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that the differences are dependent on more than time. To be main·
tained, the differences must be more than temporal, they must he
principled, and Mr. Eliot cannot believe that the principles to he
put in opposition to the totalitarian principles can be those of
liberalism and democracy. Liberalism is a necessary negative
element in politics but no more than that; as for democracy, Mr.
~liot
says that it is so praised by everyone that its mention makes
him think of the Merovingian Emperors and look around for the
Mayor of the Palace.
But because totalitarianism is what he calls "pagan," the only
possible opposing principle Mr. Eliot can find is that of Christian·
ity. He cannot yet account England- the England which re·
sponded as it did to the events of September 1938---a pagan state,
though he cannot call it actually a Christian one; it has a culture
"which is mainly negative, but which, so far as it is positive, is still
Christian." But because the situation no longer permits a negative
culture, the choice will have to be made "between the formation of
a new Christian culture and the acceptance of a pagan one."
More than once in the brief course of his book we hear from
Mr. Eliot that he is not interested in Christianity as revivalism and
he quotes a "distinguished theologian" to the effect that the great
mistake made about Christianity is to suppose it primarily a reli–
gion and emotional when in truth it is primarily dogma and intel–
lectual. We are not, then, to be concerned with Christianity as
pietistic feeling but with Christianity as a precise view of man and
the world, which implies a social form. But as we prepare to hear
the Idea* of a Christian society we have surely the right to ask the
proposer what, in his opinion, caused the failure of such previous
Christian societies as may be said to have existed. We have, too,
the right to ask him what it is in the nature of Christianity which
brought it to the condition in which men and nations, trained in a
wholly Christian culture, felt constrained to discover the inade·
quacy of the dogmas which are now expected to save the world.
He might perhaps answer that Christianity is right but not all·
powerful and that there are human impulses with which it cannot
easily deal. Or if, like Mr. Eliot, he admits a dialectical-material–
istic interpretation of the past but not of the future, he might find
• "By
an idea
I
mean . . . that conception of a thing . . . which is given
by
the
knowledge of its ultimate aim."-Coleridge.
