XXI Commentary
THE PARSONAGE---
New York, February 27,1917.
DEAR MR. DUTTON:
I wish that every preacher-man from ocean to
ocean might read A Student In Arms. I have just written
my brother to get the book and make it the order of the day to
read it, if he really wants his religion to be brought down to
the ground on which ordinary men walk and to be introduced to
the trenches in which life's problems are really being fought
out and worked over. Any man who thinks it is all over with religion
because the world is at war will get something of the same thrill,
something of the same burning of the heart within him, which came
to the disciples of Jesus when after Calvary they found out that
it was not all over with this new life and hope.
It is a wonderful book and there never was
a more timely gift. Next week I am to deliver, by invitation,
five addresses to men on consecutive evenings. Every one of these
addresses will have a definiteness of aim, a human appeal, a chance
of doing some real good, for which a large share of credit will
have to be given to A Student In Arms. If my message fails
to reach the mark, it will be in spite of having had the help
of one of the most vital and vigorous of books.
Yours sincerely and gratefully,
(Signed)--------,
A Congregationalist Minister.
THE SLAYING OF FEAR
At present it is my belief that there is nothing
more important in the publishing world than the extending fame
and huge sale of A Student In Arms. The book, which has
before been referred to here, was published nearly a year ago.
Between May and August four fair editions were sold. Then came
the author's death on the Somme, and a largely increased demand.
Every week the demand has grown greater, and every edition has
been larger than the preceding one. The twelfth edition, now announced,
is ten thousand copies. That is a wonderful record for a book
of the kind, but it is not all. After a year it has suddenly caught
on in America, and is going like a flame. Canada is publishing
a huge edition immediately, and cables are pouring in from South
Africa, Australia and other parts of the British Empire. Purely
from the point of view of a commercial success, A Student In
Arms is probably the most notable literary event since
the war broke out.
It was not, however, to tell the commercial
story of this book---with which I have a rather intimate connection---that
I quoted the foregoing figures. It was in order that one might
inquire into the secret behind this great and increasing popularity.
Only recently we have been looking at the matter of "significance
in literature," and here is a book that supplies a modern
illustration which is of the utmost importance. A Student In
Arms was in itself of significance because it was the expression
of the soul of the New Army from the double point of view of a
private and an officer. The private found speech, and unconsciously
revealed himself as the finest kind of hero. The officer, with
more self-consciousness, described his own emotions and the thought
that came to a man of his class when he was looking into the very
jaws of hell. Here, then, is the explanation of the interest that
the book excited from the very beginning. The understanding reader
began to see, for the first time, the spiritual side of war; rejoiced
because it showed some compensation for all the horrors, and was
made confident of the final result, since it revealed the unconquerable
soul of the new two-million army, who could meet death with a
smile and give up their lives without a regret.
The increasing popularity of the book is even
more significant. It shows that the secret of the book is being
discovered by the entire people of the British Empire, and by
the people of America as well, in this grave crisis in the history
of that nation. What is the secret? Briefly, it is contained in
that sublime verse which is one of the most heart-breakingly beautiful
things in the Burial Service: "The last enemy that
shall be destroyed is Death. O Death, where is thy sting? A Student
In Arms presents to us the sublime spectacle of an army of
which practically every unit has slain fear. There is no greater
deed in the moral and spiritual world than this. After fear is
slain, the sublimest heroism becomes inevitable, and in one sense
commonplace. That is why men who survive after the victory, with
unaffected modesty, are mostly troubled with public ovation and
recognition. "Any other fellow would have done the same,"
is a common remark. It is true, and the " Student" reveals
the thrilling spectacle of a national army of two million men
to whom the sublimest heroism is not only possible, but is the
opportunity that each longs for.
In truth, this secret that the "Student"
revealed in his book, and thereby made a national event of first-class
importance, and won for himself an undying name in literature,
has been occupying my mind almost continuously for many months.
Constantly in my mind the line has been singing, "Neither
counted they their lives dear to them." For the reasons
that have already been given, more than for the stateliness of
its diction, that is one of the greatest verses in the whole Bible.
