- PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION.
THE TRIUMPH OF LOVE. By Benedict Williamson. (Regan Paul. 10s. fld. net.)-11IE EVOLUTION OF LOVE. By Emil Lucks. (Allen and Unwin. 10s. 6d. net.) The Rev. Benedict Wilfiamson's book is a mystical religious rhapsody, " ericlealinnrs to tell," he n prelogue,
" the love-story of the huinan soul fro min g* of her falling love with Jeiail uptilloVe tea es its tri phut concinsiop 14 heir Marri4 Him " ustta the stageS, which Religions MYs •cisro his recorde 14 the exact- ness even of tabulated sta _pleat, by the analogy of the process of physical lone. Of such books we can only say that they will appeal exclusively to the small company of religions mystics and to the professional psychologist. To those who
approach religion from a more inclusive and less intro- verted spirit they will seem, like a heavy exotic perfume, oppressive and unhealthy. On the other hand, Herr Emil Lucka, the Austrian poet, though his treatment of the subject is also metaphysical, bases his metaphysic on psychology and not on mysticism. " My work," he writes, " is intended to be first and foremost a monograph on the emotional life of the human , race. . . . To-day nearly all the world is content to look upon the sexual impulse as the source of all erotic emotion and to regard love as nothing more nor less than its most exquisite radiation. My book, on the contrary, endeavours to establish its complete independence of sexu- ality." Herr Lucka's discussion covers a wide range, and much of it (whatever the reader may think of his main contention) is interesting and thought-provoking.
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