PORTRAIT OF A GENIUS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23014, 17 October 1936, Page 4

PORTRAIT OF A GENIUS

] A MEMOIR OF A. R. GRACE , j. • j "A. R. Oragc; A' Memoir.” By Philip Mairet. London: Dent. 12s Gd. i .. j There arc porlaits and portraits as fall frequenters of art galleries are well •' aware;, some, - unexceptionable in form and hue,' vve pass with scarce a glance, I others we stay'with long; they, hold j us; we return to them many a time and oft, and always,with fresh interest and delight, for the men,-the women look | from the canvas; form, hue, texture I are but means to,, the. one end, the i revelation of the sifters’ very selves. ; This book of Mr, Mairet’s ‘is such a j portrait.- .Called modestly a memoir, I not a “.Life,” it leaves those who, know i Orage happy ' in rich renewal of ac- ' quaintance, and makes the reader to I whom Orage was not known an easy I,prey to the fascination of his character. Of him we may use the term “genius” with cool deliberation; there was in Orage something that is Very far from common in our nature, a consciousness of power together with no least desire to use it for self-aggrand-isement. Occultists tells-us that among [ the various classes .which make up humanity is one called, technically, '“Servers”; to this a member may be fully conscious of belonging, but may belong, without clear knowledge of the '.fact in -the waking world; Orage, it. may be suggested, whether he knew or, ■did 'hot know, was of this .class. He was bptri /to serve; he lived to serve; hp sought neither fame nor riches, though , both wer6 well within his, reach; he sought 'to influence the minds’ and hearts of those whose work in the world, whose station, made leadership a possibility if not a duty already laid upon them; his mind was of what has been termed the staminate order; its very purpose was the fertilising of the minds of others. Mr Mairet, personally, acquainted with Orage, but in his later years, has; with the help of those Who knew him longer, by means of conversations, publications, letters —many of these last of sacred intimacy—gathered ,a clear conception of the man; and has set forth clearly, quietly, straightforwardly the story of his life, and shown the steady greatening of. that imperii ' bus inner driv'ff which .swept him on; from, one stage to another 'of,his lifebourse. Chfesterton, in an obituary notice, reprinted here as-preface, says .that Orage, ‘‘ like W. B. Yeats, to whom he had some resemblance, originally stemmed out of the more intelligent and independent growths of a sort-of ■theosophicaT thought.” -The expression ■“ stemmed out ” -is admirably. right; it indicates that in that “sort of theosophical thought" the roots of these two men of note lay hidden. Of Orage beyond question that is true; he brought, with him' from ,the past a sense of the real behind the dream, and a burning desire to' reach it. . It was the quest of that which “ never ceaseth to be” which led: him into phase on phase of the path of action, that qf' the: three. ways to. the’ Height which he ihtuitive}y--felt tnat he must follow: - led him' to "that' otherwise inexplicable submission Lto the drastic training of Gurdjieff at Fontainebleau, through it, and past, it into a , fullness of living all his-own:. His early.years, as elementary school teacher, on a pittance; ’his meeting 1 with congenial friends; his interest in social evolution, and very specially in guild socialism: his venture into. journalism, and editorship of the New Age, surrounded by a galaxy of brilliant men— Shaw, Chesterton, Belloc, Wells, Havelock, ElliS, - : Arnold Bennett, Galsworthy; his resignation' and; departure to Gurdjieff’s school at Fontainebleau; • his work for Gurdjieff in the United, Statbs;, his gradual ..emergence from its straitness with added strength, from the experience; 'finally his return to London in the zenith of his power, and the launching of that distinguished periodical, the New English Weekly —we follow all; in Mr , Mairet’s memoir. We see the Douglas gospel of economic' liberty,' in which Orage discerned the way- to actualization of his social dreams, spreading from land to land, winning at last even in sceptical England the approval of the 8.8. C. as a Subject’for a broadcast; and,. 'profoundly moved, we see our genius called home on the very night after his . visit to the studio—profoundly moved,-mot grieved: for who would grudge a man refreshment after labour well and truly carried through? X.