the essays
of Prof. Clifford. They are so clear, so logical that they are
poetic. Herbert Spencer is not simply instructive, he is charming.
He is full of true imagination. He is not the slave of imagination.
Imagination is his servant. Huxley wrote like a trained swordsman.
His thrusts were never parried. He had superb courage. He never
apologized for having an opinion. There was never on his soul the
stain of evasion. He was as candid as the truth. Haeckel is a
great writer because he reveres a fact, and would not for his life
deny or misinterpret one. He tells what he knows with the candor
of a child and defends his conclusions like a scientist, a philosopher.
He stands next to Darwin.

Coming back to fiction and poetry, I have great admiration for
Edgar Fawcett. There is in his poetry thought, beauty and philosophy.
He has the courage of his thought. He knows our language, the
energy of verbs, the color of adjectives. He is in the highest
sense an artist.

_Question_. What do you think of Hall Caine's recent efforts to
bring about a closer union between the stage and pulpit?

_Answer_. Of course, I am not certain as to the intentions of Mr.
Caine. I saw "The Christian," and it did not seem to me that the
author was trying to catch the clergy.

There is certainly nothing in the play calculated to please the
pulpit. There is a clergyman who is pious and heartless. John
Storm is the only Christian, and he is crazy. When Glory accepts
him at last, you not only feel, but you know she has acted the
fool. The lord in the piece is a dog, and the real gentleman is
the chap that runs the music hall. How the play can please the
pulpit I do not see. Storm's whole career is a failure. His
followers turn on him like wild beasts. His religion is a divine
and diabolical dream. With him murder is one of the means of
salvation. Mr. Caine has struck Christianity a stinging blow
between the eyes. He has put two preachers on the stage, one a
heartless hypocrite and the other a madman. Certainly I am not
prejudiced in favor of Christianity, and yet I enjoyed the play.
If Mr. Caine says he is trying to bring the stage and the pulpit
together, then he is a humorist, with the humor of Rabelais.

_Question_. What do recent exhibitions in this city, of scenes
from the life of Christ, indicate with regard to the tendencies of
modern art?

_Answer_. Nothing. Some artists love the sombre, the melancholy,