From the Egyptian minstrel of 2160 BC to Sir Oliver Lodge,
the editors bring the eternal longing and question. Professor Whitehead’s brief
forward speaks of the “simple, concise beauty of the introductions to the
various authors supplied by the editors.” They have done well. From the first
to the last of these selections we move among friends, with the sympathy of
kindred thought and courage. Most of us will need the guiding hand of the editors
for the Chinese and Indian and Egyptian sages appear with the classical
writers. The Bible is adequately quoted and the Christian tradition well
represented—Augustine, Gregory, Bernard, Aquinas, Bunyan, Edwards, and others.
Poets and philosophers, the ancients, the medievalists, and
the moderns speak with different tongues, but one catches the same accent of
longing in most.
One would suppose it were perfectly legitimate to let the
heart speak and, indeed, more fair. To add, for example, Tennyson’s last word
in “Crossing the Bar,” or Browning’s in “The Epilogue to Asolondo,” some word
of Sir William Osler’s after his Revere had gone west to those here printed
would more fully represent mature conclusion. Or Emerson’s “Threnody,” or some
passage from his diary, after his little boy had died! In their selections the
editors let the mind speak and have suppressed the heart’s deeper expression.
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