296 



The Reviews Reviewed. 



THE HIBBERT JOURNAL AND ITS EDITOR. 



I'HE most notable achievement in the domain of 

 serious periodical literature that has occurred in the 

 last twenty years has been the creation of the Hibhcrt 

 fourual. In its way it is one of the landmarks of 

 literary history. It ranks with the creation of the 

 Edinburgh Review and the founding of the Revue des 

 Deux Mondes. If anyone had a.sked me or any 

 other editor of periodical literature in the year 

 1899 whether it was possible to ^L•(ure a paying 

 circulation for a half-crown quarter!)- clc^■oted to 

 religion, theology, and 

 philosophy, the answer 

 would have been em- 

 phatically in the negative. 

 At that time' the public 

 seemed to have lost its 

 appetite for serious read- 

 ing. High thinking had 

 gone out of fashion in the 

 days immediately preced- 

 ing the Boer War. The 

 public mind which was 

 not absorbed in the ac- 

 quisition of territory and 

 the exploiting of gold 

 mines was intent upon 

 the reform of the mate- 

 rial conditions of the life 

 of the poor. It was a 

 materialistic age, which 

 abhorred metaphysics, and 

 regarded theological 

 speculation with the same 

 pitying contempt that we 

 look upon the ingenious 

 calculations of mediaeval 

 schoolmen as to how many 

 angels could stand on the 

 point of a needle. Never- 

 theless, it was just at that 

 bad, black Philistine time 

 that certain men, of whom 

 L. P. Jacks was one, arose 

 and conceived the daring 

 idea that there might be a 



remnant of thinkers who would, if the opportunity 

 were offered, support a journal exilusi\cl)- dexotcd to 

 the high matters of the mind. 'I his daring optimist 

 lives in Oxford of all pkucs in the world. His name, 

 even to this day, is hardly known to the multiludc, 

 although he has successfully accomplished one of 

 the miracles of the time. This man, then only forty 

 >cars of age, is a professor in Manchester College, 

 Oxford. When full of his great idea he went to the 

 Ilibbert Trustees and asked for their support in his 

 novel venture. 1 he Trustees listened to him with 

 sympathy for his ideal, but with a not unnatuial 



rhct'grjph /y-] 



Mr. L. P. Jacks. 



Editor of llic Hihhrl yciiniaj. 



doubt born of their mature experience. After he 

 had finished setting forth his conception of what 

 a Hibbert Journal ought to be and what a Hibbcrt 

 Journal might accomplish, a Trustee asked him 

 how many copies of such a high-class, religious, 

 metaphysical, philosophical journal, published at 

 half-a-crow n a quarter, did he think he would be able to 

 sell ? The promoter of the scheme, taking his courage 

 in both hands. 1 oldly replied that if he were fortunate 

 he expected b.e would ha\e a sale of seven hundred 

 copies per quarter! "Se\en hundred!" exclain.cd 



the Man of Experiencetl 

 Wisdom. " Seven hun- 

 dred ! You will be lucky, 

 indeed, if you can .sell 

 three hundred." Neverthe- 

 less the Trustees showed 

 their courage and fore- 

 sight by generously back- 

 ing up the enterprise. 



In such discouraKinjr 

 atmosphere as of a wintrv 

 frost the Hibbert Journal 

 was born. To the amaze- 

 ment of everyone it was 

 <liscovered that, to use 

 the cant phrase, it filled 

 a long-felt want. There 

 was for a metaphysical, 

 philosophical, religious 

 re\'iew a public that was 

 counted not by hundreds 

 Imt by thousands. It was 

 a success, and a paying 

 success, from the first. 

 When at the clo.se of last 

 year the decennial number 

 was issued it had secured 

 a circulation of about 

 10,000 copies. The de- 

 cennial number went up 

 to 12.000, and the Ilihbcrl 

 Journal is still " going 

 strong." 



So phenomenal a ?iic 

 cess is due to the editor, 

 who first of all divined the fact that even in the midst 

 of this materialistic generation there was a faithful 

 remnant which had not bowed the knee to Baal, and 

 who had the courage, the persistence, and the skill to 

 carry out without flinching his own conception of 

 what the Hibbert Journal ought to be. In his hands 

 the HiHxrl Journal became the arena in which all 

 the doughty gladiators of modern thought were free 

 to do battle in their own way for their own ideas. 

 'I here was nothing topical about the Hibbert JournaL 

 Anything less "palpitating with actuality" could 

 hardly le conceived. It was to the bookstall purchaser 



[lU.'iolt ami Fiy. 



