Communications

...The genius of Walter Reed enabled him to discover the cause of the transmission of yellow fever...

...It is the resulting lack of style that has made conscientious architects look for a more sincere and honest mode of expression...

...But if they continue to give little attention to it— that would be to fail in a most important duty...

...Pick up a first-class text in any of the sciences, and run through the bibliography...

...In the first chapter there is a list of about a hundred and twenty men who participated in the investigation...

...It is in the oneness of inspiration that is found the essence and unity of all style whose interest is in the diversity of personalities contributing to it, and its derivations due to the climate, tradition, and environment of the locality, successfully guided by the principles outlined by Mr...

...STYLE IN ARCHITECTURE Fort Augustus, Scotland...

...But would it be a smaller service to develop one man whose discoveries would enable the medical profession to triumph over one disease for all time...

...There is no reason to believe that 500 years ago men were less intelligent than they are now...

...they alone are untouched by the modern tide of infidelity...

...They drink in what the teacher presents to them and are able to repeat it at the time of the examination...

...In a word, the educated man has learned to think for himself...

...but in any case he has added to the sum of human knowledge, and mankind is his debtor...

...And if, by the kindly uplifting of the spirit, the rhymester did at times rise to real poetry, then there would come forth a hymn to be sung in churches...

...their faculties have been overworked...

...In the following March [still quoting Bishop Russell, page 274] Lord Baltimore regained the government of his province...

...To be a scientist," says Gottlieb in Arrowsmith, "is like being a Goethe...

...There is little room for criticism about the present state of our higher education...

...It is more than that...

...Byrne...

...There is nothing, however, to show that the Catholics of Maryland ever manifested any desire to exclude the people of any religion...

...Paul Hanly Furfey...

...I have been unable to find one reference to any religious ordinance or any other act of the Calverts indicating a desire on their part to extend religious toleration to the Jews...

...So, today, no matter how gifted a young man may be he will never do first-class work unless the best modern methods and knowledge are made available to him...

...It is the material expression of religion...

...TO the Editor:—I should like to add a word about style to what already has been said by Mr...

...It is true, indeed, that the Act of 1649, which as we have seen, was a compromise between the liberal Catholic policy in force during the first fifteen years of the colony's existence and the Puritan intolerance which then began to exhibit its power in the province, did exclude Unitarians and Jews...

...One Jacob, or John, Lumbrozo, a Jewish physician, had been prosecuted for blasphemy in denying the tenets of the Christian faith (the informant against him was a Quaker...

...The most sincere and heroic effort made by modern artists, in a determination to offer their all to Almighty God, in an effort to spiritualize ecclesiastical arts, has been made by the late Desiderius Lentz, and his associate, Gabriel...

...The ability to do research work is innate...

...that our professors would be the outstanding authorities on classical archaeology, on comparative philology, and the teaching of the classics...

...and set free by amnesty on the proclamation of Richard Cromwell as Protector...

...It would be eminently unfair not to give the other side as well...

...and that the best critical texts would be edited in our institutions of learning...

...that was inevitable...

...While our colleges, then, many be weak in scientific work, we might reasonably expect that they would be the leading centres of classical scholarship...

...On the other hand, their competitors have often been highly-endowed institutions, whose well-paid professors have had plenty of time for research...

...This will suffice for commercial work, but the resulting style will be as varied as the personalities expressing them, to say nothing of the great variety of commercial needs...

...it would be an aid in many an hour of temptation, and a beacon light on many a dark day...

...John F. Wallace...

...In ecclesiastical architecture it is the characteristic mode of expression which makes architecture play the same part to religion as liturgy does to doctrine and dogma...

...In the rich and beautiful liturgy of the Church (particularly as followed faithfully by the Benedictine order) we have the outward expression of the sublime teachings of the Church as an inspiration...

...Byrne for his willingness to face this problem squarely as well as Mr...

...When will the apt manipulator of verses and inventor of rhymes arise who will set forth the Catechism in rhyme...

...But there is very much room for criticism if we sit back in smug self-satisfaction and regard present conditions as ideal...

...Notwithstanding the law of 1649, the Catholic Proprietory gave the full rights of citizenship to Lumbrozo, and furthermore granted him the privilege to trade...

...Cram and Mr...

...The same fault is more or less true of modern church work under our present system...

...The Toleration Act of 1649 makes express provision for religious toleration of those who believe in Jesus Christ...

...Clearly this is not true today...

...But this innate ability will never function unless it is given the proper environment...

...For the artist there must always be the spur of the desire for personal expression...

...The editorial refers glowingly to Lord Baltimore's humane action in attacking religious intolerance in Maryland...

...The project was a countrywide undertaking and these men are presumably the men best qualified to give expert advice...

