Passages transcribed in E. M. Forster's Commonplace Book (1942) include remarks by H. A. L. Fisher beginning: 'Men wiser and more learned than I have discerned in history a plot, a rhythm, a predetermined pattern.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book
Meeting held at School House, L. P. : 13.9.35
Francis E. Pollard in the Chair.
1. Minutes of last read and approved.
2. Account of the Excursion, contributed by R. H. Robson, read and approved.
[...]
7. We then listened to a number of extracts from books read during the summer.
[...]
8. F. E. Pollard followed with an analysis of Dante and his philosophy from H. A. L. Fisher’s
History of Europe. There was a rather arresting comparison between the journeyings of
Christian in the Pilgrim’s Progress + Dante’s Voyage of the Soul. Dante was portrayed as an
aristocratic mystic and statesman, and the Roman Catholic Church appeared rather
unexpectedly as a great mystical democracy owing to the melancholy relegation of several
Pope to Hell.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Francis E. Pollard Print: Book
