Abstract
It is with something akin to the hope that stirs in the hearts of a storm-tossed crew when the comforting gleam of a lighthouse beacon pierces the gloom of ocean fog and points a confident finger to the welcome safety of the harbor that we can mark the increasing appreciation which is today being accorded to Richard Crashaw, convert, scholar, "Poet and Saint." For if, in our times, times so grossly materialistic, so divorced from spiritual ideals and ideas, there can be noted a gradual revival of interest in the poetry of Crashaw, the mystic, the outlook is not entirely devoid of hope. If, in our generation, can resound this clarion—clear challenge to read Crashaw: "All the young who have fought for freedom and who have a vision of truth and justice for which they often agonize and despair, should read this poetry full of vision--in which there is no trace of agony or despair—full of an ecstasy ,and a brightness that nothing can dim nor dash--" then there is some reason to believe that our precious spiritual heritage will not be entirely overwhelmed by the atheistic and secularistic tendencies rampant today.