Centennial Essays

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23000, 20 April 1940, Page 14

Centennial Essays

1840 and After. Essays Written on the Occasion of the New Zealand Centenary. Edited by Arthur Sewell, Auckland University Through Whitcombe & Tombs Ltd. (Reviewed by CAROLINE WEBB) 1

“The authors of this book,” says Mr W. H. Cocker in a preface, “all of them associated with Auckland University College, have turned their telescopes upon Victorian England. What kind of civilisation was it that was brought to this country? What views did men then hold about the universe, what was their philosophy of life, what were their political instincts and theories, what were their literary traditions and tastes?” This is a bold and superfluous undertaking. In the 20 years since the great war enough literature has been produced about the Victorian era‘and its great figures to fill the library of a New Zealand University College. Much that the authors of this book have tried to do has been better done many times before. Had they set out to trace the influence and the development of Victorian ideas and institutions in the New Zealand setting, they would have written something far more useful. Lest this should sound unfriendly, let it be added that this is one of the best books the centennial has produced, that it contains much brilliance and provocation, that it summarises excellently some aspects of Victorian thought and social development, and that it is a stimulus to the sort of thinking for which the centennial ought to be the occasion. There has been enough and to spare of indiscriminate historical dredging. Nevertheless, it is perhaps true that “1840 and After” will be of interest to future generations, not as an analysis of Victorianism, but as a revelation of the capacities and the outlook of a group of New Zealand

University teachers in the year 1940. The authors, that is, will find their telescopes turnfed on themselves as representatives of the more intelligent members of their generation. Political Theory and Religion? The general planning and execution of the book call for two comments. One is that the editing is regrettably slovenly for a university production. The number of misprints is excessive; there is no uniform style in punctuation and capitalisiation; and at least once the same event is dated differently on successive pages. Another is that there are no essays on political theory or religion.. The omission of political theory is perhaps an oversight; the omission of religion is most significant. Victorian England cannot be properly understood by anyone unfamiliar with the main currents in its varied religious thought. The Victorians are freely accused /in the book of lack of “spirituality”; but since the authors have themselves ignored the religious life of the Victorians, and make no apology for ignoring it, they seem in effect to be accusing themselves. A Useful Return to J. S. Mill Six of the 11 essays, those on economic theory and organisation, law, colonies and colonisation, science and philosophy, education, and architecture are encyclopedic rather than analytic. All of them are remarkable achievements of condensation. Professor Belshaw and Mr Rodwell have succeeded in the seemingly impossible task of sketching impartially the development of the main schools of economic thought in England between 1840 and the present day; Professor Forder has written for laymen an account of progress in science which bears comparison with the work of the many famous popularisers of science who have emerged

in the last few years; Professor Stone has to his credit the even more remarkable achievement or unravelling the mysteries of English law; Professor Rutherford has written a concise and pointed essay on the theory and practice of British colonisation in the nineteenth century; Professor Fitt has related educational developments in England with those in New Zealand; and Professor Knight has striven, not very successfully it must be confessed, to evaluate the architectural achievements of the Victorians. Essays of this sort do not give much scope for originality or literary graces, which may be one of the reasons why the best essay in the book is Mr R. P. Anschutz’s “J. S. Mill: Philosopher of Victorianism.” Mr Anschutz has said something true and important about Mill which has not been said before, and through his study of Mill he reaches, upon the perplexities of the Victorians and of ourselves, certain general conclusions more profound than anything else in the book. Professor Sewell has written an introductory essay on Victorianism: this is superficial and inaccurate. But he handsomely makes amends with his later essay on “Literature and Society,” which contains, among other things, an excellent appraisal of Macaulay.