A WET SATURDAY AFTERNOON AND A JOURNAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14465, 3 September 1910, Page 1 (Supplement)

A WET SATURDAY AFTERNOON AND A JOURNAL.

BY SIR ROBERT STOUT. I.v a former paper of mino on " Reading," published in the columns of the Hkrai.d, I I pointed out that it is only by utilising our odd ten minutes that we can, if we have work to do, keep abreast of modern literature. Suppose one has a spare Saturday afternoon, and it is too wet to go into the open-air, how may one enjoy himself or herself? Bridge and billiards may both be suggested. 1 do not quarrel with cither. If cards aro played for amusement, with no money depending on the game, the amusement. is innocent, and is a- relief to the eyes, and the brain after mental or physical labour, and billiards, whose praise is so well sung in Professor Blackie's " Conduct of Life," may bo of service as a chango of occupation, and bo good exercise. In billiards also, the gambling spirit need not be invoked. But why not do some reading on a wet afternoon? I believe no man is doing his duty to himself, or to the society in which ho dwells, if he does not try to understand the forces and tendencies of the age, and it is only from reading that these can bo understood. Further, it is narrowing, and cramping a man if lie read only those books that have x bearing on, or deal with, his own trade, business, or profession. It is no relaxation if he is for ever specialising, and not looking at, and considering things foreign to thoso with which he has to deal in his avocation. A literary man should read science and one who has the scientific bias should acquaint himself with the humanities. In reading it is not a bad practico to take notes of what one reads. The taking of notes helps the memory, and makes one think of what ho has read. Following out this method ono Saturday afternoon lately 1 sat down to peruse the latest "Hibbort Journal "—the number for July this your — I made the following notes : — This journal is unique amongst English journals in that it is catholic in the widest sense. Its contributors belong to many creeds Anglicans, Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, .Methodists, Congregatioualists, Baptists, Mahomedans, Hindus, Agnostics, Unitarians are all permitted to write in its pages. Nor is it confined to theology, though that bulks most largely in its articles. It- deals with Sociology, with Philosophy, and with Literature. This July number is no exception to its former issues. It begins with an address (by one who writes under the name of " Pars Minimato English gentlemen on their duty to their country. It is an able and powerful address, worthy to be circulated broadcast throughout tho Empire. Its burden may be crystallised in the one sentence, towards the end of tho address, namely, "I only postulate that life is not a mero nightmare chaos, that something is worth while, and further that historyproves abundantly that the wise labours of the selfless pioneers, do bear actual immortal fruit." The other Sociological articles are three, all important, and all worth careful i perusal, Woman Suffrage," by Professor Childs ; " The Message of Anarchy," by Professor Jethro Brown, of Adelaide, South Australia; and " Is Punishment a Crime?'' by Dr. C. J. Whitby, who is well known as a progressivist in London. The article on "Woman Suffrage" is strongly in favour of that measure. The writer says: "Tho suffrage movement is a living reality, because of the attainment of political consciousness by the womanhood of the nation," and he considers that only good will flow from its granting. Professor Jethro Brown's article on " The Message of Anarchy " may be useful to those who think that anarchists are all members of the criminal class. His attitude may lie gauged by these paragraphs: Although the anarchist may be wrong in his remedy for existing social evils, he is fundamentally right in insisting upon the reality and gravity of these ills . . . and although he may be wrong in thinking that men can afford to dispense with the controlling influence of the State, he is fundamentally right in insisting upon the importance of self-government." . . . "When the ;• anarchist bids us to resist all forms of tyranny, and to think for ourselves, instead of taking our rule of life from tho State, or j public opinion, he is declaring a message of ; which our generation stands much in need," i Summarised it may be said there is evil in the world, and tho world is not to bo saved either by anarchy or by any organisation. There must bo individual salvation— there must be self-reliance. Tho other sociological article is that of Dr. Whitby on "Crime and Punishment." It is peculiarly interesting, in view of the fact that our Parliament has soon to discuss this important question. The aims of punishment are, it is said, threefold. 