ONE LITERARY CORNER.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 15500, 29 January 1916, Page 7

ONE LITERARY CORNER.

ORIGINAL AND SELECTED HATTER. NOTES ON BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

Memorials of the DEAD.

GEORGE MACDONALD'S OPINIONS. AX INTERESTING LETTER. {ffICUIXT WRITTEN 10R "THX PRESS.") (Bt TBS Rbv. Robert Wood.) fT wafl etruck with something wanting in ct rr n»tiona] feeling—rctpect for the dead, poetry of the tomb, the piety of memory." _£nielß Journal. I'Tjave in my possession the manuscripts and correspondence of a Scottish theologian 'whose- name is known in literature and who filled, about thirty years ago, an important theological chair in the New College, Edinburgh. In looking over the letters in this collection, I found a number from distinguished theologians, such as Candlish, Kainv, Marcus Pods, and A. B. Bruce; and I came across a curious letter from George Macdonald, the novelist and poet. In New Zealand George Macdonald's name is probably passing away, but in some Jibrarv catalogues his works are still very much in evidence. I have before me the catalogue of the library of the "London Times Book Club," and I find that on the shelves of the library there are 22 volumes of fiction, two volumes of poetry, and one of general literature, so his day in Britain has not passed yet away. The Macdonald letter speaks for itself, and explains the sad. circumstances that evoked the letter. It is as follows:— f Corage, Boscombe, Bournemouth. Nov. 3, 1877. My dear sir,—l hopo you will not • think me either a screw, or one .devoid of natural affection • but the fact is" I never have any margin of income, and, although, if I -were interested in your desire, something would yet be* forthcoming, I cannot uring myself to 6end any contribution inhere I am more than. indifferent. My'dear uncle is gone to his own, anil I hope to join him before long. That he should be WKaembered • down here is to mc no rrore desirable than that I should be. myself , remembered, while the futility of / Aorfnments'turns them into a mockenr. Why should we care where a - man leaves his old clothes; so that tliey be decently destroyed—that is all. . ■ -I. hop© you will not be shocked by "• my'openness. In a word, I don't be- * licve jn death at all, and would not - pay him even the homage of a,tombt Etone., One day or other, sooner or I later, our bones, except they make | haste o.back to their dust, will ;lie 'n- abont' the grave's mouth or be carted 1 -"'make,. for. the living - i-ahd theirnlans.Vand then, it is. ,betthey should ; be' but bones. • not that njaii. Thank ? (fed, wis shall'; never 1 "miss them.— . 'Yours, my d«r mr, very truly, GEORGE MACDONALD. . ' > ;RcV. JamesMacGrcgor. In the- foregoing,' ire hare what we; jaiist' take as to- open and honest cxpreaaonj of . the writer's, views, and he - .they cut • right"across the' sentiments and feeling of ! his age and . ages. That tomb .of. Jus * ' brolh'e'r to 'be built .by norP rolatjv.es. is an ■ unusual course for a man.;to take. ;4t was not poverty, for I article on Macdonald Britannica" that ie. w&gputl on ; 'ihe. Civil Pension' list' -in. theyear in ■which'he wot© the letter, and his books and'"lectures mustr have Jttoughf him also a' fair income. . The r fitter raises^the question, should the meteiory of the dead be perpetuated by nfoijjuppnts . The following. notes way of criticism of Macdoriald's views, and as helping towards «an to -the question. *? 1 -I. " Macdonald wrote as though, tie y everything,', and the body no-i tWag; in 'human personality, and he justification Tor his position, in his ' v .Jthtolojgjcal views. Mr Macdonald was a' : Chratiain \ minister, but his views on 1, /ttb; "subject were denied by Christian ft?,- teachers of his age' and of other ages. Re views of two exponents of Christian and . .sentiment may be '■, qnoted:— . ,(I).' Professor Laidlaw, a ■ Scottish ftesbyterian theologian, in his Cunningham Lectures" (a kind of Scottish. Lectureship); entitled the ' .'■" Bibl e' Doctrine of Man," writes as y tyljowsf— "In the Scriptural acoonnt of man's.,origin there is no degradation •. frame in favour of the , ®ul, as if the latter -were the man, v; ftlj)B. former were only the prison which he was sent, or. the in which he was for a time con- * ; and he quotes approvingly -■ following -words of another theo- . "According to Scripture, the . /N? w neither the slave of the soul V prison-house, as philosophy with views of body and mind h?s constantly' taught. The relation . of theitwo may be* described as sacra- ;■ the body is the. outward' and • Tisiblesign of inward and 'spiritual Roman Catholic view is set forth Nevfinan in the following ' t'" • ™ d^ Bt ' et live to God,' Stfll ** it tha motionless clay 01 beneath thfe eod. •irogghng- till the jndg*"B* jfo cunning test, and deem ®Vth ■' but they tro heavenly

r . humanity i s as ec- ,. ~c *a Ms, Christian divinity. By » 8 + refusal to help in putting tombstone over the grave of his JJJg* ■>, flouts one of , the most »<a«t and th© most widespread 6entinents.of, the human race. This feeling *•- "En^opadia i rf v Vi as the "common, sentiment '< wmon„_ »° honour aad per- - 2, ■ vL?® memoi 7 of the dead." Be--1 Proper began memorial . placed over the dead, gesememonal stones fun back to pre- .. .tetonc _ages, and remain to this day ■ °™ of asojated stones raised «-eod, or arranged in lines, or fonni° r pkCed together witi v foramg a roof. This senJgS* Btronger as man rises '' foer.- civilisation. Th e ; :;^wweutal;pdeß . of -Egypt We

