Religijność Skargi by Tadeusz MitanaReview by: Monica GardnerThe Slavonic Review, Vol. 5, No. 14 (Dec., 1926), pp. 462-463Published by: the Modern Humanities Research Association and University College London, School ofSlavonic and East European StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4202099 .

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462 THE SLAVONIC REVIEW.

is that the start made by Germany in publishing the GGosse Pcizitk unsettles the information hitherto obtaining on many details in this period. It will be some time before a comprehensive work of this character can be written, and then only when other Powers begin publishing and numerous monographs are written. Any attempt at such a work now would be very incomplete, if not partisan.

Possibly Professor Tyler felt this innate difficulty of his task. At any rate, he defines his monograph as an introduction " to the leading factors in this eternal problem (of the Near East) and some of the methods of dealing with it." Viewed from this angle, he has succeeded in writing a study showing insight, human sympathy, and commend- able moderation. He has not hesitated to advise caution many times, even when it appears he was able to express more positive opinions. On the other hand, there appear to be times when he does not fully utilise sources at his command, as in the case of the Saburov Memoirs in regard to the Treaty of i88i. Since neither he nor his helpers knew any Slav language, Slavonic names are sometimes either incorrectly spelled or not uniformly transliterated. But these are minor matters when one remembers the dead author's purpose. It is not the detailed narrative that he was after, but the elements of the problem.

What the work lacks in this and in originality, it makes up by excellent characterisations of the principal actors in the drama. Bismarck, Disraeli, Gorchakov, Aehrenthal, and Salisbury appear shorn of halo or hatred. For the first time in any account of this character, Russia, which usually bears the brunt of the charges of imperialism and greed, is somewhat relieved of this role, and the policies of England, Austria, and Germany are subjected to the same standards as those used for Russia. In a style, admirable for its clarity and freshness, the author expresses many wholesome truths, fearlessly and justly. ROBERT J. KERNER.

Universily of Missouri.

Religijnosc Skargi. By Tadeusz Mitana. Cracow, I922. THE subject of this book is one of the most striking figures in i6th- century Poland: the famous Jesuit, Piotr Skarga. Dr. Mitana has devoted his work exclusively to the consideration of the religious standpoint of the impassioned apostle of the Counter-Reformation in Poland who, with a voice of thunder, lashed before the King and the Diet at the abuses reigning in their midst and who prophesied word for word the partition of Poland two hundred years before the event. The author has based his conclusions on the evidence of Skarga's works, of which he has made a careful and minute examina- tion; with the result that a remarkable personality emerges with all its powers and its limitations clearly before us. It is interesting to note, as Dr. Mitana points out, a fact which explains much in Skarga's character, namely, that by temperament and mentality he was a

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REVIEWS. 463

soldier; his methods were military; warfare in the cause of the Church was the main purpose and the delight of his existence. He was a product of the Middle Ages rather than of his own century, upon which were grafted the soldierly discipline and the somewhat rigid precision of the Order to which he owed his training. His character and his general outlook appear to have had little or no complexity. He was a man of one idea, to which everything that did not contribute to its furtherance gave way. We notice curiously enough that the Polish Jesuit, who was the sworn foe of Protestantism, shows a certain affinity in his character with the Puritan fanatic, whom he certainly would have regarded with scant favour. His religion, Dr. Mitana considers, was indeed more affected by the Old Testament than the New, and he repeatedly draws upon it for the imagery of the sermons he preached before the Diet. His God has the lineaments of the majesty and to a certain extent the terror of Jehovah. Personally austere in an age when excess of material prosperity was contributing to bring about Poland's ruin, which he clearly foresaw and against which he preached in vain, his voice was as of one crying in the wilderness unheard. Art and music had no charm for him. He regarded all secular philosophies with suspicion. He was indifferent to Nature, and mistrustful of mystical vision. At the same time his own faith was like a burning fire; his personal sense of religion, the passion and motive of his life; and his own desire was for the death that would unite him with God. If in many respects he was mentally behind his age, in one respect he was in advance of it; Dr. Mitana points out that he expressed a sympathy with the downtrodden Polish peasants that was scarcely to be met with in Poland at that epoch. This rugged and fiery soul had its human tenderness. He loved his fellow men; above all he was consumed by a devotion to his country, which became a tragedy. Every student of Polish literature knows the power of his oratory, which fixed his position as a master of Polish style; but when he foresaw the approach- ing fall of his country, his passionate patriotism carried him to a height of eloquence unrivalled in Polish history. Dr. Mitana has given us a very suggestive and interesting study.

MONICA GARDNER.

Na Chuzhoy Storone (In Foreign Lands), No. 4. Edited by S. B. Melgunov. Prague.

THIS periodical is devoted to history and literature, and is issued at irregular intervals by Vataga and Plamya. So far I3 volumes have appeared. We have to judge from the 4th volume, the only one which is before us. The Editor, with the help of E. A. Lyatsky and V. A. Myakotin, has collected reminiscences referring to the history of the last fifty or sixty years, including some recent develop- ments. There are original articles discussing certain historic per- sonalities in the light of recent publications. On the literary side

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