1. To satisfy the sense of injury of the offended party. 2. To reform the offender. 3. To deter others by fear from like offences. The first aim, which was the dominant aim of our ancestors, has dropped out of consideration. The other two remain, and must remain for all time, for tho fear of punishment must ever bo present till all men are reformed. It is the second aim that looms most largely in the present treatment of offenders against tho law. Dr. Whitby would have punishment, hut ho would have crime dealt with more like a disease than it is now. Ho is opposed to capital punishment as at present conducted, but lie does not say that the painless extinction of those who should never have been born," is not in some cases justifiable. He says, " I do not consider that society is bound" to maintain incorrigible criminals* or the worst kind of murderers in an existence that is useless to themselves, and dangerous to their fellow-men." The philosophical articles are: 1. "A Pluralistic Mystic," by Professor William James, of Harvard, the great Pragmatist, and whose death has just been cabled. It is a review of the contribution of Mr. Benjamin Paul Blood to' Philosophy. Mr. Blood has published no book, but he has written both prose and poetry for journals. Perhaps tho fact that Mr. Blood, like Professor James, has given up the "Absolute," has led to the article, for Blood sa; s, ''I think wo are through with " the whole" and "causa sui," and with the "negative unity " which assumes to identify each thing as being what it lacks of everything "else." It is clear that the " Absolute " has been kicked out through Mr. Blood's front door. The question is whether he has not brought it back again, through his back door of mysticism. This is what Locke is said to have done with "innate ideas." if the " Mystery," with a capital M, remains, may it not bo another phase of Hegel's "Absolute" or Spencer's Unknown." 2. The second article on Philosophy is Professor Louis P. More's "Physics and Metaphysics." It was long ago pointed out that Physics end in Metaphysics, for what is thought? What is the basic matter of the Universe? Is it Spirit? Will we ever know ? 3. Tho third philosophical article is a review' of. the work of one who is now considered the leading philosopher in France, Henri Bergson. A translation of his main works lias been, or is being, made bv a New Zealander, Mr. Pogson. His new point of view is that the mind is not as the Lockian school would have said, a " tabula rasa," on which material things are impressed, riotas tho Kantians would say, is it something that gives its constitution to things. He says that the evolution of life (see his L'Evolution Cicatrice) has " produced the intellect that gives its form to knowledge, and that the very same movement has produced the materiality which gives to things their unlimited power of being known." In the end, what does this mean but that spirit and matter, as they have been called, are both tho product of growth from the original electrons, or plasmic stuff, or any other phrase we may use to cover our ignorance. Considering tho discussion raised by Spencer and by his acrimonious critic, Dr. Ward, it is interesting to read Bergsori's proposed solution. There are two literary articles—"Mr. Bernard Shaw's Philosophy,"-by Professor A. K.

Rogers, and "The Comic," by John Jay Chapman, both interesting and both critical. The theological articles are also two. " Professor Harnack on Acts," by Professor Carl Clemen, and " Gains for Religious Thought in tho Last Generation," by the la to Professor Bowne. The questions raised ns to the Acts of tho Apostles amongst New Testament critics, aro three: 1. When was tho book written? 2. Who was its author? 3. Is it trustworthy history. Harnack places the date at A.D. 70. Professor Clemen thinks it was not written till after 93 or 94 A.D. 2. Harnack thinks Luke was the author. Professor Clemen does not think so. 3. As to the trustworthiness of the statements, Professor Clemen does not accept all its statements as reliable. 1. Professor Clemen says the Acts in ono passage is dependent upon Josephus's Archaeology, which appeared in 93 or 94. Three German professors and experts in New Testament criticism agree with Professor Clemen, viz., Wendt., Knopf, and Julicheo. The arguments of Professor Clemen—put under six heads• appear very strong. 