IMITATION OF CHRIST, The. Fon tenelle the French philosopher said that the °Imitation of Christ is the most influential book that ever came from the hand of man, the Scriptures having come from the hand of God.* That seems much to say; yet it would be easy to confirm the expression out of the mouths of many of the most distinguished writers and thinkers of the nearly 500 years since the book was written. Lamennais declared that the °Imi tation has made more Saints than all the books of controversy. The more one reads, the more one marvels. There is something celestial in the wonderful simplicity of it." La Hathe the distinguished French dramatist and critic said after reading it in prison °Never before or since have I experienced emotion so violent and yet so unexpectedly sweet? Nor was it only for Latin minds of preceding centuries that it had such a deep appeal, for in our time it has been the favorite reading of Chinese Gordon, Field Marshall Lord Wolseley, the late Emperor Frederick the Good, and Stanley the Explorer, while the greatest lawyer of our time, Lord Russell of Killowen, always carried a copy of it with him for daily reading.
Saints have praised it highly, for it is a gem in their collection. Saint Francis de Sales declared that its author is the Holy Spirit.* Saint Ignatius Loyola recommended his Jesuits to read in it every day. Saint Philip Neri called it his °precious treasure.' Bossuet and Mas sillon, Fenelon and John Wesley, Dr. Johnson and Cardinals Newman and Manning made it their favorite reading. Minds of very different tendency, however, leaders in modern thought with a drift far from conventional Christianity, were quite as emphatic in their expressions. Comte the founder of Positivism wrote. °It is an inextinguishable treasure of true wisdom' and he recommended its daily reading to his disciples. Renan the rationalist was scarcely less fond of it. George Eliot rivalled Lamen nais in her praise of it when she said, °It works miracles to this day, turning bitter waters into sweetness.' Matthew Arnold declared it the most exquisite document after the New Testa ment of all that the Christian spirit has ever inspired.' Still more surprisingly with his ad miration for the ancients, he added, °its moral precepts are equal to the best ever furnished by the great masters of morals, Epictetus or Marcus Aurelius' The little book that has thus deeply affected the spiritual and intellectual leaders of humanity for almost 500 years was no chance production. It was written, as after long controversy seems now quite certain, in the first half of the 15th century by Thomas a Kempis (1380-1471), a member of the Brother hood of the. Common Life who spent some 70 years in the Monastery of Mount Saint Agnes of that order in the Rhine land. Among the students, of the brotherhood were such men as Erasmus, Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa, Agricola, Alexander Hegius and Wimpheling. Thomas
Kempis Was the spiritual director of the mon astery, and his conferences formed the basis of the Imitation of Christ. He wrote other books but none of the marvelous power of this one.
The original title of the Imitation is said to have been Ecclesiastical Music. Lamartine called it !the poem of the soul' Its style in the oriFinal Latin has a rhythmic quality that makes it easy to understand both designations. There are passages in it like that on love (Book III, Chap. 5) that if read beside a chorus from such a Greek tragedy as
will stand even this severe com parison in lofty poetic quality. It is undoubt edly the essential poetry of the
The four books of 'The Imitation) contain (1) Admonitions useful for the spiritual life; (2) Admonitions leading to the Interior life; (3) Of interior consolation; (4) A devout exhortation to Holy Communion. It might seem as though the contents then would be too mystical and impractical for men of affairs and of serious intellectual interests, and yet it is to many of these particularly that the book has had its special appeal. Dr. Johnson's favorite expression in it was "If thou canst not make thyself such as thou wouldst be, how canst thou have another to thy liking?* Such aphorisms as "Know that the love of thyself is more hurtful to thee than anything of this world)); or "For all praise patience; but how few are there that desire to suffer?*; or "Faith is required of thee and a guileless life, not lofti ness of understanding. nor the depth of the mysteries of God,* taken almost at random from the three latter books are but typical examples of a Kempis' brief sentences which have the precious quality of applying almost directly to whatever a man has in hand at the moment when he opens the Consult Cruise, Sir Francis, 'Thomas a (Lon don 1887) ; Kettelwell, 'Thomas a Kempis and The Brothers of the Common Life' (ih. 1882) Scully, of The Venerable Thomas a Kempis' (ib. 1901) ; Walsh, J. J., 'The Century of Columbus' (Chapter Latin Literature, New York 1914) ; Wheatley, 'The Story of the "Imitatio Christi* (London 1891).