occasionally a certain tinge of rather harsh contempt, as when in 'Carmen Genesis' the former says:— 'Yet, yet, Thy graciousness! I tread, All quick, through tribes of moving dead— Sealed with the dull stone of a heart No angel can roll round. I start, But this tendency is seen most glaringly in references, such as John Cordelier's, to 'popular piety' and 'tradition,' and leads to further consequences in their attitude, especially towards the dogmas and institutions in which common religion has become embodied. It is often assumed that one of the signs by which mystics may be known is their scant use or even courtesy for such things. And, of course, in so far as the mystic is the mouthpiece of direct experience, he tends to describe and to value rather the reality experienced than the means by which he or others reach it. But that does not prevent the most balanced men and women of the Way having much to say with regard to the importance, efficacy and often indispensableness of the ordinary instruments of religion -society, doctrine and liturgy, symbol and sacrament. Among those who have given voice to the same Godward approach to-day, Michael Fairless, at least, never disregarded the value of institutional religion. We read of her that sacraments she must have, and especially the greatest, "the most social Sacrament," as she called it.' In Miss Underhill there is a strong appreciation of the sacramental side of religion, and, most of all, Francis Thompson is steeped in it; but for both of them there is such a strong thirst to make everything a sacrament, that the specially institutional elements of the common cultus become, at best, the most symbolical of many media. Mr Tagore's poems imply that, although he seems attracted by the picturesqueness of popular festivals, such as the Feast of the Lamps, to which he refers, he can see no great value in them, except possibly for babes. Yet he is much less hostile to the common cults than the earlier Brahmo leaders; and, if that which appealed to the imagination and feeling of the people had religious value, we feel he would not be deterred by its popular character. The fact, however, that the mystic tends to despise institutions remains, although it is too large for full discussion here. The modern mystic especially needs sorely a balanced view on the subject. It is not possible here even to suggest one. In this question, it must satisfy us to refer, in leaving the subject, to Baron von Hügel's great work on St Catherine of Genoa as containing, in his discussion of the mystical, institutional and intellectual elements in religion, all the truth about their right relation put in a nutshell-although, as some sad student of it has said, rather a cocoanut shell. 6 One last and even greater matter remains with reference to the common mysticism of these writers, of which a few words must be said, and that is the question how much is really common. It has often been maintained that mystics all belong to one country, and all give the same account of it. Miss Underhill, in her preface to Mysticism' (p. x) already referred to, says about the end of The Mystic Way,' that, whether it be called the God of Christianity, the world-soul of Pantheism, or the Absolute of Philosophy, the desire to attain it . . . is the proper subject of mysticism.' Now, it seems clear, that so far as mysticism is mere feeling, this would be true, and it would not matter what was the object of that feeling; but mere feeling' is an abstraction of which the reality is 'the duality of subject and object in the unity of experience.' So it will really make all the difference to the quality of the feeling itself, whether its object is this or that. And it is plain that, in the men and women who have given us in these writings their experience, this has been conditioned and coloured by their conception of its object, and that the differences which exist between them are not so much with regard to the feeling as to the thing felt. Further, the possible emotional reactions of any individual towards reality are strictly limited; and it is consequently conceivable that in certain circumstances practically the same effect may take place in the conscious life as the response to apparently very different stimuli, and the test of the differences will only come through their full manifestation in the common life of a community. So, although we seem to find in these writers, including the non-Christian Oriental, a certain common attitude to reality, this is only in so far as their religion is as purely as possible one of feeling only, which can be nothing but an individual and non-transferable thing. Directly it begins to express itself in any corporate life it will be bound to assume disparate forms, corresponding to the differing views of reality on which it was based, or to which it leads. And further, one can say for certain that, although mysticism as a religion of mere feeling might possibly be the same in all races and ages of the world, it could never be sure that it was so, since experience cannot be compared, but only the