaration on the occasion of the confirmation of two of his sons by stating that "The whole of human life hinges simply and solely upon our attitude towards our Lord and Saviour," that, in addition to Christ "Men had peopled heaven with many splendid figures of pious Christians, who were called the saints, and to whom they appealed for succor, but that all this was of minor importance, and, indeed, vain. The Saviour remained the one helper and deliverer." For this second declaration he was taken sharply to task by the Roman Catholic press.

Switzerland's Religious Difficulties

Switzerland, by a decree of June 5 gave notice to several religious orders that they must find shelter elsewhere, allowing them, as in the preceding year, a delay amounting in some cases to three months. The resolution of the previous year against certain communities had not been carried out till after the expiration of several months, during which those concerned might have recourse to the Federal Assembly if they considered the measures contrary to the spirit of the constitution, instead of which they had merely demanded a prolongation of the delay, or pleaded the modifications which might be made in the character of their particular communities. The Federal Council passed the resolution on July 5 with a view to ensuring the execution of the law in all cases where it was applicable. To get the situation clearly in mind it is necessary to remember that the country is divided into 24 civil cantons, of which 12 are mainly Protestant, while 12 are chiefly Catholic. Each canton has the right to choose and establish its own form of religion, and to exercise certain measures to restrain citizens from such public acts as tend to endanger the public peace. This is what rendered the propagandism of the Salvation Army peculiarly difficult. A Protestant living in a Catholic canton is not required to pay for the support of the church established in that section, and the same is true of a Catholic in a Protestant canton. By the close of 1903 the problem was partially solved by the voluntary exodus of several of the religious orders.

A Heresy Hunt

The most sensational heresy hunt of the year was that directed against Professor Borden P. Bowne, of Boston University. The formal charges of heresy were made by the Rev. George A. Cook, pastor of the Trinity Methodist Church, West Medford, Mass. Mr. Cook charged Dr. Bowne with disseminating views concerning the Deity, the inspiration and authority of the Scriptures, the atonement of Christ, eschatology and Christian experience, which were contrary to the plain teaching of the holy scriptures, and the recognized standards of doctrine in the Methodist Episcopal Church. A storm of editorial disapproval in both the secular and religious press pointed to the almost final passing of the heresy-hunting spirit. Outside the heresy hunters Dr. Bowne was recognized as an inspiring philosophical teacher, and the real charge against him seemed to be this, that there was a certain system of philosophy labeled Methodism, to depart from which is to be heretical. Dr. Bowne was not a radical iconoclast, nor did he belong to the revolutionary and destructive school of higher critics. The trial reflected more upon the hunters than upon the hunted.

Faith Cure and Charlatanism

The passing of charlatanism in religion was emphasized by the unfriendly demonstration which greeted John Alexander Dowie when he attempted to storm New York City. No sincere religious movement however grotesque its methods, was ever received with such derision in New York. Its citizens refused to consider him as anything but the promoter of Zion City. His well-advertised and spectacular entry made no impression. Representatives of the modern Elijah were in the City some days in advance of the advent of the Host making preparations for the meetings in the Garden, and for the care of the pilgrims. All of the latter were lodged in cheap hotels and lodging houses, while the leader had luxurious rooms at the Plaza Hotel and rode to and from the meetings in his own carriage sent on for the purpose. Three thousand five hundred Zionites were brought from their Western home in eight special trains. The entire expedition was under the direct personal management of Dowie, and the plan of the campaign included the holding of mass meetings in Madison Square Garden and a personal canvas from house to house

by the followers of Dowie, who left their blessing and a small tract. Dowie failed to reach the great population, even with the aid of all of his machinery, and he left the impression behind that he was either a charlatan or but one more in that long procession of religious cranks.

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An opinion by Judge Hoyt of the New York Court of Appeals on the practice of faith cure was far-reaching in its consequences: and free enjoyment of religious profession and worship is guaranteed," reads the decision, "but acts which are not worship, are not. A person cannot be excused from punishment for slaying those who have been born to him by the practice of faith cure, or absent treatment."

