THE BATH CHRONICLE AND WEEKLY GAZETTE

Bath, Somerset, England

24 November 1904

(PAGE 6)

BOOKS OF THE DAY.

“The Star and the Garter,” by Aleister Crowley.—The poems of Aleister Crowley are “caviare to the general,” popular editions notwithstanding. “The Star and the Garter” is a peculiar dissertation on love, which, so far as we understand it, appears to be a justification of fleeting passions leading up to the “star” of a pure attachment, which, however, is in no wise injured by the lesser loves, symbolized by a “garter.” “Ye Sword of Song” (called by Christians “The Book of the Beast”) is full of erudition and satire. In it all religions are discussed and discredited, and a great agnostic conclusion is stated and proved. The second part of the book is written in prose, and “deals with possible means of research so that we may progress from the unsatisfactory state of a sceptic to a real knowledge founded on scientific method and basis of the spiritual facts of the Universe.” “The Star and the Garter” has been called “the greatest love poem of modem times,” and a scheme is on foot to furnish every free library, every workman’s club, every hotel, every reading-room in every English speaking country in the world with a copy of “Ye Sword of Song.” All particulars can be obtained from the Secretary S.P.R.T., Boleskine, Foyers, Inverness.