The Regenerators: Social Criticism in Late Victorian English Canada by Ramsay Cook (review)

REVIEWS TheRegenerators: Social Criticism inLateVictorian English Canada. RAMSAY COOK. Toronto:University of TorontoPress•985. Pp. x, •9 •, illus.$3•.5o cloth, $•5.95 paper Bythelastdecades ofthenineteenth century,science, industry, andhistoricism haddonemuchtounderminetraditionalconceptions of thetranscendent and morallyabsolute. The glitteringfactof materialprogress seemed to manya more than adequatesubstitute for what wasbeing lost; others,however, experienced in a direct and anguishing way the sensethat God, though perhapsnot, as Nietzschewould have it, dead, wasin very poor health. Delimitation of thesupernatural, andof themoralcertainties faithin it had strengthened, was,moreover,accompanied by the dislocating growthof the anonymous masssocieties notedby TOnniesand Durkheim,a development which,astheyandotherobservers werequicktoargue,meantthatmenand women werebeingdeprivedofthesocial andpsychological support traditional formsof social organization hadoncemadeavailable at theverymomentthe oldbeliefsystems weregivingway. Afewobservers -James,Bergson, andofcourse Nietzsche - saw inallthese changes the prospectof a radicalfreedom for thosewho could meet its challenge. More commonwasan apprehension of whatwashappening as debilitating anddisruptive, a process bestgrappledwithbytheaffirmation of newandcomforting absolutes. Onesuchresponse tooktheformof thethrust towards secular salvation tobeseenin theutopianpolitics of theday;another foundexpression in attemptsto re-establish the powerof the transcendent throughspiritualism or espousal of theosophy and other formsof easternbased mysticism; a third - the theosophical socialism of someFabians isa well-known example- involvedan effort to combinethe two. For many observers, insum,optimism andconfidence yieldedtoconcern, anxiety, anda search fornewtruthsastheycame totheconclusion thatchange was destroying atleast asmuchasandperhaps a gooddealmorethanit wasdelivering. English-speaking Canadiansno lessthan their British, American,and Europeancounterparts werecaughtup in thisdisturbingflux, andtheytoo attempted tochartasecure course amongtheshiftingsands theysawaround them. This meant, for some, movement in the direction of the new doctrines. Othersattemptedto savethefaith theyknewbyemphasizing itsrelevance to the very world that seemedto be excludingit. Most often seenin an unprecedented emphasis ontheIncarnation- for thosewhobelieved in it still themost dramatic ofproofsthatGodwasimmanent in,andhadmeaning for, the world - this move was also to be discerned in an insistent stress on the REVIEWS 399 continuing capacity of God'sprinciples toguidebehaviour in thatworld.But no matter what form it took, the effect of the action wasthe same: validation of theother-worldly in termsof itsmeaningfor the this-worldly, a factwhich meantthatthose takingit werereversing theoldrelationship between thetwo, moving, withoutquiterealizing it, ontothegroundoftheiropponents, andso inadvertently strengthening thetrendtheyhadsetouttoresist. In investigating thisEnglish-Canadian phaseof a moraland intellectual crisis general intheWesternworld,Professor Cookconsiders amatterofgreat importance. Emphasizing theconcern feltbysome observers atwhattheytook tobetheunderminingof religion's authorityby Darwinismand the higher criticism,he exploreswith particularenthusiasmthe way in which they attempted to maintainreligion's centralityby givingit a closerelationship to social issues, thereby enmeshing themselves in theself-defeating process noted above.Provided,too,isa gooddealof usefulinformation,for elaborationof thebook's principalthemeinvolves a newanddifferentlookat suchfamiliar figuresasGoldwinSmithandMackenzie King,whilethetreatmentgiventhe Canadian history of arangeof matters- spiritualism, theosophy, positivism will at onceintroducereadersto, and inspire further investigation of, a dimension ofEnglish Canada's intellectual lifebeforenowseen onlyinvaguest outline. Some readers,having in mind the comprehensiveness of the issues involved, willthinktheemphasis hereplacedontheanxieties engendered by Darwinandthetextualcriticsexaggerated; others,notingthebook'sstated purpose, willbesurprised thatit pays solittleattention tothedevelopment of socialthoughtwithin the churches;othersstill,reflectingon the aimsand attributes of suchdevices aspositivism, theosophy, andcosmic consciousness, willwonderif theworkingof themintothepatternof theargumenthasbeen entirelysuccessful; therewill, finally,bethosewho,in reactingto the book's anecdotal anddiscursive cast,willjudge itstreatmentof itsleadingcharacters to patronize themand trivializetheir ideas.None of this,however,should obscure thefactthatwhathasbeenaccomplished in thesepages advances the process of understanding the nineteenth-century English-Canadian mind in ways thatmakeitaworksignificant initselfandcertain tospuritsreaders onto thoughts of theirown. .•Lt, ANSMIa'•University ofBritish Columbia Company ofAdventurers. •,Ea'EI• C.NEWMAn. Markham,Ont.: Viking •985. Pp. xxvi,4•3. $•5.oo Mr Newman,manifestly, isnota historian. He states (xi) 'thisisajournalist's book,' butsince hedeals withpastevents heisstriving towritehistory andthe workmustbejudged assuch.He alsostates thathechose'oneindividualasa ...