II

The annual pilgrimage to the Grotto of the Virgin at Lourdes, France, came to a close without any cures having been reported. The pilgrimage is held for three days every year in the week immediately following the Feast of the Assumption. During that period in 1903, 950 patients were carried to the Grotto, where cures are said to be effected, and 9,000 masses were said. On the closing day of the pilgrimage, a procession of over 2,000 priests marked the end of the ceremonies, although individual pilgrimages had taken place at all times of the year. The belief in the healing quality of the spring at Lourdes in the Grotto where the Virgin is said to have disclosed the miraculous properties of the spring in 1858, is so widespread and so firmly held that among the pilgrims was a Roman Catholic peer of England, who visited the Grotto with his invalid son and heir in the hope that a cure might be effected.

CHAPTER XV

BOOKS AND PLAYS

The effect of industrialism on literature, the deterioration in English prose style, the decline of a high-spirited quality of writing and the mildly revolutionary methods of some of the new writers were some of the more general aspects of literature widely discussed throughout the year. There were a great many contentions in America, at least, that prosperity and commercialism had interrupted the progress of real literature. The question did not stand careful analysis because too much stress was laid on the prosperity argument, whereas the problem involved even more important conditions which were almost ignored. It was pointed out that oppression and adverse economical conditions on the one hand, and freedom on the other, may each shape the tendencies of literature. The one tendency may work for tragedy, the other for comedy, yet each possesses greatness. In the first case we are made to see life in all its seriousness; sorrow, passion, remorse are the characters that play the chief roles, and they find their expression often in morbid philosophy.

One English critic argued that authorship had become a mere moneymaking trade, and the fortunes made by authors out of mediocre works of fiction were pointed to as proof of this contention. Moreover it was claimed that syndicates, agents, and multiple reviewers had so debauched the author's trade that if he possessed not a noble temperament, or a high respect for literature he could not help vaunting his wealth or intriguing for good notices. The quality of the work was not seriously considered. A name, of course, might carry commercial weight, but once the name had found its value it mattered little to the agent or the syndicate what was the stuff to which it was affixed. The book was reviewed, often unread, on the day of publication, and forgotten in a week unless extensively advertised.

The charge of deterioration of style was bound up in that of the

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commercialization of literature. It was quite generally admitted that the older writers were the architects with words. Their leisurely habits of composition and their insistence on definite canons of literary criticism led to a mastery of a style almost hopeless for our younger authors to attempt to acquire. The enormous extension of newspapers and magazines draws so heavily upon the general fund of literary talent that those engaging in ephemeral and fugitive writing for a lifetime cannot expect to find a fixed place in literature. A learned professor of history declared that a modern historian would be insulted if he were said to have a style. Style, he said, was not the business of the historian. Matter, not manner, was the strongest demand of the hour in every department of literature. Along with the deterioration of style was recognized a decline in the quality of exuberance that characterized some of the masterpieces of other days. Our authors with all their many virtues of sobriety, lucidity, and truthfulness seemed to have grown a little thin and pale and prim, and to have lost a certain high spirited quality destined to keep literature young and fresh. It was noted that the kind of writing that is large and easy and unrestrained had become very rare.

A new note in literature was struck by certain mildly revolutionary writers who found their teachers in Stevenson and Bernard Shaw, Mr. Claude Bragdon aptly described them as follows: "They take nothing for granted, recognize no constituted authority; they interrogate the conditions under which life must be lived, are critical without pessimism of the existing order, while not unhopeful of a new and a better one. According to the modern notion a man should be something of an artist in life. He should appear to play his part easily with dash and gusto, like the acrobat who performs each dangerous feat smiling. This is the feather in the cap of courage,- bravery with humor added. It is the spirit in which Lungtungpen was taken, in which Cyrano composed his ballad while he fought a duel, for Cyrano and Allen Breck, no less than Mulvaney and Sherlock Holmes, are very modern heroes. The melodramatic gloom of Byron, the lachrymose pathos of Dickens, and the shallow sentimentality of Thackeray touched the source of our tears less surely that sheer gay-heartedness and courage in the face of disease, difficulty or danger. This is the modern note. With the new humor all are by this time familiar, but