A Humanistic Revival Through Literature. By George H. Fulton. (M'Caw,
Stevenson and Orr, Ltd., Belfast. 2s. net.)
The author of this excellent little book begins by discussing the recent developments in religion and science. As a result of the sudden growth of science, religion ceased to be the absolute and self-contained system which it had once been. Through the action of scientific criticism a certain healthy agnosticism began to loosen the grip of a " faith " so limited as to be cramping to the human spirit. "Creeds and schools of thought," he writes, " might have their place, but no one of them was large enough to express, more than some aspects of that mysterious relationship between the soul of man and reality which might be believed in, but could not be fully expressed in word or symbol." Nowadays, in turn, agnos- ticism is beginning to break through the walls in which science claimed to enclose existence. It is seen now that the claims of science to explain the mysteries of life are as unwarrantable as were those of religious dogmatism. Mr. Fulton suggests that a release from the tyranny of both religious and scientific dogma may be found in great literature, for in it lies a new vision of life—a faith in man himself. Mr. Fulton, in other words, would direct men's attention to living rather than to life in the abstract, to the spirit and away from the letter, to a humanistic and active attitude rather than a pre- occupation with theories and metaphysics. His pamphlet deserves to be widely read.
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