The Village Life

Abstract

THIS is a volume of poems intended to picture various phases of Scottish village life. It is beyond our province to criticise the quality of the poetry, but it deserves some notice at our hands, for the prominence given throughout to the most recent scientific doctrines, especially that of evolution. With the latest teachings of science in this direction the author appears to be thoroughly acquainted, as is evidenced especially in the two poems on “The Schoolmaster” and “The Doctor.” It seems to us a noteworthy fact in the progress of science that its latest developments should form so prominent a feature in a work so purely literary, as a series of poems. The author himself, while he has evidently a tenderness for the old beliefs and bygone customs, still, cannot help showing how strong is his leaning to the revelations of the science of to-day. We venture to think that the anonymous author's presentation of the latest results of scientific investigation ought to reassure those who dread that science and poetry cannot co-exist, that the spread of science and the increase of scientific knowledge will leave no room for the exercise of the poet's fancy. If ignorance is a necessary condition for the exercise of this function, it is quite safe to predict that there is no chance of the poet's, occupation ever being gone. Let us suggest to the author of the “Village Life,” as a subject to try the mettle of his fancy and the extent of his knowledge, the “Lake Dwellers.” We think the present volume is likely to afford a quiet pleasure to many readers, and as a specimen of the versification and to show how clearly and musically the author can put a puzzling problem, we give the following quotation from the poem on “The Doctor”:—