LITERARY COLUMN.

Evening Post, Volume LXVI, Issue 136, 5 December 1903, Page 11

LITERARY COLUMN.

NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS. "Tho Nazarcne: A Study of a Man." By Arthur Aduuis. London! Phillip Wellby. Our readers have already lvxd someaccount of Mr. Adams's latest book from our London correspondent, who received an advance copy from tho publisher. In this work the author has made an attempt to deal seriously with a great subject. His poem,, though brief, is ambitious, and even if it cannot be described as greatly successful, ' abounds in passages of great beauty. Tho subject chosen is ono in which men of the highest literary genius havo either failed' or achieved a very qualified success. Th© line the New Zealand author has taken might almost bo inform! from tho title of tho book, especially when it is iound to be supplemented with the motto : "Is not this the Carpenter's. Son?" In the "Prelude," however, tho author defines his position: "I will not havo liis human story dimmed And shadowed over by his divinity. Ho was of us, all hunuin, brother, friend ; He strove, was vanquished, strove and won — a Man. 'About his path no cloud of angels hung, Legions and legions watching him . . . ' ... at tho end This is his chief est glory — that he rose No higher than the cross wo built for him! His body was not wrapt in splendour up, But somewhere with us lies, his ashes sealed In some long-fallen tomb. . . . 0 that tho world might know him as he was— Ono of our human family, Mary's Son !" In tho "Prologuo" he glances at another aspect: "Of him who lived and died unseen, unmarked By the grvnt world seething outside his door, Yet to whose words a new self-conscious world Throbs liko a pulse in unison ! — Of him Who to bis brief lifo chained eternal Time, And stands the mark wo measuro from, tho goal * Where wo aspire; who for this ingrate race Thrust back the margin and the fringe of Death, And Hooded us with immortality!" It is unnecessary to discuss the poet's theology — he is at least as orthodox »b John Milton, whoso classic work, though not mid now n» it used to be, hut* hud considerable influence in shaping Christian thought. But tho reuder will not fail to noto that our author lightens his bark at tho outset by throwing overboard, as a preliminary, the larger portion of the documents from which his material is taken. Tho poem proper I—or,1 — or, more correctly, series of poems, for the book is a group of more or less fragmentary sketches, each independent of tho rest — deals one by ono with certain people associated with tho lifo and work of the Christ. It is a gallery of character-studies, in fact— tho Master being introduced casually, and, as a rule, only lightly indicated. Thero aro six of theso sketches, devoted ■ respectively to Mary the Mother, John the Baptist, Judas, "Sirach" (the name given by the author to the unknown young man who, leaving his garment, fled naked from tho Garden of Octlisemane), Pilate, and Mary of Magdaln. Thus the author has wido scope for his imagination, and wo find passage afWr pnssago of real poetic power and exquisite expression, illumined with genuine poetic genius. Mr. Adattis's task, notwithstanding the freedom gained by tho scheme of his book, presented difficulties of no ordinary kind, and tho result is a noticeable unevenness. From all points wo regard the '