expressions of it; and these necessarily assume certain intellectual forms and are based on views of reality such as would not be given in 'mere feeling.' The truth, of course, is that no man can exist merely as a feeling creature, and no religion can exist except as a synthesis of the three great elements in man—the will, the intellect, and the emotions. And it follows that mysticism, which is only the religious activity of the emotions, is in danger whenever it attempts to walk alone. So, while the 'mystical revival' may be welcomed (especially as exemplified in its best products) as a real recovery, or re-emphasis, of a valuable ingredient in religion for our times, men can never rest content with any exclusive claims to solitary splendour which may be advanced on behalf of such mysticism. LESLIE JOHNSTON. Art. 13.-THE PROGRESS OF RHODESIA. 1. Southern Rhodesia. Bell, 1909. By Percy F. Hone. London: 2. Les Lois et l'Administration de la Rhodésie. Par Henri Rolin. Paris: Challemel, 1913. 3. The Title Tangle in Southern Rhodesia. By John Barklie. Bulawayo. Published by the Rhodesian League, 1913. 4. Reports of the Rhodesian Government. GEOGRAPHICALLY, Rhodesia extends from Bechuanaland and the Limpopo on the south to Lake Tanganyika in the north, thus covering an area of some 440,000 square miles between latitude 8° and 22° South. Administratively, it is divided into three provinces, North-Western and North-Eastern Rhodesia, lying north of the Zambesi, and Southern Rhodesia, lying to the south of the great river. It is with Southern Rhodesia, a territory of 148,575 square miles, or about two and a half times as large as England and Wales, that we are now concerned. The northern territories are still in an embryonic stage, entering on phases from which Southern Rhodesia has long since emerged, or which, perhaps, it might be more accurate to say, she never had to pass through at all. Geographical position, the circumstances in which the country was acquired, the efforts of earlier pioneers, enabled Southern Rhodesia to set forth on her career with comparatively full equipment. The hardy colonists who conquered Matabeleland took up the land granted them as reward for their services, and settled down. There was a population ready made. They changed their ground, but they did not materially change their conditions. They still found themselves on the high tableland that they had known in the Transvaal, the Orange Free State, and the northern parts of Cape Colony. The climate, though slightly warmer, resembled that to which they were accustomed; the soil and its products were much the same. They were in a new land, but they did not, therefore, enter on a new life, though they had to face new difficulties. Life in those early days was rough; its cost and comfort varied in an inverse ratio. Transport was slow; food cost 70l. a ton; freights were enormous; there were no markets; it was as though the implements of production were made of gold, while the products were silver. Men set their hands to anything that offered; round pegs got into square holes; only by repeated failures did they find their proper calling. Even for those who knew a business the way was hard and difficult. And, to add to the confusion, they found themselves under a form of government different from any they had ever known. These considerations have to be borne in mind in gauging the progress which Rhodesia has made during the twenty-five years of her existence. To some it appears wonderful, to others disappointing. There is some justification for both the wonder and the disappointment. It is not yet sixty years since Livingstone, first of all Englishmen, beheld the Victoria Falls. It is just twenty since Lobengula dispensed the high, low, and middle justice under the famous tree at Bulawayo. Much has happened since then. There is a Stock Exchange on the site of the royal kraal; the locomotive rushes through regions where the missionary explorer was vainly sought for years. All this makes for wonderment and self-complacency. On the other hand, there is disappointment among shareholders, whose deferred hopes of dividends are making them sick, and among settlers, wrathful, discontented, even mutinous. The time is now approaching for taking stock of the position, and striking a balance between success and failure. In October 1914 Rhodesia will attain her majority. The Charter, granted to the British South Africa Company on October 29, 1889, reserves to the Crown 'the right and power at the end of 25 years from the date of this Our Charter, and at the end of every succeeding period of ten years, to add to, alter or repeal any of the provisions of this Our Charter or to enact other provisions in substitution for or in addition to any of its existing provisions. Provided that the right and power thus reserved shall be exercised only in relation to so much of this Our Charter as relates to administrative and public matters.' It is already abundantly clear that the people of Rhodesia will not allow this opportunity for the ventilation of their grievances to pass. Demands are being |