2 OCTOBER 1909, Page 10

BODY AND SOUL.

Body and Soul. By Percy Dearmer, M.A. (Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons. Gs. net.)—We cannot follow Mr. Dearmer into the details of the very difficult subject which he treats in these pages. We agree with his general contention that the various psychic forces which_we are ndw discovering, telepathy, suggestion, and the like, should be brought under the control of religion. Whether the particular form of control which Mr. Dearmer would like is desirable is another matter. He gives us in an appendix a "Form for Unction," which is, we suppose, of his own com- position. There is a touch of presumption in this. It is possibly somewhat old-fashioned to refer an Anglican clergyman to the Thirty-nine Articles, but does not the expression that some of the "five commonly called Sacraments have grown partly of the corrupt following of the Apostles" refer to Extreme Unction? In any case, it is pessimi exempli that an Anglican clergyman should make new services. In no other Church would a minister think of inalri g a new calendar, a new lectionary, and practically a new Prayer-book. There is much that is interesting, and indeed admirable, in Mr. Dearmer's book, but his ideals arc not ours. We certainly cannot agree with him when he says that "the Middle Age was a period in which the hold of Christianity upon Christendom was remarkably complete." Put "ecclesiastical power" for " Christianity" and we are much nearer the truth. What was the hold of Christianity, properly so called, upon such a King as Philip II.? What was it on such "Vicars of Christ" as Alexander VI. and Julius II. P