does he mean by comparing God to
a hound?'

"'Well, he means the pursuit of God.'

"'Oh, I see, Thompson is pursuing God, is he?'

"'Oh, no. He is rather running away from God.'

"'Well, then, God is pursuing Thompson, is that it?'

"'Yes, that's it.'

[Illustration: Titanic glooms of chasmed fears _Page 45_]

'"But, see here; according to Thompson's belief God is everywhere,
isn't He?'

"'Yes.'

"'Well, then, how can God be going after Thompson? Is it a physical
pursuit?'

"'No. It is a moral pursuit.'

"'A moral pursuit! What's that? What is God after?'

"'He is after Thompson's love.'

"And then we, the Jesuit and the Buddhist, began to follow the windings
and turnings of that wondrous poem, the most mystic and spiritual thing
that has been written since St. Teresa laid down her pen. What the
other member of the examining board thought of it all I never heard.
But I think I acquired a satisfactory answer to that question so often
put to me: Can the Japanese really grasp a spiritual truth? Do they
really get at the meaning of Christianity? This, of a race that has
produced more martyrs than any other nation since the fall of Rome and
that kept the Faith for two centuries without a visible symbol or
document!"

The incident supplies matter for other conclusions more germane to the
subject of this essay. The late Bert Leston Taylor, a journalist whose
journalism had a literary facet of critical brilliance, once declared
that he could not perceive the excellence of Francis Thompson's poetry.
When someone suggested that it might be that he was not spiritual
enough, the retort was laconic and crushing, "Or, perhaps, not
ecclesiastical enough." Like most good retorts Taylor's had more wit
than truth. He was obsessed by the notion, prevalent among a certain
class of literary critics, that Francis Thompson's fame was the
artificially stimulated applause of a Catholic coterie, whose
enthusiasm could hardly be shared by readers with no particular
curiosity about Catholic ideas or modes of religion. It was probably
this obsession which prompted that able critic, Mr. H. D. Traill, to
write to Mr. Wilfrid Meynell when the "Hound of Heaven" first appeared:
"I quite agree with you in thinking him a remarkable poet, but, if he
is ever to become other than a 'poet's poet' or 'critic's poet'--if
indeed it is worth anyone's ambition to be other than that--it will
only be by working in a different manner