NOTES 105 



planted by really effective trisyllabic feet. He protested against the habit 

 of ignoring the rhythm when reading verse, indulged in so much by our 

 alleged elocutionists of to-day. In conclusion he said that — 



The personal note, the wandering strain, the song of the bird in the bush, 

 naturaUsm, tricks of style, attempts at originality, and other shibboleths of 

 literary criticism are insignificant. To us poetry is not a wandering strain, 

 but a record, to be engraved on the adamant of human memory — because 

 it is a record. To us, poetry has no fashion, no tricks, no style, for it is and 

 must be written to-day as it was written thousands of years ago when the 

 writer of Job heard the morning stars singing together and Homer created 

 for the guidance of men those two great parables of Strength and of Wisdom. 

 Things that have fashion, tricks, and style are really only journalism. Poetry 

 has no new words, no new devices, not even new images : the only new thing 

 about her is the new experience which she has to record in the archives of 

 the human race. Science is the Differential Calculus of the mind — that which 

 divides, subdivides, and analyses : poetry is the Integral Calculus of the 

 mind — that which sums up. Without this summary science is an almanack, 

 philosophy an opinion, literature a bulletin, history a vast acreage of tomb- 

 stones, the human race a race of ants in the earth. But in order to engrave 

 her great integration for ever upon the memory of man, poetry employs one 

 great device — call it what you will, music, art, design. Its real name is 

 Beauty — that is. Perfection. Poetry is the perfected utterance of the human 

 spirit. Plato defined it as the utterance of the gods ; but the aim of our 

 philosophy is the godhood of man. 



Two Opinions on Prohibition of Alcohol 



At the Station of Experimental Evolution of the Carnegie Institute of 

 Washington, several workers on the problem of the effects of alcoholisation on 

 certain mammals have concluded that there is a deleterious influence of alco- 

 holism on even remote progeny. This matter has been debated the world 

 over for several decades, and the American observers have finally decided 

 that alcohol is injurious both to the individual and to his future offspring. We 

 agree fully that over-indulgence in all alcoholic stimulants may be injurious, 

 but we cannot believe that such measures as have been taken in America with 

 regard to alcoholic drinks are either to be welcomed or necessary in this 

 country. 



Easter 



On April 27 Lord Desborough moved the second reading of his Bill for 

 fixing Easter. He is to be warmly congratulated on the efforts which he has 

 made in this direction, as the absence of a fixed date for the Easter holidays 

 is an unmitigated nuisance to the whole public (see our last number on Our 

 Holiday System). The Bill seems to have been received with very general 

 approval in the House of Lords, and what opposition there was to it was based 

 simply upon points which the public think are of very small importance, such 

 as the sacerdotal difiiculties. The Government expressed a wish to shelve 

 the matter until a number of commercial, business, and religious bodies 

 signified their unanimous approval of it. This argument is always extremely 

 popular with Government Departments, because they know well enough that 

 no unanimity can ever be obtained on any subject from a large number of 

 different institutions, and moreover, because no individual is ever able to 

 collect so many opinions on any new proposal. Human beings are much like 

 cows in a field, when one tries to drive them through a gate : while some are 

 going out, others return, and, while some return, others go out ! But there is 

 this difference : that, whereas all the cows are in one field, all the religious and 