first of the.<» sketches, "Mary tho Mother," us tho finest and truest of all. It is brief — only seventy-two lino* — but full of MigijeMioii. Wo recognise- tho woman whose- picture tho evangelist Luko has limned so tenderly. It is as her fcon, and .scarcely in any other light, that feho regards "The Njiz,hv/io." Hi« mission, hi« Kingdom, oven hia Mwainlwliip — theso aro id<viA sho fails and scarcely attempts to grasp j but tin* sword begins to pierco her heart when his call comes and takes him from her: "Yet he must go, for in his vibrant heart Echoed the deep call of humanity. . . . . . In his simple majesty of aoul, Suffused with a fierce love for all mankind, Sho held one part — no more; and she would havo The whole of love — no leas! And as ehe caw Him drift from her mean narrow life and merge Impalpably in the pervading world, His great eyes dreaming on the dretent goul, She wept." Then follows a beautiful parenthetic <uissnge, in which with genuine poetic inaight the author sots forth how, though in less degreo, tho experience of Mary in Wuu respect is the common lot of maternity i "Ah ! mothers, mothers, still your tears Are falling, falling aa your sons fare forth, But you must stay und watch them fade from you^ And know they may remember, but no more Return !" Tho second poem, "John tho Baptist," ia, ns regards the character t of the prophet, strongly conceived. John is lying in prison, his illusions are being dispelled, and doubts have taken possession of htm. He had proclaimed the coming of One who should cleanse tho threshing-floor, gather the wheat, and burn the chulT with inextinguishable fire ; but where was tho fulfilment? Himself apparently forgotten, . . . "Jolmimd sent disciples to this man, And they had found him feasting! Was thi.s he, • The venger and the wiclder of the flail T The great M<*&iuh silting in the midst Of plenty and of pleasure — faces lit With gladnero, prattle of happy childish tongues?" But the suggestion that Herodias had been cuamoimxl of the atom ascetic clod in camel's hair, and thut her fury was due to his having spurned her advances, weakens the effect. Tho caaso assigned by tho evangelist is adequate, and evils far better the respective characters concerned. The vision at the Baptism, which so powerfully impressed John and the assembled company, becomes in Mr Adams's Ijook a very ordinary phenomenon s "Tho shimmering glory of tho level West On Jesus draped a mantle, and the sky Was like a Uunbent halo to his head, His long fair tre&svs touched as if wnu firo!" "Judas" is not convincing, and seems to be as remote from the real man as was tho medifoval conception of the betrayer. Juda»— aho very name is suggestive^ — tho typical Jew of tho unspiritual kind, whose avarice led him first to embezzlement and thenco to crimo that ho onco would hiivo regarded with horror — yet not wholly lost to better thing**, as his utter self-loathing showed at tho last — is ono of tho most powertully suggested characters in the Scriptures. Mr. Adams strips him of evory personal characteristic by which wo knew him, and his present mentis not likoly to meet with much acceptance. Tho fa'ith'.css apoatlo in the poom hiis a lovo for the Master so all-consuming that he cannot bear to think that any other 1 is preferred, and jealousy of John sour* his whole nature. By the betrayal he is persuaded ho will force the Master's hand, bring about an Immediate assertion of supernatural authority, and incidentally cover himself with glory. This latter theory in various forms has found considerable acceptance in late years, and is not impossible, but

in any cano, the crime of Judas, like all crimo, had its root in eolf-love. In tho lini'fl : "Yet Jesuit onco had lifted him nbovo Tho other brethien, crowned him with the purao 7 ' — wo find a not uncommon error. Thorp arc many indications that tho Ma.stcr left all mich matters entirely to tho Twelve. Naturally, they appointed a» treasurer the one who had tho shrewdest eyo to business. . "Gethsemano" is like the rest, a personal skotch. In the nameless disciple, tho poet finds a subject on which he is ot liberty to dilate without collision with the text, and tho conversion of "Sirach," and his revulsion of feeling when he Bees tho Teacher arrested and bound as "a common culprit," are well conceived. "Pilate" takes tho form of a letter from tho Roman procurator to a philosophic friend who had asked for authentic particulars of tho life and doctrine of the cruciQed teacher, for whose wisdom he has a great reepect. The epistle, though somewhat diffuse, is realistic, and is very much what tho arrogant and sceptical governor might be supposed to have written to a confidential friend. In "Mary of Mngdala," tho instincts of tho novelist assert themselves, and tho poem suffers accordingly. Mary cherishes a secret and unmistakably earthly affection for the Master, which finds expression when hjs body is taken from the crass: "Nay, thus I conquer; I can kias him now, Not pnesionately, but with a deeper love Than passion dreams." That any skotch of "Tho Nascarene" should bo inadequate- was inevitable j but tho author has imposed upon himself needless limitations. Tho "Study, of a Man" is not a picture of tho Mon tho world has striven to understand for nearly two thousand, years ; nor do wo see how it can help tho study when the central motive of tho Lifo is eliminated. Tho figure is rather tliat of the Gautama Buddha than the Christ. Ho is reprobated as tilled with an unsatisfied craving for the personal affection which, as a matter of fact, was lavished on him by all who knew him well, He has «v intense sympathy for tho vrrottgs and sufferings of Humanity, but of his grief over the sins of mankind, of his offers of forgivencw, of that consuming lore for the souls of men which we find reflected in tho lives of men liko Francis Xftvier, Carey, and Wesley — there is no trace, and the discourse which makes a convert of Sirach is only a aerie* of vague platitudes of the "thcosophic" order. With nil its beauties, tho book has notable defects. Even from the human »kl© alone, it ivould surely havo bwm possible to act forth un ideal of . greater strength and dignity. Tho Christ of tho Agnostic has not only no remedy for the world's profoundes't ilk, but serins unablo to inspire the highwt art. Yet it must not be forgotten tltat among tho Twelve who were nearest tho Master tlwro was one Agnostic, oud it w«« from hb lips that thero came in tho end an unqualified confession that the human waa also divine. Mr. Admrw's book is, wo believe, obtainable at all booksellers'.