T. S. Eliot and his relation to T. E. Hulme

'1'. S. ELIOT AND HIS RELATION TO T. E. HULME J. R. DANIELLS T HOUGH much has been written concerning the work of T. S. Eliot, the subject still seems farther from exhaustjon than the critics. Eliot is variously described as finding the core of reality in himself, as renouncing indjviduality, and as having compromised 'his intellectual integrity because he accepts the Church of England." A study by Mr. Thomas McGreevy even corrects Eliot's conception of his own spiritual future: "When he writes : 'B'ecause I do not hope to t~rn again Because I do not hope', I feel that I know better than he does, that I not only hope but I know (since he is a poet and poets are always turning) that he assuredly will turn again. (What is more, I think I can divine the direction in which he will turn next.)"] Eliot's own remark on the criticism evoked by his work is worth quoting: "I am used to having cosmic significances , which I never suspected, extracted from my work (such as it is) by enthusiastic persons at a distance; and to being informed that something which I meant seriously , is vers de societe; and to having my personal biography reconstructed from passages which I got out of books~ or which I invented out of nothing because they sounded well; and to having my biography invariably ignored in what I did write from personal experience."2 In attempting, therefore, a brief formulation of Eliot's position, I have tried to keep as close as possible to his own IThom(JS Stearns Eliot: A Study, 1931 2Shakespeare and the Stoicism of Seneca. ELIOT AND HULME statements, of w:hich the preface to For Lancelot Andrewes is the most succinct. Here he tells us that Uthe general point of view may be described- as classicist in literature, royalist in politics, and Anglo-Catholic in religion." Elsewhere he complains that post-Renaissance philosophies exhibit a lack of balance, and he applauds the antiRomantic and practical sense of realities found in Dante: not to expect perfection from life or from human beings; to look to death for what life cannot give. The purpose of this paper, however, is not merely to synthetize certain of Eliot's affirmations but also to relate them to the Speculations of T. E. Hulme. There are special reasons why Hulme should be introduced. He deserves to be better known in this country for his intrinsic worth and interest; he merits attention as an unthanked pioneer; and he will repay careful study on the part of all who are interested in Eliot. In 1926, Eliot pointed out that his New Criterion illustrated a tendency toward what might be vaguely termed Classicism, 'and mentioned in connection with the movement the work of Sorel, Maurras, Benda, Maritain, Babbitt, and Hulme. Hulme, it will be noticed, is the only Englishman on the list. Hulme was,killed near Nieuport in September, 19I7, at the age of thirty-four. From the mass of manuscript which he left a selection was edited by Herbert Read and published under the title Speculations. His thought is therefore not couched in any final form, but exhibits the s,trivings of an enthusiast 'toward certain positions which he regarded as basic and as determining a world view. He announces that the notion of a principle of continuity in Nature must be given up. Certain regions in reality differ abso]utely: there is the inorganic world of mathematical or physical science, the organIc world of 381 THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY biology, psychology and history, and the world of ethical and religious values. The attempt to explain this last by categories which we may conveniently term "vital"belonging to the organic world-leads to Roman ticism in literature, Relativism in ethics, Idealism in philosophy, and Modetnism in religion. All philosophy since the Renaissance has been possessed of the same canons of satisfaction, those of Humanist -idealism. A true "critique of satisfaction" would operate in the sphere of religion and show the vanity of earthly desire and the conservation of the higher values. The Romantic has placed perfection in humanity, not immediately, but along various...