SOURCE: “Conclusion—Mr. Buchanan's Significance,” in Robert Buchanan: The Poet of Modern History, Grant Richards, 1901, pp. 299-333.

In the following essay, Stodart-Walker locates Buchanan's significance as a poet in his pursuit of “eternal truths” outside the teachings of organized religions.

It is expedient, occasionally, for the wisest man to recall some of the commonplaces upon which he built his wisdom, and one of these is the truth that all criticism of literature and of life must depend upon the point of view. Not that we are to be blinded by the heresy, that every point of view conveys an equally good perspective of the Truth, and that one view is only better in a very comparative sense than another; but it is necessary to estimate not only the capacity of seeing aright, and the elevation from which the sight is taken, but also what the view is chiefly...