The End of an Age: And Other Essays

by William Ralph Inge

vii 248p hardback, brown cloth with beige jacket, good condition, binding firm, pages very good condition, light pencil and ink marks on endpaper, jacket has general wear and tear to corners and spine, generally a good used copy, this copy published in the year 1949

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1949

About the author

Sir William Ralph Inge was educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge. After taking a double first in Classics, he became a tutor at Hertford College, Oxford, and was made a deacon in the Church of England in 1888. After a time as Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, Inge was elected Dean of St. Paul's cathedral in 1911 by Asquith, a position he held until 1934.

During his life, Inge was President of the Aristotelian society, a columnist for the Evening Standard, a fellow of the British Academy, and a trustee of the National Portrait Gallery. He received honorary doctorates from Oxford, Aberdeen, Durham, Sheffield, Edinburgh, and St. Andrews. Inge received honorary fellowships from King's and Jesus Colleges, Cambridge, and Hertford College, Oxford.

Reviews

[Texbritreader · Rating 4 out of 5]

I must confess I was not familiar with this Nobel Prize nominated clergyman and authors writing until engaging with this text. But, I enjoyed this collection of essays by "the Gloomy Dean", William Ralph Inge, enormously. This book was published in 1947 and includes essays exploring politics, theology, history and spirituality.

Dean Inge is an erudite and stimulating writer (who when writing these essays was in his 80s) and I found his essays engaging both when I agreed and disagreed. I particularly enjoyed "The Philosophy of the Wolf State" an examination of German Nazism and the War, a penetrating and insightful exploration of how and why it happened, that bears reading in the light of our own times. My other favorite was "Escapism" a look at the various philosophical and religous approaches humans use to cope with understanding our lives - to look forward in fear to an uncertain tomorrow and try to make sense of the future. Just excellent.

But having enjoyed this book it ended with a lead balloon in the form of an essay of concern about over population and its associated perils: inadequate food production, starvation and too many children being had by poor and unfit parents. (How could he know that the recent war would teach us so much about agri-business and industrial food production thus allaying his fears?) This of course allows Inge, an old friend of Francis Galton, to hop aboard his trusty hobby horse - Eugenics! A disappointing end to a worthy collection but an excellent reminder that we all live in our own times and that even the most brilliant people can have blind spots and prejudices. In this case some theories related to national origin remain but no anti-Semitism or comments on skin color. He is more concerned with national rivalries and speaks about unfavorable trade competition with the Japanese and Chinese. The most striking feature of his eugenic bigotry is that it is primarily based on class, encompassing: income, education, manners, cleanliness etc.

Perhaps Inge's main flaw is not too surprising coming from a Eton and Cambridge educated, Dean of St. Paul's. An elderly man, born in 1860, from a long line of clergyman who lived in a rather splendid manor house and was a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order. That's right he was a "Sir". Perhaps, we can make allowances for his shortcomings and focus on all his brilliance - there's a lot of it.