2. Then us to the Luke authorship. Much is made by Harnack of the medical knowledge and medical language of Luke's gospel and tho Acts, in showing that the author was a medical man. If ho was not, the Lukian theory as to both the Gospel and the Acts fails. Was he then a medical man? Professor Clemen points out what former critics had emphasised, that there are two parts in the Acts, the " I " section and tho "We" section. The "We" portion is Acts 16, 10-17; 20, 5-15; 21, 1-18 27, 1-28, 16. The "We" portion may have been copied from another book, or it "may be the story or journal of an actual companion of Paul. Take verse 10, of the 16th chapter. " And after wo had seen the vision, immediately wo endeavoured to go into Macedonia," etc. Did tho person who wrote tho "We" portion write the other part of the Acts? Professor Clemen points out many things to show that there must have been two authors. Here is one. In the 10th verso of chapter 21, Agabus is introduced as j if ho were unknown to the readers of the Acts. The verse says :—"And as we tarried many days there came down from Judaea a, certain prophet, named Agabus." Could this have been written by the same writer, who had said in verse 28, chapter 11, "and thero stood up one of them "named Agabus," etc. To meet this objection Harnack says tho former passage was spurious. Professor Clemen urges that no medical mail could lyive written the third Gospel, nor tho Acts, and he gives many reasons. Perhaps tho readers of the journal will consider tho strongest point of Professor Clemen's criticism to be the difference in tho Acts, as to the attitude to the sacraments, in tho Synoptics and the Acts, and contrary also to what appears in writings deemed to be Paul's. Baptism has become a sacrament in the Acts (see chapters 2 v. 38, 22 v. 16. It- is found in the fourth Gospel (see Chapter 3 v. 5. and chapter 13 v. 8, but this was not the primitive belief. Sacerdotalism grew in tho Apostolic times, and it has grown since. The article will be interesting to those who have followed tho varying views of the authorship of the Acts. In tho "Encyclopaedia Biblica" Professor Schmiedel, of Zurich, said. " It is impossible to regard Luke with any certainty as the writer even of tho 'We'portion of the Acts, not to speak of the whole Book of Acts or of the third Gospel." Then in Hastings's "Dictionary of the Bible" the Rev. A. C. Headlanm, an Anglican clergyman and scholar, said : " Tho third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles are the work of the same person, and all tradition and argument suggest that the author was St. Luke, the companion of St. Paul." The Rev. Dr. Hastings has edited another dictionary—" Tho Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels," and in this later book Professor Weiss, of Marburg, says : ' Wo do not know the name of the author of the book for St. Luke or some other disciple of St. Paul did not compose it, but merely supplied valuable materials for its composition." He also says it cannot have been written before tho end of the first century. This nearly agrees with what is stated about the Acts in the article in the New Testament, in tho "Jewish Cyclopedia." It looks peculiar to see Dr. Hastings admitting such diverse views in the two dictionaries lie has edited, but it may be that recent criticism has come round to the view Professor Weiss declares. I may add that Professor Wrede, in his little book, " Tho Origin of the New Testament," accepts tho Lukian authorship, but says much of the " I ' section is legendary. "'The Rev. John Naylor, in the October number of tho Journal of 1909 upheld the Lukian theory. '1 he article of the late Professor Bowne is to show that religion has gained bv the progress of science, and that the scientific doctrines of the conservation of energy, of tho correlation of the physical forces, and of evolution, though they have changed many views, have left religion to humanity. In addition to the articles referred to there are " Discussions," that is, replies to previous articles, "Reviews," and a well compiled catalogue of recent books and articles, invaluable to those who wish to keep abreast of the current literature dealing with the higher things of life. Tlip " Discussions " deal with Christianity in the Socialist state, and Pychical Research. The "Reviews" contain criticisms on Euekvn's "Problem of Human Lne;" Professor James s newest book on Pragmatism, The Meaning of Truth,' Professor Windelband's essays or lectures on German Philosophy in the 19th century; "National and Social Morals," by Professor Carveth Read; "History, Authority, and Theology," ''- v A. c. Lead lam ; "Authority in Religion," by ,J. H. Leckie ; "Orders and Unity," by Bishop Gore; and "The Cults of the Greek States," by Farnell. The Review contains 232 pages of matter. Considering tho variety and catholicity of its contents, the ability of its contributors, and its size, it is tho cheapest review published in the English language, for its publishers \\ illiams and Norgate, 14, Henrietta-street Covent Gardens, London, W.C., send its four numbers per year for 10s post free.