...The first plane is represented by students who merely acquire information...

...it is born in you...

...Pick up a scientific journal...

...This is a good point upon which to examine our consciences...

...The trained mind is not content with mere assimilation of facts...

...This seems to limit the use of the word to religious work only, but since all styles have in the past centered primarily around religious expression, it simplifies matters to consider it upon the basis from which it developed...

...Go to the conventions of a learned society...

...Byrne has turned to the principles which govern style, but they do not make or create it...

...Splendid imitations for every beauty of building material and expert craftsmanship have been reproduced economically in an effort to give the same richness of devotion to the modern work as exists in the original...

...Then the spur of personal expression, the elimination of pecuniary considerations, and the other suggestions, which are made by both men, may follow...

...The Editors...

...He has a flair for research...

...will you find a fair proportion of our men among the authors quoted there...

...Byrne speaks...

...It was these first two men mentioned, who, by their labors, revived in Europe today interest in producing a spiritual expression in the art of the Church...

...February 3, 1926 THE COMMONWEAL 357 It is true that in the styles of the great works of the past are still expressed unchanging Catholic truths, but as man's comprehension of these increases, it may be reflected in a gradual stylistic development in the arts, if they are representative (which they are not today) of the inspiration of the Church...

...It is a duty of the college to see that these very promising young men are not denied the opportunity to do original work...

...For our colleges have usually favored the humanistic, rather than the purely scientific studies...

...The genius of Banting produced a cure for diabetes...

...Or, more concretely, do our colleges and universities offer facilities for research work comparable to those offered by other institutions...

...This purpose they may accomplish by turning out large numbers of averagely educated men who will constitute in the community a real force on the side of revealed religion and Holy Church...

...A SUGGESTION TO POETS Washington, D. C. TO the Editor:—The following quotation from An Old Man's Jottings, by Father Joseph Rickaby, S.J., may be of interest to your readers: "The Arians, Newman tells us, put their heresy into verses, and got their people to sing them, which they found an efficient instrument of propaganda...

...but there were no Millikans nor Bohrs in those days, the reason being, of course, that scientific methods and scientific knowledge were not sufficiently developed...

...Cram's defense of the traditional solution, which together, offer much for the solution of this problem in the cloisters of a religious order...

...it criticizes them in the light of a broad knowledge...

...Our American Catholic colleges have given very little attention to research in the past...

...It is one important duty of a college to see to it that its students advance to this stage before graduation...

...But this is not the full duty of the college...

...This has a very obvious application to the Catholic college...

...Such versified doctrine, learned in childhood, would stay in the mind for life...

...Efforts to create a new style are futile, although they may be a stimulus to get at the root of the trouble through analysis...

...How much damage to souls would have been averted if the facts underlying the 356 THE COMMONWEAL February 3, 1926 theory of evolution had been presented to the world by a devout Catholic like Pasteur instead of an agnostic like Darwin...

...Byrne...

...Wallace will find the question he raises taken up in Bishop Russell's Maryland, Land of Sanctuary, page 271: "It has often been asserted that Jews were excluded from the Land of Sanctuary...

...It is a means, not an end—an effect, not a cause...

...But perfect imitations continue to be perfect deceptions, and cannot be used for a Catholic church which teaches that the end does not justify the means...

...The attitude of the Calverts to this question may be best gathered from their conduct after the Puritan interregnum had come to an end, and when their proprietary rights had been restored to them...

...It seems that in the great periods of the past, style itself was of secondary importance, and that the designers were so filled with the inspiration of that which they were trying to express* that a living style could not help but result in embodying the inspiration...

...A n A Benedictine...

...I look in vain for the name of a single Catholic institution...

...But would it not be an equally great, possibly a greater, service to turn out occasional men capable of original work...

...What wonder, then, if our scholarship has suffered somewhat...

...After making a few exceptions one is compelled to answer such questions in the negative...

...The faculty of a medical school feel that they are doing a service to humanity by training a large number of good, average physicians...

...The general report of the classical investigation of the American Classical league lies before me as I write...

...It is true that "the form of a building is determined by necessity, and necessity is created by habits of living," although it would be false should one draw the conclusion that style is the result of these materialistic factors...

...The architect designing hotels and office buildings must make style of primary importance to suit the whim or taste of the client, and it at once becomes a superficial and external beauty...

...a thousand ordinary men would never have discovered it...

...In 1664 we find Lumbrozo acting on a jury...

...This is the necessary preliminary stage...

...The writer says "our" advisedly, being himself on the faculty of a Catholic institution...

...Of course, this is only one side of the case...

...There is no instance, prior to 1649, of any Jew having asked for admission to the colony, and of having been refused...

