Lord of the World. By Robert Hugh Benson. (Sir Isaac
Pitman and Sons. 6s.)—In reviewing Father Benson's latest novel the weary critic must really utter a protest against authors with illegible handwriting choosing to have their prefaces litho- ,graphed in their own writing. It does not, of course, matter much as long as only the preface is concerned, as that may be left unread, but if the habit should spread to the story proper it is impossible to contemplate the prospect without feelings of dismay. To turn from the preface to the book, the story is a prophecy of the author's ideas as to the future of the world some-htindreds of years. hence. Father Benson contends that mankind will be divided into Positivists of an advanced type and Roman Catholics, who will be the only Christians. It is of course diffieult for a Protestant to enjoy a novel of the future which start, with this contention, as the essence of these prophetic stories is that they should have at least the element of plausibility ; and the Protestant is absolutely convinced that if any form of the Christian religion is to perish, it will not be the Reformed Churches. Any other assumption seems to a Christian who is not a Roman Catholic so illogical and impossible as not to bo worth combating. But Father Benson thinks differently, and pits the Pope against a figure whom no doubt he intends to be Antichrist, who is a sort of apotheosis of the bland, impassive modern man of business. It is also difficult to believe in the book because Father Benson fails to make this extraordinary figure, this Messiah of the Positivists, in the least convincing. We are told that Felsenburgh—such is the name of this Man of Mystery—has a strange magnetic power over any one who sees him ; but it is not easy to give credence to this magnetic power, and without it the whole story falls to the ground. Nothing less than the end of the world delivers men from the dominion of Felsenburgh, for it seems to Father Benson a logical conclusion that the death of the last Pope will coincide with the passing away of this planet. The whole story is frankly sensational, and the picture of the cult of humanity decidedly ingenious.
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