The Ideas of C.J. Brennan—A Comparison with T.E. Hulme

Abstract

Comparative literature offers the possibility of an immense bulk of secondary literature; for if all the possible terms of comparison were exploited, an immense volume of studies would be generated, and our Earth, thus loaded, would surely sink into the furnace of the sun, where, so far as most of these studies were concerned, a fitting and fiery justice would be done. Here in Germany, a land which still has room for a few more books, I have just heard of a young Asian woman who works for long hours every day, in oriental script, on the subject of "Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and the Korean Doll-Play". Being ignorant of this subject, I have no opinion on it, and can only presume that if this universe is a monism, the Supreme Reality at least must know of some necessary connection between these
two topics.

My point in making these remarks is to hopefully disarm those sceptics who may point out that T.E. Hulme and C.J. Brennan never knew of each other, had no known connection, and that their conjunction here is arbitrary. But literary influence is one thing, comparison is another; and while the possibility of influence can be quickly established by giving proof of contact, direct or indirect, the validity of a comparison can only be established more slowly in the course of the comparison itself.