...We do not want a poet, but a patient plodding man, who will make this task the occupation of his leisure for at least three years, composing, correcting, canceling, rewriting, and thinking the matter out, until at length he gives us, and gives our boys and girls, the truths of the Faith accurately expressed, good theology, yet simple and telling and concise and rhyming...

...The real tragedy would be for us to fall in love with our status quo...

...Does not the solution, after all, lie with the first few men who are willing to make this sacrifice...

...His contributions to the sum of what is known may be comparatively unimportant or he may rival the superlative genius of a Gauss, a Newton, a Copernicus...

...I admire Mr...

...THE ARK AND THE DOVE Buffalo, N. Y. TO the Editor:—In the issue of The Commonweal of January 6 there appeared an editorial entitled The Ark and the Dove...

...This editorial made a plea for historical accuracy and emphasized the well known fact that in some cases historians have consciously perverted the truth and in other instances have suppressed facts in favor of some race, class, or religion...

...a thousand ordinary physicians would not have found it...

...His restless intellect is impatient with the present bounds of human knowledge...

...it would also exclude many Protestant sects who do not believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ...

...But the inspiration for expression must be greater than a glorified self, seeking its unity and character above the individual, to produce a true style in the art of the Church, and that inspiration is our religion, fully felt, only when we sacrifice every worldly consideration to the ideal, the goal we wish to attain...

...What has been or will be accomplished as a result of their example is difficult to say...

...These factors are purely materialistic, and anybody who knows the great monuments to which he refers, knows that their style is distinctly not materialistic However, every faithful effort to imitate their virtue always shows a lack of that subtle spirituality in the result...

...The greatest critics of the Beuron school must admit, however, that at least we find in the best examples of their work, simplicity and sincerity—two of the most fundamental requisites to good art...

...In all of the best modern ecclesiastical art may be found this striving for materialistic beauty, which is the result of commercializing the religious arts and crafts...

...will you find articles there signed by men from Catholic colleges...

...Mr...

...Now and then there appears in the college ranks a boy who is capable of greater things—of reaching the third stage...

...and more recently, Subercaseaux, who joined that order which has produced, if not most of the world's greatest art, certainly the greatest in England—the Benedictines...

...Moreover, it is likely that our colleges are probably successfully performing their primary function of making educated men...

...This Act, therefore, by its very terms excluded the Jews from its benefits...

...It is a striking coincidence," adds Bishop Russell, "that in the very year that Lord Baltimore, despite the disabling law of 1649, granted the rights of citizenship to Lumbrozo, Rhode Island passed an ordinance excluding Catholics and Jews...

...Nowhere else at the present time is there to be found a greater contribution:, to our modern stylistic needs...

...In other words the "celebrated and renowned" nobleman was not as tolerant as some "historians" would have one believe...

...Passing over this statement, the writer wonders if our colleges are providing opportunities for the exceptional man to do the exceptional work of which he is capable...

...If you will furnish authority for the statement contained in the editorial, it will be refreshing as well as illuminating...

...Think of the value to the Church of men like Pasteur or Mendel...

...Oh, that the hymns that are sung in churches were less emotional, and more doctrinal, as the Lauda Sion is doctrinal" William Franklin Sands...

...And if they are not made available, he might as well be living in the tenth century instead of the twentieth so far as his ability to do research work is concerned...

...This really is just what happens today, only in a less intelligent and pleasing manner than would happen under the different and more ideal conditions of which Mr...

...Judging from the line of conduct toward all who sought a haven of refuge in Maryland, there is good reason to suppose that to the Jew, as well as to the Episcopalian and Puritan, the Catholics of Lord Baltimore's province would have extended a welcome if any had applied...

...While other colleges, year by year, have been placing less and less emphasis on the classics, many of ours stand almost alone in their attitude that Latin and Greek ought to form the backbone of the average college education...

...The scientific work of America is being turned out almost wholly by non-Catholic institutions...

...He is under the compulsion ever to push on and on into the uncharted seas of nature's mysteries...

...How many Catholic colleges are represented...

...will a number of the papers be read by men from our institutions of higher learning...

...and they are...

...We rightly look on our Catholic institutions as bulwarks against the rising tide of infidelity...

...they have struggled against great odds merely to exist...

...The editor intones that this English nobleman only asked for the same toleration that he was ready to extend to Puritan, Prelatist, Quaker, and Jew...

...But possibly these questions are unfair...

...Our colleges are nearly all young institutions...

...Is this the case...

...But we cannot think of style as an end to be attained if we would find the remedy...

...The second plane is the plane of the educated man...

...Our Catholic institutions deserve our unstinted loyalty because they alone put the things that are God's before the things that are Caesar's...