24 AUGUST 1929, Page 27

Mr. Edwin Muir's John Knox : Portrait of a Calvinist

(Cape, 12s. 6d.) is a curious performance, half satire and half a grudging eulogy. The author makes fun of the conventional phrases in which Knox and other sixteenth century Protestants delighted, and yet cannot withhold his tribute to Knox's honesty and courage. The Scottish reformer's merits are best measured by comparing him with the Scottish politicians of his time—a company who for cruelty, hypocrisy, and bad faith are hardly to be equalled in the history of any country at any period. Mr. Muir has some glimmering of this truth but neglects it in order to vent his wrath upon Calvinists in general and Knox in particular. He does Knox no harm, but he might have written a better book.

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