Volume 4, Number 7 · May 6, 1965
Revaluations: "The Greatest Victorian"
By Gertrude Himmelfarb
Bagehot's Historical Essays
edited with an Introduction by Norman St. John-Stevas
Anchor, 478 pp., $1.95 (paper)
The current intellectual fashion in cultural and social matters calls for simplicity and activism. The subtleties, complications and ambiguities that, in the past two or three decades, have been the mark of serious thought are now taken to signify a failure of nerve, a compromise with evil, an evasion of judgment and responsibility. One is reminded of the distinction between the 'once-born' and the 'twice-born: the once-born, simple and 'healthy-minded,' having faith in a beneficent God and a perfectible universe; the twice-born in awe of His mystery, impressed by the recalcitrance of society and the anomalies of social action.
Review, 2198 words
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