orials of the dead. The great pyramids were simply burial places. The desire to keep alivevthe memory of the dead by memorial stones has been at work for all time, and the evidence of this is seen in nearly every country in the world. Books of descriptions of these, that would fill a library, have been written. This custom prevailed in Bible lands. Jacob set up a pillar over I'aehel's grave, and King Josiah when he came to a grave once asked, "What monument is that """Vhich I see?" The strength of this: sentiment in modern times is seen in the cemeteries of our great cities. In Paris one burial place covering 200 acres has 20,000 monumental stones. And so it is everywhere throughout the world to-day. This prevailing sentiment, which Mr Macdonald flouts finds expression in the literature of the world. The Elegy and the Epitaph are inspired by a belief at least in a sacramental relationship between soul and body. This feeling runs through poems lik 6 Gray's '.'Elegy in a Country Churchyard," in which he says:— "E'en from the tomb the voicei of Nature cries, E'en in our ashes livo their wonted fires." Tt is in the epitaph where this feeling is very fully expressed. Poetry and prose in the past have very fluently expressed this sentiment. The epitaph had its place among the Egyptians, the Greeks., and the Romans. Over the Greeks that 'fell at Thermopylae were inscribed the following epigram:— "Go tell the Spartans, thou that passest ty That hero obedient to their law we lie." The Epitaph has its place in English literature. Boswell tells us that "Johnson's affection for his departed relations seemed to grow warmest as he approached nearer to the time when he might hope to see them again. It probably appeared to him that he should upbraid himself with unkind inattention were he to leave the world without having paid a tribute of respect to their memory." One of the last things he did, the year in which he died, was to write an epitaph to be inscribed on a stone to be placed over his parents' grave. His treatise on "epitaphs" was written -when he thirty years of age, and he wrote the following in memory of Philips, a wellknown physician, about the same time: —

"Philips, whose touch harmonious could '' . Tho pangs of guilty power or h&plece love: Rest here, distressed by poverty no more. Here' find that calm tbou gav'st so oft before; Sleep undisturbed within this peaceful shrine Till angels wake thee with a, note like thine!" It is a litte difficult to understand the extent to which humour, and, even buffoonery, characterise a collection of epitaphs. The collection savours of a book of jests. But at bottom there is the desire to remember the departed by sensible signs. The poet sometimes seems more anxious to win .distinction for himself than to perpetuate the memory : of the departed. In 1621 William Brown wrote an. epitaph on .-the ; Countess of A Pembroke/ The Countess has long been forgotten, but- the bold hyperbole of tho following lines has made the poet memorable: — , "Underneath this marble hears© Lies tho subject of aJI verse; Sydney's sister, Pembroke's mother; Death, ere thou hast slain another Fair and learned and good'as she, Time will-.throw his dart .at thee. ' . - Marble piles let. no man raise To her name in after days; ' S6m» kind'woman, ; born as she, Beading this>Jik© N iobe, • ' Shall turn marble, and become Both her-mourner and her tomb." The epitaph has come down to our time.. Its words are fewer and its reverence is deeper. In Tennyson we see how he used hi\ genius to perpetuate the memory of the dead. His great poem is a monument in song, if not in stone,> to the memory of the younger Hallam. ' The epitaph also was not beneath his mission. Here are words on Gordon "Warrior of God, man's- friend, and tyrant's foe, Now' somewhere dead far in the waste Soudan, Thou livest in all hearts, for all men know This earth ha* never borne a nobler man." I IV. It follows from the foregoing that an answer in thfe affirmative must be given to the question, should wp. perpetuate the memory of the dead by visible memorials? , A period may be put to these notes by citing one more witness. The din of controversy has now ceased about the alleged harshness and hardness of the character of Thomas Carlyle. The world of letters is now beginning to, understand that there was a great depth of tenderness and affection in ' him. A leading London newspaper, in reviewing Carlyle's letters to his sisjter, headed the article "Carlyle, the Tender." This tenderness is seen in tho epitaph he wrote for his wife's tomb, which is as follows: — ® "Here rests Jane Welsh Carlyle, spouse of Thomas Carlyle, Chelsea, London. She was born at Haddington,; 14th July, 1801, only daughter of ihe above John Welsh, and of Grace Welsh. Capelgill, Dumfriesshire, his wife. In her bright existence she had more sorrows than are but also a -soft invincibility, a clearness of discernment, and a noble loyalty of heart which are rare. ' For forty years she was the true and ever-loving helpmate of her husband, and, by act and word, unweariedlv forwarded him as none else could, in all of worthy that he did or attempted. She died at 21st April, 1866, suddenly snatched away from him, and the light of his life is as gone out,". • This, however, is not the whole of Carlyle's witness-bearing. To Haddington churchyard, where his wife s body was laid, he made periodic visits up to the last. Here is the story told by the grave-keener:— • "Ay, he comes here lonesome and alone when he visits his wife's grave. His niece, keeps him company to the gate, but he leaves, her there, and she stays there for him.. Th e last time he was here I got a sight of him. and he •was bowed down under his white hairs and he took his way up by that ruined wall of the old Cathedral, and round there and in here by the gateway, and he tottered up here to this spot. And he stood here awhile in the grass, and then : he kneeled down and stayed on his knees at the grave; then he bent over, and I saw him kiss the*. ground aje, he kissed it again and again, and he kept kneeling, and it wa« a 'long time before he rose and tottered out of the Cathedral and wandered through the graveyard to the gate, where his r.iece was waiting for him." (Thomas Carlyle, by Hector , p. 128.)