The whole secret of martyrdom is in it; it expresses the destruction
of "the last enemy, of after which martyrdom was not only
simple, but almost welcome. Fear is the instinctive and natural
feeling of the most finely tempered soul in face of imminent peril;
but with them it is only the preliminary to a stage of spiritual
exaltation. The fear is when they see only material force. The
next stage is when they see "the chariots and the horses."
After that it is easy to understand the recklessness of danger
which is the result. In a recent article of Donald Hankey's that
appeared, it is told of him that just before they went "over
the top" he kneeled down with his men and spoke earnestly
to them: "When we go over the top, it is either a wound and
Blighty or death and the Resurrection." Who can doubt that
he at least saw "the chariots and the horses," and knew
that he would shortly be in their company?
The significance, then, of the Student in
Arms wave that is now striking every shore of the British
Empire, is that it conveys a proof that as a nation we are beginning
to understand that "the last enemy " has got to be destroyed
in life---that fear must be slain, and that until this happens
we have not in this world war reached the stage at which victory
is inevitable. Every parent who has a boy at the Front would like
to believe that in the face of death he had the sustaining vision
that the " Student" describes. The horrors of the war
are so sickening, and the losses so appalling, that the whole
head is sick and the whole heart faint when one thinks only of
the body. When the eye is turned to the spiritual side, it is
another matter. "Fear not them that kill the body, and after
that have no more that they can do." Every great nation is
free to-day because of the heroic souls, tempered by fire, who
made this their practical watchword. They found it "sweet
and beautiful to die for their native country," Dulce
et decorum est pro Patria mori, as the Latin proverb has it.
In the light of their sacrifice, fear is not only craven, but,
being yielded to, is an indecency. It is the most sheer materialism---,
it puts body above spirit, and in the last trial reckons not with
spirit at all. The "Student" says no words like this
in the pages of his book, but that is the message that shines
out---clear, bracing, inspiring. I should not wonder if this book,
by a layman, in which there is no pietism, but only high devotion,
and no creed in the ordinary sense, but only profound religion
expressed in Christian terms, were to be the means of the religious
revival which so many people believe will be the outcome of the
war.
ALAN NORTHMAN.
In the London Christian Outlook, March 1, 1917
His book is like nothing else that has been
published in English. . . . It is no wonder that many thousands
of copies of this book have been required in England to meet continuing
demand. It answers many questions which thoughtful persons are
asking about the war's inner meaning-questions that may come home
to us.---N. Y. World.
A Student in Arms
is bursting with things we all want to know. It is well
worth reading and possessing.---Baltimore Evening Sun.
Wherever there are men at war, this is a book
not only for the men who fight but for those who must remain at
home---perhaps more for the latter than for the former.---Philadelphia
Press.
This book will live, despite the ever-increasing
flood of its fellows, because of its beautiful spirit and tone.---Chicago
Herald.
For Americans the book will increase our conviction
and resolve that our army must be a citizen army, based on universal
service, and that the natural democracy of such a mingling must
be fostered by every means in our power.---N. Y. Tribune.
Hankey kept his finer individuality intact,
and saw comrades at arms with the vision of spiritual understanding.
His thoughts, simply expressed, sound a finer note in the rush
of "realistic" comment.---Boston Herald.
If the war has produced a single book in Germany
approaching the fine and human qualities of Donald Hankey's A
Student in Arms (Dutton), some friend of the Germans should
immediately translate it and promote its circulation. It would
be the best sort of German propaganda.----N. Y. Globe.
His book is unusual, intensely different, and
indicates that in his death England lost a valuable man---one
philosophic, humorous, religious, and gifted with literary ability.----Detroit
Free Press.
This book deserves a place beside Rupert Brooke's
sonnets and Mr. Britling Sees it Through.---N. Y. Churchman.
They are unique among war correspondence in
that they present very little of material facts and dwell almost
entirely upon the effect upon the soul and mind of the private
soldier of the conditions and activities of war.---N. Y.
Times.
He is an open-minded inquirer; both because
of the subject and of its literary merits the book will be read
after the war excitement is over.---N. Y. Sun.
A "war book" of quite an unusual
kind, dealing With the deeper things of human life---a book that
will survive among the best of that eventful period.---Richmond
Times Despatch.